Part 20

As long as Tets for the Devil to Suck are searched for upon the Bodies of the accused, as a token of guilt.

As long as the Lord's Prayer shall be profaned, by being made a Test, who are culpable.

As long as Witchcraft, Sorcery, Familiar Spirits, and Necromancy, shall be improved to discover who are Witches, &c.

So long it may be expected that innocents will suffer as Witches.

So long God will be Daily dishonoured, And so long his Judgments, must be expected to be continued.

FINIS.

FOOTNOTES:

This Insinuation is quite well sustained, as will appear by an Extract from Mr. Mather's Diary, printed in Quincy's Hist. H. C. i, 60. The Life of Phips is substantially included in the Magnalia. As originally published, it is of considerable rarity.

See Vol. I, Page 25-6.

This Judgment has been sustained by Posterity. Phips's Hands were tied. He could not have done differently, had he had the Knowledge and Disposition, without giving offence to President Mather, who had secured his Advancement.

To this rather mild and inoffensive remark of the Author, Mr. Mather replies: "The last Effort of his [Calef's] Malice is a Postscript against the Life of Sir William Phips, against whose Memory, why any whose Throats are an open Sepulchre, should be so monstrously envious, that like Jackalls, they can't let him rest quietly in his Sepulchre, good Men can't imagine any Reason but the third Chapter of Genesis."--Some Few Remarks, &c. 47.

"I have endured more than a little from some sort of Men, for my writing the Life of Sir William Phips, and speaking well of him, without either doing or speaking ill against any one good Man under the whole Heavens, in the whole Composure. It seems that I must now write an Apology, for that Book: for which I have no Confession to make, but, That I don't wish one Line of it unwritten."--Ibid, 47-8.

It must be allowed that the Doctor was a little unfortunate in his Choice of a Hero by which to measure his own.

The "three venerable Persons" were "Nath. Mather, John Howe and Matthew Mead." The first was the Uncle to Dr. Cotton Mather, then a Minister in Dublin, where he died a few Months later. Howe and Mead are too well known to require a notice here.

To this Dr. Mather answers: "When mine Adversaries had, with a concocted Malice, done all they could, they thought at least they had found one Passage wherein they might impeach my Veracity. I had said, that before Quebeck, Sir William lay within Pistol Shot of the Enemies Cannon, and that his Ship was shot through, in an hundred Places, and that it was shot through with Four and Twenty Pounders. (Tis a gross Hardship for any to make my Meaning as if all the shot had been so.) And now they fall to Tragical Exclamattons; they think Four and Twenty Pounders to be too small Dimensions for the Clamors they must batter me withal.... I wrote no more than the very Words which I find in a Journal of the Expedition to Qcebec.... Calef himself has lately owned, that he verily believes I did so."--Some Few Remarks, &c. 51-2.

After the Doctor had spoken of being "battered with Clamors," he triumphantly Exclaims--"But hold Robin, [Mr. Calef's Christian Name being Robert] I am not so soon shot through; and the Statue, as I told thee, has knock'd out thy Brains!"--Ibid, Page 52. His Life of Phips he calls a Statue.

The harsh and ungovernable Temper of the Governor was a Matter of Notoriety in his Time. See Life of Phips in the Magnalia, B. ii, Page 72, &c.

"It is not worth our while to take Notice of every thing this Calf sayes, 'tis often so impertinent; however, we will lay open one thing more. He says that Mr. Mather procured a Charter for Sir William to be Governor, and himself established President of the Colledge. Can there be greater Nonsense mixed with Malice! How could that be, when Mr. Mather had been President of the Colledge ten Years before Sir William came to be Governor?" This is a very shallow Attempt to impeach, by Hypercriticism, the Truth of Mr. Calef's Statement. Everybody knew the fact that Dr. I. Mather was President of the College. Mr. Calef's Meaning is plain enough, namely, that Mr. Mather's Solicitude was about keeping his Office of President.

"It is to be confessed and bewailed, that many Inhabitants of New England, and young People especially, had been led away with little Sorceries, wherein they did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God; they would often cure Hurts with Spells, and practice detestable Conjurations with Sieves, and Keyes, and Pease, and Nails, and Horse-shoes, and other Implements to learn the Things for which they had a forbidden and impious Curiosity. Wretched Books had stolen into the Land, wherein Fools were instructed how to become able Fortune-tellers."--Life of Sir W. Phips. See Magnalia, B. ii, 60. Some twenty Years later the Author's Ideas had undergone a slight Change. See Remarkables, 161, et seq.

Complete Lists of all the Freemen in Massachusetts, and the Qualifications necessary to become such, will be found in the New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Register, Vols. III, IV and VII.

Palmer's Book is thus entitled: "An Impartial Account of the State of New England: or, the Late Government there, Vindicated. In Answer to the Declaration which the Faction set forth, when they Overturned that Government. With a Relation of the Horrible Usage they treated the Governour with, and his Council; and all that had His Majesty's Commission. In a Letter to the Clergy there. By John Palmer. London: Printed for Edward Poole, at the Ship over against the Royal Exchange, in Cornhill, 1690." 4to, 40 Pages. This Work is about to be republished by the PRINCE SOCIETY.

Actions brought without Foundation.

"The Superior Gentlemen in the Oppressed Country, thought, that a Well-qualified Person going over with the Addresses of the Churches to the King, might, by the Help of such Protestant Dissenters as the King began upon Political Views to cast a fair Aspect upon, obtain some Relief to the growing Distresses of the Country; and Mr. Mather was the Person that was pitch'd upon.... To his Wonderment, they that at another Time would have almost assoon parted with their Eyes as have parted with him now were willing to it."--Remarkables of Dr. I. Mather, 103.

Mr. Bradstreet was then about 86 Years of Age. A pretty full Account of the Transactions of this Period may be read in Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., i, sub. An. 1689: "The Representatives of 54 Towns met at Boston, on the 22d of May. They soon discovered a Desire to reassume the Charter. The major Part of the Council were against it." Ibid., i, 386, first Edition.

I do not find this animadverted upon in the Some Few Remarks.

See Neal's Hist. N. England, where will be found the "Declaration" in full, in which it is said: "Having fully and deliberately examined the Minds and Instructions of the several Towns, do find it to be the general Consent and Concurrence of our several Towns to reassume the Government according to Charter-Rights," &c. Vol. II, 55.

The underwritten Recantation does not appertain to the printed Declaration. Neal says: "'Tis certain the Massachuset-Provinces had hard Measure in the Loss of their Charter, and harder yet, in not having it restored at the Revolution," &c. Vol. II, 59.

Elisha Cooke and Thomas Oakes, both of them Assistants. See Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., i, 393.