The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England, to which is added A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New-England WitchesMather, Cotton
History
The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England, to which is added A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches
Mather, Cotton
Witchcraft -- New England -- Early works to 1800
II. There are most Hellish _Blasphemies_ often buzz'd by the
_Temptations_ of the Devil, into the minds of the best Men alive. What a
most Execrable Thing was here laid before our Lord Himself: Even, To own
the _Devil as God_! a thing that can't be uttered, without unutterable
Horror of Soul. The best man on earth, may have such _Fiery Darts_ from
Hell shot into his mind. One that was acted by the _Devil_, had the
impudence to propound this unto such a good man as _Job_, _Curse God_. And
the Devil pleases himself, by chusing the Hearts of good men, with his
base Injections, _That there is no God_, or, _That God is not a
Righteous God_; and a thousand more such things, too Devilish to be
mentioned. A good man is extreamly grieved at it, when he hears a
_Blasphemy_ from the mouth of another man; said the Psalmist, in _Psal.
44.15, 16._ _My Confusion is continually before me, for the voice of him
that Blasphemeth._ But much more when a good man finds a _Blasphemy_ in
his own Heart; O it throws him into most Fevourish Agonies of Soul. For
this cause, a mischievous Devil, will _Flie blow_ the Heart of such a
man, with such Blasphemous Thoughts, as make him crie out, _Lord I am
e'n weary of my life._ Yea, the Devil serves the man just as the
Mistress of _Joseph_ dealt with him; he importunes the man to think
wickedly from Day to Day; and if the man refuse, he cries out at last,
_Behold, what wicked thoughts this man has lodging in him._ Sayst thou
so? _Satan!_ No, they are Baits of thy own; and at thy Door alone shall
they be laid for ever.
III. There is a sort of Witchcrafts in those things, whereto the
Temptations of the Devil would inveigle us. To worship the Devil is
Witchcraft, and under that notion was our Lord urged unto sin. We are
told in _1 Sam. 15.23._ _Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft:_ When
the Devil would have us to sin, he would have us to do the things which
the forlorn Witches use to do. Perhaps there are few persons, ever
allured by the Devil unto an Explicit Covenant with himself. If any
among ourselves be so, my councel is, that you hunt the Devil from you,
with such words as the Psalmist had, _Be gone, Depart from me, ye evil
Doers, for I will keep the Commandments of my God._ But alas, the most
of men, are by the Devil put upon doing the things that are Analogous to
the worst usages of Witches. The Devil says to the sinner, _Despise thy
Baptism, and all the Bond of it, and all the Good of it._ The Devil says
to the sinner, _Come, cast off the Authority of God, and refuse the
Salvation of Christ for ever._ Yea, the Devil who is called, _The God of
this World_, would have us to take Him for Our God, and rather Hear Him,
Trust Him, Serve Him, than the God that formed us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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