Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	adoption_n	bondage_n	receive_v	7,913	5	6.1101	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62397	The discovery of witchcraft proving that the compacts and contracts of witches with devils and all infernal spirits or familiars are but erroneous novelties and imaginary conceptions : also discovering, how far their power extendeth in killing, tormenting, consuming, or curing the bodies of men, women, children, or animals by charms, philtres, periapts, pentacles, curses, and conjurations : wherein likewise the unchristian practices and inhumane dealings of searchers and witch-tryers upon aged, melancholly, and superstitious people, in extorting confessions by terrors and tortures, and in devising false marks and symptoms, are notably detected ... : in sixteen books / by Reginald Scot ... ; whereunto is added an excellent Discourse of the nature and substance of devils and spirits, in two books : the first by the aforesaid author, the second now added in this third edition ... conducing to the compleating of the whole work, with nine chapters at the beginning of the fifteenth [sic] book of The discovery.; Discoverie of witchcraft	Scot, Reginald, 1538?-1599.; Scot, Reginald, 1538?-1599. Discourse concerning the nature and substance of devils and spirits.	1665 (1665)	Wing S945A; ESTC R20054	529,066	395

For by that means men should have good occasion and opportunity to flie from him and to run to God for succour as the manner is of all them that are terrified though perchance they thought not upon God a long time before But in truth we never have so much cause to be afraid of the Devil as when he flatteringly insinuateth himself into our hearts to satisfie please and serve our humours enticing us to prosecute our own appetites and pleasures without any of these external terrours I would weet of these men where they do find in the Scriptures that some Devils be spiritual and some corporal or how these earthy or watery Devils enter into the mind of man Augustine saith and divers others affirm That Satan or the Devil while we feed allureth us with gluttony he thrusteth lust into our generation and sloth into our exercise into our conversation envie into our traffick avarice into our correction wrath into our government pride he putteth into our hearts evil cogitations into our mouthes lyes c. When we wake he moveth us to evils works when we sleep to evil and filthy dreams he provoketh the merry to loosness and the sad to despair CHAP. XII That the Devils assaults are Spiritual and not Temporal and how grossly some understand those parts of the Scripture UPon that which hitherto hath been said you see that the assaults of Satan are spiritual and not temporal in which respect St. Paul wisheth us not to provide a corselet of Steel to defend us from his claws but biddeth us Put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand against the invasions of the Devil For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities powers and spiritual wickedness And therefore St. Peter adviseth us To be sober and watch for the Devil goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour He meaneth not with carnal teeth for it followeth thus Whom resist ye stedfast in the faith And again St. Peter saith That which is spiritual only discerneth spiritual things for no carnal man can discern the things of the spirit Why then should we think that a Devil which is a Spirit can be known or made tame and familiar unto a natural man or contrary to nature can be by a Witch made corporal being by God ordained to a spiritual proportion The cause of this gross conceipt is that we hearken more diligently to old Wives and rather give credit to their fables than to the Word of God imagining by the tales they tell us that the Devil is such a Bulbegger as I have before described For whatsoever is proposed in Scripture to us by Parable or spoken figuratively or significatively or framed to our gross capacities c. is by them so considered and expounded as though the bare letter or rather their gross imaginations thereupon were to be preferred before the true sense and meaning of the Word For I dare say that when these blockheads read Jothams Parable in the ninth of Judges to the men of Sichem to wit that The trees went out to anoint a King over them saying to the Olive-tree Reign thou over us who answered and said Should I leave my fatness c. they imagine that the wooden Trees walked and spake with a mans voyce or else that some spirit entred into the Trees and answered as is imagined they did in the Idols and Oracles of Apollo and such like who indeed have eyes and see not ears and hear not mouths and speak not c. CHAP. XIII The Equivocation of this word Spirit how diversly it is taken in the Scriptures where by the way is taught that the Scripture is not alwayes literally to be interpreted nor yet allegorically to be understood SUch as search with the the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding shall find that Spirits as well good as bad are in the Scriptures diversly taken yea they shall well perceive that the Devil is no horned beast For sometimes in the Scriptures Spirits and Devils are taken for infirmities of the body sometimes for the vices of the mind sometimes also for the gifts of tither of them Sometimes a man is called a Devil as Judas in the sixt of John and Peter in the 16. of Matthew Sometimes a Spirit is put for the Gospel sometimes for the mind or soul of man sometimes for the wil of man his mind and councel sometimes for Teachers and Prophets sometimes for zeal towards God sometimes for joy in the Holy Ghost c. And to interpret unto us the nature and signification of spirits we find these words written in the Scripture to wit The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him The Spirit of counsel and strength The Spirit of wisdom and understanding The spirit of knowledg and the fear of the Lord. Again I will pour out my Spirit upon the house of David c. The Spirit of grace and compassion Again Ye have not received the spirit of bondage but the Spirit of adoption And therefore St. Paul saith To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit to another the gift of healing to another the gift of faith by the same Spirit to another the gift of prophesie to another the operation of great works to another the discerning of spirits to another the diversity of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues and all these things worketh one and the self-same Spirit Thus far the words of St. Paul And finally Isaiah saith that The Lord mingled among them the spirit of errour And in another place The Lord hath covered you with a spirit of slumber As for the spirits of divination spoken of in the Scripture they are such as was in the woman of Endor the Philippian woman the wench of Westwell and the holy maid of Kent who were indued with spirits or gifts of divination whereby they could make shift to gain money and abuse the people by sleights and crafty inventions But these are possessed of borrowed spirits as it written in the Book of Wisdom and spirits of meer cosenage and deceipt as I have sufficiently proved elsewhere I deny not therefore that there are Spirits and Devils of such substance as it hath pleased God to create them But in what place soever it be found or read in the Scriptures a Spirit or Devil is to be understood spiritually and is neither a corporal nor a visible thing Where it is written That God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Sichem we are to understand that he sent the spirit of hatred and not a Bulbegger Also where it is said If the Spirit of jealousie come upon him it is as much as to say If he he be moved with a jealous mind and not that a corporal Devil

doth he constantly deny it to be a creature Now if any ask me why Hilarie was so coy and nice to name the Holy Spirit God whom he denyeth to be a creature when as notwithstanding between God and a creature there is no mean I will in good sooth say what I think I suppose that Hilarie for himself thought well of the Godhead of the Holy Spirit but this opnion was thrust and forced upon him by the Pneumatomachi who at that time rightly deeming of the Son did erewhiles join themselves to those that were sound of judgment There is also in the Ecclesiastical History a little book which they gave Liberius a Bishop of Rome whereinto they foisted the Nicene Creed And that Hilarie was a friend of the Pneumatomachi it is perceived in his Book De Synodis where he writeth in this manner Nihil autem mirum vobis videri debet fratres charissimi c. It ought to seem no wonder unto you dear Brethren c. As for the objection of the Prayers of the Church called the Collects that in them the Holy Spirit is not called upon by name we oppose and set against them the Songs of the Church wherein the said Spirit is called upon But the Collects are more ancient than the Songs Hymns and Anthems I will not now contend about ancientness neither will I compare Songs and Collects together but I say thus much only to wit that in the most ancient times of the Church the Holy Spirit hath been openly called upon in the Congregation Now if I be charged to give an instance let this serve In the Collect upon Trinity Sunday it is thus said Almighty and everlasting God which hast given unto us thy servants grace by the confession of a truth to acknowledg the glory of the eternal Trinity and in the power of the divine Majesty to worship the Unity we beseech thee that through the stedfastness of this faith we may evermore be defended from all adversity which livest and reignest one God world without end Now because that in this Collect where the Trinity is expresly called upon the names of persons are not expressed but Almighty and Everlasting God invocated who abideth in Trinity and Unity it doth easily appear elsewhere also that the persons being not named under the Name of Almighty and Everlasting God not only the Father is to be understood but God which abideth in Trinity and Unity that is the Father the Son and the Holyghost A third objection of theirs is this The Son of God oftentimes praying in the Gospels speaking unto the Father promiseth the Holy Spirit and doth also admonish the Apostles to pray unto the heavenly Father but yet in the Name of the Son Besides that he prescribeth them this form of Prayer Our Father which art in Heaven Ergo The Father only is to be called upon and consequently the Father only is that one and very true God of whom it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Whereto I answer first by denying the consequent The Son prayed to the Father only Ergo the Father only is of us also to be prayed unto For the Son of God is distinguished of us both in Person and in Office he as a Mediator maketh Intercession for us to the Father and although the Son and the Holy Spirit do both together receive and take us into favour with God yet is he said to intreat the Father for us because the Father is the fountain of all counsels and divine works Furthermore touching the form of Praying described by Christ it is not necessary that the Fathers name should personally be there taken sith there is no distinction of persons made but by the Name of Father indefinitely we understand God or the Essence of God the Father the Son and the Holy-Ghost For this name hath not alwayes a respect unto the generation of the Son of God but God is called The Father of the faithful because of his gracious and free adopting of them the foundation whereof is the Son of God in whom we be adopted but yot so adopted that not the Father only receiveth us into his favour but with him also the Son and the Holy Spirit doth the same Therefore when we in the beginning of Prayer do advertise our selves of God's goodness towards us we do not cast an eye to the Father alone but also to the Son who gave us the Spirit of Adoption and to the Holy Spirit in whom we cry Abba Father And if so be that invocation and Prayer were restrained to the Father alone then had the Saints done amiss in calling upon invocating and praying to the Son of God and with the Son the Holy Spirit in Baptism according to the form by Christ himself assigned and delivered Another objection is out of the fourth of Amos in this manner For lo it is I that make the Thunder and create the spirit and shew unto men their Christ making the light and the clouds and mounting above the high places of the earth the Lord God of Hosts is his Name Now because it is read in that place Shewing unto men their Christ the Pneumatomachi contended that these words are to be understood of the Holy Spirit But Ambrose in his Book De Spiritu Sancto lib. 2. cap. 7. doth rightly answer That by Spirit in this place is meant the Wind for if the Prophets purpose and will had been to speak of the Holy Spirit he would not have begun with Thunder nor have ended with light and clouds Howbeit the same father saith If any suppose that these words are to be drawn unto the interpretation of the Holy Spirit because the Prophet saith Shewing unto men their Christ he ought also to draw these words unto the mystery of the Lords incarnation and he expoundeth Thunder to be the words of the Lord and Spirit to be the reasonable and perfect soul But the former interpretation is certain and convenient with the words of the Prophet by whom there is no mention made of Christ but the power of God is set forth in his works Behold saith the Prophet he that formeth the Mountains and createth the Wind and declareth unto man what is his thought which maketh the morning darkness and walketh upon the high places of the earth the Lord God of Hosts is his Name In this sort Santes a right skilful man in the Hebrew tongue translateth this place of the Prophet But admit this place were written of the Holy Spirit and were not appliable either to the Wind or to the Lords Incarnation yet doth it not follow that the Holy Spirit is a creature because this word of Creating doth not alwayes signifie a making of something out of nothing as Eusebius dxpounding these wrrds The Lord created me in the beginning of his wayes writeth thus The Prophet in the Person of God saying

Prophet to wit I will cause the Prophets and unclean spirits to depart out of the land and when any shall yet Prophesie his parents shall say to him Thou shalt not live for thou speakest lyes in the name of the Lord and his Parents shall thrust him through when he Prophesieth c. No no the foretelling of things to come is the only work of God who disposeth all things sweetly of whose counsel there hath never yet been any man And to know our labours the times and moments God hath placed in his own power Also Phavorinus saith That if these cold Prophets or Oraclers tell thee of prosperity and deceive thee thou art made a miser through vain expectation if they tell thee of adversity c. and lye thou art made a miser through vain fear And therefore I say we may as well look to hear Prophesies at the Tabernacle in the bush of the Cherubin among the clouds from the Angels within the Ark or out of the flame c. as to expect an oracle of a Prophet in these dayes But put the case that one in our Common-wealth should step up and say he were a Prophet as many frantick persons do who would believe him or not think rather that he were a lewd person See the Statutes Eliz. 5. whether there be not laws made against them condemning their arrogancy and cosenage so also the canon laws to the same effect Chap. III. That Oracles are ceased TOuching Oracles which for the most part were Idols of silver gold wood stones c. within whose bodies some say unclean spirits hid themselves and gave answers as others say that exhalations rising out of the ground inspire their minds whereby their Priests gave out Oracles so as spirits and winds rose up out of that soil and indued those men with the gift of Prophesie of things to come though in truth they were all devices to cosen the people and for the profit of Priests who received the Idols answers over night and delivered them back to the idolaters the next morning you shall understand that although it had been so as it is supposed yet by the reasons and proofs before rehearsed they should now cease and whatsoever hath affinity with such miraculous actions as Witchcraft Conjuration c. is knocked on the head and nailed on the cross with Christ who hath broken the power of Devils and satisfied Gods justice who also hath troden them under his feet and subdued them c. At whose coming the Prophet Zachary saith That the Lord will cut the names of Idols out of the Land and they shall be no more remembred and he will then cause the Prophets and unclean spirits to depart out of the land It is also written I will cut off thine Inchanters out of thine hand and than shalt have no more Soothsayers And indeed the Gospel of Christ hath so laid open their knavery c. that since the preaching thereof their combes are cut and few that are wise regard them And if ever these Prophesies came to take effect it must be upon the coming of Christ whereat you see the Devils were troubled and fainted when they met him saying or rather exclaming upon him on this wise Fili Dei cur venisti nos cruciare ante tempus O thou Son of God why comest thou to molest us or confound us before our time appointed which he indeed prevented and now remaineth he our defender and keeper from his claws So as now you see here is no room left for such guests Howbeit you shall hear the opinion of others that have been as much deceived as your selves in this matter and yet are driven to confess that God hath constituted his Son to beat down the power of Devils and to satisfie Gods justice and to heal our wound received by the fall of Adam according to Gods promise in Genesis 3. The seed of the woman shall tread down the serpent or the Devil Eusebius in his first book De praedicatione Evangelii the title whereof is this That the power of Devils is taken away by the coming of Christ saith All answers made by Devils all Soothsayings and Divinations of men are gone and vanished away Item he citeth Porphyry in his book against Christian Religion wherein these words are rehearsed It is no marvel though the Plague be so hot in this City for ever since Jesus hath been worshipped we can obtain nothing that good is at the hands of our Gods And of this defection and ceasing of Oracles writeth Cicero long before and that to have happened also before his time Howbeit Chrysostome living lone since Cicero saith That Apollo was forced to grant that so long as any relike of a Martyr was held to his nose he could not make any answer or Oracle So as one may perceive that the Heathen were wiser in this behalf then many Christians who in times past were called Oppugnatores incantamentorum as the English Princes are called Defensores fidei Plutarch calleth Boeotia as we call bablers by the name of Many words because of the multitude of Oracles there which now saith he are like to a spring or fountain which is dryed up If any one remained I would ride five hundred miles to see it but in the whole world there is not one to be seen at this hour Popish cosenages excepted But Plutarch saith That the cause of this defection of Oracles was the Devils death whose life he held to be determinable and mortal saying they dyed for very age and that the divining Priests were blown up with a Whirle-winde and sunk with an earthquake Others imputed it to be the sight of the place of the Planets which when they passed over them carryed away that art with them and by revolution may return c. Eusebius also citeth out of him the story of Pan which because it is to this purpose I will insert the same and since it mentioneth the Devils death you may believe it if you list for I will not as being assured that he is reserved alive to punish the wicked and such as impute unto those Idols the power of Almighty God CHAP. IV. A tale written by many grave Authors and believed by many wise men of the Devils death Another story written by Papists and believed of all Catholicks approving the Devils honestly conscience and courtesie PLutarch saith That his Countreyman Epitherses told him that as he passed by Sea into Italy many passengers being in his boat in an evening when they were about the Islands Echinadae the wind quite ceased and the ship driving with the tide was brought at last to Pax and whilest some slept and others quaft and othersome were awake perhaps in as ill case as the rest after supper suddainly a voyce was heard calling Thamus in such sort as every man marvelled This Thamus was a Pilot born in Aegypt unknown to many that were in the ship wherefore being

ravine theft and violence and yet none of them all are so just but that the very best and uprightest of them fall into great infirmities both doing and suffering much wrong and injury And what is their fortitude but to arm them to indure misery grief danger and death it self But what happiness or goodness is to be reposed in that life which must be waited upon with such calamities and finally must have the help of death to finish it I say if it be so miserable why do they place Summum bonum therein S. Paul to the Romans sheweth that it cannot be that we should attain to justice through the moral and natural actions and duties of this life because that never the Jews nor the Gentiles could e●press so much in their lives as the very law of Nature or of Moses required And therefore he that worketh without Christ doth as he that reckoneth without his host CHAP. II. Mine own opinion concerning this Argument to the disproof of some Writers hereupon I For my part do also think this Argument about the Nature and Substance of Devils and Spirits to be so difficult as I am perswaded that no one Author hath in any certain or perfect sort hitherto written thereof In which respect I can neither allow the ungodly and prophane sects and doctrines of the Sadduces and Peripateticks who deny that there are any Devils or Spirits at last nor the fond and superstitious Treatises of Plato Proclus Plotinus Porphyrie or yet the vain and absurd opinions of Psellus Nider Sprenger Cumanus Bodin Michael Andreas Janus Matchaeus Laurentius Ananias Jambilchus who with many others write so ridiculously in these matters as if they were babes frayed with bugges Some affirming That the souls of the dead become spirits the good to be Angels the bad to be Devils Some That Spirits or Devils are only in this life Some That they are men Some That they are women Some That Devils are of such gender as they list themselves Some That they had no beginning nor shall have ending as the Manichees maintain Some That they are mortal and die as Plutarch affirmeth of Pan Some That they have no bodies at all but receive bodies according to their phantasies and imaginations Some That their bodies are given unto them Some That they make themselves Some say They are wind Some That they are the breath of living creatures Some That one of them begat another Some That they were created of the least part of the mass whereof the Earth was made and some That they are substances between God and Man and that of them some are Terrestrial some Celestial some Watery some Airy some Firy some Starry and some of each and every part of the Elements and that they know our thoughts and carry our good Works and Prayers to God and return his benefits back unto us and that they are to be worshipped wherein they meet and agree jump with the Papists as if you read the notes upon the second chapter to the Colossians in the Seminaries Testament printed at Rhemes you shall manifestly see though as contrary to the Word of God as black to white as appeareth in the Apocalypse where the Angel expresly forbad John to worship him Again some say That they are mean betwixt Terrestrial and Celestial bodies communicating part of each nature and that although they be eternal yet that they are moved with affections and as there are Birds in the air Fishes in the water and Worms in the earth so in the fourth Element which is the fire is the habitation of Spirits and Devils And lest we should think them idle they say They have charge over men and Government in all Countries and Nations Some say That they are only imaginations in the mind of man Tertullian saith They are Birds and fly faster then any fowl of the air Some say That Devils are not but when they are sent and therefore are called evil Angels Some think That the Devil sendeth his Angels alroad and he himself maketh his continual abode in Hell his Mansion place CHAP. III. The opinion of Psellus touching Spirits of their several Orders and a Confutation of his Errors therein PSellus being of authority in the Church of Rome and not impugnable by any Catholick being also instructed in these supernatural or rather Diabolical matters by a Monk called Marcus who had been familiarly conversant a long time as he said with a certain Devil reporteth upon the same Devils own word which must needs understand best the state of this question That the bodies of Angels and Devils consist not now of all one element though perhaps it were otherwise before the fall of Lucifer and That the bodies of Spirits and Devils can feel and be felt do hurt and be hurt in so much as they lament when they are striken and being put to the fire are burnt and yet that they themselves burn continually in such sort as they leave ashes behind them in places where they have been as manifest tryal thereof hath been if he say truly in the borders of Italy He also saith upon like credit and assurance That Devils and Spirits do avoid and shed from out of their bodies such seed or nature as whereby certain vermin are ingendered and that they are nourished with food as we are saving that they receive it not into their mouths but suck it it up into their bodies in such sort as sponges soke up waser Also he saith They have names shapes and dwelling places as indeed they have though not in temporal and corporal sort Furthermore he saith That there are six principal kind of Devils which are not only corporal but temporal and worldly The first sort consist of fire wandering in the Region neer to the Moon but have no power to go into the Moon The second sort consisting of air have their habitation more low and neer unto us These saith he are proud and great boasters very wise and deceitful and when they come down are seen with streams of fire at their tail He saith That these are commonly conjured up to make Images laugh and Lamps burn of their own accord and that in Assyria they use much to prophesie in a Bason of Water Which kind of Incantation is usual among our Conjurors but it is here commonly performed in a Pitcher or Pot of water or else in a Vial of Glass filled with water wherein they say at the first a little sound is heard without a voyce which is a token of the Devils coming Anon the water seemeth to be troubled and then there are heard small voyces wherewith they give their answers speaking so softly as no man can well hear them because saith Cardan they would not be argued or rebuked of lyes But this I have elsewhere more largely described and confuted The third sort of Devils are earthly the fourth watery or of the Sea

and in that sense did Christ himself use it saying Be ye wise as Serpents c. So that by this brief collection you see that the word Serpent as it is equivocal so likewise it is sometimes taken in the good and sometimes in the evil part But where it is said That the Serpent was father of lyes author of death and the worker of deceit methinks it is a ridiculous opinion to hold that thereby a Snake is meant which must be if the letter be preferred before the Allegory Truly Calvin's opinion is to be liked and reverenced and his example to be embraced and followed in that he offereth to subscribe to them that hold that the Holy Ghost in that place did of purpose use obscure figures that the clear light thereof might be deferred till Christs coming He saith also with like commendation speaking hereof and writing upon this place That Moses doth accommodate and fitten for the understanding of the common people in a rude and gross style those things which he there delivereth forbearing once to rehearse the name of Satan And further he saith That this order may not be thought of Moses his own device but to be taught him by the Spirit of God for such was saith he in those dayes the childish age of the Church which was unable to receive higher or profounder doctrine Finally he saith even hereupon That the Lord hath supplyed with the secret light of his Spirit whatsoever wanted in plainness and clearness of external words If it be said according to experience That certain other Beasts are farre more subtil than the Serpent They answer That it is not absurd to confess that the same gift was taken away from him by God because he brought destruction to mankind Which is more methinks than need be granted in that behalf For Christ saith not Be ye wise as Serpents were before their transgression but Be wise as Serpents are I would learn what impiety absurdity or offence it is to hold that Moses under the person of a poysoning Serpent or Snake describeth the Devil that poysoned Eve with his deceitful wor●s and venomous assault Whence cometh it else that the Devil is called so often The Viper The Serpent c. and that his children are called the generation of Vipers but upon this first description of the Devil made by Moses For I think none so gross as to suppose that the wicked are the children of Snakes according to the letter no more than we are to think and gather that God keepeth a Book of Life written with Pen and Ink upon Paper as Citizens record their Free-men CHAP. XXXI Of the Curse rehearsed Gen. 3. and that place rightly expounded John Calvins opinion of the Devil THe curse rehearsed by God in that place whereby Witchmongers labour so busily to prove that the Devil entered into the body of a Snake and by consequence can take the body of any other creature at his pleasure c. reacheth I think further into the Devils matters than we can comprehend it or is needful for us to know that understand not the wayes of the Devils creeping and is far unlikely to extend to plague the generation of Snakes though they had been made with legges before that time and through his curse was deprived out of that benefit And yet if the Devil should have entered into the Snake in manner and form as they suppose I cannot see in what degree of sin the poor Snake should be so guilty as that God who is the most righteous Judge might be offended with him But although I abhor that lewd interpretation of the Family of Love and such other Heretiques as would reduce the whole Bible into allegories yet methinks the creeping there is rather metaphorically or significatively spoken than literally even by that figure which is there prosecuted to the end Wherein the Devil is resembled to an odious creature who as he creepeth upon us to annoy our bodies so doth the Devil there creep into the conscience of Eve to abuse and deceive her whose seed nevertheless shall tread down and dissolve his power and malice And through him all good Christians as Calvin saith obtain power to do the like For we may not imagine such a material tragedy as there is described for the ease of our feeble and weak capacities For whensoever we find in the Scriptures that the Devil is called God the Prince of the world a strong armed man to whom is given the power of the air a roaring Lion a Serpent c. the Holy Ghost moved us thereby to beware of the most subtil strong and mighty Enemy and to make preparation and arm our selves with faith against so terrible an Adversary And this is the opinion and counsel of Calvin That we seeing our own weakness and his force manifested in such terms may beware of the Devil and may flie to God for spiritual aid and comfort And as for his corporal assaults or his attempts upon our bodies his night-walkings his visible appearings his dancing with Witches c. we are neither warned in the Scriptures of them nor willed by God or his Prophets to flie them neither is there any mention made of them in the Scriptures And therefore think I those Witchmongers and absurd Writers to be as gross on the one side as the Sadduces are impious and fond on the other which say That Spirits and Devils are only motions and affections and that Angels are but tokens of Gods power I for my part confess with Augustine That these matters are above my reach and capacity and yet so farr as God Word teacheth me I will not stick to say That they are living creatures ordained to serve the Lord in their vocation And although they abode not in their first estate yet that they are the Lords Ministers and Executioners of his wrath to try and tempt in this world and to punish the reprobate in Hell fire in the world to come CHAP. XXXII Mine own Opinion and Resolultion of the Nature of Spirits and of the Devil with his properties BUt to use few words in a long matter and plain terms in a doubtful case this is mine opinion concerning this argument First that Devils are spirits and no bodies For as Peter Martyr saith spirits and bodies are by antithesis opposed one to another so as a body is no spirit nor a spirit a body And that the Devil whether he be many or one for by the way you shall understand that he is so spoken of in the Scriptures as though there were but one and sometimes as though one were many legions the sense whereof I have already declared according to Calvins opinion he is a creature made by God and that for vengeance as it is written in Ecclus. 39. v. 28. and of himself naught though imployed by God to necessary and good purposes For in places where it is written

Spirit into six significations saying that it is sometimes taken for the air sometimes for the bodies of the blessed sometimes for the souls of the blessed sometimes for the power imaginative or the mind of man and sometimes for God Again he saith That of spirits there are two sorts some created and some uncreated A spirit uncreated saith he is God himself and it is essentially taken and agreeth unto the three Persons notionally to the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost personally A spirit created is a creature and that is likewise of two sorts to wit bodily and bodiless A bodily spirit is also of two sorts for some kind of spirit is so named of spiritualness as it is distinguished from bodiliness otherwise it is called Spiritus a spiriando id est a flando of breathing or blowing as the wind doth A bodiless spirit is one way so named of spiritualness and then it is taken for a spiritual substance and is of two sorts some make a full and compleat kind and is called compleat or perfect as a spirit angelical some do not make a full and perfect kind and is called incompleat or unperfect as the soul There is also the spirit vital which is a certain subtil or very fine substance necessarily disposing and tending unto life There be moreover spirits natural which are a kind of subtil and very fine substances disposing and tending unto equal complexions of bodies Again there be spirits animal which are certain subtil and very fine substances disposing and tempering the body that it might be animated of the form that is that it might be perfected of the reasonable soul Thus far he In whose division you see a Philosophical kind of proceeding though not altogether to be condemned yet in every point not to be approved Now to the Spirit of spirits I mean the principal and holy Spirit of God which one defineth or rather describeth to be the third Person in the Trinity issuing from the Father and the Son no more the charity dilection and love of the Father and the Son than the Father is the charity dilection and love of the Son and Holy Ghost Another treating upon the same argument proceedeth in this reverent manner The holy Spirit is the vertue or power of God quickning nourishing fostering and perfecting all things by whose only breathing it cometh to pass that we both know and love God and become at the length like unto him which Spirit is the pledge and earnest penny of grace and beareth witness unto our heart whiles we cry Abba Father This Spirit is called the Spirit of God the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of him which raised up Jesus from the dead Jesus Christ for that he received not the Spirit by measure but in fulness doth call it his Spirit saying When the Comforter shall come whom I will send even the Holy Spirit he shall testifie of me This Spirit hath divers Metaphorical names attributed thereunto in the Holy Scriptures It is called by the name of water because it washeth comforteth moistneth softeneth and maketh fruitful with all godliness and vertues the mindes of men which otherwise would be unclean comfortless hard dry and barren of all goodness whereupon the Prophet Isaiah saith I will pour water upon the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground c. Wherewithal the words of Christ do agree He that believeth in me as saith the Scripture out of his belly shall flow rivers of waters of life And elsewhere Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never be more athirst Other places likewise there be wherein the Holy Spirit is signified by the name of water and flood as in the 13. of Isaiah the 29. of Ezek. the 146. Psalm c. The same Spirit by reason of the force and vehemency thereof is termed fire For it doth purifie and cleanse the wholeman from top to toe it doth burn out the soil and dross of sins and setteth him all in a flaming and hot burning zeal to prefer and further Gods glory Which plainly appeared in the Apostles who when they had received the Spirit they spake fiery words yea such words as were uncontrollable in somuch as in none more than in them this saying of the Prophet Jeremy was verified Nunquid non verba mea sunt quasi ignis Are not my words even as it were fire This was declared and shewed by those fiery tongues which were seen upon the Apostles after they had received the Holy Spirit Moreover this Spirit is called annointing or ointment because that as in old time Priests and Kings were by annointing deputed to their office and charge and so were made fit and serviceable for the same even so the elect are not so much declared as renewed and made apt by the training up of the Holy Spirit both to live well and also to glorifie God Whereupon dependeth the saying of John And ye have no need that any should teach you but as the same ointment doth teach you It is also called in Scripture The Oil of gladness and rejoycing whereof it is said in the Book of Psalms God even thy God hath annointed thee with the Oil of joy and gladness c. And by this goodly and comfortable name of Oil in the Scriptures is the mercy of God oftentimes expressed because the nature of that doth agree with the property and quality of this For as Oil doth float and swim above all other liquors so the mercy of God doth surpass and over-reach all his works and the same doth most of all disclose it self to miserable man It is likewise called the Finger of God that is the might and power of God by the vertue whereof the Apostles did cast out Devils to wit even by the finger of God It is called the Spirit of Truth because it maketh men true and faithful in their vocation and for that it is the touch-stone to try all counterfeit devices of mans brain and all vain Sciences prophane Practices deceitful Arts and circumventing Inventions such as be in general all sorts of Witchcrafts and Inchantments within whose number are comprehended all those wherewith I have had some dealing in my Discovery to wit Charms or Incantations Divinations Augury Judicial Astrology Nativity-casting Alchymistry Conjuration Lot-share Popery which is meer paltry with divers other not one whereof no nor altogether are able to stand to the tryal and examination which this Spirit of Truth shall and will take of those false and evil spirits Nay they shall be found when they are laid into the balance to be lighter than vanity very dross when they once come to be tryed by the fervent heat of this Spirit and like chaffe when this Spirit bloweth upon them driven away with a violent whirlwind such is the perfection integrity and effectual operation of this Spirit whose working as it is manifold so it is marvellous and

Behold I am he that made the Thunder and created the Spirit and shewed unto men their Christ this word created is not so to be taken as that it is to be concluded thereby that the same was not before For God hath not so created the Spirit fithence by the same he hath shewed and declared his Christ unto al men Neither was it a thing of late beginning under the Son but it was before all beginning and was then sent when the Apostles were gathered together When a sound like Thunder came from Heaven as it had been the coming of a mighty wind this word created being used for sent down for appointed ordained c. and the word Thunder signifying in another kind of manner the Preaching of the Gospel The like saying is that of the Psalmist A clean heart create in me O God wherein he prayed not as one having no heart but as one that had such a heart as needed purifying as needed perfecting and this phrase also of the scripture that he might create two in one new man that is that he might joyn couple or gather together c. Furthermore the Pneumatomachi by these testimonies insuing endeavour to prove the Holy Spirit to be a creature Out of John the 1. ch By this word were all things made and without it nothing was made Out of 1 Cor. 8. We have one God the Father even he from whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and we by him Out of Col. 1 By him were all things made things in heaven and things in earth visible and invisible c. Now if all things were made by the Son it followeth that by him the Holy Spirit was also made Whereto I answer that when all things are said to be made by the Son that same universal proposition is restrained by John himself to a certain kind of things Without him saith the Evangelist was nothing made that was made Therefore it is first to be shewed that the Holy Spirit was made and then will we conclude out of John that if he were made he was made of the Son The Scripture doth no where say that the Holy Spirit was made of the Father or of the Son but to proceed to come and to be sent from them both Now if these universal propositions are to suffer no restraint it shall follow that the Father was made of the Son than the which what is more absurd and wicked Again they object out of Mat. 11. None knoweth the Son but the Father and none the Father but the Son to wit of and by himself for otherwise both the angels and to whomsoever else it shall please the Son to reveal the Father these do know both the Father and the Son Now if so be the Spirit be not equal with the Father and the Son in knowledge he is not only unequal and lesser than they but also no God for ignorance is not incident unto God Whereto I answer that where in holy Scripture we do meet with universal propositions negative or exclusive they are not to be expounded of one person so as the rest are excluded but creatures or false gods are to be excluded and whatsoever else is without or beside the essence and being of God Reasons to prove and confirme this interpretation I could bring very many whereof I will adde some for example In the seventh of John it is said When Christ shall come none shall know from whence he is notwithstanding which words the Jews thought that neither God nor his Angels should be ignorant from whence Christ should be In the fourth to the Galatians A mans Covenant or testament confirmed with authority no body doth abrogate or adde any thing thereunto No just man doth so but tyrants and truce-breakers care not for covenants In John eight Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst And yet it is not to be supposed that a multitude of people was not present and the Disciples of Christ likewise but the word Solus alone is referred to the womans accusers who withdrew themselves away every one and departed In the sixt of Mark When it was evening the ship was in the midst of the sea and he alone upon land he was not alone upon land or shore for the same was not utterly void of dwellers but he had not any of his Disciples with him nor any body to carry him a shipboard unto his Disciples Many phrases or forms of speeches like unto these are to be found in the sacred scriptures and in authors both Greek and Latin whereby we understand that neither universal negative nor exclusive particles are strictly to be urged but to be explained in such sort as the matter in hand will bear When as therefore the Son alone is said to know the Father and it is demanded whether the holy Spirit is debarred from knowing the Father out of other places of Scripture judgment is to be given in this case In some places the Holy Spirit is counted and reckoned with the Father and the Son jointly wherefore he is not to be separated Elsewhere also it is attributed to the holy spirit that he alone doth know the things which be of God and searcheth the deep secrets of God wherfore from him the knowing of God is not to be excluded They do yet further object that it is not convenient or fit for God after the manner of suters to humble and cast down himself but the holy Spirit doth so praying and intreating for us with unspeakable groans Rom. 8. Ergo the holy Spirit is not God Whereunto I answer that the Holy Spirit doth pray and intreat insomuch as he provoketh us to pray and maketh us to groan and sigh Oftentimes also in the Scriptures is that action or deed attributed unto God which we being stirred up and moved by him doe bring to passe So it is said of God unto Abraham Now I know that thou fearest God and yet before he would have sacrificed Isaac God knew the very heart of Abraham and therefore this word Cognovi I know is as much as Cognoscere feci I have made or caused to know And that the Spirit to pray and intreat is the same with that to make to pray and intreat the apostle teacheth even there writing that we have received the spirit of adoption in whom we cry Abba Father Where it is manifest that it is we which cry the Holy-ghost provoking and forcing us thereunto Howbeit they goe further and frame this reason Whosoever is sent the same is inferior and lesser than he of whom he is sent and furthermore he is of a comprehensible substance because he passeth by local motion from place to place but the Holy Spirit is sent of the Father and the Son John 14 15. 16. It is poured forth and shed upon men Acts 10. Ergo the Holy