yea the Devils in the infernal pit and in the air do perform but without voice in a spiritual manner 3. If this opinion were true then the blessed Souls being divested from their Bodies should not have a communion one with another nor should jointly praise and glorifie God together which were false and absurd and therefore the learned Father said well It is to be holden stedfastly that the offices of the Heavenly Hoast are by no means performed in silence seeing we may read that the Angelical powers before the Throne of the Lord do sound forth his praise with unwearied voices 4. The sleights and subtil machinations for he hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or devices of Satans Kingdom could not be carried on if he had not a way and means to communicate them to the rest of the Crew of his inferiour Fiends and therefore doth plainly prove that there is a way of hidden Mystical and Spiritual discourse which the Devil might and did represent to the mind and understanding of Evah whereby she was seduced and that there was no need of a vocal and audible interlocution and so much in answer to his objection The next place of Scripture that is commonly brought and urged thereby to prove the great power of Devils and Witches is that of Pharaohs Magicians from whence they argue thus If the Magicians of Pharaoh were able by the power and assistance of the Devil to change their Rods into Serpents the Water into Blood and to produce Frogs Why may not Witches by the power and assistance of the Devil change themselves and other things into strange and several shapes and do the rest of the feats that are ascribed unto them But though this be but petitio principii a begging of the question that by the assistance of the Devil they did these things which is neither supposed nor granted but ought first to have been proved And though in the case of hardening Pharaohs heart there might be and was a peculiar dispensation from God at that time yet it will not follow that God doth always dispense with and give the Devil leave to operate the like things and so nothing firmly can be concluded from hence Yet I say though these be so we shall pretermit them and come to the full opening and discussion of the matter and that in these two particulars 1. How far the Devils power and assistance did concurr with the actions and performances 2. And wherein he did not concurr nor act at all 1. We shall grant that Pharaoh and the Magicians being Idolaters and worshippers of false gods their ends were principally to magnifie the power of their Idols and to manifest that their supposed gods could work and bring to pass as strange miracles or wonders as Moses and Aaron could perform by the assistance of the God of the Hebrews and in respect of this end they had all the assistance that Satan and his dark kingdom of Angels could afford them in a spiritual and hellish way for he is the Prince of the power of the air that worketh in the children of disobedience for such were both Pharaoh and his Magicians And to this purpose doth the Apostle tell us speaking of false and seducing teachers That they were like Jannes and Jaâ—bres that withstood Moses in their resisting of the truth so that the Magicians of Pharaoh were condemned for resisting the truth of that message that Moses and Aaron brought and of those real miracles that they performed and so in respect of the wicked end they aimed at they were assisted with the power and concurrence of the Devil and in that respect only were his servants and instruments But as for the second particular namely the efficient causes and â—eans of the producing of those thing that the Magicians did we affirm they were performed by the power of nature and art and that the Devil was no efficient cause of their production and that by these irrefragable arguments 1. Those that affirm that the Devil did or can produce such strange effects do also acknowledge that what he performeth in natural and elementary Bodies is done by applying natural agents to natural and fit patients which dotruly bring to pass such strange effects and that he doth no more but only make the local application of them From whence it must necessarily follow that the effects flow from natural agents and so no causality at all can be ascribed unto him except that fictitious one of being causa sine qua non which is as much as no cause And besides that there is no proof that he maketh this local application for if he be incorporeal then it is simply impossible that he should perform any such matter and however a man by natural power and means if he know the fit and apt actives and passives may perform them himself and so his assistance is needless and we have never yet met with any argument that bore any convincing force that might induce us to believe that he is so great a Naturalist 2. There are many persons that think themselves no mean sharers in the most sorts of learning and others that are very strait laced in their pretended zeal for godliness and in detesting the works of Satan that even startle and shew an abhorrency at the word Magick if it be but once named as though there were no Magick but what is diabolical or that which they call diabolical were any other way evil but only in the end and use for there are many plants and minerals that though poysonous are yet notwithstanding good in respect of their Creation and the good uses that may be made of them as to kill noxious animals that are hurtful unto man But if any forth of malice and wickedness should use them to poyson and destroy Men and Women it were wicked and diabolical in the end and use yet were the means lawful and natural So whatsoever the Devil may do by wicked Men his instruments in leading and drawing them to make use of the great magnalia naturae to work strange wonders by thereby to confirm Idolatry and Superstition or to resist the truth and such devilish ends though the end and use may be wicked and diabolical yet the efficient cause is natural and lawful And therefore we can find no other ground or reason of dividing Magick into natural and Diabolical but only that they differ in the end and use for otherwise they both work by a natural agency and means seeing the Devil can do nothing above or contrary to that course that God hath set in nature Therefore may men do without the aid of Devils whatsoever they can do seeing they have no advantage over us but operate only by applying active things to passive like as Men do And therefore said that most learned Philosopher Chymist and Mathematician our Countreyman Roger Bacon excellent well in these words non igitur oportet nos
carnal and therefore we are to prepare our selves against all spiritual assaults but as for any visible carnal or bodily there is not nor can be any such because the Apostle that declared by his Preaching and Writings the whole counsel of God hath revealed no such thing as the visible appearing of Satan much less of his making of a visible League with the Witches or the sucking of their bodies or the having carnal Copulation with them which must of necessity be lyes and figments because the Holy Ghost hath not warned us of any such which we ought certainly to believe he would have done if there had been any such matter And the holy Apostle who was not ignorant of the devices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notions or intentions of Satan would not have omitted to have warned the godly if there had been any such matter as a visible League sucking of their bodies or carnal Copulation the thing being of so great weight and concern For as one said well Grave est de vita bonis periclitari sed multò gravius insidiantem habere Satanam And he that so often hath given us warning of the wiles devices and snares of the Devil if there had been any such dangerous snare as this would without doubt have given us notice of it 2. We are to consider the end of this Warfare that it is for no less than a Crown and that not a terrestrial but a celestial one not a fading one but an everlasting one a Crown of eternal life of immortal glory even for an house given of God eternal in the Heavens Therefore this being a thing of the greatest concern that belongs to a Christian the Apostle would not doubtlesly omit any thing that had been necessary to the obtaining of such an inestimable prize and such an important Victory and therefore cannot in reason have concealed or omitted such a weighty matter as a visible League and the like if there had been any such thing 3. We are to consider that this Armor prescribed for the Souldiers of Jesus Christ is the whole armor of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the compleat armor of God as Dr. Hammond renders it perfect both for defence and offence And therefore the Apostle describes it fully by a Metaphor taken from such Arms as the Roman or other Nations in his time did use saying Stand therefore having your loyns girt about with truth and having on the breast-plate of righteousness And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace Above all taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints And as it is a compleat and perfect Armor both in respect of defence and offence so it is a spiritual not a carnal corporeal or bodily armor because the warfare is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places against spiritual enemies not against corporeal and carnal ones for as the enemies are and the warfare so are the armor and weapons From whence we truly urge that the Apostle led by the Holy Ghost and the Wisdom of the Father and knowing the whole counsel of God especially in this point hath omitted nothing that is fitting armor for a Christian either of defence or offence whereby he may be inabled to get the victory against Satan and all his spiritual Army And therefore that either Satan hath not power or doth not assault Christians after a visible carnal and bodily manner or else that the Holy Ghost hath been defective in prescribing armor against such assaults and consequently that the armor of a Souldier of Jesus Christ is not compleat or else there is no such bodily assaults of Satan at all as to tempt visibly to make a corporeal League to suck upon the Witches bodies nor to have carnal Copulation with them But we affirm and that as we conceive with sound reason that the Scriptures in this particular of a Christians armor and the compleatness of it is abundantly sufficient against all spiritual assaults whatsoever and consequently that there is no other kind of assaults but meerly spiritual and therefore the Word of God the most proper Medium with sound reason to judge of the power of Spirits and Devils by 3. That the Scriptures and sound reason are the only true and proper Medium to decide these Controversies by is most undeniably apparent because God is a Spirit and the invisible God and therefore best knows the nature and power of the spiritual and invisible World and being the God of truth can and doth inform us of their power and operations better than the vain lyes and figments of the Heathen Poets or the dreams of the Platonick School either elder or later nay better than all the notional and groundless speculations of the School-men of whom it may truly be said that Rivulo divinae Scripturae relicto in abyssos vanarum opinionum incidêrunt Nay these can better inform us in this point than the Writings of all Mortals besides and therefore whatsoever may be said to the contrary may receive its answer from the Father Quod de Scripturis sacris authoritatem non habet eâdem facilitate contemnitur quâ probatur Therefore he being the King eternal immortal invisible and the only wise God of none can we so truly and certainly learn these things as of him who hath plentifully taught us in his Word all things necessary to Salvation that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to every good work Nay he is the Father of Spirits and therefore truly knoweth and can and doth teach us their Natures Offices and Operations 4. The Scriptures especially the Writings of Moses considered only as Historical are of more antiquity verity and certainty both as to Doctrine Precepts matters of Fact and Chronology than all other Histories whatsoever whether of the Phenicians Egyptians Chaldeans or Grecians as the learned person Dr. Stilling fleet hath sufficiently proved Now if there had been such an one as a Witch that made a visible League with the Devil and upon whose body he suckt and with whom he had carnal Copulation something of that nature would doubtless have been recorded in the Scriptures of which notwithstanding there is not the least tittle or mention And Moses who was so perfect a Law-giver as in a manner to omit no kind or sort of sin or evil that men possibly could commit but to forbid it and make a Law against it could never have left out such an horrid unnatural and hellish wickedness as carnal Copulation with the fallen Angels if there had been any such matter For he saith after he had forbidden all sorts of Fornications
a bare affirmation without proof that these things are verified to have been matters of fact and really performed both by authority and the evidence of sense which are both utterly false then they flye to this assertion That the Confessions of so many Witches in all Ages in several Countries at divers times and places all agreeing in these particulars are sufficient evidence of the truth of these matters To which we shall rejoyn that the Confessions of Witches however considered are not of credit and validity to prove these things but are in themselves null and void as false impossible and forged lyes which we shall make good by these following Reasons 1. The Witch must be taken to be either a person insanae vel sanae mentis and if they be insanae mentis their Confessions are no sufficient evidence nor worthy of any credit because there is neither Reason Law nor Equity that allows the testimony or confession of an Idiot Lunatick mad or doting person because they are not of a right and sound understanding and are not to be accounted as compotes mentis nor governed by rationability For as by the Civil Law mad Folks Idiots and Old men childish Bond-slaves and Villains are not capable of making a Will to dispose of Goods Lands or Chattels so much more are all these sorts of persons excepted for giving evidence by confessions or otherwise in matters concerning life and death which are of far greater weight and concernment And that these persons are of unsound understandings is manifest in all the points that they confess and therefore are no proof nor ought to be credited and that for these reasons 1. Because the things they confess are not attested by any other persons of integrity and sound judgment and they must of necessity be lyars because the Bond-slaves of the Devil whose works they will do and he was a lyar from the beginning 2. Because they confess things that are impossible as we shall prove anon and confiteri impossibilia insanienti◠est 3. There is no good end wherefore they make these Confessions neither do they receive any benefit by them either spiritual or temporal internal nor external And this doth sufficiently shew that they are deluded melancholy and mad persons and so their Confessions of no credit truth or validity 2. Their Confessions will be found null and false if we consider the impulsive cause that moves them to make them and the end wherefore they declare such false and lying matters and that in these particulars 1. The moving cause is not nor can be the Spirit of God which is a Spirit of truth and righteousness nor any motion of true remorse for their sins or any thing flowing from repentant hearts because they are persons forsaken of God and his Grace and given over to reprobate minds and senses and therefore the truth of the Word of God is fulfilled in them Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved therefore God shall send them strong delusion that they might believe a lye That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2. Neither is the end for the glory of God or their own Salvation because they are the Vassals and Bond-slaves of Satan being kept Captive at his will and are Rebels and Traitors against God and Christ his Church and Truth having renounced the Faith and become Apostata's to the truth 3. The impulsive cause and chief end wherefore they make these and such like confessions is sometimes and in some persons meerly to eschew torture and bodily pains and sometimes the quite contrary solely to escape the present miseries of a poor wretched and troublesom life and therefore these confessions not at all to be credited as being vain and feigned 4. Sometimes they are by force waking craft and cunning in hope of pardon and life to make such confessions as the base ends and corrupt intentions of the Inquisitors themselves or their Agents have infused into them for the advancement of false Doctrine Superstition and Idolatry such were the most if not all recorded by Delrio Bodinus and the rest of the Witchmongers to which no credit can be given at all 5. But the chief end that Satan hath who is the Forger Contriver and Deviser of these Confessions if voluntarily and freely made the principal Agent in all these matters is to set forth the power and glory of his own Kingdom thereby to lead men into and continue them in lyes and errors for when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own for he is a lyar and the father of it and the Witches are his Children and the works of their Father the Devil they will do and he was and is a Murtherer and Lyar from the beginning And thus far we acknowledge a spiritual and mental League betwixt the Witch and the Devil by virtue of which they confess these horrible and abominable lyes of the glory of him and his Kingdom but other League or Covenant there is none neither is there any the least spark of truth in all that they say or confess because their sole end in making of these confessions is to advance the credit and power of Satan 6. The impulsive cause that often makes them to utter such confessions of strange and impossible things is the strong passive delusion that they lye under contracted by ignorant unchristian and superstitious education which they have suckt in with their milk heightned with an atrabilarious temper and constitution and confirmed by the wicked lyes and teaching of others which makes them confess these execrable things which they in their depraved and vitiated imaginations do think and believe they have done and suffered when there was never truly acted any such matter ad extrà but only in their mad and deluded Phantasies and so no more credit to be given to them than to the maddest Melancholist that ever was read or heard of 3. That there is not any jot of truth in these Confessions is manifest if we consider the subjective matter of them as is plain by these ensuing grounds 1. For the most of them are not credible by reason of their obscenity and filthiness for chast ears would tingle to hear such bawdy and immodest lyes and what pure and sober minds would not nauseate and startle to understand such unclean stories as of the carnal Copulation of the Devil with a Witch or of his sucking the Teat or Wart of an old stinking and rotten Carkass surely even the impurity of it may be sufficient to overthrow the credibility of it especially amongst Christians 2. There are many things that have no verity in them at all that notwithstanding have verisimilitude but these are not only void of truth but also of truth-likeliness for it is neither truth nor hath any likelihood of it to believe it for a truth that the Devil should carry an
clay And said unto him Go wash in the pool of Siloam which is by interpretation Sent. He went his way therefore and washed and came seeing Now as to the matter of fact that the Man born blind was cured and had his sight restored is a truth according to the sense of the letter and that the manner which was by spittle and earth made into Clay and his eyes covered or anointed with it and washing in the pool of Siloam was also literally true is manifest But it were absurd so far to stick to the letter as to believe that clay and spittle and washing in the poole Siloam were true and real natural means to produce that effect no that were absurd and therein the literal sense is not to be followed 2. Again concerning Ahab thus much is literally true in matter of fact that he was perswaded to go up to Ramoth-Gilead by his false Prophets in whose mouths there was a lying Spirit But the manner there declared of sending the lying Spirit into their Mouths cannot rationally be presumed to be true in a literal sense but in a Metaphorical for that the Lord was set on his Throne and all the Host of Heaven standing by him on the right-hand and on the left must needs be a Metaphor taken from an Emperour or a King that sits on his Throne and all his Counsellors Princes Estates and Officers about him to deliberate and consult what is to be done And this is the highest and most apt Metaphor that the supream Majesty of Heaven and Earth can be represented by not that in the literal sense it must be believed to be acted just in that mood and manner but as the most apposite Metaphor that can be found to express the proceedings of the Heavenly Majesty by and that for these reasons 1. God is Infinite and is every where by his Power Essence and Presence and therefore cannot literally be said to be comprehended in any locality but after a Metaphorical sense and expression For the Prophet saith Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord And as Solomon confesseth But will God indeed dwell upon the earth Behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee how much less this house that I have builded 2. God who is only wise and before whose eyes all things lie open and naked cannot litterally be said to consult or deliberate or to ask his creatures how a thing shall be done or brought to pass because his wisdom is like himself Infinite and need ask counsel of none and therefore must the manner of the performance of the deceiving of Ahabs Prophets needs be Metaphorically understood and not literally which is the thing that we would demonstrate 3. Further concerning Satans afflicting of Job in his Goods Cattels Children Servants and in his own Body is a real truth literally so taken as to the matter of fact but the manner of Satans appearing before God with the Sons of God cannot without manifest absurdity be understood in a literal sense but in a Metaphorical that God who is Omnipotent did command order send and limit him what and how far he was to act For otherwise God is light in whom there is no darkness at all dwelling in the light which no Man can approach unto but Satan is bound in chains of everlasting darkness and therefore cannot be said literally to appear in person before God but by way of a Metaphor So when the Angel telleth the Virgin Mary that she should conceive in her womb and she not understanding how that should come to pass because she had not known Man the Angel answered the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee Though the matter of fact be an undoubted truth and an Article of Faith literally so taken yet the manner of the Holy Ghosts coming upon her and the power of the highest overshadowing her cannot be understood in a literal sense as though it were by that natural and humane way that Men and Women do beget and conceive Children by for that were horrid and absurd as some late prophane wretched and debauched Atheists have spattered forth but after a Metaporical sense and a most mystical meaning So that it is plain that where a matter of fact may be literally and Historically true yet the manner how that matter of fact is brought to pass may be nay must be Metaphorical or else an absurdity will follow which was the thing undertaken to be proved 4. There is nothing more common and usual in Scripture than Metaphors as when Christ saith I am a vine I am the door of the sheep I am the living bread that came down from heaven Though they be Metaphors yet the things signified and intended by them are as really and certainly true as are the Metaphors themselves and sometimes more true because sometime the Metaphor is not used for the verity of its existence but according to the common use and opinion as O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you doth intend no more but an allusion to vulgar opinion that held that men might be bewitched and inchanted And so Christ in the true mystical and spiritual meaning is as really a spiritual vine door and bread as there are any of such things in nature or being But as that which is Literally and Historically true in matter of fact or meaning is not to be deceeded from so that which is a Metaphor ought not to be turned into a literal thing nor on the contrary the literal sense ought not to be made Metaphorical 5. Parables are Similitudes taken from things that may have been done or that are supposed to have been done and so the thing to which the comparison is made or from whence the Similitude is taken need not always be a thing that hath been performed in all the circumstances and manner thereof it is sufficient that the thing was possible or rationally probable to have been acted or at least supposed so to have been As for instance in that Parable where our Saviour saith That those that hear his words and do them are like a wise man that built his house upon a rock and he that heareth them and doth them not is like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand now it is not necessary that there should be two such men that in matter of fact did after that manner though there might have been many men before the time of our Saviour that might have done so but it was sufficient that the thing from which the comparison was made was possible rational and probable But the thing intended by the Parable or Similitude is alwayes a spiritual truth and certainty Concerning which learned Beza upon the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus doth give us this remarkable Marginal note Although Christ doth relate an History notwithstanding he writeth spiritual things under Figures which he knew
ball of his hand then with his left hand he taketh up a little white rod that he hath upon the Table with which he maketh people believe he performeth all his feats And then telling them a Story to amuse them that he will like Moses and Aaron transform that rod into a Serpent then he presently beginneth to stare about him and to utter some strange and nonsensical words as though he were invoking some Spirit or Goblin and so immediately conveyeth the rod either into his lap if sitting or into his sleeve if standing and then le ts loose the Serpent forth of his right hand with pushing it forward that what with the wiar and the nimble motion of his hand he maketh it to move a pretty space upon the Table which he continueth while offering with the one hand to catch it by the neck he nimbly with the other puts it forward and turneth it by touching the tail and the mean while hisseth so cunningly that the by-standers think it is the Serpent it self and presently whips it up and conveys it into his pocket And such a trick as this well acted might make Pharaoh and the beholders believe there was as much done as Moses and Aaron did but only that Aarons rod swallowed up their Serpents or his Serpent theirs which they might easily excuse As for the changing water into blood and the producing of Frogs they were so easy to be done after the same manner that they need not any particular explication for by this the manner of their performance may most easily be understood Though I once saw a Gentleman that was much delighted with these kind of tricks and did himself play them admirable well who performed it with a living Snake that he had got for one of his Children to keep in a box for in this North-Countrey they are plentiful and are also innoxious and it might have deceived a very wary person So that it is very foolish and absurd to bring in a Demon from Hell or an Angel from Heaven or a Soul from above to solve a thing that seems strange and uncouth by when the craft and cunning of Men if duely considered and examined are sufficient to perfom the same and much more 5. And in this place of Exodus where our Translators say and the Magicians did so or in like manner with their inchantments the word being Belahatehem ought to have been rendered suis laminis as we have proved before that is with their bright plates of metal for the word doth not signifie Inchantments in any one place in all the Old Testament And if truth and reason may bear any sway at all it must be understood that they were deeply skilled in natural and lawful Magick as generally the Aegyptians and the Eastern Nations were though they did use and apply it to an evil end namely the resisting the power of Gods miracles wrought by Moses and Aaron and so by this word suis laminis with their plates of Metal must be understood Metalline bright plates framed under certain fit constellations and insculped with certain figures by which naturally without any Diabolical assistance they did perform strange things and made the shapes of some things appear to the eye And though we may be derided and laughed to scorn by the ignorant or hardly taxed and censured by the greatest part of Cynical Criticks yet we cannot so far stifle the knowledge of our own brains nor be so cowardly in maintaining the truth but we must assert That anciently there hath been a certain lawful art whereby some sorts of metals might be mixed together under a due constellation and after ingraven in like fit Planetary times with sundry figures that would naturally work strange things And this piece of learning though it may justly be numbred amongst the Desiderata and might very well have been placed in the Catalogue of the Deperdita of Pancirollus yet was it well known unto the ancient Magicians and by them often with happy success put into practise And amongst those many noble attempts of that most learned and experienced though much condemned person Paracelsus this part of learning was not the least that he laboured to restore The truth of which we thus prove 1. That there have been formerly in the World many such like planetary Sigills or Talismans as the Persians called them is manifest from the authority of divers Authors of good credit and account For the learned and most acute Julius Scaliger relateth this saying The novelty of this History also may sharpen the wits of the studious In the Books of the Arabick Aegyptians he saith it is thus written That Hameth Ben Thaulon the Governour of Aegypt for the Arabians did command that a certain leaden Image or Picture of a Crocodile which was found in the ground-work of a certain Temple should be melted in the fire From which time the inhabitants did complain that those Countreys were more infested with Crocodiles than before against whose mischief that Image had been framed and buried there by the more ancient Wisemen or Magicians Junctin upon the Sphear of Sacrobosco affirms that his Master who was a Carmelite named Julianus Ristorius à Prato one that was not any whit superstitious was intreated by a Friend of his to make one of these Images for the cure of the Cramp which he was very much subject to This learned Man resenting his Friends sufferings taught him the manner how to make one so that he not content to make only one made divers of them when the Moon was in the Sign Cancer and that with so good success and with such certainty as that he immediately found the benefit of it Confecit saith he plures imagines pro se amicis suis quibus effectis unam pro se accepit liberatus est The same he reports of a certain Florentine a very Pious Man who made one of these Talismans for to drive away the Gnats which he did with good success Nicolaus Florentinus saith he Vir religiosus fecit in una constellatione annulum ad expellendum culices quas vulgo Zanzaras dicimus sub certis determinatis imaginibus usus fuit constellatione Saturni infortunati eâ—pulit culices Another Story take from an Arabick Cosmographer cited by Joseph Scaliger thus This Talisman he saith is to be seen in the Countrey of Hamptz in a City bearing the same name and it is only the Figure of a Scorpion graved upon one of the Stones in a certain Tower which is of so great virtue as that it suffers not any either Serpent or Scorpion to come within the City And if any one for experiment sake bring one of these out of the field into the City it is no sooner at the Gate but that it dies suddenly This Figure hath this virtue besides that when any one is stung with a Scorpion or bitten by any other Serpent they need but
is penes quem est alienas actiones inhibere eas non inhibet sed agentis voluntati permittit earum modum And again he saith Apud Deum verò Opt. Max. nulla est omnino permissio nisi voluntaria quandoquidem omnis divina permissio à principio interno est id est à voluntate ipsius movetur ad finem quem voluntas praefinivit ejus But we will conclude this with that of S. Augustin thus Englished Not any thing cometh to pass unless the Omnipotent will have it to be done either that it may be done by his suffering or by his Volition Neither is it to be doubted that God doth well even by suffering those things to be done that are done evilly For he doth not permit but by a just judgment and verily every thing is good that is just Although therefore those things that are evil in as much as they are evil they are not good notwithstanding as they are not only good but also as they are evil it is good For unless this were good that there should be evils they would by no means be permitted of the omnipotent good to whom without all doubt it is always as easy to do that which he would as it is easy not to suffer that which he would not have to be By all which it is plain that his permission is the act of his Divine Will and if he would not have it done he would not permit it and so the same consequences will follow from Nolition that follow from Volition in respect as they are both acts of the Divine Will 8. It is a certain truth that all moral actions are performed by a physical power in respect of the sustentation of the will in its natural being while it acteth and that the creature is conserved even in the act as it is natural though there be obliquity in the will of the creature acting in reference to the law given or made known unto it And this Arminius acknowledgeth in these words Necesse itaque est ut cum Deus potentiae creaturae actum aliquem permittit creatura illa conservetur ut sit vivat potentia ejusdem permaneat idonea ad actum producendum nulla major vel aequalis potentia opponatur objectum denique offeratur potentia permittatur From whence therefore to instance in the first sin of the Angels and Adam besides the equal power and liberty of will that they had to sin or not to sin it is manifest that God willed and determined not to withdraw his conservative power from them but that they might be and live in the very act of their sinning Neither did he withdraw that power they had nor opposed a greater or equal power to impede them much less did he create or infuse any evil into their natures nor put upon them any coaction of will to inforce them to sin but solely left them to the power and liberty of their own free wills And though by his prescience he certainly knew that they would sin and fall yet he determined in his purpose not to hinder them but by his providential decree did set down how to guide and order that fall and defection the most advantagiously for his glory both in his Mercy and Justice So that even in this there was no bare passive permission separate and distinct from his will and decree in his providence but only permission to the moral act of their wills which by his wisdom decree and providence he ordered for his own glory according to the Text The Lord hath made or wrought all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil The Hebrew word hath wrought doth properly signifie to work by polishing trimming or framing and fitting so that the wicked who have made themselves so by the acts of their own wills God by his decree and providence doth polish fit and order for the setting forth of his own glory in framing the wicked for the day of evil the evil of punishment and judgment 9. Further it is necessary that the creature acting a moral act especially in this case of the Angels and Adam before their fall have the liberty and freedom of will and that the will at the instant of the act be not restrained nor under a coactive power for otherwise malum culpae or sin would cease to be evil and so there could be no sin at all And thus far and in this peculiar respect only the Angels and Adam before their acting of sin and in the very instant of the act it self were permitted that is God willed and determined not to impede them but for the ordering of that sin and fall the permission was conjoined with his will and providence and not separate from it or a nude permission 10. That malum culpae or sin doth arise by the occasion of a law for where no law is there can be no sin and therefore the Apostle saith But sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence So that sin considered as it is sin is an Aberration or Deviation of the Will of the creature from the revealed law of the Creator and hath simply and absolutely no other causality but only the deficiency and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Creature to produce it especially in these cases of the Angels and Adam in their first acts of sin 11. Now we will come to the application of this unto wicked Men as they are under original and actual sins and that in these few examples 1. It is not by a bare permissive power but by his will and order in his providence for he setteth up the wicked in slippery places and yet a little while and the wicked shall not be yea thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be So Cain was suffered to slay his Brother Abel but by and by he was sent from the presence of the Lord into the land of Nod So he set up Saul to be King over Israel and soon after rejected him and also destroyed him these were by providence not only bare permission 2. For promotion cometh neither from the East nor the West nor from the South But God is the judge he pulleth down one and setteth up another So wicked Haman was set up to be the highest in the Kingdom next Ahasuerus and got a decree to have all the Jewes put to death and had set up a pair of Gallows to hang Mordecai upon and yet see the providence of God who quickly brought him to be hanged upon them himself and this will be further made out where we speak of providence 12. Though those that ascribe so large a power unto Devils and Witches do take it for granted that they are only under a bare passive permission and that the faln Angels do act what when where and how they list yet is it a meer falsity for they are under
Meteors it is but only as instrumental and organical Causes working meerly as they are ordered and acted by the first cause that worketh all in all as the Christian Philosopher Doctor Fludd hath most learnedly proved in his Treatise of Cosmical Meteors which I seriously commend to those that desire full satisfaction in this particular But the Devil is chiefly called the Prince of the power of the air because he is the proud high airy and spiritual Prince and Ruler of wickedness in high or super-coelestial places by which proud airy and spiritual wickedness he worketh in the Children of disobedience For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon which learned Beza saith thus Homine◠quorum fragilis caduca est natura cui opponuntur versutiae spirituales infinitis partibus potentiores And again I st a nomina tribuit Angelis malis propter effectus non quod eos suâ vi possint praestare sed quia illis Deus laxat habenas And therefore S. Chrysostom upon this place saith thus Mundi verò dominos eos vocat non quod mundum gubernent sed solet scriptura malos actus hunc mundum vocare ut quando Christus dicit vos non estis ex hoc mundo quemadmodum ego non sum ex mundo 2. To consider their power in spiritual and moral things particularly we shall find they have no power in some things but by their fall have utterly lost it as is apparent in these few points 1. They have lost that freedom of will that they had by Creation and were partakers of before they fell and agreeable to this is the Thesis of learned Zanchy which is this That all Devils have so far their wills made obstinate in sins the hatred of God Christ and of Mankind that from this evil they cannot will to repent and thereby be saved and this he thus proveth 1. Because in the Scriptures they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they are now become such that they cannot be changed from their malice and wickedness because it is become natural unto them 2. From whence it is manifest that the whole time since their fall never yet any of them hath given any sign of resipiscence 3. If they could repent and believe in Christ then for them and their sins Christ also should have died for he saith that he prayed for those that were to believe in him but they neither believe in him neither did he die for them 4. But the chief cause of their impenitency is the just judgment of God that hath given them up to hardness of heart because they sinned knowingly and wilfully against the truth And this point is sufficiently proved by Thomas Aquinas the rest of the Schoolmen and many others 2. So that as they have lost freedom of will so they cannot at all will or act to be saved or to repent 3. And as they cannot will or act to repent or be saved so the whole acts of their wills are evil malicious and wicked being liars and murtherers from the beginning 3. The third is to consider their power in sublunary and elementary things which is the most pertinent to our present purpose it being the thing that some have magnified even to a kind of omnipotency and therefore we must the more narrowly ventilate and examine it which we shall do in this order 1. How great soever the power of the faln Angels may be supposed to be yet neither in knowlege can they be deemed to be omniscient or in power to be omnipotent because they are created Beings circumscribed limited and finite and consequently can perform no act that necessarily must require an omnipotent power and so can neither create things de novo annihilate or transubstantiate any Creature or substance or pervert or put forth of order the things that God by Creation Decree and Providence hath set into their certain orders of Generation alteration and corruption 2. How great soever their power may be supposed to be yet rationally it must be taken for a truth that they have not the same power that they had before their fall For as Zanchy saith Certum est enim in universum in genere hac etiam in parte illos punitos fuisse ut non possint quicquid poterant cum boni essent nec etiam quicquid nunc velint Because the Holy Ghost beareth witness that they are bound in Chains and that Satan begged leave of God to invade Job that they fought with the good Angels but were overcome and that they may be so resisted of believing men that they may be overthrown Ac vae nobis nisi potentia Daemonum infirmata esset à Domino comprimeretur compesceretur 3. And what power soever be granted to the faln Angels yet it is by the opinion of all the learned restrained only to these sublunary and inferior bodies and that they have neither power by Creation or Ordination to work upon move or alter things that are Angelical Celestial Ethereal and Superior but only are chained in this Caliginous Atmosphere and impure air For it is manifest that superior bodies work upon those that are inferior but not on the contrary neither have we any examples that can prove that they do operate upon Celestial bodies and so their power how great soever some may suppose it to be is only restrained to these inferior sublunary things 4. The operations and actions performed by the faln Angels may be considered either in the simple respect of their natural and created power and this how great soever it was before their fall is not only lessened but that which remains is limited and restrained with the Adamantine Chains of the decree of divine providence or in respect of what power they may have superadded by God when they are Commissionated and sent by God to effect some particular actions as for example Moses and Aaron had but the ordinary strength and power that was common to other men before they were sent upon the message to Pharaoh and made Instruments to deliver the Israelites for then were they armed and indowed with the power of working great and stupendious Miracles So it cannot rationally be imagined that the two Angels that were sent as Instruments to destroy Sodom and Gomorrha did or could of their own proper individual and created power bring down Fire and Brimstone from Heaven to burn those two Cities but that it was brought to pass by the Power of the Almighty as granted and given to them for that judgment only and not by that ordinary power that they could always exercise for the Text saith Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrha brimstome and fire from the Lord forth of heaven Neither can it rationally be supposed that one Angel
ascribed unto himself and in this the Witchmongers do him no small service in giving that power and honour unto the most wicked and wrâ—hed of all Gods Creatures that is only due to the Creator and to his instrument Nature And to conclude this I cannot but repeat that excellent and Christian Sentence of Helmont Pigritiae saltem enim immensae inventum fuit omnia in Diabolum retulisse quae non capimus 3. A third kind of power that he ascribeth unto Devils is their changing and transmuting of bodies which is either in regard of substantial transformations or of those that are but in the external figure or shape or in the qualities accidents and adjuncts only Of real transubstantiations after a long dispute he granteth that they cannot be brought to pass but by a Divine and Omnipotent Power which we have sufficiently proved before and therefore shall forbear to say any further of it here And for what other portents prodigies or lying wonders he can perform we shall here examine and discuss them to the full in this order 1. We shall pass by what may be thought of the strange feats the Magicians of Pharaoh or Simon Magus did perform as fully examined and concluded before and shall give those Texts of Scripture that mention the signs and wonders that Antichrist and false Prophets that are Satans Instruments can or do work and they are these If there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder And the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. And that Prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God Another place is this But the Prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak or that shall speak in the name of other gods even that Prophet shall die And if thou say in thine heart How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken When a Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of him From whence we may take these Observations 1. That we may know he is a false Prophet that speaketh a thing in the name of the Lord if the thing do not come to pass But yet this must be understood with limitation where God sendeth a Message by a true Prophet where the thing is spoken positively but the condition is concealed and not expressed as in the Message of Jonah to Nineveh yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown which was intended if they repented not but implicitely was understood as the event shewed if they did repent the Lord would spare them of which Learned D r Stillingfleet hath this Proposition Comminations of judgments to come do not in themselves speak the absolute futurity of the event but do only declare what the persons to whom they are made are to expect and what shall certainly come to pass unless God by his mercy interpose between the threatning and the event So that Comminations do speak only the debitum poenae and the necessary obligation to punishment but therein God doth not bind up himself as he doth in absolute promises the reason is because Comminations confer no right to any which absolute promises do and therefore God is not bound to necessary performance of what he threatens 2. That there are those that do foretel or shew signs and wonders that do come to pass and yet those that foretel them are false Prophets because sometimes God sendeth false Prophets with power to work signs and wonders thereby to try his people whether or no they will cleave unto him with all their hearts and souls or turn to other strange gods or Idols and this is ordered by the Providence of God for the trial of the faithful as was in the Case of Job But though these may be great signs and wonders to amaze and amuse men and likewise come to pass yet are they no true miracles but are distinguished in this that true miracles are alwayes for the establishing and confirmation of the true Doctrine and Worship of Christ but the other are lying wonders wrought only to try the godly or for the deluding and punishing of those that received not the knowledge of the truth And though there are and may be signs and wonders that are wrought by Antichrist and false Prophets by and in the power of Satan yet these are all ordered by the Wisdom and Providence of the Almighty and Satan is no more but an organ and instrument in the performance of them There are two other remarkable places of Scripture concerning the Devils power in working signs and wonders the first of which is this For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect The other is this Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders And with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness From whence we may take these remarkable observations 1. Though there arise false Christs and false Prophets and even the Antichrist himself working after the power of Satan with signs and lying wonders yet though Satan be the organ and instrument in performing these lying wonders God is the Author and efficient cause that doth inflict them because they are mala poenae and come not by a bare permissive power but are inflicted by him as punishments upon the wicked even those that received not the love of the truth and therefore these lying wonders cannot possibly deceive the elect but prove all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish and the reason why they are thus punished with the deceits and delusions of Satan is because they received not the love of the truth and therefore God doth send such strong delusion that they might believe a lie and this he doth rightly and justly that as Beza notes Ita tamen ut soli increduli sint illius fraude perituri Upon which place learned Rollock tells us this We are he saith to observe
that Antichrist is nothing else but Gods Executioner by whom he punisheth those by his just judgment who have not received the love of the truth but have contemned the Gospel which is so far forth true that if there had not been and now were a contempt of the truth then altogether Antichrist had not been that is the Executioner had not been whom God sendeth to execute his just judgment upon those that despise the truth of his Gospel So that it is manifest that God doth make a just and good use of the very malice and lying nature of Devils in punishing those that did not receive the love of the truth but deceiving them by strong delusions that they might believe a lie and this he doth as sent and commanded of God and so cannot go one jot further than his Commission or as far as he is limited by God 2. We may observe that how great soever these signs and wonders be yet they are but lying ones both in regard of the end for which they are done and in respect of their substance And therefore how great soever the signs and wonders be that evil Angels do perform yet they are totally different from true miracles those being alwayes wrought for the confirming of the true Doctrine and Worship of God but these have their end only to establish false doctrine lies and erroneous opinions or Idolatrous Worships So they differ in their substance for those miracles that God sheweth for the confirmation of his truth are alwayes true and real being against and above the whole power and course of nature but those wonders wrought by Satan are but delusions cheats juglings and impostures which though they may seem strange to those that are ignorant of their causes yet do but all arise from natural causes or from artificial cunning confederacy and the like And therefore we may conclude that what miracles soever are wrought by a Divine Power tend to the overthrow of Satans power in the world but all false miracles are wrought to uphold the power of Satans Kingdom in the world and following delusions lies and false doctrines 3. Therefore what signs and wonders soever Satan doth work they are no real and true miracles for as Dr. Stillingfleet saith God alone can really alter the course of nature I speak not he saith of such things which are apt to raise admiration in us because of our unacquaintedness with the causes of them or manner of their production which are thence called Wonders much less of meer juggles and impostures whereby the eyes of Men are deceived but I speak of such things as are in themselves either contrary to or above the course of nature i. e. that order which is established in the universe And this cannot be altered by any diabolical power but only by that which is Divine and Omnipotent which never doth it but for considerable ends and important causes as may be manifest from these unshaken grounds 1. That Devils can work no true miracles is manifest from the definition of a miracle which is this Verum miraculum est opus quod fit praeter contra naturam secundas causas cujus nulla Physica ratio potest reddi But Satan cannot alter or change the order and course of nature Therefore Satan cannot work or effect a true miracle The proposition may be illustrated by an induction made of many great miracles of which there is mention made in the Old and New Testament all which are of that sort that are repugnant to the order and course of nature and of which no natural or physical reason can be rendered and given Such were the taking of Enoch and Elias into Heaven the conserving of Noah and his Family in the Ark the confusion of tongues at the building of Babel the fecundity of Sarah being old and barren the passage of the children of Israel over the red Sea and over Jordan the standing still of the Sun in the battel of Joshuah its going back in the dial of Ahaz its eclipse at our Saviours suffering the preservation of Daniel in the Den of the Lions and of the three companions of Daniel in the fiery furnace the preserving Jonas in the belly of the Whale the raising up of the dead and the curing of the Man born blind and all the rest of those most true and wonderful miracles wrought by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles 2. The assumption of the Syllogism is thus proved It is the part of the same power to change the order of nature and to create things that were not existent and so the mutation of the order of nature is a certain kind of new creation But Satan hath not power by which he can create things that as yet had no existence as all persons of reason must needs confess From whence it must follow that Satan hath not power to change the order of nature and consequently that he cannot work true and real miracles 3. The working of true miracles is only a proper attribute of God and incommunicable to any creaturely power for the Text saith Blessed be the Lord God the God of Israel who only doth wondrous things And again thou art the God that dost wonders And these two things the changing of the order of nature and creation S. Paul attributeth to God as only proper to him God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things that be not as though they were Upon which Beza gives this note Eo qui vitae restituit Apud quem jam sint quae alioqui reipsa non sunt ut qui vel uno verbo quidvis possit ex nihilo efficere But if it be objected that though Satan and his Angels of themselves and by their own proper power do not work true miracles yet may not God work real miracles by them as he did by the Prophets Apostles and his Ministers It is answered That the wonders which are wrought by Satan do tend to that end that they might confirm lies against God and his glory But God doth not accommodate his power to confirm lies contrary to his glory and against himself Therefore Satan by the power of God as his Minister doth not work true miracles for God doth use the faln Angels as executioners of his wrath and judgments for the afflicting and punishing of men but when God worketh any thing for the good of mankind either in Soul or Body he doth not use Devils as his Ministers but the good and blessed Angels who are ministring spirits sent forth for the good of those that shall be heirs of Salvation And if it be queried what things and of what sort and kind are those wonders that are wrought by Satan and Antichrist I answer that either they are indeed nothing but prestigious juglings and illusions or if they be any thing they are not brought to pass contrary to the order of nature and second causes although they may seem so
But to apply it or carry it into the man he by no means is able And therefore the Witch doth also send forth another executive medium or mean emanative and commanding which mean is the Idea of a strong desire For it is inseparable to the desire to be carried about things wished for To all which the Devil as a Spectator doth assist in the conduction 10. For he saith in truth I have demonstrated already that operative means are solely in the power of man For only God is the most chiefly glorious Creator to be infinitely praised who hath Created the Universe forth of nothing But man as far forth as he is the Image of God doth forth of nothing create certain Entia rationis or non-Entities in their beginning and that in the proper gift of the Phantastical virtue Which are notwithstanding something more than meerly a privative or negative being For first of all while these conceived Idea's do at length cloath themselves in the species or shape fabricated by the Imagination they become Entities now subsisting in the middest of that Vestment to which by the whole they are equally in them And thus far they are made seminal and operative Entities of which to wit their assumed subjects are forthwith totally directed But this power is given to man alone Otherwise a seminal power to propagate is given to the Earth to Bruits Plants c. Also the Dog by his madness can transfer or change his spittle or saliva into poyson because it is peculiar to his kind or species Which also is obvious in divers poysons of animals But to form Idea's abstracted from their species and adjacent proprieties that is given to none but man Having thus far at large traced his footsteps in these abstruse and mysterious matters we shall come now to examine them and make some observations upon them And although we may be sharply censured for taking upon us to question the things that he hath asserted having been suo gradâ— an Adeptist a person of profound judgment great experience general learning high reputation and now generally followed as the Chief Standard-bearer for Philosophy Physick and Chymistry that many esteem it no small glory to be called and accounted an Helmontian Yet notwithstanding this we shall note some observations in this order 1. He holdeth that the Devil doth only make the things invisible or hides them by his spirit and brings them near to the object into which they are to be injected and that the Witch by the seminal Idea of her imagination and the strength of her desire as the agent or efficient cause doth inject or thrust them into the body of the person intended to be hurt or tormented whereby he necessarily supposes a league or contract betwixt the Devil and the Witch and therefore he calls them the Devils clients and those that are bound unto him But what kind of contract this should be explicite or implicite internal and mental or corporeal and visible he tells us not the latter of which we utterly deny that it is in the power of the Devil to practise when he pleaseth as we have before with sufficient arguments demonstrated at large And for an implicite or mental league we grant that all thieves murderers these kind of malicious and poysoning Witches and all other wicked persons are bound in a spiritual contract unto him For he is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience And what wickedness soever he hath tempted and drawn them unto to be willing to commit he prompteth and pusheth them on with all his skill and power to perpetrate and execute the same But still this is to be understood only of his spiritual and invisible assistance and not of any visible or corporeal aid for else as this Author confesseth he might as well kill with a knife or a maul And therefore we cannot here pass by the bold and groundless if not impious assertion of Sennertus who though a very learned person in diverse parts of humane literature yet drawn with the sway of popular opinion did most miserably lapse in affirming that although Witches do purpose to hurt men yet that they neither do nor can effect those things but that the Witches being cast into a profound sleep the Devil in the mean time acteth those things by himself and thinks he proves this sufficiently by a fabulous and lying story feigned to be told of a Witch that being in a deep sleep when she waked told that she had been transformed into a Wolf and had torn in pieces a Cow and a Sheep which were found to be so and therefore the Devil must needs have done it But in this he neither nameth the place time nor Author to avouch it and therefore all reasonable Men may judge how palpable a falsity it is for then if true it would follow that none could be safe and that the Devil might kill immediately with swords or knives which he cannot do 2. Whereas he holdeth that the Devil doth bring or convey the things to be injected near unto the place and that he offereth filth and poysons to his clients that thereby he may fermentally conjoin the Ideas of these formed in the imaginative faculty with these If the Devil be taken to be meerly and simply incorporeal then he cannot remove matter as we have before proved and so cannot convey the things near to the object and if he be taken to be corporeal as we have asserted his help is needless because the Witches may do it themselves as we find sufficient stories of their hideing of strange and poysonous things under the thresholds of houses and Churches and to this purpose this same Author telleth us this story A certain person he saith did by custome use to make water in a corner of the Court whereupon he was afflicted with a bloody and cruel Strangury And all the remedy of the Physicians proved in vain except that as often as he did drink of Birch-Ale he did find a signal ease But as oft as he rose and walked and made water in the same place so often his pains did return At the last a pin of old black Oak-wood is espied to be fixed in the place where he used to make water Which being pulled forth and burned he remained free from the bloody Strangury by drinking Ale of Birchen-twiggs Also he saith that he remembred that Karichterus had written that he had loosed such kind of inchantments by only pissing through Beesomes of Birch Now from hence it is plain that this making water constantly upon this pin of old black Oak-wood did cause his bloody Strangury and that the pulling of it up and burning of it was with the help of the Birchen Ale the cure but it can no wayes be judged necessary that the Devil should fix the Oak pin there but that the Witch might do it himself Neither can it be thought to be any power given by the Devil
Devils power and of this opinion are the greatest part of the learned 2. Are those that hold that the words or charms are but means to heighten the imagination and that it is the strength of the exalted imagination only that produceth those things that seem to be effected by those words or charms and of this opinion was Avicen and many of the Arabians Ferrerius Montanus and many others 3. There are those that hold that there is a natural efficiency in words and characters rightly fitted and conjoined together in proper and agreeable constellations and of this opinion were Johannes Ludovicus de la Cerda Johannes Branus Camisius Lusitanus Paracelsus Galeottus Martius Henricus Cornelius Agrippa and many others and of these we shall speak in order 1. The first opinion doth takeup a false supposition for its ground to wit that the Devil doth make a visible and corporeal league with the Charmer by virtue of which compact the effects are produced and if this compact be not explicite yet it may be implicite and so the Devil operateth the effects thereby to draw the Charmer into his league and service But we have before sufficiently proved the nullity of any such Covenant and shewed plainly that it is a false impious and diabolical Tenent and that there is not nor can be any other league betwixt the Devil and wicked men but what it spiritual internal and mental and therefore that the Devil doth not bring those effects to pass by pretence of a league that hath no being or existence 2. We have proved by the unanimous consent of all the whole army of the learned that the Devil can work no alteration or change in natural bodies but by the applying of fit agents to agreeable patients but what agent could the Devil have applied to make the iron that stuck in the Souldiers shoulder-bone related by Benevenius to come forth without pain surely none at all For where an agent in nature is awanting to produce an effect there the Devil must needs also be lame and can effect nothing and if either the words had a sufficient natural power to cause the iron to come forth or the Souldiers imagination exalted by confidence in the Charm and Charmer then the Devils help is in vain implored or he brought in to be an actor of that he hath no power at all to perform and there was no other natural agent applied and therefore it must of necessity be one of the two that produced the effect and not a Demon. 3. It cannot in any reason be imagined that the Devil that for the space of above five thousand years hath been the bitter and inveterate enemy to the health of Man both in Soul and Body should now be become a Physician an healer We read that God sent forth evil Angels amongst the people but he sent forth his word and they were healed But it is manifest that the evil Angels since their fall are ordained of God to be the instruments and organs for the executing of his wrath and the good Angels are his ministring Spirits for the good of his people both in Souls and Bodies and therefore that the Devil should be the author or instrument of curing any disease at all were to make him to act contrary to that end for which God hath ordained him for he is the destroyer that is ordained to destroy but not to heal 4. But we shall take another argument or two from the learned pen of Henricus Brucaeus in his Epistle to Thomas Erastus where about this point he saith this What is that he saith that the most of the Grecian Physicians were ignorant of Demons or that it should be agreeable to truth that they have not judged that Demons had any power either in inflicting or taking away any diseases For that sentence of Hippocrates that there is somewhat that is divine in diseases Galen doth shew in his Comment how it is to be understood and Hippocrates himself in that Treatise of the Falling-sickness doth sufficiently open it Notwithstanding these chief men being Physicians and Philosophers by whom the power of natural things and words was principally looked into they were more willing to assent to things that were evidently apparent than take away the force of incantation by it self By it self he saith Because they have had no remembrance of Demons from whom the causes of such effects which follow incantations do seem only they can possibly be derived 5. Before he argueth thus But the curation of diseases which are performed by conjurations and imprecations he ascribeth unto the Devil Notwithstanding he saith some things do move a scruple to me because that some things of them do seem to be of that kind which cannot at all be referred to Demons in which no league or compact doth seem to interceed For leagues or compacts seem to be contracted for that also those things comprehended are to be performed to those that Covenant that by that means those that Covenant with him may be withdrawn from the worship of the true God or that some may be confirmed in their impiety Which causes in Men to whom the true God is utterly unknown have no place for neither are they to be withdrawn from the true God whom they altogether ignore or to be confirmed in impiety when they have been brought up in the worship of Idols from their tender years For he saith Aloisius Cadamustus in the 18 Chap. of the Indian Navigations relateth that Serpents seeking to destroy Sheep in the Kingdom of Senega which is given to Idolatrous Worship they will on the night aim by heaps at the Sheep-folds from whence they are driven away with certain conceived words and this reason is not unknown to many others And that Trallianus where he treateth of the stone acknowledgeth the force of incantations in healing of diseases and he witnesseth that Galen himself taught by experience did come over to this opinion For though Galen before as we have shewed did account charms but as Aniles fabulae yet this Author Trallianus doth quote a piece of Galens wherein he maketh a retractation of that opinion and it standeth with good reason that it might be so Trallianus living near his time and so might notwithstanding what Guitterrius bawleth to the contrary have that part of his writing that since might be lost for I remember Paracelsus somewhere saith that in his travels he found the works of Galen far more genuine and incorrupt than those that were published and extant 6. A further reason this Author gives us thus Furthermore he saith that it is not impious to frame to cure a disease with conceived words and cannot be perswaded to believe it especially seeing that those diseases that are caused by Magick are only to be cured by Magick But he saith I confess that compacts with Demons are not to be entred into but that compacts being entred
the sole power of the phantasie of the person imaginant or using the charms and neither by the power of the Devil nor of the charms 3. The argument to prove these things by that they are brought to pass by the strength of imagination used by Cornelius Agrippa is this Non mediocri experientia ait comprobatum est insitam à natura homini quandam dominandi ligandi vim And that there is an active terror in man if it be rightly resuscitated in him and that he know how to direct and make use of it impressed in him by the Creator which is as it were a terrifical character and signacle of God instamped upon man by which all creatures do fear and reverence man as the image of his Creator and as by the law of creation to be Lord and to bear rule over them all And here I cannot but mention that lepid though tedious ludicrous tale that Dr. Casaubon gives us of an horse-rider called John Young that could tame the most fierce Bulls and unruly Horses as also by pipeing to make the most couragious and fierce Mastiff to lie close down and to be quiet by the force of his imagination and charms And this John Youngs Philosophy was agreeable to this of Agrippa's to wit That all creatures were made by God for the use of Man and to be subject unto him and that if men did use their power rightly any man might do what he did Fides sit apud anthorem 4. Avicenna Algazel Alkindus Marsilius Ficinus Jacobus de Forluio Pomponatius Paracelsus and others do sometimes hold that the Soul the sensitive and corporeal it must be understood not by a nude apprehension or meer impery but by the emission of spirits or corporeal beams as we have shewed before do work upon external bodies and so move and alter them Sometimes they hold that the whole Soul sensitive must be meant doth go quite forth of the Body and wander into far distant places and there not only see what things are done but also to act something it self And to this opinion only meaning of the immortal and immaterial Soul Dr. Moore and Mr. Glanvil do seem to agree namely that the Soul may for a time depart forth of its Body and return again And to prove this the argument of Avicen is this Superior things he saith have dominion over the inferior and the Intelligences do rule and change corporeal things And that the Soul is a spiritual and separable substance And therefore after the same manner may act in corporeal things and change them as may be seen at large with responsions in the book of Fienus Now we come to the third and last opinion of those that positively hold that there is a force in words and characters if rightly framed to effect strange things withal and this is as strongly denied by many Therefore we shall only offer the most convincing arguments that we meet withal and leave it to the censure of others and that in this order But before we enter upon the positive arguments we think it fit lest we be mistaken though in part we may have touched some ofthem before to lay down some few cautions and considerations which we shall do in this manner 1. It is to be taken for a certain truth that the greatest part of those pretended charms and characters that are in this our age used by ignorant superstitious and cheating impostors are utterly false and of no power or efficacy at all And this was understood by our learned Countreyman Roger Bacon who tells us thus much For without all doubt he saith all of this sort now a days are false or doubtful or irrational and therefore not at all to be trusted unto And to this doth Paracelsus fully agree saying All characters are not to be trusted to or any confidence to be placed in them nor in like manner in words For the Nigromancers and Poets being very laboriously imployed about them have filled all Books with comments proceeding forth of their brains wanting all truth and foundation of which some thousands are not worth one deaf nut 2. Yet for all this we are to consider that all of them are not totally to be rejected for Bacon tells us That there are certain deprecations of ancient times instituted of men or rather ordained of God and good Angels that are both true and efficacious and such like as these may retain their first virtue As in some Countreys he saith yet some certain prayers are made upon red hot iron and upon the water of the flood and likewise upon other things by which the innocent are tried and the guilty condemned And this was the trial that by the Saxons when used in England was called Drdeall Therefore Paracelsus saith thus Repeto ergo characteribus verbis non omnibus fidendum esse sed eligenda retinenda quae recta genuina ex fundamento veritatis deprompta ac multoties probata sint which is counsel good sound and profitable And somewhere he tells us that even those true and genuine characters and Gamahuis that were rightly fabricated under due constellations and were in old time efficacious may have now lost their virtue because the configurations of the Heavens are altered 3. Many of these strange characters or words were not by wise men inserted into their works that thereby any strange things might be wrought by them but were invented to conceal those grand secrets that they would not have to be made known unto the unworthy And therefore Bacon gives us this profound and honest counsel So therefore he saith there are very many things concealed in the books of the Philosophers by sundry ways In which a Wise Man ought to have this prudence that he pass by the charms and characters and make trial of the work of nature and art And so he shall see as well animate things as inanimate to concur together by reason of the conformity of nature not because of the virtue of the charm or character And so many secrets both of Nature and Art are of the unlearned esteemed to be magical And Magicians do foolishly confide in charms and characters judging virtue to be in them and because of their vain confidence in them they forsake the work of Nature and Art by reason of the error of charms and characters And so both these sort of Men are deprived of the benefit of wisdom their own foolishness so compelling them 3. The same most learned Countryman of ours Roger Bacon doth further give us this advice saying But those things that are contained in the books of Magicians ought by right to be banished although they have in them something of truth Because they are mixed with falsities that it cannot be discerned betwixt that which is true and that which is false And also Impostors and ignorant persons have feigned and forged divers writings under the