When therefore the imaginative part of the soul
and the prophetic blast or exhalation have a sort of harmony and proportion with each other, so as the one, as it
were in the nature of a medicament, may operate upon the
other, then happens that enthusiasm or divine fury which
is discernible in prophets and inspired persons. And, on
the contrary, when the proportion is lost, there can be no
prophetical inspiration, or only such as is as good as none;
for then it is a forced fury, not a natural one, but violent
and turbulent, such as we have seen to have happened in
the prophetess Pythia who is lately deceased. For certain
pilgrims being come for an answer from the oracle, it is
said the sacrifice endured the first effusion without stirring
or moving a jot, which made the priests, out of an excess
of zeal, to continue to pour on more, till the beast was
[p. 63]
almost drowned with cold water; but what happened hereupon to the prophetess Pythia? She went down into the
hole against her will; but at the first words which she uttered, she plainly showed by the hoarseness of her voice
that she was not able to bear up against so strong an inspiration (like a ship under sail, oppressed with too much wind),
but was possessed with a dumb and evil spirit. Finally,
being horribly disordered and running with dreadful
screeches towards the door to get out, she threw herself
violently on the ground, so that not only the pilgrims fled
for fear, but also the high priest Nicander and the other
priests and religious which were there present; who entering within a while took her up, being out of her senses;
and indeed she lived but few days after. For these reasons
it is that Pythia is obliged to keep her body pure and clean
from the company of men, there being no stranger permitted to converse with her. And before she goes to the
oracle, they are used by certain marks to examine whether
she be fit or no, believing that the God certainly knows
when her body is disposed and fit to receive, without endangering her person, this enthusiastical inspiration. For
the force and virtue of this exhalation does not move
all sorts of persons, nor the same persons in like manner,
nor as much at one time as at another; but it only gives
beginning, and, as it were, kindles those spirits which are
prepared and fitted to receive its influence. Now this
exhalation is certainly divine and celestial, but yet not
incorruptible and immortal, nor proof against the eternity
of time, which subdues all things below the moon, as
our doctrine teaches,—and, as some say, all things
above it, which, weary and in despair as regards eternity and infinity, are apt to be suddenly renewed and
changed.
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