there was either God or Devil would often walk in solitary and dismal places wishing for the sight of a Spirit and that he was first assaulted by a Devil in a Church-yard And though God mercifully gave him Repentance yet he was miserably haunted with an evil Spirit all his dayes I find that Mr. Clark in his first Vol. of Examples Chap. 104. P. 510. hath some part of this strange Providence but he mentions not Mr. Earl's Name A Gentleman worthy of credit affirmed this Relation to be most certainly true according to the particulars which have been declared I have thought it therefore not unworthy the Publication There is another Remarkable Passage to this purpose which hapned of later years wherein the Turkish Chaous Baptized at London Ianuary 30. A. D. 1658. was concerned This Chaous being alone in his Chamber 3. h. P. M. a person in the likeness of Mr. Dury the Minister with whom he did most ordinarily converse came and sat by him This seeming Mr. Dury told him that he had waited with a great deal of patience as to the matter of his Baptism and that himself had endeavoured by all means possible to procure it to be performed with publick Countenance and to that effect had dealt with Richard and several of his Counsel but that now he perceived that it was in vain to strive or wait longer And therefore advised him not to be much troubled at it but setting his mind at rest to leave these thoughts and take up his resolution another way When the Chaous heard this Discourse being much perplexed in his Spirit he lifted up his hands and eyes to Heaven uttering Words to this effect O my Lord Iesus Christ what a miserable thing is this that a true Christian cannot be owned by other Christians that one who believeth on thee cannot be Baptized into thy Name When he had so spoken looking down he saw no body the appearance of Mr. Dury being vanished which was at first an amazement to him but recollecting himself he began to rejoyce as hoping that Satan would be disappointed of his Plot. About 8 h. at night the true Mr. Dury met with the Chaous who acquainted him with what hapned to him so did he more fully understand how he had been imposed upon by Satan The mentioned Instances are enough to prove that the Devil may possibly appear in the shape of good Men and that not only of such as are dead but of the still living It might as a further confirmation of the truth we assert have been here noted that the Devil doth frequently amongst the Papists visibly appear pretending to be Christ himself as their own Authors do acknowledge They affirm that he came in the shape of Christ to Pachomius and to St. Martin So hath he often appeared in the Form of the Virgin Mary whereby miserable Souls have been seduced into gross Idolatries It is likewise reported that when Luther had spent a Day in Fasting and Prayer there appeared to him one seeming to be Christ but Luther said to him away thou confounded Devil I will have no Christ but what is in my Bible whereupon the Apparition vanished As for the Spirits of Men deceased it is certain they cannot reassume their Bodies nor yet come to Men in this World when they will or without a permission from him in whose hand they are Chrysostom in his second Sermon concerning Lazarus saith that Daemons would oftentimes appear falsly pretending themselves to be the Souls of some lately dead He saith that he himself knew many Daemoniacks that the Spirits in them would feign the voices of men lately killed and would discover the secrets of such Persons professing that they were the Souls of those very men But those were no other then devilish lies Upon which account men had need be exceeding wary what credit they give unto or how they entertain communion with such Spectres I do not say that all such Apparitions are Diabolical Only that many of them are so And as yet I have not met with any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby the certain appearance of a Person Deceased may be infallibly discerned from a meer Diabolical illusion The Rules of judging in this case described by Malderus are very fallible As for the moving and procuring cause of such Apparitions commonly it is by reason of some sin not discoverable in any other way Either some act of injustice done or it may be some Murder committed Platina Nauclerus and others relate that Pope Benedict 8. did after his death appear sitting upon a black Horse before a Bishop of his acquaintance declaring the reason to be in that he had in his life time nefariously consumed a great sum of Money which belonged to the Poor And there are fresh Examples to this purpose lately published in the second Edition of Mr. Glanvils Sadducismus Triumphatus He there speaks of a Man in Guilford unto whom belonged some Copy-hold Land which was to descend to his Children he dying leaving no Child born his Brother took possession of the Estate So it hapned that the deceased Man's Wife conceived with Child but a little before her Husbands death which after she perceived by the Advice of her Neighbours she told her Brother in Law how matters were circumstanced he railed upon her calling her Whore and said he would not be fooled out of his Estate so The poor Woman went home troubled that not only her Child should lose the Land but which was worse that she should be thought an Whore In due time she was Delivered of a Son Some time after which as her Brother in Law was going out of the Field his dead Brother the Father of the injured Child appeared to him at the Stile and bid him give up the Land to the Child for it was his Right The Brother being greatly affrighted at this Spectre ran away and not long after came to his Sister saying she had sent the Devil to him and bid her take the Land and her Son is now possessed of it The same Author relates that the Wife of Dr. Bretton of Deptford being a person of extraordinary Piety did appear after her Death A Maid of hers whose name was Alice for whom in her life time she had a great kindness Married a near Neighbour As this Alice was rocking her Infant in the night some one knocking at the door she arose and opened it and was surprized by the sight of a Gentlewoman not to be distinguished from her late Mistriss At the first sight she expressed great amazement and said were not my Mistress dead I should conclude you are she The Apparition replied I am she which was your Mistriss and withal added that she had a business of great importance to imploy her in and that she must immediately go a little way with her Alice trembled and entreated her to go to her Master who was fitter to be employed than she The seeming Mistriss replied that she
can make them more terrible and dreadful than they are in their own nature Satan is said to be the Prince of the Power of the Air Eph. 2. 2. And we read of the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying words 2 Thess. 2. 9. It is moreover predicted in the Revelation that Antichrist should cause fire to come down from Heaven Rev. 13. 13. Accordingly we read in History that some of the Popes have by their skill in the black Art caused Balls of fire to be seen in the Air. So then it is not beyond Satans power to effect such things if the great God give him leave without whose leave he cannot blow a Feather much less raise a Thunder-storm And as the Scriptures intimate Satan's Power in the Air to be great so Histories do abundantly confirm it by remarkable Instances One of the Scholars of Empedocles has testified that he saw his Master raising Winds and laying them again and there were once many Witnesses of it whence they called Empedocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens Alexandrinus mentions this as unquestionably true Our great Rainold de libris Apoeryphis Lect. 202. saith that we may from Iob conclude it was not impossible for Empedocles by the Devils aid to do as has been reported of him Dio relates that when the Roman Army in the dayes of the Emperour Clâ—udius pursuing the Africaâ— was in extream danger of perishing by Drought a Magician undertook to procure water for them and presently upon his Incantations an astonishing shower fell Iovianus Pontanus reports that when King Ferdinand besieged the City Suella all the waters in the Cisterns being dried up the Citizens had like to have lost their lives by the prevailing Drought The Popish Priests undertook by Conjuration to obtain Water The Magical Ceremonies by them observed were most horrid and ridiculous For they took an Asse and put the Sacrament of the Eucharist into his Mouth sang Funeral Verses over him and then buried him alive before the Church doors as soon as these rites so pleasing to the Devil were finished the Heavens began to look black and the Sea to be agitated with Winds and anon it rained and lightned after a most horrendous manner Smetius in his Miscellanies Lib. 5. Relates that a Girl foolishly imitating the Ceremonies of her Nurse whom she had sometimes seen raising Tempests immediately a prodigious Storm of Thunder and Lightning hapned so as that a Village near Lipsia was thereby set on fire This Relation is mentioned by Sennertus as a thing really true At some places in Denmark it is a common and a wicked practice to buy Winds when they are going to Seaâ— If Satan has so far the power of the Air as to cause Winds he may cause Storms also Livy reports concerning Romulus that he was by a Tempest of Thunder and Lightning transported no man knew whither being after that never heard of Meurerus in Comment Meteorolog speaketh of a Man that going between Lipsia and Torga was suddenly carried out of sight by a Thunder-storm and never seen more And the truth of our assertion seems to be confirmed by one of those sad effects of Lightning mentioned in the precedeing Chapter For I am informed that when Matthew Cole was killed with the Lightning at North-hampton the Dâ—monâ— which disturbed his Sister Ann Cole forty miles distant in Hartford spoke of it intimating their concurrence in that terrible accident The Iewish Rabbins affirm that all great and suddain Destructions are from Satan the Angel of Death That he has frequently aâ— hand therein is past doubt And if the fallen Angels are able when God shall grant theâ— a Commission to cause fearful and 〈◊〉 Thunders it is much more true concerning the good and holy Angels 2 King 1. 14 〈◊〉 When the Law was given at Mount 〈◊〉 there were amazing Thundrings and Lightnings wherein the great God saw meet to make use of the Ministry of Holy Angels Act. 7. 53. Gal. 3. 19. Heb. 2. 2. Some think that Sodom was destroyed by extraordinary Lightning It s certain that Holy Angels had an hand in effecting that Desolation Gen. 19. 13. We know that one Night the Angel of the Lord smote in the Camp of the Assyrians an 185000. It is not improbable but that those Assyrians were killed with Lightning For it was with respect to that tremendous Providence that those words were uttered Who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring Fire Isai. 33. 14. Ecclesiastical History informs us that the Iews being encouraged by the Apostate Iulian were resolved to re-build their Temple but Lightning from Heaven consumed not only their Work but all their Tools and Instruments wherewith that cursed Enterprize was to have been carried on so was their design utterly frustrate Why might not holy Angels have an hand in that Lightning There occurs to my mind a Remarkable Passage mentioned by Dr. Beard in his Chapter about the Protection of Holy Angels over them that fear God P. 443. he saith that a certain Man travelling between two Woods in a great Tempest of Thunder and Lightning rode under an Oak to shelter himself but his Horse would by no means stay under that Oak but whither his Master would or no went from that Tree and stayed very quietly under another Tree not far off he had not been there many Minutes before the first Oak was torn all to fitters with a fearful Clap of Thunder and Lightning Surely there was the invisible Guardianship of an Holy Angel in that Providence But though it be true that both natural Causes and Angels do many times concurre when Thunder and Lightning with the awful effects thereof happen nevertheless the supream cause must not be disacknoâ—ledged The Eternal himself has a mighty hand of providence in such works He thundreth with the voice of His Excellency Among the Greeks Thunder was stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Scripture calls it the Voice of the Lord. The God of Glory Thundereth The Voice of the Lord is very powerful the Voice of the Lord is full of Majesty the Voice of the Lord breaketh the Cedars the Voice of the Lord divideth the Flames of Fires Lightnings are also said to be the Arrows of God Psal. 18. 14. upon which account the Children of Men ought to dread the hand of the Highest therein And the more for that all places in the habitable World are exposed unto Dangers and Destruction by this Artillery of Heaven though some parts of the Earth are naturally subject thereunto more than others Acosta saith that it seldom Thunders about Brasil but such Lightnings are frequent there as make the Night appear brighter than the Noon Day Travellâ—rs report that there are some Snowy Mountains in Africa on which the Cracks of Thunder are so loud and vehement as that they are heard fifty Miles off at Sea In some parts of Tartaria it will both Snow and Thunder at the same time In the Northern Climates there
notice of a strange providence which came to pass of late years the particulars whereof are known to some who I suppose may be still living I find the History of the matter I intend in Mr. Clark's Examples Vol. 2. Page 18 19. It is in brief as followeth One Samuel Wallas of Stamford in Lincolnshire having been in a Consumption for thirteen years was worn away to a very skeleton and lay bed-rid for four years But April 7. 1659. being the Lords Day about 6 h. P. M. Finding himself somewhat revived he got out of the Bed and as he was reading a Book Entituled Abraham's suit for Sodom he heard some body knock at the Door Whereupon there being none then in the house but himself he took a staff in the one hand and leaning to the wall with the other came to the door and opening it a comely and grave old Man of a fresh complexion with white curled Hair entred and after walking several times about the room said to him Friend I perceive you are not well To whom Wallas replied he had been ill many years and that the Doctors said his Disease was a Consumption and past cure and that he was a poor Man and not able to follow their costly prescriptions only he committed himself and life into the hands of God to dispose of as he pleased To whom the Man replied Thou sayest very well be sure to fear God and serve him and remember to observe what now I say to thee Tomorrow morning go into the Garden and there take two leaves of red Sage and one of Blood-wort and put those three Leaves into a cup of small Beer and drink thereof as oft as need requires the fourth Morning cast away those Leaves and put in fresh ones thus do for twelve dayes together and thou shalt find e're these twelve dayes be expired through the help of God thy Disease will be cured and the frame of thy body altered Also he told him that after his strength was somewhat recovered he should change the Air and go three or four Miles off and that within a Moneth he should find that the Clothes which he had on his Back would then be too strait for him Having spoken these things he again charged Samuel Wallas to remember the Directions given to him but above all things to fear God and serve him Wallas asked him if he would eat anything unto whom he answered No Friend the Lord Christ is sufficient for me Seldom do I drink any thing but what cometh from the Rock So wishing the Lord of Heaven to be with him he departed Samuel Wallas saw him go out of the door and went to shut the door after him at which he returned half way into the Entry again saying Friend Remember what I have said to you and do it but above all fear God and serve him Wallas beheld the Man passing in the Street but none else observed him though some were then standing in the doors opposite to Wallas his House And although it Rained when this Grave Person came into the House and had done so all that day yet he had not one spot of wet or dirt upon him Wallas followed the Directions prescribed and was restored to his Health within the dayes mentioned The Fame of this strange Providence being noised abroad sundry Ministers met at Stamford to consider and consult about it who concluded that this cure was wrought by a good Angel sent from Heaven upon that Errand However it is not impossible but that Holy Angels may appear and visibly converse with some Yet for any to desire such a thing is unwarrantable and exceeding dangerous For thereby some have been imposed upon by wicked Daemens who know how to transform themselves into Angels of Light Bodinus hath a strange Relation of a Man that prayed much for the assistance of an Angel and after that for above thirty years together he thought his prayer was heard being often admonished of his Errors by a Caelestial Monitor as he apprehended who once appeared visibly in the form of a Child otherwhile in an orb of Light Would sometimes speak to him when he saw nothing Yet some fear that this Spirit which he took to be his good Genius was a subtle Cacodaemon Plato writeth concerning Socrates that he had a good Genius attending him which would still admonish him if he were about to do any thing that would prove ill or unhappy The Story of the Familiarity which was between Dr. Dee and Kellet with the Spirits which used to appear to them is famously known Those Daemons would pretend to discover rare Mysteries to them and at times would give them good Advices in many things so that they verily thought they had had extraordinary communion with Holy Angels when as it is certain they were deceived by subtile and unclean Devils since the Spirits they conversed with did at last advise them to break the seventh Commandment of the Moral Law Satan to insinuate himself and carry on a wicked design will sometimes seem to perswade Men unto great Acts of Piety Remigius and from him others write of a young Man whose Name was Theodore Maillot unto whom a Daemon appearing advised him to reform his life to abstain from Drunkenness Thefts Uncleanness and the like evils and to Fast twice a Week to be constant in attendance upon publick Worship and to be very charitable to the Poor The like pious Advice did another Daemon follow a certain Woman with unto whom he appeared Could a good Angel have given better Counsel but this was Satans policy hoping that thereby he should have gained an advantage to take silly Souls alive in his cruel Snare Like as Thieves upon the Road will sometimes enter into Religious Discourse that so their fellow-Travellers may have good thoughts of them and be the more easily dispoyled by them And as the evil Spirit will speak good Words so doth he sometimes appear in the likeness of good Men to the end that he may the more effectually deceive and delude all such as shall be so unhappy as to entertain converses with him No doubt but that he knows how to transform himself into the shape of not only an ordinary Saint but of an Apostle or holy Prophet of God 2 Cor. 11. 13 14. This we may gather from the sacred History of dead Samuel's appearing to Saul Some are of Opinion that real Samuel spake to Saul his Soul being by Magical incantations returned into his Body so divers of the Fathers and School-men also Mendoza Delrio and other Popish Authors Of late M. Glanvil and Dr. Windet do in part favour that notion But Tertullian and the Author of the Quest. and Respons which pass under the Name of Iustin Martyr are of the judgement that a lying Daemon appeared to Saul in Samuel's likeness Our Protestant Divines generally are of this judgment It was customary amongst the Gentiles for Magicians and Necromancers to cause dead persons to appear and
Some of the water was drawn out of this Pit with a Bucket and they found it to be as salt as Sea-water whence some imagine that there are certain large passages there into which the Sea flows under ground but I rather think that this Salt-water is no more but that which issues from those Salt Springs about Nantwich and other places in this Shire But of this no more at present Some Remarkable Land-floods have likewise hapned in New England Nor is that which came to pass this present year to be here wholly passed over in silence In the Spring time the great River at Connecticot useth to overflow but this year it did so after Midsummer and that twice For Iuly 20. 1683. A considerable Flood unexpectedly arose which proved detrimental to many in that Colony But on August 13. a second and a more dreadful Flood came The Waters were then observed to rise twenty six foot above their usual Boundaries The Grass in the Meadows also the English Grain was carried away before it The Indian Corn by the long continuance of the Waters is spoiled so that the four River Towns viz. Windsor Hartford Weathersfield Middle-Town are extream sufferers They write from thence that some who had hundreds of Bushels of Corn in the Morning at night had not one Peck left for their Families to live upon There is an awful intimation of Divine Displeasure Remarkable in this matter inasmuch as August 8. a day of publick Humiliation with Fasting and Prayer was attended in that Colony partly on the account of Gods hand against them in the former Flood the next week after which the hand of God was stretched out over them again in the same way after a more terrible manner then at first It is also Remarkable that so many places should suffer by inundations as this year it hath been For at the very same time when the Flood hapned at Connecticot there was an Hurricane in Virginia attended with a great exundation of the Rivers there so as that their Tobacco and their Indian Corn is very much damnified Moreover we have received Information this Summer that the mighty River Danow the biggest in Europe hath overflowed its Banks by means whereof many have lost their lives Also near Aix in France there lately hapned an unusual Flood whereby much harm was done and had the Waters continued rising but one hour longer the City had probably been destroyed thereby There was likewise a sudden and extraordinary Flood in Iamaico which drowned many both Men and Beast and was very detrimental to some Plantations there They that came lately from thence assure us that the Waters in some places arose an hundred and fifty foot Such mighty Streams did the Heavens suddenly power down upon them Thus doth the great God Who sits King upon the Floods for ever make the World see how many wayes he hath to punish them when it shall seem good unto him Many such things are with him There are who think that the last Comet and those more rare Conjunctions of the Superiour Planets hapning this Year have had a natural influence into the mentioned Inundations Concerning the Flood at Connecticot as for the more immediate natural cause some impute it to the great Rain which preceded Others did imagine that some more than usual Cataracts did fall amongst the Mountains there having been more Rain then what now fell sometimes when no such Flood has followed It is not impossible but that the Wind might be a secondary cause of this Calamity Judicious Observators write concerning the River Dee in Cheshire in England that though much Rain do fall it riseth but little but if the South Wind beat vehemently upon it then it swells and overflows the Grounds adjoyning extreamly the reason of which is that the River being broad towards the Sea when the Rain falls it hath a quick and easie passage but the South Wind brings the Sea in and doth somewhat stop the free passage of the River into the Sea Whether there might not be some such natural reason of the great Flood in Connecticot at this time the ingenious upon the place who know best how things are there circumstanced may consider With us in Boston it was then at first an Euroclydon but in the afternoon the Wind became Southerly when it blew with the greatest fierceness If it were so at Connecticot it seems very probable that the fury of the wind gave a check to the free passage of the River which caused the sudden overflowing of the Waters It has moreover been by some observed that the breaking forth of subterraneous Waters has caused very prodigious Floods Since the dayes of Noah when the Fountains of the great Deep were opened no History mentions a more surprizing and amazing Inundation than that which hapned five years ago at Gascoyn in France proceeding as t is probably judged from the irruption of Waters out of the Earth Concerning which Remarkable accident a judicious account is given in the late Philosophical Collections published by Mr. Robert Hook Page 9. There being but one of these Books in the Countrey the Ingenious will not blame me if I here insert what is there Related which is as followeth In the beginning of the Moneth of Iuly 1678. after some gentle rainy dayes which had not swelled the Waters of the Garonne more than usual one night this River swelled all at once so mightily that all the Bridges and Mills above Tolouse were carried away by it In the Plains which were below this Town the Inhabitants who had built in places which by long Experience they had found safe enough from any former Inundation were by this surprized some were drowned together with their Cattle others had not saved themselves but by climbing of Trees and getting to the tops of Houses and some others which were looking after their Cattle in the Field warned by the noise which this horrible and furious Torrent of Water rowling towards them with a swiftness like that of the Sea in Britain he means made at a distance could not scape without being overtaken though they fled with much precipitation this nevertheless did not last many hours with this violence At the same time Exactly the two Rivers only of Adour and Gave which fall from the Pyraenean Hills as well as the Geronne and some other small Rivers of Gascoyn which have their Source in the plain as the Gimone the Save and the Ratt overflowed after the same manner and caused the same Devastations But this Accident hapned not at all to the Aude the Ariege or the Arise which come from the Mountains of Toix only that they had more of the same then those of the Conseraut the Comminge the Bigorre Those who have heard talk of those Inundations at a distance were not at all astonished at it believing it to proceed from the violent Rains of some Tempests which had suddenly filled these Rivers or that they had caused a sudden