The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft, chapter 2: Of the Notion, Conception, and Description of Witches and Witchcraft (part 2 of 3)

1. Those that were and are active deceivers, and are both by practice and purpose notorious Impostors, though they shadow their delusive and cheating knaveries under divers and various pretences; some pretending to do their Feats by Astrology (which is a general Cheat as it is commonly used) some by a pretended gift from God, when they are notoriously drunken, debauched, and blasphemous persons, such as of very late years was the Cobler that lived upon Ellill Moor, named Richmond, and divers others that I could name, but that in modesty I would spare their reputations: some by pretending skill in Natural Magick, when indeed they can hardly read English truly; some by pretending a familiar Spirit, as one Thomas Bolton near Knaresborough in York-shire, when indeed and in truth they have no other Familiar but their own Spirit of lying and deceiving: some by pretending to reveal things in Crystalglasses or Beryls, as was well known to be pretended by Doctor Lamb, and divers others that I have known. And some by pretending to conjure and call up Devils, or the Spirits of men departed; and some by many other ways and means that are not necessary to be named here; for errour and deceit have a numerous train of Followers and Disciples. And the existence of such kind of Witches as these (if you will needs call them by that name, and not by their proper titles, which are, that they truly are Deceivers, Cheaters, Couseners, and Impostors) I willingly acknowledge, as having been, and are to be found in all ages, and these sorts are also acknowledged by Wierus, Mr. Scot, Johannes Lazarus Gutierius, Tobias Tandlerus, Hieronymus Nymannus, Martinius Biermannus, and all the rest, that notwithstanding did with might and main oppose the gross Tenent of the common Witchmongers.

And of this sort were all those several differences of Diviners, Witches, or Deceivers named in the Scriptures, as Mr. Ady hath sufficiently declared in this passage, which we shall transcribe. A Witch is a man or woman that practiseth Devillish crafts of seducing the people for gain, from the knowledge and worship of God, and from the truth, to vain credulity (or believing of lyes) or to the worshipping of Idols. And again he saith: Witchcraft is a Devillish craft of seducing the people for gain, from the knowledge and worship of God, and from his truth, to vain credulity (or believing of lyes) or to the worshipping of Idols. That it is a Craft truly so called, and likewise that it is for gain, is proved Act. 16. 16, 19. The Maid that followed Paul crying, brought in her Master much gain; and that it is a Craft of perverting the people, or seducing them from God and his Truth, is proved Act. 6. 7, 8. Elimas the Sorcerer laboured to pervert the Deputy from the Faith. So likewise Act. 8. 9, 10, 11. it doth more plainly prove all these words: And there was a man before in the City called Simon, which used Witchcraft, and bewitched the people of Samaria, saying, That he himself was some great man, to whom they gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God, and gave heed unto him, because that of long time he had bewitched them with Sorceries. How bewitched them with Sorceries? That is, seduced them with Devillish Crafts: (as the Greek and also Tremelius Latine Translation do more plainly illustrate.) In this sense speaketh Paul to the Galatians 3. 1. O foolish Galathians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth? And that a Witch or Witchcraft is taken in no other sense in all the Scripture, it appeareth by the whole current of the Scriptures, as you may see in this Book. But against this Mr. Glanvil and the rest of his opinion will object and say, that it is hard and severe that Cheaters and Impostors should be ranked with Inchanters, and such as converse with Devils and with Idolaters, and that of this it is hard to give a reason. To this we shall give this full responsion.

1. We are to consider in what precise respect actions are in Sacred Writ called sinful and wicked, and wherefore they have such severe punishments annexed unto them, and we shall find that this is not ratione medii vel actûs, sed finis. As for instance and illustration: we shall find that the Law was peremptory in point of adultery, which saith: If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them dye. Now the act of copulation, as it is an act, is all one with a lawful wife, and with the wife of another man (that is, one generically considered) and yet the one is lawful, as agreeing with Gods Law and Ordinance, and the other is unlawful, sinful, wicked, and therefore to be punished with death, because it is an aberration from the Divine Ordinance, and contrary to the Command of God, who saith, Thou shalt not commit adultery. So though the things committed by these persons, were or might be performed by natural or artificial means, that simply in themselves were not sinful, or so severely punishable, yet were they evil in regard of the end, which was to deceive and seduce the people to Idolatry.

2. Therefore the true and punctual reason why these persons (termed Witches or Diviners) are by the Law of God so severely to be punished, is, because they drew the people to Idolatry, the thing that God most hateth, and against which he hath pronounced the most severe and terriblest judgments of all. Nay these people were the very false Prophets, especially of one sort, and the very Priests to the Idols, as is manifest in the wicked and filthy Idolatry of all sorts set up and practised by Manasses, even all the sorts (or the most of them) mentioned in the Scriptures. And God declareth himself to be a jealous God, and that he will not give his glory to another, but is the only Lord God, and him only we ought to serve; and therefore will most severely punish those that attribute that unto Idols, that is only proper unto himself: and for this cause, and upon this ground are all those terrible Comminations used in the Scriptures, and especially against this sort of people, who were the chief Instruments of promoting Idolworship, ascribing the power of a Deity unto them, when the Prophet tells us, Their Idols are silver and gold, the work of mens hands; they have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; they have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not, neither speak they through their throat, neither is there any breath in their mouths.

3. That many great and abstruse things may be lawfully done by Natural Magick, is well known to the best Naturalists, and how great Feats may be performed by the Mathematicks and Mechanical Arts, are well known to the Learned; and that there is and may be a lawful use of Astrology, and many things may be foretold by it, few that are judicious are ignorant; that the Prognosticks in the Art of Medicine are necessary, and of much use and certainty, all learned Physicians know very well; that observing of times, and many other such like things may for divers respects be lawfully practised. But if all or any of these be used to draw people to Idolatry, and their strange effects ascribed unto dumb and dead Idols, then what horrible sin and abomination were this, and no punishment could be too heavy for it. And so it is in the case of these sort of people called Witches or Diviners, they perswaded the multitude, that their false Gods (or rather Devils) in their Idols, could foretel life or death, and so led the people a whoring after them, as Abaziah sent to inquire of the god of Ekron, whether he should recover or not, and therefore he had that sharp judgment, That he should not come down from that bed whither he was gone up, but should surely dye. And did not the Priests of Baal (which were the same rabble named Deut. 18. 10, 11, 12, 13, &c.) obstinately labour to make Ahab and all the people believe, that the Gods (or Devils) that they worshipped in their Idols, could and would answer by fire, and pertinaciously persisted in their obstinacy, cutting themselves with knives and lancets from morning until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, and yet nothing was effected? so that they were justly guilty of that punishment which they received, which was death, for ascribing that to a dead Idol, that none could perform, but the only true God of Israel, and yet in the mean time could neither by their own skill, nor the skill of their Idols foresee that sudden death that fell upon them: which punishment fell deservedly upon them, for labouring to deceive the people, and confirm them in Idolatry, in ascribing that unto a dead stock, which was only in the power of the Almighty to perform. So if all those sine Knacks and neat Tricks that Athanasius Kircher performed at Rome by the help and means of the Loadstone, and mentioned in his Book de Arte Magnetica, had been by him ascribed unto some Saint, thereby to have drawn the people to the adoration of that Saint, and so to Idolatry, it had been active imposture, deceit, and knavery in him, and he might justly have been inrolled in the Catalogue of these Witches or Diviners, and had really been an active Impostor, as they were, and so had deserved the same punishment: when on the contrary for ascribing effects unto their true and proper causes, and clearly shewing the manner and means of producing those effects, he hath justly deserved the title of a learned and honest man. And though a common Hocus Pocus man, or one that playeth Tricks of Leger-de-main or slight of hand, to get a livelihood by, do labour to make the ignorant multitude believe that he doth his Feats by virtue of his barbarous terms or non-significant words, or by the help of some familiar Spirit; must therefore a prudent or learned person believe the same, and not labour to understand that those pretences are but used the better to deceive the senses of the beholders, and so that pretence but a cheat and imposture?

4. We affirm that all these mentioned in the Scriptures (nay, and that the Priests attending all the so famoused Oracles) were but meer Cheaters and Impostors, and that for these reasons. 1. They could not be, nor were ignorant that all their numerous Idols were but the works of mens hands, and that they could not of themselves move, see, hear, smell, or breathe, much less eat and drink; and therefore were notorious Cheaters and Impostors in labouring to make the people believe the contrary. 2. They could not be ignorant but what answers were given, and what acts were done, were performed by themselves, and not by the Idols, and yet they laboured to make the people believe the contrary, as the Bramines and Priests do to this day all over the Eastern parts of Asia, and in many other places, and so must needs be notorious Knaves and Cheaters; because, as Isaiah saith, With part of the wood whereof he hath made himself an Idol, he maketh a fire and warmeth himself. 3. They could not be ignorant that their Idols could not, nor did declare any thing truly that was to come, but what Answers were given, or Divinations were uttered, were of their own devising and invention, and no other Devil in the case, but Diabolical inspirations in their minds. And this is manifest by their pitiful shuffling equivocations (especially of all the Oracles) their responsions being always ambiguous, and bearing a double sense, which caused Cardan to say: Oracula, si non essent ambig[…], non essent oracula. And commonly (if not always) they were given in the favour of those that gave the largest gifts, which made Demosthenes say, that the Oracle at Delphos did [non-Latin script], because it always spoke in favour of Philip and his proceedings. And it was with the Oracles, as with the Temple of Neptune, All the Offerings of those that escaped shipwrack were preserved, and to be seen; but of those that had suffered shipwrack, there was no memorial nor knowledge of their number: so, many have noted some few Hits of the Oracles, but few have noted their Misses, which doubtless were far the greater number. For so it is here in this North Country with our Figure-flingers and pretended Conjurers, Piss-Prophets, and Water-Witches, that if they hit once, it is cryed up and told every where; but if they erre an hundred times, it is soon buried in silence and oblivion, and one fool will not take warning at anothers being cheated and deceived. And that their Idols did not, nor could declare truly what was to come, is manifest by the Prophet who saith: Let them bring them forth (that is, their Idols) and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter […]nd of them; or declare us things for to come. Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea do good or do […]vil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together. Yet these miserable, cheating, dissembling Wretches that would have had the multitude to have believed, that their Idols could have foretold truly almost any thing; yet neither their Idols, nor the Gods (or Devils) they pretended to be in them, nor themselves could foretel or foresee their own destruction, as is manifest in the Prophets of Baal in the time of Elijah, who went up to Mount Carmel to advance the worship and power of their Idols, but did not foresee it should be all their destructions and deaths. Doubtless those that in the Book of Daniel are called Wise-men, Magicians, Astrologers, Sorcerers, and Chaldeans were endowed with much rare knowledge, both in respect of Nature and Art: for if their knowledge had been Diabolical, without question Daniel would hardly have interceded for them, yet could they not reveal what the Kings dream was that was gone from him, nor foresee that they run the hazard of their lives; but did conclude that none other could shew it, except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. 4. In matters of fact it appeareth, that they were active deceivers and deluders, as is manifest when Pharaoh had dreamed two dreams, that he called and sent for all the Magicians and Wise-men of Egypt; but they could not interpret them unto him. Junius and Tremelius render it: Omnes Magos Aegypti, & omnes Sapientes ejus. The vulgar Latine (or that which is improperly called St. Hieromes Translation) gives it: Misit ad omnes Conjectores Aegypti, cunctôs q; Sapientes. And these doubtless Pharaoh would not have sent for, but that either upon his own knowledge he knew that they professed the ability of the interpretation of dreams, and (perhaps) as the sequel shewed, greater matters; or else upon common repute, or relation of others, and that must needs arise from their own profession of the knowledge of such abstruse matters: and so of necessity must have pretended greater matters, than when they came to tryal they were able to perform, and so must needs be Impostors. And the Woman at Endor (falsely called a Witch, or a Woman that had a familiar Spirit, when in the Hebrew she is only called the Mistress of the Bottle, as we shall manifest hereafter) must needs be a Deceiver and Impostor, because she pretended to bring up whomsoever Saul desired, which was a thing absolutely not in her power, as I shall undeniably prove afterwards. And notwithstanding the stories of Eusebius, and the strong endeavours of Doctor Hamond to make it good, that Simon Magus was a person that had peculiar and corporeal converse with the Devil, and by that league and converse could perform strange and wonderful things; yet was he but a notorious Impostor, as appeareth by two reasons. 1. The Text saith, That he gave out that himself was some great one, that is, that he had great skill, and was able to perform wonderful things. This sheweth his presumption and pretence, the certain badge of a Deceiver and Cheater. 2. But could do little, except some petty jugling Tricks of Leger-de-main, confederacy, and the like; because he wondred, or was amazed, beholding the Miracles and signs which were done, and those were, that unclean Spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: And many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. Now if he had been any great Magician, or could have performed any great things, he could not have so much wondred at those things that Philip wrought: or if he could have flown in the air, as Eusebius (or those that have foisted such incredible lyes into his Writings) pretendeth, then he need not have been so amazed at the miracles and signs that the Apostles wrought, nor to have offered to have bought the gift of bestowing the Holy Ghost, but only because he was a notorious Dissembler and Impostor. And if he had been in league with the Devil, surely he might have cast forth Devils by the power of Belzebub the Prince of Devils: all which do plainly conclude him to be an absolute Cheater and Impostor. And the story of Bel and the Dragon (though but an Apocryphal pi[…]ce, yet very ancient, and of sufficient credit as to matter of fact) doth evidently demonstrate, that these sort of people were abominable Cheaters and Impostors, and were not endowed with any supernatural power, nor had assistance of any visible Demon, but only the Devil of deceit and cousenage in their own breasts, and so were, as Cardan saith, Carnales Daemones ipsis Daemonibus callidiores.