Part I: Some considerations about witchcraft, in a letter to Robert Hunt, part 5 of 5

SECT. XVIII.

I HAVE now done with SCOT, and his presumptions; and am apt to fancy, that there is nothing more needful to be said to discover the Discoverer. But there is an Author infinitely more valuablè, that calls me to consider him, 'Tis the great Episcopius, who, though he grants a sort of Witches and Magicians, yet denies Compacts. His Authority, I consess, is considerable, but let us weigh his Reasons.

His First is, That there is no example of any of the prophane Nations that were in such Compact; whence he would infer, that there are no express Covenants with evil Spirits in particular instances. But I think that both proposition and consequence, are very obnoxious and defective. For that there were Nations that did actually worship the Devil is plain enough in the Records of ancient times, and some so read that place in the Psalms, The Gods of the Heathen are Devils; and Sathan we know is call'd the God of this World. Yea, our Author himself confesseth that the Nation of the Jews were so strictly prohibited Witchcraft, and all transaction with evil Spirits; because of their proneness to worship them. But what need more? There are at this day that pay sacrifice, and all sacred homage to the wicked D[…]e in a visible appearance; and 'tis well known to those of our own that traffick, and reside in those parts, that the Caribbians worship the Devil under the name of Maboya, who frequently shews himself, and transacts with them; the like Travellers relate concerning divers other parts of the barbarous Indies: and 'tis confidently reported by sober intelligent men that have visited those places, that most of the Laplanders, and some other Northern people, are Witches. That 'tis plain that there are National Confederacies with Devils; or, if there were none, I see not how it could be inferred thence, that there are no personal ones, no more, than that there were never any Doemoniacks, because we know of no Nation universally possessed; nor any Lunaticks in the world, because there is no Country of Madmen. But our Author reasons again,

(2) To this purpose; That the profligate persons who are obnoxious to those gross temptations, are fast enough before; and therefore such a Covenant were needless, and of no avail to the Tempters projects.

This Objection I have answered already, in my Remarques upon the IX Prejudice; and mind you again here, that if the designs of those evil Spirits were onely in general to secure wicked men to the dark Kingdom, it might better be pretended that we cannot give a reason for their temptations, and endeavours in this kind; But it being likely, as I have conjectur'd, that each of those infernal Tempters hath a particular property in those he hath seduced, and secured by such compacts, their respective pride and tyrannical desire of slaves, may reasonably be thought to engage them in such Attempts in which their so peculiar interest is concerned.

But I add what is more direct, viz. That such desperate Sinners are made more safe to the infernal Kingdom at large, by such Hellish Covenants and Combinations; since thereby they confirm, and harden their Hearts against God, and put themselves at greater distance from his Grace, and his Spirit; give the deepest wound to Conscience, and resolve to wink against all its light and convictions; throw a Bar in the way of their own Repentance, and lay a Train for despair of Mercy. These certainly are sure ways of being undone, and the Devil we see, hath great interest in a project, the success of which is so attended. And we know he made the assault de facto upon our Saviour, when he tempted him to fall down, and worship. So that this learned Author hath but little reason to object

(3) That to endeavour such an express Covenant is contrary to the interests of Hell; which indeed are this way so mightily promoted. And whereas he suggests, that a thing so horrid is like to startle Conscience, and awaken the Soul to Consideration and Repentance: I Reply, That indeed considering man in the general, as a rational Creature, acted by hopes, and fears, and sensible of the joyes and miseries of another World, one would expect it should be so: But then, if we cast our eyes upon man as really he is, sunk into flesh and present sense; darkned in his mind, and governed by his imagination; blinded by his passions, and besotted by sin and folly; hardned by evil Customs, and hurried away by the torrent of his inclinations and desires: I say, looking on man in this miserable state of Evil, 'tis not incredible that he should be prevailed upon by the Tempter, and his own Lusts to act at a wonderful rate of madness, and continue unconcerned and stupid in it; intent upon his present satisfactions, without sense or consideration of the dreadfulness and danger of his condition; and by this I am furnished also to meet a fourth Objection of our Author's, viz.

(4) That 'tis not probable upon the Witches part, that they will be so desperate to renounce God and eternal happiness, and so, everlastingly undo their Bodies and Souls, for a short and trivial interest; which way of arguing will onely infer, that Mankind acts sometimes to prodigious degrees of brutishness; and actually we see it in the instances of every day. There is not a Lust so base, and so contemptible, but there are those continually, in our eyes, that feed it with the sacrifice of their eternity, and their Souls; and daring Sinners rush upon the blackest villanies with so little remorse, or sense, as if it were their design to prove, that they have nothing left them of that whereby they are men. So that nought can be inferred from this Argument, but that humane nature is incredibly degenerate; and the vileness and stupidity of men is really so great, that things are customary, and common, which one could not think possible, if he did not hourly see them. And if men of liberal Education, and acute Reason, that know their duty, and their danger, are driven by their appetites, with their eyes open, upon the most fatal Rocks, and make all the haste they can from their God, and their happiness; If such can barter their Souls for trifles, and sell everlastingness for a moment, sport upon the brink of a Precipice, and contemn all the terrours of the future dreadful day; Why should it then be incredible that a brutish, vile person, sotted with Ignorance, and drunk with Malice, mindless of God, and unconcerned about a future Being, should be perswaded to accept of present, delightful gratifications, without duly weighing the desperate condition?

Thus, I suppose, I have answered also the Arguments of this great man, against the Covenants of Witches; and since a person of such sagacity and learning, hath no more to say against what I defend, and another of the same Character, the ingenious Mr. S. Parker, who directed me to him, reckons these the strongest things that can be objected in the Case, I begin to arrive to an higher degree of confidence in this belief; and am almost inclined to fancy, that there is little more to be said to purpose, which may not by the improvement of my CONSIDERATIONS be easily answered; and I am yet the more fortified in my conceit, because I have since the former Edition of this Book, sent to several acute and ingenious persons of my acquaintance, to beg their Objections, or those they have heard from others, against my Discourse or Relations, that I might consider them in this: But I can procure none save onely those few I have now discuss'd, most of my Friends telling me, that they have not met with any that need, or deserve my notice.

SECT. XIX.

BY all this it is evident, that there were WITCHES in ancient times under the Dispensation of the LAW; and that there were such in the times of the GOSPEL also, will not be much more difficult to make good. I had a late occasion to say something about this, in a Letter to a person of the highest honour, from which I shall now borrow some things to my present purpose.

I SAY then (II) That there were Compacts with evil Spirits in those times also, is methinks intimated strongly in that saying of the Jews concerning our Saviour, That he cast out Devils by Beelzebub. In his return to which, he denies not the supposition or possibility of the thing in general; but clears himself by an appeal to the actions of their own Children, whom they would not tax so severely. And I cannot very well understand why those times should be priviledged from WITCHCRAFT, and Diabolical Compacts, more than they were from Possessions, which we know were then more frequent (for ought appears to the contrary) than ever they were before or since. But besides this, There are intimations plain enough in the Apostles Writings of the being of Sorcery and WITCHCRAFT. St. Paul reckons Witchcraft next Idolatry, in his Catalogue of the works of the flesh, Gal. V. 20. and the Sorcerers are again joyn'd with Idolaters in that sad Denunciation, Rev. XXI. 8. and a little after, Rev. XXII. 15. they are reckoned again among Idolaiers, Murderers, and those others that are without. And methinks the story of Simon Magus, and his diabolical Oppositions of the Gospel in its beginnings, should af[…]ord clear conviction. To all which, I add this more general consideration,

(3) That though the New Testament had mention'd nothing of this matter, yet its silence in such cases is not argumentative. Our Saviour spake as he had occasion, and the thousandth part of what he did, and said, is not recorded, as one of his Historians intimates. He said nothing of those large unknown Tracts of America, nor gave he any intimations of as much as the Existence of that numerous people; much less did he leave instructions about their conversion. He gives no account of the affairs and state of the other world, but onely that general one of the happiness of some, and the misery of others. He made no discovery of the Magnalia of Art or Nature; no, not of those, whereby the propagation of the Gospel might have been much advanced, viz. the Mystery of Printing, and the Magnet; and yet no one useth his silence in these instances as an argument against the being of things, which are evident objects of sense. I confess, the omission of some of these particulars is pretty strange, and unaccountable, and concludes our ignorance of the reasons, and menages of Providence; but I suppose, nothing else. I thought, I needed here to have said no more, but I consider, in consequence of this Objection, it is pretended; That as CHRIST JESUS drive the Devil from his Temples, and his Altars, (as is clear in the Cessation of Oracles, which dwindled away, and at last grew silent shortly upon his appearance) so in like manner, 'tis said, that he banisht Him from his lesser holds in Sorcerers, and Witches; which argument is peccant both in what it affirms, and in what it would infer. For

(1) The coming of the H. JESUS did not expel the Devil from all the greater places of his residence and worship; for a considerable part of barbarous Mankind do him publick, solemn homage, to this day: So that the very foundation of the pretence fails, and the Consequence without any more ado comes to nothing. And yet besides,

(2) If there be any credit to be given to Ecclesiastick History, there were persons possessed with Devils some Ages after Christ, whom the Disciples cast out by Prayer, and the invocation of his Name: So that Sathan was not driven from his lesser habitations, assoon as he was forced from his more famous abodes. And I see no reason

(3) Why, Though Divine Providence would not allow him publiquely to abuse the Nations, whom he had designed in a short time after, for Subjects of his Son's Kingdom, and to stand up in the face of Religion in an open affront to the Divinity that planted it, to the great hindrance of the progress of the Gospel, and discouragement of Christian hopes; I say, Though Providence would not allow this height of insolent opposition; yet I see not why we may not grant, that God however permitted the Devil to sneak into some private skulking holes, and to trade with the particular more devoted vassals of his wicked Empire: As we know that when our Saviour had chased him from the man that was possessed, he permitted his retreat into the herd of Swine. And I might add,

(4) That 'tis but a bad way of arguing, to set up phancied congruities against plain experience, as is evidently done by those arguers, who, because they think that Christ chased the Devil from all his high places of worship when he came; that 'tis therefore fit he should have forced him from all his other less notorious Haunts: and upon the imagination of a decency, which they frame, conclude a fact, contrary to the greatest evidence of which the thing is capable. And once more

(5) The consequence of this imagined Decorum, if it be pursued, would be this, that Sathan should now be deprived of all the ways, and tricks of Cozenage, whereby he abuseth us; and mankind since the coming of Christ, should have been secure from all his Temptations; for there is a greater congruity in believing, that, when he was sorced from his haunts in Temples and publick places, he should be put also from those nearer ones, about us and within us in his daily temptations of universal Mankind; than, that upon relinquishing those, he should be made to leave all profest communication and correspondence with those profligate persons, whose vileness had fitted them for such company.

So that these Reasoners are very Fair for the denial of all internal Diabolical Temptations. And because I durst not trust them, I'le crave your leave here to add some things concerning those.

In order to which, that I may obtain the favour of those wary persons, who are so coy, and shy of their assent, I grant; That men frequently out of a desire to excuse themselves, lay their own guilt upon the Devil, and charge him with things of which in earnest he is not guilty: For, I doubt not but every wicked man hath Devil enough in his own nature to prompt him to Evil, and needs not another Tempter to incite him. But yet, that Sathan endeavours to further our wickedness, and our ruine by his inticements, and goes up and down seeking whom he may devour, is too evident in the holy Oracles, to need my endeavours particularly to make it good; Only those diffident men cannot perhaps apprehend the manner of the operation, and from thence are tempted to believe, that there is really no such thing. Therefore I judge it requisite to explain this, and 'tis not unsutable to my general subject.

In order to it I consider, That sense is primarily caused by motion in the Organs, which by continuity is conveyed to the brain, where sensation is immediately performed; and it is nothing else, but a notice excited in the Soul by the impulse of an external object. Thus it is in simple outward sense. But imagination, though caused immediately by material motion also, yet it differs from the external senses in this, That 'tis not from an impress directly from without, but the prime, and original motion is from within our selves: Thus the Soul it self sometimes strikes upon those strings, whose motion begets such, and such phantasms; otherwhile, the loose Spirits wandring up and down in the brain, casually hit upon such filments and strings whose motion excites a conception, which we call a Fancy, or Imagination; and if the evidence of the outward senses be shut out by sleep or melancholy, in either case, we believe those representations to be real and external transactions, when they are onely within our heads; Thus it is in Enthusiasms, and Dreams. And besides these causes of the motions which s[…]ir imagination, there is little doubt, but that Spirits good, or bad can so move the instruments of sense in the brain, as to awake such imaginations, as they have a mind to excite; and the imagination having a mighty influence upon the affections, and they upon the will and external actions, 'tis very easie to conceive how good Angels may stir us up to Religion and Vertue, and the Evil ones tempt us to Lewdness and vice, viz. by representments that they make upon the stage of imagination, which invite our affections, and allure, though they cannot compel, our wills.

This I take to be an intelligible account of temptations, and also of Angelical encouragements; and perhaps this is the onely way of immediate influence that the Spirits of the other world have upon us. And by it, 'tis easie to give an account of Dreams both Monitory, and Temperamental, Enthusiasms, Fanatick Ecstasies, and the like, as I suggested.

Thus Sir, to the FIRST. But the other pretence also must be examined.

SECT. XX.

(2) MIRACLES are ceast, therefore the presumed actions of Witchcraft are tales, and illusions.]

To make a due return to this, we must consider a great and difficult Problem, which is, What is a real Miracle? And for answer to this weighty Question, I think,

(1.) THAT it is not the strangeness, or unaccountableness of the thing done simply, from whence we are to conclude a Miracle. For then, we are so to account of all the Magnalia of Nature, and all the Mysteries of those honest Arts, which we do not understand.

Nor, (2) is this the Criterion of a Miracle, That it is an action or event beyond all natural powers; for we are ignorant of the extent and bounds of Natures sphere, and possibilities: And if this were the character, and essential mark of a Miracle, we could not know what was so; except we could determine the extent of natural causalities, and six their bounds, and be able to say to Nature, Hitherto canst thou go, and no further. And he that makes this his measure whereby to judge a Miracle, is himself the greatest Miracle of knowledge, or immodesty. Besides, though an essect may transcend really all the powers of meer nature; yet there is a world of spirits that must be taken into our account. And as to them also I say,

(3) Every thing is not a Miracle that is done by Agents supernatural. There is no doubt but that evil Spirits can make wonderful combinations of natural causes, and perhaps perform many things immediately which are prodigious, and beyond the longest line of Nature: but yet These are not therefore to be called Miracles; for, THEY are SACRED WONDERS, and suppose the POWER to be DIVINE. But how shall the power be known to be so, when we so little understand the capacities, and extent of the abilities of lower Agents? The Answer to this Question will discover the Criterion of Miracles, which must be supposed to have all the former particulars; (They are unaccountable, beyond the powers of meer nature, and done by Agents supernatural) and to these must be superadded,

(4) That they have peculiar circumstances that speak them of a divine Original. Their mediate Authors declare them to be so, and they are always persons of Simplicity, Truth, and Holiness, void of Ambition, and all secular Designs. They seldom use Ceremonies, or natural Applications, and yet surmount all the activities of known Nature. They work those wonders, not to raise admiration, or out of the vanity to be talkt of; but to seal and confirm some divine Doctrine, or Commission, in which the good and happiness of the world is concern'd. I say, by such circumstances as these, wonderful actions are known to be from a Divine cause; and that makes, and distinguisheth a Miracle.

And thus I am prepared for an Answer to the Objection, to which I make this brief return, That though WITCHES by their Confederate Spirit do those odd, and astonishing things we believe of them; yet are they no Miracles, there being evidence enough from the badness of their Lives, and the ridiculous Ceremonies of their performances, from their malice and mischievous designs, that the POWER that works, and the end for which those things are done, is not Divine, but Diabolical. And by singular providence they are not ordinarily permitted, as much as to pretend to any new sacred Discoveries in matters of Religion, or to act any thing for confirmation of doctrinal Impostures. So that whether Miracles are ceased, or not, these are none. And that such Miracles as are onely strange, and unaccountable performances, above the common methods of Art or Nature, are not ceas'd, we have a late great Evidence in the famous GREATRAK; concerning whom it will not be impertinent to add the following Account which I had in a Letter from the Reverend Dr. R. Dean of C. a person of great veracity, and a Philosopher. This learned Gentleman then is pleased thus to write.

THE great discourse now at the Coffeehouses, and every where, is about Mr. G. the famous Irish Stroker, concerning whom it is like you expect an account from me. He undergoes various censures here, some take him to be a Conjurer, and some, an Impostor, but others again adore him as an Apostle. I confess I think the man is free from all design, of a very agreeable Conversation, not addicted to any Vice, nor to any Sect or Party; but is, I believe, a sincere Protestant. I was three weeks together with him at my Lord Conwayes, and saw him, I think, lay his hands upon a thousand persons; and really there is something in it more than ordinary; but I am convinc'd it is not miraculous. I have seen pains strangely sly before his hand till he hath chased them out of the Body, Dimness cleared, and Deafness cured by his touch; Twenty persons at several times in fits of the Falling Sickness, were in two or three minutes brought to themselves, so as to tell where their pain was, and then he hath pursued it till he hath driven it out at some extream part; Running Sores of the Kings Evil dried up, and Kernels brought to a Suppuration by his hand; grievous Sores of many moneths date, in few days healed; Obstructions and Stoppings removed, Cancerous Knots in the Breast dissolved, &c.

But yet I have many reasons to perswade me, that nothing of all this is miraculous: He pretends not to give Testimony to any Doctrine, the manner of his Operation speaks it to be natural, the Cure seldom succeeds without reiterated touches, his Patients often relapse, he fails frequently, he can do nothing where there is any decay in Nature, and many Distempers are not at all obedient to his touch. So that, I confess, I refer all his vertue to his particular Temper and Complexion, and I take his Spirits to be a kind of Elixir, and universal Ferment; and that he cures (as Dr. M. expresseth it) by a sanative Contagion. Enthusiasm. Triumphat. Sect. 58.

This, Sir, was the First Account of the Healer, I had from that Reverend Person, which with me signifies more, than the attestations of multitudes of ordinary Reporters; and no doubt but it will do so likewise, with all that know that excellent man's singular Integrity and Judgment. But besides this, upon my enquiry into some other particulars about this matter, I received these further Informations.

As for Mr. G. what opinion he hath of his own Gift, and how he came to know it? I answer, He hath a different apprehension of it from yours, and mine, and certainly believeth it to be an immediate Gift from Heaven; and 'tis no wonder, for he is no Philosopher. And you will wonder less, when you hear how he came to know it, as I have often received it from his own mouth. About three or sour years ago he had a strong impulse upon his spirit, that continually pursued him whatever he was about, at his Business, or Devotion, alone, or in company, that spake to him by this inward suggestion [I have given thee the gift of curing the Evil.] This suggestion was so importunate, that he complained to his Wife, That he thought he was haunted: She apprehended it as an extravagancy of Fancy, but he told her he believed there was more in it, and was resolved to try. He did not long want opportunity. There was a Neighbour of his grievously afflicted with the Kings-Evil, He stroked her, and the effect succeeded. And for about a Twelve-moneth together he pretended to cure no other Distemper. But then the Ague being very rife in the Neighbourhood. the same Impulse after the same manner spoke within him, [I have given thee the gift of curing the Ague;] and meeting with persons in their Fits, and taking them by the hand, or laying his hand upon their Brasts, the Ague left them. About half a year after the accustomed Impulse became more general, and suggested to him [I have given thee the gift of Healing:] and then he attempted all Diseases indifferently. And though he saw strange effects, yet he doubted whether the cause were any vertue that came srom him, or the peoples fancy: To convince him of his incredulity, as he lay one night in bed, one of his Hands was struck dead, and the usual Impulse suggested to him to make trial of his vertue upon himself, which he did, stroking it with his other hand, and then it immediately returned to its former liveliness. This was repeated two or three nights (or mornings) together.

This is his Relation, and I believe there is so much sincerity in the person, that he tells no more than what he believes to be true. To say that this Impulse too was but a result of his Temper, and that it is but like Dreams that are usually according to mens constitutions, doth not seem a probable account of the Phoenomenon. Perhaps some may think it more likely, that some Genius who understood the sanative vertue of his Complexion, and the readiness of his Mind, and ability of his Body, to put it in execution, might give him notice of that which otherwise might have been for ever unknown to him, and so the Gift of God had been to no purpose.

This, Sir, is my Learned and Reverend Friend's Relation, and I judge his Reflections as ingenious as his Report is sincere. I shall say no more about it but this, that many of those matters of Fact, have been since critically inspected and examined by several sagacious and deep searches of the ROYAL SOCIETY, whom we may suppose as unlikely to be deceived by a contrived Imposture, as any persons extant

And now, Sir, 'tis fit that I relieve your patience; and I shall do so, when I have said, that You can abundantly prove, what I have thus attempted to defend: And that among the many Obligations your Country hath to you, for the Wisdom and Diligence of your Endeavours in its service; your Ingenious Industry for the Detecting of those vile Practisers, is not the least considerable. To which I will add no more, but the Confession who it is that hath given you all this trouble; which I know you are ready to pardon, to the respect and good Intentions of

SIR, Your Affectionate and Obliged Honourer and Servant, J. G.

ADVERTISEMENT.

HItherto reacheth the Author's ingenious Considerations about Witchcraft. But understanding by his Letters and Papers, that he intended something further to enlarge this First Part of his Saducismus Triumphatus, which concerns the Possibility of the Existence of Spirits, Apparitions, and Witches, but that he has done nothing therein, being prevented by Death, I thought it might prove not an unuseful Supplement, to translate most of the two last Chapters of Dr. H. M. his Enchiridion Metaphysicum into English, and add it to this First Part, as a suitable Appendage thereto. Which is as follows.