In the facred Writings we have Job* terrified with Vifions of the Night, when deep Sleep falleth upon Men, Fear came upon him and Trembling, which made all his Bones to fhake; then a Spirit paffed 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 litterally, are yet but very feldom mention'd in the Night in Scripture; but however, that they wander and appear at Night, is very deducible from, if not litterally mentioned in it. Their's is the Land of Darkness, and the Shadow of Death; They are referved 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 especial Manner, feems 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 * Job. + Gen. xxxii. + Acts xii. they ters: they faw our Saviour about the fourth Watch of the Night, coming to them upon the Wa* they were affrighted and cryed out, fuppofing they had feen a Spirit. Doctor Whitby upon this Place, fays, "That the Jews had "then an Opinion of hurtful Spirits walking "in the Night, is evident from the feventy, "who render'd," from the Peftilence walking in Darkness; † From the Fear of the Devils that walk in the Night. And that this was alfo the Opinion of the ancient Chriftians, is evident, not only from their dividing the Night into four Watches, the Evening, Midnight, Cock-crowing, and the Morning; which were the Military Divifions of the Night, and which they ‡ obferved to guard their Souls from the filent Incurfions of evil Spirits, as the others did thofe of the Enemy: but also from their many Relations of fuch Appearances. Caffian in giving an Account of the Watching of the ancient Monks, and their being affaulted with Midnight Spirits, tells us, That at the Beginning of the Monkifh Life, the Rage of the Midnight Spirits *Matt. xiv. 25. Apo pragmatos diaporeuomenou en skotei, Si quidem & in Nocte Stationes, & Vigiliæ Militares in quatuor partes divifæ ternis horarum fpatiis fecernuntur. Ifidore, Lib. 1. de Eccle. Offici. Cap. 19. § Tanta namq; erat eorum feritas, ut vix pauci—————Tolerare habitationem folitudinis poffent.- -Ita eorum atrocitas graf Spirits was fo great, that but few, and these too Men of Age and unfhaken Refolution, were able to endure the Life in the Defart. For fuch was their Fierceness, that where Eight or Ten had been together in a Monastery, they would have made frequent and visible Incurfions: Infomuch, that they never all flept at the fame Time, but took it by Turns; fome watching the Reft, and exercifing themselves in finging Pfalms, in Praying and Reading. And St. Athanafius 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 ftrong Holds of his Faith. And what can our Church chiefly mean in the Collect for Aid against Perils; but that God would fend us Protection from all the Spirits of Darknefs, these Midnight Wanderers of the World: And for this Reafon, every good Man, when he lies down to fleep at Night, defires the great Keeper of Ifrael, who never flumbereth nor fleepeth, to fend his holy Angels to pitch their Tents round about him, and banish from him the Spirits of the Night. graffabatur, & frequentes ac vifibiles fentiebantur aggreffus, ut non auderent omnes pariter noctibus obdormire, fed viciffim aliis deguftantibus fomnum, alii vigilias celebrantes, Pfalmis & Orationibus, feu Lectionibus in hærebant. Caffian. Coll. 7. Cap. 23. So 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, feeking 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 be in it, is certainly very ancient. We have it mentioned by the Chriftian Poet Prudentius, who flourished in the Beginning of the fourth Century, as a Tradition of Common Belief; His Words are these, Ferunt Vagantes Dæmones Hoc effe fignum præfcii They fay the wandering Powers, that love The The approaching falutary Morn, Caffian alfo, who lived in the fame Century, giving an Account of a Multitude of Devils, who had been Abroad in the Night, fays, *That as foon as the Morn approached, they all vanifhed and fled away. By this we fee, that this was a current Opinion at this Time of Day; but what Reason they had for it, except fome Relations of the difappearing of Evil Spirits at that Hour, I never yet have met with But there have been produc'd at that Time of Night, Things of very memorable Worth, which might perhaps raise the pious Credulity of fome Men to imagine, that there was fomething more in it, than in other' Times. It was about the Time of Cock-crowing when our Saviour was born, and the Angels fung the first Christmas-Carol to the poor Shepherds, in the Fields of Bethlehem. Now * Aurora itaque fuperveniente, cum omnis hæc ab oculis. evaniffet Dæmonum multitudo. Caff. Coll, 8., C. 16, |