An essay on the history and reality of apparitions: Being an account of what they are, and what they are not; whence they come, and whence they come not. ...

CHAP. IV. Of the Apparition of Spirits Unembodied, and which never were Embodied; not such as are vulgarly called Ghosts, that is to say, departed Souls returning again and appear∣ing visibly on Earth, but Spirits of a supe∣rior and angelick Nature; with an Opinion of another Species.

THERE appears a Qu••s••ion here in the very Beginning of the Debate, which will be ve∣ry hard to decide, and perhaps impossible: How∣ever, that we may not stumble at the Threshold, I will touch it as gently, and yet as clearly as I can. The Question is this; Whether are there any Spirits inhabiting the invisible World, which have never yet been embodied, and yet are not to be reckon'd of the Species of Angels Good or Bad?

BY Angels Good and Bad, I suppose I may be easily unde••stood to mean what you all think you mean when you sort or rank them into only two Kinds, viz. Angels or Devils; in which vulgar and gene∣ral, not to say foolish way of expressing it, I hum∣bly conceive the self-wise World much mistaken. It is true it is a Speculation, and every one is at Liberty to think for themselves, and among them so am I; in which, tho' I have a better Opinion of my own Judgment than always to sacrifice it to vulgar Notions, and that too at the Price of my Reason; yet I have withal so little Pride, and so mean an Opinion of my own Thoughts, that I shall not venture to advance any thing, in a Case so ex∣ceedingly liable to Cavil and Exception.

TWO Places in Scripture speak of Angels in a dif∣ferent Style from the ordinary and usual way of understanding

the Word. Mat. xviii. 10. speaking of little Children, Christ says, that in Heaven their An∣gels do always behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven: the other is Acts xii. 15. when Peter knock'd at the Door where the Disciples were ga∣ther'd together, and they believing him to be in Chains, and in the Prison, said it is his Angel.

THE learned Expositors and Annotators ex∣tremely differ upon the Meaning of these Texts, and 'tis not my Business here to reconcile them. Some will have it to mean nothing but a kind of an Exclamation or Admiration; What can it be! is it an Angel! And of the first, about Children, they say it only intimates, that their Souls, when glorify'd, shall always, if they go away in Peace, behold the Face of GOD in Heaven.

OTHERS run out to an imaginary Scheme of Guardian Angels attending every Man and Woman while they are upon Earth; a Notion so uncertain, if granted, and that has so many Difficulties to re∣concile, before it can be believed, that 'tis much better to leave it where it is, and which I shall ex∣plain presently a much easier Way.

NOW, I say, 'tis not my present Business to re∣concile these distant and clashing Opinions, at least not in this Work. I have started a Question; possi∣bly my Opinion is with the affirmative, at least I think it possible, and that it is Rational to believe it; perhaps I may name you as improbable a Notion, and much more inconsistent with the Christian Religion, which yet Philosophy bids us call rational, and directs us to believe.

HOW are we put to it to form Inhabitants for the Planetary Worlds: Philosophy says they are ha∣bitable Bodies, solid, opaac, as this Earth, and we will have them be inhabited also, whether it be with or without, for or against our Reason and Un∣derstanding; 'tis no Satisfaction to them, or will it

stop their Cavils, to say 'tis not Fact; that they are not habitable; that both Saturn and Jupiter are un∣comfortably dark, unsufferably cold, would congeal the very Soul (if that were possible) and so are not habi∣table on that Account; that Mercury and Venus are insufferably hot, that the very Water would always boyl, the Fire burn up the Vitals; and that, in short, no human Creatures could subsist in such Heat: But this is not satisfactory neither; but rather than not have all those opaac Worlds be inhabited, and even their Satellites or Moons about them too, they will have God be obliged to create a Species of Bo∣dies suitable to their several Climates.

IN Saturn they are to live without Eyes, or be a Kind so illuminated from their own internal Heat and Light, that they can see sufficiently by their own Beams.

IN Jupiter there must be another Kind, that can live in Twilight, and by the Reflection of its own Moons, and subsist in continued Frost.

IN Mercury the Species must be all Salamanders, and live in the continued Fire of the Sun's Beams, more intense than what would be sufficient to burn all our Houses, and melt our Copper, Lead, and Iron in the very Mines; so the Inhabitants must be of a Kind better able to bear the Fire than those Metals, and would still live tho' they were continu∣ally calcining if not vitrifying into Glass.

IN Venus the Heat would boil the Water, and con∣sequently the Blood in the Body, and a Set of hu∣man Bodies must be form'd that could live always in a hot Bath, and neither sweat out their Souls, or melt their Bodies.

IN Mars, so very dry in its Nature, no Vegetables or Sensatives could subsist that we have any Notion of, for want of Moisture; and the Men that liv'd there must be dried up sufficiently for pulverizing on any suitable Occasion, I mean human Beings, and of our Species.

NOW if God must not be supposed to have crea∣ted so many habitable Bodies without peopling them, and that it would reflect upon his Wisdom to lay so much of his Creation waste; that all the Planets should seem to be made for nothing but to range about the Waste as a kind of dark Inhabitants; of no use but to shine a little, and that with but bor∣row'd Beams too, upon this little Point called Earth, where only a Set of Rationals can exist; I say, if this must not be supposed, but on the con∣trary there are certainly People of one Kind or another in all those Bodies, let the Trouble of ma∣king them be what it will; if this be the Case, and that this must be believed in spight of so ma∣ny Difficulties and Inconsistencies; then allow me to argue a little upon the following Enquiry.

WHY may I not as well suggest, and that with every jot as much Probability, that there are, or at least may be, a certain Number of appointed Inha∣bitants in the vastly-extended Abyss of Space, a kind of Spirits (other than the Angels good or bad, and other than the unembodied or uncased Souls of Men) who dwell in the invisible World, and in the Vast No-where of unbounded Space, of which we can neither say what it is, what it contains, or how determined: That Great Waste, of whose Extent 'tis hardly possible even the Soul itself can conceive, and of which all the Accounts we give, and Guesses we make, are so remote, look so Enthusiastic, so improbable, and so like impossible, that instead of informing the ignorant Part of the World by it, we only arm them with Jest and Ridicule, and re∣solve them into incurable Unbelief; depending that what it is not possible to Conceive of, is not possi∣ble to Be.

NOW is this immense Space indeed a Void? is it all a Waste? is it utterly desolate? or is it inhabited and peopled by the Omnipotent Maker, in a manner

suited to his own Glory, and with such Inhabitants as are spirituous, invisible, and therefore perfectly proper to the Place?

I MUST needs say, 'tis much more rational to suggest this to be, than to bring out a Species of human bodies to live in the Intense Heat of Mer∣cury, or the acute Cold of Jupiter and Saturn. The latter is agreeable to the general Understanding we all have of spirituous Beings: We are well as∣sured there are some always there, and that they can very well subsist there; that the Place is suit∣able to them, and that there are Spirits of some Kind or other; and why not such as we suggest?

IT remains then only to examine what Commu∣nication these Spirits have with us, whether they are or are not able to hold Conversation with us, and whether they really do converse familiarly with us, yea or no?

IF it should be granted that there are such Spi∣rits in Being, and that they pass and repass, exist, and have Egress and Regress there; that they inha∣bit, as a certain bombastic Author has it,

Thro' all the liquid Mazes of the Sky;

I say, if this should be granted, then it remains that here is a fourth Species that may assume Shapes; for Spirits may do that, and may appear among us, may converse with our embodied Spirits, and from those we may receive abundance of additional In∣telligence from the World of Spirits, whether by Dream, Vision, Appearance, or any superior way, such as to them in their great Knowledge of things shall seem meet. To speak as distinctly of this nice Part as I can, admit me to explain my self a little.

IF we grant that Spirit, tho' invisible in it self, may assume Shape, may vest it self so with Flesh and Blood, that is seemingly, so as to form an Appearance,

then all Spitit may do it; since we have no Rule given us by which we may distinguish Spirits one from another, I mean as to their act∣ings in the Capacity of Spirits: We may indeed, as I have said already, distinguish them by the Ef∣fect, that is to say, by the Errand they come on, and by the manner of their Operations, as whe∣ther they are good or evil Spirits; but not by their Nature as Spirit. The Devil is as really a Spirit, tho' a degenerated, fallen, and evil Spirit, I say, he is as much a Spirit to all the In∣tents and Purposes of a Spirit that we are capable to judge of, as an Angel; and he is called the evil Spirit; He has Invisibility, and Multipresence, as a Spirit has; he can appear tho' the Doors be shut; and go out, tho' bolted and barr'd in; no Prison can hold him, but his last eternal Dungeon; no Chains can bind him, but the Chains fasten'd on him by Heaven, and the Angel of the bottom∣less Pit; no Engine or human Art can wound him; in short, he is neither to be seen, felt, heard, or understood, unless he pleases; and he can make him∣self be both seen and heard too, if he pleases; for he can assume the Shape and Appearance of Man or Beast, and in these Shapes and Appearances can make himself visible to us, terrify and affright us, converse in a friendly or in a frightful manner with us, as he thinks fit; he can be a Companion and Fellow-Traveller in the Day, an Apparition and a horrible Monster in the Night: in a Word, he can be among us, and act upon, and with us, visibly or invisibly as he pleases, and as he finds for his purpose.

NOW if he does, and can do thus, meerly as he is a Spirit, and by his spiritual Nature, we have a great deal of Reason to believe, that all Spirit may do the same; or at least I may ask, Why may not all Spirit do the same? and if there are any Kinds

of Spirit, as is not improbable, besides those we have hitherto conceiv'd of, they may be reasonably sup∣posed to be vested with the same Powers, and may exert those Powers in the same or a like manner.

IF any Man asks me how I make out the Pro∣bability of these differing Species of Spirits? I an∣swer as above, by this, That it appears there are invisible Operations and a secret Converse carried on among Men from the World of Spirits, where-ever that is, which cannot, at least to our Understandings, b•• supposed to be the Work either of those particular or proper Angels which reside in Heaven, or the in∣fernal Angels either; that these Spirits, or if you please to call them Angels, appear and converse for Good, and therefore may not be supposed to be the De∣vil, or from the Devil: It is said indeed, that they act by a visible kind of Restraint, in doing Good with a sort of an Imperfection and manifest Debility; so as sometimes to act, as it were, to no purpose, being not able to make the Good they aim at effectual, and therefore cannot be from Heaven, the Foun∣tain of Good; who, as he is Good, so he is in∣finitely able to do all the Good that he appears willing to do: But this, I think, confirms rather than confutes my Opinion; for, it proves them to be sent, and under particular Commission; it only suggests, that 'tis probable there are Spirits who may be more confin'd and restrain'd in their Power of acting, some than others, and this is not at all inconsistent with the Nature of the thing.

THE great, and perhaps the strongest Argu∣ment which our learned Men produce for the Credit of their new Philosophy is, that by this they can the better solve the Difficulties of seve∣ral other Phoenomena, which before were hardly intelligible, or at least which they could not ac∣count for any other way.

IN like manner, tho' the Certainty of my Sug∣gestion cannot be arrived to, or supposing it can∣not, and that at best it is but a Speculation, scarcely can be called an Hypothesis, and that no Evidence can be given fo•• it, yet this must be said of it, that by this Notion we may solve several other Difficulties which we cannot understand any other Way: such as,

FIRST, HOW it is, and from whence, or by whose Agency we frequently receive such kind No∣tions of Good or Evil as 'tis certain we do, and yet without receiving any farther Assistance, which perhaps it is not in the Power of the kind Infor∣mer to give us, either for the avoiding or embracing the Evil or the Good which they give us No∣tice of?

WHAT can it be that communicates these ap∣proaching distant things, and which it is so much our Interest and Concern to know? If it were an evil Spirit, I mean a Devil, as I have said above, he would never concern himself so much for our Bene∣fit, seeing he is known to will our Ruin to the ut∣most of his Endeavour, and to wish us to fall into all possible Mischief and Disaster.

ON the other hand, it cannot be from Heaven or from the Angels; for the Works of God are all, like himself, perfect, and he would not so far disho∣nour his Messengers, as to allow them, nay to send them (for they could never come unsent) to give us Notice of Evil, and yet take it out of our Power to avoid it; or to foretell good things at hand, and then give us no Power to embrace them, or to lay hold of them; and it would neither consist with the infinite Goodness, or with the infinite Justice, to do thus by his Creatures.

BESIDES, 'tis a kind of incongruous acting, un∣worthy of the supreme Power, unworthy an An∣gel's appearing; it rather shews that it is the Product

of some intelligent Being, who tho' it means Good, and has a beneficent Nature that would contribute to our Safety and Prosperity if it could, yet is under some Limitations of its actings, is not able to proceed in the Good it has attempted, that can just do us so much Service as to give us Notice of what may await us behind the dark Curtain of Futurity; but has no Power to go any farther, or to give any Assistance to us in pursuing proper Me∣thods for our Deliverance; no, not so much as to give Directions, much less Powers to act; as a Child discovering a Fire begun in a House, may cry out and alarm the Family, but is able to do no more, no no•• so much as to tell them where∣about it is, or which way they should go about to escape from it, much less to quench or prevent it.

THESE imperfect Notices, I say, seem to proceed from some good and kind Being, which is n••ar us, existing, tho' out of our Knowledge, yet not so remote, but that it is in Condition to see and know things good or evil, which tho' approaching, is yet out of our View, and which, if we could take the silent Hint, it might be infinitely for our Advantage, but is able to do no more.

NOW, if such Notices, whether to the Mind by Dreams when asleep, or by waking Impulse, or by Voice, or by Apparation; if they were from Heaven they would never be so imperfect and unassisting; we cannot suppose Heaven would concern itself to give us Notices of Danger impending, of Enemies ••ying in wait, of Mischiefs approaching, and would ••hen leave us to fall into the Snare by an unavoid∣••ble Necessity.

AS to what these Spirits therefore are, where ••hey reside, what Circumstances they are in, and ••ow they have access to our Understandings, I ac∣••nowledge the Difficulty to be great, and do not pre∣••nd to enter upon it here; that they may sometimes ••pear is not improbable: But I hope I may say,

that all Apparitions are not the Devil, nor yet may they be Angels immediately from Heaven, for ma∣ny Reasons.

FIRST, From the Meanness of the Occasions, I mean of some of the Occasions, on which these things happen. That there are Angels sent from Heaven on particular Messages and Errands, to ful∣fil the Mind and Will of their Maker and Sove∣reign, all Men must grant; I have already prov'd it, and abundance of Examples may be given of it, be∣sides those already named; but we never find thos•• Angels coming upon trifling Errands, and for thing•• of mean Import. The Angel of the LORD appear'd to Gideon at the Threshing-floor, to summon hi•• to the Deliverance of the whole Nation of ISRAEL•• The Angel of the LORD appear'd to David wit•• his drawn Sword, threatning Destruction of Jeru∣salem: The Angels appear'd to the Shepherds to sig∣nify the Birth of CHRIST; as an Angel had don•• to the Virgin to salute her, and tell her what grea•• a Work was to be wrought in her: Angels ap∣pear'd to minister to CHRIST after his Temp∣tation in the Wilderness; and an Angel appear'•• strengthening him in his Agony, and Angels hav•• appear'd on many other such eminent Occasions•• but not except such Occasions were eminent, an•• that particularly so.

But here you have an old Woman dead, one tha•• it may be, has hid a little Money in the Orchard o•• Garden; and an Apparition, is suppos'd, comes an•• discovers it, by leading the Person it appears to to the Place, and making some Signal that h•• should dig there for somewhat; or a Man is dead and having left a Legacy to such and such, th•• Executor does not pay it, and an Apparition com•• and haunts this Executor 'till he does Justice. Is •• likely an Angel should be sent from Heaven to fin•• out the old Woman's e••••then Dish with thirty o•• forty Shillings in it? or an Angel should be sent t••

harrass this Man for a Legacy of perhaps five or ten Pounds? and as to the Devil, will any one charge Satan with being sollicitous to have Justice done? they that know him at all, must know him better than to think so hardly of him.

WHO then must it be? and from whence? To say it is the Soul or Ghost of the departed Person, and that he could not be at rest, 'till the injur'd Person be Righted, is advanc'd upon no Principle that is agreeable to the Christian Doctrine at all; for if the Soul is happy, is it reasonable to believe that the Felicity of Heaven can be interrupted by so trivial a Matter, and on so slight an Occasion? if the Soul be unhappy, remember the great Gulph fix'd; there is no room for us to believe that those miserable Souls have any Leisure or Liberty to come back upon Earth on an Errand of such a Nature.

IN a word, there is nothing but Difficulty in it on every side: Apparitions there are, we see no room to doubt the Reality of that Part; but what, who, or from whence, is a Difficulty which I see no way to extricate our selves from, but by granting that there may be an appointed, deputed sort of stationary Spi∣rits in the invisible World, who come upon these Oc∣casions, and appear among us; which Inhabitants or Spirits (you may call them Angels if you please) Bo∣dies they are not, and cannot be, neither had they been ever embodied; but such as they are, they have a Power of conversing among us, and particularly with Spirits embodied, and can by Dreams, Impulses and strong Aversions, move our Thoughts, and give Hope, raise Doubts, sink our Souls to-day, elevate them to-morrow, and many ways operate upon our Pas∣sions and Affections; may give Intimations of Good or Evil; but cannot, thro' some unknown Restraint upon their Power, go any farther, speak any plainer, or give the least Assistance to us, no, not by Council or Direction to guide us or tell us how to act for our own Preservation.

I AM told that these may be good Angels for all that, and that it is no just way of arguing, to say such things are too trifling to send an Angel from Heaven upon so mean an Errand, and upon so in∣considerable an Affair; since we see Providence daily giving Testimony, not of its Government only, but of its Care and Concern, in and about the meanest Affairs of Life: and that the Scri∣pture it self frequently gives Examples of it, in his feed••ng the Ravens, taking care of the Sparrows, clothing the Grass of the Field, numbring the Hairs of our Head, &c. So that Infinite is not li∣mited or ty'd up, to or from any degree of acting•• Nor is there any thing great, or any thing sma••l, but as God is seen ••n his least Creatures, Insects, Mites, and the like; so he is active in the most trifling Event: Nor does that Providence, who yet pro∣tects us in, and delivers us from Danger, always act•• alike, but as the Sovereignty of his Actings is no•• to be disputed, so neither is his Wisdom impeach'd by suff••ring Evil to fall upon Man, which the least hint from his Light might have guided him to prevent.

I THINK this is the utmost that can be said in the Case, and yet it does not reach us at all•• for this is not the meaning of my Objection, n•• nor is it the Substance of it; I am not speaking o•• Providence concerning it self in the Care of i•• Crea••ures, I acknowledge all that; but then this Pro∣vidence acts in its own Way, and by its own invisi∣ble Operations; nor is there any occasion for th•• Agency of such extraordinary Instruments, an•• therefore it may be, that Angels are never sent a•• Expresses upon such Things.

THE King or Government of a Nation may in∣fluence the whole Body of the People, at what∣ever Distance, by the Power of his Laws, directin•• the Magistrates, and the Inferior Officers, to act i••

the Name of the Supreme; and this is done with∣out any Step out of the ordinary way of the Admi∣nistration. But if any extraordinary Occ••sion re∣quire, then a Messenger is dispatch'd with particu∣lar Instructions, and ••pecial Power, as the particular Case may require.

SO Providence, (which is, in a word, the admini∣stration of Heaven's Government in the World) acts in its ordinary Course, and in the usual Way, with an universal Influence upon all Things, and nothing is below its Concern; but when extraordi∣nary Things present, then the particular express Messengers from Heaven, (viz. the Angels) are sent with Instructions on that particular Affair which they are disp••tch'd about, and no other. And I may venture to say, these are never sent upon Trifles, never sent but on extraordinary Occasion••, and to execute some special Commission; and this comes directly to the Case in hand.

IN the next Place I demand, when cou'd it be said, or what Example can be given, where an Angel from Heaven has been sent to give any par∣ticular Person Notice of approaching Dangers, and at the same time left the Mind unalarm'd, and in a state of Indolence, not capable of rouzing it self up to shun and avoid the Danger threaten'd, or without Direction and Assistance to prevent or es∣cape it; this is what I alledge is unworthy of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness.

LOOK into all the Messages or Notices that have been given from Heaven on such Occasio••s, in all the Histories of the Scripture, or almost ••lsewhere, and you will see the difference evidently. Take a few for Example.

TWO Angels are sent to Sodom, not only to de∣stroy the City for its Wickedness, but to save L••t. Well, they come to him, they tell him what they are about to do, and that they are sent to do it;

namely, to burn the City. This might have been enough; and perhaps, had it been notic'd to him by the Spirits I am speaking of, this had been all; and if Lot had not taken their kind Information, it had been his own Fault; nay, as it was, the Text says, Lot linger'd, and 'tis plain he left the City with a kind of Reluctance.

BUT the kind Messengers do not satisfie them∣selves with giving him the Warning, but they rouse up his Indolence. See Gen. xix. 12. Hast thou any here? any that thou hast a Respect for, or Interest in, bring them out of this Place. ver. 13. We will destroy this Place. There's a hint of the Danger approaching, and which is a wise Direction what to do, but this does not satisfie: the Man is not barely caution'd, and directed, but he is to be sav'd; and therefore the beneficent Hand is not content to allarm and counsel him; but, ver. 15. When the Morning arose they hasten'd LOT; they stirred up his unconcern'd Temper, ARISE, lest thou be consum'd in the Iniquity of the City; and even this being not enough, for LOT linger'd still, and, as I said, seem'd loth to leave the Place; they as it were dragg'd him out; ver. 16. they laid hold of his Hand, and upon the Hand of his Wife, and upon the Hand of his two Daughters, and brought him forth, and set him without the City; and what is the reason of all this? the Words are express, the Lord being merciful to him.

THE rest of the Story is well known: when they had brought him forth, they let him know he would not be safe even there; but adds, Escape for thy Life, look not behind thee: Nay, he tells him whither he should go, ver. 17. Escape to the Mountain lest thou be consum'd. Here was a Mes∣sage like a Work of Heaven; here was the War∣ning of Danger, and Directions to take proper Measures for Deliverance, and those Measures pointed

out even to the very Place where he should be safe.

TAKE another Place exactly like this, Matt. ii. 13. An Angel is sent to Joseph in a Dream, to warn him of the Danger attending the Holy Infant, then in the Virgin Mother's Arms: the Words are express; HEROD will seek the young Child to destroy him: Does the blessed Notice leave Joseph to sleep on, to say 'tis nothing but a Dream? I don't see any Danger, I believe there's nothing in it; as is our Language often on such Occasions. No, no; This Message was from Heaven, who never gives such Notice of Evil, and then leaves us unallarm'd, undi∣rected, supine and easie, 'till it falls upon us without Remedy; the Angel adds presently, ARISE and take the young Child and his Mother, and flee into Aegypt, and be thou there 'till I bring thee Word.

THUS you see the Nature of the Divine Pro∣ceedings, the effectual manner of Notices from Heaven; the Danger is told, and then the Way to avoid it; and always with a hasting Allarm, Up, get thee out of the City; Arise, flee into Aegypt; and the like.

ANOTHER is in the Story of Peter in the Prison: an Angel is sent to deliver him, Acts xii. and what does the Angel do? a Light shin'd in the Prison, and he smote him on the Side; this was to awaken and alarm him; this, and a Light to show him the Way, was sufficient to have put him upon trying to escape. But the Angel did not come so far to do his Work by Halves, but having awak'd him he goes on with his Work, and to perfect his De∣liverance; ARISE QUICKLY Peter, and rais'd him up, and then made th•• Chains fall off from his Hands.

NOR yet had he don••; gird thy self, says the Angel, and bind on thy Sandals, or as we would say, put on your Shoes: still Peter was at a loss what to

do; then the Angel adds, cast thy Garment about thee, and follow me. Then he leads him through all the Wards, and opens the Iron Gate for him, and never left him 'till he had brought him out into the Street; nay, through one Street, that the Keepers should not know which way to pursue him.

THIS was an Appearance or Apparition to the Purpose; and such have been all those Transactions of Heaven, which have been under the Hands of express Messengers. You see all these three were done by Angels sent on purpose; Peter expresses it in so many Words, Acts xii. 11. Now I know of a surety, that the LORD has sent his Angel, and hath deliver'd me.

NOW let us see how it has far'd with those who have receiv'd Notices of approaching Danger from the invisible World, by the Hands of other Mes∣sengers.

JULIUS CAESAR had several Hints given him of his approaching Fate; one particular Southsayer pointed out the very Day to him, namely, the Ides of March, but he had no Power to avoid his Fate. The kind Spirit that foreboded, and gave hints to him, that he was in Danger, as if contented with having done his parr, left him to be murther'd. No Assistance given him to rouze up his Spirits to take the Alarm: He is not led by the Hand, and told, go not into the Senate House, as was done for Lot; escape for thy Life. The kind Monitor does not name the Traytors and Assassinators to him, and say Brutus, and Cassius, Casca, and others, wait there to kill you; as the Angel to Joseph, Herod will seek the young Child to destroy him.

AND on the other side, Caesar, bold and unalarm'd, indolent, and having things not sufficiently explain'd to him; (and the good Spirit, as may be suppos'd, able to do no more for him;) goes on, enters the Senate House, mocks the Southsayer, and tells him

the Ides of March are come, who sharply return'd, But they are not past. In a word, neglecting his own Safety, and wanting a compleat Information, he goes into the Senate, and is murther'd.

JULIAN the Apostate is another Example: He had a thousand ill Omens, as they call'd them, which attended him at and before his undertaking the Persian War; such as the dying of the Consul Julianus of his own Name, the burning of the Tem∣ple of Apollo, and several other Accidents; and tho' he was the most superstitious of all the Heathen Emperors that were before him, and sent to all the Oracles, to all the Augurs and Southsayers he could hear of, insomuch that the Citizens of Antioch made a Jest of him for it; Yet he was so blinded by his Flatterers, or deluded by the Priests, who construed the worst and most portentous things, to mean the best Events; or, which is beyond it all, by the su∣perior Decree of an appointed Vengeance; that he went on and was kill'd in the very beginning of the War; the first Battel with the Persians carried him off.

I MIGHT multiply Examples of the like kind, even on both sides, and especially on the last; but 'tis sufficient; our own Experience will confirm it: secret Notices are daily given us of capital Dangers attending, and yet how do the most vigilant Ob∣servers of those Signals, and the most eminent O∣men-Hunters, even after those Notices, sit still, and grow indolent? or else, amaz'd and bewilder'd, they say, I know there's something a coming to me, some Mischief attends me, I have plain Notice of it; but I don't know what it is, I can't tell what to do; I can do nothing to avoid or prevent it. And thus they fall into the Pit, as we may say, with their Eyes open, and in spight of the kind Spirit's beneficent Warning.

WHAT can this be? but because the Spirit, tho' really kind and beneficent, yet limited and impo∣tent in Power, was able to do no more than to give the Hint, leaving the Person to his own Prudence to guard and direct himself?

I MIGHT add here what 'tis rational enough to suggest, viz. that Heaven in its infinite Wisdom and Goodness may have appointed these Good Spirits to give such Notices, yet allowing them to do no more, that the Mind of Man being duly alarm'd at approaching Evil, and believing some∣thing very fatal to him is at Hand; but seeing no kind Being directing what M••thods to take for his Deliverance, or for escaping the impending Mis∣chief, should turn his Eyes (at least) a little upwards, and call for Direction and Council from that Hand, who alone can both direct and deliver.

BUT hold! whither am I going? This looks like Religion, and we must not talk a Word of that, if we expect to be agreeable. Unhappy Times! where to be serious, is to be dull and grave, and consequently to write without Spirit. We must talk politely, not religiously; we may show the Scholar, but must not show a Word of the Chri∣stian; so we may quote prophane History, but not sacred; and a Story out of Lucan or Plutarch, Tully, or Virgil will go down, but not a Word out of Moses or Joshua.

WELL, we must comply however; the Humour of the Day must prevail; and as there is no instru∣cting you without pleasing you, and no pleasing you but in your own Way, we must go on in that Way; the Understanding must be refin'd by Alle∣gory and Enigma; you must see the Sun through the Cloud, and relish Light by the help of Dark∣ness; the Taste must be rectify'd by Salts, the Ap∣petite whetted by Bitters; in a word, the Manners must be reform'd in Masquerade, Devotion quicken'd

by the Stage not the Pulpit, and Wit be brighten'd by Satyrs upon Sense.

THIS Hypothesis, of a new suppos'd Class of Spirits, would lead me into a great many useful Speculations; and I might remark with great Ad∣vantages from it, upon the general Indolence, which it is evident has so fatally possess'd ou•• Men of Wit in this Age. To see a Fool, a Fop, believe himself inspir'd, a Fellow that washes his Hands fifty times a-day, but if he would be truly cleanly, should have his Brains taken out and wash'd, his Scull Trapan'd, and plac'd with the hind-side before, that his Understanding, which Nature plac'd by Mistake, with the Bottom upward, may be set right, and his Memory plac'd in a right Position; To this unscrew'd Engine talk of Spirits, and of the invisible World, and of his conversing with unembodied Soul, when he has hardly Brains to converse with any thing but a Pack of Hounds, and owes it only to his being a Fool, that he does not converse with the Devil! who if he has any Spirit about him, it must be one of these indolent Angels I speak of; and if he has not been listed a∣mong the Infernals, it has not been for want of Wickedness, but for want of Wit.

I DON'T wonder such as these go a mobbing a∣mong those meanest of mad Things call'd Free∣Masons; rough Cheats, and confess'd Delusions are the fittest things to amuse them. They are like those foolish Fish that are caught in large Nets, that might get out at every Square of the Mash, but hang by the Gills upon the meer Thread, and chuse to hamper and tangle themselves, when there is no occasion for it, and are taken even in those Snares that are not laid for them.