The Cock that is the Trumpet to the Day,
Doth with his lofty and shrill sounding Throat
Awake the God of Day: And at his Warning
Whether in Sea, or Fire, in Earth or Air,
The extravagant and erring Spirit hyes
To its Confine, and of the Truth herein,
This present Object made Probation.
Mar. It faded at the Crowing of the Cock.

Some say that e'er against that Season comes,
Wherein our Saviour's Birth is celebrated,
The Bird of Dawning singeth all Night long.
And then, they say, No Spirit doth walk abroad,
The Nights are Wholsome, then no Planet strikes,
No Fairy takes, no Witch hath Power to harm,
So gracious and so hallowed is that Time.

Now to shew what Truth there is in this vulgar Opinion, I shall consider, First, What Truth there is in the Roaming of Spirits in the Night. And, Secondly, Whether they are obliged to go away at Cock-crow.

I believe none who assent to the Truth of Divine Revelation, deny that there are good and evil Angels attending upon Men; the one to guard and protect them, and the other to harm and work their Ruin; that the one are those ministring Spirits, which are sent out to minister to the Heirs of Salvation; the other the roaring Lion, and his Instruments, † who wander too and fro in the Earth; these ‡ un

* Heb. i. 14.

† Job. ii. 2.

* Matt. xii. 43. clean

clean Spirits who wander through dry Places, seeking Rest and finding none.

NOR, I believe, will it be question'd, that there have been Apparitions of good and evil Spirits, and that many, with our SAVIOUR'S Disciples, have been affrighted and cried out, not only with supposing they had seen, but really with seeing a Spirit. Of this the Testimony of all Ages, and Scripture it self are a sufficient Demonstration.

What then could these have ordinarily been, but the Appearances of some of those Angels of Light, or Darkness? For I am far from thinking that either the Ghosts of the Damn'd or the Happy, either the Soul of a Dives or a Lazarus, returns here any more. For as St. Athanasius observes, * These Visions and Shades of the Saints, which appear in the Temples and at the Tombs, are not the Souls of the Saints themselves, but the good Angels appearing in their Shapes. Not that GOD could not remand the Ghost of Samuel, and order it again to visit the Earth, as he made Moses and Elias to appear at our SAVIOUR'S Transfiguration; but that a Thing of this Nature was very uncommon, and seldom happen'd.

* Hai en tois naois, &c. Athan, Tom. 2. P. 34.

Taking it therefore for granted, that there have been Apparitions of Angels, I believe it will also be owned, that these Apparitions have frequently happen'd in the Night. And truly, was there no direct Proof of this, yet the Notion of their appearing in the Night, being as it were link'd and chained to our Idea of an Apparition, would almost perswade us, that the Night is the most proper Time for such Appearances. Whether it is, that the Fables of Nurses,* as an ingenious Author imagines, have so associated the Idea of Spirit to the

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Night, that the one never appears with“out the other;" or whether there is something in the Presence of Night, some Awfulness and Horrour, which naturally dispose the Mind of Man to these Reflections. I am indeed very inclinable to believe, that these Legendary Stories of Nurses and old Women, are the Occasion of much greater Fears, than People without them, would generally have of these Things; but I cannot help thinking, that the Presence of Night, would naturally lead a Man to some Reflection of Spirits, without any such Cause as that learned Author mentions. There are some particular Times, which

*Lock, on Human Underst.

will naturally raise some particular Thoughts: Thus on a bright sunny Day we are naturally disposed to Mirth and Gaiety; when the Day over-casts, or the Weather is hazy, we then turn indolent and dull, and sooth ourselves in Melancholy; if it Thunder and Lighten, we think of the Day of Judgment and sudden Death: And thus also the Night, as it inclines us to grave and serious Thoughts, raises in us Horrour and Dismay, and makes us afraid, even when our Judgment tells us there is no Fear; so it may of itself be look'd upon as a natural Cause of such Reflections.

But however this be, we must necessarily own, that Spirits have frequently appeared in the Night, or we must give the Lye to the Traditions of all Ages, to Historians prophane and sacred, and the wisest and best in the Generations of Men.

In the Heathen World there are many Instances, of which I shall only mention this one out of Plutarch : "* One Night, before Brutus

passed out of Asia, he was very late all alone

"in his Tent, with a dim Light burning by

him, all the rest of the Army being husht

“and silent; and musing with himself, and

* In Vit. Mar. Brut, Trans. Duke.

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very thoughtful, as he turn'd his Eye to the Door, he saw a strange and terrible Appearance, of a prodigious and frightful Body coming towards him without speaking. Bru"tus boldly asked him, What art Thou? Man, or God?. Or upon what Business do'st "thou come to us? The Spirit answer'd, I am

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thy Evil Genius, thou shalt see me at Phi

lippi; to which Brutus not at all disturbed, reply'd, Then I will see thee there".

In the sacred Writings we have Job* terrified with Visions of the Night, when deep Sleep falleth upon Men, Fear came upon him and Trembling, which made all his Bones to shake; then a Spirit passed by before his Face, and the Hair of his Flesh stood up: In the Night + Jacob wrestled with the Angel; in the Night an Angel delivered ‡ Peter out of Prison, &c.

But though it be true from Scripture, that there have been nightly Apparitions, yet these are chiefly of good Angels; whereas this Opinion principally Means, the Appearances of evil Spirits. It must be owned indeed, that the Appearances of evil Spirits, if literally, are yet but very seldom mention'd in the Night in Scripture; but however, that they wander

* Job.

+ Gen. xxxii.

↑ Acts xii.

and