|
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 greievous [sic] molestations by
daemons and witchcrafts ... and the trials of some eminent malefactors ...
II. Some councils directing a due improvement of the
terrible things lately done by the unusual and amazing range of evil spirits
... III. Some conjectures upon the great events likely to befall the world in
general and 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 DAE|MONS 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 Counsils, Directing a due Improvement of the ter|rible 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-EN|GLAND 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 Resem|bling, and so far Explaining, That under which our
parts of V. THE DEVIL DISCOVERED: In a Brief Discourse upon those TEMPTATIONS, which are the more Ordinary Devices, of the Wicked One. By Cotton Mather. PUblished by the Special Command of His EX|CELLENCY, the Go|vernour of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England. The Authors Defence. 'TIs as I Remember, the Learned Scribonius, who Reports, that One of his Acquain|tance, devoutly making his Prayers on the behalf of a Person molested by Evil Spirits, received from those Evil Spirits an horrible Blow over the Face: And I may my self Expect not few or small Buffetings from Evil Spirits, for the Endeavours wherewith I am now going to Encounter them. I am far from Insensible, That at this Extraordinary Time of the Devils Coming down in Great Wrath upon us, there are too many Tongues and Hearts thereby Set on Fire of Hell; that the various Opinions about the Witchcrafts which of Later Time have Troubled us, are maintained by some with so much Clou|dy Fury, as if they could never be sufficiently Stated, unless written in the Liquor wherewith Witches use to write their Covenants; and that he who becomes an Author at such a Time, had need be, Fenced with Iron, and the Stuff of a Spear. The unaccountable Frowardness, Asperi|ty, Untreatableness, and Inconsistency of many persons, every Day gives a Visible Exposition of that passage, An Evil Spirit from the Lord came upon Saul; and Illustration of that Story, There met him two Possessed with Devils, exceeding Fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. To send
abroad a Book, among such Readers, were a very unadvised Thing if a man had not such Reasons to give as I can bring, for such an Un|dertaking. Briefly, I hope it cannot be said, They are all so: No, I hope the Body of this People, are yet in such a Temper, as to be ca|pable of Applying their Thoughts, to make a Right Use, of the Stupendous and prodigious Things that are happening among us: and because I was concern'd, when I saw that no Abler Hand Emitted any Essayes to Engage the Minds of this People in such Holy, Pious, Fruitful Improve|ments, as God would have to be made of His Amazing Dispensations now upon us, THERE|FORE it is that One of the Least among the Children of New-England, has here done, what is done. None, but, The Father who sees in Se|cret, knows the Heart-breaking Exercises, where|with I have Composed what is now going to be Exposed; Lest I should in any One Thing, miss of Doing my Designed Service for His Glo|ry, and for His People; But I am now some|what comfortably Assured of His favourable Ac|ceptance; and, I will not Fear; what can, a Satan do unto me! Having Performed, Something of what God Re|quired, in labouring to suit His Words unto His Works, at this Day among us, and therewithal hand|led a Theme that has been sometimes counted not unworthy the Pen, even of a King, it will easily be perceived, that some subordinate Ends have been considered in these Endeavours.
I have indeed set my self to Countermine the whole PLOT of the Devil, against New-England, in every Branch of it, as far as one of my Darkness, can comprehend such a Work of Darkness. I may add, that I have herein also aimed at the Informati|on and Satisfaction of Good men in another Coun|trey, a Thousand Leagues off, where I have, it may be More, or however, more Considerable, Friends, than in My Own; And I do what I can to have that Countrey, now, as well as alwayes, in the best Terms with, My Own. But while I am doing these things, I have been driven a little to do something likewise for My self; I mean, by taking off the false Reports and hard Censures about my Opinion in these matters, the Parters Portion, which my pur|suit of Peace, has procured me among the Keen. My hitherto Unvaried Thoughts are here Publish|ed; and, I believe, they will be owned by most, of the Ministers of God in these Colonies: nor can amends be well made me, for the wrong done me, by other sorts of Representations. In fine, For the Dogmatical part of my Discourse, I want no Defence; for the Historical part of it, I have a very Great One. The Lievtenant Go|vernour of New-England, having perused it, has done me the Honour of giving me a Shield, under the Umbrage whereof I now dare to walk Abroad.
Enchantments Encountred.S 1. IT was as long ago, as the year 1637. that a Faithful Minister of the Church of England, whose Name was Mr. Edward Symons, did in a Sermon afterwards Printed, thus Express himselfe; At New-England now the Sun of Comfort begins to appear, and the Glorious Day-Star to show it self;—Sed Venient Annis Saecula Seris, there will come Times, in after-ages when the Clouds will over-shadow and darken the Sky there. Many now promise to themselves no|thing but successive Happiness there, which for a Time through Gods Mercy they may Enjoy; and I Pray God, they may a Long Time; but in this World there is no Happiness perpetual. An Observation, Or, I had almost said, an Inspiration, very dismally now verify'd upon us! It has been affirm'd by some who best knew New-England, That the World will do New-England a great piece, of Injustice, if it acknowledge not a measure of Religion, Loyalty, Honesty and Industry, in the peo|ple there, beyond what is to be found with any other people for the Number of them. When I did a few years ago, publish a Book, which mentioned a few Memorable Witchcrafts, committed in this Country; the
Excellent Baxter graced the Second Edition of that Book, with a kind Preface, wherein he sees cause to say, If any are Scandalized, that New-England, a place of as serious Piety, as any I can hear of, under Heaven, should be Troubled so much with Witches, I think, tis no Wonder: Where will the Devil show most Malice, but where he is Hated, and Hateth most; And I hope, the Country will still deserve and answer, the Charity so Expressed by that Reverend man of God! Whosoever travels over this Wilderness, will see it richly bespangled with Evangelical Churches, whose Pastors are Holy, Able, & Painful Overseers of their Flocks, Lively Preachers, and Vertuous Livers; and such as in their Several Neigh|bourly Associations, have had their Meetings whereat Ecclesiastical matters of common Concernment are Con|sidered: Churches, whose Communicants have been se|riously Examined about their Experiences of Regenera|tion, as well as about their Knowledge, and Beleef and Blameless Conversation, before their Admission to the Sacred Communion; although others of less but Hope|ful Attainments in Christianity are not ordinarily deny'd Baptism for themselves and theirs; 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 Perswasions being actually taken into our Fellowship, when Visible Godli|ness 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 ta|ken
off, others are daily Rising up. And by the pre|sence and power of the Divine Institutions thus mentain|ed in the Country, we are still so Happy, that, I sup|pose, 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, that Swearing, Sabbath-breaking, Whoring, Drunkenness, and the like, do not make a Gentleman, but a Monster, or a Goblin, in the Vulgar Estimation. All this notwith|standing, we must humbly Confess to our God, that we are miserably Degenerated from the First Love, of our Predecessors; however we boast our selves a litile, 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 Desart, 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 Pro|fanity, 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 per|sons as Budaeus, and others, who mistook Sir. Thomas Mores UTOPIA, for a Country really Existent, and stirr'd up some Divines Charitably to undertake a Voyage thither, might now have certainly found a Truth in their Mistake; New-England was a true Uto|pia. But alas, the Children, and Servants of those Old
Planters, must needs afford many, Degenerate Plants, and there is now Risen up a Number of people, other|wise Inclined than our Ioshua's and the Elders that out|lived them. Those two things, our Holy Progenitors, and our Happy Advantages, make Omissions of Duty, and such Spiritual Disorders as the whole World abroad is overwhelmed with, to be as Provoking in us, as the most flagitious wickednesses Committed in other places; and the Ministers of God are accordingly severe in their Testimonies. But in Short, Those Interests of the Gospel, which were the Errand of our Fathers into these Ends of the Earth, have been too much Neglected and Postponed, and the Attainments of an hand-some Education, have been too much undervalued, by Multi|tudes, that have not fallen into Exorbitancies of Wickedness; and some, especially of our Young ones, when they have got abroad from under the Restraints here laid upon them, have become extravagantly and abom (gap: 1+ letters) nably Vicious. Hence tis, that the Happiness of New-England, has been, but for a Time, as it was fore|told, and not for a Long Time, as ha's been desir'd for us. A Variety of Calamity ha's long follow'd this Plantation; and we have all the Reason imagina|ble to ascribe it unto the Rebuke of Heaven upon us for our manifold Apostasies; we make no Right use of our Disasters, if we do not, Remember whence we are fallen, and Repent, and Do the first works. But yet our Afflictions may come under a further Consideration with us: there is a further cause of our Afflictions, whose Due must be Given him.
disturbed, when he perceived such a people here
accom|plishing the Promise of old made unto our Blessed Jesus, That He
should have the Utmost parts of she Earth for His Possession. There was
not a greater Uproar among the Ephesians, when the Gospel was first
brought among them, then there was among, The Powers of the Air
(after whom those Ephesians walked) when first the Silver
Trumpets of the Gospel here made the Ioyful Sound. The Devil
thus Irritated, immediately try'd all sorts of Methods to over|turn this poor
by some Credible Christians yet alive, that a Male|factor, accused of Witchcraft as well as Murder, and Exe|cuted in this place more than Forty Years ago, did then give Notice, of, An Horrible PLOT against the Country, by WITCHCRAFT, and a Foundation of WITCHRAFT then Laid, which if it were not seasonably Discovered, would pro|bably Blow up, and pull down all the Churches in the Coun|try. And we have now with Horror seen the Discovery of such a Witchcraft! An Army of Devils is horribly broke in, upon the place which is the Center and after a sort, the First-born of our English Settlements: and the Houses of the Good People there, are fill'd with the dole|ful Shrieks of their Children and Servants, Tormented by Invisible Hands, with Tortures altogether preternatural. After the Mischiefs there Endeavoured, and since in part Conquered, the terrible Plague, of, Evil Angels, hath made its progress into some other places, where other persons have been in like manner Diabolically handled. These our poor Afflicted Neighbours, quickly after they become Infected and Infested with these Daemons, arrive to a Capacity of Discerning those which they conceive the Shapes of their Troublers; and notwithstanding the Great and Just Suspicion, that the Daemons might Impose the Shapes of Innocent Persons in their Spectral Exhibiti|ons upon the Sufferers, (which may perhaps prove no small part of the Witch-Plot in the issue) yet many of the persons thus Represented, being Examined, several of them have been Convicted of a very Damnable Witch|craft: yea, more than. One Twenty have Confessed, that they have Signed unto a Book, which the Devil show'd them, and Engaged in his Hellish Design of Bewitch|ing, and Ruining our Land. We know not, at least I know not, how far the Delusions of Satan may be Inter|woven into some Circumstances of the Confessions; but
one would think, all the Rules of Understanding Hu|mane Affayrs are at an end, if after so many most Vo|luntary Harmonious Confessions, made by Intelligent persons of all Ages, in sundry Towns, at several Times, we must not Believe the main strokes wherein those Confessuns all agree: especially when we have a thousand preter|natural Things every day before our eyes, wherein the Confessors do acknowledge their Concernment, and give Demonstration of their being so Concerned. If the De|vils now can strike the minds of men, with any Poisons of so fine a Composition and Operation, that scores of In|nocent People shall Unite, in Confessions of a Crime, which we see actually committed, it is a thing prodigi|ous, beyond the Wonders of the former Ages, and it threatens no less than a sort of a Dissolution upon the World. Now, by these Confessions 'tis Agreed, That the Devil has made a dreadful Knot of Witches in the Country, and by the help of Witches has dreadfully En|creased that Knot: That these Witches have driven a Trade of Commissioning their Confederate Spirits, to do all sorts of Mischiefs to the Neighbours, whereupon there have Ensued such Mischievous consequences upon the Bodies, and Estates of the Neighbourhood, as could not other|wise be accounted for: yea, That at prodigious Witch-Meetings, the Wretches have proceeded so far, as to Con|cert and Consult the Methods of Rooting out the Christi|an Religion from this Country, and setting up instead of it, perhaps a more gross Diabolism, than ever the World saw before. And yet it will be a thing little short of Mi|racle, if in so spread a Business, as this, the Devil should not get in some of his Juggles, to confound the Discovery of all the rest. S. 3. Doubtless, the Thoughts of many will re|ceive
a Great Scandal against New-England,
from the Number of Persons that have been Accused, or Suspect|ed, for Witchcraft,
in this Country: But it were easy to offer many things, that may Answer and
Abate the Scandal. If the Holy God should any where per|mit the Devils to
hook two or three wicked Scholars, into Witchcraft, and
then by their Assistance to Range with their Poisonous Insinuations,
among Ignorant, En|vious, Discontented People, till they have cunningly
decoy'd them into some sudden Act, whereby the Toyls of Hell shall
be perhaps inextricably cast over them: what Country in the World, would not
afford Witches, numerous to a Prodigy? Accordingly, The Kingdoms of Sweeden,
Denmark, S (gap: 1+ letters) tland,
yea, and England it self, as well as the Province of New-England,
have had their Storms of Witchcrafts breaking upon them, which have
made most Lamentable Devastations: which also I wish, may be, The Last.
And it is not uneasy to be imagined, That God ha's not brought out all the Witchcrafts
in many other Lands, with such a speedy, dreadful, de|stroying Iealousy,
as burns forth upon such High Treasons committed here in, A Land
of Uprightness: Transgressors, may more quickly here, than else where
become a prey to the Vengeance of Him, Who ha's Eyes like a Flame of
Fire, and, who walks in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks. Moreover,
There are many parts of the World, who if they do upon this Occasion insult
over this People of God, need only to be told the Story of what happened at Loim,
in the Dutchy of Gulic, where, a Popish Curate, having ineffectually
try'd many Charms, to Eject the Devil out of a Dam|sel there possessed, he
Passionately bid the Devil come out of her, into himself; but the Devil
answered him, Q (gap: 1+ letters) id
mihi Opus est eum tentare, quem Novissimo Die,
Iure Optimo sum Possessurus? that is, What need I meddle with one, whom I am sure to have and hold at the Last Day, as my own forever! But besides all this, give me Leave to add; it is to be hoped, That among the persons represented by the Spectres which now afflict our Neighbours, there will be found some that never explicitly contracted with any of the Evil Angels. The Witches have not only intimated, but some of them acknowledged, That they have plotted the Representations of Innocent Persons, to cover and shel|ter themselyes in their Witchcrafts; now, altho' our good God has hitherto generally preserved us, from the Abuse therein Design'd by the Devils for us, yet who of us can Exactly State, How far our God may for our Chastisement permit the Devil to preceed in such an Abuse? It was the Result of a Discourse, lately held at a Meeting of some very (gap: 1+ letters) ious, and Learned, Ministers among us, That the Devils may sometimes have a permission to Represent an Inno|cent Person, as Tormenting such as are under Diabolical Mo|lestations: But that such Things are Rare and Extraordinary, especially, when such Matters come before Civil Iudicature. The Opinion Expressed with so much Caution and Judg|ment, seems to be the prevailing Sense of many others; who are men Eminently Cautious and Judicious; and have both Argument and History to Countenance them in it. It is Rare and Extraordinary, for an Honest Naboth to have his Life it self Sworn away, by two Children of Belial, and yet no Infringement hereby made on the Rectoral Righteousness of our Eternal Soveraign, whose Iudgments are a Great Deep, and who gives none Account of His matters. Thus, although, the Appearance of Innocent Persons, in Spectral Exhibitions afflicting the Neighbour|hood, be a thing Rare and Extraordinary; yet who can be sure, that the great Belial of Hell must needs be always Yoked up, from this Piece of
Mischief? The best man that ever lived has been called a Witch: and
why may not this too usual and unhappy Symptom of, A Witch, even a
Spectral Representation, befall a person that shall be none of the worst? Is
it not possible? the Laplanders will tell
us 'tis possible: for Persons to be unwittingly atten|ded with officious Daemons,
bequeathed unto them, and im|pos'd upon them, by Relations that have been Witches.
Quaere, also, Whether at a Time, when the Devils with his Witches are engag'd
in an actual War upon a people, some certain steps of ours, in such
a War, may not be fol|low'd with our appearing so and so for a while
among them in the Visions of our afflicted Forlorns! And, Who can cer|tainly say, what other Degrees, & Methods of sinning,
besides that of a Diabolical Compact, may give the Devils
advantage, to act in the Shape of them that have miscarried? Besides what may
happen for a while, to try the Patience of the Vir|tuous. May not
some that have been ready upon feeble grounds uncharitably to Censure and
Reproach other peo|ple, be punished for it by Spectres for a while
exposing them to Censure and Reproach? And furthermore, I pray,
that it may be considered, Whether a World of Magical Tricks often used in
the World, may not insensibly oblige Devils to wait upon the
Superstitious Users of them. A Witty Writer against Sadducism,
has this Observation, That persons, who never made any Express Contract with Apostate
Spirits, yet may Act strange Things by Dia|bolick Aids, which
they procure by the use of those wicked Forms and Arts,
that the Devil first Imparted unto his Confederates. And he adds, We know
not, but the Laws of the
Evil Spirits to Hurt our Land, have been known to be most bloody Fortune-Tellers; and some of them have Confessed, That when they told Fortunes, they would pretend the Rules of Chiromancy and the like Ignorant Sciences, but indeed, they had no Rule (they said) but this, The Things were then Darted into their Minds. Darted! Ye Wretches; By whom, I pray. Surely, by none but the Devils; who, tho' perhaps they did not exactly Foreknow all the thus Predicted Contingencies; yet having once Foretold them, they stood bound in Honour now, to use their Interest, which alas, in This World, is very great, for the Accomplishment of their own Predictions. There are others, that have used most wicked Sorceries to gratify their unlawful Curiosities, or to prevent Inconveniencies in Man and Beast; Sorceries; which I will not Name, lest I should by Naming, Teach them. Now, some Devil is overmore Invited in|to the Service of the Person that shall practise these Witchcrafts; and if they have gone on Impenitently in these Communions with any Devil, the Devil may per|haps become at last a Familiar to them, and so assume their Livery, that they cannot shake him off in any way, but that One, which I would most heartily pre|scribe unto them, Namely, That of a deep and long Repentance. Should these Impieties, have been committed in such a place as New-England, for my part I should not wonder, if when Devils are Exposing the Gres (gap: 1+ letters) er Witches among us, God permit them, to bring in these Les (gap: 1+ letters) er ones with the rest, for their perpetual Humiliation. In the Is|sue therefore, may it not be found, that New-England is not so Stock'd with Rattle Snakes, as was imagined? S 4. But I do not believe, that the progress of Witch|craft among us, is all the Plot, which the Devil is mana|ging in the Witchcraft now upon us. It is judg'd, That
the Devil Rais'd the Storm, whereof we read in
the Eighth Chapter of Matthew, on purpose to oversett the little. Ves|sel,
wherein the Disciples of Our Lord, were Embarqued with Him. And it may be
fear'd, that in the Horrible Tem|pest, which is now upon ourselves,
the design of the Devil is to sink that Happy settlement of Government,
where|with Almighty, God, has graciously enclined their Majesties to favour
us. We are blessed with a GOVERNOUR, than whom no man can be more willing to
serve their Majesties or this their Province: He is continually venturing his
All to do it: and were not the Interests of His Prince, dearer to
him, than his own, he could not but soon be weary of the Helm,
whereat he sits. We are under the Influence of a LIEVTENANT GOVERNOUR, who
not only by being admirably accomplished both with Natural and Ac|quired
Endowments, is fitted for the Service of Their. Ma|jesties, but also with an
unspotted Fidelity, applys himself to that Service. Our COUNCELLOURS,
are some of our most Eminent persons, and as Loyal Subjects to the Crown, as
hearty lovers of their Countrey. Our Constitution also is attended with
singular Priviledges; All which Things are by the Devil exceedingly Envy'd
unto us. And the De|vil will doubtless take this occasion, for the Raising of
such complaints and clamours, as may be of pernicious conse|quence, unto some
part of our present Settlement, if he can so far Impose. But that
which most of all Threatens us, in our present Circumstances, is the Misunderstanding,
and so the Animosity, whereinto the Witchcraft now Raging,
has Enchanted us. The Embroiling, first, of our Spirits, and then of
our Affayrs, is evidently, as considerable a Branch of the Hellish
Intreague, which now vexes us, as any one Thing whatever. The Devil has made
us like a
suffer themselves to fall into their Paroxysms; and the Shake which the Devil is now giving us, fetches up the Dirt which before lay still, at the Bottom of our sinful Hearts. If we allow the Mad Dogs of Hell to poison us by Biting us, we shall imagine that we see nothing but such Things about us, and like such Things fly upon all that we see. Were it not for what is IN US, for my part, I should not fear a Thousand Legions of Devils; 'tis by our Quarrels that we spoil our Prayers; and if our Humble, Zealous, and United, Prayers, are once Hindred, alas, the Philistines of Hell have cut our Locks for us; they will then blind us, mock us, ruine us. In Truth, I cannot altogether blame it, If people are a little Transported, when they conceive all the Secular Interests of Themselves and their Families, at the Stake; and yet, at the sight of these Heart-Burnings, I cannot forbear the Exclamation of the Sweet-spirited Austin, in his Pacificatory Epistle, to Ierom on his Contest with Ruffin, O miserd et miser and a Conditio! O Condition, truly miserable! But what shall be done to cure these Distracti|ons? It is wonderfully necessary, that some Healing At|tempts, be made at this time; and I must needs confess, if I may speak so much, like a Nazianzen, I am so desirous of a share in them, that if, Being thrown Over-board, were needful to allay the Storm, I should think, Dying, a Trifle to be undergone, for so great a Blessedness. S 5. I would most importunately in the first place, en|treat every man to maintain an Holy Jealousy over his own Soul, at this Time, and think, May not the Devil make me, tho' ignorantly, & unwillingly, to be an Instrument of doing something that he would have to be done? For my part I freely own my Suspicion, Lest something of Enchantment, have reach'd more Persons and Spirits among us, then we are well aware of. But then, let us more generally Agree to maintain a kind Opinion, one of another. That Charity
without which, even our Giving our Bodies to be Burned, would Profit Nothing, uses to proceed by this Rule, It is kind, it is not easily provoked, it is thinks no Evil, it believes all things, hopes all things. But if we disregard this Rule, of Charity, we shall indeed give our Body Politic to be Bur|ned. I have heard it affirmed, That in the Late Great Flood upon Convecticut, those Creatures which could not but have Quarrelled at another Time, yet now being dri|ven together, very Agreeably stood by one another. I am sure we shall be worse than Bruitish, if we fly upon one another, at a Time when the Floods of Belial make us afraid. On the one Side, [alas, my Pen, must thou write the word, Side, in the Business?] there are very worthy men, who having been call'd by God, when and where this Witchcraft, first Appeared upon the Stage, to Encounter it, are earnestly desirous to have it Sifted unto the Bottom of it. And, I pray, which of us all, that should live under the continual Impressions, of the Tortures, Outcries, and Havocks, which Devils confessedly Commissioned by Witches, make among their distressed Neighbours, would not have a Biass that way, beyond other men? Persons this way disposed, have been men eminent for Wisdome and Vertue, and men acted by a noble principle of Conscience: Had not Conscience of Duty to God, prevailed above other Con|siderations with them, they would not for all they are worth in the world, have meddled in this Thorny Business, Have there been any Disputed Methods used, in Discovering the Works of Darkness? It may be none, but what have had great Precedents in other parts of the world: which may, tho' not altogether Iustify, yet much Alleviate a mis|take in us, if there should happen to be found any such mistake, in so Dark a matter. They have done, what they have done, with multiply'd Addresses to God, for his gui|dance,
and have not been Insensible how much they have exposed themselves in what they have done. Yea, they would gladly contrive, and receive, an expedient, how the Shedding of Blood, might be spared, by the Recovery of Witches, not gone beyond the reach of Pardon And after all, They invite all Good men, in Terms to this purpose, Be|ing amazed, at the Number, and Quality of those Accused, of Late, we do not know, but Satan, by his Wiles, may have Enwrapped some Innocent persons, and therefore should Ear|nestly and Humbly desire, the most Critical Enquiry upon the place, to find out the Fallacy; that there may be none of the Servants of the Lord, with the Worshippers of Baal. I may also add, That whereas, if once a Witch do inge|nuously confess among us, no more Spectres do in their Shapes after this, Trouble the Vicinage; if any Guilty Creatures will accordingly to so good purpose Confess their Crime to any Minister of God, and get out of the Snare of the Devil, as no Minister will discover such a Conscientious Confession, so I believe none in the Au|thority, will press him to Discover it; but Rejoyce in, A Soul sav'd from Death&punc; On the other Side [if I must again use the word, Side, which yet I hope, to Live, to blot out] there are very worthy men, who are not a Little Dissatisfy'd at the Proceedings in the Pro|secution of this Witchcraft. And why? Not because they would have any such Abominable Thing Defend|ed from the Strokes of Impartial Justice. No, those Reverend Persons who gave in this Advice unto the Honourable Council, That Presumptions, whereupon Persons may be Committed, and much more Convictions, whereupon Persons may be Condemned, as Guilty of Witchcrafts, ought certainly to be more Considerable, than barely the Accused Persons being represented by a Spectre, unto the Afflicted; Nor are Alterations
made in the Sufferers, by a Look or Touch of the Ac|cused, to be esteemed an Infallible Evidence of Guilt; but frequently Liable to be Abused by the Devils Leger|demains: I say, Those very men of God, most Con|scientiously Subjoined this Article, to that Advice,—Ne|vertheless, we cannot but Humbly Recommend unto the Government, the Speedy and Vigorous Prosecution of such, as have rendred themselves Obnoxious; aceording to the best Directions given in the Laws of God, and the wholsome Sta|tutes of the English Nation, for the Detection of Witchcraft. Only, Tis a most Commendable Cautiousness, in those Gracious men, to be very Shye lest the Devil get so far in|to our Faith, as that for the sake of many Truths which we find he tells us, we come at length, to believe any Lies, wherewith he may abuse us: whereupon, what a Desolation of Names would soon ensue, besides a thousand other Pernicious Consequences? and lest there should be any such Principles taken up, as when put into Practice must unavoidably cause the Righteous to Perish with the Wicked; or procure the Bloodshed of any Persons, like the Gibeonites, whom some Learned men suppose to be under a false Notion of Witches, by Saul Exterminated.
They would have all Due steps taken for the Extinction of Witches;
but they would fain have them to be Sure ones: nor is it from any thing,
but the Real and Hearty Goodness of such men, that they are Loth to
surmise
with a very great Aversion, so they have still
been under Heart-breaking Sollicitudes, how they might therein best serve,
both God and S 6 'Tis necessary
that we Unite in every Thing: but there are especially Two
Things wherein our es, and those bloody Felons, be wholly left Unprosecuted. The Witchcraft is a Business, that will not be Sham'd, without plunging us into sore plagues and of Long Continu|ance. But then, we are to Unite in such Methods, for this Deliverance, as may be unquestionably S (gap: 1+ letters) fe; Lest, The Latter End be worse then the Beginning. And here, what I shall say? I will venture to say, thus much; That we are Safe, when we make just as much Use of all Advice from the Invisible World, as God sends it for. It is a Safe Principle, That when God Almighty permits any Spirits from the Unseen Regions, to visit us with Surprising In|formations, there is then something to be Enquired after; we are then to Enquire of one another, What Cause there is for such Things? The peculiar Government of God, over the Unbodied Intelligences, is a sufficient Foundation for this Principle. When there has been a Murder Commit|ted, an Apparition of the slain Party Accusing of any man, altho' such Apparitions have oftener spoke True than False, is not enough to Convict the man, as Guilty of that Mur|der; but yet it is a sufficient Occasion for Magistrates to make a particular Enquiry, whether such a man have affor|ded any ground for such an Accusation. Even so, a Spect|re, exactly Resembling such or such a person, when the Neighbourhood are Tormented by such Spectres, may reasonably make Magistrates Inquisitive, whether the per|son so Represented have done or said any thing that may Argue their Confederacy with Evil Spirits; altho' it may be defective enough in point of Conviction; especially at a Time, when 'tis possible, some Over-powerful Conjurer may have got the skill of thus Exhibiting the Shapes of all sorts of persons, on purpose to stop the prosecution of the Wretch (gap: 1+ letters) s whom due Enquiries thus provoked, might have made ob|noxious unto (gap: 1+ letters) ustice. Quaere, Whether if God would have us, to proceed any further than bare Enquiry, upon what
Reports there may come against any man, from the World of Spirits, He will not by His Providence at the same time have brought into our Hands, these more Evident & Sensible Things, whereupon, a man is to be esteemed a Criminal. But I will venture to say this further; That it will be Safe, to account the Names as well as the Lives of our Neigh|bours, too considerable Things to be brought under a Iu|dicial Process, until it be found by Humane Observations, that the peace of Mankind, is thereby disturbed. We are Humane Creatures; and we are Safe while we say, they must be Humane Witnesses, who also have in the particular Act of Seeing, or Hearing, which enables them to be Wit|nesses, had no more than Humane Assistences, that are to Turn the Scale, when Laws are to be Executed. And, upon this Head, I will further add; A Wise and a Just Magistrate, may so far give way to a common Stream of Dissatisfaction, as to forbear Acting up to the Heighth of his own perswasion, about, what may be judg'd Con|victive, of a Crime, whose Nature shall be so abstruse and obscure, as to raise much Disputation. Tho' he may not Do what he should Leave Undone, yet he may Leave Un|done something that else he could D (gap: 1+ letters) , when the Publick Safety, makes an Exigency. S 7. I was going to make one Venture more; that is, to offer some Safe Rules, for the finding out of the Witches which are at this Day our Accursed Troublers: but this were a Venture too Presumptuous and Icarian for Me to make. I leave that unto those Excellent and Judicious Persons, with whom I am not worthy to be Num|bred: all that I shall do, shall be to lay before my Readers, a brief Synopsis of what has been Written on that Subject, by a Triumvirate, of as Eminent Persons, as have ever handled it. I will begin with, [Goes to a section titled “An Abstract of Mr. Perkin’s
{English Puritan minister’s} way for the Discovery of Witches”]
A Discourse: ON The Wonders of the Invisible World.Uttered (in part) on Aug. 4. 1692.ECclesiastical History has Reported it unto us, That a Renowned Martyr at the Stake, see|ing the Book of THE REVELATION thrown by his no less Profane than Bloody Persecutors, to be Burn'd in the same Fire with himself, he cry'd out, O Beata Apocalypsis; quam bene mecum agitur, qui tecum Comburar! BLESSED REVELATION! said he; How blessed am I in this Fire, while I have Thee to bear me Company. As for our selves this Day, 'tis a Fire of sore Affliction and Confusion, wherein we are Embroiled; but it is no Inconside|rable Advantage unto us, that we have the Com|pany of this Glorious and Sacred Book, THE RE|VELATION, to assist us in our Exercises. From that Book, there is one Text, which I would single out, at this Time, to lay before you; 'tis that in
Rev. XII. 12. THE Text is like the Cloudy and Fi|ery Pillar, vouchsafed unto Israel, in the Wilderness of old; there is a very dark side of it, in the Inti|mation, that, The Devil is come down having great Wrath; but it has also a bright side, when it assures us, that, He has but a short tim (gap: 1+ letters) ; Unto the Contemplation of both, I do this Day Invite you. We have in our Hands a Letter from our As|cended Lord in Heaven, to Advise
us of his being still alive, and of his Purpose e're long, to give us a
Visit, wherein we shall see our Living Redeemer, stand at the latter day
upon the Earth. 'Tis the last Advice that we have had from Heaven, for
now sixteen Hundred years; and the scope of it, is, to represent how the Lord
Jesus Christ, having begun to set up his Kingdom in the World, by the
Preach|ing of the Gospel, he would from time to time ut|terly break to pieces
all Powers that should make Head against it, until; The Kingdomes of this
World are become the Kingdomes of our Lord, and of his
Christ, and he shall Reign for ever and ever. 'Tis a Commentary on what had been written by Daniel, about, The Fourth Monarchy; with some Touches upon, The Fifth; wherein, The greatness of the King|dom under the whole Heaven, shall be given to the peo|ple of the Saints of the most High: And altho' it have, as 'tis expressed by one of the Ancients, Tot Sacramenta, quot verba, a Mystery in every Sylla|ble, yet it is not altogether to be neglected with such a Despair, as that, I cannot Read, for the Book is Sealed: it is a REVELATION, and a singular, and notable Blessing is pronounc'd upon them that humbly study it. The Divine Oracles, have with a most admira|ble Artifice and Carefulness, drawn, as the very pi|ous Beverley, has laboriously Evinced, an exact LINE OF TIME, from the First Sabbath at the Creation of the World, unto the great Sabbatism at the Restitution of all Things. In that famous Line of Time, from the Decree for the Restoring of Ierusalem, after the Babylonish Captivity, there seem to remain a matter of Two Thousand and Three Hun|dred Years, unto that New Ierusalem, whereto the Church is to be advanced, when the Mystical Ba|bylon shall be fallen. At the Resurrection of our Lord, there were seventeen or eighteen Hundred of those Years, yet upon the Line, to Run unto, The Rest which Remains for the People of God; and this Remnant in the Line of Time, is here in our Apocalypse, variously Embossed, Adorned, and Sig|nalized with such Distinguished Events, if we
mind them, will help us escape that Censure, Can ye not Discern the Signs of the Times? The Apostle Iohn, for the View of these Things, had laid before
him, as I conceive, a Book, with leaves, or folds; which V (gap: 1+ letters) lumn was written both on
the Backside, & on the Inside, & Roll'd up in a
Cylindria|cal Form, under seven Labels, fastned with so many Seals.
The First Seal being opened, and the First Label removed,
under the first Label the Apostle saw what he saw, of a first Rider
Pourtray'd, and so on, till the last Seal was broken up; each of the
Sculp|tures being enlarged with Agreeable Visions and Voi|ces,
to Illustrate it. The Book being now Unrol|led, there were Trumpets,
with wonderful Conco|mitants, Exhibited successively on the Expanding Backside
of it. Whereupon the Book was Eaten, as it were to be Hidden, from
Interpretations; till afterwards, in the Inside of it, the Accordingly, in the Twelfth Chapter of this Book, we have an August Preface, to the Descrip|tion of that Horrid Kingdom, which our Lord Christ refused, but Antichrist accepted, from the Devils Hands; a Kingdom, which for Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years together, was to be a con|tinual oppression upon the People of God, and
opposition unto his Interests; until the Arrival
of that Illustrious Day, wherein, The Kingdom shall be the Lords, and he
shall be Governour among the Nations. The Chapter is (as an Excellent
Person calls it) an Extravasated Account, of the Circumstances,
which befel the Primitive Church, during the first Four of Five
Hundred Years of Christianity: it shows us the Face of the Church, first in Rome
Heathenish, and then in Rome Converted, before the Man of Sin
was yet come to Mans Estate. Our Text contains the Accla|mations
made upon the most Glorious Revolution that ever yet happened upon the Roman
Empire; namely, That wherein the First, As a matter of Triumph. 'Tis said, Re|joice, ye Heavens, and ye that dwell in them. The Saints in both Worlds, took the Comfort of this Revolution; the Devout Ones that had out|lived the late Persecutions, were filled with Transporting Joyes, when they saw the Christian become the Imperial Religion, and when they saw Good Men come to give Law unto the rest of Mankind; the Deceas'd Ones also, whose Blood had been Sacrificed in the Ten Persecuti|ons, doubtless made the Light Regions to ring with Hallelujahs unto God, when there were brought
unto them, the Tidings of the Advances now gi|ven to the Christian Religion, for which they had suffered Martyrdom. Secondly, As a matter of Horror. 'Tis said, Wo to the Inhabiters of the Earth and of the Sea. The Earth still means the False Church, the Sea means the Wide World, in Prophetical Phrasaeology. There was yet left a vast party of men that were Enemies to the Christian Religion, in the power of it; a vast party left for the Devil to work upon: unto these is, a Wo denounced; and why so? 'tis added, For the Devil is come down unto you, having great Wrath, because he knows, that he has but a short time. These were it seems to have some desperate and peculiar Attempts of the Devil, made upon them. In the mean time, we may Entertain this for our DOCTRINE. Great WO proceeds from the Great WRATH, with which the DEVIL, towards the End of his TIME, will make a DESCENT upon a miserable World. I have now Published a most awful and solemn Warning for our selves at this day; which has four Propositions, comprehended in it. Proposition I.That there is a Devil, is a Thing Doubted by none but such as are under the Influence of the
Devil. For any to Deny the Being of a Devil must be from an Ignorance or Profaneness, worse than Diabolical. A Devil! What is that? We have a Definition of the Monster, in Eph. 6. 12. A Spiri|tual Wickedness, that is, A wicked Spirit. A Devil is a Fall (gap: 1+ letters) n Angel, an Angel Fallen from the Fear and Love of God, and from all Celestial Glories; but Fallen to all manner of Wretchedness and Cur|sedness. He was once in that Order of Heavenly Creatures, which God in the Beginning made Mi|nistring Spirits, for his own peculiar Service and Honour, in the management of the Universe; but we may now write that Epitaph upon him, How art thou fall (gap: 1+ letters) n from Heaven! thou hast said in thine Heart, I will Exalt my Thr (gap: 1+ letters) ne above the Stars of God; but thou art brought down to Hell! A Devil is a Spiritual and a Rational Substance, by his Apostasy from God, Inclined unto all that is Vicious, and for that Apostasy confin'd unto the Atmosphere of this Earth; in Chains under Darkness, unto the Iudg|ment of the Great Day. This is a Devil; and the Experience of Mankind as well as the Testimony of Scriptu (gap: 1+ letters) e, does abundantly prove the Existence of such a Devil. About this Devil, there are many Things, where|of we may reasonably and profitably be Inqusi|tive; such things, I mean, as are in our Bibles Re|veal'd unto us; according to which if we do not speak, on so Dark a Subject, but according to our own uncertain, and perhaps humoursome Conje|ctures, There is no Light in us. I will carry you
with me, but unto one Paragraph of the Bible, to be informed of three Things, relating to the Devil; 'tis the Story of the Gadaren Energumen, in the fifth Chapter of Mark. First, then; 'Tis to be granted; The Devils are so many, that
some Thousands, can sometimes at once apply themselves to vex one
Child of Man. It is said, in Marc. 5. 15. He that was Possessed with the Devil, had the Legion. Dreadful to be spoken! A Legion
consisted of Twelve Thousand Five Hundred people: and we see that in one man
or two, so many Devils can be spared for a Gar|rison. As the Prophet
cry'd out, Multitudes, Mul|titudes, in the
some Devils are not Insinuated; There is not so much as a Iourney intended, but Satan will have an Hand in Hindering or Furthering of it. Secondly, 'Tis to be supposed, That there is a sort of Arbitrary, even Military Government, a|mong the Devils. This is intimated, when in Mar. 5. 9. The Unclean Spirit said, My Name is Legion: they are under such a Discipline as Legions use to be. Hence we read about, The Prince of the Pow|er of the Air: Our Air has a Power! or an Army, of Devils in the High Plac (gap: 1+ letters) s of it; and these De|vils have a Prince over them, who is, King over the Children of Pride. 'Tis probable, That the Devil, who was the Ring-leader of that mutinous and rebellious Crew, which first shook off the Authori|ty of God, is now the General of those Hellish Armies; Our Lord, that Conquer'd him, has told us the Name of him; 'tis Belzebub; 'tis he that is, the Devil, and the rest are, his Angels, or his Souldiers. Think on, vast Regiments, of cruel, and bloody French Dragoons, with an Intendant o|ver them, over-running a pillaged Neighbourhood, and you will think a little, what the Constitution among the Devils is. Thirdly, Tis to be supposed, That some Divels are more peculiarly Commission'd, and perhaps Qua|lify'd, for some Countreys, while others are for others. This is intimated, when in Mar. 5. 10. The Devils besought Our Lord, Much, that he would not send them away out of the Countrey. Why was that? But in all probability, Because These Divels
were more Able, to, Do the Works of the Divel, in such a Countrey, than in another. It is not likely that every Divel do's know every Language; or that every Divel can do every Mischief. Tis pos|sible that the Experience, or, if I may call it so, the Education, of all Divels, is not alike, and that there may be some Difference in their Abilities. If one might make an Inference from what the Divels Do, to what they are, One cannot forbear Dreaming, that there are Degrees of Divels. Who can allow that such Tri (gap: 1+ letters) ing Daemons, as that of Mascon, or those that once infested our New berry, are of so much Gran|deur, as those Daemons, whose Games are mighty Kingdomes? Yea, Tis Certain, that all Divels do not make a like Figure, in the Invisible World. Nor do's it look agreeably, That the Daemons, which were the Familiars of such a Man as the Old Apoll (gap: 1+ letters) nius, differ not from those Baser Goblins that chuse to Nest in the filthy and loathsome Rags, of a Beastly Sorceress. Accordingly, why may not some Divels, be more Accomplished for what is to be done in such and such places: when others must be Detachd for other Terri (gap: 1+ letters) ories? Each Divel as he sees his advantage, Cries out, Let me be in this Countrey, rather than another. But Enough, if not Too much, o (gap: 1+ letters) these Things. Proposition II.There is a Divellish Wrath against Mankind, with which the Divel is, for Gods Sake Inspired. The
Divel is himself broiling under the intollerable and interminable Wrath of God; and a fiery Wrath at God, is that with which the Divel is for that cause Enflamed. Methinks I see the posture of the Divels in Isa. 8. 21. They fret themselves, and Curse their God, and look upward. The first and chief Wrath of the Divel, is at the Almighty God Himself; He knows, The God that made him, will not have mercy on him, and the God that formed him, will shew him no favour; and so he can have no Kindness for that God, who has no Mercy, nor Favour for him. Hence tis, that he cannot bear the Name of God should be Acknowledged in the World; Every Acknowledgment paid unto God, is a fresh Drop of Burning Brimstone falling upon the Divel; He do's make his Insolent, tho' Impotent Batte|ries, even upon the Throne of God Himsel (gap: 1+ letters) : and soolishly affects to have hims (gap: 1+ letters) lf exalted unto that Glorious High Throne, by all people, as he sometimes is, by Ex (gap: 1+ letters) rcable Witches. This ho (gap: 1+ letters) i|ble Dragon do's not only wi (gap: 1+ letters) h (gap: 1 word) , Tayl st (gap: 1+ letters) ike at the Stars of God, but at the God (gap: 1 word) , wh (gap: 1+ letters) made the Stars, being desirous to (gap: 1 word) them all. God and the Divel are swo (gap: 1+ letters) n Enemi (gap: 1+ letters) s to each other; the Terms between them, are those, in Zech. 11. 18. My Soul (gap: 1 word) them, and their Soul also Abb (gap: 1+ letters) rred me. And from this Furious Wrath, or Displeasure and Prejudice at God, pro|ceeds the Divels Wrath at us, the poor Children of Men. Our doing the Service of God, is one thing that Exposes us to the Wrath of the Divel.
We are the High-Priests of the World; when all Creatures are call'd upon, Praise ye the Lord, they bring to us those demanded Praises of God, say|ing, Do you Offer them for us. Hence 'tis, that the Divel has a a Quarrel with us, as he had with the High-Priest in the Vision of Old. Our bear|ing the Image of God, is another thing that brings the Wrath of the Divel upon us. As a Tygre, thro' his Hatred at a man, will tear the very Pict|ure of him, if it come in his way; such a Tygre the Devil is; because God said of old, Let us make Man in our Image, the Devil is ever saying, Let us p (gap: 1+ letters) ll this man to pieces. But the envious Pride of the Devil, is one thing more that gives an Edge unto his Furious Wrath against us. The Apostle has gi|ven us an hint, as if Pride had been the Condemna|tion of the Devil. 'Tis not unlikely, that the De|vils Affectation to be above that Condition which he might learn that Mankind was to be preferr'd unto, might be the occasion of his taking up Arms against the Immortal King. However, the Devil now sees Man lying in the Bosome of God, but Himself damned in the Bottom of Hell; and this Enrages him exceedingly; O, says he, I cannot bear it, that man should not be as miserable as myself. Proposition III.The Devil, in the prosecution, & for the execution, of His wrath
upon them, often getts a
the Devil does Hurt unto us, he Comes Down unto us; for the Randezvouze of the Infernal Troops, is indeed in the Supernal Parts of our Air. But as tis said, A. sparrow of the Air does not fall down without the will of God; so I may say, Not a Devil in the Air, can come down without the leave of God. Of this we have a famous Instance in that Arabian Prince, of whom the Devil was unable so much as to Touch any thing, till the most High God gave him a permission, to go down. The Divel stands with all the Instruments of Death, aiming at us, and begging of the Lord, as that King ask'd for the Hood-winck'd Syrians of old, Shall I Smite 'em, shall I Smite 'em? He cannot strike a Blow, till the Lord say, Go down and smite, but sometimes He does obtain from the High Posses|sor of Heaven and Earth, a License for the doing of it. The Divel sometimes does make most rueful Havock among us; but still we may say to him, as our Lord said unto a great servant of his, Thou could|est have no power against me, except it were given thee from above. The Divel is called in 1 pet. 5. 8. your Ad|versary. Tis a Law-term; and it notes, An Adver|sary at Law. The Divel cannot come at us, except in some sence according to Law; but sometimes he does procure sad things to be inflicted, according to that Law of the eternal King, upon us. The Divel First Goes up as an Accuser against us: He is therefore styled The Accuser; and it is on this account, that his proper Name, does belong unto him. There is a Court somewhere kept; a Court of Spirits, where the Divel enters all sorts of Complaints against us
all; he charges us with manifold sins against the Lord our God: There he loads us with heavy Imputati|ons, of Hypocrisy, Iniquity, Disobedience; where upon he u (gap: 1+ letters) ges, Lord, Let 'em now have the Death, which is their Wages, paid unto 'em! If our Advocate in the Heavens do not now take off his Libels, the Devil then with a Concession of God, Comes down, as a Destroyer upon us. Having first been an Attorney, to bespeak that the Judgments of Heaven may be Ordered for us, he then also pleads that he may be the Executioner of those Judgments; and the God of Heaven sometimes after a sort signs a Warrant, for this Destroying Angel, to do what has bin desired to be done for the Destroying of men. But such a Permission from God, for the Divel to Come down, and Break in upon mankind, oftentimes must be Ac|companyed with a Commission from some wretches of mankind it (gap: 1 word) . Every man is, as 'tis hinted in Gen. 4 9. His Brothers Kee (gap: 1+ letters) per. We are to keep one an|other from the (gap: 1 word) of the Divel, by mutual and Cordi (gap: 1+ letters) l wi (gap: 1+ letters) hes of prosperity to one another. When ungodly people, give their Consents in witchcrafts di|abolically performed, for the Divell to annoy their Neighbours, he (gap: 1+ letters) nds a Breach made in the Hedge about us, whereat he Rushes in upon us, with g (gap: 1+ letters) ie|vous molestations. Yea, when Impious people, that never saw the Divel, do but utter their Curses against their Neighbours, those are so many Watch words whereby the Ma (gap: 1+ letters) ives of Hell are animated pre|sently to fall upon us. 'Ti (gap: 1+ letters) thus, that the Devil gets Leave to worry us.
Proposition IV.Most Horrible Woes come to be inflicted upon Mankind, when the Divel do's in Great Wrath, make a Descent upon them. The Divel, is a Do-Evil, and wholly set upon mischief. When Our Lord once was going to Muzzel him, that he might not mis|chief others, he cry'd out, Art thou come to (gap: 1 word) me? He is, it seems, himself Tormented, if he be but Restrained from the Tormenting of Men. If upon the Sounding of the Three last Apocalyptical Angels, it was an outcry made in Heaven, Wo, Wo, Wo, to the inhabitants of the Earth by reason of the voice of the Trumpet. I am sure, a Descent made by the An|gel of Death, would give cause for the like Excla|mation: Wo to the World, by reason of the Wrath of the Divel! What a Woful plight, Mankind would by the Descent of the Divel, be brought into, may be gathered from the Woful pains, and wounds, and hideous desolations, which the Divel b (gap: 1+ letters) ings upon them, of whom he has with a Bodily Possession made a Siezure. You may both in Sacred and Profane History, read many a direful Account of the Woes, which they, that are possessed by the Divel, do un|dergo: And from thence conclude, What must the Children of Men, hope from such a Divel! Moreover the Tyrannical Ceremonies, whereto the Divel uses to subjugate such VVoful Nations or Orders of men, as are more Entirely under his Dominion, do declare what VVoful Work, the Divel would make where he
comes. The very Devotions of those forlorn Pa|gans, to whom the Divel is a Leader, are most bloo|dy Penances: and what VVoes indeed must we ex|pect from such a Divel of a M (gap: 1+ letters) loch, as relishes no Sacrifices like those of Humane Heart-Blood, and unto whom there is no musick like the bitter, dy|ing, doleful Groans, ejulated by the Roasting Children of men. Furthermore, the Servile, Abject, Needy Circum|stances wherein the Devil keeps the Slaves, that are under his more sensible Vassallage, do suggest unto us, How woful the Devil would render all of our Lives. We that live in a Province, which affords unto us, all that may be Necessary or Comfortable for us, found the Province fill'd with vast Herds of Salvages, that never saw so much as a Knife, or a Nail, or a Board, or a Grain of Salt, in all their dayes. No better would the Devil have the World provided for! Nor should we, or any else, have one convenient Thing about us; but be as Indigent as usually our most Ragged VVitches are; if the Devils Malice were not over-ruled by a Compassi|onate God, Who Preserves Man and Beast. Hence tis, That the Devil, even like a Dragon, keeping a Guard upon such Fruits as would Refresh a Lan|guishing World, has hindred Mankind for many Ages, from hitting upon those useful Inventions, which yet were so Obvious and Facil, that it is eve|ry bodies wonder, they were no sooner hit upon. The Bemisted World, must jog on for Thousands of Years, without the knowledge of the Loadstone, till a Neapolitan stumbled upon it, about Three Hun|dred
years ago. Nor must the world be blest with such a matchless Engine of Learning and Vertue, as that of, Printing, till about the middle of the Fif|teenth Century. Nor could one Old Man all over the Face of the whole Earth, have the benefit of such a Little, tho' most Needful, Thing, as a pair of Spectacles, till a Dutch-Man, a little while ago ac|commodated us. Indeed, as the Divel do's begrutch us all manner of Good, so he do's Annoy us with all manner of VVo, as often as he finds himself capable of doing it. But shall vve mention some of the special woes with which the Divel do's usually infest the World! Breefly then; Plagues are some of those woes, with which the Divel troubles us. It is said of the Isra|elites, in 1. Cor. 10. 10 They were destroyed of the destroyer. That is, they had the Plague among them. 'Tis the Destroyer, or the Divel, that scatters Plagues about the World: Pestilential and Conta|gious Diseases, 'tis the Divel, who do's oftentimes Invade us with them. 'Tis no uneasy thing, for the Divel, to impregnate the Air about us, with such Malignant Salts, as meeting with the Salt of our Microcosin, shall immediately cast us into that Fermentation and Putrefaction, which will utterly dissolve all the Vital Tyes within us; Ev'n as an Aqua-Fortis, made with a conjunction of Nitre and Vitriol, Corrodes what it Siezes upon. And when the Divel has raised those Arsenical Fumes, which become Venemous Quivers full of Terrible Arrows, how easily can he shoot the delete (gap: 1+ letters) ious M (gap: 1+ letters) sms into
those Juices or Bowels of Mens Bodies, which will,
soon Enflame them with a MortalFire! Hence come such
Plagues, as that Beesome of Destruction which within our
memory swept away such a Throng of people from Once more, why may not Storms be rekoned a|mong those VVoes, with which the Devil do's di|sturb us? It is not improbable, that Natural Storms on the World, are often of the Devils raising. We are told in Job. 1. 11. 12, 19. that the Devil made a Storm, which Hurricano'd the House of Iob, u|pon the Heads of them that were feasting in it.
Paracelsus could have informed the Devil, if he had not been
informed, as be sure he was before, That if much Aluminious matter,
with Salt-Peter not throughly prepared, be mixed, they will send up
a cloud of Smoke, which will come down in Rain. But undoubtedly the Devil
understands as well the way to make a Tempest, as to turn the VVinds
at the Solicitation of a Laplander; Whence perhaps it is, that
Thunders are observed oftner to break upon Churches, than upon any
other Buildings; and besides many a Man, yea many a Ship,
yea many a Town has miscarried, when the Devil ha's been per|mitted
from above to make an Horrible tempest. However that the Divel has
raised many Metapho|rical Storms upon the Church, is a thing, than
which there is nothing more notorious. It was said unto Believers, in Rev. 2.
10. The Devil shall cast some (gap: 1 word) you
into Prison. The Devil was he that at first (gap: 1
word) Cain upon Abel, to butcher him, as the
as the sheep for the Slaughters. The late French Persecution, is perhaps the Horriblest that ever was in the World: and as the Devil of Mascon seems before to have meant it, in his outcries, upon, The miseries preparing for the poor Hugonots! thus it ha's been all acted, by a singular Fury of the old Dra|gon inspiring of his Emissaries. But in reality, Spiritual Woes, are the Principal
Woes, among all those that the Devil would have us undone withal. Sins
are the worst of W (gap: 1+ letters) es;
and the Devil seeks nothing so much, as to plunge us into Sins. When
men do commit a Crime for which they are to be Indicted, they are usually, Mov'd
by the Instigation of the Devil. The Devil will put Ill Men
upon being worse. Was it not he, that laid
in 1 King 22. 22. I will go forth, and be a Lying Spirit in the Mouth of all
the Prophets? Even so the Devil becomes an Unclean Spirit, a Drinking
Spirit, a Swearing Spirit, a Worldly Spirit, a Passio|nate
Spirit, a Revengful Spirit, and the like, in the Hearts of those
that are already too much of such a Spirit; and thus, they become Improv'd in
Sin|fulness. Yea, the Devil will put Good Men upon doing
upon them for their Sins. 'Tis thus, when an Offended God, puts the Souls of men over into the Hands of that Officer, Who has the Power of Death, that is, the Devil. It is the woful misery of Unbelievers, in 2 Cor. 4. 4. The God of this World has blinded their minds. And thus it may be said of those Woful Wretches, whom the Devil is a God unto, The Devil so Muffles them, that they cannot see the things of their Peace. And, The Devil so Hardens them, that nothing will awaken their cares about their Souls: How come so many to be Seared in their Sins? 'Tis the Devil, that with a Red Hot Iron fetch't from his Hell, does cauterise them. Thus tis, till perhaps at last they come to have a Wound|ed Conscience in them, and the Devil has often a share in their Torturing and Confounding Anguish|es. The Devil who Terrify'd Cain, and Saul, and Iudas, into Desperation, still becomes a King of Terrors, to many Sinners, and frights them from laying hold on the Mercy of God in the Lord Je|sus Christ. In these regards, Wo to us, when the Devil comes down upon us. Proposition V.Toward the End of his Time the Descent of the Devil in Wrath upon the World, will produce more woful Effects, than what have been in Former Ages. The Dying Dragon, will bite more Cruelly, & sting more bloodily than ever he did before: The (gap: 1+ letters) th-pangs of the Devil will make him to be more
of a Devil than ever he was; and the Furnace of this Nebuchadnezaear will be heated seven times hot|ter, just before its putting out. We are in the first place, to Apprehend, That there is a Time fixed and stated by God, for the Devil to enjoy a Dominion over our sinful and therefore woful World. The D (gap: 1+ letters) vil once Exclaim|ed, in Mat. 8. 29. Iesus, thou Son of God, art thou come hither to Torment us before our Time? It is plain, That until the Second Coming of our Lord, the Devil must have a Time of plaguing the World, which he was afraid, would have Expired at His First. The Devil is, By the wrath of God, the Prince of this World; and the Time of his Reign, is to continue until the Time, when our Lord Himself, shall, Take to Himself, his great Power and Reign. Then 'tis that the Devil shall hear the Son of God, swearing with loud Thunders against him, Thy Time shall now be no more! Then shall the Devil with his Angels, receive their Doom, which will be, Depart into the Everlasting Fire prepared for you. We are also to Apprehend, that in the mean time, the Divel can give a shrowd guess, when he drawes near to the End of his Time. When he saw Christi|anity enthron'd among the Romans, it is here said, in our Rev, 12 12, He knows he hath but a short time. And how does he know it? Why, Reason will make the Divel to know that God won't suffer him to have, the Everlasting Dominion; & that when God has once begun to rescue the world out of his hands
Hee'l go through with it, until The Captives of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the Terrible shall be delivered. But the Divel will have Scripture also, to make him Know that when his Antichristian Vicar the seven headed Beast on the seven-hilled City, shall have spent his determined years, he with his Vicar must unavoidably go down into the Bottomless Pitt.. It is not Improbable, that the Divel often hears the Scripture expounded in our congregations; yea that we never Assemble without a Satan among us. As there are some Divines, who do with more un|certainty conjecture, from a (gap: 1+ letters) eartain P (gap: 1+ letters) ace in the E|pistle to the Ephesians, That the Angels do some times come into our Churches, to gain some Advan|tage from our Ministry. But be sure our Demonstra ble Interpretations, may give Repeated Notices to the-Divel, That his time is almost out: and what the preach|er says unto the Young Man, Know thou, that God will bring thee into Iudgment! THAT may our Sermons tell unto that Old Wretch, Know thou, that the time of thy Iudgment is at hand&punc; But we must now, likewise, Apprehend, that in such a time, the Woes of the world, will be heightened, be|yond what they were at any Time yet from the foun|dation of the world. Hence ti's, that the Apostle has forewarned us, in 2. Tim. 3. 1. this know, that in the last days, perillous times shall come. Truly, when the Divel knows, that he is got into his Last days, he will make Perillous Times for us; the times will grow more full of Divels, and therefore more full of Perils, than everthey were before. Of this if we
would Know, what cause is to be
assigned; It is not only, because the Divel growes more Able and
more Eager to Vex the world; but also, and cheefly, Be|cause the
world is more worthy to be Vexed by the Divel, than ever heretofore.
The Sins of men in this Generation, will be
more mighty Sins, than those of the Former Ages; men will be more
Accurate & Exqui|site, & Refined in the Arts of Sinning,
than they use to be. And besides, their own sins, the sins of all the Former
Ages will also lie upon the sinners of this generation. Do we ask why the mischievous
powers of darkness are to prevail more in our days, than they did in
those that are past & gone! Tis because that men by sinning over again
the sins of the Former days, have a Fellow|ship with all those unfruitful
works of darkness. As 'twas said in Math. 23. 36. All these things
shall come upon this generation; so, the men of the Last generation,
will find themselves involved in the guilt of all that went be|fore them. Of
Sinners tis said, They Heap up Wrath; and the sinners of the Last
generations do not only add unto the Heap of sin that has been
pileing up, ever since the Fall of man, but they Interest themselves in every
sin of that enormous Heap. There has been a Cry of sin in all Former
Ages going up to God, That the Divel
may come down! and the sinners of the Last
generations, do sharpen and louden that cry, till the thing do
come to pass, as Destructively as Ir|remediably. From whence it follows, that
the Thrice Holy God, with His Holy Angels, will now after a sort more Abandon
the World, than in the former Ages. The Roaring Impieties of the
at last gave Mankind such a Dista (gap: 1+ letters) t in the Heart of the Just God; that he came to say, It Repents me, that I have made such a Creature! And however, it may be but a witty Fancy, in a Late Learned Writer, that the Earth before the Flood was near|er to the Sun, than it is at this Day; and that Gods Hurling down the Earth to a further Distance from the Sun, were the cause of that Flood; yet we may fitly enough say, that men perished by a Re|jection from the God of Heaven. Thus, the En|hanc'd Impieties of this our World, will Exasperate the Displeasure of God, at such a rate, as that he will more Cost us off, than heretofore; until at last, He do with a more than ordinary Indignation say, Go Devils; do you take them, and make them be|yond all former measures miserable! If Lastly, We are inquisitive after Instances of those Aggravated Woes, with which the Devil will towards the End of his Time assault us; Let it be Remembred, That all the Extremities which were foretold by the Trumpets and the Vials in the Apo|calyptic Schemes of these things, to come upon the world, were the woes to come from the wrath of the Divel, upon the shortning of his Time, The horren|dous desolations that have come upon mankind, by the Irruptions of the old Barbarians upon the Roman World, and then of the Saracens, and since, of the Turks, were such woes, as men had never seen before. The Infandous Blindness and Vi (gap: 1+ letters) eness which then came upon mankind, and the Monstrous (gap: 1 word) which thereupon carried the Roman world by the
Millions together unto the shambles, were also such woes as had never yet had a Parallel. And yet these were some of the things here intended, when it was said, wo! For the Divel is come down in Great wrath, having but a short Time. But besides all these things, and besides the In|crease of Plagues & Wars, and Storms, and Internal Maladies now in our days, there are especially two most extraordinary Woes, one would fear, will in these days become very ordinary. One Woe that may be look'd for is, A frequent Repetition of Earthquakes, and this perhaps by the energy of the Divel in the Earth. The Divel will be clap't up, as a Prisoner in or near the Bowels of the earth, when once that Conflagration shall be dispatch'd, which will make, The New Earth wherein shall dwell Righ|teousness; and that Conflagration will doubtless be much promoted, by the Subterraneous Fires, which are a cause of the Earthquakes in our Dayes. Ac|cordingly, we read, Great Earthquakes in divers pla|ces, enumerated among the Tokens of the Time approaching, when the Devil shall have no longer Time. I suspect, That we shall now be visited with more Usual, and yet more Fatal Earthquakes, than were our Ancestors; inasmuch as the Fires that are shortly to, Burn unto the Lowest Hell, and set on Fire the Foundations of the Mountains, will now get more Head than they use to do; and it is not impossible, that the Devil, who is e're long to be punished in those Fires, may aforehand augment his Desert of it, by having an hand in
using some of those Fires, for our
Detriment. Learned Men have made no scruple to charge the Devil with it; Deo
permittente, Terraemotus causat. The Devil surely, was a party in the Earthquake,
whereby the Vengeance of God, in one black Night sunk Twelve considerable
Cities of
And I am suspicious, That there will again be an So that, in fine, if just before the End when the Times of
the Iews were to be finished, a man then (gap: 1+
letters) an about every where, crying, Wo to the Nation! Wo
to the City! Wo to the [Section of several
“corollaries” deleted here] But because the people of God, would willingly be told Whereabouts we are with reference to the Wrath and the Time, of the Devil, you shall give me leave humbly to set before you a few, Conject|ures. The first ConjectureThe Devils Eldest Son seems to be towards the
End of his last Half-time; and if it be so, the De|vils Whole-time,
cannot but be very near it's End. It is a
very scandalous thing that any Protestant, should be at a loss where
to find, The Anti-Christ. But, we have sufficient Assurance, that
the Duration of Antichrist, is to be but for a Time, and
for Times, and for Half a time; that is for Twelve-hundred
and Sixty Years. And indeed, those Twelve Hundred and Sixty years,
were the very Spott of Time left for the Devil, and meant
when 'tis here said, He has but a short time. Now, I should have an Easy
Time of it, if I were never put upon an Harder Task, than to
produce what might render it extreamly probable, That Antichrist entred his
last Half-time, or the Last Hundred and Fourscore
years of his Reign, at or soon after the Celebrated Reformation
which began at the year 1517 in the former Century. In|deed, it is very
agreeable to see how Antichrist then Lost Half of his Empire; and
how that Half which then became Reformed, have been upon
many ac|counts little more than Half-Reformed. But by this Computaion,
we must needs bee within a very few years of such a Mortification to
befall the See of
will so singe the Wings of the Devil too, that he shall no more set the Affairs of this world on Fire. Yea, they shall both go into the same Fire, to be tor|mented for ever and ever. The Second Conjecture.That which is, perhaps, the greatest Effect of the Divels Wrath,
seems to be in a manner at an end: and this would make one hope that
the Divels Time can|not be far from its end. It is in
PERSECUTION, that the wrath of the Divel uses to break forth, with
its greatest Fury. Now there want not Pro|babilities, that the Last
Persecution intended for the Church of God, before the Advent of Our
Lord, has been upon it. When we see the, Second We Passing away, we
have a fair signal given unto us, That
the Last Slaughter of our Lords Witnesses is over: and then what QUICKLY
followes? (The Next thing is, The Kingdomes of this World, are become the
Kingdomes of Our Lord) and of His Christ: and then Down goes
the Kingdome of the Divel, so that he cannot any more come down upon
us. Now, the Irrecoverable & Irretrievable Humiliations that have Lately
befallen the Turkish Power, are but so many Declarations of the, Second
Wo Passing away. And the dealings of God with the European
parts of the world, at this day, do further strengthen this
our Expectation. We do see, At this Hour a great
Earth-Quake all
but Contribute unto the Advancement of Our Lords
Hitherto Depressed Interests. Tis also to be Re|mark'd that, A Disposition to
Recognize the Empire of God over the Conscience of man,
does now prevail more in the world than formerly; & God from on High more
touches the Hearts of Princes & Rulers with an Averseness to Persecution.
Tis Particularly the unspeakable Happiness of the English Nation, to be under
the Influences of that Excellent Queen, who could say, Inasmuch as a man
cannot make himself Believe what he will, why should we Persecute men for not
Believing as we do! I wish I could see all good men of one mind; but in the
mean time I pray, let them (gap: 1 word) Love
one another. Words Worthy to be written in Letters of Gold! and by us the more to be consider|ed, because to
one of Ours did that Royal Person Express Her Self so Excellently,
so Obligingly. When the late King Iames published his Declaration
for, Liberty of Conscience, a Worthy Divine in the Church of England,
then st (gap: 1+ letters) dying the Revelation,
saw cause upon Revelational Grounds, to Declare himself in such
words as these, Whatsoever others may intend or design by this Liberty of
Conscience, I cannot be|lieve, that it will (gap: 1
word) be recalled in England, as long as the World
stands. And you know how Miraculous|ly the Earth Quake which
then immediately came upon the Kingdom, (gap: 1+ letters) a's established that
were never dissipated, by all the Persecutions of
many Ages, till within these few years, the French King and the Duke
of The Third Conjecture.There is a Little Room for Hope, that the Great Wrath of
the Devil, will not prove the Present Ruine of our
poor New-England in particular. I believe, there never was a poor
Protestants, and Puritans, came to Erect Evange|lical
Churches, in a corner of the World, where he had Reign'd without any Controll
for many Ages; and it is a vexing Eye-sore, to the Devil, that our
Lord Christ should be known, and own'd, and preached in this Howling
Wilderness. Wherefore he has left no Stone Unturned, that so he
might undermine his First, The Indian Powawes, used all their Sor|ceries to molest the First Planters here; but God said unto them, Touch them not! Then, Seducing Spirits, came to Root in this Vineyard, but God so Rated them off, that they have not prevail'd much further than the Edges of our Land. After this, we have had a continual Blast upon some of our principal Grain, Annu|ally diminishing a vast part of our Ordinary Food. Herewithal, Wasting Sicknesses, especially Burn|ing, and Mortal Agues, have Shot the Arrows of Death in at our Windows. Next, We have had many Adversaries of our own Language, who have been perpetually assaying to deprive us of those English Liberties, in the Encourage|ment whereof these Territories have been Set|tled. As if this had not been enough; The Tawnies among whom we came, have Watered our Soyl, with the Blood, of many Hundreds of our Inhabitants. Desolating Fires also have many times laid the chief Treasure of the whole Province in Ashes. As for Losses by Sea, they
have been multiply'd upon us: and particularly in the present French War, the whole English Nation have observed, That no part of the Na|tion has proportionably had so many Vessels ta|ken, as our poor New-England. Besides all which, now at last the Devils are (if I may so speak) in Person come down upon us, with such a Wrath, as is justly much, and will quickly be more, the Asto|nishment of the World. Alas, I may Sigh over this Wilderness, as Moses did over his, in Psal. 90. 7, 9. We are consumed by thine Anger, and by thy Wrath we are Troubled: All our Dayes are passed away in thy Wrath. And I may add this unto it, The Wrath of the Devil (gap: 1+ letters) oh as been Troubling and Spend|ing of us, all our Dayes. But what will become of this poor New-England after all? Shall we Sink, Expire, Perish, before the Short Time of the Devil shall be finished? I must confess, That when I consider the lamentable Unfruitfulness of men, among us, under as power|ful and perspicuous Dispensations of the Gospel, as are in the World; and when I consider the De|clining State of the Power of Godliness in our Chur|ches, with the most horrible Indisposition that per|haps ever was, to Recover out of this Declension; I cannot but Fear lest it comes to this, and lest an Asiatic Removal of Candlesticks come upon us. But upon some other Accounts, I would fain Hope otherwise; and I will give you therefore the op|portunity to Try what Inferences may be drawn from these probable Prognostications.
I say, First, That surely, I say, Secondly, That tho' there be very
Threat|ning Symptoms on
Promises, That our Lord Iesus Christ shall have the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession? and of all the Prophecies, That All the ends of the Earth shall Remember and Turn unto the Lord? Or does it look Agreeably, That such a Rich Quarter of the VVorld, equal in some Regards to all the Rest, should never be out of the Devils Hands, from the first Inhabitation unto the Last Dissolution of it? No sure; why may not the last be the first? and the Sun of Righteousness come to shine Brightest, in Climates which it Rose Latest upon! I say, Thirdly, That as it fares with Old England,
so it will be most likely to fare with New-England. For which cause,
by the way, there may be more of the Divine Favour in the present Circumstances
of our Dependence on
Rise; But, Alas, O Lord, what other Hive hast Thou Provided for us! I say, Fourthly, That the Elder England will certain|ly & speedily be Visited with the Ancient Loving kind|ness of God. When one sees, how strangely the Curse of our Ioshua, ha's fallen upon the Persons & Houses of them, that have attempted the Rebuilding of the Old Romish Iericho, which has there been so far de|molished, they cannot but say, That the Reformation there, shall not only be maintained, but also pursued, proceeded, perfected; and that God will shortly there have a New Ierusalem. Or, Let a Man in his Thoughts run over; but the Series of amazing Providences towards the English Nation for the last Thirty Years: Let him Reflect, How many Plots for the Ruine of the Nation, have been strangely discovered? yea, How very unaccoun|tably, those very Persons, yea; I may also say, and those very Methods which were intended for the Tools of that Ruine, have become the Instru|ments, or Occasions of Deliverances? A man can|not but say upon these Reflections, as the Wife of Manoah once prudently expressed her self, If the Lord were pleased to have Destroyed us, He would not have show'd us, all these things. Indeed, It is not unlikely, that the Enemies of the English Nation, may yet provoke such a Shake unto it, as may per|haps exceed any that has hitherto been undergone: the Lord prevent the Machinations of his Adver|saries! But, that Shake will usher in the most Glorious Times, that over arose upon the English Horizon:
As for the French Cloud which hangs over England, tho'
it be like to Rain Showers of Blood upon a Nation, where the Blood
of the Blessed Jesus, has been too much treated, as an Unholy Thing;
yet I believe, God will shortly scatter it: and my Belief is grounded upon a
Bottom, that will bear it. If that overgrown French Leviathan,
should accom|plish any thing like a Conquest of [Since the making of this Conjecture, there are Arriv'd unto us, the News of a Victory obtain'd by the English over the French, which further con|firms our Conjecture; and causes us to sing, Pha|raohs Chariots, and his Host, has the Lord cast down into the Sea; Thy Right-hand has dashed in pieces the Enemy!] Now, In the Salvation of But so much for our Corollaries, I hasten to the main Thing designed for your Entertainment. And that is,
An Hortatory and Necessary ADDRESS. To a Country now Extraordinarily Alarum'd by the Wrath of the Devil. Tis this,LEt us now make a Good and a Right use, of the Prodigious Descent, which the Devil, in 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, C (gap: 1+ letters) |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 broken 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, Tor|ment 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 Tre|mendous a dispensation? We are engaged in a Fast this day; but shall we try to fetch, Meat (gap: 1 word) of the Eater, and make the Lion to afford some Hony for our Souls. That the Devil, is Come down unto us with great Wrath, we find, we feel, we now deplore. In many wayes, for many years, hat the Devil been assaying
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, laid 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 Crea|tures, 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 Iesus Christ, in these parts of the World; and in or|der hereunto, First, they each of them have their Spectres, or Devils, Commission'd by them, and Re|presenting of them, to be the Engines of their Malice. By these wicked Spectres, they Sieze poor people about the Country, with Various and bloody
Torments; and of those Evidently Preternatural Torments there are some have Dy'd. They have be|witched 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 Furies, do most Visibly stick Pins into the Bodies of the Afflicted, and Scald them, & hideously Distort, 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 Hills, for diverse Miles together. A large part of the Persons tortured by these Di|abolical 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 Tire|some Sufferings overcome to do, they have imme|diately 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 be|come 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
Cruel Depredations are then made upon the Vici|nage. In the Prosecution of these Witchcrafts, a|mong 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 there|by 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 imme|diately not only beheld, but handled, an Iron Instru|ment 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 Specta|tors 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 pro|pounded, the Dragooning of as many as they can, into their own Combination, and the Destroying of others, with Lingring, Spreading, Deadly Disea|ses; 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 De|dicated unto the Devil, that in their Infancy, it is found, the Imps have Sucked them, and Rendred them Venemous to a Prodigy. We have also seen
Devils First Batteries, upon the Town, where the This is the Descent which, as it seems, the Devil has now made
upon us. But that which makes this Descent the more formidable is; The Multi|tude
and Quality of 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 Per|sons, are by the Devils in this matter
Imposed up|on; 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 D (gap: 1+
letters) emons, that upon their Look or Touch,
the Afflicted shall be oddly Affected. Arguments from the
Judges, have a Room for Iehoshaphats Exclama|tion, We know not what to do! They have used, as Judges have heretofore done, the Spectral Eviden|ces, 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 Execut|ed. 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 Ad|dresses to the, Father of Lights, on their Behalf. But in the mean time, the Devil improves the Dark ness 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. The Consequence of these things, every Consi|derate man trembles at; and the more, because the frequent Cheats of Passion, and Rumour, do pre|cipitate so many, that I wish I could say, The most were Considerate. 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 per|mitted thus to come down upon 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 in|deed; since the Powers of Darkness are turned in up|on us,; tis a Dark Time, yea, a Black Night indeed,
now the Ty-Dogs of the Pitt, are abroad among us: but, It is thro the wrath of the Lord of Hosts! Inas|much 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 Ven|geance, too Good for the chastisement of such trans|gressors 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 Recep|tacle 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 be|witch other people, or Sell Winds to Marriners, and have their Familiar Spirits which they bequeath to their Children when they dy, and by their En|chanted Kettle-Drums can learn things done a Thou|sand Leagues off; If a Swedeland should afford a Village, where some scores of Haggs, may not only have their Meetings with Familiar Spirits, but al|so 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.
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 menti|oned, 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 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 be|fore their Deaths; I am yerily afraid, Lest some wasting Mortality, be among the things, which this plague is the Forerunner of. I pray God, prevent it! But now, What shall we do? 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 Insul|ting 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 Penitent|ly lay ourselves very Low, before the God of Hea|ven, 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. Pet. 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!
When the Old People of God, heard any Blasphemies 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 com|mitted against the most High God, by the Witch|crafts 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 Man|kind, 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! af|terwards 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 Char|mer, 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 Abomina|tions, the Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee. That New-England now should have these Abomina|tions in it, yea, that some of no mean Profession, should be found guilty of them: Alas, what Hu|miliations are we all hereby 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
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 Vindi|cation of this Country from the Singularity
of this Matter, by Ripping up, what has been discovered in others.
that Imp calling for his Consent so to
do, went immediately and Sunk a Ship, then 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
fallen out among us, while there are such Histories of 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 no more, be, Haughty, because of the II. Since the Divel is come down in great wrath upon us, let not us in our great wrath against one another provide a Lodging for him. It was a most wholesome caution, in Eph. 4. 26. 27. Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the Divel. The Divel is come down to see what Quarter he shall find among us: and, if his coming down, do now fill us with wrath against one an|other, and if between the cause of the Sufferers on one hand, and the cause of the Suspected on t'other, we carry things to such extreames of Passion as are now gaining upon us, the Devil will Bless himself, to find such a convenient Lodging as we shall there|in afford unto him. And it may be that the wrath which we have had against one another has had
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 has permit|ted the Devils to be Worrying, as they now are, among us. But it is high time to leave off all Devil|ism, when the Devil himself is falling upon us: and it is no time for us to be Censuring 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 Issu|ing 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 ano|ther. And I shall be much more ashamed, if it be|come the Character of New-Englanders; which is indeed, what the Devil would have. Satan would make 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 (gap: 1+ letters) . 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
keeness, in the disputes which the Devil has
raised among us; and if we would use to one another none but the, Soft
Answers, which Turn away Wrath: 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
Tops of the Chimneys to the North, ward, threat|ning to Scatter Fire, about the Countrey; but let us Quench that Fire by the most amicable Cor|respondencies: 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 ter|ribly Devour us. Let us not be like a Troubled House, altho we are so much haunted by the De|vils. 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 Ger|many with all sorts of methods to stir upStrife among the Citizens. He uttered Prophecies, he detected Villanies, he branded people with all kind of Infa|mies. 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 Ha|bitations, till the Commission 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 long and loud Admonitions, been calling us to,
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 ma|keth 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 Ene|my, 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 Dis|pleased 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 one went unto them, from the Dead, they will Repent; Even so&punc; There are some come unto us from the Damned.
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 EX|TRAORDINARY Things; For which cause I would freely speak it, If we now do not some EX|TRAORDINARY 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 of their Ways, and in Turning to the Lord. It is at an EXTRAORDINARY Rate of Circumspection and Spiritual Mindedness, that we should all now main|tain a Walk with God. At such a Time as This, ought Magistrates to Do something EXTRAOR|DINARY in promoting of what is Laudable, and in Restraining and Chastising of Evil Doers. At such a Time as This, ought Ministers to Do some|thing EXTRAORDINARY in pulling the Souls of men out of the Snares of the Devil, not only by publick Preaching, but by personal Visits and Counsels, from House to House. At such a Time as This, ought Churches to Do something EXTRA|ORDINARY,
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 pur|suance of the most Excellent Admonitions, which have been given for it, by the Letters of Their Majesties. Besides the vigorous Agreements of the Iustices 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 peo|ple in every Parish, to enter into orderly Societies, whereof every Member shall bind himself, not only to Avoid Profaneness in himself, but also ac|cording 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 ex|erci (gap: 1+ letters) ng to the, Wise that observe these Things. But, O why should not New-England be the most for|ward part of the English Nation in such Reforma|tions? 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! There have been some fome feeble Essays towards Reformation, of late in
our Churches; but, I pray, what comes of them? Do we stay till the Storm of his Wrath be over? Nay, let us be Doing what we can as fast as we can, to divert the Storm. The Devils, having broke in upon our World, there is great Asking, Who is it that have brought them in? and many do by Spectral Exhibitions come to be cry'd out upon. I hope in Gods Time, it will be found, that among those that are thus Cry'd out upon, there are persons yet Clear from the Great Transgres|sion; but indeed, all the Unreformed among us, may justly be Cry'd out upon, as having too much of an Hand in letting of the Devils in to our Borders; 'tis our Worldliness, our Formality, our Sensuality, and our Iniquity, that has help'd this Letting of the Devils in. O Let us then at last, Consider our Wayes. 'Tis a strange passage recorded by Mr. Clark, in the Life of his Father, That the People of his Parish refusing to be Reclaimed from their Sabbath Breaking, by all the zealous Testi|monies which that Good man bore against it; at last, on a Night after the people had Retired Home from a Revelling Profanation of the Lords Day, there was heard a Great Noise, with Rat|tling of Chains, up and down the Town, and an horrid Scent of Brimstone fill'd the Neighbour|hood. Upon which the Guilty Consciences of the Wretches, told them, the Devil was come to fetch them away: and it so terrify'd them, that an Eminent Reformation follow'd the Sermons which that man of God Preached thereupon. Behold,
Sinners, Behold, and Wonder, lest you Perish; the very Devils are Walking about our Streets, with Lengthened Chains, making a dreadful Noise in our Ears, and Brimstone, even without a Metaphor, is making an Hellish and Horrid Stench in our Nostrils. I Pray, Leave off all those things, where|of your Guilty Consciences may now accuse you, lest these Devils do yet more direfully fall upon you. Reformation is at this Time, our only Preservation. IV. When the Devil is come down in Great Wrath, Let
every Great Vice which may have a more Particular Tendency to make
us a Prey unto that Wrath, come into a due Discredit with us. It is
the General Concession of all men, who are not become too Unreasonable
for Common Conversation, That the Invitation of VVitchcrafts is the
Thing that ha's now Introduced the Devil into the midst of us. I say then,
Let not only all VVitchcrafts be duely abominated with us, but also
Let us be duely Watchful against all the Steps Leading thereunto.
There are Lesser Sorcertes which, they say, are too frequent in our
Land. As it was said in 2 King. 17. 9. The Children of
the Things, for which they have a Forbidden, and an Impious Curiositie. 'Tis in the Devils Name, that such Things are done; and in Gods Name I do this Day Charge them, as vile Im|pieties. By these Courses 'tis, that people play upon The Hole of the Asp; till that cruelly vene|mous Asp has pull'd many of them, into the Deep Hole, of Witchcraft it self. It has been acknowledged by some who have sunk the deep|est into this Horrible Pit, that they began, at these Little Witchcrafts; on which 'tis pitty but the Laws of the English Nation, whereby the Incorrigible Repetition of those Tricks, is made Felony, were severally Executed. From the like Sinful Curiosity it is, that the Prognostications of Iudicial Astrology, are so Injudiciously Regard|ed by multitudes among us; and although the Jugling Astrologers do scarce ever hit Right, ex|cept it be in such Weighty Iudgments, forsooth, as that many Old Men will Dy such a year, and that there will be many Losses felt by some that Venture to Sea, and that there will be much Lying and Cheating in the World; yet their Foo|lish Admirers, will not be perswaded, but that the Innocent Stars have been concern'd in these Events. It is a Disgrace to the English Nation, that the Phamphlets of such Idle, Futil, Trifling Star-gazers are so much Considered; and the Countenance hereby given to a Study, wherein at Last, all is done by Impulse, if any thing be done to any purpose at all, is not a little peril|lous
to the Souls of men. It is, (a Science, I dare not call it, but) a Iuggle, whereof the Learned Hall, well says, It is presumptuous and unwarrantable, & cry'd ever down by Councils and Fathers, as unlawful, as that which Lies in the mid-way between Magick, and Imposture, and partakes not a little of both. Men Consult the Aspects of Planets, whose Northern or Southern Motions receive Denominations from a Caelestial Dragon, till the Infernal Dragon at length insinuate into them, with a Poyson of Witchcraft that can't be cured- Has there not also been a world of Discontent in our Borders? 'Tis no won|der, that the Fiery Serpents are so Stinging of us; We have been a most Murmuring Generation. It is not Irrational, to ascribe the late Stupendous Growth of Witches among us, partly to the Bitter Discontents, which Affliction and Poverty has fill'd us with: it is inconceivable, what Advantage the Devil gains over men, by Discontent. Moreover, The Sin of Unbelief may be reckoned as perhaps the chief Crime of our Land. We are told, God Swears in Wroth, against them that believe not; and what follows then but this, That the Devil comes unto them in wrath? Never were the Offers of the Gospel, more freely Tendered, or more basely De|spised, among any people under the whole Cope of Heaven, then in This New-England. Seems it at all marvellous unto us, that the Devil should get such Footing in our Country? Why, 'tis because the Saviour has been slighted here, perhaps more than any where. The Blessed Lord Jesus Christ
has been profering to us, Grace, and Glory, and every good thing, and been alluring of us to Accept of Him, with such Terms as these; Undone Sinner, I am All; Art thou willing that I should be thy All? But, as a proof of that Contempt which this Un|belief has cast upon these proffers, I would seri|ously ask of the so many Hundreds above a Thou|sand People within these Walls; Which of you all, O how few of you, can indeed say, Christ is mine, and I am his, and He is the Beloved of my Soul? I would only say thus much: When the precious and glorious Jesus, is Entreating of us to Receive Him, in all His Offices, with all His Benefits; the Devil minds what Respect we pay unto that Hea|venly Lord; if we Refuse Him that speaks from Heaven, then he that, Comes from Hell, does with a sort of claim set in, and cry out, Lord, since this Wretch is not willing that thou shouldst have him, I pray, let me have him. And thus, by the just ven|geance of Heaven, the Devil becomes a Master, a Prince, a God, unto the miserable Unbelievers: but O what are many of them then hurried unto! All of these Evil Things, do I now set before you, as Branded with the Mark of the Devil upon them. V. With Great Regard, with Great Pitty, should
we Lay to Heart the Condition of those, who are cast into Affliction, by the Great
Wrath of the De|vil. There is a Number of our
Good Neighbours, and some of them very particularly noted for Goodness and
Vertue, of whom we may say, Lord,
They are vexed with Devils. Their Tortures be|ing primarily
Inflicted on their Spirits, may in|deed cause the Impressions
thereof upon their Bodies to be the less Durable, tho&punc;
rather the more Sensible: but they Endure Horrible Things, and many have been actually Murdered. Hard Cen|sures
now bestow'd upon these poor Sufferers, cannot but be very Displeasing unto
our Lord, who, as He said, about some that had been Butchered by a Pilate,
in Luc. 13. 2, 3. Think ye that these were Sinners above others, because
they suffered such Things? I tell you No, But except ye Repent, ye shall all
likewise Perish: Even so, he now says, Think ye
that they who now suffer by the Devil, have been greater Sinners than their
Neighbours. No, Do you Repent of your own Sins, Lest the Devil
come to fall foul of you, as he has done to them. And if
this be so, How Rash a thing would it be, if such of the poor
Sufferers, as carry it with a Becoming Piety, Seriousness, and Humiliation
under their present Suffering, should be unjustly Censured; or have
their very Calamity imputed unto them as a Crime? It is an
easy thing, for us to fall into, the Fault of, Adding Affliction to the
Afflicted, and of, Talking to the Grief of those that are al|ready
VVounded: Nor can it be Wisdom to slight the Dangers of such a Fault. In
the mean time, We have no Bowels in us, if we do not Compassi|onate the
Distressed County of Essex, now crying to all these Colonies, Have
pitty on me, O ye my
Friends, Have pitty on me, for the Hand of the Lord has Touched me, and the Wrath of the Devil has been therewithal turned upon me. But indeed, if an hear|ty pitty be due to any, I am sure, the Difficulties which attend our Honourable Iudges, doe de|mand no Inconsiderable share in that Pitty. What a Difficult, what an Arduous Task, have those Worthy Personages now upon their Hands? To carry the Knife so exactly, that on the one side, there may be no Innocent Blood Shed, by too unsee|ing a Zeal for the Children of Israel; and that on the other side, there may be no Shelter given to those Diabolical Works of Darkness, without the Remo|val whereof we never shall have Peace; or fo those Furies whereof several have kill'd more people perhaps than would serve to make a Village: Hic Labor, Hoc Opus est! O what need have we, to (gap: 1+ letters) be con|cerned, that the Sins of our Israel, may not pro|voke the God of Heaven to leave his Davids, un|to a wrong Step, in a matter of such Consequence, as is now before them! Our Disingenuous, Un|charitable, Unchristian Reproching of such Faith|ful Men, after all, The Prayers and Supplications, with strong Crying and Tears, with which we are daily plying the Throne of Grace, that they may be kept, from what They Fear, is none of the way for our preventing of what We Fear. Nor all this while, ought our Pitty to forget such Accused ones, as call for indeed our most Compassionate Pitty, till there be fuller Evidences that they are less worthy of it. If Satan have any where mali|ciously
brought upon the Stage, those that have hi|therto had a just and good stock of Reputation, for their just and good Living, among us; If the Evil One have obtained a permission to Appear, in the Figure of such as we have cause to think, have hitherto Abstained, even from the Appearance of Evil: It is in Truth, such an Invasion upon Man|kind, as may well Raise an Horror in us all: But, O what Compassions are due to such as may come under such Misrepresentations, of the Great Accu|ser! Who of us can say, what may be shown in the Glasses of the Great Lying Spirit? Altho' the Usual Providence of God [we praise Him!] keeps us from such a Mishap; yet where have we an Absolute Promise, that we shall every one alwayes be kept from it? As long as Charity is bound, to Think no Evil, it will not Hurt us that are Private Persons, to forbear the Iudgment which belongs not unto us. Let it rather be our Wish: May the Lord help them to Learn the Lessons, for which they are now put unto so hard a School. VI. With a Great Zeal, we should lay hold on the Covenant of God, that we may Secure Us and Ours, from the Great Wrath, with which the Devil Rages. Let us come into the Covenant of Grace, and then we shall not be hook'd into a Covenant with the Devil, nor be altogether unfurnished with armour, against the Wretches that are in that Covenant. Theway to come under the Saving Influences of the New Cove| (gap: 1+ letters) ant, is, to close with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the Allsufficient Mediator of it: Let us therefore do that, by Resigning up ourselves unto the Saving, Teaching, and Ruling, Hands of this Blessed Medi|ator. Then we shall be, what we read in Jude, 1. Preserved in Christ Iesus: That is, as the Destroying Angel, could not meddle with such as had been dis|tinguished, by the Blood of the Passeover on their Houses, Thus the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Sprinkled on our Souls, will Preserve us from the Devil. The Birds of prey (and indeed the Devils most lite|rally in the shape of great Birds!) are flying about: Would we find a Covert from these Vultures: Let us then Hear Our Lord Jesus from Heaven Clocqing unto us, O that you would be gathered under my Wings. Well; When this is done, Then let us own the Co|venant, which we are now come into, by joining ourselves to a Particular Church, walking in the Or|der of the Gospel; at the doing whereof, ac|cording to that Covenant of God, We give up Our|selves unto the Lord, and in Him unto One Ano|ther. While others have had their Names Entred in the Devils Book; let our Names be found in the Church Book, and let us be, Written among the Li|ving in Ierusalem. By no means let, Church-Work sink and fail in the midst of us; but let the Tragical Accidents which now happen, exceedingly Quicken that Work. So many of the Rising Generation, utter|ly forgetting the Errand of our Fathers to build Churches in this Wilderness, and so many of Our Cottages being allow'd to Live, where they do not, and perhaps cannot, wait upon God with the Chur|ches of His People! tis as likely as any one thing to
procure the swarmings of Witch-crafts among us. But it becomes us, with a like Ardour, to bring our poor Children with us, as we shall do, when we come ourselves, into the Covenant of God. It would break an heart of Stone, to have seen, what I have lately seen; Even poor Children of several Ages, even from seven to twenty more or less, Confessing their Familiarity with Devils; but at the same time, in Doleful bitter Lamentations, that made a Little Pour traiture of Hell it self, Expostulating with their execrable Parents, for Devoting them to the Devil in their Infancy, and so Entailing of Devillism upon them! Now, as the Psalmist could say, My Zeal hath Consumed me, because my Enemies have forgotten thy Words: Even so, let the nefarious wickedness of those that have Explicitly dedicated their Children to the Devil, even with Devillish Symbols, of such a Dedication, Provoke our Zeal to have our Chil|dren, Sincerely, Signally, and openly Consecrated un|to God; with an Education afterwards assuring and confirming that Consecration. VII. Let our Prayer Go up with Great Faith, against the Devil, that comes down in Great Wrath. Such is the Antipathy of the Devil to our Prayer, that he cannot bear to stay long where much of it is: indeed it is Diaboli Fla|gellum, as well as, Miseriae Remedium; the Devil will soon be Scourg'd out of the Lords Temple, by a Whip, made and used, with the, Effectual Fervent Prayer of Righteous Men. When the De|vil
by Afflicting of us, drives us to our Prayers, he
is, The Fool making a Whip for his own Back. Our Lord said of the
Devil, in Mat. 17. 21. This Kind goes not out, but by Prayer and Fasting.
But, Prayer and Fasting will soon make the De|vil be gone. Here are Charms
indeed! Sacred and Blessed Charms, which the Devil cannot stand
before. A Promise of God, being well managed in the Hands
of them, that are much upon their Knees, will so, Resist the
Devil, that he will Flee from us. At every other Weapon, the Devils
will be too hard for us; the Spiritual Wickednesses in High Places,
have manifestly the Upper Hand of us; that Old Serpent will be too Old
for us, too cunning, too subtil; they will soon out-wit us, if we
think to Encounter them with any Wit of our own. But when we come to
Prayers, Incessant and Vehement Prayers before the Lord, there
we shall be too hard for them. When well-directed Prayers, that
great Artillery of Heaven, are brought into the Field, There,
methinks I see, There are these Workers of Iniqnity fallen, all of them!
And who can tell, how much the most Ob|scure Christian among you
all, may do towards the Deliverance of our Land from the Molestations which
the Devil is now giving unto us. I have Read, That on a Day of Prayer kept by
some Good People for and with a Possessed Person, the De
(gap: 1+ letters) l at last flew out of the Window, and refer|ring to
a Devout, plain, mean Woman then in the Room, he cry'd out, O the Woman
behind the
Door! 'Tis that Woman that forces me away! Thus, the Devil that now Troubles us, may be forced within a while to Forsake us: and it shall be said, He was driven away by the prayers of some Obscure and Retired Souls, which the world has taken but little notice of! The Great God, is about a Great Work at this Day among us; now there is extream Haz|zard lest the Devil who by Compulsion must submit unto that Great Work, may also by Permission come to Confound that Work: both in the Detections of some, and in the Confessions of others, whose Un|godly Deeds may be brought forth, by a Great Work of God, there is Hazzard lest the Devil intertwist some of his Delusions. 'Tis PRAYER, I say, 'tis PRAYER, that must carry us well thro' the Strange Things that are now upon us. Only that Prayer, must then be, The Prayer of Faith: O where is our Faith in Him, Who hath Spoiled these Principa|lities and Powers, on His Cross Triumphing over them! VIII. Lastly, Shake off, every Soul, Shake off the Hard Yoke of the Devil, if you would not perish under the Great Wrath of the Devil. Where 'tis said, The whole World lies in Wickedness, 'tis by some of the Ancients rendred, The whole world lies in the Devil. The Devil is a Prince, yea, the Devil is a God unto all the Unregenerate; and alas, there is, A whole world of them. Desolate Sinners, Consider what an Horrid Lord it is that you are Enslav'd unto; and Oh shake off your Slavery to such a Lord. Instead of him, now make your
Choice of the Eternal God in Jesus Christ; Choose Him with a most unalterable Resolution; and un|to Him say, with Thomas, My Lord, and my God! Say with the Church, Lord, other Lords have had the Dominion over us, but now thou alone shalt be our Lord for ever. Then instead of your perishing under the wrath of the Devils, God will fetch you to a place among those that fill up the Room of the Devils, left by their Fall from the Ethereal Regions. It was a most awful Speech made by the Devil, Possessiing a young Woman, at a Village in Germany, By the Command of God, I am come to Torment the Body of this young Woman, though I can&punc; not hurt her Soul; and it is that I may warn men, to take heed of Sinning against God. Indeed (said he) 'tis very sore against my will that I do it; but the command of God forces me to declare what I do; Howeveer I know that at the Last Day, I shall have more Souls than God Himself. So spoke that hor|rible Devil! But O that none of our Souls may be found among the Prizes of the Devil, in the Day of God! O that what the Devil has been forc'd to Declare, of his Kingdom among us, may prejudice our Hearts against him for ever! My Text saies, The Devil is come down in Great Wrath, for he has but a short Time. Yea, but if you do not by a Speedy and Thorough Conversion to God, Escape the Wrath of the Devil, you will your|selves Go down, where the Devil is to be, and you will there be sweltring under the Devils Wrath, not for a Short Time, but, World without End; not for a
Short Time, but for, Infinite Millions of Ages. The smoke of your Torment under that Wrath, will As|cend for ever and ever! Indeed the Devils Time for his Wrath upon you in this World, can be but short, but his Time for you to do his Work, or, which is all one, to delay your turning to God, that is a Long Time. When the Devil was going to be Dispossessed of a Man, he Roar'd out, Am I to be Tormented be|fore my Time. You will Torment the Devil, if you Re|scue your Souls out of his hands, by true Repentance: if once you begin to look that way, hee'll Cry out, O This is before my Time, I must have more Time, yet in the service of such a guilty Soul. But, I beseech you, let us join thus to Torment the Devil, in an Ho|ly Revenge upon him, for all the Injuries which he has done unto us; let us tell him, Satan, Thy Time with me is but short, Nay, thy Time with me shall be no more; I am unutterably sorry that it has been so much; Depart from me thou Evil-Doer, that would'st have me to be an Evil-Doer Like thy self; I will now for ever keep the Commandments of that God, in whom I Live, and Move, and have my Being! The Devil has plaid a fine Game for himself indeed, if by his Troubling of our Land, the souls of many Peo|ple shoul come to, Think upon their Wayes, till eurn they turn their Feet into the Testimonies of the Lord Now that the Devil may be thus outshot in his own Bow, is the Desire of all that Love the Salvation of God among us, as well as of him, who has thus Ad|dressed You. Amen. [Here the book goes on to consider several witchcraft
“wonders” and trials in New England and |