Note 31 — PART V.

Of this Abstract Dr. Mather says: "His first and main Design is to render me odious unto the Countrey, as being one chief Abettor of that Opinion, That the Devils cannot afflict in the Shape of an Innocent Person; and as being an Inciter of the Judges, to the Conviction of Witchcrafts upon that Opinion. It is very certain that his Conscience must needs tell him, this is a most Lying Accusation. For in my Book of Memorable Providences, which I writ before the Troubles at Salem, and even before I was so fully acquainted with the Wiles of Satan, (for my saying of which, on a certain Occasion, he flouts at me) I have a whole Paragraph to caution against accounting a bewitched Persons pretending to see an Apparition of such or such an one, an Argument of their being Naughty People. And some of the Chief Ministers in this Land favoured that Book with their Attestation, however my Friend Calef now Derides it." This was the Work recommended by Mr. Baxter.