Glimpses of Christian History Presents Pastwords #183: New England Gentlemen Attacks Treatment of Witches in "Wonders of the Invisible World" by Robert Calef ©2007

Boston, March 20, 1693.

Worthy Sir,

he great pains you have taken for my information and satisfaction in those controverted points relating to witchcraft, whether it attain the end or not, cannot require less than suitable acknowledgements and gratitude: especially considering you had no particular obligation of office to it, and when others, whose proper province it was, had declined it. It is a great truth, that the many heresies among the Christians (not the lying miracles, or witchcrafts, used by some to induce to the worship of images, &c.) must not give a mortal wound to Christianity or truth; but the great question in these controverted points still is, What is truth? And in this search, being agreed in the judge or rule, there is great hopes of the issue. That there are witches, is plain from that rule of truth, the scriptures, which commands their punishment by death. But what that witchcraft is, or wherein it does consist, is the whole difficulty. That head cited from Mr. Gaule, and so well provoked thereby (not denied by any) makes the work yet shorter; so that it is agreed to consist in a maligning, &c. and seeking by to sign to seduce, &c. not excluding any other sorts or branches, when as well proved by that infallible rule. That good angels have appeared, is certain; though that instance of those to Abraham may admit of a various construction; some divines supposing them to be the Trinity; others, that they were men-messengers, as Judges ii. 1, and others, that they were angels. But though this, as I said, might admit of a debate, yet I see no question of the angel Gabriel's appearance, particularly to the blessed virgin; for though the angels are spirits, and so not perceptible by our bodily eyes without the appointment of the Most High, yet he, who made all things by his word in the creation, can with a word speak things into being. And whether the angels did assume matter (or a vehicle) and by that appear to the bodily eye: or whether by the same word there were an idea framed in the mind, which needed no vehicle to represent them to the intellects, is with the All-wise, and not for me to dispute. If we poor shallow mortals do not comprehend the manner how, that argues only our weakness. Two other times did this glorious angel appear. Dan. viii. 16. Dan. Ix. 21. The first of these times was in vision, as by the text and context will appear. The second was the same as the first; which, being considered as it will, ascertains that angels have appeared, so that it is at the will of the sender how they shall appear, whether to the bodily eye, or intellect only. Matt. i. 20. the appearance of the angel to Joseph was in a dream, and yet a real appearance; so was there a real appearance to the apostle, but whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell; and that they are sent, and come not of their own motion. Luke i. 26, And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God. Dan. ix. 23, At the beginning of thy supplication the commandment came forth, and I am come. V. 21, Being caused to fly swiftly, &c. But from these places may be set down, as undoubted truths or conclusions,

1. That the glorious angels have their mission and commission from the Most High.

2. That without this they cannot appear to mankind. And from these two will necessarily flow a third:

3. That if the glorious angels have not that power to go till commissioned, or to appear to mortals, then not the fallen angels; who are held in chains of darkness to the judgment of the great day. Therefore to argue, that because the good angels have appeared, the evil may or can, is to me as if, because the dead have been raised to life by holy prophets, therefore men, wicked men can raise the dead. As the sufferings, so the temptations, of our Saviour were (in degree) beyond those common to man. He being the second Adam, or public head, the strongest assaults were now improved; and we read that he was tempted, that he might be able to succour them that are tempted; as also that he was led of the spirit into the wilderness, that he might be tempted, &c. But how the tempter appeared to him who was God Omniscient: whether to the bodily eye, or to the intellect, is as far beyond my cognizance, as for a blind man to judge of colors. But from the whole set down this fourth conclusion:

4. That when the Almighty Free Agent has a work to bring about for his own glory or man's good, he can employ not only blessed angels, but he evil ones, in it, as 2 Cor. xii.7, And lest I should be exalted above measure, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of satan to buffet me. 1 Sam. xvi. 14, 15 & 23, An evil spirit from the Lord troubled him, &c. it is a great truth, that we understand little, very little, and that in common things; how much less then in spirituals, such as are above human cognizance! But though upon the strictest scrutiny in some natural things we can only discover our ignorance, yet we must not hence deny what we do know, or suffer a rape to be committed upon our reason and senses in the dark. And to say that the devil by his ordinary power can act a vehicle, i. e. some matter distinct from himself, who is wholly a spirit, and yet this matter not to be felt nor heard, and at the same time to be seen; or may be felt,, and not heard nor seen, &c. seems to me to be a chimera, invented at first to puzzle the belief of reasonable creatures, and since calculated to a roman latitude, to uphold the doctrine of transubstantiation; who teach, that under the accidents of bread is contained the body of our Saviour, his human body, as long, and as broad, &c. for here the power of the Almighty must not be confined to be less than the devil's, and it is he that has said, hoc est meum corpus. As to the consent of almost all ages, I meddle not now with it, but come to the fifth conclusion:

5. That when the Divine Being will employ the agency of evil spirits for any service, it is with him to determine how they shall exhibit themselves, whether to the bodily eye, or intellect only; and whether it shall be more or less formidable. To deny these three last, were to make the devil an independent power, and consequently a God. As to the nature of possessions by evil spirits, for the better understanding of it, it may be needful to compare it with its contraries; and to instance in Samson, of whom it was foretold, that he should begin to deliver Israel. And how was he enabled to do this work? Judges xiii. 25, The spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp, &c. Chap. xv. 13, 14 v. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock; and when they came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax, that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from his hands, &c. I might instance further; but this may suffice to show that he had more than a natural strength, as also whence his strength was, viz. he was empowered by the spirit from God. And now will any say, that it was not Samson, but the spirit that did these things; or, that these being things done, bonds broken, &c. by a force that could not proceed from human strength, that therefore the spirit entered into him otherwise qualified than as a mere spirit: or, that the spirit entered not without some portion of matter, and by the intermediation thereof acted Samson's body? If any say this and more too, this doth not alter the truth which remains, viz. that the spirit of God did enable Samson to the doing of things beyond his natural strength. And now what remains but, upon parity of reason, to apply this to the case of possession? which may be summed up in this sixth conclusion:

6. That God for wise ends, only known to himself, may and has empowered devils to possess and strangely to actuate human bodies, even to the doing of things beyond the natural strength of that body. And for any to tell of a vehicle, or matter used in it, I must observe that general rule, Coloss. ii.8, "Beware lest any spoil you through philosophy, and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." To come next to that of witchcraft, and here taking that cited head of Mr. Gaule to be uncontroverted, set it as a seventh conclusion:

7. That witchcraft consists in a maligning and opposing the word, work and worship of God, and seeking by any extraordinary sign to seduce any from it. Deut. Xiii. 12. Matt. xxiv. 24. Acts xiii. 8, 10. 2Tim. Iii.8. do but mark well the places; and for this very property of thus opposing and perverting, they are all there concluded arrant and absolute witches; and it will be easily granted, that the same that is called a witch, is called a false Christ, a false prophet, and a sorcerer, and that the terms are synonymous: and that what the witches aim at is, to seduce the people to seek after other gods. But here the question will be, whether the witch really do things strange in themselves, and beyond their natural course, and all this by a power immediately from the devil. In this inquiry, as we have nothing to do with unwritten verities, so but little with cabalistic learning, which might perhaps but lead us more astray; as in the instance of their charging our Saviour with casting out devils by Beelzebub: his answer is, if satan be divided against himself, his kingdom hath an end. But seeing all are agreed, set this eighth conclusion:

8. That God will not give his testimony to a lie. To say that God did at any time empower a witch to work wonders, to gain belief to the doctrine of devils, were with one breath to destroy the root and branch of all revealed religion. And hence it is clear the witch has no such wonder-working power from God. And must we then conclude she has such a miraculous power from the devil? If so, then it follows, that either God gives the devil leave to empower the witch to make use of this seal, in order to deceive, or else that the devil has this power independent of himself. To assert the first of these were in effect to say, that though God will not give his testimony to a lie, yet that he may empower the devil to set to it God's own seal, in order to deceive. And what were this but to overthrow all revealed religion? The last, if asserted, must be to own the devil to be an unconquered enemy, and consequently a sovereign deity, and deserving much thanks, that he exerts his power no more. Therefore in this dilemma it is wisdom for shallow mortals to have recourse to their only guide, and impartially to inquire, whether the witches really have such a miraculous or wonder-working power. And it is remarkable that the apostle, Gal. V. 20, reckons up witchcraft among the works of the flesh: which were it indeed a wonder-working power, received immediately from the devil, and wholly beyond the power of nature, it were very improper to place it with drunkenness, murthers, adulteries, &c. all manifestly fleshly works. 'Tis also remarkable, that witchcraft is generally in scripture joined with spiritual whoredom, i. e. idolatry. This thence will plainly appear to be the same; only pretending to a sign, in order to deceive, seems to be yet a further degree; and in this sense Manasseh and Jezebel, 2 Chron. Xxxiii. 6, 2 Kings ix. 22, used witchcraft and whoredoms. Nahum iii. 4, the idolatrous city is called the mistress of witchcrafts. But to instance in one place instead of many, 2 Thess. ii .3 to 12, particularly 9 and 10 v. Even him, whose coming is after the working of satan, with all power and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, &c. This that then was spoken in the prophecy of that man of sin, that was to appear, how abundantly does history testify the fulfillment of it, particularly to seduce to the worship of images! Have not the images been made to move, to smile, &c. too tedious were it to mention the hundredth part of what undoubted history doth abundantly testify. And hence do set down this ninth conclusion:

9. That the man of sin, or seducer, &c. makes use of lying wonders to the end to deceive, and that God in righteous judgment may send strong delusions that they should believe a lie, that they might be damned, who believe not the trrr-truth, &c.

'Tis certain that the devil is a proud being, and would be thought to have a power equal to the Almighty; and it cannot but be very grateful to him to see mortals charging one another with doing such works by the devil's power, as in truth is the proper prerogative of the Almighty, Omnipotent Being. The next head should have been about an explicit covenant between the witch and the devil, &c. but in this, the whole of it, I cannot persuade myself but you must be sensible of an apparent leaning to education (or tradition) the scriptures being wholly silent on it; and supposing this to fall in as a dependent on what went before, I shall say the less to it; for if the devil has no such power to communicate upon such compact, then the whole is a fiction; though I cannot but acknowledge you have said so much to uphold that doctrine, that I know not how any could have done more. However, as I said, I find not myself engaged (unless scripture proof were offered) to meddle with it: for as you have in such cases your reason for your guide, so I must be allowed that little I have, and do only say, that as God is a spirit, so he must be worshipped in spirit and in truth: so also that the devil is a spirit, and that is rule is in the hearts of the children of disobedience, and that an explicit covenant of one nature or another can have little force, any further than as the heart is engaged in it. And so I pass to the last, viz. Whether a witch ought to be put to death; and without accumulation of the offence do judge, that where the law of any country is to punish by death such as seduce and tempt to the worship of strange gods, (or idols or statues,) by as good authority may they, no doubt, punish these as capital offenders, who are distinguished by that one remove, viz. to their seducing is added a sign, i. e. they pretend to a sign in order to seduce. And thus, worthy sir, I have freely given you my thoughts upon yours, which you so much obliged me with the sight of; and upon the whole, though I cannot in the general but commend your caution in not asserting many things contended for by others, yet must say, that in my esteem there is retained so much as will secure all the rest: (to instance) if a spirit has a vehicle, i. e. some portion of matter which it acts, &c. hence as necessarily may be inferred that doctrine of incubus and succubus, and why not that also of procreation by spirits both good and bad? Thus was Alexander the Great, the British Merlin, and Martin Luther, and many others, said to be begotten. Again, if the witch had such a wonder-working power, why not to afflict? Will not the devil thus far gratify her? And have none this miraculous power, but the covenanting witch? Then the offence lies in the covenant; then it is not only hard, but impossible to find a witch by such evidence as the law of God requires; for it will not be supposed that they call witness to this covenant; therefore it will not be here necessary to admit of such as the nature of such covenant will bear (as Mr. Gaule had it in his fifth head, i. e.) the testimony of the afflicted, with their spectral sight, to tell who afflicts themselves or others; the experiment of saying the Lord's prayer, falling at the sight and rising at the touch, searching for teats, (i. e. excrescences of nature) strange and foreign stories of the death of some cattle, or oversetting some cart. And what can juries have better to guide them to find out this covenant by?

It is matter of lamentation, and let it be for a lamentation, to consider how these things have opened the flood gates of malice, revenge, uncharitableness and bloodshed, and what multitudes have been swept away by this torrent.

In Germany, countries depopulated; in Scotland, no less than 4000 are said to have suffered by fire and halter at one heat.

Thus we may say with the prophet, Isa. l ix. 10, We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noon day as in the night, we are in desolate places as dead men; and this be seeking to be wise above what is written, in framing to ourselves such crimes and such ordeals (or ways of trial) as are wholly foreign from the direction of our only guide, which should be a light to our feet, and a lanthorn to our paths; but instead of this, if we have followed the direction, we have followed the example, of pagan and papal Rome, thereby rendering us contemptible and base before all people, according as we have not kept his ways, but have been partial in his law.

And now, that we may, in all our sentiments and ways, have regard to his testimonies, and give to the Almighty the glory due to is name, is the earnest desire and prayers of sir, yours, to command, R. C.

Sir,

Since your design of giving copies of our papers, if not to the public, at least out of your hands, I find myself obliged to make a reply to your answer, lest silence should be construed an assent to the positions whereby, I think, truth would be scandalized.

I remember that some have taught that it is not certain there is any such thing really in being as matter; because the ideas which we have of our own and all other bodies may be caused do arise in us by God, without the real existence of the objects they represent. But this opinion is not only absurd and false, but likewise atheistical, destroying the veracity of the Almighty, whom it asserts to have determined us by a fatal necessity to believe things to be, which are not; and I wonder that you should allude unto it, because that angels have appeared in a dream, in a vision; for we dream also of trees, birds, &c. Are there therefore no such things in nature, because we dream to see and hear them, when we are asleep? St. Paul is his vision was so far from believing the objects that were represented to him to come by the intermedium of his senses, that he declares, he does not know whether he was in the body or out of the body; therefore the instance is in no wise proper. For Abraham and the Blessed Virgin did see and hear; and if there were not such things really, as were represented to them by their senses, they were deluded, by being made to believe they saw and heard what was not. There is none who denieth God causeth thoughts to arise in men's minds; but thence to infer he maketh objects which are not, by forming their ideas in our minds, to appear to us though they were, is a piece not only of vain, but very dangerous philosophy.

It is true, the good angels will not appear without the appointment of God; they will not do any one action, but according to the laws he has prescribed to them. But you say they cannot, (which does not follow from your premises) supposing their not appearing to proceed from the defect of their power, and not the rectitude of their will; which fallacy has deceived you into a third conclusion: for the fallen angels are not so held under chains of darkness, but that they can, and do, go to and fro on the earth, seeking whom they may devour. Before their fall they could have appeared if sent, and would not then do any things without a divine command; but now they have rebelled against God, and do all they can to despite him; therefore their not appearing now (if it were true they never did, they never shall, appear) must proceed from a restraint they are under, which is accidental, not essential to their nature; so that the true conclusion is, the fallen angels, while they are under forcible restraint from God to the contrary, cannot appear. But what this (being cleared from the ambiguity you express it in) maketh to the purpose, I know not, unless God had promised for a determinate time to detain them under this restraint.

I do not understand what you intend by the dead being raised by holy men: the most natural inference is, that, in imitation of them, wicked men, by their enchantments calling on a demon to appear in the shape of the dead, will pretend that they also can raise the dead.

The Romanists are much obliged to you for making transubstantiation (so much contended for by them) to be of as old a date as the appearance of devils, and that the one implieth no more contradiction than the other: if so, we do well to think seriously whether we are not guilty of great sin in separating from them; for certainly whatever private men's notions in this age may be, yet it is matter of great moment, that all antiquity the Sadducees, the elder brethren of our Hobbists, excepted) hath believed the appearance of evil spirits and their delusions.

I should be too officious if I offered to explain how matter, real matter, may fall under the cognizance of one of our senses, and not the rest. It is for you to show the impossibility thereof, if you will build any thing upon your assertion; to prove which, your first argument is (it seems to me) a chimera; which is not enough, when there are many to whom it seems to be a truth. Your second is very dangerous, and highly derogatory to the honour of God, between whom and the devil you make comparison powers, are in their own nature likewise good, the evil proceeding only from the rebellious will of the creature; wherefore it is no paradox, but a certain truth, that the same action in respect of the first cause is good, but in respect of the second is evil; for instance, the act of copulation is in itself good, instituted by God, and may be explicitly willed and desired by the soul, which sinneth not for exerting the simple act, but for exerting it contrary to the laws prescribed by God; as in wedlock and adultery there is the same special natural action, which, considered simply, as flowing from a power given to man by God, is certainly good; but considered with relation to the rebellious will of the adulterer (who lieth with his neighbor's wife, whom he is forbid to touch) is a very great evil. We may say the same of all human actions; the executioner and the murtherer do the same natural act of striking and killing; the difference consists in the rectitude of the one's, and depravation of the other's, will. These things premised, what more reason have we to conclude that the devil (because he shews signs and wonders to gain belief to lies, which is very contrary to the will of God) must be therefore an independent power, than that the adulterer, the murtherer, or any other sinner (because their actions being evil, of which God cannot be the cause) must be independent beings? The deceit of the last is very palpable, and I doubt not but you will readily acknowledge it; for it is obvious from what has been said, to the meanest capacity, to distinguish between the action itself, which is good, and flows from God, and the circumstances of the action, the choice whereof proceeds from the iniquity of the will, wherein doth solely consist the sin; the parallel is so exact, that I cannot see the least shadow of reason, why we ought not in like manner to distinguish whatever effect is produced by the devil; to whom (as to man) God, having given powers, is truly and properly the cause of all the actions (in a natural, but not moral sense) that flow from the powers he has given. Therefore the wonder-working power of the devil, and the effects thereof, considered as acts of one of God's creatures, are not evil, but good: the using that power (which proceeds from the rebellion of satan) to bear testimony to a lie, is that one which constitutes the evil thereof.

And now I have done with your argument, wherein you have indeed shewn great skill and dexterity in turning to your advantage what, being fairly stated, makes against you, as the appearance of angels, &c. observing nicely the rules of art, and particularly that grand one, of concealing, nay, dissembling, the same art: as when you quote that scripture concerning vain philosophy (of which, though altogether foreign from the matter in hand, yet) you intend to serve yourself with the unthinking, who measure the sense of words by their jingle, not knowing how to weight the things they signify; and truly herein your end is very artificial; for you intend both to throw dirt at them that differ from you, and at the same time to cover yourself with such a subtle web, through which you may see, and not be seen. What follows is rather a rhetorical lecture, such as the patriots of sects (who commonly explain the holy scriptures according to their own dogmas, and so obtrude human invention for the pure word of God) use with their auditors, to recommend any principle they have a mind to establish, than an impartial and thorough disquisition of a controverted point; wherefore I do not think myself obliged to take any further notice of it; especially seeing truth, which for the most part is little regarded in such florid discourses, and not any prejudice of education, interest or party, did set me about this subject. I have never been used to compliment in points of controversy, therefore I hope you will not be angry, because I have given you my thoughts naked and plain. I have not the least motion in my mind of accusing you of any formal design to injure religious; I only observe unto you, that your over eager contention to maintain your principle has hurried you to assert many things of much greater danger, both in themselves and in their consequences, than those you would seem to avoid; which do amount to no more than that men, being (in the ordinary course of providence) the depositories of both divine and human laws, may (instead of using them to preserve) pervert them to destroy; which indeed is very lamentable. But it is the inevitable consequent of our depraved nature, and cannot be wholly remedied, till sin, and the grand author of sin, the devil, be entirely conquered, and God be all in all; to whom, with the Son and Holy Ghost, be glory forever, Amen.

Sir, your affectionate friend to serve you. Boston, July 25, 1694. ......