Cotton Mather

“ Know ye that I am to die as a Witch, by my own Confession! and I free all Men, especially the Ministers and Magistrates, from the guilt of my Blood, I take it wholly on my self, and as I must make answer to the God of Heaven, I declare I am as free from Witchcraft as any Child, but being accused by a Malicious Woman, and Imprisoned under the Name of a Witch, my Husband and Friends disowned me, and seeing no hope of ever being in Credit again, through the Temptation of the Devil, I made that Confession to destroy my own Life, being weary of it, and chusing rather to Die than to Live. ”

“ Yea, but if you do not by a speedy and through Conversion to God, escape the Wrath of the Devil, you will your selves go down, where the Devil is to be, and you will there be sweltring under the Devils Wrath, not for a short Time, but, World without end; not for a Short Time, but for Infinite Millions of Ages. The smoak of your Torment under that Wrath, will Ascend for ever and ever! Indeed, the Devil's time for his Wrath upon you in this World, can be but short, but his time for you to do his Work, or, which is all one, to delay your turning to God, that is a Long Time. ”

“ We have seen an horrible thing done in our Land! O 'tis a most humbling thing, to think, that ever there should be such an abomination among us, as for a crue of humane race, to renounce their Maker, and to unite with the Devil, for the troubling of mankind, and for People to be, (as is by some confess'd) Baptized by a Fiend using this form upon them, Thou art mine, and I have a full power over thee! ”

“ As a Tyger, thro his Hatred at man will tear the very Picture of him, if it come in his way; such a Tyger the Devil is; because God said of old, Let us make Man in our Image, the Devil is ever saying, Let us pull this man to pieces. But the envious Pride of the Devil, is one thing more that gives an Edge unto his Furious Wrath against us. The Apostle has given us an hint, as if Pride had been the Condemnation of the Devil. ”

“ Be gone! are you not ashamed, a Woman of your Profession, to afflict a poor Creature so? What hurt did I ever do you in my life? You have but two Years to live, and then the Devil will torment your Soul ”

“ The Devil says to the sinner, Despise thy Baptism, and all the Bond of it, and all the Good of it. The Devil says to the sinner, Come, cast off the Authority of God, and refuse the Salvation of Christ for ever. Yea, the Devil who is called, The God of this World, would have us to take Him for Our God, and rather Hear Him, Trust Him, Serve Him, than the God that formed us. ”

“ A Spiritual Wickedness, that is, A wicked Spirit. A Devil is a Fallen Angel, an Angel Fallen from the Fear and Love of God, and from all Celestial Glories; but Fallen to all manner of Wretchedness and Cursedness. ”

“ We that live in a Province, which affords unto us all that may be necessary or comfortable for us, found the Province fill'd with vast Herds of Salvages, that never saw so much as a Knife, or a Nail, or a Board, or a Grain of Salt, in all their Days. No better would the Devil have the World provided for. Nor should we, or any else, have one convenient thing about us, but be as indigent as usually our most Ragged Witches are; if the Devil's Malice were not over-ruled by a compassionate God, who preserves Man and Beast. ”

“ Of what use or state will America be, when the Kingdom of God shall come? If it must all be the Devils propriety, while the saved Nations of the other Hæmisphere shall be Walking in the Light of the New Jerusalem, Our New-England has then, 'tis likely, done all that it was erected for. But if God have a purpose to make here a seat for any of those glorious things which are spoken of thee, O thou City of God; then even thou, O New-England, art within a very little while of better days than ever yet have dawn'd upon thee. ”

“ Men are not able to give an account of his ordinary Works, much less of his secret Counsels, and the dark Dispensations of his Providence: They do but darken Counsel by Words without Knowledge when they undertake it: If we are not able to see how this or that can stand with the Righteousness of him that governs the World, shall we say that the Almighty will pervert Judgment? or that he that governs the Earth hateth Right? Shall we condemn him that is most just? But whereas 'tis objected; where is Providence? And how shall Men live on the Earth, if the Devil may be permitted to use such Power? ”

“ The day when God shall take us out of this World, will be, The day when the Lord will deliver us from the hand of all our Enemies, and from the hand of Satan. In such a day, why should not our song be that of the Psalmist, Blessed be my Rock, and let the God of my Salvation be exalted! While we are here, we are in the valley of the shadow of death; and what is it that makes it so? 'Tis because the wild Beasts of Hell are lurking on every side of us, and every minute ready to salley forth upon us. ”

“ The god of this World has blinded their minds. And thus it may be said of those woful Wretches whom the Devil is a God unto, the Devil so muffles them that they cannot see the things of their peace. And the Devil so hardens them, that nothing will awaken their cares about their Souls: How come so many to be Seared in their Sins? 'Tis the Devil that with a red hot Iron fetcht from his Hell does cauterise them. Thus 'tis, till perhaps at last they come to have a Wounded Conscience in them, and the Devil has often a share in their Torturing and confounding Anguishes. ”

“ Where 'tis said, The whole World lyes in Wickedness; 'tis by some of the Ancients rendred, The whole World lyes in the Devil. The Devil is a Prince, yea, the Devil is a God unto all the Unregenerate; and alas, there is A whole World of them. ”

“ When we speak of, The Devil, 'tis, A name of Multitude; it means not One Individual Devil, so Potent and Scient, as perhaps a Manichee would imagine; but it means a Kind, which a Multitude belongs unto. Alas, the Devils, they swarm about us, like the Frogs of Egypt, in the most Retired of our Chambers. Are we at our Boards? There will be Devils to Tempt us unto Sensuality: Are we in our Beds? ”

“ That the blessed Thousand years are not yet begun, is abundantly clear from this, We do not see the Devil bound; No, the Devil was never more let loose than in our Days; and it is very much that any should imagine otherwise: But the same thing that proves the Thousand Years of prosperity for the Church of God, under the whole Heaven, to be not yet begun, does also prove, that it is not very far off; and that is the prodigious wrath with which the Devil does in our days Persecute, yea, desolate the World. ”

“ Behold, Sinners, behold and wonder, lest you perish: the very Devils are walking about our Streets, with lengthened Chains, making a dreadful Noise in our Ears, and Brimstone even without a Metaphor, is making an hellish and horrid stench in our Nostrils. I pray leave off all those things whereof your guilty Consciences may now accuse you, lest these Devils do yet more direfully fall upon you. Reformation is at this time our only Preservation. ”

“ What a wonder of Mercy is it, that no Devil could ever yet make a prey of us! We can set our foot no where but we shall tread in the midst of most Hellish Rattle-Snakes; and one of those Rattle-Snakes once thro' the mouth of a Man, on whom he had Seized, hissed out such a Truth as this, If God would let me loose upon you, I should find enough in the Best of you all, to make you all mine. What shall I say? The Wilderness thro' which we are passing to the Promised Land, is all over fill'd with Fiery flying serpents. ”

“ We are truly come into a day, which by being well managed might be very Glorious, for the exterminating of those Accursed things, which have hitherto been the Clogs of our Prosperity; but if we make this day Quarrelsome, thro' any Raging Confidences, Alas, O Lord, my Flesh Trembles for Fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy Judgments. Erasmus, among other Historians, tells us, that at a Town in Germany, a Witch or Devil, appeared on the Top of a Chimney, Threatning to set the Town on Fire: And at length, Scattering a Pot of Ashes abroad, the Town was presently and horribly Burnt unto the Ground. ”

“ All these things shall come upon this generation; so, the men of the last Generation, will find themselves involved in the gulf of all that went before them. Of Sinners 'tis said, They heap up wrath; and the sinners of the Last Generations do not only add unto the heap of sin that has been pileing up ever since the Fall of man, but they Interest themselves in every sin of that enormous heap. There has been a Cry of all former ages going up to God, That the Devil may come down! ”

“ Proposition IV. Most horrible woes come to be inflicted upon Mankind, when the Devil does in great wrath, make a descent upon them. The Devil is a Do-Evil, and wholly set upon mischief. When our Lord once was going to Muzzel him, that he might not mischief others, he cry'd out, Art thou come to torment me? He is, it seems, himself Tormented, if he be but Restrained from the tormenting of Men. If upon the sounding of the Three last Apocalyptical Angels, it was an outcry made in Heaven, Wo, wo, wo, to the inhabitants of the Earth by reason of the voice of the Trumpet. ”

“ Take me not away in the midst of my days. Yet when we bear in mind, that the Devils Wrath is now most great, it would make one willing to be out of the way. Inasmuch as now is the time for the doing of those things in the prospect whereof Balaam long ago cry'd out Who shall live when such things are done! We should not be inordinately loth to die at such a time. In a word, the Times are so bad, that we may well count it, as good a time to die in, as ever we saw. ”

“ When I did a few years ago, publish a Book, which mentioned a few memorable Witchcrafts, committed in this country; the excellent Baxter, graced the Second Edition of that Book, with a kind Preface, wherein he sees cause to say, If any are Scandalized, that New-England, a place of as serious Piety, as any I can hear of, under Heaven, should be troubled so much with Witches; I think, 'tis no wonder: Where will the Devil show most Malice, but where he is hated, and hateth most: And I hope, the Country will still deserve and answer the Charity so expressed by that Reverend Man of God. ”

“ But just Three years and a half after the scattering of that holy people, to the surprise of all the World, Spirit of life from God is come into them; and having with a thousand Miracles repossessed themselves of their antient Seats, their hot Persecutor is become their great Protector. ”

“ Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft: When the Devil would have us to sin, he would have us to do the things which the forlorn Witches use to do. Perhaps there are few persons, ever allured by the Devil unto an Explicit Covenant with himself. If any among ourselves be so, my councel is, that you hunt the Devil from you, with such words as the Psalmist had, Be gone, Depart from me, ye evil Doers, for I will keep the Commandments of my God. But alas, the most of men, are by the Devil put upon doing the things that are Analogous to the worst usages of Witches. ”

“ Alas, the Philistines of Hell have cut our Locks for us; they will then blind us, mock us, ruine us: In truth, I cannot altogether blame it, if People are a little transported, when they conceive all the secular Interests of themselves and their Families at the Stake; and yet at the sight of these Heartburnings, I cannot forbear the Exclamation of the Sweet-spirited Austin, in his Pacificatory Epistle to Jerom, on the Contest with Ruffin, O misera & miseranda Conditio! O Condition, truly miserable! ”

“ I may tell you, The Devil is mighty unwilling, that there should be one Godly Magistrate upon the face of the Earth. Such is the influence of Government, that the Devil will every where stickle mightily, to have that siding with him. ”

“ Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God. How much more now ought we to humble our selves under that Mighty Hand of that God who indeed has the Devil in a Chain, but has horribly lengthened out the Chain! When the old people of God heard any Blasphemies, tearing of his Ever-Blessed Name to pieces, they were to Rend their Cloaths at what they heard. I am sure that we have cause to Rend our Hearts this Day, [Pg 87] when we see what an High Treason has been committed against the most high God, by the Witchcrafts in our Neighbourhood. ”

“ For Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of Light. He seems to be what he is not, and makes others seem to be what they are not. He represents evil men as good, and good men as evil. The Angels of Heaven, (who are the Angels of Light) love Truth and Righteousness, the Devil will seem to do so too; and does therefore sometimes lay before men excellent good Principles and exhort them (as he did Theodore Maillit) to practise many things, which by the Law of Righteousness they are obliged unto, and hereby he does more effectually deceive. ”

“ On every side then, why should not we endeavour with amicable Correspondencies, to help one another out of the Snares wherein the Devil would involve us? To wrangle the Devil out of the Country, will be truly a New Experiment: Alas! we are not aware of the Devil, if we do not think, that he aims at inflaming us one against another; and shall we suffer our selves to be Devil-ridden? ”

“ The things now done to awaken our Enquiries after our provoking Evils, and our endeavours to Reform those Evils, are most extraordinary things; for which cause I would freely speak it, if we now do not some extraordinary things in returning to God; we are the most incurable, and I wish it be not quickly said, the most miserable People under the Sun. Believe me, 'tis a time for all people to do something extraordinary, in searching and trying of their ways, and in turning to the Lord. ”

“ IV. When the Devil is come down in great Wrath, let every great Vice which may have a more particular tendency to make us a Prey unto that Wrath, come into a due discredit with us. It is the general Concession of all men, who are not become too Unreasonable for common Conversation, that the Invitation of Witchcrafts is the thing that has now introduced the Devil into the midst of us. I say then, let not only all Witchcrafts be duly abominated with us, but also let us be duly watchful against all the Steps leading thereunto. ”

“ New-England was a true Utopia. But, alas, the Children and Servants of those old Planters must needs afford many, degenerate Plants, and there is now risen up a Number of People, otherwise inclined than our Joshua's, and the Elders that out-liv'd them. Those two things our holy Progenitors, and our happy Advantages make Omissions of Duty, and such Spiritual Disorders as the whole World abroad is overwhelmed with, to be as provoking in us, as the most flagitious Wickednesses committed in other places ”

“ I would most importunately in the first place, entreat every Man to maintain an holy Jealousie over his Soul at this time, and think; May not the Devil make me, though ignorantly and unwillingly, to be an Instrument of doing something that he would have to be done? For my part, I freely own my Suspicion, lest something of Enchantment, have reach'd more Persons and Spirits among us, than we are well aware of. ”

“ It is a tempting of God when Men put the Innocency of their Fellow-Creatures upon such tryals; to desire the Almighty to shew a Miracle to clear the Innocent, or to convict the Guilty is a most presumptuous tempting of him. Was it not a Miracle when Peter was kept from sinking under the Water by the Omnipotency of Christ? As for Satan, we know that his Ambition is to make his Servants believe that his Power is equal to God's, and that therefore he can preserve whom he pleaseth. ”

“ The Devil will perswade us that there is a Necessity of our doing what he does propound unto us; and then tho' the Laws of God about us were so many Walls of Stone, yet we shall break through them all. That little inconvenience, of our coming to beg our Bread, O what a fearful Representation does the Devil make of it! and when once the Devil scares us to think of a sinful thing, it must be done, we soon come to think, it may be done. ”