Excerpt from A History of the Witches of Renfrewshire: Who Were Burned on the Gallowgreen of PaisleyThat there are witches, divine: cannot doubt, fince themord of God hath ordained that no witch lhall live; nor lawyers in Scotland, feeing our: law ordains it to he punifhed with death. And though many lawyers in Holland, and elfewhere, do think, that albeit their. Were witches under the law, yet there are none under the golpel; the devil's power having ceafed, as to thefc, as well as in his giving refponfes 'hy oiacles.I. 'vierus, that great patron of witchcraft, endeavours to maintain his Opinion by theic arguments, 1. That fuch as are accufcdmf witchcraft, are ordinarily filly old women, whole age and (ex difpofeth Pthem tp melancholy, and whole melancholy difpofeth them to a madnefs, which lhould render their confeffions ver'yfufpea ed, and in this crime there are feldom other proofs, whereas the things confclled are To horrid, that it cannot be imagined any reafonable'creature would commit them. 2. God can only work the miracle afcribed to witches, he who is the author of nature being only able to alter or divert its courfe: And the devil doih'hut delude the fancy of poor creatures, as fevers and melancholy mifre prefent objects.

Nor are fuch as are cheated in the one more guilty than they who are lick of the other. And it is fereto to burn men and women for doing that which is concluded impofiible to be done by them. 3. It is nnjull to unifh them for doing ill by charms, except it pould be grit proved that thefe charms produced the effcfis that are punifhabl'e; and lawyers lhould argue thus, thofe who kill or hurt men'or bealls by unlawful means, are punilhable by death. But fr} it is, that witches and charmers kill men and bealls by unlawful means, and therefore ought to 'be punilhed by death, of uhich {yllogifm Wierus denies the minor for it can never-be prov'd that verica, crolles, orlayin' fielh in the threfh'old, fire. Can dellroy men or heafis, 't efe being cau'les very fiifproportionable to fuch e'eets, there being no coniafi.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.

forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.