his purpose?  “Nay, though I will never lay aside the character which I mentioned in my last words, yet I am willing, that, when you write, you should imagine me as obstinate a Sadducee and witch-advocate as any among us:  address me as one that believed nothing reasonable; and when you have so knocked me down, in a spectre so unlike me, you will enable me to box it about among my neighbors, till it come—­I know not where at last.”

Upon obtaining the document requisite to the fulfilment of his design, he did “box it about” so effectually among his neighbors, that he succeeded that next summer in getting up a wonderful case of witchcraft, in the person of one Margaret Rule, a member of his congregation in Boston.  Dr. Mather published an account of her long-continued fastings, even unto the ninth day, and of the incredible sufferings she endured from the “infernal enemy.”  “She was thrown,” says he, “into such exorbitant convulsions as were astonishing to the spectators in general.  They that could behold the doleful condition of the poor family without sensible compassions might have entrails, indeed, but I am sure they could have no true bowels in them.”  So far was he successful in spreading the delusion, that he prevailed upon six men to testify that they had seen Margaret Rule lifted bodily from her bed, and raised by an invisible power “so as to touch the garret floor;” that she was entirely removed from the bed or any other material support; that she continued suspended for several minutes; and that a strong man, assisted by several other persons, could not effectually resist the mysterious force that lifted her up, and poised her aloft in the air!  The people of Boston were saved from the horrors intended to be brought upon them by this dark and deep-laid plot, by the activity, courage, and discernment of Calef and others, who distrusted Dr. Mather, and, by watching his movements, exposed the imposture, and overthrew the whole design.

Mr. Parris does not appear to have produced much effect by his sermons.  The people had suffered enough from the “war between the Devil and the Lamb,” as he and Mather had conducted it; and it could not be renewed.

Immediately upon the termination of the witchcraft proceedings, the controversy between Mr. Parris and the congregation, or the inhabitants, as they were called, of the village, was renewed, with earnest resolution on their part to get rid of him.  The parish neglected and refused to raise the means for paying his salary; and a majority of the voters, in the meetings of the “inhabitants,” vigilantly resisted all attempts in his favor.  The church was still completely under his influence; and, as has been stated in the First Part, he made use of that body to institute a suit against the people.  The court and magistrates were wholly in his favor, and peremptorily ordered the appointment, by the people, of a new committee.  The inhabitants complied with the order by the election of a new committee, but took care to have it composed exclusively of men opposed to Mr. Parris; and he found himself no better off than before.  He concluded not to employ his church any longer as a principal agent in his lawsuit against the parish; but used it for another purpose.