Goodness that we are sure hath made and mingled it self with all things. And yet we believe there is a beauty and harmony, and goodness in that Providence, tho' we cannot unriddle it in particular instances; nor by reason of our Ignorance and Imperfection, clear it from contradicting Appearances; and consequently, we ought not deny the being of Witches and Apparitions, because they will create us some difficulties in our notions of Providence. But to come more close, (2) Those that believe that Infants are Heirs of Hell, and Children of the Devil as soon as they are disclosed to the World, cannot certainly offer such an Objection; for what is a little trifling pain of a Moment, to those eternal Tortures, to which, if they die assoon as they are born, according to the Tenour of this Doctrine, they are everlastingly exposed? But however the case stands as to that, 'tis certain, (3) That Providence hath not secured them from other violences they are obnoxious to, from Cruelty and Accident; and yet we accuse It not when a whole Town full of Innocents fall a Victim to the rage and ferity of barbarous Executioners in Wars and Massacres. To which I add, (4) That 'tis likely the mischief is not so often done by the evil Spirit immediately, but by the malignant influences of the Sorceress, whose power of hurting consists in the foremention'd ferment, which is infused into her by the Familiar. So that I am apt to think there may be a power of real Fasination in the Witches Eyes and Imagination, by which for the most part the acts upon tender Bodies. Nescio quis teneros occulos-----. For the pestilential Spirits being darted by a spightful and vigorous Imagination from the Eye, and meeting with those that are weak and passive in the Bodies which they enter, will not fail to infect them with a noxious quality that makes dangerous and strange Alterations in the Person invaded by this poisonous Influence; which way of acting by subtile and invisible Instruments, is ordinary and familiar in all natural Efficiencies. And 'tis now past question, that Nature for the most part acts by subtile Streams and Apporreæa's of minute Particles, which pass from one Body to another. Or however that be, this kind of Agency is as conceivable as any one of those qualities Ignorance hath call'd Sympathy and Antipathy, the reality of which we doubt not, tho' the manner of Action be unknown. Yea the thing I speak of is as easie to be apprehended, as how Infection should pass in certain tenuious streams thro' the Air from one House to another; or, as how the biting of a mad Dog should fill all the Blood and Spirits with a venemous and malignant ferment; the application of the vertue doing the same in our case, as that of contact doth in
