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
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.[97] 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 _sensibly_ 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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