Seeking_Thy_Kingdom
Puritan Board Sophomore
Seemingly most scholars under the papacy claim that these invasions and influences only take place in an indirect way by means of invitations, excitations, and a stirring of the emotions, and consequently by deception of the imagination, and thus not directly and immediately in or from the mind of man.
In his 6th Book of 'the Conscience', Martinus Bresserus emphasizes that the devil cannot immediately reach and touch the higher part of the soul, such as for example the memory, the mind and the will; because, in his opinion, this only belongs to God. But the Highly learned Doctor Gisbertus Voetius rightly pointed out that he confuses the touching, projecting, insistence, moving, presenting and speaking to the soul intellectually and internally and mixes it with invading into the soul, to see from within and to work and act within what human beings understand and want. Only the latter belongs to God, but not the former.
[....]
However, whoever asks us further, how the devil presents these defamatory communications and deceptions to the mind inwardly, and how he so directly and immediately works on the mind itself, we add the well-liked answer from the aforementioned Dr. Gisbertus Voetius. He says:
"Once the doctrine, which we have in common with the (Roman) Scholastics, has been established concerning the speaking of the Angels and spiritual or mental signs (that through the outer, physical and emotional - such as the language of man and his imitated language of the devil or angel is formed and the audience's hearing is added), we say, to improve a person's understanding, that the devil throws in the slanderous insinuations, for he speaks to the human heart from within, or expresses them through a man, but a spiritual and intellectual sign for it, like an angel to an angel, a devil to a devil and one individual soul to the other to communicate the concepts of their minds and to make them known for exactly as with the mind of another devil, namely by means of an intervening intellectual and spiritual sign or with the help of an intervening person speaking - voluntarily produced and added - that serves as a gutter, bringing him to the mind of another, who influences and moves the affections. In this way he does not touch or move anyone's mind as a natural flowing-out cause, which would make something understandable and comprehensible in her, that all other minds would be able understand her intellect." Because, for example the mind of Beelzebub is not the mind of another devil, nor is it inside, nor is it common and confused and mixed with another: so is the actual intellect of this not the actual intellect of the other, or is his inner word or species intelligibly expressed not simultaneously that of the other. Because the other person cannot understand anything about it, only insofar as and when he expresses it according to his will and makes it known and working together with the other.
Simon Oomius, Satans Vuistslagen or Satans Punches (1663) Translation my own.
In his 6th Book of 'the Conscience', Martinus Bresserus emphasizes that the devil cannot immediately reach and touch the higher part of the soul, such as for example the memory, the mind and the will; because, in his opinion, this only belongs to God. But the Highly learned Doctor Gisbertus Voetius rightly pointed out that he confuses the touching, projecting, insistence, moving, presenting and speaking to the soul intellectually and internally and mixes it with invading into the soul, to see from within and to work and act within what human beings understand and want. Only the latter belongs to God, but not the former.
[....]
However, whoever asks us further, how the devil presents these defamatory communications and deceptions to the mind inwardly, and how he so directly and immediately works on the mind itself, we add the well-liked answer from the aforementioned Dr. Gisbertus Voetius. He says:
"Once the doctrine, which we have in common with the (Roman) Scholastics, has been established concerning the speaking of the Angels and spiritual or mental signs (that through the outer, physical and emotional - such as the language of man and his imitated language of the devil or angel is formed and the audience's hearing is added), we say, to improve a person's understanding, that the devil throws in the slanderous insinuations, for he speaks to the human heart from within, or expresses them through a man, but a spiritual and intellectual sign for it, like an angel to an angel, a devil to a devil and one individual soul to the other to communicate the concepts of their minds and to make them known for exactly as with the mind of another devil, namely by means of an intervening intellectual and spiritual sign or with the help of an intervening person speaking - voluntarily produced and added - that serves as a gutter, bringing him to the mind of another, who influences and moves the affections. In this way he does not touch or move anyone's mind as a natural flowing-out cause, which would make something understandable and comprehensible in her, that all other minds would be able understand her intellect." Because, for example the mind of Beelzebub is not the mind of another devil, nor is it inside, nor is it common and confused and mixed with another: so is the actual intellect of this not the actual intellect of the other, or is his inner word or species intelligibly expressed not simultaneously that of the other. Because the other person cannot understand anything about it, only insofar as and when he expresses it according to his will and makes it known and working together with the other.
Simon Oomius, Satans Vuistslagen or Satans Punches (1663) Translation my own.
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