_That these things now in question are but barely supposed, and were
yet never rationally nor sufficiently proved: And that the
Allegations brought to prove them by are weak, frivolous, and
absolutely invalid. With a full Confutation of all the four
Particulars._
[Sidenote: _Pag._ 5, 6.]
[Sidenote: _Bodin. Dæmonoman. ubiq_; of evil Spirits, _pag._ 304.]
Having in the preceding Chapter proved that the Scriptures and sound
Reason, are the proper Mediums to decide these difficulties by, and also
laid down the necessary qualifications requisite in an Author or Witness
that would evidence these things as matters of fact: We shall here once
again repeat the four Particulars, which we are about to confute, which
are these. 1. That the Devil doth not make a visible or corporeal League
and Covenant with the supposed Witches. 2. That he doth not suck upon
their bodies. 3. That he hath not carnal Copulation with them. 4. That
they are not really changed into Cats, Dogs, Wolves, or the like. And
these four Particulars we affirm were never matters of fact, nor ever
had a being, except only in the fancy as meer Chimera’s, nor that they
ever were or can be proved to have been brought to pass or acted; and
_de non apparentibus, & non existentibus eadem est ratio_, saith the
great Maxime of our Law. But in the first place let us hear what the
Patrons of this wretched and execrable opinion have to say to prove that
they are matters of fact, or were ever acted or performed. And first we
have Mr. _Glanvil_ arguing at this rate: “All Histories are full of the
exploits of those instruments of darkness; and the testimony of all
ages, not only of the rude and barbarous, but of the most civilized and
polisht World, brings tidings of their strange performances. We have the
attestation of thousands of eye and ear-witnesses, and those not of the
easily deceivable vulgar only, but of grave and wise discerners; and
that when no interest could oblige them to agree together in a common
lye: I say we have the light of all these circumstances to confirm us in
the belief of things done by persons of despicable power and knowledge,
beyond the reach of Art and ordinary Nature. Standing publick Records
have been kept of these well attested Relations, and Epocha’s made of
those unwonted events. Laws in many Nations have been enacted against
those vile practices; those among the Jews and our own are notorious;
such Cases have been often determined near us, by wise and reverend
Judges, upon clear convictive Evidence, and thousands in our own Nation
have suffered death for their vile compacts with Apostate Spirits.” And
a little after he saith: “And I think those that can believe all
Histories are Romances; that all the wiser World have agreed together to
juggle Mankind into a common belief of ungrounded Fables; that the sound
senses of multitudes together may deceive them, and Laws are built upon
Chimera’s; that the gravest and wisest Judges have been Murderers, and
the sagest persons Fools or designing Impostors.” Bishop _Hall_ maketh
the like Objection, saying: “Neither can I make question of the
authentick Records of the Examinations and Confessions of Witches and
Sorcerers in several Regions of the World, agreeing in the truth of
their horrible pacts with Satan, of their set Meetings with evil
Spirits, their beastly Homages and Conversations. I should hate to be
guilty of so much incredulity, as to charge so many grave Judges and
credible Historians with lyes.”
These Objections at the first view seem very plausible, and to carry
with them a great splendour and weight of truth and reason; but if they
be looked into, and narrowly weighed in the balance of sound reason, and
unbiassed judgment, they will be found too light, and will soon vanish
into Rhetorical fumes and frothy vapours: which that it may be more
clearly performed, we shall rank them into the number of three, in which
all their seeming strength lyes, and these are they.
1. They pretend that these things are sufficiently proved by Historians
of unquestionable credit and reputation.
2. That the Confessions of Witches themselves, in divers Regions, at
several times and places, who have all acknowledged these particulars,
are sufficient evidence of the truth of these performances.
3. That so many wise and grave Judges and honest Juries could not have
been deceived, to put to death such great numbers of these kind of
people, called or accounted Witches, without sufficient proof of the
matters of fact. To all which we shall give a full response, in respect
of the four particulars, mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter, and
shall commix and adjoyn such positive Arguments as will be cogent to all
rational persons, whose corrupt wills have not perverted their
judgments.
1. It is much to be admired, that Mr. _Glanvil_ (but especially Bishop
_Hall_, a very Reverend and Learned person) should lye any great stress
upon such a weak foundation: For there is none of these three Objections
that will amount to a necessary Proposition, but only to a contingent
one, which will infer no certain and necessary Conclusion, nor bring
forth any certitude or science, but only bare opinion and probability.
_Propositio contingens est, quæ sic vera est, ut falsa esse possit_: and
at the best the strength of all these are but _testimonia humana_, which
are but weak, and no sufficient ground for a rational man to believe
them to be true, because _humanum est errare_. And the weight of these
matters is not a contention _de lana caprina, vel de umbra asini, sed de
pelle humana_, for the lives and estates of many poor Creatures, and
they professed Christians too, and therefore doth require stronger
Arguments than contingent Propositions, to establish a firm ground for
the belief of this opinion.
[Sidenote: Prov. 12. 22.]
2. It is one thing barely to affirm, and another thing to prove
sufficiently and fully: For though they boldly alledge, that these
things are sufficiently proved by Authors of unquestionable credit and
verity, we must return a flat negative, and that for these reasons. 1.
Let them shew us any one Author of credible veracity, that ever was ear
or eye-witness of the Devils making of a visible and corporeal League or
Bargain with the Witches, or that he ever suckt upon their bodies, or
that he had carnal Copulation with them, or that by the experience of
his senses ever certainly knew a man really transubstantiated and
transformed into a Wolf, or a Wolf into a man, and we will yield the
whole Cause. But we must assert and truly affirm, that this pretence of
theirs, that these things are sufficiently proved by Historians of good
credit, is a meer falsity, and a lying flourish of vain words. There are
(we confess) a multitude of vain and lying stories, amassed up together
in the Writings of Demonographers and Witchmongers of strange and odd
Apparitions, Feats, Confessions, and such like; but never any one
positive proof of any of these four particulars by any Authors of credit
and reputation: and this we dare boldly aver to the world. 2. Let them
produce any two Witnesses that were of honesty and integrity, sound
understandings and ability, that ever were present, and ear and
eye-witnesses of a visible, vocal, and corporeal League made betwixt the
Devil and the Witch; or let them tell us who was by, and watched, and
really and truly saw the Devil suck upon some part of the Witches body;
or who were the Chamberlains, Pimps or Panders, when the Devil and the
Witch committed carnal Copulation; or who were ever present when a Witch
was changed into a Cat, a Dog, an Hare, or a Wolf. If they can but bring
forth any two credible Witnesses to prove these things by, then we shall
believe them, but we must assert that never any such two could be
produced yet: and therefore cannot but wonder at the shameless impudence
of such persons, that dare affirm these things that never were, nor can
be proved, and yet have not blushed to vent and trumpet forth such
execrable and abominable lyes to the World. Mr. _Glanvil_ confidently
affirms these things to be matters of fact, and _affirmanti incumbit
probatio_, let him produce his Witnesses, and if they be persons of
judgment, veracity, and impartiality, then we shall accept their proof;
but it is not figments, supposals, weak presumptions, or apparent
falsities that will perform it; for that which never was acted, can
never truly be proved, and things that appear not, are as though they
were not; therefore he must produce his testimonies, or lose both his
cause and credit, and must be taken for an Assertor of never-proved
Fables. _Lying lips are abomination unto the Lord: but they that deal
truly are his delight._
Now we know they use to do in this case, as Souldiers use, who when they
are beaten forth of some Out-work or Trench, they then retreat into
another that they think more strong and safe. And being driven from
their weak Hold of a bare affirmation without proof, that these things
are verified to have been matters of fact, and really performed, both by
authority and the evidence of sense, which are both utterly false, then
they flye to this assertion: That the Confessions of so many Witches in
all Ages, in several Countries, at divers times and places, all agreeing
in these particulars, are sufficient evidence of the truth of these
matters. To which we shall rejoyn, that the Confessions of Witches,
however considered, are not of credit and validity to prove these
things; but are in themselves null and void, as false, impossible, and
forged lyes, which we shall make good by these following Reasons.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 1._]
1. The Witch must be taken to be either a person _insanæ, vel sanæ
mentis_; and if they be _insanæ mentis_, their Confessions are no
sufficient evidence, nor worthy of any credit; because there is neither
Reason, Law, nor Equity that allows the testimony or confession of an
Idiot, Lunatick, mad or doting person, because they are not of a right
and sound understanding, and are not to be accounted as _compotes
mentis_, nor governed by rationability. For as by the Civil Law mad
Folks, Idiots, and Old men childish, Bond-slaves, and Villains are not
capable of making a Will to dispose of Goods, Lands, or Chattels: so
much more are all these sorts of persons excepted for giving evidence by
confessions, or otherwise in matters concerning life and death, which
are of far greater weight and concernment. And that these persons are of
unsound understandings, is manifest in all the points that they confess,
and therefore are no proof, nor ought to be credited: and that for these
reasons. 1. Because the things they confess are not attested by any
other persons of integrity and sound judgment, and they must of
necessity be lyars, because the Bond-slaves of the Devil, whose works
they will do, and he was a lyar from the beginning. 2. Because they
confess things that are impossible (as we shall prove anon) and
_confiteri impossibilia insanientis est_. 3. There is no good end
wherefore they make these Confessions, neither do they receive any
benefit by them, either spiritual or temporal, internal nor external.
And this doth sufficiently shew, that they are deluded, melancholy, and
mad persons, and so their Confessions of no credit, truth, or validity.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 2._]
[Sidenote: 2 Thess. 2. 10, 11, 12.]
[Sidenote: 2 Tim. 2. 26.]
[Sidenote: Joh. 8. 44.]
2. Their Confessions will be found null and false, if we consider the
impulsive cause that moves them to make them, and the end wherefore they
declare such false and lying matters, and that in these particulars. 1.
The moving cause is not, nor can be the Spirit of God, which is a Spirit
of truth and righteousness, nor any motion of true remorse for their
sins, or any thing flowing from repentant hearts, because they are
persons forsaken of God and his Grace, and given over to reprobate minds
and senses, and therefore the truth of the Word of God is fulfilled in
them: _Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might
be saved, therefore God shall send them strong delusion, that they might
believe a lye. That they all might be damned, who believed not the
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness._ 2. Neither is the end for
the glory of God, or their own Salvation, because they are the Vassals
and Bond-slaves of Satan, being kept Captive at his will, and are Rebels
and Traitors against God and Christ, his Church and Truth, having
renounced the Faith, and become Apostata’s to the truth. 3. The
impulsive cause and chief end wherefore they make these and such like
confessions, is sometimes, and in some persons meerly to eschew torture
and bodily pains, and sometimes the quite contrary solely to escape the
present miseries of a poor, wretched, and troublesom life; and therefore
these confessions not at all to be credited, as being vain and feigned.
4. Sometimes they are by force, waking, craft, and cunning, in hope of
pardon and life, to make such confessions as the base ends and corrupt
intentions of the Inquisitors themselves, or their Agents, have infused
into them, for the advancement of false Doctrine, Superstition, and
Idolatry: such were the most (if not all) recorded by _Delrio Bodinus_,
and the rest of the Witchmongers, to which no credit can be given at
all. 5. But the chief end that Satan hath (who is the Forger, Contriver,
and Deviser of these Confessions, if voluntarily and freely made, the
principal Agent in all these matters) is to set forth the power and
glory of his own Kingdom, thereby to lead men into, and continue them in
lyes and errors; _for when he speaketh a lye, he speaketh of his own,
for he is a lyar, and the father of it_, and the Witches are his
Children, and the works of their Father the Devil they will do, and he
was, and is a Murtherer and Lyar from the beginning. And thus far we
acknowledge a spiritual and mental League betwixt the Witch and the
Devil, by virtue of which they confess these horrible and abominable
lyes, of the glory of him and his Kingdom; but other League or Covenant
there is none, neither is there any the least spark of truth in all that
they say or confess, because their sole end in making of these
confessions, is to advance the credit and power of Satan. 6. The
impulsive cause that often makes them to utter such confessions of
strange and impossible things, is the strong passive delusion, that they
lye under, contracted by ignorant, unchristian, and superstitious
education, which they have suckt in with their milk, heightned with an
atrabilarious temper and constitution, and confirmed by the wicked lyes,
and teaching of others, which makes them confess these execrable things,
which they in their depraved and vitiated imaginations, do think and
believe they have done and suffered, when there was never truly acted
any such matter _ad extrà_, but only in their mad and deluded
Phantasies: and so no more credit to be given to them, than to the
maddest Melancholist that ever was read or heard of.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 3._]
[Sidenote: _Lib._ 1. of Prognost.]
[Sidenote: _Hist. meditat._ _lib._ 4. _cap._ 13. _pag._ 280.]
[Sidenote: History 1.]
[Sidenote: _Hist. nat._ _l._ 7. _c._ 52. _pag._ 103.]
[Sidenote: _Doctor. Epist._ _pag._ 641.]
[Sidenote: History 2.]
[Sidenote: _Histor. Animal._ _lib._ 8. _cap._ 24.]
3. That there is not any jot of truth in these Confessions, is manifest,
if we consider the subjective matter of them, as is plain by these
ensuing grounds. 1. For the most of them are not credible, by reason of
their obscenity and filthiness; for chast ears would tingle to hear such
bawdy and immodest lyes; and what pure and sober minds would not
nauseate and startle to understand such unclean stories, as of the
carnal Copulation of the Devil with a Witch, or of his sucking the Teat
or Wart of an old stinking and rotten Carkass? surely even the impurity
of it may be sufficient to overthrow the credibility of it, especially
amongst Christians. 2. There are many things that have no verity in them
at all, that notwithstanding have verisimilitude; but these are not only
void of truth, but also of truth-likeliness: for it is neither truth,
nor hath any likelihood of it, to believe it for a truth, that the Devil
should carry an old Witch in the Air into foraign Regions, that can
hardly crawl with a staff, to dancing and banqueting, and yet to return
with an empty belly, and the next day to be forced, like old _Dembdike_
or _Elizabeth Sothernes_, and _Alizon Denice_, to go a begging with the
sowr-milk Can: is this either probable or likely? would it not much more
have advantaged the Devils interest and his Kingdom, to have furnished
them with good and true meat and drink, and not with such imaginary
Cates, which would neither fill the stomach, nor satisfie the appetite?
Had it not been more for the Devils benefit to have furnished them with
plenty of gold and silver, than to let them go ragged and tattered,
begging their bread from door to door? 3. As these confessions have no
truth-likeliness in them, so they are things that are simply impossible
to be performed by any created power, and therefore must needs be false
and fictitious relations; for no Creature can perform any thing but that
for which by Creation it was ordered and designed to; but the Devils by
Creation have no generative power given them, nor members or organs to
perform the act of copulation withal; and therefore their having carnal
copulation with the Witches, is a most monstrous fiction, and an
absolute impossibility, and can have nothing in it more than the
stirring up of the imaginative faculty, and thereby to move titillation
in the members fitted for the act of generation, which is a thing that
happens to many both men and women, that are of hot constitutions, and
abound with seed, which we call _nocturnæ prolutiones_, of which the
Divines and Casuists make that great question, _An nocturnæ prolutiones
sint peccatum?_ And it is as simply impossible for either the Devil or
Witches to change or alter the course that God hath set in Nature, as to
transubstantiate a man or woman into a Cat, a Dog, or a Wolf; and
therefore are these confessions meer impossibilities and monstrous lyes.
4. There can in sound and right reason no credit at all be given to
these confessions, because divers of them have been proved to be utterly
false, as is plain in the man that did confidently affirm, that he was a
true Wolf, and that he had hair under his skin, the woful tryal of which
was his death, though a pregnant and undeniable proof, that the delusion
was in the Phantasie, and that there was no real change of the mans body
into a Wolf; and therefore doth flatly overthrow the credibility of
these vain and lying confessions. To the same purpose is the story
related by _Camerarius_ from _Johannes Baptista Porta_, a great
Naturalist, and a person of competent veracity, which is this. “Once
(saith he) I met an old Witch, one of those that are said to enter
houses in the night time, and there to suck the blood of little children
lying in their Cradles. Having asked her a question of something, she
promised forthwith, that within a while she would give me answer. She
puts forth of her Chamber all those that went in with me to be witnesses
of that which should pass. Having shut us out, she strips her self stark
naked, and rubs over all her body with a certain Oyntment, which we saw
through the chinks of the door. The operation of the soporiferous
juyces, whereof this Oyntment was compounded, made her fall to the
ground, and brought her into a deep sleep. Upon this we open the door,
and some of us begin to strike and knock her well-favour’dly; but she
was so soundly asleep, that to strike her body and a stone, it was all
one. Forth we go again, in the mean time the Oyntment had ended his
working, and the old Trot being awaked, and having put on her cloaths,
begins to tell tales of _Robin Hood_, saying, That she had passed over
Seas and Mountains, and then gives us false answers. We tell her, that
her body had never stir’d out of the Chamber; she maintains the
contrary: we shew her the blows we had given her, she persisteth the
more stifly in her opinion.” By the testimony of this Author, who was an
ear and eye-witness of this passage, and other persons with him, which
manifests it to be good and sufficient evidence, it appeareth, that the
Witches are under a melancholy and passive delusion, promoted by the
help of soporiforous Oyntments, whereby they fancy and think they are
carried into far remote places, where they hear and see strange things,
and do and suffer that which is not at all performed, but only as in a
dream, their bodies in the mean time lying immoveable, and so do but
relate falsities and lyes, which is an unanswerable proof of the
absolute falsity of their confessions, the thing that here we undertook
to make good. And some late Learned men (with Mr. _Glanvil_ himself)
giving too much credit to the things related by the Witches in their
confessions, to be true stories of things really performed at a great
distance, have been forced to revive that old Platonical Whimsie, of the
Souls real egression forth of the body into far distant places, and its
return again, with the certain knowledge of things there done or said,
according to the relation that _Pliny_ gives us in these words:
_Reperimus (inquit) interempla, Hermotimi Clazomenii animam relicto
corpore errare solitam, vagámq; è longinquo multa annuntiare, quæ nisi à
præsenti nosci non possent, corpore interim semianimi: donec cremato eo
inimici (qui Cantharidæ vocabantur) remeanti animæ velut vaginam
ademerint_. To which notwithstanding he doth not seem to give credence.
But these Relations of the Witches are meer lyes and forgeries, and are
but taught them by the spiritual craft of the Devil, thereby to pretend
to imitate the true Visions that the Prophets had from God. And though
there may be some peculiar persons that have the way to fall into
ecstasies, (as _Helmont_ witnesseth of himself) and may thereby
understand many mystical matters, yet in it there is no real egression
of the Soul forth of the body, but a freeing or withdrawing of it from
the Phantasie and Senses, and then (as the Cabbalists and mystical
Authors say) it is joyned to the intelligible World, and beholds things
as present, and though there may be something of truth in it, yet few
Authors of credit and veracity, have attested it upon their own
experience, and there may be much fallacy and danger in it, and
therefore we leave it to further search and inquiry. Another apparent
ground of the nullity of the truth or credit of these confessions, is
that which a learned Divine in his Letter to Dr. _Wierus_ gives us, the
substance of which we shall give in English, which is this: “I have
known (he saith) the year foregoing (he writ his Epistle _Anno_ 1565.)
many foolish things from the private confession of a certain old Woman,
an Inchanter, who when she had heard in my Sermon the place in the 19.
Chapter of the _Acts_ explained, _That many of the Ephesians, being of
those who had exercised curious Arts, had brought their Books, and
burned them openly, &c._ She forthwith (he saith) came unto me with a
mind plainly troubled; and with tears pouring forth into my bosom the
secrets of her breast, did receive Christian instruction; and when she
had understood, by the blessing of God, the vanity of Diabolical
Impostures, and perceived them with opened eyes, she was easily
converted to the light of truth, the smoak of lyes being laid aside.
She, truth being once received, hath most constantly confessed, that it
did appear to her more clear than the light at noon day, that Satan did
only deceive and blind the eyes of his Vassals, and that there was
nothing done in verity, and this she declared with a detestation of her
Diabolical Art.” And so concludes it in these words: _Vno verbo dicam,
me satis experientiâ didicisse, bonam partem incantationum mera esse
insomnia_. And whosoever shall read, and seriously consider the Epistle
of that excellent and learned Divine, will find the most of those vain
illusions laid open and confuted: so that in all (or the most) of the
things attributed unto Witches, we shall find no more of Diabolical
operation in them, than an internal, mental, and spiritual delusion, in
making the Witches to believe, and to draw on others to the same opinion
that the Devil hath a kind omnipotent Power and Soveraignty. Therefore
did _Aristotle_ well conclude: _Incantamenta esse muliercularum
figmenta_.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 4._]
[Sidenote: Joh. 8. 44.]
[Sidenote: 1 Joh. 3. 8.]
[Sidenote: Psal. 62. 4.]
4. A fourth Reason of the meer falsity and incredibility of these
Confessions is this: Is it possibly credible to a rational and unbiassed
judgment, that the Witches (though never so many, at several times and
places) having made themselves the Slaves and Vassals of the Devil, both
in soul and body, and being led by his lying and deceitful Spirit
(though making large and voluntary confessions) can be conceived to have
any touch of truth in them at all? Surely no more truth in these
confessions, than there is in the Devil, who was a Lyar from the
beginning; and therefore we argue thus. Such kind of will, affections
and inclinations as are in the Devil himself, such kind are in his
Children. But the will and affections of the Devil are against God, his
Truth, and against all Gods people, and his inclinations tend to
continual lying. Therefore the will, affections, and inclinations of his
Children (such as the Witches are, and are granted to be) are against
God, his Truth, and against all Gods people, and their inclinations tend
to continual lying. The proof of the major and minor Proposition is the
plain words of our Saviour, _Ye are of your father the devil, and the
lusts of your father the devil ye will do_, θέλετε ποιεῖν, _and he was a
murtherer from the beginnings and abode not in the truth, because there
is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lye, he speaketh of his own: for
he is a lyar, and the father of it._ And again St. _John_ tells us: _He
that committeth sin, is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the
beginning_. So that it may truly be said of them, _They delight in
lyes_, and their confessions are nothing but lyes. And if they object
and say, that here we confess a League with the Devil and the Witch,
otherwise the Witches could not be his Children, Vassals, and
Bond-slaves, which elsewhere we deny; we answer, it is a gross mistake,
in not observing the distinction we make betwixt a mental and spiritual
League, such as the Devil and _Judas_ made, and such as all wicked men
make with him, and under this League we acknowledge all Witches to be;
but a visible and corporeal League we positively deny, and so the
objection is of no validity. And thus we suppose we have sufficiently
proved, that there ought no credit at all to be given to the Confessions
of Witches, no more than to Devils, who are all lyars.
Now let us proceed to their third main Objection: That so many wise and
grave Judges and honest Juries could not have been deceived, to put to
death such great numbers of those kind of people, without sufficient
proof of the matters of fact. Against which we oppose these following
Reasons.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 1._]
1. It is but an Argument at the best to drive the other Party into an
absurdity, which is not of any such dangerous consequence, as may be
supposed; for it would but conclude, that many grave and wise Judges and
Juries have been imposed upon, and deceived, which is but _argumentum ad
homines_, and doubtless many might, and have been. And do not we
Christians hold, that the gravest and wisest Judges amongst the _Turks_
and _Persians_ have been, and are deceived, and have done unjustly in
persecuting and putting Christians to death, because they would not
submit to the Religion of _Mahomet_, and yet we account it no absurdity
or injustice to pass that censure upon them? And do not the Idolaters in
all those large Empires and Kingdoms of _Tartary_, _China_, the _Moguls_
Country, and the rest of those Countries in the East of _Asia_ persecute
and put many to death, for not worshipping their Idols, or embracing
their Religion; and do we think it absurd to censure and condemn them of
injustice, though in their own Countries they be accounted grave and
wise Judges? Surely we do not, and there is the parity of reason in both
the Arguments, for all are but men, and so may erre.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 2._]
2. But as for the grave, learned, and wise Judges, and understanding and
honest Juries within His Majesties Dominions, we affirm they are clear
and innocent from these imputations, and that for divers and sundry
sound reasons. 1. Our Judges and Juries have no such sinister and
corrupt ends, to wrest the Laws, or wring forth and extort feigned and
false Confessions, because they have no such ends as to uphold and
maintain idolatrous and superstitious Tenents, as praying to Saints,
magnifying of Holy water, or setting up of Purgatory, as had the Popish
Inquisitors, and the Demonographers, and Witchmongers that writ for
those ends. And therefore it is no absurdity to say or think, that they
dealt unjustly in their proceedings, which our learned and pious Judges
are not, nor can be guilty of. 2. The Inquisitors and their Agents had
benefit by the death of Witches, having a share in their Goods, and
therefore no absurdity to conclude, that their proceedings were unjust,
partial, and corrupt, of which our judges and Juries are clear, as
having no profit at all by the death of these wretched and deluded
people. 3. Our Judges are but sworn to the due execution of the Laws
made, and the Juries sworn to bring in their Verdicts according to their
best evidence: now if the Witnesses forth of malice, envy, ignorance, or
mistake swear to matters of fact, for which death or other punishments
are allotted by the Law, both the Judges and the Jury are absolutely
excusable; and if there be any guilt in the Witnesses, or falsity in
their Evidences, it lyes at their own doors, and upon their own
consciences, and the Judges and Jurors are clear, and not to be blamed,
for no humane prudence can altogether prevent, that Witnesses may not
erre or swear falsely.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 3._]
3. Have there not been many thousands of true and faithful Martyrs, that
have suffered and been condemned in many Ages, in many and several
Countries, at many different and distinct times? And some of these have
been condemned by such as were called and accounted General Councils,
Parliaments, High-Courts of Justice, and other places of great
Judicature, before Judges that were accounted wise, grave, and learned,
and by Juries of honesty and understanding: were there therefore no true
Martyrs, and were they all justly condemned and put to death? or is it
absurd to be guilty of such incredulity, as to think and hold, that so
many grave and wise Judges, and knowing Juries were deceived, and did
unjustly? Let Mr. _Glanvil_ or any other solve this Argument; and carry
the cause; or else we must necessarily conclude, that _opinio quæ à se
non propellit absurda, per absurda non premit adversarium_.
Now having given a full and satisfactory Answer to their main and
strongest Objections, and defeated the whole force of their first and
most furious Charge, we shall proceed to overthrow their main Battel, in
proving the four Particulars mentioned in the beginning of the Chapter,
to be false and impossible. And in doing of this, we shall handle the
three first promiscuously and all together, and the fourth about
Transubstantiations or Change of Witches into Cats, Hares, Dogs, Wolves,
or the like, we shall handle by it self.
[Sidenote: Eph. 2. 2.]
[Sidenote: 2 Thess. 2. 4.]
[Sidenote: Luk. 22. 2.]
[Sidenote: _Chrys. in Luc._ 22. 3.]
[Sidenote: Joh. 13. 2.]
1. And first we acknowledge an internal, mental, and spiritual League or
Covenant betwixt the Devil and all wicked persons, such as are Thieves,
Robbers, Murtherers, Impostors, and the like, whereby the temptations,
suggestions, and allurements of Satan, spiritually darted, and cast into
the mind, the persons so wrought upon, and prevailed withal, do assent
and consent unto the motions and counsels of the evil Spirit, and so do
make a League and Covenant with the said evil Spirit, as saith the Text:
_According to the Prince of the power of the air, that now worketh in
the children of disobedience_. He doth not only rule over them, but also
worketh in them; for men are either the Temples of God, or the Temples
of Satan and Antichrist, _who sitteth in the Temple of God, and opposeth
and exalteth himself above all that it called God or worshipped_. Such a
spiritual League or Covenant as this did _Judas_ make with the Devil,
whereby he agreed to betray his Master Christ. _Then entred Satan into
Judas_: not that essentially or personally he entred into _Judas_, but
that he put it into his heart, βεβληκότος, to betray him: which wrought
so effectively in him in a spiritual manner, that he took up that
Diabolical resolution to betray his innocent Master: and this was
entring into a spiritual League with the Devil. For as _Theophylact_
saith upon the place. _Hoc enim significat, spospondit, hoc est,
perfectam promissionem & pactum fecit._ And another saith: _In Judam
Satanas intravit, non impellens, sed patulum inveniens ostium: nam
oblitus omnium quæ viderat, ad solam avaritiam dirigebat intuitum_. And
again: _Missio ista spiritualis suggestio est, & non fit per aurem, sed
per cogitationem: diabolicæ enim suggestiones immittuntur, & humanis
cogitationibus immiscentur_.
2. We acknowledge that this spiritual League in some respects and in
some persons may be, and is an explicit League, that is, the persons
that enter into it, are or may be conscious of it, and know it to be so;
for when a person resolves to murther, he cannot but know that he then
maketh a League with the Devil, who was a Murtherer from the beginning.
And it is manifest, that in this League, and in no other, were all the
Priests that belonged to the Oracles, who knew well enough that the
Idols or false Gods they worshipped, did give no answers at all, but the
responsions given were only of their own devising and framing, to uphold
their credit; and more colourably to cozen and deceive the people, they
did pretend that they had answers from their Gods or Idols, and thus far
the Devil was in all their impostures and jugglings. And so all the
several sorts of the Diviners or Witches mentioned in the Old Testament,
were under a spiritual League with the Devil, and did very well know,
that what they did, was not by the finger of God, but either by the help
of Art, Nature, Leger-de-main, Confederacy, or such like impostures and
cheats: and yet they pretended, as did _Simon Magus_, and gave out that
they were some great men, thereby to deceive others, when explicitly
they plainly knew that themselves were but dissemblers and lyars, and
that for gain, credit, and vain-glory they pretended to do those things,
which they could never truly perform. And under this spiritual League,
explicitly considered, are all our Figure-flingers contained, who take
upon them (far beyond the Rules of the true Art) to declare where
stollen Goods are, and to cause them to be brought back again, and many
other such vain and lying matters, which they well know they have no
power to perform, but that they willingly and knowingly take upon them
to pretend to do these things for vain-glory and filthy lucre sake. And
of this sort are all our pretending Conjurers, Diviners, Wizards, and
those that take upon them to reveal things by looking in Crystals,
Beryls, and the like, (of which we may perhaps speak more largely
hereafter) that indeed know well enough they do but deceive and cheat
others: of all which we could recite very lepid and apposite stories,
certainly known unto us, or discovered by us; but Mr. _Glanvil_ would
account them but silly Legends and old Wives Fables, and therefore we
shall supersede here, and leave them to a fitter place.
[Sidenote: Isa. 8. 19, 20.]
[Sidenote: _Calvin in loc._]
3. There are others that are under this spiritual League, though
implicitly, as are all those that we have granted to be passively
deluded Witches, those that by ignorant and irreligious education,
joyned with a melancholy temper and disposition, to which they have
added Charms, Pictures, and other superstitious Ceremonies, which they
learned by Tradition. By all which they become so deluded and besotted
in their Phantasies, that they believe the Devil doth visibly appear
unto them, suck upon them, have carnal copulation with them, that they
are carried in the Air to feastings, dancings, and such like
Night-revellings; and that they can raise tempests, kill men or beasts,
and an hundred such like fopperies and impossibilities, when they do nor
suffer any thing at all, but in their depraved and deceived
imaginations. And so do blindly and implicitly believe that the Devil
doth perform all these things for them, when indeed and truth he doth
nothing but dart and cast in these filthy and fond cogitations into
their minds agreeable to their wicked wills and corrupted desires, and
so are fast bound in this spiritual and implicit League. And under this
spiritual implicit League are also comprehended all those that are
Witchmongers, and believe the verity and performance of these things,
and think that the Devil can both hurt and also help, and that there is
a bad and a good Witch, or with Mr. _Perkins_, a black and a white one,
by which wicked opinion, the seeking unto Witches, Wizards, Mutterers,
Murmurers, Charmers, South-sayers, Conjurers, Cunning-men and women (as
we speak here in the North) and such like, is still upholden by the
Authors and Favourers of this opinion, contrary to the direct counsel of
the Holy Ghost, who saith: _And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto
them that have familiar Spirits, and unto Wizards that peep and that
mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the
dead. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them._ And therefore saith
one: _Admonet etiam, nos adversus impios cultus & superstitiones tutos
fore, si in lege Domini acquiescamus_. The League or Covenant betwixt
the Devil and the Witch, is that which is visible and corporeal, where
he is supposed to appear in some bodily shape unto the Witch, and to
have oral and audible conference with him or her, and so to make a
League or Covenant; and this is the thing that we deny, and the
consequents thereof, that he doth not suck upon their bodies, nor hath
carnal copulation with them, nor carries them in the Air, nor for them,
nor by them doth destroy or kill man or beast, raise tempests, or change
them into Cats, Hares, Wolves, Dogs, or the like; and this we oppose
with these following Reasons.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 1._]
[Sidenote: 2 Pet. 5. 8, 9.]
[Sidenote: Rev. 12. 9.]
[Sidenote: 2 Cor. 2. 11.]
[Sidenote: Eph. 6. 11.]
[Sidenote: Mat. 24. 24.]
[Sidenote: 2 Tim. 2. 25, 26.]
1. Whatsoever the Devil worketh, it is to bring advantage to his own
Kingdom, or otherwise he should act in vain. But whatsoever he worketh
by a visible Covenant, is not for the advantage of his own Kingdom: and
therefore it is in vain. The major is plain from the Text: _Be sober, be
vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist stedfast in the faith_.
The minor is manifest in these two particulars. 1. _Satan is that old
Serpent, that was, and is more subtile than any beast of the field,
which the Lord God hath created_: which notwithstanding the vain Cavils,
and seeming Arguments of _Pererius_, must be understood of Satan the
Adversary of Mankind, and not of the natural Serpent, which is not the
most subtile beast that God hath created, there being many others more
subtile than the Serpent; and the Scripture tells us of his cunning and
wiliness: for the Apostle saith, _We are not ignorant of his wiles or
devices_ νοήματα. And the Apostle in another place calls them μεθοδείας,
_his wiles_, which are so great, _that if it were possible, they might
deceive the very elect_. So that he wants no cunning nor subtilty to
know how to bring a sinner into his snare, and to hold him fast, and
when he is fast, he knows he need do no more, and therefore acts not in
vain. 2. Before he need attempt a visible apparition to the Witch (if
any such thing could be) he knows that the Witch is sure and fast in his
snare by a spiritual Covenant already entred into, and therefore knows
he need do no more, and he is too cunning to act to no purpose, and
therefore doth St. _Paul_ warn _Timothy_, _That a Bishop must have a
good report, lest he fall into the snare of the devil_, all sins being
the snares of the Devil, and when men are fast taken in them, they are
in Satans fetters, and he labours no more but to keep them there. And so
the same Apostle speaketh of those that oppose the Gospel, _that they
must be instructed in meekness, that they may recover themselves out of
the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will_. So
that sins keep men in the spiritual snare of the Devil, and so are all
those that are accounted Witches, in that spiritual snare, holden fast
enough by their own consents and corrupt wills, and need no bodily
apparition to make them surer: and so this visible League falls to the
ground, as having no ground nor end why it should be made. And for the
Devil to appear like a Dog or a Cat, and speak, would sure not only
fright and startle an old Witch, but even the boldest and most
stout-hearted person.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 2._]
2. The Witches by visible apparitions of the Devil (if any such thing
could be) in any shape, could have no more assurance of Satans
performances, than they have already, by mental perswasion, and the
dominion of him in their hearts, _who is the Prince of the air, and
worketh in the children of disobedience_, because by that visible
appearance there is not brought any Hostages or Witnesses, which are
absolutely necessary to confirm such a League or Covenant. And these
representations being made in their imaginations and fancies, wherein
they think they see, do, and suffer these delusive Visions, they are
most firmly and pertinaciously confirmed in the belief of them, that any
Apparition externally must needs be vain and superfluous.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 3._]
3. If the Witches be not superlatively mad (and if so, then so to be
judged of, and all that in this point is believed of them either in
doing, suffering, or otherwise, must be judged extreme folly and
madness) they will not make a League with the Devil, knowing him to be
the Devil, because they cannot but know that he was and is a Lyar and a
Murtherer from the beginning, and hath deceived many before them, that
were of the same way and profession. And a visible appearance can afford
them no certain security, but that he may and will deceive them still,
and that he continueth a lyar and a deceiver. But while the delusion is
internal, and the imagination depraved, and led by the suggestions and
motions of Satan, they then are so blinded, that they see not, nor
understand the danger they run into, nor the certainty of the deceit
they lye under, which a visible Apparition would sooner shake and
overthrow, than any way confirm, and therefore is false and needless.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 4._]
4. But how come the Witches certainly to know that the Devil can perform
such things as they would have done? Surely by no means, but either by
traditional hear-say or inward delusion; the one they know not, but that
it is a lye, and the other concludeth their passive delusion, to neither
of which a visible Apparition like a Cat or a Dog, and speaking unto
them, can bring any confirmation, except the Devil should bring them
good store of gold or silver, or work some strange feat before their
eyes, as to kill some men or beasts, or the like; but none of these
things are ever proved to be performed. And therefore it is not rational
to believe that Witches do make a visible and corporeal League with the
Devil, because by it they can have no certain knowledge, that he either
can or will accomplish such things for them, as they desire.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 5._]
[Sidenote: 1 Sam. 16. 14.]
[Sidenote: Mat. 8. 31, 32.]
[Sidenote: Job 1. 10, 11.]
[Sidenote: 1 Pet. 5. 8.]
[Sidenote: 2 Pet. 2. 4.]
[Sidenote: Jude 6.]
[Sidenote: _Aug. super Psal._]
[Sidenote: Of evil _Aug._ _sect._ 3. _pag._ 279, 280.]
5. The Devil cannot by his own power or will, either appear visibly in
what shape he please, neither can he when he will, nor as he will,
perform these strange tricks, because he is under restraint, and can act
nothing but as the will of God orders and determines: so God sent an
evil Spirit upon _Saul_, otherwise he could not have troubled him; and
the Devils could not enter into the herd of Swine, until leave was given
them by our Saviour; neither could he afflict _Job_, until that Gods
hand was laid upon him, and God ordered him to be an instrument in that
affliction. And though the Devil be said _to walk about like a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour_, yet must that walking about be only
understood (and is so taken by all sound Expositors) of the evil and
wicked intention of his will, according to which he is always ready
seeking whom he may devour, if he be so ordered or permitted of God
(ordering and permission in this point, being but all one act of the
divine Will and Providence) and not in regard of his power or liberty to
act or execute what he please, and when and as he lift; for the same
Apostle and also St. _Jude_ telleth us, _that he is kept in chains of
darkness to be reserved unto judgment_, and by those chains he is kept,
that he cannot hurt or destroy, when and where he list, but as he is
sent and appointed of God, either to tempt or afflict the godly, or to
punish the wicked; and therefore the sentence of St. _Austin_ is much to
be weighed and considered, who saith: _Diabolus plerumq; vult nocere, &
non potest, quia potestas ista est sub potestate: nam si tantum posset
nocere Diabolus quantum vult, aliquis justorum non remaneret_. And
therefore I cannot but transcribe here the opinion of that pious and
learned person Bishop _Hall_ upon this very particular, which is this:
“Could _Samson_ have been firmly bound hand and foot by the Philistine
cords, so as he could not have stirred those mighty limbs of his, what
Boy or Girl of _Gath_ or _Ascalon_ would have feared to draw near and
spurn that awed Champion? No other is the condition of our dreadful
enemies, they are fast bound up with the adamantine chains of Gods most
merciful and inviolable Decree, and forcibly restrained from their
desired mischief. Who can be afraid of a muzled and tyed up Mastive?
what woman or child cannot make faces at a fierce Lyon, or a bloody
_Bajazet_ lockt up fast in an Iron Grate? Were it not for this strong
and strait curb of divine Providence, what good man could breathe one
minute upon earth? The Demoniack in the Gospel could break his iron
fetters in pieces, through the help of his Legion; those Devils that
possessed him could not break theirs; they are fain to sue for leave to
enter into Swine, neither had obtained it (in all likelihood) but for a
just punishment to those _Gaderene_ owners: How sure may we then be,
that this just hand of Omnipotence will not suffer these evil ones to
tyrannize over his chosen Vessels for their hurt? How safe are we, since
their power is limited, our protection infinite?” So that if the Devil
be thus chained and restrained by the omnipotent Decree and Providence,
that he cannot execute any evil, but as he is ordered of God, and that
God doth not let him loose but for just causes and reasons; then can it
not be that the Devil doth visibly appear and make Leagues with Witches,
nor work such strange things for them, because there is no just or
reasonable end that can be assigned, why God should order him to do
these things; and therefore a visible League with Witches is meerly
false and fraudulent.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 6._]
6. This pretended League must needs be a lye and a figment, because of
the effects that are feigned to follow, as to have carnal copulation
with the Devil, to raise storms and tempests, to flye in the air, and to
kill men and beasts. For if these things be done, they are either
performed by the Witches own natural power, or by the Devils. If by the
Witches natural power, or the force of her resuscitated imagination and
strength of will to work _ad nutum_ (as _Van Helmont_ seems to hold)
then the Devil operateth nothing, but in playing the Impostor, and
deceiving the Witch, and that he may easily do by internal and mental
delusion, and needs no visible League to bring it to pass. And if the
Witch kill men or beasts, or perform any of the fore-cited Feats by
natural means or Agents, then where is the Devils power, or wherein is
the Witchcraft or Fascination, or where is the effect of the League? And
if the Witch kill by natural means, then the natural Agent is not simply
evil, but in the use and application. As a Sword is a natural and lawful
instrument for an honest man to use, to defend his life withal, in using
of it with his natural power and skill; but if a Thief or a Robber, with
his natural power and skill, use a Sword to kill and murther an honest
man withal, it is wickedness in the use and end, but not in the agency
of the Thief, nor in the effect of the Sword. So if the Witch by any
natural means (though never so secret) do kill a man or child, it is
murther; but wherein lyes the Witchcraft? Is it any thing else but
_Veneficium_ (as both the Greek and Latine words do import) to kill by
some secret way of poysoning? Shew what Witchcraft there is in it
besides. If the Devil by his own power kill a man, or perform the
Witches carrying in the air, and the like, let us know how, or by what
means he performeth the same? If what the Devil performeth in natural
and corporeal matter, be (as the Fathers, Schoolmen, and Divines most
generally hold) by applying natural Agents, to fit passives, then the
effect is natural, and so in killing any person, it is only wicked and
diabolical, in regard of the end, which is murther, but what Witchcraft
is there in the means and operation? And therefore _Guiterrius_ strongly
concludeth thus. “If there be no natural Fascination, there can be no
diabolical; but there is no natural Fascination (as he thinketh he hath
sufficiently proved) therefore he concludeth there is no diabolical
Fascination at all.” There is no way to solve this Argument, but either
in denying that the Devil worketh these things by natural means, and
then it crosseth the opinion of all the Learned in general, ancient,
middle, and modern, or by proving that there is natural Fascination, and
then diabolical is but in vain and needless.
[Sidenote: _Reas 7._]
7. How can the Witches (if not maniacal in the highest degree) believe,
that the Devil who is a Lyar, and the Father of lyes, and whom they
cannot but know hath in the like cases deceived many, that have (in
their opinion) made contracts with him, will prove true in the
performance of his promise? Or that he who is the enemy of all truth and
goodness, and laboureth to deceive all Mankind, will be faithful to
perform his promise, or to do them any good, either real or apparent? Or
(if the Witches be not incredibly mad) can they believe that he will
perform without Hostages, Bonds-men, or Sureties? when we find that the
weakest and maddest of Mortals, if he make a Covenant with another of
known loosness and deceit, though for a thing of a far less value, than
either soul or body, will he not require sufficient Bonds-men and
Security? Now what Bonds-men or Security can the Witches have?
[Sidenote: _Reas. 8._]
8. And if the Witches be not beyond measure deluded and mad, must they
not rationally know, that if the Devil deceive them (as he is sure to
do) there is no recompence to be had, nor any that can compel him to
perform bargains? Before what Judicature, before what Judges, by what
Law must they call him to an account, or have him punished? So that in
all reason and sound judgment we must conclude the Witches to be
absolutely mad, and then all these things also madness, lyes and folly,
or that there is not, nor ever was any such League or Covenant.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 9._]
[Sidenote: See the Arraignment of Witches in _Lancast. Ann._ 10.
_Jacobi._]
9. But if all this were granted, yet who are the Witnesses to this
visible League or Covenant, can the Witches name or find any? The things
that cannot be proved by sufficient Witnesses, are never to be believed,
and we have proved the nullity, impossibility, and falsity of the
pretended Confessions of Witches themselves, and therefore that no
credit at all ought to be given unto them, and however no Law nor Equity
ought to allow the Evidence of a Party, as in these cases all Witches
are. And though some few of them have been so exceedingly mad to make
such false and absurd Confessions, yet if the Records of all Ages and
Courts were sought, it will be found that many hundreds of them have
suffered that never confessed the least tittle of any such matter; and
the supposed Witches of _Salmesbury_ in the County of _Lancaster_, the
tenth year of the Raign of King _James_, were so far from this
confession, that they were cleared, and the accusation found to be
false, and all acted by the imposture of one _Thompson_, or _Christopher
Southworth_. And I my self have known two supposed Witches to have been
put to death at _Lancaster_ within these eighteen years, that did
utterly deny any such League, or ever to have seen any visible Devil at
all: and may not the confession of these (who both dyed penitently) be
as well credited, as the confessions of those that were brought to such
confessions by force, fraud, or cunning perswasion, and allurements? But
if there be any such League or Covenant betwixt the Witches and the
Devil, how cometh the truth of this matter of fact (if ever there were
or could be any such thing) to be certainly known and revealed? Have any
of the Pen-men of the holy Scriptures recorded, that there ever was, is,
or can be any such League or Contract? Or was it ever attested by any
honest rational men, that were ear or eye-witnesses of such a bargain
and contract? Therefore we must once again conclude: _De non
apparentibus & non existentibus eadem est ratio_.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 10._]
10. As for the Witches either Males or Females, having carnal Copulation
with Devils, either as an _Incubus_ or _Succubus_, and their stealing of
seed from a man, and conveying it into the vessels of the woman, it is
in it self so horrid, monstrous, and incredible, that I cannot well
believe him to be a rational person, or _sanæ mentis_, that believes it
as a truth, and therefore cannot but think the rehearsal of it a
sufficient confutation. Also herein I do appeal to all learned
Physicians, who do know the way that Nature breeds humane seed, the
causes that make it prolifical, and the members fit for its generation
and reception, who (I doubt not) will deride this Tenent, and condemn
it, as false and abominable. Moreover, the horrid absurdity of it hath
been sufficiently demonstrated by _Wierus_, Dr. _Tandlerus_, Mr. _Scot_,
Mr. _Wagstaff_, and others: and therefore all we shall say is this:
“That Devils, whether conceived to be corporeal or incorporeal, and to
assume bodies (for the one it must of necessity be) were not created of
God to generate, neither have they, nor can have any seed, or members
fit for generation; and therefore to copulate or generate is derogatory
from the glory of Nature, and blasphemous against God and his Power.” As
for the Devils sucking the Teats, Warts, or such like excrescences of
the Witches bodies, we should have passed it over as easily as the
former, but only that Mr. _Glanvil_ hath taken up the Cudgels to defend
it: to confute which, we shall give these satisfactory Reasons.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 1._]
[Sidenote: _Pag._ 18.]
1. There can be no rational end assigned, why the Devil should perform
this action, for we must tell Mr. _Glanvil_ that supposals are no
proofs, and _ex suppositis supposita consequuntur_, and in a thing of
this nature, arguments to prove it probable are insufficient. And if (as
he confesseth) for their being suckt by the Familiar, I say, (he saith)
“We know so little of the Nature of Demons and Spirits, that ’tis no
wonder we cannot certainly divine the reason of so strange an action”:
Now if he knew so little of their Nature, it must needs be vanity and
arrogance to take upon him to declare so much: and if he could not
certainly divine the reason of so strange an act, it was extreme folly
and pride in him to bring in idle and vain conjectures and probability,
where verity and certainty are expected. One while he supposeth them
corporeal, which if granted, will not prove that they are recreated by
the reeks and vapours of humane blood, because their bodies are of a
more pure Nature, than to be nourished with gross, and sometimes
(especially in melancholick old men and women) corrupted blood; for if
every thing be nourished by its like, then they cannot be fed with
humane blood, for they have no flesh nor bones such as ours, that have
need to be nourished with blood. And for his next, _perhaps, and may be,
that it is a diabolical Sacrament_, we shall believe it when he proves
it, and not before. But he hath a third supposal, which to him seemeth
most probable, _viz._ “That the Familiar doth not only suck the Witch,
but in the action infuseth some poysonous ferment into her”. If this had
been most probable, why did he bring in the other two, that are less
probable? surely he might have known that, _frustra fit per plura, quod
fieri potest per pauciora_. And is his sucking now come to infusion and
injection? surely these will not accord: but enough of supposals.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 2._]
[Sidenote: History.]
2. But we must know of Mr. _Glanvil_, how he comes to know that the
Devils sucking of the Witches bodies is a truth, or ever was proved to
be matter of fact, who were by and present that were ear or
eye-witnesses of it? A thing that never was proved ought never to be
believed; and if he recur to the Witches confessions, that is fully
overthrown before, and we are sure that in these late years that are
past, when so many pretended Witch-finders were set abroad in _Scotland_
and _Northumberland_, they never manifested, nor could verifie any such
thing, but were found and discovered to be notorious Impostors and
Knaves, pretending to discover Witches by putting sharp Needles or Pins
into the Warts and hollow Excrescences of divers persons, when the
persons so dealt withal, did not see nor know; and if the persons did
not feel nor complain of pain, then (forsooth) they must be taken for
Witches, and be burnt. So of many persons they got money and bribes,
that they might not be searcht or stript naked, and of others for
finding Excrescences upon them that were hollow and fistulous, and
therefore when the Pin was thrust into the fistulous cavity, that was
skinned within, and so indolent, they were then accounted guilty, and
were either forced to compound with these notorious pretended
Witch-finders, or to be prosecuted for their lives. By which wicked
means and unchristian practices divers innocent persons, both men and
women lost their lives; and these wicked Rogues wanted not greater
persons (even of the Ministry too) that did authorize and incourage them
in these Diabolical courses, as though this had been some way prescribed
by God or his Word to discover Witches by, when it was an Hellish device
of the Devil to delude Witchmongers, and bring poor innocent people to
danger and death. Yet it had prevailed further, if some more wise Heads
and Christian Hearts had not interposed, by whom the Villany was
detected, and the Impostors severely punished; and that this is a most
certain truth, hundreds yet living can witness and testifie. And the
like in my time and remembrance happened here in _Lancashire_, where
divers both men and women were accused for supposed Witchcraft, and were
so unchristianly, unwomenly, and inhumanely handled, as to be stript
stark naked, and to be laid upon Tables and Beds to be searched (nay
even in their most privy parts) for these their supposed Witch-marks: so
barbarous and cruel acts doth diabolical instigation, working upon
ignorance and superstition, produce.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 3._]
3. But as this was never really proved _de facto_, that the Devil did
suck upon the body of a supposed Witch, so the possibility of it
likewise can never be demonstrated. For whether a Spirit be taken to be
corporeal, or to assume a body, yet it neither hath nor can have such a
body as our Saviour did appear in after his Resurrection, which was the
same real and numerical body that he suffered in, and was by the sense
of seeing and feeling distinguished from any bodies that Spirits can
have and appear in, especially in solidity and tangibility; for a Spirit
hath not flesh and bones, as he was felt and seen to have. And where
there is no flesh and bones, there cannot be any animal sucking, and we
speak not here of artificial sucking or attraction, of which there is a
great question, whether any such thing be at all or not; but however the
Spirits have no power to suck, because they have not flesh and bones.
[Sidenote: _Reas. 4._]
4. That there are divers Nodes, Knots, Protuberances, Warts, and
Excrescences that grow upon the bodies of men and women, is sufficiently
known to learned Physicians and experienced Chirurgions. Some have them
from their mothers wombs, some grow afterwards, some proceed from
internal causes, some from external hurts, some are soft, some hard,
some pendulous, some not, some fistulous, and issue matter, some hollow
and indolent, and many other ways. And these are more frequent in some
persons, by reason of their Complexion and Constitution, in others by
reason of their Age, Sex, and other accidents and circumstances,
especially in Women that are old, and their accustomed purgations staid,
or by reason of Child-birth, and the like. Now if all these were
Witch-marks, then few would go free, especially those that are of the
poorer sort, that have the worst diet, and are but nastily kept. And for
their being indolent, it doth argue nothing but ignorance; for many
sorts of Tumors and Excrescences are without pain, as well as fistulous
and hollow Warts. And it is a woful errour, to make that a sign and mark
of a diabolical Contract, that hath natural causes for its production.
And it is a strange kind of Logick to argue or conclude, that men or
women are Witches, and have made a Contract with the Devil, because they
have such Warts or Excrescences that are indolent when pricked into:
where is the coherence, connexion, or just consequence? Let all wise men
judge.
[Sidenote: _Psycholog._ _par._ 2. _pag._ 53. _&c._]
[Sidenote: Dialog. Discours. _pag._ 149, _&c._]
[Sidenote: Discovery of Witchcraft, _l._ 5. _c._ 1, _&c._]
As for that vain opinion, that Witches are, or can be really and
essentially transformed into Dogs, Cats, Hares, and the like, or men
transubstantiated into Wolves, it is largely by numerous positive
arguments, confuted by _Casmannus_, and by the Authors of that learned
Treatise of Spirits and Devils, written in the Raign of Queen
_Elizabeth_, as also by _Wierus_, Mr. _Scot_, and others; so that we
shall not bring all that others have written about this point, but note
such things as are most material, and have been less handled or regarded
by others, and that in these Particulars.
[Sidenote: _De Civit. Dei_, _lib._ 18. _cap._ 18. _pag._ 583.]
[Sidenote: _De Spirit. anim._ _cap._ 26.]
[Sidenote: _Hist. nat._ _l._ 8. _c._ 22. _p._ 114.]
1. It is taken to be a great matter with some, because St. _Augustin_
seemeth to favour this opinion of transformation, and tells us this: _Si
enim dixerimus ea non esse credenda, non desunt etiam nunc, qui ejusmodi
quædam, vel certissima audisse, vel etiam expertos se esse asseverent_.
And then saith: “And we, when we were in _Italy_, did hear such things
of a certain Region of those parts, where certain Women that kept Inns,
being skilled in these Arts (they did say) were wont to give in Cheese
to Travellers that they could get to take it, whence forthwith they were
turned into Juments, and carried necessary burdens, and when they had
done, did again return unto themselves, but that while they had not a
bestial, but rational and humane understanding.” And yet concludeth:
_Hæc vel falsa sunt, vel tam inusitata, ut meritò non credantur_. To
which we shall return these short answers. 1. Though St. _Austin_ were
in many things a very Learned man; yet being but a man, might and did
erre, not only in this point, but in many others. 2. His Reasons to
prove it by are weak and groundless. 3. He speaketh nothing of his
certain and peculiar knowledge, but by common fame and hear-say; and
therefore the matters alledged to be done, are not credible. 4. He
confesseth that they are either false, or so unusual, that they are not
worthy to be believed. 5. And when he hath said all he can, he
concludeth these Transformations (if any such were) to be but
phantastical, that is, to seem so, but not really to be so, and what he
meaneth by a phantastical appearance, is not easie to judge, whether it
were a delusion of the Phantasie within, or of the senses without. 6.
But in another place he telleth us this: _Non est credendum, humanum
corpus Dæmonum arte vel potestate in bestialia lineamenta converti
posse_; so that here is St. _Austin_ contradicting himself, or else he
concludeth nothing. 7. But his learned Commentator _Ludovicus Vives_
doth not give credit to those vain and lying Fables, but confuteth them
by the Authority of Pliny (who might have given St. _Austin_
satisfaction, if he had read him) who tells us roundly: _Homines in
lupos verti, rursumq; restitui sibi, falsum esse confidenter existimare
debemus, aut credere omnia quæ fabulosa tot seculis comperimus_. And
further saith: _Mirum est, quò procedat Græcia credulitas. Nullum tam
impudens mendacium est, ut teste careat._
[Sidenote: Gen. 19. 26.]
[Sidenote: _Antiq. Judaic._ _l._ 1. _c._ 12. _p._ 17.]
[Sidenote: Exod. 4. 3, 4.]
[Sidenote: Exod. 7. 9, 10, 20.]
[Sidenote: Exod. 7. 20, 21.]
[Sidenote: Job. 2. 9.]
2. For essential Transformations we have examples in the Sacred
Scriptures, but these not wrought but by a divine Hand and an omnipotent
Power. And such was that of _Lots_ Wife, who looking back contrary to
command, was turned into a Pillar of Salt, _& fuit in statuam salis_, as
_Arias Montanus_ renders it, which accordeth with the Hebrew exactly,
the vulgar Latine and others say, _versa est in statuam salis_: and this
by the divine finger was a real transubstantiation, especially in
respect of her body, the substance of which was really changed into an
absolute Pillar of Salt, without regression or returning back to what it
was before, but remained so still, and was standing in the days of
_Josephus_, if credit may be given to what he writeth. Another example
we have in _Moses_ his Rod, which God commanded him to cast upon the
ground, _and he cast it upon the ground, and it became a Serpent, and
Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine
hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it,
and it became a rod in his hand._ This Rod afterwards _Aaron_ threw down
before _Pharaoh, and it became a Serpent, and swallowed up the rods of
the Wise-men and Sorcerers, and it afterwards became a rod again_, and
_Aaron_ used it in working some of the rest of the Miracles. So that
this was so true a transformation, that _Moses_ himself was afraid when
he saw the Rod a Serpent, that he fled from before it; and that it was a
real change, appeared in that it swallowed up the Rods of the Magicians,
and still afterwards became a Rod again. So likewise all the Waters in
_Egypt_ were really changed into blood: And our Saviour did really
change the Water into Wine at the Marriage in _Cana_ of _Galilee_. And
all these were true and real transubstantiations, which neither Devils
nor Witches can perform, as appeareth by these unanswerable Arguments.
1. All real Transubstantiations are wrought and performed by a divine
and omnipotent Power: but Devils and Witches have no divine nor
omnipotent Power. Therefore Devils or Witches cannot work or perform any
real Transubstantiations.