it; but rejoyc'd in a Soul sav'd from Death.
On the other side [if I must again use the word _Side_, which yet I hope
to live to blot out] there are very worthy Men, who are not a little
dissatisfied at the Proceedings in the Prosecution of this Witchcraft.
And why? Not because they would have any such abominable thing, defended
from the Strokes of Impartial Justice. No, those Reverend Persons who
gave in this Advice unto the Honourable Council; 'That Presumptions,
whereupon Persons may be Committed, and much more Convictions, whereupon
Persons may be Condemned, as guilty of Witchcrafts, ought certainly to
be more considerable, than barely the Accused Persons being represented
by a _Spectre_ unto the Afflicted; Nor are Alterations made in the
Sufferers, by a Look or Touch of the Accused, to be esteemed an
infallible Evidence of Guilt; but frequently liable to be abused by the
Devils Legerdemains': I say, those very Men of God most conscientiously
Subjoined this Article to that Advice,--'Nevertheless we cannot but
humbly recommend unto the Government, the speedy and vigorous
Prosecution of such as have rendred themselves Obnoxious; according to
the best Directions given in the Laws of God, and the wholsome Statutes
of the _English_ Nation for the Detection of Witchcraft.' Only 'tis a
most commendable Cautiousness, in those gracious Men, to be very shye
lest the Devil get so far into our Faith, as that for the sake of many
Truths which we find he tells us, we come at length to believe any Lyes,
wherewith he may abuse us: whereupon, what a Desolation of Names would
soon ensue, besides a thousand other pernicious Consequences? and lest
there should be any such Principles taken up, as when put into Practice
must unavoidably cause the _Righteous to perish with the Wicked_; or
procure the Bloodshed of any Persons, like the _Gibeonites_, whom some
learned Men suppose to be under a false Notion of Witches, by _Saul_
exterminated.

They would have all due steps taken for the Extinction of Witches; but
they would fain have them to be sure ones; nor is it from any thing, but
the real and hearty goodness of such Men, that they are loth to surmise
ill of other Men, till there be the fullest Evidence for the surmises.
As for the Honourable Judges that have been hitherto in the Commission,
they are above my Consideration: wherefore I will only say thus much of
them, That such of them as I have the Honour of a Personal Acquaintance
wit