Wonders of the Invisible World, and A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New England Witches — 04. Enchantments Encountered, Part 2

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 Endeavoured, and since in part Conquered, the terrible Plague, of _Evil Angels_, hath made its Progress into some other places, where other Persons have been in like manner Diabolically handled.

These our poor Afflicted Neighbours, quickly after they become _Infected_ and _Infested_ with these _Daemons_, arrive to a Capacity of Discerning those which they conceive the _Shapes_ of their Troublers; and notwithstanding the Great and Just Suspicion, that the _Daemons_ might Impose the _Shapes_ of Innocent Persons in their _Spectral Exhibitions_ upon the Sufferers, (which may perhaps prove no small part of the _Witch-Plot_ in the issue) yet many of the Persons thus Represented, being Examined, several of them have been Convicted of a very Damnable _Witchcraft_: yea, more than One _Twenty_ have _Confessed_, that they have Signed unto a _Book_, which the Devil show'd them, and Engaged in his Hellish Design of _Bewitching_, and _Ruining_ our Land.

_We_ know not, at least _I_ know not, how far the _Delusions_ of Satan may be Interwoven into some Circumstances of the _Confessions_; but one would think, all the Rules of Understanding Humane Affairs are at an end, if after so many most Voluntary Harmonious _Confessions_, made by Intelligent Persons of all Ages, in sundry Towns, at several Times, we must not Believe the _main strokes_ wherein those _Confessions_ all agree: especially when we have a thousand preternatural Things every day before our eyes, wherein the _Confessors_ do acknowledge their Concernment, and give Demonstration of their being so Concerned.

If the Devils now can strike the minds of men with any _Poisons_ of so fine a Composition and Operation, that Scores of Innocent People shall Unite, in _Confessions_ of a Crime, which we see actually committed, it is a thing prodigious, beyond the Wonders of the former Ages, and it threatens no less than a sort of a Dissolution upon the World.

Now, by these _Confessions_ 'tis Agreed, _That_ the Devil has made a dreadful Knot of _Witches_ in the Country, and by the help of _Witches_ has dreadfully increased that Knot: _That_ these _Witches_ have driven a Trade of Commissioning their _Confederate Spirits_, to do all sorts of Mischiefs to the Neighbours, whereupon there have ensued such Mischievous consequences upon the Bodies and Estates of the Neighbourhood, as could not otherwise be accounted for: yea, _That_ at prodigious _Witch-Meetings_, the Wretches have proceeded so far, as to Concert and Consult the Methods of Rooting out the Christian Religion from this Country, and setting up instead of it, perhaps a more gross _Diabolesm_, than ever the World saw before.

And yet it will be a thing little short of _Miracle_, if in so _spread_ a Business as this, the Devil should not get in some of his Juggles, to confound the Discovery of all the rest.