particular, supposed, good, to the supreme and utmost end; but suffered their will to dwell in an end of their own: and, by this means, did put themselves into the place of God; not regulating their wills by another superior, but making their will the rule of their own desires; which was, in effect, to affect an equality with the Highest. Not that their ambition went so high, as to aspire to a height of goodness or greatness, equal to their Infinite Creator: this, as the great Leader of the School hath determined it, could not fall into any intelligent nature, since it were no other, than to affect his own not-being; forasmuch as there can be no being at all, without a distinction of degrees, and subordination of beings.

This was, I suppose, the threshold of leaving their first estate. Now it was with angelical spirits, as it is with heavy bodies when they began to fall, they went down at once; speedily passing through many degrees of wickedness. Let learned Gerson see upon what grounds he conceives, that, in the beginning, their sin might be venial; afterwards, arising to the height of maliciousness: whom Salmeron seconds by seven reasons, alledged to that purpose; labouring to prove, that, before their precipitation, they had large time and place of repentance. The point is too high for any human determination this we know too well by ourselves, that even the will of man, when it is once let loose to sin, finds no stay; how much more of those active spirits, which, by reason of their simple and spiritual nature, convert themselves wholly to what they do incline!

What were the particular grounds of their defection and ruin? what was their first sin? it is neither needful, nor possible to know. I see the wrecks of this curiosity in some of the ancients; who, misguiding themselves by a false compass of misapplied texts, have split upon those shelves, which their miscarriage shall teach me to avoid. If they have made Lucifer, (that is, the morning star) a Devil; and mistake the King of Babylon (Isaiah xiv. 12.) for the Prince of Darkness, as they have palpably done; I dare not follow them. Rather let me spend my thoughts, in wondering at the dreadful justice, and the incomprehensible mercy, of our Great and Holy God; who, having cast these Apostate Angels into hell, and reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the Judgment of the Great Day, hath yet graciously found out a way to redeem miserable mankind from that horrible pit of destruction. It is not for me, to busy myself in finding out reasons of difference, for the aggravation of the sin of angels, and abatement of man's; as, that sin began in them, they were their own tempters; that they sinned irreparably, since their fall was to them as death is to us: however it were, Cursed be the man, who shall say, that the sin of any creature exceeds the power

of thy mercy, O God, which is no other than thyself, infinite. While, therefore, I lay one hand upon my mouth, I lift up other in a silent wonder, with the Blessed Apostle, and say, How unsearchable are thy judgments, and thy ways past finding

out! Rom. xi. 33.

SECT. II.

OF THE NUMBER OF APOSTATE SPIRITS.

WHO can but tremble, to think of the dreadful precipice of these damned angels; which, from the highest pitch of heaven, were suddenly thrown down into the dungeon of the nethermost hell? Who can but tremble, to think of their Number, Power, Malice, Cunning, and deadly Machinations?

Had this defection been single, yet it had been fearful: should but one star fall down from heaven, with what horror do we think of the wreck, that would ensue to the whole world! how much more, when the Great Dragon draws down the third part of the stars with his tail! And, lo, these angels were as so many spiritual stars in the firmament of glory. It was here, as in the rebellion of great peers, the common sort are apt to take part in any insurrection.

There are orders and degrees, even in the region of confusion we have learned of our Saviour to know there is a devil and his angels; and Jewish tradition hath told us of a Prince of Devils.

It was in all likelihood, some prime angel of heaven, that first started aside from his station, and led the ring of this highest and first revolt: millions sided with him, and had their part both in his sin and punishment.

Now, how formidable is the Number of these evil and hostile spirits! Had we the eyes of that holy hermit, for such the first were, we might see the air full of these malignant spirits, laying snares for miserable mankind. And, if the possessors of one poor demoniac could style themselves Legion; a name, that, in the truest account, contains no less than ten cohorts, and every cohort fifty companies, and every company twentyfive soldiers, to the number of one thousand two hundred and twenty-five: what an army of these hellish fiends do we suppose is that, wherewith whole mankind is beleaguered, all the world over! Certainly, no man living, as Tertullian and Nissen have too truly observed, can, from the very hour of his nativity to the last minute of his dissolution, be free from one of these spiritual assailants; if not many, at once. The ejected spirit returns to his former assault with seven worse than himself.

Even where there is equality of power, inequality of number must needs be a great advantage: a Hercules himself is no

match for two antagonists. Yea, were their strength much less than ours, if we be but as a flock of goats feeding upon the hills, when the evil spirits, as the Midianites and Amalekites were against Israel, are like grasshoppers in the valley; what hope, what possibility were there, if we were left in our own hands, for safety or prevalence?

But now, alas, their number is great; but their power is more. Even these evil angels are styled, by him, that knew them, no less than Principalities and Powers, and Rulers of the Darkness of this World, and Spiritual Wickednesses in heavenly places. They lost not their strength, when they left their station. It is the rule of Dionysius, too true I fear, That in the Reprobate Angels their natural abilities still hold. No other than desperate, therefore, were the condition of whole mankind, if we were turned loose into the lists, to grapple with these mighty spirits.

Courage, O my soul; and, together with it, victory. Let thine eyes be but open, as Gehazi's, and thou shalt see more with us than against us. One good angel is able to chase whole troops of these malignant: for, though their natural powers, in regard of the substance of them, be still retained; yet, in regard of the exercise and execution of them they are abated, and restrained by the over-ruling order of divine justice and mercy; from which, far be that infinite incongruity, that evil should prevail above good. The same God, therefore, who so disposeth the issue of these human contentions, that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, cowardiseth and daunteth these mighty and insolent spirits; so as they cannot stand before one of these glorious angels; nor prevail any further, than his most wise providence hath contrived to permit, for his own most holy purposes.

However yet we be, upon these grounds, safe in the good hands of the Almighty; and of those his blessed guardians, to whom he hath committed our charge: yet, it well befits us, to take notice of those powerful executions of the evil angels, which it pleaseth the great Arbiter of the World to give way unto; that we may know what cause we have, both of vigilance and gratitude.

SECT. III.

OF THE POWER OF DEVILS.

No dwarf will offer to wrestle with a giant.

It is an argu

ment of no small Power, as well as boldness of that proud spirit,

b Naturalia in Damnatis Angelis manent splendidissima.

C

The original has "God:" but I suspect it is an error of the press for "good."-PRATT.

:

that he durst strive with Michael the archangel: and though he were then foiled in the conflict, yet he ceaseth not still to oppose his hierarchy to the celestial; and, not there prevailing, he pours out his tyranny, where he is suffered, on this inferior world one while, fetching down fire from heaven, which the messenger called the fire of God, upon the flocks and shepherds of Job, Job i. 16; another while, blustering to the air, with hurrying winds and furious tempests, breaking down the strongest towers and turning up the stoutest oaks, tearing asunder the hardest rocks and rending of the tops of the firmest mountains one while, swelling up the raging sea to sudden inundations; another while, causing the earth to totter and tremble under our feet.

Would we descend to the particular demonstrations of the powerful operations of evil spirits, this discourse would have no end.

If we do but cast our eyes upon Jannes and Jambres, the Egyptian Sorcerers, (in whom we have formerly instanced in another treatise, to this purpose) we shall see enough to wonder at. How close did they, for a time, follow Moses at the heels; imitating those miraculous works, which God had appointed and enabled him to do for Pharaoh's conviction! Had not the faith of that worthy servant of God been invincible, how blank must he needs have looked, to see his great works patterned by those presumptuous rivals! Doth Moses turn his rod into a serpent? every of their rods crawleth, hisseth, as well as his. Doth he smite the waters into blood? their waters are instantly as bloody as his. Doth he fetch frogs out of Nilus into Pharaoh's bed-chamber and bosom, and into the ovens and kneading-troughs of his people? they can store Egypt with loathsome cattle, as well as he.

All this while, Pharaoh knows no difference of a god; and hardly yields, whether Jannes or Moses be the better man; although he might easily have decided it, out of the very acts done he saw Moses his serpent devoured theirs; so as now there was neither serpent nor rod; and, while they would be turning their rod into a serpent, both rod and serpent were lost in the serpent, which returned into a rod: he saw that those sorcerers, who had brought the frogs, could not remove them; and, soon after, sees those jugglers, who pretended to make serpents, blood, frogs, cannot, when God pleaseth to restrain them, make so much as a louse.

But, supposing the sufferance of the Almighty, who knows what limits to prescribe to these infernal powers? They can beguile the senses, mock the phantasy, work strongly by philtres upon the affections, assume the shapes of man or beast, inflict grievous torment on the body, convey strange things insensibly into it, transport it from place to place in quick mo

tions, cause no less sudden disparitions of it, heal diseases by charms and spells, frame hideous apparitions, and, in short, by applying active powers to passive subjects, they can produce wonderful effects; each of all which were easy to be instanced in whole volumes, if it were needful, out of history and experience.

Who then, O God, who is able to stand before these sons of Anak? what are we, in such hands? O match desperately unequal, of weakness with power, flesh with spirit, man with devils!

Away with this cowardly diffidence. Cheer up thyself, O my soul, against these heartless fears; and know, the advantage is on thy side. Could Samson have been firmly bound hand and foot by the Philistine cords, so as he could not have stirred those mighty limbs of his, what boy or girl of Gath or Ascalon would have feared to draw near, and spurn that awed champion? No other is the condition of our dreadful enemies : they are fast bound up with the adamantine chains of God's most merciful and inviolable decree; and forcibly restrained from their desired mischief. Who can be afraid of a muzzled and tied-up mastiff? What woman or child cannot make faces at a fierce lion, or a bloody Bajazet, locked up fast in an iron grate?

Were it not for this strong and strait curb of Divine Providence, what good man could breathe one minute upon earth? The Demoniac in the Gospel could break his iron fetters in pieces, through the help of his legion: those devils, that possessed him, could not break theirs: they are fain to sue for leave to enter into swine; neither had obtained it, in all likelihood, but for a just punishment to those Gadarene owners. How sure may we then be, that this just hand of Omnipotence will not suffer these evil ones, to tyrannize over his chosen vessels, for their hurt! How safe are we, since their power is limited, our protection infinite!

SECT. IV.

OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND MALICE OF WICKED SPIRITS.

WHO can know how much he is bound to God for safeguard, if he do not apprehend the quality of those enemies, wherewith he is encompassed? whose Knowledge, and Skill, is no whit inferior to their power. They have not the name of Dæmons for nothing: their natural knowledge was not forfeited by their fall: the wisdom of the Infinite Giver of it knows how rather, to turn it to the use of his own glory. However, therefore, they are kept off from those divine illuminations, which the

VOL. VIII.

Ob scientiam nominati. Aug. 1. ix. de Civ. Dei.

D d