e to add, it is to be hoped, That
among the Persons represented by the _Spectres_ which now afflict our
Neighbours, there will be found _some_ that never explicitly contracted
with any of the _Evil Angels_. The Witches have not only intimated, but
some of them acknowledged, That they have plotted the Representations
of _Innocent Persons_, to cover and shelter themselves in their
Witchcrafts; now, altho' our good God has hitherto generally preserved
us from the Abuse therein design'd by the Devils for us, yet who of us
can exactly state, _How far our God may for our Chastisement permit the
Devil to proceed in such an Abuse?_ It was the Result of a Discourse,
lately held at a Meeting of some very Pious and Learned Ministers among
us, _That the Devils may sometimes have a permission to Represent an
Innocent Person, as Tormenting such as are under Diabolical
Molestations: But that such things are Rare and Extraordinary;
especially when such matters come before Civil Judicature._ The Opinion
expressed with so much Caution and Judgment, seems to be the prevailing
Sense of many others, who are men Eminently Cautious and Judicious; and
have both _Argument_ and _History_ to Countenance them in it. It is
_Rare and Extraordinary_, for an Honest _Naboth_ to have his Life it
self Sworn away by two _Children of Belial_, and yet no Infringement
hereby made on the Rectoral Righteousness of our Eternal Soveraign,
whose _Judgments are a Great Deep_, and who _gives none Account of His
matters_. Thus, although the Appearance of Innocent Persons in _Spectral
Exhibitions_ afflicting the Neighbour-hood, be a thing _Rare and
Extraordinary_; yet who can be sure, that the great _Belial_ of Hell
must needs be always _Yoked_ up from this piece of Mischief? The best
man that ever lived has been called a _Witch_: and why may not this too
usual and unhappy Symptom of A _Witch_, even a Spectral Representation,
befall a person that shall be none of the worst? Is it not possible? The
_Laplanders_ will tell us 'tis possible: for Persons to be unwittingly
attended with officious _Daemons_, bequeathed unto them, and impos'd upon
them, by Relations that have been _Witches_. _Quaery_, also, Whether at a
Time, when the Devil with his Witches are engag'd in a War upon a
people, some certain steps of ours, in such a War, may not be follow'd
with our appearing so and so for a while among them in the Visions of
our afflicted _Forlorns_! And, Who can certainly say,