her Husband, than of the Person who begat it.
And some Histories mention, that through this Imaginative Faculty, a
Woman at the time of Conception, beholding the Picture of a Blackamoor,
produc'd a Child resembling an AEthiopian.

Monsters are sometimes Engender'd by unseasonable amorous Embraces, as
when a Man enters on the Pleasures of Venus at a time as the monthly
Flowings are upon his Wife; For this being against Nature, it is no
wonder that it should produce an unnatural Offspring. If therefore a
Man's desire be never so great for Copulation at such a time, yet the
Woman ought not to admit of his Embraces; the issue of those unclean
Embraces proving often Monstrous, or dull and heavy, and Defective in
their Understandings.

Sometimes by a corruption of Seed, Monstrous Shapes are form'd, which by
some is ascrib'd to the bad Influence of the Planets, that were
predominant at the time of Conception; and sometimes the straightness of
the Womb is attended with many Inconveniencies, for Nature not having
sufficient room to frame her Work in, the Child is rumpled up, which
occasions some to have hump'd Backs, crooked Arms, and Legs, round
Shoulders, Wry Necks, and the like.

The divine Cause of these Monstrous Generations, proceeds from the
permissive Will of our Great Creator, who many times suffers Parents to
bring forth such Deform'd Creatures as a Punishment for their Lust: And
some Authors are of Opinion, that outward deformity of Body is generally
a Sign of the Pollution of the Heart, as a Curse upon the Child for the
Incontinency of the Parents.

In the Writings of some Authors mention is made of Monsters engender'd
by infernal Spirits; and as the Scriptures give us to understand that
the Angels being taken with the Beauty of the Daughters of Men, went in
unto them, and that from such a Conjunction, Giants were Born, so we may
infer that if Angels can mix Amorously with Women, and engender
Children, the Devils who only differ from Angels by their Fall, may also
draw Women into immodest Pleasures, and Defile them with their Embraces:
But it is highly inconsistent to suppose that our Creator who is all
Purity, would permit the worst of Spirits to propogate his diabolical
Offspring.

Devils assuming to themselves Human Shapes, in the opinion of Ancient
Writers, may abuse both Men and Women, and with wicked People use carnal
Copulation. St. _Austin_ yields to this Notion, and that Generation may
thereby be effec