f, so he did then;
for the _Grecian_ and _Roman_ Heathen Rites coming on, they outdid all
the Magicians and Southsayers, by establishing the _Devil_'s lying
Oracles, which, as a Master-Piece of Hell, did the _Devil_ more Honour,
and brought more Homage to him, than ever he had before, or could arrive
to since.

Again, as by the setting up the Oracles, all the Magicians and
Southsayers grew out of Credit; so at the ceasing of those Oracles, the
_Devil_ was fain to go back to the old Game again, and take up with the
Agency of Witches, Divinations, Inchantments and Conjurings, as I hinted
before, answerable to the four Sorts mention'd in the Story of
_Nebuchadnezzar_, (viz.) _Magicians_, _Astrologers_, the _Chaldeans_ and
the _Southsayers_: How these began to be out of Request, I have
mention'd already; but as the _Devil_ has not quite given them over,
only laid them aside a little for the present, we may venture to ask
what they were, and what Use he made of them when he did employ them.

The Truth is, I think, as it was a very mean Employment for any thing
that wears a human Countenance to take up, so I must acknowledge, I
think, 'twas a mean low priz'd Business for _Satan_ to take up with;
below the very _Devil_; below his Dignity as an Angelic, tho' condemn'd
Creature; below him even as a _Devil_; to go to talk to a parcel of
ugly, deform'd, spiteful, malicious old Women; to give them Power to do
Mischief, who never had a Will, after they enter'd into the State of
_old Woman-Hood_, to do any thing else: Why the _Devil_ always chose the
ugliest old Women he could find; whether _Wizardism_ made them ugly,
that were not so before, and whether the Ugliness, as it was a Beauty in
Witchcraft, did not encrease according to the meritorious Performance in
the Black-Trade? These are all Questions of Moment to be decided, (if
human Learning can arrive to so much Perfection) in Ages to come.

Some say the evil Eye and the wicked Look were Parts of the Enchantment,
and that the Witches, when they were in the height of their Business,
had a powerful Influence with both; that by looking upon any Person they
could bewitch them, and make the _Devil_, _as the Scots express it_,
ride through them booted and spurr'd; and that hence came that very
significant Saying, _to look like a Witch_.

The strange Work which the _Devil_ has made in the World, by this Sort
of his Agents call'd Witches, is such, and so extravagantly wild, that
exce