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 thy Evil Genius, thou shalt see me at Phi

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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

and appear at Night, is very deducible from, if not literally mentioned in it. Their's is the Land of Darkness, and the Shadow of Death; They are reserved under Chains of Darkness to the Judgment of the great Day; and we know that every one that doth Evil naturally hateth the Light: They therefore love Darkness rather than Light, because their Deeds are Evil. The Night therefore, in a more es pecial Manner, seems to be their Hour, and the Power of Darkness.

This was the opinion of the Jews, as may be learned from the Fear of the Apostles, when they saw our Saviour about the fourth Watch of the Night, coming to them upon the Waters: * they were affrighted and cryed out, supposing they had seen a Spirit. Doctor Whitby upon this Place, says, "That the Jews "had then an Opinion of hurtful Spirits walk

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ing in the Night, is evident from the se

venty, who render'd," from the Pestilence walking in Darkness; † From the Fear of the Devils that walk in the Night.

And that this was also the Opinion of the ancient Christians, is evident, not only from

* Matt. xiv. 25.

† Apo pragmatos diaporeuomenou en skotei.

F

their

their dividing the Night into four Watches, the Evening, Midnight, Cock-crowing, and the Morning; which were the Military Divisions of the Night, and which they * observed to guard their Souls from the silent Incursions of evil Spirits, as the others did those of the Enemy but also from their many Relations of such Appearances. Cassian in giving an Account of the Watching of the ancient Monks, and their being assaulted with Midnight Spirits, tells us, That at the Beginning of the Monkish Life, + the Rage of the Midnight Spirits was so great, that but few, and these too Men of Age and unshaken Resolution, were able to endure the Life in the Desart. For such was their Fierceness, that where Eight or Ten had been together in a Monastery, they would have made frequent and visible Incursions: Insomuch, that they

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* Si quidem & in Nocte Stationes, & Vigilia Militares in quatuor partes divisa ternis horarum spatiis secernuntur. Isidore, Lib. 1. de Eccle. Offici. Cap,.19.

Tanta namq; erat corum feritas, ut vix pauci.——Tolerare habitationem solitudinis possent.Ita eorum atrocitas, grassabatur, & frequentes ac visibiles sentiebantur aggressus, ut non auderent omnes pariter noctibus obdormire, sed vicissim aliis degustantibus somnum, alii vigilias celebrantes, Psalmis & Orationibus, seu Lectionibus in hærebant. Cassian. Coll. 7. Cap. 23.

never all slept at the same Time, but took it by Turns; some watching the Rest, and exercising themselves in singing Psalms, in Praying and Reading. And St. Athanasius in his Life of Anthony the Hermit, tells, Of many Conflicts that good Man had in the Night with the Powers of Darkness, whilst they endeavoured to batter him from the strong Holds of his Faith. And what can our Church chiefly mean in the Collect for Aid against Perils; but that GOD would send us Protection from all the Spirits of Darkness, these Midnight Wanderers of the World: And for this Reason, every good Man, when he lies down to sleep at Night, desires the great Keeper of Israel, who never slumbereth nor sleepeth, to send his holy Angels to pitch their Tents round about him, and banish from him the Spirits of the Night.

So far then this Tradition is just and good, that there are at Midnight Spirits who wander about the World, going too and fro in the Earth, seeking whom they may devour. Let us now in the next Place enquire, what Truth there is in the other Part of it; namely, That they always fly away at Cock-crow.

This opinion, whatever Truth there may