M. _Deering_, than by my selfe, or mine owne words. For M. _Calvine_

saith, that _Dionysius_ herein speaketh not as by hearesaie, but as
though he had slipped downe from heaven, and told of things which he
had seene. And yet (saith he) _Paule_ was rapt into the third heaven,
and reporteth no such matters. But if you read M. _Deering_ upon the
first chapter to the _Hebrues_, you shall see this matter notablie
handled; where he saith, that whensoever archangell is mentioned in
the scriptures, it signifieth our saviour Christ, and no creature.
And certeine it is that Christ himselfe was called an angell. The
names also of angels, as _Michael, Gabriel, &c_: are given to them
(saith _Calvine_) according to the capacitie of our weakenesse. But
bicause the decision of this question is neither within the compasse
of mans capacitie, nor yet of his knowledge, I will proceed no further
to discusse the same, but to shew the absurd opinions of papists
and witchmongers on the one side, and the most sober and probable
collections of the contrarie minded on the other side.

♦_Dionys. in cælest. hierarch._♦

♦_J. Calv. lib. instit. 1. c. 14._♦

♦Edw. Deering, in lect. upon the Hebrues reading. 6.♦

♦Mal. 3. 1.♦




The eight Chapter.

_The commensement of divels fondlie gathered out of the 14.
of Isaie, of Lucifer and of his fall, the Cabalists the
Thalmudists and Schoolemens opinions of the creation of
angels._


The witchmoongers, which are most commonlie bastard divines, doo
fondlie gather and falselie conceive the commensement of divels
out of the fourteenth of _Isaie_; where they suppose _Lucifer_ is
cited, as the name of an angell; who on a time being desirous to be
checkemate with God himselfe, would needs (when God was gone a litle
asside) be sitting downe, or rather pirking up in Gods owne principall
and cathedrall chaire; and that therfore God cast him and all his
confederates out of heaven: so as some fell downe from thence to the
bottome of the earth; some having descended but into the midle region,
and the taile of them having not yet passed through the higher region,
staied even then & there, when God said, Ho. But God knoweth there is
no such thing ment nor mentioned in that place. For there is onlie
foreshewed the deposing and deprivation of king _Nabuchadnez-zar_, who
exalting himselfe in pride (as it were above the starres) esteemed his
glorie to surmount all others, as farre as _Lucifer_ the bright morning
starre shineth more gloriouslie than the other common starres, and was
punished by exile, untill such time as he had humbled himselfe; and
therefore metaphoricallie was called _Lucifer_.

♦Isai. 14.♦

But forsooth, bicause these great clarkes would be thought methodicall,
and to have crept out of wisedomes bosome, who rather cralled out of
follies breeches; they take upon them to shew us, first, whereof these
angels that fell from heaven were created; to wit, of the left side of
that massie moold, whereof the world was compounded, the which (saie
they) was _Putredo terræ_, that is, the rottennesse of the earth.
The _Cabalists_, with whome _Avicen_ seemeth to agree, saie that one
of these begat another: others saie, they were made all at once.
The Greekes doo write that angels were created before the world. The
Latinists saie they were made the fourth daie, when the starres were
made. _Laurence Ananias_ saith, they were made the first daie, and
could not be made the fourth daie, bicause it is written; _Quando facta
sunt sidera, laudaverunt me angeli_: so as (saith he) they were made
under the name of the heavens.

♦The opinion of the Thalmudists.♦

♦_Laur. Anan. lib. de natur. dæm. 1._♦

♦_Crœavit[*] cælum & terram._♦

♦[*] [_Creavit_]
[Gen. 1. 1. Vulg.]♦

There is also a great question among the schoolemen, whether more
angels fell downe with _Lucifer_, or remained in heaven with _Michael_.
Manie having a bad opinion of the angels honesties, affirme that the
greater part fell with _Lucifer_: but the better opinion is (saith
_Laurentius Ananias_) that the most part remained. And of them that
thinke so, some saie the tenth part were cast downe, some the ninth;
and some gather upon _S. John_, that the third part were onelie damned;
bicause it is written, that the dragon with his taile plucked downe
with him the third part of the starres.

♦_Lau. Anan. lib. de natur. dæm. 1._♦




The ninth Chapter.

_Of the contention betweene the Greeke and Latine church
touching the fall of angels, the variance among papists
themselves herein, a conflict betweene Michael and Lucifer._


There was also another contention betweene the Greeke church and the
Latine; to wit, of what orders of angels they were that did fall with
_Lucifer_. Our schoolemen saie they were of all the nine orders of
angels in _Lucifers_ conspiracie. But bicause the superior order was
of the more noble constitution and excellent estate, and the inferior
of a lesse worthie nature, the more part of the inferior orders
fell as guiltie and offenders with _Lucifer_. Some saie the divell
himselfe was of the inferior order of angels, and some that he was
of the highest order: bicause it is written, _In cherubim extentus
& protegens posui te in monte sancto Dei_. And these saie further,
that he was called the dragon, bicause of his excellent knowledge.
Finallie, these great doctors conclude, that the divell himselfe was
of the order of seraphim, which is the highest, because it is written,
_Quomodo enim manè oriebaris Lucifer?_[*] They of this sect affirme,
that _Cacodæmones_ were they that rebelled against _Jove_; I meane
they of _Plato_ his sect, himselfe also holding the same opinion. Our
schoolemen differ much in the cause of _Lucifers_ fall. For some said
it was for speaking these words, _Ponam sedem meam in aquilone, &
similis ero altissimo_:[†] others saie, bicause he utterlie refused
felicitie, and thought scorne therof; others saie, bicause he thought
all his strength proceeded from himselfe, and not from God; others
saie that it was, bicause he attempted to doo that by himselfe, and
his owne abilitie, which he should have obteined by the gift of
another; others saie, that his condemnation grew hereupon, for that he
challenged the place of the Messias; others saie, bicause he detracted
the time to adore the majestie of God, as other angels did; others
saie, bicause he utterlie refused it. _Scotus_ and his disciples saie
that it was, bicause he rebelliouslie claimed equall omnipotencie with
God: with whom lightlie the _Thomists_ never agree. Others saie it was
for all these causes together, and manie more: so as hereupon (saith
_Laurentius Ananias_) grew a wonderfull conflict betweene _Michaël_ and
the good angels on the one side, and _Lucifer_ and his freends on the
other: so as, after a long and doubtfull skirmish, _Michaël_ overthrew
_Lucifer_, and turned him and his fellowes out of the doores.

♦_Lau. Anan. lib. de natur. dæm. 1._♦

♦[*] [Isai. 14. 12]♦

♦I will settle my selfe in the north, and will be like the highest.♦

♦[†] [Isai. 14. 13, 14]♦

♦_Laur. Anan. lib. de natur. dæm. 1._♦




The tenth Chapter.

_Where the battell betweene Michael and Lucifer was fought, how
long it continued, and of their power, how fondlie papists
and infidels write of them, and how reverentlie Christians
ought to thinke of them._


Now where this battell was fought, and how long it continued, there
is as great contention among the schoolemen, as was betwixt _Michaël_
and _Lucifer_. The _Thomists_ saie this battell was fought in the
mpereiall[*] heaven, where the abode is of blessed spirits, and the
place of pleasure and felicitie. _Augustine_ and manie others saie,
that the battell was fought in the highest region of the aier; others
saie, in the firmament; others in paradise. The _Thomists_ also saie
it continued but one instant or pricke of time; for they tarried but
two instants in all, even from their creation to their expulsion.
The _Scotists_ saie, that betweene their production and their fall,
there were just foure instants. Nevertheles, the greatest number of
schoolemen affirme, that they continued onelie three instants: bicause
it stood with Gods justice, to give them three warnings; so as at the
third warning _Lucifer_ fell downe like led (for so are the words) to
the bottome of hell; the rest were left in the aire, to tempt man.
The _Sadduces_ were as grosse the other waie: for they said, that by
angels was ment nothing else, but the motion that God dooth inspire in
men, or the tokens of his power. He that readeth _Eusebius_ shall see
manie more absurd opinions and asseverations of angels: as how manie
thousand yeares they serve as angels, before they come to the promotion
of archangels, &c.

♦[*] [_sic_]♦

♦_Instans, viz. punctum temp. nempe individuum Nunc._♦

♦_Euseb. in ecclesi. histor._♦

_Monsieur Bodin_, _M. Mal._ and manie other papists gather upon the
seventh of _Daniel_, that there are just ten millians of angels in
heaven. Manie saie that angels are not by nature, but by office.
Finallie, it were infinite to shew the absurd and curious collections
hereabout. I for my part thinke with _Calvine_, that angels are
creatures of God; though _Moses_ spake nothing of their creation,
who onelie applied himselfe to the capacitie of the common people,
reciting nothing but things seene. And I saie further with him, that
they are heavenlie spirits, whose ministration and service God useth:
and in that respect are called angels. I saie yet againe with him,
that it is verie certeine, that they have no shape at all; for they
are spirits, who never have anie: and finallie, I saie with him, that
the scriptures, for the capacitie of our wit, dooth not in vaine paint
out angels unto us with wings; bicause we should conceive, that they
are readie swiftlie to succour us. And certeinlie all the sounder
divines doo conceive and give out, that both the names and also the
number of angels are set downe in the scripture by the Holie-ghost, in
termes to make us understand the greatnesse and the manner of their
messages; which (I saie) are either expounded by the number of angels,
or signified by their names.

♦_10000000. Johannes Cassianus in confessione theolog. tripart._♦

♦_J. Cal. lib. instit. 1. cap. 14. sect. 8._♦

Furthermore, the schoole doctors affirme, that foure of the superior
orders of angels never take anie forme or shape of bodies, neither are
sent of anie arrand at anie time. As for archangels, they are sent
onelie about great and secret matters; and angels are common hacknies
about evere trifle; and that these can take what shape or bodie they
list: marie they never take the forme of women or children. Item they
saie that angels take most terrible shapes: for _Gabriel_ appeared
to _Marie_, when he saluted hir, _Facie rutilante, veste coruscante,
ingressu mirabili, aspectu terribili, &c_: that is, with a bright
countenance, shining attire, wonderfull gesture, and a dredful vissage,
&c. But of apparitions I have spoken somewhat before, and will saie
more hearafter. It hath beene long, and continueth yet a constant
opinion, not onelie among the papists; but among others also, that
everie man hath assigned him, at the time of his nativitie, a good
angell and a bad. For the which there is no reason in nature, nor
authoritie in scripture. For not one angell, but all the angels are
said to rejoise more of one convert, than of ninetie and nine just.
Neither did one onelie angell conveie _Lazarus_ into _Abrahams_ bosome.
And therefore I conclude with _Calvine_, that he which referreth to one
angell, the care that GOD hath to everie one of us, dooth himselfe
great wrong: as may appeare by so manie fierie chariots shewed by
_Elizæus_ to his servant. But touching this mysterie of angels, let us
reverentlie thinke of them, and not curiouslie search into the nature
of them, considering the vilenes of our condition, in respect of the
glorie of their creation. And as for the foresaid fond imaginations and
fables of _Lucifer_, _&c_: they are such as are not onelie ridiculous,
but also accomptable among those impious curiosities, and vaine
questions, which _Paule_ speaketh of: neither have they anie tittle or
letter in the scripture for the maintenance of their grosse opinions in
this behalfe.

♦_Mich. And. thes. 107. 101._
_Idem thes. 103. 108._♦

♦Luk. 15, 7.♦

♦Luk. 16, 23.♦

♦_J. Cal. lib. instit. 1. cap. 14._♦

♦2. Reg. 16. 17♦




The eleventh Chapter.

_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._


We doo read in _Jude_, 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 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_,
notwithstanding his fall, hath greater power than any of the angels
in heaven: marrie they say that there be certeine other 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
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_, 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.

♦Jud. vers. 6. 2. Pet. 2. 4.♦

♦_Mal. malef. par. 2. quæ 1. cap. 2. 3._♦

♦_Mal. malef. part. 2. cap. 1. quæst. 1._♦

♦_Mich. And. Laur. Anan. Mal. malef. &c._♦

♦_Author. lib. Zeor hammor in Gen. 2._♦

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. 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 scriptures, that
some divels be spirituall, and some corporall; or how these earthie
or waterie divels enter into the mind of man. _Augustine_ 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 grosse dulnesse of manie at the hearing of a spirit named.♦

♦_Aug. in ser. 4._
_Greg. 29. sup. Job._
_Leo pont. ser. 8. Nativit._♦




The twelfe Chapter.

_That the divels assaults are spirituall and not temporall, and how
grosselie some understand those parts of the scripture._


Upon 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, 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. 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: for it followeth thus,
Whome resist ye stedfastlie in faith. And againe he saith, That which
is spirituall onelie discerneth spirituall things: 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?

♦Ephe. 6, 11, 12.♦

♦2. Tim. 2, 8, 9.♦

♦Idem ibid.♦

♦1. Cor. 2. 14.♦

The cause of this grosse conceipt is, that we hearken more diligentlie
to old wives, and rather give credit to their fables, than 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_; 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.

♦Judg. 9. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.♦




The xiii. Chapter.

_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._


Such 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 [a]sometimes in the scriptures, spirits and divels
are taken for infirmities of the bodie; [b]sometimes for the vices of
the mind; sometimes also for the gifts of either of them. [c]Sometimes
a man is called a divell, as _Judas_ in the sixt of _John_, and _Peter_
in the xvi. of _Matthew_. [d]Sometimes a spirit is put for the Gospell;
sometimes for the mind or soule of man; sometimes [e]for the will of
man, his mind and counsell; sometimes [f]for teachers and prophets;
sometimes [g]for zeale towards God; sometimes [h]for joie in the
Holie-ghost, &c.

♦[a] Exod. 31, 1♦

♦[b] Acts. 8, 19.
Gal. 3.♦

♦[c] John. 6.
Matth. 16.♦

♦[d] 1. Cor. 3.
Gal. 3.
1. Cor. 2. 2.
Cor. 7.♦

♦[e] Luke 9.
1. Cor. 5.
Philip 1.
1 Thes. 5.♦

♦[f] 1. John. 4.♦

♦[g] 1. Tim. 4.♦

♦[h] Ephes. 5.
Isai. 11, 2.♦

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; 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 _Paule_ saith, To one is given, by the spirit, the word of
wisedome; 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_. And finallie, _Esaie_ saith, that the Lord mingled among
them the spirit of error. And in another place, The Lord hath covered
you with a spirit of slumber.

♦Zach. 12, 10.♦

♦Rom. 1, 15.
1. Cor. 12, 8, 9, 10.♦

♦1. Co. 12, 11.♦

♦Isai. 19, 14.♦

♦Isaie. 29.♦

As for the spirits of divination spoken of in the scripture, they are
such as was in the woman of _Endor_, 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; 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_, and the men of _Sichem_, we are to
understand, that he sent the spirit of hatred, and not a bulbegger.
Also 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, which had a spirit of infirmitie 18. yeeres, 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.

♦1. Sam. 28.
Hest. 16.♦

♦Sap. 15, 15, 19.♦

♦Judg. 9, 23.♦

♦Num. 5, 14.♦

♦Luke. 13, 11.♦

There were seven divels cast out of _Marie Magdalen_. 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. 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. 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, 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; to whome he said, Go your waies and sinne no more.

♦Mark. 16, 9.♦

♦Levit. 26.
Prov. 24.
Luk. 17.♦

♦Matth. 8, 16.♦

♦Luk. 4, 36.
Luk. 7, 21.♦

♦John 8, 11.♦




The xiiii. Chapter.

_That it pleased God to manifest the power of his sonne and not of
witches by miracles._


_Jesus Christ_, 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; as namelie, leprosie,
lunacie, and blindnesse: as it is apparent in the Gospell, where it
is said, that the man was not stricken with blindnesse for his owne
sinnes, nor for any offense of his ancestors; 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.

♦Luke. 8, 14.♦

♦Levit. 14, 7, 8.
Luk. 7. 17, 4.♦

♦John. 9.♦

As touching those that are said in the Gospell to be possessed of
spirits, it seemeth in manie places that it is indifferent, or all
one, to saie; He is possessed with a divell; or, He is lunatike
or phrentike: which disease in these daies is said to proceed of
melancholie. But if everie one that now is lunatike, be possessed with
a reall divell; then might it be thought, that divels are to be thrust
out of men by medicines. But who saith in these times with the woman of
_Canaan_; My daughter is vexed with a divell, except it be presupposed,
that she meant hir daughter was troubled with some disease? Indeed we
saie, and saie truelie, to the wicked, The divell is in him: but we
meane not thereby, that a reall divell is gotten into his guts. And if
it were so, I marvell in what shape this reall divell, that possesseth
them, remaineth. Entreth he into the bodie in one shape, and into the
mind in another? If they grant him to be spirituall and invisible, I
agree with them.

♦Mat. 4, 17, &c.♦

Some are of opinion, that the said woman of _Chanaan_ ment indeed that
hir daughter was troubled with some disease; bicause it is written in
sted of that the divell was cast out, that hir daughter was made whole,
even the selfesame houre. According to that which is said in the 12.
of _Matthew_; There was brought unto Christ one possessed of a divell,
which was both blind and dumbe, and he healed him: so as, he that was
blind and dumbe both spake and sawe. But it was the man, and not the
divell, that was healed, and made to speake and see. Whereby (I saie)
it is gathered, that such as were diseased, as well as they that were
lunatike, were said sometimes to be possessed of divels.

♦Matt. 15, 28.♦

♦Matt. 12, 22.♦




The xv. Chapter.

_Of the possessed with divels._


Here I cannot omit to shew, how fondlie diverse writers; and namelie,
_James Sprenger_, and _Henrie Institor_ doo gather and note the cause,
why the divell maketh choise to possesse men at certeine times of the
moone; which is (saie they) in two respects: first, that they may
defame so good a creature as the moone; secondly, bicause the braine
is the moistest part of the bodie. The divell therefore considereth
the aptnesse and conveniencie thereof (the [*]moone having dominion
over all moist things) so as they take advantage therby, the better
to bring their purposes to passe. And further they saie, that divels
being conjured and called up, appeere and come sooner in some certeine
constellations, than in other some: thereby to induce men to thinke,
that there is some godhead in the starres. But when _Saule_ was
releeved with the sound of the harpe, they saie that the departure
of the divell was by meanes of the signe of the crosse imprinted
in _Davids_ veines. Whereby we maie see how absurd the imaginations
and devises of men are, when they speake according to their owne
fansies, without warrant of the word of God. But me thinks it is verie
absurd that _Josephus_ affirmeth; to wit, that the divell should be
thrust out of anie man by vertue of a root. And as vaine it is, that
_Ælianus_ writeth of the magicall herbe _Cynospastus_, otherwise called
_Agla[o]photis_; which is all one with _Salomons_ root named _Baaros_,
as having force to drive out anie divell from a man possessed.

♦_Mal. malef. quæst. 5. pa. 1._♦

♦[*] A maxime in philosophie, as the sunne _in aridis & siccis_.♦

♦_Joseph. de antiquitat. Jud. item de bello Jud. lib. 7. ca. 35._♦




The xvi. Chapter.

_That we being not throughlie informed of the nature of divels
and spirits, must satisfie our selves with that which is
delivered us in the scriptures touching the same, how this
word divell is to be understood both in the singular and
plurall number, of the spirit of God and the spirit of the
divell, of tame spirits, of Ahab._


The nature therfore and substance of divels and spirits, bicause in
the scripture it is not so set down, as we may certeinlie know the
same: we ought to content and frame our selves faithfullie to beleeve
the words and sense there delivered unto us by the high spirit, which
is the Holie-ghost, who is Lord of all spirits; alwaies considering,
that evermore spirits are spoken of in scripture, as of things
spirituall; though for the helpe of our capacities they are there
sometimes more grosselie and corporallie expressed, either in parables
or by metaphors, than indeed they are. As for example (and to omit the
historie of _Job_, which elsewhere I handle) it is written; The Lord
said, Who shall entise _Ahab_, that he maie fall at _Ramoth Gilead_,
_&c_? Then came foorth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said; I
will entise him. And the Lord said, Wherewith? And he said; I will go
and be a lieng spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. Then he said;
Go foorth, thou shalt prevaile, &c.

♦Num. 27, 16.♦

♦1. Reg. 18. verse. 23. verse. 4.♦

This storie is here set foorth in this wise, to beare with our
capacities, and speciallie with the capacitie of that age, that could
not otherwise conceive of spirituall things, than by such corporall
demonstrations. And yet here is to be noted, that one spirit, and not
manie or diverse, did possesse all the false prophets at once. Even as
in another place, manie thousand divels are said to possesse one man:
and yet it is also said even in the selfe same place, that the same man
was possessed onelie with one divell. For it is there said that Christ
met a man, which had a divell, and he commanded the fowle spirit to
come foorth of the man, &c. But _Calvine_ saith; Where sathan or the
divell is named in the singular number, thereby is meant that power of
wickednesse, that standeth against the kingdome of justice. And where
manie divels are named in the scriptures, we are thereby taught, that
we must fight with an infinite multitude of enimies; least despising
the fewnesse of them, we should be more slacke to enter into battell,
and so fall into securitie and idlenes.

♦Luke. 8. 27. 28.♦

♦Mark. 5. 9.♦

♦Luk. 8.♦

♦_J. Cal. lib. instit. lib. 1. cap. 14. sect. 14._♦

On the other side, it is as plainelie set downe in the scripture,
that some are possessed with the spirit of God, as that the other
are endued and bound with the spirit of the divell. Yea sometimes we
read, that one good spirit was put into a great number of persons;
and againe, that diverse spirits rested in and upon one man: and yet
no reall or corporall spirit meant. As for example; The Lord tooke of
the spirit that was upon _Moses_, and put it upon the seventie elders,
and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. Why should not
this be as substantiall and corporall a spirit, as that, wherewith
the maid in the _Acts_ of the apostles was possessed? Also _Elisha_
intreated _Elia_, that when he departed, his spirit might double upon
him. We read also that the spirit of the Lord came upon [a]_Othniel_,
upon [b]_Gedeon_, [c]_Jeptha_, [d]_Samson_, [e]_Balaam_, [f]_Saule_,
[g]_David_, [h]_Ezechiel_, [i]_Zacharie_, [k]_Amasay_: yea it is
written, that _Caleb_ had another spirit than all the Israelits beside:
& in another place it is said, that [l]_Daniel_ had a more excellent
spirit than anie other. So as, though the spirits, as well good as bad,
are said to be given by number and proportion; yet the qualitie and not
the quantitie of them is alwaies thereby ment and presupposed. Howbeit
I must confesse, that Christ had the spirit of God without measure,
as it is written in the evangelist _John_. But where it is said that
spirits can be made tame, and at commandement, I saie to those grosse
conceivers of scripture with _Salomon_, who (as they falslie affirme
was of all others the greatest conjuror) saith thus in expresse words;
No man is lord over a spirit, to reteine a spirit at his pleasure.

♦Num. 11.♦

♦Ibid. vers. 25♦

♦Acts. 16.♦

♦2. Reg. 2.♦

♦Judg. 3. 10.♦

♦[a] Judg. 11. 39.♦

♦[b] Ibid. 14. 6.♦

♦[c] Ibid. 14. 6.♦

♦[d] Num. 24. 2.♦

♦[e] 1. Sam. 16. 13.♦

♦[f] 1. Sam. 18. 14.♦

♦[g] Ezec. 11. 5.♦

♦[h] 2. Chr. 14.♦

♦[i] 1. Ch. 12. 18.♦

♦[k] Numb. 14.♦

♦[l] Dan. 5. 11.♦

♦John. 3, 34.♦

♦Eccles. 8. [8.]♦

[Azariah is omitted in the text, and the margin references are
wrong; they are rightly given opposite]

♦[a] Judg. 3. 10.♦

♦[b] [Judg. 6. 34.]♦

♦[c] Judg. 11. [2]9.♦

♦[d] Ibid 14. 6.♦

♦[e] Num. 24. 2.♦

♦[f] [1. Sam. 11. 3.]♦

♦[g] 1. Sam. 16. 13.
1. Sam. 18. 14.♦

♦[h] Ezec. 11. 5.♦

♦[i] 2. Chr. 14. [15. 1. is Azariah.]♦

♦[k] [Zech. 24. 20.]♦

♦[l] 1. Chr. 12. 18.
Num. 14. [24.]♦




The xvii. Chapter.

_Whether spirits and soules can assume bodies, and of their
creation and substance, wherein writers doo extreamelie
contend and varie._


Some hold opinion, that spirits and soules can assume & take unto them
bodies at their pleasure, of what shape or substance they list: of
which mind all papists, and some protestants are, being more grosse
than another sort, which hold, that such bodies are made to their
hands. Howbeit, these doo varie in the elements, wherewith these
spirituall bodies are composed. For (as I have said) some affirme that
they consist of fier, some thinke of aier, and some of the starres and
other celestiall powers. But if they be celestiall, then (as _Peter
Martyr_ saith) must they follow the circular motion: and if they be
elementarie, then must they follow the motions of those elements, of
which their bodies consist. Of aier they cannot be: for aier is _Corpus
homogenium_; so as everie part of aier is aier, whereof there can be
no distinct members made. For an organicall bodie must have bones,
sinewes, veines, flesh, &c: which cannot be made of aier. Neither (as
_Peter Martyr_ affirmeth) can an aierie bodie receive or have either
shape or figure. But some ascend up into the clouds, where they find
(as they saie) diverse shapes and formes even in the aier. Unto which
objection _P. Martyr_ answereth, saieng, and that trulie, that clouds
are not altogether aier, but have a mixture of other elements mingled
with them.

♦For everie naturall motion is either circular or elemētarie.♦




The xviii. Chapter.

_Certeine popish reasons concerning spirits made of aier, of
daie divels and night divels, and why the divell loveth no salt
in his meate._


Manie affirme (upon a fable cited by _M. Mal._) that spirits are of
aier, bicause they have beene cut (as he saith) in sunder, and closed
presentlie againe; and also bicause they vanish awaie so suddenlie.
But of such apparitions I have alreadie spoken, and am shortlie to
saie more, which are rather seene in the imagination of the weake and
diseased, than in veritie and truth. Which sights and apparitions,
as they have beene common among the unfaithfull; so now, since the
preaching of the gospell they are most rare. And as among faintharted
people; namelie, women, children, and sicke folkes, they usuallie
swarmed: so among strong bodies and good stomachs they never used to
appeare; as elsewhere I have prooved: which argueth that they were
onelie phantasticall and imaginarie. Now saie they that imagine divels
and spirits to be made of aier, that it must needs be that they consist
of that element; bicause otherwise when they vanish suddenlie awaie,
they should leave some earthie substance behind them. If they were of
water, then should they moisten the place where they stand, and must
needs be shed on the floore. If they consisted of fier, then would they
burne anie thing that touched them: and yet (saie they) _Abraham_ and
_Lot_ washed their feete, and were neither scalded nor burnt.

♦Gen. 18, 19.♦

I find it not in the Bible, but in _Bodin_, that there are daie divels,
and night divels. The same fellow saith, that _Deber_ is the name of
that divell, which hurteth by night; and _Cheleb_ is he that hurteth
by daie: howbeit, he confesseth that Sathan can hurt both by daie and
by night; although it be certeine (as he saith) that he can doo more
harme by night than by daie; producing for example, how in a night
he slew the first borne of _Ægypt_. And yet it appeareth plainelie
in the text, that the Lord himselfe did it. Whereby it seemeth, that
_Bodin_ putteth no difference betweene God and the divell. For further
confirmation of this his foolish assertion, that divels are more
valiant by night than by daie, he alledgeth the 104. _Psalme_, wherein
is written, Thou makest darknesse, and it is night, wherein all the
beasts of the forrest creepe foorth, the lions rore, &c: when the sunne
riseth, they retire, &c. So as now he maketh all beasts to be divels,
or divels to be beasts. Oh barbarous blindnes! This _Bodin_ also
saith, that the divell loveth no salt in his meate, for that it is a
signe of eternitie, and used by Gods commandement in all sacrifices;
abusing the scriptures, which he is not ashamed to quote in that
behalfe. But now I will declare how the scripture teacheth our dull
capacities to conceive what maner of thing the divell is, by the verie
names appropriated unto him in the same.

♦_J. Bod. lib. de dæm. 3. ca. 4._♦

♦Exod. 12 29.♦

♦Psa. 104. 20.♦

♦_J. Bod. lib. de dæm. 3. ca. 5._♦

♦Levit. 1.♦




The xix. Chapter.

_That such divels as are mentioned in the scriptures, have in their
names their nature and qualities expressed, with instancies
thereof._


Such divels as are mentioned in the scriptures by name, have in their
names their nature and qualities expressed, being for the most part the
idols of certeine nations idolatrouslie erected, in steed, or rather in
spight of God. For _Beelzebub_, which signifieth the lord of the flies,
bicause he taketh everie simple thing in his web, was an idol or oracle
erected at _Ekron_, to whom _Ahaziah_ sent to know whether he should
recover his disease: as though there had beene no God in Israell.
This divell _Beelzebub_ was among the _Jewes_ reputed the principall
divell. The _Græcians_ called him _Pluto_, the _Latines Sumanus, quasi
summum deorum manium_, the cheefe ghost or spirit of the dead whom they
supposed to walke by night: although they absurdlie beleeved also that
the soule died with the bodie. So as they did put a difference betweene
the ghost of a man and the soule of a man: and so doo our papists;
howbeit, none otherwise, but that the soule is a ghost, when it walketh
on the earth, after the dissolution of the bodie, or appeareth to anie
man, either out of heaven, hell, or purgatorie, and not otherwise.
[a]_Nisroch_ signifieth a delicate tentation, and was worshipped by
_Senacherib_ in _Assyria_. [b]_Tarcat_[c] is in English, fettered, and
was the divell or idoll of the _Hevites_. [d]_Beelphegor_, otherwise
called _Priapus_, the gaping or naked god was worshipped among the
_Moabits_. [e]_Adramelech_, that is, the cloke or power of the king,
was an idoll at _Sepharvais_, which was a citie of the _Assyrians_.
[f]_Chamos_, that is feeling, or departing, was worshipped among the
_Moabits_. [g]_Dagon_, that is, corne or greefe, was the idoll of the
Philistines. [h]_Astarte_, that is, a fold or flocke, is the name of a
shee idoll at _Sydonia_, whom _Salomon_ worshipped: some thinke it was
_Venus_. [i]_Melchom_, that is, a king, was an idoll or divell, which
the sonnes of _Ammon_ worshipped.

♦2. Reg. 13.♦

♦Matth. 10. & 12.
Mark. 3.
Luk. 11.♦

♦[a] 2. Reg. 19.♦

♦[b] 2. Reg. 17.♦

♦[c] [Tartac]♦

♦[d] Ose. 9, 11. [10]
Num. 25.
Deut. 3. &. 4
Josu. 22.♦

♦[e] 2. Reg. 17.♦

♦[f] Numb. 21.
1. Reg. 11.
2. Reg. 23.♦

♦[g] Judg. 16.
1. Macc. 10.♦

♦[h] 1. Reg. 11.
2. Reg. 23.♦

♦[i] 2. Reg. 23.
1. Chro. 20.
Jerem. 49.♦

♦_Joseph. lib. de antiquit. Judæor. 6. cap. 14._♦

♦1. Sam. 7.
2. Reg. 23.♦

♦Psal. 96. [Vulg. vers.]♦

Sometimes also we find in the scriptures, that divels and spirits take
their names of wicked men, or of the houses or stats of abhominable
persons: as _Astaroth_, which (as _Josephus_ saith) was the idoll of
the _Philistines_, whome the _Jewes_ tooke from them at _Salomons_
commandement, and was also worshipped of _Salomon_. Which though
it signifie riches, flocks, &c: yet it was once a citie belonging
to _Og_ the king of _Basan_, where they saie the giants dwelt. In
these respects _Astaroth_ is one of the speciall divels named in
_Salomons_ conjuration, and greatlie emploied by the conjurors. I have
sufficientlie prooved in these quotations, that these idols are _Dii
gentium_, the gods of the Gentiles: and then the prophet _David_ may
satisfie you, that they are divels, who saith _Dii gentium dæmonia
sunt_, The gods of the Gentiles are divels. What a divell was the rood
of grace to be thought, but such a one as before is mentioned and
described, who tooke his name of his courteous and gratious behaviour
towards his worshippers, or rather those that offered unto him? The
idolatrous knaverie wherof being now bewraied, it is among the godlie
reputed a divell rather than a god: and so are diverse others of the
same stampe.




The xx. Chapter.

_Diverse names of the divell, whereby his nature and disposition
is manifested._


It hath also pleased GOD to informe our weake capacities, as it were
by similitudes and examples, or rather by comparisons, to understand
what manner of thing the divell is, by the verie names appropriated
and attributed unto him in the scriptures: wherein sometimes he is
called by one name, sometimes by another, by metaphors according to
his conditions. [a]_Elephas_ is called in _Job_, _Behemoth_, which
is, _Bruta_; whereby the greatnes and brutishnes of the divell is
figured. _Leviathan_ is not much different from _Elephas_; whereby
the divels great subtiltie and power is shewed unto us. [b]_Mammon_
is the covetous desire of monie, wherewith the divell overcommeth
the reprobate. [c]_Dæmon_ signifieth one that is cunning or craftie.
_Cacodæmon_ is perverslie knowing. All those which in ancient
times were worshipped as gods, were so called. [d]_Diabolus_ is
_Calumniator_, an accuser, or a slanderer. Sathan is _Adversarius_, an
adversarie, that troubleth and molesteth. [e]_Abaddon_ a destroier.
[f]_Legio_, bicause they are manie. [g]Prince of the aire. [h]Prince of
the world. [i]A king of the sonnes of pride. [k]A roring lion. [l]An
homicide or manslear, a lier, and the father of lies. The [m]author of
sinne. [n]A spirit. Yea somtimes he is called the spirit of the Lord,
as the executioner and minister of his displeasure, &c. Sometimes,
the [o]spirit of fornication, &c. And manie other like epithets or
additions are given him for his name. He is also called [p]the angell
of the Lord. [q]The cruell angell. The [r]angell of sathan. The
[s]angell of hell. The [t]great dragon, for his pride and force. The
[u]red dragon for his blouddines. A [x]serpent. An [y]owle, a [z]kite,
a satyre, a crowe, a pellicane, a hedghog, a griph, a storke, &c.

[x should reach to Isai. 27. and y Mark Isai. 13. 34.]

♦[a] Job. 40.
Job. 3.
Isai. 27.♦

♦[b] Matth. 6.
Matt. 4. &c.
Marc. 16.♦

♦[c] Jam. 2.♦

♦[d] Matth. 4.
John. 8.
Apoc. 12.♦

♦[e] Apoc. 9.♦

♦[f] Marc. 5.
Luke. 8.♦

♦[g] Eph. 2.♦

♦[h] John. 8. 12. 14. 16.♦

♦[i] Job. 41.♦

♦[k] 1. Pet. 5.♦

♦[l] John. 8.♦

♦[m] 1. John. 3.♦

♦[n] Acts. 16.v

♦[o] Ose. 4.♦

♦[p] Psal. 34.
1. Chr. 21.♦

♦[q] Prov. 17.♦

♦[r] 2. Cor. 12.♦

♦[s] Apoc. 9.♦

♦[t] Apoc. 12.♦

♦[u] Job. 41.♦

♦[x] Gen. 3.♦

♦[y] Apoc. 12.♦

♦[z] Isai. 27.
Isai. 13. 34.♦




The xxi. Chapter.

_That the idols or gods of the Gentiles are divels, their
diverse names, and in what affaires their labours and
authorities are emploied, wherein also the blind superstition
of the heathen people is discovered._


And for so much as the idols of the gentiles are called divels, and
are among the unlearned confounded and intermedled with the divels
that are named in the scriptures; I thought it convenient here to give
you a note of them, to whome the Gentiles gave names, according to the
offices unto them assigned. _Penates_ are the domesticall gods, or
rather divels that were said to make men live quietlie within doores.
But some thinke these rather to be such, as the Gentiles thought to
be set over kingdomes: and that _Lares_ are such as trouble private
houses, and are set to oversee crosse waies and cities. _Larvæ_ are
said to be spirits that walke onelie by night. _Genii_ are the two
angels, which they supposed were appointed to wait upon each man.
_Manes_ are the spirits which oppose themselves against men in the
waie. _Dæmones_ were feigned gods by poets, as _Jupiter_, _Juno_, &c.
_Virunculi terrei_ are such as was Robin good fellowe, that would
supplie the office of servants, speciallie of maids; as to make a
fier in the morning, sweepe the house, grind mustard and malt, drawe
water, &c: these also rumble in houses, drawe latches, go up and downe
staiers, &c. _Dii geniales_ are the gods that everie man did sacrifice
unto at the daie of their birth. _Tetrici_ be they that make folke
afraid, and have such ouglie shape, which manie of our divines doo
call _Subterranei_. _Cobali_ are they that followe men, and delight
to make them laugh, with tumbling, juggling, and such like toies.
_Virunculi_ are dwarfes about three handfulles long, and doo no hurt;
but seeme to dig in mineralles, and to be verie busie, and yet doo
nothing. _Guteli_ or _Trulli_ are spirits (they saie) in the likenes
of women, shewing great kindnesse to all men: & hereof it is that we
call light women, truls. _Dæmones montani_ are such as worke in the
mineralles, and further the worke of the labourers woonderfullie, who
are nothing afraid of them. _Hudgin_ is a verie familiar divell, which
will doo no bodie hurt, except he receive injurie: but he cannot abide
that, nor yet be mocked: he talketh with men freendlie, sometimes
visiblie, and sometimes invisiblie. There go as manie tales upon this
_Hudgin_, in some parts of _Germanie_, as there did in _England_
of Robin good fellowe. But this _Hudgin_ was so called, bicause he
alwaies ware a cap or a hood[†]; and therefore I thinke it was Robin
hood. Frier _Rush_ was for all the world such another fellow as this
_Hudgin_, and brought up even in the same schoole; to wit, in a
kitchen: in so much as the selfe-same tale is written of the one as of
the other, concerning the skullian, which is said to have beene slaine,
&c: for the reading whereof I referre you to Frier _Rush_ his storie,
or else to _John Wierus De præstigiis dæmonum_.

♦Psalm. 96.♦

♦Juno and Minerva.♦

♦Cousening gods or knaves.♦

♦_Terra, aqua, aer, ignis, sol, & Luna._♦

♦[*]Hudgin of Germanie, and Rush of England.♦

♦[*] [Hutgin, _Wier_.]♦

♦_J. Wier. lib. de præst. dæm. 1. cap. 23._♦

♦[†] [See note.]♦

♦Bawdie preests in Ginnie.♦

♦Looke in the word (_Ob_) lib. 7. cap. 3. pag. 132, 133.♦

There were also _Familiares dæmones_, which we call familiars: such
as _Socrates_ and _Cæsar_ were said to have; and such as _Feats_ sold
to doctor _Burcot_. _Quintus Sertorius_ had _Diana_ hir selfe for his
familiar; and _Numa Pompilius_ had _Aegeria_: but neither the one nor
the other of all these could be preserved by their familiars from being
destroied with untimelie death. _Simon Samareus_ boasted, that he had
gotten by conjuration, the soule of a little child that was slaine, to
be his familiar, and that he told him all things that were to come,
&c. I marvell what privilege soules have, which are departed from the
bodie, to know things to come more than the soules within mans bodie.
There were spirits, which they called _Albæ mulieres_, and _Albæ
Silyllæ_, which were verie familiar, and did much harme (they saie)
to women with child, and to sucking children. _Deumus_ as a divell is
worshipped among the _Indians_ in _Calecute_, who (as they thinke) hath
power given him of God to judge the earth, &c: his image is horriblie
pictured in a most ouglie shape. _Thevet_ saith, that a divell in
_America_, called _Agnan_, beareth swaie in that countrie. In _Ginnie_
one _Grigrie_ is accounted the great divell, and keepeth the woods:
these have preests called _Charoibes_, which prophesie, after they have
lien by the space of one houre prostrate upon a wench of twelve yeares
old, and all that while (saie they) he calleth upon a divell called
_Hovioulsira_, and then commeth foorth and uttereth his prophesie. For
the true successe whereof the people praie all the while that he lieth
groveling like a lecherous knave. There are a thousand other names,
which they saie are attributed unto divels; and such as they take to
themselves are more ridiculous than the names that are given by others,
which have more leasure to devise them. In litle bookes conteining the
cousening possessed, at _Maidstone_, where such a woonder was wrought,
as also in other places, you may see a number of counterfeit divels
names, and other trish trash.




The xxii. Chapter.

_Of the Romanes cheefe gods called Dii selecti, and of other
heathen gods, their names and offices._


There were among the _Romans_ twentie idolatrous gods, which were
called _Dii selecti sive electi_, chosen gods; whereof twelve were
male, and eight female, whose names doo thus followe: _Janus_,
_Saturnus_, _Jupiter_, _Genius_, _Mercurius_, _Apollo_, _Mars_,
_Vulcanus_, _Neptunus_, _Sol_, _Orcus_ and [*]_Vibar_, which were
all hee gods: _Tellus_, _Ceres_, _Juno_, _Minerva_, _Luna_, _Diana_,
_Venus_, and _Vesta_, were all she gods. No man might appropriate anie
of these unto himselfe, but they were left common and indifferent to
all men dwelling in one realme, province, or notable citie. These
heathen gentiles had also their gods, which served for sundrie
purposes; as to raise thunder, they had _Statores_, _Tonantes_,
_Feretrii_, and _Jupiter Elicius_. They had _Cantius_, to whome they
praied for wise children, who was more apt for this purpose than
_Minerva_ that issued out of _Jupiters_ owne braine. _Lucina_ was to
send them that were with child safe deliverie, and in that respect was
called the mother of childwives. _Opis_ was called the mother of the
babe new borne, whose image women with child hanged upon their girdles
before their bellies, and bare it so by the space of nine moneths; and
the midwife alwaies touched the child therewith, before she or anie
other laied hand thereon.

♦[*] [_Liber_]♦

♦A good god and goddesse for women.♦

If the child were well borne, they sacrificed therunto, although the
mother miscaried: but if the child were in any part unperfect, or dead,
&c: they used to beate the image into powder, or to burne or drowne it.
_Vagianus_ was he that kept their children from crieng, and therefore
they did alwaies hang his picture about babes necks: for they thought
much crieng in youth portended ill fortune in age. _Cuninus_, otherwise
_Cunius_, was he that preserved (as they thought) their children from
misfortune in the cradell. _Ruminus_ was to keepe their dugs from
corruption. _Volumnus_ and his wife _Volumna_ were gods, the one for
yoong men, the other for maids that desired marriage: for such as
praied devoutlie unto them, should soone be married. _Agrestis_ was the
god of the fields, and to him they praied for fertilitie. _Bellus_ was
the god of warre & warriers, and so also was _Victoria_, to whome the
greatest temple in _Rome_ was built. _Honorius_ was he that had charge
about inkeepers, that they should well intreat pilgrimes. _Berecynthia_
was the mother of all the gods. _Aesculanus_ was to discover their
mines of gold and silver, and to him they praied for good successe
in that behalfe. _Aesculapius_ was to cure the sicke, whose father
was _Apollo_, and served to keepe weeds out of the corne. _Segacia_
was to make seeds to growe. _Flora_ preserved the vines from frosts
and blasts. _Sylvanus_ was to preserve them that walked in gardens.
_Bacchus_ was for droonkards, _Pavor_ for cowherds; _Meretrix_ for
whores, to whose honour there was a temple built in _Rome_, in the
middest of fortie and foure streets, which were all inhabited with
common harlots. Finallie _Colatina, [*]alias Clotina_, was goddesse
of the stoole, the jakes, and the privie, to whome as to everie of the
rest, there was a peculiar temple edified: besides that notable temple
called _Pantheon_, wherein all the gods were placed togither; so as
everie man and woman, according to their follies and devotions, might
go thither and worship what gods they list.

♦The names of certeine heathenish gods, and their peculiar offices.♦

♦[*] [_alias_ Ital.]♦

♦A verie homelie charge.♦




The xxiii. Chapter.

_Of diverse gods in diverse countries._


The _Aegyptians_ were yet more foolish in this behalfe than the
_Romans_ (I meane the heathenish _Romans_ that then were, and not
the popish _Romans_ that now are, for no nation approcheth neere
to these in anie kind of idolatrie.) The _Aegyptians_ worshipped
_Anubis_ in the likenesse of a dog, bicause he loved dogs and hunting.
Yea they worshipped all living creatures, as namelie of beasts, a
bullocke, a dog, & a cat; of flieng fowles, Ibis (which is a bird
with a long bill, naturallie devouring up venemous things and noisome
serpents) and a sparrowhawke; of fishes they had two gods; to wit,
_Lepidotus piscis_, and _Oxyrinchus_. The _Saitans_ and _Thebans_
had to their god a sheepe. In the citie _Lycopolis_ they worshipped
a woolfe; in _Herinopolis_, the _Cynocephalus_; the _Leopolitans_,
a lion; in _Lætopolis_, a fish in _Nilus_ called _Latus_. In the
citie _Cynopolis_ they worshipped _Anubis_. At _Babylon_, besides
_Memphis_, they made an onion their god; the _Thebans_ an eagle; the
_Mændeseans_, a goate; the _Persians_, a fier called _Orimasda_;
the _Arabians_, _Bacchus_, _Venus_, and _Diasaren_; the _Bœotians_,
_Amphiaraus_; the _Aphricans_, _Mopsus_; the _Scithians_, _Minerva_;
the _Naucratits_, _Serapis_, which is a serpent; _Astartes_ (being as
_Cicero_ writeth the fourth _Venus_, who was she, as others affirme,
whom _Salomon_ worshipped at his concubines request) was the goddesse
of the _Assyrians_. At _Noricum_, being a part of _Bavaria_, they
worship _Tibilenus_; the _Moores_ worship _Juba_; the _Macedonians_,
_Gabirus_; the _Pœnians_, _Uranius_; at _Samos Juno_ was their god;
at _Paphos_, _Venus_; at _Lemnos_, _Vulcane_; at _Naxos_, _Liberus_;
at _Lampsacke_, _Priapus_ with the great genitals, who was set up
at _Hellespont_ to be adored. In the ile _Diomedea_, _Diomedes_; at
_Delphos_, _Apollo_; at _Ephesus_, _Diana_ was worshipped. And bicause
they would plaie small game rather than sit out, they had _Acharus
Cyrenaicus_, to keepe them from flies and flieblowes; _Hercules
Canopius_, to keepe them from fleas; _Apollo Parnopeius_, to keepe
their cheefes from being mouseaten. The _Greeks_ were the first, that I
can learne to have assigned to the gods their principall kingdomes and
offices: as _Jupiter_ to rule in heaven, _Pluto_ in hell, _Neptune_ in
the sea, &c. To these they joined, as assistants, divers commissioners;
as to _Jupiter_, _Saturne_, _Mars_, _Venus_, _Mercurie_, and _Minerva_:
to _Neptune_, _Nereus_, _&c. Tutilina_ was onelie a mediatrix to
_Jupiter_, not to destroie corne with thunder or tempests, before whom
they usuallie lighted candels in the temple, to appease the same,
according to the popish custome in these daies. But I may not repeate
them all by name, for the gods of the gentiles were by good record, as
_Varro_ and others report, to the number of 30. thousand, and upward.
Whereby the reasonable reader may judge their superstitious blindnesse.

♦Beasts, birds, vermine, fishes, herbs and other trumperie worshipped
as gods.♦

♦Imperiall gods and their assistants.♦

♦The number of gods among the gentiles♦




The xxiiii. Chapter.

_Of popish provinciall gods, a comparison betweene them and
heathen gods, of physicall gods, and of what occupation
everie popish god is._


Now if I thought I could make an end in anie reasonable time, I would
begin with our antichristian gods, otherwise called popish idols, which
are as ranke divels as _Dii gentium_ spoken of in the psalmes: or as
_Dii montium_ set foorth & rehearsed in the first booke of the kings;
or as _Dii terrarum_ or _Dii populorum_ mentioned in the second of
the Chronicles 32. & in the first of the Chronicles 16. or as _Dii
terræ_ in Judges 3. or as _Dii filiorum Seir_ in the second of the
Chronicles 25. or as _Dii alieni_, which are so often mentioned in the
scriptures.

♦1. Reg. 20.
2. Chr. 32.
1. Chr. 16.
Judg. 3.
2. Chr. 33.
2. Reg. 23,
&c.♦

Surelie, there were in the popish church more of these in number, more
in common, more private, more publike, more for lewd purposes, and
more for no purpose, than among all the heathen, either heretofore, or
at this present time: for I dare undertake, that for everie heathen
idoll I might produce twentie out of the popish church. For there
were proper idols of everie nation: as S. _George_ on horssebacke for
_England_ (excepting whome there is said to be no more horssemen in
heaven save onelie saint _Martine_) S. _Andrew_ for _Burgundie_ and
_Scotland_, S. _Michael_ for _France_, S. _James_ for _Spaine_, S.
_Patrike_ for _Ireland_, S. _Davie_ for _Wales_, S. _Peter_ for _Rome_,
and some part of _Italie_. Had not everie citie in all the popes
dominions his severall patrone? As _Paule_ for _London_, _Denis_ for
_Paris_, _Ambrose_ for _Millen_, _Loven_ for _Gaunt_, _Romball_ for
_Mackline_, S. _Marks_ lion for _Venice_, the three magician kings for
_Cullen_,[*] and so of other. Yea, had they not for everie small
towne, and everie village and parish,[†] (the names wherof I am not
at leisure to repeat) a severall idoll? As S. _Sepulchre_, for one; S.
_Bride_, for another; S. All halowes, All saints, and our Ladie for all
at once: which I thought meeter to rehearse, than a bedroll[‡] of
such a number as are in that predicament. Had they not hee idols and
shee idols, some for men, some for women, some for beasts, and some
for fowles, &c? Doo you not thinke that S. _Martine_ might be opposed
to _Bacchus_? If S. _Martine_ be too weake we have S. _Urbane_, S.
_Clement_, and manie other to assist him. Was _Venus_ and _Meretrix_
an advocate for whoores among the Gentiles? Behold, there were in the
Romish church to encounter with them, S. _Aphra_, S. _Aphrodite_, and
S. _Maudline_. But insomuch as long _Meg_ was as verie a whoore as the
best of them, she had wrong that she was not also canonized, and put
in as good credit as they: for she was a gentlewoman borne; whereunto
the pope hath great respect in canonizing of his saints. For (as I
have said) he canonizeth the rich for saints, and burneth the poore
for witches. But I doubt not, _Magdalen_, and manie other godlie women
are verie saints in heaven, and should have beene so, though the pope
had never canonized them: but he dooth them wrong, to make them the
patronesses of harlots and strong strumpets.

♦Popish gods of nations.♦

♦Parish gods or popish idols♦

♦[*] [= Cologne]♦

♦[†] [. in text]♦

♦[‡] [= bead—]♦

Was there such a traitor among all the heathen idols, as S. _Thomas
Becket_? Or such a whoore as S. _Bridget_? I warrant you S. _Hugh_ was
as good a huntesman as _Anubis_. Was _Vulcane_ the protector of the
heathen smithes? Yea forsooth, and S. _Euloge_ was patrone for ours.
Our painters had _Luke_, our weavers had _Steven_, our millers had
_Arnold_, our tailors had _Goodman_, our sowters had _Crispine_, our
potters had S. _Gore_ with a divell on his shoulder and a pot in his
hand. Was there a better horseleech among the gods of the Gentiles
than S. _Loy_? Or a better sowgelder than S. _Anthonie_? Or a better
toothdrawer than S. _Apolline_? I beleeve that _Apollo Parnopeius_ was
no better a ratcatcher than S. _Gertrude_, who hath the popes patent
and commendation therefore. The _Thebans_ had not a better shepherd
than S. _Wendeline_, nor a better gissard to keepe their geese than
_Gallus_. But for physicke and surgerie, our idols exceeded them all.
For S. _John_, and S. _Valentine_ excelled at the falling evill, S.
_Roch_ was good at the plague, S. _Petronill_ at the ague. As for S.
_Margaret_, she passed _Lucina_ for a midwife, and yet was but a maid:
in which respect S. _Marpurge_ is joined with hir in commission.

♦See the golden Legend for the life of S. Bridget.♦

♦He saints & shee saincts of the old stamp with their peculiar vertues
touching the curing of diseases.♦

For mad men, and such as are possessed with divels, S. _Romane_ was
excellent, & frier _Ruffine_ was also pretilie skilfull in that art.
For botches and biles, _Cosmus_ and _Damian_; S. _Clare_ for the eies,
S. _Apolline_ for teeth, S. _Job_ for the [*]pox. And for sore brests
S. _Agatha_ was as good as _Ruminus_. Whosoever served _Servatius_
well, should be sure to loose nothing: if _Servatius_ failed in his
office, S. _Vinden_ could supplie the matter with his cunning; for
he could cause all things that were lost to be restored againe. But
here laie a strawe for a while, and I will shew you the names of some,
which exceed these verie far, and might have beene canonized for
archsaints; all the other saints or idols being in comparison of them
but bunglers, and bench-whistlers. And with your leave, when all other
saints had given over the matter, and the saints utterlie forsaken of
their servitors, they repaired to these that I shall name unto you,
with the good consent of the pope, who is the fautor, or rather the
patrone of all the saints, divels, and idols living or dead, and of all
the gods save one. And whereas none other saint could cure above one
disease, in so much as it was idolatrie, follie I should have said,
to go to _Job_ for anie other maladie than the pox; nothing commeth
amisse to these. For they are good at anie thing, and never a-whit
nice of their cunning: yea greater matters are said to be in one of
their powers, than is in all the other saints. And these are they: S.
mother _Bungie_, S. mother _Paine_, S. _Feats_, S. mother _Still_, S.
mother _Dutton_, S. _Kytrell_, S. _Ursula Kempe_, S. mother _Newman_,
S. doctor _Heron_, S. _Rosimund_ a good old father, & diverse more that
deserve to be registred in the popes kalendar, or rather the divels
rubrike.

♦[*] For the Frēch pox or the cōmon kind of pox, or both? This would
be knowne.♦

♦New saints.♦




The xxv. Chapter.

_A comparison betweene the heathen and papists, touching their
excuses for idolatrie._


And bicause I know, that the papists will saie, that their idols are
saints, and no such divels as the gods of the Gentiles were: you may
tell them, that not onelie their saints, but the verie images of
them were called _Divi_. Which though it signifie gods, and so by
consequence idols or feends: yet put but an (_ll_) thereunto, and it is
_Divill_ in English. But they will saie also that I doo them wrong to
gibe at them; bicause they were holie men and holie women. I grant some
of them were so, and further from allowance of the popish idolatrie
emploied upon them, than greeved with the derision used against that
abuse. Yea even as silver and gold are made idols unto them that love
them too well, and seeke too much for them: so are these holie men and
women made idols by them that worship them, and attribute unto them
such honor, as to God onelie apperteineth.

♦_Divos vocant Grammatici eos qui ex hominibus dii facti sunt._♦

The heathen gods were for the most part good men, and profitable
members to the commonwealth wherein they lived, and deserved fame, &c:
in which respect they made gods of them when they were dead; as they
made divels of such emperors and philosophers as they hated, or as had
deserved ill among them. And is it not even so, and woorsse, in the
commonwealth and church of poperie? Dooth not the pope excommunicate,
cursse, and condemne for heretikes, and drive to the bottomlesse pit
of hell, proclaming to be verie divels, all those that either write,
speake or thinke contrarie to his idolatrous doctrine? _Cicero_, when
he derided the heathen gods, and inveied against them that yeelded
such servile honor unto them, knew the persons, unto whom such abuse
was committed, had well deserved as civill citizens; and that good fame
was due unto them, and not divine estimation. Yea the infidels that
honored those gods, as hoping to receive benefits for their devotion
emploied that waie, knew and conceived that the statues and images,
before whome with such reverence they powred foorth their praiers,
were stockes and stones, and onelie pictures of those persons whome
they resembled: yea they also knew, that the parties themselves were
creatures, and could not doo so much as the papists and witchmongers
thinke the Roode of grace, or mother _Bungie_ could doo. And yet the
papists can see the abuse of the Gentils, and may not heare of their
owne idolatrie more grosse and damnable than the others.

♦_Cic. de natur. deorum._♦

♦The papists see a moth in the eie of others, but no beame in their
owne.♦




The xxvi. Chapter.

_The conceipt of the heathen and the papists all one in
idolatrie, of the councell of Trent, a notable storie of a
hangman arraigned after he was dead and buried, &c._


But papists perchance will denie, that they attribute so much to these
idols as I report; or that they thinke it so meritorious to praie
to the images of saints as is supposed, affirming that they worship
God, and the saints themselves, under the formes of images. Which was
also the conceipt of the heathen, and their excuse in this behalfe;
whose eiesight and insight herein reached as farre as the papisticall
distinctions published by popes and their councels. Neither doo anie of
them admit so grosse idolatrie, as the councell of _Trent_ hath doone,
who alloweth that worship to the Rood that is due to Jesus Christ
himselfe, and so likewise of other images of saints. I thought it not
impertinent therfore in this place to insert an example taken out of
the Rosarie of our Ladie, in which booke doo remaine (besides this)
ninetie and eight examples to this effect: which are of such authoritie
in the church of _Rome_, that all scripture must give place unto
them. And these are either read there as their speciall homilies, or
preached by their cheefe doctors. And this is the sermon for this daie
verbatim translated out of the said Rosarie, a booke much esteemed and
reverenced among papists.

♦The idolatrous councell of Trent.♦

A certeine hangman passing by the image of our Ladie, saluted hir,
commending himselfe to hir protection. Afterwards, while he praied
before hir, he was called awaie to hang an offendor: but his enimies
intercepted him, and slew him by the waie. And lo a certeine holie
preest, which nightlie walked about everie church in the citie, rose
up that night, and was going to his ladie, I should saie to our ladie
church. And in the churchyard he saw a great manie dead men, and
some of them he knew, of whome he asked what the matter was, &c. Who
answered, that the hangman was slaine, and the divell challenged his
soule, the which our ladie said was hirs: and the judge was even at
hand comming thither to heare the cause, & therefore (said they) we
are now come togither. The preest thought he would be at the hearing
hereof, and hid himselfe behind a tree; and anon he saw the judiciall
seat readie prepared and furnished, where the judge, to wit Jesus
Christ, sate, who tooke up his mother unto him. Soone after the divels
brought in the hangman pinnioned, and prooved by good evidence, that
his soule belonged to them. On the other side, our ladie pleaded for
the hangman, prooving that he, at the houre of death, commended his
soule to hir. The judge hearing the matter so well debated on either
side, but willing to obeie (for these are his words) his mothers
desire, and loath to doo the divels anie wrong, gave sentence, that
the hangmans soule should returne to his bodie, untill he had made
sufficient satisfaction; ordeining that the pope should set foorth a
publike forme of praier for the hangmans soule. It was demanded, who
should doo the arrand to the popes holines? Marie quoth our ladie, that
shall yonder preest that lurketh behind the tree. The preest being
called foorth, and injoined to make relation hereof, and to desire the
pope to take the paines to doo according to this decree, asked by what
token he should be directed. Then was delivered unto him a rose of such
beautie, as when the pope saw it, he knew his message was true. And so,
if they doo not well, I praie God we may.

♦_Exempl. 4._♦

♦But our ladie spied him well enough: as you shal read.♦

♦The preests arse made buttons.♦




The xxvii. Chapter.

_A confutation of the fable of the hangman, of manie other feined
and ridiculous tales and apparitions, with a reproofe thereof._


By the tale above mentioned you see what it is to worship the image
of our ladie. For though we kneele to God himselfe, and make never so
humble petitions unto him, without faith and repentance, it shall doo
us no pleasure at all. Yet this hangman had great freendship shewed him
for one point of courtesie used to our ladie, having not one dramme
of faith, repentance, nor yet of honestie in him. Neverthelesse, so
credulous is the nature of man, as to beleeve this and such like
fables: yea, to discredit such stuffe, is thought among the papists
flat heresie. And though we that are protestants will not beleeve these
toies, being so apparentlie popish: yet we credit and report other
appearances, and assuming of bodies by soules and spirits; though they
be as prophane, absurd, and impious as the other. We are sure the holie
maide of _Kents_ vision was a verie cousenage: but we can credit,
imprint, and publish for a true possession or historie, the knaverie
used by a cousening varlot at _Maidstone_;[*] and manie other such as
that was. We thinke soules and spirits may come out of heaven or hell,
and assume bodies, beleeving manie absurd tales told by the schoolemen
and Romish doctors to that effect: but we discredit all the stories
that they, and as grave men as they are, tell us upon their knowledge
and credit, of soules condemned to purgatorie, wandering for succour
and release by trentals and masses said by a popish preest, &c: and yet
they in probabilitie are equall, and in number farre exceed the other.

♦Our B. ladies favor.♦

♦[*] [p. _132_.]♦

♦_Greg. 4. dialog. cap. 51.
Alexand lib. 5. cap. 23. & lib. 2. cap. 9. &c._♦

♦_Greg. lib. 4. dialog. ca. 40. idem cap. 55_, and in other places
elsewhere innumerable.♦

We thinke that to be a lie, which is written, or rather fathered upon
_Luther_; to wit, that he knew the divell, and was verie conversant
with him, and had eaten manie bushels of salt and made jollie good
cheere with him; and that he was confuted in a disputation with a
reall divell about the abolishing of private masse. Neither doo we
beleeve this report, that the divell in the likenes of a tall man,
was present at a sermon openlie made by _Carolostadius_; and from
this sermon went to his house, and told his sonne that he would fetch
him awaie after a daie or twaine: as the papists saie he did in deed,
although they lie in everie point thereof most maliciouslie. But we can
beleeve _Platina_ and others, when they tell us of the appearances of
pope _Benedict_ the eight, and also the ninth; how the one rode upon a
blacke horsse in the wildernesse, requiring a bishop (as I remember)
whome he met, that he would distribute certeine monie for him, which he
had purloined of that which was given in almes to the poore, &c: and
how the other was seene a hundred yeares after the divell had killed
him in a wood, of an heremite, in a beares skinne, and an asses head on
his shoulders, &c: himselfe saieng that he appeared in such sort as he
lived. And diverse such stuffe rehearseth _Platina_.

♦_Micha. And. thes. 151._♦

♦_Alex. ab Alexand. lib. 4. genealog. dierum. cap. 19._
_Plutarch. oratione ad Apollonium._
_Item. Basiliens. in epist._
_Platina de vitis pontificum._
_Nauclerus. 2 generat. 35._♦

Now bicause S. _Ambrose_ writeth, that S. _Anne_ appeared to
_Constance_ the daughter of _Constantine_, and to hir parents watching
at hir sepulchre: and bicause _Eusebius_ and _Nicephorus_ saie,
that the _Pontamian_ virgine, _Origins_ disciple, appeared to S.
_Basil_, and put a crowne upon his head, in token of the glorie of
his martyrdome, which should shortlie followe: and bicause _Hierome_
writeth of _Paules_ appearance; and _Theodoret_, of S. _John_ the
_Baptist_; and _Athanasius_, of _Ammons_, _&c_: manie doo beleeve the
same stories and miraculous appearances to be true. But few protestants
will give credit unto such shamefull fables, or anie like them, when
they find them written in the Legendarie, Festivall, Rosaries of our
Ladie, or anie other such popish authors. Whereby I gather, that if the
protestant beleeve some few lies, the papists beleeve a great number.
This I write, to shew the imperfection of man, how attentive our eares
are to hearken to tales. And though herein consist no great point
of faith or infidelitie; yet let us that professe the gospell take
warning of papists, not to be carried awaie with everie vaine blast of
doctrine: but let us cast awaie these prophane and old wives fables.
And although this matter have passed so long with generall credit and
authoritie: yet manie [*]grave authors have condemned long since all
those vaine visions and apparitions, except such as have beene shewed
by God, his sonne, and his angels. _Athanasius_ saith, that soules
once loosed from their bodies, have no more societie with mortall men.
_Augustine_ saith, that if soules could walke and visit their freends,
&c: or admonish them in sleepe, or otherwise, his mother that followed
him by land and by sea would shew hir selfe to him, and reveale hir
knowledge, or give him warning, &c. But most true it is that is written
in the gospell; We have _Moses_ and the prophets, who are to be
hearkened unto, and not the dead.

♦_Ambr. ser. 90 de passione Agn._♦

♦_Euseb. lib. eccles. hist. 5._♦

♦_Niceph. lib. 5 cap. 7._♦

♦_Hieronym. in vita Pau._♦

♦_Theodor. lib. hist. 5. ca. 24._♦

♦_Athan. in vita Antho._♦

♦[*] _Melancth. in Calendar. Manlii. 23. April._♦

♦_Marbach. lib. de miracul. adversus Ins._♦

♦_Johannes Rivius de veter. superstit._♦

♦_Athan. lib. 99. quæ. 11._♦

♦_August. de cura pro mortu. ca. 13._♦

♦Luk. 16.♦




The xxviii. Chapter.

_A confutation of Johannes Laurentius, and of manie others,
mainteining these fained and ridiculous tales and
apparitions, and what driveth them awaie: of Moses and Helias
appearance in mount Thabor._


Furthermore, to prosecute this matter in more words; if I saie that
these apparitions of soules are but knaveries and cousenages; they
object that _Moses_ and _Helias_ appeared in mount _Thabor_, and talked
with Christ, in the presence of the principall apostles: yea, and that
God appeared in the bush, &c. As though spirits and soules could doo
whatsoever it pleaseth the Lord to doo, or appoint to be doone for his
owne glorie, or for the manifestation of his sonne miraculouslie. And
therefore I thought good to give you a taste of the witchmongers absurd
opinions in this behalfe.

♦Matth 17. Luke. 9.♦

♦_Johan. Laur. lib. de natur. dæmon._♦

And first you shall understand, that they hold, that all the soules in
heaven may come downe and appeare to us when they list, and assume anie
bodie saving their owne: otherwise (saie they) such soules should not
be perfectlie happie. They saie that you may know the good soules from
the bad verie easilie. For a damned soule hath a verie heavie and sowre
looke; but a saints soule hath a cheerefull and a merrie countenance:
these also are white and shining, the other cole blacke. And these
damned soules also maie come up out of hell at their pleasure; although
_Abraham_ made _Dives_ beleeve the contrarie. They affirme that damned
soules walke oftenest: next unto them the soules of purgatorie; and
most seldome the soules of saints. Also they saie that in the old lawe
soules did appeare seldome; and after doomes daie they shall never
be seene more: in the time of grace they shall be most frequent. The
walking of these soules (saith _Michael Andr._) is a most excellent
argument for the proofe of purgatorie: for (saith he) those soules have
testified that which the popes have affirmed in that behalfe; to wit,
that there is not onelie such a place of punishment, but that they are
released from thence by masses, and such other satisfactorie works;
whereby the goodnes of the masse is also ratified and confirmed.

♦_Mich. Andr. thes. 222, &c_♦

♦_Idem thes. 235. &. 136._♦

♦_Idem thes. 226._♦

♦_Th. Aq. 1. pa. quæ. 89. ar. 8._♦

♦_Gregor. in dial. 4._♦

♦_Mich. And. thes. 313. 316. 317._♦

These heavenlie or purgatorie soules (saie they) appeare most commonlie
to them that are borne upon ember daies, and they also walke most
usuallie on those ember daies: bicause we are in best state at that
time to praie for the one, and to keepe companie with the other.
Also they saie, that soules appeare oftenest by night; bicause men
may then be at best leasure, and most quiet. Also they never appeare
to the whole multitude, seldome to a few, and most commonlie to one
alone: for so one may tell a lie without controlment. Also they are
oftenest seene by them that are readie to die: as _Trasilla_ sawe pope
_Fœlix_; _Ursine_, _Peter_ and _Paule_; _Galla Romana_, _S. Peter_;
and as _Musa_ the maid sawe our Ladie: which are the most certeine
appearances, credited and allowed in the church of _Rome_: also they
may be seene of some, and of some other in that presence not seene
at all; as _Ursine_ sawe _Peter_ and _Paule_, and yet manie at that
instant being present could not see anie such sight, but thought it
a lie: as I doo. _Michael Andræas_ confesseth, that papists see more
visions than protestants: he saith also, that a good soule can take
none other shape than of a man; marie a damned soule may and dooth
take the shape of a blacke moore, or of a beast, or of a serpent, or
speciallie of an heretike. The christian signes that drive awaie these
evill soules, are the crosse, the name of Jesus, and the relikes of
saints: in the number whereof are holiwater, holie bread, _Agnus Dei_,
_&c._ For _Andrew_ saith, that notwithstanding _Julianus_ was an
_Apostata_, and a betraier of christian religion: yet at an extremitie,
with the onelie signe of the crosse, he drave awaie from him manie
such evill spirits; whereby also (he saith) the greatest diseases and
sicknesses are cured, and the sorest dangers avoided.

♦_Idem thes. 346._♦

♦_Leo. serm. de jejuniis 10. mens._♦

♦_Gelas. in epistola ad episc._♦

♦_Mich. Andr. thes. 345._♦

♦_Greg. dial. 4. cap. 1. 12. 14._♦

♦_Mich. And. thes. 347._♦

♦_Greg. dial. 4. cap. 11._♦

♦_Mich. And. thes. 347._♦

♦_Mich. And. thes. 341._♦

♦_Ide. thes. 388._♦

♦_Ide. thes. 411._♦

♦_Mal. malef. J. Bod. &c._♦

♦_Mich. And. these. 412._♦

♦Idem. thes. 414.♦




The xxix. Chapter.

_A confutation of assuming of bodies, and of the serpent that
seduced Eve._


They that contend so earnestlie for the divels assuming of bodies
and visible shapes, doo thinke they have a great advantage by the
words uttered in the third of _Genesis_, where they saie, the divell
entered into a serpent or snake: and that by the cursse it appeareth,
that the whole displeasure of God lighted upon the poore snake onlie.
How those words are to be considered may appeare, in that it is of
purpose so spoken, as our weake capacities may thereby best conceive
the substance, tenor, and true meaning of the word, which is there set
downe in the manner of a tragedie, in such humane and sensible forme,
as woonderfullie informeth our understanding; though it seeme contrarie
to the spirituall course of spirits and divels, and also to the nature
and divinitie of God himselfe; who is infinite, and whome no man ever
sawe with corporall eies, and lived. And doubtles, if the serpent there
had not beene taken absolutelie, nor metaphoricallie for the divell,
the Holie-ghost would have informed us thereof in some part of that
storie. But to affirme it sometimes to be a divell, and sometimes a
snake; whereas there is no such distinction to be found or seene in the
text, is an invention and a fetch (me thinks) beyond the compasse of
all divinitie. Certeinlie the serpent was he that seduced _Eve_: now
whether it were the divell, or a snake; let anie wise man (or rather
let the word of God) judge. Doubtles the scripture in manie places
expoundeth it to be the divell. And I have (I am sure) one wiseman on
my side for the interpretation hereof, namelie _Salomon_; who saith,
Through envie[*] of the divell came death into the world: referring
that to the divell, which _Moses_ in the letter did to the serpent. But
a better expositor hereof needeth not, than the text it selfe, even in
the same place, where it is written; I will put enmitie betweene thee
and the woman, and betweene thy seed and hir seed: he shall breake
thy head, and thou shalt bruse his heele. What christian knoweth not,
that in these words the mysterie of our redemption is comprised and
promised? Wherein is not meant (as manie suppose) that the common seed
of woman shall tread upon a snakes head, and so breake it in peeces,
&c: but that speciall seed, which is Christ, should be borne of a
woman, to the utter overthrow of sathan, and to the redemption of
mankind, whose heele or flesh in his members the divell should bruse
and assault, with continuall attempts, and carnall provocations, &c.

♦Gen 3, 14, 15.♦

♦Gen. 3, 1.
1. Cor. 11. 3.♦

♦Sap. 2, 24.♦

♦[*] [= hatred]♦




The xxx. Chapter.

_The objection concerning the divels assuming of the serpents
bodie answered._


This word Serpent in holie scripture is taken for the divell: The
serpent was more subtill than all the beasts of the feeld. It likewise
signifieth such as be evill speakers, such as have slandering toongs,
also heretiks, &c: They have sharpned their toongs like serpents. It
dooth likewise betoken the death and sacrifice of Christ: As _Moses_
lifted up the serpent in the wildernesse, so must the sonne of man be
lifted up upon the crosse. Moreover, it is taken for wicked men: O yee
serpents and generation of vipers. Thereby also is signified as well
wise as a subtile man: and in that sense did Christ himselfe use it;
saieng, Be ye wise as serpents, &c. So that by this breefe collection
you see, that the word serpent, as it is equivocall, so likewise it
is sometimes taken in the good and sometimes in the evill part. But
where it is said, that the serpent was father of lies, author of death,
and the worker of deceipt: me thinks it is a ridiculous opinion to
hold, that thereby a snake is meant; which must be, if the letter be
preferred before the allegorie. Trulie _Calvines_ opinion is to be
liked and reverenced, and his example to be embraced and followed, in
that he offereth to subscribe to them that hold, that the Holie-ghost
in that place did of purpose use obscure figures, that the cleare
light thereof might be deferred, till Christs comming. He saith also
with like commendation (speaking hereof, and writing upon this place)
that _Moses_ doth accommodate and fitten for the understanding of
the common people, in a rude and grosse stile, those things which he
there delivereth; forbearing once to rehearse the name of sathan. And
further he saith, that this order may not be thought of _Moses_ his
owne devise; but to be taught him by the spirit of God: for such was
(saith he) in those daies the childish age of the church, which was
unable to receive higher or profounder doctrine. Finallie, he saith
even hereupon, that the Lord hath supplied, with the secret light of
his spirit, whatsoever wanted in plainenes and clearenes of externall
words.

♦Gen. 3, 1.♦

♦Psal. 139, 4.♦

♦Num. 8. & 9.
John. 3, 14.♦

♦Matt. 23, 33.♦

♦Matt. 10, 16.♦

♦_J. Cal. in Genes. cap. 3. 1._♦

♦_Idem ibid._♦

♦_Idem ibid._♦

♦_Idem ibid._♦

If it be said, according to experience, that certeine other beasts are
farre more subtill than the serpent: they answer, that it is not absurd
to confesse, that the same gift was taken awaie from him, by God,
bicause he brought destruction to mankind. Which is more (me thinkes)
than need be granted in that behalfe. For Christ saith not; Be yee wise
as serpents were before their transgression: but, Be wise as serpents
are. I would learne what impietie, absurditie, or offense it is to
hold, that _Moses_, under the person of the poisoning serpent or snake,
describeth the divell that poisoned _Eve_ with his deceiptfull words,
and venomous assault. Whence commeth it else, that the divell is called
so often, The viper, The serpent, &c: and that his children are called
the generation of vipers; but upon this first description of the divell
made by _Moses_? For I thinke none so grosse, as to suppose, that the
wicked are the children of snakes, according to the letter: no more
than we are to thinke and gather, that God keepeth a booke of life,
written with penne and inke upon paper; as citizens record their free
men.

♦Matt. 10, 16.♦

♦Isai. 30, 6.
Matth 3. 12. 13.
Luk. 3, &c.
Gen. 3.♦




The xxxi. Chapter.

_Of the cursse rehearsed Gen. 3. and that place rightlie expounded,
John Calvines opinion of the divell._


The cursse rehearsed by God in that place, whereby witchmongers labour
so busilie to proove that the divell entered into the bodie of a snake,
and by consequence can take the bodie of anie other creature at his
pleasure, &c: reacheth (I thinke) further into the divels matters,
than we can comprehend, or is needfull for us to know, that understand
not the waies of the divels creeping, and is farre unlikelie to extend
to plague the generation of snakes: as though they had beene made
with legs before that time, and through this cursse were deprived
of that benefit. And yet, if the divell should have entred into the
snake, in maner and forme as they suppose; I cannot see in what degree
of sinne the poore snake should be so guiltie, as that God, who is
the most righteous judge, might be offended with him. But although
I abhorre that lewd interpretation of the familie of love, and such
other heretikes, as would reduce the whole Bible into allegories:
yet (me thinkes) the creeping there is rather metaphoricallie or
significativelie spoken, than literallie; even by that figure, which
is there prosecuted to the end. Wherein the divell is resembled to
an odious creature, who as he creepeth upon us to annoie our bodies;
so doth the divell there creepe into the conscience of _Eve_, to
abuse and deceive hir: whose seed nevertheles shall tread downe and
dissolve his power and malice. And through him, all good christians (as
_Calvine_ saith) obteine power to doo the like. For we may not imagine
such a materiall tragedie, as there is described, for the ease of our
feeble and weake capacities.

♦Familie of love.♦

♦_J. Cal. lib. instit. 1. cap. 14. sect. 18._♦

For whensoever we find in the scriptures, that the divell is called
god, the prince of the world, a strong armed man, to whome is given
the power of the aier, a roring lion, a serpent, &c: the Holie-ghost
mooved us thereby, to beware of the most subtill, strong and mightie
enimie, and to make preparation, and arme our selves with faith
against so terrible an adversarie. And this is the opinion and counsell
of _Calvine_, that we seeing our owne weakenes, & his force manifested
in such termes, may beware of the divell, and may flie to God for
spirituall aid and comfort. And as for his corporall assaults, or his
attempts upon our bodies, his nightwalkings, his visible appearings,
his dansing with witches, &c: we are neither warned in the scriptures
of them, nor willed by God or his prophets to flie them; neither is
there anie mention made of them in the scriptures. And therefore
thinke I those witchmongers and absurd writers to be as grosse on the
one side, as the _Sadduces_ are impious and fond on the other; which
saie, that spirits and divels are onlie motions and affections, and
that angels are but tokens of Gods power. I for my part confesse with
_Augustine_, that these matters are above my reach and capacitie: and
yet so farre as Gods word teacheth me, I will not sticke to saie,
that they are living creatures, ordeined to serve the Lord in their
vocation. And although they abode not in their first estate, yet that
they are the Lords ministers, and executioners of his wrath, to trie
and tempt in this world, and to punish the reprobate in hell fier in
the world to come.

♦_J. Cal. li. inst. 1. cap. 14. sect. 13._♦

♦_Aug. de cura pro mort. &c._♦




The xxxii. Chapter.

_Mine owne opinion and resolution of the nature of spirits, and of
the divell, with his properties._


But to use few words in a long matter, and plaine termes in a doubtfull
case, this is mine opinion concerning this present argument. First,
that divels are spirits, and no bodies. For (as _Peter Martyr_ saith)
spirits and bodies are by antithesis opposed one to another: so as a
bodie is no spirit, nor a spirit a bodie. And that the divell, whether
he be manie or one (for by the waie you shall understand, that he is
so spoken of in the scriptures, as though there were [a]but one, and
sometimes as though [b]one were manie legions, the sense whereof I have
alreadie declared according to _Calvins_ opinion, he is a creature
made by God, and that for vengeance, as it is [c]written in _Eccl._
39. _verse._ 28: and of himselfe naught, though emploied by God to
necessarie and good purposes. For in places, where it is written,
that [d]all the creatures of God are good; and againe, when God, in
the creation of the world, [e]sawe all that he had made was good: the
divell is not comprehended within those words of commendation. For it
is written that he was a [f]murtherer from the beginning, and abode not
in the truth, bicause there is no truth in him; but when he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his owne, as being a lier, and the father of
lies, and (as _John_ saith) a sinner from the beginning. Neither was
his creation (so farre as I can find) in that weeke that God made man,
and those other creatures mentioned in _Genesis_ the first; and yet
God created him purposelie to destroie. I take his substance to be
such as no man can by learning define, nor by wisedome search out. _M.
Deering_ saith, that _Paule_ himselfe, reckoning up principalities,
powers, &c: addeth, Everie name that is named in this world, or in the
world to come. A cleere sentence (saith he) of _Paules_ modestie, in
confessing a holie ignorance of the state of angels: which name is also
given to divels in other places of the scripture. His essence also and
his forme is so proper and peculiar (in mine opinion) unto himselfe,
as he himselfe cannot alter it, but must needs be content therewith,
as with that which God hath ordeined for him, and assigned unto him,
as peculiarlie as he hath given to us our substance without power to
alter the same at our pleasures. For we find not that a spirit can
make a bodie, more than a bodie can make a spirit: the spirit of God
excepted, which is omnipotent. Nevertheles, I learne that their nature
is prone to all mischeefe: for as the verie signification of an enimie
and an accuser is wrapped up in _Sathan_ and _Diabolus_; so dooth
Christ himselfe declare him to be in the thirteenth of _Matthew_. And
therefore he brooketh well his name: for he lieth dailie in wait, not
onelie to corrupt, but also to destroie mankind; being (I saie) the
verie tormentor appointed by God to afflict the wicked in this world
with wicked temptations, and in the world to come with hell fier. But
I may not here forget how _M. Mal._ and the residue of that crew doo
expound this word _Diabolus_: for _Dia_ (saie they) is _Duo_, and
_Bolus_ is _Morsellus_; whereby they gather that the divell eateth up a
man both bodie and soule at two morselles. Whereas in truth the wicked
may be said to eate up and swallowe downe the divell, rather than the
divell to eate up them; though it may well be said by a figure, that
the divell like a roring lion seeketh whome he may devoure: which
is ment of the soule and spirituall devouring, as verie novices in
religion may judge.

♦[a] 1. Sam. 22.
Luk. 8.
John. 8.
Eph. 6.
2. Tim. 2.
1. Pet. 5.♦

♦[b] Coloss. 1, verse. 16.
1. Cor. 10.
Matth. 8, & 10.
Luke. 4.♦

♦[c] Sap. 1.
Apocal. 4.♦

♦[d] 1. Tim. 4, 4♦

♦[e] Gen. 1.♦

♦[f] Gen. 8. 44.♦

♦_P. Mart. in loc. com. 9. sect. 14._♦

♦1. Joh. 3. 8.
Isai. 54. 16.♦

♦Edw. Deering, in his read. upon the Hebr. 1. reading the 6.♦

♦Eph. 6, 12.
Col. 2, 16.
Matth. 25.♦

♦1. Pet. 5.♦

♦Idem ibid.♦

♦Matt. 25. 41.♦

♦_Mal. malef. par. 1. quæ. 5._♦

♦The etymon of the word _Diabolus_.♦




The xxxiii. Chapter.

_Against fond witchmongers, and their opinions concerning
corporall divels._


Now, how _Brian Darcies_ he spirits and shee spirits, Tittie and
Tiffin, Suckin and Pidgin, Liard and Robin, &c: his white spirits and
blacke spirits, graie spirits and red spirits, divell tode and divell
lambe, divels cat and divels dam, agree herewithall, or can stand
consonant with the word of GOD, or true philosophie, let heaven and
earth judge. In the meane time, let anie man with good consideration
peruse that booke published by _W. W._ and it shall suffice to satisfie
him in all that may be required touching the vanities of the witches
examinations, confessions, and executions: where, though the tale
be told onlie of the accusers part, without anie other answer of
theirs than their adversarie setteth downe; mine assertion will be
sufficientlie prooved true. And bicause it seemeth to be performed
with some kind of authoritie, I will saie no more for the confutation
thereof, but referre you to the booke it selfe; whereto if nothing be
added that may make to their reproch, I dare warrant nothing is left
out that may serve to their condemnation. See whether the witnesses
be not single of what credit, sex and age they are; namelie lewd,
miserable, and envious poore people; most of them which speake to anie
purpose being old women, & children of the age of 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. or 9.
yeares.

♦The booke of W. W. published, &c.♦

And note how and what the witches confesse, and see of what weight and
importance the causes are; whether their confessions be not woonne
through hope of favour, and extorted by flatterie or threats, without
proofe. But in so much as there were not past seventeene or eighteene
condemned at once at S. _Osees_ in the countie of _Essex_, being a
whole parish (though of no great quantitie) I will saie the lesse:
trusting that by this time there remaine not manie in that parish. If
anie be yet behind, I doubt not, but _Brian Darcie_ will find them out;
who, if he lacke aid, _Richard Gallis_ of _Windesor_ were meete to be
associated with him; which _Gallis_ hath set foorth another booke to
that effect, of certeine witches of _Windsore_ executed at _Abington_.
But with what impudencie and dishonestie he hath finished it, with what
lies and forgeries he hath furnished it, what follie and frensie he
hath uttered in it; I am ashamed to report: and therefore being but a
two pennie booke, I had rather desire you to buie it, and so to peruse
it, than to fill my booke with such beastlie stuffe.

♦At S. Osees 17. or 18. witches cōdemned at once.♦




The xxxiiii. Chapter.

_A conclusion wherein the Spirit of spirits is described, by
the illumination of which spirit all spirits are to be tried:
with a confutation of the Pneumatomachi flatlie denieng the
divinitie of this Spirit._


Touching the manifold signification of this word [Spirit][*] I
have elsewhere in this breefe discourse told you my mind: which is a
word nothing differing in Hebrue from breath or wind. For all these
words following; to wit, _Spiritus, Ventus, Flatus, Halitus_, are
indifferentlie used by the Holie-ghost, and called by this Hebrue word
רוח in the sacred scripture. For further proofe whereof I cite unto you
the words of _Isaie_; For his spirit (or breath) is as a river that
overfloweth up to the necke, &c: in which place the prophet describeth
the comming of God in heate and indignation unto judgement, &c. I cite
also unto you the words of _Zacharie_; These are the foure spirits of
the heaven, &c. Likewise in _Genesis_; And the spirit of GOD mooved
upon the waters. Moreover, I cite unto you the words of Christ; The
spirit (or wind) bloweth where it listeth. Unto which said places
infinite more might be added out of holie writ, tending all to this
purpose; namelie, to give us this for a note, that all the saiengs
above cited, with manie more that I could alledge, where mention is
made of spirit, the Hebrue text useth no word but one; to wit, רוח
which signifieth (as I said) _Spiritum, ventum, flatum, halitum_; which
may be Englished, Spirit, wind, blast, breath.

♦[*] [[] in text.]♦

♦Isai. 30, 28.♦

♦Zach. 6, 5.♦

♦Gen. 1, 2.♦

♦Joh. 3, 8.♦

But before I enter upon the verie point of my purpose, it shall not
be amisse, to make you acquainted with the collection of a certeine
Schoole divine, who distinguisheth and divideth this word [Spirit][A]
into six significations; saieng that it is sometimes taken for the
aier, sometimes for the wind, sometimes for the bodies of the
blessed, sometimes for the soules of the blessed, sometimes for the
power imaginative or the mind of man; and sometimes for God. Againe
he saith, that of spirits there are two sorts, some created and some
uncreated.

♦_Eras. Sarcer. in dictio. Scholast. doctr. lit. S._♦

A spirit uncreated (saith he) is God himselfe, and it is essentiallie
taken, and agreeth unto the three persons notionallie, to the Father,
the Sonne, and the Holie-ghost personallie. A spirit created is a
creature, and that is likewise of two sorts; to wit, bodilie, and
bodilesse. A bodilie spirit is also of two sorts: for some kind of
spirit is so named of spiritualnes, as it is distinguished from
bodilinesse: otherwise it is called _Spiritus á spirando, id est, á
flando_, of breathing or blowing, as the wind dooth.

A bodilesse spirit is one waie so named of spiritualnes, and then it
is taken for a spirituall substance; and is of two sorts: some make a
full and complet kind, and is called complet or perfect, as a spirit
angelicall: some doo not make a full and perfect kind, and is called
incomplet or unperfect, as the soule. There is also the spirit vitall,
which is a certeine subtill or verie fine substance necessarilie
disposing and tending unto life. There be moreover spirits naturall,
which are a kind of subtill and verie fine substances, disposing and
tending unto equall complexions of bodies. Againe there be spirits
animall, which are certeine subtill and verie fine substances disposing
and tempering the bodie, that it might be animated of the forme, that
is, that it might be perfected of the reasonable soule. Thus farre
he. In whose division you see a philosophicall kind of proceeding,
though not altogether to be condemned, yet in everie point not to be
approoved.

Now to the spirit of spirits, I meane the principall and holie spirit
of God, which one defineth or rather describeth to be the third person
in trinitie issuing from the father and the sonne, no more the charitie
dilection and love of the father and the sonne, than the father is the
charitie dilection and love of the sonne and Holie-ghost. An other
treating upon the same argument, proceedeth in this reverent manner:
The holie spirit is the vertue or power of God, quickening, nourishing,
fostering and perfecting all things: by whose onlie breathing it
commeth to passe that we both know and love GOD, and become at the
length like unto him: which spirit is the pledge and earnest pennie of
grace, and beareth witnesse unto our heart, whiles wee crie _Abba_,
Father. This spirit is called the spirit of GOD, the spirit of Christ,
and the spirit of him which raised up Jesus from the dead.

♦_Erasm. Sar. in lib. loc. & lit. prædictis._♦

♦_Laurent. à Villavicentio in phrasib. s. script. lit. S. pag. 176._♦

♦Rom. 8, 15.
2. Cor. 6, 5.♦

Jesus Christ, for that he received not the spirit by measure, but in
fulnesse, doth call it his spirit; saieng: When the comforter shall
come, whome I will send, even the holie spirit, he shall testifie of
me. This spirit hath diverse metaphoricall names attributed thereunto
in the holie scriptures. It is called by the name of water, bicause
it washeth, comforteth, moisteneth, softeneth, and maketh fruitefull
with all godlinesse and vertues the minds of men, which otherwise would
be uncleane, comfortlesse, hard, drie, and barren of all goodnesse:
wherupon the prophet _Isaie_ saith; I will powre water upon the
thirstie, and floods upon the drie ground, &c. Wherewith-all the words
of Christ doo agree; Hee that beleeveth in me, as saith the scripture,
out of his bellie shall flowe rivers of waters of life. And else where;
Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never be
more a thirst. Other places likewise there be, wherein the holie spirit
is signified by the name of water and flood: as in the 13. of _Isaie_,
the 29. of _Ezech._ the 146. _Psalme_, _&c._ The same spirit by reason
of the force and vehemencie thereof is termed fier. For it doth purifie
and cleanse the whole man from top to toe, it doth burne out the soile
and drosse of sinnes, and setteth him all in a flaming and hot burning
zeale to preferre and further God’s glorie. Which plainelie appeared in
the apostles, who when they had received the spirit, they spake fierie
words, yea such words as were uncontrollable, in so much as in none
more than in them this saieng of the prophet _Jeremie_ was verified,
_Nunquid non verba mea sunt quasi ignis?_ Are not my words even as it
were fier? This was declared and shewed by those fierie toongs, which
were seene upon the apostles after they had received the holie spirit.

♦John. 15, 26.♦

♦Isai. 44.♦

♦John. 7, 38.♦

♦John. 4, 14.♦

♦Jer. 23, 29.♦

Moreover, this spirit is called annointing, or ointment, bicause that
as in old time preests and kings were by annointing deputed to their
office and charge, and so were made fit and serviceable for the same:
even so the elect are not so much declared as renewed and made apt by
the training up of the holie spirit, both to live well and also to
glorifie God. Whereupon dependeth the saieng of _John_; And yee have
no need that anie should teach you, but as the same ointment doth
teach you. It is also called in scripture, The oile of gladnesse and
rejoising, whereof it is said in the booke of _Psalmes_; God even thy
God hath annointed thee with the oile of joy & gladnes, &c. And by
this goodlie and comfortable name of oile in the scriptures is the
mercie of God oftentimes expressed, because the nature of that doth
agree with the propertie and qualitie of this. For as oile doth flote
and swim above all other liquors, so the mercie of God doth surpasse
and overreach all his works, and the same doth most of all disclose it
selfe to miserable man.

♦1. Joh. 2, 20.♦

♦Psal. 44.♦

♦_Cyrill. in evang. Joh. lib. 3. cap. 14._♦

It is likewise called the finger of God, that is, the might and power
of God: by the vertue whereof the apostles did cast out divels; to
wit, even by the finger of God. It is called the spirit of truth,
because it maketh men true and faithfull in their vocation: and for
that it is the touchstone to trie all counterfet devises of mans
braine, and all vaine sciences, prophane practises, deceitfull arts,
and circumventing inventions; such as be in generall all sorts of
witchcrafts and inchantments, within whose number are comprehended all
those wherewith I have had some dealing in this my discoverie; to wit,
charmes or incantations, divinations, augurie, judiciall astrologie,
nativitie casting, alcumystrie, conjuration, lotshare, poperie which is
meere paltrie, with diverse other: not one wherof no nor all together
are able to stand to the triall and examination, which this spirit of
truth shall and will take of those false and evill spirits. Naie, they
shalbe found, when they are laid into the balance, to be lighter than
vanitie: verie drosse, when they once come to be tried by the fervent
heate of this spirit; and like chaffe, when this spirit bloweth upon
them, driven awaie with a violent whirlewind: such is the perfection,
integritie, and effectuall operation of this spirit, whose working as
it is manifold, so it is marvellous, and therefore may and is called
the spirit of spirits.

♦Exod. 8.♦

This spirit withdrawing it selfe from the harts of men, for that it
will not inhabit and dwell where sinne hath dominion, giveth place unto
the spirit of error and blindnesse, to the spirit of servitude and
compunction, which biteth, gnaweth, and whetteth their harts with a
deadlie hate of the gospell; in so much as it greeveth their minds and
irketh their eares either to heare or understand the truth; of which
disease properlie the phariseis of old were, and the papists even now
are sicke. Yea, the want of this good spirit is the cause that manie
fall into the spirit of perversenes and frowardnes, into the spirit of
giddinesse, lieng, drowzines, and dulnesse: according as the prophet
_Isaie_ saith; For the Lord hath covered you with a spirit of slumber,
and hath shut up your eies: and againe else-where, _Dominus miscuit in
medio, &c_: The Lord hath mingled among them the spirit of giddinesse,
and hath made _Aegypt_ to erre, as a dronken man erreth in his vomit:
as it is said by _Paule_; And their foolish hart was blinded, and God
gave them over unto their owne harts lusts. Which punishment _Moses_
threateneth unto the Jews; The Lord shall smite thee with madnesse,
with blindnesse and amazednesse of mind, and thou shalt grope at high
noone as a blind man useth to grope, &c.

♦The holie spirit can abide nothing that is carnall, and uncleane.♦

♦Isai. 29, 10.♦

♦Isai. 19, 14.♦

♦Ro. 1, 21, 23.♦

♦Deuter. 28, 28, 29.♦

In summe, this word [Spirit] dooth signifie a secret force and power,
wherewith our minds are mooved and directed; if unto holie things,
then is it the motion of the holie spirit, of the spirit of Christ and
of God: if unto evill things, then is it the suggestion of the wicked
spirit, of the divell, and of satan. Whereupon I inferre, by the waie
of a question, with what spirit we are to suppose such to be mooved, as
either practise anie of the vanities treated upon in this booke, or
through credulitie addict themselves thereunto as unto divine oracles,
or the voice of angels breakeing through the clouds? We cannot impute
this motion unto the good spirit; for then they should be able to
discerne betweene the nature of spirits, and not swarve in judgement:
it followeth therefore, that the spirit of blindnes and error dooth
seduce them; so that it is no mervell if in the alienation of their
minds they take falsehood for truth, shadowes for substances, fansies
for verities, &c: for it is likelie that the good spirit of God hath
forsaken them, or at leastwise absented it selfe from them: else would
they detest these divelish devises of men, which consist of nothing but
delusions and vaine practises, whereof (I suppose) this my booke to be
a sufficient discoverie.

♦A question.♦

♦An answer.♦

♦A great likelihood no doubt.♦

It will be said that I ought not to judge, for he that judgeth shalbe
judged. Whereto I answer, that judgement is to be understood of
three kind of actions in their proper nature; whereof the first are
secret, and the judgement of them shall apperteine to God, who in time
will disclose what so ever is done in covert, and that by his just
judgement. The second are mixed actions, taking part of hidden and part
of open, so that by reason of their uncerteintie and doubtfulnes they
are discussable and to be tried; these after due examination are to
have their competent judgement, and are incident to the magistrate. The
third are manifest and evident, and such as doo no lesse apparentlie
shew themselves than an inflammation of bloud in the bodie: and of
these actions everie private man giveth judgement, bicause they be
of such certeintie, as that of them a man may as well conclude, as
to gather, that bicause the sunne is risen in the east, _Ergo_[*] it
is morning: he is come about and is full south, _Ergo_[*] it is high
noone; he is declining and closing up in the west, _Ergo_[*] it is
evening. So that the objection is answered.

♦Judgement distinguished.♦

♦[*] [_Ital._]♦

Howbeit, letting this passe, and spirituallie to speake of this spirit,
which whiles manie have wanted, it hath come to passe that they have
prooved altogether carnall; & not savouring heavenlie divinitie have
tumbled into worsse than philosophicall barbarisme: & these be such
as of writers are called _Pneumatomachi_, a sect so injurious to the
holie spirit of God, that contemning the sentence of Christ, wherein
he foretelleth that the sinne against the holie spirit is never to be
pardoned, neither in this world nor in the world to come, they doo not
onelie denie him to be God, but also pull from him all being, and with
the _Sadduces_ mainteine there is none such; but that under and by the
name of holie spirit is ment a certeine divine force, wherewith our
minds are mooved, and the grace and favour of God whereby we are his
beloved. Against these shamelesse enimies of the holie spirit, I will
not use materiall weapons, but syllogisticall charmes. And first I will
set downe some of their paralogysmes or false arguments; and upon the
necke of them inferre fit confutations grounded upon sound reason and
certeine truth.

♦_Josias Simlerus li. 4. ca. 5. adversus veteres & novos
Antitrinitarios, &c._♦

Their first argument is knit up in this manner. The holie spirit is no
where expresselie called God in the scriptures; _Ergo_ he is not God,
or at leastwise he is not to be called God. The antecedent of this
argument is false; bicause the holie spirit hath the title or name
of God in the fift of the _Acts_. Againe, the consequent is false.
For although he were not expresselie called God, yet should it not
therupon be concluded that he is not verie God; bicause unto him are
attributed all the properties of God, which unto this doo equallie
belong. And as we denie not that the father is the true light, although
it be not directlie written of the father, but of the sonne; He was
the true light giving light to everie man that cōmeth into this world:
so likewise it is not to be denied, that the spirit is God, although
the scripture dooth not expresselie and simplie note it; sithence it
ascribeth equall things thereunto; as the properties of God, the works
of God, the service due to GOD, and that it dooth interchangeablie take
the names of Spirit and of God oftentimes. They therefore that see
these things attributed unto the holie spirit, and yet will not suffer
him to be called by the name of God; doo as it were refuse to grant
unto _Eve_ the name of _Homo_,[*] whome notwithstanding they confesse
to be a creature reasonable and mortall.

♦1. Objectiō. The scripture dooth never call the holie spirit God.♦

♦The first answer. A refutation of the antecedent, &c.♦

♦[*] [_Ital._]♦

The second reason is this. _Hilarie_ in all his twelve bookes of
the Trinitie dooth no where write that the holie spirit is to be
worshipped; he never giveth therunto the name of God, neither dares he
otherwise pronounce thereof, than that it is the spirit of God. Besides
this, there are usuall praiers of the church commonlie called the
Collects, whereof some are made to the father, some to the sonne, but
none to the holie spirit; and yet in them all mention is made of the
three persons. [*]Hereunto I answer, that although _Hilarie_ dooth
not openlie call the holie spirit, God: yet doth he constantly denie
it to be a creature. Now if any aske me why _Hilarie_ was so coie &
nice to name the holie spirit, God, whom he denieth to be a creature,
when as notwithstanding betweene God and a creature there is no meane:
I will in good sooth saie what I thinke. I suppose that _Hilarie_,
for himselfe, thought well of the godhead of the holie spirit: but
this opinion was thrust and forced upon him of the _Pneumatomachi_,
who at that time rightlie deeming of the sonne did erwhiles joine
themselves to those that were sound of judgement. There is also in the
ecclesiasticall historie a little booke which they gave _Liberius_
a bishop of _Rome_, whereinto they foisted the _Nicene_ creed. And
that _Hilarie_ was a freend of the _Pneumatomachi_, it is perceived
in his booke _De synodis_, where he writeth in this maner; _Nihil
autem mirum vobis videri debet, fratres charissimi, &c_: It ought to
seeme no wonder unto you deere brethren, &c. As for the objection of
the praiers of the church called the collects, that in them the holie
spirit is not called upon by name: we oppose and set against them the
songs of the church, wherein the said spirit is called upon. But the
collects are more ancient than the songs, hymnes, and anthems. I will
not now contend about ancientnesse, neither will I compare songs and
collects togither; but I say thus much onelie, to wit, that in the most
ancient times of the church the holie spirit hath beene openlie called
upon in the congregation. Now if I be charged to give an instance,
let this serve. In the collect upon trinitie sundaie it is thus said:
Almightie and everlasting God, which hast given unto us thy servants
grace by the confession of a truth to acknowledge the glorie of the
eternall trinitie, and in the power of the divine Majestie to worship
the unitie: we beseech thee that thorough the stedfastnesse of this
faith, we may evermore be defended from all adversitie, which livest
and reignest one God world without end. Now bicause that in this
collect, where the trinitie is expresselie called upon, the names of
persons are not expressed; but almightie and everlasting God invocated,
who abideth in trinitie and unitie; it doth easilie appeare elsewhere
also that the persons being not named, under the name of almightie and
everlasting God, not onelie the father[†] to be understood, but God
which abideth in trinitie and unitie, that is the father, the sonne,
and the Holie-ghost.

♦2. Objectiō. _Hilarie_ doth not call the spirit God, neither is he so
named in the common collects.♦

♦[*] The 2. answer.♦

♦_Hilarius lib. 12. de Triade_♦

♦The place is long, and therefore I had rather referre the reader unto
the booke than heere to insert so many lines.♦

♦_Collecta in die domin. sanctæ Trinit._♦

♦[†] [? is]♦

A third objection of theirs is this. The sonne of GOD oftentimes
praieng in the gospels, speaketh unto the father, promiseth the
holie spirit, and dooth also admonish the apostles to praie unto the
heavenlie father, but yet in the name of the sonne. Besides that, he
prescribeth them this forme of praier: Our father which art in heaven.
_Ergo_[*] the father onlie is to be called upon, and consequentlie
the father onelie is that one and verie true God, of whome it is
written; Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him onelie shalt thou
serve.

♦3. Objectiō. The spirit is not to be praied unto but the father onlie.♦

♦[*] [_Ital._]♦

[*]Whereto I answer first by denieng the consequent; The sonne
praied to the father onelie, _Ergo_[B] the father onlie is of us also
to be praied unto. For the sonne of GOD is distinguished of us both
in person and in office: he as a mediator maketh intercession for us
to the father: and although the sonne and the holie spirit doo both
togither receive and take us into favour with God; yet is he said to
intreat the father for us; bicause the father is the fountaine of all
counsels & divine works. Furthermore, touching the forme of praieng
prescribed of Christ, it is not necessarie that the fathers name shuld
personallie be there taken, sith there is no distinction of persons
made: but by the name of father indefinitelie we understand God or the
essence of God, the father, the son, and the Holie-ghost. For this name
hath not alwaies a respect unto the generation of the sonne of God;
but God is called the father of the faithfull, bicause of his gratious
and free adopting of them, the foundation whereof is the sonne of God,
in whom we be adopted: but yet so adopted, that not the father onelie
receiveth us into his favour; but with him also the sonne and the holy
spirit dooth the same. Therefore when we in the beginning of praier doo
advertise our selves of Gods goodnesse towards us; we doo not cast an
eie to the father alone, but also to the sonne, who gave us the spirit
of adoption; and to the holie spirit, in whom we crie _Abba_, Father.
And if so be that invocation and praier were restreined to the father
alone, then had the saints doone amisse, in calling upon, invocating,
and praieng to the sonne of God, and with the sonne the holy spirit,
in baptisme, according to the forme by Christ himselfe assigned and
delivered.

♦[*] 3. Answer. The consequent is denied.♦

Another objection is out of the fourth of _Amos_, in this maner. For lo
it is I that make the thunder, and create the spirit, and shew unto
men their Christ, making the light and the clouds, and mounting above
the hie places of the earth, the Lord God of hosts is his name. Now
bicause it is read in that place, Shewing unto men their Christ; the
_Pneumatomachi_ contended that these words are to be understood of the
holie spirit.

♦[Am. 4, 13.]♦

♦4. Objectiō. Amos saith that the spirit was created.♦

[*]But _Ambrose_ in his booke _De spiritu sancto, lib. 2. cap.
7._ doth rightlie answer, that by spirit in this place is ment the
wind: for if the prophets purpose and will had beene to speake of
the holie spirit, he would not have begunne with thunder, nor have
ended with light and clouds. Howbeit, the same father saith; If anie
suppose that these words are to be drawne unto the interpretation of
the holie spirit, bicause the prophet saith, Shewing unto men their
Christ; he ought also to draw these words unto the mysterie of the
Lords incarnation: and he expoundeth thunder to be the words of the
Lord, and spirit to be the reasonable and perfect soule. But the
former interpretation is certeine and convenient with the words of the
prophet, by whom there is no mention made of Christ; but the power of
God is set foorth in his works. Behold (saith the prophet) he that
formeth the mountaines, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man
what is his thought, which maketh the morning darknesse, and walketh
upon the hie places of the earth, the Lord God of hosts is his name. In
this sort _Santes_ a right skilfull man in the Hebrew toong translateth
this place of the prophet. But admit this place were written of the
holie spirit, & were not appliable either to the wind or to the
Lords incarnation: yet doth it not follow that the holie spirit is a
creature; bicause this word of Creating doth not alwaies signifie a
making of something out of nothing; as _Eusebius_ in expounding these
words (The Lord created me in the beginning of his waies) writeth thus.
The prophet in the person of God, saieng; Behold I am he that made
the thunder, and created the spirit, and shewed unto men their Christ:
this word Created is not so to be taken, as that it is to be concluded
thereby, that the same was not before. For God hath not so created the
spirit, sithence by the same he hath shewed & declared his Christ unto
all men. Neither was it a thing of late beginning under the sonne:
but it was before all beginning, and was then sent, when the apostles
were gathered togither, when a sound like thunder came from heaven,
as it had beene the comming of a mightie wind: this word Created being
used for sent downe, for appointed, ordeined, &c: and the word thunder
signifieng in another kind of maner the preaching of the gospels. The
like saieng is that of the _Psalmist_, A cleane hart create in me O
God: wherein he praied not as one having no hart, but as one that had
such a hart as needed purifieng, as needed perfecting: & this phrase
also of the scripture, That he might create two in one new man; that
is, that he might joine, couple, or gather together, &c.

♦[*] 4. Answer. Spirit in this place signifieth wind.♦

♦To create is not him to be made that was not.♦

♦_Euseb. Cæsariens. li. 3. adversus Marcellum._♦

Furthermore, the _Pneumatomachi_ by these testimonies insuing endevor
to proove the holie spirit to be a creature. Out of _John_ the 1. chap.
By this word were all things made, and without it nothing was made. Out
of 1. _Cor._ 8. Wee have one God the father, even he from whome are all
things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whome are all
things, and we by him. Out of the 1. _Coloss._ By him were all things
made, things in heaven, and things in earth, visible and invisible, &c.
Now if al things were made by the sonne, it followeth that by him the
holie spirit was also made.

♦5. Objectiō. All things were made by the son, _Ergo_ the
spirit was also made by him.♦

[*]Whereto I answer, that when all things are said to be made by
the sonne, that same universall proposition is restrained by _John_
himselfe to a certeine kind of things: Without him (saith the
evangelist) was nothing made that was made. Therefore it is first to be
shewed that the holie spirit was made, and then will we conclude out of
_John_, that if he were made, he was made of the sonne. The scripture
doth no where saie that the holie spirit was made of the father or of
the sonne, but to proceed, to come, and to be sent from them both. Now
if these universall propositions are to suffer no restraint, it shall
follow that the father was made of the sonne: than the which what is
more absurd and wicked?

♦[*] 5. Answer. Universall propositiōs or speeches are to be
restrained.♦

Againe, they object out of _Matth._ 11. None knoweth the sonne but the
father, and none the father but the sonne; to wit, of and by himselfe:
for otherwise both the angels, & to whomsoever else it shall please the
sonne to reveale the father, these doo know both the father and the
sonne. Now if so be the spirit be not equall with the father and the
sonne in knowledge, he is not onelie unequall and lesser than they, but
also no God: for ignorance is not incident unto God.

♦6. Objectiō.♦

♦The spirit knoweth not the father & the sonne.♦

[*]Whereto I answer, that where in holie scripture we doo meete with
universall propositions negative or exclusive, they are not to be
expounded of one person, so as the rest are excluded; but creatures or
false gods are to be excluded, and whatsoever else is without or beside
the essence and being of God. Reasons to proove and confirme this
interpretation, I could bring verie manie, whereof I will adde some
for example. In the seaventh of _John_ it is said; When Christ shall
come, none shall knowe from whence he is: notwithstanding which words
the Jewes thought that neither God nor his angels should be ignorant
from whence Christ should be. In the fourth to the _Galathians_; A
mans covenant or testament confirmed with authoritie no bodie dooth
abrogate, or adde anie thing thereunto. No just man dooth so; but
tyrants and truce-breakers care not for covenants. In _John_ eight;
Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the middest. And yet
it is not to be supposed that a multitude of people was not present,
and the disciples of Christ likewise; but the word _Solus_, alone, is
referred to the woman’s accusers, who withdrew themselves awaie everie
one, and departed. In the sixt of _Marke_; When it was evening, the
ship was in the middest of the sea, and he alone upon land: he was
not alone upon land or shore, for the same was not utterlie void of
dwellers: but he had not anie of his disciples with him, nor anie bodie
to carrie him a shipboord unto his disciples. Manie phrases or formes
of speeches like unto these are to be found in the sacred scriptures,
and in authors both Greeke and Latine, whereby we understand, that
neither universall negative nor exclusive particles are strictlie to
be urged, but to be explaned in such sort as the matter in hand will
beare. When as therefore the sonne alone is said to know the father,
and it is demanded whether the holie spirit is debarred from knowing
the father; out of other places of scriptures judgment is to be given
in this case. In some places the holie spirit is counted and reckoned
with the father and the sonne jointlie: wherefore he is not to be
separated. Else-where also it is attributed to the holie spirit that he
alone dooth know the things which be of God, and searcheth the deepe
secrets of God: wherefore from him the knowing of God is not to be
excluded.

♦[*] 6. Answer. How exclusive propositions or speeches are to be
interpreted.♦

They doo yet further object, that it is not convenient or fit for God
after the manner of suters to humble and cast downe himselfe: but the
holie spirit dooth so, praieng and intreating for us with unspeakeable
grones: _Rom._ 8. _Ergo_ the holie spirit is not God.

♦7. Objectiō. The spirit praieth for us.♦

[*]Whereto I answer that the holie spirit dooth praie and intreat, in
so much as he provoketh us to praie, and maketh us to grone and sigh.
Oftentimes also in the scriptures is that action or deed attributed
unto God, which we being stirred up and mooved by him doo bring to
passe. So it is said of God unto _Abraham_; Now I know that thou
fearest God: and yet before he would have sacrificed _Isaach_, God
knew the verie heart of _Abraham_: and therefore this word _Cognovi_,
I know, is as much as _Cognoscere feci_, I have made or caused to
know. And that the spirit to praie and intreat, is the same that, to
make to praie and intreat, the apostle teacheth even there, writing
that we have received the spirit of adoption, in whome we crie _Abba_
Father. Where it is manifest that it is we which crie, the Holie-ghost
provoking and forcing us thereunto.

♦[*] 7. Answer. The spirit dooth provoke us to praie.♦

Howbeit they go further, and frame this reason. Whosoever is sent,
the same is inferior and lesser than he of whome he is sent, and
furthermore he is of a comprehensible substance, bicause he passeth by
locall motion from place to place: but the holie spirit is sent of the
father and the sonne, _John._ 14, 15, & 16. It is powred foorth and
shed upon men, _Acts._ 10. _Ergo_ the holie spirit is lesser than the
Father and the Sonne, and of a comprehensible nature, and consequentlie
not verie God.

♦8. Objectiō. The spirit is sent from the father and the son.♦

[*]Whereto I answer first, that he which is sent is not alwaies
lesser than he that sendeth: to proove which position anie meane wit
may inferre manie instances. Furthermore, touching the sending of the
holie spirit, we are here to imagine no changing or shifting of place.
For if the spirit when he goeth foorth from the father and is sent,
changeth his place, then must the father also be in a place, that
he may leave it and go to another. And as for the incomprehensible
nature of the spirit, he cannot leaving his place passe unto another.
Therefore the sending of the spirit is the eternall and unvariable will
of God, to doo something by the holie spirit; and the revealing and
executing of this will by the operation and working of the spirit. The
spirit was sent to the apostles; which spirit was present with them,
sith it is present everie-where: but then according to the will of God
the father hee shewed himselfe present and powerfull.

♦[*] 8. Answer. How the spirit is sent.♦

Some man may saie; If sending be a revealing and laieng open of
presence and power, then may the father be said to be sent, bicause he
himselfe is also revealed. I answer, that when the spirit is said to be
sent, not onlie the revealing, but the order also of his revealing is
declared; bicause the will of the father and of the sonne, of whom he
is sent, going before, not in time, but in order of persons, the spirit
dooth reveale himselfe, the father, and also the sonne. The father
revealeth himselfe by others, the sonne and the holie spirit, so that
his will goeth before. Therefore sending is the common worke of all the
three persons; howbeit, for order of dooing, it is distinguished by
diverse names. The father will reveale himselfe unto men with the sonne
and the spirit, and be powerfull in them, and therefore is said to
send. The sonne and the spirit doo assent unto the will of the father,
and will that to be doone by themselves, which God will to be doone
by them; these are said to be sent. And bicause the will of the sonne
dooth go before the spirit in order of persons, he is also said to send
the spirit.

Yet for all this they allege, that if the spirit had perfection, then
would he speake of himselfe, and not stand in need alwaies of anothers
admonishment: but he speaketh not of himselfe, but speaketh what he
heareth, as Christ expresselie testifieth _John._ 16. _Ergo_ he is
unperfect, and whatsoever he hath it is by partaking, and consequentlie
he is not God.

♦9. Objectiō. The spirit speaketh not of himselfe.♦

[*]Whereto I answer, that this argument is stale: for it was objected
by heretikes long ago against them that held the true opinion, as
_Cyrill_ saith; who answereth, that by the words of Christ is rather
to be gathered, that the son and the spirit are of the same substance.
For, the spirit is named the mind of Christ. 1. _Cor._ 2: and therefore
he speaketh not of his owne proper will, or against his will in whom
and from whom he is; but hath all his will and working naturallie
proceeding from the substance as it were of him.

♦[*] The 9. answer.♦

♦_Cyrill. lib. 13. thesaur. cap. 3._♦

Lastlie they argue thus: Everie thing is either unbegotten or unborne,
or begotten and created; the spirit is not unbegotten, for then he
were the father; & so there should be two without beginning: neither is
he begotten, for then he is begotten of the father, and so there shall
be two sonnes, both brothers; or hee is begotten of the sonne, and
then shall he be Gods nephue, than the which what can be imagined more
absurd? _Ergo_ he is created.

♦10. Objection.♦

[*]Wherto I answer, that the division or distribution is unperfect:
for that member is omitted which is noted of the verie best divine that
ever was, even Jesus Christ our saviour; namelie, to have proceeded,
or proceeding: That same holie spirit (saith he) which proceedeth from
the father. Which place _Nazanzen_ dooth thus interpret. The spirit,
bicause he proceedeth from thence, is not a creature: and bicause he
is not begotten, he is not the son; but bicause he is the meane of
begotten and unbegotten, he shall be God, &c.

♦[*] 10. Ans. The spirit proceedeth♦

And thus having avoided all these cavils of the [*]_Pneumatomachi_,
a sect of heretikes too too injurious to the holie spirit, insomuch
as they seeke what they can, to rob and pull from him the right of
his divinitie; I will all Christians to take heed of their pestilent
opinions, the poison whereof though to them that be resolved in the
truth it can doo little hurt, yet to such as stand upon a wavering
point it can doo no great good. Having thus far waded against them,
and overthrowne their opinions; I must needs exhort all to whom the
reading hereof shall come, that first they consider with themselves
what a reverend mysterie all that hitherto hath beene said in this