A TREATISE CONCERNING ENTHVSIASME As it is an Effect of Nature but is mistaken by many for either Divine Inspiration or Diabolical Possession By Meric Casaubon D.D. AD ARDUA PER ASPERATENDO LONDON Printed by R. D. and are to be sold by Tho. Johnson at the Golden Key in S. Paul's Church-yard 1655. To the READER I Have been present sometimes at some discourses and have lighted also upon some relations in print concerning Visions and Revelations that have happened unto some I did not apprehend them alwaies as they seemed unto me to do that were partakers with me of the same whether relations or discourses But neither was I so confident that I was in the right and they in the wrong as peremptorily to conclude any thing in mine own thoughts much less so confident that I could think it needfull to oppose by words and arguments what was believed by others different from mine own opinion For how indeed should I be confident that I was in the right without the diligent examination of severall circumstances unknown unto me and as little perchance known unto them that were of another opinion without which to conclude of particular cases by general Rules and Maximes I knew full well to be a principall cause of most strifes and confusions that either disturb the brains or divide the hearts of men in this world But even when more confident upon good and perfect knowledge of all circumstances yet where no manifest danger is either of impiety towards God or breach of peace whether publick or private among men I never did think my self bound to oppose no more then I did think that my oppositiō would be to much purpose I am not of the opinion of some ancient Philosophers that man is the measure of all things and therefore that whatever appeareth true unto any is in it self as it appeareth unto him neither do I think so meanly of any truth that can be reduced to any reality whether sensible or unsensible as to think either Lands or Jewels too dear a price for it However as all mens brains are not of one temper naturally nor all men equally improved by study nor all led by one interest so is it I think as impossible by any art or reason of man to reduce all men to one belief I cannot think that the warres of the Giants against the Gods and their attempt feigned by the Poets of scaling Heaven by heaping high Mountains upon one another can by any sober man be conceived either more ridiculous or impossible then the project of some men for which also some books have been written lately doth appear unto me of making all men wise I think my self bound to judge of others as charitably as may be but though I would yet I cannot conceive how any man can really promise himself so much or make boast of it unto others but he must think himself either more good or more wise then Almighty God Or if he pretend to act by God as his instrument or Deputie yet even so more wise or more successfull then Christ the Son of God VVho though he was come into the world as to suffer for men so to teach men wisdome without which his sufferings would do them no good and might have made use of his Omnipotency had he pleased to transforme all men even the dullest of men in a moment of time to make them more capable of his instructions yet thought that way best that he chose and after many Miracles by himself and his Apostles and his heavenly Doctrine conteined in the Gospels and the writings of his said Apostles left many men to themselves as before and was content the world should continue which it hath already done 1653 yeares since for a while though it consisted of men more bad then good more fools then wise But this is too much to them that will not be the better for it and I do not desire to make sport unto others Since my forced retirement into this country life among those few books which have had the luck to stick to me not many yeares since I lighted upon one whereof I can give very little account if I should be put to it how I came by it or it to me but found it among the rest the title whereof is The life of Sister Katharine of Jesus Nunne of the Order of our Lady c. at Paris 1628. The title did not much invite me to read but being at very good leisure at that time and turning the leaves to satisfie my self with a superficiall view I soon observed somewhat that I thought extraordinary and further provoked my curiosity For besides a long dedication to the Queen of France made by a Cardinal I observed at the end the Approbatiōs of severall persons of one Bishop one Archbishop besides Sorbonists and Doctors of Divinity no lesse then four all these approbations distinct and severall and some of them very long and written with great accuratenesse both of style and matter I then resolved to read in good earnest But though I had both will and leasure enough yea and resolution too to read unto the end before I gave it over yet was my reading often interrupted with different thoughts and contests which made great impression in my mind I found the book to be a long contexture of severall strange raptures and enthusiasms that had hapned unto a melancholick or if you will a devout Maid In this I saw no great matter of wonder Neither could I observe much in the relation of the particulars but what as I conceived rationally probable so I might believe charitably true I could observe as I thought a perpetuall coherence of naturall causes in every particular which gave me good satisfaction But then that such a judgement should be made of such an accident wherein I apprehended so little ground of either doubt or wonder and this judgement not the judgement of a woman only the Author as is pretended of the whole relation but of men of such worth and eminency this in very deed troubled me very much I did often reason with my self against my self That it was as possible that what I thought reason and nature might be but my phansy and opinion as that what by such and so many was judged God and Religion should be nothing but Nature and Superstition that where the matter was disputable and liable to error it was safer to erre with authority then through singularity These things and the like I objected to my self but for all this the further I read the more I was unsatisfied and disturbed in mine own thoughts and could have no rest untill I did resolve as soon as any good opportunity should offer it self to make it my businesse so farre as I might by best inquisition throughly to satisfie my self This opportunitie after I had acquitted my self so farre as in me lay of some other things wherein the publick weal of Learning may
children in the morning he had had the same phansies or very like He expressed much sense of his former errours of his life and as much joy that God had been so gracious unto him not for himself only but for others also not doubting but many thousands those very words he used would be converted unto God by his ministery and revelations This he spake so zealously that he fell upon his knees in the middle of the room to give God thanks but rose again very soon of his own accord I commended his zeal and good intentions for others congratulated unto him the good use that he had made of what had happened unto him for the comfort of his own soul But when I endeavoured as gently as I could to make him understand that he was in some distemper of body which would require some help he had not patience to hear me wondred at my incredulity if I mistrusted the truth of his relations or the power of God and began by degrees to be so hot and earnest that I judged it altogether impertinent to reason with him any longer And because I knew the man was no contemplative man by his profession nor observed so zealous in point of religion above others in his life that this could probably happen unto him in which case though his melancholy would have been more incurable yet his life in lesse danger through pure contemplative melancholy I concluded with my self that it was an effect of some great bodily distemper which would in time shew it self To that purpose I spake with his wife by her self out of his sight I mean but in the presence of some others and earnestly advised her speedily to repair to some Physician for that her husband I thought though little sign of it yet would be very sick and that I feared he would before long be very outragious and would want good keeping both for his own and their safety that should be about him This is all the sight I had of the man since his distemper whilest he was yet to be seen Only the next day I met his wife in the street casually very sad and was again very earnest with her that she would do somewhat speedily and lose no time What she did or any others that had to do with him I cannot give an account It was reported that they had given him some strong water to comfort his heart and strengthen his brain but I have heard it denied On the third day being a Sunday or Lords day a woman was sent for which was reported to have good skill and to have done some cures upon some committed unto her in the like case She would speedily have let him bloud as I have heard for by this he was grown very outragious and violent and plyed him with other things which she judged proper to his case to allay his heat procure sleep c. But some of the good women of the Parish that were there met together of the inferior sort had according to their learning and wisdome concluded among themselves that the poor man was possest and consequently that if the woman did take upon her to drive out Devils she must be a witch that they must not lose a soul O wisdomes to save a body Certain it is that the woman was driven out of the house though she lay in the Parish that night by their insolent language and carriage and as certain that the poor man being in a high fever and having spent himself in such violent actions and speeches as are usual to men in that case having none about him but those that were imployed to hold him and to give him drink as often as he called for it died that very night But for ignorant people to be bold and confident and in their confidence to deceive themselves and others is no wonder at all a man had need but open his eyes to see such sights at every door That which I not without some indignation sometimes have wondered at is that even learned men yea men of great fame and credit in the world for their parts and performances in other kinds have in this particular of Ecstasies and Raptures been so apt in all ages to be gulled We had an example before in Tertullian in whom it might seem the more wonderfull because himself had observed it of some others lapsed into heresie by it before him and condemned them for it We might find divers instances with little seeking if need were but of all that I have read or known in that kind I shall pitch upon one above the rest and make some observations upon it which may be of some use That contemplative men wise and sober otherwise should become ecstatical themselves being subject to all infirmities incidental to flesh and bloud as well as others and by their authority though in that case not to be accounted the same men as before should deceive others of lesse learning and judgement is no strange thing but that any sober wise and learned whilst sober wise and learned should at any time be liable to the delusions of ignorant and silly people is not so easie to be believed by them that do not know that all sciences have their bounds and that it is very possible that a man should excel in some one or more faculties who yet may be very defective in some other knowledge not lesse necessary perchance though lesse regarded or known I shall be beholding to a Jesuit for the relation to whom we are beholding for many other relations wherein he hath approved his fidelity unto many But however there is no ground of suspicion in this relation why we should like it the worse because it comes from a Jesuite Josephus Acosta is the man a Spaniard by birth among whom I believe if not such examples yet raptures and ecstasies in general because naturally devout and contemplative to be frequent enough I shall set down his words at large partly because of the observation I intend upon them to give the Reader the better satisfaction and partly because I doubt that the book is not so ordinarily known among us There was saith Acosta in this very Kingdome of Peru where himself was once Praepositus Generalis a man of great esteem in those dayes a learned Divine and Professor or Doctor of Divinity The same also accounted religious and orthodox yea in a manner the Oracle for his time of this other world America This man being grown familiar with a certain muliercula or plain woman which as another Philumena or Maximilla that Montanus carried about boasted of her self that she was taught by an Angel certain great mysteries and would also fall or feign it at least into trances and raptures which carried her quite besides her self he was at last so bewitched and captivated by her that he did not stick to referre unto her concerning highest points of Divinity entertain her answers as Oracles blaze her
vexations may be an effect of melancholy as well as religion and had not that famous shall I say or infamous Porphyrius lighted upon a better friend to take him off in time he had never lived to plot and write so much against Christians and Christ himself as he did Zeno the Philosopher was wont to say Let me be mad rather then in pleasure not considering that even in pain there is pleasure if a man thereby please his own mind and think highly of himself wherein the height of humane contentment and ambition often lieth because he can endure much Certainly there would never have been so many Stoicks and Cynicks in the world who when they might have lived otherwise and some of them of their own accord parted with good means and temporal estates for it chose to beg and to be trampled upon by every idle Rascall that met them to make good their profession of unpassionatenesse had it not been so that pain and pleasure are things which oftentimes depend more on phansie then realitie and that pleasure may be found where others feel pain When I lived in Somerset-shire where first called to the discharge of holy Duties there was in a Gentlewomans house a woman of good estate and reputation much given to hospitality where I my self have been often kindly entertained a natural Fool but useful enough in a great house for some services who took a singular pleasure in being whipped even unto bloud and it was one or two lusty Maids for it must be done by Maids to give him content their task every morning when they could intend it He was not pleased nor would follow his businesse so well all the day after if it were not done But what do I talk of one fool whereas we find it recorded by good Historians that whole nations at once have been possest shall I say or infected with this phrensie Were I in a place where books are to be had I should be able perchance to give a better account of what I say to the Reader I am very confident I have read it in more then one with observations made upon it as an epidemical disease or distemper though by more I know adscribed to mere devotion But to supply that defect as well as I can I will here impart unto the Reader what find of it in my Father of B. M. his Adversaria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desiderium repente populos Europae invadit Memorabilis historia Circa An. Dom. 1260. cum pauci in Italia velut sydere afflati cepissent sese ex poenitentia flagellare miro casu ad reliquos Europae populos exemplum manavit eos quoque cupiditas flagellandi se incessit Vide Chron. Patav. mona p. 612. 1613. And who hath not heard of the Milesian Virgins a thing so generally attested by all Ancients that no man can reasonably make a question of the truth of it A humor took them to make themselves away no perswasions of friends or parents or any thing else that was most dear unto them nor any other means that could be thought of were effectual to perswade them to live There was scarce any house left in the Town that mourned not for some of these self-executioners Untill at last a simple device as it commonly falls out with them that labour of a limited melancholy to some one object of which we had examples before did that which no obligation either civil or natural could do before to make them fear that which of all fears otherwise is generally accounted and by some Philosophers absolutely determined to be most naturall unto all At what age of her life this Maid began to fall into Trances and Ecstasies I cannot find by the Storie which is not digested into yeares But from her first generall confession which she made but 9. yeares old p. 6.20 she began to talk much of Gods presence and phansie to her self that she saw God visibly every time she went to Church And being asked whether she suffered any distraction of senses she said no I wonder who doth in that case and was believed The first visible fit it seems began in the Church p. 33. with a trembling so that she let her Wax-candle which by the proper ceremonie of the day she held in her hand fall to the ground and could not take it up From that time her visions it seems began to be very frequent and I find it observed p. 31.33.45.50 that she could seldome speak or expresse her self when she had seen any thing so that she only reaped the benefit of those great secrets and mysteries which God is said to have revealed unto her But from 21. of her life p. 38.54 her ecstasies began to be very strong and would last three or four houres in a day so that she did verily think her self to be in heaven sometimes p. 39. when she was upon earth at her ordinarie as is noted employment Pag. 34. and 61.63.64.65 of the Storie Christ is said to have drawn her soul into his Pag. 45.46.47 to have taken possession of her and more particularly which the author of the relation professeth not to understand to have marked her with a mark and afterwards to have abided in her by presence and by operation to her last day Pag. 47. It is directly affirmed that she was for the most part deprived of her naturall wit and understanding Pag. 52. She was one day transported besides her self in a Garden and for the space of an hour which by the Relation is called a strong operation of God continued saying over and over God doth put his Power in me God doth put his Wisdome in me and his Knowledge Pag. 54. c. She often saw and in some degree suffered through fright c. the pains of Hell I know not at what time of her age but it might be the first direct ecstasie she had for ought I can gather by the relation She was according to her own relation p. 59. in a Cave called S. Denys his Cave because by tradition S. Denys with divers other Martyrs had inhabited it by the space of two yeares and therefore had in great reverence by the whole Convent In that Cave being alone and let the Reader judge whether that holy Cave alone with the opinion they had of it was not enough to put any melancholick maid devoutly given into an ecstasie she saw Heaven and Hell and the Soul of Christ in its purity Pag. 75. She is yet reported to have been exalted higher for that the Soul of Christ who was said before to have drawn her Soul into his did draw her into an operation of the Holy Trinitie in which operation she is said to have continued unto the end of her life How this to be understood must not be expected from me All my care is not to misrelate any thing or to make it worse by my translation then I find it Pag. 91. God puts upon her as our Storie
tells us the care of the affairs of France which she did accept and commend her self unto God at the same time Pag. 101. She foretold somewhat of her death that it should not be a naturall death nor by ordinary means But it fell out otherwise though the Storie doth endeavour to make it good but in vain For she died of a generall Consumption of the body the most naturall death that could happen to such a life which ended in a continuall Fever with a kind of Lethargie or caros very violent at the last and so made an end of her It seems she did not think to die when she did as our Storie tells us p. 115.117 which I suppose would tell us no more of that then it must needs She had some strange sights before her death As for example that there is a plenitude of God in all things even to the least Ant. which is very philosophicall but not very easie to be understood by ordinary people and more apt to be mistaken to some hereticall sense as somewhat was by the Manicheans not much different These not to speak of her spirituall temptations which were frequent and terrible and some obscure intimations of Miracles for which we will rather commend the ingenuity of the Relator considering what is ordinarily done by others upon such occasions then find fault these I say be the chief particulars which her Storie doth afford which as I propose to the learned Readers consideration so shall I not submitting to better judgements stick in the mean time to declare mine own Truely I do not see any cause to believe that in any of these many Visions or Ecstasies there was any thing at all supernaturall either divine or diabolicall more then is in every common disease wherein we acknowledge as the hand of God alwayes so the ministrie of the Devil if not alwayes very often as was before declared I conceive them all both Visions and Ecstasies to have been the effect of pure melancholie very agreeable to what hath happened unto other melancholick persons in other places Whether I should blame the ignorance or the superstition of them that had to do with her or both I know not but I think they were to blame and that she had ill luck to fall into such hands They do well to make her amends what they can after her death but I think it had been more charitable to have used some means for the cure of her melancholy by which with Gods blessing upon the means alwayes to be presupposed she might have been preserved in life As for her expressions of Christs drawing her soul into his and the like so agreeable in effect to those of the Platonists and Arab Philosophers the tearms only Christ for God changed I have no suspicion for all that that she was acquainted with them nor with any secrets of that mysticall Theologie that came from them but that naturally according to the condition of her temper she fell into those phansies which some enthusiastick Philosophers before not by vertue of their Philosophy but through distemper of their enthusiastick brains had lighted upon I have expressed my self the more freely in this businesse not that I take any pleasure or have any ambition at all to oppose the judgement of others which if I were ambitious to do I could have found matter enough to busie my self long before this but because I judged it a matter of great consequence not only for the preservation of some lives but of Truth more precious then many lives which hath in all Ages suffered by nothing more then by pretended Enthusiasms and of publick Peace which hath often been disturbed by such whether artifices or mere mistakes But I have not yet done with my Theologia mystica which being so proper to my subject I must not passe it over superficially The Reader that is not learned will have patience if I desire to gratify them that are Hersentius his authorities for this kind of Divinitie so much magnified by him are all either Heathen Philosophers greatest opposers of Christianitie Plotinus Proclus Porphyrius Iamblichus or very late and inconsiderable writers Johannes Rusbrocius Henricus Harphius Ludovicus Blosius or rather Thalerus and one Woman Sancta Teresia not one word out of any ancient Father in that Chapter Greek or Latine not so much as out of S. Augustine or Gregory the Great or S. Bernard who otherwise of true Christian Raptures proceeding from intent love and admiration grounded not upon Ignorance and self-conceitednesse but sound Knowledge and Pietie might have afforded matter for a bigger volume then that whole Discourse with all that hath been written either by Dionysius so called or any other of that Sect comes too But I will deal very ingenuously with the Reader There was one Maximus in the dayes of Heraclius Emperour of Constantinople of whom we are bound to speak with honour because he suffered for the true Faith Whether it were he whose Greek Scholias are extant upon this Dionysius is doubted by some but more probable that it is This Maximus besides other works of his some extant some not hath written a Mystagogia which I suppose to be altogether of the same argument as this Mystica Theologia of Dionysius It was published by David Hoeschelius a learned man to whom we ow many other good books but it hath not been my luck ever to see it But though not that yet I have seen and often read sometimes with admiration sometimes with indignation another work of his not much known I believe which he calleth his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 printed at Paris besides later editions very elegantly by Guiliel Morellius an Dom. 1560. fitted by remote allegoricall interpretations of Scripture for Christians but written by him in imitation of Porphyrius and other Heathens their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they call them from whom also he hath taken some things verbatim These indeed we shall find this mysticall Theologie in its height in divers places I can easily believe that so holy a man in his ordinary conversation and so profound a Philosopher as he shews himself by his writings might make good use of such meditations and elevations of thoughts and yet keep himself within sobrietie but that it is a dangerous book otherwise for ordinary capacities apt to turn all Religion and all Scripture in weaker brains into mere phansie and Teutonick Chimericall extravagancies I do upon grounds of reason as verily believe as I do the former charitably I know not whether it be for the better or for the worse but sure I am that his meaning is often mistaken by the Latine Interpreter whereof I shall give but one instance because of some further use that may be made of it Centur. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His meaning is according to the principles of this Divinitie by him more at large explained in some former Aphorisms that by this immediate intimate Union with God by
as all Divines of the Greek and Hebrew because of the Bible or Rule of Faith written in those two languages for the reading of which in its proper language there is the same reason as for the reading of other books in their own as to matter of content or benefit but much more reason in point of conscience if a man shall think himself bound as some may to make use of his own eyes that God hath given him the better to satisfie himself and others in matters of such trust and consequence then for want of willingnesse to take pains to depend altogether on the skill and fidelitie of others With this facultie of extemporary speaking I find somewhat in Synesius that hath great affinitie and deserveth no lesse admiration In his Dio that excellent piece once before commended but well deserving to be commended more then once he tells us at the later end of it of a way that he had to exercise his wit and invention often by him practised He would take a book some rhetoricall piece philosophicall discourse or the like read in it a pretty while then upon a suddain shut his eyes or turn them another way and yet still continue his reading that is at the same instant invent and utter somewhat that might be proper to the subject and so coherent to that which he had read that no bodie by the style or matter could judge otherwise but that he was still reading It is likely that he often practised it by himself before he adventured to do it before others but he saith he did it often before others and that his extemporary conceptions were often applauded and preferred by his Auditors who knew nothing of it before that which he had really read Nay more then that which indeed may very properly be referred to some kind of enthusiasme that what he so supplied by his extemporary wit did sometimes prove to be the very same that he found afterwards in the book I know no man is bound to believe him upon his own testimony concerning himself neither shall I easily charge any man of infidelity that professeth he doth not However I have that opinion of the man of his uprightnesse and sincerity besides his learning and that apprehension upon some grounds of the possibility of the thing that I shall not be affraid to professe my opinion to the contrary that I do believe him But here again not to upbraid any man for his good will but to warn the Reader that may be the better for it I must wish that Synesius were generally but in this his Dio especially better translated into Latine though I could almost wish that there had never been any translations made of any such Greek book then it is by Petavius the Jesuite At the very entrance of this discourse of Synesius of this his kind of reading he translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 probationes rationis expertes which is very absurd For by it Greek Authors understand such external proofs or evidences whether divine as Oracles or civile as Witnesses as admit of no Rhetorick or reasoning by Aristotle Quintilian and other masters of that Art called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which may be rendred as by Tully somewhere artis expertes well enough because easily understood as opposed to artificiall but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this sense rationis expertes which is commonly understood of brutes in opposition to those creatures which are rationall or ratione utentes as Cicero speaketh However I like better even here Quintilian's expression inartificiales not so elegant perchance but more clear So before in this very book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not cujus nulla ratio adferri queat but a Law set out without any ratiocination to induce men from the reasonablenesse or equity of it to obedience but by way of bare command and authoritie though never so just and reasonable otherwise by Seneca Plutarch and other Ancients observed to be the proper style of Laws and which doth best become them And therefore where few lines after that first passage Synesius faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it should not have been translated ut lex in orationem but in rationem mutetur But here again when Synesius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how absurdly is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated calamitas Besides what learned men have noted of the originall use of the word it is so obvious in the contrary sense I will appeal but to Isocrates a very plain Author in his Oration to Philip and the coherence in this place so contrary to that other as a man would admire how any man could so mistake And this I speak of the use and signification of the word which is obvious and known But there is somewhat more proper particular in the use of it in this place as it is applied unto books by Synesius which I shall not now insist upon Yet I would not be so unkind to Petavius as he hath been to some that deserved better respect at his hands His translation of Synesius for the most part is elegant and good enough I wish there were none worse But I would have no man to trust to it in obscure places seeing that in clear and plain he doth often mistake But I am out of my generall subject and scope to which I must return though I cannot call that a digression properly to which the prosecution of my first subject hath so naturally led me III. We are now to consider of the cause or causes first of the opinion these whether Orators or Sophists had of themselves as inspired then of the effects their Rhetorick did produce upon others In the first point I shall not be long because I shall therein but anticipate the consideration of the causes of Enthusiasme in generall for which we reserve a particular chapter at the end where this particular cause shall come in again among others though here so farre anticipated of purpose and care shall be taken that we shall repeat as little as may be to give the more light to the things here to be handled and delivered Briefly then A Heat a fervent Heat a Fire which powerfull Orators found in themselves not at the uttering though then greatest but upon another consideration but in conceiving and composing their speeches so generally observed and acknowledged that some have thought that no other art or thing was necessary to make a perfect Orator that Heat that fervent Heat that Fire hath been the ignis fatuus we say that hath infatuated many Speakers into that opinion of divine Inspiration Ardor and Impetus are the words used by Latine Authors to this purpose Nulla me ingenii sed magna vis animi inflammat ut me ipse non teneam saith Cicero of himself But this indeed he speaks not of all composition in generall but of such as is intended properly to move compassion However he hath the
further reason need to be given as at the beginning of this Chaper was observed then this That man is a creature naturally rational But it is very absurd in my judgement that is much against reason to believe that such a one as Nero living as he did and doing what he did after he had killed his own Mother in omnes libidines effusus saith Tacitus of him I forbear more particulars because his name is sufficiently known should relish any sober discourse as either of Justice Temperance or Clemency or the like for the matter it self who neverthelesse in the heat and height of all his Cruelties and Villanies sapientiae doctoribus tempus impartiebat post epulas as the same Tacitus doth record that is was wont after meals to spend some of his time to hear the exhortations of Philosophers Or that such a one as Dionysius the Tyrant as of him by Plutarch in the life of Timoleon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. is recorded should do the same Or in case it should be supposed of Nero and such as he that he had some politick end in it which neverthelesse of either of these two all circumstances well weighed I think more plausible then true yet that either the great ones of Rome rich Citizens who had the estates of Princes and their Ladies in the corruptest time of that Commonweal should be so studious to get to themselves some domestick Philosopher one or more that had fluent tongues and hear their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Discourses so willingly which were almost nothing else but of vertue and the commendations of a sober life or that the meanest of Rome poor Shop-keepers and Tradesmen that lived by their dayly labour should leave their Shops and their work by which they hardly subsisted and flock together by multitudes to a Sophists or Philosophers auditory to hear the praises of Hector or of Hercules or the commendation of some particular vertue or of some brute beast perchance or of Rhetorick it self or of Philosophy or the like if there were not somewhat else that did draw them besides the matter it self I think it were much against reason to believe it Which neverthelesse by the attestation of truest histories and other ancient Authors of those times we know to be so certainly true as no rationall man that hath been acquainted with them can make any question of it Seneca the Philosopher he alone would afford us store of passages to that purpose but I shall content my self with one because we shall meet with divers from other Authors as we go on which may give further light and satisfaction if need be Quid ergo saith he in one of his epistles having before insisted upon this that much benefit in point of life might accrue unto men by their daily conversation in the Schools of Philosophers non novimus quosdam c. But what Do not we know some that for many years together have been very diligent Auditors without any the least tincture or as it were so much as alteration of colour Yes I know there be not diligent only but even assiduous and indefatigable whom we may call rather domesticks for their assiduity then Auditors But then you must know that all come not for one end Some come that they may hear not learn as men are drawn unto publick Theatres to please their eares whether with good language or sweet voices and melody or to see playes And of this rank be the greater number to whom a Philosophers school is as it were a place of entertainment for their pastime and leasure houres It is no part of their thoughts or aime to grow better there or to learn some good rule or precept of life to which they may conforme themselves for the time to come but only barely this to meet with somewhat that may please their eares Yea and some come with table-Table-books too not so much for the matters sake as for the words that they may repeat them unto others with as little profit as themselves did hear them So far Seneca then proceeds to another kind who are marvellously affected at least as Seneca would have it with the very matter and excellency of the things spoken and delivered and for the present are even ravished and become quite new creatures as it were in their purposes and intentions but are no sooner out of the School then they are out of their fit still come home the same men as they went For which he doth give some reasons both how they come to be so affected and how so soon changed But these be not the men that we have here to do with Plinius secundus where he sets out a friend of his for many excellent parts In summa saith he non facile quis quemquam ex istis qui sapientiae studium prae se ferunt c. that is In conclusion even amongst those that openly professe wisdome that is chastity piety justice magnanimity c. as himself afterwards expresses himself by their habits take whom you will you will hardly match him It is true that he doth not frequent publick schools and cloisters porticus and there with long discourses disputationibus and so is the word often used by Latine Authors of best note entertain himself and others that have nothing else to do or are disposed to be idle No c. These two passages give light the one to the other and I make choice of these Authors who both were grave sober men of great authority and vertuous in their conversation that by their testimony may the better appear what use ordinary men made of their hearing in those dayes when hearing was in such high request amongst all sorts of people and not only what use which may sometimes prove contrary to the proposed end but what end they proposed unto themselves which was merely the pleasure of their eares Ancient books are full of such complaints observations I shall therefore be the more sparing Two things I have to shew what pleasure the eare first and then the eyes find in words and language Both I know contrary enough to the common profession it may be and belief of most men who not used to search into the nature of things are carried in most things more by appearance and conceit then by any reality of judgement Who is it that thinks so meanly of himself but if he pleased with a sober moral discourse be it more or lesse rhetorical will not rather adscribe it to his reason and judgement but especially goodnesse then to his senses But our businesse is not to enquire what most men think but what most true and real and we shall go on the more boldly because besides manifest reason we shall not want good authority for what we are to say Two things then there be which I am now principally to consider of Musick and Picture the one to say somewhat of them more generally before we
not be so mistaken Here is no question made of Enthusiastick Divination either divine or diabolical but whether any such as may be thought to proceed from natural causes Again by Enthusiastick Divination we do not here understand a pretended imaginary though not hypocritical divination which hath nothing of truth or reality in it except by some chance among many false sometimes saving the boldnesse of the parties who are deluded That such confidence and delusion is incidental to some kind of distempers of the brains is certainly known and we shall meet with some examples where we shall have occasion to treat of such distempers We intend such Enthusiastical Divination as by several Events and by due observation of all Circumstances hath been observed to be true It is a very obscure point that we are upon and therefore the Reader must not wonder if I lead him about before I come to any determination If we had to do with them that are Scholars only we should be shorter First then we shall observe a concurrence of Natural Causes This is granted by all Physicians and Naturallists Melancholici maniaci ecstatici phrenetici epileptici hystericae mulieres All these be diseases naturally incidental to all both men and women the last only proper to women as naturally incidental all so curable by natural means and remedies No body doubts of that To all these natural diseases and distempers enthusiastick divinatory fits are incidental I do not say that it doth happen very often that is not materiall whether often or seldome but when it doth happen as the disease is cured by natural means so the Enthusiasms go away I will not say by the same means but at the same time That is certain by frequent experience and by the acknowledgement of best Physicians Sennertus Peucerus and divers others whom I could name Those men and women which when they were sick of those diseases did foretel divers things which came to passe accordingly and some of them which I think more wonderfull as more remote from natural causes had spoken some Latin some Greek some Hebrew or any other language whereof before they had no use nor skill when once cured of these Diseases they return to their former simplicity and ignorance this is granted by all Whereupon some as Levinus Lemnius particularly do peremptorily conclude that no other cause of such accidents is to be sought but natural Quos ego pronuncio saith he non à malo infestoque Genio divexari nec Daemonis instinctu impulsuve sed vi morbi humorumque ferocia c. And he doth endeavour to give some reason from the nature of the Soul c. how such a thing might happen naturally But his reasons are no wayes satisfactory And that these extraordinary operations do rather proceed from the Devil to me is a great argument besides other reasons because the very self-same things are known to happen to divers that are immediately possest without any bodily distemper other then the very possession which must needs affect the body more or lesse Besides what hath been observed out of ancient Fathers as S. Jerome and others Lucian hath a relation to that purpose in his Philopseudes or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which although as all other things of that nature as is before observed he seem to reject as a Fable yet by many probable circumstances might be commended if not concluded an History though not with all those circumstances perchance wherewith the better to serve his purpose he doth endeavour to make it as ridiculous and improbable as he can But to passe by divers relations of later times upon the credit some of them at least of very creditable Authors and witnesses I shall content my self with the testimony of one a man of exquisite learning and a curious sister of the truth in doubtfull points and a man of that integrity that having got great credit in the world for his skill among other things in Judicial Astrology being convicted in his Conscience as himself relateth that it was but men Couzenage and Imposture he made no scruple to make open recantation and wrote against it very learnedly Georgius Raguseius is the man whose words in his second book De Divinatione Epist 11. De Oraculis are Nâ—â— ego Venetiis pauperem quandam mulierem c. that is I have known at Venice a certain poor woman which we possest sometimes she would be stupid and sottish sometimes she did speak with divers tongues and discourse of things belonging to the Mathematicks and Philosophy yea and to Divinity I do not write here what I have heard from others but my self have disputed with her more than once Thus he However though we do not adscribe such wonderfulâ— effects to nature yet it is somewhat that best Physicians acknowledge such a preparation and disposition of the body through distemper of humors which giveth great advantage to the Devil to work upon which distemper being cured by physical drugs and potions the Devil is driven away and hath no more power over the same bodies Neither do I think Divination in some kind at least as by and by shall be shewed so supernatural an operation as the speaking of Languages without any teaching and use of Sciences is If a man examine all those wayes of enthusiastick Divination that have been heretofore in use which were not a few in number and in many circumstances very different he may observe in some of the chiefest a manifest concurrence of some natural causes preparing or disposing the bodies for such impressions and operations if no more I would insist in some particulars but that I would not be too long upon this point as of least consideration to our main scope and argument The Reader if a Scholar and acquainted with books may satisfie himself if he please reading but Iamblichus De mysteriis Aegypt where he describes in one of those chapters very particularly the manner of three Oracles the Colophonian Delphick and Branchidicum Iamblichus himself I know is much against it that any natural thing should be conceived as a partial or concurrent cause but the understanding Reader may make his own observations upon divers particulars neverthelesse However our disquisition is not of Oracles in particular wherein I should easily grant other causes then natural but of enthusiastick Divination of what kind soever in general whether any such c. Well so much we have got by this first observation that natural causes may contribute very much towards it if not wholly sufficient to produce this effect Secondly because the question is not so properly whether any manifest or very probable natural cause can be shewed but whether it be against all reason whether manifest or probable to believe that some kind of enthusiastick Divination may proceed from causes that are natural though it be beyond the reach of man to find them as in many other things whereof no question is this I say
testimonie in these things I have given some reason before And if his arguments be not better in case he have any to prove it possible which is more then I know we should make no great reckoning of them As for Bodinus he was a man famous enough for other learning too but especially well versed in such arguments and speculations as appeareth by his book of Daemonologia The elogium of the man and his writings is in Thuanus at large He plainly maintains it in that choice piece of his his Theatrum Naturae a book full of naturall Curiosities whether as solid as curious I cannot tell But he speaks not of it as of a thing feasible by nature but by power either divine or diabolicall And what is that to us Yes even unto us as I conceive that otherwise desire not to meddle with any thing that is supernaturall For as to divine as I should hold it a mad thing from the power of God which even heathens though not Galen who quarrels with Moses for making it so have acknowledged infinite to argue to the power of nature which God the author from the first creation hath bounded within certain limits so on the other side if it were granted that ordinary Witches and Magicians can at pleasure by power given them from the Devil separate their souls from their bodies for certain houres or dayes and then resume their bodies again and be as before which by the said Bodinus is disputed and maintained truely I should think it might without impietie or improbabilitie be inferred from thence that this kind of separation is a thing possible in and by nature also But I will not engage my self here upon that argument of Witches of which I once purposed to treat more at large and by it self it is yet possible that I may before I die if God please Somewhat Bodinus hath from some presidents in nature that we might not too much wonder at that which he doth averre and maintain though not by naturall causes so often to come to pass Nec debet illud mirum videri si quis meminerit ex electro c. I did expect he would have told somewhat of divers creatures which some for a longer some for a shorter time as Flyes in the winter lie quite senselesse and seem to be dead and yet afterwards are known to revive and to be as active and busie as ever they were Such arguments I remember and instances we had many when young Sophisters in the University upon occasion of severall disputes But this example taken from the separation of Gold and Silver informing the true Electrum or of the separation of Oyl Water after mixture by such such means seemeth to me so remote that I do not see how a rational man can inferre any thing out of it pertinent to this purpose Again had Bodinus gone that way to work to prove or make it probable at least that the rationall soul or spirit of man is really distinct and separable from the vegetative sensitive though contrary to the common opinion of best philosophers yet so he might have laid a plausible foundation to his opinion of separation in ecstasies But that he doth not but plainly maintaineth the contrary I shall not absolutely determine any thing but I shall give some reason why I do not which will be a kind of determination of the businesse S. Paul speaking of his own divine raptures professeth not to know whether they happened unto him in the body or out of the body He is earnest in that profession and repeats it twice I am not of their opinion though it be the opinion of no lesse a man then Hugo Grotius among others that make S. Paul's meaning to be that he did not know whether he were carried in body to heaven or heavenly things represented unto his mind I should account that but for the respect I bear to some that embrace it somewhat a course interpretation Now if S. Paul according to that interpretation of his words which is more commonly received though he knew the power of God very well and that what had hapned unto him whatever it was was not from any naturall cause but altogether supernaturall would not or could not neverthelesse absolutely determine whether that in his divine rapture there were any reall separation of his soul from his body I must think it somewhat bold for any man to maintain that such a separation either by diabolicall power or by causes that are naturall is possible much lesse as Bodinus ordinary Besides in that case of Witches which is the main argument except we can tell of Witches and Sorcerers that are in trances for some weeks moneths or years together what need May not the Devil as easily yea and farre more easily to our apprehension in point of possibilitie represent such things unto their phansie and make them believe which many do without any Devil upon such impressions occasioned by some distemper of the brain or otherwise as in former examples that they saw or did such and such things really in such and such places But they are carried to farre places and give a true account of what they have seen it may be a hundred or a thousand miles off This I believe to be true enough that many Witches Sorcerers in divers places in the world by severall kinds of Witchcraft do it But if a Sorcerer or a Witch shew in a glass what is now done upon the Exchange at Antwerp or at the Louvre in Paris which certainly some have done or somewhat equivalent to that must we therefore conclude that he that hath seen it hath been at either But lastly though the Soul in man be it that seeth properly not the Eyes yet as the Soul is fitted by God to informe a Body it cannot see without Eyes When once as to nature it hath lost its relation to the body it then becomes though the very same substance still a new creature as it were to all manner of operations It seeth it speaketh or to speak more properly communicateth but not either with Eyes or Tongue but as Spirits or Angels do of the particular manner whereof both ancient Philosophers and Schoole-men have disputed and treated at large If therefore the soul separated from the body can return into it again and remember what it hath seen it would also remember as well that it was not with bodily eyes that it saw or knew but in such a manner as is proper and natural if we may so speak to a spirit which is contrarie to the account that is given by Witches and other of like trade If any man should say though separated for a season it might carry with it some species that it had received in the body through the ministery of the Eyes and so of other senses though that be absurd because all such species are imprinted in the brain disposed by the presence of the soul to
been mistaken by many for supernatural I. I will not take advantage of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or any other equivalent unto them because often by Greek Authors used figuratively where no real Enthusiasme or supernaturall agitation so farre at least as can be collected from the words is intended Aristotle in his Rhetoricks hath the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this argument in one Chapter twice Dionysius Longinus a very great master of Rhetorick of whom Christians are bound to think the better for his candid and ingenuous judgement of Moses his expressions about the Creation of the World so contrary and therefore the more considerable to Galen his impertinent exceptions this Longinus in that small book of his as now extant inscribed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath many words to that purpose As when he saith speaking of that kind of language which when I was a Boy in the University was called strong lines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many men saith he whilst they strain their wits to find somewhat that is very extraordinary and may relish of some rapture or Enthusiasme they plainly rave or play the fools and not ravish The same Longinus again speaking of the power of Rhetorick in rhetoricall expressions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And again p. 61. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And again pag. 69. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And of Plato p. 113. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It appears by those qualifications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he intended it only after a sort as things may be compared not really Indeed Longinus though a heathen by profession yet was not very superstitious as may appear by this that he durst challenge Homer upon whom especially all heathenish Theology was grounded though but a Poet of Atheisme and grosse absurdity for making his Gods to fight with men and not only to fight but receive wounds also But Aristides on the other side an excellent Orator it cannot be denied and rational enough in other things but as very a bigot as ever was of a heathen who phansied Gods in every dream and tells us of so many wonderfull cures by nocturnal sights and revelations who gave credit to the very Gypsies in telling of fortunes he not only of himself particularly in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaks very positively and peremptorily as inspired by God in his Orations of which more afterwards but of Rhetorick in general in his 1a contra Platonem as positively and confidently maintaineth not only that it is the gift of God which might very well be allowed as all other good and usefull things are but also if right and excellent that it comes by immediate inspiration as Oracles and Prophesies without Study or Learning or so much as Nature Though indeed afterwards in the same long Oration because he would not be wanting to his profession in any kind he takes in both Nature and Art or Learning too and would have them to belong to Rhetorick though not to all Orators as he maintaineth of immediate inspiration Such another as Aristides for matter of superstition but more dangerous for craft and subtilty and a great Magician too if all be true which even by ancient Christians is recorded of him was Apollonius that wandring Philosopher opposed by ancient Heathens who adscribed Deity unto him to Christ who being asked by the Governor of Rome under Nero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what was his profession gave him this bold answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Inspiration by inspiration understanding chiefly as in all likelyhood his perswasive and bewitching rhetorick whereof he gave such proof in all places and how men should pray and sacrifice unto the Gods or by what prayers and sacrifices the Gods are best served and pleased But Apollonius was an extraordinary man that cannot be denied and it is not impossible but that he might be inspired indeed but by what power may appear by all his deeds and endeavours of which Eusebius in his Treatise against Hierocles that had written of him of purpose to preferre him before Christ hath taken a brief survey shewing great moderation which is not ordinary in his Censures Not to meddle then with such extraordinary men and examples That it was a common opinion among the Scholars of his time that Rhetorick and good lines came more by Enthusiasme then otherwise may appear by Quintilian who having elsewhere described the phantastick or rather phrenetick gesture and behaviour of divers when they were to compose in his tenth book and twelfth chapter he hath these words Vt possimus autem scribere etiam plura celerius non exercitatio modo praestabit in qua sine dubio multum est sed etiam ratio si non resupini spectantesque lectum cogitationem murmure agitantes exspectaverimus quid obveniat sed quid res poscat quid personam deceat quod sit tempus qui judicis animus intuiti humano quodam modo accesserimus This I think is the reading of most editions which I will not warrant to be perfect though more perfect I believe and correct then that of Aldus his edition which in this place certainly goes furthest from the true A little labour perchance might help the businesse My opinion is that one and but one word is wanting which by reason of the affinity with the former might very well excidere or be passed over as is very frequent in all Manuscripts But since he may be understood without it I will spare my further labour But it is well worthy our observation that Seneca the Philosopher so learned a man doth seem to have been of that opinion too Ne potest grande aliquid supra caeteros loqui nisi mota mens Cum vulgaria solita contempsit instinctuque sacro surrexit excelsior tunc demum aliquid cociuit grandius ore mortali Non potest sublime quicquam in arduo positum contingere quamdiu apud se est Desciscat oportet à solito efferatur mordeat fraenos rectorem rapiat suum eoque ferat quo per se timuisset escendere Here is perfect Enthusiasme with allusion to the Sibylls and such others as were generally conceived to be possest Yet whether Seneca himself did believe so much as his words seem to import is a question it being his manner to be very high and tumid in his expressions which neverthelesse a sober reader will not allwayes take to the utmost of what they will bear But to his reasons and arguments I believe Aristotle here quoted by Seneca that all transcendent wits are subject to some mixture neither do I believe that ever any great work that was a fruit of the brain and that begot admiration was atchieved but was also the fruit of some natural enthusiasme if all elevation of the mind above ordinary thoughts and conceptions to which among other helps a generous contempt of
inclinable to believe that such Cures were done by Evil Spirits the further to engage men in that Idolatrous kind of Worship And not only in the veneration of Heathenish Gods in generall but in the veneration of those Temples also where they were worshipped and of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sacred as supposed obdormitions of men and women in Temples by the means whereof what horrid pranks were sometimes brought to passe we have a notable instance in Josephus and of the execution just and due upon the actors and contrivers of it As for other Dreams upon other occasions whereof the books and relations of Ancients are so full imputed by them to Revelations I see not any thing in most of them but may very well be adscribed unto mere Conceit and Superstition It is the more to be wondered at I confesse that not ordinary men only as divers Poets and some Orators and Philosophers should tell us of such but that even learned Physicians should adscribe so much unto such phansies Hippocrates in his Epistles if genuinus Hippocrates which I can scarce believe hath a large relation of the God Aesculapius how he appeared unto him about Democritus his businesse Galen often how that he had a Dream to write such and such a book to go or to forbear such a journey If men give their minds unto such things there is no question but they shall phansie sometimes nay often much more then there is just ground for sometimes it may be somewhat may happen extraordinarily but men I think were better want it by farre if it come by Superstition and not by immediate Providence as out of doubt unto some sometimes that are not superstitious The ancient Heathens had their sortes Homericae and even Christians anciently some their Observations not much unlike unto them Observations I say upon the first words that should offer themselves unto them at the first opening of some part of the Bible but of the Psalms especially What S. Augustine his judgement is of such what is the determination of some Councills hath been observed by them that have written of that subject we shall but touch upon it here It is a common storie that Franciscus Junius that translated the Old Testament with Tremellius out of the Hebrew and lived to be a great Writer in these later times was not a Christian heartily untill the first words of S. John's Gospell were offered unto him by a strange providence as he apprehended I have read somewhat of Ignatius Loyola too the founder of the Jesuites not much unlike Suspicius Severus in the life of Martinus that holy Bishop hath some observations upon the Psalms that were read in course when he was consecrated He makes a particular providence of it as I remember A thousand such relations a man shall meet with in all kind of books if he think them worth his observation But as in Dreams so in this I make great difference between those things that offer themselves without any seeking and those which upon destinated seeking and curiosity In the first kind there is no question but God if he please may use that way sometimes as well as any other to reveal some things extraordinarily But for the other as it is a mere tempting of God and little differing as is disputed at large by learned Peucerus in his books De Divinatione from direct Witchcraft so if any thing happen in that way that is extraordinary and may resent of some kind of revelation or prediction I should much suspect the author and be more affraid of the end as rather tending to draw a man to further mischief by degrees then out of any good will or for any present advantage to be reaped thereby I know one very well I mean it in a vulgar not philosophicall sense which would be too much presumption who from his child-hood having alwayes been though staied and sober enough in his ordinary conversation somewhat boisterous and violent in his play and ordinary recreation for which he had suffered many times and sometimes had been in danger of his life and yet could not leave it in his elder yeares at a certain time when he was playing with a child of his which he loved very well it was his luck to run his forehead against a plain pillar but with such vehemencie that he was almost felled with the blow and was stupid for a while As the place began to swell the skin being broken in divers places but without bleeding and to grow blue whilst his forehead was a binding somewhat having been applied unto it as soon as it could be made readie he was carried by a strange instinct up many staires to his Studie making them that were about him much against their wills to follow him and not without some wonder In his Studie a long room at the farthest end out of a case of shelves that contained above 5 or 600 small books he took down one himself not knowing to what end which happened to be Lactantius and at the very first opening cast his eyes upon these words which he did not remember ever to have read in him before nor any like in any other Author Summa ergo prudentia est pedetentim incedere He read no further and it made so much impression in him when he remembred what he had partly escaped and partly suffered that he could think of little else all the day and he did think especially when he had heard what had happened unto a very good friend of his that he had fared the better afterwards for that warning and perchance escaped somewhat that might have been his death not long after I make no question but many such things do happen unto many both good and bad but either not observed and better not observed then turned into superstition or soon forgotten Wherein there may be some danger of Unthankfulnesse I confesse as well as Superstition in the excesse that is when either we think too much of such things before they happen of themselves or too well of our selves when they have happened CHAP. V. Of Poeticall Enthusiasme The Contents Poeticall and Rhetoricall Enthusiasme how near in nature though the faculties themselves Oratorie and Poetrie seldome concurring in one man The perfection both of Poets and Orators to proceed from one cause Enthusiasme The division of Poets according to Jul. Caes Scaliger Poets by nature and by inspiration Plato his Dialogue concerning that subject Not only Poets but their actors also c. according to Plato's doctrine divinely inspired Plato not to be excused in that Dialogue though more sound in some others Much lesse Scaliger a Christian for his expressions in this subject if not opinions as some have apprehended him Homer the occasion of Plato's Dialogue how much admired by the Ancients by Aristotle particularly His language his matter and why not so much admired and so ravishing in our dayes as he hath been formerly Some use
autem ponitur ab omnibus Alterum acuit meri exhalatio c. They do him great wrong certainly that make this to be his opinion No man pretending to Christianity can entertain such sottishnesse However so censorious a man witness his bitter invectives against Erasmus for lesse matters should have written more warily That some became Poets by immediate inspiration without any thought or seeking others upon immediate request and prayer without any further endeavours what more can be said of the truest and most holy Prophets But if all this were intended by him as most probable in reference to those Philosophers their opinion Yet he should have used some of their termes rather whereof Plato afforded him so much choice then that Scripture word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though not proper to the Scripture perchance yet seldome used by any profane Author As for Homer the chiefest subject of those extravagancies there is no commendation can be given unto man as to point of nature but I should be more ready to adde to it then to detract Neither do I wonder if Heathens that had so many Gods when they found themselves so transported above their ordinary temper by his verses when either judiciously read or skilfully acted did really perswade themselves that he must be somewhat above a man that was the author of such ravishing language I have alwaies thought of Aristotle in point of humane wisdome and sound reason rather as of a Miracle then a man yet when I consider how much he was beholding to Homer and how much he doth in all his writings adscribe to the wit and wisdome of that one Poet I must needs think very highly of him that was so much admired by such a one as Aristotle And though I do easily grant that his language of the two is the more ravishing as may easily appear by such translations as have been made of him in any language wherein so little of that charming power is to be found that the reading of them is rather a task of patience then an object of any admiration yet allowing him to be a Poet that is one whose chief end and probably his best subsistence was to please and a very ancient Poet that is one that was to fit himself and his expressions for such as then lived when such a religion such opinions such fashions were in use these things taken into consideration which I doubt many that read him little think of his matter in my judgement for the most part doth deserve no lesse admiration Of the mysteries of bare language that it may ravish and what it is that makes it so hath sufficiently been discoursed in the former chapter And if Rhetorical how much more in all sense and reason Poetical And if good language may ravish how much more excellent matter delivered in ravishing language But as every eare is not fitted for all ravishing language when barely read especially not acted so neither is every capacity for excellent matter Though in this particular of Homer's case it is not so much want of wit and capacity that maketh so few in these dayes to admire his wisdome as ignorance of former times Who would not at a Market or Fair if suddainly such a sight should offer it self look upon either man or woman though very beautifull otherwise if dressed in old apparell such as was worn but two or three ages agoe rather as a Monster or a ghost then such creatures as they would have appeared when such apparel was in use An old Hat will alter a mans countenance and many both men and women whose onely ambition and employment in this world is so to dresse themselves that they may be thought fair or proper would think themselves undone so ridiculous would they appear if they were seen in those fashions which but ten or twenty yeares ago were their chiefest both pride and beauty No wonder therefore if so ancient a Poet as Homer appear ridiculous unto many who are better skilled in the fashions of the times then they are read in ancient books which by long use of reading would make the fashions of those times to which they are strangers not only known but comely and so lead them to somewhat else more observable then the fashions of the times However this use to a learned and hearty Christian not inconsiderable any man may make of Homer and his antiquity that by reading of him many passages of the Old Testament relating to certain fashions and customes of those ancient times may the better be understood and the antiquity of those books among many other arguments by the antiquity of such whether expressions which we may call the fashions of language or manners both publick and private the better asserted Somewhat hath been done I know by some learned men to that purpose by collation of some passages but not the tenth part of what may be done I dare say not by any at least that I have yet seen But now I am gone from my Text. So much for the first kind of inspired Poets whom Scaliger doth call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though he name Hesiod too from Hesiods own testimony of himself quo in numero c. yet he passeth no judgement on him Homer is his only instance and Homer the occasion and only subject almost of that Dialogue in Plato of this argument I thought it therefore necessary that somewhat should be said of him but that he should be thought inspired truly and really or otherwise supernaturally agitated then as of Orators was determined notwithstanding all that hath been or might yet be said of his so much admired excellency I see no necessity at all The second kind according to the same Scaliger are those quos acuit meri exhalatio educens animae instrumenta spiritus ipsos à partibus corporis materialibus that is whom the vapours of wine freeing the spirits of the body from all material entanglements and bodily function̄s to serve the soul do quicken and stirre up No wonder indeed if such be styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by those by whom Bacchus was worshipped for a God But where Bacchus is not a God but a fruit of the Vine of the earth and no more how can they think it reasonable to adscribe divinity unto Poets for those effects which not real inspiration only as they seem to say but even the vapours of wine as themselves acknowledge can produce But let us consider of it soberly and philosophically It may be we may find in this though lesse danger of Blasphemy yet as little reality of truth as we have found in the former Can the vapours of Wine make Poets Truly I think not I see no ground at all for it in nature I have read what Aristotle doth write of Wine where he compares the several effects of it with the effects of Melancholy I think he hath said as much of it as can be said by any man with any probability
ground for a Quaere much lesse for a Conclusion But since that I find that some Christians men of good learning and great fame have not only largely disputed but in conclusion affirmed it I think I should not give my Reader that satisfaction that he might expect from me if before I come to them and their Arguments I should not tell him who before them whether heathen or others that are come to my knowledge or present remembrance have concurred with them in their opinion and the rather because it is not unlikely that themselves might be the bolder to publish what they maintained because they found they were not the first that had been of that opinion Ancient Heathens whether Philosophers or others that did believe such a separation possible seem to ground especially upon a storie that passed among them for very current and true of one Hermotimus Clazomenius whose soul they say was wont to wander into farre places the body mean while being as still and senselesse as if it had been a dead body The matter it seemeth when ever it happened was very publick and therefore passed to posterity with lesse controll There is nothing in Plinies relation of it for the matter of fact but is possible enough and might well be conceived to have proceeded from some natural cause Physicians are agreed upon it and they ground it upon certain experience that a man in ecstasi melancholica or a woman in hysterica passione may be gone three dayes and come to themselves again Therefore they strictly forbid in such cases to burie ante biduum exactum quod quosdam ferè triduo elapso revixisse observatum sit as Sennertus of women particularly Tertullian De anima cap. 51. hath a storie of a Woman that stirred her armes when she was carried to be buried It seemeth by him that he was present when it happened but it was looked upon as a thing merely supernaturall and miraculous and so the woman was buried nevertheless which perchance if then taken up and well tended might have recovered to perfect life without a miracle Now that a man or woman after such a fit in course of nature should tell strange things which he hath seen yea and foretell though this be rare some things to come is not so much to be wondred at that it should be thought incredible I find the relation concerning this Hermotimus in Apollonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. more full but there indeed much improved as such things use to be by time and altogether incredible There dayes as probably in the first relation are made yeares two or three dayes perchance many yeares beyond all sense and reason For though I will not dispute it here whether it may not fall out in nature that a man may sleep some moneths which is written of a whole Countrey in the North as naturall unto the people of that countrey and is not contradicted by some eminent Physicians or yeares for which I know much may be said as well as for living divers yeares without any food which of the two in point of reason might seem more impossible and yet is certainly known to have happened even of late yeares unto many Yet for a Bodie to lie so long destitute of a Soul and of all naturall functions and not to be dead is not conceivable in nature As for those particulars of his predictions in the said Apollonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all these things proceeding from natural causes which have operations long before upon some creatures from the diligent observation of which operations skilfull Naturalists also sometimes foresee and foretell them of which we have spoken in the former Chapter I would not stick much at that as is intimated before But as my purpose is only for the truth so I must remove one objection that may be made from the Author I have named His very title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 promises only Fables Yet it is certain that he hath inserted divers things which are asserted by best Historians as Meursius himself in his Preface to the reader out of Phlegon doth observe But besides that bare alteration of dayes into yeares was enough and more then enough to turn a Truth into a Fable Tertullian De an c. 44. hath some conjectures about this Hermotimus but not any either in themselves very probable or to us here at all considerable Plutarch in his Treatise of the Slacknesse of Gods judgments hath a relation too of one Thespesius who fell down from a high place drunk perchance for he was a lewd Companion without any externall wound or bleeding upon which he grew immediately senselesse and after a while was supposed dead but came to himself again after the third day and then told strange things that he had seen some things also of which Plutarch speaketh very sparingly he foretold and then was his Soul also supposed to have wandered out of the Body all that while I think it very probable though I have nothing but Plutarch's authoritie for it that such a thing laying aside the main controversie of reall separation till we come to some determination about it might happen First such a fall as he describeth might probably be the occasion as we had before in the ecstaticall Boy whom his master had so grievously beaten about the head of such an Ecstasie Secondly three dayes the very proportion of time which Physicians have pitched upon during which they teach that an ecstasie may last And though Plutarch say after three dayes it is like enough they would speak so though some houres amounting perchance to half a day and better to make three dayes were wanting But then lastly the substance of his Visions and places of his wandrings do just agree with the relations of other ecstaticall persons that have been at severall times and places It may be comprehended in few words Heaven Hell and Purgatorie The phrases indeed and expressions proper to Heathens as must needs be but the substance of the matter the very same for all the world as we find in others that were of another faith and profession And yet it must be supposed that this storie having passed through severall hands before it came to Plutarch had suffered some alterations according to different humours of men and perchance memories before and what end soever any other might propose unto himself in it apparent enough it is that Plutarch as may be seen in the end where he speaks of Nero's soul did aim at some use for the credit and benefit of his own Countrey So much for Heathens I have not met with any professing Christianity either ancient that I remember at least or late that have maintained this separation possible upon grounds of reason or de facto reall and credible but Joh. Bodinus and Cardanus Of Cardanus I can say little more then what I find in Bodinus of him because I have not his books Why I do not value much his