LETTER II.

Consequences of the Fall on the Communication between Man and the Spiritual World—­Effects of the Flood—­Wizards of Pharaoh—­Text in Exodus against Witches—­The word Witch is by some said to mean merely Poisoner—­Or if in the Holy Text it also means a Divineress, she must, at any rate, have been a Character very different to be identified with it—­The original, Chasaph, said to mean a person who dealt in Poisons, often a Traffic of those who dealt with familiar Spirits—­But different from the European Witch of the Middle Ages—­Thus a Witch is not accessary to the Temptation of Job—­The Witch of the Hebrews probably did not rank higher than a Divining Woman—­Yet it was a Crime deserving the Doom of Death, since it inferred the disowning of Jehovah’s Supremacy—­Other Texts of Scripture, in like manner, refer to something corresponding more with a Fortune-teller or Divining Woman than what is now called a Witch—­Example of the Witch of Endor—­Account of her Meeting with Saul—­Supposed by some a mere Impostor—­By others, a Sorceress powerful enough to raise the Spirit of the Prophet by her own Art—­Difficulties attending both Positions—­A middle Course adopted, supposing that, as in the Case of Balak, the Almighty had, by Exertion of His Will, substituted Samuel, or a good Spirit in his Character, for the Deception which the Witch intended to produce—­Resumption of the Argument, showing that the Witch of Endor signified something very different from the modern Ideas of Witchcraft—­The Witches mentioned in the New Testament are not less different from modern Ideas than those of the Books of Moses, nor do they appear to have possessed the Power ascribed to Magicians—­Articles of Faith which we may gather from Scripture on this point—­That there might be certain Powers permitted by the Almighty to Inferior, and even Evil Spirits, is possible; and in some sense the Gods of the Heathens might be accounted Demons—­More frequently, and in a general sense, they were but logs of wood, without sense or power of any kind, and their worship founded on imposture—­Opinion that the Oracles were silenced at the Nativity adopted by Milton—­Cases of Demoniacs—­The Incarnate Possessions probably ceased at the same time as the intervention of Miracles—­Opinion of the Catholics—­Result, that witchcraft, as the Word is interpreted in the Middle Ages, neither occurs under the Mosaic or Gospel Dispensation—­It arose in the Ignorant Period, when the Christians considered the Gods of the Mahommedan or Heathen Nations as Fiends, and their Priests as Conjurers or Wizards—­Instance as to the Saracens, and among the Northern Europeans yet unconverted—­The Gods of Mexico and Peru explained on the same system—­Also the Powahs of North America—­Opinion of Mather—­Gibb, a supposed Warlock, persecuted by the other Dissenters—­Conclusion.

What degree of communication might have existed between