"_Note also how easilie they may be brought to confesse that which
they neuer did, nor lieth in the power of man to doo_: and then see
whether I haue cause to write as I doo. Further, if you shall see that
infidelitie, poperie, and manie other manifest heresies be backed and
shouldered, and their professors animated and hartened, by yeelding to
creatures such infinit power as is wrested out of Gods hand, and
attributed to witches: finallie, if you shall perceiue that I haue
faithfullie and trulie deliuered and set downe the condition and state
of the witch, and also of the witchmonger, and haue confuted by reason
and lawe, and by the word of God it selfe, all mine aduersaries
obiections and arguments: then let me haue your countenance against
them that maliciouslie oppose themselues against me.

"_My greatest aduersaries are yoong ignorance and old custome._ For
what follie soeuer tract of time hath fostered, it is so
superstitiouslie pursued of some, as though no error could be
acquainted with custome. But if the lawe of nations would ioine with
such custome, to the maintenance of ignorance, and to the suppressing
of knowledge; the ciuilest countrie in the world would soone become
barbarous, &c. For as knowledge and time discouereth errors, so dooth
superstition and ignorance in time breed them."

The passage which I next quote, is a further specimen of the
impressive and even eloquent earnestness with which he pleads his
cause:--

"In the meane time, I would wish them to know that if neither the
estimation of Gods omnipotencie, nor the tenor of his word, nor the
doubtfulnes or rather the impossibilitie of the case, nor the small
proofes brought against them, nor the rigor executed vpon them, nor