but you 'l say the greatnesse and incrediblenesse of the Miracle is this That there should be an actuall separation of Soul and Body and yet no Death But this is not at all strange if we consider that Death is properly a disjunction of the Soul from the Body by reason of the Bodie 's unfitnesse any longer to entertain the Soul which may be caused by extremity of Diseases outward Violence or Age And if the Divell could restore such bodies as these to life it were a miracle indeed But this is not such a miracle nor is the Body properly dead though the Soul be out of it For the life of the Body is nothing else but that fitnesse to be actuated by the Soul The conservation whereof is help'd as I conceive by the anointing of the Body before the Extasy which ointment filling the pores keeps out the cold and keeps in the heat and Spirits that the frame and temper of the Body may continue in fit case to entertain thâ— Soul again at her return So the vital streames of the carcasse being not yet spent the pristâ—ne operations of life are presently again kindled as a candle new blown out and as yet reeking suddenly catches fire from the flame of another though at some distance the light gliding down along the smoke Wherefore there being nothing in the nature of the thing that should make us incredulous these Sorceresses so confidently pronouncing that they are out of their Bodies at such times and see and do such such things meet one another bring messages discover secrets and the like it is more naturall and easy to conclude they be really out of their Bodies then in them Which we should the more easily be induced to believe if we could give credit to that Story Wierus tells of a Souldier out of whose mouth whilest he was asleep a thing in in the shape of a Wesell came which nuddâ—â—ng along in the grasse and at last coming to a brook side very busily attempting to get over but not being able some one of the standers by that saw it made a bridge for it of his sword which it passed over by and coming back made use of the same passage and then entred into the Souldier's mouth again many looking on when he waked he told how he dream'd he had gone over an iron Bridge and other particulars answerable to what the spectatours had seen afore-hand Wierus acknowledgeth the truth of the story but will by all meanes have it to be the Divell not the Soul of the Man which he doth in a tender regard to the Witches that from such a truth as this they might not be made so obnoxious to suspicion that their Extasies are not mere Dreames and Delusions of the Divell but are accompanied with reall effects I will not take upon me to decide so nice a controversy only I will make bold to inâ—ermeddle thus farre as to pronounce Bodinus his opinion not at all unworthy of a rationall and sagacious man And that though by his being much addicted to such like speculations he might attribute some naturall effects to the ministry of Spirits when there was no need so to doe yet his judgement in other things of thâ—s kind is no more to be slighted for that then Cartesius that stupendious Mechanicall Witt is to be disallowed in those excellent inventions of the causes of those more generall Phaenomena of Nature because by his successe in those he was imboldned to enlarge his Principles too farre and to assert that Aâ—imalls themselves were mere Machina's like Aristoxenus the Musician that made the Soul nothing else but an Harmony of whom Tully pleasantly observes Quod non recessit ab arte sua Every Genius and Temper as the sundry sorts of Beasts and living Creatures have their proper excrement and it is the part of a wise man to take notice of it and to chuse what is profitable as well as to abandon what is uselesse and excrementitious CHAP. IX The Coldnesse of those bodyes that Spirits appear in witnessed by the experience of Cardan and Bourgotus The naturall Reason of this Coldnesse That the Divell does really lye with VVitches That the very substance of Spirits is not fire Spirits skirmishing on the ground Field fights and Sea fights seen in the Aire BUt to return into the way I might adde other stories of your Daemones Metallici your Guardian Genii such as that of Socrates and that other of which Bodinus tells an ample story which hee received from him who had the society and assistance of such an Angell or Genius which for my own part I give as much credit to as to any story in Livy or Plutarch Your Lares familiares as also those that haunt and vexe families appearing to many and leaving very sensible effects of their appearings But I will not so farre tire either my self or my Reader I will only name one or two storyes more rather then recite them As that of Cardan who writes as you may see in Otho Melander that a Spirit that familiarly was seen in the house of a friend of his one night layd his hand upon his brow which felt intolerably cold And so Petrus Bourgotus confessed that when the Divell gave him his hand to kisse it felt cold And many more examples there be to this purpose And indeed it stands to very good reason that the bodies of Divels being nothing but coagulated Aire should be cold as well as coagulated Water which is Snow or Ice and that it should have a more keen and piercing cold it consisting of more subtile particles than those of water and therefore more fit to insinuate and more accurately and stingingly to affect and touch the nerves Wherefore Witches confessing so frequently as they do that the Divel lyes with them and withall complaining of his tedious and offensive coldnesse it is a shrewd presumption that he doth lie with them indeed and that it is not a mere Dreame as their friend Wierus would have it Hence we may also discover the folly of that opinion that makes the very essence of Spirits to be fire for how unfit that would be to coagulate the aire is plain at first sight It would rather melt and dissolve these consistencies then constringe them and freeze them in a manner But it is rather manifest that the essence of Spirits is a substance specifically distinct from all corporeall matter whatsoever But my intent is not to Philosophize concerning the nature of Spirits but only to prove their Existence Which the story of the Spectre at Ephesus may be a further argument of For that old man which Apollonius told the Ephesians was the walking plague of the city when they stoned him and uncovered the heap appear'd in the shape of an huge black dog as big as the biggest Lion This could be no imposture of Melanchly nor â—raud of any Priest And the learned Grotius a man far from all Levity and
lay out more particularly the perfections comprehended in this Notion of a Being absolutely and fully perfect I think I may securely nominate these Self-subsistency Immateriality Infinity as well of Duration as Essence Immensity of Goodnesse Omnisciency Omnipotency and Necessity of Existence Let this therefore bee the description of a being absolutely perfect that it is a Spirit Eternall Infinite in Essence and Goodnesse Omniscient Omnipotent and of it self necessarily existent All which Attributes being Attributes of the highest perfection that falls under the apprehension of man and having no discoverable imperfection interwoven with them must of necessity be attributed to that which we conceive absolutely and fully perfect And if any one will say that this is but to dresse up a Notion out of my own fancy which I would afterwards ssily insinuate to be the Notion of a God I answer that no man can discourse and reason of any thing without recourse to settled notions decyphered in his own mind And that such an exception as this implies the most contradictious absurdities imaginable to wit as if a man should reason from something that never entred into his mind or that is utterly out of the ken of his own facultyes But such groundlesse allegations as these discover nothing but an unwillingnesse to find themselves able to entertain any conception of God and a heavy propension to sink down into an utter oblivion of him and to become as stupid and senselesse in divine things as the very beasts But others it may be will not look on this Notion as contemptible for the easie composure thereof out of familiar conceptions which the mind of man ordinarily figures it self into but reject it rather for some unintelligible hard termes in it such as Spirit Eternall and Infinite for they do professe they can frame no Notion of Spirit and that anything should be Eternal or Infinite they do not know how to set their mind in a posture to apprehend and therefore some would have no such thing as a Spirit in the world But if the difficulty of framing a conception of a thing must take away the existence of the thing it self there will be no such thing as a Body left in the world and then will all be Spirit or nothing For who can frame so safe a notion of a Body as to free himself from the intanglements that the extension thereof will bring along with it For this extended matter consists of either indivisible points or of particles divisible in infinitum Take which of these two you will and you can find no third you will be wound into the most notorious absurdityes that may be For if you say it consists of points from this position I can necessarily demonstrate that every Speare or Spire-Steeple or what long body you will is as thick as it is long that the tallest Cedar is not so high as the lowest Mushrome and that the Moon and the Earth are so neere one another that the thicknesse of your hand will not go betwixt that Rounds and Squares are all one figure that Even and Odde Numbers are Equall one with another and that the clearest Day is as dark as the blackest Night And if you make choice of the other Member of the disjunction your fancy will bee little better at ease For nothing can be divisible into parts it has not therefore if a body be divisible into infinite parts it has infinite extended parts and if it has an infinite number of extended parts it cannot be but a hard mystery to the Imagination of Man that infinite extended parts should not amount to one whole infinite extension And thus a grain of Mustard-seed would be as well infinitely extended as the whole Matter of the Universe and a thousandth part of that grain as well as the grain it self Which things are more unconceivable then any thing in the Notion of a Spirit Therefore we are not scornfully and contemptuously to reject any Notion for seeming at first to be clouded and obscur'd with some difficulties and intricacies of conception sith that of whose being we seem most assured is the most intangled and perplex'd in the conceiving of any thing that can be propounded to the apprehension of a Man But here you will reply that our senses are struck by so manifest impressions from the Matter that though the nature of it bee difficult to conceive yet the Existence is palpable to us by what it acts upon us Why then all that I desire is this that when you shall be reminded of some actions and operations that arrive to the notice of your sense or understanding which unlesse we do violence to our faculties we can never attribute to Matter or Body that then you would not be so nice and averse from the admitting of such a substance as is called a Spirit though you fancy some difficulty in the conceiving thereof But for mine own part I think the nature of a Spirit is as conceivable and easy to be defin'd as the nature of anything else For as for the very Essence or bare Substance of any thing whatsoever hee is a very Novice in speculation that does not acknowledge that utterly unknowable But for the Essentiall and Inseparable properties they are as intelligible and explicable in a Spirit as in any other subject whatever As for example I conceive the intire Idea of a Spirit in generall or at least of all finite created and subordinate Spirits to consist of these severall powers or properties viz. Self-penetration Self-Motion Self-contraction and Dilatation and Indivisibility and these are those that I reckon more absolute I will adde also what has relation to another and that is the power of Penetrating Moving and Altering the Matter These properties and powers put together make up the Notion and Idea of a Spirit whereby it is plainly distinguished from a Body whose parts cannot penetrate one another is not Self-moveable nor can contract nor dilate it self is divisible and separable one part from another But the parts of a Spirit can be no more separated though they be dilated then you can cut off the Rayes of the Sunne by a paire of Scissors made of pellucide Crystall And this will serve for the settling of the Notion of a Spirit the proofe of it's Existence belongs not unto this place And out of this description it is plain that a Spirit is a notion of more perfection then a Body and therefore the more fit to be an Attribute of what is absolutely perfect then a Body is But now for the other two hard terms of Eternall and Infinite if any one would excuse himself from asseâ—â—g to the Notion of a God by reason of the Incomprehensiblenesse of those attributes let him consider that he shall whether he will or no be forced to acknowledge something Eternal either God or the World and the Intricacy is alike in either And though he would shuffle off the trouble of apprehending an Infinite
that is universally received of men be it by what faculty it will they receive it no other faculty appearing that can evidence to the contrary And such is the universall acknowledgment that there is a God Nor is it much more materiall to reply That though there be indeed a Religious Worship excercised in all Nations upon the face of the Earth yet they worship many of them but stocks and stones or some particular piece of Nature as the Sunne Moon or Starrs For I answer That first it is very hard to prove that they worship any Image or Statue without reference to some Spirit at least if not to the omnipotent God So that we shall hence at least win thus much that there are in the Universe some more subtile and Immateriall Substances that take notice of the affairs of Men and this is as ill to a slow Atheist as to believe that there is a God And for that adoration some of them do to the Sunne and Moon I cannot believe they do it to them under the Notion of mere Inanimate Bodies but they take them to be the habitation of some Intellectuall Beings as that verse does plainly intimate to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sun that hears and sees all things and this is very neer the true Notion of a God But be this universall Religious Worship what it will as absurd as you please to fancy it yet it will not faile to reach very farre for the proving of a Deity For there is no naturall Faculties in things that have not their object in the world as there is meat as well as mouths sounds as well as hearing colours as well as sight dangers as well as feare and the like So there ought in like manner to be a God as well as a naturall propension in men to Religious Worship God alone being the proper Object thereof Nor does it abate the strength of the Argument that this so deeply radicated property of Religion in Man that cannot be lost does so ineptly and ridiculously display it self in Manking For as the plying of a Doggesâ—eet â—eet in this sleep as if there were some game before him and the butting of a yong lambe before he has yet either hornes or Enemies to encounter would not be in Nature were there not such a thing as a Hare to be coursed and an horned Enemy to be incountred with horns So there would not be so universall an Excercise of Religious Worship in the world though it be done never so ineptly and foolishly were there not really a due Object of this worship and a capacity in Man for the right performance thereof which could not be unlesse there were a God But the Truth is Mans Soul in this drunken drowsy condition she is in has fallen asleep in the body and like one in a dreame talks to the bed-posts embraces her pillow instead of her friend falls down before statues in stead of adoring the Eternall and Invisible God prayes to stocks and stones instead of speaking to him that by his word created all things I but you will reply that a yong Lambe has at length both his weapon and an Enemy to encounter and the dreaming Dogge did once and may again pursue some reall game And so he that talks in his sleep did once conferre with men awake and may do so again But whole Nations for many successions of Ages have been very stupid Idolaters and do so continue to this day But I answere that this rather informes us of another great mystery then at all enervates the present argument or obscures the grand truth we strive for For this does plainly insinuate thus much that Mankind is in a laps'd condition like one fallen down in the fit of an Epilepsy whose limbes by force of the convulsion are moved very incomposedly and illfavourdly but we know that he that does for the present move the members of his Body so rudely and fortuitously did before command the use of his Muscles in a decent exercise of his progressive faculty and that when the fit is over he will doe so again This therefore rather implyes that these poore barbarous Souls had once the true knowledge of God and of his worship and by some hidden providence may be recover'd into it again then that this propension to Religious Worship that so conspicuously appeares in them should be utterly in vain As it would be both in them and in all men else if there were no God CHAP. XI Of the Nature of the Soul of Man whether she be a meere Modification of the Body or a Substance really distinct and then whether corporeall or incorporeall VVE have done with all those more obvious faculties in the Soul of Man that naturally tend to the discovery of the Existence of a God Let us briefly before wee loose from our selves and lanch out into the vast Ocean of the Externall Phaenomena of Nature consider the Essence of the Soul her self what it is whether a meer Modification of the Body or Substance distinct therefrom and then whether corporeall or incorporeall For upon the clearing of this point wee may happily be convinced that there is a Spiritual Substance really distinct from the Matter Which who so does acknowledge will be easilier induced to beleeve there is a God First therefore if we say that the Soul is a meer Modification of the Body the Soul then is but one universall Faculty of the Body or a many Facultyes put together and those operations which are usually attributed unto the Soul must of necessity be attributed unto the Body I demand therefore to what in the body will you attribute Spontaneous Motion I understand thereby a power in our selves of wagging or holding still most of the parts of our Body as our hand suppose or little finger If you will lay that it is nothing but the immission of the Spirits into such and such Muscles I would gladly know what does immit these Spirits and direct them so curiously Is it themselves or the Braine or that particular piece of the Braine they call the Coâ—arion or Pine-kerâ—ell whatever it be that which does thus immit them and direct them must have Animadversion and the same that has Animadversion has Memory also and Reason Now I would know whether the Spirits themselves be capable of Animadversion Memory and Reason for it indeed seemes altogether impossible For these animall Spirits are nothing else but Matter very thin and liquid whose nature consists in this that all the particles of it be in Motion and being loose from one another fridge and play up and down according to the measure and manner of agitation in them I therefore now demand which of the particles in these so many loosely moving one from another has Animadversion in it If you say that they all put together have I appeal to him that thus answers how unlikely it is that that should have Animadversion that is so utterly uncapable of Memory
and consequently of Reason For it is as impossible to conceive Memory competible to such a subject as it is how to write Characters in the water or in the wind If you say the Brain immits and directs these Spirits how can that so freely and spontaneously move it self or another that has no Muscles besides Anatomists tell us that though the Brain be the Instrument of sense yet it has no sense at all of it self how then can that that has no sense direct thus spontaneously and arbitrariously the animall Spirits into any part of the Body an act that plainely requires determinate sense and perception But let the Anatomists conclude what they will I think I shall little lesse then demonstrate that the Brains have no Sense For the same thing in us that has Sense has likewise Animadversion and that which has Animadversion in us has also a faculty of free and arbitrarious Fansy and of Reason Let us now consider the nature of the Brain and see how competible those operations are to such a Subject Verily if wee take a right view of this laxe pith or marrow in Mans head neither our sense nor understanding can discover any thing more in this substance that can pretend to such noble operations as free Imagination and sagacious collections of Reason then we can discern in a Cake of Sewer or a bowle of Curds For this loose Pulp that is thus wrapp'd up within our Cranium is but a spongy and porous body and pervious not onely to the Animall Spirits but also to more grosse Juice and Liquor else it could not well be nourished at least it could not be so soft and moistned by drunkennesse and excesse as to make the understanding inept and sottish in its operations Wherefore I now demand in this soft substance which we call the Brain whose softnesse implyes that it is in some measure liquid and liquidity implyes a severall Motion of loosned parts in what part or parcell thereof does Fancy Reason and Animadversion lye In this laxe consistence that lyes like a Net all on heaps in the water I demand in what knot loop or Intervall thereof does this faculty of free Fancy and active Reason reside I believe you will be asham'd to assigne me any and if you will say in all together you must say that the whole brain is figured into this or that representation which would cancell Memory and take away all capacity of there being any distinct Notes and places for the severall Species of things there represented But if you will say there is in Every part of the brain this power of Animadversion and Fansy you are to remember that the brain is in some measure a liquid body and we must inquire how these loose parts vnderstand one anothers severall Animadversions and Notions And if they could which is yet very inconceivable yet if they could from hence doe any thing toward the immission and direction of the Animall Spirits into this or or that part of the Body they must doe it by knowing one anothers minds and by a joynt contention of strength as when many men at once the word being given lift or tugge together for the moving of some so masty a body that the single strength of one could not deal with But this is to make the severall particles of the brain so many Individuall persons A fitter object for laughter then the least measure of beliefe Besides how come these many animadversions to seem but one to us our mind being these as is supposed Or why if the figuration of one part of the brain be communicated to all the rest does not the same object seem situated both behind us and before us above and beneath on the right hand and on the left and every way as the Impresse of the object is reflected against all the parts of the braines But there appearing to us but one animadversion and one site of things it is a sufficient Argument that there is but one or if there be many that they are not mutually communicated from the parts one to another and therefore there can be no such joynt endeavour toward one designe whence it is manifest that the Braines cannot immit nor direct these Animall Spirits into what part of the Body they please Moreover that the Braine has no Sense and therefore cannot impresse spontaneously any motion on the Animall Spirits it is no slight Argument in that some being dissected have been found without Braines and Fontanus tells us of a boy at Amsterdam that had nothing but limpid water in his head in stead of Braines and the Braines generally are easily dissolvable into a watry consistence which agrees with what I intimated before Now I appeale to any free Judge how likely these liquid particles are to approve themselves of that nature and power as to bee able by erecting and knitting themselves together for a moment of time to beare themselves so as with one joynt contention of strength to cause an arbitrarious ablegation of the Spirits into this or that determinate part of the Body But the absurdity of this I have sufficiently insinuated already Lastly the Nerves I mean the Marrow of them which is of the self same substance with the Braine have no Sense as is demonstrable from a Catalepsis or Catochus but I will not accumulate Arguments in a Matter so palpable As for that little sprunt piece of the Braine which they call the Conarion that this should be the very substance whose naturall faculty it is to move it self and by it's Motions and Nods to determinate the course of the Spirits into this or that part of the Body seems to me no lesse foolish and fabulous then the story of hiâ— that could change the wind as he pleased by setting his Cap on this or that side of his head If you heard but the magnificent stories that are told of this little lurking Mushrome how it does not onely heare and see but imagines reasons commands the whole fabrick of the Body more dextrously then an Indian boy does an Elephant what an acute Logician subtle Geometrician prudent Statesman skillfull Physician and profound Philosopher he is and then afterward by dissection you discover this worker of Miracles to be nothing but a poor silly contemptible Knobb or Protuberancy consisting of a thin Membrane containing a little pulpous Matter much of the same nature with the rest of the Braine Spectatum admissirisum teneatis amici Would not you sooner laugh at it then goe about to confute it And truly I may the better laugh at it now having already confuted it in what I have afore argued concerning the rest of the braine I shall therefore make bold to conclude that the Impresse of Spontaneous Motion is neither from the Animall Spirits nor from the Braine and therefore that those operations that are usually attributed unto the Soul are really incompetible to any part of the Body and therefore that the Soul
is not a meer Modification of the Body but a Substance distinct therefrom Now we are to enquire whether this Substance distinct from what ordinarily we call the Body be also it self a Corporeall Substance or whether it be Incorporeall If you say that it is a Corporeall Substance you can understand no other then Matter more subtile and tenuious then the Animall Spirits themselves mingled with them and dispersed through the vessells and Porosities of the Body for there can be no Penetration of Dimensions But I need no new Arguments to confute this fond conceipt for what I said of the Animall Spirits before is applicable with all ease and fitnesse to this present case And let it be sufficient that I advertise you so much and so be excus'd from the repeating of the same things over again It remains therefore that we conclude that that which impresses Spontaneous Motion upon the Body or more immediatly upon the Animall Spirits that which imagines remembers and reasons is an Immateriall Substance distinct from the Body which uses the Animall Spirits and the Braines for Instruments in such and such Operations and thus we have found a Spirit in a proper Notion and signification that has apparently these faculties in it it can both understand and move Corporeall Matter And now this prize that we have wonne will prove for our designe of very great Consequence For it is obvious here to observe that the Soul of man is as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Compendious Statue of the Deity Her substance is a solid Effigies of God And therefore as with ease we consider the Substance and Motion of the vast Heavens on a little Sphere or Globe so we may with like facility contemplate the nature of the All-mighty in this little Meddall of God the Soul of Man enlarging to Infinity what we observe in our selves when wee transferre it unto God as we do imagine those Circles which we view on the Globea to be vastly bigger while we fancy them as described in the Heavens Wherefore we being assur'd of this that there is a Spirituall Substance in our selves in which both these properties do resid eviz of understanding and of moving Corporeall Matter let us but enlarge our Minds so as to conceive as well as we can of a spirituall Substance that is able to move and actuate all Matter whatsoever never â—o farre extended and after what way and manner soever it please and that it has not the knowledge onely of this or that particular thing but a distinct and plenary Cognoscence of all things and we have indeed a very competent apprehension of the Nature of the Eternall and Invisible God who like the Soul of Man does not indeed fall under sense but does every where operate so that his presence is easily to be gathered from what is discovered by our outward senses CHAP. I. The Universall Matter of the World be it homogeneall or heterogeneall self mov'd or resting of it self that it can never be contriv'd into that Order it is without the Super-intendency of a God THE last thing I insisted upon was the Specifick nature of the Soul of Man how it is an immateriall substance indued with these two eminent Properties of Understanding and Power of moving corporeall Matter Which truth I cleared to the intent that when we shall discover such Motions and Contrivances in the largely extended Matter of the world as imply Wisdome and Providence we may the easilier come off to the acknowledgment of that Eternall Spirituall Essence that has fram'd Heaven and Earth and is the Author and Maker of all visible and invisible Beings Wherefore we being now so well furnish'd for the voiage I would have my Atheist to take Shipping with me and loosing from this particular Speculation of our own inward nature to lanch out into that vast Ocean as I said of the Externall Phaenomena of universall Nature or walke with me a while on the wide Theatre of this Outward world and diligently to attend to those many and most manifest marks and signes that I shall point him to in this outward frame of things that naturally signify unto us that there is a God And now first to begin with what is most generall I say that the Phaenomena of Day and Night Winter and Summer Spring-time and Harvest that the manner of rising and setting of the Sun Moon and Starrs that all these are signes and tokens unto us that there is a God that is that things are so framed that they naturally imply a principle of Wisdome and Counsell in the Authour of them And if theâ—e be such an Authour of externall Nature there is a God But here it will be reply'd that meere Motion of the universall Matter will at last necessarily grinde it self into those more rude and generall Delineations of Nature that are observed in the Circuits of the Sunne Moone and Sâ—arres and the generall Consequences of them But if the mind of man gâ—ow so bold as to conceipt any such thing let him examine his Faculties what they naturally conceive of the Notion of Matter And verily the great Master of this Mechanicall Hypothesis does not suppose not admitt of any Specificall difference in this universall Matter out of which this outward frame of the World should arise Neither do I think that any Man else will easily imagine but that all the Matter of the world is of one kind for its very Substance or Essence Now therefore I demand concerning this universall uniform Matter whether naturally Motion or Rest belongs unto it If Motion it being acknowledg'd uniforme it must be alike moved in every part or particle imaginable of it For this Motion bring naturall and essentiall to the Matter is alike every where in it and therefore has loosened every Atome of it to the utmost capacity so that every particle is alike and moved alike And therefore there being no prevalency at all in any one Atome above another in biggnesse or motion it is manifest that this universall Matter to whom motion is so essentiall and intrinsecall will be ineffectuâ—ll â—or the producing of any varity of appearances in Nature and soâ—o Sunnes nor Starres noâ— Earths nor Vorticâ—s 〈◊〉 ever arise out of this infinitely thin and still Matter which most thus eternally remain unperceptible to any of 〈◊〉 were our Senses ten thousand Millions of times 〈…〉 then they are Indeed there could not be any such thing as either Man or Sense in the world But we see this Matter shewes it self to us in abundance of varietiâ—â—â—â—â— appearance therefore there must be another principle besides the Matter to order the Motion of it so as may make these varieties to appear And what will that prove but a God But if you 'l say that Motion is not of the nature of Matter as indeed it is very hard to conceive it the matter supposed homogeneall but that it is inert and stupid of it self then it must be moved
not made themselves such curious and safe Nests in Bushes and Trees Besides if all things were left to Chance it is far easier to conceive that there should have been no such things as Birds then that the blind Matter should ever have slumbled on such lucky instincts as they that seem but barely necessary But you 'le object that the Ostrich layes Egges and hatches them not â—o that these things are rather by Chance then Providence But this rather argues a more exquisite discerning Providence then is any Argument against it For the heat of the ground like those Ovens in Egypt Diodorus speaks of whereon she layes them proves effectuall for the production of her yong So Nature tyes not the Female to this tedious service where it is needlesse and uselesse as in Fishes also who when they have spawn'd are discharg'd of any further trouble which is a most manifest discovery of a very curious and watchfull Eye of Providence which suffers nothing to be done ineptly and in vaine I will only make one advantage more of this Speculation of the Birth of Animalls and then passe on to what remains It is observed by those that are more attentive watchers of the works of Nature that the foetus is framed out of some homogeneall liquour or moysture in which there is no variety of parts of Matter to be contrived into bones and flesh but as in an Egge for Example about the third day the Hen has sate on it in that part where Nature beginnes to set upon her worke of efformation all is turned into a Crystalline liquid substance about her as also severall Insects are bred of little drops of dew So in all Generations besides it is supposed by them the Nature does as it were wipe clean the Table-booke first and then pourtray upon it what she pleaseth And if thus be her course to corrupt the subject Matter into as perfect Privation of Form as she may that is to make it as homogeneall as she can but liquid and plyable to her Art and Skill it is to me very highly probable if not necessary that there should be something besides this fluid Matter that must change it alter and guide it into that wise contrivance of parts that afterwards we find it For how should the parts of this liquid Matter ever come into this exquisite Fabrick of themselves And this may convince any Atheist that there is a Substance besides corporeall Matter which he is as loth to admit of as that there is a God For there being nothing else in Nature but Substantia or Modus this power of contriving the liquid Matter into such order and shape as it is being incompetible to the liquid Matter it self it must be the Modus of some other substance latitant in the fluid Matter and really distinguishable from it which it either the Soul or some seminall From or Archeus as the Chymists call it and they are all alike indifferent to me at this time I ayming here only at a Substance besides the Matter that thence the Atheist may be the more easily brought off to the acknowledgment of the existence of a God Nor can the force of this Argument be eluded by saying the Matter is touched and infected by the life of the Female whiles she bore the Egge or that her Phansy gets down into her wombe For what life or Phansy has the Earth which as they say gendred at first all Animalls some still and what similitude is there betwixt a Bee and an Oxe or a Waspe and an Horse the those Insects should arise out of the putrifide bodies of these Creatures It is but some rude and generall congruity of vitall preparation that sets this Archeus on work rather then another As mere Choler engages the Phansy to dream of fiering of Gunns and fighting of Armies Sanguine figures the imagintion into the representation of faire Women and beautifull Children Phlegme transforms her into Water and Fishes and the shadowy Melancholy intangles her in colluctation with old Hagges and Hobgoblins and frights her with dead mens faces in the dark But I have dwelt on this subject longer then I intended CHAP. X. The Frame or Fabrick of the Bodies of Animalls plainly argue that there is a God I Come now to the last consideration of Animalls the outward Shape and Fabrick of their Bodies which when I have shew'd you that they might have been otherwise and yet are made according to the most exquisite pitch of Reaâ—on that the wit of Man can conceive of it will naturally â—ollow that they were really made by Wisdome and Providence and consequently that there is a God And I demâ—nd first in generall concerning all those Creatures that have Eyes and Eares whether they might not have had onely one Eye and one Eare a piece and to make the supposition more tolerable had the Eye on one side the head and the Eare on the other or the Eare on the Crown of the head the Eye in the Forehead for they might have lived and subsisted though they had been no better provided for then thus But it is evident that their having two Eyes and two Eares so placed as they are is more safe more sightly and more usefull Therefore that being made so constantly choice of which our own Reason deemeth best we are to inferr that that choice proceeded from Reason and Counsell Again I desire to know why there be no three-footed Beasts when I speak thus I doe not meane Monsters but a constant Species of kind of Animalls for such a Creature as that would make a limping shift to live as well as they that have foure Or why have not some beasts more then foure-feet suppose sixe the two middlemost shorter then the rest hanging like the two legges of a Man a horse-back by the horse sides For it is no harder a thing for Nature to make such frames of Bodies then others that are more elegant and usefull But the works of Nature being neither uselesse nor inept she must either be wise her self or be guided by some higher Principle of Knowledge As that Man that does nothing foolishly all the dayes of his life is either wise himself or consults with them that are so And then again for the armature of Beasts who taught them the use of their weapons The Lyon will not kick with his Feet but he will strike such a stroke with his Tayle that he will breake the back of his Encounterer with it The Horse will not use his Tayle unlesse against the busy flyes but kicks with his Feet with that force that he layes his Enemy on the ground The Bull and Ram know the use of their Hornes as well as the Horse of his Hoofes So the Bee and Serpent know their Stings and the Beare the use of his Paw Which things they know merely by naturall instinct as the Male knowes the use of the Female For they gather not this skill by observation and
acknowledge therein a richer designe of Providence that by this Frame and Artifice has gratifide both the Camell and his Master CHAP. XI The particular Frames of the Bodies of Fowls or Birds palpable signes of Divine Providence WE passe on now to the consideration of Fowls or Birds where omitting the more generall Properties of having two Ventricles and picking up stones to conveigh them into their second Ventricle the Gizzerne which provision and instinct is a supply for the want of teeth as also their having no Paps as Beasts have their yong ones being nourished so long in the Shell that they are presently fit to be fed by the mouths of the old ones which Observations plainly signify that Nature does nothing ineptly and foolishly and that therfore there is a Providence I sâ—all content my self in taking notice only of some few kinds of this Creature that familiarly come into our sight such as the Cock the Duck the Swan and the like I demand therefore concerning the Cock why he has Spurres at all or having them how they come to be so fittingly placed For he might have had none or so misplaced that they had been utterly uselesse and so his courage and pleasure in fighting had been to no purpose Nor are his Combe and his Wattles in vaine for they are an Ornament becoming his Martiall Spirit yea an Armature too for the tâ—gging of those often excuses the more useful parts of his head from harm Thus fittingly does Nature gratify all Creatures with accommodations sutable to their temper and nothing is in vaine Nor are we to cavill at the red pugger'd attire of the Turkey and the long Excrescency that hangs down over his Bill when he swells with pride and anger for it may be a Receptacle for his heated bloud that has such free recourse to his head or he may please himself in it as the rude Indians whose Jewells hang dangling at their Noses And if the bird be pleasur'd we are not to be displeased being alwaies mindfull that Creatures are made to enjoy themselves as well as to serve us and it is a grosse piece of Ignorance and Rusticity to think otherwise Now for Swannes and Ducks and such like Birds of the Water it is obvious to take notice how well they are fitted for that manner of life For those that swim their Feet are framed for it like a paire of Oares their Clawes being connected with a pretty broad Membrane and their Necks are long that they may dive deep enough into the water As also the Neck of the Herne and such like Fowl who live of Fishes and are fain to frequent their Element who walk on long stilts also like the people that dwell in the Marshes but their Clawes have no such Membranes for they had been but a hindrance to those kind of birds that onely wade in the water and do not swim It is also observable how Nature has fitted other Birds of Prey who spy their booty from aloft in the Aire and see best at that distance scarce see at all neere at hand So they are both the Archer and shaft taking aime afar off and then shooting themselves directly upon the desired Mark they seize upon the prey having hit it The works of Providence are infinite I will close all with the description of that strange bird of Paradise for the strangenesse has made it notorious There is a Bird that falls down out of the Aire dead and is found sometimes in the Molucco Ilands that has no Feet at all no more then an ordinary Fish The bignesse of her Body and Bill as likewise the form of them is much what as a Swallows but the spreading out of her Wings and Tayle has no lesse compasse then an Eagles She lives and breeds in the Aire comes not near the Earth but for her buriall for the largenesse and lightnesse of her Wings and Tayle sustain her without lassitude And the laying of her Egges and brooding of her young is upon the back of the Male which is made hollow as also the breast of the Female for the more easy incubation Whether she live merely of the dew of Heaven or of Flyes and such like Insects I leave to others to dispute but Cardan professes he saw the Bird no lesse then thrice and describes it accordingly Nor does Scaliger cavill with any thing but the bignesse of the Wings and littlenesse of the Body which he undertakes to correct from one of his own which was sent him by Orvesanus from Java Now that such contrivances as these should be without divine Providence is as improbable to me as that the Copper Ring with the Greek inscription upon it found about the Neck of an overgrown Pike should be the effect of unknowing Nature not the Artifice and Skill of Man CHAP. XII Vnavoydable Arguments for divine Providence taken from the accurate Structure of Mans Body from the Passions of his Mind and fitnesse of the whole Man to be an Inhabiter of the Universe BUt we needed not to have rambled so farre out into the works of Nature to seek out Arguments to prove a God we being so plentifully furnish'd with that at home which we took the pains to seek for abroad For there can be no more ample testimony of a God a Providence then the frame and structure of our own Bodyes The admirable Artifice whereof Galen though a mere Naturallist was so taken with that he could not but adjudge the honour of a hymne to the wise Creatour of it The contrivance of the whole and every particular is so evident an argument of exquisite skill in the Maker that if I should pursue all that suites to my purpose it would amount to an entire Volume I shall therefore only hint at some few things leaving the rest to be supply'd by Anatomists And I think there is no man that has any skill in that Art but will confesse the more diligently and accurately the frame of our Body is examined it is found the more exquisitely conformable to our own Reason Judgement and Desire So that supposing the same matter that our bodyes are made of if it had been in our own power to have made our selves we should have fram'd our selves no otherwise then we are To instance in some particular As in our Eyes the number the situation the fabrick of them is such that we can excogitate nothing to be added thereto or to be altered either for their beauty safety or usefulnesse But as for their Beauty I will leave it rather to the delicate wit and Pen of Poets and amorous persons then venture upon so tender and nice a subject with my severer style I will onely note how saâ—â—ly they are guarded and fitly framed out for that use they are intended The Brow and the Nose saves them from harder strokes but such a curious part as the Eye being necessarily lyable to mischief from smaller matters the sweat of the Forehead is fenced
ring again with the mâ—ghty foâ—cibleness of the Blast in this manner he pâ—ssed over to the other side of the River Whereupon Caesar taking the Omen leaves off all further dispute with himself carries over his Army enters Italy secure of success from so manifest tokens of the favour of the Gods To confirme this truth of Apparitions if we would but admit the free confessions of VVitches concerning their Impes whom they so frequently see and converse withall know them by their names and do obeisance to them the point would be put quite out of all doubt and their proofs would be so many that no volume would be large enough to containe them But forsooth these must be all Melancholy oldâ—women that dote and bring themselves into danger by their own Phansyes and Conceits But that they doe net dote I am better assured of then of their not doting that say they do For to satisfy my own curiosity I have examined severall of them and they have discours'd as cunningly as any of their quality and education But by what I have read and observ'd I discerne they serve a very perfidious Master who playes wreaks many times on purpose to betray them But that 's only by the by I demand concerning these Witches who confesse their contract and frequent converse with the Divel sâ—me with him in one shape others in another whether mere Melancholy and Imagination can put Powders Rods Oyntments and such like things into their hands and tell them the use of them can impresse Markes upon their bodies so deep as to take away all sense in that place can put Silver and Gold into their hands which afterwards commonly proves but either Counters Leaves or Shells or some such like uselesse matter These reall effects cannot be by mere Melancholy For if a man receive any thing into his hand be it what it will be there was some body that gave it him And therefore the VVitch receiving some reall thing from this or that other shape that appeared unto her it is an evident signe that it was an externall thing that she saw not a mere figuration of her melancholy Phansy There are innumerable examples of this kind but the thing is so triviall and ordinary that it wants no instances I will only for down one wherein there is the apparition of three Spirits John VVâ—nnick of Molsewâ—rth in Huntington-shire being examin'd 11. Aprill 1646. confessed as followes Having lost his purse with seven shillings in it for which he suspected one in the family where he lived he saith that on a Friday while he was making hay bottles in the barn and swore and curs'd and rag'd and wisht to himself that some wise body would help him to his purse aâ—d money again there appear'd unto him a Spirit in the shape of a Beare but not so big as a Coney who promis'd upon condition that he would fall down and worship him he would help him to his purse He assented to it and the Spirit told him to morrow about this time he should find his purse upon the floor where he made bottles and that he would then come himself also which was done accordingly and thus at the time appointed recovering his purse he fell down upon his knees to the Spirit and said My Lord and God I thank you This Spirit brought then with him two other in the shape the one of a white Cat the other of a Coney which at the command of the Beare-Spirit he worshipped also The Beare-Spirit told him he must have his Soul when he dyed that he must suck of his body that he must have some of his Bloud to seale the Covenant To all which he agreed and so the beare-Beare-Spirit leaping up to his shoulder prick'd him on the head and thence took bloud After that they all three vanished but ever since came to him once every twenty four houres and suck'd on his body where the markes are found And that they had continually done thus for this twenty nine yeares together That all these things should be a mere dreame is a conceit more slight and foolish than any dreame possibly can be For that receiving of his purse was a palpable and sensible pledge of the truth of all the rest And it is incredible that such a series of circumstances back'd with twenty nine yeares experience of being suck'd and visited dayly sometimes in the day time most commonly by night by the same three Familiars should be nothing but the hanging together of so many Melancholy Conceits and Phansies Nor doth the sealing of Covenants and writing with Bloud make such stories as these more to be suspected For it is not at all unreasonable that such Ceremonies should passe betwixt a Spirit and a Man when the like palpable Rites are used for the more firmly tying of Man to God For whatsoever is crasse and externall leaves a stronger Impresse upon the Phansy and the remembrance of it strikes the mind with more efficacy So that assuredly the Divel hath the greater hanck upon the Soul of a Witch or Wizard that hath been perswaded to complete their Contract with him in such a grosse sensible way and keepes them more fast from revolting from him than if they had only contracted in bare words CHAP. VII The nocturnall Conventicles of Witches that they have often dissolved disappeared at the naming of the Name of God or Jesus Christ and that the party thus speaking has found himself alone in the fields many miles from home The Dancing of Men Women and cloven-footed Satyres at mid-day John Michaell piping from the bough of an Oake c. BUt I shall now adde further stories that ought to gain credit for the conspicuous effects recited in them As that which Paulus Grillandus reports of one not far from Rome who at the perswasion of his wife anointing himself as she had done before him was carried away in the aire to a great Assembly of Wizards and VVitches where they were feasting under a Nut-Tree But this stranger not relishing his cheare without Salt at last the Salt coming and he blessing of God for it at that Name the whole Assembly disappeared and he poore man was left alone naked an hundred miles off from home whither when he had got he accused his wife she confess'd the fact discovering also her companions who were therefore burnt with her The same Authour writes a like story of a young girle thirteen years old in the Dukedome of Spalatto who being brought into the like company and admiring the strangenesse of the thing and crying out Blessed God what 's here to do made the whole assembly vanish was left herself in the field alone and wandring up and down was found by a countrey man to whom shee told the whole matter So the Husband of the Witch of Lochiae whom she brought into the like Assembly by saying O my God where are we made all to vanish and found himself naked alone in the field
fifteen dayes journey from home Severall other stories to this purpose Bodinus sets down which these sensible effects of being so far distant from home and being found naked in the fields shew to be no freakes of Melancholy but certain truth But that the Divel in these junquetings appeares to the Guests in the form of a Satyr black Goat or else sometimes in the shape of an ill-favoured black man is the ordinary confession of VVitches by this way discovered and convicted Of his appearance in the shape of a man in black at least if not a black man a young woman committed for the suspicion of VVitchcraft at the castle in Cambridge told my learned friend Dr. Cudworth and my self this story How one Lendall-wife who afterwards at Cambridge suffered for a Witch made a motion to her of procuring her a husband she accepted of it The day and hour appointted her Sweet-heart met her at Lendall's house He brake the businesse to her but in the middle of the conference she did but turne her head aside and he was vanished and instead of a good proper Yeomanlike Man there was found in the chaire where he did sit nothing but a young Whelp lying on the cushion Shee told us also how upon a time when she dwelt with a Dame in a little town near Cambridge and was sent into the fields to gather sticks that Lendall-wife did meet her there and urged the old businesse again and bâ—cause she would not consent to it that shee beat her unmercifully pulled off all her cloathes and left her naked and in a manner dead upon the ground and that she thought if her Dame had not come to seek her and had not found her she had died no other death She told us also how at another time the door being shut and she going to bed that her Sweet-heart came to her himself earnestly desiring that the Match might goe on which she as resolutely refusing he grew very angry and asked her if she would make a fool of him and gave her such a parting blow upon her thigh that it was black and blew a good while after But that which I aime at happened sometime betwixt these passages I have already related While this marriage was driving on the Wench was again invited to Lendall-wife's house where she might meet with her Sweet-heart at a supper Shee told us when she was come that shee waited â— great while below and marvelled that there was neither fire nor rost-meat nor any thing else that could promise any such entertainment as was expected nor did she see any thing brought into the house all the while she was there and yet notwithstanding that at supper time the table was well furnish't as well with guests as meat He that did sit at the upper end of the table was all in black to whom the rest gave very much respect bowing themselves with a great deal of reverence whenever they spake to him But what the wench seemed most of all affected with was that the company spake such a Language as she understood not and Lendall-wife whom at other times she said she could understand very well when she spake then at table she could not understand at all Old Stranguidge of whom there hath been reported ever since I came to the Universitie that he was carried over Shelford Steeple upon a black Hogge and tore his breeches upon the weather-cock was one of the company I doe not remember any other she told us of that wee knew but there were severall that she her self knew not It was darke when they went to supper and yet there was neither candle nor candlestick on the board but a moveable light hovered over them that wafâ—ed it self this way and that way in the aire betwixt the seeling and the table Under this glimmering lamp they ate their victuals and entertain'd discourse in that unknown Dialect She amazed at the strangenesse of the businesse and weary of attending of so uncouth a company as she said slunck away from them and left them As for my own part I should have looked upon this whole Narration as a mere idle fancy or sick mans dream had it not been that my beliefe was so much enlarged by that palpable satisfaction I received from what wee heard from foure or five VVitches which we lately examined before And yet what I heard was but such matters as are ordinarily acknowledged by such VVitches as will confesse And therefore I shall rather leave my Reader to wait the like opportunity then trouble my self with setting down any further examinations of my own I will only adde a Story or two out of Remigius concerning these Conventicles of Witches and then I will proceed to some other proofs John of Hembach was carried by his Mother being a Witch to one of these Conventicles and because he had learnt to play on the Pipe was commanded by her to exercise his faculty to get up into a Tree that they might the better hear his Musick Which he doing looking upon the Dancers how uncouth and ridiculous they were in their Motions and Gestures being struck with admiration at the novelty of the matter suddenly burst out into these words Good God what a mad company have we here Which was no sooner said but down came John Pipe and all and hurt his shoulder with the tumbling cast who when he called to the company to help him found himself alone for they had all vanish'd John of Hembach told the story but people knew not what to make of it till some of that mad Crue that danc'd to his pipe were apprehended upon other suspicions as Catharina Praevotia Kelvers Orilla and others who made good every whit what John had before told though they knew nothing of what he told before adding also more particularly that the place where he pip'd to them was Maybuch The other memorable Story that I shall relate out of Remigius is this One Nicolea Langbernhard while she was going towards Assenunturia along a hedge side spied in the next field it was about Noon-time of day a company of men and women dancing in a ring and the posture of their bodies being uncouth and unusuall made her view them more attentively whereby she discerned some of them to have cloven feet like Oxen or Goats it should seem they were Spirits in the shape of lusty Satyrs she being astonish'd with fear cryes out Jesus help me and send me well home She had no sooner said so but they all vanished saving onely one Peter Grospetter whom a little afterwards she saw snatch'd up into the aire and to let fall his Maulkin a stick that they make cleane ovens withall and her self was also driven so forcibly with the winde that it made her almost loose her breath She was faine to keep her bed three dayes after This Peter though at first he would have followed the Law on Nicolea for slandring him yet afterward freely confess'd and
discovered others of his companions as Barbelia the wife of Joannes Latomus Mayetta the wife of Laurentius who confessed she danced with those cloven-footed Creatures at what time Peter was amongst them And for further evidence of the businesse John Michaell Herds-man did confesse that while they thus danced he plaid upon his Crooked staffe and struck upon it with his fingers as if it had been a Pipe sitting upon an high bough of an Oake and that so soon as Nicolea called upon the name of Jesus he tumbled down headlong to the ground but was presently catch'd up again with a whirldwind and carryed to Weiller Meadowes where he had left his Herds a little before Adde unto all this that there was found in the place where they danced a round Circle wherein there was the manifest maâ—kes of the treading of cloven feet which were seen from the day after Nicolea had discover'd the businesse till the next Winter that the plough cut them out These things happened in the yeare 1590. CHAP. VIII Of Fairy Circles A larger discussion of those Controversies betwixt Bodinus and Remigius viz. whether the Bodyes of Witches be really transformed into the shape of Wolves and other Creatures whether the Souls of Witches be not sometimes at those nocturnall Conventicles their bodies being left at home as also whether they leavâ— not their bodies in those Extasies they put themselves in when they promise to fetch certain newes from remote places in a very short time IT might be here very seasonable upon the foregoing story to enquire into the nature of those large darke Rings in the grasse which they call Fairy Circles whether they be the Rendezvâ—â—z of Witches or the daâ—cing places of those little puppet-Spirits which they call Elves or Fairies But these curiosâ—ties I leave to more busy Wits I am onely intent now upon my serious purpose of proving there are Spirits which I think I have made a pretty good progresse in already and have produced such narrations that cannot but gain credit with such as are not perversly and wiâ—lfully incredulous There is another more profitable question started if it could be decided concerning these Night-revellings of VVitches whether they be not sometimes there their bodies lying at home as sundry Stories seem to favour that opinion Bodinus is for it Remigius is against it It is the same question whether when VVitches or VVizards professe they will tell what is done within so many miles compasse and afterwards to give a proof of their skill first anoint their bodies and then fall down dead in a manner and so lye a competent time senselesse whether I say their souls go out of their bodies or all be but represented to their Imagination We may add a third which may happily better fetch off the other two And that is concerning your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Germans call Were-VVolff the French Loups garous Men transformed into VVolves and there is much what the same reason of other Transformations I shall not trouble you with any Histories of them though I might produce many But as well those that hold it is but a delusion of the Divell and mere Tragedies in Dreames as they that say they are reall Transactions do acknowledge that those parties that have confessed themselves thus transformed have been weary and sore with running have been wounded and the like Bodinus here also is deserted of Remigius who is of the same mind with VVierus that sly smooth Physician and faithfull Patron of VVitches who will be sure to load the Divell as much as he can his shoulders being more able to bear it and so to ease the Haggs But for mine own part though I will not undertake to decide the controversy yet I thinke it not aâ—â—isse to declare that Bodinus may very well make good his own notwithstanding any thing those do alledge to the contrary For that which Wierus and Remigius seem so much to stand upon that it is too great a power for the Divell and too great indignity to Man that he should be able thus to transform him are in my mind but slight Rheâ—orications no sound Arguments For what is that outward misâ—apement of Body to the inward deformity of their Souls which he helps on so notoriously And they having given themselves over to him so wholy why may he not use them thus here when they shall be worse used by him hereafter And for the changeing of the species of things if that were a power too big to be granted the Divell yet it is no more done here when he thus transforms a Man into a VVolf then when he transforms himself into the shape of a Man For this VVolf is still a Man and that Man is still a Divell For it is so as the Poet sayes it was in Vlysses his companions which Circe turned into Hoggs They had the Head the Voice the Body and Bristles of Hoggs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But their Understanding was unchanged they had the Mind and Memory of a Man as before As Petrus Bourgotus professeth that when his companion Michael Verdung had aâ—ointed his body and transform'd him into a Wolf when he look'd upon his hairy feet he was at first affraid of himself Now therefore it being plain that nothing materiall is alledged to the contrary and that men confesse they are turn'd into Wolves and acknowledge the salvage cruelties they then committed upon Children Women and Sheep that they find themselves exceeding weary and sometimes wounded it is more naturall to conclude they were really thus transformed then that it was a mere Delusion of Phansy For I conceive the Divell gets into their body and by his subtile substance more operative and searching than any fire or putrifying liquour melts the yielding Compages of the body to such a consistency and so much of it as is fitt for his purpose and makes it plyable to his imagination and then it is as easy for him to work it into what Shape he pleaseth as it is to work the Aire into such forms and figures as he ordinarily doth Nor is it any more difficulty for him to mollify what is hard then it is to harden what is so soft and fluid as the Aire And he that hath this power we can never stick to give him that which is lesse viz. to instruct men how they shall for a time forsake their Bodies and come in again For can it be a hard thing for him that can thus melt and take a pieces the particles of the Body to have the skill and power to loosen the Soul a substance really distinct from the Body and separable from it which at last is done by the easy course of Nature at that finall dissolution of Soul and Body which we call Death But no course of Nature ever transforms the body of Man into the shape of a Wolf so that this is more hard and exoâ—bitant from the order of Nature then the other I
vain Credulity is so secure of the truth of Tyâ—neus his Miracles that he does not stick to term him impudent that has the face to deny them Our English Chronicles also tell us of Apparitions armed men foot and horse fighting upon the ground in the North part of England and in Ireland for many Evenings together seen by many hundreds of men at once and that the grasse was troden down in the places where they were seen to fight their Battailes which agreeth with Nicolea Langbernhard her Story of the cloven-footed Dancers that left the print of their hoofs in the ring they trod down for a long time after But this skirmishing upon the Earth puts me in mind of the last part of this argument and bids me look up into the Aire Where omitting all other Prodigies I shall only take notice of what is most notorious and of which there can by no meanes be given any other account then that it is the effect of Spirits And this is the appearance of armed men fighting and encountring one another in the Sky There are so many examples of these Prodigies in Historians that it were superfluous to instance in any That before the great slaughter of no lesse than fourescore thousand made by Antiochus in Jerusalem recorded in the second of Maccabees chap. 5. is famous The Historian there writes that through all the city for the space almost of fourty dayes there were seen Horsemen running in the aire in cloth of Gold and Arm'd with Lances like a band of Souldiers and Troops of Horsemen in array encountring and running one against another with shaking of shields and multitudes of piâ—â—es and drawing of swords and casting of darts and glittering of golden ornaments and harnesse of all sorts And Josephus writes also concerning the like Prodigies that happened before the destruction of the City by Titus prefacing first that they were incredible were it not that they were recorded by those that were Eye-witnesses of them The like Apparitions were seen before the civill warres of Marius and Sylla And Melanchthon affirmes that a world of such Prodigies were seen all over Germany from 1524 to 1548. Sâ—ellius amongst other places doth particularize in Aâ—â—rtsfort where these fightings were seen not much higher then the house tops as also in Amsterdam where there was a Sea-fight appearing in the aire for an houre or two together many thousands of men looking on And to say nothing of what hath been seen in England not long ago there is lately a punctuall narration of such a Sea-fight seen by certain Hollanders and sent over hither into England but a Lion appearing alone at the end of that Apparition though it may be true for ought I know yet it makes it obnoxious to Suspicion and evasion and so unprofitable for my purpose But the Phaenomena of this kind whose reports cannot be suspected to be in subserviency to any Politick designe ought in reason to be held true when there have been many profess'd Eye-witnesses of them And they being resolvable into no naturall causes it is evident that we must acknowledge supernaturall ones such as Spirits Intelligences or Angels term them what you please CHAP. X. A very memorable story of a certain pious man who had the continuall Society of a Guardian Genius I Had here ended all my Stories were I not tempted by that remarkable one in Bodinus to our-run my Method I but named it heretofore I shall tell it now more at large I am the more willingly drawn to relate it such examples of the consociation of good Spirits being very scarce in History The main reason whereof as I conceive is because so very few men are heartily and sincerely good The Narration is more considerable in that he that writes it had it from the man 's own mouth whom it concerns and is as follows This Party a holy and pious man as it should seem and an acquaintance of Bodinus's freely told him how that he had a certain Spirit that did perpetually accompany him which he was then first aware of when he had attain'd to about thirty seven years of Age but conceiv'd that the said Spirit had been present with him all his life time as he gathered from certain Monitory Dreams and Visions whereby he was forewarn'd as well of severall dangers as vices That this Spirit discovered himself to him after he had for a whole year together earnestly pray'd to God to â—end a good Angell to him to be the Guide and Governer of his life and actions adding also that before and after Prayer he used to spend two or three houres in meditation and reading the Scriptures diligently enquiring with himself what Religion amongst those many that are controverted in the world might be best beseeching God that he would be pleased to direct him to it And that he did not allow of their way that at all adventures pray to God to confirm them in that opinion they have already preconceived be it right or wrong That while he was thus busy with himself in matters of Religion that he light on a passage in Philo Judaeus in his Book De Sacrificiis where he writes that a good and holy Man can offer no greater nor more acceptable Sacrifice to God then the Oblation of himself and therefore following Philo's counsell that he offered his Soul to God And that after that amongst many other divine Dreames and Visions he once in his sleep seemed to hear the voice of God saying to him I will save thy Soul I am he that before appeared unto thee Afterwards that the Spirit every day would knock at the doore about three or four a clock in the morning though he rising and opening the doore could see no body but that the Spirit persisted in this course and unlesse he did rise would thus rouze him up This trouble and boisterousnesse made him begin to conceit that it was some evill Spirit that thus haunted him and therefore he daily pray'd earnestly unto God that he would be pleased to send a good Angell to him and often also sung Psalmes having most of them by heart Wherefore the Spirit afterward knocked more gently at the doore and one day discovered himself to him waking which was the first time that he was assured by his senses that it was he for he often touched and stirred a Drinking-glasse that stood in his chamber which did not a little amaze him Two dayes after when he entertain'd at supper a certain fâ—â—end of his Secretary to the King that this friend of his was much abash'd while he heard the Spirit thumping on the bench hard by him and was strucken with fear but he â—ad him be of good courage there was no hurt towards and the better to assure him of it told him the truth of the whole Matter Wherefore from that time â—aith Bodinus he did affirm that this Spirit was alwayes with him and by some sensible signe did ever advertize him of things
reasonable that a man changing the frame of his minde changes his Genius withall Or rather unless a man be very sincere and single-hearted that he is left to common Providence as well as if he be not desperately wicked or deplorably miserable scarce any particular evill Spirit interposes or offers himself a perpetuall Assistent in his affaires and fortunes But extreme Poverty irksome old Age want of Friends the Contempt Injury and Hardheartednesse of evill Neighbours working upon a Soul low sunk into the body and wholy devoid of the Divine life does sometimes kindle so sharp so eager and so piercing a desire of Satisfaction and Revenge that the shreeks of men while they are a murdering the howling of a Wolf in the fields in the night or the squeaking and roring of tortured Beasts do not â—o certainly call to them those of their own kinde as this powerfull Magick of a pensive and complaining soul in the bitternesse of it's affliction attracts the ayd of these over-officious Spirits So that it is most probable that they that are the forwardest to â—ang Witches are the first that made them and have no more goodnesse nor true piety then these they so willingly prosecute but are as wicked as they though with better luck or more discretion offending no further then the Law will permit them and therefore they securely starve the poor helpless man though with a great deal of clamour of justice they will revenge the death of their Hogg or Cow Thirdly it were worth our disquisition why Spirits so seldome now adayes appear especially those that are good whether it be not the wickednesse of the present Age as I have already hinted or the generall prejudice men have against all Spirits that appear that they must be straightwayes Divells or the frailty of humane nature that is not usually able to bear the appearance of a Spirit no more then other Animalls are for into what agonies Horses and Doggs are cast upon their approach is in every ones mouth and is a good circumstance to distinguish a reall Apparition from our own Imaginations or lastly whether it be the condition of Spirits themselves who it may be without some violence done to their own nature cannot become visible it being happily as troublesome a thing to them to keep themselves in one steady visible consistency in the aire as it is for men that dive to hold their breath in the water Fourthly it may deserve our search whether Spirits have any settled forme or shape Angells are commonly pictured like good plump cherâ—y-cheek'd Lads Which is no wondâ—r the boldnesse of the same Artists not sticking to picture God Almighty in the shape of an old man In both it is as it pleases the Painter But this story seems rather to favour their opinion that say that Angells and seperate Sâ—uls have no settled forme but what they please to give themselves upon occasion by the power of their own Phansy Ficinuâ— as I remember somewhere calls them Aereall Starres And the good Genii seem to me to be as the benigne Eyes of God running to and fro in the world with love and pitty beholding the innocent endeavours of harmlesse and single-hearted men ever ready to doe them good and to help them What I conceive of separate Soules and Spirits I cannot better expresse then I have already in my Poem of the Prâ—existency of the Soul And I hope it will be no sin to be better then my word who in my Preface have promissed no Poetry at all but I shall not think much to offer to your view these two Stanzas out of the forenamed Poem Like to a light fast lock'd in Lanthorn dark Whereby by Night our wary steps we guide In slabby streets and dirty Chanels mark Some wâ—aker rayes from the black top do glide And flusher streams perhaps through th' horny side But when we 've past the perill of the way Arriv'd at home and laid that case aside The naked light how clearly doth it ray And spread its joyful beames as bright as Summer's day Even so the Soul in this contracted state Confin'd to these straight Instruments of Sense More dull and narrowly doth operate At this hole heares the Sight must ray from thence Here tasts there smells But when she 's gone from hence Like naked Lamp she is one shining Spheare And round about has perfect cognoscence What ere in her Horizon doth appear She is one Orb of sense all Eye all airy Eear And what I speak there of the condition of the Soul out of the Body I think is easily applicable to other Genâ—i or Spirits The fift Enquiry may be how these good Genâ—i become serviceable to men for either heightening their Devotions or inabling them to Prophecy whether it can be by any other way then by descending into their bodies and possessing the heart and braine For the Euchites who affected the gift of Prophecy by familiarity with evill Spirits did utterly obliterate in their Souls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Principles of Goodnesse and Honesty as you may see in Psellus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the evill Spirits might come into their bodies whom those sparks of virtue as they said would drive away but those being extinguish'd they could come in and possess them and inable them to prâ—phecy And that the Imps of Witches do sometimes enter their own bodies as well as their's to whom they send them is plain in the Story of the Witches of Warbois It is also the opinion of Trismegist that these Spirits get into the Veines and Arteries both of men and beasts Wherefore concerning the Dreames and Visions of this holy man that so freely imparted himself to Bodinus it may be conceived reasonable that the good Genius insinuated himself into his very Body as well as the bad into the bodies of the wicked and that residing in his braine and figuring of it by thinking of this or that Object as we ourselves figure it when we think the external senses being laid asleep those figurations would easily be represented to the Common sense and that Memory recovering them when he awaked they could not but seem to him as other Dreames did saving that they were better they ever signifying some thing of importance unto him But those Raptures of Devotion by day might be by the Spirits kindling a purer kinde of Love-flame in his heart as well as by fortifying and raising his Imagination And how far a man shall be carried beyond himself by this redoubled soul in him none I think can well conceive unlesse they had the experience of it And if this be their manner of communion it may well be enquired into in the sixt place whether all men be capable of consociation with these good Genii Cardan somewhere intimates that their approaches are deprehensible by certain sweet smells they cast From whence it may seem not improbable that those bodies that smell sweet themselves where the mind does
such And that this absolutely perfect Being is God the Creatour and Contriver of all things 17 VIII The first Argument for the Existence of God taken from the Idea of God as it is representative of his Nature and Perfection From whence also it is undeniably demonstrated that there can be no more Gods then One. 19 IX The second Argument from the Idea of God as it is Subjected in our Souls and is the fittest Natural means imaginable to bring us to the knowledge of our Maker That bare possibility ought to have no power upon the mind to either hasten or hinder it's assent in any thing We being dealt with in all points as if there were a God that naturally we are to conclude there is one 25 X. Naturall Conscience and Religious Veneration arguments of the Existence of God 29 XI Of the Nature of the Soul of Man whether she be a mere Modification of the Body or a Substance really distinct and then whether corporeal or incorporeal 35 The Second Book I. The Universall Matter of the World be it homogeneall or heterogeneall self-mov'd or resting of it self that it can never be contriv'd into that Order it is â—ithout the Super-inâ—endency of a God 43 II. The perpetuall Parallelisme of the Axis of the Earth and its due proportion of Inclination as also the course of the Moon crossing the Ecliptick evident arguments that the fluid Matter is guided by a divine Providence The Atheists Sophisme of arguing from some petty inconsiderable Effects of the Motion of the Matter that the said Motion is the cause of all things seasonably detected and deservedly derided 47 III. That Rivers Quarries of stone Timber-Wood Metalls Mineralls and the Magnet considering the nature of Man what use he can make of them are manifest signes that the rude Motion of the Matter is not left to it self but is under the guidance and Super-intendency of an all-wise God 53 IV. A further proof of Divine Providence taken from the Sea and the large train of Causes laid together in reference to Navigation 56 V. Though the mere motion of the Matter may do something yet it will not amount to the production of Plants and Animalls That it is no Botch in Nature that some Phaenomena be the results of Motion others of Substantiall Formes That Beauty is not a mere Phansy and that the Beauty of Plants is an argument that they are from an Intellectuall Principle 59 VI. The Seeds and Signatures of Plants arguments of a divine Providence 64 VII Arguments of divine Providence drawn from the Usefulnesse of Plants 69 VIII The Usefulnesse of Animalls an argument of divine Providence 74 IX Arguments of divine Providence fetched from the Pulchritude of Animalls as also from the manner of their Propagation 78 X. The Frame or Fabrick of the Bodies of Animalls plainly argue that there is a God 86 XI The particular Frames of the Bodies of Fowls or Birds palpable signes of Divine Providence 91 XII Vnavoydable Arguments for divine Providence taken from the accurate Structure of Mans Body from the Passions of his Mind and fitnesse of the whole Man to be an Inhabiter of the Universe 93 The Third Book I. That good mâ—n not alwayes faring best in this world the great examples of Divine Vengeance upon wicked and blasphemous Persons are not so convincing to the obstinate Atheist The irreligious Jeares and Sacrileges of Dionysâ—us of Syracuse That there have been true Miracles in the world as well as false and what are the best and safest wayes to distinguish them that we may not be impos'd upon by History 105 II. The Moving of a Sieve by a Charme Coskinomâ—ncy A Magicall cure of an Horse The Charming of Serpents A strange Example of one Death-strucken as he walked the Streets A story of a suddain winde that had like to have thrown down the Gallows at the hanging of two Witches 109 III. That Winds and Tempests are raised upon mere Ceremonies or forms of words prov'd by sundry Examples Margaret Warâ—e discharg'd upon an Oake at a Thunder-Clap Amantius and Rotarius cast headlong out of a Cloud upon a house top â—he Witch of Constance seen by the Shepheards to ride through the Aire III IV. Superâ—atural Effects observ'd in them that are Bewitch'd and Possess'd The famous Story of Magdalena Crucia 115 V. Examples of Bewitch'd Persons that have had Balls of Haire Nayles Knives Wood stuck with Pinns pieces of Cloth and such like trash conveigh'd into their Bodies with examples also of other Supernaturall Effects 119 VI. The Apparition Eckerken The Story of the pyed Piper A Triton or Sea-God seen on the banks of Rubâ—con Of the Imps of Witches and whether those old women be guilty of so much doâ—age as the Atheist fancies them That such things passe betwixt them and their Imps as are impossible to be imputed to Melancholy The examination of John Winnick of Molesworth The reason of Scaling Covenants with the Diveil 123 VII The nocturnal Convenâ—â—les of Witches that they have often dâ—ssolved and disappeared at the naming of the Name of God or Jesus Christ and that the party thus speaking has found himself alone in the fields many miles from home The Dancing of Men Women and cloven-footed Satyres at mid-day John Michaell piping from the bough of an Oake c. 127 VIII Of Fairy Circles A larger discussion of those Controversies betwixt Bodinus and Remigius viz. whether the Bodyes of Witches be really transformed into the shape of Wolves and other Creatures whether the Souls of Witches be not sometimes at those nocturnall Conventicles their Bodies being left at home as also whether they leavâ— not their bodies in those Extasies they put themselves in when they promise to fetch certain newes from remote places in a very short time 132 IX The Coldnesse of those bodyes that Spirits appear iâ— witnessed by the experience of Cardan and Bourgotus The naturall Reason of this Coldnesse That the Divell does really lye with VVitches That the very substance of Spirits is not fire Spirits skirmishing on the ground Field sights and Sea-fights seen in the Aire 137 X. A very memorable story of a certain pious man who had the continuall Society of a Guardian Genius 140 XI Certain Enquiries upon the preceding Story as What these Guardian Genii may be Whether one or more of them be allotted to every man or to some none What may be the reason of Spirits so seldome appearing And whether they have any settled Shape or no. What their manner is of assisting men in either Devotion or Prophecy Whether every mans complexion is capable of the Society of a good Genius And lastly whether it be lawfull to pray to God to send such a Genius or Angel to one or no. 144 XII That whether the Species of things have been from all Eternity or whether they rose out of the Earth by degrees in Time the Frame of them is such that against all the Evasions of the Atheist they naturally imply that there is a God 151 XIII That the Evasions of the Atheists against Apparitions are so weak and silly that it is an evident argument that they are convinced in their own judgements of the truth of these kinds of Phaenomena which forces them to answer as well as they can though they be so ill provided 158 FINIS