Many have undertaken to treat of the nature
and operation of Spirits; as also of the various
manners of divination among the Gentiles, (and but
too much used among Christians,) likewise of the
perturbation and deception of the fancy, caused by
melancholy; and very many speak in ordinary discourses
of this called the Second Sight, and the
consequences of it, but none that I know handle it
in titulo.
That such representations are made to the eyes
of men and women, is to me out of all doubt, and
that effects follow answerable thereto, as little questionable.
But I have found so many doubt the
matter of fact; which I take to be the reason that
so little has been written of it, that I think it necessary
to say something briefly, that may put the
existency of it beyond all scruple. If I should insert
all the clear instances that I have had of this
matter, it would be tedious and unnecessary, therefore
I will content myself, and I hope will satisfy
the reader, with four or five instances, as follows.
The first instance is by a servant of my own, who
had the trust of my barn, and nightly lay in the
same. One day he told me he would not any longer
lie there, because nightly he had seen a dead corps
in his winding sheets straighted beside him, particularly
at the south side of the barn. About an
half year thereafter, a young man that had formerly
been my servant, fell dangerously sick, and expecting
death, would needs be carried near my
house; and shortly thereafter he died, and was laid
up a night before he was buried in the same individual
barn and place that was foretold; and immediately
the servant that foretold this came to me
and minded me of the prediction, which was clearly
out of my mind till he spoke of it.
The second instance is after this manner. I was
resolved to pay a visit to an English gentleman,
Sir William Sacheverill, who had a commission
from the English Court of Admiralty, to give his
best trial to find out gold or money, or any other
thing of note, in one of the ships of the Spanish
armada, that was blown up in the bay of Topper-Mory,
in the Sound of Mull. And having condescended
upon the number of men that were to go
with me, one of the number was a handsome boy
that waited upon my own person; and, about an
hour before I made sail, a woman, that was also
one of my own servants, spoke to one of the seamen,
and bade him dissuade me to take that boy
along with me, or if I did, I should not bring him
back alive; the seaman answered, he had not confidence
to tell me such unwarrantable trifles. I
took my voyage, and sailed the length of Topper-Mory;
and having stayed two or three nights with
that liberal and ingenuous gentleman, who himself
had collected many observations of the Second Sight
in the Isle of Man, and compared his notes and
mine together, I then took leave of him. In the
mean time, my boy grew sick of a vehement bloody
flux,—the winds turn'd cross, that I could neither
sail nor row,—the boy died with me the eleventh
night from his decumbiture,—the next morning the
wind made fair, and the seaman to whom the matter
was foretold, related the whole story when he
saw it verified. I carried the boy's corps aboard
with me, and after my arrival, and his burial, I
called suddenly for the woman, and asked at her
what warrant she had to foretell the boy's death;
she said, that she had no other warrant but that
she saw, two days before I took my voyage, the
boy walking with me in the fields, sewed up in his
winding sheets from top to toe, and that she had
never seen this in others, but she found that they
shortly thereafter died; and therefore concluded
that he would die too, and that shortly.
The third instance was thus. Duncan Campbell,
brother-german to Archibald Campbell of Invera,
a gentleman of singular piety and considerable
knowledge, especially in Divinity, told me a strange
thing of himself. That he was at a time in Kintyre,
having then some employment there, and one
morning walking in the fields, he saw a dozen of
men carrying a bier, and knew them all but one,
and when he looked again, all was vanished. The
very next day, the same company came the same
way, carrying a bier, and he going to meet them,
found that they were but eleven in number, and
that himself was the twelfth, though he did not notice
it before; and it is to be observed, that this
gentleman never saw any thing of this kind before
or after, till his dying day. Moreover, that he was
of such solid judgment and devote conversation,
that his report deserves an unquestionable credit.
The fourth instance I had, to my great grief,
from one John M'Donald, a servant of Lauchlan
M'Lean of Coll, who was then newly returned
from Holland, having the charge of a captain.
This gentleman came one afternoon abroad to his
past-time in the fields, and this John M'Donald
meets him, and saw his clothes shining like the
skins of fishes, and his periwig all wet, though indeed
the day was very fair; whereupon he told
privately, even then, to one of Coll's gentlemen,
that he feared he should be drowned. This gentleman
was Charles M'Lean, who gave me account
of it. The event followed about a year thereafter,
for the Laird of Coll was drowned in the water of
Lochy in Lochaber. I examined both Charles
M'Lean and John M'Donald, and found, that the
prediction was as he told me; and the said M'Donald
could produce no other warrant, than that he
found such signs frequently before to forgo the like
events. This man indeed was known to have many
visions of this kind, but he was none of the strictest
life.
The fifth instance is strange, and yet of certain
truth, and known to the whole inhabitants of the
Island of Eigg, lying in the latitude of 56 degrees
20 minutes; and longitude 14 degrees. There was
a tenant in this island, a native, that was a follower of
the Captain of Clanrannold, that lived in a town
called Kildonan, the year of God eighty-five, who
told publicly to the whole inhabitants, upon the
Lord's day, after divine service, performed by
Father O'Rain, then priest of that place, that they
should all flit out of that Isle, and plant themselves
some where else; because that people of strange
and different habits, and arms, were to come to the
Isle, and to use all acts of hostility, as killing,
burning, tirling, and deforcing of women; finally,
to discharge all that the hands of an enemy could
do; but what they were, or whence they came, he
could not tell. At the first there was no regard
had to his words; but frequently thereafter, he
begged of them to notice what he said, otherwise
they should repent it, when they could not help it;
which took such an impression upon some of his
near acquaintance, as that severals of them transported
themselves and their families, even then;
some to the Isle of Cannay, some to the Isle of
Rum. Fourteen days before the enemy came
thither, under the command of one Major Ferguson
and Captain Pottinger, whilst there was no
word of their coming, or any fear of them conceived.
In the month of June 1689, this man fell
sick, and Father O'Rain came to see him, in order
to give him the benefit of absolution and extreme
unction, attended with several inhabitants of the
Isle, who, in the first place, narrowly questioned
him before his friends, and begged of him to recant
his former folly and his vain prediction; to
whom he answered, that they should find very
shortly the truth of what he had spoken, and so he
died. And within 14 or 15 days thereafter, I was
eye witness (being then prisoner with Captain Pottinger),
to the truth of what he did foretel; and
being before-hand well instructed of all that he
said, I did admire to see it particularly verified,
especially that of the different habits and arms, some
being clad with red coats, some with white coats
and grenadier caps, some armed with sword and
pike, and some with sword and musket. Though
I could give many more proofs, as unquestionable
as these, yet I think what is said, is sufficient to
prove the being of such a thing as the same in
hand; and I cannot but wonder, that men of knowledge
and experience should be so shy to believe
that there may be visions of this kind administered
by good or bad angels; there being nothing more
certain, than that good angels suggested visions to
the prophets of the Lord, before the coming of
Christ in the flesh, and particularly to the apostle
St John, after the ascension of our Lord; likewise
that evil angels presented visions, as well as audible
voices, to the 450 false prophets of Ahab; the 400
prophets of the Groves, is as little to be doubted;
it being as easy, if not easier, to work upon the
sight, as well as upon the hearing. We know but
too well, that necromancers and magicians themselves,
have not only seen the shapes and forms of
things, but likewise have allowed others to see the
same, who had no skill of their art. A precedent
for which, is the Witch of Endor.
I remember, about 23 years ago, there was an
old woman in my parish, in the Isle of Teree,
whom I heard was accustomed to give responses,
and likewise averred, that she had died and been
in heaven, but allowed to come back again. And
because she could not come to church, I was at the
pains to give her a visit, attended with two or three
of the most intelligent of my parish. I questioned
her first whether she said she was in heaven; and
she freely confessed she was, and that she had seen
Jesus Christ, but not God the Father, or the Holy
Ghost; that she was kindly entertained with meat
and drink, and that she had seen her daughter
there, who died about a year before;—that her
daughter told her, though she was allowed to go
there, that she behooved to come back and serve
out her prentiship on earth, but would shortly be
called for, and remain there for ever. She could
very hardly be put out of this opinion, till I enquired
more narrowly of her children, if she fell at
any time in a syncope; which they told me she did,
and continued for a whole night, so that they
thought that she was truly dead; and this is the
time she alleged she was in heaven. The devil
took an advantage in the ecstasy to present to her
fancy a map of heaven, as if it had been a rich
earthly kingdom, abounding with meat, drink,
gold, and silver. By the blessing of God, I prevailed
with her to be persuaded that this was but
a vision presented to her fancy by the devil, the
father of lies; and that she might deprehend the
falsehood of it from this one head, that she imagined
her body was there, as well as her soul, and
that she did eat and drink, and was warmed, while,
as her own children, and the neighbours that watched
her, did see, and did handle her body several
times that night, so that it could not be with her
in heaven. I did further examine her what warrant
she had for the responses she gave, which were
found very often true, even in future contingent
events. She freely confessed, that her father upon
his death-bed, taught her a charm, compiled of barbarous
words, and some unintelligible terms, which
had the virtue, when repeated, to present, some few
hours after the proposition of a question, the answer
of the same in live images before her eyes,
or upon the wall; but the images were not tractable,
which she found by putting too her hand, but
could find nothing. I do not think fit to insert the
charm, knowing that severals might be inclined to
make an unwarrantable trial of it. This poor woman
was got reclaimed, and was taught fully the
danger and vanity of her practice, and died peaceably
about a year after, in extreme old age.
I know assuredly, that Janet Douglas, that was
first a dumbie, yet spoke thereafter, who had given
many responses by signs and words, and foretold
many future events, being examined by Mr Gray,
one of the ministers of the city of Glasgow, denied
any explicitor implicit paction, and declared freely,
that the answers of the questions proponed to her
were represented by a vision in lively images, representing
the persons concerned, and acting the
thing, before her eyes. This Mr Gray exchanged
several discourses in write with Sir James Turner,
concerning her.
By this time, you may see that this theme deserves
the consideration of the learned: First, to
enquire how much of this may come from a natural
constitution and temperament, when confounded
with a flatuous or melancholic distemper; and what
influence an external agent, namely, an angel, good
or bad, may have upon the organ of the eye and
the fancy, and how far the medium between the
organ of the eye and an object visible, may be disposed
for their purpose, namely, the air and light;
and what connexion may be found betwixt the representations
made to the eye or fancy, and the
future contingent events that experience teaches
do follow thereupon: as for example, a man is seen
bleeding, or sewed up in his winding sheets, who
is shortly to be wounded, or assuredly to die.
As for the first, all the learned physicians of the
world know too well by experience what great labour
they have to cure the deceptions of the fancy,
especially in hypochondriac diseases; nay, patients
cannot be persuaded but they see men, women,
fowls, and four-footed beasts, walking abroad or
in their chambers. Seldom it is, that a man passes
any great and turbulent fever, without the trouble
of some such representations. It is memorable,
that a gentleman, that had been a great proficient
in physic himself, imagined at length that there was
a quick frog in his belly; and after he had travelled
over a good part of Italy, and consulted with
the doctors of Padua, yet could not be cured, or
dissuaded. He came at length to the learned physician
Platerus, in Bazil, who told him, that a frog
by certain experience is known not to live above
three years, so that his distemper continuing longer
than three years, could not be caused by the frog,
that could not live so long. Moreover, that his
stomach would strangle the frog, and that the frog
could not live any considerable time out of its own
element, the water; so that the properest and most
specific medicines being made use of, it were a
shame for him to be so obstinate. At last he was
persuaded, and his fancy satisfied. This story is
no less renowned of what befell Andreas Osiander,
a man learned in most languages. When he was
a young man, and being troubled with a quartan
ague, a little before the fit he could not be persuaded
that he was in the house at all, but that he
was in a wood, and much molested with wild beasts
and serpents of all kinds; neither could he be prevailed
with that this was false, till Facius Cardanus
was called for to him, who cured him for the time,
so that he knew his friends that were sitting beside
him, and the chamber to be his own chamber; but
after Facius had left him, he was troubled with the
same opinion and distemper, even till the ague had
quiet him. I have myself seen a neighbour of my
own, and my parishioner too, John M'Phale, that
lived to the age of fourscore years, a man that was
truly very sagacious by nature; and though his
sight was much decayed, the seat of his judgment
was nothing touched; and as he grew weaker,
merely by old age, without any remarkable distemper,
I made frequent visits to him. One day as I
was coming away from him, he told me he had
something of consequence to ask at me, and desired
all to remove except his wife and another gentleman,
that was a friend of his. This done, Sir,
says he, I desire to know by what warrant or commission
so many of my friends, that are dead long
ago, are allowed to come and discourse with me,
and drink before me, and yet are not so civil as give
me a tasting of it? I told him, that it was only the
trouble of his fancy, and his frequent thinking of
the world to come and his friends that were gone
before him; and he replied to me very smartly,
Sir, says he, I perceive it is the work of the fancy,
for since I cannot see yourself, (for only by your
voice I know you) how could I see them? It was
strange that he saw them the very mean time that
others were in the house with him, and asked several
questions at them, but got no answer. And,
for all this, the seat of his wit was as entire as ever:
moreover, this trouble left him a little before he
died.
Many such illusions are reported of eremites,
caused merely by the confusion of the brains, bred
by their fasting and unwholesome food, which I
shall not trouble the reader with.
If you will ask how cometh this to pass, take
notice of the following method, which I humbly
offer to your consideration. Advert, in the first
place, that visible ideas, or species, are emitted from
every visible object to the organ of the eye; representing
the figure and colour of the object, and
bearing along with it the proportion of the distance,
for sure the objects enter not the eye, nor the interjacent
distant tract of ground; and a third thing
different from the eye and the object, and the distant
ground, must inform the eye. These species
are conveyed to the brain by the optic nerve, and
are laid up in the magazine of the memory, otherwise
we should not remember the object any longer
than it is in our presence; and a remembering of
these objects is nothing else but the fancies reviewing,
or more properly the soul of man, by the fancy
reviewing of these intentional species formerly received
from the visible object unto the organ of the
eye, and reconducted unto the seat of the memory.
Now, when the brain is in a serene temper, these
species are in their integrity, and keep their rank
and file as they were received; but when the brain
is filled with gross and flatuous vapours, and the
spirits and humour enraged, these ideas are sometimes
multiplied as an army, by mist; sometimes
magnified, sometimes misplaced, sometimes confounded
by other species of different objects, perhaps
by half and half, so that the fancy has two for
one, one bigger than two of itself, and sometimes
the half of one and the half of another, represented
in one; and this deception is not only incident to
the fancy, but even to the external senses, particularly
the seeing and hearing; for the visus, or seeing,
is nothing else but the transition of the intentional
species through the crystalline humour to the
retiform coat of the eye, and judged by the common
sense, and conveyed by the optic nerve to the
fancy.
Of this we have a clear demonstration from the
representation of external objects through a crystal
in glass, upon any lucid, smooth, and solid reflectant,
placed before the glass in a dark chamber,
which is one of the noblest experiments in the whole
optics.
Now, if these species formerly received and laid
up in the brain, will be reversed back from the same
to the retiform coat and crystalline humour as formerly,
these is in effect a lively seeing and perception
of the object represented by these species, as
if, de novo, the object had been placed before the
eye; for the organ of the eye had no more of it
before, than now it has; just so with the hearing,
it is nothing else but the receiving of the audible
species to that part of the ear that is accommodated
for hearing, so that when the species are retracted
from the brain to their proper organs, for example,
the ear and the eye, hearing and seeing are perfected,
as if the objects had been present to influence
the organs de novo. And it is not to be thought
that this is a singular opinion, for Cardanus, an
eminent author of great and universal learning and
experience, maintains this reversion of the species,
and attributes his own vision of trees, wild beasts,
men, cities, and instructed battles, musical and martial
instruments, from the fourth to the seventh
year of his age, to the species of the objects he had
seen formerly, now retracted to the organ of the
eye, and cites Averroes, an author of greater renown
for the same opinion. See Cardanus de subtilitate
rerum pagina trecentesima prima.
And it seems truly to be founded upon relevant
grounds. I have observed a sick person, that complained
of great pain and molestation in his head,
and particularly of piping and sweating in his ears,
which seems to have been caused by the species of
piping and singing which he had formerly heard,
but were now, through the plethory of his head,
forced out of the brain to the organ of the ear,
through the same nerves by which they were received
formerly; and why may not the same befall
the visible species as well as the audible? which
seems to be confirmed by the optic experiment.
Take a sheet of painted paper and fix it in your
window, looking steadfastly to it for a considerable
time, for example, some few minutes, then close
your eyes very strait, and place a sheet of clean
paper before your eyes, and open your eyes suddenly,
you will see the painting almost as lively as
they were in the painted sheet with the lively colours.
This compression of the eyes by consent,
causes a compression of the whole brain, which
forces back the visible species of the painted sheet
to the organ of the eye, through the optic nerve,
which will presently vanish, if the reflectant did not
help to preserve them. You may see then how
much of these representations may be within ourselves,
abstracting from any external agent or object
without the eye, to influence the same.
The second thing that comes under consideration
is, the influence and operation of external agents,
namely, an angel, good or bad. It is not to be
denied, but good angels may help and dispose all
our faculties, excite, elevate, and set them upon
edge and action; likewise, that evil angels may
perturb, confound, and hurt, our external and internal
senses, (when permitted) particularly by stirring
the spirits, humours, and vapours, which of
themselves, when so stirred, help to make many
shapes and representations, either regular or irregular,
(as has been formerly observed) and withal,
they can colorate external objects far beyond any
painter, insensibly to the beholder, repente applicando
activa passivis; and that they can alter the
medium interposed between our senses and the objects,
by making it grosser or thinner, opaque or
lucid, is a thing not to be questioned. For a clear
proof of this I hope any rational man will allow me.
That even the evil angels, who were created in
a degree above us, must have a more penetrating
wit than ours is, and having experienced from their
creation, to this very day, and can be present to
every experiment found out, or that is committed
to writing by the art of man; and withal, being
not subject to oblivion as man is, (for they have no
material faculty to be obliterated), I say any rational
man will allow me, that they can do as much,
and beyond what the art of man is able to do; but
so it is, that painters can make one object more
pleasant than another, distorted and worse favoured
than another,—that any smoke may engross the
air,—that a cloud removed on or off the face of the
sun, give way to the beams of it to illuminate the
air, or to eclipse its light,—that vapours and exhalations,
from sea and land, multiply and magnify
objects, misshapes and distorts them, and makes
them of diverse figures, all in an instant, which is
observable in hot summer days, especially in the
end of the canicular days, for you may readily see
about three or four in the afternoon, the same hills
(providing they are situated at a considerable distance
from you) to be of diverse shapes, forms, and
figures, changing very suddenly from one shape to
another, for example, from a globe to a pyramid,
from a pyramid to a quadrangular figure, &c.
All which our ordinary multiplying, magnifying,
and distorting glasses, produce. Moreover, that
physicians can administer such medicines as may
provoke a man to madness and rage, yea, to fantastic
or hypochondriac fits; so also medicines that
move pleasant and unpleasant dreams, by exciting
the melancholic or sanguine humours, raging or
peaceable dreams, by moving the choleric or phlegmatic
humour.
How much more can the prince of the air do,
and his retinue, who is better seen in the nature
of the elements and their compounds; who is better
seen in the nature of trees, plants, minerals, stones,
the secret qualities of springs and fountains, rivers
and lochs, and the influence of celestial bodies, &c.
and who is better seen in the constitution of every
man, his customs and inclinations, and his present
state and bygone circumstances; I say, in all these,
he is better seen than any man, and can accommodate
them to his purpose beyond the greatest virtuoses.
Let us therefore consider, that an evil angel being
permitted thereunto, can muster in our brain
the latent intentional species of external absent objects,
and can present the same to the fancy in the
methods best fitting his purpose, and not only so in
time of our sleep, (for then indeed the fancy sticks
with more tenacity to what it apprehends), but also
when we are not sleeping, he can deduce these
species by forcing them out of the rooms or cells
of the brain, to the organ of the eye and ear, and
so of necessity a man either sitting or going in the
high-way, will hear and see such things as these
species do represent; and seeing that naturally it
may be done, as would appear from what is above
spoken from the strength and force of medicines to
operate upon the spirits and humours of man to
work strange things, why may not a good or bad
angel excite nature to it? or by an immediate impulse
force these material qualities to the organs of
the external senses, as well as they can move their
vehicles, which are the spirits and humours.
The third thing proposed was, the connexion of
these representations with the future contingent
events that are observed to follow them, as for example,
a second sighted man sees a winding sheet
upon his neighbour, or blood running down his
face, shoulders, or arms, he concludes that he must
die, or be wounded in the face, shoulders, or arms.
If you will ask what warrant he has for this, he
will tell, he has found by experience, that whenever
he saw the like of this, that he found death or
wounds to follow. Quaeritur, then, what connexion
can this representation have with an effect or
contingent event not yet existant? For answer to
this, God, who knoweth all things, no doubt imparteth
much of the foreknowledge of things, not
only to good angels, but also evil angels, for reasons
well known to himself, particularly that they
might give some true signs, and so have way to
deceive in many things besides; and though the
signs foretold should surely come to pass, it does
not infer that the doctrine of evil angels, and their
lies that they would suggest to mankind, should be
credited. This is clear from the 13th of Deuteronomy,
1, 2, and 3, verses, If there arise among you
a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee
a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder
come to pass whereof he spake unto thee, saying,
let us go after other gods, (which thou has not
known), and let us serve them; thou shalt not
hearken to the words of that prophet, or that
dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God proveth
you, to know whether you love the Lord your God,
with all your heart, and with all your soul. And
this is very just with God when men give themselves
over to a reprobate and wicked mind, and
evil and unwarrantable practices, expressly against
the Lord's commands; I say it is just with God to
let evil angels or spirits delude them, and give way
to these spirits in order to confirm their lies; to
appoint signs before hand, which signs, by God's
appointment, may come to pass, answerable to the
prediction. It may rationally, and very probably
be concluded, that Ahab's false prophets, in number
400, have often foretold truth; and this purposely
by God's appointment, that they might be
the better believed, and more easily persuade to lay
siege to Ramoth Gilead; and it is hard to conceive
that Ahab should give them so much credit, or they
themselves so extraordinary confident, if they had
not had many truths suggested to them, and made
proof of the same to Ahab. It is not for nought
that we are commanded to try the spirits, and that
rather by their doctrines, than their signs and wonders,
or fair and smooth pretences. Therefore,
suppose these evil angels to know a contingent future
event, either by a revelation, or natural or
moral causes, they may, in the method foresaid
make the representation of them to the eyes or ears;
as for example, an angel, good or bad, finds that
either the lungs, heart, stomach, liver, or brain,
are under such a consumption, as may against such
a time kill a man; or that he knows the secret contrivance
of a potent party that is resolved to wound
or kill him, or that it is revealed to him it should
be so (which may very well be, as has been above
noted), he can easily represent these before hand,
though the event should follow but a considerable
time thereafter; he has no more to do than to reverse
the species of these things from a man's brain
to the organ of the eye.
Here ariseth a question from what has just been
said, whether it be more probable that good angels
make this representation (because men having this
second sight are found to tell truth, and to be innocent
in their lives, and free of any paction, either
implicit or explicit, likewise free of any fraudulent
design, and sound enough in the necessary articles
of their salvation), or that it be done by evil angels
for the trial of men and women, juggling with their
fancy and external organs, and so have a patent
way to tell lies among some truths. For answer to
this question, I shall not be ready positively to determine
these things, but I humbly conceive, that
as the representations are oft done by evil angels,
so likewise it is probable that it may be done by
good angels. I cannot be so uncharitable to several
men that I have known to be of considerable
sense, and pious and good conversation, as to conclude
them to be given over to be deluded continually
by an evil angel: Moreover, I conceive that
there are many good Christians, if they would advert
well, that have some secret tokens and signs of
notable alterations to come, suggested to them before
hand; and that these signs, some of them are
common to them with others, as dreaming, which
are often observed to be completely fulfilled, and
that some of the signs and warnings are peculiar to
some persons, which fail not to answer to the things
signified; as for example, I have certainly known
a man, that when he found an unvoluntary motion
in such a member of his body, particularly his right
hand or right eye, that was sure that some matter
of joy would shortly come to his hearing; and that
if he found the same motion in the left eye or hand,
it signified infallibly grief: And that which is more
wonderful, the thing to come signified by these
signs and warnings keeped an exact proportion with
the continuance or vehemency of the motion; if
the motion continued long, so did the joy or the
grief; if the motion was snell or vehement, so was
the matter of grief or joy; and finding that this
man was both a good man, and of a right penetrating
wit, and had art enough, it moved me to use
freedom with several other good men that had
knowledge and sense enough to examine circumstances
to a hair. I found very many to acknowledge
the very same thing, yet signified by different
signs, (which shows they are not signa naturalia,
but ex instituto), which puts me in mind of
Dr Brown's observation to the same purpose, in
his inquiry into vulgar errors, where he concludes
several presentations to be acted in us by our tutelary
angels that have the charge of us at the time.
Mark this, though the signs be different in themselves,
yet to each particular person, his own sign
is still significative of the same thing; and why
might not this of the second sight be counted
amongst one of these? I likewise humbly conceive,
that God might compense the want of many other
gifts to poor men, by giving them this minor sort
of knowledge. But I would advise all of them
that have the second sight, to examine themselves,
and to pray earnestly to God that no evil angel
should have power to abuse their senses, because
the devil still strives to imitate what God, or his
good angels, communicates to his own children. I
know that the common opinion of some philosophers
and divines will be objected, and that is, that angels,
good or bad, may condense the air, figurate
and colorate the same, and make it of what figure
or shape they please, so that this representation is
made by external objects in effect emitting visible
species to the eye; and consequently, that it is not
the reversion of the species formerly received;
though, as I have observed before, that good and
bad angels can alter the medium in a strange way,
and can work great alteration on the elements and
their compounds, I think it very improbable that
any created power can bring the air to that solidity,
and actually condense it, colorate, and figurate it,
as to represent a man by a beast, or Peter by Paul,
especially at such a distance as from one side of a
chamber to the other. The miracles done by the
magicians of Egypt is their Achillean argument;
but in short, I say, that what was done by the magicians
of Egypt, has neither been a delusion of the
senses, (as some would have it) much less that the
devil could produce the creatures de novo of condensed
air, and that for the following reasons:
First, thence it would follow that Moses and Aaron
were deluded as well as the Egyptians; but the
last is false, therefore the first: Secondly, it would
follow, that the fashioning and framing of Adam's
body of clay, was but a mean act of creation in
comparison of these creatures, if they should be
fashioned and framed of condense air, which is naturally
a fluid element, not so easily stigmatized as
the earth. I do not deny but the devil can snatch
dead and quick bodies from one place to another,
and that insensibly to the beholders, by pressing
their optic nerves, as Franciscus Valesius has observed
in his Sacra Philosophia, and I conclude
with Abraham Couley, (no contemptible author)
that the magicians of Egypt were after this manner
served by the devil, to imitate God's power in
the hands of Moses and Aaron. Mark, finally, if
it were within the sphere of angelical power to take
bodies of condense air, what needed them assume
such material and earthly bodies as these angels
that came to Abraham and Lot assumed? whose
bodies could be touched and handled, and whose
bodies were not found to yield to the touch, as the
most condensed air must do; and it is very consisting
with reason, that the angels, good or bad, should
rather assume bodies of the element of the earth,
which is a great deal more easily brought to the figure
and fashion of a body, than the air. Some
curious spirits, perhaps, may desire to know whether
this second sight be hereditary or propagable
from father to son; and I think no wonder that
some would think so, because the sanative gift of
the king's evil is lineally traduced to the natural
heirs of the crown of England; and there is a whole
family in Spain, that has a sanative gift of some particular
diseases, which gift is propagated from the
father to the son; neither is it diminished or augmented
by the morality or immorality of the persons,
as has been observed by that famous philosopher
and physician, Franciscus Valesius, who
lived in that kingdom, and had time and opportunity
to examine the truth of this affair. In short,
I answer, that it is not propagable from father to
son, neither peculiar to any particular family; and
as I have observed many honest men, free of all
scandal that ever I could learn, to have it; so I
have observed many vicious persons to have it who
foretold truth oft enough.
Perhaps it may be doubted what should make
this second sight more frequent here than in the
heart of the kingdom; I answer, that it is the lack
of observation and inquiry that it should not be
found there as well as here. Secundo, that it passes
under a great odium and disgrace with the most of
men, which causes those that see it, conceal it.
Thirdly, I confess that credulity and ignorance
give occasion to evil spirits to juggle more frequently,
than otherwise they would have done. But sure
it is, that men of little learning and education may
be recompensed by notable presentations, not so
obvious to others of greater parts. I remember of
a nobleman in Spain, that was deaf and dumb from
his infancy, and yet was taught by a monk to speak,
and understand what was spoken to him, only by
observing the motion of his lips that spoke to him.
Sir Kenelm Digby saw him, as he tells in his Treatise
of Bodies, and the monk that taught him, was
a cousin of Franciscus Valesius. This was more
than ordinary sagacity and docility, and it is found,
that many dumb persons foretel many things before
hand, and it is a hard measure to conclude all to
be from evil spirits. In fine, as I noted before, as
questionless Satan may, and often does, deceive
after this manner, so it is as sure, it may be allowed,
that good angels may forewarn this way, as well
as by other signs and tokens, as Dr Brown observes.
It is observed, that those who have the second
sight, have this representation at any time of the
day, but indeed more ordinarily in the morning
and evening, and with candle light.
The design of these weak conceptions on this
sublime theme, is not to impose upon any man,
freely leaving every man to follow his own judgment
in things that offend not church or state, but
that others of greater capacity may be stimulated
to prosecute the same in a better method, humbly
submitting myself to the judgment of my betters,
to whose hands perhaps this pamphlet may come.
FINIS.
Edinburgh,
Printed by Thomas Webster.
Page 92: "here is a gentleman that will fee you"—The transcriber has changed "fee" to "see".
Page 98: Blank spaces have been replaced with dashes to indicate words left out.
For the eBook version of this book the cover was created by the transcriber, and is placed in the public domain.