Covenant of God with Abraham to our Saviour and examining whether from whatever has been said upon that subject there is any occasion to infer that the Devil may likewise on his part make his detestable Compacts I demonstrate that the Opinion which supposes such Contracts between the Devil and Men by vertue of which they are said to have perform'd all their Witchcrafts can by no means consist with what is contained in the Doctrine of the Holy Scripture nor with the Dispensation of God's Covenant as well before the Law as under the Law and much less under the Gospel Thus I plainly shew that the vulgar Opinion of Magick and of its Dependencies by no means proceed from the Sacred Writings but on the contrary is altogether opposed to it Afterwards we must consider what the Scripture says concerning those that practise that Art and what Testimony it gives of their Actions This I do two ways in the five following Chapters The first by offering in the 13th and 14th the lively Picture which the Holy Writ gives of those Men in several places and the second by showing what Opinion must be had of them according to the Character given them But expounding to the Reader the force of those things I make yet this distinction That I first offer the Persons to his view that he may know what might be expected from them what their aim may be why they were interrogated and on what the great Men and the vulgar bestow their time Afterwards in the 14th Chapter I consider them in themselves with their Arts and Crafts showing the Reasons that moved the People especially the Kings even those of Israel to be infatuated by them Afterwards 't is required to know what Judgment must be made of them according to the Holy Writ which I show in the three following Chapters In the 15th I assert that in whatever they did they shewed neither real Power nor Virtue that they knew nothing of what they ventur'd to foretel or to discover as very much concealed and that in reality they effected nothing of what they boasted of or of what they undertook to effect but that they applied themselves to deceive by outward semblances wherein consisted the chief part of their Art In the mean while as the Holy Scripture â—â—ms by its Expressions in some places to ascribe a great vertue to Conjurations and Enchantments I examine in the 16th Chapter what is the Sense of those places and I conclude that after an attentive Meditation it will not be found that it says upon that subject what it appears at first to say All these things being thus enquired into it remains to show wherein properly consists all the Evil why those Men with their Arts especially the Israelites that had a hand in their Crafts are so defamed in the Bible why since that time they have been in as great hatred amongst Christians who have mortally detested them and punished them with the utmost rigour And lastly for what Reason the Laws have been so severe against them and prohited all their Arts as well under the Old Testament as under the New This is the Enquiry of the 17th Chapter I have hitherto spoken only of those who pretend to a Converse with the Devil and to be in a Covenant with him I add in this place a Chapter which is the 18th where I mention those to whom he is an Enemy whose Mind is supposed to be troubled or their Body to be tormented by him those are the possest as they are ordinarily call'd but I enlarge not much upon that subject having already fully clear'd it in my second Book from the 26th Chapter to the 30th where it came to pass Having thus ended the first part of my third Book I show what Judgment must be made of all those things which I consider in two Respects First I establish from the 19th to the 20th Chapter what may rationally be thought of it and in the last Chapter I show what is the Duty of a Christian and how he ought to behave himself in such occasions A double judgment may be formed upon this subject First concluding that the Vulgar Opinion is altogether groundless and condemnable as appears by the 19th 20th and 22th Chapters Secondly By establishing what must be held of it Concerning that first and common Opinion As in the Writings made against my second Book some expressions of our Liturgy have been objected I show in the 19th Chapter how weak are the Grounds upon which are founded the principal Doctors whose Doctrines are in short in Voetius and that the Proofs they alledge are not taken from the Sense of the Holy Writ well examined and searcht into but only from the external sound of Words if I may so speak upon which we are wont to insist as well as upon the Idea's that first offer themselves to us when we consider them but superficially To which I add that Liturgies must be understood in the Sense of the Scripture from whence they are drawn and to which they relate in all those places where 't is spoken of the Temptations and Seductions of the Devil Spiritual Combats Witchcraft Predictions Enchantments and even in all others where the agreeableness of Style and the Series of Idea's has caused something to be added that seems to have a relation to it But moreover in the 20th Chapter I demonstrate that the Errors spread amongst the vulgar concerning the Works of the Devil and his Adherents are absolutely opposite to the same Liturgies even so far that amongst the Doctors of the Reformed Church none but those that are of my Opinion can pretend to conform in this point to what they subscribed when they took Orders which I understand only as to the Doctrine and Truth I show again in the 21th Chapter that this Opinion makes very bold attempts upon Piety that it diminishes the veneration due to God that it extreamly weakens Faith and Charity and that it exposes Christianity to the attacks of the Unfaithful and that it causes great distractions and prophanations in our Prayers Lastly I proceed further and to come to a conclusion I discover in the 22th Chapter what must be believed of all these things and in the 23th I declare what must be done But as in the 32th Chapter of the 2d Book I have treated of apparitions in general I speak here of presages and predictions in particular examining what is possible or not as to these things and to what causes they must be ascribed These causes according to the Proofs I have related in this place are natural but the Devil meddles not with them I propose my thoughts in the same manner upon the Conjuring up of Ghosts the divinations of the pretended Magicians and all sorts of apparitions and possessions which are said to be caused by their malice by Virtue of the compacts they have contracted with the Devil and lastly I show what sort of Magick is practicable in
which issued the Demons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. mihi 44. St. Athanasius who was of the same mind explains those two things more at large in his Ambassy As to the first he says That God created the Angels to take care of the Affairs of Men that are under their direction so that God takes indeed a genâ—â—ral view of all things but as to the particular Inspection he has left it to the Angels constituted over them As to the second he speaks the same Language with the others that the love of Women made some Angels fall into Apostasie whence proceeded a sort of Demons Sect. 6. Justin that enters more into particulars as to what concerns Demons declares that he knows none that has that Divine Power of preserving and rewarding such as obey him and therefore that he knows none likewise that has the power to avenge himself upon the Disobedient and Rebels This he teaches in his 42th Question having said before in the 40th That a Wicked Spirit that has been once expell'd cannot torment him any more whom he had before possess'd In the aforesaid 42th Question he says That when a possess'd seems to break his Bands and Fetters it is the Demon that does it who has that strength himself but cannot communicate it to the Body of any Man This is very particular and it will be fit to call it to mind again in another place wherefore I desire the Reader to observe and remember it Sect. 7. Irenaeus explains himself but obscurely concerning the State of Souls after this Life when he says at the end of his Book That they go to an invisible place God has prepared for them But Justin in his second Apology pag. mihi 58. explaining himself more at large goes also more out of the common road for he affirms that the Souls of the Dead have some power over the living saying That Men being seized and cast down by the Souls of the deceased are ordinary call'd possest and furious It must be observ'd here that having spoken immediately before of human Souls separated from their Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though the Latin Interpreter has used two different Words viz. first Animae the Souls and then Manes the Ghosts Mention iâ—â—ade of the latter in his second Chapter of this Book S. 14. But in my Opinion the same word cannot be taken in two different Senses at the end of one period and the beginning of the following He must therefore ascribe to the Soul of the deceased of whom he undoubtedly speaks in his first period all the Operations upon the living which the Heathens used to attribute to other Spirits call'd Demons for he there speaks of the Heathens Sect. 8. Origen who lived in the third Age had strange Notions concerning the Angels sometimes he gives them a Nature but equal to that of Men For Writing of the Light which St. John in his first Chapter says to be our Saviour he seems to believe that it was equally communicated to Man and Angels as may be seen more at large in his third Volume on St. John But in another place he makes so great a distinction betwixt Angels and Men that going from the first of Creatures endued with Reason to the last he puts the Angels as betwixt God and Men For he teaches on 1 Sam. 28. that the first Creatures are those which the Holy Writ names Gods The second those that we call'd Thrones and the third those that bear the name of Principalities Afterwards he calls in Question Whether Man is the last of rational Creatures or whether such Creatures as dwell upon Earth amongst which he ranks all the Demons or at least part of them are inferiour to Men that 's his Opinion in his first Vol. St. John Sect. 9. He again intimates elsewhere that as Men who have had the fear of God in this life become Angels after their Death as 't is read in St. Matth 22.30 though there it is not properly they become Angels but they shall be like Angels So that the present Angels might formerly have been Men Moreover he imagines that Angels and Men may dispute which are more perfect establisting betwixt the Nature of those two Subjects the same difference which our Saviour puts between the first and the last St. Matth. 19.30 and ch 20.16 he ascribes to Angels not only the Subregency of the World in his tenth Homil. upon Jeremiah and constitutes as well as other Doctors Guardian Angels upon that Principle but he persuades himself that their Virtues and Devotions may increase as those of Men proportionably to those of the Persons they keep Afterwards he destines some to watch over little Children and others over the Adult grounding his Opinion upon St. Matt. ch 18.10 where mention is made of the Angels of little Children that see the face of their Heavenly Father Sect. 10. He has this particular Opinion concerning the Stars that they may have Light and Intelligence and though he expresses not himself so plainly upon that yet 't is a necessary consequence of his Principles for upon the Words in the Hebrews 2.9 That Christ has tasted Death for all He says first that by that all must not simply be understood all Men but whatever is capable of Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and amongst those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rational Creatures he reckons the Stars a little after and upon that foundation he is not afraid of making our Lord not only the Redeemer of Men but also of Stars that have likewise sin'd because 't is said the Stars are not pure in his sight Job 25.5 he repeates the same at the end of his 2d Volume upon St. John denying however that their Influences should hurt Men notwithstanding what is read of Lunaticks Matth. 17.14 15. Writing upon Genesis he likewise rejects Astrology to which he believes that some Angels having forgotten their Duty have persuaded Men to addict themselves Sect. 11. Tertullian in his second Book against Marcion says as to the original of Devils He has made the Angels that are Spirits now in as much as the Devil was made by God he is an Angel and belongs to his Maker but inasmuch as he has not been made by God viz. as a Devil or a Slanderer it follows that he has made himself so by forsaking God and withall deceiving himself That Language is somewhat obscure Origen speaks not better for in his first part upon St. John he seems to recite a Riddle concerning the Dragon as having been one of the first created by God in a Bodily shape and before Man He strains the Words of God to Job ch 40 v. 15. for he takes them as they are now read in the Greek Bibles as though there was this or that Dragon whereas the Hebrew Text has Behemoth that signifies a great Beast Translating the Verse thus This is the beginning of what God formed which he mad for a matter of laughter to his Angels Sect.
that it might be done but the Frost continuing my Book thus imperfect was publisht and came without my knowledge into the hands of many People in Friezeland It was therefore only seen by piece-meal and without coherency which gave occasion to some of the Readers and others that had heard of it publickly to pass heard judgments upon it even some intended as I am informed to make me explain my self more precisely had I not done it in the Book it self For at last when they read it intire and in order they all agreed I had given all the explications that could be wisht either as to the Reasons that had moved me to write it or as to to the scope I proposed to my self which appears in the Preface and in the first Chapter of the Book or as to the necessity and usefulness of its publishing which I have shown in the same Chapter and the last but one They were just the places that were wanting for which Reason I wrote to the Bookseller of Leeuwarden and forbad him to give out any Copy of this Book until the whole was compleat Besides during the Frost I had time to add two Chapters to the end of the Second Book and to enlarge the Preface in order to inform the Reader of my Opinions and the purity of my intentions which has not proved altogether fruitless for I have heard that most of those that have read the Preface and the work afterwards have been satisfied as they have told one another and my self whereas those that had taken upon them to criticise it had read but some loose parcels of it or had not read it at all or perhaps had not so much as vouchsafed to read it Things remained a while in that state every one enquiring after the Reason that hindered the publishing of my Book and how it happened that I had none my self since it had been sold in Friezeland for some time The Thaw came at last and many Persons arrived with News of the Edition of my Book but brought no Copies along with them save some privately and as stolen goods then every body wondered a Book should have been put out in these Provinces and it should not be found in Holland where the Author lived and not only my Brother Pastors should not have seen it but I should say I had none my self to present them with At last I received 26 Copies of it from Leeuwarden but had scarce one for my self my friends came and took them away themselves as they were sowed and most of those that ask'd for them could not get 'em unless they came just when they were sow'd up So greedy Men are of Novelties especially when they can hardly get ' em Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata So much we love and seek what is deny'd However it be the Book could not be exposed to Sale before the 11th day of March A long time after I had sent the last Sheets to Leeuwarden to Mr. Nauta Bookseller who had had the Book perfect in his hands for a long time A Bookseller ask'd 50 Copies from him and thought to receive them speedily but had none sent to him In the mean while I find my self much perplext I was desir'd during two Months by my best Friends to communicate this Work to them which they had never seen and had heard commended for this reason I wrote to Mr. Nauta I would take all the Copies upon me and pay them at such reasonable rates that he would be satisfied with it he need but to send them to me without delay with the first Vessel Then I thought to consult with my Friends whether I should sell the two First Books that had already appear'd imperfect in Friesland and elsewhere or whether I should keep them until the whole Work was finished The first seem'd to be the best Advice to avoid the suspicion that I durst not publish my Book or that I was forced to suppress it because of many things that were spread abroad to discredit it however the last counsel suited better with my inclinations I conceived that a Work that was at first but a smal Treatise thô it had since been much enlarged would be more favourably received and prove of greater use if it were given compleat at the same time to the publick that the design and cohering of it might be better seen its Doctrines be more easily comprehended and the happy effects it was able to produce be more plainly perceived which is chiefly done by the last Part. But as the causes before alledged had already once smother'd this design so they did it again this time for perceiving by the Letters of Mr. Nauta it was impossible to agree with him as to the price and that it was unlikely he should ever do it I was at last forced to give up the Book to him that I might with the Blessing of God pursue my design So having altogether broken with that Bookseller I have agreed some Months since with another of this City Mr. Daniel Vanden Dalen to put divers Presses going upon it and re-print the whole Work revised and corrected that I might incessantly publish all the four Parts one after another in the form in wnich the Reader now sees them For as to the 750 Copies which Mr. Nauta had printed of the two First Books and are most of them still upon his hands they being an inconsiderble number that could not go very far and the hasty Edition of the Book being as yet imperfect seem'd to give room to a new Edition that the Pulick might be more speedily satisfied I therefore here present the Reader with the First Book enlarged with a new Chapter that I thought necessary to add at the end I hope with the Blessing of God that the three others shall successively appear every Month and I persuade my self that the reading of the First Parts will excite some Curiosities for the later and that altogether may invite the Reader to a serious consideration upon the Contents and capacitate him to judge more soundly of this matter than he did while this Treatise appear'd but in part and confusedly This is what I had to say as to this Edition that was made in such an extraordinary manner and publish'd without my knowledge I come now to treat of my scope and what has obliged me to embrace the Opinions I assert in this Book In all my Studies I was always inclin'd not to rest upon probabilities but to search into the whole matter and to get a clear and distinct knowledge of what I should know Besides many strange things had happen'd to me in Friesland upon the first Writings I had publish'd and experience had assured me how little one ought to relye upon the Judgment of Men especially when what they are accustomed to teach is call'd in question For is it not wonderful that my Book upon the Catechism should have been unanimously condemn'd in Friesland
Author and what is his Method AS the two first Books of this work that I published at first have been differently received for Reasons alledg'd in the Preface It will not be amiss to represent to the Reader what has been properly my design in these four Books that I have Intituled The World Bewitch'd nor to shew what foundation I built upon and what way I take to find out the truth For althô I express my self clearly enough in the beginning of the work and in the Preface to the first part I know nevertheless that is not sufficient to destroy the prejudice wherewith the learned themselves appear more biassed than the Vulgar which I should never have thought but it seems at present I have found out the Reason which is that the most part of those which do not put themselves to the trouble to pass through all the Degrees of the Schools aspire to Sciences and sublime knowledge but for their particular pleasure they are the People that love liberty and to whom it matters not who is the Master that instructs them provided that they may learn something or if they are greedy of rarities they have not so much respect to the mode nor to that which is New or Antient as to the beauty of the matter and to that of the work On the contrary it is with those who pass through the Schools as with those who live in Shops where every one has his way every Master has his Method in the work he makes In one Town they make the same things after one fashion and in another after another when one is taken up with the mode he often rejects what is pleasing without any other Reason then because it is not as commonly used in the World And we have a strangeness for all novelties so long as they have not the common vogue althô otherwise we might approve them and have them cheap enough but as soon as Custom has introduced them one begins to seek them out and to be disgusted at the former Sciences are subject to the same inconveniencies Those that we send to the Schools continue in the road which has been mark'd out to them for their exercises they endeavour to form themselves upon the model of those which have most reputation or of those who are the nearest to their first prejudices so this is disapproving the part they have taken not to be apt to take any and to preserve our own liberty and thus we expose our selves very much but one runs a greater risk if willing to ascend higher and search things in their Fountains it happens at last that we find our selves out of the ordinary Road and that we are obliged to take another Hinc illae lachymae From thence proceeds all disorders The common Opinion of the Devil of his knowledge power and Operations and of People which are accused of having commerce with him began by little and little to become very suspitious by the help of natural light which I have common with others which was strengthened and purified by the Scripture so after I had well examined it I was in doubt whether I ought to maintain it any longer or abandon it not only by Reason of the truth but also because of the Piety which it seem'd to contradict My Conscience it self compel'd me to it for I was obliged to answer those that ask'd me and to take care of my Conduct because of the disposition I saw the People in It was the Duty of my charge and every Day occasions offer'd themselves my pain increased every moment by the continual necessity I found my self in to speak and act as others did or to oppose the publick with words or actions which agree not with my Character which is to be complaisant and to agree with all the World as much as is possible Besides I found not as yet foundation enough to act after an other manner which made me at first resolve to make an exact search after the Original of this common and general Opinion to know whether it was founded upon truth But because I make this examination à priore and not à posteriore as they in the Schools I have proposed the state of the Question but at the end of the first Book where I discovered in the 22th Chapter how many of the Opinions which I have related which are all those that ever were in the World upon this subject The Protestants have at last got together and formed those which they retain to this Day In the 23th Chapter I compare them with the Opinions of other Nations and in the 24th Chapter I shew by what means they have been introduced amongst us and what keeps us so strongly tyed to them So in the first Book I examine what is the rise of the Opinion concerning the Devil and in the following Books I discover what sentiments we ought to have of him An Abridgement of the First Book IN the First Book I run over all the World to find whence this Opinion has its Original And for this purpose I have omitted neither time nor place I observe that the subject ought to be examin'd in two Respects In respect of the Devil to find what is his Knowledge and Power and in respect of Men to see what they learn and effect by his means But because these things are preternatural or are so thought to be and that by consequence they are known only to God I have judg'd it necessary to know what are the Opinions of Men concerning the Divinity and Spirits in general either good or bad and of human Souls separated from their Bodies by death which are also Spirits I make a search of all these things First in the Books of the Ancients and afterwards in the Moderns of all Religions and amongst all Nations distinguishing them into Pagans Jews Mahometans and Christians in reference to the present state of the World I begin with the Ancient Pagans which are for the most part Greeks or Romans known to us by Greek and Latin Books they have lest us which I treat of in the 2d 3d and 4th Chapters for there are very few Histories of other Countries and other People which are come to our knowledge There you see what they believe touching Gods and Spirits which are neither Gods nor human Souls and as to the estate of the Souls after death You read there also what means they used to attain that knowledge and to operate things beyond the power of Nature by the means of those Spirits such as they believe them to be I come afterwards down to our time and examine all the Pagans in the World first in Europe in the 6th Chapter after in Asin in the 7th and 8th Chapters then in Africa in the 9th Chapter and at last in America in the 10th Chapter which gives me occasion to demonstrate in the 11th Chapter that the Pagans as well Ancient as Modern have had a notion of the Divinity
who exclaim against my Second Book passing my First none has taken notice of my error in this point and declared it to me very few having done so much as reflected upon it But in vain they attack the Second if they admit the First They in no wise see the end I aim at nor the order I have followed as ought to be done in an exact search after the Truth But they undertake to confute my Second Book because it offers a larger field to their censures by different things expounded in an opposite Sense to that of the literal like those ignorant Disputants who let slip the antecedent Propositions and deny the consequence that is necessarily drawn from it I have reason to complain for passing an over-hasty judgment upon the halfe of my Work without staying till it appeared intire and they have seen the following Part and the Connexion no circumstance of time required that precipitation for I had not lost a moment to publish the two last Parts had they not hinder'd it by the disturbances they have given me I believe not that the whole extent of a project or its oeconomy may be perfectly seen while 't is but halfe done So 't is but at present that some judgement may be past upon this work since it begins but now to appear altogether and to be a perfect Body with all its Members The Second Book and the Third consist in the search after Truth and what of certainty may be had as to the Sentiments that have been upon this subject of Spirits and Men who have communication with them that is with evil Spirts I examine in the Second Book what concerns Spirits and in the Third what concerns these wicked People who seek to deal with them according to the division that I have proposed in the beginning of the First Book Chap. 1. Sect. 8. As to the Fourth I shall say hereafter what connection it has with the former and its usefulness Touching the method I take to make by degrees and in order this Search after Truth if whatever I have written upon this subject be attentively consider'd you will undoubtedly know the injustice of those who impute to me that I offer chiefly new Propositions of my own head that I take the greatest trouble imaginable to wrest the Scripture and my reasonings to accommodate them to it or that I make use of Reason as of a Rule with which I would measure Scripture and adapt it to the same On the contrary it is impossible not to see that I never had as yet the least thought of building upon such a foundation but that I have run through all the World and all times to discover where Men may have found the foundations of these Opinions which I have undertaken to find out For when one has attain'd to that knowledge he is in a condition to judge solidly whether those Opinions or Practices are grounded upon good or bad Reasons I declare then that I have not examined all the divers Opinions of the Pagans Jews Mahometans and Christians as well Ancient as Modern nor their Doctrines and Practices with an intent to give explanations of them nor to mainâ—aâ—n them or confute them but only to consider them in themselves and to expose them as they are without making any Judgment or producing any proofs to support or destroy them which is an extraordinary labour that none would ever undertake unless carry'd by the desire of truth So far I lay no foundation I that am a Christian and a Protestant and have no desire to become either Papist Jew or Pagan If I found nothing solid in the search I make I consent that they continue to say and believe concerning Spirits in general and Devils in particular all that is wont to be said and all that can be imagined But altho' I have not as yet found the bottom I seek and that neither Popery Judaism nor Paganism considered in themselves having there withal to furnish me I have notwithstanding a solid foundation which is common to me with those People And I have further another particular which I have in common but with part of them The first is reason which is the light of all men in general when it is found pure in them and neither perplexed nor obscured by prejudices or passions The other foundation upon which I rest is the Scripture inspireed by God which is equally pure in it self And and to the reading of which we ought also to apply our selves as if one had never read them that is to say with an entire disingagement of all humane prejudices and from those that may proceed from the versions of the Hebrew and the Greek which are the original languages in which it has been written he must meditate upon it without any regard to the interpretation which have been made by all sorts of Doctors either Ancient or Modern These two foundations are not Subordinate one to the other but subsist equally together Philo the Jew loving very much to search allegorical Sensâ—s in Scripture and not approving what St. Paul wrote upon the subject of Sarah and Agar Galatians Ch. 4. v. 2. has been the first that has applied to the Scripture and to reason the distinction of Mistress and Servant saying that you must thereby understand that Philosophy and humane understanding ought to be submitted to the holy writ This application is become so familiar to Divines that it has been received as an undeniable maxime since Philo took a fancy to propose it It is however a truth that reason ought to precede Scripture because the latter presupposes the former I understand sound reason to which the Scripture ought to present it self and make it self known as divine after that Reason comes to the help of Scripture teaching us things wherein Scripture is silent and the Scripture likewise comes to assist reason discovering to us things which are above it and above the reach of our understanding We must nevertheless confess that the Scripture is above reason not as mistress for they have every one their particular Empire and Direction But as being more noble and excellent because it is in this God manifests to us things which no humane understanding ever could comprehend 1 Corinthians 2.9 notwithstanding it happens sometimes that they meet both in the same way where they lodge together in the same house and by consequence they often lend one another the helping hand but they do it freely althô with this difference that reason as an inferiour alwayes shows a great respect for the Holy writ When therefore 't is said a Christian ought to submit his understanding to the word of God it must be understood the understanding such as it is in the Estate of corruption obscure by he Clouds that surround it and infected by the stâ—ins that dâ—â—â—â—gure it And such it is in respect of things which are above our reach which are only manifested to us in the word of
God and which we are obliged to believe as Scripture discovers them althô we comprehend them not But it does not follow from thence that we ought to believe those things such as men teach us by their expositions or even by their translations without a great certainty that they are faithful So then the word of God considered as it is originally and in it self and proceeding from God without any respect to the interpretations that have been made by men and reason not such as is born with us and when it is perplex'd with prejudices and blinded with passions but reason purified by the same Spirit which has inspired the Scriptures the Scripture I say and reason are the two only lawful and true grounds of the knowledge we can acquire as well in things Natural as Spiritual But there is yet another distinction to be made upon this Subject that is that reason is the ground and rule of our knowledge in natural things since the Holy writ never treats of them purposely to instruct us and discover them to us and that it speaks of them only as of subjects the nature of which is known to us as much as is necessary to make a good use of them as well in civil matters as in Spiritual In what concerns our Salvation the word of God is the only ground of our Faith and the rule of our Life without being in the power of our reason to add to take from or to change any thing in it thô it ought to be employed on this occasion in two manners the first is to try the Scriptures that are said to be divine in making use of the knowledge that Men have naturally of God to know whether the Scriptures present to them such Characters of truth as are agreeable to that notion The second is to comprehend by the sense of the word contained in them the doctrines there proposed for our Salvation Further we must be persuaded that Scripture and Reason are mutually helping to one another in such matters as are of their Jurisdiction for if the Scripture speaks not sometimes naturally of things naural Nevertheless as it never proposes any thing false t is the part of reason to instructus after what n anner the Holywrit must be understood in these places according as the matter required as Psalm 19. touching the description of the course of the Sun and in many other like places Or if there be any thing in nature that our proper experience has not sufficiently discover'd to us to pass a safe Judgment and that we be obliged to rely upon the Credit of others who perhaps are not much more knowing than ourselves The Scripture may also in this occasion afford us some light As in what is said of the Rain In the Evening and the Morning in Judea Jeremiah 6.24 the little rain that falls in that Country in the time of Harvest and the few storms that are seen there 2 Sam. 12.17 of the violence of the East wind upon the coast of Asia and Palestine in the Mediteranean Sea Psalm 48.8 and the like But that which is most considerable is that the Scripture it self instructs us of some certain natural things to which the reach of reason should never attain they are so much above it Such is the beginning of the World especially that of Man by the immediate creation of God out of nothing And such is the original of the darkness and corruption in which reason and understanding is plunged as they may perceive by the help of such sound and pure remained light as is in them These are the general Principles I presuppose which I believe to be such that there is no Body in what particular Sense he may be that will contest them Upon which I come to examine what is true in all the relations I have faithfully made in my first Book and which are the Sentiments or the ordinary Discourses of all Men upon that subject But it is manifest that I have not made to my self any particular Principles and much less put Reason and Philosophy above Scripture Even the contrary will be seen as clear as the Noon-Day if you take the trouble to read my Writings with attention and without Prejudice For I observe as to this respect as well as in reference to Comets in which Treatise I have followed the same order of which I am amased it has not been perceived the Question ought to be discuss'd of one side with relation to Nature and on the other with reference to Holy Writ and therefore I begin with Reason which is inferiour to the two others to search into Nature as in the lowest School what it teaches most pure touching God and Spirits and particularly the Devil For since the Pagans have presumed to say so many things of the Demons that they had not learned of the Scripture of which they had no knowledge it seems to me that I am not in the wrong to examine what there was that was grounded upon Reason and of what Opinions it seems to be the principle or what are those that are derived from another sourse But as what I could discover by the deepest and most exact search I could make in that lowest School is yet but inconsiderable I ascend a degree higher where I find a Mistress superiour to this first that is the Scripture that I begin to consult in the 8th Chapter of the second part Now as in the seven first Chapters where I walk as in Nature alone I lay aside Scripture to try how far human Understanding may attain by its own strength so I leave reason behind as soon as I enter into the Sanctuary of the Word of God whose Oracles are infallible What I say here that I have no longer recourse t◠Reason I understand it in this Sense that I take 〈◊〉 not as a foundation or as a rule by which I may expound the Scripture But I exclude it not as a means by which I acquire the understanding of the Scripture for on the contrary I cannot want it in this respect were it not for my Reason and Understanding in relation to God I should be in the same rank with Beasts but it is not to Beasts that God speaks but to Men that is to rational Creatures Reason may act alone without Scripture in things that are of its Jurisdiction for Arts and Sciences are the objects of Reason From thence they proceed and thereby they are learned that is Man uses his own light for that purpose without having recourse to the instructions of the Word of God and without having occasion for them But for the things of an higher Nature which concern the Will of God with relation to the Salvation of Man the Scripture is the true principle and solid foundation upon which our trust is founded although Reason ought to concur with it to understand and comprehend under the direction of the Spirit of God the Sense of the Scripture So
of created Spirits which I absolutely reject as a way which is used to lead us into error By consequence I cannot admit the arguments which are taken from the nature of God to demonstrate in what manner acts a Spirit which is his creature and has nothing common with him but the name After in the Third Chapter I prove by arguments drawn from the sovereign perfection of God that there are none of those sorts of Spirits that the Pagans esteem to be Gods and ediators of Men towards the supream Divinity because the Reasons of those that ground that belief upon the perfection of God are directly opposite to this perfection We then having taken off the imaginary Spirits I come to those which we certainly know to exist that is our Souls that are a part of our selves and which by consequence are better known to us by our own experience this is treated of in the fourth Chapter where I prove as much as is possible their immortality and that they subsist even out of the body I employ for this purpose Reason and Scripture because they are two ways that equally conduct us to the knowledge of the Soul the first by experience and by our own Consciousness and the second by the particular instructions God gives us of the estate of the Soul after this life but I quote not the Scripture in this part of my Treatise where I examine but what concerns nature only Neither do I judge it necessary to do it afterwards because it is a point that a Christian looks upon as already sufficiently established and supposes it when he will engage in a dispute upon this subject Besides I reject as superstitions and fables whatever proceeds from the invention of Men especially of the Heathens which is the matter of the fifth Chapter So we come to know with certainty that such a Spirit that is the Soul which truly exists has a body with which it lives and without which it may still live and to reject all the other Spirits of whom the greatest part of the World falsly believe the existence But besides those Pagan Opinions we hear every day mention made of Angels not only by Christians but also by Jews and Mahometans The Question is Whether Reason alone is capable to discover to us that there are such Spirits destitute of a proper and peculiar body Upon this point I shew in the sixth Chapter that our understanding without the help of Scripture cannot penetrate farther than to comprehend that it is possible but not certain that there are Spirits For this Reason I have not judg'd it necessary to examine the Operations of these Spirits upon bodies or upon the other Spirits because it seems to me ridiculous to trouble ones self with the examination of the Operations of Creatures the existence of which is not established as certain And therefore I have spoken in the first Edition but by the way in verse which is at present the seventh Sect. of the sixth Chapter And therefore it is manifest how wrongfully many People would perswade themselves that I have composed my work only To deny the Operations of Spirits upon bodies and upon other Spirits And besides that I ground upon this negative all my explications of the passages of Scripture but that I may avoid this persecution for the future I thought fit to insert in the new Edition that is made of my Book a whole Chapter between the sixth and seventh so that this new Chapter is at present the seventh and the seventh is the eight and so of the others following There I pretend clearly to shew that the proofs related upon that subject strike not at all to the end and cannot be considered as true proofs which I mean as to what concerns nature and as to what Human Reason may conceive of it self as destitute of help from the word of God After that I come to the word of God and then I employ Reason no more but keep to the Scripture only and I search in it what it will teach me touching Spirits which is now the question there I find that under the name of Angels it gives us to understand such Spirits as are the Ministers of God toward other Creatures But there is nothing discovered to us touching their Essence neither is their any thing in the History of the Creation as to their Original or the manner of their fall for which Reason part of them was from the beginning rejected from God notwithstanding the Scripture puts these two things for certain which is the subject of the eight and ninth Chapters I consider afterwards the properties and Operations that the Scripture attributes to them and I endeavour to know what is their proper nature their power upon other Creatures either spiritual or corporeal But the passages that speak of these things do not appear to me to have been understood otherwise than those that attribute also to certain Men that is to Prophets and Apostles the works that they have done in dispensing the miracles of God That which gives me occasion to say that as this dispensation surpasses the force of those to whom it was entrusted it cannot make us know what was their proper nature whence I take occasion to infer the same things touching Angels this is in the tenth and eleventh Chapters That which could not be discovered by the means of the name Original or Operation of those Spirits I endeavour to learn by the means of their orders of which is made an ample mention in the twelfth fifteenth and nineteenth Chapters of my first Book But I draw not any light from thence save that Angels as well good as bad have each their head that the Prince of good Angels is called Michael and that of the bad named Diabolus the Devil that is in the two and twentieth Chapter Yet I leave it not here I consider again that the Scripture attributes in many places some particular administration to Angels I examined to know what it is first as to the good Angels in general in the thirteenth Chapter whom the Scripture often makes appear and always for particular revelations to the faithful either to work extraordinary miracles or execute God's Judgments upon Men by punishments or by deliverances But I conceive not that what is said of this Ministry is different from what is related of that of those holy Men who have been employed in the works of God and his miracles that they in no wise operated by their own virtue by consequence I find nothing as yet which may give me a certain knowledge of the proper Angels their power or their Operations Afterwards I come to a more particular examination of the principle passages especially of the manner of speaking of these three persons which appeared to Abraham of the two others that appeared to Lot Genesis Chapter the eighteenth and nineteenth and in making reflection upon this History and comparing it with other instructions of the Holy
more largely explains in the forementioned place Equity says he Eternally attends him which is the Avenger of those that forsake the Law of God but happy is he who sticks to it and follows it constantly Sect. 4. But how advantageously soever they may speak of the supream Deity it nevertheless appears that they do not ascribe to him Independency nor the immediate direction of all things since they divided the Government of the World betwixt several Gods to each of whom they assigned his particular share 'T is very probable that the Caldees and Persians observing how Human affairs were often here below obnoxious to considerable changes which proceeded from Heaven took occasion from thence to contrive two supream Deities proceeding from that First being one of whom they called Oromasdes and gave him the direction of Heaven to the other named Arimanius they ascribed that of the Earth The Romans afterwards gave them the Greek names viz. to the former that of Jupiter and to the latter that of Pluto whom they at First look't upon as the God of the Earth And because all the wise held for a certain Truth that the Heavens surpass the Earth in perfection they placed the supream Deity in Heaven and the other Gods under it each according to his Dignity And as they conceived that the Soveraign God could never cease from being good so Jupiter who had the Empire of the Heavens was in great credit amongst them but Pluto the God of Hell obtain'd but an ill name Sect. 5. It is here methinks the proper place to distinguish the Doctrines of the Pagans into such as had either Religion or Nature for their object In the latter they enquired after the First and Second Causes of all things of their Motion and Changes without any reference to Religion Thus came upon the Stage Plato with his Idea's and Aristotle with his Intelligencies Plato called Idea's the principles that flow from the Divine Nature that subsists with him and by which all things subsist each of them being as an Engraven Image of him from whom they all proceed so that they all partake of the Nature of their Original and are such as the principal from whence they flow When I confer the sentiment of Pythagoras contained in the words of Socrates related in the Parmenis with what Plutarch sayes in his First Book Chap. the 10th of the Opinions of Philosophers and Laertius in the Life of the same Pythagoras as also Cicero in the First Book of the Tusculan Questions Fifty Eight wherein he explains the meaning of that Philosopher it seems to me that nothing can be better nor more plainly expressed concerning this subject As for Aristotle his Opinion was that there are substances distinct and separate from matter who put the Heavens into Motions supposing Heaven it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Body in a continual and restless motion that the Stars are of an Eternal Nature and that whâ—t moveth must be more durable and precede that which is moved Thence he inferr'd that there are as many permanent and immoveable substances This is what he teaches in his Metaphysicks Book the 14th cap. 18. And what is called by his Latin Interpreters Intelligencies Sect. 6. But when they proceed to Religion there arise still among them more considerable differencies which may be plainly perceived in the Book of Plutarch Entituled The Opinions of Philosophers and elsewhere in the same Author as also in the Book which Apuleius a Platonist more Ancient than Plutarch has written of the Life of Socrates The sum of what he says comes to this that the Deitie is divided into Four as into some Degrees that descend from high to low and that the three last Degrees are again subdivided into several others which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Demons and Heroes Plato sayes Apuleius has divided the whole Nature into three with relation to Spirits in particular believing that there are Gods Superior Middle and Inferior Of which Three sorts of Gods it is convenient to say somthing Sect. 7. As to the Superior or Celestial Gods he sayes that their habitation is in Heaven that they are Immaterial and Eternal of their own Nature but that there are some which are in some sort visible in the Stars though others cannot be perceived by corporal Eyes but only by those of the Understanding After he has distinguished those Deities into Sexes like Mankind that is into Gods and Goddesses he mentions these 12 viz. Jupiter Apollo Vulcan Mars Neptune Mercury who are Six Gods Juno Diana Venus Ceres Vesta Minerva who are as many Goddesses The dignity of these Celestial Gods notwithstanding the liberty which the Poets often took to contrive other Accounts of them 't was esteem'd too high that it should allow them to descend and converse with Men though they govern'd their affairs each in his Jurisdiction But the same Plato believes the Stars are but improperly called Gods and only in reference to the Divine and Immutable conduct that is observable in them The names of the fixed Stars which are reckon'd amongst the visible Gods are contain'd in this Verse Arcturum pluviasque Hyadas geminosque Triones But leaving those Gods to Plato of whose making they were the Stars which are called by Ignorance Planets or erring Stars were also accounted amongst the Gods the Sun was called Apollo and the Moon Diana to which these Five were joyned Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus called also the Morning and Evening Star and Mercury though they appear but ordinary Stars Another source of the Pagan Errors in their Divinity is the Conformity betwixt the name of some Stars and those of their invisible Gods they believed that there were Deities in the Stars who acted by them or that the Stars were Gods who having life in themselves communicated it to other Creatures as it was believed by Alomen whose Opinion is related in Clemens Alexandrinus Sect. 8. We may still perceive some Remains of that Opinion in the names of the Days of the Week in the English French and Dutch Tongues as well as in Latin for they still name by one of the Seven Planets that Day on which they believe them to have a particular Influence As Lunae Dies Lundi Munday Maanday Martis Dies Mardi Duigsday an Abbreviation of Dyssenday which is still in use in Zealand and Brabant Mercury Dies Mecred Wednesday Woonsdag from Wodensday the Day of Woden the name of Mercury amongst the Ancient Germans and Dutch because he was the God of Merchants and the Messenger of the Gods Jovis Dies Jeudi Thursday Donderdag because Jupiter was esteem'd the God of Thunder Veneris Dies Vandredi Friday Vrydag from Freda the Ancient name of Venus in the Dutch and Saxon Tongue whence it comes that the Frisons called that Day Freed and whence undoubtedly comes the Dutch word Vryen to Court a Woman Saturni Dies Samedi Saturday Saterdag Solis Dies Sunday Sondag but in the
Romulus who frightfully imagined to see the Ghost of his Brother Remus after he had killed him If those Narrations were true such Spirits might be called terrifying Spirits Ovid in the Fifth Book of the Fasti plainly says what must be understood by that Name Mox etiam Lemures animas dixere silentum The Soul of the Dead had the Name of Lemures Sect. 16. The Lares or perhaps the Geniues are called by Macrobius in his Third Book of the Saturnalia Chap. 4. Penates that is Born together Quasi penes nos natos For as that Author pursues 't is by them that we breath by them that we have our Body and by them that our Soul subsists But 't is better to call them Gods and Governors of Countries to distinguish them from the Lares who were particular to each Family as they were both distinguished from the Geniuses and look'd upon as taking care of the exteriour of Man as the Geniuses did of the interior However it must be confess'd that there is but Confusion and Darkness to be met with in the Books of the Heathens concerning those Names and their pretended Signification they having not well known themselves what they Worshipped as Gods or as Spirits neither need we take much trouble in unravelling what they themselves knew not since the memory both of them and of their Daemons is long since extinguished upon Earth This being the Lot of the Heathens and of their Gods Jeremiah cap. 10. Sect. 17. Whether this last sort of Gods or Spirits were called Genii Manes Penates or Lemures it plainly appears that they believed the Immortality of the Soul which Opinion being confounded with that of Daemons gave occasion to contrive those sorts of Spirits Plato in his Book Of the Soul Entituled Phaedo induces Socrates speaking near his Death in these Words Above all the Soul must be immortal and unperishable and consequently it must go to live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in invisible places or as others pretend to infer from the Etymology of the Word in agreeable Places Marcilius Ficinus has Translated it in Latin apud Manes by the surviving Spirits as I have named them above but a little after he Translates apud Inferos in the Subterraneous Places which proceed from that they placed the Soul of the Deceased under the Earth Cicero in the first Book of the Tusculan Questions Sect. 26. shows both in these Words We believe that the Souls survive because all our Reasonings lead us to that Opinion Reason ought also to teach us where they are whence Ignorance has taken occasion to invent subterraneous places because Bodies being put into the Earth and cover'd with Earth humo whence comes humari to be Buried thereof it has been believed that the Dead still live under the Earth Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same word which the Interpreters of the New Testament sometimes Translate by that of Hell sometimes by that of Grave none of which agrees with the Sense of Socrates or that of Plato For at the end of the forementioned Book Socrates derides Crito who asked him how he would be buried He believes says he That I am that dead Body which he shall see anon signifying that they might indeed Bury his Dead Body but as to him that is his Soul he should pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the assur'd Felicity of the Blessed which very much differs from the Grave or Hell And therefore 't is certain that Socrates who spake so believed the Soul to be Immortal and that Plato who writ his Words was of the same persuasion Sect. 18. But there were others who tho' they were of the same opinion yet having not acquired so much insight into the State of Souls separated from their Bodies invented Transmigrations and Purifications The Druids so famous amongst the Ancient Gauls held together the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transmigration of Souls with their Immortality For they unanimously taught according to the Testimony of Caesar Book 8. Chap. 18. Non interire animas sed ab aliis post mortem transire ad alios Souls die not but that after Death they pass from one to another The antient Egyptians were of the same Opinion and Herodotus writes that they were the first who taught the Immortality of the Soul For says he their sentiment is that the Soul being deprived of the Body passes into another Body which is then born and after she has thus walked through all sorts of Bodies upon Earth in the Sea and in the Air she at last returns into a human Body Thence it was that Pythagoras had his Doctrine which he brought over into Greece whence it passed into Italy Lactantius explains the Opinions of that Philisopher in his Seventh Book de Proemio Chap. 8. In these words Pythagoras as foolishly asserted that the Souls passed into other Bodies from the Bodies of Men into those of Beasts and from those of Beasts into those of Men again and that his own had formerly been that of Euphorbius Plato and several others have partly followed him which we shall be obliged frequently to mention hereafter Sect. 19. But Socrates as Plato relates in the forementioned Treatise which contains his last Words leads the Souls to some places where they shall be Blessed or Tormented without Bodies He sends those who shall have done Good into the Upper and Aetherial Regions where he believes the most pure part of this Orb to be and where the Soul shall Eternally live without the Body in an unexpressible Felicity Whereas he condemns those of the Wicked to the Tartarus which is a deep and frightful Abyss where they shall be punish'd according to their Deserts From that Gulf of Torments he draws four Rivers to which he gives as many Names very fit to express his Notion viz. Oceanus a precipitate Torrent Acheron a Torrent of Torments Pyriphlegeton Conflagration and Cocytus Bemoaning Here Sinners who have not been altogether incorrigible are to be purged with many Pains and Vexations more or less longer or shorter according to their Deserts There you have the original of Purgatory or of that purging Fire still believed by the Roman Church However Socrates gives out that Narration but for a Chimaera For before he begins it he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pretty Fable worth hearing and at the end he says But no Man of Sense ought to maintain that Opinion so as I have related though I esteem it rational and just to show that it goes very near so in reference to our Souls and their Habitations since it plainly appears that the Soul is immortal These Words of a Dying Man who exhorts those that were present to be at all times ready for Death persuade me more and more of what I have already said that the Heathens express'd themselves variously upon these Matters and that they speak otherwise when they consider them in reference to Religion than when they conceive them in relation
thereby it may be easily understood that Marriages must be very happy and attended with great Sweetness and Tranquillity when one marries with his peculiar Soul that is with that which was created with her Whereas they cannot be but unhappy and turn to the punishment of Men when they are bound to a Body whose Soul was not created with the Soul of him that Espouses her We have to strive against that Vnhappiness until we be rid of it and that we may be united by a second Marriage to the Soul that was made our Partner in the Creation to lead a happier Life Manasse Ben Israel gives a more large account of that belief in several places as in his Conciliador Quest 6. Pag. 12. In his second Book of the Resurrection Chap. 13. as also in the third Book Chap. 9. and in his Treatise de Termino Vitae Sect. 8. pag. 207. which he more largely confirms after the Jewish manner in his third Question Sect. 19. As to the State of Souls after Death the Metempsychosis of Pythagoras is also received amongst the Jews which Transmigration they call Gilgul that is to say the Revolution of Souls for they imagine that after Death the Soul wanders for a year about the Body whence she is gone out and goes still rambling till she meets with another Body into which she may enter to be born again with it They fancy that this happens three times as it is observed in the Thisbi upon the word Gilgul in this manner The Opinion of the Cabbalists is that every Soul is created thrice to let us understand that she introduces her self successively into the Bodies of three Children or Men. This they hope in some manner to confirm from the Book of Job ch 23. v. 19. according to that they say That the Soul of the first Man enter'd into the Body of King David and is now to pass into that of the Messiah that Mystery being contained in the three Hebrew Letters of Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the initial Letter of the name of Adam the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the first of that of David and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the first of that of Messiah Their learned hold that the Souls of the wicked pass into the Bodies of Beasts each Soul according to the nature of the Sins she has committed Thus the Soul of a Man that has debauch'd his Neighbours Wife is to enter into a Camel And therefore says David I shall sing to the Lord ki gamal alaii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he has deliver'd me from the Camel as they interpret it using this Reason that when the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is punctuated it is read otherwise and pronounced Gamaal which signifies a Camel Sect. 20. There are some however who believe that the Souls of the wicked perish with their Bodies Josephus says of the Pharisees of his time that they asserted the Transmigration of the Souls of the good only but that they sent those of the impious to the eternal Torments in his second Book of the Wars of the Jews Chap. 7. The Sadducees according to the Testimony of the Holy Scripture believed neither Resurrection nor Angels nor Spirits in St. Matth. Chap. 22. v. 23. and in the Acts Ch. 23. v. 8. but now the Jews have invented a great many Chimaera's that powerfully confirmed them in their Magick and the practice of their Conjurations for as it has already been said the Soul separated from the Body must wander a whole year about her Corps during which the wicked Spirits that abide in the Air and are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Malachi Chabbalah or Devils of Torments and have yet several other Names find occasion to make them reenter into their Bodies as they have power to do when they are required to it by Conjurations Thence proceeds in their meaning That the Witch of Endor called again the Soul of Samuel into his Body because he had not been dead a whole year Manasse Ben Israel teaches the same Doctrine and assures us 't is that of the Ancients which he has extracted especially from Gemara Siabbas There are some however who have more rational Opinions as we shall see in the second Book when we have occasion to examine that instance CHAP. XIII That the Witchcraft anciently Practised and still in use amongst the Jews proceeds from the same Original Sect. 1. WE have examined the Opinions of the Jews upon that matter as much as they differ from the holy writ for as far as their belief is consonant to it we receive and approve of the same Let 's now see what they practise as to Witchcraft the Holy Scripture may fully convince us of the great inclination that People ever had for it which doubtless proceeded First from the practices they had seen in Egypt and of which perhaps they had not abstained but had seen the continuation of them in the Country they inhabited that was surrounded and intermixed with so many Nations addicted to that Art 'T is for that Reason the Law gives them such frequent warnings to beware of it Exodus 22 18. Levit. Chap. 18. v. 31. Cap. 5. v. 27. Deuter. Chap. 13 8 9 14. Isaiah Chap. 6. v. 12.20 And that he threatned them so severely because they could not resolve to forsake that impious exercise as may be seen especially in Manasseh King of Judah 2 Kings Chap. 21. v. 6. 2. Cron. Chap. 3. v. 6. That Sin became general in the midst of Israel or the Kingdom of the 10 Tribes so that the Scripture says that They used Divinations and observed the cry of Birds 2 Kings Chap. 17. v. 17. In the Apostles time there were Seven Sons of the same Father one of the high Priests who took upon them to be Exorcists and to conjure Devils Acts 19. v. 13 14. But all these things made no part of the contents of their Law and on the contrary were the effects of their Rebellion so that Judaism was not properly answerable for them until they were taught by the Rabbins themselves and at last introduced to make up part of their Religion Such are the Doctrines which I have represented in the preceeding Chapter to which the practices of the present Jews are perfectly agreeable Sect. 2. The inquisitive Lighfoot has shewed by many proofs that the Jews at their return from the Babylonian Captivity having entirely forsaken Idolatry and finding they were destitute of Prophets addicted themselves by degrees to Witchcraft and Divination about the time of our Saviours coming The writings of the Talmud that are full of Instructions for that purpose and are nevertheless in great credit among them give upon that subject a testimony not advantageous to them especially since in the following times they used the same Arts against Christianity Lightfoot assures us That after the Destruction of their City and Temple there were several Impostors amongst
things as they relate Now there 's none but knows that the Doctrine and Worship of that Sect as they are contained in the Alcoran and their other Writings are involved with many Fables and Fictions which are generally received as Truth amongst them but explained in a very rational sense by the Learned which makes it that they are not so intolerable in that respect as that they are false and groundless And therefore 't is but reasonable to use this circumspection that knowing that sort of People to be Men of sense as there are many in other Sects we interpret their Fables only with relation to that which is clearly and significantly express'd in other places and in reference to the tendency they seem to have in what is related of their other Opinions Sect. 2. It is also reasonable to relate at first what is to be gathered from the Alcoran and to joyn to it afterwards what other Authors supply us with either as to the Doctrine of the Spirits taught amongst the Musulmans that is the Faithful as they love to call themselves or as to their practices in Witchcraft and Divinations But because the Book of Laws collected after the death of Mahomet by his Disciples that are the most famous Doctors of the Musulmans is not uniform as to the Order in which it is translated in several Languages for the conveniency of the Reader I design to follow the division observed by du Râ—er in his French Translation and by le Verrier in his Dutch who both divâ—de the whole work into 113 Chapters Sect. 3. First of all 't is amongst them a fundamental point repeated above a hundred times in the Book of the Law that God is but One and hath no partner in which they perfectly agree with the Jews even in reference to the Holy Trinity as has been already mention'd Chap. 12. Sect. 1. Marmol says however in the first part of his description of Africa Pag. 128. Edit Paris That the Morabites a Sect of Mahometan Arabs hold that the Heavens Stars and Elements make up but one God together The Sahis another Sect of the Turks believe that there is some Deity in the Sun and Moon because of the influence those two great Lights of the Universe have upon sublunary Creatures according to the Relation of Ricaut in his description of Turkey Book 2. Chap. 12. De la Vall in his journey Book 4. Chap. 17. says that amongst the Persians several Mahometans ascribe assisting Forms and Intelligences to the Sun Moon and Stars by which they are quickned and directed as our Bodies are by our Souls Sect. 4. In most or all the pages of the Alcoran mention is made of the Holy Angels of the wicked Devil and of the Original of Devils far more rationally than in the Books of the Jews For they make the Angels immaterial tho' they believe that they appear in a Corporeal shape as is to be read in this passage of the 5th Chapter The Angels say they are the only constant and immutable Creatures there being no others endued with such Properties Thus is this passage quoted by Levinius Varnerius in his Miscellanies who has extracted it from some other Book But this is a reasoning of the moâ—t thinking part and the best Philosophers amongst them For Mahomet himself believ'd that the Angels had been created of some certain Matter as he gives us to know in one of his Fables to be related anon He often speaks too grosly and gives us occasion to doubt whether he understands in a proper or figurative Sense what he so frequently says that the Angels go to and fro hear the Law have Beings and even are distinguish'd into Males and Females for he believes that distinction of Sexes to be found in every thing See his 52 Chap. pa. 594. He no less vilifies the Dignity of Angels ascribing the cause of the fall of some to their refusal of paying an extraordinary Honour to Adam who was wiser than they were and convers'd more familiarly with God For God taught Adam the Names of all things and Adam taught them to the Angels Chap. 2. pa. 5. Lastly the great number of Guardian Angels whom he gives to every Musulman evidently infers that one of his Disciples was look'd upon by him of greater worth than several Angels Sect. 5. Mahomet has very plainly express'd in several places of his Book of the Law his Opinion upon the Nature and Original of Devils who at the beginning were created in the rank of the Angels whence they fell for their envy Thus in the 6th Chap. Pag. 109. he introduces God speaking to him I have created and made thee I have commanded the Angels to adore Adam which they have done save only the Devil This place must be understood with the distinction brought by Levinius Varnerius out of a Turkish Book Adoration belongs to the Great God as a Worship but it may belong to others as a mark of Veneration In that Sense it is that Adam was adored by the Angels and Joseph by his Father and Brothers Mahomet proceeds relating what God said to the Devil What hinders you from adoring Adam as I have order'd you The Devil Answer'd Because I am Superior to him since thou hast created me out of Fire and Man out of Clay Hereupon I said Go out of Paradise 't is not the abode of the proud thou shalt be in the number of those that are cover'd with infamy He replyed Let me be here till the day of the Resurrection Why said he hast thou tempted me I shall said he turn Men from the right way I shall hinder them by all means from believing thy Law and even let the greatest part fall into ungratefulness I said to him Go out of Paradise thou shalt be rejected by all the world and deprived from the effects of my Mercy and I shall fill Hell with those that shall listen to thee and follow thee The same Relation is repeated in the 14 16 and 37 Chapters Pag. 293 381 and 511. And thô he mentions but one Devil as the Chief he nevertheless believes a vast number of good and wicked Angels for in the 7th Chapter he speaks of thousands of good Angels whom God sent once from Heaven to his assistance whilst he prayed he likewise mentions the Demons in the plural number as Chap. 6. We have created Hell to punish Devils and Men. Sect. 6. His distinction betwixt the state of Angels and Devils is not to be rejected in all respects such as they are towards God and the Faithful such he describes them to be one towards another Chap. 7. Pag. 198. God said to his Angels I will be with you confirm the steps of the true faithful Chap. 11.278 The Angels tremble in the presence of God Chap. 20. Pag. 360. They are not ashamed to adorâ— him And again Chapter 15. Pag. 296. God orders his Angels to go down and sends his inspiration to whom he pleases This
as he believes particularly happens some certain Nights Chap 96. Pag. 284. The Angels descend at night upon Earth by the leave of their Lord and visit the true faithful till the break of the day Chap. 12. Pag. 290. They will visit the faithful in the Garden of Eden they will salute them and say here is the reward of their perseverance here is the Eternal Grace Sect. 7. As he holds that the Angels are always ready to serve God on behalfe of the Faithful so he believed them no less forward in performing his Orders against the impious When says he Chap. 5. pag. 155. the wicked are at the point of death the Angels stretch out their hands to seize upon their Souls And further P. 172. The Angels of death shall kill those that blaspheme God and his Commandments Chap. 7. Pag. 203 204. Thou hast seen that the Angels have put to death the unfaithful and stricken them before and behind A great power for the executing of God's Judgments is ascribed to them for an Angel is sufficient to destroy all the Inhabitants of the World as Levinius Varnerius quotes it out of a Turkish Book Sect. 8. He forgets not the evils caused by the Devil for the seducing of Man The first was his having them banish'd from Paradise Chap. 1. Pag. 7. He caused Adam and his Wife to sin and to fall from the Grace in which they were Chap. 2. Pag. 8. God advertises Mahomet that the Devil would make hâ—m afraid of the unfaithful Pag. 150. The Devil will make them forget my Commandments Pag. 160. Think upon the day in which I shall gather all the Peopâ—e and say to the Devil O thou Prince of the Devils why hast thou rebelled against me Chap. 56. Pag. 608. For the Devil has puft up Man and made â—im revolt from the Commandments of God He seems even to believe that the malice of the Devil extends as far as the Stars with which he says God has adorned the Heavens and which he preserves against the attempts of the Devils Chap. 40. Pag. 534. Sect. 9. Such are his Opinions as to the Angels in general but as to their particular Ministry Thevenot relates That the Turks acknowledge Guardian Angels but in far greater number than we do for say they God has ordained 70 Angels for an invisible Guard to each Musulman and there happens nothing to any person but they attribute it to them Each has his particular Office one watches over one Member and th' other over another one is so subservient in this and the other in that Affair Amongst all those Angels there are two who preside over all the rest sitting one on the Right and th' other on the Left hand and being call'd Kerim Kiatib that is to say Merciful Writers That on the Right hand keeps account of the good Actions and that on the Left of the bad They are so merciful that they spare him if he commits any sin before he falls asleep hoping he shall repent if not they set it down but if he repents they write Estig fourillah God forgive They accompany him every where unless when he goes to the Necessary house whither they let him go alone waiting for him at the door where they again take possession of him For that reason when the Turks go to that place they go in with the Left Foot and when they come out they put the Right Foot foremost that the Angel who sets down their good Works should seize first upon them Mahomet himself confirms that Fable saying Chap. 52. Pag. 594. Think O Man on the day when thou shalt see near thee thy good Angel on thy Right hand and thy bad Angel on thy Left who have noted and written whatever thou hast done Sect. 10. 'T is observable that this Fable has its Original from the immortality of the Soul and the resurrection of the dead which the Turks believe and are plainly express'd in the foregoing words and else-where as Chap. 12. Pag. 280. The faithful shall go into the Garden of Eden but to the unfaithful he says Pag. 288. Hell is the place to which you are destin'd Chap. 52. Pag. 594. God takes up the Soul of Man as he thinks fit to send her into one of those places But first she returns into the Body after its burying to undergo the strict examination of two frightful Angels Munquir and Guauquir the Fable which Thevenot relates upon their account and that of the Beasts is so gross that I should be ashamed to recite it at large Sect. 11. In the mean while it will not be unserviceable to our subject to give a more particular instruction of their belief upon the state of the Dead I will not here speak of their Carnal Paradise because I treat not of all the points of the Mahometan Religion but only of what concerns the the Spirits they acknowledge that there are appointed two very different places one for the damned and the other for the saved that is to say there are Men who have done so many good works that at the very hour they expire they are admitted into the happiness of Paradise but there are others who having not a sufficient Faith are subjected to I pains for their Sins until they be all expiated after which they enjoy in Paradise the same felicity with the others that are gone in first But as to the unfaithful and wicked they go to burn forever in Hell where there bodies are as often repaired by God as they are reduced to Ashes that their torments may be Eternal That 's the substance of what Thevenot writes Chap. 20 and 31 of his journey and Ricaut says almost the same thing Chap. 2.6 and 12. Sect. 12. The transmigration of Souls from one body into another not only of Human Souls but likewise of those of Beasts is also believed by some Mahometans Ricaut testifies Book 2. Ch. 12. That one of their Sects called Munasichi holds that Opinion and takes occasion from thence to relate how one Roboroski a Polander was dealt with by a Drugist that was angry with him because he had kick'd his Dog for they believe That the Souls of Men after Death enter into the bodies of such Beasts with which the Nature and temper of the bodies that were animated by those Souls had most relation that the Soul of a Glutton passed into the body of a Hog that of a Letcherous into that of a He-goat that of a Generous person is destin'd to animate a Horse and that of a Watchful Man to quicken a Dog To this he adds several circumstances which the curious may see in his own Book He likewise asserts that the Sect Eschrakin that is illuminated is likewise Pythagorean but that it holds not much of the Doctrines of the Alcoran thô most of it's followers are the Schicks or the Preachers and chief Doctors of the Turks They have more rational Opinions than the others concerning the immateriality of Spirits
sufficiently known that amongst them as amongst other Nations their practices are answerable to their Doctrines for if their Witchcraft and Exorcisms proceed not all from their superstitions yet they are not inconsistent with them It is strange that such as ascribe a Soul and Life to the Celestial Lamps that acknowledge the Stars to influence Human Actions and search for Mysteries in numbers letters and names should be addicted to Witchcraft and Divinations and make them part of their religious worship neither is it surprising that not conceiving Angels as altogether immaterial they should fancy Apparitions either waking or dreaming 'T is yet less strange looking upon them as Creatures of a dignity inferior to their's since they establish great numbers of them for the guard of each Musulman they should invite and call them to their service by Witchcraft consisting in Characters in which they imagine a secret virtue for that purpose or if they should believe by the same means and Virtue to be able to expel wicked Angels their mortal Enemies But 't is time to come to the Christian World and to examine in what state things are at home CHAP. XV. That some of the Heathen Opinions upon this subject have in process of time crept in amongst the Christians Sect. 1. WE must not wonder that great part of the Doctrines above mentioned have not yet been banished by the light of the Gospel For what Man naturally conceives is not always darkness neither is the illumination which the Holy writ affords to the understanding always efficacious so that a Christian often better knows what he ought to know then he does what he ought to do This plainly appears in that Man is readier to search after the Truth by his reason than to put it in practice by his Virtue The cause of it is that our natural curiosity that has contributed to the fall of our first Parents has been since increased and strengthned by the effect of the fall it self and that it drives us on so much the more to desire to know much as our understanding is become less capable of true conceptions But the corruption of Man allows him not to make such Progresse And therefore we must imagine that whatever is practiced amongst such or such People especially as to Religion always and only proceeds from their belief and Doctrine This will quickly be known to us if we take the trouble of considering Christianity such as it formerly was and still is at this present Sect. 2. I shall name ancient Christianity the six first Centuries before the Pope and Mahomet arose However I shall not consider it as it was establish'd by our Lord and his Apostles which will be done more conveniently hereafter but with relation to the succession of times In the mean while a careful distinction must be made between the Opinions of the Church or of the Chief Doctors of her Communion and the Errors of those she has condemn'd We must afterwards take notice of what certainty may be had both of the Practices and particular Sense of those that have been branded for Hereticks For we pretend not to impute to Christians what has been rejected by the generality of them nor to charge the Hereticks with whatever is said of their Errours Now one may methinks take for Opinions generally received in the Church those that have been taught by their Chief Doctors without being contradicted by the others as far as it appears by any Writing though they must not for that be taken for Articles of Faith And likewise though the Hereticks should have been charged as to the Doctrine with some Opinions they owned not yet 't is not conceiveable that they should have been falsly accused of Acts of Magick the possibility of which they did not so much as believe After that Observation let 's see what the most famous Christians of the Primitive times have believed as to Spirits and their Operations and at the same time what they relate of other Sects and People Sect. 3. Following still the same Order I shall first speak of the Angels and then of the Souls separated from their Bodies I shall pass by the first Century in which the Apostles lived because in my second Book I take their Writings for the Rule of Faith and for the Fountain whence Truth must be drawn But we must examine those that have followed them from Age to Age and see what was their Opinion upon those two Points without presuming it was grounded upon Rule or Ecclesiastical Assemblies which appears not And though those two Points are of the highest consequence yet every one had still liberty to express his particular Opinions However for other Opinions of less consequence and I durst almost say of nothing Men have been dealt with as Hereticks and the whole Christian World must be call'd together to come to a conclusion And therefore I shall only make use here of such Explications of the chief Doctors as I have read my self which I shall endeavour to translate faithfully and word for word as much as possible Sect. 4. We shall first hear in the second Age Tatian Clement and Justin concerning the Nature of Angels Tatian indeed ascribes not a gross material Being to the Angels and yet he seems to attribute to them some Corporeal Being Here are his own Words that seem very strange All Demons are so as that indeed they have nothing Carnal but their Composition is Spiritual and as a Fire and Light The Nature of their Bodies can however be penetrated by none but such as are endued with the Spirit of God What he adds afterwards is more Consonant to Reason That the Demons are not the Souls of Men. He believes not however that Souls are simple Natures but that they are composed of parts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he believes they cannot be conceived as Corporeal without having a Body and that the material part cannot rise without the Soul Several Doctors of that time speak very near the Words tho' they explain not themselves so openly so that they must not be look'd upon as very far from that Opinion as will more plainly appear when we mention the fall of the Angels Sect. 5. Clemens Alexandrinus in his 6th Book of Miscellanies shows that he holds the Angels for the Inspectors of Men and those that inspire Wisdom into them that each Country and perhaps each Man has his own A little after he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God has distributed amongst Angels the Inspection and Care of each City and Nation He says also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Divine Power distributes good by the means of Angels whether they be visible or invisible Justin favours that suppposed visibility of the Angels or at least he tolerates it since he asserts in his 4th Apology That God entrusted the Angels with the Conduct of the other human Affairs under the Heavens some of whom fell off because of their Conversation with Women from
12. Tertullian explains himself more plainly as to the knowledge he ascribes to the Devils when he in his fifth Book against Marcion speeks thus Servants cannot know the Resolutions of their Masters and therefore the Rebellious Angels and the Devil their leader can much less know the designs of God whence I would willingly take occasion to assert that the greater their Crime has been the more remote they are from the knowledge of their Creator So far only he goes as to the Secrets of God But as to those of Men we hear the Doctors of that Age giving to the Demons a power over Bodies and Souls St. Cyprian establishes both speaking of Idolatry Spirits says he deceive us they disturb our Life and our Sleep insinuating themselves into our Bodies raise terrour in our inward Thoughts bruise our Members impair our Healths and cause us Diseases Tertullian is of the same Opinion in his Book of Passions The Malice of that inveterate Enemy never leaves him quiet but it encreases his Rage when he sees Man fully deliver'd In his Apologetick Chap. 20. he gives a more particular explication of what he believes as to the Assaults made by Demons upon Soul and Body He thinks That having a very subtile and thin Essence they are so much the apter to act in an invisible and insensible manner He shows thereby that he conceives created Spirits as the thinest and subtilest of all Bodies and therefore explains his meaning by this Comparison As it happens that a flame invisible to us burns Corn and the Fruits of Trees when they are in flower or withers them whilst they blossom or corrupts them when the Flower falls off and they are formed or as an infected Air communicates it self in a manner unknown to us so the suggestions of the Devil by a secret contagion seduce the depraved understanding of Man Sect. 13. Origen believes that the Souls of Men existed together before they came to animate the Bodies which he establishes upon St. Matth. Chap. 20. from Ver. 1 to 16. and in his 6th Vol. upon St. John having before proposed in his 5th Chap. the common Opinion of the Christians of his age he asserts accoâ—â—â—â—â— to the sense he gives to the Holy Writ that 〈…〉 the Soul must be distinguished from 〈…〉 the Spirit of Man from the 〈…〉 â—â—ys that the Soul may appâ— her self 〈…〉 evil but that the Spirit â—f Man can 〈…〉 â—eâ—f only to evil In his 19th Chapter he dâ—â—â—â—â—es on occasion of the sepalation of the Soul at the point of death that he believes she is taken out of the Body by some Spirits ordained for that purpose and that the Spirits who have that imployment are of a more noble Nature than the Soul they fetch He puts a very ingenious sense upon the Words of our Saviour in St. Luke Chap. 10. v. 20. and John Chap. 10. v. 18. Sect 14. Tertullian's meaning as to the state of Souls after this life to the day of the Resurrection is that they are in a certain place known by the name of Abraham's Bosom and situated betwixt Heaven and Hell as he writes hi his 4th Book against Marcion That there is a certain and determined place call'd the Bosom of Abraham If you ask where that place lyes and how long the Souls are to stay there he will answer as to the First Question Sinum dico Abrahae regionem etsi non Caelestem superiorem tamen Inferis I call Abraham's Bosom a a Region superior to Hell tho' it properly belongs not to Heaven As to the other he will say Refrigerium praebiturum animabus justorum donec consummatio rerum resurrectionem omnium plenitudine Mercedis expungat The Latin phrase is somewhat obscure but it matters not to Translate the words so much as to give the Sense which is That it will be a place of refreshment for the Souls of the just until the consummation of all things comes and brings on the Resurrection in which every one shal1 be obliged to give account and then receive a full reward Sect. 15. He calls in this place the Subterraneous places Inferos Hell because he puts the place of Abode of the Damned under the Earth or in a great Gulf contained in the bottom of the Earth and believes that for their punishment they shall go to burn in a material Fire For about the end of his Book of Penitency he calls Hell Thesaurum Ignis aeterni The Treasure of Eternal Fire Through the Chimneys of that Fire come out sometimes frightful flames during Earthquakes and immediately after he calls that Abyss of Fire Magni alicujus inaestimabilis foci scintillas missilia exaercitoria jacula The sparks of a prodigious great and unexpressible Fire St. Cyprian speaks so obscurely about the end of his Letter against Demetrian upon that subject that it seems he threatens the Soul with corporeal punishments it being a consequent of the Series of his Reasoning Hell says he shall Eternally burn for the Damned and the punishment of a devouring fire and most glooing flames will neither supersede nor suspend their Torments there the Souls with their Bodies are destined to infinite pains He seems to mean thereby that the Souls and Bodies shall have one and the same share for otherwise he would have declared what peculiar sufferings the Soul is to undergo Sect. 16. In the 4th Age we shall first hear St. Athanasius he also believes that the Angels are not all of an equal Dignity of which he gives a formal explication according to his meaning on the 31st Question to Antiochus where having said something as to the Orders of the Angels he proceeds thus Because those Orders are called Legions and Armies we must thereby understand such Orders as are established to teach to defend provide administer help as also such Orders as receive the Souls and remain by them Now as the difference betwixt the Celestial Orders is known to us we must likewise know which is their State and what Knowledge they have The Thrones Cherubims and Seraphims are taught immediately by God himself as being the nearest to him and raised above the others These teach the inferior Orders and these again others that are under them The last of all are the Angels taking that Name in a particular signification and determin'd to a certain Order of Spirits distinguished from all others and these are the Teachers of Men. 'T is easie to perceive that St. Athanasius has taken this from the Writings of Philo and other Jews as 't is related above Chap. 12. Sect. 4 5 8 9 10. But whatever it be St. Athanasius being the Author of the Confession of Faith so much commended in our Churches and quoted in the 9th Article of the Low-Dutch Confession of Faith as a pattern of Orthodoxy we cannot but admit what he has written upon the present matter as the common Opinion approved of and received by the Principal Doctors of that Age Sect. 17. I grant
Hearts And our promises in another sense to give us The Morning Star Revel 2.28 So that the name of Lucifer is so far from being that of the Prince of the Devils thâ—t it is the most Christian name to be read in the Bible Sect. 23. Let 's go back to Lactantius he says that Monsters were generated from that odious conjunction of Angels with Women that are half Angels or rather Half Demons or half Men thence he infers Duo genera daemonum unum caeleste alterum terrenum That there are 2 sorts of Demons one of Celestial Demons and another of Terrestrial by Celestial he seems to understand Aerial but after the word Terrenum there follows immediatly Hi sunt immunedi malorum quae geruntur auctores quorum idem diabolus est princeps These are unclean Spirits Authors of all the Evil that happens in the World the chief of whom is the Devil already mentioned From this passage may be clearly perceived that he takes for Demons those very same Spirits whom the Heathens made their Gods as has been seen Ch. 2. Sect. 9 to 13 which still confirms more and more what I have asserted Ch. 5. Sect. 4 5. That the Heathen never adored Demons but in as much as they believed them to be Gods Sect 24. The same Lactantius tells us that the Demons are indeed Spirits but Spiritus tenues incomprehensibiles Spirits of a thin subtle matter and imperceptible This we have heard before from Origen and Tertullian He explains himself very clearly as to the power he ascribe to their understanding saying That they know many future things but that it is not possible they should discover the depths of the secrets of God We have already heard Tertullian confirming this proposition by his Reasonings However Lactantius believes that Divinations by the Contemplation of the Stars by the Inspection of the intrals of Beasts and by the Observation of Birds of which mention has been made Ch. 3. Sect. 4 5 7. Are Diabolical Inspirations and therefore holds that they are still capable of discovering to Men many future things Sect. 25. St. Jerom as far as I can conceive constitutes not the same difference of places betwixt the Spirits Yet he believes Ex Pauli dictis ad Ephe Cap. 2. ver 2. 12. colligi Diabolos in aere vagari ac dominari That from what S. Paul writes to the Ephesians may be inferr'd That the Devils are wandering in the Air and â—â—igning there And writing upon the 6th Ch. v. 12. to the Ephesians he explains more at large that proposition as containing the common Opinion of the Christians of that Age. This is the Opinion of all the Doctors That the Air which is betwixt the Heavens and the Earth separating both from what it call'd the Vacuum is fil'd with powers contrary to each other We must yet examine hereafter whence the Principalities Powers and Dominions of this World have received their powert His Opinion upon this last Question is that they have it from God himself and that they exercise it more or less as a less and greater pain is inflicted upon 2 different Criminals according as 't is resolved to make their life more or less bitter he also supposes that the unclean Spirits as well as the Holy Angels are divided into certain Orders which Opinion of his may be seen in his Commentary on the 3 Ch. of Habakuk As Christ is the head of the Church and of every particular faithful Man so is Belzebub the chief of all the Demons who exercise so many cruelties in this World and each Troop of Demons has it's particular Chief and Captain under him Sect. 26. Lactantius must yet inform us what in his Opinion the Demons were able to Operate in reference to Men. We see Sect. 14. that his Opinion in general is That the Corrupted and Contagious Spirits wander'd through the World endeavouring to comfort themselves under their loss by procuring the ruin of Mankind Immediatly after he explains in particular how they hurt Soul and Body They attack says he The Souls by their craft devises and the snares they lay before them they seize upon them by their delusions and by leading them astray they stick to every private person and are always at his elbow creeping into every house from door to door And in relation to the bodies as those very Spirits are according to him partly corporeal and partly extraordinary sâ—â—tle and consequently imperceptible They insinuate into Human Bodies without being perceived act privately within their Bowels impair their Health cause Diseases cast terror into the mind by Dreams overturn it make it stray and force Men by such vexations to have recourse to them It seems however that he intends to ascribe that power to the Devil only over the Heathens because he disputes against them and that they were those that had recourse to the Demons as believing them to be Gods for over the Christians the Ancient Fathers attributed not so much power to them Sect. 27. We may learn from St. Athanasius what were the Opinions of his time as to the Souls separated from their Bodies after Death In the Book before quoted question 32. he asks Whether the Souls after their separation have knowledge of what is done amongst Men as the Holy Angels have he answers Yes at least as to the Souls of the Saints but not as to those of Sinners for their continual torments take them so much up that they have no leasure to think upon any other thing The 33th Question is What is the employment of the Souls departed from their Bodies Answer The Soul separated from the Body is uncapa ble of doing either good or evil However he says a little after That the Souls of the Saints animated by the Holy Ghost praise God and bless him in the Land of the Living He asserts Question 35. That after Death the Souls never come to bring news of the state of the Deceased which would give occasion to many cheats because wicked Spirits might feign that they are Souls of the Deceased that come back to discover somthing to the Living I desire the Reader to observe this very attentively for it will be convenient to reflect upon it hereafter Sect. 28. St. Austin gives us a more large information for thô he does not expresly reject Purgatory yet he confutes it every where as appears from several places of his Writings that have been quoted by one of my predecessors Andrew Landsman in his Book of the Apostasy of the Church of Rome yet this Father in the 69th Chapter of his Manual expresses himself thus 'T is not incredible but somthing like may happen after this life and it may reasonably be enquired whether it is so and what proof may be brought for or against this Opinion viz. that some of the faithful come sooner or later to the Eternal Felicity passing through a certain purging Fire in which they stay longer or shorter as they are more
so the infernal Dragon cannot endure the Water of Baptism Sect. 6. He ascribes the same Virtue to the name of Jesus when in his Sermon upon Baptism speaks of mercenary Exorcists de quaestuariis exorcistis Obediunt Daemonâ—s Exorcistis c. The Demons obey Exorcists saying we know who is Christ and who is Paul and being conjured in the name of that Jesus whom Paul Preaches we withdraw It seems to St Cyprian that things ought to be so by the same reason that Baptism was valid whether administred by Paul or Judas But he ought to have considered that we have not the same certainty that these Exorcists should have received their Office from God as we are sure that he had established Judas in his Apostleship Sect. 7. Lactantius in the 4th Century will yet give us some instructions And First as to Conjurations that we treat now of he believed that they have a great efficacy for he writes in his Second Book Sect. 15. That the Devils are afraid of the Just that worship God since being conjured by them in his Name they go out of Bodies and being compell'd by their words as by stripes they not only acknowledg'd that they are Demons but also declare their Names that are found to be the same under which they are adored in Temples So that he believes that the wicked Spirit how great a Lyer soever he is cannot lye when by Conjuration he is forced to speak because the Divine Power constrains him to say the Truth for that time Sect. 8. In the mean while he sticks not to that but agrees with St. Cyprian that the modern sorcerers were able to enchant wicked Spirits and by that argument pretends to prove to Epicure and his followers that there are Spirits in the World and that Human Souls are immortal To that end he expresses himself in these words Book the 7th Sect. 13. Certainly if Democritus Epicure or Dicearchus stood by a Magician they should not make bold to maintain by their Reasons that the Soul is Mortal what could they answer If the Magician by pronouncing some Verses call'd up the Souls ' from subterraneous places making them appear to Men speak to them and foretel future things for if they still presume to persist in their error they would be forced to yeild to such real proofs and such visible effects Sect. 9. However I cannot agree to what is read in his 2 Book Sect. 14. That the Art and Power of Magicians Magorum only consists in the Inspirations they receive from the Spirits that surprize Men and deceive their Eyes by Illusions hindering them from seeing what is and making them see what is not when 't is required from them by Magicians He seem'd before to believe that the Demons actually produce some effects and here he will perswade us that there is nothing but illusion whatever it be even that very illusion is still an Operation of the Demons and consequently approve of their existence and action In the mean while he agrees with himself in this that he believes sorcerers converse with the wicked Spirit and that the Conjurations of the former force the latter to say and do what is required from them but that all the effects of Witchcraft are to be ascribed to them and not to the Magicians Sect. 10. Lactantius was perswaded that bad Spirits had a share in all those Arts that made up the practices of the Ancient Heathens and of which mention has been made Ch. 3. He even believed that they were all invented by those Spirits as appears by his own words Book 2. Ch. 16. The things that they have invented viz. The Demons are predictions by the Stars by the inspection of Victims and by the cry of Birds these are the Oracles and Enchantments in use to consult the Dead by Magick Magia and all the other Evils to which Men addict themselves either privately or openly All these things have nothing solid nor true in themselves but are received for such by the credit they borrow from the presence of their Authors who know how to impose upon the credulity of Men affecting to make a divine power appear before them of which however no profit accrues to them I might quote here some Authors of the two following Centuries but observing no change in them that deserves to be related and fearing to insist too long upon this I come to the bottom of the matter lest I should weary the Reader with unprofitable trouble CHAP. XVII That it is necessary to compare all those various Doctrines and Practices of the Jews Mahometans and Christians and to examine wherein they differ and in what they agree together Sect. 1. THE 11th Chapter of this Book was designed to compare together the Opions and practices of the various Heathens concerning Spirits The natural light that remained in our understanding notwithstanding the darkness in which it has been involv'd by Sin has been able without the help of the Holy writ to discover whether those Opinion and practices were founded upon true or false grounds We have since heard those that acknowledge the Authority of the Holy writ speak very differently by which means the light of Reason may be encreased and it's corruption better'd Let us now see what they have done as to this and how far their endeavours have attained To that end we shall First consider wherein the latter differ from the Heathens what they have retain'd of Paganism and lastly in what points they differ from each other having always regard to that difference of Doctrines and Worship or Opinions and Practices that have been set down before Sect. 2. These 3 sorts of People Jews Christians and Mahometans rejecting the plurality of Gods that were believed and adored by the Heathens and Worshiping one Only God have overthrown whatever the others had invented concerning confederate inferior and mean Gods or familiar Spirits that were born with Men and outlive them and at the same time have destroyed whatever Conjurations and Witchcrafts were grounded upon such principles by which Men presume to acquire some certain knowledge and produce some certain effects We have found nothing like amongst the Jews and Mahometans for thô they may have somthing that appears like it yet 't is quite different as we shall show hereafter And as to the Christians we see that they unanimously reject all these things and look upon them as delusions and impieties and as to what the last together with the Jews and Mahometans have retained of the Opinions and practices of the Heathens it has been taken from the Philosophy of this last Sect and accommodated to the Holy Scripture or gather'd from it by false explications This I shall now briefly show concerning the Spirits in general and the Soul of Man in particular Sect. 3. As to the Spirits in general First That Opinion that they are partly corporeal received of old by the Jews Ch. 12. Sect. 5 11 to 15 By the Mahometans Ch.
Great Brittain which is King James the Sixth King of Scotland and First King of England of that name and the other to one of his Scotch Subjects a Scot by birth as by name being call'd Reynard Scot the King held the affirmative as to the popular Opinion of Witchcraft and Apparition of Spirits which his subject had already confuted John Wierus who lived in the begining of the Reformation made by means of Luther and Calvin had from that time published his Opinion upon the delusion of Spirits and upon the impostures of Witches and he had taken a part which held in the middle between those two Opinions so King James in his Book of Demonology contested with these two Authors according to his express Declaration in the Preface Sect. 8. What is most important in his Book comes very near to this In the sixth Chapter of the first Book there are descriptions so exact of leagues that Magicians make with the Devil that it seems as if the King himself had seen the Original or that they had been reported in the Council In the fourth Chapter of the second Book the King puts for certain that evil Spirits may carry Men through the Air or assume divers forms to visit the Magicians when they are in Prison In the seventh Chapter he says that in the time of Popery and Paganism there was a great many more Apparitions but that it was observed that since this last Reformation of the Christian Church there have been fewer Apparitions and a great many more Witchcrafts Concerning the apparitions of Hobgoblins and Phantoms of which he treats in the Third Book there are scarce any kind to which this Prince gives not credit even to Incubusses and Succubusses which are Spirits who as Men mix themselves carnally with Women and as Women with Men. In reference to the possest the King agrees that the Popish Priest may drive out the Devil but upon the proofs that he has to convince one of the crime of Magick he only says there must be no less than twelve witnesses amongst which may be admitted Infants infamous People and even those that are taken to be Magicians Sect. 9. Now althô the learned as I have already said extol not so much all these things nor teach them so expresly and that by consequence they credit not so much what is ordinarily believed and said touching the power and Operations of the Devil upon Men and concerning that which they effect by the means of Men we must however observe that they give so much extent to his power and actions that not only they help not to destroy the general Opinion that is had of him but also maintain it by different expressions they make use of and by the instructions they give It is what is seen especially in the works of two English Authors who explain themselves more plainly and precisely than all others upon this matter which they treat from the foundation whereas others keep the same language only by occasion and when treating of other subjects they are obliged to speak of them The first of these Authors is William Gurnal in his great Book upon the Ephesians 6.11.18 entituled The Christian in compleat Armour the first Edition is in the Year 1655. And since there has been Printed at London in folio in 1679. the sixth Edition He says That the Devil being a spiritual being extreamly evil these two considerations ought to cause a great deal of fear to a Christian p. 94. Because he is a great Prince who surpasses Man very much in power and craft that his craft is observed by his marvelous knowledge first in spying proper occasions to tempt Men p. 36. Secondly in his subtle and artificial conduct and in all the vices he makes use of for this effect p. 37. Thirdly in the care he takes to make all the preparations necessary to attack us to his advantage every time he finds opportunity to do it p. 43. Fourthly In the trouble that he stirs up in our Consciences in reproaching us with our Sins and in the artifices that he uses and the ambushes he lays p. 44. As to what concerns the power and Virtue of the Devil the Author holds in the first place That he has power not only on the Elements and corporeal senses but also upon spiritual substances of the World and upon the Souls of Men p. 74. Afterwards he declares what is the time and place of his Empire over his subjects viz. the time in this life over people of Darkness the place in the World for as much as it is plung'd into impiety p. 79. Sect. 10. The other English Author is Joseph Glanvill the title of which Book is Saducismus Triumphatus Saducism defeated a Book wherein he imploys a great deal of Learning to prove that Witchcrafts Inchantments Apparitions and Phantoms are possible and afterwards that they are things practised and which actually happen The first Edition of it has been also in English at London in 1661. after the death of the Author He pretends that what he establishes as a certain Truth is grounded upon Reasons and Examples And I grant that as to the force of Reasoning I do not know any Writer who has better succeeded than he has Here are his supposed Truths That among other effects which are attributed to Magicians of both Sexes First Being anointed with certain Magical Ointments they pass through the Chimney and are transported into very distant places Secondly That they are turned into Cats Hares and divers other Creatures and Figures Thirdly That they feel in their own Bodies the same wounds that are made in the Bodies they borrow Fourthly That in muttering certain unintelligible Words and in making certain Gestures extraordinary and ridiculous they raise Tempests Fifthly That they are sucked by familiar Spirits in the most secret parts of their Bodies The Author believes that the more these things are incredible and ridiculous the more certain they are I shall examine his Reasons in my second and third Book and his Instances in my last with more exactness than what other Authors have written upon this Subject for the consideration I have already alledged that he carries it above all others as to the force of his Reasoning Sect. 11. All that has hitherto been saâ—d respects first the Devil and afterwards Men that are believed to have Commerce with him considered distinctly and separately from him But an union must be made betwixt them For which effect the Leagues already mention'd were invented Sect 5. of this Chapter and heretofore Chap. 20. Sect. 13. Moreover the Opinions which have been reported having passed from Popery amongst us and been admitted by many Doctors of our Communion yet I know not any who has taken their part so much as Daneus which is chiefly observed in two Points in his Description of the Leagues and in the effects he attributes to Sorcerers and Witches for these two things are found very amply treated of in his
others 't is as through the former that daâ—ken the sight by their continual presence and by the weariness caused by their too much gazing upon them so that without the help of those comforting Spectacles if I may so speak the faculty weakned by want of habit is no longer able to endure the Light Let this be observed before-hand to be serviceable hereafter Sect. 5. And as to the Holy Writ I think not that it may be taken for the cause of the Opinions Men have of the Devil Those Opinions being already rooted in the mind as deeply as they can be before the Holy Bible be ever read not to say that the less we read it the more we credit what is said upon that account and the more we are disposed to affirm it Had we not in matter of Religion Dispositions alike to those of other Sects and even to those of the Unfaithful we would doubtless make a good use of the sacred Writings and speak as they do But to our great shame most part of us as well as of other Sects that pretend a Veneration for the Holy Writ search not in it after its Sense being satisfied with the vulgar Interpretations and such as they have received from others And therefore we keep to such Explications as we hear in those Churches in which those of our Communion use to gather unless we will be look'd upon as fickle headed and almost as Apostates In vain we endeavour to render the Reason of our Faith that 's not the question that way carries too far and it would be too great a task to examine all to the bottom In short to speak truth we must confess that if we believe such great and wonderful things of the Devil it is not because they are contained in the Holy Scripture since we suspend not our Judgment till we have consulted it but because we are persuaded before-hand that it must be explain'd and understood according to the Judgment we have already pass'd by reason of some expressions that seem to favour the common Belief that the generality of Men already have of the Devil Sect. 6. If we desire more particularly to examine how the Notion of these things is formed in Men of Learning by the means of Learning it self and how it is increased I am ready to declare what I have observed for a long time by the experiments I have made The first prejudices of Man are as ancient as his knowledge and begin from his most tender youth these two ways When to appease the crys of Children or to calm their Passions they are threatned with the Bugbear either by Words or Effects either by making some extraordinary Noise or presenting to them surprising Objects Experience has long since taught us that these Impressions being the first are also those that leave the deepest tracks in the Brain and cannot afterwards be rooted out but with great trouble when Children being more advanced in years begin to play in the Streets and to discourse with their Neighbours they hear almost at every instant the name of the Devil pronounced that is as a kind of ornament to the common Conversation They hear Tales told of him under the specious title of Histories concerning Hobgoblins Phantasms and Witchcraft Even their Parents and some of their Masters by a deplorable mistake never check their Children in their House their Disciples in their Schools nor their Apprentices in their Shops without mentioning the Devil in their Reproofs and enforcing their chiding with it The Names of God and Christ are not half so much used in those occasions where they would be so lawful and serviceable but on the contrary they seem to be banish'd from the Mouths of most Men. Sect. 7. When Youths are put to School they read almost nothing from the lowest to the highest Forms in the Greek and Latin Books but what concerns the Demons and their Effects as they were represented by the Heathens They are imbu'd with that Science before they attain to those that relate to the use of this Life and that are call'd Faculties The infernal Gods and Goddesses as Pluto Vulcan Proserpine are known very early and grown familiar to Youth before they are sufficiently instructed in the knowledge of the true God They greedily imbibe the Epistles Poetry and Histories of the antient Greeks and Romans where a frequent mention is made of the vertue of Dreams Miracles Apparitions Spectres coming out of Subterraneous Places as Caverns or descending from high as the Air. Those Relations read with pleasure are believed almost as the Gospel or rather are to them instead the Gospel For if Parents are not pious enough to take care in their Houses of the instruction of their Children in what concerns Religion and to have an Eye upon their information as to this point in the Schools I believe not that of 25 Books which are made use of in the Latin Schools to learn Sciences more than one or two are fit to inculcate the Grounds of Christianity to the tender Youth Those that go from the Schools to the Universities carry their heads full of thousands of Verses of Horace Ovid Virgil and a vast number of Passages and Relations collected from Heathen Authors both Greek and Latin Those that râ—turn home from the Universities to their Houses carry still more of them but scarce bring back ten passages or perhaps so much as a passage or a lesson drawn from the Word of God for the foundation of their Faith and matter of their Devotion Sect. 8. In the mean while most of the young Men that go to the Universities newly coming from under the Rod and hardly capable of discretion are allowed to make choice of their own Teacher Which St. Paul reckons amongst the faults of these last times 2 Tim. 4.3 They choose the Exercises they are to make the Lessons they are to learn and the Books they are to Read which they do not so much with an intent of Understanding the Holy Scripture as of informing themselves of the Controversies amongst the principal Sects the particular Opinions of our Doctors who are already but too much divided and whose divisions are but too great The curious Youth are more eager to learn such things than those they ought to know Carried away by the heat of their Blood always ready to take fire and flight they ardently apply themselves obstinately to defend the part of their Masters and direct their Studies especially after the enquiry of such Reasons as may help them to maintain the Opinions they have embraced and to confute their Antagonists So that whenever a passage of the Holy Writ is alledg'd for or against their Sentiments either in Divinity or Philosophy they exert all their ability and subtilty to wrest it or to put upon it such a Sense as favours the Opinion with which they are prejudiced Thus Truth is not enquired aftâ—r for it 's own sake and Scripture and Reason are often
propositions they maintain rather than their true natural Sense such as 't is found in other Authors and in ordinary use of a Tongue that is so familiar to them Of these I might recite a thousand proofs if it were necessary and time would allow me Sect. 13. Besides as much as Man has taken pains to acquire uncertain and corrupted Sciences so much has he been negligent of informing himself in the best the finest and at the same time the smallest part of Sciences with which he is ordinarily less acquainted for as I have already said the Youth in the Schools run over all the Countries of the Ancient Heathens only to make a booty of Latin and Greek before they do so much as visit Christianity which is only shewn to them as at a distance they are yet of too tender a constitution to be loaden with such solid meat and too young to be mixed with such important Affairs so that they are taught almost nothing of that matter It is not thought convenient for them to know what Soul and Body are wherein consists the Essence of the Soul or that of the Angels and Devils and what knowledge and operations those Spirits are capable of and what share and administration they take here below in human Affairs No light is afforded to them that may dissipate the darkness that has been spread over their understandings in their youth nor blot out the impressions that have been made upon them as to this point by the means already mention'd so that this darkness and these impressions destitute of Antidotes do still penetrate farther Even those that follow the Principles of Descartes tho' they distinguish better than others the nature of Soul and Body as will be shown in my Second Book Chap. 1. Sect. 12 13 14. yet when they come to the operations of such Spirits as are not joyned to a Body either Angels or Devils and undertake to explain how they can act upon other Bodies either of Men or other matter they take as much freedom as they can and go as far as they can be carried by the prejudices they have imbibed with all others before they studied Scripture and Philosophy Sect. 14. That which may adorn the Human Mind with Light and form its Judgment is what is less intended to be acquired in Universities tho' they seem to be the place where such a rare thing should be gotten which most unhappily affords not the means to grow rich I mean Mathematicks and that part of natural Philosophy that discovers the nature and course of the Heavens not because they treat of our present subject but for two other reasons I shall add The first is that more certainty is to be found in Mathematicks than in all other Sciences because they are grounded upon infallible Principles such Students as are used to the certainty of these Principles will not acknowledge for truth such as are not attended with a full and entire conviction and put a little value upon such Sciences as have not the same certainty But the Second Reason is still more particular viz. That Mathematicks especially that part that treats of the knowledge of Stars manifestly discovers several things that undeniably shew the Sacred Writers accommodated themselves to the stile and capacity of the Vulgar and speak of the Heavens Earth Sun Moon and Stars not according to their own nature and as they are in themselves but according to the common notions of Men. And therefore those that are somewhat addicted to that Science credit not so easily the discourses of other Men and are not satisfied with probabilites They are not disposed to fill the Air with Spirits nor to fix them to Stars nor to confound Spirits and Stars together But the mischief is as I have already hinted that few Learned give up themselves to that part of the Sciences tho' it is the most useful and beautiful of all Sect. 15. All these prejudices with which we have been once fill'd which have been rooted in us more and more by the ways already alleag'd which have grown by the new nourishment they daily received and which have neither been banished nor weaken'd by the endeavours of a better informed Judgment all these prejudices I say are no where more sensible than in the subject we treat of And therefore we have destin'd this First Book to establish this Truth and make it very plain to the end it might be clearly perceived that all those Opinions concerning the Devils Divinations and Witchcraft draw their first Original from the Heathens who communicated them to the Jews during the Babilonian Captivity where they had more conversation with the Philosophers than in the Land of Canaan whilst they liv'd separated from all other Nations of the Earth There they insensibly took the tincture of the Heathen Doctrines and Practices at least of such as seem'd not directly opposed to their Law The first Christians springing from the middle of the Jews and Heathens kept likewise most part of the same Doctrines and intended to gain the Heathens by too great and easie a compliance with their Opinions Thus was insensibly laid the foundation on which the great aedifice of Popery is now founded and rais'd Sect. 16. Another Judgment may be pass'd upon that matter if Popery were put in parallel with Heathenism and not esteem'd the worse of these two For why should not they be held for Heathen Legends what the Pagans have published of their Miracles Oracles Gods Aërial Spectres Dreams and the like prodigies That is why do we not call 'em Lies as we rightly so name the Roman Legends Have we more reason to look upon as suspitious those wonders the relations of which are inserted almost in all the Books of the chief Roman writers and to look upon them as a branch of superstition then to deal in the same manner with those of the Heathens Whence comes it that we publickly laugh at both in our discourses and writings the sham miracles of the former as being meer delusions and trifles and that we approve both by our words and our Books the narrations that the latter make of the wonders seen amongst them and that we quote them as true thô they be of the same matter and weight with the others The antiquity of those Authors and of the times in which they have written has it so much power and efficacy and must we more easily credit stories because they are said to have happen'd a long while ago and in far remote Countries But what 's that to the main point Truth fits not it self in this manner to the inclinations of Men. Lies were anciently told as well as they are now and as well in Foreign Countries as in our own Sect. 17. It is methinks sufficiently proved by all the quotations of this Book that there are no Miracles Oracles purging Fires Apparitions of Hobgoblins or Souls Witchcraft by Letters and â—â—aracters or choice of Days either in