A09402:11
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…
A discourse of the damned art of witchcraft so far forth as it is revealed in the Scriptures, and manifest by true experience. Framed and delivered by M. William Perkins, in his ordinary course of preaching, and now published by Tho. Pickering Bachelor of Divinity, and minister of Finchingfield in Essex. Whereunto is adjoined a twofold table; one of the order and heads of the treatise; another of the texts of Scripture explained, or vindicated from the corrupt interpretation of the adversary.A discourse of the damned art of witchcraft so farre forth as it is reuealed in the Scriptures, and manifest by true experience. Framed and deliuered by M. William Perkins, in his ordinarie course of preaching, and now published by Tho. Pickering Batchelour of Diuinitie, and minister of Finchingfield in Essex. Whereunto is adioyned a twofold table; one of the order and heades of the treatise; another of the texts of Scripture explaned, or vindicated from the corrupt interpretation of the aduersarie.
Cambridge: printed by Cantrell Legge, 1610Cambridge: printed by Cantrel Legge, 1610
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The Magicians of Persia, to admit of corruptions in their ancient good learning, and to give themselves, upon reading the fabulous writings of the Chaldean Sorcerers,1 to the study of unlawful Arts invented by himself, both before and after the times of Daniel the Prophet: Lastly, the ancient Romans upon a superstitious do•age, never to undertake any business of weight, sissy auspicatò, unless they had lucky consent and warrant from the Colleges of their Augurors erected by Romul•u. Thirdly, there is a natural Distemper in the mind of man, showing it self in these particulars, That he cannot endure to stand in fear of imminent danger; ⟨image 5⟩That he swells in an high conceit of his own deserts, specially when he is in lower estate, then he would be; That he will not bear a wrong done, without revenge; That he rests not satisfied, with the measure of knowledge received, but affecteth the searching of things secret, and not revealed. When the mind is possessed with these troubled passions, with care to help it self; then comes the Devil, and ministereth occasion to use unlawful means in the general, and forceth the mind by continual suggestion, to determine it self in particular upon his own crafts. It was the case ofk Saul, and ofl Nebuchadnezzar. It caused many of the Heathen Philosophers, to go from Athens to Memphis, from Grecia to Syria, from men on earth to wicked Spirits in hell, to get more illumination at the hands of the Prince of darkness. It moved sundry ••al-contented Priests of Rome,4 to aspire unto the chair of Supremacy, by Diabolical assistance; yeab to exercise Magical arts, when they were Popes: and thereby to manifest indeed, that they were not the true Successors of Simon Peter, but heirs of the virtues of Simon that Magus, who bewitched the people of Samaria, and professed to do that by the great power of God, which he wrought by the aid and assistance of the Devil.