AS the Wings and Motion of Time, are usher'd into the Universe with various Changes; so is the Creature transformed daily from his Rational Intellects, to an irrational sen­suality of Dumb Creatures. O monstrous! What Christians become Beasts; what a sad Age do we live in? Woful Experience makes it deplorably evident: Iron sides, in Iron Times, suits well with a true Christians Qualifications; but Satanical Delu­sions in Backsliders from the Truth, carries a Badge of Infamy, aswel against the Glorious and Invisible Creatour, as against His admired Works of Creati­on: Such Atheistical Spirits, are the Original Rise, from whence the ensuing subject takes its Discourse; and true it is, that the Judgments of God upon Wit­ches and Inchanters, are clearly manifested by Scrip­tural Examples, where the Lord saith, Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live, Exod. 22.18. There shall not be found amongst you one that useth Divination, or an observer of Times, or an Inchanter, or a Witch, or a Charmer, or a Con­sulter with Familiar Spirits, or Wizards, or a Necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord, Deut. 18.10, 11, 12.

Many such like Instances, may here intervene by way of similie to the people called Quakers; and as [Page 4] Constantine forbad all to ask Counsel at Witches, or to use the help of Charmers, upon pain of Death; so shal I admonish all people from adhering to Sorcerers, which like so many Mushrooms (in this Age) spring up in an instant, deviating from the Truth, and fancy a New Light, proceeding onely from the Prince of Darkness; as manifestly appears in the case of Mary Philips, who falling from the Church of England, en­tred into the Society of Robert Dickson, and Jane Cra­naway, two unrefined Quakers; but after some few weeks expired, she declined their ways, utterly re­nouncing them, and detesting their actions; insomuch, that they adjudged her to be in a Reprobate Condi­tion, and not worthy of an Earthly Being; but rather a transfiguration from the Glorious Image she was created in; which (poor Soul) she was soon divested of, even in the Night, as she betook her self to rest with her Husband, being bewitched or inchanted out of the Room where she lay, and transformed into the perfect shape of a Mare, and so rid from Dinton to a Town within four miles of Cambridge, where a Company of seeming Quakers were met: But upon the aforesaid Inchanting-Witches alighting off, and hanging the Bridle upon the Pails, the snafflle (or Bitt) came out of her mouth, and miraculously she ap­peared in her created Form and Likeness, to the great astonishment of the Neighbours, who beheld this un­expected change with abundance of admiration; and upon the Womans declaring of her self, and the state of her Condition, she went along with some Officers to the Meeting, and coming into the Room, she point­ed to the two Quakers, saying, This is the Man and Wo­man that bewitcht me: Whereupon they were appre­hended, and carryed before a Justice, who committed [Page 5] them to safe Custody, there to remain till the Assises, which on Thursday last began at Cambridge, and on Fri­day they were brought to Trial, where the Woman that was bewitcht made Oath against them, and shewed her hands and feet, which were lamentably bruised, and changed as black as a Coal, her sides be­ing also exceedingly rent and torn, just as if they were spur-gal'd, and her smock all bloudy: Evident signs of her sad sufferings; yet utterly denied by the prisoners, who at last were cleared, notwithstanding the Grand Jury finding the Bill of Indictment.

But to demonstrate more plainly, That there are Magicians and Witches, is evident by these two en­suing Examples; to wit, Cleomedes a great Magician in Rome, having practised the death of many little Children, the Parents of them at last sought revenge on him, who to shun their Fury, shut himself close up in Coffer: but when they had broke it open, the Devil had carried away the Magician.

The Governour of Mascon, a great Magician, as he was at diner with some company, was snatched away by the Divel, hoisted up into the air, and carried three times about the Town, to the great astonishment of the Inhabitants, to whom he cried for help, but all in vain.

Thus it is evident, that as there are Magicians and Witches; so are there divers of the sons of Adam reach­ing out their hands to the forbidden Tree, and catch­ing at the fruit of it; yea, this off-spring of Eve long­ing for the greenest Apples, the precocious knowledg of Events, and New Lights, before they come their just and perfect ripeness of maturity. And true it is, that there are some who can find no satisfaction, no Sabbath, no quiet in their present state, and therefore [Page 6] they would fain know what the next day, what the next year, what the next age will bring forth; in the highest prosperity they fear a mutation; in the low­est adversity they are impatient for a change; and hence it comes to pass, that futurity is the mark at which all level the arrows of their aspiring thoughts. As for instance, the Jews who had the Urim & Thum­mim, and Prophets of God to enquire of, yet ran a madding after Wizzards, and such as had familiar spirits, had their false Prophets by hundreds; yea, and sent to Baalzebub the God of Ekron, an Oracle of the Devils, to enquire; as in the life of Ahaziah will ap­pear.

With how frequent and costly sacrifices did the Graecians adore their Oracle-giving Deities, purcha­sing an answer with a Hetacomb, and with the bloud of a hundred dumb beasts conju [...]ing their dumb De­vils, before the sullen Fiends would vouchsafe to an­swer them▪

To pass by the several kinds of madness expressed in Geomancy, by Circles in the Earth; Pyromancy, by Fire; Hydromancy, by Water; Necromancy, by the Ghosts of the Dead, we shall descend, and treat your view, to another Inspection of the New Lights of these Dark Times; which appeass so visible, that they may be discern'd as far as Norwich, where a high­flown Spirit, on Sabbath day last was a sevennight, took the impudence to pull down his breeches on the Communion Table, and laid there his most odious and nasty burden: But observe and tremble at the Divine Vengeance; he was suddainly tormented with the griping in his guts; and lamentably roaring out, died within the space of an hour or two. Will any [Page 7] man now say, that this is a Generation of men indued with New Lights: Surely no; for what is more ob­vious, than the proceeding of these Lights from the Prince of Darkness.

And as there are some, who by their inchanted black Ribbons, tyed about the Creatures left Wrist, gain many Proselytes; so there are others who deny the Lords Day, charging the Ministry of England to be Antichristian, and yet seem to be strict in the ways of Holiness. I shall not therefore set bounds to other mens knowledge, nor circumscribe them within the Circle of my own Ignorance; they may have Daw­nings, where I perceive no Star-light: yet take this along with you, that God often in Text-hand declares his Mind, in a Comet, a Blazing-star, and other fiery Apparitions; and not by the vain-bablings of Magi­cians and Sorcers; Who may fitly be compared to the great Conjurer that Picus Mirandulae writes of in his time, viz. That promising a certain Prince he would present to him the siege of Troy, with Hector and Achilles fighting together as when they were a­live: But as he was about his Conjurations, the De­vil carried him away that he was never heard of af­ter.

To conclude, As the Jews and Heathens formerly, so many of the Quakers in these days, have been tam­pering about Futurities, how lawfully I cannot say, and pretend a Vision seen in the Air, betwixt King­ston and London, figuratively presenting the dividing of the City and Southwark; and of the Cities devolving and extinguishing in smoak.

[Page 8]But doubtless, the best way is to acquiesce in Gods revealed Will; for He will have his Children in some sense entertain Fortune by the day, choosing gradually and leasurely to discover the thoughts he hath concerning them, that he might keep them in a waiting and obebient posture, in a posture of depen­dance and expectation; not that I would have them with Anacreon cry out, Give me to day, let who will care for to morrow; or with the Stoicks lazily expect the blind stroak of a conceited unavoidable Fate; but u­sing all lawful and probable means, endeavour their Countries, and in it their own future good.