N00531:86
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.
4. It is a Tempting of God when men put the Innocency of their Fellow-Creatures upon such Trials. To desire the Almighty to show a Miracle to clear the Innocent, or to Convict the guilty is a most Presumptuous Tempting of him. Was it not a Miracle when Peter was kept from Sinking under the Water by the Omnipotency of Christ. As for Satan, we know that his ambition is to make his Servants believe that his Power is equal to Gods, and that therefore he can preserve whom he pleaseth. I have read (g)of certain Magicians, who were seen walking on the Water. If then Guilty persons shall Float on the Waters, either it is the Devil that causeth them to do so, (as no doubt it is) and what have men to do to set the Devil on work; or else it is a divine Miracle, like that of Peters not Sinking, or that of the Iron that Swam at the word of Elisha. And shall men try whether God will work a Miracle to make a Discovery? If a Crime cannot be found out but by Miracle, it is not for any Judge on Earth to usurp that Judgment which is reserved for the Divine Throne.
4. It is a Tempting of God when men put the Innocency of their Fellow-Creatures upon such Tryals. To desire the Almighty to shew a Miracle to clear the Innocent, or to Convict the guilty is a most Presumptuous Tempting of him. Was it not a Miracle when Peter was kept from Sinking under the Water by the Omnipotency of Christ. As for Satan, we know that his ambition is to make his Servants believe that his Power is equal to Gods, and that therefore he can preserve whom he pleaseth. I have read (g)of certain Magicians, who were seen walking on the Water. If then Guilty persons shall Float on the Waters, either it is the Devil that causeth them to do so, (as no doubt it is) and what have men to do to set the Devil on work; or else it is a divine Miracle, like that of Peters not Sinking, or that of the Iron that Swam at the word of Elisha. And shall men try whether God will work a Miracle to make a Discovery? If a Crime cannot be found out but by Miracle, it is not for any Judge on Earth to usurp that Judgment which is reserved for the Divine Throne.
- (g)Caesarius •i•. 9.