reasonable that a man changing the frame of his minde changes his Genius withall Or rather unless a man be very sincere and single-hearted that he is left to common Providence as well as if he be not desperately wicked or deplorably miserable scarce any particular evill Spirit interposes or offers himself a perpetuall Assistent in his affaires and fortunes But extreme Poverty irksome old Age want of Friends the Contempt Injury and Hardheartednesse of evill Neighbours working upon a Soul low sunk into the body and wholy devoid of the Divine life does sometimes kindle so sharp so eager and so piercing a desire of Satisfaction and Revenge that the shreeks of men while they are a murdering the howling of a Wolf in the fields in the night or the squeaking and roring of tortured Beasts do not â—o certainly call to them those of their own kinde as this powerfull Magick of a pensive and complaining soul in the bitternesse of it's affliction attracts the ayd of these over-officious Spirits So that it is most probable that they that are the forwardest to â—ang Witches are the first that made them and have no more goodnesse nor true piety then these they so willingly prosecute but are as wicked as they though with better luck or more discretion offending no further then the Law will permit them and therefore they securely starve the poor helpless man though with a great deal of clamour of justice they will revenge the death of their Hogg or Cow Thirdly it were worth our disquisition why Spirits so seldome now adayes appear especially those that are good whether it be not the wickednesse of the present Age as I have already hinted or the generall prejudice men have against all Spirits that appear that they must be straightwayes Divells or the frailty of humane nature that is not usually able to bear the appearance of a Spirit no more then other Animalls are for into what agonies Horses and Doggs are cast upon their approach is in every ones mouth and is a good circumstance to distinguish a reall Apparition from our own Imaginations or lastly whether it be the condition of Spirits themselves who it may be without some violence done to their own nature cannot become visible it being happily as troublesome a thing to them to keep themselves in one steady visible consistency in the aire as it is for men that dive to hold their breath in the water Fourthly it may deserve our search whether Spirits have any settled forme or shape Angells are commonly pictured like good plump cherâ—y-cheek'd Lads Which is no wondâ—r the boldnesse of the same Artists not sticking to picture God Almighty in the shape of an old man In both it is as it pleases the Painter But this story seems rather to favour their opinion that say that Angells and seperate Sâ—uls have no settled forme but what they please to give themselves upon occasion by the power of their own Phansy Ficinuâ— as I remember somewhere calls them Aereall Starres And the good Genii seem to me to be as the benigne Eyes of God running to and fro in the world with love and pitty beholding the innocent endeavours of harmlesse and single-hearted men ever ready to doe them good and to help them What I conceive of separate Soules and Spirits I cannot better expresse then I have already in my Poem of the Prâ—existency of the Soul And I hope it will be no sin to be better then my word who in my Preface have promissed no Poetry at all but I shall not think much to offer to your view these two Stanzas out of the forenamed Poem Like to a light fast lock'd in Lanthorn dark Whereby by Night our wary steps we guide In slabby streets and dirty Chanels mark Some wâ—aker rayes from the black top do glide And flusher streams perhaps through th' horny side But when we 've past the perill of the way Arriv'd at home and laid that case aside The naked light how clearly doth it ray And spread its joyful beames as bright as Summer's day Even so the Soul in this contracted state Confin'd to these straight Instruments of Sense More dull and narrowly doth operate At this hole heares the Sight must ray from thence Here tasts there smells But when she 's gone from hence Like naked Lamp she is one shining Spheare And round about has perfect cognoscence What ere in her Horizon doth appear She is one Orb of sense all Eye all airy Eear And what I speak there of the condition of the Soul out of the Body I think is easily applicable to other Genâ—i or Spirits The fift Enquiry may be how these good Genâ—i become serviceable to men for either heightening their Devotions or inabling them to Prophecy whether it can be by any other way then by descending into their bodies and possessing the heart and braine For the Euchites who affected the gift of Prophecy by familiarity with evill Spirits did utterly obliterate in their Souls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Principles of Goodnesse and Honesty as you may see in Psellus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the evill Spirits might come into their bodies whom those sparks of virtue as they said would drive away but those being extinguish'd they could come in and possess them and inable them to prâ—phecy And that the Imps of Witches do sometimes enter their own bodies as well as their's to whom they send them is plain in the Story of the Witches of Warbois It is also the opinion of Trismegist that these Spirits get into the Veines and Arteries both of men and beasts Wherefore concerning the Dreames and Visions of this holy man that so freely imparted himself to Bodinus it may be conceived reasonable that the good Genius insinuated himself into his very Body as well as the bad into the bodies of the wicked and that residing in his braine and figuring of it by thinking of this or that Object as we ourselves figure it when we think the external senses being laid asleep those figurations would easily be represented to the Common sense and that Memory recovering them when he awaked they could not but seem to him as other Dreames did saving that they were better they ever signifying some thing of importance unto him But those Raptures of Devotion by day might be by the Spirits kindling a purer kinde of Love-flame in his heart as well as by fortifying and raising his Imagination And how far a man shall be carried beyond himself by this redoubled soul in him none I think can well conceive unlesse they had the experience of it And if this be their manner of communion it may well be enquired into in the sixt place whether all men be capable of consociation with these good Genii Cardan somewhere intimates that their approaches are deprehensible by certain sweet smells they cast From whence it may seem not improbable that those bodies that smell sweet themselves where the mind does
divine Providence strikes through all things And therefore things being contrived with such exquisite Curiosity as if the most watchfull wisdome imaginable did attend them to say they are thus framed without the assistance of some Principle that has Wisdome in it that they come to passe from Chance or some other blind unknowing Originall is sullenly and humorously to assert a thing because we will assert it and under pretense of avoyding Superstition to fall into that which is the onely thing that makes Superstition it self hatefull or ridiculous that is a wilfull and groundlesse adhering to conceits without any support of Reason And now I have considered the fitnesse of the parts of Mans Body for the good of the whole let me but consider briefly the fitnesse of the Passions of his Minde whether proper or common to him with the rest of Animalis as also the fitness of the whole Man as he is part of the Vniverse and then I shall conclude And it is manifest that Anger does so actuate the Spirits and heightens the Courage of men and beasts that it makes them with more ease break through the difficulties they incounter Feare also is for the avoyding of danger and Hope is a pleasant praemeditation of enjoyment as when a Dog expects till his Master has done picking of the bone But there is neither Hope nor Feare nor Hate nor any peculiar Passion or Instinct in Brutes that is in vaine why should we then think that Nature should miscarry more in us then in any other Creature or should be so carefull in the Fabrick of our Body and yet so forgetfull or unlucky in the framing of the faculties of our Soules that that Feare that is so peculiarly naturall to us viz. the feare of a Deity should be in vaine and that pleasant Hope and Heavenly Joyes of the mind which man is naturally capable of with the earnest direction of his Spirit towards God should have no reall Object in the world And so Religious affection which Nature has so plainly implanted in the Soul of Man should be to no use but either to make him ridiculous or miserable Whenas we find no Passion or Affection in Brutes either common or peculiar but what is for their good and welfare For it is not for nothing that the Hare is so fearfull of the Dog the Sheep of the Wolfe it there be either Fear or Enmity in some Creatures for which we cannot easily discerne any reason in respect of themselves yet we may well allow of it as reasonable in regard of us and to be to good purpose But I thinke it is manifest that Sympathy and Antipathy Love and Enmity Aversation Feare and the like that they are notable whetters and quickners of the Spirit of life in all Animalls and that their being obnoxious to dangers and encounters does more closely knit together the vitall Powers and makes them more sensibly relish their present safety and they are more pleased with an Escape then if they had never met with any Danger Their greedy assaults also one upon another while there is hope of Victory highly gratifies them both And if one be conquer'd and slaine the Conquerour enjoyes a fresh improvement of the pleasure of life the Triumph over his Enemy Which things seeme to me to be contriv'd even in the behalf of these Creatures themselves that their vitall heat and moysture may not alwayes onely simber in one sluggish tenour but some times boyle up higher and seeth over the fire of life being more then ordinarily kindled upon some emergent occasion But it is without Controversy that these peculiar Passions of Animalls many of them are usefull to Men as that of the Lizards enmity against the Serpent all of them highly gratify his contemplative faculty some seem on purpose contriv'd to make his Worship merry For what could Nature intend else in that Antipathy betwixt the Ape and Snayle that that Beast that seems so boldly to claime kinred of Man from the resemblance of his outward shape should have so little Wit or Courage as to runne away from a Snayl and very â—ufully and frightfully to look back as being affraid she would follow him as Erasmus more largely and pleasantly tells the whole story But that Nature should implant in Man such a strong Propension to Religion which is the Reverence of a Deity there being neither God nor Angell nor Spirit in the world is such a Slurre committed by her as there can be in no wise excogitated any Excuse For if there were a higher Species of things to laugh at us as wee doe aâ— the Ape it might seem more tolerable But there can be no End neither ludicrous nor serious of this Religious property in Man unlesse there be something of an higâ—er Nature then himself in the world Wherefore Religion being convenient to no other Species of things besides Man it ought to be convenient at least for himself But supposing there were no God there can be nothing worse for Man then Religion For whether we look at the Externall Effects thereof such as are bloudy Massacres the disturbance and subversion of Common-weales Kingdomes and Empires most salvage Tortures of particular persons the extirpating and dispossessing of whole Nations as it hath hapned in America where the remorselesse Spaniards in pretense of being educated in a better Religion then the Americans vilifyed the poor Natives so much that they made nothing of knocking them o th' head merely to feed their doggs with them with many such unheard of crueltyes Or whether we consider the great affliction that that severe Governess of the life of Man brings upon those Souls she seizes on by affrighting horrours of Conscience by puzzeling and befooling them in the free use of their Reason and putting a barre to more large searches into the pleasing knowledge of Nature by anxious cares and disquieting feares concerning their state in the life to come by curbing them in their naturall and kindly injoyments of the life present and making bitter all the pleasures and contentments of it by some checks of Conscience and suspicions that they do something now that they may rue eternally hereafter Besides thosse ineffable Agonies of mind that they undergo that are more generously Religious and contend after the participation of the divine Nature they being willing though with unspeakeable paine to be torn from themselves to become one with that Universall Spirit that ought to have the guidance of all things and by an unsatiable desire after that just and decorous temper of mind whereby all Arrogancy should utterly cease in us and that which is due to God that is all that we have or can do should be lively and sensibly attributed to him and we fully and heartily acknowledge ourselves to be nothing that is be as little elated or no more rellish the glory and praise of Men then if we had done nothing or were not at all in being doe plunge
ring again with the mâ—ghty foâ—cibleness of the Blast in this manner he pâ—ssed over to the other side of the River Whereupon Caesar taking the Omen leaves off all further dispute with himself carries over his Army enters Italy secure of success from so manifest tokens of the favour of the Gods To confirme this truth of Apparitions if we would but admit the free confessions of VVitches concerning their Impes whom they so frequently see and converse withall know them by their names and do obeisance to them the point would be put quite out of all doubt and their proofs would be so many that no volume would be large enough to containe them But forsooth these must be all Melancholy oldâ—women that dote and bring themselves into danger by their own Phansyes and Conceits But that they doe net dote I am better assured of then of their not doting that say they do For to satisfy my own curiosity I have examined severall of them and they have discours'd as cunningly as any of their quality and education But by what I have read and observ'd I discerne they serve a very perfidious Master who playes wreaks many times on purpose to betray them But that 's only by the by I demand concerning these Witches who confesse their contract and frequent converse with the Divel sâ—me with him in one shape others in another whether mere Melancholy and Imagination can put Powders Rods Oyntments and such like things into their hands and tell them the use of them can impresse Markes upon their bodies so deep as to take away all sense in that place can put Silver and Gold into their hands which afterwards commonly proves but either Counters Leaves or Shells or some such like uselesse matter These reall effects cannot be by mere Melancholy For if a man receive any thing into his hand be it what it will be there was some body that gave it him And therefore the VVitch receiving some reall thing from this or that other shape that appeared unto her it is an evident signe that it was an externall thing that she saw not a mere figuration of her melancholy Phansy There are innumerable examples of this kind but the thing is so triviall and ordinary that it wants no instances I will only for down one wherein there is the apparition of three Spirits John VVâ—nnick of Molsewâ—rth in Huntington-shire being examin'd 11. Aprill 1646. confessed as followes Having lost his purse with seven shillings in it for which he suspected one in the family where he lived he saith that on a Friday while he was making hay bottles in the barn and swore and curs'd and rag'd and wisht to himself that some wise body would help him to his purse aâ—d money again there appear'd unto him a Spirit in the shape of a Beare but not so big as a Coney who promis'd upon condition that he would fall down and worship him he would help him to his purse He assented to it and the Spirit told him to morrow about this time he should find his purse upon the floor where he made bottles and that he would then come himself also which was done accordingly and thus at the time appointed recovering his purse he fell down upon his knees to the Spirit and said My Lord and God I thank you This Spirit brought then with him two other in the shape the one of a white Cat the other of a Coney which at the command of the Beare-Spirit he worshipped also The Beare-Spirit told him he must have his Soul when he dyed that he must suck of his body that he must have some of his Bloud to seale the Covenant To all which he agreed and so the beare-Beare-Spirit leaping up to his shoulder prick'd him on the head and thence took bloud After that they all three vanished but ever since came to him once every twenty four houres and suck'd on his body where the markes are found And that they had continually done thus for this twenty nine yeares together That all these things should be a mere dreame is a conceit more slight and foolish than any dreame possibly can be For that receiving of his purse was a palpable and sensible pledge of the truth of all the rest And it is incredible that such a series of circumstances back'd with twenty nine yeares experience of being suck'd and visited dayly sometimes in the day time most commonly by night by the same three Familiars should be nothing but the hanging together of so many Melancholy Conceits and Phansies Nor doth the sealing of Covenants and writing with Bloud make such stories as these more to be suspected For it is not at all unreasonable that such Ceremonies should passe betwixt a Spirit and a Man when the like palpable Rites are used for the more firmly tying of Man to God For whatsoever is crasse and externall leaves a stronger Impresse upon the Phansy and the remembrance of it strikes the mind with more efficacy So that assuredly the Divel hath the greater hanck upon the Soul of a Witch or Wizard that hath been perswaded to complete their Contract with him in such a grosse sensible way and keepes them more fast from revolting from him than if they had only contracted in bare words CHAP. VII The nocturnall Conventicles of Witches that they have often dissolved disappeared at the naming of the Name of God or Jesus Christ and that the party thus speaking has found himself alone in the fields many miles from home The Dancing of Men Women and cloven-footed Satyres at mid-day John Michaell piping from the bough of an Oake c. BUt I shall now adde further stories that ought to gain credit for the conspicuous effects recited in them As that which Paulus Grillandus reports of one not far from Rome who at the perswasion of his wife anointing himself as she had done before him was carried away in the aire to a great Assembly of Wizards and VVitches where they were feasting under a Nut-Tree But this stranger not relishing his cheare without Salt at last the Salt coming and he blessing of God for it at that Name the whole Assembly disappeared and he poore man was left alone naked an hundred miles off from home whither when he had got he accused his wife she confess'd the fact discovering also her companions who were therefore burnt with her The same Authour writes a like story of a young girle thirteen years old in the Dukedome of Spalatto who being brought into the like company and admiring the strangenesse of the thing and crying out Blessed God what 's here to do made the whole assembly vanish was left herself in the field alone and wandring up and down was found by a countrey man to whom shee told the whole matter So the Husband of the Witch of Lochiae whom she brought into the like Assembly by saying O my God where are we made all to vanish and found himself naked alone in the field
but you 'l say the greatnesse and incrediblenesse of the Miracle is this That there should be an actuall separation of Soul and Body and yet no Death But this is not at all strange if we consider that Death is properly a disjunction of the Soul from the Body by reason of the Bodie 's unfitnesse any longer to entertain the Soul which may be caused by extremity of Diseases outward Violence or Age And if the Divell could restore such bodies as these to life it were a miracle indeed But this is not such a miracle nor is the Body properly dead though the Soul be out of it For the life of the Body is nothing else but that fitnesse to be actuated by the Soul The conservation whereof is help'd as I conceive by the anointing of the Body before the Extasy which ointment filling the pores keeps out the cold and keeps in the heat and Spirits that the frame and temper of the Body may continue in fit case to entertain thâ— Soul again at her return So the vital streames of the carcasse being not yet spent the pristâ—ne operations of life are presently again kindled as a candle new blown out and as yet reeking suddenly catches fire from the flame of another though at some distance the light gliding down along the smoke Wherefore there being nothing in the nature of the thing that should make us incredulous these Sorceresses so confidently pronouncing that they are out of their Bodies at such times and see and do such such things meet one another bring messages discover secrets and the like it is more naturall and easy to conclude they be really out of their Bodies then in them Which we should the more easily be induced to believe if we could give credit to that Story Wierus tells of a Souldier out of whose mouth whilest he was asleep a thing in in the shape of a Wesell came which nuddâ—â—ng along in the grasse and at last coming to a brook side very busily attempting to get over but not being able some one of the standers by that saw it made a bridge for it of his sword which it passed over by and coming back made use of the same passage and then entred into the Souldier's mouth again many looking on when he waked he told how he dream'd he had gone over an iron Bridge and other particulars answerable to what the spectatours had seen afore-hand Wierus acknowledgeth the truth of the story but will by all meanes have it to be the Divell not the Soul of the Man which he doth in a tender regard to the Witches that from such a truth as this they might not be made so obnoxious to suspicion that their Extasies are not mere Dreames and Delusions of the Divell but are accompanied with reall effects I will not take upon me to decide so nice a controversy only I will make bold to inâ—ermeddle thus farre as to pronounce Bodinus his opinion not at all unworthy of a rationall and sagacious man And that though by his being much addicted to such like speculations he might attribute some naturall effects to the ministry of Spirits when there was no need so to doe yet his judgement in other things of thâ—s kind is no more to be slighted for that then Cartesius that stupendious Mechanicall Witt is to be disallowed in those excellent inventions of the causes of those more generall Phaenomena of Nature because by his successe in those he was imboldned to enlarge his Principles too farre and to assert that Aâ—imalls themselves were mere Machina's like Aristoxenus the Musician that made the Soul nothing else but an Harmony of whom Tully pleasantly observes Quod non recessit ab arte sua Every Genius and Temper as the sundry sorts of Beasts and living Creatures have their proper excrement and it is the part of a wise man to take notice of it and to chuse what is profitable as well as to abandon what is uselesse and excrementitious CHAP. IX The Coldnesse of those bodyes that Spirits appear in witnessed by the experience of Cardan and Bourgotus The naturall Reason of this Coldnesse That the Divell does really lye with VVitches That the very substance of Spirits is not fire Spirits skirmishing on the ground Field fights and Sea fights seen in the Aire BUt to return into the way I might adde other stories of your Daemones Metallici your Guardian Genii such as that of Socrates and that other of which Bodinus tells an ample story which hee received from him who had the society and assistance of such an Angell or Genius which for my own part I give as much credit to as to any story in Livy or Plutarch Your Lares familiares as also those that haunt and vexe families appearing to many and leaving very sensible effects of their appearings But I will not so farre tire either my self or my Reader I will only name one or two storyes more rather then recite them As that of Cardan who writes as you may see in Otho Melander that a Spirit that familiarly was seen in the house of a friend of his one night layd his hand upon his brow which felt intolerably cold And so Petrus Bourgotus confessed that when the Divell gave him his hand to kisse it felt cold And many more examples there be to this purpose And indeed it stands to very good reason that the bodies of Divels being nothing but coagulated Aire should be cold as well as coagulated Water which is Snow or Ice and that it should have a more keen and piercing cold it consisting of more subtile particles than those of water and therefore more fit to insinuate and more accurately and stingingly to affect and touch the nerves Wherefore Witches confessing so frequently as they do that the Divel lyes with them and withall complaining of his tedious and offensive coldnesse it is a shrewd presumption that he doth lie with them indeed and that it is not a mere Dreame as their friend Wierus would have it Hence we may also discover the folly of that opinion that makes the very essence of Spirits to be fire for how unfit that would be to coagulate the aire is plain at first sight It would rather melt and dissolve these consistencies then constringe them and freeze them in a manner But it is rather manifest that the essence of Spirits is a substance specifically distinct from all corporeall matter whatsoever But my intent is not to Philosophize concerning the nature of Spirits but only to prove their Existence Which the story of the Spectre at Ephesus may be a further argument of For that old man which Apollonius told the Ephesians was the walking plague of the city when they stoned him and uncovered the heap appear'd in the shape of an huge black dog as big as the biggest Lion This could be no imposture of Melanchly nor â—raud of any Priest And the learned Grotius a man far from all Levity and
vain Credulity is so secure of the truth of Tyâ—neus his Miracles that he does not stick to term him impudent that has the face to deny them Our English Chronicles also tell us of Apparitions armed men foot and horse fighting upon the ground in the North part of England and in Ireland for many Evenings together seen by many hundreds of men at once and that the grasse was troden down in the places where they were seen to fight their Battailes which agreeth with Nicolea Langbernhard her Story of the cloven-footed Dancers that left the print of their hoofs in the ring they trod down for a long time after But this skirmishing upon the Earth puts me in mind of the last part of this argument and bids me look up into the Aire Where omitting all other Prodigies I shall only take notice of what is most notorious and of which there can by no meanes be given any other account then that it is the effect of Spirits And this is the appearance of armed men fighting and encountring one another in the Sky There are so many examples of these Prodigies in Historians that it were superfluous to instance in any That before the great slaughter of no lesse than fourescore thousand made by Antiochus in Jerusalem recorded in the second of Maccabees chap. 5. is famous The Historian there writes that through all the city for the space almost of fourty dayes there were seen Horsemen running in the aire in cloth of Gold and Arm'd with Lances like a band of Souldiers and Troops of Horsemen in array encountring and running one against another with shaking of shields and multitudes of piâ—â—es and drawing of swords and casting of darts and glittering of golden ornaments and harnesse of all sorts And Josephus writes also concerning the like Prodigies that happened before the destruction of the City by Titus prefacing first that they were incredible were it not that they were recorded by those that were Eye-witnesses of them The like Apparitions were seen before the civill warres of Marius and Sylla And Melanchthon affirmes that a world of such Prodigies were seen all over Germany from 1524 to 1548. Sâ—ellius amongst other places doth particularize in Aâ—â—rtsfort where these fightings were seen not much higher then the house tops as also in Amsterdam where there was a Sea-fight appearing in the aire for an houre or two together many thousands of men looking on And to say nothing of what hath been seen in England not long ago there is lately a punctuall narration of such a Sea-fight seen by certain Hollanders and sent over hither into England but a Lion appearing alone at the end of that Apparition though it may be true for ought I know yet it makes it obnoxious to Suspicion and evasion and so unprofitable for my purpose But the Phaenomena of this kind whose reports cannot be suspected to be in subserviency to any Politick designe ought in reason to be held true when there have been many profess'd Eye-witnesses of them And they being resolvable into no naturall causes it is evident that we must acknowledge supernaturall ones such as Spirits Intelligences or Angels term them what you please CHAP. X. A very memorable story of a certain pious man who had the continuall Society of a Guardian Genius I Had here ended all my Stories were I not tempted by that remarkable one in Bodinus to our-run my Method I but named it heretofore I shall tell it now more at large I am the more willingly drawn to relate it such examples of the consociation of good Spirits being very scarce in History The main reason whereof as I conceive is because so very few men are heartily and sincerely good The Narration is more considerable in that he that writes it had it from the man 's own mouth whom it concerns and is as follows This Party a holy and pious man as it should seem and an acquaintance of Bodinus's freely told him how that he had a certain Spirit that did perpetually accompany him which he was then first aware of when he had attain'd to about thirty seven years of Age but conceiv'd that the said Spirit had been present with him all his life time as he gathered from certain Monitory Dreams and Visions whereby he was forewarn'd as well of severall dangers as vices That this Spirit discovered himself to him after he had for a whole year together earnestly pray'd to God to â—end a good Angell to him to be the Guide and Governer of his life and actions adding also that before and after Prayer he used to spend two or three houres in meditation and reading the Scriptures diligently enquiring with himself what Religion amongst those many that are controverted in the world might be best beseeching God that he would be pleased to direct him to it And that he did not allow of their way that at all adventures pray to God to confirm them in that opinion they have already preconceived be it right or wrong That while he was thus busy with himself in matters of Religion that he light on a passage in Philo Judaeus in his Book De Sacrificiis where he writes that a good and holy Man can offer no greater nor more acceptable Sacrifice to God then the Oblation of himself and therefore following Philo's counsell that he offered his Soul to God And that after that amongst many other divine Dreames and Visions he once in his sleep seemed to hear the voice of God saying to him I will save thy Soul I am he that before appeared unto thee Afterwards that the Spirit every day would knock at the doore about three or four a clock in the morning though he rising and opening the doore could see no body but that the Spirit persisted in this course and unlesse he did rise would thus rouze him up This trouble and boisterousnesse made him begin to conceit that it was some evill Spirit that thus haunted him and therefore he daily pray'd earnestly unto God that he would be pleased to send a good Angell to him and often also sung Psalmes having most of them by heart Wherefore the Spirit afterward knocked more gently at the doore and one day discovered himself to him waking which was the first time that he was assured by his senses that it was he for he often touched and stirred a Drinking-glasse that stood in his chamber which did not a little amaze him Two dayes after when he entertain'd at supper a certain fâ—â—end of his Secretary to the King that this friend of his was much abash'd while he heard the Spirit thumping on the bench hard by him and was strucken with fear but he â—ad him be of good courage there was no hurt towards and the better to assure him of it told him the truth of the whole Matter Wherefore from that time â—aith Bodinus he did affirm that this Spirit was alwayes with him and by some sensible signe did ever advertize him of things
lay out more particularly the perfections comprehended in this Notion of a Being absolutely and fully perfect I think I may securely nominate these Self-subsistency Immateriality Infinity as well of Duration as Essence Immensity of Goodnesse Omnisciency Omnipotency and Necessity of Existence Let this therefore bee the description of a being absolutely perfect that it is a Spirit Eternall Infinite in Essence and Goodnesse Omniscient Omnipotent and of it self necessarily existent All which Attributes being Attributes of the highest perfection that falls under the apprehension of man and having no discoverable imperfection interwoven with them must of necessity be attributed to that which we conceive absolutely and fully perfect And if any one will say that this is but to dresse up a Notion out of my own fancy which I would afterwards ssily insinuate to be the Notion of a God I answer that no man can discourse and reason of any thing without recourse to settled notions decyphered in his own mind And that such an exception as this implies the most contradictious absurdities imaginable to wit as if a man should reason from something that never entred into his mind or that is utterly out of the ken of his own facultyes But such groundlesse allegations as these discover nothing but an unwillingnesse to find themselves able to entertain any conception of God and a heavy propension to sink down into an utter oblivion of him and to become as stupid and senselesse in divine things as the very beasts But others it may be will not look on this Notion as contemptible for the easie composure thereof out of familiar conceptions which the mind of man ordinarily figures it self into but reject it rather for some unintelligible hard termes in it such as Spirit Eternall and Infinite for they do professe they can frame no Notion of Spirit and that anything should be Eternal or Infinite they do not know how to set their mind in a posture to apprehend and therefore some would have no such thing as a Spirit in the world But if the difficulty of framing a conception of a thing must take away the existence of the thing it self there will be no such thing as a Body left in the world and then will all be Spirit or nothing For who can frame so safe a notion of a Body as to free himself from the intanglements that the extension thereof will bring along with it For this extended matter consists of either indivisible points or of particles divisible in infinitum Take which of these two you will and you can find no third you will be wound into the most notorious absurdityes that may be For if you say it consists of points from this position I can necessarily demonstrate that every Speare or Spire-Steeple or what long body you will is as thick as it is long that the tallest Cedar is not so high as the lowest Mushrome and that the Moon and the Earth are so neere one another that the thicknesse of your hand will not go betwixt that Rounds and Squares are all one figure that Even and Odde Numbers are Equall one with another and that the clearest Day is as dark as the blackest Night And if you make choice of the other Member of the disjunction your fancy will bee little better at ease For nothing can be divisible into parts it has not therefore if a body be divisible into infinite parts it has infinite extended parts and if it has an infinite number of extended parts it cannot be but a hard mystery to the Imagination of Man that infinite extended parts should not amount to one whole infinite extension And thus a grain of Mustard-seed would be as well infinitely extended as the whole Matter of the Universe and a thousandth part of that grain as well as the grain it self Which things are more unconceivable then any thing in the Notion of a Spirit Therefore we are not scornfully and contemptuously to reject any Notion for seeming at first to be clouded and obscur'd with some difficulties and intricacies of conception sith that of whose being we seem most assured is the most intangled and perplex'd in the conceiving of any thing that can be propounded to the apprehension of a Man But here you will reply that our senses are struck by so manifest impressions from the Matter that though the nature of it bee difficult to conceive yet the Existence is palpable to us by what it acts upon us Why then all that I desire is this that when you shall be reminded of some actions and operations that arrive to the notice of your sense or understanding which unlesse we do violence to our faculties we can never attribute to Matter or Body that then you would not be so nice and averse from the admitting of such a substance as is called a Spirit though you fancy some difficulty in the conceiving thereof But for mine own part I think the nature of a Spirit is as conceivable and easy to be defin'd as the nature of anything else For as for the very Essence or bare Substance of any thing whatsoever hee is a very Novice in speculation that does not acknowledge that utterly unknowable But for the Essentiall and Inseparable properties they are as intelligible and explicable in a Spirit as in any other subject whatever As for example I conceive the intire Idea of a Spirit in generall or at least of all finite created and subordinate Spirits to consist of these severall powers or properties viz. Self-penetration Self-Motion Self-contraction and Dilatation and Indivisibility and these are those that I reckon more absolute I will adde also what has relation to another and that is the power of Penetrating Moving and Altering the Matter These properties and powers put together make up the Notion and Idea of a Spirit whereby it is plainly distinguished from a Body whose parts cannot penetrate one another is not Self-moveable nor can contract nor dilate it self is divisible and separable one part from another But the parts of a Spirit can be no more separated though they be dilated then you can cut off the Rayes of the Sunne by a paire of Scissors made of pellucide Crystall And this will serve for the settling of the Notion of a Spirit the proofe of it's Existence belongs not unto this place And out of this description it is plain that a Spirit is a notion of more perfection then a Body and therefore the more fit to be an Attribute of what is absolutely perfect then a Body is But now for the other two hard terms of Eternall and Infinite if any one would excuse himself from asseâ—â—g to the Notion of a God by reason of the Incomprehensiblenesse of those attributes let him consider that he shall whether he will or no be forced to acknowledge something Eternal either God or the World and the Intricacy is alike in either And though he would shuffle off the trouble of apprehending an Infinite
that is universally received of men be it by what faculty it will they receive it no other faculty appearing that can evidence to the contrary And such is the universall acknowledgment that there is a God Nor is it much more materiall to reply That though there be indeed a Religious Worship excercised in all Nations upon the face of the Earth yet they worship many of them but stocks and stones or some particular piece of Nature as the Sunne Moon or Starrs For I answer That first it is very hard to prove that they worship any Image or Statue without reference to some Spirit at least if not to the omnipotent God So that we shall hence at least win thus much that there are in the Universe some more subtile and Immateriall Substances that take notice of the affairs of Men and this is as ill to a slow Atheist as to believe that there is a God And for that adoration some of them do to the Sunne and Moon I cannot believe they do it to them under the Notion of mere Inanimate Bodies but they take them to be the habitation of some Intellectuall Beings as that verse does plainly intimate to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sun that hears and sees all things and this is very neer the true Notion of a God But be this universall Religious Worship what it will as absurd as you please to fancy it yet it will not faile to reach very farre for the proving of a Deity For there is no naturall Faculties in things that have not their object in the world as there is meat as well as mouths sounds as well as hearing colours as well as sight dangers as well as feare and the like So there ought in like manner to be a God as well as a naturall propension in men to Religious Worship God alone being the proper Object thereof Nor does it abate the strength of the Argument that this so deeply radicated property of Religion in Man that cannot be lost does so ineptly and ridiculously display it self in Manking For as the plying of a Doggesâ—eet â—eet in this sleep as if there were some game before him and the butting of a yong lambe before he has yet either hornes or Enemies to encounter would not be in Nature were there not such a thing as a Hare to be coursed and an horned Enemy to be incountred with horns So there would not be so universall an Excercise of Religious Worship in the world though it be done never so ineptly and foolishly were there not really a due Object of this worship and a capacity in Man for the right performance thereof which could not be unlesse there were a God But the Truth is Mans Soul in this drunken drowsy condition she is in has fallen asleep in the body and like one in a dreame talks to the bed-posts embraces her pillow instead of her friend falls down before statues in stead of adoring the Eternall and Invisible God prayes to stocks and stones instead of speaking to him that by his word created all things I but you will reply that a yong Lambe has at length both his weapon and an Enemy to encounter and the dreaming Dogge did once and may again pursue some reall game And so he that talks in his sleep did once conferre with men awake and may do so again But whole Nations for many successions of Ages have been very stupid Idolaters and do so continue to this day But I answere that this rather informes us of another great mystery then at all enervates the present argument or obscures the grand truth we strive for For this does plainly insinuate thus much that Mankind is in a laps'd condition like one fallen down in the fit of an Epilepsy whose limbes by force of the convulsion are moved very incomposedly and illfavourdly but we know that he that does for the present move the members of his Body so rudely and fortuitously did before command the use of his Muscles in a decent exercise of his progressive faculty and that when the fit is over he will doe so again This therefore rather implyes that these poore barbarous Souls had once the true knowledge of God and of his worship and by some hidden providence may be recover'd into it again then that this propension to Religious Worship that so conspicuously appeares in them should be utterly in vain As it would be both in them and in all men else if there were no God CHAP. XI Of the Nature of the Soul of Man whether she be a meere Modification of the Body or a Substance really distinct and then whether corporeall or incorporeall VVE have done with all those more obvious faculties in the Soul of Man that naturally tend to the discovery of the Existence of a God Let us briefly before wee loose from our selves and lanch out into the vast Ocean of the Externall Phaenomena of Nature consider the Essence of the Soul her self what it is whether a meer Modification of the Body or Substance distinct therefrom and then whether corporeall or incorporeall For upon the clearing of this point wee may happily be convinced that there is a Spiritual Substance really distinct from the Matter Which who so does acknowledge will be easilier induced to beleeve there is a God First therefore if we say that the Soul is a meer Modification of the Body the Soul then is but one universall Faculty of the Body or a many Facultyes put together and those operations which are usually attributed unto the Soul must of necessity be attributed unto the Body I demand therefore to what in the body will you attribute Spontaneous Motion I understand thereby a power in our selves of wagging or holding still most of the parts of our Body as our hand suppose or little finger If you will lay that it is nothing but the immission of the Spirits into such and such Muscles I would gladly know what does immit these Spirits and direct them so curiously Is it themselves or the Braine or that particular piece of the Braine they call the Coâ—arion or Pine-kerâ—ell whatever it be that which does thus immit them and direct them must have Animadversion and the same that has Animadversion has Memory also and Reason Now I would know whether the Spirits themselves be capable of Animadversion Memory and Reason for it indeed seemes altogether impossible For these animall Spirits are nothing else but Matter very thin and liquid whose nature consists in this that all the particles of it be in Motion and being loose from one another fridge and play up and down according to the measure and manner of agitation in them I therefore now demand which of the particles in these so many loosely moving one from another has Animadversion in it If you say that they all put together have I appeal to him that thus answers how unlikely it is that that should have Animadversion that is so utterly uncapable of Memory
and consequently of Reason For it is as impossible to conceive Memory competible to such a subject as it is how to write Characters in the water or in the wind If you say the Brain immits and directs these Spirits how can that so freely and spontaneously move it self or another that has no Muscles besides Anatomists tell us that though the Brain be the Instrument of sense yet it has no sense at all of it self how then can that that has no sense direct thus spontaneously and arbitrariously the animall Spirits into any part of the Body an act that plainely requires determinate sense and perception But let the Anatomists conclude what they will I think I shall little lesse then demonstrate that the Brains have no Sense For the same thing in us that has Sense has likewise Animadversion and that which has Animadversion in us has also a faculty of free and arbitrarious Fansy and of Reason Let us now consider the nature of the Brain and see how competible those operations are to such a Subject Verily if wee take a right view of this laxe pith or marrow in Mans head neither our sense nor understanding can discover any thing more in this substance that can pretend to such noble operations as free Imagination and sagacious collections of Reason then we can discern in a Cake of Sewer or a bowle of Curds For this loose Pulp that is thus wrapp'd up within our Cranium is but a spongy and porous body and pervious not onely to the Animall Spirits but also to more grosse Juice and Liquor else it could not well be nourished at least it could not be so soft and moistned by drunkennesse and excesse as to make the understanding inept and sottish in its operations Wherefore I now demand in this soft substance which we call the Brain whose softnesse implyes that it is in some measure liquid and liquidity implyes a severall Motion of loosned parts in what part or parcell thereof does Fancy Reason and Animadversion lye In this laxe consistence that lyes like a Net all on heaps in the water I demand in what knot loop or Intervall thereof does this faculty of free Fancy and active Reason reside I believe you will be asham'd to assigne me any and if you will say in all together you must say that the whole brain is figured into this or that representation which would cancell Memory and take away all capacity of there being any distinct Notes and places for the severall Species of things there represented But if you will say there is in Every part of the brain this power of Animadversion and Fansy you are to remember that the brain is in some measure a liquid body and we must inquire how these loose parts vnderstand one anothers severall Animadversions and Notions And if they could which is yet very inconceivable yet if they could from hence doe any thing toward the immission and direction of the Animall Spirits into this or or that part of the Body they must doe it by knowing one anothers minds and by a joynt contention of strength as when many men at once the word being given lift or tugge together for the moving of some so masty a body that the single strength of one could not deal with But this is to make the severall particles of the brain so many Individuall persons A fitter object for laughter then the least measure of beliefe Besides how come these many animadversions to seem but one to us our mind being these as is supposed Or why if the figuration of one part of the brain be communicated to all the rest does not the same object seem situated both behind us and before us above and beneath on the right hand and on the left and every way as the Impresse of the object is reflected against all the parts of the braines But there appearing to us but one animadversion and one site of things it is a sufficient Argument that there is but one or if there be many that they are not mutually communicated from the parts one to another and therefore there can be no such joynt endeavour toward one designe whence it is manifest that the Braines cannot immit nor direct these Animall Spirits into what part of the Body they please Moreover that the Braine has no Sense and therefore cannot impresse spontaneously any motion on the Animall Spirits it is no slight Argument in that some being dissected have been found without Braines and Fontanus tells us of a boy at Amsterdam that had nothing but limpid water in his head in stead of Braines and the Braines generally are easily dissolvable into a watry consistence which agrees with what I intimated before Now I appeale to any free Judge how likely these liquid particles are to approve themselves of that nature and power as to bee able by erecting and knitting themselves together for a moment of time to beare themselves so as with one joynt contention of strength to cause an arbitrarious ablegation of the Spirits into this or that determinate part of the Body But the absurdity of this I have sufficiently insinuated already Lastly the Nerves I mean the Marrow of them which is of the self same substance with the Braine have no Sense as is demonstrable from a Catalepsis or Catochus but I will not accumulate Arguments in a Matter so palpable As for that little sprunt piece of the Braine which they call the Conarion that this should be the very substance whose naturall faculty it is to move it self and by it's Motions and Nods to determinate the course of the Spirits into this or that part of the Body seems to me no lesse foolish and fabulous then the story of hiâ— that could change the wind as he pleased by setting his Cap on this or that side of his head If you heard but the magnificent stories that are told of this little lurking Mushrome how it does not onely heare and see but imagines reasons commands the whole fabrick of the Body more dextrously then an Indian boy does an Elephant what an acute Logician subtle Geometrician prudent Statesman skillfull Physician and profound Philosopher he is and then afterward by dissection you discover this worker of Miracles to be nothing but a poor silly contemptible Knobb or Protuberancy consisting of a thin Membrane containing a little pulpous Matter much of the same nature with the rest of the Braine Spectatum admissirisum teneatis amici Would not you sooner laugh at it then goe about to confute it And truly I may the better laugh at it now having already confuted it in what I have afore argued concerning the rest of the braine I shall therefore make bold to conclude that the Impresse of Spontaneous Motion is neither from the Animall Spirits nor from the Braine and therefore that those operations that are usually attributed unto the Soul are really incompetible to any part of the Body and therefore that the Soul
is not a meer Modification of the Body but a Substance distinct therefrom Now we are to enquire whether this Substance distinct from what ordinarily we call the Body be also it self a Corporeall Substance or whether it be Incorporeall If you say that it is a Corporeall Substance you can understand no other then Matter more subtile and tenuious then the Animall Spirits themselves mingled with them and dispersed through the vessells and Porosities of the Body for there can be no Penetration of Dimensions But I need no new Arguments to confute this fond conceipt for what I said of the Animall Spirits before is applicable with all ease and fitnesse to this present case And let it be sufficient that I advertise you so much and so be excus'd from the repeating of the same things over again It remains therefore that we conclude that that which impresses Spontaneous Motion upon the Body or more immediatly upon the Animall Spirits that which imagines remembers and reasons is an Immateriall Substance distinct from the Body which uses the Animall Spirits and the Braines for Instruments in such and such Operations and thus we have found a Spirit in a proper Notion and signification that has apparently these faculties in it it can both understand and move Corporeall Matter And now this prize that we have wonne will prove for our designe of very great Consequence For it is obvious here to observe that the Soul of man is as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Compendious Statue of the Deity Her substance is a solid Effigies of God And therefore as with ease we consider the Substance and Motion of the vast Heavens on a little Sphere or Globe so we may with like facility contemplate the nature of the All-mighty in this little Meddall of God the Soul of Man enlarging to Infinity what we observe in our selves when wee transferre it unto God as we do imagine those Circles which we view on the Globea to be vastly bigger while we fancy them as described in the Heavens Wherefore we being assur'd of this that there is a Spirituall Substance in our selves in which both these properties do resid eviz of understanding and of moving Corporeall Matter let us but enlarge our Minds so as to conceive as well as we can of a spirituall Substance that is able to move and actuate all Matter whatsoever never â—o farre extended and after what way and manner soever it please and that it has not the knowledge onely of this or that particular thing but a distinct and plenary Cognoscence of all things and we have indeed a very competent apprehension of the Nature of the Eternall and Invisible God who like the Soul of Man does not indeed fall under sense but does every where operate so that his presence is easily to be gathered from what is discovered by our outward senses CHAP. I. The Universall Matter of the World be it homogeneall or heterogeneall self mov'd or resting of it self that it can never be contriv'd into that Order it is without the Super-intendency of a God THE last thing I insisted upon was the Specifick nature of the Soul of Man how it is an immateriall substance indued with these two eminent Properties of Understanding and Power of moving corporeall Matter Which truth I cleared to the intent that when we shall discover such Motions and Contrivances in the largely extended Matter of the world as imply Wisdome and Providence we may the easilier come off to the acknowledgment of that Eternall Spirituall Essence that has fram'd Heaven and Earth and is the Author and Maker of all visible and invisible Beings Wherefore we being now so well furnish'd for the voiage I would have my Atheist to take Shipping with me and loosing from this particular Speculation of our own inward nature to lanch out into that vast Ocean as I said of the Externall Phaenomena of universall Nature or walke with me a while on the wide Theatre of this Outward world and diligently to attend to those many and most manifest marks and signes that I shall point him to in this outward frame of things that naturally signify unto us that there is a God And now first to begin with what is most generall I say that the Phaenomena of Day and Night Winter and Summer Spring-time and Harvest that the manner of rising and setting of the Sun Moon and Starrs that all these are signes and tokens unto us that there is a God that is that things are so framed that they naturally imply a principle of Wisdome and Counsell in the Authour of them And if theâ—e be such an Authour of externall Nature there is a God But here it will be reply'd that meere Motion of the universall Matter will at last necessarily grinde it self into those more rude and generall Delineations of Nature that are observed in the Circuits of the Sunne Moone and Sâ—arres and the generall Consequences of them But if the mind of man gâ—ow so bold as to conceipt any such thing let him examine his Faculties what they naturally conceive of the Notion of Matter And verily the great Master of this Mechanicall Hypothesis does not suppose not admitt of any Specificall difference in this universall Matter out of which this outward frame of the World should arise Neither do I think that any Man else will easily imagine but that all the Matter of the world is of one kind for its very Substance or Essence Now therefore I demand concerning this universall uniform Matter whether naturally Motion or Rest belongs unto it If Motion it being acknowledg'd uniforme it must be alike moved in every part or particle imaginable of it For this Motion bring naturall and essentiall to the Matter is alike every where in it and therefore has loosened every Atome of it to the utmost capacity so that every particle is alike and moved alike And therefore there being no prevalency at all in any one Atome above another in biggnesse or motion it is manifest that this universall Matter to whom motion is so essentiall and intrinsecall will be ineffectuâ—ll â—or the producing of any varity of appearances in Nature and soâ—o Sunnes nor Starres noâ— Earths nor Vorticâ—s 〈◊〉 ever arise out of this infinitely thin and still Matter which most thus eternally remain unperceptible to any of 〈◊〉 were our Senses ten thousand Millions of times 〈…〉 then they are Indeed there could not be any such thing as either Man or Sense in the world But we see this Matter shewes it self to us in abundance of varietiâ—â—â—â—â— appearance therefore there must be another principle besides the Matter to order the Motion of it so as may make these varieties to appear And what will that prove but a God But if you 'l say that Motion is not of the nature of Matter as indeed it is very hard to conceive it the matter supposed homogeneall but that it is inert and stupid of it self then it must be moved
fifteen dayes journey from home Severall other stories to this purpose Bodinus sets down which these sensible effects of being so far distant from home and being found naked in the fields shew to be no freakes of Melancholy but certain truth But that the Divel in these junquetings appeares to the Guests in the form of a Satyr black Goat or else sometimes in the shape of an ill-favoured black man is the ordinary confession of VVitches by this way discovered and convicted Of his appearance in the shape of a man in black at least if not a black man a young woman committed for the suspicion of VVitchcraft at the castle in Cambridge told my learned friend Dr. Cudworth and my self this story How one Lendall-wife who afterwards at Cambridge suffered for a Witch made a motion to her of procuring her a husband she accepted of it The day and hour appointted her Sweet-heart met her at Lendall's house He brake the businesse to her but in the middle of the conference she did but turne her head aside and he was vanished and instead of a good proper Yeomanlike Man there was found in the chaire where he did sit nothing but a young Whelp lying on the cushion Shee told us also how upon a time when she dwelt with a Dame in a little town near Cambridge and was sent into the fields to gather sticks that Lendall-wife did meet her there and urged the old businesse again and bâ—cause she would not consent to it that shee beat her unmercifully pulled off all her cloathes and left her naked and in a manner dead upon the ground and that she thought if her Dame had not come to seek her and had not found her she had died no other death She told us also how at another time the door being shut and she going to bed that her Sweet-heart came to her himself earnestly desiring that the Match might goe on which she as resolutely refusing he grew very angry and asked her if she would make a fool of him and gave her such a parting blow upon her thigh that it was black and blew a good while after But that which I aime at happened sometime betwixt these passages I have already related While this marriage was driving on the Wench was again invited to Lendall-wife's house where she might meet with her Sweet-heart at a supper Shee told us when she was come that shee waited â— great while below and marvelled that there was neither fire nor rost-meat nor any thing else that could promise any such entertainment as was expected nor did she see any thing brought into the house all the while she was there and yet notwithstanding that at supper time the table was well furnish't as well with guests as meat He that did sit at the upper end of the table was all in black to whom the rest gave very much respect bowing themselves with a great deal of reverence whenever they spake to him But what the wench seemed most of all affected with was that the company spake such a Language as she understood not and Lendall-wife whom at other times she said she could understand very well when she spake then at table she could not understand at all Old Stranguidge of whom there hath been reported ever since I came to the Universitie that he was carried over Shelford Steeple upon a black Hogge and tore his breeches upon the weather-cock was one of the company I doe not remember any other she told us of that wee knew but there were severall that she her self knew not It was darke when they went to supper and yet there was neither candle nor candlestick on the board but a moveable light hovered over them that wafâ—ed it self this way and that way in the aire betwixt the seeling and the table Under this glimmering lamp they ate their victuals and entertain'd discourse in that unknown Dialect She amazed at the strangenesse of the businesse and weary of attending of so uncouth a company as she said slunck away from them and left them As for my own part I should have looked upon this whole Narration as a mere idle fancy or sick mans dream had it not been that my beliefe was so much enlarged by that palpable satisfaction I received from what wee heard from foure or five VVitches which we lately examined before And yet what I heard was but such matters as are ordinarily acknowledged by such VVitches as will confesse And therefore I shall rather leave my Reader to wait the like opportunity then trouble my self with setting down any further examinations of my own I will only adde a Story or two out of Remigius concerning these Conventicles of Witches and then I will proceed to some other proofs John of Hembach was carried by his Mother being a Witch to one of these Conventicles and because he had learnt to play on the Pipe was commanded by her to exercise his faculty to get up into a Tree that they might the better hear his Musick Which he doing looking upon the Dancers how uncouth and ridiculous they were in their Motions and Gestures being struck with admiration at the novelty of the matter suddenly burst out into these words Good God what a mad company have we here Which was no sooner said but down came John Pipe and all and hurt his shoulder with the tumbling cast who when he called to the company to help him found himself alone for they had all vanish'd John of Hembach told the story but people knew not what to make of it till some of that mad Crue that danc'd to his pipe were apprehended upon other suspicions as Catharina Praevotia Kelvers Orilla and others who made good every whit what John had before told though they knew nothing of what he told before adding also more particularly that the place where he pip'd to them was Maybuch The other memorable Story that I shall relate out of Remigius is this One Nicolea Langbernhard while she was going towards Assenunturia along a hedge side spied in the next field it was about Noon-time of day a company of men and women dancing in a ring and the posture of their bodies being uncouth and unusuall made her view them more attentively whereby she discerned some of them to have cloven feet like Oxen or Goats it should seem they were Spirits in the shape of lusty Satyrs she being astonish'd with fear cryes out Jesus help me and send me well home She had no sooner said so but they all vanished saving onely one Peter Grospetter whom a little afterwards she saw snatch'd up into the aire and to let fall his Maulkin a stick that they make cleane ovens withall and her self was also driven so forcibly with the winde that it made her almost loose her breath She was faine to keep her bed three dayes after This Peter though at first he would have followed the Law on Nicolea for slandring him yet afterward freely confess'd and
and the like Wherefore it is plaine that these Apparitions on high in the Aire are no Reflections of any Objects upon Earth or if it were imaginable that they were that some supernaturall cause must assist to conglaciate polish the Surfaces of the clouds to such an extraordinary accuracy of figure smoothnesse as will suffice for such prodigious Reflections And that these Spirits that rule in the Aire may not act upon the Materials there as well as Men here upon the Earth work upon the parts thereof as also upon the neighbouring Elements so farre as they can reach shaping perfecting and directing things according to their own purpose and pleasure I know no reason at all in Nature or Philosophy for any man to deny For that the help of some oâ—ficious Genâ— is implyed in such like Prodigies as these the seasonablenesse of their appearance seems no contemptible argument they being according to the observation of Historians the Forerunners of Commotions and Troubles in all Kingdomes and Common-wealths Yet neverthelesse as good Artificers as I here suppose they working upon nature must be bounded by the Laws of Nature And Reflection will have its limits as well as RefractioÌ„ whither for conveiance of Species or kindling of heaâ— the Lawes and bounds whereof that discerning Wit Cartesius being well aware of doth generously and judiciously pronounce That a burning-Glasse the distance of whose focus from the Glasse doth not beare a lesse proportion to the Diameter thereof then the distance of the Earth from the Sun to the Diameter of the Sun will burn no more vehemently then the direct raies of the Sun will do without it though in other respects this Glasse were as exactly shaped curiously polished as could be exspected from the hand of an Angel I have now compleated this present Treatise against Atheisme in all the three parts therof upon which while I cast mine eye and view that clear and irrefutable evidence of the cause I have undertaken the external Appearances of things in the world so faithfully seconding the undeniable dictates of the innate Principles of our own mindes I cannot but w th coÌ„fidence aver That there is not any one Notion in all Philosophy more certain demonstrable then that there is a God And verily I think I have ransacked all the corners of every kind of Philosophy that can pretend to bear any stroke in this Controversie with that diligence that I may safely pronounce that it is mere brutish Ignorance or Impudence no Skill in Nature or the Knowledge of things that can encourage any man to proâ—esse Atheisme or to embrace it at the proposall of those that make profession of it But so I conceive it is that at first some famously learned men being not so indiscreetly zealous and superstitious as others have been mistaken by Idiots and traduced for Atheists and then ever after some one vain-glorious Fool or other hath affected with what safety he could to seem Atheisticall that he might thereby forsooth be reputed the more learned or the profounder Naturallist But I dare assure any man that if he doe but search into the bottome of this enormous Disease of the Soul as Trismegist truely calles it he will find nothing to be the cause thereof but either Vanity of mind or brutish Sensualiâ—y an untamed desire of satisfying a mans own will in every thing an obnoxious Conscience and a base Fear of divine vengeance Ignorance of the scantness insufficiency of second causes a jumbled Feculencie and Incomposednesse of the spirits by reason of perpetuall Intemperance Luxurie or else a dark bedeading Melancholy that so starves and kils the apprehension of the Soul in divine matters especially that it makes a man as inept for such Contemplations as if his head was filled with cold Earth or dry Grave-moulds And to such slow Constitutions as these I shall not wonder 〈◊〉 as the first Part of my discourse must seem marvelous subtile so the last appear ridiculously incredible But they are to remember that I do not here appeal to the Complexional humours or peculiar Relishes of men that arise out of the temper of the body but to the known unalterable Idea's of the mind to the Phaenomena of Naâ—ure and Records of History Upon the last whereof if I have something more fully insisted it is not to be imputed to any vain Credulity of mine or that I take a pleasure in telling strange stories bâ—t that I thought sit to fortify and strengthen the Faith of others as much as I could being well assured that a contemptuous misbelief of such like Narrations concerning Spirits and an endeavour of making them all ridiculous and incredible is a dangerous Prelude to Atheisme it self or else a more close and craâ—ty Profession or Insinuation of it For assuredly that Saying was nothing so true in Politicks No Bishop no King as this is in Mâ—taphysicks No Spirit no God A Table of the Chapters of each BOOK BOOK I. I. THe seasonable usefulness of the present Discourse or the Motives that put the Authour upon these indeavours of demonstrating that there is a God 〈…〉 pag. 1 II. VVhat is meant by demonstrating there is a God and that the mind of men unless he do viâ—lence to his faculties will fully assent or dissent from that which notwithstanding may have a bare possibility of being otherwise 2 III. An attempt towards the finding out the true Notion or Definition of God and a clear Conviction that there is an indelible Idea of a Being absolutely perfect in the mind of Man 6 IV. VVhat Notions are more particularly comprised in the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect That the difficulty of framing the conception of a thing ought to be no argument against the existence thereof the nature of corporeall Matter being so perplex'd and intricate which yet all men acknowledge to exist That the Idea of a Spirit is as easy a Notion as of any other substance what ever What powers and properties are contain'd in the Notion of a Spirit That Eternity and Infinity if God were not would be cast upon something else so that Atheisme cannot free the mind from such Intricacies Goodness Knowledge and Power Notions of highest perfection and therefore necessarily included in the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect 8 V. That the Soul of Man is not Abrasa Tabula and in what sense she might be said ever to have had the actuall knowledge of eternall truths in her 13 VI. That the Soul of Man has of herself actual Knowledge in her made good by sundry Instances and Arguments 14 VII The mind of man being not unfurnish'd of Innate Truth that we are with confidence to attend to her naturall and unprejudic'd Dictates and Suggestions That some Notions and Truths are at least naturally and unavoidably assented unto by the soul whether she have of her self Actuall Knowledge in her or not And that the definition of a Being absolutely perfect is
such And that this absolutely perfect Being is God the Creatour and Contriver of all things 17 VIII The first Argument for the Existence of God taken from the Idea of God as it is representative of his Nature and Perfection From whence also it is undeniably demonstrated that there can be no more Gods then One. 19 IX The second Argument from the Idea of God as it is Subjected in our Souls and is the fittest Natural means imaginable to bring us to the knowledge of our Maker That bare possibility ought to have no power upon the mind to either hasten or hinder it's assent in any thing We being dealt with in all points as if there were a God that naturally we are to conclude there is one 25 X. Naturall Conscience and Religious Veneration arguments of the Existence of God 29 XI Of the Nature of the Soul of Man whether she be a mere Modification of the Body or a Substance really distinct and then whether corporeal or incorporeal 35 The Second Book I. The Universall Matter of the World be it homogeneall or heterogeneall self-mov'd or resting of it self that it can never be contriv'd into that Order it is â—ithout the Super-inâ—endency of a God 43 II. The perpetuall Parallelisme of the Axis of the Earth and its due proportion of Inclination as also the course of the Moon crossing the Ecliptick evident arguments that the fluid Matter is guided by a divine Providence The Atheists Sophisme of arguing from some petty inconsiderable Effects of the Motion of the Matter that the said Motion is the cause of all things seasonably detected and deservedly derided 47 III. That Rivers Quarries of stone Timber-Wood Metalls Mineralls and the Magnet considering the nature of Man what use he can make of them are manifest signes that the rude Motion of the Matter is not left to it self but is under the guidance and Super-intendency of an all-wise God 53 IV. A further proof of Divine Providence taken from the Sea and the large train of Causes laid together in reference to Navigation 56 V. Though the mere motion of the Matter may do something yet it will not amount to the production of Plants and Animalls That it is no Botch in Nature that some Phaenomena be the results of Motion others of Substantiall Formes That Beauty is not a mere Phansy and that the Beauty of Plants is an argument that they are from an Intellectuall Principle 59 VI. The Seeds and Signatures of Plants arguments of a divine Providence 64 VII Arguments of divine Providence drawn from the Usefulnesse of Plants 69 VIII The Usefulnesse of Animalls an argument of divine Providence 74 IX Arguments of divine Providence fetched from the Pulchritude of Animalls as also from the manner of their Propagation 78 X. The Frame or Fabrick of the Bodies of Animalls plainly argue that there is a God 86 XI The particular Frames of the Bodies of Fowls or Birds palpable signes of Divine Providence 91 XII Vnavoydable Arguments for divine Providence taken from the accurate Structure of Mans Body from the Passions of his Mind and fitnesse of the whole Man to be an Inhabiter of the Universe 93 The Third Book I. That good mâ—n not alwayes faring best in this world the great examples of Divine Vengeance upon wicked and blasphemous Persons are not so convincing to the obstinate Atheist The irreligious Jeares and Sacrileges of Dionysâ—us of Syracuse That there have been true Miracles in the world as well as false and what are the best and safest wayes to distinguish them that we may not be impos'd upon by History 105 II. The Moving of a Sieve by a Charme Coskinomâ—ncy A Magicall cure of an Horse The Charming of Serpents A strange Example of one Death-strucken as he walked the Streets A story of a suddain winde that had like to have thrown down the Gallows at the hanging of two Witches 109 III. That Winds and Tempests are raised upon mere Ceremonies or forms of words prov'd by sundry Examples Margaret Warâ—e discharg'd upon an Oake at a Thunder-Clap Amantius and Rotarius cast headlong out of a Cloud upon a house top â—he Witch of Constance seen by the Shepheards to ride through the Aire III IV. Superâ—atural Effects observ'd in them that are Bewitch'd and Possess'd The famous Story of Magdalena Crucia 115 V. Examples of Bewitch'd Persons that have had Balls of Haire Nayles Knives Wood stuck with Pinns pieces of Cloth and such like trash conveigh'd into their Bodies with examples also of other Supernaturall Effects 119 VI. The Apparition Eckerken The Story of the pyed Piper A Triton or Sea-God seen on the banks of Rubâ—con Of the Imps of Witches and whether those old women be guilty of so much doâ—age as the Atheist fancies them That such things passe betwixt them and their Imps as are impossible to be imputed to Melancholy The examination of John Winnick of Molesworth The reason of Scaling Covenants with the Diveil 123 VII The nocturnal Convenâ—â—les of Witches that they have often dâ—ssolved and disappeared at the naming of the Name of God or Jesus Christ and that the party thus speaking has found himself alone in the fields many miles from home The Dancing of Men Women and cloven-footed Satyres at mid-day John Michaell piping from the bough of an Oake c. 127 VIII Of Fairy Circles A larger discussion of those Controversies betwixt Bodinus and Remigius viz. whether the Bodyes of Witches be really transformed into the shape of Wolves and other Creatures whether the Souls of Witches be not sometimes at those nocturnall Conventicles their Bodies being left at home as also whether they leavâ— not their bodies in those Extasies they put themselves in when they promise to fetch certain newes from remote places in a very short time 132 IX The Coldnesse of those bodyes that Spirits appear iâ— witnessed by the experience of Cardan and Bourgotus The naturall Reason of this Coldnesse That the Divell does really lye with VVitches That the very substance of Spirits is not fire Spirits skirmishing on the ground Field sights and Sea-fights seen in the Aire 137 X. A very memorable story of a certain pious man who had the continuall Society of a Guardian Genius 140 XI Certain Enquiries upon the preceding Story as What these Guardian Genii may be Whether one or more of them be allotted to every man or to some none What may be the reason of Spirits so seldome appearing And whether they have any settled Shape or no. What their manner is of assisting men in either Devotion or Prophecy Whether every mans complexion is capable of the Society of a good Genius And lastly whether it be lawfull to pray to God to send such a Genius or Angel to one or no. 144 XII That whether the Species of things have been from all Eternity or whether they rose out of the Earth by degrees in Time the Frame of them is such that against all the Evasions of the Atheist they naturally imply that there is a God 151 XIII That the Evasions of the Atheists against Apparitions are so weak and silly that it is an evident argument that they are convinced in their own judgements of the truth of these kinds of Phaenomena which forces them to answer as well as they can though they be so ill provided 158 FINIS
that their Notion is necessary not an arbitâ—arious compilement of what we please And thus having fully made good the Notion of God What he is I proceed now to the next point which is to prove that Hee is CHAP. VIII The first Argument for the Existence of God taken from the Idea of God as it is representative of his Nature and Perfection From whence also it is undeniably demonstrated that there can be no more Gods then One ANd now verily casting my eyes upon the true Idea of God which we have found out I seem to my self to have struck further into this businesse then I was aware of For if this Idea or Notion of God be true as I have undenyably proved it is also undeniably true that he doth exist For this Idea of God being no aâ—bitrarious Figment taken up at pleasure but the necessary and naturall Emanation of the mind of Man if it signifies to us that the Notion and Nature of God implyes in it necessary Existence as we have shown it does unlesse we will wink against our own naturall light wee are without any further Scruple to acknowledge that God does exist Nor is it sufficient grounds to diffide to the strength of this Argument because our fancy can shuffle in this Abater viz. That indeed this Idea of God supposing God did exist shews us that his Existence is necessary but it does not shew us that he doth necessarily exist For he that answers thus does not observe out of what prejudice he is inabled to make this Answer which is this He being accustomed to fancy the Nature or Notion of every thing else without Existence and so ever easily separating Essence and Existence in them here unawares hee takes the same liberty and divides Existence from that Essence to which Existence it self is essentiall And that 's the witty fallacy his unwarinesse has intangled him in Again when as we contend that the true Idea of God represents him as a Being necessarily Existent and therefore that he does exist and you to avoid the edge of the Argument reply If he did at all exist by this answer you involve your self in a manifest contradiction For first you say with us that the nature of God is such that in its very Notion it implyes its Necessary Existence and then again you unsay it by intimating that notwithstanding this true Idea and Notion God may not exist and so acknowledge that what is absolutely necessary according to the free Emanation of our Facultyes yet may be otherwise Which is a palpable Contradiction as much as respects us and our Facultyes and we have nothing more inward and immediate then these to steer our selves by And to make this yet plainer at least if not stronger when wee say that the Existence of God is Necessary wee are to take notice that Necessity is a Logicall Terme and signifies so firme a Connexion betwixt the Subject and Praedicate as they call them that it is impossible that they should bee dissevered or should not hold together and therefore if they bee affirm'd one of the other that they make Axioma Necessarium an Axiome that is necessary or eternally true Wherefore there being a Necessary Connexion betwixt God and Existence this Axiome God does Exist is an Axiome Necessarily and Eternally true Which we shall yet more clearly understand if we compare Necessity and Contingency together For as Contingency signifies not onely the Manner of Existence in that which is contingent according to its Idea but does intimate also a Possibility of Actual Existence so to make up the true and easy Analogy Necessity does not only signify the Manner of Existence in that which is Necessary but also that it does actually Exist and could never possibly do otherwise For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Necessity of Being and Impossibility of Not-being are all one with Aristotle the rest of the Logicians But the Atheist and the Enthusiast are usually such profess'd Enemyes against Logick the one meerly out of Dotage upon outward grosse sense the other in a dear regard to his stiffe and untamed fancy that shop of Mysteryes and fine things Thirdly wee may further add that whereas wee must needs attribute to the Idea of God either Contingency Impossibility or Necessity of Actuall Existence some one of these belonging to every Idea imaginable and that Contingency is incompetible to an Idea of a Bâ—ing absolutely perfect much more Impossibility the Idea of God being compiled of no Notions but such as are possible according to the light of Nature to which wee now appeal It remains therefore that Necessity of Actuall Existence bee unavoidably cast upon the Idea of God and that therefore God does actually Exist But fourthly and lastly if this seem more subtile though it bee no lesse true for it I shall now propound that which is so palpable that it is impossible for any one that has the use of his wits for to deny it I say therefore that either God or this corporeall and sensible world must of it self necessarily exist Or thus Either God or Matter or both doe of themselves necessarily exist If both wee have what we would drive at the existency of God But yet to acknowledge the necessary existence of the Matter of it self is not so congruous and suteable to the light of Nature For if any thing can exist independently of God all things may so that not onely the Omnipotency of God might be in vain but beside there would be a letting in from hence of all confusion and disorder imaginable Nay of some grand Devill of equall Power and of as large Command as God himself Or if you will of six thousand Millions of such monstrous Gigantick Spirits fraught with various and mischievous Passions as well as armed with immense power who in anger or humour appearing in huge shapes might take the Planets up in their prodigious Clutches and pelt one another with them as boyes are wont to do with snowbals And that this has not yet happened will bee resolved onely into this that the humour has not yet taken them But the frame of Nature and the generation of things would be still lyable to this ruine and disorder So dangerous a thing it is to slight the naturall dependencyes and correspondencyes of our innate Ideas and conceptions Nor is there any Refuge in such a Reply as this that the full and perfect Infinitude of the power of God is able easily to overmaster these six thousand Millions of Monsters and to stay their hands For I say that six or fewer may equallize the infinite power of God For if any thing may be self-essentiated besides God why may not a Spirit of just six times lesse power then God exist of it self and then six such wil equallize him a seventh will overpower him But such a rabble of self-essentiated and divided Deities does not only hazzard the pulling the world in pieces but
plainly takes away the Existence of the true God For if there be any power or perfection whatsoever which has its original from any other then God it manifestly demonstrates that God is not God that is is not a Being absolutely and fully perfect because we see some power in the world that is not his that is that is not from him But what is fully and wholly from him is very truly and properly his as the thought of my minde is rather my mindes then my thoughts And this is the only way that I know to demonstrate that it is impossible that there should be any more then one true God in the world For if we did admit another beside him this other must be also self-originated and so neither of them would be God For the Idea of God swallows up into it self all power and perfection conceivable and therefore necessarily implies that whatever hath any Being derives it from him But if you say the Matter does only exist and not God then this Matter does necessarily exist of it self and so we give that Attribute unto the Matter which our Natural Light taught us to be contain'd in the Essentiall conception of no other thing besides God Wherefore to deny that of God which is so necessarily comprehended in the true Idea of him and to acknowledge it in that in whose Idea it is not at all contain'd for necessary Existence is not contain'd in the Idea of any thing but of a Being absolutely perfect is to pronounce contrary to our Natural light and to do manifest violence to our Faculties Nor can this be excused by saying that the Corporeall Matter is palpable and sensible unto us but God is not and therefore we pronounce confidently that it is though God be not and also that it is necessary of it self sith that which is without the help of another must necessarily bee and eternally For I demand of you then sith you professe your selves to believe nothing but sense how could sense ever help you to that truth you acknowledged last viz That that which exists without the help of another is necessary and eternall For Necessity and Eternity are no sensible Qualities and therefore are not the objects of any sense And I have ready very plentifully proved that there is other knowledge and perception in the Soul besides that of Sense Wherefore it is very unreasonable when as we have other faculties of knowledge besides the senses that we should consult with the senses alone about matters of knowledge and exclude those facultyes that penetrate beyond Sense A thing that the profess'd Atheists themselves will not doe when they are in the humour of Philosophising for their principle of Atoâ—es is a businesse that does not fall under Sense as Lucretius at large confesses But now seeing it is so manifest that the Soul of man has other cognoscitive faculties besides that of Sense which I have clearly above demonstrated it is as incongruous to deny there is a God because God is not an object fitted to the Senses as it were to deny there is Matter or a Body because that Body or Matter in the imaginative Notion thereof lies so unevenly and troublesomly in our fancy and reason In the contemplation whereof our understanding discovereth such contradictious incoherencies that were it not that the notion is sustain'd by the confident dictates of Sense Reason appealing to those more crasse Representations of Fansy would by her shrewd Dilemma's be able to argue it quite out of the world But our Reason being well aware that corporeal matter is the proper object of the sensitive faculty she gives full belief to the information of Sense in her own sphear slighting the puzzling objections of perplexed Fancy and freely admits the existence of Matter notwithstanding the intanglements of Imagination as she does also the existence of God from the contemplation of his Idea in our soul notwithstanding the silence of the senses therein For indeed it were an unexcusable piece of folly and madnesse in a man when as he has cognoscitive faculties reaching to the knowledge of God and has a certain and unalterable Idea of God in his soule which he can by no device wipe out as well as he has the knowledge of Sense that reaches to the discovery of the Matter to give necessary Self-existence to the Matter no Faculty at all informing him so and to take necessary Existence from God though the natural notion of God in the Soul informe him to the contrary and only upon this pretence because God does not immediately fall under the Knowledge of the Senses Thus partially siding with one kind of Faculty only of the Soul and proscribing all the rest Which is as humoursomely and foolishly done as if a Man should make a faction amongst the Senses themselves and resolve to believe nothing to be but what he could see with his Eyes and so confidently pronounce that there is no such thing as the Element of Aire nor Winds nor Musick nor Thunder And the reason forsooth must be because he can see none of these things with his Eyes and that 's the sole sense that he intends to believe CHAP. IX The second Argument from the Idea of God as it is Subjected in our Souls and is the fittest Naturall meanes imaginable to bring us to the knowledge of our Maker That bare possibility ought to have no power upon the mind to either hasten or hinder it's assent in any thing We being delt with in all points as if there were a God that naturally wee are to conclude there is one ANd hitherto I have argued from the naturall Notion or Idea of God as it respects that of which it is the Idea or Notion I shall now try what advantage may be made of it from the respect it bears unto our Souls the Subject thereof wherein it does reside I demand therefore who put this Indelible Character of God upon our Souls why and to what purpose is it there Nor do not think to shuffle me off by saying We must take things as we find them and not inquire of the finall Cause of any thing for things are necessarily as they are of themselves whose guidance and contrivance is from no principle of Wisdome or Counsell but every substance is now and ever was of what nature and capacity it is found having it's Originall from none other then it self and all those changes and varieties we see in the World are but the result of an Eternall Scuffle of coordinate Causes bearing up as well as they can to continue themselves in the present state they ever are and acting and being acted upon by others these varieties of things appeare in the world but every particular Substance with the Essential Properties thereof is self-originated and independent of any other For to this I answere that the very best that can be made of all this is but thus much that it is meerly and barely possible nay