at God permits the Devil thus to
bear false witness, to the destruction of the righteous, overturns all
the sentiments and instincts of our moral and religious nature. In using
this language, the Ministers did not have a rational apprehension of
what they were saying, which is the only apology for much of the
theological phraseology of that day. This phrase, "God's permission,"
had quite a currency at the time; and if it did not reconcile the mind,
subdued it to wondering and reverent silence. It will be seen that
Mather, on other occasions, repeated this idea, in various and sometimes
stronger terms. The _third_, _fifth_, _seventh_, and last clauses of the
_fourth_ Sections, contain phrases which will become intelligible, as we
advance in the examination of Mather's writings, relating to the subject
of witchcraft.

Here it may, again, be safely said, that if Increase and Cotton Mather
had really, as the Reviewer affirms, been opposed to the _admission_ of
spectral testimony, this was the time for them to have said so. If, at
this crisis, they had "denounced it, as illegal, uncharitable and
cruel," no more blood would have been shed. If the _Advice_ had even
recommended, in the most moderate terms, its absolute exclusion from
every stage of the proceedings, they would have come to an end. But it
assumes its introduction, and only suggests "disbelief" of it, in
avoiding to act upon it, in "some" instances.

Hutchinson states the conclusion of the matter, after quoting the whole
document. "The Judges seem to have paid more regard to the last article
of this _Return_, than to several which precede it; for the prosecutions
were carried on with all possible vigor, and without that exquisite
caution which is proposed."--_History_, ii., 54.

The _Advice_ was skilfully--it is not uncharitable to say--artfully
drawn up. It has deceived the Reviewer into his statement that it was
"very specific in excluding spectral testimony." A careless reader, or
one whose eyes are blinded by a partisan purpose, may not see its real
import. The paper is so worded as to mislead persons not conversant with
the ideas and phraseology of that period. But it was considered by all
the Judges, and the people in general, fully to endorse the proceedings
in the trial of Bridget Bishop, and to advise their speedy and vigorous
continuance. It was spectral testimony that overwhelmed her. It was the
fatal element that wrought the conviction of every perso