[Sidenote: 2 Tim. 2. 25, 26.] 1. Whatsoever the Devil worketh, it is to bring advantage to his own Kingdom, or otherwise he should act in vain. But whatsoever he worketh by a visible Covenant, is not for the advantage of his own Kingdom: and therefore it is in vain. The major is plain from the Text: _Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist stedfast in the faith_. The minor is manifest in these two particulars. 1. _Satan is that old Serpent, that was, and is more subtile than any beast of the field, which the Lord God hath created_: which notwithstanding the vain Cavils, and seeming Arguments of _Pererius_, must be understood of Satan the Adversary of Mankind, and not of the natural Serpent, which is not the most subtile beast that God hath created, there being many others more subtile than the Serpent; and the Scripture tells us of his cunning and wiliness: for the Apostle saith, _We are not ignorant of his wiles or devices_ νοήματα. And the Apostle in another place calls them μεθοδείας, _his wiles_, which are so great, _that if it were possible, they might deceive the very elect_. So that he wants no cunning nor subtilty to know how to bring a sinner into his snare, and to hold him fast, and when he is fast, he knows he need do no more, and therefore acts not in vain. 2. Before he need attempt a visible apparition to the Witch (if any such thing could be) he knows that the Witch is sure and fast in his snare by a spiritual Covenant already entred into, and therefore knows he need do no more, and he is too cunning to act to no purpose, and therefore doth St. _Paul_ warn _Timothy_, _That a Bishop must have a good report, lest he fall into the snare of the devil_, all sins being the snares of the Devil, and when men are fast taken in them, they are in Satans fetters, and he labours no more but to keep them there. And so the same Apostle speaketh of those that oppose the Gospel, _that they must be instructed in meekness, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will_. So that sins keep men in the spiritual snare of the Devil, and so are all those that are accounted Witches, in that spiritual snare, holden fast enough by their own consents and corrupt wills, and need no bodily apparition to make them surer: and so this visible League falls to the ground, as having no ground nor end why it should be made. And for the Devil to appear like a Dog or a Cat, and speak, would sure not only fright and startle an old Witch, but even the boldest and most stout-hearted person. [Sidenote: _Reas. 2._]