.“It is the temper of the hot and superstitious part of mankind, in matters of religion, ever to be fond of mysteries; and for that reason, to like best what they understand least.” —An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (written in 1690, published posthumously in 1754)
“Inchanters, Magicians, Sorcerers, Necromancers & Witches signified deceivers and cheats who by certain forms of words & ceremonies & other juggling tricks pretended to supernatural powers & arts of prognosticating for magnifying themselves among the people.” — Bodleian Library, New College MSS. 361, II, fol. 133
“To believe that men or women can really divine, charm, inchant, bewitch or converse with spirits is a superstition of the same nature with believing that the idols of the gentiles were not vanities but had spirits really seated in them.” — Bodmer MS, 5A, fol. 8v
“The folly of interpreters has been to foretell times and things by this Prophecy, as if God designed to make them Prophets. By this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but brought Prophecy also into contempt. The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this and the Prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify men’s curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own Providence, not the Interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world. For the event of things predicted many ages before, will then be a convincing argument that the world is governed by Providence.” — Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John (published posthumously in 1733)
“Oh! yee fools, will you never have any wit, know yee not that all such things are mere cheats and impostures? Fy, fy! go home, for shame.” — To a crowd of Cambridge undergraduates gathered outside a purportedly haunted house, reported in the diary of , 19 May 1694
“This was the history of that imposture.” — At the end of a note on the manifestos.
