A discourse on witchcraft. Occasioned by a bill now depending in Parliament, to repeal the statute made in the first year of the reign of King James I, intituled An act against conjuration, witchcraft, and dealing with evil and wicked spirits.
- Date:
- 1736
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A discourse on witchcraft. Occasioned by a bill now depending in Parliament, to repeal the statute made in the first year of the reign of King James I, intituled An act against conjuration, witchcraft, and dealing with evil and wicked spirits. Source: Wellcome Collection.
8/48 page 8
![carefully to be confidered as to my prefent Pur- pofe, (ince there is not a Word in the Bible im¬ porting Witchcraft, in any other Senfe than the Words of the 10th and nth Verfes do : Where¬ fore if we confider Things rights Witchcraft is not to be found in Scripture, this being the true Translation of thofe two Verfes. Let there not be found among you any one that rnaketh his Son or his Daughter pafs through the Fire, or that ufeth Divinations, or a Star¬ gazer, or a Con'] chi nr er, or a Miracle Monger. Or an Inchanter, or a Seeker of an Oracle, or a Wizard, or a Necromancer. H ere are to be feen three notorious Miftakes of our Fnglip Tranflators. The fird is their calling a Conjetdurcr an Inchanter, for what Rea- fon I cannot imagine, there being not the lead Hint of fuch a Signification in the Hebrew Word far better was it rendered in the old Tranflation, a Regardcr of the flying of Fowls, for that is Truth ; the Flight of Fowls being but oneWay of many, which Conjecturcrs made Ufe of, whereas on the contrary to call a Conjebtu- rer an Inchanter has no Manner of Agreement with, but is quite oppofite to the Meaning of the Original: An Inchanter being the fame with a Charmer, which follows in the next Verfe, and is in the Hebrew '“Dn, a Word derived from TDH to fpeak, pronounce or declare, and not from the fame Word as it fignifies to join to, or be in League with, from whence fome have ima¬ gined, that an In chanter is one who has a League with the Devil. The fecond Midake of our Tranflators is, their calling a Miracle-Monger a JVitch. The Hebrew Word is 'H&20 which theSeptuagint ren¬ der](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30368364_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
