The Witchcraft in New England. Calef Robert

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СКАЧАТЬ It was several Times reprinted in London, once as late as 1807, under the Supervision of the distinguished Dr. George Burder. In this Country its Issue has not been confined to the Press of one Denomination.

      It may be too much a Custom for us to dwell on the Errors and Misfortunes of People while living; and to err, on the other Hand, by making their Characters appear too perfect after they have passed away; especially if they have been sufficiently conspicuous in Life to require a written Memorial of them after their Decease. Though Dr. Cotton Mather had Enemies while living, his Memory has been pursued with more Malignity since his Death, than has happened to that of most Men; and, as we conceive, without sufficient Reason, and which could only be warranted by the most undoubted Proofs, that he has purposely led us into Errors, and that he acted falsely on the most important Occasions; and that, finally, he was too bad a Man to make any Acknowledgment of all this, though conscious of it when he took his final Departure with the Messenger of his last Summons.

      He had vituperative Enemies in his Lifetime, from some of whom he received abusive anonymous Letters. These Letters he carefully filed, and wrote upon them simply the Word "Libels," which was all the Notice he took of them. It was an invariable Rule with him, that if he was obliged to speak of the evil Ways of People to do so in Humility and Regret, and never in a Manner that could be offensive. In his Diary he speaks of Pride as a Sin, "which all are subject unto, and more especially Ministers," and still more especially was it "the besetting Sin of young Ministers." Had he lived in these latter Days that Annoyance might have been less on Account of its Universality.

      Mr. Mather's Time was that of long Sermons, and we are told that he usually closed them with the fourteenth Division of his Discourses. Besides his Labors on Sundays, he sometimes preached eleven Sermons in one Week besides. He also constantly had Students with him whom he instructed in various Branches of Knowledge.

      Of the Part Dr. Mather took in State Affairs, his Biographer says he was not at Liberty to omit an Account, although it was a difficult Section; and that he was "more at a Loss what to do about it than any one in the whole Book." The Author, however, concludes, as he could not omit the Subject, to treat it "in such a general Way as to give no One any Offence." And as it is a Section of the Doctor's Life of great Interest, it will here be given entire in the Language of his Biographer, who wrote so near the Time that his Account carries its Readers back to those stirring Scenes of the Revolution of 1688, and furnishes a Picture, life-like, of the every-day Manners of our Fathers on that memorable and novel Event.

The Account follows: "My Country is very sensible that in the Year 1688 (when one of the most wicked Kings was on the British Throne) Andros and his Crew were very violent, illegal and arbitrary in their Proceedings. I need not give any Narrative of their Managements here, because there has been an Account of them already given to the World.[29]

      "While these roaring Lions and ranging Bears were in the midst of their Ravages; it was in the Month of April when we had News by the Edges concerning a Descent made upon England by the Prince of Orange for the Rescue of the Nations from Slavery and Popery; then a strange Disposition entred into the Body of our People to assert our Liberties against the arbitrary Rulers that were fleecing them. But it was much feared by the more sensible Gentlemen at Boston, that an unruly Company of Soldiers, who had newly deserted the Service in which they had bin employed for the Eastern War, by the gathering of their Friends to them to protect them from the Governor, who, they tho't, intended Nothing but Ruine to them, would make a great Stir, and produce a bloody Revolution. And therefore the principal Gentlemen in Boston met with Mr. Mather to consult what was best to be done; and they all agreed, if possible, that they would extinguish all Essays in our People to an Insurrection; but that, if the country People to the Northward, by any violent Motions push'd on the Matter so far as to make a Revolution unavoidable, then to prevent the shedding of Blood by an ungoverned Multitude, some of the Gentlemen present would appear in the Head of what Action should be done; and a Declaration was prepared accordingly.

      "On April 18, the People were so driving and furious, that unheaded they began to seize our public Oppressors: upon which the Gentlemen aforesaid found it necessary to appear that by their Authority among the People the unhappy Tumults might be a little regulated. And thro' the Goodness of God, although the whole Country were now in a most prodigious Ferment and Thousands of exasperated People in Arms were come into Boston, yet there was no Manner of Outrage committed; only the Public Robbers that had lorded it over Us were confined. 'Twas then Mr. Mather appeared—He was the Instrument of preventing the Excesses into which the Wrath of Man is too ready to run. He came, and like a Nestor or Ulisses reasoned down the Passions of the Populace. Had he lisped a Syllable for it, perhaps the People would, by a sudden Council of War, have try'd, judg'd and hang'd those ill Men who would have treated him otherwise. Nevertheless he set himself both publicly and privately to hinder the Peoples proceeding any further than to reserve the Criminals for the Justice of the English Parliament.

"Now the Persecution which was intended for Mr. Mather was diverted; for on that very Day that he was to be committed to Half a Year's Imprisonment,[30] 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 СКАЧАТЬ