Reader, be prepared to be entertained with as prodigious Matters as can be put into any History! And let him that writes the next Thaumatographia Pneumatica, allow to these Prodigies the chief place among the Wonders.

   Sec. 16. About the time of our Blessed Lord's coming to reside on Earth, we read of so many possessed with Devils, that it is commonly thought the Number of such miserable Energumens was then encreased above what has been usual in other Ages; and the Reason of that Increase had been made a Matter of some Enquiry. Now though the Devils might herein design by Preternatural Operations to blast the Miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ, which point they gained among the Blasphemous Pharisees; and the Devils might herein also design a Villanous Imitation of what was coming to pass in the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, wherein God came to dwell in Flesh; yet I am not without suspicion that there may be something further in the Conjecture of the Learned Bartholinus hereupon, who says, It was quod judaei praeter modum, Artibus Magicis dediti Daemonem

   It is very certain, there were hardly any People in the World grown more fond of Sorceries, than that unhappy People: The Talmuds tell us of the little Parchments with Words upon them, which were their common Amulets, and of the Charms which they mutter'd over Wounds, and of the various Enchantments which they used against all sorts of Disasters whatsoever. It is affirmed in the Talmuds, that no less than Twenty-four Scholars in one School were killed by Witchcraft; and that no less than Fourscore Persons were Hanged for Witchcraft by one Judge in one Day. The Gloss adds upon it, That the Women of Israel had generally fallen to the Practice of Witchcrafts; and therefore it was required, that there should be still chosen into the Council one skilful in the Arts of Sorcerers, and able thereby to discover who might be guilty of those Black Arts among such as were accused before them.

   Now the arrival of Sir William Phips to the Government of New-England, was at a time when a Goverrnour would have had Occasion for all the Skill in Sorcery, that was ever necessary to a Jewish Councellor; a time when Scores of poor People has newly fallen under a prodigious Possession of Devils, which it was then generally thought had been by Witchcrafts introduced. It is to be confessed and bewailed, that many Inhabitants of New-England, and Young People especially, had been led away with little Sorceries, wherein they did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God; they would often cure Hurts with Spells, and practise detestable Conjurations with Sieves, and Keys, and Pease, and Nails, and Horse-shoes, and other Implements, to learn the things for which they had a forbidden and impious Curiosity. Wretched Books had stoln into the Land, wherein Fools were instructed how to become able Fortune-Tellers: Among which, I wonder that a blacker Brand is not set upon that Fortune-Telling Wheel, which that Sham-Scribler, that goes under the Letters of R. B. has promised in his Delights for the Ingenious, as an honest and pleasant Recreation: And by these Books, the Minds of many had been so poisoned that they studied this Finer Witchcraft; until, 'tis well, if some of them were not betray'd into what is Grosser, and more Sensible and Capital. Although these Diabolical Divinations are more ordinarily committed perhaps all over the whole World, than they are in the Country of New-England, yet, that being a Country Devoted unto the Worship and Service of the Lord JESUS CHRIST above the rest of the World, He signalized his Vengeance against these Wickednesses, with such extraordinary Dispensations as have not been often seen in other places.

   The Devils which had been so play'd withal, and, it may be, by some few Criminals more Explicitely engaged and imployed, not broken in upon the Country, after as astonishing a manner as was ever heard of. Some Scores of People, first about Salem, the Centre and First-Born of all the

   These Tormentors tendred unto the afflicted a Book, requiring them to Sign it, or to Touch it at least, in token of their consenting to be Listed in the Service of the Devil; which they refusing to do, the Spectres under the Command of that Blackman, as they called him, would apply themselves to Torture them with prodigious Molestations.

   The afflicted Wretches were horribly Distorted and Convulsed; they were Pinched Black and Blue: Pins would be run every where in their Flesh; they would be Scalded until they had Blisters raised on them; and a Thousand other things before Hundreds of Witnesses were done unto them, evidently Preternatural: For if it were Preternatural to keep a rigid Fast for Nine, yea, for Fifteen Days together; or if it were Preternatural to have one's Hands ty'd close together with a Rope to be plainly seen, and then by unseen Hands presently pull'd up a great way from the Earth before a Croud of People; such Preternatural things were endured by them.

   But of all the Preternatural things which befel these People, there were none more unaccountable than those, wherein the prestigious Daemons would ever now and then cover the most Corporeal things in the World with a Fascinating Mist of Invisibility. As now; a Person was cruelly assaulted by a Spectre, that, she said, run at her with a Spindle, though no Body else in the room could see either the Spectre or the Spindle: At last, in her Agonies, giving a snatch at the Spectre, she pulled the Spindle away; and it was no sooner got into her Hand, but the other Folks then present beheld that it was indeed a Real, Proper, Iron Spindle; which when they locked up very safe, it was nevertheless by the Daemons taken away to do farther Mischief.

   Again, a Person was haunted by a most abusive Spectre, which came to her, she said, with a Sheet about her, though seen to none but her self. After she had undergone a deal of Teaze from the Annoyance of the Spectre, she gave a violent Snatch at the Sheet that was upon it; where-from she tore a Corner, which in her Hand immediately was beheld by all that were present, a palpable Corner of a Sheet: And her Father, which was now holding of her, catch'd, that he might keep what his Daughter had so strangely seized; but the Spectre had like to have wrung his Hand off, by endeavouring to wrest it from him: However he still held it; and several times this odd Accident was renewed in the Family. There wanted not the Oaths of good credible People to these particulars.

   Also, it is well known, that these wicked Spectres did proceed so far as to steal several Quantities of Money from divers People, part of which Individual Money was dropt sometimes out of the Air, before sufficient Spectators, into the Hands of the Afflicted, while the Spectres were urging them to subscribe their Covenant with Death. Moreover, Poisons to the Standers-by, wholly Invisible, were sometimes forced upon the Afflicted; which when they have with much Reluctancy swallowed, they have swoln presently, so that the common Medicines for Poisons have been found necessary to relieve them: Yea, sometimes the Spectres in the struggles have so dropt the Poisons, that the Standers-by have smelt them, and view'd them, and beheld the Pillows of the miserable stained with them.

   Yet more, the miserable have complained bitterly of burning Rags run into their forceably distended Mouths; and though no Body could see any such Clothes, or indeed any Fires in the Chambers, yet presently the scalds were seen plainly by every Body on the Mouths of the Complainers. and not only the Smell, but the Smoke of the Burning sensibly fill'd the Chambers.

   Once more, the miserable exclaimed extreamly of Branding Irons heating at the Fire on the Hearth to mark them; now though the Standers-by could see no Irons, yet they could see distinctly the Print of them in the Ashes, and smell them too as they were carried by the not-seen Furies, unto the Poor Creatures for whom they were intended; and those Poor Creatures were thereupon so Stigmatized with them, that they will bear the Marks of them to their Dying Day. Nor are these the Tenth Part of the Prodigies that fell out among the Inhabitants of New-England.

   Flashy People may Burlesque these Things, but when Hundreds of the most sober People in a Country, where they have as much Mother-Wit certainly as the rest of Mankind, know them to be True, nothing but the absurd and froward Spirit of Sadducism can Question them. I have not yet mentioned so much as one Thing that will not be justified, if it be required by the Oaths of more considerate Persons than any that can ridicule these odd Phenomena.

   But the worst part of this astonishing Tragedy is yet behind; wherein Sir William Phips, at last being dropt, as it were from the Machine of Heaven, was an Instrument of easing the Distresses of the Land, now so darkned by the Wrath of the Lord of Hosts. There were very worthy Men upon the Spot where the assault from Hell was first made, who apprehended themselves call'd from the God of Heaven, to sift the business unto the bottom of it; and indeed, the continual Impressions, which the out-cries and the havocks of the afflicted People that lived nigh unto them caused on their Minds, gave no little Edge to this Apprehension.

   The Persons were Men eminent for Wisdom and Virtue, and they went about their enquiry into the matter, as driven unto it by a Conscience of Duty to God and the World. They did in the first Place take it for granted, that there are Witches, or wicked Children of Men, who upon Covenanting

   It was also found, that the Flesh of the Afflicted was often Bitten at such a rate, that not only the Print of Teeth would be left on their Flesh, but the very Slaver of Spittle too: And there would appear just such a set of Teeth as was in the accused, even such as might be clearly distinguished from other Peoples. And usually the afflicted went through a terrible deal of seeming Difficulties from the tormenting Spectres, and must be long waited on,

   Now many good Men took up an Opinion, That the Providence of God would not permit an Innocent Person to come under such a Spectral Representation; and that a concurrence of so many Circumstances would prove an accused Person to be in a Confederacy with the Daemons thus afflicting of the Neighbours; they judged, that except these things might amount unto a Conviction, it would scarce be possible ever to Convict a Witch; and they had some Philosophical Schemes of Witchcraft, and of the Method and Manner wherein Magical Poisons operate, which further supported them in their Opinion.

   Sundry of the accused Persons were brought unto their Trial, while this Opinion was yet prevailing in the Minds of the Judges and the Juries, and perhaps the most of the People in the Country, then mostly Suffering; and though against some of them that were Tried there came in so much other Evidence of their Diabolical Compacts, that some of the most Judicious, and yet Vehement Opposers of the Notions then in Vogue, publickly declared, Had they themselves been on the Bench, they could not have Acquitted them; nevertheless, divers were Condemned, against whom the chief Evidence was founded in the Spectral Exhibitions.

   And it happening, that some of the Accused coming to confess themselves Guilty, their Shapes were no more seen by any of the afflicted, though the Confession had been kept never so Secret, but instead thereof the Accused themselves became in all Vexations just like the Afflicted; this yet more confirmed many in the Opinion that had been taken up.

   And another thing that quickned them yet more to Act upon it, was, that the Afflicted were frequently entertained with Apparitions of Ghosts at the same time that the Spectres of the supposed Witches troubled them: Which Ghosts always cast the Beholders into far more Consternation than any of the Spectres; and when they exhibited themselves, they cried out of being Murdered by the Witchcrafts, or other Violences of the Persons represented in the Spectres. Once or Twice these Apparitions were seen by others at the very same time that they shew'd themselves to the afflicted; and seldom were they seen at all, but when something unusual and suspicious had attended the Death of the Party thus appearing.

   The afflicted People many times had never heard any thing before of the Persons appearing in Ghosts, or of the Persons accused by the Apparitions; and yet the accused upon Examination have confessed the Murders of those very Persons, though these accused also knew nothing of the Apparitions that had come in against them; and the afflicted Persons likewise, without any private Agreement or Collusion, when successively brought into a Room, have all asserted the same Apparitions to be there before them: These Murders did seem to call for an Enquiry.

   On the other Part, there were many Persons of great judgment, Piety

   However uncommon it might be for guiltless Persons to come under such unaccountable Circumstances, as were on so many of the Accused, they held some things there are, which if suffered to be Common, would subvert Government, and Disband and Ruin Humane Society, yet God sometimes may suffer such Things to evene, that we may know thereby how much we are beholden to him for that restraint which he lays upon the Infernal Spirits, who would else reduce a World into a Chaos. They had already known of one at the Town of Groton hideously agitated by Devils, who in her Fits cried out much against a very Godly Woman in the Town, and when that Woman approached unto her, though the Eyes of the Creature were never so shut, she yet manifested a violent Sense of her approach: But when the Gracious Woman thus Impeached, had prayed earnestly with and for this Creature, then instead of crying out against her any more, she owned, that she had in all been deluded by the Devil. They now saw, that the more the Afflicted were Hearkned unto, the more the number of of the Accused encreased; until at last many scores were cried out upon, and among them, some, who by the Unblameableness, yea, and Serviceableness of their whole Conversation, had obtained the just Reputation of Good People among all that were acquainted with them. The Character of the afflicted likewise added unto the common Distaste; for though some of them too were Good People, yet others of them, and such of them as were most Flippent at Accusing, had a far other Character.

   In fine, the Country was in a dreadful Ferment, and wise Men foresaw a long Train of Dismal and Bloody Consequences. Hereupon they first advised, that the afflicted might be kept asunder in the closest Privacy; and one particular Person (whom I have cause to know) in pursuance of this Advice, offered himself singly to provide Accommodations for any six of them, that so the Success of more than ordinary Prayer with Fasting, might, with Patience, be experienced, before any other Courses were taken.

   And Sir William Phips arriving to his Government, after this ensnaring horrible Storm was begun, did consult the neighbouring Ministers of the Province, who made unto his Excellency and the Council a return,

   We judge, that in the Prosecution of these and all such Witchcrafts, there is need of a very Critical and Exquisite Caution: Lest by too much Credulity for things received only upon the Devil's Authority, there be a Door opened for a long Train of miserable Consequences, and Satan get an Advantage over us; for we should not be Ignorant of his Devices.

   As in complaints upon Witchcrafts, there may be Matters of Enquiry, which do not amount unto Matters of Presumption; and there may be Matters of Presumption, which yet may not be reckoned Matters of Conviction; so 'tis necessary that all Proceedings thereabout be managed with an exceeding Tenderness towards those that may be complained of; especially if they have been Persons formerly of an unblemished Reputation.

   When the first Enquiry is made into the Circumstances of such as may lye under any just Suspicion of Witchcrafts, we could wish that there may be admitted as little as is possible of such Noise, Company, and Openness, as may too hastily expose them that are Examined; and that there may nothing be used as a Test for the Trial of the Suspected, the lawfulness whereof may be doubted among the People of God: But that the Directions given by such judicious Writers as Perkins and Bernard, be consulted in such a Case.

   Presumptions, whereupon Persons may be committed, and much more Convictions, whereupon Persons may be condemned as guilty of Witchcrafts, ought certainly to be more considerable, than barely the accused Persons being represented by a Spectre to the afflicted: Inasmuch as it is an undoubted and a notorious Thing, that a Daemon may, by God's Permission, appear even to ill Purposes in the shape of an Innocent, yea, and a Virtuous Man: Nor can we esteem Alterations made in the Sufferers, by a look or touch of the accused, to be an infallible Evidence of Guilt; but frequently liable to be abused by the Devil's Legerdemains.

   We know not whether some remarkable Affronts given to the Devils, by our dis-believing of those Testimonies whose whole Force and Strength is from them alone, may not put a Period unto the Progress of a direful Calamity begun upon us, in the accusation of so many Persons, whereof, we hope, some are yet clear from the great Transgression laid unto their Charge.

   The Ministers of the Province also being jealous lest this Counsel should not be duly followed, requested the President of Harvard-Colledge to Compose and Publish (which he did) some Cases of Conscience referring to these Difficulties: In which Treatise he did, with Demonstrations of incomparable Reason and Reading, evince it, that Satan may appear in the Shape of an Innocent and a Virtuous Person, to afflict those that suffer by the Diabolical Molestations: And that the Ordeal of the Sight, and the Touch, is not a Conviction of a Covenant with the Devil, but liable to great Exceptions against the Lawfulness, as well as the Evidence of it: And that either a Free and Fair Confession of the Criminals, or the Oath of two Credible Persons proving such Things against the Person accused, as none but such as have a Familiarity with the Devil can know, or do, is necessary to the Proof of the Crime. Thus,

   Cum misit Natura Feras, & Monstra per Orbem,

   Misit & Alciden qui Fera Monstra domet.

   The Dutch and French Ministers in the Province of New York, having likewise about the same time their judgment asked by the Chief Judge of

   Now upon a Deliberate Review of these things, his Excellency first Reprieved, and then Pardoned many of them that had been Condemned; and there fell out several strange things that caused the Spirit of the Country to run as vehemently upon the Acquitting of all the accused, as it by mistake ran at first upon the Condemning of them. Some that had been zealously of the Mind, that the Devils could not in the Shapes of good Men afflict other Men, were terribly Confuted, by having their own Shapes, and the Shapes of their most intimate and valued Friends, thus abused. And though more than twice Twenty had made such voluntary, and harmonious, and uncontroulable Confessions, that if they were all Sham, there was therein the greatest Violation made by the Efficacy of the Invisible World, upon the Rules of Understanding Humane Affairs, that was ever seen since God made Man upon the Earth, yet they did so recede from their Confessions, that it was very clear, some of them had been hitherto, in a sort of a Prreternatural Dream, wherein they had said of them selves, they knew not what themselves.

   In fine, The last Courts that sate upon this Thorny Business, finding that it was impossible to Penetrate into the whole Meaning of the things that had happened, and that so many unsearchable Cheats were interwoven into the Conclusion of a Mysterious Business, which perhaps had not crept thereinto at the Beginning of it, they cleared the accused as fast as they Tried them; and within a little while the afflicted were most of them delivered out of their Troubles also: And the Land had Peace restored unto it, by the God of Peace, treading Satan under Foot. Erasmus, among other Historians, does tell us, that at a Town in Germany, a Demon appearing on the Top of a Chimney, threatned that he would set the Town on Fire, and at length scattering some Ashes abroad, the whole Town was presently and horribly Burnt unto the Ground.

   Sir William Phips now beheld such Daemons hideously scattering Fire about the Country, in the Exasperations which the Minds of Men were on these things rising unto; and therefore when he had well Canvased a Cause, which perhaps might have puzzled the Wisdom of the wisest Men on Earth to have managed, without any Error in their Administrations, he thought, if it would be any Error at all, it would certainly be the safest for him to put a stop unto all future Prosecutions, as far as it lay in him to do it.

   He did so, and for it he had not only the Printed Acknowledgments of the New-Englanders who publickly thanked him, "As one of the Tribe of

   But the QUEEN also did him the Honour to write unto him those Gracious Letters, wherein her Majesty commended his Conduct in these Inexplicable Matters. And I did right in calling these Matters Inexplicable. For if, after the Kingdom of Sweden (in the Years 1669, and 1670,) had some Hundreds of their Children by Night often carried away by Spectres to an Hellish Rendezvous, where the Monsters that so Spirited them, did every way Tempt them to Associate with them; and the judges of the Kingdom, after extraordinary Supplications to Heaven, upon a strict Enquiry, were so satisfied with the Confessions of more than Twenty of the accused, agreeing exactly unto the Depositions of the afflicted, that they put several Scores of Witches to Death, whereupon the Confusions came unto a Period; yet after all, the chiefest Persons in the Kingdom would Question whether there were any Witchcrafts at all in the whole Affair; it must not be wondred at, if the People of New-England are to this Hour full of Doubts, about the Steps which were taken, while a War from the Invisible World was Terrifying of them; and whether they did not kill some of their own side in the Smoke and Noise of this Dreadful War. And it will be yet less wondred at, if we consider, that we have seen the whole English Nation alarumed with a Plot, and both Houses of Parliament, upon good Grounds, Voting their Sense of it, and many Persons most justly Hang'd, Drawn, and Quarter'd, for their share in it: When yet there are enough, who to this Day will pretend, that they cannot comprehend how much of it is to be accounted Credible. However, having related these wonderful Passages, whereof, if the Veracity of the Relator in any one Point be contested, there are whole Clouds of Witnesses to vindicate it, I will take my leave of the Matter with an wholesome Caution of Lactantius, which, it may be, some other Parts of the World besides New-England may have occasion to think upon: Efficiunt Daemones, ut quae non sunt, sic tamen, quasi sint, conspicienda Hominibus exhibeant.

   But the Devil being thus vanquished, we shall next hear, that some of his most devoted and resembling Children are so too.