Sect. 9. As it has been with a Thousand other Inchanted People, so it was with Margaret Rule in this particular, that there were several words which her Tormentors would not let her hear, especially the words Pray or Prayer, and yet she could so hear the letters of those words distinctly mentioned as to know what they ment. The standers by were forced sometimes thus in discourse to spell a word to her, but because there were some so ridiculous as to count it a sort of Spell or a Charm for any thus to accommodate themselves to the capacity of the Sufferer, little of this kind was done. But that which was more singular in this matter, was that she could not use these words in those penetrating discourses, wherewith she would sometimes address the Spectres that were about her. She would sometimes for a long while together apply herself to the Spectres, whom she supposed the Witches, with such Exortations to Repentance as would have melted an Heart of Adamant to have heard them; her strains of Expression and Argument were truly Extraordinary; A person perhaps of the best Education and Experience and of Attainments much beyond hers could not have exceeded them: nevertheless when she came to these Words God, Lord, Christ, Good, Repent, and some other such, her Mouth could not utter them, whereupon she would sometimes in an Angry Parenthesis complain of their Wickedness in stopping that Word, but she would then go [8] on with some other Terms that would serve to tell what she ment. And I believe that if the most suspicious Person in the world had beheld all the Circumstances of this matter, he would have said it could not have been dissembled.
Sect. 10. Not only in the Swedish, but also in the Salem Witchcraft the Inchanted People have talked much of a White Spirit from whence they received marvellous Assistances in their Miseries; what lately befel Mercy Short[26] from the Communications of such a Spirit, hath been the just Wonder of us all, but by such a Spirit was Margaret Rule now also visited. She says that she could never see his Face; but that she had a frequent view of his bright, Shining and glorious Garments; he stood by her Bed-side continually heartning and comforting of her and counselling her to maintain her Faith and hope in God, and never comply with the temptations of her Adversaries; she says he told her, that God had permitted her afflictions to befall her for the everlasting and unspeakable good of her own soul, and for the good of many others, and for his own Immortal Glory, and that she should therefore be of good Chear, and be assured of a speedy deliverance; and the wonderful resolution of mind wherewith she encountered her Afflictions were but agreeable to such expectations. Moreover a Minister having one Day with some Importunity Prayed for the deliverance of this Young Woman, and pleaded that she belong'd to his Flock and charge; he had so far a right unto her as that he was to do the part of a Minister of our Lord for the bringing of her home unto God; only now the Devil hindred him in doing that which he had a right thus to do, and whereas He had a better Title unto her to bring her home to God than the Divel could have unto her to carry her away from the Lord, he therefore humbly applied himself unto God, who alone could right this matter, with a suit that she might be rescued out of Satans Hands; Immediately upon this, tho' she heard nothing of this transaction she began to call that Minister her Father, and that was the Name whereby she every day before all sorts of People distinguished him: the occasion of it she says was this, the white Spirit presently upon this transaction did after this manner speak to her, Margaret, you now are to take notice that (such a Man) is your Father, God has given you to him, do you from this time look upon him as your Father, obey him, regard him as your Father, follow his Counsels and you shall do well; And tho' there was one passage more, which I do as little know what to make of as any of the rest, I am now going to relate it; more than three times have I seen it fulfilled in the Deliverance of Inchanted and Possest Persons, whom the Providence of God has cast into my way, that their Deliverance could not be obtained before the third Fast kept for them, and the third day still obtain'd the Deliverance, altho' I have thought of beseeching of the Lord thrice, when buffered by Sa[9]tan, yet I must earnestly Intreat all my Readers to beware of any superstitious conceits upon the Number Three, if our God will hear us upon once Praying and Fasting before him 'tis well, and if he will not vouchsafe his Mercy upon our thrice doing so, yet we must not be so discouraged as to throw by our Devotion but if the Soveraign Grace of our God will in any particular Instances count our Patience enough tryed when we have Solemnly waited upon him for any determinate Number of times, who shall say to him, what doest thou, and if there shall be any Number of Instances, wherein this Grace of our God has exactly holden the same course, it may have a room in our humble Observations, I hope, without any Superstition; I say then that after Margaret Rule had been more than five weeks in her Miseries, this White Spirit said unto her, Well this day such a Man (whom he named) has kept a third day for your deliverance, now be of good cheer you shall speedily be delivered. I inquired whether what had been said of that Man were true, and I gained exact and certain information that it was precisely so, but I doubt lest in relating this Passage that I have used more openness than a Friend should be treated with, and for that cause I have concealed several of the most memorable things that have occurred not only in this but in some former Histories, altho indeed I am not so well satisfied about the true nature of this white Spirit, as to count that I can do a Friend much Honour by reporting what notice this white Spirit may have thus taken of him.
Sect. 11. On the last day of the Week her Tormentors as she thought and said, approaching towards her, would be forced still to recoil and retire as unaccountably unable to meddle with her, and they would retire to the Fire side with their Poppets; but going to stick Pins into those Poppets, they could not (according to their visions) make the Pins to enter, she insulted over them with a very Proper derision, daring them now to do their worst, whilst she had the satisfaction to see their Black Master strike them and kick them, like an Overseer of so many Negro's, to make them to do their work, and renew the marks of his vengeance on them, when they failed of doing of it.[27] At last being as it were tired with their ineffectual Attempts to mortifie her they furiously said, Well you shant be the last. And after a pause they added, Go, and the Devil go with you, we can do no more; whereupon they flew out of the Room, and she returning perfectly to herself most affectionately gave thanks to God for her deliverance; her Tormentors left her extream weak and faint, and overwhelmed with Vapours, which would not only cause her sometimes to Swoon away, but also now and then for a little while discompose the reasonableness of her Thoughts; Nevertheless her former troubles returned not, but we are now waiting to see the good effects of those troubles upon the Souls of all concern'd, And now I suppose that some of our Learned wit[10]lings of the Coffee-House, for fear lest these proofs of an Invisible-world should spoil some of their sport, will endeavour to turn them all into sport, for which Buffoonary their only pretence will be, they cant understand how such things as these could be done whereas indeed he that is but Philosopher enough to have read but one Little Treatise, Published in the Year 1656, by no other Man than the Chyrurgion of an Army, or but one Chap. of Helmont,[28] which I will not quote at this time too particularly, may give a far more intelligible account of these Appearances than most of these Blades can give why and how their Tobacco makes 'em Spit; or which way the flame of their Candle becomes illuminating, as for that cavil, the world would be undone if the Devils could have such power as they seem to have in several of our stories,[29] it may be Answered that as to many things the Lying Devils have only known them to be done, and then pretended unto the doing of those things, but the true and best Answer is, that by these things we only see what the Devils could have powers to do, if the great God should give them those powers, whereas now our Histories affords a Glorious Evidence for the being of a God, the World would indeed be undone, and horribly undone, if these Devils, who now and then get liberty to play some very mischievous pranks, were not under a daily restraint of some Almighty Superior from doing more of such Mischiefs. Wherefore instead of all Apish flouts and jeers at Histories, which have such undoubted confirmation, as that no Man that has breeding enough to regard the Common Laws of Humane Society, will offer to doubt of 'em, it becomes us rather to adore the goodness of God, who does not permit such things every day to befall us all, as he sometimes did permit to befall some few of our miserable Neighbours.
Sect. 12. And what after all my unwearied Cares and Pains, to rescue the Miserable from the Lions and Bears of Hell, which had siezed them, and after all my Studies to disappoint the Devils in their designs to confound my Neighbourhood, must I be driven to the necessity of an Apology? Truly the hard representations wherewith some Ill Men have reviled my conduct, and the Countenance which other Men have given to these representations, oblige me to give Mankind some account of my Behaviour; No Christian can, I say none but evil workers can criminate my visiting such of my poor flock as have at any time fallen under the terrible and sensible molestations of Evil Angels; let their Afflictions have been what they will, I could not have answered it unto my Glorious Lord, if I had withheld my just Counsels and Comforts from them; and if I have also with some exactness observ'd the methods of the Invisible World, when they have thus become observable, I have been but a Servant of Mankind in doing so; yea no less a Person than the Venerable Baxter, has more than once or twice in the most Publick manner invited Mankind to thank [11] me for that Service. I have not been insensible of a greater danger attending me in this fulfilment of my Ministry, than if I had been to take Ten Thousand steps over a Rocky Mountain fill'd with Rattle-Snakes; but I have consider'd, he that is wise will observe things, and the Surprising Explication and confirmation of the biggest part of the Bible, which I have seen given in these things, has abundantly paid me for observing them. Now in my visiting of the Miserable, I was always of this opinion, that we were Ignorant of what Powers the Devils might have to do their mischiefs in the shapes of some that had never been explicitly engaged in Diabolical Confederacies, and that therefore tho' many Witchcrafts had been fairly detected on Enquiries provoked and begun by Specteral Exhibitions, yet we could not easily be too jealous of the Snares laid for us in the devices of Satan; the World knows how many Pages I have Composed and Published, and particular gentlement in the Government know how many Letters I have written to prevent the excessive Credit of Specteral Accusations, wherefore I have still charged the Afflicted that they should Cry out of no body for Afflicting of 'em. But that if this might be any Advantage they might privately tell their minds to some one Person of discretion enough to make no ill use of their communications, accordingly there has been this effect of it, that the Name of No one good Person in the World ever came under any blemish by means of any Afflicted, Person that fell under my particular cognizance, yea no one Man, Woman or Child ever came into any troube for the sake of any that were Afflicted after I had once begun to look after 'em; how often have I had this thrown into my dish, that many years ago I had an opportunity to have brought forth such People as have in the late storm of Witchcraft been complain'd of, but that I smother'd all, and after that storm was rais'd at Salem, I did myself offer to provide Meat, Drink and Lodging for no less than Six of the Afflicted, that so an Experiment might be made, whether Prayer with Fasting upon the removal of the distressed might not put a Period to the trouble then rising, without giving the Civil Authority the trouble of prosecuting those things which nothing but a Conscientious regard unto the cries of Miserable Families, could have overcome the Reluctancies of the Honourable Judges to meddle with;[30] In short I do humbly but freely affirm it, there is not that Man living in this World who has been more desirous than the poor Man I to shelter my Neighbours from the Inconveniences of Specteral Outcries, yea I am very jealous I have done so much that way as to Sin in what I have done, such have been the Cowardize and Fearfulness whereunto my regard unto the dissatisfactions of other People has precipitated me. I know a Man in the World, who has thought he has been able to Convict some such Witches as ought to Dye, but his respect unto the Publick Peace has caused him rather to try whether He [12] could not renew them by repentance: and as I have been Studious to defeat the Devils of their expectations to set people together by the Ears, thus, I have also checked and quell'd those forbidden curiosities, which would have given the Devil an invitation to have tarried amongst us, when I have seen wonderful Snares laid for Curious People, by the secret and future things discovered from the Mouths of Damsels possest with a Spirit of divination; Indeed I can recollect but one thing wherein there could be given so much as a Shadow of Reason for Exceptions, and that is my allowing of so many to come and see those that were Afflicted,[31] now for that I have this to say, that I have almost a Thousand times intreated the Friends of the Miserable, that they would not permit the Intrusion of any Company, but such as by Prayers or other ways might be helpful to them; Nevertheless I have not absolutely forbid all Company from coming to your Haunted Chambers, partly because the Calamities of the Families were such as required the Assistance of many friends; partly because I have been willing that there should be disinterested Witnesses of all sorts, to confute the Calumnies of such as would say all was but Imposture; and partly because I saw God had Sanctified the Spectacle of the Miseries on the Afflicted unto the Souls of many that were Spectators, and it is a very Glorious thing that I have now to mention—The Devils have with most horrendous operations broke in upon our Neighbourhood, and God has at such a rate over-ruled all the Fury and Malice of those Devils, that all the Afflicted have not only been Delivered, but I hope also savingly brought home unto God, and the Reputation of no one good Person in the World, has been damaged, but instead thereof the Souls of many, especially of the rising Generation, have been thereby awaken'd unto some acquaintance with Religion, our young People who belonged unto the Praying Meetings of both Sexes, a part would ordinarily spend whole Nights by whole Weeks together in Prayers and Psalms upon these occasions, in which Devotions the Devils could get nothing but like Fools a Scourge for their own Backs, and some scores of other young People who were strangers to real Piety, were now struck with the lively demonstrations of Hell evidently set forth before their Eyes, when they saw Persons cruelly Frighted, wounded and Starved by Devils and Scalded with burning Brimstone, and yet so preserved in this tortured estate as that at the end of one Months wretchedness they were as able still to undergo another, so that of these also it might now be said, Behold they Pray in the whole—the Devil got just nothing; but God got praises, Christ got Subjects, the Holy Spirit got Temples, the Church got Addition, and the Souls of Men got everlasting Benefits; I am not so vain as to say that any Wisdome or Vertue of mine did contribute unto this good order of things: But I am so just, as to say I did not hinder this Good. [13] When therefore there have been those that pickt up little incoherent scraps and bits of my Discourses in this fruitful discharge of my Ministry, and so traversted 'em in their abusive Pamphlets, as to perswade the Town that I was their common Enemy in those very points, wherein, if in any one thing whatsoever I have sensibly approved myself as true a Servant unto 'em as possibly I could, tho my Life and Soul had been at Stake for it. Yea to do like Satan himself, by sly, base, unpretending Insinuations, as if I wore not the Modesty and Gravity which became a Minister of the Gospel, I could not but think myself unkindly dealt withal, and the neglects of others to do me justice in this affair has caused me to conclude this Narrative with complaints in another hearing of such Monstrous Injuries.[32]
FOOTNOTES:
[20] There were two noted Christian Indians on Martha's Vineyard a little previous to the Time the Above was written; viz., Hiacoomes and John Tokinosh. It is to one of these, probably, that the Writer refers. See Book of the Indians, B. ii, 118; or p. 182, Edition 1851. See also Appendix to Elect. Serm. of 1698, p. 90, et seq.
[21] Perhaps Capt. Thomas Tupper. See Noyes's Election Sermon, 1698, p. 95. There were also Eldad and Samuel T.—Sewall's MSS.
[22] Nothing is learned of this Person beyond what is to be found in this Work. There were Persons early at Newbury of the same Name.
[23] If the learned Author were living at this Day he would doubtless gladly blot out many Pages of his own Matter, as being a more dirty Work than any he then complained of.
[24] It would be curious, if not admirable, at this Day could we know what medical Books the Doctor did possess at that Time. Doubtless Galen and Paracelsus were conspicuous on his Shelves.