d be carried up to a
height, and the inquisition after it should be intrusted in the hands
of ambitious, covetous and malicious men, it would prove of far more
fatal consequence unto the lives and safety of mankind, than that
ancient, heathenish custom of sacrificing men unto idol gods; insomuch
that we stand in need of another Hercules Liberator, who, as the
former freed the world from human sacrifice, should, in like manner,
travel from country to country, and by his all-commanding authority,
free it from _this euil and base custom of torturing people to confess
themselves witches, and burning them after extorted confessions_.
Surely the blood of men ought not to be so cheap, nor so easily to be
shed by those who, under the name of God, do gratifie exorbitant
passions and selfish ends; for without question, under this side
heaven, there is nothing so sacred as the life of man; for the
preservation whereof all policies and forms of government, all laws
and magistrates are most especially ordained. Wherefore I presume that
this Discourse of mine, attempting to prove the vanity and
impossibility of witchcraft, is so far from any deserved censure and
blame, that it rather deserves commendation and praise, if I can in
the least measure contribute to the saving of the lives of men."

[Footnote 22: I have not seen his earlier work, "Historical
Reflections on the Bishop of Rome, &c." Oxford, 1660, 4to. If it be
written with any portion of the power evinced in his "Question of
Witchcraft Debated," the ridicule with which Wood says it was received
by the wits of the university, and the oblivion into which it
subsequently fell, were both equally undeserved.]

Wagstaffe was answered by Meric Casaubon in his treatise "Of Credulity
and Incredulity in Things Divine and Spiritual," 1670, 12mo; and if
his reply be altogether inconclusive, it cannot be denied to be, as
indeed every thing of Meric Casaubon's writing was, learned,
discursive and entertaining. He observes of Wagstaffe:--

"He doth make some show of a scholar and a man of some learning, but
whether he doth acquit himself as a gentleman (which I hear he is) in
it, I shall leave to others to judge." This is surely the first time
that a belief in witchcraft was ever made a test of gentlemanly
propriety.

Two years before the trial, which is the subject of the following
republication, took place, the hamlet of Thornton, in the parish of
Coxwold, in the adjoining county of