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
Nature no not of those whereby the propagation of the Gospel might have been much advanced viz. the Mystery of Printing and the Magnet and yet no one useth his silence in these instances as an argument against the being of things which are evident objects of sense To which we answer 1. He falleth into a common mistake in making the Proposition universal and dolus versatur in universalibus when it ought but to be particular so for him to say that no silence of Scripture is argumentative is too universal for its silence in point of Geography as in describing America and the people thereof nor in discovering the Magnalia Naturae Artis is not argumentative and we do not say that all silence of Scripture is argumentative but yet we affirm that some silence of Scripture is argumentative So we cannot universally say that nothing hath a being but what is mentioned in Scripture but we may very well affirm that some things have no being of truth of existence because not declared in Scripture 2. The Scriptures were not written to teach Naural Philosophy Arts or Sciences humane Policy or the like but were given that the man of God might be perfect furnished for every good work and it is by them that we have the doctrine of eternal Salvation revealed unto us and we positively affirm the sufficiency of the Scriptures unto Salvation which thing no Orthodox Divine we suppose will deny and Bellarmine himself did confess in these words Prophetici Apostolici libri sunt verum verbum Dei ac stabilis regula fidei And if it be a certain Rule of Faith and the true Word of God then whatsoever it is silent of we ought not to believe and so its silence is argumentative in that point The Scriptures are utterly silent concerning Purgatory and therefore it is a good argument to affirm there is no such place as Purgatory because the Word of God is silent as concerning it but if it had been necessary to have been believed then there would have been mention made of it 3. And as the Scriptures are sufficient in matters of Faith and circa credenda and what they are silent in are not to be received as Articles of our Faith but to be rejected as having no truth of Existence So likewise what Worship God requireth of his people is fully revealed in his Word and therefore I am to reject the worshipping of Mahomet with the Turks or Images and praying to Saints with the Papists because I have neither precept nor president in the Word but it is silent in such matters nay tells us That he is the Lord our God and him only we ought to serve 4. Though Mr. Glanvil say that God hath given no account of the state of the other World but only that general one of the happiness of some and the misery of others yet Am I to believe as Mr. Glanvil somewhere in his Book affirmeth that Samuels Soul was raised up by the Woman at Endor and that those that he feigneth to make Leagues and Contracts with Witches are the Souls of such as had been Witches when they lived and asketh Who saith that happy Souls were never imployed in any ministeries here below Or am I to believe that both the Souls of the godly and wicked do rove up and down here upon earth and make Apparitions because the Popish Teachers do hold it to be so I hope not and therefore I shall in part give an answer here to some of these and handle that of the Woman of Endor in another place 1. The Word of God doth particularly teach us the state and condition of the Souls after death that they shall be like the Angels in Heaven and all other things necessary to move and draw us to believe the immortal Existence of Souls as that most able and learned Divine Dr. Stillingfleet hath asserted in these words The Scriptures give the most faithful representation of the state and condition of the Soul of Man The World he saith was almost lost in Disputes concerning the Nature Condition and Immortality of the Soul before divine Revelation was made known to Mankind by the Gospel of Christ but life and immortality was brought to light by the Gospel and the future state of the soul of man not discovered in an uncertain Platonical way but with the greatest light and evidence from that God who hath the supreme disposal of souls and therefore best knows and understands them A Sentence truly pious and orthodoxal 2. Hath not God in the holy Scriptures amply and plainly taught us the state of the other World in describing unto us such a numerous company of Sâ—raphims and Cherubims Angels and Archangels with their several Orders Offices Ministeries and Imployments and this is more than a general account as may be seen at full in that learned and godly Piece of Bishop Halls called The invisible World And hath he not given us a particular account of the very Kingdom of Darkness telling us of the Devil and his Angels and precisely in this enumeration For we wrestle not with flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiâ—al wickedness in high places And this is more than a general account and we must needs fay that what he holds is very derogatory to the wisdom and goodness of God and the sufficiency and truth of the Scriptures 3. Must I believe him that the souls of the Saints do rove and wander here below when as Bishop Hall saith where he is speaking against the opinion of those that hold that Souls do sleep until the Day of Judgment Indeed who can but wonder that any Christian can possibly give entertainment to so absurd a thought whilst he hears his Saviour say Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with â—e where I am and that not in a safe sleep they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Sure if the Souls departed be with Christ where he is and do behold his glory then it is a Popish Fable of Mr. Glanvil to feign their coming upon Messages hither The saying of St. Bernard is remarkable in this case Advertisâ—is 〈◊〉 esse sanctarum status animarum primum videlicet in coâ—pore 〈◊〉 â—cundum sinâ— corpore tertium in corpore jam glorificatoâ— Primum in militiâ— secundum in requie tertium in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if the second state of holy Souls bâ— without 〈◊〉 body and be at peace and rest then it must necessarily be a truth that they do not wander here nor run upon Errands For the souls of the righteous are in the hands of the Lord and there shall no torment touch theâ— And our Saviour told the Thief upon the Cross This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise that is as Dr. Hammond giveth the Paraphrase Immediately after thy death thou shalt go to a
of himself speak articulately and audibly or else not And if he could do so of himself then to enter into the Serpent was needless and superfluous And if he could not then the entring into the Serpent would not have contributed that faculty unto him and so neither way he could have performed it For a Frog creeping into the body of a Man will not cause the Frog to speak though it may make some noise or croaking 5. Though the Devil being corporeal should have entred into the body of the Serpent yet by no motion that could be made with or upon her organs could they have been framed to have uttered an articulate sound because they were not fitted for that purpose but only to have made a sibilation or hissing For in Instruments that are artificial the several sounds and tunes made by them are but agreeable to the diversity of their parts and their several compactions so an Harp cannot when made be ordered to give forth a sound like a Trumpet nor the noise of a pair of Organs nor on the contrary and if any of their parts be wanting defective or broken then the orderly sound and Musick is spoyled And though a Parret or Paraquet may by vocal and external teaching be brought to learn and speak some words yet it is not by the teachers entring into her belly but by his outward vocal teaching whereby her senses and phantasie are audibly wrought upon and not otherwise But in this action ascribed unto Satan he is not supposed to be able to speak articulately nor to have taught the Serpent vocally and audibly which if he could have done yet were not her organs capable of any such matter and therefore it had been more subtilty in the Devil rather to have chosen a Parret than a serpent The only objection worth taking notice of that Pererius bringeth against the sound and reasonable opinion of learned Cajetan is this That Adam and Evah being in the state of innocency could not be wrought upon by an interiour tentation because that neither the sensitive appetite nor the phantasie were corrupted and therefore Satan could not internally work upon them and therefore that the whole tentation must be extrinsecal To which we return this sufficient reply 1. It is but a bare assertion without any proof at all and he doth but only shelter it under the authority of S. Austin and Gregory whose authority in many other matters he doth often reject when they agree not with his humour end and interest But however they are but testimonia humana and we are not to regard what the Men are that do speak so much as to consider the weight and reason of what they do speak 2. He proceeds upon false supposition that the sensitive appetite and consequently the Phantasie could not be wrought upon nor drawn but by a sensible and exteriour object when it is manifest that the sight of the Serpent alone could not have stirred the sensitive appetite for it is rationally to be supposed as a certainty that Evah had seen the Serpent before that time Neither could it be the discourse with the Serpent barely considered as discourse that could have moved it for it is certain she had heard and had had audible vocal and articulate discourse with her Husband before this time of the temptation Neither could it be the beholding of the tree of knowledge of good and evil for by the discourse it appeareth that she had before seen it and it is probable that the tentation was in the view of it and its species that appeared to her eye of the said tree was the same that it was before So that it will be most manifest that the tentation took effect from the strong lie that Satan told her that their eyes should be opened and they should be as Gods knowing good and evil and so her deception was first made in her mind and understanding and thereby the will was drawn and the sensitive appetite moved whereupon she took of the fruit of the tree and did eat And this may far more reasonably be thought to be brought to pass by a mental discourse and internal motions than by external collocution which must first work upon the mind before that the Phantasie or sensitive appetite could at all be moved or drawn 3. If the tentation had been this way that Pererius supposeth it our first parents could not have been seduced for Satans argument lay not to perswade Evah that it was pleasant for the taste or good for the Stomach thereby to have drawn the sensitive appetite and the Phantasie but that it was good and profitable to make them wise and to be like Gods whereby he insnared her understanding with a fallacious and lying argument thus framed as learned Pisoator lays it down That thing which will bring you Divine Wisdom and Felicity that thing ye ought to make use of But the eating of this fruit can bring you Divine Wisdom and Felicity Therefore the eating of the fruit of this tree ye ought to make use of And so the seduction was not at all by the sensitive appetite that could receive no more benefit by it than by the other fruits in the Garden but by her understanding being blinded with a specious shew of an apparent not a real benefit and thereby her will drawn and led to put forth her hand and to eat And therefore consequently there was no need at all of an extrinsecal tentation which might and was brought to pass by an intrinsick discourse working upon her understanding 4. Surely if Pererius had been aware of the many inconveniences that this opinion of his doth hurry along with it he would never have plunged himself into a Labyrinth of such perplexities some of which we shall here enumerate and so conclude 1. If this opinion were true that Evah by reason of her perfection in the state of innocency could not be tempted nor seduced but only by an external way and means Then how could it come to pass that the Angels in their Primitive Estate which was as perfect if not more than that of Evahs were without a tempter or any external means drawn unto that defection who left their estate and station and abode not in the truth 2. How could the defection have been so general for multitudes of them fell if they had not had some way or means to have communicated their cogitations and intentions one to another For though we are not able to apprehend the manner how they discourse or commune one with another yet it must be taken for a truth that they have a way and means to manifest their cogitations one to another which is some way Analogous to that which we call speech or discourse Therefore concerning this point doth learned and judicious Zanchy thus conclude Therefore he saith that which we do by a sensible voice the same thing the Angels and blessed Souls in Heaven
ball of his hand then with his left hand he taketh up a little white rod that he hath upon the Table with which he maketh people believe he performeth all his feats And then telling them a Story to amuse them that he will like Moses and Aaron transform that rod into a Serpent then he presently beginneth to stare about him and to utter some strange and nonsensical words as though he were invoking some Spirit or Goblin and so immediately conveyeth the rod either into his lap if sitting or into his sleeve if standing and then le ts loose the Serpent forth of his right hand with pushing it forward that what with the wiar and the nimble motion of his hand he maketh it to move a pretty space upon the Table which he continueth while offering with the one hand to catch it by the neck he nimbly with the other puts it forward and turneth it by touching the tail and the mean while hisseth so cunningly that the by-standers think it is the Serpent it self and presently whips it up and conveys it into his pocket And such a trick as this well acted might make Pharaoh and the beholders believe there was as much done as Moses and Aaron did but only that Aarons rod swallowed up their Serpents or his Serpent theirs which they might easily excuse As for the changing water into blood and the producing of Frogs they were so easy to be done after the same manner that they need not any particular explication for by this the manner of their performance may most easily be understood Though I once saw a Gentleman that was much delighted with these kind of tricks and did himself play them admirable well who performed it with a living Snake that he had got for one of his Children to keep in a box for in this North-Countrey they are plentiful and are also innoxious and it might have deceived a very wary person So that it is very foolish and absurd to bring in a Demon from Hell or an Angel from Heaven or a Soul from above to solve a thing that seems strange and uncouth by when the craft and cunning of Men if duely considered and examined are sufficient to perfom the same and much more 5. And in this place of Exodus where our Translators say and the Magicians did so or in like manner with their inchantments the word being Belahatehem ought to have been rendered suis laminis as we have proved before that is with their bright plates of metal for the word doth not signifie Inchantments in any one place in all the Old Testament And if truth and reason may bear any sway at all it must be understood that they were deeply skilled in natural and lawful Magick as generally the Aegyptians and the Eastern Nations were though they did use and apply it to an evil end namely the resisting the power of Gods miracles wrought by Moses and Aaron and so by this word suis laminis with their plates of Metal must be understood Metalline bright plates framed under certain fit constellations and insculped with certain figures by which naturally without any Diabolical assistance they did perform strange things and made the shapes of some things appear to the eye And though we may be derided and laughed to scorn by the ignorant or hardly taxed and censured by the greatest part of Cynical Criticks yet we cannot so far stifle the knowledge of our own brains nor be so cowardly in maintaining the truth but we must assert That anciently there hath been a certain lawful art whereby some sorts of metals might be mixed together under a due constellation and after ingraven in like fit Planetary times with sundry figures that would naturally work strange things And this piece of learning though it may justly be numbred amongst the Desiderata and might very well have been placed in the Catalogue of the Deperdita of Pancirollus yet was it well known unto the ancient Magicians and by them often with happy success put into practise And amongst those many noble attempts of that most learned and experienced though much condemned person Paracelsus this part of learning was not the least that he laboured to restore The truth of which we thus prove 1. That there have been formerly in the World many such like planetary Sigills or Talismans as the Persians called them is manifest from the authority of divers Authors of good credit and account For the learned and most acute Julius Scaliger relateth this saying The novelty of this History also may sharpen the wits of the studious In the Books of the Arabick Aegyptians he saith it is thus written That Hameth Ben Thaulon the Governour of Aegypt for the Arabians did command that a certain leaden Image or Picture of a Crocodile which was found in the ground-work of a certain Temple should be melted in the fire From which time the inhabitants did complain that those Countreys were more infested with Crocodiles than before against whose mischief that Image had been framed and buried there by the more ancient Wisemen or Magicians Junctin upon the Sphear of Sacrobosco affirms that his Master who was a Carmelite named Julianus Ristorius à Prato one that was not any whit superstitious was intreated by a Friend of his to make one of these Images for the cure of the Cramp which he was very much subject to This learned Man resenting his Friends sufferings taught him the manner how to make one so that he not content to make only one made divers of them when the Moon was in the Sign Cancer and that with so good success and with such certainty as that he immediately found the benefit of it Confecit saith he plures imagines pro se amicis suis quibus effectis unam pro se accepit liberatus est The same he reports of a certain Florentine a very Pious Man who made one of these Talismans for to drive away the Gnats which he did with good success Nicolaus Florentinus saith he Vir religiosus fecit in una constellatione annulum ad expellendum culices quas vulgo Zanzaras dicimus sub certis determinatis imaginibus usus fuit constellatione Saturni infortunati eâ—pulit culices Another Story take from an Arabick Cosmographer cited by Joseph Scaliger thus This Talisman he saith is to be seen in the Countrey of Hamptz in a City bearing the same name and it is only the Figure of a Scorpion graved upon one of the Stones in a certain Tower which is of so great virtue as that it suffers not any either Serpent or Scorpion to come within the City And if any one for experiment sake bring one of these out of the field into the City it is no sooner at the Gate but that it dies suddenly This Figure hath this virtue besides that when any one is stung with a Scorpion or bitten by any other Serpent they need but
to observe our ordinary Gallus Turcicus vel Gallopavus how quiet and demisly sometimes he goes and then again upon the suddain by some emotion of spirit how will his train be advanced and extended his barbles swelled and puffed up and the appendicle that comes over the bill or rostrum be extended or contracted at the pleasure of the animal And much more to consider the quick and suddain change of the colours of both those parts as sometimes to a whitishness or an ash-colour sometimes purple sometimes blewish and sometimes pure red so quick a motion that creature can give to the spirits and blood that they can so quickly alter and change not only the colours but also the magnitude And much more may we rationally believe that Angels can alter and change the figure and colour of their bodies according to the ministrations they are imployed about 3. The Scripture informeth us that in or at the resurrection the bodies of men shall be as the Angels that are in heaven sicut Angeli Now this Analogy comparison or assimilation would be altogether false if Angels had no bodies at all but were meerly incorporeal then it would follow that the bodies after the resurrection were made meer Spirits and so ceased to be bodies which is false according to the doctrine of S. Paul who sheweth us plainly that after the resurrection they are changed in qualities into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual bodies for there is a natural Soul or Animal body and so likewise there is a spiritual body From whence we necessarily conclude that Angels have Bodies and that they are pure spiritual ones Now we shall come to the other point intended in this Chapter that is to shew that the opinion of Angels assuming bodies of the Elements here below is a meer figment as must of necessity follow if this be a truth that we have proved to wit that they have bodies for then assuming of other bodies must needs be in vain and to no purpose but we shall also shew the weakness and folly of that Tenent by these positive reasons following 1. Those that maintain the assumption of bodies dare not affirm that they are so invested with those bodies as are humane souls with their bodies for then there must be vital union which cannot be but by Divine Ordination But it doth not any where either by Scripture or sound rational consequence appear that either God appointed or gave power to Angels to assume to themselves bodies of what shape they pleased or that he ordained a vital union betwixt the Angels and those bodies they are supposed to assume either by Creation or Generation and therefore if they did assume any such bodies it must but be as we put on and off our Garments or as Players put on and off their Perukes Vizards and Garments according to the several things or persons they intend to represent ad personate 2. But the great question will be who are the Taylors that shape and frame them these vestments what must it be themselves that shape and figurate these bodies as snails are supposed to frame and make their shells and houses Surely not because if they be simply incorporeal then they can make no contact with corporeal matter and without a corporeal contact there can be no alteration nor organization of matter and consequently they cannot frame or shape themselves such vestments neither can any other actor or agent be assigned that can frame them and therefore the Tenent is a most ridiculous figment And again if they should have such solid bodies framed of the inferior Elements as the body of a Serpent as the Witchmongers do suppose the Devil assumed when he deceived Evah and such bodies as Demons are vainly supposed to assume to carry the heavy bodies of Men and Women in the air then those bodies must needs be of that solidity and compactness that they cannot suddainly be wasted and dissipated and then doubtlesly we should find them sometimes as we do the sloughs Exuvias or skins of Snakes for they could not be consumed in a moment And it were horrid to suppose that God should instantaneously create them and as suddainly dissipate and waste them So that in verity there is nothing of certitude but it may be looked at as a Chimera and a Poetical Fable 3. And if the Angels had not such bodily organs wherein they could move walk speak and perform other such actions withal before they assumed or crept into such vestments their being inclosed and invested with them and in them would no more fit and inable them to walk or speak in them than would an hollow Image inable a lame Man to walk or a dumb Man to speak that were inclosed in them Therefore suppose as the Witchmongers hold that the Devil should appear to a Witch in the assumed shape of a Cat Dog Foal or such like and walk and talk with him or her if before that assumption of such a shape the Devil could not walk and speak the having crept into such a vestment would no more inable him to speak than a dead Cat in an empty hogshead or wind pent in an empty bladder CHAP. XI Of the Knowledge and Power of faln Angels THese evil Angels of which we treat did doubtless before they left their habitation and did not keep their first estate participate of the same knowledge and power that those Angels still retain that did not fall into that defection and rebellion so that our disquisition must be what knowledge and power they have lost and what they still do retain and this we may consider in these particulars 1. That there are many things of which they are totally ignorant and nescient 2. The knowledge that they have is dark and confused 1. Concerning the first this must of necessity be a certain rule that what the holy and elect Angels do not know the evil and faln Angels must much more ignore except the knowledge of evil and guilt from which the good Angels are free and these may be reduced to these few points 1. We here may consider that the knowledge of Angels is to be restrained into these three ranks first either their innate and congenerate knowledge or secondly their infused or revealed knowledge by God in his Son Jesus Christ or thirdly their experimental knowledge that they gain by observation and experience and it is of the first only that we speak in this Paragraph and the rest we shall handle anon 2. That our cogitations desires and affections are not known to the Angels unless they manifest themselves either by external signs or effects or be revealed from God Andtheseways they may be known but not otherwise for it is manifest that Satan had darted it or put it into the mind of Judas to betray Christ yet had he so cunningly carried himself that neither by any effect nor sign did the Disciples know it until our Saviour did reveal it unto them
So that the Scriptures do plainly inform us of the truth in this particular as For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him For this is only proper to God to search the heart and to understand the cogitations as saith the Text For thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men he only knoweth them and neither Angels nor men and though the heart be deceitful and desperately wicked yet God doth search the heart and try the reins So that if the good Angels do not know the cogitations desires and affections of Mens hearts except God either reveal them unto them or they be made manifest by signs and effects much less must the bad Angels know or understand them 3. Those things that are meerly contingent and those which depend upon free will cannot be known of the Angels unless they be revealed by God as is manifest by the Text. Produce your cause saith the Lord bring forth your strong Idols or Diviners saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth and shew us what shall happen let them shew the former things what they be that we may consider them and know the later end of them or declare us things for to come Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods yea do good or evil that we may be dismayed and behold it together And as the good Angels know not contingent things or those that depend upon free will much less do the faln Angels understand them as is manifest in these examples The Angel that was sent of God to warn Joseph to take the child Jesus and fly into Aegypt did not of his own innate knowledge either in it self or in its cause as the Schoolmen speak know that Herod would seek the child to destroy him because it was truly a contingent thing and did only depend upon the free act of Herods will and therefore by Divine Goodness and Providence it was revealed to the Angel thereby to preserve the life of the child and to fulfil the Scriptures Neither do the faln Angels know future events that are contingent or depend upon the free will of men as is manifest in Satans tempting and afflicting of Job which he intended to have been his destruction and therefore did falsly divine and foretel that Job would curse God to his face but the event was not according to his lying conjecture but to the manifestation of Jobs Faith and Patience and produced his glorious restoration So the lying spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets did not know that Ahab would go up to Ramoth Gilead or that he should be slain there but that God did reveal it unto him and sent him forth with a powerful commission to prevail So that all the predictions and Divinations of the Devil or his Angels are nothing but lying guesses and uncertain conjectures for what can be expected from him who was a liar from the beginning and the father of lies Neither were his Idol-priests Wizzards Diviners or Prophets any better but meer conjecturers and lyars as was most manifest in all those Oracles that were amongst the Grecians which uttered nothing but cheats lies equivocations and ambiguous responsions And those amongst the Jews were no better who took upon them to foretel and divine for others but could not or did not foresee their own destruction as is manifest in Ahabs Prophets slain by Elijah and the Priests of Baal slain by Jehu and therefore must all those needs be deceived that run to Divining Witches and Wizzards of which sort of couzeners we have too many And if against this it be objected that the Devils did know and confess that Jesus was the Son of God and therefore if they could tell this that was so great a mystery much more easily may they know other inferior things and so may foretel future contingencies to which we give this responsion 1. We only affirm that Devils did not know Christ by their innate or inbred knowledge but they might know him by the revelation of the Father and by the things that were written of him by the Prophets and by the observation of those things that were manifested at his birth and shewed and done in his life time 2. And it is manifest that God did not altogether intend to have him hidden from the knowledge of Devils because he ordered that the spirit should lead him into the wilderness that he might be tempted that his power and victory might be shown over the Prince of darkness And the end that the wisdom of God had in this was that the Devils to their greater terror and horror might know their Conquerour and by whose power they should be tormented and thrown into the Abyss or bottomless pit and this made them cry out saying Art thou come to torment us before the time and also force us not into the Abyss or deep 3. The Devils might know this because the Angels had proclaimed his birth to the Shepherds and told them that unto them was born that day in the City of David a Saviour which was Christ the Lord And they might know it from the appearing of the Holy Ghost in the form of a Dove and resting upon him and by the voice which said from Heaven this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased And they might know it by the conquest that Christ had over the Devil and by their daily being cast out by the power of his word and command as by the finger of God 4. The mysteries of Salvation cannot be known unto the good Angels but by Divine Revelation much less unto the bad ones as witnesseth the Text For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God The mysteries therefore of Salvation as they have been decreed by himself in his eternal counsel are not known unto the Angels but by the revelation of the spirit of God and the complement and fulfilling of his promises So concerning the restauration or precise day and hour of the coming of Christ do not the Angels in Heaven know though their knowledge be vast and great and therefore much less those faln and rebellious Angels that are chained in everlasting darkness untill the judgment of the great day 5. And as that which is not understood of the blessed and elect Angels must needs be unknown unto the faln Angels so likewise there are many things known to the good Angels that are hidden or but conjectured at by the bad ones as may be manifest in these instances 1. The blessed Angels know and see the face of the Father in beatifical vision as saith the Text Take heed that ye offend not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in heaven their Angels do alwayes
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
hath by his created power that ability that he can slay in one night an hundred fourscore and five thousand as it is written the Angel did in the camp of the Assyrians but that it was brought to pass by the power of Jehovah superadded unto him to work the great deliverance of Hezekiah and his people Upon which place the learned Expositor John Calvin saith thus Solus quidem dominus satis per se potest ac certè solus nos servat Angeli enim manus quodammodo sunt ipsius Unde etiam Virtutes Potestates vocantur Interim haec vis soli Deo tribuenda cujus organa tantummodò sunt Angeli ne in superstitionem incidamus From whence we may note these two things 1. That even Devils are but the organs and instruments by which God accomplisheth his will and executeth his wrath and justice and so are but as tormenters and executioners to act no more than what they are appointed and commanded to do 2. We may observe that in times past they had large Commissions given and great power superadded to perform great wonders for the destruction of the wicked which was done for great and extraordinary ends such as in these days the Lord doth seldom or never use and therefore there can be no reason now shewed why Devils should have any extraordinary power added unto them in working strange feats for Witches and Sorcerers 5. It will much conduce to the clearing of this point of the power of Devils to examine into what place they are faln or since their rebellion into what Prison they are shut and this we shall give in the Thesis of learned Zanchy who saith thus All the evil Angels were thrust down from Heaven into places that are below the Celestial Orbs to wit into this air and below as it were into a caliginous Prison where they are reserved unto the Universal Judgment as bound with chains And this is plain from the words of S. Peter who saith For if God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment To which accordeth that of Jude And the Angels that kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day For as learned Musculus tells us Decet Christianum hominem ea modestia cautio ut nihil affirmet nec si quis alius affirmaverit inconsideratè recipiat quod non certo veritatis testimonio è sacris literis desumpto confirmari queat To this we shall only add what the acute and learned Theologue Amesius notes upon this place of Peter which in English is this In general he saith we are taught that they did not keep their first estate that is they did forsake righteousness and that station in which they were placed of God and afterwards they have exercised from the beginning envy lies and murther against Men. Also he saith we are taught that they were a great number that were partakers of this defection and therefore the Apostle speaketh in the plural number 1. They are said to be thrust down in Tartarum into Hell by reason of the commutation of estate and condition because that from a most high condition which they received by creation they were cast down to an estate most low 2. By reason of commutation of place because they were thrust down from a place of beatitude where they were conversant about the Throne of God with the rest of the Angels into an inferiour place subject to sin and misery But that this place is in the lowest parts of the earth as the Papists do hold cannot be made forth from the Scriptures but rather the contrary for they are said to be conversant and to rule in the air and to walk to and fro in the earth seeking the subversion of Men. This at the least is manifest from the Scriptures and ought to satisfie those that are not too curious 1. That they suffer a great change of estate and condition 2. That they are excluded and shut out from their first habitation 3. That they are in such a place where they suffer both the pain of loss and of sense They are said to be delivered over to darkness partly in respect of sin and partly in respect of misery for darkness in Scripture doth denote both and they are said to be delivered in chains by a metaphor taken from facinorous persons that are condemned and kept bound in prison with chains and the chains are these 1. Obfirmation or obduration in sins 2. An utter despair of any freedom or deliverance 3. A terrible expectation of extream misery and an horrid fear of being cast into the abysse or deep 4. The Providence of God which continually watches over their custody imprisonment and punishment They are said to be reserved to damnation because they are so bound up in these evils and miseries that they never can escape and yet these are but the beginnings only of their miseries for they are hereafter to go into that everlasting fire that is prepared for the Devil and his Angels 6. Though the Devils be said to be reserved in everlasting chains of darkness yet are they said sometimes to be loosed and to go to and fro in the earth and to walk up and down in it and that Satan doth like a roaring lion walk about seeking whom he may devour Which must be understood as we have shewed before that in respect of his evil will malice and envy he seeketh and desireth the overthrow of all mankind but yet is so restrained that he doth but act what where when and so far only as God doth limit and order him For though it be usually said that God doth permit him yet it cannot be understood as a bare and nude permission as though God should suffer him to go so loose and at liberty that he may exert and exercise his power to the uttermost for then all the godly should be destroyed both in Souls and Bodies and God should only sit by as a bare spectator not as an Orderer Ruler and Governour even as though an hungry fierce Lion that had been chained up in a grate should be let loose to rage and run where he would and to kill and devour what he could and thus the Witchmongers do suppose of him which is false and contrary to the testimony of Gods word But when the Almighty maketh use of Satan or his Angels they are only so let loose that he hath a hook in their Nostrils and their Necks in a chain that they can act no more nor no further than he ordereth and gives them leave to accomplish and thus are they limited not only by his irresistible will and decree but they are also watched over and ruled by the good Angels that are as it were their keepers and overseers So
God granted to them when they are sent forth to perform such or such an act For as it may not be rationally granted that the two Angels that were instruments for the destroying of Sodom and Gomorrha did bring down fire and brimstone from Heaven by their own created power nor that the destroying Angel in Egypt did in one night kill all the first-born by his own power but by the power of the Almighty granted unto him in that mission so it is not rational to suppose that although Satan might by internal motions and spiritual temptations prevail with the Sabaeans and Chaldaeans who were his Vassals wherein he could work what he would to take away the Oxen Asses and Camels of Job and to slay his Servants though I say he might do this by his created power yet that he should bring fire from Heaven to destroy the sheep or that he by his created power could raise such a wind as could blow down the house in which the Sons and Daughters of Job were and slay them is not probable but that it was performed by that assisting power that was granted him of God to effect that affliction upon Job that God had determined for the trial and manifestation of his Faith and Patience which cannot in any reason be said to be done by Devils in their transactions with Witches and therefore must needs be Fables and Chimeras 5. And whereas he addeth that the Devils can perform all kind of motions with natural bodies and that none can resist them it is too large by far for by that rule they might shake and remove the earth which they cannot do for it abideth firm according to Gods appointment in the creation And it is absurd to think that the superior and good Angels cannot resist them who have far greater force and might than the faln Angels have 6. And whereas he would prove the power of Devils by that of the spirit of the Lord conveying of Philip from the Ethiopian Eunuch which supposing it to be a good Angel it must likewise be granted to be furnished from God to have that power to carry him away and doth not necessarily conclude that the Angel did it by its proper created power neither is the consequence good to argue that what a good Angel may do that therefore a bad one may do the same or the like for their powers and strength are not equal the one retaining what he had by creation the other losing much by reason of his rebellion and fall as an outlawed person hath not in a civil respect the same power that another person hath that is under a legal capacity and as a prisoner that is loaden with chains gives and fetters can neither walk leap or run so fast as he that hath none no more can the fettered Devils move with that agility and celerity that the good Angels can do that have no fetters nor chains at all 2. A second kind of actions that he assigneth unto Devils is that they cannot only move bodies locally but also can alter them diverse and sundry ways as to make hot things of cold and so on the contrary white things of black and black of white and can make of fair things deformed ones and so on the contrary and can make sound bodies sick and sick bodies sound affecting them with various qualities But these particulars he leaves altogether without proof except one Text in these words And he cried with a loud voice unto the four Angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the seas From whence we shall observe these things 1. It is granted that God doth make use of evil Angels to punish the wicked and to chastise and afflict the godly and in the effecting of these things that they have a power given them to hurt the earth and the Sea and things therein as to bring tempests thunder lightning plague dearth drought and the like but that in the effecting these things they have a dative power above what they had in Creation and that they are commissioned and sent by God upon purpose to fulfil and effect these things and so are as the organs and instruments to perform the will of God in his justice and are always for such ends as tend to the Glory of the Creator But for Devils to be sent to play such ludicrous filthy and wicked tricks with Witches as is commonly affirmed suits not at all with the Wisdom and Justice or Glory of God neither have we any such examples in holy Writ no further but that Devils only are Gods Executioners or Hangmen 2. It doth no where appear that the Devils can alter or change the shape or qualities of things at his own will and pleasure but the contrary is manifest in the Priests of Baal in the time of Elijah upon the Mount Carmel where their Idols or Gods were to shew their power by firing the Sacrifice a thing which if Satan could have done for them with all his power it had been most advantagious for his Kingdom but it is evident that he neither did nor could procure as much fire as would burn the Sacrifice though earnestly called upon by his best Servants the Idolatrous Priests But thou wilt say his power was then restrained and withholden at that time from effecting any such thing Well grant it were so what was the end that God used that restriction upon him at that time for was it not because God would not contribute to magnifie the Devils Kingdom nor to suffer him any longer to deceive his people But to discover the weakness of his power who is not able of his own created power to bring forth fire where there is none not able to break a paper window unless he have leave and power given him from God And therefore much less can for the magnifying of his own power and to dishonour the Creator appear as a Cat Dog Squirrel or the like to Witches suck upon their bodies have carnal copulation with them or transport them in the air for this were to advance his credit too much and utterly derogatory to the Glory of God 3. Concerning Satans being an instrument and means to bring and cause diseases it may be considered these two ways 1. In an ordinary way he seduceth and draweth men to gluttony and drunkenness by which way of iâ—gurgitation and excess they draw and contract to themselves diverse Diseases as Coughs Catarrhs Dropsies Scorbutick Distempers and the like Others he draweth to insatiable lust and concupiscence that thereby they fall into the Lues Venereae and the whole troop of those dire and horrid Symptomes that accompany it whereby Men and Women undergo great misery pains sickness and sometimes death Sometimes he pusheth Men on so far in malice wrath choler and passion and many other such like ways that they wound lame and sometimes kill one another and in this sense he may be said to cause diseases diverse ways 2. But