er did not take a leading part in the case of Goodwin's
children, in 1688. It states, as has been seen, that he "was the last of
the Ministers" asked to attend the prayer-meeting; but lets out the fact
that he was the first to present himself, going to the house and praying
with the family before the rest arrived. Goodwin further states, as
follows: "The Ministers would, now and then, come to visit my distressed
family, and pray with and for them, among which Mr. Cotton Mather would,
now and then, come." The whole document is so framed as to present
Mather as playing a secondary part.

In an account, however, of the affair, written by this same John
Goodwin, and printed by Mather, in London, ten years before, in _The
Memorable Providences relating to Witchcraft and Possessions_, a
somewhat different position is assigned to Mather. After saying "the
Ministers did often visit us," he mentions "Mr. Mather particularly."
"He took much pains in this great service, to pull this child and her
brother and sister, out of the hands of the Devil. Let us now admire and
adore that fountain, the Lord Jesus Christ, from whence those streams
come. The Lord himself will requite his labor of love." In 1690, Mather
was willing to have Goodwin place him in the foreground of the picture,
representing him as pulling the children out of the hand of the Devil.
In 1700, it was expedient to withdraw him into the background: and
Goodwin, accordingly, provided the Committee, of which he was a member,
with a Certificate of a somewhat different color and tenor.

The execution of the woman, Glover, on the charge of having bewitched
these Goodwin children, is one of the most atrocious passages of our
history. Hutchinson[1] says she was one of the "wild Irish," and
"appeared to be disordered in her senses." She was a Roman Catholic,
unable to speak the English language, and evidently knew not what to
make of the proceedings against her. In her dying hour, she was
understood by the interpreter to say, that taking away her life would
not have any effect in diminishing the sufferings of the children. The
remark, showing more sense than any of the rest of them had, was made to
bear against the poor old creature, as a diabolical imprecation.

Between the time of her condemnation and that of her execution, Cotton
Mather took the eldest Goodwin child into his family, and kept her there
all winter. He has told the story of her extraordinary doings, in a
styl