Part 5

1. It hath been common almost in all Ages, not only for the vulgar, but also for the whole rabble of Demonographers and Witchmongers to ascribe those strange and wonderful effects, whether arising from Art or Nature, unto the worst of Gods Creatures, if they did not themselves understand their causes, and to censure the Authors that writ of them, as Conjurers and Magicians, as I have made manifest in my former Instances, and might be further made good and illustrated by the effects of healing by the Weapon-salve, the Sympathetick Powder, the Curing of divers Diseases by Appensions, Amulets, or by Transplantation, and many other most admirable effects both of Art and Nature, which by these self-conceited Ignorants are all thrown upon the Devils back, and he made the Author and effector of them, as though he had a kind of omnipotent power: of which the learned Philosopher and Physician Van Helmont gives us this account: “Credo equidem cum pietate pugnare, si Diabolo tribuatur potestas naturam superans. Verum naturæ ignari præsumunt se naturæ secretarios per librorum lectionem: quicquid autem ipsos latet, vel adynaton, vel falsum, vel præstigiosum, atq; diabolicum esto.” And a little after he adds this: “Pigritiæ saltem enim immensæ inventum fuit, omnia in Diabolum retulisse quæ non capimus, nec velim Diabolum invocatum, ut nostris satisfaciat quæstionibus per temerariam potestatum attributionem.”

2. Whosoever shall read Pancirollus de rebus memoralibus noviter repertis, may easily be satisfied, what strange and stupendious things Art and the Inventions of men have produced in these latter Ages. And no man can rationally doubt, but that many more as strange or far more wonderful, may in Ages to come be found out and discovered; for there is a kind of bottomless depth in Arts, whether Liberal or Mechanical, that yet hath not been founded, but lye hid and unknown unto men. And if these for their wonderfulness should (as former Ages have ignorantly done) be ascribed unto the power of Satan, and their Authors accused of Conjuring and Diabolical Magick, no greater wrong could be done unto Art and Artists, and it would be a kind of blasphemy to attribute these stupendious effects (as the Vulgar and Witchmongers use to do) unto the Devil, the worst of Gods Creatures, and the Enemy of Mankind.

3. The third argument I shall take from Mr. Glanvil (which is the greatest piece of truth in all his Treatise) and convert and retort it against him: and is this (he saith) We are ignorant of the extent and bounds of Natures Sphere and Possibilities. Now if we be ignorant of the extent and bounds of Natures Sphere and Possibilities, then it must needs be folly, madness, and derogative against Gods power in Nature, to attribute those effects to wicked, fallen, and degenerated Demons, that we do not know but are produced by the course of Nature. And to ascribe the products of Nature to such wicked Instruments is blasphemous, in depriving Nature of the honour due unto her, and robbing God of the honour and glory belonging unto him, for the wonderful power wherewith he hath endowed his Creatures, who were all made to shew forth his power and Godhead, and the Heavens declare the glory of God, and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work: and as one said very well, Natura creatrix est quædam vis & potentia divinitùs insita, alia ex aliis in suo genere producens. So that the honour that is due unto the Creator, Conserver, and Orderer of Nature ought not to be ascribed unto the Devils; for in doing this, the Witchmongers become guilty of Idolatry, and are themselves such Witches as are mentioned in the Old Testament, who by their lying Divinations led the people after them to follow Idols; therefore the effects that belong unto Nature, are to be attributed to Nature, and the effects that Devils produce, are to be ascribed unto them, and not one confounded with another. And much to this purpose the learned Father hath a very considerable passage: “Quicquid igitur mirabile fit in hoc mundo, profectò minus est quàm totus hic mundus, i. e. cœlum & terra, & omnia quæ in eis sunt, quæ certè Deus fecit: nam & omni miraculo quod fit per hominem, majus miraculum est homo. Quamvis igitur miracula visibilium naturarum videndi assiduitate vilescunt, tamen ea quum sapienter intuemur, inusitatissimis rarísq; majora sunt.”

4. Though these men should believe the power of the Devil to be great by his Creation, and not lessened by his Fall (which is doubtful or false) yet can he not exert, or put this power into execution, but when, where, as oft, and in what manner, as God doth send, order, direct, and command him: and could not enter into the herd of Swine, until that Christ had ordered and commanded him; nor to touch Job or afflict him either in his goods or body, until that God had given him licence and order with express limitation how far he should proceed, and no further. In all which there appeareth nothing at all of his power, but his malice and evil will; and what was effected, was the hand of the Lord, and he but the bare Instrument to execute and perform the command. Therefore to ascribe to the Devil the efficiency of those operations we do not clearly understand, is to allow him a kind of Omnipotency, and both to rob God and Nature of that which belongeth unto them; for the Almighty doth work whatsoever he pleases both in Heaven and Earth, and it is he that worketh all in all. And the Devil is but as Gods Executioner to fulfil his will in tempting men, and punishing the wicked, and can act nothing but as God commands him, except the acts of his wicked and depraved will; for he is with all his Angels delivered into chains of darkness to be reserved unto Judgment. To this purpose there is a very true and Christian saying of St. Augustine in these words: “Diabolus plerumq; vult nocere, & non potest, quia potestas ista est sub potestate: nam si tantum posset nocere Diabolus quantum vult, aliquis justorum non remaneret.”

5. The last Rule I shall observe is, That men, if they mean to profit by reading Controversies of this nature, they must prudently and deliberately consider the design that Authors have had in writing. For though it be the general pretence of all, that they write to confute errours, and to maintain truth, yet very few in Disputes of this nature have sincerely performed this pretended end. For some have written (as we shall hereafter make manifest in due place) upon designed purpose, thereby to establish some points in their corrupted and superstitious Religion. Some because of their own lucre and profit arising by the upholding of these opinions of the great power and performances of Witches, as did all the Inquisitors and their Adherents, having a share in the condemned Witches goods. Others have written in these Subjects meerly for ostentation and vain-glory, to get a name that they were learned and able persons: of all which the judicious Readers ought to beware of, and to consider. There is another main scandal that Witchmongers usually (especially of late) cast upon those that oppose their gross, impious, and blasphemous opinions; but I cannot seasonably give answer unto it, untill I have laid down the state of the question, upon which the substance of this Treatise is grounded, and therefore shall proceed to its Explication.

CHAP. II.

Of the Notion, Conception, and Description of Witches and Witchcraft, according to divers Authors, and in what sense they may be granted, and in what sense and respect they are denied.

Those that are Masters in Ethicks teach us, that every Vertue hath on either side one Vice in the extreme, and that Vertue only consists in the mean, which how hard that mean is to be kept in any thing, the Writings and Actions of the most Men do sufficiently inform us. This is manifest, that not many years ago the truth of Philosophy lay inchained in the Prisons of the Schools, who thought there was no proficiency to be made therein, but only in their Logical and Systematical ways: so that (in a manner) all liberty was taken away both in writing and speaking, and nothing was to be allowed of that had not the Seal of Academick Sanction. And now when Philosophy hath gotten its freedom, to expatiate through the whole Sphere of Nature, by all sorts of inquiries and tryals, to compleat a perfect History of Nature, some are on the other hand grown so rigid and peremptory, that they will condemn all things that have not past the test of Experiment, or conduce not directly to that very point, and so would totally demolish that part of Academick and Formal Learning that teacheth men Method and the way of Logical procedure in writing of Controversies, and handling of Disputes. Whereas what is more necessary and commendable for those that treat of any controverted point in Writing or in other Disputations, than a clear and perspicuous Method, a right and exact stating of the Question in doubt, defining or describing the terms that are or may be equivocal, and dividing the whole into its due and genuine parts, distinguishing of things one from another, limiting things that are too general, and explaining of every thing that is doubtful? Those that would totally take away this so profitable and excellent a part of Learning, are not of my judgment, nor can be excused for having run into that extreme that is extremely condemnable. Let Experimental Philosophy have its place and due honour; and let also the Logical, Methodical, and Formal ways of the Academies have its due praise and commendation, as being both exceedingly profitable, though in different respects; otherwise, in writing and arguing, nothing but disorder and confusion will bear sway.

I have premised thus much, because the most of the Authors that have treated about this knotty and thorny Subject of Witches and Witchcraft, have been as confused and immethodical as any. For whereas the learned Orator Cicero tells us, that omnis discursus à definitione debet proficisci; and that it is also true, that what is not aptly and fitly defined or described, as far as the Subject will admit of, is never perfectly understood: yet have the most of these Authors (which are numerous) laid down no perfect description of a Witch or Witchcraft, nor explained fully what they meant by that name, notion, or conception. And therefore, lest I become guilty of the same fault, I shall lay down what the most considerable Authors that have treated of this Subject, do mean or intend by this word Witch, and Witchcraft, and shall fully explain in what notion or sense I either allow or deny them, and their actions, and that in this order, and in these Particulars following.

1. Though an argument taken à denotatione nominis be of little weight or validity, and that the industrious and sharp-witted person Galen doth seem to make little account of words, that is, in this respect, when we would only understand the nature of things, yet in another respect he concludeth thus: “Verùm qui alterum docere volet quæ ipse tenet, huic prorsus nominibus propter res uti est opus.” Now the handling of Controversies is chiefly and principally to inform others, and teach them the truth, and to discover errours; therefore in this respect the explication and denotation of words is exceeding profitable and necessary: and so Plato in Cratylo tells us: “Nomen itaq; rerum, substantiam docendi discernendiq; instrumentum est.” And it being a manifest truth, that words are but the making forth of those notions that we have of things, and ought to be subjected to things, and not things to words: if our notions do not agree with the things themselves, then we have received false Idola or images of them; but if we have conceived them aright, and do not express them fitly and congruously, then we shall hardly make others understand us aright, nor can clearly open unto them the doctrine that we would teach them.

2. But to come to the signification and acceptation of the words that those Authors, who have magnified and defended the power of Witches, have used to express their notions by, we shall find them to be so far fetcht, so metaphorical, and improperly applied, that no rational or understanding man can tell us what to make of them. And if we take the notion, as they do, of a killing and murthering Witch, with the rest of the adjuncts, which they couple with it, we shall not be able to find a proper and significative word, either in the Hebrew, Greek, Latine, French, Spanish, Italian, or High-Dutch, but a multitude or a Ferrago of words, whereof not one doth properly signifie any such thing, as they would make us believe, by the notion that they maintain of a Witch: of which we shall principally note these.

1. For the Hebrew words used in the Old Testament we shall not mention them here, but afterward, where we speak of the mistranslation of them, and therefore shall pursue them in the Latine, and other Languages. And first they sometimes use the word Lamia in the Latine, Λάμια in Greek, which Gesner and others tell us doth signifie a terrestrial Creature, or a voracious fish, as also a Spectrum or Phantasm. And this was supposed to be a Creature with a face like a Woman, and feet like a Horse or an Ass, such as (indeed) neither is, nor ever was in rerum natura, but was only a figment devised to affright children withal. But if we will believe Poetical Fables, the Romances of Philostratus concerning Apollonius, or the lying Diary of his Man Damis, we must take it to be a Spirit or Apparition, such as the Greeks called Empusæ, that went upon one leg, and had eyes that they could take forth, and set in, when they pleased. And such a monstrous Fable and Lye was a sufficient ground for doting Witchmongers to build their incredible stories of the power and actions of Witches upon, having no proper word for such a Witch as they falsely believe and suppose. Though there be a Text in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, that hath given occasion or colour to this vain opinion, especially as the vulgar Latine renders it, which is thus: Sed & Lamiæ nudaverunt mammam, lactaverunt catulos suos. Filia populi mei crudelis, quasi struthio in deserto. The French render it, The Dragons have made bare their breasts: and so have also the Italians in their Translation retained the words Dragon and Ostrich; and also the Septuagint render the words δράχοντες and στρουθίον. And Luther in his Translation hath kept the same words, though the Germans call =Lamia Ein Rachtsgeist=. But our own Translation hath come more near the truth: Even the Sea-monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the Daughter of my people are become cruel like the Ostriches in the wilderness. And Arias Montanus gives it thus: Etiam draco——‏תנין‎ Tannin (which signifieth a Dragon, Serpent, Whale, or other Sea-creatures) solverunt mammam, lactaverunt catulos suos: Filia populi mei in crudelem, veluti ululæ in deserto. But none hath come up close to the mark but Junius and Tremellius, who render the place thus: Etiam Phocæ præbent mammam, lactant catulos suos, quomodo filia populi mei, propter crudelem inimicum, est similis ululis in deserto. And the Notes upon the place do make it plain: “Vox quidem Hebræa latè patet, significans serpentes & reptilia magna, sive terrestria sive aquatilia; sed cùm non omnium reptilium sint mammæ, neq; aquaticorum sint ii quos Propheta vocat catulos; necesse fuit hunc locum ad Phocas, id est marinos vitulos accommodari, qui à natura sint quasi Amphibii. Nam Draconibus accommodari non potest, cùm volucrium solus vespertilio mammas habeat: serpentium terrestrium nulla species mammata est, ac proinde hæc ad marinum istud genus referri debent.”

2. Another far fetcht and improperly applied name to Witches, is Strix, and so some Authors call them Striges; when as the word Strix doth properly signifie a nocturnal bird, à stridendo sic dicta, that do use to suck the dugs of Goats, and also of young children, which we shall shew hereafter to be a Truth, and no Fable, as Ovid saith,

Nocte volant, puerósq; petunt nutricis egentes, Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis. Carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera rostris, Et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent. Est illis strigilis nomen; sed nominis hujus Causa, quòd horrendâ stridere nocte solent.

This is that sort of bird that Gesner calleth Caprimulgus, and the Greeks Ἀιγαθήλας, the Germans =Rachtvogel= or =Rachtraven=, the Hebrews ‏לילית‎ Lillith, as is said in Isaiah: Quin & ibi subitò quievit strix (seu lamia) & invenit sibi requiem. It is taken to be a kind of Owl, little bigger than an Ousel, and less than a Cuckow, they are blind upon the day, and flye abroad upon the nights, making an horrible noise, and were to be found about Rome, Helvetia, and Crete or Candy, and do certainly suck the dugs of Goats, that thereby they waste away and become blind. And that they are also sometimes found in Denmark, that learned Physician and laborious Anatomist Bartholinus doth make manifest, and that they do suck the breasts or navils of young children. Now what affinity hath this to a Witch or Witchcraft? but that Witchmongers would bring in any allusion or Metaphor, though never so impertinent or incongruous? For if it were transferred to the actions of Witches, yet as Calepine tells us: Ab hujus avis nocumento striges appellamus mulieres puellulos fascinantes suo contactu, & lactis mammarúmq; oblatione. So that if the assimulation were proper in any proportion or particular, those Women they do account Witches, do but hurt the little children with the virulent steams of their breath, and the effluviums that issue from their filthy and polluted bodies, and so wrought by contact and contrectation, by which the contagious poyson is conveyed, but not by Witchcraft.

3. There is another word that they apply to Witches, as insignificant and improper as the other, and that is Sortilegus, χρησμολόγος, a Teller of Fortunes by Lots or Cuts: and Lambertus Danæus, who in other things was a judicious and learned person, yet doted extremely about this opinion, calling a Witch Sortiarius, deriving it from Sortilegus, which the French call Sorcier. Now what affinity or congruity hath casting or using of Lots with that which these men call Witchcraft? surely none at all. For though Lots may, like the best things, be abused and wrested to a vain or evil end, yet are they not altogether evil, but that a civil and lawful use may be made of them, as is manifest this day at the famous City of Venice, where their chief Officers are chosen by them. And also there hath been a godly and divine use made of them even by the Apostles themselves, in the deciding of the Election of Barsabas and Matthias, upon the latter of which the Lot fell, and so he was numbred with the eleven Apostles. And Solomon tells us, The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. And sure these men were at a loss to find a suitable word to fix upon these Creatures, to whom they ascribe such impossible and incredible actions, when they were fain to bring this appellation of Sortilegus, that hath no kinship at all with such Witches, as they mean and intend.

4. Sometimes they call them by the name Saga, which signifieth no more than a Wife and subtil Woman, being derived à sagiendo to perceive quickly, or to smell a thing quickly forth, which the Germans call =Vnhold=, which is no more than malevolus, or evil-willed.

5. They use the word Veneficus, venefica, and veneficium, and this in its proper signification and derivation from the Latine, doth import no more than a Poysoner, or to make poyson, venenum facere, and so might perhaps be given unto them, because by Tradition they had learned several ways to poyson secretly and strangely, as doubtless there may be divers hidden and not ordinarily known ways (as we shall shew hereafter) by which either by smelling, tasting, touching (and it may be by sight) they could kill and destroy, though the means they used, and the effects produced, were meerly natural; yet because the manner was very occult and unperceivable, it was through ignorance and want of due inspection into the matters accounted Diabolical; when there was no more of a Devil in the business, than is in a Thief or Murtherer, but only in the Use and Application, which is to steal, kill, or destroy. And this, though now improperly and abusively called Witchcraft, doth but signifie poysoning, and so the French call it Empoisonnement, and the Italians Veneficio or Avenenatione, and the Germans =Vergifftung=, which all amount to one purpose. And this Veneficium or poysoning the Greeks call Φαρμάκευσις and Φαρμακία from Φάρμακον Medicamentum v.l. Venenum; for sometimes it was taken in the better sense for a curing and healing Medicine; and sometimes in the worse for poyson that did kill or destroy. Neither can it be found in any Greek Author to signifie any more, than such men or women that used Charms and Incantations, and were believed by the Vulgar to effect strange things by them, when in truth and indeed they effected nothing at all but by natural means and secret poysons, and from thence had these names. And the Poets spoke of them to adorn and imbellish their Poems withal, according to common opinion; not that either they themselves believed the things to be so done, as the Vulgar believed, nor to give credit to such false Fables and impossibilities; but to make their Poems more delectable and welcome to the common people, who are usually taken with such fond Romantick stories and lyes. But after the year 1300. when the Spanish Inquisitors, the Popish Doctors and Writers had found the sweetness and benefit of the confiscated Goods of those that they had caused to be accused and condemned for Witches, in their sense then these words either in the Greek or Latine were wrested to signifie a Witch that made a visible and corporeal League with the Devil, when in the true sense of them they did but signifie a secret Poysoner. So that all things were hurried, though never so improper and dissonant, to be made serviceable to their filthy lucre and avaritious self-endedness. Templum venale Deúsq;.

6. Lastly, For Witchcraft they used the Latine Fascinum and Fascinatio, and so they called a Witch Fascinator and Fascinatrix, and this the Greeks called Βασκανίον, Βασκανία, Fascinum, Fascinatio, also invidia, odium, seu invidentia, ἀπὸ τοῦ Βασκανεῖν, à fascinando, seu oculis occidendo: the Germans call it =Zaubery=, and =Verzauberung=, and sometimes =Hexenwerk=; the French Ensorcellement and Sorcelerie; the Italians Lestrigare & amaliare, amaliamento; the Belgicks =Betoovenge=: the Saxons called them and it Ƿɩcce and Ƿɩcce-cꞃeeꝼꞇ, from whence we have the name Witch and Witchcraft, that signified Saga, Venefica, Lamia, and Fascinum, Magia, Incantatio, Fascinatio, Præstigium: of which (because we shall have occasion to speak more of it hereafter) we shall here only note these few things.

1. It is taken sometimes for Envy and Malice, because those that were supposed to use Fascination, did direct it to one Creature more than another through their envious minds, as may be perceived by some few Authors: And so was accounted a kind of eye-biting whereby (as the Vulgar believed) children did wax lean, and pined away, the original whereof they referred to the crooked and wry looks of malicious persons, never examining the truth of the matter of fact, whether those children that pined away, had any natural disease or not, that caused that macilency or pining away; nor considered, whether or no there was any efficiency in the envy or wry looks of those malicious persons, but vainly ascribed effects to those things that had in them no causality at all to produce such effects.

2. Sometimes this kind of Fascination was ascribed to the sore or infected eyes of those that were accounted causers of hurt thereby in others, and in this sense Virgil saith: Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos. And by this no more could be understood, but that those that had infected and sore eyes might infect others, and this was nothing but contagion, or corrupt steams issuing from one body to another, which may happen in many diseases, as is manifest by the Writings of divers learned Physicians, as in bodies infected with the Plague, French Pox, Leprosie, Ophthalmies, and such like.

3. Sometimes Fascination is taken for some kind of Incantation, that by virtue of Words or Charms doth perform some strange things; but concerning this there is such incertainty of the opinions of the Learned, some flatly denying that Words or Charms have in them any natural efficacy at all; others as strongly affirming it, that of this point it is very difficult to make a clear determination: and therefore we shall say but this of it here, that the Angelical Doctor did conclude well in this particular, in these words: “Ad sciendum autem quid sit fascinatio, sciendum est quòd secundùm glossam fascinatio propriè dicitur ludificatio sensus, quæ per artes magicas fieri consuevit, puta, cum hominem facit aspectibus aliorum apparere leonem, vel cornutum, & hujusmodi.”

Having been thus large in considering the names and denomination given to those persons that are esteemed Witches, and finding them to be so improper, impertinent, various, and uncertain, let us now proceed to the notion and acceptation of Witchcraft and Witches, to try if in that we can find any more certainty or consonancy, and herein we shall produce some of the chief descriptions that are given of them by several Authors; for to quote all would be tedious and superfluous. Those that are or may be accounted Witches we rank in these two orders.

1. Those that were and are active deceivers, and are both by practice and purpose notorious Impostors, though they shadow their delusive and cheating knaveries under divers and various pretences; some pretending to do their Feats by Astrology (which is a general Cheat as it is commonly used) some by a pretended gift from God, when they are notoriously drunken, debauched, and blasphemous persons, such as of very late years was the Cobler that lived upon Ellill Moor, named Richmond, and divers others that I could name, but that in modesty I would spare their reputations: some by pretending skill in Natural Magick, when indeed they can hardly read English truly; some by pretending a familiar Spirit, as one Thomas Bolton near Knaresborough in Yorkshire, when indeed and in truth they have no other Familiar but their own Spirit of lying and deceiving: some by pretending to reveal things in Crystal-glasses or Beryls, as was well known to be pretended by Doctor Lamb, and divers others that I have known. And some by pretending to conjure and call up Devils, or the Spirits of men departed; and some by many other ways and means that are not necessary to be named here; for errour and deceit have a numerous train of Followers and Disciples. And the existence of such kind of Witches as these (if you will needs call them by that name, and not by their proper titles, which are, that they truly are Deceivers, Cheaters, Couseners, and Impostors) I willingly acknowledge, as having been, and are to be found in all ages, and these sorts are also acknowledged by Wierus, Mr. Scot, Johannes Lazarus Gutierius, Tobias Tandlerus, Hieronymus Nymannus, Martinius Biermannus, and all the rest, that notwithstanding did with might and main oppose the gross Tenent of the common Witchmongers.

And of this sort were all those several differences of Diviners, Witches, or Deceivers named in the Scriptures, as Mr. Ady hath sufficiently declared in this passage, which we shall transcribe. “A Witch is a man or woman that practiseth Devillish crafts of seducing the people for gain, from the knowledge and worship of God, and from the truth, to vain credulity (or believing of lyes) or to the worshipping of Idols”. And again he saith: “Witchcraft is a Devillish craft of seducing the people for gain, from the knowledge and worship of God, and from his truth, to vain credulity (or believing of lyes) or to the worshipping of Idols. That it is a Craft truly so called, and likewise that it is for gain, is proved Act. 16. 16, 19. The Maid that followed Paul crying, brought in her Master much gain; and that it is a Craft of perverting the people, or seducing them from God and his Truth, is proved Act. 6. 7, 8. Elimas the Sorcerer laboured to pervert Deputy from the Faith. So likewise Act. 8. 9, 10, 11. it doth more plainly prove all these words: And there was a man before in the City called Simon, which used Witchcraft, and bewitched the people of Samaria, saying, That he himself was some great man, to whom they gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God, and gave heed unto him, because that of long time he had bewitched them with Sorceries. How bewitched them with Sorceries? That is, seduced them with Devillish Crafts: (as the Greek and also Tremelius Latine Translation do more plainly illustrate.) In this sense speaketh Paul to the Galatians 3. 1. O foolish Galathians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth? And that a Witch or Witchcraft is taken in no other sense in all the Scripture, it appeareth by the whole current of the Scriptures, as you may see in this Book.” But against this Mr. Glanvil and the rest of his opinion will object and say, that it is hard and severe that Cheaters and Impostors should be ranked with Inchanters, and such as converse with Devils and with Idolaters, and that of this it is hard to give a reason. To this we shall give this full responsion.

1. We are to consider in what precise respect actions are in Sacred Writ called sinful and wicked, and wherefore they have such severe punishments annexed unto them, and we shall find that this is not ratione medii vel actùs, sed finis. As for instance and illustration: we shall find that the Law was peremptory in point of adultery, which saith: If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them dye. Now the act of copulation, as it is an act, is all one with a lawful wife, and with the wife of another man (that is, one generically considered) and yet the one is lawful, as agreeing with Gods Law and Ordinance, and the other is unlawful, sinful, wicked, and therefore to be punished with death, because it is an aberration from the Divine Ordinance, and contrary to the Command of God, who saith, Thou shalt not commit adultery. So though the things committed by these persons, were or might be performed by natural or artificial means, that simply in themselves were not sinful, or so severely punishable, yet were they evil in regard of the end, which was to deceive and seduce the people to Idolatry.

Psal. 115. 4, 5, 6, 7. ibid. Psal. 135. 17.

2. Therefore the true and punctual reason why these persons (termed Witches or Diviners) are by the Law of God so severely to be punished, is, because they drew the people to Idolatry, the thing that God most hateth, and against which he hath pronounced the most severe and terriblest judgments of all. Nay these people were the very false Prophets, especially of one sort, and the very Priests to the Idols, as is manifest in the wicked and filthy Idolatry of all sorts set up and practised by Manasses, even all the sorts (or the most of them) mentioned in the Scriptures. And God declareth himself to be a jealous God, and that he will not give his glory to another, but is the only Lord God, and him only we ought to serve; and therefore will most severely punish those that attribute that unto Idols, that is only proper unto himself: and for this cause, and upon this ground are all those terrible Comminations used in the Scriptures, and especially against this sort of people, who were the chief Instruments of promoting Idol-worship, ascribing the power of a Deity unto them, when the Prophet tells us, Their idols are silver and gold, the work of mens hands; they have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; they have hands but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not, neither speak they through their throat; neither is there any breath in their mouths.