The equivocation of this word spirit, how diverslie it is taken in the scriptures, where (by the waie) is taught that the scripture is not alwaies literallie to be interpreted, nor yet allegoricallie to be understood.
UCH as search with the spirit of wisedome and understanding, shall find, that spirits, as well good as bad, are in the scriptures diverslie taken: yea they shall well perceive, that the divell is no horned beast. For asometimesa Exod. 31, 1 in the scriptures, spirits and divels are taken for infirmities of the bodie; bb Acts. 8, 19.
Gal. 3.sometimes for the vices of the mind; sometimes also for the gifts of either of them. cSometimesc John. 6.
Matth. 16. a man is called a divell, as Judas in the sixt of John, and Peter in the xvi. of Matthew. dSometimesd 1. Cor. 3.
Gal. 3.
1. Cor. 2.
2. Cor. 7. a spirit is put for the Gospell; sometimes for the mind or soule of man; sometimes efore Luke 9.
1. Cor. 5.
Philip 1.
1 Thes. 5. the will of man, his mind and counsell; sometimes fforf 1. John. 4. teachers and prophets; sometimes gforg 1. Tim. 4. zeale to/wards510. God; sometimes hforh Ephes. 5.
Isai. 11, 2. joie in the Holie-ghost, &c.
And to interpret unto us the nature and signification of spirits, we find these words written in the scripture; to wit, The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him; The spirit of counsell and strength; The spirit of wisedome and understanding;Zach. 12, 10. The spirit of knowledge and the feare of the Lord. Againe, I will powre out my spirit upon the house of David, &c: The spirit of grace and compassion. Againe, Ye have not received the spirit of bondage, but the spirit of adoption. And therefore PauleRom. 1, 15.
1. Cor. 12, 8, 9, 10. saith, To one is given, by the spirit, the word of wisedome;1. Co. 12, 11. to another, the word of knowledge by the same spirit; to another, the gift of healing; to another, the gift of faith by the same spirit; to another, the gift of prophesie; to another, the operation of great works; to another, the discerning of spirits; to another, the diversitie of toongs; to another, the interpretation of toongs: and all these things worketh one and the selfesame spirit. Thus farre the words of Paule.Isai. 19, 14. And finallie, Esaie saith, that the Lord mingled among them the spirit of error. And in another place, The Lord hathIsaie. 29. covered you with a spirit of slumber.
As for the spirits of divination spoken of in the scripture, they are such as was in the woman of Endor,1. Sam. 28.
Hest. 16. the Philippian woman, the wench of Westwell, and the holie maid of Kent; who were indued with spirits or gifts of divination, whereby they could make shift to gaine monie, and abuse the people by slights and craftie inventions. But these are possessed of borrowed spirits, as it is written in the booke of Wisedome;Sap. 15, 15, 19. and spirits of meere cousenage and deceipt, as I have sufficientlie prooved elsewhere. I denie not therefore that there are spirits and divels, of such substance as it hath pleased GOD to create them. But in what place soever it be found or read in the scriptures, a spirit or divell is to be understood spirituallie, and is neither a corporall nor a visible thing. Where it is written, that God sent an evill spirit betweene Abimelech,Judg. 9, 23. and the men of Sichem, we are to/367. understand, that he sent the spirit of hatred, and not a bulbegger. AlsoNum. 5, 14. where it is said; If the spirit of gelosie come upon him: it is as much to saie as; If he be mooved with a gelous mind: and not that a corporall divell assaulteth him. It is said in the Gospell; There was a woman,Luke. 13, 11. which had a spirit of infirmitie 18. yeeres,/511. who was bowed togither, &c: whome Christ, by laieng his hand upon hir, delivered of hir disease. Wherby it is to be seene, that although it be said, that sathan had bound hir, &c: yet that it was a sicknes or disease of bodie that troubled hir; for Christs owne words expound it. Neither is there any word of witchcraft mentioned, which some saie was the cause thereof.
There were seven divels cast out of Marie Magdalen.Mark. 16, 9. Which is not so grosselie understood by the learned, as that there were in hir just seven corporall divels, such as I described before elsewhere; but that by the number of seven divels, a great multitude, and an uncerteine number of vices is signified: which figure is usuall in divers places of the scripture.Levit. 26.
Prov. 24.
Luk. 17. And this interpretation is more agreeable with Gods word, than the papisticall paraphrase, which is; that Christ, under the name of the seven divels, recounteth the seven deadlie sinnes onelie. Others allow neither of these expositions; bicause they suppose that the efficacie of Christs miracle should this waie be confounded: as though it were not as difficult a matter, with a touch to make a good Christian of a vicious person; as with a word to cure the ague, or any other disease of a sicke bodie.Matth. 8, 16. I thinke not but any of both these cures may be wrought by meanes, in processe of time, without miracle; the one by the preacher, the other by the physician. But I saie that Christs worke in both was apparentlie miraculous: for with power and authoritie, even with a touch of his finger, and a word of his mouth, he made the blind to see,Luk. 4, 36.
Luk. 7, 21. the halt to go, the lepers cleane, the deafe to heare, the dead to rise againe, and the poore to receive the Gospell, out of whom (I saie) he cast divels, and miraculouslie conformed them to become good Christians, which before were dissolute livers;John 8, 11. to whome he said, Go your waies and sinne no more./
The xiiii. Chapter.512.
That it pleased God to manifest the power of his sonne and not of witches by miracles.
ESUS CHRIST, Luke. 8, 14.to manifest his divine power, rebuked the winds, and they ceased; and the waves of water, and it was calme: which if neither our divines nor physicians can doo, much lesse our conjurors, and least of all our old witches can bring anie such thing to passe. But it pleased God to manifest the power of Christ Jesus by such miraculous & extraordinarie meanes, providing and as it were preparing diseases, that none otherwise could be cured, that his sonnes glorie, and his peoples faith might the more plainelie appeere;Levit. 14, 7, 8
Luk. 7. 17, 4. as namelie, leprosie, lunacie, and blindnesse: as it is apparent in the Gospell, where it is said, that the man was not stricken with blindnesseJohn. 9. for his owne sinnes, nor for any offense of his ancestors;/368. but that he was made blind, to the intent the works of God should be shewed upon him by the hands of Jesus Christ. But witches with their charmes can cure (as witchmongers affirme) all these diseases mentioned in the scripture, and manie other more; as the gowt, the toothach, &c: which we find not that ever Christ cured.