Page:An Examen of Witches.pdf/77

Azotus by an Angel who had the lips of a man,Ezek. 8. whose face was the colour of amber, and from the loins downward he had the appearance of fire. Tob. 5.The Angel who accompanied the young Tobias in his journey to Gabael had the form of a young man, Gen. 19.
II Macc. 3.as also had the two Angels who visited Lot. We read in the Book of Maccabees that, when Heliodorus was sent by his Prince to despoil the Temple of Jerusalem, there appeared unto him a horse with a terrible rider, together with two other young men excellent in beauty, who surrounded him and scourged him so that his friends were constrained to run to the High Priest, Onias, and to beg him to intercede for him. And when Joshua entered into the promised land, Josh. 5.he saw standing in a field an Angel in the form of a man, with his sword drawn, who told him that he had been sent to guide and conduct the army of the children of Israel. Augustus Cæsar, when he was about to proclaim himself Emperor and Lord of the whole world, saw a vision in the air of a Virgin holding a little child in her arms, and for this reason he abandoned his enterprise: similarly Attila, the King of the Huns, departed from Italy, which he had determined to ruin and lay entirely waste, because he saw standing on each side of Pope Leo I two old men with flaming swords who threatened him with death if he should advance any further: it is said that these two old men were St. Peter and St. Paul, who have always been the true Tutelary Saints of Rome and Italy.

II Cor. 2.But I am particularly concerned with Satan, who also adopts what shape he pleases, sometimes that of a man, sometimes that of a beast, and sometimes even he transforms himself into an Angel