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

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VII. The Temptations of the Devil, aim at puffing and bloating of us up, with Pride; as much perhaps as any one iniquity. The Devil would have had Our Lord make a Vain glorious Discovery of himself unto the World, by Flying in the air, so as no mortal can. Hoc Ithacus velit– the Devil would have us to soar aloft, and not only to be above other men, but also to know that we are so, Pride is the Devils own sin; and he affects especially to be, The King over the Children of Pride, it is a caution in 1 Tim. 3. 6. A Pastor must not be A Novice; Lest being lifted up with Pride, He fall into the condemnation of the Devil. (Summo ac Pio cum Tremore Hunc Textum Legamus nos Ministri Juvenes!) Accordingly, the Devil would have us to be inordinately taken and moved with what Excellencies our God has bestowed upon us. If our Estates rise, he would have us rise in our Spirits too. If we have been blessed with Beauty, with Breeding, with Honour, with Success, with Attire, with Spiritual Priviledges, or with Praise-worthy Performances; Now says the Devil, Think thy self better than other Men. Yea, the Devil would have us arrogate unto our selves, those Excellencies which really we never were owners of; and Boast of a false Gift. He would have us moreover to Thirst after Applause among others that may see Our Excellencies! and be impatient if we are not accounted some-body. He would have us further[95]more, to aspire after such a Figure, as God has never yet seen fitting for us; and croud into some High Chair that becomes us not. Thus would the Devil Elevate us into the Air, above our Neighbours; and why so? 'Tis that we may be punished with such Falls, as may make us cry out with David, O my Bones are broken with my Falls! The Devil can't endure to see men lying in the Dust; because there is no falling thence. He is a Fallen Spirit himself, and it pleases him to see the Falls of men.

§. The Third of our Lords Three Temptations, is related in such Terms as these. Matth. 4. 8, 9. Again the Devil taketh him up, into an exceeding High Mountain, and sheweth him all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them: and saith unto him, all these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and Worship me. From whence take these Remarks.

I. The Devil in his Temptations will set the Delight of this world before us; but he'll set a fair, and a false Varnish upon those Delights. They were some unknown Perspectives, which the Devil had, both for the Refracting of the Medium, and for the Magnifying of the Object, whereby he gave our Lord at once a prospect of the whole Roman Empire; but what was it? It was the World, and the Glory of it; he says not a word of the World, and the Trouble of it. No sure; not a word of that; the Devil will not have his Hook so barely expos'd unto us. The Devil sets off the Delights of Sin, which he offers unto us, with a stretched and raised Rhetorick; but he will not own, That in the midst of our Laughter, our Heart shall be sorrowful; and That the end of our Mirth shall be Heaviness. There is but one Glass in the Spectacles, with which the Devil would have us to read, those passages in Eccles. 11. 9. Rejoyce O young Man in thy youth, and let thy Heart chear thee in the Dayes of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy Heart, and in the sight of thine Eyes. Thus far the Devil would have us to Read; and he'll make many a fine Comment upon it; he'll tell us, That if we'll follow the Courses of the World, we shall swim in all the Delights of the World. But he is not willing you should Read out the next words; But know thou, that for all these things God shall bring thee into judgment. O he's loth we should be aware of the dreadful Issues, and Reckonings that our Worldly Delights will be attended with. He sets before us, the Pleasures of Sin; but he will not say, These are but for a Season. He sets before us, The Sweet Waters of Stealth? but he will not say, There is Death in the Pot. He is a Mountebank, that will bestow nothing but Romantic Praises upon all that he makes us the Offers of.

[96] II. There are most Hellish Blasphemies often buzz'd by the Temptations of the Devil, into the minds of the best Men alive. What a most Execrable Thing was here laid before our Lord Himself: Even, To own the Devil as God! a thing that can't be uttered, without unutterable Horror of Soul. The best man on earth, may have such Fiery Darts from Hell shot into his mind. One that was acted by the Devil, had the impudence to propound this unto such a good man as Job, Curse God. And the Devil pleases himself, by chasing the Hearts of good men, with his base Injections, That there is no God, or, That God is not a Righteous God; and a thousand more such things, too Devilish to be mentioned. A good man is extreamly grieved at it, when he hears a Blasphemy from the mouth of another man; said the Psalmist, in Psal. 44. 15, 16. My Confusion is continually before me, for the voice of him that Blasphemeth. But much more when a good man finds a Blasphemy in his own Heart; O it throws him into most Fevourish Agonies of Soul. For this cause, a mischievous Devil will Flie blow the Heart of such a man, with such Blasphemous Thoughts, as make him crie out, Lord I am e'n weary of my life. Yea, the Devil serves the man just as the Mistress of Joseph dealt with him; he importunes the man to think wickedly from Day to Day; and if the man refuse, he cries out at last, Behold what wicked thoughts this man has lodging in him. Sayst thou so? Satan! No, they are Brats of thy own; and at thy Door alone shall they be laid for ever.

III. There is a sort of Witchcrafts in those things, whereto the Temptations of the Devil would inveigle us. To worship the Devil is Witchcraft, and under that notion was our Lord urged unto sin. We are told in 1 Sam. 15. 23. 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 Analagous to the worst usages of Witches. 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, 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.

[97] IV. The Temptations of the Devil do Tug and Pull for nothing more, than that the Rulers of the World may yield Homage unto him. Our Lord has had this by his Father Engag'd unto him, That he shall one day be Governour of the Nations. The Devil doe's extreamly dread the approach of that Illustrious time, when The Kingdom of God shall come and his Will be done, as in Heaven, and on Earth. For this cause it was that he was desirous, Our Lord should rather have accepted of him, that Kingdom, which Antichrist afterwards accepted of him, for the Establishment of Devil-worship, in the World. 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. What Rulers would the Devil have, to command all mankind, if he might have his will? Even, such as are called in Psal. 94. 20. The throne of iniquity, which frames mischief by a Law; such as will promote Vice, by both Connivance and Example; and such as will oppress all that shall be Holy, and Just, and Good. All men have cause therefore to be jealous, what Use the Devil may make of them, with reference to the Affairs of Government; but Rulers may most of all think, that the Lord Jesus from Heaven calls upon them, Satan has desired that he might Sift you, and have you; O Look to it, what side you take.

Thus have you in the Temptations of our Lord, seen the principal of those Devices, which the Devil has to Entrap our Souls. But what shall we now do, that we may be fortified against those Devices? O that we might be well furnished with the Whole Armour of God! But me thinks, there were some things attending the Temptations of our Lord, which, would especially Recommend those few Hints unto us for our Guard.

First, If you are not fond of Temptation, be not fond of Needless, or Too much Retirement. Where was it, that the Devil fell upon our Lord? it was when he was Alone in the Wilderness. We should all have our Times to be Alone every Day; and if the Devil go to scare us out of our Chambers, with such a Bugbear, as that he'll appear to us, yet stay in spite of his teeth, stay to finish your Devotions; he Lyes, he dare not shew his head. But on the other-side by being too solitary, we may lay our selves too much open to the Devil; You know who says, Wo to him that is alone.

[98] Secondly, Let an Oracle of God be your defence against a Temptation of Hell. How did our Lord silence the Devil? It was with an, It is written! And all his Three Citations were from that one Book of Deuteronomy. What a full Armoury then have we, in all the sacred Pages that lie before us? Whatever the Words of the Devil are, drown them with the words of the Great God. Say, It is Written The Belshazzar of Hell will Tremble and Withdraw, if you show these Hand-Writings of the Lord.

 

Lastly, Since the Lord Jesus Christ has conquered all the Temptations of the Devil, Flie to that Lord, Crie to that Lord, that He would give you a share in his Happy Victory. It was for Us that our Lord overcome the Devil: and when he did but say, Satan, Get hence, away presently the Tygre flew: Does the Devil molest Us? Then let us Repair to our Lord, who says, I know how to succour the Tempted. Said the Psalmist, Psal. 61. 2. Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. A Woman in this Land being under the Possession of Devils, the Devils within her, audibly spoke of diverse Harms they would inflict upon her; but still they made this answer, Ah! She Runs to the Rock! She Runs to the Rock! and that hindered all. O this Running to the Rock; 'tis the best Preservation in the World; the Vultures of Hell cannot prey upon the Doves in the Clefts of that Rock. May our God now lead us thereunto. 207

[End of the Wonders of the Invisible World and of the First Volume.]

FOOTNOTES:

207. The Editor feeling quite confident, that the Reader, by this Time, has got enough of the Devil, will forbear making any Remarks or Comments. Why the Author should place his "Discovery" at the End of his Book the Reader is as well qualified to judge as the Editor, and he will only add, that it is a Pity that he (the Author) had not made the Discovery sooner, if by that Discovery the poor Witches had been let alone, and left out of the Question, as no real Use of them is conceivable, when, in Reality the Devil could and actually did do all the Mischief himself. As has been before intimated, Dr. Mather was not alone in his Estimation of the Importance of the Devil. Mr. Lawson, in his Sermon at Salem Village, before referred to, among other Passages, said to his Hearers (who were above a thousand): "It is Matter of TERROR, Amazement, and Astonishment, to all such wretched Souls, (if there be any here in the Congregation, and God grant that none of you may ever be found as such) as have given up their Names, and Souls to the Devil: Who by Covenant have bound themselves to be his Slaves and Drudges, consenting to be Instruments, in whose Shapes, he may torment and afflict their Fellow-creatures, to the amazing and astoning of the Standers by." —Page 64. Similar Extracts might be made from many of the Writings of that Day, but Time and Space are inadequate, and the Reader, who may now incline to a better Acquaintance with the Devil, than these Pages afford him, must be referred to Dr. Mather's Cotemporaries. In closing these Notes it should be mentioned that the Text of this Edition of the Wonders of the Invisible World has been set up from the latest London Edition of that Work, as mentioned in the Preface to this Edition. When that Preface was written it was not contemplated to use the Original Edition in reading the Proofs. But it was finally decided to read by the Original. By this Course the Text has been to some Extent improved. Yet no Difference of Importance was found. The Departures of the London Publisher were only verbal – never altering the Sense. At the Expense of a little tautological Verbiage the whole has been made conformable to the original Edition – manifest typographical Errors excepted.