The Wonders of the Invisible World
by Cotton Mather · English · Gutenberg #28513 · 503,668 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Wonders of the Invisible World
Author: Cotton Mather
Increase Mather
Release date: April 6, 2009 [eBook #28513]
Language: English
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Library of Old Authors.
[Illustration: Cotton Mather.]
THE WONDERS OF THE
INVISIBLE WORLD.
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE TRYALS OF SEVERAL
WITCHES LATELY EXECUTED IN
NEW-ENGLAND.
BY COTTON MATHER, D.D.
TO WHICH IS ADDED
A FARTHER ACCOUNT OF THE TRYALS OF THE
NEW-ENGLAND WITCHES.
BY INCREASE MATHER, D.D.
PRESIDENT OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
LONDON:
JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,
SOHO SQUARE.
1862.
INTRODUCTION.
The two very rare works reprinted in the present volume, written by two
of the most celebrated of the early American divines, relate to one of
the most extraordinary cases of popular delusion that modern times have
witnessed. It was a delusion, moreover, to which men of learning and
piety lent themselves, and thus became the means of increasing it. The
scene of this affair was the puritanical colony of New England, since
better known as Massachusetts, the colonists of which appear to have
carried with them, in an exaggerated form, the superstitious feelings
with regard to witchcraft which then prevailed in the mother country. In
the spring of 1692 an alarm of witchcraft was raised in the family of
the minister of Salem, and some black servants were charged with the
supposed crime. Once started, the alarm spread rapidly, and in a very
short time a great number of people fell under suspicion, and many were
thrown into prison on very frivolous grounds, supported, as such charges
usually were, by very unworthy witnesses. The new governor of the
colony, Sir William Phipps, arrived from England in the middle of May,
and he seems to have been carried away by the excitement, and authorized
judicial prosecutions. The trials began at the commencement of June; and
the first victim, a woman named Bridget Bishop, was hanged. Governor
Phipps, embarrassed by this extraordinary state of things, called in the
assistance of the clergy of Boston.
There was at this time in Boston a distinguished family of puritanical
ministers of the name of Mather. Richard Mather, an English
non-conformist divine, had emigrated to America in 1636, and settled at
Dorchester, where, in 1639, he had a son born, who was named, in
accordance with the peculiar nomenclature of the puritans, Increase
Mather. This son distinguished himself much by his acquirements as a
scholar and a theologian, became established as a minister in Boston,
and in 1685 was elected president of Harvard College. His son, born at
Boston in 1663, and called from the name of his mother's family, Cotton
Mather, became more remarkable than his father for his scholarship,
gained also a distinguished position in Harvard College, and was also,
at the time of which we are speaking, a minister of the gospel in
Boston. Cotton Mather had adopted all the most extreme notions of the
puritanical party with regard to witchcraft, and he had recently had an
opportunity of displaying them. In the summer of the year 1688, the
children of a mason of Boston named John Goodwin were suddenly seized
with fits and strange afflictions, which were at once ascribed to
witchcraft, and an Irish washerwoman named Glover, employed by the
family, was suspected of being the witch. Cotton Mather was called in
to witness the sufferings of Goodwin's children; and he took home with
him one of them, a little girl, who had first displayed these symptoms,
in order to examine her with more care. The result was, that the Irish
woman was brought to a trial, found guilty, and hanged; and Cotton
Mather published next year an account of the case, under the title of
"Late Memorable Providences, relating to Witchcraft and Possession,"
which displays a very extraordinary amount of credulity, and an equally
great want of anything like sound judgment. This work, no doubt, spread
the alarm of witchcraft through the whole colony, and had some influence
on the events which followed. It may be supposed that the panic which
had now arisen in Salem was not likely to be appeased by the
interference of Cotton Mather and his father.
The execution of the washerwoman, Bridget Bishop, had greatly increased
the excitement; and people in a more respectable position began to be
accused. On the 19th of July five more persons were executed, and five
more experienced the same fate on the 19th of August. Among the latter
was Mr. George Borroughs, a minister of the gospel, whose principal
crime appears to have been a disbelief in witchcraft itself. His fate
excited considerable sympathy, which, however, was checked by Cotton
Mather, who was present at the place of execution on horseback, and
addressed the crowd, assuring them that Borroughs was an impostor. Many
people, however, had now become alarmed at the proceedings of the
prosecutors, and among those executed with Borroughs was a man named
John Willard, who had been employed to arrest the persons charged by
the accusers, and who had been accused himself, because, from
conscientious motives, he refused to arrest any more. He attempted to
save himself by flight; but he was pursued and overtaken. Eight more of
the unfortunate victims of this delusion were hanged on the 22nd of
September, making in all nineteen who had thus suffered, besides one
who, in accordance with the old criminal law practice, had been pressed
to death for refusing to plead. The excitement had indeed risen to such
a pitch that two dogs accused of witchcraft were put to death.
A certain degree of reaction, however, appeared to be taking place, and
the magistrates who had conducted the proceedings began to be alarmed,
and to have some doubts of the wisdom of their proceedings. Cotton
Mather was called upon by the governor to employ his pen in justifying
what had been done; and the result was, the book which stands first in
the present volume, "The Wonders of the Invisible World;" in which the
author gives an account of seven of the trials at Salem, compares the
doings of the witches in New England with those in other parts of the
world, and adds an elaborate dissertation on witchcraft in general. This
book was published at Boston, Massachusetts, in the month of October,
1692. Other circumstances, however, contributed to throw discredit on
the proceedings of the court, though the witch mania was at the same
time spreading throughout the whole colony. In this same month of
October, the wife of Mr. Hale, minister of Beverley, was accused,
although no person of sense and respectability had the slightest doubt
of her innocence; and her husband had been a zealous promoter of the
prosecutions. This accusation brought a new light on the mind of Mr.
Hale, who became convinced of the injustice in which he had been made an
accomplice; but the other ministers who took the lead in the proceedings
were less willing to believe in their own error; and equally convinced
of the innocence of Mrs. Hale, they raised a question of conscience,
whether the devil could not assume the shape of an innocent and pious
person, as well as of a wicked person, for the purpose of afflicting his
victims. The assistance of Increase Mather, the president or principal
of Harvard College, was now called in, and he published the book which
is also reprinted in the present volume: "A Further Account of the
Tryals of the New England Witches.... To which is added Cases of
Conscience concerning Witchcrafts and Evil Spirits personating Men." It
will be seen that the greater part of the "Cases of Conscience" is given
to the discussion of the question just alluded to, which Increase Mather
unhesitatingly decides in the affirmative. The scene of agitation was
now removed from Salem to Andover, where a great number of persons were
accused of witchcraft and thrown into prison, until a justice of the
peace named Bradstreet, to whom the accusers applied for warrants,
refused to grant any more. Hereupon they cried out upon Bradstreet, and
declared that he had killed nine persons by means of witchcraft; and he
was so much alarmed that he fled from the place. The accusers aimed at
people in higher positions in society, until at last they had the
audacity to cry out upon the lady of governor Phipps himself, and thus
lost whatever countenance he had given to their proceedings out of
respect to the two Mathers. Other people of character, when they were
attacked by the accusers, took energetic measures in self-defence. A
gentleman of Boston, when "cried out upon," obtained a writ of arrest
against his accusers on a charge of defamation, and laid the damages at
a thousand pounds. The accusers themselves now took fright, and many who
had made confessions retracted them, while the accusations themselves
fell into discredit. When governor Phipps was recalled in April, 1693,
and left for England, the witchcraft agitation had nearly subsided, and
people in general had become convinced of their error and lamented it.
But Cotton Mather and his father persisted obstinately in the opinions
they had published, and looked upon the reactionary feeling as a triumph
of Satan and his kingdom. In the course of the year they had an
opportunity of reasserting their belief in the doings of the witches of
Salem. A girl of Boston, named Margaret Rule, was seized with
convulsions, in the course of which she pretended to see the "shapes" or
spectres of people exactly as they were alleged to have been seen by the
witch-accusers at Salem and Andover. This occurred on the 10th of
September, 1693; and she was immediately visited by Cotton Mather, who
examined her, and declared his conviction of the truth of her
statements. Had it depended only upon him, a new and no doubt equally
bitter persecution of witches would have been raised in Boston; but an
influential merchant of that town, named Robert Calef, took the matter
up in a different spirit, and also examined Margaret Rule, and satisfied
himself that the whole was a delusion or imposture. Calef wrote a
rational account of the events of these two years, 1692 and 1693,
exposing the delusion, and controverting the opinions of the two Mathers
on the subject of witchcraft, which was published under the title of
"More Wonders of the Invisible World; or the Wonders of the Invisible
world displayed in five parts. An Account of the Sufferings of Margaret
Rule collected by Robert Calef, merchant of Boston in New England." The
partisans of the Mathers displayed their hostility to this book by
publicly burning it; and the Mathers themselves kept up the feeling so
strongly that years afterwards, when Samuel Mather, the son of Cotton,
wrote his father's life, he says sneeringly of Calef: "There was a
certain disbeliever in Witchcraft who wrote against this book" (his
father's 'Wonders of the Invisible World'), "but as the man is dead, his
book died long before him." Calef died in 1720.
The witchcraft delusion had, however, been sufficiently dispelled to
prevent the recurrence of any other such persecutions; and those who
still insisted on their truth were restrained to the comparatively
harmless publication and defence of their opinions. The people of Salem
were humbled and repentant. They deserted their minister, Mr. Paris,
with whom the persecution had begun, and were not satisfied until they
had driven him away from the place. Their remorse continued through
several years, and most of the people concerned in the judicial
proceedings proclaimed their regret. The jurors signed a paper
expressing their repentance, and pleading that they had laboured under a
delusion. What ought to have been considered still more conclusive,
many of those who had confessed themselves witches, and had been
instrumental in accusing others, retracted all they had said, and
confessed that they had acted under the influence of terror. Yet the
vanity of superior intelligence and knowledge was so great in the two
Mathers that they resisted all conviction. In his _Magnalia_, an
ecclesiastical history of New England, published in 1700, Cotton Mather
repeats his original view of the doings of Satan in Salem, showing no
regret for the part he had taken in this affair, and making no
retraction of any of his opinions. Still later, in 1723, he repeats them
again in the same strain in the chapter of the "Remarkables" of his
father entitled "Troubles from the Invisible World." His father,
Increase Mather, had died in that same year at an advanced age, being in
his eighty-fifth year. Cotton Mather died on the 13th of February, 1728.
Whatever we may think of the credulity of these two ecclesiastics, there
can be no ground for charging them with acting otherwise than
conscientiously, and they had claims on the gratitude of their
countrymen sufficient to overbalance their error of judgment on this
occasion. Their books relating to the terrible witchcraft delusion at
Salem have now become very rare in the original editions, and their
interest, as remarkable monuments of the history of superstition, make
them well worthy of a reprint.
THE CONTENTS.
THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD:-- Page
The Author's Defence 3
Letter from Mr. _William Stoughton_ 6
Enchantments encountered 9
An Abstract of Mr. _Perkins's_ Way for the Discovery
of Witches 30
The Sum of Mr. _Gaules_ Judgment about the Detection of
Witches 33
A DISCOURSE ON THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD 38
An Hortatory and Necessary Address, to a Country now
Extraordinarily Alarum'd by the Wrath of the Devil 79
A Narrative of an Apparition which a Gentleman in Boston
had of his Brother, just then murthered in London 107
A Modern Instance of Witches discovered and condemned
in a Tryal, before that celebrated Judge, Sir Matthew
Hale 111
The Tryal of _G. B._ at a Court of Oyer and Terminer, held
in Salem, 1692 120
The Tryal of _Bridget Bishop_, alias _Oliver_, at the Court
of Oyer and Terminer, held at Salem, June 2, 1692 129
The Tryal of _Susanna Martin_, at the Court of Oyer and
Terminer, held by Adjournment at Salem, June 29, 1692 138
The Tryal of _Elizabeth How_, at the Court of Oyer and
Terminer, held by Adjournment at Salem, June 30, 1692 149
The Tryal of _Martha Carrier_, at the Court of Oyer and
Terminer, held by Adjournment at Salem, August 2, 1692 154
A Relation of a Few of the Matchless Curiosities which the
Witchcraft presented 159
The First Curiositie 159
The Second Curiositie 161
The Third Curiositie 164
The Fourth Curiositie 165
Testimony of Mr. _William Stoughton_ and Mr. _Samuel Sewall_ 167
Extracts from Dr. _Horneck_ showing the Similarity in the
Circumstances attending the Witchcraft in New-England
and that in Sweedland 167
Matter omitted in the Tryals 172
THE DEVIL DISCOVERED 172
Case proposed, What are those Usual Methods of Temptation
with which the Powers of Darkness do assault the
Children of Men? 174
Remarks upon the Three Remarkable Assaults of Temptations
which the Devil visibly made upon our Lord 175
The First Temptation 175
The Second Temptation 183
The Third Temptation 192
A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF THE TRYALS OF THE NEW-ENGLAND
WITCHES:--
A True Narrative, collected by _Deodat Lawson_, relating to
Sundry Persons afflicted by Witchcraft, from the 19th
of March to the 5th of April, 1692 201
Remarks of Things more than Ordinary about the Afflicted
Persons 211
Remarks concerning the Accused 212
A Further Account of the Tryals of the New-England
Witches, sent in a Letter from thence, to a Gentleman
in London 214
CASES OF CONSCIENCE CONCERNING EVIL SPIRITS PERSONATING
MEN, ETC.:--
An Address to the Christian Reader by Fourteen Influential
Gentlemen 221
CASES OF CONSCIENCE CONCERNING WITCHCRAFTS 225
The First Case proposed, Whether or not may Satan appear in
the Shape of an Innocent and Pious, as well as of a
Nocent and Wicked Person, to afflict such as suffer by
Diabolical Molestation? 225
The Affirmative proved from Six Arguments:--
1. From Several Scriptures 225
2. Because it is possible for the Devil, in the Shape of
Innocent Persons, to do other Mischiefs, proved by
many Instances 234
3. Because if Satan may not represent an Innocent Person
as afflicting others, it must be either because he
wants will or power to do this, or because God will
never permit him so to do it; either of which may
be affirmed 237
4. It is certain, both from Scripture and History, that
Magicians by their Inchantments and Hellish Conjurations
may cause a False Representation of Persons
and Things 243
5. From the concurring Judgment of many Learned and
Judicious Men 250
6. Our own Experience has confirmed the Truth of what
we affirm 253
The Second Case considered, _viz._ If one bewitched be cast
down with the look or cast of the Eye of another Person,
and after that recovered again by a Touch from
the same Person, is not this an infallible Proof that the
party accused and complained of is in Covenant with
the Devil? 255
_Answer._ This may be Ground of Suspicion and Examination,
but not of Conviction 255
The Judgment of Mr. _Bernard_ and of Dr. _Cotta_ produced 256
Several Things offered against the Infallibility of this
Proof:--
1. 'Tis possible that the Persons in question may be
possessed with Evil Spirits. Signs of such 258
2. Falling down with the Cast of the Eye proceeds not
from a natural, but an arbitrary Cause 260
3. That of the bewitched Persons being recovered with a
Touch is various and fallible 262
4. There are that question the Lawfulness of the Experiment 264
5. The Testimony of Bewitched or Possessed Persons is
no Evidence as to what they see concerning others,
and therefore not as to themselves 266
6. Bewitched Persons have sometimes been struck down
with the Look of Dogs 267
7. If this were an Infallible Proof, there would be
difficulty in discovering Witches 268
8. Nothing can be produced out of the Word of God to
shew, that this is any Proof of Witchcraft 268
9. Antipathies in Nature have Strange and Unaccountable
Effects 268
The Third Case considered, Whether there are any Discoveries
of Witchcraft, which Jurors and Judges may
with a safe Conscience proceed upon to the Conviction
and Condemnation of the Persons under Suspicion? 269
Two things premised:--
1. That the Evidence in the Crime of Witchcraft ought
to be as clear as in any other Crimes of a Capital
Nature 269
2. That there have been ways of Trying Witches long
used, which God never approved of. More particularly
that of casting the Suspected Party into the
Water, to try whether they will Sink or Swim. The
Vanity and great Sin which is in that way of Purgation
evinced by Six Reasons 270
That there are Proofs for the Conviction of Witches, which
Jurors may with a safe Conscience proceed upon, proved
from Scripture 275
That a Free and Voluntary Confession is a sufficient Ground
of Conviction 276
That the Testimony of confessing Witches against others, is
not so clear an Evidence as against themselves 279
That if two Credible Persons shall affirm upon Oath that they
have seen the Person accused doing Things, which none
but such as have familiarity with the Devil, ever did
or can do, that's a sufficient ground of Conviction:
and that this has often happened 282
Mr. _Perkins_ his Solemn Caution to Jurors 283
Postscript 285
_The Wonders of the Invisible World:_
Being an Account of the
TRYALS
OF
\Several Witches\,
Lately Excuted in
NEW-ENGLAND:
And of several remarkable Curiosities therein Occurring.
Together with,
I. Observations upon the Nature, the Number, and the Operations
of the Devils.
II. A short Narrative of a late outrage committed by a knot of
Witches in _Swede-Land_, very much resembling, and so far
explaining, that under which _New-England_ has laboured.
III. Some Councels directing a due Improvement of the Terrible things
lately done by the unusual and amazing Range of _Evil-Spirits_
in _New-England_.
IV. A brief Discourse upon those _Temptations_ which are the more
ordinary Devices of Satan.
By _COTTON MATHER_.
Published by the Special Command of his EXCELLENCY the Govenour of the
Province of the _Massachusetts-Bay_ in _New-England_.
Printed first, at _Bostun_ in _New-England_; and Reprinted at _London_,
for _John Dunton_, at the _Raven_ in the _Poultry_. 1693.
THE AUTHOR'S DEFENCE.
'Tis, as I remember, the Learned _Scribonius_, who reports, That one of
his Acquaintance, 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 cloudy 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 Staff
of a Spear_. The unaccountable Frowardness, Asperity, 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 Undertaking.
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 capable 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 Essays to engage
the Minds of this People, in such holy, pious, fruitful Improvements, as
God would have to be made of his amazing Dispensations now upon us.
THEREFORE 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 secret_, knows the Heart-breaking Exercises, wherewith 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 Glory, and for his People; but
I am now somewhat comfortably assured of his favourable acceptance; and,
_I will not fear; what can a Satan do unto me!_
Having performed something of what God required, in labouring to suit
his Words unto his Works, at this Day among us, and therewithal handled
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 myself 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 Information and Satisfaction of Good Men
in another Country, 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 Country, now, as well as always, 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 myself; I mean, by taking off the
false Reports, and hard Censures about my Opinion in these Matters, the
_Parter's Portions_ which my _pursuit of Peace_ has procured me among
the _Keen_. My hitherto _unvaried Thoughts_ are here published; 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
Lieutenant-Governour 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.
REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,
_You very much gratify'd me, as well as put a kind Respect upon me, when
you put into my hands, your elaborate and most seasonable Discourse,
entituled, +The Wonders of the Invisible World+. And having now perused
so fruitful and happy a Composure, upon such a Subject, at this Juncture
of Time; and considering the place that I hold in the Court of +Oyer+
and +Terminer+, still labouring and proceeding in the Trial of the
Persons accused and convicted for Witchcraft, I find that I am more
nearly and highly concerned than as a meer ordinary Reader, to express
my Obligation and Thankfulness to you for so great Pains; and cannot but
hold myself many ways bound, even to the utmost of what is proper for
me, in my present publick Capacity, to declare my +singular Approbation+
thereof. Such is your Design, most plainly expressed throughout the
whole; such your Zeal for God, your Enmity to Satan and his Kingdom,
your Faithfulness and Compassion to this poor People; such the Vigour,
but yet great Temper of your Spirit; such your Instruction and Counsel,
your +Care of Truth+, your Wisdom and Dexterity in allaying and
moderating that among us, which needs it; such your clear discerning of
Divine Providences and Periods, now running on apace towards their
Glorious Issues in the World; and finally, such your good News of +The
Shortness of the Devil's Time+, that all Good Men must needs desire, the
making of this your Discourse publick to the World; and will greatly
rejoyce, that the +Spirit of the Lord+ has thus enabled you to +lift up
a Standard+ against the Infernal Enemy, that hath been +coming in like a
Flood upon us+. I do therefore make it my particular and earnest Request
unto you, that as soon as may be, you will commit the same unto the
+Press+ accordingly. I am,_
Your assured Friend,
WILLIAM STOUGHTON.
I live by _Neighbours_ that force me to produce these undeserved Lines.
But now, as when Mr. _Wilson_ beholding a great Muster of Souldiers, had
it by a Gentleman then present, said unto him, _Sir, I'll tell you a
great Thing: Here is a mighty Body of People; and there is not +Seven+
of them all, but what loves Mr. +Wilson+._ That gracious Man presently
and pleasantly reply'd: _Sir, I'll tell you as good a thing as that;
here is a mighty Body of People, and there is not so much as +One+ among
them all, but Mr. +Wilson+ loves him._ Somewhat so: 'Tis possible, that
among this Body of People, there may be few that love the Writer of this
Book; but give me leave to boast so far, there is not one among all this
Body of People, whom this _Mather_ would not study to serve, as well as
to love. With such a _Spirit of Love_, is the Book now before us
written: I appeal to all _this World_; and if _this_ World will deny me
the Right of acknowledging so much, I appeal to the _other_, that it is
_not written with an Evil Spirit_: for which cause I shall not wonder,
if _Evil Spirits_ be exasperated by what is written, as the _Sadduces_
doubtless were with what was discoursed in the Days of our Saviour. I
only demand the _Justice_, that others _read_ it, with the same Spirit
wherewith I _writ_ it.
ENCHANTMENTS ENCOUNTERED.
SECTION I.
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 himself; 'At _New-England_ now the Sun
of Comfort begins to appear, and the glorious Day-Star to show it
self;--_Sed Venient Annis Saeculae Seris_, there will come Times in after
Ages, when the _Clouds will over-shadow and darken the Sky there_. Many
now promise to themselves nothing but successive Happiness there, which
for a time through God's 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 People 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, and
painful Overseers of their Flocks, lively Preachers, and vertuous
Livers; and such as in their several Neighbourly Associations, have had
their Meetings whereat Ecclesiastical Matters of common Concernment are
considered: _Churches_, whose Communicants have been seriously examined
about their Experiences of Regeneration, as well as about their
Knowledge, and Belief, and blameless Conversation, before their
admission to the Sacred Communion; although others of less but hopeful
Attainments in Christianity are not ordinarily deny'd Baptism for
themselves and theirs; Churches, which are shye 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 taken into our Fellowship, when visible
Goodliness has recommended them: Churches, which usually do within
themselves manage their own Discipline, under the Conduct of their
Elders; but yet call in the help of _Synods_ upon Emergencies, or
Aggrievances: _Churches_, Lastly, wherein Multitudes are growing ripe
for Heaven every day; and as fast as these are taken off, others are
daily rising up. And by the Presence and Power of the Divine
Institutions thus maintained in the Country, We are still so happy, that
I suppose there is no Land in the Universe more free from the
debauching, and the debasing Vices of Ungodliness. The Body of the
People are hitherto so disposed, 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
notwithstanding, 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 little, when Men would go to trample upon us, and
we venture to say, _Wherein soever 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 elsewhere; 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 Profanity, or
Superstition: And a famous Person returning hence, could in a Sermon
before the Parliament, profess, _I have now been seven Years in a
Country, where I never Saw one Man drunk, or heard one Oath sworn, or
beheld one Beggar in the Streets all the while._ Such great Persons as
_Budaeus_, and others, who mistook Sir _Thomas Moor's_ 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 _Utopia_. 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,
otherwise inclined than our _Joshua's_, and the Elders that out-liv'd
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 handsome Education, have been too much undervalued, by
Multitudes that have not fallen into Exorbitances 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
abominably Vicious. Hence 'tis, that the Happiness of _New-England_ has
been but for a time, as it was foretold, and not for a long time, as has
been desir'd for us. A Variety of Calamity has long follow'd this
Plantation; and we have all the Reason imaginable 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.
S. II. The _New-Englanders_ are a People of God settled in those, which
were once the _Devil's_ Territories; and it may easily be supposed that
the _Devil_ was exceedingly disturbed, when he perceived such a People
here accomplishing the Promise of old made unto our Blessed Jesus, _That
He should have the Utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession._ There
was not a greater Uproar among the _Ephesians_, when the Gospel was
first brought among them, than there was among, _The Powers of the Air_
(after whom those _Ephesians_ walked) when first the _Silver Trumpets_
of the Gospel here made the _Joyful Sound_. The Devil thus Irritated,
immediately try'd all sorts of Methods to overturn this poor Plantation:
and so much of the Church, as was _Fled into this Wilderness_,
immediately found, _The Serpent cast out of his Mouth a Flood for the
carrying of it away._ I believe, that never were more _Satanical
Devices_ used for the Unsetling of any People under the Sun, than what
have been Employ'd for the Extirpation of the _Vine_ which God has here
_Planted_, _Casting out the Heathen, and preparing a Room before it, and
causing it to take deep Root, and fill the Land, so that it sent its
Boughs unto the +Atlantic+ Sea +Eastward+, and its Branches unto the
+Connecticut+ River +Westward+, and the Hills were covered with the
shadow thereof._ But, All those Attempts of Hell, have hitherto been
Abortive, many an _Ebenezer_ has been Erected unto the Praise of God, by
his Poor People here; and, _Having obtained Help from God, we continue
to this Day._ Wherefore the Devil is now making one Attempt more upon
us; an Attempt more Difficult, more Surprizing, more snarl'd with
unintelligible Circumstances than any that we have hitherto Encountred;
an Attempt so _Critical_, that if we get well through, we shall soon
Enjoy _Halcyon_ Days with all the _Vultures_ of Hell _Trodden under our
Feet_. He has wanted his _Incarnate Legions_ to Persecute us, as the
People of God have in the other Hemisphere been Persecuted: he has
therefore drawn forth his more _Spiritual_ ones to make an Attacque upon
us. We have been advised by some Credible Christians yet alive, that a
Malefactor, accused of _Witchcraft_ as well as _Murder_, and Executed 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
WITCHCRAFT then laid, which if it were not seasonally discovered, would
probably Blow up, and pull down all the Churches in the Country._ 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
doleful 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 Exhibitions_ 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 _Witchcraft_:
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 _Bewitching_, and _Ruining_ our Land. _We_ know not, at least _I_
know not, how far the _Delusions_ of Satan may be Interwoven into some
Circumstances of the _Confessions_; but one would think, all the Rules
of Understanding Humane Affairs are at an end, if after so many most
Voluntary Harmonious _Confessions_, made by Intelligent Persons of all
Ages, in sundry Towns, at several Times, we must not Believe the _main
strokes_ wherein those _Confessions_ all agree: especially when we have
a thousand preternatural Things every day before our eyes, wherein the
_Confessors_ do acknowledge their Concernment, and give Demonstration of
their being so Concerned. If the Devils now can strike the minds of men
with any _Poisons_ of so fine a Composition and Operation, that Scores
of Innocent People shall Unite, in _Confessions_ of a Crime, which we
see actually committed, it is a thing prodigious, 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 increased 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 otherwise be accounted for:
yea, _That_ at prodigious _Witch-Meetings_, the Wretches have proceeded
so far, as to Concert and Consult the Methods of Rooting out the
Christian Religion from this Country, and setting up instead of it,
perhaps a more gross _Diabolesm_, than ever the World saw before. And
yet it will be a thing little short of _Miracle_, 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. III. Doubtless, the Thoughts of many will receive a great Scandal
against _New-England_, from the Number of Persons that have been
Accused, or Suspected, for _Witchcraft_, in this Country: But it were
easie to offer many things, that may Answer and Abate the Scandal. If
the Holy God should any where permit the Devils to hook two or three
wicked _Scholars_ into _Witchcraft_, and then by their Assistance to
Range with their _Poisonous Insinuations_ among Ignorant, Envious,
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 _Sweden_, _Denmark_,
_Scotland_, 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 uneasie to be imagined, That God has
not brought out all the _Witchcrafts_ in many other Lands with such a
speedy, dreadful, destroying _Jealousie_, as burns forth upon such _High
Treasons_, committed here in _A Land of Uprightness_: Transgressors may
more quickly here than elsewhere become a Prey to the Vengeance of Him,
_Who has 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 happen'd at _Loim_, in the Dutchy of
_Gulic_, where a Popish Curate having ineffectually try'd many Charms to
Eject the Devil out of a Damsel there possessed, he passionately bid the
Devil come out of her into himself; but the Devil answered him, _Quid
mihi Opus, est eum tentare, quem Novissimo die, Jure 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 for ever!_
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 shelter themselves 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 proceed in such an Abuse?_ It was the Result of a Discourse,
lately held at a Meeting of some very Pious and Learned Ministers among
us, _That the Devils may sometimes have a permission to Represent an
Innocent Person, as Tormenting such as are under Diabolical
Molestations: But that such things are Rare and Extraordinary;
especially when such matters come before Civil Judicature._ The Opinion
expressed with so much Caution and Judgment, 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 _Judgments 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
attended with officious _Daemons_, bequeathed unto them, and impos'd upon
them, by Relations that have been _Witches_. _Quaery_, also, Whether at a
Time, when the Devil with his Witches are engag'd in a War upon a
people, some certain steps of ours, in such a War, may not be follow'd
with our appearing so and so for a while among them in the Visions of
our afflicted _Forlorns_! And, Who can certainly say, what other Degrees
or 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
Vertuous. May not some that have been ready upon feeble grounds
uncharitably to Censure and Reproach other people, 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 _Diabolick 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 Dark Kingdom may Enjoyn a
particular Attendance upon all those that practice their Mysteries,
whether they know them to be theirs or no._ Some of them that have been
cry'd out upon as imploying _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 gratifie 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 evermore Invited into 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
perhaps 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 prescribe 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 _Grosser_ Witches among us, God permit them to
bring in these _Lesser_ ones with the rest for their perpetual
Humiliation. In the Issue therefore, may it not be found, that
_New-England_ is not so stock'd with _Rattle Snakes_, as was imagined.
S. IV. But I do not believe, that the progress of _Witchcraft_ among
us, is all the Plot which the Devil is managing in the _Witchcraft_ now
upon us. It is judged, That the Devil rais'd the Storm, whereof we read
in the Eighth Chapter of _Matthew_, on purpose to over-set the little
Vessel wherein the Disciples of Our Lord were Embarqued with Him. And it
may be fear'd, that in the _Horrible Tempest_ which is now upon
ourselves, the design of the Devil is to sink that Happy Settlement of
Government, wherewith 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 LIEUTENANT GOVERNOUR, who not only by being admirably accomplished
both with Natural and Acquired Endowments, is fitted for the Service of
Their Majesties, but also with an unspotted Fidelity applies 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 Country. Our
Constitution also is attended with singular Priviledges; All which
Things are by the Devil exceedingly _Envy'd_ unto us; And the Devil will
doubtless take this occasion for the raising of such complaints and
clamours, as may be of pernicious consequence 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
_Affairs_, is evidently as considerable a Branch of the Hellish Intrigue
which now vexes us as any one Thing whatsoever. The Devil has made us
like a _Troubled Sea_, and the _Mire_ and _Mud_ begins now also to
heave up apace. Even Good and Wise Men 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 poyson 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 Heartburnings, I
cannot forbear the Exclamation of the Sweet-spirited _Austin_, in his
Pacificatory Epistle to _Jerom_, on the Contest with _Ruffin_, _O misera
& miseranda Conditio!_ O Condition, truly miserable! But what shall be
done to cure these Distractions? It is wonderfully necessary, that some
healing Attempts 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 overboard, were needful to allay the
_Storm_, I should think Dying, a Trifle to be undergone, for so great a
Blessedness.
S. V. I would most importunately in the first place, entreat every Man
to maintain an holy Jealousie over his Soul at this time, and think; May
not the Devil make me, though ignorantly and 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, than 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 provok'd, it thinks no Evil, it believes all things,
hopes all things. But if we disregard this Rule of Charity, we shall
indeed give our Body Politick to be burned. I have heard it affirmed,
That in the late great Flood upon _Connecticut_, those Creatures which
could not but have quarrelled at another time, yet now being driven
together very agreeably stood by one another. I am sure we shall be
worse than _Brutes_ 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 Wisdom and Vertue,
and Men acted by a noble Principle of Conscience: Had not Conscience (of
Duty to God) prevailed above other Considerations with them, they would
not for all they are worth in the World have medled 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 Presedents in
other parts of the World; which may, though not altogether justifie, yet
much alleviate a Mistake 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 multiplied Addresses to God for his Guidance, 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, 'Being 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 earnestly and
humbly desire the most Critical Enquiry upon the place, to find out the
Falacy; 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
ingeniously 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 Authority
will press him to discover it; but rejoyc'd in a Soul sav'd from Death.
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
dissatisfied at the Proceedings in the Prosecution of this Witchcraft.
And why? Not because they would have any such abominable thing, defended
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 Accused, to be esteemed an
infallible Evidence of Guilt; but frequently liable to be abused by the
Devils Legerdemains': I say, those very Men of God most conscientiously
Subjoined this Article to that Advice,--'Nevertheless we cannot but
humbly recommend unto the Government, the speedy and vigorous
Prosecution of such as have rendred themselves Obnoxious; according to
the best Directions given in the Laws of God, and the wholsome Statutes
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 into our Faith, as that for the sake of many
Truths which we find he tells us, we come at length to believe any Lyes,
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
ill of other Men, till there be the fullest Evidence for the surmises.
As for the Honourable Judges that have been hitherto in the Commission,
they are above my Consideration: wherefore I will only say thus much of
them, That such of them as I have the Honour of a Personal Acquaintance
with, are Men of an excellent Spirit; and as at first they went about
the work for which they were Commission'd, with a very great aversion,
so they have still been under Heart-breaking Sollicitudes, how they
might therein best serve both God and Man? In fine, Have there been
faults on any side fallen into? Surely, they have at worst been but the
faults of a well-meaning Ignorance. On every side then, why should not
we endeavour with amicable Correspondencies, to help one another out of
the Snares wherein the Devil would involve us? To wrangle the Devil out
of the Country, will be truly a New Experiment: Alas! we are not aware
of the Devil, if we do not think, that he aims at inflaming us one
against another; and shall we suffer our selves to be Devil-ridden? or
by any unadvisableness contribute unto the Widening of our Breaches?
To say no more, there is a published and credible Relation; which
affirms, That very lately in a part of _England_, where some of the
Neighbourhood were quarrelling, a _Raven_ from the Top of a Tree very
articulately and unaccountably cry'd out, _Read the Third of Colossians
and the Fifteenth!_ Were I my self to chuse what sort of Bird I would be
transformed into, I would say, _O that I had wings like a Dove!_
Nevertheless, I will for once do the Office, which as it seems, Heaven
sent that Raven upon; even to beg, _That the Peace of God may Rule in
our Hearts._
S. VI. 'Tis necessary that we unite in every thing: but there are
especially two Things wherein our Union must carry us along together. We
are to unite in our Endeavours to deliver our distressed Neighbours,
from the horrible Annoyances and Molestations with which a dreadful
Witchcraft is now persecuting of them. To have an hand in any thing,
that may stifle or obstruct a Regular Detection of that Witchcraft, is
what we may well with an holy fear avoid. Their Majesties good Subjects
must not every day be torn to pieces by horrid Witches, and those bloody
Felons, be left wholly unprosecuted. The Witchcraft is a business that
will not be sham'd, without plunging us into sore Plagues, and of long
continuance. But then we are to unite in such Methods for this
deliverance, as may be unquestionably safe, lest _the latter end be
worse than the beginning_. And here, what shall I 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 surprizing Informations, 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 committed, an Apparition of the
slain Party accusing of any Man, altho' such Apparitions have oftner
spoke true than false, is not enough to Convict the Man as guilty of
that Murder; but yet it is a sufficient occasion for Magistrates to make
a particular Enquiry, whether such a Man have afforded any ground for
such an Accusation. Even so a Spectre exactly resembling such or such a
Person, when the Neighbourhood are tormented by such Spectres, may
reasonably make Magistrates inquisitive whether the Person 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 Wretches,
whom due Enquiries thus provoked, might have made obnoxious unto
Justice.
_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 and 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 Neighbors; two considerable things to be brought under a
Judicial 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
Witnesses, had no more than Humane Assistances, 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 judged convictive 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 undone
something that else he could do, when the Publick Safety makes an
_Exigency_.
S. VII. 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 numbred: 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,
AN ABSTRACT OF MR. PERKINS'S WAY FOR
THE DISCOVERY OF WITCHES.
I. _There are +Presumptions+, which do at least probably and
conjecturally note one to be a +Witch+. These give occasion to Examine,
yet they are no sufficient Causes of Conviction._
II. _If any Man or Woman be notoriously defamed for a +Witch+, this
yields a strong Suspition. Yet the Judge ought carefully to look, that
the Report be made by +Men+ of Honesty and Credit._
III. _If a +Fellow-Witch+, or +Magician+, give Testimony of any Person
to be a +Witch+; this indeed is not sufficient for Condemnation; but it
is a fit Presumption to cause a strait Examination._
IV. _If after Cursing there follow Death, or at least some mischief:
for +Witches+ are wont to practise their mischievous Facts, by Cursing
and Banning: This also is a sufficient matter of Examination, tho' not
of Conviction._
V. _If after Enmity, Quarrelling, or Threatning, a present mischief does
follow; that also is a great Presumption._
VI. _If the Party suspected be the Son or Daughter, the man-servant or
maid-servant, the Familiar Friend, near Neighbor, or old Companion, of a
known and convicted Witch; this may be likewise a Presumption; for
Witchcraft is an Art that may be learned, and conveyed from man to
man._
VII. _Some add this for a Presumption: If the Party suspected be found
to have the Devil's mark; for it is commonly thought, when the Devil
makes his Covenant with them, he alwaies leaves his mark behind them,
whereby he knows them for his own:--a mark whereof no evident Reason in
Nature can be given._
VIII. _Lastly, If the party examined be Unconstant, or contrary to
himself, in his deliberate Answers, it argueth a Guilty Conscience,
which stops the freedom of Utterance. And yet there are causes of
Astonishment, which may befal the Good, as well as the Bad._
IX. _But then there is a +Conviction+, discovering the +Witch+, which
must proceed from just and sufficient proofs, and not from bare
presumptions._
X. _Scratching of the suspected party, and Recovery thereupon, with
several other such weak Proofs; as also, the fleeting of the suspected
Party, thrown upon the Water; these Proofs are so far from being
sufficient, that some of them are, after a sort, practices of
Witchcraft._
XI. _The Testimony of some Wizzard, tho' offering to shew the Witches
Face in a Glass: This, I grant, may be a good Presumption, to cause a
strait Examination; but a sufficient Proof of Conviction it cannot be.
If the Devil tell the Grand Jury, that the person in question is a
Witch, and offers withal to confirm the same by Oath, should the Inquest
receive his Oath or Accusation to condemn the man? Assuredly no. And
yet, that is as much as the Testimony of another Wizzard, who only by
the Devil's help reveals the Witch._
XII. _If a man, being dangerously sick, and like to dye, upon
Suspicion, will take it on his Death, that such a one hath bewitched
him, it is an Allegation of the same nature, which may move the Judge to
examine the Party, but it is of no moment for Conviction._
XIII. _Among the sufficient means of Conviction, the first is, the free
and voluntary Confession of the Crime, made by the party suspected and
accused, after Examination. I say not, that a bare confession is
sufficient, but a Confession after due Examination, taken upon pregnant
presumptions. What needs now more witness or further Enquiry?_
XIV. _There is a second sufficient Conviction, by the Testimony of two
Witnesses, of good and honest Report, avouching before the Magistrate,
upon their own Knowledge, these two things: either that the party
accused hath made a League with the Devil, or hath done some known
practice of witchcraft. And, +all Arguments that do necessarily prove
either of these+, being brought by two sufficient Witnesses, are of
force fully to convince the party suspected._
XV. _If it can be proved, that the party suspected hath called upon the
+Devil+, or desired his Help, this is a pregnant proof of a League
formerly made between them._
XVI. _If it can be proved, that the party hath entertained a Familiar
Spirit, and had Conference with it, in the likeness of some visible
Creatures; here is Evidence of witchcraft._
XVII. _If the witnesses affirm upon Oath, that the suspected person hath
done any action or work which necessarily infers a Covenant made, as,
that he hath used Enchantments, divined things before they come to pass,
and that peremptorily, raised Tempests, caused the Form of a dead man
to appear; it proveth sufficiently, that he or she is a +Witch+._ This is
the Substance of Mr. _Perkins_.
Take next the Sum of Mr. _Gaules_ Judgment about the Detection of
Witches. '1. Some Tokens for the Trial of Witches, are altogether
unwarrantable. Such are the old Paganish Sign, the Witches _Long Eyes_;
the Tradition of Witches not weeping; the casting of the Witch into the
Water, with Thumbs and Toes ty'd a-cross. And many more such Marks,
which if they are to know a Witch by, certainly 'tis no other Witch, but
the User of them. 2. There are some Tokens for the Trial of Witches,
more probable, and yet not so certain as to afford Conviction. Such are
strong and long Suspicion: Suspected Ancestors, some appearance of Fact,
the Corps bleeding upon the Witches touch, the Testimony of the Party
bewitched, the supposed Witches unusual Bodily marks, the Witches usual
Cursing and Banning, the Witches lewd and naughty kind of Life. 3. Some
Signs there are of a Witch, more certain and infallible. As, _firstly_,
Declining of Judicature, or faultering, faulty, unconstant, and contrary
Answers, upon judicial and deliberate examination. _Secondly_, When upon
due Enquiry into a person's Faith and Manners, there are found _all_ or
_most_ of the Causes which produce Witchcraft, namely, _God_ forsaking,
_Satan_ invading, particular _Sins_ disposing; and lastly, a compact
compleating all. _Thirdly_, The Witches free Confession, together with
full Evidence of the Fact. _Confession_ without _Fact_ may be a meer
Delusion, and _Fact_ without _Confession_ may be a meer Accident.
_4thly_, The semblable Gestures and Actions of suspected Witches, with
the comparable Expressions of Affections, which in all Witches have been
observ'd and found very much alike. _Fifthly_, The Testimony of the
Party bewitched, whether pining or dying, together with the joynt Oaths
of sufficient persons, that have seen certain prodigious Pranks or
Feats, wrought by the Party accused. 4. Among the most unhappy
circumstances to convict a Witch, one is, a maligning and oppugning the
Word, Work, and Worship of God, and by any extraordinary sign seeking to
seduce any from it. See _Deut. 13.1, 2._, _Mat. 24.24._, _Act. 13.8, 10._,
_2 Tim. 3.8._ Do but mark well the places, and for this very Property
(of thus opposing and perverting) they are all there concluded arrant
and absolute Witches. 5. It is not requisite, that so _palpable Evidence
of Conviction_ should here come in, as in other more sensible matters;
'tis enough, if there be but so much _circumstantial_ Proof or Evidence,
as the Substance, Matter, and Nature of such an abstruse Mystery of
Iniquity will well admit. [_I suppose he means, that whereas in other
Crimes we look for more direct proofs, in this there is a greater use of
consequential ones._] But I could heartily wish, that the Juries were
empanell'd of the most eminent Physicians, Lawyers, and Divines that a
Country could afford. In the mean time 'tis not to be called a
Toleration, if Witches escape, where Conviction is wanting.' To this
purpose our _Gaule_.
I will transcribe a little from one Author more, 'tis the Judicious
_Bernard_ of _Batcomb_, who in his _Guide to grand Jurymen_, after he
has mention'd several things that are shrewd Presumptions of a Witch,
proceeds to such things as are the _Convictions_ of such an one. And he
says, '_A witch in league with the +Devil+ is convicted by these
Evidences;_ I. By a witches _Mark_; which is upon the Baser sort of
Witches; and this, by the Devils either Sucking or Touching of them.
_Tertullian_ says, _It is the Devils custome to mark his._ And note,
That this mark is _Insensible_, and being prick'd it will not Bleed.
Sometimes, its like a _Teate_; sometimes but a _Blewish Spot_; sometimes
a _Red_ one; and sometimes the _flesh Sunk_: but the Witches do
sometimes cover them. II. By the Witches _Words_. As when they have been
heard calling on, speaking to, or Talking of their _Familiars_; or, when
they have been heard _Telling_ of _Hurt_ they have done to man or beast:
Or when they have been heard _Threatning_ of such Hurt; Or if they have
been heard Relating their _Transportations_. III. By the Witches
_Deeds_. As when they have been _seen_ with their Spirits, or seen
secretly Feeding any of their _Imps_. Or, when there can be found their
Pictures, Poppets, and other Hellish Compositions. IV. By the Witches
_Extasies_: With the Delight whereof, Witches are so taken, that they
will hardly conceal the same: Or, however at some time or other, they
may be found in them. V. By one or more _Fellow-Witches_, Confessing
their own Witchcraft, and bearing Witness against others; if they can
make good the Truth of their Witness, and give sufficient proof of it.
As, that they have seen them with their Spirits or, that they have
Received Spirits from them; or that they can tell, when they used
Witchery-Tricks to Do Harm; or, that they told them what Harm they had
done; or that they can show the mark upon them; or, that they have been
together in their Meetings; and such like. VI. By some _Witness of God_
Himself, happening upon the Execrable Curses of Witches upon themselves,
Praying of God to show some Token, if they be Guilty. VII. By the
Witches own _Confession_, of Giving their Souls to the Devil. It is no
Rare thing, for Witches to Confess.'
They are Considerable Things, which I have thus Recited; and yet it must
be with _Open Eyes_, kept upon _Open Rules_, that we are to follow these
things,
_S._ 8. But _Juries_ are not the only Instruments to be imploy'd in such
a Work; all _Christians_ are to be concerned with daily and fervent
_Prayers_, for the assisting of it. In the Days of _Athanasius_, the
Devils were found unable to stand before, that Prayer, however then used
perhaps with too much of Ceremony, _Let God Arise, Let his Enemies be
Scattered. Let them also that Hate Him, flee before Him._
O that instead of letting our Hearts _Rise_ against one another, our
Prayers might _Rise_ unto an high pitch of Importunity, for such a
_Rising_ of the Lord! Especially, Let them that are _Suffering_ by
_Witchcraft_, be sure to _stay_ and _pray_, and _Beseech the Lord
thrice_, even as much as ever they can, before they complain of any
Neighbour for afflicting them. Let them also that are _accused_ of
_Witchcraft_, set themselves to _Fast_ and _Pray_, and so shake off the
_Daemons_ that would like _Vipers_ fasten upon them; and get the _Waters
of Jealousie_ made profitable to them.
And Now, _O Thou Hope of +New-England+, and the Saviour thereof in the
Time of Trouble; Do thou look mercifully down upon us, & Rescue us, out
of the Trouble which at this time do's threaten to swallow us up. Let
Satan be shortly bruised under our Feet, and Let the Covenanted Vassals
of Satan, which have Traiterously brought him in upon us, be Gloriously
Conquered, by thy Powerful and Gracious Presence in the midst of us.
Abhor us not, O God, but cleanse us, but heal us, but save us, for the
sake of thy Glory. Enwrapped in our Salvations. By thy Spirit, Lift up a
standard against our infernal adversaries, Let us quickly find thee
making of us glad, according to the Days wherein we have been afflicted.
Accept of all our Endeavours to glorify thee, in the Fires that are upon
us; and among the rest, Let these my poor and weak essays, composed with
what Tears, what Cares, what Prayers, thou +only+ knowest, not want the
Acceptance of the Lord._
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, seeing 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 cryed 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
inconsiderable Advantage unto us, that we have the Company of
this Glorious and Sacred Book the REVELATION 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
REVEL. XII. 12.
_Wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth, and of the Sea; for the Devil is
come down unto you, having great Wrath; because he knoweth, that
he hath but a short time._
The Text is Like the Cloudy and Fiery Pillar, vouchsafed unto _Israel_,
in the Wilderness of old; there is a very _dark side_ of it in the
Intimation, 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
time;_ Unto the Contemplation of _both_, I do this Day Invite you.
We have in our Hands a Letter from our Ascended 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 preaching of the Gospel, he would from time to time
utterly break to pieces all Powers that should make Head against it,
until, _The Kingdoms 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 Kingdom under the whole Heaven, shall be given to the people 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
Syllable, 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 admirable Artifice and Carefulness,
drawn, as the very pious _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 _Jerusalem_,
after the _Babylonish_ Captivity, there seem to remain a matter of _Two
Thousand and Three Hundred Years_, unto that _New Jerusalem_, whereto
the Church is to be advanced, when the Mystical _Babylon_ 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
Signalized with such Distinguishing Events, if we mind them, will help
us escape that Censure, _Can ye not Discern the Signs of the Times?_
The Apostle _John_, for the View of these Things, had laid before him,
as I conceive, a _Book_, with leaves, or folds; which _Volumn_ was
written both on the _Backside_, and on the _Inside_, and Roll'd up in a
Cylindriacal 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
Sculptures being enlarged with agreeable _Visions_ and _Voices_, to
illustrate it. The Book being now Unrolled, there were _Trumpets_, with
wonderful Concomitants, 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 Kingdom of Anti-christ came to be Exposed. Thus, the Judgments of
God on the _Roman Empire_, first unto the Downfal of _Paganism_, and
then, unto the Downfal of _Popery_, which is but Revived _Paganism_, are
in these Displayes, with Lively Colours and Features made sensible unto
us.
Accordingly, in the Twelfth Chapter of this Book, we have an August
Preface, to the Description 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 continual 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 befell the _Primitive
Church_, during the first Four or 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 Acclamations made upon the most Glorious
Revolution that ever yet happened upon the Roman Empire; namely, That
wherein the Travailing Church brought forth a Christian Emperour. This
was a most Eminent _Victory_ over the Devil, and _Resemblance_ of the
State, wherein the World, ere long shall see, _The Kingdom of our God,
and the Power of his Christ_. It is here noted,
First, As a matter of _Triumph_. 'Tis said, _Rejoyce, ye Heavens, and ye
that dwell in them._ The Saints in both Worlds, took the Comfort of this
Revolution; the Devout Ones that had outlived the late Persecutions,
were filled with Transporting Joys, 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 Deceased Ones also, whose Blood had
been Sacrificed in the Ten Persecutions, doubtless made the Light
Regions to ring with _Hallelujahs_ unto God, when there were brought
unto them, the Tidings of the Advances now given 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 Influences 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 Spiritual Wickedness_, that is, _A wicked
Spirit_. A Devil is a _Fallen Angel_, an Angel _Fallen_ from the Fear
and Love of God, and from all Celestial Glories; but _Fallen_ to all
manner of Wretchedness and Cursedness. He was once in that Order of
Heavenly Creatures, which God in the Beginning made _Ministering
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
fallen from Heaven! thou hast said in thine Heart, I will Exalt my
Throne above the Stars of God; but thou art brought down to Hell!_ A
Devil is a _Spiritual_ and _Rational_ Substance, by his _Apostacy_ from
God, inclined unto all that is Vicious, and for that _Apostacy_ confined
unto the Atmosphere of this Earth, _in Chains under Darkness, unto the
Judgment of the Great Day_. This is a _Devil_; and the _Experience_ of
Mankind as well as the _Testimony_ of Scripture, does abundantly prove
the Existence of such a Devil.
About this _Devil_, there are many things, whereof we may reasonably and
profitably be Inquisitive; such things, I mean, as are in our Bibles
Reveal'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
Conjectures, _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 _Mark 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 Garrison. As the Prophet cryed out,
_Multitudes, Multitudes, in the Valley of Decision!_ So I say, _There
are multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of Destruction, where the
Devils are!_ When we speak of, _The Devil_, 'tis, _A name of Multitude_;
it means not _One_ Individual Devil, so Potent and Scient, as perhaps a
_Manichee_ would imagine; but it means a _Kind_, which a _Multitude_
belongs unto. Alas, the _Devils_, they swarm about us, like the _Frogs
of Egypt_, in the most Retired of our Chambers. Are we at our _Boards_?
There will be Devils to Tempt us unto Sensuality: Are we in our _Beds_?
There will be Devils to Tempt us unto Carnality; Are we in our _Shops_?
There will be Devils to Tempt us into Dishonesty. Yea, Tho' we get into
the Church of God, there will be Devils to Haunt us in the very _Temple_
it self, and there tempt us to manifold Misbehaviours. I am verily
perswaded, That there are very few Humane Affairs whereinto some Devils
are not Insinuated; There is not so much as a _Journey_ 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_, among the _Devils_. This is intimated, when in
_Mar. 5.9._ _The unclean Spirit said, My Name is Legion:_ they are such
a Discipline as _Legions_ use to be. Hence we read about, _The Prince
of the power of the Air_: Our _Air_ has a _power_? or an Army of Devils
in the _High Places_ of it; and these Devils have a _Prince_ over them,
who is _King over the Children of Pride_. 'Tis probable, That the Devil,
who was the Ringleader of that mutinous and rebellious Crew, which first
shook off the Authority of God, is now the General of those Hellish
Armies; Our Lord, that Conquered 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_ over them, overrunning a pillaged
Neighbourhood, and you will think a little, what the Constitution among
the _Devils_ is.
Thirdly, 'tis to be supposed, that some _Devils_ are more peculiarly
_Commission'd_, and perhaps _Qualify'd_, for some Countries, 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 Devils_
were more able to _do the works of the Devil_, in such a Countrey, than
in another. It is not likely that every Devil does know every
_Language_; or that every Devil can do every _Mischief_. 'Tis possible,
that the _Experience_, or, if I may call it so, the _Education_ of all
Devils is not alike, and that there may be some difference in their
_Abilities_. If one might make an Inference from what the Devils _do_,
to what they _are_, One cannot forbear dreaming, that there are
_degrees_ of Devils. Who can allow, that such Trifling _Daemons_, as that
of _Mascon_, or those that once infested our _New berry_, are of so much
Grandeur, as those _Daemons_, whose Games are mighty Kingdoms? Yea, 'tis
certain, that all Devils do not make a like Figure in the _Invisible
World_. Nor does it look agreeably, That the _Daemons_, which were the
Familiars of such a Man as the old _Apollonius_, differ not from those
baser Goblins that chuse to Nest in the filthy and loathsom Rags of a
beastly Sorceress. Accordingly, why may not some Devils be more
accomplished for what is to be done in such and such places, when others
must be _detach'd_ for other Territories? Each Devil, as he sees his
advantage, cries out, _Let me be in this Countrey, rather than another._
But _Enough_, if not _too much_, of these things.
_Proposition II._ There is a Devilish _Wrath_ against _Mankind_, with
which the _Devil_ is for _God's sake_ Inspired. The Devil is himself
broiling under the intollerable and interminable _Wrath_ of God; and a
fiery _Wrath_ at God, is, that which the Devil is for that cause
Enflamed. Methinks I see the posture of the Devils in _Isa. 8.21._ _They
fret themselves, and Curse their God, and look upward._ The first and
chief _Wrath_ of the Devil, 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 Acknowledgement paid unto _God_, is a fresh drop of the burning
Brimstone falling upon the Devil; he does make his Insolent, tho
Impotent Batteries, even upon the _Throne_ of God himself: and foolishly
affects to have himself exalted unto that _Glorious High Throne_, by
all people, as he sometimes is, by Execrable _Witches_. This horrible
Dragon does not only with his Tayl strike at the _Stars of God_, but at
the God himself, who made the _Stars_, being desirous to out-shine them
all. God and the Devil are sworn Enemies to each other; the Terms
between them, are those, in _Zech. 11.18._ _My Soul loathed them, and
their Soul also abhorred me._ And from this Furious _wrath_, or
Displeasure and Prejudice at God, proceeds the Devils _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 Devil. We are the _High Priests_ of the
World; when all Creatures are called upon, _Praise ye the Lord_, they
bring to us those demanded _Praises_ of God, saying, _do you offer them
for us._ Hence 'tis, that the Devil has a Quarrel with us, as he had
with the _High-Priest_ in the Vision of Old. Our bearing the Image of
God is another thing that brings the _wrath_ of the Devil upon us. As a
_Tyger_, thro his Hatred at man will tear the very Picture of him, if it
come in his way; such a _Tyger_ the Devil is; because God said of old,
_Let us make Man in our Image_, the Devil is ever saying, _Let us pull
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 given us an hint, as if _Pride_ had been the _Condemnation of the
Devil_. 'Tis not unlikely, that the Devil's _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 Bosom 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 my self._
_Proposition III._ The _Devil_, in the prosecution, and the execution of
his _wrath_ upon them, often gets a _Liberty_ to make a _Descent_ upon
the Children of men. When the Devil _does hurt_ unto us, he _comes down_
unto us; for the Rendezvouze 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 not able
so much as to _Touch_ any thing, till the most high God gave him a
permission, to _go down_. The Devil stands with all the Instruments of
death, aiming at us, and begging of the Lord, as that King ask'd for the
Hood-wink'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 possessor of Heaven and
Earth_, a License for the doing of it. The Devil 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 couldest have no power against
me, except it were given thee from above._ The Devil is called in _1
Pet. 5.8._ _Your Adversary_. This is a Law-term; and it notes _An
Adversary at Law_. The Devil cannot come at us, except in some sence
according to _Law_; but sometimes he does procure sad things to be
inflicted, according to the _Law_ of the eternal King upon us. The Devil
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
Devil 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
_Imputations_ of Hypocrysie, Iniquity, Disobedience; whereupon he urges,
_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
been _desired_ to be done for the _destroying of men_. But such a
_permission_ from God, for the Devil to _come down_, and _break in_ upon
mankind, oftentimes must be accompany'd with a _Commission_ from some
wretches of mankind it self. Every man is, as 'tis hinted in _Gen. 4.9._
_His brother's keeper_. We are to _keep_ one another from the Inroads of
the Devil, by mutual and cordial Wishes of prosperity to one another.
When ungodly people give their _Consents_ in _witchcrafts_ diabolically
performed, for the Devil to annoy their Neighbours, he finds a breach
made in the Hedge about us, whereat he Rushes in upon us, with grievous
molestations. Yea, when the impious people, that never saw the Devil, do
but utter their _Curses_ against their Neighbours, those are so many
_watch words_, whereby the Mastives of Hell are animated presently to
fall upon us. 'Tis thus, that the Devil gets _leave_ to worry us.
_Proposition IV._ Most horrible _woes_ come to be inflicted upon
Mankind, when the _Devil_ does in _great wrath_, make a _descent_ upon
them. The _Devil_ is a _Do-Evil_, and wholly set upon mischief. When our
Lord once was going to _Muzzel_ him, that he might not mischief others,
he cry'd out, _Art thou come to torment 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
Angel of _death_, would give cause for the like Exclamation: _Wo to the
world, by reason of the wrath of the Devil!_ what a _woful_ plight,
mankind would by the descent of the Devil be brought into, may be
gathered from the _woful_ pains, and wounds, and hideous desolations
which the Devil brings upon them, with whom he has with a _bodily
Possession_ made a Seisure. You may both in Sacred and Profane History,
read many a direful Account of the _woes_, which they that are possessed
by the Devil, do undergo: And from thence conclude, _What must the
Children of Men hope from such a Devil!_ Moreover, the _Tyrannical
Ceremonies_, whereto the Devil uses to subjugate such _Woful_ Nations or
Orders of Men, as are more Entirely under his Dominion, do declare what
_woful_ Work the Devil would make where he comes. The very Devotions of
those forlorn _Pagans_, to whom the Devil is a Leader, are most bloody
_Penances_; and what _Woes_ indeed must we expect from such a Devil of
a _Moloch_, as relishes no Sacrifices like those of Humane Heart-blood,
and unto whom there is no Musick like the bitter, dying, doleful Groans,
ejaculated by the Roasting Children of Men.
Furthermore, the servile, abject, needy circumstances wherein the Devil
keeps the Slaves, that are under his more sensible Vassalage, do suggest
unto us, how _woful_ the Devil would render all 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 Days. 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 Witches_ are; if _the Devil's Malice_ were not over-ruled by a
_compassionate 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 languishing World, has hindred Mankind for many Ages,
from hitting those _useful Inventions_, which yet _were so obvious_ and
_facil_, that it is every bodies wonder, they were no sooner hit upon.
The _bemisted World_, must jog on for thousands of Years, without the
knowledg of _the Loadstone_, till a _Neapolitan_ stumbled upon it, about
_three hundred 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 Fifteenth 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 accommodated us.
Indeed, as the Devil does begrutch us all manner of _Good_, so he does
annoy us with all manner of _Wo_, as often as he finds himself capable
of doing it. But shall we mention some of the _special woes_ with which
the Devil does usually infest the World! Briefly then; _Plagues_ are
some of those _woes_ with which the Devil troubles us. It is said of the
_Israelites_, in _1 Cor. 10.10._ _They were destroyed of the destroyer._
That is, they had the _Plague_ among them. 'Tis the _Destroyer_, or _the
Devil_, that scatters _Plagues_ about the World. Pestilential and
Contagious Diseases, 'tis the Devil who does oftentimes invade us with
them. 'Tis no uneasy thing for the Devil to impregnate the Air about us,
with such Malignant _Salts_, as meeting with _the Salt_ of our
_Microcosm_, 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 Seizes upon. And when the Devil has raised
those _Arsenical Fumes_, which become _Venemous Quivers_ full of
_Terrible Arrows_, how easily can he shoot the deleterious _Miasms_ into
those Juices or Bowels of Mens Bodies, which will soon Enflame them with
a Mortal Fire! Hence come such _Plagues_, as that _Beesom of
Destruction_, which within our memory swept away such a Throng of People
from one _English_ City in one Visitation; And hence those Infectious
Fevers, which are but so many _Disguised Plagues_ among us, causing
Epidemical Desolations. Again, _Wars_ are also some of those _Woes_,
with which the Devil causes our Trouble. It is said in _Rev. 12.17._
_The Dragon was Wrath, and he went to make War;_ and there is in truth
scarce any _War_, but what is of the _Dragon's_ kindling. The Devil is
that _Vulcan_, out of whose Forge come the instruments of our _Wars_,
and it is he that finds us Employments for those Instruments. We read
concerning _Daemoniacks_, or People in whom the Devil was, that they
would cut and wound themselves; and so, when the Devil is in Men, he
puts 'em upon dealing in that barbarous fashion with one another. _Wars_
do often furnish him with some Thousands of Souls in one Morning from
one Acre of Ground; and for the sake of such _Thyestaean_ Banquets, he
will push us upon as many _Wars_ as he can.
Once more, why may not _Storms_ be reckoned among those _Woes_, with
which the Devil does disturb 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 _Job_, upon the Heads of them that were Feasting in it.
_Paracelsus_ could have informed the Devil, if he had not been informed,
as besure he was before, That if much _Aluminious_ matter, with _Salt
Petre_ 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 _Winds_
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 has been permitted from above to
make an horrible Tempest. However that the Devil has raised many
_Metaphorical 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 of you into Prison._ The Devil was he that at
first set _Cain upon Abel_ to butcher him, as the Apostle seems to
suggest, for his Faith in God, as a _Rewarder_. And in how many
_Persecutions_, as well as _Heresies_ has the Devil been ever since
Engaging all the Children of _Cain_! That Serpent the Devil has acted
his cursed Seed in unwearied endeavours to have them, _Of whom the World
is not worthy_, treated as those who are _not worthy to live in the
World_. By the impulse of the Devil, 'tis that first the old _Heathens_,
and then the mad _Arians_ were _pricking Briars_ to the true Servants of
God; and that the _Papists_ that came after them, have out done them all
for Slaughters, upon those that have been _accounted 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 out-cries upon _the Miseries preparing for the poor
Hugonots_! Thus it has been all acted by a singular Fury of the old
Dragon 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 _Woes_, 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 said 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 Passionate Spirit_,
_a Revengeful 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
Sinfulness. Yea, the Devil will put _good men upon doing ill_. Thus we
read in _1 Chron. 21.1._ _Satan provoked David to number Israel._ And so
the _Devil provokes_ men that are Eminent in Holiness unto such things
as may become eminently Pernicious; he _provokes_ them especially unto
_Pride_, and unto many unsuitable Emulations. There are likewise most
lamentable Impressions which the _Devil_ makes upon the _Souls of Men_
by way of punishment 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 fetcht
from his Hell does _cauterise_ them. Thus 'tis, till perhaps at last
they come to have a _Wounded Conscience_ in them, and the Devil has
often a share in their Torturing and confounding Anguishes. The _Devil_
who Terrified _Cain_, and _Saul_, and _Judas_ 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 Jesus 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 and sting more bloodily than ever he did before: The Death-pangs
of the Devil will make him to be more of a _Devil_ than ever he was; and
the Furnace of this _Nebuchadnezzar_ will be heated _seven times_
hotter, 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 _Devil_ once exclaimed in _Mat. 8.29._
_Jesus, 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 plagueing 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 Devil can give a
shrewd guess, when he draws near to the _End of his Time_. When he saw
Christianity 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 Devil to _know_ that God won't suffer him to
have _the Everlasting Dominion_; and that when God has once begun to
rescue the World out of his hands, he'll 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 Devil 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
Pit_. It is not improbable, that the Devil 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
uncertainty conjecture, from a certain place in the Epistle to the
_Ephesians_, That the Angels do sometimes come into our Churches, to
gain some advantage from our Ministry. But be sure our _Demonstrable
Interpretations_ may give Repeated Notices to the Devil, _That his time
is almost out;_ and what the Preacher says unto the _Young Man_, _Know
thou, that God will bring thee into Judgment!_ THAT may our Sermons tell
unto the _Old Wretch_, _Know thou, that thy Judgment is at hand._
But we must now, likewise, apprehend, that in _such a time_, the _woes_
of the World will be heightened, beyond what they were at _any time_ yet
from the foundation of the World. Hence 'tis, 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 Devil _knows_, that he is
got into his _Last days_, he will make _perillous times_ for us; the
times will grow more full of _Devils_, and therefore more full of
_Perils_, than ever they were before. Of this, if we would _know_, what
cause is to be assigned; It is not only, because the Devil grows more
_able_, and more _eager_ to vex the World; but also, and chiefly,
because the World is more _worthy_ to be vexed by the Devil, 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 and
Exquisite and 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 and gone! 'Tis because that men by sinning over
again the sins of the former days, have a _Fellowship with all those
unfruitful works of darkness_. As 'twas said in _Matth. 23.36._ _All
these things shall come upon this generation;_ so, the men of the last
Generation, will find themselves involved in the gulf of all that went
before 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 all former
ages going up to God, _That the Devil 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 Irremediably. 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 old World_, at last gave mankind such a distast 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 nearer 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 _Rejection_ from the God of
Heaven. Thus the enhanc'd Impieties of this _our World_, will Exasperate
the Displeasure of God, at such a rate, as that he will more _cast 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 beyond 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 _Vials_ in the Apocalyptick Schemes of
these things, to come upon the World, were the _woes_ to come from the
_wrath_ of the Devil, upon the _shortning_ of his _Time_. The horrendous
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 _Vileness_ which then came upon mankind,
and the Monstrous _Croisadoes_ which thereupon carried the _Roman_ World
by 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 Devil is come down in great
Wrath, having but a short time._
But besides all these things, and besides the increase of _Plagues_ and
_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 Devil in the _Earth_. The Devil will be clap't up, as a Prisoner in
or near the Bowels of the earth, when once that _Conflagration_ shall be
dispatched, which will make, _The New Earth wherein shall dwell
Righteousness;_ and that _Conflagration_ will doubtless be much
promoted, by the Subterraneous _Fires_, which are a cause of the
_Earthquakes_ in our Dayes. Accordingly, we read, _Great Earthquakes in
divers places_, 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; in asmuch 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 ere 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, Terrae motus causat._ The
Devil surely, was a party in the _Earthquake_, whereby the Vengeance of
God, in one black Night sunk Twelve considerable Cities of _Asia_, in
the Reign of _Tiberious_. But there will be more such _Catastrophes_ in
our Dayes; _Italy_ has lately been _Shaking_, till its _Earthquakes_
have brought Ruines at once upon more than thirty Towns; but it will
within a little while, _shake_ again, and _shake_ till the Fire of God
have made an Entire _Etna_ of it. And behold, This very Morning, when I
was intending to utter among you such Things as these, we are cast into
an _Heartquake_ by Tidings of an _Earthquake_ that has lately happened
at _Jamaica_: an horrible _Earthquake_, whereby the _Tyrus_ of the
English _America_, was at once pull'd into the Jaws of the Gaping and
Groaning Earth, and many Hundreds of the Inhabitants buried alive. The
Lord sanctifie so dismal a Dispensation of his Providence, unto all the
_American_ Plantations! But be assured, my Neighbours, the _Earthquakes_
are not over yet! We have not yet seen _the last_. And then, Another
_Wo_ that may be Look'd for is, The Devils being now let Loose in
_preternatural Operations_ more than formerly; and perhaps in
_Possessions_ and _Obsessions_ that shall be very marvellous. You are
not Ignorant, That just before our Lords _First Coming_, there were most
observable Outrages committed by the Devil upon the Children of Men: And
I am suspicious, That there will again be an unusual Range of the Devil
among us, a little before the _Second Coming_ of our Lord, which will
be, to give the last stroke, in _Destroying the works of the Devil_. The
_Evening Wolves_ will be much abroad, when we are near the _Evening_ of
the World. The Devil is going to be Dislodged of the _Air_, where his
present Quarters are; God will with flashes of hot _Lightning_ upon
him, cause him to _fall as Lightning_ from his Ancient Habitations: And
the _Raised Saints_ will there have a _New Heaven_, which We _expect
according to the Promise of God_. Now a little before this thing, you be
like to see the Devil more _sensible_ and _visibly_ Busy upon _Earth_
perhaps, than ever he was before. You shall oftner hear about
_Apparitions_ of the Devil, and about poor people strangely Bewitched,
_Possessed_ and _Obsessed_, by Infernal Fiends. When our Lord is going
to set up His Kingdom, in the most _sensible_ and _visible_ manner, that
ever was, and in a manner answering _the Transfiguration_ in _the
Mount_, it is a Thousand to One, but _the Devil_ will in sundry _parts
of the world_, assay _the like_ for Himself, with a most Apish
Imitation: and Men, at least in _some_ Corners of the World, and perhaps
in _such_ as God may have some special Designs upon, will to their Cost,
be more Familiarized _with the World of Spirits_, than they had been
formerly.
So that, in fine, if just before _the End_, when _the times of the Jews_
were to be finished, a man then ran about every where, crying, _Wo to
the Nation! Wo to the City! Wo to the Temple! Wo! Wo! Wo!_ Much more may
the descent of the Devil, just before his _End_, when also _the times of
the Gentiles_ will be finished, cause us to cry out, _Wo! Wo! Wo!
because of the black things that threaten us!_
But it is now Time to make our Improvement of what has been said. And,
first, we shall entertain our selves with a few _Corollaries_, deduced
from what has been thus asserted.
_Corollary I._
What cause have we to bless God, for our preservation from the _Devils
wrath_, in this which may too reasonably be called the _Devils World_!
While we are in _this present evil world_, We are continually surrounded
with swarms of those Devils, who make this _present world_, become so
_evil_. What a wonder of Mercy is it, that no _Devil_ could ever yet
make a prey of us! We can set our foot no where but we shall tread in
the midst of most Hellish _Rattle-Snakes_; and one of those
_Rattle-Snakes_ once thro' the mouth of a Man, on whom he had Seized,
hissed out such a Truth as this, _If God would let me loose upon you, I
should find enough in the Best of you all, to make you all mine._ What
shall I say? The _Wilderness_ thro' which we are passing to the
_Promised Land_, is all over fill'd with _Fiery flying serpents_. But,
blessed be God; None of them have hitherto so fastned upon us, as to
confound us utterly! All our way to Heaven, lies by the _Dens of Lions_,
and the _Mounts of Leopards_; there are incredible Droves of Devils in
our way. But have we safely got on our way thus far? O let us be
thankful to our Eternal preserver for it. It is said in _Psal. 76.10._
_Surely the wrath of Man shall praise thee, and the Remainder of wrath
shalt thou restrain;_ But _surely_ it becomes us to praise God, in that
we have yet sustain'd no more Damage by the _wrath of the Devil_, and in
that he has restrain'd that Overwhelming _wrath_. We are poor,
Travellers in a World, which is as well the Devils _Field_, as the
Devils _Gaol_; a World in every Nook whereof, the Devil is encamped,
with _Bands of Robbers_, to pester all that have their _Face looking
Zion-ward_: And are we all this while preserved from the undoing Snares
of the _Devil_? it is, _Thou, O keeper of Israel, that hast hitherto
been our Keeper!_ And therefore, _Bless the Lord, O my soul, Bless his
Holy Name, who has redeemed thy Life from the Destroyer!_
_Corollary II._
We may see the rise of those multiply'd, magnify'd, and
Singularly-stinged Afflictions, with which _aged_, or _dying_ Saints
frequently have their _Death_ Prefaced, and their _Age_ embittered. When
the Saints of God are going to leave the World, it is usually a more
_Stormy World_ with them, than ever it was; and they find more _Vanity_,
and more _Vexation_ in the world than ever they did before. It is true,
_That many are the afflictions of the Righteous;_ but a little before
they bid adieu to all those many _Afflictions_, they often have greater,
harder, Sorer, Loads thereof laid upon them, than they had yet endured.
It is true, _That thro' much Tribulation we must enter in the Kingdom of
God;_ but a little before our _Entrance_ thereinto, our _Tribulation_
may have some sharper accents of Sorrow, than ever were yet upon it. And
what is the cause of this? It is indeed the _Faithfulness of our God
unto us_, that we should find the _Earth_ more full of _Thorns_ and
_Briars_ than ever, just before he fetches us from _Earth_ to _Heaven_;
that so we may go away the more willingly, the more easily, and with
less Convulsion, at his calling for us. O there are _ugly Ties_, by
which we are fastned unto this world; but God will by _Thorns and
Briars_ tear those _Ties_ asunder. But, _is not the Hand of Joab here?_
Sure, There is the _wrath_ of the _Devil_ also in it. A little before we
step into Heaven, the _Devil_ thinks with himself, _My time to abuse
that Saint is now but short; what Mischief I am to do that Saint, must
be done quickly, if at all; he'l shortly be out of my Reach for ever._
And for this cause he will now fly upon us with the Fiercest Efforts and
Furies of his _Wrath_. It was allowed unto the _Serpent_, in _Gen. 2.15._
_To Bruise the Heel_. Why, at the _Heel_, or at the _Close_, of our
Lives, the _Serpent_ will be nibbling, more than ever in our Lives
before: and it is, _Because now he has but a short time._ He knows, That
we shall very shortly be, _Where the wicked cease from Troubling, and
where the Weary are at Rest;_ wherefore that _Wicked_ one will now
_Trouble_ us, more than ever he did, and we shall have so much
_Disrest_, as will make us more _weary_ than ever we were, of things
here below.
_Corollary III._
What a Reasonable Thing then is it, that they whose _Time_ is but
_short_, should make as great _Use_ of their _Time_, as ever they can!
pray, let us learn some _good_, even from the _wicked One_ himself. It
has been advised, _Be wise as Serpents:_ why, there is a piece of
_Wisdom_, whereto that old _Serpent_, the Devil himself, may be our
Moniter. When the Devil perceives his _Time_ is but _short_, it puts him
upon _Great Wrath_. But how should it be with _us_, when we perceive
that our _Time_ is but _short_? why, it should put us upon _Great Work_.
The motive which makes the Devil to be more full of _wrath_; should make
us more full of _warmth_, more full of _watch_, and more full of _All
Diligence to make our Vocation, and Election sure_. Our _Pace_ in our
Journey _Heaven-ward_, must be Quickened, if our _space_ for that
Journey be shortned, even as _Israel_ went further the _two last_ years
of their Journey _Canaan-ward_, than they did in 38 years before. The
Apostle brings this, as a _spur_ to the Devotions of Christians, in _1
Cor. 7.29._ _This I say, Brethren, the time is short._ Even so, I _say_
this; some things I lay before you, which I do only _think_, or _guess_,
but here is a thing which I venture to _say_ with all the freedom
imaginable. You have now a _Time_ to _Get_ good, even a _Time_ to make
sure of _Grace and Glory, and every good thing_, by true Repentance:
But, _This I say, the time is but short._ You have now _Time_ to _Do_
good, even to _serve out your generation_, as by the _Will_, so for the
_Praise_ of God; but, _This I say, the time is but short._ And what I
say thus to _All_ People, I say to _Old_ People, with a peculiar
Vehemency: Sirs, It cannot be long before your _Time_ is out; there are
but a few sands left in the glass of your _Time_: And it is of all
things the saddest, for a man to say, _My Time is done, but my work
undone!_ O then, _To work_ as fast as you can; and of Soul-work, and
Church-work, dispatch as much as ever you can. Say to all _Hindrances_,
as the gracious _Jeremiah Burrows_ would sometimes to _Visitants_:
_You'll excuse me if I ask you to be short with me, for my work is
great, and my time is but short._ Methinks every _time_ we hear a Clock,
or see a Watch, we have an admonition given us, that our _Time_ is upon
the _wing_, and it will all be gone within a little while. I remember I
have read of a famous man, who having a _Clock-watch_ long lying by him,
out of Kilture in his Trunk, it unaccountably struck Eleven just before
he died. Why, there are many of you, for whom I am to do that office
this day: I am to tell you _You are come to your +Eleventh+ hour;_ there
is no more than a _twelfth part_ at most, of your life yet behind. But
if we neglect our business, till our _short Time_ shall be reduced into
_none_, then, _woe to us, for the great wrath of God will send us down
from whence there is no Redemption._
_Corollary IV._
How welcome should a _Death in the Lord_ be unto them that belong not
unto the Devil, but unto the Lord! While we are sojourning in this
World, we are in what may upon too many accounts be called _The Devils
Country_: We are where the Devil may come upon us in _great wrath_
continually. The day when God shall take us out of this World, will be,
_The day when the Lord will deliver us from the hand of all our Enemies,
and from the hand of Satan_. In such a day, why should not our song be
that of the Psalmist, _Blessed be my Rock, and let the God of my
Salvation be exalted!_ While we are here, we are in _the valley of the
shadow of death_; and what is it that makes it so? 'Tis because the
_wild Beasts of Hell_ are lurking on every side of us, and every minute
ready to salley forth upon us. But our _Death_ will fetch us out of that
_Valley_, and carry us where we shall be _for ever with the Lord_. We
are now under the daily _Buffetings_ of the Devil, and he does molest us
with such _Fiery Darts_, as cause us even to cry out, _I am weary of my
Life._ Yea, but are we as _willing to die_, as, _weary of Life_? Our
Death will then soon set us where we cannot be reach'd by the _Fist of
Wickedness_; and where the _Perfect cannot be shotten at_. It is said in
_Rev. 14.13._ _Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord, they rest
from their labours._ But we may say, _Blessed are the Dead in the Lord,
inasmuch as they rest from the Devils!_ Our _dying_ will be but our
_taking wing_: When attended with a Convoy of winged Angels, we shall be
convey'd into that Heaven, from whence the Devil having been thrown he
shall never more come thither after us. What if God should now say to
us, as to _Moses_, _Go up and die!_ As long as we _go up_, when we
_die_, let us receive the Message with a joyful Soul; we shall soon be
there, where the Devil can't _come down_ upon us. If the _God of our
Life_ should now send that Order to us, which he gave to _Hezekiah_,
_Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live;_ we need not
be cast into such deadly Agonies thereupon, as _Hezekiah_ was: We are
but going to that _House_, the Golden Doors whereof, cannot be entred by
the Devil that here did use to persecute us. Methinks I see the Departed
_Spirit_ of a Believer, triumphantly carried thro' the Devils
_Territories_, in such a stately and Fiery Chariot, as the
_Spiritualizing Body of Elias_ had; methink I see the Devil, with whole
Flocks of _Harpies_, grinning at this Child of God, but unable to fasten
any of their griping Talons upon him: And then, upon the utmost edge of
our _Atmosphaere_, methinks I overhear the holy Soul, with a most
heavenly Gallantry, deriding the defeated Fiend, and saying, _Ah! Satan!
Return to thy Dungeons again; I am going where thou canst not come for
ever!_ O 'tis a brave thing so to die! and especially so to die, _in our
time_. For, tho' when we call to mind, _That the Devils time is now but
short_, it may almost make us wish to _live_ unto the _end_ of it; and
to say with the Psalmist, _Because the Lord will shortly appear in his
Glory, to build up Zion. O my God! Take me not away in the midst of my
days._ Yet when we bear in mind, _that the Devils Wrath is now most
great_, it would make one willing to be _out of the way_. Inasmuch as
now is the time for the doing of those things in the prospect whereof
_Balaam_ long ago cry'd out _Who shall live when such things are done!_
We should not be inordinately loth to _die_ at such a time. In a word,
the _Times_ are so _bad_, that we may well count it, as _good_ a _time_
to die in, as ever we saw.
_Corollary V._
Good News for the _Israel_ of God, and particularly for his _New-English
Israel_. If the Devils _Time_ were above a _thousand years ago_,
pronounced _short_, what may we suppose it now in _our_ Time? Surely we
are not a _thousand years_ distant from those happy _thousand years_ of
rest and peace, and [which is better] _Holiness_ reserved for the People
of God in the latter days; and if we are not a _thousand years_ yet
short of that Golden Age, there is cause to think, that we are not an
_hundred_. That the blessed _Thousand years_ are not yet begun, is
abundantly clear from this, _We do not see the Devil bound;_ No, the
Devil was never more let _loose_ than in our Days; and it is very much
that any should imagine otherwise: But the same thing that proves the
_Thousand Years_ of prosperity for the Church of God, under the whole
Heaven, to be not yet _begun_, does also prove, that it is not very _far
off_; and that is the prodigious _wrath_ with which the Devil does in
our days Persecute, yea, desolate the World. Let us cast our Eyes almost
where we will, and we shall see the _Devils_ domineering at such a rate
as may justly fill us with astonishment; it is questionable whether
_Iniquity_ ever were so rampant, or whether _Calamity_ were ever so
pungent, as in this Lamentable _time_; We may truly say, _'Tis the Hour
and the Power of Darkness._ But, tho the _wrath_ be so _great_, the
_time_ is but _short_: when we are perplexed with the _wrath_ of the
Devil, the _Word_ of our God at the same time unto us, is that in _Rom.
16.20._ _The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet Shortly._
Shortly, didst thou say, dearest Lord! O gladsome word! Amen, _Even so,
come Lord! Lord Jesus, come quickly! We shall never be rid of this
troublesome Devil, till thou do come to Chain him up!_
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 _Conjectures_.
_The first Conjecture._
The Devils _Eldest Son_ seems to be towards the _End_ of his last
_Half-time_; and if it be so, the Devils _Whole-time_, cannot but be
very near its _End_. It is a very scandalous thing that any
_Protestant_, should be at a loss where to find _the Anti-Christ_. But,
we have a sufficient assurance, that the Duration of _Anti-Christ_, 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 _easie 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. Indeed, 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 accounts
little more than _Half-reformed_. But by this computation, we must needs
be within a very few years of such a _Mortification_ to befal the See of
_Rome_, as that Antichrist, who has lately been planting (what proves no
more lasting than) a _Tabernacle in the Glorious Holy Mountain between
the Seas_, must quickly, _Come to his End and none shall help him_. So
then, within a very little while, we shall see the Devil stript of the
grand, yea, the last, _Vehicle_, wherein he will be capable to abuse our
World. The _Fires_, with which, _That Beast_ is to be consumed, 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 _tormented for ever and ever_.
_The Second Conjecture._
That which is, perhaps, the greatest Effect of the _Devils Wrath_, seems
to be in a manner at an _end_: and this would make one hope that the
_Devils time_ cannot be far from its _end_. It is in Persecution, that
the _wrath_ of the Devil uses to break forth, with its greatest fury.
Now there want not probabilities, 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 Woe passing away_, we have a fair signal given
unto us, _That the last slaughter of our Lord's Witnesses is over;_ and
then what Quickly follows? The next thing is, _The Kingdoms of this
World, are become the Kingdoms of Our Lord, and of His Christ:_ and then
_down_ goes the Kingdom of the Devil, so that he cannot any more _come
down_ upon us. Now, the Irrecoverable and Irretrievable Humiliations
that have lately befallen the _Turkish Power_, are but so many
Declarations of the _second Woe 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 Europe over_: and we _shall_ see, that this _great
Earth-quake_, and these great Commotions, will but contribute unto the
advancement of our Lords hitherto-depressed Interests. 'Tis also to be
remark'd that, a disposition to recognize the _Empire_ of God over the
_Conscience_ of man, does now prevail more in the world than formerly;
and God from on High more touches the Hearts of Princes and 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, _In as much 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 however love one another._ Words worthy to be written
in Letters of Gold! and by _us_ the more to be considered, because to
one of _Ours_ did that royal Person express Her self so excellently, so
obligingly. When the late King _James_ published his Declaration for
_Liberty of Conscience_, a worthy Divine in the Church of _England_,
then studying 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 believe, that it will
ever be recalled in +England+, as long as the World stands._ And you
know how miraculously the _Earth-quake_ which then immediately came upon
the Kingdom, has established that _Liberty_! But that which exceeds all
the tendencies this way, is, the dispensation of God at this Day,
towards the blessed _Vaudois_. Those renowned _Waldenses_, which were a
sort of _Root_ unto all Protestant Churches, were never dissipated, by
all the Persecutions of many Ages, till within these few years, the
_French_ King and the Duke of _Savoy_ leagued for their dissipation. But
just _Three years and a half after_ the _scattering_ of that holy
people, to the surprise of all the World, _Spirit of life from God_ is
come into them; and having with a thousand Miracles repossessed
themselves of their antient Seats, their hot _Persecutor_ is become
their great _Protector_. Whereupon the reflection of the worthy person,
that writes the story is, _The Churches of +Piemont+, being the Root of
the Protestant Churches, they have been the first established; the
Churches of other places, being but the Branches, shall be established
in due time, God will deliver them speedily, He has already delivered
the Mother, and He will not long leave the Daughter behind: He will
finish what he has gloriously begun!_
_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 Plantation, more pursued
by the _wrath_ of the _Devil_, than our poor _New-England_; and that
which makes our condition very much the more deplorable is, that the
_wrath_ of the _great God_ Himself, at the same time also presses hard
upon us. It was a rousing _alarm_ to the Devil, when a great Company of
English _Protestants_ and _Puritans_, came to erect Evangelical
Churches, in a corner of the World, where he had reign'd without any
controul 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_. Wherefor he has left no _Stone unturned_, that so
he might undermine his Plantation, and force us out of our Country.
First, The Indian _Powawes_, used all their Sorceries 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 farther than the Edges of
our Land. After this, we have had a continual _blast_ upon some of our
principal Grain, annually diminishing a vast part of our _ordinary
Food_. Herewithal, wasting _Sicknesses_, especially Burning 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
encouragement whereof these Territories have been settled. As if this
had not been enough; The _Tawnies_ among whom we came, have watered our
Soil 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 observ'd that no part of the Nation has proportionably had
so many Vessels taken, 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 Astonishment 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 days are passed away in
thy Wrath._ And I may add this unto it, _The Wrath of the Devil too has
been troubling and spending of us, all our days._
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 powerful and perspicuous
Dispensations of the Gospel, as are in the World; and when I consider
the declining state of the _Power of Godliness_ in our Churches, with
the most horrible Indisposition that perhaps 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 opportunity to try what Inferences may be drawn from these
probable Prognostications.
I say, _First_, That surely, _America's_ Fate, must at the long run
include _New-Englands_ in it. What was the design of our God, in
bringing over so many _Europaeans_ hither of later years? Of what use or
state will _America_ be, when the _Kingdom of God_ shall come? If it
must all be the Devils propriety, while the _saved Nations_ of the other
Haemisphere shall be _Walking in the Light of the New Jerusalem_, Our
_New-England_ has then, 'tis likely, done all that it was erected for.
But if God have a purpose to make here a seat for any of _those glorious
things which are spoken of thee, O thou City of God_; then even thou, _O
New-England_, art within a very little while of better days than ever
yet have dawn'd upon thee.
I say, _Secondly_, That tho' there be very _Threatning_ Symptoms on
_America_, yet there are some _hopeful_ ones. I confess, when one thinks
upon the crying Barbarities with which the most of those _Europaeans_
that have Peopled this New world, became the Masters of it; it looks but
_Ominously_. When one also thinks how much the way of living in many
parts of _America_, is utterly inconsistent with the very Essentials of
_Christianity_; yea, how much Injury and Violence is therein done to
_Humanity_ it self; it is enough to damp the Hopes of the most Sanguine
Complexion. And the _Frown_ of Heaven which has hitherto been upon
Attempts of better Gospellizing the Plantations, considered, will but
increase the _Damp_. Nevertheless, on the other side, what shall be said
of all the _Promises_, That _our Lord Jesus 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 World, 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 _England_, than we are well aware of. This is very
sure, if matters _go ill_ with our _Mother_, her poor American
_Daughter_ here, must feel it; nor could our former Happy Settlement
have hindred our sympathy in that Unhappiness. But if matters _go Well_
in the Three Kingdoms; as long as God shall bless the English Nation,
with Rulers that shall encourage _Piety_, _Honesty_, _Industry_, in
their Subjects, and that shall cast a Benign Aspect upon the Interests
of our Glorious Gospel, _Abroad_ as well as at _Home_; so long,
_New-England_ will at least keep its head above water: and so much the
more, for our comfortable Settlement in such a Form as we are now cast
into. Unless there should be any singular, destroying, _Topical
Plagues_, whereby an offended God should at last make us _Rise_; But,
_Alas, O Lord, what other Hive hast thou provided for us!_
I say, _Fourthly_, That the _Elder England_ will certainly and speedily
be Visited with the _ancient loving kindness_ of God. When one sees, how
strangely the Curse of our _Joshua_, has fallen upon the Persons and
Houses of them that have attempted the Rebuilding of the _Old_ Romish
_Jericho_, which has there been so far demolished, 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 Jerusalem_. 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 unaccountably those very
_Persons_, yea, I may also say, and those very _Methods_ which were
intended for the tools of that ruine, have become the instruments or
occasions of Deliverances? A man cannot 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 shew'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 perhaps exceed
any that has hitherto been undergone: the Lord prevent the Machinations
of his Adversaries! But that _shake_ will usher in the most _glorious
Times_ that ever 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 accomplish any thing like a
Conquest of _England_, what could there be to hinder him from the
Universal Empire of the _West_? But the _Visions_ of the Western World,
in the _Views_ both of _Daniel_ and of _John_, do assure us, that
whatever Monarch, shall while the _Papacy_ continues go to swallow up
the _Ten Kings_ which received _their Power_ upon the Fall of the
Western Empire, he must miscarry in the Attempt. The _French Phaetons_
Epitaph seems written in that, _Sure Word of Prophecy_.
[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 confirms our Conjecture; and causes us to sing, _Pharaohs
Chariots, and his Hosts, has the Lord cast down into the Sea; Thy
right-hand has dashed in pieces the Enemy!_]
Now, _In the Salvation of_ England, the Plantations cannot but
_Rejoyce_, and _New-England_ also will _be Glad_.
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 Orator call'd the Town together,
crying out, _Concurrite Cives, Dilapsa sunt vestra Moenia!_ that is,
_Come together, Neighbours, your Town-Walls are fallen down!_ But such
is the descent of the Devil at this day upon our selves, 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 _Devils_ are broke in upon us, to seduce the _Souls_,
torment 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 becoming _Incarnate_, on purpose for the
vexing of us. And what use ought now to be made of so tremendous a
dispensation? We are engaged in a _Fast_ this day; but shall we try to
fetch _Meat out 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 ways, for many years hath 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 Unparallelable.
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 creatures, to lift 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 Jesus Christ, in these parts of the World;_ and in
order hereunto, First they each of them have their _Spectres_, or
Devils, commission'd by them, & representing of them, to be the Engines
of their Malice. By these wicked _Spectres_, they seize poor people
about the Country, with various & bloudy _Torments_; and of those
evidently Preternatural torments there are some have dy'd. They have
bewitched some, even so far as to make _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 _scale_ them, and 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 divers miles together. A large part
of the persons tortured by these Diabolical _Spectres_, are horribly
tempted by them, sometimes with fair promises, and sometimes with hard
threatnings, but always with felt miseries, to sign the _Devils Laws_ in
a Spectral Book laid before them; which two or three of these poor
Sufferers, being by their tiresome sufferings overcome to do, they have
immediately been released from all their miseries and they appear'd in
_Spectre_ then to Torture those that were before their Fellow-Sufferers.
The _Witches_ which by their covenant with the Devil, are become Owners
of _Spectres_, are oftentimes by their own _Spectres_ required and
compelled to give their consent, for the molestation of some, which they
had no mind otherwise to fall upon; and cruel depredations are then made
upon the Vicinage. In the Prosecution of these Witchcrafts, among a
thousand other unaccountable things, the _Spectres_ have an odd faculty
of cloathing the most substantial and corporeal Instruments of Torture,
with Invisibility, while the wounds thereby given have been the most
palpable things in the World; so that the Sufferers assaulted with
Instruments of Iron, wholly unseen to the standers by, though, to their
cost, seen by themselves, have, upon snatching, wrested the Instruments
out of the _Spectres_ hands, and every one has then immediately not only
_beheld_, but _handled_, an Iron Instrument taken by a Devil from a
Neighbour. These wicked _Spectres_ have proceeded so far, as to steal
several quantities of Mony from divers people, part of which Money, has,
before sufficient Spectators, 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 ways have
these Wretches propounded, the _Dragooning_ of as many as they can, in
their own Combination, and the _Destroying_ of others, with lingring,
spreading, deadly diseases; till our Countrey should at last become too
hot for us. Among the Ghastly Instances of the _success_ which those
Bloody Witches have had, we have seen even some of their own Children,
so dedicated unto the Devil, that in their Infancy, it is found, the
_Imps_ have sucked them, and rendred them Venemous to a Prodigy. We have
also seen the Devils first batteries upon the Town, where the first
Church of our Lord in this Colony was gathered, producing those
distractions, which have almost ruin'd the Town. We have seen likewise
the _Plague_ reaching afterwards into other Towns far and near, where
the Houses of good Men have the Devils filling of them with terrible
Vexations!
This is the Descent, which, it seems, the Devil has now made upon us.
But that which makes this Descent the more formidable, is; The
_multitude_ 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_ persons, are by the Devils in
this matter, imposed upon; 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 _Daemons_, that
upon their look or touch, the afflicted shall be odly affected.
Arguments from the _Providence of God_, on the one side, and from our
_Charity_ towards _Man_ on the other side, have made this now to become
a most agitated Controversie among us. There is an _Agony_ produced in
the Minds of Men, lest the Devil should sham us with _Devices_, of
perhaps a finer Thred, than was ever yet practised upon the World. The
whole business is become hereupon so _Snarled_, and the determination of
the Question one way or another, so _dismal_, that our Honourable Judges
have a Room for _Jehoshaphat's_ Exclamation, _We know not what to do!_
They have used, as Judges have heretofore done, the _Spectral
Evidences_, 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 Executed. 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 Addresses to the _Father of
Lights_, on their behalf. But in the mean time, the Devil improves the
_Darkness_ 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 _considerate_ Man trembles at;
and the more, because the frequent cheats of Passion, and Rumour, do
precipitate so many, that I wish I could say, The most were
_considerate_.
But that which carries on the formidableness of our Trials, 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
permitted thus to come down upon us in _wrath_. It was said, in _Isa.
9.19._ _Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, the Land is darkned._
Our Land is _darkned_ indeed; since the _Powers of Darkness_ are turned
in upon us: 'tis a _dark time_, yea a black night indeed, now the
_Ty-dogs_ of the Pit are abroad among us: but, _It is through the wrath
of the Lord of Hosts!_ Inasmuch 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 Vengeance, too good for the chastisement of such
transgressors 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
Receptacle 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 bewitch other people, or sell Winds to Marriners,
and have their _Familiar Spirits_ which they bequeath to their Children
when they die, and by their Enchanted Kettle-Drums can learn things done
a Thousand Leagues off; If a _Swedeland_ should afford a Village, where
some scores of Haggs, may not only have their Meetings with _Familiar
Spirits_, but also 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 Aegypt_ 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 mentioned, 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_
says, 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 before their Deaths; I am verily 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 Insulting 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 penitently
lay our selves very _Low_ before the God of Heaven, 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 your selves under the mighty
hand of God._ How much more now ought we to _humble our selves_ 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 committed against the most high God, by the Witchcrafts
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 mankind, 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!_
afterwards communicating in an Hellish _Bread_ and _Wine_, by that Fiend
administred 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 Charmer, 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 Abominations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee._
That _New-England_ now should have these _Abominations_ in it, yea, that
some of no mean _Profession_, should be found guilty of them: Alas, what
_Humiliations_ 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 vindication of _this_ Country from the _Singularity_ of this matter,
by ripping up, what has been discovered in _others_. _Great Brittain_
alone, and this also in our days of _Greatest Light_, has had that in
it, which may divert the Calumnies of an ill-natured World, from
centring here. They are words of the Devout Bishop _Hall_, _Satans
prevalency in this Age, is most clear in the marvellous Number of
Witches, abounding in all places. Now Hundreds are discovered in one
Shire; and, if Fame Deceives us not, in a Village of Fourteen Houses in
the North, are found so many of this Damned Brood. Yea, and those of
both Sexes, who have Professed much Knowledge, Holiness, and Devotion,
are drawn into this Damnable Practice._ I suppose the Doctor in the
first of those Passages, may refer to what happened in the Year 1645.
When so many Vassals of the Devil were Detected, that there were
_Thirty_ try'd at one time, whereas about _fourteen_ were Hang'd, and an
Hundred more detained in the Prisons of _Suffolk_ and _Essex_. Among
other things which many of these Acknowledged, one was, That they were
to undergo certain _Punishments_, if they did not such and such _Hurts_,
as were appointed them. And, among the rest that were then Executed,
there was an Old Parson, called _Lowis_, who confessed, That he had a
couple of _Imps_, whereof _one_ was always putting him upon the doing of
Mischief; Once particularly, that _Imp_ calling for his Consent so to
do, went immediately and Sunk a _Ship_, then under Sail. I pray, let not
_New-England_ become of an Unsavoury and a Sulphurous Resentment 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
Lords Holy Mountain among us_; No it becomes us rather to be, _Humble,
because we have been such an Habitation of Unholy Devils_!
_II._ Since the Devil 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 Devil._ The Devil 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 another, 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 extreams of _Passion_ as
are now gaining upon us, the Devil will Bless himself, to find such a
convenient _Lodging_ as we shall therein afford unto him. And it may be
that the _wrath_ which we have had against one another has had more than
a little influence upon the coming down of the Devil 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 permitted the Devils to be worrying, as
they now are, among us. But it is high time to leave off all _Devilism_,
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 joyn as one man in our cries to God, for the Directing, and Issuing
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, & sont en
Division Continuelle._] _They hate one another, and are always
Quarrelling one with another._ And I shall be much more ashamed, if it
become 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 _Mar. 12.43._ _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 keenness, 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 Counsels, as would quickly Extricate us out of our
_Labyrinths_. But the old _Incendiary_ of the world, is come from Hell,
with _Sparks_ of Hell-Fire flashing on every side of him; and we make
our selves _Tynder_ to the Sparks. When the Emperour _Henry_ III. kept
the Feast of _Pentecost_, at the City _Mentz_, there arose a dissension
among some of the people there, which came from words to blows, and at
last it passed on to the shedding of Blood. After the Tumult was over,
when they came to that clause in their Devotions, _Thou hast made this
day Glorious;_ the Devil to the unexpressible Terrour of that vast
Assembly, made the Temple Ring with that Outcry _But I have made this
Day Quarrelsome!_ We are truly come into a day, which by being well
managed might be very _Glorious_, for the exterminating of those
_Accursed things_, which have hitherto been the Clogs of our Prosperity;
but if we make this day _Quarrelsome_, thro' any _Raging Confidences_,
Alas, O Lord, _my Flesh Trembles for Fear of thee, and I am afraid of
thy Judgments._ _Erasmus_, among other Historians, tells us, that at a
Town in _Germany_, a Witch or Devil, appeared on the Top of a Chimney,
Threatning to set the Town on _Fire_: And at length, Scattering a Pot of
Ashes abroad, the Town was presently and horribly Burnt unto the Ground.
Methinks, I see the _Spectres_, from the Top of the Chimneys to the
Northward, threatning to scatter _Fire_, about the Countrey; but let us
quench that _Fire_, by the most amicable Correspondencies: Lest, as the
_Spectres_, have, they say, already most Literally burnt some of our
Dwellings there do come forth a further _Fire_ from the _Brambles_ of
Hell, which may more terribly _Devour_ us. Let us not be like a
_Troubled House_, altho' we are so much haunted by the _Devils_. 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 Malignant sort of a
_Daemon_, molested _Caumont_ in _Germany_ with all sorts of methods to
stir up strife among the Citizens. He uttered Prophecies, he detected
Villanies, he branded people with all kind of Infamies. 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 burnt their Habitations, 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 _Pr. 16.17._ _When a mans
ways please the Lord, he maketh 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 _Enemy_, 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 _Providence_ 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 _displeased_ 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,
_Luke 16.30._ _If one went unto them from the dead, they will repent;_
even so, 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 _extraordinary_ things; for which cause I would
freely speak it, if we now do not some _extraordinary_ 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 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 maintain a _walk with God_. At such a time as
this ought _Magistrates_ to do something _extraordinary_ in promoting of
what is laudable, and in restraining and chastising of _Evil Doers_. At
such a time as this ought _Ministers_ to do something _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
_extraordinary_, 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 pursuance of the most excellent Admonitions which
have been given for it, by the Letters of Their Majesties. Besides the
vigorous Agreements of the _Justices_ here and there in the Kingdom,
assisted by godly Gentlemen and Informers, to Execute the _Laws_ upon
prophane Offenders; there has been started a _Proposal_ for the
well-affected people in every Parish, to enter into orderly _Societies_,
whereof every Member shall bind himself, not only to _avoid_
Prophaneness in himself, but also according unto to 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 under Legal Proceedings of this
kind, must needs be very exercising to the _Wise that observe these
things_. But, O why should not _New-England_ be the most forward part of
the English Nation in such _Reformations_? 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 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 has 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 Transgression_; 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 into 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 ways_. '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 Testimonies
which that good Man bore against it; at last, on a night after the
people had retired home from a Revelling Prophanation of the _Lords
Day_, there was heard a great Noise, with rattling of Chains up and down
the Town, and an horrid Scent of Brimstone fill'd the Neighbourhood.
Upon which the _guilty Consciences_ of the Wretches told them, the Devil
was come to fetch them away; and it so terrifi'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 whereof 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 _Witchcrafts_ is the thing that has
now introduced the Devil into the midst of us. I say then, let not only
all _Witchcrafts_ be duly abominated with us, but also let us be duly
watchful against all the _Steps_ leading thereunto. There are lesser
_Sorceries_ which they say, are too frequent in our Land. As it was said
in _2 King. 17.9._ _The Children of +Israel+ did secretly those things
that were not right, against the Lord their God._ So 'tis to be feared,
the Children of _New-England_ have _secretly_ done many things that have
been pleasing to the Devil. They say, that in some Towns it has been an
usual thing for People to cure Hurts with _Spells_, or to use detestable
Conjurations, with _Sieves_, _Keys_, and _Pease_, and _Nails_, and
_Horse-shoes_, and I know not what other Implements, to learn the things
for which they have a forbidden, and an impious _Curiosity_. 'Tis in the
Devils Name, that such things are done; and in Gods Name I do this day
charge them, as vile Impieties. By these Courses 'tis, that People play
upon _The Hole of the Asp_, till that cruelly venemous _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 deepest into this _horrible Pit_,
that they began at these little _Witchcrafts_; on which 'tis pity but
the Laws of the English Nation, whereby the incorrigible repetition of
those _Tricks_, is made _Felony_, were severely Executed. From the like
sinful _Curiosity_ it is, that the Prognostications of _Judicial
Astrology_, are so injudiciously regarded by multitudes among us; and
altho' the Jugling _Astrologers_ do scarce ever hit right, except it be
in such _Weighty Judgments_, forsooth, as that many _Old Men_ will die
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 foolish 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 Pamphlets of such idle, futil, trifling
_Stargazers_ 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 perillous to the Souls of Men. It
is (_a Science_, I dare not call it, but) a _Juggle_, whereof the
Learned _Hall_ well says, _It is presumptuous and unwarrantable, and
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 _Poison_ of
_Witchcraft_ that can't be cured. Has there not also been a world of
_discontent_ in our Borders? 'Tis no wonder, that the _fiery Serpents_
are so Stinging of us; We have been a most _Murmuring Generation_. It is
not Irrational, to ascribe the late Stupendious 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 wrath, 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 despised,
among any People under the whole Cope of Heaven, than in this _N. E._
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 Unbelief has cast upon
these proffers, I would seriously ask of the so many Hundreds above a
Thousand 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
Heavenly 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 vengeance 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 Pity_, should we Lay to Heart the
Condition of those, who are cast into Affliction, by the _Great Wrath_
of the Devil. 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 being primarily
Inflicted on their _Spirits_, may indeed cause the Impressions thereof
upon their Bodies to be the less _Durable_, tho' rather the more
_Sensible_: but they Endure Horrible Things, and many have been actually
Murdered. Hard _Censures_ 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 easie thing, for us to fall into the Fault of, _Adding
Affliction to the Afflicted_, and of, _Talking to the Grief of those
that are already wounded_. 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
Compassionate the Distressed County of _Essex_, now crying to all these
Colonies, _Have pity on me, O ye my Friends, Have pity 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 hearty _pity_ be due to
any, I am sure, the Difficulties which attend our Honourable _Judges_,
do demand no Inconsiderable share in that _Pity_. 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 unseeing 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 Removal whereof we
never shall have _Peace_; or to 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 be concerned, that the
Sins of our _Israel_, may not provoke the God of Heaven to leave his
_Davids_, unto a wrong Step, in a matter of such Consequence, as is now
before them! Our Disingenuous, Uncharitable, Unchristian Reproaching of
such _Faithful 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
_Pity_ to forget such _Accused_ ones, as call for indeed our most
Compassionate _Pity_, till there be fuller Evidences that they are less
worthy of it. If _Satan_ have any where maliciously brought upon the
_Stage_, those that have hitherto 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 _Mankind_, 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 Accuser_! Who of
us can say, what may be shewn 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 always 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 _Judgment_ 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_. The way to come under the Saving Influences of the _New
Covenant_, is, to close with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the
All-sufficient _Mediator_ of it: Let us therefore do, _that_, by
Resigning up our selves unto the Saving, Teaching, and Ruling Hands of
this Blessed _Mediator_. Then we shall be, what we read in _Jude 1._
_Preserved in Christ Jesus_: That is, as the _Destroying Angel_, could
not meddle with such as had been distinguished, 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 literally 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 Clocquing unto
us, _O that you would be gathered under my wings!_ Well; When this is
done, Then let us own the _Covenant_, which we are now come into, by
joining our selves to a Particular _Church_, walking in the Order of the
Gospel; at the doing whereof, according to that _Covenant_ of God, We
give up Our selves unto the Lord, and in Him unto One Another. 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 Living
in Jerusalem_. 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_, utterly
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 Churches 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 our selves,
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 Pourtraiture 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 Devilish
Symbols, of such a Dedication, Provoke our _Zeal_ to have our Children,
Sincerely, Signally, and openly _Consecrated_ unto 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 Flagellum_, as well as, _Miseriae Remedium_; the Devil
will soon be Scourg'd out of the Lord's Temple, by a _Whip_, made and
used, with the _effectual fervent Prayer of Righteous Men_. When the
Devil 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 _Matt.
17.21._ _This Kind goes not out, but by Prayer and Fasting._ But,
_Prayer and Fasting_ will soon make the Devil 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 Iniquity fallen, all of them!_ And who can tell, how much the most
_Obscure Christian_ among you all, may do towards the Deliverance of our
Land from the Molestations which the Devil is now giving to us. I have
Read, That on a day of Prayer kept by some good People for and with a
Possessed Person, the Devil at last flew out of the Window, and
referring 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 Hazard, lest the Devil by Compulsion must submit to
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 Ungodly deeds may be brought forth, by a _Great Work_ of
God; there is great Hazard lest the Devil intertwist some of his
Delusions. 'Tis PRAYER, I say, 'tis PRAYER, that must carry us well
through 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 Principalities and Powers, on his Cross, Triumphing over
them_!
_VIII._ Lastly, Shake off, every Soul, shake off the _hard Yoak_ of the
Devil. Where 'tis said, _The whole World lyes in Wickedness;_ 'tis by
some of the Ancients rendred, _The whole World lyes 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; Chuse him with a most unalterable
Resolution, and unto 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,
Possessing a young Woman, at a Village in _Germany_, _By the command of
God, I am come to Torment the Body of this young Woman, tho I cannot
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; however I
know that at the Last Day, I shall have more Souls than God himself._
So spoke that horrible 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 forced to declare, of his Kingdom among us, may prejudice our
Hearts against him for ever!
My Text says, _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 through 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 smoak of your
Torment under that Wrath, will _Ascend for ever and ever_! Indeed, the
Devil's 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 before my
time?_ You will _Torment_ the Devil, if you Rescue your Souls out of his
hands, by true Repentance: If once you begin to look that way, he'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 holy 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 People should come to _think
upon their ways, till even 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 Addressed you. _Amen._
* * * * *
Having thus discoursed on the _Wonders of the Invisible World_, I shall
now, with God's help, go on to relate some Remarkable and Memorable
Instances of _Wonders_ which that _World_ has given to ourselves. And
altho the chief Entertainment which my Readers do expect, and shall
receive, will be a true History of what has occurred, respecting the
WITCHCRAFTS wherewith we are at this day Persecuted; yet I shall choose
to usher in the mention of those things, with
A NARRATIVE OF AN APPARITION WHICH
A GENTLEMAN IN BOSTON, HAD OF HIS BROTHER,
JUST THEN MURTHERED IN LONDON.
It was on the Second of _May_ in the Year 1687, that a most ingenious,
accomplished and well-disposed Gentleman, Mr. _Joseph Beacon_, by Name,
about Five a Clock in the Morning, as he lay, whether Sleeping or Waking
he could not say, (but judged the latter of them) had a View of his
Brother then at _London_, altho he was now himself at Our _Boston_,
distanced from him a thousand Leagues. This his Brother appear'd unto
him, in the Morning about Five a Clock at _Boston_, having on him a
_Bengal_ Gown, which he usually wore, with a Napkin tyed about his Head;
his Countenance was very Pale, Gastly, Deadly, and he had a bloody Wound
on one side of his Fore-head. _Brother!_ says the Affrighted _Joseph_.
_Brother!_ Answered the Apparition. Said _Joseph_, _What's the matter
Brother? How came you here!_ The Apparition replied, _Brother, I have
been most barbarously and injuriously Butchered, by a Debauched Drunken
Fellow, to whom I never did any wrong in my Life._ Whereupon he gave a
particular Description of the Murderer; adding, _Brother, This Fellow
changing his Name, is attempting to come over unto +New-England+, in
+Foy+, or +Wild+; I would pray you on the first Arrival of either of
these, to get an Order from the Governor, to Seize the Person, whom I
have now described; and then do you Indict him for the Murder of me your
Brother: I'll stand by you and prove the Indictment._ And so he
Vanished. Mr. _Beacon_ was extreamly astonished at what he had seen and
hear'd; and the People of the Family not only observed an extraordinary
Alteration upon him, for the Week following, but have also given me
under their Hands a full Testimony, that he then gave them an Account of
this Apparition.
All this while, Mr. _Beacon_ had no advice of any thing amiss attending
his Brother then in _England_; but about the latter end of _June_
following, he understood by the common ways of Communication, that the
_April_ before, his Brother going in haste by Night to call a Coach for
a Lady, met a Fellow then in Drink, with his _Doxy_ in his Hand: Some
way or other the Fellow thought himself Affronted with the hasty passage
of this _Beacon_, and immediately ran into the Fire-side of a
Neighbouring Tavern, from whence he fetch'd out a Fire-fork, wherewith
he grievously wounded _Beacon_ in the Skull; even in that very part
where the Apparition show'd his Wound. Of this Wound he Languished until
he Dyed on the Second of _May_, about five of the Clock in the Morning
at _London_. The Murderer it seems was endeavouring to Escape, as the
Apparition affirm'd, but the Friends of the Deceased _Beacon_, Seized
him; and Prosecuting him at Law, he found the help of such Friends as
brought him off without the loss of his Life; since which, there has no
more been heard of the Business.
This History I received of Mr. _Joseph Beacon_ himself; who a little
before his own Pious and hopeful Death, which follow'd not long after,
gave me the Story written and signed with his own Hand, and attested
with the Circumstances I have already mentioned.
* * * * *
But I shall no longer detain my Reader, from his expected Entertainment,
in a b
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