rtain, and I
must be allow'd to affirm, that the _Devil_ does not disdain to take
into his Service many Troops of good _Old Women_, and Old Women-Men too,
who he finds 'tis for his Service to keep in constant Pay; to these he
is found frequently to communicate his Mind, and oftentimes we find them
such Proficients, that they know much more than the _Devil_ can teach
them.

How far our antient Friend _Merlin_, or the grave Matron his (Satan's)
most trusty and well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor, Mother _Shipton_,
were commissioned by him to give out their prophetic Oracles, and what
degree of Possession he may have arrived to in them upon their Midnight
Excursions, I will not undertake to prove; but that he might be
acquainted with them both, as well as with several of our modern
Gentlemen, I will not deny neither.

I confess it is not very incongruous with the _Devil_'s Temper, or with
the Nature of his Business, to shift hands; possibly he found that he
had tried the World with Oracular Cheats; that Men began to be forfeited
with them, and grew sick of the Frauds which were so frequently
detected; that it was time to take new Measures, and contrive some new
Trick to Bite the World, that he might not be expos'd to Contempt; or
perhaps he saw the Approach of new Light, which the Christian Doctrine
bringing with it began to spread in the Minds of Men; that it would
out-shine the dim burning _ignis fatuus_, with which he had so long
cheated Mankind, and was afraid to stand it, lest he should be mobb'd
off the Stage by his own People, when their Eyes should begin to open:
That upon this foot he might in Policy withdraw from those old Retreats
the Oracles, and restrain those Responses before they lost all their
Credit; for we find the People seem'd to be at a mighty Loss for some
time, for want of them, so that it made them run up and down to
Conjurers, and _Man-Gossips_, to brazen Heads, speaking Calves, and
innumerable simple Things, so gross that they are scarce fit to be
named, to satisfy the Itch of having their Fortunes told them, as we
call it.

Now as the DEVIL is very seldom blind to his own Interest, and therefore
thought fit to quit his old way of imposing upon the World by his
Oracles, only because he found the World began to be too wise to be
imposed upon that way; so on the other hand, finding there was still a
Possibility to delude the World, tho' by other Instruments, he no sooner
laid down his Oracles, an