The Witchcraft in New England. Calef Robert
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Название: The Witchcraft in New England
Автор: Calef Robert
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Зарубежная психология
isbn: 4064066393588
isbn:
The Portrait now in Circulation of Dr. Mather was engraved from a beautiful Mezzotinto, half Size, with the following Inscription underneath it:
"Cottonus Matherus S. Theologiæ Doctor Regiæ Societatis Londiniensis Socius, et Eccelsiæ apud Bostonum Nov˭Anglorum nuper Præpositus.
Ætatis Suæ LXV. MDCCXXVII.
P. Pelham ad vivum pinxit ab Origin Fecit."
Those desiring genealogical Information of the Mather Family, I must refer to the Pedigree printed in Connection with Dr. I. Mather's Brief History, &c.
FOOTNOTES:
[26] He was only 23 when the Work was published, which is indeed an Apology for its crude Style of Composition.
[27] Octavo, London, 1721. Printed for Emanuel Matthews, at the Bible in Pater-Noster-Row.
[28] Appendix Touching Prodigies to his Convention Sermon of May 23, 1689.
[29] Referring doubtless to New England Justified, published by the Author's Grandfather.
[30] 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.
[31] Calef's More Wonders of the Invisible World is the Book asserted to have died long before its Author. However that might have been considered 30 Years after the More Wonders was printed, it is far from being Dead in this Age. Remarks will be more in Order when we come to introduce the Work.
[32] 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 Magnalia was at his Hand, giving Date and Details of the Affair. See that Work, B. vi, Page 71.
[33] See History and Antiquities of Boston, 561–3.
The Wonders of the Invisible World.
OBSERVATIONS
As well Historical as Theological, upon the NATURE, the NUMBER, and the OPERATIONS of the DEVILS.
Accompany'd with
I. Some Accounts of the Grievous Molestations, by DÆMONS and WITCHCRAFTS, which have lately annoy'd the Countrey; and the Trials of some eminent Malefactors Executed upon occasion thereof: with several Remarkable Curiosities therein occurring.
II. Some Counsils, Directing a due Improvement of the terrible things, lately done, by the Unusual & Amazing Range of EVIL SPIRITS, in Our Neighbourhood: & the methods to prevent the Wrongs which those Evil Angels may intend against all sorts of people among us; especially in Accusations of the Innocent.
III. Some Conjectures upon the great EVENTS, likely to befall, the WORLD in General, and NEW-ENGLAND in Particular; as also upon the Advances of the TIME, when we shall see BETTER DAYES.
IV. A short Narrative of a late Outrage committed by a knot of WITCHES in Swedeland, very much Resembling, and so far Explaining, That under which our parts of America have laboured!
V. THE DEVIL DISCOVERED: In a Brief Discourse upon those TEMPTATIONS, which are the more Ordinary Devices of the Wicked One.
By Cotton Mather.
Boston Printed, and Sold by Benjamin Harris, 1693.
PUblished by the Special
Command of His EXCELLENCY,
the Governour
of the Province of
the Massachusetts-Bay in
New-England.
Imprimatur.
Decmb. 23.
1692.
Edmund Bohun.[34]
FOOTNOTES:
[34] Edmund Bohun was himself a Writer of considerable Note. The Work by which he is best known is probably that entitled The Character of Queen Elizabeth, a sizable Octavo, printed in 1693. His Writings are said to be Voluminous, yet but few of them are met with at this Day. One of the first Gazetteers was by him in a thick Octavo, 1688. He does not, however, call it a Gazetteer, but a Geographical Dictionary. His Descriptions compare singularly with those of the same Articles in Works of later Times: as for Example, he says Columbus discovered America in 1499. All the Notice Boston receives at his Hands is at the Close of an Article on Boston in Lincolnshire—"there is another Place in New England of the same Name." Under the Head of New England he gives it a much larger Notice; calls New England a Colony, "and they have built seven great Towns, the Chief of which is Boston, which in 1670, had fifty Sail of Ships belonging to it." He was Author of a Life of Bishop Jewell, and was living in 1700.
THE
Author's Defence.
TIS, as I remember, the Learned Scribonius,[35] who reports, that One of his Acquaintance, devoutly making his Prayers on the behalf of a Person molested by Evil Spirits, received from those Evil Spirits an horrible Blow over the Face: And I may my self expect not few or small Buffetings from Evil Spirits, for the Endeavours wherewith I am now going to encounter them. I am far from Insensible that at this extraordinary Time of the Devils coming down in great Wrath upon us, there are too many Tongues and Hearts thereby set on fire of Hell; that the various Opinions about the Witchcrafts which of later Time have troubled us, are maintained by some with so much cloudy Fury, as if they could never be sufficiently stated, unless written in the Liquor wherewith Witches use to write their Covenants; and that he who becomes an Author at such a time, had need be fenced with Iron, and the Staff of a Spear. The unaccountable Frowardness, Asperity, Untreatableness, and Inconsistency СКАЧАТЬ