Mischief they do and delight in, and what a great credit this Agar is to J. Webster and the rest of the Hag-Advocates, which would make them to be meer couzening Queans, or melancholy Fops that had nothing to do with the Devil. As if the Man in Black and a little Band were but such another as J. Webster, or any other Hag-Advocate that in waggery acted the part of the Devil in Hussey's-knap, or any such like place of a Forest, and so after all, quickly and suddenly recoiling behind a Bush, and letting fly into the Wind, the deluded Hags took it for the vanishing of the very Fiend and his perfuming the Air with the smell of Brimstone. One that can resolve all the Feats of the Hartummin of Egypt into Tricks of Leger-de-main, cannot he easily delude the Company with such a Feat as this, the old Wives being thick of Hearing, and carrying their Spectacles not on their Noses, but in their Pockets.
And lastly from the Devils covenanting with the Witches for their Souls, it may be observed, that the old Hags dealing bonâ fide, and thinking they have Souls surviving their Bodies, are better Philosophers than the huffy Wits of our Age, that deny distinction of Soul and Body. But if they have not (as these Huffers would have it) and the Hags think so themselves, it is a pretty Paradox, that these old Fops should be able to out-wit the very Devil; who does not in Bartering for their Bodies and Souls buy a Pig in a Poke, as the Proverb is, but a Poke without a Pig. But I rather believe, that these huffing Wits, as high as they are, may learn one true Point of Philosophy from these Hags and their Familiars; these evil Spirits certainly making their Bargains wisely enough in Covenanting for the Witches Soul. Which clause, if it were not exprest, the Soul were free from the Familiars jurisdiction after Death. Wherefore it is no contemptible Argument, these evil Spirits Covenanting for the Soul of the Witch, that they know the Soul survives the Body, and therefore make their Bargain sure for the possession of it, as their Peculium after Death, otherwise if the Soul were mortal they would tell the Witches so, the more easily to precipitate them into all wickedness, and make them more eager by their ministry to enjoy this present Life. But this Doctrine is inconsistent with the Form of his Covenant, whereby they are assured to him after Death.
