pt our Hope that most of those Tales happen not to be true, I know
not how any one could be easy to live near a Widow after she was five
and fifty.

All the other Sorts of Emissaries which Satan employs, come short of
these Ghosts; and Apparitions sometimes come and shew themselves, on
particular Accounts, and some of those Particulars respect doing
Justice, repairing Wrongs, preventing Mischief; sometimes in Matters
very considerable, and on Things so necessary to publick Benefit, that
we are tempted to believe they proceed from some vigilant Spirit who
wishes us well; but on the other Hand, these Witches are never concern'd
in any thing but Mischief; nay, if what they do portends good to one, it
issues in hurt to many; the whole Tenour of their Life, their Design in
general, is to do Mischief, and they are only employ'd in Mischief, and
nothing else: How far they are furnish'd with Ability suitable to the
horrid Will they are vested with, remains to be describ'd.

These Witches, 'tis said, are furnish'd with Power suitable to the
Occasion that is before them, and particularly that which deserves to be
consider'd, as Prediction, and foretelling Events, which I insist the
Author of Witchcraft is not accomplish'd with himself, nor can he
communicate it to any other: How then _Witches_ come to be able to
foretel Things to come, which, 'tis said, the _Devil_ himself cannot
know, and which, as I have shewn, 'tis evident he does not know himself,
is yet to be determin'd; that Witches do foretel, is certain, from the
Witch of _Endor_, who foretold Things to _Saul_, which he knew not
before, namely, that he should be slain in Battle the next Day, which
accordingly came to pass.

There are, however, and notwithstanding this particular Case, many
Instances wherein the _Devil_ has not been able to foretel approaching
Events, and that in Things of the utmost Consequence, and he has given
certain foolish or false Answers in such Cases; the DEVIL's Priests,
which were summon'd in by the Prophet _Elija_, to decide the Dispute
between God and _Baal_, had the _Devil_ been able to have inform'd them
of it, would certainly have receiv'd Notice from him, of what was
intended against them by _Elija_; that is to say, that they would be all
cut in pieces; for Satan was not such a Fool as not to know that _Baal_
was a Non-Entity, a Nothing, at best a dead Man, perish'd and rotting in
his Grave; for _Baal_ was _Bell_ or _Belus_, an ancient K