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Credulity of Witchcraft CHAP. 7, 8 | | |
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CHAPTER VII. | | |
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By what meanes the name of witches becommeth so famous, and how diverslie people be
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opinioned concerning them and their actions.
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SURELIE the naturall power of man or woman cannot be so inlarged, | | |
as to doo anie thing beyond the power and vertue given and ingraffed* by
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God. But it is the will and mind of man, which is vitiated and depraved
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by the divell: neither dooth God permit anie more, than that which the naturall
| | Miracles are |
order appointed by him dooth require. Which naturall order is nothing else,
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but the ordinarie power of God, powred* into everie creature, according to his
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state and condition. But hereof more shall be said in the title of witches con-
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fessions. Howbeit you shall understand, that few or none are throughlie per-
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suaded, resolved, or satisfied, that witches can indeed accomplish all these
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impossibilities: but some one is bewitched in one point, and some is coosened* in
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another, untill in fine, all these impossibilities, and manie mo, are by severall
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persons affirmed to be true.
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And this I have also noted, that when anie one is coosened with a coosening
| | The opinions |
toie* of witchcraft, and maketh report thereof accordinglie verifieng a matter
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most impossible and false as it were upon his owne knowledge, as being over-
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taken with some kind of illusion or other (which illusions are right* inchantments)
| | witchcraft |
even the selfe-same man will deride the like lie proceeding, out of another mans
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mouth, as a fabulous matter unworthie of credit. It is also to be woondered, how
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men (that have seene some part of witches coosenages detected, and see also
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therein the impossibilitie of their owne presumptions, & the follie and falsehood
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of the witches confessions) will not suspect, but remaine unsatisfied, or rather
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obstinatelie defend the residue of witches supernaturall actions: like as when a
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juggler hath discovered* the slight* and illusion of his principall feats, one would
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fondlie* continue to thinke, that his other petie juggling knacks of legierdemaine
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are done by the helpe of a familiar:* and according to the follie of some papists,
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who seeing and confessing the popes absurd religion, in the erection and main-
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tenance of idolatrie and superstition, speciallie in images, pardons, and relikes
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of saints, will yet persevere to thinke, that the rest of his doctrine and trumperie
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is holie and good.
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Finallie, manie mainteine and crie out for the execution of witches, that par-
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ticularlie beleeve never a whit of that which is imputed unto them; if they be
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therein privatelie dealt withall,* and substantiallie opposed and tried* in argument.
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CHAPTER VIII.
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Causes that moove as well witches themselves as others to thinke that they can worke impossi-
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bilities, with answers to certeine objections: where also their punishment by lawe is touched.
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CARDANUS writeth, that the cause of such credulitie consisteth in
| | Card. de var. |
three points; to wit, in the imagination of the melancholike, in the con-
| | rerum. lib. 15. |
stancie of them that are corrupt therewith, and in the deceipt of the
| | cap. 80. |
Judges; who being inquisitors themselves against heretikes and witches, did
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both accuse and condemne them, having for their labour the spoile* of their
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goods. So as these inquisitors added manie fables hereunto, least they should
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seeme to have doone injurie to the poore wretches, in condemning and executing
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them for none offense. But sithens (saith he) the springing up of Luthers sect,
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these priests have tended more diligentlie upon the execution of them; bicause
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more wealth is to be caught from them: insomuch as now they deale so looselie
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