Page:Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, 1655.djvu/163

 Of the Nature of spirits. 1 3 9

Caft. So alfo fome have declared, that the foul of Trajanw Cafar did wander about ; but the foul of St. George was freed from fuch fufFuge.

Poll. Thou haft even now fpoke, and that truely, that fpa- cious is the fea of various opinions concerning thefe Spirits ; for fo indeed it is : buc whac Port thou toucheft at, I defire ihec it may not feem trouhlefome to thee to tell mc : for I am noc as yet fatisfied of the certainty hereof by our dif- courfc.

CaSt. That which thou defireft, I conceive to be this : I hold that thefe tumultuous Spirits are meer images of Satan ; which are not to be feared, neither is there any credit to be given to their anfwers : and are in no wife the fouls of the dead, which either live with Chrift, if they have done well ; or elfe are bound in chains with Satan, if they have done evil.

Poll. It remaineth that we fift out this, faftor : for it hap-

Sencth now fometimes,thnt my father appeareth to me in my eep ; perhaps that may alfo feem unto thee to be a Spirit. Cast. It may feem fo : but I will not in any thing contra- dict thee beyond Reafon : of my felf I will adde nothing;buc ac leaftwife I will annihilate thy opinion with the aflertions

of St. j4tt£ufti»C.

Poll. What aftertions arethofe?

(fast. In his r I book, which he intituleth De mortitorum eura , he effereth them as a means, faying, Humane inft r- miiy doth fo believe of himfelf-, that when he feeth any one that is dead, in his flee} , hefuppofeth that he feeth the foul of that dead perfon ; butwhenhedrearmthof any one that is alive^he then is out of doubt , that neither his foul nor his body-> but thejimilitude of the man appeared unto him : As if they could be ignorantfhat the fouls of dead men do not appear Unto them m dreams^ but one- ly thefrrfilitudes of the persons deceafed. And he proveth both thefe to be done, by two examples which were at <JMediola~ m*s ; whereof the firft he fhsweth to have been the image of a certain farher that was dead, who appeared to his fon, admonifhinghim that he fhould not pay again a debt to an

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