An antidote against atheisme, or, An appeal to the natural faculties of the minde of man, whether there be not a God by Henry More ...

CHAP. III.

That Winds and Tempests are raised upon mere Ceremo∣nies or forms of words prov'd by sundry Examples. Mar∣garet Warine discharg'd upon an Oake at a Thunder-Clap. Amantius and Rotarius cast headlong out of a Cloud upon a house top. The VVitch of Constance seen by the Shepheards to ride through the Aire.

VVIerus that industrious Advocate of Witches re∣cites severall Ceremonies that they use for the

raising of Tempests, and doth acknowledge that Tempests do follow the performance of those Ceremonies, but that they had come to passe neverthelesse without them: which the Divell foreseeing, excites the deluded Women to use those Magick Rites, that they may be the better perswa∣ded of his power. But whether there be any causall con∣nexion betwixt those Ceremonies and the ensuing Tempests I will not curiously decide. But that the connexion of them is supernaturall is plain at first sight. For what is casting of Flint-Stones behind their backs towards the West, or flinging a little Sand in the Aire, or striking a River with a Broom, and so sprinkling the Wet of it toward Heaven, the stirring of Vrine or Water with their finger in a Hole in the ground, or boyling of Hogs Bristles in a Pot? What are these fooleries available of themselves to gather Clouds and cover the Aire with Darknesse, and then to make the g••ound smoke with peales of Haile and Raine, and to make the Aire terrible with frequent Lightnings and Thunder? Certainly nothing at all. Therefore the ensuing of these Tempests after such like Ceremonies must be either from the prevision of the Divell (as Wierus would have it) who set the Witches on work, or else from the power of the Divell which he hath in his Kingdome of the Aire. And it seems strange to me that Wierus should doubt this power, when he gives him a greater; For what is the transporting of vapours or driving them together, to the carrying of Men and Cattel in the Aire, (of which he is a confident Asserter) unlesse it require larger Divells or greater numbers? And that there are sufficient numbers of such Spirits will seem to any body as credible, as that there are any at all. But now for the truth of this, that certain Words or Ceremonies do seem at least to cause an alteration in the Aire and to raise Tem∣pests; Remigius writes that he had it witnessed to him by the free confession of neer two hundred men that he exami∣ned: Where he adds a story or two in which there being

neither Fraud, nor Melancholy to be suspected, I think them worth the mentioning. The one is of a Witch, who to satis∣fy the curiosity of them that had power to punish her, was set free that she might give a proof of that power she pro∣fessed she had to rai••e Tempests. She there••ore being let go▪ presently betakes her self to a place thick set with Trees, scrapes a Hole with her hands fills it with Vrine, and stirres it about so long, that she caused at last a thick dark Cloud charged with Thunder and Lightning to the terrour and affrightment of the beholders. But she bade them be of good courage▪ for she would command the•• Cloud to discharge upon what place they would appoint her, which she made good in the sight of the Spectatours.

The other Story is of a young Girle, who to pleasure her Father complaining of a drought, by the guidance and help of that ill Master her Mother had devoted and consecrated her unto, rais'd a Cloud, and water'd her Father's ground only, all the rest continuing dry as before.

Let us add to these the Story of Cuinus and Margaret Warine. While this Cuinus was busy at his Hay-making, there arose suddenly great Thunder and Lightning, which made him runne homeward, and forsake his work, for he saw sixe Oakes hard by him overturned from the very Roots, and a seventh also shatter'd and torn a pieces: he was fain to lose his hat and leave his fork or rake for hast; which was not so fast but another crack overtakes him and rattles about his Eares; upon which Thunder-clap, he presently espied this Margaret Warme a reputed Witch upon the top of an Oake, whom he began to chide. She desired his secrecy, and she would promise that never any injury or harm should come to him from her at any time.

This Cuinus deposed upon Oath before the Magistrate, and Margaret Warine acknowledged the truth of it, with∣out any force done unto her, severall times before her death,

and at her death. [See Remigius Daemonolatr. lib. 1. cap. 29.] Remigius conceives she was discharged upon the top of the Oake at that last Thunder clap and there hung amongst the boughs; which he is induced to believe from two Stories he tells afterwards. The one is of a Tempest of Thunder and Lightning that the Herds∣men tending their Cattell on the brow of the Hill Alman in the field of Guicuria were f••ighted with, who running into the Woods for shelter suddenly saw two countrey men on the top of the Trees, which were next them, so dur∣ty, and in such a pickle, and so out of breath, as if they had been dragg'd up and down through thornes and miry pla∣ces; but when they had well eyed them, they were gone in a moment out of their sight they knew not how nor whither. These Herdsmen talked of the businesse, but the certainty of it came out not long after. For the free con∣fessions of those two men they then saw, being so exactly agreeing with what the Herdsmen had related, made the whole matter cleare and undoubted.

The other Story is of the same Persons, known after∣ward by their names, viz. Amantius and his partner Ro∣tarius, who having coursed it aloft again in the Aire, and being cast headlong out of a cloud upon an house, the la∣ter of them being but a Novice and unexperienced in those supernaturall exploites, was much astonish'd and affraid at the strangenesse of the matter, but Amantius being used to those feats from his youth, his Parents having devoted him from his childhood to the Divell, made but a sport of it, and laughing at his friend called him Foole for his feare, and bad him be of good courage; for their Master, in whose power they were, would safely carry them through grea∣ter dangers than those. And no sooner had he sayd these words, but a Whirlwinde took them, and set them both safe upon the ground: but the house they were carryed from, so shook, as if it would have been overturn'd from the very

foundations. This, both those men examin'd apart, confes∣sed in the same words, not varying their Story at all; whose confessions exactly agreed in all circumstances with what was observed by the country people concerning the time and the manner of the Tempest and shaking of the House.

I will onely add one Story more of this nature, and that is of a Witch of Constance, who being vext that all her neighbours in the Village where she lived were invited to the wedding, and so were drinking and dancing and ma∣king merry, & she solitary and neglected, got the Divell to transport her through the Aire, in the middest of day, to a Hill hard by the Village: where she digging a hole and putting Vrine into it, rais'd a great Tempest of Haile, and directed it so, that it fell onely upon the Village, and pel∣ted them that were dancing with that violence, that they were forc'd to leave off their sport. When she had done her exploite she returned to the Village, and being spied was suspected to have raised the Tempest, which the Shepheards in the field that saw her riding in the Aire knew well before, who bringing in their witnesse against her, she confess'd the fact. I might be infinite in such narrations, but I will moderate my self.