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tine c. 18. de prestigis dæmonum, will ascribe these prædictions to good Angels, out of the authority of Ficinus and others; prodigia in obitu principum sæpius contingunt, &c. as in the Laterane Church in Rome, the Popes deaths are foretold by Sylvester's tombe. Neare Rupes Nova in Finland, in the Kingdome of Sweden, there is a Lake, in which, before the Governor of the Castle dies, a spectrum, in the habit of Arion with his Harp appeares, and makes excellent musick, like those blocks in Cheshire, which (they say) presage death to the Master of the family; or that Oake in Lanthadran Park in Cornwall, which foreshewes as much. Many families in Europe are so put in minde of their last, by such predictions, and many men are forewarned (if we may believe Paracelsus) by familiar spirits, in divers shapes, as Cocks, Crowes, Owles, which often hover about sick men's chambers, vel quia morientium fæditatem sentiunt, as Baracellus conjectures, & ideo super tectum infermorum crocitant, because they sinell a Coarse; or for that (as Bernardinus de Bustis thinketh) God permits the Devil to appear in the forme of Crows, and such like creatures, to scare such as live wickedly here on earth. A little before Tullie's death (saith Plutarch) the Crowes made a mighty noyse about him, tumultuose perstrepentes, they pulled the pillow from under his head. Rob. Gaguinus hist. Franc. lib. 8. telleth such another wonderfull story at the death of Johannes de Monteforti a French Lord, Anno 1345. tanta Corvorum multitudo ædibus morientis insedit, quantam esse in Gallia nemo judicasset. Such prodigies are very frequent in Authors. See more of these in the said Lavater, Thyreus de locis infestis, part 3. cap. 58. Pictorius, Delrio, Cicogna, lib. 3. cap. 9. Negromancers take upon them, to raise and lay them at their pleasures: And so likewise those which Mizaldus cals Ambulones, that walk about midnight on great heaths and desart places, which (saith Lavater)" draw men our of the way, and lead them all night a by-way, or quite bar them of their way;" these have several names in several places; we commonly call them Pucks. In the Desarts of Lop in Asia, such illusions of walking spirits are often perceived, as you may read in M. Paulus the Venetian his travels; If one lose his company by chance, these devils will call him by his naine, and counterfeit voyces of his companions to seduce him. Hicronym. Pauli in his book of the hils of

* Idem. c. 18.

* M. Carew Survey of Cornwall, lib. 2. folio 140. • Horto Gen ali folio. 137. Part 1. c. 19: Abducunt cos à recta via, & viam iter facientibus intercludunt. Lib. 1. cap. 44. Dæmonum cernuntur & audiuntur bi frequen es illusiones, unde viatoribus cavendů ne se dissocient, aut à tergo maneant, voces enim fingunt sociorum, ut à recto itinere abducant, &c. Spaine,

d

Spaine, relates of a great mount in Cantabria, where such spectrums are to be seen; Lavater and Cicogna have variety of examples of spirits and walking devils in this kinde. Sometimes they sit by the high way side, to give men fals, and make their horses stumble and start as they ride, (if you will believe the relation of that holy man Ketellus in* Nubrigensis, that had an especiall grace to see Devils, Gratiam divinitus collatam, and talk with them, Et impavidus cum spiritibus sermonem miscere, without offence, and if a man curse or spur his horse for stumbling, they do heartily rejoyce at it; with many such pretty feats.

Subterranean Devils are as common as the rest, and do as much harme. Olaus Magnus, lib. 6. cap. 19. makes six kindes of them, some bigger, some less. These (saith Munster) are commonly seen about Mines of metals, and are some of them noxious, some againe do no harme. The mettal-men in many places account it good luck, a signe of treasure and rich ore when they see them. Georgius Agricola, in his book de subterraneis animantibus, cap. 37, reckons two more notable kindes of them, which he cals a Getuli and Cobali, both "are cloathed after the manner of Metall-men, and will many times imitate their works." Their office, as Pictorius and Paracelsus think, is to keep treasure in the earth, that it be not all at once revealed; and besides, Cicogna averrs, that they are the frequent causes of those horrible Earth-quakes, "which often swallow up, not onely houses, but whole Ilands and Cities;" in his third book cap. 11. he gives many instances.

b

The last are conversant about the Center of the earth to torture the souls of damned men to the day of Judgment, their egress and regress some suppose to be about Etna, Hypara, Mons Hecla in Iseland, Versuvius, Terra del Fuego, &c. because many shreeks and fearfull cries are continually heard thereabouts, and familiar apparitions of dead men, Ghosts and Goblins.

Their offices, operations, study.] Thus the Devil raigns, and in a thousand several shapes, "As a roaring Lyon still seeks whom he may devour," 1. Pet. 5. by Earth, Sea, Land, Ayre, as yet unconfined, though some will have his proper place the ayre, all that space betwixt us

*

*Lib

Mons sterilis & nivosus, ubi intempesta nocte umbræ apparent. 2. cap. 21. Offendicula faciunt transeuntibus in via & petulanter ridet cum vel hominem vel jumentum ejus pedes atterere faciant, & maximè si homo maledic tis & calcaribus sæviat. 2 In Cosmogr. Vestiti more meta licorum, gestus & opera coru imitatur. b Immisso in terræ carceres vento horribiles

terræ motus efficiunt, quibus sæpe non domus modo & turres, sed civitates integræ & insulæ haustæ sunt. *Hierom. in 3. Ephes. Idem Michaelis

c. 4. de spiritibus. Idem Thyreus de locis infestis.

VOL. I.

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and the Moon, for them that transgressed least, and hell for the wickedest of them, Hic velut in carcere ad finem mundi, tunc in locum funestiorum trudendi, as Austin holds de Civit. Dei, c. 22. lib. 14. cap. 3. & 23. but be where he will, he rageth while he may to comfort himself, as Lactantius thinks, with other men's fals, he labours all he can to bring them into the same pit of perdition with him. "For d men's miseries, calamities and ruines, are the Devil's banqueting dishes. By many temptations and several Engines, he seeks to captivate our souls. The Lord of lyes, saith Austin, "as he was deceived himself, he seeks to deceive others, the Ring-leader to all naughtiness, as he did by Eve and Cain, Sodome, and Gomorah, so would he do by all the world. Sometimes he tempts by covetousness, drunkenness, pleasure, pride, &c. erres, dejects, saves, kils, protects, and rides some men, as they do their horses. He studies our overthrow, and generally seeks our destruction; and although he pretend many times humane good, and vindicate himself for a god, by curing of several diseases, agris sanitatem, & cæcis luminis usum restituendo, as Austin declares, lib. 10. de civit, Dei cap. 6. as Apollo, Esculapius, Isis, of old have done; divert plagues, assist them in wars, pretend their happiness, yet nihil his impurius, scelestius, nihil humano generi infestius, nothing so impure, nothing so pernicious, as may wel appear by their tyrannicall and bloody sacrifices of men to Saturne and Moloch, which are still in use among those Barbarous Indians, their severall deceits and cozenings to keep men in obedience, their false Oracles, sacrifices, their superstitious impositions of fasts, penury, &c. Heresies, superstitious observations of meats, times, &c. by which they crucifie the souls of mortal men, as shall be shewed in our Treatise of Religious Melancholy. Modico adhuc tempore sinitur malignari, as Bernard expresseth it, by God's permission he rageth a while, hereafter

• Lactantius 2. de origine erroris cap. 15. hi maligni spiritus per omnem terram vagantur, & solatium perditionis suæ perdedis hominibus operatur. & Mortalium calamitates epulæ sunt malorum dæmonu, Synesius. • Daminus mendacii à seipso deceptus, alios decipere cupit, adversarius humani generis, Inventor mortis, superbiæ institutor, radix malitiæ, scelerum caput, princeps omnium vitiorum, fuit inde in Dei contumeliam, hominų perniciem : de horum conatibus & operationibus lege Epiphaniu. 2. Tom. lib. 2. Dionysium. c. 4. Ambros Epistol. lib. 10. ep. & 84. August. de civ. Dei lib. 5. c. 9. lib. 8. cap. 22. lib. 9. 18. lib. 10. 21. Theophil. in 12. Mat. Pasil. ep. 141. Leonem Ser. Theodoret. in 11. Cor. ep. 22. Chrys. hom. 53. in 12. Gen. Greg. in 1. c. John. Barthol. de prop. 1. 2. c. 20. Zanch. 1. 4. de malis angelis. Perer. in Gen. 1. S. in c. 6. 2. Origen. sæpe præliis intersunt, itinera & negotia nostra quæcunq; dirigunt, clandestinis subsidiis optatos sæpe præbent successus, Pet. Mar. in Sam. &c. Ruscam de Inferno. Et velut mancipia circumfert Psellus. 8 Lib. de

trans. mut. Malac. ep.

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to be confined to hell and darkness, "which is prepared for him and his Angels, Mat. 25.

i

How far their power doth extend, it is hard to determine; what the Ancients held of their effects, force and operations, I will briefly shew you: Plato in Critias, and after him his followers, gave out that these spirits or Devils, "were men's governors and keepers, our Lords and masters, as we are of our cattle." "They govern Provinces and Kingdoms by Oracles, auguries," dreams, rewards and punishments, prophesies, inspirations, sacrifices, and religious superstitions, varied in as many formes as there be diversity of spirits; they send wars, plagues, peace, sickness, health, dearth, plenty, Adstantes hic jam nobis, spectantes & arbitrantes, &c. as appears by those histories of Thucidides, Livius, Dionysius Halicarnasseus, with many others that are full of their wonderfull stratagems, and were therefore by those Roman and Greek common-wealths adored and worshipped for gods, with prayers, and sacrifices, &c. In a word, Nihil magis quærunt quam metum & admirationem hominum; and as another hath it, Dici non potest, quam impotenti ardore in homines dominium, & Divinos cultus maligni spiritus affectent. Tritemius in his book de feptem secundis, assignes names to such Angels as are Governors of particular Provinces, by what authority I know not, and gives them several jurisdictions. Asclepiades a Grecian, Rabbi Achiba the Jew, Abraham Avenezra, and Rabbi Azariel, Arabians, (as I finde them cited by Cicogna) farther adde, that they are not our Governors only, Sed ex eorum concordiá & discordia, boni & mali affectus promanant, but as they agree, so do we and our Princes, or disagree; stand or fall. Juno was a bitter enemy to Troy, Apollo a good friend, Jupiter indifferent, Æqua Venus Teucris, Pallas iniqua fuit; some are for us still, some against us, Premente Deo, fert Deus alter opem. Religion, policy, publike and private quarrels, wars are procured by them, and they are delighted perhaps to see men fight, as men are with Cocks, Buls and Dogs, Bears, &c. plagues, dearths depend on them, our benè and malè esse, and almost all our other peculiar actions, (for as Anthony Rusea contends lib. 5. cap. 18. every man hath a good and a bad Angell attending of him in particular, all his life long, which Iamblicus cals dæmonem) preferments, losses, weddings, deaths, rewards and punishments, and as Proclus will, all offices whatsoever, alii genetricem,

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h Custodes sunt hominum, & eorum, ut nos animalium: tum & provinciis præpositi regunt auguriis, somniis, oraculis, præmiis, &c. i Lypsius Physiol. Stoic. lib. 1. cap. 19. Leo Suavis. idem & Tritemius. 1 Omnif. mag. lib. 2. cap. 23. Ludus deorum sumus. n Lib. de anima & dæmone.

02

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alii opificem potestatem habent, &c. and several names they give them according to their offices, as Lares, Indegites, Præstites, &c. When the Arcades in that battel at Cheronæa, which was fought against King Philip for the liberty of Greece, had deceitfully carried themselves, long after, in the very same place, Dis Græciæ ultoribus (saith mine Author) they were miserably slain by Metellus the Roman: so likewise, in smaller matters, they will have things fall out, as these boni and mali Genü favour or dislike us: Saturni non conveniunt Jovialibus, &c. He that is Saturninus, shal never likely be preferred. That base fellowes are often advanced, undeserving Gnathoe's, and vicious parasites, whenas discreet, wise, vertuous, and worthy men are neglected and unrewarded, they refer to those domineering spirits, or subordinate Genii; as they are inclined, or favour men, so they thrive, are ruled and overcome, for as P Libanius supposeth, in our ordinary conflicts and contentions, Genius Genio cedit & obtemperat, one Genius yields and is overcome by another. All particular events almost they refer to these private spirits; and (as Paracelsus addes) they direct, teach, inspire, and instruct men: Never was any man extraordinary famous in any Art, action, or great Commander, that had not familiarem dæmonem, to inform him, as Numa, Socrates, and many such, as Cardan illustrates, cap. 128. Arcanis prudentice civilis, Speciali siquidem gratia, se à Deo donari asserunt magi, à Geniis cœlestibus instrui, ab iis doceri. But these are most erroneous paradoxes, ineptæ & fabulose nuga, rejected by our Divines, and Christian Churches. 'Tis true, they have, by God's permission, power over us, and we finde by experience, that they can hurt not our fields only, cattel, goods, but our bodies and mindes. At Hammel in Saxony, An. 1484. 20. Junii, the Devil, in likeness of a pied Piper, carried away 130 Children, that were never after seen. Many times men are affrighted out of their wits, carried away quite, as Sheretzius illustrates, lib. 1. c. 4. and severally molested by his means, Plotinus the Platonist lib. 14. advers. Gnos. laughs them to scorne, that hold the Devil or Spirits can cause any such diseases. Many think he can work

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Boissardus c. 6. magia.

Godelmanus cap. 3. • No

Quoties fit, ut Principes novitium aulicum divitiis & dignitatibus pene obruant, & multorum annorum ministrum, qui non semel pro hero periculum subiit, ne teruntio donent, &c. Idem. Quod Philosophi non remunerentur, cum scurra & ineptus ob insulsum jocum sæpe præmium reportet, inde fit, &c. P Lib. de cruet. Cadaver. lib. 1. de Magis, idem Zanchius lib. 4 cap. 10. & 11. de malis angelis. civa Melancholia furiosos efficit, & quandóque penitus interficit. G. Picolomineus Idemq; Zanch. cap. 10. lib. 4. si Deus permittat, corpora nostra movere possunt, alterare, quovis morborum & malorum genere afficere, imo & in ipsa penetrare & sævire.

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