The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination, (Vol 1 of 3)

AN HORTATORY AND NECESSARY ADDRESS, TO A COUNTRY NOW EXTRAORDINARILY ALARUM'D BY THE WRATH OF THE DEVIL. TIS THIS,

LET us now make a good and a right use of the prodigious descent which the Devil in Great Wrath is at this day making upon our Land. Upon the Death of a Great Man once, an Orator call'd the Town together, crying out, Concurrite Cives, Dilapsa sunt vestra Mœnia! that is, Come together, Neighbours, your Town-Walls are fallen down! But such is the descent of the Devil at this day upon our selves, that I may truly tell you, The Walls of the whole World are broken down! The usual Walls of defence about mankind have such a Gap made in them, that the very Devils are broke in upon us, to seduce the Souls, torment the Bodies, sully the Credits, and consume the Estates of our Neighbours, [41] with Impressions both as real and as furious, as if the Invisible World were becoming Incarnate, on purpose for the vexing of us. And what use ought now to be made of so tremendous a dispensation? We are engaged in a Fast this day;¹¹² but shall we try to fetch Meat out of the Eater, and make the Lion to afford some Hony for our Souls?

That the Devil is come down unto us with great Wrath, we find, we feel, we now deplore.¹¹³ In many ways, for many years hath the Devil been assaying to Extirpate the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus here. New-England may complain of the Devil, as in Psal. 129. 1, 2. Many a time have they afflicted me, from my Youth, may New-England now say; many a time have they afflicted me from my Youth; yet they have not prevailed against me. But now there is a more than ordinary affliction, with which the Devil is Galling of us: and such an one as is indeed Unparallelable. The things confessed by Witches, and the things endured by Others, laid together, amount unto this account of our Affliction. The Devil, Exhibiting himself ordinarily as a small Black man, has decoy'd a fearful knot of proud, froward, ignorant, envious and malicious creatures, to lift themselves in his horrid Service, by entring their Names in a Book by him tendred unto them.¹¹⁴ These Witches, whereof above a Score have now Confessed and shown their Deeds, and some are now tormented by the Devils, for Confessing, have met in Hellish Randezvouzes, wherein the Confessors do say, they have had their diabolical Sacraments, imitating the Baptism and the Supper of our Lord. In these hellish meetings, these Monsters have associated themselves to do no less a thing than, To destroy the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, in these parts of the World; and in order hereunto, First they each of them have their Spectres, or Devils, commission'd by them, & representing of them, to be the Engines of their Malice. By these wicked Spectres, they seize poor people about the Country, with various & bloudy Torments; and of those evidently Preternatural torments there are some have dy'd. They have bewitched some, even so far as to make Self-destroyers:¹¹⁵ and others are in many Towns here and there languishing under their Evil hands. The people thus afflicted, are miserably scratched and bitten, so that the Marks are most visible to all the World, but the causes utterly invisible; and the same Invisible Furies do most visibly stick Pins into the bodies of the afflicted, and scald them, and hideously distort, and disjoint all their members, besides a thousand other sorts of Plagues beyond these of any natural diseases which they give unto them. Yea, they sometimes drag the poor people out of their chambers, and carry them over Trees and Hills, for divers miles together. A large part of the persons tortured by these Diabolical Spectres, are horribly tempted by them, sometimes with fair [42] promises, and sometimes with hard threatnings, but always with felt miseries, to sign the Devils Laws in a Spectral Book laid before them; which two or three of these poor Sufferers, being by their tiresome sufferings overcome to do, they have immediately been released from all their miseries and they appear'd in Spectre then to Torture those that were before their Fellow-Sufferers. The Witches which by their covenant with the Devil, are become Owners of Spectres, are oftentimes by their own Spectres required and compelled to give their consent, for the molestation of some, which they had no mind otherwise to fall upon; and cruel Depredations are then made upon the Vicinage. In the Prosecution of these Witchcrafts, among a thousand other unaccountable things, the Spectres have an odd faculty of cloathing the most substantial and corporeal Instruments of Torture, with Invisibility, while the wounds thereby given have been the most palpable things in the World; so that the Sufferers assaulted with Instruments of Iron, wholly unseen to the standers by, though, to their cost, seen by themselves, have, upon snatching, wrested the Instruments out of the Spectres hands, and every one has then immediately not only beheld, but handled, an Iron Instrument taken by a Devil from a Neighbour. These wicked Spectres have proceeded so far, as to steal several quantities of Mony from divers people, part of which Money, has, before sufficient Spectators, been dropt out of the Air into the Hands of the Sufferers, while the Spectres have been urging them to subscribe their Covenant with Death.¹¹⁶ In such extravagant ways have these Wretches propounded, the Dragooning of as many as they can, in their own Combination, and the Destroying of others, with lingring, spreading, deadly diseases; till our Countrey should at last become too hot for us. Among the Ghastly Instances of the success which those Bloody Witches have had, we have seen even some of their own Children, so dedicated unto the Devil, that in their Infancy, it is found, the Imps have sucked them, and rendred them Venemous to a Prodigy. We have also seen the Devils first batteries upon the Town, where the first Church of our Lord in this Colony was gathered, producing those distractions, which have almost ruin'd the Town.¹¹⁷ We have seen likewise the Plague reaching afterwards into other Towns far and near, where the Houses of good Men have the Devils filling of them with terrible Vexations!

This is the Descent, which, it seems, the Devil has now made upon us. But that which makes this Descent the more formidable, is; the multitude and quality of Persons accused of an interest in this Witchcraft, by the Efficacy of the Spectres which take their Name and shape upon them; causing very many good and wise Men to fear, [43] That many innocent, yea, and some vertuous persons, are by the Devils in this matter, imposed upon; That the Devils have obtain'd the power, to take on them the likeness of harmless people, and in that likeness afflict other people, and be so abused by Præstigious Dæmons, that upon their look or touch, the afflicted shall be oddly affected. Arguments from the Providence of God, on the one side, and from our Charity towards Man on the other side, have made this now to become a most agitated Controversie among us. There is an Agony produced in the Minds of Men, lest the Devil should sham us with Devices, of perhaps a finer Thred, than was ever yet practised upon the World. The whole business is become hereupon so Snarled, and the determination of the Question one way or another, so dismal, that our Honourable Judges have a Room for Jehoshaphat's Exclamation, We know not what to do!¹¹⁸ They have used, as Judges have heretofore done, the Spectral Evidences, to introduce their further Enquiries into the Lives of the persons accused; and they have thereupon, by the wonderful Providence of God, been so strengthened with other evidences, that some of the Witch Gang have been fairly Executed. But what shall be done, as to those against whom the evidence is chiefly founded in the dark world? Here they do solemnly demand our Addresses to the Father of Lights, on their behalf. But in the mean time, the Devil improves the Darkness of this Affair, to push us into a Blind Mans Buffet, and we are even ready to be sinfully, yea, hotly, and madly, mauling one another in the dark.¹¹⁹

The consequence of these things, every considerate Man trembles at; and the more, because the frequent cheats of Passion, and Rumour, do precipitate so many, that I wish I could say, The most were considerate.

But that which carries on the formidableness of our Trials, unto that which may be called, A wrath unto the uttermost, is this: It is not without the wrath of the Almighty God himself, that the Devil is permitted thus to come down upon us in wrath. It was said, in Isa. 9. 19. Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, the Land is darkned. Our Land is darkned indeed; since the Powers of Darkness are turned in upon us: 'tis a dark time, yea a black night indeed, now the Ty-dogs¹²⁰ of the Pit are abroad among us: but, It is through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts! Inasmuch as the Fire-brands of Hell it self are used for the scorching of us, with cause enough may we cry out, What means the heat of this Anger? Blessed Lord! Are all the other Instruments of thy Vengeance, too good for the chastisement of such transgressors as we are? Must the very Devils be sent out of Their own place, to be our Troublers: Must we be lash'd with Scorpions, fetch'd from the Place of [44] Torment? Must this Wilderness be made a Receptacle for the Dragons of the Wilderness? If a Lapland should nourish in it vast numbers, the successors of the old Biarmi,¹²¹ who can with looks or words bewitch other people, or sell Winds to Mariners, and have their Familiar Spirits which they bequeath to their Children when they die, and by their Enchanted Kettle-Drums can learn things done a Thousand Leagues off; If a Swedeland should afford a Village, where some scores of Haggs, may not only have their Meetings with Familiar Spirits, but also by their Enchantments drag many scores of poor children out of their Bed-chambers, to be spoiled at those Meetings; This, were not altogether a matter of so much wonder! But that New-England should this way be harrassed! They are not Chaldeans, that Bitter and Hasty Nation, but they are, Bitter and Burning Devils; They are not Swarthy Indians, but they are Sooty Devils; that are let loose upon us. Ah, Poor New-England! Must the plague of Old Ægypt come upon thee? Whereof we read in Psal. 78. 49. He cast upon them the fierceness of his Anger, Wrath, and Indignation, and Trouble, by sending Evil Angels among them. What, O what must next be looked for? Must that which is there next mentioned, be next encountered? He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the Pestilence. For my part, when I consider what Melancthon says, in one of his Epistles, That these Diabolical Spectacles are often Prodigies; and when I consider, how often people have been by Spectres called upon, just before their Deaths; I am verily afraid, lest some wasting Mortality be among the things, which this Plague is the Fore-runner of. I pray God prevent it!

But now, What shall we do?

I. Let the Devils coming down in great wrath upon us, cause us to come down in great grief before the Lord. We may truly and sadly say, We are brought very low! Low indeed, when the Serpents of the dust, are crawling and coyling about us, and Insulting over us. May we not say, We are in the very Belly of Hell, when Hell it self is feeding upon us? But how Low is that! O let us then most penitently lay our selves very Low before the God of Heaven, who has thus Abased us.¹²² When a Truculent Nero a Devil of a Man, was turned in upon the World, it was said, in 1 Pet. 5. 6. Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God. How much more now ought we to humble our selves under that Mighty Hand of that God who indeed has the Devil in a Chain, but has horribly lengthened on the Chain!¹²³ When the old people of God heard any Blasphemies, tearing of his Ever-Blessed Name to pieces, they were to Rend their Cloaths at what they heard. I am sure that we have cause to Rend our Hearts this Day, when we see [45] what an High Treason has been committed against the most high God, by the Witchcrafts in our Neighbourhood. We may say; and shall we not be humbled when we say it? We have seen an horrible thing done in our Land! O 'tis a most humbling thing, to think, that ever there should be such an abomination among us, as for a crue of humane race to renounce their Maker, and to unite with the Devil, for the troubling of mankind, and for People to be, (as is by some confess'd) Baptized by a Fiend using this form upon them, Thou art mine and I have a full power over thee! afterwards communicating in an Hellish Bread and Wine, by that Fiend administred unto them. It was said in Deut. 18. 10, 11, 12. There shall not be found among you an Inchanter, or a Witch, or a Charmer, or a Consulter with Familiar Spirits, or a Wizzard, or a Necromancer; For all that do these things are an Abomination to the Lord, and because of these Abominations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee. That New-England now should have these Abominations in it, yea, that some of no mean Profession, should be found guilty of them: Alas, what Humiliations are we all hereby oblig'd unto? O 'tis a Defiled Land, wherein we live; Let us be humbled for these Defiling Abominations, lest we be driven out of our Land. It's a very humbling thing to think, what reproaches will be cast upon us, for this matter, among The Daughters of the Philistines. Indeed, enough might easily be said for the vindication of this Country from the Singularity of this matter, by ripping up, what has been discovered in others. Great Britain alone, and this also in our days of Greatest Light, has had that in it, which may divert the Calumnies of an ill-natured World, from centring here. They are words of the Devout Bishop Hall,¹²⁴ Satans prevalency in this Age, is most clear in the marvellous Number of Witches abounding in all places. Now Hundreds are discovered in one Shire; and, if Fame Deceives us not, in a Village of Fourteen Houses in the North, are found so many of this Damned Brood. Yea, and those of both Sexes, who have Professed much Knowledge, Holiness, and Devotion, are drawn into this Damnable Practice. I suppose the Doctor in the first of those Passages, may refer to what happened in the Year 1645. When so many Vassals of the Devil were Detected, that there were Thirty try'd at one time, whereas about fourteen were Hang'd, and an Hundred more detained in the Prisons of Suffolk and Essex. Among other things which many of these Acknowledged, one was, That they were to undergo certain Punishments, if they did not such and such Hurts, as were appointed them. And, among the rest that were then Executed, there was an Old Parson, called Lowis, who confessed, That he had a couple of Imps, whereof one was always putting him upon the doing of Mischief; Once particularly, that Imp calling for his Consent so to do, went immediately and Sunk a Ship, then under Sail.¹²⁵ I pray, let not New-England become of an Unsavoury and a Sulphurous Resentment in the Opinion of the World abroad, for the Doleful things which are now fallen out among us, while there are such Histories of other places abroad in the World.¹²⁶ Nevertheless, I am sure that we, the People of New-England, have cause enough to Humble our selves under our most Humbling Circumstances. We must no more be Haughty, because of the Lords Holy Mountain among us; No it becomes us rather to be, Humble, because we have been such an Habitation of Unholy Devils!

II. Since the Devil is come down in great wrath upon us, let not us in our great wrath against one another provide a Lodging for him. It was a most wholesome caution, in Eph. 4. 26, 27. Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the Devil. The Devil is come down to see what Quarter he shall find among us:¹²⁷ And if his coming down, do now fill us with wrath against one another, and if between the cause of the Sufferers on one hand, and the cause of the Suspected on t'other, we carry things to such extreams of Passion as are now gaining upon us, the Devil will Bless himself, to find such a convenient Lodging as we shall therein afford unto him.¹²⁸ And it may be that the wrath which we have had against one another has had more than a little influence upon the coming down of the Devil in that wrath which now amazes us. Have not many of us been Devils one unto another for Slanderings, for Backbitings, for Animosities? For this, among other causes, perhaps, God has permitted the Devils to be worrying, as they now are, among us. But it is high time to leave off all Devilism, when the Devil himself is falling upon us: And it is no time for us to be Censuring and Reviling one another, with a Devilish wrath, when the wrath of the Devil is annoying of us. The way for us to out-wit the Devil, in the Wiles with which he now Vexes [46] us, would be for us to joyn as one man in our cries to God, for the Directing, and Issuing of this Thorny Business; but if we do not Lift up our Hands to Heaven, without Wrath, we cannot then do it without Doubt, of speeding in it. I am ashamed when I read French Authors giving this Character of Englishmen [Ils se haissent Les uns les autres, et sont en Division Continuelle.] They hate one another, and are always Quarelling one with another.¹²⁹ And I shall be much more ashamed, if it become the Character of New-Englanders; which is indeed what the Devil would have. Satan would make us bruise one another, by breaking of the Peace among us; but O let us disappoint him. We read of a thing that sometimes happens to the Devil, when he is foaming with his Wrath, in Mat. 12. 43. The unclean Spirit seeks rest, and finds none. But we give rest unto the Devil, by wrath one against another. If we would lay aside all fierceness, and keenness, in the disputes which the Devil has raised among us; and if we would use to one another none but the soft Answers, which turn away wrath: I should hope that we might light upon such Counsels, as would quickly Extricate us out of our Labyrinths. But the old Incendiary of the world, is come from Hell, with Sparks of Hell-Fire flashing on every side of him; and we make ourselves Tynder to the Sparks. When the Emperour Henry III.¹³⁰ kept the Feast of Pentecost, at the City Mentz, there arose a dissension among some of the people there, which came from words to blows, and at last it passed on to the shedding of Blood. After the Tumult was over, when they came to that clause in their Devotions, Thou hast made this day Glorious; the Devil to the unexpressible Terrour of that vast Assembly, made the Temple Ring with that Outcry But I have made this Day Quarrelsome! We are truly come into a day, which by being well managed might be very Glorious, for the exterminating of those Accursed things, which have hitherto been the Clogs of our Prosperity; but if we make this day Quarrelsome, thro' any Raging Confidences, Alas, O Lord, my Flesh Trembles for Fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy Judgments. Erasmus, among other Historians, tells us, that at a Town in Germany, a Witch or Devil, appeared on the Top of a Chimney, Threatning to set the Town on Fire: And at length, Scattering a Pot of Ashes abroad, the Town was presently and horribly Burnt unto the Ground.¹³¹ Methinks, I see the Spectres, from the Top of the Chimneys to the Northward, threatning to scatter Fire, about the Countrey; but let us quench that Fire, by the most amicable Correspondencies: Lest, as the Spectres, have, they say, already most Literally burnt some of our Dwellings there do come forth a further Fire from the Brambles of Hell, which may more terribly Devour us. Let us not be like a Troubled House, altho' we are so much haunted by the Devils. Let our Long suffering be a well-placed piece of Armour, about us, against the Fiery Darts of the wicked ones. History informs us, That so long ago, as the year, 858, a certain Pestilent and Malignant sort of Dæmon, molested Caumont in Germany with all sorts of methods to stir up strife among the Citizens. He uttered Prophecies, he detected Villanies, he branded people with all kind of Infamies. He incensed the Neighbourhood against one Man particularly, as the cause of all the mischiefs: who yet proved himself innocent. He threw stones at the Inhabitants, and at length burnt their Habitations, till the Commission of the Dæmon could go no further. I say, let us be well aware lest such Dæmons do Come hither also.

III. Inasmuch as the Devil is come down in Great Wrath, we had need Labour, with all the Care and Speed we can to Divert the Great Wrath of Heaven from coming at the same time upon us. The God of Heaven has with long and loud Admonitions, been calling us to a Reformation of our Provoking Evils, as the only way to avoid that Wrath of His, which does not only Threaten but Consume us. 'Tis because we have been Deaf to those Calls that we are now by a provoked God, laid open to the Wrath of the Devil himself. It is said in Pr. 16. 7. When a mans ways please the Lord, he maketh even his Enemies to be at peace with him. The Devil is our grand Enemy; and tho' we would not be at peace with him, yet we would be at peace from him, that is, we would have him unable to disquiet our peace. But inasmuch as the wrath which we endure from this Enemy, will allow us no peace, we may be sure, our ways have not pleased the Lord. It is because we have broken the hedge of Gods Precepts, that the hedge of Gods Providence is not so entire as it uses to be about us; but Serpents are biting of us. O let us then set [47] our selves to make our peace with our God, whom we have displeased by our iniquities: and let us not imagine that we can encounter the Wrath of the Devil, while there is the Wrath of God Almighty to set that Mastiff upon us. Reformation! Reformation! has been the repeated Cry of all the Judgments that have hitherto been upon us; because we have been as deaf Adders thereunto, the Adders of the Infernal Pit are now hissing about us. At length, as it was of old said, Luke 16. 30. If one went unto them from the dead, they will repent; even so, there are some come unto us from the Damned. The great God has loosed the Bars of the Pit, so that many damned Spirits are come in among us, to make us repent of our Misdemeanours. The means which the Lord had formerly employ'd for our awakening, were such, that he might well have said, What could I have done more? and yet after all, he has done more, in some regards, than was ever done for the awakening of any People in the World. The things now done to awaken our Enquiries after our provoking Evils, and our endeavours to Reform those evils, are most extraordinary things; for which cause I would freely speak it, if we now do not some extraordinary things in returning to God; we are the most incurable, and I wish it be not quickly said, the most miserable People under the Sun. Believe me, 'tis a time for all people to do something extraordinary, in searching and trying of their ways, and in turning to the Lord. It is at an extraordinary rate of Circumspection and Spiritual mindedness, that we should all now maintain a walk with God. At such a time as this ought Magistrates to do something extraordinary in promoting of what is laudable, and in restraining and chastising of Evil Doers. At such a time as this ought Ministers to do something extraordinary in pulling the Souls of Men out of the Snares of the Devil, not only by publick Preaching, but by personal Visits and Counsels, from house to house. At such a time as this ought Churches to do something extraordinary, in renewing of their Covenants, and in remembring, and reviving the Obligations of what they have renewed. Some admirable Designs about the Reformation of Manners, have lately been on foot in the English Nation, in pursuance of the most excellent Admonitions which have been given for it, by the Letters of Their Majesties.¹³² Besides the vigorous Agreements of the Justices here and there in the Kingdom, assisted by godly Gentlemen and Informers, to execute the Laws upon prophane Offenders: there has been started a Proposal for the well-affected people in every Parish, to enter into orderly Societies, whereof every Member shall bind himself, not only to avoid Prophaneness in himself, but also according unto to their Place, to do their utmost in first Reproving; and, if it must be so, then Exposing, and so Punishing, as the Law directs, for others that shall be guilty. It has been observed, that the English Nation has had some of its greatest Successes, upon some special and signal Actions this way; and a discouragement given under Legal Proceedings of this kind, must needs be very exercising to the Wise that observe these things. But O why should not New-England be the most forward part of the English Nation in such Reformations? Methinks I hear the Lord from Heaven saying over us, O that my People had hearkened unto me; then I should soon have subdued the Devils, as well as their other Enemies! There have been some feeble Essays towards Reformation of late in our Churches; but, I pray what comes of them? Do we stay till the Storm of his Wrath be over? Nay, let us be doing what we can, as fast as we can, to divert the Storm. The Devils having broke in upon our World,¹³³ there is great asking, Who is it that has brought them in? And many do by Spectral Exhibitions come to be cry'd out upon. I hope in Gods time it will be found, that among those that are thus cry'd out upon, there are persons yet Clear from the great Transgression; but indeed, all the Unreformed among us, may justly be cry'd out upon, as having too much of an hand in letting of the Devils into our Borders; 'tis our Worldliness, our Formality, our Sensuality, and our Iniquity that has help'd this letting of the Devils in. O let us then at last, consider our ways. 'Tis a strange passage recorded by Mr. Clark¹³⁴ in the Life of his Father That the People of his Parish, refusing to be Reclaimed from their Sabbath breaking, by all the zealous Testimonies which that good Man bore against it; at last, on a night after the people had retired home from a Revelling Prophanation of the Lords Day, there was heard a great Noise, with rattling of Chains up and down the Town, and an horrid Scent of Brimstone fill'd the Neighbourhood. Upon which the guilty Consciences of the Wretches told [48] them, the Devil was come to fetch them away; and it so terrifi'd them, that an Eminent Reformation follow'd the Sermons which that Man of God Preached thereupon. Behold, Sinners, behold and wonder, lest you perish: the very Devils are walking about our Streets, with lengthened Chains, making a dreadful Noise in our Ears, and Brimstone even without a Metaphor, is making an hellish and horrid stench in our Nostrils.¹³⁵ I pray leave off all those things whereof your guilty Consciences may now accuse you, lest these Devils do yet more direfully fall upon you. Reformation is at this time our only Preservation.

IV. When the Devil is come down in great Wrath, let every great Vice which may have a more particular tendency to make us a Prey unto that Wrath, come into a due discredit with us. It is the general Concession of all men, who are not become too Unreasonable for common Conversation, that the Invitation of Witchcrafts is the thing that has now introduced the Devil into the midst of us. I say then, let not only all Witchcrafts be duly abominated with us, but also let us be duly watchful against all the Steps leading thereunto. There are lesser Sorceries which they say, are too frequent in our Land. As it was said in 2 King. 17. 9. The Children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right, against the Lord their God. So 'tis to be feared, the Children of New-England have secretly done many things that have been pleasing to the Devil. They say, that in some Towns it has been an usual thing for People to cure Hurts with Spells, or to use detestable Conjurations, with Sieves, Keys, and Pease, and Nails, and Horse-shoes, and I know not what other Implements, to learn the things for which they have a forbidden, and an impious Curiosity.¹³⁶ 'Tis in the Devils Name, that such things are done; and in Gods Name I do this day charge them, as vile Impieties. By these Courses 'tis, that People play upon The Hole of the Asp, till that cruelly venemous Asp has pull'd many of them into the deep Hole of Witchcraft it self. It has been acknowledged by some who have sunk the deepest into this horrible Pit, that they began at these little Witchcrafts; on which 'tis pity but the Laws of the English Nation, whereby the incorrigible repetition of those Tricks, is made Felony, were severally Executed. From the like sinful Curiosity it is, that the Prognostications of Judicial Astrology, are so injudiciously regarded by multitudes among us; and altho' the Jugling Astrologers do scarce ever hit right, except it be in such Weighty Judgments, forsooth, as that many Old Men will die such a year, and that there will be many Losses felt by some that venture to Sea, and that there will be much Lying and Cheating in the World; yet their foolish Admirers will not be perswaded but that the Innocent Stars have been concern'd in these Events. It is a disgrace to the English Nation, that the Pamphlets of such idle, futil, trifling Stargazers are so much considered; and the Countenance hereby given to a Study, wherin at last, all is done by Impulse, if any thing be done to any purpose at all, is not a little perillous to the Souls of Men. It is (a Science, I dare not call it, but) a Juggle, whereof the Learned Hall well says, It is presumptious and unwarrantable, and cry'd ever down by Councils and Fathers, as unlawful, as that which lies in the mid-way between Magick and Imposture, and partakes not a little of both.¹³⁷ Men consult the Aspects of Planets, whose Northern or Southern motions receive denominations from a Cælestial Dragon, till the Infernal Dragon at length insinuate into them, with a Poison of Witchcraft that can't be cured. Has there not also been a world of discontent in our Borders? 'Tis no wonder, that the fiery Serpents are so Stinging of us; We have been a Murmuring Generation. It is not Irrational, to ascribe the late Stupendious growth of Witches among us, partly to the bitter discontents, which Affliction and Poverty has fill'd us with: it is inconceivable, what advantage the Devil gains over men, by discontent. Moreover, the Sin of Unbelief may be reckoned as perhaps the chief Crime of our Land. We are told, God swears in wrath, against them that believe not; and what follows then but this, That the Devil comes unto them in wrath! Never were the offers of the Gospel, more freely tendered, or more basely despised, among any People under the whole Cope of Heaven, than in this N. E.¹³⁸ Seems it all marvellous unto us, that the Devil should get such a footing in our Country? Why, 'tis because the Saviour has been slighted here, perhaps more than any where. The Blessed Lord Jesus Christ [49] has been profering to us, Grace, and Glory, and every good thing, and been alluring of us to Accept of Him, with such Terms as these, Undone Sinner, I am All; Art thou willing that I should be thy All? But, as a proof of that Contempt which this Unbelief has cast upon these proffers, I would seriously ask of the so many Hundreds above a Thousand People within these Walls; which of you all, O how few of you, can indeed say, Christ is mine, and I am his, and he is the Beloved of my Soul? I would only say thus much: When the precious and glorious Jesus, is Entreating of us to Receive Him, in all His Offices, with all His Benifits; the Devil minds what Respect we pay unto that Heavenly Lord; if we Refuse Him that speaks from Heaven, then he that, Comes from Hell, does with a sort of claim set in, and cry out, Lord, since this Wretch is not willing that thou shouldst have him, I pray, let me have him. And thus, by the just vengeance of Heaven, the Devil becomes a Master, a Prince, a God, unto the miserable Unbelievers: but O what are many of them then hurried unto! All of these Evil Things, do I now set before you, as Branded with the Mark of the Devil upon them.