The religion, however, that the Puritan woman imbibed from girlhood to
old age went further than this; it taught the theory of a personal
devil. To the New England colonists Satan was a very real individual
capable of taking to himself a physical form with the proverbial tail,
horns, and hoofs. Hear what Cotton Mather, one of the most eminent
divines of early Massachusetts, has to say in his _Memorable
Providences_ about this highly personal Satan: "There is both a God and
a Devil and Witchcraft: That there is no out-ward Affliction, but what
God may (and sometimes doth) permit Satan to trouble his people withal:
That the Malice of Satan and his Instruments, is very great against the
Children of God: That the clearest Gospel-Light shining in a place, will
not keep some from entering hellish Contracts with infernal Spirits:
That Prayer is a powerful and effectual Remedy against the malicious
practices of Devils and those in Covenant with them."[8]

And His Satanic Majesty had legions of followers, equally insistent on
tormenting humanity. In _The Wonders of the Invisible World_, published
in 1692, Mather proves that there is a devil and that the being has
specific attributes, powers, and limitations:

"A devil is a fallen angel, an angel fallen from the fear and
love of God, and from all celestial glories; but fallen to all
manner of wretchedness and cursedness.... There are multitudes,
multitudes, in the valley of destruction, where the devils are!
When we speak of the devil, 'tis a name of multitude.... The
devils they swarm about us, like the frogs of Egypt, in the most
retired of our chambers. Are we at our boards? beds? There will
be devils to tempt us into carnality. Are we in our shops? There
will be devils to tempt us into dishonesty. Yea, though we get
into the church of God, there will be devils to haunt us in the