A Treatise of Witchcraft | Page 3

craued mercy of God, and pardon for her offences, with other more specialties afterward expressed. And thus I end, taking my leaue, and commending thee to the gracious guidance and preseruation of our good God in our blessed Sauiour Christ Iesus._
Thine euer in the Lord,
A. ROBERTS.
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A TREATISE OF THE CONFESSION AND EXECVTION OF _MARY SMITH, CONVICTED OF WITCHCRAFT_, and condemned for the same: of her contract vocally & in solemne tearmes made with the Diuell; by whose meanes she hurt sundry persons whom she enuied, with some necessary Propositions added thereunto, discouering the wickednesse of that damnable Art, and diuers other speciall poynts, not impertinent vnto the same, such as ought diligently of euery Christian to bee considered.
There is some diuersitie of iudgement among the learned, who should be the first Author and Inuenter of Magicall and curious Arts. The most generall occurrence of opinion is, that they fetch their pedigree from the [a]Persians, who searching more deeply into the secrets of Nature then others, and not contented to bound themselues within the limits thereof, fell foule of the Diuell, and were insnared in his nets.
[Footnote a: _Augustinus de diuinatione D?monum: & de Ciuitate Dei. lib. 7. cap. 35. Plinius historia naturalis lib. 30. cap. 1._]
And among these, the publisher vnto the world was Zoroaster, who so soone as he by birth[b] entred the world, contrary to the vsuall condition of other men, laughed (whereas the beginning of our life is a sob, the end a sigh) and this was ominous to himselfe, no warrantise for the enioying of the pleasures of this life, ouercome in battell by _Ninus_[c] King of the Assirians, and ending his dayes by the stroake of a thunder-bolt, and could not, though a famous Sorcerer, either fore-see, or preuent his owne destinie. And because he writ many bookes of this damnable Art, and left them to posterity, may well be accounted a chiefe maister of the same. But the Diuell[d] must haue the precedencie, whose schollers both he and the rest were, who followed treading in his steps. For he taught them South-saying, Auguration, Necromancie, and the rest, meere delusions, aiming therein at no other marke, then to with draw men from the true worshipping of God. And all these pernitious practises are fast tied together by the tailes, though their faces looke sundry wayes; and therefore the Professors thereof are stiled by sundry names, as Magitians, Necromancers, Inchanters, Wisards, Hagges, Fortune-tellers, Diuiners, Witches, Cunning Men, and Women, &c. Whose Art is such a hidden mystery of[e] wickednesse, and so vnsearchable a depth of Sathan, that neither the secrets of the one can be discouered, nor the bottome of the other further sounded, then either the practisers thereof themselues by their owne voluntary confessions made, or procured by order of Iustice (according to the manner of that Countrey where they be questioned) haue acknowledged, or is manifested by the sundry mischiefes done of them vnto others, proued by impartiall testimonies vpon oath, and by vehement presumptions confirmed, or else communicated vnto vs in the learned Treatises, and discourses of ancient and late Writers gathered from the same grounds. And[f] although this Hellish Art be not now so frequent as heretofore, since the Pagans haue beene conuerted vnto Christianity, and the thick fogges of Popery ouer-mantling the bright shining beames of the Gospel of Iesus Christ (who came to dissolue the workes of the Diuell _.1. Ioh. 3. 8._) and were by the sincere and powerfull preaching therof dispersed; yet considering these bee the last times, dayes euill & dangerous, fore-told that should come, _2. Tim. 3. 1._ in which iniquity must abound, _Mat. 24. 12._ and as a raging deluge ouer-runne all, so that Faith shall scarce be found vpon earth, _Luk. 18. 8._ and the Diuell loosed from his thousand yeares imprisonment, [g]_Reuel. 20. 3._ enraged with great wrath walketh about, and seeketh whom he may deuoure _.1. Pet. 5. 8_. Because he knoweth hee hath but a short time, _Reu. 12. 12._ Before I enter into the particularity of the narration intended, it shall be materiall to set downe some generall propositions, as a handfull of gleanings gathered in the plentifull haruest of such learned men, who haue written of this argument, whereby the erronious may be recalled, the weake strengthened, the ignorant informed, and such as iudge aright already, confirmed: and among many other these as chiefe, all which you shall see exemplified in the following Discourse.
[Footnote b: _Augustinus de Ciuitate Dei. lib. 21. cap. 14._]
[Footnote c: _Iustinus in Epitome Trogi Pompeij. lib. 1._]
[Footnote d: _Lactantius de origine erroris. lib. 2. cap. 17_. And citeth the testimony of _Sibilla Erithr?a_ for proofe hereof. _Gratianus Decretorum part. 2. causa 26 qu?st. 2. Canone sine saluatore, & inuentas esse has