will always keep the Devil out. The meeting-house, wherein we assemble
for the worship of God, is filled with many holy people and many holy
concerns continually; but, if our eyes were so refined as the servant
of the prophet had his of old, I suppose we should now see a throng of
devils in this very place. The apostle has intimated that angels come
in among us: there are angels, it seems, that hark how I preach, and
how you hear, at this hour. And our own sad experience is enough to
intimate that the devils are likewise rendezvousing here. It is
reported in Job i. 5, 'When the sons of God came to present themselves
before the Lord, Satan came also among them.' When we are in our church
assemblies, oh, how many devils, do you imagine, crowd in among us!
There is a devil that rocks one to sleep. There is a devil that makes
another to be thinking of, he scarcely knows what himself. And there is
a devil that makes another to be pleasing himself with wanton and
wicked speculations. It is also possible, that we have our closets or
our studies gloriously perfumed with devotions every day; but, alas!
can we shut the Devil out of them? No: let us go where we will, we
shall still find a devil nigh unto us. Only when we come to heaven, we
shall be out of his reach for ever." [i.392]
It is very remarkable, that such a train of thought as this did not
suggest to the mind of Dr. Mather the true doctrine of the Bible
respecting the Devil. One would have supposed, that, in carrying out
the mode of speaking of him as a person to this extent, it would have
occurred to him, that it might be that the scriptural expressions of a
similar kind were also mere personifications of moral and abstract
ideas. In describing the inattention, irreverence, and unholy
reflections of his hearers as the operations of the Devil, it is
wonderful that his eyes were not opened to discern the import of our
Saviour's interpretation of the Parable of the Tares, in which he
declares, that he understands by the Devil whatever obstructs the
growth of virtue and piety in the soul, the causes that efface good
impressions and give a wrong inclination to the thoughts and
affections, such as "the cares of this world" or "the deceitfulness of
riches." By these are the tares planted, and by these is their growth
promoted. "The enemy that sowed them is the Devil."
Satan was regarded as the foe and opposer of all improvement in
knowledge and civilization. The same writer thus quaintly expresses
this opinion: He "has hindered mankind, for many ages, from hitting
those useful inventions which yet were so obvious and facile that it is
everybody's wonder that they were not sooner hit upon. The bemisted
world must jog on for thousands of years without the knowledge of the
loadstone, till a Neapolitan stumbled upon it about three hundred years
ago. Nor must the world be blessed with[i.393] such a matchless engine
of learning and virtue as that of printing, till about the middle of
the fifteenth century. Nor could one old man, all over the face of the
whole earth, have the benefit of such a little, though most needful,
thing as a pair of spectacles, till a Dutchman, a little while ago,
accommodated us. Indeed, as the Devil does begrudge us all manner of
good, so he does annoy us with all manner of woe." In one of his
sermons, Cotton Mather claimed for himself and his clerical brethren
the honor of being particularly obnoxious to the malice of the Evil
One. "The ministers of God," says he, "are more dogged by the Devil
than other persons are."
Without a knowledge of this sentiment, the witchcraft delusion of our
fathers cannot be understood. They were under an impression, that the
Devil, having failed to prevent the progress of knowledge in Europe,
had abandoned his efforts to obstruct it effectually there; had
withdrawn into the American wilderness, intending here to make a final
stand; and had resolved to retain an undiminished empire over the whole
continent and his pagan allies, the native inhabitants. Our fathers
accounted for the extraordinary descent and incursions of the Evil One
among them, in 1692, on the supposition that it was a desperate effort
to prevent them from bringing civilization and Christianity within his
favorite retreat; and their souls were fired with the glorious thought,
that, by carrying on the war with vigor against him and his
confederates, the witches, they would become chosen and honored[i.394]
instruments in the hand of God for breaking down and abolishing the
last stronghold on the earth of the kingdom of darkness.
That this opinion was not merely a conceit of their vanity, or an
overweening estimate of their local importance, but a calm, deliberate
conviction entertained by others as well as themselves, can be shown by
abundant evidence from the literature of that period. I will quote a
single illustration of the form in which this thought occupied their
minds. The subject is worthy of being thoroughly appreciated, as it
affords the key that opens to view the motives and sentiments which
gave the mighty impetus to the witchcraft prosecution here in New
England.
Joseph Mede, B.D., Fellow of Christ's College, in Cambridge, England,
died in 1638, at the age of fifty-three years. He was perhaps, all
things considered, the most profound scholar of his times. His writings
give evidence of a brilliant genius and an enlightened spirit. They
were held in the highest esteem by his contemporaries of all
denominations, and in all parts of Europe. He was a Churchman; but had,
to a remarkable degree, the confidence of nonconformists. He
entertained, as will appear by what follows, in the boldest form, the
then prevalent opinions concerning diabolical agency and influence;
but, at the same time, was singularly free from some of the worst
traits of superstition and bigotry. His intimacy with the learned Dr.
William Ames, and the general tone and tendency of his writings,
naturally made him an[i.395] authority with Protestants, particularly
the Pilgrims and Puritans of New England. His posthumous writings,
published in 1652, are exceedingly interesting. They contain fragments
found among his papers, brief discussions of points of criticism,
philosophy, and theology, and a varied correspondence on such subjects
with eminent men of his day. Among his principal correspondents was Dr.
William Twiss, himself a person of much ingenious learning, and whom
John Norton, as we are told by Cotton Mather, "loved and admired" above
all men of that age. The following passages between them illustrate the
point before us.
In a letter dated March 2, 1634, Twiss writes thus:—
"Now, I beseech you, let me know what your opinion is of our English
plantations in the New World. Heretofore, I have wondered in my
thoughts at the providence of God concerning that world; not discovered
till this Old World of ours is almost at an end; and then no footsteps
found of the knowledge of the true God, much less of Christ; and then
considering our English plantations of late, and the opinion of many
grave divines concerning the gospel's fleeting westward. Sometimes I
have had such thoughts, Why may not _that_ be the place of the _New
Jerusalem_? But you have handsomely and fully cleared me from such odd
conceits. But what, I pray? Shall our English there degenerate, and
join themselves with Gog and Magog? We have heard lately divers ways,
that our people there have no hope of the conversion of the natives.
And, the very week after I received your last letter, I saw a letter,
written from New[i.396] England, discoursing of an impossibility of
subsisting there; and seems to prefer the confession of God's truth in
any condition here in Old England, rather than run over to enjoy their
liberty there; yea, and that the gospel is like to be more dear in New
England than in Old. And, lastly, unless they be exceeding careful, and
God wonderfully merciful, they are like to lose that life and zeal for
God and his truth in New England which they enjoyed in Old; as whereof
they have already woful experience, and many there feel it to their
smart."
Mr. Mede's answer was as follows:—
"Concerning our plantations in the American world, I wish them as well
as anybody; though I differ from them far, both in other things, and on
the grounds they go upon. And though there be but little hope of the
general conversion of those natives or any considerable part of that
continent, yet I suppose it may be a work pleasing to Almighty God and
our blessed Saviour to affront the Devil with the sound of the gospel
and the cross of Christ, in those places where he had thought to have
reigned securely, and out of the din thereof; and, though we make no
Christians there, yet to bring some thither to disturb and vex him,
where he reigned without check.
"For that I may reveal my conceit further, though perhaps I cannot
prove it, yet I think thus,—that those countries were first inhabited
since our Saviour and his apostles' times, and not before; yea,
perhaps, some ages after, there being no signs or footsteps found among
them, or any monuments of older habitation, as there is with us.
"That the Devil, being impatient of the sound of the gospel and cross
of Christ, in every part of this Old World,[i.397] so that he could in
no place be quiet for it; and foreseeing that he was like to lose all
here; so he thought to provide himself of a seed over which he might
reign securely, and in a place _ubi nec Pelopidarum facta neque nomen
audiret_. That, accordingly, he drew a colony out of some of those
barbarous nations dwelling upon the Northern Ocean (whither the sound
of Christ had not yet come), and promising them by some oracle to show
them a country far better than their own (which he might soon do),
pleasant and large, where never man yet inhabited; he conducted them
over those desert lands and islands (of which there are many in that
sea) by the way of the north into America, which none would ever have
gone, had they not first been assured there was a passage that way into
a more desirable country. Namely, as when the world apostatized from
the worship of the true God, God called Abraham out of Chaldee into the
land of Canaan, of him to raise a seed to preserve a light unto his
name: so the Devil, when he saw the world apostatizing from him, laid
the foundations of a new kingdom, by deducting this colony from the
north into America, where they have increased since into an innumerable
multitude. And where did the Devil ever reign more absolutely, and
without control, since mankind first fell under his clutches?
"And here it is to be noted, that the story of the Mexican kingdom
(which was not founded above four hundred years before ours came
thither) relates, out of their own memorials and traditions, that they
came to that place from the _north_, whence their god, _Vitziliputzli_,
led them, going in an ark before them: and, after divers years' travel
and many stations (like enough after some generations), they came to
the place which the sign he had given them at[i.398] their first
setting-forth pointed out; where they were to finish their travels,
build themselves a _city_, and their god a _temple_, which is the place
where Mexico was built. Now, if the Devil were God's ape in _this_, why
might he not be likewise in bringing the first colony of men into that
world out of ours? namely, by oracle, as God did Abraham out of
Chaldee, whereto I before resembled it.
"But see the hand of Divine Providence. When the offspring of these
_runagates_ from the sound of Christ's gospel had now replenished that
other world, and began to flourish in those two kingdoms of Peru and
Mexico, Christ our Lord sends his mastives, the Spaniards, to hunt them
out, and worry them; which they did in so hideous a manner, as the like
thereunto scarce ever was done since the sons of Noah came out of the
ark. What an affront to the Devil was this, where he had thought to
have reigned securely, and been for ever concealed from the knowledge
of the followers of Christ!
"Yet the Devil perhaps is _less grieved_ for the loss of his servants
by the _destroying_ of them, than he would be to lose them by the
_saving_ of them; by which latter way, I doubt the Spaniards have
despoiled him but of a few. What, then, if Christ our Lord will give
him his _second affront_ with better Christians, which may be more
grievous to him than the former? And, if Christ shall set him up a
light in this manner to dazzle and torment the Devil at his own home, I
hope they (viz., the Americans) shall not so far degenerate (not all of
them) as to come into that army of Gog and Magog against the kingdom of
Christ, but be translated thither before the Devil be loosed; if not,
presently after his tying up." [i.399]
Dr. Twiss, in a reply to the above, dated April 6, 1635, thanks Mede
for his letter, which he says he read "with recreation and delight;"
and, particularly in reference to the "peopling of the New World," he
affirms that there is "more in this letter of yours than formerly I
have been acquainted with. Your conceit thereabouts, if I have any
judgment, is grave and ponderous."
This correspondence, while it serves as a specimen of the style of
Mede, is a remarkable instance of the power of a sagacious intellect to
penetrate through the darkness of theoretical and fanciful errors, and
behold the truth that lies behind and beyond. The whole superstructure
of the Devil, his oracles, and his schemes of policy and dominion,
covers, in this brief familiar epistle, what is, I suppose, the theory
most accredited at this day of the origin and traduction of the
aboriginal races of America, proceeding from the nearest portions of
the ancient continent on the North, and advancing down over the vast
spaces towards Central and South America. The letter also foreshadows
the decisive conflict which is here to be waged between the elements of
freedom and slavery, between social and political systems that will
rescue and exalt humanity, and those which depress and degrade it. In
the phraseology of that age, it was to be determined whether—the Old
World, in the language of Twiss, "being almost at an end"—a "light"
should be "set up" here to usher in the "kingdom of Christ,"[i.400] or
America also be for ever given over to the "army of Gog and Magog."
Our fathers were justified in feeling that this was the sense of their
responsibility entertained by all learned men and true Christians in
the Old World; and they were ready to meet and discharge it faithfully
and manfully. They were told, and they believed, that it had fallen to
their lot to be the champions of the cross of Christ against the power
of the Devil. They felt, as I have said, that they were fighting him in
his last stronghold, and they were determined to "tie him up" for ever.
This is the true and just explanation of their general policy of
administration, in other matters, as well as in the witchcraft
prosecutions.
The conclusion to which we are brought, by a review of the seventeenth
century up to the period when the prosecutions took place here, is,
that the witchcraft delusion pervaded the whole civilized world and
every profession and department of society. It received the sanction of
all the learned and distinguished English judges who flourished within
the century, from Sir Edward Coke to Sir Matthew Hale. It was
countenanced by the greatest philosophers and physicians, and was
embraced by men of the highest genius and accomplishments, even by Lord
Bacon himself. It was established by the convocation of bishops, and
preached by the clergy. Dr. Henry More, of Christ's College, Cambridge,
in addition to his admirable poetical and philosophical works, wrote
volumes to defend it. It[i.401] was considered as worthy of the study
of the most cultivated and liberal minds to discover and distinguish "a
true witch by proper trials and symptoms." The excellent Dr. Calamy has
already been mentioned in this connection; and Richard Baxter wrote his
work entitled "The Certainty of the World of Spirits," for the special
purpose of confirming and diffusing the belief. He kept up a
correspondence with Cotton Mather, and with his father, Increase
Mather, through the medium of which he stimulated and encouraged them
in their proceedings against supposed witches in Boston and elsewhere.
The divines of that day seem to have persuaded themselves into the
belief that the doctrines of demonology were essential to the gospel,
and that the rejection of them was equivalent to infidelity. A writer
in one of our modern journals, in speaking of the prosecutions for
witchcraft, happily and justly observes, "It was truly hazardous to
oppose those judicial murders. If any one ventured to do so, the
Catholics burned him as a heretic, and the Protestants had a vehement
longing to hang him for an atheist." The writings of Dr. More, of
Baxter, Glanvil, Perkins, and others, had been circulating for a long
time in New England before the trials began at Salem. It was such a
review of the history of opinion as we have now made, which led Dr.
Bentley to declare that "the agency of invisible beings, if not a part
of every religion, is not contrary to any one. It may be found in all
ages, and in the most remote countries. It is then no just subject for
our admiration, that a[i.402] belief so alarming to our fears, so
natural to our prejudices, and so easily abused by superstition, should
obtain among our fathers, when it had not been rejected in the ages of
philosophy, letters, and even revelation."
The works on demonology, the legal proceedings in prosecutions, and the
phraseology of the people, gave more or less definite form to certain
prominent points which may be summarily noticed. Several terms and
expressions were employed to characterize persons supposed to be
conversant with supernatural and magic art; such as diviner, enchanter,
charmer, conjurer, necromancer, fortune-teller, soothsayer, augur, and
sorcerer. These words are sometimes used as more or less synonymous,
although, strictly speaking, they have meanings quite distinct. But
none of them convey the idea attached to the name of witch. It was
sometimes especially used to signify a female, while wizard was
exclusively applied to a male. The distinction was not, however, often
attempted to be made; the former title being prevailingly applied to
either sex. A witch was regarded as a person who had made an actual,
deliberate, formal compact with Satan, by which it was agreed that she
should become his faithful subject, and do all in her power to aid him
in his rebellion against God and his warfare against the gospel and
church of Christ; and, in consideration of such allegiance and service,
Satan, on his part, agreed to exercise his supernatural powers in her
favor, and communicate to her those powers, in a greater or less[i.403]
degree, as she proved herself an efficient and devoted supporter of his
cause. Thus, a witch was considered as a person who had transferred
allegiance and worship from God to the Devil.
The existence of this compact was supposed to confer great additional
power on the Devil, as well as on his new subject; for the doctrine
seems to have prevailed, that, for him to act with effect upon men, the
intervention, instrumentality, and co-operation of human beings was
necessary; and almost unlimited potency was ascribed to the combined
exertions of Satan and those persons in league with him. A witch was
believed to have the power, through her compact with the Devil, of
afflicting, distressing, and rending whomsoever she would. She could
cause them to pine away, throw them into the most frightful
convulsions, choke, bruise, pierce, and craze them, subjecting them to
every description of pain, disease, and torture, and even to death
itself. She was believed to possess the faculty of being present, in
her shape or apparition, at a different place, at any distance
whatever, from that which her actual body occupied. Indeed, an
indefinite amount of supernatural ability, and a boundless freedom and
variety of methods for its exercise, were supposed to result from the
diabolical compact. Those upon whom she thus exercised her malignant
and mysterious energies were said to be bewitched.
Beside these infernal powers, the alliance with Satan was believed to
confer knowledge such as no other mortal possessed. The witch could
perform the same[i.404] wonders, in giving information of the things
that belong to the invisible world, which is alleged in our day, by
spirit-rappers, to be received through mediums. She could read inmost
thoughts, suggest ideas to the minds of the absent, throw temptations
in the path of those whom she desired to delude and destroy, bring up
the spirits of the departed, and hear from them the secrets of their
lives and of their deaths, and their experiences in the scenes of being
on which they entered at their departure from this.
When we consider that these opinions were not merely prevalent among
the common people, but sanctioned by learning and philosophy, science
and jurisprudence; that they possessed an authority, which but few
ventured to question and had been firmly established by the convictions
of centuries,—none can be surprised at the alarm it created, when the
belief became current, that there were those in the community, and even
in the churches, who had actually entered into this dark confederacy
against God and heaven, religion and virtue; and that individuals were
beginning to suffer from their diabolical power. It cannot be
considered strange, that men looked with more than common horror upon
persons against whom what was regarded as overwhelming evidence was
borne of having engaged in this conspiracy with all that was evil, and
this treason against all that was good.
Elaborate works, scientific, philosophical, and judicial in their
pretensions and reputation,—to some of which reference has been
made,—defined and par[i.405]ticularized the various forms of evidence
by which the crime of confederacy with Satan could be proved.
It was believed that the Devil affixed his mark to the bodies of those
in alliance with him, and that the point where this mark was made
became callous and dead. The law provided, specifically, the means of
detecting and identifying this sign. It required that the prisoner
should be subjected to the scrutiny of a jury of the same sex, who
would make a minute inspection of the body, shaving the head and
handling every part. They would pierce it with pins; and if, as might
have been expected, particularly in aged persons, any spot could be
found insensible to the torture, or any excrescence, induration, or
fixed discoloration, it was looked upon as visible evidence and
demonstration of guilt. A physician or "chirurgeon" was required to be
present at these examinations. In conducting them, there was liability
to great roughness and unfeeling recklessness of treatment; and the
whole procedure was barbarous and shocking to every just and delicate
sensibility. There is reason to believe, that, in the trials here,
there was more considerateness, humanity, and regard to a sense of
decent propriety, than in similar proceedings in other countries, so
far as this branch of the investigation is regarded.