The wonders of the invisible world. Observations as well historical as theological, upon the…
The wonders of the invisible world. Observations as well historical as theological, upon the nature, the number, and the operations of the devils. : Accompanied with, I. Some accounts of the grievous molestations, by daemons and witchcrafts, which have lately annoyed the country; and the trials of some eminent malefactors executed upon occasion thereof: with several remarkable curiosities therein occurring. II. Some councils, directing a due improvement of the terrible things, lately done, by the unusual & amazing range of evil spirits, in our neighbourhood: & the methods to prevent the wrongs which those evil angels may intend against all sorts of people among us; especially in accusations of the innocent. III. Some conjectures upon the great events, likely to befall, the world in general, and New-England in particular; as also upon the advances of the time, when we shall see better days. IV. A short narrative of a late outrage committed by a knot of witches in Swedeland, very much resembling, and so far explaining, that under which our parts of America have laboured! V. The Devil discovered: in a brief discourse upon those temptations, which are the more ordinary devices of the Wicked One. / By Cotton Mather.
The wonders of the invisible world. Observations as well historical as theological, upon the nature, the number, and the operations of the devils. : Accompany'd with, I. Some accounts of the grievous molestations, by daemons and witchcrafts, which have lately annoy'd the countrey; and the trials of some eminent malefactors executed upon occasion thereof: with several remarkable curiosities therein occurring. II. Some councils, directing a due improvement of the terrible things, lately done, by the unusual & amazing range of evil spirits, in our neighbourhood: & the methods to prevent the wrongs which those evil angels may intend against all sorts of people among us; especially in accusations of the innocent. III. Some conjectures upon the great events, likely to befall, the world in general, and New-England in particular; as also upon the advances of the time, when we shall see better dayes. IV. A short narrative of a late outrage committed by a knot of witches in Swedeland, very much resembling, and so far explaining, that under which our parts of America have laboured! V. The Devil discovered: in a brief discourse upon those temptations, which are the more ordinary devices of the Wicked One. / By Cotton Mather.
Cotton Mather 1663–1728Boston : printed, and sold by Benjamin Harris, 1693 i.e., 1692
[32], 151, [1], 32 [i.e., 24] p. ; 16 cm. (8vo) · 56k words · Evans 657 · Wing M1173
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Let us now make a Good and a Right use, o• the Prodigious Descent, which the Devil, i• Great Wrath, is at this day making upon our Land▪ Upon the Death of a Great Man once, an Orator called the Town together, crying out, Co••currite Cives, Dilapsa sunt vestra Maenia! that is Come together, Neighbours, your Town-Walls, are fallen down! But such is the Descent of the De•vil at this day upon ourselves, that I may truly tell you, The Walls of the whole World are broke• down! The usual Walls of Defence about mankind have such a Gap made in them, that the very De•vils 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 becoming Incarnate, on purpose for the vexing of us▪ And what use ought now to be made of so Tremendous a dispensation? We are engaged in a Fast this day; but […] try to fetch, Meat ou• of the Eater, and make the Lion to afford some Hon• for our Souls.
LEt us now make a Good and a Right use, o• the Prodigious Descent, which the Devil, i• Great Wrath, is at this day making upon our Land▪ Upon the Death of a Great Man once, an O•rator call•d the Town together, crying out, Co••currite Cives, Dilapsa sunt vestra Maenia! that is Come together, Neighbours, your Town-Walls, are fal•len down! But such is the Descent of the De•vil at this day upon ourselves, that I may truly tell you, The Walls of the whole World are broke• down! The usual Walls of Defence about mankind have such a Gap made in them, that the very De•vils 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 dispensation? We are engaged in a Fast this day; but 〈…〉 try to fetch, Meat ou• of the Eater, and make the Lion to afford some Hon• for our Souls.
That the Devil, is Come down unto us with great Wrath, we find, we feel, we now deplo•e. In many ways, for many years, hat the Devil been assaying ⟨p. 49⟩to Extirpate the Kingdom 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 my 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 Unparallellable. The Things Confessed by Witches and the Things Endured by Others, ••id together, amount unto this account of our Affliction. The Devil, Exhibiting himself ordinarily as a small Black man, has decoyed a fearful Knot of Proud, Froward, Ignorant, Envious, and Malicious Creatures, to List themselves in his Horrid Service, by Entering their Names in a Book by him Tendered 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 Rendezvouses, 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, Commissioned by them, and Representing of them, to be the Engines of their Malice. By these wicked Spectres, they Seize poor people about the Country, with Various and bloody ⟨p. 50⟩Torments; and of those Evidently Preternatural Torments there are some have Dy'd. They have bewitched some, even so far as to make them 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 […], do most Visibly stick Pins into the Bodies o• the Afflicted, and Scald them, & hideously Di••ort, 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 H•lls, for diverse Miles together. A large part of the Persons tortured by these Diabolical Spectres, are horribly Tempted by them, sometimes with fair Promises, and sometimes with hard Threatenings, 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 Sufferings overcome to do, they have immediately been released from all their Miseries, & they appeared 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 ⟨p. 51⟩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 Clothing 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, tho' 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 Money from divers people, part of which Money has before sufficient Spectators been dropped 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 Wretches propounded, the Dragooning of as many as they can, into their own Combination, and the Destroying of others, with Lingering, Spreading, Deadly Diseases; till our Country 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 Rendered them Venomous to a Prodigy.
Yea, they sometimes drag the poor People out of their Chambers, and Carry them over Trees and H•lls, for diverse Miles together. A large part of the Persons tortured by these Diabolical Spectres, are horribly Tempted by them, sometimes with fair Promises, and sometimes with hard Threatenings, but alwayes 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 Sufferings overcome to do, they have immediately been released from all their Miseries, & 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
We have also seen ⟨p. 52⟩Devils First Batteries, upon the Town, where the First Church of our Lord in this Colony was Gathered, producing those Distractions, which have almost Ruined 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, as i• seems, the Devil has now made upon us. But that which makes this Descent the more formidable is; The Multitude and Quality or Persons Accused of an Interest in this Witchcraft, by the Efficacy of the Spectres which take their Name and Shape upon them; causing very many Good and Wise, men to fear, That many Innocent, yea, and some Virtuous Persons, are by the Devils in this matter Imposed upon; That the Devils have obtained the power, to take on them the Likeness of Harmless People, and in that Likeness to Afflict other People, and be so abused by Praestigious Daemons, that upon their Look or Touch, the Afflicted shall be oddly 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 Controversy among us. There is an Agony produced in the minds of men, Lest the Devil should sham us with Devices, of perhaps a finer Thread, than was ever yet practised upon the World. The whole Business is become hereupon so Snarled, and the Determination of the Question one way or another, so Dismal, that our Honourable ⟨p. 53⟩Judges, have a Room for Jehoshaphats Exclamation, We know not what to do! 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 wonderful 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.
This is the Descent which, as i• seems, the Devil has now made upon us. But that which makes this Descent the more formidable is; The Multitude and Quality or Persons Accused of an Interest in this Witchcraft, by the Efficacy of the Spectres which take their Name and Shape upon them; causing very 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 Praestigious Daemons, that upon their Look or Touch, the Afflicted shall be oddly 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 Controversy among us. There 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 one way or another, so Dismal, that our Honourable
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 the Formidableness of our Trials, unto that which may be called, A wrath unto the uttermost, 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 Darkened. Our Land is Darkened indeed; since the Powers of Darkness are turned in upon us,: tis a Dark Time, yea, a Black Night indeed, ⟨p. 54⟩now the Ty-Dogs of the Pitt, are abroad among us: but, It is through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts! Inasmuch 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? Must the very Devils be sent out of Their own place, to be our Troublers? Must we be lashed with Scorpions, fetched from the Place of Torment? Must this Wilderness be made a Receptacle for the Dragons of the Wilderness? If a Lapland 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 Mariners, 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 Hags, 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 Chaldeans, 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▪⟨p. 55⟩78.49. He cast upon them, the fierceness of his Anger, Wrath, and Indignation, and Trouble, by sending Evil Angels among them. What? O what must next be looked for. Must that which is there next mentioned, be next encountered? He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the Pestilence.
For my part, when I consider what Melanchthon says, in one of his Epistles, That these Diabolical Spectacles are often 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!
For my part, when I consider what Melancthon saies, in one of his Epistles, That these Diabolical Spectacles are often 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!
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 coiling 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! O let us then most Penitently lay ourselves 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. P•t. 5.6, Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. How much more now ought we to Humble ourselves, under that Mighty Hand of that God who indeed has the Devil in a Chain, but has horribly lengthened out the Chain! ⟨p. 56⟩When the Old People of God, heard any Blasphemies tearing of his Ever-Blessed Name to pieces, they were to Rend their Clothes at what they heard. I am sure, that we have cause to Rend our Hearts this Day, 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 have seen an horrible thing done in our Land! O 'tis a most humbling thing, to think, that ever there should be such an abomination among us, as for a Crew 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 confessed) 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 Administered unto them. It was said in Deut. 18.10, 11, 12. There shall not be found among you an Enchanter, or a Witch, or a Charmer, or a Consulter with Familiar Spirits, or a Wizard or a Necromancer; For all that do these things are an Abomination to the Lord, and because of these Abominations, 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 m•n Profession, should be found guilty of them: Alas▪ what Humiliations are we all ••reby obliged unto? O '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 ⟨p. 57⟩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, which may divert the Calumnies of an Ill-natured World, from Centring here. They are the words of the Devout Bishop Hall, Satan's 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 Deceive 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 Knowledge, Holiness, and Devotion, are drawn into this Damnable 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 Tried at one time, whereas about Fourteen were Hanged, 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 particularly, ⟨p. 58⟩that Imp calling for his Consent so […] do, went immediately and Sunk a Ship, the• under Sail. I pray, Let not New-England become of an Unsavoury and a Sulphurous Resentment in the Opinion of the World Abroad for the Doleful Things which are now falle• out among us, while there are such Histories o• 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 Circumstances. We must […] more, be, Haughty, because of the Lords Ho•• Mountain among us; No, it becomes us rather […] be, Humble, because we have been such an Habittion of Unholy Devils!
II. Since the Devil is come down in great wrat• upon us, let not us in our great wrath against one another provide a Lodging for him. It was a mo•• wholesome caution, in Eph. 4.26.27. Let not th• Sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place t• the Devil. The Devil is come down to see wha• Quarter he shall find among us: and, if his comin• down, do now fill us with wrath against one a• other▪ and if between the cause of the Sufferers o• one hand, and the cause of the Suspected on t'other▪ we carry things to such extremes of Passion as a• now gaining upon us, the Devil will Bless himself to find such a convenient Lodging as we shall ther• in afford unto him. And it may be that the wra•• which we have had against one another has ha•⟨p. 59⟩more then 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 ha•s permitted the Devils to be Worrying, 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 Censu•ing 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 join as one man in our cries to God, for the Directing, and Issuing of this Thorny Business; 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 [Ils see haissent Les uns les autres, et sont en Division Continuelle.] They hate one 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 ake us Bruise one another, by breaking of the Peace among us; but O let us disappoint him. We read of a thing that sometimes happens to the Devil, when he is foaming with his Wrath, in
and if we would use to one another none but the, Soft Answers, which Turn away Wrat• 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 come from Hell, with Sparks of Hell-Fire Flashing on every side of him; and we make ourselves Tinder to th• Sparks. When the Emperor Henry III. kept th• Feast of Pentecost, at the City Mentz, there arose a Dissension among some of the People there, which came from words to Blows, and at last it passed o• 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 Terror of that vast Assembly▪ made the Temple Ring with that Outcry But […] have made this Day Quarrelsome▪ We are truly come into a day, which by being well managed might be very Glorious, for the exterminating o• those, Accursed Things, which have hitherto bee• the Clogs of our Prosperity; but if we make this day Quarrelsome, thro' any Raging Confidences, Alas, O Lord, my Flesh Trembles for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy Judgments. Erasmus, among other Historians, tells us, that at a Town in Germany, a Witch or Devil, appeared on the Top of a Chimney, Threatening to set the Town on Fire ▪ and at length, Scattering a Pot of Ashes abroad, the Town was presently and Horribly Burned unto the Ground. Methinks, I see the Spectres, from the ⟨p. 61⟩Tops of the Chimneys to the North, ward, threatening to Scatter Fire, about the Country; but let us Quench that Fire by the most amicable Correspondencies: Lest, as the Spectres, have, they say, already most Literally Burned some of our Dwellings, there do come forth a further Fire from the Brambles of Hell, which may more terribly Devour us. Let us not be like a Troubled House, although 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 Pestilent and Ma: lignant sort of a Daemon, molested Caumont in Germany with all sorts of methods to stir up Strife among the Citizens. He uttered Prophecies, he detected Villainies, he branded people with all kind 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 burned 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!
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 burn't their Habitations, till the Commissiion 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 •ong and loud Admonitions, been calling us to, ⟨p. 62⟩A Reformation 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 Prov. 16.7. 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 have 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. O 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 of the Infernal Pit are now hissing about us▪ At length, as it was of old said in Luc 16.30. If on• went unto them, from the Dead, they will Repent; Eve• so, There are some come unto us from the Damned ▪⟨p. 63⟩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 Employed 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 Awakening 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 in Trying •f their Ways, and in Turning to the Lord. It is at an EXTRAORDINARY Rate of Circumspection 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 ••ch 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 […] public Preaching, but by personal Visits and Counsels, from House to House. At such a Time as this, ought Churches to Do something EXTRAORDINARY, ⟨p. 64⟩in Renewing of their Covenants, and in Remembering, and Reviving the Obligations of what they have Renewed. Some Admirable Designs about the Reformation 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 Profane 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 Profaneness in himself, but also according unto 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 unto Legal Proceedings of this Kind, must needs be very exercising to the, Wise that observe these Things. But, O 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, O that my People had hearkened unto me; Then I should soon have subdued the Devils, as well as their other Enemies!
That the Devil, is Come down unto us with grea• Wrath, we find, we feel, we now deplo•e. In many wayes, for many years, hat the Devil been assaying ⟨p. 49⟩to Extirpate the Kingdom 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 my 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 Unparallellable. The Things Confessed by Witches and the Things Endured by Others, ••id 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, Froward, Ignorant, Envious, and Malicious Creatures, to List 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, and Representing of them, to be the Engines of their Malice. By these wicked Spectres, they Sieze poor people about the Country, with Various and bloody ⟨p. 50⟩Torments; and of those Evidently Preternatural Torments there are some have Dy'd. They have bewitched some, even so far as to make them 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 〈…〉, do most Visibly stick Pins into the Bodies o• the Afflicted, and Scald them, & hideously Di••ort, and Disjoint all their members, besides a thousand other sorts of Plagues beyond these of any Natural Diseases which they give unto them.
⟨p. 51⟩
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, tho' 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 wayes, have these Wretches propounded, the Dragooning of as many as they can, into their own Combination, and the Destroying of others, with Lingring, Spreading, Deadly Diseases; till our Country 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 Venemous to a Prodigy.
⟨p. 53⟩
Judges, have a Room for Jehoshaphats Exclamation, We know not what to do! 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 wonderful Providence of God, been so strengthened with Other Evidences, that some of the Witch Gang have been f•irly 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.
But that which carries on the Formidableness of our Trialls, unto that which may be called, A wrath unto the uttermost, is this: It is not without the wrath of the Almighty God Himself, that the Devil is permitted thus to come down •pon us in wrath. It was said, in Isa. 9.19. Thro the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, the Land is Darkned. Our Land is Darkned indeed; since the Powers of Darkness are turned in up•n us,: tis a Dark Time, yea, a Black Night indeed, ⟨p. 54⟩now the Ty-Dogs of the Pitt, are abroad among us: but, It is thro the wrath of the Lord of Hosts! Inasmuch 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? 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 Lapland 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 dy, and by their Enchan•ed 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 Chaldeans, 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▪⟨p. 55⟩78.49. He cast upon them, the fierceness of his Anger, Wrath, and Indignation, and Trouble, by sending Evil Angels among them. What? O what must next be looked for. Must that which is there next mentioned, be next encountered? He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the Pestilence.
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! O let us then most Penitently lay ourselves 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. P•t. 5.6, Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. How much more now ought we to Humble ourselves, under that Mighty Hand of that God who indeed has the Devil in a Chain, but has horribly lengthened out the Chain! ⟨p. 56⟩When the Old People of God, heard any Blasphemie• 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, 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 have seen an horrible thing done in our Land! O '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 Admnistred unto them. It was said in Deut. 18.10, 11, 12. There shall not be found among you an Inchanter, or a Witch, or a Charmer, 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 Abominations, 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 m•n Profession, should be found guilty of them: Alas▪ what Humiliations are we all ••reby oblig'd unto? O '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 ⟨p. 57⟩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 Dayes of Greatest Light, has had that in it, which may divert the Calumnies of an Ill-natured World, from Centring here. They are the words of the Devout Bishop Hall, Satans Prevalency in this Age, is most clear in the marvell•us Number of Witches abounding in all places. Now Hundreds are discovered in one Shire; and, if Fame Deceive 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 Knowledge, Holiness, and Devotion, are drawn into this Damnable 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 Fourteen 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 alwayes putting him upon the doing of Mischief; Once particularly, ⟨p. 58⟩that Imp calling for his Consent so 〈…〉 do, went immediately and Sunk a Ship, the• under Sail. I pray, Let not New-England be•come of an Unsavoury and a Sulphurous Re•sentment in the Opinion of the World Abroad for the Doleful Things which are now falle• out among us, while there are such Histories o• other places abroad in the World. Nevertheless I am sure that we, the People of New-England have cause enough to Humble our selves unde• our most Humbling Circumstances. We must 〈…〉 more, be, Haughty, because of the Lords Ho•• Mountain among us; No, it becomes us rather 〈…〉 be, Humble, because we have been such an Habit••tion of Unholy Devils!
•. The unclean Spirit seeks rest, and finds none. But we give Rest unto the Devil, by Wrath one against another. If we would lay aside all fierceness, and
⟨p. 60⟩
keenness, in the disputes which the Devil has raise• among us;
II. Since the Divel is come down in great wrat• upon us, let not us in our great wrath against one another provide a Lodging for him. It was a mo•• wholesome caution, in Eph. 4.26.27. Let not th• Sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place t• the Divel. The Divel is come down to see wha• Quarter he shall find among us: and, if his comin• down, do now fill us with wrath against one a• other▪ and if between the cause of the Sufferers o• one hand, and the cause of the Suspected on t'other▪ we carry things to such extreames of Passion as a• now gaining upon us, the Devil will Bless himsel• to find such a convenient Lodging as we shall ther• in afford unto him. And it may be that the wra•• which we have had against one another has ha•⟨p. 59⟩more then a little Influence upon the coming down of the Divel 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 ha•s permitted the Devils to be Worrying, 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 Censu•ing 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 join as one man in our cries to God, for the Directing, and Issuing of this Thorny Business; 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 [Ils se haissent Les uns les autres, et sont en Division Continuelle.] They hate one 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 •ake us Bruise one another, by breaking of the Peace among us; but O let us disappoint him. We read of a thing that sometimes happens to the Devil, when he is foaming with his Wrath, in Mat. 12.4•. The unclean Spirit seeks rest, and finds none. But we give Rest unto the Devil, by Wrath one against another. If we would lay aside all fierceness, and ⟨p. 60⟩keeness, in the disputes which the Devil has raise• among us;
and if we would use to one anothe• none but the, Soft Answers, which Turn away Wrat• I should hope that we might light upon such Coun•sels, as would quickly Extricate us out of our Laby•rinths. But the Old Incendiary of the world, is come from Hell, with Sparks of Hell-Fire Flashing on every side of him; and we make ourselves Tynder to th• Sparks. When the Emperour Henry III. kept th• Feast of Pentecost, at the City Mentz, there arose a Dissension among some of the People there, which came from words to Blows, and at last it passed o• 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 But 〈…〉 have made this Day Quarrelsome▪ We are truly come into a day, which by being well managed might be very Glorious, for the exterminating o• those, Accursed Things, which have hitherto bee• the Clogs of our Prosperity; but if we make this day Quarrelsome, thro' any Raging Confidences, Alas, O Lord, my Flesh Trembles for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy Judgments. Erasmus, among other Historians, tells us, that at a Town in Germany, a Witch or Devil, appear'd 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 Burn't unto the Ground. Methinks, I see the Spectres, from the ⟨p. 61⟩Tops of the Chimneys to the North, ward, threatning to Scatter Fire, about the Countrey; but let us Quench that Fire by the most amicable Correspondencies: Lest, as the Spectres, have, they say, already most Literally Burn't some of our Dwellings, there do come forth a further Fire from the Brambles 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 Pestilent and Ma: lignant sort of a Daemon, 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 kind of Infamies.
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 •ong and loud Admonitio•s, been calling us to, ⟨p. 62⟩A Reformation 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 Prov. 16.7. 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 have not pleased the Lord. It is because we have Broken the Hedge of Gods Precepts, that the Hedge of Gods Provodence is not so Entire as it uses to be about us; but Serpents are Biting of us. O 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 of the Infernal Pit are now hissing about us▪ At length, as it was of old said in Luc 16.30. If on• went unto them, from the Dead, they will Repent; Eve• so, There are some come unto us from the Damned ▪⟨p. 63⟩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 Awakening 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 in Trying •f their Ways, and in Turning to the Lord. It is at an EXTRAORDINARY Rate of Circumspection 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 ••ch 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 〈…〉 publick Preaching, but by personal Visits and Counsels, from House to House. At such a Time as this, ought Churches to Do something EXTRAORDINARY,
⟨p. 64⟩
in Renewing of their Covenants, and in Remembring, and Reviving the Obligations of what they have Renewed. Some Admirable Designs about the Reformation 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 Profane 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 Profaneness in himself, but also according unto 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 unto Legal Proceedings of this Kind, must needs be very exercising to the, Wise that observe these Things. But, O 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, O that my People had hearkened unto me; Then I should soon have subdued the Devils, as well as their other Enemies!
