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what I have faid of fome Platonicks, I did not intend thereby to juftifie all their abfurd or fuperftitious Opinions in this Argument of Spirits: As they have fearched further into it then others (befides damnable experience, having confounded Magick with Phylofophy, yea almoft turned all Phylofophy into Magick) fo it was confequent, they would fall into more Errors and Abfurdities; yet withal, they have found fomewhat that doth better agree with daily experience, then what is commonly known or believed. Sinefius was a Bishop, but as he doth appear to us in his Writings, a better Platonick then a Chriftian: In a place (in his Treatife De infomniis) he fheweth how evil Spirits come to inhabit men and to poffeffe their Brains: H's terms are very courfe, and apparantly ridiculous; but there may be fome truth in the Opinion: For if there were not a very near and intimate conjunction, it were to be wondered how the Divel comes to know the very thoughts of Witches and Magicians, as is found by experience, averred by more then one And in this very Book, if I be not mistaken, fomewhat may be obferved to that purpose: It is poffible there may be more kindes of poffeffion then one, and that fome men, that never were fufpected, have had a ffirit (befides their own) refident in them, all, or most part of their lives.

I have done, with what I could think of, upon which objection can be made: The next thing is to make the way clearer to the Reader, by fomic confideration of the method of the Books, and explanation of fome terms and phrafes there ufed, at which perchance fome may ſtick at the firft: At the very beginning a man may be to feek, it the Title of it, Liber fexti myfteriorum, & fancti parallelus, novalifque. 1583. both as it relates to that which follows, and as it reflects upon fomewhat before, by which it may be inferred that the book begins here abruptly and imperfectly: of this I am new ready to give an account to the Reader, and it is very fit it fhould be done.

Firft concerning Titles, fuch as will be found here many more befides this, the whole book, or relation being fubdivided into many parts; in general I fy, that according to the Doctors genius (we have faid before He was very Cabaliftical, that is, full of whimfies and crotchets, under the notion of Myfteries, a thing that fome very able, otherwife, have been fubject unto) and the high opinion he had of thefe actions and apparitions; they are moftly very concealed, and (to fpeak the truth) phantaftick, which muft make them the Obfcurer: I could give the Reader a view of them all here put together, but it would be fuperfluous: There be fome fourteen or fifteen Divifions in all now remaining, and fo many Titles: There is a Table at the beginning, that doth refer to the beginning of every divifion, where the Title alfo will be found: But at the end of the viii. Divifion, I finde thefe words, Sequitur liber 24. qui bac die etiam inceptus eft, à meridie: horam circiter tertiam, per ipfum Lavanael: But I finde nothing following, (but fome vacant fheets, till we come to the ix. Divifion, Myfteriorum pragenfium, &c. And the laft Divifion hath onely fome Fables, and before them, fome five or fix pages of unknown myftical words, which we know not what to make of; but of that more afterwards: The main bufinefs to be refolved here (as I take it) is what it is that we have, and what we have not, fo far as can be gathered by what remaineth; we shall fee what we can fay to it. In the year of the Lord, One thoufand fivehundred