Note 208 — [2] A DISCOURSE ON THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD.[76] (continued 3)
Reading edition
The Editor feeling quite confident, that the Reader, by this Time, has got enough of the Devil, will forbear making any Remarks or Comments. Why the Author should place his "Discovery" at the End of his Book the Reader is as well qualified to judge as the Editor, and he will only add, that it is a Pity that he (the Author) had not made the Discovery sooner, if by that Discovery the poor Witches had been let alone, and left out of the Question, as no real Use of them is conceivable, when, in Reality the Devil could and actually did do all the Mischief himself.
As has been before intimated, Dr. Mather was not alone in his Estimation of the Importance of the Devil. Mr. Lawson, in his Sermon at Salem Village, before referred to, among other Passages, said to his Hearers (who were above a thousand): "It is Matter of TERROR, Amazement, and Astonishment, to all such wretched Souls, (if there be any here in the Congregation, and God grant that none of you may ever be found as such) as have given up their Names, and Souls to the Devil: Who by Covenant have bound themselves to be his Slaves and Drudges, consenting to be Instruments, in whose Shapes, he may torment and afflict their Fellow-creatures, to the amazing and astoning of the Standers by."—Page 64.
Similar Extracts might be made from many of the Writings of that Day, but Time and Space are inadequate, and the Reader, who may now incline to a better Acquaintance with the Devil, than these Pages afford him, must be referred to Dr. Mather's Cotemporaries.
In closing these Notes it should be mentioned that the Text of this Edition of the Wonders of the Invisible World has been set up from the latest London Edition of that Work, as mentioned in the Preface to this Edition. When that Preface was written it was not contemplated to use the Original Edition in reading the Proofs. But it was finally decided to read by the Original. By this Course the Text has been to some Extent improved. Yet no Difference of Importance was found. The Departures of the London Publisher were only verbal—never altering the Sense. At the Expense of a little tautological Verbiage the whole has been made conformable to the original Edition—manifest typographical Errors excepted.