other bad the Author of all Evil and the Prince of darkness That the first as they say is the God that has formed all things and that the other is Hyle that is the matter from which all things have been formed and which is esteem'd by them to be the Devil Some distinguish the Devil from the Prince of darkness and translate not as we do the last words of the 44th v. of the 8th Ch. of St. John He is the Father of lies but his Father is a lie namely the Father of the Devil Second As to the good God they say that his Essence is dispersed as by portions through all the Creatures and inherent to them which they explain by many wonderful Commentaries This is what they think of God and the Devil in relation to their Essence and Existence what follows concerns their Operations Sect. 4. Third The People of darkness formerly warr'd with the People of light The good God went himself to attack the Prince of darkness by some certain principal Spirits which he had produced of his own Essence who however being too weak were taken Prisoners but Christ came to repair that disorder having been begotten by some certain first Man who had been the promoter of this War and had begun it Fourth That in the mean while Christ himself is the Serpent that seduced Adam and Eve Fifth That Christ is now fixed amongst the Stars especially in the luminous Globe of the Sun in which sense they explain his Ascension to Heaven Sect. 5. Sixth They believe the Metempsychosis in this manner That the Souls shall pass into the bodies of such a kind of living Creatures as they have most loved or abused during their Life He that has killed a mouse or a fly shall pass in punishment into the body of a mouse or a fly the state in which he shall be put after death shall likewise be opposed to that in which he was during his Life He that is rich shall be poor and he that is poor shall be rich Seventh They also give two Souls to every Man one of which is always contrary to the other But enough of their Doctrines we leave the rest to Danaeus who ascribes to them 21 in all because what he and other Authors say belongs not to our subject Sect. 6. However I am not apt to assert that they have believed and taught such gross Doctrines as are imputed to them and have been now related For supposing the common Opinion concerning the Doctrine of the Manichees that they were chiefly extracted from the Philosophy of the Persians since Manes their First Author was undoubtedly a Persian and that they are strangely mingled with the Christian Divinity It is unreasonable to have the same Opinion of that People that we have of other Nations who never cultivated the study of Nature and Human learning such as those we have met with in the Northern parts of Africa and the Southern of America It may well be that the Manichees ascribe to the whole Vniverse a principle like that which is observed in it's parts viz. The active cause and the matter which Aristotle established to be eternal as well as the World and that afterwards matter considered as insensible by a misinterpretation of the words of Moses that spreads in the beginning darkness over the Abyss and the Spirit of God moving over it should have produced those monstrous thoughts of which we have given some instances Sect. 7. Supposing they have established two principal causes one of good and the other of evil but yet so as that the First is uncontestably superior to the Second as much as light is above darkness and the workman above the matter he works upon 't is probable that they had an Idea of God as a Soul infused through the whole Vniverse that consider'd by them as the body in which that First cause continually operates And as the contrary motions of corporeal passions rise against the Empire of Reason that ought to govern them so they might believe that the Animal Spirits proceeding from matter perpetually rebel against God the Fountain of all Reason Whence it would follow that God should not be more absolute master of the Vniverse than Man is of his body thence has proceeded that Idea of two different Gods one good and the other bad the latter being still inferior to the former who is indeed the workman but has not an arbitrary Government there being a power in the World so great that it is able to resist him Sect. 8. But whether I have made a just conjecture or whether the Manichees had other Opinions then those I imagine it seems nevertheless that I may reasonable suppose it upon this foundation that no Opinions so gross as those that are ascribed to them not only are not admitted but not so much as moved or propounded as we shall see very soon in the series of this work because the principal points of those sorts of belief with their dependencies have a great relation with my Second and Third Book as I hope to show at the end of the Second And therefore whether any one treats of the Devil and Spirits according to the Holy Scripture or whether he only follows his own sense and right it may 〈◊〉 assured that all his Reasonings will turn upon this notion of his that God and the Devil have each an Empire one contrary to the other and that thô the Devil be subject to the power of God yet his Empire is more apparent It is denyed that God now works any miracles but some are rashly ascribed to the Devil that surpass all those that are mentioned in the Holy writ We believe that there are Angels and gather from the Holy Scripture that they encamp about the faithful and the Devil likewise is incessantly active to do them hurt if possible he can but his abode is in Hell However it is very rare to hear any one say he has seen an Angel in a vision whereas the Devil appears almost continually If any thing has been either signified or foretold we never believe it to be the Operation of an Angel but of the Devil one is possest by him and another bewitch'd by his means unknown Tongues are spoken strange things are said others no less wonderful are perform'd and the most hidden secrets discover'd But you will scarce meet with any that has so good Opinion of the power of an Angel if we have any Holy thought or good inspiration how inconsiderable soever it may be we ascribe it to the Holy Ghost and seem not to believe that the Angels are so much as capable of contributing to it since it ne'er comes in our mind to think upon them But the Devil penetrates the most secret thoughts of Men overthrows their best designs and incessantly excites them to Evil if they are accused and convicted of any crime the excuse is always at hand for the Devil has done it or at least
Hearts And our promises in another sense to give us The Morning Star Revel 2.28 So that the name of Lucifer is so far from being that of the Prince of the Devils thâ—t it is the most Christian name to be read in the Bible Sect. 23. Let 's go back to Lactantius he says that Monsters were generated from that odious conjunction of Angels with Women that are half Angels or rather Half Demons or half Men thence he infers Duo genera daemonum unum caeleste alterum terrenum That there are 2 sorts of Demons one of Celestial Demons and another of Terrestrial by Celestial he seems to understand Aerial but after the word Terrenum there follows immediatly Hi sunt immunedi malorum quae geruntur auctores quorum idem diabolus est princeps These are unclean Spirits Authors of all the Evil that happens in the World the chief of whom is the Devil already mentioned From this passage may be clearly perceived that he takes for Demons those very same Spirits whom the Heathens made their Gods as has been seen Ch. 2. Sect. 9 to 13 which still confirms more and more what I have asserted Ch. 5. Sect. 4 5. That the Heathen never adored Demons but in as much as they believed them to be Gods Sect 24. The same Lactantius tells us that the Demons are indeed Spirits but Spiritus tenues incomprehensibiles Spirits of a thin subtle matter and imperceptible This we have heard before from Origen and Tertullian He explains himself very clearly as to the power he ascribe to their understanding saying That they know many future things but that it is not possible they should discover the depths of the secrets of God We have already heard Tertullian confirming this proposition by his Reasonings However Lactantius believes that Divinations by the Contemplation of the Stars by the Inspection of the intrals of Beasts and by the Observation of Birds of which mention has been made Ch. 3. Sect. 4 5 7. Are Diabolical Inspirations and therefore holds that they are still capable of discovering to Men many future things Sect. 25. St. Jerom as far as I can conceive constitutes not the same difference of places betwixt the Spirits Yet he believes Ex Pauli dictis ad Ephe Cap. 2. ver 2. 12. colligi Diabolos in aere vagari ac dominari That from what S. Paul writes to the Ephesians may be inferr'd That the Devils are wandering in the Air and â—â—igning there And writing upon the 6th Ch. v. 12. to the Ephesians he explains more at large that proposition as containing the common Opinion of the Christians of that Age. This is the Opinion of all the Doctors That the Air which is betwixt the Heavens and the Earth separating both from what it call'd the Vacuum is fil'd with powers contrary to each other We must yet examine hereafter whence the Principalities Powers and Dominions of this World have received their powert His Opinion upon this last Question is that they have it from God himself and that they exercise it more or less as a less and greater pain is inflicted upon 2 different Criminals according as 't is resolved to make their life more or less bitter he also supposes that the unclean Spirits as well as the Holy Angels are divided into certain Orders which Opinion of his may be seen in his Commentary on the 3 Ch. of Habakuk As Christ is the head of the Church and of every particular faithful Man so is Belzebub the chief of all the Demons who exercise so many cruelties in this World and each Troop of Demons has it's particular Chief and Captain under him Sect. 26. Lactantius must yet inform us what in his Opinion the Demons were able to Operate in reference to Men. We see Sect. 14. that his Opinion in general is That the Corrupted and Contagious Spirits wander'd through the World endeavouring to comfort themselves under their loss by procuring the ruin of Mankind Immediatly after he explains in particular how they hurt Soul and Body They attack says he The Souls by their craft devises and the snares they lay before them they seize upon them by their delusions and by leading them astray they stick to every private person and are always at his elbow creeping into every house from door to door And in relation to the bodies as those very Spirits are according to him partly corporeal and partly extraordinary sâ—â—tle and consequently imperceptible They insinuate into Human Bodies without being perceived act privately within their Bowels impair their Health cause Diseases cast terror into the mind by Dreams overturn it make it stray and force Men by such vexations to have recourse to them It seems however that he intends to ascribe that power to the Devil only over the Heathens because he disputes against them and that they were those that had recourse to the Demons as believing them to be Gods for over the Christians the Ancient Fathers attributed not so much power to them Sect. 27. We may learn from St. Athanasius what were the Opinions of his time as to the Souls separated from their Bodies after Death In the Book before quoted question 32. he asks Whether the Souls after their separation have knowledge of what is done amongst Men as the Holy Angels have he answers Yes at least as to the Souls of the Saints but not as to those of Sinners for their continual torments take them so much up that they have no leasure to think upon any other thing The 33th Question is What is the employment of the Souls departed from their Bodies Answer The Soul separated from the Body is uncapa ble of doing either good or evil However he says a little after That the Souls of the Saints animated by the Holy Ghost praise God and bless him in the Land of the Living He asserts Question 35. That after Death the Souls never come to bring news of the state of the Deceased which would give occasion to many cheats because wicked Spirits might feign that they are Souls of the Deceased that come back to discover somthing to the Living I desire the Reader to observe this very attentively for it will be convenient to reflect upon it hereafter Sect. 28. St. Austin gives us a more large information for thô he does not expresly reject Purgatory yet he confutes it every where as appears from several places of his Writings that have been quoted by one of my predecessors Andrew Landsman in his Book of the Apostasy of the Church of Rome yet this Father in the 69th Chapter of his Manual expresses himself thus 'T is not incredible but somthing like may happen after this life and it may reasonably be enquired whether it is so and what proof may be brought for or against this Opinion viz. that some of the faithful come sooner or later to the Eternal Felicity passing through a certain purging Fire in which they stay longer or shorter as they are more
Author and what is his Method AS the two first Books of this work that I published at first have been differently received for Reasons alledg'd in the Preface It will not be amiss to represent to the Reader what has been properly my design in these four Books that I have Intituled The World Bewitch'd nor to shew what foundation I built upon and what way I take to find out the truth For althô I express my self clearly enough in the beginning of the work and in the Preface to the first part I know nevertheless that is not sufficient to destroy the prejudice wherewith the learned themselves appear more biassed than the Vulgar which I should never have thought but it seems at present I have found out the Reason which is that the most part of those which do not put themselves to the trouble to pass through all the Degrees of the Schools aspire to Sciences and sublime knowledge but for their particular pleasure they are the People that love liberty and to whom it matters not who is the Master that instructs them provided that they may learn something or if they are greedy of rarities they have not so much respect to the mode nor to that which is New or Antient as to the beauty of the matter and to that of the work On the contrary it is with those who pass through the Schools as with those who live in Shops where every one has his way every Master has his Method in the work he makes In one Town they make the same things after one fashion and in another after another when one is taken up with the mode he often rejects what is pleasing without any other Reason then because it is not as commonly used in the World And we have a strangeness for all novelties so long as they have not the common vogue althô otherwise we might approve them and have them cheap enough but as soon as Custom has introduced them one begins to seek them out and to be disgusted at the former Sciences are subject to the same inconveniencies Those that we send to the Schools continue in the road which has been mark'd out to them for their exercises they endeavour to form themselves upon the model of those which have most reputation or of those who are the nearest to their first prejudices so this is disapproving the part they have taken not to be apt to take any and to preserve our own liberty and thus we expose our selves very much but one runs a greater risk if willing to ascend higher and search things in their Fountains it happens at last that we find our selves out of the ordinary Road and that we are obliged to take another Hinc illae lachymae From thence proceeds all disorders The common Opinion of the Devil of his knowledge power and Operations and of People which are accused of having commerce with him began by little and little to become very suspitious by the help of natural light which I have common with others which was strengthened and purified by the Scripture so after I had well examined it I was in doubt whether I ought to maintain it any longer or abandon it not only by Reason of the truth but also because of the Piety which it seem'd to contradict My Conscience it self compel'd me to it for I was obliged to answer those that ask'd me and to take care of my Conduct because of the disposition I saw the People in It was the Duty of my charge and every Day occasions offer'd themselves my pain increased every moment by the continual necessity I found my self in to speak and act as others did or to oppose the publick with words or actions which agree not with my Character which is to be complaisant and to agree with all the World as much as is possible Besides I found not as yet foundation enough to act after an other manner which made me at first resolve to make an exact search after the Original of this common and general Opinion to know whether it was founded upon truth But because I make this examination à priore and not à posteriore as they in the Schools I have proposed the state of the Question but at the end of the first Book where I discovered in the 22th Chapter how many of the Opinions which I have related which are all those that ever were in the World upon this subject The Protestants have at last got together and formed those which they retain to this Day In the 23th Chapter I compare them with the Opinions of other Nations and in the 24th Chapter I shew by what means they have been introduced amongst us and what keeps us so strongly tyed to them So in the first Book I examine what is the rise of the Opinion concerning the Devil and in the following Books I discover what sentiments we ought to have of him An Abridgement of the First Book IN the First Book I run over all the World to find whence this Opinion has its Original And for this purpose I have omitted neither time nor place I observe that the subject ought to be examin'd in two Respects In respect of the Devil to find what is his Knowledge and Power and in respect of Men to see what they learn and effect by his means But because these things are preternatural or are so thought to be and that by consequence they are known only to God I have judg'd it necessary to know what are the Opinions of Men concerning the Divinity and Spirits in general either good or bad and of human Souls separated from their Bodies by death which are also Spirits I make a search of all these things First in the Books of the Ancients and afterwards in the Moderns of all Religions and amongst all Nations distinguishing them into Pagans Jews Mahometans and Christians in reference to the present state of the World I begin with the Ancient Pagans which are for the most part Greeks or Romans known to us by Greek and Latin Books they have lest us which I treat of in the 2d 3d and 4th Chapters for there are very few Histories of other Countries and other People which are come to our knowledge There you see what they believe touching Gods and Spirits which are neither Gods nor human Souls and as to the estate of the Souls after death You read there also what means they used to attain that knowledge and to operate things beyond the power of Nature by the means of those Spirits such as they believe them to be I come afterwards down to our time and examine all the Pagans in the World first in Europe in the 6th Chapter after in Asin in the 7th and 8th Chapters then in Africa in the 9th Chapter and at last in America in the 10th Chapter which gives me occasion to demonstrate in the 11th Chapter that the Pagans as well Ancient as Modern have had a notion of the Divinity
Romulus who frightfully imagined to see the Ghost of his Brother Remus after he had killed him If those Narrations were true such Spirits might be called terrifying Spirits Ovid in the Fifth Book of the Fasti plainly says what must be understood by that Name Mox etiam Lemures animas dixere silentum The Soul of the Dead had the Name of Lemures Sect. 16. The Lares or perhaps the Geniues are called by Macrobius in his Third Book of the Saturnalia Chap. 4. Penates that is Born together Quasi penes nos natos For as that Author pursues 't is by them that we breath by them that we have our Body and by them that our Soul subsists But 't is better to call them Gods and Governors of Countries to distinguish them from the Lares who were particular to each Family as they were both distinguished from the Geniuses and look'd upon as taking care of the exteriour of Man as the Geniuses did of the interior However it must be confess'd that there is but Confusion and Darkness to be met with in the Books of the Heathens concerning those Names and their pretended Signification they having not well known themselves what they Worshipped as Gods or as Spirits neither need we take much trouble in unravelling what they themselves knew not since the memory both of them and of their Daemons is long since extinguished upon Earth This being the Lot of the Heathens and of their Gods Jeremiah cap. 10. Sect. 17. Whether this last sort of Gods or Spirits were called Genii Manes Penates or Lemures it plainly appears that they believed the Immortality of the Soul which Opinion being confounded with that of Daemons gave occasion to contrive those sorts of Spirits Plato in his Book Of the Soul Entituled Phaedo induces Socrates speaking near his Death in these Words Above all the Soul must be immortal and unperishable and consequently it must go to live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in invisible places or as others pretend to infer from the Etymology of the Word in agreeable Places Marcilius Ficinus has Translated it in Latin apud Manes by the surviving Spirits as I have named them above but a little after he Translates apud Inferos in the Subterraneous Places which proceed from that they placed the Soul of the Deceased under the Earth Cicero in the first Book of the Tusculan Questions Sect. 26. shows both in these Words We believe that the Souls survive because all our Reasonings lead us to that Opinion Reason ought also to teach us where they are whence Ignorance has taken occasion to invent subterraneous places because Bodies being put into the Earth and cover'd with Earth humo whence comes humari to be Buried thereof it has been believed that the Dead still live under the Earth Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same word which the Interpreters of the New Testament sometimes Translate by that of Hell sometimes by that of Grave none of which agrees with the Sense of Socrates or that of Plato For at the end of the forementioned Book Socrates derides Crito who asked him how he would be buried He believes says he That I am that dead Body which he shall see anon signifying that they might indeed Bury his Dead Body but as to him that is his Soul he should pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the assur'd Felicity of the Blessed which very much differs from the Grave or Hell And therefore 't is certain that Socrates who spake so believed the Soul to be Immortal and that Plato who writ his Words was of the same persuasion Sect. 18. But there were others who tho' they were of the same opinion yet having not acquired so much insight into the State of Souls separated from their Bodies invented Transmigrations and Purifications The Druids so famous amongst the Ancient Gauls held together the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transmigration of Souls with their Immortality For they unanimously taught according to the Testimony of Caesar Book 8. Chap. 18. Non interire animas sed ab aliis post mortem transire ad alios Souls die not but that after Death they pass from one to another The antient Egyptians were of the same Opinion and Herodotus writes that they were the first who taught the Immortality of the Soul For says he their sentiment is that the Soul being deprived of the Body passes into another Body which is then born and after she has thus walked through all sorts of Bodies upon Earth in the Sea and in the Air she at last returns into a human Body Thence it was that Pythagoras had his Doctrine which he brought over into Greece whence it passed into Italy Lactantius explains the Opinions of that Philisopher in his Seventh Book de Proemio Chap. 8. In these words Pythagoras as foolishly asserted that the Souls passed into other Bodies from the Bodies of Men into those of Beasts and from those of Beasts into those of Men again and that his own had formerly been that of Euphorbius Plato and several others have partly followed him which we shall be obliged frequently to mention hereafter Sect. 19. But Socrates as Plato relates in the forementioned Treatise which contains his last Words leads the Souls to some places where they shall be Blessed or Tormented without Bodies He sends those who shall have done Good into the Upper and Aetherial Regions where he believes the most pure part of this Orb to be and where the Soul shall Eternally live without the Body in an unexpressible Felicity Whereas he condemns those of the Wicked to the Tartarus which is a deep and frightful Abyss where they shall be punish'd according to their Deserts From that Gulf of Torments he draws four Rivers to which he gives as many Names very fit to express his Notion viz. Oceanus a precipitate Torrent Acheron a Torrent of Torments Pyriphlegeton Conflagration and Cocytus Bemoaning Here Sinners who have not been altogether incorrigible are to be purged with many Pains and Vexations more or less longer or shorter according to their Deserts There you have the original of Purgatory or of that purging Fire still believed by the Roman Church However Socrates gives out that Narration but for a Chimaera For before he begins it he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pretty Fable worth hearing and at the end he says But no Man of Sense ought to maintain that Opinion so as I have related though I esteem it rational and just to show that it goes very near so in reference to our Souls and their Habitations since it plainly appears that the Soul is immortal These Words of a Dying Man who exhorts those that were present to be at all times ready for Death persuade me more and more of what I have already said that the Heathens express'd themselves variously upon these Matters and that they speak otherwise when they consider them in reference to Religion than when they conceive them in relation
for their Sins to wander in the World and to suffer Hunger and Thirst which they cannot satisfie but by the Alms that Men hand them Wherefore they often appear in a human shape to beg something from them but they have no power to hurt them Besides these there is another sort of Devils or Ratsiasias properly so called because they are the Children of Aditi and are very Malitious They have power to molest Men and even to cause much trouble and vexation to the Angels or Deuetas They may walk every where except save in the abode of Brama and in the Heavens They are described with huge frightful and stinking Bodies they are said to be Male and Female to procreate Children and to be subject to Death Sect. 14. There 's enough concerning the Demons of the Pagans of Asia but as most of those Nations are Pythagoreans and believe the Metempsychosis they also supply us with Heroes For says Baldaeius in his Book of the Idolatry of the East Indies the Modern Heathens believe that Man is happier in this Life than the Beasts by reason that he has a Body by which the Soul may exert her Operation but they agree not that a Man is more noble than a Beast nor that he has a Soul more excellent than it has And when they are ask'd why Beasts reason not they answer because they have not Bodies capable of exerting the qualities of a Soul as a Dumb Man who wants a proper Organ to utter Words and may be nevertheless very Wise or as some People who have a great deal of Knowledge and Learning but have no more readinesâ— to express themselves than Children who cannot do it He that shall Read this will be less surprised at what follows Sect. 15. Nothing certain can be said of the Japanders because the Jesuits who relate their Opinions agree not together It appears however that there are amongst that People three sorts of Opinions concerning human Souls and their Essence The first is That the Soul of Man differs not from that of Beasts The second That Men have a Soul of another Nature than that of Beasts but still Mortal The third That the Soul is Immortal They likewise believe the Metempsychosis and that the Soul going out of the Body is determined to enter into another Body either of Man or Beast by the conjunction that is then made of the Sun and Moon with other Stars Sect. 16. The Chinese are likewise Pythagoreans Martinius testifies it very plainly as to one of their Sects in these Words Chiquiao is a Sect which our People esteem to be the first introduced in China after the Birth of our Saviour They believe the exchanges of Souls inwardly and outwardly They Honour Images and imagine that the Soul after Death passes in punishment of her Sins from one body into another for which reason they abstain from what ever has had life That Narration is confirmed by Trigaltius who says That the Parents are not afraid of killing their Children to be discharged of them when they are incumbred with too many asserting that by that means they procure them a better Condition since instead of Poverty they afford them by Death the occasion of going into other Bodies and being Born again in the House of Richer People where they will live more at ease The Peguans seem to have the same Sentiment by the Relation Piuto when by the Tomb of their Rolym or High-Priest they let loose a great many Birds and Fishes which they kept Prisoners believing them to be as many human Souls who will keep company to their Rolym in his way to the other World Besides we read in Corolinus out of Artus in his Speculum Mundi That the Wise Men of China have invented three places for those that depart this Life Nachac is a place of Torment Schuum one of Delights such as the Paradise of Mahomet and Miba or Nibam signifies an entire privation of being or a full Destruction of Body and Soul All the Souls have their abode in the two first places or depart from thence to go to and fro through the World and often pass from one Body into another by new Birth until they deserve to enter into the Nibam that is to be annihilated Le Blanc speaks of it somewhat differently in a Relation extracted from a Franciscan Monk He says That the Chinese believe that Men become Gods at last after they have passed through the Bodies of several Beasts Birds and Fishes and that they imagine that the Souls after the course of many Ages having been well purified in some proper places and returned several times into new Worlds are at last introduced into Paradise cast down to Hell or reduced to nothing Sect. 18. As to the Opinion of the Siamese in this point we must learn it from the Relation of the Jesuits in their Journey to Siam in the years 1685. and 1686. because that Book is the newest and much credited Thus then writes Tachard p 297 298. Edit Amsteled Metempsychosis is one of the Fundamental Points of their Religion so that the Life of Man passes in continual Transmigrations untill he be sanctified and deserves to be God They admit of Spirits but such as are nothing else than Souls who always inform some Bodies until they have attained to Holiness or Deity Angels are Corporeal and of different Sexes and consequently may beget Sons and Daughters Those Angels are never Sanctified nor Deified but to them only belongs to watch over the Government of the World and the preservation of Men. They distribute them into seven Orders or Hierarchies some of which are more perfect and noble than the others all which they place in as many different Heavens Each part of the World has one of those Intelligences to preside over what is done there They likewise impart them to Stars to the Earth to Cities Mountains and Forests and even to the Winds and Rain And because they are perswaded that those Angels examine the conduct of Men and are witnesses of all their actions to reward those that are commendable by vertue of the merits of their God It is therefore to those Intelligences and not to their God that they use to apply themselves in their necessities and miseries and to thank them for the favours they suppose to have received from them Sect. 19. They acknowledge no other Demons but the Souls of the wicked who making their escape out of the Hell in which they were detained wander through the World a certain time and do as much hurt to Men as they can Amongst those unhappy Spirits they rank untimely Births Women dying in Childbed those that are killed in a Duel or guilty of some crime of that nature Sect. 20. The Heathens of Java believe likewise Metempsychosis as well as those of Sumatra the Malabars and the Inhabitants of the Coast of Cormandel All the Benjanes in the hither East-Indies agree upon no Article of Religion better than
of the first operating by the last and that they hold the Celestial Bodies for Gods because they act upon the sublunary which are of a particular and necessary use to Mankind Thus the Heathens endeavour each according to his fancy to acknowledge a Deity in Heaven and to adore it upon Earth Sect. 8. The immortality of the Soul the punishment of the wickâ—d and the rewards of pious Men after this Life are generally believed in Peru but not the Resurrection of the dead says Montanus pag. 307. However 't is strange that a People who have such a gross Religion and such material Gods should nevertheless believe that the Soul subsists tho' they hear nothing of it after the death of the Body and that they could not imagine that the Body which subsists still for some time before their Eyes though without Life can return to its first State as Trees Herbs and Plants which dye and revive Sect. 9. The Statues of their Gods that are of many strange Figures and some very frightful are used to utter Oracles in their Pagodes Some says Montanus give their Answers as formerly did the Diabolical Oracles of Delphos and Dodona he calls them Diabolical following the common Opinion that the Oracles of the Heathens were not pronounced by God but by the Devil But it may be seen in the Book of Anthony Vandale of Oracles how little ground that Opinion has and we shall also treat of it in its proper place Sect. 10. As to their practices no people is so much esteemed in Peru as those we call Exorcistâ— Magicians and Diviners because they discover private Robberies even such as are committed in very remote Countreys and foretell good or bad fortune which happâ—â—s saith Montanus by their converse with wicked Spirits in dark places They declared to the Spaniards the victories their Country-men obtained or the Battles they lost in the Low Countries the very same day that they were fought There are also in Peru many She Diviners who shut themselves in their Houses where they make themselves drunk with Chica mixed with the Herb Vilca till they fall down on the place and when they awake and come to themselves again they answer all the Questions that are proposed to them Sect. 11. The Cannibals who take the Name of Caraibes and dwell to the North of Southern America acknowledge the Sun for their Soveraign God but in the mean while each Bâ—ie or Priest has his own which he calls out to himself in the most frightful Nights by Songs or inchanted Verses in the midst of the smoak of Tobacco The Devil says Montanus but I would rather say the Spirit utters his Oracles by the means of dead bones wrap'd up in Cotton Those Heathens have at all times but especially in case of death much to endure from the Piais or Magicians but methinks Montanus had express'd himself better had he said Priests rather then Magicians One of the greatest disturbances they cause is that when they are consulted they persuade People that such or such has caused them to interrogate such a deceased which incites the nearest Relations of the deceased to avenge themselves of those that have disturbed his Rest by that action Sect. 12. Montanus adds to this also The Caraibes follow a most strange Opinion concerning the Soul every one believes to have as many Souls as beatings of the heart The chief of which is still the Heart it self which after the death goes to Icheiri or the God that is particular to him where he lives in the same condition that he has done upon Earth for which reason they kill the Servants upon the Tomb of their Masters to go and Minister to them in the other World The other Souls that consist in Beatings of the Heart have two sorts of abode The Maboias wander in Deserts and Woods and the Ormiceous keep along the Sea and overturn Vessels The Souls of warlike Heroes go into the fortunate Islands where the Arouages are their Slaves Bloâ—dy Cruel Mâ—n go out of this life eternally to wander in dry Wildernesses behind high Mountains to carry the Yoak of the Arouages a People that was expell'd out of its ancient abode if we believe the account that is given of their Destruction From all this it appears that this Nation acknowledges almost no other God but their own Souls of which they have very near the same Sentiments that the ancient Greeks had of their Demons and Heroes Sect. 13. Richard Blome an English Author has published of late in his America a large account of the Opinions and Practices of the Carabes where he speaks of the Isle of St Vincent They have says he some Natural Notion of a Deity or Supream Being but who is too much pleased with the enjoyment of the Soveraign Happiness to disturb himself with the Wicked Actions of Men and whose Goodness is so great that he is averse from avenging himself of his Enemies when they refuse to pay the Honour due to him They likewise believe that there are good and bad Spirits and that the Good are Gods each of whom has his particular Admistration but that the Vniverse was not created by them tho' every one of them may be the Creator of the Country where he is venerated and which he governs Sect. 14. They never call upon their Gods but to let them come to them which is done by the Ministry of the Priests and for the 4 following reasons First to be aveng'd for some injury received Secondly to be cured of their Diseases Thirdly to learn the success of the War Fourthly to expel the great Devil or rather the wicked God Mapoia whom they never adore Thence may be inferr'd that they believe good and bad Spirits besides they acknowledge the immortality of the Soul which Opinion is the Original of Demons and Heroes since as they suppose they are the Souls of the Deceased which they call to their assistance against their Enemies Sect. 15. The Description of their Witchcraft is to be found in the same place after this manner When their Priests call upon many of their Gods together they seem to dispute and quarrel with one another so far as to come to blows somtimes they hide themselves amongst Dead bones which they draw out of Graves and wrap up in Cotton whence they utter their Oracles They use that Witchcraft to bewitch their Enemies for which purpose the Witches must have somthing that has belong'd to the party to be bewitched the Spirit seizes sometimes upon the body of those Women whence they give formal answers to whatever is proposed to them They serve up Meat to those Spirits in places separated from the Commerce that is kept with them The Boy or Priest that has brought it being gone out they hear the Dish move and the Devil according to Blome or the God according to that People moves the Jaws and makes a great noise as if he chewed the Meat that has been served to him
to this that Christ is acknowledged by the Mahometans for a great Prophet and honoured in that quality whereas he is horribly blasphemed by the Jews For these reasons I say that the Mahometans are halfe nearer to us than the modern Jews But what need we any farther proof since as to this matter it is plain that the Jews are less from Paganism than the Mahometans as shall appear by the proof I shall produce Sect. 2. As long as we have had to do with Heathens only we needed but to make an inquiry after their Opinions concerning their Gods the Spirits and the Souls But here the Question is not concerning the plurality of Gods for thô formerly the Jews have been extraordinarily inclined to Idolatry they have now such a great aversion for Polytheism ever since 2300 years that they are returned from the Babylonian Captivity that they will acknowledge but one Person in the Divine Unity They believe by the light of the Holy Writ that this only God is Almighty and sufficient to himself and to all things which he has created of nothing and governs and maintains alone Amongst his Creatures they reckon Angels and Men and think that the last have a Soul more excellent than that of Bruits tho' far inferior to the Angelical Perfection Such has been in all times the belief of the Jews and so farr is more agreeable to the Christian Faith then that of the Mahometans as we shall say hereafter Sect. 3. But the state of the Jewish Religion whilst the first Temple stood must be well distinguished from that into which it is insensibly fall'n The Jews of that time were Orthodox save only those who suffer'd themselves to be carried into Idolatry and undoubtedly they had no other Opinion of the Angels Demons and Souls of Men but what the Holy Writings still teach us so that if we still look upon them as different from us it is because we consider those of latter times when their State was in its fall and Christianity in its growth But tho' they be now divided into two Sects that of the Carraijim who only follow the Holy Writ and that of the Rabbanim who adhere to the Traditions of their Doctors there is yet but the latter which deserves to come into consideration the number of the former being altogether inconsiderable they being a remainder of the Sadduces which are hardly known in Europe whereas the other may be called the posterity of the Pharisees Sect. 4. Tho' we design only to insist upon the latter yet a more particular difference may be observed betwixt the Ancient Jews and the Modern By the Ancient Jews I understand here those that lived in the time of our Saviour of his Apostles or a little after Philo who was the Learnedst and Wisest is of an Opinion not far from that of Plato when he says that the Stars are animated and that they move circularly by their own intelligence Ben Maimon is in that point of his Sentiment of which he has made an abridgement in these words All the Stars and Celestial Orbs have a Soul Knowledge Vnderstanding and a lasting Life knowing him by whose Word the Vniverse was made Each of those â—reatures according to his Excellency and Dignity praisâ—s and glorifies his Author following the example of the Angels but as they know God so they understand what they are themselves as well as the Angels who however are above them Their Knowledge being inferior to that of the Angels and superior to that of Men This is to be read in the Book of that Author Entituled Of the Grounds of Faith Sect. 5. If we come more particularly to examine their Opinions as to the Spirits whether Angels or Human Souls we shall not find the Ancient and Modern Writers agree well together Philo who is amongst the former believes That the Air is full of Spirits the most perfect of whom never assumed Bodies but go to and fro ascend and descend from Heaven upon Earth for the service of the Great God That there are others inferior in Dignity to the first who take on Bodies of which they are deprived by death and into which some of them return But others being wearied of this life go up higher and live there in peace But there are others the most pure and excellent of all who have a sublime and Divine Vnderstanding despise Terrestrial and perishing things are the Ministers of the Almighty and as the Ears and Eyes of the Great God those see and hear everything The Philosophers call them Genii and the Holy Writ names them most properly Angels that is to say Messengers for they are really Messengers who carry to Children the Orders of their Father and to the Father the Prayers of his Children wherefore it is said of them that they ascend and descend This is contained in the Book of Dreams written by Philo. Sect. 6. If you now desire to hear the Jews of the latter times and their Opinions upon the Nature of Angels Vorstius will tell you most truly in his Annotations upon the Grounds of the Faith written by Maimonides that they do not perfectly agree together For some believe That those Spirits have been created of the most subtile Elements as Rabbi Juda relates it in his Book Entituled Cusri Chap. 4. Sect. 4. Others as the Author of the Book Jezira hold as the same Rabbi Juda assures us that the Angels proceeded from the Holy Ghost We find also in the Book Chagiga fol. 14. That by the word of God administring Angels are created every day But Maimonides speaks of his own more wisely upon this subject and generally upon all others The Angels says he in Chap. 2. Sect. 4 Have an Essence that subsists without Matter not having Bodies but being Essences distinguished from one another Sect. 7. Upon this difference of the Angels in the opinion of the Jews I think it better to propose what has been said by the same Author than to quote any other because there is none amongst them that may be compar'd to him either for Learning or Judgment as not intending to impute to them more foolish Doctrines than those that are admitted by their most authentick Writers Thus then Maimonides expresses this Opinion When the Prophets say that they have seen the Angels as a fire and with wings they speak after the manner of the Prophets and by a simile designing only to shew that they are neither corporeal nor heavy In this sense it is that God himself is called a Consuming fire viz. improperly thus likewise this passage must be understood he makes the Winds his Angels or as it is in some Translations The Spirits for the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruach having those two significations of Spirits and of Winds And therefore the Angels being material are essentially distinguished betwixt themselves as by degrees the one being above the other to which the Author applies these words For a higher than that high takes
thereby it may be easily understood that Marriages must be very happy and attended with great Sweetness and Tranquillity when one marries with his peculiar Soul that is with that which was created with her Whereas they cannot be but unhappy and turn to the punishment of Men when they are bound to a Body whose Soul was not created with the Soul of him that Espouses her We have to strive against that Vnhappiness until we be rid of it and that we may be united by a second Marriage to the Soul that was made our Partner in the Creation to lead a happier Life Manasse Ben Israel gives a more large account of that belief in several places as in his Conciliador Quest 6. Pag. 12. In his second Book of the Resurrection Chap. 13. as also in the third Book Chap. 9. and in his Treatise de Termino Vitae Sect. 8. pag. 207. which he more largely confirms after the Jewish manner in his third Question Sect. 19. As to the State of Souls after Death the Metempsychosis of Pythagoras is also received amongst the Jews which Transmigration they call Gilgul that is to say the Revolution of Souls for they imagine that after Death the Soul wanders for a year about the Body whence she is gone out and goes still rambling till she meets with another Body into which she may enter to be born again with it They fancy that this happens three times as it is observed in the Thisbi upon the word Gilgul in this manner The Opinion of the Cabbalists is that every Soul is created thrice to let us understand that she introduces her self successively into the Bodies of three Children or Men. This they hope in some manner to confirm from the Book of Job ch 23. v. 19. according to that they say That the Soul of the first Man enter'd into the Body of King David and is now to pass into that of the Messiah that Mystery being contained in the three Hebrew Letters of Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the initial Letter of the name of Adam the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the first of that of David and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the first of that of Messiah Their learned hold that the Souls of the wicked pass into the Bodies of Beasts each Soul according to the nature of the Sins she has committed Thus the Soul of a Man that has debauch'd his Neighbours Wife is to enter into a Camel And therefore says David I shall sing to the Lord ki gamal alaii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he has deliver'd me from the Camel as they interpret it using this Reason that when the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is punctuated it is read otherwise and pronounced Gamaal which signifies a Camel Sect. 20. There are some however who believe that the Souls of the wicked perish with their Bodies Josephus says of the Pharisees of his time that they asserted the Transmigration of the Souls of the good only but that they sent those of the impious to the eternal Torments in his second Book of the Wars of the Jews Chap. 7. The Sadducees according to the Testimony of the Holy Scripture believed neither Resurrection nor Angels nor Spirits in St. Matth. Chap. 22. v. 23. and in the Acts Ch. 23. v. 8. but now the Jews have invented a great many Chimaera's that powerfully confirmed them in their Magick and the practice of their Conjurations for as it has already been said the Soul separated from the Body must wander a whole year about her Corps during which the wicked Spirits that abide in the Air and are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Malachi Chabbalah or Devils of Torments and have yet several other Names find occasion to make them reenter into their Bodies as they have power to do when they are required to it by Conjurations Thence proceeds in their meaning That the Witch of Endor called again the Soul of Samuel into his Body because he had not been dead a whole year Manasse Ben Israel teaches the same Doctrine and assures us 't is that of the Ancients which he has extracted especially from Gemara Siabbas There are some however who have more rational Opinions as we shall see in the second Book when we have occasion to examine that instance CHAP. XIII That the Witchcraft anciently Practised and still in use amongst the Jews proceeds from the same Original Sect. 1. WE have examined the Opinions of the Jews upon that matter as much as they differ from the holy writ for as far as their belief is consonant to it we receive and approve of the same Let 's now see what they practise as to Witchcraft the Holy Scripture may fully convince us of the great inclination that People ever had for it which doubtless proceeded First from the practices they had seen in Egypt and of which perhaps they had not abstained but had seen the continuation of them in the Country they inhabited that was surrounded and intermixed with so many Nations addicted to that Art 'T is for that Reason the Law gives them such frequent warnings to beware of it Exodus 22 18. Levit. Chap. 18. v. 31. Cap. 5. v. 27. Deuter. Chap. 13 8 9 14. Isaiah Chap. 6. v. 12.20 And that he threatned them so severely because they could not resolve to forsake that impious exercise as may be seen especially in Manasseh King of Judah 2 Kings Chap. 21. v. 6. 2. Cron. Chap. 3. v. 6. That Sin became general in the midst of Israel or the Kingdom of the 10 Tribes so that the Scripture says that They used Divinations and observed the cry of Birds 2 Kings Chap. 17. v. 17. In the Apostles time there were Seven Sons of the same Father one of the high Priests who took upon them to be Exorcists and to conjure Devils Acts 19. v. 13 14. But all these things made no part of the contents of their Law and on the contrary were the effects of their Rebellion so that Judaism was not properly answerable for them until they were taught by the Rabbins themselves and at last introduced to make up part of their Religion Such are the Doctrines which I have represented in the preceeding Chapter to which the practices of the present Jews are perfectly agreeable Sect. 2. The inquisitive Lighfoot has shewed by many proofs that the Jews at their return from the Babylonian Captivity having entirely forsaken Idolatry and finding they were destitute of Prophets addicted themselves by degrees to Witchcraft and Divination about the time of our Saviours coming The writings of the Talmud that are full of Instructions for that purpose and are nevertheless in great credit among them give upon that subject a testimony not advantageous to them especially since in the following times they used the same Arts against Christianity Lightfoot assures us That after the Destruction of their City and Temple there were several Impostors amongst
as he believes particularly happens some certain Nights Chap 96. Pag. 284. The Angels descend at night upon Earth by the leave of their Lord and visit the true faithful till the break of the day Chap. 12. Pag. 290. They will visit the faithful in the Garden of Eden they will salute them and say here is the reward of their perseverance here is the Eternal Grace Sect. 7. As he holds that the Angels are always ready to serve God on behalfe of the Faithful so he believed them no less forward in performing his Orders against the impious When says he Chap. 5. pag. 155. the wicked are at the point of death the Angels stretch out their hands to seize upon their Souls And further P. 172. The Angels of death shall kill those that blaspheme God and his Commandments Chap. 7. Pag. 203 204. Thou hast seen that the Angels have put to death the unfaithful and stricken them before and behind A great power for the executing of God's Judgments is ascribed to them for an Angel is sufficient to destroy all the Inhabitants of the World as Levinius Varnerius quotes it out of a Turkish Book Sect. 8. He forgets not the evils caused by the Devil for the seducing of Man The first was his having them banish'd from Paradise Chap. 1. Pag. 7. He caused Adam and his Wife to sin and to fall from the Grace in which they were Chap. 2. Pag. 8. God advertises Mahomet that the Devil would make hâ—m afraid of the unfaithful Pag. 150. The Devil will make them forget my Commandments Pag. 160. Think upon the day in which I shall gather all the Peopâ—e and say to the Devil O thou Prince of the Devils why hast thou rebelled against me Chap. 56. Pag. 608. For the Devil has puft up Man and made â—im revolt from the Commandments of God He seems even to believe that the malice of the Devil extends as far as the Stars with which he says God has adorned the Heavens and which he preserves against the attempts of the Devils Chap. 40. Pag. 534. Sect. 9. Such are his Opinions as to the Angels in general but as to their particular Ministry Thevenot relates That the Turks acknowledge Guardian Angels but in far greater number than we do for say they God has ordained 70 Angels for an invisible Guard to each Musulman and there happens nothing to any person but they attribute it to them Each has his particular Office one watches over one Member and th' other over another one is so subservient in this and the other in that Affair Amongst all those Angels there are two who preside over all the rest sitting one on the Right and th' other on the Left hand and being call'd Kerim Kiatib that is to say Merciful Writers That on the Right hand keeps account of the good Actions and that on the Left of the bad They are so merciful that they spare him if he commits any sin before he falls asleep hoping he shall repent if not they set it down but if he repents they write Estig fourillah God forgive They accompany him every where unless when he goes to the Necessary house whither they let him go alone waiting for him at the door where they again take possession of him For that reason when the Turks go to that place they go in with the Left Foot and when they come out they put the Right Foot foremost that the Angel who sets down their good Works should seize first upon them Mahomet himself confirms that Fable saying Chap. 52. Pag. 594. Think O Man on the day when thou shalt see near thee thy good Angel on thy Right hand and thy bad Angel on thy Left who have noted and written whatever thou hast done Sect. 10. 'T is observable that this Fable has its Original from the immortality of the Soul and the resurrection of the dead which the Turks believe and are plainly express'd in the foregoing words and else-where as Chap. 12. Pag. 280. The faithful shall go into the Garden of Eden but to the unfaithful he says Pag. 288. Hell is the place to which you are destin'd Chap. 52. Pag. 594. God takes up the Soul of Man as he thinks fit to send her into one of those places But first she returns into the Body after its burying to undergo the strict examination of two frightful Angels Munquir and Guauquir the Fable which Thevenot relates upon their account and that of the Beasts is so gross that I should be ashamed to recite it at large Sect. 11. In the mean while it will not be unserviceable to our subject to give a more particular instruction of their belief upon the state of the Dead I will not here speak of their Carnal Paradise because I treat not of all the points of the Mahometan Religion but only of what concerns the the Spirits they acknowledge that there are appointed two very different places one for the damned and the other for the saved that is to say there are Men who have done so many good works that at the very hour they expire they are admitted into the happiness of Paradise but there are others who having not a sufficient Faith are subjected to I pains for their Sins until they be all expiated after which they enjoy in Paradise the same felicity with the others that are gone in first But as to the unfaithful and wicked they go to burn forever in Hell where there bodies are as often repaired by God as they are reduced to Ashes that their torments may be Eternal That 's the substance of what Thevenot writes Chap. 20 and 31 of his journey and Ricaut says almost the same thing Chap. 2.6 and 12. Sect. 12. The transmigration of Souls from one body into another not only of Human Souls but likewise of those of Beasts is also believed by some Mahometans Ricaut testifies Book 2. Ch. 12. That one of their Sects called Munasichi holds that Opinion and takes occasion from thence to relate how one Roboroski a Polander was dealt with by a Drugist that was angry with him because he had kick'd his Dog for they believe That the Souls of Men after Death enter into the bodies of such Beasts with which the Nature and temper of the bodies that were animated by those Souls had most relation that the Soul of a Glutton passed into the body of a Hog that of a Letcherous into that of a He-goat that of a Generous person is destin'd to animate a Horse and that of a Watchful Man to quicken a Dog To this he adds several circumstances which the curious may see in his own Book He likewise asserts that the Sect Eschrakin that is illuminated is likewise Pythagorean but that it holds not much of the Doctrines of the Alcoran thô most of it's followers are the Schicks or the Preachers and chief Doctors of the Turks They have more rational Opinions than the others concerning the immateriality of Spirits
12. Tertullian explains himself more plainly as to the knowledge he ascribes to the Devils when he in his fifth Book against Marcion speeks thus Servants cannot know the Resolutions of their Masters and therefore the Rebellious Angels and the Devil their leader can much less know the designs of God whence I would willingly take occasion to assert that the greater their Crime has been the more remote they are from the knowledge of their Creator So far only he goes as to the Secrets of God But as to those of Men we hear the Doctors of that Age giving to the Demons a power over Bodies and Souls St. Cyprian establishes both speaking of Idolatry Spirits says he deceive us they disturb our Life and our Sleep insinuating themselves into our Bodies raise terrour in our inward Thoughts bruise our Members impair our Healths and cause us Diseases Tertullian is of the same Opinion in his Book of Passions The Malice of that inveterate Enemy never leaves him quiet but it encreases his Rage when he sees Man fully deliver'd In his Apologetick Chap. 20. he gives a more particular explication of what he believes as to the Assaults made by Demons upon Soul and Body He thinks That having a very subtile and thin Essence they are so much the apter to act in an invisible and insensible manner He shows thereby that he conceives created Spirits as the thinest and subtilest of all Bodies and therefore explains his meaning by this Comparison As it happens that a flame invisible to us burns Corn and the Fruits of Trees when they are in flower or withers them whilst they blossom or corrupts them when the Flower falls off and they are formed or as an infected Air communicates it self in a manner unknown to us so the suggestions of the Devil by a secret contagion seduce the depraved understanding of Man Sect. 13. Origen believes that the Souls of Men existed together before they came to animate the Bodies which he establishes upon St. Matth. Chap. 20. from Ver. 1 to 16. and in his 6th Vol. upon St. John having before proposed in his 5th Chap. the common Opinion of the Christians of his age he asserts accoâ—â—â—â—â— to the sense he gives to the Holy Writ that 〈…〉 the Soul must be distinguished from 〈…〉 the Spirit of Man from the 〈…〉 â—â—ys that the Soul may appâ— her self 〈…〉 evil but that the Spirit â—f Man can 〈…〉 â—eâ—f only to evil In his 19th Chapter he dâ—â—â—â—â—es on occasion of the sepalation of the Soul at the point of death that he believes she is taken out of the Body by some Spirits ordained for that purpose and that the Spirits who have that imployment are of a more noble Nature than the Soul they fetch He puts a very ingenious sense upon the Words of our Saviour in St. Luke Chap. 10. v. 20. and John Chap. 10. v. 18. Sect 14. Tertullian's meaning as to the state of Souls after this life to the day of the Resurrection is that they are in a certain place known by the name of Abraham's Bosom and situated betwixt Heaven and Hell as he writes hi his 4th Book against Marcion That there is a certain and determined place call'd the Bosom of Abraham If you ask where that place lyes and how long the Souls are to stay there he will answer as to the First Question Sinum dico Abrahae regionem etsi non Caelestem superiorem tamen Inferis I call Abraham's Bosom a a Region superior to Hell tho' it properly belongs not to Heaven As to the other he will say Refrigerium praebiturum animabus justorum donec consummatio rerum resurrectionem omnium plenitudine Mercedis expungat The Latin phrase is somewhat obscure but it matters not to Translate the words so much as to give the Sense which is That it will be a place of refreshment for the Souls of the just until the consummation of all things comes and brings on the Resurrection in which every one shal1 be obliged to give account and then receive a full reward Sect. 15. He calls in this place the Subterraneous places Inferos Hell because he puts the place of Abode of the Damned under the Earth or in a great Gulf contained in the bottom of the Earth and believes that for their punishment they shall go to burn in a material Fire For about the end of his Book of Penitency he calls Hell Thesaurum Ignis aeterni The Treasure of Eternal Fire Through the Chimneys of that Fire come out sometimes frightful flames during Earthquakes and immediately after he calls that Abyss of Fire Magni alicujus inaestimabilis foci scintillas missilia exaercitoria jacula The sparks of a prodigious great and unexpressible Fire St. Cyprian speaks so obscurely about the end of his Letter against Demetrian upon that subject that it seems he threatens the Soul with corporeal punishments it being a consequent of the Series of his Reasoning Hell says he shall Eternally burn for the Damned and the punishment of a devouring fire and most glooing flames will neither supersede nor suspend their Torments there the Souls with their Bodies are destined to infinite pains He seems to mean thereby that the Souls and Bodies shall have one and the same share for otherwise he would have declared what peculiar sufferings the Soul is to undergo Sect. 16. In the 4th Age we shall first hear St. Athanasius he also believes that the Angels are not all of an equal Dignity of which he gives a formal explication according to his meaning on the 31st Question to Antiochus where having said something as to the Orders of the Angels he proceeds thus Because those Orders are called Legions and Armies we must thereby understand such Orders as are established to teach to defend provide administer help as also such Orders as receive the Souls and remain by them Now as the difference betwixt the Celestial Orders is known to us we must likewise know which is their State and what Knowledge they have The Thrones Cherubims and Seraphims are taught immediately by God himself as being the nearest to him and raised above the others These teach the inferior Orders and these again others that are under them The last of all are the Angels taking that Name in a particular signification and determin'd to a certain Order of Spirits distinguished from all others and these are the Teachers of Men. 'T is easie to perceive that St. Athanasius has taken this from the Writings of Philo and other Jews as 't is related above Chap. 12. Sect. 4 5 8 9 10. But whatever it be St. Athanasius being the Author of the Confession of Faith so much commended in our Churches and quoted in the 9th Article of the Low-Dutch Confession of Faith as a pattern of Orthodoxy we cannot but admit what he has written upon the present matter as the common Opinion approved of and received by the Principal Doctors of that Age Sect. 17. I grant
or less enamour'd with corruptible things however in that number are not comprehended those of whom 't is said that they shall not possess the Kingdom of God unless by a convenient Repentance they obtain forgiveness of their Sins Sect. 29. We come down to the 5th Age in which we meet with Theodoret who sufficiently explains as to our design the Opinions of the Doctors of his time concerning good and bad Angels for he proposes to us what he thinks of the Angels properly so call'd as well in reference to their Nature as to their Understanding and Administration As to the first point he holds that though they are not Corporeal yet they are Circumscribed and contained in a certain determinate place as he asserts in his 3d Question upon Genesis The Reason of this Opinion is that he supposes every Angel has some proper Administration and is entrusted with the care either of a Nation or Person but he makes still a more particular distinction in his 10th Exposition upon Daniel putting a Man under the guard of a common Angel and a whole Nation under that of an Angel of a Superior Order As to their Understanding he briefly explains his Mind in these Words Let none be surprised at what I assert as to the Ignorance of the Heavenly Spirits for they neither know future nor other things it only belonging to the Divine Nature but as to Angels Archangels and other Coelestial Spirits they know no more than what they learn and therefore the Holy Apostle speaking of them in the the third Chapter to the Ephesians v. 10. says That to Principalities and Powers in the Heavenly Places c. See his Commentary on the 24th Psalm Sect. 30. Theodoret speaks afterwards of the Demons in the same manner for he holds them not capable of making true Predictions He says upon Ezekiel Sect. 8. That the Demons know nothing before it happens unless it be by guessing and yet they venture to foretell He nevertheless owns in his tenth Book of Oracles that the Spirits have foretold something true but by the Stars For says he whatever the Gods of the Heathens say if it happens that they speak agreeably to the Concatenation of things they must needs gather that knowledge from the Stars which undoubtedly was done by such Gods as declared some things that afterwards fell out 'T is evident that by Demons he understands in general wicked Spirits who cause themselves to be venerated as Gods and gave false Oracles to keep up their Authority and the Credit in which they were amongst the Heathens That Opinion was the most common amongst the Ancients and is in being even to this day as we shall show hereafter Sect. 31. The Opinion of that time upon the original of the wicked Race was that they issued from the Conversation of the Angels with Women Severus Sulpitius relates it not as a particular Belief or as received by some Doctors only but as a Story credited by all Christians for at the beginning of his Ecclesiastical History he presumes to assert it upon the Authority of Josephus as much as if he had been present His words are In that time that is after the Birth of Noah Mankind multiplying exceedingly the Angels whose abode was in Heaven being enamour'd with the Beauty of young Virgins plunged themselves in unlawful pleasures forsook the Supream Region whose Inhabitants they were and ally themselves by Marriages with mortal Women by that unhappy Cohabitation and their depraved Morals they corrupted Mankind by degrees and from thence the Giants are said to be born for the mixture of such different natures must needs produce Monsters Sect. 32. As to the state of Souls separated from their Body the Angels and wicked Spirits this Age affords nothing but what has been observed speaking of the foregoing Centuries Wherefore we descend to Gregory the Great who in the 7th Century joyn'd his particular Opinions to the former He was Bishop of Rome and his Memory is still in great Veneration in that Church tho' he took it very ill that John the Father Bishop of Constantinople and his Contemporary should have presumed to take upon him the Name of Vniversal Bishop to which he believed not that any Bishop had a right and even held it for a Mark of Antichrist Besides 't is not without Reason that the Roman Church makes so much of him For he has taken care to provide her with many Legends so suitable to her Humour and Palate and upon which she has put so great a value that she multiplies them every year And indeed St. Gregory was not contented with the Fables of Origen and other Doctors of which mention has been made but he admitted whatever had been proposed hitherto as Doubts and Questions which he passed into Determinations and Decrees And as tho' what had been maintained before had not been sufficient he thought fit to add something of his own So that since his time there were not only 9 Orders of Angels but they knew also the Degrees of each viz. Angels Archangels Virtue Powers Principalities Dominions Thrones Cherubims and Seraphims as is to be found in his 34th Homily upon the Gospels The Schoolmen that have followed him fail not to take much pains to treat of each of these Angelical orders and to break their head with them in which I intend not to imitate them Sect. 33. It must be observed that at that time the curiosity to know whither Souls went after Death gave occasion by degrees to invent Purgatory the discovery of which has been so far finished amongst the Papists that they go now thither by thousands Boetius a Roman Consul who lived about 63 years before the Pontificate of Gregory begun in his 4th Book Prosa 4. to give some Notion of that place by the Answer he makes to the following Question Does there in your Opinion remain no punishment for the Soul after her separation from the Body To which he Answers Yes doubtless and even 't is not a slight Pain for I hold that some Souls are very severely punished whereas others are purified by Grace As to Gregory himself who from a Souldier became Pope he blows heat and cold from the same Mouth with as much sickliness and levity as the Wind against the Custom of the Popes who use to decide so positively and boldly Upon the 7th Chapter of Job giving advice to a Sinner he saith That there is no human Eye that is no Grace of the Redeemer that casts looks upon the Soul after she has laid off the Flesh And farther he adds That when Holy or wicked Spirit receives at the point of Death a Soul departing from her bodily Prison she remains for ever and without hopes of any Change in the hands of him that has taken her so that when she 's once raised to Glory she can never fall again into Pain and Torments whereas when she is once cast down into the Eternal Abyss she can never come
break off the order that we have kept hitherto and begin with the last they will furnish us with very certain proof that there is no Opinion to which the World is more engag'd than to that which is almost generally every where taught and received concerning Spirits for the Protestants have retained all that which cannot be look't upon as a pure invention of Popery in particular and there are even some whose belief upon this subject go farther than those of the Papists The Christians in general believe all that is not particular to the Jews and Pagans the Jews and the Mahometans believe all that according to them is not inconsistant with the belief of one only God some will tell me perhaps that we must not wonder at it and that naturally it ought to be so This is what we have now to examine and there will be as yet room to speak more plainly and fully afterwards Sect. 2. Notwithstanding it is convenient to advertise the Reader that relating here the difference or the conformity of the Opinions of all Nations I mean only the Opinions of the more learned and are remarked amongst the Doctors or who are taken for wisemen in their Country and capable of instructing others in matter of Faith and Religion I intend not to speak of particular Opinions but of those generally received taught and confirmed by practices for as to the common People either Papists Jews or Pagans they know nothing for the most part but a little by hear-say so that there is no relying upon them and it is sure without mistake that for the most part what the most illiterate believe and practice is contrary to the sense of Divines and of all those that understand any thing in the Holy Scripture I will have nothing to do with them upon this subject having often tryed my self how many follies our own People say and believe upon this account Sect. 3. So it is necessary to establish here as certain and undoubted that every Opinion that proceeds from Paganism as from it's Original cannot at the same time be founded upon the Holy Scripture It is true there never was a Doctor either Christian or Jew who has not applied some place in Scripture to what he has proposed but the Question is to know whether the applications were just and whether the Scripture may be expounded in the sense put upon it for it may be that these Doctors having their imagination fill'd with their own Ideas believe in reading to see things there which are not there and that their own prejudice causes â—o be sound there of this the Reader may at first judge himself if he will but mind with attention what follows where I remark briefly what every Sect rejects and what every one admits and afterwards what the one have borrowed of others and what they have retained to this time Sect. 4. Althô the Protestant Churches with one common consent deny Purgatory and all the places where they put Souls except Paradise and Hell these two points are Opinions of Popery There has been some mention made of them amongst the primitive Christians neither the Jews nor the Mahometans reject them and they have been taken from Paganism Whosoever rejects them he must reject together all the Doctrines and practices that are grounded upon them For this reason First We do not believe among us that the Souls of the Deceased are never wandering nor that they appear to the living under any figures whatsoever to obtain help and comfort from them Second It is not believed that the Souls of the blessed come back from Heaven upon Earth nor that those of the damned come back from Hell It is not believed that either the one or the other appears to Men to comfort or afright them and far less as yet that the living can make agreements together to come back after Death and visit those they had agreed with who have surviv'd them Third By this reason the Dead are never ask'd any Questions nor any religious worship paid to them Sect. 5. The Virtue of Conjurations is likewise unknown among us either to drive the Souls of the deceased or to expel evil Spirits with whom any should be tormented No other means is known sufficient for this effect but Prayer and fasting taught by our Saviour Jesus Christ St. Matthew Ch. 17 v. 21. First For this Reason it is not believed that there is any body either Priest or Exorcist which is authorised to make such Conjurations nor ought to meddle with them althô a like practice was admitted in the first time of Christianity whether it had success by the power of God or it was the meer effect of the Artifices of Men and that it has been a custom among the Jews Mahometans and all the Pagans Second Neither is it believed words names signs gestures and postures even thô they were taken from the Holy Scripture have any power for this effect either of themselves or institution of the Church because she has not received any power from God to give her Authority as to this point Third They Conjure not the Devil in the Baptism of Children as the Papists to do the Lutherans do the like but not with the same intent as the first that is that the Devil is in the Infant or that he is driven out by the Virtue of words which are pronounced for they only retain this practice because of it's antiquity it being indifferent of it self at least such is their pretence or excuse Sect. 6. Now that the Doctrines of the Protestants have been conferr'd with those of Popery in particular it remains to see what difference there is between the Christians in general and the Infidels First The Pagans the Jews and the Ancient Christians have believed that there is another kind of Spirits which are placed between God and the Angels or which are in some sort corporeal but it is not granted any more at this time by Christians Second Likewise it is not usual among them to associate God or the Spirits to the Stars As touching God it was an Opinion purely Pagan and ouching Spirits it was a Jewish Opinion I know not whether it may be said that the Ancient Christianity had not some tincture of it Third This difference of nature in the Angels proposed by the Jews is not believed any more it draws its Original from Ancient Paganism and is admitted to this day by the modern Pagans It's true that the Papists acknowledge a difference of Order but they put none in the essence of these Spirits Likewise thô they make generally appear all sorts of Spirits nevertheless the difference is only in respect of places of Persons and effects as we have shewn more fully Ch. 19 Sect. 7.17 Ch. 20. Sect. 1.2.3 but it is no way in respect of their nature nor of their Original Fourth There is not a Christian be he Protestant or Papist who believes that Spirits are truly capable of engendering