N00531:27
Cases of conscience concerning evil spirits personating men, witchcrafts, infallible proofs of guilt in…
Cases of conscience concerning evil spirits personating men, witchcrafts, infallible proofs of guilt in such as are accused with that crime. All considered according to the Scriptures, history, experience, and the judgment of many learned men. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard College, at Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Six lines of quotations]
Boston printed, : and sold by Benjamin Harris at the London Coffee-House., 1693
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.
It has been related of Luther, •hat after he had been Fasting and Praying in his Study, the Devil comes pretending to be Christ, but Luther saying, away thou confounded Devil, I acknowledge no Christ but what is in my Bible, nothing more was seen. Thus then the Devil is able (by Divine Permission) to Change himself into what Form or Figure he pleaseth,
It has been related of Luther, •hat after he had been Fasting and Praying in his Study, the Devil comes pretending to be Christ, but Luther saying, away thou confounded Devil, I acknowledg no Christ but what is in my Bible, nothing more was seen. Thus then the Devil is able (by Divine Permission) to Change himself into what Form or Figure he pl•aseth,
Omnia transformat sese in miracula rerum.
A Third Scripture to our purpose is that, in Re• 12 10 where the Devil is called the Accuser of the Brethren Such is the malice and Impudence of the Devil, as that he does accuse good men and that before God, and that not only of such Faults as they really are guilty of, he accused Joshua with his filthy garments, when through' his Indulgence some of his Family had transgressed by unlawful marriages. Zac: 3. 23. with Ezra: 10. 18. but also with such Crimes, as they are altogether free from. He represented the Primitive Christians as the vilest of men, and as if at their meetings they did commit the most nefandous Villainies that ever were known. And that not only innocent but eminently Pious persons should through' the malice of the Devil be accused with the Crime of witchcraft is no new thing. Such an affliction did the Lord see meet to exercise the great Athanasius with