ascribed unto himself and in this the Witchmongers do him no small service in giving that power and honour unto the most wicked and wrâ—hed of all Gods Creatures that is only due to the Creator and to his instrument Nature And to conclude this I cannot but repeat that excellent and Christian Sentence of Helmont Pigritiae saltem enim immensae inventum fuit omnia in Diabolum retulisse quae non capimus 3. A third kind of power that he ascribeth unto Devils is their changing and transmuting of bodies which is either in regard of substantial transformations or of those that are but in the external figure or shape or in the qualities accidents and adjuncts only Of real transubstantiations after a long dispute he granteth that they cannot be brought to pass but by a Divine and Omnipotent Power which we have sufficiently proved before and therefore shall forbear to say any further of it here And for what other portents prodigies or lying wonders he can perform we shall here examine and discuss them to the full in this order 1. We shall pass by what may be thought of the strange feats the Magicians of Pharaoh or Simon Magus did perform as fully examined and concluded before and shall give those Texts of Scripture that mention the signs and wonders that Antichrist and false Prophets that are Satans Instruments can or do work and they are these If there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder And the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. And that Prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God Another place is this But the Prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak or that shall speak in the name of other gods even that Prophet shall die And if thou say in thine heart How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken When a Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of him From whence we may take these Observations 1. That we may know he is a false Prophet that speaketh a thing in the name of the Lord if the thing do not come to pass But yet this must be understood with limitation where God sendeth a Message by a true Prophet where the thing is spoken positively but the condition is concealed and not expressed as in the Message of Jonah to Nineveh yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown which was intended if they repented not but implicitely was understood as the event shewed if they did repent the Lord would spare them of which Learned D r Stillingfleet hath this Proposition Comminations of judgments to come do not in themselves speak the absolute futurity of the event but do only declare what the persons to whom they are made are to expect and what shall certainly come to pass unless God by his mercy interpose between the threatning and the event So that Comminations do speak only the debitum poenae and the necessary obligation to punishment but therein God doth not bind up himself as he doth in absolute promises the reason is because Comminations confer no right to any which absolute promises do and therefore God is not bound to necessary performance of what he threatens 2. That there are those that do foretel or shew signs and wonders that do come to pass and yet those that foretel them are false Prophets because sometimes God sendeth false Prophets with power to work signs and wonders thereby to try his people whether or no they will cleave unto him with all their hearts and souls or turn to other strange gods or Idols and this is ordered by the Providence of God for the trial of the faithful as was in the Case of Job But though these may be great signs and wonders to amaze and amuse men and likewise come to pass yet are they no true miracles but are distinguished in this that true miracles are alwayes for the establishing and confirmation of the true Doctrine and Worship of Christ but the other are lying wonders wrought only to try the godly or for the deluding and punishing of those that received not the knowledge of the truth And though there are and may be signs and wonders that are wrought by Antichrist and false Prophets by and in the power of Satan yet these are all ordered by the Wisdom and Providence of the Almighty and Satan is no more but an organ and instrument in the performance of them There are two other remarkable places of Scripture concerning the Devils power in working signs and wonders the first of which is this For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect The other is this Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders And with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness From whence we may take these remarkable observations 1. Though there arise false Christs and false Prophets and even the Antichrist himself working after the power of Satan with signs and lying wonders yet though Satan be the organ and instrument in performing these lying wonders God is the Author and efficient cause that doth inflict them because they are mala poenae and come not by a bare permissive power but are inflicted by him as punishments upon the wicked even those that received not the love of the truth and therefore these lying wonders cannot possibly deceive the elect but prove all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish and the reason why they are thus punished with the deceits and delusions of Satan is because they received not the love of the truth and therefore God doth send such strong delusion that they might believe a lie and this he doth rightly and justly that as Beza notes Ita tamen ut soli increduli sint illius fraude perituri Upon which place learned Rollock tells us this We are he saith to observe
That transformation that the Grace and Spirit of God doth work inwardly in the minds and hearts of the Godly which is not by changing their Nature or Persons but by transforming their minds and altering their wills and affections from sinful and earthly things to those that are holy and heavenly so the Apostle willeth the Romans that they be transformed by the renewing of their minds and so they come to be changed from glory to glory and this were blasphemy to say that either Devil or Witch could perform it 2. There is a transformation wrought in the minds of the wicked by the just judgment of God for the Text saith speaking of Antichrist Revealing even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness So in the case of Saul the Text saith And it came to pass on the morrow that the evil Spirit from God came upon Saul These therefore are inward judgments for wickedness sent by God by the ministry of Satan of which we shall speak more hereafter 3. We lastly come to the main point that is concerning the transformation of Nebuchadnezzar which the Witchmongers hold to be a real and an essential transubstantiation therefore let us hear the words as they run in our English Translation which are this And they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field they shall make thee eat grass as oxen The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like Eagles feathers and his nails like birds claws And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lift up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me At the same time my reason returned unto me And a little before Let his heart be changed from mans and let a beasts heart be given unto him From this place they commonly frame an argument to this purpose That Nebuchadnezzar being really and essentially changed from a man to a beast or an ox much more may Satan essentially transform himself into the shape of any Creature and consequently that he may really change the Witches into Hares Dogs Cats and the like But we shall unanswerably prove that the assumption is false that Nebuchadnezzar was not transubstantiated or essentially transformed at all And if he had been really so yet that the consequence is invalid and of no force and that by these Arguments 1. Because that being driven into the field and eating grass as oxen and having his body it was his body not the body of an oxe and therefore no corporeal nor real change wet with the dew of Heaven do not at all conclude or infer that his body was really and essentially changed nor in the external figure of it altered from what it was before for he might go upon all four and eat grass and yet that doth argue no real change of his bodily shape at all for so have divers persons done that being young have been lost in Woods and Desarts and have been brought up with Bears or Wolves To which purpose take one story for all from Philip Camerarius that learned Counsellor of Norimberg a man of great credit and reputation in these words In the year 1543. there was in the parts of Hesse a Lad taken who as he reported afterwards and so it was found true when he was but three years old was taken away and afterwards nourished and brought up by Wolves These Wolves when they got any prey would always bring the best of it to a Tree and give it to the Child which did eat it in Winter and time of cold they would dig a pit and strew it with grass and leaves of trees and thereupon lay the Child and lying round about it preserve him from the injury of the weather after they would make him go upon all four and run with him till by use and length of time he could skip and run like a Wolf being taken he was compelled by little and little to go only upon his feet He would often say that if it had been in his power he could have taken more delight to have conversed among Wolves than among men he was carried to the Court of Henry Lantgrave of Hesse to be seen And in the same Chapter he relateth another story to the same purpose of one that he himself had known and seen that was of admirable agility and more to the same end Now must we conclude that because this Boy did live and lye in the open air was fed with raw flesh and went upon all four that therefore he was really and essentially chaâ—ged into a Wolf no that would be inconsequent and ridiculous and so would it be if because Nebuchadnezzar lay in the open field was wet with the rain and dew and did eat grass as an ox to conclude that therefore he was really changed into a beast the absurdities are both alike This is as mad a kind of inference as if we should say Conies and Geese do eat grass like an Ox therefore they are Oxen or Asses when notwithstanding they still retain their essential beings and shapes without any essential transformations at all 2. Because the hairs of his head as the Text saith were grown like to an Eagles feathers and for that also the very nails of his hands and feet were like the claws of a bird yet it doth not prove that he was really changed into a beast and that for these Reasons 1. Because it would be more consonant to conclude that he was rather transformed into some bird having feathers and claws than into a beast that hath horns and hoofs though there was in him no corporeal transformation at all but only a changed mind 2. The Text is not according to the Hebrew Phrase used when there is real transubstantiation as in Lots Wife Et fuit statua salis but as Tremellius renders it Usquedum pili ejus ut Aquilarum plumae crevissent ungues ejus ut avium And Arias Montanus thus Donec capillus ejus sicut Aquilarum crevit ungues ejus sicut avium which is exactly agreeable to the Hebrew So that the assertion is not that his hairs were changed into Eagles feathers nor his nails into birds claws but that they were sicut as the feathers of Eagles and as the claws of birds the hairs by being grown ruffled squalid and rugged and the nails by being grown long hard and crooked for want of cutting dressing combing and ordering
behold the face of my father which is in heaven Upon which Beza hath this note Loquitur more seculi hujus ubi consistere in conspectu regis faciemque ejus perpetuò videre posse signum est domesticae intimaeque familiaritatis But the faln Angels are totally deprived of this blessed Vision being cast forth of Heaven as saith the Text. And the great Dragon was cast out that old Serpent called the Devil and Satan which deceiveth the world he was cast out into the earth and his Angels were cast out with him And S. Peter tells us that God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness 2. And as they have lost the vision and fruition of the mercies of God so they have utterly lost the knowledge of his will concerning his Covenant of Grace and mercy to the elect for they are only ministring spirits sent forth to tempt to sin to afflict and punish and have still enough for the advancing of the Kingdom of darkness but have no knowledge of saving grace nor the mysteries of the Gospel but are all enemies and adversaries to God and the Kingdom of Christ and goeth about seeking continually whom he may devour But it is the blessed elect Angels that are ministring spirits sent forth for to minister to them who shall be heirs of Salvation 3. The good Angels have the blessed messages revealed unto them for the assisting and delivering of the godly So an Angel did comfort Joshua and another warned Joseph to take the child Jesus and to fly into Aegypt thereby to preserve the childs life and an Angel delivered the Apostles forth of prison and many such happy errands are made manifest unto them and they imployed about them of all which the faln Angels are utterly ignorant and they are concealed from them 6. There are some things that the evil Angels know of which the blessed ones have no sensibility of that is the knowledge of their own guilt and the experimental sense of the loss of Gods Favour Love Grace and Mercy 2. The second thing that we proposed to handle is that the knowledge that the faln Angels have is dark and confused which is plain because they are reserved in chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day Now those that are kept or reserved in darkness must of necessity have their knowledge dark and consequently confused and he also that is the Prince of darkness and the Father and Author of the works of darkness must needs like his children have his understanding darkned also And therefore we will conclude this point with the opinion of S. Augustine who speaking both of the Angels that stood and those that fell saith thus Ante peccatum autem tam isti quam illi perfectè omnia intelligebant Accessit igitur istis propter peccatum aliquid tenebrarum Proindè etiam tenebrae appellantur in tenebris esse dicuntur coelesti illa luce destituti in locum caliginosum praecipitati Ut indè intelligamus nonnihil tenebrarum naturali etiam illorum menti accessisse in poenam admissipeccati in Deum Deique filium But we shall only here speak of their knowledge in reference to things acted in this elementary and sublunary world and that in these particulars 1. Though they retain the same faculty of understanding that they had before their fall of the generation motion and mutation of natural things here below yet is it much darkned and far inferior to the knowledge of the good Angels in natural things the one sort living and abiding in light and the other being shut up in darkness 2. What knowledge soever they have by their natural faculties or that they may be supposed to gain by acquisition is by them gotten or learned for no other end but for the hurt and destruction of mankind and not as the good Angels who make use of theirs for the benefit of those that shall be heirs of Salvation For as a good Physician labours and studies to know the nature and virtues of Animals Vegetables and Minerals and their parts and products for the good and benefit of mankind but a Witch or poysoner laboureth to know their virtues thereby to destroy and kill even so do the evil Angels and not otherwise 3. The knowledge of Devils whether natural or acquisitive is spurious erroneous fallacious deceitful and delusive both in respect of themselves and others for as saith the Scripture He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father of it Therefore saith learned Rollock upon this very place Hoc est loqui ex ingenio suo quod naturale est sibi facere suum enim quod ex sese deprompsit non autem quod aliundè accepit profert For as all the endeavours of the faln Angels tend to the seduction and delusion of others so are they and were they the deceivers and deluders of themselves For it is most manifest that their minds are so obcaecated and covered over with darkness that although they be not altogether in general destitute of the knowledge of that which is just and unjust good and evil pious and impious yet they do not acknowledge their own sin as they ought for they are so pertinacious in their sin and wickedness that they do not attentively perpend and consider their own evil and therefore are not truely sensible or do understand that it is evil and therefore are by the just judgment of God so absolutely obcaecated that they cannot acknowledge their own evil and sin And as that knowledge they have is so darkned that they have deluded and deceived themselves so all their knowledge in respect of others is erroneous fallacious and lying as the Text witnesseth of Antichrist Even he whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders And with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie 4. In regard of the words intentions and actions of wicked Men they both know and may foretel much because they are the Authors and devisers of those evils and wicked thoughts as it was the Devil that pushed on the Scribes and Pharisees to accuse and put Christ to death for it was their hour and the power of darkness and it was Satan that had darted it into the mind of Judas Iscariot to betray his Master And therefore the Devils might probably if not certainly know that his death would be brought to pass so that they may easily foretel what themselves have projected and prepared instruments to accomplish 5. The acquired knowledge of the faln Angels must needs be great in regard of their vast multitudes and their being
that Antichrist is nothing else but Gods Executioner by whom he punisheth those by his just judgment who have not received the love of the truth but have contemned the Gospel which is so far forth true that if there had not been and now were a contempt of the truth then altogether Antichrist had not been that is the Executioner had not been whom God sendeth to execute his just judgment upon those that despise the truth of his Gospel So that it is manifest that God doth make a just and good use of the very malice and lying nature of Devils in punishing those that did not receive the love of the truth but deceiving them by strong delusions that they might believe a lie and this he doth as sent and commanded of God and so cannot go one jot further than his Commission or as far as he is limited by God 2. We may observe that how great soever these signs and wonders be yet they are but lying ones both in regard of the end for which they are done and in respect of their substance And therefore how great soever the signs and wonders be that evil Angels do perform yet they are totally different from true miracles those being alwayes wrought for the confirming of the true Doctrine and Worship of God but these have their end only to establish false doctrine lies and erroneous opinions or Idolatrous Worships So they differ in their substance for those miracles that God sheweth for the confirmation of his truth are alwayes true and real being against and above the whole power and course of nature but those wonders wrought by Satan are but delusions cheats juglings and impostures which though they may seem strange to those that are ignorant of their causes yet do but all arise from natural causes or from artificial cunning confederacy and the like And therefore we may conclude that what miracles soever are wrought by a Divine Power tend to the overthrow of Satans power in the world but all false miracles are wrought to uphold the power of Satans Kingdom in the world and following delusions lies and false doctrines 3. Therefore what signs and wonders soever Satan doth work they are no real and true miracles for as Dr. Stillingfleet saith God alone can really alter the course of nature I speak not he saith of such things which are apt to raise admiration in us because of our unacquaintedness with the causes of them or manner of their production which are thence called Wonders much less of meer juggles and impostures whereby the eyes of Men are deceived but I speak of such things as are in themselves either contrary to or above the course of nature i. e. that order which is established in the universe And this cannot be altered by any diabolical power but only by that which is Divine and Omnipotent which never doth it but for considerable ends and important causes as may be manifest from these unshaken grounds 1. That Devils can work no true miracles is manifest from the definition of a miracle which is this Verum miraculum est opus quod fit praeter contra naturam secundas causas cujus nulla Physica ratio potest reddi But Satan cannot alter or change the order and course of nature Therefore Satan cannot work or effect a true miracle The proposition may be illustrated by an induction made of many great miracles of which there is mention made in the Old and New Testament all which are of that sort that are repugnant to the order and course of nature and of which no natural or physical reason can be rendered and given Such were the taking of Enoch and Elias into Heaven the conserving of Noah and his Family in the Ark the confusion of tongues at the building of Babel the fecundity of Sarah being old and barren the passage of the children of Israel over the red Sea and over Jordan the standing still of the Sun in the battel of Joshuah its going back in the dial of Ahaz its eclipse at our Saviours suffering the preservation of Daniel in the Den of the Lions and of the three companions of Daniel in the fiery furnace the preserving Jonas in the belly of the Whale the raising up of the dead and the curing of the Man born blind and all the rest of those most true and wonderful miracles wrought by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles 2. The assumption of the Syllogism is thus proved It is the part of the same power to change the order of nature and to create things that were not existent and so the mutation of the order of nature is a certain kind of new creation But Satan hath not power by which he can create things that as yet had no existence as all persons of reason must needs confess From whence it must follow that Satan hath not power to change the order of nature and consequently that he cannot work true and real miracles 3. The working of true miracles is only a proper attribute of God and incommunicable to any creaturely power for the Text saith Blessed be the Lord God the God of Israel who only doth wondrous things And again thou art the God that dost wonders And these two things the changing of the order of nature and creation S. Paul attributeth to God as only proper to him God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things that be not as though they were Upon which Beza gives this note Eo qui vitae restituit Apud quem jam sint quae alioqui reipsa non sunt ut qui vel uno verbo quidvis possit ex nihilo efficere But if it be objected that though Satan and his Angels of themselves and by their own proper power do not work true miracles yet may not God work real miracles by them as he did by the Prophets Apostles and his Ministers It is answered That the wonders which are wrought by Satan do tend to that end that they might confirm lies against God and his glory But God doth not accommodate his power to confirm lies contrary to his glory and against himself Therefore Satan by the power of God as his Minister doth not work true miracles for God doth use the faln Angels as executioners of his wrath and judgments for the afflicting and punishing of men but when God worketh any thing for the good of mankind either in Soul or Body he doth not use Devils as his Ministers but the good and blessed Angels who are ministring spirits sent forth for the good of those that shall be heirs of Salvation And if it be queried what things and of what sort and kind are those wonders that are wrought by Satan and Antichrist I answer that either they are indeed nothing but prestigious juglings and illusions or if they be any thing they are not brought to pass contrary to the order of nature and second causes although they may seem so
beasts or the like but none of these things are ever proved to be performed And therefore it is not rational to believe that Witches do make a visible and corporeal League with the Devil because by it they can have no certain knowledge that he either can or will accomplish such things for them as they desire 5. The Devil cannot by his own power or will either appear visibly in what shape he please neither can he when he will nor as he will perform these strange tricks because he is under restraint and can act nothing but as the will of God orders and determines so God sent an evil Spirit upon Saul otherwise he could not have troubled him and the Devils could not enter into the herd of Swine until leave was given them by our Saviour neither could he afflict Job until that Gods hand was laid upon him and God ordered him to be an instrument in that affliction And though the Devil be said to walk about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour yet must that walking about be only understood and is so taken by all sound Expositors of the evil and wicked intention of his will according to which he is always ready seeking whom he may devour if he be so ordered or permitted of God ordering and permission in this point being but all one act of the divine Will and Providence and not in regard of his power or liberty to act or execute what he please and when and as he list for the same Apostle and also St. Jude telleth us that he is kept in chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment and by those chains he is kept that he cannot hurt or destroy when and where he list but as he is sent and appointed of God either to tempt or afflict the godly or to punish the wicked and therefore the sentence of St. Austin is much to be weighed and considered who saith Diabolus plerumque vult nocere non potest quia potestas ista est sub potestate nam si tantum posset nocere Diabolus quantum vult aliquis justorum non remaneret And therefore I cannot but transcribe here the opinion of that pious and learned person Bishop Hall upon this very particular which is this Could Samson have been firmly bound hand and foot by the Philistine cords so as he could not have stirred those mighty limbs of his what Boy or Girl of Gath or Ascalon would have feared to draw near and spurn that awed Champion No other is the condition of our dreadful enemies they are fast bound up with the adamantine chains of Gods most merciful and inviolable Decree and forcibly restrained from their desired mischief Who can be afraid of a muzled and tyed up Mastive what woman or child cannot make faces at a fierce Lyon or a bloody Bajazet lockt up fast in an Iron Grate Were it not for this strong and strait curb of divine Providence what good man could breathe one minute upon earth The Demoniack in the Gospel could break his iron fetters in pieces through the help of his Legion those Devils that possessed him could not break theirs they are fain to sue for leave to enter into Swine neither had obtained it in all likelihood but for a just punishment to those Gaderene owners How sure may we then be that this just hand of Omnipotence will not suffer these evil ones to tyrannize over his chosen Vessels for their hurt How safe are we since their power is limited our protection infinite So that if the Devil be thus chained and restrained by the omnipotent Decree and Providence that he cannot execute any evil but as he is ordered of God and that God doth not let him loose but for just causes and reasons then can it not be that the Devil doth visibly appear and make Leagues with Witches nor work such strange things for them because there is no just or reasonable end that can be assigned why God should order him to do these things and therefore a visible League with Witches is meerly false and fraudulent 6. This pretended League must needs be a lye and a figment because of the effects that are feigned to follow as to have carnal copulation with the Devil to raise storms and tempests to flye in the air and to kill men and beasts For if these things be done they are either performed by the Witches own natural power or by the Devils If by the Witches natural power or the force of her resuscitated imagination and strength of will to work ad nutum as Van Helmont seems to hold then the Devil operateth nothing but in playing the Impostor and deceiving the Witch and that he may easily do by internal and mental delusion and needs no visible League to bring it to pass And if the Witch kill men or beasts or perform any of the fore-cited Feats by natural means or Agents then where is the Devils power or wherein is the Witchcraft or Fascination or where is the effect of the League And if the Witch kill by natural means then the natural Agent is not simply evil but in the use and application As a Sword is a natural and lawful instrument for an honest man to use to defend his life withal in using of it with his natural power and skill but if a Thief or a Robber with his natural power and skill use a Sword to kill and murther an honest man withal it is wickedness in the use and end but not in the agency of the Thief nor in the effect of the Sword So if the Witch by any natural means though never so secret do kill a man or child it is murther but wherein lyes the Witchcraft Is it any thing else but Veneficium as both the Greek and Latine words do import to kill by some secret way of poysoning Shew what Witchcraft there is in it besides If the Devil by his own power kill a man or perform the Witches carrying in the air and the like let us know how or by what means he performeth the same If what the Devil performeth in natural and corporeal matter be as the Fathers School-men and Divines most generally hold by applying natural Agents to fit passives then the effect is natural and so in killing any person it is only wicked and diabolical in regard of the end which is murther but what Witchcraft is there in the means and operation And therefore Guiterrius strongly concludeth thus If there be no natural Fascination there can be no diabolical but there is no natural Fascination as he thinketh he hath sufficiently proved therefore he concludeth there is no diabolical Fascination at all There is no way to solve this Argument but either in denying that the Devil worketh these things by natural means and then it crosseth the opinion of all the Learned in general ancient middle and modern or by proving that there is natural
yea the Devils in the infernal pit and in the air do perform but without voice in a spiritual manner 3. If this opinion were true then the blessed Souls being divested from their Bodies should not have a communion one with another nor should jointly praise and glorifie God together which were false and absurd and therefore the learned Father said well It is to be holden stedfastly that the offices of the Heavenly Hoast are by no means performed in silence seeing we may read that the Angelical powers before the Throne of the Lord do sound forth his praise with unwearied voices 4. The sleights and subtil machinations for he hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or devices of Satans Kingdom could not be carried on if he had not a way and means to communicate them to the rest of the Crew of his inferiour Fiends and therefore doth plainly prove that there is a way of hidden Mystical and Spiritual discourse which the Devil might and did represent to the mind and understanding of Evah whereby she was seduced and that there was no need of a vocal and audible interlocution and so much in answer to his objection The next place of Scripture that is commonly brought and urged thereby to prove the great power of Devils and Witches is that of Pharaohs Magicians from whence they argue thus If the Magicians of Pharaoh were able by the power and assistance of the Devil to change their Rods into Serpents the Water into Blood and to produce Frogs Why may not Witches by the power and assistance of the Devil change themselves and other things into strange and several shapes and do the rest of the feats that are ascribed unto them But though this be but petitio principii a begging of the question that by the assistance of the Devil they did these things which is neither supposed nor granted but ought first to have been proved And though in the case of hardening Pharaohs heart there might be and was a peculiar dispensation from God at that time yet it will not follow that God doth always dispense with and give the Devil leave to operate the like things and so nothing firmly can be concluded from hence Yet I say though these be so we shall pretermit them and come to the full opening and discussion of the matter and that in these two particulars 1. How far the Devils power and assistance did concurr with the actions and performances 2. And wherein he did not concurr nor act at all 1. We shall grant that Pharaoh and the Magicians being Idolaters and worshippers of false gods their ends were principally to magnifie the power of their Idols and to manifest that their supposed gods could work and bring to pass as strange miracles or wonders as Moses and Aaron could perform by the assistance of the God of the Hebrews and in respect of this end they had all the assistance that Satan and his dark kingdom of Angels could afford them in a spiritual and hellish way for he is the Prince of the power of the air that worketh in the children of disobedience for such were both Pharaoh and his Magicians And to this purpose doth the Apostle tell us speaking of false and seducing teachers That they were like Jannes and Jaâ—bres that withstood Moses in their resisting of the truth so that the Magicians of Pharaoh were condemned for resisting the truth of that message that Moses and Aaron brought and of those real miracles that they performed and so in respect of the wicked end they aimed at they were assisted with the power and concurrence of the Devil and in that respect only were his servants and instruments But as for the second particular namely the efficient causes and â—eans of the producing of those thing that the Magicians did we affirm they were performed by the power of nature and art and that the Devil was no efficient cause of their production and that by these irrefragable arguments 1. Those that affirm that the Devil did or can produce such strange effects do also acknowledge that what he performeth in natural and elementary Bodies is done by applying natural agents to natural and fit patients which dotruly bring to pass such strange effects and that he doth no more but only make the local application of them From whence it must necessarily follow that the effects flow from natural agents and so no causality at all can be ascribed unto him except that fictitious one of being causa sine qua non which is as much as no cause And besides that there is no proof that he maketh this local application for if he be incorporeal then it is simply impossible that he should perform any such matter and however a man by natural power and means if he know the fit and apt actives and passives may perform them himself and so his assistance is needless and we have never yet met with any argument that bore any convincing force that might induce us to believe that he is so great a Naturalist 2. There are many persons that think themselves no mean sharers in the most sorts of learning and others that are very strait laced in their pretended zeal for godliness and in detesting the works of Satan that even startle and shew an abhorrency at the word Magick if it be but once named as though there were no Magick but what is diabolical or that which they call diabolical were any other way evil but only in the end and use for there are many plants and minerals that though poysonous are yet notwithstanding good in respect of their Creation and the good uses that may be made of them as to kill noxious animals that are hurtful unto man But if any forth of malice and wickedness should use them to poyson and destroy Men and Women it were wicked and diabolical in the end and use yet were the means lawful and natural So whatsoever the Devil may do by wicked Men his instruments in leading and drawing them to make use of the great magnalia naturae to work strange wonders by thereby to confirm Idolatry and Superstition or to resist the truth and such devilish ends though the end and use may be wicked and diabolical yet the efficient cause is natural and lawful And therefore we can find no other ground or reason of dividing Magick into natural and Diabolical but only that they differ in the end and use for otherwise they both work by a natural agency and means seeing the Devil can do nothing above or contrary to that course that God hath set in nature Therefore may men do without the aid of Devils whatsoever they can do seeing they have no advantage over us but operate only by applying active things to passive like as Men do And therefore said that most learned Philosopher Chymist and Mathematician our Countreyman Roger Bacon excellent well in these words non igitur oportet nos
uti magicis illusionibus cum potestas Philosophiae doceat operari quod sufficit Therefore are those men that came from the East to worship Christ called Magicians not because that great knowledge they had in the secrets of Nature was Diabolical or unlawful for the name of a Magician was honourable and laudable until Knaves and Impostors made use of it to cheat and couzen withal and for wicked and ungodly ends but because they had made use of it for the glory of God and the good of mankind therefore were they Magicians in the genuine and best sense as working by lawful and natural means and to a good end when the Magicians of Pharaoh may be called Cacomagicians because they used the good and excellent causes and agents of nature to a wicked and Diabolical end namely to resist the truth and so the only difference of Magick is from the end and uses and not from the causes or agents that are both natural So what these Magicians of Pharaoh did though it were strange and wonderful yet was it meerly by natural means and causes and yet being for a wicked end was therefore Diabolical So Jacob when he set the pilled rods with white streakes in them before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs that when the Rams and the Sheep came up to drink and coupled together they might conceive and bring forth ring streaked speckled and spotted young ones It came so to pass and is confessed by Pererius himself and the most of learned Expositors upon that place to be from natural causes and was a strange feat of natural Magick but not evil because not directed to a wicked end but that of Pharaohs though wrought likewise by a natural causes for so it was whether ascribed to the Devil that can but work by natural means or not was wicked and Diabolical because they did it to resist Moses and Aaron the messengers of the Lord Jehovah 3. The most or all the learned Expositors that have Commented upon this place of Exodus as may be seen in Dr. Willets Hexapla and divers other learned Authors though they attribute these things done by the Magicians to the power and assistance of Satan yet in the manner they do acknowledge them not to be done really and in truth but only in shew and appearance But what they mean by shew and appearance is not so easie to find out and determine for if by it they mean that they did it as Juglers and those that use the Art of Legierdemane do that is by shewing one thing and then by nimble sleight and agility convey it away and suddainly and unperceiveably substitute another thing in its place which they perform by leading the Eyes and attentions of the spectators another way with staring and using of strange and insignificant words then we should be soon accorded for so they might probably and easily have been performed as we shall prove anon but this is not the thing they mean or intend But some do mean that the Devil did only deceive the Phantasie and imagination of the beholders in causing them to imagine and believe that the rods were changed into Serpents when they were not changed at all but only their imaginations deceived in thinking them to be Serpents when they were but only rods as melancholy persons Men in Feavers Phrensies and Maniacal distempers do often think and affirm that they see strange things when they see no such things externally but the Phantasie is only deceived with the species and images of those things within This might be granted if Pharaoh and all the Spectators could be proved to be Men under those forenamed distempers and the like though yet that might and doth often come to pass from meer natural causes where the Devil hath nothing to do at all But the beholders of these actions of the Magicians are neither proved nor can rationally be supposed to be Men under any such distempers but must be understood to be Men of several constitutions tempers and of sound health and therefore not any way capable of any such illusions neither could the Devil in a moment have so vitiated their imaginations which we affirm he can no ways do except the humours fumes and spirits in the Body be first altered by natural causes which cannot be done instantaneously and if it could then it would follow that no Man could certainly tell when he were deceived in his imagination when not neither could it be as some imagine by casting a mist before their Eyes for though Christ did hold the two Disciples Eyes going from Emaus that they did not know him it were blasphemous to think that Satan could do so also And a mist casting before their Eyes might make them to see more dimly and confusedly and cause things to appear greater than they were but not to make one thing seem a quite contrary But it never was yet proved that Satan could do such a thing and what was never proved may safely and rationally be denied Some do suppose that the Devil did cloath or cover the Magicians rods with some such vestment of an airy substance as might make the rods appear to the eye like Serpents but this is as groundless a whimsey as any of the rest and as it hath no proof so it needs no confutation 4. But to come more close to the matter it is most plain and perspicuous that what they did was meerly by Art or by Art and Nature joined with it for if we may trust any thing to propriety of the words as we have proved sufficiently before they are called mechassephim praestigiatores that is Juglers such as by sleight of hand and nimble conveyance could perform strange and wonderful things and after they are called Hartummin that is Magicians such as had skill in natural things and by knowing their causes and making due and timely application of them to passives that were suitable could produce wonderful effects And if we seriously consider the few things that they performed they might easily be brought to pass by Legerdemain alone For as for holding a rod in their hands and seeming to throw it down upon the ground how soon might they throw down an artificial Serpent in its stead and immediately and unperceivedly make conveyance of the rod And if it be thought difficult or impossible I shall unriddle the mystery as I have sometimes seen it performed and is but thus The Jugler that is to perform this feat is usually provided before-hand with a wiar so twined and wrested that it may be pressed together with the little finger in the ball of the hand and when let loose it will extend it self like a spring and make a pretty motion upon a Table this is fitted with a suitable head and a piece of neatly painted linnen perfectly resembling a Serpent with Eyes and all This thus fitted he holdeth in his right hand betwixt his little finger and the
permission and naked inspection But that we may proceed in such order as may be clear and intelligible to the Readers we shall here propose the state of the matter that we undertake to confute which is this That there is not in God a nude passive permission separate from the positive and active decree order and will of his Divine Providence and Government but that he doth rule all things according to the power and determination of his own positive and actual will And this we shall prosecute in this following order and particulars Those that deny that there is in God a passive permission separate from his decretive and actual will in his providence are accused by others thereby to infer the absurdity that God is the author or efficient cause of sin which pretended absurdity in truth and reason cannot be any because it is a simple and absolute impossibility that God should be the author of sin as these arguments do sufficiently testifie 1. That of necessity must be false which the Scriptures do declare to be so in open and plain terms But that God should be the author of sin or evil the Scriptures do deny in open and plain terms as where the Text saith God cannot be tempted with evil where both the act and the possibility of it is absolutely denied Again For thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee Therefore it is false that God is or can be the author of sin and so by consequence the supposed absurdity is a meer impossibility and an absurdity urged that is impossible is most of all absurd 2. He is ens summè perfectum quicquid est in Deo est Deus but sin howsoever understood or accepted is an imperfection defect and an aberration from a just and perfect rule and therefore it is simply impossible that God can be the cause of any thing that is imperfect sinful or evil if sin be considered as malum culpae 3. God is not under any binding law given to him by some other for then he should cease to be supream independent and omnipotent Now to whom there is no law given to observe there can be no transgression for the Apostle saith where there is no law there is no transgression and therefore it is simply impossible that God should be the author or causer of sin or evil because there is no law that he can transgress against 4. God prohibiteth and hateth sin as the Scriptures do every where testifie but God is the cause of nothing but that which he loveth and therefore cannot be the cause of the evil of sin And to speak properly sin hath no efficient cause but a deficient such as is the will of faln Angels and wicked Men whose irregularity of will from the command of God is all the cause that sin and evil hath or can have An efficient cause is only of those things that are good because every efficient cause doth by working put something in being But privations of which sort are sins do put nothing in being but do truly note the absence of beings Therefore did S. Augustine say well Mali causa efficiens nulla est sed tantùm deficiens 5. That which properly hath an efficient cause hath also an end properly so called But sin hath not an end properly so called because the end is being and therefore good and the perfection of the thing But the Scripture doth declare that all things that God created were exceeding good and that the cause of sin was Man and the Devil for the text saith that the Devil was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth And again He that committeth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning Therefore from hence it is clear that God neither is nor can be the author or causer of sin 6. That which God is the author of doth not make Man worse but sin doth make Man worse therefore God is not the author of it And all sin is perpetrated because thereby it receeded from the order that respecteth God as the ultimate end of all things but God doth incline all things unto himself as to the ultimate end neither doth he turn them from himself because he is summum bonum And further as Fulgentius saith Deus non est ejus rei autor cujus est ultor At Deus est peccati ultor ergo non autor And therefore we conclude that this is a vain pretence of an absurdity because it is impossible that God should be the author or causer of sin This plausible pretence to seem to be zealous not to make God the author of sin we commend as allowable but it is but like the zeal of the Scribes and Pharisees which was without knowledge because they pretend that for an absurdity that is a simple impossibility And they ought to remember the argument of Job which is this will ye speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him For as we ought not to suppose or imply him to be the author of sin so we ought not to rob him of his Glory by detracting from his power and providence nor in ascribing that unto Creatures that is only due unto the Creator as those do that hold a nude passive permission in him separate from his will and decree in his providence Neither doth the denying of this any way imply that he is the author of sin for a providential permission we allow as the act of his will and decree as we shall shew hereafter Now concerning permission in God being a suspension of his efficiency in regard of some acts permitted to the creatures and that for just and good ends the definition of it and its affections or properties are so darkly handled even by those that make most ado about it that it would serve rather to divert Men from the right way than to guide them in it or unto it Therefore here we shall only note these three things and pursue it more fully hereafter 1. There must be the person or power permitting that hath ability right and authority so to do 2. There must be the person or power permitted that hath ability to perform the thing permitted otherwise it would be in vain and to no purpose 3. There must be the thing or action that is permitted to be done or brought to pass by the person permitted to act and that must not be impossible 1. Before the Creation it is meerly improper to attribute permission unto God because there was no person nor power besides himself that could act any thing and therefore could not be permitted and so the correlative being awanting both the relative and the relation betwixt them must necessarily fall to the ground as having no existence and so it is impossible that permission should be in God when there was no Creature to
be permitted and so could not be attributed unto him before the Creation 2. It is as improper to attribute permission unto God in respect of the Physical agency of second causes because he not only worketh all in all and by his Divine concourse and conservative power sustaineth all things by the word of his power and Job tells us If he gather unto himself his spirit and breath all flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again into dust Upon which place of the Hebrews S. Chrysostome saith thus Feratque inquit omnia hoc est gubernet omnia Siquidem cadentia ad nihilum tendentia continet Non enim minus est continere mundum quà m fecisse Sed si oportet aliquid quod admireris dicere adhuc amplius est Nam in faciendo quidem ex nullis extantibus rerum essentiae productae sunt in continendo verò ea quae facta sunt ne ad nihilum redeant continentur Haec ergo dum reguntur ad invicem sibi repugnantia coaptantur magnum valdè mirabile plurimaeque virtutis judicium declaratur But also because he hath set all natural things their bounds and ordered decreed and determined their ends in acting Now what he hath appointed ordered and decreed to be the agency of every creature and determinated its end in acting cannot properly be called permission but his will ordination and providence As if one should say he suffereth and permitteth the Sun and Moon to run their course it is an improper expression and injurious to his wisdom and power in his providential government of the creatures seeing that it is a certain truth Deus operatur in omni operante And he hath appointed the Moon for seasons and the Sun knoweth his going down And it is absurd to say he suffereth the Sea to Ebb and Flow when he hath set it a bound that it cannot passover For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof And said hitherto shalt thou come and no further And here shall thy proud waves be staid And again Will ye not tremble at my presence saith the Lord which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it and though the waves thereof toss themselves yet can they not prevail though they roar yet can they not pass over it And therefore we may conclude that the whole Creation in respect of Physical agency is ruled according to those orders and not by a fortuitous chance or a bare passive permission 1. For first all creatures have their Physical agency and the affections and properties thereof ordained by God in the Creation and according to this they constantly act except they be turned altered or suspended by the Creator himself and he doth immediately act in them all and they cannot properly be said to be permitted 2. They are upholden sustained and conserved in their several conditions by the word of his mighty power his continual concourse and divine emanation which if it should but cease one minute the whole Creation would fall into that nothing from whence his Eternal and Omnipotent Fiat did raise and call them forth so that we dare affirm with profound Bradwardine Quod necesse est Deum servare quamlibet Creaturam immediatiùs quacunque causa creata 3. When he pleaseth he doth suspend the effects and agency of natural causes as in making the Sun stand still in the victory of Joshua and of the three Children in the fiery Furnace Sometimes he causeth them to act contrary to their innate powers and qualities as in making the shaddow go ten degrees back in Ahaz sun-dial and in causing the waters of the red sea contrary to their natures which are to tend downwards to be divided and to go backward and to be as a wall on the right hand and on the left until Moses and the children of Israel were passed through And by many other wayes and means doth he alter and change the course of natural agents to serve his will and good pleasure in his mercy or in his justice and yet here is no bare or passive permission 4. Besides these he ordereth all the particular acts of natural agents to be subservient unto his will So when Jonah fled to Tarshish the Lord sent forth a great wind into the sea and raised a mighty tempest to overtake Jonah and when he was cast into the Sea the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow him up and also the Lord spake unto the fish and it vomited up Jonah upon the dry land Now the wind was not carried nor the storm raised by a permissive power but by the will and order of the Lord Jehovah who sent them and directed them either by his immediate power or by the ministry of his Angels and though they wrought according to their natural agency yet the special ordering as to the particular act was not by permission but by the will and appointment of his providence Neither did the great fish come by chance or permission but God in his merciful providence had prepared him for the preservation of Jonah and caused him to be vomited on the dry land so that all creatures do not only continue according to his ordinances but also all elementary and irrational creatures do praise the Lord by fulfilling his word will and providence And lest we be either censured to wrest the Scriptures or to be single in this opinion take the judgment of some few others S. Gregory as he is quoted by learned Bradwardine tells us thus much Quis de Deo ista vel desipiens suspicetur qui nimirùm dum sit semper omnipotens sic intendit omnibus ut assit singulis sic adest singulis ut simul omnibus nunquam desit sic itaque exteriora circundat ut interiora impleat sic interiora implet ut exteriora circundet sic summa regit ut ima non deserat sic imâ— praesens est ut à superioribus non recedat And Thomas Aquinas their great Schoolman as the same author cites him saith Quòd Deus immediatè ordinat omnes effectus per seipsum licet per causas medias exequatur sed in ipsâ executione quodammodò immediatè se habet ad omnes effectus in quantum omnes causae mediae agunt in virtute causae primae ut quodammodo ipse in omnibus agere videatur omnia opera secundarum caâ—sarum ei possunt attribui sicut artifici attribuitur opus instrumenti Therefore we will conclude this with that of S. Augustine Proculdubio nullus est locus ab ejus praesentia absens super omnem creaturam quippè praesidet regendo subtus est omnia sustinendo non pondere laboris sed infatigabili virtute quoniam nulla creatura ab eo condita per se subsistere valet nist ab illo sustentetur qui eam creavit Extra
fetcheth a stroak with the ax to cut down the tree and the head slipeth from the helve and lighteth upon his neighbour that he die he shall flee unto one of those Cities and live And was not the action of Josephs brethren sin and sinful in selling of him to the Ismaelites and yet he acknowledgeth that God sent him before them to preserve life So that God brought good forth of evil and doth order even the sins of the wicked to just and good ends by his Divine Providence Again The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. So when the Men in the Ship with Jonah did cast lots by the Lords disposing the lot fell upon Jonah who was justly guilty and so by providence pointed out 3. That God doth govern all things to his own glory is manifest by these Texts The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil And what if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory And that he governeth all things for the Salvation of his elect is plain And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose So that if God be for the Elect who can be against them 4. That God doth govern all things most freely is clear because he is omnipotent and supream and there is no power that can either impede or constrain him For he hath done whatsoever he would both in Heaven and Earth And the Apostle saith I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth For who hath given him a charge over the earth or who hath disposed the whole world 4. The several ways that God useth in governing the creatures in the world whether good or bad may be comprised in these four ways 1. He ruleth and ordereth them by bending inclining and turning of their wills and intentions to serve and fullfil his decree and pleasure So when the Brethren of Joseph were fully resolved to murther him God by the means of Reuben and Judah so wrought upon their minds and wills that they were contented to sell him to the Ismaelites that so the determinate counsel of God might be fulfilled for though they intended it for evil that he might never return to his Father nor to have his dream fulfilled that they might bow down before him yet God intended it for good and so brought it to pass And this he did not by changing or taking away their natures nor by putting a coactive power upon their wills but by inclining and bending them to his own purpose so that the act was the act of their own wills but the moving of their wills to spare his life was from the Lord for as he that made the eye must needs see so he that made the will must needs have a power to move incline and turn it And therefore the Father said well Certum est nos velle cum velimus sed Deus facit ut velimus bonum And it is apparent that the hearts of all men are in the hands of the Lord and he turneth and inclineth them according to his will and purpose as saith Solomon The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water he turneth it whither soever he will Upon which the note of Tremellius and Junius is this Est quidem animus omnium hominum gubernaculum quo velut naves in mediis aquis reguntur corpora actiones nostrae tamen ne ipsorum quidem regum animus ex seipso permovetur impellitur inhibeturque sed Deus in singulorum animis veluti clavum tenet And concerning the wicked God saith I will harden the heart of Pharaoh and multiply my signes and wonders in the land of Aegypt And again And indeed for this cause have I raised made thee stand feci ut existeres as Beza notes thee up for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth And as yet exaltest thou thy self against my people that thou wilt not let them go And further the Text saâ—th He turned their hearts to hate his people to deal subtilly with his servants 2. God also ruleth and ordereth his creatures by leading drawing inciting and moving their wills to his own ends and purposes as sometimes to good as in his own people For as many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God And so was our Saviour led or driven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil To this agreeth the blessing and prophecie of Noah God shall perswade or allure Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem. Sometimes God inciteth the creatures to evil by the ministery of Satan as is manifest in these examples For the Text saith And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say Go number Israel and Judah And another place saith And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number the people Whereby it is plain that Satan was the instrument as sent and ordered of God to move David to number the people that thereby the King and people might be punished and the King thereby brought to a deeper sight of his sins repentance and a closer trusting and adhering to his God So when the Lord intended to have Ahab to go up to Ramoth Gilead that he might be slain he sent forth an evil Angel to be a lying spirit in all Ahabs Prophets and said unto him Thou shalt perswade him and prevail also Go forth and do so So that what God orders Satan doth but execute So when God intended to punish and destroy Abimelech and the Men of Shechem he sent an evil spirit between them to divide them and so accomplisht his will upon both parties as saith the Text Thus God rendred the wickedness of Abimelech which he did unto his father in slaying his seventy brethren And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads and upon them came the curse of Jotham the sun of Jerubbaal 3. God ruleth his creatures by permission or his will of not impeding them to act according to their wills and power as in these cases For God speaking of his people of Israel saith But my people would not hearken unto my voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up unto their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels Agreeable to which is that in the
Meteors it is but only as instrumental and organical Causes working meerly as they are ordered and acted by the first cause that worketh all in all as the Christian Philosopher Doctor Fludd hath most learnedly proved in his Treatise of Cosmical Meteors which I seriously commend to those that desire full satisfaction in this particular But the Devil is chiefly called the Prince of the power of the air because he is the proud high airy and spiritual Prince and Ruler of wickedness in high or super-coelestial places by which proud airy and spiritual wickedness he worketh in the Children of disobedience For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon which learned Beza saith thus Homine◠quorum fragilis caduca est natura cui opponuntur versutiae spirituales infinitis partibus potentiores And again I st a nomina tribuit Angelis malis propter effectus non quod eos suâ vi possint praestare sed quia illis Deus laxat habenas And therefore S. Chrysostom upon this place saith thus Mundi verò dominos eos vocat non quod mundum gubernent sed solet scriptura malos actus hunc mundum vocare ut quando Christus dicit vos non estis ex hoc mundo quemadmodum ego non sum ex mundo 2. To consider their power in spiritual and moral things particularly we shall find they have no power in some things but by their fall have utterly lost it as is apparent in these few points 1. They have lost that freedom of will that they had by Creation and were partakers of before they fell and agreeable to this is the Thesis of learned Zanchy which is this That all Devils have so far their wills made obstinate in sins the hatred of God Christ and of Mankind that from this evil they cannot will to repent and thereby be saved and this he thus proveth 1. Because in the Scriptures they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they are now become such that they cannot be changed from their malice and wickedness because it is become natural unto them 2. From whence it is manifest that the whole time since their fall never yet any of them hath given any sign of resipiscence 3. If they could repent and believe in Christ then for them and their sins Christ also should have died for he saith that he prayed for those that were to believe in him but they neither believe in him neither did he die for them 4. But the chief cause of their impenitency is the just judgment of God that hath given them up to hardness of heart because they sinned knowingly and wilfully against the truth And this point is sufficiently proved by Thomas Aquinas the rest of the Schoolmen and many others 2. So that as they have lost freedom of will so they cannot at all will or act to be saved or to repent 3. And as they cannot will or act to repent or be saved so the whole acts of their wills are evil malicious and wicked being liars and murtherers from the beginning 3. The third is to consider their power in sublunary and elementary things which is the most pertinent to our present purpose it being the thing that some have magnified even to a kind of omnipotency and therefore we must the more narrowly ventilate and examine it which we shall do in this order 1. How great soever the power of the faln Angels may be supposed to be yet neither in knowlege can they be deemed to be omniscient or in power to be omnipotent because they are created Beings circumscribed limited and finite and consequently can perform no act that necessarily must require an omnipotent power and so can neither create things de novo annihilate or transubstantiate any Creature or substance or pervert or put forth of order the things that God by Creation Decree and Providence hath set into their certain orders of Generation alteration and corruption 2. How great soever their power may be supposed to be yet rationally it must be taken for a truth that they have not the same power that they had before their fall For as Zanchy saith Certum est enim in universum in genere hac etiam in parte illos punitos fuisse ut non possint quicquid poterant cum boni essent nec etiam quicquid nunc velint Because the Holy Ghost beareth witness that they are bound in Chains and that Satan begged leave of God to invade Job that they fought with the good Angels but were overcome and that they may be so resisted of believing men that they may be overthrown Ac vae nobis nisi potentia Daemonum infirmata esset à Domino comprimeretur compesceretur 3. And what power soever be granted to the faln Angels yet it is by the opinion of all the learned restrained only to these sublunary and inferior bodies and that they have neither power by Creation or Ordination to work upon move or alter things that are Angelical Celestial Ethereal and Superior but only are chained in this Caliginous Atmosphere and impure air For it is manifest that superior bodies work upon those that are inferior but not on the contrary neither have we any examples that can prove that they do operate upon Celestial bodies and so their power how great soever some may suppose it to be is only restrained to these inferior sublunary things 4. The operations and actions performed by the faln Angels may be considered either in the simple respect of their natural and created power and this how great soever it was before their fall is not only lessened but that which remains is limited and restrained with the Adamantine Chains of the decree of divine providence or in respect of what power they may have superadded by God when they are Commissionated and sent by God to effect some particular actions as for example Moses and Aaron had but the ordinary strength and power that was common to other men before they were sent upon the message to Pharaoh and made Instruments to deliver the Israelites for then were they armed and indowed with the power of working great and stupendious Miracles So it cannot rationally be imagined that the two Angels that were sent as Instruments to destroy Sodom and Gomorrha did or could of their own proper individual and created power bring down Fire and Brimstone from Heaven to burn those two Cities but that it was brought to pass by the Power of the Almighty as granted and given to them for that judgment only and not by that ordinary power that they could always exercise for the Text saith Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrha brimstome and fire from the Lord forth of heaven Neither can it rationally be supposed that one Angel
there is another way more extraordinary wherein as an instrument he may be said to cause diseases and sometimes death as in that case of Davids numbring of the people where there died of the Pestilence seventy thousand and though this Pestilence was sent by Jehovah yet was a destroying Angel the instrument and minister in the execution of it for the Text saith And when the Angel of the Lord stretched forth his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it the Lord repented him of the evil and said to the Angel that destroyed the people It is enough now stay thy hand And Herod for assuming to himself that honour that was only proper to God was immediately smitten by the Angel of the Lord and was eaten up of worms and gave up the Ghost And the Psalmist saith He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger wrath indignation and trouble by sending evil Angels among them the Hebrew giveth it the emission or sending out of evil Angels From whence it is manifest that evil Angels are the organs and instruments of Gods wrath and as Ministers cause Plague Pestilence and other diseases 3. Thirdly there is another great question whether or not the Devil by his vassals to wit Sorcerers and Witches doth not cause diseases and death as is believed by those vomiting up of strange things exceeding the bigness of the Gullet to get either up or down of which we shall speak largely where we handle the opinion of Van Helmont concerning the actions of Witches Here only we shall say thus much that the Devil is author and causer of that hatred malice revenge and envy that is often abounding in those that are accounted Witches which desire of revenge doth stimulate them to seek for all means by which they may accomplish their intended wickedness and so they learn all the wicked and secret wayes of hurting poysoning killing but yet we affirm that what evil soever they perform it is by causes and means that work naturally and so the evil is only in the use and application and not in the efficients or means And whereas he holdeth that Devils as they can cause Diseases so they can cure them and take them away we must crave to be excused if we cannot subscribe to his opinion and that for these reasons 1. Because of their causing of Diseases we have sufficient evidence in the Scriptures but of their curing of any we have not any mention at all and though some will think this but weak because it is negative yet it is not probable but as it expresseth the one fully so it would have given some hint of the other if there had been any such matter 2. But the Scriptures do inform us that the gift of healing or curing Diseases is not in the power of Devils by their Creation much less since as a gift bestowed upon them but floweth solely from God by the Ministry of good Angels of whom Raphael that is the Medicine or health of God is the chief And that it is reckoned amongst the gifts of the Holy Ghost is most plain For to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit To another saith by the same spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit but these gifts of healing are not given to Devils but to the chosen ones of God And the Psalmist where he is speaking how God afflicted and brought low the people of Israel by reason of their sins saith Their soul abhorred all manner of meat and they drew near unto the gates of death but he sent his word and healed them And God declareth that if his people Israel would keep his Statutes he would bring none of those Diseases upon them that he had threatned for he saith I am the Lord that healeth thee and this he doth by the ministry of good Angels or by natural means and not by Devils 3. That Devils are no causers or instruments in curing Diseases is manifest because that were to make him act contrary to his original destination after his fall wherein in his own propriety he is a murderer from the beginning and that both of souls and bodies and never did nor doth any good to mankind either spiritual or natural either real or apparent for that were to act contrary to his will nature and disposition and contrary to the Ordinance and appointment of God who hath Created the destroyer to destroy Therefore-Satan after his fall was not ordained of God to be an healer preserver or sanator of diseases but to be a destroyer a wounder and murderer for his nature is be come so wicked and malignant that his whole endeavour is the destruction of mankind both in souls and bodies and so no healer no not of the least infirmity 4. But he is that grand Impostor that by lying cheating and delusion laboureth to make his Vassals and others believe that he can cure and heal Diseases when he can do no such thing and therefore hath and still doth amongst the Pagans by the wicked Priests his Slaves make the people believe that if the sick persons be brought before their Idols and there worship and pray that they shall be Cured when there is not any jot performed in the way of sanation but what is by natural means fancy and imagination or what is pretended to be done so by cheating counterfeiting and imposture And the very same thing is practised by the Papists unto this day in the pretence of their false and lying Miracles fathered upon their Saints and Images which are nothing else but lying cheats and Impostures as we shall fully make manifest hereafter 5. The Devil internally deludeth the minds of men in making them believe that Pictures Charms Amulets and such other inefficacious and ridiculous means have power to Cure these and these Diseases when indeed they are meerly inoperative and effect nothing at all but yet the Witchmongers will needs have them to be media operativa when they are utterly inefficacious and are only means of seduction and delusion to alter change or fortifie the imagination by which alone the Cures if any such be effected are brought to pass and not by any power of the Devil at all and he operateth nothing at all in them except a mental and internal delusion in making the Witchmongers and others believe that those things are wrought by a Diabolical Power which are only performed by the force of imagination and a natural agency and virtue 6. Again where there are many occult and wonderful effects wrought by natural causes and agents as by appensions of vegetables animals or their parts and minerals by magnetism as the Hoplochrism Sympathetic Powder by Transplantation and many other very abstruse and secret wayes and means the Devil laboureth to take away the glory of these sanative effects both from God and his Instrument which is Nature and to have it
to us who do not know the causes that are in nature so well as that old serpent neither do we apprehend the manner by which he worketh and acteth his tricks From which ignorance it proceedeth that those wonders that in themselves are no true miracles nor done contrary to the order of nature are by us taken to be true miracles But we will draw towards a conclusion of this point with that definition and corollaries that learned Zanchy gives us in these particulars Miraculum ait igitur est externum visibile verum simpliciter mirabile factum ad optimos fines atque imprimis ad salutem hominum ad Dei gloriam promovendam editum From whence these points are to be observed 1. That a Miracle is external and made visible For so he saith are all those things that we read of in Scripture that are taken to be true miracles And therefore that the pretended invisible miracle of Transubstantiation as they call it in the ordinance of the Lords Supper is a meer figment because no such thing was ever made visible or truely witnessed But let us press this his argument a little further If it be as indeed it must be a certain property of a true miracle that it be external and visible that there may be witnesses of it otherwise that which none ever saw or knew may be the property of a miracle Then those great wonders that Witchmongers do affirm that the Devil worketh with and for Witches as having carnal copulation with them sucking upon their bodies making a corporeal and oral league with them carrying them in the air changing them into Cats or Dogs must of necessity be a meer figment and an impossibility Because never yet seen witnessed or proved by any that were of sound judgment right understanding or of clear reason but are meerly the works of darkness having existence no where but in the minds and brains of the Witchmongers who are ruled by the Prince of darkness 2. A miracle ought to be really and truly done that is that indeed it be such a thing as it appeareth as the water that Christ changed into Wine was really such that is it was truely Wine to the sight and taste of all those that drank of it Therefore those things that are brought to pass by the prestigious juglings of Devils and Magicians are indeed no true miracles And to apply this to our present purpose it is manifest that those things that Witchmongers do believe that the Witches do or suffer as to fly in the air to be present at dancings and banqueting and yet to remain empty and hungry and the like are but meer delusory dreams and cheating fancies in their brains and if any thing be done ad extra it is but meerly as Juglers do by drawing the eyes from observing the manner of their conveyances by substituting one thing in the stead of another and the like So that at the best Satan in respect of what he performeth in these aforesaid actions is but as a chief Hocus Pocus fellow or Jugler and one that acteth to a worse end than our common Juglers do who act but to move sport and delight and thereby to get something to be a livelihood but Satan works his tricks to blind and delude the Soul and to lead it to error and destruction 3. A true miracle ought to be simply miraculous and wonderful that is with and unto all And such are those miracles whose causes are hid from all and therefore are those things that are done contrary to the order of nature by the only virtue and power of the Almighty God Therefore those things that are done by natural causes though occult to many as are oftentimes done by Devils are no true miracles From whence therefore we may conclude that whatsoever is performed in Physical actions by natural causes and it is the general Tenent of all that Devils in these cases can work nothing but by natural causes are no miracles and that as they are agents are not evil but only become so in the use and application 4. Every true miracle is wrought above all for most good ends and especially for the Salvation of Men and the true Glory of God By this particular therefore all those signs and wonders that are wrought by Devils are excluded from the name of true miracles because they are all wrought for evil ends and contrary to the Glory of God and for the deceiving and perdition of Men. And therefore all prodigies wrought by Devils are called lies 4. The fourth and last particular that he setteth down that the Devils have power in and operate here below is that they can insinuate themselves into and penetrate our bodies and so move Men diverse ways driving them into the solitary places and Monuments and by throwing them into the fire or water by strange tearing and tormenting of them and by manyother ways of which we shall only note these few things 1. It is manifest that in the times of our Saviours being here upon earth and his Disciples that there were many Demoniacks or Men possessed with Devils or Men that were devillished or over whom the Devil exercised an effective and ruling power and the reason was plain and manifest for our blessed Saviour being to establish the Doctrine of the Gospel by great and true miracles it was necessary that there might be fitting subjects for the effecting of such stupendious miracles in and by and therefore the Father in his providence had prepared and provided Lunaticks Demoniacks those that were born blind and other strange Diseases that the power of Christ and his Apostles might be manifest in their miraculous cures But whether or no that Devils have at all times the same power over mens bodies is much to be doubted there being not the same causes or ends for permitting the same now that was at that season as we perhaps shall shew hereafter 2. The manner of the Devils possessing of the minds and bodies of Men he laboureth to prove to be essential and personal and not virtual and effective which he thinketh he sufficiently proveth by the words to enter and to dwell of which we shall only say this 1. That upon the supposition that Devils are corporeal and have thin pure and etherial bodies it may be granted that they may really and substantially enter into bodies for he saith Daemones autem habent corpora aerea aere etiam subtiliora tenuiora Deindè ut Tertullianus ait Daemones sua haec corpora contrahunt dilatant ut volunt sicut etiam lumbrici alia quaedam insecta Ita difficile illis non est penetrare in nostra corpora 2. But secondly there is none of those places that he citeth nor any other that signifieth a local or personal possession or any such local inherency in the bodies of Men but only a spiritual rule he that is Satan worketh in the children of disobedience
or an effective dominion over them by which he doth actually afflict vex and torment Men sundry and diverse ways Neither is the word Dâ—monizomenos translated or understood by learned Men of an essential or personal possession of Devils to be inherently in men but only of an effective dominion in afflicting and tormenting of them 3. And this is most manifest that as the Text saith that Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith where it were absurd to understand by Christs dwelling in the hearts of the faithful a personal essential or substantial dwelling but only an effective one because he worketh effectually in them by his spirit Even so were it absurd to take the other places of entring into and dwelling there in so gross and literal a sense as personally to inhabite but only effective by his power and dominion For though the Text saith that after the sop Satan entred into Judas yet in the same Chapter the Evangelist expoundeth what manner of entrance it was not a personal one but an effective one by putting or darting it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Judas heart to betray his Master And whereas it is said that Satan had filled the heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Ghost no man can rationally understand it of a personal and essential repletion but only of an effective one having by his power seduced the heart of Ananias and filled it with deceit by his effectual operation and not otherwise And whereas it is said by S. Luke and S. Mark of the legion of Devils that our Saviour did cast out that they entred into the swine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Matthew makes it clear saying they went into the herd of swine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in gregem or as Tremellius renders it ad gregem porcorum by which it is manifest that they did go amongst or into the herd of Swine and put them into such a fright or fury by an effective power working upon them that they ran down a steep place into the Sea and perished in the waters but not that they did personally and essentially enter into the bodies of the Swine for that were absurd and needless for the Swineherd can with his Horn and Whip drive them without creeping into their bellies and much more might the Devils drive them into the Sea according to the Proverb They must needs run whom the Devil drives without a personal and local being in their bellies as though a Piper cannot effectively play several tunes upon his Pipes except he creep into them CHAP. XII If the Devil or Witches have power to perform strange things whether they do not bring them to pass by meer natural means or otherwise And of Helmonts opinion concerning the effects caused by Devils or Witches HAving handled the knowledge and power of the faln Angels as far forth as there is any thing manifested in the Scriptures or that may be deducted from thence by sound reason and finding their knowledge and power to be much less in these inferior bodies and elements than is commonly supposed we are now to proceed to examine what they do simply of their own power and what they perform by natural means And first it cannot be denyed but that they can of themselves dart in evil thoughts suggestions and temptations into the minds of Men immediately of their own power as also to allure Men to sin by the irritation of external objects presented to the senses as also by means of the phantasie and especially by the melancholy humour which is Balneum Diaboli But secondly the great question is what they work in elemental and corporeal things and whether it be not only by natural means as the applying of fit actives to agreeable passives whereby the acts ascribed unto them are performed or not Which we affirm from these grounds 1. Because it is the common and unanimous opinion of Philosophers Theologues and Physicians that what the Devils operate in sublunary bodies or in causing diseases in humane bodies is by the applying fit actives to convenient passives by which the effects are brought to pass And this is an argument sufficiently pressive and convincing if there be any force in arguments brought from humane authority especially considering that no other causes besides what are natural could ever yet be assigned much less proved 2. And this is more plain if we consider what thâ— Author quoted last in the Margent saith to the same purpose Daemon propria virtute nequit transmutare materiam corpoream nisi adhibeat illi activa proportionata effectibus quos intendit As for example the Devil may cause burning by reason that there is a combustible subject as also a fiery and burning agent in nature and this agent being fire being applyed to combustible matter would produce that effect which we call cremation or burning But if there were no combustible matter in nature or that there were no igneous agent then it is plain the Devils could produce no burning at all and so where there is no agent and patient in nature to produce the effect intended as in pretended fascination there is neither there such an effect could not possibly be produced so that from hence it must necessarily follow that Devils can operate nothing in corporeal matter but by applying fit agents to convenient patients and therefore Helmont said well Quasi Satanas supra naturam esset operareturque naturae impossibilia Dono quidem modum operando exoticum at sane ad intra naturam coerceri oportet 3. And that many strange things that are vomited up by such as are supposed to be bewitched do proceed from natural causes and that the Devil worketh no more in them but by instigation to move wicked persons such as are commonly those that are accounted Witches to give and administer strange things Philters or secret poisons to such as they would kill torment make mad or draw to unlawful love or rather lust as may be made manifest from the testimonies of persons of unquestionable veracity and judgment some few of which we shall here relate Philip Salmuth chief Physician to the Prince of Anhalt recordeth this which we shall give in English The Daughter of a certain Inkeeper was desperately in love with a principal Nobleman To whom going away she offers a most beautiful apple This he suspecteth and throweth into a Basket After three days he remembers it and looks at it and then it altogether appeared blackned He expecteth for the space of other three days and then findeth abundance of little Frogs there Therefore he returneth into that Inn where the Maid lived and doth counterfeit sickness and huge torments The Maid willeth him to use warm milk That he poureth upon the Frogs who take it greedily and by little and little do increase But he every day feigneth greater pains whereupon the Maid pitying him doth will him to take the urine of a Mare newly made and
to the act of Venery and thought themselves maleficiated or bewitched when as before they had afforded themselves sufficiently strenuous in that warfar also with their Wives But both being he saith handled and cured by me as persons melancholick and Hypochondriacal have afterwards sufficiently laughed at themselves But I did conjecture them to be melancholick by this because they did complain that about that act they were overwhelmed with an heap of Cogitations From whence it is manifest from what cause that effect did proceed And therefore it is deservedly doubted of Wierus whether or no there be any true impotency at all but what is from natural Causes 7. That the most of those vomitings of strange things is only caused from natural Causes as poysonous Potions Philters and the like is manifest by another example given us by that famous Chymist and learned Physician of Frisuiga in Bavaria Martinus Rulandus which is this David Held Student in the Arts about the twentieth year of his Age did receive from a wicked Woman Cakes which he did eat and departing from her forthwith in the way he began to doat and being brought home he began to rage more and fell into madness And to help this madness the Students came unto me and declare the insanity the Philter that he had taken and his being infected or brought into that madness by it and desire some help against it To oppose which he saith I gave six Ounces of my Aqua Benedicta which I commanded straightway to be given him in the name of Jesus And this being taken soon after by vomiting he cast up the Philter or invenomed Cakes that he had swallowed which being cast upon the Earth they did with the admiration of the by-standers begin to wax hot and to boil as meat with the fire doth grow hot and boil So that this poison being cast up as a thing unhoped for soon after the insanity is driven away and within two days his understanding was perfectly restored and by the power of the Almighty did totally recover So that it is manifest that these kind of people that are commonly called Witches are indeed as both the Greek and Latin names do signifie Poysoners and in respect of their Hellish intentions are Diabolical but the effects they procure flow from natural Causes If any require more ample satisfaction in this point they may find divers Histories recorded in Schenkins his Observations lib. 7. de venenis to verifie this particular 8. There is no one Argument that doth more confirm that what effects soever Devils or those called Witches do bring to pass in humane bodies are wrought by natural means and proceed from natural causes Because what diseases soever are cured by natural causes and agents must of necessity be brought into humane bodies by natural means But many diseases attributed to the Devil or Witches as instruments have been cured by natural means and applications as we shall prove both by authorities and matters of fact And therefore those diseases must of necessity grow and arise from natural causes And for authority we find Helmont affirming thus much And also partly the curing of these diseases is to be had by certain Simples to which the omnipotent goodness hath given a gift from the beginning of the Creation of resisting preventing and correcting of Veneficia Witchcrafts or poysonings and of bringing forth things injected For he saith certain Simples do drive away evil spirits a miserable company of Men who give worship to Gods that are not able to resist the natural efficacy of Simples and reckons some that take away the penetration of the formal light tied to the excrements Some do hinder the touch entrance or application And that there are many such like that do correct the poysons and kill them And chiefly he commendeth the Electrum minerale immaturum of Paracelsus the Phu of Dioscorides being a kind of Valerian with purple flowers and likewise there commemorateth diverse others To confirm this assertion of Helmonts we shall transcribe what the Honourable person Mr. Boyle hath set down to this purpose Since the beginning of this Essay he saith I saw a lusty and very sprightful Boy child to a famous Chymical Writer I judge it to be Joachimus Poleman who as his Father assured me and others being by some enemies of this Physicians when he was yet an infant so bewitcht that he constantly lay in miserable torment and still refusing the breast was reduced by pain and want of food to a desperate condition the experienced relator of the story remembring that Helmont attributes to the Electrum minerale immaturum Paracelsi the virtue of relieving those whose distempers come from Witchcraft did according to Helmonts prescription hang a piece of this noble mineral about the infants neck so that it might touch the pit of the Stomach whereupon presently the child that could not rest in I know not how many dayes and nights before fell for a while asleep and waking well cried for the Teat which he greedily suckt from thenceforth hastily recovering to the great wonder both of the Parents and several others that were astonisht at so great and quick a change And though I am not forward he saith to impute all those diseases to Witchcraft which even learned Men father upon it yet it 's considerable in our present case that whatsoever were the cause of the disease the distemper was very great and almost hopeless and the cure suddenly performed by an outward application and that of a Mineral in which compacted sort of bodies the finer parts are thought to be lockt up Another example he giveth us in these words The same Henricus ab Heer among his freshly commended observations hath another of a little Lady whom he concludes to have been cast into the strange and terrible distemper which he there particularly records by Witchcraft Upon so severe an examination of the Symptomes made by himself in his own house that if notwithstanding his solemn professions of veracity he mis-relate them not I cannot wonder he should confidently impute so prodigious a disease to some supernatural cause But though the observation with its various circumstances be very well worth your perusing yet that for which I here take notice of it is what he adds about the end of it concerning his having cured her after he had in despair of her recovery sent her back to her Parents by an outward medicine namely an Oyntment which he found extolled against pains produced by Witchcraft in a Dutch book of Carrichter's where also I remember I met with it set down a little differently from what he delivers But to conclude this tedious particular I shall only add one observation more from learned Salmuth which is this The servant Maid he saith of Caesars à Breitenbach was taken with a most intense pain of her left arm which when it did not at all remit or abate but that the dolour was augmented
to the Oaken pin that it had not by nature for in probability it will constantly by a natural power produce the same effect only thus far the Devil had a hand in the action to draw some wicked person to fix the pin there where the Man was accustomed to make water thereby to hurt and torture him and so was only evil in respect of the end 3. We observe and affirm that whatsoever effects are brought to pass by that which is commonly called and accounted Witchcraft if they be not brought to pass by jugling confederacy delusion and imposture as the most of them are if not all then they are performed either by meer natural causes or the strength of the Witches fancy and most vehement desire of doing of mischief to those she hateth or by both joined together and that Satan is no further an author or actor but as he leadeth and draweth the minds of the Witches to do such mischievous actions and pusheth on to seek about to learn of others such secret poysons charms images and other hidden things that being used so or so may produce such destructive ends as their wicked and diabolical purposes are led to and in this sense they are his clients and bounden vassals and not otherwise 4. The stories that he relateth are either all to be taken to be true or none of them and if they be all alike equally to be credited then it will undeniably follow that they were all alike produced by natural causes and so no need at all of the Devils assistance in performing of them no more than by working upon the minds of such as used those natural means to a wicked and mischievous end For first he giveth these instances of things that were very strange that were voided either by vomit or stool by the ordinary power of nature without suspicion of diabolical cooperation as the voiding of the piece of the brass Cannon with its letters with the Eele wrapped in its secundines The Dragon that the Oxe voided by taking three herbs with a tail like an Eele a body like or of leather with a Serpentine head and not less than a Partridge The knife that the Thieves forced a man to swallow which he voided by an Apostume in the side and was after sound also the arrow head of three fingers broad strucken into the back and after voided by stool with diverse such which we recited before And that these being solid bodies should have penetrated and passed through parts that are impatient of wounds and in which a wound is mortal must of necessity be very wonderful and might as soon and upon as rational grounds be taken to be diabolical as those that he enumerateth to be so For from these it is manifest that either nature put to her last pinch doth make penetration of dimensions or else so inlarge the pores that those solid bodies may pass without wound which if seriously considered is a stupendious operation and effect And as there needeth no cooperation of a diabolical power for the performing of these no more needeth there any concurrence of Devils to the others that to that purpose he relateth Only here is all the difference these are wrought by the ultimate endeavour of the Archaeus to save life without the concurrence of external causes the others that are therefore called diabolical are commonly wrought for a bad end namely to hurt or to take away life and have an external cause to wit the force of the Witches imagination and strong desire of doing of mischief which is stirred up to that end by Satan and therefore in regard of the end are devilish though they be both wrought by the agency of nature the one in the body of the imaginant the other in the body that the Witch intendeth to hurt by the force of her imagination and vehement desire whereby a seminal Idea is created or formed which is sufficiently operative to accomplish the end intended 5. The arguments that he bringeth to prove penetration of dimensions to be in nature or something equivalent thereunto seem to be strong and convincing For in the generation of things whosoever shall seriously and strictly mark shall find as he alledgeth that the spirit of the Archeus though not altogether incorporeal doth in the seeds of things penetrate it self and their parts one another which he further maketh good by the instance of Gold generated of water for it must of necessity be that more than fifteen parts of water must fall in or penetrate one another that from thence one part of Gold may be made for weight is not of nothing but argueth the matter ponderous in the Ballance Therefore naturally the water must so oft penetrate its body as the Gold doth preponderate the water And though it be granted that the water hath pores yet notwithstanding it cannot contain so much as fourteen times it whole And therefore he irrefragably concludeth Est ergo ordinarium in natura quod aliquae partes aquae se penetrent in unicum locum And this he backs with an unanswerable story of a Woman that longing for Muscles did in greediness eat some of them with the shells twice or thrice broken with her teeth and that she brought forth a child with the same half eaten shells and a wound in the belly therefore those shells had penetrated the stomach womb and secundines or otherwise the force of the Archeus had opened the pores and letten them pass in an unconceiveable manner So that if these things be granted to be true and we confess we know not how they can be answered then there need no diabolical power be brought to solve the injecting of strange things into mens bodies seeing nature is sufficient of it self and therefore we can allow no power at all unto Devils in effecting these things if they be truly done and be not delusions but only in drawing the minds of the Witches to these wicked and mischievous courses and therefore the Lord Bacon said profoundly and wisely these words Ut in operationibus illis earumque causis error cavendus est ita quoque danda vel imprimis opera est ne effecta nobis imponant temere judicantibus talia esse quae eousque nondum processerunt Sic prudentes judices praescripta velut norma fidem haberi temere nolunt confessionibus sagarum nec etiam factorum contra illas probationi Sagas enim turbat imaginationis vertigo ut putent se illud facere quod non faciunt populumque hîc ludit credulitas ut naturae opera imputent fascino 6. And to confirm this point he addeth far more stupendious matters of fact than the former of things that were within being taken to without or invisibly conveyed away as the woman at Mechlin that saw the Souldier in a conflict lose his hand and forthwith brought forth a Daughter wanting an hand which was never found and the wench died of the Haemorrhage