Читать книгу The Discovery of Witchcraft. Facts, Fiction & Conspiracy Theories Behind the Medieval Witch Hunt онлайн

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In that respect againe I find your Lordship a fit person, to judge and looke upon this present treatise. Wherein I will bring before you, as it were to the barre, two sorts of most arrogant and wicked people, the first challenging to themselves, the second attributing unto others, that power which onelie apperteineth to God,¹ who onelie is the Creator of all things,² who onelie searcheth the heart and reines, who onelie³ knoweth our imaginations and thoughts, who onelie⁴ openeth all secrets, who⁵ onelie worketh great wonders, who onelie hath power⁶ to raise up & cast downe; who onelie maketh thunder, lightning, raine, tempests, and restraineth them at his pleasure; who onelie⁷ sendeth life and death, sicknesse & health, wealth and wo; who neither giveth nor lendeth his⁸ glorie to anie creature.

And therefore, that which greeveth me to the bottome of my hart, is, that these witchmongers cannot be content, to wrest out of Gods hand his almightie power, and keepe it themselves, or leave it with a witch: but that, when by drift of argument they are made to laie downe the bucklers, they yeeld them up to the divell, or at the least praie aid of him, as though the raines of all mens lives and actions were committed into his hand; and that he sat at the sterne, to guide and direct the course of the whole world, imputing unto him power and abilitie inough to doo as great things, and as strange miracles as ever Christ did.