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But there is another Length that some of these Ladies go, and this indeed carries Things beyond all the suggestions of my Title; instead of Matrimonial Whoredom it should be called Matrimonial Witchcraft; the Truth is, I dare not enter into Examples here, no not where I may have some Reason to suspect, nay, to believe; nay, where I have been informed it has been so, because I would not point out any One as Criminal to such a degree, unless the Fact was as plain, as admitted a Conviction in the way of Justice.
Nay, when my Friend M——— R——— assured me, that his next Neighbour Mrs. G——— W——— boasted in Publick, that she intended to do so and so, nay, though I heard her own she had done it; yet, as the Witches in New England went so far in acknowledging their own Guilt, and their familiarity with the Devil, that at last they could not obtain to be Hanged, no not upon their own Evidence, or be believed upon their own Confession; so I cannot persuade my self to tell you, that I believe Madam W——— really guilty of so much Wickedness as she pretends to, or that she deserves the Gallows so eminently as she boasts she does.
To go to the Devil to prevent God's Blessing! I must confess 'tis very audacious; and if Providence takes no particular Notice of such, and gives no publick Testimony of Resentment, it would seem very strange to me; I should only say, there is the more behind, the Wretches have the more to expect; let 'em think of it.
Some will tell us, there is nothing in it; that really the Devil has no Power to do any thing in it, one way or other, and that all the No-tions
