The first Chapter.
HERE H. Card. lib. de var. rer. 16. cap. 93. is no question nor theme (saith Hierome Cardane) so difficult to deale in, nor so noble an argument to dispute upon, as this of divels and spirits. For that being confessed or doubted of, the eternitie of the soule is either affirmed or denied. The heathen philosophers reson hereof amongest themselves in this sort. First, The Platonists and Stoiks. they that mainteine the perpetuitie of the soule, saie that if the soule died with the bodie; to what end should men take paines either to live well or die well, when no reward for vertue nor punishment for vice insueth after this life, the which otherwise they might spend in ease and securitie? The other sortThe Epicureans and Peripatetiks. saie that vertue and honestie is to be pursued, Non spe præmii, sed virtutis amore, that is, Not for hope of reward, but for love of vertue. If the soule live ever (saie the other) the least portion of life is here. And therefore we that mainteine the perpetuitie of the soule, may be of the better comfort and courage, to susteine with more constancie the losse of children, yea and the losse of life it selfe: whereas, if the/490. soule were mortall, all our hope and felicitie were to be placed in this life, which manie Atheists (I warrant you) at this daie doo. But both the one and the other missed the cushion. For, to doo anie thing without Christ, is to wearie our selves in vaine; sith in him onelie our corruptions are purged. And therefore the follie of the Gentils, that place Summum bonumSummum bonum cannot consist in the happines of the bodie or mind. in the felicitie of the bodie, or in the happines or pleasures of the mind, is not onelie to be derided, but also abhorred. For, both our bodies and minds are intermedled with most miserable calamities: and therefore therin cannot consist perfect felicitie. But in the word of God is exhibited and offered unto us that hope which is most certeine, absolute, sound & sincere, not to be answered or denied by the judgement of philosophers themselves.Morall tēperance. For they that preferre temperance before all other things as Summum bonum, must needs see it to be but a witnesse of their naturall calamitie, corruption and wickednes; and that it serveth for nothing, but to restraine the dissolutenes, which hath place in their minds infected with vices; which are to be bridled with such corrections: yea and the best of them all faileth in some point of modestie. Wherefore serveth our philosophers prudence,Morall prudence. but to provide for their owne follie and miserie; whereby they might else be utterlie overthrowne? And if their nature were not intangled in errors, they should have no need/353. of such circumspection. Morall justice.The justice whereof they speake, serveth but to keepe them from ravine, theft, and violence: and yet none of them all are so just, but that the verie best and uprightest of them fall into great infirmities, both dooing and suffering much wrong and injurie. And what is their fortitude,Morall fortitude. but to arme them to endure miserie, greefe, danger, and death it selfe? But what happinesse or goodnesse is to be reposed in that life, which must be waited upon with such calamities, and finallie must have the helpe of death to finish it? I saie, if it be so miserable, why doo they place Summum bonumRom. 2. therein? S. Paule to the Romans sheweth, that it cannot be that we should atteine to justice, through the morall and naturall actions and duties of this life: bicause that never the Jewes nor the Gentiles could expresse so much in their lives, as the verie lawe of nature or of Moses required. And therefore he that worketh without Christ, doth as he that reckoneth without his host./
The second Chapter.491.
Mine owne opinion concerning this argument, to the disproofe of some writers hereupon.
FOR The question about spirits doubtfull and difficult.my part doo also thinke this argument, about the nature & substance of divels and spirits, to be so difficult, as I am persuaded that no one author hath in anie certeine or perfect sort hitherto written thereof. In which respect I can neither allow the ungodly and prophane sects and doctrines of the Sadduces & Peripatetiks, who denie that there are any divels or spirits at all; nor the fond & superstitious treatises of Plato, Proclus, Plotinus, Porphyrie; nor yet the vaine & absurd opinions of Psellus, Nider, Sprenger, Cumanus, Bodin, Michaël, Andræas, Janus Matthæus, Laurentius Ananias, Jamblichus, &c: who with manie others write so ridiculouslie in these matters, as if they were babes fraied with bugges; some affirming that the soules of the deadPlotinus. The Greks. Laur. Ananias. become spirits, the good to be angels, the bad to be divels; some that spirits or divels are onelie in this life; some, that they are men; some, that they are women; some, that divelsThe Manicheis.
Plutarch.
Psellus.
Mal. malef.
Avicen, and the Caballists. are of such gender as they list themselves; some, that they had no beginning, nor shall have ending, as the Manicheis mainteine; some, that they are mortall & die, as Plutarch affirmeth of Pan; some, that they have no bodies at all, but receive bodies, according to their phantasies & imaginations; some, that their bodies are given unto them; some, that they make themselves.Psellus, &c. Some saie they are wind;The Thalmudists. 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 masse, whereof the earth was made; and some, that they are substances betweene God and man, and that of them some are terrestriall, some celestiall,The Platonists. some waterie, some airie, some fierie, some starrie, and some of each and everie part of the elements, and that they know our thoughts, and carrie our good works and praiers to God,The Papists. and returne his benefits backe unto us,/492. and that they are to be worshipped: wherein they meete and agree jumpe with the papists; as if you read the notes upon the second chapter to the Colossians,/354. in the Seminaries testament printed at Rhemes, you shall manifestlie see, though as contrarie to the word of God as blacke to white, as appeareth in the Apocalypse, Apoc. 19. 10
Ibid. 22. 8. 9. where the angell expresselie forbad John to worship him.
Againe, some saie that they are meane betwixt terrestriall and celestiall bodies, communicating part of each nature; and that although they be eternall, yet that they are mooved with affections: and as there are birds in the aire, fishes in the water, and wormes in the earth; so in the fourth element, which is the fier, is the habitation of spirits and divels. And least we should thinke them idle, they saie they have charge over men, and governement in all countries and nations. The Sadduces.Some saie that they are onelie imaginations in the mind of man. Tertullian saith they are birds, and flie faster than anie fowle of the aire. Some saie that divels are not, but when they are sent; and therefore are called evill angels. Some thinke that the divell sendeth his angels abrode, and he himselfe maketh his con- tinuall abode in hell, his mansion place.