<h2><SPAN name="link2HCH0045" id="link2HCH0045"></SPAN> CHAPTER XLV.<br/>OF DAEMONOLOGY, AND OTHER RELIQUES OF THE RELIGION OF THE GENTILES </h2>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0655" id="link2H_4_0655"></SPAN> The Originall Of Daemonology </h3>
<p>The impression made on the organs of Sight, by lucide Bodies, either in
one direct line, or in many lines, reflected from Opaque, or refracted in
the passage through Diaphanous Bodies, produceth in living Creatures, in
whom God hath placed such Organs, an Imagination of the Object, from
whence the Impression proceedeth; which Imagination is called Sight; and
seemeth not to bee a meer Imagination, but the Body it selfe without us;
in the same manner, as when a man violently presseth his eye, there
appears to him a light without, and before him, which no man perceiveth
but himselfe; because there is indeed no such thing without him, but onely
a motion in the interiour organs, pressing by resistance outward, that
makes him think so. And the motion made by this pressure, continuing after
the object which caused it is removed, is that we call Imagination, and
Memory, and (in sleep, and sometimes in great distemper of the organs by
Sicknesse, or Violence) a Dream: of which things I have already spoken
briefly, in the second and third Chapters.</p>
<p>This nature of Sight having never been discovered by the ancient
pretenders to Naturall Knowledge; much lesse by those that consider not
things so remote (as that Knowledge is) from their present use; it was
hard for men to conceive of those Images in the Fancy, and in the Sense,
otherwise, than of things really without us: Which some (because they
vanish away, they know not whither, nor how,) will have to be absolutely
Incorporeall, that is to say Immateriall, of Formes without Matter; Colour
and Figure, without any coloured or figured Body; and that they can put on
Aiery bodies (as a garment) to make them Visible when they will to our
bodily Eyes; and others say, are Bodies, and living Creatures, but made of
Air, or other more subtile and aethereall Matter, which is, then, when
they will be seen, condensed. But Both of them agree on one generall
appellation of them, DAEMONS. As if the Dead of whom they Dreamed, were
not Inhabitants of their own Brain, but of the Air, or of Heaven, or Hell;
not Phantasmes, but Ghosts; with just as much reason, as if one should
say, he saw his own Ghost in a Looking-Glasse, or the Ghosts of the Stars
in a River; or call the ordinary apparition of the Sun, of the quantity of
about a foot, the Daemon, or Ghost of that great Sun that enlighteneth the
whole visible world: And by that means have feared them, as things of an
unknown, that is, of an unlimited power to doe them good, or harme; and
consequently, given occasion to the Governours of the Heathen
Common-wealths to regulate this their fear, by establishing that
DAEMONOLOGY (in which the Poets, as Principal Priests of the Heathen
Religion, were specially employed, or reverenced) to the Publique Peace,
and to the Obedience of Subjects necessary thereunto; and to make some of
them Good Daemons, and others Evill; the one as a Spurre to the
Observance, the other, as Reines to withhold them from Violation of the
Laws.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0656" id="link2H_4_0656"></SPAN> What Were The Daemons Of The Ancients </h3>
<p>What kind of things they were, to whom they attributed the name of
Daemons, appeareth partly in the Genealogie of their Gods, written by
Hesiod, one of the most ancient Poets of the Graecians; and partly in
other Histories; of which I have observed some few before, in the 12.
Chapter of this discourse.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0657" id="link2H_4_0657"></SPAN> How That Doctrine Was Spread </h3>
<p>The Graecians, by their Colonies and Conquests, communicated their
Language and Writings into Asia, Egypt, and Italy; and therein, by
necessary consequence their Daemonology, or (as St. Paul calles it) “their
Doctrines of Devils;” And by that meanes, the contagion was derived also
to the Jewes, both of Judaea, and Alexandria, and other parts, whereinto
they were dispersed. But the name of Daemon they did not (as the
Graecians) attribute to Spirits both Good, and Evill; but to the Evill
onely: And to the Good Daemons they gave the name of the Spirit of God;
and esteemed those into whose bodies they entred to be Prophets. In summe,
all singularity if Good, they attributed to the Spirit of God; and if
Evill, to some Daemon, but a kakodaimen, an Evill Daemon, that is, a
Devill. And therefore, they called Daemoniaques, that is, possessed by the
Devill, such as we call Madmen or Lunatiques; or such as had the Falling
Sicknesse; or that spoke any thing, which they for want of understanding,
thought absurd: As also of an Unclean person in a notorious degree, they
used to say he had an Unclean Spirit; of a Dumbe man, that he had a Dumbe
Devill; and of John Baptist (Math. 11. 18.) for the singularity of his
fasting, that he had a Devill; and of our Saviour, because he said, hee
that keepeth his sayings should not see Death In Aeternum, (John 8. 52.)
“Now we know thou hast a Devill; Abraham is dead, and the Prophets are
dead:” And again, because he said (John 7. 20.) “They went about to kill
him,” the people answered, “Thou hast a Devill, who goeth about to kill
thee?” Whereby it is manifest, that the Jewes had the same opinions
concerning Phantasmes, namely, that they were not Phantasmes that is,
Idols of the braine, but things reall, and independent on the Fancy.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0658" id="link2H_4_0658"></SPAN> Why Our Saviour Controlled It Not </h3>
<p>Which doctrine if it be not true, why (may some say) did not our Saviour
contradict it, and teach the Contrary? nay why does he use on diverse
occasions, such forms of speech as seem to confirm it? To this I answer,
that first, where Christ saith, “A Spirit hath not flesh and bone,” though
hee shew that there be Spirits, yet he denies not that they are Bodies:
And where St. Paul sais, “We shall rise Spirituall Bodies,” he
acknowledgeth the nature of Spirits, but that they are Bodily Spirits;
which is not difficult to understand. For Air and many other things are
Bodies, though not Flesh and Bone, or any other grosse body, to bee
discerned by the eye. But when our Saviour speaketh to the Devill, and
commandeth him to go out of a man, if by the Devill, be meant a Disease,
as Phrenesy, or Lunacy, or a corporeal Spirit, is not the speech improper?
can Diseases heare? or can there be a corporeall Spirit in a Body of Flesh
and Bone, full already of vitall and animall Spirits? Are there not
therefore Spirits, that neither have Bodies, nor are meer Imaginations? To
the first I answer, that the addressing of our Saviours command to the
Madnesse, or Lunacy he cureth, is no more improper, then was his rebuking
of the Fever, or of the Wind, and Sea; for neither do these hear: Or than
was the command of God, to the Light, to the Firmament, to the Sunne, and
Starres, when he commanded them to bee; for they could not heare before
they had a beeing. But those speeches are not improper, because they
signifie the power of Gods Word: no more therefore is it improper, to
command Madnesse, or Lunacy (under the appellation of Devils, by which
they were then commonly understood,) to depart out of a mans body. To the
second, concerning their being Incorporeall, I have not yet observed any
place of Scripture, from whence it can be gathered, that any man was ever
possessed with any other Corporeal Spirit, but that of his owne, by which
his body is naturally moved.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0659" id="link2H_4_0659"></SPAN> The Scriptures Doe Not Teach That Spirits Are Incorporeall </h3>
<p>Our Saviour, immediately after the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the
form of a Dove, is said by St. Matthew (Chapt. 4. 1.) to have been “led up
by the Spirit into the Wildernesse;” and the same is recited (Luke 4. 1.)
in these words, “Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, was led in the Spirit
into the Wildernesse;” Whereby it is evident, that by Spirit there, is
meant the Holy Ghost. This cannot be interpreted for a Possession: For
Christ, and the Holy Ghost, are but one and the same substance; which is
no possession of one substance, or body, by another. And whereas in the
verses following, he is said “to have been taken up by the Devill into the
Holy City, and set upon a pinnacle of the Temple,” shall we conclude
thence that hee was possessed of the Devill, or carryed thither by
violence? And again, “carryed thence by the Devill into an exceeding high
mountain, who shewed him them thence all the Kingdomes of the world:”
herein, wee are not to beleeve he was either possessed, or forced by the
Devill; nor that any Mountaine is high enough, (according to the literall
sense,) to shew him one whole Hemisphere. What then can be the meaning of
this place, other than that he went of himself into the Wildernesse; and
that this carrying of him up and down, from the Wildernesse to the City,
and from thence into a Mountain, was a Vision? Conformable whereunto, is
also the phrase of St. Luke, that hee was led into the Wildernesse, not
By, but In the Spirit: whereas concerning His being Taken up into the
Mountaine, and unto the Pinnacle of the Temple, hee speaketh as St.
Matthew doth. Which suiteth with the nature of a Vision.</p>
<p>Again, where St. Luke sayes of Judas Iscariot, that “Satan entred into
him, and thereupon that he went and communed with the Chief Priests, and
Captaines, how he might betray Christ unto them:” it may be answered, that
by the Entring of Satan (that is the Enemy) into him, is meant, the
hostile and traiterous intention of selling his Lord and Master. For as by
the Holy Ghost, is frequently in Scripture understood, the Graces and good
Inclinations given by the Holy Ghost; so by the Entring of Satan, may bee
understood the wicked Cogitations, and Designes of the Adversaries of
Christ, and his Disciples. For as it is hard to say, that the Devill was
entred into Judas, before he had any such hostile designe; so it is
impertinent to say, he was first Christs Enemy in his heart, and that the
Devill entred into him afterwards. Therefore the Entring of Satan, and his
Wicked Purpose, was one and the same thing.</p>
<p>But if there be no Immateriall Spirit, nor any Possession of mens bodies
by any Spirit Corporeall, it may again be asked, why our Saviour and his
Apostles did not teach the People so; and in such cleer words, as they
might no more doubt thereof. But such questions as these, are more
curious, than necessary for a Christian mans Salvation. Men may as well
aske, why Christ that could have given to all men Faith, Piety, and all
manner of morall Vertues, gave it to some onely, and not to all: and why
he left the search of naturall Causes, and Sciences, to the naturall
Reason and Industry of men, and did not reveal it to all, or any man
supernaturally; and many other such questions: Of which neverthelesse
there may be alledged probable and pious reasons. For as God, when he
brought the Israelites into the Land of Promise, did not secure them
therein, by subduing all the Nations round about them; but left many of
them, as thornes in their sides, to awaken from time to time their Piety
and Industry: so our Saviour, in conducting us toward his heavenly
Kingdome, did not destroy all the difficulties of Naturall Questions; but
left them to exercise our Industry, and Reason; the Scope of his
preaching, being onely to shew us this plain and direct way to Salvation,
namely, the beleef of this Article, “that he was the Christ, the Son of
the living God, sent into the world to sacrifice himselfe for our Sins,
and at his comming again, gloriously to reign over his Elect, and to save
them from their Enemies eternally:” To which, the opinion of Possession by
Spirits, or Phantasmes, are no impediment in the way; though it be to some
an occasion of going out of the way, and to follow their own Inventions.
If wee require of the Scripture an account of all questions, which may be
raised to trouble us in the performance of Gods commands; we may as well
complaine of Moses for not having set downe the time of the creation of
such Spirits, as well as of the Creation of the Earth, and Sea, and of
Men, and Beasts. To conclude, I find in Scripture that there be Angels,
and Spirits, good and evill; but not that they are Incorporeall, as are
the Apparitions men see in the Dark, or in a Dream, or Vision; which the
Latines call Spectra, and took for Daemons. And I find that there are
Spirits Corporeal, (though subtile and Invisible;) but not that any mans
body was possessed, or inhabited by them; And that the Bodies of the
Saints shall be such, namely, Spirituall Bodies, as St. Paul calls them.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0660" id="link2H_4_0660"></SPAN> The Power Of Casting Out Devills, Not The Same It Was In The Primitive Church </h3>
<p>Neverthelesse, the contrary Doctrine, namely, that there be Incorporeall
Spirits, hath hitherto so prevailed in the Church, that the use of
Exorcisme, (that is to say, of ejection of Devills by Conjuration) is
thereupon built; and (though rarely and faintly practised) is not yet
totally given over. That there were many Daemoniaques in the Primitive
Church, and few Mad-men, and other such singular diseases; whereas in
these times we hear of, and see many Mad-men, and few Daemoniaques,
proceeds not from the change of Nature; but of Names. But how it comes to
passe, that whereas heretofore the Apostles, and after them for a time,
the Pastors of the Church, did cure those singular Diseases, which now
they are not seen to doe; as likewise, why it is not in the power of every
true Beleever now, to doe all that the Faithfull did then, that is to say,
as we read (Mark 16. 17.) “In Christs name to cast out Devills, to speak
with new Tongues, to take up Serpents, to drink deadly Poison without harm
taking, and to cure the Sick by the laying on of their hands,” and all
this without other words, but “in the Name of Jesus,” is another question.
And it is probable, that those extraordinary gifts were given to the
Church, for no longer a time, than men trusted wholly to Christ, and
looked for their felicity onely in his Kingdome to come; and consequently,
that when they sought Authority, and Riches, and trusted to their own
Subtilty for a Kingdome of this world, these supernaturall gifts of God
were again taken from them.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0661" id="link2H_4_0661"></SPAN> Another Relique Of Gentilisme, Worshipping Images, Left In The Church, Not Brought Into It </h3>
<p>Another relique of Gentilisme, is the Worship of Images, neither
instituted by Moses in the Old, nor by Christ in the New Testament; nor
yet brought in from the Gentiles; but left amongst them, after they had
given their names to Christ. Before our Saviour preached, it was the
generall Religion of the Gentiles, to worship for Gods, those Apparences
that remain in the Brain from the impression of externall Bodies upon the
organs of their Senses, which are commonly called Ideas, Idols,
Phantasmes, Conceits, as being Representations of those externall Bodies,
which cause them, and have nothing in them of reality, no more than there
is in the things that seem to stand before us in a Dream: And this is the
reason why St. Paul says, “Wee know that an Idol is Nothing:” Not that he
thought that an Image of Metall, Stone, or Wood, was nothing; but that the
thing which they honored, or feared in the Image, and held for a God, was
a meer Figment, without place, habitation, motion, or existence, but in
the motions of the Brain. And the worship of these with Divine Honour, is
that which is in the Scripture called Idolatry, and Rebellion against God.
For God being King of the Jews, and his Lieutenant being first Moses, and
afterward the High Priest; if the people had been permitted to worship,
and pray to Images, (which are Representations of their own Fancies,) they
had had no farther dependence on the true God, of whom there can be no
similitude; nor on his prime Ministers, Moses, and the High Priests; but
every man had governed himself according to his own appetite, to the utter
eversion of the Common-wealth, and their own destruction for want of
Union. And therefore the first Law of God was, “They should not take for
Gods, ALIENOS DEOS, that is, the Gods of other nations, but that onely
true God, who vouchsafed to commune with Moses, and by him to give them
laws and directions, for their peace, and for their salvation from their
enemies.” And the second was, that “they should not make to themselves any
Image to Worship, of their own Invention.” For it is the same deposing of
a King, to submit to another King, whether he be set up by a neighbour
nation, or by our selves.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0662" id="link2H_4_0662"></SPAN> Answer To Certain Seeming Texts For Images </h3>
<p>The places of Scripture pretended to countenance the setting up of Images,
to worship them; or to set them up at all in the places where God is
worshipped, are First, two Examples; one of the Cherubins over the Ark of
God; the other of the Brazen Serpent: Secondly, some texts whereby we are
commanded to worship certain Creatures for their relation to God; as to
worship his Footstool: And lastly, some other texts, by which is
authorized, a religious honoring of Holy things. But before I examine the
force of those places, to prove that which is pretended, I must first
explain what is to be understood by Worshipping, and what by Images, and
Idols.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0663" id="link2H_4_0663"></SPAN> What Is Worship </h3>
<p>I have already shewn in the 20 Chapter of this Discourse, that to Honor,
is to value highly the Power of any person: and that such value is
measured, by our comparing him with others. But because there is nothing
to be compared with God in Power; we Honor him not but Dishonour him by
any Value lesse than Infinite. And thus Honor is properly of its own
nature, secret, and internall in the heart. But the inward thoughts of
men, which appeare outwardly in their words and actions, are the signes of
our Honoring, and these goe by the name of WORSHIP, in Latine, CULTUS.
Therefore, to Pray to, to Swear by, to Obey, to bee Diligent, and
Officious in Serving: in summe, all words and actions that betoken Fear to
Offend, or Desire to Please, is Worship, whether those words and actions
be sincere, or feigned: and because they appear as signes of Honoring, are
ordinarily also called Honor.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0664" id="link2H_4_0664"></SPAN> Distinction Between Divine And Civill Worship </h3>
<p>The Worship we exhibite to those we esteem to be but men, as to Kings, and
men in Authority, is Civill Worship: But the worship we exhibite to that
which we think to bee God, whatsoever the words, ceremonies, gestures, or
other actions be, is Divine Worship. To fall prostrate before a King, in
him that thinks him but a Man, is but Civill Worship: And he that but
putteth off his hat in the Church, for this cause, that he thinketh it the
House of God, worshippeth with Divine Worship. They that seek the
distinction of Divine and Civill Worship, not in the intention of the
Worshipper, but in the Words douleia, and latreia, deceive themselves. For
whereas there be two sorts of Servants; that sort, which is of those that
are absolutely in the power of their Masters, as Slaves taken in war, and
their Issue, whose bodies are not in their own power, (their lives
depending on the Will of their Masters, in such manner as to forfeit them
upon the least disobedience,) and that are bought and sold as Beasts, were
called Douloi, that is properly, Slaves, and their Service, Douleia: The
other, which is of those that serve (for hire, or in hope of benefit from
their Masters) voluntarily; are called Thetes; that is, Domestique
Servants; to whose service the Masters have no further right, than is
contained in the Covenants made betwixt them. These two kinds of Servants
have thus much common to them both, that their labour is appointed them by
another, whether, as a Slave, or a voluntary Servant: And the word Latris,
is the general name of both, signifying him that worketh for another,
whether, as a Slave, or a voluntary Servant: So that Latreia signifieth
generally all Service; but Douleia the service of Bondmen onely, and the
condition of Slavery: And both are used in Scripture (to signifie our
Service of God) promiscuously. Douleia, because we are Gods Slaves;
Latreia, because wee Serve him: and in all kinds of Service is contained,
not onely Obedience, but also Worship, that is, such actions, gestures,
and words, as signifie Honor.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0665" id="link2H_4_0665"></SPAN> An Image What Phantasmes </h3>
<p>An IMAGE (in the most strict signification of the word) is the Resemblance
of some thing visible: In which sense the Phantasticall Formes,
Apparitions, or Seemings of Visible Bodies to the Sight, are onely Images;
such as are the Shew of a man, or other thing in the Water, by Reflexion,
or Refraction; or of the Sun, or Stars by Direct Vision in the Air; which
are nothing reall in the things seen, nor in the place where thy seem to
bee; nor are their magnitudes and figures the same with that of the
object; but changeable, by the variation of the organs of Sight, or by
glasses; and are present oftentimes in our Imagination, and in our Dreams,
when the object is absent; or changed into other colours, and shapes, as
things that depend onely upon the Fancy. And these are the Images which
are originally and most properly called Ideas, and IDOLS, and derived from
the language of the Graecians, with whom the word Eido signifieth to See.
They are also called PHANTASMES, which is in the same language,
Apparitions. And from these Images it is that one of the faculties of mans
Nature, is called the Imagination. And from hence it is manifest, that
there neither is, nor can bee any Image made of a thing Invisible.</p>
<p>It is also evident, that there can be no Image of a thing Infinite: for
all the Images, and Phantasmes that are made by the Impression of things
visible, are figured: but Figure is a quantity every way determined: And
therefore there can bee no Image of God: nor of the Soule of Man; nor of
Spirits, but onely of Bodies Visible, that is, Bodies that have light in
themselves, or are by such enlightened.</p>
<h3><SPAN name="link2H_4_0666" id="link2H_4_0666"></SPAN> Fictions; Materiall Images </h3>
<p>And whereas a man can fancy Shapes he never saw; making up a Figure out of
the parts of divers creatures; as the Poets make their Centaures,
Chimaeras, and other Monsters never seen: So can he also give Matter to
those Shapes, and make them in Wood, Clay or Metall. And these are also
called Images, not for the resemblance of any corporeall thing, but for
the resemblance of some Phantasticall Inhabitants of the Brain of the
Maker. But in these Idols, as they are originally in the Brain, and as
they are painted, carved, moulded, or moulten in matter, there is a
similitude of the one to the other, for which the Materiall Body made by
Art, may be said to be the Image of the Phantasticall Idoll made by
Nature.</p>
<p>But in a larger use of the word Image, is contained also, any
Representation of one thing by another. So an earthly Soveraign may be
called the Image of God: And an inferiour Magistrate the Image of an
earthly Soveraign. And many times in the Idolatry of the Gentiles there
was little regard to the similitude of their Materiall Idoll to the Idol
in their fancy, and yet it was called the Image of it. For a Stone unhewn
has been set up for Neptune, and divers other shapes far different from
the shapes they conceived of their Gods. And at this day we see many
Images of the Virgin Mary, and other Saints, unlike one another, and
without correspondence to any one mans Fancy; and yet serve well enough
for the purpose they were erected for; which was no more but by the Names
onely, to represent the Persons mentioned in the History; to which every
man applyeth a Mentall Image of his owne making, or none at all. And thus
an Image in the largest sense, is either the Resemblance, or the
Representation of some thing Visible; or both together, as it happeneth
for the most part.</p>
<p>But the name of Idoll is extended yet further in Scripture, to signifie
also the Sunne, or a Starre, or any other Creature, visible or invisible,
when they are worshipped for Gods.</p>
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