Page:Antidote to superstition, or, A cure for those weak minds which are troubled with the fear of, ghosts and witches (NLS104184264).pdf/10

( 10 ) tortured, and in miſery; the good are present with the source of bliss; they have for got their pilgrimage ſtate, and endless joys fill their whole capacities.

But though the appearance of ghoſts are rare, don't you believe that this sometimes happens? May not their being seen answer some good deſign? Might they not reclaim the vicious, or adviſe and conſole ſurviving friends? No; I cannot believe it. Why? becauſe the univerſal Preſident of nature has aſſigned every being its particular ſtation, office and talents, and whilſt he governs, there will be no confuſion any where. To diſpatch a departed ſpirit to theſe lower regions, would ſerve no end at all. The virtuous will always be directed by, and rely on his word and ſacred beheſts in the day of diſtreſs; and if his revealed will cannot convert the bad, a thouſand meſſengers from the Tartarian ſhades will not avail.

But don't you believe in witches? Surely ſuch there have been witness that of Endor: you have often heard of their mighty feats. Does not hiſtory tell you, that in 1650, an Ord, a village near Berwick, which then contained only fourteen houſes, fourteen perſons were burnt for witchcraft? This you cannot deny. If by a witch you mean a perſon in confederacy with Satan, to hurt the bodies or eſtates of men, I deny that there ever was, or ever will be any ſuch on earth. Such a confederacy is abſolutely