The place of Deuteronomy expounded wherein are recited all kind of Witches also their opinions confuted which hold that they can work such Miracles as are imputed unto them THe greatest and most common objection is that if there were not some which could work such miraculous or supernatural feats by themselves or by their Devils it should not have been said Let none be found among you that maketh his son or his daughter to go through the fire or that useth Witchcraft or is a regarder of times or a marker of the flying of fowles or a Sorcerer or a Charmer or that counselleth with Spirits or a Soothsayer or that asketh counsel of the dead or as some translate it that raiseth the dead But as there is no one place in the Scripture that saith they can work Miracles so it shall be easie to prove that these were all Coseners every one abusing the people in his several kind and are accursed of God Not that they can do all such things indeed as there is expressed but for that they take upon them to be the mighty power of God and to do that which is the only work of him seducing the people and blaspheming the Name of God who will not give his glory to any creature being himself the King of Glory and Omnipotency First I ask What miracle was wrought by their passing through the fire Truly it cannot be proved that any effect followed but that the people were bewitched to suppose their sins to be purged thereby as the Spaniards think of scourging and whipping themselves so as Gods power was imputed to that action and so forbidden as an Idolatrous Sorcery What wonders worketh the regarder of times What other Devil dealeth he withal than with the spirit of Superstition Doth he not deceive himself and others and therefore is worthyly condemned for a Witch What spirit useth he which marketh the flying of Fowls Nevertheless he is here condemned as a practiser of Witchcraft because he coseneth the people and taketh upon him to be a Prophet impiously referring Gods certain ordinances to the flittering feathers and uncertain wayes of a bird The like effects produceth Sorcery Charming consultation with Spirits Sooth-saying and consulting with the dead in every of the which Gods power is obscured his glory defaced and his commandement infringed And to prove that these Sooth-sayers and Witches are but lying mates and coseners note these words pronounced by God himself even in the self same place to the children of Israel Although the Gentiles suffered themselves to be abused so as they gave ear to these Sorcerers c. he would not suffer them so but would raise them a Prophet who should speak the truth As if he should say The other are but lying and cosening mates deceitful and undermining Merchants whose abuses I will make known to my people And that every one may be resolved herein let the last sentence of this precept be well weighed to wit Let none be found among you that asketh counsel of or raiseth the dead First you know the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God and resting with Lazarus in Abrahams bosome do sleep in Jesus Christ And from that sleep man shall not be raised till the heavens be no more according to this of David Wilt thou shew wonders among the dead Nay the Lord saith the living shall not be taught by the dead but by the living As for the unrighteous they are in hell where is no redemption neither is there any passage from heaven to earth but by God and his Angels As touching the resurrection and restauration of the body read John 5. and you shall manifestly see that it is the only work of the Father who hath given the power thereof to the Son and to none other c. Dominus percutit ipse medetur Ego occidam ego vivefaciam And in many other places it is written that God giveth life and being to all Although Plato with his Master Socrates the chief pillars of these vanities say That one Pamphilus was called up out of hell who when he came among the people told many incredible tales concerning infernal actions But herein I take up the Proverb Amicus Plato amicus Socrates sed major amica veritas So as this last precept or last part thereof extending to that which neither can be done by Witch nor Devil may well expound the other parts and points thereof For it is not meant hereby that they can do such things indeed but that they make men believe they do them and thereby cosen the people and take upon them the office of God and therewithal also blaspheme his holy name and take it in vain as by the words of charmes and conjurations doth appear which you shall see if you look into these words Habar and Idoni In like manner I say you may see that by the prohibition of divination by augury and of Sooth-sayings c. who are Witches and can indeed do nothing but lye and cosen the people the law of God condemneth them not for that they can work miracles but because they say they can do that which pertaineth to God and for cosenage c. Concerning other points of Witch-craft contained therein and because some cannot otherwise be satisfied I will alledge under one sentence the decretals the mind of S. Augustine the Aurelian Councel and the determination of Paris to wit Who so observeth or giveth heed unto Soothsayings Divinations Witch-craft c. or doth give credit to any such he renounceth Christianity and shall be counted a Pagan and an enemy to God yea and he erreth both in Faith and Philosophy And the Reason is therewithal expressed in the Canon to wit Because hereby is attributed to a creature that which pertaineth to God only and alone So as under this one sentence Thou shalt not suffer a Poysoner or a Witch to live is forbidden both murther and Witchcraft the murther consisting in poyson the Witchcraft in cosenage or blasphemy CHAP. III. That Women have used poysoning in all ages more than Men and of the inconvenience of poysoning AS Women in all ages have been counted most apt to conceive Witchcraft and the Devils special instruments therein and the only or chief practisers thereof so also it appeareth that they have been the first inventers and the greatest practisers of poysoning and more naturally addicted and given thereunto than men according to the saying of Quintilian Latrocinium facilius in viro veneficium in foemina credam From whom Pliny differeth nothing in opinion when he saith Scientiam foeminarum in veneficiis praevalere To be short Augustine Livy Valerius Diodorus and many other agree That Women were the first inventers and practisers of the art of poysoning As for the rest of their cunning in what estimation it was had may appear by these verses of Horace wherein he doth not only declare the vanity of Witchcraft but also
as he saith that he can do more harm by night than by day producing for example how in a night he slew the first born of Egypt And yet it appeareth plainly in the Text that the Lord himself did it Whereby it seemeth that Bodin puteth no difference between God and the Devil For further confirmation of this his foolish assertion that Devils are more valiant by night than by day he alledgeth the 104. Psalm wherein is written Thou makest darkness and it is night wherein all the Beasts of the Forrest creep forth the Lions roar c. when the Sun riseth they retire c. So as now he maketh all Beasts to be Devils or Devils to be Beasts Oh barbarous blindness This Bodin also saith That the Devil loveth no salt in his meat for that it is a sign of Eternity and used by Gods Commandement in all Sacrifices abusing the Scriptures which he is not ashamed to quote in that behalf But now I will declare how the Scripture teacheth our dull capacities to conceive what manner of thing the Devil is by the very names appropriated unto him in the same CHAP. XIX That such Devils as are mentioned in the Scriptures have in their names their nature and qualities expressed with instances thereof SUch Devils are mentioned in the Scriptures by name have in their names their nature and qualities expressed being for the most part the idols of certain Nations idolatrously erected in stead or rather in spight of God For Beelzebub which signifieth The Lord of the Flies because he taketh every simple thing in his web was an Idol or Oracle erected at Ekron to whom Ahaziah sent to know whether he should recover his disease as though there had been no God in Israel This Devil Beelzebub was among the Jews reputed the principal Devil The Grecians called him Pluto the Latins Sumanus quasi summum deorum manium the chief ghost or spirit of the dead whom they supposed to walk by night although they absurdly believed also that the soul died with the body So as they did put a difference between the ghost of a man and the soul of a man and so do our Papists howbeit none otherwise but that the soul is a ghost when it walketh on the earth after the dissolution of the body or appeareth to any man either out of Heaven Hell or Purgatory and not otherwise Nisroch signifieth a delicate tentation and was worshipped by Senacharib in Assyria Tartak is in English fettered and was the Devil or Idol of the Hevites Baal-peor otherwise called Priapus the gaping or naked god was worshipped among the Moabites Adramelech that is the cloke or power of the King was an Idol at Sepharvais which was a City of the Assyrians Chemâ—sh that is feeling or departing was worshipped among the Moabites Dagon that is corn or grief was the Idol of the Philistines Astarte that is a fold or flock is the name of a she idol at Sydonia whom Solomon worshipped some think it was Venus Malcham that is a King was an Idol or Devil which the sons of Ammon worshipped Sometimes also we find in the Scriptures that Devils and Spirits take their names of wicked men or of the houses or states of abominable persons as Astaroth which as Josephus saith was the Idol of the Philistines whom the Jews took from them at Solomons commandment and was also worshipped of Solomon Which though it signifie riches flocks c. yet it was once a City belonging to Og the the King of Basan where they say the Giants dwelt In these respects Astaroth is one of the special Devils named in Solomon's Conjuration and greatly imployed by the Conjurors I have sufficiently proved in these quotations that these Idols are Dii gentium the gods of the Gentiles and then the Prophet David may satisfie you that they are Devils who saith Dii Gentium daemonia sunt The gods of the Gentiles are Devils What a Devil was the Rood of Grace to be thought but such a one as before is mentioned and described who took his name of his curteous and gracious behaviour toward his worshippers or rather those that offered unto him The idolatrous knavery whereof being now bewrayed it is among the godly reputed a Devil rather than a God and so are divers others of the same stamp CHAP. XX. Divers names of the Devil whereby his Nature and Disposition is manifested IT hath also pleased God to inform our weak capacities as it were by similitudes and examples or rather by comparisons to understand what manner of thing the Devil is by the very names appropriated and attributed unto him in the Scriptures wherein sometimes he is called by one name sometimes by another by metaphors according to his conditions Elephas is called in Job Behemoth which is Bruta whereby the greatness and brutishness of the Devil is figured Leviathan is not much different from Elephas whereby the Devils great subtilty and power is shewed unto us Mammon the covetous desire of money wherewith the Devil overcometh the reprobate Daemon signifieth one that is cunning or crafty Cacodaemon is perversly knowing All those which in ancient times were worshipped as Gods were so called Diabolus is Calumniator an accuser or a slanderer Satan is Adversarius an Adversary that troubleth and molesteth Abaddon a Destroyer Legio because they are many Prince of the air Prince of the world A King of the Sons of pride A roaring Lion An homicide or man-slayer a lyer and the Father of lyes The Author of sin A spirit Yea sometimes he is called the spirit of the Lord as the executioner and minister of his displeasure c. Sometimes the spirit of fornication c. And many other like epithets or additions are given him for his name He is also called the Angel of the Lord. The cruel Angel of Satan The Angel of Hell The great Dragon for his pride and force The red Dragon for his bloodiness A Serpent An Owl a Kite a Satyr a Crow a Pellican a Hedghog a Griph a Stork c. CHAP. XXI That the Idols or Gods of the Gentiles are Devils their divers names and in what affairs their labours and authorities are imployed wherein also the blind superstition of the Heathen people is discovered ANd for so much as the Idols of the Gentiles are called Devils and are among the unlearned confounded and intermedled with the Devils that are named in the Scriptures I thought it convenient here to give you a note of them to whom the Gentiles gave names according to the offices unto them assigned Penates are the domestical gods or rather Devils that are said to make men live quietly within doores But some think these rather to be such as the Gentiles thought to be set over Kingdoms and that Lares are such
witn her for an old cloak to make her a safe-guard and that she was hanged for her labour CHAP. VIII What folly it were for Witches to enter into such deseprate peril and to endure such intolerable tortures for no gain or commodity and how it comes to pass that Witches are overthrown by their confessions A Las if they were so subtil as Witchmongers make them to be they would espie that it were meer folly for them not only to make a bargain with the Devil to throw their souls into hell fire but their bodies to the tortures of temporal fire and death for the accomplishment of nothing that might benefit themselves at all but they would at the leastwise indent with the Devil both to enrich them and also to enable them and finally to endue them with all worldly felicity and pleasure which is furthest from them of all other Yea if they were sensible they would say to the Devil Why should I hearken to you when you will deceive me Did you not promise my neighbour mother Dutton to save and rescue her and yet lo she is hanged surely this would oppose the Devil very sore And it is a wonder that none from the beginning of the world till this day hath made this and such like objections whereto the Devil could never make answer But were it not more madness for them to serve the Devil under these conditions and yet to endure whippings with iron rods at the Devils hands which as the Witch-mongers write are so set on that the print of the lashes remain on the Witches body ever after even so long as she hath a day to live But these old women being daunted with authority circumvented with guile constrained by force compelled by fear induced by error and deceived by ignorance do fall into such rash credulity and so are brought unto these absurd confessions Whose error of mind and blindness of will dependeth upon the disease and infirmity of nature and therefore their actions in that case are the more to be born withal because they being destitute of reason can have no consent For Delictum sine consensu non potest committi neque injuria sine animo injuriandi that is There can be no sin without consent nor injury committed without a mind to do wrong Yet the law saith further that a purpose retained in mind doth nothing to the private or publick hurt of any man and much more that an impossible purpose is unpunishable Sanae mentis voluntas voluntas rei possibilis est A sound mind willeth nothing but that which is possible CHAP. IX How melancholy abuseth old women and of the effects thereof by sundry examples IF any man advisedly mark their words actions cogitations and gestures he shall perceive that melancholy abounding in their head and occupying their brain hath deprived or rather depraved their judgements and all their senses I mean not of cousening Witches but of poor melancholick women which are themselves deceived For you shall understand that the force which melancholy hath and the effects that it worketh in the body of a man or rather of a woman are almost incredible For as some of these melancholick persons imagine they are Witches and by Witchcraft can work wonders and do what they list so do others troubled with this disease imagine many strange incredible and impossible things Some that they are Monarchs and Princes and that all other men are their subject some that they are brute beasts some that they be urinals or earthen pots greatly fearing to be broken some that very one that meeteth them will convey them to the gallowes and yet in the end hang themselves One thought that Atlas whom the Poets feign to hold up heaven with his shoulders would be weary and let the skie fall upon him another would spend a whole day upon a stage imagining that he both heard and saw interludes and therewith made himself great sport One Theophilus a Physician otherwise sound enough of mind as it is said imagined that he heard and saw musicians continually playing on instruments in a certain place of his house One Bessus that had killed his father was notably detected by imagining that a Swallow upbraided him therewith so as he himself thereby revealed the murther But the notablest example hereof is of one that was in great perplexity imagining that his nose was as big as a house insomuch as no friend nor Physician could deliver him from this conceipt nor yet either ease his grief or satisfie his fancy in that behalf till at the last a Physician more expert in this humour than the rest used this devise following First when he was to come in at the chamber door being wide open he suddenly stayed and withdrew himself so as he would not in any wise approach nearer then the door The melancholick person musing her eat asked him the cause why he so demeaned himself Who answered him in this manner Sir your nose is so great that I can hardly enter into your chamber but I shall touch it and consequently hurt it Lo quoth he this is the man that must do me good the residue of my friends flatter me and would hide my infirmity from me Well said the Physician I will cure you but you must be content to indure a little pain in the dressing which he promised patiently to sustain and conceived certain hope of recovery Then entred the Physician into the chamber creeping close by the walls seeming to fear the touching and hurting of his nose Then did he blind-fold him which being done he caught him by the nose with a pair of pincers and threw down into a tub which he had placed before his patient a great quantity of bloud with many pieces of bullocks livers which he had conveyed into the chamber whilest the others eyes were bound up and then gave him liberty to see and behold the same He having done thus again two or three times the melancholick humour was so qualified that the mans mind being satisfied his grief was eased and his disease cured Thrasibulus otherwise called Thrasillus being sore oppressed with this melancholick humour imagined that all the ships which arrived at port Pyraeus were his insomuch as he would number them and command the mariners to lanch c. triumphing at their safe returns and mourning for their misfortunes The Italian whom we called here in England the Monarch was possessed with the like spirit or conceit Danaeus himself reporteth that he saw one that affirmeth constantly that he was a cock and saith that through melancholly such were alienated from themselves Now if the fansie of a melancholick person may be occupied in causes which are both false and impossible why should an old Witch be thought free from such fantasies who as the learned Philosophers and Physicians say upon the stopping of their monethly melancholick flux or issue of bloud in their age must needs increase therein as through their
made Yea the spirits themselves have their laws and limits prescribed beyond the which they cannot pass one hairs breadth otherwise God should be contrary to himself which is far from him Neither is Gods omnipotency hereby qualified but the Devils impotency manifested who hath none other power but that which God from the beginning hath appointed unto him consonant to his nature and substance He may well be restrained from his power and will but beyond the same he cannot pass as being Gods minister no further but in that which he hath from the beginning enabled him to do which is that he being a spirit may with Gods leave and ordinance viciate and corrupt the spirit and will of man werein he is very diligent What a beastly assertion is it that a man whom God hath made according to his own similitude and likeness should be by a Witch turned into a beast What an impiety is it to affirm that an Asses body is the temple of the holy Ghost Or an Asse to be the child of God and God to be his Father as it is said of man Which Paul to the Corinthians so divinely confuteth who saith That our bodies are the members of Christ in the which we are to glorifie God for the body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body Surely he meaneth not for an Asses body as by this time I hope appeareth in such wife as Bodin may go hide him for shame especially when he shall understand that even into these our bodies which God hath framed after his own likeness he hath also breathed that spirit which Bodin saith is now remaining within an Asses body which God hath so subjected in such servility under the foot of man of whom God is so mindful that he hath made him little lower then Angels yea than himself and crowned him with glory and worship and made him to have dominion over the works of his hands as having put all things under his feet all Sheep and Oxen yea Wolves Asses and all other beasts of the field the fouls of the air the fishes of the sea c. Bodins Poet Ovid whose Metamorphosis makes so much for him saith to the overthrow of this phantastical imagination Os homini sublime dedit coelumque videre Jussit erectos ad sydera tollere vultus The effect of which verses is this The Lord did set mans fade so hie That he the heavens might behold And look up to the starry skie To see his wonders manifold Now if a Witch or a Devil can so alter the shape of a man as contrarily to make him look down to hell like a beast Gods works should not only be defaced and disgraced but his ordinance should be wonderfully altered and thereby confounded CHAP. VI. The Witchmongers Objections concerning Nebuchadnezzar answered and their error cerning Lycanthropia confuted MAlleus Maleficarum Bodin and many other of them that maintain Witchcraft triumph upon the story of Nebuchadnezzar as though Circes had transformed him with her sorceties into an Ox as she did others into Swine c. I answer that he was neither in body nor shape transformed at all according to their gross imagination as appeareth both by the plain words of the text and also by the opinions of the best Interpreters thereof but that he was for his beastly government and conditions thrown out of his Kingdom and banished for a time and driven to hide himself in the Wilderness there in exile to lead his life in a beastly sort among beasts of the field and fowles of the air for by the way I tell you it appeareth by the text that he was rather turned into the shape of a fowl than of a beast until he rejecting his beastly conditions was upon his repentance and amendment called home and restored unto his Kingdom Howbeit this by their confession was neither Devils nor Witches doing but a miracle wrought by God whom alone I acknowledge to bring to pass such works at his pleasure Wherein I would know what our Witch-mongers have gained I am not ignorant that some write that after the death of Nebuchadnezzar his son Evilmerodath gave his body to the ravens to be devoured least afterwards his father should arise from death who of a beast became a man again But this tale is meeter to have place in the Cabalistical art to wit among unwritten verities than here To concude I say that the transformations which these Witch-mongers do so rave and rage upon is as all the learned sort of Physitians affirm a disease proceeding partly from melancholy whereby many suppose themselves to be Wolves or such ravening beasts For Lycanthropia is of the ancient Physitians called Lupina melancholia or Lupina insania J. Wierus declareth very learnedly the cause the circumstance and the cure of this disease I have written the more herein because hereby great Princes and Potentates as well as poor Women and Innocents have been defamed and accounted among the number of Witches CHAP. VII A special Objection answered concerning Transportations with the consent of divers Writers thereupon FOr the maintenance of Witches Transportations they object the words of the Gospel where the Devil is said to take up Christ and to set him on a pinnacle of the Temple and on a mountain c. which if he had done in manner and form as they suppose it followeth not therefore that Witches could do the like nor yet that the Devil would do it for them at their pleasure for they know not their thoughts neither can otherwise communicate with them But I answer that if it were so grossely to be understood as they imagine it yet should it make nothing to their purpose For I hope they will not say that Christ had made any ointments or entred into any league with the Devil and by vertue thereof was transported from out of the Wilderness unto the top of the temple at Jerusalem or that the Devil could have masteries over his body whose soul he could never lay hold upon especially when he might with a beck of his finger have called unto him and have had the assistance of many legions of Angels Neither as I think will they presume to make Christ partaker of the Devils purpose and sin in that behalf If they say This was an action wrought by the special providence of God and by his appointment that the Scripture might be fulfilled then what gain our Witchmongers by this place First for that they may not produce a particular example to prove so general an argument And again if it were by Gods special providence and appointment then why should it not be done by the hand of God as it was in the story of Job Or if if it were Gods special purpose and pleasure that there should be so extraordinary a matter brought to pass by the hand of the Devil could not God have given to the wicked Angel
as one that of late hath written against Prophesies saith It is no marvel that when the familiars that speak in trunks were repelled from their harbour for fear of discovery the blocks almighty lost their senses for these are all gone now and their knavery is espyed so as they can no longer abuse the world with such bables But whereas these great Doctors suppose that the cause of their dispatch was the coming of Christ if they mean that the Devil dyed so soon as He was born or that then he gave over his occupation they are deceived For the Popish Church hath made a continual practice hereof partly for their own private profit lucre and gain and partly to be had in estimation of the World and in admiration among the simple But indeed men that have learned Christ and been conversant in his Word have discovered and shaken off the vanity and abomination hereof But if those Doctors had lived till this day they would have said and written that Oracles had ceased or rather been driven out of England in the time of King Henry the Eight and of Queen Elizabeth his Daughter who have done so much in that behalf as at this hour they are not only all gone but forgotten here in this English Nation where they swarmed as thick as they did in Boeotia or in any other place in the world But the credit they had depended not upon their desert but upon the credulity of others Now therefore I will conclude and make an end of this matter with the opinion and saying of the Prophet Vain is the answer of Idols For they have eyes and see not ears and hear not mouths and speak not c. and Let them shew what is to come and I will say they are gods indeed BOOK IX CHAP. I. The Hebrew word Kasam expounded and how far a Christian may conjecture of things to come KAsam as John Wierius upon his own knowledge affirmeth and upon the word of Andraeas Masius reporteth differeth little in signification from the former word Ob betokening Viticinari which is To Prophesie and is most commonly taken in evill part as in Deut. 18. Jerem. 27. c. howbeit sometime in good part as in Isa 3.2 To foretell things to come upon probable conjectures so as therein we reach no further then becometh humane capacity is not in mine opinion unlawful but rather a commendable manifestation of Wisdome and Judgement the good gifts and noble blessings of GOD for the which we ought to be thankful as also to yield due honour and prayse unto him for the noble order which he hath appointed in nature praying him to lighten our hearts with the beams of his wisdome that we may more and more profit in the true knowledge of the workmanship of his hands But some are so nice that they condemn generally all sorts of Divinations denying those things that in nature have manifest causes and are so framed as they foreshew things to come and in that shew admonish us of things after to insue exhibiting signs of unknown and future matters to be judged upon by the order law and course of nature proposed unto us by God And some on the other side are so bewitched with folly as they attribute to creatures that estimation which rightly and truly appertaineth to God the Creator of all things affirming That the publick and private destinies of all humane matters and whatsoever a man would know of things come or gone is manifested to us in the heavens so as by the Stars and Planets all things might be known These would also that nothing should be taken in hand or gone about without the favourable aspect of the Planets By which and other the like devices they deprave and prophane the ancient and commendable observations of our fore-fathers as did Colebrasus who taught That all mans life was governed by the seven Planets and yet a Christian and condemned for Heresie But let us so far forth embrace and allow this Philosophy and Prophesying as the Word of God giveth us leave and commendeth the same unto us CHAP. II. Proofes by the old and new Testament that certain observations of the Weather are lawful WHen God by his Word and Wisdom had made the Heavens and placed the Stars in the firmament he said Let them be for signs and for seasons and for dayes and years When he created the rainbow in the clouds he said it should be for a sign and token unto us Which we find true not only of the flood past but also of the showres to come And therefore according to Jesus Sirachs advice Let us behold it and prayse him that made it The Prophet David saith The heavens declare the glory of God and the earth sheweth his handy work day unto day uttereth the same and night unto night teacheth knowledge It is also written That by the commandement of the the holy one the Stars are placed and continue in their order and fail not in their watch It should appear that Christ himself did not altogether neglect the course and order of the heavens in that he said When you see a cloud rise out of the west straightway you say a showre cometh and so it is And when you see the southwinde blow you say it will be hot and so it cometh to pass Again When it is evening you say fair weather for the skie is red and in the morning you say today shall be a tempest for the skie is red and lowring Wherein as he noteth that these things do truly come to pass according to ancient observation and to the rule Astronomical so doth he also by other words following admonish us that in attending too much to those observations we neglect not specially to follow our Christian Vocation The Physician is commended unto as and allowed in the Scriptures but so to put trust in him as to neglect and distrust God is severely forbidden and reproved Surely it is most necessary for us to know and observe divers rules Astological otherwise we could not with opportunity dispatch our ordinary affairs And yet Lactantius condemneth and recounteth it among the number of Witchcrafts from whose censure Calvin doth not much vary The poor husbandman perceiveth that the increase of the Moon maketh Plants and living creatures fruitful so as in the Full Moon they are in best strength decaying in the wane and in the conjunction do utterly wither and fade Which when by observation use and practice they have once learned they distribute their business accordingly as their times and seasons to sow to plant to prune to let their Cattel blood to cut c. CHAP. III. That certain observations are indifferent certain ridiculous and certain impious whence that cunning is derived of Apollo and of Aruspices I Know not whether to disallow or discommend the curious observation used by our elders who conjectured upon
Augustine saith that these Observations are most superstitious But we read in the fourth Psalm a sentence which might disswade any Christian from this folly and impiety O ye sons of men how long will ye turn my glory into shame loving vanity and seeking lies The like is read in many other places of Scripture Of such as allow this folly I can commend Pliny best who saith that the operation of these Auguries is as we take them For if we take them in good part they are signs of good luck if we take them in ill part ill luck followeth if we neglect them and weigh them not they do neither good nor harm Thomas of Aquine reasoneth in this wise The Stars whose course is certain have greater affinity and community with mans actions than Auguries and yet our doings are neither directed nor proceed from the Starrs Which thing also Ptolomey witnesseth saying Sapiens dominabitur astris A wiseman over-ruleth the Starrs CHAP. XVIII Pond Distinctions of the Heathen Writers concerning Augury THe Heathen made a distinction between divine natural and casual Auguries Divine Auguries were such as men were made believe were done miraculously as when Dogs spake as at the expulsion of Tarquinius out of his Kingdom or when Trees spake as before the death of Caesar or when Horses spake as did a Horse whose name was Zanthus Many learned Christians confess that such things as may indeed have a divine cause may be called divine Auguries or rather fore-warnings of God and tokens either of his blessings or discontentation as the Star was a token of a safe passage to the Magicians that sought Christ so was the Cock-crowing an Augury to Peter for his conversion And many such other Divinations or Auguries if it be lawful so to term them are in Scriptures to be found CHAP. XIX Of Natural and Casual Augury the one allowed and the other disallowed NAtural Augury is a Physical or Philosophical observation because humane and natural reason may be yielded for such events as if one hear the Cock crow many times together a man may guess that rain will follow shortly as by the crying of Rooks and by their extraordinary using of their wings in their flight because through a natural instinct provoked by the impression of the heavenly bodies they are moved to know the times according to the disposition of the weather as it is necessary for their natures And therefore Jeremy saith Milvus in coelo cognovit tempus suum The Physitian may argue a strength towards his patient when he heareth him sneeze twice which is a natural cause to judge by and conjecture upon But sure it is meer casual and also very foolish and incredible that by two sneezings a man should be sure of good luck or success in his business or by meeting of a Toad a man should escape a danger or atchieve an enterprise c. CHAP. XX. A Confutation of Casual Augury which is meer Witchcraft and upon what uncertainty those Divinations are grounded WHat imagination worketh in man or woman many leaves would not comprehend for as the qualities thereof are strange and almost incredible so would the discourse thereof be long and tedious whereof I had occasion to speak elsewhere But the power of our imagination extendeth nor to Beasts nor reacheth to Birds and therefore pertaineth not hereunto Neither can the chance for the right or left side be good or bad luck in it self Why should any Occurrent or Augury be good because it cometh out of that part of the Heavens where the good or beneficial Stars are placed By that reason all things should be good and happy that live on that side but we see the contrary by experience and as commonly as that The like absurdity and error is in them that credit those Divinations because the Stars over the ninth House have dominion at the time of Augury If it should betoken good luck joy or gladness to hear a noise in the house when the Moon is in Aries and contrariwise if it be a sign of ill luck sorrow or grief for a Beast to come into the house the Moon being in the same sign here might be found a foul error and contrariety And for somuch as both may happen at once the rule must needs be false and ridiculous And if there were any certain rules or notes to be gathered in these Divinations the abuse therein is such as the Word of God must needs be verified therein to wit I will destroy the tokens of Soothsayers and make them that conjecture fools CHAP. XXI The Figure-casters are Witches the uncertainty of their Art and of their contradictions Cornelius Agrippa's sentence against Judicial Astrologie THese Casters of Figures may be numbered among the cosening Witches whose practice is above their reach their purpose to gain their knowledge stoln from Poets their uncertain and full vanity more plainly derided in the Scriptures than any other folly And thereupon many other trifling vanities are rooted and grounded as Physiognomy Palmestry interpreting of Dreams Monsters Auguries c. the Professors whereof confess this to be the necessary Key to open the knowledge of all their secrets For these fellows erect a figure of the Heavens by the exposition whereof together with the conjectures of similitudes and signs they seek to find out the meaning of the significators attributing to them the ends of all things contrary to truth reason and divinity their rules being so inconstant that few Writers agree in the very principles thereof For the Rabbbins the old and new Writers and the very best Philosophers dissent in the chief grounds thereof differing in the propriety of the houses whereout they wring the fore-telling of things to come contending even about the number of spheres being not yet resolved how to erect the beginnings and ends of the houses for Ptolomy maketh them after one sort Campanus after another c. And as Alpetragus thinketh that there be in the Heavens divers movings as yet to men unknown so do others affirm not without probability that there may be Stars and Bodies to whom these movings may accord which cannot be seen either through their exceeding highness or that hitherto are not tryed with any observation of the Art The true motion of Mars is not yet perceived neither is it possible to find out the true entring of the Sun into the equinoctal points It is not denied that the Astronomers themselves have received their light and their very Art from Poets without whose fables the twelve signs and the northerly and southerly figures had never ascended into Heaven And yet as C. Agryppa saith Astrologers do sive cosen men and gain by these fables whiles the Poets which are the inventers of them do live in beggery The very skilfullest Mathematicians confess that it is impossible to find out any certain thing concerning the knowledge of Iudgments as well for the innumerable causes which work together
2 King 23. Isai 19. To be short the opinion of them that are most skilful in the tongues is that it comprehendeth all them which take upon them to know all things part and to come and to give answers accordingly It alwayes followeth the word Ob and in the Scriptures is not named severally from it and differeth little from the same in sense and do both concern Oracles uttered by Sririts possessed people or Coseners What will not Coseners or Witches take upon them to do Wherein will they profess ignorance Ask them any question they will undertake to resolve you even of that which none but God knoweth And to bring their purposes the better to pass as also to win further credit unto the counterfeit Art which they profess they procure confederates whereby they work Wonders And when they have either learning eloquence or nimbleness of hands to accompany their confederacy or rather knavery then forsooth they pass the degree of Witches and intitle themselves to the name of Conjurors And these deal with no inferiour causes these fetch Devils out of Hell and Angels out of Heaven these raise up what bodies they list though they were dead buried and rotten long before and fetch souls out of Heaven or Hell with much more expedition than the Pope bringeth them out of Purgatory These I say among the simple and where they fear no law nor accusation take upon them also the raising of Tempests and Earthquakes and to do as much as God himself can do These are no small fools they go not to work with a baggage Toad or a Cat as witches do but with a kind of Majesty and with Authority they call up by name and have at their commandement Seventy and nine Principal and Princely Devils who have under them as their ministers a great multitude of Legions of petty Devils as for example CHAP. XI An Inventary of the Names Shapes Powers Govenment and effects of Devils and Spirits of their several segniories and degrees a strange discourse worth the reading THeir first and principal King which is of the power of the East is called Baell who when he is conjured up appeareth with three heads the first like a Toad the second like a Man the third like a Cat. He speaketh with a hoarse voice he maketh a man go invisible he hath under his obedience and rule Sixty and six Legions of Devils The first Duke under the power of the East is named Agares he cometh up mildly in the likeness of a fair old man riding upon a Crocodile and carrying a Hawk on his fist he teacheth presently all manner of tongues he fetcheth back all such as run away and maketh them run that stand still he overthroweth all Dignities supernatural and temporal he maketh Earthquakes and is of the order of Vertues having under his regiment Thirty one Legions Marbas aliàs Barbas is a great president and appeareth in the form of a mighty Lyon but at the commandement of a Conjuror cometh up in the likeness of a Man and answereth fully as touching any thing which is hidden or secret he bringeth diseases and cureth them he promoteth wisdom and the knowledge of Mechanical Arts or Handicrafts he changeth men into other shapes and under his presidency or Government are Thirty six Legions or Devils contained Amon or Aamon is a great and mighty Marquess and cometh abroad in the likeness of a Wolf having a Serpents tail spetting out and breathing flames of fire when he putteth on the shape of a man he sheweth out dogs teeth and a great head like to a mighty Raven he is the strongest Prince of all other and understandeth all things past and to come he procureth favour and reconcileth both friends and foes and ruleth Forty Legions of Devils Barbatos a great County or Earl and also a Duke he appeareth in Signo sagittarii Sylvestris with four Kings which bring companies and great troops He understandeth the singing of Birds the barking of Dogs the lowing of Bullocks and the voyce of all living creatures He detecteth treasures hidden by Magicians and Inchanters and is of the order of virtues which in part bear rule he knoweth all things past and to come and reconcileth friends and powers and governeth Thirty Legions of Devils by his authority Buer is a great president and is seen in this sign he absolutely teacheth Philosophy moral and natural and also Logick and the vertue of Herbs he giveth the best familiars he can heal all Diseases specially of men and reigneth over Fifty Legions Gusoin is a great Duke and a strong appearing in the form of a Xenophilus he answereth all things present past and to come expounding all questions he reconcileth friendship and distributeth honours and dignities and ruleth over Forty Legions of Devils Botis otherwise Otis a great President and an Earl he cometh forth in the shape of an ugly Viper and if he put on humane shape he sheweth great teeth and two horns carrying a sharpe sword in his hand he giveth answers of things present past and to come and reconcileth friends and foes ruling Sixty Legions Bathin sometimes called Mathim a great Duke and a strong he is seen in the shape of a very strong man with a Serpents tail sitting on a pale horse understanding the vertues of herbs and pretious stones transferring men suddenly from Countrey to Countrey and ruleth Thirty Legions of Devils Purson aliàs Curson a great King he cometh forth like a Man with a Lyons face carrying a most cruel Viper and riding on a Bear and before him go alwayes trumpets he knoweth things hidden and can tell all things present past and to come he bewrayeth treasure he can take a body either humane or aiery he answereth truly of all things earthly and secret of the divinity and creation of the World and bringeth forth the best familiars and there obey him Two and twenty Legions of Devils partly of the order of Vertues and partly of the order of Thrones Eligor aliàs Abigor is a great Duke and appeareth as a goodly Knight carrying a Lance an Ensign and a Scepter he answereth fully of things hidden and of Wars and how Souldiers should meet he knoweth things to come and procureth the favour of Lords and Knights governing Sixty Legions of Devils Leraje aliàs Oray a great Marquess shewing himself in the likeness of a gallant Archer carrying a Bow and a Quiver he is author of all battels he doth putrifie all such wounds as are made with Arrows by Archers Quos optimos objicit trilus dielus and he hath regiment over Thirty Legions Valefar aliàs Malephar is a strong Duke cometh forth in the shape of a Lyon and the head of a thief he is very familiar with them to whom he maketh himself acquainted till he hath brought them to the gallows and ruleth Teu Legions Morax aliàs Foraji a
Magical Banquets and Exercises Which when Nero required to learn he to hide his cosenage answered that he would not nor could not teach him though he would have given him his Kingdom The matter of his refusal I say was least Nero should espy the cosening devices thereof Which when Nero conceived and saw the same and all the residue of that Art to be vain lying and ridiculous having only shadows of truth and that their Arts were only venefical he prohibited the same utterly and made good and strong laws against the use and practises thereof as Pliny and others do report It is marvel that any man can be so much abused as to suppose that Satan may be commanded compelled or tyed to the power of man as though the Devil would yield to man beyond nature that will not yield to God his Creator according to the rules of Nature And in so much as there be as they confess good Angels as well as bad I would know why they call up the Angels of Hell and not call down the Angels of Heaven But this they answer as Agrippa saith Good Angels forsooth do hardly appear and the other are ready at hand Here I may not omit to tell you how Cornelius Agrippa bewrayeth detecteth and defaceth this Art of Conjuration who in his youth travelled into the bottom of all these Magical Sciences and was not only a great Conjuror and Practiser thereof but also wrote cunningly De occulta Philosophia Howbeit afterwards in wiser age he recanteth his opinions and lamenteth his follies in that behalf and discovereth the impiety and vanities of Magicians and Inchanters which boast they can do Miracles which action is now ceased saith he and he assigneth them a place with Jannes and Jambres affirming That this Art teacheth nothing but vain toyes for a shew Carolus Gallus also saith I have tryed oftentimes by the Witches and Conjurers themselves that their Arts especially those which do consist of Charms Impossibilities Conjurations and Witchcrafts whereof they were wont to boast to be meer foolishness doting lyes and dreams I for my part can say as much but I delight not to alleadge mine own proofs and authorities for that mine adversaries will say they are partial and not indifferent CHAP. XLII Of Solomons Conjurations and of the Opinion conceived of his cunning and practice therein IT is affirmed by sundry Authors that Solomon was the first inventer of those Conjurations and thereof Josephus is the first reporter who in his first Book De Judaeorum antiquitatibus cap. 22. rehearseth soberly this story following which Polydore Virgil and many other repeat verbatim in this wise and seem to credit the fable whereof there is scant a true word Solomon was the greatest Philosopher and did Philosophize about all things and had the full and perfect knowledge of all their properties but he had that gift given from above to him for the profit and health of mankind which is effectual against Devils He made also Inchantments wherewith diseases are driven away and left divers manners of Conjurations written whereunto the Devils giving place are so driven away that they never return And this kind of healing is very common among my Country-men for I saw a neighbour of mine one Eleazer that in the presence of Vespasian and his Sons and the rest of the Souldiers cured many that were possessed with Spirits The manner and order of his cure was this He did put unto the nose of the possessed a Ring under the seal whereof was inclosed a kind of root whose vertue Solomon declared and the savour thereof drew the Devil out at his nose so as down fell the man and then Eleazer conjured the Devil to depart and to return no more to him In the mean time he made mention of Solomon reciting incantations of Solomons own making And then Eleazer being willing to shew the standers by his cunning and the wonderful efficacy of his Art did set not far from thence a Pot or Bason full of Water and commended the Devil that went out of the man that by the overthrowing thereof he would give a sign to the beholders that he had utterly forsaken and left the man Which thing being done none there doubted how great Solomons knowledge and wisdom was Wherein a juggling knack was produced to confirm a cogging cast of knavery or cosenage Another story of Solomons Conjuration I find cited in the sixt lesson read in the Church of Rome upon S. Margarets day far more ridiculous than this Also Peter Lombarb Master of the Sentences and Gratian his Brother the Compiler of the Golden Decrees and Durandus in his Rationale Divinorum do all soberly affirm Solomons cunning in this behalf and specially this tale to wit That Solomon inclosed certain thousand Devils in a brazen Bowl and left it in a deep hole or lake so as afterwards the Babylonians found it and supposing there had been gold or silver therein brake it and out flew all the Devils c. And that this fable is of credit you shall perceive in that it is thought worthy to be read in the Romish Church as parcel of their Divine Service Look in the Lessons of the day of S. Margaret the Virgin and you shall find these words Verbatim which I the rather recite because it serveth me for divers turns to wit for Solomons Conjurations for the tale of the Brazen Vessel and for the Popes Conjurations which extended both to Faith and Doctrin and to shew of what credit their Religion is that so shamefully is stained with lyes and fables CHAP. XLIII Lessons read in all Churches where the Pope hath authority on S. Margarets day translated into English word for word HOly Margaret required of God that she might have a conflict face to face with her secret enemy the Devil and rising from prayer she saw a terrible Dragon that would have devoured her but she made the sign of the Cross and the Dragon burst in the midst Afterwards she saw another man sitting like a Niger having his hands bound fast to his knees she taking him by the hair of the head threw him to the ground and set her foot on his head and her prayers being made a light shined from heaven into the prison where she was and the Cross of Christ was seen in Heaven with a Dove sitting thereon who said Blessed art thou O Margaret the gates of Paradise attend thy coming Then she giving thanks to God said to the Devil Declare to me thy name The Devil said Take away thy foot from my head that I may be able to speak and tell thee which being done the Devil said I am Veltis one of them whom Solomon shut in the Brazen Vessel and the Babylonians coming and supposing there had been gold therein brake the Vessel and then we flew out ever since lying in wait to annoy the just But seeing I have recited a part other story
you shall also have the end thereof for at the time of her execution this was her prayer following Grant therefore O Father that whosoever writeth readeth or heareth my passion or maketh memorial of me may deserve pardon for all his sins whosoever calleth on me being at the point of death deliver him out of the hands of his adversaries And I also require O Lord that whosoever shall build a Church in the honour of me or ministreth unto me any Candles of his just labour let him obtain whatsoever he asketh for his health Deliver all Women in travell that call upon me from the danger thereof Her prayer ended there were many great thunder-claps and a Dove came down from heaven saying Blessed art thou O Margaret the Spouse of Christ Such things as thou hast asked are granted unto thee therefore come thou into everlasting rest c. Then the hangman though she did bid him refused to cut off her head to whom she said Except thou do it thou canst have no part with me and then lo he did it c. But sithence I have been and must be tedious I thought good to refresh my Reader with a lamentable story depending upon the matter precedent reported by many grave Authors word for word in manner and form following CHAP. XLIV A delicate story of a Lombard who by S. Margarets example would needs fight with a real Devil THere was after a Sermon made wherein this Story of S. Margaret was recited for in such stuffe consisted not only their Service but also their Sermons in the blind time of Popery there was I say a certain young man being a Lombard whose simplicity was such as he had no respect unto the commodity of worldly things but did altogether affect the salvation of his soul who hearing how great S. Margarets triumph was began to consider with himself how full of sleights the Devil was And among other things thus he said O that God would suffer that the Devil might fight with me hand to hand in visible form I would then surely in like manner overthrow him and would fight with him till I had the victory And therefore about the twelf hour he went out of the Town and finding a convenient place where to pray secretly kneeling on his knees he prayed among other things That God would suffer the Devil to appear unto him in visible form that according to the example of S. Margaret he might overcome him in battell And as he was in the midst of his prayers there came into that place a Woman with a hook in her hand to gather certain herbs which grew there who was dumb born And when she came into the place and saw the young man among the herbs on his knees she was afraid and waxed pale and going back she roared in such sort as her voyce could not be understood and with her head and fists made threatning signes unto him The young man seeing such an ill-favoured foul quean that was for age decrepit and full of wrinkles with a long body lean of face pale of colour with ragged cloathes crying very loud and having a voyce not understandable threatning him with the hook which she carryed in her hand he thought surely it had been no Woman but a Devil appearing unto him in the shape of a Woman and thought God had heard his prayers For the which causes he fell upon her lustily and at length threw her down to the ground saying Art thou come thou cursed Devil art thou come No no thou shalt not overthrow me in visible fight whom thou hast often overcome in visible temptations And as he spake these words he caught her by the hair and drew her about beating her sometimes with his hands sometimes with his heels and sometimes with the hook so long and wounded her so sore that he left her a dying At the noise whereof many people came running unto them and seeing what was done they apprehended the young man and thrust him into a vile prison S. Vincent by virtue of his holiness understanding all this matter caused the body that seemed dead to be brought unto him and thereupon according to his manner he laid his hand upon her who immediately revived and he called one of his Chaplains to hear her confession But they that were present said to the man of God That it were altogether in vain so to do for that she had been from her nativity dumb and could neither hear nor understand the Priest neither could in words confess her sins Notwithstanding S. Vincent bad the Priest hear her Confession affirming that she should very distinctly speak all things unto him And therefore whatsoever the man of God commanded the Priest did confidently accomplish and obey and as soon as the Priest approached unto her to hear her Confession she whom all Cathalonia knew to be dumb born spake and confessed her self pronouncing every word as distinctly as though she had never been dumb After her Confession she required the Eucharist and extream Unction to be ministred unto her and at length she commended her self to God and in the presence of all that came to see that miracle she spak as long as she had any breath in her body The young man that killed her being saved from the gallows by S. Vincents means and at his intercession departed home into Italy This story last rehearsed is found in Speculo exemplorum and repeated also by Robert Carocul Bishop of Aquinas and many others and preached publickly in the Church of Rome CHAP. XLV The Story of Saint Margaret proved to be both ridiculous and impious in every point FIrst that the story of S. Margaret is a fable may be proved by the incredible impossible foolish impious and blasphemous matters contained therein and by the ridiculous circumstance thereof Though it were cruelly done of her to beat the Devil when his hands was bound yet it was courteously done of her to pull away her foot at his desire He could not speak so long as she trod on his head and yet he said Tread off that I may tell you what I am She saw the Heavens open and yet she was in a close Prison But her sight was very clear that could see a little Dove sitting upon a Cross so far off For Heaven is higher than the Sun and the Sun when it is nearest to us is 3966000. miles from us And she had a good pair of ears that could hear a Dove speak so far off And she had good luck that S. Peter who they say is Porter or else the Pope who hath more doings than Peter had such before as to stay at the gates so long for her Solomon provided no good place neither took good order with his brazen bowl I marvel how they escaped that let out the Devils It is marvel also that they melted it not with their breath long before for the Devils carry Hell and Hell
seen And yet saith he Paul was wrapt up into the third Heaven and reporteth no such matters But if you read Mr. Deering upon the first chapter to the Hebrews you shall see this matter notably handled where he saith That whensoever Archangel is mentioned in the Scriptures it signifieth our Saviour Christ and no creature And certain it is that Christ himself was called an Angel The names also of Angels as Michael Gabriel c. are given to them saith Calvin according to the capacity of our weakness But because the decision of this is neither within the compass of mans capacity nor yet of his knowledge I will proceed no further to discuss the same but to shew the absurd opinions of Papists and Witchmongers on the one side and the most sober and probable collections of the contrary-minded on the other side CHAP. VIII The Commencement of Devils fondly gathered out of the 14. of Isaiah of Lucifer and of his fall the Cabalists the Thalmudists and Schoolmens opinions of the Creation of Angels THe Witchmongers which are most commonly bastard Divines do fondly gather and falsly conceive the Commencement of Devils out of the 14. of Isaiah where they suppose Lucifer is cited as the name of an Angel who on a time being desirous to be cheekmate with God himself would needs when God was gone a little aside be sitting down or rather pirking up in Gods own principal and Cathedral Chair and that therefore God cast him and all his confederates out of Heaven so as some fell down from thence to the bottom of the earth some having descended but into the middle Region and the tail of them having not yet passed through the highet Region stayed even then and there when God said Ho. But God knoweth there is no such thing meant nor mentioned in that place For there is only fore-shewed the deposing and deprivation of King Nebuchadnezzar who exalting himself in pride as it were above the Starrs esteemed his glory to surmount all others as far as Lucifer the bright morning Star shineth more gloriously than the other common Stars and was punished by exile until such time as he had humbled himself and therefore metaphorically was called Lucifer But forsooth because these great Clerks would be thought methodical and to have crept out at Wisdoms bosome who rather crawled out of Follies breeches they take upon them to shew us first whereof these Angels that fell from Heaven were created to wit of the left side of that massie mold whereof the World was compounded the which say they was Putredo terrae that is the rottenness of the earth Cabalists with whom Avicen seemeth to agree say That one of these begat another others say They were made all at once The Greeks do write That Angels were created before the World The Latinists say They were made the fourth day when the Stars were made Laurence Ananias saith They were made the first day and could not be made the fourth day bacause it is written Quando facta sunt sidera laudaverunt me angeli When the Stars were made the Angels praised me so as saith he they were made under the names of the Heavens There is also a great question among the Schoolmen whether more Angels fell down with Lucifer or remainnd in Heaven with Michael Many having a bad opinion of the Angels honesties affirm that the greater part fell with Lucifer but the better opinion is saith Laurentius Ananias that the most part remained And of them that think so some say the tenth part were cast down some the ninth and some gather upon S. John that the third part were only damned because it is written That the Dragon with his tail plucked down with him the third part of the Stars CHAP. IX Of the contention between the Greek and Latine Church touching the fall of Angels the variance among Papists themselves herein a conflict between Michael and Lucifer THere was also another contention between the Greek Church and the Latine to wit of what orders of Angels they were that did fall with Lucifer Our Schoolmen say They were of all the nine orders of Angels in Lucifer 's conspiracy But because the superior Order was of the more noble constitution and excellent estate and the inferior of a less worthy nature the more part of the inferior orders fell as guilty and offenders with Lucifer Some say The Devil himself was of the inferior order of Angels and some that he was of the highest order because it is written In Cherubim extentus protegens posuite Monte sancto Dei Extended upon a Cherubim and protecting I have put thee in the holy Mountain of God And these say further That he was called the Dragon because of his excellent knowledge Finally these great Doctors conclude That the Devil himself was of the Order of Seraphim which is the highest because it is written Quomodo enim mane oriebaris Lucifer For when didst thou rise in the morning O Lucifer They of this sect affirm That Cacodaemones were they that repelled against Jove I mean they of Plato his sect himself also holding the same opinion Our Schoolmen differ much in the cause of Lucifers fall For some say it was for speaking these words Ponam sedem meam in aquilone similis ero altissimo I will put my seat in the North and I will be like the most High Others say Because he utterly refused felicity and thought scorn thereof Others say Because he thought all his strength proceeded from himself and not from God Others say that it was Because he attempted to do that by himself and his own ability which he should have obtained by the gift of another Others say That his condemnation grew hereupon for that he challenged the place of the Messias Others say Because he detracted the time to adore the Majesty of God as other Angels did Others say Because he utterly refused it Scotus and his Disciples say that it was Because he rebelliously claimed equal Omnipotency with God with whom lightly the Thomists never agree Others say It was for all these causes together and many more so as hereupon saith Laurentius Ananias grew a wonderful conflict between Michael and his good Angels on the one side and Lucifer and his Fiends on the other so as after a long and doubtful skirmish Michael overthrew Lucifer and turned him and his fellows out of the doores CHAP. X. Where the Battel between Michael and Lucifer was fought how long it continued and of their power how fondly Papists and Infidels write of them and how reverently Christians ought to think of them NOw where this battel was fought and how long it continued there is as great contention among the Schoolmen as was betwixt Michael and Lucifer The Thomists say this battel was fought in the Empyreal Heaven where the abode is of blessed Spirits and the place of pleasure and felicity Augustine and many others say That
discovery thereof by reason that we know not certainly of what Orders they were that Fell. The opinion of most men is That of every Order many fell But those that better know the nature of the Heavenly Hierarchies have sufficiently proved That of any Ranck or Order none can fall unless all do follow Therefore with more reason may it be judged That before the Devils fell the Hierarchy of Heaven did consist of three Rancks or Orders to wit the Order of Vriel of Michael of Lucifer That of Lucifer is totally in Hell The other which is under Michael is the dominion of Heaven The last which is Vriels are more in the dominion of this third principle of the Stars having the Planets in their dominion with the influences thereof 35. So that the foregoing Catalogue transcribed by the Author of this Discovery is utterly feigned and fictitious because it makes these many sorts of Devils to have Dominion over several Legions in several distinctions of Seraphims Powers Thrones Dominations Cherubims c. Whereas the whole Kingdom of Hell consists but of one only Hierarchy which is that of Lucifer and his Legions reduced by their exorbitances into that Lacrymable posture wherein they now are and shall be for ever Which Doctrine seriously weigh'd will prove the attempts of Conjurers and Magicians to be utterly vain and their forms of Invocation vanity and falshood 36. Their number may be thought upon more narrowly if we consider that they consist of one Hierarchy and no more yet must we confess that the limit is not to be put thereunto because their nature is to Germinate and Multiply as they please contracting and dilating themselves according to the force of their imaginative powers and faculties But although this be granted yet there is a setled number of Devils that varyeth not Though of Damned Souls the number is numberless and unfathomable yet as to their extent of room or place it is never the more because of their multitude they being able to truss a thousand Legions into the carcass of a man As for the opinions of Authors they are various it is believed by some That the Starrs are answerable to their number others speak of the Sands upon the Sea-shore however it be this is certain They are even innumerable in respect of humane Capacities 37. Their Natures are now to be considered as they belong to the hellish source or quality In themselves they rest nor neither are they capable of the length or shortness of time nor of the alternate courses of day and night The wickedness which they committed in this life are their continual torment which do Magically gnaw and corrode them rising and boyling up perpetually within them all the refrigeration which they have is by intercourse when the height of Wickedness begins to stirr them in blasphemies against God and towring up above heaven and goodness in their adulterated Imaginations which is unto them as sport and pastime with one another and lasteth such a space as with us makes up forty minutes Neither doth this any whit advantage them but rather adds to their torment for pain discontinued is the greater neither would vexation be vexation if it had no respite or forbearance That the contrary might be also manifest Nam contraria juxta se posita majus elucescunt Yet is their torment exceedingly different so that the torment of one in respect of another is but a Dream or Phansie I mean amongst the Damned Souls and not the Devils for the pain and sorrow of the Devils is greater then the greatest of the lost Souls by many thousand degrees according to the course of nature and reason for that which falls highest suffers most and optima corrupta fiunt pessima 38. But wonderful and manifold are the torments which all in general of the Infernal troops do suffer according to the various lusts they reigned in whilst they lived upon the earth The cruel Murtherers that died in the boyling source of blood and envy their torment is the greatest they are continually Murthering in their imaginations and seeking like dreaming men to do what the want of the Organ will not suffer them for according to the saying of the wisest upon this Subject this is the torment and misery of all the Damned That they are continually wishing and woulding and in wouldings they generate Ideas and representations which are the species of their continual aggravations and deceiving phansies 39. Those that were buryed in Lust and Gluttony Drunkenness and Lasciviousness are also in miserable torments yet much inferiour to the first they are continually imagining their former pleasures in the Magia as in a dream which when they wake torments them cruelly they are often hanging stabbing and mangling themselves for love and perpetually sinking down in sorrow and despair if they were such as died in love or in the height of their Astral affections leaving behind them a heap of desires and lusts which are the only cause of all their torment And we may well compare the passions of Melancholy persons or such as in Deserts Woods and Mountains pine away for love of Women unto their torments which indeed being the trouble of the mind are absolutely the greatest and heaviest that the source or property of this World affordeth I mean the perturbations of the minde in general 40. Such souls in whom the boyling source of Anger and Rage hath had a dwelling or receptacle if they depart unmortified do also enter into a most dreadful kind of torment which continually ariseth as a biting Worm and hungry fire to double and accumulate the excess of despair upon them if they have much domineered therein whilst they lived in this World Also these that reigned in Pride and Envy are ever seeking to pluck God from his Throne and towring up in their Imaginations as men that dream still seeking for the Kingdom of heaven to insult and boast therein but the quality thereof is utterly occult and estranged from them so that they can never finde taste hear nor see it though it be through and through with their own peculiar principle This adds perpetually to their misery and ariseth at times with horrible pangs and gnawings like the irksome and vexatious pains and aches subject to Mans body which cease a while and then begin to shoot and ake by intercourse as the Gowt Tooth-ach Head-ach Convulsion Gripings and the Stone 41. Thus their torments are in brief described but indeed the capacity of Man is not able to reach the description of their cruel miseries and continual pangs which they contracted upon themselves for every faculty is sufficiently plagued The Sence of Hearing is disturb'd with harsh and rugged sounds which are as an antipathy to that Organ as rough and scraping sounds externally offend the ears and set the teeth on edge by affecting the tender fibres of the same Their Sight is likewise cruelly offended and
the first order in the astringency are appeased and provoked when the fumes are put upon a Tripod in the hour of Saturn according to the Planetary division These Fumigations make these Spirits appear like old men with promiss beards and meager looks like Serpents Cats Wolves Badgers Panthers like old Men in Armour like Trumpeters in many ranks and divisions 12. For Spirits under Jupiter they take Lignum Aloes Ashen-Keys Benjamin Storax Peacocks-feathers and Lapis Lazuli mixing the same with the blood of a Stork a Swallow or a Hart the brains being also added The fumes are kindled in Jupiters hour and in a place appropriate to his nature And by this sacrifice the Spirits of the next order are called up like glorious Kings with many attendants and mighty pomp with Heralds before them and Ensign-bearers Trumpeters Guards and all sorts of musical Instruments 13. They make Fumigations unto such Spirits of the order of Powers as are under Mars in the Planetary division with Aromatick Gum Bdellium Euphorbium Load-stone Hellebore white and black and an addition of Sulphur to make them into an Amalgama with Man's blood and the blood of a black Cat which mixtures are said to be exceeding magical so that without any other addition they say this fumigation is able of it self to make such Spirits to appear before the Exorcist at their appearance they come with weapons brandishing and shining Armour being terrible in their looks yet of power inferiour to the Spirits of Saturn though they can likewise shew themselves as Lions Wolves Tygers Bears and all other cruel or ravenous Beasts 14. They do likewise unto the Spirits under Sol being of the order of Thrones Suffumigate Saffron Musk Laurel Cinnamon Ambergriece Cloves Myrrhe and Frankincense Musk and the Balsamick Tree mixed up together with the brain of an Eagle and the blood of a white Cock being made up like Pills or little Balls and put upon the Tripod their appearances are Castles Gardens Mountains Rivers Fisher-men Hunters Reapers Dogs Sheep Oxen and other domestick Beasts 15. Under Venus are the Spirits of the sixth order in the Powers their appearances are very stately like the nature of the Planet like Courtiers Ladies Princes Queens Infants Children and fragrant smells The fumigations appropriate unto them are Roses Coral Lignum Aloes and Sperma Ceti made up with Sparrows brains and blood of Pidgeons to be fumigated with a Song 16. Mercury sendeth Horsemen Fishers Labourers Priests Students Servants c. Also Foxes Serpents Dogs Hares Hyena's Hydra's and other Monstrous Animals unto him they fumigate Frankincense Mastick Cinkfoyl incorporated with the brain of a Fox and the blood of a Mag-Pye 17. Spirits under Luna are like Ghosts and shadows very gastly to behold though in humane shape sometimes male sometimes female Fumigations are offered unto them of Frogs dryed white Poppy-seed Bulls Eyes Camphire and Frankincense incorporated with Gooses blood and the menstruous blood of Women 18. These are the divisions of fumigations neither can it be denyed but that in many Ceremonies of this kind there is great inherent virtue according to the Doctrines of Sympathy and Antipathy whereby every thing is drawn by its like in the Idea whither by words or actions according to the saying In verbis herbis lapidibus latet virtus so that the Ceremonies and Charms with other circumstances used by Magicians are doubtless prevalent to the accomplishment of that work which they undertake to wit The calling up and Exorcizing of Infernal Spirits by Conjurations CHAP. VII Being the Conclusion of the Whole wherein divers antient Spells Charms Incantations and Exorcisms are briefly spoken of 1. BEsides what the Author hath set down there be many other Spells and Charms which Tradition hath left unto Posterity being many of them effectual for the thing intended by them as in the precedent Chapter is set down wherein the Orders of Fumigations are described Besides there are Magical Characters attributed to the Planets whereof Telesms Periapts Amulets and Philters are composed by buryings writings bindings engravings alligations c. to effect various purposes in Astrological hours To conquer Enemies cure diseases overturn Cities stop Inundations render bodies Invulnerable and the like which are all effected by medium's of this kind with the assistance of Imagination 2. Yet are there many natural Compositions which have very stupendious effects of themselves without assistance of Superstition for the commixtion of things is of two-fold force or vertue First When the Celestial vertues are duly disposed in any natural body so that in one thing are couched various Influences of superiour Powers The second is from Artificial mixtures and Compositions of natural things amongst themselves in a certain proportion to agree with the Heavens under certain Constellations This proceeds from the correspondence of natural things amongst themselves whereby things are effected even unto admiration as Agrippa declares Cap. 35. lib. 1. 3. And as unto every Planet certain fumigations are ascribed so unto such Spirits as are under them certain Places are adopted for the Ceromonies of Conjuration which Magicians chose when they set upon their works of Darkness Unto Saturn are ascribed dark melancholy Places Vaults Tombes Monasteries empty Houses Dens Caves Pits Unto Jupiter Theaters Schools Musick houses Judgment seats To Mars Fields where Battels have been fought Bake-houses Glass-houses Shambles Places of Execution To Sol Palaces Mountains Meddows Sunshine Groves and upper Rooms To Venus Fountains Meadows Gardens and the Sea-shore Unto Mercury all publick places belonging unto Cities To Luna Wildernesses Woods Rocks Forrests Ships High-wayes c. 4. In like manner are Spells and Charms adapted to the thing which they must effect according to the matter form and place of their composition as for the procuring of Love they bury Rings Ribbons Seals Pictures Looking-Glasses c. in Stews Baths Beds that in such places they may contract some Venereal faculty When they gather Herbs or other Ingredients they chuse the hour and place when such Planets have Dominion as are over these Herbs which they collect ever remembring to turn their faces to the East or South when Saturnine Martial or Jovial Herbs are gathered because their Principal houses are Southern signs for Venereal Mercurial or Lunary herbs they must look towards the West or North because their houses are chiefly Northern signs Yet in any Solar or Lunar operations the body of the Sun and Moon must be respected in the operation 5. Colours are also much regarded amongst Magicians according to the Planet as black leaden brown unto Saturn saphire vernal green purple golden unto Jupiter red burning violet bloody and iron colours unto Mars golden saffron scarlet c. unto the Sun white fair green ruddy pleasant mixed colours unto Venus Mercury and Luna In like manner they ascribe colours unto the twelve Houses and according to the Planets have also certain compositions for fire
of Rome but might also have made the Pope that now is content with our Christmas and Easter-day and not to have gathered the minutes together and reformed it so as to shew how falsly he and his predecessors whom they say could not err hath observed it hitherto And truly this and the dancing of the Sun on Easter-day morning sufficiently or rather miraculously prove that computation which the Pope now beginneth to doubt of and to call in question CHAP. V. The Opinion of Fascius Cardanus touching Spirits and of his Familiar Devil FAscius Cardanus had as he himself and his son Hierome Cardanus report a familiar Devil consisting of the fiery Element who so long as he used Conjuration did give true answers to all his demands but when he burned up his Book of Conjurations though he resorted still unto him yet did he make false answers continually He held him bound twenty and eight years and loose five years And during the time that he was bound he told him that there were many Devils or Spirits He came not always alone but sometimes some of his fellows with him He rather agreed with Psellus then with Plato for he said they were begotten born died and lived long but how long they told him not howbeit as he might conjecture by the Devils face who was 42 years old and yet appeared very young he thought they lived two or three hundred years and they said that their souls and ours also died with their bodies They had Schools and Universities among them but he conceived not that any were so dull headed as Psellus maketh them But they are very quick in credit that beleive such fables which indeed is the ground-work of Witchcraft and Conjuration But these Histories are so gross and palpable that I might be thought as wise in going about to confute them as to answer the stories of Fryer Rush Adam Bell or the golden Legend CHAP. VI. The Opinion of Plato concerning Spirits Devils and Angels what Sacrifices they like best what they fear and of Socrates his familiar Devil PLato and his followers hold that good Spirits appear in their own likeness but that evil Spirits appear and shew themselves in the form of other bodies and that one Devil reigneth over the rest as a Prince doth in every perfect Common-wealth overmen Item they obtain their purposes and desires only by intreaty of men and women because in nature they are their inferiors and use authority over men none otherwise than Priests by vertue of their function and because of Religion wherein they say they execute the Office of God Sometimes they say that the fiery Spirits or supreme Substances enter into the purity of the mind and so obtain their purpose sometimes otherwise to wit by vertue of holy Charms and even as a poor man obtaineth for Gods sake any thing at a Princes hand as it were by importunateness The other sort of Devils and defiled souls are so conversant on earth as that they do much hurt unto earthly bodies specially in leachery Gods and Angels say they because they want all material and gross substance desire most the pure Sacrifice of the Mind The grosser and more terrestrial Spirits desire the grosser Sacrifices as Beasts and Cattel They in the middle or mean Region delight to have Frankincense and such mean stuffe offered unto them and therefore say they it is necessary to Sacrifice unto them all manner of things so the same be slain and dye not of their own accord for such they abhor Some say that Spirits fear wonderfully vain threats and thereupon will depart as if you tell them that you will cut the Heavens in pieces or reveal their secrets or complain of them to the gods or say that you will do any impossibility or such things as they cannot understand they are so timerous as they will presently be gone and that is thought the best way to be rid of them But these be most commonly of that sort or company which are called Principatus being of all other the most easie to be conjured They say Socrates had a familiar Devil which Plato relyeth much upon using none other argument to prove that there are such Spirits but because Socrates that would not lye said so and partly because that Devil did ever disswade and prohibit not only in Socrates his own cases but sometimes in his friends behalf who if they had been ruled might through his admonition have saved their lives His Disciples gathered that his Devil was Saturnal and a principal fiery Devil and that he and all such as do naturally know their Devils are only such as are called Daemonii viri otherwise coseners Item they say That fiery Spirits urge men to contemplation the airy to business the watery to lust and among these there are some that are Martial which give fortitude some are Jovial giving wisdom some Saturnal always using disswasion and dehorting Item some are born with us and remain with us all our life some are meer strangers who are nothing else but the souls of men departed this life c. CHAP. VII Plato's nine Orders of Spirits and Angels Dionysius his Division thereof not much differing from the same all disproved by learned Divines PLato proposeth or setteth forth nine several orders of Spirits besides the spirits and souls of men The first Spirit is God that commandeth all the residue the second are those that are called Ideae which gave all things to all men the third are souls of heavenly bodies which are mortal the fourth are Angels the fift Archangels the sixt are Devils who are ministers to infernal powers as Angels are to supernal the seventh are half Gods the eighth are Principalities the ninth are Princes From which division Dionysius doth not much swerve saving that he dealeth as he saith only with good Spirits whom he likewise divideth into nine parts or offices The first he calleth Seraphim the second Cherubim the third Thrones the fourth Dominations the fift Vertues the sixt Powers the seventh Principalites the eighth Archangels the ninth and inferiour sort he calleth Angels Howbeit some of these in my thinking are evil Spirits or else Paul gave us evil counsel when he willed us To fight against Principalities and Powers and all spiritual wickedness But Dionysius in that place goeth further impropriating to every Countrey and almost to every person of any accompt a peculiar Angel as to Jewry he assigneth Michael to Adam Razael to Abraham Zekiel to Isaac Raphael to Jacob Peliel to Moses Metraton c. But in these discourses he either followed his own imaginations and conceits or else the corruptions of that age Nevertheless I had rarher confute him by Mr. Calvin and my Kinsman M. Deering than by my self or mine own words For Mr. Calvin saith That Dionysius herein speaketh not as by hearsay but as though he had slipped down from Heaven and told of things which he had