The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination, (Vol 1 of 3). Calef Robert
a Year's Imprisonment,29 those that would have wrong'd him were justly taken into Custody: And yet so generous was he as not only to expose his Name, but even his Life unto the Rage of the Multitude for the saving of some that would have hurt him: Tho' he had no Thanks for his Ingenuity.
"The Spirit which acted him in these Matters is expressed in a Sermon he preached to the Convention of the Colony from 2 Chron. xv, 2. It was printed under the Title of, The Way to Prosperity.
"A few Days before this, the Inhabitants of Boston assembling together to chuse Representatives for that Convention, it was apprehended, that the different Persuasions of the People, about the next Steps to be taken for our Settlement, would have produced a Fury near to Bloodshed; and therefore Mr. Mather was desired to be at their Meeting. The Meeting began with dangerous and horrible Paroxysms, which when he saw, he upon it made an affectionate and moving Speech to them, at which many fell into Tears and the whole Body of the People present immediately united in the Methods of Peace Mr. Mather proposed unto them."
From what is here given it is not difficult to decide whether Mr. Mather was for or against Andros and his Government. It is a Pity the Author did not revise his Work in his mature Years, as well for his own Credit as a Writer as for his Father's Honor. It is the poorest of all his Performances.
The Convention before mentioned having ordered a Thanksgiving, for that "It having pleased the God of Heaven to mitigate his many Frowns upon us in the Summer past, with a Mixture of some very signal Favours, and in the midst of Wrath so far to remember Mercy; That our Indian Enemies have had a Check put upon their Designs of Blood and Spoil, … and especially in the happy Accession of Their Majesties our Sovereigns, King William and Queen Mary to the Throne. It was therefore ordered that Thursday the 19th of December, 1689, be kept as a Day of Thanksgiving." This Order was dated Dec. 3d, 1689.
On this Thanksgiving Occasion Dr. Mather delivered one of his most elaborate Sermons, occupying, with a brief Appendix, sixty-two Pages, 16mo. In it he refers to the Revolution under various Heads; comparing it to an Earthquake, one having then but recently nearly destroyed Lima. And more terrible Pictures it would be difficult to conceive of, than he has drawn, of what would have been the Condition of New England, had not the Revolution succeeded.
The next great Event in the Life of our Author was the Witchcraft Delusion. As his own Work upon that memorable Chapter in New England's Annals is to be given in Connection with this Biography, any Apology or Remarks upon his Participation in it from the Editor could be of but little Value or Interest, no more will be done here than to extract what his Biographer-Son has favored the World with. That, as will be seen, is apologetical, and is far better told than the Part he took in the Revolution. It is indeed about all that can be said in Extenuation of one thus circumstanced.
"The Summer of the Year 1692, was a very doleful Time unto the whole Country. The Devils, after a most præternatural Manner by the dreadful Judgements of Heaven took a bodily Possession of many People in our Salem, and Places adjacent; where the Houses of the poor People began to be filled with the Cries of Persons tormented by evil Spirits. There seemed to be an execrable Witchcraft in the Foundation of this wondrous Affliction; many Persons of divers Characters being accused, apprehended, prosecuted upon the Visions of the afflicted.
"Mr. Mather, for his Part, was always afraid of proceeding to convict and condemn any Person as a Confederate with afflicting Dæmons upon so feeble an Evidence as a spectral Representation. Accordingly he ever testified against it both publicly and privately, and particularly in his Letter to the Judges, he besought them that they would by no Means admit it; and where a considerable Assembly of Ministers gave in their Advice about the Matter, he not only concurred with the Advice but he drew it up.
"Nevertheless, on the other Side, he saw in most of the Judges a charming Instance of Prudence and Patience; and as he knew their exemplary Piety, so he observed the Agony of Soul with which they sought the Direction of Heaven, above most other of our People who were enchanted into a raging, railing and unreasonable Disposition. For this Cause, tho' Mr. Mather could not allow the Principles some of the Judges had espoused, he could not however but speak honorably of their Persons on all Occasions; and his Compassion upon the Sight of their Difficulties, which Compassion was raised by his Journeys to Salem the chief Seat of these diabolical Vexations, caused him still to go to the Place. And merely for this Reason, some mad People in the Country (from whom one or two credulous Foreigners have dared to publish the abusive Story) under a Fascination of their Spirits equal to what our Energumens had upon their Bodies, reviled Mr. Mather as if he had been the Doer of the hard Things that were done in the Prosecution of the Witchcraft.
"In this evil Time Mr. Mather offered at the Beginning, that if the possessed People might be scattered far asunder, he would singly provide for six of them; and he with some others would see whether without more bitter Methods, Prayer and Fasting would not put an End unto these heavy Trials: But his offer was not accepted.
"However for a great Part of the Summer he did almost every Week spend a Day by himself in the Exercise of a secret Fast before the Lord. On these Days he cried unto God, not only for his own Preservation from the Malice and Power of the evil Angels, but also for a good Issue of the Calamities in which he had permitted the evil Angels to ensnare the miserable Country. He also besought the Lord that he would enable him, prosper, direct, and accept him in publishing such Testimonies for Him as were proper, and would be serviceable unto his Interests on that Occasion.
"And that a right Use might be made of the prodigious Things which had been happening among us, he now composed and published his Book entituled, The Wonders of the Invisible World, which was reprinted several Times in London: In the Preface he speaks of, 'the heart-breaking Exercises', he went thro' in writing it. There was a certain Disbeliever of Witchcraft who wrote against this Book; but as the Man is dead, his Book died long before him.30
"But having spoken eno' of the more publick Witchcraft, I think I will hale in here an Account of a Witchcraft happening in one private Family at Boston, two or three Years before the general one. 'Twas, I think, in the Year 1689, in the Winter, that several Children belonging to a pious Family at the South End of Boston were horribly bewitch'd and possessed.31
"Mr. Mather tho't it would be for the Glory of God, if he not only pray'd with as well as for the Children; but also took an Account of the extraordinary Symptoms which attended them, with sufficient Attestations to confound the Sadducism and Atheism of a debauched Age."
An Account of the Case of the Goodwin Family was separately published, and was noticed with Commendation by the "learned and pious Baxter," which has been often referred to as a Proof that other great Men, as well as Mr. Mather, were Believers in Witchcraft.
The Novelty and Singularity of a Thing was no Cause of its Rejection by Mr. Mather, and we next find him advocating Inoculation for the Small-pox; and, according to his Biographer he was the Cause of its Introduction into this Country. But in that, as in many other Things, too much is claimed for him. I have elsewhere given a History of its being put in Practice in Boston.32
In 1714 Dr. Mather was chosen a Member of the Royal Society of London; upon which Event his Biographer remarks: "The Respect which the Royal Society paid him, did also very much encourage him, and fortify him in his Essays to do Good, while it added to the superior Circumstances in which he was placed above the Contempt of Envious Men."
This last remark will apply to some of our own Times; who, if their Power were equal to their Envy, few besides themselves would be allowed to possess much in the Way of Honors without their Permission. It was probably on this Occasion, that some Individuals circulated the Report that the Doctor was not a Member of the Royal Society. Whereupon a Letter from the Secretary of that Society was produced, in which this Passage occurs: "As for your being chosen a Member of the Royal Society, that has been done, both by the Council and Body of the Society: only the Ceremony of Admission is wanting; which you being beyond Sea, cannot be performed." This having been promulgated, the envious Detractors were silenced in that Age, and it is rather surprising that Ignorance and
It would seem from this that Mr. Mather had been prosecuted, tried and sentenced to six Months' Imprisonment, but there appears no other Intimation of it.
Calef's
It is rather surprising that the Author should speak doubtfully of the Case of this Family as to the Time of its Occurrence, when the
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