poisonous and noxious Ferments as choak the Emanations of a Divine life till at last they become wholly dead to that better principle whose actings and inspirations so long as they heeded they remained perfectly happy The experiment is every where obvious in the world and we see men by letting themselves loose to all manner of wretchedness and debauchery through the potent and enormous lasciviency of the bodily life quite lose the relish and grateful sense of true Goodness and Nobility and the edge and acuteness of their Criteria is so far taken off that they have no right discrimination between Virtue and Vice Good and Evil. And though it be true that the Angels by sinking into the brutish life have not bereaved themselves of their Reason and natural Sagacity sith that That is a kind of middle principle and always follows the prevailing part indifferently either purveying for the satisfaction of a petulant Lust or slavish Passion or else acting under the conduct and guidance of a more Celestial Nature yet have they totally extinguished that noble Faculty the flower and summity of the Souls of men and Angels which a learned person calls Boniformem animae facultatem i. e. that power in them which feels the pleasure of Righteousness and Virtue and has a natural relish and gust of true and essential goodness and being once united and conjoyned with so beautiful an object diffuses an ineffable joy and pleasure through all the capacities of the Soul Nor do we by this make God the cause and Author of sin for though it be true that the Animal faculties in Angels and men together with their respective objects be a part of God's Creation yet their sin proceeded from themselves through an undue and disharmonious connection of those principles and consists in the abuse of his Fatherly indulgence by a wilful immoderation and excess Nor will this seem strange to any that will but consider what S. Peter and S. Iude speak of the fallen Angels to give some light to which places I shall set them down in the Original 2 Pet. 2.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 into Iudgment And S. Iude after the same manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Angels which 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 v. 6. In which we have a plain Indication both of the sin and punishment of these lapsed Angels Their sin in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translation renders kept not their first estate but the vulgar Latin Principatum suum non servaverunt that is kept not their Principality Rule or Dominion which Interpretation says Beza is not to be rejected So that the most genuine and natural signification of the words refers to that Government or Dominion which the superior Faculties ought to have over the inferior For as in men so likewise in the Angels there is a double nature the one Intellectual and the other Animal The former of these Simplicius calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Schoolmaster or that part which is to govern and rule the other is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the boy that is to be kept under discipline and strict government within us The irrational or Animal power he says is intent only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon that which is sweet and pleasant but the Rational and Intellectual respects chiefly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is best and most profitable When therefore the Angels suffered their Despotick and Lordly Powers to be enslaved and subjected to their Animal or Brutish Faculties when instead of keeping close to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is simply and absolutely the best they pursued without bounds or measures the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the luscious pleasures resulting from Body or Matter then did they truly relinquish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Principality which God had given them and insensibly deserted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Celestial bodies for so S. Paul uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 5.2 where those Spiritual Bodies which we hope for at the Resurrection are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our house that is from Heaven which is all one with S. Iude's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the proper house building or habitation of Angels viz. their Heavenly Bodies And upon this foul revolt and Apostasie of theirs from their Primeval Glory followed their punishment which was their dejection and detrusion into the Caliginous Regions of the Air. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies nothing else but to cast down and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which is lowest whether in Earth or Air as may be seen in Homer's description of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chains of darkness are nothing but the Fetters of this thick and clammy Air within the Atmosphere of the Earth into which by the just judgment of God these rebellious Spirits are precipitated For the Air is of it self a Terrestrial stubborn and dark Element To this purpose is that of Plutarch in his Book de Homericâ Poesi where he says that Hades is the Air adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this their confinement is very consentaneously expressed by chains and bands being fotter'd here by the irrevocable Decrees of Heaven and are no more able to ascend out of the noxious Fumes of this lower World than we can flye in the spacious Tracts of Aether for those Eternal Laws which God hath placed in the Universe are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Homer speaks of Tartarus those iron gates and brazen walls that prohibit all ascent to higher and better Regions CHAP. II. That these lapsed Angels have formed themselves into a Polity or Kingdom of Darkness OUR Saviour in the Gospel makes mention of the Kingdom of Satan which supposes a Polity Society or Corporation among those wicked Spirits And this Kingdom or Government of theirs took its beginning and rise from their lapse and revolt from God at the Creation of the World when 't is most probable that some mighty Leader or Chieftain among the Orders of Angels inspired the breasts of Myriads with pernicious and rebellious counsels against God attempting to frame and erect a Principality of his own in opposition to the Soveraignty and Dominion of the Almighty and being cast out of the Mansions of Light and Happiness with all his wicked adherents for this their bold and audacious attempt of invading Heaven it self he hath notwithstanding kept so much of his ancient Grandeur as to be the Head and Prince of all those whom he drew into that Traiterous confederacy Nor is Reason wanting in her suffrage here For 1. They
evil Spirit and a Witch 3. Thirdly we are to take notice That there are divers Degrees of these lapsed Spirits and that they sute themselves according to the tempers and constitutions of the persons they deal withal This I have in part already discovered but shall now prosecute it a little further wherefore though the whole Army of these wicked Spirits that rebelled against God how numerous soever be cast down from the Ethereal Regions and confin'd within the Atmosphere of the Earth partly by a Divine Decree and partly urged by the Fatal necessity of their degenerate natures yet their propensions and inclinations are not all alike but are as various and different as those of mankind Psellus from Marcus the Eremite a skilful Daemonist relates six kinds of Daemons the first Fiery called Lelurion i. e. Nocturnal Fire and these wander in the top of the Aiery Region yet far beneath the Moon The second are Aiery whose Mansions are these lower Regions nearer to us The third are Terrestrial dwelling upon the Earth and perillous foes to mankind The fourth are Aquatick or watry keeping their haunts about Rivers Lakes and Springs drowning men often raising storms at Sea and sinking Ships The fifth sort are Subterranean living in Caverns and Hollows of the Earth often hurting and killing Well-diggers and Miners for Metals causing Earthquakes and Eruptions of Flames and Pestilent Winds The last and worst sort are those light-hating Ghosts or night-walkers the dark and most inscrutable kind and striking all things they meet with cold Passions And all these Daemons saith he hate both Gods and Men but some worse than others But whether there be just so many kinds is not at all material certain it is that among that degenerate crue their Humours and Passions are various and different and so are fitted for the undertaking different Employments according as the great Divan or superior Council of Darkness shall order and allot them And these Daemons take care to sute themselves to the tempers of those they have familiarity withal and the Devils with whom Apollonius conversed might be far different from those fouler and grosser Fiends that attend a wicked Sorceress daily sucking her bloud and nestling in her loathsome rags To carry on this a little higher A deep Contemplator that considers the frame of the World and the several Beings contained therein together with their mutual relations affections and dependences upon one another shall find that there is a certain Sympathy running through the Universe whereby Superior things act upon Inferior and this is continued through the whole material Creation by that Plastick nature that pervades the whole and being life and activity and consequently incorporeal acts fatally and Magically that is without any express consciousness of what it does From hence arises a kind of union that combines and makes a continuation between all things in Nature which the Platonists signified when they said the whole World was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Magician or Inchanter and this they called Natural Magick that is the Concords and Discords or Sympathies and Antipathies of Nature as may be seen in several instances Now as in Nature there is such a Conspiration so likewise in Moral Agents whereby things are carried by a certain Assimilation according to the temper and disposition of the mind Thus wicked men do by a kind of harmony or agreeableness of Nature invite and draw wicked Spirits to their Association and this Magnetism is raised and Invigorated by a deep grounded exorbitancy of the Passions and Affections so that a person deeply immersed in Envy and Malice and edged with a sharp desire of Revenge does as naturally call and solicite an evil Daemon as the cries and shrieks of dying Beasts will gather the rest of the same Species to their assistance Nor is there any greater difficulty in conceiving that an impure Spirit may thus be solicited into a confederacy with a Witch being otherwise sufficiently prompted to such villany by their own wicked natures than that an evil Daemon should be called down by certain Charms and Previous Consecrations to inhabit an Image For this latter S. Austin cites a passage out of Hermes Trismegist Wherefore our Fathers erring exceedingly in Incredulity concerning the Deities and never penetrating into the depth of Divine Religion they invented an Art to make Gods whereunto they joyned a Virtue out of some part of the Worlds Nature like to the other and conjoyning these two because they could make no Souls they framed certain Images whereinto they called either Angels or Devils and so by these mysteries gave these Idols power to hurt or help them Having thus far shewed that there have been in all Ages such persons as we call Witches or Magicians not only from the account which the Holy Scriptures give of them but from the Nature and Reason of the thing it self and by rational evidence made good the possibility of a Confederation between Men and wicked Daemons there remains no more now but to answer those Objections and refute the Arguments in which some so mightily triumph that they think nothing is more plain than that Witchcraft is a mere Fiction and Imposture and a ridiculous piece of non-sence which it is greatly to be feared is thus far improved to cast a contempt upon the Sacred Scriptures and to explode the Being of Spirits as Creatures rather existing in mens Brains and Imaginations than any where else in the Universe and by degrees to make Religion a meer cheat and delusion OBJECTION I. That these Witches are supposed to be present at their Nocturnal Conventicles and Diabolical meetings when their Bodies are at home which is impossible Answ. THis Objection proceeds either from ignorance or misunderstanding the nature and powers of the Soul whose union with the Body is not by Cogitation and Will for then there might be an actual separation whenever men pleased but fixed in some lower Power which chains and links the Soul to the Body even against her will in acute and sharp Diseases And this union is upon certain terms and conditions which so long as they continue unbroken and inviolate the Soul is confined to her Earthly mansion and habitation but when these laws and conditions shall be infringed either by external violence or the prevalency of a Disease or some other enormous and extreme disorder and perturbation in the Body then she dislodges not by explicit Will and Counsel but by Necessity and Constraint because the Body is no longer tenantable or capable of her reception and then ensues that which we properly call Death which as that acute Philosopher Des-Cartes rightly concludes never happens through any defect or fault of the Soul but only because some of the principal parts of the Body are depraved and corrupted And the difference he says between the Body of a living Man and that of a dead one is much what the same as between a Watch or any other
Automaton that is any kind of Machine that moves of it self wound up having of it self the corporeal principle of those Motions for which it was instituted with all things requisite for its action and the same Watch or other Engine when it is broken and the principle of its Motion ceases to act From hence it will appear that there is no impossibility in the thing nor any such inextricable difficulty in conceiving how the Soul may actually separate from the Body for some time without ensuing Death For the further clearing of which there are these two things required 1. To shew how the necessary Functions of life may be conserved and kept up while the Soul is separate from the Body 2. To consider what those things are which may cause a Temporaneous disunion and disjunction of the Soul from the Body First then it will not seem at all strange that the principal Functions of life should be performed for some time without the presence of the Soul to them who will admit of the principles of the Cartesian Philosophy which supposes that the Soul contributes nothing to any of those Motions in the Body which depond not upon actual Will and Cogitation And if withal we suppose Brutes to be but Machines or Automata it will be very clear that all those Motions which we call Vital in the Body may be performed without the actual presence of the Soul But if this seem harsh and irrational to them who imagine bare Mechanism to be an incompetent cause for the production of such effects and that the Systole and Diastole of the Heart which later Anatomists have found to be a Muscular Constriction and Relaxation and the Circulation of the Bloud through all parts of the Body must proceed not from a Mechanical but Vital principle They may be pleased to consider that in Nature there is a certain Vis Plastica or rather Nature it self is it a Plastick Power or Inconscious Incorporeal life which passing through the Universe governs all the Motions of Matter every where according to such laws fatally imprest upon it and reconciles the enmities and contrarieties of particular things bringing them into one general Harmony in the whole and strikes the first and Rudimental lineaments in the formation of the Bodies of Animals and lastly may be particular Souls or Spirits be so far rapt and drawn into consent as to work strange effects not only upon their own but upon separate and distant Bodies Now by this Hylarchical principle or Plastick nature so many of the vital motions of the Body may be kept in play as shall render it as fit and convenient for the Inhabitation of the Soul at its return as it was when she dislodged and separated from it In answer to the second particular it may be said that it is possible the Soul may be rapt from this Terrestrial Body and carried to remote and distant places from whence she may make a Postliminiar return by either of these two ways 1. From a vehement affection or deep imagination piercing into the very lowest of her Powers 2. By the assistance and activity of a more potent Spirit While a House is standing whole and entire the occupier of it may go out and in and still keep the possession but when it is either thrown down and broken by an external violence or falls to pieces through the rottenness and consumption of its parts he must lye in the streets if he cannot get another dwelling Such is the condition of the Soul in respect of the Body whose principal parts in which consist the safety of the whole being corrupted she hastes away never to return till it be rebuilt But while they remain firm and safe she may be carried out by strong and powerful affections and re-enter and dwell there as before Nor is any Desire or Velleity whereby many will say they would fain go out of their Bodies to some distant place though without any more potent affection than to try the experiment enough to cause a separation but it must be so strong and vehement and so far imprint it self upon the imagination as to reach that Plastick Faculty by which the Soul is connected to the Body and these cords being loosened and untied she may without any difficulty pass into the open Air. And he that considers the strange and wonderful effects of Imagination even upon these our Earthly Tenements will have no reason to doubt but the same Power may extend to a Temporary disjunction of the Soul from the Body Common experience shows how the Pica or longing of a pregnant Woman will by a keen Fancy stamp and impress the character of the thing so passionately desired upon the Child in her womb I will not take upon me to maintain the truth of all those strange effects attributed to the strength of Imagination by Fienus Cornelius Agrippa and others though I must confess so much is said by them as to matter of Fact as may satisfie a free and unprejudicated mind that the power of Imagination even upon these gross and unwieldy Bodies is much greater and more notable than is by many supposed But if any one shall so far distrust the truth of such stories as to rank them among Legendary Fables let him consider what other could be Iacobs intent in that device of his in placing pilled and straked Rods before the flocks at the watring-places but only to heighten and invigorate the Imaginative Faculty of the Ews at the time of Conception Now that this hath actually hapned namely that the Soul hath been carried from the Body and after some time returned again the relations of disinterested persons would induce us to believe And it is very probable that upon a due search into the Causes and Natures of things it may not seem incredible what Cardan relates of himself that he could when he pleased fall into this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disjunction or Abreption of his Soul from his Body A thing which is credibly reported of the Lappians who lying as it were in a Trance for some hours will give a perfect account of affairs at three hundred miles distance and by some evident token give assurance of their being in such places To which if we should add the story of Phaereus Pamphylius recorded by Plato of Hermotimus Clazomenius by Pliny and of Soleus by Plutarch it will at least assure us that grave and wise Persons did not think such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is here contended for to be altogether a thing so monstrous and incredible The other way whereby a Soul may be withdrawn from the Body and brought back again is by the efficiency and activity of a more powerful Spirit And hitherto some learned men refer that of Ezek. 37.1 The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley And though S. Paul deliver it doubtfully as
too great and exorbitant a power over mankind in that it supposes that these wicked Daemons may afflict the Bodies of others with divers diseases and torments that they may raise Thunders Storms and Tempests killing Cattel and spoiling the Fruits of the Earth and many such like pernicious and destructive things and all this at the desire and request of a Magician or Witch pag. 88. OBJECTION V. That it is very Ridiculous to imagine that Devils though never so foul and unclean should delight in sucking the Bloud of these Accursed Hags pag. 99. CHAP. VIII Inferences drawn from the foregoing Discourse pag. 103. The Introduction IT was observed long ago by Epictetus that there were some Persons that would deny the plainest and most evident Truths and this state and condition he terms an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Petrification or Mortification of the Mind which when it happens to men of a blameless and sober conversation is nothing but the confusion of their Intellectuals which are so miserably distracted that they are not able to apprehend the force and strength of the plainest demonstration But there are others that are bedeaded and stupified as to their Morals and then they lose that natural shame that belongs to a man affirming or denying with the greatest confidence that which an Innate shame and reverence of the inscriptions of our own Minds will not suffer others to assert or contradict and this is really no better than an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher calls it a mere Brutishness or Bestiality Under one of these heads I must needs comprehend all those who boggle and startle so much at the Notion of an Incorporeal Being For my own part I cannot but think that great Wit Des-Cartes delivered a most certain Truth when he said that the Notion or Conception of the Soul is much more plain and evident than that of the Body But when men are either so monstrously confounded in their Intellects so as not to be wrought upon or convinced by the force and strength of Argument and Reason or wholly given over to the gratification of their Lusts and Passions I do not much wonder that they should have such dull Hallucinations about the clearest things or that they should entertain such cross and untoward Opinions and so disagreeing with all those that ever had a sober and right use of their Reasons and Understandings This Age hath produced too many over-confident Exploders of Immaterial Substances and he that shall talk of the Existence of Devils and evil Spirits their Possessions of the Bodies of men of Ghosts and Apparitions and the feats and practices of Witches shall be confuted with a loud laughter or a supercilious look as if these things were only the delusions of a distempered Imagination and owed all their Being and Reality to the dreams and fancies of melancholick persons Or if the matters of fact be too notorious to be gainsaid then these Corporealists will not stick to affirm with a late Author that they believe there are many thousands of Spirits made of an Incorporeal matter too fine to be perceived by the Senses of men and that these Spirits may play mad pranks amongst us A thing much more worthy of laughter and the character of folly and all one as if a man should go about to perswade that the little Motes or Atoms that fridge and play in the Beams of the Sun shining through a Crany should by a common consent unite themselves into a living heap and speak and act either ludicrously or mischievously with the standers by This is really nothing else but a disease of the Mind and I have endeavoured in this small Treatise so far to discourse of the Existence of the Dark Kingdom and the mysteries thereof and have laid down such Arguments as being well weighed and considered may be subservient to the releasing and setting free such heavy and dull Constitutions from the distemper they labour under A DISCOURSE OF THE POLITY AND Kingdom of Darkness CHAP. 1. That the Lapse and Revolt of the Angels from the Blessed life of God consists mainly in debasing their higher and nobler Faculties by enslaving and subjugating them to their Inferior and more material Powers HE that will speak of the Angels like a Philosopher looks upon their Souls like those of men to be of an Heterogeneous nature including within the latitude and comprehension of their Essences an Intellectual and Plastical life The Perceptive part is indeed the flower of the Soul discriminating all Impressions made in the common Sensorium by the various objects of Sense and being Life and Activity in a very high degree contains in it the principles and seeds of all manner of Wisdom and Knowledge But the Plastick part or Formative Power is wholly employed in the modification of matter conserving the vital motions and faithfully transmitting the Impressions of External Objects upon the Instruments of Sense to the seat of Perception And that this holds good in Angels their vital union with matter sufficiently demonstrates For although we should fancy the Vehicles or Bodies of Angels to lie in a lax and diffuse manner without any particular Organization or Characteristical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet it is most probable that the seat of Perception is restrained to some particular place in that heap of living Air. Wherefore God creating no Power or Faculty in vain but that at some time or other it should be called forth into Act did graciously allow to these embodied Spirits their Perige's or Conversion to the Placid Motions of their Congenit Bodies in due measures and proportions as well as their Apoge's or Recessions from matter Which innocent delight was in a sort necessary to their condition and the circumstances of their Natures For the most Intellectual and resined operations of their Minds depending somewhat upon the motions of the Matter of their Vehicles it is impossible they should always attend with an equal Intensenefs and Vigour upon those high and remote speculations without any the least lassitude or dulness partly because profound Contemplations do very much exhaust and debilitate the Spirits or Ethereal matter which is the most immediate Instrument of Sense and Cogitation both in the Souls of men and Angels and partly from the necessary imperfection of their Natures which are made with respect and regard to the Plastick as well as Perceptive powers of life which require an abatement and relaxation of the superior Faculties as well for the supply and recruit of their Vehicles as to be a pleasant repast after which the Intellectual life becomes more ardent sublime and vigorous in the exercise of all its most perfect operations Wherefore this being the state of things the Defection and Eclipse of those once bright and glorious morning Stars must be attributed to the luxuriant growth of the Plastick life which taking deeper root by a fond carelesness and indulgency diffuses every way such
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
guidance of an Almighty Providence and have recourse upon all occasions to those wandring Goblins who intend nothing less than the destruction of all those that have to do with them And that which adds a further confirmation of the greatness and Majesty of this Law is what the Iews themselves saw before their departure out of Egypt that is the opposition made against Moses by the Magicians of Pharaoh whose miracles were not Juggles and Impostures done by sleight of hand but real things produced and effected by the assistance of evil Spirits For had they been otherwise they might still have gone on and not cried out This is the finger of God when a power transcending theirs restrained and overruled them And indeed whoever considers aright the frame of the Polity and Kingdom of Darkness how far those evil Daemons have degenerated from all Goodness and Righteousness and how studious they are to promote and disseminate a Spirit and Nature of Wretchedness and Vice and withal how deadly and implacable foes of mankind and how ready at all turns to wait upon either the fond curiosity or more deliberate and designed purposes of those that will be tampering with them will not easily allow the concernment of these Laws to be so low and trifling as to look only at Juglers Cheats and Impostors But there having been such among the Pagans who surrounded the Iews as really practised Sorcery and entred into familiarity with wicked Spirits it is certain that such are here likewise meant by Moses And therefore In the second place the words themselves do properly bear that sence For Mecaseph denotes alike Magicians and Inchanters and both these are called in Scripture Melahesim which word is from Lahas susurravit because those persons did by whispering or muttering converse with or desire the assistance of Daemons The other word Ob will best be explained by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of Python or by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 belly-speakers i. e. those out of whose bellies as the Oracles out of Caves the Devil spake Ofthese Photius gives an account in his Epistles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wicked and unclean Spirit that inhabits a mans belly as a Serpent his hole in the Earth and being unclean is fit to dwell in that place which is the receptacle of Ordure they appositely call Engastrimuthus And of this kind of Devil saith he which loves to dwell in the Ordure both of men and women 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. It is a great deceiver of people and Author of destruction to all that give ear to it These the Hebrew calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the belly and the reason is rendred by Galen because they speak without opening their mouth and so seem to speak out of the belly 2. The second particular to be insisted upon is this That nothing hinders in the reason of the thing it self but that there may be real confederations and contracts betwixt wicked and wretched Persons and evil Spirits To this purpose we must know that the Devil hath all along endeavoured to Ape and Imitate the actions of God Almighty and to deprave the Institutions he appointed in his Worship to perverse and wicked ends Thus because Sacrifices were offered to the True God the Arch-Fiend commands likewise the same to be done to him And as God sometimes by fire from Heaven declared his acceptation of the Sacrifices performed to him so this likewise hath been counterfeited by the Devil as in the Sacrifice offered up to Iupiter by the Rhodians And at Hierocaesarea and Hypaepae saith Pausanias wood laid upon the Altar is commonly set on fire without putting fire to it only at the mumbling of some few words by a Priest Moreover Solinus reports the same of the Vulcanian Hill in Sicily where when the Sacrifice is prepared ab ipso Numine fit accendium the green wood fires of it self and the Deity by consuming the Sacrifice by fire gives a testimony of his acceptance of the Oblation And upon some Mountain in Africa if I misremember not the Cacodaemon offers himself to those who for certain days have duly prepared themselves splendidâ circumfusum nube environ'd with a bright cloud an imitation doubtless of the Divine Presence manifested by a cloud upon the Tabernacle of the Iews or that which overshadowed the Disciples at the Transfiguration of our Saviour Now as the Sacrifices offered up to the true God of Israel were Federal Rites and those that did partake of them did thereby enter into a Covenant with God to become his servants and obey his Laws so the Aiery Principality hath Mimically observed the same thing and those that offered Sacrifices to Daemons were supposed by partaking of those Sacrifices to enter into a stricter league and familiarity with those evil Spirits And as all Covenants between God and Men have been performed by certain sensible Rites and Ceremonies the nature of man in these Earthly Bodies requiring that it should be so in like manner have all the mutual compacts and stipulations between wicked men and Devils been transacted by some sensible ways and signs or other If therefore in all confederations between men and superior and invisible Powers there have been some External and visible Ceremonies whereby these Consociations have been ratified and confirmed why should we startle so much at the intimacy and familiarity of an impure and foul Spirit with a Wizard or Witch Nay though there should intervene to complete the Hellish Contract some such External Rite as the drawing of bloud from those wretched persons by the wicked Daemon For the drinking of bloud hath sometimes been made use of by Conspirators and other wicked persons as the strongest Sacrament and Tye of a mutual Confederacy that could be imagined Thus Plutarch in the life of Valerius Publicola relates that the Conspirators against Brutus and his fellow Consul bound themselves one to another by a great and horrible Oath drinking the Bloud of a man and shaking hands in his Bowels whom they would Sacrifice And that the Gnosticks and Nicolaitans made use of the like Ceremonies is recorded by Eusebius Epiphanius and others whose impious Transactions gave occasion to the Heathens to object Thyestean Banquets against the Christians Of the Cataphryges S. Austin in his Catalogue of Heresies tells that they are said to have very abominable Sacraments for they celebrated their Eucharist with the Bloud of an Infant of a year old which they forced out of his body by pricking and making small wounds mixing it with flour and so making bread of it And what reason have we to think that there may not some such damnable solemnity be used in the compacts between Magicians and these silthy Daemons The result of all then is this If there have been Confederations and Compacts between men and Devils transacted and performed by sensible signs then there may still be an Agreement or Confederacy between an
calls man to Life he on the contrary should hale and lead them unto Death He it is that allures or deceives them that endeavour after the Truth or if he cannot effect it by deceitful stratagems he assumes greater courage and attempts to weaken the vigour and activity of the highest proficients and thus by execrable and nefarious means he torments and kills and yet as he overthrows many so is he by many overthrown and when he is foiled departs and goes away 4. That it is possible for the Soul to arise to such a height and become so Divine that no Witchcraft or evil Daemons can have any power upon the Body When the Bodily life is too far invigorated and awakened and draws the Intellect the flower and summity of the Soul into a Conspiration with it then are we subject and obnoxious to Magical assaults For Magick or Sorcery being founded only in this lower or Mundane Spirit he that makes it his business to be freed and released from all its Blandishments and flattering Devocations and endeavours wholly to withdraw himself from the love of Corporeity and too near a Sympathy with the frail flesh he by it enkindles such a Divine principle as lifts him up above the fate of this Inferior world and adorns his mind with such an awful Majesty that beats back all Inchantments and makes the Infernal Fiends tremble at his presence hating those vigorous beams of light which are so contrary and repugnant to their dark Natures And in this is clearly fulfilled what the Aramitick Sorcerer spake that there is no Inchantment or Divination against Israel that is such who are established in a Principle above the world and in whose Souls the All-powerful life of God is firmly radicated and fixed who are indeed the true and perfect Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. for neither Astral Spirit nor Angelcan prevail against one Ray of the Deity as Aesculapius writes to King Ammon And how far successful in this very case this holy Contention of conquering the Bodily life and setting free the mind from the bondage and toils of the flesh may be is evident in Plotinus whose Soul as Porphyry relates was come to that high and noble Temper that he did not only keep off Magical assaults from himself but retorted them upon his Enemy Olympius which Olympius himself who practised against him did confess to be from the exalted power of his Soul So true is that which Lactantius cites from Hermes that those who have the true knowledge of God are not only safe from the assaults of the Devil but from Fate it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The only safe custody is Godliness for neither evil Daemon nor Fate can take hold of a pious man for God extricates and delivers the holy Person from all evil OBJECTION V. That it is very ridiculous to imagine that Devils though never so foul and unclean should delight in sucking the Bloud of these accursed Hags Answ. HOW ridiculous soever this may seem to an Objector that perhaps would willingly turn all things related of Spirits whether good or bad into Ridicule yet as the frequent and constant Confessions of these despicable Creatures have made it unquestionable matter of Fact so those who have searched more narrowly into the nature and extraordinary degeneracy of these course and foul Spirits suppose they have reason to believe that a Daemon's sucking the Bloud of a Witch is no such strange and unaccountable Phaenomenon And perhaps if the sacred Scriptures had not so fully assured us that the Devils whom our Saviour cast out entred immediately into the herd of Swine it would have been deemed a thing alike monstrous and incredible which Marcus the Monk in answer to this very instance tells his Thrax that these Daemons enter into Brute Animals not out of any spleen or hatred they bear to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because they are wonderfully desirous of Animal warmth For the confederate Spirit whether of a Nature Humane or Diabolical must necessarily have a Body proportionable to the grossness and courseness of its Powers and Faculties which being so mightily debauched through the excessive prevalency and exorbitancy of the sensual life cannot act in any other Vehicle but what is drawn from the clammy and caliginous parts of the Air which Bodies in this agree with ours in that they have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Effluvia and exhale and wear away by a continual deflux of Particles and therefore require some Nutriment to supply the place of the fugacious Atoms which is done by sucking the Bloud and Spirits of these forlorn wretches And that this was the Opinion of the wisest and best Philosophers among the Greeks that evil Daemons were extremely delighted with the Bloud and Nidours of Sacrifices as being a refreshment and nourishment to their Vaporous Bodies appears from what Celsus writes Xp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We ought to give credit to wise men who affirm that most of these lower and circumterraneous Daemons are delighted with Geniture Bloud and Nidour and such like things and much gratified therewith And Origen agrees with him fully in this point and tells us that the Devils were not only delighted with the Idolatry of the Pagans in their Sacrifices but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that their very Bodies were nourished by the Vapours and Fumes arising from them and that these evil Daemons therefore did as it were deliciate and Epicurize in them To this purpose the same Father makes mention of a certain Pythagorean who wrote of the Mysterious and Recondite sense of Homer That Chryses words to Apollo and his Immission of a Pestilence upon the Grecians teach us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that Homer did believe there were certain evil Daemons who took pleasure in Fumes and Nidours of Sacrifices and that they were ready as a reward to gratifie the Sacrificants with the destruction of any person if they so desired it Which by the way may give some satisfaction to those importunate Inquirers why the Possessions and Vexations of men by evil Daemons should be wrought upon the desire of a Witch viz. to gratifie her revenge as a reward for the pleasure the wicked Fiend reaped from such vile and damnable Commerce with her Body Nor was this a singular Fancy of Origen for Athenagoras a Christian Philosopher writes the very same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. The Daemons assist at the Sacrifices being allured and brought down by the bloud which they greedily take in And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the material Daemons do strangely gluttonize upon the Nidours and Bloud of Sacrifices Which they suck in not with their mouths but as Marcus in Psellus who had formerly been initiated in the Diabolical Mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as spunges and testaceous Fishes And no doubt but those impure Devils may take as much pleasure