N00531:82
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.
I hear that of late some in a Neighbour Colony have been playing with this diabolical invention. It is to be Lamented that in such a Land of uprightness as New-England once was, a practice which Protestant writers generally condemn as sinful, and which the more sober and I earned men amongst Papists themselves have not only judged unlawful but (to express it in their own Terms) to be no less than a Mortal Sin, should ever be heard of. Were it not that the Coming of Christ to Judge tee earth draweth near, I should think that such Practises are an unhappy omen that the Devil and Pagans will get these dark Territories into their Possession again. But that I may not be thought to have no Reason for my calling the impleaded Experiment into Question, I have these these things further to allege against it.
I hear that of late some in a Neighbour Colony have been playing with this diabolical invention. It is to be Lamented that in such a Land of uprightness as New-England once was, a practice which Protestant writers generally condemn as sinful, and which the more sober and I earned men amongst Papists themselves have not only judged unlawful but (to express it in their owne Terms) to be no less than a Mortal Sin, should ever be heard of. Were it not that the Coming of Christ to Judge tee earth draw•th near, I should think that such Practises are an unhappy omen that the Devil and Pagans will get these dark Territories into their Possession again. But that I may not be thought to have no Reason for my calling the impleaded Experiment into Question, I have these these things further to all•dge against it.
1. It has been rejected long agon, by Christian Nations as a thing Superstitious and diabolical. In Italy and Spain it is wholly disused. And (a)in the Low Countries, and in France, where the Judges are Men of Learning. In some parts of Germany old Pag•anish Customs are observed more then in other Countries, nevertheless all the