A26888:452
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls…
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadducees and infidels, by Richard Baxter.The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadduces and infidels, by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1691
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Devils have a greater Game to play invisibly, than by Apparitions. O happy World, if they did not do a hundred thousand times ⟨p. 224⟩more hurt, by the Baits of Pleasure, Lust and Honour, and by Pride, and love of Money and Sensuality, than they do by Witches! O! that they did not more dangerously Haunt the Houses and Souls of Lords, Knights, Gentlemen, and Lustful Youths! Who can Conjure them out of Universities and Pulpits, out of a Malignant Slanderous Clergy and Laity, out of Worldly self-seeking Carnal Men? I have before told you of the Witch Magdalen Crucia, who got the Reputation of a Saint, by having the Sacramental Bread brought to her Mouth in the sight of all the People, by an Invisible Carrier; Bodin, and many others Record the Story, and how to get Pardon, she went to the Pope himself, and confessed how from twelve years old the Devil had lain with her thirty years, and made her the Abbess of a Monastery: I fear lest the visible Hand of some Priest do play this Devils part, and give the Sacrament to such as more openly serve the Devil all the week, and are forced to receive it to escape a jail, or do it as a Sacrifice to expiate the guilt of an Ungodly Life.
Devils have a greater Game to play invisibly, than by Apparitions. O happy World, if they did not do a hundred thousand times ⟨p. 224⟩more hurt, by the Baits of Pleasure, Lust and Honour, and by Pride, and love of Money and Sensuality, than they do by Witches! O! that they did not more dangerously Hant the Houses and Souls of Lords, Knights, Gentlemen, and Lustful Youths! Who can Conjure them out of Universities and Pulpits, out of a Malignant Sclanderous Clergy and Laity, out of Worldly self-seeking Carnal Men? I have before told you of the Witch Magdalen Crucia, who got the Reputation of a Saint, by having the Sacramental Bread brought to her Mouth in the sight of all the People, by an Invisible Carryer; Bodin, and many others Record the Story, and how to get Pardon, she went to the Pope himself, and confessed how from twelve years old the Devil had lain with her thirty years, and made her the Abbess of a Monastery: I fear lest the visible Hand of some Priest do play this Devils part, and give the Sacrament to such as more openly serve the Devil all the week, and are forced to receive it to escape a jail, or do it as a Sacrifice to expiate the guilt of an Ungodly Life.