o! All of these Evil
Things, do I now set before you, as _Branded_ with the Mark of the Devil
upon them.

_V._ With _Great Regard_, with _Great Pity_, should we Lay to Heart the
Condition of those, who are cast into Affliction, by the _Great Wrath_
of the Devil. There is a Number of our Good Neighbours, and some of them
very particularly noted for Goodness and Vertue, of whom we may say,
_Lord, They are vexed with Devils._ Their Tortures being primarily
Inflicted on their _Spirits_, may indeed cause the Impressions thereof
upon their Bodies to be the less _Durable_, tho' rather the more
_Sensible_: but they Endure Horrible Things, and many have been actually
Murdered. Hard _Censures_ now bestow'd upon these poor Sufferers, cannot
but be very Displeasing unto our Lord, who, as He said, about some that
had been Butchered by a _Pilate_, in _Luc. 13.2, 3._ _Think ye that these
were Sinners above others, because they suffered such Things? I tell you
No, But except ye Repent, ye shall all likewise Perish:_ Even so, he now
says, _Think ye that they who now suffer by the Devil, have been greater
Sinners than their Neighbours?_ No, Do you Repent of your _own Sins_,
Lest the Devil come to fall foul of _you_, as he has done to _them_. And
if this be so, How _Rash_ a thing would it be, if such of the poor
Sufferers, as carry it with a Becoming Piety, Seriousness, and
Humiliation under their present Suffering, should be unjustly
_Censured_; or have their very _Calamity_ imputed unto them as a
_Crime_? It is an easie thing, for us to fall into the Fault of, _Adding
Affliction to the Afflicted_, and of, _Talking to the Grief of those
that are already wounded_. Nor can it be wisdom to slight the Dangers of
such a Fault. In the mean time, We have no Bowels in us, if we do not
Compassionate the Distressed County of _Essex_, now crying to all these
Colonies, _Have pity on me, O ye my Friends, Have pity on me, for the
Hand of the Lord has Touched me, and the Wrath of the Devil has been
therewithal turned upon me._ But indeed, if an hearty _pity_ be due to
any, I am sure, the Difficulties which attend our Honourable _Judges_,
do demand no Inconsiderable share in that _Pity_. What a Difficult, what
an Arduous Task, have those Worthy Personages now upon their Hands? To
carry the _Knife_ so exactly, that on the one side, there may be no
Innocent Blood Shed, by too unseeing a _Zeal for the Children of
Israel_; and that on the other side, there