Part 34

2. A second kind of actions that he assigneth unto Devils is, that they cannot only move bodies locally, but also can alter them diverse and sundry ways, as to make hot things of cold, and so on the contrary, white things of black, and black of white, and can make of fair things deformed ones, and so on the contrary, and can make sound bodies sick, and sick bodies sound, affecting them with various qualities. But these particulars he leaves altogether without proof, except one Text in these words: _And he cried with a loud voice unto the four Angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the seas_. From whence we shall observe these things. 1. It is granted that God doth make use of evil Angels to punish the wicked, and to chastise and afflict the godly, and in the effecting of these things that they have a power given them to hurt the earth and the Sea and things therein, as to bring tempests, thunder, lightning, plague, dearth, drought and the like; but that in the effecting these things, they have a dative power above what they had in Creation, and that they are commissioned and sent by God upon purpose to fulfil and effect these things, and so are as the organs and instruments to perform the will of God in his justice, and are always for such ends as tend to the Glory of the Creator: But for Devils to be sent to play such ludicrous, filthy and wicked tricks with Witches, as is commonly affirmed, suits not at all with the Wisdom and Justice or Glory of God, neither have we any such examples in holy Writ, no further, but that Devils only are Gods Executioners or Hangmen. 2. It doth no where appear that the Devils can alter, or change the shape or qualities of things at his own will and pleasure, but the contrary is manifest in the Priests of _Baal_ in the time of _Elijah_ upon the Mount _Carmel_, where their Idols or Gods were to shew their power by firing the Sacrifice, a thing which if Satan could have done for them with all his power, it had been most advantagious for his Kingdom; but it is evident that he neither did nor could procure as much fire as would burn the Sacrifice, though earnestly called upon by his best Servants the Idolatrous Priests. But thou wilt say, his power was then restrained and withholden at that time from effecting any such thing. Well, grant it were so, what was the end that God used that restriction upon him at that time for? was it not because God would not contribute to magnifie the Devils Kingdom? nor to suffer him any longer to deceive his people? But to discover the weakness of his power, who is not able of his own created power, to bring forth fire where there is none, not able to break a paper window, unless he have leave and power given him from God. And therefore much less can, for the magnifying of his own power, and to dishonour the Creator, appear as a Cat, Dog, Squirrel or the like to Witches, suck upon their bodies, have carnal copulation with them, or transport them in the air, for this were to advance his credit too much, and utterly derogatory to the Glory of God. 3. Concerning Satans being an instrument and means to bring and cause diseases, it may be considered these two ways. 1. In an ordinary way he seduceth and draweth men to gluttony and drunkenness, by which way of ingurgitation and excess they draw and contract to themselves diverse Diseases, as Coughs, Catarrhs, Dropsies, Scorbutick Distempers and the like. Others he draweth to insatiable lust and concupiscence, that thereby they fall into the _Lues Venerea_, and the whole troop of those dire and horrid Symptomes that accompany it, whereby Men and Women undergo great misery, pains, sickness, and sometimes death. Sometimes he pusheth Men on so far in malice, wrath, choler and passion, and many other such like ways, that they wound, lame and sometimes kill one another; and in this sense he may be said to cause diseases diverse ways. 2. But there is another way more extraordinary wherein as an instrument he may be said to cause diseases and sometimes death, as in that case of _Davids_ numbring of the people, where there died of the Pestilence seventy thousand, and though this Pestilence was sent by Jehovah, yet was a destroying Angel the instrument and minister in the execution of it, for the Text saith: _And when the Angel of the Lord stretched forth his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented him of the evil, and said to the Angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: now stay thy hand_. And _Herod_ for assuming to himself that honour that was only proper to God, _was immediately smitten by the Angel of the Lord, and was eaten up of worms, and gave up the Ghost_. And the Psalmist saith: _He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation and trouble by sending evil Angels among them_, the Hebrew giveth it, the emission or sending out of evil Angels. From whence it is manifest that evil Angels are the organs and instruments of Gods wrath, and as Ministers cause Plague, Pestilence and other diseases. 3. Thirdly, there is another great question whether or not the Devil by his vassals, to wit, Sorcerers and Witches doth not cause diseases and death, as is believed by those vomiting up of strange things exceeding the bigness of the Gullet to get either up or down, of which we shall speak largely where we handle the opinion of _Van Helmont_ concerning the actions of Witches: Here only we shall say thus much, that the Devil is author and causer of that hatred, malice, revenge and envy, that is often abounding in those that are accounted Witches, which desire of revenge doth stimulate them to seek for all means by which they may accomplish their intended wickedness, and so they learn all the wicked and secret wayes of hurting, poysoning & killing, but yet we affirm, that what evil soever they perform, it is by causes and means that work naturally, and so the evil is only in the use and application, and not in the efficients or means.

[Sidenote: 1 Cor. 12. 8, 9.]

[Sidenote: Psal. 107. 18, 20.]

[Sidenote: Isai. 54. 16.]

[Sidenote: _De inject. material._ _p._ 598.]

And whereas he holdeth that Devils as they can cause Diseases, so they can cure them and take them away, we must crave to be excused if we cannot subscribe to his opinion, and that for these reasons. 1. Because of their causing of Diseases we have sufficient evidence in the Scriptures, but of their curing of any, we have not any mention at all; and though some will think this but weak because it is negative, yet it is not probable, but as it expresseth the one fully, so it would have given some hint of the other, if there had been any such matter. 2. But the Scriptures do inform us, that the gift of healing or curing Diseases, is not in the power of Devils by their Creation, much less since as a gift bestowed upon them, but floweth solely from God by the Ministry of good Angels, of whom _Raphael_ (that is, the Medicine or health of God) is the chief. And that it is reckoned amongst the gifts of the Holy Ghost is most plain: _For to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit. To another faith by the same spirit: to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit_; but these gifts of healing are not given to Devils, but to the chosen ones of God. And the Psalmist where he is speaking how God afflicted and brought low the people of _Israel_ by reason of their sins, saith: _Their soul abhorred all manner of meat, and they drew near unto the gates of death, but he sent his word and healed them_. And God declareth, that if his people _Israel_ would keep his Statutes, he would bring none of those Diseases upon them that he had threatned, for (he saith) _I am the Lord that healeth thee_, and this he doth by the ministry of good Angels, or by natural means, and not by Devils. 3. That Devils are no causers or instruments in curing Diseases is manifest, because that were to make him act contrary to his original destination after his fall, wherein in his own propriety, _he is a murderer from the beginning_, and that both of souls and bodies, and never did, nor doth any good to mankind, either spiritual or natural, either real or apparent; for that were to act contrary to his will, nature and disposition, and contrary to the Ordinance and appointment of God who hath Created the destroyer to destroy. Therefore Satan after his fall was not ordained of God to be an healer, preserver, or sanator of diseases, but to be a destroyer, a wounder and murderer; for his nature is become so wicked and malignant, that his whole endeavour is the destruction of mankind, both in souls and bodies, and so no healer, no not of the least infirmity. 4. But he is that grand Impostor, that by lying, cheating and delusion, laboureth to make his Vassals and others believe that he can cure and heal Diseases, when he can do no such thing, and therefore hath and still doth amongst the Pagans, by the wicked Priests his Slaves, make the people believe, that if the sick persons be brought before their Idols, and there worship and pray, that they shall be Cured, when there is not any jot performed in the way of sanation, but what is by natural means, fancy, and imagination, or what is pretended to be done so, by cheating, counterfeiting and imposture. And the very same thing is practised by the Papists unto this day, in the pretence of their false and lying Miracles, fathered upon their Saints and Images, which are nothing else but lying cheats and Impostures, as we shall fully make manifest hereafter. 5. The Devil internally deludeth the minds of men, in making them believe, that Pictures, Charms, Amulets, and such other inefficacious and ridiculous means, have power to Cure these and these Diseases, when indeed they are meerly inoperative, and effect nothing at all; but yet the Witchmongers will needs have them to be _media operativa_, when they are utterly inefficacious, and are only means of seduction and delusion, to alter, change, or fortifie the imagination, by which alone the Cures (if any such be effected) are brought to pass, and not by any power of the Devil at all; and he operateth nothing at all in them, except a mental and internal delusion, in making the Witchmongers and others believe, that those things are wrought by a Diabolical Power, which are only performed by the force of imagination, and a natural agency and virtue. 6. Again, where there are many occult and wonderful effects wrought by natural causes and agents, as by appensions of vegetables, animals, or their parts, and minerals, by magnetism, as the Hoplochrism, Sympathetic Powder, by Transplantation and many other very abstruse and secret wayes and means, the Devil laboureth to take away the glory of these sanative effects, both from God and his Instrument which is Nature, and to have it ascribed unto himself; and in this the Witchmongers do him no small service, in giving that power and honour unto the most wicked and wretched 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_: _Pigritiæ saltem enim immensæ inventum fuit, omnia in Diabolum retulisse quæ 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.

[Sidenote: Deut. 13. 1, 2, 3, 5.]

[Sidenote: Deut. 18. 20, 21, 22.]

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.

[Sidenote: _Observ. 1._]

[Sidenote: Jonah 3. 4.]

[Sidenote: _Orig. Sacr._ _l._ 2. _c._ 6. _p._ 193.]

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 pœnæ_, 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.”

[Sidenote: _Observ. 2._]

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.

[Sidenote: Matth. 24. 24.]

[Sidenote: 2 Thess. 2. 9, 10, 11, 12.]

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.

[Sidenote: _Observ. 1._]

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 pœnæ_, 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.”

[Sidenote: _Observ. 2._]

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.

[Sidenote: _Observ. 3._]

[Sidenote: _Oreg. Sacr._ _l._ 2. _c._ 8. _p._ 253.]

[Sidenote: Psal. 72. 18.]

[Sidenote: _Id._ 77. 14.]

[Sidenote: Rom. 4. 17.]

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 præter, et contra naturam et 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 vitæ restituit. Apud quem jam sint quæ alioqui reipsa non sunt, ut qui vel uno verbo quidvis possit ex nihilo efficere._

[Sidenote: _Vid. Rolloc. in Thess._ 2.]