In the Desarts of Lop in Asia, such illusions of walking spirits are often perceived, as you may read in M. Paulus the Venetian his travels; If one lose his company by chance, these devils will call him by his name, and counterfeit voyces of his companions to seduce him.

Hieronym. Pauli in his book of the hils of Spaine, relates of a great mount in Cantabria, where such spectrums are to be seen: Lavater and Cicogna have variety of examples of spirits & walking devils in this kinde.

Sometimes they sit by the high way side, to give men fals, and make their horses stumble and start as they ride, (if you will believe the relation of that holy man Ketellus in Nubrigensis, that had an especiall grace to see Devils, Gratiam divinitus collatam, & talk with them, Et impavidus cum spiritibus sermonem miscere, without offence, & if a man curse or spur his horse for stumbling, they do heartily rejoyce at it: with many such pretty feats.

Subterranean Devils are as common as the rest, & do as much harme. Olaus Magnus, lib. 6. cap. 19. makes six kindes of them, some bigger, some less. These (saith Munster) are commonly seen about Mines of metals, and are some of them noxious, some again do no harme. The mettal-men in many places account it good luck, a signe of treasure, & rich ore when they see them.

Georgius Agricola, in his book de subterraneis animantibus, cap. 37. reckons two more notable kindes of them, which he cals Getuli and Cobali, both are cloathed after the manner of Metall-men, and will many times imitate their works. Their office, as Pictorius and Paracelsus think, is to keep treasure in the earth, that it be not all at once revealed;

and besides, Cicogna averrs, that they are the frequent causes of those horrible Earth-quakes, which often swallow up, not onely houses, but whole Ilands and Cities; in his third book cap. 11. he gives many instances.

The last are conversant about the Center of the earth to torture the souls of damned men to the day of Judgment, their egress and regress some suppose to be about Ætna, Hypara, Mons Hecla in Island, Versuvius, Terra del Fuego, &c. because many shreeks and fearfull cries are continually heard thereabouts, and familiar apparitions of dead men, Ghosts and Goblins.

Thus the Devil raigns, and in a thousand several shapes, As a roaring Lion still seeks whom he may devour, 1. Pet. 5. by Earth, Sea, Land, Ayre, as yet unconfined, though some will have his proper place the ayre, all that space betwixt us and the Moon, for them that trangressed least, and hell for the wickedest of them,

Hic velut in carcere ad finem mundi, tunc in locum funestiorem trudendi, as Austin holds de Civit. Dei c. 22. lib. 14. cap. 3. & 23. but be where he will, he rageth while he may to comfort himself, as Lactantius thinks, with other mens fals, he labours all he can to bring them into the same pit of perdition with him.

For mens miseries, calamities and ruines, are the Devils banqueting dishes. By many temptations and several Engines, he seeks to captivate our souls. The Lord of lyes, saith Austin, as he was deceived himself, he seeks to deceive others, the Ring-leader to all naughtiness, as he did by Eve and Cain, Sodome, and Gomorah, so would he do by all the world.

Sometimes he tempts by covetousness, drunkenness, pleasure, pride, &c. erres, dejects, saves, kils, protects, and rides some men, as they do their horses. He studies our overthrow, and generally seeks our destruction;

and although he pretend many times humane good, and vindicate himself for a god, by curing of several diseases, ægris sanitatem, & cæcis luminis usum restituendo, as Austin declares, lib. 10. de civit. Dei cap. 6. as Apollo, Æsculapius, Isis, of old have done; divert plagues, assist them in wars, pretend their happiness, yet nihil his impurius, scelestius, nihil humano generi infestius, nothing so impure, nothing so pernicious,

as may wel appear by their tyrannicall, and bloody sacrifices of men to Saturne and Moloch, which are still in use amongst those Barbarous Indians, their severall deceits and cozenings to keep men in obedience, their false Oracles, sacrifices, their superstitious impositions of fasts, penury, &c. Heresies, superstitious observations of meats, times, &c.

by which they crucifie the souls of mortal men, as shall be shewed in our Treatise of Religious Melancholy. Modico adhuc tempore sinitur malignari, as Bernard expresseth it, by Gods permission he rageth a while, hereafter to be confined to hell and darkness, Which is prepared for him and his Angels, Mat. 25.

How far their power doth extend, it is hard to determine, what the Ancients held of their effects, force and operations, I will briefly shew you: Plato in Critias, and after him his followers, gave out that these spirits or Devils, Were mens governors and keepers, our Lords and masters, as we are of our cattle.

They govern Provinces & Kingdoms by Oracles, auguries, dreams, rewards & punishments, prophesies, inspirations, sacrifices, and religious superstitions, varied in as many formes, as there be diversity of spirits, they send wars, plagues, peace, sickness, health, dearth, plenty, Adstantes hic jam nobis, spectantes & arbitrantes, &c.

as appears by those histories of Thucydides, Livius, Dionysius Halicarnassus, with many others that are full of their wonderfull stratagems, and were therefore by those Roman and Greek common-wealths adored and worshipped for gods, with prayers, and sacrifices, &c. In a word, Nihil magis quærunt quam metum & admirationem hominum; and as another hath it, Dici non potest, quam impotenti ardore in homines dominium, & Divinos cultus maligni spiritus affectent.