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.
The third Chapter.
The opinion of Psellus touching spirits, of their severall orders, and a confutation of his errors therein.
SELLUS Psellus de operatione dæmonum, cap. 8. being of authoritie in the church of Rome, and not impugnable by anie catholike, being also instructed in these supernaturall or rather diabolicall matters by a monke called Marcus, who had beene familiarlie conversant a long time, as he said, with a certeine divell, reporteth upon the same divels owne word, which must needs understand best the state of this question, that the bodies of angels and divels consist not now of all one element, though perhaps it were otherwise before the fall of Luci/fer;493. and that the bodies of spiritsSuch are spirits walking in white sheetes, &c. and divels can feele and be felt, doo hurt and be hurt: in so much as they lament when they are stricken; and being put to the fier are burnt, and yet that they themselves burne continuallie, in such sort as they leave ashes behind them in places where they have beene; as manifest triall thereof hath beene (if he saie truelie) in the borders of Italie.Psellus, ibid. cap. 9. He also saith upon like credit and assurance, that divels and spirits doo avoid and shed from out of their bodies, such seed or nature, as whereby certeine vermine are ingendered; and that they are nourished with food, as we are, saving that they receive it not into their mouthes, but sucke it up into their bodies,Idem. cap. 10. in such sort as sponges soke up water. Also he saith they have names, shapes, and dwelling places, as indeed they have, though not in temporall and corporall sort.
Idem ibid. cap. 11.Furthermore, he saith, that there are six principall kind of divels, which are not onelie corporall, but temporall and worldlie.Oh hethenish, nay oh papisticall follie! The first sort consist of fier, wandering in the region neere to the moone, but/355. have no power to go into the moone. The second sort consisting of aire, have their habitation more lowe and neere unto us: these (saith he) are proud and great boasters, verie wise and deceitfull, and when they come downe are seene shining with streames of fier at their taile. He The opinions of all papists.saith that these are commonlie conjured up to make images laugh, and lamps burne of their owne accord; and that in Assyria they use much to prophesie in a bason of water. A cousening knaverie.Which kind of incantation is usuall among our conjurors: but it is here commonlie performed in a pitcher or pot of water; or else in a violl of glasse filled with water, wherin they say at the first a litle sound is heard without a voice, which is a token of the divels comming. Anon the water seemeth to be troubled, and then there are heard small voices, wherewith they give their answers, speaking so softlie as no man can well heare them: bicause (saith Cardane)H. Card. lib. de var. rer. 16. cap. 93. they would not be argued or rebuked of lies. But this I have else-where more largelie described and confuted. The third sort of divels Psellus saith are earthlie; the fourth waterie, or of the sea; the fift under the earth; the sixt sort are Lucifugi, that is, such as delight in darkenes, & are scant indued with sense, and so dull, as they can scarse be mooved with charmes or conjurations./
494.The same man saith, that some divels are woorse than other, but yet that they all hate God, and are enimies to man. But the woorser moitie of divels areDivels of diverse natures, and their operations. Aquei, Subterranei, and Lucifugi;*[* These three Ital.] that is, waterie, under the earth, and shunners of light: bicause (saith he) these hurt not the soules of men, but destroie mens bodies like mad and ravening beasts, molesting both the inward and outward parts thereof. Aquei are they that raise tempests, and drowne seafaring men, and doo all other mischeefes on the water. Subterranei and Lucifugi enter into the bowels of men, and torment them that they possesse with the phrensie, and the falling evill. They also assault them that are miners or pioners, which use to worke in deepe and darke holes under the earth. Such divels as are earthie and aierie, he saith enter by subtiltie into the minds of men, to deceive them, provoking men to absurd and unlawfull affections.