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But we shall speak more fully of the Cross in another place.

A point very worthy of examination here is how the Devil enters into the body of an innocent child who has committed no sin, as happened in the case of Loyse Maillat. Thyr. in Demonom. II. 32.This comes of the permission of God; for we see also that the witch has power over the health and life of children even to the extent of killing them in their mothers’ wombs, as we shall show later. Exod. 11.There must have been many innocent children among the first-born of Egypt; yet God put them all to the edge of the sword, even as He also caused the death of the child adulterously born to David and Bathsheba.II Sam. 12.

There is no doubt that the sins of the fathers are in some part the reason for this affliction; Exod. 20.for the Holy Scriptures say that God punishes the children for the sins of their parents, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him; II Sam. 2.
I Kings 14.
Eccles. 1.and elsewhere God threatened to punish the Kings in their children, and this also has happened since those times. For some have had their sceptres taken from them, and others have been led into a miserable captivity.

Sometimes again God allows Innocents to be possessed and afflicted, not for any sin, but that His justice and His works may thereby shine the more gloriously. We have an excellent example of this in St. John’s account of the man who was born blind, speaking of whom Jesus Christ said:John 9. “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in Him.” And Loyse Maillat, at eight years old, was possessed of five devils; but what ensued from this? It led to the discovery of countless