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
does thereby _Gain_ the Hearts of Men; he did but feign a Need, when
he told _Saul, the Cattel must be spared, and the sacrifice must be
precipitated_, and he does but feign a Need, when he tells many a man,
_if you do no servile work on the Sabbath-day, and if you don't Rob
God of his evening_,[207] _you'll never subsist in the world_. All
the denials of God, in the world, use to be from this Fallacy impos'd
upon us. It never can be necessary for us to violate any Negative
Commandment in the Law of our God; where God says, _thou shalt not_,
we cannot upon any pretence reply, I _must_. But the Devil will put a
most formidable and astonishing face of necessity upon many of those
_Abominable things, which are hateful to the soul of God_. He'll say
nothing to us about, the one thing needful; but the petite and the
sorry _Need-nots_ of this world, he'll set off with most bloody Colours
of _Necessity_. He will not say, _'tis necessary for you to maintain
the Favour of your God, and secure the_ welfare of your Soul; but he'll
say, _'tis necessary for you to keep in with your Neighbours; and that
you and yours may have a good Living among them_.
III. The Devil does insinuate his most Horrible _Temptations_, with
pretence, of much _Friendship_ and _Kindness_ for us. He seemed very
unwilling that our Lord should want any thing that might be comfortable
for him; but, he was a _Devil_ still! The _Devil_ flatters our Mother
Eve, as if he was desirous to make her more Happy than her Maker
did; but there was the _Devil_ in that flattery. _Sub Amici fallere
Nomen_,----to Salute men with profers to do all manner of Service for
them; and at the same time to Stab them as _Joab_ did _Abner_ of old;
this is just like the _Devil_, and the _Devil_ truly has many Children
that Imitate him in it. Some very Affectionate Things were spoken
once unto our Lord; _Lord, be it far from thee, that thou shouldest
suffer any Trouble!_ But our Lords Answer was, in Mat. 16. 23. _Get
thee behind me Satan._ The Devil will say to a man, _I would have thee
to Consult thy own Interest, and I would have Trouble to be far from
thee_. He speaks these _Fair Things_, by the Mouths of our professed
Friends unto us, as he did by the Tongue of a Speckled Snake unto our
Deluded Parents at the first. But all this while, 'tis a Direction that
has been wisely given us; _When he speaks fair, Believe him not, for
there are seven Abominations in his Heart_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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