sed Wit-would-be's of this present Age, who will catch at any slight occasion or pretence of mis-believing those things that they cannot endure should be true.
And forasmuch as such course grain'd Philosophers as those Hobbians and Spinozians, and the rest of the Rable, slight Religion and the Scriptures, because there is such express mention of Spirits and Angels in them, things that their dull Souls are so inclinable to conceit to be imposable; I look upon it as a special piece of Providence, that there are ever and anon such fresh Examples of Apparitions and Witchcraft as may rub up and awaken their benum'd and Lethargick Minds into a suspicion at least, if not assurance that there are other intelligent Beings besides those that are clad in heavy Earth or Clay; in this I say, methinks the divine Providence does plainly outwit the Powers of the dark Kingdom, permitting wicked Men and Women, and Vagrant Spirits of that Kingdom to make Leagues or Covenants one with another, the Confession of Witches against their own Lives being so palpable an Evidence, besides the miraculous Feats they play, that there are bad Spirits, which will necessarily open a door to the belief that there are good ones, and lastly that there is a God.
Wherefore let the small Philosophick Sir-Foplings of this present Age deride them as much as they will, those that lay out their pains in committing to writing certain well attested Stories of Witches and Apparitions, do real service to true Religion and sound Philosophy, and the most effectual and accommodate to the confounding of Infidelity and Atheism, even in the Judgment of the Atheists themfelves, who are as much afraid of the truth of these Stories as an Ape is of a Whip, and therefore force themselves with might and main to disbelieve them, by reason of the dreadful consequence of them as to themselves. The Wicked fear where no fear is, but God is in the Generation of the Righteous; and he that fears God and has his Faith in Jesus Christ, need not fear how many Devils there be, nor be affraid of himself or own his Imnmortality; and therefore it is nothing but a foul dark Conscience within, or a very gross and dull constitution of Blood that makes Men so averse from these truths.
But however, be they as averse as they will, being this is the most accommodate Medicine for this Disease, their diligence and care of mankind is much to be commended that make it their business to apply it, and are resolv'd, though the pevishness and perversness of the Patients makes them pull off their Plaister, as they have this excellent one of the Story of the
