Page:Antidote to superstition, or, A cure for those weak minds which are troubled with the fear of, ghosts and witches (NLS104184264).pdf/12

( 12 ) to tally therewith. But that an old dotting haggard can bring diſeaſes on my body, is the higheſt deluſion. No; not one diſeaſe can ariſe merely, from any natural cauſe, without the particular diſpoſal of divine Providence, which reaches to the very hairs of my head. But if by witches you mean goſſiping old maids, who conſtantly trade in injurious ſcandal, I believe there are myriads, they abound in every place.

In fine, without the aid of rhetoric, by propoſing and anſwering theſe and ſimilar questions, I have grubbed up the loweſt roots of ſuperſtition and folly from my breaſt. I am firmly perſuaded that no man ever did ſee an apparition, unleſs it was the product of his own fertile imagination. I never did nor never ſhall ſee a real one till I go to the world of ſpirits. I dread not the great adverſary of mankird, but I fear and conſtantly guard againſt his baits to ſeduce me into the paths of vice, to live impiouſly, impurely, and unjuſtly. I am not terrified with walking in burying-grounds by night. No; the organiſed bodies which moulder there, I believe to be no more the ſentient agent, who once moved in them, than I do the table I write on, or any other matter is I myſelf. I dread nothing by night but robbers and blood-thirſty aſſaſſins. I believe that as omniſcience ſees all things paſt, preſent and future, ſo conſummate wiſdom directs