SECT. IV.
Obj. III. BUT (III) I come to another prejudice against the being of Witches, which is, That 'tis very improbable that the Devil, who is a wise and mighty Spirit, should be at the beck of a poor Hag, and have so little to do, as to attend the Errands and impotent Lusts of a silly Old Woman.
TO which I might answer, (1) That 'tis much more improbable that all the World should be deceiv'd in matters of Fact, and circumstances of the clearest evidence and conviction, than that the Devil, who is wicked, should be also unwise; and that he that persuades all his Subjects and Accomplices out of their Wits, should himself act like his own Temptations and Persuasions. In belief, there is nothing more strange in this Objection, than that wickedness is baseness and servility; and that the Devil is at leisure to serve those, he is at leisure to tempt, and industrious to ruine. And again, (2) I see no necessity to believe that the Devil is always the Witches Confederate; but perhaps it may be fitly considered, whether the Familiar be not some departed humane Spirit, forsaken of God and goodness, and swallowed up by the unsatiable desire of mischief and revenge, which possibly by the Laws and capacity of its state it cannot execute immediately. And why we shouid presume that the Devil should have the liberty of wandring up and down the Earth and Air, when he is said to be held in the Chains of Darkness; and yet that the separated Souls of the wicked, of whom no such thing is affirm'd in any sacred Record, should be thought so imprison'd, that they cannot possibly wag from the place of their Confinement, I know no shadow of Conjecture. This conceit I am confident hath prejudic'd many against the belief of Witches and Apparitions; they not being able to conceive that the Devil should be so ludicrous as appearing Spirits are sometimes reported to be in their Frolicks; and they presume, that Souls departed never revist the free and open Regions; which confidence, I know nothing to justifie: For since good Men in their state of seperation are said to be ίαγγελος, why the wicked may not be supposed to be ίσοδαίμονες in the worst sense of the Word, I know nothing to help me to imagine. And if it be supposed that the Imps of Witches are sometimes wicked Spirits of our own kind and na-
