A26888:256
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls…
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadducees and infidels, by Richard Baxter.The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadduces and infidels, by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1691
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Most Worthy Sir,
I Have now another Motion to you, as to that passage in your Vureasonablenese of Infidelity, where you show the meaning of the Spirit, as to Humane Learning, &c. and those 29 Considerations (for the page I cannot cite, because I have not the Book at this very instant) because it is in the midst of the Book, and not so discernible to all Readers; I could humbly beg of you, to get your Printer and Stationer to print them apart in a few small Leaves, for there is nothing generally that is more mistaken ⟨p. 130⟩among us than that, and I see the publishing here but so much of them in this kind would do infinite good here; and I would my self be at charge of buying and dispersing many scores of them. And because of that Copious Satisfaction you give of Spirits, than which there cannot be greater convincements against Infidelity and Atheism, I could afford you several strange Instances from these parts, but I shall trouble you only with two. Since the time I received your Letter, there happened in my Neighbourhood this following; A Man and his Family being all in Bed, about after Midnight, awake in Bed, he could perceive a Light entering a little Room, where he lay, and one after another, of some a Dozen in the shape of Men, and two or three Women with small Children in their Arms entering in, and they seemed to Dance, and the Room to be far lighter and wider than formerly; they did seem to eat Bread and Cheese all about a kind of a Tick upon the Ground; they offered him Meat, and would smile upon him; he could perceive no Voice, but he once calling to God to bless him, he could perceive the whisper of a Voice in Welsh, bidding him hold his peace, being about four Hours thus, he did what he could to awake his Wife, and could not • they went out into another Room, and after some Dancing departed, and then he arose; ⟨p. 131⟩yet being but a very small Room he could not find the Door, nor the way to Bed, until crying out, his Wife and Family awaked. Being within about two Miles of me, I sent for the Man, who is an honest poor Husbandman, and of good Report: And I made him believe I would put him to his Oath for the truth of this Relation, who was very ready to take it.