An Antidote Against Atheism/Book III/Chapter XIV
Chap. XIV.
1. Certain Enquiries upon the preceding Narration; as, what these Guardian Genii may be. 2. Whether one or more of them be allotted to every man, or to some none. 3. What may be the reason of Spirits so seldome appearing; 4. And whether they have any settled shape or no. 5. What their manner is of assisting men in either Devotion or Prophecy. 6. Whether every mans complexion is capable of the Society of a good Genius. 7. And lastly, whether it be lawful to pray to God to send such a Genius or Angel to one, or no. 8. What the most effectual and divinest Magick
1. It is beside my present scope, as I have already professed, to enter into any more particular and more curious Disquisitions concerning the nature of Spirits, my aime being now onely to demonstrate their Existence by those strange Effects recorded every where in History. But this last Narration is so extraordinarily remarkable, that it were a piece of disrespect done to it, to dismiss it without some Enquiries at least into such Problems as it naturally affords to our consideration; though it may well seem plainly beyond the power of humane Wit or laws of Modesty to determine any thing therein.
In the first place therefore, it cannot but amuse a mans mind to think what these officious Spirits should be that so willingly sometimes offer themselves to consociate with a man: Whether they may be Angels uncapable of incorporation into humane Bodies, which vulgarly is conceived: Or whether the Souls of the deceased, they having more affinity with mortality and humane frailty then the other, and so more sensible of our necessities and infirmities, having once felt them themselves; a reason alledged for the Incarnation of Christ by the Author to the ' Hebrews: which opinion has no worse favourers then Plutarch, Maximus Tyrius, and other Platonists: Or lastly, whether there may not be of both sorts. For separate Souls being ἰσάγγελοι, in a condition not unlike the Angels themselves, it is easie to conceive that they may very well undergoe the like offices.
2. Secondly, we are invited to enquire, Whether every man have his Guardian Genius or no. That Witches have many, such as they are, their own Confessions testifie. The Pythagoreans were of opinion that every man has two Genii, a good one and a bad one. Which Mahomet has taken into his Religion, adding also, that they sit on mens shoulders with table-books in their hands, and that the one writes down all the good, the other all the evil a man does. But such expressions as those I look upon as symbolical rather then natural. And I think it more reasonable that a man changing the frame of his mind, changes his Genius withall: or rather, unless a man be very sincere and single-hearted, that he is left to common Providence; as well as if he be not desperately wicked or deplorably miserable, scarce any particular evil Spirit interposes or offers himself a perpetual Assistant in his affairs and fortunes. But extreme Poverty, irksome old Age, want of Friends, the Contempt, Injury and Hard-heartedness of evil Neighbours, working upon a Soul low sunk into the Body, and wholly devoid of the Divine life, does sometimes kindle so sharp, so eager, and so piercing a desire of Satisfaction and Revenge, that the shrieks of men while they are a murthering, the howling of a Wolf in the fields in the night, or the squeaking and roaring of tortured Beasts, do not so certainly call to them those of their own kind, as this powerful Magick of a pensive and complaining Soul in the bitterness of its affliction attracts the aid of these over-officious Spirits. So that it is most probable that they that are the forwardest to hang Witches are the first that made them, and have no more goodness nor true piety then these they so willingly prosecute, but are as wicked as they, though with better luck or more discretion, offending no further then the Law will permit them; and therefore they securely starve the poor helpless man, though with a great deal of clamour of Justice they will revenge the death of their Hog, or Cow.
3. Thirdly, it were worth our disquisition. Why Spirits so seldome now-a-daies appear, especially those that are good: whether it be not the wickedness of the present Age, as I have already hinted; or the general prejudice men have against all Spirits that appear, that they must be straightways Devils; or the frailty of humane nature, that is not usually able to bear the appearance of a Spirit, no more then other Animals are; for into what agonies Horses and Dogs are cast upon their approach, is in every ones mouth, and is a good circumstance to distinguish a reall Apparition from our own Imaginations: or lastly, whether it be the condition of Spirits themselves, who, it may be, without some violence done to their own nature cannot become visible; it being haply as troublesome a thing to them to keep themselves in one steady visible consistencie in the aire, as it is for men that dive, to hold their breath in the water.
Fourthly, if may deserve our search, Whether Spirits have any settled form or shape. Angels are commonly pictured like good plump cherry-cheek'd Lads, Which is no wonder, the boldness of the same Artists not sticking to picture God Almighty in the shape of an old man. In both it is as it pleases the Painter. But this story seems rather to favour their opinion that say that Angels and separate Souls have no settled form but what they please to give themselves upon occasion, by the power of their own Phansy. Ficinus, as I remember, somewhere calls them Aereal Stars. And the good Genii seem to me to be as the benign Eyes of God running to and fro in the world, with love and pity beholding the innocent endeavours of harmless and single-hearted men, ever ready to doe them good and to help them.
What I conceive of separate Souls and Spirits, I cannot better express then I have already in my Poem, of the Præxistency of the Soul; which therefore will not be altogether impertinent to repeat in this place.
Like to a light fast lock'd in lanthorn dark,
Whereby by Night our wary steps we guide
In slabby streets, and dirty Chanels mark;
Some weaker rayes from the black top doe glide,
And flusher streams perhaps through th' horny side:
But when we've past the peril of the way,
Arrivd at home, and laid that case aside.
The naked light how clearly doth it ray,
And spread its joyful beams as bright as Summers day!
Even so the Soul in this contracted state,
Confin'd to these streight Instruments of Sense,
More dull and narrowly doth operate;
At this hole hears, the Sight must ray from thence,
Here tasts, there smells: But when she's gone from hence,
Like naked lamp she is one shining sphear,
And round about has perfect cognoscence
Whate're in her Horizon doth appear;
She is one Orb of Sense, all Eye, all aiery Eare.
And what I speak there of the condition of the Soul out of the Body, I think is easily applicable to other Genii or Spirits.
5. The fifth Enquiry may be, How these good Genii become serviceable to men for either heightning their Devotions, or inabling them to Prophesy; whether it can be by any other way then by desending into their Bodies, and possessing the Heart and Brain. For the Euchites, who affected the gift of Prophecy by familiarity with evil Spirits, did utterly obliterate in their Souls the πατρικὰ σύμβολα, the Principles of Goodness and Honesty (as you may see in Psellus περὶ ἐνεργείας δαιμόνων) that the evil Spirits might come into their Bodies, whom those sparks of Vertue, as they said, would drive away, but those being extinguisht they could come in and possess them, and inable them to Prophesy. And that the Imps of Witches do sometimes enter their own Bodies as well as theirs to whom they send them, is plain in the story of the Witches of Warbois. It is also the opinion of Trismegist, that these Spirits get into the Veins and Arteries both of men and beasts.
Wherefore concerning the Dreams and Visions of this holy man that so freely imparted himself to Bodinus, it may be conceived reasonable that the good Genius insinuated himself into his very Body, as well as the bad into the bodies of the wicked; and that residing in his Brain and figuring of it, by thinking of this or that Object, as we our selves figure it when we think, the external Senses being laid asleep, those figurations would easily be represented to the Common sense; and that Memory recovering them when he awaked, they could not but seem to him as other Dreams did, saving that they were better, they ever signifying something of importance unto him.
But those Raptures of Devotion by day might be by the Spirit's kindling a purer kinde of Love-flame in his Heart, as well as by fortifying and raising his Imagination, And how far a man shall be carried beyond himself by this redoubled Soul in him, none, I think, can well conceive, unless they had the experience of it.
6. And if this be their manner of communion, it may well be enquired into, in the sixth place, Whether all men be capable of consociation with these good Genii. Cardan somewhere intimates that their approaches are deprehensible by certain sweet smells they cast. From whence it may seem not improbable, that those Bodies that smell sweet themselves, where the Minde does not stink with Pride and Hypocrisie, have some natural advantage for the gaining their society. But if there be any peculiar complexion or natural condition required, it will prove less hopeful for every one to obtain their acquaintance. Yet Regeneration come to its due pitch, though it cannot be without much pain and anguish, may well rectifie all uncleanness of nature, so that no singularly-good and sincere man can reasonably despair of their familiarity. For he that is so highly in favour with the Prince, it is no wonder he is taken notice of by his Courtiers.
7. But the last and most considerable question is, Whether it be lawful to pray to God for such a good Genius or Angel. For the Example in the foregoing Story seems a sufficient warrant. But I conceive Faith and Desire ought to be full-sail to make such Voiages prosperous, and our end and purpose pure and sincere. But if Pride, Conceitedness,or Affectation of some peculiar privilege above other Mortals, spur a man up to so bold an Enterprise, his Devotions will no more move either God or the good Genii, then the whining voice of a Counterfeit will stir the affection of the discreetly Charitable. Nay, this high Presumption may invite some real Fiends to put a worse jest upon him then was put upon that tattered Rogue Guzman by those Mock-Spirits, for his so impudently pretending Kindred, and so boldly intruding himself into the knowledge and acquaintance of the Gentry and Nobility of Genoa.
8. But the safest Magick is the sincere consecrating a mans Soul to God, and the aspiring to nothing but so profound a pitch of Humility, as not to be conscious to our selves of being at all touched with the praise and applause of men; and to such a free and universal sense of charity, as to be delighted with the welfare of another as much as our own. They that solely have their eye upon these, will finde coming in whatever their heart can desire. But they that put forth their hand to catch at high things, as they fancy, and neglect these, prove at last but a Plague to themselves and a Laughing-stock to the world.
These are the several Speculations that the foregoing Narration would naturally beget in the minds of the curious. But methinks I hear the Atheist replying to all this, That I have run a long division upon uncertain grounds, and asking me, not without some scorn and anger, whether I believe that multifarious Fable I have rehearsed out of Bodinus, and so much descanted upon. To which I answer. That I will not take my oath that the most likely passage in all Plutarch's Lives or Livie's History is assuredly true. But however that I am not ashamed to profess, that I am as well assured in my own judgement of the Existence of Spirits, as that I have met with men in Westminster-Hall, or seen Beasts in Smithfield.