Robert Calef

“ No Christian can, I say none but evil workers can criminate my visiting such of my poor flock as have at any time fallen under the terrible and sensible molestations of Evil Angels; let their Afflictions have been what they will, I could not have answered it unto my Glorious Lord, if I had withheld my just Counsels and Comforts from them; and if I have also with some exactness observ'd the methods of the Invisible World, when they have thus become observable, I have been but a Servant of Mankind in doing so ”

“ Now I have evinced to you that there are Witches, that the Witch receiveth power from the Devil to do strange things, that there is an express Covenant between the Devil and the Witch, that this Covenant cannot be transacted mentally, but that the Devil must appear in a bodily shape to the Witch; therefore I conclude, that a Witch in the Scripture is such, who has made an Explicit Covenant with the Devil, and is impowered by him to do things strange in themselves, and beside their natural course. ”

“ If you have taught the People the necessity of Charity, and the evil of entertaining so much as a jealousie against their Neighbours for such crimes upon the Devils suggestions to a person pretending to a Spectral (or Diabolical) sight; who utter their Oracles from Malice, frensie, or a Satanical Delusion; that to be inquisitive of such, whose Spectres they see, or who it is that afflicts? In order to put the accused persons life in question, is a wickedness beyond what Saul was guilty of in going to the Witch. ”

“ That when the Divine Being will imploy the Agency of Evil Spirits for any service, 'tis with him the manner how they shall exhibit themselves, whether to the bodily Eye, or Intellect only; and whether it shall be more or less formidable—To deny these three last were to make the Devil an Independent Power and consequently a God. ”

“ To observe and record the more Illustrious Discoveries of the Divine Providence in the Government of the World, is a design so holy, so useful, so justly approved, that the too general neglect of it in the Churches of God, is as justly to be Lamented. ”

“ Now if good Angels have appeared, why may not bad? Surely the Devils, because fallen and Evil, have not therefore lost the Nature of Angels, neither is there any contradiction in their appearing in a bodily shape, now after any more than before their Fall. ”

“ As to several that have confessed against themselves, they being wholly strangers to me, but yet of good account with better Men than myself, to whom also they are well known, I do not pass so much as a secret condemnation upon them. But rather seeing God hath so amazingly lengthened out Satan's Chain, in this most formidable outrage, I much more incline to side with the Opinion of those that have grounds to hope better of them. ”

“ And if in Witchcraft the Devil by means of a Witch does the Mischief, how 'tis possible to distinguish it from Possession, both being said to be performed by the Devil, and yet without an Infallible distinction there can be no certainty in Judgment. And whether it can be proved that the Jewish Church in any Age before, or in our Saviours time, even in the time of their greatest Apostacy did believe that a Witch had power to Commissionate Devils to do Mischief. ”

“ I remember that some have taught that it is not certain there is any such thing really in being as matter; because the Ideas which we have of our own, and all other bodies, may be caused to arise in us by 199 God, without the real existence of the objects they represent. But this opinion is not only absurd and false, but likewise Atheistical, destroying the veracity of the Almighty, whom it asserts to have determined us by a fatal necessity to believe things to be, which are not; and I wonder that you should allude unto it, because that Angels have appeared in a Dream, in a vision ”

“ That the Devil is the Prince of the Power of the Air. So that there is a Power, an Host, a vast Army of those Evil Spirits, that did joyn with the Devil, in setting themselves against the Great God. How many, is not for us to say, the Written Word of God not speaking anything as to the Quantity of their Number; only it is manifest from the Scripture, that there are far more Angels that have sinned, far more Devils than there are Men in all the World. There is not a Man in the whole World but there are Devils to tempt him continually. ”

“ And in my apprehension, if it be asked any Christian, whether God governs the World, and whether it be he only can Commissionate Devils, and such other Fundamentals, He ought to be as ready as in the Question, who made him? ”

“ That a Spirit can Actuate, Animate, or inform a certain portion of matter, and be united to it: from whence it is very evident, that the Devil united to a portion of matter (which hereafter I'll call a Vehicle) may fall under the cognizance of our Senses, and be conversant with us in a bodily shape. Where then is the reason or need to run to a Metaphorical, and forced Interpretation, when the words are so plain, and the literal sense implieth no contradiction, nor any greater difficulty than (as has been said) what ariseth from the Union of the Soul and Body, which is most certain. ”

“ There is none who denieth God causing thoughts to arise in Mens minds: but thence to infer he maketh Objects which are not, by forming their Ideas in our minds, to appear to us through the Ministry of our Senses as though they were, is a piece not only of vain, but very dangerous Philosophy. It is true, the good Angels will not appear without the appointment of God, they will not do any one Action, but according to the laws he has prescribed to 200 them. ”

“ God will not give his testimony to a lye, and to say God did at any time impower a Witch to work wonders to gain belief to the Doctrine of Devils were with one breath to destroy root and branch of all revealed Religion; no, it cannot be, it is only God's permission, who proveth his People, whether they love him with all their heart, and with all their Soul. Therefore the Witch has a power of doing Wonders, or strange things immediately from the Devil. ”

“ If Moses with a bare permission might stretch forth his Rod, yet he was not able to bring Plagues upon the Egyptians, or to divide the Waters, without a Commission from the most high; so neither can that evil Being perform any of this without a Commission from the same power. The Scripture recites more Miracles wrought by Men than by Angels good and bad; Tho this Doctrine be so dishonourable to the only Almighty Being, as to ascribe such Attributes to the Evil one, as are the Incommunicable prerogative of him, who is the alone Sovereign Being ”

“ It is for you to shew the impossibility thereof, if you will build any thing upon your Assertion, to prove which your first Argument is (it seems to me) a Chimera, which [85] is not enough, when there are many to whom it seems to be a truth: Your second is very dangerous, and highly derogatory of the honour of God, between whom and the Devil you make comparison more than once as the power of the Almighty must not be confined to be less than the Devils. ”

“ Beings and Powers of all Creatures (because they immediately flow from God) are good, and consequently the simple Actions, as they proceed from those Powers, are in their own nature likewise good, the Evil proceeding only from the Rebellious will of the Creature, wherefore 'tis no Paradox, but a certain truth, that the same action in respect to the first cause is good, but in respect of the second is Evil; for instance, the act of Copulation is in itself good, instituted 204 by God, and may be willed and desired by the Soul, which sinneth not for exerting the simple act ”

“ We must not reject a truth, because we cannot resolve all the Questions that may be proposed about it; otherwise all our Science must be turned into Scepticism, for we have not a comprehensive knowledge of any one thing. ”

“ Upon no other consideration is it possible for any man to worship the Devil; for the Atheists, who deny the being of a God, do likewise deny the existence of any Spirit good or bad; therefore their drinking the Devils health, even upon their knees (tho' a most horrid Crime) cannot be construed any part of worship paid to him, whom they assert to be a Chimera, a meer figment of Statesmen to keep the vulgar in awe. ”