This Familiar Spirit the Witch of _Endor_ and other Witches have,
whereby they do such Things, it is the Imagination of Reason, the Devil
in themselves; that is, they set themselves apart with the Thoughts of
the Imaginations of their Hearts, to dive into the diabolical Power;
that is, that they might know the Depths of Satan, their Imagination
conceiving that the Devil is a Spirit flying in the Air, and that this
Spirit can assume or take up any Shape it please. So that the
Imagination of the Heart hath produced an evil Spirit in it self, so
that this Familiar Spirit is begotten out of the Womb of Reason: For the
Seed of Reason in Man is the Womb or the Mother, and the Imagination of
the Heart is the Father that begets this Familiar Spirit, and this
Familiar Spirit is the Son of Imagination. So that all Thoughts of the
Heart, and that wonderful Knowledge declared by them, it is revealed
through this Son the Familiar Spirit, begotten in themselves by the Seed
of Reason the Mother, and Imagination the Father. So that there is no
Devil, nor Familiar Spirit without them, as People do vainly imagine,
but the Devil and Familiar Spirit is always within them, and no where
else; yet all People fear a Devil without them, but he is no where to be
found but in Man and Woman, this I do certainly know to be true.
Again, These Witches doth suppose the true God to be an Infinite Spirit,
without any Body or Substance, as all People almost do; and that the
Devil is a Spirit that can assume Bodies or what Shape he pleaseth, or
what Shape or Form the Witch shall call for. This is the Opinion of most
People in the World as well as Witches, yea, even of the most of the
greatest learned Men; Darkness hath overspread the Minds of all learned
Men in the World, so that they cannot find out what the true God is, nor
where he is; nor what the right Devil is, nor where he is; yea Man,
himself is he that cannot find out himself: But no more of this now.
To the Matter in hand, the Witches they do not know any Divine Being, or
Power, or Form of God, but what their Imagination doth conceive to be
God, for they have full Faith in this Knowledge of theirs, to be the
true Knowledge of God; only the Laws of Men they fear, but no other God,
but that Familiar Spirit which they have produced in themselves, by
giving themselves either to Fasting and Prayer, unto an unknown Divine
Being or Power; supposing this Power to be a Spirit that can appear in
any Shape they shall call for or desire. And all People being ignorant
of the true God, and the right Devil, as they themselves are, so that
the People have a Faith in these Witches, being ignorant as aforesaid.
What the true God and right Devil is, and the Witches Faith, and their
Faith being joyn'd together, it becometh strong to atchieve such
Apparitions as their Faith hath chose to be the Object of their
Imagination: For he that enquireth of a Witch, his Faith and the Witch's
Faith is all one.
Also this is to be minded, that all Witches have some Rule by which they
do perceive those Apparitions, and hear those Voices; for their is no
wicked Knowledge or wicked Wisdom as the Wisdom of the World, neither is
there any good Knowledge or good Wisdom as the Wisdom of God. I say,
there is no Knowledge or Wisdom good or bad, but those that have it they
must go by some Rule, else it is meer Nonsense; as most of your
_Quakers_ Matters or Principles are meer Nonsense, that hath neither
Bottom nor Top.