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

b Naturalia in Damnatis Angelis manent splendidissima.

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 d 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

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

VOL. VIII.

D d

good angels receive from God; yet they must needs be granted to have such a measure of knowledge, as cannot but yield them a formidable advantage. For, as spirits, being not stripped of their original knowledge together with their glory, they cannot but know the natures and constitutions of the creatures; and, thereby, their tempers, dispositions, inclinations, conditions, faculties; and, therewith, their wants, their weakness, and obnoxiousness; and, thereupon, strongly conjecture at their very thoughts and intentions, and the likelihood of their repulses or prevailings out of the knowledge of the causes of things, they can foresee such future events, as have a dependance thereon. To which, if we shall add the improvement, which so many thousand years' experience can yield to active and intelligent spirits, together with the velocity of their motions, and the concurrent intelligence which those powers of darkness hold with each other, we shall see cause enough to disparage our own simplicity, to tremble at our own danger, and to bless God for our indemnity.

But if, unto all these, we shall take notice of their Malice, no whit inferior to their power and knowledge, we cannot but be transported with wonder at our infinite obligations to the Blessed Majesty of Heaven, who preserves us from the rage of so spiteful, cunning, mighty enemies. Satan carries hostility in his very name; and, answerably, in his wicked nature: hostility to the God that made him, as the avenger of his sin; hostility, for his sake, to the creature, which that God made good: his enmity did, as himself, descend from the Highest, for it began at the Almighty; and remains, as implacable, as impotent.

It is a bold and uncouth story, and scarce safe to relate, which I find, in the Book of Conformity, reported, as recited by a demoniac woman, from the mouth of a certain friar, named Jacobus de Pozali, in his Sermon: That St. Macarius once went about to make peace betwixt God and Satan: that it pleased God to say, "If the Devil will acknowledge his fault, I will pardon him:" to which the Evil Spirit returned answer, "I will never acknowledge any fault of mine; yea, that crucified Saviour should rather cry me mercy for keeping me thus long in hell" to whom Macarius said, as he well might, Avoid, Satan." I know not whether more to blame their Saint, if they report him right, for too much charity, or for too little grace and wit, in so presumptuous an endeavour. The very treaty was in him blasphemous; the answer, no other than could be expected from a spirit, obdured in malice, and desperate in that obduredness.

The truth is, he hates us, because he hated God first; and, like the enraged panther, tears the picture, because he cannot reach the person whom it represents.

He, that made him an angel, tells us what he is; since he made himself a devil, even a manslayer from the beginning. His very trade is murder and destruction; and his executions unweariable: he goes about continually, like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

It is no other, than a marvellous mystery of divine state, too deep for the shallowness of human souls to reach into, that God could, with one word of his powerful command, destroy and dissolve all the powers of hell; yet he knows it best not to do it only we know he hath a justice to glorify, as well as a mercy; and, that he knows how to fetch more honour to himself, by drawing good out of evil, than by the amotion and prevention of evil. Glory be to that infinite power, justice, mercy, providence, that contrives all things, both in heaven and earth, and hell, to the highest advantage of his own Blessed Name, and to the greatest benefit of his elect.

SECT. V.

THE VARIETY OF THE SPIRITUAL ASSAULTS OF EVIL SPIRITS.

OUT of this hellish mixture of Power, Skill, Malice, do proceed all the deadly Machinations of these Infernal Spirits; which have enlarged their kingdom, and furnished the pit of destruction.

It was a great word of the Chosen Vessel, We are not ignorant of Satan's devices; 2 Cor. ii. 11. O Blessed Apostle, thy illuminated soul, which saw the height of heaven, might also see the depth of hell: our weak eyes are not able to pierce so low.

That Satan is full of crafty devices, we know too well; but, what those devices are, is beyond our reach. Alas, we know not the secret projects of silly men, like ourselves: yea, who knows the crooked windings of his own heart? much less can we hope to attain unto the understanding of these infernal plots and stratagems; such knowledge is too wonderful for us: our clew hath not line enough to fathom these depths of Satan. But, though we be not able possibly to descry those infinite and hidden particularities of diabolical art and cunning; yet our woeful experience, and observation, hath taught us some general heads of these mischievous practices: divers whereof I ám not unwilling to learn and borrow of that great Master of Meditation, Gerson, the learned Chancellor of Paris, a man singularly acquainted with temptations.

Öne while, therefore, that Evil One lays before us the incommodities, dangers, wants, difficulties of our callings; to dishearten us, and draw us to impatience and listlessness; and,