with the future contingent events that are observed to follow them,
as for example, a second sighted man sees a winding sheet upon his
neighbour, or blood running down his face, shoulders, or arms, he
concludes that he must die, or be wounded in the face, shoulders, or
arms. If you will ask what warrant he has for this, he will tell, he
has found by experience, that whenever he saw the like of this, that
he found death or wounds to follow. _Quaeritur_, then, what connexion
can this representation have with an effect or contingent event not
yet existant? For answer to this, God, who knoweth all things, no
doubt imparteth much of the foreknowledge of things, not only to good
angels, but also evil angels, for reasons well known to himself,
particularly that they might give some true signs, and so have way to
deceive in many things besides; and though the signs foretold should
surely come to pass, it does not infer that the doctrine of evil
angels, and their lies that they would suggest to mankind, should be
credited. This is clear from the 13th of Deuteronomy, 1, 2, and 3,
verses, If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams,
and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come
to pass whereof he spake unto thee, saying, let us go after other
gods, (which thou has not known), and let us serve them; thou shalt
not hearken to the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams,
for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether you love the Lord
your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul. And this is
very just with God when men give themselves over to a reprobate and
wicked mind, and evil and unwarrantable practices, expressly against
the Lord's commands; I say it is just with God to let evil angels or
spirits delude them, and give way to these spirits in order to
confirm their lies; to appoint signs before hand, which signs, by
God's appointment, may come to pass, answerable to the prediction. It
may rationally, and very probably be concluded, that Ahab's false
prophets, in number 400, have often foretold truth; and this
purposely by God's appointment, that they might be the better
believed, and more easily persuade to lay siege to Ramoth Gilead; and
it is hard to conceive that Ahab should give them so much credit, or
they themselves so extraordinary confident, if they had not had many
truths suggested to them, and made proof of the same to Ahab. It is
not for nought that we are commanded to try the spirits, and that
rather by their doctrines, than their signs and wonders, or fair and
smooth pretences. Therefore, suppose these evil angels to know a
contingent future event, either by a revelation, or natural or moral
causes, they may, in the method foresaid make the representation of
them to the eyes or ears; as for example, an angel, good or bad,
finds that either the lungs, heart, stomach, liver, or brain, are
under such a consumption, as may against such a time kill a man; or
that he knows the secret contrivance of a potent party that is
resolved to wound or kill him, or that it is revealed to him it
should be so (which may very well be, as has been above noted), he
can easily represent these before hand, though the event should
follow but a considerable time thereafter; he has no more to do than
to reverse the species of these things from a man's brain to the
organ of the eye.
Here ariseth a question from what has just been said, whether it be
more probable that good angels make this representation (because men
having this second sight are found to tell truth, and to be innocent
in their lives, and free of any paction, either implicit or explicit,
likewise free of any fraudulent design, and sound enough in the
necessary articles of their salvation), or that it be done by evil
angels for the trial of men and women, juggling with their fancy and
external organs, and so have a patent way to tell lies among some
truths. For answer to this question, I shall not be ready positively
to determine these things, but I humbly conceive, that as the
representations are oft done by evil angels, so likewise it is
probable that it may be done by good angels. I cannot be so
uncharitable to several men that I have known to be of considerable
sense, and pious and good conversation, as to conclude them to be
given over to be deluded continually by an evil angel: Moreover, I
conceive that there are many good Christians, if they would advert
well, that have some secret tokens and signs of notable alterations
to come, suggested to them before hand; and that these signs, some of
them are common to them with others, as dreaming, which are often
observed to be completely fulfilled, and that some of the signs and
warnings are peculiar to some persons, which fail not to answer to
the things signified; as for example, I have certainly known a man,
that when he found an unvoluntary motion in such a member of his
body, particularly his right hand or right eye, that was sure that
some matter of joy would shortly come to his hearing; and that if he
found the same motion in the left eye or hand, it signified
infallibly grief: And that which is more wonderful, the thing to come
signified by these signs and warnings keeped an exact proportion with
the continuance or vehemency of the motion; if the motion continued
long, so did the joy or the grief; if the motion was snell or
vehement, so was the matter of grief or joy; and finding that this
man was both a good man, and of a right penetrating wit, and had art
enough, it moved me to use freedom with several other good men that
had knowledge and sense enough to examine circumstances to a hair. I
found very many to acknowledge the very same thing, yet signified by
different signs, (which shows they are not _signa naturalia_, but _ex
instituto_), which puts me in mind of Dr Brown's observation to the
same purpose, in his inquiry into vulgar errors, where he concludes
several presentations to be acted in us by our tutelary angels that
have the charge of us at the time. Mark this, though the signs be
different in themselves, yet to each particular person, his own sign
is still significative of the same thing; and why might not this of
the second sight be counted amongst one of these? I likewise humbly
conceive, that God might compense the want of many other gifts to
poor men, by giving them this minor sort of knowledge. But I would
advise all of them that have the second sight, to examine themselves,
and to pray earnestly to God that no evil angel should have power to
abuse their senses, because the devil still strives to imitate what
God, or his good angels, communicates to his own children. I know
that the common opinion of some philosophers and divines will be
objected, and that is, that angels, good or bad, may condense the
air, figurate and colorate the same, and make it of what figure or
shape they please, so that this representation is made by external
objects in effect emitting visible species to the eye; and
consequently, that it is not the reversion of the species formerly
received; though, as I have observed before, that good and bad angels
can alter the medium in a strange way, and can work great alteration
on the elements and their compounds, I think it very improbable that
any created power can bring the air to that solidity, and actually
condense it, colorate, and figurate it, as to represent a man by a
beast, or Peter by Paul, especially at such a distance as from one
side of a chamber to the other. The miracles done by the magicians of
Egypt is their Achillean argument; but in short, I say, that what was
done by the magicians of Egypt, has neither been a delusion of the
senses, (as some would have it) much less that the devil could
produce the creatures _de novo_ of condensed air, and that for the
following reasons: _First_, thence it would follow that Moses and
Aaron were deluded as well as the Egyptians; but the last is false,
therefore the first: _Secondly_, it would follow, that the fashioning
and framing of Adam's body of clay, was but a mean act of creation in
comparison of these creatures, if they should be fashioned and framed
of condense air, which is naturally a fluid element, not so easily
stigmatized as the earth. I do not deny but the devil can snatch dead
and quick bodies from one place to another, and that insensibly to
the beholders, by pressing their optic nerves, as Franciscus Valesius
has observed in his _Sacra Philosophia_, and I conclude with Abraham
Couley, (no contemptible author) that the magicians of Egypt were
after this manner served by the devil, to imitate God's power in the
hands of Moses and Aaron. Mark, finally, if it were within the sphere
of angelical power to take bodies of condense air, what needed them
assume such material and earthly bodies as these angels that came to
Abraham and Lot assumed? whose bodies could be touched and handled,
and whose bodies were not found to yield to the touch, as the most
condensed air must do; and it is very consisting with reason, that
the angels, good or bad, should rather assume bodies of the element
of the earth, which is a great deal more easily brought to the figure
and fashion of a body, than the air. Some curious spirits, perhaps,
may desire to know whether this second sight be hereditary or
propagable from father to son; and I think no wonder that some would
think so, because the sanative gift of the king's evil is lineally
traduced to the natural heirs of the crown of England; and there is a
whole family in Spain, that has a sanative gift of some particular
diseases, which gift is propagated from the father to the son;
neither is it diminished or augmented by the morality or immorality
of the persons, as has been observed by that famous philosopher and
physician, Franciscus Valesius, who lived in that kingdom, and had
time and opportunity to examine the truth of this affair. In short, I
answer, that it is not propagable from father to son, neither
peculiar to any particular family; and as I have observed many honest
men, free of all scandal that ever I could learn, to have it; so I
have observed many vicious persons to have it who foretold truth oft
enough.
Perhaps it may be doubted what should make this second sight more
frequent here than in the heart of the kingdom; I answer, that it is
the lack of observation and inquiry that it should not be found there
as well as here. _Secundo_, that it passes under a great odium and
disgrace with the most of men, which causes those that see it,
conceal it. _Thirdly_, I confess that credulity and ignorance give
occasion to evil spirits to juggle more frequently, than otherwise
they would have done. But sure it is, that men of little learning and
education may be recompensed by notable presentations, not so obvious
to others of greater parts. I remember of a nobleman in Spain, that
was deaf and dumb from his infancy, and yet was taught by a monk to
speak, and understand what was spoken to him, only by observing the
motion of his lips that spoke to him. Sir Kenelm Digby saw him, as he
tells in his Treatise of Bodies, and the monk that taught him, was a
cousin of Franciscus Valesius. This was more than ordinary sagacity
and docility, and it is found, that many dumb persons foretel many
things before hand, and it is a hard measure to conclude all to be
from evil spirits. In fine, as I noted before, as questionless Satan
may, and often does, deceive after this manner, so it is as sure, it
may be allowed, that good angels may forewarn this way, as well as by
other signs and tokens, as Dr Brown observes.
It is observed, that those who have the second sight, have this
representation at any time of the day, but indeed more ordinarily in
the morning and evening, and with candle light.
The design of these weak conceptions on this sublime theme, is not to
impose upon any man, freely leaving every man to follow his own
judgment in things that offend not church or state, but that others
of greater capacity may be stimulated to prosecute the same in a
better method, humbly submitting myself to the judgment of my
betters, to whose hands perhaps this pamphlet may come.
FINIS.
EDINBURGH,
Printed by Thomas Webster.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been
retained except in obvious cases of typographical error.
Page 92: "here is a gentleman that will fee you"--The transcriber has
changed "fee" to "see". fee you
Page 98: Blank spaces have been replaced with dashes to indicate
words left out.
For the eBook version of this book the cover was created by the
transcriber, and is placed in the public domain.