The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination, (Vol. 1 of 3)Mather, Cotton
History
The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination, (Vol. 1 of 3)
Mather, Cotton
Witchcraft -- New England
_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. 7.
_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 [47] 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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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