A27017:661
The Saints' Everlasting Rest
The saints everlasting rest, or, A treatise of the blessed state of the saints in their enjoyment of God in glory wherein is showed its excellency and certainty, the misery of those that lose it, the way to attain it, and assurance of it, and how to live in the continual delightful forecasts of it and now published by Richard Baxter ...The saints everlasting rest, or, A treatise of the blessed state of the saints in their enjoyment of God in glory wherein is shewed its excellency and certainty, the misery of those that lose it, the way to attain it, and assurance of it, and how to live in the continual delightful forecasts of it and now published by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed by Rob. White for Thomas Underhil and Francis Tyton, 1650
THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. PART II. › Chapter 7 › Section 2
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.
Luther affirmed of himself, that at Coburg he oft times had an apparition of burning Torches,1 the sight whereof did so affright him, that he was near swooning; also in his own Garden the devil appeared to him in the likeness of a black Boar, but then he made light of it. Zozomen in his Ecclesiastical History writes of Apelles a Smith,2 famous in Egypt for working Miracles, who in the night, while he was at work was tempted to uncleanness by the devil, appearing in the shape of a beautiful woman; The like he tells, of a strange apparition in Antioch the night before the Sedition against Theodosius. Theodorus mentions a fearful sight that appeared to Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople, and the threatening words which it uttered. The Writings of Gregory, Ambrose, Austin, Chrysostom, Nicephorus, &c. make frequent mention of apparitions, and relate the several stories at large. You may read in Lavater de Spectris, 3several other relations of apparitions out of Alexander ab Alexandro, Baptista Fulgosius, and others. Ludovicus Vives, lib. 1. de Veritate fidei, saith, That among the Savages in America, nothing is more common then to hear and see Spirits in such shapes both day and night. The like do other Writers testify of those Indians;4 So saith Olaus Magnus of the Islanders. Cardanus de Subtilit. hath many such ⟨p. 239⟩Stories. So Joh. Manlius in locor. Commun. collectan. cap. de malis spiritibus, & de satisfactione. Yea, godly, sober Melanchthon affirms that he had seen some such Sights or Apparitions himself, and many credible persons of his acquaintance have told him, that they have not only seen them, but had much talk with Spirits; Among the rest he mentions one of his own Aunt, who sitting sad at the fire after the death of her husband,5 there appeared to her one in the likeness of her husband,6 and another like a Franciscan Friar; the former told her that he was her husband, and came to tell her somewhat; which was, that she must hire some Priests to say certain Masses for him, which he earnestly besought her, then he took her by the hand, promising to do her no harm, yet his hand so burned hers that it remained black ever after, and so they vanished away. Thus writes Melanchthon.