This is that which Tertullian averres, Corporibus infligunt acerbos casus, animæque repentinos, membra distorquent, occulte repentes, &c. and which Lemnius goes about to prove, Immiscent se mali Genii pravis humoribus, atque atra bili, &c.

And Jason Pratensis, that the devil being a slender incomprehensible spirit, can easily insinuate and winde himself into humane bodies, and cunningly couched in our bowels, vitiate our healths, terrifie our souls with fearful dreams, and shake our minde with furies. And in another place, These unclean spirits setled in our bodies, and now mixt with our melancholy humors, do triumph as it were, and sport themselves, as in another Heaven.

Thus he argues, and that they goe in and out of our bodies, as Bees do in a Hive, and so provoke and tempt us as they perceive our temperature inclined of it self, and most apt to be deluded. Agrippa and Lavater are perswaded, that this humor invites the devil to it, wheresoever it is in extremity, and of all other, melancholy persons are most subject to diabolical temptations, and illusions, and most apt to entertain them, and the Devil best able to work upon them.

But whether by obsession, or possession, or otherwise, I will not determine, tis a difficult question. Delrio the Jesuite, Tom. 3. lib. 6. Springer and his colleague, mall. malef. Pet. Thyreus the Jesuite, lib. de dæmoniacis, de locis infestis, de Terrificationibus nocturnis, Hieronymus Mengus Flagel. dæm. and others of that ranke of Pontificiall writers, it seems, by their exorcismes and conjurations approve of it, having forged many stories to that purpose.

A Nun did eat a Lettice without Grace, or signing it without the signe of the Cross, and was instantly possessed. Durand. lib. 6. Rationall. c. 86. num. 8. relates that he saw a wench possessed in Bononia with two devils, by eating an unhallowed Pomegranate, as she did afterwards confess, when she was cured by exorcismes.

And therefore our Papists do signe themselves so often with the signe of the Cross, Ne dæmon ingredi ausit, and exorcise all manner of meats, as being unclean or accurst otherwise, as Bellarmine defends. Many such Stories I finde amongst Pontifical writers, to prove their assertions, let them free their own credits; some few I will recite in this kinde out of most-approved Physitians.

Cornelius Gemma lib. 2. de nat. mirac. c. 4. relates of a young maid, called Katherine Gualter a Coupers daughter, An. 1571. that had such strange passions and convulsions, three men could not sometimes hold her, she purged a live Eele, which he saw a foot and a half long, and touched himself, but the Eele afterward vanished,

she vomited some 24 pounds of fulsome stuffe of all colours, twice a day for 14 dayes; and after that she voided great bals of haire, peeces of wood, Pigeons dung, Parchment, Goose dung, coals; and after them two pound of pure blood, and then again coals and stones, of which some had inscriptions bigger than a walnut, some of them pieces of glass, brass, &c. besides paroxysmes of laughing, weeping and extasies, &c. Et hoc (inquit) cum horrore vidi, this I saw with horror.

They could do no good on her by Physick, but left her to the Clergy. Marcellus Donatus lib. 2. c. 1. de med. mirab. hath such another story of a countrey fellow, that had four knives in his belly, Instar serræ dentatos, indented like a Saw, every one a span long, and a wreath of hair like a globe, with much baggage of like sort, wonderfull to behold: how it should come into his Guts, he concludes, Certè non alio quam dæmonis astutiâ & dolo.

Langius Epist. med. lib. 1. Epist. 38. hath many relations to this effect, and so hath Christophorus à Vega: Wierus, Skenkius, Scribonius, all agree that they are done by the subtilty and illusion of the Devill. If you shall ask a reason of this, tis to exercise our patience; for as Tertullian holds, Virtus non est virtus, nisi comparem habet aliquem, in quo superando vim suam ostendat,

tis to trie us and our faith, tis for our offences, and for the punishment of our sins, by Gods permission they do it, Carnifices vindictæ justæ Dei, as Tolosanus stiles them, Executioners of his will; or rather as David, Ps. 78. ver. 49. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, indignation, wrath, and vexation, by sending out of evill Angels:

So did he afflict Job, Saul, the Lunaticks and dæmoniacall persons whom Christ cured, Mat. 4. 8. Luk. 4. 11. Luk. 13. Mark 9. Tobit. 8. 3. &c. This, I say, happeneth for a punishment of sin, for their want of faith, incredulity, weakness, distrust, &c.