Paul's teaching, shall stand strongly against his assaults.
"Our battle," saith St. Paul, "is against princes, potestates," that is,
against devils: for, after the common opinion, there fell from heaven of
every order of angels, as of potentates. He saith also, "against worldly
rulers of these darknesses:" for, as doctors do write, the spirits that
fell with Lucifer have their being in _aere caliginoso_, the air, in
darkness, and the rulers of this world, by God's sufferance, to hurt, vex
and assault them that live upon the earth. For their nature is, as they
be damned, to desire to draw all mankind unto like damnation; such is
their malice. And though they hang in the air, or fall in a garden or
other pleasant place, yet have they continually their pain upon their
backs. Against these we wrestle, and "against spiritual wickedness in
_coelestibus_," that is, in the air; or we fight against spiritual
wickedness in heavenly things.
Think you not that this our enemy, this prince with all his potentates,
hath great and sore assaults to lay against our armour? Yea, he is a
crafty warrior, and also of great power in this world; he hath great
ordnance and artillery; he hath great pieces of ordnance, as mighty kings
and emperors, to shoot against God's people, to persecute or kill them;
Nero, the great tyrant, who slew Paul, and divers other.
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