Our ancient Scottish divines thought otherwise.  Surrounded, as they conceived themselves, by the snares and temptations of hell, and relying on the aid of Heaven, they entered into war with the kingdom of Satan, as the crusaders of old invaded the land of Palestine, with the same confidence in the justice of their cause and similar indifference concerning the feelings of those whom they accounted the enemies of God and man.  We have already seen that even the conviction that a woman was innocent of the crime of witchcraft did not induce a worthy clergyman to use any effort to withdraw her from the stake; and in the same collection[75] there occur some observable passages of God’s providence to a godly minister in giving him “full clearness” concerning Bessie Grahame, suspected of witchcraft.  The whole detail is a curious illustration of the spirit of credulity which well-disposed men brought with them to such investigations, and how easily the gravest doubts were removed rather than a witch should be left undetected.

[Footnote 75:  “Satan’s Invisible World,” by Mr. George Sinclair.  The author was Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, and afterwards minister of Eastwood, in Renfrewshire.]

Bessie Grahame had been committed, it would seem, under suspicions of no great weight, since the minister, after various conferences, found her defence so successful, that he actually pitied her hard usage, and wished for her delivery from prison, especially as he doubted whether a civil court would send her to an assize, or whether an assize would be disposed to convict her.  While the minister was in this doubt, a fellow named Begg was employed as a skilful pricker; by whose authority it is not said, he thrust a great brass pin up to the head in a wart on the woman’s back, which he affirmed to be the devil’s mark.  A commission was granted for trial; but still the chief gentlemen in the county refused to act, and the clergyman’s own doubts were far from being removed.  This put the worthy man upon a solemn prayer to God, “that if he would find out a way for giving the minister full clearness of her guilt, he would acknowledge it as a singular favour and mercy.”  This, according to his idea, was accomplished in the following manner, which he regarded as an answer to his prayer.  One evening the clergyman, with Alexander Simpson, the kirk-officer, and his own servant, had visited Bessie in her cell, to urge her to confession, but in vain.  As they stood on the stair-head behind the door, they heard the prisoner, whom they had left alone in her place of confinement, discoursing with another person, who used a low and ghostly tone, which the minister instantly recognised as the Foul Fiend’s voice.  But for this discovery we should have been of opinion that Bessie Grahame talked to herself, as melancholy and despairing wretches are in the habit of doing.  But as Alexander Simpson pretended to understand the sense of what was said