being more Cunning or more seeming Religious might yet be more guilty the whole depending upon Invisible Evidence of which Invisible stuff tho' we have had more than sufficient yet I find among other Reverend Persons your Names to acertain Printed Paper which runs thus Certain Proposals made by the President and Fellows of Harvard College To the Reverend Ministers of the Gospel in the several Churches of New-England FIrst To observe and record the more Illustrious Discoveries of the Divine Providence in the Government of the World is a design so holy so useful so justly approved that the too general neglect of it in the Churches of God is as justly to be Lamented 2. For the redress of that neglect altho' all Christians have a Duty inâ—umbent on them yet it is in a peculiar manner to be recommended unto the Ministers of the Gospel to improve the special advantages which are in their Hands to obtain and preserve the knowledge of such notable occurrences as are sought out by all that have pleasure in the great Works of the Lord. 3. The things to be esteemed Memorable are especially all unusual accidents in the Heaven or Earth or Water All wonderful Deliverances of the Distressed Mercies to the Godly Iudgments on the Wicked and more Glorious fulfillments of either the Promises or Threatnings in the Scriptures of Truth with Apparitions Possessions Enchantments and all extraordinary things wherein the Existence and Agency of the Invisible World is more sensibly demonstrated 4. It is therefore Proposed That the Ministers throughout this Land would manifest their Pious regards unto the Works of the Lord and the Opperation of his hands by reviving their cares to take Written Accounts of such Remarkables But still well Attested with credibled and sufficient Witness 5. It is desired that the Accounts thus taken of these Remarkables may be sent in unto the President or the Fellows of the Colledge by whome they shall be carefully reserved for such a use to be made of them as may by some fit Assembly of Ministers be Iudged most conducing to the Glory of God and the Service of his People 6. Tho' we doubt not that love to the Name of God will be motive enough unto all good Men to Contribute what Assistance they can unto this Vndertaking yet for further Incouragement some singular Marks of Respects shall be studied for such good Men as will actually assist it by taking pains to Communicate any Important Passages proper to be inserted in this Collection Cambr. March 5. 1693 4 Increase Mather President Iames Allen Fellow Char. Morton Fellow Sam. Willard Fellow Cotton Mather Fellow Iohn Leverett Fellow Will. Brattle Fellow Neh. Walter Fellows Here being an Encouragement to all good Men to send in such remarkables as are therein expressed I have sent in the following not that I think them a more sensible demonstration of the being of a future State with rewards and Punishments or of Angels good and bad c. than the Scriptures of truth hold forth c. Or than any of those other demonstrations God has given us for this were Treacherously and Perfidiously to quit the Post to the Enemy the Saducee Deist and Atheist would hereby be put in a condition so Triumphantly to deny the Existence and Agency thereof As that a few Sories told which at best must be owned to be fallible and liable to misrepresentations could not be thought Infallibly sufficient to demonstrate the truth against them I have heard that in Logick a false Argument is reckon'd much worse than none Yet supposing that a Collection of Instances may be many ways useful not only to the present but succeeding Ages I have sent you the following remarkables which have lately occurred the certainty of which if any scruple it will be found no hard matter to get satisfaction therein But here not to insist on those less occurrents as the sudden Death of one of our late Justices and a like Mortallity that fell upon the two Sons of another of them with the Fall of a Man that was making provision to raise the New Northern Bell which when it was up the first person whose death it was to signifie was said to be a Child of him who by Printing and speaking had had as great hand in procuring the late Actions as any if not the greatest And the Splitting the Gun at Salem where that furious Marshal and his Father c. was rent to pieces c. As to all these it must be owned that no man knows love or hatred by all that is before him much less can they be more sensible demonstrations of the Existence and Agency of the Invisible World than the Scriptures of Truth afford c. tho' the Rich Man in the Parable might think otherwise c. who was seeking to send some more sensible Demonstrations thereof to his Brethren c. In that Tremendous Judgment of God upon this Countrey by the late amazing Prosecution of the People here under the Notion of Witches whereby 20 Suffered as Evil doers besides those that died in Prison about ten more Condemned and a hundred Imprisoned and about two hundred more Accused and the Countrey generally in fears when it would come to their turn to to be Accused and the Prosecution and manner of Tryal such that most would have chosen to have fallen into the hands of the Barbarous Enemy rather than under that notion into the hands of their Brethren in Church Fellowship and in short was such an Affliction as far exceeded all that ever this Countrey hath laboured under Yet in this Mount God is seen when it was thus bad with this distressed People a full and a sudden stop is put not only without but against the Inclination of many for out of the Eater came forth Meat Those very Accusers which had been improved as Witnesses against so many by the Providence of the most High and perhaps blinded with Malice are left to accuse those in most High esteem both Magistrates and Ministers as guilty of Witchcraft which shewed our Rulers that necessity lay upon them to confound that which had so long confounded the Countrey as being unwilling themselves to run the same risque this that was in the Event of it to this Countrey as Life from the Dead is most easie with him in whole Hands are the Hearts of all Men and was a very signal deliverance to this whole Countrey No less Observable wat it that tho' at the time when the Devils Testimony by the Afflâ—cted was first laid aside there were great Numbers of real or pretended Afflicted Yet when this was once not Judged of Validity enough to be any longer brought into the Court against the Accused as Evidence the Affliction generally ceased and only some remainders of it in such places where more Encouragement was given to the Actors God seeming thereby plainly to Decypher that Sin of going to the Devil c. as the rise and foundation of those Punishments
the Narrative now with you for a true one till you have â— truer or for a full one till you have a fuller Your Sincere tho Iâ—â— jur'd Friend and Servant C. Mather The Copy of a Paper Receiv'd with the above Letter I Do Testifie that I have seen Margaret Rule in her Afflictions from thâ— Invisible World lifted up from her Bed wholly by an Invisible forâ— a great way towards the top of the Room where she lay in her beiâ— so lifted she had no Assistance from any use of her own Arms or Handâ— or any other part of her Body not so much as her Heels touching hâ— Bed or resting on any support whatsoever And I have seen her thâ— lifted when not only a strong Person hath thrown his whole weight cross her to pull her down but several other Persons have endeavoureâ— with all their might to hinder her from being so raised up which suppose that several others will testifie as well as my self when call unto it Witness my Hand Samuel Aves WE can also Testifie to the substance of what is above Written aâ— have several times seen Margaret Rule so lifted up from her Bed â—hat she had no use of her own Lims to help her up but it was the declared apprehension of us as well as others that saw it impossible for any hands but some of the Invisible World to lift her Copia Robert Earle John Wilkins Dan. VVilliams WE whose Names are under-writted do testifie That one Evening when we were in the Chamber where Margaret Rule then lay in â—er late Affliction we observed her to be by an Invisible Force lifted up from the Bed whereon she lay so as to touch the Garret Floor while â—et neither her Feet nor any other part of her Body rested either on the Bed or any other support but were also by the same force lifted up from all that was under her and all this for a considerable while we â—udg'd it several Minutes and it was as much as several of us could do with all our strength to pull her down All which happened when there was not only we two in the Chamber but we suppose ten or a dozen more whose Names we have forgotten Thomas Thornton Copia William Hudson Testifies to the substance of Thorntons Testimony to which he also hath set his Hand Mr. Cotton Mather Boston Jan. 18 1693 Reverend SIR YOurs of the 15 th Instant I receiv'd yesterday and soon found I had promised my self too much by it Viz Either concurrence with or a denial of those Fundamentals mentioned in mine of Novem. the 24 th finding this waved by an Invitation to your Library c. I thank God I have the Bible and do Judge that sufficient to demonstrate that cited Head of Mr. Gaule to be a Truth as also those other Heads mentioned as the Foundations of Religion And in my apprehension if it be asked any Christian whether God governs the World and wheâ—her it be he only can Commissionate Devils and such other Fundamentals He ought to be as ready as in the Question who made him a â—ittle Writing certainly might be of more use to clear up the controverâ—ed points than either looking over many Books in a well furnish'd Library or than a dispute if I were qualified for it the Inconveniencies of Passion being this way best avoided And am not without hopes that you will yet oblige me so far as to consider that Letter and if I Err to let me see it by Scripture c. Yours almost the whole of it is concerning the Narrative I sent to you and you seem to intimate as if I were giving Characters Reflections and Libell's c. concerning your self and Relations all which were as far from my thoughts as ever they were in writing after either your self or any other Minister In the front you declare your apprehension to be that the Afflicted was under a Diabolical Possession and if so I see not how it should be occasion'd by any Witchcraft unless we ascribe that Power to a Witch which is only the Prerogative of the Almighty of Sending or Commissionating the Devils to Afflict her But to your particular Objections against the Narrative and to the first my intelligence not giving me any further I could not insert that I knew not And it seems improbable that a Question should be put whether she knew or rather who they were and at the same time to charge her and that upon her Life not to tell and if you had done so I see but little good you could promise your self or others by it she being Possest as also having it inculcated so much to her of Witchcraft And as to the next Objection about company flocking c. I do profess my Ignorance not knowing what you mean by it And Sir that most of the Questions did carry with them a presupposing the things inquired after is evident if there were such as those relating to the Black man and a Book and about her hearing the Prayer c. related in the said Narrative which I find no Objection against As to that which is said of mentioning your self first discoursings and your hopes that your breeding was better I doubt it not nor do I doubt your Father might first apply himself to others but my intelligence is that you first spake to the Afflicted or Possessed for which you had the advantage of a nearer approach The next two Objections are founded upon mistakes I find not in the Narrative any such Question as how many Witches sit upon you and that her Breast was not covered in which those material words with the Bed-Cloaths are wholly omited I am not willing to retort here your own Language upon you but can tell you that your own discourse oâ— it publickly at Sir W. P's Table has much more contributed to c. As to the Reply if she could she would not tell whether either or both spake it it matters not much Neither does the Narrative say you felâ— the live thing on her Belly tho I omit now to say what further demonstrations there are of it As to that Reply that is only her fancy I find the word her added And as to your Fathers feeling for the live Creature after you had felt it if it were on the Bed it was not so very faâ— from her And for the length of his Prayer possibly your Witnesseâ— might keep a more exact account of the time than those others and â— stand not for a few Minutes For the rest of the Objections I supposâ— them of less moment if less can be however shall be ready to receivâ— them those matters of greatest concern I find no Objection against these being all that yet appear it may be thought that if the Narrative be noâ— fully exact it was as near as Memory could bear away but should be glad to see one more perfect which yet is not to be expected seeing none writ at the time You
suppose it is the skill of applying the Plastick Spirit of the World c. then the consent of the Witch doth naturally contribute to that mischiefs that the Devil does And his last answer runs to this effect Is it not the Ordination of God that where the Devil can get the consent of a Witch for the hurting of others the hurt shall as certainly be as if they had set Mastiff Dogs upon them or had given them Poyson into their Bowels and Gods Providence must be as great in delivering from one as from the other and this it seems is not only his Belief but the most Orthodox and most learned answer that our Author could pitch upon If Witchcraft be as I suppose it is c. and is it not the Ordination of God that c. What is all this but precarious and begging the question and a plain dropping the Argument he cannot manage however to amuse the Ignorant and to confound the Learned he hooks in a cramp word if not a nonentity viz. Plastick Spirit of the World for who is it either knows that there is a Plastick-Spirit or what it is or how this can any way serve his purpose He then proceeds to Scripture Instances of Witches c. and where I thought it needful I have as I said shewed my dissent from his Judgment He accounts it unreasonable to be held to the proof of his definition of a Witch which he makes to consist in a Covenant with the Devil and chuses rather a tedious process about a Pistol to defend him from it which indeed is one particular way whereby Murder has been Committed and so the Dore becomes Culpable But his definition of a Witch which as I said still remains to be proved is to this effect That a Witch is one that Covenants with and Commissions Devils to do mischiefs that she is one in Covenant or that by Vertue of such Covenant she can Commissionate him to Kill The not bringing Sculpture to prove these two is a sufficient demonstration there is none and so that our Author leaves off just where he began viz. in a bare Assertion together with his own Biggoted experiences hinting also at multitudes of Histories to confirm him in the belief of his definition Here being all that I take notice of to be considerable And now Sir If you think fit improve your Friendship with the Author for the Glory of God the Soveraign Being the good and welfare of Man-kind and for his real and true Interest as you see it convenient put him in mind That the Glory of God is the End why Man-kind was made and why He hath so many Advantages to it That the Flames we have seen threatning the utter extirpation of the Country must own their Original to these dangerous Errors if not Heresies which if they remain Unextinguished may and most likely will be acted over again That 't is more Honour to own an Error in time than tenaciously after full Conviction to retain it But if our Author will again Vindicate such matters please to acquaint him that I shall not any more receive his Papers if I may not Copy and use them and that when he does instead of such abstruse matters I still pray his determination in those things I have his promise for And thus begging Pardon for thus long detaining of you I am Sir yours to Command R. C. To the Ministers whether English French or Dutch Boston March 18. 1694 I Having had not only occasion but renewed provocation to take a view of the Mysterious Doctrines which have of late been so much contested among us could not meet with any that had spoken more or more plainly the sense of those Doctrines relating to the Witchcraft than the Reverend Mr. C. M. but how clearly and consistent either with himself or the truth I medle not now to say but cannot but suppose his Strenuous and Zealous asserting his opinions has been one cause of the dismal Convulsions we have here lately fallen into Supposing that his Books of Memorable Providences relating to Witchcraft as also his Wonders of the Invisible World did contain in them things not warrantable and very dangerous I sent to him a Letter of Quotations out of those Books c. That so if it might have been I might understand what tollerable Sense he would put upon his own words which I took to be a better way of Proceeding than to have affixed what I thought to be their natural consequences and left I might be Iudged a Sceptic I gave him a full and free account of my belief relating to those Doctrines together with the grounds thereof And prayed him that if I err'd I might be shewed it by Scripture and this I had his reiterated promise for But after more than a Years waiting for the performance thereof all that is done in compliance therewith is that in Feb. last he sent me four sheets of his writing as his belief but before I might receive it I must engage to deliver it back in a Fortnight and not Copy'd A Summary accoun of which I shall give you when I have first acquainted you what the Doctrines were which I sent to him for his concurrence with or confutation of and to which I had his promise as above These by way of Question Viz. whether that fourth Head cited and recommended by himself In Wonders of the Invisible World of Mr. Gauls ought to be believed as a truth which runs thus Among the most unhappy circumstances to Convict a Witch one is a Maligning and Oppugning the Word Work and Worship of God and seeking by any Extraordinary sign to seduce any from it Dâ—u 13.1 2. Mat. 24. 24. Acts 13. 8 10. 2 Tim. 3 8. do but mark well the places and for this very property of thus oppugning and perverting they are all there concluded arrant and absolute Witches And if in Witchcraft the Devil by means of a Witch does the Mischief how 't is possible to distinguish it from Possession both being said to be performed by the Devil and yet without an Infallible distinction there can be no certainty in Judgment And whether it can be proved that the Iewish Church in any Age before or in our Saviours time even in the time of their greatest Apostacy did believe that a Witch had power to Commissionate Devils to do Mischief So much to the Questions These were sent as my belief That the Devils bounds are sett that he cant pass That the Devils are so full of Malice that it cant be added to by Mankind That where he hath power he neither can nor will omit executing it That 't is only the Almighty that lets bounds to his rage and that only can Commissionate him to hurt or destroy And now I shall give you the Summary account of his four sheets above mention'd as near as memory could recollect in Ten Particulars 1. That the Devils have in their Natures a power to work Wonders
the Witches really have such a Miraculous or Wonder-working Power And 't is remarkable that the Apostle Gal. 5.20 Reckons up Witchcraft among the Works of the flesh which were it indeed a Wonder-working Power received immediately from the Devil and wholly beyond the Power of Nature it were very improper to place it with Drunkenness Murthers Adulteries c. all manifest fleshly works 'T is also remarkable that Witchcraft is generally in Scripture joined with spiritual Whoredom i. e. Idolatry This thence will plainly appear to be the same only pretending to a sign in order to deceive seems to be yet a further degree and in this Sense Manasseh and Jezebel 2 Chron. 33.6 2 Kings 9.22 used Witchcraft and Whoredoms Nahum 3.4 The Idolatrous City is called Mistress of Witchcrafts But to instance in one place instead of many that 2 Thes. 2. from the 3 to the 12. v. particularly 9 and 10. v. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness And for this cause God shall â—â—nd them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who belieâ—e not the trâ—th c. This that then was spoken in the Prophesie of that Man of Sin that was to appear how abundantly does History testifie the fulfilment of it particularly to seduce to the Worship of Images Have not the Images been made to move to smile c. too tedious were it to mention the hundredth part of what undoubted History doth abundantly testifie And hence do set down this nineth Conclusion 9. That the Man of Sin or Seducer c. makes use of lying wonders to the end to deceive and that God in Righteous Iudgment may send strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they might be damn'd who believe not the truth c. 'T is certain that the Devil is a pâ—â—ud Being and would be thought to have a Power equal to the Almighty and it cannot but be very grateful to him to see Mortals charging one another of doing such works by the Devil's Power as in truth is the proper prerogativâ— of the Almighty Omnipotent Being The next head should have been about an Explicit Covenant between the Witch and the Devil c. But in this the whole of it I cannot perswade my self but you must be sensible of an apparent leaning to Education or tradition the Scriptures being wholly silent in it and supposing this to fall in as a dependent on what went before shall say the less to it for if the Devil has no such Power to communicate upon such compact then the whole is a Fiction tho I cannot but acknowledge you have said so much to uphold that Doctrine that I know not how any could have done more however as I said I find not my self ingaged unless Scripture proof were offered to meddle with it For as you have in such cases your Reason for your guide so I must be allowed to use that little that I have do only say that as God is a Spirit so he must be worship'd in spirit and truth So also that the Devil is a Spirit and that his rule is in the hearts of the Children of Disobedience and that an Explicit Covenant of one nature or another can have little force any further than as the heart is engaged in it And so I pass to the last viz. Whether a Witch ought to be put to death And without accumulation of the offence do Iudge that where the Law of any Countrey is to punish by death such as seduce and tempt to the worship of strange Gods or Idols or Statues by as good Authority may they no doubt punish these as Capital Offenders who are distinguished by that one remove viz. to their seducing is added a sign i. e. they pretend to a sign in order to seduce And thus worthy Sir I have freely given you my thoughts upon yours which you so much obliged me with the sight of and upon the whole tho I cannot in the general but commend your Caution in not asserting many things contended for by others yet must say that in my esteem there is retain'd so much as will secure all the rest to instance if a Spirit has a Vehicle i. e. some portion of matter which it acts c. hence as necessarily may be inferred that Doctrine of Incubus and Succubus and why not also that of Procreation by Spirits both good and bad Thus was Alexander the Great the Brittish Merlin and Martin Luther and many others said to be begotten Again if the Witch has such a Wonder-working Power why not to afflict will not the Devil thus far gratifie lâ—e And have none this Miracculous Power but the Covenanting Witch then the offence lyes in the Covenant then 't is not only hard but Impossible to to find a Witch by such Evidence as the Law of God requires for it will not be supposed that they call Witness to this Covenant therefore it will here be necessary to admit of such as the nature of such Covenant will bear as Mr. Gaul hath it in his 5th head i. e. the testimony of the afflicted with their Spectral sight to tell who afflicts themselves or others the experiment of saying the Lords Prayer falling at the sight and rising at the touch searching for Tets i. e. Excrescencies of Nature strange and foreign stories of the Death of some Cattle or oveâ— setting some Cart and what can Iuâ—ies have better to guide them to â—â—ad out this Covenant by 'T is matter of lamentation and let it be for a lamentation to consider how these things have open'd the Floodgates of Malice Revenge Vncharitableness and Bloodshed what Multitudes have been swept away by this Torrent In Germany Countries depopulated In Scotland no less than 4000 have said to have suffered by Fire and Halter at one heat Thas we may say with the Prophet Isa. 59.10 We grope for the Wall like the blind and we grope as if we had no Eyes we stumble at Noon-day as in the Night we are in desolate places as dead Men and this by seeking to be wise above what is written in framing to our selves such crimes and such Ordels or ways of Tryal as are wholly foreign from the direction of our only guide which should be a light to our feet and a Lanthorn to our paths but instead of this if we have not followed the direction we have followed the Example of Pagan and Papal Rome thereby rendering us contemptible and base before all People according as we have not kept his ways but have been partial in his Law And now that we may in all our sentiments and ways have regard to his testimonies and give to the Almighty the glory due to his Name is the earnest desire and Prayer of Sir Yours to Command R. C. A second Letter of a Gentleman endeavouring to prove the received Opinions about Witchcraft SIR SInce