When was memorable providences published

Witchcrafts and Possessions. WHAT Witchraft is:. By way of Exhortrtion. USE of the Second proposition. USE of the Third Proposition. All Digital Collections. Let not him Tie your Tongues , and it is likely he will not gain your Souls.

Complain to a good God of the Dangers in which you find your selves; cry to Him, Lord , I am oppressed, undertake for me. Complain also to a wise Friend. Let some prudent and faithful Neighbour understand your Circumstances: Tis possible you may thereby escape the Snares with which the cruel Fowlers of Hell hope to trapan you into their dismal Clutches for evermore. Your Neighbours may do much for you; and may prove your Keepers if God shall please.

It may be the unkindness of some Friend, may have thrown you into your present Madness. Now the Kindness of some Friend may prove the Antidote. Many times , a Natural Distemper , is that by which the Devil takes advantage to get the souls of Self-Destroyers into his bloody hands. In this case, for the tempted persons to disclose their Griefs , will be the way to obtain their cures.

Their Neighbours ought now to consult a skilful Physician for them; and oblige , yea, constrain them to follow his Directions. When the Humours on and by which the Devil works, are taken away, perhaps he may be starved out of doors. Print source: Memorable providences, relating to witchcrafts and possessions.

Mather, Cotton, Printed at Boston in N. England: by R. View entire text. In , Mather published a book titled "Remarkable Provinces," a book recounting his experience with possessed children in Boston's Goodwin family. In the book, Mather outlined symptoms of clinical hysteria and related the children's possession to witchcraft.

He published another book titled "Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possession" in that increased public interest in witchcraft and later led to witch trials during the colonial era. Mather's books played a role in instigating the first accusations of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts - accusations that later led to the Salem Witch Trials, the accusations of over people, and the deaths of Mather also wrote to the courts trying witches in Salem and petitioned to allow spectral evidence - evidence from spirits within the possessed witches attesting to their use of witchcraft.

The trials themselves were based on false evidence - no one in Salem was actually a witch - but the fear stirred up by writers like Mather made the citizens afraid, and more likely to turn against their friends and neighbors.