Angell is able to chase whole troops of these malignant For though their naturall powers in regard of the substance of them be still retained yet in regard of the exercise and execution of them they are abated and restrained by the over-ruling order of divine Justice and mercy from which far be that infinite incongruity that evill should prevail above God The same God therefore who so disposeth the issue of these humane contentions that the race is not to the swift nor the battell to the strong cowardizeth and daunteth these mighty and insolent spirits so as they cannot stand before one of these glorious Angels nor prevail any further then his most wise providence hath contrived to permit for his own most holy purposes How ever yet we be upon these grounds safe in the good hands of the Almighty and of those his blessed Guardians to whom he hath committed our charge yet it well befits us to take notice of those powerfull executions of the evill Angels which it pleaseth the great Arbiter of the world to give way unto that we may know what cause we have both of vigilance and gratitude SECT. III. Of the power of Devils NO Dwarfe will offer to wrestle with a Giant it is an argument of no smal power as well as boldnesse of that proud spirit that he durst strive with Michael the Archangell and though he were as then foiled in the conflict yet he ceaseth not still to oppose his Hierarchy to the Celestiall and not there prevailing he poures out his tyranny where he is suffered on this inferior world One while fetching down fire from heaven which the messenger called the fire of God upon the flocks and shepherds of Job another while blustring in the air with hurrying winds and furious tempests breaking downe the strongest towers and turning up the stoutest oaks tearing asunder the hardest rocks and rending of the tops of the firmest mountains one while swelling up the raging Sea to suddain inundations another while causing the earth to totter and tremble under our feet would we descend to the particular demonstrations of the powerfull operations of evill spirits this discourse would have no end If we do but cast our eyes upon Jannes and Jambres the Egyptian Sorcerers in whom we have formerly instanced in another Treatise to this purpose we shall see enough to wonder at How close did they for a time follow Moses at the heels imitating those miraculous works which God had appointed and inabled him to do for Pharaohs conviction Had not the faith of that worthy servant of God been invincible how blank must he needs have looked to see his great works patterned by those presumptuous rivals Doth Moses turn his rod into a serpent every of their rods crawleth and hisseth as well as his Doth he smite the waters into bloud their waters are instantly as bloudy as his Doth he fetch frogs out of Nilus into Pharaohs bed-chamber and bosome and into the ovens and kneading troughs of his people they can store Egypt with loathsome cattle as well as he All this while Pharaoh knows no difference of a God and hardly yeelds whether Jannes or Moses be the better man although he might easily have decided it out of the very acts done he saw Moses his serpent devoured theirs so as now there was neither serpent nor rod and whiles they would be turning their rod into aserpent both rod and serpent were lost in that serpent which returned into a rod He saw that those Sorcerers who had brought the frogs could not remove them and soon after sees that those juglers who pretended to make serpents bloud frogs cannot when God pleaseth to restrain them make so much as a louse But supposing the sufferance of the Almighty who knows what limits to prescribe to these infernall powers They can beguile the senses mock the fantasie work strongly by philtres upon the affections assume the shapes of man or beast inflict grievous torment on the body conveigh strange things insensibly into it transport it from place to place in quick motions cause no lesse suddain disparitions of it heal diseases by charmes and spels frame hideous apparitions and in short by applying active powers to passive subjects they can produce wonderful effects each of all which were easie to be instanced in whole volumes if it were needfull out of history and experience Who then O God who is able to stand before these sons of Anak what are we in such hands Oh match desperately unequal of weaknesse with power flesh with spirit man with Devils Away with this cowardly diffidence Chear up thy self O my soul against these heartlesse fears and know the advantage is on thy side Could Samson have been firmly bound hand and foot by the Philistine cords so as he could not have stirred those mighty limbs of his what boy or girl of Gath or Ascalon would have fear'd to draw near and spurn that awed champion No other is the condition of our dreadfull enemies they are fast bound up with the adamantine chains of Gods most mercifull and inviolable decree and forcibly restrained from their desired mischief Who can be afraid of a muzzled and tyed up mastive What woman or childe cannot make faces at a fierce Lion or a bloudy Bajazet lockt up fast in an iron grate were it not for this strong and straight curb of divine providence what good man could breath one minute upon earth The Demoâ—iack in the Gospel could break his iron fetters iâ— pieces through the help of his â—egion those Devils that possessed him could not break theirs they are fain to sue for leave to enter into swine neither had obtained it in all likelyhood but for a just punishment to those Gadarene owners How sure may we then be that this just hand of omnipotence will not suffer these evill ones to tyrannize over his chosen vessels for their hurt How safe are we since their power is limited our protection infinite SECT. IV. Of the knowledge and malice of wicked Spirits WHo can know how much he is bound to God for safe-guard if he doe not apprehend the quality of those enemies wherewith he is incompassed whose knowledge and skil is no whit inferiour to their power They have not the name of Daemones for nothing their natural knowledge was not forfeited by their fall the wisdom of the infinite giver of it knows how rather to turn it to the use of his own glory However therefore they are kept ofâ— from those divine illuminations which the good Angels receive from God yet they must needs be granted to have such a measure of knowledge as cannot but yeeld them a formidable advantage For as spirits being not stripped of their original knowledge together with their glory they cannot but know the natures and constitutions of the creatures and thereby their tempers dispositions inclinations conditions faculties and therewith their wants their weaknesse and obnoxiousnesse and thereupon strongly conjecture at their
suddainnesse or circumvent us with subtlety let them not spare to use their advantage But oh ye tutelar spirits ye well know our weaknesse and their strength our sillinesse and their craft their deadly machinations and our miserable obnoxiousnesse neither is your love to markinde and fidelity to your maker any whit lesse then your knowledge so as your charge can no more miscarry under your hands and eyes then your selves As you do alwayes enjoy the beatifical vision of your maker so your eye is never off from his little ones your blessednesse is no more separable from our safety then you from your blessednesse SECT. VI The imployments and operations of Angels EVen while we see you not O ye blessed spirits we know what ye do He that made you hath told us your task As there are many millions of you attending the all-glorious throne of your Creator and singing perpetual Hallelujahs to him in the highest heavens so there are innumerable numbers of you imployed in governing and ordering the creature in guarding the elect in executing the commands which ye receive from the Almighty what variety is here of your assistance One while ye lead us in our way as ye did Israel another while ye instruct us as ye did Daniel one while ye fight for us as ye did for Joshua and Judas Maccabaeus another while ye purvey for us as for Elias one while ye fit us to our holy vocation as ye did to Esay another while ye dispose of the opportunities of our calling for good as ye did of Philips to the Eunuch one while ye foretell our danger as to Lot to Joseph and Mary another while ye comfort our affliction as to Hagar one while ye oppose evil projects against us as to Balaam another while ye will be striven with for a blessing as with Jacob one while ye resist our offensive courses as to Moses another while ye incourage us in our devotions as ye did Paul and Silas and Cornelius one while ye deliver from durance as Peter another while ye preserve us from danger and death as the three children one while ye are ready to restrain our presumption as the Cherub before the gate of Paradise another while to excite our courage as to Elias and Theodosius one while to refresh and chear us in our sufferings as to the Apostles another while to prevent our sufferings as to Jacob in the pursuit of Laban and Esau to the Sages in the pursuit of Herod one while ye cure our bodies as at the pool of Bethesda another while ye carry up our souls to glory as ye did to Lazarus It were endlesse to instance in all the gracious offices which ye perform Certainly there are many thousand events wherein common eyes see nothing but nature which yet are effected by the ministration of Angels when Abraham sent his servant to procure a wife for his son from amongst his own cognation the messenger saw nothing but men like himself but Abraham saw an Angel fore-contriving the work God saith he shal send his Angel before thee that thou mayest take a wife thence when the Israelites forcibly by dint of sword expelled the Canaanites and Amorites and the other branded nations nothing appeared but their own arms but the Lord of hosts could say I will send mine Angel before thee by whom I shall drive them thence Balaam saw his Asse disorderly starting in the path he that formerly had seen Visions now sees nothing but a wall and a way but in the mean time his Asse who for the present had more of the Prophet then his Master could see an Angel and a sword The Sodomites went groping in the street for Lots door and misse it they thought of nothing but some suddain dizzinesse of brain that disappointed them we know it was an Angel that stroke them with blindenesse Nothing appeared when the Egyptian first-born were struck dead in one night the Astrologers would perhaps say they were Planet-struck we know it was done by the hand of an Angel Nothing was seen at the pool of Bethesda but a moved water when the suddain cures were wrought which perhaps might be attributed to some beneficiall constellation we know that an Angel descended and made the water thus sanative Gâ—hezi saw his master strangely preserved from the Aramite troops but had not his eyes been opened by the Prophets prayers he had not seen whence that aid came Neither is it otherwise in the frequent experiments of our life Have we been raised up from deadly sicknesses when all naturall helps have given us up Gods Angels have been our secret Physitians Have we had instinctive intimations of the death of some absent friends which no humane intelligence hath bidden us to suspect who but our Angels hath wrought it have we been preserved from mortall dangers which we could not tell how by our providence to have evaded our invisible Guardians have done it I see no reason to dislike that observation of Gerson Whence is it saith he that little children are conserved from so many perils of their infancy fire water falls suffocations but by the agency of Angels Surely where we find a probability of second causes in nature we are apt to confine our thoughts from looking higher yet even there many times are unseen hands had we seen the house fall upon the heads of Jobs children we should perhaps have attributed it to the natural force of a vehement blast when now we know it was the work of a spirit Had we seen those thousands of Israel falling dead of the plague we should have complain'd of some strange infection in the air when David saw the Angel of God acting in that mortality Humane reason is apt to be injuriously saucie in ascribing those things to an ordinary course of natural causes which the God of nature doth by supernatural agents A master of Philosophy travelling with others on the way when a fearfull thunder-storm arose checked the fear of his fellows and discoursed to them of the naturall reasons of that uprore in the clouds and those suddain flashes wherewith they seemed out of the ignorances of causes to be too much affrighted in the midst of his philosophicall discourse he was strucken dead with that dreadfull eruption which he sleighted what could this be but the finger of that God who will have his works rather entertained with wonder and trembling then with curious scanning Neither is it otherwise in those violent Huracans devouring earthquakes and more then ordinary tempests and fiery apparitions which we have seen and heard of for however there be natural causes given of the usual events of this kinde yet nothing hinders but that the Almighty for the manifestation of his power and justice may set spirits whether good or evil on work to do the same things sometimes with more state and magnificence of horrour like as we see Frogs bred ordinarily both out of putrefaction and generation and yet
who convey the benefit of their heavenly meditations unto the souls of others Lastly to the highest eminence of Seraphim those who love God with their whole heart and their neighbour for God and their enemies in God and feel no wrongs but those which are done to their Maker I know not whether this soaring conceit be more seemingly pious then really presumptuous since it is evident enough that these graces do incur into each other and are not possible to be severed He that loves God cannot choose but be earnestly desirous to communicate his graces unto others cannot but have his heart taken up with divine contemplation the same man cannot but overlook earthly things and courageously suffer for the honour of his God Shortly he cannot but be vigilant over his own wayes and helpfull unto others Why should I presume to divide those vertues or rewards which God will have inseparably conjoyned And what a strange confusion were this in stead of an heavenly order of remuneration Sure I am that the least degree both of Saints and Angels is blessednesse But for those stairs of Glory it were too ambitious in me to desire either to climb or know them It is enough for me to rest in the hope that I shall once see them in the mean time let me be learnedly ignorant and incuriously devout silently blessing the power and wisdom of my infinite Creator who knows how to honour himself by all these glorious and unrevealed subordinations SECT. VIII The apparitions of Angels WEre these celestiall spirits though never so many never so powerfull never so knowing never so excellently glorious meer strangers to us what were their number power knowledge glory unto us I hear of the great riches state and magnificence of some remote Eastern Monarchs what am I the better whiles in this distance their port and affairs are not capable of any relation to me To me it is all one not to be and not to be concerned Let us therefore diligently inquire what mutual communion there is or may be betwixt these blessed spirits and us And first nothing is more plain then that the Angels of God have not alwayes been kept from mortall eyes under an invisible concealment but sometimes have condescended so low as to manifest their presence to men in visible forms not naturall but assumed I confesse I have not faith enough to beleeve many of those apparitions that are pretended I could never yet know what other to think of * Socrates his Genius which as himself reports was wont to check him when he went about any unmeeâ— enterprise and to forward him in good For the modern times it is too hard to credit the report of Doway letters concerning our busie neighbour Pâ—re Cotton that he had ordinary conference and conversation with Angels both his own tutelar and those generall of Provinces If so what need was there for him to have propounded fifty questions partly of Divinity partly of Policy to the resolution of a Demoniack Who can be so fondly credulous as to believe that Jo. Carrera a young father of the Society had a daily companion of his Angell in so familiar a fashion as to propound his doubts to that secret friend to receive his answers to take his advise upon all occasions to be raised by him every morning from his bed to his early devotions till once delaying caused for a time an intermission Or that the aged Cappuchin Franciscus de Bergamo noted for the eleven pretious stones which were found in his gall had for eight years together before his death the assistance of an Angel in humane shape for the performing of his Canonicall hours Or that the Angels helped their S. Gudwal and S. Oswald Bishop of Worcester to say his masse Or that Isidore the late Spanish Peasant newly Sainted amongst good company by Greg. the 15. serving an hard master had an Angell to make up his daily task at his plough whiles the good soul was at his publique devotions like as another Angel supplyed Felix the Lay Cappuchin in tending his Cattle Or that Francisca Romana lately Canonized had two Celestial spirits visibly attending her the one of the order of Archangels which never left her the other of the fourth order of Angels who frequently presented himself to her view their attire sometimes white sometimes blew purple more rarely their tresses of hair long and golden as the over-credulous Bishop of Wirtzburge reports from Gulielmus Baldesanus not without many improbable circumstances these and a thousand more of the sâ—me branne finde no more belief with me then that story which Franciscus Albertinus relates out of Baronius as done here at home that in the year 1601. in England there was an Angel seen upon one of our Altars and therefore more likely to be known in our own Island then beyond the Alps in a visible form with a naked sword in his hand which he glitteringly brandished up and down foyning sometimes and sometimes striking thereby threatning so long ago an instant destruction to this Kingdome And indeed why should we yeeld more credit to these pretenders of apparitions then to Adelbertus the German Heresâ—arch condemned in a Councel of Rome by Pope Zacharie who gave no lesse confidently out that his Angel-guardian appeared daily to him and imparted to him many divine Revelations and directions or if there be a difference pleaded in the relations where or how shal we finde it This we know that so sure as we see men so sure we are that holy men have seen Angels Abraham saw Angels in his Tent dore Lot saw Angels in the Gate of Sodome Hagar in the Wildernesse of Beersheba Jacob in the way Moses in the bush of Horeb Manoah and his wife in the field Gideon in his threshing flore David by the threshing flore of Araunah What should I mention the Prophets Elijah Elisha Esay Daniel Zachary Ezekiel and the rest In the new Testament Joseph Mary Zachariah the father of John Baptist the Shepheards Mary Magdalen the gazing Disciples at the Mount of Olives Peter Philip Cornelius Paul John the Evangelist were all blessed with the sight of Angels In the succeeding times of the Church Primitive I dare beleeve that good Angels were no whit more sparing of their presence for the comfort of holy Martyrs and Confessors under the pressure of tyranny for the dear name of their Saviour I doubt not but constant Theodorus saw and felt the refreshing hand of the Angel no lesse then he reported to Julian his persecutor I doubt not but the holy Virgins Theophila Agnes Lucia Cecilia and others saw the good Angels protectors of their chastity As one that hath learned in these cases to take the mid-way betwixt distrust and credulity I can easily yield that those retired Saints of the prime ages of the Church had sometimes such heavenly companions for the consolation of their forced solitude But withall I must have leave to hold
absolute good the will instantly proves vicious As therefore there can be no possible fault incident into the will of him who propounds to himself as his only good the utmost end of all things which is God himself so in whatsoever willer whose own particular good is contained under the order of another higher good there may without Gods speciall confirmation happen a sin in the will Thus it was with these revolting Angels they did not order their own particular supposed good to the supream and utmost end but suffered their will to dwell in an end of their own and by this means did put themselves into the place of God not regulating their wils by another superior but making their will the rule of their own desires which was in effect to affect an equality with the highest Not that their ambition went so high as to aspire to an height of goodness or greatnesse equall to their infiniâ—e Creatour This as the greater Leader of the School hath determined it could not fall into any intelligent nature since it were no other then to affect his own not being for as much as there can be no beeing at all without a distinction of degrees and subordinations of beeings This was I suppose the threshold of leaving their first estate Now it was with Angelicall spirits as it is with heavy bodies when they begin to fail they went down at once speedily passing through many degrees of wickednesse Let learned Gerson see upon what grounds he conceives that in the beginning their sin might be veniall afterwards arising to the height of maliciousness whom Salmeron seconds by seven reasons alledged to that purpose labouring to prove that before their precipitation they had large time and place of repentance the point is too high for any humane determination this we know too well by our selves that even the will of man when it is once let loose to sin finds no stay how much more of those active spirits which by reason of their simple and spirituall nature convert themselves wholly to what they do incline What were the particular grounds of their defection and ruine what was their first sin it is neither needfull nor possible to know I see the wracks of this curiosity in some of the Ancient who misguiding themselves by a false Compasse of mis-applyed Texts have split upon those shelves which their miscarriage shall teach me to avoid If they have made Lucifer that is the morning Star a Devill and mistake the King of Babylon for the Prince of darknesse as they have palpably done I dare not follow them Rather let me spend my thoughts in wondring at the dreadfull justice and the incomprehensible mercy of our great and holy God who having cast these Apostate Angels into hell and reserved them in everlasting chains under darknesse unto the judgement of the great day hath yet graciously found out a way to redeem miserable mankinde from that horible pit of destruction It is not for me to busie my self in finding out reasons of difference for the aggravation of the sin of Angelâ— and abatement of mans as that sin began in them they were their own tempters that they sinned irreparably since their fall was to them as death is to us How ever it were Cursed be the man who shall say that the sin of any creature exceeds the power of thy mercy O God which is no other then thy selfe infinite whiles therefore I lay one hand upon my mouth I lift up the other in a silent wonder with the blessed Apostle and say How unsearchable are thy judgements and thy wayes past finding out SECT. IV. Of the number of Apostate Spirits WHo can but tremble to thinke of the dreadfull precipice of these dâ—â—ned Angels which from the highest pitch of heaven were suddainly thrown down into the dungeon of the nethermost hell who can but tremble to think of their number power malice cunning and deadly machinations Had this defection been single yet it had been fearfull should but one star fall down from heaven with what horrour do we think of the wrack that would ensue to the whole world how much more when the great Dragon draws down the third part of the stars with his tail And lo these Angels were as so many spirituall stars in the firmament of glory It was here as in the rebellion of great Peers the common sort are apt to take part in any insurrection There are orders and degrees even in the region of confusion we have learned of our Saviour to know there is a Devill and his Angels And Jewish tradition hath told us of a Prince of Devils It was in all likelyhood some prime Angell of heaven that first started aside from his station and led the ring of this highest and first revolt millions sided with him and had their part both in his sin and punishment Now how formidable is the number of these evill and hostile spirits Had we the eyes of that holy Hermit for such the first were we might see the air full of these malignant spâ—rits laying snares for miserable mankinde And if the possessors of one poor Demoniack could style themselves Legion a name that in the truest account contains no lesse then ten Cohorts every Cohort fifty Companies and every Company 25 Souldiers to the number of 1225 what an army of these hellish fiends do we suppose is that wherewith whole mankinde is beleaguered al the world over Certainly no man living as Tertullian and Nissen have too truly observed can from the very hour of his nativity to the last minute of his dissolution be free from one of these spirituall assailants if not many at once The ejected spirit returns to his former assault with seven worse then himself Even where there is equality of power inequality of number must needs be a great advantage An Hercules himself is no match for two Antagonists yea were their strength much lesse then ours if we be but as a flock of Goats feeding upon the hils when the evil spirits as the Midianites Amalekites were against Israel are like grashoppers in the valley what hope what possibility were there if we were left in our own hands for saefty or prevalence But now alas their number is great but their power is more Even these Evil Angels are styled by him that knew them no less then principalities and powers and rulers of the darknesse of this world and spirituall wickednesses in heavenly places They lost not their strength when they left their station It is the rule of Dionysius too true I fear that in the reprobate Angels their naturall abilities stil hold No other then desperate therefore were the condition of whole mankinde if we were turned loose into the lists to grapple with these mighty spirits Courage O my soul and together with it victory Let thine eys be but open as Gehezies thou shalt see more with us then against us One good