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Untitled Article
the ; execution . To meet and turn back this state of feeling , the accusers cried put that they saw the evil being standing behind hirn in the shftpe of a fylack map , and dictating every word he utterecl . And the famqus Cottoq Mather rode round in the crowd on horseback , haranguing the people , saying that it was npt to be wondered at that Mr . B . appeared so well , for that
the devil often transformed himself into an angel of light ! This artful declamation , together with-the outcries and assertions pf the accusers ., had the intended effept upon the fanatical multitude . When the body was cut down , it was dragged by the rope to a hqllow place , excavated between the . rocks , stripped of its gar * rnents , and then covered with clothes that had belonged to some poor wretch previously execute ^ , thrown with two others into the
hole , trarppled down by the mob , and finally left partly uncovered . ' —( p . 102—104 , ) Our narrative will exhibit enough of the nature and character of these diabolical proceedings . Jt now remains to show on which side the devil enlisted , by pointing put which of the parties had in fact entered into a compact with him . It was a physician who first pronounced the word ' witchcraft' on this occasion ; the judges and officers of the law threw their whole authority into the scale
of superstition , but it wa . s with the clergy that the affair began ; they kept it up till the last moment , and in many instances attempted a revival the next season . On account of their supposed con- * nexion with the spiritual world , the affair seemed to lie within their provipce . They were consulted by the government as to the measures tQ be adopted , and they returned an earnest recommendation to proceed in the gqx ) d work of enforcing the alternative of
perjury or hanging . Their estimate of the result ( given prer viously to their own disgrace ) may throw some light on the motives which impelled them to such means of bringing it about . ' In the whole , ' says Mather , ' the devil gpt just nothing , but God got prajses , Christ gpt subjects , the holy spirit got temples , the church . gpt additions , and the souls of men got everlasting benefits . ' Perhaps he altered his opinion when , in consequence of
this affair , he was made the object of ridicule and insult , and his clerical brethren became subject to a reproach which has impaired the influence of their successors nearly as much as their own . Instead of haying the reputation of keeping Satan in chains by thejr piety , they very soon came to be regarded as his agents ; and not all their voluntary humiliation when it was too late to try any
ojjier means , restprpd them to their former authprity . We will just sketch the history of two or three of them ; for it is seldom that so complete and instructive a lesson of retribution is displayed in cases of this kind of iniquity , , Mr . J ^ arris , we h < ave seen , was cqmpelled by the abhorrence pf his people , to resign fyis situation and 4 epart whither he might . The xecords of the time preserve the declaration of the Indian
Untitled Article
' < in Witchcraft . - < W .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1832, page 551, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1818/page/47/
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