Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent.

  • Beaumont, John, -1731.
Date:
1724
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    180/226 (page 166)
    .1 bus \\c fee it s known, not only by J rsdition, bur by a fourfold Reafon befides, that there are Spirits. Andl think the learned Vcffius has here touch’d up¬ on all the material Points relating to this Subjedt, and fufficiently fliewn, that it is noteafy for any Man to let up any Hypothecs but that of Spirits, tolerably to folve the Phenomena, or unquedionable hidoricai Fads, which are alledged concerning thefe Matters ; and I wonder the learned Dr. Van Dale fhould con¬ clude, that all that pafs d in the Oracles, was by the Impodures of the Prieds, when I find elfewhere, he is free to own other Things for true and real, and not to have been aded by Impodure, which feem to me as f range as any things which are faid to have pafs d in the Oracles, and much of the fame nature with them. In his dedicatory Preface to his Diflertations con- cerning the Origin and Progrefs of Idolatry and Su- perdition, Le gives us a Relation of a thing which palled^ at Amfterdam, Anno 1566. which Relation he takes from the Hidory of the Reformation, written by the Rev eiend Gewavd Evantius^ and attefled by unexceptionable Perfons. It is thus : A great part of thofe Children who were maintained in the Hofpi- tal of Orphans, both Boys and Girls, and thofe to the Number of fixty or feventy, being obfefs’d by eril Spirits,v ere not only forely troubled with various and great Torments, (o that being afterwards re- Pored to their Health, fomewhat of the Evil remain¬ ed with them throughout their whole Life ; but alfo climbed up the Walls and tops of Houfes like Cats j cad luen perverfe and hellifh Looks on Perfons, that they much daunted even the Pouted Hearts: They jange Languages, and with a hilling Tongue difclofed many wonderful Things of what, at the moment they fpake, was tranfa&ing in the Coun- fel-Houfe of the City: For it happened that one of