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
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
_Employing 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) [10] but this, _The things were then Darted into their minds_.
_Darted!_ Ye Wretches;[60] 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_.[61] 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.[62]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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