REverend Sir, though my acquaintance bee but yong with you, yet imboldened upon these extraordinary curtesies, I lately received from you (ever obliging my gratitude) by your candid imparting unto mee your lear­ned notions, to my full anchoring and set­ling in such poynts and doubts as before, I was tossed and troubled in unsetled fluctua­tions, as I then (I thanke you) thrashed out of your full mow, and lighted my darke torch at your bright flame; lapping as a poore Poet out of your Homericall Basin: so knowing you are as willing to improve your able parts for publick and private good to the inlivening and inlightning of such weake tenuities as mine, as a full dugd Mother or Nurse to communicate her milke to a hungry childe, as the Sunne lends her light to the Moone, Starres, and Plannets, and his influence to the sublunaries, since bonum quo com­munius co melius, good the more common it is, the more commen­dable; as a poore Beggar who knowes the way willingly to the house againe where hee received a Rich Almes: I make bold to thrust my selfe further upon your favours so far, as that you would bee pleased to informe mee both in the quid, quale, & quomodo, of the Reports in every mans tongue (more common then the cough and fleame in an old womans mouth, or Oaths and God dam mees, in the mouths of some Roarers) of a strange Witch or Ghost now at your Greenwich, haunting the house of one Meriday, and playing strange prankes by throwing stones at the glasse windowes, making [Page 2]the stooles, chaires, and other utensills daunce Sellengers round, or rather (according to the Musick of these Times, turnde all frets) pas­sing measure in lofty levaltoes, without either Welsh Ha [...]pe, Jewes Trumpe, Scotch Bagpipe, or English disorder (I should say Recorder) throwing also Bookes, yea the Testament into the fire, as though it cared as little for it, as a new Enthusiast, Papist, or an Athiest, peer­king the ladle out of the Wives boyling pot below, as high as into the Husbands bed above; putting the Husbands breeches upon the Wives head (as though the Grey Mare were the better Horse) not in­during that a boy should bee too captious or capritious throwing the boyes cap into the chimnyes smoake, yea as a Lord of mistule, brea­king earthen pots (as fast as some Merchants and Bankrouts in these broken and breaking Times) with other such reakes and mad merry pranks, as strange as ever Hobgoblins, pinching Fairies, and Robin Goodfellow acted in houses in old Times amongst Dayry Wenches, and Kitchin Maids.

Though usually fama mendax, fame bee as lying as flying, growne much bigger (like Snow Balls) by tumbling from mouth to mouth, yet to answer you in your Jocoserious straine what you have related, and much more as of much more authentick credit, then what the Popish Proselites believe as Gospell truth in their lea­den Legends of St. Dennyes and St. Guthmar, taking their heads in their hands, and burying them when they were cut off; of Justina (being a right woman) who spoke when her tongue was cut out; of St. Tryar who caused a sheepe (as most blabbing meate) to bleate in a Thieves belly, who had eate it; of St. Francis who caused a Wolfe to leave woarying Sheepe, calling him brother Wolfe; of the stones who sayd Amen, venerable Bede, when hee had ended his Sermon; of St. Cuthbert who made the Crowes doe pennance (in black sheetes) for pulling the thatch off his house; of St. Dominîck who tooke up his bookes falne into the Sea as dry as dust, and of St. Margaret who by the signe of the all wonder working crosse, cau­sed a Spider which shee had swallowed come out at her legge by a little scratching, with a number such like, which they scrape, and scratch, and patch together like shreds in a Beggars Cloake to make up a fardle of fooleries, and a bundle of bables; for as I have exa­mined the truth of these things you have related, not onely from the Wife, Sonne, and Daughter of that Merryday, but from Master [Page 3] Halsepenny and his Wife, who saw a Laundyron of it self without any visible mover leape out of the fire, a Candlestick skippe up into the chamber, as other Neighbours other such postures as true as strange, hearing also strange noises and ratlings, as of Carts or Waynes rum­bling up and downe the house when the doores have been lockt, and except a Cat or Rat, no visible Creature within; so I my selfe being one night with much company in the house, as wee went out a round stone was throwne at my Daughters heeles: another time as I was in the house with the old Wife and two Children, as I went into the Garden a knife was throwne after mee, which I tooke up, and with vehemency threw back againe to the very place from whence it came, daring the Witch or Spirit to throw it at mee againe, and conjuring it in the name of that Jesus which is terrible to Divells to speake un­to mee, and to reveale the reason why it haunted the house, and to re­turne to it own place; but I had no reply, neither by voice or gesture.

But did you not in this case use exorcismes, which you so condemne in Priests and Jesuites?

I know well both Durand in the Rites of his Church ( lib. 1. cap. 19.) and Thiraeus (de Demonibus part. 3.) and Delri­us in his Magicall disquisitions ( Tom. 3.) and Bellarmine, and the Rhemists upon Timothy, 1 Cor. 3. and all the Rabble of them, make exorcisme or adjuration of Spirits, one of the disorderly Orders of their Church, and they joyne it with the Acolythites, Ostiarians Readers, Priests, and Deacons, and Bristow in his Motives, Bozius and Campian make it one of the Notes of their Church, as the chiefe of their Miracles, and both Staphilus and Smediline, page 404. and Lindan in his Dialogues ( dial. 3. cap. 1.) and Bredenbachius in his Collations, lib. 7. cap. 40. & cap. 42. scoffe at Luther, and his Protestants, because they cannot conjure Spirits, which they say was attempted to their great scaith and scorne, both in Wittemb [...]rge, An­no 1545. and else where Anno 1563. I know also that they pre­tend this exorcizing of Spirits came from Solomon, and so according to Origen (tract. 35. in Math.) they make it Judaicall, and conse­quently (since according to Junius, Judizare est Christum denegare) they deny Christ and his Gospel by Judaizing; I know also Tertullian in his Prescriptions, cap. 4. deny this power unto women, yet they brag of their Catharine de Siena, St. Bridget Genoveir, Anatolia, Euphrasia, Hildegund, and others, that they had this prero­gative [Page 4]over Spirits, yet neverthelesse what I did in adjuring the spi­rit in a lawfull calling, se defendeudo, in defending my selfe from it, when it assaulted mee by a knife throwne at mee, in using against it the name of Iesus, (which according to Tertullian to Triphon, Lac­tantius in his Institutions, lib. 4 cap. 17. and Athanasius in the life of Anthony is so terrible unto, and powerfull against Devills) my act was so far discrepant from the practice of the Popish Priests in their ordinary adjurations, like the sonnes of Sceva, Acts [...]6 14. in a foo­lish imitation and usurpation of that power which Christ gave his Apostles, Luke 10.19. (interpreted by Athanasius in Psal. 28. and Bosterus in locum) as there is discrepance betwixt true Miracles (these sometimes of Jannes and Jambres of the primitive He­retiques, and our moderne superstitious Papists,) which by degrees wee shall bring to the test and touchstone.

I know well this power of adjuring spirits, was not only Apostolicall, but it continued for some times in the nonage and infan­cy of the Church after the Apostles, for the confirmation of the faith both of the Christians and the Gentiles out of whom no spi­rits could bee dispossessed but by Christians, as wee may see in Ter­tullians Apology ( cap. 23.) and to Scapula, cap. 2. and in Cyprian (Epist. 2. & 76.) Minutius (in Octavio) with Athanastus, Pruden­tius, Justin, and others; but for every mumbling Priest to mono­polize it, and to have that power over demonaicks which Christ had himselfe, and did onely delegate to his Disciples: yea to take upon them to exercise this their exorcizings of spiris out of yong Children, in baptisme, when a pocky Priest (in King James his phrase) spits in a Childes mouth, this is as ridiculous as grosse and superstitious.

It cannot bee denyed that children are in nature the chil­dren of wrath, Ephes. 2.2. born in sinne with David, Psal. 51. none being exempted from the infection of originall sinne, not John the Baptist, Jeremy, or the Virgin Mother (save onely the Saviour of sin­ners) yea perhaps by reason of this originall sinne derived not by imstation as Pelagians grant but by propagation as hereditary di­seases usually, even Infants may bee vexed and troubled with spirits, as Augustine affirmes in his City of God ( lib. 21. cap. 14. & lib. 22. cap. 22.) yet to exorcise them after the fashion of Popish Priests in Baptisme (which was never used to the jewish Children by Levi­ticall Priests in circumcision) hath neither Precept from Christ insti­tuting [Page 5]Baptisme, nor practise, that I read of in the Primitive Church; but like their Auricular confession, adoration, and circum­gestation of the breaden God, denegation of marriage to Ministers, vowes of poverty, continency and single life; and much such like trumpery (with Jonas his Gourd) it hath growne up of it selfe: and therefore being no Plant of Christs planting, with most of their wild Gourds, and wild Olives; they and it must wither, being without any root or grafting, Math. 15 John 15.

But leaving these deep discussions, I pray you proceed in your plaine story of this house hanted by Witches: I have heard of most of these Pageants you have related were onely done by the wily Wench, who was servant to the woman taken out of her grave, up­on suspition of her unnaturall death: and that she hath troubled and blundered the Waters, and made all this poother, to call her late Master in question about the death of his Wife.

It's very true, that bold faced brazen brow'd wench hath had a great finger in the Pye, and hath been a great stickler in these Pageants; for I have had her in serious examination, and I have with much adoe wrested from her thus much: that being one day in her mothers garden, some three weeks after her Dames death, that a stone was throwne at her, and hit her on the back, none being neare her, nor within her sight; at which she much marvelling from whence it should come, she tooke up the stone, looked seriously up­on it, carried it up and downe the Garden, with as much pride and complacency, as admiration: upon which Sathan vehemently tempted her to throw it against her mothers window, which this o­bedient vassall did accordingly. Upon which she setting the De­vill a worke, as he her, as she broke the ice, an ill spirit hath waded and thrown sorty stones since (as forty can testifie) at the same win­dows, no visible hand being since, not any terminus a que, locall place discerned from whence, or how they should come.

And is this all she hath confessed▪

Without much wresting and spunging shee hath freely and penitentially acknowledged both to my selfe and others, that since that stone throwne in the Garden, shee her selfe in a paltry pride to aggravate the Report of spirit haunting behinde peoples backs, when shee thought shee was free from being seene, hath often in acting and counterfeiting the spirit, throwne stooles, cushions, can­dlesticks, [Page 6]dishes, and kept the like Revill Rush; and indeede so long goes the Pitcher to the Well, that at last it comes home broake. Sa­than catcht her in her owne snare, being by a yong man taken trip­ping in the very act, as shee cast a great chip out of a chamber downe the staires into the house where many people were.

But as the phrase is, that a pudding hath two ends, what one good end had shee in this wickedly, witty folly and knavery?

You have answered your selfe and unriddled your owne question; for it was wicked witty folly indeed in a yong Impe of 14 yeare old, that had more wit to doe wickedly, then grace to doe good; her fantasticalities being such mixtures as bee in some Tarl­tanonized leasters and Baffons of ingenious folly and serpentive kna­very; as there bee the two species of a Horse and an Asse, in a Mule; of a Dogge and an Ape in a Cynocephalift; of a Leopard and Cam­mell in a Camelopardis, and of ignorance and arrogance in some selfe conceited fantastick.

And was this the primus motor, and maine originall that set her a worke?

These her inward principles and corruptions which you see how soone they begin to worke and act in our degenerate nature, they were as sparkes fuellized by Sathan, who as shee told mee with sad lookes and sighes (but with as many teares as milstones) upon the throwing of her first stone, entered into her as into Judas and Ananias, and others, and vehemently tempted her to act all these parts, which I have recited, and many more; baiting his hooke with many delusive promises, that if shee would go on as shee had begun, what shee did should never bee knowne, and that hee would never forsake her, as its probable hee will bee as good as his word (as a shame to some of his officers) banquerouts, Politicians & Impostors, who breake their words as Sampson broke his cords, and dally with promises, as Children with Bables, and old Flowers throwne by, as old Ladders after their ends bee climbed and shaken off, as Foxes doe their Fleas.

But not to jeast with the times which is to touch the Ly­ons paw, or play with his beard. I see give the Divell an inch, and hee will take an ell, sup of his broth, and cate of his roast-meate, it being dangerous to give his waters the least passage, or to entertaine the least sparke of his hellish heates into a harboring heart, but prin­cipiis [Page 7]obstare to resist him in the beginning, to quench his sparkes with prayers and teares in the first kindling, to crush his injected temptations, as yong Serpents in the heads, and Cocatrices in their shells; yea to pump them out as water out of a shippe as fast as they leaker or dash in: This infernall Fox or Serpent wresting in himselfe whole, where hee gets but in his head, like a hungry Dogge follow­ing still for more, if hee get but one luring crust to intice him on.

I see also how soone these yong things, God leaving them to them­selves, and to their strong soone budding corruptions, like soft Waxe, take suddaine Sathanicall Impressions, like that yong Pythonist or Ventriloquist, who got her Masters much gaine by Southsayings, Acts 16. and that yong baggage, who like the cackling of a Hen, that Peter was a Galilean made that Cock cry Craven, to the deny­ing of his Master, Math. 27. and that yong Herodias in whom the Divell daunced, faith Chrysostome, till her round turnings and mimi­call gestures layd John Baptists round head in a platter, Marke 6. and many yong wily Wenches in our Times, some discovered by Doctour Harsuet, some by Deakon and Walker, in their printed Dialogui­zings, and some by deepe and judicious King James, to have playd strange reakes by the tutorings and impostures of Fryars and Jesuits, and by the trainings of some old Witches and Wizzards both black and white; and indeede I have a strong jealousie that this Impe hath a laire Father or laire-mother (besides Sathan the Father of all impo­stures) some hee or shee Witch, who traines her (besides these Leger­demaines) even in Wichcraft it selfe.

Truely my jealousies and suspitions in this kinde have been and still are as strong as yours; that as the old Cocks crow, the yong ones learne; and for this purpose I have toucht every string, rowled every stone, improved all my best by my selfe and friends to finde out the old serpent of this young spawne, and by this Cubbe, I have used all the Terriers of my best wits to hunt the old Foxe to the hole to trap her teachers; but though much suspected, nothing yet can be detected: Yea I have dealt by all wayes and meanes with the Wench faire and foule, menaces, threatnings, and promises to reveale her Magicall Tutresse; but as shee is as subtile as a yong serpent, I can get no more out of her then water out of a stone, or Oyle from a Pumice, whether guilty or not guilty, I thinke an English Rack, or Spanish strappado would no more get it out of her, then Austogiton [Page 8]Leaena and Hermodius confessed in tortures: Unlesse wee could dis­cover her, as now the Scotch Witches by water Ordeall (as once a­mongst the old Saxons) I thinke its as hard to finde her out in any Witchcrafts, as to finde out these minotaures Caniballs and Cormo­rants, who have devoured into the Cu [...]tian gulph of their owne cof­fers, all these vast summes of moneys even many thousands which they have as sacrilegious thieves received, deceived, from the charity of Holland London, England, to the reliefe of the poore hunger starved Protestants from [...]reland, so shearing the Ape, robbing the Spittle for Achans wedge, and unprosperous Tholous Gold, till the hooke of vengeance stick in the jawes of in justice, Joh 20.10.11.12.13.14.

indeede Murther, Treason, Witchcraft, Theft, Cousenage, chiefely walking in a Fox furd Gowne, are as hard to bee found out, as the head of Nilus, or as an Officer who smoothly licks his yellow dusted fingers, as the Harlot her lippes, and saith I have not sinned, more then some Taylor (stealer) who lookes up to Heaven till hee throw Sathan into Hell hole, protesting hee takes nothing but that which is brought to him, but leaving these digressions upon unrefor­med, yea unquest [...]oned transgressions, some have a great jealousie of the old Wife her Mother in Law, that shee should bee loose in the haft, and not so good as shee should bee; yea that shee should have a great hand, head or heart in these witchly or spiritly postures, as though by some explicite or implicite compact with Sathan, shee should delude the world by these fascinations, what think you of her?

Charity bids mee thinke the best of her, and forbids mee to judge rashly of her lest I enter into a premunire against God, who is onely the fearcher of the Reines; I have no win­dows into her heart, and for her outward carriage it is so candid, square and faire, that I see no cause either in Reason or Religion to suspect her, unlesse upon some grounding probabilities I could de­rect her; shee seemes to me to bee so passive in the premises, yea so passionate and compassionate in all the passages recited, so strong in faith, so frequent and fervent in prayer, so zealous in her devotions, so sincerely subordinate to all ordinances publick and private, that if shee bee any way active in this base businesse, either in complotting, contriving, confederating, councelling, consenting, countenancing, or concealing: I shall not onely say hypocrisie is spunne with a faire [Page 9]thread, and that all is not Gold that glisters; but that shee were a worse shee Divell, yea white Divell for a woman, then Judas for a man, whose hypocrisie (like a dunghill under a great snow unmelted) was so long ere it was discovered, John 13.

If then neither the old woman of the house have been the Authour of nor Actor in these motions and molestations, nor any Witcheraft can bee detected, its probable the Wench acts all her self with her owne hands by legerdemaine.

Something shee doth, but not all, for sollid witnesses om­ni exceptione majores, beyond all exception will depose if neede bee, (as I will by these premises lay ten pounds to ten shillings against any Sceptick or Junior Didimu that will not believe what I relate) that stooles in the house, sticks out of the fire, Laundyrons out of the chim­ney have removed of themselves, and other things also, they looking on, and seeing nothing move them more then they see, a voice, a found, a wind, a noise, a soule in man, or their owne hearts, which they perceive really, though they see nothing visibly.

Then these motions from an invisible Agent, come either from a Witch set a worke by the Wench, or by some others, or else it is the Ghost or Spirit of the dead woman her late Dame which walkes, as I will assure you many in the Towne, and most in the Countrey ere shee was rooke out of her Grave, did believe as their Creed verily and assuredly.

But as a woman being askt by Bonner, if shee believed not Christs body and blood to bee in the Sacrament substantially and re­ally? Shee told him it was a substantiall lye, and a reall lye; so I as­sure you, what ever the Pontificians doate or faigne, or our Vulgars dreame of the Ghosts or Spirits of this man, or that man walking af­ter their deaths in this or that shape, is a very lye, an assured lye; take this from me, yea from Scripture, Fathers, Reason, and Experi­ence assuredly.

But doe you not believe that many strange visions and ap­paritions have appeared unto men, and have revealed divers strange things unto them and future events sometimes visible in bodily shapes and formes, are not these the soul [...]s of the dead?

No they are not, yet I should give a lye to abundant Histo­ries and to all Antiquities, if I should deny all Visions, for the Author of the Booke of the Machab [...]s tells us of two yong men who ap­peared [Page 10]to Heliodorus, 2 Machab. 3.25.26. of five to Judas Ma­chabeus, 2 Machab. 10.23. and Zozomens Ecclesiasticall Historie relates a feare full spectar terryfying Julian the Apostate, as hee was consulting with an Oracle ( lib. 5. cap. 2.) and another in forme of a big woman with a horrid noise in the night terrifying the Antiochi­ans, lib. 7. cap. 23. and of another appearing to Apelles the Painter, whose face hee burned with a hot Iron, lib. 6 cap. 28. (as St. Dun­stan is sayd to take the Divell by the nose with a paire of hot pin­chers:) yea to reflex from Ecclesiasticall on secular History, a spectar appeared to Julius Caesar, as hee led his Army into France, incoura­ging him by a loud pipe to passe over the River Rubico, another to Brutus, telling him hee would meete him at Philippos, another to Dionysius the Syracusan in forme of a woman, as hee sate very solita­ry in the Porch of his house, another to Polizelus the Athenians Ge­nerall in the Battle of Marathan, where hee was victorious, though it struck him blinde, another to Athenodorus the Stoick, which hee dispossessed out of a house in Athens, which it haunted; just as the Spirit now doth the house of Meriday, and another in the Parish of Mentz, who by breaking open doores, casting stones, pulling down walls (and the like reakes that our Greenwich Spirit doth) troubled and terrified many, and another to Henry the third, Emperour in Hungary neare Danubius in the shape of a black and big Aethiopian, another also to Maximilian the first Emperour, Anno 1503. in the forme of an Abatesse who was dead; of all which, with many more which I purposely pretermit, for further satisfaction consult with Came arius in his Centuries, Cent. 1. cap. 70. cap. 72. with Richthe­rus in his Occonomicall Axioms, Reg. 2. & 90. Aretius in his Pro­bleams, Page 113. Pliny in his seventh booke of Epistles (to Sura) Wolfius in his memorable Lecticus, Tom. 1. Aventine in his An­nalls ( lib. 5. Boiorum) Artunus in his first Section of the History of Millaine, together with Plutark in his Brutns and Dion, Sueto­nius in his Caesar, with others all which instances doe not onely con­fute and confound the ancient Saduces, who denyed that there were either Spirits or Angells, Acts 23.8. Math 22.23. yea conceited God himselfe to bee corporeall (according to Lorinns, in acta cap. 23.8. fol. 869. from Chrysostome and Oecumenius) and not a spirit, deny­ing also the Holy Ghost (according to Hierom in Math. 22.) to bee a spirit, or to bee any person in the Diety, nor doe they onely muz­zle [Page 11]the mouth of Atheisticall Politicians, who with that Trismegistus, in Saint Augustines City of God ( lib. 3. cap. 23.) hold that there be no reall or substantiall Divells, but onely the Furies and Erinnis of wicked consciences; but also some neotorick and moderne Fanta­sticks and Scepticks, who conceit all to bee meere fantasmes and de­lusions in this kinde, and no more to bee credited then the fictitious Tritons, Gerions, and Chimeras of the Poets, yea of no more cre­dence then the old Wives Tales of King Oberon, and Queene of the Fairies.

To deny all Apparitions of spirits which the Disciples themselves feared, when they saw Christ walking on the waters, ( Math. 14.26. Mark. 6.46.) were to deny plaine Scriptures, for they thought hee had beene a spirit; for I believe the Relation of Suetonius in the life of Nero, that after that Truculent Tyrant, had butchered so many noble Senators, made Bonefires of so many Christian Martyrs, put to death his Master Seneca, when hee was 114. yeares of age, crucified Peter and Paul, and unripped the bowells of his Mother Octavia, with other such barbarous cruelties, that hee was not onely racked and tortured with his owne guilty conscience, and terrified with agonizing feares in his dreames, as were Caligula his Successor, Herod after his assassinations of the Bethlem Infants, and Jewish Synedrim, Alexander after tue murther of Clitus Phi­lip after the butchering of his innocent sonne Demetrins (and our bloody Boare Richard the third, after his murthering of his Brother and N [...]phewes in the Tower by Tirell whose pannick feares and terrours in the guilt of blood, are more largely related by Patritius, in his bookes of a Kingdome, lib. 5. tit. 8. pag 313. and by Strigel­lius in his Ethicks, lib. 1. pag. 6.7.8. and in his Comments on 2 Sam. 3. pag. 9. & pag. 15 [...]. but I believe also the Relation of the same Authours, that hee was so whipped, and scourged, and scorch­ed in his flesh, as with hot brands, with a spirit in the shape of his Mother, that as Balthazar consulted with his Magitians in the like pannick feares, Dan. 5. hee used all the helps hee could by Magick to appease as hee thought her angry Ghost; neither have I any reason to contradict the received Relation of that terrible Vision of an ug­ly man in bulke like a Gyant, appearing in the night to Pisistratus the Tyrant, thundering to him what hee found true, that nemo Impro­bus, non luit poenam, no wicked man must escape unpunished; yet [Page 12]for all this I perswade my selfe, many conceit they see or heare spirits, when there is no such matter.

That is certaine, for in the guilt of conscience, Theoderick a cruel King of the Goth [...] thought hee saw the bloody head of Sy­machus which hee had out off, to gape with open mouth upon him, when onely the head of a great Fish was set on his table, by which Guilt of Conscience some have strangely discovered their owne murthers, as many notorious Villaines have beene discovered by o­thers, of which many instances may bee seene in Gualters Homilies upon Luke, cap. 12. pag. 324. as also Bucholcerus his Chronologies, pag. 59. chiefely in Melancton in locis Manlii, pag. 290. 308. Some­times withall, the senses are mainely deluded, as the Moabites thought the waters were dyed with the blood of the Israelites, when it was onely the Sunne which shined upon them to a waterish rednesse, 2 King. 3.22.23. But chiefely melancholy men, Bedlam Birds, and frantick persons, by the tumultuations of malignant spirits, distem­per of their braines and fascinations of Sathan fishing in a troubled water (as his Proselites since in these streames in Church and State which themselves made) doe not onely conceit themselves to bee oft strangely metamorphized Creatures into Birds and Beasts (which was Nabuchadnezzar's Case, Dan 3.) yea into Urinalls, Glasses, and the like (of which abundant instances are given by Gallen, A­vicen, our Doctour Bright and Burton in his love Melancholy) but sometimes they thinke they see Spirits and Spectars, yea that they themselves are Divells, as Bessus, and those who murthered Ibicus, thought chatering Swallowes to bee their Accusers, as Pluta [...]k hath it, de sera niminis vindicta; besides those who have beene long sick, and bedrid, or distempered in their braines with swimmings and vertigoes (chiefely our new Seekers and braine sick Enthusiasts) es­pecially (according to P. Egineta lib. 3. cap. 16) those who are oppressed with the Ephialtes, or Night Mare, or riding of the Witch, as vulgar people call it, are most deluded with seeming Spectars and Apparitions, of all which reade for further satisfaction Aretius his Probleames, loco 113, circa finem.

But since not only the vulgars as strongly conceit that these spectars, and visions which have been so oft discerned in the visible shapes of this or that man or woman deceased, are the very persons or ghosts of those whom they so lively represent: but they are so [Page 13]held by the tenents, and opinions of all the learned Jesuits, Priests, and Schoolemen, yea by the determinations of their Councels of Trent, of Constance, and else where, as resolutely as other Counsels at Rome, cap. 3. & 7. Carthage, cap. 4. & 5. Laodicea, cap. 24 & 26. Antioch, cap. 10. with their Clemens, epist 5. ad Ia­cobum [...]., Anacletus, epist. [...]. and Caius, epis. ad felice determine, and ordaine Exorcists to adjure them, to know their errands, and to con­jure them downe. I pray you, according to your various readings, satisfie me from Scripture grounds, and consent of antiquity what they are? and from whence they proceed in the affirmative? and why they are not the spirits or ghosts of the dead, according to the vulgar errour, if it be an errour.

First to remove the mists and clouds which have so long dazled and darkned the blinde and superstitious Plebeians, that these walking, or talking spectars in humane shapes, are such men and wo­men really as have been dead and buried; this is not only a sixion un­probable, but impossible, for these Reasons. First, to hold they are the soules of the dead is false: for the soules of the Saints are in the hands of God, to whom they are commended, Psal. 31.5. Now who shall take them out of Gods hands, this were, as the Proverb is, more then to take or pull away Hercules his Club, loves Scepter, or Neptunes Trident, which the Pagans held impossible. Secondly, they are departed in peace: as Simeon Prophesied, Luke 2.29. Syracid. 3. v. 3.4. now who can disturbe this Peace, to bring them from Heaven to earth again? Thirdly, they are bound up in the bundle of life 2 Sam. 25.29. and who shall loose and unbundle them? Fourthly, they are in Paradice with the soule of Christs penitent fel­low sufferer, Luk. 23.43. and of Lazarus. Luk. 16.22. where being in refr [...]gerio, in fruition of joy, though not in fulnesse till the Resur­rection, according to Esdras lib. 2. cap 7. v. 51, 52, 53, and Mus­culus on Math. cap. 9 & cap. 27. fol. 641. How can this joy be interupted, by their activities here on earth againe, in such labours from which they have for ever rested, Revel. 14.13. Now as these spectars are not the soules of Saints, much lesse of the wicked: for the day of their visitation being neglected, in which they should have wrought out their salvation: Luke 19, 42.44. their soules are in­closed [Page 14]closed in Hell, out of which there is no jayle delivery, Psal. 55.16. as the cruel rich Churle experimented, Luke 16.22. their death feeds on them, Psal. 49.14. yea the worme ever gnawes them, Marke 9.49. to which Poets alluded by the Eagle and Vulture ever gnawing on the Livers of Titius and Prometheus, in their Avernus or Tarta­rus, as the Tree falls so it lyes, whether to the North or South, Eccles. 11.3. and as they go downe to Hell, Psal. 9.17. with Co­rah, Dathan, and Abiram, Numb. 16.31. so ex inferis nulla redemp­tio, there is no redemption out of Hell, its reductio per impossibile, they shall never see light more, Psal. 49.19. Thus if the soules of the godly would not return to the Earth if they could; nor the soules of the wicked could if they would, how then after the seperations from their bodies can they walke heere any more?

Then it is their bodies which walke.

Bodies to walke without soules, this were but like a Pup­pet Plays motion, or as though Milstones & Mountains should walk, or Trees in Jothams Parable, Judges 9. or any other things inanimate; but to take you from this conceit, the bodies of the Saints are a sleepe in the Lord, as its sayd of David, 1 Kings 2.10. and of Solomon, 1 Kings 11.43. as also else where of Asa, Ezekiah, Jehosophat, that they sleepe with their Fathers, they go into their Graves as into their beds, Esay. 57.2. they enter into the sleeping chambers of death, and the doores are shut upon them, Esay. 26.20. and who shall a­waken them out of this sleepe till the last Trumpe, 1 Thess. 4.16. at what time, v. 17. they shall bee caught up in the cloudes to meete the Lord in the Ayre, and to bee ever with him (not on Earth for a thousand yeares as our new Seekers and arch Hereticks dreame) but in the Heavens (which are Gods Throne) where a place is prepared for them in Gods House, where are many Mansions, John 14.2. not in Earth, which is his footstoole, much lesle shall the bodies of the wicked kept in the shackles of the Grave, as Prisoners in Newgate for Tyburne, till the Resurrection for Hell returne, till that time pre­fixed of God any more to the Earth, or to their forsaken houses, Job 7.10. they shall rot and perish in the Grave, the eye which saw them shall see them no more. Job 20.7.8. there shall they bee tyed as guil­ty fellons for execution with the chaines and cords of their sinnes, Prov. 5.22. their memories shall rot, cap. 20.7. their hopes and ex­pectations shall perish, cap. 11.8.

Secondly, if the dead walke on Earth, its either by Gods com­mand, or by their owne private motion, not by any mandate from God. of which the Scripture is altogether silent, ne gri quidem, and according to Tertullian, quod non habet, ignorat, what it hath not, it is ignorant of, quod non jubet, prohibet, what it commands not, it prohibits, what it affirmes not either directly, or by consequent, it denies; now it is so far from allowing or teaching this walking of men or their spirits, that it directly contradicts it, Luke 16.26. as a thing impossible: hence then as its a shame for a Lawyer to plead contrary to all Lawes or booked Cases; is it not more shamefull for a Christian, much more a Divine, to affirme any thing thats not re­vealed in Scripture, Heb. 1.1.13. Esay. 8.10. which being not of faith is finne, Rom. 14.23.

And if God neither command nor commend this walking of deud men, much lesse can they walke or talke of themselves, with out God, no more then dead Lyons can roare, dead Asses brey, or dead Images speake: Without the impostures of Divells and Fryars, since even Sathan himselfe, the cunning Artificer and Contriver of these delu­sions, is chained as a Mastiffe, and grated as a Lyon, in all his powers subordinate unto God, as appeares in his reference to Job, cap. 1. and the Gaderens swine, Mark 5.

Thirdly, Since finis & bonum convertuntur, nothing comes from God, whose end is not good as well as meanes, their walking were frivolous, and to no purpose, since wee are absolutely prohibited from any commerce with spirits, Deut. 18.10.11. and from consulting with them, as leaving the living for the dead, Esay. 8.18.19.

But did not the Witch of Endor raise up Samuel, really with whom Saul consulted, and so consequently, why may not o­thers appeare in their visible shapes as well as Samuel after their deaths, 2 Sam. 28.

I know all the Rabble of Schoolemen and Jesuites affirme Samuels reall resuscitation, bewitching the vulgars to believe that the dead appeare out of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, to bring the living newes of their estate, which golden dreame fills their coffers with gold, and brings golden Gudgeons to their spread net; yea catcheth many silver feathered Woodcocks; but they catch at shadowes and Sathanicall shewes for Samuels substance: For first, if God would neither answer Saul by Dreames, Visions, Prophets, 1 Sam 28.14.15.16. [Page 16]is it probable that hee would answer him by Samuel, at the mediation of a Pythonist, a Vassaile and Slave to the Devill, v. 7.

Secondly, would God permit Samuels practise in answering Saul to contradict his owne precept, prohibition of inquiring ought of the dead, Levit. 20.27. Deut. 18.11.

Thirdly, the reall Samuel would not make a lye, telling Saul that the next morning hee should bee with him, v. 19. that is in a blessed and beatificall condition, when indeede being felo de se in a desperate condition his owne selfe murtherer, 1 Sam. 31.4. with other mur­therers hee had no title to eternall life, 1 John 3.12.13.

Fourthly, I say with Tertullian, absit ut anima cujuslibet justi, God forbid that the soules of any Saints, much lesse of the holy Pro­phets should bee in the power of Sathan to call them from Heaven at his pleasure.

Fiftly, I say with Peter Marter; if Samuell was raised, it was either by the will of God, and Samuels voluntary consenting, or compulsively by art magick: the first it was not, because God pro­hibites such consultings with the dead: therefore to affirme the se­cond were impious and blasphemous.

But if the true Samuel was not raised by the Witch: what was it then which appeared to Saul?

It was a personated Histrionicall Samuel, a deluding Ma­lignant spirit in the shape of Samuel, just as Cornelius Agrippa, that great Conjurer brought the shapes of Hellena, Achilles, Hector, and Alexander upon a Stage before Charles the fift; and this is the opinion of Cyrill, lib. 12. in Iohan. cap. 36. of Theophilact. in cap. 8. Math. as also of Athanasius, and Chrysostome alledged by Illiricus Cent. 2. and by Diatericus dom. 1. Trinit. part 2. observ. 1. yea of Augustine in his questions of two Testaments 27. to which even Pontifician Canonists Consent in the second Booke of Deeretalls Causa, 26. q. 5. cap 14.

But if it were not the reall Samuel which appeared: why is he called Samuel?

Augustine in his Epistle to Symplician, tels us, just as the curious Picture of such and such a Man. Woman, Bird, Beast, or Fish, drawn by some curious Zeuxes, or Apelles, hath their names, as we use to say, this is Hector, this Caesar, this Cicero, this Salust, this Augustine, Hierom, this the flood Simois, when they are but so lim­med, [Page 17]or pencild: as also this is Rome, this Millaine, this Venice; when we see them in the Mapps of Ortelius or Mercator.

But they tel us these spectars that they are the souls of such and such Men.

So a counterfeit voice told fond Celestine that he should resigne his Popedome to Boniface: so it goes by Tradition, that a voice told the late Mr. Crashaw of the Temple, or old Muncy Dun­cy of St. Johns in Cambridge, that they should goe to Geneva to preach the Gospell. Chrysostome on Mathew Hom. 29. tels us what credit we are to give to the Devill, and to his tellings in such cases, who is (not as the countrey Minister read it a Lawyer) but a lyar from the beginning, Iohn 8.44. and as the Father of lyes teacheth his aequivocating Jesuits, Monks, and Fryers, and all his artifizing Gusmans, and Proselites, their lying tongues better then their Latine tongues.

From whence we have the phrase, hic frater, ergo mendax, he is a Fryer, therefore a lyar, [...] a Jesuite, therefore a Jebusite. But to satisfie me further: that which appeared unto Saul was so like Sa­muell, that what could it be else, but Samuel?

And I pray you have you not read how like a Cooke was to the Father of Pompey, Lentulus to Metellus, Ninus to his Mo­ther Somiramis, the two Twins of Proconesia, and of Hipocrates one to another, both in Pliuny, lib. 7. cap. 10.12. Solinus, cap. 4. Poli. Diodorus, lib. 3. de Fab. autiq. Justin, lib. 1. and Valerius, lib. 9. c. is. as also that Cn. Pompeius was so like great Alex­der, Plutarke in vita. a yong man so like Augustus, that the jest was the young mans Father had oft beene in Rome, and in Casars Court; and that yong Sporus was so like Sabina, Neroes Empresse, that Nero made him be cut, and used him as a woman Zephilinus in Nerone.. And in our later times, a yong man in the Court of Francis Sfortia the Duke of Millaine, in his light armour, sharp voice and jesture, so like the Duke, that by the common voice of the Court he was called a Prince; the like similitude was betwixt Sigismund and his jesting Foole Marchisine, betwixt Oporinus the Printer, and Albert the Marquesse of Brandburge; and many that you may read of more at large, mentioned by [Page 18] Fulgosus, lib. 9. cap. 15. Valerius, lib. 9. cap. 13. & 15. Sabellicus, lib. 1. Aeneid Stobaeus, serm. 42. Boccace in his Booke of excellent Women, cap. 2. Polyanus in his Stratagems, lib. 8. and Polibius in his Histories. lib. 4. fol. 123. All as like one another, or more like, then Sathans assumed shape to Samuel; yea as one egge, one star, and one Pile of grasse to another: I my self am able to speake to this purpose that some 30 yeares since, I have been often in the streets tooke for Mr. Crashaw, when he was Preacher at the Temple, and I at Saint Brides in Fleetstreet.

But Sir, these you recite were living, and had the lively fresh colours and lineaments of nature: but Samuell was dead.

Therefore it was more easie for Sathan to represent his shape, though not absolutely in a perfect symetry, yet if in any pro­portion Snul might thinke, wherein Samuel was defective of his living shape, it was by the soyling of the Grave, in which he had so long layd.

Yet it seems strange to me, that so wise and sagatious a Pollitician as Saul was, should neither by shape, jesture, nor voice, discern this counterfeit Samuell.

To open your eyes with a little Historical Collirium: was it not as strange, that one was so like Alexander the son of Herod whom his Father slew; that he was taken and saluted as King in Iosephus his antiquities? lib. 27. another in Leunclavius his Annalls of the Turks, pag. 34. and in his Pandects, page 291. so like the great Sultan de­ceased in Romania, that he drew to him a great Army, siding with him for the Turkish Empire: another in Melanctons Chronicles lib. 4 pag. 358. so like Constantine deceased, that he put Michael the Grecian Emperour to much trouble and losse in divers set battles: another in the Annalls of Flaunders, and in Munsters Cosmography pag. 171 anno, 1225. called Bertrand a French man, so like Baldwine an Earle of Flaun­ders, which was a Prisoner in Constanrinople, that all Flaunders for a time flockt to him, as their Earle and Lord, broke out of Prison: another both in Cuspinian in Tiberio, pag. 13. and Tacitus lib. 2. pag. 102. a base bondslave to [Page 19] Agrippa that was flaine, so resembling him in shape and phisiognomy, that he imbarked all the Roman Empire in Civil Wars; pretermitting all the bloody broyls stirred up in Thessaly and Ma­cedonia, by a counterfeit Psendophilip, in Florus his Epitomies of Livies D [...]eads, lib 49 50. 52. the distra­ctions wrought in Rome by one resembling Nero, twenty years after his death, apud Tacitum lib. 18. pag. 587. & Cuspinian in vita Neronis, pag. 26. in Persia by one Smerdis resembling the deceased Smerdis, the sonne of Cyrus, and brother of Cambises, in Justin, lib. 1. pag. 23. and Herodotus, in Thalia, lib. 3. pag. 90. and in the Ci­ties of Marchia by a Psoude-Wolmar a base Milner by his resemblance of the old Woldemar deceased, fully registred by Peucer in his Chro­nicles: lib. 5. pag. 60. and in a private Family by one Mar­tin, a French man, long admitted for a Husband though a counterfeit Knave, mentioned by Cog­natus in his Narrations, anno, 1559, lib. 8. and Neander in the end of his History, pag. 23. with others graphically set out in their true colours by Tholosanus in his Common Wealth, lib. 7. cap. 18. pag. 498. 499. all cousening and delu­ding the World with their counterfeit shapes and resemblances, as much as the Ender Witch deceived Saul with her imaginary Samuel, or as Janues and Jambres deluded Pharoah with their counterfeit serpents, or as Apollonius Thianeus, and a Witch called Lamiah, apud Philostr. lib. 4. de vita Apolliuarii. cousened Me­nippus a yong man with a counterfeit banquet, as Zeuxis deceived Birds in Pliny, with pain­ted lib. 53. cap. 11. grapes.

Now that you reflect on Jannes his Serpents, were they not reall Serpents?

Though I know that both Theodoret in his Questions on Exodus, quest. 18. Philo in his booke of Moses, and Augustine in his third booke of the Trinity, as also Aquinas, Tostatus, Burgensis, and Lyra, hold that their Rods were truely turned into Serpents like the Rod of Aaron; yet I hold them no more reall serpents, then what we have discussed to bee reall Samuel, but onely with Iosephus, [Page 20] lib. 2. Anti­quit. cap. 15. that they did creepe in speciem verorum in shew and likenesse of true serpents, and with Tortullian, lib. de anima. that Mosis veritas magorum devoravit mendacium, Moses his truth devoured the lyes of the Magitians, and with Hierom lib. 2. adversus Jovinian. that Imitabantur signa quae faciebat Moses; and I hold their acts with Ambr. in 2. Episto­la. ad Timoth. cap. 3. commentitiam emulationem, were in a feigned emulatió, no cre­atió of real serpents, which according to Ruper­tus, solius divinae potestatie est; yea according to al Orthodox Divinity is the sole and proper work of Gods omnipotency, not communicable to An­gells men, or Divells, no more then to create any thing ex novo, vel ex nibile, of nothing, in no­thing, or to raise up a Samuel or any other dead man, without such immediate power as the divine essence gave unto Elias, 1 King. 17.21.22. Elisha, 2 King. 4.34. Peter, Act. 9.40. and Paul, Act. 20.10. extraordinarily to raise the dead very seldome and sparingly.

But I pray you since its certaine that the dead have beene raised since the times of the Prophets and Apostles, as also that strange Miracles have beene done; what shall wee thinke of them, whether for the matter they have beene done at all, or onely feigned by fabulous Historians, or if done I desire to know the manner how, and by what power they were done?

That we be not confused, first shew me what dead since the Apostles Times you have read raised, and by whom; then give mee some hints of these which have gone, and doe go currant for Miracles.

To improve in the first my poore Historifyings, besides E­noch and Elias, who I am sure as Types of Christ ascended into Hea­ven, both in their soules and bodies, and such as are truely Historified or feined to have vanished out of the eyes of men, without any visi­ble death or buriall, as that Aristaeus in Horedotus lib. 4. and that Romulus the founder of Rome, who vanished from the Roman Se­nate in a great storme neare the Lake of Caeprea, as also that strong Thiefe Cleomines, who was never found saith Sabellicus. lib. 1. cap. 8. after hee was shut into a strong and close prison: I have read of a yong boy raised by St. Martin, who dyed in his absence in the house of St. Hilary; as also by another by the sayd Martin, who hanged [Page 21]himselfe, of Musomus and Chrysanthus raised out of their Graves by some Bishops of the Counsell of Nice to subscribe to some Or­thodox Articles, as also of one Ovo a boy revived by the prayers of Vulfran, as also of one Evarard a Knight of Germany, who after his departure revived, and told what strange things his spirit had seene in Hierusalem, in Lumbardie, in the Tents of Saladine, and else where: the like being recorded by Fulgosus. lib. 1. cap. 6. of one Stephen a noble Roman dying at Constantinople, with many more in the like nature, what doe you thinke of these?

I thinke of them as of the lying Miracles recorded by unsure Surius, Metaphrastes, Abdias, and other Popish Fablers, to bee of such Authority as the Transmutations in Ovid, and the Transmigrations of Pythagoras, since they have no better Authours then Gregories Dialogues, Severus, Sulpitius, Nicephorus, lib. 8. cap. 23. and such Fablers as may vie it for the whetstone, and lesse credit I give to all these fabulous Relations of Volateran, lib. 16. & lib. 22. Anthrop, of Pliny. lib. 7. cap. 22. of Valerius, lib. 1. cap. 8. of Fulgosus, lib. 1. cap. 6. of Diodorus, lib. [...]. cap. 2. of Antiqui­ties, of Celius in his Auncient Readings, lib. 8. of Macrobius in his Scipioes Dreame, and others who have dreamed, of the Resuscitati­ons of Tindareus, Hercules, and Aesop the Fabler, of Pamphilus the Schollar, of Plate after his ten dayes death, of Isis the sonne of Orus slaine by the Titans of innocent Hipolitus raised by Neptune, after his cruel Father Thesius had rackt him in peeces, of Gabienus one of Caesars Captaines, after his throat was cut by Sextus Pompeius, with abundant others, scattered in the aforesayd Authours, and of one in Sabellicus, lib. 10. cap. 8. Aeneid, who was raised by Asclepiades at his very Grave, else mentiuntur Poetae, the Authours are not grave enough to bee believed, as indeede they are not, for to tell you truth, I have perused the Ecclesiasticall History of Eu­sebius, lib. 1. c. 13. & lib. 3. cap. 1.2. & 25. & lib. 9. cap. 1. more Authentick then either Socra­tes, Zozomen, Evagrius; or any of his fellows: as also some of the Fathers, Clemens Alexandri­nus, Strom. lib. 2. & 3. Epiphanius, lib. 1. Tom. 1. Hom. 20. and Ireneus, lib. 3. adversus heres. cap. 3. as also the Germaine Centuries, Cent. 1. lib. 2. cap. 10. and Osiander their [Page 22]Epitomizer, lib. 2. Cant. 1. cap. 33. yea even Nicephorus himselfe, lib. 2. c. 1.40. & lib. 4. cap. 7. and Egisippus, lib. 3. cap. 2. who all of them occasio­nally have-reflexed on the chiefe acts, lives, and deaths of the Apostles; chiefely of Peter, Paul, Thomas, Mathew, Mathias, Andrew, James the elder, Iohn, Bartholomew, and the rest, some touching on the act of one, some of another: and I professe, excepting Suidas, who relates that Saint Iohn revived his Hostesse Drusiana af­ter his returne from exile ( Domitian being dead) not any one of them, except these being recor­ded in Scripture, make mention of any one revi­ved by them from death to life; and is it likely then this vivificating power was given to Saint Martin, Saint Vul­fran? or any such their imaginary Saints, much lesse to Asclepiades, or Apollonius, or any of the Pagans, or to a Popish Priest, or Papi­zed Saint, as ordinarily in Dalvortius, who rakes up the dung and filth of all other Legends, as their least petty Miracles which they day­ly cry up.

Then you give no credit to the Legend of St. Dominick, that he raised up three dead men within the Walls of Rome, and for­ty at a clap, that were drowned near Tholous, though recorded by Antoninus in his Chroni­cles Tit. 23. cap. 1, 2, 3, and the French Ribadineira, in the lives (or the lyes) of his Saints, pag. 94. part 2 on which the French Morney reflexeth to their just oblo­quy in his Mystery of iniquity.

I believe it verily, as very a lye, as that the Birds stretcht out their necks to receive a blessing whe Saint Anthony preacht, and that Christ and the Virgin Mary sent an An­gell to him to come to them to Saint Maries Church at Assize in I­taly, where they stayd to speake with him, or that Christ so printed his five wounds in the body of Saint Francis, that hee was tipicall Christ, or that a shining Starre was on the forehead of Saint Domi­nick as soone as ever hee was baptized, by which hee was the light of the World as well as Christ, or that Saint Vincent Ferrier preaching in Spanish was understood of numerous strangers, every one of them in their owne language, or that Saint Anthony of Padua his Ser­mons [Page 23]being refused by Hereticks, preacht to the Fishes, who all peerkt up their white heads to heare him, and bowed them downe to thanke him when hee called them Brethren, or that Christ in the presence of his Mother and An­gels espouzed Katherine of Sienna with a Ring of Gold, and foure Rich Stones in it; or that Otho being to receive the consecrated Host, his naked body, in his sick bed opened, and it leapt into his side: all which I believe as I doe the Chastities of Nunnes and Fryers, when at the dissolution of the Abbies there were detected so many Sodomites, Catamites Priests of Priapus, and Nuns of Venus, though all averred as well as the reall appearing of Samuel, or the raising and walking of the dead; though these nasty dunghill Legends, and many such are covered over with the snow of a seeming truth by the same Anthonine, Part. 3. Lugd. 1543. tit. 23. cap. 14. sect. 4.10.19. fol. 180. to 188. & tit. 24. cap. 7. & pag. 384. and Rabadineira bidem part. 1. pag. 135 to pag. 443. & pag. 384.563. as also by Vincentius in his Historicall Glasse or Glosse, Lib. 3. cap. 97. and by Walsingam Ypodigma Neustriae, Anno, 1215. pag. 55. and Bonaventure in his Chronicle, and other Legendaries.

As my little taper added to your sunne, I will acquaint you with my conceptions, that some divulged to bee revived from death were never dead, but suffered some diliquium animae, faintings of the soule and spirits as they are called in lying long seemingly dead in some Apoplexies, Palsies, falling sicknesses, and some wo­men in the disease of the Mother, in the pains of suffocation and stran­gulation of the Wombe, and in Epilepticks, hav [...] bee [...]e thought dead two or three dayes, some for seventy houres, yea some have beene carryed out to bee buried, and some have beene coffened and intom­bed; when by reason of the intensivenesse of cold, and the weake­nesse of naturall heate, neither by pulse nor respiration, or any symp­tomes, any life hath beene thought to bee in them: now its proba­ble the reviving sometimes of such as these, hath beene cryed up a­mongst the Papists for a greater Miracle then the raising up of a sup­posed Samuel, by the Wirch of Endor.

All that you say is so certaine in this kinde, that abundant [Page 24]Instances and Examples are given to comment it, historified both in men and women, by Lem­nius in his hidden Miracles of Nature, Lib. 2. cap. 3. by Casper 'Dornavins in his Phisicall discourse of Apoplexies, by Cornarins in his rare and admira­ble Histories, Hist. 14. pag. 47 48. as also by Lusitanus, Curat. 23. cent. 4. chiefely by Schenkins in his Medicinable Obser­vations Tom. 1. observ. 150. pag. 175. in his second booke, Observ. 17.33. & observ. 19. pag. 40. and in the 288. and 289 observations of his fourth booke, pag 684.683.687. these with Felix Platerus and other Physitians, giving cautions in these cases and diseases, not to bee too hasty to bury such, though seeming­ly dead, and by burning old Rags and Feathers, and holding them to their noses, as also by setting a glasse brim full of water on their bare brests to try the least motion of the water, and by the least bearing of the purse or breathing, to discerne any rellicks of life ere they bee hastily inter [...]ed.

I remember Thuanus in his History, lib. 32. pag. [...]66 re­cires a strange living dead man, Anno 156 called Lewis in the com­bustion betwixt the Gu [...]lphs and G [...]bellines in Italy, one siding with an Emperour, another with the Pope (as some since with a King and Bishops, some with Senatours) being shot in the neck, and earth lightly throwne on him as dead, the next day revived, as hee was all squalled with blood and mire, yea our own Hidropoet Taylor in his Travells to Ham [...]ough, tells us of an ungratefull Gentlemanly [...]i [...]fe tooke downe from the Gallowes (in a Moone light night where hee had hung all day by a Carter and his Sonne, who being supped and lodged by them that night, and paying his yong Host and bed fellow with the stealing of his money and cloathes and his old Host with his best Horse stolne out of his stable, being by them pur­sued and apprehended againe, was hanged by them just in the same place and posture where they first found him

That Thiefe, as more cunning then Cacus or Scyron, or our late Mongering Ratsey, or Claveri [...] (like Pictures, Peacocks, painted cloaths, B [...]lls, and Bacon) was much better for hanging, like one Hogg which the Lord Bacon hanged to make him Bacon, claim­ing kindred of him; but wee neede not go so far as Hamburge in this kinde, if it bee true which is reported of a drunken Player, act­ing [Page 25]ever the Clowne or the Vice, buried in his deepe, dead, and drun­ken sleepe in a great plague; and of a woman who was so dead drunk, that shee wakened not till the earth was throwne on her Coffin, and shee askt if there were any good Ale to bee had in that new World: some also have beene reported dead, like that Redivivns Beza, who were not dead, as I have read my selfe in print, mangled by the Irish Wolfe, called Rebell; and I was glad to heare it, when I was oft told of my divulged death.

Ast non mittenda seria ludo, leaving those Jocoserious pas­sages: If any Spectars have been seen, so lively representing the shapes of the dead, in voice, colour, Lineaments, and proportion, that they have been as strongly conceited to be persons male or female long since departed, as Saul conceited the Witches Spectar to be Samuell, or Isaack Jacob to be E [...] an: in such and the like impostures or delusions, or in any such molestations of houses or Persons, posses­sed, obsessed or troubled, as now Merridayes house in Greenwich, and many Nunneries, and Monasteries, as I have read of in Lonicers Theatre of Examples, and in all the Pageants that Sathan by him­self, or his Witches, Wizzards, and Magitians have acted to admira­tion in the Earth, Seas, Aire, Elements, or in, on, or by Creatures animate, or inanimate. I pray you improve you Histori [...] all Philoso­phicall, and Theologicall knowledge, to discover Sathans Powers, Pollicies, and Postures; in his Visions, Apparitions, Oracles Mira­cles, Auguries. Prophesies, Revelations, and diversified disturbances of Men, Beasts, and all sublunaries, by his owne immediate might, and malice, and by his Agents, and Instruments of all sorts.

Magnum opus aggredior, & quae non virthus istis conve­niunt, nec tam senilibus annis: You set me more then an Herculian task, and too heavy for my aged shoulders: yet as some stearnly censure me to have a youthfull wit and memory which indeed is my best treasury, I will tub up these old readings for your satisfaction, which in my painfull youth I lodged in my Magazine: and herein as I have a large Champion to walk in, and a vast Ocean to saile in; I will first shew what may be done to admiration without Sathan. Se­condly what, and how, by Sathan. Thirdly, what he and his agents cannot doe, in his limmitted power Fourthly, his impostures in what is done by him or his: Positively in themselves, and Compa­ratively paralleld, with Gods owne power in, and by his Prophets, [Page 26]and servants, and in the prosecution of any of these, Hawk-like I seem to fetch a large compasse; yet at last, I hope to flye up to the head, and to pronounce what you desire, for to satisfie the greatest curiosities in mysticall knowledge, with pleasure and profit. To prosecute all which in order, method being the mother of memory.

First, many strange and admirable things may be done by naturall magick, as its called by application, of naturall causes with effects; as also by sympathies, and antipathies; as also by Art, and artificiall instruments; as also by Legerdemaine, and slight of hand, as I have seen by some Gypsies and Juglers; as also by the knowledge of the Opticks, and by the Mathematicks, as I shall by degrees give you instances of all these, without any unlawfull Magick; for you must know that the word Magus a Magitian, as also Magurus, like the word Sophister and Tyrant ere abused, were not so odious and hate­full at first, as now they are, as may bee gathered from Proclus Lib. de Ma­gia and Psellus, L [...]b de demo­nibus. for these were counted and called Magitians as knew not occult and hidden causes of things, and how to apply these Vertues, latent in nature, and un­knowne to vulgar capacities to admirable ef­fects, and such a Magitian was Adam in his Innocency, who was able by his created faculties to give names to al the creatures, better the Var­ro, Nonnius, Isidore, or any mortall man since, ac­cording to their Natures, As Milvus id est Molliter Vo­lans, Lepus. Levi­pes, Vulpes Volu­pes, Culumba Colens, Lumbos, Ferrum a feriendo sum al [...]is infinitis. yea better the Mo­ses or Daniel, though the one learned in all the learning of the Aegyptians, the other of the Cal­deans, yea better then Solomon himselfe, whom Josephus in this nature makes a Magitian; I perswade my selfe a bet­ter Phylosopher then either, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, or all meere hu­manists met in one, having not onely supernaturall but naturall knowledge, as the Prophets and Apostles had the spirit by inspirati­on; now amongst the rest famous for such Philosophick Magitians in their Times, where the Platonists. Peripateticks, and Pithagorians, as in our Moderne Times, Zabarell, Scaliger, Zanardas, and hundreds more; amongst the Ancient Gaulls, the Druides, amongst the An­cient Indians and Aethiopians, the Bragmans and Gymnosophists, amongst the Persians their Magi, such as these, who came so farre [Page 27]to worship Christ, bred from the Schoole of Daniel, out of which Magi the Persians oft did chuse their Kings. Strabo Lib. 15. & lib. 16. parallelling them with the wise Chal­deans amongst the Babylonians, and in the cor­respondency of their studies, with Moses the Hebrew their profession according to Tully, Lib. 1. de di­vinatione. Celius Rhodiginus, Lib. 3. cap. 42. antiq. lect. and Plinny Hist. lib. 20. be­ing divinorum scientiam & [...]ul [...]um, the know­ledge and observance for the most part of divine things, or its [...]ltior sanctio [...] (que) Philosophia, a more high and sublime Philosophy then ordina­ry, and of a large extent, comprizing Phisicks, Metaphisicks, and Astrology, in which kinde of naturall Magick or sublime Philosophy, what student desires further to bee informed with the helpe of a Library, I refer him to the workes of Aristotle, Lib. de admi­randa eruditio­ne. Plinny, Lib. 2. preser­tim. Proclus, De sacrifici­is & Magia. Philo, in his booke of speciall Lawes, Augustine in his City of God lib. 22. cap. 4.5. Albertus called Magnus in his second Booke of Mineralls, tract. 2. cap. 1. v. 17. Ficinus in his fourth booke of Platoes Theolo­gy, cap. 2 Cardan in his subtleties, Fracastorius in his sympathies, Pererius de Magia, Del [...]ius in his Magicall disquisitions his fellow Jesuite Tyraeus in his bookes of places possessed, and of the Appari­tions of Spirits and Devills, as also with Sirienns his ninth booke of Fate, with Medina in his second booke of a right faith in God cap 7. with Laurentius Ananias in his booke of the nature of Devills with Bartholomew Sybilla in his third Decade of strange Questions, quest. 3.8 and with our Moderne Gregory de V [...]lentia, 22. disp. 6 q [...] 1 [...] punct. 3. and the cleare Valesins in his sacred Philosophy. cap. 3.22.

Now by this meer naturall magick, or in plain tearms, the produ­cing of Art and nature into practice; such rare and exquisite things have been done, or may be done, especially by instruments, without any more confederacy with any Witch, or spirit, [...]hen with a Turke, a Pope, or a Canniball; yea, I perswade my self I could do such things my self, as I have heard, and read, and partly seen, that the common people which doe not (rerum cogn [...]scere can [...]as) know the causes of many things, (more then a blinde man colours) would take me for as great a Conjurer as ever Cornelius Agrippa, or Doctour Faustus, [Page 28]or for as great a Witch as Circes, or Medea; at least as great a Jug­gler as once my neighbour John a Ley, or Hocus Pocus, or some cunning Wise man, such as Mr. Lilly is divulged, as though he were a second Merlin; when for all this, I could make a child of six years old do the like things presently and give as good a Reason of what I did (as I perswade my self Mr. Booker, and Mr. Lilly can give of their artificiall undiabolized Predictions) as I can give a Reason why I am hot or warm, when I am in the Sun, or at the fire.

Indeed Sir, I perswade my self Ignorance is the mother of all admiration; it being the Fate of all abstruse, and mysticall things: that non [...]isi peracta laudantur: they are not praised till done, it being no wisdome, we say in Yorkshire, to let fooles see half done deeds, or to expose mysterious knowledge to ignorants chief­ly to arrogants, which is as to cast pearls to swine, or to offer ex­quisite musique to deaf men; yet I pray you Sir, make me so happy in the curious knowledge of what yourself, or some Artist can doe by Art and Nature, yet stearing far enough from all Rocks of un­lawfull magicall confederacy with any Witch or spirit, except with the spirit of God, and your own spirit.

Sir, your question is short, but the Resolution long and large, the Sun being at the point of high noon, c [...]useth the Son of my mother to thinke that he hath a belly which hath no ears to hear it should be wronged in its ordinary dyet of feeding meat, by mentall dishes catered by a discoursive tongue and brain; when therefore I have given a sop to this craving Cerberus, and payed my Kitchin tribute to this Minetaure; being a true English-man, impatient of the fasts of the Irish with his shamrocks, of the Spaniard with his Lemmons, and the Welsh with her Sir Jeff [...]ey Leck: after dinner I shall improve my best to resolve your Proposals in what nature soe­ver you please to propound them, or at any other time at your best leasure and pleasure.