N00531:28
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.
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 (t)only the Divine Providence did wonderfully vindicate him from that as well as from some other soul Aspersions. The Waldenses (although the scriptures call them Saints, Rev: 13. 7.) have been traduced by Satan and by the world as Horrible witches. So have others in other places, only because they have done extraordinary things by their prayers. It is by many Authors related that a City in France was molested with a Diabolical Spectre, which the People were wont to call Hugon. ⟨p. 9⟩Near that place a number of Protestants were wont to meet to serve God. Whence the Professors of the true Reformed Religion were nick-named Huguenots by the Papists, who designed to render them before the world as the servants and worshippers of that Demon, that went under the name of Hugon. And how often have I read in Books written by Jesuits, that Luther was a Wizard, & that he did himself confess that he had Familiarity with Satan! Most impudent Untruths! nor are these things to be wondered at, since the Holy Son of God himself was reputed a Magician, and one that had Familiarity with the greatest of Devils. The Blaspheming Pharisees said, He casts out the Devils through' the Prince of Devils.