therefore they ought always spiritually to watch and stand upon their guard lest their subtile and cruel enemy the Devil take them unawares or by his Stratagems surprize them For he is that old crafty Serpent that hath innumerable wiles and while he intendeth one thing he pretendeth another and like a cunning Enemy gives a false Alarm at the one side of the Camp while he assaulteth another or making false fires or shews he seemeth to march away when in the dark of the night he intendeth to fall on So lest the Christian should be watchful and prevail he laboureth by false Teachers which are the Magicians and Sorcerers in the Mystery to draw them from their vigilancy by possessing their minds with these lying Tenents that the Devil comes in the shape of a Cat or a Dog to a Witch and bargains with her and the rest that whilst they are set at gaze to look for him in a bodily shape they are made negligent in their spiritual watch and so are diverted from the spiritual combate and thereby the power and practice of Godliness is diverted and obstructed Therefore we are to give heed unto the counsel of the Holy Ghost to resist the Devil in his spiritual assaults with the spiritual weapons that God bestows upon us and not to give heed to old Wives Fables or the false Doctrine of Witchmongers that make us watch for the Devil where he is not and in the mean time not to resist him where he is and that is within effectively in a spiritual manner for he worketh in the children of disobedience and therefore a Devil within us is more to be feared than a Devil without us 3. These Tenents do uphold that horrid lying and blasphemous opinion that our blessed Saviour did cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils For when they could not deny nor disprove the plain and open matters of fact that our Saviour did really cast out Devils then they devilishly invented and vented that though he did so yet it was but by the help of the Prince of Devils with whom he had a compact and so wrought by the greater power to over-power the less Concerning which Mr. Glanvil is pleased to tell us this In his return to which he denies not the supposition or possibility of the thing in general but clears himself by an appeal to the actions of their own children whom they would not tax so severely But by Mr. Glanvils leave we must affirm that though it be a bold assertion yet it is not true for our Saviour doth absolutely confute the supposition both in the general and also in reference to himself by shewing the absurdities of it and that by these Arguments 1. They supposed that the Devils had a Prince or a Ruler that was able to cast out Devils that were his Subjects and inferior unto him to which his answer is Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every City or house divided against it self cannot stand And if Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself how shall then his Kingdom stand Upon which a most learned Author doth thus paraphrase If any King mean to uphold his Kingdom he will not quarrel and fall out with his own Subjects and cast them out which are doing him service such divisions and civil dissentions as these will soon destroy his Kingdom and therefore cannot probably be affirmed of any prudent Ruler or Prince And Satans casting out Devils which are about his business possessing those he would have possest would be such a civil dissention as this and a breach From whence he necessarily concludeth that either Satan doth not cast out Satan or else that his Kingdom is divided and cannot stand but come to desolation But Satans Kingdom is not destroyed nor brought to desolation therefore it is not divided against it self and consequently Satan doth not cast out Satan Of this passage Theophylact saith Quomodo enim Daemones seipsos ejiciunt quum magis inter se conveniant Satan autem dicitur adversarius And to the same purpose is that of S. Chrysostom Si divisus est imbecillior factus est perit si autem perit qualiter potest alium projicere 2. Our Saviour saith further And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils by whom do your children cast them out For as the forecited Author saith Why may not I cast out Devils by the Power and in the Name of God as well as your Disciples and Country-men the Jews among you who being evil are therefore more obnoxious to suspicion of holding correspondence with Satans Kingdom do at least pretend to do When they in the Name of God go about to cast them out you affirm it to be the Power of God and so do I. Why should you not believe that of me which you affirm of your own Si expulsio saith S. Hierom Daemonum in filiis vestris Deo non Daemonibus deputatur quare in me idem opus non eandem habeat causam 3. Christ further urgeth But if I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God then the Kingdom of God is come upon you or unto you But if it be indeed by the Power of God that I do all this then it is clear that although you were not aware of it yet this is the time of the Messias whose Mission God hath testified with these Miracles and would not have done so if it had been a false Christ. So that he seemeth to conclude thus You Scribes and Pharisees seem to acknowledge that there are real possessions by Devils and that they may be thrown out either by the Power of God or the power of Satan But I have shewed the absurdity that Satan doth not cast out the Devils his obedient Subjects that are doing his service and therefore that what I do must be by the finger of God and that must certainly denote unto you that his Kingdom is come and that I am the Messias 4. He proceedeth Or else how can one enter into a strong mans house and spoil his goods except he first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house My dispossessing Satan of his goods and turning him out of those whom he possesses is an argument that I have mastered him and so that I do not use his power but that mine is greater than his and imployed most against his will and to his damage Quòd enim as saith a learned Father non potest Satanas Satanam ejicere manifestum ex dictis est sed quoniam neque alius potest eum ejicere nisi priùs eum superaverit omnibus est manifestum Constituitur ergo quod anteà cum manifestiori abundantia Dicit enim Tantum absisto ab hoc quòd utar Diabolo Coadjutore quòd praelior cum eo ligo eum Et hujus conjectura est quòd vasa ejus diripio Et sic contrarium ejus quod illi
a bare affirmation without proof that these things are verified to have been matters of fact and really performed both by authority and the evidence of sense which are both utterly false then they flye to this assertion That the Confessions of so many Witches in all Ages in several Countries at divers times and places all agreeing in these particulars are sufficient evidence of the truth of these matters To which we shall rejoyn that the Confessions of Witches however considered are not of credit and validity to prove these things but are in themselves null and void as false impossible and forged lyes which we shall make good by these following Reasons 1. The Witch must be taken to be either a person insanae vel sanae mentis and if they be insanae mentis their Confessions are no sufficient evidence nor worthy of any credit because there is neither Reason Law nor Equity that allows the testimony or confession of an Idiot Lunatick mad or doting person because they are not of a right and sound understanding and are not to be accounted as compotes mentis nor governed by rationability For as by the Civil Law mad Folks Idiots and Old men childish Bond-slaves and Villains are not capable of making a Will to dispose of Goods Lands or Chattels so much more are all these sorts of persons excepted for giving evidence by confessions or otherwise in matters concerning life and death which are of far greater weight and concernment And that these persons are of unsound understandings is manifest in all the points that they confess and therefore are no proof nor ought to be credited and that for these reasons 1. Because the things they confess are not attested by any other persons of integrity and sound judgment and they must of necessity be lyars because the Bond-slaves of the Devil whose works they will do and he was a lyar from the beginning 2. Because they confess things that are impossible as we shall prove anon and confiteri impossibilia insanienti◠est 3. There is no good end wherefore they make these Confessions neither do they receive any benefit by them either spiritual or temporal internal nor external And this doth sufficiently shew that they are deluded melancholy and mad persons and so their Confessions of no credit truth or validity 2. Their Confessions will be found null and false if we consider the impulsive cause that moves them to make them and the end wherefore they declare such false and lying matters and that in these particulars 1. The moving cause is not nor can be the Spirit of God which is a Spirit of truth and righteousness nor any motion of true remorse for their sins or any thing flowing from repentant hearts because they are persons forsaken of God and his Grace and given over to reprobate minds and senses and therefore the truth of the Word of God is fulfilled in them Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved therefore God shall send them strong delusion that they might believe a lye That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2. Neither is the end for the glory of God or their own Salvation because they are the Vassals and Bond-slaves of Satan being kept Captive at his will and are Rebels and Traitors against God and Christ his Church and Truth having renounced the Faith and become Apostata's to the truth 3. The impulsive cause and chief end wherefore they make these and such like confessions is sometimes and in some persons meerly to eschew torture and bodily pains and sometimes the quite contrary solely to escape the present miseries of a poor wretched and troublesom life and therefore these confessions not at all to be credited as being vain and feigned 4. Sometimes they are by force waking craft and cunning in hope of pardon and life to make such confessions as the base ends and corrupt intentions of the Inquisitors themselves or their Agents have infused into them for the advancement of false Doctrine Superstition and Idolatry such were the most if not all recorded by Delrio Bodinus and the rest of the Witchmongers to which no credit can be given at all 5. But the chief end that Satan hath who is the Forger Contriver and Deviser of these Confessions if voluntarily and freely made the principal Agent in all these matters is to set forth the power and glory of his own Kingdom thereby to lead men into and continue them in lyes and errors for when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it and the Witches are his Children and the works of their Father the Devil they will do and he was and is a Murtherer and Lyar from the beginning And thus far we acknowledge a spiritual and mental League betwixt the Witch and the Devil by virtue of which they confess these horrible and abominable lyes of the glory of him and his Kingdom but other League or Covenant there is none neither is there any the least spark of truth in all that they say or confess because their sole end in making of these confessions is to advance the credit and power of Satan 6. The impulsive cause that often makes them to utter such confessions of strange and impossible things is the strong passive delusion that they lye under contracted by ignorant unchristian and superstitious education which they have suckt in with their milk heightned with an atrabilarious temper and constitution and confirmed by the wicked lyes and teaching of others which makes them confess these execrable things which they in their depraved and vitiated imaginations do think and believe they have done and suffered when there was never truly acted any such matter ad extrà but only in their mad and deluded Phantasies and so no more credit to be given to them than to the maddest Melancholist that ever was read or heard of 3. That there is not any jot of truth in these Confessions is manifest if we consider the subjective matter of them as is plain by these ensuing grounds 1. For the most of them are not credible by reason of their obscenity and filthiness for chast ears would tingle to hear such bawdy and immodest lyes and what pure and sober minds would not nauseate and startle to understand such unclean stories as of the carnal Copulation of the Devil with a Witch or of his sucking the Teat or Wart of an old stinking and rotten Carkass surely even the impurity of it may be sufficient to overthrow the credibility of it especially amongst Christians 2. There are many things that have no verity in them at all that notwithstanding have verisimilitude but these are not only void of truth but also of truth-likeliness for it is neither truth nor hath any likelihood of it to believe it for a truth that the Devil should carry an
and fond cogitations into their minds agreeable to their wicked wills and corrupted desires and so are fast bound in this spiritual and implicit League And under this spiritual implicit League are also comprehended all those that are Witchmongers and believe the verity and performance of these things and think that the Devil can both hurt and also help and that there is a bad and a good Witch or with Mr. Perkins a black and a white one by which wicked opinion the seeking unto Witches Wizards Mutterers Murmurers Charmers South-sayers Conjurers Cunning-men and women as we speak here in the North and such like is still upholden by the Authors and Favourers of this opinion contrary to the direct counsel of the Holy Ghost who saith And when they shall say unto you Seek unto them that have familiar Spirits and unto Wizards that peep and that mutter should not a people seek unto their God for the living to the dead To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them And therefore saith one Admonet etiam nos adversus impios cultus superstitiones tutos fore si in lege Domini acquiescamus The League or Covenant betwixt the Devil and the Witch is that which is visible and corporeal where he is supposed to appear in some bodily shape unto the Witch and to have oral and audible conference with him or her and so to make a League or Covenant and this is the thing that we deny and the consequents thereof that he doth not suck upon their bodies nor hath carnal copulation with them nor carries them in the Air nor for them nor by them doth destroy or kill man or beast raise tempests or change them into Cats Hares Wolves Dogs or the like and this we oppose with these following Reasons 1. Whatsoever the Devil worketh it is to bring advantage to his own Kingdom or otherwise he should act in vain But whatsoever he worketh by a visible Covenant is not for the advantage of his own Kingdom and therefore it is in vain The major is plain from the Text Be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour whom resist stedfast in the faith The minor is manifest in these two particulars 1. Satan is that old Serpent that was and is more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God hath created which notwithstanding the vain Cavils and seeming Arguments of Pererius must be understood of Satan the Adversary of Mankind and not of the natural Serpent which is not the most subtile beast that God hath created there being many others more subtile than the Serpent and the Scripture tells us of his cunning and wiliness for the Apostle saith We are not ignorant of his wiles or devices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Apostle in another place calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his wiles which are so great that if it were possible they might deceive the very elect So that he wants no cunning nor subtilty to know how to bring a sinner into his snare and to hold him fast and when he is fast he knows he need do no more and therefore acts not in vain 2. Before he need attempt a visible apparition to the Witch if any such thing could be he knows that the Witch is sure and fast in his snare by a spiritual Covenant already entred into and therefore knows he need do no more and he is too cunning to act to no purpose and therefore doth St. Paul warn Timothy That a Bishop must have a good report lest he fall into the snare of the devil all sins being the snares of the Devil and when men are fast taken in them they are in Satans fetters and he labours no more but to keep them there And so the same Apostle speaketh of those that oppose the Gospel that they must be instructed in meekness that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will So that sins keep men in the spiritual snare of the Devil and so are all those that are accounted Witches in that spiritual snare holden fast enough by their own consents and corrupt wills and need no bodily apparition to make them surer and so this visible League falls to the ground as having no ground nor end why it should be made And for the Devil to appear like a Dog or a Cat and speak would sure not only fright and startle an old Witch but even the boldest and most stout-hearted person 2. The Witches by visible apparitions of the Devil if any such thing could be in any shape could have no more assurance of Satans performances than they have already by mental perswasion and the dominion of him in their hearts who is the Prince of the air and worketh in the children of disobedience because by that visible appearance there is not brought any Hostages or Witnesses which are absolutely necessary to confirm such a League or Covenant And these representations being made in their imaginations and fancies wherein they think they see do and suffer these delusive Visions they are most firmly and pertinaciously confirmed in the belief of them that any Apparition externally must needs be vain and superfluous 3. If the Witches be not superlatively mad and if so then so to be judged of and all that in this point is believed of them either in doing suffering or otherwise must be judged extreme folly and madness they will not make a League with the Devil knowing him to be the Devil because they cannot but know that he was and is a Lyar and a Murtherer from the beginning and hath deceived many before them that were of the same way and profession And a visible appearance can afford them no certain security but that he may and will deceive them still and that he continueth a lyar and a deceiver But while the delusion is internal and the imagination depraved and led by the suggestions and motions of Satan they then are so blinded that they see not nor understand the danger they run into nor the certainty of the deceit they lye under which a visible Apparition would sooner shake and overthrow than any way confirm and therefore is false and needless 4. But how come the Witches certainly to know that the Devil can perform such things as they would have done Surely by no means but either by traditional hear say or inward delusion the one they know not but that it is a lye and the other concludeth their passive delusion to neither of which a visible Apparition like a Cat or a Dog and speaking unto them can bring any confirmation except the Devil should bring them good store of gold or silver or work some strange feat before their eyes as to kill some men or
place of bliss and there abide with me a Member of that my Kingdom which thou askest for Now if the soulâ— of the godly after their death be immediately in a place of bliss and abide with Christ as Members of his Kingdom then they do not wander up and down here as Mr. Glanvil and the Papists vainly fancy and believe for as Chrysostome saith upon that place of Lazarus his being carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome What is it then that the Devils say I am the Soul of such a Monk Truly I therefore believe it not because the Devils say it for they deceive their Auditors 4. Or must I believe that the souls of the wicked do wander and make Apparitions here because Mr. Glanvil and the Popish Writers tell me so I hope not for the Text telleth us plainly that the rich man presently after his death was in Hell in torments and could not come hither unto earth again to warn his brethren otherwise he would not have prayed Abraham to have sent Lazarus And whether it be taken for a real History of things done or but a Parable yet the spiritual meaning of our Saviour must be infallibly true that immediately after death the souls of the godly are by Angels carried into Abrahams bosome and the wicked go down into Hell from whence there is no redemption and therefore do not wander up and down here nor make any Apparitions for I imagine that the authority of holy King David a Prophet and a man after Gods own heart is to be preferred before the authority of a thousand Popish Writers and he tells us when the child was dead But now he is dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me And Job tells us As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more he shall return to more to his house neither shall his place know him any more And therefore it was a vain argument of Bellarmine when he said Apparitiones animarum ex Purgatorio venientium idem testantur To which the Protestants answer But who shall bear witness of these Apparitions that they were not either feigned fables or Satanical illusions They were men and might be deceived even the best of them with whom doth rest the faith of these Narrations 5. And whereas he audaciously asketh Who saith that happy Souls were never imployed in any Ministeries here below I shall tell him who they are that say that happy Souls departed are never imployed here in any Ministeries and they are all the learned Divines of the Reformed Churches and all those that were true Sons of the Doctrine of the Church of England such as were Bishop Jewel Bishop Hall Dr. Willet Dr. Whitaker Mr. Perkins and many more such the authority and reputation of the least of which is far above the simple question of Mr. Glanvil And therefore saith the latter Confession of Helvetia Now that which is recorded of the Spirits or Souls of the dead sometimes appearing to them that are alive c. we count those Apparitions among the delusions and deceits of the Devil 5. And as the Scriptures are sufficient both in respect of matters of Faith and concerning divine Worship that their silence in those two particulars are fully argumentative to deny whatever is not contained in them as unfit to be received to either purpose So in respect of a Christians warfare all things for the obtaining of a perfect and compleat victory and for standing and perseverance are in them fully declared and what they mention not is to be rejected as wanting the seal of Divine Authority whether it be in regard of eschewing what is prohibited or in following what is commanded And therefore we affirm that what the Scriptures have not revealed of the power of the Kingdom of Satan is to be rejected and not to be believed and what weapons we are to use against the wiles of the Devil we are to be furnished withal but have need of no others but what the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures hath made known unto us the rest are to be cast off as fables and lyes or humane inventions because the Scriptures are silent of any such matter and that for these weighty grounds and considerations 1. We shall take the Concession of Bellarmine himself who saith Nullum est vitium ad quod sanandum non invenitur in Scriptura aliquod remedium And again Illa quae sunt simpliciter omnibus necessaria Apostoli consueverunt omnibus praedicare aliorum quae sunt omnibus utilia And to the same purpose is the saying of St. Austin Titubat sides si divinarum Scripturarum vacillet authoritas porrò fide titubante etiam ipsa charitas laâ—guescit Therefore if there be no fault for which the Scripture doth not yield some remedy then surely to make a visible League with the Devil or to have carnal Copulation with him either must have no verity at all in it or that the Scripture hath provided no remedy for it for of such things there is no mention And if Faith must stumble where the authority of the Scriptures is wanting then surely the belief of all rational men must needs be staggering to believe what these common Witchmongers affirm of the Witches visible League and carnal Copulation with the Devil when there is no authority of Scripture at all to strengthen or countenance any such matter 2. The Scriptures do fully and abundantly inform us of the Devils spiritual and invisible power and against the same declares unto us the whole Armor of God with which we ought to be furnished as the Apostle saith Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil 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 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand And the Apostle St. Peter telleth us Be sober â—e vigilant because your adversary the deâ—il like a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour whom resist stedfast in the faith And in another place For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God From which Scriptures we may take these remarkable observations 1. We are to consider the nature of this Warfare that it is spiritual and against spiritual wickedness in high places and not against flesh and blood and the Holy Ghost could not be wanting nor defective but superabundantly full in describing the nature of this warfare that it is spiritual not
old Witch in the Air into foraign Regions that can hardly crawl with a staff to dancing and banqueting and yet to return with an empty belly and the next day to be forced like old Dembdike or Elizabeth Sothernes and Alizon Denice to go a begging with the sowr-milk Can is this either probable or likely would it not much more have advantaged the Devils interest and his Kingdom to have furnished them with good and true meat and drink and not with such imaginary Cates which would neither fill the stomach nor satisfie the appetite Had it not been more for the Devils benefit to have furnished them with plenty of gold and silver than to let them go ragged and tattered begging their bread from door to door 3. As these confessions have no truth-likeliness in them so they are things that are simply impossible to be performed by any created power and therefore must needs be false and fictitious relations for no Creature can perform any thing but that for which by Creation it was ordered and designed to but the Devils by Creation have no generative power given them nor members or organs to perform the act of copulation withal and therefore their having carnal copulation with the Witches is a most monstrous fiction and an absolute impossibility and can have nothing in it more than the stirring up of the imaginative faculty and thereby to move titillation in the members fitted for the act of generation which is a thing that happens to many both men and women that are of hot constitutions and abound with seed which we call nocturna prolutiones of which the Divines and Casuists make that great question An nocturna prolutiones sint peccatum And it is as simply impossible for either the Devil or Witches to change or alter the course that God hath set in Nature as to transubstantiate a man or woman into a Cat a Dog or a Wolf and therefore are these confessions meer impossibilities and monstrous lyes 4. There can in sound and right reason no credit at all be given to these confessions because divers of them have been proved to be utterly false as is plain in the man that did confidently affirm that he was a true Wolf and that he had hair under his skin the woful tryal of which was his death though a pregnant and undeniable proof that the delusion was in the Phantasie and that there was no real change of the mans body into a Wolf and therefore doth flatly overthrow the credibility of these vain and lying confessions To the same purpose is the story related by Camerariâ—s from Johannes Baptista Porta a great Naturalist and a person of competent veracity which is this Once saith he I met an old Witch one of those that are said to enter houses in the night time and there to suck the blood of little children lying in their Cradles Having asked her a question of something she promised forthwith that within a while she would give me answer She puts forth of her Chamber all those that went in with me to be witnesses of that which should pass Having shut us out she strips her self stark naked and rubs over all her body with a certain Oyntment which we saw through the chinks of the door The operation of the soporiferous juyces whereof this Oyntment was compounded made her fall to the ground and brought her into a deep sleep Upon this we open the door and some of us begin to strike and knock her well-favour'dly but she was so soundly asleep that to strike her body and a stone it was all one Forth we go again in the mean time the Oyntment had ended his working and the old Trot being awaked and having put on her cloaths begins to tell tales of Robin Hood saying That she had passed over Seas and Mountains and then gives us false answers We tell her that her body had never stir'd out of the Chamber she maintains the contrary we shew her the blows we had given her she persisteth the more stifly in her opinion By the testimony of this Author who was an ear and eye-witness of this passage and other persons with him which manifests it to be good and sufficient evidence it appeareth that the Witches are under a melancholy and passive delusion promoted by the help of soporiferous Oyntments whereby they fancy and think they are carried into far remote places where they hear and see strange things and do and suffer that which is not at all performed but only as in a dream their bodies in the mean time lying immoveable and so do but relate falsities and lyes which is an unanswerable proof of the absolute falsity of their confessions the thing that here we undertook to make good And some late Learned men with Mr. Glanvil himself giving too much credit to the things related by the Witches in their confessions to be true stories of things really performed at a great distance have been forced to revive that old Platonical Whimsie of the Souls real egression forth of the body into far distant places and its return again with the certain knowledge of things there done or said according to the relation that Pliny gives us in these words Reperimus inquit interempla Hermotimi Clazomenii animam relicto corpore errare solitam vagamque è longinquo multa annuntiarâ— quae nisi à praesenti nosci non possent corpore interiâ— semianimi donec cremato eo inimici qui Cantharidae vocabantur remeanti animae velut vaginam ademerint To which notwithstanding he doth not seem to give credence But these Relations of the Witches are meer lyes and forgeries and are but taught them by the spiritual craft of the Devil thereby to pretend to imitate the true Visions that the Prophets had from God And though there may be some peculiar persons that have the way to fall into ecstasies as Helmont witnesseth of himself and may thereby understand many mystical matters yet in it there is no real egression of the Soul forth of the body but a freeing or withdrawing of it from the Phantasie and Senses and then as the Cabbalists and mystical Authors say it is joyned to the intelligible World and beholds things as present and though there may be something of truth in it yet few Authors of credit and veracity have attested it upon their own experience and there may be much fallacy and danger in it and therefore we leave it to further search and inquiry Another apparent ground of the nullity of the truth or credit of these confessions is that which a learned Divine in his Letter to Dr. Wierus gives us the substance of which we shall give in English which is this I have known he saith the year foregoing he writ his Epistle Anno 1565. many foolish things from the private confession of a certain old Woman an Inchanter who when she had heard in my Sermon the place in the 19. Chapter of the Acts
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
that Antichrist is nothing else but Gods Executioner by whom he punisheth those by his just judgment who have not received the love of the truth but have contemned the Gospel which is so far forth true that if there had not been and now were a contempt of the truth then altogether Antichrist had not been that is the Executioner had not been whom God sendeth to execute his just judgment upon those that despise the truth of his Gospel So that it is manifest that God doth make a just and good use of the very malice and lying nature of Devils in punishing those that did not receive the love of the truth but deceiving them by strong delusions that they might believe a lie and this he doth as sent and commanded of God and so cannot go one jot further than his Commission or as far as he is limited by God 2. We may observe that how great soever these signs and wonders be yet they are but lying ones both in regard of the end for which they are done and in respect of their substance And therefore how great soever the signs and wonders be that evil Angels do perform yet they are totally different from true miracles those being alwayes wrought for the confirming of the true Doctrine and Worship of God but these have their end only to establish false doctrine lies and erroneous opinions or Idolatrous Worships So they differ in their substance for those miracles that God sheweth for the confirmation of his truth are alwayes true and real being against and above the whole power and course of nature but those wonders wrought by Satan are but delusions cheats juglings and impostures which though they may seem strange to those that are ignorant of their causes yet do but all arise from natural causes or from artificial cunning confederacy and the like And therefore we may conclude that what miracles soever are wrought by a Divine Power tend to the overthrow of Satans power in the world but all false miracles are wrought to uphold the power of Satans Kingdom in the world and following delusions lies and false doctrines 3. Therefore what signs and wonders soever Satan doth work they are no real and true miracles for as Dr. Stillingfleet saith God alone can really alter the course of nature I speak not he saith of such things which are apt to raise admiration in us because of our unacquaintedness with the causes of them or manner of their production which are thence called Wonders much less of meer juggles and impostures whereby the eyes of Men are deceived but I speak of such things as are in themselves either contrary to or above the course of nature i. e. that order which is established in the universe And this cannot be altered by any diabolical power but only by that which is Divine and Omnipotent which never doth it but for considerable ends and important causes as may be manifest from these unshaken grounds 1. That Devils can work no true miracles is manifest from the definition of a miracle which is this Verum miraculum est opus quod fit praeter contra naturam secundas causas cujus nulla Physica ratio potest reddi But Satan cannot alter or change the order and course of nature Therefore Satan cannot work or effect a true miracle The proposition may be illustrated by an induction made of many great miracles of which there is mention made in the Old and New Testament all which are of that sort that are repugnant to the order and course of nature and of which no natural or physical reason can be rendered and given Such were the taking of Enoch and Elias into Heaven the conserving of Noah and his Family in the Ark the confusion of tongues at the building of Babel the fecundity of Sarah being old and barren the passage of the children of Israel over the red Sea and over Jordan the standing still of the Sun in the battel of Joshuah its going back in the dial of Ahaz its eclipse at our Saviours suffering the preservation of Daniel in the Den of the Lions and of the three companions of Daniel in the fiery furnace the preserving Jonas in the belly of the Whale the raising up of the dead and the curing of the Man born blind and all the rest of those most true and wonderful miracles wrought by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles 2. The assumption of the Syllogism is thus proved It is the part of the same power to change the order of nature and to create things that were not existent and so the mutation of the order of nature is a certain kind of new creation But Satan hath not power by which he can create things that as yet had no existence as all persons of reason must needs confess From whence it must follow that Satan hath not power to change the order of nature and consequently that he cannot work true and real miracles 3. The working of true miracles is only a proper attribute of God and incommunicable to any creaturely power for the Text saith Blessed be the Lord God the God of Israel who only doth wondrous things And again thou art the God that dost wonders And these two things the changing of the order of nature and creation S. Paul attributeth to God as only proper to him God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things that be not as though they were Upon which Beza gives this note Eo qui vitae restituit Apud quem jam sint quae alioqui reipsa non sunt ut qui vel uno verbo quidvis possit ex nihilo efficere But if it be objected that though Satan and his Angels of themselves and by their own proper power do not work true miracles yet may not God work real miracles by them as he did by the Prophets Apostles and his Ministers It is answered That the wonders which are wrought by Satan do tend to that end that they might confirm lies against God and his glory But God doth not accommodate his power to confirm lies contrary to his glory and against himself Therefore Satan by the power of God as his Minister doth not work true miracles for God doth use the faln Angels as executioners of his wrath and judgments for the afflicting and punishing of men but when God worketh any thing for the good of mankind either in Soul or Body he doth not use Devils as his Ministers but the good and blessed Angels who are ministring spirits sent forth for the good of those that shall be heirs of Salvation And if it be queried what things and of what sort and kind are those wonders that are wrought by Satan and Antichrist I answer that either they are indeed nothing but prestigious juglings and illusions or if they be any thing they are not brought to pass contrary to the order of nature and second causes although they may seem so