§ I.

I T was as long ago, as the Year 1637, that a Faithful Minister of the Church of England, whose Name was Mr. Edward Symons,[44] did in a Sermon afterwards Printed, thus express himself; 'At New-England now the Sun of Comfort begins to appear, and the glorious Day-Star to show it self;—Sed Venient Annis SÆculÆ Seris, there will come Times in after Ages, when the Clouds will overshadow and darken the Sky there. Many now promise to themselves nothing but successive Happiness there, which for a time through God's Mercy they may enjoy; and I pray God, they may a long time; but in this World there is no Happiness perpetual.' An Observation, or I had almost said, an Inspiration, very dismally now verify'd upon us! It has been affirm'd by some who best knew New-England, That the World will do New-England a great piece of Injustice, if it acknowledge not a measure of Religion, Loyalty, Honesty, and Industry, in the People there, beyond what is to be found with any other People for the Number of them.[45] When I did a few years ago, publish a Book, which mentioned a few memorable Witchcrafts, committed in this country; the excellent Baxter, graced the Second Edition of that Book, with a kind Preface, wherein he sees cause to say, If any are Scandalized, that New-England, a place of as serious Piety, as any I can hear of, under Heaven, should be troubled so much with Witches; I think, 'tis no wonder: Where will the Devil show most Malice, but where he is hated, and hateth most: And I hope, the Country will still deserve and answer the Charity so expressed by that Reverend Man of God.[46] Whosoever travels over this Wilderness, will see it richly bespangled with Evangelical Churches, whose Pastors are holy, able, and painful Overseers of their Flocks, lively Preachers, and vertuous Livers; and such as in their several Neighbourly Associations, have had their Meetings whereat Ecclesiastical Matters of common Concernment are considered: Churches, whose Communicants have been seriously examined about their Experiences of Regeneration, as well as about their Knowledge, and Belief, and blameless Conversation, before their Admission to the Sacred Communion; although others of less but hopeful Attainments in Christianity are not ordinarily deny'd Baptism for themselves and theirs; Churches, which are shye of using any thing in the Worship of God, for which they cannot see a Warrant of God; but with whom yet the Names of Congregational, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, or AntipÆdobaptist, are swallowed up in that of Christian; Persons of all those Perswasions being taken into our [6] Fellowship, when visible Goodliness has recommended them:[47] Churches, which usually do within themselves manage their own Discipline, under the Conduct of their Elders; but yet call in the help of Synods upon Emergencies, or Aggrievances; Churches, Lastly, wherein Multitudes are growing ripe for Heaven every day; and as fast as these are taken off, others are daily rising up. And by the Presence and Power of the Divine Institutions thus maintained in the Country. We are still so happy, that I suppose there is no Land in the Universe more free from the debauching, and the debasing Vices of Ungodliness. The Body of the People are hitherto so disposed, that Swearing, Sabbath-breaking, Whoring, Drunkenness, and the like, do not make a Gentleman, but a Monster, or a Goblin, in the vulgar Estimation.[48] All this notwithstanding, we must humbly confess to our God, that we are miserably degenerated from the first Love of our Predecessors; however we boast our selves a little, when Men would go to trample upon us, and we venture to say, Wherein soever any is bold (we speak foolishly) we are bold also.[49] The first Planters of these Colonies were a chosen Generation of Men, who were first so pure, as to disrelish many things which they thought wanted Reformation elsewhere; and yet withal so peaceable, that they embraced a voluntary Exile in a squalid, horrid, American Desart,[50] rather than to live in Contentions with their Brethren. Those good Men imagined that they should leave their Posterity in a place, where they should never see the Inroads of Profanity, or Superstition: And a famous Person returning hence, could in a Sermon before the Parliament profess, I have been seven Years in a Country, where I never saw one Man drunk, or heard one Oath sworn, or beheld one Beggar in the Streets all the while.[51] Such great Persons as BudÆus, and others, who mistook Sir Thomas Moor's Utopia, for a Country really existent, and stirr'd up some Divines charitably to undertake a Voyage thither, might now have certainly found a Truth in their Mistake; New-England was a true Utopia. But, alas, the Children and Servants of those old Planters must needs afford many degenerate Plants, and there is now risen up a Number of People, otherwise inclined than our Joshua's, and the Elders that out-liv'd them. Those two things our holy Progenitors, and our happy Advantages make Omissions of Duty, and such Spiritual Disorders as the whole World abroad is overwhelmed with, to be as provoking in us, as the most flagitious Wickednesses committed in other places; and the Ministers of God are accordingly severe in their Testimonies: But in short, those Interests of the Gospel, which were the Errand of our Fathers into these Ends of the Earth, have been too much neglected and postponed, and the Attainments of an handsome Education, have been too much undervalued, by Multitudes that have not fallen into Exorbitances of Wickedness; and some, especially of our young Ones, when they have got abroad from under the Restraints here laid upon them, have become extravagantly and abominably Vicious. Hence 'tis, that the Happiness of New-England has been but for a time, as it was foretold, and not for a long time, as has been desir'd for us. A Variety of Calamity has long follow'd this Plantation; and we have all the Reason imaginable to ascribe it unto the Rebuke of Heaven upon us for our manifold Apostasies; we make no right use of our Disasters: If we do not, Remember whence we are fallen, and repent, and do the first Works. But yet our Afflictions may come under a further Consideration with us: There is a further Cause of our Afflictions, whose due must be given him.

[7] § 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.[52] 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;[53] 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 seasonably discovered, would prbably Blow up, and pull down all the Churches in the Country.[54] 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 DÆmons, arrive to a Capacity of Discerning those which they conceive the Shapes of their Troublers; and notwithstanding the Great and Just Suspicion, that the DÆmons 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 [8] 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 Affayrs 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 Diabolism, 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.[55]

§ III. Doubtless, the Thoughts of many will receive a great Scandal against New-England, from the Number of Persons that have been Accused, or Suspected, for Witchcraft, in this Country: But it were easie to offer many things, that may Answer and Abate the Scandal. If the Holy God should any where permit the Devils to hook two or three wicked Scholars into Witchcraft, and then by their Assistance to Range with their Poisonous Insinuations among Ignorant, Envious, Discontented People, till they have cunningly decoy'd them into some sudden Act, whereby the Toyls of Hell shall be perhaps inextricably cast over them: what Country in the World would not afford Witches, numerous to a Prodigy? Accordingly, The Kingdoms of Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, yea and England it self, as well as the Province of New-England,[56] have had their Storms of Witchcrafts breaking upon them, which have made most Lamentable Devastations: which also I wish, may be The Last. And it is not uneasie to be imagined, that God has not brought out all the Witchcrafts in many other Lands with such a speedy, dreadful, destroying Jealousie, as burns forth upon such High Treasons, committed here in A Land of Uprightness: Transgressors may more quickly here than elsewhere become a Prey to the Vengeance of Him, Who has Eyes like a Flame of Fire, and, who walks in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks. Moreover, There are many parts of the World, who if they do upon this Occasion insult over this People of God, need only to be told the Story of what happen'd at Loim, in the Duchy of Gulic, where a Popish Curate having ineffectually try'd many Charms to Eject the Devil out of a Damsel there possessed, he passionately bid the Devil come out of her into himself; but the Devil answered him, Quid mihi Opus, est eum tentare, quem Novissimo die, Jure Optimo, sum possessurus? That is, What need I meddle with one whom I am sure to have, and hold at the Last-day as my own for ever!

[9] But besides all this, give me leave to add, it is to be hoped, That among the Persons represented by the Spectres which now afflict our Neighbours, there will be found some that never explicitly contracted with any of the Evil Angels. The Witches have not only intimated, but some of them acknowledged, That they have plotted the Representations of Innocent Persons, to cover and shelter themselves in their Witchcrafts; now, altho' our good God has hitherto generally preserved us from the Abuse therein design'd by the Devils for us, yet who of us can exactly state, How far our God may for our Chastisement permit the Devil to proceed in such an Abuse? It was the Result of a Discourse, lately held at a Meeting of some very Pious and Learned Ministers among us, That the Devils may sometimes have a permission to Represent an Innocent Person, as Tormenting such as are under Diabolical Molestations: But that such things are Rare and Extraordinary; especially when such matters come before Civil Judicature.[57] The Opinion expressed with so much Caution and Judgment, seems to be the prevailing Sense of many others, who are men Eminently Cautious and Judicious; and have both Argument and History to Countenance them in it. It is Rare and Extraordinary, for an Honest Naboth to have his Life it self Sworn away by two Children of Belial, and yet no Infringement hereby made on the Rectoral Righteousness of our Eternal Soveraign, whose Judgments are a Great Deep, and who gives none Account of His matters.[58] Thus, although the Appearance of Innocent Persons in Spectral Exhibitions afflicting the Neighbourhood, be a thing Rare and Extraordinary; yet who can be sure, that the great Belial of Hell must needs be always Yoked up from this piece of Mischief? The best man that ever lived has been called a Witch: and why may not this too usual and unhappy Symptom of A Witch, even a Spectral Representation, befall a person that shall be none of the worst? Is it not possible? The Laplanders will tell us 'tis possible: for Persons to be unwittingly attended with officious DÆmons, bequeathed unto them, and impos'd upon them, by Relations that have been Witches.[59] QuÆry, also, Whether at a Time, when the Devil with his Witches are engag'd in a War upon a people, some certain steps of ours, in such a War, may not be follow'd with our appearing so and so for a while among them in the Visions of our afflicted Forlorns! And, Who can certainly say, what other Degrees or Methods of sinning, besides that of a Diabolical Compact, may give the Devils advantage to act in the Shape of them that have miscarried? Besides what may happen for a while, to try the Patience of the Vertuous. May not some that have been ready upon feeble grounds uncharitably to Censure and Reproach other people, be punished for it by Spectres for a while exposing them to Censure and Reproach? And furthermore, I pray, that it may be considered, Whether a World of Magical Tricks often used in the World, may not insensibly oblige Devils to wait upon the Superstitious Users of them. A Witty Writer against Sadducism has this Observation, That persons who never made any express Contract with Apostate Spirits, yet may Act strange Things by Diabolick Aids, which they procure by the use of those wicked Forms and Arts, that the Devil first imparted unto his Confederates. And he adds, We know not but the Laws of the Dark Kingdom may Enjoyn a particular Attendance upon all those that practice their Mysteries, whether they know them to be theirs or no. Some of them that have been cry'd out upon as Employing Evil Spirits to hurt our Land, have been known to be most bloody Fortune-Tellers; and some of them have confessed, That when they told Fortunes, they would pretend the Rules of Chiromancy and the like Ignorant Sciences, but indeed they had no Rule (they said) [10] but this, The things were then Darted into their minds. Darted! Ye Wretches;[60] By whom, I pray? Surely by none but the Devils; who, tho' perhaps they did not exactly Foreknow all the thus Predicted Contingencies; yet having once Foretold them, they stood bound in Honour now to use their Interest, which alas, in This World, is very great, for the Accomplishment of their own Predictions. There are others, that have used most wicked Sorceries to gratifie their unlawful Curiosities, or to prevent Inconveniencies in Man and Beast; Sorceries, which I will not Name, lest I should by naming, Teach them.[61] Now, some Devil is evermore Invited into the Service of the Person that shall Practise these Witchcrafts; and if they have gone on Impenitently in these Communions with any Devil, the Devil may perhaps become at last a Familiar to them, and so assume their Livery, that they cannot shake him off in any way, but that One, which I would most heartily prescribe unto them, Namely, That of a deep and long Repentance. Should these Impieties have been committed in such a place as New-England, for my part I should not wonder, if when Devils are Exposing the Grosser Witches among us, God permit them to bring in these Lesser ones with the rest for their perpetual Humiliation. In the Issue therefore, may it not be found, that New-England is not so stock'd with Rattle Snakes, as was imagined.[62]

§ IV. But I do not believe, that the progress of Witchcraft among us, is all the Plot which the Devil is managing in the Witchcraft now upon us. It is judged, That the Devil rais'd the Storm, whereof we read in the Eighth Chapter of Matthew, on purpose to over-set the little Vessel wherein the Disciples of Our Lord were Embarqued with Him. And it may be fear'd, that in the Horrible Tempest which is now upon ourselves, the design of the Devil is to sink that Happy Settlement of Government, wherewith Almighty God has graciously enclined Their Majesties to favour us.[63] We are blessed with a Governour, than whom no man can be more willing to serve Their Majesties, or this their Province: He is continually venturing his All to do it: and were not the Interests of his Prince dearer to him than his own, he could not but soon be weary of the Helm, whereat he sits. We are under the Influence of a Lieutenant Governour,[64] who not only by being admirably accomplished both with Natural and Acquired Endowments, is fitted for the Service of Their Majesties, but also with an unspotted Fidelity applies himself to that Service. Our Councellours are some of our most Eminent Persons, and as Loyal Subjects to the Crown, as hearty lovers of their Country.[65] Our Constitution also is attended with singular Priviledges; All which Things are by the Devil exceedingly Envy'd unto us. And the Devil will doubtless take this occasion for the raising of such complaints and clamours, as may be of pernicious consequence unto some part of our present Settlement, if he can so far Impose. But that which most of all Threatens us, in our present Circumstances, is the Misunderstanding, and so the Animosity, whereunto the Witchcraft now Raging, has Enchanted us. The Embroiling, first, of our Spirits, and then of our Affairs, is evidently as considerable a Branch of the Hellish Intrigue which now vexes us as any one Thing whatever. The Devil has made us like a Troubled Sea, and the Mire and Mud begins now also to heave up apace. Even Good and Wise Men suffer themselves to fall into their Paroxysms; and the Shake which the Devil is now giving us, fetches up the Dirt which before lay still at the bottom of our sinful Hearts. If we allow the Mad Dogs of Hell to poyson us by biting us, [11] we shall imagine that we see nothing but such things about us, and like such things fly upon all that we see. Were it not for what is IN US, for my part, I should not fear a thousand Legions of Devils: 'tis by our Quarrels that we spoil our Prayers; and if our humble, zealous, and united Prayers are once hindred: Alas, the Philistines of Hell have cut our Locks for us; they will then blind us, mock us, ruine us: In truth, I cannot altogether blame it, if People are a little transported, when they conceive all the secular Interests of themselves and their Families at the Stake; and yet at the sight of these Heartburnings, I cannot forbear the Exclamation of the Sweet-spirited Austin, in his Pacificatory Epistle to Jerom, on the Contest with Ruffin, O misera & miseranda Conditio! O Condition, truly miserable! But what shall be done to cure these Distractions? It is wonderfully necessary, that some healing Attempts be made at this time: And I must needs confess (if I may speak so much) like a Nazianzen, I am so desirous of a share in them, that if, being thrown overboard, were needful to allay the Storm, I should think Dying, a Trifle to be undergone, for so great a Blessedness.[66]

§ V. I would most importunately in the first place, entreat every Man to maintain an holy Jealousie over his own Soul at this time, and think; May not the Devil make me, though ignorantly and unwillingly, to be an Instrument of doing something that he would have to be done? For my part, I freely own my Suspicion, lest something of Enchantment, have reach'd more Persons and Spirits among us, than we are well aware of. But then, let us more generally agree to maintain a kind Opinion one of another. That Charity without which, even our giving our Bodies to be burned would profit nothing, uses to proceed by this Rule; It is kind, it is not easily provok'd, it thinks no Evil, it believes all things, hopes all things. But if we disregard this Rule of Charity, we shall indeed give our Body Politick to be burned.[67] I have heard it affirmed, That in the late great Flood upon Connecticut, those Creatures which could not but have quarrelled at another time, yet now being driven together very agreeably stood by one another.[68] I am sure we shall be worse than Bruitish if we fly upon one another at a time when the Floods of Belial make us afraid. On the one side; [Alas, my Pen, must thou write the word, Side in the Business?] There are very worthy Men, who, having been call'd by God, when and where this Witchcraft first appeared upon the Stage to encounter it, are earnestly desirous to have it sifted unto the bottom of it. And I pray, which of us all that should live under the continual Impressions of the Tortures, Outcries, and Havocks which Devils confessedly Commissioned by Witches make among their distressed Neighbours, would not have a Biass that way beyond other Men? Persons this way disposed have been Men eminent for Wisdom and Vertue, and Men acted by a noble Principle of Conscience. Had not Conscience (of Duty to God) prevailed above other Considerations with them, they would not for all they are worth in the World have medled in this Thorny business. Have there been any disputed Methods used in discovering the Works of Darkness? It may be none but what have had great Precedents in other parts of the World; which may, though not altogether justifie, yet much alleviate a Mistake in us if there should happen to be found any such mistake in so dark a Matter.[69] They have done what they have done, with multiplied Addresses to God for his Guidance, and have not been insensible how [12] much they have exposed themselves in what they have done. Yea, they would gladly contrive and receive an expedient, how the shedding of Blood, might be spared, by the Recovery of Witches, not gone beyond the Reach of Pardon. And after all, they invite all good Men, in terms to this purpose, 'Being amazed at the Number and Quality of those accused of late, we do not know but Satan by his Wiles may have enwrapped some innocent Persons; and therefore should earnestly and humbly desire the most Critical Enquiry upon the place, to find out the Falacy; that there may be none of the Servants of the Lord, with the worshippers of Baal.' I may also add, That whereas, if once a Witch do ingeniously confess among us, no more Spectres do in their Shapes after this, trouble the Vicinage; if any guilty Creatures will accordingly to so good purpose confess their Crime to any Minister of God, and get out of the Snare of the Devil, as no Minister will discover such a Conscientious Confession, so I believe none in the Authority will press him to discover it; but rejoyc'd in a Soul sav'd from Death. On the other side [if I must again use the word Side, which yet I hope to live to blot out] there are very worthy Men, who are not a little dissatisfied at the Proceedings in the Prosecution of this Witchcraft. And why? Not because they would have any such abominable thing, defended from the Strokes of Impartial Justice. No, those Reverend Persons who gave in this Advice unto the Honourable Council; 'That Presumptions, whereupon Persons may be Committed, and much more Convictions, whereupon Persons may be Condemned, as guilty of Witchcrafts, ought certainly to be more considerable than barely the Accused Persons being represented by a Spectre unto the Afflicted; Nor are Alterations made in the Sufferers, by a Look or Touch of the Accused, to be esteemed an infallible Evidence of Guilt; but frequently liable to be abused by the Devils Legerdemains:' I say, those very Men of God most conscientiously Subjoined this Article to that Advice,—'Nevertheless we cannot but humbly recommend unto unto the Government, the speedy and vigorous Prosecution of such as have rendred themselves Obnoxious; according to the best Directions given in the Laws of God, and the wholsome Statutes of the English Nation for the Detection of Witchcraft.' Only 'tis a most commendable Cautiousness, in those gracious Men, to be very shye lest the Devil get so far into our Faith, as that for the sake of many Truths which we find he tells us, we come at length to believe any Lyes, wherewith he may abuse us: whereupon, what a Desolation of Names would soon ensue, besides a thousand other pernicious Consequences? and lest there should be any such Principles taken up, as when put into Practice must unavoidably cause the Righteous to perish with the Wicked; or procure the Bloodshed of any Persons, like the Gibeonites, whom some 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 [13] a very great aversion, so they have still been under Heart-breaking Solicitudes, 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 Collossians 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.

§ VI. 'Tis necessary that we unite in every thing: but there are especially two Things wherein our Union must carry us along together. We are to unite in our Endeavours to deliver our distressed Neighbours, from the horrible Annoyances and Molestations with which a dreadful Witchcraft is now persecuting of them. To have an hand in any thing, that may stifle or obstruct a Regular Detection of that Witchcraft, is what we may well with an holy fear avoid. Their Majesties good Subjects must not every day be torn to pieces by horrid Witches, and those bloody Felons, be left wholly unprosecuted. The Witchcraft is a business that will not be sham'd, without plunging us into sore Plagues, and of long continuance.[70] But then we are to unite in such Methods for this deliverance, as may be unquestionably safe, lest the latter end be worse than the beginning. And here, what shall I say? I will venture to say thus much, That we are safe, when we make just as much use of all Advice from the invisible World, as God sends it for. It is a safe Principle, That when God Almighty permits any Spirits from the unseen Regions, to visit us with surprizing Informations, there is then something to be enquired after; we are then to enquire of one another, What Cause there is for such things? The peculiar Government of God, over the unbodied Intelligences, is a sufficient Foundation for this Principle. When there has been a Murder committed, an Apparition of the slain Party accusing of any Man, altho' such Apparitions have oftner spoke true than false, is not enough to Convict the Man as guilty of that Murder; but yet it is a sufficient occasion for Magistrates to make a particular Enquiry, whether such a Man have afforded any ground for such an Accusation. Even so a Spectre exactly resembling such or such a Person, when the Neighbourhood are tormented by such Spectres, may reasonably make Magistrates inquisitive whether the Person so represented have done or said any thing that may argue their confederacy with Evil Spirits, altho' it may be defective enough in point of Conviction; especially at a time, when 'tis possible, some over-powerful Conjurer may have got the skill of thus exhibiting the Shapes of all sorts of Persons, on purpose to stop the Prosecution of the Wretches, whom due Enquiries thus provoked, might have made obnoxious unto Justice.

[14] Quoere, Whether if God would have us to proceed any further than bare Enquiry, upon what Reports there may come against any Man, from the World of Spirits, he will not by his Providence at the same time have brought into our hands, these more evident and sensible things, whereupon a man is to be esteemed a Criminal. But I will venture to say this further, that it will be safe to account the Names as well as the Lives of our Neighbors; two considerable things to be brought under a Judicial Process, until it be found by Humane Observations that the Peace of Mankind is thereby disturbed. We are Humane Creatures, and we are safe while we say, they must be Humane Witnesses, who also have in the particular Act of Seeing, or Hearing, which enables them to be Witnesses, had no more than Humane Assistances, that are to turn the Scale when Laws are to be executed. And upon this Head I will further add: A wise and a just Magistrate, may so far give way to a common Stream of Dissatisfaction, as to forbear acting up to the heighth of his own Perswasion, about what may be judged convictive of a Crime, whose Nature shall be so abstruse and obscure, as to raise much Disputation. Tho' he may not do what he should leave undone, yet he may leave undone something that else he could do, when the Publick Safety makes an Exigency.

§ VII. I was going to make one Venture more; that is, to offer some safe Rules, for the finding out of the Witches, which are at this day our accursed Troublers: but this were a Venture too Presumptuous and Icarian for me to make; I leave that unto those Excellent and Judicious Persons, with whom I am not worthy to be numbred: All that I shall do, shall be to lay before my Readers, a brief Synopsis of what has been written on that Subject, by a Triumvirate of as Eminent Persons as have ever handled it. I will begin with,

AN ABSTRACT OF MR. PERKINS'S[71]
WAY FOR THE DISCOVERY
OF WITCHES.

I. There are Presumptions, which do at least probably and conjecturally note one to be a Witch. These give occasion to Examine, yet they are no sufficient Causes of Conviction. II. If any Man or Woman be notoriously defamed for a Witch, this yields a strong Suspition. Yet the Judge ought carefully to look, that the Report be made by Men of Honesty and Credit.

III. If a Fellow-Witch, or Magician, give Testimony of any Person to be a Witch; this indeed is not sufficient for Condemnation; but it is a fit Presumption to cause a straight Examination.

IV. If after Cursing there follow Death, or at least some mischief: for Witches are wont to practise their mischievous Facts by Cursing and Banning: This also is a sufficient matter of Examination, tho' not of Conviction.

V. If after Enmity, Quarrelling, or Threatning, a present mischief does follow; that also is a great Presumption.

[15] VI. If the Party suspected be the Son or Daughter, the man-servant or maid-servant, the Familiar Friend, near Neighbor, or old Companion, of a known and convicted Witch; this may be likewise a Presumption; for Witchcraft is an Art that may be learned, and conveyed from man to man.

VII. Some add this for a Presumption: If the Party suspected be found to have the Devil's mark; for it is commonly thought, when the Devil makes his Covenant with them, he alwaies leaves his mark behind them, whereby he knows them for his own:—a mark whereof no evident Reason in Nature can be given.

VIII. Lastly, If the party examined be Unconstant, or contrary to himself, in his deliberate Answers, it argueth a Guilty Conscience, which stops the freedom of Utterance. And yet there are causes of Astonishment, which may befal the Good, as well as the Bad.

IX. But then there is a Conviction, discovering the Witch, which must proceed from just and sufficient proofs, and not from bare presumptions.

X. Scratching of the suspected party, and Recovery thereupon, with several other such weak Proofs; as also, the fleeting of the suspected Party, thrown upon the Water; these Proofs are so far from being sufficient, that some of them are, after a sort, practices of Witchcraft.

XI. The Testimony of some Wizzard, tho' offering to shew the Witches Face in a Glass: This, I grant, may be a good Presumption, to cause a strait Examination; but a sufficient Proof of Conviction it cannot be. If the Devil tell the Grand Jury, that the person in question is a Witch, and offers withal to confirm the same by Oath, should the Inquest receive his Oath or Accusation to condemn the man? Assuredly no. And yet, that is as much as the Testimony of another Wizzard, who only by the Devil's help reveals the Witch.

XII. If a man, being dangerously sick, and like to dy, upon Suspicion, will take it on his Death, that such an one hath bewitched him, it is an Allegation of the same nature, which may move the Judge to examine the Party, but it is of no moment for Conviction.

XIII. Among the sufficient means of Conviction, the first is, the free and voluntary Confession of the Crime, made by the party suspected and accused, after Examination. I say not, that a bare confession is sufficient, but a Confession after due Examination, taken upon pregnant presumptions. What needs now more witness or further Enquiry?

XIV. There is a second sufficient Conviction, by the Testimony of two Witnesses, of good and honest Report, avouching before the Magistrate, upon their own Knowledge, the two things: either that the party accused hath made a League with the Devil, or hath done some known practices of witchcraft. And, all Arguments that do necessarily prove either of these, being brought by two sufficient Witnesses, are of force fully to convince the party suspected.

XV. If it can be proved, that the party suspected hath called upon the Devil, or desired his Help, this is a pregnant proof of a League formerly made between them.

XVI. If it can be proved, that the party hath entertained a Familiar Spirit, and had Conference with it, in the likeness of some visible Creatures; here is Evidence of witchcraft.

XVII. If the witnesses affirm upon Oath, that the suspected person hath done any action or work which necessarily infers a Covenant made, as, that he hath used En-[16]chantments, divined things before they come to pass, and that peremptorily, raised Tempests, caused the Form of a dead man to appear; it proveth sufficiently, that he or she is a Witch.[72] This is the Substance of Mr. Perkins.

'Take next the Sum of Mr. Gaules[73] Judgment about the Detection of Witches. 1. Some Tokens for the Trial of Witches are altogether unwarrantable. Suchare the old Paganish Sign, the Witches Long Eyes; the Tradition of Witches not weeping; the casting of the Witch into the Water, with Thumbs and Toes ty'd a-cross. And many more such Marks, which if they are to know a Witch by, certainly 'tis no other Witch, but the User of them. 2. There are some Tokens for the Trial of Witches, more probable, and yet not so certain as to afford Conviction. Such are strong and long Suspicion: Suspected Ancestors, some appearance of Fact, the Corps bleeding upon the Witches touch, the Testimony of the Party bewitched, the supposed Witches unusual Bodily marks, the Witches usual Cursing and Banning, the Witches lewd and naughty kind of Life. 3. Some Signs there are of a Witch, more certain and infallible. As, firstly, Declining of Judicature, or faultering, faulty, unconstant, and contrary Answers, upon judicial and deliberate examination. Secondly, When upon due Enquiry into a person's Faith and Manners, there are found all or most of the Causes which produce Witchcraft, namely, God forsaking, Satan invading, particular Sins disposing; and lastly, a compact compleating all. Thirdly, The Witches free Confession, together with full Evidence of the Fact. Confession without Fact may be a meer Delusion, and Fact without Confession may be a meer Accident. 4thly, The semblable Gestures and Actions of suspected Witches, with the comparable Expressions of Affections, which in all Witches have been observ'd and found very much alike. Fifthly, The Testimony of the Party bewitched, whether pining or dying, together with the joynt Oaths of sufficient persons, that have seen certain prodigious Pranks or Feats, wrought by the Party accused. 4. Among the most unhappy circumstances to convict a Witch, one is, a maligning and oppugning the Word, Work, and Worship of God, and by any extraordinary sign seeking to seduce any from it. See Deut. 13. 1, 2, Mat. 24. 24. Act. 13. 8, 10. 2 Tim. 3. 8. Do but mark well the places, and for this very Property (of thus opposing and perverting) they are all there concluded arrant and absolute Witches. 5. It is not requisite, that so palpable Evidence of Conviction should here come in, as in other more sensible matters; 'tis enough, if there be but so much circumstantial Proof or Evidence, as the Substance, Matter, and Nature of such an abstruse Mystery of Iniquity will well admit. [I suppose he means, that whereas in other Crimes we look for more direct proofs, in this there is a greater use of consequential ones.] 'But I could heartily wish, that the Juries were empanell'd of the most eminent Physicians, Lawyers, and Divines that a Country could afford. In the mean time 'tis not to be called a Toleration, if Witches escape, where Conviction is wanting. To this purpose our Gaule.'

I will transcribe a little from one Author more, 'tis the Judicious Bernard of Batcomb,[74] who in his Guide to grand Jurymen, after he has mention'd several things that are shrewd Presumptions of a Witch, proceeds to such things as are the Convictions of such an one. And he says, 'A witch in league with the Devil is convicted by [1][75] these Evidences; I. By a witches Mark; which is on the Baser sort of Witches; and this, by the Devils either Sucking or Touching of them. Tertullian says, It is the Devils custome to mark his. And note, That this mark is Insensible, and being prick'd it will not Bleed. Sometimes, its like a Teate; sometimes but a Blewish Spot; sometimes a Red one; and sometimes the flesh Sunk: but the Witches do sometimes cover them. II. By the Witches Words. As when they have been heard calling on, speaking to, or Talking of their Familiars; or, when they have been heard Telling of Hurt they have done to man or beast: Or when they have been heard Threatning of such Hurt; Or if they have been heard Relating their Transportations. III. By the Witches Deeds. As when they have been seen with their Spirits, or seen secretly Feeding any of their Imps. Or, when there can be found their Pictures, Poppets, and other Hellish Compositions. IV. By the Witches Extasies: With the Delight whereof, Witches are so taken, that they will hardly conceal the same: Or, however at some time or other, they may be found in them. V. By one or more Fellow-Witches, Confessing their own Witchcraft, and bearing Witness against others; if they can make good the Truth of their Witness, and give sufficient proof of it. As, that they have seen them with their Spirits or, that they have Received Spirits from them; or that they can tell, when they used Witchery-Tricks to Do Harm; or, that they told them what Harm they had done; or that they can show the mark upon them; or, that they have been together in their Meetings; and such like. VI. By some Witness of God Himself, happening upon the Execrable Curses of Witches upon themselves, Praying of God to show some Token, if they be Guilty. VII. By the Witches own Confession, of Giving their Souls to the Devil. It is no Rare thing, for Witches to Confess.'

They are Considerable Things, which I have thus Recited; and yet it must be with Open Eyes, kept upon Open Rules, that we are to follow these things. S. 8. But Juries are not the only Instruments to be imploy'd in such a Work; all Christians are to be concerned with daily and fervent Prayers, for the assisting of it. In the Days of Athanasius, the Devils were found unable to stand before that Prayer, however then used perhaps with too much of Ceremony, Let God Arise, Let his Enemies be scattered. Let them also that Hate Him, flee before Him.

O that instead of letting our Hearts Rise against one another, our Prayers might Rise unto an high pitch of Importunity, for such a Rising of the Lord! Especially, Let them that are Suffering by Witchcraft, be sure to stay and pray, and Beseech the Lord thrice, even as much as ever they can, before they complain of any Neighbour for afflicting them. Let them also that are accused of Witchcraft, set themselves to Fast and Pray, and so shake off the DÆmons that would like Vipers fasten upon them; and get the Waters of Jealousie made profitable to them.

And Now, O Thou Hope of New-England, and the Saviour thereof in the Time of Trouble; Do thou look mercifully down upon us, & Rescue us, out of the Trouble which at this time do's threaten to swallow us up. Let Satan be shortly bruised under our Feet, and Let the Covenanted Vassals of Satan, which have Traiterously brought him in upon us, be Gloriously Conquered, by thy Powerful and Gracious Presence in the midst of us. Abhor us not, O God, but cleanse us, but heal us, but save us, for the sake of thy Glory. Enwrapped in our Salvations. By thy Spirit, Lift up a standard against our infernal adversaries, Let us quickly find thee making of us glad, according to the Days wherein we have been afflicted. Accept of all our Endeavours to glorify thee, in the Fires that are upon us; and among the rest, Let these my poor and weak essays, composed with what Tears, what Cares, what Prayers, thou only knowest, not want the Acceptance of the Lord.

[71] The same "Master William Perkins," I suppose, who wrote the three stout Folios of Puritan Theology, published in 1606, besides many smaller Works. The earliest Notice I find of him is by another equally famous and voluminous Puritan, the Rev. Samuel Clark, in his Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, published in 1650. Mr. Clark informs us that William Perkins was born at Marston in Warwickshire, in 1558, was educated at "Christ's College in Cambridg," and that in the 24th of Elizabeth, he was chosen a Fellow of that College, and that "hee was very wilde in his Youth." From his Professorship, "hee was chosen to Saint Andrews Parish in Cambridg, where he preached all his Life after. His Sermons were not so plain, but the piously learned did admire them; nor so learned, but the plain did understand them: Hee brought the Schools into the Pulpit, and unshelling their Controversies out of their hard School-tearms, made thereof plain and wholsom Meat for his People: He was an excellent Chirurgion at the jointing of a broken Soul, and at stating of a doubtful Conscience. In his Sermons hee used to pronounce the Word Damn with such an Emphasis, as left a dolefull Echo in his Auditor's Ears a good while after: and when hee was Catechist in Christ's College, in expounding the Commandments, hee applied them so Home to the Conscience as was able to make his Hearers Harts fall down, and their Hairs almost to stand upright."

On Reference to the Works of famous Thomas Fuller, it will be found, that in his Life of Perkins he has substantially the same Account. From that Author Mr. Clark doubtless borrowed the Expressions used by him, as Fuller's Work was published several Years before, and they seem peculiar to that highly talented Writer. Clark is followed because he was of the same religious Denomination as Mr. Perkins. Mr. Clark continues: "In his Life hee was so pious and spotless, that Malice was afraid to bite at his Credit, into which shee knew that her Teeth could not enter: Hee had a rare Felicitie in reading of Books, and as it were but turning them over would give an exact account of all that was considerable therein: hee perused Books so speedily that one would think that hee read nothing, and yet so accurately that one would think he read all: Besides his frequent Preaching, hee wrote manie excellent Books, both Treatises, and Commentaries, which for their Worth were manie of them translated into Latine, and sent beyond Sea, where to this Daie they are highly prized, and much set by, yea some of them are translated into French, High-Dutch, and Low-Dutch: and his reformed Catholick was translated into Spanish; yet no Spaniard ever since durst take up the Gantlet of Defiance cast down by this Champion."

But there is one Fact mentioned by Fuller which Mr. Clark omits: "There goeth," he says, "an uncontrolled Tradition, that Perkins, when a young Scholar, was a great Studier of Magic, occasioned perchance by his Skill in the Mathematics. For, ignorant People count all Circles above their own Sphere to be Conjring; and presently cry out, 'those Things are done by Black Art' for which their dim Eyes can see no Colour in Reason. And in such Case, when they cannot fly up to Heaven to make it a Miracle, they fetch it from Hell to make it Magic, though it may lawfully be done by natural Causes."

Mr. Perkins died "in the fourtieth Year of his Age, Anno 1602, being born the first, and dying the last Year of [the Reign of] Elizabeth: He was of a ruddie Complexion, fat and corpulent: Lame of his right Hand, yet this Ehud with a left-handed Pen did stab the Romish Caus—as one faith: [Hugh Holland]

"Hee was buried with great Solemnity at the sole Charges of Christs College, the Universitie, and Town striving which should express more Sorrow thereat: Doctor Montague, afterwards Bishop of Winchester preached his Funeral Sermon."—Marrow of Ecclesiastical Historie, 414-417, and Fuller's Holy and Profane State, 80-84.

The well known Rev. Mr. Job Orton speaks of the Folios of Perkins with Delight, and adds: "What led me more particularly to read him was, that his Elder Brother was one of my Ancestors, from whom I am in a direct Line, by my Mother's Side descended."—Orton, in Brook's Lives, ii, 135. In his Will, dated 16 Oct., 1602, he mentions, among others, Nathaniel Cradock, his Brother-in-law, Wife Timothye, Father and Mother Thomas and Anna Perkins, Son-in-law, John Hinde, and Brethren and Sisters, but not by Name.—Ibid.

I have been more particular in this Notice of Perkins for two Reasons; first, because of his Puritanism he was selected as a prime Authority in Matters of Witchcraft by our Author; and second, because he seems to have been a Man possessing that Precocity of Mind, and in other respects was similarly gifted. To those desirous of learning more of that noted Puritan Leader will find Gratification in the excellent and elaborate Life of him in Brook's Lives of the Puritans.