Page:Saducismus Triumphatus.djvu/66

8 by the measures of our Fancies about the Action. This is proudly to exalt our own Opinions above the clearest Testimonies and most sensible Demonstrations of Fact; and so to give the Lye to all Mankind, rather than distrust the conceits of our bold Imaginations. But yet farther,

(3) I think there is nothing in the instances mention'd, but what may as well be accounted for by the Rules of Reason and Philosophy, as the ordinary affairs of Nature. For in resolving natural Phænomena, we can only assign the probable causes, shewing how things may be, not presuming how they are. And in the particulars under our Examen, we may give an account how 'tis possible, and not unlikely, that such things (though somewhat varying from the common road of Nature) may be acted. And if our narrow and contracted Minds can furnish us with apprehensions of the way and manner of such performances, though perhaps not the true ones, 'tis an argument that such things may be effected by Creatures whose powers and knowledge are so vastly exceeding ours. I shall endeavour therefore briefly to suggest some things that may render the possibility of these performances conceivable, in order to the removal of this Objection, that they are contradictions and impossible. For the FIRST then, That the confederate Spirit should transport the Witch through the Air, to the place of general Rendevous, there is no difficulty in conceiving it; and if that be true which great Philosophers affirm, concerning the real Separability of the Soul from the Body without Death, there is yet less; for then 'tis easie to apprehend, the Soul having left its gross and sluggish body behind it, and being cloth'd only with its immediate vehicle of Air, or more subtile Matter, may be quickly conduced to any place it would be at by those officious Spirits that attend it. And though I adventure to affirm nothing concerning the truth and certainty of this Supposition, yet I must needs say, it doth not seem to me unreasonable. And our experience of Apoplexies, Epilepsis, Ecstasies, and the strange things Men report to have seen during those liquiums, look favourably upon this Conjecture; which seems to me to contradict no principle of Reason or Philosophy; since Death consists not so much in the actual separation of Soul and Body, as in the indisposition and unfitness of the Body for vital union, as an excellent Philosopher hath made good. On which Hypothesis, the Witches anointing her self before she takes her flight, may perhaps serve to keep the Body tenantable, and in fit disposition to receive the Spirit at its return. These things,