The displaying of supposed witchcraft

by John Webster

CHAP. XVI.

Of Apparitions in general, and of some unquestionable stories that seem to prove some such things. Of those apparitions pretended to be made in Beryls and Crystals, and of the Astral or Sydereal Spirit.

In this Treatise we have before sufficiently proved that the denying of the existence of such a Witch as doth make a visible contract with the Devil, or upon whose body he sucketh, or that hath carnal copulation with a Demon, and that is transubstantiated into a Cat or a Dog, or that flyeth in the air; doth not inferr the denial of Spirits either good or bad, nor utterly overthrow the truth of apparitions, or of such things as seem to manifest some supernatural operations. And therefore here we shall fully handle the question of Apparitions, and things that seem to be of that nature, and that in this order.

1. We shall not meddle with Apparitions in the large extent of the word, for so it may comprehend the appearing of new Stars, Comets, Meteors and other Portents, and Prodigies, which (though unusual and wonderous) have yet their production from natural causes. But only here we shall treat of such apparitions as are taken to be performed by supernatural creatures, or in such a way and by such creatures as we commonly account to be different from (if not above) the power of ordinary and visible nature, as of Angels good or bad, the Souls of men departed, or their Astral Spirits, or of some other creatures that are, or may be of a middle nature.

Judg. 13.

Luke 2. 26. to 39.

Math. 1. 20.

Math. 2. 12, 13, 19.

2. As for the apparitions of good Angels sent by God in times past, both in sleep and otherwise, the Scriptures do give us most full and ample assurance, as these few instances may undeniably demonstrate. 1. That an Angel of the Lord (that is a good Angel) did appear visibly unto Manoah and his wife, and did vocally and audibly talk and discourse with them both, and did after in both their sights openly and visibly ascend in the flame that did arise from the altar. Now a more plain and indubitable apparition visibly seen and audibly heard than this cannot be found nor read of, having the unquestionable authority of sacred writ to avouch it. 2. Another parallel unto it, and of equal authority, verity and perspicuity, is the sending of the Angel Gabriel unto the Virgin Mary, her seeing of him, hearing of his salutation, having discourse with him, and seeing his departure, both which are undoubted testimonies of the true, and real appearance of good Angels even to sight and hearing. 3. That sometimes the good Angels have been sent to the servants of God, and have appeared and spoken unto them in dreams; as that the Angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream, and bade him to take unto him Mary his wife, which was a blessed, and clear apparition, though in a dream in his sleep. And likewise by the appearing of an Angel unto him in a dream, he was warned to take the child, and his mother, and to flee into Ægypt, and also again was commanded by an Angel, after the death of Herod, that appeared in a dream, and bade him to take the young child and his mother, and to go into the land of Israel.

Luk. 8 .26. to 37.

3. Of the visible apparition of evil Angels we scarce have any evidence at all in the Scriptures, except we should take supposals for proofs, or disputable places to be certain demonstrations, or wrest and hale the word of God to make it serve our preconceived opinions. For I do not find any one place in all the Scriptures, where plainly and positively any apparition of evil spirits is recorded, or that by any rational and necessary consequence such a visible appearance can be deduced or proved: For we have clearly proved that the tempting of Evah by the Serpent doth not necessarily inferr, that it was by a visible apparition, but by a mental delusion; and that that of Saul and the Woman of Endor, or the Mistriss of the bottle, was neither Samuel in Soul and Body, nor his Soul alone, neither the Devil in his shape we suppose we have evinced past answer; and that the tempting of our blessed Saviour by Satan was internal or at least the greatest part of it; so that there doth remain but little of certain proof of the apparition of Devils in that gross manner, and so common and frequent as many do too peremptorily affirm: yet for all this we think it rational to grant, that as God hath in times past often sent messages by good Angels, for the teaching, counselling and comforting of his servants, both audibly and visibly to be perceived; so also that sometimes God might not only send evil Spirits internally and mentally to deceive and seduce the wicked, as in the case of the lying spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets, but also visibly to appear to terrifie, punish and destroy the wicked, or to make way for the manifestation of his glory. And the Scriptures that mention Demoniacks, and such as are commonly said to be possessed, (though that were not by an essential inhesion, but by an effective operation both upon the Souls and Bodies of the persons that were so affected and afflicted) do plainly shew that the operative effects of the Devils power was both heard and seen by their words and actions. So the Devils using the organs of the man in whom was the legion of them, they besought Christ not to command them to go out into the deep, but besought him to suffer them to go into the herd of swine: Which “plainly sheweth that their words were audible, and were heard of the multitude that were by, and the acts that they performed were visible enough, for by the power of the Devil he brake the chains and fetters, wherewithal he was bound, and was driven of the Devil into the wilderness, and that these Devils went forth of the man, and entered in amongst the herd of swine, by whose effective power the swine ran violently down a steep rock into the sea, and were drowned.” And this doth plainly manifest the present operation of the Devils, that was apparent both by the words and actions, that were both to be seen and heard; so that this in that large sense, that it is usually taken in, was a real apparition of Devils, or at least equivalent thereunto. For we do but here inquire after such appearances of Devils, that do necessarily infer their presence in operating so in and upon creatures or corporeal matter, that by sight, hearing, or other of the senses, it may certainly be manifest to work above the ordinary power of nature, and may induce us rationally by the testimony of our senses, to believe that those things are brought to pass by those creatures that we call Demons, as many of these persons, who were said to have been or to be afflicted with Devils, were in the days of our blessed Saviours remaining in the flesh.

Heb. 1. 14.

4. But though it be never so freely and fully granted, that in the ages and times mentioned in the Old and New Testament (nay it may be for a century or more after) there were persons that were possessed and afflicted with Devils, and also that for that time there were many miracles wrought: Yet now it will be said that miracles are totally ceased as not being any way necessary to confirm the Gospel, which is now established and setled. This we confess is so strongly and convincingly proved by the Divines of the reformed Churches, that we account him wilfully blind that will oppose it. Yet notwithstanding all this that miracles are totally ceased, I grant that there are some strange things that have happened in late ages, and some in our own time, that cannot be any way solved by meer ordinary natural causes, and apparitions made by some kind of creatures that must be derived from some such causes as those of good or bad Spirits, or from creatures of the like nature. And that though miracles be ceased, it will not therefore follow that every thing that hath a cause above or differing from the usual and ordinary course of nature, must be also ceased, for quanquam nunc non sint miracula, possint tamen esse miranda: and though that miracles be ceased, yet it will not follow that apparitions are so also, because apparitions are not miracles; for a good Angel to be sent and to appear, cannot be said to be a miracle, because it is the end for which he was created, they (that is the Angels) are all ministring spirits sent forth for the good of those that shall be heirs of Salvation. And it cannot be said otherwise of evil Angels or of any other creatures that may make these apparitions, for as they are and must be creatures, so there is and must be some certain ends, for which they were created and are imployed unto.

5. But to prove the truth of apparitions, or other strange Phenomena’s equivalent unto them, as to have been truly performed as matters of fact is extream difficult and almost impossible, because the Histories and relations of things of this nature are most strangely fabulous, and therefore are by no means to be relied upon, as will most manifestly appear by undeniable reasons, if we examine them in divided members in this order.

1. The Histories and relations that are given either by the Poets, or most of the ancient Philosophers, of these things, are so seemingly impossible, and so extreamly fictitious, as he must of necessity have in a manner totally forsaken his own reason, that can give any credit at all unto them. And especially they are so fraught with the horrible fables of the numerousness of their feigned gods, demigods, spirits, hobgoblins, Lares, Lemures, Mens shadows and the like, that they would make a man believe that the world was full of nothing else, and this was chiefly done to uphold their Idolatrous and superstitious Religion. And all these kind of authors that have written from the time of Homer until the end of the ages in which the two Plinies and Plutarch lived, have but run the same course, all their relations tasting of the leaven of impossibilities, superstition and fabulousness.

2. And if we look into the Pontificial Writers, especially those that have recorded stories of this nature since the sixth century, we shall find such a Rhapsodie, and heap of Bombast lies and invented fables both of apparitions and Witches, that no rational man can well give assent to one of a thousand of them, they seem so incredible, that they would rather make a wise man diffident of all such matters of fact, than to yield credit to any. And a man might as reasonably believe the forged and lying miracles of Mahomet, as those monkish fables. For the extream desire that those Authors had to advance their false and feigned Doctrine of Purgatory, and thereby to uphold the gain and benefit that was gotten by injoining such and such penances and eleemosynary deeds to redeem Souls from thence, did drive them on to invent thousands of false stories of the apparitions of Souls after death, which had not one jot of truth in them at all.

3. Those that are called the Reformed Divines (because they returned to that pure and true Doctrine and Worship, that had been settled and practised in those foregoing ages that were truly Catholick and Apostolick) being altogether intent about the main and principal points of the Faith, and those that concerned the true worship of God, did take little heed to the matters of this nature, as being more circumstantial, and therefore not by them accounted so essential and necessary. From whence it came to pass that Lambertus Danæus, Hemmingius, Erastus and others, did without due examination and circumspection receive the opinions and stories of the Papists hand over head. From whence (I conceive) it came to pass that Ludovicus Lavaterus a learned Divine of the reformed Religion at Zurich did write a book of apparitions and such matters, but brought no other proofs of the truth of these things de facto, but the often repeated stories of Heathenish Authors, and some few from Ecclesiastick Authors, that are of dubious credit, but not any one of his own knowledge.

4. But if we come to consider the Histories of late that are reported of apparitions, and such like things that must of necessity have something in them, that resembles a supernatural cause, we may in part receive more ample satisfaction, which will be manifest in these few following particulars.

1. Meric Casaubon Doctor of Divinity, in his treatise of Credulity and Incredulity (sometimes by us quoted before) hath strongly indeavoured to make good all those impossible and absurd things that are ascribed unto Witches: which though he hath pitifully failed to perform, yet hath he said enough that may serve to prove that there are many strange things that seem to prove the being of Demons or Spirits, though he have not brought any one story of his own knowledge or that was done in his time. And we have shewed before that apparitions are no certain ground for Christians to believe the existence of Demons by, but the word of God. But in his Preface to that piece of the relation concerning Dr. Dee, he relateth two stories told by that venerable and learned Prelate Bishop Andrews to his Father Isaac Casaubon. “The one (he saith) concerning a noted or at least by many suspected Witch or Sorceress, which the Devil in a strange shape did wait upon (or for rather) at her death. The other concerning a Man, who after his death was restored to life to make confession of a horrible murther committed upon his own Wife, for which he had never been suspected. And both these (he saith) that learned Bishop did believe to be true, but for one of them it seems, he did undertake upon his own knowledge, to wit that of the apparition, and the other he had from an eye-witness.” And considering the condition of Bishop Andrews both for learning and piety, the relations are of much weight, and they may be seen at large in the fore-cited Preface.

Antidot. against Atheis. c. 8, 9. p. 209.

2. I cannot but much wonder that Dr. Henry Moore, a grave person, and one that for many years hath resided in a most learned and flourishing Academy, whose name is much taken notice of both at home and abroad, having published so many books, should make such bad choice of the Authors from whom he takes his stories, or that he should pitch upon those that seem so fabulous, impossible and incredible. And that I may not seem to tax him without cause, I desire the Reader to peruse his two relations, the one of the Shoomaker of Breslaw in Silesia, Anno 1591. the other of Johannes Cuntius a Citizen of Pentsh in Silesia, and to tell whether he can rationally believe those things either to have been true or possible. And as for the Author Martinus Weinrichius a Silesian Physician, I cannot find any thing either of his fame or writings, and it is most strange that he should be omitted by that diligent and unpartial Author Melchior Adams; And there had been far better Authors and of more credit to have pitcht upon for such like stories, than either Bodinus or Remigius; neither can there be much credit given to any of the stories that he relates, except it be that of the Pied-Piper, which some do interpret far otherwise.

3. “There was a Treatise called, the Devil of Mascon, or a true relation of the chief things which an unclean spirit did and said at Mascon in Burgundy, in the House of M^r Francis Perreaud Minister of the reformed Church in the same Town, written by the said Perreaud soon after the Apparition which was in the year 1612. but was not published until the year 1653. which was 41. years after the thing was said to be acted. It seems it was translated by D^r Peter Du Moulin, the Son of the learned and reverend Peter Du Moulin, at the request of the honourable and learned person M^r Boyle. The most of the things had been known unto M^r Du Moulin the Father, when he was President of a National Synod in those parts, to whom also the said Perreaud was well known, who was a religious, well poised, venerable Divine. And M^r Boyle saith, that he had had converse with this pious Author at Geneva, and had inquired after the Writer, and some passages of the Book, which overcame all his setled indisposedness to believe strange things. The Character given of this Author, and the assent of such learned persons to the things related, have gained an ample suffrage to give credit to them also. But notwithstanding all this, there are many passages in the relation that a quick-sighted Critick would find to be either contradictory or inconsistent, and it cannot rationally be thought that he was a Cacodemon, his actions were so harmless, civil, and ludicrous; and if he were to be believed (and in some things he did speak truth, and the Minister himself M^r Perreaud did in some things give credit to him) he was no Devil, but hoped to be saved by Jesus Christ. But whether a Devil or not, yet the story for substance doth sufficiently prove the existence of such kind of Demons, that can work strange and odd feats.”

The Saints Everlasting rest. c. 7. p. 255.

4. M^r Baxter a person of great learning and piety, whose judgment bears great sway with me, speaking of Apparitions saith thus: “I know many are very incredulous herein, and will hardly believe that there have been such Apparitions. For my own part (he saith) though I am as suspicious as most in such reports, and do believe that most of them are conceits or delusions, yet having been very diligently inquisitive in such Cases, I have received undoubted testimony of the truth of such Apparitions, some from the mouths of men of undoubted honesty and godliness, and some from the report of multitudes of persons, who heard or saw. Were it fit here to name the persons, I could send you to them yet living, by whom you would be as fully satisfied as I: Houses that have been so frequently haunted with such terrors, that the inhabitants successively have been witnesses of it.”

7. Though some of these last recited testimonies might sufficiently convince the most obstinate and incredulous, that there are Apparitions and some other such strange accidents that cannot be solved by the supposed principles of matter and motion, but that do necessarily require some other causes, that are above or different from the visible and ordinary course of nature; yet because it is a point dark and mystical, and of great concern and weight, we shall add some unquestionable testimonies, either from our own Annals, or matters of fact that we know to be true of our own certain knowledge, that thereby it may undoubtedly appear, that there are effects that exceed the ordinary power of natural causes, and may for ever convince all Atheistical minds, of which in this order.

Stow. p. 605.

Hist. 1.

1. “In the first year of Edward the Sixth. Anno Domini 1551. on St. Valentines day, at Feversham in Kent, one Arden a Gentleman was murthered by procurement of his own Wife; for the which fact she was the fourteenth of March burnt at Canterbury: Michael M^r Arden’s Man was hang’d in Chains at Feversham, and a Maiden burnt: Mosbie and his Sister were hanged in Smithfield at London: Greene which had fled, came again certain years after, and was hanged in Chains in the High-way against Feversham, and black Will the Ruffian, that was hired to do that act, after his first escape was apprehended, and burnt on a Scaffold at Flushing in Zealand.”

P. 1708.

The same horrid murther is more at large related by Hollingshead, who lived at that time, and had information of all the particulars, who saith thus much more. “This one thing (he saith) seemeth very strange and notable touching M^r Arden, that in the place he was laid, being dead, all the proportion of his body might be seen two years after and more, so plain as could be, for the grass did not grow where his body had touched, but between his legs, between his arms and about the hollowness of his neck, and round about his body: And where his legs, arms, head, or any part of his body had touched, no grass growed at all of all that time. So that many strangers came in that mean time, beside the Townsmen, to see the print of his body there on the ground in that Field, which Field he had (as some have reported) cruelly taken from a Woman, that had been a Widdow to one Cooke, and after Married to one Richard Read a Marriner, to the great hinderance of her and her Husband the said Read, for they had long enjoyed it by a Lease which they had of it for many years not then expired. Nevertheless he got it from them, for the which, the said Reads Wife not only exclaimed against him in shedding many a salt tear, but also cursed him most bitterly even to his face, wishing many a vengeance to light upon him, and that all the World might wonder on him, which was thought then to come to pass, when he was thus murthered and lay in that Field, from midnight till the morning, and so all that day, being the Fair-day, till night, all the which day there were many hundreds of people came wondring about him.” From whence we may take this Observation.

Observ.

As it is most certain that this is a true and punctual relation given us by Hollingshead, as being a publick thing done in the face of a Nation, the print of his body remaining so long after, and viewed and wondered at by so many; so that it hath not left the least starting hole for the most incredulous Atheist to get out at. So likewise it may dare the most deep-sighted Naturalist, or unbelieving Atheist, that would exalt and so far deifie Nature, as to deny and take away the existence of the God of Nature, to shew a reason of the long remaining of the print of his body, or the not growing of the grass in those places where his body had touched for two years and more after? Could it be the steams or Atoms that flowed from his body? then are why not such prints left by other murthered bodies? which we are sure by sight and experience not to be so. And therefore we can attribute it justly to no other cause but only to the power of God and divine vengeance, who is a righter of the oppressed, fatherless and Widdows, and hears their cries and regardeth their tears.

Hist. 2.

Sir Rich. Bakers Chron. fol. 448.

2. “In the second year of the Reign of King James of famous memory, a strange accident happened, to the terror of all bloody murtherers, which was this; One Anne Waters enticed by a lover of hers, consented to have her Husband strangled, and then buried him secretly under the Dunghil in a Cow-house. Whereupon the man being missing by his Neighbours, and the Wife making shew of a wondering what was become of him, it pleased God that one of the inhabitants of the Town dreamed one night that his Neighbour Waters was strangled, and buried under the Dunghill in a Cow-house, and upon declaring his dream, search being made by the Constable, the dead body was found as he had dreamed, and thereupon the Wife was apprehended, and upon examination confessing the fact was burned.” But we shall give it more at large as it was taken from the mouths of Thomas Haworths Wife, her Husband being the dreamer and discoverer, and from his Son, who together with many more, who both remember and can affirm every particular thereof, the Narrative was taken April the 17th 1663, and is this,

“In the year abovesaid, John Waters of Lower Darwen in the County of Lancaster Gardiner, by reason of his calling was much absent from his Family: In which his absence, his Wife (not without cause) was suspected of incontinency with one Gyles Haworth of the same Town; this Gyles Haworth and Waters Wife conspired and contrived the death of Waters in this manner. They contracted with one Ribchester a poor man to kill this Waters. As soon as Waters came home and went to bed, Gyles Haworth and Waters Wife conducted the hired Executioner to the said Waters. Who seeing him so innocently laid betwixt his two small Children in Bed, repented of his enterprize, and totally refused to kill him. Gyles Haworth displeased with the faint-heartedness of Ribchester, takes the Axe into his own hand, and dashed out his brains: The Murderers buried him in a Cow-house, Waters being long missing the Neighbourhood asked his Wife for him; she denied that she knew where he was. Thereupon publick search was made for him in all pits round about, lest he should have casually fallen into any of them. One Thomas Haworth of the said Town Yeoman, was for many nights together, much troubled with broken sleeps and dreams of the murder; he revealed his dreams to his Wife, but she laboured the concealment of them a long time: This Thomas Haworth had occasion to pass by the House every day where the murder was done, and did call and inquire for Waters, as often as he went near the House. One day he went into the House to ask for him, and there was a Neighbour who said to Thomas Haworth, It’s said that Waters lies under this stone, (pointing to the Hearth-stone) to which Thomas Haworth replied, And I have dreamed that he is under a stone not far distant. The Constable of the said Town being accidentally in the said House (his name Myles Aspinall) urged Thomas Haworth to make known more at large what he had dreamed, which he relateth thus. I have (quoth he) many a time within this eight weeks (for so long it was since the murder) dreamed very restlessly, that Waters was murdered and buried under a broad stone in the Cow-house; I have told my troubled dreams to my Wife alone, but she refuses to let me make it known: But I am not able to conceal my dreams any longer, my sleep departs from me, I am pressed and troubled with fearful dreams which I cannot bear any longer, and they increase upon me. The Constable hearing this made search immediately upon it, and found as he had dreamed the murdered body eight weeks buried under a flat stone in the Cow-house; Ribchester and Gyles Haworth fled and never came again. Anne Waters (for so was Waters Wifes name) being apprehended, confessed the murder, and was burned.” From whence we may observe this.

Observ.

1. That this is the full and punctual relation of this bloody and execrable murder from Haworths Wife (who then was a very old Woman) and the Son, and differs not a jot from what Sir Richard Baker writes, but only they say his brains were dashed out with an Axe, and he saith he was strangled, which is only a circumstance of the manner, but in the matter they both agree, that it was a certain truth that Waters was murdered, and Sir Richard Bakers information might fail in that particular of the manner of it. And if it be thought strange that the two little Children did know nothing of it, it is certain that they were much too young, and said that they were twins, not above half a year old. But the only matter that we have brought it for, is the extraordinary way of its discovery by Thomas Haworths dreaming, in which point both the relations closely agree, and was the chief and only reason why Sir Richard Baker put it in his Chronicle. And the same also more at large Stow hath recorded in his Chronicle. Now what should the cause be that Thomas Haworth should be hindred of his sleep, and have restless dreams, and that his dream should hit so punctually of the place where he was buried, more than any other person in the same Town? certainly it cannot be referred to fortune and chance, for they have no causality at all, and are but only names that we impose upon certain effects and accidents: Te facimus fortuna Deum, cœloq; locamus, as said the Poet. Neither can it rationally be thought to be melancholy, because that though it be a subtil humour, and render those that are affected therewith very imaginative and thoughtful, yet supposing Thomas Haworth to be of that temperament and disposition, it might make him more deeply to think and meditate upon the rumour of Waters being awanting or upon suspicion of his murder, but could not in dreams inform him to know precisely the place where he was buried. And if some should imagine it to be the Soul of the murthered person Waters, as doubtless a Papist would be ready to affirm, yet is that opinion directly contrary to the Scriptures, and sufficiently confuted by the reformed Divines. And if it should be referred to the operation of the Astral or Sydereal spirit, that is an opinion but imbraced by few, and is hard to prove to be a certain verity, of which we shall speak largely anon. Neither can it by any sound reason be thought to be the Devil, because it is manifest that God doth not use the ministry of evil Angels for any good end, as for the discovery of murther, and the bringing of the guilty persons to condign punishment; but on the contrary he useth their service for to tempt, seduce, deceive, punish and torment. Therefore we conceive that it was brought to pass by the finger of God, who either immediately by himself, or by the ministry of a good Angel, did represent those dreams to Thomas Haworth, and revealed the precise place of Waters burial.

Hist. 3.

3. “About the year of our Lord 1623 or 24 one Fletcher of Rascal, a Town in the North Riding of Yorkshire near unto the Forest of Gantress, a Yeoman of good Estate, did marry a young lusty Woman from Thornton Brigs, who had been formerly kind with one Ralph Raynard, who kept an Inn within half a mile from Rascall in the high road way betwixt York and Thuske, his Sister living with him. This Raynard continued in unlawful lust with the said Fletchers Wife, who not content therewith conspired the death of Fletcher, one Mark Dunn being made privy and hired to assist in the murther. Which Raynard and Dunn accomplished upon the May-day by drowning Fletcher, as they came all three together from a Town called Huby, and acquainting the wife with the deed she gave them a Sack therein to convey his body, which they did and buried it in Raynards backside or Croft where an old Oak-root had been stubbed up, and sowed Mustard seed upon the place thereby to hide it. So they continued their wicked course of lust and drunkenness, and the neighbours did much wonder at Fletchers absence, but his wife did excuse it, and said that he was but gone aside for fear of some Writs being served upon him. And so it continued until about the seventh day of July, when Raynard going to Topcliffe Fair, and setting up his Horse in the Stable, the spirit of Fletcher in his usual shape and habit did appear unto him, and said, Oh Raph, repent, repent, for my revenge is at hand; and ever after until he was put in the Gaol, it seemed to stand before him, whereby he became sad and restless: And his own Sister over-hearing his confession and relation of it to another person, did through fear of losing her own life, immediately reveal it to Sir William Sheffield, who lived in Rascall, and was a Justice of Peace. Whereupon they were all three apprehended and sent to the Gaol at York, where they were all three condemned, and so executed accordingly near to the place where Raynard lived, and where Fletcher was buried, the two men being hung up in irons, and the woman buried under the Gallows.” I have recited this story punctually as a thing that hath been very much fixed in my memory, being then but young, and as a certain truth, I being (with many more) an ear-witness of their confessions and an eye-witness of their Executions, and likewise saw Fletcher when he was taken up, where they had buried him in his cloaths, which were a green fustian doublet pinkt upon white, gray breeches, and his walking boots and brass spurrs without rowels.

Observ.

Some will say there was no extrinsick apparition to Raynard at all, but that all this did only arise from the guilt of his own conscience, which represented the shape of Fletcher in his fancy. But then why was it precisely done at that time, and not at any others? it being far from the place of the murder, or the place where they had buried Fletcher, and nothing there that might bring it to his remembrance more than at another time, and if it had only arisen from within, and appeared so in his fancy, it had been more likely to have been moved, when he was in, or near his backside where the murthered body of Fletcher lay. But certain it is that he affirmed that it was the shape and voice of Fletcher, as assuredly to his eyes and ears, as ever he had seen or heard him in his life. And if it were granted that it was only intrinsick, yet that will not exclude the Divine Power, which doubtless at that time did labour to make him sensible of the cruel murther, and to mind him of the revenge approaching. And it could not be brought to pass either by the Devil, or Fletchers Soul, as we have proved before; and therefore in reason we conclude that either it was wrought by the Divine Power, to shew his detestation of murther, or that it was the Astral or Sydereal Spirit of Fletcher, seeking revenge for the murther, of which more anon.

Hist. 4.

4. About the year of our Lord 1632. (as near as I can remember having lost my notes, and the copy of the Letter to Serjeant Hutton, but am sure that I do most perfectly remember the substance of the story) near unto Chester in the street, there lived “one Walker a Yeoman-man of good Estate, and a Widower, who had a young Woman to his Kinswoman that kept his House, who was by the Neighbours suspected to be with child, and was towards the dark of the evening one night sent away with one Mark Sharp who was a Collier, or one that digged coals under ground, and one that had been born in Blakeburn Hundred in Lancashire, and so she was not heard of a long time, and no noise, or little was made about it. In the winter time after one James Graham or Grime (for so in that Country they call them) being a Miller, and living about two miles from the place where Walker lived, was one night alone very late in the Mill grinding Corn, and as about twelve or one a clock at night he came down the stairs from having been putting Corn in the Hopper, the Mill doors being shut, there stood a Woman upon the midst of the floor with her hair about her head, hanging down, and all bloody, with five large wounds in her head: He being much affrighted and amazed, begun to bless him, and at last asked her who she was, and what she wanted; to which she said, I am the Spirit of such a Woman, who lived with Walker, and being got with child by him, he promised me to send me to a private place, where I should be well lookt to until I was brought in bed, and well again, and then I should come again, and keep his house. And accordingly (said the apparition) I was one night late sent away with one Mark Sharp, who upon a Moor (naming a place that the Miller knew) slew me with a pick (such as men dig coals withal) and gave me these five wounds, and after threw my body into a coal-pit hard by; and hid the pick under a bank; and his shoos and stockings being bloody he endeavoured to wash, but seeing the blood would not wash forth he hid them there. And the apparition further told the Miller that he must be the Man to reveal it, or else that she must still appear, and haunt him. The Miller returned home very sad and heavy, but spoke not one word of what he had seen, but eschewed as much as he could to stay in the Mill within night without company, thinking thereby to escape the seeing again of that frightful apparition. But notwithstanding one night when it begun to be dark, the apparition met him again, and seemed very fierce and cruel, and threatned him that if he did not reveal the murder she would continually pursue and haunt him. Yet for all this he still concealed it, until S. Thomas Eve before Christmas, when being soon after Sunset walking in his Garden she appeared again, and then so threatened and affrighted him that he faithfully promised to reveal it next morning. In the morning he went to a Magistrate and made the whole matter known with all the circumstances, and diligent search being made, the body was found in a coal-pit, with five wounds in the head, and the pick and shooes and stockings yet bloody, in every circumstance as the apparition had related unto the Miller. Whereupon Walker and Mark Sharp were both apprehended, but would confess nothing. At the Assizes following (I think it was at Durham) they were arraigned, found guilty, condemned and executed, but I could never hear that they confessed the fact. There were some that reported that the apparition did appear to the Judge or the Foreman of the Jury, (who was alive in Chester in the street about ten years ago, as I have been credibly informed) but of that I know no certainty.” There are many persons yet alive that can remember this strange murder, and the discovery of it, for it was, and sometimes yet is as much discoursed of in the North Countrey as any thing that almost hath ever been heard of, and the relation printed, though now not to be gotten. I relate this with the greater confidence (though I may fail in some of the circumstances) because I saw and read the Letter that was sent to Serjeant Hutton, who then lived at Goldsbrugh in Yorkshire, from the Judge before whom Walker and Mark Sharp were tried, and by whom they were condemned, and had a Copy of it until about the year 1658. when I had it and many other books and papers taken from me.

Observ.

Rom. 11. 33.

And this I confess to be one of the most convincing stories (being of undoubted verity) that ever I read, heard or knew of, and carrieth with it the most evident force to make the most incredulous spirit, to be satisfied that there are really sometimes such things as apparitions. And though it be not easy to assign the true and proper cause of such a strange effect, yet must we not measure all things to be, or not to be, to be true or false, according to the extent of our understandings, for if there be many of the magnalia naturæ that yet lie hidden from the wisest of men, then much more may the magnalia Dei be unknown unto us, whose judgments are unsearchable, and his wayes past finding out. And as in the rest we cannot ascribe this strange apparition, to any diabolical operation, nor to the Soul of the Woman murthered, so we must conclude that either it was meerly wrought by the Divine Power, or by the Astral spirit of the murthered Woman, which last doth seem most rational, as we shall shew hereafter.

Hist. 5.

5. To these (though it be not altogether of the same nature) we shall add one both for the oddness and strangeness of it, as also because it happened in my time, and I was both an eye and ear-witness of the trial of the person accused. And first take a hint of it from the pen of Durant Hotham, in his learned Epistle to the Mysterium magnum of Jacob Behemen upon Genesis in these words: “There was (he saith) as I have heard the story credibly reported in this Country a Man apprehended for suspicion of Witchcraft, he was of that sort we call white Witches, which are such as do cures beyond the ordinary reasons and deductions of our usual practitioners, and are supposed (and most part of them truly) to do the same by the ministration of spirits (from whence under their noble favours, most Sciences at first grew) and therefore are by good reason provided against by our Civil Laws, as being ways full of danger and deceit, and scarce ever otherwise obtained than by a devillish compact of the exchange of ones Soul to that assistant spirit, for the honour of its Mountebankery. What this man did was with a white powder which, he said, he received from the Fairies, and that going to a Hill he knocked three times, and the Hill opened, and he had access to, and converse with a visible people; and offered, that if any Gentleman present would either go himself in person, or send his servant, he would conduct them thither, and shew them the place and persons from whom he had his skill.”

Vid. 1 Jacob. c. 12.

To this I shall only add thus much, that the man was accused for invoking and calling upon evil spirits, and was a very simple and illiterate person to any mans judgment, and had been formerly very poor, but had gotten some pretty little meanes to maintain himself, his Wife and diverse small children, by his cures done with this white powder, of which there were sufficient proofs, and the Judge asking him how he came by the powder, he told a story to this effect. “That one night before day was gone, as he was going home from his labour, being very sad and full of heavy thoughts, not knowing how to get meat and drink for his Wife and Children, he met a fair Woman in fine cloaths, who asked him why he was so sad, and he told her that it was by reason of his poverty, to which she said, that if he would follow her counsel she would help him to that which would serve to get him a good living; to which he said he would consent with all his heart, so it were not by unlawful ways: she told him that it should not be by any such ways, but by doing of good and curing of sick people; and so warning him strictly to meet her there the next night at the same time, she departed from him, and he went home. And the next night at the time appointed he duly waited, and she (according to promise) came and told him that it was well that he came so duly, otherwise he had missed of that benefit, that she intended to do unto him, and so bade him follow her and not be afraid. Thereupon she led him to a little Hill and she knocked three times, and the Hill opened, and they went in, and came to a fair hall, wherein was a Queen sitting in great state, and many people about her, and the Gentlewoman that brought him, presented him to the Queen, and she said he was welcom, and bid the Gentlewoman give him some of the white powder, and teach him how to use it, which she did, and gave him a little wood box full of the white powder, and bad him give 2 or 3 grains of it to any that were sick, and it would heal them, and so she brought him forth of the Hill, and so they parted. And being asked by the Judge whether the place within the Hill, which he called a Hall, were light or dark, he said indifferent, as it is with us in the twilight; and being asked how he got more powder, he said when he wanted he went to that Hill, and knocked three times, and said every time I am coming, I am coming, whereupon it opened, and he going in was conducted by the aforesaid Woman to the Queen, and so had more powder given him. This was the plain and simple story (however it may be judged of) that he told before the Judge, the whole Court, and the Jury, and there being no proof, but what cures he had done to very many, the Jury did acquit him: and I remember the Judge said, when all the evidence was heard, that if he were to assign his punishment, he should be whipped from thence to Fairyhall, and did seem to judge it to be a delusion or an Imposture.” From whence we may take these observations.

Observ. 1.

1. Though Mr. Hotham seem to judge that this person accused had the white powder from some Spirit, and that one also of the evil sort, and upon a contract, by the ingaging of his Soul, we have before sufficiently proved the nullity of a visible and corporeal contract with the Devil; neither was it yet ever proved that the Devil did any good either real or apparent, but is the sworn enemy of all mankind, both in their Souls and in their Bodies, but this powder wrought that which was really good, namely the curing of diseases, and therefore rationally cannot be thought to be given from an evil spirit.

Observ. 2.

2. Some there were that thought that the simple man told a plain and true story, and that he had the powder from those people we call Fairies, and there are many that do believe and affirm that there are such people, of whom Paracelsus hath a Treatise of purpose, holding that they are not of the seed of Adam, and therefore he calls them non-Adamicks, and that they have flesh and bones, and so differ from spirits, and yet that they can glide through walls and rocks (which he calleth their Chaos) as easily as we through the air, and that they get children, and are mortal like those that Hieronynus Cardanus relateth that appeared to his Father Facius Cardanus, and these he calleth Pygmæi, Silvestres, Gnomi and Umbratiles; but his proof of their existence to me doth not seem satisfactory, what others may think of it I leave to their demonstrations, if they have any.

Observ. 3.

3. Some there were (and those not of the meer ignorant sort) that did judge, that though the Man was simple, yet that the story that he told was but framed and taught him, the better to conceal the person from whom he received the white powder. For they thought that some notable Chymist, or rather an Adeptist, had in charity bestowed that powder upon him, for the relief of himself and family, as we know it hath often happened to other persons, at other times and places. And this last opinion seems most consonant to reason, and I the rather believe it because not many years after, it was certainly known, that there was an Adeptist in that Countrey, and we ought not to fetch in supernatural causes to solve effects, when natural causes may serve the turn.

6. The last thing of this strange nature, that we shall instance in, is concerning the bleeding or cruentation of the bodies of those that have been murthered, I mean of such as have been murthered by prepense malice, and upon premeditated purpose; for the bodies of others that are killed by chance-medley, and by man-slaughter, we do not read nor find any examples, that ever their bodies did bleed. And though we have not been ocular witness of any such bleeding yet are there records of such accidents given us by many learned and credible authors that a man might almost be accounted an Infidel not to give credit to them, and that both of those that have bled when the murtherer hath not been present, and also of those that have bled the murtherer being present. And first of those bodies that have issued blood, when the murtherer was not by.

Hist. 6.

Append. de Cruent. Cadaver. p. 143.

Gregorius Horstius a Physician of great experience and learning, and of no less integrity, recordeth this story, thus Englished. “In the year of our Lord 1604. twenty sixth day of December, a young Nobleman of twenty five years old, was shot at with a Gun in the night time about nine a clock from an high window of an house, in the Town of Blindmarck in lower Austria, and the bullet entring his left breast went forth at his right side, and so forthwith died in the place. The dead body being viewed again, and the wound considered, the same quantity or bigness both of the entrance and out-going are found with great plenty of blood issuing. The following day being the twenty seventh of December in the morning, the body of the murthered young man hath other cloaths put upon it and so is kept quiet for the space of two days. Furthermore upon the thirtieth of December he is laid upon the Bier, and kept in the Church and that without any further motion, where nevertheless from the upper wound the fresh blood did daily flow, until the eighth of January 1605. from which time the Hemorrhage ceased. But again the thirteenth of February, about noon, the flux of blood by the lower wound for an hour or two was observed to issue, as though the slaughter had been newly done. In the mean time the habit of the whole body was such, as did most easily agree to what it was living, the colour of his face remained even unto his burial ruddy and florid, the vein appearing in his forehead filled with good blood: no sign of an incipient putrefaction appearing for so many weeks, no stink, or ungrateful odour, which otherwise doth accompany dead bodies within a few days, was here found at all: The fingers of the hands remained soft, moveable, or flexible, without any wast, the natural colour being not very much changed, except that in process of time, about the last week before burial, they begun in a certain manner to wax livid in the extremities.”

Hist. 7.

Ibid. p. 154.

7. This following he giveth to prove, that as cold constringeth and shuteth up the veins, so heat doth open them, and cause the blood to flow, and saith: “This is proved a few years since by experience in an infant slain by a most wicked Mother forthwith after it was born, and thrown from the Tower of a Noble Baron of upper Austria into a ditch that was full with water; which after five weeks by good fortune was found and taken out. And forthwith (he saith) the Mother not present, it being then not known who was the Mother, when it felt the force of the external air, it begun to distil forth very fresh blood, because the pores, which by reason of the cold, were shut that the blood could not flow, were then unlockt and opened by the heat of the ambient air.” And thus much of those that have bled, the murtherers not being present.

Hist. 8.

Observ. l. 2. fol. 202.

8. Next we shall give some examples of those that have bled when the murtherers have been brought into the presence of the body murthered or caused to touch it, and this Franciscus Valeriola doth attest with an ample faith that he himself saw: “When (he saith) James of Aqueria, a Senator of Arles, was found dead of a wound, & that he that gave that wound was apprehended by the Magistrate, and brought into the view of the dead body, that he might acknowledge the person murthered and confess the fact, by and by the bubbling blood, all the by-standers looking on, begun to come forth, with much fervour and bubbles, from the wound and the nostrils.”

Hist. 9.

Delic. Phys. Sect. 1. Artic. 1. p. 5.

9. Take this other as it is cited by Gothofredus Voigtius, in this manner: “In the year 1607 the 25 of April, a certain Shepherd in Spain being feeding his flock was slain by two Noblemen, and his body thrown into a company of bushes. The Judges of the same place, having much and daily sought the Shepherd, after four days at length find his body in the bushes. But because that murder was committed, no witnesses being by, the suspicion fell upon the two Noblemen, inhabiting in the nearest place, who being taken were haled to the body of the person murthered. But what comes to pass? The first scarce with his eyes had looked upon the dead body, but behold, the blood in plenty begun to flow from thence. But the other coming near, the very right hand of the person murthered did first of all shew to those that were by the wound, and afterward the murderer himself. Which being done, forthwith the two Gentlemen (or Nobles) did of their own accord confess that they were the Authors of the murther, and did receive the punishment that was worthy of their deeds.”

Hist. 10.

Ut supra p. 9.

10. Another very remarkable one we have from the same Author cited from Cantipratanus lib. 2. mirac. c. 29. in this manner. “It happened (the Author saith) in the year of Christ 1271. in the Town Pforzheim, that a certain most wicked old Woman familiar with the Jews, did sell them a girl of seven years old, and without parents, to be slain. Her therefore in secret her mouth being stopt, setting her upon linnen cloaths, they wound almost in all the junctures of the members with incisions, and with great endeavour press forth the blood, and receive it most diligently in the linnen cloaths. But she being dead after great pains, the Jews throw her body into a running water near the Town, and laid an heap of Stones upon it. But after the third or fourth day her body is found by Fishers, by means of her hand stretched forth towards Heaven, and carried into the Town, the people with abomination crying forth that so great a wickedness was perpetrated by the Jews. And the Marquiss of Baden being near, went unto the Corps, and straightway the body standing upright did stretch forth its hands unto the Prince, as though it would implore the revengment of blood, or perhaps mercy. But after half an hour it disposed it self upon its back, after the manner of those that are dead. Therefore the wicked Jews being brought to the spectacle, forthwith all the wounds of the body burst forth, and in testimony of the horrid murder, poured forth great plenty of blood, whereupon the Jews were put to death.”

Hist. 11.

Ut supra p. 54.

11. Another the same Author relateth from Jacobus Martinius in Disp. de Cognitione sui, propl. 8. who saith: “In the year of our Saviour 1503. a certain Inn-keeper, by name Buggerlinus, with whom a certain poor Merchant or Pedlar had laid up his money or stock, occasion being taken by the Inn-keeper he kills him in a Wood, and buries him privately; but afterwards when he was found, the suspicion of the murther fell upon the Inn-keeper. For that Pedlar had a bended knife or dagger at his girdle, which they took, and shewed to the Inn-keeper, asking him, if he knew it? But behold assoon as he took it in his hand, it sweat drops of blood, whereby the murtherer being affrighted, confessed the murther, and so was Executed.”

Hist. 12.

Vid. Histor. Thuan. l. 32.

12. We have also a punctual History to this purpose, related by Hollingshead, Stow, and Sir Richard Baker, from Roger of Winchester, of King Henry the second, which is this: “This King, when he was carried forth to be buried was first apparelled in his Princely Robes, having his Crown on his Head, Gloves on his Hands, and Shoes on his Feet wrought with Gold, Spurs on his Heels, a Ring of Gold on his Finger, a Scepter in his Hand, a Sword by his Side, and so was laid uncovered having a pleasant countenance: which when it was told to his Son Richard, he came with all speed to see him, and as soon as he came near him, the blood gushed out of the nose of the dead Corps in great plenty, even as if the spirit of the dead King had disdained and abhorred the presence of him, who was thought to be the chief cause of his death. Which thing caused the said Richard to weep bitterly, and he caused his Fathers body to be honourably buried at Fonteverard.”

Hist. 13.

13. The last story that we shall relate of this nature, is from a Minister that is learned, sincere and of great veracity, who had it from those that were eye-witnesses, and is this: “In the year of our Lord God, 1661. January 30th on Saturday at night about nine of the Clock, did John How of Bruzlington-Bank, at the foot of an Hill (which is about two miles distant from Bishop-Awkland) murther Ralph Gawkley, who was a Glover in Bishop-Awkland: This How was the next day apprehended and brought to touch Gawkleys Corps, the lips and nostrils of the dead body wrought and opened as he touched (which made him afraid to touch the second time) then presently the Corps bled abundantly at the nostrils in the sight of Mr. Robert Harrison the Coroner (now Tenant at Bishop-Awkland to Mr. Franckland, from whom I had the relation) of Anthony Cummin and his Brother, &c. of the Jury, and of a great many towns people, who were then present. So How was Executed the next Assizes after at Durham: Witnesses against him were Anne Wall, whom he also wounded, yet she escaped with her life, and How’s own Wife, at the motion of her own Father (a very honest Man) who bid her tell the truth, and she should never want help.”

Some may think that I have been too large and tedious in heaping so many stories concerning the bleeding of the bodies of those that have been murthered; but I did it for this reason, because there are many that think it but to be a Fable of the credulous vulgar, and others think that it is but an ordinary matter that happens to any bodies that are dead, and no extraordinary or supernatural thing in it at all. But whosoever shall but use so much patience, as seriously to read and consider these select Histories that we have recited, may easily be satisfied, both that such bleeding is absolutely true de facto, and also that there is something more than ordinary in it, and therefore we shall inlarge in these observations.

Observ. 1.

1. It will not be found to hold touch upon diligent observation and strict inquiry, that all dead bodies do bleed fresh and rosie blood, especially after the third or fourth day, or after some weeks, as divers of the instances above given do manifestly prove; and therefore is an accident incident to some dead bodies and not to all. And it will as far fail, that wounded bodies, that have been slain in the wars, after the natural heat be gone, will upon motion bleed any fresh or crimson blood at all; for we our selves in the late times of Rebellion have seen some thousands of dead bodies, that have had divers wounds, and lying naked and being turned over and over, and by ten or twelve thrown into one pit, and yet not one of them have issued any fresh and pure blood: Only from some of their wounds, some sanious matter would have flowed, putrefaction beginning by reason of the moisture and acidity in the air, but no pure blood, and therefore is not a common accident to all humane bodies that die naturally or violently, but only is peculiar to some, and especially to those that are murthered by prepensed malice, as appeareth in the Histories recited above.

Observ. 2.

2. We shall acknowledge with Gregorius Horstius, Sperlingius and Gothofredus Voigtius, that sometimes the bodies of those that have been murthered do bleed, when the murtherer is not present, as is manifest from the sixth History recited from Horstius of the young Man of twenty five years old, that bled so long and so often, though the murtherer was not present; from whence they conclude that the presence of the murtherer, is not a necessary cause of the bleeding of the murthered body; and therefore that the bleeding of the body is not always a certain and infallible sign of discovering the murtherer? To which we reply, that the issuing of fresh and crimson blood from the wound or the nostrils of the persons body that hath been murthered, is always a certain sign that the Corps that doth so bleed was murthered, because those that die naturally or violently by chance, man-slaughter or in the war, do not bleed, as hath been proved before. Again, if the murtherer be certainly known, or have confessed the crime, in regard of the final cause which is discovery, there is no reason why the Corps should bleed: And though the presence of the murtherer may not be the efficient cause why the Corps doth bleed, yet is it the occasional, as is manifest undeniably by sundry of the Histories that we have related, where the murtherers had not been certainly known but by the bleeding of the body murthered.

Observ. 3.

3. Whereas the three Authors above named, thinking they have sufficiently confuted those that ascribed this effect of the bleeding of the dead body to Sympathy or Antipathy, or to the moving of the bodies, or heat in the air; have assigned the cause to be the beginning of putrefaction in the bodies murthered, by which a new motion is caused in the humors, and so in the blood, by which means it floweth afresh: against this these two reasons oppose themselves. 1. Must putrefaction needs begin at that very moment, when the murtherer toucheth the body? For in divers of them there was no bleeding until the murtherers were present or did touch the bodies, and their touching could not cause the beginning of putrefaction, and soon after their removing the bleeding hath ceased, so that putrescence in fieri cannot be the cause of the fresh bleeding. 2. Putrefaction beginning could not be the cause why the murthered Shepherds body in the ninth History should with its hands point to the wound, and to the murtherers, nor that the hands of the Wench murthered by the Jews, in the tenth History, should be stretched forth to the Prince of Baden, or that the Lips and Nostrils of the Body of Gawkley should work and open at the touch of the murtherer How; this must of necessity proceed from some higher cause than putrefaction, or any other they have laid down.

Observ. 4.

Append. de Cru. Cadav. p. 154.

4. But though it should be acknowledged, that in some of these bleedings there were something that were extraordinary or supernatural, yet as learned Horstius tells us: “It is (he saith) an inconvenient Tenent of those that hold, that the Souls of those that are murthered, wandering about the Bodies, by reason of the hatred they bear towards those that were their murtherers, do cause these bleedings: but this in Philosophy cannot stand, because the separate form can by no means operate upon the subject any longer. And (he saith) the same thing in Theologie seems to be very impious; because the Souls of the dead are without mundane conversation, as is sufficiently manifest from the History of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Luke 16.”

Observ. 5.

“5. And if some should refer these effects immediately unto God, as many learned Authors have done; as though God by this means would sometimes make known those that are guilty: or to refer this unto the Devil, as though he would sometimes elude the Judges, and to do this that so the innocent might be punished with the wicked; We answer (he saith) to this briefly, by adding this only, that a supernatural cause is not rashly to be feigned where a natural one is ready at hand. And if there be such examples, which cannot be reduced to these aforesaid natural causes, of which sort many are related by Libanius part 2. fol. 172. then we can by no reason be repugnant, but that they are preternaturally brought to pass.” And of this opinion are most of the Pontificial Writers, that thereby they might the better maintain their Tenent, that miracles are not ceased; though we do not understand that if we should grant, that in these things there should be some concurrence of Divine Power more than ordinary, that therefore it must be a miracle, for it is yet not infallibly concluded what a miracle is, and every wonderful thing is not therefore concluded to be a miracle, and a miracle being not absolutely defined, what is not one cannot be certainly resolved.

Observ. 6.

6. Some there are that ascribe these strange bleedings of murthered bodies, and of their strange motions, with the sweating of blood, as upon the Pedlars bended dagger or knife, mentioned in the eleventh History, unto the Astral or Sydereal spirit (and that not improbably;) that being a middle substance, betwixt the Soul and the Body doth, when separated from the Body, wander or hover near about it, bearing with it the irascible and concupiscible faculties, wherewith being stirred up to hatred and revenge, it causeth that ebullition and motion in the blood, that exudation of blood upon the weapon, and those other wonderful motions of the Body, Hands, Nostrils and Lips, thereby to discover the murtherer, and bring him to condign punishment. Neither is any Tenent yet brought by any, that is more rationally probable to solve these and many other wonderful Phenomena’s than this of the Astral Spirit, if it can be but fully proved that there is such a part of Man that doth separately exist, which we shall endeavour to prove ere we end this Chapter.

Observ. 7.

7. But it is granted upon all sides, that if the murtherer be brought to the presence, or touch of the person murthered, and not quite dead, that then the wounds though closed and staid from bleeding, or the nostrils, will freshly break forth and bleed plentifully. The reason is obvious, because the Soul being yet in the Body, retaining its power of sensation, fancy and understanding, will easily have a presension of the murderer, and then no marvail that through the vehement desire of revenge, the irascible and concupiscible faculties do strongly move the blood, that before was beginning to be stagnant, to motion and ebullition, and may exert so much force upon the organs as for some small time to move the whole body, the hands, or the lips and nostrils. So that all that is to be done, is but to prove, that the person murthered is not absolutely dead, and that the Soul is not totally separated or departed forth of the Body, and this we shall do by undeniable proofs, as are these that follow in this order.

1. Though we generally take death to be a perfect separation of the Soul from the Body, which is most certainly a great truth, yet when this is certainly brought to pass, is a most difficult point to ascertain, because that when the Soul ceases to operate in the Body so as to be perceived by our Senses, it will not follow, that therefore the Soul is absolutely departed and separated.

Observ. Medic. p. 617, 618.

2. It is manifest that many persons through this mistake have in the times of the Plague been buried quick, and so have some Women been dealt withal that lay but in fits of the suffocation of the Womb, and yet were taken to be dead. So that from the judgment of our Senses, no certain conclusion can be made that the Soul is totally departed, because it goeth away invisibly; for many that not only to the judgment of the vulgar, but even in the opinion of learned Physicians, have been accounted dead, yet have revived, as learned Schenckius hath furnished us with this story from Georgius Pictorius, “that a certain Woman lay in a fit of the Strangulation of the Womb, for six continual days without sense or motion, the arteries being grown hard, ready to be buried, and yet revived again, and from Paræus of some that have lain three days in Hysterical suffocations, and yet have recovered, and of divers others that may be seen in the place quoted in the Margent.

3. So that though the organs of the Body may by divers means, either natural or violent, be rendered so unfit, that the Soul cannot perform its accustomed functions in them, or by them, so as they may be perceptible to our senses, or judgments; yet will not that at all conclude, that the Soul is separated, and departed quite from the Body, much less can we be able to define or set down the precise time of the Souls aboad in the Body, nor the ultimate period when it must depart, for the union may be (and doubtless is) more strong in some than in others, and the Lamp of life far sooner and more easily to be quenched in some than in others. And the Soul may have a far greater amorosity to stay in some Body that is lively, sweet, and young, than in others that are already decaying and beginning to putrifie, and it may in all probability both have power and desire to stay longer in that lovesome habitation, from whence it is driven away by force, especially that it may satisfie it self in discovering of the murderer, the most cruel and inhumane disjoyner of that loving pair that God had divinely coupled together, and to see it self, before its final departure, in a hopeful way to be revenged.

4. If we physically consider the union of the Soul with the Body by the mediation of the Spirit, then we cannot rationally conceive that the Soul doth utterly forsake that union, untill by putrefaction, tending to an absolute mutation, it be forced to bid farewel to its beloved Tabernacle; for its not operating ad extra to our senses, doth not necessarily inferr its total absence. And it may be that there is more in that of Abels blood crying unto the Lord from the ground, in a Physical sense, than is commonly conceived, and God may in his just judgment suffer the Soul to stay longer in the murthered Body, that the cry of blood may make known the murtherer, or may not so soon, for the same reason, call it totally away.

Explic. Astro. p. 654.

There is another kind of supposed Apparitions, that are believed to be done in Beryls, and clear Crystals, and therefore called by Paracelsus Ars Beryllistica, and which he also calls Nigromancy, because it is practised in the dark by the inspection of a Boy or a Maid that are Virgins, and this he strongly affirmeth to be natural and lawful, and only brought to pass by the Sydereal influence, and not at all Diabolical, nor stands in need of any Conjuration, Invocations or Ceremonies, but is performed by a strong faith or imagination. And of this he saith thus: Sed ante omnia (ait) notate proprietatem Beryllorum. Hisunt, in quibus spectantur præterita, præsentia, & futura. Quod nemini admirationi esse debet, ideò, quia sydus influentiæ imaginem, & similitudinem in Crystallum imprimit, similem ei, de quo quæritur. And a little after he saith: Præterea sideribus nota sunt omnia, quæ in natura existunt. Cumq; Astra homini subjecta sint: potest is utiq; illa in subjectum ita cogere, ut voluntati ejus ipsa obsecundent. What truth there may be in this his assertion, I have yet met with no reasons or experiments that can give me satisfaction, and therefore I leave it to every Man to censure as he pleaseth.

Hist.

The only story that seems to carry any credit with it, touching the truth of Apparitions in Crystals, is that which is related of that great and learned Physician Joachimus Camerarius in his Preface before Plutarchs Book De Defectu Oraculorum, from the mouth of Lassarus Spenglerus, a person excellent both for Piety and Prudence, and is, in effect this: “Spengler said, that there was one person of a chief family in Norimberge, an honest and grave Man, whom he thought not fit to name. That one time he came unto him, and brought, wrapt in a piece of Silk, a Crystalline Gemm of a round figure, and said that it was given unto him of a certain stranger, whom many years before, having desired of him entertainment, meeting him in the Market, he took home, and kept him three days with him. And that this gift when he departed, was left him as a sign of a grateful mind, having taught such an use of the Crystal as this. If he desired to be made more certain of any thing, that he should draw forth the glass, and will a male chast Boy to look in it, and should ask of him what he did see? For it should come to pass, that all things that he required, should be shewed to the Boy, and seen in the Apparition. And this Man did affirm, that he was never deceived in any one thing, and that he had understood wonderful things by the boys indication, when none of all the rest did by looking into it, see it to be any thing else but a neat and pure Gemm. He tells a great deal more of it, and that doubtful questions being asked, an answer would appear to be read in the Crystal: but the Man being weary of the use of it, did give it to Spengler, who being a great hater of superstition, did cause it to be broken into small pieces, and so with the Silk in which it was wrapped, threw it into the sink of the House.”

I confess I have heard strange stories of things that have been revealed by these supposed apparitions, from persons both of great worth and learning; but seeking more narrowly into the matter I found them all to be superstitious delusions, fancies, mistakes, cheats and impostures. For the most part the child tells any thing that comes into his fancy, or doth frame and invent things upon purpose, that he never seeth at all, and the inquirers do presently assimilate them to their own thoughts and suspicions. Some that pretended to shew and foretel strange things thereby to get money, have been discovered to have had confederates, that conveied away mens goods into secret places, and gave the cunning Man notice where they were hid, and then was the child taught a straight framed tale, to describe what a like Man took them away, and where they were, which being found brought credit enough to the couzeners, and this I knew was practised by one Brooke and Bolton. Some have had artificial glasses, whereinto they would convey little pictures, as Dr. Lambe had.

It being manifest by what we have laid down that there are apparitions and some such other strange effects, whereby murthers are often made known and discovered, and also having mentioned that it may be most rationally probable that they are caused by the Astral or Sydereal Spirit, it will be necessary to open and explain that point, and to shew what grounds it hath, upon which it may be settled, which we shall do in this order.

Immort. of the Soul. c. 16. sect. 8. p. 296.

De verb. Apost. lib. Serm. 18.

Idem contr. Pelag.

c. 28. Tom. 7.

1. There are many (especially Popish Authors thereby to uphold their Doctrine of Purgatory) that maintain that they are the Souls of the persons murthered and deceased, and this opinion, though unanswerably confuted by the whole company of reformed Divines, is notwithstanding revived by Dr. Henry Moore, but by no arguments either brought from Scripture, or grounded upon any solid reasons, but only some weak conjectures, seeming absurdities, and Platonick whimsies, which (indeed) merit no responsion. And we have by positive and unwrested Scriptures, in this Treatise afore proved, that the Souls of the righteous are in Abrahams bosom with Christ at peace and rest, and that the Souls of the wicked are in Hell in torments, so that neither of them do wander here, or make any apparitions; for as S. Augustine taught us: Duo sunt habitacula, unum in igne æterno, alterum in regno æterno. And in another place: Nec est ulli ullus medius locus, ut possit esse nisi cum Diabolo, qui non est cum Christo. And Tertullian and Justin Martyr, two most ancient writers do tell us: “That Souls being separated from their Bodies, do not stay or linger upon the earth: And after they be descended into the infernal pit, they do neither wander here upon their own accord, nor by the power and command of others; But that wicked spirits may counterfeit by craft that they are the Souls of the dead, Vid. Lavaterum de Spectris secunda parte c. 5.”

2. We have also shewed that these apparitions that discover murther and murtherers and brings them to condign punishment, cannot be the evil Angels, because they are only Ministers of torture, sin, horror and punishment, but are not Authors of any good either Corporeal or Spiritual, apparent or real. So that it must of necessity be left either to be acted by a Divine Power, and that either by the immediate power of the Almighty, for which we have no proof, but only may acknowledge the possibility of it; or mediate by the ministery of good Angels, which is hard to prove, there being no one instance, or the least intimation of any such matter in all the Scriptures, and therefore in most rational probability, either relations of matters of fact of this nature are utterly false, or they are effected by the Astral spirit.

Vid. lib. Sagac. Philos. passim.

3. Concerning the description of this Astral Spirit or Sydereal Body, (for though it be as a spirit, or the image in the looking-glass, yet it is truly corporeal) we shall give the sum of it, as Paracelsus in his magisterial way, without proof doth lay down. “He positively holdeth that there are three essential parts in Man, which he calleth the three great substances, and that at death every one of these being separated, doth return into, or unto the Womb from whence it came; as The Soul that was breathed in by God, doth at death return unto God that gave it: And that the Body, that is to say, that gross part that seems to be composed of the two inferior Elements of Earth and Water, doth return unto the Earth, and there in time consume away, some bodies in a longer time, some in a shorter: But the third part which he calleth the Astral Spirit, or Sydereal Body, as being firmamental, and consisting of the two superior Elements of Air and Fire, it (he saith) returneth into its Sepulcher of the Air, where in time it is also consumed, but requireth a longer time than the body, in regard it consisteth of more pure Elements than the other, and that one of these Astral Spirits or Bodies doth consume sooner than another, as they are more impure, or pure. And that it is this spirit that carrieth along with it the thoughts, cogitations, desires and imaginations that were impressed upon the mind at the time of death, with the sensitive faculties of concupiscibility and irascibility. And that it is this spirit or body (and not the Soul that resteth in the hands of the Lord) that appeareth, and is most usually conversant in those places, and those negotiations that the mind of the person living (whose spirit it was) did most earnestly follow, and especially those things that at the very point of death, were most strongly impressed upon this spirit, as in the case of the person murthered, whose mind in the very minute of the murther, receiveth a most deep impression of detestation and revenge against the murtherer, which this spirit bearing with it, doth by all means possible seek the accomplishment of that revenge, and therefore doth cause dreams of discovery, bleedings and strange motions of the body murthered, and sometimes plain apparitions of the persons murthered, in their usual shape and habit, and doth vocally and audibly reveal the murther with all the circumstances,” as is apparent in the two forementioned Histories of the apparition of Fletcher to Raynard, and of the Woman murthered by Mark Sharp, to the Miller Grimes.

De Anim. Brut. c. 1, 2.

4. And this Astral Spirit is no more than that part in Man that is commonly called the sensitive Soul, and by the Schools is commonly defined thus: “Anima sentiens est vis, quæ apprehendit & percipit ea quæ extra ipsam sunt. And this is corporeal, and (as Dr. Willis holdeth) mortal and coextended with the Body, and that it hath the power of imagination, appetite, desire, and aversion and the like, and in a manner, a sensitive way of ratiocination, and yet is distinct from the rational Soul or Mens that is incorporeal, immortal, and far more excellent.” And perspicacious Helmont holding this sensitive Soul to be distinct from the mens or immortal and rational Soul, saith thus: Est ergo anima sensitiva, caduca, mortalis, mera lux vitalis data à patre luminum, nec alio modo verboq; explicabilis. But of the rational Soul he saith: Ipsa autem mens immortalis, est substantia lucida, incorporea, immediate Dei sui imaginem referens, quia eandem in creando, sive in ipso Empsychosis instanti, sibi insculptam suscepit. So that both these late and learned Authors hold, that in every Man there are two distinct Souls, the sensitive that is mortal, corporeal, and coextended with the Body, and the rational, that is immortal and absolutely incorporeal: so that though in words and terms they seem to differ, yet in substance they agree. For the Hermetick School, the Platonists, Paracelsus, Jacob Behemen, and others do hold three parts in Man which they call, Soul, Spirit and Body, and these two last Authors do hold the body to be one part in Man, and two Souls besides, the sensitive and rational that are two distinct parts, the one corporeal and mortal, and the other incorporeal and immortal, and so they do but nominally differ. And now our task must be to prove, that first there are such three parts in Man, and that after death they do separately exist, which we shall attempt in this order.

Gen. 1. 30.

Eccles. 3. 21.

Ibid. 12. 7.

Matth. 10. 28.

Acts 20. 10.

Luke 23. 46.

1. Though arguments taken à notatione nominis, do not necessarily prove, yet they illustrate, and render the case plain and intelligible; and we shall find that the Hebrews have three distinct appellations for these three parts. As for the Soul, either rational or sensitive, or vital spirit, they use Nephesh which is common to brutes and reptiles as well as to Man, as saith the Text: And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth in which there is a living soul, Nephesh-Haiah. And therefore to distinguish the rational and immortal Soul, from this which is sensitive, mortal and common with brutes, the Text saith: And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Upon which Tremellius gives us this note: Ut clarius appareret discrimen quod est inter animam hominis, & reliquorum animantium: Horum enim animæ ex eadem materia provenerunt, unde corpora habebant, illius verò anima spiritale quiddam est & Divinum. And upon the words; Sic fuit homo. Id est (ait) hac ratione factum est, ut terrea illa statua animata viveret. Another word they use, which is Ruah, and this is also generally attributed to Men and Beasts, as the words of Solomon do witness. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upwards, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? And in both these, touching both Man and Beast, the word Ruah is used as common to them both; and sometimes it is taken specially for the rational immortal Soul, as, And the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Also they have the word Niblah, and Basar, that is, corpus, caro, or cadaver, and by these three they set forth, or distinguish these three parts. And the Grecians have likewise their three several names for these parts, as ψυχὴ, anima, vita, which is taken promiscuously sometimes for the rational and immortal Soul, as in this place; And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. And it is taken for the life in that of the Acts: And Paul said, Trouble not your selves, his life is in him. Also they have the word Πνεῦμα, Spiritus, ventus, spiritus vitæ, being variously taken, yet sometimes for the rational and immortal Soul, as Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. So they have the word Σῶμα, Corpus, the body or gross and fleshly part. And to these accord the three Latine terms for these three distinct parts; Anima, Spiritus and Corpus.

Mens ad Herm. p. 21.

Pimand. c. 12. p. mihi 451.

Comment. in Conviv. Platon. p. 400.

Vid. De Anim. Brutor. c. 7. p. 73.

2. This opinion of these three parts in Man, to wit Body, Soul and Spirit, is neither new, nor wants Authors of sufficient credit and learning to be its Patrons. For Hermes Trismegistus an Author almost of the greatest Antiquity saith thus: καὶ ὁ μὲν Θεὸς ἐν τῷ νῷ, ὁ δὲ νοῦς ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ, ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ ἐν τῇ ὕλη. That is, God is in the mind, the mind in the soul, and the soul in matter. But Marsilius Ficinus gives it thus: Beatus Deus, Dæmon bonus, animam esse in corpore, mentem in anima, in mente verbum pronunciavit. And further addeth: Deus verò circa omnia, simul atq; per omnia, mens circa animam, anima circa aërem, aër circa materiam. And some give it more fully thus. God is in the mind, the mind in the Soul, the Soul in the Spirit, the Spirit in the blood, and the blood in the Body. But besides this ancient testimony, it is apparent that the whole School of the Platonists, both the elder and later were of this opinion, and also the most of the Cabalists: For Ficinus from the Doctrine of Plato tells us this: Humanæ cogitationis domicilium anima ipsa est. Animæ domicilium spiritus. Domicilium spiritus hujus est corpus. But omitting multitudes of others that are strong Champions for this Tenent, we think for authorities to acquiesce in that of our most learned Physician and Anatomist Dr. Willis, and in those that he hath quoted, which we shall give in the English: First he saith: “Lest I be tedious in rehearsing many, it pleaseth me here only to cite two Authors (but either of which is a Troop) for the confutation of the contrary opinion. The one (he saith) is the most famous Philosopher Petrus Gassendus, who Physic. Sect. 3. lib. 9. c. 11. doth divide, toto Cœlo, (as is said) the mind of man, from the other sensitive power, as much as is possible to be done, by many and most signal notes of discrimination, yea disjoining of them (as it is said in the Schools) by specific differences: Because when he had shewed this to be corporeal, extended, nascible and corruptible, he saith the other is an incorporeal substance, and therefore immortal, which is immediately created, and infused into the body by God; to which opinion he sheweth Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and for the most part all the ancient Philosophers, except Epicurus, did much agree; excepting notwithstanding that they did hold, as not knowing the origin of the Soul, which they judged to be immortal, that it being cropt off from the soul of the world, did slide into the body, and that it was poured again into the Soul of the world either immediately, or at the last mediately, after its transmigration into other bodies.”

Ibid. p. 74.

The other suffrage (he saith) upon this matter, is of the most learned Divine Dr. Hamond, our Countryman, who opening the Text Epist. Thessalo. 1. c. 5. v. 23. to wit, your whole spirit and soul and body &c. “He saith that Man is divided into three parts. 1. To wit, into the body, by which is denoted the flesh and the members. 2. Into the vital soul, which in like manner being animal and sensitive is common to man with the bruits. 3. Into the spirit, by which the rational soul, that was first created of God, is signified, which also being immortal doth return unto God. Annot. in Nov. Testam. lib. p. 711.” This his exposition he confirmeth by Testimonies brought from Ethnick Authors, and also from the ancient Fathers. From all which the learned Dr. doth make this conclusion: “And from the things above (he saith) it is most evidently manifest, that man being as it were an Amphibious animal, or of a middle nature and order betwixt the Angels and bruits, with these he doth communicate by a corporeal soul, framed of the vital blood and the stock of animal spirit, joyned likewise in one; and with the other he communicates by an intelligent soul immaterial and immortal.” And thus much for arguments brought from humane authority, which are prevalent, if they be brought affirmatively (as these are) from learned men or Artificers, and so we shall proceed to further kind of proofs.

1 Thes. 5. 23.

Ephes. 4. 17.

3. But an argument arising from Divine Authority is of the most force of all, and therefore let us a little survey the Text it self, which in our English Translation is thus: And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly: And I pray God your whole Spirit, and Soul, and Body be preserved blameless, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle having given the believing Thessalonians all the spiritual counsel that could be necessary, to bring them to the perfection of sanctification, doth pray for them, that the God of peace would sanctifie them wholly, or as the word ὁλοτελοῖς signifieth (as Arias Montanus hath rendered it) omninòperfectos, altogether perfect, And that the whole, ὁλόκληρον, that is the whole part, portion or lot (for so the word properly signifieth) which he nameth by Spirit, Soul and Body, to be preserved blameless, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore to this doth learned Beza add this note: “Tum demùm igitur (ait) homo integer sanctificatus fuerit, quum nihil cogitabit spiritus, nihil appetet anima, nihil exequetur corpus, quod cum Dei voluntate non consentiat.” And before he had said: “Therefore Paul by the appellation of spirit doth signifie the mind, in which the principal stain lieth: and by the Soul the rest of the inferior faculties, and by the body the domicile of the Soul.” And in another place he saith: “The mind is become vain, the cogitation obscured, the appetite hardened.” And to the same purpose doth learned Rollock upon the place say thus much: “Sanctification, or transformation is not of any one part, but of all the parts, and of the whole man. For there is no part or particle in man, which was not deformed in that first fall, and made as it were monstrous. Therefore μεταμόρφωσις, or transformation ought to be of the whole man and of every singular part of him. And further he saith: For the whole man the Apostle hath here the enumeration of his principal parts. And they are three in number, Spirit, Soul and Body. By the spirit (he saith) I understand the mind, which the Apostle Eph. 4. 24. calleth the spirit of the mind, and this is no other thing than the faculty of the rational mind, which is discerned in invention, and in judging of things found out. By the name of soul (he saith) I understand all those inferior faculties of the mind, as are the animal which are also called natural. The body doth follow these parts, to wit that gross part which is the instrument by which the spirit and soul do exert their functions and operations.” By all which it is most clear, that though they call them faculties, yet they are distinct essential parts of the whole man, which is most manifest, in that the body, though one of these three, cannot be a faculty, but a meer instrument, and yet is one of the essential parts, that doth integrate the whole man. But whosoever shall seriously consider, how little satisfaction the definition of a faculty given by either Philosophers or Physicians, will bring to a clear understanding, may easily perceive, that distinct parts are commonly taken to be faculties.

Ut supra c. 7. p. 74.

4. The first argument that this learned Physician urgeth, to prove that there are two Souls in man, the one sensitive and corporeal, the other rational, immortal and incorporeal, is in this order. “But (he saith) whereas it is said that the rational soul doth by it self exercise every of the animal faculties, it is most of all improbable, because the actions and passions of all the animal senses and motions are corporeal, divided and extended to various parts, to perform which immediately the incorporeal and indivisible soul (if so be it be finite) seemeth unfit or unable. Further (he saith) what belongeth unto that vulgar opinion, that the sensitive soul is subordinate to the rational, and as it were swallowed up of it, that that which is the soul in brutes, in man becomes a meer power; these are the trifles of the Schools. For how should the sensitive soul of man, which before hath been in act a subsistent, material and extended substance, losing its essence, at the advent of the rational soul, degenerate into a meer qualitie? But if it be asserted that the rational soul, by its advent also doth introduce life and sensation, then man doth not generate an animated man, but only a formless body, or a rude heap of flesh.”

5. Another argument he useth to prove these two souls in man is this: “Therefore (he saith) it being supposed that the rational soul doth come to the body before animated of the other corporeal soul, we may inquire, by what band or tye, seeing it is a pure spirit, can it be united to this, seeing it hath not parts, by which it might be tied, or adhere to the whole or any of the parts? And therefore he thinketh that concerning this point it is to be said with most learned Gassendus: That the corporeal soul is the immediate subject of the rational soul, of which seeing it is the act, perfection, complement and form, also by it the rational soul is made or becometh the form and act of the humane body. But seeing that it doth scarce seem like or necessary, that the whole corporeal soul should be possessed of the whole rational soul; Therefore it is lawful to determine that this rational soul, being purely spiritual, should reside as in its Throne, in the principal part or faculty of it, to wit in the imagination, framed of a small portion of the animal spirits, being most subtile, and seated in the very middle or center of the brain.”

6. Another chief argument that he useth to prove these two souls in man, is the strife and disagreements that are within man: “Because (he saith) the intellect and imagination are not wont to agree in so many things, but that also the sensitive appetite doth dissent in more things: From whose litigations moreover it shall be lawful to argue, that the moodes of the aforesaid souls, both in respect of subsisting and operating, are distinct. For as there is in man a double cognitive power, to wit the intellect and imagination, so there is a double appetite, the Will proceeding from the Intellect, which is the Page or servant of the rational soul, and the sensitive Appetite, which cohering to the imagination, is said to be the hands, or procuratrix of the corporeal soul.”

Ephes. 4. 18.

7. To these we shall add, that when the understanding is truly enlightened with the spirit of God, and led by the true light of the Gospel, in the ways of Christ, then is man said to be spiritual, because the carnal mind and the sensitive appetite are subdued and brought under to the obedience of Christ by his grace. So also when the understanding is darkned, as saith the Apostle; Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God thorow the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. Then man becomes wholly led with the carnal and sensual appetite, and is therefore called ψυχικὸς ἄνθρωπος, the natural, animal or soully man: And in both these conditions the organical body is led and acted according to the ruling power, either of the Spirit of God, and so it is yielded up a living sacrifice to God, or of the spirit of darkness, corruption, and the sensitive appetite, and so is an instrument of all unrighteousness. By all which it is most manifest that there are in man these three parts, of Body, Soul, and Spirit, which was the thing undertaken to be proved.

8. Lastly as to this point, it is a certain truth that two extreams cannot be joined or coupled together, but by some middle thing that participated or cometh near to the nature of both. So the Soul which (by the unanimous consent of all men) is a spiritual and pure, immaterial and incorporeal substance cannot be united to the body, which is a most gross, thick and corporeal substance, without the intervention of some middle nature, fit to conjoin and unite those extreams together, which is this sensitive and corporeal Soul or Astral Spirit, which in respect of the one extream incorporeal, yet of the most pure sort of bodies that are in nature, and that which approacheth most near to a spiritual and immaterial substance, and therefore most fit to be the immediate receptacle of the incorporeal Soul: And also it being truly body doth easily join with the gross body, as indeed being congenerate with it, and so becomes vinculum & nexus of the immaterial Soul and the more gross body, that without it could not be united.

Now having (as we conceive) sufficiently proved that there are in man these three distinct parts of Body, Soul, and Spirit, in the next place we are to shew that these three may, and do separately exist, and that we shall endeavour by these reasons.

Reas. 1.

Eccl. 12. 7.

2 Cor. 5. 1.

1. It is manifest by Divine Authority that the spirit, that is the rational, immortal and incorporeal soul, doth return to God that gave it. That is not to be annihilated or to vanish into nothing, but to abide and remain forever or eviternally. For the Apostle saith: For we know, that if our earthly tabernacle or house were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. By which it is manifest that the immaterial Soul doth exist eternally ex parte post, as the Schools say, and also the gross body being separated from the immortal Soul, doth by it self exist until it be consumed in the grave, or by corruption be changed into earth, or some other things, or that the Atomes be dispersed, and joined unto, or figurated into some other bodies. So it is most highly rational that this sensitive Soul, or Astral Spirit, which is corporeal, should also exist by it self for some time, until it be dissipated and wasted, in which time it may (and doubtlesly doth) make these apparitions, motions and bleedings of the murthered bodies.

Reas. 2.

2. Upon the supposition that the rational Soul be not ex traduce, but be infused after the bodily organs be fitted and prepared, which is the firm Tenent of all Divines Ancient, middle and Modern, and must upon the granting of it to be simply, and absolutely immaterial and incorporeal (which is indisputable) of necessity be infused, because no immaterial substance can be produced or generated by the motion of any agent, that is meerly material, or forth of any material substance whatsoever. And therefore I say that the Soul being infused, it must of necessity follow the organized body, that could not exist (except as a lump of flesh) without the corporeal sensitive soul; which must of necessity demonstrate, that as they did separately exist before the union of the Soul and Body, so they also do exist distinctly after their separation by death, and so the Astral Spirit may effect the things we have asserted.

Reas. 3.

Histor. rarior. Obs. 62. p. 325, 326.

3. And if the experiment be certainly true that is averred by Borellus, Kircher, Gaffarel, and others (who might be ashamed to affirm it as their own trial, or as ocular witnesses, if not true) that the figures and colours of a plant may be perfectly represented, and seen in glasses, being by a little heat raised forth of the ashes. Then (if this be true) it is not only possible, but rational, that animals as well as plants, have their Ideas or Figures existing after the gross body or parts be destroyed, and so these apparitions are but only those Astral shapes and figures. But also there are shapes and apparitions of Men, that must of necessity prove that these corporeal Souls or Astral Spirits do exist apart, and attend upon or are near the blood, or bodies; of which Borellus Physician to the King of France, gives us these two relations.

Hist. 1.

1. N. de Richier a Soap-maker (he saith) and Bernardus Germanus from the relation of the Lord of Gerzan, and others, distilling mans blood at Paris, which they thought to be the true matter of the Philosophers-stone; they saw in the cucurbit or glass body, the Phantasm, or shape of a Man, from whom bloody rayes did seem to proceed, and the glass being broken they found the figure as though of a skull, in the remaining fæces.

Hist. 2.

2. There were three curious persons also at Paris, that taking the Church earth-mould from S. Innocents Church, supposing it to be the matter of the stone, did distill it and work upon it, and in the glasses they did perceive certain Phantasms or Shapes of Men, of which they were no little afraid.

Hist. 3.

De Myst. Sang. Anatom. c. 6. p. 233.

3. Our Countryman Dr. Flud a person of much learning and great sincerity, doth tell us this well attested story: “That a certain Chymical Operator, by name La Pierre, near that place in Paris called Le Temple, received blood from the hands of a certain Bishop to operate upon. Which he setting to work upon the Saturday, did continue it for a week with divers degrees of fire, and that about midnight the Friday following, this Artificer lying in a Chamber next to his Laboratory, betwixt sleeping and waking, heard an horrible noise, like unto the lowing of Kine, or the roaring of a Lion; and continuing quiet, after the ceasing of the sound in the Laboratory, the Moon being at the full by shining enlightening the Chamber, suddenly betwixt himself and the Window he saw a thick little cloud, condensed into an oval form, which after by little and little did seem compleatly to put on the shape of a Man, and making another and a sharp clamour, did suddenly vanish. And that not only some Noble Persons in the next Chambers, but also the Host with his Wife, lying in a lower room of the house, and also the neighbors dwelling in the opposite side of the street, did distinctly hear as well the bellowing as the voice, and some of them were awaked with the vehemency thereof. But the Artificer said that in this he found solace, because the Bishop of whom he had it, did admonish him, that if any of them from whom the blood was extracted, should die in the time of its putrefaction, his Spirit was wont often to appear to the sight of the Artificer, with perturbation. Also forthwith upon Saturday following he took the retort from the Furnace and broke it with the light stroak of a little key, and there in the remaining blood found the perfect representation of an humane head, agreeable in face, eyes, nostrils, mouth and hairs, that were somewhat thin and of a golden colour. And of this last there were many ocular witnesses, as the Noble person Lord of Bourdalone, the Chief Secretary to the Duke of Guise, and that he had this relation from the Lord of Menanton living in that house at the same time, from a certain Doctor of Physick, from the owner of the house, and many others.”

So that it is most evident that there are not only three essential, and distinct parts in Man, as the gross body, consisting of Earth and Water, which at death returns to the earth again, the sensitive and corporeal Soul, or Astral Spirit, consisting of Fire and Air, that at death wandereth in the air, or near the body, and the immortal and incorporeal Soul that immediately returns to God that gave it: But also that after death they all three exist separately; the Soul in immortality, and the body in the earth, though soon consuming; and the Astral spirit that wanders in the air, and without doubt doth make these strange apparitions, motions, and bleedings; and so we conclude this tedious discourse with the Chapter.