such spectacles that grave Cato was ashamed to be present at them It would be too tedious to recite the many obscenities acted in the Pagan Worship and recorded in their own Authors I shall therefore-content my self with what S. Austin observes from the filthiness used in the Sacrifices offered to Cybele the mother of the Gods where he supposes that Scipio if his Mother were a Goddess and he were asked whether he would have such silthy spectacles as were used in the Worship of Cybele to be part likewise of his mothers honour he would certainly avow that he had rather have his Mother lye dead and senseless than to live a Goddess to hear and allow such Ribaldry and that the worst man would be ashamed to have a Mother like that Mother of the Gods But you will say to what purpose is all this Surely only to shew the intolerable Pride and Insolence of the Dark Kingdom and what delight they take not only in the gratification of their own Lusts and Passions but in rendring mankind the unhappy and miserable subjects of their contempt and scorn And he that doubts whether their envy at the practice of true goodness or their hatred of us be so great as is supposed let him but consider what Grotius speaks concerning them That they procured all the mischief they could to the worshippers of the one most high God by provoking both Magistrates and People to inflict punishments upon them For when it was lawful for Poets to sing of the Murders and Adulteries committed by their Gods and for the Epicures to take away all Divine Providence and any other Religion though never so different in Rites was allowed as the Egyptian the Phrygian the Grecian the Thuscan and the Sacred Rites of Rome even then generally the Jews alone were made ridiculous as appears by Satyrs and Epigrams written upon them and sometimes also suffered banishment And as for Christians they were afflicted with most cruel punishments No other cause whereof can be given than that both these Sects did worship one God whose honour was impeached by the multitude of such Gods as the Heathen adored who did not so much vye one with another as with him Which is evidently confirmed by that expression of our Saviour Christ in his Epistle to the Smyrnian Church Behold The Devil shall cast some of you into prison i.e. the Pagans incensed and stirred up by the old Serpent the Devil And S. Peter describes him not only by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that brings as it were an Indictment or accusation against Men before God but sets out the terribleness and destructiveness of his Nature by that of a roaring Lion walking about seeking whom he may devour CHAP. IV. That the great end of our Saviour's coming into the World was to rescue men from the Tyranny Slavery and Oppression of the Dark Kingdom THat the Apostate Prince of the Aiery Legions had miserably enslaved the World is already demonstrated nor is it at all inconsistent with the Righteous Oeconomy of Providence to suffer those to fall under his Dominion whose treacherous counsels and inspirations they so willingly hearkned to in their more happy state of life For what more warrantable piece of justice can there be than that men should taste the fruits of their own doings And since by choice and affection they listed themselves under the Government of the Devil that now they should suffer his barbarous Tyranny and Domination whether with or against their wills And I remember that Origen somewhere tells Celsus that it is no more incongruous for God to let the Devil Rule over whole Nations for some time than to suffer a Tyrant to preside over them as some of the Roman Emperors were But though this grand Usurper thought himself secure in thus Lording and Domineering over the greatest part of the World at his pleasure yet in the fulness of time a conspicuous and most remarkable Providence appeared for the rescue of mankind and the meek Lamb of God came down to break in pieces the Kingdom of Darkness to dismantle all the strong holds to reduce revolted Man to his former Fealty and Allegiance and to take into his hands the Government of the whole world That as the Apostle speaks to the Scepter of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth And that this was the design of the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour S. Iohn assures us For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil For such an effectual Engine is the Gospel where it is believed and entertained in the simplicity of it to wind off men from their adherence to the Prince of Darkness and to dethrone him from his unlimited power in the world that upon the Preaching of the Seventy Disciples whom our Lord sent forth he tells them at their return that the success they had was a Praeludium of the utter subversion of the Kingdom of Satan which should at last as perfectly vanish and disappear as lightning that leaves no print or footsteps of it self in the spacious Tracts of Heaven And the event showed the truth of things For after many cruel oppositions made by the Dark Principality Christianity so far prevailed as to become the Religion of the Roman Empire and the great Dragon that old Serpent called the Devil and Satan was cast out with his Angels neither was there place found any more in Heaven i.e. Paganism or that whole Religious worship whereby the Devil had for so many Ages abused and enthralled mankind was abolished and destroyed the Emperors becoming Christians To this purpose Grotius discourses admirably where he proves that the Miracles of our Saviour proceeded not from any evil Spirit because that the Doctrine of Christ was quite opposite and contrary to bad Spirits For it prohibits the worshipping of evil Angels and disswades men from all uncleanness of affections and manners wherein such Spirits are much delighted And this is also plain for that wheresoever the doctrine of the Gospel was received and established there followed the downfal of the worship of Daemons and of Magical Arts and one God was worshipped with a detestation of Daemons whose Power and Authority Porphyry acknowledges was broken by the coming of Christ. In a word our most Holy Iesus in all things opposed and walked exactly contrary to the Powers of Darkness chastising by his humility the pride of that great Lucifer confronting by his innocency and purity the iniquity and uncleanness of the Black Society and withdrawing abused mortals from the madness of Polytheism and Idolatry and converting their hearts to the worship of the One only true God who made Heaven and Earth So that by the coming of Christ and the propagation of his most holy Doctrine throughout the world men are brought from bondage and slavery to true liberty and
poisonous and noxious Ferments as choak the Emanations of a Divine life till at last they become wholly dead to that better principle whose actings and inspirations so long as they heeded they remained perfectly happy The experiment is every where obvious in the world and we see men by letting themselves loose to all manner of wretchedness and debauchery through the potent and enormous lasciviency of the bodily life quite lose the relish and grateful sense of true Goodness and Nobility and the edge and acuteness of their Criteria is so far taken off that they have no right discrimination between Virtue and Vice Good and Evil. And though it be true that the Angels by sinking into the brutish life have not bereaved themselves of their Reason and natural Sagacity sith that That is a kind of middle principle and always follows the prevailing part indifferently either purveying for the satisfaction of a petulant Lust or slavish Passion or else acting under the conduct and guidance of a more Celestial Nature yet have they totally extinguished that noble Faculty the flower and summity of the Souls of men and Angels which a learned person calls Boniformem animae facultatem i. e. that power in them which feels the pleasure of Righteousness and Virtue and has a natural relish and gust of true and essential goodness and being once united and conjoyned with so beautiful an object diffuses an ineffable joy and pleasure through all the capacities of the Soul Nor do we by this make God the cause and Author of sin for though it be true that the Animal faculties in Angels and men together with their respective objects be a part of God's Creation yet their sin proceeded from themselves through an undue and disharmonious connection of those principles and consists in the abuse of his Fatherly indulgence by a wilful immoderation and excess Nor will this seem strange to any that will but consider what S. Peter and S. Iude speak of the fallen Angels to give some light to which places I shall set them down in the Original 2 Pet. 2.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For if God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved into Iudgment And S. Iude after the same manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day v. 6. In which we have a plain Indication both of the sin and punishment of these lapsed Angels Their sin in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translation renders kept not their first estate but the vulgar Latin Principatum suum non servaverunt that is kept not their Principality Rule or Dominion which Interpretation says Beza is not to be rejected So that the most genuine and natural signification of the words refers to that Government or Dominion which the superior Faculties ought to have over the inferior For as in men so likewise in the Angels there is a double nature the one Intellectual and the other Animal The former of these Simplicius calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Schoolmaster or that part which is to govern and rule the other is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the boy that is to be kept under discipline and strict government within us The irrational or Animal power he says is intent only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon that which is sweet and pleasant but the Rational and Intellectual respects chiefly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is best and most profitable When therefore the Angels suffered their Despotick and Lordly Powers to be enslaved and subjected to their Animal or Brutish Faculties when instead of keeping close to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is simply and absolutely the best they pursued without bounds or measures the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the luscious pleasures resulting from Body or Matter then did they truly relinquish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Principality which God had given them and insensibly deserted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Celestial bodies for so S. Paul uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 5.2 where those Spiritual Bodies which we hope for at the Resurrection are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our house that is from Heaven which is all one with S. Iude's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the proper house building or habitation of Angels viz. their Heavenly Bodies And upon this foul revolt and Apostasie of theirs from their Primeval Glory followed their punishment which was their dejection and detrusion into the Caliginous Regions of the Air. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies nothing else but to cast down and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which is lowest whether in Earth or Air as may be seen in Homer's description of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chains of darkness are nothing but the Fetters of this thick and clammy Air within the Atmosphere of the Earth into which by the just judgment of God these rebellious Spirits are precipitated For the Air is of it self a Terrestrial stubborn and dark Element To this purpose is that of Plutarch in his Book de Homericâ Poesi where he says that Hades is the Air adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this their confinement is very consentaneously expressed by chains and bands being fotter'd here by the irrevocable Decrees of Heaven and are no more able to ascend out of the noxious Fumes of this lower World than we can flye in the spacious Tracts of Aether for those Eternal Laws which God hath placed in the Universe are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Homer speaks of Tartarus those iron gates and brazen walls that prohibit all ascent to higher and better Regions CHAP. II. That these lapsed Angels have formed themselves into a Polity or Kingdom of Darkness OUR Saviour in the Gospel makes mention of the Kingdom of Satan which supposes a Polity Society or Corporation among those wicked Spirits And this Kingdom or Government of theirs took its beginning and rise from their lapse and revolt from God at the Creation of the World when 't is most probable that some mighty Leader or Chieftain among the Orders of Angels inspired the breasts of Myriads with pernicious and rebellious counsels against God attempting to frame and erect a Principality of his own in opposition to the Soveraignty and Dominion of the Almighty and being cast out of the Mansions of Light and Happiness with all his wicked adherents for this their bold and audacious attempt of invading Heaven it self he hath notwithstanding kept so much of his ancient Grandeur as to be the Head and Prince of all those whom he drew into that Traiterous confederacy Nor is Reason wanting in her suffrage here For 1. They
freedom from tyrannical and cruel Taskmasters to the obedience of a mild and gentle Prince and from the lowest dregs of misery to the height of happiness and felicity This only true Religion saith S. Austin is of power to discover that the Gods of the Gentiles are most unclean Spirits desiring upon the occasion of some departed Souls or under the shapes of some earthly Creatures to be accounted Gods and in their proud impurity taking pleasure in Obscenities as in Divine Honours maligning the conversion of mens Souls unto the true God From whose beastly and abominable Tyranny a man then gets free when he lays his belief upon Him who by his rare example of humility declared from what height and for what pride those wicked Fiends had their fall Perhaps it may not be unpleasant now to the Reader to refresh his mind with part of a Hymn written by Synesius in honour of Iesus and thus Paraphrased upon by a learned person O lovely Child with Glory great array'd Sweet off-spring of the Solymeian maid Thee would I sing and thy renowned Acts For thou didst rid the boundless flowry Tracts Of thy dear Fathers Garden from the spoils Of the false Serpent and his treacherous toils When thou hadst once descended to this Earth A stranger wight 'mongst us of humane Birth After some stay new voyage thou didst take Crossing cold Lethe and the Stygian Lake Arriv'st at the low fields of Tartara There where innumerable flocks do stray Of captive Souls whom pale-fac'd Death doth feed Forc'd under his stiff Rod and churlish Reed Streight at thy sight how did that surly sire Old Orcus quake and greedy Dog retire From 's usual watch whilst thou from slavish chain Whole swarms of Souls to freedom dost regain Then ' ginst thou with thy Immortal Quire to praise Thy Father and his strength to Heaven to raise Ascending thus with joy as thou dost fare Through the thin skie the Legions of the Air Accursed Fiends do tremble at thy sight And Starry troops wax pale at thy pure Light CHAP. V. That though men by the Gospel are freed from that slavery under the Prince of Darkness that yet he strives to countermine the Kingdom of Light and when men will so far reject and despise the admonitions and assistances that God affords them he may justly suffer them to be acted and guided by evil Spirits THough this mighty Antagonist of Heaven be in a great measure dispossest and cast out of his Usurped Dominions by that Illustrious Heros sitting upon the white Horse as the Son of God is represented Revel 19. and his victorious Armies yet is his proud and haughty stomach no whit quelled but rather exasperated with a setled and confirmed revenge and therefore reassembling his dispersed Troops and reuniting his broken and shatter'd Forces he resolves to regain that by policy which he could no longer maintain and keep by open strength Wherefore casting and revolving in his mind many deep and direful Machinations he finds nothing offering greater plausibilities of success than to turn those Engines that so sorely batter'd his strongest holds against the possessors of them and to make the Gospel which was intended for the utter ruine and extirpation of his Kingdom to be subservient to the erecting and raising him a new Empire over mankind And now the great Prince of Darkness walks in Masquerade and puts on the beautiful Robes of an Angel of Light and appears amongst the Sons of God and raises up the depths of the accursed policies of Hell to make fruitless and of none effect the grand intent and purpose of our Lord and Saviour in the propagation of the Gospel And this he endeavours by instigating and stirring up men of bad principles and worse lives to disseminate Heresies and raise Schisms and divisions among Christians labouring to extinguish that mutual love and charity which our Lord made the badge and character of his Disciples and by degrees to bring on a general depravation and corruption in manners These are some of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the subtle machinations the thoughts and counsels of the heart of Satan And with what successfulness he hath managed these artisices let the Histories of the Christian Church in all Ages even to this very day bear witness For no sooner were the storms of persecution a little allay'd and the Sun of peace and tranquillity shone with gentle beams upon the professors of the Gospel but this Arch-enemy and deceiver was busie in sowing Tares which too soon became fruitful and grew up to a plentiful crop of Iniquity and licentious disorder It is a sad face of things that Eusebius describes speaking of the times immediately preceeding Dioclesian the last persecutor When the lives of Christians degenerated through too much liberty into softness and sloth and Christians hated and reproached one another and with those weapons of the tongue invaded and fought with one another when Bishops set upon Bishops and people raised seditions against people when hypocrisie and shews of piety filled all places then by little and little the judgments of God as they are wont began to visit us and when we used no means to appease God but multiplied sin upon sin as if God did not respect or consider our sins and so there was nothing left among Christians but contentions emulations hatred enmity ambition tyranny then c. And the succeeding times were no whit better till at length the Man of sin arose by whom the Infernal King wrought an effectual depravation of the Christian Church and revived the lively Image of Pagan Superstition and Idolatry And though Reformed Christendom have cast off that yoke of Superstition and Idolatry yet they labour under Intestine Dissentions and crumble into to Schisms and Factions and which is to be lamented even with tears of bloud provoke and exasperate nay and frequently persecute one another through a bitter and intemperate zeal for those things which all parties agree are no way essential to the Salvation of a Christian. Here one crying out zealously for Paul there another for Apollos and yonder a third for Cephas and in the mean time condemning all others that will not follow their cry as Reprobates persons only sit like unprofitable burdens to be sent out of this World to try their fortunes in the next as if there were no other way to Heaven but by joyning with this or that particular Sect and Society of men Now what are all these evils but various devices and stratagems of the Dark Kingdom to undermine the Gospel and to defeat our Lord if it were possible of the success of all the pains he took in the Redemption of the World How prosperously does the Cause of Darkness thrive when men shall damn one another for opinions and bite and devour one another for trifles When they shall profess Christianity and yet live like Heathens Now when God looks down from Heaven and beholds all those Sacred methods
is called the Prince of the Power of the Air yet is not this Power infinite and unlimited but restrained and curbed by the Kingdom of Light that is by those Holy Angels who never revolted from the Government of Heaven and whom God has made to preside over those Apostate Legions Now though the malice of these accursed Spirits be infinite and their thirst and desire to deface and spoil the fair and irreprehensible beauty of the works of Gods hands unlimited yet are they perpetually under the inspection of higher and nobler Beings who carefully preserve those severe Laws and restraints Divine Providence hath put upon them at which though their untamed hearts swell with disdain and rage yet can they not flye from And so much was confessed by the Oracle of Apollo that the Daemons who with an unwearied diligence range over Earth and Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are subdued and conquered by a Divine scourge But when men either through a fond curiosity or to gratifie their wicked Lusts and Passions shall hanker after a more intimate Familiarity and begin to tamper with these Daemons they willingly and readily offer themselves for no other end but to beguile and ensnare and at last ruine and destroy those who deserting Divine Providence had their recourse to them 2. That this Providence secures mankind from general outrages and devastations by evil Spirits So that it is not in the power of the Kingdom of Darkness to depopulate the Earth by offering violence to the inhabitants of it nor can they deluge the world thereby to destroy Man and Beast they cannot alter the fixed and established Laws of the Universe nor invert the seasons of the year For there is a chain of Government that runs down from God the Supreme Monarch whose bright and piercing eyes look through all that he has made to the lowest degree of the Creation and there are Presidential Angels of Empires and Kingdoms and such as under them have the Tutelage of private Families and lastly every mans particular Guardian Genius Nor is the inanimate or material world left to blind Chance or Fortune but there are likewise mighty and potent Spirits to whom is committed the guidance and care of the fluctuating and uncertain motions of it and by their ministry Fire and Vapour Storms and Tempests Snow and Hail Heat and Cold are all kept within such bounds and limits as are most serviceable to the ends of Providence They take care of the variety of seasons and superintend the Tillage and Fruits of the Earth upon which account Origen calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invisible Husbandmen So that all affairs and things being under the inspection and government of these Incorporeal Beings the power of the Dark Kingdom and its Agents is under a strict confinement and restraint and they cannot bring a general mischief upon the world without a special permission of a superior Providence 3. That the exploits of wicked Spirits upon particular persons may be permitted for diverse good causes and reasons As 1. To humble them for some sin as in the case of those grievous and notorious sinners in the Apostolical time who were delivered up to Satan it is said they were vexed and tormented by bodily pains and diseases inflicted by those evil Spirits and that to bring them to a sincere repentance and reformation of their Errors But without any such judicial proceeding this envious Explorator or searcher for faults when in his walk or ranging to and fro upon the Earth he meets with a Christian professor or pious person fallen into sin then he is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the case of S. Peter Luke 22. 31. to require him of God demands to have him delivered up to him for every sin gives the Devil a more or less right and claim as to a Lictor or Executioner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sift and shake him terribly sometimes by real possessions or otherwise bodily infestations and the crafty Spirit may at the same time gratifie the impotent revenge of an accursed Hag. To this purpose it is observable what Doctor Hammond recites out of the Hierusalem Targum on Gen. 2.14 supposed to be said to the Serpent by God Cùm silii mulieris praecepta legis deserverint nec mandata observaverint tu i.e. the Serpent firmus cris percutiens eos in calcaneo eorum aegritudine afficies When the children of the woman shall for sake the commandments of the law thou shalt be strong and shalt strike them on the heel and inflict sickness upon them 2. To try their faith and patience as in the case of Iob upon whom the envious Tempter laid fore afflictions to battle if he could his faith in the Divine Goodness And Lactantius notes that these impure Daemons insinuant se corporibus hominum occultè in visceribus operti valetudinem vitiant morbos citant somniis animos terrent mentes furoribus quatiunt ut homines his malis cogant ad eorum auxilia decurrere i. e. insinuate themselves into the bodies of men and lying hid in their bowels annoy their health raise diseases terrifie their minds with dreams and shake them with madness that they may compel them by these mischiefs to flye to them for help But Origen says expresly that there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certain Daemons which may be called the publick Lictors or Officers which have at certain times a power committed to them to inflict Famines Droughts and Pestilences either for the conversion of men from sin and vice or for the trial of their Faith Patience and Constancy And how consistent it is with Divine Providence and agreeable with the wisdom and goodness of God to suffer these fallacious Spirits to vex and disquiet mankind is elegantly pursued by the forecited Lactantius viz. That this diversity contains the Grand secret of the world For this is it that makes Virtue which without this would be so far from being that it would not so much as appear forasmuch as Virtue cannot be unless there be some Rival in the overcoming of whom it may exert and shew its strength For as victory cannot be gained without a fight neither can Virtue consist without an Enemy Since then God has given Virtue to man he hath likewise on the contrary appointed him an Enemy lest Virtue languishing in idleness should lose its Nature Whose very Reason lies in this That it may be confirmed and strengthened by being shaken and enfeebled nor can it any other way arrive to the highest pitch unless being always tost by a detruding hand it found its safety in a constant course of contending For God would not have man attain Immortal Blessedness by easiness and softness He therefore being about to give Virtue gave an Enemy first who should instil Lusts and Vices into the minds of men who should be the Author of errors and the contriver of all mischiefs that where as God