There is also a fourth opinion concerning the transaction of this Woman of Endor, that holds, that it was neither the Body, or Soul of Samuel that was raised up, neither the Devil that appeared in his shape, nor that it was the Imposture of the Witch alone, or with a Confederate, but that it was the Sydereal, or Astral Spirit (as they are pleased to term it) of Samuel that was made to appear, and speak by the art and skill of the Woman. But because this Tenent is not of much Antiquity, nor hath many assertors of it, as also because it taketh that for an Hypothesis, to wit, that there are three parts in Man, the Body, Soul, and Spirit; and that the Soul goeth immediately after death either to Heaven or Hell, the Body to the grave, and that the Spirit doth for a certain time after death wander in the air, and may be (by a certain kind of art) brought to appear visibly, and to give answers of all things that it knew living, which as yet hath never been sufficiently proved, therefore we shall pass it over here, having (perhaps) occasion to speak of it more largely hereafter.
We shall now come to mention some places in the New Testament that are produced by some, thereby to prove the great power of Devils and Witches in transferring and carrying bodies in the air, as is that of our Saviours temptation, where it is said that the Devil took him into an exceeding high Mountain, and that he set him upon the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem, from whence they thus argue: That if the Devil had power to carry our most blessed Saviour in the air into an high mountain, and to set him upon the pinnacle of the Temple, that much more hath he power to carry the bodies of Witches who are his sworn vassals in the air, whither he pleaseth, or they desire. To annul the force of which objection we give these reasons.
Reas. 1.
Matth. 3. 16.
Luke 3. 22.
Judg. 15. 15.
1. If it were granted that the Devil did transport our Saviour in the air, yet it will not follow that he can at any time when he pleaseth carry the Bodies of Men or Women so likewise, for no particular proposition will, according to the rules of art, infer a general or universal conclusion, nor one example or instance inductively prove a general practice; one Swallow doth not make a Summer. For though once when our blessed Saviour was baptized, the Holy Ghost did descend like a Dove, and light upon him, it will not follow, that in all other of his actions of preaching, or working of miracles, the holy Spirit should appear also in the form of a Dove, nor when other Saints are Baptized will it follow that it doth, or should alwaies appear in the same form. And though Samson did once slay a thousand of the Philistines with the jawbone of an Ass, it doth not follow, that either he did so in like manner in every battel, or that every Man may do the like.
Reas. 2.
2. If it were granted that the Devil did carry Christs Body in the air, it will not follow that he can do so at any other times, when he pleaseth, because in the temptation of Christ there was an extraordinary dispensation of God for the same, which cannot be presupposed in the ordinary transportation of Witches, and therefore the argument falls quite to the ground.
Reas. 3.