,9* .••'% *> vV >! 4 o ,* ... O N O Q .-0, V - ^ ,v .A *"V ~o >> O V 4 o #^ A' %/ :j^. \/ ;«& % <^ *<>•>* ,G V \d */tvT* .* eoflectkm STRANGE PHENOMENA OF NE¥ ENGLAND: IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: INCLUDING THE "SALEM W I T C H C R A F T," "1692." From the Writings of "THE REV. COTTON MATHER, D. D., PASTOR OP THE NORTH CHURCH IN BOSTON." Collected and Arranged for Re-publication BY HENRY JONES, AUTHOR OP " MESMERISM REPUDIATED" — " PRINCIPLES OP INTERPRETATION' ** SCRIPTURES SEARCHED" — ETC. NEW-YORK: PIERCT AND REED, PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, No. 9 Spruce Street. 1846. >k ^ INTRODUCTION. The following important document from Robert Calef's " SA- LEM WITCHCRAFT," &c, 318 pp. 12mo., " Printed in London, in the year 1700, and Reprinted, Salem, Ms., 1796," appears like a specimen of public sentiment in 1694, in favor of publishing the following history, and of its being seriously regarded when pub- lished, by generations then to come, notwithstanding the present opposite opinions of many. " Certain Proposals made by the President and Fellows of Har- vard College, to the Reverend Ministers of the Gospel, in the several churches of New England. ""M71 IRST. 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, although all Christians have a duty incumbent on them, yet it is in a peculiar manner to be re- commended 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 specially all unu- sual accidents in the heaven, or earth, or water, all wonderful de- liverances of the distressed, mercies to the Godly, judgments on the wicked, and more glorious fulfilments of either the promises or threatenings in the scriptures of truth, with apparitions, possessions, enchantments, and all extraordinary things, wherein the existence * and agency of the Invisible 1 World is more sensibly demonstrated. " 4. It is therefore proposed, Thai the ministers throughout iy INTRODUCTION. this land would manifest their pious regards unto the works of the Lord, and the operation of his hands, by reviving their cares to take written accounts of such Remarkables : But still well attested with. credible and sufficient ivitness. " 5. It is desired that the accounts, thus taken of these remarka- bles, may be sent to the President, or the Fellows of the College, by whom they shall be carefully reserved for such a use to be made of them, as may, by some fit assembly of ministers, be judged rnost con- ducing to the glory of God, and the service of his people. " 6. Though we doubt not that love to the name of God, will be a sufficient motive to all good men, to contribute what assistance they can, unto this undertaking; yet for further encouragemet, some singular marks of respects shall be studied for such good men, as will actually assist it, by taking pains to communicate any import- ant passages proper to be inserted in this collection. " INCREASE MATHER, President. " James Allen, Char. Morton, Sam. Willard, Cotton Mather, )- Fellows, John Leverette, Will. Brattle, Neh. Walter, "Cambridge, [Ms.\ March 5, 1694." STRANGE PHENOMENA, &c. From Mather's "Magnolia:" or "Ecclesiastical History of New England :" Folio Edv» tion; "Book VI. Chap. VII. Printed, London, 1792." Relating to the wonders of the invisible tcorld in preternatural occur- " When two goats were offered to the Lord (and only to the Lord) on the day of expiation, on the day of the ancient Israelites, we read that one of them was to fall by lot to Azazel. Azazel cannot, without some hardship on the sense, be taken for the Scape Goat itself. But it is no other than the devil himself, as might easily be proved from monuments of the greatest, both Jewish and Christian antiquities. "In the signification of the word Azazel, there is indeed a notable declaration of those two properties that have signalized the devil as being first, a holy, and then an apostate spirit. The scape goat pre- sented as a sacrifice to the holy God, was ordered by him to be deli- vered up to Azazel upon those notations. One. design hereof, might be to intimate to the people what would be the miserable condition of them who did not, by faith in the Messiah, get the guilt of their sins removed. They that have their sins laying upon them and are led forth by the workers of iniquity, must become a prey to Azazel, even unto Satan to whose temptation, they did, -in their sinning, yield obe- dience. And, indeed, our Lord has expressly told us (perhaps not without some allusion to this Levitical goat,) that he will send the goats which have their sins upon them to be with the devil and his angels. But another and greater design of it, might be to represent a main article in the sufferings which were to befal our Lord Messiah when he should come to suffer for our sins. When our Lord Jesus Christ underwent his humiliation for us, this point was very consi- derable in it. He was carried to the wilderness and there he was exposed to the buffetings and outrages of Azazel. The assaults that Satan then and afterward made on our Lord Jesus Christ, producing a most horrible anguish in his mind made such a figure in his conflicts for us that they were well worthy of a most particular prefiguration. And one thing in the prefiguration must be, that the goat for Azazel, must be sent into the desert. In the days of Moses, it seems, deserts were counted very much an habitation of devils ; yea, they really MATHER'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY were what they were counted, and for that cause, the names of Shedim and Zijim were put upon them, and when the scriptures foretel deso- lations of such and such places, they still make the devils to be their inhabitants. " Who can tell whether the envy of the devils at the favor of God unto men, may not provoke them to affect retirement from the sight of populous and prosperous regions, except so far as they reckon their work of tempting mankind, necessary to be carried on 1 Or perhaps, it is not every country which the devils prefer before the deserts. Regions in which the devils are much served by those usages in wor- ship or manners which are pleasing to them are, by those doleful creatures, enough resorted to. Yea, if sin much abound any where, some devils entreat that they may not be sent from thence into the wilderness, as the devils of Mascon would say, that Mr. Perreaud the minister, that lived in the haunted house, — While you go to prayer, I'll go and lake a turn in the streets. " Thus to omit what Alexander Hales reports of one retiring * where spirits taught him the things which he wrote in his book, * We know that in Lucian, the famous magician with his companions betook themselves ...;.* to a desert, woody, shady region for a con- versation with spirits. " Whatever becomes of the observations which we have heretofore been making, there has been too much cause to observe that the christians who were driven into the American desert, which is now called New England have, to their sorrow, seen Azazel dwelling and raging there in very tragical instances. The devils have doubtless felt a more than ordinary vexation from the arrival of those christians with their sacred exercises of Christianity in this wilderness, for our vexation as well as their own. " Molestation from evil spirits in more sensible and surprising appa- ritions than those finer methods wherein they commonly work upon the minds of all men, but especially of ill men, have so abounded in this country, that I question whether any one town has been free from them. The neighbors have not been careful enough to record and attest the prodigious occurrences of this importance, which have been among us. Many true and strange occurrences from the invisible world, are faultily buried in oblivion. But some of those very stu- pendous things have had their memory preserved in the written me- morials of honest, prudent and faithful men, whose veracity in the relation, cannot without great injury, be questioned. THE FIRST EXAMPLE. " Ann Cole, a person of serious piety, living in the house of her godly father at Hertford, in the year 1662, was taken with very strange fits Not English. OF STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY, 7 wherein her tongue was improved by a demon to express things un- known to herself. The general purpose of discourse, which held sometimes, for a considerable while, was, that such and such persons named in the discourse, were consulting how they might carry on mischievous designs against her and several others, by afflicting their bodies or destroying their good names ; upon all which, the general answer heard among those invisible speakers, was, Ah ! she runs to the rock ! After such an entertainment had held for some hours, the demons were heard saying, Let us confound her language, that she may tell no more talcs ! whereupon the conference became unintelligible to the standers by : And then it passed in a Dutch tone, giving therein, an account of mischiefs that had befallen divers persons, and amongst the rest, what had befallen a woman that lived next neighbor to a Dutch family then in the town, which woman had been preternatu- rally indisposed. Several eminent ministers wrote the speeches of the spirits heard in the mouth of this Ann Cole, and one of the persons therein mentioned as active in the matter then spoken of, (whose name was Greensmith) being then in prison, on suspicion, of witchcraft, was brought before the magistrates. The ministers reading to her [the prisoner] what they had written, she with astonishment, con- fessed that the things were so, and that she with other persons named in the papers, had familiarity with a devil. She said, that she had not yet made a formal covenant with her devil, but only promised that she would go with him when he called her,which she had sundry times done accordingly, and that he told her, that at Christmas, they would have a merry meeting, and then the agreement between them should be subscribed. " She acknowleged the day before, that when the ministers began to read what they did, she was in such a rage that she could have torn them to pieces ; and she was resolved upon the denial of her guilt; but after they had read a while, she was as if her flesh were pulled from her bones, and she could no longer deny what they charged upon her. She declared that her devil, appeared to her, first in the shape of a deer skipping about her, and at last, proceeded so far in that shape, as to talk with her, and that the devil had frequently carnal knowledge of her* " Upon this confession, with other concurrent evidence, the woman [from the prison, ]was executed, and other persons accused, made their escape ; whereupon Ann Cole was happily delivered from the ex- traordinary troubles wherewith she had been exercised. "THE SECOND EXAMPLE. " In the town of Groton, one Elizabeth Knapp (Oct. 1671,) was taken after a very strange manner ; sometimes weeping, sometimes laughing, sometimes raving with violent agitations, crying out Money ! Motiey ! Her tongue would be, for hours, drawn like a semicircle to 8 Mather's ecclesiastical history the roof of her mouth, so that no fingers applied to it, could remove it. Six men were scarcely able to hold her in some of her fits ; but she would skip about the house yelling and howling, and looking hideously. " On Dec. 17, her tongue being drawn out of her mouth to an ex- traordinary length, a demon began manifestly to speak in her ; for many words were distinctly uttered, wherein are the labial letters, without any motion of her lips at all. Words were also uttered from her throat, sometimes when her mouth was wholly shut ; and some- times words were uttered when her mouth was wide open, but no organs of speech used therein. The chief things the demon spoke, were horrid railings against the godly minister of the town, but some- times he likewise belched out most nefarious blasphemies against the God of heaven. And one thing about this young woman, was still more remarkable ; she cried out in her fits that a certain woman in the neighborhood appeared unto her, and was the only cause of her affliction. The woman thus cried out upon, was doubtless an holy, devout and virtuous person, and she, by the advice of her friend, visited the afflicted. The possessed creature, though she was in one of her fits, and had her eyes wholly shut, yet when this innocent woman was coming, she discovered herself wonderfully sensible of it, and was in grievous agonies at her approach. "But this innocent woman thus accused and abused by a malicious devil, prayed earnestly with, and for this possessed creature, where- upon, coming to herself, she confessed that she had been deluded by Satan and compelled by him unreasonably to think and speak evil of a good neighbor without a cause. After this, there was no further com- plaint of such an one*s apparition, but she said, some devil in the shape of divers, did diversely and cruelly torment her, and then told her it was not he but they, that were her tormentors. " the third example, "In the year 1679, the house of Wm. Morse at Newbery, was in- fected with demons after a most horrid manner, not unlike the demons of Tedworth. It would fill many pages to relate all the infestations, but the chief of them were these ; bricks and stones were often by some invisible hand, thrown at the house, and so were many pieces of wood. A cat was thrown at the woman of the house ; and a long Btaff danced up and down in the chimney, And afterward, the long staff was hanged by a line, and swung to and fro : and when two per- sons laid it on the fire to burn it> it was as much as they could do with their joint strength to hold it there. An iron crook was by an invisi- ble hand, hurled about, and a chair flew about the room, until at last it lit upon the table where the meat was ready to be eaten, and had spoiled it all if the people had not, with much ado, saved a little. A chest was, by an invisible hand, carried from one place to another, and the doors barricaded and the keys of the family taken ; some of OF STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 9 them from the bunch where tied, and the rest flying about, with a loud noise of their knocking against one another. For one while, the folks of the house could not sup quietly, but ashes would be thrown into their suppers, and on their heads, and their clothes, and the shoes of the men being left below, one of them was filled with ashes and coals, and thrown up after him. While they w ere a-bed, a stone weighing three pounds, was divers times thrown upon them. A box and a board were likewise thrown upon them; and a bag of hops being taken out of a chest, they were, with an invisible hand, beaten there- with, till some of the hops were scattered on the floor, where the bag was then laid and left. The man was often struck by that hand with several instruments, and the same hand cast their good things into the fire : yea, while the man was at prayer with bis household, a hesom gave him a blow on his head behind, and fell down before his face. When they were winnowing their barley, dirt was thrown at them ; and assaying to fill their half-bushel with corn, the foul corn would be thrown in with the clear so irresistibly that they were forced thereby to give over what they were about. "While the man was writing, his ink-horn, was, by the invisible hand, snatched from him, and being able no where to find it ; he saw it at length drop out of the air, down by the fire. A shoe was laid upon his shoulder, but when he would have catched it, it was rapt from him. It was then clapped upon his head, and there he held it so fast, that the unseen/wry pulled him backward on the floor. He had his cap torn off his head, and in the night, he was pulled by the hair, and pricked, and scratched, and the invisible hand pricked him with some of his awls, and with needles and bodkins, and blows that fetched blood, were sometimes given him. Frozen clods of cow dung were often thrown at him ; and his wife going to milk the cows, they could by no means, preserve the vessels of milk from the like annoyances, which made it fit only for the hogs. "She going down into the cellar, the trap door was immediately, by an invisible hand, shut upon her, and a table brought and laid upon the door, which kept her there till the man removed it. When he was writing at another time, a dish went and leapt into a pail and cast water on the man, and on all the concerns before him, so as to defeat what he was then upon. His cap jumped off his head, and then on again ; and the^ pot lid went off the pot into the kettle, and then over the fire together. " A little boy belonging to the family, was the principle sufferer in these molestations, for he was flying about at such a rate, that they feared his brains would be beaten out ; nor did they find it possible to hold him. His bed-clothes would be pulled from him; his bed shaken, and his bed-staff leap forward and backward. The man took him to keep him in a chair, but the chair fell a dancing, and both of them were very near being thrown into the fire. These and a thousand such vexations befalling the boy at home, they carried him to live abroad at a Doctor's. There he was quiet, but returning home, 10 Mather's ecclesiastical history. he suddenly cried out, he was pricked on the back where they found strangely sticking, a three-tined fork which belonged to the Doctor, and had been seen at his house after the boy's departure. Afterward, his troubles found him at the Doctor's also, where crying out again, Tic was pricked on the back ; they found an iron spindle stuck into him, and on the outcry again, they found pins in a paper stuck into him ; and once more, a long iron, a bowl of a spoon, and a piece of a pan- shred, in like sort, stuck upon him. He was taken out of his bed and thrown under it, and all the knives belonging to the house, were, one after another, stuck into his back, which the spectators pulled out. Only one of them seemed to the spectators, to come out of his mouth. The poor boy was divers times, thrown into the fire, and preserved from scorching there, with much ado. For a long while, he barked like a dog, and then clucked like a hen, and could not speak rationally. His tongue would be pulled out of his mouth, but when he could recover it so far as to speak, he complained that a man called P 1 appeared unto him as the cause of all. "Once in the day time, he was transported where none could find him, till at last, they found him creeping on one side, and sadly dumb and lame. "When he was able to express himself, he said that P 1 had carried him over the top of the house and hurled him against a crat- wheel in the barn ; and accordingly, they found some remainders of the threshed barley which was on the bam floor, hanging about his garments. '•The spectre* would make all his meat, when he was going to eat, fly out of his mouih, and instead thereof, make him fall to eating ashes and sticks, and yarn. The man and his wife taking the boy to bed with them, a chamber-pot with its contents, was thrown upon them. They were severely pinched, and pulled out of bed, and many other fruits of devilish spite were they dogged withal, until it pleased God mercifully to shorten the chain of the devil. But before the devil was chained up, the invisible hand which did all these things, began to put on an astonishing visibility. "They often thought they felt the hand that scratched them, while yet, they saw it not, but when they thought they had hold of it, it would give them the slip. Once the fist beating the man, was discernable, but they could not catch hold of it. At length, an apparition of a Blackamoor child showed itself plainly to them. And another time, a drumming on the boards was heard, which was followed with a voice, that sung 1 , Revenge ! Revenge! Sweet is revenge! At this, the people being terrified, called upon God, whereupon, there followed a mournful note, several times uttering these expressions, Alas! alas ! we knock no more ! and there was an end of all. *Apparition. OP STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY, 11 " THE FOURTH EXAMPLE. "In the year 1683, the house of Nicolas Desborough at Hartford, was very strangely molested, by stones, by pieces of earth, by cobs of corn, and other such things from an invisible hand, thrown at him, sometimes through the door, sometimes through the window, sometimes down the chimney, and sometimes from the floor of the room (tho' very close) over his head, and sometimes he met with them in the shop, the yard, the barn and the field. There was no violence in the motions of the things thus thrown, by the invisible hand, and though others beside the man happened sometimes to be hit, they were never hurt with them. Only the man himself, once had pain given to his arm, and once blood fetched from his leg by these annoyances,, and a fire in an unknown way kindled, consumed no little part of his estate. "This troubje began upon a controversy between Desborough and another person, about a chest of clothes which the man apprehended to be unrighteously detained by Desborough, and it endured for divers months, but upon the restoring of the clothes thus detained, the trouble ceased. " At Brighton, in Sussex, Eng. there happened a tragedy not unlike to these, in the year 1669. 'Tis recorded by Clark, in the second VOL. of his EXAMPLES.' "THE fifth example. V On June 11, 1682, showers of stones were thrown by an invisible hand, upon the house of Gen. Walton, at Portsmouth, whereupon the people .going out, found the gate wrung off the /tinges, and stones flying and falling thick about them, and striking of them, seemingly with great force, but really affecting them no more than if a soft touch were given them. The glass windows were broken to pieces by the stones which came, not from without, but from within ; and other instruments were, in like manner hurled about. Nine of the stones they took up, whereof, some were as hot as if they had come out of the fire, and marking them, they laid them on the table ; but in a little while they found some of them flying about. The spit was carried up the chimney and came down with the point forward, stuck in the back-log, from whence, one of the company removing it, it was bv an invisible hand, thrown out at the window. These disturbances con- tinued from day to day, and sometimes a dismal hollow whistling would be heard, and sometimes the trotting and snorting of a horse, but nothing to be seen. The man went up the river in a boat to a farm he had there ; but there the stones found him out, and carrying from the house to the boat, a stirrup iron, the iron came jingling after him through the woods as far as his house, and at last went away, and was heard of no more. The anchor leapt overboard several times and stopped the boat. A cheese was taken out of the press and crumbled all over the floor, and a piece of iron stuck into the wall, 12 MATHER S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. and a kettle hung thereon. Several cocks of hay mowed near the house, were taken up and hung upon trees, and others made into small wisps and scattered about the house. The man was much hurt by some of the stones. He was a Quaker and suspected that a woman who charged him with injustice in obtaining some land from her, did by witchcraft, occasion these preternatural occurrences, however, at last they came to an end. "the stxth example. " In June 1682, Mary the wife of Antonia Hortado, dwelling near Salmon Falls, heard a voice at the door of her house, calling ; What do you here I And about an hour after, had a blow on her eye that almost spoiled her. Two or three days after, a great stone was thrown along the house, which the people going to take up, was unaccount- ably gone. A frying-pan then in the chimney, rang so loud that the people at a hundred rods distance, heard it, and the said Mary with her husband, going over the river in a canoe, they saw the head of a man, and about three feet off, the tail of a cat swimming before the canoe, but no body to join them, and the same apparition again fol- lowed the canoe when they returned . But at their landing, it first disappeared. A stone thrown by an invisible hand, after this, caused a swelling and soreness in her head; and she was bitten on both arms black and blue, and her breast scratched ; the impression of teeth, which were like a man's teeth, was seen by many. " They deserted their house on those occasions, and though at a neighbor's house, they were at first haunted with apparitions, the satanical molestations quickly ceased. When Antonia returned unto his own house, at his entrance there, he heard one walking in his chamber and saw the boards buckle under the feet of the walker, and yet there was no body there. For this cause, he went back to dwell on the other side of the river; but thinking he might plant the ground, though he left his house ; he had five good rods of good log- fence thrown down at once, and the footing of neat cattle plainly to be seen almost between every row of corn in the field, yet no cattle were seen there, nor any damage done to his corn, or so much as a leaf of it cropt. " THE SEVENTH EXAMPLE. " Mr. Philip Smith, aged about fifty years, son of eminently virtuous parents, a Deacon of the church in Hadley, a member of the General Court, a Select Man for the affairs of the town, a Lieutenant of the Troop, and which crowns all, a man for devotion, sanctity, gravity, and all that was honest, exceeding exemplary. Such a man was, in the winter of the year 16S4, murdered with an hideous witchcraft, that filled all those parts of New England with astonishment. He was, by his office, about relieving the indigence of a wretched woman in the town, who being dissatisfied at some of his just cares about her, OP STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 13 expressed herself unto him in such a manner, that he declared himself henceforward apprehensive of receiving mischief at her hands. " About the middle of January, he began to be very, valetudinarian, laboring under pains that seemed ischiatick. The standers by, could now see him ripening apace, for an other world, and filled with grace and joy to an high degree. He showed such weariedness from, and weariness of the world, that he knew not, [he said] whether he might pray for his continuance here. And such assurance he had of the di- vine love unto him, that in raptures, he would ciy out, Lord stay thy hand, it is enough, it is more than thy frail servant can hear! But in the midst of these things he still uttered a hard suspicion, that the ill woman who had threatened him, had made impressions with enchant- ments upon him. While he remained yet in a sound mind, he very sedately, but very solemnly charged his brother to look well after him. Though he said he now understood himself, yet he knew not how he might be. But he sure, (said he) to have a care of me, for you shall see strange things ; There shall he a wonder in Hadley; 1 shall not he dead, when it is thought I am. He pressed this charge, over and over; and afterward became delirious, upon which, he had a speech incessant and voluble, and (as was judged,) in various languages. He cried out, not only for pains, but of pins tormenting him in several parts of his body, and the attendants found one of them. In his distress he ex- claimed much upon the woman aforesaid, and others, as being seen by him in the room ; and there was, divers times, both in that room, and over the whole house, a strong smell of something like musk, which once particularly so scented an apple roasting at the fire, that it forced thern to throw it away. Some of the young men of the town being out of their wits at these strange calamities, thus upon one of their most beloved neighbors, went three or four times to give disturbance unto the woman complained of; and all the while they were disturbing of her, he was at ease, and slept as a weary man. Yea, these were the only times, they perceived him to take any rest during his illness. Gaily pots of medicine provided for the sick man, were unaccountably emptied. Audible scratchings were heard about the bed when his hands and feet lay wholly still, and were held by others. They be- held fire sometimes on the bed, and when the beholders began to dis- course of it, it vanished away. Divers people actually felt something often stir in the bed, at a considerable distance from the man ; It seemed as big as a cat, but they could neher grasp it, several trying to lean on the bed's head, tho the sick man lay wholly still, the bed would shake so as to knock their heads uncomfortably. A very strong man could not lift the sick man to make him lie more easily, tho' he applied his utmost strength unto it, and yet he could go presently and lift a bedstead, and a bed, and a man lying on it, without any strain to him- self at all. Mr. S?nith dies; — The jury that viewed his corpse, found a swelling on one breast, his privitives wounded or burned, his back full of bruises, and several holes that seemed made with awls. After 14 MATHERS ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY the opinion of all had pronounced him dead, his countenance con- tinued as lively as if he had been alive, his eyes closed as in a slumber, and his nether jaw, not fallen down. " Thus he remained from Saturday morning about sun rise, till sab- bath day in the afternoon, when those who took him out of the bed, found him still warm, tho' the season was as cold almost, as had been known in any age, and a New English winter does not want for cold. On the night following, his countenance was yet fresh as before ; but on Monday morning they found the face extremely tumefied and dis- colored. It was black and blue, and fresh blood seemed running down his cheek upon the hairs. Divers noises were also heard in the room where the corpse lay ; as the clattering of chairs, and stools whereof no account could be given. — This was the end of so good a man. " And I could, with unquestionable evidence,- relate the tragical deaths of several good men in this land, attended with such preterna- tural circumstances ; which have loudly called upon us all to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. " THE EIGHTH EXAMPLE. " There was one Mary Johnson tried at Hertford in this country, upon an indictment of familiarity with the devil, and was found guilty thereof; chiefly upon her own confession. Her confession was at- tended with such convictive circumstances, that it could not be slighted. Very many material passages relating to this matter, are now lost; But so much as is well known and can be proved, shall be inserted. She said, her first familiarity with the devil came through discontent, and wishing the devil to take this and that, and the devil to do that and other things. Whereupon a devil appeared unto her, tendering unto her whatever services might best content her. A devil accord- ingly did, for her many services. Her master blamed her for not car- rying out the ashes ; and the devil afterwards, would clear the hearth of ashes for her. Her master sending her to drive out the hogs that sometimes broke into the field, a devil would scare the hogs away, and make her laugh to see how he served them. She confessed that she had murdered a child, and committed uncleanness both with men and devils. In the time of imprisonment, the famous Mr. Stone was at great pains to promote her conversion from the devil to God, and she was, by the best observers, judged very penitent, both before her execution and at it ; and she went out of the world, with comfortable hopes of mercy from God, thro' the merits of our Saviour. Being asked what she built her hopes upon ; She answered, Upon these words, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest j And these, There is a fountain set open for sin and uncleanness. And she died in a frame extremely to the satisfaction of them that were spec- tators of it. ** STANCE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 15 "THE NINTH EXAMPLE. " Four children of John Goodwin in Boston, which had enjoyed a religious education, and answered it with a towardly ingenuity ; chil- dren indeed, of an exemplary temper and carriage, and an example to all about them for piety, honesty and industry. These were, in the year 1688, arrested by a very stupendous witchcraft. The eldest of the children, a daughter of about thirteen years old, saw cause to ex- amine their laundress, the daughter of a scandalous Irish woman in the neighborhood, about some linen that was missing, and the woman bestowing very bad language upon the child, in her daughter's de- fence, the child was immediately taken with odd fits, that carried in them something diabolical. It was not long before one of her sisters with two of her brothers, were horribly taken with the like fits, which the most experienced physician pronounced extraordinary and preter- natural ; and one thing tha$ more confirmed them in this opinion, was, that all the children were tormented still in just the same part of their bodies, at the same time ; tho' their pains flew like swift light- ning from one part of their bodies to another, and they were kept so far asunder that they neither saw nor heard one another's complaints. At 9 or 10 o'clock at night they still had a release from their miseries, and slept all night very comfortably. But when the day came, they were most miserably handled. Sometimes they were deaf, sometimes dumb, sometimes blind, and often, all this at once. Their tongues would be drawn down their throats, and pulled out upon their chins, to a prodigious length. Their mouths were forced open to such a wideness, that their jaws went out of joint ; and anon clapped together again, with a force like that of a spring lock ; and the like would hap- pen to their shoulder blades, and their elbows, and hand-wrists and several of their joints. They would lie in a benumbed position, and be drawn together like those that are tied, neck and heels, and pre- sently stretched out ; yea, drawn back enormously. They made pitious outcries that they were cut with knives, and struck with blows, and the plain prints of the wounds were seen upon them. Their neck would be broken, so that their neck-bone would seem dissolved, unto them that felt after it ; and yet, on a sudden, it would become again, so stiff that there was no stirring of their heads ; Yea, their heads would be twisted almost round ; And if the main force of their friends at any time, obstructed a dangerous motion which they seemed set upon, they would roar exceedingly. And when devotions were per- formed with them, their hearing was utterly taken from them. The ministers of Boston and Charlestown keeping a day of prayer with fasting, on this occasion, at the troubled house, the youngest of the four children was immediately, happily and finally delivered from its trou- ble. But the magistrates being awakened by the noise of these griev- ous and horrid occurrences, examined the person who was under the suspicion of having employed those troublesome demons; and she gave such a wretched account of herself that she was committed unto the jailer's custody. 16 MATHER S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY " It was not long before this woman (whose name was Glover) was brought upon her trial ; But the Court could have no answers from her but in the Irish, which was her native language, altho' she under- stood English very well, and had accustomed her whole family r^none but English, in her former conversation. When she pleaded lo ksr indictment, it was with owning and bragging, rather than denial of her guilt. And the interpreters, by whom the communication between the bench and the bar was managed, were made sensible that a spell had been laid by another witch on this, to prevent her telling tales, by confining her to a language which 'twas hoped nobody would under- stand. The woman's house being searched, images, or puppets, or babies, made of rags and stuffed with goat's hair, were there produced, and the vile woman confessed that her way to torment the objects of her malice, was by wetting her finger with her spittle, and stroking of those little images. The abused children were then present in the Court, and the woman kept still stooping and shrinking, as one that was almost prest unto death, with a mighty weight upon her. But one of the images being brought unto her, she oddly and swiftly started up, and snatched it into her hand ; but she had no sooner snatched it, than one of the children fell into sad fits, before the whole assembly. The Judges had their just apprehensions at this, and carefully causing a repetition of the experiment, they still found the same event of it, though the children saw not when the hand of the witch was laid upon the images. They asked her whether she had any to stand by her ? She replied, she had, and looking very pertly into the air, she added, No ! he's gone. And she then acknowledged that she had one, who was her Prince, with whom she mentioned, I know not what commu- nion. For which cause, the night after, she was heard expostulating with a devil, for his thus deserting her, telling him that because he had served her so basely, and falsely she had confessed all. "However, to make all clear, the Court appointed five or six phy- sicians to examine her very strictly, to see whether she were no way crazed, in her intellectuals. Divers hours did they spend with her, and in all which no discourse came from her but what was agreeable, particularly when they asked her what she thought would become of her soul] She replied, You ask me a very solemn question, and I cannot tell what to say to it. She professed herself a Roman Catholic, and could recite her vater noster in Latin, very readily ; but there was one clause or two, always too haid for her, whereof she said, she could not repeat it if she might have all the world. " Upon the upshot, the Doctors returned her compos mentis, and sentence of death was passed upon her. Divers days passed between her being arraigned and condemned ; and in this time, one Hughes tes- tified that her neighbor (called Hoioen) who was cruelly bewitched unto death, about six years before, laid her death to the charge of this woman, and bid her (the said Hughes) to remember this, for in six years, there would be occasion to mention it. One of Hughes' children was presently taken ill in the same woful manner that Goodwin's OF STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 17 were, and particularly the boy in the night, cried out, that a black person with a blue cap in the room, tortured him, and that they tried with their hand in the bed, for to pull out his bowels. The mother of the boy went unto Glover the day following, and asked her, * Wh$ she tortured her poor lad at such a rate V Glove?' answered, ' Be- cause of the wrong she had received from her,' and boasted ' thatsh«. 'had come at him as a black person with a blue cap ; and with her harm in the bed, would have pulled his bowels out, but could not.' Hughes denied that she had wronged her, and Glover then desiring to see the boy, wished him well, upon which he had no more of his indispositions. After the condemnation of trie woman, T did myself give divers visits unto her, w T herein she told me, that she did use to be at meetings where her Prince, with four more, were present. She told me who the four were, and plainly said that her ' Prince was the devil.' When I told her that and how her Prince had cheated her, she replied, ' If it be so, I am sorry for that/ And when she declined answering some things that I asked her, she told me that she ' would fain give me a full answer, but her spirits would not give her leave;' nor could she consent, she said, without their leave, that I should pray for her. At her execution, she said, that the afflicted children should not be relieved by her death, for others besides herself, had a hand in their affliction. Accordingly the three children continued in their furnace as before, and it grew rather seven times hotter than it was. In their fits they cried of {they) and (them) as the authors of all their miseries, but who that (they) and (them) were, they were not able to declare. Yet at last, one of the children was able to discern their shapes and utter their names. A blow at the place where they saw the spectre, was always felt by the boy, in that part of his body that answered what might be stricken at ; and this though his back were turned, and the thing so done, that there could be no collusion in it. But as a blow at the spectre always hurt him, so it always helped him too; for after the agonies to which a push or stab had put him, were over, (as in a minute or two they would be,) he would have a respite from his ails, a considerable while, and the spectre would be gone. Yea, 'twas very credibly affirmed, that a dangerous woman or two, in the town, received wounds by the blows thus given to their spectres. The ca- lamities of the children went on, till they barked at one another like dogs, and then purred like so many cats. They would complain that they were in a red hot oven, and sweat and pant as much as if they had been really so. Anon, they would say, that cold water was thrown on them, at which they would shiver very much. " They would complain of blows with great cudgels laid upon them, and we that stood by, though we could see no cudgels, yet could see the marks of the blows, in red streaks upon their flesh. They would complain of being roasted on an invisible spit, and lie and roll and groan as if it had been most sensibly so ; and by and by, shriek that knives were cutting of them. They would complain that their heads were nailed unto the floor, and it was beyond an ordinary strength to 18 Mather's ecclesiastical history pull them from thence. They would be so limber sometimes that it was judged every bone they had might be bent, and anon, so stiff that not a joint of them could be stirred. " One of them dreamt that something was growing within his skin cross one of his ribs. An expert Chirurgeon searched the place, and found there a brass pin, which could not possibly come to lie there as it did, without a prestigious and mysterious conveyance. Sometimes they would be very mad, and then they would climb over high fences; yea, they would fly like geese, and be carried with an incredible swift- ness thro' the air, having but just their toes now and then upon the ground, (sometimes not once in twenty feet,) and their arms moved like the wings of a bird. They were often very near drowning or burning of themselves, and they often strangled themselves with their neck-clothes ; but the providence of God still ordered the seasonable succours of them that looked after them. If there happened any mis- chief to be done where they were, as the dirtying of a garment, or spilling of a cup, or breaking of a glass, they would laugh excessively. " But upon the least reproof of their parents, they were thrown into inexpressible anguish, and roar as excessively. It usually took up abundance of time to dress or undress them, thro' the strange postures into which they would be twisted, on purpose to hinder it ; and yet the demons did not know our thoughts ; for if we used a jargon and said, 'untie his neckcloth,' but the party understood our meaning to be, untie his shoe, the neckcloth, and not the shoe, has been by writhing postures, rendered strongly inaccessible. In their beds, they would be sometimes treated so, that no clothes could, for an hour or two, be laid upon them. If they were bidden to do a needless thing, (as to rub a cleantable,) they were able to do it unmolested ; but if to do any useful thing, (as to rub a dirty table,) they would presently, with many torments, be made incapable. " They were sometimes hindered from eating their meals, by having their teeth set, when any thing was carrying unto their mouths. If there were any discourse of God or Christ, or any of the things which are not seen, and are eternal, they would be cast into intolerable an- guishes. All praying to God, and reading of his word, would occasion them a very terrible vexation. Their own ears would then be stopped with their own hands : and they would roar, and howl, and shriek, and halloe, to drown the voice of the devotions ; yea, if any one in the room took up a Bible to look into it, tho' the children could see nothing of it, as being in a crowd of spectators, or having their faces another way, yet would they be in wonderful torments till the Bible was laid aside. Briefly, no good thing could be endured near those childern though, while they were themselves, they loved every good thing, that proclaimed in them the fear of God. If I said unto them, ' Children, cry to the Lord Jesus Christ,' their teeth were instantly set. If I said yet, c Child, look unto him,' their eyes were instantly pulled so far into their heads, that we feared they could never have used them any more. OF STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 19 " It was the eldest of these children that fell chiefly under my own observation. For I took her home to my own family, partly out of com- passion to her parents, but chiefly that I might be a critical eye-witness of things that would enable me to confute the Sadducism of this de- bauched age. Here she continued well for some days, applying her- self to action of industry or piety. But Nov. 28, 1680, she cried out OJi! they have found me out I and immediately she fell into her fits, wherein we often observed that she would cough up a ball as big as a small egg, into the side of her wind- pipe, that would near choke her, till by the stroking, and by drinking it, it was again carried down. When I prayed in the room, first her hands were, with a strong, tho' not even force, clapped upon her ears. And when her hands were, by our force, pulled away, she cried out, They make such a noise, I cannot hear a word! She complained that Glover's chain was upon her leg, and assaying to go, her gait was exactly such as the chained witcli had, before she died. When her tortures passed over, still frolics would succeed, wherein she would continue hours, yea, days together, talking perhaps never wickedly, but always wittily, beyond herself. And at certain provocations, her torments would renew upon her till we had left off to give them. Yet she frequently told us in these frolics, that if she might, steal or be drunk, she would be well imme- diately. She told us that she must go down to the bottom of our toell, ('and we had much ado to hinder it,) for they said there was plate there, and they would bring her up safely again. We wondered at this ! for she had never heard that there was any plate there, and we ourselves, who had newly bought the house, were ignorant of it; but the former owner of the house just then coming in, told us, there had been plate for many years, lost at the bottom of the well. Moreover, one singular passion that attended her more than any other, was this, An invisible chain would be clapped about her, and she in much pain and fear, would cry out, when {they) began to put it on. Some- times, we would with our hands, knock it off, as it began to be fastened. But ordinarily, when it was on, she would bepulled out of her seat, with such violence towards the fire, that it was as much as one or two of us could do, to keep her out. Her eyes were not brought to be perpen- dicular to her feet, when she rose out of her seat, as the mechanism of the human body requires in them that rise. But she was dragged wholly by other hands, and if we stamped on the hearth, just between her and the fire, she screamed out, that by jarring the chair, we hurt her. I may add, that {they) put on an unseen rope, with a cruel noose about her neck, whereby she was choked until she was black in the face. And tho' it was got off, before it killed her, yet there were the red marks of it, and of a finger and a thumb near it, remaining to be seen afterwards. Furthermore, not only her own looking into the 20 mather's ecclesiastical history. Bible, but if any one else in the room did it, wholly unlcnovm to her, she would fall into insufferable torments. A Quaker book being brought her, she could quietly read whole pages of it; only the name of God and Christ, she still skipped over, being unable to pronounce it, except sometimes stammering a minute or two, or more upon it. And when we urged her to tell what the word was, that she missed, she would say — I must not speak it, they say I must not, you know what it is : Tis G, and O, and D. But a book against Quakerism, {they) would not allow her to meddle with. Such books as it might have been profitable and edifying for her to read, and especially her Catechisms, if she did but offer to read a line in them, she would be cast into hideous convulsions, and be tossed about the house like a foot-ball. But books of jests, being shown her, she would read them well enough, and have cunning discants upon them. Popish books {they) would not hinder her from reading; but {they) would from reading books against Papacy. A book which pretends to prove there are no witches, was easily read by her. Only the names of devils- and witches must not be uttered. A book which proves that there are witches ; being exhibited unto her, she might not read it. And that story of Ann Cole about running to the rock al- ways threw her into sore confusions. Divers of these trials were made by many witnesses. But I, con- sidering there might be a snare in it, put a seasonable stop to this fanciful business. Only I could not but be amused at one thing : A certain Prayer Book being brought her, she not only could read it very well, but did also read a large part of it over, calling it her Bible, and putting a more than ordinary respect upon it. If she were going into her tortures, at the tender of this book, she would recover herself to read it. Only when she came to the Lord's Prayer, now and then occurring in that book, she would have her eyes put out, so that she must turn over a new leaf, and then she would read again. Whereas, also, there are Scriptures in that book, she would read them there, but if any one showed her the same Scriptures in the Bible, she would sooner die than read them. And she was likewise, made unable to read the psalms in an ancient Metre, which this Pagan Book had in the same Volume with it. Besides these there was another inexplicable thing in her condition. Every now and then, an invisible horse would be brought unto her, by those whom she called {them) and {her company) upon the approach of which, her eyes would be still closed up ; For said she, They say 1 am a tale-bearer^ therefore they will not let me see them.. Hereupon, she would give a spring as on mounting an horse, and settling herself in a riding posture, she would in her chair, be agitated, as one sometimes ambling, sometimes trotting, and sometimes galloping, very furiously. In these motions, we could notj perceive that she was moved by the stress of her feet upon the ground, for often she touched it not. When she had rode for a minute or two, she would seem to be at a OF STRANGE PHENOMENA OP 17TH CENTURY. 21 rendezvous with [them,) that were (her company,) and there she would hold a conversation with them, asking them many questions concern- ing herself (we gave her none of ours) and would have answers from them which indeed none buthersell perceived. Then would she return and inform us how they did intend to handle her for a day or two after- wards, and some other things that she inquired. Her horse would sometimes throw her with much violence, especially if any one stabbed or cut the air under her. But she would briskly mount again, and perform her fantastic journies, mostly in her chair, but sometimes, also, be carried from her chair, out of our room into another, very oddly in the posture of a riding woman. At length she pretended that her horse could ride up the stairs, and unto our admiration, she rode, (that is, was tossed as one that rode,) up the stairs. There she then stood upon the study of one belonging to the family. Into which, entering, she stood immediately upon her feet, and cried out, They are gone ! Tney are gone ! They say that they cannot — God wont let 'em come here ; adding a reason for it, which the owner of the study, thought more kind than true : And she presently and perfectly came to herself, so that her who T e discourse and carriage was altered, into the greatest measure of sobriety, and she sat reading of the Bible and other good books for a good part of the afternoon. Her affairs calling her anon, to go down again, the demons were in a quarter of a minute as bad upon her as before, and her horse was waiting for her. Some then, to see whether there had not been a fallacy in what had newly happened, resolved for to have her up into the study, where she had been at ease before. But she was so strangely distorted, that it was with an extreme difficulty to drag her up stairs. The demons would pull her out of the people's hands and make her heavier than perhaps three of herself. With incredible toil, tho' she kept screaming, They say Imust not go in, she was pulled in, where she was no sooner got, but she could stand on her feet, and with an uttered note say, Noiv 1 am well. She would be faint at first, and say that she felt something to go out of her ! (the noises whereof, we sometimes heard, like those of a mouse,) but in a minute or two, she could apply herself to devotion, and express herself with discretion, as well as ever in her life. To satisfy some strangers, the same experiment was divers times, with the same success, repeated, until my lothness to have any thing done like making a charm of a room, caused me to forbid the repetition of it. But enough of this. The ministers of Boston and Charlestown kept another day of prayer, with fasting, for Goodwin's afflicted fam- ily. After which, the children had a sensible but a gradual abatement of their sorrows, until perfect ease was at length restored un:o them. The young woman dwelt at my house during the rest of the winter, having, by a virtuous conversation, made herself enough welcome to the family. But ere long, I thought it convenient for me to entertain my congregation with a sermon on the memorable Providence wherein these children had been concerned, (afterwards published.) 22 matiier's ecclesiastical history When I had begun to study my sermon, her tormentors again seized ou her, and managed her with a special design, as it was plain, to disturb me in what I was then about. In the worst of her extravagances formerly, she Was more dutiful to myself than I had reason to expect ; but now, her whole carriage to me, was with a saudness which I was not used any where to be treated withal. She would knock at my study door, affirming that sojrc below would be glad to see me, though there was none that asked for me. And when I chid her for telling what was false, her answer was, Mrs. MatJier is always glad to sec you! She would talk to me with numberless impertinences ! And when I came down, she would throw things at me, tho' none of them would ever hurt me. And she would hector me at a strange rate for something I was doing above, and threaten me with mischief and reproach that should revenge it. Few tortures now attended her but such as were provoked. Her frolics were numberless, if we may call them hers. I was, in Latin, telling some young gentlemen that if 1 should bid her look to God, her eyes would be put out. Upon which, her eyes were presently served so. Perceiving that her troublers understood Latin, some trials were thereupon made to see if they understood Greek and Hebrew, which it seems they did, but the Indian language they did not seem so well to understand. When we went unto prayer, the demons would throw her upon the floor at the feet of him that prayed, where she would whistle and sing, and would fetch blows with her fist, and kicks with her feet at the man that prayed. But still, her fist and foot would always recoil when they came within an inch or two of him, as if rebounding against a wall, and then she would beg hard of other people to strike him, which (you may be sure) not being done, she cried out, He lias wounded vie in the head. But before the prayer was over, she would be laid for dead, wholly senseless, and (unto all appearance) breath- less, with her belly swelled like a drum, and sometimes with croaking noises in her. Thus would she lie most exactly with the stiffness and posture of one that had been for two days laid out for dead. Once lying thus, as he that was praying, was alluding to the words of the Canaauitess, and saying, Lord, have mercy on a daughter vexed, with a devil, there came a big, but low voice, from her, in which the spec- tators did not see her mouth to move, There's two or. three of us. When prayer was ended, she would revive in a minute, or two, and continue as frolicsome as ever. She thus continued until Saturday towards the evening, when she assayed, with as nimble and various and pleasant an application as could easily be used for to divert the young folks in the family from such exercises as it was proper to meet the Sabbath withal. But they refusing to be diverted, she fell fast asleep, and in two or three hours waked perfectly herself, weeping bitterly to remember what had befallen her. When Christmas arrived, both she at my house, and her sister at home, were by the demons made very drunk, tho' we OF STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 23 are fully satisfied they had no strong drink to make them so ; nor would they willingly have been so, to have gained the world. When she began to feel herself drunk she complained, O ! they say they will have me to keep Christinas with them ; They will disgrace me when they can do nothing else. And immediately, the ridiculous behaviors of one drunk, were, with wondrous exactness, represented in her speaking, and reeling and spewing and anon sleeping, till she was well again. At last, the demon put her upon saying that she was d,ying, and the matter proved such, that we feared she really was, for she lay, she tossed, she pulled just like one dying, and urged hard for some one to die with her, seeming loth to die aolne. She urged concerning death, with paraphrases on the thirty-first Psalm, in strains that quite amazed us ; And concluded that tho' she was loth to die, yet if God said she must, she must! Adding that the Indians would quickly shed much blood in the country, and 'horrible tragedies ' would be acted in the land. Thus the vexations of the children ended. But after awhile they began again, and then one particular minister taking a particular compassion on the family, set himself to serve them, in the methods prescribed by our Lord Jesus Christ. Accordingly, the Lord being besought thrice in three days of prayer, with fasting on this occasion, the family then saw their deliverance perfected, and the children afterward, all of them, not only approved themselves devout Christians, but unto the praise of God, reckoned these their afflictions among the special incentives to their Christianity. The ministers of Boston and Charlcstown, afterwards, accompanied the printed Narrative of these things, with their attestation to the truth of it. And when it was reprinted at London, the famous Mr. Baxter prefixed a preface unto it, wherein he says, This great instance comes with such convincing evidence that he must be a very obdurate Saddu- cee, that will not believe it. " THE TENTH EXAMPLE. " William Davies, with nine sailors, whereof, one was a negro, and one boy, and one passenger, sailed out of Boston, Dec. 28, 1695, in the ship called the Margaret, of about eighty tons, bound for Barba- does, laden with fish, beef, and a small parcel of lumber. Within a few days, one of the sailors, named Winlock Curtis, being at the helm, about 8 o'clock at night, called unto the Captain, telling him that he could ' steer no longer,' whereof, when the Captain asked him the reason, he besought the Captain to think him 'neither drunk nor mad,' and then added, " that he had but a little time to tarry here,' constantly affirming therewithal, that a spirit appearing by the Biddekel, accused him of' killing' a woman (which the sailor said that lie had left alive) and reported unto him, that the rest of the ship's company had signed the BOOK, which he was, from that argument, now urged also to sign. The sailor declared his resolution that he would never hearken to the devil, and requested that he might be furnished with a Bible, in the reading whereof, he was, at first, greatly 24 Mather's ecclesiastical history interested ; but at length, he was unable distinctly to read it. On the day following, he was suddenly and violently seized in an unaccounta- ble manner, and furiously throicn down upon the deck, where he lay wallowing in a great agony, and foamed at the mouth, and grew black in the face, and was near strangled with a great lump rising in his neck nigh his throat, like that which bewitched ox possessed people used to be attended withal. Tn a few days, he came a little to himself; but still behaved himself as one under the power of some devil ; talk- ing of the visions which he saw in the air ; and of a spirit coming for him in a boat. The ship's company, to prevent his going overboard to that invisible spirit, which he attempted once to do ; confined him to his Cabin, and there tied him and bound him, so that they thought that they had him fast enough. But soon he came forth without noise, to their great astonishment. He then fell into a sleep, wherein he continued for twenty-four hours, after which he came to himself, and remained very sensible, giving a very particular narrative of the odd circumstances which he had been in, and calling for * pen and ink, for to write them down.' But he put off doing it until the ship, then under a fresh gale, should be a little quieter, and so it came to be altogether neglected. Upon Jan. 17, in the North Lat. 19, sailing S. W. with a fresh gale East, and E. by S. about 9 at night, a small white cloud arose without any rain, or any extraordinary increase of wind, which falling upon the ship immediately pressed her down to starboard at once. And the hatches flying out, she was immediately so full of water that it was impossible to recover her. If she had not been laden with lumber, she must have sunk to the bottom ; Whereas, now being full of water which drowned the boy sleeping in the Cabin, she was righted, but floated along overflowed with the sea; after this, for eleven weeks together, there happened the ensuing passages. First, within a few days one Mr. Dibbs, the passenger who formerly had been very undaunted, and courageous, began to talk oddly of several persons in Barbadoes, adding 'that one stood at the mainmast, who came for him with a wherry.' And soon after this, he was gone insensibly, none knowing -when or liow. About a fortnight after this, one John Jones was, in the same insensible manner carried away, and so was the above-mentioned Winlock Curtis. Within about a fort- night more, one of their number died through the unconquerable difficulties of the voyage. And about a fortnight further, the negro sitting as not in his right mind, and another sailor were in the night insensibly carried away. About a week after, one Sterry Lion, the Carpenter, not being in any disorder of mind at all, often spoke of his end being at hand, and that it would be by a wave of the sea pitching him away. Him they saw carried away by a wave about 9 o'clock in the morning. All this while theirs/bod was only flesh, which they ate raw, because they could now have no fire, and fresh fish which in great quantities came into the vessel unto them. At several times, and especially OR STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 25 before the taking away of any of their number, they heard various and wondrous noises like the voices of birds, as turkeys and other fowl. While they were in this condition, they saw three vessels, and judged that all the three saw them. Nevertheless none came a-near them to relieve them. Their lodging was on two boards, placed athwart the sail near the taffrail, coyered with a sail. And the first land they discovered was Desiado, but a northerly current hindered their landing there. The next land was Grand Tena, but the wind in the north, hindered their landing there, also. At last, with a little sail, being reduced to three in number, they ran their ship ashore at Gaudalupa, the 6th of Aprt , about 2 o'clock on Monday morning, where the French kindly entertained them, not as prisoners, but as trav- ellers. Thence they came to Barbadoes, and there they made oath to the truth of this Narrative. "THE ELEVENTH EXAMPLE. "Reader, into this chapter, with too much of reason, may be tran. scribed a passage which I have had occasion formerlyto publish in a book about the cause and cure for a wounded spirit. " 'There are many cruel self-murders, whereunto the wounds on peo- ple's consciences have driven them. Such as a consternation is upon them that they can't pitch upon any other project for their own repose than that of hanging, drowning, stabbing, poisoning, or some such foaming piece of madness. But in God's name, think again, before you do so vile a thing ! Think, by whose impulse 'tis that you are dragged into this curs'd action. Truly 'tis a more than ordinary impulse of the- devil, whereof I have seen most prodigious evidences. "'One that came to me with a wounded soul, after all that I could plead with him, left me with these words — Well, the devil will have me after all! And some company just then hindering me from going after him as I intended, ere I could get at him, he was found sitting in his chamber, choked unto death with a rope, which rope, nevertheless, was found, not about his neck, but in his hand and on his knee. " * The sensible assistance which the devil has frequently, among us given to those unnatural executions, does manifestly show, that they who dogged the swine into the deep of old, are the same that compel persons to be so much worse than swine as to kill themselves. These doleful creatures, we have seen sometimes hang themselves to death, while their feet are yet upon the ground ; yea, by a line which hath presently broken, and yet left them dead. And I think, some that have been found and fetched before their life was wholly extinguished in them, have confessed unto me, to this purpose: That they had no sooner given the first stop unto their breath, but they presently lost all sort of sense ; only they felt such a load immediately upon their shoulders, that they could not help themselves, tho' their kness were upon the floor all the while. " ' Moreover, the strange obstructions that are given to men's 26 mather's ecclesiastical history coming into a probability of deliverance, from their hurries, do further manifest that the armies of hell are herein beleaguering of them. How often have people been at a minister's door to have spoken with him, but having no power to 'knock,' they have gone away, and laid violent hands upon themselves ! People at the threshold of the very meeting house, have had a forcible and furious whisper made into their minds, that they must be gone to some other congregation : But at length, overcoming their invisible pull-backs, they have come in ; and a large part of my sermon hath been to dissuade any hurried souls from the murdering of themselves ; which God has blessed unto the saving of them. It seems the bloody 'demons' had, unto their vexation, some way learnt, what I was to preach about. The result of all is this much, since 'tis the devil which puts you upon thus wronging of yourselves, don't resign yourselves unto the conduct of that hellish murderer. Are the devil's hands, I pray, so desirable, that you will needs throw yourselves into them, while the hand of the Saviour are yet open to receive you ? to relieve you % Oh do thyself no harm ! "the twelfth example. Strange premonitions of death approaching, are matters of such frequent occurrence in history, that one is ready to look upon them as matters of no uncommon occurrence. The learned know, that seutonius hardly lets one of his twelve Ccesars die without them; and the vulgar talk of them as things happening^ every day, amongst their smaller neighbors. " Even within a fortnight of my writing this, there was a physician who sojourned within a furlong of my own house. This physician was, for three nights miserably distressed with dreams of his being drowned. On the third of these nights, his dreams were so trouble- some that he was cast mto extreme sweats, by struggling under the imaginary water. With the sweats still upon him, he came down from his chamber, telling the people of the family, what it was that so discomposed him. Immediately there came in two friends, that asked him to go a little distance with them, in a boat upon the water. He was, at first, afraid of gratifying the request of his friends, because of his late passage. But it being a calm time, he recollected himself, 'Why should I mind my dreams, or mistrust the divine providence V He went with them, and before 9 o'clock, by a thunder storm sud- denly coming up, they were all three of thenr drownod. " I have just now inquired into the truth of what I have thus related and I can assert it. "But 'apparitions' after death, when they occur, have more ot strangeness in them. And yet they have been often seen in this land : Particularly, persons that died abroad at sea, having within a day after their death, been seen by their friends in their houses at home. The sights have occasioned much notice, and much discourse at the very OP STRANGE PHENOMENA OF THE 17TH CENTURY. 27 time of them, and records have been kept of the time. (Reader, I write but what has fallen within my own personal observation). And it hath been afterwards found, that they died near that very time when they thus appeared. " I will, from several instances which I have known of this thing, single out one that shall have in it, much of demonstration, as well as of particularity. "It was on the 2d of May, 1687, that an ingenious, accomplished and well disposed young gentleman, Mr. Joseph Beacon by name, about 5 o'clock in the morning, as he lay, whether sleeping or waking, he could not say, (but judged the latter of them,) had a view of his brother then at London, though he was himself at our Boston ; distance from home, a thousand leagues. This, his brother appeared to him in the morning, (I say,) about 5 o'clock, at Boston, having on him a Ben- gale gown which he usually wore, with a napkin tied about his head. His countenance was very pale, ghastly, deadly, and he had a bloody wound on one side of his forehead. 'Brother!' says the affrighted Joseph. 'Brother !' answers the apparition. Said Joseph, 'What's the matter, Brother 1 How came you here?' 'I have been most bar- berously and inhumanely murdered, by a debauched fellow, to whom, I never did any wrong in my life.' Whereupon, he gave a very parti- cular description of the murderer, adding, 'Brother ! this fePow chang- ing his name, is attempting to come over unto New England, in the Fay or Wild : I would pray you, on the first arrival of either of these to get an order from the Governor, to seize the person whom I have now described, and then d^> you indict him for the murder of me, your brother. I'll stand by you and prove the indictment.' And so he vanished. Mr. Beacon was exceedingly astonished at what he had seen and heard : And the people of the family not only observed an extraordinary alteration upon him, for the week following, but have also, given me under their hands, a full testimony that he then gave them as an account of this apparition. All this'while, Mr. Beacon had no advice of anything amiss attending his brother then in England. But about the latter end of June following, he understood by the com- mon ways of communication, that the April before, his brother going in haste by night, to call a coach for a lady, met a fellow then in drink, with his Doxy in his hand. Some way or other, the fellow thought himself affronted, in the hasty passage of this Beacon, and immediately ran in to the fire-side of a neighboring tavern, from whence he fetched out a fire-fork, wherewith he grievously wounded Beacon on the skull, even that very part where the apparition showed his wound. With this wound he languished till he died on the 2d oiMay, about 5 o'clock in the morning at London. The murderer, it seems attempted an escape, as the apparition affirmed, but the friends of the deceased Beacon, seized him and prosecuted him at law, yet he found the help of such friends as brought him off without the loss of his life, since which there has no more been heard of the business. " This history, I received of Mr. Joseph Beacon himself, who a 28 mather's ecclesiastical history little before his own pious and hopeful death, which followed not long after, gave me the story written and signed with his own hand, and at- tested with the circumstances I have already mentioned. "I know not how far the reader will judge it agreeable with the matters related in this article, If I do insert,— But I will here insert a passage which I find thus entered among my own adversar "14d. 2m. 1684. u< Mr. J. C. a Deacon of the Church in Ckarlestoum, told me that his wife having been sick, for divers months, was, on the 31st of August last, seized with the pangs of death ; in which, being delirious, and asking divers times, 'who would go with her, whether she was going]' At length, she said, 'Well my son Robert will go,' and ad- dressing her speech thereupon, as unto him, she expressed her satis- faction that they should go together. This son of hers, was at this time in Barbadoes,* and his friends here, have since learnt, that he also, died there, and this, at the very hour when his mother here gave up the ghost, and (which is further odd,) not without the like express- ions, concerning his mother, that his mother had concerning him. "THE THIRTEENTH EXAMPLE. In this present evil world, it is no wonder that the operations of the evil angels are more sensible than of the good ones. Nevertheless, 'tis very certain that the good angels continually, without any defile- ment, fly about in our defiled atmosphere, to minister for the good of them that are to be the heirs of salvation. 9 The natives of heaven, as Dr. Fuller phraseth it, grudge not to guard those who are only free denizens thereof. The excellent Rivet, hath well explained what is to be believed of this matter. 'That every one of them who shall be heirs of salvation, hath, besides what may be with him on extraordinary occasions, always one particular angel with him, which is a probable truth, and not against the Scriptures. Albeit, we cannot from thence infer that it is always the same angel. Now, tho' the angelic ministration is usually behind the curtain of more visible instruments and their actions, yet sometimes, it hath been with extraordinary circumstances, made more obvious to the sense of the faithful. Of all that hath occurred in this land, this only shall be expressed.' u I find in the Diary of my Dear and Reverend and excellent friend, Mr. John Bailey, a wonderful passage, concerning his eminently pious wife, who died at our 'Watertown,' which I will here transcribe. "'April 14, 1691, she was dying all day. Towards sunset, she said unto me especially, and also unto others, that we had done her the greatest diskindnessthat she had met with since she was born, in keeping her back, and not delivering her up to God in Christ, whom she loved *West Indies. OP STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 29 above all, and longed to be withal.. She begged, as for her life, that we would, and I, especially, take off our love wholly from her, and give our all to the Lord Jesus Christ, as she had often done, and was wil- liug again to do. She would never be quiet till I promised before all those witnesses present, (which were many,) and before the holy angels, who she desired would seal to it, with their golden seals, that I would be willing to part with her and let her go, and that I would give my all up to the Lord Jesus Christ, (even herself and everything else,) which in the name of Christ, I promised to labor to be willing, and I would be willing to do. " This gave her some content, and she said that God had appeared unto her, and that she was full of the joys of the Holy Ghost, and that she had whole floods of the love of God in her soul, and she could not stand under it. She often said that she had rivers of joy, and that she could scatter it about the town, and that all this was to her, the worst of sinners : and that it was not only undeserved, but also unexpected. She desired every one to take care of slighting the Lord Jesus Christ, and she assured them that if they entertained him they should be as full of love and joy as she. And she advised them to give up all unto God, and make much of him, for there was none like him ; and as long as she had a tongue, or a breath, she would praise him : And she asked us all, that if vte would not, or could not praise him on our own account, yet we would do it on hers ; for she was top-full, brim- full, and running over. She said, death had no terror at all in it, but she could as freely die a3 ever she went to sleep. She said, ' I de- serve none of this love, but if Christ will give it, who can hinder it? Go to him, he is no niggard ; he has love and grace enough for you all. I cannot bear it, it is so heavy ! Ah ! said she, my poor husband, tho' a disconsolate man, Jesus Christ will fill him with all this love before he dies : and he will fill you all, if it be not your own fault.' She said unto me ; ' If any body want me, [still to live,] this poor man will ; yet, as well as I love him, and I love him better than ever, and shall bless God through all eternity for him ; yet I would not be hired by millions of worlds to live another day or an hour with him, from Christ. And yet, if God would have me live, I would live. This hour is the happiest hour that ever I had since my mother bound my head.' There was never such an instance of Free Grace, as I am per- suaded, since the world begun ! Let all take notice to the glory of Free Grace, 'that I go off the stage, nobly and honorably.' She said, 'that she was going to the Lord, and if thousands of devils should tell her otherwise, she would not believe them. God had now made her amends for all the troubles she had met withal, in the world.' She then desired that we would sing some Psalm of praise to- the riches of Free Grace. Harps were hanged upon the willows, we did it not, yet there was melodious singing at that very time ! I heard it myself, but intended never to speak of it, until the Nurse, B. and M. S. spoke of it. They went unto the fire, thinking it was there ; but 30 Mather's ecclesiastical history. they heard it best when within the curtains. God, by his holy angels, put an honor upon my Dear little woman, and by it, to reprove us, that seeing we would not sing, (being bad at it,) they would* "the fourteenth example. " To conclude our Wonders of the Invisible World, there will doubtless, be expected an account of the Wonders that afflicted New England, in 1692. Now, having in my hands, a most unexceptionable account thereof, written by Mr. J. Hales, I will here content myself with the transcribing of it. And I will assure the reader, that he hath now to do with a writer, who would not for a world, be guilty of overdoing the truth, in a history of this importance. Copied by Mr. Mather from Mr. Hale's MSS. "SADDUCISMUS DEBELLUTUS. "§ 1. In the latter end of the year 169/, Mr. Paris, Pastor of the church in Salem village, had a daughter of about nine, and a neice of about eleven years of age, sadly afflicted of they knew not what dis- tempers : And tho' he made his application to Physicians, yet still they grew worse. At length, one Physician gave his opinion, that they were under an evil hand. This, the neighbors took up, and concluded that they were 'bewitched.' He had also, an Indian man-servant, and his wife, who afterwards confessed, that without the knowledge of their Master or Mistress, they had taken some of the afflicted person s water and mixing it with meal, had made a cake and baked it, to find out the witch as they 'said. After this, the afflicted persons cried out of the Indian woman, named Tituba, that she did pinch, prick, and greviously torment them, and that they saw her here and there, where no body else could ; yea, they could tell where she was, and what she did when out of their human sight. These children were bitten and pricked by invisible agents, their arms, necks and "backs turned this way and that way, and returned back again, so as it was impossible for them to do of themselves, and beyond the power of any epileptick fits, or natural diseases to effect. " Sometimes, they were taken dumb ; their mouths stopped, their throats choked, their limbs racked and tormented, so as might move an heart of stone to sympathise with them, with bowels of compassion for them. I will not .enlarge in* the description of their cruel suffer- ings, because they were in all things afflicted, as bad as John Good- win's children at Boston, in 1689, so that he that will read Mr. Ma- ther's book of Memorable Providences, may read part of what these children, and afterwards, sundry grown persons suffered by the hand * And yet Jame-s " Pare Religion," &c. (James 1: 27,) is preferable to joyous feelings, if alone. — J. OP STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17tH CENTt/RY. 31 of Satan, at Salem Village, and parts adjacent, A. D. 1691-2. Yet there was more in these sufferings than in those at Boston, by 'pins' invisibly stuck into their flesh, pricking with irons, &c, as in part published in a book, printed 1693, viz. 'The Wonders of the Invisible World.' Mr. Paris seeing the distressed condition of his family, desired the presence of some worthy gentlemen of Salem, and some neigbor min- isters to consult together at his house, who, when they came, and had inquired diligently into the sufferings of the afflicted, concluded they were preternatural, and feared the hand of Satan was upon them. " § 2. The advice given to Mr. Paris about them, was that he should sit still and wait upon the providence of God, to see what time might discover, and to be much in prayer for the discovery of what was yet secret. They also examined Tituba, who confessed the making of a cake as is above mentioned, and said her Mistress in her own country was a witch, and had taught her some means to be used for the dis- covery of a witch, and for prevention of being bewitched : but said that she herself was not a witch. " § 3. Soon after this, there were two or three fasts at the ministers house, one of which was kept by sundry neighbors, and after this another in public, at the village, and several .days afterwards of public humiliation, during these molestations, not only there, but in other con- gregations for them, and one general fast, by order of the General Court, observed throughout the Colony, to seek the Lord that he would rebuke Satan, and be a light unto his people in this day of darkness. But I return to these troubles. In a short time after, other persons who were of age to be witnesses, were molested by Satan, and in their fits, cried out upon Tituba and Goody O. and S. G. that they or spectres in their shape, did grievously torment them. Some of their Village neighbors complained unto the Magistrates at Salem, desiring that they would come and examine the afflicted and the accused together : which they did. The effect of which examination was, that Tituba confessed that she was a witch, and that she, with the two others accused, did torment and bewitch the complainers, and that she, with the two others, whose names she knew not, had their witch meetings together ; relating the times when, and places where they met, .with many other circumstances elswhere to be seen at large. Upon this, the said Tituba and O. and G. were committed upon suspi- cion of acting witchcraft. After, this, the said Tituba was again ex- amined in prison, and owned her first confession in all points, and then was she herself afflicted, and complained of her fellow witches torment- ing of her for her confession, and accusing them, and being searched by a woman, she was found to have upon her body the marks of the devil wounding her. 11 § 4. Here were three things which rendered her confession ere* dible. "1 — That she answered every question just as she did at first, and it was thought that if she had feigned her confessions, she could not 32 Mather's ecclesiastical history. have remembered her answers so exactly. A liar, we say, had need have a good memory. But truth being always consistent with itself, is always the same to day it was yesterday. " 2 — -She seemed very penitent for her sin in covenanting with the devil. " 3 — She became a sufferer herself, and as she said, for her con- fession. " 4— Her confession agreed (which was afterwards verified in the other confessions) with the accusations of the afflicted. " Soon after, these afflicted persons complained of other persons afflicting of them in their fits, — the afflicted and the accused began to increase. And the success of Tituba's confession encouraged them in authority, to examine others that were suspected, and the event was, that many more confessed themselves guilty of the crimes they were suspected for* And thus was the matter driven on. "§ 5. I observed that in the prosecution of these affairs, that there was, in the ' Justices, Judges,' and others convened, a conscientious endeavor to do the thing that was right, and to that end, they consult- ed the precedents of former times, and precepts laid down by learned writers, about ' Witchcraft,' as * Keeble' on the ' Common Law,' * Chapt,' ? Conjuration ;' (an author approved by the twelve Judges of our nation.) Also ' Sir Matthew Hale's Trials of Witches,' printed A. D., 1682, • Glanville's Collection of Sundry Trials, in England and Ireland, in the year 1658, '61, '63, '64, and '81.' 'Bernard's Guide to Jurymen,' ' Baxter's and R. B., their Histories about Witches, and their Discoveries,' ' C. Mather's Memorable Providences, relating to Witchcraft, Printed 1685,' " § 6. But that which chiefly carried on this matter to such an height, was the increasing of confessors, until they amounted to near upon fifty : and four or« six of them, upon their trials, owned their guilt of this crime, and were condemned for the same, but not executed. And many of the confessors confirmed their confessions with strong circum- stances, such as their exact agreement, with the ' accusations' of the afflicted — their punctual agreement with their fellow confessors — their relating the times when they covenanted with Satan — the reasons that moved them thereunto — their witch meetings, and that they had their mock sacraments of Baptism and the Supper, in some of- them; signing the devil's book, and some shewed the scars of the wounds, which they said, were made to fetch blood with, to sign the devil's book ; and some said, they had imps to suck them, and showed sores Taw, where they said, they were sucked by them. " § 7. I shall give the reader a taste of these things, in a few instan- ces. The afflicted complained that the spectres which vexed them, urged them to set their hands to a book, presented to them (as to them it seemed) with threatenings of great torments if they signed not, and promises of ease if they obeyed. Among these D. H. as she said, (with sundry others confessed afterwards,) being overcome by the extremity of her pains, did sign the book presented, and had the OP STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 33 promised ease, and immediately upon it, a spectre in her shape, afflict' ed another person, and said, ' I have signed the book, and have ease ; Now you sign, and so shall you have ease !' And one day this afflict- ed person pointed at a certain place, in the room, and said, 'There is D. H.' Upon which, a man with his rapier struck at the place, though he saw no shape, and the * afflicted' called out, saying, * You have given her a small prick about the eye.' Soon after this the said ' D. H.' confessed herself to be made a witch by signing the devil's book, as above said, and declared that she had afflicted the maid, that complained of her, and in doing it, had received * two wounds, by a sword or rapier,' a small one about the eye, which she showed to the magistrates, and a bigger, on the side, of which, she was searched by a discreet woman, who reported that D. H. had on her side, the sign of a wound newly healed. This D, H. confessed that she was at a \ witch* meeting at ' Salem Village,' where were many persons that she named ; some of whom, were in prison then, or soon after, upon suspicion of witchcraft, and she said, G. B. preached to them, and such a woman was their Deacon, and there they had a sacrament. " § 8. Several others after this, confessed the same things, with D. H. in particular. Goody F. said, that she with two others (one of whom acknowledged the same) rode from Andovey, to the Salem Village witch-meeting, upon a stick above the ground, and on the way, the stick broke, and gave the said F. a fall, * whereby,' said she, * I got a fall and hurt, of which, I am with sore.' I happened to be. present in the prison, when this ' T.' owned again, her former confes- sion, to the magistrates. 1 asked her, if she rode to meeting on a stick, she said, ' yea !' I inquired what ' she' did for victuals 1 She answered that, she carried bread and cheese in her pocket, and that she and the Andover company came to the village before the meet- ing began, and sat down together under a tree, and ate their food, and that they drank water out of a brook to quench their thirst, and that the meeting was upon a plain grassy place, by which, was a cart path, in which, were the tracks of horses' feet ; and she also told me how long they were going and returning : and sometime after she told me that * she' had some trouble upon her spirit ; and when I en- quired, What? she said, that she was in fear lhat G. B. and M. C. would kill her, for they appeared unto her (in spectre, for their persons were kept in other worms, in the prison,) and brought a sharp pointed iron, like a spindle but four square, and threatened to stab her to death, because she had confessed her witchcraft, and told of them, that they were with her, and M. C. was the person that made her a witch. About a month after, the said T. took occasion to tell me the same story, that G, B. and E. C. would kill her, so that the thing was much on her spirit. " § 9. It was not long before M. L., daughter of the said F. con- fessed that she rode with her mother to the said witch meeting, and confirmed the substance of her mother's confession. At another time, M, L. Junior, the grand] daughter, aged about 17 years, confesses 34 mather's ecclesiastical history the substance of what her grand mother and mother had related, and declares, that when they, with E. C. rode on a stick, or pole in the air; she, the said grand daughter, with R. C, rode upon another, (and the said R. C. acknowledged the same.) and that they set their hands to the devil's book, and (Interalia) said 'O! mother, why did you give me the devil, twice or thrice over 1 ? The mother said, she was sorry at the heart for it, it was through the wicked one. Her daughter bade her repent and call upon God, and said, ' O ! mother, your wishes are now come to pass, for how often have you wished that the devil would fetch me away alive !' and then said, ' O ! my heart will break within- me !' Then she wept bitterly, crying out, ' O ! Lord, comfort me, and bring out all the witches.' And she said to her grand mother, O ! grand mother, do not deny it.' Then the grand mother gave account of several things, about their confederates, and acts of witchcraft, too long to rehearse. Moreover, another declared that she with widow S. went to Capt. W. S. and the said S. gave him a blow with a great stick, and yet, was to him invisible. Capt. W. declared he had a sore blow, as with a great stick, but saw nobody. The widow S. denied that she struck him. Then M. P., the confessor, boldly look- ed up into his face, and said, ' Goody S. you know you did strike him, and I saw you do it,' and then told the manner how it was done, and how they came to him and returned. " § 10. Next, I will insert the confession of a man about forty years of age, W. G., which he wrote himself in prison, and sent to the ma- gistrates, to confirm his former confession to them. " f God having called me to confess my sin and apostacy in that fall, in giving the devil the advantage over me, appearing to me like a black, in the evening, to set my hand to his book, as I have owned to my shame. He told me that I should not want, in so doing. At Salem village, there, being a little off the meeting house, at a meeting about an hundred fine blades, some with rapiers by their sides, which was called (and might be more for aught I know) by B. and B., and the trumpet sounded, and they had bread and wine which they called the sacra- ment ; but 1 had none, being carried over, all upon a stick, I never being at any other meeting. I being at cart Saturday last, all the day, of hay and English corn, the devil brought my shape to Salem, and did afflict M. S. and R. F, by clinching my hand. And on Sabbath day my shape afflicted A. M., and at night, afflicted M. S. and A. M. E. J. and A. F. have been my enticers to this great abomination, as one hath owned and charged her other sister with the same. And the de- sign was to destroy Salem village, and to begin at the minister's house, and to destroy the churches of God, and to set up Satan's kingdom, and then all will be well. And now I hope that God hath in some degree, made me sensible of my sin and apostacy ; begging pardon of God, and of the honorable magistrates, and all God's people, hoping and promising by the help of God, to set. my heart and hand to do what in me lieth, to destroy such wicked worship, humbly beg- ging the prayers of God's people for me, that I may walk humbly un- OF STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 35 der all the great affliction, and that I may procure to myself the sure mercies of David.' " Concerning this confession. Note 1. It was his own free act in prison. 2. He said, (' the devil like a black sheep.') This he had be- fore explained to be like a black man. 3. That on a certain day, was heard in the air the sound of a trumpet at Salem village, nigh the meeting house, and upon all inquiry, it conld not be found that any mortal men did sound it. 4. The three persons he saith, the devil in his shape afflicted, had been, as to the time and manner, afflicted as he confesseth. 5. This E. J. confessed as much VV. B. chargeth her with. 6. Many others confessed a witch-meeting, or witch-meetings at the village, as well as he. " Note also. That these confessors did not only witness against themselves, but against one another, and against many, if not all those that suffered for that crime. As for example, when G. B. was tried, seven or eight of these confessors, severally called, said they knew the said B., and saw him ata witch-meeting at the village, and heard him ex- hort the company to pull down the kingdom of God and set up the king- dom of the devil. He denied all, yet said he justified the Judges and Jury in condemning of him, because there were so many positive witnesses against him, but said he died by false witnesses. M. C. had to witness against her, two or three of her own children, and several neigbors that said they were in confederacy with her in witchcraft. A. T. had three of her children, and some of the neighbors, her own sister, and a ser- vant who confessed themselves witches, and said she was in confedera- cy with them. But alas ! I am weary with relating particulars. Those that would see more of this kind, let them have recourse to the records. " § 11. By these things, you may see how this matter was carried on, viz. chiefly by the complaints and accusations of the afflicted, (be- witched ones, as it was supposed,) and then by the confessions of the accused, condemning themselves and others. Yet experience showed that the more there were apprehended, the more were still afflict- ed by Satan, and the number of confessors increasing, did but increase the number of the accused, and the executing of some, made way for the apprehending of others. For still the afflicted complained of be- ing tormented by new objects, as the former were removed. So that those who were concerned, grew amazed at the number and quality of the persons accused, and feared that Satan, by his wiles, had enwrap- ped innocent persons underthe imputation of that crime. And atlast, it was evidently seen, that there must be a stop put to the process, or the generation of the children of God would fall under that condemna- tion. Henceforth, therefore, the Juries generally acquitted such as were tried, fearing they had gone too far before. And Sir William Phips, the Governor, reprieved all that were condemned, even the confessors as well as others. And the confessors generally fell off from their confessions ; some saying, * They remembered nothing of what they had said.' Others said, \ They had belied themselves and others.' Some broke prison and ran away, and were not strictly 36 MATHER'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY searched after. Some acquitted, some dismissed, and one way or other, all that had been accused, were set or left at liberty. And al- though, had the time been calm, the condition of the confessors might have called for a a melius inquirendum ; yet, considering the combus- tion and confusion this matter had brought us into, it was thought safer to underdo than over-do, especially in matters capital, where, what is once completed, cannot be retrieved ; but what is left at one time, may be corrected at another upon a review and clearer discovery of the case. Thus, this matter issued somewhat abruptly. " § 12. It may be queried, How doth it appear, that there was a going too far in this affair. " Ans.— 1. By the numbers of persons accused, which had at length increased to about an hundred, and it cannot be imagined, that in a place of so much knowledge, so many in so small a compass of land, should abominably leap into the devil's lap all at once. "2. The quality of several of the accused, was such as did bespeak better things, and things that accompany salvation. Persons whose blameless and holy lives did testify for them. Persons that had taken great pains to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; such as we had charity for, as for our own souls ; and charity is a christian duty commended to us. " 3. The number of the afflicted daily increased, until about fifty person were thus vexed by the devil. This gave just ground to sus- pect some mistake which gave advantage to the accuser of the brethren, to make a breach upon us. "4. It was considerable, that nineteen were executed, and all denied the crime to the death ; and some of them were knowning persons, and had before this been accounted blameless livers. And it is not to be imagined, but that if all had been guilty, some would have had so much tenderness as to seek mercy for their souls, in the way of con- fession and sorrow for such a sin. And as for the condemned confes- sors, at the bar, (they being reprieved) we had no experience whether they would stand to their self condemning confessions when they came to die. " 5. When this prosecution ceased, the Lord so chained up Satan, that the afflicted grew presently well. The accused are generally quiet, and for five years since, we have had no such molestation by them. "6. It sways much with me, which I have since heard and read, of the like mistakes in other places. As in Suffolk in England, about the year 1645, was such a prosecution, until they saw that unless they put a stop to it would bring all into blood and confusion. The like hath been in France, until nine hundred were put to death. And in some other places the like. So that New England is not the only place circumvented by the wiles of the wicked and wily serpent in this kind. 1 Wierus de Prestigiis Demonum, page 67S, relates that an inquisitor in the Subalpine Valleys, inquired after women witches and consumed OP STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 37 above an hundred in the flames, and daily made new offerings to Vulcan, of those that needed hellebore more than fire, and referred the matter to the Bishop. Their husbands of good faith, affirmed that, in that very time, they (the accusers) said or' them, that they had played and danced under a tree, they were in bed with them, [their husbands.] u In Chelmsford in Essex, A. D. 1645, there were thirty tried at once before Judge Coniers, and fourteen of them hanged, and an hundred more detained in several prisons in Suffolk and Essex. " As to our case at Salem, I conceive it proceeded from some mis- taken principles, as that Satan cannot assume the shape of an inno- cent person, and in that shape, do mischief to the bodies and estates of mankind, and that the devil when he doth harm to persons, in their body or estate, it is (at least, most commonly, generally and fre- quently,) by the help of our neighbors, as some witch in covenant with the devil, and when the party suspected, looks on the parties supposed to be bewitched, and they are therfore struck down into fits, as if struck with a cudgel, it is a proof of such a covenant. Cum multh " The worthy author from whose manuscript I have transcribed this narrative, does there confute these mistaken principles, and in his confuting one, viz: ' That if the party suspected appear in spectre to the afflicted, and the afflicted give a blow with a knife, wound &c. (or some other on their behalf,) and the spectre seems wounded or bleeding, or to have their garment torn by the blow received, and the party spectrally represented, be presently searched, and there is found upon their body a wound or blood, even on the same part of their body, or a rent on the same part of the garment which appeared on the spectre to the afflicted ; this hath been accounted a strong evi- dence to prove the party suspected to be a confederate with Satan in afflicting the complainer. He hath divers notable passages. One of them, is this : " ' The person or garment so suspected to the afflicted by the spec- tre, was wounded or bleeding, or cut, or rent before, and the devil know- ing this, represents to the afflicted, that part of the spectre which an- swers to the body wounded, or garment rent, and then the searchers finding such wounds upon, or rents about the person suspected, are ready to conclude it was done by the stroke at the spectre which was done before. There was at Chelmsford an afflicted person, that in her fits cried out against a woman, a neighbor, which Mr. Clark the minister of the Gospel there, could not believe to be guilty of such a crime. And it happened while that woman milked her cow, the cow * Here closes Mr. John Hale's article and Mr. Mather speaks again. 38 struck her with one horn upon the forehead and fetched blood. And while she was thus bleeding, a spectre in her likeness appeared to the party afflicted, who pointing at the spectre, one struck at the place, and the afflicted said, You have made her forehead bleed / Hereupon, some went unto the woman, and foundMier forehead bloody, and ac- quainted Mr. Clark with it, who forthwith went to the woman and asked how her forehead became bloody? and she answered, by a blow of the cow's horn, as abovesaid : whereby he was satisfied that it was a design of Satan to render an innocent person suspected.' " Another instance was at Cambridge, about forty years since. 'There was a man much troubled in the night, with cats, or the devil in their likeness, haunting of him, whereupon he kept a light burning, and a sword by him as he lay in bed, for he suspected a widow woman to send these cats, or imps by witchcraft to bewitch him. And one night as he lay in bed, a cat or imp came within his reach, and he struck her on the back : and upon inquiry, he heard this widow had a sore back. This confirmed his suspicion of the widow, he supposing it came from the wound he gave the cat. But Mr. Day, the widow's chirurgeon cleared the matter, saying that this widow came to him and complained that she had a sore in her back, and desired his help, and he found it a boil. But while this was in cure, the supposed cat was wounded as is already rehearsed. " Again, I knew a woman that was spectrally represented unto an afflicted maid, who complained that she was in such a part of the room, whereupon one struck at it with his rapier in the scabbard, and the afflicted said, You have rent her gown, and in such a place and her gown is green. Afterwards, this woman was observed, when ap- prehended, to have that gown on, (which doubtless she would not have worn then, if she had known anything of its being rent by stri- king at her spectre,) and there was found a rent sowed up, just in the place the afflicted had sa«id it was torn by the scabbard in the same mttnner. I asSted this woman afterwards, how her gown came torn? She answered, by going into such a yard about a year before, and such an one knew it to be so,' The author elsewhere speaking of another mistaken principles, takes occabion to mention the following passage : "'I remember when there was a great discourse about witches, a very holy man heard his wife say, she desired a sucking pig, and he going to a neighbor's house, saw a sow with a litter of pigs, and took a fancy to one of them in particular for his wife, and asked the owner for that pig. The owner denied him, hereupon he went away in a great passion, very unsuitable to such a person, and that very pig left its dam and company and followed this man to his home. This was observed and it was supposed Satan might have some hand init, taking advantage upon the passion of so good a man, to render him suspected by such an accident, if he could.' "Upon the whole, the author spends whole chapters to prove that OP STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 39 there yet is a witch ; and he gives this definition of one. viz : ' A per- son that having the free use of reason, doth knowingly and willingly seek and obtain of the devil, or of any other God besides the true Godi Jehovah, an ability to do or know strange things, or things which he cannot by his own human abilities arrive unto. This person is a witch." " But thus much for that manuscript." [The precedingare Mr. Mather's remarks in full, in his "Magnalia," on the subject in question, changing only the ancient mode of spelling occassionally. — J. 40 Mather's " more wonders More of Mr. Mather's Writings, from Robert Calefs " Salem Witchcraft," or " Wonders of the Invisible World." Page 17—42. " Sir : " I now lay before you a very entertaining story— a story which relates yet more Wonders of the Invisible World — a story whieh tells the remarkable afflictions and deliverance of one that had been prodigiously handled by the Evil Angels. I was myself a daily eye witness to a, large part of these occurrences, and there may be produced scores of substantial witnesses to the most of them ; yea, I know not of any one passage of the story but what may be suffi- ciently attested. I do not write it toith a design of throwing it pre- sently into the press, but only to preserve the memory of such memo- rable things, the forgetting whereof, would neither be pleasing to God, nor useful to men ; as also to give you, with some others of peculiar and obliging friends, a sight of some curiosities ; and I hope this apology will serve to excuse me, if I mention, as perhaps I may, when I come to a tenth paragraph in my writing, some tilings which I would have omitted in a farther publication. «« COTTON MATHER," [Notdated.] " § 1. Within these few years, there died in the southern parts, a Chris- tian Indian, who, notwithstanding some of his Indian weakness, had something of abetter character, of virtue and goodness, than many of our people can allow to most of their countrymen, that profess the Christian religion. He had been a zealous preacher of the gospel to his neighborhood, and a sort of overseer, or officer, to whose conduct was owing very much of what good order was maintained among those proselyted savages. This man, returning home from the funeral of his son, was complimented by an Englishman, expressing sorrow for his loss; now, tho' the Indians used upon the death of relations to be the most passionate and outrageous creatures in the world, yet this converted Indian handsomely and cheerfully replied, ' truly I am sorry, and I am not sorry ; I am sorry that I have buried a dear son ; but I am not sorry, that the will of God is done. I know that without the will of God my son could not have died, and I know that the will of God is always just and good, and so I am satisfied.' Immediately upon this, even within a few hours, he fell himself sick, of a disease that quickly killed him ; in the time of which disease, he called his folks about him, earnestly persuading them, to be sincere in their pray- ing unto God, and to beware of the drunkenness, the idleness, the lying, whereby so many of that nation disgraced their profession of Christianity ; adding, that he was ashamed, when he thought how lit- tle service he had hitherto done for God ; and, that if God would pro- long his life, he would labor to do better service, but that he was fully sure, he was now going to the Lord Jesus Christ, who had bought him with his precious blood ; and for his part, he longed to die, that 41 he might be with his glorious Lord ; and in the midst of such passa- ges, he gave up the ghost ; but in such repute, that the English peo- ple, of good fashion, did not think much of travelling a great way, to his interment. Lest my reader do now wonder why I have related this piece of a story, 1 will now hasten to abate that wonder by telling that whereto this was intended but for an introduction : know then, that this remarkable Indian being, a little before he died, at work in the wood, making of tar, there appeared unto him a Black Man, of a terrific aspect, and more than human dimensions, threatening bitterly to kill him, if he would not promise to leave off preaching, as he did to his countrymen, and promise particularly, that if he preached anymore, he would say nothing of Jesus Christ, unto them ! The Indian was amazed, yet had the courage to answer, ' I will, in spite of you, go on to preach Christ, more than ever I did, and the God whom I serve will keep me, that you shall never hurt me.' Hereupon the appari- tion, abating somewhat of his fierceness, offered to the Indian a book of a considerable thickness, and a pen and ink, and said, that if he would now set his hand unto that book, he would require nothing fur- ther of him ; but the'man refused the motion with indignation, and fell down upon his knees into a fervent and pious prayer unto God, for help against the tempter, whereupon the demon vanished. u This is a story which I would never have tendered unto my read- er, if I had not received it from an honest and useful Englishman, who is at this time a preacher of the gospel to the Indians ; nor would the probable truth of it have encouraged me to have tendered it, if this * also had not been a fit introduction unto yet a further narrative. " § 2. It was not much above a year or two after this accident (of which no manner of noise has been made) that there was a prodigious descent of Devils upon divers places near the centre of this Province : wheiein some scores of miserable people were troubled by horrible appearances of a Black Man, accompanied with spectres, wearing these and those human shapes, who offered them a book to be by them signed, in token of their being listed for the service of the Devil, and upon their denying to do it, they were dragooned with a thousand preternatural torments, which gave no little terror to the beholders of these unhappy people. There was one in the north part of Boston seized by the Evil Angels many months after the general storm of the late enchantments was over, and when the country had long lain very quiet, both as to molestations and accusations from the Invisible World : Her name was Margaret Rule, a young woman — she was born of sober and honest parents yet living, but what her own charac- ter was, before her visitation, I can speak with the less confidence of exactness, because I observe that wherever the Devils have been let loose, to worry any poor creature among us, a great part of the neigh- borhood presently set themselves to inquire, and relate all the little vanities of their childhood, with such unequal exaggerations, as to make them appear greater sinners than any whom the Prince of Hell has not preyed upon : But it is affirmed, that for about half a year be- 42 Mather's " more wonders fore her visitation, she was observably improved, in the hopeful symp toms of a new creature ; she was become seriously concerned for tli« everlasting salvation of her soul, and careful to avoid the snares of evil company. This young woman had never seen the afflictions of Mercy Short, whereof a narrative has been already given, and yet, aboul half a year after the glorious and signal deliverance of that poor dam- sel, this Margaret fell into an affliction, marvellous, resembling hers in almost all the circumstances of it; indeed the afflictions were so much alike, that the relation I have given of the one, would almost serve as the full history of the other : this was to that, little more than the se- cond part to the same tune ; indeed Margaret's case was in several points less remarkable than Mercy's, and in some other things the en- tertainments did a little vary. " § 3. It was upon the Lord's day, the 10th of September, in the year 1693, that Margaret Rule, after some hours of previous distur- bance in the public Assembly, fell into odd fits, which caused her friends to carry her home, where her fits in a few hours grew into a figure, that satisfied the spectators of their being preternatural ; some of the neighbors were forward enough to suspect the rise of this mis- chief in an house hard by, where lived a miserable woman who had been formerly imprisoned, on the suspicion of witchcraft, and who had frequently cured very painful hurts, by muttering over them certain charms, which I shall not endanger the poisoning of my reader by re- peating. This "woman had, the evening before Margaret fell into her calamities, very bitterly treated her, and threatened her ; but the ha- zard of hurting a poor woman, that might be innocent, (notwithstand- ing surmizes that might have been more strongly grounded than those,) caused the pious people in the vicinity, to try, rather, whether inces- sant supplications to God alone, might not procure a quicker and safer ease to the afflicted, than hasten prosecution of any supposed criminal, and accordingly that unexceptionable course was all that was ever followed — yea, which I looked on as a token for good, the afflicted family was as averse as any of us, to entertain thoughts of any other course. " § 4. This young woman was assaulted by eight cruel spectres, whereof she imagined that siie knew three or four, but the rest came still with their faces covered, so that she could never have a distin- guished view of the countenance of those, whom she thought she knew: she was very careful of my reiterated charges, to forbear blaz- ing the names, lest any good person should come to suffer any blast of reputation, thro' the cunning malice of the great accuser; neverthe- less, having since privately named them to myself, I will venture to say this of them, that they are a sort of wretches, who for these many years have gone under as violent presumptions of Witchcraft, as per- haps any creatures yet living upon earth ; altho' I am far from think- ing that the visions of this young woman were evidence enough to prove them so. These cursed spectres now brought unto her a book about a cubit long — a book red and thick, but not very broad ; and 43 they demanded of her, that she would set her hand to that book, or touch it at least with her hand, as a sign of her becoming a servant of the devil ; upon her peremptory refusal to do what they asked, they did not after renew the proffers of the book unto her, but instead thereof, they fell to tormenting of her in a manner too hellish to be sufficiently described — in those torments confining her to her bed for just six weeks together. •' § 5. Sometimes, but not always, together with the spectres, there looked in upon the young woman (according to her account) a short and a black man, whom they called their master — a white exactly of the same dimensions and complexion and voice, with the devil that has exhibited himself unto other infested people, not only in other parts of this country, but also in other countries, even of the European World, as the relation of the enchantments there inform us. They all profest themselves vassals of this devil, and in obedience unto him, they address themselves unto various ways of torturing her; accord- ingly she was cruelly pinched with invisible hands, very often in a day, and the black and blue marks of the pinches became immediate- ly visible unto the standers by. Besides this, when her attendants had left her without so much as one pin about her, that so they might prevent some feared inconveniencies, yet she would every now and then, be miserably hurt with pins, which were found stuck into her neck, back and arms ; however the wounds made by the pins, would, in a few minutes ordinarily be cured ; she would also be strangely distorted in her joints, and thrown into such exorbitant convulsions as were astonishing unto the spectators in general. They that could behold the doleful condition of the poor family without sensible com- passions, might have entrails indeed; but I am sure they could have no true bowels in them. " § 6. It were a most unchristian and uncivil, yea, a most unreason- able thing to imagine, that the fits of the young woman were but mere impostures ; and I believe, scarce any but people of a particu- lar dirtiness, will harbor such an uncharitable censure ; however, be- cause I know not how far the devil may drive the imagination of poor creatures, when he has possession of them, that at another time when they are themselves, would scorn to dissemble any thing. I shall now confine my narrative unto passages wherein there could be no room left for any dissimulation. Of these, the first that I'll mention shall be this — from the time that Margaret Rule first found herself to be formally beseiged by the spectres until the ninth dayfollowing, name- ly, from the tenth of September to the eighteenth, she kept an entire fast, and yet she was, unto all appearance, as fresh, as lively, and as hearty, at the nine days end, as before they began ; in all this time, though she had a very eager hunger upon her stomach, yet if any refresh- ments were brought unto her, her teeth would be set, and she would be thrown into many miseries indeed ; once or twice or so, in all this time, her tormentors permitted her to swallow a mouthful of some- what that might increase her miseries, whereof a spoonful of rum was 44 Mather's " more wonders the most considerable ; but otherwise, as I said, her fast untotheninth day was very extreme and rigid : however, afterwards, there scarce passed a day wherein she had not liberty to take something or other for her sustenation. And I must add this further, that this business of her fast, was carried so, that it was impossible to be dissembled with- out a combination of multitudes of people, unacquainted with one an- other, to support the juggle ; but he that can imagine such a thing of a neighborhood, so filled with virtuous people, is a base man — I can- not call him any other. " § 7. But if the sufferings of this young woman were not impos- ture, yet might they not be pure distemper 1 I will not here inquire of our Saducees what sort of a distemper it is, that shall stick the body full of pins without any hand that could be seen to stick them; or whether all the pin-makers in the world would be willing to be evapo- rated into certain ill habits of body, producing a distemper ; but of the distemper my reader shall be judge, when I have told him some- thing further of those unusual sufferings. I do believe that the evil angels do often take advantage from natural distempers in the children of men, to annoy them with such further mischiefs, as we call preter- natural. The malignant vapours and humours of our diseased bodies may be used by devils, thereinto insinuating as engines of the execu- tion of their malice upon those bodies ; and perhaps, for this reason, one sex may suffer more troubles of some kinds from the Invisible World than the other ; as well as for that reason, for which the old serpent made, where he did his first address. But I pray, what will you say to this? Margaret Rule would sometimes have her jaws forcibly pulled open, whereupon something invisible would be poured down her throat. We all saw her swallow, and yet we saw her try all she could, by spitting, coughing and shrieking, that she might not swallow; but one time the standers by, plainly saw something of that odd liquor itself on the outside of her neck Shecried out of it, as of scalding brimstone poured into her, and the whole house would im- mediately scent so hot of brimstone that we were scarce able to en- dure it— whereof there are scores of witnesses ; but the young wo- man herself would be so monstrously inflamed that it would have broke a heart of stone to have seen her agonies. This was a thing that several times happened, and several times when her mouth was thus pulled open, the standers by clapping their hands close thereupon, the distresses that otherwise followed would be diverted. Moreover, there was a whitish powder, to us invisible, sometimes cast upon the eyes of this young woman, whereby her eyes would be extremely in- commoded, but one time some of this powder was fallen actually visi- ble upon her cheek, from whence the people in the room wiped it with their handkerchiefs ; and sometimes the young woman would also be so bitterly scorched with the unseen sulphur thrown upon her, that very sensible blisters would be raised upon her skin, whereto her friends found it necessary to apply the oils proper for common burn- ings ; but the most of these hurts would be cured in two or three days OP THE INVISIBLE WORLD." 45 at farthest : I think I may, without vanity pretend to have read not a few of the best systems of physic that have been yet seen in these American regions, but I must confess that I have never yet learned the name of the natural distemper whereto these odd symptoms do belong : however, I might suggest perhaps many a natural medicine which would be of singular use against many of them. " § 8. But there fell out some other matters far beyond the reach of natural distemper. This Margaret Rule once in the middle of the night lamented sadly that the spectres threatened the drowning of a young man, in the neighborhood, whom she named unto the company. Well, it was afterwards found that at that very time this young man, having been pressed onboard a man of war, then in the harbor, was out of some dissatisfaction attempting to swim ashore, and he had been drowned in the attempt, if a boat had not seasonably taken him up ; it was by computation a minute or two after the young woman's dis- course of the drowning, that the young man took the water. At ano- ther time, she told us that the spectres bragged and laughed in her hearing about an exploit they had lately done, by stealing from a gen- tleman his will soon after he had written it ; and within a few hours after she had spoken this, there came to me a gentleman with a pri- vate complaint, that having written his will, it was unaccountably gone out of the way, how, or where, he could not imagine ; and be- sides all this, there were wonderful noises, every now and then, made about the room, which our people could ascribe to no other authors but the spectres ; yea, the watchers affirm, that they heard those fiends dapping of their hands together with an audibleness wherein they could not be imposed upon. And once her tormentors pulled her up to the ceiling of the chamber, and held her there, before a numerous company of spectators, who found it as much as they could all do to pull her down again. There was also another very surprising circum- stance about her, agreeable to what we have not only read in several histories, concerning the imps that have been employed in witchcraft; but also known in some of our own afflicted. We once thought we perceived something stir upon her pillow at a little distance from her, whereupon one present laying his hand there, he to his horror appre- hended that he felt, tho' none could see it, a living creature not alto- gether unlike a rat, which nimbly escaped from him ; and there were diverse other persons who were thrown into a great consternation by feeling, as they judged, at other times the same invisible animal. " § 9. As it has been with a thousand other enchanted people, so it was with Margaret Rule in this particular, that there were several words which her tormentors would not let her hear, especially the words pray, or prayer, and yet she could so hear the letters of those words distinctly mentioned as to know what they meant. The stand- ers by were forced sometimes thus in discourse to spell a word to her, but because there were some so ridiculous as to count it a sort ot spell or a charm for any thus to accommodate themselves to the capa- city of the sufferer, little of this kind was done. But that which was 46 Mather's " more wonders more singular in this matter, was, that she could not use these words in those penetrating discourses, wherewith she would sometimes ad- dress the spectres that were about her. She would sometimes for a long while together apply herself to the spectres, whom she supposed the witches, with such exhortations to repentance as would have melt- ed an heart of adamant to have heard them ; her strains of expression and argument were truly extraordinary. A person perhaps of the best education and experience, and of attainments much beyond hers, could not have exceeded them : nevertheless, when she came to these words, God, Lord, Christ, Good, Repent, and some other such, her mouth could not utter them ; whereupon she would sometimes in an angry parenthesis complain of their wickedness in stopping that word, but she would then go on with some other terms that would serve to tell what she meant. And I believe that if the most suspicious person in the world had beheld all the circumstances of this matter, he would have said it could not have been dissembled. " § 10. Not only in the Swedish, but also in the Salem "Witchcraft, the enchanted people have talked much of a White Spirit from whence they received marvellous assistances in their miseries : What lately befel Mercy Short from the communications of such a spirit, hath been the just wonder of us all, but by such a spirit was Margaret Rule now also visited. She says that she could never see his face ; but that she had a frequent view of his bright, shining and glorious garments ; he stood by her bed side continually heartening and com- forting of her, and counselling her to maintain her faith, and hope in God, and never comply with the temptations of her adversaries ; she says he told her, that God had permitted her afflictions to befal her for the everlasting and unspeakable good of her own soul, and for the good of many others, and for his own immortal glory — and that she should therefore be of good cheer, and be assured of a speedy deliver- ance; and the wonderful resolution of mind wherewith she encoun- tered her afflictions were but agreeable to such expectations. More- over, a minister having one day with some importunity prayed for the deliverance of this young woman, and pleaded that she belonged to his flock and charge, he had so far a right unto her as that he was to do the part of a minister of our Lord for the bringing of her home unto God, only now the devil hindered him in doing that which he had a right thus to do ; and whereas he had a better title unto her to bring her home to God, than the devil could have unto her to carry her away from the Lord, he therefore humbly applied himself unto God, who alone could right this matter, with a suit that she might be re- scued out of Satan's hands. Immediately upon this, tho' she heard nothing of this transaction, she began to call that minister her father, and that was the name whereby she every day before all sorts of peo- ple distinguished him : the occasion of it, she says was this : the white spirit presently upon this transaction did after this manner speak to her, ' Margaret, you now are to take notice that such a man is your father — God has given you to him — do you from this time look upon OP THE INVISIBLE WORLD." 47 him as your father, obey him, regard him as your father, follow his counsels and you shall do well.' And tho' there was one passage more, which I do as little know what to make of as any of the rest, I am now going to relate it ; more than three times have I seen it ful- filled in the deliverance of enchanted and possessed persons, whom the providence of God has cast into my way, that their deliverance could not be obtained before the third fast kept for them, and the third day still obtained the deliverance, although I have thought of beseeching of the Lord thrice, when buffeted by Satan, yet I must earnestly en- treat all my readers to beware of any superstitious conceits upon the number three ; if our God will hear us upon once praying and fasting before him, it is well, and if he will not vouchsafe his mercy upon our thrice doing so, yet we must not be so discouraged as to throw by our devotion ; but if the sovereign grace of our God will in any particular instances count our patience enough tried when we have solemnly waited upon him for any determinate number of times, who shall f?ay to him. What doest thou % — and if there shall be any number of in- stances wherein this grace of our God has exactly holden the same course, it may have a room in our hnmble observations I hope without any superstition. I say, then, that after Margaret Rule had been more than five weeks in her miseries, this white spirit said unto her, ' Well, this day such a man (whom he named) has kept a third day for your deliverance, now be of good cheer, you shall speedily be delivered.' I inquired whether what had been said of that man were true, and 1 gained exact and certain information that it was precisely so, but I doubt lest in relating this passage that I have used more openness than a friend should be treated with, and for that cause I have con- cealed several of the most memorable things that have occurred not only in this but in some former histories, altho', indeed, I am not so well satisfied about the true nature of this white spirit, as to count that I can do a friend much honor by reporting what notice this white spirit may have thus taken of him. " § 11. On the last day of the week her tormentors (as she thought and said) approaching towards her, would be forced still to recoil and retire as unaccountably, unable to meddle with her ; and they would retire to the fire side with their poppets ; but going to stick pins into those poppets, they could not (according to their visions) make the pins to enter. She insulted over them with a very proper derision, daring them now to do their worst, whilst she had the satisfaction to see their black master strike them and kick them, like the overseer of so many negroes, to make them do their work, and renew the marks of his vengeance on them when they failed of doing of it. At last, being as it were, tired with their ineffectual attempts to mortify her, they furi- ously said, * Well, you shan't be the last.' And after a pause, they added, * Go, and the devil go with you, we can do no more' — where- upon they flew out of the room, and she returning perfectly to herself, most affectionately gave thanks to God for her deliverance. Her tor- mentors left her extremely weak and faint, and overwhelmed with 48 Mather's " more wonders vapours, which would not only cause her sometimes to swoon away, but also now and then for a little while discompose the reasonableness of her thoughts. Nevertheless her former troubles returned not ; but we are now waiting to see the good effects of those troubles upon the souls of all concerned : and now I suppose that some of our learned witlings of the coffee-house, for fear lest these proofs of an Invisible World should spoil some oH their sport, will endeavour to turn them all into sport f for which buffoonery their only pretence will be, ' They can't understand how such things as these could be done' — whereas indeed he that is but philosopher enough to have read but one little treatise, published in the year 1656, by no other man than the Chyrur- gion of an army, or but one chapter of Helmont, which I will not quote at this time too particularly, may give a far more intelligible account of these appearances than most of these blades can give why and how their tobacco makes them spit ; or which way the flame of their candle becomes illuminating — as for that cavil — ' The world would be undone if the devils could have such power as they seem to have in several of our stories' — it may be answered, that as to many things the lying devils have only known them to be done and then pretended unto the doing of those things ; but the true and best an- swer is, that by these things we only see what the devils could have power to do, if the great God should give ihem that power — whereas, now our histories afford a glorious evidence for the being of a God. The world would indeed be undone, and horribly undone, if these devils, who now and then get liberty to play some very mischievous pranks, were not under a daily restraint of some Almighty Superior from doing more of such mischiefs . Wherefore, instead of all apish flouts and jeers at histories which have such undoubted confirmation, as that no man that has breeding enough to regard the common laws of human society, will offer to doubt of them — it becomes us rather to adore the goodness of God, who does not permit such things every day to befal us all, as he sometimes did permit to befall some few of our miserable neighbors. " Sect. 12. And why, after all my unwearied cares and pains to rescue the miserable from the lions and bears of hell, which had seized them, and after all my studies to disappoint the Devils in their de- signs to confound my neighborhood, must I be driven to the necessity of an apology 1 Truly the hard representations wherewith some ill men have reviled my conduct, and the countenance which other men have given to these representations, oblige me to give mankind some account of my behaviour. No Christian can (1 say none but evil workers can) criminate my visiting such of my poor flock as have at any time fallen under the terrible and sensible molestations of Evil Angel's : let their afflictions have been what they will, I could not have answered it unto my glorious Lord, if I had withheld my just counsels and comforts from them ; and if I have also with some ex- actness, observed the methods of the Invisible World, when they have thus become observable, I have been but a servant of mankind in OP THE INVISIBLE WORLD." 49 doing so ; yea, no less a person than the venerable Baxter has more than once or twice in the most public manner invited mankind to thank me for that service. I have not been insensible of a greater danger attending me in this fulfillment of my ministry, than if I had been to take ten thousand steps over a rocky mountain filled with rattle-snakes ; but I have considered, he that is wise, will observe things ; and the surprising explication and confirmation of the biggest part of the Bible, which I have seen given in these things, has abund- antly paid me for observing them. Now in my visiting of the mis- erable, I was always of this opinion, that we were ignorant of what power the Devils might have to do their mischiefs in the shapes of some that had never been explicitly engaged in diabolical confedera- cies, and that therefore, tho' many witchcrafts had been fairly detect- ed on inquries provoked and begun by spectral exhibitions, yet we could not easily be too jealous of the snares laid for us in the devices of Satan. The world knows how many pages I have composed and published, and particular gentlemen in the Government know how many letters I have written to prevent the excessive credit of spec- tral accusations ; wherefore I have still charged the afflicted that they should cry out of nobody for a^icting of them : bnt that if this might be any advantage, they might privately tell their minds to some one person of discretion enough to make no ill use of their communica- tions — accordingly there has been this effect of it, that the name of no one good person in the world ever came under any blemish by means of an afflicted person that fell under my particular cognizance — yea, no one man, woman or child, ever came into any trouble for the sake of any that were afflicted, after I had once begun to look after them. How often have I had this thrown into my dish, " That many years ago T had an opportunity to have brought forth such people as have in the late storm of witchcraft been complained of, but that I smothered all ; and after that storm was raised at Salem, I did myself offer to pro- vide meat, drink, and lodging for no less than six of the afflicted, that so an experiment might be made, whether prayer with fasting, upon the removal of the distressed, might not put a period to the trouble then rising, without giving the civil authority the troupe of prosecuting those things which nothing but a conscientious regard unto the cries of miserable families could have overcome the reluctancies of the honorable Judges to meddle with." In short, I do humbly but freely affirm it, there is not that man living in this world who has been more 4esirous than the poor man I, to shelter my neighbors from the incon- veniences of spectral outcries ; yea, I am very jealous I have done so much that way as to sin in what I have done — such have been the cowardice and fearfulness whereunto my regard unto the dissatisfac- tions of other persons have precipitated me. I know a man in the world, who has thought he has been able to convict some such witches as ought to die, but his respect unto the public peace has caused him rather to try whether he could not renew them by repentance ; and as I have been studious to defeat the Devils of their expectations to 50 mather's "more wonders set people together by the ears thus, I have also checked and quelled those forbidden curiosities which would have given the Devil an in- vitation to have tarried amongst us, when I have seen wonderful snares laid for curions people, by the secret and future things discov- ered from the mouths of damsels possest with a spirit of divination: Indeed I can recollect but one thing wherein there could be given so much as a shadow of reason for expectations and that is my allowing of so many to come and see those that were afflicted. Now for that I have this to say, that I have almost a thousand times intreated the friends of the miserable, that they would not permit the intrusion of any company, but such as by prayers or other ways might be helpful to them j nevertheless, I have not absolutely forbid all company from coming to your haunted chambers, partly because the calamities of the families were such as required the assistance of many friends ; partly because I have been willing that there should be disinterested wit- nesses of all sorts, to confute the calumnies of such as would say all was but imposture, and partly because 1 saw God had sanctified the spectacle of the miseries on the afflicted unto the souls of many that were spectators ; and it is a very glorious thing that I have now to mention : TheDevilshave with most horrid operations broke inuopn our neighborhood, and God has at such a rate overruled all the fury and malice of those Devils, that all the afflicted have not only been deliver- ed, but I hope also savingly brought home unto God, and the reputation of no one good person in the world has been damaged ; but instead thereof the souls of many, especially of the rising generation, have been thereby awakened unto some acquaintance with religion — our young people who belonged unto the praying meetings of both sexes, a part would ordinarily spend whole nights by whole weeks together in prayers and psalms upon these occasions, in which devotions the devils could get nothing; but like fools, a scourge for their own backs; and some scores of other young people, who were strangers to real piety, were now struck with the lively demonstrations of Hell, evi- dently set forth before their eyes, when they saw persons cruelly frighted, wounded and starved by Devils, and scalded with burning brimstone ; and yet so preserved in this tortured state, as that at the end of one month's wretchedness, they were as able still to undergo another — so that of these also it might now be said, 'Behold they pray in the whole — the Devil got just nothing — but God got praises, Christ got snbjects, the Holy Spirit got temples, the Church got addition, and the souls of men got everlasting benefits.' I am not so vain as to say that any wisdom or virtue of mine did contribute unto this good order of things ; but I am so just as to say, I did not hinder this good. When therefore there have been those that picked up little incoherent scraps and bits of my discourses in this fruitful discharge of my ministry, and so traversed them in their abusive pamphlets, as to persuade the town that 1 was their common enemy in those very points wherein, if in any one thing whatsoever I have sensibly approved myself as true a servant unto them as possibly I could, tho' my life and soul had been at stake OP THE INVISIBLE WORLD.'' 51 for it — yea to do like Satan himself, by sly, base, unpretending in- sinuations, as if I wore not the modesty and gravity which became a minister of the gospel, I could not but think myself unkindly dealt withal, and the neglects of others to do me justice in this affair has caused me to conclude this narrative with complaints in another hearing of such monstrous iujuries• ,, The following letter of Cotton Mather to Robert Calef, in Mr. C's "Salem Witch- craft," seems as a specimen of opposition encountered by Mr. M. in his faithfully collecting and bringing before the world as he has, the dark wonders of the preceding History. — J. Boston^ January the 15th, 1694. Mr. R. C. "WHEREAS you intimate your desires, that what is not fairly (1 take it for granted you mean truly also,) represented in a paper you lately sent me, containing a pretended narrative of a visit by my father* and self to an afflicted young woman, whom we apprehended to be under a Diabolical Possession, might be rectified : I have this to say, as I have often already said, that do I scarcely find any one thing in the whole paper, whether respecting my father or self, either fairly or truly represented. Nor can I think that any that know my parent's circumstances, but must think him deserving a better character by far, than this narrative can be brought to give him. When the main design we managed in visiting the poor afflicted creature was to pre- vent the accusations of the neighborhood; can it be fairly represented that our design was to draw out such accusations, which is the repre- sentation of the paper. We have testimonies of the best witnesses, and in number not a few, that when we asked Margaret Rule whether she thought she knew who tormented her ? the question was but an in- troduction to the solemn charges which we then largely gave, that she should rather die than tell the names ol any whom she might imagine that she knew. Your informers have reported the question, and report nothing what follows as essential to the giving of that question; and can this be termed a piece of fairness? Fair it cannot be that when ministers faithfully and carefully discharge their duty to the miserable in their flock, little bits, scraps and shreds of their discourses, should be tacked together to make them contempt- ible, when there shall be no notice of all the necessary, seasonable, and profitable things that occured, in those discourses ; and without which, the occasion of the lesser passages cannot be understood ; and yet I am furnished with abundant evidences, ready to be sworn, that will positively prove this part of unfairness, by the above mentioned nar- rative, to be done both to my father and self. Again, it seems not fair or reasonable that I should be exposed, for which yourself (not to say * Increase Mather, D. D. President of Harvard College. 52 mather's " more wonders some others) might have exposed me for, if I had not done, viz.: for discouraging so much company from flocking about the Possest Maid, and yet, as I persuade myself, you cannot but think it to be good ad- vice to keep much company from such haunted chambers ; besides the unfairness doth more appear, in that I find nothing repeated of what I said about the advantage which the Devil takes from too much ob- servation and curiosity. "In that several of the questions in the paper are so worded, astocarry in them a presuposal of the things inquired after, to say the best of it is very unfair : but this is not all, the narrative contains a number of mistakes and falsehoods ; which, were they wilful and designed, might jnstly be termed gross lies. The representations are far from true, when 'tis affirmed my father and self being come into the room, I be- gan the discourse ; I hope I understand breeding a little better than so ; for proof of this, did occasion serve, sundry can depose the contrary. " 'Tis no less untrue, that either my father or self put the question, How many Witches sit upon you 1 We always cautiously avoided that expression, it being contrary to our inward belief: All the stand- ers by, will, (I believe) swear they did not hear us use it, (your wit- nesses excepted) and I tremble to think how hardy those woful crea- tures must be, to call the Almighty by an oath, to so false a thing. As false a representation 'tis, that I rubbed Rule's stomach, her breast not being covered. The oath of the nearest spectators, giving a true account of that matter will prove this to be little less than a gross (if not a doubled) lie ; and to be somewhat plainer, it carries the face of a lie contrived ©n purpose (by them at lesat, to whom you are beholden for the narrative) wickedly and basely to expose me. For you cannot but know how much this representation hath contributed, to make peo- ple believe, a smutty thing of me, I am far from thinking, but that in your own conscience you believe, thatno indecent action of that nature could then be done by me before such observers, had I been so wick- ed as to have been inclined to what is so base. It looks next to im- possible that a reparation should be made me for the wrong done to, (I hope, as to any scandal) an unblemished, 'tho weak and small ser- vant of the Church of God. Nor is what follows a less untruth, that it was an attendant and not myself who said, if Rule knows who afflicts her, yet she wont tell. I therefore spoke it, that I might encourage her to continue in that concealment of all names whatsoever ; to this I am able to furnish myself with the attestation of sufficient oaths. 'Tis as far from true, that my apprehensions of the Imp, about Rule, was on her Belly, for the oaths of the spectators, and even of those that thought they felt it, can testify that it was upon the pillow, at a distance from her body. As untrue a representation is that which follows, viz : That it was said unto her, that her not apprehending of that odd, palpable, tho' not visible mover was from her fancy, for I en- deavored to persuade her that it might be but fancy in others, that there was any such thing at all. Witnesses every way sufficient can OP THE INVISIBLE WORLD." 53 be produced for this also. It is falsely represented that my father felt on the young woman after the appearance mentioned, for his hand was never near her; oath can sufficiently vindicate him. 'Tis very untrue that my father prayed for perhaps half an hour, against the power of the Devil and Witchcraft, and that God would bring out the affictors. Witnesses of the best credit can depose, that his prayer was not a quarter of an hour, and that there was no more than about one clause towards the close of the prayer, which was of this import ; and this clause also was guarded with a singular wariness and modesty, viz : If there were any evil instruments in this matter, God would please to discover them ; and that there was more than common reason for that petition, I can satisfy any one that will please to inquire of me. And strange it is, that a gentleman that from 18 to 54 hath been an exem- plary Minister of the Gospel ; and that besides a station in the Church of God, as considerable as any that his own country can afford, hath for divers years come off with honor, in his application to three Crown- ed Heads, and, the chiefest Nobility of three Kingdoms, knows not yet how to make one short prayer of a quarter of an hour, but in New- England he must be libelled for it. There are divers others down right mistakes, which you have permitted yourself, I would hope, not knowingly, and with a malicious design, to be receiver or compiler of, which I shall now forbear to animadvert upon. As for the Ap- pendix of the Narrative, I do find myself therein injuriously treated, for the utmost of your proof for what you say of me, amounts to little more than, viz : Some people told you that others told them, that such and such things did pass : but you may assure yourself, that I am not unfurnished with witnesses, that can convict the same. Whereas you would give me to believe the bottom of these your methods, to be some dissatisfaction about the commonly received power of the Devil and Witches : I do not only with all freedom offer you the use of any part of my library which you may see cause to peruse on that subject, but also if you and any one else whom you please, will visit me at my study, yea, or meet me at any other place less inconvenient than those by you proposed, I will with all the fairness and calmness in the world, dispute the point. I beg of God that He would bestow as many blessings on you as ever on myself, and out of a sincere wish that you may be made yet more capable of these blessings, I take this occasion to lay before you the faults (not few nor small ones neither,) which the paper contained you lately sent me, in order to be examined by me. In case you want a true and full narrative of my visit, whereof such an indecent traversty (to say the best) hath been made, I am not unwilling to communicate it, in the meantime, must take liberty to say, it is scarcely consistent with common civility, much less christian charity, to offer the narrative, now with you, for a true one, till you have a truer, or for a full one till you have a fuller. Your sincere ('tho injured) friend and servant, C. MATHER. 54 mather's "more wonders of the ircvisiBLE world." " The copy of a Taper received with the above Letter. " I DO testify that I have seen Margaret Rule in her afflictions from the invisible world, lifted up from her bed, wholly by an invisible force, a great way towards the top of the room where she lay ; in her being so lifted, she had no assistance from any use of her own arms or hands, or any other part of her body, not so much as her heels touching her bed, or resting on any support whatsoever. And I have seen her thus lifted, when not only a strong person hath thrown his whole weight across her to pull her down ; but several other persons have endeavored, with all their might, to hinder her from being so raised up, which I suppose that several others will testify as well as myself, when called unto it Witness my hand, "SAMUEL AVES." " WE can also testify to the substance of what is above written, and have several times seen Margaret Rule so lifted up from her bed, as that she had no use of her own limbs 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. " ROBERT EARLE. "Copy JOHN WILKINS. DAN. WILLIAMS. "WE, whose names are underwritten, do testify, That one eve- ning when we were in the chamber where Margaret Rule then lay, in her 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 yet 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 judged it several minutes ; and it was as much as several of us could do, with all our strength to pull her down. All which hap- pened when there were not only we two in the chamber, but we sup- pose ten or a dozen more, whose names we have forgotten, " THOMAS THORNTON, Copy WILLILIAM HUDSON, " Testifies to the substance of Thornton's Testimony to which he also hath set his hand.'" ISP In the preceding pages, containing all that Mr. Mather has said on this subject, in the two books from whence they are taken, the Compiler has not felt at liberty to change a word of the style from antique to modern, though doubtless a sense of pro- priety in some, would have judged otherwise. It will be seen that Mr. Mather has written other works on the same subject, which will probably, era long be re-pub lished or as soon as practical. — J. New York, Jan. 20, 1846. \ \ YA 1185 CONFESSION OF SALEM JURORS, &c. From Calefs " Salem Witchcraft." Page 294. u Some that had been of several Juries, have given forth a paper, signed with their own hands, in these words : •* WE whose names are under written, being in the year 1692, called to serve as jurors in court at Salem on trial of many ; who were by some suspected guilty of doing acts of witchcraft upon the bodies of sundry persons. " We confess that we ourselves were not capable to under- stand, nor able to withstand the mysterious delusions of the pow- ers of darkness, and prince of the air ; but were, for want of knowledge in ourseJves, and better information from others, pre- vailed with to take up with such evidence against the accused, as on further consideration, and better information, we justly fear, was insufficient for the touching the lives of any : Deut. xvii. 6., whereby we fear we have been instrumental with others, though ignorantly and unwittingly, to bring upon ourselves and this peo- ple of the Lord, the guilt of innocent blood ; which sin the Lord saith in scripture, he would not pardon : 2 Kings xxiv. 4 ; that is, we suppose in regard of his temporal judgment. We do there- fore hereby signify to all in general (and to the surviving sufferers in special) our deep sense of, and sorrow for our errors, in acting on such evidence to the condemning of any person. " And do hereby declare that we justly fear that we were sadly deluded and mistaken, for which we are much disquieted and dis- tressed in our minds ; and do therefore humbly beg forgiveness, first of God for Christ's sake for this our error; and pray that God would not impute the guilt of it to ourselves nor others ; and we also pray that we may be considered candidly, and aright by the living sufferers as being then under the power of a strong and general delusion, utterly unacquainted with, and not expe- rienced in matters of that nature. " We do heartily ask forgiveness of you all, whom we have justly offended, and do declare according to our present minds, we would none of us do such things again on such grounds for the whole world ; praying you to accept of this in way of satis- faction for our offence ; and that you would bless the inheritance of the Lord, that he may be entreated for the land. 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