Wonders of the Invisible World, and A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New England Witches — 13. An Hortatory and Necessary Address, Part I

Now, _In the Salvation of_ England, the Plantations cannot but _Rejoyce_, and _New-England_ also will _be Glad_.

But so much for our _Corollaries_, I hasten to the main thing designed for your entertainment.

And that is, AN HORTATORY AND NECESSARY ADDRESS,

TO A COUNTRY NOW EXTRAORDINARILY ALARUM'D

BY THE WRATH OF THE DEVIL.

TIS THIS,

Let us now make a good and a right use of the prodigious _descent_ which the _Devil_ in _Great Wrath_ is at this day making upon our Land.

Upon the Death of a Great Man once, an Orator call'd the Town together, crying out, _Concurrite Cives, Dilapsa sunt vestra Moenia!

_ that is, _Come together, Neighbours, your Town-Walls are fallen down!

_ But such is the descent of the Devil at this day upon our selves, that I may truly tell you, _The Walls of the whole World are broken down!

_ The usual _Walls_ of defence about mankind have such a Gap made in them, that the very _Devils_ are broke in upon us, to seduce the _Souls_, torment the _Bodies_, sully the _Credits_, and consume the _Estates_ of our Neighbours, with Impressions both as _real_ and as _furious_, as if the _Invisible_ World were becoming _Incarnate_, on purpose for the vexing of us.

And what use ought now to be made of so tremendous a dispensation?

We are engaged in a _Fast_ this day; but shall we try to fetch _Meat out of the Eater_, and make the _Lion_ to afford some _Hony_ for our _Souls_?

That the Devil is _come down unto us with great Wrath_, we find, we feel, we now deplore.

In many ways, for many years hath the Devil been assaying to Extirpate the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus here.

_New-England_ may complain of the Devil, as in _Psal.

129. 1, 2. _ _Many a time have they afflicted me, from my Youth, may +New-England+ now say; many a time have they afflicted me from my Youth; yet they have not prevailed against me.

_ But now there is a more than ordinary _affliction_, with which the _Devil_ is Galling of us: and such an one as is indeed Unparallelable.

The things confessed by _Witches_, and the things endured by _Others_, laid together, amount unto this account of our _Affliction_.

The _Devil_, Exhibiting himself ordinarily as a small _Black man_, has decoy'd a fearful knot of proud, froward, ignorant, envious and malicious creatures, to lift themselves in his horrid Service, by entring their Names in a _Book_ by him tendred unto them.

These _Witches_, whereof above a Score have now _Confessed, and shown their Deeds_, and some are now tormented by the Devils, for _Confessing_, have met in Hellish _Randezvouzes_, wherein the Confessors do say, they have had their diabolical Sacraments, imitating the _Baptism_ and the _Supper_ of our Lord.

In these hellish meetings, these Monsters have associated themselves to do no less a thing than, _To destroy the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, in these parts of the World;_ and in order hereunto, First they each of them have their _Spectres_, or Devils, commission'd by them, & representing of them, to be the Engines of their Malice.

By these wicked _Spectres_, they seize poor people about the Country, with various & bloudy _Torments_; and of those evidently Preternatural torments there are some have dy'd. They have bewitched some, even so far as to make _Self-destroyers_: and others are in many Towns here and there languishing under their _Evil hands_.

The people thus afflicted, are miserably scratched and bitten, so that the Marks are most visible to all the World, but the causes utterly invisible; and the same Invisible Furies do most visibly stick Pins into the bodies of the afflicted, and _scale_ them, and hideously distort, and disjoint all their members, besides a thousand other sorts of Plagues beyond these of any natural diseases which they give unto them.

Yea, they sometimes drag the poor people out of their chambers, and carry them over Trees and Hills, for divers miles together.

A large part of the persons tortured by these Diabolical _Spectres_, are horribly tempted by them, sometimes with fair promises, and sometimes with hard threatnings, but always with felt miseries, to sign the _Devils Laws_ in a Spectral Book laid before them; which two or three of these poor Sufferers, being by their tiresome sufferings overcome to do, they have immediately been released from all their miseries and they appear'd in _Spectre_ then to Torture those that were before their Fellow-Sufferers.

The _Witches_ which by their covenant with the Devil, are become Owners of _Spectres_, are oftentimes by their own _Spectres_ required and compelled to give their consent, for the molestation of some, which they had no mind otherwise to fall upon; and cruel depredations are then made upon the Vicinage.

In the Prosecution of these Witchcrafts, among a thousand other unaccountable things, the _Spectres_ have an odd faculty of cloathing the most substantial and corporeal Instruments of Torture, with Invisibility, while the wounds thereby given have been the most palpable things in the World; so that the Sufferers assaulted with Instruments of Iron, wholly unseen to the standers by, though, to their cost, seen by themselves, have, upon snatching, wrested the Instruments out of the _Spectres_ hands, and every one has then immediately not only _beheld_, but _handled_, an Iron Instrument taken by a Devil from a Neighbour.

These wicked _Spectres_ have proceeded so far, as to steal several quantities of Mony from divers people, part of which Money, has, before sufficient Spectators, been dropt out of the Air into the Hands of the Sufferers, while the _Spectres_ have been urging them to subscribe their _Covenant with Death_.

In such extravagant ways have these Wretches propounded, the _Dragooning_ of as many as they can, in their own Combination, and the _Destroying_ of others, with lingring, spreading, deadly diseases; till our Countrey should at last become too hot for us.

Among the Ghastly Instances of the _success_ which those Bloody Witches have had, we have seen even some of their own Children, so dedicated unto the Devil, that in their Infancy, it is found, the _Imps_ have sucked them, and rendred them Venemous to a Prodigy.

We have also seen the Devils first batteries upon the Town, where the first Church of our Lord in this Colony was gathered, producing those distractions, which have almost ruin'd the Town.

We have seen likewise the _Plague_ reaching afterwards into other Towns far and near, where the Houses of good Men have the Devils filling of them with terrible Vexations!

This is the Descent, which, it seems, the Devil has now made upon us.

But that which makes this Descent the more formidable, is; The _multitude_ and _quality_ of Persons accused of an interest in this _Witchcraft_, by the Efficacy of the _Spectres_ which take their Name and shape upon them; causing very many good and wise Men to fear, That many _innocent_, yea, and some _vertuous_ persons, are by the Devils in this matter, imposed upon; That the Devils have obtain'd the power, to take on them the likeness of harmless people, and in that likeness to afflict other people, and be so abused by Praestigious _Daemons_, that upon their look or touch, the afflicted shall be odly affected.

Arguments from the _Providence of God_, on the one side, and from our _Charity_ towards _Man_ on the other side, have made this now to become a most agitated Controversie among us.

There is an _Agony_ produced in the Minds of Men, lest the Devil should sham us with _Devices_, of perhaps a finer Thred, than was ever yet practised upon the World.

The whole business is become hereupon so _Snarled_, and the determination of the Question one way or another, so _dismal_, that our Honourable Judges have a Room for _Jehoshaphat's_ Exclamation, _We know not what to do!

_ They have used, as Judges have heretofore done, the _Spectral Evidences_, to introduce their further Enquiries into the _Lives_ of the persons accused; and they have thereupon, by the wonderful Providence of God, been so strengthened with _other evidences_, that some of the _Witch Gang_ have been fairly Executed.

But what shall be done, as to those against whom the _evidence_ is chiefly founded in the _dark world_?

Here they do solemnly demand our Addresses to the _Father of Lights_, on their behalf.

But in the mean time, the Devil improves the _Darkness_ of this Affair, to push us into a _Blind Mans Buffet_, and we are even ready to be _sinfully_, yea, hotly, and madly, mauling one another in the _dark_.

The consequence of these things, every _considerate_ Man trembles at;

and the more, because the frequent cheats of Passion, and Rumour, do precipitate so many, that I wish I could say, The most were _considerate_.

But that which carries on the formidableness of our Trials, unto that which may be called, _A wrath unto the uttermost_, is this: It is not without the _wrath_ of the Almighty _God_ himself, that the _Devil_ is permitted thus to come down upon us in _wrath_.

It was said, in _Isa.

9. 19. _ _Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, the Land is darkned.

_ Our Land is _darkned_ indeed; since the _Powers of Darkness_ are turned in upon us: 'tis a _dark time_, yea a black night indeed, now the _Ty-dogs_ of the Pit are abroad among us: but, _It is through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts!

_ Inasmuch as the _Fire-brands_ of _Hell_ it self are used for the scorching of us, with cause enough may we cry out, _What means the heat of this anger?

_ Blessed Lord!

Are all the other Instruments of thy Vengeance, too good for the chastisement of such transgressors as we are?

Must the very _Devils_ be sent out of _Their own place_, to be our Troublers: Must we be lash'd with _Scorpions_, fetch'd from the _Place of Torment_?

Must this _Wilderness_ be made a Receptacle for the _Dragons of the Wilderness_?

If a _Lapland_ should nourish in it vast numbers, the successors of the old _Biarmi_, who can with looks or words bewitch other people, or sell Winds to Marriners, and have their _Familiar Spirits_ which they bequeath to their Children when they die, and by their Enchanted Kettle-Drums can learn things done a Thousand Leagues off; If a _Swedeland_ should afford a Village, where some scores of Haggs, may not only have their Meetings with _Familiar Spirits_, but also by their Enchantments drag many scores of poor children out of their Bed-chambers, to be spoiled at those Meetings;

This, were not altogether a matter of so much wonder!

But that _New-England_ should this way be harassed!

They are not _Chaldeans_, that _Bitter and Hasty Nation_, but they are, _Bitter and Burning Devils_; They are not _Swarthy Indians_, but they are _Sooty Devils_;

that are let loose upon us.

Ah, Poor _New-England_!

Must the plague of _Old Aegypt_ come upon thee?

Whereof we read in _Psal.

78. 49. _ _He cast upon them the fierceness of his Anger, Wrath, and Indignation, and Trouble, by sending Evil Angels among them.

_ What, O what must next be looked for?

Must that which is there next mentioned, be next encountered?

_He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the Pestilence.

_ For my part, when I consider what _Melancthon_ says, in one of his Epistles, _That these Diabolical Spectacles are often Prodigies;_ and when I consider, how often people have been by _Spectres_ called upon, just before their Deaths; I am verily afraid, lest some wasting _Mortality_ be among the things, which this Plague is the _Forerunner_ of.

I pray God prevent it!

But now, _What shall we do?

_ _I.

_ Let the Devils _coming down_ in _great wrath_ upon us, cause us to _come down_ in _great grief_ before the Lord.

We may truly and sadly say, _We are brought very low!

_ _Low_ indeed, when the Serpents of the dust, are crawling and coyling about us, and Insulting over us.

May we not say, _We are in the very belly of Hell_, when _Hell_ it self is feeding upon us?

But how _Low_ is that!

O let us then most penitently lay our selves very _Low_ before the God of Heaven, who has thus Abased us.

When a Truculent _Nero_, a _Devil_ of a Man, was turned in upon the World, it was said, in _1 Pet.

5. 6. _ _Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God.

_ How much more now ought we to _humble our selves_ under that _Mighty Hand_ of that God who indeed has the _Devil_ in a _Chain_, but has horribly lengthened out the _Chain_!

When the old people of God heard any _Blasphemies_, tearing of his Ever-Blessed Name to pieces, they were to _Rend their Cloaths_ at what they heard.

I am sure that we have cause to _Rend our Hearts_ this Day, when we see what an High Treason has been committed against the most high God, by the Witchcrafts in our Neighbourhood.

We may say; and shall we not be _humbled_ when we say it?

_We have seen an horrible thing done in our Land!

_ O 'tis a most humbling thing, to think, that ever there should be such an abomination among us, as for a crue of humane race, to renounce their _Maker_, and to unite with the _Devil_, for the troubling of mankind, and for People to be, (as is by some confess'd) _Baptized_ by a _Fiend_ using this form upon them, _Thou art mine, and I have a full power over thee!

_ afterwards communicating in an Hellish _Bread_ and _Wine_, by that Fiend administred unto them.

It was said in _Deut.

18. 10, 11, 12. _ _There shall not be found among you an Inchanter, or a Witch, or a Charmer, or a Consulter with Familiar Spirits, or a Wizzard, or a Necromancer; For all that do these things are an Abomination to the Lord, and because of these Abominations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee.

_ That _New-England_ now should have these _Abominations_ in it, yea, that some of no mean _Profession_, should be found guilty of them: Alas, what _Humiliations_ are we all hereby oblig'd unto?

O 'tis a _Defiled Land_, wherein we live; Let us be humbled for these _Defiling Abominations_, lest we be driven out of our Land.

It's a very _humbling_ thing to think, what reproaches will be cast upon us, for this matter, among _The Daughters of the Philistines_.

Indeed, enough might easily be said for the vindication of _this_ Country from the _Singularity_ of this matter, by ripping up, what has been discovered in _others_.

_Great Brittain_ alone, and this also in our days of _Greatest Light_, has had that in it, which may divert the Calumnies of an ill-natured World, from centring here.

They are words of the Devout Bishop _Hall_, _Satans prevalency in this Age, is most clear in the marvellous Number of Witches, abounding in all places.

Now Hundreds are discovered in one Shire; and, if Fame Deceives us not, in a Village of Fourteen Houses in the North, are found so many of this Damned Brood.

Yea, and those of both Sexes, who have Professed much Knowledge, Holiness, and Devotion, are drawn into this Damnable Practice.

_ I suppose the Doctor in the first of those Passages, may refer to what happened in the Year 1645. When so many Vassals of the Devil were Detected, that there were _Thirty_ try'd at one time, whereas about _fourteen_ were Hang'd, and an Hundred more detained in the Prisons of _Suffolk_ and _Essex_.

Among other things which many of these Acknowledged, one was, That they were to undergo certain _Punishments_, if they did not such and such _Hurts_, as were appointed them.

And, among the rest that were then Executed, there was an Old Parson, called _Lowis_, who confessed, That he had a couple of _Imps_, whereof _one_ was always putting him upon the doing of Mischief; Once particularly, that _Imp_ calling for his Consent so to do, went immediately and Sunk a _Ship_, then under Sail.

I pray, let not _New-England_ become of an Unsavoury and a Sulphurous Resentment in the Opinion of the World abroad, for the Doleful things which are now fallen out among us, while there are such _Histories_ of other places abroad in the World.

Nevertheless, I am sure that _we_, the People of _New-England_, have cause enough to _Humble_ our selves under our most _Humbling_ Circumstances.

We must no more be _Haughty, because of the Lords Holy Mountain among us_; No it becomes us rather to be, _Humble, because we have been such an Habitation of Unholy Devils_!

_II.

_ Since the Devil is _come down in great wrath_ upon us, let not us in our _great wrath_ against one another provide a _Lodging_ for him.

It was a most wholesome caution, in _Eph.

4. 26, 27. _ _Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the Devil.

_ The Devil is come down to see what _Quarter_ he shall find among us: And if his coming down, do now fill us with _wrath_ against one another, and if between the cause of the _Sufferers_ on one hand, and the cause of the _Suspected_ on t'other, we carry things to such extreams of _Passion_ as are now gaining upon us, the Devil will Bless himself, to find such a convenient _Lodging_ as we shall therein afford unto him.

And it may be that the _wrath_ which we have had against one another has had more than a little influence upon the coming down of the Devil in that _wrath_ which now amazes us.

Have not many of us been _Devils_ one unto another for Slanderings, for Backbitings, for Animosities?

For _this_, among other causes, perhaps, God has permitted the Devils to be worrying, as they now are, among us.

But it is high time to leave off all _Devilism_, when the _Devil_ himself is falling upon us: And it is _no time_ for us to be Censuring and Reviling one another, with a _Devilish wrath_, when the _wrath_ of the _Devil_ is annoying of us.

The way for us to out-wit the Devil, in the _Wiles_ with which he now _Vexes_ us, would be for us to joyn as one man in our cries to God, for the Directing, and Issuing of this Thorny Business; but if we do not _Lift up_ our Hands to Heaven, _without Wrath_, we cannot then do it _without Doubt_, of speeding in it.

I am ashamed when I read French Authors giving this Character of Englishmen [_Ils se haissent Les uns les autres, & sont en Division Continuelle.

_] _They hate one another, and are always Quarrelling one with another.

_ And I shall be much more ashamed, if it become the Character of _New-Englanders_; which is indeed what the Devil would have.

_Satan_ would make us _bruise_ one another, by breaking of the _Peace_ among us; but O let us disappoint him.

We read of a thing that sometimes happens to the _Devil_, when he is foaming with his _Wrath_, in _Mar.

12. 43. _ _The unclean Spirit seeks rest, and finds none.

_ But we give _rest_ unto the Devil, by _wrath_ one against another.

If we would lay aside all fierceness, and keenness, in the disputes which the Devil has raised among us; and if we would use to one another none but the _soft Answers, which turn away wrath_: I should hope that we might light upon such Counsels, as would quickly Extricate us out of our _Labyrinths_.

But the old _Incendiary_ of the world, is come from Hell, with _Sparks_ of Hell-Fire flashing on every side of him; and we make our selves _Tynder_ to the Sparks.

When the Emperour _Henry_ III.

kept the Feast of _Pentecost_, at the City _Mentz_, there arose a dissension among some of the people there, which came from words to blows, and at last it passed on to the shedding of Blood.

After the Tumult was over, when they came to that clause in their Devotions, _Thou hast made this day Glorious;_ the Devil to the unexpressible Terrour of that vast Assembly, made the Temple Ring with that Outcry _But I have made this Day Quarrelsome!

_ We are truly come into a day, which by being well managed might be very _Glorious_, for the exterminating of those _Accursed things_, which have hitherto been the Clogs of our Prosperity;

but if we make this day _Quarrelsome_, thro' any _Raging Confidences_, Alas, O Lord, _my Flesh Trembles for Fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy Judgments.

_ _Erasmus_, among other Historians, tells us, that at a Town in _Germany_, a Witch or Devil, appeared on the Top of a Chimney, Threatning to set the Town on _Fire_: And at length, Scattering a Pot of Ashes abroad, the Town was presently and horribly Burnt unto the Ground.

Methinks, I see the _Spectres_, from the Top of the Chimneys to the Northward, threatning to scatter _Fire_, about the Countrey; but let us quench that _Fire_, by the most amicable Correspondencies: Lest, as the _Spectres_, have, they say, already most Literally burnt some of our Dwellings there do come forth a further _Fire_ from the _Brambles_ of Hell, which may more terribly _Devour_ us.

Let us not be like a _Troubled House_, altho' we are so much haunted by the _Devils_.

Let our _Long suffering_ be a well-placed piece of _Armour_, about us, against the _Fiery Darts_ of the wicked ones.

History informs us, That so long ago, as the year, 858, a certain Pestilent and Malignant sort of a _Daemon_, molested _Caumont_ in _Germany_ with all sorts of methods to stir up strife among the Citizens.

He uttered Prophecies, he detected Villanies, he branded people with all kind of Infamies.

He incensed the Neighbourhood against one Man particularly, as the cause of all the mischiefs: who yet proved himself innocent.

He threw stones at the Inhabitants, and at length burnt their Habitations, till the Commission of the _Daemon_ could go no further.

I say, Let us be well aware lest such _Daemons_ do _Come hither also_.

_III.

_ Inasmuch as the Devil is come down in _Great Wrath_, we had need Labour, with all the Care and Speed we can to Divert the _Great Wrath_ of Heaven from coming at the same time upon us.

The God of Heaven has with long and loud Admonitions, been calling us to _a Reformation of our Provoking Evils_, as the only way to avoid that _Wrath_ of His, which does not only _Threaten_ but _Consume_ us.

'Tis because we have been Deaf to those _Calls_ that we are now by a provoked God, laid open to the _Wrath_ of the Devil himself.

It is said in _Pr.

16. 17. _ _When a mans ways please the Lord, he maketh even his Enemies to be at peace with him.

_ The Devil is our grand _Enemy_; and tho' we would not be at peace _with_ him, yet we would be at peace from him, that is, we would have him unable to disquiet our _peace_.

But inasmuch as the _wrath_ which we endure from this _Enemy_, will allow us no _peace_, we may be sure, _our ways have not pleased the Lord.

_ It is because we have _broken the hedge_ of Gods _Precepts_, that the hedge of Gods _Providence_ is not so entire as it uses to be about us; but _Serpents_ are _biting_ of us.

O

let us then set our selves to make our _peace_ with our God, whom we have _displeased_ by our iniquities: and let us not imagine that we can encounter the _Wrath_ of the Devil, while there is the _Wrath_ of God Almighty to set that Mastiff upon us.

REFORMATION!

REFORMATION!

has been the repeated _Cry_ of all the Judgments that have hitherto been upon us;

because we have been as _deaf Adders_ thereunto, the _Adders_ of the Infernal Pit are now hissing about us.

At length, as it was of old said, _Luke 16. 30. _ _If one went unto them from the dead, they will repent;_ even so, there are some come unto us from the _Damned_.

The great God has loosed the Bars of the Pit, so that many _damned Spirits_ are come in among us, to make us _repent_ of our Misdemeanours.

The means which the Lord had formerly employ'd for our _awakening_, were such, that he might well have said, _What could I have done more?

_ and yet after all, he has done _more_, in some regards, than was ever done for the awakening of any People in the World.

The things now done to awaken our Enquiries after our _provoking Evils_, and our endeavours to Reform those Evils, are most _extraordinary_ things; for which cause I would freely speak it, if we now do not some _extraordinary_ things in returning to God; we are the most _incurable_, and I wish it be not quickly said, the most _miserable_ People under the Sun.

Believe me, 'tis a time for all people to do something _extraordinary, in searching and trying of their ways, and in turning to the Lord_.

It is at an _extraordinary_ rate of _Circumspection_ and _Spiritual mindedness_, that we should all now maintain a _walk with God_.

At such a time as this ought _Magistrates_ to do something _extraordinary_ in promoting of what is laudable, and in restraining and chastising of _Evil Doers_.

At such a time as this ought _Ministers_ to do something _extraordinary_ in pulling the Souls of men out of the _Snares_ of the Devil, not only by publick Preaching, but by personal Visits and Counsels, _from house to house_.

At such a time as this ought _Churches_ to do something _extraordinary_, in _renewing_ of their Covenants, and in _remembring_, and _reviving_ the Obligations of what they have renewed.

Some admirable Designs about the _Reformation_ of Manners, have lately been on foot in the English Nation, in pursuance of the most excellent Admonitions which have been given for it, by the Letters of Their Majesties.

Besides the vigorous Agreements of the _Justices_ here and there in the Kingdom, assisted by godly Gentlemen and Informers, to Execute the _Laws_ upon prophane Offenders; there has been started a _Proposal_ for the well-affected people in every Parish, to enter into orderly _Societies_, whereof every Member shall bind himself, not only to _avoid_ Prophaneness in himself, but also according unto to their Place, to do their utmost in first _Reproving_; and, if it must be so, then _Exposing_, and so _Punishing_, as the Law directs, for others that shall be guilty.

It has been observed, that the English Nation has had some of its greatest Successes, upon some special and signal _Actions_ this way; and a discouragement given under Legal Proceedings of this kind, must needs be very exercising to the _Wise that observe these things_.

But, O why should not _New-England_ be the most forward part of the English Nation in such _Reformations_?

Methinks I hear the Lord from Heaven saying over us, _O that my People had hearkened unto me; then I should soon have subdued the Devils, as well as their other Enemies!

_ There have been some feeble Essays towards _Reformation_ of late in our _Churches_; but, I pray what comes of them?

Do we stay till the _Storm_ of his _Wrath_ be over?

Nay, let us be doing what we can, as fast as we can, to divert the _Storm_.

The Devils having broke in upon our World, there is great asking, _Who is it that has brought them in?

_ And many do by _Spectral_ Exhibitions come to be _cry'd out_ upon.

I hope in Gods time it will be found, that among those that are thus _cry'd out_ upon, there are persons yet _Clear from the great Transgression_; but indeed, all the _Unreformed_ among us, may justly be _cry'd out_ upon, as having too much of an hand in letting of the Devils into our Borders; 'tis _our_ Worldliness, _our_ Formality, _our_ Sensuality, and _our_ Iniquity that has help'd this letting of the Devils in.

O let us then at last, _consider our ways_.

'Tis a strange passage recorded by Mr. _Clark_ in the Life of his Father, That the People of his Parish, refusing to be Reclaimed from their _Sabbath breaking_, by all the zealous Testimonies which that good Man bore against it; at last, on a night after the people had retired home from a Revelling Prophanation of the _Lords Day_, there was heard a great Noise, with rattling of Chains up and down the Town, and an horrid Scent of Brimstone fill'd the Neighbourhood.

Upon which the _guilty Consciences_ of the Wretches told them, the Devil was come to fetch them away; and it so terrifi'd them, that an Eminent _Reformation_ follow'd the Sermons which that Man of God Preached thereupon.

Behold, Sinners, behold and _wonder_, lest you _perish_: the very _Devils_ are walking about our Streets, with lengthened _Chains_, making a dreadful Noise in our Ears, and _Brimstone_ even without a Metaphor, is making an hellish and horrid stench in our Nostrils.

I pray leave off all those things whereof your _guilty Consciences_ may now accuse you, lest these Devils do yet more direfully fall upon you.

_Reformation_ is at this time our only _Preservation_.