verily believe, that some of his solutions of difficult problems were not done Sine Divino auxilio.

Mr. J. N. a very understanding gentleman, and not superstitious, protested to me, that when he hath been overpersuaded by friends to act contrary to a strong impulse, that he never succeeded.

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KNOCKINGS.

R. BAXTER'S Certainty of the World of Spirits. "A gentleman, formerly seemingly "pious, of late years hath fallen into the sin "of drunkenness; and when he has been "drunk, and slept himself sober, something knocks at his "beds-head, as if one knocked on a wainscot; when they 66 remove the bed, it follows him, besides loud noises on "other parts where he is, that all the house heareth.

"It poseth me to think what kind of spirit this is, that "hath such a care of this man's soul, (which makes me hope he will recover). Do good spirits dwell so near us? "or, are they sent on such messages? or, is it his guardian "Angel? or, is it the soul of some dead friend, that suffereth "and yet retaining love to him, as Dives did to his brethren, "would have him saved? God keepeth yet such things "from us in the dark."

Major John Morgan of Wells, did aver, that as he lay in bed with Mr. Barlow (son of the Dean of Wells) they heard three distinct knocks on the bed; Mr. Barlow shortly after fell sick and died.

Three or four days before my father died, as I was in my bed about nine o'clock in the morning perfectly awake, I did hear three distinct knocks on the beds-head, as if it had been with a ruler or ferula.

Mr. Hierome Banks, as he lay on his death bed, in Bell-yard, said, three days before he died, that Mr. Jennings of the Inner-temple, (his great acquaintance, dead a year or two before) gave three knocks, looked in, and said, He was as far from believing such things as

come away. any man.

Mr. George Ent of the Middle-temple, told me, some days before he died, that he had such a Deceptio Visus, he called it.

"In Germany when one is to die out of one's family, or 66 some friends, there will sometimes likewise happen some "token that signifieth the death of one, e. g. some (or "one) in the house heareth the noise, as if a meal-sack "fell down from on high upon the boards of the chamber; 'they presently go up thither, where they thought it was done, and find nothing; but all things in order.

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"Also at Berlin, when one shall die out of the electoral "house of Brandenburgh, a woman drest in white linen appears always to several, without speaking, or doing any harm, for several weeks before." This from Jasper Belshazer Cranmer, a Saxon gentleman.

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BLOWS INVISIBLE.

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R. BROGRAVE, of Hamel, near Puckridge in Hertfordshire, when he was a young man, riding in a lane in that county, had a blow given him on his cheek: (or head) he looked back and saw that nobody was near behind him; anon he had such another blow, I have forgot if a third. He turned back, and fell to the study of the law; and was afterwards a Judge. This account I had from Sir John Penruddocke of Compton-Chamberlain, (our neighbour) whose Lady was Judge Brograve's niece.

Newark (Sir G. L.'s) has knockings before death. And there is a house near Covent Garden that has warnings. The Papists are full of these observations.

The like stories are reported of others.

PROPHESIES.

ICERO de Divinatione, Lib. I.

gentem quidem nullam video, neque tam humanam atque doctam: neque tam immanem tam ; barbaram, quæ non significari futura, & à quibusdam intelligi, prædicique posse censeat.

i. e. I know of no country, either so polished and learned, or so rude, barbarous and uncivilized, but what always allowed that some particular persons are gifted with an insight into futurity, and are endued with a talent of prediction.

To pass by the prophesies of holy writ, the prophesies of Nostradamus do foretel very strangely; but not easily understood till they are fulfilled. The book is now common.

Peter Martyr, in his Decades, tells us, that there was a prophet among the Salvages in America, that did foretel the coming in of strangers in ships, which they had not known.