me of the mosaic
work of human imperfection,--a performance which may be said to have
grown up under the umbrage of Pendle, and which he might have
bequeathed to its future Demdikes and Chattox's as an amulet of
irresistible power.[30]

[Footnote 27: What would Dr. Whitaker have thought of the following
explosion, in which Webster sounds the tocsin with a vehemence and
vigour which no Macbriar or Kettledrumle of the period could have
surpassed. The extract is from his _Judgment Set and Books Opened_:--

"All those that claim an Ordination by Man, or from Man, that speak
from the Spirit of the World, from Wit, Learning and Humane Reason,
who Preach for Hire, and make Merchandize of the Souls of Men; I
witness they are all Baal's Priests and Idol-Shepherds, who destroy
the Sheep, and are Theives and Robbers, who came not in by the Door of
the Sheep-fold, but climbed up another way, and _are the Magicians,
Sorcerers, Inchanters, Soothsayers, Necromancers, and Consulters with
Familiar Spirits, which the Lord will cut off out of the Land_, so
that his People shall have no more Soothsayers; and as Jannes and
Jambres resisted Moses, so do these resist the Truth; Men of corrupt
Minds, reprobate concerning the Faith; but they shall proceed no
farther, for their Folly shall be manifest to all Men, as theirs also
was. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran
greedily after the Errors of Balaam, for Reward, and Perished in the
Gainsaying of Core. These are Spots in your Feasts of Charity, when
they Feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: Clouds they are
without Water, carried of Winds; Trees, whose Fruit withered, without
Fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the Roots: Raging Waves of the Sea,
foaming out their own Shame, wandring Stars, to whom is reserved the
blackness of Darkness for ever."]

[Footnote 28: "_Metallographia: or, An History of Metals. Wherein is
declared the signs of Ores and Minerals both before and after digging,
the causes and manner of their generations, their kinds, sorts and
differences; with the description of sundry new Metals or Semi-Metals,
and many other things pertaining to Mineral knowledge. As also, the
handling and shewing of their Vegetability, and the discussion of the
most difficult Questions belonging to Mystical Chymistry, as of the
Philosophers Gold, their Mercury, the Liquor Alkahest, Aurum potabile,
and such like. Gathered forth of the most approved Authors that