of action, not equally attentive too, or retentive of the hints
that were given. And, 5. To answer the last question, Why people are not
equally supplied? This seemed to be no question; for Providence itself
might have some share in the direction of it, and then that Providence
might be limited by a superior direction; that as to the converse of
spirits, he could not call it a stated converse: such a thing there was,
but why there was so much of it, and no more, was none of his business,
and that no such discovery had ever yet been made to mankind. Nor were
we to imagine less of waking dreams, trances, visions, noises, hints,
impulses, and all the waking testimonies of an invisible world, and of
the communication that there is between us and them, which commonly
entertain us with our open eyes.

One time my fancy soared on high, to see what discoveries I could make
in those clearer regions. I found that such immense bodies as the sun,
stars, planets, and moon, in the great circle of the lower heaven, are
far from being found in the study of nature on the surface of the earth.
Here I saw many things that we can entertain little or no notion of, in
a state of common life, and the emptiness of our notion, that the
planets are habitable worlds; that is, created like ours, for the
subsistence and existence of man and beast, and the preservation of the
vegitative and sensitive life: No, no, this is, I assure you, a world of
spirits; for here I saw a clear demonstration of Satan being the _prince
of the power of the air_, keeping his court or camp, with innumerable
angels to attend him; but his power is not so great as we imagine, he
can tempt us to the crime, but cannot force us to commit: _Humanium est
peccare_. Neither has the devil power to force the world into a
rebellion against heaven, though his legions are employed among savage
nations, to set up their master for a god, who make the heathens either
worship him in person, or by his representatives, idols and monsters,
with the cruel sacrifices of human blood. Now, as to the limitations of
the devil's power, you must understand, that as there are numbers of
evil spirits employed in mischief, so there are numbers of good angels
sent from the higher and blessed abodes to disconcert and oppose their
measures; and this every Christian, I hope, believes, when he prays to
God, the father of spirits, to give his angels charge over him while he
slumbereth and sleepeth. For if b