So Joh. Manlius in Loc. Commun. Collectan. (cap. 4,) de Malis Spiritibus, et de satisfactióne. Yea, godly, sober Melancthon affirms, that he had seen some such sights or apparitions himself; and many credible persons of his acquaintance have told him, that they have not only seen them, but had much talk with spirits; among the rest he mentions one of his own aunts, who sitting sad at the fire after the death of her husband, there appeared unto her one in the likeness of her husband, and another like a Franciscan friar; the former told her that he was her husband, and came to tell her somewhat; which was, that she must hire some priests to say certain masses for him, which he earnestly besought her; then he took her by the hand, promising to do her no harm, yet his hand so burned her, that it remained black ever after, and so they vanished away. Thus writes Melancthon. Lavater also himself, who hath written a book wholly of apparitions, a learned godly protestant divine, tells us, that it was then an undeniable thing, confirmed by the testimonies of many honest and credible persons, both men and women, some alive, and some dead, that sometime by night, and sometime by day, have both seen and heard such things; some that going to bed had the clothes plucked off them; others had somewhat lying down in the bed with them; others heard it walking in the chamber by them, spitting, groaning; saying, they were the souls of such or such persons lately departed; that they were in grievous torments, and if so many masses were but said for them, or so many pilgrimages undertaken to the shrine of some saint, they should be delivered. These things, with many such more, saith Lavater, were then frequently and undoubtedly done, and, that where the doors were fast locked, and the room searched, that there could be no deceit.

a The like may be said of the apparition of good angels encouraging the godly. Cyprian. 'De Mortalitate,' p. (mihi) 345, saith, that one like a glorious young man stood by one of his fellow presbyters at his death, as he was afraid, and praying against death, and said to him, 'Are you afraid to suffer? Are you loath to go forth? What shall I do with you?' as chiding him for bis loathness to die for Christ.-Exam. Theol. In obsidione Nolanæ civitatis, Nolanum episcopum felicem mortuum conspectum fuisse à multis civitatem illam defendentem, refert August. lib. de Mirab. Scripturæ (si ille liber sit Augustini.) Scio innumera referri fabulosa, vel à fraude, &c. sed (n) à viris tum doctis, tum perspicacibus, tum gravibus et probis, et plurimis retro seculis allata sunt, et hodie memorantur innumera, ubi non possit non cum opera humana concurrisse illusio aut vis diabolica, supplente, viz. spiritu maligno quod hominis superet potestatem.—Vossius Epistol. de Samuele in Beverovicii Epistol. p. 203. Vide Mercur. Viperam de Prodig, lib. viii. Psellum.

So Sleidan relates the story of Crescentius, the pope's legate, frighted into a deadly sickness by a fearful apparition in his chamber. Most credible and godly writers tell us, that on June 20, 1484, at a town called Hamel, in Germany, the devil took away one hundred and thirty children, that were never seen again.

But I need to say no more of this; there is enough written already, not only by Cycogna, Delrio, Paracelsus, &c., but also by godly and faithful writers, as Lavater, Georg. Agricola, Olaus Magnus, Zanchius, Pictorius, and many more.b

Object. But you will say, 'Though this prove that there are devils, and that they are enemies to our happiness; yet how doth it prove that there is a future happiness or misery for

man?'

Answ. Why, plainly thus. What need Satan by these apparitions to set up superstition to draw men to sin, if there were no difference between sinners and others hereafter? surely, in this life it would be no great displeasure to them; for usually the wicked have the most prosperous lives; therefore his delusions must needs have respect to another life; and that the end of his apparitions is either to drive men to despair, or to superstition, or some sin, is evident to all. Most of the papists' idolatry and will-worship, hath either been caused or confirmed by such apparitions :d for in former days of darkness they were more common than now. How the order of the Carthusian friars was founded by Bruno, upon the terrible speeches and cries of a dead man, you may read in the life of Bruno, before his 'Exposition on Paul's Epistles.' Such was the original of All Souls Day, and other holydays, as Trithemius, Petrus de Natalibus, (lib. x. cap. 1;) Polyd. Virg. de Inv. (lib. ix. cap. 9,) do declare. Also, praying for the dead, praying to saints, purgatory, merits of good works, sanctification, pilgrimages, masses, images, relics, monastical vows, auricular confession, and most of the popish ceremonies, have had their life and strength from these apparitions and delusions of the

b Thyreus de locis infestis.

Neque Satan hæc præstat ut benefaciat hominibus, quos in summo habet odio; sed ut corporali unius curatione infinitos alios spirituali morte trucidet. -Zanch. de Potentia Dæmon. tom. 3. lib. iv. c. 10. Vide etiam Zanch. ibid. c. 192. p. 14.

d So his seeming miracles. Lege Joh. Bap. Vanhelmont 'De Lithiasi,' c, 9. sect. 27.

p.

168.

devil. But especially the cross hath been so magnified thereby,' that it is grown the commonest remedy to drive away devils of any in the world for many hundred years; the churchyard must have one to keep the devils from the graves of the dead; and the church, and almost every pinnacle, window, and part of it, to keep him thence; the highways, also, must have them, that he molest not the traveller; yea, when morning and evening, and in times of danger, and in the beginning of any work of duty, men must sign themselves with the cross, to keep away devils insomuch that the learned doctors do handle it among their profound questions, what makes the devil so afraid of the cross, that he shuns it above all things else? So that you may easily see what a great advantage the devil hath got over the souls of a great part of the world by these apparitions; and consequently, that, this being the very end of his endeavours, there is certainly a happiness which he would deprive us of, and a misery that he would bring us to, when this life is ended.

Sect. III. It is manifest also by the devil's possessing and tormenting the bodies of men; for if it were not more for the sake of the soul than the body, why should he not as much possess or torment a beast? Certainly, it is not chiefly the outward torment of the person that he regardeth, though he desires that too; for then he would not labour to settle his kingdom generally in peace and prosperity, and to make men choose iniquity for its worldly advantages: yet it may, perhaps, be the souls of others, more than the possessed persons themselves, that the devil may hope to get advantage on. So among the papists it hath brought theirh

• Camero shows that miracles are, when things are done without second causes; and proves that the two books which Lipsius wrote, ('De Diva Virgine Hallensi,' et 'De Diva Virgine Aspricoli,') filled with pretended miracles, were not indeed of true miracles, as neither reciting the raising of the dead, or the like evident miracle, nor any cure done, but with some sensible pain or motion which showed some second cause. See Camer. Prælect. de Verbo Dei,' p. 438. fol.

f How the devil doth imitate God, in setting up worship, and deluding men with his wonders, especially about the cross, read Calfhill's Preface before his Answer to Martial, of the cross.

* Zanchy thinks it is the very substance of devils that entereth men, and that they have bodies more subtle than the air, by which they enter. Tom. 3. lib. iv. c. 10. p. 188. So Augustine also thinks, 'De Divinatione Dæmonum,' c. 5. And so Tertullian saith, Dæmones sua hæc corpora contrahunt, et dilatant ut volunt; sicut etiam lumbrici et alia quædam infecta, ita dissimile illis non est penetrare in nostra corpora.

Si quando non oporteat his opitulari, non loquamur cum spiritu, vel adjurando, vel imperando, quasi nos audiat, sed tantum precibus et jejunis incumbendo perseveremus.-Origen in Matt. 17.

exorcisms into singular credit, by the frequent dispossessing the devils. I confess there hath been many counterfeits of this kind, as the boy at Bilson, by Wolverhampton, hired by some of the papists, and discovered by the vigilant care of Bishop Morton and divers others; but, yet, if any doubt whether there is any such thing at all, credible history and late experience may sufficiently satisfy him. The history of the dispossession of the devil out of many persons together in a room in Lancashire, at the prayer of some godly ministers, is very famous: read the book, and judge. Among the papists, possessions are common ; though very many of them are the priests and Jesuits' delusions.

What possession is, and how the devils are confined to a body,1 or whether circumscribed there in whole or in part, are things beyond my reach to know; but that the strange effects which we have seen on some bodies, have been the products of the special power of the devil there, I doubt not. Though, for my own part, I believe that God's works in the world are usually by instruments, and not immediate; and as good angels are his instruments in conveying his mercies both to soul and body, and churches and states; so evil angels are instruments of inflicting his judgments, both corporal and spiritual. Hence God is said (Psal. lxxviii. 49,) to send evil angels among the Israelites. Hence Paul's phrase of delivering to Satan; hence Satan did execution on the children, cattle, and body of Job; and upon Jerusalem in that plague, and numbering the people. To satisfy you fully in this, and to silence your objections, and to teach you the true and spiritual use of this doctrine, I refer you to Mr. Lawrence's book, called 'Our Communion and War with Angels; and, especially, Zanchius's (tome 3) book 'De Angelis; and, now newly published, Mr. Ambrose's book, in which, in an epistle, I have confirmed and vindicated what I have here said.

So then, though I judge that Satan is the instrument in our ordinary diseases, yet doth he, more undeniably, appear in those whom we call the possessed. Luther thought that all phrenetic persons and idiots, and all bereaved of their understanding, had

i The devil had the power of death, saith the Holy Ghost, Heb. ii. 14. The angels do serve in both these ministries (superior and inferior) in the administration and economy (or government) of earthly things.-Clem. Alex. Stromat. lib. vii. initio. It is Christ that giveth to the Greeks wisdom by inferior angels. For the angels are by an ancient and divine command distributed by (or through) nations.—Ibid.

devils notwithstanding, physicians might ease them by reme dies. And, indeed, the presence of the devil may consist with the presence of a disease and evil humour, with the efficacy of means: Saul's melancholy devil would be gone when David played on the harp. Many divines, as Tertullian, Austin, Zanchius, Lavater, &c., think that he can work both upon the body and the mind, and that he maketh use to this end of melancholy humours; and, indeed, such strange things are oft said and done by the melancholy and mad, that many learned physicians think that the devil is frequently mixed with such distempers, and hath a main hand in many other symptoms: so Avicen, Rhasis, Arculanus, Aponensis, Jason, Patensis, Hercul. Saxon, &c. Who can give any natural cause for men's speaking Hebrew or Greek, which they never learned or spake before; of their versifying; their telling persons that are present their secrets; discovering what is done at a distance, which they neither see nor hear? Fernelius mentioneth two that he saw; whereof one was so tormented with convulsive pain, sometime in one arm, sometime in the other; sometime in one finger, &c., that four men could scarcely hold him, his head being still quiet and well. The physicians judged it a convulsion, from some malignant humour in the spina dorsi; till, having used all means in vain, at last the devil derided them, that they had almost destroyed the man with their medicines. The man spoke Greek and Latin, which he never learned; he told the physicians a great many of their secrets; and a great deal of talk with the devil, which they had, he there mentions. In conclusion, both this and the other were dispossessed by popish prayers, fasting, and exorcism. Forestus mentions a countryman that," being cast into melancholy, through discontent, at some injuries that he had received, the devil appeared to him in the likeness of a man, and persuaded him rather to make away himself than to

m

1 Vide Pet. Martyr, in loc. Commun.' class i. c. 8. sect. 8. pp. 39, 40, Dæmoniaci semper fere sunt melancholici, sed non omnes melancholici dæmoniaci. Forest. Obs.' lib. x. obs. 19. Melch. Adam in Vita Luther. Vide Pet. Martyr. loc. Commun.' per tot. For speaking strange languages and verifying, see Guainerius, tract. 15; de Melanc. c. 4; et Wierum De Præstigiis,' lib. ii. c. 21–23; et Forest. 'Obs.' lib. x. obs. 19. in schol.

m De Abdit. Rer. Causis,' lib. ii. c. 16. Vide Pæl. Płateri Observ.' p. 28. de stupore dæmoniaco; et de exorcista ipso à demone percusso et læso.

n Lib. xxx. de Veveris, obs. 8. in schol. Cyprian. Serm. de Lapsis,' hath a history of one possessed, and of her impatience during the time of prayer: and in those times when they went to sacrament, they catechised the penitents, and the possessed were all warned to depart the assembly.