The displaying of supposed witchcraft : $b Wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of deceivers and impostors, and divers persons under a passive delusion of melancholy and fancy. But that there is a corporeal league made betwixt the devil and the witch, or that he sucks on the witches body, has carnal copulation, or that witches are turned into cats, dogs, raise tempests, or the like, is utterly denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled, the existence of angels and spirits, the truth Webster, John
Religion
The displaying of supposed witchcraft : $b Wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of deceivers and impostors, and divers persons under a passive delusion of melancholy and fancy. But that there is a corporeal league made betwixt the devil and the witch, or that he sucks on the witches body, has carnal copulation, or that witches are turned into cats, dogs, raise tempests, or the like, is utterly denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled, the existence of angels and spirits, the truth
Webster, John
Witchcraft; Witchcraft -- Early works to 1800
4. Some are of opinion that this whole transaction was visible, sensible
and corporeal, as _Theophylact_, and many others. Some are of opinion
that it was wholly in a Vision. And some take a middle way that it was
partly sensible and visible, and partly mental, and by way of vision. Of
which opinion the great _Cameron_ seems to be, who compares it with that
of _Ezekiel_ who saith: _And the spirit lifted me up between the earth
and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem_: And
sheweth that the word Ἀνήχθη doth agree with the Hebrew word נשא,
which is as applicable to lifting up or carrying in a vision, as to
bodily transportation. And that it was either altogether, or partly in a
vision, the learned _Beza_ gives us this note: _Hoc videtur satis
ostendere hæc omnia per visionem quandam, non corporali transvectione &
ostensione esse gesta, quomodo nempe humanitus videre potuisset omnia
regna orbis, & gloriam eorum in momento?_ But though it be the more
sound and rational opinion that the whole transaction was mental, and in
a vision, yet we shall not altogether stand upon that, but if it be
granted that it was corporeal and visible, yet it doth not appear that
our Saviour was in his Body carried by the power of the Devil in the
air, either to the top of an high mountain, nor set upon the pinnacle of
the Temple in _Jerusalem_, and that for these reasons. 1. Our Saviour
did not go to undertake this combat with Satan unwillingly, that he need
be constrained, or carried to try the utmost power and malice of the
Devil, but readily and willingly by the conduct and leading of the holy
Spirit, for the Text saith in _Matthew_; _Then was Jesus led up of the
spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the Devil_: And S. _Mark_
saith; _And immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness_. And
S. _Luke_ saith: _He was led by the spirit into the wilderness_. _Beza_
saith, _subductus fuit in desertum_, and _Tremellius_ saith, _ductus
fuit_, upon the place in S. _Matthews_ Gospel. And in S. _Luke_
_Tremellius_ saith; _Et duxit eum spiritus in desertum_, and _Beza_,
_actus est ab eodem spiritu in desertum_. And in S. _Mark_ _Tremellius_
saith, _deduxit eum spiritus in desertum_, and _Beza_ rendreth it,
_expellit eum spiritus in desertum_. And because of the Greek word which
is there ἐκβάλλει, he addeth this note, _Non significatur expulsio
violenta, sed vis divina, quæ Christum, (qui ad illud usq; tempus ut
privatus vixerat) nova persona induit, ac luctæ proximæ & ministerio
præparatur_. Therefore saith _Origen_: _Sequebatur planè quasi athleta
ad tentationem sponte proficiscens, & quodammodo loquebatur: Duc quo
vis, & invenies me in omnibus fortiorem_. So that it is most plain that
he was no otherwise led or carried by Satan, but as he was led by the
Holy Ghost, so that he went whithersoever Satan would desire him of his
own mind and accord, and needed not to be carried by the Devil, for S.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account