h him in important
public interests and leading circles, the conclusion seems probable that
he meant, in an indirect mode of expression, to notice the fact that
Mather refused to pray with the sufferers on the occasion. In fact, we
know that Nicholas Noyes, who was Proctor's Minister, refused to pray
with him, unless he would confess. Mather and Noyes were intimately
united by personal and professional ties of friendship and communion,
and probably would not run counter to each other, at such a time, and in
the presence of such a multitude of Ministers and people.

It is to be regarded exclusively as illustrating the shocking character
of the whole procedure of the witchcraft prosecutions, and not as a
personally harsh or cruel thing, that Noyes or Mather was unwilling to
pray with persons, at their public executions, who stood convicted of
being confederates of the Devil, and who, refusing to confess, retained
that character to the last. Ministers, like them, believing that the
convicts were malefactors of a far different and deeper dye than
ordinary human crime could impart, rebels against God, apostates from
Christ, sons of Belial, recruits of the Devil's army, sworn in
allegiance to his Kingdom, baptized into his church, beyond the reach of
hope and prayer, could hardly be expected to pray _with_ them. To _join_
them in prayer was impossible. To go through the forms of united prayer
would have been incongruous with the occasion, and not more inconsistent
with the convictions of the Ministers, than repugnant to the conscious
innocence and natural sensibilities of the sufferers. Condemned,
unconfessing, unrepentant witches might be prayed _for_, or _at_, but
not _with_.

The superior greatness of mind of Burroughs and his fellow sufferers,
the true spirit of Christian forgiveness elevating them above a sense of
the errors and wrongs of which they were the victims, are beautifully
and gloriously shown in their earnestly wishing and entreating Noyes and
Mather to pray with them. They pitied their delusion, and were desirous,
in that last hour, to regard them and all others as their brethren, and
bow with them before the Father of all. The request they made of
Christian Ministers, who, at the moment, regarded them as in league with
the Devil, might not be exactly logical; a failure to comply with it is
not a just matter of reproach; but the fact that it was repeated with
earnestness, "entreated with affection," shows th