place of bliss and there abide with me a Member of that my Kingdom which thou askest for Now if the soulâ— of the godly after their death be immediately in a place of bliss and abide with Christ as Members of his Kingdom then they do not wander up and down here as Mr. Glanvil and the Papists vainly fancy and believe for as Chrysostome saith upon that place of Lazarus his being carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome What is it then that the Devils say I am the Soul of such a Monk Truly I therefore believe it not because the Devils say it for they deceive their Auditors 4. Or must I believe that the souls of the wicked do wander and make Apparitions here because Mr. Glanvil and the Popish Writers tell me so I hope not for the Text telleth us plainly that the rich man presently after his death was in Hell in torments and could not come hither unto earth again to warn his brethren otherwise he would not have prayed Abraham to have sent Lazarus And whether it be taken for a real History of things done or but a Parable yet the spiritual meaning of our Saviour must be infallibly true that immediately after death the souls of the godly are by Angels carried into Abrahams bosome and the wicked go down into Hell from whence there is no redemption and therefore do not wander up and down here nor make any Apparitions for I imagine that the authority of holy King David a Prophet and a man after Gods own heart is to be preferred before the authority of a thousand Popish Writers and he tells us when the child was dead But now he is dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me And Job tells us As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more he shall return to more to his house neither shall his place know him any more And therefore it was a vain argument of Bellarmine when he said Apparitiones animarum ex Purgatorio venientium idem testantur To which the Protestants answer But who shall bear witness of these Apparitions that they were not either feigned fables or Satanical illusions They were men and might be deceived even the best of them with whom doth rest the faith of these Narrations 5. And whereas he audaciously asketh Who saith that happy Souls were never imployed in any Ministeries here below I shall tell him who they are that say that happy Souls departed are never imployed here in any Ministeries and they are all the learned Divines of the Reformed Churches and all those that were true Sons of the Doctrine of the Church of England such as were Bishop Jewel Bishop Hall Dr. Willet Dr. Whitaker Mr. Perkins and many more such the authority and reputation of the least of which is far above the simple question of Mr. Glanvil And therefore saith the latter Confession of Helvetia Now that which is recorded of the Spirits or Souls of the dead sometimes appearing to them that are alive c. we count those Apparitions among the delusions and deceits of the Devil 5. And as the Scriptures are sufficient both in respect of matters of Faith and concerning divine Worship that their silence in those two particulars are fully argumentative to deny whatever is not contained in them as unfit to be received to either purpose So in respect of a Christians warfare all things for the obtaining of a perfect and compleat victory and for standing and perseverance are in them fully declared and what they mention not is to be rejected as wanting the seal of Divine Authority whether it be in regard of eschewing what is prohibited or in following what is commanded And therefore we affirm that what the Scriptures have not revealed of the power of the Kingdom of Satan is to be rejected and not to be believed and what weapons we are to use against the wiles of the Devil we are to be furnished withal but have need of no others but what the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures hath made known unto us the rest are to be cast off as fables and lyes or humane inventions because the Scriptures are silent of any such matter and that for these weighty grounds and considerations 1. We shall take the Concession of Bellarmine himself who saith Nullum est vitium ad quod sanandum non invenitur in Scriptura aliquod remedium And again Illa quae sunt simpliciter omnibus necessaria Apostoli consueverunt omnibus praedicare aliorum quae sunt omnibus utilia And to the same purpose is the saying of St. Austin Titubat sides si divinarum Scripturarum vacillet authoritas porrò fide titubante etiam ipsa charitas laâ—guescit Therefore if there be no fault for which the Scripture doth not yield some remedy then surely to make a visible League with the Devil or to have carnal Copulation with him either must have no verity at all in it or that the Scripture hath provided no remedy for it for of such things there is no mention And if Faith must stumble where the authority of the Scriptures is wanting then surely the belief of all rational men must needs be staggering to believe what these common Witchmongers affirm of the Witches visible League and carnal Copulation with the Devil when there is no authority of Scripture at all to strengthen or countenance any such matter 2. The Scriptures do fully and abundantly inform us of the Devils spiritual and invisible power and against the same declares unto us the whole Armor of God with which we ought to be furnished as the Apostle saith Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand And the Apostle St. Peter telleth us Be sober â—e vigilant because your adversary the deâ—il like a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour whom resist stedfast in the faith And in another place For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God From which Scriptures we may take these remarkable observations 1. We are to consider the nature of this Warfare that it is spiritual and against spiritual wickedness in high places and not against flesh and blood and the Holy Ghost could not be wanting nor defective but superabundantly full in describing the nature of this warfare that it is spiritual not
the contrary and therefore it could not be either the true Samuel nor his Soul 8. It is manifest that the Lord had before withdrawn his good Spirit from Saul and an evil one from the Lord was come upon him and therefore it was no way probable that the Lord would in a miraculous manner answer such a wicked person whom he had utterly rejected as a reprobate Neither is it like that God would shew him an extraordinary favour by a dead Prophet that would not vouchsafe him his Spirit in an ordinary way And Samuel that came not at him for a long time though but a little distance asunder while he lived was not like to make so long a journey in a Divine errand to visit him after his death 9. And if Abraham at the request of the rich Man would not send Lazarus to warn his brethren lest they should come into that place of torment which bore with it a fair shew both of Charity and Piety much less would God give way or Samuel be desirous to come to send a blessed Soul from its rest for such a frivolous matter and in no wise to connive at the wickedness of both Saul and the Witch and never move either of them to the amendment of their lives 10. Where doth Mr. Glanvil find it mentioned in any part of Scripture or where is it recorded in the writings of any reformed or Orthodoxal Divines or where in any of their works is it declared that ever any blessed Soul after death was either sent or did come upon a Divine errand to any here below Is it not monstrous confidence not to say impudence to utter such groundless assertions without any proof reason or authority at all Let all learned and judicious persons consider and judge 3. That the Devil assumed the shape of Samuel and acted the whole business is the opinion of all or the most of the learned Divines of the reformed Churches of whom we shall crave pardon if we dissent from them it being no fundamental of Religion nor any Article of the Faith And this we profess is not done out of the spirit of contradiction nor for singularity but only because as we conceive the Tenent hath no sufficient grounds neither from Scripture nor sound reason to support it and therefore we shall labour its confutation by these ensuing arguments 1. Because this opinion that the Devil should perform this apparition doth beg two suppositions never yet sufficiently proved and that have in them no certain truth For first they take for an Hypothesis that Devils are meerly and simply incorporeal Spirits which we shall prove hereafter to be false Secondly they take for another Hypothesis that Spirits and Devils can assume what bodies they please and appear in any figure or shape which is a meer figment invented by the doating Schoolmen as we shall sufficiently make good hereafter 2. We are not of their opinion that think that the Devils do move and rove up and down in this elementary world at their pleasure to act what they list and appear when how and in what shapes they please for then the World would be full of nothing almost but apparitions and every corner replenished with their ludicrous tricks as formerly in the times of blind Popery and ignorance there was no discourse almost but of Fairies Hobgoblins apparitions Spirits Devils and Souls ranting in every house and playing feats in every Town and Village when it was nothing but the superstitious credulity and ignorant fancies of the people joined with the Impostures of the Priests and Monks And if this were true then how should Men know a true natural substance or body from these fictitious apparitions Nay how could a Man have known his Father or Mother his Brethren or Sisters his Kinsmen or Neighbours might they not as well have believed them to be Phantasms and assumed bodies as real and true creatures 3. But though faln Angels in respect of their malice wicked wills and envious desires whereby they seek as much as in them lies the ruine of all mankind both in Soul and Body may in that particular end and regard be said to be like roaring Lions going about and seeking whom they may devour and compassing the earth and walking to and fro in it yet we must affirm that in respect of executing their wicked envious and malicious wills and desires they are restrained nay kept in the chains of everlasting darkness from which fetters and chains they go not out but when and so far as they are sent ordered licensed or as some would have it worded permitted by the purpose and decree of the Divine and Almighties providence So that it is most certain that the faln Spirits cannot go forth of their chains when they list to act what mischief they would contrary to the will of the Almighty who hath fettered and still keeps them in those chains but when they are at any time let loose it is only by the will decree licence and order of Jehovah who sends them forth to accomplish his will either for punishment to the wicked to inflict upon them his just judgments for which they are the appointed ministers and executioners and in the performance of these offices of his wrath they are limited and bounded how far they shall proceed and no further or else they are sent forth to tempt or afflict the godly for the trial of their faith and herein they are so restrained and bounded by the power of the Almighty as they cannot act one jot beyond the limit of his commands or Commissions as is manifest in the case of David who was tempted by Satan to number the people and in the affliction of Job wherein he was bounded how far he should act and no further And when the evil Angels are thus sent forth and limited by God what and how far they shall act it is always for just and righteous ends as in the case of Ahab when a lying Spirit was sent by God into the mouths of his Prophets that he might be persuaded to go up to Ramath Gilead that he might be slain there or as it was for a judgment and destruction upon Sennacheribs Army that Jerusalem might be saved and freed and he sent back with shame and confusion into his own countrey or it is to manifest his glory goodness and mercy to his Saints so David was moved to number the people that falling under that temptation and he and the people therefore plagued might be brought to a greater degree of repentance and to know that their defence stood not in the multitude of men but in the benignity of Jehovah who was their strength and their defender and so Job was so sore afflicted that his Faith and Patience might be made manifest and remain for an example to all succeeding posterities But it is utterly irrational and incredible that God would send the Devil without whose mission he could not have done it to
old Hereticks that held that God had Eyes Ears Head Hands and Feet and the like had an easie notion of it conceiving him to have humane members but I hope the Doctor will not say that this notion of theirs was a notion truly drawn from the nature and being of God because there is no corporeity in him at all And it is and hath been the Tenent of all Orthodox Divines Ancient Middle and Modern that God in his own nature and being is infinite and incomprehensible and therefore there can no true and adequate notion of him as being so be duly and rightly gathered in the understanding of creatures and so the Doctors position or notion must needs be Phantastry and imaginary Enthusiasm For as there are many things in nature that in themselves are finite and comprehensible that as he grants of naked essence or substance are utterly unconceivable to any of our faculties much more must the being of God that is infinite and incomprehensible which are attributes that are incommunicable be utterly unconceivable to any of our faculties And it is but the vain pride of Mans Head and Heart thereby to magnifie his own abilities whereas the Text doth pronounce this of him For vain man would be wise though he be born like a wild ass colt that lifts him up to conceit that he can fathom and comprehend the Infinite and Almighty whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain and therefore cannot frame a true notion of him whom perfectly he doth not understand nor comprehend and the attributes of God are matters of Faith and not the weak deductions of humane reason 3. Those that seem to idolize humane abilities and carnal reason have not only applied those so much magnified Engines to the discovery of created things wherein they have effected so little that sufficiently proclaims the invalidity of the instruments or the inauspicious application of them or both all the several sorts of Natural Philosophy hitherto found out or used being examined coming far short of solving the Phaenomena of nature when even the least animal or vegetable affords matter enough to puzle and non-plus the greatest Philosopher so that we may justly complain with Seneca that the greatest part of those things we know are the least part of those things we know not These engines I say though proving ineffectual to find out the true notions and knowledge of natural things have also like the fiction of the Gyants notwithstanding invaded Heaven and taken upon them to discover and determine of Celestials wherein it is in a manner totally blind or sees but with an Owl-like vision For indeed the deciding of this point must be taken from the Divine authority of the Scriptures and the clear deductions that may be drawn from thence for this is that clear light that we ought to follow and not the Dark-lanthorn of Mans blind frail and weak reason for it is a sure word of Prophecie whereunto it is good to take heed and not to vain Philosophy old Wives Fables or opposition of Sciences falsly so called And therefore we shall conclude this point here concerning the corporeity or incorporeity of Angels with that Christian and learned position of Dr. Stillingfleet in these words But although Christianity be a Religion which comes in the highest way of credibility to the minds of Men although we are not bound to believe any thing but what we have sufficient reason to make it appear that it is revealed by God yet that any thing should be questioned whether it be of Divine revelation meerly because our reason is to seek as to the full and adequate conception of it is a most absurd and unreasonable pretence 4. In handling this point of the corporeity or incorporeity of Angels we do here once for all exclude and except forth of our discourse and arguments the humane and rational Soul as not at all to be comprised in these limits and that especially for these reasons 1. Because the humane Soul had a peculiar kind of Creation differing from the Creation of other things as appeareth in the words of the Text. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Upon which the note of Tremellius and Junius is anima verò hominis spiritale quiddam est divinum 2. Because I find Solomon the wisest of Men making this question who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth 3. Because it is safer to believe the nature of the Soul to be according to the Analogy of Faith and the concurrent opinion of the learned than to sift such a deep question by our weak understanding and reason So having premised these things and left this as a general exception and caution we shall proceed to the matter intended in this order 1. We lay it down for a most certain and granted truth that God simply and absolutely is only a most simple spirit in whom there is no corporeity or composition at all and what other things soever that are called or accounted spirits are but so in a relative and respective consideration and not in a simple and absolute acceptation And this is the unanimous Tenent of the Fathers Schoolmen and all other Orthodox Divines agreeing with the plain and clear words of the Scripture as God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth And again Now the Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty Therefore we shall lay down this following proposition 2. That Angels being created substances are not simply and absolutely incorporeal but if they be by any called or accounted spirits it can but be in a relative and respective sense but that really and truly they are corporeal And this we shall labour to make good not only by shewing the absurdities of that opinion of their being simply spiritual but in laying open the unintelligibility of that opinion and by answering the most material objections 1. And first to begin at the lowest step Body is a thing that affecteth the senses most plainly and feelingly for though many bodies are so pure as the air aether steams of the Load-stone and many other steams of bodies that they escape the sight of our eyes yet are they either manifest to our feeling or otherwise made manifest by some sensible effect operation or the like yet for all this the intrinsick nature of body as such is utterly unknown unto us for when we speak of the extension of body as its Characteristical property we do but conceive of its superficial dimensions its internal nature quatenus Corpus being utterly unknown unto us it being a certain truth that Quidditates rerum non sunt cognoscibiles and as Dr Moore granteth the naked essence or substance of a thing
Nature no not of those whereby the propagation of the Gospel might have been much advanced viz. the Mystery of Printing and the Magnet and yet no one useth his silence in these instances as an argument against the being of things which are evident objects of sense To which we answer 1. He falleth into a common mistake in making the Proposition universal and dolus versatur in universalibus when it ought but to be particular so for him to say that no silence of Scripture is argumentative is too universal for its silence in point of Geography as in describing America and the people thereof nor in discovering the Magnalia Naturae Artis is not argumentative and we do not say that all silence of Scripture is argumentative but yet we affirm that some silence of Scripture is argumentative So we cannot universally say that nothing hath a being but what is mentioned in Scripture but we may very well affirm that some things have no being of truth of existence because not declared in Scripture 2. The Scriptures were not written to teach Naural Philosophy Arts or Sciences humane Policy or the like but were given that the man of God might be perfect furnished for every good work and it is by them that we have the doctrine of eternal Salvation revealed unto us and we positively affirm the sufficiency of the Scriptures unto Salvation which thing no Orthodox Divine we suppose will deny and Bellarmine himself did confess in these words Prophetici Apostolici libri sunt verum verbum Dei ac stabilis regula fidei And if it be a certain Rule of Faith and the true Word of God then whatsoever it is silent of we ought not to believe and so its silence is argumentative in that point The Scriptures are utterly silent concerning Purgatory and therefore it is a good argument to affirm there is no such place as Purgatory because the Word of God is silent as concerning it but if it had been necessary to have been believed then there would have been mention made of it 3. And as the Scriptures are sufficient in matters of Faith and circa credenda and what they are silent in are not to be received as Articles of our Faith but to be rejected as having no truth of Existence So likewise what Worship God requireth of his people is fully revealed in his Word and therefore I am to reject the worshipping of Mahomet with the Turks or Images and praying to Saints with the Papists because I have neither precept nor president in the Word but it is silent in such matters nay tells us That he is the Lord our God and him only we ought to serve 4. Though Mr. Glanvil say that God hath given no account of the state of the other World but only that general one of the happiness of some and the misery of others yet Am I to believe as Mr. Glanvil somewhere in his Book affirmeth that Samuels Soul was raised up by the Woman at Endor and that those that he feigneth to make Leagues and Contracts with Witches are the Souls of such as had been Witches when they lived and asketh Who saith that happy Souls were never imployed in any ministeries here below Or am I to believe that both the Souls of the godly and wicked do rove up and down here upon earth and make Apparitions because the Popish Teachers do hold it to be so I hope not and therefore I shall in part give an answer here to some of these and handle that of the Woman of Endor in another place 1. The Word of God doth particularly teach us the state and condition of the Souls after death that they shall be like the Angels in Heaven and all other things necessary to move and draw us to believe the immortal Existence of Souls as that most able and learned Divine Dr. Stillingfleet hath asserted in these words The Scriptures give the most faithful representation of the state and condition of the Soul of Man The World he saith was almost lost in Disputes concerning the Nature Condition and Immortality of the Soul before divine Revelation was made known to Mankind by the Gospel of Christ but life and immortality was brought to light by the Gospel and the future state of the soul of man not discovered in an uncertain Platonical way but with the greatest light and evidence from that God who hath the supreme disposal of souls and therefore best knows and understands them A Sentence truly pious and orthodoxal 2. Hath not God in the holy Scriptures amply and plainly taught us the state of the other World in describing unto us such a numerous company of Sâ—raphims and Cherubims Angels and Archangels with their several Orders Offices Ministeries and Imployments and this is more than a general account as may be seen at full in that learned and godly Piece of Bishop Halls called The invisible World And hath he not given us a particular account of the very Kingdom of Darkness telling us of the Devil and his Angels and precisely in this enumeration For we wrestle not with flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiâ—al wickedness in high places And this is more than a general account and we must needs fay that what he holds is very derogatory to the wisdom and goodness of God and the sufficiency and truth of the Scriptures 3. Must I believe him that the souls of the Saints do rove and wander here below when as Bishop Hall saith where he is speaking against the opinion of those that hold that Souls do sleep until the Day of Judgment Indeed who can but wonder that any Christian can possibly give entertainment to so absurd a thought whilst he hears his Saviour say Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with â—e where I am and that not in a safe sleep they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Sure if the Souls departed be with Christ where he is and do behold his glory then it is a Popish Fable of Mr. Glanvil to feign their coming upon Messages hither The saying of St. Bernard is remarkable in this case Advertisâ—is 〈◊〉 esse sanctarum status animarum primum videlicet in coâ—pore 〈◊〉 â—cundum sinâ— corpore tertium in corpore jam glorificatoâ— Primum in militiâ— secundum in requie tertium in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if the second state of holy Souls bâ— without 〈◊〉 body and be at peace and rest then it must necessarily be a truth that they do not wander here nor run upon Errands For the souls of the righteous are in the hands of the Lord and there shall no torment touch theâ— And our Saviour told the Thief upon the Cross This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise that is as Dr. Hammond giveth the Paraphrase Immediately after thy death thou shalt go to a
Fascination and then diabolical is but in vain and needless 7. How can the Witches if not maniacal in the highest degree believe that the Devil who is a Lyar and the Father of lyes and whom they cannot but know hath in the like cases deceived many that have in their opinion made contracts with him will prove true in the performance of his promise Or that he who is the enemy of all truth and goodness and laboureth to deceive all Mankind will be faithful to perform his promise or to do them any good either real or apparent Or if the Witches be not incredibly mad can they believe that he will perform without Hostages Bonds-men or Sureties when we find that the weakest and maddest of Mortals if he make a Covenant with another of known loosness and deceit though for a thing of a far less value than either soul or body will he not require sufficient Bonds-men and Security Now what Bonds-men or Security can the Witches have 8. And if the Witches be not beyond measure deluded and mad must they not rationally know that if the Devil deceive them as he is sure to do there is no recompence to be had nor any that can compel him to perform bargains Before what Judicature before what Judges by what Law must they call him to an account or have him punished So that in all reason and sound judgment we must conclude the Witches to be absolutely mad and then all these things also madness lyes and folly or that there is not nor ever was any such League or Covenant 9. But if all this were granted yet who are the Witnesses to this visible League or Covenant can the Witches name or find any The things that cannot be proved by sufficient Witnesses are never to be believed and we have proved the nullity impossibility and falsity of the pretended Confessions of Witches themselves and therefore that no credit at all ought to be given unto them and however no Law nor Equity ought to allow the Evidence of a Party as in these cases all Witches are And though some few of them have been so exceedingly mad to make such false and absurd Confessions yet if the Records of all Ages and Courts were sought it will be found that many hundreds of them have suffered that never confessed the least tittle of any such matter and the supposed Witches of Salmesbury in the County of Lancaster the tenth year of the Raign of King James were so far from this confession that they were cleared and the accusation found to be false and all acted by the imposture of one Thompson or Christopher Southworth And I my self have known two supposed Witches to have been put to death at Lancaster within these eighteen years that did utterly deny any such League or ever to have seen any visible Devil at all and may not the confession of these who both dyed penitently be as well credited as the confessions of those that were brought to such confessions by force fraud or cunning perswasion and allurements But if there be any such League or Covenant betwixt the Witches and the Devil how cometh the truth of this matter of fact if ever there were or could be any such thing to be certainly known and revealed Have any of the Pen-men of the holy Scriptures recorded that there ever was is or can be any such League or Contract Or was it ever attested by any honest rational men that were ear or eye-witnesses of such a bargain and contract Therefore we must once again conclude De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem est ratio 10. As for the Witches either Males or Females having carnal Copulation with Devils either as an Incubus or Succubus and their stealing of seed from a man and conveying it into the vessels of the woman it is in it self so horrid monstrous and incredible that I cannot well believe him to be a rational person or sanae mentis that believes it as a truth and therefore cannot but think the rehearsal of it a sufficient confutation Also herein I do appeal to all learned Physicians who do know the way that Nature breeds humane seed the causes that make it prolifical and the members fit for its generation and reception who I doubt not will deride this Tenent and condemn it as false and abominable Moreover the horrid absurdity of it hath been sufficiently demonstrated by Wierus Dr. Tandlerus Mr. Scot Mr. Wagstaff and others and therefore all we shall say is this That Devils whether conceived to be corporeal or incorporeal and to assume bodies for the one it must of necessity be were not created of God to generate neither have they nor can have any seed or members fit for generation and therefore to copulate or generate is derogatory from the glory of Nature and blasphemous against God and his Power As for the Devils sucking the Teats Warts or such like excrescences of the Witches bodies we should have passed it over as easily as the former but only that Mr. Glanvil hath taken up the Cudgels to defend it to confute which we shall give these satisfactory Reasons 1. There can be no rational end assigned why the Devil should perform this action for we must tell Mr. Glanvil that supposals are no proofs and ex suppositis supposita consequuntur and in a thing of this nature arguments to prove it probable are insufficient And if as he confesseth for their being suckt by the Familiar I say he saith We know so little of the Nature of Demons and Spirits that 't is no wonder we cannot certainly divine the reason of so strange an action Now if he knew so little of their Nature it must needs be vanity and arrogance to take upon him to declare so much and if he could not certainly divine the reason of so strange an act it was extreme folly and pride in him to bring in idle and vain conjectures and probability where verity and certainty are expected One while he supposeth them corporeal which if granted will not prove that they are recreated by the reeks and vapours of humane blood because their bodies are of a more pure Nature than to be nourished with gross and sometimes especially in melancholick old men and women corrupted blood for if every thing be nourished by its like then they cannot be fed with humane blood for they have no flesh nor bones such as ours that have need to be nourished with blood And for his next perhaps and may be that it is a diabolical Sacrament we shall believe it when he proves it and not before But he hath a third supposal which to him seemeth most probable viz. That the Familiar doth not only suck the Witch but in the action infuseth some poysonous ferment into her If this had been most probable why did he bring in the other two that are less probable surely he might have known that srustra fit per
most strangely fabulous and therefore are by no means to be relied upon as will most manifestly appear by undeniable reasons if we examine them in divided members in this order 1. The Histories and relations that are given either by the Poets or most of the ancient Philosophers of these things are so seemingly impossible and so extreamly fictitious as he must of necessity have in a manner totally forsaken his own reason that can give any credit at all unto them And especially they are so fraught with the horrible fables of the numerousness of their feigned gods demigods spirits hobgoblins Lares Lemures Mens shadows and the like that they would make a man believe that the world was full of nothing else and this was chiefly done to uphold their Idolatrous and superstitious Religion And all these kind of authors that have written from the time of Homer until the end of the ages in which the two Plinies and Plutarch lived have but run the same course all their relations tasting of the leaven of impossibilities superstition and fabulousness 2. And if we look into the Pontificial Writers especially those that have recorded stories of this nature since the sixth century we shall find such a Rhapsodie and heap of Bombast lies and invented fables both of apparitions and Witches that no rational man can well give assent to one of a thousand of them they seem so incredible that they would rather make a wise man diffident of all such matters of fact than to yield credit to any And a man might as reasonably believe the forged and lying miracles of Mahomet as those monkish fables For the extream desire that those Authors had to advance their false and feigned Doctrine of Purgatory and thereby to uphold the gain and benefit that was gotten by injoining such and such penances and eleemosynary deeds to redeem Souls from thence did drive them on to invent thousands of false stories of the apparitions of Souls after death which had not one jot of truth in them at all 3. Those that are called the Reformed Divines because they returned to that pure and true Doctrine and Worship that had been settled and practised in those foregoing ages that were truly Catholick and Apostolick being altogether intent about the main and principal points of the Faith and those that concerned the true worship of God did take little heed to the matters of this nature as being more circumstantial and therefore not by them accounted so essential and necessary From whence it came to pass that Lambertus Danaeus Hemmingius Erastus and others did without due examination and circumspection receive the opinions and stories of the Papists hand over head From whence I conceive it came to pass that Ludovicus Lavaterus a learned Divine of the reformed Religion at Zurich did write a book of apparitions and such matters but brought no other proofs of the truth of these things de facto but the often repeated stories of Heathenish Authors and some few from Ecclesiastick Authors that are of dubious credit but not any one of his own knowledge 6. But if we come to consider the Histories of late that are reported of apparitions and such like things that must of necessity have something in them that resembles a supernatural cause we may in part receive more ample satisfaction which will be manifest in these few following particulars 1. Meric Casaubon Doctor of Divinity in his treatise of Credulity and Incredulity sometimes by us quoted before hath strongly indeavoured to make good all those impossible and absurd things that are ascribed unto Witches which though he hath pitifully failed to perform yet hath he said enough that may serve to prove that there are many strange things that seem to prove the being of Demons or Spirits though he have not brought any one story of his own knowledge or that was done in his time And we have shewed before that apparitions are no certain ground for Christians to believe the existence of Demons by but the word of God But in his Preface to that piece of the relation concerning Dr. Dee he relateth two stories told by that venerable and learned Prelate Bishop Andrews to his Father Isaac Casaubon The one he saith concerning a noted or at least by many suspected Witch or Sorceress which the Devil in a strange shape did wait upon or for rather at her death The other concerning a Man who after his death was restored to life to make confession of a horrible murther committed upon his own Wife for which he had never been suspected And both these he saith that learned Bishop did believe to be true but for one of them it seems he did undertake upon his own knowledge to wit that of the apparition and the other he had from an eye-witness And considering the condition of Bishop Andrews both for learning and piety the relations are of much weight and they may be seen at large in the forecited Preface 2. I cannot but much wonder that Dr. Henry Moore a grave person and one that for many years hath resided in a most learned and flourishing Academy whose name is much taken notice of both at home and abroad having published so many books should make such bad choice of the Authors from whom he takes his stories or that he should pitch upon those that seem so fabulous impossible and incredible And that I may not seem to tax him without cause I desire the Reader to peruse his two relations the one of the Shoomaker of Breslaw in Silesia Anno 1591. the other of Johannes Cuntiâ— a Citizen of Pentsh in Silesia and to tell whether he can rationally believe those things either to have been true or possible And as for the Author Martinus Weinrichius a Silesian Physician I cannot find any thing either of his fame or writings and it is most strange that he should be omitted by that diligent and unpartial Author Melchior Adams And there had been far better Authors and of more credit to have pitcht upon for such like stories than either Bodinus or Remigius neither can there be much credit given to any of the stories that he relates except it be that of the Pied-Piper which some do interpret far otherwise 3. There was a Treatise called the Devil of Mascon or a true relation of the chief things which an unclean spirit did and said at Mascon in Burgundy in the House of M r Francis Perreaud Minister of the reformed Church in the same Town written by the said Perreaud soon after the Apparition which was in the year 1612. but was not published until the year 1653. which was 41. years after the thing was said to be acted It seems it was translated by D r Peter Du Moulin the Son of the learned and reverend Peter Du Moulin at the request of the honourable and learned person M r Boyle The most of the things had been known unto M r Du Moulin the Father when he was