being all embodied Spirits that is vitally united to Matter they must of necessity be capable both of pain and pleasure the sense of which is more or less acute and vigorous according to either the Tenuity or Grossness of their Bodies and by consequence they are liable and obnoxious to harm and injury from those of their own Society which considering the mischievousness of their natures and dispositions each ones particular Lusts being the grand rule and measure of his Actions would certainly breed an infinite Ataxy and confusion amongst them and at last the ruine and destruction of their Kingdom if not prevented by some external restraint and discipline Wherefore they being all so deeply lapsed into the Animal life whose very foundation is self-love and preservation of the irregular Exertions of their sensual Appetites their Reason which though perfectly subservient to their brutish Faculties yet is no whit abated or diminished by their degeneracy would not fail of moulding them into a Body Politick and enacting by their general consent and approbation for the maintenance and security of their usurped Dominions all such Laws and necessary Provisions as might both secure themselves from outrages and villanies committed upon one another and the more advantageously and successfully drive on the general trade of wickedness throughout the whole kingdom of Hell and Darkness 2. But besides this there is another cogent reason and inducement to believe there is an Order and Government among the dark Fiends in that they are not all of the same rank and quality but may probably have as many divisions among them as there are diversities of Animals upon Earth though they all agree in the common Angelick nature which if so that thirst and desire of Rule and Authority which is so largly spread and diffused through their natures and capacities and so great a branch of the sensual life to which they are wholly addicted will undoubtedly stir up the more powerful and politick among them to take the reins of Government and Authority into their hands and prescribe Laws to the rest such as may both establish and preserve the Empire and Kingdom of Darkness from domestick and intestine broils and dissentions and uphold it when assaulted by forein Invasions And there seems to be an admirable consent between what Reason suggests and the Holy Scriptures in which mention is made of the Prince of Devils who is likewise called the Prince of the aiery Powers or Spirits And to quicken us up to a studious watchfulness and diligence against the latent frauds and machinations of those Infernal hunters we are assured that our contest is against Principalities and Powers and against the Aerial wicked Spirits under their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Prince And the learned Dr. Hammond in his Notes upon that place of S. Paul supposes the Apostle by those several expressions to denote several sorts of Devils either in respect of their Mansions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Ignatius ad Ephes. Aerial or Earthly Spirits or else of the inclinations which they suggest The Earthly Devils suggesting grosser carnal appetites filthiness of the flesh c. the Aerial pride vain-glory malice c. the filthiness of the Spirit And Drusius upon Ephes. 2.2 6.12 cites two Iewish Authors who speak after this manner Debet homo scire intelligere à terrâ usque ad firmamentum omnium plena esse turmis praefectis c. i.e. A man is to know and understand that all from the Earth to the firmament is full and no place empty of troops of Spirits with their Chieftains and such as are Praepositi all which have their residence and flye up and down in the Air some of them incite to peace others to war some to goodness and life others to wickedness and death And that there are great diversities among the evil Daemons some being more Aiery and Spiritual transacting the affairs of the kingdom of Hell by subordinate Instruments and others more gross and feculent employed in the basest and most slavish actions some sportful and ludicrous others savage and cruel the Sacred Writings give us likewise some further intimation of In Mar. ix 25. we read that our Saviour cast out a dumb and deaf Spirit which certainly denotes a distinct kind of Devil it being not so probable that he was called so from the effects wrought in the possessed for when the Disciples asked our Blessed Lord the reason why they could not cast out that Devil whose dispossession they had attempted he seems to tell them that it was a peculiar kind of Devil that could only be ejected by Prayer and Fasting Others sport themselves in ratling among their chains and fetters and whirling round storms and tempests in their Aiery Regions and Dominions to the destruction of Men and Beasts and the Fruits of the Earth as they did with Iob. And the Psalmist affirms the evil Angels to be the executioners of the sadder sentences of God the Judge of the world Psal. 78.49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger wrath and indignation and trouble by sending evil Angels among them where the Septuagint read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And these are the grim Serjeants and inexorable Officers who carry the Souls of wicked men to their places of punishment which therefore Origen calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the publick Executioners and the Author of the golden Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subterranean Daemons Now this diversity of Devils must needs cast them into a Political Government 3. Nor is it to be thought but they would retain the same Order and Government in this their dark Empire in which they were instated while they continued faithful subjects of the kingdom of Light Now it is most certain that there are different degrees of Dignity and Order among the good Angels and S. Paul gives us an account of some of them Col. i. 16. For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers And here it will not be amiss to give the Reader a short discourse of S. Ierome as a Commentary upon these words of S. Paul produced by Zanchy if he have not miscited him in his Treatise of Angels Nunc quaerendum est ubi Apostolus haec quatuor nomina c. i. e. Now let us search where the Apostle found these four names written Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers and whence he had them For it is not just to think that he who was so well read in the Scriptures should speak any thing that was not contained in those sacred Volumes I suppose therefore that he either brought to light some secret Tradition of the Jews or at least that he understanding the Law to be Spiritual put a more sublime sence upon those things which were written as it were according to the History and Letter And
that which is related of Kings and Princes of Generals Tribunes and Centurions in the Book of Numbers and of the Kings he knew was an Image or Embleme of other Kings and Princes namely that in the Heavenly Hosts there are Principalities Powers Dominions and Thrones and other names of Offices which we can neither name nor I suppose Paul himself while in this earthly Body would enumerate Now if there be Thrones and Dominions Principalities and Powers they must of necessity have Subjects and those that fear and serve them and such as may be protected by their strength Which distributions of Offices are not only at present but shall be in the world to come that through several advancements and Honours and Ascensions and Descensions Beings may proportionably arise or decline and may be under sometimes one Dominion Principality or Power and sometimes another We mortals that are quickly to be dissolved into dust and ashes if by the consent of men we should be made Kings we have presently as many diversities and multitudes of attendants as may more easily be conceived than spoken and shall we think that God the Lord of Lords and King of Kings is contented only with one single kind of Ministry Thus far the Father in a Platonical strain Mr. Mede somewhere speaks of an ancient Tradition among the Iews that there are seven principal Angels which minister before the Throne of God and are therefore called Archangels some of them we read of Michael Gabriel Raphael and 2 Esdr. 4.36 Ieremiel Which seven principal Spirits are mentioned in Zech. 4.10 where they are described to be the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole Earth And perhaps Daniel instituted the seven chief Princes of Persia that the Persian Court might resemble that of Heaven for 't is very probable says that learned Author that Daniel had a great influence in moulding the Persian Government A notable place to this purpose and which may indeed serve as a Commentary upon the forementioned Text in the Prophecy of Zechary is that which Apuleius relates of the Persian Court Sed inter eos Aures Regiae Imperatoris Oculi quidam homines vocabantur Per quae officiorum genera Rex ille ab hominibus Deus esse credebatur cùm omnia quaecunque ibi gererentur ille Otacustarum relatione dicebat i.e. But among them there were certain men which were called the eyes and ears of the Prince By which distribution of offices that King was thought by his subjects to be a God for as much as all things that were done within his Empire he had knowledge of from the relation of the Otacustae The same Tradition of the Government of the World by seven chief Spirits under God the great Monarch is yet retained by the Persians inhabiting the borders of India The summ of all amounts to this That since there is a subordinacy among the good Angels and that they are not all of the same Power and Authority it follows that even among the bad there was the like difference in their Order and Quality before their lapse and that there can be no reason given why this distinction should not hold good amongst them now as well as before CHAP. III. That these wicked Spirits being supposed Rational Creatures must needs be studious in diffusing their own sinful Nature upon all capable subjects and thereby of enlarging the bounds of their usurped Dominions THE grand Prince of the Infernal Kingdom having so far successfully advanced his rebellious design in the seduction of infinite numbers of Spirits of whom in the Ethereal Regions under God he might probably be the great Hierarchal head and finding himself cast down from those happy Mansions together with all his wicked Associates must needs cast an envious eye upon the Kingdom of Light and those bright Legions who yet stood firm in their native innocence And it cannot be thought but that those principles of Pride and Malice and an immoderate thirst after Rule and Revenge being so fully awakened in him would likewise edge him with a keen desire of making further attempts upon the Kingdom of Light and waging 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eternal war with all those powers he saw adverse and cross to his designs No sooner was Man created and as the beloved off-spring of God placed in Paradise but that crooked Serpent winds in himself and by his subtle wiles and gilded flatteries despoils him of his beautiful Robe of Innocence and throws his Honour to the ground Of which Sacred story the Pagans had gotten some knowledge as appears from what Pherecydes writes That the great Daemon who wasted the Earth was a Serpent and hence calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Serpentine kind and generation setting mankind as it were in battel aray against God And what mischief he all along designed and still carries on against the race and posterity of Adam the Histories of former Ages and the present state of the World will easily inform us So mightily did this grand deceiver who abode not himself in the Truth disseminate and diffuse his own wicked nature amongst men that God the good and gracious maker of all things designed to destroy the works of his own hands and by an universal deluge wash away that poison wherewith this old Serpent had infected the Earth But notwithstanding this the Tyrant kept still his hold and with the increase of the world increased likewise his own strength and dominion making whole Nations to become his Vassals and do him service For what else can we think when we read of whole Countries over-spread with wickedness and vice barbarity and lust being adopted into their Laws and practised in their most solemn Religions Porphyry tells us that these airy Goblins delight in nothing more nor contend more eagerly than to be accounted Gods and their Prince that he may usurp the place of the most high God And this assertion of his is sufficiently made good in that they constantly commanded Sacrifices to be offered to them throughout the whole Pagan world Nor did their boundless Pride think this a sufficient insultation over the calamitous state of mankind unless they offered up likewise to them their own bloud Thus we read in Histories of Children young Virgins and Men offered up in Sacrifice to these bloud-thirsty Deities Nay even the more civilized Romans admitted the shedding of humane bloud to Iupiter Latialis which barbarous custom continued to the time of Iustin Martyr and Tatian I need not insist longer upon this since the Sacred writings acquaint us that God's own people were sometimes so miserably depraved and Paganized as to sacrifice their Sons and Daughters unto Devils Nor is the uncleanness and filthiness practised among the Pagans in their Religious Worship less notorious Insomuch that those very Festival days which were consecrated to the honour of the Gods were celebrated with
such spectacles that grave Cato was ashamed to be present at them It would be too tedious to recite the many obscenities acted in the Pagan Worship and recorded in their own Authors I shall therefore-content my self with what S. Austin observes from the filthiness used in the Sacrifices offered to Cybele the mother of the Gods where he supposes that Scipio if his Mother were a Goddess and he were asked whether he would have such silthy spectacles as were used in the Worship of Cybele to be part likewise of his mothers honour he would certainly avow that he had rather have his Mother lye dead and senseless than to live a Goddess to hear and allow such Ribaldry and that the worst man would be ashamed to have a Mother like that Mother of the Gods But you will say to what purpose is all this Surely only to shew the intolerable Pride and Insolence of the Dark Kingdom and what delight they take not only in the gratification of their own Lusts and Passions but in rendring mankind the unhappy and miserable subjects of their contempt and scorn And he that doubts whether their envy at the practice of true goodness or their hatred of us be so great as is supposed let him but consider what Grotius speaks concerning them That they procured all the mischief they could to the worshippers of the one most high God by provoking both Magistrates and People to inflict punishments upon them For when it was lawful for Poets to sing of the Murders and Adulteries committed by their Gods and for the Epicures to take away all Divine Providence and any other Religion though never so different in Rites was allowed as the Egyptian the Phrygian the Grecian the Thuscan and the Sacred Rites of Rome even then generally the Jews alone were made ridiculous as appears by Satyrs and Epigrams written upon them and sometimes also suffered banishment And as for Christians they were afflicted with most cruel punishments No other cause whereof can be given than that both these Sects did worship one God whose honour was impeached by the multitude of such Gods as the Heathen adored who did not so much vye one with another as with him Which is evidently confirmed by that expression of our Saviour Christ in his Epistle to the Smyrnian Church Behold The Devil shall cast some of you into prison i.e. the Pagans incensed and stirred up by the old Serpent the Devil And S. Peter describes him not only by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that brings as it were an Indictment or accusation against Men before God but sets out the terribleness and destructiveness of his Nature by that of a roaring Lion walking about seeking whom he may devour CHAP. IV. That the great end of our Saviour's coming into the World was to rescue men from the Tyranny Slavery and Oppression of the Dark Kingdom THat the Apostate Prince of the Aiery Legions had miserably enslaved the World is already demonstrated nor is it at all inconsistent with the Righteous Oeconomy of Providence to suffer those to fall under his Dominion whose treacherous counsels and inspirations they so willingly hearkned to in their more happy state of life For what more warrantable piece of justice can there be than that men should taste the fruits of their own doings And since by choice and affection they listed themselves under the Government of the Devil that now they should suffer his barbarous Tyranny and Domination whether with or against their wills And I remember that Origen somewhere tells Celsus that it is no more incongruous for God to let the Devil Rule over whole Nations for some time than to suffer a Tyrant to preside over them as some of the Roman Emperors were But though this grand Usurper thought himself secure in thus Lording and Domineering over the greatest part of the World at his pleasure yet in the fulness of time a conspicuous and most remarkable Providence appeared for the rescue of mankind and the meek Lamb of God came down to break in pieces the Kingdom of Darkness to dismantle all the strong holds to reduce revolted Man to his former Fealty and Allegiance and to take into his hands the Government of the whole world That as the Apostle speaks to the Scepter of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth And that this was the design of the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour S. Iohn assures us For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil For such an effectual Engine is the Gospel where it is believed and entertained in the simplicity of it to wind off men from their adherence to the Prince of Darkness and to dethrone him from his unlimited power in the world that upon the Preaching of the Seventy Disciples whom our Lord sent forth he tells them at their return that the success they had was a Praeludium of the utter subversion of the Kingdom of Satan which should at last as perfectly vanish and disappear as lightning that leaves no print or footsteps of it self in the spacious Tracts of Heaven And the event showed the truth of things For after many cruel oppositions made by the Dark Principality Christianity so far prevailed as to become the Religion of the Roman Empire and the great Dragon that old Serpent called the Devil and Satan was cast out with his Angels neither was there place found any more in Heaven i.e. Paganism or that whole Religious worship whereby the Devil had for so many Ages abused and enthralled mankind was abolished and destroyed the Emperors becoming Christians To this purpose Grotius discourses admirably where he proves that the Miracles of our Saviour proceeded not from any evil Spirit because that the Doctrine of Christ was quite opposite and contrary to bad Spirits For it prohibits the worshipping of evil Angels and disswades men from all uncleanness of affections and manners wherein such Spirits are much delighted And this is also plain for that wheresoever the doctrine of the Gospel was received and established there followed the downfal of the worship of Daemons and of Magical Arts and one God was worshipped with a detestation of Daemons whose Power and Authority Porphyry acknowledges was broken by the coming of Christ. In a word our most Holy Iesus in all things opposed and walked exactly contrary to the Powers of Darkness chastising by his humility the pride of that great Lucifer confronting by his innocency and purity the iniquity and uncleanness of the Black Society and withdrawing abused mortals from the madness of Polytheism and Idolatry and converting their hearts to the worship of the One only true God who made Heaven and Earth So that by the coming of Christ and the propagation of his most holy Doctrine throughout the world men are brought from bondage and slavery to true liberty and