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
S. II. The _New-Englanders_ are a People of God settled in those, which
were once the _Devil's_ Territories; and it may easily be supposed that
the _Devil_ was exceedingly disturbed, when he perceived such a People
here accomplishing the Promise of old made unto our Blessed Jesus, _That
He should have the Utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession._ There
was not a greater Uproar among the _Ephesians_, when the Gospel was
first brought among them, than there was among, _The Powers of the Air_
(after whom those _Ephesians_ walked) when first the _Silver Trumpets_
of the Gospel here made the _Joyful Sound_. The Devil thus Irritated,
immediately try'd all sorts of Methods to overturn this poor Plantation:
and so much of the Church, as was _Fled into this Wilderness_,
immediately found, _The Serpent cast out of his Mouth a Flood for the
carrying of it away._ I believe, that never were more _Satanical
Devices_ used for the Unsetling of any People under the Sun, than what
have been Employ'd for the Extirpation of the _Vine_ which God has here
_Planted_, _Casting out the Heathen, and preparing a Room before it, and
causing it to take deep Root, and fill the Land, so that it sent its
Boughs unto the +Atlantic+ Sea +Eastward+, and its Branches unto the
+Connecticut+ River +Westward+, and the Hills were covered with the
shadow thereof._ But, All those Attempts of Hell, have hitherto been
Abortive, many an _Ebenezer_ has been Erected unto the Praise of God, by
his Poor People here; and, _Having obtained Help from God, we continue
to this Day._ Wherefore the Devil is now making one Attempt more upon
us; an Attempt more Difficult, more Surprizing, more snarl'd with
unintelligible Circumstances than any that we have hitherto Encountred;
an Attempt so _Critical_, that if we get well through, we shall soon
Enjoy _Halcyon_ Days with all the _Vultures_ of Hell _Trodden under our
Feet_. He has wanted his _Incarnate Legions_ to Persecute us, as the
People of God have in the other Hemisphere been Persecuted: he has
therefore drawn forth his more _Spiritual_ ones to make an Attacque upon
us. We have been advised by some Credible Christians yet alive, that a
Malefactor, accused of _Witchcraft_ as well as _Murder_, and Executed in
this place more than Forty Years ago, did then give Notice of, _An
Horrible PLOT against the Country by WITCHCRAFT, and a Foundation of
WITCHCRAFT then laid, which if it were not seasonally discovered, would
probably Blow up, and pull down all the Churches in the Country._ And we
have now with Horror seen the _Discovery_ of such a _Witchcraft_! An
Army of _Devils_ is horribly broke in upon the place which is the
_Center_, and after a sort, the _First-born_ of our _English_
Settlements: and the Houses of the Good People there are fill'd with the
doleful Shrieks of their Children and Servants, Tormented by Invisible
Hands, with Tortures altogether preternatural. After the Mischiefs there
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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