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
2. We are to consider the end of this Warfare, that it is for no less
than a Crown, and that not a terrestrial, but a celestial one, not a
fading one, but an everlasting one, a Crown of eternal life, of immortal
glory, even for an house given of God, eternal in the Heavens. Therefore
this being a thing of the greatest concern that belongs to a Christian,
the Apostle would not doubtlesly omit any thing that had been necessary
to the obtaining of such an inestimable prize, and such an important
Victory; and therefore cannot in reason have concealed or omitted such a
weighty matter as a visible League, and the like, if there had been any
such thing.
[Sidenote: Eph. 6. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.]
3. We are to consider that this Armor prescribed for the Souldiers of
Jesus Christ, is _the whole armor of God_, πανοπλίαν, the compleat armor
of God (as Dr. _Hammond_ renders it) perfect both for defence and
offence. And therefore the Apostle describes it fully by a Metaphor,
taken from such Arms as the _Roman_ or other Nations in his time use,
saying: _Stand therefore, having your loyns girt about with truth, and
having on the breast-plate of righteousness: And your feet shod with the
preparation of the Gospel of peace. Above all taking the shield of
faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the
wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit,
which is the word of God. Praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance
and supplication for all Saints._ And as it is a compleat and perfect
Armor, both in respect of defence and offence; so it is a spiritual, not
a carnal, corporeal, or bodily armor, because the warfare _is not
against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high
places_, against spiritual enemies, not against corporeal and carnal
ones; for as the enemies are and the warfare, so are the armor and
weapons. From whence we truly urge, that the Apostle led by the Holy
Ghost, and the Wisdom of the Father, and knowing the whole counsel of
God (especially in this point) hath omitted nothing that is fitting
armor for a Christian either of defence or offence, whereby he may be
inabled to get the victory against Satan, and all his spiritual Army.
And therefore that either Satan hath not power, or doth not assault
Christians after a visible, carnal, and bodily manner, or else that the
Holy Ghost hath been defective in prescribing armor against such
assaults, and consequently that the armor of a Souldier of Jesus Christ
is not compleat, or else there is no such bodily assaults of Satan at
all, as to tempt visibly, to make a corporeal League, to suck upon the
Witches bodies, nor to have carnal Copulation with them. But we affirm,
and that (as we conceive) with sound reason, that the Scriptures in this
particular of a Christians armor, and the compleatness of it, is
abundantly sufficient against all spiritual assaults whatsoever, and
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