those times at least that the bare word Aegyptius as Baronius Anno Ch. 327. Par. 17. doth well observe is sometime taken for Magus And besides why should Celsus regard what was said or affirmed by a Musician in this particular being altogether out of his element and profession that Magick could not hurt them that were Philosophers that is as the word is often taken moral vertuous men but only those that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undisciplined men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corrupt in their lives and conversations Out of Origen himself who there doth very peremptorily deliver it as a thing approved by good experience that none that served God according to the prescript of Christ and lived according to his Gospel and diligently applied themselves night and day to those prayers that were prescribed by which I understand the Morning and Evening Service of the Church could receive any harm by Magick or by Devils All this if taken precisely and limited to this present world and life except it be restrained to some particular times and occasions is I think spoken with more confidence than truth YET I will not deny but that probably pious upright men whom the consciousness of their piety and probity hath not as it often doth happen made them secure and presumptuous or proud and arrogant and despisers of others are not so subject to this kind of trouble as wicked lend people Neither will I be afraid to say though ridiculous I know to the wits and wise of these times that it may be true enough which by some Witches hath been acknowledged to Remigius that they had not the same power to execute their malicious designs upon those even little children who daily and duly said their prayers as they had upon others But withal I would have that remembred and thought upon which out of Pliny where we treat of Prodigies was observed before of a natural kind of faith and the efficacy of it which may in part satisfie why some sometimes though not so religious otherwise may be less obnoxious to the attempts of Devils and Witches than some others though more innocent and deserving for want of this kind of faith which in some things may supply the want of a more perfect or Christian faith are NOW for them that are scandalized that the Devil with Gods permission should have such power over men as well the good as the bad first of all let them remember that even St. Paul that chosen vessel so great and gracious with God was not exempted from the common condition of other Godly men and what Gods answer was when St. Paul addressed himself to him for relief and release and leaving to God the secrets of his will and his providence let us consider what is or may be manifest of it unto all men to prove that there is a providence which doth take care of the world and all men in general first in restraining the power of the Devil so that he that as an Angel by nature is able to do so much can do nothing at all without his permission In what case do we think the world this sublunary world though but a very little and inconsiderable point or piece a man would think in comparison of the higher world which he hath nothing to do with this sublunary world I say would be if the government of it were left unto him who nevertheless for the great power he hath in it is stiled in the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Governour of the world For what he doth to some who partly seek unto him themselves or for some hidden reason besides their sins by Gods permission become obnoxious unto him he would do unto all who doubts it even to the destruction of all his great ambition were not his power restrained And it is observable that he hath most power where God is least known and ignorance and brutishness most reign as in the most Northern parts of the world as by many is observed But again O the goodness and mercy of God towards men that though the Devil have such power in the Earth that all the treasures of the Earth may in some respect be said to be in his hands and at his disposing yet he hath no power or very little to gratifie them who by covenant tacit or express have entred themselves into his service which if he had for one sworn vassal or servant that he hath such is the madness of most men lest to themselves because they do not seek unto God he would have a hundred if not a thousand But again what miserable ends they make commonly that have served him most faithfully an account whereof is given by more than one and how basely he doth usually forsake them in time of greatest need leaves them comfortless desperate and despairing yea sometimes betrayeth them himself and seems to rejoyce openly which we know though he doth not shew it he doth always secretly and to insult at their calamities How many have been torn in pieces by himself or unmercifully snatched and carried away God knows whether Others with many curses stoned by the people others some other way not natural helpless and hopeless ended their miserable life So have many of Gods servants too as to bodily pains and torments some Atheistical wretch perchance will be ready to reply as those the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews speaketh of who died cruel deaths yea cruel as to the world we grant it but not comfortless even in greatest pains and honourable after their deaths BUT lastly is there not a providence yea a miraculous providence though little understood and therefore less thought of in this that the Devil by the priviledge of his nature being endowed with such power and bearing such hatred to mankind yet cannot do one half yea one quarter of the hurt he doth unto men were it not for the help of men as imployed and set on by men A great and incomprehensible mystery to the wisest that write of it that their power should be so limited but an effect certainly of Gods love and respect towards men FOR these things therefore that are manifest it well becomes all good Christians to praise God and to acknowledge his good Providence towards men and for those things we can find no satisfaction from reason to submit unto him with humility which is so great a proof of true Religion and Christianity that for this very thing we may believe many things are not revealed for a trial of our submission and humility in this kind NOW to return to our Psalm It argued a noble mind in Plato and doth relish of some kind of inspiration I did think so where I treat of it more largely in the Annotations upon the Psalms before mentioned upon the 37. Psalm who would have in his Common-weal all happiness by law so annexed to goodness and righteousness that it should not be lawful for any man young or old
their disease nay are proud of it for the most part as knowing they owe the reputation they have among the vulgar of wise men unto it more than they do or have cause to do unto any thing else I speak this of the most If any truly discreet and wise and learned I must add be of the same opinion too we must needs look upon it either as a judgment or some natural distemper of the brain for which I have the warrant of a learned Physician before spoken of and one of their own sect in part who though he did not believe Devils because he did not see them yet what he saw and had often seen or had been often seen by many others whom he believed what we call supernatural operations he pronounceth them mad that did not believe It may be the number of instances and testimonies of several men of several nations in cases or diseases of a several nature may do what any one single or double evidence though never so clear could not ANTONIVS Benevenius what I have seen of him is but very little in bulk but very considerable and I see he is in good credit with all Physicians for he is often cited by them with good respect Nay if I be not mistaken in Sennertus lib. 1. Part. II. cap. 31. where he treats of the Epilepsie he hath been set out with the Scholia's of learned Dodoneus which must be no small honour unto his book I have been beholding to it elsewhere and therefore shall give him here the first place Well in that little book of his De abditis nonnullis ac mirandis c. in the 26. Chapter he hath this story A Souldier had an arrow shot through the left part of his breast so that the iron of it stuck to the very bone of his right shoulder Great endeavours were used to get it out but to no purpose Benevenius doth shew that it was not feasible without present death The man seeing himself forsaken by Physicians and Chyrurgions sends for a noted Ariolus or Conjurer who setting but his two fingers upon the wound with some Charms he used commanded the iron to come out which presently without any pain of the patient came forth and the man was presently healed Vidimus he saith we did see it but I do not approve of his censure at the end that two were damned the Patient and the Conjurer for this Act. It was possible the Patient was not so well instructed how unlawful it was to seek to the Devil for help how much better for a Christian though he suffer never so much whereby he is made so much the more conformable to Christ his Saviour to die Or perchance not sufficiently instructed that such a cure could not be wrought by such means without the Devil There be strange things written of the herb Dictamnus which if he had read or were told he might think the man had the right way to use it which all men perchance have not nay we need no perchance if all that I have read of it both in ancient and late Authors be true Besides God might be so merciful unto him that he might heartily and with many tears repent of what he had done in the extremity of his pain The Conjurer also who can absolutely say that he never repented Not in the ordinary way of the world only with a simple Lord have mercy upon me when he was at the last but time enough to make his repentance real and sincere Though I must needs say I think it is very seldom that God doth grant true repentance unto such who wilfully and deliberately have put themselves into the hands of the Devil and either directly as many do or tacitly which must be supposed have abjured any right or pretention to Gods mercy MY next instance shall be out of Zacutus Lusitanus his Praxis Medicinae admiranda a book of great credit with all I have met with but those who will admit of nothing for truth an effect of their ignorance many times more than incredulity but what their little reading and scanty experience hath commended unto them for truth Which I doubt is the case of not a few in these days who to avoid labour and to cover their ignorance would gladly reduce all medicine to some few whether true or pretended and by most believed true revelations of these later times Galen and Hippocrates I have heard it my self what should they do with them The course of Physick is now altered by late discoveries there is no more need of them Ignorant wretches and unhappy they that fall into such hands But I have done Zacutus his relation is this A young Gentleman of a comely shape and of excellent parts was so passionately in love with a fair maid of a noble parentage about eighteen years old that he had no rest neither night nor day very near unto distraction But when by reason of the inequality of their birth he found nothing at her hands but contempt and scorn enraged he applies himself to Witches for revenge They according to art make a picture or image rather of her in wax which when pricked with some Charms and imprecations at the same time the party was seised with such horrible torments in all parts of her body that she thought her self pierced or run through with some sharp weapon It was not long before divers Physicians the best that could be had we may presume were sent for who at first thought those horrible accidents must proceed from some distemper of the womb But after they had observed that all remedies they had applied made her worse rather than better they absolutely pronounced her disease to be no natural disease and that she was either actually possest by some evil Spirit or infested and infected by some of their creatures In which judgment see God would have it to prevent the contradiction of some confidents which in all places are to be found when she began to cast out of her body lumps of hair tribulorum fasciculum I know what it may signifie besides but I would not make the matter more strange than it must needs others of thistles needles then a black lump in the form of an egge out of which when dissected came flying Ants which did cause such a noisom stink that no body was able to abide the room they were much confirmed But at last reduced to great extremity and at the point of death with much difficulty being in a syncope she vomited a certain creature of the bigness of an ordinary fist of a black colour long tail hairy all the body over like a mouse which being fallen to the ground did with great swiftness run to and fro the room and then died The Parents astonished with this horrible case and seeing their child forsaken by Physicians they have recourse to all the Witches Sorcerers and Magicians the Town or Country yielded Among all these one was found who did
in any discourse publick or private to speak otherwise And some pregnant arguments he hath to prove it so that such only are truly and really the happy men of the world who are upright honest men But however what opinion soever men might have of his arguments it should not be lawful for any man to speak otherwise hoping that in time such language in all places and companies would breed in young people an honourable esteem of vertue and probity and so dispose them the better to the pursuit of it Which though some men may slight and deride as they are ready to do every thing that doth not fit their own fancy yet to men of better judgment and experience may appear very considerable And who can doubt but that when children and young people never hear the dead spoken of such as died in wars especially for their Country but in the phrase of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or happy men which in those days was the proper expression for a dead man it did much conduce to breed in people a contempt of death without which there can be no true generosity Whereas now the common phrase of poor Man poor Father poor Mother and the like which I could never hear without some kind of secret abhorrency that Christians should come so short of Heathens wisdom what can it breed in children and weaker people but a fear and detestation of death COULD I be perswaded as many anciently and some of late have been of opinion that Plato was acquainted with the Scriptures of the Old Testament I should make no doubt but when he Commented that Law he had in his thoughts the words of Ecclesiastes which to me in times of greatest desolation when violence and oppression were at their height always proved a very comfortable cordial Though a sinner do evil a hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God which fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shadow because he feareth not before God Eccles 8.12 What is the effect of all this Though he prolong yet he shall not prolong c. but this that though wicked men in and by length of days and other worldly prosperity may seem to ordinary reason and judgment to be happy yet really they are not so but in their very happiness as supposed miserable and unhappy a kind of contrariety but not to faith And what is it Plato would have but this very thing and that it should not be lawful to speak otherwise But as to Solomon's words let me add by the way I conceive some wrong is done unto them by breaking the coherence with the foregoing verse by a new Paragraph For having in the eleventh verse pointed at one main ground of wickedness and Atheism which is the not speedy execution of Justice in this world and Gods suffering of wicked men to thrive by their wickedness for God is known by the Judgement he executeth saith the Psalmist he doth oppose this noble confession or profession of his faith to vulgar judgments which would be more clear if as often supplied with a But But I though a sinner c. Theognis nay Homer have said the same in effect but I will not digress so far NOW to apply this to our Psalm It is the opinion of some learned men that this Psalm was penned of purpose for a formula or pattern of praying in time of danger And indeed I account it a most excellent and Divine form of prayer to that end provided that we take St. Paul's exposition along with it which is not to think our selves secured by those words that we shall not suffer any of those things private or publick which are naturally incidental unto all men as men but to secure us that if we put our trust in God and have a lively apprehension of his Goodness Power and Mercy the end of our sufferings shall be comfortable and glorious St. Paul's words are Who shall separate us c. from verse 35. to the end of the Chapter Certainly if in all these more than conquerors then in all these happy as Plato would have it truly and really though not always nor all equally so sensible of our happiness Neither I think did the Prophet Habakkuk by those words Yet we will rejoyce in the Lord we will joy in the God of our salvation Hab. 3.18 promise himself much joy in a time of publick famine such a time Jeremy speaketh of when he saith His eyes did fail with tears c. because the children and sucklings swoon in the streets c. or altogether presume when others round about him died for want of bread God would miraculously feed and preserve him but only this that no calamity can be so great and grievous but if we trust in God and patiently submit we may find comfort in this confidence That to use St. Paul's expression the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 I HAVE said what I intended upon this Psalm More perchance might be expected by some concerning the several kinds or orders of Spirits which by some are supposed to be alluded unto by the Psalmist in those words Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night nor for the arrow that flieth by day nor for the pestilence that 〈…〉 darkness nor for the destruction that wasteth 〈…〉 Veâ—se 5. and 6. That there be different kinds 〈…〉 of â—pirits all evil and enemies to mankind â—â—shy vâ—eâ—d though not so ready perchance to subscribe to every thing that Pselâ—us that learned Platonist whether so sound Christian in all things I cannot tell hath written of them And besides them there may be perchance some other substances or Spirits so called because not discernable by bodily eyes in their own nature but whether immortal or no I do not know which have no quarrel at all to mankind nor any particular interest in the affairs of men but as they are casually provoked or molested and sometimes invited and allured perchance as some are of opinion But all this more than God by his Word hath been pleased to teach and reveal is to me but perchance and it may be nothing that I know or believe with any certainty And for my part such speculations and enquiries if pursued with much ambition and eagerness and without some special occasion incident to any mans office or duty I hold to be much more curious if not dangerous than profitable or convenient as elsewhere I have had occasion more largely to declare my self As for those words of the Psalmist there be Delrio and others that will give a further account if it be desired My purpose did not engage me and I am very willing to let it alone FINIS OF CREDULITY AND INCREDULITY IN Things CIVIL The Second Part.
great works I have read of I least admire except it were at his prodigious vanity and prodigality who would bestow so much money upon so idle a work As if a man abounding with wealth would be at the charge of removing if it can be done some great rock such a rock as Hooky-rock in Sommersetshire is consisting of many concamerations wherein when I was there I observed some things which I thought and still think might deserve consideration as well as many things which make much more noise such a rock I say to remove it from whence it stands to some place many miles distant But I said if it can be done Archimedes I believe or he that undertook to cut the great mountain Athos into the form of a man which should have born in one hand a City of 10000. inhabitants and in the other a river emptying it self into the Sea if Alexander would have set him on work would have undertaken it and for ought I know brought it to pass if any man would or could be at the cost But to what end I pray Only to shew unto the world that he can cast away so much money upon nothing and yet continue rich which I shall sooner believe than either wise or truly magnificent IT is time that I should have done with Herodotus Yet to end in somewhat that may be more pleasing or more considerable at least than this last of the great stone he hath one story that I neither know how to deny being a story of his own time or little before and which I do not find contradicted by any other nor yet very well how to believe It is concerning Pythias the Lydian neither King nor Prince nor any thing else of either power or authority that I can find but only a very rich private man What authority he had was over his slaves and servants which indeed must be very many Is it credible as is reported of him by Herodotus that he could be so rich as to entertain Xerxes as he passed by to invade Greece and all his Army In saying all his Army therein consists the incredibility of the thing the number of which Army according to the most contracted account that we have of it is almost incredible Though Herodotus say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Xerxes seem to acknowledge as much yet I would not be so precise as to press the words rigorously We will first abate his Sea-forces many hundred thousands and of the Land-forces that marched with him we may abate many thousands and still leave him divers hundred thousands four or five at the least These so many Pythias did entertain at his own charge how many days I know not because it is not expressed but I believe more than one Besides this he did offer the story tells us to Xerxes in ready money as a voluntary contribution towards the charges of his Army in gold and silver ready told so much as comes by learned Brerewood his casting which I shall not take upon me to examine at this time to 3375000. English pounds and this according to the less valuation of talents as himself doth tell us But he mistakes when he saith Pythii Bithinii opes So much he did offer unto Xerxes his wealth as himself professed did consist in his lands which in that summe are not at all valued It may be he did offer this to Xerxes as Seneca did his estate not less I dare say if not much greater to Nero to save his life which he feared was in danger by it And truly as it fared with the one so with the other Every body knows out of Tacitus how nobly Nero refused Seneca's offer and how much more as he professed he thought him worthy of But at last and it is a question whether Seneca had not given some occasion whilest he did desire to prevent it he was commanded to die but indulged the choice of his death Xerxes answered Pythias as nobly and because there wanted some thousands to make the sum that Pythias had offered him a round perfect summe according to the calculation of those days Xerxes made up what it wanted and bad him keep it all But then afterwards when Pythias was an humble sutor to him that of five sons of his that followed him he would be pleased to discharge the eldest to look unto his Fathers affairs Xerxes as a right tyrant fell into a rage and had that Son cut in two that the Army on both sides as they passed by might have a sight of his body or one half at least to be a terror unto others Yet to speak truth I do not find that he took away any of his money or goods but for the good that he had done spared as he professed his life and his four sons that remained besides his estate I HAVE been the more willing to make use of Herodotus for instances because of the respect I bear unto him for his antiquity and because the times and Histories he doth write of have more relation and afford more light to the Scriptures than any other Author or History doth But Herodotus was not my business but this that different times and ages of the world make many things to seem incredible and not only to seem but in very deed impossible which have been formerly very possible and of such a time such an age if well understood at any time credible And whereas great works great sights have hitherto been the subject of our instances and examples which many other subjects might have afforded it hath not been without some choice or particular end It is far from me to believe that the world is grown vain since I am grown old which is noted by many as a vice or reproach of old age Had I never read any thing of the old world but what we read in the third Chapter of the Prophet Isaiah though it cannot be denied that some ages have exceeded others in this kind yet I find enough there to make me think that to wonder at any thing in point of wordly excess or vanity as new and never seen before is great folly But this is no argument to me not to commiserate the blindness and wretchedness of mankind so apt to degenerate from the glory of their first creation the end of their making because it hath been so always ever since sin by the disobedience of our first Parents entred into the world and made it subject unto vanity Though therefore it hath been so and will be so generally as long as the world doth last yet since in the worst times and most corrupted places some there have been and will always be more or fewer that have been though not altogether free themselves yet sensible and earnestly both for themselves and others striving against it Why may not I hope that even now in the croud of Ladies and Gentlemen going the broad way as fast as they can who have fixed their admiration
the many revolutions of the world the sad chances and alterations which publick Estates and private persons and families are subject unto producing commonly as in Salomon and Aurelius Antoninus another Salomon for this kind of wisdom a right apprehension of the vanity and contemptibleness of the world and all worldly things without a reference to God and immortality they that make this good use of it though they die young yet may be said to have lived longer than any Epicuraean Sectary though he should live two hundred years who can give no other account of his life but that he hath eaten and drunk and enjoyed bodily pleasure with perfect we will suppose it so contentedness so long which things have nothing at all of a rational soul in them but of a beast of a dog or a swine much more than of a man They therefore that despise History upon that account might as well deprive themselves of the light of the Sun because it is subject to some Eclipses BUT we must add that many of these contradictions which we charge upon Historians proceed not from the Historians but our ignorance our ignorance I say either of the tongue not perfectly known wherein many are deceived as they that think themselves very good Grecians because they have read and can understand two or three Greek Authors or of the times or of the thing it self which is spoken of which may have reference to some of the Sciences or some secret of Nature or for want perchance of that light which a diligent comparing and consulting with good books of ancient or later times would afford That it is so so many once thought apparent contradictions both in the Scriptures and other good Authors besides Historians now by the labour of learned men happily cleared and reconciled are sufficient evidences I think there is not a book of any age or profession extant but ancient especially but may give some light to a judicious Reader towards the clearing of some obscurity either in matter of fact or science or work of nature Two Vniversities in one Kingdom are little enough for such a work if a man go the right way to work But many run where one only carrieth the prize And if but one in a hundred or two hundred that run happen to speed as God be thanked the Universities have always been stored with able men in this kind who have been a great ornament to the whole Nation the cost is not ill bestowed upon one or two hundred that do not so that it be not for want of labour and industry for that ones sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Er. p. 1668. Quà m pauci qui capiunt magnitudinem literarum was a speech very frequent in the mouth of one whom I knew very well and I might have been the better for it but for frequent sicknesses and the loss of twenty years during these late troubles and confusions BUT besides many contradictions proceed also from a humour in some men or a malignity rather to contradict others So Ctesias of old was known to set himself to contradict Herodotus To make him fabulous and himself a considerable man he pretended because he had lived in Assyria and served one of those great Kings to sacred records But it fell out much otherwise than he expected for Herodotus in most things wherein he dissents from him is followed and he generally accounted a fabulous foolish Historian From what humour it proceeded I know not But I knew a Gentleman of great worth who would very stifly argue that Constantine the Great never was a Christian I do not remember I ever heard him alledge any thing for it which I thought of any force But this he might as well as Pomponius Laetus a late Italian compiler of History suspected by some to have had more affection for old Heathenism than he had for Christianity made bold to write that Constantius one of Constantine's Sons died a Heathen OTHERS again though they have no humour to contradict yet they will hardly believe any thing that doth contradict or not well sute with their humour and proper temper So that a man had need if possible to know somewhat of the temper of his Historian before he know what to think of his relations such especially as have somewhat of incredibleness in them We heard a learned Physician of our times in our First Part deny that there are Witches One great argument is because he did not believe that any woman could be so cruel or wicked so that he doth not stick absolutely to profess that should he see with his own eyes any woman commit any of those horrible things that are laid to their charge he would not believe his eyes that it is so truly and really but believe it a delusion Yet this the man that doth tell as horrible stories of men-Sorcerers and Conjurers without any scruple of believing as any I have read in any books of that argument OF all women I have read of ancient or late I know not of any that stands upon the records of History for cruelty and all manner of wickedness more infamous or indeed comparable than two women that lived at one time in France better than a thousand years ago Fredegonde and Brunichild Queens both but the one a Kings daughter also the other ascended to that height by her baseness first and then cruelty Medea of old was nothing to either of these as set out by some of those times If I were to judge I should be much put to it which was the worse of the two For he that reads the acts of either by themselves will find so much that he cannot but think that either of them went to the height of what can be thought possible But however though for their lives never so well matched yet in their deaths great inequality may be observed Providentia apud imperitos laborante saith one that writes of them that is To the no small prejudice or reproach of Gods providence but apud imperitos well added that is with men that must know all the secrets of God and the reasons of all his dispensations or else they will not believe that there is a God if men such blind wretches even the wisest that are in comparison acknowledged by divine Aristotle but not by the wits and wise men of our time could understand the reasons of all he doth It is enough that he hath been pleased to arm us against this kind of temptation by his Revealed Word so that to judge of men by what hapneth unto them in this world is little better than absolute apostacy from the right faith But as the story goes Fredegonde of whose wickedness we have more pregnant testimonies than of the others died in peace and was happy in her Son who made all France happy as even any King did Brunichild died much after the manner of Ravailack's death being tied to the tail of a wild Horse who soon