_Truly I take this to be just as the Devil would have it, so much to fear disobliging men, as not to endeavour to detect his Wiles, that so he may the sooner, and with the greater Advantages set the same on foot again (either here or elsewhere) so dragging us through the Pond twice by the same Cat.[8] And if Reports do not (herein) deceive us, much the same has been acting this present year in_ Scotland. _And what Kingdom or Country is it, that has not had their bloody fits and turns at it. And if this is such a catching disease, and so universal, I presume I need make no Apology for my Endeavours to prevent, as far as in my power, any more such bloody Victims or Sacrifices; tho indeed I had rather any other would have undertaken so offensive, tho necessary a task; yet all things weighed, I had rather thus Expose myself to Censure, than that it should be wholly omitted. Were the notions in question, innocent and harmless, respecting the glory of God, and well being of Men, I should not have engaged in them, but finding them in my esteem, so intollerably destructive of both. This together with my being by Warrant called before the Justices, in my own Just Vindication, I took it to be a call from God, to my Power, to Vindicate his Truths against the_ Pagan _and_ Popish _Assertions, which are so prevalent; for tho Christians in general do own the Scriptures to be their only Rule of Faith and Doctrine, yet these Notions will tell us, that the Scriptures have not sufficiently, nor at all described the crime of Witchcraft, whereby the culpable might be detected, tho it be positive in the Command to punish it by Death; hence the World has been from time to time perplext in the prosecution of the several Diabolical mediums of Heathenish and Popish Invention, to detect an Imaginary Crime (not but that there are Witches, such as the Law of God [4] describes)[9] which has produced a deluge of Blood; hereby rendering the Commands of God not only void but dangerous._ _So also they own Gods Providence and Government of the World, and that Tempests and Storms, Afflictions and Diseases are of his sending; yet these Notions tell us, that the Devil has the power of all these, and can perform them when commission'd by a Witch thereto, and that he has a power at the Witches call to act and do, without and against the course of Nature, and all natural causes, in afflicting and killing of Innocents; and this is that so many have died for._