Concio ad populum. A distressed people entertained with proposals for the relief of their…

BUT while in our Visions, we see so many. Evil Spirits walking to and fro in the Earth among us, I may say unto you, in the Seventh Place, That of all the Evil Spirits, that call for Powerful Charms to be laid upon them, there is One that has more lately begun to do Strange Things among us. A Multitude of People are Seized with this Evil Spirit: the Possession, it spreads, it gains, it carries all before it. The Evil Spirit throws the People, now into the Fire, now into the Water, into very strange Extremes. And the People will Perish, if no stop can be put unto it. The Devil, that is Come down in great Wrath upon us; — Oh! that the Time were but Short! — is, The Spirit of Extortion, that seems to have broken all the Chains of GOD upon it. We Extort upon One another, every Month more and more, and it is come to that pass, Through' the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, the Land is darkened; no man spares his Brother; he shall snatch and be hungry. There seems an Epidemical Resolution in almost all People, who can do so, to cast off all Rules in Buying and Selling, Even the Necessaries of Life, but that Rapacious One, To Extort upon one another as much as ever they can. In the mean time, the Poor must be cruelly Pinched; This Capital CITY of the Province must lose very many of its Inhabitants; Those who are not capable of Raising the Price of what they have, or of what they do, as their Neighbours can, are ground between the Millstones. ⟨p. 22⟩A Loud Cry of Oppression, is going up in the Ears of the Lord of Hosts; a Cry that reaches and pierces the very Heavens. If the Cry be not stopped, it will fetch down an Horrible Tempest!

BUT while in our Visions, we see so many. Evil Spirits walking to and fro in the Earth among us, I may say unto you, in the Seventh Place, That of all the Evil Spirits, that call for Powerful Charms to be laid upon them, there is One that has more lately begun to do Strange Things among us. A Multitude of People are Siezed with this Evil Spirit: the Possession, it spreads, it gains, it carries all before it. The Evil Spirit throws the People, now into the Fire, now into the Water, into very strange Extremes. And the People will Perish, if no stop can be put unto it. The Devil, that is Come down in great Wrath upon us; — Oh! that the Time were but Short! — is, The Spirit of Extortion, that seems to have broken all the Chains of GOD upon it. We Extort upon One another, every Month more and more, and it is come to that pass, Thro' the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, the Land is darkened; no man spares his Brother; he shall snatch and be hungry. There seems an Epidemical Resolution in almost all People, who can do so, to cast off all Rules in Buying and Selling, Even the Necessaries of Life, but that Rapacious One, To Extort upon one another as much as ever they can. In the mean time, the Poor must be cruelly Pinched; This Capital CITY of the Province must lose very many of its Inhabitants; Those who are not capable of Raising the Price of what they have, or of what they do, as their Neighbours can, are ground between the Milstones.