what other Degrees
or Methods of sinning, besides that of a _Diabolical Compact_, may give
the Devils advantage to act in the Shape of them that have miscarried?
Besides what may happen for a while, to try the _Patience_ of the
Vertuous. May not some that have been ready upon feeble grounds
uncharitably to Censure and Reproach other people, be punished for it by
_Spectres_ for a while exposing them to Censure and Reproach? And
furthermore, I pray, that it may be considered, Whether a World of
Magical Tricks often used in the World, may not insensibly oblige
_Devils_ to wait upon the Superstitious Users of them. A Witty Writer
against _Sadducism_ has this Observation, That persons who never made
any express Contract with _Apostate Spirits_, yet may Act strange Things
by _Diabolick Aids_, which they procure by the use of those wicked
_Forms_ and _Arts_, that the Devil first imparted unto his Confederates.
And he adds, _We know not but the Laws of the Dark Kingdom may Enjoyn a
particular Attendance upon all those that practice their Mysteries,
whether they know them to be theirs or no._ Some of them that have been
cry'd out upon as imploying _Evil Spirits_ to hurt our Land, have been
known to be most bloody _Fortune-Tellers_; and some of them have
confessed, That when they told _Fortunes_, they would pretend the Rules
of _Chiromancy_ and the like Ignorant Sciences, but indeed they had no
Rule (they said) but this, _The things were then Darted into their
minds._ _Darted!_ Ye Wretches; By whom, I pray? Surely by none but the
_Devils_; who, tho' perhaps they did not exactly _Foreknow_ all the thus
Predicted Contingencies; yet having once _Foretold_ them, they stood
bound in Honour now to use their Interest, which alas, in _This World_,
is very great, for the Accomplishment of their own Predictions. There
are others, that have used most wicked _Sorceries_ to gratifie their
unlawful Curiosities, or to prevent Inconveniencies in Man and Beast;
_Sorceries_, which I will not _Name_, lest I should by Naming, _Teach_
them. Now, some _Devil_ is evermore Invited into the Service of the
Person that shall Practise these _Witchcrafts_; and if they have gone on
Impenitently in these Communions with any _Devil_, the _Devil_ may
perhaps become at last a _Familiar_ to them, and so assume their
_Livery_, that they cannot shake him off in any way, but that One, which
I would most heartily prescribe unto them, Namely, That of a deep and
long _Re