Of Ghostes and Spirites, Walking by Night: And of Straunge Noyses, Crackes, and Sundrie Forewarnings, Which Commonly Happen Before the Death of Men: Great Slaughters, and Alterations of KingdomsLavater, Ludwig
Religion
Of Ghostes and Spirites, Walking by Night: And of Straunge Noyses, Crackes, and Sundrie Forewarnings, Which Commonly Happen Before the Death of Men: Great Slaughters, and Alterations of Kingdoms
Lavater, Ludwig
Apparitions -- Early works to 1800
S. =Augustine= in his third booke and .6. chapter, writing againste
the letters of =Petilianus= saieth thus: If concerning Christe, or
any other thing, whiche appartayneth to faith and euerlasting life,
(I will not say, we: for comparing with him that said: Albeit that
wée) but simply, whereas he going on, sayd: If an Angell from Heauen
shall teache you any thing besides that whiche you haue receiued in
Scriptures conteining the law and the Gospel, bée he accursed.
[Sidenote: Chrisostomes aduise.]
S. =Chrisostom= vnto the Epistle to the Galathians the firste
chapter: =Abraham= (saith he) when he was desired to send Lazarus,
said: They haue =Moises= and the prophets, if they will not heare
them, they will not giue care vnto them which rise vp from the
dead. And when he bring in Christ vttering these words, he sheweth
howe he woulde haue the holy scriptures more worthy of credite
than any raised from the dead. S. =Paule= (when I name =Paule=, I
name likewise Christ, for he stirred vp his mind) preferreth the
Scriptures before Angels descending from Heauen, and that for very
iust cause. For albeit Angels are great, yet are they seruants and
ministers. For all holy scriptures were not commaunded to be written
and sent vnto vs by seruants, but by almightie God yͤ Lord of all
things. Thus write these two holy fathers.
[Sidenote: All things necessarie to saluation are cōteined in the
scriptures.]
What things soeuer are necessarie for vs to know, are conteined
in the holy scriptures: those things which are not expressed in
them, we must not curiously enquire of, as things profitable for
our saluation. Who will therefore say against the commaundement of
God, that these things are to be sought and learned of dead men,
and by diuellish visions? These things which are secret and hidden,
we shall throughly sée when we come to eternall life. May not God,
if we be not content with his holy word, say that vnto vs, which
sometimes he spake by the mouth of =Helias= vnto the messengers
of king =Ochosias=. Is there no God in _Israell_, that you now go
to =Accaron= to aske counsell of Belzebub? Yea =Thomas Aquinas=
denieth that diuels are to be heard, whiche deceiue simple menne,
feyning themselues to be the soules of dead men: and by that coloure
especially terrifie menne, whiche sometimes also happened vnto the
Gentiles.
[Sidenote: Hierom.]
If it were certaine and sure that the Diuell coulde not appeare and
deceiue menne, and also shewe greate and straunge miracles, then
perchaunce some men would thinke that we shoulde giue care vnto such
Spirites: but nowe we sée the contrary happen. An euill spirite
cloaketh his erroures vnder the coloure of diuine seruice, and vnder
the pretence of religiō, he endeuoureth to ouerthrow religion. For
as S. =Hierome= saith, the diuell sheweth not himselfe with all his
deceits, that he may be knowne what he is. And therefore it behoueth
vs to be very circumspect and warie.
[Sidenote: Miracles are seales of the word.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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