N00530:121
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.
Boston : printed, and sold by Benjamin Harris, 1693 i.e., 1692
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.
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