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
_live_ unto the _end_ of it; and to say with the Psalmist, _Because the
Lord will shortly appear in his Glory to build up_ Zion. _O my God!
Take me not away in the midst of my days._ Yet when we bear in mind,
_that the Devils Wrath is now most great_, it would make one willing to
be _out of the way_. Inasmuch as now is the time for the doing of those
things in the prospect whereof _Balaam_ long ago cry'd out _Who shall
live when such things are done!_ We should not be inordinatly loth to
_die_ at such a time. In a word, the _Times_ are so _bad_, that we may
well count it, as _good_ a _time_ to die in, as ever we saw.
_Corollary V._
Good News for the _Israel_ of God, and particularly for his
_New-English Israel_. If the Devils _Time_ were above a _thousand
years ago_, pronounced _short_, what may we suppose it now in _our_
Time? Surely _we_ are not a _thousand years_ distant from those happy
_thousand years_ of rest and peace, and [which is better] _Holiness_
reserved for the People of God in the latter days; and if we are not a
_thousand years_ yet short of that Golden Age, there is cause to think,
that we are not an _hundred_. That the blessed _Thousand years_ are not
yet begun, is abundantly clear [35] from this, _We do not see the Devil
bound;_ No, the Devil was never more let _loose_ than in our Days; and
it is very much that any should imagine otherwise: But the same thing
that proves the _Thousand Years_ of prosperity for the Church of God,
under the whole Heaven, to be not yet _begun_, does also prove, that it
is not very _far off;_ and that is the prodigious _wrath_ with which
the Devil does in our days Persecute, yea, desolate the World. Let
us cast our Eyes almost where we will, and we shall see the _Devils_
domineering at such a rate as may justly fill us with astonishment; it
is questionable whether _Iniquity_ ever were so rampant, or whether
_Calamity_ were ever so pungent, as in this Lamentable _time;_ We may
truly say, _'Tis the Hour and the Power of Darkness_. But, tho' the
_wrath_ be so _great_, the _time_ is but _short:_ when we are perplexed
with the _wrath_ of the Devil, the _Word_ of our God at the same time
unto us, is that in Rom. 16. 20. _The God of Peace shall bruise Satan
under your feet Shortly._ Shortly, didst thou say, dearest Lord! O
gladsome word! Amen, _Even so, come Lord! Lord Jesus, come quickly!
We shall never be rid of this troublesome Devil, till thou do come to
Chain him up!_
But because the people of God, would willingly be told _whereabouts_ we
are, with reference to the _wrath and the time_ of the Devil, you shall
give me leave humbly to set before you a few _Conjectures_.
_The first Conjecture._
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