im; si praesens est, cur non
succurrit? cur non me carcere, inertia, squalore confectum liberat? quid
ego feci? &c. absit a me hujusmodi Deus_. Another of his acquaintance broke
out into like atheistical blasphemies, upon his wife's death raved, cursed,
said and did he cared not what. And so for the most part it is with them
all, many of them, in their extremity, think they hear and see visions,
outcries, confer with devils, that they are tormented, possessed, and in
hell-fire, already damned, quite forsaken of God, they have no sense or
feeling of mercy, or grace, hope of salvation, their sentence of
condemnation is already past, and not to be revoked, the devil will
certainly have them. Never was any living creature in such torment before,
in such a miserable estate, in such distress of mind, no hope, no faith,
past cure, reprobate, continually tempted to make away themselves.
Something talks with them, they spit fire and brimstone, they cannot but
blaspheme, they cannot repent, believe or think a good thought, so far
carried; _ut cogantur ad impia cogitandum etiam contra voluntatem_, said
[6744]Felix Plater, _ad blasphemiam erga deum, ad multa horrenda
perpetranda, ad manus violentas sibi inferendas_, &c., and in their
distracted fits and desperate humours, to offer violence to others, their
familiar and dear friends sometimes, or to mere strangers, upon very small
or no occasion; for he that cares not for his own, is master of another
man's life. They think evil against their wills; that which they abhor
themselves, they must needs think, do, and speak. He gives instance in a
patient of his, that when he would pray, had such evil thoughts still
suggested to him, and wicked [6745]meditations. Another instance he hath of
a woman that was often tempted to curse God, to blaspheme and kill herself.
Sometimes the devil (as they say) stands without and talks with them,
sometimes he is within them, as they think, and there speaks and talks as
to such as are possessed: so Apollodorus, in Plutarch, thought his heart
spake within him. There is a most memorable example of [6746]Francis Spira,
an advocate of Padua, Ann. 1545, that being desperate, by no counsel of
learned men could be comforted: he felt (as he said) the pains of hell in
his soul; in all other things he discoursed aright, but in this most mad.
Frismelica, Bullovat, and some other excellent physicians, could neither
make him eat, drink, or sleep, no persuasion could