A discourse of the damned art of witchcraft so far forth as it is…A discourse of the damned art of witchcraft so farre forth as it is…

Now the Grounds whereupon he buildeth his proceedings for certainty, are cunningly gathered from the disposition of mans heart, by natural all corruption, and that in three special instances. First, he knows that Man naturally ⟨image 4⟩out of the light of grace, hath but¹ a mere Saul, endued only with some general and confused notions; and as for matters of deeper apprehension touching God and heavenly things, there is a veil of ignorance and blindness drawn over the eyes of his mind. Whereupon, though he be apt to know and worship a God, and learn his will, yet for want of information by the word, he is prone to err in the practise of his notion. Here Satan applies himself to mans measure, and at his own will, draws the mind into error, by his delusions, and impostures. This made the^g Samaritans in the Old Testament, and the superstitious^h Athenians in the New, to worship an unknown God, that is theⁱ Devil. Hence it was, that the greatest Clerks of Greece,^k Thales, Plato, and the rest, for want of a better light, sought unto the Wizards of Egypt, whom they called Prophets, men instructed by Satan in the grounds of Divination. And of this sort were Jannes and lambres mentioned in the ^lScriptures. Hence it was also that the ancient Heathen, having^m no Law and Testimony from God, inquired at Soothsayers, and murmuring Enchanters; others betook themselves, in matters of doubt and difficulty, to the old Oracles ofⁿ Jupiter Ammon in Libya, of^o Jupiter Dodonaeus at Dodona in Epirus; of