Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	faith_n	word_n	14,132	5	4.8692	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85867	Select cases of conscience touching vvitches and vvitchcrafts. By Iohn Gaule, preacher of the Word at Great Staughton in the county of Huntington.	Gaule, John, 1604?-1687.	1646 (1646)	Wing G379; Thomason E1192_1; ESTC R202117	42,863	218

wrought by Figures Characters Spells Ligatures Circles Numbers Barbarismes Images of wax or clay Crystalls looking-glasses Baso●s of waters herbs powders urguments sawes knives pins needles Candles rings garters gloves c. I feare I have even cloyd while I talked but of giving a Tast A wise Christian and Conscientious wil leave the faith of all or most of these matters with the Authors No prodigious Acts though avouched and attested by hundreds and Thousands must impose upon his Beleife If they utterly thwart his eternall and infallible Rules of Truth which are 1. To beleve that all the Devills stupendous Actions in this kind are praestigious Delusions That is either meerly Delusive where all else is impossible but the Delusion it selfe or mixtly delusive where peradventure amongst some reality of meanes matter event there is nothing but praestigiousnesse of Forme End Effect 2. To believe nothing of all these that in the least do usurp or trench upon the divine Attributes omniscience omnipotence c. For though Devills be intelligential creatures and of admirable Ingeny and sagacity in comparison to reasonable Souls yet while their Intellect was unobscured by their Fall all their perspicacity never reached to a shadow of Omniscience much lesse can all their long Experience Observation or Revelation now attain to it And therfore if they foresee of thēselves or foretel some kind of Futures it is but as they are contain'd in their natural causes or dispositions And if they ghess at some secret intentions or affectiōs of the heart it is no more then from certaine outward motions So that wee may well conclude they are ignorant and erre in very many things whereof the Ambiguity of their propositions and predictions are a sufficient Confession Likewise though Devils be called Principalities and powers that no power on earth may be compared to them yet was all their power ere debilitated by their fall of no force to that power that belongeth unto God Wonders they may worke but those lying ones Deut. 3. 2. Mat. 24. 24. 2 Thes. 2. 9. And yet not those but as permitted by God not Impedited by Angels and having the matter hereunto somwhat praedisposed And even then it is for the most part praestigious too Illuding humane senses abusing their Fancies and which is worse deceiving their hearts Their utmost is but to produce phantasmaticall or false species of things and if any thing bee now verily done it is but by applying Actives to Passives which if wee were as cunning in as they we might also doe without them and need never be beholding to them But as for Miracles of a true name and thing they are as strange and as admirable to them as they are to us And indeede neither for them nor us nor for Angells to do but for God alone Psal. 72. 18. He only can work miracles to whom nothing is a Miracle And it were easie were it not too long to distinguish betwixt divine Miracles and Diabolical Prodigies both from the dignity and vertue of the doere the Quality Excellency of the thing done with the admirable and advantagious manner and end of doing 3. To believe nothing of these that being granted must of necessity work the universall disorder and confusion of nature For though the Devill may haply bee able to perturbe some particular course of Nature yet Devils themselves being part of the Universe have no power to worke to the Confusion and destruction of the whole 4. To beleeve nothing of them that utterly impugn the dictates of right Reason For that would directly imply contradictions and then impossibilities are necessarily to be concluded 5. Not to beleeve any thing of these contrary to the infallible Rules of Gods word For what Faith can bee of those things that crosse the grounds of Faith Against which eternall Rules of truth whether of precept promise or practise Devills and men in all their Operations or Testimonies must needes bee found Lyars 6. Nothing must be believed of all these as tending to truth or to God For the Devill is false and can speak no trueth but to deceive and the Devil is naught and will do nothing like to Good but to hurt and endamage so much the more 9. Case Whether the power of a Witch be such as is ordinarily supposed IF we would be ledde by the terrible Traditions Opinions and apprehensions of the vulgar they are mostly ready to imagine the power of a Witch to be more like the power of a Devill then of a Witch and so the power of a Devill to be more like the power of a God then of a Devil And are eftsoones affrayd of the power of the Devill more then of GOD And of the WITCH more then of the DEVILL yea and out of that feare are readyer to serve and please the Devill and the Witch then God himselfe But to be better informed let us here inquire 1. Whence have Witches all their power And I say firs Not of God For this is it chiefely that makes the Act to be forcerous and prodigious that the wounder is wrought but not by the power of God Yet I dare not say this power of theirs what ever it is is not from God For the evil Spirit was from the Lord that troubled terrified Saul 2 Sam. 16. 14. Neither did Satanltouch Iob body or goods but as God gave him once and againe into his hands Iob. 1. and 2. Nor had all the Devills power to enter into or infest the swine but as Christ was pleased to permitt Mar. 5. 12. whence I conclude that God hath even here also a working power viz. of permission Limitation Direction yea of Cooperation and yet all this without the least approbation of the power abused by the Devill or the Witch 2. Not from good Angells For good Angells and Witches never worke one with another Because Witches work by vertue of a Compact to adore the Power that they work by and that the Good Angells can in no wise indure Revel. 19. 10. Neither though they may be Instruments of Gods just judgements can they be assistant to the malice and iniquity of the Creature Neither yet will the Excellency and Ingenuity of good Angels suffer them to condescend upon any tearms between them or dissemble a being bound at a vile wretches beck How much deceived then through Satans transformation of himself are those Witches that have imagined their Familiars to be no other then good Angels 3. Not from Nature For they take her un-aptest means and apply them to the wrongest ends 4. Not from Art or Science Because they are indeed ignorant of all such grounds and principles rules reasons 5. Al their power therefore must needes bee from the devil only who conveys unto them what power is permitted him in that particular by vertue of a cursed Contract or confederation In the execution wherof he himselfe nevertheless is the sole agent and they but the wretched InInstruments For as the

curses his Child and God sayes A men to it Hereupon the Child is obsessed or strangely handled peradventur perishes a thing of two common Example But what must the Parent hang for the Malefice no and why Because here is onely the Factor Effect without the Pact 3. Whether the Implicite Compact be lyable to the like poenalty as the Explicite An Implicite Covenant is solely in the Faith and assent now prodigious Effects may follow without any other Familiarity And whether Familiarity so far forth as invisible Faith Assent be Felony it is not in me to determine Only I desire to be satisfyed what difference is between this and the Faith and Assent in every deeply malitious sinne For that likewise Implicitly makes a malignant Covenant with the Devill Esa. 28. 15. Me● thinkes there should bee some Differences made betweene them and that very Demonstratively I have labored to Excogitate them but finde it Difficult to set them so really Disparate and distinct as I would in Affection Intention Operation For to me there appears in all something of the same Corruption And this very difficulty tells my Conscience what a wary discerning should here be for Censure and Poenalty Neverthelesse I do not judg those that shall proceed to judge them upon a clearer distinguishing and discerning 4. Whether one addicted to the speculative way onely ought to incurre the same poenalty with the operative Witches I am not of those that contend for the lawfulnesse of Magical science Because I cannot reach in my judgement to conceive how it can be preserved by such as wade too far into it in the pure Naturalls but must needs what through Ignorance or Arroganee bee polluted and deprav'd with some kind of delusions diabolicall Notwithstanding doe I not reprove the knowledge of these things altogether Lest I might reprove Moses and Daniel Acts 7. 22. Daniel 17. 20. Who knew them not to use or practise them But to detect and refute them or knew them to the perfection of the understanding not to the depravation of the Will Yet doe I thinke those worthy to bee reprehended that shall affect commend or promote this studie A studie as the most difficult so the most uselesse yea and to be censured too But neverthelesse not like the Operative that have hereby wrought mischiefe or offence to the disturbance of peace and truth in the Church and State Unlesse laying aside all Scrutiny and Contemplation as touching the Mirables of Nature their SpeSpeculation be of Diabolicall Magicke only in Contemplating and musing of I cannot tell what Compact Conventicles Rites Sacrifices Invocations Conjuratiōs Charms Spells Characters Figures Circles Barbarismes of words Prodigies of Fact c. Admiring adoring boasting commending teaching c. These as Masters and Professors in witchcrafts I thinke worthy most punishment of all 5. Whether a Passive witch be to be punished by the Law as well as an Active How extreame were it therfore to suffer from men because they suffer from the Devil Can his ●●cruciation be a sufficient Cause for our Execution I conceive the meerly passive therefore are here to be exempted Because though the Devil works by them yet it is without them yea oft times against them Neverthelesse the mixtly passive may be distinguished from those who are lesse to be pitied or spared because though they may now be somwhat passive and the Devill as it were forcing them to malefice or mischiefe yet they first were Active and freely gave their consent so to do 6. Whether a Witches own Confession bee sufficient to hang her I cannot see in the maine but a Witch may bee eondemned out of her owne mouth as well as any other Malefactor For her owne mouth can speake her owne guilt best and may not amisse be taken for a right discovery of her own Conscience Nor doth her Sexe any whit invalidher own testimonie against her self Nevertheless it would be wel considered whether she was forced to it terrified allured or otherwise deluded And withall if in her owne mind and perfect senses If not out of some Melancholy humour or discontentment working to say any thing through tediousnesse of life If her Becollection or recantation may not stand with more probability if they be not meer impossibilities whereof not a Circumstance tending to such a matter can bee made to appear But it matters not much though shee talke of never so many monstrous or ridiculous Delusions or absurdities for the Devills Actions are now to be admitted for no lesse if so be some Reality of depraved Affections Intentions or Effects may be observed therein 7 Whether a Iury may with a safe Conscience give up their Verdict in finding such or such an one for a witch Doubtles it may be done For whatsoever sinne or Crime is punishable before men is also Convincible by men Otherwise all Lawes against them were to no Effect For the Law is not to be Executed before the Sentence bee pronounced nor ought that to be before Conviction Neither is it requisite that so palpable Evidence for Conviction should here come in as in other more sensible matters It is enough if there be but so much Circumstantiall proofe or evidence as the Substance matter and Nature of such an Abstruse mystery of Iniquitie will well admit But withall I could wish that these Twelve good men and True were not Impannelled of ordinary Country People but of the most Eminent Physitians Lawyers and Divines that a Country could afford 8 What if there be no such maine Evidence against Witches Are they therefore to be Tolerated or to Escape Some are of opinion that a strong Presumption is enough to cut them off but that were a strōg Presumption indeed others that it is good to hang thē out of the way however for terror and Examples sake A terrible thing indeed to make them Examples in the Punishment that are not yet fully found to be Examples in the offence Others would have it done and it be but for their repentance and Conversion Because say they Witches will never thinke of Repenting till they come to the Gallowes Were it so it were then happy for the Wretches But say it were so Gods mercy excuses not mans Injustice but aggravates it In my mind therefore this is safest and satisfactory where God hath denyed man full evidence it is not for mans Iustice to fall to Execution of vengeance Nor is that to be called Tolleration where Conviction is wanting This is plain in more sensible Cases as of Murther Theft c. where the Law proceeds not though upō never so strong Presumptions for want of Plenary and particular Evidence and why not here sith it is a Matter more occult And if it remaynes so occult as not to come within a Legal conviction it is a signe God hath reserved such for his owne Iustice and Vengeance which all their devillish Darknesse shall not be able to elude Malac. 3. 5. Hee will draw neare to