Parentator. Memoirs of remarkables in the life and the death of the ever-memorable Dr.…

ARTICLE XXVIII. Troubles from the Invisible World.

One born to do Special Service for his People, arrived unto them, at a Time, when Scores of poor People had fallen under a Prodigious Possession of Devils, which it was then generally thought, had been Introduced by Witchcrafts, or the Arts and Acts of such as had made Compacts with Daemons, to annoy their Neighbours The Devils, who had been perhaps by the little & foolish Sorceries, or Magical Tricks, of too many rash People, plaid withal, were Permitted now by the Irritated Vengeance of Heaven to break in upon the Country, with an Horrible Tempest. Some Scores of People, first about Salem, and then in several other Places, were Arrested with many Preternatural Vexations upon their Bodies, and a Variety of Tortures, which were Indisputably Inflicted from the Daemons of the Invisible World. The People that were Infected and Infested with such Daemons, in a few Days, arrived unto a Sight, ⟨p. 162⟩wherein they Imagined that they saw their Tormentors: a Devil of a little Stature and a Tawny Colour, attended still with Spectres that appeared in more Humane Circumstances. These Tormentors tend•ed unto the Afflicted, a Book, requiring them to Sign it, or to Touch it at least, in token of their Consenting to be listed in the Service of the Devil; which they refusing to do the Spectres under the Command of the Black Man, as they called him, would apply themselves to Torture them with Unaccountable Molestations. They would be Pinched Black and Blue, Pins would be run into their Flesh; They would be kept Fasting for whole Weeks together; and not to mention a Thousand other Things which would be Incredible unto others, but are not so to us, who saw them, and are Infallibly sure that we were not Imposed upon, I'• mention but one more, that—Crimine ab uno,—the rest may be Judged of. The Miserables (some of them) Exclaimed, of Branding Irons heating at the Fire on the Hearth to mark them. Now though we the Standers by could see no Irons, yet we could see Distinctly the Print of them in the Ashes, and smell them too as they were carried by the Unseen Agents, unto the poor Creatures for whom they were intended; And these poor Creatures were thereupon so Stigmatized with them, that they will bear the Marks of them to their Dying Day. These Afflicted people, vehemently Cried out upon several Persons in several Places; that the Spectres which Afflicted them did exactly Resemble Them;