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A29517
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A discovery of the impostures of witches and astrologers by John Brinley.
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Brinley, John.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing B4698; ESTC R24764
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37,372
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135
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a covert manner imply a League and Homage due to their Black Master These are such as we usually call White Witches a sort of Sots who being Gull'd and having their understandings Debauch'd by Superstition do evil that good may come of it that is use Charms Spells and Incantations all which are of no force without the Cooperation of the Devil to remove Distempers and do certain Feats in some measure useful to Mankind yet of pernicious consequence to themselves It may be objected that 't is not probable the Devil will attend those his immediate Servants without some security that they shall continue his To this I answer that they being something queasie and not able altogether to relish the open Blasphemy and Impiety the others run into he is contented to deal with them after another manner and so lets them think themselves loose whereby he holds them the closer to him He lets them make a shew of Religion go to Church hear the Word and otherwise imploy themselves about seeming good things And 't is indeed a main Policy in the Mystery of iniquity to appear in feigned Colours For if a man or woman delight to use Superstitious Forms of words and think there is a secret power and force in Herbs Minerals or the like and in using them desireth in heart to have the thing effected the Devil who is ready to seize his prey upon any occasion to comply with them seconds their Designs with success and so there is a secret Compact for they have desired and he hath consented and wrought the Business too Therefore those that do such things are in a kind of League with the Devil though ignorantly they think otherwise and as those which in Christs name Cast out Devils though they openly followed not Christ yet finding success in their attempts were not against Christ nor likely could speak ill of his power by reason of their Secret and implicit Faith and Covenant with Christ so these kind of persons finding their practices succesful are not against Satan nor can lightly speak ill of his working power because of the secret and implicit League they have with him more especially because of the profit they find insuing to them thereby And so he rests satisfied with this thought of them that they will be surely his because they are not against him as also he lets them please themselves with hopes of Gods mercy For that in thus doing they suppose they sin not nor are in danger of the Devil nor under Gods wrath as are the others who are profest and direct Votaries of the Black Saint that rules in the Children of Disobedience CHAP. IX The reasons and grounds of Witchcraft further Debated on THat there are Witches Sorcerers aud such like may be observed from what hath been said in the former Chapters also that there are Leagues and Obligations both express and tacit now for a further confirmation let us a little observe what Force or Efficacy there lies in natural things That which Philosophers affirm of Nature how she abhors a Vacuum may well mind us of the wonderful Connexion and strict Ties wherewith the things of this visible world are linkt together amongst themselves and the secret relation that is betwixt these and the intellectual world and of this cum Archetypo This being observed by the Aegyptians they called Nature Magick by reason of the Efficacy it has in attractu similium per similia convenientium per convenientia This Attraction or mutual Coherence of Superior with inferior things the Graecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we have Englished Sympathy So the Earth to explain it agrees with the Water in that they are both alike cold the Water with the Air in moisture the Air with the Fire in heat the Fire with the Heavens in purity of substance Nor is the Fire joyned with the Water but by the Air nor the Air with Earth but by the Water Stones and Mettals have quid commune with Herbs and Plants these with Animals Animals with the Heavens the Heavens with Intelligences these with the Divine Attributes and with God himself by whose Image or similitude all things are made The Universe is the Image of God Man the extract or Epitome of the Universe sensitive Creatures of Man vegetatives of sensitives Again Plants agree with Brutes in vegetation Brutes with Man in that they are both sensitive Man with Angels in Intellectuals Angels participate of Immortality Divinity infuses it self into the mind the Mind is communicated to the Intellect the Intellect to the Will the Will to the Imagination this to Common sense Common sense to the Senses in particular and the Senses to the things sensible and such is the Coherency of Nature that every Superior power Communicates it self to the inferior by a continued Series of Mediums and every inferior being participates of the highest by being linckt to the middle Beings So that as things being disposed into so wonderful Order into a capacity and possibility of effecting many things so remote and unusual to what commonly happens should Teach us to be cautious how we ascribe whatever is something strange to Witches and Magical operations So it may confirm us that what is related concerning the Practices of these wicked people is nothing but what is credible enough to be brought to pass considering the great power of these Spirits and the promptitude of Nature to strange effects For 't is the Opinion of Cornelius Agrippa that Spirits are easily induced to obey the Dictates of Witches and Wizards when they make use of Charms and Incantations To which alludes Virgil where he says Carmina vel Coelo possunt deducere Lunam No marvel then if the Devil insinuate and twist his power into the operations of Nature when he is sought unto who is ready enough to dance attendance though not desired Magicians affirm that with certain ingredients having a Sympathy with Supernatural things rightly disposed debitis circumstantijs partim Physicè partim Astronomicè Devils may be drawn to have Commerce with men Which is also the opinion of Iamblichus Proclus and Synesius and of the whole Platonick School And Mercurius Trismegistus tells that an Image made up of some certain things peculiarly Consecrated to such a Spirit they have names for them too has been actuated by some Daemon to perform most actions of the Animal life as to Walk Eat Drink c. St. Augustine affirms the same in libro octavo de Civitate Dei A stone which is found in the eye of an Hyaena holden under the Tongue confers the faculty of Divination The stone called Selenites does the same The stone Synochitis will hold a Spirit raised up so that he cannot depart till Licence from the Magician Xanthus the Historian tells of a young Dragon that was restored to Life by a certain Herb applyed to him by the Old one and that the said Herb wrought the like Cure upon one Tillo And Iuba tells
Lord hath taken away Iob. 1. 21. Histerrors he called the terrors of the Lord C. 6. 4. And he said also that God scared him with dreams and terrified him with visions C. 7. 14. He therefore from whom all things have their being their life and their motion is to be Supplicated either to remove our Cross or so Sanctifie it to us as that it may turn to our health and Salvation Passionate people will not be content to wait the Lords leasure and so grow impatient and furious under the Chastisements of the Lord and are brought to destruction So fared it with Iehoram the son of Iesabel who though he knew the Lords hand was upon him and his people yet was he so impatient to endure the misery and so Hellishly enraged that he Swore to take away the life of the Prophet Eli. 2K 6. 31 33. But the end of this man was a short life a troublesom Reign a violent death for he was trod to death by the people in the gate as the Prophet had foretold 2 Kings 7. 17. But it fell out much otherwise with the patience of Iob who never murmured at any of Gods dispensations towards him but contented himself with all occurrences and humbly submitted to the severest Chastisements Him therefore did God deliver from all his troubles and doubled his Blessings and his Rewards upon and made his end glorious and happy The same Method of deportment is observable in Saint Paul who when the messenger of Satan was sent to Buffet him betook himself to Prayer and had deliverance I shall proceed no further in Instances to shew that God alone has the power to help us in all our needs and likewise such a Dominion over all creatures both good and bad that without his permission and assistance they can do nothing I only shall mention that remarkable passage of Balaam whom Balac did imagine to have been endued with such a power as that he could Bless or Curse whosoever he pleased But the Prophet assures him that though he would give him his houseful of Silver and Gold he could not go beyond the Word of the Lord to do more or less Num. 12. 18. Therefore let no man think it lies in the power of Inchanters Witches or any of their Associates or Assistants the Divels to cure those whom the Lord hath smitten or to hurt any person whom the Lord is pleased to Bless CHAP. III. Several strange Diseases happen only from natural Causes in which neither Divels nor any of his Instruments have any hand THere is nothing as we have formerly hinted more usual with the Common people than to ascribe to Witchcraft all Disasters Mischances or Diseases whatever seeming strange to vulgar sense I shall therefore in this Chapter give a brief account of some Diseases which though proceeding from Natural Causes I have observed that the people attribute to Sorcery and forthwith a Messenger in any of these Cases is dispatched either to a Cunning-man for a Blessing or else the next Old-woman is suspected for a Witch and the Curses of all the Neighbourhood hood are mustered against her 1 st For example in a Catalepsis the whole body is as it were in a minute suddenly taken in the midst of some ordinary Gesture or Action as Standing Sitting Lying Writing or Looking up to Heaven and is continued in this posture for some space together as if Frozen generally stark and stiff in all parts without Sense or motion Now this disease being not so common as the Measles or the Small-Pox the Tooth-ach or the Ague the Countrey people forth with cry out there 's Sorcery in the Case cut off some of his hair and bring it to the Wiseman 2 dly The Apoplexy wherein the Sick are also suddenly taken and surprised with a senseless Trance and general astonishment or sideration and benumming of all the Limbs void of all sense and moving many hours together only the breath striveth against the danger of Suffocation and still the Pulse beateth 3 dly Others are swiftly surprised with so profound and deadly a sleep that no call nor cry nor noise no pinching or stimulation can in many hours awake or raise them Of this Disease as Bodin affirmeth in his Daemonomania lib. 2. cap. 6. That Iohannes Scotus lying as if he had been dead was buried before he really was so 4 thly Phrenitis which the Greeks derive from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a disease of the mind with a continual Madness and Dotage which hath an accute Feaver annexed to it or else an inflamation of the Brain or the Membranes or Kells of it 5 thly Hydrophobia is a kind of madness wel known in every Village which comes by the biteing of a Mad-dog The reason of the name is because the persons thus affected cannot endure the sight of water or any liquor supposing still they see a Mad-dog in it The part affected is the Brain the cause Poyson that comes from the Mad-dog which is so hot and dry that it consumes all the moisture in the body Hildeshiem in Spicil 2. Relates of some that died so Mad and being Cut up had no water scarce any blood left in them To such as are affected with it the fear of water begins at fourteen days after they are bitten to some again not till Forty or Sixty days Some say not only biteing but touching or smelling a Dog infected may cause this disorder and then if any one chance to fall into such a condition and the cause not known straight-way half of the Parish is suspected of Witchery ☞ What would the people imagine of Lycanthropie when they are so strangely startled at these Diseases For in this as some Physicians tell us men run howling about Graves and Fields in the night and will not be perswaded but that they are Wolves or such like beasts Forrestus in his Observat de morbis cerebri lib. 10. cap. 15. tells of some persons thus distracted to one of which himself was an eye-witness at Alcmaer in Holland a poor Husbandman that still hunted about Graves and kept in Church-yards of a pale black fearful and ugly look Such belike were the Daughters of King Praetus who fancied themselves to be Kine And Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel was only troubled with this kind of Madness and not really Metamorphosed into an Ox For the soul of man could not possibly dwell in so unsutable an habitation as the body of an Ox but the proud King might be seized with so deep a Lycanthropie as to fancy himself to be so Besides this we often see men laboring of very sad and violent Diseases as Convulsions Madnesses and such like and some will bite their Tongues and Flesh some make fearful Outcries and most hideous Shriekings some toss themselves violently from one place to another some Froth Gnash with their Teeth and draw their faces into strange and Ghastly Figures All which though proceeding from natural causes yet the