Whether they became divels which being angels kept not their vocation, in Jude and Peter; of the fond opinions of the Rabbins touching spirits and bugs, with a confutation thereof.
E doo read in Jude,Jud. vers. 6. 2. Pet. 2. 4. and find it confirmed in Peter, that the angels kept not their first estate, but left their owne habitation, and sinned, and (as Job saith) committed follie: and that God therefore did cast/364. them downe into hell, reserving them in everlasting chaines under darkenes, unto the judgement of the great daie. But manie divines saie, that they find not anie where, that God made divels of them, or that they became the princes of the world, or else of the aire; but rather prisoners. Howbeit, divers doctors affirme, that this Lucifer, Mal. malef. par. 2. quæ 1. cap. 2. 3. notwithstanding his fall, hath/507. greater power than any of the angels in heaven: marrie they say that there be certeine otherMal. malef. part. 2. cap. 1. quæst. 1. divels of the inferiour sort of angels, which were then thrust out for smaller faults, and therefore are tormented with little paines, besides eternal damnation: and these (saie they) can doo little hurt. They affirme also, that they onelie use certeine jugling knacks, delighting thereby Mich. And. Laur. Anan. Mal. malef. &c. to make men laugh, as they travell by the high waies: but other (saie they) are much more churlish. For proofe heereof they alledge the eighth of Matthew, where he would none otherwise be satisfied but by exchange, from the annoieng of one man, to the destruction of a whole heard of swine. The Rabbines, and namelie Rabbi Abraham, Author. lib. Zeor hammor in Gen. 2. writing upon the second of Genesis, doo say, that God made the fairies, bugs, Incubus, Robin good fellow, and other familiar or domesticall spirits & divels on the fridaie: and being prevented with the evening of the sabboth, finished them not, but left them unperfect; and therefore that ever since they use to flie the holinesse of the sabboth, seeking darke holes in mountaines and woods, wherein they hide themselves till the end of the sabboth, and then come abroad to trouble and molest men.
But as these opinions are ridiculous and fondlie collected; so if we have onelie respect to the bare word, or rather to the letter, where spirits or divels are spoken of in the scriptures, we shall run into as dangerous absurdities as these are. The grosse dulnesse of manie at the hearing of a spirit named.For some are so carnallie minded, that a spirit is no sooner spoken of, but immediatlie they thinke of a blacke man with cloven feet, a paire of hornes, a taile, clawes, and eies as broad as a bason, &c. But surelie the divell were not so wise in his generation, as I take him to be, if he would terrifie men with such uglie shapes, though he could doo it at his pleasure. For by that meanes men should have good occasion & oportunitie to flie from him, & to run to God for succour; as the maner is of all them that are terrified, though perchance they thought not upon God of long time before. But in truth we never have so much cause to be afraid of the divell, as when he flatteringlie insinuateth himselfe into our harts, to satisfie, please, and serve our humors, entising us to prosecute our owne appetits and pleasures, without anie of these externall terrors. I would weete of these men, where they doo find in the scrip/tures,508. that some divels be spirituall, and some corporall; or how these earthie or waterie divels enter into the mind of man. Augustine Aug. in ser. 4.
Greg. 29. sup. Job.
Leo pont. ser. 8. Nativit. saith, and diverse others affirme, that sathan or the divell while we feed, allureth us with gluttonie: he thrusteth lust into our generation; and sloth into our exercise; into our conversation, envie; into our traffike, avarice; into our correction, wrath; into our government, pride: he putteth into our harts evill cogitations; into our mouthes, lies, &c. When we wake, he mooveth us to evill works; when we sleepe, to evill and filthie dreames; he provoketh the merrie to loosenesse, and the sad to despaire./
The twelfe Chapter.365.
That the divels assaults are spirituall and not temporall, and how grosselie some understand those parts of the scripture.
PON that, which hitherto hath beene said, you see that the assaults of sathan are spirituall, and not temporall: in which respect Paule wisheth us not to provide a corselet of Steele to defend us from his clawes; but biddeth us put on the whole armour of God,Ephe. 6, 11, 12.> that we may be able to stand against the invasions of the divell. For we wrestle not against flesh and bloud; but against principalities, powers, and spirituall wickednesse.2. Tim. 2, 8, 9. And therefore he adviseth us to be sober and watch: for the divell goeth about like a roring lion, seeking whome he may devoure. He meaneth not with carnall teeth:Idem ibid. for it followeth thus, Whome resist ye stedfastlie in faith. And againe he saith, That which is spirituall onelie discerneth spirituall things:1. Cor. 2. 14. for no carnall man can discerne the things of the spirit. Why then should we thinke that a divell, which is a spirit, can be knowne, or made tame and familiar unto a naturall man; or contrarie to nature, can be by a witch made corporall, being by God ordeined to a spirituall proportion?
The cause of this grosse conceipt is, that we hearken more diligentlie to old wives, and rather give credit to their fables, than/509. to the word of God; imagining by the tales they tell us, that the divell is such a bulbegger, as I have before described. For whatsoever is proposed in scripture to us by parable, or spoken figurativelie or significativelie, or framed to our grosse capacities, &c: is by them so considered and expounded, as though the bare letter, or rather their grosse imaginations thereupon were to be preferred before the true sense and meaning of the word. For I dare saie, that when these blockheads read Jothans parable in the ninth of Judges to the men of Sichem;Judg. 9. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. to wit, that the trees went out to annoint a king over them, saieng to the olive tree, Reigne thou over us: who answered and said, Should I leave my fatnesse, &c? They imagine that the woodden trees walked, & spake with a mans voice: or else, that some spirit entred into the trees, and answered as is imagined they did in the idols and oracles of Apollo, and such like; who indeed have eies, and see not; eares and heare not; mouthes, and speake not, &c./