The strange WITCH AT GREENWICH, (Ghost, Spirit, or Hobgoblin) haunting a Wench, late servant to a Miser, suspected a Murderer of his late Wife: With curious Discussions of walking spirits and spectars' of dead Men departed, for rare and mystical knowledge and discourse, By HIERONYMUS MAGOMASTIX.  
Eme Lysippo, novos, tota sonat Vrbe, Libellos.  
April 24. 1650. Imprimatur. JOHN DOWNAME.  
LONDON, Printed by Thomas Harper, and are to be sold by John Saywell, at the Greyhound in Little Britain, 1650.   

The strange Witch at Greenwich, etc.  Scepticus. 
REverend Sir, though my acquaintance be but young with you, yet emboldened upon these extraordinary courtesies, I lately received from you (ever obliging my gratitude) by your candid imparting unto me your learned notions, to my full anchoring and settling in such points and doubts as before, I was tossed and troubled in unsettled fluctuations, as I then (I thank you) thrashed out of your full mow, and lighted my dark torch at your bright flame; lapping as a poor Poet out of your Homerical Basin: so knowing you are as willing to improve your able parts for public and private good to the inlivening and enlightening of such weak tenuities as mine, as a full dugd Mother or Nurse to communicate her milk to a hungry child, as the Sun lends her light to the Moon, Stars, and Planets, and his influence to the sublunaries, since bonum quo communius co melius, good the more common it is, the more commendable; as a poor Beggar who knows the way willingly to the house again where he received a Rich Alms: I make bold to thrust myself further upon your favours so far, as that you would be pleased to inform me both in the quid, quale, & quomodo, of the Reports in every man's tongue (more common than the cough and phlegm in an old woman's mouth, or Oaths and God damn me's, in the mouths of some Roarers) of a strange Witch or Ghost now at your Greenwich, haunting the house of one Meriday, and playing strange pranks by throwing stones at the glass windows, making the stools, chairs, and other utensils dance Sellenger's round, or rather (according to the Music of these Times, turned all frets) passing measure in lofty levaltoes, without either Welsh Ha●pe, Jew's Trump, Scotch Bagpipe, or English disorder (I should say Recorder) throwing also Books, yea the Testament into the fire, as though it cared as little for it, as a new Enthusiast, Papist, or an Atheist, peerking the ladle out of the Wife's boiling pot below, as high as into the Husband's bed above; putting the Husband's breeches upon the Wife's head (as though the Grey Mare were the better Horse) not enduring that a boy should be too captious or capricious throwing the boy's cap into the chimneys smoke, yea as a Lord of mistule, breaking earthen pots (as fast as some Merchants and Bankrupts in these broken and breaking Times) with other such reaks and mad merry pranks, as strange as ever Hobgoblins, pinching Fairies, and Robin Goodfellow acted in houses in old Times amongst Dairy Wenches, and Kitchen Maids.  Veridicus. 
Though usually fama mendax, fame be as lying as flying, grown much bigger (like Snow Balls) by tumbling from mouth to mouth, yet to answer you in your Jocoserious strain what you have related, and much more as of much more authentic credit, than what the Popish Proselytes believe as Gospel's truth in their leaden Legends of St. Dennyes and St. Guthmar, taking their heads in their hands, and burying them when they were cut off; of Justina (being a right woman) who spoke when her tongue was cut out; of St. Tryer who caused a sheep (as most blabbing meat) to bleat in a Thiefs belly, who had eat it; of St. Francis who caused a Wolf to leave woarying Sheep, calling him brother Wolf; of the stones who said Amen, venerable Bede, when he had ended his Sermon; of St. Cuthbert who made the Crows do penance (in black sheets) for pulling the thatch off his house; of St. Dominîck who took up his books fall'n into the Sea as dry as dust, and of St. Margaret who by the sign of the all wonder working cross, caused a Spider which she had swallowed come out at her leg by a little scratching, with a number such like, which they scrape, and scratch, and patch together like shreds in a Beggar's Cloak to make up a fardel of fooleries, and a bundle of babbles; for as I have examined the truth of these things you have related, not only from the Wife, Son, and Daughter of that Merryday, but from Master Halsepenny and his Wife, who saw a Laundyron of itself without any visible mover leap out of the fire, a Candlestick skip up into the chamber, as other Neighbours other such postures as true as strange, hearing also strange noises and ratlings, as of Carts or Wanes rumbling up and down the house when the doors have been locked, and except a Cat or Rat, no visible Creature within; so I myself being one night with much company in the house, as we went out a round stone was thrown at my Daughter's heels: another time as I was in the house with the old Wife and two Children, as I went into the Garden a knife was thrown after me, which I took up, and with vehemency threw back again to the very place from whence it came, daring the Witch or Spirit to throw it at me again, and conjuring it in the name of that Jesus which is terrible to Devils to speak unto me, and to reveal the reason why it haunted the house, and to return to it own place; but I had no reply, neither by voice or gesture.  Scept. 
But did you not in this case use exorcisms, which you so condemn in Priests and Jesuits?  Verid. 
I know well both Durand in the Rites of his Church (lib. 1. cap. 19) and Thiraeus (de Demonibus part. 3.) and Delrius in his Magical disquisitions (Tom. 3.) and Bellarmine, and the Rhemists upon Timothy, 1 Cor. 3. and all the Rabble of them, make exorcism or adjuration of Spirits, one of the disorderly Orders of their Church, and they join it with the Acolythites, Ostiarians' Readers, Priests, and Deacons, and Bristol in his Motives, Bozius and Campian make it one of the Notes of their Church, as the chief of their Miracles, and both Staphilus and Smediline, page 404. and Lindan in his Dialogues (dial. 3. cap. 1.) and Bredenbachius in his Collations, lib. 7. cap. 40. & cap. 42. scoff at Luther, and his Protestants, because they cannot conjure Spirits, which they say was attempted to their great scaith and scorn, both in Wittemb●rge, Anno 1545. and else where Anno 1563. I know also that they pretend this exorcizing of Spirits came from Solomon, and so according to Origen (tract. 35. in Math.) they make it Judaical, and consequently (since according to Junius, Judizare est Christum denegare) they deny Christ and his Gospel by Judaizing; I know also Tertullian in his Prescriptions, cap. 4. deny this power unto women, yet they brag of their Catharine de Sienna, St. Bridget Genoveir, Anatolia, Euphrasia, Hildegund, and others, that they had this prerogative over Spirits, yet nevertheless what I did in adjuring the spirit in a lawful calling, se defendeudo, in defending myself from it, when it assaulted me by a knife thrown at me, in using against it the name of jesus, (which according to Tertullian to Triphon, Lactantius in his Institutions, lib. 4 cap. 17. and Athanasius in the life of Anthony is so terrible unto, and powerful against Devils) my act was so far discrepant from the practice of the Popish Priests in their ordinary adjurations, like the sons of Sceva, Acts ●6 14. in a foolish imitation and usurpation of that power which Christ gave his Apostles, Luke 10.19. (interpreted by Athanasius in Psal. 28. and Bosterus in locum) as there is discrepance betwixt true Miracles (these sometimes of Jannes and Jambres of the primitive Heretics, and our modern superstitious Papists,) which by degrees we shall bring to the test and touchstone.  Scept. 
I know well this power of adjuring spirits, was not only Apostolical, but it continued for some times in the nonage and infancy of the Church after the Apostles, for the confirmation of the faith both of the Christians and the Gentiles out of whom no spirits could be dispossessed but by Christians, as we may see in Tertullia's Apology (cap. 23.) and to Scapula, cap. 2. and in Cyprian (Epist. 2. & 76.) Minutius (in Octavio) with Athanastus, Prudentius, Justin, and others; but for every mumbling Priest to monopolise it, and to have that power over demonaicks which Christ had himself, and did only delegate to his Disciples: yea to take upon them to exercise this their exorcizings of spiris out of young Children, in baptism, when a pocky Priest (in King James his phrase) spits in a Child's mouth, this is as ridiculous as gross and superstitious.  Verid. 
It cannot be denied that children are in nature the children of wrath, Ephes. 2.2. born in sin with David, Psal. 51. none being exempted from the infection of original sin, not John the Baptist, Jeremy, or the Virgin Mother (save only the Saviour of sinners) yea perhaps by reason of this original sin derived not by imstation as Pelagians grant but by propagation as hereditary diseases usually, even Infants may be vexed and troubled with spirits, as Augustine affirms in his City of God (lib. 21. cap. 14. & lib. 22. cap. 22.) yet to exorcise them after the fashion of Popish Priests in Baptism (which was never used to the jewish Children by levitical Priests in circumcision) hath neither Precept from Christ instituting Baptism, nor practise, that I read of in the Primitive Church; but like their Auricular confession, adoration, and circumgestation of the breaden God, denegation of marriage to Ministers, vows of poverty, continency and single life; and much such like trumpery (with Ionas his Gourd) it hath grown up of itself: and therefore being no Plant of Christ's planting, with most of their wild Gourds, and wild Olives; they and it must whither, being without any root or grafting, Math. 15 John 15.  Scept. 
But leaving these deep discussions, I pray you proceed in your plain story of this house haunted by Witches: I have heard of most of these Pageants you have related were only done by the wily Wench, who was servant to the woman taken out of her grave, upon suspicion of her unnatural death: and that she hath troubled and blundered the Waters, and made all this poother, to call her late Master in question about the death of his Wife.  Verid. 
It's very true, that bold faced brazen browed wench hath had a great finger in the Pie, and hath been a great stickler in these Pageants; for I have had her in serious examination, and I have with much ado wrested from her thus much: that being one day in her mother's garden, some three weeks after her Dame's death, that a stone was thrown at her, and hit her on the back, none being near her, nor within her sight; at which she much marveling from whence it should come, she took up the stone, looked seriously upon it, carried it up and down the Garden, with as much pride and complacency, as admiration: upon which Satan vehemently tempted her to throw it against her mother's window, which this obedient vassal did accordingly. Upon which she setting the Devil a work, as he her, as she broke the ice, an ill spirit hath waded and thrown forty stones since (as forty can testify) at the same windows, no visible hand being since, not any terminus a que, local place discerned from whence, or how they should come.  Scept. 
And is this all she hath confessed▪  Verid. 
Without much wresting and spunging she hath freely and penitentially acknowledged both to myself and others, that since that stone thrown in the Garden, she herself in a paltry pride to aggravate the Report of spirit haunting behind people's backs, when she thought she was free from being seen, hath often in acting and counterfeiting the spirit, thrown stools, cushions, candlesticks, dishes, and kept the like Revel Rush; and indeed so long goes the Pitcher to the Well, that at last it comes home broke. Satan catcht her in her own snare, being by a young man taken tripping in the very act, as she cast a great chip out of a chamber down the stairs into the house where many people were.  Scept. 
But as the phrase is, that a pudding hath two ends, what one good end had she in this wickedly, witty folly and knavery?  Verid. 
You have answered yourself and unriddled your own question; for it was wicked witty folly indeed in a young Imp of 14 year old, that had more wit to do wickedly, than grace to do good; her fantasticalities being such mixtures as be in some Tarltanonized leasters and Baffons of ingenious folly and serpentine knavery; as there be the two species of a Horse and an Ass, in a Mule; of a Dog and an Ape in a Cynocephalift; of a Leopard and Camel in a Camelopardis, and of ignorance and arrogance in some self conceited fantastic.  Scept. 
And was this the primus motor, and main original that set her a work?  Verid. 
These her inward principles and corruptions which you see how soon they begin to work and act in our degenerate nature, they were as sparks fuellized by Satan, who as she told me with sad looks and sighs (but with as many tears as millstones) upon the throwing of her first stone, entered into her as into Judas and Ananias, and others, and vehemently tempted her to act all these parts, which I have recited, and many more; baiting his hook with many delusive promises, that if she would go on as she had begun, what she did should never be known, and that he would never forsake her, as its probable he will be as good as his word (as a shame to some of his officers) bankrupts, Politicians & Impostors, who break their words as Samson broke his cords, and dally with promises, as Children with Babbles, and old Flowers thrown by, as old Ladders after their ends be climbed and shaken off, as Foxes do their Fleas.  Scept. 
But not to jest with the times which is to touch the Lion's paw, or play with his beard. I see give the Devil an inch, and he will take an ell, sup of his broth, and eate of his roast-meat, it being dangerous to give his waters the least passage, or to entertain the least spark of his hellish heats into a harboring heart, but principiis obstare to resist him in the beginning, to quench his sparks with prayers and tears in the first kindling, to crush his injected temptations, as young Serpents in the heads, and Cockatrices in their shells; yea to pump them out as water out of a ship as fast as they leaker or dash in: This infernal Fox or Serpent wresting in himself whole, where he gets but in his head, like a hungry Dog following still for more, if he get but one luring crust to entice him on.  
I see also how soon these young things, God leaving them to themselves, and to their strong soon budding corruptions, like soft Wax, take sudden Satanical Impressions, like that young Pythonist or Ventriloquist, who got her Masters much gain by Southsaying, Acts 16. and that young baggage, who like the cackling of a Hen, that Peter was a Galilean made that Cock cry Craven, to the denying of his Master, Math. 27. and that young Herodias in whom the Devil danced, faith chrysostom, till her round turn and mimical gestures laid John Baptists round head in a platter, Mark 6. and many young wily Wenches in our Times, some discovered by Doctor Harsuet, some by Deakon and Walker, in their printed Dialoguizing, and some by deep and judicious King James, to have played strange reaks by the tutoring and impostures of Friars and Jesuits, and by the trainings of some old Witches and Wizzards both black and white; and indeed I have a strong jealousy that this Imp hath a lair Father or laire-mother (besides Satan the Father of all impostures) some he or she Witch, who trains her (besides these Legerdemaines) even in witchcraft itself.  Verid. 
Truly my jealousies and suspicions in this kind have been and still are as strong as yours; that as the old Cock's crow, the young ones learn; and for this purpose I have touched every string, rolled every stone, improved all my best by myself and friends to find out the old serpent of this young spawn, and by this Cubbe, I have used all the Terriers of my best wits to hunt the old Fox to the hole to trap her teachers; but though much suspected, nothing yet can be detected: Yea I have dealt by all ways and means with the Wench fair and foul, menaces, threaten, and promises to reveal her Magical Tutoress; but as she is as subtle as a young serpent, I can get no more out of her then water out of a stone, or Oil from a Pumice, whether guilty or not guilty, I think an English Rack, or Spanish strappado would no more get it out of her, than Austogiton Leaena and Hermodius confessed in tortures: Unless we could discover her, as now the Scotch Witches by water Ordeall (as once amongst the old Saxons) I think it's as hard to find her out in any Witchcrafts, as to find out these minotaures' Cannibals and Cormorants, who have devoured into the Curtain gulf of their own coffers, all these vast sums of moneys even many thousands which they have as sacrilegious thiefs received, deceived, from the charity of Holland London, England, to the relief of the poor hunger starved Protestants from ●reland, so shearing the Ape, robbing the Spittle for Achans wedge, and unprosperous toulouse Gold, till the hook of vengeance stick in the jaws of in justice, Joh 20.10.11.12.13.14.  Scept. 
indeed Murder, Treason, Witchcraft, Theft, Cozenage, chiefly walking in a Fox furred Gown, are as hard to be found out, as the head of Nilus, or as an Officer who smoothly licks his yellow dusted fingers, as the Harlot her lips, and saith I have not sinned, more than some Tailor (stealer) who looks up to Heaven till he throw Satan into Hell hole, protesting he takes nothing but that which is brought to him, but leaving these digressions upon unreformed, yea unquestioned transgressions, some have a great jealousy of the old Wife her Mother in Law, that she should be lose in the haft, and not so good as she should be; yea that she should have a great hand, head or heart in these witchly or spiritly postures, as though by some explicit or implicit compact with Satan, she should delude the world by these fascinations, what think you of her?  Verid. 
Charity bids me think the best of her, and forbids me to judge rashly of her lest I enter into a praemunire against God, who is only the fearcher of the Reins; I have no windows into her heart, and for her outward carriage it is so candid, square and fair, that I see no cause either in Reason or Religion to suspect her, unless upon some grounding probabilities I could direct her; she seems to me to be so passive in the premises, yea so passionate and compassionate in all the passages recited, so strong in faith, so frequent and fervent in prayer, so zealous in her devotions, so sincerely subordinate to all ordinances public and private, that if she be any way active in this base business, either in complotting, contriving, confederating, councelling, consenting, countenancing, or concealing: I shall not only say hypocrisy is spun with a fair thread, and that all is not Gold that glisters; but that she were a worse she Devil, yea white Devil for a woman, than Judas for a man, whose hypocrisy (like a dunghill under a great snow unmelted) was so long ere it was discovered, John 13.  Scept. 
If then neither the old woman of the house have been the Author of nor Actor in these motions and molestations, nor any Witcheraft can be detected, its probable the Wench acts all herself with her own hands by legerdemain.  Verid. 
Something she doth, but not all, for solid witnesses omni exceptione majores, beyond all exception will depose if need be, (as I will by these premises lay ten pounds to ten shillings against any Sceptic or Junior Didimu that will not believe what I relate) that stools in the house, sticks out of the fire, Laundyrons out of the chimney have removed of themselves, and other things also, they looking on, and seeing nothing move them more than they see, a voice, a found, a wind, a noise, a soul in man, or their own hearts, which they perceive really, though they see nothing visibly.  Scept. 
Then these motions from an invisible Agent, come either from a Witch set a work by the Wench, or by some others, or else it is the Ghost or Spirit of the dead woman her late Dame which walks, as I will assure you many in the Town, and most in the Country ere she was rook out of her Grave, did believe as their Creed verily and assuredly.  Verid. 
But as a woman being asked by Bonner, if she believed not Christ's body and blood to be in the Sacrament substantially and really? She told him it was a substantial lie, and a real lie; so I assure you, what ever the Pontificians dote or feign, or our Vulgars' dream of the Ghosts or Spirits of this man, or that man walking after their deaths in this or that shape, is a very lie, an assured lie; take this from me, yea from Scripture, Fathers, Reason, and Experience assuredly.  Scept. 
But do you not believe that many strange visions and apparitions have appeared unto men, and have revealed divers strange things unto them and future events sometimes visible in bodily shapes and forms, are not these the soul●s of the dead?  Verid. 
No they are not, yet I should give a lie to abundant Histories and to all Antiquities, if I should deny all Visions, for the Author of the Book of the Machab●●s tells us of two young men who appeared to Heliodorus, 2 Machab. 3.25.26. of five to Judas Machabeus, 2 Machab. 10.23. and Zozomens Ecclesiastical History relates a fear full spectar terryfying Julian the Apostate, as he was consulting with an Oracle (lib. 5. cap. 2.) and another in form of a big woman with a horrid noise in the night terrifying the Antiochians, lib. 7. cap. 23. and of another appearing to Apelles the Painter, whose face he burned with a hot Iron, lib. 6 cap. 28. (as St. Dunstan is said to take the Devil by the nose with a pair of hot pinchers:) yea to reflex from Ecclesiastical on secular History, a spectar appeared to Julius Caesar, as he led his Army into France, encouraging him by a loud pipe to pass over the River Rubico, another to Brutus, telling him he would meet him at Philippos, another to Dionysius the Syracusan in form of a woman, as he sat very solitary in the Porch of his house, another to Polizelus the Athenians General in the Battle of Marathan, where he was victorious, though it struck him blind, another to Athenodorus the Stoic, which he dispossessed out of a house in Athens, which it haunted; just as the Spirit now doth the house of Meriday, and another in the Parish of Mentz, who by breaking open doors, casting stones, pulling down walls (and the like reaks that our Greenwich Spirit doth) troubled and terrified many, and another to Henry the third, Emperor in Hungary near Danubius in the shape of a black and big Aethiopian, another also to Maximilian the first Emperor, Anno 1503. in the form of an Abatesse who was dead; of all which, with many more which I purposely pretermit, for further satisfaction consult with Came arius in his Centuries, Cent. 1. cap. 70. cap. 72. with Richtherus in his occonomical Axioms, Reg. 2. & 90. Aretius' in his Probleams, Page 113. Pliny in his seventh book of Epistles (to Sura) Wolfius in his memorable Lecticus, Tom. 1. Aventine in his Annals (lib. 5. Boiorum) Artunus in his first Section of the History of Milan, together with Plutark in his Brutns and Dion, Suetonius in his Caesar, with others all which instances do not only confute and confound the ancient Saducees, who denied that there were either Spirits or Angels, Acts 23.8. Math 22.23. yea conceited God himself to be corporeal (according to Lorinns, in acta cap. 23.8. fol. 869. from chrysostom and Oecumenius) and not a spirit, denying also the Holy Ghost (according to Hierom in Math. 22.) to be a spirit, or to be any person in the Deity, nor do they only muzzle the mouth of Atheistical Politicians, who with that Trismegistus, in Saint Augustine's City of God (lib. 3. cap. 23.) hold that there be no real or substantial Devils, but only the Furies and Erinys of wicked consciences; but also some neotorick and modern Fantastics and Sceptics, who conceit all to be mere phantasms and delusions in this kind, and no more to be credited then the fictitious Tritons, Gerion's, and Chimaeras of the Poets, yea of no more credence than the old Wives Tales of King Oberon, and Queen of the Fairies.  Scept. 
To deny all Apparitions of spirits which the Disciples themselves feared, when they saw Christ walking on the waters, (Math. 14.26. Mark. 6.46.) were to deny plain Scriptures, for they thought he had been a spirit; for I believe the Relation of Suetonius in the life of Nero, that after that Truculent Tyrant, had butchered so many noble Senators, made Bonfires of so many Christian Martyrs, put to death his Master Seneca, when he was 114. years of age, crucified Peter and Paul, and unripped the bowels of his Mother Octavia, with other such barbarous cruelties, that he was not only racked and tortured with his own guilty conscience, and terrified with agonizing fears in his dreams, as were Caligula his Successor, Herod after his assassinations of the Bethlem Infants, and Jewish Synedrim, Alexander after the murder of Clitus Philip after the butchering of his innocent son Demetrins (and our bloody Boar Richard the third, after his murdering of his Brother and Nephews in the Tower by Tirell whose panic fears and terrors in the guilt of blood, are more largely related by Patritius, in his books of a Kingdom, lib. 5. tit. 8. pag 313. and by Strigellius in his Ethics, lib. 1. pag. 6.7.8. and in his Comments on 2 Sam. 3. pag. 9 & pag. 15●. but I believe also the Relation of the same Authors, that he was so whipped, and scourged, and scorched in his flesh, as with hot brands, with a spirit in the shape of his Mother, that as Balthasar consulted with his Magicians in the like panic fears, Dan. 5. he used all the helps he could by Magic to appease as he thought her angry Ghost; neither have I any reason to contradict the received Relation of that terrible Vision of an ugly man in bulk like a Giant, appearing in the night to Pisistratus the Tyrant, thundering to him what he found true, that nemo Improbus, non luit poenam, no wicked man must escape unpunished; yet for all this I persuade myself, many conceit they see or hear spirits, when there is no such matter.  Verid. 
That is certain, for in the guilt of conscience, Theoderick a cruel King of the Goth●● thought he saw the bloody head of Symachus which he had out off, to gape with open mouth upon him, when only the head of a great Fish was set on his table, by which Gild of Conscience some have strangely discovered their own murders, as many notorious Villains have been discovered by others, of which many instances may be seen in Gualters' Homilies upon Luke, cap. 12. pag. 324. as also Bucholcerus his Chronologies, pag. 59 chiefly in Melancton in locis Manlii, pag. 290. 308. Sometimes withal, the senses are mainly deluded, as the Moabites thought the waters were died with the blood of the Israelites, when it was only the Sun which shined upon them to a waterish redness, 2 King. 3.22.23. But chiefly melancholy men, Bedlam Birds, and frantic persons, by the tumultuations of malignant spirits, distemper of their brains and fascinations of Satan fishing in a troubled water (as his Proselytes since in these streams in Church and State which themselves made) do not only conceit themselves to be oft strangely metamorphized Creatures into Birds and Beasts (which was Nabuchadnezzar's Case, Dan 3.) yea into Urinals, Glasses, and the like (of which abundant instances are given by Galen, Avicen, our Doctor Bright and Burton in his love Melancholy) but sometimes they think they see Spirits and Spectars', yea that they themselves are Devils, as Bessus, and those who murdered Ibicus, thought chattering Swallows to be their Accusers, as Pluta●k hath it, de sera niminis vindicta; besides those who have been long sick, and bedrid, or distempered in their brains with swimmings and vertigoes (chiefly our new Seekers and brain sick Enthusiasts) especially (according to P. Egineta lib. 3. cap. 16) those who are oppressed with the Ephialtes, or Night Mare, or riding of the Witch, as vulgar people call it, are most deluded with seeming Spectars' and Apparitions, of all which read for further satisfaction Aretius his problems, loco 113, circa finem.  Scept. 
But since not only the vulgars' as strongly conceit that these spectars', and visions which have been so oft discerned in the visible shapes of this or that man or woman deceased, are the very persons or ghosts of those whom they so lively represent: but they are so held by the tenants, and opinions of all the learned Jesuits, Priests, and Schoolmen, yea by the determinations of their Counsels of Trent, of Constance, and else where, as resolutely as other Counsels at Rome, 
(a) cap. 3. & 7.  Carthage, 
(b) cap. 4. & 5.  Laodicea, 
(c) cap. 24 & 26.  Antioch, 
(d) cap. 10.  with their Clemens, 
(e) epist 5. add Iacobum●. , Anacletus, 
(f) epist. ●.  and Caius, 
(g) epis. ad felice  determine, and ordain Exorcists to adjure them, to know their errands, and to conjure them down. I pray you, according to your various readings, satisfy me from Scripture grounds, and consent of antiquity what they are? and from whence they proceed in the affirmative? and why they are not the spirits or ghosts of the dead, according to the vulgar error, if it be an error.  Verid. 
First to remove the mists and clouds which have so long dazzled and darkened the blind and superstitious Plebeians, that these walking, or talking spectars' in humane shapes, are such men and women really as have been dead and buried; this is not only a sixion unprobable, but impossible, for these Reasons. First, to hold they are the souls of the dead is false: for the souls of the Saints are in the hands of God, to whom they are commended, Psal. 31.5. Now who shall take them out of God's hands, this were, as the Proverb is, more than to take or pull away Hercules his Club, loves Sceptre, or Neptune's Trident, which the Pagans held impossible. Secondly, they are departed in peace: as Simeon Prophesied, Luke 2.29. Syracid. 3. v. 3.4. now who can disturb this Peace, to bring them from Heaven to earth again? Thirdly, they are bound up in the bundle of life 2 Sam. 25.29. and who shall lose and unbundle them? Fourthly, they are in Paradise with the soul of Christ's penitent fellow sufferer, Luk. 23.43. and of Lazarus. Luk. 16.22. where being in refr●gerio, in fruition of joy, though not in fullness till the Resurrection, according to Esdras lib. 2. cap 7. v. 51, 52, 53, and Musculus on Math. cap. 9 & cap. 27. fol. 641. How can this joy be interupted, by their activities here on earth again, in such labours from which they have for ever rested, Revel. 14.13. Now as these spectars' are not the souls of Saints, much less of the wicked: for the day of their visitation being neglected, in which they should have wrought out their salvation: Luke 19, 42.44. their souls are enclosed closed in Hell, out of which there is no jail delivery, Psal. 55.16. as the cruel rich Churl experimented, Luke 16.22. their death feeds on them, Psal. 49.14. yea the worm ever gnaws them, Mark 9.49. to which Poets alluded by the Eagle and Vulture ever gnawing on the Livers of Titius and Prometheus, in their Avernus or Tartarus, as the Tree falls so it lies, whether to the North or South, Eccles. 11.3. and as they go down to Hell, Psal. 9.17. with Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, Numb. 16.31. so ex inferis nulla redemptio, there is no redemption out of Hell, its reductio per impossibile, they shall never see light more, Psal. 49.19. Thus if the souls of the godly would not return to the Earth if they could; nor the souls of the wicked could if they would, how then after the separations from their bodies can they walk here any more?  Scept. 
Then it is their bodies which walk.  Verid. 
Bodies to walk without souls, this were but like a Puppet Plays motion, or as though Millstones & Mountains should walk, or Trees in Jothams' Parable, Judges 9 or any other things inanimate; but to take you from this conceit, the bodies of the Saints are a sleep in the Lord, as it's said of David, 1 Kings 2.10. and of Solomon, 1 Kings 11.43. as also else where of Asa, Ezekiah, Jehosophat, that they sleep with their Fathers, they go into their Graves as into their beds, Esay. 57.2. they enter into the sleeping chambers of death, and the doors are shut upon them, Esay. 26.20. and who shall awaken them out of this sleep till the last Trump, 1 Thess. 4.16. at what time, v. 17. they shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the Air, and to be ever with him (not on Earth for a thousand years as our new Seekers and arch Heretics dream) but in the Heavens (which are God's Throne) where a place is prepared for them in God's House, where are many Mansions, John 14.2. not in Earth, which is his footstool, much less shall the bodies of the wicked kept in the shackles of the Grave, as Prisoners in Newgate for Tyburn, till the Resurrection for Hell return, till that time prefixed of God any more to the Earth, or to their forsaken houses, Job 7.10. they shall rot and perish in the Grave, the eye which saw them shall see them no more. Job 20.7.8. there shall they be tied as guilty felons for execution with the chains and cords of their sins, Prov. 5.22. their memories shall rot, cap. 20.7. their hopes and expectations shall perish, cap. 11.8.  
Secondly, if the dead walk on Earth, it's either by God's command, or by their own private motion, not by any mandate from God. of which the Scripture is altogether silent, ne gri quidem, and according to Tertullian, quod non habet, ignorat, what it hath not, it is ignorant of, quod non jubet, prohibet, what it commands not, it prohibits, what it affirms not either directly, or by consequent, it denies; now it is so far from allowing or teaching this walking of men or their spirits, that it directly contradicts it, Luke 16.26. as a thing impossible: hence then as its a shame for a Lawyer to plead contrary to all Laws or booked Cases; is it not more shameful for a Christian, much more a Divine, to affirm any thing that's not revealed in Scripture, Heb. 1.1.13. Esay. 8.10. which being not of faith is fin, Rom. 14.23.  
And if God neither command nor commend this walking of deud men, much less can they walk or talk of themselves, with out God, no more then dead Lions can roar, dead Ass' brey, or dead Images speak: Without the impostures of Devils and Friars, since even Satan himself, the cunning Artificer and Contriver of these delusions, is chained as a Mastiff, and grated as a Lion, in all his powers subordinate unto God, as appears in his reference to Job, cap. 1. and the Gaderens' swine, Mark 5.  
Thirdly, Since finis & bonum convertuntur, nothing comes from God, whose end is not good as well as means, their walking were frivolous, and to no purpose, since we are absolutely prohibited from any commerce with spirits, Deut. 18.10.11. and from consulting with them, as leaving the living for the dead, Esay. 8.18.19.  Scept. 
But did not the Witch of Endor raise up Samuel, really with whom Saul consulted, and so consequently, why may not others appear in their visible shapes as well as Samuel after their deaths, 2 Sam. 28.  Verid. 
I know all the Rabble of Schoolmen and Jesuits affirm samuel's real resuscitation, bewitching the vulgars' to believe that the dead appear out of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, to bring the living news of their estate, which golden dream fills their coffers with gold, and brings golden Gudgeons to their spread net; yea catcheth many silver feathered Woodcocks; but they catch at shadows and Satanical shows for samuel's substance: For first, if God would neither answer Saul by Dreams, Visions, Prophets, 1 Sam 28.14.15.16. is it probable that he would answer him by Samuel, at the mediation of a Pythonist, a Vassal and Slave to the Devil, v. 7.  
Secondly, would God permit samuel's practise in answering Saul to contradict his own precept, prohibition of enquiring aught of the dead, Levit. 20.27. Deut. 18.11.  
Thirdly, the real Samuel would not make a lie, telling Saul that the next morning he should be with him, v. 19 that is in a blessed and beatifical condition, when indeed being felo de se in a desperate condition his own self murderer, 1 Sam. 31.4. with other murderers he had no title to eternal life, 1 John 3.12.13.  
Fourthly, I say with Tertullian, absit ut anima cujuslibet justi, God forbidden that the souls of any Saints, much less of the holy Prophets should be in the power of Satan to call them from Heaven at his pleasure.  
Fiftly, I say with Peter Martyr; if Samuel was raised, it was either by the will of God, and samuel's voluntary consenting, or compulsively by art magic: the first it was not, because God prohibits such consultings with the dead: therefore to affirm the second were impious and blasphemous.  Scept. 
But if the true Samuel was not raised by the Witch: what was it then which appeared to Saul?  Verid. 
It was a personated Histrionical Samuel, a deluding Malignant spirit in the shape of Samuel, just as Cornelius Agrippa, that great Conjurer brought the shapes of Helena, Achilles, Hector, and Alexander upon a Stage before Charles the fift; and this is the opinion of Cyrill, lib. 12. in johan. cap. 36. of Theophilact. in cap. 8. Math. as also of Athanasius, and chrysostom alleged by Illiricus Cent. 2. and by Diatericus dom. 1. Trinit. part 2. observ. 1. yea of Augustine in his questions of two Testaments 27. to which even Pontifician Canonists Consent in the second Book of Deeretalls Causa, 26. q. 5. cap 14.  Scept. 
But if it were not the real Samuel which appeared: why is he called Samuel?  Verid. 
Augustine in his Epistle to Symplician, tells us, just as the curious Picture of such and such a Man. Woman, Bird, Beast, or Fish, drawn by some curious Zeuxes, or Apelles, hath their names, as we use to say, this is Hector, this Caesar, this Cicero, this Sallust, this Augustine, Hierom, this the flood Simois, when they are but so limmed, or pencild: as also this is Rome, this Milan, this Venice; when we see them in the Maps of Ortelius or Mercator.  Phil. 
But they tell us these spectars' that they are the souls of such and such Men.  Verid. 
So a counterfeit voice told fond Celestine that he should resign his Popedom to Boniface: so it goes by Tradition, that a voice told the late Mr. Crashaw of the Temple, or old Muncy Duncy of St. John's in Cambridge, that they should go to Geneva to preach the Gospel. chrysostom on Matthew Hom. 29. tells us what credit we are to give to the Devil, and to his tellings in such cases, who is (not as the country Minister read it a Lawyer) but a liar from the beginning, john 8.44. and as the Father of lies teacheth his aequivocating Jesuits, Monks, and Friars, and all his artifizing Gusmans', and Proselytes, their lying tongues better than their Latin tongues.  Phil. 
From whence we have the phrase, hic frater, ergo mendax, he is a Friar, therefore a liar, ● a Jesuit, therefore a Jebusite. But to satisfy me further: that which appeared unto Saul was so like Samuel, that what could it be else, but Samuel?  Verid. 
And I pray you have you not read how like a Cook was to the Father of Pompey, Lentulus to Metellus, Ninus to his Mother Somiramis, the two Twins of Proconesia, and of Hipocrates one to another, both in Pliuny, 
(a) lib. 7. cap. 10.12.  Solinus, 
(b) cap. 4. Poli.  Diodorus, 
(c) lib. 3. de Fab. autiq.  Justin, 
(d) lib. 1.  and Valerius, 
(e) lib. 9 c. is.  as also that Cn. Pompeius was so like great Alexd, 
(f) Plutarch in vita.  a young man so like Augustus, that the jest was the young man's Father had oft been in Rome, and in Caesar's Court; and that young Sporus was so like Sabina, Nero's Empress, that Nero made him be cut, and used him as a woman 
(g) Zephilinus in Nerone. . And in our later times, a young man in the Court of Francis Sfortia the Duke of Milan, in his light armour, sharp voice and jesture, so like the Duke, that by the common voice of the Court he was called a Prince; the like similitude was betwixt Sigismond and his jesting Fool Marchisine, betwixt Oporinus the Printer, and Albert the marquis of Brandburge; and many that you may read of more at large, mentioned by Fulgosus, 
(h) lib. 9 cap. 15.  Valerius, 
(i) lib. 9 cap. 13. & 15.  Sabellicus, 
(k) lib. 1. Aeneid  Stobaeus, 
(l) serm. 42.  Boccace in his Book of excellent Women, 
(m) cap. 2.  Polyanus in his Stratagems, 
(n) lib. 8.  and Polybius in his Histories. 
(o) lib. 4. fol. 123.  All as like one another, or more like, than Satan's assumed shape to Samuel; yea as one egg, one star, and one Pile of grass to another: I myself am able to speak to this purpose that some 30 years since, I have been often in the streets took for Mr. Crashaw, when he was Preacher at the Temple, and I at Saint Brides in Fleetstreet.  Scept. 
But Sir, these you recite were living, and had the lively fresh colours and lineaments of nature: but Samuel was dead.  Verid. 
Therefore it was more easy for Satan to represent his shape, though not absolutely in a perfect symmetry, yet if in any proportion Snul might think, wherein Samuel was defective of his living shape, it was by the soiling of the Grave, in which he had so long laid.  Scept. 
Yet it seems strange to me, that so wise and sagatious a Politician as Saul was, should neither by shape, jesture, nor voice, discern this counterfeit Samuel.  Verid. 
To open your eyes with a little Historical Collirium: was it not as strange, that one was so like Alexander the son of Herod whom his Father slew; that he was taken and saluted as King in josephus his antiquities? 
(p) lib. 27.  another in Leunclavius his Annals of the Turks, 
(q) pag. 34.  and in his Pandects, 
(r) page 291.  so like the great Sultan deceased in Romania, that he drew to him a great Army, siding with him for the Turkish Empire: another in Melanctons' Chronicles 
(s) lib. 4 pag. 358.  so like Constantine deceased, that he put Michael the Grecian Emperor to much trouble and loss in divers set battles: another in the Annals of Flaunders, and in Munster's Cosmography 
(t) pag. 171 anno, 1225.  called Bertrand a French man, so like Baldwine an Earl of Flaunders, which was a Prisoner in Constanrinople, that all Flaunders for a time flocked to him, as their Earl and Lord, broke out of Prison: another both in Cuspinian 
(v) in Tiberio, pag. 13.  and Tacitus 
(w) lib. 2. pag. 102.  a base bondslave to Agrippa that was slain, so resembling him in shape and physiognomy, that he embarked all the Roman Empire in Civil Wars; pretermitting all the bloody broils stirred up in Thessaly and Macedonia, by a counterfeit Psendophilip, in Florus his Epitomies of Livies Dreads, 
(x) lib 49 50. 52.  the distractions wrought in Rome by one resembling Nero, twenty years after his death, 
(y) apud Tacitum lib. 18. pag. 587. & Cuspinian in vita Neronis, pag. 26.  in Persia by one Smerdis resembling the deceased Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, and brother of Cambyses, in Justin, 
(z) lib. 1. pag. 23.  and Herodotus, 
(a) in Thalia, lib. 3. pag. 90.  and in the Cities of Marchia by a Psoude-Wolmar a base Milner by his resemblance of the old Woldemar deceased, fully registered by Peucer in his Chronicles: 
(b) lib. 5. pag. 60.  and in a private Family by one Martin, a French man, long admitted for a Husband though a counterfeit Knave, mentioned by Cognatus in his Narrations, 
(c) anno, 1559, lib. 8.  and Neander in the end of his History, 
(d) pag. 23.  with others graphically set out in their true colours by Tholosanus in his Common Wealth, 
(e) lib. 7. cap. 18. pag. 498. 499.  all cozening and deluding the World with their counterfeit shapes and resemblances, as much as the Ender Witch deceived Saul with her imaginary Samuel, or as Janues and Jambres deluded Pharaoh with their counterfeit serpents, or as Apollonius Thianeus, and a Witch called Lamiah, 
(f) apud Philostr. lib. 4. de vita Apollivarii.  cozened Menippus a young man with a counterfeit banquet, as Zeuxis deceived Birds in Pliny, with painted 
(g) lib. 53. cap. 11.  grapes.  Scept. 
Now that you reflect on Jannes his Serpents, were they not real Serpents?  Verid. 
Though I know that both Theodoret in his Questions on Exodus, 
(h) quest. 18.  Philo. in his book of Moses, and Augustine in his third book of the Trinity, as also Aquinas, Tostatus, Burgensis, and Lyra, hold that their Rods were truly turned into Serpents like the Rod of Aaron; yet I hold them no more real serpents, than what we have discussed to be real Samuel, but only with josephus, 
(i) lib. 2. Antiquit. cap. 15.  that they did creep in speciem verorum in show and likeness of true serpents, and with Tortullian, 
(k) lib. de anima.  that Mosis veritas magorum devoravit mendacium, Moses his truth devoured the lies of the Magicians, and with Hierom 
(l) lib. 2. adversus Jovinian.  that Imitabantur signa quae faciebat Moses; and I hold their acts with Ambr. 
(m) in 2. Epistola. ad Timoth. cap. 3.  commentitiam emulationem, were in a feigned emulatió, no creatió of real serpents, which according to Rupertus, solius divinae potestatie est; yea according to all Orthodox Divinity is the sole and proper work of God's omnipotency, not communicable to Angel's men, or Devils, no more then to create any thing ex novo, vel ex nibile, of nothing, in nothing, or to raise up a Samuel or any other dead man, without such immediate power as the divine essence gave unto Elias, 
(n) 1 King. 17.21.22.  Elisha, 
(o) 2 King. 4.34.  Peter, 
(p) Act. 9.40.  and Paul, 
(q) Act. 20.10.  extraordinarily to raise the dead very seldom and sparingly.  Scept. 
But I pray you since its certain that the dead have been raised since the times of the Prophets and Apostles, as also that strange Miracles have been done; what shall we think of them, whether for the matter they have been done at all, or only feigned by fabulous Historians, or if done I desire to know the manner how, and by what power they were done?  Verid. 
That we be not confused, first show me what dead since the Apostles Times you have read raised, and by whom; then give me some hints of these which have gone, and do go currant for Miracles.  Scept. 
To improve in the first my poor Historifying, besides Enoch and Elias, who I am sure as Types of Christ ascended into Heaven, both in their souls and bodies, and such as are truly Historified or feigned to have vanished out of the eyes of men, without any visible death or burial, as that Aristaeus in Horedotus lib. 4. and that Romulus the founder of Rome, who vanished from the Roman Senate in a great storm near the Lake of Caeprea, as also that strong Thief Cleomines, who was never found saith Sabellicus. lib. 1. cap. 8. after he was shut into a strong and close prison: I have read of a young boy raised by St. Martin, who died in his absence in the house of St. Hilary; as also by another by the said Martin, who hanged himself, of Musomus and Chrysanthus raised out of their Graves by some Bishops of the Counsel of Nice to subscribe to some Orthodox Articles, as also of one Ovo a boy revived by the prayers of Vulfran, as also of one Evarard a Knight of Germany, who after his departure revived, and told what strange things his spirit had seen in Jerusalem, in Lombardy, in the Tents of Saladine, and else where: the like being recorded by Fulgosus. lib. 1. cap. 6. of one Stephen a noble Roman dying at Constantinople, with many more in the like nature, what do you think of these?  Verid. 
I think of them as of the lying Miracles recorded by unsure Surius, Metaphrastes, Abdias, and other Popish Fablers, to be of such Authority as the Transmutations in Ovid, and the Transmigrations of Pythagoras, since they have no better Authors than Gregory's Dialogues, Severus, Sulpitius, Nicephorus, lib. 8. cap. 23. and such Fablers as may vie it for the whetstone, and less credit I give to all these fabulous Relations of Volateran, lib. 16. & lib. 22. Anthrop, of Pliny. lib. 7. cap. 22. of Valerius, lib. 1. cap. 8. of Fulgosus, lib. 1. cap. 6. of Diodorus, lib. ●. cap. 2. of Antiquities, of Celius in his Ancient Readins, lib. 8. of Macrobius in his Scipio's Dream, and others who have dreamt, of the Resuscitations of Tindareus, Hercules, and Aesop the Fabler, of Pamphilus the Scholar, of Plate after his ten day's death, of Isis the son of Orus slain by the Titans of innocent Hippolytus raised by Neptune, after his cruel Father Theseus' had racked him in pieces, of Gabienus one of Caesar's Captains, after his throat was cut by Sextus Pompeius, with abundant others, scattered in the aforesaid Authors, and of one in Sabellicus, lib. 10. cap. 8. Aeneid, who was raised by Asclepiades at his very Grave, else mentiuntur Poetae, the Authors are not grave enough to be believed, as indeed they are not, for to tell you truth, I have perused the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, 
(r) lib. 1. c. 13. & lib. 3. cap. 1.2. & 25. & lib. 9 cap. 1.  more Authentic than either Socrates, Zozomen, Evagrius; or any of his fellows: as also some of the Fathers, Clemens Alexandrinus, 
(s) Strom. lib. 2. & 3.  Epiphanius, 
(t) lib. 1. Tom. 1. Hom. 20.  and Ireneus, 
(v) lib. 3. adversus heres. cap. 3.  as also the German Centuries, 
(w) Cent. 1. lib. 2. cap. 10.  and Osiander their Epitomiser, 
(x) lib. 2. Cant. 1. cap. 33.  yea even Nicephorus himself, 
(y) lib. 2. c. 1.40. & lib. 4. cap. 7.  and Egisippus, 
(z) lib. 3. cap. 2.  who all of them occasionally have-reflexed on the chief acts, lives, and deaths of the Apostles; chiefly of Peter, Paul, Thomas, Matthew, Mathias, Andrew, James the elder, john, Bartholomew, and the rest, some touching on the act of one, some of another: and I profess, excepting Suidas, who relates that Saint john revived his Hostess Drusiana after his return from exile (Domitian being dead) not any one of them, except these being recorded in Scripture, make mention of any one revived by them from death to life; and is it likely than this vivificating power was given to Saint Martin, Saint Vulfran? or any such their imaginary Saints, much less to Asclepiades, or Apollonius, or any of the Pagans, or to a Popish Priest, or Papized Saint, as ordinarily in Dalvortius, who rakes up the dung and filth of all other Legends, as their least petty Miracles which they daily cry up.  Scept. 
Then you give no credit to the Legend of St. Dominick, that he raised up three dead men within the Walls of Rome, and forty at a clap, that were drowned near toulouse, though recorded by Antoninus in his Chronicles 
(a) Tit. 23. cap. 1, 2, 3,  and the French Ribadineira, in the lives (or the lies) of his Saints, 
(b) pag. 94. part 2  on which the French Morney reflexeth to their just obloquy in his Mystery of iniquity.  Verid. 
I believe it verily, as very a lie, as that the Birds stretched out their necks to receive a blessing when Saint Anthony preached, and that Christ and the Virgin Mary sent an Angel to him to come to them to Saint Mary's Church at Assize in Italy, where they stayed to speak with him, or that Christ so printed his five wounds in the body of Saint Francis, that he was tipical Christ, or that a shining Star was on the forehead of Saint Dominick as soon as ever he was baptised, by which he was the light of the World as well as Christ, or that Saint Vincent Ferrier preaching in Spanish was understood of numerous strangers, every one of them in their own language, or that Saint Anthony of Milan his Sermons being refused by Heretics, preached to the Fishes, who all peerkt up their white heads to hear him, and bowed them down to thank him when he called them Brethren, or that Christ in the presence of his Mother and Angels espouzed Katherine of Sienna with a Ring of Gold, and four Rich Stones in it; or that Otho being to receive the consecrated Host, his naked body, in his sick bed opened, and it leapt into his side: all which I believe as I do the Chastities of Nuns and Friars, when at the dissolution of the Abbeys there were detected so many Sodomites, Catamites Priests of Priapus, and Nuns of Venus, though all averred as well as the real appearing of Samuel, or the raising and walking of the dead; though these nasty dunghill Legends, and many such are covered over with the snow of a seeming truth by the same Anthonine, 
(d) Part. 3. Lugd. 1543. tit. 23. cap. 14. sect. 4.10.19. fol. 180. to 188. & tit. 24. cap. 7. & pag. 384.  and Rabadineira 
(e) bidem part. 1. pag. 135 to pag. 443. & pag. 384.563.  as also by Vincentius in his Historical Glass or Gloss, 
(f) Lib. 3. cap. 97.  and by Walsingam 
(g) Ypodigma Neustriae, Anno, 1215. pag. 55.  and Bonaventure in his Chronicle, and other Legendaries.  Scept. 
As my little taper added to your sun, I will acquaint you with my conceptions, that some divulged to be revived from death were never dead, but suffered some diliquium animae, faintings of the soul and spirits as they are called in lying long seemingly dead in some Apoplexies, Palsies, falling sicknesses, and some women in the disease of the Mother, in the pains of suffocation and strangulation of the Womb, and in epileptics, hav● bee●e thought dead two or three days, some for seventy hours, yea some have been carried out to be buried, and some have been coffened and entombed; when by reason of the intensiveness of cold, and the weakness of natural heat, neither by pulse nor respiration, or any symptoms, any life hath been thought to be in them: now its probable the reviving sometimes of such as these, hath been cried up amongst the Papists for a greater Miracle than the raising up of a supposed Samuel, by the Wirch of Endor.  Verid. 
All that you say is so certain in this kind, that abundant Instances and Examples are given to comment it, historified both in men and women, by Lemnius in his hidden Miracles of Nature, 
(h) Lib. 2. cap. 3.  by Casper' Dornavins in his Physical discourse of Apoplexies, by Cornarins in his rare and admirable Histories, 
(i) Hist. 14. pag. 47 48.  as also by Lusitanus, 
(k) Curate. 23. cent. 4.  chiefly by Schenkins in his Medicinable Observations 
(l) Tom. 1. observ. 150. pag. 175.  in his second book, 
(m) Observ. 17.33. & observe 19 pag. 40.  and in the 288. and 289 observations of his fourth book, pag 684.683.687. these with Felix Platerus and other Physicians, giving cautions in these cases and diseases, not to be too hasty to bury such, though seemingly dead, and by burning old Rags and Feathers, and holding them to their noses, as also by setting a glass brim full of water on their bare breasts to try the least motion of the water, and by the least bearing of the purse or breathing, to discern any relics of life ere they be hastily interred.  Scept. 
I remember Thuanus in his History, lib. 32. pag. ●66 recires a strange living dead man, Anno 156 called Lewis in the combustion betwixt the Guelphs and G●bellines in Italy, one siding with an Emperor, another with the Pope (as some since with a King and Bishops, some with Senators) being shot in the neck, and earth lightly thrown on him as dead, the next day revived, as he was all squalled with blood and mire, yea our own Hidropoet Taylor in his Travels to Ham●●ough, tells us of an ungrateful Gentlemanly ●●i●fe took down from the Gallows (in a Moon light night where he had hung all day by a Carter and his Son, who being supped and lodged by them that night, and paying his young Host and bed fellow with the stealing of his money and  and his old Host with his best Horse stolen out of his stable, being by them pursued and apprehended again, was hanged by them just in the same place and posture where they first found him  Veria. 
That Thief, as more cunning than Cacus or Scyron, or our late Mongering Ratsey, or Claveri● (like Pictures, Peacocks, painted , B●lls, and Bacon) was much better for hanging, like one Hogg which the Lord Bacon hanged to make him Bacon, claiming kindred of him; but we need not go so far as Hamburge in this kind, if it be true which is reported of a drunken Player, acting ever the Clown or the Vice, buried in his deep, dead, and drunken sleep in a great plague; and of a woman who was so dead drunk, that she wakened not till the earth was thrown on her Coffin, and she asked if there were any good Ale to be had in that new World: some also have been reported dead, like that Rediviuns Beza, who were not dead, as I have read myself in print, mangled by the Irish Wolf, called Rebel; and I was glad to hear it, when I was oft told of my divulged death.  Scept. 
Ast non mittenda seria ludo, leaving those Jocoserious passages: If any Spectars' have been seen, so lively representing the shapes of the dead, in voice, colour, Lineaments, and proportion, that they have been as strongly conceited to be persons male or female long since departed, as Saul conceited the Witches Spectar to be Samuel, or Isaac Jacob to be E● an: in such and the like impostures or delusions, or in any such molestations of houses or Persons, possessed, obsessed or troubled, as now Merridayes' house in Greenwich, and many Nunneries, and Monasteries, as I have read of in Lonicers Theatre of Examples, and in all the Pageants that Satan by himself, or his Witches, Wizzards, and Magicians have acted to admiration in the Earth, Seas, Air, Elements, or in, on, or by Creatures animate, or inanimate. I pray you improve you Histori● all Philosophical, and Theological knowledge, to discover Satan's Powers, Policies, and Postures; in his Visions, Apparitions, Oracles Miracles, Auguries. Prophecies, Revelations, and diversified disturbances of Men, Beasts, and all sublunaries, by his own immediate might, and malice, and by his Agents, and Instruments of all sorts.  Verid. 
Magnum opus aggredior, & quae non virthus istis conveniunt, nec tam senilibus annis: You set me more than an Herculean task, and too heavy for my aged shoulders: yet as some stearnly censure me to have a youthful wit and memory which indeed is my best treasury, I will tub up these old readings for your satisfaction, which in my painful youth I lodged in my Magazine: and herein as I have a large Champion to walk in, and a vast Ocean to sail in; I will first show what may be done to admiration without Satan. Secondly what, and how, by Satan. Thirdly, what he and his agents cannot do, in his limited power Fourthly, his impostures in what is done by him or his: Positively in themselves, and Comparatively paralleled, with Gods own power in, and by his Prophets, and servants, and in the prosecution of any of these, Hawk-like I seem to fetch a large compass; yet at last, I hope to fly up to the head, and to pronounce what you desire, for to satisfy the greatest curiosities in mystical knowledge, with pleasure and profit. To prosecute all which in order, method being the mother of memory.  
First, many strange and admirable things may be done by natural magic, as it's called by application, of natural causes with effects; as also by sympathies, and antipathies; as also by Art, and artificial instruments; as also by Legerdemain, and slight of hand, as I have seen by some Gypsies and Jugglers; as also by the knowledge of the Optics, and by the Mathematics, as I shall by degrees give you instances of all these, without any unlawful Magic; for you must know that the word Magus a Magician, as also Magurus, like the word Sophister and Tyrant ere abused, were not so odious and hateful at first, as now they are, as may be gathered from Proclus 
(a) Lib. de Magia  and Psellus, 
(b) L●b de demonibus.  for these were counted and called Magicians as knew not occult and hidden causes of things, and how to apply these Virtues, latent in nature, and unknown to vulgar capacities to admirable effects, and such a Magician was Adam in his Innocency, who was able by his created faculties to give names to all the creatures, better the Varro, Nonnius, Isidore, or any mortal man since, according to their Natures, 
(c) As Milvus id est Molliter Volans, Lepus. Levipes, Vulpes Volupes, Culumba Colens, Lumbos, Ferrum a feriendo sum al●is infinitis.  yea better the Moses or Daniel, though the one learned in all the learning of the Egyptians, the other of the Chaldeans, yea better than Solomon himself, whom Josephus in this nature makes a Magician; I persuade myself a better Philosopher then either, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, or all mere humanists met in one, having not only supernatural but natural knowledge, as the Prophets and Apostles had the spirit by inspiration; now amongst the rest famous for such Philosophic Magicians in their Times, where the Platonists. Peripatetics, and Pithagorians, as in our Modern Times, Zabarell, Scaliger, Zanardas', and hundreds more; amongst the Ancient gauls, the Druids, amongst the Ancient Indians and Aethiopians, the Bragmans' and Gymnosophists, amongst the Persians their Magis, such as these, who came so fare to worship Christ, bred from the School of Daniel, out of which Magis the Persians oft did choose their Kings. Strabo 
(d) Lib. 15. & lib. 16.  parallelling them with the wise Chaldeans amongst the Babylonians, and in the correspondency of their studies, with Moses the Hebrew their profession according to Tully, 
(e) Lib. 1. de divinatione.  Celius Rhodiginus, 
(f) Lib. 3. cap. 42. antiq. lect..  and Plinny 
(g) Hist. lib. 20.  being divinorum scientiam & ●ul●um, the knowledge and observance for the most part of divine things, or its ●ltior sanctio●que Philosophia, a more high and sublime Philosophy then ordinary, and of a large extent, comprising Physics, metaphysics, and Astrology, in which kind of natural Magic or sublime Philosophy, what student desires further to be informed with the help of a Library, I refer him to the works of Aristotle, 
(h) Lib. de admiranda erudition.  Plinny, 
(i) Lib. 2. presertim.  Proclus, 
(k) De sacrificiis & Magia.  Philo, in his book of special Laws, Augustine in his City of God lib. 22. cap. 4.5. Albertus' called Magnus in his second Book of Minerals, tract. 2. cap. 1. v. 17. Ficinus in his fourth book of Plato's Theology, cap. 2 Cardan in his subtleties, Fracastorius in his sympathies, Pererius de Magia, Del●ius in his Magical disquisitions his fellow Jesuit Tyraeus in his books of places possessed, and of the Apparitions of Spirits and Devils, as also with Sirienns his ninth book of Fate, with Medina in his second book of a right faith in God cap 7. with Laurentius Ananias in his book of the nature of Devils with Bartholomew Sibylla in his third Decade of strange Questions, quest. 3.8 and with our Modern Gregory de V●lentia, 22. disp. 6 q● 1● punct. 3. and the clear Valesins in his sacred Philosophy. cap. 3.22.  
Now by this mere natural magic, or in plain terms, the producing of Art and nature into practice; such rare and exquisite things have been done, or may be done, especially by instruments, without any more confederacy with any Witch, or spirit, ●hen with a Turk, a Pope, or a Cannibal; yea, I persuade myself I could do such things myself, as I have heard, and read, and partly seen, that the common people which do not (rerum cogn●scere can●as) know the causes of many things, (more than a blind man colours) would take me for as great a Conjurer as ever Cornelius Agrippa, or Doctor Faustus, or for as great a Witch as Circe's, or Medea; at least as great a Juggler as once my neighbour John a Ley, or Hocus Pocus, or some cunning Wise man, such as Mr. Lilly is divulged, as though he were a second Merlin; when for all this, I could make a child of six years old do the like things presently and give as good a Reason of what I did (as I persuade myself Mr. Booker, and Mr. Lilly can give of their artificial undiabolized Predictions) as I can give a Reason why I am hot or warm, when I am in the Sun, or at the fire.  Scept. 
Indeed Sir, I persuade myself Ignorance is the mother of all admiration; it being the Fate of all abstruse, and mystical things: that non ●isi peracta laudantur: they are not praised till done, it being no wisdom, we say in Yorkshire, to let fools see half done deeds, or to expose mysterious knowledge to ignorants chief to arrogants, which is as to cast pearls to swine, or to offer exquisite music to deaf men; yet I pray you Sir, make me so happy in the curious knowledge of what yourself, or some Artist can do by Art and Nature, yet steering far enough from all Rocks of unlawful magical confederacy with any Witch or spirit, except with the spirit of God, and your own spirit.  Verid. 
Sir, your question is short, but the Resolution long and large, the Sun being at the point of high noon, causeth the Son of my mother to think that he hath a belly which hath no ears to hear it should be wronged in its ordinary diet of feeding meat, by mental dishes catered by a discursive tongue and brain; when therefore I have given a sop to this craving Cerberus, and paid my Kitchen tribute to this Minetaure; being a true Englishman, impatient of the fasts of the Irish with his shamrocks, of the Spaniard with his Lemons, and the Welsh with her Sir Jeff●ey Leck: after dinner I shall improve my best to resolve your Proposals in what nature soever you please to propound them, or at any other time at your best leisure and pleasure.  
FINIS.