And S. Mark saith And immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness And S. Luke saith He was led by the spirit into the wilderness Beza saith subductus fuit in desertum and Tremellius saith ductus fuit upon the place in S. Matthews Gospel And in S. Luke Tremellius saith Et duxit eum spiritus in desertum and Beza actus est ab eodem spiritu in desertum And in S. Mark Tremellius saith deduxit eum spiritus in desertum and Beza rendreth it expellit eum spiritus in desertum And because of the Greek word which is there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he addeth this note Non significatur expulsio violenta sed vis divina quae Christum qui ad illud usque tempus ut privatus vixerat nova persona induit ac luctae proximae ministerio praeparatur Therefore saith Origen Sequebatur planè quasi athleta ad tontationem sponte proficiscens quodammodo loquebatur Duc quo vis invenies me in omnibus fortiorem So that it is most plain that he was no otherwise led or carried by Satan but as he was led by the Holy Ghost so that he went whithersoever Satan would desire him of his own mind and accord and needed not to be carried by the Devil for S. Luke useth the same Greek word both for the Holy Spirit leading of him and Satans leading of him so that Satan did not carry his body in the air as Men vainly conceive 2. Though S. Matthew use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may signifie assumpsit he took him and set him upon a pinnacle of the Temple and took him into an high mountain yet it cannot be understood thereby that he took him and carried his Body but that he went before and led Christ to those places that he thought most fit for him to prevail in his temptations to which places Christ went not by an unwilling constraint or hurried and carried in the air but by a ready willingness as one that certainly knew and was assured that he should win the Victory where ever or how great soever the combat and temptations were And therefore S. Luke useth the same word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 duco both for the Spirits and Satans leading as signifying no more but to go before and lead the way or to draw one to such or such a place by persuasion and desire and not to be carried in the air which appeareth to be a vain and forged interpretation and not the true meaning of the places Concerning Simon Magus we have before in this Treatise sufficiently proved that he was only a deceiver and Impostor and what strange feats he had done to astonish and stupifie the Samaritanes were only jugling knacks or deceits by confederacy and no supernatural things so that here we will say no more but only add That though our English translation say that he bewitched the people of Samaria with sorceries and that he himself when he beheld the miracles and signs that were done wondered yet the word that they translate in the one place bewitching and in the other wondered are both from one Thema which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de statu mentis dejicio facio ut aliquis mente non constet perterrefacio obstupefacio And therefore either it ought to be that the Samaritanes were astonisht at the feats that Simon wrought and that he himself was astonisht at the miracles of Philip or that they were both bewitched for they were both under the same amazement and there is no reason at all to give it one sense in one place and a different one in the other We need not here say any thing of Elymas who is stiled a Magician because it is manifest that he was a false Prophet full of all subtilty and all mischief a Child of the Devil and an enemy of all righteousness which character truly given to him by the un-erring sentence of S. Paul may be really ascribed to the whole tribe and profession of such kind of seducers and deceivers Like unto whom were those seven Sons of Sceva a Jew who are called exorcists that took upon them to call over them that had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus saying We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth but were soundly beaten for their pains a fit reward for such vagabonds And if all that profess or practise such wicked vain and lying things were duely punished the poor ignorant people would not be so much abused as they are The other places in the New Testament we have handled and answered and also have touched upon that Text in the Galathians where we spoke of Fascination but lest it be not sufficient we shall handle it fully here The words are O foolish Galathians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth From whence they use thus to argue If Witchcraft in the Apostles time had not been known and practised he would not have made use of that Phrase then concerning which we return these responsions 1. If we consider natural Fascination was by the Philosophers and Poets only taken to be contagious steams flowing from the eyes or breaths of malevolent and envious persons that had some infectious diseases as we see in the Plague Small-pox Lues Venerea soreness of Eyes Tinea's and the like which are contagious to others that lie with them or converse near them the infected atomes or steams issuing in a certain Sphear of activity are received by the pores or mouths of the sound persons by which they come to be infected also And this the Poet witnessed Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos Now this being the common opinion the Apostle taketh the metaphor from thence as who should say who with their virulent and poysonous opinions have infected you that you should not obey the truth And this is the genuine meaning of that metaphorical phrase and no other sense can rationally and congruously be put upon the place and this conduceth nothing to that opinion of Witchcraft that we oppose For Philosophica seu Physica fascinatio non nisi impropriè dici potest â—scinatio propriè verò est contagio seu infectio And therefore did the learned Vallesius to the same purpose speak this Sed neque si quis pestilenti affectus febri aut etiam sine febre deferens secum seminaria pestis alium intuens intuentem inficiat dicetur fascinasse sed peste affecisse 2. Some of the fathers which may be offered for an objection do seem to hold that S. Paul here meant of diabolical fascination and so Tertullian in English thus For there is also something amongst the Gentiles to be feared which they call fascination being a more unfortunate event of praise and great glory this we sometimes interpret of the Devil And S. Hierome saith upon this place Fascination is when some things by Magical illusions are shewed to
there is another way more extraordinary wherein as an instrument he may be said to cause diseases and sometimes death as in that case of Davids numbring of the people where there died of the Pestilence seventy thousand and though this Pestilence was sent by Jehovah yet was a destroying Angel the instrument and minister in the execution of it for the Text saith And when the Angel of the Lord stretched forth his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it the Lord repented him of the evil and said to the Angel that destroyed the people It is enough now stay thy hand And Herod for assuming to himself that honour that was only proper to God was immediately smitten by the Angel of the Lord and was eaten up of worms and gave up the Ghost And the Psalmist saith He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger wrath indignation and trouble by sending evil Angels among them the Hebrew giveth it the emission or sending out of evil Angels From whence it is manifest that evil Angels are the organs and instruments of Gods wrath and as Ministers cause Plague Pestilence and other diseases 3. Thirdly there is another great question whether or not the Devil by his vassals to wit Sorcerers and Witches doth not cause diseases and death as is believed by those vomiting up of strange things exceeding the bigness of the Gullet to get either up or down of which we shall speak largely where we handle the opinion of Van Helmont concerning the actions of Witches Here only we shall say thus much that the Devil is author and causer of that hatred malice revenge and envy that is often abounding in those that are accounted Witches which desire of revenge doth stimulate them to seek for all means by which they may accomplish their intended wickedness and so they learn all the wicked and secret wayes of hurting poysoning killing but yet we affirm that what evil soever they perform it is by causes and means that work naturally and so the evil is only in the use and application and not in the efficients or means And whereas he holdeth that Devils as they can cause Diseases so they can cure them and take them away we must crave to be excused if we cannot subscribe to his opinion and that for these reasons 1. Because of their causing of Diseases we have sufficient evidence in the Scriptures but of their curing of any we have not any mention at all and though some will think this but weak because it is negative yet it is not probable but as it expresseth the one fully so it would have given some hint of the other if there had been any such matter 2. But the Scriptures do inform us that the gift of healing or curing Diseases is not in the power of Devils by their Creation much less since as a gift bestowed upon them but floweth solely from God by the Ministry of good Angels of whom Raphael that is the Medicine or health of God is the chief And that it is reckoned amongst the gifts of the Holy Ghost is most plain For to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit To another saith by the same spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit but these gifts of healing are not given to Devils but to the chosen ones of God And the Psalmist where he is speaking how God afflicted and brought low the people of Israel by reason of their sins saith Their soul abhorred all manner of meat and they drew near unto the gates of death but he sent his word and healed them And God declareth that if his people Israel would keep his Statutes he would bring none of those Diseases upon them that he had threatned for he saith I am the Lord that healeth thee and this he doth by the ministry of good Angels or by natural means and not by Devils 3. That Devils are no causers or instruments in curing Diseases is manifest because that were to make him act contrary to his original destination after his fall wherein in his own propriety he is a murderer from the beginning and that both of souls and bodies and never did nor doth any good to mankind either spiritual or natural either real or apparent for that were to act contrary to his will nature and disposition and contrary to the Ordinance and appointment of God who hath Created the destroyer to destroy Therefore-Satan after his fall was not ordained of God to be an healer preserver or sanator of diseases but to be a destroyer a wounder and murderer for his nature is be come so wicked and malignant that his whole endeavour is the destruction of mankind both in souls and bodies and so no healer no not of the least infirmity 4. But he is that grand Impostor that by lying cheating and delusion laboureth to make his Vassals and others believe that he can cure and heal Diseases when he can do no such thing and therefore hath and still doth amongst the Pagans by the wicked Priests his Slaves make the people believe that if the sick persons be brought before their Idols and there worship and pray that they shall be Cured when there is not any jot performed in the way of sanation but what is by natural means fancy and imagination or what is pretended to be done so by cheating counterfeiting and imposture And the very same thing is practised by the Papists unto this day in the pretence of their false and lying Miracles fathered upon their Saints and Images which are nothing else but lying cheats and Impostures as we shall fully make manifest hereafter 5. The Devil internally deludeth the minds of men in making them believe that Pictures Charms Amulets and such other inefficacious and ridiculous means have power to Cure these and these Diseases when indeed they are meerly inoperative and effect nothing at all but yet the Witchmongers will needs have them to be media operativa when they are utterly inefficacious and are only means of seduction and delusion to alter change or fortifie the imagination by which alone the Cures if any such be effected are brought to pass and not by any power of the Devil at all and he operateth nothing at all in them except a mental and internal delusion in making the Witchmongers and others believe that those things are wrought by a Diabolical Power which are only performed by the force of imagination and a natural agency and virtue 6. Again where there are many occult and wonderful effects wrought by natural causes and agents as by appensions of vegetables animals or their parts and minerals by magnetism as the Hoplochrism Sympathetic Powder by Transplantation and many other very abstruse and secret wayes and means the Devil laboureth to take away the glory of these sanative effects both from God and his Instrument which is Nature and to have it
and the Apostle tells us God at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets But in these last days he hath spoken by his Son unto us So though God did then vouchsafe to make himself manifest unto the Patriarchs by the visible appearance of Angels yet it is no rational consequence that he doth so how in these days 3. It is manifest that though they were in number three yet it is true that it was Jehovah that appeared unto Abraham and Jehovah said Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do Now we do not find that the word Jehovah is communicable to any Creature but only to God himself and therefore the best Expositors do understand notwithstanding what Pererius doth say to the contrary that one of them was Christ the second Person in the Trinity who after was to take humane nature upon him and therefore did so appear 4. However these Angels had with them the assistance of a divine and omnipotent Power which cannot rationally be affirmed of the common and ordinary apparitions of Demons to Witches and therefore doth conclude nothing against what we have laid down before CHAP. VI. That divers places in Scripture have been mis-translated thereby to uphold this horrid Opinion of the Devils Omnipotency and the Power of Witches when there is not one word that signifieth a familiar Spirit or a Witch in that sense that is vulgarly intended COncerning the words in the Hebrew and Greek that are commonly alledged to prove these things they have been wrested and drawn to uphold these Tenents by those Translators that had imbibed these Opinions and so instead of following the true and genuine signification of the words they haled them to make good a pre-conceived Opinion and did not simply and plainly render them as they ought to have been Which hath been observed by divers especially by Wierus who got the learned Masius a great Hebrician to interpret them of which he hath given a full account which was followed by Mr. Scot. As also Mr. Ady who hath perfectly rendred them according to the Translation of Junius and Tremellius and likewise Mr. Wagstaff hath prettily opened the most of them So that our attempt here might seem to be superfluous and unnecessary and may be condemned of arrogance and vain confidence To which we reply That it is far from us to compare our selves with those Learned men that were Masters of the Hebrew and Greek Tongues being in comparison but a Smatterer in those Languagues yet have in our younger years both studied and taught them to others and as far as we undertake we hope we need not fear the censure of the most rigid Critick intending to note some things that others have omitted and to handle them to the full which others have but done briefly And this we shall prosecute in this order 1. We shall take the words in the same order as they are recited in Deuteronomy and the first mentioned is in these words There shall not be found among you that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire Now here we shall not enter upon that great Dispute whether they really burned and sacrificed by burning their children unto Moloch or that they only dedicated them to that Idol by making them pass through the fire but examine the reasons why those that practised this kind of Idolatry are ranked amongst the Diviners or Witches and were to have the same punishment seeing it is no where mentioned that these used any kind of Divination at all and these we conceive to be the chief 1. The Lord had promised his People to raise them up a Prophet from amongst their Brethren like unto Moses and that therefore they should hear him and not go after other Gods or Idols And therefore he sent them many and divers Prophets of whom they were to inquire so likewise they gave the Priest order to inquire by Urim and Thummim by which he gave answers and therefore they were to hearken to his Ordinances and not to follow after other strange Gods For the Nations that he cast out had hearkened unto Observers of times and Diviners but they were not to do so And though these that caused their children to pass through the fire unto Moloch used not Divinations yet it was a wicked and abominable Ceremony and the use and end of it to lead the people to Idolatry and therefore is reckoned amongst the rest 2. They are solely condemned because the end of all their Divinations and their other Feats were only to draw and lead the people to Idolatry and to serve other Gods For it is manifest that all ways and sorts of Divination were not in themselves evil and unlawful for else Astronomy it self that foretels the Entrance of the Sun and Moon into such Signs and when Eclipses will happen and the like should be forbidden too but they were not so that the chief reason why they were condemned was sub ratione finis non medii in regard of the end and not of the means used because all their Divinations and other Arts Crafts or Feats whether performed by natural or artificial means or otherwise had still for their chief and principal end the leading of the people unto Idolatry and the serving of other Gods which was above all things abominable and hateful unto God who is a jealous God and will not give his glory to graven Images And therefore all Idol-Priests or those that lead the people to Idolatry are in the Scripture-sense Witches Diviners and the like And that all Divinations were not forbidden is most clear from that of Solomon as Arias Montanus translates it Divinatio super labiis regis and that of Isaiah where the Lord threatneth to take away the staff and stay of Jerusalem that is the mighty man and the man of war the Judge the Prophet and the prudent Divinum sive Sagacem For it is the same word and from the same root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinavit For as Avenarius Schindler and others say Est verbum medium nam modò in bonam modò in malam partem accipitur of which Tremellius saith this Sagacitas id est consultissima prudentia in rebus dijudicandis praecavendis veluti addivinandis nam vox Hebraea media est sive anceps quae non tantùm in malam partem accipitur sed etiam in bonam Therefoâ—e was the Law so strict that if any sacrificed unto any other God save unto the Lord only he was utterly to be destroyed much more those that lead and incited the people to serve and sacrifice unto other strange Gods were to be rooted out 2. Is the word we have named before to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kosem Kesamim Divinans divinationes which as we have shewed before was taken in bonam malam partem and is by the Septuagint fitly rendred
of Gods which are plural and more than one but he asketh in the singular what form is he of By all which it is manifest that he yet saw nothing at all For when we plainly see a thing we do not usually ask others what form it is of because our eyes can inform us of that So that he saw nothing either because he was not in the same room or that there appeared nothing that was visible 6. Now after all these ambigous lies and delatory cheats the crafty quean doth begin to come more near to give satisfaction to the blinded expectation of Saul who all this while stood gaping to see the appearance of Samuel and so she tells him who was fit to believe any thing though never so absurd or impossible behold an old man comes up and he is covered with a mantle In the beginning of the action the Text saith and when the woman saw Samuel she cried out then she said she saw gods ascending out of the earth and now after all this discourse and expence of time Samuel is but coming up all was lies and delayes the more to blind and delude the poor credulous King But yet thus far it is plain that Saul saw nothing at all and so must needs all this while either be in another room or else for certain there was no apparition visible and all the satisfaction that he had was from the lying stories the Woman told him Now let Mr. Glanvil consider and answer whether it be not only intimated but clearly holden forth in the Text that either they were in two distinct rooms or that nothing visible did appear before Saul 7. Now after all this the Text saith and Saul perceived that it was Samuel the Hebrew word doth signifie to know or to perceive and relates to the understanding but how did he know or perceive that it was Samuel not by the sight of his eyes for we have made it plain that he was either in another room or that no visible apparition presented it self before his eyes but he only perceived it by the description of the crafty Woman who knew well enough what habit or garments Samuel wore in his life time as one that was the most publickly known Man in Israel and therefore the subtil and crafty quean knowing that Saul only required Samuel to be brought up and no other doth at the last frame her tale agreeable to Sauls desire and so describes him an old Man covered with a mantle and such an one Saul had known him to be while he was living But if Saul had seen any such thing as the shape or form of Samuel then the Hebrew Verb thrice used in that action that properly signifieth to see with the eyes would have been used in this place as well as when it relateth what she saw and not the verb for knowing or perceiving that relateth to the mind and Samuel he saw not but only believed the lies she told him For otherwise it would have been And Saul saw Samuel and not Saul perceived that it was Samuel which he could not do but only by her relation and forged tales 8. The last thing in this action is that Saul stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself now to what did he stoop and bow seeing he had seen nothing with his own eyes neither knew any thing that appeared but as the Woman told him Could it be to any thing but to an imaginary Samuel and such an one as she had described whom he conceited in his Phantasie to be Samuel himself Surely in rational consequence it could be nothing else For all that she had done and said before being undeniably lies and cheats this also in just and right reason must be judged to be so also So that it was either the Woman that being in another room did change and alter her voice and so plaid the part of Samuel or else that she had a confederate knave whom she turned out to act the part of dead Samuel 6. The last thing that we shall handle concerning this controverted subject is the examination of the grounds and reasons of those that are of a different judgment which may be comprised in these three several heads 1. Some do conceive that it was the Body of Samuel that was raised up and acted by his soul or by Satan 2. Some hold that it was Samuels Soul that appeared in the shape and habit that he had living 3. Others do positively affirm that it was the Devil that assumed the shape of Samuel and so acted the whole business by a compact betwixt him and the Woman These we shall confute in order 1. That it was not the Body of Samuel that was raised up nor the Soul joyned with it that acted Samuels part is manifest from these reasons 1. Because Samuels Body had lain too long in the grave for some account it near two years and therefore must needs in a great part be corrupted wasted and disfigured that none could have certainly known that it was Samuel 2. It must have been so putrified and stinking that none could have endured near it for the noisome and horrible smell 3. Who should have covered it with the mantle which had it been buried with him must in so long a time have been rotten and consumed Surely there were no Taylors in the Grave to make him a new one but in reason and likelihood if it had been his Body it should have appeared in Linnen or a winding-sheet if that had not been rotten likewise 4. To raise a Body so long dead must needs have required an omnipotent power for it is the Almighty power of Christ alone that raiseth up the vile Bodies of his Saints and maketh them like his glorious Body And therefore neither the woman with all her Divinations nor all the Devils in Hell nor any created power but the Lord Almighty could have wrought this miracle who would never have done it to gratifie the humour or to magnifie the cheating craft of an idolatrous wicked and couzening Witch And if the Devil or any created power could raise up the Body of a departed Saint then the rising out of the Graves of many Bodies of Saints that had slept and their coming into the holy City and appearing unto many after Christ was risen from the dead had been no certain or convincing argument of the undoubted truth of the Divinity and Resurrection of our most Blessed Saviour But they were most infallible evidences of them both as saith the Father S. Hierome in these words Sic multa corpora sanctorum resurrexerunt ut dominum ostenderent resurgentem tamen cum monumenta aperta sunt non antè resurrexerumt quà m resurgeret dominus ut esset primogenitus resurrectionis à mortuis 5. That it was not Samuels Soul joyned with the Body that acted this we thus argue That Tenent that is flatly contrary to the plain Doctrine of the Scripture must
Men have imbibed from their infancy together with irreligious education are the true and proper causes that make so many ascribe that power to Devils and Witches that they neither have or ever had or can ever bring into act And therefore it behoveth all that would judge aright of these abstruse matters to labour to understand the secret operations of nature and the strange works of art to divest themselves of their false imbibed notions and truely and rightly to understand the Articles of the Christian Faith to be daily conversant in reading the Scriptures they will then be more fit to judge of these things and not to call light darkness nor darkness light CHAP. XIV Of diverse Impostures framed and invented to prove false and lying miracles by and to accuse persons of Witchcraft from late and undeniable authorities IN the treatise preceeding we have often made mention of delusions and Impostures which we shall largely handle in this place and though Mr. Glanvil and others do object that though many pretended possessions or Witchcrafts have been proved to be meer couzenings and impostures yet therefore it will not follow that all are so To which we shall render these answers 1. If it do not necessarily conclude that they are all impostures yet it gives a most shrewd cause of dubitation that they may be so And the objection depends not upon a necessary connexion betwixt the subject and predicate for some being direct and palpable Impostures it is not of necessity but by contingency or accident that the others are not so and ought first to have been proved which never yet was performed 2. But we affirm that a general conclusion drawn from an inductive argument is good and sound where no instance can be clearly made out to the contrary But as yet no true instance really and faithfully attested hath ever been brought to prove that any of these things that we deny were ever effected by diabolical power For who were ever by and present that were persons of sincerity and sound judgment that could truly testifie and averr that the Devil in a visible and corporeal shape made a contract with the Witch or that he suckt upon his or her body or that he had carnal copulation with them or that saw when the Witch was really changed into a Dog or a Cat or that they flew or were carried in the air Seeing no instance can be given to prove any of these to be undoubted truths it must needs follow that they are meer figments or at the best all but absolute Impostures And again it is but precarious and petitio principii to imagine that any persons have vomited up or voided strange things that saw or knew that they were injected by Devils for they were either naturally bred there or else were meer Impostures and delusive Juglings And therefore we shall propose some Histories of strange and prodigious cheats and Impostures from late and unquestionable authorities whereby all the rest may be judged and discerned of which take this for one 1. Elizabeth Barton of Kent by those that laboured to cry up her horrible cheats for miracles otherwise called the holy Maid of Kent and others were in the twenty fifth year of King Henry the Eighth attainted of High Treason for that under colour of hypocrisie Revelations and false Miracles practised by the said Elizabeth they conspired to impugne and slander the divorce between the King and Queen Katherine his first Wife and the last Marriage between him and Queen Anne his second Wife to destroy the King and to deprive him of his Crown Her false and feigned miracles and the subtile and cunning contrivances that were brought to pass by the help of her confederate accomplices and her and the others open confession of them may be found at large in Hollingshead Stow and the writings of Mr. Lambert whither for brevities sake I remit my reader and shall only give it here in the words of Speed which are these The Romanists he saith much fearing that Babel would down if Queen Anne might be heard against wicked Haman sought to underprop the foundations thereof with certain devices of their own and that the same might pass without note of suspicion they laid their forgery even upon Heaven it self whose pretended oracle Elizabeth Barton commonly called the holy Maid of Kent was made to be and the pillars of this godless Fabrick were Edward Bocking a Monk by profession and Doctor of Divinity Richard Masters Parson of Aldington the Town wherein she dwelt Richard Deering a Monk Hugh Rich a Friar John Adestone and Thomas Abell Priests put to their helping hands and Henry Gould Batchelor of Divinity with John Fisher the reverend Father of Rochester imployed their pains to dawb these downfalling walls with their untempered morter The Scribes that set their pens for her miracles were Edward Thwaites Gentleman and Thomas Lawrence Register besides Haukherst a Monk who writ a letter that was forged to be sent her from Heaven And Richard Risby and Thomas Gould were the men that dispersed her miracles abroad to the world This holy Maid Elizabeth made a Votaress in Canterbury was taught by Bocking her Ghostly Father and suspected Paramour to counterfeit many feigned trances and in the same to utter many virtuous words for the rebuke of sin under which more freely she was heard against Luthers doctrine and the Scriptures translation then desired of many neither so only but that she gave forth from God and his Saints by sundry suggestive Revelations that if the King proceeded in his Divorce and second Marriage he should not raign in his Realm one month after nor rest in Gods favour the space of an hour But the truth discovered by Gods true Ministers this oracle gave place as all other such did when Christ by his death stopped their lying mouths For her self and seven of her disciples were executed for Treason at Tiburn and the other six put to their fines and imprisonment To which he subjoineth this story of the like nature With the like counterfeit Revelations and feigned predictions this generation of hypocrites had brought Edward Lord Stafford Duke of Buckingham unto his unhappy end by the working of John de la Court his own Confessor together with Nicholas Hopkins a Monk of the Carthusian Order in the Priory of Henton in Somer set shire who by his visions from Heaven forsooth heartned him for the Crown But before his own Coronet could aspire to that top he worthily lost both head and all upon Tower-hill for his Treason Anno Domini 1521. Unto such sins the world was then subject and into such conceits their reputed holiness had brought them not only among the simple and unlettered but even with them that seemed to be learned indeed For by certain predictions foreshewing a great deluge Prior Bolton of S. Bartholomews in London was so fearful that he built himself a house upon the height of Harrowhill
of strange qualities have made many to believe that they were Demons nay it seems their Images and Pictures have been taken for Devils and yet are but meer natural Creatures and by learned men accounted a kind of Apes which we shall now prove by an undeniable instance or two and first this from the pen of that learned Physician Nicholaus Tulpius who saith thus In our remembrance he saith there was an Indian Satyre brought from Angola and presented as a gift to Frederick Henry Prince of Aurange This Satyre was four-footed and from the humane shape which it seems to bear it is called of the Indians Orang antang homo silvestris a wild man and of the Africans Quoias morron expressing in longitude a Child of three years old and in crassitude one of six years It was of body neither fat nor lean but square most able and very swift And of its joints so firm and the Muscles so large that it durst undertake and could do any thing on the foreparts altogether smooth and rough behind and covered with black hairs It s face did resemble a man but the nose broad and crooked downwards rugged and a toothless female But the ears were not different from humane shape As neither the breast adorned on both sides with a swelling dug for it was of the feminine Sex the belly had a very deep navil and the joints both those above and those below had such an exact similitude with man that one egg doth not seem more like another Neither was there a-wanting a requisite commissure to the arm nor the order of fingers to the hands nor an humane shape to the thumb or a prop of the legs to the thighs or of the heel to the foot Which fit and decent form of the members was the cause that for most part it did go upright neither did it lift up any kind of weight less heavily than remove it easily When it was about to drink it would hold the handle of the Kan with the one hand and put the other under the bottom of the Cup then would it wipe off the moysture left upon its lips not less neatly than thou shouldest see the most delicate Courtier Which same dexterity it did observe when it went to bed For lying her head upon the Pillow and fitly covering her body with the Cloaths it did hide it self no otherwise than if the most delicate person had laid there Moreover the King of Samback he saith did one time tell our Kinsman Samuel Blomart that these kind of Satyres especially the Males in the Iland of Borneo have so great boldness of mind and such a strong compaction of Muscles that they have often forceably set upon armed men and not only upon the weak sex of Women and Girls with the flagrant desire of which they are so inflamed that catching them often they abuse them For they are highly prone to lust which is common to these with the lustful Satyres of the ancients yea sometimes so keen and salacious that therefore the Indian Women do eschew the Woods and Groves as worse than a Dog or a Snake in which these impudent animals do lie hid And that this lascivious animal is found in the Eastern Mountains of India as also in Africa between Sierra Liona and the Promontory of the Mountain where perhaps were those places where Plinius lib. 5. cap. 5. affirmeth that upon the nights there was seen to shine frequent Fires of the Aegipanes and to abound with the lasciviousness of the Satyres who do love craggy Dens and Caves and shun the society of mankind being a salacious hairy four-footed Creature with human shape and a crooked nose But that the foot of this Creature neither hath hoofs nor the body every where hairs but only the head shoulders and back The rest of the parts are smooth and the Ears are not sharp So that from hence it is undeniably true that there are such Creatures existent in nature and have been either taken for Devils or the Apparitions of Demons in this shape of Satyres as Doctor Brown hath well observed in these words A conceit there is he saith that the Devil commonly appeareth with a cloven foot or hoof wherein although it seem excessively ridiculous there may be somewhat of truth and the ground thereof at first might be his frequent appearing in the shape of a Goat which answers that description This was the opinion of ancient Christians concerning the Apparitions of Pans Fauns and Satyres and in this form we read of one that appeared unto Antony in the Wilderness The same is also confirmed from expositions of holy Scripture for whereas it is said Thou shalt not offer unto Devils the original word is Sehhirim that is rough and hairy Goats because in that shape the Devil most often appeared as is expounded by the Rabbins as Tremellius hath also explained But saving the reputation of learned Saint Hierome and D r Brown it is but a supposition unproved that ever the Devil appeared in the shape of a Goat the rise of the opinion was only because the Devil was worshipped in an Idol made in the shape of a Goat 3. In a few ages past when Popish ignorance did abound there was no discourse more common which yet is continued amongst the vulgar people than of the apparition of certain Creatures which they called Fayries that were of very little stature and being seen would soon vanish and disappear And these were generally believed to be some kind of Spirits or Demons and Paracelsus held them to be a kind of middle Creatures and called them non-Adamicks as not being of the race of Adam but there are Authors of great credit and veracity that affirm there have been Nations of such people called Pygmies And though Doctor Brown hath learnedly and elegantly handled the question Whether there have been or are any such dwarfish race of mankind as but of three spans not considering them singly but nationally or not and hath brought the most probable arguments that well can b◠to prove that there are not nor have been any such race of people called Pygmies yet doth he moderately conclude in these words There being thus he saith no sufficient confirmation of their verity some doubt may arise concerning their possibility wherein since it is not defined in what dimensions the soul may exercise her faculties we shall not conclude impossibility or that there might not be a race of Pygmies as there is sometimes of Giants and so may take in the opinion of Austine and his Commentator Ludovicus Vives And though Kircherus with his wonted impudence do conclude in these words Fabulosa itaque sunt omnia quae de hujusmodi Pygmaeis veteres Geographi à simplici populo sola relatione descripta tradiderunt Yet I say notwithstanding these negative arguments I give the relation of others that are of as great or greater credit in the affirmative And thus much is affirmed