That this opinion was not merely a conceit of their vanity, or an overweening estimate of their local importance, but a calm, deliberate conviction entertained by others as well as themselves, can be shown by abundant evidence from the literature of that period.  I will quote a single illustration of the form in which this thought occupied their minds.  The subject is worthy of being thoroughly appreciated, as it affords the key that opens to view the motives and sentiments which gave the mighty impetus to the witchcraft prosecution here in New England.

Joseph Mede, B.D., Fellow of Christ’s College, in Cambridge, England, died in 1638, at the age of fifty-three years.  He was perhaps, all things considered, the most profound scholar of his times.  His writings give evidence of a brilliant genius and an enlightened spirit.  They were held in the highest esteem by his contemporaries of all denominations, and in all parts of Europe.  He was a Churchman; but had, to a remarkable degree, the confidence of nonconformists.  He entertained, as will appear by what follows, in the boldest form, the then prevalent opinions concerning diabolical agency and influence; but, at the same time, was singularly free from some of the worst traits of superstition and bigotry.  His intimacy with the learned Dr. William Ames, and the general tone and tendency of his writings, naturally made him an authority with Protestants, particularly the Pilgrims and Puritans of New England.  His posthumous writings, published in 1652, are exceedingly interesting.  They contain fragments found among his papers, brief discussions of points of criticism, philosophy, and theology, and a varied correspondence on such subjects with eminent men of his day.  Among his principal correspondents was Dr. William Twiss, himself a person of much ingenious learning, and whom John Norton, as we are told by Cotton Mather, “loved and admired” above all men of that age.  The following passages between them illustrate the point before us.

In a letter dated March 2, 1634, Twiss writes thus:—­

“Now, I beseech you, let me know what your opinion is of our English plantations in the New World.  Heretofore, I have wondered in my thoughts at the providence of God concerning that world; not discovered till this Old World of ours is almost at an end; and then no footsteps found of the knowledge of the true God, much less of Christ; and then considering our English plantations of late, and the opinion of many grave divines concerning the gospel’s fleeting westward.  Sometimes I have had such thoughts, Why may not that be the place of the New Jerusalem?  But you have handsomely and fully cleared me from such odd conceits.  But what, I pray?  Shall our English there degenerate, and join themselves with Gog and Magog?  We have heard lately divers ways, that our people there have no hope of the conversion of the natives.  And, the very week after I received your last