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The displaying of supposed witchcraft : $b Wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of deceivers and impostors, and divers persons under a passive delusion of melancholy and fancy. But that there is a corporeal league made betwixt the devil and the witch, or that he sucks on the witches body, has carnal copulation, or that witches are turned into cats, dogs, raise tempests, or the like, is utterly denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled, the existence of angels and spirits, the truth — John Shaqi

Religion

The displaying of supposed witchcraft : $b Wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of deceivers and impostors, and divers persons under a passive delusion of melancholy and fancy. But that there is a corporeal league made betwixt the devil and the witch, or that he sucks on the witches body, has carnal copulation, or that witches are turned into cats, dogs, raise tempests, or the like, is utterly denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled, the existence of angels and spirits, the truth

Name: The displaying of supposed witchcraft : $b Wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of deceivers and impostors, and divers persons under a passive delusion of melancholy and fancy. But that there is a corporeal league made betwixt the devil and the witch, or that he sucks on the witches body, has carnal copulation, or that witches are turned into cats, dogs, raise tempests, or the like, is utterly denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled, the existence of angels and spirits, the truth
Author: Webster, John

Webster, John

Witchcraft; Witchcraft -- Early works to 1800

a Dragon, Serpent, Whale, or other Sea-creatures) _solverunt mammam,
lactaverunt catulos suos: Filia populi mei in crudelem, veluti ululæ in
deserto._ But none hath come up close to the mark but _Junius_ and
_Tremellius_, who render the place thus: _Etiam Phocæ præbent mammam,
lactant catulos suos, quomodo filia populi mei, propter crudelem
inimicum, est similis ululis in deserto._ And the Notes upon the place
do make it plain: “_Vox quidem Hebræa latè patet, significans serpentes
& reptilia magna, sive terrestria sive aquatilia; sed cùm non omnium
reptilium sint mammæ, neq; aquaticorum sint ii quos Propheta vocat
catulos; necesse fuit hunc locum ad Phocas, id est marinos vitulos
accommodari, qui à natura sint quasi Amphibii. Nam Draconibus
accommodari non potest, cùm volucrium solus vespertilio mammas habeat:
serpentium terrestrium nulla species mammata est, ac proinde hæc ad
marinum istud genus referri debent._”

[Sidenote: Isa. 34. 14.]

[Sidenote: _Gesn. de Avib. l. 3. p. 241._]

[Sidenote: _Hist. Anat. Cent. 1. p. 18._]

2. Another far fetcht and improperly applied name to Witches, is
_Strix_, and so some Authors call them _Striges_; when as the word
_Strix_ doth properly signifie a nocturnal bird, _à stridendo sic
dicta_, that do use to suck the dugs of Goats, and also of young
children, which we shall shew hereafter to be a Truth, and no Fable, as
_Ovid_ saith,

            _Nocte volant, puerósq; petunt nutricis egentes,
              Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis.
            Carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera rostris,
              Et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent.
            Est illis strigilis nomen; sed nominis hujus
              Causa, quòd horrendâ stridere nocte solent._

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