N00530:18
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.
Churches, which are Shy 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, Antipaedobaptist, are swallowed up in that of, Christian; Persons of all those Persuasions being actually taken into our Fellowship, when Visible Godliness 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 ⟨image ?⟩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, tha• Swearing, Sabbath-breaking, Whoring, Drunkenness, and th• like, do not make a Gentleman, but a Monster, or • Goblin, in the Vulgar Estimation. All this notwithstanding, we must humbly Confess to our God, tha• we are miserably Degenerated from the First Love, […] our Predecessors; however we boast our selves a little, when Men would go to trample upon us, and we venture to say, Whereinsoever 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 else where; and yet withal so Peaceable, that they Embraced a Voluntary Exile in a Squalid, horrid, American Desert, 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 Budaeus, and others, who mistook Sir. Thomas Mores UTOPIA, for a Country really Existent, and stirred up some Divines Charitably to undertake a Voyage thither, might now have certainly found a Truth in their Mistake: