T T he two very rare works
reprinted in the present volume, written by two of the most
celebrated of the early American divines, relate to one of the most
extraordinary cases of popular 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 exaggerated form, the
superstitious feelings with regard to witchcraft 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, arrived from England in the middle of
May, and he seems to have been carried away by the excitement, and
authorized judicial prosecutions. The trials began at the
commencement of June; and the first victim, a woman named Bridget
Bishop, was hanged. Governor Phipps, embarrassed 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 acquirements as a scholar and a theologian, became established
as a minister in Boston, and in 1685 was elected president of
Harvard College. His son, born at Boston in 1663, 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 afflictions, which were at
once ascribed to witchcraft, and an Irish washerwoman named Glover,
employed by the family, was suspected of being the witch. Cotton
Mather was 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 extraordinary amount of credulity, and an equally great want
of anything like sound judgment. 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 19th 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 considerable 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 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, Massachusetts, in the month of October,
1692. Other circumstances, 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 had the
slightest doubt of her innocence; 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
injustice 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 convinced of the innocence
of Mrs. Hale, they raised a question 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 assistance 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 the Tryals 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 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 gentleman 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
confessions retracted them, while the accusations themselves fell
into discredit. When governor Phipps was recalled in April, 1693,
and left for England, the witchcraft agitation 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 reasserting 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
matter up in a different spirit, and also examined Margaret Rule,
and satisfied himself that the whole was a delusion or 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 partisans 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
disbeliever 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 persecutions;
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 proceedings 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
considered still more conclusive, many of those who had confessed
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, published in 1700, 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 "Remarkables" 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 editions, and their interest, as remarkable monuments of
the history of superstition, make them well worthy of a
reprint.
T 'T 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 , received from those
Evil Spirits an horrible Blow over the
Face: And I may my self expect not few or small Buffetings 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,
Untreatableness, 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 that Story, There met him two
possessed with Devils, exceeding 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
concern'd, 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, who 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, 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 Parter'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
New-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,
Decorative Y
Y 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 seasonable Discourse,
entituled, The Wonders of the Invisible
World . And having now perused so fruitful 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 convicted for Witchcraft, I find that I am more
nearly and highly concerned than as a meer ordinary Reader, to
express 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 Temper 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 Standard
against the Infernal Enemy, that hath been
coming in like a Flood upon us . I do
therefore make it my particular 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.
I I 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, I'll 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. Somewhat
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
Right 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.
Section I.
I 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
begins to appear, and the glorious Day-Star to show it
self;— Sed Venient Annis Sæculæ Seris
, there will come Times in after Ages, when the
Clouds will over-shadow and darken the Sky
there . Many now promise to themselves 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
Religion, Loyalty, Honesty, and Industry, in the People there,
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,
that 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 will
the Devil show 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.
Whosoever travels over this Wilderness, will see it richly
bespangled 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 considered:
Churches , whose Communicants have been
seriously examined about their Experiences of Regeneration, as well
as about their Knowledge, and Belief, and blameless Conversation,
before their admission to the Sacred Communion; although others of
less but hopeful Attainments in Christianity 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 Antipædobaptist, are
swallowed up in that of Christian
; Persons of all those Perswasions being taken into our
Fellowship, when visible 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 Gentleman, 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) we 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 Reformation
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
returning hence, could in a Sermon before the Parliament,
profess, I have now been seven Years in a Country,
where I never Saw one Man drunk, or heard one Oath sworn, or beheld
one Beggar in the Streets all the while. Such
great Persons as Budæus , 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 extravagantly 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 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
accomplishing 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 Devices
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, 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 Encountred; 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 Persecuted: 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
Witchcraft then laid, which if it were not
seasonally discovered, would probably Blow up, and pull down all
the Churches in the Country. And we have now with
Horror seen the Discovery of
such a Witchcraft ! An Army
of Devils is horribly broke in
upon the place which is the Center
, and after a sort, the
First-born 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
manner Diabolically handled. These our poor Afflicted Neighbours,
quickly after they become Infected
and Infested with
these Dæmons , arrive to a
Capacity of Discerning those which they conceive the
Shapes of their Troublers; and
notwithstanding the Great and Just Suspicion, that the
Dæmons 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
Twenty 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
I 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 Voluntary Harmonious
Confessions , made by Intelligent
Persons of all Ages, in sundry Towns, at several Times, we must not
Believe the main strokes wherein
those Confessions 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 a sort of a
Dissolution upon the World. Now, by these
Confessions 'tis Agreed,
That the Devil has made a dreadful 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 Confederate
Spirits , to do all sorts of Mischiefs to the
Neighbours, whereupon there have ensued such Mischievous
consequences 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 so 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
Diabolesm , 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
Witchcraft , 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
Witches , numerous to a Prodigy?
Accordingly, The Kingdoms 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, destroying
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, who 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 happen'd at Loim ,
in the Dutchy of Gulic , where a
Popish Curate having ineffectually 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, Quid mihi 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 acknowledged, That they have plotted
the Representations 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 Chastisement 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 a
permission to Represent an Innocent Person, as Tormenting such as
are under Diabolical Molestations: But that such things are Rare
and Extraordinary; especially when 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 Argument 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
the Rectoral 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 Belial of Hell must needs
be always Yoked up from this
piece of Mischief? 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? The Laplanders will
tell us 'tis possible: for Persons to be unwittingly attended with
officious Dæmons , bequeathed
unto them, and impos'd upon them, by Relations that have
been Witches .
Quæry , 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 follow'd with our
appearing so and so for a while among them in the Visions of our
afflicted Forlorns ! And, Who
can certainly say, what other Degrees or Methods 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? And furthermore, I pray, that it may be
considered, 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 Confederates. And he adds, We know not
but the Laws of the Dark Kingdom may Enjoyn a particular Attendance
upon all those that practice their Mysteries, whether they know
them to be theirs or no. Some of them that have
been cry'd out upon as imploying Evil
Spirits to hurt our Land, have been known to be
most bloody Fortune-Tellers ;
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 were 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
Contingencies; 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
Inconveniencies 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 Practise 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
§ IV.
§ V.
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?
§ VI.
Quære, Whether if God would have us to
proceed any further than bareEnquiry, upon what Reports there may come against any Man, from the
World ofSpirits, he will not
by his Providence at the same time have brought into our hands,
these more evident and sensible things, whereupon a man is to be
esteemed a Criminal. But I will venture to say this further, that
it will be safe to account 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, had 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
undone, yet he may leave undone something that else he could do,
when the Publick Safety makes anExigency.
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 tooPresumptuousandIcarianfor me to make; I leave that
unto those Excellent and Judicious Persons, with whom I am not
worthy to be numbred: All that I shall do, shall be to lay before
my Readers, a briefSynopsisof
what has been written on that Subject, by a Triumvirate of as
Eminent Persons as have ever handled it. I will begin
with,