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
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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
learned Men suppose to be under a false Notion of Witches, by _Saul_
exterminated.
They would have all due steps taken for the Extinction of Witches; but
they would fain have them to be sure ones; nor is it from any thing, but
the real and hearty goodness of such Men, that they are loth to surmise
ill of other Men, till there be the fullest Evidence for the surmises.
As for the Honourable Judges that have been hitherto in the Commission,
they are above my Consideration: wherefore I will only say thus much of
them, That such of them as I have the Honour of a Personal Acquaintance
with, are Men of an excellent Spirit; and as at first they went about
the work for which they were Commission'd, with a very great aversion,
so they have still been under Heart-breaking Sollicitudes, how they
might therein best serve both God and Man? In fine, Have there been
faults on any side fallen into? Surely, they have at worst been but the
faults of a well-meaning Ignorance. On every side then, why should not
we endeavour with amicable Correspondencies, to help one another out of
the Snares wherein the Devil would involve us? To wrangle the Devil out
of the Country, will be truly a New Experiment: Alas! we are not aware
of the Devil, if we do not think, that he aims at inflaming us one
against another; and shall we suffer our selves to be Devil-ridden? or
by any unadvisableness contribute unto the Widening of our Breaches?
To say no more, there is a published and credible Relation; which
affirms, That very lately in a part of _England_, where some of the
Neighbourhood were quarrelling, a _Raven_ from the Top of a Tree very
articulately and unaccountably cry'd out, _Read the Third of Colossians
and the Fifteenth!_ Were I my self to chuse what sort of Bird I would be
transformed into, I would say, _O that I had wings like a Dove!_
Nevertheless, I will for once do the Office, which as it seems, Heaven
sent that Raven upon; even to beg, _That the Peace of God may Rule in
our Hearts._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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