lumimrccra: Ex Librts
John Donald Cambridge E
j
Presented to the
LIBRARY of the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
by
JOHN DONALD CAMBRIDGE
Hftrarg of ©Itr
THE Vv
WORLD.
•
D IN
.
BY
\
ON:
THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD.
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE TRYALS OF SEVERAL
WITCHES LATELY EXECUTED IN
NEW-ENGLAND.
BY COTTON MATHER, D.D.
TO WHICH IS ADDED
A FARTHER ACCOUNT OF THE TRYALS OF THE
NEW-ENGLAND WITCHES. BY INCREASE MATHER, D.D.
PRESIDENT OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
LONDON :
JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,
SOHO SQUARE. 18G2.
INTRODUCTION.
[HE two very rare works reprinted in the pre- sent volume, written by two of the most cele- brated of the early American divines, relate to one of the most extraordinary cases of popu- lar delusion that modern times have witnessed. It was a delusion, moreover, to which men of learning and piety lent themselves, and thus became the means of increasing it. The scene of this affair was the puritanical colony of New England, since better known as Massachusetts, the colonists of which appear to have carried with them, in an exag- gerated form, the superstitious feelings with regard to witch- craft which then prevailed in the mother country. In the spring of 1692 an alarm of witchcraft was raised in the family of the minister of Salem, and some black servants were charged with the supposed crime. Once started, the alarm spread rapidly, and in a very short time a great number of people fell under suspicion, and many were thrown into prison on very frivolous grounds, supported, as such charges usually were, by very unworthy witnesses. The new governor of the colony, Sir William Phipps,
vi INTRODUCTION.
arrived from England in the middle of May, and he seems to have been carried away by the excitement, and author- ized judicial prosecutions. The trials began at the com- mencement of June ; and the first victim, a woman named Bridget Bishop, was hanged. Governor Phipps, embar- rassed by this extraordinary state of things, called in the assistance of the clergy of Boston.
There was at this time in Boston a distinguished family of puritanical ministers of the name of Mather. Richard Mather, an English non-conformist divine, had emigrated to America in 1636, and settled at Dorchester, where, in 1639, he had a son born, who was named, in accordance with the peculiar nomenclature of the puritans, Increase Mather. This son distinguished himself much by his ac- quirements as a scholar and a theologian, became estab- lished as a minister in Boston, and in 1685 was elected pre- sident of Harvard College. His son, born at Boston in 1 6 6 3, and called from the name of his mother's family, Cotton Mather, became more remarkable than his father for his scholarship, gained also a distinguished position in Harvard College, and was also, at the time of which we are speaking, a minister of the gospel in Boston. Cotton Mather had adopted all the most extreme notions of the puritanical party with regard to witchcraft, and he had recently had an opportunity of displaying them. In the summer of the year 1688, the children of a mason of Boston named John Goodwin were suddenly seized with fits and strange afflic- tions, which were at once ascribed to witchcraft, and an Irish washerwoman named Glover, employed by the family, WHS suspected of being the witch. Cotton Mather was
INTRODUCTION. vii
called in to witness the sufferings of Goodwin's children ; and he took home with him one of them, a little girl, who had first displayed these symptoms, in order to examine her with more care. The result was, that the Irish woman was brought to a trial, found guilty, and hanged ; and Cotton Mather published next year an account of the case, under the title of " Late Memorable Providences, relating to Witchcraft and Possession," which displays a very ex- traordinary amount of credulity, and an equally great want of anything like sound judgement. This work, no doubt, spread the alarm of witchcraft through the whole colony, and had some influence on the events which followed. It may be supposed that the panic which had now arisen in Salem was not likely to be appeased by the interference of Cotton Mather and his father.
The execution of the washerwoman, Bridget Bishop, had greatly increased the excitement ; and people in a more respectable position began to be accused. On the 19th of July five more persons were executed, and five more experienced the same fate on the 1 9th of August. Among the latter was Mr. George Borroughs, a minister of the gospel, whose principal crime appears to have been a disbelief in witchcraft itself. His fate excited consider- able sympathy, which, however, was checked by Cotton Mather, who was present at the place of execution on horseback, and addressed the crowd, assuring them that Borroughs was an impostor. Many people, however, had now become alarmed at the proceedings of the prosecutors, and among those executed with Borroughs was a man named John Willard, who had been employed to arrest
viii INTRODUCTION.
the persons charged by the accusers, and who had been accused himself, because, from conscientious motives, he refused to arrest any more. He attempted to save himself by flight; but he was pursued and overtaken. Eight more of the unfortunate victims of this delusion were hanged on the 22nd of September, making in all nineteen who had thus suffered, besides one who, in accordance with the old criminal law practice, had been pressed to death for refusing to plead. The excitement had indeed risen to such a pitch that two dogs accused of witchcraft were put to death.
A certain degree of reaction, however, appeared to be taking place, and the magistrates who had conducted the proceedings began to be alarmed, and to have some doubts of the wisdom of their proceedings. Cotton Mather was called upon by the governor to employ his pen in justifying what had been done ; and the result was, the book which stands first in the present volume, " The Wonders of the Invisible World;" in which the author gives an account of seven of the trials at Salem, compares the doings of the witches in New England with those in other parts of the world, and adds an elaborate dissertation on witchcraft in general. This book was published at Boston, Massachu- setts, in the month of October, 1692. Other circum- stances, however, contributed to throw discredit on the proceedings of the court, though the witch mania was at the same time spreading throughout the whole colony. In this same month of October, the wife of Mr. Hale, minister of Beverley, was accused, although no person of sense and respectability hud the slightest doubt of her in-
INTRODUCTION. ix
nocence ; and her husband had been a zealous promoter of the prosecutions. This accusation brought a new light on the mind of Mr. Hale, who became convinced of the in- justice in which he had been made an accomplice ; but the other ministers who took the lead in the proceedings were less willing to believe in their own error ; and equally con- vinced of the innocence of Mrs. Hale, they raised a ques- tion of conscience, whether the devil could not assume the shape of an innocent and pious person, as well as of a wicked person, for the purpose of afflicting his victims. The as- sistance of Increase Mather, the president or principal of Harvard College, was now called in, and he published the book which is also reprinted in the present volume : "A Further Account of theTryals of the New England Witches. .... To which is added Cases of Conscience concerning Witchcrafts and Evil Spirits personating Men." It will be seen that the greater part of the " Cases of Conscience" is given to the discussion of the question just alluded to, which Increase Mather unhesitatingly decides in the affirmative. The scene of agitation was now removed from Salem to Andover, where a great number of persons were accused of witchcraft and thrown into prison, until a justice of the peace named Bradstreet, to whom the accusers applied for warrants, refused to grant any more. Hereupon they cried out upon Bradstreet, and declared that he had killed nine persons by means of witchcraft ; and he was so much alarmed that he fled from the place. The accusers aimed at people in higher positions in society, until at last they had the audacity to cry out upon the lady of governor Phipps himself, and thus lost whatever countenance he had
x INTRODUCTION.
given to their proceedings out of respect to the two Mathers. Other people of character, when they were attacked by the accusers, took energetic measures in self-defence. A gen- tleman of Boston, when " cried out upon," obtained a writ of arrest against his accusers on a charge of defamation, and laid the damages at a thousand pounds. The accusers themselves now took fright, and many who had made con- fessions retracted them, while the accusations themselves fell into discredit. . When governor Phipps was recalled in April, 1693, and left for England, the witchcraft agita- tion had nearly subsided, and people in general had become convinced of their error and lamented it.
But Cotton Mather and his father persisted obstinately in the opinions they had published, and looked upon the reactionary feeling as a triumph of Satan and his kingdom. In the course of the year they had an opportunity of re- asserting their belief in the doings of the witches of Salem. A girl of Boston, named Margaret Rule, was seized with convulsions, in the course of which she pretended to see the " shapes " or spectres of people exactly as they were alleged to have been seen by the witch-accusers at Salem and Andover. This occurred on the 10th of September, 1693 ; and she was immediately visited by Cotton Mather, who examined her, and declared his conviction of the truth of her statements. Had it depended only upon him, a new and no doubt equally bitter persecution of witches would have been raised in Boston ; but an influential merchant of that town, named Robert Calef, took the mat- ter up in a different spirit, and also examined Margaret Rule, and satisfied himself that the whole was a delusion or
INTRODUCTION xi
imposture. Calef wrote a rational account of the events of these two years, 1692 and 1693, exposing the delusion, and controverting the opinions of the two Mathers on the subject of witchcraft, which was published under the title of " More Wonders of the Invisible World ; or the Wonders of the Invisible world displayed in five parts. An Account of the Sufferings of Margaret Rule collected by Robert Calef, merchant of Boston in New England." The par- tisans of the Mathers displayed their hostility to this book by publicly burning it ; and the Mathers themselves kept up the feeling so strongly that years afterwards, when Samuel Mather, the son of Cotton, wrote his father's life, he says sneeringly of Calef: "There was a certain dis- believer in Witchcraft who wrote against this book " (his father's 'Wonders of the Invisible World'), "but as the man is dead, his book died long before him." Calef died in 1720.
The witchcraft delusion had, however, been sufficiently dispelled to prevent the recurrence of any other such per- secutions ; and those who still insisted on their truth were restrained to the comparatively harmless publication and defence of their opinions. The people of Salem were humbled and repentant. They deserted their minister, Mr. Paris, with whom the persecution had begun, and were not satisfied until they had driven him away from the place. Their remorse continued through several years, and most of the people concerned in the judicial proceed- ings proclaimed their regret. The jurors signed a paper expressing their repentance, and pleading that they had laboured under a delusion. What ought to have been con-
xii INTRODUCTION.
sidered still more conclusive, many of those who had con- fessed themselves witches, and had been instrumental in accusing others, retracted all they had said, and confessed that they had acted under the influence of terror. Yet the vanity of superior intelligence and knowledge was so great in the two Mathers that they resisted all conviction. In his Magnalia, an ecclesiastical history of New England, pub- lished in 1 700, Cotton Mather repeats his original view of the doings of Satan in Salem, showing no regret for the part he had taken in this affair, and making no retraction of any of his opinions. Still later, in 1723, he repeats them again in the same strain in the chapter of the " Reinark- ables " of his father entitled " Troubles from the Invisible World." His father, Increase Mather, had died in that same year at an advanced age, being in his eighty-fifth year. Cotton Mather died on the 13th of February, 1728. Whatever we may think of the credulity of these two ecclesiastics, there can be no ground for charging them with acting otherwise than conscientiously, and they had claims on the gratitude of their countrymen sufficient to overbalance their error of judgment on this occasion. Their books relating to the terrible witchcraft delusion at Salem have now become very rare in the original edi- tions, and their interest, as remarkable monuments of the history of superstition, makes them well worthy of a reprint.
THE CONTENTS.
HE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD :— Page
The Author's Defence 3
Letter from Mr. William Stoughton .... 6
Enchantments encountered 9
An Abstract of Mr. Perkins's Way for the Dis- covery of Witches 30
The Sum of Mr. Guides Judgment about the Detection
of Witches 33
A DISCOURSE ON THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE
WORLD 38
An Hortatory and Necessary Address, to a Country now
Extraordinarily Alarum'd by the Wrath of the Devil 79
A Narrative of an Apparition which a Gentleman in Boston
had of his Brother, just then murthered in London . 107
A Modern instance of Witches discovered and condemned in a Tryal, before that celebrated Judge, Sir Matthew Hale Ill
The Tryal of G. B. at a Court of Oyer and Terminer, held
in Salem, 1692 120
The Tryal of Bridget Bishop, alias Oliver, at the Court of
Oyer and Terminer, held at Salem, June 2, 1692 . . 129
The Tryal of Susanna Martin, at the Court of Oyer and Terminer, held by Adjournment at Salem, June 29, 1692 138
The Tryal of Elizabeth How, at the Court of Oyer and Ter- miner, held by Adjournment at Salem, June 30, 1692 149
The Tryal of Martha Carrier, at the Court of Oyer and Ter- miner, held by Adjournment at Salem, August 2, 1692 154
A Relation of a Few of the Matchless Curiosities which the
Witchcraft presented 159
The First Curiositie 159
The Second Curiositie 161
The Third Curiositie 164
The Fourth Curiositie 165
Testimony of Mr. William Stoughtonsmd Mr. Samuel Sewall 167
xiv CONTENTS.
A DISCOURSE ON THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE Page WORLD : —
Extracts from Dr. Horneck showing the Similarity in the Circumstances attending the Witchcraft in New-Eng- land and that in Sweedland 167
Matter omitted in the Tryals 172
THE DEVIL DISCOVERED 172
Case proposed, What are those Usual Methods of Tempta- tion with which the Powers of Darkness do assault the
Children of Men ? 174
Remarks upon the Three Remarkable Assaults of Tempta- tions which the Devil visibly made upon our Lord . 175
The First Temptation 175
The Second Temptation 183
The Third Temptation 192
A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF THE TRYALS OF THE NEW- ENGLAND WITCHES : —
A True Narrative, collected by Deodat Lawson, relating to Sundry Persons afflicted by Witchcraft, from the 19th of March to the 5th of April, 1692 201
Remarks of Things more than Ordinary about the Afflicted
Persons 211
Remarks concerning the Accused 212
A Further Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches, sent in a Letter from thence to a Gentleman in London 214
CASES OF CONSCIENCE CONCERNING EVIL SPIRITS
PERSONATING MEN, ETC. :— An Address to the Christian Reader by Fourteen Influential
Gentlemen 221
CASES OF CONSCIENCE CONCERNING WITCHCRAFTS . 225 The First Case proposed, Whether or not may Satan appear in the Shape of an Innocent and Pious, as well as of a Nocent and Wicked Person, to afflict such as suffer by
Diabolical Molestation ? 225
The Affirmative proved from Six Arguments : —
1. From Several Scriptures 225
2. Because it is possible for the Devil, in the Shape of
Innocent Persons, to do other Mischiefs, proved by many Instances 234
3. Because if Satan may not represent an Innocent Per-
son as afflicting others, it must be either because he wants will or power to do this, or because God will never permit him so to do it ; either of which may be affirmed , 237
CONTENTS. xv
CASES OF CONSCIENCE CONCERNING WITCHCRAFTS : — Pas«
4. It is certain, both from Scripture and History, that
Magicians by their Inchantmeuts and Hellish Con- jurations may cause a False Representation of Per- sons and Things 243
5. From the concurring Judgment of many Learned and
Judicious Men 250
6. Our own Experience has confirmed the Truth of what
we affirm . . . 253
The Second Case considered, viz., If one bewitched be cast down with the look or cast of the Eye of another Per- son, and after that recovered again by a Touch from the. same Person, is not this an infallible Proof that the party accused and complained of is in Covenant with
the Devil ? 255
A rwi wer.This may be Ground of Suspicion and Examination,
but not of Conviction 255
The Judgment of Mr. Bernard and of Dr. Cotta produced 256 Several Things offered against the Infallibility of this Proof :--
1. "Pis possible that the Persons in question may be pos-
sessed with Evil Spirits. Signs of such .... 258
2. Falling down with the Cast of the Eye proceeds not
from a natural, but an arbitrary Cause .... 260
3. .That of the bewitched Persons being recovered with
a Touch is various and fallible 262
4. There are that question the Lawfulness of the Ex-
periment 264
5. The Testimony of Bewitched 6r Possessed Persons
is no Evidence as to what they see concerning others, and therefore not as to themselves . . . 266
6. Bewitched Persons have sometimes been struck
down with the Look of Dogs ...'... 267
7. If this were an Infallible Proof, there would be dif-
ficulty in discovering Witches 268
8. Nothing can be produced out of the Word of God
to shew, that this is any Proof of Witchcraft . . 268
9. Antipathies in Nature have Strange and Unaccount-
able Effects 268
The Third Case considered, Whether there are any Dis- coveries of Witchcraft, which Jurors and Judges may with a safe Conscience proceed upon to the Conviction and Condemnation of the Persons under Suspicion ? . 269 Two things premised : —
1. That the Evidence in the Crime of Witchcraft ought to be as clear as in any other Crimes of a Capital Nature 269
XVI
CONTENTS.
CASES OF CONSCIENCE CONCERNING WITCHCRAFTS :— P«g«
2. That there have been ways of Trying Witches long used, which God never approved of. More particu- larly that of casting the Suspected Party into the Water, to try whether they will Sink or Swim. The Vanity and great Sin which is in that way of Pur- gation evinced by Six Reasons 270
That there are Proofs for the Conviction of Witches, which Jurors may with a safe Conscience proceed upon, proved
from Scripture 275
That a Free and Voluntary Confession is a sufficient Ground
of Conviction 276
That the Testimony of confessing Witches against others,
is not so clear an Evidence as against themselves . . 279 That if two Credible Persons shall affirm upon Oath that they have seen the Person accused doing Things, which none but such as have familiarity with the Devil, ever did or can do, that's a sufficient ground of Conviction :
and that this has often happened 282
Mr. Perkins his Solemn Caution to Jurors 283
Postscript 285
Wonders of the Invifible World:
Being an Account of the
T R Y A L S
OF
Lately Exctited in
NEW-ENGLAND:
And of feveral remarkable Curiofcties therein Occurring
Together with,
I. Obfervations upon the Nature, the Number, and the Operations
of the Devils.
II. A fhort Narrative of a late outrage committed by a knot of i
Witches in Swede-Land, very much refembling, and fo far j \ explaining, that under which New-England has laboured.
III. Some Councels directing a due Improvement of the Terrible things lately done 'by the unufual and amazing Range of EvU>
' New-England.
IV. A brief Difcourfe upon thofe Temptation* which are the more ordinary Devices of Satan.
By COTTON' MOTHER.
Publifhed by the Special Command of his EXCELLENCY the Go- venour of the Province of the MaJfycbuJctts-Bay in N?w-
j Printed firft, at Boftufzin Ne<iv- England \ and Reprinted at London, for John bunion, at the Raven in the Poultry. 1693.
THE AUTHOR'S DEFENCE.
[IS, as I remember, the Learned Scribonius, who reports, That one of his Acquaintance, devoutly making his Prayers on the behalf of a Person molested by Evil Spirits, re- ceived from those JSvil Spirits an horrible Blow over the Face : And I may my self expect not few or small Buffet- ings from Evil Spirits, for the Endeavours wherewith I am now going to encounter them. I am far from insensible, that at this extraordinary Time of the Devils coming down in great Wrath upon us, there are too many Tongues and Hearts thereby set on fire of Hell; that the various Opinions about the Witchcrafts which of later time have troubled us, are maintained by some with so much cloudy Fury, as if they could never be sufficiently stated, unless written in the Liquor wherewith Witches use to write their Covenants ; and that he who becomes an Author at such a time, had need be fenced with Iron, and the Staff of a Spear. The unaccountable Frowardness, Asperity, Un- treatableness, and Inconsistency of many Persons, every Day gives a visible Exposition of that passage, An evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul; and Illustration of
4 THE AUTHOR'S DEFENCE.
that Story, There met him two possessed with Devils, ex- ceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. To send abroad a Book, among such Readers, were a very unadvised thing, if a Man had not such Reasons to give, as I can bring, for such an Undertaking. Briefly, I hope it cannot be said, They are all so: No, I hope the Body of this People, are yet in such a Temper, as to be capable of applying their Thoughts, to make a Right Use of the stupendous and prodigious Things that are happening among us : And because I was concerned, when I saw that no abler Hand emitted any Essays to engage the Minds of this People, in such holy, pious, fruitful Improvements, as God would have to be made of his amazing Dispensations now upon us. THEREFORE it is, that One of the Least among the Children of New-England, has here done, what is done. None, but the Father, ivho sees in secret, knows the Heart-breaking Exercises, wherewith I have composed what is now going to be exposed, lest I should in any one thing miss of doing my designed Service for his Glory, and for his People ; but I am now somewhat comfortably assured of his favourable acceptance; and, I will not fear; what can a Satan do unto me/
Having performed something of what God required, in labouring to suit his Words unto his Works, at this Day among us, and therewithal handled a Theme that has been sometimes counted not unworthy the Pen, even of a King, it will easily be perceived, that some subordinate Ends have been considered in these Endeavours.
I have indeed set myself to countermine the whole PLOT of the Devil, against New-England, in every branch of it,
THE AUTHOR'S DEFENCE. 5
as far as one of my darkness, can comprehend such a Work of Darkness. I may add, that I have herein also aimed at the Information and Satisfaction of Good Men in another Country, a thousand Leagues off, where I have, it may be, more, or however, more considerable Friends, than in my own : And I do what I can to have that Country, now, as well as always, in the best Terms with my own. But while I am doing these things, I have been driven a little to do something likewise for myself; I mean, by taking off the false Reports, and hard Censures about my Opinion in these Matters, the Farter's Portions which my pursuit of Peace has procured me among the Keen. My hitherto unvaried Thoughts are here published ; and I believe, they will be owned by most of the Ministers of God in these Colonies; nor can amends be well made me, for the wrong done me, by other sorts of Representations.
In fine: For the Dogmatical part of my Discourse, I want no Defence; for the Historical part of it, I have a very Great One; the Lieutenant-Governour of Neiv- England having perused it, has done me the Honour of giving me a Shield, under the Umbrage whereof I now dare to walk abroad.
REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,
OU very much gratify' d me, as well as put a kind ^Respect upon me, when you put into my hands your elaborate and most season- able Discourse, entituled, The Wonders of the Invisible World. And having now perused so fruit- ful and happy a Composure, upon such a Subject, at this Juncture of Time ; and considering the place that I hold in the Court of Oyer and Terminer, still labouring and proceeding in the Trial of the Persons accused and con- victed for Witchcraft, I find that I am more nearly and highly concerned than as a meer ordinary Reader, to ex- press my Obligation and Thankfulness to you for so great Pains ; and, cannot but hold myself many ways bound, even to the utmost of what is proper for me, in my present publick Capacity, to declare my singular Approbation thereof. Such is your Design, most plainly expressed throughout the whole; such your Zeal for God, your Enmity to Satan and his Kingdom, your Faithfulness and Compassion to this poor People; such the Vigour, but yet great Tempe.r of your Spirit; such your Instruction and Counsel, your Care of Truth, your Wisdom and, Dexterity in allaying and moderating that among us, which needs
it ; such your clear discerning of Divine Providences and Periods, now running on apace towards their Glorious Issues in the World ; and finally, such your good News of The Shortness of the Devil's Time, that all Good Men must needs desire, the making of this your Discourse publick to the World ; and will greatly rejoyce, that the Spirit of the Lord has thus enabled you to lift up a Stan- dard against the Infernal Enemy, that hath been coming in like a Flood upon us. / do therefore make it my par- ticular and earnest Request unto you, that as soon as may be, you will commit the same unto the Press accordingly. I am,
Your assured Friend,
WILLIAM STOUGHTON.
LIVE by Neighbours that force me to produce these undeserved Lines. But now, as when Mr. Wilson beholding a great Muster of Souldiers, had it by a Gentleman then present, said unto him, Sir, ril tell you a great Thing: Here is a mighty Body of People ; and there is not Seven of them all, but what loves Mr. Wilson. That gracious Man presently and pleasantly reply'd: Sir, I'll tell you as good a thing as that; here is a mighty Body of People, and there is not so much as One among them all, but Mr. Wilson loves him. Some- what so : Tis possible, that among this Body of People, there may be few that love the Writer of this Book ; but give me leave to boast so far, there is not one among all this Body of People, whom this Mather would not study to serve, as well as to love. With such a Spirit of Love, is the Book now before us written : I appeal to all this World; and if this World will deny me the Eight of acknowledging so much, I appeal to the other, that it is not written with an Evil Spirit: for which cause I shall not wonder, if Evil Spirits be exasperated by what is written, as the Sadduces doubtless were with what was discoursed in the Days of our Saviour. I only demand the Justice, that others read it, with the same Spirit wherewith I writ it.
ENCHANTMENTS ENCOUNTEKED.
SECTION I.
[T was as long ago, as the Year 1637, that a Faithful Minister of the Church of England, whose Name was Mr. Edward Symons, did in a Sermon afterwards Printed, thus express himself ; * At New-England now the Sun of Comfort be- ' gins to appear, and the glorious Day-Star to show it- ' self; — Sed Venient Annis Sceculce Seris, there will come ' Times in after Ages, when the Clouds will over-shadow ' and darken the Sky there. Many now promise to them- 1 selves nothing but successive Happiness there, which for ' a time through God's Mercy they may enjoy ; and I pray { God, they may a long time ; but in this World there is ' no Happiness perpetual.' An Observation, or I had almost said, an Inspiration, very dismally now verify 'd upon us ! It has been affirm'd by some who best knew New- England, That the World will do New-England a great piece of Injustice, if it acknowledge not a measure of Re- ligion, Loyalty, Honesty, and Industry, in the People there,
10 ENCHANTMENTS
beyond what is to be found with any other People for the Number of them. When I did a few years ago, publish a Book, which mentioned a few memorable Witchcrafts, committed in this country ; the excellent Baxter, graced the Second Edition of that Book, with a kind Preface, wherein he sees cause to say, If any are Scandalized, tJutt New-England, a place of as serious Piety, as any I can hear of, under Heaven, should be troubled so much with Witches ; I think, 'tis no wonder : Where vjill the Devil shoio most Malice, but where he is hated, and hateth most : And I hope, the Country will still deserve and answer the Charity so expressed by that Reverend Man of God. Who- soever travels over this Wilderness, will see it richly be- spangled with Evangelical Churches, whose Pastors are holy, able, and painful Overseers of their Flocks, lively Preachers, and vertuous Livers; and such as in their several Neighbourly Associations, have had their Meetings whereat Ecclesiastical Matters of common Concernment are con- sidered : Churches, whose Communicants have been seriously examined about their Experiences of Regeneration, as well as about their Knowledge, and Belief, and blameless Con- versation, before their admission to the Sacred Communion ; although others of less but hopeful Attainments in Chris- tianity are not ordinarily deny'd Baptism for themselves and theirs ; Churches, which are shye of using any thing in the Worship of God, for which they cannot see a Warrant of God ; but with whom yet the Names of Congregational, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, or Antipoedobaptist, are swal- lowed up in that of Christian ; Persons of all those Per- swasions being taken into our Fellowship, when visible
ENCOUNTERED. 11
Goodliness has recommended them : Churches, which usually do within themselves manage their own Discipline, under the Conduct of their Elders ; but yet call in the help of Synods upon Emergencies, or Aggrievances : Churches, Lastly, wherein Multitudes are growing ripe for Heaven every day ; and as fast as these are taken off, others are daily rising up. And by the Presence and Power of the Divine Institutions thus maintained in the Country. We are still so happy, that I suppose there is no Land in the Universe more free from the debauching, and the debasing Vices of Ungodliness. The Body of the People are hitherto so disposed, that Swearing, Sabbath-breaking, Whoring, Drunkenness, and the like, do not make a Gentle- man, but a Monster, or a Goblin, in the vulgar Estimation. All this notwithstanding, we must humbly confess to our God, that we are miserably degenerated from the first Love of our Predecessors ; however we boast our selves a little, when Men would go to trample upon us, and we venture to say, Wherein soever any is bold (we speak foolishly) ive are bold also. The first Planters of these Colonies were a chosen Generation of Men, who were first so pure, as to disrelish many things which they thought wanted Refor- mation elsewhere ; and yet withal so peaceable, that they embraced a voluntary Exile in a squalid, horrid, American Desart, rather than to live in Contentions with their Brethren. Those good Men imagined that they should leave their Posterity in a place, where they should never see the Inroads of Profanity, or Superstition : And a famous Person re- turning hence, could in a Sermon before the Parliament, profess, / have noiv been seven Years in a Country, ivhere
12 ENCHANTMENTS
I never saiv one Man drunk, or heard one Oath sworn, or beheld one Beggar in the Streets all the while. Such great Persons as Budceus, and others, who mistook Sir Thomas Moor's UTOPIA, for a Country really existent, and stirr'd up some Divines charitably to undertake a Voyage thither, might now have certainly found a Truth in their Mistake ; New- England was a true Utopia. But, alas, the Children and Servants of those old Planters must needs afford many, degenerate Plants, and there is now risen up a Number of People, otherwise inclined than our Joshua's, and the Elders that out-liv'd them. Those two things our holy Progenitors, and our happy Advantages make Omissions of Duty, and such Spiritual Disorders as the whole World abroad is overwhelmed with, to be as provoking in us, as the most flagitious Wickednesses committed in other places ; and the Ministers of God are accordingly severe in their Testimonies : But in short, those Interests of the Gospel, which were the Errand of our Fathers into these Ends of the Earth, have been too much neglected and postponed, and the Attainments of an handsome Education, have been too much undervalued, by Multitudes that have not fallen into Exorbitances of Wickedness ; and some, especially of our young Ones, when they have got abroad from under the Restraints here laid upon them, have become extrava- gantly and abominably Vicious. Hence 'tis, that the Happiness of New-England has been but for a time, as it was foretold, and not for a long time, as has been desir'd for us. A Variety of Calamity has long follow'd this Plantation ; and we have all the Reason imaginable to ascribe it unto the Rebuke of Heaven upon us for our
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manifold Apostasies; we make no right use of our Disasters : If we do not, Remember whence we are fallen, and repent, and do the first works. But yet our Afflictions may come under a further Consideration with us : There is a further Cause of our Afflictions, whose due must be given him.
§ II. The New-Englanders are a People of God settled in those, which were once the Devil's Territories ; and it may easily be supposed that the Devil was exceedingly disturbed, when he perceived such a People here accom- plishing the Promise of old made unto our Blessed Jesus, That He should have the Utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession. There was not a greater Uproar among the Ephesians, when the Gospel was first brought among them, than there was among, The Powers of the Air (after whom those Ephesians walked) when first the Silver Trumpets of the Gospel here made the Joyful Sound. The Devil thus Irritated, immediately try'd all sorts of Methods to overturn this poor Plantation : and so much of the Church, as was Fled into this Wilderness, immediately found, The Serpent cast out of his Mouth a Flood for the carrying of it away. I believe, that never were more Satanical De- vices used for the Unsetling of any People under the Sun, than what have been Employ'd for the Extirpation of the Vine which God has here Planted, Casting out the Heathen, and preparing a Room before it, and causing it to take, deep Root, and fill the Land, so that it sent its Boughs unto the Atlantic Sea Eastward, and its Branches unto the Connecticut River Westward, and the Hills were covered with the shadow thereof. But, All those Attempts of Hell,
14 ENCHANTMENTS
have hitherto been Abortive, many an Ebenezer has been Erected unto the Praise of God, by his Poor People here ; and, Having obtained Help from, God, we continue to this Day. Wherefore the Devil is now making one Attempt more upon us ; an Attempt more Difficult, more Surprizing, more snarl'd with unintelligible Circumstances than any that we have hitherto Encoimtred ; an Attempt so Critical, that if we get well through, we shall soon enjoy Halcyon Days with all the Vultures of Hell Trodden under our Feet. He has wanted his Incarnate Legions to Persecute us, as the People of God have in the other Hemisphere been Perse- cuted : he has therefore drawn forth his more Spiritual ones to make an Attacque upon us. We have been advised by some Credible Christians yet alive, that a Malefactor, accused of Witchcraft as well as Murder, and Executed in this place more than Forty Years ago, did then give Notice of, An Horrible PLOT against the Country by WITCHCRAFT, and a Foundation of WITCHCKAFT then laid, which if it were not seasonably discovered, would probably Blow up, and pufl doivn all the Churches in the Country. And we have now with Horror seen the Discovery of such a Witch- craft! An Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is the Center, and after a sort, the First-lorn of our English Settlements : and the Houses of the Good People there are fill'd with the doleful Shrieks of their Children and Servants, Tormented by Invisible Hands, with Tortures altogether preternatural. After the Mischiefs there Endeavoured, and since in part Conquered, the terrible Plague, of Evil Angels, hath made its Progress into some other places, where other Persons have been in like
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tnanner Diabolically handled. These our poor Afflicted Neighbours, quickly after they become Infected and In- fested with these Daemons, arrive to a Capacity of Discern- ing those which they conceive ihe Shapes of their Troublers ; and notwithstanding the Great and Just Suspicion, that the Dcemons might Impose the Shapes of Innocent Persons in their Spectral Exhibitions upon the Sufferers, (which may perhaps prove no small part of the Witch-Plot in the issue) yet many of the Persons thus Represented, being Examined, several of them have been Convicted of a very Damnable Witchcraft : yea, more than One Tiventy have Confessed, that they have Signed unto a Book, which the Devil show'd them, and Engaged in his Hellish Design of Bewitching, and Ruining our Land. We know not, at least / know not, how far the Delusions of Satan may be Interwoven into some Circumstances of the Confessions ; but one would think, all the Rules of Understanding Humane Affairs are at an end, if after so many most Vol- untary Harmonious Confessions, made by Intelligent Persons of all Ages, in sundry Towns, at several Times, we must not Believe the main strokes wherein those Con- fessions all agree : especially when we have a thousand preternatural Things every day before our eyes, wherein the Confessors do acknowledge their Concernment, and give Demonstration of their being so Concerned. If the Devils now can strike the minds of men with any Poisons of so fine a Composition and Operation, that Scores of Innocent People shall Unite, in Confessions of a Crime, which we see actually committed, it is a thing prodigious, beyond the Wonders of the former Ages, and it threatens no less than
16 ENCHANTMENTS
a sort of a Dissolution upon the World. Now, by these Confessions 'tis Agreed, That the Devil has made a dread- ful Knot of Witches in the Country, and by the help of Witches has dreadfully increased that Knot : That these Witches have driven a Trade of Commissioning their Con- federate Spirits, to do all sorts of Mischiefs to the Neighbours, whereupon there have ensued such Mischievous conse- quences upon the Bodies and Estates of the Neighbourhood, as could not otherwise be accounted for : yea, That at prodigious Witch-Meetings, the Wretches have proceeded ao far, as to Concert and Consult the Methods of Rooting out the Christian Religion from this Country, and setting up instead of it, perhaps a more gross Diabolism, than ever the World saw before. And yet it will be a thing little short of Miracle, if in so spread a Business as this, the Devil should not get in some of his Juggles, to confound the Discovery of all the rest.
§ III. Doubtless, the Thoughts of many will receive a great Scandal against New- England, from the Number of Persons that have been Accused, or Suspected, for Witch- craft, in this Country : But it were easie to offer many things, that may Answer and Abate the Scandal. If the Holy God should any where permit the Devils to hook two or three wicked Scholars into Witchcraft, and then by their Assistance to Range with their Poisonous Insinuations among Ignorant, Envious, Discontented People, till they have cunningly decoy 'd them into some sudden Act, whereby the Toyls of Hell shall be perhaps inextricably cast over them : what Country in the World would not afford
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Witches, numerous to a Prodigy 1 Accordingly, The King- doms of Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, yea and England it self, as well as the Province of New-England, have had their Storms of Witchcrafts breaking upon them, which have made most Lamentable Devastations : which also I wish, may be The Last. And it is not uneasie to be imagined, That God has not brought out all the Witchcrafts in many other Lands with such a speedy, dreadful, de- stroying Jealousie, as burns forth upon such High Treasons, committed here in A Land of Uprightness : Transgressors may more quickly here than elsewhere become a Prey to the Vengeance of Him, Who has Eyes like a Flame of Fire, and, u'ho walks in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks. Moreover, There are many parts of the World, who if they do upon this Occasion insult over this People of God, need only to be told the Story of what happened at Loim, in the Dutchy of Gulic, where a Popish Curate having ineffectu- ally try'd many Charms to Eject the Devil out of a Damsel there possessed, he passionately bid the Devil come out of her into himself; but the Devil answered him, Quidmihi Opus, est eum tentare, quem Novissimo die, Jure Optimo, sum possessurus ? That is, What need I meddle with one whom I am sure to have, and hold at the Last-day as my own for ever !
But besides all this, give me leave to add, it is to be hoped, That among the Persons represented by the Spectres which now afflict our Neighbours, there will be found some that never explicitly contracted with any of the Evil Angels. The Witches have not only intimated, but some of them acknowledge, That they have plotted the Representations
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of Innocent Persons, to cover and shelter themselves in their Witchcrafts ; now, altho' our good God has hitherto generally preserved us from the Abuse therein design'd by the Devils for us, yet who of us can exactly state, How far our God may for our CJtastisement permit the Devil to proceed in such an Abuse? It was the Result of a Discourse, lately held at a Meeting of some very Pious and Learned Ministers among us, That the Devils may sometimes have apermission to Represent an Innocent Person, as Torment^ ing such as are under Diabolical Molestations : But that such things are Rare and Extraordinary; especially ivhen such matters come before Civil Judicature. The Opinion expressed with so much Caution and Judgment, seems to be the prevailing Sense of many others, who are men Eminently Cautious and Judicious ; and have both Argu- ment and History to Countenance them in it. It is Rare and Extraordinary, for an Honest Naboth to have his Life it self Sworn away by two Children of Belial, and yet no Infringement hereby made on theRectoral Righteousness of our Eternal Soveraign, whose Judgments are a Great Deep, and who gives none Account of His matters. Thus, although the Appearance of Innocent Persons in Spectral Exhibitions afflicting the Neighbour-hood, be a thing Rare and Extraordinary ; yet who can be sure, that the great Bdialtf Hell must needs be always Yoked up from this piece of Mischief 1 The best man that ever lived has been called a Witch: and why may not this too usual and unhappy Symptom of A Witch, even a Spectral Representation, befall a person that shall be none of the worst ? Is it not possible 1 The Laplanders will tell us 'tis possible : for
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Persons to be unwittingly attended with officious Damons, bequeathed unto them, and impos'd upon them, by Relations that have been Witches. Qucery, also, Whether at a Time, when the Devil with his Witches are engag'd in a War upon a people, some certain steps of ours, in such a War, may not be followed with our appearing so and so for a while among them in the Visions of our afflicted Forloms/ And, Who can certainly say, what other Degrees or Me- thods of sinning, besides that of a Diabolical Compact, may give the Devils advantage to act in the Shape of them that have miscarried ? Besides what may happen for a while, to try the Patience of the Vertuous. May not some that have been ready upon feeble grounds uncharitably to Censure and Reproach other people, be punished for it by Spectres for a while exposing them to Censure and Reproach 1 And furthermore, I pray, that it may be con- sidered, Whether a World of Magical Tricks often used in the World, may not insensibly oblige Devils to wait upon the Superstitious Users of them. A Witty Writer against Sadducism has this Observation, That persons who never made any express Contract with Apostate Spirits, yet may Act strange Things by Diabolick Aids which they procure by the use of those wicked Forms and Arts, that the Devil first imparted unto his Con- federates. And he adds, We knew not but the Laivs of tlie. Dark Kingdom may Enjoy n a particular Attendance upon all those that practice their Mysteries, whether they knoiv them to be theirs or no. Some of them that have been cry'd out upon a imploying Evil Spirits to hurt our Land, have been known to be most Woody Fortwu-Tfllert;
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and some of them have confessed, That when they told Fortunes, they would pretend the Rules of Chiromancy and the like Ignorant Sciences, but indeed they had no Rule (they said) but this, The things ivere then Darted into their minds. Darted ! Ye Wretches ; By whom, I pray ? Surely by none but the Devils ; who, tho' perhaps they did not exactly Foreknow all the thus Predicted Con- tingencies ; yet having once Foretold them, they stood bound in Honour now to use their Interest, which alas, in This World, is very great, for the Accomplishment of their own Predictions. There are others, that have used most wicked Sorceries to gratifie their unlawful Curiosities, or to prevent Inconveniences in Man and Beast ; Sorceries, which I will not Name, lest I should by Naming, Teach them. Now, some Devil is evermore invited into the Service of the Person that shall Practice these Witchcrafts; and if they have gone on Impenitently in these Communions with any Devil, the Devil may perhaps become at last a Familiar to them, and so assume their Livery, that they cannot shake him off in any way, but that One, which I would most heartily prescribe unto them, Namely, That of a deep and long Repentance. Should these Impieties have been committed in such a place as New-England, for my part I should not wonder, if when Devils are Exposing the Grosser Witches among us, God permit them to bring in these Lesser ones with the rest for their perpetual Humili- ation. In the Issue therefore, may it not be found, that New-England is not so stock'd with Rattle Snakes, as was imagined.
§ IV. But I do not believe, that the progress of Witch-
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craft amongus, is all the Plot which the Devil is managing in the Witelwraft now upon us. It is judged, That the Devil rais'd the Storm, whereof we read in the Eighth Chapter of Matthew, on purpose to over-set the little Vessel wherein the Disciples of Our Lord were Embarqued with Him. ,And it may be fear'd, that in the Horrible Tempest which is now upon ourselves, the design of the Devil is to sink that Happy Settlement of Government, wherewith Almighty God has graciously enclined Their Majesties to favour us. We are blessed with a GOVERNOUR, than whom no man can be more willing to serve Their Majesties, or this their Pro- vince : He is continually venturing his All to do it : and were not the Interests of his Prince dearer to him than his own, he could not but soon be weary of the Helm, whereat he sits. We are under the Influence of a LIEUTENANT GOVERNOUR, who not only by being admirably accomplished both with Natural and Acquired Endowments, is fitted for the Service of Their Majesties, but also with an unspotted Fidelity applies himself to that Service. Our COUNCEL- LOURS are some of our most Eminent Persons, and as Loyal Subjects to the Crown, as hearty lovers of their Country. Our Constitution also is attended with singular Priviledges ; All which Things are by the Devil exceedingly Envy'd unto us. And the Devil will doubtless take this occa- sion for the raising of such complaints and clamours, as may be of pernicious consequence unto some part of our present Settlement, if he can so far Impose. But that which most of all Threatens us, in our present Circumstances, is the Misunderstanding, and so the Animosity, whereinto the Witchcraft now Raging, has Enchanted us. The Em-
22 ENCHANTMENTS
broiling, first, of our Spirits, and then of our A/airs, is evidently as considerable a Branch of the Hellish Intrigue which now vexes us as any one Thing whatsoever. The Devil has made us like a Troubled Sea, and the Mire and Mud begins now also to heave up apace. Even Good and Wise Men suffer themselves to fall into their Paroxysms ; and the Shake which the Devil is now giving us, fetches up the Dirt which before lay still at the bottom of our sinful Hearts. If we allow the Mad Dogs of Hell to poyson us by biting us, we shall imagine that we see nothing but such things about us, and like such things fly upon all that we see. Were it not for what is IN us, for my part, I should not fear a thousand Legions of Devils : 'tis by our Quarrels that we spoil our Prayers ; and if our humble, zealous, and united Prayers are once hindred : Alas, the Philistines, of Hell have cut our Locks for us ; they will then blind us, mock us, ruine us : In truth, I cannot alto- gether blame it, if People are a little transported, when they conceive all the secular Interests of themselves and their Families at the Stake ; and yet at the sight of these Heartburnings, I cannot forbear the Exclamation of the Sweet-spirited ^4 ws^m, in his Pacificatory Epistle to Jerom, on the Contest with Ruffin, 0 miser a & miser -anda Conditio !
0 Condition, truly miserable ! But what shall be done to cure these Distractions ? It is wonderfully necessary, that some healing Attempts be made at this time : And I must needs confess (if I may speak so much) like a Nazianzen,
1 am so desirous of a share in them, that if, being thrown overboard, were needful to allay the Storm, I should think Dying a Trifle to be undergone, for so great a Blessedness.
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§ V. I would most importunately in the first place, entreat every Man to maintain an holy Jealousie over his Soul at this time, and think ; May not the Devil make me, though ignorantly and umvillingly, to be an Instrument of doing something that he would have to be done ? For my part, I freely own my Suspicion, lest something of Enchantment, have reach'd more Persons and Spirits among us, than we are well aware of. But then, let us more generally agree to maintain a kind Opinion one of another. That Charity without which, even our giving our Bodies to be burned would profit nothing, uses to proceed by this Rule ; It is kind, it is not easily provok'd, it thinks no Evil, it believes all things, hopes all things. But if we disregard this Rule of Charity, we shall indeed give our Body Poli- tick to be burned. I have heard it affirmed, That in the late great Flood upon Connecticut, those Creatures which could not but have quarrelled at another time, yet now being driven together, very agreeably stood by one another. I am sure we shall be worse than Brutes if we fly upon one another at a time when the Floods of Belial make us afraid. On the one side; [Alas, my Pen, must thou write the word, Side in the Business ?] There are very worthy Men, who having been call'd by God, when and where this Witchcraft first appeared upon the Stage to encounter it, are earnestly desirous to have it sifted unto the bottom of it. And I pray, which of us all that should live under the continual Impressions of the Tortures, Outcries, and Ha- vocks which Devils confessedly Commissioned by Witches make among their distressed Neighbours, would not have a Biass that way beyond other Men 1 Persons this way
24 tiNCHA NT ME NTS
disposed have been Men eminent for Wisdom and Vertue, and Men acted by a noble Principle of Conscience : Had not Conscience (of duty to God) prevailed above other Considerations with them, they would not for all they are worth in the World have medled in this Thorny business. Have there been any disputed Methods used in discovering the Works of Darkness ? It may be none but what have had great Presedents in other parts of the World ; which may, though not altogether justifie, yet much alleviate a Mistake in us if there should happen to be found any such mistake in so dark a Matter. They have done what they have done, with multiplied Addresses to God for his Guidance, and have not been insensible how much they have exposed themselves in what they have done. Yea, they would gladly contrive and receive an expedient, how the shedding of Blood, might be spared, by the Recovery of Witches, not gone beyond the Reach of Pardon. And after all, they invite all good Men, in Terms to this purpose, 'Be- * ing amazed at the Number and Quality of those accused 1 of late, we do not know but Satan by his Wiles may have ' enwrapped some innocent Persons ; and therefore should 'earnestly and humbly desire the most Critical Enquiry 'upon the place, to find out the Falacy; that there may ' be none of the Servants of the Lord, with the Worshippers ' of Baal.' I may also add, That whereas, if once a Witch do ingeniously confess among us, no more Spectres do in their Shapes after this, trouble the Vicinage ; if any guilty Creatures will accordingly to so good purpose confess their Crime to any Minister of God, and get out of the Snare of the Devil, as no Minister will discover such a Conscien-
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tious Confession, so I believe none in the Authority will press him to discover it ; but rejoyc'd in a Soul sav'd from Death. On the other side [if I must again use the word Side, which yet I hope to live to blot out] there are very worthy Men, who are not a little dissatisfied at the Pro- ceedings in the Prosecution of this Witchcraft. And why? Not because they would have any such abominable thing, defended from the Strokes of Impartial Justice. No, those Reverend Persons who gave in this Advice unto the Honourable Council ; ' That Presumptions, whereupon
* Persons may be Committed, and much more Convictions, ' whereupon Persons may be Condemned, as guilty of
* Witchcrafts, ought certainly to be more considerable, thun ' barely the Accused Persons being represented by a Spectre 1 unto the Afflicted ; Nor are Alterations made in the ' Sufferers, by a Look or Touch of the Accused, to be 'esteemed an infallible Evidence of Guilt; but frequently 'liable to be abused by the Devils Legerdemains' : I say, those very Men of God most conscientiously Subjoined this Article to that Advice, — * Nevertheless we cannot but ' humbly recommend unto the Government, the speedy and 'vigorous Prosecution of such as have rendred thein- ' selves Obnoxious; according to the best Directions given ' in the Laws of God, and the wholsome Statutes of the ' English Nation for the Detection of Witchcraft.' Only 'tis a most commendable Cautiousness, in those gracious Men, to be very shye lest the Devil get so far into our Faith, as that for the sake of many Truths which we find he tells us, we come at length to believe any Lyes, where- with he may abuse us: whereupon, what a Desolation of
26 ENCHANTMENTS
Names would soon ensue, besides a thousand other pernicious Consequences? and lest there should be any such Principles taken up, as when put into Practice must unavoidably cause the Righteous to perish with the Wicked; or procure the Bloodshed of any Persons, like the Gibeonites, whom some learned Men suppose to be under a false Notion of Witches, by Saul exterminated.
They would have all due steps taken for the Extinction of Witches ; but they would fain have them to be sure ones ; nor is it from any thing, but the real and hearty goodness of such Men, that they are loth to surmise ill of other Men, till there be the fullest Evidence for the surmises. As for the Honourable Judges that have been hitherto in the Commission, they are above my Consideration: wherefore I will only say thus much of them, That such of them as I have the Honour of a Personal Acquaintance with, are Men of an excellent Spirit ; and as at first they went about the work for which they were Commission'd, with a very great aversion, so they have still been under Heart-breaking Sollicitudes, how they might therein best serve both God and Man. In fine, Have there been faults on any side fallen into? Surely, they have at worst been but the faults of a well-meaning Ignorance. On every side then, why should not we endeavour with amicable Correspondencies, to help one another out of the Snares wherein the Devil would involve us? To wrangle the Devil out of the Country, will be truly a New Experiment : Alas ! we are not aware of the Devil, if we do not think, that he aims at inflaming us one against another; and shall we suffer our selves to be Devil-ridden ? or by any unadvisableness contribute unto the Widening of our Breaches?
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To say no more, there is a published and credible Rela- tion; which affirms, That very lately in a part of England, where some of the Neighbourhood were quarrelling, a Raven from the top of a tree very articulately and unac- countably cry'd out, Read tlie Third of Colossians and tfie Fifteenth! Were I my self to chuse what sort of Bird I would be transformed into, I would say, 0 that I had winy* like a Dove! Nevertheless, I will for once do the Office, which as it seems, Heaven sent that Raven upon ; even to beg, Tliat the Peace of God may Rule in our Hearts.
§ VI. *Tis necessary that we unite in every thing : but there are especially two Things wherein our Union must cany us along together. We are to unite in our En- deavours to deliver our distressed Neighbours, from the horrible Annoyances and Molestations with which a dread- ful Witchcraft is now persecuting of them. To have an hand in any thing, that may stifle or obstruct a Regular Detection of that Witchcraft, is what we may well with an holy fear avoid. Their Majesties good Subjects must not every day be torn to pieces by horrid Witches, and those bloody Felons, be left wholly unprosecuted. The Witch- craft is a business that will not be sham'd, without plunging us into sore Plagues, and of long continuance. But then we are to unite in such Methods for this deliverance, as may be unquestionably safe, lest the latter end be worse tJian the beginning. And here, what shall I say ? I will venture to say thus much, That we are safe, when we make just as much use of all Advice from the invisible World, as God sends it for. It is a safe Principle, That when God
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Almighty permits any Spirits from the unseen Regions, to visit us with surprizing Informations, there is then some- tiling to be enquired after ; we are then to enquire of one another, What Cause there is for such things 1 The pe- culiar Government of God, over the unbodied Intelligences, is a sufficient Foundation for this Principle. When there lias been a Murder committed, an Apparition of the slain Party accusing of any Man, altho' such Apparitions have oftner spoke true than false, is not enough to Convict the Man as guilty of that Murder; but yet it is a sufficient occasion for Magistrates to make a particular Enquiry, whether such a Man have afforded any ground for such an Accusation. Even so a Spectre exactly resembling such or such a Person, when the Neighbourhood are tormented by such Spectres, may reasonably make Magistrates in- quisitive whether the Person so represented have done or said any thing that may argue their confederacy with Evil Spirits, altho' it may be defective enough in point of Con- viction ; especially at a time, when 'tis possible, some over- powerful Conjurer may have got the skill of thus exhibiting the Shapes of all sorts of Persons, on purpose to stop the Prosecution of the Wretches, whom due Enquiries thus provoked, might have made obnoxious unto Justice.
Quaere, Whether if God would have us to proceed any further than bare Enquiry, upon what reports there may come against any Man, from the World of Spirits, he will not by his Providence at the same time have brought into our hands, these more evident and sensible things, where- upon a man is to be esteemed a Criminal. But I will venture to say this further, that it will be safe to account
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the Names as well as the Lives of our Neighbors ; two considerable things to be brought under a Judicial Process, until it be found by Humane Observations that the Peace of Mankind is thereby disturbed. We are Humane Creatures, and we are safe while we say, they must be Humane Witnesses, who also have in the particular Act of Seeing, or Hearing, which enables them to be Witnesses, but no more than Humane Assistances, that are to turn the Scale when Laws are to be executed. And upon this Head I will further add : A wise and a just Magistrate, may so far give way to a common Stream of Dissatisfaction, as to forbear acting up to the heighth of his own Perswasion, about what may be judged convictive of a Crime, whose Nature shall be so abstruse and obscure, as to raise much Disputation. Tho' he may not do what he should leave un- done, yet he may leave undone something that else he could do, when the Publick Safety makes an Exigency.
§ VII. I was going to make one Venture more ; that is, to offer some safe Rules, for the finding out of the Witches, which are at this day our accursed Troublers : but this were a Venture too Presumptuous and Icarian for me to make ; I leave that unto those Excellent and Judicious Persons, with whom I am not worthy to be num- bred : All that I shall do, shall be to lay before my Readers, a brief Synopsis of what has been written on that Subject, by a Triumvirate of as Eminent Persons as have ever handled it. I will begin with,
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AN ABSTRACT OF MR. PERKINS'S WAY FOR THE DISCOVERY OF WITCHES.
I. THERE are Presumptions, which do at least probably and conjecturally note one to be a Witch. These give oc- casion to Examine, yet they are no sufficient Causes of Conviction.
II. If any Man or Woman be notoriously defamed for a Witch, this yields a strong Suspition. Yet the Judge ought carefully to look, that the Report be made by Men of Honesty and Credit.
III. If a Fellow- Witch, or Magician, give Testimony of any Person to be a Witch ; this indeed is not sufficient for Condemnation; but it is a Jit Presumption to cause a strait Examination.
IV. If after Curs ing there folio w Death, or at least some mischief : for Witches are wont to practise their mis- chievous Facts, by Cursing and Banning : This also is a sufficient matter of Examination, tho' net of Conviction.
V. If after Enmity, Quarrelling, or Threatning, a present mischief does follow ; that also is a great Presump- tion.
VI. If the Party suspected be the Son or Daughter, the man-servant or maid-servant, the Familiar Friend, near Neighbor, or old Companion, of a known and convicted IV itch; this may be likewise a Presumption; for Witch- craft is an Art that may be learned, and conveyed from
to man.
ENCOUNTERED. 31
VII. Some add this for a Presumption: If the Party suspected be found to have the Devil's mark ; for it is com- monly thought, when the Devil makes his Covenant ivith them, he alwaies leaves his mark behind them, whereby he knows them for his own : — a mark whereof no evident Reason in Nature can be given.
VIII. Lastly, If the party examined be Unconstant, or contrary to himself, in his deliberate Ansivers, it argueth a Guilty Conscience, which stops the freedom of Uttera/nce. And yet there are causes of Astonishment, which may befal the Good, as ivell as the Bad.
IX. But then there is a Conviction, discovering the Witch, which must pi*oceed from just and sufficient proof s, and not from bare presumptions.
X. Scratching of the suspected party, and Recovery thereupon, with several other such weak Proofs ; as also, the fleet ing of the suspected Party, thrown upon the Water; these Proofs are so far from being sufficient, that some of them are, after a sort, practices of Witchcraft.
XI. The Testimony of some Wizzard, tho' offering to shew the Witches Face in a Glass : This, I grant, may be a good Presumption, to cause a strait Examination ; but a sufficient Proof of Conviction it cannot be. If the Devil tell the Grand Jury, that the per son in question is a Witch, and offers withal to confirm the same by Oath, sJwuld the Inquest receive his Oath or Accusation to condemn the man ? Assuredly no. And yet, that is as much as the Testimony of another Wizzard, w/io only by the Devil's fielp reveals the Witch.
XII. If a man, being dangerously sick, and like to d$v,
32 EXCHA NT ME NTS
upon Suspicion, will take it on his Death, that such a one hath bewitched him, it is an Allegation of the same nature, which may move the Judge to examine the Party, but it is of no moment for Conviction.
XIII. Among the sufficient means of Conviction, the first is, the free and voluntary Confession of the Crime, made by the party suspected and accused, after Exami- nation. I say not, that a bare confession is sufficient, but a Confession after due Examination, taken upon preg- nant presumptions. What needs now more witness or further Enquiry ?
XIV. There is a second sufficient Conviction, by the Testimony of two Witnesses, of good and honest Report, avouching before the Magistrate, upon their own Knowledge^ these two things: either that the party accused hath made a League with the Devil, or hath done some known practice of ivitchcraft. A nd, all Arguments that do necessarily prove either of these, being brought by two sufficient Wit- nesses, are of force fully to convince the party suspected.
XV. If it can be proved, that the party suspected hath called upon the Devil, or desired his Help, this is a preg- nant proof of a League formerly made between them.
XVI. If it can be proved, that the party hath entertained a Familiar Spirit, and had Conference with it, in the like- ness of some visible Creatures ; here is Evidence of witch- craft.
XVII. If the witnesses affirm upon Oath, that the sus- pected person hath done any action or work which neces- sarily infers a Covenant made, as, that he hath used Enchantments, divined things before they come to pa-ss, and
ENCOUNTERED. 33
that peremptorily, raised Tempests, caused the Form of a dead man to appear; itproveth sufficiently, that he or she is a Witch. This is the Substance of Mr. Perkins.
' Take next the Sum of Mr. Gaules Judgment about the 1 Detection of Witches. 1. Some Tokens for the Trial of 'Witches, are altogether unwarrantable. Such are the 'old Paganish Sign, the Witches Long Eyes; the Tra- * dition of Witches not weeping ; the casting of the Witch 'into the Water, with Thumbs and Toes ty'd a-cross. ' And many more such Marks, which if they are to know ' a Witch by, certainly 'tis no other Witch, but the User 'of them. 2. There are some Tokens for the Trial of 'Witches, more probable, and yet not so certain as to ' afford Conviction. Such are strong and long Suspicion : ' Suspected Ancestors, some appearance of Fact, the Corps ' bleeding upon the Witches touch, the Testimony of the £ Party bewitched, the supposed Witches unusual Bodily 'marks, the Witches usual Cursing and Banning, the ' Witches lewd and naughty kind of Life. 3. Some Signs ' there are of a Witch, more certain and infallible. As, 'firstly, Declining of Judicature, or faultering, faulty, ' unconstant, and contrary Answers, upon judicial and de- ' liberate examination. Secondly, When upon due Enquiry ' into a person's Faith and Manners, there are found all 4 or most of the Causes which produce Witchcraft, namely, ' God forsaking, Satan invading, particular Sins disposing ; 'and lastly, a compact compleating all. Thirdly, The ' Witches free Confession, together with full Evidence of
34 ENCHANTMENTS
1 the Fact. Confession without Fact may be a meer De- 'lusion, and Fact without Confession may be a meer
* Accident. 4:thly, The semblable Gestures and Actions of 1 suspected Witches, with the comparable Expressions of Af- ' fections, which in all Witches have been observ'd and found ' very much alike. Fifthly, The Testimony of the Party be- 1 witched, whether pining or dying, together with the joynt
* Oaths of sufficient persons, that have seen certain pro- ' digious Pranks or Feats, wrought by the Party accused. ' 4. Among the most unhappy circumstances to convict a 'Witch, one is, a maligning and oppugning the Word, 'Work, and Worship of God, and by any extraordinary 1 sign seeking to seduce any from it. See Deut. 13. 1, 2. 'Mat. 24. 24. Act. 13. 8, 10. 2 Tim. 3. 8. Do but mark ' well the places, and for this very Property (of thus oppos-
* ing and perverting) they are all there concluded arrant ' and absolute Witches. 5. It is not requisite, that so 'palpable Evidence of Conviction should here come in, as ' in other more sensible matters ; 'tis enough, if there be
* but so much circumstantial Proof or Evidence, as the ' Substance, Matter, and Nature of such an abstruse Mystery
* of Iniquity will well admit.5 [/ suppose he means, that whereas in other Crimes we look for more direct proof s, in this there is a greater use of consequential ones.~\ ' But ' I could heartily wish, that the Juries were empanell'd of 4 the most eminent Physicians, Lawyers, and Divines that 1 a Country could afford. In the mean time 'tis not to be 4 called a Toleration, if Witches escape, where Conviction ' is wanting.' To this purpose our Gaule.
I will transcribe a little from one Author more, 'tis the
ENCOUNTERED. 35
Judicious Bernard of Batcomb, who in his Guide to grand Jurymen, after he has mention'd several things that are shrewd Presumptions of a Witch, proceeds to such things as are the Convictions of such an one. And he says, * A 1 witch in league with the Devil is convicted by these Evi- 1 dences ; I. By a witches Mark ; which is upon the 4 Baser sort of Witches ; and this, by the Devils either 1 Sucking or Touching of them. Tertullian says, It is the ' Devils custome to mark his. And note, That this mark
* is Insensible, and being prick'd it will not Bleed. Some
* times, its like a Teate ; sometimes but a Bleiuish Spot ; 1 sometimes a Red one ; and sometimes the flesh Sunk : 1 but the Witches do sometimes cover them. II. By the 1 Witches Words. As when they have been heard calling 1 on, speaking to, or Talking of their Familiars ; or, when 4 they have been heard Telling of Hurt they have done to ' man or beast : Or when they have been heard Threatning
* of such Hurt ; Or if they have been heard Relating their ' Transportations. III. By the Witches Deeds. As ' when they have been seen with their Spirits, or seen se-
* cretly Feeding any of their Imps. Or, when there can ' be found their Pictures, Poppets, and other Hellish Com-
* positions. IV. By the Witches Extasies : With the 'Delight whereof, Witches are so taken, that they will 1 hardly conceal the same : Or, however at some time or 1 other, they may be found in them. V. By one or more 1 Fellow- Witches, Confessing their own Witchcraft, and
* bearing Witness against others ; if they can make good ' the Truth of their Witness, and give sufficient proof of it.
* As, that they have seen them with their Spirits, or, that
36 ENCHANTMENTS
* they have Received Spirits from them ; or that they can
* tell, when they used Witchery-Tricks to Do Harm ; or, 4 that they told them what Harm they had done ; or that ' they can show the mark upon them ; or, that they have ' been together in their Meetings ; and such like. VI. By 'some Witness of God Himself, happening upon the
* Execrable Curses of Witches upon themselves, Praying 4 of God to show some Token, if they be Guilty. VII. By 'the Witches own Confession, of Giving their Souls to ' the Devil.' It is no Rare thing, for Witches to Confess.
They are Considerable Things, which I have thus Recited ; and yet it must be with Open Eyes, kept upon Open Rules, that we are to follow these things,
S. 8. But Juries are not the only Instruments to be imploy'd in such a Work ; all Christians are to be con- cerned with daily and fervent Prayers, for the assisting of it. In the Days of Athanasius, the Devils were found unable to stand before, that Prayer, however then used perhaps with too much of Ceremony, Let God Arise, Let his Enemies be Scattered. Let them also that Hate Him, flee before Him.
0 that instead of letting our Hearts Rise against one another, our Prayers might Rise unto an high pitch of Im- portunity, for such a Rising of the Lord ! Especially, Let them that are Suffering by Witchcraft, be sure to stay and pray, and Beseech the Lord thrice, even as much as ever they can, before they complain of any Neighbour for afflicting them. Let them also that are accused of Witchcraft, set themselves to Fast and Pray, and so shake off the Daemons that would like Vipers fasten upon them ; and get the Waters of Jealousie made profitable to them.
ENCOUNTERED. 37
And now, 0 Thou Hope of New-England, and the Saviour thereof in the Time of Trouble ; Do thou look mercifully down upon us, & Rescue us, out of the Trouble which at this time do's threaten to swallow us up. Let Satan be shortly bruised under our Feet, and Let the Covenanted Vassals of Satan, which have Traiterously brought him in upon us, be Gloriously Conquered, by thy Powerful and Gracious Presence in the midst of us. Abhor us not, 0 God, but cleanse us, but Jieal us, but save us, for the sake of thy Glory. Enwrapped in our Salvations. By thy Spirit, Lift up a standard against our infernal adversaries, Let us quickly find thee making of us glad, according to the Days wherein ive have been afflicted. Accept of all our Endeavours to glorifi.y thee, in the Fires that are upon us; and among the rest, Let these my poor and weak essays, composed with what Years, what Cares, what Prayers, thou only knowest, not want the Acceptance of the Lord.
A DISCOURSE ON THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD.
UTTERED (IN PART) ON AUG. 4, 1692.
Ecclesiastical History has Reported it unto us, That a Renowned Martyr at the Stake, seeing the Book of the REVELATION thrown by his no less Profane than Bloody Persecutors, to be burn'd in the same Fire with himself, he cryed out, 0 Beata Apocalypsis; quam bene mecumagitur,qui tecumComburar! BLESSED REVELA- TION ! said he, Hoio Blessed am I in this Fire, ivhile I have Thee to bear me Company. As for our selves this Day, 'tis a Fire of sore Affliction and Confusion, wherein we are Embroiled ; but it is no inconsiderable Advantage unto us, that we have the Company of this Glorious and Sacred Book the REVELATION to assist us in our Exercises. From that Book there is one Text, which I would single out at this time to lay before you ; 'tis that in
REVEL, xn. 12.
Wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth, and of the Sea ; for the Devil is come doivn unto you, having great Wrath ; because he knou-eth, that he hath but a short time.
HE Text is Like the Cloudy and Fiery Pillar, vouchsafed unto Israel, in the Wilderness of old ; there is a very dark side of it in the Intimation, that, The Devil is come down
THE INVISIBLE WORLD. 39
having great Wrath ; but it has also a bright side, when it assures us, that, He has but a short time ; Unto the Contemplation of both, I do this Day Invite you.
We have in our Hands a Letter from our Ascended Lord in Heaven, to Advise us of his being still alive, and of his Purpose e're long, to give us a Visit, wherein we shall see our Living Redeemer, stand at the latter day upon the Earth. 'Tis the last Advice that we have had from Heaven, for now sixteen Hundred years ; and the scope of it, is, to represent how the Lord Jesus Christ having begun to set up his Kingdom in the World, by the preaching of the Gospel, he would from time to time utterly break to pieces all Powers that should make Head against it, until, The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdomes of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall Reign for ever and ever. Tis a Commentary on what had been written by Daniel, about, The fourth Monarchy ; with some Touches upon, The Fifth ; wherein, The greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven, shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High : And altho' it have, as 'tis expressed by one of the Ancients, Tot Sacramenta quot verba, a Mystery in every Syllable, yet it is not alto- gether to be neglected with such a Despair, as that, / cannot Read, for the Book is Sealed. It is a REVELATION, and a singular, and notable Blessing is pronouuc'd upon them that humbly study it.
The Divine Oracles, have with a most admirable Artifice and Carefulness, drawn, as the very pious Beverley, has la- boriously Evinced, an exact LINE OF TIME, from the first Sabbath at the Creation of the World, unto the great Sab-
40 THE WONDERS OF
batism at the Restitution of all Things. In that famous Line of Time, from the Decree for the Restoring of Jeru- salem, after the Babylonish Captivity, there seem to remain a matter of Two Thousand and Three Hundred Years, unto that Neiv Jerusalem, whereto the Church is to be advanced, when the mystical Babylon shall be fallen. At the Resurrection of our Lord, there were seventeen or eighteen Hundred of those Years, yet upon the Line, to run unto, The rest which remains for the People of God ; and this Remnant in the Line of Time, is here in our Apocalypse, variously Embossed, Adorned, and Signalized with such Distinguishing Events, if we mind them, will help us escape that Censure, Can ye not Discern the Signs of the Times ?
The Apostle John, for the View of these Things, had laid before him, as I conceive, a Book, with leaves, or folds ; which Volumn was written both on the Backside, and on the Inside, and Roll'd up in a Cylindriacal Form, under seven Labels, fastned with so many Seals. The first Seal being opened, and the first Label removed, under the first Label the Apostle saw what he saw, of a first Rider Pour- tray'd, and so on, till the last Seal was broken up ; each of the Sculptures being enlarged with agreeable Visions and Voices, to illustrate it. The Book being now Unrolled, there were Trumpets, with wonderful Concomitants, Ex- hibited successively on the Expanding Backside of it. Whereupon the Book was Eaten, as it were to be Hidden, from Interpretations ; till afterwards, in the Inside of it, the Kingdom of Anti-christ came to be Exposed. Thus, the Judgments of God on the Roman Empire, first unto
THE INVISIBLE WORLD. 41
the Downfal of Paganism, and then, unto the Downfal of Popery, which is but Revived Paganism, are in these Display es, with Lively Colours and Features made sensible unto us.
Accordingly, in the Twelfth Chapter of this Book, we have an August Preface, to the Description of that Horrid Kingdom, which our Lord Christ refused, but Antichrist accepted, from the Devils Hands ; a Kingdom, which for Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years together, was to be a continual oppression upon the People of God, and opposition unto his Interests ; until the Arrival of that Illustrious Day, wherein, The Kingdom shall be the Lords, and he shall be Govemour among the Nations. The Chapter is (as an Excellent Person calls it) an Extravasated Account of the Circumstances, which befell the Primitive Church, during the first Four or Five Hundred Years of Christi- anity : It shows us the Face of the Church, first in Rome Heathenish, and then in Rome Converted, before the Man of Sin was yet come to Mans Estate. Our Text contains the Acclamations made upon the most Glorious Revolution that ever yet happened upon the Roman Empire ; namely, That wherein the Travailing Church brought forth a Christian Emperour. This was a most Eminent Victory over the Devil, and Resemblance of the State, wherein the World, ere long shall see, TJie Kingdom of our God, and the Power of his Chrisl. It is here noted,
First, as a matter of Triumph. 'Tis said, Rejoyce, ye Heavens, and ye that dwell in them. The Saints in both Worlds, took the Comfort of this Revolution • the Devout Ones that had outlived the late Persecutions, were filled
42 THE WONDERS OF
with Transporting Joys, when they saw the Christian be- come the Imperial Religion, and when they saw Good Men come to give Law unto the rest of Mankind; the Deceased Ones also, whose Blood had been Sacrificed in the Ten Persecutions, doubtless made the Light Regions to ring with Hallelujahs unto God, when there were brought unto them, the Tidings of the Advances now given to the Christian Religion, for which they had suffered Martyrdom.
Secondly, As a matter of Horror. ;Tis said, Wo to the Jnhabiters of the Earth and of the Sea. The Earth still means the False Church, the Sea means the Wide World, in Prophetical Phrasseology. There was yet left a vast party of Men that were Enemies to the Christian Religion, in the power of it ; a vast party left for the Devil to work upon : Unto these is a Wo denounced ; and why so ? 'Tis added, for the Devil is come down unto you, having great Wrath, because he knows, that he. has but a short time. These were, it seems, to have some desperate and peculiar Attempts of the Devil made upon them. In the mean time, we may Entertain this for our Doctrine,
Great Wo proceeds from the Great WRATH, with which the DEVIL, towards the end of his TIME, will make a DESCENT upon a miserable World.
I have now Published a most awful and solemn Warning for our selves at this day ; which has four Propositions, comprehended in it.
Proposition I. That there is a Devil, is a thing Doubted by none but such as are under the Influences of the Devil. For any to deny the Being of a Devil must be from an Ignorance or Profaneness, worse than Diabolical. A Devil.
THE INVISIBLE WORLD. 43
What is that ? We have a Definition of the Monster, in Eph. 6. 12. A Spiritual Wickedness, that is, A wicked Spirit. A Devil is a Fallen Angel, an Angel Fallen from the Fear and Love of God, and from all Celestial Glories ; but Fallen to all manner of Wretchedness and Cursedness. He was once in that Order of Heavenly Creatures, which God in the Beginning made Ministering Spirits, for his own peculiar Service and Honour, in the management of the Universe; but we may now write that Epitaph upon him, How art thou fallen from Heaven! thou hast said in thine Heart, I will Exalt my Throne above the Stars of God ; but thou art brought down to Hell ! A Devil is a Spiritual and Rational Substance, by his Apostacy from God, inclined unto all that is Vicious, and for that Apostacy confined unto the Atmosphere of this Earth, in Chains under Darkness, unto the Judgment of the Great Day. This is a Devil ; and the Experience of Mankind as well as the Testimony of Scripture, does abundantly prove the Existence of such a Devil.
About this Devil, there are many things, whereof we may reasonably and profitably be Inquisitive ; such things, I mean, as are in our Bibles Reveal'd unto us ; according to which if we do not speak, on so dark a Subject, but according to our own uncertain, and perhaps hurnoursome Conjectures, There is no Light in us. I will carry you with me, but unto one Paragraph of the Bible, to be in- formed of three Things, relating to the Devil; 'tis the Story of the Gadaren Energumen, in the fifth Chapter of Mark.
First, then, 'Tis to be granted ; the Devils are so many,
44 THE WONDERS OF
that some Thousands, can sometimes at once apply them- selves to vex one Child of Man. It is said in Mark 5. 15. He that was Possessed with the Devil, had the Legion. Dreadful to be spoken ! A Legion consisted of Twelve Thousand Five Hundred People : And we see that in one Man or two, so many Devils can be spared for a Garrison. As the Prophet cryed out, Multitudes, Multitudes, in the Valley of Decision f Sol say, There are multitudes, mul- titudes, in the valley of Destruction, where the Devils are ! When we speak of, The Devil, 'tis, A name of Multitude ; it means not One Individual Devil, so Potent and Scient, as perhaps a Manichee would imagine; but it means a Kind, which a Multitude belongs unto. Alas, the Devils, they swarm about us, like the Frogs of Egypt, in the most Retired of our Chambers. Are we at our Boards ? There will be Devils to Tempt us unto Sensuality : Are we in our Beds ? There will be Devils to Tempt us unto Carnality : Are we in our Shops ? There will be Devils to Tempt us unto Dishonesty. Yea, Tho' we get into the Church of God, there will be Devils to Haunt us in the very Temple it self, and there tempt us to manifold Misbehaviours. I am verily perswaded, That there are very few Humane Affairs whereinto some Devils are not Insinuated ; There is not so much as a Journey intended, but Satan will have an hand in hindering or furthering of it.
Secondly, 'Tis to be supposed, That there is a sort of Arbitrary, even Military Government, among the Devils. This is intimated, when in Mar. 5. 9. The unclean Spirit said, My Name is Legion : they are such a Discipline as Legions use to be. Hence we read about, The Prince of
THE INVISIBLE WORLD. 45
the power of the Air : Our Air has a power ? or an Army of Devils in the High Places of it ; and these Devils have a Prince over them, who is King over the Children of Pride. Tis probable, That the Devil, who was the Ring- leader of that mutinous and rebellious Crew, which first shook off the Authority of God, is now the General of those Hellish Armies ; Our Lord, that Conquered him, has told us the Name of him ; 'tis Belzebub ; 'tis he that is the Devil, and the rest are his Angels, or his Souldiers. Think on vast Regiments of cruel and bloody French Dragoons, with an Intendant over them, overrunning a pillaged Neighbourhood, and you will think a little, what the Con- stitution among the Devils is.
Thirdly, 'tis to be supposed, that some Devils are more peculiarly Commissioned, and perhaps Qualify'd, for some Countries, while others are for others. This is intimated when in Mar. 5. 10. The Devils besought our Lord much, that he would not send them away out of the Countrey. Why was that ? But in all probability, because these Devils were more able to do the works of the Devil, in such a Countrey, than in another. It is not likely that every Devil does know every Language ; or that every Devil can do every Mischief. 'Tis possible, that the Experience, or, if I may call it so, the Education of all Devils is not alike, and that there may be some difference in their Abilities. If one might make an Inference from what the Devils do, to what they are, One cannot forbear dreaming, that there are degrees of Devils. Who can allow, that such Trifling Daemons, as that of Mascon, or those that once infested our Neiu berry, are of so much Grandeur, as those Dctmcms,
46 THE WONDERS OF
whose Games are mighty Kingdoms? Yea, 'tis certain, that all Devils do not make a like Figure in the Invisible World. Nor does it look agreeably, That the Damons, which were the Familiars of such a Man as the old Apol- lonius, differ not from those baser Goblins that chuse to Nest in the filthy and loathsom Rags of a beastly Sorceress. Accordingly, why may not some Devils be more accom- plished for what is to be done in such and such places, when others must be detach'd for other Territories? Each Devil, as he sees his advantage, cries out, Let me be in this Countrey, rather than another. But Enough, if not too much, of these things.
Proposition II. There is a Devilish Wrath against Mankind, with which the Demi is for God's sake Inspired. The Devil is himself broiling under the intolerable and interminable Wrath of God ; and a fiery Wrath at God, is, that which the Devil is for that cause Enflamed. Me- thinks I see the posture of the Devils in Isa. 8. 21. They fret themselves, and Curse their God, and look upward. The first and chief Wrath of the Devil, is at the Almighty God himself; he knows, The God that made him, will not have mercy on him, and the God that formed him, will shew him no favour ; and so he can have no Kindness for that God, who has no Mercy, nor Favour for him. Hence 'tis, that he cannot bear the Name of God should be acknowledged in the World : Every Acknowledgement paid unto God, is a fresh drop of the burning Brimstone falling upon the Devil ; he does make his Insolent, tho' Impotent Batteries, even upon the Throne of God himself : and foolishly affects to have himself exalted unto that
THE INVISIBLE WORLD. 47
Glorious High Throne, by all people, as he sometimes is, by Execrable Witches. This horrible Dragon does not only with his Tayl strike at the Stars of God, but at the God himself, who made the Stars, being desirous to out- shine them all. God and the Devil are sworn Enemies to each other ; the Terms between them, are those, in Zech. 11.18. My Soul loathed them, and their Soul also abhorred me. And from this Furious wrath, or Displeasure and Prejudice at God, proceeds the Devils wrath at us, the poor Children of Men. Our doing the Service of God, is one thing that exposes us to the wrath of the Devil. We are the High Priests of the World ; when all Creatures are called upon, Praise ye the Lord, they bring to us those demanded Praises of God, saying, do you offer them for us. Hence 'tis, that the Devil has a Quarrel with us, as he had with the High-Priest in the Vision of Old. Our bearing the Image of God is another thing that brings the wrath of the Devil upon us. As a Tyger, thro his Hatred at man will tear the very Picture of him, if it come in his way ; such a Tyger the Devil is ; because God said of old, Let us make Man in our Image, the Devil is ever saying, Let us pull this man to pieces. But the envious Pride of the Devil, is one thing more that gives an Edge unto his Furious Wrath against us. The Apostle has given us an hint, as if Pride had been the Condemnation of the Devil. 'Tis not unlikely, that the Devil's Affectation to be above that Condition which he might learn that Mankind was to be preferr'd unto, might be the occasion of his taking up Arms against the Immortal King. However, the Devil now sees Man lying in the Bosom of God, but himself
48 THE WONDERS OF
damned in the bottom of Hell ; and this enrages him ex- ceedingly ; 0, says he, / cannot bear it, that man should not be as miserable as my self.
Proposition III. The Devil, in the prosecution, and the execution of his wrath upon them, often gets a Liberty to make a Descent upon the Children of men. When the Devil does hurt unto us, he comes down unto us • for the Rendezvouze of the Infernal Troops, is indeed in the su- pernal parts of our Air. But as 'tis said, A sparroiv of the Air does not fall down without the will of God ; so I may say, Not a Devil in the Air, can come down without the, leave of God. Of this we have a famous Instance in that Arabian Prince, of whom the Devil was not able so much as to Touch any thing, till the most high God gave him a permission, to go down. The Devil stands with all the Instruments of death, aiming at us, and begging of the Lord, as that King ask'd for the Hood-wink'd Syrians of old, Shall I smite }em, shall I smite 'em ? He cannot strike a blow, till the Lord say, Go down and smite, but some- times he does obtain from the high possessor of Heaven and Earth, a License for the doing of it. The Devil some- times does make most rueful Havock among us ; but still we may say to him, as our Lord said unto a great Servant of his, Thou couldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above. The Devil is called in 1 . Pet. 5. 8. Your Adversary. This is a Law-term ; and it notes An Adversary at Law. The Devil cannot come at us, except in some sence according to Law ; but sometimes he does procure sad things to be inflicted, according to the Law of the eternal King upon us. The Devil first goes up
THE INVISIBLE WORLD. 49
as an Accuser against us. He is therefore styled The Ac- cuser; and it is on this account, that his proper Name does belong unto him. There is a Court somewhere kept ; a Court of Spirits, where the Devil enters all sorts of Com- plaints against us all ; he charges us with manifold sins against the Lord our God : There he loads us with heavy Imputations of Hypocrysie, Iniquity, Disobedience; where- upon he urges, Lord, let 'em now have the death, which is their wages, paid unto 'em ! If our A dvocate in the Heavens do not now take off his Libels ; the Devil, then, with a Concession of God, comes down, as a destroyer upon us. Having first been an Attorney ', to bespeak that the Judg- ments of Heaven may be ordered for us, he then also pleads, that he may be the Executioner of those Judgments ; and the God of Heaven sometimes after a sort, signs a Warrant, for this destroying Angel, to do what has been desired to be done for the destroying of men. But such a permission from God, for the Devil to come down, and break in upon mankind, oftentimes must be accompany'd with a Commis- sion from some wretches of mankind it self. Every man is, as 'tis hinted in Gen. 4. 9. His brother's keeper. We are to keep one another from the Inroads of the Devil, by mutual and cordial Wishes of prosperity to one another. When ungodly people give their Consents in witchcrafts diabolically performed, for the Devil to annoy their Neigh- bours, he finds a breach made in the Hedge about us, whereat he Rushes in upon us, with grievous molestations. Yea, when the impious people, that never saw the Devil, do but utter their Curses against their Neighbours, those are so many ivatch words, whereby the Mastives of Hell
50 THE WONDERS OF
are animated presently to fall upon us. 'Tis thus, that the Devil gets leave to worry us.
Proposition I V. Most horrible woes come to be inflicted upon Mankind, when the Devil does in great wrath, make a descent upon them. The Devil is a Do-Evil, and wholly set upon mischief. When our Lord once was going to Muzzel him, that he might not mischief others, he cry'd out, Art thou come to torment me? He is, it seems, him- self Tormented, if he be but Restrained from the torment- ing of Men, If upon the sounding of the Three last Apocalyptical Angels, it was an outcry made in Heaven, Wo, wo, wo, to the inhabitants of the Earth by reason of tfie voice of the Trumpet. I am sure, a descent made by the Angel of death, would give cause for the like Excla- mation : Wo to the world, by reason of the ivrath of the Devil ! what a woful plight, mankind would by the descent of the Devil be brought into, may be gathered from the woful pains, and wounds, and hideous desolations which the Devil brings upon them, with whom he has with a bodily Possession made a Seisure. You may both in Sacred and Profane History, read many a direful Account of the woes, which they that are possessed by the Devil, do undergo : And from thence conclude, What must the Children of Men hope from such a Devil! Moreover, the Tyrannical Cere- monies, whereto the Devil uses to subjugate such Woful Nations or Orders of Men, as are more Entirely under his Dominion, do declare what woful Work the Devil would make where he conies. The very Devotions of those for- lorn Pagans, to whom the Devil is a Leader, are most bloody Penances ; and what Woes indeed must we expect
THE INVISIBLE WORLD. 51
from such a Devil of a Moloch, as relishes no Sacrifices like those of Humane Heart-Blood, and unto whom there is no Musick like the bitter, dying, doleful Groans, ejacu- lated by the Roasting Children of Men.
Furthermore, the servile, abject, needy circumstances wherein the Devil keeps the Slaves, that are under his more sensible Vassalage, do suggest unto us, how woful the Devil would render all our Lives. We that live in a Pro- vince, which affords unto us all that may be necessary or comfortable for us, found the Province fill'd with vast Herds of Salvages, that never saw so much as a Knife, or a Nail, or a Board, or a Grain of Salt, in all their Days. No better would the Devil have the World provided for. Nor should we, or any else, have one convenient thing about us, but be as indigent as usually our most Ragged Witches are ; if the Devil's Malice were not over-ruled by a com- passionate God, who preserves Man and Beast. Hence 'tis, that the Devil, even like a Dragon, keeping a Guard upon such Fruits as would refresh a languishing World, has hindred Mankind for many Ages, from hitting those useful Inventions, which yet were so obvious andfacil, that it is every bodies wonder, they were no sooner hit upon. The bemisted World, must jog on for thousands of Years, without the knowledg of the Loadstone, till a Neapolitan stumbled upon it, about three hundred years ago. Nor must the World be blest with such a matchless Engine of Learning and Vertue, as that of Printing, till about the middle of the Fifteenth Century. Nor could One Old Man, all over the Face of the whole Earth, have the benefit of such a Little, tho most needful thing, as a pair of
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Spectacles, till a Dutch-Man, a little while ago accommo- dated us.
Indeed, as the Devil does begrutch us all manner of Good, so he does annoy us with all manner of Wo, as often as he finds himself capable of doing it. But shall we mention some of the special woes with which the Devil does usually infest the World ! Briefly then ; Plagues are some of those woes with which the Devil troubles us. It is said of the Israelites, in 1 Cor. 10. 10. They were destroyed of the destroyer. That is, they had the Plague among them. JTis the Destroyer, or the Devil, that scatters Plagues about the World. Pestilential and Contagious Diseases, 'tis the Devil who does oftentimes invade us with them. ;Tis no unaasy thing for the Devil to impregnate the Air about us, with such Malignant Salts as meeting with the Salt, of our Microcosm, shall immediately cast us into that Fermen- tation and Putrefaction, which will utterly dissolve all the Vital Tyes within us ; Ev'n as an Aqua-Fortis, made with a conjunction of Nitre and Vitriol, Corrodes what it Seizes upon. And when the Devil has raised those Arsenical Fumes, which become Venemous Quivers full of Terrible Arrows, how easilv can he shoot the deleterious Miasms into those Juices or Bowels of Mens Bodies, which will soon Enflame them with a Mortal Fire ! Hence come such Plagues, as that Beesom of Destruction, which within our memory swept away such a Throng of People from one English City in one Visitation ; And hence those Infectious Fevers, which are but so many Disguised Plagues among us, causing Epidemical Desolations. Again, Wars are also some of those Woes with which the Devil causes our
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Trouble. It is said in Rev. 12. 17. The Dragon was Wrath, and he went to make War; and there is in truth scarce any War, but what is of the Dragon's kindling. The Devil is that Vulcan, out of whose Forge come the instruments of our Wars, and it is he that finds us Em- ployments for those Instruments. We read concerning Dcemoniacks, or People in whom the Devil was, that they would cut and wound themselves; and so, when the Devil is in Men, he puts 'em upon dealing in that barbarous fashion with one another. Wars do often furnish him with some Thousands of Souls in one Morning from one Acre of Ground; and for the sake of such Thyestcean Banquets, he will push us upon as many Wars as he can.
Once more, why may not Storms be reckoned among those Woes, with which the Devil does disturb us ? It is not improbable that Natural Storms on the World are often of the Devils raising. We are told in Job 1, 11, 12, 19. that the Devil made a Storm, which hurricano'd the House of Job, upon the Heads of them that were Feasting in it. Paracelsus could have informed the Devil, if he had not been informed, as besure he was before, That if much A luminious matter, with Salt Petre not throughly prepared, be mixed, they will send up a cloud of Smoke, which will come down in Rain. But undoubtedly the Devil under- stands as well the way to make a Tempest as to turn the Winds at the Solicitation of 'a Laplander ; whence perhaps it is, that Thunders are observed oftner to break upon Churches than upon any other Buildings; and besides many a Man, yea many a Ship, yea, many a Town has miscarried, when the Devil has been permitted from above
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to make an horrible Tempest. However that the Devil has raised many Metaphorical Storms upon the Church, is a thing, than which there is nothing more notorious. It was said unto Believers in Rev. 2. 10. The Devil Khali cast some of you into Prison. The Devil was he that at first set Cain upon Abel to butcher him, as the Apostle seems to suggest, for his Faith in God, as a Rewardcr. And in how many Persecutions, as well as Heresies, has the Devil been ever since Engaging all the Children of Cain! That Serpent the Devil has acted his cursed Seed in un- wearied endeavours to have them, Of whom the World is not worthy, treated as those who are not ivorthy to live in tlie World. By the impulse of the Devil, 'tis that first the old Heathens, and then the mad Arians were pricking Briars to the true Servants of God ; and that the Papists that came after them, have out done them all for Slaughters, upon those that have been accounted as the Sheep for the Slaughters. The late French Persecution is perhaps the horriblest that ever was in the World : And as the Devil of Mascon seems before to have meant it in his out-cries upon the Miseries preparing for the poor Hvgonots! Thus it has been all acted by a singular Fury of the old Dragon inspiring of his Emissaries.
But in reality, Spiritual Woes are the principal Woes among all those that the Devil would have us undone withal. Sins are the worst of Woes, and the Devil seeks nothing so much as to plunge us into Sins. "When men do commit a Crime for which they are to be Indicted, they are usually mov'd by the Instigation of the Devil. The Devil will put ill men upon being ivorse. Was it not he
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that said in 1 King. 22. 22. / will go forth, and be a lying Spirit in the Mouth of all the Prophets ? Even so the Devil becomes an Unclean Spirit, a Drinking Spirit, a Swearing Spirit, a Worldly Spirit, a Passionate Spirit, a Revengeful Spirit, and the like in the Hearts of those that are already too much of such a Spirit ; and thus they become improv'd in Sinfulness. Yea, the Devil will put good men upon doing ill. Thus we read in 1 Chron. 21. 1 . Satan provoked David to number Israel. And so the Devil provokes men that are Eminent in Holiness unto such things as may become eminently Pernicious ; he provokes them especially unto Pride, and unto many unsuitable Emulations. There are likewise most lamentable Impres- sions which the Devil makes upon the Souls of Men by way of punishment upon them for their Sins. 'Tis thus when an Offended God puts the Souls of Men over into the Hands of that Officer who has the power of Death, that is, the Devil. It is the woful Misery of Unbelievers in 2 Cor. 4. 4. The god of this World has blinded their minds. And thus it may be said of those woful Wretches whom the Devil is a God unto, the Devil so muffles them that they cannot see the things of their peace. And the Devil so hardens them, that nothing will awaken their cares about their Souls: How come so many to be Seared in their Sins 1 'Tis the Devil that with a red hot Iron fetcht from his Hell does cauterise them. Thus 'tis, till perhaps at last they come to have a Wounded Conscience in them, and the Devil has often a share in their Torturing and con- founding Anguishes. The Devil who Terrified Cain, and Saul, and Judas into Desperation, still becomes a King of
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Terrors to many Sinners, and frights them from laying hold on the Mercy of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. In these regards, Wo to us, when the Devil comes down upon us.
Proposition V.- Toward the End of his Time the Descent of the Devil in Wrath upon the "World will produce more woful Effects, than what have been in former Ages. The dying Dragon, will bite more cruelly and sting more bloodily than ever he did before : The Death-pangs of the Devil will make him to be more of a Devil than ever he was; and the Furnace of this Nebuchadnezzar will be heated seven times hotter, just before its putting out.
We are in the first place to apprehend that there is a time fixed and stated by God for the Devil to enjoy a dominion over our sinful and therefore woful World. The Devil once exclaimed in Mat. 8. 29. Jesus, thou Son of God, art thou come hither to Torment us before our Time ? It is plain, that until the second coming of our Lord the Devil must have a time of plagueing the World, which he was afraid would have Expired at his first. The Devil is by the wrath of God the Prince of this World ; and the time of his Reign is to continue until the time when our Lord himself shall take to himself his great Power and Reign. Then 'tis that the Devil shall hear the Son of God swearing with loud thunders against him, Thy time shall now be no more ! Then shall the Devil with his Angels receive their doom, which will be, depart into the everlasting Fire pre- pared for you,.
We are also to apprehend, that in the mean time, the Devil can give a shrewd guess, when he draws near to the
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End of his Time. When he saw Christianity enthron'd among the Romans, it is here said, in our Rev. 12. 12. He knows he hath but a short time. And how does he know it ? Why Reason will make the Devil to know that God won't suffer him to have the Everlasting Dominion ; and that when God has once begun to rescue the World out of his hands, he'll go through with it, until the Captives of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered. But the Devil will have Scrip- ture also, to make him know, that when his Antichristian Vicar, the seven-headed Beast on the seven-hilled City, shall have spent his determined years, he with his Vicar must unavoidably go down into the bottomless Pit. It is not improbable, that the Devil often hears the Scripture expounded in our Congregations ; yea that we never assemble without a Satan among us. As there are some Divines, who do with more uncertainty conjecture, from a certain place in the Epistle to the Ephesians, That the Angels do sometimes come into our Churches, to gain some advantage from our Ministry. But be sure our Demon- strable Interpretations may give Repeated Notices to the Devil, That his time is almost out; and what the Preacher says unto the Young Man, Know thou, that God will bring thee into Judgment / THAT may our Sermons tell unto the Old Wretch, Know thou, that thy Judgment is at hand. But we must now, likewise, apprehend, that in such a time, the woes of the World will be heightened, beyond what they were at any time yet from the foundation of the World. Hence 'tis, that the Apostle has forewarned us, in 2 Tim. 3. 1. This know, that in the last days,perillous times
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shall come. Truly, when the Devil knows, that he is got into his Last days, he will make perillous times for us ; the times will grow more full of Devils, and therefore more full of Perils, than ever they were before. Of this, if we would know, what cause is to be assigned ; It is not only, because the Devil grows more able, and more eager to vex the World ; but also, and chieiiy, because the World is more worthy to be vexed by the Devil, than ever heretofore. The Sins of men in this Generation, will be more mighty Sins, than those of the former Ages ; men will be more Accurate and Exquisite and Refined in the arts of Sinning, than they use to be. And besides, their own sins, the sins of all the former Ages will also lie upon the sinners of this generation. Do we ask why the mischievous powers of darkness are to prevail more in our days, than they did in those that are past and gone ! 'Tis because that men by sinning over again the sins of the former days, have a Fellowship with all those unfruitful works of darkness. As 'twas said in Matth. 23. 36. All these things shall come upon this gene- ration ; so, the men of the last Generation, will find them- selves involved in the gulf of all that went before them. Of Sinners 'tis said. They heap up wrath ; and the sinners of the Last Generations do not only add unto the heap of Bin that has been pileing up ever since the Fall of man, but they Interest themselves in every sin of that enormous heap. There has been a Cry of all former ages going up to God, That the Devil may come down ! and the sinners of the Last Generations, do sharpen and louden that cry, till the thing do come to pass, as Destructively as Irremediably. From whence it follows, that the Thrice Holy God, with
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his Holy Angels, will now after a sort more abandon the World, than in the former ages. The roaring Impieties of the old World, at last gave mankind such a distast in the Heart of the Just God, that he came to say, It Repents nic that I have made such a Creature ! And however, it may be but a witty Fancy, in a late Learned Writer, that the Earth before the Flood was nearer to the Sun, than it is at this Day ; and that Gods Hurling down the Earth to a further distance from the Sun, were the cause of that Flood ; yet we may fitly enough say, that men perished by a Rejection from the God of Heaven. Thus the euhanc'd Impieties of this ourPVorld,vtill Exasperate the Displeasure of God, at such a rate, as that he will more cast us of, than heretofore ; until at last, he do with a more than ordinary Indignation say, Go Devils ; do you take them, and make them beyond all former measures miserable !
If Lastly, We are inquisitive after Instances of those aggravated woes, with which the Devil will towards the End of his Time assault us ; let it be remembred, That all the Extremities which were foretold by the Trumpets and Vials in the Apocalyptick Schemes of these things to come upon the World, were the woes to come from the wrath of the Devil, upon the thortning of his Time. The horrendous desolations that have come upon mankind, by the Irruptions of the old barbarians upon the Roman World, and then of the Saracens, and since, of the 2'urka, were such woes as men had never seen before. The Infandous Blindness and Viltness which then came upon mankind, and the Monstrous Croisadoes which thereupon carried the Roman World by Millions together unto the Shambles ; were also
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such woes as had never yet had a Parallel. And yet these were some of the things here intended, when it was said, Wo ! For the Devil is come down in great Wrath, having but a short time.
But besides all these things, and besides the increase of Plagues and Wars, and Storms, and Internal Maladi<* now in our days, there are especially two most extraordi- nary Woes, one would fear, will in these days become very ordinary. One Woe that may be look'd for is, A frequent Repetition of Earthquakes, and this perhaps by the energy of the Devil in the Earth. The Devil will be clap't up, as a Prisoner in or near the Bowels of the earth, when once that Conflagration shall be dispatched, which will make, The New Earth wherein shall divell Righteousness ; and that Conflagration will doubtless be much promoted, by the Subterraneous Fires, which are a cause of the Earthquakes in our Dayes. Accordingly, we read, Great Earthquakes in divers places, enumerated among the Tokens of the Time approaching, when the Devil shall have no longer Time. I suspect, That we shall now be visited with more Usual and yet more Fatal Earthquakes, than were our Ancestors ; in asmuch as the Fires that are shortly to Burn unto the Lowest Hell, and set on Fire the Foundations of the Mountains, will now get more Head than they use to do ; and it is not impossible, that the Devil, who is ere long to be punished in those Fires, may aforehand augment his Desert of it, by having an hand in using some of those Fires, for our Detriment. Learned Men have made no scruple to charge the Devil with it ; Deo permittente, Terrce motus causat. The Devil surely, was a party in the
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Earthquake, whereby the Vengeance of God, in one black Night sunk Twelve considerable Cities of Asia, in the Reign of Tiberious. But there will be more such Catas- trophe's in our Dayes ; Italy has lately been Shaking, till its Earthquakes have brought Ruines at once upon more than thirty Towns ; but it will within a little while, shake again, and shake till the Fire of God have made an Entire Etna of it. And behold, This very Morning, when I was intending to utter among you such Things as these, we are cast into an Heartquake by Tidings of an Earthquake that has lately happened at Jamaica : an horrible Earthquake, whereby the Tyrus of the English America, was at once pull'd into the Jaws of the Gaping and Groaning Earth, and many Hundreds of the Inhabitants buried alive. The Lord sanctifie so dismal a Dispensation of his Provi- dence, unto all the American Plantations ! But be assured, my Neighbours, the Earthquakes are not over yet ! We have not yet seen the last. And then, Another Wo that may be Look'd for is, The Devils being now let Loose in preternatural Operations more than formerly ; and perhaps in Possessions and Obsessions that shall be very marvellous. You are not Ignorant, That just before our Lords First Coming, there were most observable Outrages committed by the Devil upon the Children of Men : And I am sus- picious, That there will again be an unusual Range of the Devil among us, a little before the Second Coming of our Lord, which will be, to give the last stroke, in Destroying the works of the Devil. The Evening Wolves will be much abroad, when we are near the Evening of the World. The Devil is going to be Dislodged of the Air, where his present
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Quarters are ; God will with flashes of hot Lightning upon him, cause him to fall as Lightning from his Ancient Habitations : And the Raised Saints will there have a New Heaven, which We expect according to the Promise of God. Now a little before this thing, you be like to see the Devil more sensible and visibly Busy upon Earth perhaps, than ever he was before. You shall oftner hear about Apparitions of the Devil, and about poor people strangely Bewitched, Possessed and Obsessed, by Infernal Fiends. When our Lord is going to set up His Kingdom, in the most sensible and visible manner, that ever was, and in a manner answering the Transfiguration in the Mount, it is a Thousand to One, but the Devil will in sundry parts of the world, assay the like for Himself, with a most Apish Imitation : and Men, at least in some Corners of the World, and perhaps in such as God may have some special Designs upon, will to their Cost, be more Familiarized ivith the World of Spirits, than they had been formerly.
So that, in fine, if just before the End, when the times of the Jews were to be finished, a man then ran about every where, crying, Wo to the Nation ! Wo to the City ! Wo to the Temple I Wo! Wo! Wo! Much more may the descent of the Devil, just before his End, when also the times of the Gentiles will be finished, cause us to cry out, Wo! Wo! Wo! because of the black things that threaten us!
But it is now Time to make our Improvement of what lias been said. And, first, we shall entertain our selves with a few Corollaries, deduced from what has been thus asserted.
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Corollary I. What cause have we to bless God, for our preservation from the Devils wrath, in this which may too reasonably be called the Devils World ! While we are in this present evil world, We are continually surrounded with swarms of those Devils, who make this present world, become so evil. What a wonder of Mercy is it, that no Devil could ever yet make a prey of us ! We can set our foot no where but we shall tread in the midst of most Hellish Rattle-Snakes ; and one of those Rattle-Snakes once thro' the mouth of a Man, on whom he had Seized, hissed out such a Truth as this, If God would let me loose upon you, I should find enough in the Best of you all, to make you all mine. What shall I say ? The Wilderness thro7 which we are passing to the Promised Land, is all over fill'd with Fiery flying se^ients. But, blessed be God ; None of them have hitherto so fastned upon us, as to confound us utterly ! All our way to Heaven, lies by the Dens of Lions, and the Mounts of Leopards ; there are incredible Droves of Devils in our way. But have we safely got on our way thus far ? 0 let us be thankful to our Eternal preserver for it. It is said in Psal. 76. 10. Surely the wi*ath of Man shall praise tJiee, and the Remainder of ivrath sJialt thou restrain ; But surely it becomes us to praise God, in that we have yet sustain'd no more Damage by the wrath of the Devil, and in that he has restraint that Overwhelming wrath. We are poor, Travellers in a World, which is as well the Devils Field, as the Devils Gaol; a World in every Nook whereof, the Devil is en- camped, with Bands of Robbers, to pester all that have their Face looking Zion-ward : And are we all this while
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preserved from the undoing Snares of the Devil ? it is Thou, 0 keeper of Israel, that hast hitherto been our Keeper I And therefore, Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, Bless his Holy Name, who has redeemed thy Life from the Des- troyer /
Corollary II. We may see the rise of those multiply'd, magnify 'd, and Singularly-stinged Afflictions, -with which aged, or dying Saints frequently have their Death Prefaced, and their Age embittered. When the Saints of God are going to leave the World, it is usually a more Stormy World with them, than ever it was ; and they find more Vanity, and more Vexation in the world than ever they did before. It is true, That many are the afflictions of the Righteous ; but a little before they bid adieu to all those many Afflictions, they often have greater, harder, Sorer, Loads thereof laid upon them, than they had yet endured. It is true, That thro1 much Tribulation we must enter in the Kindom of God ; but a little before our Entrance thereinto, our Tribulation may have some sharper accents of Sorrow, than ever were yet upon it. And what is the cause of this ? It is indeed the Faithfulness of our God unto us, that we should find the Earth more full of Thorns and Briars than ever, just before he fetches us from Earth to Heaven ; that so we may go away the more willingly, the more easily, and with less Convulsion, at his calling for us. 0 there are ugly Ties, by which we are fastned unto this world ; but God will by Thorns and Briars tear those Ties asunder. But, is not the hand of Joab here ? Sure, There is the wrath of the Devil also in it. A little before we step into Heaven, the Devil thinks with himself,
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J/y time to abuse that Saint is now but short; what Mis- chief I am to do that Saint, must be done quickly, if at all; he'l shortly be out of my Reach for ever. And for this cause he will now fly upon us with the Fiercest Efforts and Furies of his Wrath. It was allowed unto the Serpent, in Gen. 2. 15. To Bruise the Heel. Why, at the Heel, or at the Close, of our Lives, the Serpent will be nibbling, more than ever in our Lives before : and it is, Because noio he has but a short time. He knows, That we shall very shortly be, Where the wicked cease from Troubling, and where the Weary are at Rest ; wherefore that Wicked one will now Trouble us, more than ever he did, and we shall have so much Disrest, as will make us more iveary than ever we were, of things here below.
Corollary III. What a Reasonable Thing then is it, that they whose Time is but short, should make as great Use of their Time, as ever they can ! pray, let us learn some good, even from the wicked One himself. It has been advised, Be wise as Serpents: why, there is a piece of Wisdom, whereto that old Serpent, the Devil himself, may be our Moniter. When the Devil perceives his Time is but short, it puts him upon Great Wrath. But how should it be with us, when we perceive that our Time is but short? why, it should put us upon Great Work. The motive which makes the Devil to be more full of -wrath; should make us more full of warmth, more full of watch, and more full of All Diligence to make our Vocation, and Election sure. Our Pace in our Journey Hraven-ivard, must be Quickened, if our space for that Journey beshortned, even as Israel went further the two last years of their F
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Journey Canaan-ward, than they did in 38 years before. The Apostle brings this, as a spur to the Devotions of Christians, in 1 Cor. 7. 29. This I say, Brethren, the time is short. Even so, I say this ; some things I lay before you, which I do only think, or guess, but here is a thing which I venture to say with all the freedom imaginable. You have now a Time to get good, even a Time to make sure of Grace and Glory, and every good thing, by true Repentance: But, This I say, the time is but short. You have now Time to Do good, even to serve out your genera- tion, as by the Will, so for the Praise of God ; but, This I say, the time is but short. And what I say thus to All People, I say to Old People, with a peculiar Vehemency : Sirs, It cannot be long before your Time is out ; there are but a few sands left in the glass of your Time: And it is of all things the saddest, for a man to say, My Time is done, but my ivork undone! 0 then, To work as fast as you can ; and of Soul-work, and Church-work, dispatch as much as ever you can. Say to all Hindrances, as the gracious Jeremiah Burrows would sometimes to Visitants: You'll excuse me if I ask you to be short with me, for my work is great, and my time is but short. Methinks every time we hear a Clock, or see a Watch, we have an admo- nition given us, that our Time is upon the wing, and it will all be gone within a little while. I remember I have read of a famous man, who having a Clock-watch long lying by him, out of Kilture in his Trunk, it unaccountably struck Eleven just before he died. Why, there are many of you, for whom I am to do that office this day : I am to tell you You are come to your Eleventh hour • there is no more
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than a twelfth part at most, of your life yet behind. But if we neglect our business, till our short Time shall be reduced into none, then woe to us, for the great wrath of God will send us down from whence there is no Redemption.
Corollary IV.
How welcome should a Death in the Lord be unto them that belong not unto the Devil, but unto the Lord ! While we are sojourning in this World, we are in what may upon too many accounts be called The Devils Country: We are where the Devil may come upon us in great wrath continually. The day when God shall take us out of this World, will be, The day when the Lord will deliver us from the hand of all our Enemies, and from the hand of Satan. In such a day, why should not our song be that of the Psalmist, Blessed be my Rock, and let the God of my Salvation le exalted ! While we are here, we are in the valley of the shadow of death ; and what is it that makes it so1? Tis because the wild Beasts of Hell are lurking on every side of us, and every minute ready to salley forth upon us. But our Death will fetch us out of that Valley, and carry us where we shall be for ever with the Lord. We are now under the daily Bufetings of the Devil, and he does molest us with such Fiery Darts, as cause us even to cry out, / am weary of my Life. Yea, but are we as willing to die, as, weary of Life? Our Death will then soon set us where we cannot be reach'd by the Fist of Wickedness; and where the Perfect cannot le shotten at. It is said in Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord, they rest from their labours.
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But we may say, Blessed are the Dead in the Lord, inas- much as they rest from the Devils / Our dying will be but our taking iving: When attended with a Convoy of winged Angels, we shall be convey'd into that Heaven, from whence the Devil having been thrown he shall never more come thither after us. What if God should now say to us, as to Moses, Go up and die I As long as we go ^lp, when we die, let us receive the Message with a joyful Soul; we shall soon be there, where the Devil can't come down upon us. If the God of our Life should now send that Order to us, which he gave to Hezeldah, Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live; we need not be cast into such deadly Agonies thereupon, as Hezekiah was : We are but going to that House, the Golden Doors whereof, cannot be entred by the Devil that here did use to persecute us. Methinks I see the Departed S}nrit of a Believer, tri- umphantly carried thro' the Devils Territories, in such a stately and Fiery Chariot, as the Spiritualizing Body of Elias had ; methink I see the Devil, with whole Flocks of Harpies, grinning at this Child of God, but unable to fasten any of their griping Talons upon him : And then, upon the utmost edge of our Atmosphere, methiuks, I over- hear the holy Soul, with a most heavenly Gallantry, deri- ding the defeated Fiend, and saying, Ah! Satan! Return to thy Dungeons again ; / am going where thou canst not come for ever ! 0 'tis a brave thing so to die ! and espe- cially so to die, in our time. For, tho' when we call to mind, That the Devils time is now but short, it may almost make us wish to live unto the end of it ; and to say with the Psalmist, Because the Lord ivill shortly appear in his
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Glory, to build up Zion. 0 my God ! Take me not away in the midst of my days. Yet when we bear in mind, that the Devils Wrath is now most great, it would make one willing to be out of the way. Inasmuch as now is the time for the doing of those things in the prospect whereof Balaam long ago cry'd out, Who shall live when such things are done / We should not be inordinately loth to die at such a time. In a word, the Times are so bad, that we may well count it, as good a time to die in, as ever we saw.
Corollary V.
Good News for the Israel of God, and particularly for his New-English Israel. If the Devils Time were above a thousand years ago, pronounced short, what may we suppose it now in our Time ? Surely we are not a thousand years distant from those happy thousand years of rest and peace, and [which is better] Holiness reserved for the People of God in the latter days ; and if we are not a thousand years yet short of that Golden Age, there is cause to think, that we are not an hundred. That the blessed Thousand years are not yet begun, is abundantly clear from this, We do not see the Devil bound ; No, the Devil was never more let loose than in our Days ; and it is very much that any should imagine otherwise : But the same thing that proves the Thousand Years of prosperity for the Church of God, under the whole Heaven, to be not yet begun, does also prove, that it is not very/ar off ; and that is the prodigious wrath with which the Devil does in our days Persecute, yea, desolate the World. Let us cast our Eyes almost where we will, and we shall see the Devils
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domineering at such a rate as may justly fill us with astonish- ment ; it is questionable whether Iniquity ever were so rampant, or whether Calamity were ever so pungent, as in this Lamentable time ; We may truly say, 'Tis the Hour and the Power of Darkness. But, tho the wrath be so great, the time is but short : when we are perplexed with the iwath of the Devil, the Word of our God at the same time unto us, is that in Rom. 16. 20. The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet Shortly. Shortly, didst thou say, dearest Lord ! 0 gladsome word ! Amen, Even so, come Lord ! Loi*d Jesus, come quickly ! We shall never be rid of this troublesome Devil, till thou do come to Cha.in him up.
But because the People of God, would willingly be told whereabouts we are, with reference to the imuth and the time of the Devil, you shall give me leave humbly to set before you a few Conjectures.
The first Conjecture.
The Devils Eldest Son seems to be towards the Eml of his last Half-time ; and if it be so, the Devils Whole-time, cannot but be verv near its End. It is a very scandalous thing that any Protestant, should be at a loss where to find the Anti-Christ. But, we have a sufficient assurance, that the Duration of Anti-Christ, is to be but for a Time, and for Times, and for Haifa time ; that is for Twelve hundred and Sixty Years. And indeed, those Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years, were the very Spott of Time left for the Devil, and meant when 'tis here said, He has but a shoi^t time. Now, I should have an easie time of it, if I were
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never put upon an Harder Task, than to produce what might render it extreamly probable, that Antichrist entred his last Half-time, or the last Hundred and Fourscore yeais of his Reign, at or soon after the celebrated Refor- mation which began at the year 15 17 in the former century. Indeed, it is veiy agreeable to see how Antichrist then lost Half of his Empire ; and how that half which then becaite Reformed, have been upon many accounts little more than Half-reformed. But by this computation, we must reeds be within a very few years of such a Mortifica- tion to befal the See of Rome, as that Antichrist, who has lately leen planting (what proves no more lasting than) a Tabernacle in the Glorious Holy Mountain betiveen the Seas, must quickly, Come to his End, and none shall help him. So then, within a very little while, we shall see the Devil stript of the grand, yea, the last, Vehicle, wherein he will be capable to abuse our World. The Fires, with which, That Beast is to be consumed, will so singe the Wings of the Devil too, that he shall no more set the Affairs of this world on Fire. Yea, they shall both go into the same Fire, to be tormented for ever and ever.
The Second Conjecture.
That which is, perhaps, the greatest Effect of the Devils Wrath, seems to be in a manner at an end : and this would make one hope that the Devils time cannot be far from its end. It is in Persecution, that the wrath of the Devil uses to break forth, with its greatest fury. Now there want not probabilities, that the last Persecution intended for the Church of God, before the Advent of our Lord, has been
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upon it. When we see the second Woe passing away, we have a fair signal given unto us, That the last slaughter of our Lord's Witnesses is over; and then what Quickly follows 1 The next thing is, The Kingdoms of this World, are become the Kingdoms of Our Lord, and of his Christ^ and then down goes the Kingdom of the Devil, so th»t he cannot any more come down upon us. Now, the Irre- coverable and Irretrievable Humiliations that have lately befallen the Turkish Power, are but so many Declarations of the second Woe passing away. And the dealings of God with the European parts of the world, at this day, do further strengthen this our expectation. We do see, at this hour a great Earth-quake all Europe over : tud we shall see, that this great Earthquake, and these great Commotions, will but contribute unto the advancement of our Lords hitherto-depressed Interests. 'Tis also to be remark'd that, a disposition to recognize the Empire of God over the Conscience of man, does now prevail more in the world than formerly ; and God from on High more touches the Hearts of Princes and Rulers with an averse- ness to Persecution. 'Tis particularly the unspeakable happiness of the English Nation, to be under the Influences of that excellent Queen, who could say, In as much as a man cannot make himself believe what he will, why should we Persecute men for not believing as we do? I wish I could see all good men of one mind; but in the mean time I pray, let them however love one another. Words worthy to be written in Letters of Gold ! and by us the more to be considered, because to one of Ours did that royal Person express Her self so excellently, so obligingly.
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When the late King James published his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, a worthy Divine in the Church of England, then studying the Revelation, saw cause upon Revdational Grounds, to declare himself in such words as these, Whatsoever others may intend or design by this Liberty of Conscience, I cannot believe, that it will ever be recalled in England, as long as the World stands. And you know how miraculously the Earth-quake which then immediately came upon the Kingdom, has established that Liberty ! But that which exceeds all the tendencies this way, is, the dispensation of God at this Day, towards the blessed Vaudois. Those renowned IValdenses, which were a sort of Root unto all Protestant Churches, were never dissipated, by all the Persecutions of many Ages, till within these few years, the French King and the Duke of Savoy leagued for their dissipation. But just Three years and a half after the scattering of that holy people, to the surprise of all the World, Spirit of life from God is come into them ; and having with a thousand Miracles repossessed themselves of their antient Seats, their hot Persecutor is become their great Protector. Whereupon the reflection of the worthy person, that writes the story is, The Churches o/Tiemont, being the Root oftJie Protestant Churches, they have been the first established; the Churches of 'oilier places^ being but the Branches, shall be established in due time. God will deliver them speedily, He has already delivered the Mother, and He will not long lea ve the Daughter behind: He will finish what he has gloriously begun!
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The Third Conjecture.
There is a little room for hope, that the great wrath of the Devil, will not prove the present mine of our poor New- England in particular. I believe, there never was a poor Plantation, more pursued by the wrath of the Devil, than our poor New- England; and that which makes our con- dition very much the more deplorable is, that the wrath of the great God Himself, at the same time also presses hard upon us. It was a rousing alarm to the Devil, when a great Company of English Protestants and Puritans, came to erect Evangelical Churches, in a corner of the World, where he had reign 'd without any coutroul for many Ages ; and it is a vexing Eye-sore to the Devil, that our Lord Christ should be known, and own'd, and preached in this howling Wilderness. Wherefor he has left no Stone un- turned, that so he might undermine his Plantation, and force us out of our Country.
First, The Indian Poivawes, used all their Sorceries to molest the first Planters here; but God said unto them, Touch them not ! Then, Seducing Spirits came to root in this Vineyard, but God so rated them off, that they have not prevail'd much farther than the Edges of our Land. After this, we have had a continual blast upon some of our principal Grain, annually diminishing a vast part of our ordinary Food. Herewithal, wasting Sicknesses, especially Burning and Mortal Agues, have Shot the Arrows of Death in at our Windows. Next, we have had many Adversaries of our own Language, who have been per- petually assaying to deprive us of those English Liberties,
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in the encouragement whereof these Territories have been settled. As if this had not been enough; The Taivnies among whom we came, have watered our Soil with the Blood of many Hundreds of our Inhabitants. Desolating Fires also have many times laid the chief Treasure of the whole Province in Ashes. As for Losses by Sea, they have been miiltiply'd upon us : and particularly in the present French War, the whole English Nation have observ'd that no part of the Nation has proportionably had so many Vessels taken, as our poor New-England. Besides all which, now at last the Devils are (if I may so speak) in Person come down upon us with such a Wrath, as is justly much, and will quickly be more, the Astonishment of the World. Alas, I may sigh over this "Wilderness, as Moses did over his, in Psal. 90. 7. 9. We are consumed by thine Anger, and by thy Wrath we are troubled: All our days are passed away in thy Wrath. And I may add this unto it, The Wrath of the Devil too has been troubling and spvnding of us, all our days.
But what will become of this poor New-England after all? Shall we sink, expire, perish, before the short time of the Devil shall be finished? I must confess, That when I consider the lamentable Unfruitfulness of men, among us, under as powerful and perspicuous Dispensations of the Gospel, as are in the World; and when I consider the declining state of the Pmver of Godliness in our Churches, with the most horrible Indisposition that perhaps ever was, to recover out of this declension ; I cannot but Fear lest it comes to this, and lest an Asiatic Removal of Candlesticks come upon us. But upon some other Accounts, I would
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fain hope otherwise; and I will give you therefore the opportunity to try what Inferences may be drawn from these probable Prognostications.
I say, First, That surely, America's Fate, must at the long run include New-England* in it. What was the design of our God, in bringing over so many Europeans hither of later years? Of what use or state will America be, when the Kingdom of God shall come? If it must all be the Devils propriety, while the saved Nations of the other Hemisphere shall be Walking in the Light of the New Jerusalem, Our New-England has then, 'tis likely, done all that it was erected for. But if God have a purpose to make here a seat for any of those glorious things which are spoken of thee, 0 thou City of God; then even thou,
0 New-England, art within a very little while of better days than ever yet have dawn'd upon thee.
I say, Secondly, That tho' there be very Threatning Symptoms on America, yet there are some hopeful ones.
1 confess, when one thinks upon the crying Barbarities with which the most of those Europeans that have Peopled this New world, became the Masters of it; it looks but Omi- nously. When one «lso thinks how much the way of living in many parts of America, is utterly inconsistent with the very Essentials of Christianity; yea, how much Injury and Violence is therein done to Humanity it self; it is enough to damp the Hopes of the most Sanguine Com- plexion. And the Frown of Heaven which has hitherto been upon Attempts of better Gospellizing the Plantations, considered, will but increase the Damp. Nevertheless, on the other side, what shall be said of all the Promises, That
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our Lord Jesus Christ shall have the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession? and of all the Prophecies, That All the ends of the Earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord? Or does it look agreeably, That such a rich quarter of the World, equal in some regards to all the rest, should never be out of the Devils hands, from the first Inhabitation unto the last Dissolution of it? No sure; why may not the last be the first? and the Sun of Righteous- ness come to shine brightest, in Climates which it rose latest upon!
I say, Thirdly, That as it fares with Old England, so it will be most likely to fare with New-England. For which cause, by the way, there may be more of the Divine Favour in the present Circumstances of our dependence on England^ than we are well aware of. This is very sure, if matters go ill with our Mother, her poor American Daughter here, must feel it; nor could our former Happy Settlement have hindred our sympathy inthatUnhappiness. But if matters go Well in the Three Kingdoms ; as long as God shall bless the English Nation, with Rulers that shall encourage Piety, Honesty, Industry, in their Subjects, and that shall cast a Benign Aspect upon the Interests of our Glorious Gospel, Abroad as" well as at Home; so long, Neio-England will at least keep its head above water : and so much the more, for our comfortable Settlement in such a Form as we are now cast into. Unless there should be any singular, destroying, Topical Plagues, whereby an offended God should at last make us Rise; But, Alas, 0 Lord, wliat other Hive hast thou provided for us !
I say, Fourthly, That the Elder England will certainly
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and speedily be Visited with the ancient loving kindness of God. When one sees, how strangely the Curse of our Joshua, has fallen upon the Persons and Houses of them that have attempted the Rebuilding of the Old Romish Jericho, which has there been so far demolished, they cannot but say, That the Reformation there, shall not only be maintained, but also pursued, proceeded, perfected ; and that God will shortly there have a New Jerusalem. Or, Let a Man in his thoughts run over but the series of amazing Providences towards the English Nation for the last Thirty Years : Let him reflect, how many Plots for the ruine of the Nation, have been strangely discovered : yea, how very unaccountably those very Persons, yea, I may also say, that those very Methods which were intended for the tools of that ruine, have become the instruments or occasions of Deliverances. A man cannot but say upon these Reflections, as the Wife of Manoah once prudently expressed her self, If the Lord ivere pleased to have De- stroyed its, He would not have shew'd us all these things. Indeed, It is not unlikely, that the Enemies of the English Nation, may yet provoke such a Shake unto it, as may perhaps exceed any that has hitherto been undergone : the Lord prevent the Machinations of his Adversaries ! But that shake will usher in the most glorious Times that ever arose upon the English Horizon. As for the French Cloud which hangs over England, tho' it be like to Rain showers of Blood upon a Nation, where the Blood of the Blessed Jesus has been too much treated as an Unholy Thing ; yet I believe God will shortly scatter it : and my belief is grounded upon a bottom that will bear it. If that
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overgrown French Leviathan should accomplish any thiKg like a Conquest of England, what could there be to hinder him from the Universal Empire of the West ? But the Visions of the Western World, in the Views both of Daniel and of John, do assure us, that whatever Monarch, shall while the Papacy continues go to swallow up the Ten Kings which received their Power upon the Fall of the Western Empire, he must miscarry in the Attempt. The French Phcetons Epitaph seems written hi that, Sure Word of Prophecy.
[Since the making of this Conjecture, there are arriv'd unto us, the News of a Victory ofetain'd by the English over the French, which further confirms our Conjecture ; and causes us to sing, Pharaohs CJiariots, and his Hosts, has the Lord cast down into the Sea ; Thy right-hand has dashed in pieces the Enemy /]
Now, In the Salvation of England, the Plantations cannot but Rejoyce, and New-England, also will be Glad.
But so much for our Corollaries, I hasten to the main thing designed for your entertainment. And that is,
AN HORTATORY AND NECESSARY ADDRESS,
TO A COUNTRY NOW EXTRAORDINARILY ALARUJl'D
BY THE WRATH OF THE DEVIL.
'TIS THIS,
LET us now make a good and a right use of the prodigi- our descent which the Devil in Great Wrath is at this day making upon our Land. Upon the Death of a Great
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Man once, an Orator call'd the Town together, crying out, Concurrite Gives, Dllapsa sunt vestra Moenia I that is, Gome together, Neighbours, your Town- Walls are fallen down! But such is the descent of the Devil at this day upon our selves, that I may truly tell you, The Walls of the whole World are broken down! The usual Walls of defence about mankind have such a Gap made in them, that the very Devils are broke in upon us, to seduce the Souls, torment the Bodies, sully the Credits, and consume the Estates of our Neighbours, with Impressions both as real and as furious, as if the Invisible World were be- coming Incarnate, on purpose for the vexing of us. And what use ought now to be made of so tremendous a dis- pensation ? We are engaged in a Fast this day ; but shall we try to fetch Meat out of the Eater, and make the Lion to afford some Hony for our Souls ?
That the Devil is come down unto us with great Wrath, we find, we feel, we now deplore. In many ways, for many years hath the Devil been assaying to Extirpate the King- dom of our Lord Jesus here. New-England may complain of the Devil, as in Psal. 129. 1, 2. Many a time have they afflicted me,{from iny Youth, may New-England now say ; Many a time have they afflicted me from my Youth; yet they have not prevailed against me. But now there is a more than ordinary affliction, with which the Devil is Galling of us : and such an one as is indeed Unparallelable. The things confessed by Witches, and the things endured by Others, laid together, amount unto this account of our Affliction. The Devil, Exhibiting himself ordinarily as a small Black man, has decoy'd a fearful knot of proud,
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froward, ignorant, envious and malicious creatures, to lift themselves in his horrid Service, by entring their Names in a Book by him tendred unto them. These Witches, whereof above a Score have now Confessed, and shown their Deeds, and some are now tormented by the Devils, for Confessing, have met in Hellish Randezvouzes, wherein the Confessors do say, they have had their Diabolical Sacraments, imitating the Baptism and the Supper of our Lord. In these hellish meetings, these Monsters have associated themselves to do no less a thing than, To destroy the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, in these parts of the World; and in order hereunto, First they each of them have their Spectres, or Devils, commission'd by them, & representing of them, to be the Engines of their Malice. By these wicked Spectres, they seize poor people about the Country, with various & bloudy Torments ; and of those evidently Preternatural torments there are some have dy'd. They have bewitched some, even so far as to make Self- destroyers : and others are in many Towns here and there languishing under their Evil hands. The people thus afflicted, are miserably scratched and bitten, so that the Marks are most visible to all the World, but the causes utterly invisible ; and the same Invisible Furies do most visibly stick Pins into the bodies of the afflicted, and scale them, and hideously distort, and disjoint all their members, besides a thousand other sorts of Plagues beyond these of any natural diseases which they give unto them. Yea, they sometimes drag the poor people out of their chambers, and carry them over Trees and Hills, for divers miles together. A large part of the persons tortured by these G
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Diabolical Spectres, are horribly tempted by them, some- times with fair promises, and sometimes with hard tbreat- irings, but always with felt miseries, to sign the Devils Laws in a Spectral Book laid before them ; which two or three of these poor Sufferers, being by their tiresome suffer- ings overcome to do, they have immediately been released from all their miseries, and they appear'd in Spectre then to Torture those that were before their Fellow-Sufferers. The Witches which by their covenant with the Devil, are become Owners of Spectres, are oftentimes by their own Spectres required and compelled to give their consent, for the molestation of some, which they had no mind otherwise to fall upon ; and cruel depredations are then made upon the Vicinage. In the Prosecution of these Witchcrafts, among a thousand other unaccountable things, the Spectres have an odd faculty of cloathing the most substantial and corporeal Instruments of Torture, with Invisibility, while the wounds thereby given have been the most palpable things in the World ; so that the Sufferers assaulted with Instruments of Iron, wholly unseen to the standers by, though, to their cost, seen by themselves, have, upon snatching, wrested the Instruments out of the Spectres hands, and every one has then immediately not only beheld, but handled, an Iron Instrument taken by a Devil from a Neighbour. These wicked Spectres have proceeded so far, as to steal several quantities of Mony from divers people, part of which Money, has, before sufficient Spectators, been dropt out of the Air into the Hands of the Sufferers, while the Spectres have been urging them to subscribe their Covenant with Death. In such extravagant ways have these
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Wretches propounded, the Dragooning of as many as they c;m, in their own Combination, and the Destroying of others, with lingring, spreading, deadly diseases ; till our Gountrey should at last become too hot for us. Among the Ghastly Instances of the success which those Bloody Witches have had, we have seen even some of their own Children, so dedicated unto the Devil, that in their Infancy, it is found, the Imps have sucked them, and rendred them Ve- nemous to a Prodigy. We have also seen the Devils first batteries upon the Town, where the first Church of our Lord in this Colony was gathered, producing those dis- tractions, which have almost ruin'd the Town. We have seen likewise the Plague reaching afterwards into other Towns far and near, where the Houses of good Men have the Devils filling of them with terrible Vexations !
This is the Descent, which, it seems, the Devil has now made upon us. But that which makes this Descent the more formidable, is ; The multitude and quality of Persons accused of an interest in this Witchcraft, by the Efficacy of the Spectres which take their Name and shape upon them ; causing veiy many good and wise Men to fear, That many innocent, yea, and some vertuous persons, are by the Devils in this matter, imposed upon ; That the Devils have obtain'd the power, to take on them the likeness of harmless people, and in that likeness to afflict other people, and be so abused by Prestigious Daemons, that upon their look or touch, the afflicted shall be odly affected. Arguments from the Providence of God, on the one side, and from our Charity towards Man on the other side, have made this now to become a most agitated Controversie among us. There
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is an Agony produced in the Minds of Men, lest the Devil should sham us with Devices, of perhaps a finer Thred, than was ever yet practised upon the World. The whole business is become hereupon so Snarled, and the determination of the Question oneway or another, so dismal, that our Honourable Judges have a Room forJehoshaphat's Exclamation, We know not what to do I They have used, as Judges have heretofore done, the Spectral Evidences, to introduce their further Enquiries into the Lives of the persons accused ; and they have thereupon, by the wonder- ful Providence of God, been so strengthened with other evidences, that some of the Witch Gang have been fairly Executed. But what shall be done, as to those against whom the evidence is chiefly founded in the dark world ? Here they do solemnly demand our Addresses to the Father of Lights, on their behalf. But in the mean time, the Devil improves the Darkness of this Affair, to push us into a Blind Mans Buffet, and we are even ready to be sinfully, yea, hotly, and madly, mauling one another in the dark.
The consequence of these things, every considerate Man trembles at ; and the more, because the frequent cheats of Passion, and Rumour, do precipitate so many, that I wish I could say, The most were considerate.
But that which carries on theformidablenessof our Trials, unto that which may be called, A wrath unto the utter- most, is this : It is not without the wrath of the Almighty God himself, that the Devil is permitted thus to come down upon us in wrath. It was said, in Isa. 9. 19. Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, the Land is darkned. Our Land is darkned indeed ; since the Powers of Darkness
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are turned in upon us : 'tis a dark time, yea a black night indeed, now the Ty-dogs of the Pit are abroad among us : but, It is through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts ! Inas- much as the Fire-brands of Hell it self are used for the scorching of us, with cause enough may we cry out, What means the heat of this anger ? Blessed Lord ! Are all the other Instruments of thy Vengeance, too good for the chastisement of such transgressors as we are 1 Must the very Devils be sent out of Their own place, to be our Troublers : Must we be lash'd with Scorpions, fetch'd from the Place of Torment ? Must this Wilderness be made a Receptacle for the Dragons of the Wilderness ? If a Lap- land should nourish in it vast numbers, the successors of the old Biarmi, who can with looks or words bewitch other people, or sell Winds to Marriners, and have their Familiar Spirits which they bequeath to their Children when they die, and by their Enchanted Kettle-Drums can learn things done a Thousand Leagues off ; If a Swedeland should afford a Village, where some scores of Haggs, may not only have their Meetings with Familiar Spirits, but also by their Enchantments drag many scores of poor children out of their Bed-chambers, to be spoiled at those Meetings ; This were not altogether a matter of so much wonder ! But that New-England should this way be harassed ! They are not CJialdeans, that Bitter and Hasty Nation, but they are, Bitter and Burning Devils ; They are not Swarthy Indians, but they are Sooty Devils ; that are let loose upon us. Ah, Poor New-England! Must the plague of Old ^Egypt come upon thee ? Whereof we read in Psal. 78. 49. He cast upon them the fierceness of his Anger, Wrath, and
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Indignation, and Trouble, by sending Evil Angels among hem. What, 0 what must next be looked forl Must that which is there next mentioned, be next encountered 1 He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the Pestilence. For my part, when I consider what Melancthon says, in one of his Epistles, That these Dia- bolical Spectacles are of ten Prodigies; and when I consider, how often people have been by Spectres called upon, just before their Deaths ; I am verily afraid, lest some wasting Mortality be among the things, which this Plague is the Forerunner of. I pray God prevent it ! But now, What shall we do ?
I. Let the Devils coming down in great wrath upon us, cause us to come down in great grief before the Lord. We may truly and sadly say, We are brought very low! Low indeed, when the Serpents of the dust, are crawling and coyling about us, and Insulting over us. May we not say, We are in the very belly of Hell, when Hell it self is feeding upon us ? But how Low is that ! 0 let us then most penitently lay our selves very Low before the God of Heaven, who has thus Abased us. When a Truculent Nero, a Devil of a Man, was turned in upon the World, it was said, in 1 Pet. 5. 6. Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God. How much more now ought we to humble our selves under that Mighty Hand of that God who indeed has the Devil in a Chain, but has horribly length- ened out the Chain ! When the old people of God heard any Blasphemies, tearing of his Ever-Blessed Name to pieces, they were to Rend their Cloaths at what they heard. I am sure that we have cause to Rend our Hearts this Day,
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when we see what an High Treason has been committed against the most high God, by the Witchcrafts in our Neighbourhood. We may say ; and shall we not be humbled when we say it ? We liave seen an horrible thing done in our Land I 0 'tis a most humbling thing, to think, that ever there should be such an abomination among us, as for a crue of humane race, to renounce their Maker, and to unite with the Devil, for the troubling of mankind, and for People to be, (as is by some confess'd) Baptized by a Fiend using this form upon them, Thou art mine, and I have a full power over thee! afterwards communicating in an Hellish Bread, and Wine, by that Fiend administred unto them. It was said in Deut. 18. 10, 11, 12. There s/iall not be found among you an Inchanter, or a Witch, or a CJiarmer, or a Consulter with Familiar Spirits, or a Wizzard, or a Necromancer; For all that do these things are an Abomination to the Lord,and because of 'these Abomi- nations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee. That New- England now should have these Abominations in it, yea, that some of no mean Profession, should be found guilty of them : Alas, what Humiliations are we all hereby obliged unto ? 0 'tis a Defiled Land, wherein we live ; Let us be humbled for these Defiling Abominations, lest we be driven out of our Land. It's a very humbling thing to think, what reproaches will be cast upon us, for this matter, among The Daughters of the Philistines. Indeed, enough might easily be said for the vindication of this Country from the Singularity of this matter, by ripping up, what has been discovered in others. Great Britain alone, and this also in our days of Greatest Light, has had that in it,
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which may divert the Calumnies of an ill-natured World, from centring here. They are words of the Devout Bishop Hall, Satans prevalency in this Age, is most clear in the marvellous Number of Witches, abounding in all places. Now Hundreds are discovered in one Shire; and, if Fame Deceives us not, in a Village of Fourteen Houses in the North, are found so many of this Damned Brood. Yea, and those of both Sexes, who have professed much Know- ledge, Holiness, and Devotion, are drawn into this Damn- able Practice. I suppose the Doctor in the first of those Passages, may refer to what happened in the Year 1645. When so many Vassals of the Devil were Detected, that there were Thirty try'd at one time, whereas about four- teen were Hang'd, and an Hundred more detained in the Prisons of Suffolk and Essex. Among other things which many of these Acknowledged, one was, That they were to undergo certain Punishments, if they did not such and such Hurts, as were appointed them. And, among the rest that were then Executed, there was an Old Parson, called Lowis, who confessed, That he had a couple of Imps, whereof one was always putting him upon the doing of Mischief; Once pa^icularly, that Imp calling for his Con- sent so to do, went immediately and Sunk a Ship, then under Sail. I pray, let not New-England become of an Unsavoury and a Sulphurous Kesentment in the Opinion of the World abroad, for the Doleful things which are now fallen out among us, while there are such Histories of other places abroad in the World. Nevertheless, I am sure that we, the People of New-England, have cause enough to Humble our selves under our most Humbling Circum-
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stances. "We must no more be Haughty, because of the Lords Holy Mountain among us; No it becomes us rather to be, Humble, because we have been such an Habitation of Unholy Devils!
II. Since the Devil is come down in great wrath upon us, let not us in our great wrath against one another provide a Lodging for him. It was a most wholesome caution, in Eph. 4. 26. 27. Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath : Neither give place to the Devil. The Devil is come down to see what Quarter he shall find among us : And if his coming down, do now fill us with wrath against one another, and if between the cause of the Sufferers on one hand, and the cause of the Suspected on t'other, we carry things to such extreams of Passion as are now gaining upon us, the Devil will Bless himself, to find such a convenient Lodging as we shall therein afford unto him. And it may be that the wrath which we have had against one another has had more than a little influence upon the coming down of the Devil in that wrath which now amazes us. Have not many of us been Devils one unto another for Slanderings, for Backbitings, for Animosities ? For this, among other causes, perhaps, God has permitted the Devils to be worry- ing, as they now are, among us. But it is high time to leave off all Devilism, when the Devil himself is falling upon us : And it is no time for us to be Censuring and Reviling one another, with a Devilish wrath, when the wrath of the Devil is annoying of us. The way for us to out-wit the Devil, in the Wiles with which he now Vexes us, would be for us to joyn as one man in our cries to God, for the Directing, and Issuing of this Thorny Business ;
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but if we do not Lift up our Hands to Heaven, without Wrath, we cannot then do it without Doubt, of speeding in it. I am ashamed when I read French Authors giving this Character of Englishmen [Us se haissent Les uns les autres, & sont en Division ContinuelleJ] They hate one another, and are always Quarrelling one with another. And I shall be much more ashamed, if it become the Character of New-Englanders ; which is indeed what the Devil would have. Satan would make us bruise one another, by breaking of the Peace among us ; but 0 let us disappoint him. We read of a thing that sometimes happens to the Devil, when he is foaming with his Wrath, in Mar. 12. 43. The unclean Spirit seeks rest, andjinds none. But we give rest unto the Devil, by wrath one against another. If we would lay aside all fierceness, and keenness, in the disputes which the Devil has raised among us ; and if we would use to one another none but the soft Answers, which turn away wrath: I should hope that we might light upon such Counsels, as would quickly Extricate us out of our Labyrinths. But the old Incendiary of the world, is corne from Hell, with Sparks of Hell-Fire flash- ing on every side of him ; and we make our selves Tynder to the Sparks. When the Emperour Henry III. kept the Feast of Pentecost, at the City Mentz, there arose a dis- sension among some of the people there, which came from words to blows, and at last it passed on to the shedding of Blood. After the Tumult was over, when they came to that clause in their Devotions, Thou hast made this day Glorious ; the Devil to the unexpressible Terrour of that vast Assembly, made the Temple Ring with that Outcry,
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But I have made this Day Quarrelsome ! We are truly come into a day, which by being well managed might be very Glorious, for the exterminating of those Accursed things, which have hitherto been the Clogs of our Pros- perity ; but if we make this day Quarrelsome, thro' any Raging Confidences, Alas, 0 Lord, my Flesh Trembles for Fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy Judgments. Eras- mus, among other Historians, tells us, that at a Town in Germany, a Witch or Devil, appeared on the Top of a Chimney, Threatning to set the Town on Fire : And at length, Scattering a Pot of Ashes abroad, the Town was presently and horribly Burnt unto the Ground. Methinks, I see the Spectres, from the Top of the Chimneys to the Northward, threatning to scatter Fire, about the Countrey ; but let us quench that Fire, by the most amicable Corres- pondencies : Lest, as the Spectres, have, they say, already most Literally burnt some of our Dwellings, there do come forth a further Fire from the BramUes of Hell, which may more terribly Devour us. Let us not be like a Troubled House, altho' we are so much haunted by the Devils. Let our Long suffering be a well-placed piece of Armour, about us, against the Fiery Darts of the wicked ones. History informs us, That so long ago, as the year 858, a certain Pes- tilent and Malignant sort oi&Dwmon, molested Caumont in Germany with all sorts of methods to stir up strife among the Citizens. He uttered Prophecies, he detected Villanies, he branded people with all kinds of Infamies. He incensed the Neighbourhood against one Man particularly, as the cause of all the mischiefs : who yet proved himself innocent. He threw stones at the Inhabitants, and at length burnt
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their Habitations, till the Commission of the Daemon could go no further. I say, Let us be well aware lest such Daemons do Come hither also.
III. Inasmuch as the Devil is come down in Great Wrath, we had need Labour, with all the Care and Speed we can to Divert the Great Wrath of Heaven from coming at the same time upon us. The God of Heaven has with long and loud Admonitions, been calling us to a Reforma- tion of our Provoking Evils, as the only way to avoid that Wrath of His, which does not only Threaten but Consume us. 'Tis because we have been Deaf to those Calls that we are now by a provoked God, laid open to the Wrath of the Devil himself. It is said in Pr. 16. 17. When a mans ways please the Lord, he maketh even his Enemies to be at peace with him. The Devil is our grand Enemy ; and tho' we would not be at peace with him, yet we would be at peace from him, that is, we would have him unable to disquiet our peace. But inasmuch as the wrath which we endure from this Enemy, will allow us no peace, we may be sure, our ways liave not pleased the Lord. It is because we have broken the hedge of Gods Precepts, that the hedge of Gods Providence is not so entire as it uses to be about us ; but Serpents are biting of us. 0 let us then set our selves to make our peace with our God, whom we have displeased by our iniquities : and let us not imagine that we can encounter the Wrath of the Devil, while there is the Wrath of God Almighty to set that Mastiff upon us. REFORMATION ! REFORMATION ! has been the repeated Cry of all the Judgments that have hitherto been upon us ; because we have been as deaf Adders thereunto, the Adders
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of the Infernal Pit are now hissing about us. At length, as it was of old said, Luke 16. 30. If one went unto them from the dead, they ivill repent; even so, there are some come unto us from the Damned. The great God has loosed the Bars of the Pit, so that many damned Spirits are come in among us, to make us repent of our Misdemeanours. The means which the Lord had formerly employ'd for our awakening, were such, that he might well have said, What could I have done more? and yet after all, he has done more, in some regards, than was ever done for the awaken- ing of any People in the World. The things now done to awaken our Enquiries after our provoking Evils, and our endeavours to Reform those Evils, are most extraordinary things ; for which cause I would freely speak it, if we now do not some extraordinary things in returning to God ; we are the most incurable, and I wish it be not quickly said, the most miserable People under the Sun. Believe me, 'tis a time for all people to do something extraordinary, in searching and trying of their ways, and in turning to the Lord. It is at an extraordinary rate of Circumspec- tion and Spiritual mindedness, that we should all now maintain a walk with God. At such a time as this ought Magistrates to do something extraordinary in promoting of what is laudable, and in restraining and chastising of Evil Doers. At such a time as this ought Ministers to do something extraordinary in pulling the Souls of men out of the Snares of the Devil, not only by publick Preaching, but by personal Visits and Counsels, from house to house. At such a time as this ought Churches to do something extraordinary, in renewing of their Covenants, and in
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rernembring, and reviving the Obligations of what they have renewed. Some admirable Designs about the Refor- mation of Manners, have lately been on foot in the English Nation, in pursuance of the most excellent Admonitions which have been given for it, by the Letters of Their Majesties. Besides the vigorous Agreements of the Justices here and there in the Kingdom, assisted by godly Gentlemen and Informers, to Execute the Laws upon pro- phane Offenders; there has been started a Proposal for the well-affected people in every Parish, to enter into orderly Societies, whereof every Member shall bind himself, not only to avoid Prophaneness in himself, but also accord- ing unto to their Place, to do their utmost in first Reproving; and, if it must be so, then Exposing, and so Punishing, as the Law directs, for others that shall be guilty. It has been observed, that the English Nation has had some of its greatest Successes, upon some special and signal Actions this way; and a discouragement given under Legal Pro- ceedings of this kind, must needs be very exercising to the Wise that observe these things. But, 0 why should not New-England be the most forward part of the English Nation in such Reformations? Methinks I hear the Lord from Heaven saying over us, 0 that my People had hearkened unto me ; then I should soon have subdued the Devils, as well as their other Enemies! There have been some feeble Essays towards Reformation of late in our Churches; but, I pray, what comes of them? Do we stay till the Storm of his Wrath be over ? Nay, let us be doing what we can, as fast as we can, to divert the Storm. The Devils having broke in upon our World, there is great
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asking, Who is it tliat has brought them in ? And many do by Spectral Exhibitions come to be cry'd out upon. I hope in Gods time it will be found, that among those that are thus cry 'd out upon, there are persons yet Clear from the great Transgression ; but indeed, all the Unreformed among us, may justly be cry'd out upon, as having too much of an hand in letting of the Devils into our Borders ; 'tis our Worldliness, our Formality, our Sensuality, and our Iniquity that has help'd this letting of the Devils in . 0 let us then at last, consider our ways. Tis a strange passage recorded by Mr. Clark in the Life of his Father, That the People of his Parish, refusing to be Reclaimed from their Sabbath breaking, by all the zealous Testimonies which that good Man bore against it ; at last, on a night after the people had retired home from a Revelling Propha- nation of the Lords Day, there was heard a great Noise, with rattling of Chains up and down the Town, and an horrid Scent of Brimstone fill'd the Neighbourhood. Upon which the guilty Consciences of the Wretches told them, the Devil was come to fetch them away ; and it so terrifi'd them, that an Eminent Reformation follow'd the Sermons which that Man of God Preached thereupon. Behold, Sinners, behold and wonder, lest you perish: the very Devils are walking about our Streets, with lengthened Chains, making a dreadful Noise in our Ears, and Brimstone even without a Metaphor, is making an hellish and horrid stench in our Nostrils. I pray leave off all those things whereof your guilty Consciences may now accuse you, lest these Devils do yet more direfully fall upon you. Reformation is at this time our only Preservation.
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IV. When the Devil is come down in great Wrath, let every great Vice which may have a more particular ten- dency to make us a Prey unto that Wrath, come into a due discredit with us. It is the general Concession of all men, who are not become too Unreasonable for common Conversation, that the Invitation of Witchcrafts is the thing that has now introduced the Devil into the midst of us. I say then, let not only all Witchcrafts be duly abominated with us, but also let us be duly watchful against all the Steps leading thereunto. There are lesser Sorceries which they say, are too frequent in our Land. As it was said in 2 King. 17. 9. The Children of Israel did secretly those things that luere not right, against the Lord their God. So 'tis to be feared, the Children of New-England have secretly done many things that have been pleasing to the Devil. They say, that in some Towns it has been an usual thing for People to cure Hurts with Spells, or to use detestable Conjurations, with Sieves, Keys, and Pease, and Nails, and Horse-shoes, and I know not what other Implements, to learn the things for which they have a forbidden, and an impious Curiosity. 'Tis in the Devils Name, that such things are done ; and in Gods Name I do this day charge them, as vile Impieties. By these Courses 'tis, that People play upon The Hole of the Asp, till that cruelly venemous Asp has pull'd many of them into the deep Hole of Witch- craft it self. It has been acknowledged by some who have sunk the deepest into this horrible Pit, that they began at these little Witchcrafts ; on which 'tis pity but the Laws of the English nation, whereby the incorrigible repetition of those Tricks, is made Felony, were severely Executed.
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From the like sinful Curiosity it is, that the Prognostica- tions of Judicial Astrology, are so injudiciously regarded by multitudes among us ; and altho' the Jugling Astrologers do scarce ever hit right, except it be in such Weighty Judgments, forsooth, as that many Old men will die such a year, and that there will be many Losses felt by some that venture to Sea, and that there will be much Lying and Cheating in the World ; yet their foolish Admirers will not be perswaded but that the Innocent Stars have been con- cern'd in these Events. It is a disgrace to the English Nation, that the Pamphlets of such idle, futil, trifling Star- gazers are so much considered; and the Countenance hereby given to a Study, wherein at last, all is done by Impulse, if any thing be done to any purpose at all, is not a little perillous to the Souls of Men. It is (a Science, I dare not call it, but) a Juggle, whereof the Learned Hall well says, It is presumptuous and unwarrantable, and cry'd ever down by Councils and Fathers, as unlawful, as that which lies in the mid-way between Magick and Im- posture, and partakes not a little of both. Men consult the Aspects of Planets, whose Northern or Southern motions receive denominations from a Coelestial Dragon, till the Infernal Dragon at length insinuate into them, with a Poison of Witchcraft that can't be cured. Has there not ;dso been a world of discontent in our Borders? 'Tis no wonder, that the fiery Serpents are so Stinging of us ; We have been a most Murmuring Generation. It is not Irra- tional, to ascribe the late Stupendious growth of Witches among us, partly to the bitter discontents which Affliction and Poverty has fill'd us with : it is inconceivable, what H
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advantage the Devil gains over men, by discontent. More- over, the Sin of Unbelief may be reckoned as perhaps the chief Crime of our Land. We are told, God swears in wrath, against them that believe not; and what follows then but this, That the Devil comes unto them in ivrath? Never were the offers of the Gospel, more freely tendered, or more basely despised, among any People under the whole Cope of Heaven, than in this N. E. Seems it at all marvellous unto us, that the Devil should get such footing in our Country1? Why, 'tis because the Saviour has been slighted here, perhaps more than any where. The Blessed Lord Jesus Christ has been profering to us, Grace, and Glory, and every good thing, and been alluring of us to Accept of Him, with such Terms as these, Undone Sinner, I am All; Art thou willing that I should be thy All ? But, as a proof of that Contempt which this Unbelief has cast upon these proffers, I would seriously ask of the so many Hundreds above a Thousand People within these Walls ; which of you all, 0 how few of you, can indeed say, Christ is mine, and I am his, and he is the Beloved of my Soul ? I would only say thus much : When the precious and glorious Jesus, is Entreating of us *o Receive Him, in all His Offices, with all His Benefits ; the Devil minds what Respect we pay unto that Heavenly Lord ; if we Refuse Him that speaks from Heaven, then he that, Comes from Hell, does with a sort of claim set in, and cry out, Lord, since this wretch is not willing that thou shouldst have him, I pray, let me. have him. And thus, by the just vengeance of Heaven, the Devil becomes a Master, a Prince, a God, unto the miserable Unbelievers: but 0 what are many of them then
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hurried unto ! All of these Evil Things, do I now set before you, as Branded with the Mark of the Devil upon them. V. With Great Regard, with Great Pity, should we Lay to Heart the Condition of those, who are cast into Affliction, by the Great Wrath of the Devil. There is a Number of our good Neighbours, and some of them very particularly noted for Goodness and Vertue, of whom we may say, Lord, They are vexed with Devils. Their Tortures being primarily Inflicted on their Spirits, may indeed cause the Impressions thereof upon their Bodies to be the less Du- rable, tho' rather the more Sensible: but they Endure Horrible Things, and many have been actually Murdered. Hard Censures now bestow'd upon these poor Sufferers, cannot but be very Displeasing unto our Lord, who, as He said, about some that had been Butchered by a Pilate, in Luc. 13. 2, 3. Think ye that these were Sinners above others, because they suffered such Things ? I tell you No, But except ye Repent, ye shall all likewise Perish: Even so, he now says, Think ye that they who now suffer by tlie Devil, have been greater Sinners than their Neighbours ? No, Do you Repent of your own Sins Lest the Devil come to fall foul of you, as he has done to them. And if this be so, How Rash a thing would it be, if such of the poor Sufferers, as carry it with a Becoming Piety, Seriousness, and Humiliation under their present Suffering, should be unjustly Censured; or have their very Calamity imputed unto them as a Crime ? It is an easie thing, for us to fall into the Fault of, Adding Affliction to the Afflicted, and of, Talking to the Grief of those that are already wounded. Nor can it be wisdom to slight the Dangers of such a Fault.
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In the mean time, We have no Bowels in us, if we do not Compassionate the Distressed County of Essex, now crying to all these Colonies, Have pity on me, 0 ye my Friends, Have pity on me, for the Hand of the Lord has Touched me, and the Wrath of the Devil has been therewithal turned upon me. But indeed, if an hearty pity be due to any, I am sure, the Difficulties which attend our Honourable Judges, do demand no Inconsiderable share in that Pity. What a Difficult, what an Arduous Task, have those Worthy Personages now upon their Hands 1 To carry the Knife so exactly, that on the one side, there may be no Innocent Blood Shed, by too unseeing a Zeal for the Children of Israel; and that on the other side, there may be no Shelter given to those Diabolical Works of Darkness, without the Eemoval whereof we never shall have Peace ; or to those Furies whereof several have kill'd more people perhaps than would serve to make a Village : Hie Labor, Hoc Opus est ! 0 what need have we, to be concerned, that the Sins of our Israel, may not provoke the God of Heaven to leave his Davids, unto a wrong Step, in a matter of such Conse- quence, as is now before them ! Our Disingenuous, Un- charitable, Unchristian Reproaching of such Faithful Men, after all, The Prayers and Supplications, with strong Crying and Tears, with which we are daily plying the Throne of Grace, that they may be kept, from what They Fear, is none of the way for our preventing of what We Fear. Nor all this while, ought our Pity to forget such Accused ones, as call for indeed our most Compassionate Pity, till there be fuller Evidences that they are less worthy of it. If Satan have any where maliciously brought upon
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the Stage, those that have hitherto had a just and good stock of Reputation, for their just and good Living, among us ; If the Evil One have obtained a permission to Appear, in the Figure of such as we have cause to think, have hitherto Abstained, even from the Appearance of Evil : It is in Truth, such an Invasion upon Mankind, as may well Raise an Horror in us all : But, 0 what Compassions are due to such as may come under such Misrepresentations, of the Great Accuser! Who of us can say, what may be shewn in the Glasses of the Great Lying Spirit ? Altho' the Usual Providence of God [we praise Him ! ] keeps us from such a Mishap; yet where have we an Absolute Pro- mise, that we shall every one always be kept from it? As long as Charity is bound to Think no Evil, it will not Hurt us that are Private Persons, to forbear the Judgmentwhich belongs not unto us. Let it rather be our Wish, May the Lord help them to Learn the Lessons, for which they are now put unto so hard a School.
VI. With a Great Zeal, we should lay hold on the Covenant of God, that we may secure Us and Ours, from the Great Wrath, with which the Devil Rages. Let us come into the Covenant of Grace, and then we shall not be hook'd into a Covenant with the Devil, nor be altogether unfurnished with Armour, against the Witches that are in that Covenant. The way to come under the Saving Influences of the New Covenant, is, to close with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the All-sufficient Mediator of it: Let us therefore do, that, by Resigning up our selves unto the Saving, Teaching, and Ruling Hands of this Blessed Me- diator. Then we shall be, what we read in Jude 1. Pre-
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served in Christ Jesus: That is, as the Destroying Angel, could not meddle with such as had been distinguished, by the Blood of the Passeover on their Houses : Thus the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Sprinkled on our Souls, will Preserve us from the Devil. The Birds of prey (and in- deed the Devils most literally in the shape of great Birds!) are flying about. Would we find a Covert from these Vul- tures? Let us then Hear our Lord Jesus from Heaven Clocquing unto us, 0 that you ivould be gathered under my wings ! Well ; When this is done, Then let us own the Covenant, which we are now come into, by joining our selves to a particular Church, walking in the Order of the Gospel ; at the doing whereof, according to that Covenant of God, We give up Our selves unto the Lord, and in Him unto One Another. While others have had their Names Entred in the Devils Book ; let our Names be found in the Church Book, and let us be Written among the Living in Jerusalem. By no means let, Church Work sink and fail in the midst of us ; but let the Tragical Accidents which now happen, exceedingly Quicken that work. So many of the Rising Generation, utterly forgetting the Errand of our Fathers to build Churches in this Wilderness, and so many of our Cottages being allow'd to Live, where they do not, and perhaps cannot, wait upon God with the Churches of His People ; 'tis as likely as any one thing to procure the swarmings of Witch crafts among us. But it becomes us, with a like Ardour, to bring our poor Children with us, as we shall do, when we come our selves, into the Cove- nant of God. It would break an heart of Stone, to have seen, what I have lately seen ; Even poor Children of
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several Ages, even from seven to twenty, more or less, Confessing their Familiarity with Devils; but at the same time, in Doleful bitter Lamentations, that made a little Pourtraiture of HM it self, Expostulating with their ex- ecrable Parents, for Devoting them to the Devil in their Infancy, and so Entailing of Devillism upon them ! Now, as the Psalmist could say, My Zeal hath consumed me, because my Enemies have forgotten thy words : Even so, let the Nefarious wickedness of those that have Explicitly dedicated their Children to the Devil, even with Devilish Symbols, of such a Dedication, Provoke our Zeal to have our Children, Sincerely, Signally, and openly Consecrated unto God; with an Education afterwards assuring and confirming that Consecration.
VII. Let our Prayer go up with great Faith, against the Devil, that comes down in great Wrath. Such is the Antipathy of the Devil to our Prayer, that he cannot bear to stay long where much of it is: Indeed it is Diaboli Flagellum, as well as, Miseries Remedium; the Devil will soon be Scourg'd out of the Lord's Temple, by a Whip, made and used, with the effectual fervent Prayer of Righ- teous Men. When the Devil by Afflicting of us, drives us to our Prayers, he is The Fool making a Whip for his own Back. Our Lord said of the Devil in Matt. 17. 21. This Kind goes not out, but by Prayer and Fasting* But, Prayer and Fasting will soon make the Devil be gone. Here are Charms indeed! Sacred and Blessed Charms, which the Devil cannot stand before. A Promise of God, being well managed in the Hands of them that are much upon their Knees, will so resist the Devil, that he will
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Flee from us. At every other Weapon the Devils will be too hard for us ; the Spiritual Wickednesses in High Places, have manifestly the Upper hand of us ; that Old Serpent will be too old for us, too cunning, too subtil ; they will soon out wit us, if we think to Encounter them with any Wit of our own. But when we come to Prayers, In- cessant and Vehement Prayers before the Lord, there we shall be too hard for them. When well-directed Prayers, that great Artillery of Heaven, are brought into the Field, There methinks I see, There are these workers of Iniquity fallen, all of them ! And who can tell, how much the most Obscure Christian among you all, may do towards the Deliverance of our Land from the Molestations which the Devil is now giving to us. I have Read, That on a day of Prayer kept by some good People for and with a Possessed Person, the Devil at last flew out of the Window, and referring to a Devout, plain, mean Woman then in the Room, he cry'd out, 0 the Woman behind the Door! 'Tis that Woman that forces me away! Thus the devil that now troubles us, may be forced within a while to forsake us ; and it shall be said, He was driven away by the Prayers of some Obscure and Retired Souls, which the World has taken but little notice of! The Great God is about a Great Work at this day among us : Now, there is extream Hazard, lest the Devil by Compulsion must submit to that Great Work, may also by Permission, come to Confound that Work; both in the Detections of some, and in the Confessions of others, whose Ungodly deeds may be brought forth, by a Great Work of God ; there is great Hazard lest the Devil intertwist some of his Delusions.
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'Tis PRAYER, I say, 'tis PRAYER, that must carry us well through the strange things that are now upon us. Only that Prayer must then be the Prayer of Faith : 0 where is our Faith in him, Who hath spoiled these Principalities and Powers, on his Cross, Triumphing over them!
VIII. Lastly, Shake off, every Soul, shake off the hard Took of the Devil. Where 'tis said, The whole World lyes in Wickedness ; 'tis by some of the Ancients rendred, The ivhole World lyes in the Devil. The Devil is a Prince, yea, the Devil is a God unto all the Unregeuerate ; and alas, there is A whole World of them. Desolate Sinners, consider what an horrid Lord it is that you are Enslav'd unto ; and Oh shake off your Slavery to such a Lord. In- stead of him, now make your Choice of the Eternal God in Jesus Christ ; Chuse him with a most unalterable Re- solution, and unto him say, with Thomas, My Lord, and my God! Say with the Church, Lord, other Lords have had the Dominion over us, but now thou alone shalt be our Lord for ever. Then instead of your Perishing under the wrath of the Devils, God will fetch you to a place among those that fill up the Room of the Devils, left by their Fall from the Ethereal Regions. It was a* most awful Speech made by the Devil, Possessing a young Woman, at a Village in Germany, By the command of God, I am come to Torment the Body of this young Woman, tho I cannot hurt her Soul ; and it is that I may warn Men, to take heed of sinning against God. Indeed (said he) 'tis very sore against my will that I do it ; but the command of God forces me to declare wJiat I do ; however I know that at the Last Day, I shall have more Souls than Godhimself.
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So spoke that horrible Devil! But 0 that none of our Souls may be found among the Prizes of the Devil, in the Day of God ! 0 that what the Devil has been forced to declare, of his Kingdom among us, may prejudice our Hearts against him for ever!
My Text says, The Devil is come down in great Wrath, for he has but a short time. Yea, but if you do not by a speedy and through conversion to God, escape the Wrath of the Devil, you will your selves go down, where the Devil is to be, and you will there be sweltring under the Devils Wrath, not for a short Time, but, World without end ; not for a Short Time, but for Infinite Millions of Ages. The smoak of your Torment under that Wrath, will Ascend for ever and ever ! Indeed, the Devil's time for his Wrath upon you in this World, can be but short, but his time for you to do his Work, or, which is all one, to delay your turning to God, that is a Long Time. When the Devil was going to be Dispossessed of a Man, he Roar'd out, Am I to be Tormented before my time ? You will Torment the Devil, if you Rescue your Souls out of his hands, by true Repentance : If once you begin to look that way, he'll Cry out, 0 this is before my Time, I must have more Time yet in the Service of such a guilty Soul. But, I beseech you, let us join thus to torment the Devil, in an holy Revenge upon him, for all the Injuries which he has done unto us; let us tell him, Satan, thy time with me is but short, Nay, thy time with me shall be no more ; I am unutterably sorry that it has been so much ; Depart from me thou Evil-Doer, that thou would 'st have me to be an Evil Doer like thy self; I will now for ever keep the Command-
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ments of that God, in whom I Live and Move, and have my Being ! The Devil has plaid a fine Game for himself indeed, if by his troubling of our Land, the Souls of many People should come to think upon their ways, till even they turn their Feet into the Testimonies of tJie Lord. Now that the Devil may be thus outshot in his own Bow, is the desire of all that love the Salvation of God among us, as well as of. him, who has thus Addressed you. Amen.
HAVING thus discoursed on the Wonders of the In- visible World, I shall now, with God's help, go on to relate some Remarkable and Memorable Instances of Wonders which that World has given to ourselves. And altho the chief Entertainment which my Readers do expect, and shall receive, will be a true History of what has occurred, respecting the WITCHCRAFTS wherewith we are at this day Persecuted ; yet I shall choose to usher in the mention of those things, with
A NARRATIVE OF AN APPARITION WHICH
A GENTLEMAN IN BOSTON, HAD OF HIS BROTHER, JUST THEN MURTHERED IN LONDON.
IT was on the Second of May in the Year 1687, that a most ingenious, accomplished and well-disposed Gen- tleman, Mr. Joseph Beacon, by Name, about Five a Clock in the Morning, as he lay, whether Sleeping or Waking he could not say, (but judged the latter of them) had a
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View of his Brother then at London, altho he was now himself at Our Boston, distanced from him a thousand Leagues. This his Brother appear'd unto him, in the Morning about Five a Clock at Boston, having on him a Bengal Gown, which he usually wore, with a Napkin tyed about his Head ; his Countenance was very Pale, Gastly, Deadly, and he had a bloody wound on one side of his Fore-head. Brother! says the Affrighted Joseph. Brother! Answered the Apparition. Said Joseph, What's the matter, Brother? How came you here ! The Apparition replied, Brother, I have been most barbarously and injuriously Butchered, by a Debauched Drunken Fellow, to whom I never did any torong in my Life. Whereupon he gave a particular Description of the Murderer : adding, Brother, This Fellow changing his Name, is attempting to come over unto New-England, in Foy, or Wild ; / would pray you on the first Arrival of either of these, to get an Order from the Governor, to Seize the Person, whom I have now de- scribed ; and then do you Indict him for the Murder of me your Brother: I'll stand by you and prove the Indict- ment. And so he Vanished. Mr. Beacon was extreamly astonished at what he had seen and hear'd ; and the People of the Family not only observed an extraordinary Alteration upon him, for the Week following, but have also given me under their Hands a full Testimony, that he then gave them an Account of this Apparition.
All this while, Mr. Beacon had no advice of any thing amiss attending his Brother then \i\England; but about the latter end of June following, he understood by the common ways of Communication, that the April before, his Brother
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going in haste by Night to call a Coach for a Lady, met a Fellow then in Drink, with his Doxy in his hand : Some way or other the Fellow thought himself Affronted with the hasty passage of this Beacon, and immediately ran into the Fire-side of a Neighbouring Tavern, from whence he fetch'd out a Fire-fork, wherewith he grievously wounded Beacon in the Skull; even in that very part where the Apparition show'd his Wound. Of this Wound he Lan- guished until he Dyed on the Second of May, about five of the Clock in the Morning at London. The Murderer it seems was endeavouring to Escape, as the Apparition affirm'd, but the Friends of the Deceased Beacon, Seized him; and Prosecuting him at Law, he found the help of such Friends as brought him off without the loss of his Life ; since which, there has no more been heard of the Business.
This History I received of Mr. Joseph Beacon himself; who a little before his own Pious and hopeful Death, which followed not long after, gave me the Story written and signed with his own Hand, and attested with the Circum- stances I have already mentioned.
BUT I shall no longer detain my Reader, from his expected Entertainment, in a brief account of the Tryals which have passed upon some of the Malefactors lately Executed at Salem, for the Witchcrafts whereof they stood Convicted. For my own part, I was not present at any of them ; nor ever had I any Personal prejudice at the Persons thus brought upon the Stage ; much less at the Surviving Relations of those Persons, with and for whom
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I would be as hearty a Mourner as any Man living in the World: The Lord Comfort them! But having received a Command so to do, I can do no other than shortly relate the chief Matters of Fact, which occurr'd in the Tryals of some that were Executed, in an Abridgment Collected out of the Court-Papers on this occasion put into my hands. You are to take the Truth, just as it was; and the Truth will hurt no good Man. There might have been more of these, if my Book would not thereby have swollen too big ; and if some other worthy hands did not perhaps intend something further in these Collections ; for which cause I have only singled out Four or Five, which may serve to illustrate the way of Dealing, wherein Witchcrafts use to be concerned ; and I report matters not as an Advocate, but as an Historian.
They were some of the Gracious Words inserted in the Advice, which many of the Neighbouring Ministers, did this Summer humbly lay before our Honorable Judges, We cannot but ivith all thankfulness, acknowledge the success which the Merciful God has- given unto the Sedulous and Assiduous endeavours of Our Honourable Rulers, to detect the abominable Witchcrafts which have been com- mitted in the Country ; Humbly Praying, that the discovery of those mysterious and mischievous wickednesses, may be Perfected. If in the midst of the many Dissatisfactions among us, the Publication of these Tryals, may promote such a Pious Thankfulness unto God, for Justice being so far executed among us, I shall Rejoice that God is Glori- fied, and pray, that no wrong steps of ours may ever sully any of his Glorious Works. But we will begin with,
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A MODERN INSTANCE OF WITCHES,
DISCOVERED AND CONDEMNED IN A TRYAL, BEFORE THAT CELEBRATED JUDGE, SIR MATTHEW HALE.
IT may cast some Light upon the Dark things now in America, if we just give a glance upon the like things lately happening in Europe. We may see the Witchcrafts here most exactly resemble the Witchcrafts there ; and we may learn what sort of Devils do trouble the World.
The Venerable Baxter very truly says, Judge Hale ivas a Person, t/ian whom, no Man was more Backward to Condemn a Witch, without full Evidence.
Now, one of the latest Printed Accounts about a Tryal of WiteJies, is of what was before him, and it ran on this wise. [Printed in the Year 1682.] And it is here the rather mentioned, because it was a Tryal, much considered by the Judges of New-England.
I. Rose Cullender and Amy Duny, were severally In- dicted, for Bewitching Elizabeth Durent, Ann Durent, Jane Bocking, Susan Chandler, William Durent, Elizabeth and Deborah Pacy. And the Evidence Avhereou they were Convicted, stood upon divers particular Circumstances.
//. Ann Durent, Susan Chandler, and Elizabeth Pacy, when they came into the Hall, to give Instructions for the drawing the Bills of Indictments, they fell into strange and violent Fits, so that they were unable to give in their
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Depositions, not only then, but also during the whole Assizes. William Durent being an Infant, his Mother Swore, That Amy Duny looking after her Child one Day in her absence, did at her return confess, that she had given suck to the Child: (tho' she were an Old Woman :) Whereat, when Durent expressed her displeasure, Duny went away with Discontents and Menaces.
The Night after, the Child fell into strange and sad Fits, wherein it continued for Divers Weeks. One Doctor Jacob advised her to hang up the Childs Blanket, in the Chimney Corner all Day, and at Night, when she went to put the Child into it, if she found any Thing in it then to throw it without fear into the Fire. Accordingly, at Night, there fell a great Toad out of the Blanket, which ran up and down the Hearth. A Boy catch't it, and held it in the Fire with the Tongs : where it made an horrible Noise, and Flash'd like to Gun-Powder, with a report like that of a Pistol : Whereupon the Toad was no more to be seen. The next Day a Kinswoman of Duny's told the Deponent, that her Aunt was all grievously scorch'd with the Fire, and the Deponent going to her House, found her in such a Condition. Duny told her, she might thank her for it ; but she should live to see some of her Children Dead, and her self upon Crutches. But after the Burning of the Toad, this Child Recovered.
This Deponent further Testifi'd, That Her Daughter Elizabeth, being about the Age of Ten Years, was taken in like manner, as her first Child was, and in her Fits complained much of Amy Duny, and said, that she did appear to Her, and afflict her in such manner as the former.
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One Day she found Amy Duny in her House, and thrust- ing her out of Doors, Duny said, You need not be so Angry, your Child won't live long. And within three Days the Child Died. The Deponent added, that she was Her self, not long after taken with such a Lameness, in both her Legs, that she was forced to go upon Crutches; and she was now in Court upon them. [It was Remarkable, that immediately upon the Juries bringing in Duny Guilty, Durent was restored unto the use of her Limbs, and went home without her Crutches.]
///. As for Elizabeth and Deborah Pacy, one Aged Eleven Years, the other Nine; the elder, being in Court, was made utterly senseless, during all the time of the Trial : or at