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 [50] 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,[140] 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