The twelfe Chapter. 365.
That the divels assaults are spirituall and not temporall, and how grosselie some understand those parts of the scripture.
U PON that, which hitherto hath beene said, you see that the assaults of sathan are spirituall, and not temporall: in which respect Paule wisheth us not to provide a corselet of Steele to defend us from his clawes; but biddeth us put on the whole armour of God,Ephe. 6, 11, 12.> that we may be able to stand against the invasions of the divell. For we wrestle not against flesh and bloud; but against principalities, powers, and spirituall wickednesse.2. Tim. 2, 8, 9. And therefore he adviseth us to be sober and watch: for the divell goeth about like a roring lion, seeking whome he may devoure. He meaneth not with carnall teeth:Idem ibid. for it followeth thus, Whome resist ye stedfastlie in faith. And againe he saith, That which is spirituall onelie discerneth spirituall things:1. Cor. 2. 14. for no carnall man can discerne the things of the spirit. Why then should we thinke that a divell, which is a spirit, can be knowne, or made tame and familiar unto a naturall man; or contrarie to nature, can be by a witch made corporall, being by God ordeined to a spirituall proportion?
The cause of this grosse conceipt is, that we hearken more diligentlie to old wives, and rather give credit to their fables, than/509. to the word of God; imagining by the tales they tell us, that the divell is such a bulbegger, as I have before described. For whatsoever is proposed in scripture to us by parable, or spoken figurativelie or significativelie, or framed to our grosse capacities, &c: is by them so considered and expounded, as though the bare letter, or rather their grosse imaginations thereupon were to be preferred before the true sense and meaning of the word. For I dare saie, that when these blockheads read Jothans parable in the ninth of Judges to the men of Sichem;Judg. 9. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. to wit, that the trees went out to annoint a king over them, saieng to the olive tree, Reigne thou over us: who answered and said, Should I leave my fatnesse, &c? They imagine that the woodden trees walked, & spake with a mans voice: or else, that some spirit entred into the trees, and answered as is imagined they did in the idols and oracles of Apollo, and such like; who indeed have eies, and see not; eares and heare not; mouthes, and speake not, &c./