'Tis certain that the Devil is a proud Being, and would be thought to have a Power equal to the Almighty; and it cannot but be very grateful to him to see Mortals charging one another of doing such works by the Devil's Power, as in truth is the proper prerogative of the Almighty, Omnipotent Being. The [82] next head should have been about an Explicit Covenant, between the Witch and the Devil, &c. But in this, the whole of it, I cannot perswade myself but you must be sensible of an apparent leaning to Education (or tradition) the Scriptures being wholly silent in it; and supposing this to fall in as a dependent on what went before shall say the less to it; for if the Devil has no such Power to communicate, upon such compact, then the whole is a fiction; tho I cannot but acknowledge you have said so much to uphold that Doctrine, that I know not how any could have done more; however, as I said, I find not myself ingaged (unless Scripture proof were offered) to meddle with it. For as you have in such cases your Reason for your guide, so I must be allowed to use that little that I have, do only say that as God is a Spirit, so he must be worship'd in spirit and truth. So also that the Devil is a Spirit, and that his rule is in the hearts of the Children of Disobedience, and that an Explicit Covenant of one Nature or another can have little force, any further than as the heart is engaged in it. And so I pass to the last, viz. Whether a Witch ought to be put to death. And without accumulation of the offence do Judge, that where the Law of any Countrey is to punish by death such as seduce and tempt to the worship of strange Gods (or idols, or Statues) by as good Authority may they (no doubt) punish these as Capital Offenders, who are distinguished by that one remove, viz. to their seducing is added a sign, i. e. they pretend to a sign in order to seduce. And thus worthy Sir, I have freely given you my thoughts upon yours, which you so much obliged me with the sight of and upon the whole, tho I cannot in the general but commend your Caution in not asserting many things contended for by others; yet must say, that in my esteem there is retain'd so much as will secure all the rest; (to instance) if a Spirit has a Vehicle, i. e. some portion of matter which it acts, &c. hence as necessarily may be inferred that Doctrine of Incubus and Succubus, and why not also that of Procreation by Spirits both good and bad? Thus was Alexander the Great, the Brittish Merlin,[95] and Martin Luther, and many others said to be begotten. Again if the Witch has such a Wonder-working Power, why not to afflict? will not the Devil thus far gratifie her? And have none this Miraculous Power, but the Covenanting Witch? then the offence lyes in the Covenant, then 'tis not only hard, but Impossible to find a Witch by such Evidence as the Law of God requires; for it will not be supposed that they call Witness to this Covenant; therefore it will here be necessary to admit of such as the nature of such Covenant will bear (as Mr. Gaul hath it in his 5th head, i. e.) the testimony of the afflicted, with their Spectral sight, to tell who afflicts themselves or others; the experiment of saying the Lords Prayer, falling at the sight, and rising at the touch, searching for Tets (i. e. Excrescencies of Nature) strange and foreign stories of the Death of some Cattle, or over-setting some Cart; and what can Juries have better to guide them to find out this Covenant by.
[83] 'Tis matter of lamentation, and let it be for a lamentation, to consider how these things have open'd the Floodgates of Malice, Revenge, Uncharitableness, and Bloodshed, what Multitudes have been swept away by this Torrent.
In Germany, Countries depopulated; In Scotland no less than 4000 have said to have suffered by Fire and Halter at one heat.[96]
Thus we may say with the Prophet, Isa. lix. 10. We grope for the Wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no Eyes: we stumble at Noon-day as in the Night, we are in desolate places as dead Men: and this by seeking to be wise above what is written, in framing to ourselves such crimes and such Ordels (or ways of Tryal) as are wholly foreign from the direction of our only guide, which should be a light to our feet, and a Lanthorn to our paths; but instead of this, if we have not followed the direction we have followed the Example of Pagan and Papal Rome, thereby rendering us contemptable, and base before all People, according as we have not kept his ways, but have been partial in his Law.
And now that we may in all our sentiments and ways, have regard to his testimonies, and give to the Almighty the glory due to his Name, is the earnest desire and Prayer of, Sir,
Yours to Command,
R. C.
A second Letter of a Gentleman,[97] endeavouring to prove the received Opinions about Witchcraft.
SIR,