ce, that the Demons which
molest our poor neighbors do indeed represent such and such people to
the sufferers, though this be a presumption, yet I suppose you will not
reckon it a conviction that the people so represented are witches to be
immediately exterminated. It is very certain that the Devils have
sometimes represented the Shapes of persons not only innocent, but also
very virtuous. Though I believe that the just God then ordinarily
provides a way for the speedy vindication of the persons thus abused.
Moreover, I do suspect that persons, who have too much indulged
themselves in malignant, envious, malicious ebullitions of their souls,
may unhappily expose themselves to the judgment of being represented by
Devils, of whom they never had any vision, and with whom they have, much
less, written any covenant. I would say this; if upon the bare supposal
of a poor creature being represented by a spectre, too great a progress
be made by the authority in ruining a poor neighbor so represented, it
may be that a door may be thereby opened for the Devils to obtain from
the Courts in the invisible world a license to proceed unto most hideous
desolations upon the repute and repose of such as have yet been kept
from the great transgression. If mankind have thus far once consented
unto the credit of diabolical representations, the door is opened!
Perhaps there are wise and good men, that may be ready to style him that
shall advance this caution, a Witch-advocate, but in the winding up,
this caution will certainly be wished for."

This passage, strikingly illustrative, as it is, of Mather's
characteristic style of appearing, to a cursory, careless reader, to say
one thing, when he is really aiming to enforce another, while it has
deceived the Reviewer, and led him to his quixotic attempt to
revolutionize history, cannot be so misunderstood by a critical
interpreter.

In its general drift, it appears, at first sight, to disparage spectral
evidence. The question is: Does it forbid, denounce, or dissuade, its
introduction? By no means. It supposes and allows its introduction, but
says, _lay not more stress upon it than it will bear_. Further, it
affirms that it may afford "presumption" of guilt, though not sufficient
for conviction, and removes objection to its introduction, by holding
out the idea that, if admitted by the Court and it bears against
innocent persons, "the just God, then, ordinarily provides a way for
their speedy