Wonders of the Invisible World, and A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New England Witches — 14. An Hortatory and Necessary Address, Part II

_IV.

_ When the Devil is come down in _great Wrath_, let every _great Vice_ which may have a more particular tendency to make us a Prey unto that _Wrath_, come into a due discredit with us.

It is the general Concession of all men, who are not become too _Unreasonable_ for common Conversation, that the Invitation of _Witchcrafts_ is the thing that has now introduced the Devil into the midst of us.

I say then, let not only all _Witchcrafts_ be duly abominated with us, but also let us be duly watchful against all the _Steps_ leading thereunto.

There are lesser _Sorceries_ which they say, are too frequent in our Land.

As it was said in _2 King.

17. 9. _ _The Children of +Israel+ did secretly those things that were not right, against the Lord their God.

_ So 'tis to be feared, the Children of _New-England_ have _secretly_ done many things that have been pleasing to the Devil.

They say, that in some Towns it has been an usual thing for People to cure Hurts with _Spells_, or to use detestable Conjurations, with _Sieves_, _Keys_, and _Pease_, and _Nails_, and _Horse-shoes_, and I know not what other Implements, to learn the things for which they have a forbidden, and an impious _Curiosity_.

'Tis in the Devils Name, that such things are done; and in Gods Name I do this day charge them, as vile Impieties.

By these Courses 'tis, that People play upon _The Hole of the Asp_, till that cruelly venemous _Asp_ has pull'd many of them into the deep _Hole_ of _Witchcraft_ it self.

It has been acknowledged by some who have sunk the deepest into this _horrible Pit_, that they began at these little _Witchcrafts_; on which 'tis pity but the Laws of the English Nation, whereby the incorrigible repetition of those _Tricks_, is made _Felony_, were severely Executed.

From the like sinful _Curiosity_ it is, that the Prognostications of _Judicial Astrology_, are so injudiciously regarded by multitudes among us; and altho' the Jugling _Astrologers_ do scarce ever hit right, except it be in such _Weighty Judgments_, forsooth, as that many _Old Men_ will die such a year, and that there will be many _Losses_ felt by some that venture to Sea, and that there will be much _Lying_ and _Cheating_ in the World; yet their foolish Admirers will not be perswaded but that the Innocent _Stars_ have been concern'd in these Events.

It is a disgrace to the English Nation, that the Pamphlets of such idle, futil, trifling _Stargazers_ are so much considered; and the Countenance hereby given to a Study, wherein at last, all is done by _Impulse_, if any thing be done to any purpose at all, is not a little perillous to the Souls of Men.

It is (_a Science_, I dare not call it, but) a _Juggle_, whereof the Learned _Hall_ well says, _It is presumptuous and unwarrantable, and cry'd ever down by Councils and Fathers, as unlawful, as that which lies in the mid-way between Magick and Imposture, and partakes not a little of both.

_ Men consult the Aspects of Planets, whose Northern or Southern motions receive denominations from a _Caelestial Dragon_, till the _Infernal Dragon_ at length insinuate into them, with a _Poison_ of _Witchcraft_ that can't be cured.

Has there not also been a world of _discontent_ in our Borders?

'Tis no wonder, that the _fiery Serpents_ are so Stinging of us; We have been a most _Murmuring Generation_.

It is not Irrational, to ascribe the late Stupendious growth of _Witches_ among us, partly to the bitter _discontents_, which Affliction and Poverty has fill'd us with: it is inconceivable, what advantage the Devil gains over men, by _discontent_.

Moreover, the Sin of _Unbelief_ may be reckoned as perhaps the chief _Crime_ of our Land.

We are told, _God swears in wrath, against them that believe not;_ and what follows then but this, _That the Devil comes unto them in wrath?

_ Never were the offers of the _Gospel_, more freely tendered, or more basely despised, among any People under the whole Cope of Heaven, than in this _N.

E.

_ Seems it at all marvellous unto us, that the _Devil_ should get such footing in our Country?

Why, 'tis because the _Saviour_ has been slighted here, perhaps more than any where.

The Blessed Lord Jesus Christ has been profering to us, _Grace, and Glory, and every good thing_, and been alluring of us to Accept of Him, with such Terms as these, _Undone Sinner, I am All; Art thou willing that I should be thy All?

_ But, as a proof of that Contempt which this Unbelief has cast upon these proffers, I would seriously ask of the so many Hundreds above a Thousand People within these Walls; which of you all, O how few of you, can indeed say, _Christ is mine, and I am his, and he is the Beloved of my Soul?

_ I would only say thus much: When the precious and glorious Jesus, is Entreating of us to Receive _Him_, in all His _Offices_, with all His _Benefits_; the Devil minds what Respect we pay unto that Heavenly Lord; if we _Refuse Him that speaks from Heaven_, then he that, _Comes from Hell_, does with a sort of claim set in, and cry out, _Lord, since this Wretch is not willing that thou shouldst have him, I pray, let me have him.

_ And thus, by the just vengeance of Heaven, the Devil becomes a _Master_, a _Prince_, a _God_, unto the miserable Unbelievers: but O what are many of them then hurried unto!

All of these Evil Things, do I now set before you, as _Branded_ with the Mark of the Devil upon them.

_V.

_ With _Great Regard_, with _Great Pity_, should we Lay to Heart the Condition of those, who are cast into Affliction, by the _Great Wrath_ of the Devil.

There is a Number of our Good Neighbours, and some of them very particularly noted for Goodness and Vertue, of whom we may say, _Lord, They are vexed with Devils.

_ Their Tortures being primarily Inflicted on their _Spirits_, may indeed cause the Impressions thereof upon their Bodies to be the less _Durable_, tho' rather the more _Sensible_: but they Endure Horrible Things, and many have been actually Murdered.

Hard _Censures_ now bestow'd upon these poor Sufferers, cannot but be very Displeasing unto our Lord, who, as He said, about some that had been Butchered by a _Pilate_, in _Luc.

13. 2, 3. _ _Think ye that these were Sinners above others, because they suffered such Things?

I tell you No, But except ye Repent, ye shall all likewise Perish:_ Even so, he now says, _Think ye that they who now suffer by the Devil, have been greater Sinners than their Neighbours?

_ No, Do you Repent of your _own Sins_, Lest the Devil come to fall foul of _you_, as he has done to _them_.

And if this be so, How _Rash_ a thing would it be, if such of the poor Sufferers, as carry it with a Becoming Piety, Seriousness, and Humiliation under their present Suffering, should be unjustly _Censured_; or have their very _Calamity_ imputed unto them as a _Crime_?

It is an easie thing, for us to fall into the Fault of, _Adding Affliction to the Afflicted_, and of, _Talking to the Grief of those that are already wounded_.

Nor can it be wisdom to slight the Dangers of such a Fault.

In the mean time, We have no Bowels in us, if we do not Compassionate the Distressed County of _Essex_, now crying to all these Colonies, _Have pity on me, O ye my Friends, Have pity on me, for the Hand of the Lord has Touched me, and the Wrath of the Devil has been therewithal turned upon me.

_ But indeed, if an hearty _pity_ be due to any, I am sure, the Difficulties which attend our Honourable _Judges_, do demand no Inconsiderable share in that _Pity_.

What a Difficult, what an Arduous Task, have those Worthy Personages now upon their Hands?

To carry the _Knife_ so exactly, that on the one side, there may be no Innocent Blood Shed, by too unseeing a _Zeal for the Children of Israel_; and that on the other side, there may be no Shelter given to those Diabolical _Works of Darkness_, without the Removal whereof we never shall have _Peace_; or to those _Furies_ whereof several have kill'd _more people_ perhaps than would serve to make a Village: _Hic Labor, Hoc Opus est!

_ O what need have we, to be concerned, that the Sins of our _Israel_, may not provoke the God of Heaven to leave his _Davids_, unto a wrong Step, in a matter of such Consequence, as is now before them!

Our Disingenuous, Uncharitable, Unchristian Reproaching of such _Faithful Men_, after all, _The Prayers and Supplications, with strong Crying and Tears_, with which we are daily plying the Throne of Grace, that they may be kept, from what _They Fear_, is none of the way for our preventing of what _We Fear_.

Nor all this while, ought our _Pity_ to forget such _Accused_ ones, as call for indeed our most Compassionate _Pity_, till there be fuller Evidences that they are less worthy of it.

If _Satan_ have any where maliciously brought upon the _Stage_, those that have hitherto had a just and good stock of Reputation, for their just and good Living, among us; If the _Evil One_ have obtained a permission to _Appear_, in the Figure of such as we have cause to think, have hitherto _Abstained_, even from the _Appearance of Evil_: It is in Truth, such an Invasion upon _Mankind_, as may well Raise an Horror in us all: But, O what Compassions are due to such as may come under such Misrepresentations, of the _Great Accuser_!

Who of us can say, what may be shewn in the _Glasses_ of the Great _Lying Spirit_?

Altho' the _Usual Providence_ of God [we praise Him!

] keeps us from such a Mishap; yet where have we an _Absolute Promise_, that we shall every one always be kept from it?

As long as _Charity_ is bound to Think _no Evil_, it will not Hurt us that are _Private Persons_, to forbear the _Judgment_ which belongs not unto us.

Let it rather be our Wish, May the Lord help them to Learn the _Lessons_, for which they are now put unto so hard a School.

_VI.

_ With a _Great Zeal_, we should lay hold on the _Covenant_ of God, that we may secure _Us_ and _Ours_, from the _Great Wrath_, with which the Devil Rages.

Let us come into the _Covenant of Grace_, and then we shall not be hook'd into a _Covenant with the Devil_, nor be altogether unfurnished with Armour, against the Wretches that are in that _Covenant_.

The way to come under the Saving Influences of the _New Covenant_, is, to close with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the All-sufficient _Mediator_ of it: Let us therefore do, _that_, by Resigning up our selves unto the Saving, Teaching, and Ruling Hands of this Blessed _Mediator_.

Then we shall be, what we read in _Jude 1. _ _Preserved in Christ Jesus_: That is, as the _Destroying Angel_, could not meddle with such as had been distinguished, by the Blood of the _Passeover_ on their Houses: Thus the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Sprinkled on our Souls, will _Preserve_ us from the Devil.

The _Birds of prey_ (and indeed the _Devils_ most literally in the shape of great _Birds_!

) are flying about.

Would we find a Covert from these _Vultures_?

Let us then Hear our Lord Jesus from Heaven Clocquing unto us, _O that you would be gathered under my wings!

_ Well; When this is done, Then let us own the _Covenant_, which we are now come into, by joining our selves to a Particular _Church_, walking in the Order of the Gospel; at the doing whereof, according to that _Covenant_ of God, We give up Our selves unto the Lord, and in Him unto One Another.

While others have had their Names Entred in the _Devils Book_; let our Names be found in the _Church Book_, and let us be _Written among the Living in Jerusalem_.

By no means let, _Church work_ sink and fail in the midst of us; but let the Tragical Accidents which now happen, exceedingly Quicken that _work_.

So many of the _Rising Generation_, utterly forgetting the Errand of our Fathers to build Churches in this Wilderness, and so many of our _Cottages_ being allow'd to Live, where they do not, and perhaps cannot, wait upon God with the Churches of His People; 'tis as likely as any one thing to procure the swarmings of _Witch crafts_ among us.

But it becomes us, with a like Ardour, to bring our poor _Children_ with us, as we shall do, when we come our selves, into the _Covenant_ of God.

It would break an heart of Stone, to have seen, what I have lately seen; Even poor Children of several Ages, even from seven to twenty, more or less, _Confessing_ their Familiarity with Devils; but at the same time, in Doleful bitter Lamentations, that made a little Pourtraiture of _Hell_ it self, Expostulating with their execrable Parents, for _Devoting_ them to the Devil in their Infancy, and so _Entailing_ of Devillism upon them!

Now, as the Psalmist could say, _My Zeal hath consumed me, because my Enemies have forgotten thy words:_ Even so, let the Nefarious wickedness of those that have Explicitly dedicated their Children to the Devil, even with Devilish Symbols, of such a Dedication, Provoke our _Zeal_ to have our Children, Sincerely, Signally, and openly _Consecrated_ unto God; with an _Education_ afterwards assuring and confirming that Consecration.

_VII.

_ Let our _Prayer_ go up with great Faith, against the Devil, that comes down in great Wrath.

Such is the Antipathy of the Devil to our _Prayer_, that he cannot bear to stay long where much of it is: Indeed it is _Diaboli Flagellum_, as well as, _Miseriae Remedium_; the Devil will soon be Scourg'd out of the Lord's Temple, by a _Whip_, made and used, with the _effectual fervent Prayer of Righteous Men_.

When the Devil by Afflicting of us, drives us to our Prayers, he is _The Fool making a Whip for his own Back_.

Our Lord said of the Devil in _Matt.

17. 21. _ _This Kind goes not out, but by Prayer and Fasting.

_ But, _Prayer and Fasting_ will soon make the Devil be gone.

Here are _Charms_ indeed!

Sacred and Blessed _Charms_, which the Devil cannot stand before.

A Promise of God, being well managed in the _Hands_ of them that are much upon their Knees, will so resist the Devil, that he will _Flee from us_.

At every other Weapon the Devils will be too hard for us; the _Spiritual Wickednesses in High Places_, have manifestly the Upper hand of us; that _Old Serpent_ will be too old for us, too cunning, too subtil; they will soon _out wit_ us, if we think to Encounter them with any _Wit_ of our own.

But when we come to _Prayers_, Incessant and Vehement _Prayers_ before the Lord, there we shall be too hard for them.

When well-directed _Prayers_, that great Artillery of Heaven, are brought into the Field, _There_ methinks I see, _There are these workers of Iniquity fallen, all of them!

_ And who can tell, how much the most _Obscure Christian_ among you all, may do towards the Deliverance of our Land from the Molestations which the Devil is now giving to us.

I have Read, That on a day of Prayer kept by some good People for and with a Possessed Person, the Devil at last flew out of the Window, and referring to a Devout, plain, mean Woman then in the Room, he cry'd out, _O the Woman behind the Door!

'Tis that Woman that forces me away!

_ Thus the Devil that now troubles us, may be forced within a while to forsake us; and it shall be said, _He was driven away by the Prayers of some Obscure and Retired Souls, which the World has taken but little notice of!

_ The Great God is about a _Great Work_ at this day among us: Now, there is extream Hazard, lest the Devil by Compulsion must submit to that _Great Work_, may also by _Permission_, come to Confound that _Work_; both in the Detections of some, and in the Confessions of others, whose Ungodly deeds may be brought forth, by a _Great Work_ of God; there is great Hazard lest the Devil intertwist some of his Delusions.

'Tis PRAYER, I say, 'tis PRAYER, that must carry us well through the strange things that are now upon us.

Only that Prayer must then be the Prayer of Faith: O where is our Faith in him, Who _hath spoiled these Principalities and Powers, on his Cross, Triumphing over them_!

_VIII.

_ Lastly, Shake off, every Soul, shake off the _hard Yoak_ of the Devil.

Where 'tis said, _The whole World lyes in Wickedness;_ 'tis by some of the Ancients rendred, _The whole World lyes in the Devil.

_ The Devil is a Prince, yea, the Devil is a God unto all the Unregenerate;

and alas, there is _A whole World of them_.

Desolate Sinners, consider what an horrid Lord it is that you are Enslav'd unto; and Oh shake off your Slavery to such a Lord.

Instead of _him_, now make your Choice of the Eternal God in Jesus Christ; Chuse him with a most unalterable Resolution, and unto him say, with _Thomas_, _My Lord, and my God!

_ Say with the Church, _Lord, other Lords have had the Dominion over us, but now thou alone shalt be our Lord for ever.

_ Then instead of your Perishing under the wrath of the Devils, God will fetch you to a place among those that fill up the Room of the Devils, left by their Fall from the Ethereal Regions.

It was a most awful Speech made by the Devil, Possessing a young Woman, at a Village in _Germany_, _By the command of God, I am come to Torment the Body of this young Woman, tho I cannot hurt her Soul; and it is that I may warn Men, to take heed of sinning against God.

_ _Indeed_ (said he) _'tis very sore against my will that I do it; but the command of God forces me to declare what I do; however I know that at the Last Day, I shall have more Souls than God himself.

_ So spoke that horrible Devil!

But O that none of our Souls may be found among the Prizes of the Devil, in the Day of God!

O that what the Devil has been forced to declare, of his Kingdom among us, may prejudice our Hearts against him for ever!

My Text says, _The Devil is come down in great Wrath, for he has but a short time.

_ Yea, but if you do not by a speedy and through Conversion to God, escape the Wrath of the Devil, you will your selves go down, where the Devil is to be, and you will there be sweltring under the Devils Wrath, not for a _short Time_, but, _World without end_; not for a _Short Time_, but for _Infinite Millions of Ages_.

The smoak of your Torment under that Wrath, will _Ascend for ever and ever_!

Indeed, the Devil's time for his Wrath upon you in this World, can be but short, but his time for you to do his Work, or, which is all one, to delay your turning to God, that is a _Long Time_.

When the Devil was going to be Dispossessed of a Man, he Roar'd out, _Am I to be Tormented before my time?

_ You will _Torment_ the Devil, if you Rescue your Souls out of his hands, by true Repentance: If once you begin to look that way, he'll Cry out, _O this is before my Time, I must have more Time, yet in the Service of such a guilty Soul.

_ But, I beseech you, let us join thus to torment the Devil, in an holy Revenge upon him, for all the Injuries which he has done unto us; let us tell him, _Satan, thy time with me is but short, Nay, thy time with me shall be no more; I am unutterably sorry that it has been so much; Depart from me thou Evil-Doer, that would'st have me to be an Evil Doer like thy self; I will now for ever keep the Commandments of that God, in whom I Live and Move, and have my Being!

_ The Devil has plaid a fine Game for himself indeed, if by his troubling of our Land, the Souls of many People should come to _think upon their ways, till even they turn their Feet into the Testimonies of the Lord_.

Now that the Devil may be thus outshot in his own Bow, is the desire of all that love the Salvation of God among us, as well as of him, who has thus Addressed you.

_Amen.

_ * * * * * Having thus discoursed on the _Wonders of the Invisible World_, I shall now, with God's help, go on to relate some Remarkable and Memorable Instances of _Wonders_ which that _World_ has given to ourselves.

And altho the chief Entertainment which my Readers do expect, and shall receive, will be a true History of what has occurred, respecting the WITCHCRAFTS wherewith we are at this day Persecuted; yet I shall choose to usher in the mention of those things, with