well. Giles Corey, a man eighty years of age, when charged refused to plead, and was pressed to death—the only instance of the application of this ancient law on the American continent.
When it is remembered that a number of these persons were among the most pious and amiable of the people of Salem, Salem Village, and other parts of Essex County; that they were related by blood, marriage, friendship, and Christian fellowship to many of those who cried out against them, both as accusers and supporters of the prosecutions, the transaction must be classed among the darkest in human history.
DOES THE BIBLE TEACH THE REALITY OF WITCHCRAFT?
Sir Matthew Hale, in his "Trial of Witches," 1661, basing the conclusion upon the Scriptures, afiirms that there is a real supernatural operation of the devil at the request of a witch. John Wesley, who was born only twelve years after the scenes in Salem, wrote in May, 1768: "They well know [meaning infidels, materialists, and deists]—whether Christians know it or not—that the giving up of witchcraft is in effect giving up the Bible." In a letter to his brother, written some years afterward, he declares that he believes all Cotton Mather's stories. His opinions upon these subjects were those of the age, but did not convince his brother Charles, who frequently expostulated with him for his credulity. With the same spirit and in the same way he affirmed it a giving up of the Bible to question various ideas now rejected by the most devout Christians, and did on some points himself repudiate in later periods of
