Part 2

'Tis, as I remember, the Learned _Scribonius_, who reports, That one of his Acquaintance, devoutly making his Prayers on the behalf of a Person molested by _Evil Spirits_, received from those _Evil Spirits_ an horrible Blow over the Face: And I may my self expect not few or small Buffetings from Evil Spirits, for the Endeavours wherewith I am now going to encounter them. I am far from insensible, that at this extraordinary Time of the _Devils coming down in great Wrath upon us_, there are too many Tongues and Hearts thereby _set on fire of Hell_; that the various Opinions about the Witchcrafts which of later time have troubled us, are maintained by some with so much cloudy Fury, as if they could never be sufficiently stated, unless written in the Liquor wherewith Witches use to write their Covenants; and that he who becomes an Author at such a time, had need be _fenced with Iron, and the Staff of a Spear_. The unaccountable Frowardness, Asperity, Untreatableness, and Inconsistency of many Persons, every Day gives a visible Exposition of that passage, _An evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul;_ and Illustration of that Story, _There met him two possessed with Devils, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way._ To send abroad a Book, among such Readers, were a very unadvised thing, if a Man had not such Reasons to give, as I can bring, for such an Undertaking. Briefly, I hope it cannot be said, _They are all so:_ No, I hope the Body of this People, are yet in such a Temper, as to be capable of applying their Thoughts, to make a _Right Use_ of the stupendous and prodigious Things that are happening among us: And because I was concern'd, when I saw that no abler Hand emitted any Essays to engage the Minds of this People, in such holy, pious, fruitful Improvements, as God would have to be made of his amazing Dispensations now upon us. THEREFORE it is, that One of the Least among the Children of _New-England_, has here done, what is done. None, but _the Father, who sees in secret_, knows the Heart-breaking Exercises, wherewith I have composed what is now going to be exposed, lest I should in any one thing miss of doing my designed Service for his Glory, and for his People; but I am now somewhat comfortably assured of his favourable acceptance; and, _I will not fear; what can a Satan do unto me!_

Having performed something of what God required, in labouring to suit his Words unto his Works, at this Day among us, and therewithal handled a Theme that has been sometimes counted not unworthy the Pen, even of a King, it will easily be perceived, that some subordinate Ends have been considered in these Endeavours.

I have indeed set myself to countermine the whole PLOT of the Devil, against _New-England_, in every Branch of it, as far as one of my _darkness_, can comprehend such a _Work of Darkness_. I may add, that I have herein also aimed at the Information and Satisfaction of Good Men in another Country, a thousand Leagues off, where I have, it may be, more, or however, more considerable Friends, than in my own: And I do what I can to have that Country, now, as well as always, in the best Terms with my own. But while I am doing these things, I have been driven a little to do something likewise for myself; I mean, by taking off the false Reports, and hard Censures about my Opinion in these Matters, the _Parter's Portions_ which my _pursuit of Peace_ has procured me among the _Keen_. My hitherto _unvaried Thoughts_ are here published; and I believe, they will be owned by most of the Ministers of God in these Colonies; nor can amends be well made me, for the wrong done me, by other sorts of _Representations_.

* * * * *

In fine: For the Dogmatical part of my Discourse, I want no Defence; for the Historical part of it, I have a Very Great One; the Lieutenant-Governour of _New-England_ having perused it, has done me the Honour of giving me a Shield, under the Umbrage whereof I now dare to walk abroad.

REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,

_You very much gratify'd me, as well as put a kind Respect upon me, when you put into my hands, your elaborate and most seasonable Discourse, entituled, +The Wonders of the Invisible World+. And having now perused so fruitful and happy a Composure, upon such a Subject, at this Juncture of Time; and considering the place that I hold in the Court of +Oyer+ and +Terminer+, still labouring and proceeding in the Trial of the Persons accused and convicted for Witchcraft, I find that I am more nearly and highly concerned than as a meer ordinary Reader, to express my Obligation and Thankfulness to you for so great Pains; and cannot but hold myself many ways bound, even to the utmost of what is proper for me, in my present publick Capacity, to declare my +singular Approbation+ thereof. Such is your Design, most plainly expressed throughout the whole; such your Zeal for God, your Enmity to Satan and his Kingdom, your Faithfulness and Compassion to this poor People; such the Vigour, but yet great Temper of your Spirit; such your Instruction and Counsel, your +Care of Truth+, your Wisdom and Dexterity in allaying and moderating that among us, which needs it; such your clear discerning of Divine Providences and Periods, now running on apace towards their Glorious Issues in the World; and finally, such your good News of +The Shortness of the Devil's Time+, that all Good Men must needs desire, the making of this your Discourse publick to the World; and will greatly rejoyce, that the +Spirit of the Lord+ has thus enabled you to +lift up a Standard+ against the Infernal Enemy, that hath been +coming in like a Flood upon us+. I do therefore make it my particular and earnest Request unto you, that as soon as may be, you will commit the same unto the +Press+ accordingly. I am,_

Your assured Friend,

WILLIAM STOUGHTON.

I live by _Neighbours_ that force me to produce these undeserved Lines. But now, as when Mr. _Wilson_ beholding a great Muster of Souldiers, had it by a Gentleman then present, said unto him, _Sir, I'll tell you a great Thing: Here is a mighty Body of People; and there is not +Seven+ of them all, but what loves Mr. +Wilson+._ That gracious Man presently and pleasantly reply'd: _Sir, I'll tell you as good a thing as that; here is a mighty Body of People, and there is not so much as +One+ among them all, but Mr. +Wilson+ loves him._ Somewhat so: 'Tis possible, that among this Body of People, there may be few that love the Writer of this Book; but give me leave to boast so far, there is not one among all this Body of People, whom this _Mather_ would not study to serve, as well as to love. With such a _Spirit of Love_, is the Book now before us written: I appeal to all _this World_; and if _this_ World will deny me the Right of acknowledging so much, I appeal to the _other_, that it is _not written with an Evil Spirit_: for which cause I shall not wonder, if _Evil Spirits_ be exasperated by what is written, as the _Sadduces_ doubtless were with what was discoursed in the Days of our Saviour. I only demand the _Justice_, that others _read_ it, with the same Spirit wherewith I _writ_ it.

ENCHANTMENTS ENCOUNTERED.

SECTION I.

It was as long ago as the Year 1637, that a Faithful Minister of the Church of _England_, whose Name was Mr. _Edward Symons_, 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 Saeculae Seris_, there will come Times in after Ages, when the _Clouds will over-shadow 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. 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. 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 _Antipaedobaptist_, are swallowed up in that of _Christian_; Persons of all those Perswasions being taken into our Fellowship, when visible Goodliness has recommended them: 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. 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._ 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, 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 now 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._ Such great Persons as _Budaeus_, 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.

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.

S. 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_, 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 Dutchy 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!_