SECT. XIX.
BY all this it is evident, that there were WITCHES in ancient times under the Dispensation of the LAW; and that there were such in the times of the GOSPEL also, will not be much more difficult to make good. I had a late occasion to say something about this, in a Letter to a person of the highest honour, from which I shall now borrow some things to my present purpose.
I SAY then (II) That there were Compacts with evil Spirits in those times also, is methinks intimated strongly in that saying of the Jews concerning our Saviour that he cast out Devils by Beelzebub; in his return to which, he denies not the supposition or possibility of the thing in general, but clears himself by an appeal to the actions of their own Children, whom they would not tax so severely: And I cannot very well understand why those times should be priviledged from Witchcraft, and Diabolical Compacts, more than they were from Possessions, which we know were then more frequent (for ought appears to the contrary) than ever they were before or since. But besides this, there are intimations plain enough in the Apostles Writings of the beginning of Sorcery and Witchcraft. St. Paul reckons Witchcraft next Idolatry, in his Catalogue of the works of the flesh, Gal. v. 20. and the Sorcerers are again joyn'd with Idolaters in that sad Denunciation, Rev. xxi. 8. and a little after, Rev. xxii. 15. they are reckoned again among Idolaters, Murderers, and those others that are without. And methinks the Story of Simon Magus, and his Diabolical Oppositions of the Gospel in its beginnings, should afford clear Conviction, to all which, I add this more general Consideration.
(3.) That though the New Testament had mention'd nothing of this matter, yet its silence in such cases is not argumentative. Our Saviour spake as he had occasion, and the thousandth part of what he did, and said, is not recorded, as one of his Historians intimates. He said nothing of those large unknown Tracts of America, nor gave he any intimations of as much as the Existence of that numerous people; much less did he leave instructions about their conversion. He gives no account of the affairs and state of the other world, but only that general one of the happiness of some, and the misery of others. He made no discoveryof
