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THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL
AS WELL
ANCIENT as MODERN:
IN TWO PARTS.
Part I.
Containing a State of the Devil’s Circumstances, and the various
Turns of his Affairs; from his Expulsion out of Heaven, to the
Creation of Man; with Remarks on the Several Mistakes concerning
the Reason and Manner of his Fall.
Also his Proceedings with Mankind ever since Adam, to the first
planting of the Christian Religion in the World.
Part II.
Containing his more private Conduct, down to the present Times: His
Government, his Appearances, his manner of Working, and the Tools
he works with.
Bad as he is, the Devil may be abus’d,
Be falsly charg’d, and causelesly accus’d,
When Men, unwilling to be blam’d alone,
Shift off these Crimes on Him which are their Own.
The Second Edition.
LONDON:
Printed for T. Warner, at the Black Boy in
Pater-noster Row. 1727.
The PREFACE
TO THE
SECOND EDITION.
This Second Edition of this Work, notwithstanding a large Impression of
the First, is a Certificate from the World of its general Acceptation;
so we need not, according to the Custom of Editors, boast of it without
Evidence, or tell a F——b in its Favour.
The Subject is singular, and it has been handled after a singular
Manner: The wise World has been pleased with it, the merry World has
been diverted with it, and the ignorant World has been taught by it;
none but the malicious part of the World has been offended at it: Who
can wonder, that when the Devil is not pleased, his Friends should be
angry?
The strangest thing of it all is, to hear Satan complain that the
Story is handled prophanely: But who can think it strange that his
Advocates should be, what he was from the Beginning?
The Author affirms, and has good Vouchers for it (in the Opinion of
such whose Judgment passes with him for an Authority) that the whole
Tenor of the Work is solemn, calculated to promote serious Religion, and
capable of being improv’d in a religious manner. But he does not think
that we are bound never to speak of the Devil but with an Air of
Terror, as if we were always afraid of him.
’Tis evident the Devil, as subtle and as frightful as he is, has
acted the ridiculous and foolish Part, as much as most of God’s
Creatures, and daily does so. And he cannot believe ’tis any Sin to
expose him for a foolish Devil, as he is, or shew the World that he
may be laugh’d at.
Those that think the Subject not handled with Gravity enough, have all
the Room given them in the World to handle it better; and as the Author
professes he is far from thinking his Piece perfect, they ought not to
be angry that he gives them leave to mend it. He has had the
Satisfaction to please some Readers, and to see good Men approve it; and
for the rest, as my Lord Rochester says in another Case,
He counts their Censure Fame.
As for a certain Reverend Gentleman, who is pleased gravely to dislike
the Work (he hopes, rather for the Author’s sake than the Devil’s)
he only says, Let the Performance be how it will, and the Author what
he will, it is apparent he has not yet preach’d away all his Hearers.
It is enough to me (says the Author) that the Devil himself is not
pleased with my Work, and less with the Design of it; let the Devil
and all his fellow Complainers stand on one side, and the honest, well
meaning, charitable World, who approve my Work, on the other, and I’ll
tell Noses with Satan, if he dares.
THE CONTENTS.
PART I. |
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Chap. I. |
Being an Introduction to the whole Work, |
Page 1 |
|
Chap. II. |
Of the Word DEVIL, as it is a proper Name to the Devil, and any or
all his Host, Angels, &c. | 18 |
|
Chap. III. |
Of the Original of the DEVIL, who he is, what he was before his
Expulsion out of Heaven, and in what State he was from that Time to the Creation of Man |
31 |
|
Chap. IV. |
Of the Name of the Devil, his Original, and the Nature of his Circumstances since he has been call’d by that Name |
38 |
|
Chap. V. |
Of the Station Satan had in Heaven before he fell; the Nature and Original
of his Crime, and some of Mr. Milton’s Mistakes about it | 63 |
|
Chap. VI. |
What became of the Devil and his Host of fallen Spirits after their
being expell’d from Heaven, and his wandring Condition till the
Creation; with some more of Mr. Milton’s Absurdities on that Subject | 77 |
|
Chap. VII. |
Of the Number of Satan’s Host; how they came first to know of the new
created Worlds now in Being, and their Measures with Mankind upon the Discovery | 86 |
|
Chap. VIII. |
Of the Power of the Devil at the Time of the Creation of this World;
whether it has not been farther straiten’d and limited since that Time,
and what Shifts and Stratagems he is oblig’d to make use of to compass
his Designs upon Mankind | 95 |
|
Chap. IX. |
Of the Progress of Satan in carrying on his Conquest over Mankind, from
the Fall of Eve to the Deluge | 111 |
|
Chap. X. |
Of the Devil’s second Kingdom, and how he got footing in the renewed
World by his Victory over Noah and his Race | 129 |
|
Chap. XI. |
Of God’s calling a Church out of the midst of a degenerate World, and
of Satan’s new Measures upon that Incident: How he attacked them
immediately, and his Success in those Attacks | 159 |
| |
PART II. |
|
Chap. I. |
The Introduction | 192 |
|
Chap. II. |
Of Hell as it is represented to us, and how the Devil is to be
understood, as being personally in Hell, when at the same Time we find him at Liberty ranging over the World |
206 |
|
Chap. III. |
Of the Manner of Satan’s acting and carrying on his Affairs in this
World, and particularly of his ordinary Workings in the dark, by Possession and Agitation |
216 |
|
Chap. IV. |
Of Satan’s Agents or Missionaries, and their Actings upon and in the
Minds of Men in his Name | 226 |
|
Chap. V. |
Of the Devil’s Management in the Pagan Hierarchy by Omens, Entrails,
Augurs, Oracles, and such like Pageantry of Hell; and how they went off
the Stage at last by the Introduction of true Religion | 245 |
|
Chap. VI. |
Of the extraordinary Appearances of the Devil, and particularly of the Cloven-Foot |
265 |
|
Chap. VII. |
Whether is most hurtful to the World, the Devil walking about without
his Cloven-Foot, or the Cloven-Foot walking about without the Devil? |
282 |
|
Chap. VIII. |
Of the Cloven-Foot walking about the World without the Devil (viz.)
of Witches making Bargains with the Devil, and particularly of selling the Soul to the Devil |
316 |
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Chap. IX. |
Of the Tools the Devil works with (viz.) Witches, Wizards or
Warlocks, Conjurers, Magicians, Diviners, Astrologers, Interpreters of
Dreams, Tellers of Fortunes; and above all the rest, his particular
modern Privy-Counsellors call’d Wits and Fools | 339 |
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Chap. X. |
Of the various Methods the Devil takes to converse with Mankind |
352 |
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Chap. XI. |
Of Divination, Sorcery, the Black-Art, Pawawing, and such like
Pretenders to Devilisms, and how far the Devil is or is not concern’d in them |
377 |
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The Conclusion. |
Of the Devil’s last Scene of Liberty, and what may be supposed to be
his End; with what we are to understand of his being tormented for ever and ever |
404 |
[Pg 1]
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL, &c.
Chap. I.
Being an Introduction to the whole Work.
I doubt not but the title of this book will amuse some of my reading
friends a little at first; they will make a pause, perhaps, as they do
at a witch’s prayer, and be some time resolving whether they had best
look into it or no, lest they should really raise the Devil by reading his story.
Children and old women have told themselves so many frightful things of
the Devil, and have form’d ideas of him in their minds, in so many
horrible and monstrous shapes, that really it were enough to fright the
Devil himself, to meet himself in the dark, dress’d up in the several
figures which imagination has form’d for him in the minds of men; and as
for themselves, I cannot think by any means that the Devil would
terrify them half[Pg 2] so much, if they were to converse face to face with him.
It must certainly therefore be a most useful undertaking to give the
true history of this Tyrant of the air, this God of the world, this
terror and aversion of mankind, which we call Devil; to shew what he
is, and what he is not, where
he is, and where he is not, when he is in
us, and when he is not; for I cannot doubt but that the Devil is
really and bona fide in a great many of our honest weak-headed
friends, when they themselves know nothing of the matter.
Nor is the work so difficult as some may imagine. The Devil’s
history is not so hard to come at, as it seems to be; His original and
the first rise of his family is upon record, and as for his conduct, he
has acted indeed in the dark, as to method in many things; but in
general, as cunning as he is, he has been fool enough to expose himself
in some of the most considerable transactions of his Life, and has not
shewn himself a politician at all: Our old friend Matchiavel outdid
him in many things, and I may in the process of this work give an
account of several of the sons of Adam, and some societies of ’em too,
who have out-witted the Devil, nay, who have out-sin’d the Devil,
and that I think may be call’d out-shooting him in his own bow.
It may perhaps be expected of me in this history, that since I seem
inclin’d to speak favourably of Satan, to do him justice, and to write
his story impartially, I should take some pains to tell you what
religion he is of; and even this part may not be so much a jest, as at
first sight you may take it to be; for Satan has something of religion
in him, I assure you; nor is he such an unprofitable Devil that way,
as some may suppose him to be; for tho’, in reverence to my brethren,[Pg 3] I
will not reckon him among the Clergy; No not so much as a gifted
Brother, yet I cannot deny, but that he often preaches, and if it be not
profitably to his hearers; ’tis as much their fault, as it is out of his design.
It has indeed been suggested that he has taken orders, and that a
certain Pope, famous for being an extraordinary favourite of his, gave
him both institution and induction; but as this is not upon record, and
therefore we have no authentic document for the probation, I shall not
affirm it for a truth, for I would not slander the Devil.
It is said also, and I am apt to believe it, that he was very familiar
with that holy father Pope Silvester II. and some charge him with
personating Pope Hildebrand on an extraordinary occasion, and himself
sitting in the chair apostolick, in a full congregation; and you may
hear more of this hereafter: But as I do not meet with Pope Diabolus
among the list; in all father Platina’s lives of the Popes, so I am
willing to leave it as I find it.
But to speak to the point, and a nice point it is I acknowledge;
namely, what religion the Devil is of; my answer will indeed be
general, yet not at all ambiguous, for I love to speak positively and
with undoubted evidence.
1. He is a believer. And if in saying so it should follow, that
even the Devil has more religion than some of our men of fame can
at this time be charged with, I hope my Lord —— and his Grace the
—— of —— and some of the upper class in the red-hot club, will
not wear the coat, however well it may sit to their shapes, or
challenge the Satyr, as if it were pointed at them, because ’tis
due to them: In a word, whatever their Lordships[Pg 4] are, I can assure
them that the Devil is no Infidel.
2. He fears God. We have such abundant evidence of this in sacred
History, that if I were not at present, in common with a few
others, talking to an infidel sort of Gentlemen, with whom those
remote things call’d Scriptures are not allow’d in evidence, I
might say it was sufficiently prov’d; but I doubt not in the
process of this undertaking to shew, that the Devil really fears
God, and that after another manner than ever he fear’d Saint
Frances or Saint Dunstan; and if that be proved, as I take upon
me to advance, I shall leave it to judgment, who’s the better
Christian, the Devil who believes and trembles, or our modern
gentry of —— who believe neither God nor Devil.
Having thus brought the Devil within the Pale, I shall leave him
among you for the present; not but that I may examine in its order who
has the best claim to his brotherhood, the Papists or the Protestants;
and among the latter the Lutherans or the Calvinists; and so descending
to all the several denominations of churches, see who has less of the
Devil in them, and who more; and whether less or more the Devil has
not a seat in every synagogue, a pew in every church, a place in every
pulpit, and a vote in every synod; even from the Sanhedrim of the
Jews, to our friends at the Bull and Mouth, &c. from the greatest to the least.
It will, I confess, come very much within the compass of this part of my
discourse, to give an account, or at least make an essay toward it, of
the share the Devil has had in the spreading religion in the world;
and especially of dividing and[Pg 5] subdividing opinions in religion;
perhaps, to eke it out and make it reach the farther; and also to shew
how far he is or has made himself a missionary of the famous clan de
propaganda fide; it is true, we find him heartily employ’d in almost
every corner of the world ad propagandum errorem: But that may require a history by it self.
As to his propagating religion, ’tis a little hard indeed, at first
sight, to charge the Devil with propagating religion, that is to say,
if we take it literally, and in the gross; but if you take it as the
Scots insisted to take the oath of fidelity, viz. with an
explanation, it is plain Satan has very often had a share in the
method, if not in the design of propagating the christian faith: For example.
I think I do no injury at all to the Devil, to say that he had a great
hand in the old holy war, as it was ignorantly and enthusiastically
call’d; stirring up the christian princes and powers of Europe to run
a madding after the Turks and Saracens, and make war with those
innocent people above a thousand miles off, only because they entred
into God’s heritage when he had forsaken it; graz’d upon his ground when
he had fairly turn’d it into a common, and laid it open for the next
comer; spending their nation’s treasure, and embarking their kings and
people, (I say) in a war above a thousand miles off, filling their heads
with that religious madness, call’d, in those days, holy zeal to
recover the terra sancta, the sepulchers of Christ and the Saints, and
as they call’d it falsly, the holy city, tho’ true religion says it
was the accursed city, and not worth spending one drop of blood for.
This religious Bubble was certainly of Satan, who, as he craftily
drew them in, so like a true Devil he left them in the lurch when they
came there, fac’d about to the Saracens, animated the[Pg 6] immortal
Saladin against them, and manag’d so dexterously that he left the
bones of about thirteen or fourteen hundred thousand Christians there as
a trophy of his infernal politicks; and after the christian world had
run a la santa terra, or in English a saunt’ring, about a hundred
year, he dropt it to play another game less foolish, but ten times
wickeder than that which went before it, namely, turning the crusadoes
of the Christians one against another; and, as Hudibras said in another case,
“Made them fight like mad or drunk
“For dame religion as for punk.
Of this you have a compleat account in the history of the Popes decrees
against the Count de Thoulouse, and the Waldenses and Albigenses,
with the crusadoes and massacres which follow’d upon them, wherein to do
the Devil’s politicks some justice, he met with all the success he
could desire; the zealots of that day executed his infernal orders most
punctually, and planted religion in those countries in a glorious and
triumphant manner, upon the destruction of an infinite number of
innocent people, whose blood has fatten’d the soil for the growth of the
Catholick faith, in a manner very particular, and to Satan’s full satisfaction.
I might, to compleat this part of his history, give you the detail of
his progress in these first steps of his alliances with Rome; and add
a long list of massacres, wars, and expeditions in behalf of religion,
which he has had the honour to have a visible hand in; such as the
Parisian massacre, the Flemish war under the Duke d’ Alva, the
Smithfield fires in the Marian days in England, and the massacres
in Ireland; all which would most effectually convince us that the
Devil has not been[Pg 7] idle in his business; but I may meet with these
again in my way, ’tis enough, while I am upon the generals only, to
mention them thus in a summary way; I say, ’tis enough to prove that
the Devil has really been as much concerned as any body, in the
methods taken by some people for propagating the christian religion in the world.
Some have rashly, and I had almost said maliciously charg’d the Devil
with the great triumphs of his friends the Spaniards in America, and
would place the conquest of Mexico and Peru to the credit of his account.
But I cannot join with them in this at all, I must say, I believe the
Devil was innocent of that matter; my reason is, because, Satan was
never such a fool as to spend his time, or his politicks, or embark his
allies to conquer nations who were already his own; that would be
Satan against Beelzebub, making war upon himself, and at least doing
nothing to the purpose.
If they should charge him, indeed, with deluding Philip II. of Spain
into that preposterous attempt call’d the Armada, (anglice, the
Spanish Invasion,) I should indeed more readily join with them; but
whether he did it weakly, in hope, which was indeed not likely, that
it should succeed; or wickedly, to destroy that great fleet of the
Spaniards, and draw them within the reach of his own dominions, the
elements; this being a question which authors differ exceedingly about,
I shall leave it to decide it self.
But the greatest piece of management, which we find the Devil has
concern’d himself in of late, in the matter of religion, seems to be
that of the mission into China; and here indeed Satan has acted his
master-piece: It was, no doubt, much for his service that the Chineses
should have no insight into matters of religion, I mean, that we call
[Pg 8]christian; and therefore, tho’ Popery and the Devil are not at so
much variance as some may imagine, yet he did not think it safe to let
the general system of Christianity be heard of among them in China.
Hence when the name of the christian religion had but been received with
some seeming approbation in the country of Japan, Satan immediately,
as if alarm’d at the thing, and dreading what the consequence of it
might be, arm’d the Japoneses against it with such fury, that they expell’d it at once.
It was much safer to his designs, when, if the story be not a fiction,
he put that Dutch witicism into the mouths of the States commanders,
when they came to Japan; who having more wit than to own themselves
Christians in such a place as that, when the question was put to them,
answered negatively, That they were not, but that they were of
another religion call’d Hollanders.
However, it seems the diligent Jesuits out-witted the Devil in
China, and, as I said above, over-shot him in his own Bow; for the
mission being in danger by the Devil and the Chinese Emperor’s
joining together, of being wholly expell’d there too, as they had been
in Japan, they cunningly fell in with the ecclesiasticks of the
country, and joining the priestcraft of both religions together, they
brought Jesus Christ and Confucius to be so reconcilable, that the
Chinese and the Roman idolatry appeared capable of a confederacy, of
going on hand in hand together, and consequently of being very good friends.
This was a master-piece indeed, and, as they say, almost frighted
Satan out of his wits; but he being a ready manager, and particularly
famous for serving himself of the rogueries of the priests, fac’d about
immediately to the mission, and making a virtue of necessity, clapt in,
with[Pg 9] all possible alacrity, with the proposal[1];
so the Jesuits and he form’d a hotch-potch of religion made up of Popery and Paganism
and calculated to leave the latter rather worse than they found it,
binding the faith of Christ and the philosophy or morals of Confucius
together, and formally christening them by the name of religion; by
which means the politick interest of the mission was preserved; and yet
Satan lost not one inch of ground with the Chineses, no, not by the
planting the Gospel it self, such as it was, among them.
Nor has it been such disadvantage to him that this plan or scheme of a
new modell’d religion would not go down at Rome, and that the
Inquisition damn’d it with Bell, Book and Candle; distance of place
serv’d his new allies, the missionaries, in the stead of a protection
from the Inquisition; and now and then a rich present well plac’d found
them friends in the congregation it self; and where any Nuncio with his
impudent zeal pretended to take such a long voyage to oppose them,
Satan took care to get him sent back re infecta, or inspir’d the
million to move him off the premisses, by methods of their own (that is
to say, being interpreted) to murther him.
Thus the mission has in itself been truly devilish, and the Devil has
interested himself in the planting the christian religion in China.
The influence the Devil has in the Politicks of mankind, is another
especial part of his history, and would require, if it were possible, a
very exact description; but here we shall necessarily be obliged to
inquire so nicely into the Arcana of circumstances, and unlock the
cabinets of state in so many [Pg 10]courts, canvass the councils of ministers
and the conduct of princes so fully, and expose them so much, that it
may, perhaps, make a combustion among the great politicians abroad; and
in doing that we may come so near home too, that tho’ personal safety
and prudentials forbid our medling with our own country, we may be taken
in a double entendre, and fall unpitied for being only suspected of
touching truths that are so tender, whether we are guilty or no; on
these accounts I must meddle the less with that part, at least for the present.
Be it that the Devil has had a share in some of the late councils of
Europe, influencing them this way or that way, to his own advantage,
what is it to us? For example, What if he has had any concern in the
late affair of Thorn? What need we put it upon him, seeing his
confederates the Jesuites with the Assessorial tribunal of Poland
take it upon themselves? I shall leave that part to the issue of time. I
wish it were as easy to persuade the world that he had no hand in
bringing the injur’d Protestants to leave the justice due to the cries
of protestant blood to the arbitrament of a popish power, who dare say
that the Devil must be in it, if justice should be obtain’d that way:
I should rather say, the Devil is in it, or else it would never be expected.
It occurs next to enquire from the premisses, whether the Devil has
more influence or less in the affairs of the world now, than he had in
former ages; and this will depend upon comparing, as we go along, his
methods and way of working in past times, and the modern politicks by
which he acts in our days; with the differing reception which he has met
with among the men of such distant ages.
[Pg 11]But there is so much to enquire of about the Devil, before we can
bring his story down to our modern times, that we must for the present
let them drop, and look a little back to the remoter parts of this
history; drawing his picture that people may know him when they meet
him, and see who and what he is, and what he has been doing ever since
he got leave to act in the high station he now appears in.
In the mean time, if I might obtain leave to present an humble petition
to Satan, it should be, that he would according to modern usage oblige
us all, with writing the history of his own times; ’twould, as well as
one that is gone before it, be a Devilish good one; for as to the
sincerity of the performance, the authority of the particulars, the
justice of the characters, &c. if they were no better vouch’d, no more
consistent with themselves, with charity, with truth, and with the
honour of an historian, than the last of that kind which came abroad
among us, it must be a reproach to the Devil himself to be the author of it.
Were Satan to be brought under the least obligation to write truth,
and that the matters of fact, which he should write, might be depended
upon, he is certainly qualified by his knowledge of things to be a
compleat historian; nor could the Bishop himself, who, by the way, has
given us already the Devil of a history, come up to him: Milton’s
Pandemonium, tho’ an excellent dramatick performance, would appear a
meer trifling sing-song business, beneath the dignity of Chevy-chase:
The Devil could give us a true account of all the civil wars in
Heaven; how and by whom, and in what manner he lost the day there, and
was oblig’d to quit the field: The fiction of his refusing to
acknowledge and submit to the Messiah, upon his being declar’d
Generalissimo of[Pg 12] the Heavenly forces, which Satan expected himself, as
the eldest officer; and his not being able to brook another to be put in
over his head; I say, that fine-spun thought of Mr. Milton would
appear to be strain’d too far, and only serve to convince us that he
(Milton) knew nothing of the matter. Satan knows very well, that the
Messiah was not declared to be the Son of God with power till by and
after the resurrection from the dead, and that all power was then
given him in Heaven and earth, and not before; so that Satan’s
rebellion must derive from other causes, and upon other occasions, as he
himself can doubtless give us an account, if he thinks fit, and of which
we shall speak further in this work.
What a fine History might this old Gentleman write of the Antediluvian
world, and of all the weighty affairs, as well of state as of religion,
which happen’d during the fifteen hundred years of the patriarchal
administration!
Who, like him, could give a full and compleat account of the Deluge,
whether it was a meer vindictive, a blast from Heaven, wrought by a
supernatural power in the way of miracle? or whether, according to Mr.
Burnet’s Theory, it was a consequence following antecedent causes by
the meer necessity of nature; seen in constitution, natural position,
and unavoidable working of things, as by the Theory publish’d by that
learn’d enthusiast it seems to be?
Satan could easily account for all the difficulties of the Theory,
and tell us whether, as there was a natural necessity of the Deluge,
there is not the like necessity and natural tendency to a Conflagration at last.
Would the Devil exert himself as an Historian, for our improvement and
diversion, how glorious an account could he give us of Noah’s Voyage[Pg 13]
round the world, in the famous Ark! he could resolve all the
difficulties about the building it, the furnishing it, and the laying up
provision in it for all the collection of kinds that he had made; He
could tell us whether all the creatures came voluntier to him to go into
the ark, or whether he went a hunting for several years before, in order
to bring them together.
He could give us a true relation how he wheedled the people of the next
world into the absurd ridiculous undertaking of building a Babel; how
far that stupendous stair-case, which was in imagination to reach up to
Heaven, was carried, before it was interrupted and the builders
confounded; how their speech was alter’d, how many Tongues it was
divided into, or whether they were divided at all; and how many
subdivisions or dialects have been made since that, by which means very
few of God’s creatures, except the Brutes, understand one another, or
care one farthing whether they do or no.
In all these things Satan, who, no doubt, would make a very good
chronologist, could settle every Epocha, correct every Calendar, and
bring all our accounts of time to a general agreement; as well the
Grecian Olympiads, the Turkish Heghira, the Chinese fictitious
account of the world’s duration, as our blind Julian and Gregorian
accounts, which have put the world, to this day, into such confusion,
that we neither agree in our holy-days or working days, fasts or feasts,
nor keep the same sabbaths in any part of the same globe.
This great Antiquary could bring us to a certainty in all the
difficulties of ancient story, and tell us whether the tale of the siege
of Troy, and the rape of Helen was a fable of Homer or a history;
whether the fictions of the Poets are form’d from their own brain, or
founded in facts; and[Pg 14] whether letters were invented by Cadmus the
Phœnician, or dictated immediately from Heaven at mount Sinai.
Nay, he could tell us how and in what manner he wheedled Eve, deluded
Adam, put Cain into a passion, till he made him murther his own
brother; and made Noah, who was above 500 years a preacher of
righteousness, turn Sot in his old age, dishonour all his ministry,
debauch himself with wine, and by getting drunk and exposing himself,
become the jest and laughing-stock of his children, and of all his
posterity to this day.
And would Satan, according to the modern practice of the late right
reverend Historian, enter into the characters of the great men of his
age, how should we be diverted with the just history of Adam, in
paradise and out of it; his character, and how he behaved at and after
his expulsion; how Cain wandered in the land of Nod, what the mark
was which God set upon him, whose daughter his wife was, and how big
the city was he built there, according to a certain Poet of noble
extraction,
How Cain in the land of Nod
When the rascal was alone
Like an owl in an ivy tod
Built a city as big as Roan.
Roch.
He could have certainly drawn Eve’s picture, told us every feature in
her face, and every inch in her shape, whether she was a perfect beauty
or no, and whether with the fall she did grow crooked, ugly, ill-natur’d
and a scold; as the learned Valdemar suggests to be the effects of the
curse.
Descending to the character of the Patriarchs in that age, he might, no
doubt, give us in[Pg 15] particular the characters of Belus, worship’d under
the name of Baal; with Satan, and Jupiter, his successors; who
they were here, and how they behaved; with all the Pharaohs of
Egypt, the Abimilechs of Canaan, and the great monarchs of
Assyria and Babylon.
Hence also he is able to write the lives of all the Heroes of the world,
from Alexander of Macedon to Lewis the XIV. and from Augustus to
the great King George; nor could the Bishop himself go beyond him for
flattery, any more than the Devil himself could go beyond the Bishop for
falshood.
I could enlarge with a particular satisfaction upon the many fine things
which Satan, rummaging his inexhaustible storehouse of slander, could
set down to blacken the characters of good men, and load the best
Princes of the world with infamy and reproach.
But we shall never prevail with him, I doubt, to do mankind so much
service, as resolving all those difficulties would be; for he has an
indelible grudge against us; as he believes, and perhaps is assur’d that
men were at first created by his sovereign, to the intent that after a
certain state of Probation in life, such of them as shall be approved,
are appointed to fill up those vacancies in the Heavenly Host, which
were made by the abdication and expulsion of him (the Devil) and his
Angels; so that man is appointed to come in Satan’s stead, to make
good the breach, and enjoy all those ineffable Joys and Beatitudes which
Satan enjoy’d before his fall; no wonder then, that the Devil swells
with envy and rage at mankind in general, and at the best of them in
particular; nay, the granting this point is giving an unanswerable
reason, why the Devil practises with such unwearied and indefatigable
application upon the best men, if possible, to disappoint God[Pg 16]
Almighty’s decree, and that he should not find enough among the whole
Race, to be proper subjects of his clemency, and qualified to succeed
the Devil and his host, or fill up the places vacant by the Fall. It
is true indeed, the Devil, who we have reason to say is no fool, ought
to know better than to suppose that if he should seduce the whole race
of mankind, and make them as bad as himself, he could, by that success
of his wickedness, thwart or disappoint the determined purposes of
Heaven; but that those which are appointed to inherit the Thrones, which
he and his followers abdicated, and were deposed from, shall certainly
be preserv’d in spite of his Devices for that inheritance, and shall
have the possession secur’d to them, notwithstanding all that the
Devil and all the Host of Hell can do to prevent it.
But, however he knows the certainty of this, and that when he endeavours
the seducing the chosen servants of the most High, he fights against God
himself, struggles with irresistible grace, and makes war with infinite
power; undermining the church of God, and that faith in him which is
fortified with the eternal promises of Jesus Christ, that the gates of
Hell, that is to say, the Devil and all his power, shall not prevail
against them; I say, however he knows the impossibility there is that he
should obtain his ends, yet so blind is his rage, so infatuate his
wisdom, that he cannot refrain breaking himself to pieces against this
mountain, and splitting against the rock. qui Jupiter vult perdere hos dementat.
But to leave this serious part, which is a little too solemn, for the
account of this rebel; seeing we are not to expect he will write his own
History for our information and diversion, I shall see if I cannot write
it for him: In order to this, I[Pg 17] shall extract the substance of his
whole story, from the beginning to our own times, which I shall collect
out of what is come to hand, whether by revelation or inspiration,
that’s nothing to him; I shall take care so to improve my intelligence,
as may make my account of him authentick, and, in a word, such as the
Devil himself shall not be able to contradict.
In writing this uncouth story I shall be freed from the censures of the
Criticks, in a more than ordinary manner, upon one account especially;
(viz.) that my story shall be so just and so well grounded, and, after
all the good things I shall say of Satan, will be so little to his
satisfaction, that the Devil himself will not be able to say, I dealt
with the Devil in writing it: I might, perhaps, give you some account
where I had my intelligence, and how all the Arcana of his management
have come to my hands; but pardon me, Gentlemen, this would be to
betray conversation, and to discover my agents, and you know statesmen
are very careful to preserve the correspondences they keep in the
enemy’s country, lest they expose their friends to the resentment of the
Power whose councils they betray.
Besides, the learned tell us, that ministers of state make an excellent
plea of their not betraying their intelligence, against all party
inquiries into the great sums of money pretended to be paid for secret
service; and whether the secret service was to bribe people to betray
things abroad or at home; whether the money was paid to some body or to
no body, employ’d to establish correspondences abroad, or to establish
families and amass treasure at home; in a word, whether it was to serve
their country or serve themselves, it has been the same thing, and the
same plea has been their protection: Likewise in the important affair
which I am upon, ’tis[Pg 18] hoped you will not desire me to betray my
Correspondents; for you know Satan is naturally cruel and malicious,
and who knows what he might do to shew his resentment? at least it might
endanger a stop of our intelligence for the future.
And yet, before I have done, I shall make it very plain, that however my
information may be secret and difficult, that yet I came very honestly
by it, and shall make a very good use of it; for ’tis a great mistake in
those who think that an acquaintance with the affairs of the Devil may
not be made very useful to us all: They that know no evil can know no
good; and, as the learned tell us, that a stone taken out of the head of
a Toad is a good antidote against poison; so a competent knowledge of
the Devil, and all his ways, may be the best help to make us defie
the Devil and all his works.
Chap. II.
Of the word DEVIL, as it is a proper name to the Devil, and any
or all his host, Angels, &c.
It is a question, not yet determined by the learned, whether the word
Devil be a singular, that is to say, the name of a person standing
by himself, or a noun of multitude; if it be a singular, and so must
be used personally only as a proper name, it consequently implies one
imperial Devil, Monarch or King of the whole clan of Hell; justly
distinguish’d by the term the Devil, or as
the Scots call him, the[Pg 19]
muckle horn’d Dee’l, or as others in a wilder dialect, the Devil of
Hell, that is to say, the Devil of a Devil; or (better still) as
the Scripture expresses it, by way of emphasis, the great red Dragon,
the Devil and Satan.
But if we take this word to be, as above, a noun of multitude, and so
to be used ambo-dexter, as occasion presents, singular or plural; then
the Devil signifies Satan by himself, or Satan with all his
Legions at his heels, as you please, more or less; and this way of
understanding the word, as it may be very convenient for my purpose, in
the account I am now to give of the infernal Powers, so it is not
altogether improper in the nature of the thing: It is thus express’d in
Scripture, where the person possess’d Matt. iv. 24. is first said to
be possess’d of the Devil (singular) and our Saviour asks him, as
speaking to a single person, what is thy name? and is answer’d in the
plural and singular together, my name is Legion, for we are many.
Nor will it be any wrong to the Devil, supposing him a single person,
seeing entitling him to the conduct of all his inferior Agents, is what
he will take rather for an addition to his infernal glory, than a
diminution or lessening of him in the extent of his Fame.
Having thus articl’d with the Devil for liberty of speech, I shall
talk of him sometimes in the singular, as a person, and sometimes in the
plural, as an host of Devils or of infernal Spirits, just as occasion
requires, and as the history of his affairs makes necessary.
But before I enter upon any part of his history, the nature of the thing
calls me back, and my Lord B—— of —— in his late famous orations in
defence of liberty, summons me to prove that there is such a thing or
such a person as the Devil; and in short, unless I can give some
evidence of his[Pg 20] existence, as my Lord —— said very well, I am talking
of nobody.
D—m me, Sir, says a graceless comrade of his to a great man, your
Grace will go to the Devil.
D—m ye, Sir, says the D——, then I shall go no where; I wonder where
you intend to go?
Nay, to the D——l too I doubt, says Graceless, for I am almost as
wicked as my Lord Duke.
D. Thou ar’t a silly empty Dog, says the D—, and if there is such a
place as a Hell, tho’ I believe nothing of it, ’tis a place for fools,
such as thou art.
Gr. I wonder then, what Heaven the great wits go to, such as my Lord
Duke; I don’t care to go there, let it be where it will; they are a
tiresome kind of people, there’s no bearing them, they’ll make a Hell
wherever they come.
D. Prithee hold thy fool’s tongue, I tell thee, if there is any such
place as we call no where; that’s all the Heaven or Hell that I know of,
or believe any thing about.
Gr. Very good, my Lord—; so that Heaven is no where, and
Hell is no where, and the Devil is nobody, according to my Lord
Duke!
D. Yes Sir, and what then?
Gr. And you are to go no where when you die, are you?
D. Yes, you Dog, don’t you know what that incomparable noble genius my
Lord Rochester sings upon the subject, I believe it unfeignedly,
After death nothing is,
And nothing death.
Gr. You believe it, my Lord, you mean, you would fain believe it if
you could; but since you put that great genius my Lord Rochester upon
me, let me play him back upon your Grace; I am sure[Pg 21] you have read his
fine poem upon nothing, in one of the stanzas of which is this
beautiful thought,
And to be part of [2] thee
The wicked wisely pray.
D. You are a foolish Dog.
Gr. And my Lord Duke is a wise Infidel.
D. Why? is it not wiser to believe no Devil, than to be always
terrify’d at him?
Gr. But shall I toss another Poet upon you, my Lord?
If it should so fall out, as who can tell
But there may be a God, a Heaven and Hell?
Mankind had best consider well, for fear
’T should be too late when their mistakes appear.
D. D—m your foolish Poet, that’s not my Lord Rochester.
Gr. But how must I be damn’d, if there’s no Devil? Is not your
Grace a little inconsistent there? My Lord Rochester would not have
said that, and’t please your Grace.
D. No, you Dog, I am not inconsistent at all, and if I had the
ordering of you, I’d make you sensible of it; I’d make you think your
self damn’d for want of a Devil.
Gr. That’s like one of your Grace’s paradoxes, such as when you
swore by God that you did not believe there was any such thing as a
God, or Devil; so you swear by nothing, and damn me to no where.
[Pg 22]D. You are a critical Dog, who taught you to believe these solemn
trifles? who taught you to say there is a God?
Gr. Nay, I had a better school-master than my Lord Duke.
D. Why, who was your school-master pray?
Gr. The Devil, and’t please your Grace.
D. The Devil! the Devil he did? what you’re going to quote
Scripture, are you? Prithee don’t tell me of Scripture, I know what
you mean, the Devils believe and tremble; why then I have the
whip-hand of the Devil, for I hate trembling; and I am deliver’d from
it effectually, for I never believed any thing of it, and therefore I
don’t tremble.
Gr. And there, indeed, I am a wickeder creature than the Devil, or
even than my Lord Duke, for I believe, and yet don’t tremble neither.
D. Nay, if you are come to your penitentials I have done with you.
Gr. And I think I must have done with my Lord Duke, for the same
reason.
D. Ay, ay, pray do, I’ll go and enjoy my self; I won’t throw away
the pleasure of my life, I know the consequence of it.
Gr. And I’ll go and reform my self, else I know the consequence too.
This short Dialogue happen’d between two men of quality, and both men of
wit too; and the effect was, that the Lord brought the reality of the
Devil into the question, and the debate brought the profligate to be a
penitent; so in short, the Devil was made a preacher of repentance.
The Truth is, God and the Devil, however opposite in their nature,
and remote from one another in their place of abiding, seem to stand
pretty much upon a level in our faith: For as to our believing the
reality of their existence, he that[Pg 23] denies one, generally denies both;
and he that believes one, necessarily believes both.
Very few, if any of those who believe there is a God, and acknowledge
the debt of homage which mankind owes to the supreme Governor of the
World, doubt the existence of the Devil, except here and there one,
whom we call practical Atheists; and ’tis the character of an Atheist,
if there is such a creature on Earth, that like my Lord Duke, he
believes neither God or Devil.
As the belief of both these stands upon a level, and that God and the
Devil seem to have an equal share in our faith, so the evidence of
their existence seems to stand upon a level too, in many things; and as
they are known by their Works in the same particular cases, so they are
discover’d after the same manner of demonstration.
Nay, in some respects ’tis equally criminal to deny the reality of them
both, only with this difference, that to believe the existence of a God
is a debt to nature, and to believe the existence of the Devil is a
like debt to reason; one is a demonstration from the reality of visible
causes, and the other a deduction from the like reality of their
effects.
One demonstration of the existence of God, is from the universal
well-guided consent of all nations to worship and adore a supreme Power;
One demonstration of the existence of the Devil, is from the avow’d
ill-guided consent of some nations, who knowing no other God, make a God
of the Devil, for want of a better.
It may be true, that those nations have no other Ideas of the Devil than
as of a superior Power; if they thought him a supreme Power it would
have other effects on them, and they would submit to and worship him
with a different kind of fear.
[Pg 24]But ’tis plain they have right notions of him as a Devil or evil Spirit,
because the best reason, and in some places the only reason they give
for worshiping him is, that he may do them no hurt; having no notions at
all of his having any power, much less any inclination to do them good;
so that indeed they make a meer Devil of him, at the same time that
they bow to him as to a God.
All the ages of Paganism in the World have had this notion of the
Devil: indeed in some parts of the World they had also some Deities
which they honour’d above him, as being supposed to be beneficent, kind
and inclined, as well as capable to give them good things; for this
reason the more polite Heathens, such as the Grecians and the
Romans, had their Lares or houshold Gods, whom they paid a
particular respect to; as being their Protectors from Hobgoblins, Ghosts
of the Dead, evil Spirits, frightful Appearances, evil Genius’s and
other noxious Beings from the invisible World; or to put it into the
language of the day we live in, from the Devil, in whatever shape or
appearance he might come to them, and from whatever might hurt them: and
what was all this but setting up Devils against Devils, supplicating
one Devil under the notion of a good Spirit, to drive out and protect
them from another, whom they call’d a bad Spirit, the white Devil
against the black Devil?
This proceeds from the natural notions mankind necessarily entertain of
things to come; superior or inferior, God and the Devil, fill up
all futurity in our thoughts; and ’tis impossible for us to form any
images in our minds of an immortality and an invisible World, but under
the notions of perfect felicity, or extreme misery.
Now as these two respect the Eternal state of man after life, they are
respectively the object[Pg 25] of our reverence and affection, or of our
horror and aversion; but notwithstanding they are plac’d thus in a
diametrical opposition in our affections and passions, they are on an
evident level as to the certainty of their existence, and, as I said
above, bear an equal share in our faith.
It being then as certain that there is a Devil, as that there is a
God, I must from this time forward admit no more doubt of his
existence, nor take any more pains to convince you of it; but speaking
of him as a reality in Being, proceed to enquire who he is, and from
whence, in order to enter directly into the detail of his History.
Now not to enter into all the metaphysical trumpery of his Schools, nor
wholly to confine my self to the language of the Pulpit; where we are
told, that to think of God and of the Devil, we must endeavour first
to form Ideas of those things which illustrate the description of
rewards and punishments; in the one the eternal presence of the highest
good, and, as a necessary attendant, the most perfect, consummate,
durable bliss and felicity, springing from the presence of that Being in
whom all possible Beatitude is inexpressibly present, and that in the
highest perfection: On the contrary, to conceive of a sublime fallen
Arch-angel, attended with an innumerable host of degenerate, rebel
Seraphs or Angels cast out of Heaven together; all guilty of
inexpressible rebellion, and all suffering from that time, and to suffer
for ever the eternal vengeance of the Almighty, in an inconceivable
manner; that his presence, tho’ blessed in it self, is to them the most
compleat article of terror; That they are in themselves perfectly
miserable; and to be with whom for ever, adds an inexpressible misery to
any state as well as place; and fills the minds of those who are to be,
or expect to[Pg 26] be banish’d to them with inconceivable horror and
amazement.
But when you have gone over all this, and a great deal more of the like,
tho’ less intelligible language, which the passions of men collect to
amuse one another with; you have said nothing if you omit the main
article, namely, the personality of the Devil; and till you add to all
the rest some description of the company with whom all this is to be
suffer’d, viz. the Devil and his Angels.
Now who this Devil and his Angels are, what share they have either
actively or passively in the eternal miseries of a future state, how far
they are Agents in or Partners with the sufferings of the place, is a
difficulty yet not fully discover’d by the most learned; nor do I
believe ’tis made less a difficulty by their medling with it.
But to come to the person and original of the Devil, or, as I said
before, of Devils; I allow him to come of an ancient family, for he is
from Heaven, and more truly than the Romans could say of their
idoliz’d Numa, he is of the race of the Gods.
That Satan is a fallen Angel, a rebel Seraph, cast out for his
Rebellion, is the general opinion, and ’tis not my business to dispute
things universally receiv’d; as he was try’d, condemn’d, and the
sentence of expulsion executed on him in Heaven, he is in this World
like a transported Felon never to return; His crime, whatever particular
aggravations it might have, ’tis certain, amounted to High-treason
against his Lord and Governor, who was also his Maker; against whom he
rose in rebellion, took up arms, and in a word, rais’d a horrid and
unnatural war in his dominions; but being overcome in battle, and made
prisoner, he and all his Host, whose numbers were[Pg 27] infinite, all
glorious Angels like himself, lost at once their beauty and glory with
their Innocence, and commenc’d Devils, being transform’d by crime into
monsters and frightful objects; such as to describe, human fancy is
obliged to draw pictures and descriptions in such forms as are most
hateful and frightful to the imagination.
These notions, I doubt not, gave birth to all the beauteous Images and
sublime expressions in Mr. Milton’s majestick Poem; where, tho’ he has
play’d the Poet in a most luxuriant manner, he has sinn’d against
Satan most egregiously, and done the Devil a manifest injury in a
great many particulars, as I shall shew in its place. And as I shall be
oblig’d to do Satan justice when I come to that part of his History,
Mr. Milton’s admirers must pardon me, if I let them see, that tho’ I
admire Mr. Milton as a Poet, yet that he was greatly out in matters of
History, and especially the History of the Devil; in short, That he
has charged Satan falsly in several particulars; and so he has Adam
and Eve too: But that I shall leave till I come to the History of the
Royal Family of Eden; which I resolve to present you with when the
Devil and I have done with one another.
But not to run down Mr. Milton neither, whose poetry, or his judgment,
cannot be reproached without injury to our own; all those bright Ideas
of his, which make his poem so justly valued, whether they are capable
of proof as to the fact, are notwithstanding, confirmations of my
hypothesis; and are taken from a supposition of the Personality of the
Devil, placing him at the head of the infernal host, as a sovereign
elevated Spirit and Monarch of Hell; and as such it is that I undertake
to write his history.
By the word Hell I do not suppose, or at least not determine, that his
residence, or that of the[Pg 28] whole army of Devils, is yet in the same
local Hell, to which the Divines tell us he shall be at last chain’d
down; or at least that he is yet confin’d to it, for we shall find he is
at present a prisoner at large: of both which circumstances of Satan I
shall take occasion to speak in its course.
But when I call the Devil the Monarch of Hell, I am to be understood
as suits to the present purpose; that he is the Sovereign of all the
race of Hell, that is to say of all the Devils or Spirits of the
infernal Clan, let their numbers, quality and powers be what they will.
Upon this supposed personality and superiority of Satan, or, as I call
it, the sovereignty and government of one Devil above all the rest; I
say, upon this notion are form’d all the systems of the dark side of
futurity, that we can form in our minds: And so general is the opinion
of it, that it will hardly bear to be oppos’d by any other argument, at
least that will bear to be reason’d upon: All the notions of a parity of
Devils, or making a common-wealth among the black Divan, seem to be
enthusiastick and visionary, but with no consistency or certainty, and
is so generally exploded, that we must not venture so much as to debate
the point.
Taking it then as the generality of mankind do, that there is a Grand
Devil, a superior of the whole black race; that they all fell, together
with their General, Satan, at the head of them; that tho’ he, Satan,
could not maintain his high station in Heaven, yet that he did continue
his dignity among the rest, who are call’d his servants, in Scripture
his Angels; that he has a kind of dominion or authority over the rest,
and that they were all, how many millions soever in number, at his
command; employ’d by him in all his hellish[Pg 29] designs, and in all his
wicked contrivances for the destruction of man, and for the setting up
his own kingdom in the world.
Supposing then that there is such a superior Master-Devil over all the
rest, it remains that we enquire into his character, and something of
his History; in which, tho’ we cannot perhaps produce such authentick
documents as in the story of other great Monarchs, Tyrants, and Furies
of the World; yet I shall endeavour to speak some things which the
experience of mankind may be apt to confirm, and which the Devil himself
will hardly be able to contradict.
It being then granted that there is such a thing or person, call him
which we will, as a Master-Devil; that he is thus superior to all the
rest in power and in authority, and that all the other evil Spirits are
his Angels, or Ministers, or Officers to execute his commands, and are
employ’d in his business; it remains to enquire, whence he came? how he
got hither, into this World? what that business is which he is employ’d
about? what his present state is, and where and to what part of the
creation of God he is limited and restrained? what the liberties are he
takes or is allow’d to take? in what manner he works, and how his
instruments are likewise allow’d to work? what he has done ever since he
commenc’d Devil, what he is now doing, and what he may yet do before his
last and closer confinement? as also what he cannot do, and how far we
may or may not be said to be exposed to him, or have or have not reason
to be afraid of him? These, and whatever else occurs in the History and
conduct of this Arch-devil and his Agents, that may be useful for
information, caution, or diversion, you may expect in the process of
this work.
[Pg 30]I know it has been question’d by some, with more face than fear, how it
consists with a compleat victory of the Devil, which they say was at
first obtained by the Heavenly Powers over Satan and his apostate army
in Heaven, that when he was cast out of his holy place, and dash’d
down into the abyss of eternal darkness, as into a place of punishment,
a condemn’d hold, or place of confinement, to be reserved there to the
judgment of the great Day; I say, how it consists with that entire
victory, to let him loose again, and give him liberty, like a thief that
has broken prison, to range about God’s creation, and there to continue
his rebellion, commit new ravages, and acts of hostility against God,
make new efforts at dethroning the almighty Creator; and in particular
to fall upon the weakest of his creatures, Man? how Satan being so
entirely vanquish’d, he should be permitted to recover any of his wicked
powers, and find room to do mischief to mankind.
Nay they go farther, and suggest bold things against the wisdom of
Heaven, in exposing mankind, weak in comparison of the immense extent of
the Devil’s power, to so manifest an overthrow, to so unequal a fight,
in which he is sure, if alone in the conflict, to be worsted; to leave
him such a dreadful enemy to engage with, and so ill furnish’d with
weapons to assist him.
These objections I shall give as good an answer to as the case will
admit in this course, but must adjourn them for the present.
That the Devil is not yet a close prisoner, we have evidence enough to
confirm; I will not suggest, that like our Newgate Thieves, (to bring
little Devils and great Devils together) he is let out by connivance,
and has some little latitudes and advantages for mischief, by that
means; returning at certain seasons to his confinement again.[Pg 31] This
might hold, were it not, that the comparison must suggest, that the
power which has cast him down could be deluded, and the under-keepers or
jaylors, under whose charge he was in custody, could wink at his
excursions, and the Lord of the place know nothing of the matter. But
this wants farther explanation.
Chap. III.
Of the original of the Devil, who he is, and what he was before
his expulsion out of Heaven, and in what state he was from that
time to the creation of Man.
To come to a regular enquiry into Satan’s affairs, ’tis needful we
should go back to his original, as far as history and the opinion of the
learned World will give us leave.
It is agreed by all Writers, as well sacred as prophane, that this
creature we now call a Devil, was originally an Angel of light, a
glorious Seraph; perhaps the choicest of all the glorious Seraphs. See
how Milton describes his original glory:
Satan, so call him now, his former name
Is heard no more in Heaven: He of the first,
If not the first Archangel; great in power,
In favour and preeminence.
lib. v. fol. 140.
And again the same author, and upon the same subject:
[Pg 32]
———Brighter once amidst the host
Of Angels, than that star the stars among.
lib. vii. fol. 189.
The glorious figure which Satan is supposed to make among the Thrones
and Dominions in Heaven is such, as we might suppose the highest Angel
in that exalted train could make; and some think, as above, that he
was the chief of the Arch-angels.
Hence that notion, (and not ill founded) namely, that the first cause
of his disgrace, and on which ensued his rebellion, was occasioned upon
God’s proclaiming his Son Generalissimo, and with himself supreme ruler
in heaven; giving the dominion of all his works of creation, as well
already finish’d, as not then begun, to him; which post of honour (say
they) Satan expected to be conferr’d on himself, as next in honour,
majesty and power to God the Supreme.
This opinion is follow’d by Mr. Milton too, as appears in the
following lines, where he makes all the Angels attending all a general
summons, and God the Father making the following declaration to them.
“Here, all ye Angels, prodigy of light,
“Thrones, dominions, princedoms, virtues, pow’rs!
“Hear my decree, which unrevok’d shall stand.
“This day I have begot whom I declare
“My only Son, and on this hill
“Him have anointed, whom you now behold
“At my right hand; your Head I Him appoint:
“And my self have sworn to him shall bow
“All knees in Heav’n, and shall confess him Lord,
[Pg 33]“Under his great vice-gerent reign abide
“United, as one individual soul,
“For ever happy: Him who disobeys,
“Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day
“Cast out from God, and blessed vision, falls
“Into utter darkness, deep ingulph’d, his place
“Ordain’d without redemption, without end.
Satan, affronted at the appearance of a new Essence or Being in Heaven,
call’d the Son of God; for God, says Mr. Milton, (tho’ erroneously)
declared himself at that time, saying, This day have I begotten him,
and that he should be set up, above all the former Powers of Heaven, of
whom Satan (as above) was the Chief and expecting, if any higher post
could be granted, it might be his due; I say, affronted at this he resolv’d
“With all his Legions to dislodge, and leave
“Unworship’d, unobey’d, the throne supreme
“Contemptuous. ———
Par. lost, lib. v. fo. 140.
But Mr. Milton is grosly erroneous in ascribing those words, This day
have I begotten thee, to that declaration of the Father before Satan
fell, and consequently to a time before the creation; whereas, it is by
Interpreters agreed to be understood of the Incarnation of the Son of
God, or at least of the Resurrection: [3] see Pool upon Acts xiii. 33.
[Pg 34]In a word, Satan withdrew with all his followers malecontent and
chagrine, resolv’d to disobey this new command, and not yield obedience
to the Son.
But Mr. Milton agrees in that opinion, that the number of Angels which
rebel’d with Satan was infinite, and suggests in one place, that they
were the greatest half of all the angelick Body or seraphick Host.
“But Satan with his Power,
“An host
“Innumerable as the stars of night,
“Or stars of morning, dew drops, which the Sun
“Impearls on ev’ry leaf and ev’ry flower.
ib. lib. v. fo. 142.
Be their number as it is, numberless millions and legions of millions,
that is no part of my present enquiry; Satan the leader, guide and
superior, as he was author of the celestial rebellion, is still the
great Head and Master-Devil as before; under his authority they still
act, not obeying but carrying on the same insurrection against God,
which they begun in Heaven; making war still against Heaven, in the
person of his Image and Creature man; and tho’ vanquish’d by the thunder
of the Son of God, and cast down headlong from Heaven, they have yet
reassumed, or rather not [Pg 35]lost either the will or the power of doing
evil.
This fall of the Angels, with the war in Heaven which preceded it, is
finely describ’d by Ovid, in his war of the Titans against
Jupiter; casting mountain upon mountain, and hill upon hill (Pelion
upon Ossa) in order to scale the Adamantine walls, and break open the
gates of Heaven; till Jupiter struck them with his thunder-bolts and
overwhelm’d them in the abyss: Vide Ovid Metam. new translation, lib.
i. p. 19.
“Nor were the Gods themselves secure on high,
“For now the Gyants strove to storm the sky,
“The lawless brood with bold attempt invade
“The Gods, and mountains upon mountains laid.
“But now the bolt, enrag’d the Father took,
“Olympus from her deep foundations shook,
“Their structure nodded at the mighty stroke,
“And Ossa’s shatter’d top o’er Pelion broke,
“They’re in their own ungodly ruines slain.—
Then again speaking of Jupiter, resolving in council to destroy
mankind by a deluge, and giving the reasons of it to the heavenly Host,
say thus, speaking of the demy-Gods alluding to good men below.
“Think you that they in safety can remain,
“When I my self who o’er Immortals reign,
“Who send the lightning, and Heaven’s empire sway,
“The stern [4] Lycaon practis’d to betray.
ib. p. 10.
[Pg 36]Since then so much poetic liberty is taken with the Devil, relating to
his most early state, and the time before his fall, give me leave to
make an excursion of the like kind, relating to his History immediately
after the fall, and till the creation of man; an interval which I think
much of the Devil’s story is to be seen in, and which Mr. Milton has
taken little notice of, at least it does not seem compleatly fill’d up;
after which I shall return to honest Prose again, and persue the duty of
an Historian.
Satan, with hideous ruin thus supprest
Expell’d the seat of blessedness and rest,
Look’d back and saw the high eternal mound,
Where all his rebel host their outlet found
Restor’d impregnable: The breach made up,
And garrisons of Angels rang’d a top;
In front a hundred thousand thunders roll,
And lightnings temper’d to transfix a soul,
Terror of Devils. Satan and his host,
Now to themselves as well as station lost,
Unable to support the hated sight,
Expand seraphic wings, and swift as light
Seek for new safety in eternal Night.
In the remotest gulphs of dark they land,
Here vengeance gives them leave to make their stand,
Not that to steps and measures they pretend,
Councils and schemes their station to defend;
But broken, disconcerted and dismay’d,
By guilt and fright to guilt and fright betray’d;
Rage and confusion ev’ry Spirit possess’d,
[Pg 37]And shame and horror swell’d in ev’ry breast;
Transforming envy to their essentials burns,
And the bright Angel to a frightful Devil turns.
Thus Hell began; the fire of conscious rage
No years can quench, no length of time asswage.
Material Fire, with its intensest flame,
Compar’d with this can scarce deserve a Name;
How should it up to immaterials rise,
When we’re all flame, we shall all fire despise.
This fire outrageous and its heat intense
Turns all the pain of loss to pain of sense.
The folding flames concave and inward roll,
Act upon spirit and penetrate the soul:
Not force of Devils can its new powers repel,
Where’er it burns it finds or makes a Hell;
For Satan flaming with unquench’d desire
Forms his own Hell, and kindles his own fire,
Vanquish’d, not humbl’d, not in will brought low,
But as his powers decline his passions grow:
The malice, Viper like, takes vent within,
Gnaws its own bowels, and bursts in its own sin:
Impatient of the change he scorns to bow,
And never impotent in power till now;
Ardent with hate, and with revenge distract,
A will to new attempts, but none to act;
Yet all seraphick, and in just degree,
Suited to Spirits high sense of misery,
Deriv’d from loss which nothing can repair,
And room for nothing left but meer despair.
Here’s finish’d Hell! what fiercer fire can burn?
Enough ten thousand Worlds to over-turn.
Hell’s but the frenzy of defeated pride,
[Pg 38]Seraphick Treason’s strong impetuous tide,
Where vile ambition disappointed first,
To its own rage and boundless hatred curst;
The hate’s fan’d up to fury, that to flame,
For fire and fury are in kind the same;
These burn unquenchable in every face,
And the word Endless constitutes the place.
O state of Being! where being’s the only grief,
And the chief torture’s to be damn’d to life;
O life! the only thing they have to hate;
The finish’d torment of a future state,
Compleat in all the parts of endless misery,
And worse ten thousand times than not to Be!
Could but the Damn’d the immortal law repeal,
And Devils dye, there’d be an end of Hell;
Could they that thing call’d Being annihilate,
There’d be no sorrows in a future state;
The Wretch, whose crimes had shut him out on high,
Could be reveng’d on God himself and die;
Job’s Wife was in the right, and always we
Might end by death all human misery,
Might have it in our choice, to be or not to be.
Chap. IV.
Of the name of the Devil, his original, and the nature of his
circumstances since he has been called by that name.
The Scripture is the first writing on earth where we find the Devil
called by his own proper distinguishing denomination, DEVIL,[Pg 39] or
the [5] Destroyer; nor indeed is there any other author of antiquity or of
sufficient authority which says any thing of that kind about him.
Here he makes his first appearance in the world, and on that occasion he
is called the Serpent; but the Serpent however since made to signify
the Devil, when spoken of in general terms, was but the Devil’s
representative, or the Devil in quo vis vehiculo, for that time,
clothed in a bodily shape, acting under cover and in disguise, or if you
will the Devil in masquerade: Nay, if we believe Mr. Milton, the
Angel Gabriel’s spear had such a secret powerful influence, as to make
him strip of a sudden, and with a touch to unmask, and stand upright in
his naked original shape, meer Devil, without any disguises
whatsoever.
Now as we go to the Scripture for much of his history, so we must go
there also for some of his names; and he has a great variety of names
indeed, as his several mischievous doings guide us to conceive of him.
The truth is, all the ancient names given him, of which the Scripture is
full, seems to be originals derived from and adapted to the several
steps he has taken, and the several shapes he has appeared in to do
mischief in the world.
Here he is called the Serpent, Gen. iii. 1.
The old Serpent, Rev. xii. 9.
The great red Dragon, Rev. xii. 3.
The Accuser of the Brethren, Rev. xii. 10.
The Enemy, Matt. xxiii. 29.
Satan, Job i. Zech. iii. 1, 2.
[Pg 40]Belial, 2 Cor. vi. 15.
Beelzebub, Matt. xii. 24.
Mammon, Matt. vi. 24.
The Angel of light, 2 Cor. xi. 14.
The Angel of the bottomless pit, Rev. ix. 11.
The Prince of the power of the air, Eph. ii. 2.
Lucifer, Isa. xiv. 12.
Abbaddon or Apollion, Rev. ix. 11.
Legion, Mark v. 9.
The God of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4.
The Foul Spirit, Mark ix. 5.
The Unclean Spirit, Mark i. 27.
The Lying Spirit, 2 Chron. xxx.
The Tempter, Matt. iv. 3.
The Son of the morning, Isa. xiv. 12.
But to sum them all up in one, he is called in the new Testament plain
Devil; all his other names are varied according to the custom of speech,
and the dialects of the several nations where he is spoken of; But in a
word, Devil is the common name of the Devil in all the known
languages of the earth. Nay, all the mischiefs he is empowered to do,
are in Scripture placed to his account, under the particular title of
the Devil, not of Devils in the plural number, though they are
sometimes mentioned too; but in the singular it is the identical
individual Devil, in and under whom all the little Devils, and all
the great Devils, if such there be, are supposed to act; nay, they are
supposed to be govern’d and directed by him. Thus we are told in
Scripture of the works of the Devil, 1 John iii. 8. of casting out
the Devil, Mark i. 34. of resisting the Devil, James iv. 5. of our
Saviour being tempted of the Devil, Mat. iv. 1. of Simon Magus, a
child of the Devil, Acts xiii. 10. The Devil came down in a great
wrath, Rev. xii.[Pg 41] 12. and the like. According to this usage in
speech we go on to this day, and all the infernal things we converse
with in the world, are fathered upon the Devil, as one undivided
simple essence, by how many agents soever working: Every thing evil,
frightful in appearance, wicked in its actings, horrible in its manner,
monstrous in its effects, is called the Devil; in a word, Devil is
the common name for all Devils; that is to say, for all evil Spirits,
all evil Powers, all evil Works, and even all evil things: Yet ’tis
remarkable the Devil is no old Testament word, and we never find it
used in all that part of the Bible but four times, and then not once in
the singular number, and not once to signify Satan as ’tis now understood.
It is true, the Learned give a great many differing interpretations of
the word Devil; the English Commentators tell us, it means a
destroyer, others that it signifies a deceiver, and the Greeks derive
it from a Calumniator or false witness; for we find that Calumny was
a Goddess, to whom the Athenians built altars and offer’d Sacrifices
upon some solemn occasions, and they call her Διαβολὴ from
whence came the masculine Διάβολος which we translate Devil.
Thus we take the name of Devil to signify not persons only, but
actions and habits; making imaginary Devils, and transforming that
substantial creature call’d Devil into every thing noxious and
offensive: Thus St. Francis being tempted by the Devil in the shape
of a bag of money lying in the highway, the Saint having discover’d
the fraud, whether seeing his Cloven-foot hang out of the purse, or
whether he distinguish’d him by his smell of sulphur, or how
otherwise, authors are not agreed; but, I say, the Saint having
discover’d the cheat, and out-witted the Devil, took occasion to
preach that eminent sermon to his[Pg 42] disciples, where his Text was, Money
is the Devil.
Nor, upon the whole, is any wrong done to the Devil by this kind of
treatment, it only gives him the sovereignty of the whole army of Hell,
and making all the numberless legions of the bottomless pit servants;
or, as the Scripture calls them, Angels to Satan the grand Devil;
all their actions, performances and atchievements are justly attributed
to him, not as the prince of Devils only, but the Emperor of Devils;
the prince of all the princes of Devils.
Under this denomination then of Devil, all the Powers of Hell, all the
Princes of the air, all the black armies of Satan are comprehended,
and in such manner they are to be understood in this whole work;
mutatis mutandis, according to the several circumstances of which we are to speak of them.
This being premis’d, and my authority being so good, Satan must not
take it ill, if I treat him after the manner of men, and give him
those titles which he is best known by among us; for indeed having so
many, ’tis not very easy to call him out of his name.
However, as I am oblig’d by the duty of an Historian to decency as well
as impartiality, so I thought it necessary, before I used too much
freedom with Satan, to produce authentick Documents, and bring
antiquity upon the stage, to justify the manner of my writing, and let
you see I shall describe him in no colours, nor call him by any name,
but what he has been known by for many ages before me.
And now, though writing to the common understanding of my Readers, I am
oblig’d to treat Satan very coarsly, and to speak of him in the common
acceptation, calling him plain Devil, a word which in this mannerly
age is not so[Pg 43] sonorous as others might be, and which by the error of
the Times is apt to prejudice us against his Person; yet it must be
acknowledg’d he has a great many other names and sirnames which he might
be known by, of a less obnoxious import than that of Devil, or Destroyer, &c.
Mr. Milton, indeed, wanting titles of honour to give to the Leaders of
Satan’s Host, is oblig’d to borrow several of his Scripture names, and
bestow them upon his infernal Heroes, whom he makes the Generals and
Leaders of the armies of Hell; and so he makes Beelzebub, Lucifer,
Belial, Mammon, and some others, to be the names of particular
Devils, members of Satan’s upper house or Pandemonium; whereas
indeed, these are all names proper and peculiar to Satan himself.
The Scripture also has some names of a coarser kind, by which the
Devil is understood, as particularly, which is noted already, in the
Apocalypse he is call’d the Great Red Dragon, the Beast, the Old
Serpent, and the like: But take it in the Scripture, or where you will
in History sacred or prophane, you will find that in general the Devil
is, as I have said above, his ordinary name in all languages and in all
nations; the name by which he and his works are principally
distinguish’d: Also the Scripture, besides that it often gives him this
name, speaks of the works of the Devil, of the subtilty of the
Devil, of casting out Devils, of being tempted of the Devil, of
being possess’d with a Devil, and so many other expressions of that
kind, as I have said already, are made use of for us to understand the
evil Spirit by, that in a word, Devil is the common name of all wicked
Spirits: For Satan is no more the Devil, as if he alone was so, and
all the rest were a diminutive species who did not go by that name; But,
I say, even in Scripture, every Spirit, whether under his[Pg 44] Dominion or
out of his Dominion, is called the Devil, and is as much a real
Devil, that is to say, a condemn’d Spirit, and employ’d in the same
wicked work as Satan himself.
His Name then being thus ascertain’d, and his Existence acknowledg’d, it
should be a little enquir’d what he is; we believe there is such a
thing, such a creature as the Devil, and that he has been, and may
still with propriety of speech, and without injustice to his Character
be call’d by his antient name Devil.
But who is he? what is his original? whence came he? and what is his
present station and condition? for these things and these enquiries are
very necessary to his History, nor indeed can any part of his History be
compleat without them.
That he is of an antient and noble original must be acknowledged, for he
is Heaven-born, and of Angelic Race, as has been touch’d already: If
Scripture-evidence may be of any weight in the question, there is no
room to doubt the genealogy of the Devil; he is not only spoken of as
an Angel, but as a fallen Angel, one that had been in Heaven, had
beheld the face of God in his full effulgence of glory, and had
surrounded the Throne of the most High; from whence, commencing rebel
and being expell’d, he was cast down, down, down, God and the Devil
himself only knows where; for indeed we cannot say that any man on Earth
knows it; and wherever it is, he has ever since man’s creation been a
plague to him, been a tempter, a deluder, a calumniator, an enemy and
the object of man’s horror and aversion.
As his original is Heaven-born, and his Race Angelic, so the Angelic
nature is evidently plac’d in a class superior to the human, and this
the Scripture is express in also; when speaking of man,[Pg 45] it says, he
made him a little lower than the Angels.
Thus the Devil, as mean thoughts as you may have of him, is of a
better family than any of you, nay than the best Gentleman of you all;
what he may be fallen to, is one thing, but what he is fallen from,
is another; and therefore I must tell my learned and reverend friend
J. W. LL. D. when he spoke so rudely of the Devil lately, That in my
opinion he abus’d his Betters.
Nor is the Scripture more a help to us in the search after the Devil’s
Original, than it is in our search after his Nature: it is true, Authors
are not agreed about his age, what time he was created, how many years
he enjoy’d his state of blessedness before he fell; or how many years he
continued with his whole army in a state of darkness, and before the
creation of man. ’Tis supposed it might be a considerable space, and
that it was a part of his punishment too, being all the while unactive,
unemploy’d, having no business, nothing to do but gnawing his own
Bowels, and rolling in the agony of his own self-approaches, being a
Hell to himself in reflecting on the glorious state from whence he was fallen.
How long he remain’d thus, ’tis true, we have no light into from
History, and but little from Tradition; Rabbi Judah says, the Jews
were of the opinion, that he remain’d twenty thousand years in that
condition, and that the World shall continue twenty thousand more, in
which he shall find work enough to satisfy his mischievous desires; but
he shews no authority for his opinion.
Indeed let the Devil have been as idle as they think he was before, it
must be acknowledg’d that now he is the most busy, vigilant and
diligent, of all[Pg 46]
God’s creatures, and very full of employment too, such as it is.
Scripture indeed, gives us light into the enmity there is between the
two natures, the Diabolical and the Human; the reason of it, and how and
by what means the power of the Devil is restrain’d by the Messias;
and to those who are willing to trust to Gospel-light, and believe what
the Scripture says of the Devil, there may much of his History be
discover’d, and therefore those that list may go there for a fuller
account of the matter.
But to reserve all Scripture-evidence of these things, as a Magazine in
store for the use of those with whom Scripture-testimony is of force, I
must for the present turn to other enquiries, being now directing my
story to an age, wherein to be driven to Revelation and
Scripture-assertions is esteem’d giving up the dispute; people
now-a-days must have demonstration; and in a word, nothing will satisfy
the age, but such evidence as perhaps the nature of the question will not admit.
It is hard, indeed, to bring demonstrations in such a case as this: No
man has seen God at any time, says the scripture, 1 John iv. 12. So
the Devil being a spirit incorporeal, an Angel of light, and
consequently not visible in his own substance, nature and form, it may
in some sense be said, no man has seen the Devil at any time; all
those pretences of phrenziful and fanciful people, who tell us, they
have seen the Devil, I shall examine, and perhaps expose by
themselves.
It might take up a great deal of our time here, to enquire whether the
Devil has any particular shape or personality of substance, which can
be visible to us, felt, heard, or understood; and which he cannot alter,
and then, what shapes or appearances the Devil has at any time taken
upon him;[Pg 47] and whether he can really appear in a body which might be
handled and seen, and yet so as to know it to have been the Devil at
the time of his appearing; but this also I defer as not of weight in the
present enquiry.
We have divers accounts of Witches conversing with the Devil; the
Devil in a real body, with all the appearance of a body of a man or
woman appearing to them; also of having a Familiar, as they call it,
an Incubus or little Devil, which sucks their bodies, runs away with
them into the air, and the like: Much of this is said, but much more
than it is easy to prove, and we ought to give but a just proportion of
credit to those things.
As to his borrow’d shapes and his subtle transformings, that we have
such open testimony of, that there is no room for any question about it;
and when I come to that part, I shall be oblig’d rather to give a
history of the fact, than enter into any dissertation upon the nature
and reason of it.
I do not find in any author, whom we can call creditable, that even in
those countries where the dominion of Satan is more particularly
establish’d, and where they may be said to worship him in a more
particular manner, as a Devil; which some tell us the Indians in
America did, who worship’d the Devil that he might not hurt them;
yet, I say, I do not find that even there the Devil appear’d to them
in any particular constant shape or personality peculiar to himself.
Scripture and History therefore, giving us no light into that part of
the question, I conclude and lay it down, not as my opinion only, but as
what all ages seem to concur in, that the Devil has no particular
body; that he is a spirit, and that tho’ he may, Proteus like, assume
the appearance of[Pg 48] either man or beast, yet it must be some borrow’d
shape, some assum’d figure, pro hac vice, and that he has no visible
body of his own.
I thought it needful to discuss this as a preliminary, and that the next
discourse might go upon a certainty in this grand point; namely, that
the Devil, however, he may for his particular occasions put himself into
a great many shapes, and clothe himself, perhaps, with what appearances
he pleases, yet that he is himself still a meer Spirit, that he retains
the seraphic Nature, is not visible by our eyes, which are human and
Organic, neither can he act with the ordinary Powers, or in the ordinary
manner as bodies do; and therefore, when he has thought fit to descend
to the meannesses of disturbing and frightning children and old women,
by noises and knockings, dislocating the chairs and stools, breaking
windows, and such like little ambulatory things, which would seem to be
below the dignity of his character, and which in particular, is
ordinarily performed by organic Powers; yet even then he has thought fit
not to be seen, and rather to make the poor people believe he had a real
shape and body, with hands to act, mouth to speak, and the like, than
to give proof of it in common to the whole World, by shewing himself,
and acting visibly and openly, as a body usually and ordinarily does.
Nor is it any disadvantage to the Devil, that his Seraphic nature is not
confin’d or imprison’d in a body or shape, suppose that shape to be what
monstrous thing we would; for this would, indeed, confine his actings
within the narrow sphere of the organ or body to which he was limited;
and tho’ you were to suppose the body to have wings for a velocity of
Motion equal to spirit, yet if it had not a power of invisibility too,
and a capacity of conveying it self, undiscover’d, into all the[Pg 49]
secret recesses of mankind, and the same secret art or capacity of insinuation,
suggestion, accusation, &c. by which his wicked designs are now
propagated, and all his other devices assisted, by which he deludes and
betrays mankind; I say, he would be no more a Devil, that is a
Destroyer, no more a Deceiver, and, no more a Satan, that is, a
dangerous Arch enemy to the souls of men; nor would it be any difficulty
to mankind to shun and avoid him, as I shall make plain in the other
part of his History.
Had the Devil from the beginning been embodied, as he could not have
been invisible to us, whose souls equally seraphic are only prescrib’d
by being embody’d and encas’d in flesh and blood as we are; so he would
have been no more a Devil to any body but himself: The imprisonment in a
body, had the powers of that body been all that we can conceive to make
him formidable to us, would yet have been a Hell to him; consider him as
a conquer’d exasperated Rebel, retaining all that fury and swelling
ambition, that hatred of God, and envy at his creatures which dwells now
in his enrag’d spirit as a Devil: yet suppose him to have been
condemn’d to organic Powers, confin’d to corporeal motion, and
restrain’d as a Body must be supposed to restrain a Spirit; it must, at
the same time, suppose him to be effectually disabled from all the
methods he is now allow’d to make use of, for exerting his rage and
enmity against God, any farther than as he might suppose it to affect
his Maker at second hand, by wounding his Glory thro’ the sides of his
weakest creature, Man.
He must, certainly, be thus confin’d, because Body can only act upon
Body, not upon Spirit; no species being empower’d to act out of the
compass of its own sphere: He might have been empower’d, indeed, to have
acted terrible and even[Pg 50] destructive things upon mankind, especially if
this body had any powers given it which mankind had not, by which man
would be overmatch’d and not be in a condition of self-defence; for
example, suppose him to have had wings to have flown in the air; Or to
be invulnerable, and that no human invention, art, or engine could hurt,
ensnare, captivate, or restrain him.
But this is to suppose the righteous and wise Creator to have made a
creature and not be able to defend and preserve him; or to have left him
defenceless to the mercy of another of his own creatures, whom he had
given power to destroy him; This indeed, might have occasion’d a general
idolatry, and made mankind, as the Americans do to this day, worship
the Devil, that he might not hurt them; but it could not have
prevented the destruction of mankind, supposing the Devil to have had
malice equal to his power: and he must put on a new nature, be
compassionate, generous, beneficent, and steadily good in sparing the
rival enemy he was able to destroy, or he must have ruin’d mankind: In
short, he must have ceas’d to have been a Devil, and must have
re-assum’d his original, Angelic, heavenly nature; been fill’d with the
principles of love to, and delight in the Works of his Creator, and bent
to propagate his Glory and Interest; or he must have put an end to the
race of man, whom it would be in his Power to destroy, and oblige his
Maker to create a new species, or fortify the old with some kind of
defence, which must be invulnerable, and which his fiery darts could not
penetrate.
On this occasion suffer me to make an excursion from the usual stile of
this Work, and with some solemnity to express my Thoughts thus:
How glorious is the wisdom and goodness of the great Creator of the
World! in thus restraining[Pg 51] these seraphic outcasts from the power of
assuming human or organic bodies! which could they do, envigorating them
with the supernatural Powers, which, as Seraphs and Angels, they now
possess and might exert, they would be able even to fright mankind from
the face of the Earth, and to destroy and confound God’s Creation; nay,
even as they are, were not their power limited, they might destroy the
Creation it self, reverse and over-turn nature, and put the World into a
general conflagration: But were those immortal Spirits embodied, tho’
they were not permitted to confound nature, they would be able to
harrass poor weak and defenceless man out of his wits, and render him
perfectly useless, either to his Maker or himself.
But the Dragon is chain’d, the Devil’s Power is limited; he has indeed a
vastly extended Empire, being Prince of the Air, having, at least, the
whole Atmosphere to range in, and how far that Atmosphere is extended,
is not yet ascertain’d by the nicest observations; I say at least,
because we do not yet know how far he may be allow’d to make excursions
beyond the Atmosphere of this Globe into the planetary Worlds, and what
power he may exercise in all the habitable parts of the solar system;
nay, of all the other solar systems, which, for ought we know, may
exist in the mighty extent of created space, and of which you may hear
farther in its order.
But let his power be what it will there, we are sure ’tis limited here,
and that in two particulars; first, he is limited as above, from
assuming body or bodily shapes with substance; and secondly, from
exerting seraphic Powers, and acting with that supernatural force,
which, as an Angel, he was certainly vested with before the fall, and
which we are not certain is yet taken from him; or at most, we do not
know how much it may or may not be[Pg 52] diminish’d by his degeneracy, and by
the blow given him at his expulsion: this we are certain, that be his
Power greater or less, he is restrain’d from the exercise of it in this
World; and he, who was one equal to the Angel who kill’d 180000 men in
one night, is not able now, without a new commission, to take away the
life of one Job, nor to touch any thing he had.
But let us consider him then limited and restrained as he is, yet he
remains a mighty, a terrible, an immortal Being; infinitely superior to
man, as well in the dignity of his nature, as in the dreadful powers he
retains still about him; it is true the brain-sick heads of our
Enthusiasticks paint him blacker than he is, and, as I have said,
wickedly represent him clothed with terrors that do not really belong to
him; as if the power of good and evil was wholly vested in him, and that
he was placed in the Throne of his Maker, to distribute both punishments
and rewards; In this they are much wrong, terrifying and deluding
fanciful people about him, till they turn their heads, and fright them
into a belief that the Devil will let them alone, if they do such and
such good things; or carry them away with him they know not whither, if
they do not; as if the Devil, whose proper business is mischief,
seducing and deluding mankind, and drawing them in to be rebels like
himself, should threaten to seize upon them, carry them away, and in a
word, fall upon them to hurt them, if they did evil, and on the
contrary, be favourable and civil to them, if they did well.
Thus a poor deluded country fellow in our Town, that had liv’d a wicked,
abominable, debauch’d life, was frighted with an Apparition, as he
call’d it, of the Devil; He fancy’d that he spoke to him, and telling
his tale to a good honest christian Gentleman his neighbour, that had a
little[Pg 53] more sense than himself; the Gentleman ask’d him if he was sure
he really saw the Devil? yes, yes, Sir, says he, I saw him very
plain, and so they began the following discourse.
Gent. See him! See the Devil! art thou sure of it, Thomas?
Tho. Yes, yes, I am sure enough of it, Master; to be sure ’twas the
Devil.
Gent. And how do you know ’twas the Devil, Thomas? had you ever
seen the Devil before?
Tho. No, no, I had never seen him before, to be sure; but, for all
that, I know ’twas the Devil.
Gent. Well, if you’re sure, Thomas, there’s no contradicting you;
pray what clothes had he on?
Tho. Nay, Sir, don’t jest with me, he had no clothes on, he was
clothed with fire and brimstone.
Gent. Was it dark or day light when you saw him?
Tho. O! it was very dark, for it was midnight.
Gent. How could you see him then? did you see by the light of the fire
you speak of?
Tho. No, no, he gave no light himself; but I saw him, for all that.
Gent. But was it within doors, or out in the street?
Tho. It was within, it was in my own Chamber, when I was just going
into bed, that I saw him.
Gent. Well then, you had a candle, hadn’t you?
Tho. Yes, I had a candle, but it burnt as blue! and as dim!
Gent. Well, but if the Devil was clothed with fire and brimstone, he
must give you some light, there can’t be such a fire as you speak of,
but it must give a light with it.
Tho. No, no, He gave no light, but I smelt his fire and brimstone;
he left a smell of it behind him, when he was gone.
[Pg 54]Gent. Well, so you say he had fire, but gave no light, it was a
devilish fire indeed; did it feel warm? was the room hot while he was in
it?
Tho. No, no, but I was hot enough without it, for it put me into a
great sweat with the fright.
Gent. Very well, he was all in fire, you say, but without light or
heat, only, it seems, he stunk of brimstone; pray what shapes was he in,
what was he like; for you say you saw him?
Tho. O! Sir, I saw two great staring saucer eyes, enough to fright any
body out of their wits.
Gent. And was that all you saw?
Tho. No, I saw his cloven-foot very plain, ’twas as big as one of
our bullocks that goes to plow.
Gent. So you saw none of his body, but his eyes and his feet? a fine
vision indeed!
Tho. Sir, that was enough to send me going.
Gent. Going! what did you run away from him?
Tho. No, but I fled into bed at one jump, and sunk down and pull’d the
bed-clothes quite over me.
Gent. And what did you do that for?
Tho. To hide my self from such a frightful creature.
Gent. Why, if it had really been the Devil, do you think the
bed-clothes would have secur’d you from him?
Tho. Nay, I don’t know, but in a fright it was all I could do.
Gent. Nay, ’twas as wise as all the rest; but come, Thomas, to be a
little serious, pray did he speak to you?
Tho. Yes, yes, I heard a voice, but who it was the Lord knows.
Gent. What kind of voice was it, was it like a man’s voice?
Tho. No, it was a hoarse ugly noise, like the croaking of a Frog, and
it call’d me by my name twice, Thomas Dawson, Thomas Dawson.
[Pg 55]Gent. Well, did you answer?
Tho. No, not I, I could not have spoke a word for my life; why, I was
frighted to death.
Gent. Did it say any thing else?
Tho. Yes, when it saw that I did not speak, it said, Thomas Dawson,
Thomas Dawson, you are a wicked wretch, you lay with Jenny S—— last
night; if you don’t repent, I will take you away alive and carry you to
Hell, and you shall be damned, you wretch.
Gent. And was it true, Thomas, did you lye with Jenny S—— the
night before?
Tho. Indeed Master, why yes it was true, but I was very sorry
afterwards.
Gent. But how should the Devil know it, Thomas?
Tho. Nay, he knows it to be sure; why, they say he knows every thing.
Gent. Well, but why should he be angry at that? he would rather did
you lye with her again, and encourage you to lye with forty whores, than
hinder you: This can’t be the Devil, Thomas.
Tho. Yes, yes. Sir, ’twas the Devil to be sure.
Gent. But he bid you repent too, you say?
Tho. Yes, he threatn’d me if I did not.
Gent. Why, Thomas, do you think the Devil would have you repent?
Tho. Why no, that’s true too, I don’t know what to say to that; but
what could it be? ’twas the Devil to be sure, it could be nobody else?
Gent. No, no, ’twas neither the Devil, Thomas, nor any body else,
but your own frighted imagination; you had lain with that wench, and
being a young sinner of that kind, your Conscience terrified you, told
you the Devil would fetch you away, and you would be damn’d; and you
were so persuaded it would be so, that you at last imagin’d he was come
for you indeed; that you saw him and heard him; whereas, you may depend
upon it, if Jenny S—— will let you lye with her every[Pg 56] night, the
Devil will hold the candle, or do any thing to forward it, but will
never disturb you; he’s too much a friend to your wickedness, it could
never be the Devil, Thomas; ’twas only your own guilt frighted you,
and that was Devil enough too, if you knew the worst of it, you need
no other enemy.
Tho. Why that’s true, Master, one would think the Devil should not
bid me repent, that’s true; but certainly ’twas the Devil for all that.
Now Thomas was not the only man that having committed a flagitious
crime had been deluded by his own imagination, and the power of fancy,
to think the Devil was come for him; whereas the Devil, to give him his
due, is too honest to pretend to such things; ’tis his business to
persuade men to offend, not to repent; and he professes no other; he may
press men to this or that action, by telling them ’tis no sin, no
offence, no breach of God’s Law, and the like, when really ’tis both;
but to press them to repent, when they have offended, that’s quite out
of his way; ’tis none of his business, nor does he pretend to it;
therefore, let no man charge the Devil with what he is not concern’d in.
But to return to his Person, he is, as I have said, notwithstanding his
lost glory, a mighty, a terrible and an immortal Spirit; he is himself
call’d a Prince, the Prince of the Power of the Air; the Prince of
Darkness, the Prince of Devils, and the like, and his attending
Spirits are call’d his Angels: so that however Satan has lost the
glory and rectitude of his Nature, by his apostate state, yet he retains
a greatness and magnificence, which places him above our rank, and
indeed above our conception; for we know not what he is, any more than
we know what the blessed Angels are; of whom we can say no more than
that they are[Pg 57] ministring Spirits, &c.
as the Scripture has describ’d them.
Two things, however, may give us some insight into the nature of the
Devil, in the present state he is in; and these we have a clear
discovery of in the whole series of his Conduct from the Beginning.
1. That he is the vanquish’d but implacable enemy of God his
Creator, who has conquer’d him, and expell’d him from the
habitations of bliss; on which account he is fill’d with envy,
rage, malice, and all uncharitableness; would dethrone God and
overturn the thrones of Heaven, if it was in his power.
2. That he is man’s irreconcilable Enemy; not as he is a man, nor
on his own account simply, nor for any advantage he (the Devil) can
make by the ruin and destruction of man; but in meer envy at the
felicity he is supposed to enjoy as Satan’s rival; and as he is
appointed to succeed Satan and his Angels in the possession of
those glories from which they are fallen.
And here I must take upon me to say, Mr. Milton makes a wrong judgment
of the reason of Satan’s resolution to disturb the felicity of man; He
tells us it was meerly to affront God his Maker, rob him of the glory
design’d in his new work of creations and to disappoint him in his main
design, namely, the creating a new species of creatures in a perfect
rectitude of soul, and after his own image, from whom he might expect a
new Fund of glory should be rais’d, and who was to appear as the triumph
of the Messiah’s victory over the Devil. In all which Satan could not be
fool enough not to know that he should[Pg 58] be disappointed by the same
Power which had so eminently counter-acted his rage before.
But, I believe, the Devil went upon a much more probable design; and
tho’ he may be said to act upon a meaner principle than that of pointing
his rage at the personal glory of his Creator; yet I own, that in my
opinion, it was by much the more rational undertaking, and more likely
to succeed; and that was, that whereas he perceived this new species of
creatures had a sublime as well as a human part, and were made capable
of possessing the mansions of eternal Beatitude, from whence, he
(Satan) and his Angels were expell’d and irretrievably banish’d; envy
at such a rival mov’d him by all possible artifice, for he saw him
deprived of capacity to do it by force, to render him unworthy like
himself; that bringing him to fall into rebellion and disobedience, he
might see his Rival damn’d with him; and those who were intended to fill
up the empty spaces in Heaven, made so by the absence of so many
millions of fallen Angels, be cast out into the same darkness with them.
How he came to know that this new species of creatures were liable to
such imperfection, is best explain’d by the Devil’s prying, vigilant
disposition, judging or leading him to judge by himself; (for he was as
near being infallible as any of God’s creatures had been) and then
inclining him to try whether it was so or no.
Modern Naturalists, especially some who have not so large a charity for
the fair sex, as I have, tell us, that as soon as ever Satan saw the
woman, and look’d in her face, he saw evidently that she was the best
form’d creature to make a Tool of, and the best to make a hypocrite of,
that could be made, and therefore the most fitted for his purpose.
1. He saw by some thwart lines in her face, (legible, perhaps, to
himself only) that there was[Pg 59] a throne ready prepar’d for the sin of
pride to sit in state upon, especially if it took an early possession:
Eve you may suppose was a perfect Beauty, if ever such a thing may be
supposed in the human frame; her figure being so extraordinary, was the
groundwork of his project; there needed no more than to bring her to be
vain of it, and to conceit that it either was so, or was infinitely more
sublime and beautiful than it really was; and having thus tickl’d her
vanity, to introduce Pride gradually, till at last he might persuade
her, that she was really Angelic, or of heavenly Race, and wanted
nothing but to eat the forbidden fruit, and that would make her
something more excellent still.
2. Looking farther into her Frame, and with a nearer view to her
imperfections, he saw room to conclude that she was of a constitution
easy to be seduc’d, and especially by flattering her; raising a
commotion in her Soul, and a disturbance among her passions; and
accordingly he set himself to work, to disturb her repose, and put
dreams of great things into her head; together with something of a
nameless Kind, which (however, some have been ill-natur’d enough to
suggest) I shall not injure the Devil so much as to mention, without
better evidence.
3. But, besides this, he found, upon the very first survey of her
outside, something so very charming in her mein and behaviour, so
engaging as well as agreeable in the whole texture of her person, and
withal such a sprightly wit, such a vivacity of parts, such a fluency of
tongue, and above all, such a winning prevailing whine in her smiles, or
at least in her tears, that he made no doubt if he could but once delude
her, she would easily be brought to delude Adam, whom he found set not
only a great value upon her person, but[Pg 60] was perfectly captivated by her
charms; in a word, he saw plainly, that if he could but ruin her, he
should easily make a Devil of her, to ruin her husband, and draw him
into any gulph of mischief, were it ever so black and dreadful, that she
should first fall into herself; how far some may be wicked enough, from
hence, to suggest of the fair sex, that they have been Devils to their
husbands ever since, I cannot say; I hope they will not be so unmerciful
to discover truths of such fatal consequence, tho’ they should come to
their knowledge.
Thus subtle and penetrating has Satan been from the beginning; and who
can wonder that upon these discoveries made into the woman’s inside, he
went immediately to work with her, rather than with Adam? not but that
one would think, if Adam was fool enough to be deluded by his wife,
the Devil might have seen so much of it in his countenance, as to have
encourag’d him to make his attack directly upon him, and not go round
about, beating the bush, and ploughing with the Heifer; setting upon the
woman first, and then setting her upon her husband, who might as easily
have been imposed upon as she.
Other Commentators upon this critical Text suggest to us, that Eve was
not so pleased with the hopes of being made a Goddess; That the pride of
a Seraphic Knowledge did not so much work upon her imagination to bring
her to consent, as a certain secret Notion infus’d into her head by the
same wicked instrument, that she should be wiser than Adam, and should
by the superiority of her understanding, necessarily have the government
over him; which, at present, she was sensible she had not, he being
master of a particular air of gravity and majesty, as well as of
strength, infinitely superior to her.
[Pg 61]This is an ill-natur’d suggestion; but it must be confess’d the
impatient desire of government, which (since that) appears in the
general Behaviour of the sex, and particularly of governing husbands,
leaves too much room to legitimate the supposition.
The Expositors, who are of this opinion, add to it, that this being her
original crime, or the particular temptation to that crime; Heaven
thought fit to shew his justice, in making her more entire subjection to
her husband be a part of the Curse, that she might read her sin in the
punishment, (viz.) he shall rule over thee.
I only give the general hint of these things as they appear recorded in
the annals of Satan’s first Tyranny, and at the beginning of his
government in the World; those that would be more particularly inform’d,
may enquire of him and know farther.
I cannot however, but observe here with some regret, how it appears by
the consequence, that the Devil was not mistaken when he made an early
judgment of Mrs. Eve; and how Satan really went the right way to
work, to judge of her; ’tis certain the Devil had nothing to do but to
look in her face, and upon a near steady view he might easily see there,
an instrument for his Turn; nor has he fail’d to make her a Tool ever
since, by the very methods which he at first proposed; to which,
perhaps, he has made some additions in the corrupting her composition,
as well as her understanding; qualifying her to be a compleat snare to
the poor weaker vessel Man; to wheedle him with her Syren’s voice,
abuse him with her smiles, delude him with her crocodile tears, and
sometimes cock her crown at him, and terrify him with the thunder of her
Treble; making the effeminated Male Apple-eater tremble at
the[Pg 62] noise
of that very Tongue, which at first commanded him to Sin. For it is yet
a debate which the Learned have not decided, whether she persuaded and
entreated him, or like a true she-tyrant, exercised her authority and
oblig’d him to eat the forbidden fruit.
And therefore a certain author, whose name, for fear of the Sex’s
resentment I conceal, brings her in, calling to Adam at a great
distance, in an imperious haughty manner, beckoning to him with her
hand, thus; Here, says she, you cowardly faint-hearted wretch, take
this branch of heavenly fruit, eat and be a stupid fool no longer; eat
and be wise; eat and be a God; and know, to your eternal shame, that
your wife has been made an enlightn’d Goddess before you.
He tells you Adam hung back a little at first, and trembl’d, afraid
to trespass: What ails the Sot, says the new Termagant? what are you
afraid of? did God forbid you! yes, and why? that we might not be
knowing and wise like himself! What reason can there be that we, who
have capacious souls, able to receive knowledge, should have it
withheld? take it, you Fool, and eat; don’t you see how I am exalted in
soul by it, and am quite another Creature? Take it, I say, or, if you
don’t, I’ll go and cut down the Tree, and you shall never eat any of it
at all, and you shall be still a fool, and be governed by your wife for
ever.
Thus, if this interpretation of the thing be just, she Scolded him into
it; Rated him, and brought him to it by the terror of her voice; a thing
that has retained a dreadful influence over him ever since; nor have the
greatest of Adam’s Successors, how light soever some husbands make of
it in this age, been ever able, since that, to conceal their terror, at
the very Sound; nay, if we may believe history, it prevailed even among
the Gods;[Pg 63] not all the noise of Vulcan’s hammers could silence the
clamours of that outrageous whore his Goddess; nay, even Jupiter
himself led such a life with a termagant wife, that once, they say,
Juno out-scolded the noise of all his Thunders, and was within an ace
of brawling him out of Heaven. But to return to the Devil.
With these views he resolv’d, it seems, to attack the woman; and if you
consider him as a Devil, and what he aim’d at, and consider the fair
prospect he had of success, I must confess, I do not see who can blame
him, or at least, how any thing less could be expected from him; But we
shall meet with it again by and by.
Chap. V.
Of the station Satan had in Heaven before he fell; the nature and
original of his crime, and some of Mr. Milton’s mistakes about
it.
Thus far I have gone upon general observation, in this great affair of
Satan and his Empire in the World; I now come to my Title, and shall
enter upon the historical part, as the main work before me.
Besides what has been said Poetically, relating to the fall and
wandering condition of the Devil and his Host, which poetical part I
offer only as an excursion, and desire it should be taken so; I shall
give you what I think is deduc’d from good originals on the part of
Satan’s story in a few words.
He was one of the created Angels, form’d by the same omnipotent hand and
glorious power,[Pg 64] who created the Heavens and the Earth, and all that is
therein: This innumerable heavenly host, as we have reason to believe,
contain’d Angels of higher and lower stations, of greater and of lesser
degree, express’d in the Scripture by Thrones, Dominions, and
Principalities: This, I think, we have as much reason to believe, as
we have, that there are Stars in the Firmament (or starry Heavens) of
greater and of lesser magnitude.
What particular station among the immortal Choir of Angels, this
Arch-seraph, this Prince of Devils, call’d Satan, was plac’d in
before his expulsion, that indeed, we cannot come at the knowledge of,
at least, not with such an Authority as may be depended upon; but as
from Scripture authority, he is plac’d at the head of all the Apostate
armies, after he was fallen, we cannot think it in the least assuming to
say, that he might be supposed to be one of the principal Agents in the
Rebellion which happen’d in Heaven, and consequently that he might be
one of the highest in dignity there, before that Rebellion.
The higher his station, the lower, and with the greater precipitation,
was his overthrow; and therefore, those words, tho’ taken in another
sense, may very well be apply’d to him: How art thou fallen, O
Lucifer! Son of the Morning!
Having granted the dignity of his Person, and the high station in which
he was placed among the heavenly Host; it would come then necessarily to
inquire into the nature of his fall, and above all, a little into the
reason of it; certain it is, he did fall, was guilty of Rebellion and
Disobedience, the just effect of Pride; sins, which, in that holy place,
might well be call’d wonderful.
But what to me is more wonderful, and which, I think, will be very ill
accounted for, is, how came seeds of crime to rise in the Angelic
Nature?[Pg 65] created in a state of perfect, unspotted holiness? how was it
first found in a place where no unclean thing can enter? how came
ambition, pride, or envy to generate there? could there be offence where
there was no crime? could untainted purity breed corruption? could that
nature contaminate and infect, which was always Drinking in principles
of perfection?
Happy ’tis to me, that writing the History, not solving the
Difficulties of Satan’s Affairs, is my province in this Work; that I
am to relate the Fact, not give reasons for it, or sign causes; if it
was otherwise, I should break off at this difficulty, for I acknowledge
I do not see thro’ it; neither do I think that the great Milton, after
all his fine Images and lofty Excursions upon the Subject, has left it
one jot clearer than he found it: Some are of opinion, and among them
the great Dr. B——s, that crime broke in upon them at some interval,
when they omitted but one moment fixing their eyes and thoughts on the
glories of the divine face, to admire and adore, which is the full
employment of Angels; but even this, tho’ it goes as high as imagination
can carry us, does not reach it, nor, to me, make it one jot more
comprehensible than it was before; all I can say to it here, is, that
so it was, the fact was upon Record, and the rejected Troop are in
being, whose circumstances confess the Guilt, and still groan under the
Punishment.
If you will bear with a poetic excursion upon the subject, not to solve
but to illustrate the difficulty; take it in a few lines, thus,
[Pg 66]
Thou sin of Witchcraft! firstborn child of Crime!
Produc’d before the bloom of Time;
Ambition’s maiden Sin, in Heaven conceiv’d,
And who could have believ’d
Defilement could in purity begin,
And bright eternal Day be soil’d with Sin?
Tell us, sly penetrating Crime,
How cam’st thou there, thou fault sublime?
How didst thou pass the Adamantine Gate;
And into Spirit thy self insinuate?
From what dark state? from what deep place?
From what strange uncreated race?
Where was thy ancient habitation found
Before void Chaos heard the forming sound?
Wast thou a Substance, or an airy Ghost,
A Vapour flying in the fluid waste
Of unconcocted air?
And how at first didst thou come there?
Sure there was once a time when thou wert not,
By whom wast thou created? and for what?
Art thou a steam from some contagious damp exhal’d?
How should contagion be intail’d,
On bright seraphic Spirits, and in a place
Where all’s supreme, and Glory fills the Space?
No noxious vapour there could rise,
For there no noxious matter lies;
Nothing that’s evil could appear,
Sin never could Seraphic Glory bear;
The brightness of the eternal Face,
Which fills as well as constitutes the place,
Would be a fire too hot for crime to bear,
[Pg 67]’Twould calcine Sin, or melt it into air.
How then did first defilement enter in?
Ambition, thou first vital seed of Sin!
Thou Life of Death, how cam’st thou there?
In what bright form didst thou appear?
In what Seraphic Orb didst thou arise?
Surely that place admits of no disguise,
Eternal Sight must know thee there,
And being known, thou soon must disappear.
But since the fatal Truth we know,
Without the matter whence or manner how:
Thou high superlative of Sin,
Tell us thy nature, where thou didst begin?
The first degree of thy increase,
Debauch’d the Regions of eternal Peace,
And fill’d the breasts of loyal Angels there
With the first Treason and infernal War.
Thou art the high extreme of pride,
And dost o’er lesser crimes preside;
Not for the mean attempt of Vice design’d,
But to embroil the World, and damn Mankind.
Transforming mischief, now hast thou procur’d
That loss that ne’er to be restor’d,
And made the bright Seraphic Morning-star
In horrid monstrous shapes appear?
Satan, that while he dwelt in glorious light,
Was always then as pure as he was bright,
That in effulgent rays of glory shone,
Excell’d by eternal Light, by him alone,
Distorted now, and stript of Innocence,
And banish’d with thee from the high Pre-eminence,
How has the splendid Seraph chang’d his face,
[Pg 68]Transform’d by thee, and like thy monstrous race?
Ugly as is the crime, for which he fell,
Fitted by thee to make a local Hell,
For such must be the place where either of you dwell.
Thus, as I told you, I only moralize upon the subject, but as to the
difficulty, I must leave it as I find it, unless, as I hinted at
first, I could prevail with Satan to set pen to paper, and write this
part of his own History: No question, but he could let us into the
secret; but to be plain, I doubt I shall tell so many plain truths of
the Devil, in this History, and discover so many of his secrets, which
it is not for his interest to have discover’d, that before I have done,
the Devil and I may not be so good friends as you may suppose we are;
at least, not friends enough to obtain such a favour of him, tho’ it be
for public good; so we must be content till we come ont’ other side the
Blue-Blanket, and then we shall know the whole Story.
But now, tho’ as I said, I will not attempt to solve the difficulty, I
may, I hope, venture to tell you, that there is not so much difficulty
in it, as at first sight appears: and especially not so much as some
people would make us believe; let us see how others are mistaken in it,
perhaps, that may help us a little in the enquiry; for to know what it
is not, is one help towards knowing what it is.
Mr. Milton has indeed told us a great many merry things of the Devil,
in a most formal, solemn manner; till in short he has made a good Play
of Heaven and Hell; and no doubt if he had liv’d in our times, he
might have had it acted with our Pluto and Proserpine. He has made
fine Speeches both for God and the Devil, and a little addition[Pg 69]
might have turn’d it a la modern into a Harlequin Dieu & Diable.
I confess I don’t well know how far the dominion of Poetry extends
itself; it seems the Buts and Bounds of Parnassus are not yet
ascertain’d; so that for ought I know, by vertue of their antient
privileges call’d Licentia Poetarum, there can be no Blasphemy in
Verse; as some of our Divines say there can be no Treason in the
Pulpit. But they that will venture to write that way, ought to be
better satisfy’d about that Point than I am.
Upon this foot Mr. Milton, to grace his Poem, and give room for his
Towring Fancy, has gone a length beyond all that ever went before him,
since Ovid in his Metamorphosis. He has indeed complimented God
Almighty with a flux of lofty words, and great sounds; and has made a
very fine Story of the Devil, but he has made a meer je ne scay Quoi
of Jesus Christ. In one line he has him riding on a Cherub, and in
another sitting on a Throne, both in the very same moment of action. In
another place he has brought him in making a Speech to his Saints,
when ’tis evident he had none there; for we all know Man was not
created till a long while after; and no body can be so dull as to say
the Angels may be called Saints, without the greatest absurdity in
nature. Besides, he makes Christ himself distinguish them, as in two
several Bands, and of differing Persons and Species, as to be sure they
are.
Stand still in bright array, ye Saints———
—— ——— ———— ———— Here stand,
Ye Angels. ———
Par. Lost. lib. vi. fo. 174.
[Pg 70]So that
Christ here is brought in drawing up his Army before the last
Battle, and making a Speech to them, to tell them they shall only stand
by in warlike order, but that they shall have no occasion to fight, for
he alone will engage the Rebels. Then in embattling his Legions, he
places the Saints here, and the Angels there, as if one were the main
Battle of Infantry, and the other the Wings of Cavalry. But who are
those Saints? they are indeed all of Milton’s own making; ’tis certain
there were no Saints at all in Heaven or Earth at that time; God and
his Angels fill’d up the place; and till some of the Angels fell,
and Men were created, had liv’d, and were dead, there could have been no
Saints there. Saint Abel was certainly the Proto-Saint of all that
ever were seen in Heaven, as well as the Proto-martyr of all that have
been upon Earth.
Just such another Mistake, not to call it a Blunder, he makes about
Hell; which he not only makes local, but gives it a being before the
Fall of the Angels; and brings it in opening its mouth to receive
them. This is so contrary to the nature of the thing, and so great an
absurdity, that no Poetic License can account for it; for tho’ Poesie
may form Stories, as Idea and Fancy may furnish Materials, yet Poesy
must not break in upon Chronology, and make things which in time were to
exist, act before they existed.
Thus a Painter may make a fine piece of Work, the fancy may be good, the
strokes masterly, and the beauty of the Workmanship inimitably curious
and fine, and yet have some unpardonable improprieties which marr the
whole Work. So the famous Painter of Toledo painted the story of the
three Wisemen of the East coming to worship, and bring their presents
to our Lord upon his birth at Bethlehem, where he represents them as[Pg 71]
three Arabian or Indian Kings; two of them are white, and one black;
But unhappily when he drew the latter part of them kneeling, which to be
sure was done after their faces; their legs being necessarily a little
intermix’d, he made three black feet for the Negroe King, and but
three white feet for the two white Kings, and yet never discover’d the
mistake till the piece was presented to the King, and hung up in the
great Church. As this is an unpardonable error in Sculpture or Limning,
it must be much more so in Poetry, where the Images must have no
improprieties, much less inconsistencies.
In a word, Mr. Milton has indeed made a fine Poem, but it is the
Devil of a History. I can easily allow Mr. Milton to make Hills and
Dales, flowry Meadows and Plains (and the like) in Heaven; and places of
Retreat and Contemplation in Hell; tho’ I must add, that it can be
allowed to no Poet on Earth but Mr. Milton. Nay, I will allow Mr.
Milton, if you please, to set the Angels a dancing in Heaven,
lib. v. fo. 138. and the Devils a singing in Hell, lib. i. fo.
44. tho’ they are in short, especially the last, most horrid
Absurdities. But I cannot allow him to make their Musick in Hell to be
harmonious and charming as he does; such Images being incongruous, and
indeed shocking to Nature. Neither can I think we should allow things to
be plac’d out of time in Poetry, any more than in History; ’tis a
confusion of Images which is allow’d to be disallow’d by all the
Criticks of what tribe or species soever in the world, and is indeed
unpardonable. But we shall find so many more of these things in Mr.
Milton, that really taking notice of them all, would carry me quite
out of my way, I being at this time not writing the History of Mr.
Milton, but of the Devil: besides,[Pg 72] Mr. Milton is such a
celebrated Man, that who but he that can write the History of the
Devil dare meddle with him?
But to come back to the business. As I had caution’d you against running
to Scripture for shelter in cases of difficulty, Scripture weighing very
little among the people I am directing my Speech to; so indeed Scripture
gives but very little light into any thing of the Devil’s Story before
his Fall, and but to very little of it for some time after.
Nor has Mr. Milton said one word to solve the main difficulty (viz.)
How the Devil came to fall, and how Sin came into Heaven; how the
spotless Seraphic Nature could receive infection, whence the contagion
proceeded, what noxious matter could emit corruption there, how and
whence any vapour to poison the Angelick Frame could rise up, or how it
increas’d and grew up to crime. But all this he passes over, and
hurrying up that part in two or three words, only tells us,
——— his Pride,
Had cast him out of Heaven with all his Host
Of rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
He trusted to have equal’d the most High.
lib. i. fo. 3.
His pride! but how came Satan while an Arch-angel to be proud? How
did it consist, that Pride and perfect Holiness should meet in the same
Person? Here we must bid Mr. Milton good night; for, in plain terms,
he is in the dark about it, and so we are all; and the most that can be
said, is, that we know the fact is so, but nothing of the nature or
reason of it.
[Pg 73]But to come to the History: The Angels fell, they sinn’d (wonderful!) in
Heaven, and God cast them out; what their sin was is not explicit, but
in general ’tis call’d a Rebellion against God; all sin must be so.
Mr. Milton here takes upon him to give the History of it, as
particularly as if he had been born there, and came down hither on
purpose to give us an account of it; (I hope he is better inform’d by
this time;) but this he does in such a manner, as jostles with Religion,
and shocks our Faith in so many points necessary to be believ’d, that we
must forbear to give up to Mr. Milton, or must set aside part of the
sacred Text, in such a manner, as will assist some people to set it all
aside.
I mean by this, his invented Scheme of the Son’s being declared in
Heaven to be begotten then, and then to be declar’d Generalissimo of all
the Armies of Heaven; and of the Father’s Summoning all the Angels of
the heavenly Host to submit to him, and pay him homage. The words are
quoted already, page 32.
I must own the Invention, indeed, is very fine; the Images exceeding
magnificent, the Thought rich and bright, and, in some respect, truly
sublime: But the Authorities fail most wretchedly, and the miss-timing
of it, is unsufferably gross, as is noted in the Introduction to this
Work; for Christ is not declar’d the Son of God but on Earth; ’tis true,
’tis spoken from Heaven, but then ’tis spoken as perfected on Earth; if
it was at all to be assign’d to Heaven, it was from Eternity, and there,
indeed, his eternal Generation is allow’d; but to take upon us to say,
that On a day, a certain day, for so our Poet assumes, lib. v. fol.
137.
——— ‘When on a day,
[Pg 74]——— ‘On such a day
‘As Heaven’s great Year brings forth, the empyreal Host
‘Of Angels by imperial Summons call’d,
‘Forthwith from all the ends of Heaven appear’d.
This is, indeed, too gross; at this meeting he makes God declare the Son
to be that day begotten, as before; had he made him not begotten that
day, but declared General that day, it would be reconcileable with
Scripture and with sense; for either the begetting is meant of ordaining
to an office, or else the eternal Generation falls to the ground; and if
it was to the office (Mediator) then Mr. Milton is out in ascribing
another fix’d day to the Work; see lib. x. fo. 194. But then the
declaring him that day, is wrong chronology too, for Christ is
declar’d the Son of God with power, only by the Resurrection of the
dead, and this is both a Declaration in Heaven and in Earth. Rom. i.
4. And Milton can have no authority to tell us, there was any
Declaration of it in Heaven before this, except it be that dull
authority call’d poetic License, which will not pass in so solemn an
affair as that.
But the thing was necessary to Milton, who wanted to assign some cause
or original of the Devil’s Rebellion; and so, as I said above, the
design is well laid, it only wants two Trifles call’d Truth and
History; so I leave it to struggle for itself.
This Ground-plot being laid, he has a fair field for the Devil to play
the Rebel in, for he immediately brings him in, not satisfy’d with the
Exaltation of the Son of God. The case must be thus; Satan being an
eminent Arch-angel, and perhaps, the highest of all the Angelic Train,
hearing this Sovereign Declaration, that the Son[Pg 75] of God was declar’d
to be Head or Generalissimo of all the heavenly Host, took it ill to see
another put into the high station over his head, as the Soldiers call
it; he, perhaps, thinking himself the senior Officer, and disdaining to
submit to any but to his former immediate Sovereign; in short, he threw
up his Commission, and, in order not to be compel’d to obey, revolted
and broke out in open Rebellion.
All this part is a Decoration noble and great, nor is there any
objection to be made against the invention, because a deduction of
probable Events; but the Plot is wrong laid, as is observ’d above,
because contradicted by the Scripture account, according to which Christ
was declared in Heaven, not then, but from Eternity, and not declared
with power, but on Earth, (viz.) in his victory over Sin and Death, by
the Resurrection from the dead: so that Mr. Milton is not orthodox in
this part, but lays an avow’d foundation for the corrupt Doctrine of
Arius, which says, there was a time when Christ was not the Son of
God.
But to leave Mr. Milton to his flights, I agree with him in this part,
viz. that the wicked or sinning Angels, with the great Arch-angel at
the head of them, revolted from their obedience, even in Heaven it self;
that Satan began the wicked defection, and being a Chief among the
heavenly Host, consequently carry’d over a great party with him, who all
together rebel’d against God; that upon this Rebellion they were
sentenc’d, by the righteous judgment of God, to be expel’d the holy
Habitation; this, besides the authority of Scripture, we have visible
testimonies of, from the Devils themselves; their influences and
operations among us every day, of which Mankind are witnesses; in all
the merry things they do in his name, and under his protection, in
almost every scene of life they pass thro’, whether we talk of[Pg 76] things
done openly or in Masquerade, things done in—or out of it, things done
in earnest or in jest.
But then, what comes of the long and bloody War that Mr. Milton gives
such a full and particular account of, and the terrible Battles in
Heaven between Michael with the royal Army of Angels on one hand, and
Satan with his rebel Host on the other; in which he supposes the
numbers and strength to be pretty near equal? but at length brings in
the Devil’s Army, upon doubling their rage and bringing new engines of
war into the field, putting Michael and all the faithful Army to the
worst; and, in a word, defeats them? For tho’ they were not put to a
plain flight, in which case he must, at least, have given an account of
two or three thousand millions of Angels cut in pieces and wounded, yet
he allows them to give over the fight, and make a kind of retreat; so
making way for the compleat victory of the Son of God: Now this is all
invention, or at least, a borrow’d thought from the old Poets, and the
Fight of the Giants against Jupiter, so nobly design’d by Ovid,
almost two thousand years ago; and there ’twas well enough; but whether
Poetic Fancy should be allow’d to fable upon Heaven, or no, and upon
the King of Heaven too, that I leave to the Sages.
By this expulsion of the Devils, it is allow’d by most Authors, they
are, ipso facto, stript of the Rectitude and Holiness of their Nature,
which was their Beauty and Perfection; and being ingulph’d in the abyss
of irrecoverable ruin, ’tis no matter where, from that very time they
lost their Angelic beautiful Form, commenc’d ugly frightful Monsters and
Devils, and became evil doers, as well as evil Spirits; fill’d with a
horrid malignity and enmity against their Maker, and arm’d with a
hellish resolution to shew and[Pg 77] exert it on all occasions; retaining
however their exalted spirituous Nature, and having a vast extensive
power of Action, all which they can exert in nothing else but doing
evil, for they are entirely divested of either Power or will to do good;
and even in doing evil, they are under restraints and limitations of a
superior Power, which it is their Torment, and, perhaps, a great part of
their Hell that they cannot break thro’.
Chap. VI.
What became of the Devil and his Host of fallen Spirits after
their being expell’d from Heaven, and his wandring condition till
the Creation; with some more of Mr. Milton’s absurdities on that
subject.
Having thus brought the Devil and his innumerable Legions to the edge
of the Bottomless-pit, it remains, before I bring them to action, that
some enquiry should be made into the posture of their affairs
immediately after their precipitate Fall, and into the place of their
immediate Residence; for this will appear to be very necessary to
Satan’s History, and indeed, so as that without it, all the farther
account we have to give of him, will be inconsistent and imperfect.
And first, I take upon me to lay down some Fundamentals, which I believe
I shall be able to make out Historically, tho’, perhaps, not so
Geographically as some have pretended to do.
1. That Satan was not immediately, nor is yet lock’d down into
the Abyss of a local Hell, such as is supposed by some, and such
as he shall be at last; or that,
[Pg 78]2. If he was, he has certain liberties allowed him for excursions
into the Regions of this Air, and certain spheres of action, in
which he can, and does move, to do, like a very Devil as he is,
all the mischief he can, and of which we see so many examples both
about us and in us; in the inquiry after which, I shall take
occasion to examine whether the Devil is not in most of us,
sometimes, if not in all of us one time or other.
3. That Satan has no particular residence in this Globe or Earth
where we live; that he rambles about among us, and marches over and
over our whole country, he and his Devils in Camps volant; but
that he pitches his grand Army or chief Encampment in our
Adjacencies or Frontiers, which the Philosophers call Atmosphere;
and whence he is call’d the Prince of the Power of that Element or
part of the World we call Air; from whence he sends out his
Spies, his Agents and Emissaries, to get intelligence, and to carry
his Commissions to his trusty and well beloved Cousins and
Counsellors on Earth, by which his business is done, and his
affairs carried on in the World.
Here, again, I meet Mr. Milton full in my face, who will have it, that
the Devil, immediately at his expulsion, roll’d down directly into a
Hell proper and local; nay, he measures the very distance, at least
gives the length of the journey by the time they were passing or
falling, which, he says, was nine days; a good Poetical flight, but
neither founded on Scripture or Philosophy; he might every jot as well
have brought Hell up to the Walls of Heaven, advanc’d to receive
them, or he ought to have consider’d the space which[Pg 79] is to be allow’d
to any locality, let him take what part of infinite distance between
Heaven and a created Hell he pleases.
But let that be as Mr. Milton’s extraordinary genius pleases to place
it; the passage, it seems, is just nine days betwixt Heaven and Hell;
well might Dives then see father Abraham, and talk to him too; but
then the great Gulph which Abraham tells him was fix’d between them,
does not seem to be so large, as according to Sir Isaac Newton, Dr.
Halley, Mr. Whiston, and the rest of our Men of Science, we take it
to be.
But suppose the passage to be nine Days, according to Mr. Milton, what
follow’d? why Hell gap’d wide, open’d its frightful mouth, and received
them all at once; millions and thousands of millions as they were, it
received them all at a gulp, as we call it, they had no difficulty to
go in, no, none at all.
Facilis desensus averni, sed revocare gradum
Hoc opus hic labor est.—— Virg.
All this, as Poetical, we may receive, but not at all as Historical; for
then come difficulties insuperable in our way, some of which may be as
follow: (1.) Hell is here supposed to be a place; nay a place created
for the punishment of Angels and Men, and likewise created long before
those had fallen, or these had Being; this makes me say, Mr. Milton
was a good Poet, but a bad Historian: Tophet was prepar’d of old,
indeed, but it was for the King, that is to say, it was prepar’d for
those whose lot it should be to come there; but this does not at all
suppose it was prepar’d before it was resolv’d whether there should be
subjects for it, or no; else we must suppose both Men and Angels were
made by the glorious and upright[Pg 80] Maker of all things, on purpose for
destruction, which would be incongruous and absurd.
But there is worse yet to come; in the next place he adds, that Hell
having receiv’d them, clos’d upon them; that is to say, took them in,
clos’d or shut its Mouth; and in a word, they were lock’d in, as it was
said in another place, they were lock’d in, and the Key is carry’d up to
Heaven and kept there; for we know the Angel came down from Heaven,
having the Key of the Bottomless-pit; but first, see Mr. Milton.
‘Nine days they fell, confounded chaos roar’d
‘And felt ten-fold confusion in their fall:
‘——Hell at last
‘Yawning receiv’d them all, and on them clos’d;
‘Down from the verge of Heaven, eternal wrath
‘Burnt after them ——
‘Unquenchable.
This Scheme is certainly deficient, if not absurd, and I think is more
so than any other he has laid; ’tis evident, neither Satan or his Host
of Devils are, no not any of them, yet, even now, confin’d in the
eternal Prison, where the Scripture says, he shall be reserved in
chains of darkness. They must have mean thoughts of Hell, as a
Prison, a local Confinement, that can suppose the Devil able to
break Goal, knock off his Fetters, and come abroad, if he had been once
lock’d in there, as Mr. Milton says he was: Now we know that he is
abroad again, he presented himself before God, among his neighbours,
when Job’s case came to be discours’d of; and more than that, it’s
plain he was a prisoner at large, by his answer to God’s question, which
was, whence comest thou? to which he answer’d, from going to and fro
thro’[Pg 81] the Earth, &c. this, I say, is plain, and if it be as certain
that Hell closed upon them, I demand then, how got he out? and why was
there not a Proclamation for apprehending him, as there usually is,
after such Rogues as break prison?
In short, the true Account of the Devil’s Circumstances, since his
Fall from Heaven, is much more likely to be thus: That he is more of a
Vagrant than a Prisoner, that he is a Wanderer in the wild unbounded
Wast, where he and his Legions, like the Hoords of Tartary, who, in
the wild Countries of Karakathay, the Desarts of Barkan, Kassan,
and Astracan, live up and down where they find proper; so Satan and
his innumerable Legions rove about hic & ubique, pitching their Camps
(being Beasts of prey) where they find the most Spoil; watching over
this World, (and all the other Worlds for ought we know, and if there
are any such,) I say watching, and seeking who they may devour, that
is, who they may deceive and delude, and so destroy, for devour they
cannot.
Satan being thus confin’d to a vagabond, wandring, unsettl’d
Condition, is without any certain Abode; For tho’ he has, in consequence
of his Angelic Nature, a kind of Empire in the liquid Wast or Air;
yet, this is certainly part of his punishment, that he is continually
hovering over this inhabited Globe of Earth; swelling with the Rage of
Envy, at the Felicity of his Rival, Man; and studying all the means
possible to injure and ruin him; but extremely limited in Power, to his
unspeakable Mortification: This is his present State, without any fix’d
Abode, Place, or Space, allow’d him to rest the Sole of his Foot upon.
From his Expulsion, I take his first View of Horror to be that, of
looking back towards the Heaven which he had lost; there to see the
Chasm or Opening made up, out at which, as at a[Pg 82] Breach in the Wall of
the holy Place, he was thrust Head-long by the Power which expel’d him;
I say, to see the Breach repair’d, the Mounds built up, the Walls
garison’d with millions of Angels, and arm’d with Thunders; and, above
all, made terrible by that Glory from whose Presence they were expel’d,
as is Poetically hinted at before.
Upon this sight, ’tis no wonder (if there was such a Place) that they
fled till the Darkness might cover them, and that they might be out of
the View of so hated a Sight.
Wherever they found it, you may be sure they pitch’d their first Camp,
and began, after many a sour Reflection upon what was pass’d, to
consider and think a little, upon what was to come.
If I had as much personal Acquaintance with the Devil, as would admit
it, and could depend upon the Truth of what Answer he would give me, the
first Question I would ask him, should be, what Measures they resolv’d
on at their first Assembly? and the next should be, how they were
employ’d in all that space of Time, between their so flying the Face of
their almighty Conqueror, and the Creation of Man? as for the Length of
the Time, which, according to the Learn’d, was twenty thousand Years,
and according to the more Learned, not half a Quarter so much, I would
not concern my Curiosity much about it; ’tis most certain, there was a
considerable time between, but of that immediately; first let me enquire
what they were doing all that time.
The Devil and his Host, being thus, I say, cast out of Heaven, and not
yet confin’d strictly to Hell, ’tis plain they must be some where.
Satan and all his Legions did not lose their Existence, no, nor the
Existence of Devils neither; God was so far from annihilating him,
that he still preserv’d[Pg 83] his Being; and this not Mr. Milton only, but
God himself has made known to us, having left his History so far upon
record; several expressions in Scripture also make it evident, as
particularly the story of Job, mentioned before; the like in our
Saviour’s time, and several others.
If Hell did not immediately ingulph them, as Milton suggests, ’tis
certain, I say, that they fled Somewhere, from the anger of Heaven, from
the face of the Avenger; and his absence, and their own guilt, wonder
not at it, would make Hell enough for them wherever they went.
Nor need we fly to the Dreams of our Astronomers, who take a great
deal of pains to fill up the vast Spaces of the starry Heavens with
innumerable habitable Worlds; allowing as many solar Systems as there
are fix’d Stars, and that not only in the known Constellations, but even
in Gallaxie it self; who, to every such System allow a certain number
of Planets, and to every one of those Planets so many Satellites or
Moons, and all these Planets and Moons to be Worlds; solid, dark,
opaque Bodies, habitable, and (as they would have us believe) inhabited
by the like Animals and rational Creatures as on this Earth; so that
they may, at this rate, find room enough for the Devil and all his
Angels, without making a Hell on purpose; nay they may, for ought I
know, find a World for every Devil in all the Devil’s Host, and so
every one may be a Monarch or Master-Devil, separately in his own
Sphere or World, and play the Devil there by himself.
And even if this were so, it cannot be denied but that one Devil in a
place would be enough for a whole systemary World, and be able, if not
restrained, to do mischief enough there too, and even to ruin and
overthrow the whole body of People contain’d in it.
[Pg 84]But, I say, we need not fly to these shifts, or consult the Astronomers
in the decision of this point; for wherever Satan and his defeated
Host went, at their expulsion from Heaven, we think we are certain,
none of all these Beautiful Worlds, or be they Worlds or no, I mean the
fix’d Stars, Planets, &c. had then any existence; for the Beginning,
as the Scripture calls it, was not yet Begun.
But to speak a little by the rules of Philosophy, that is to say, so as
to be understood by others, even when we speak of things we cannot fully
understand ourselves: Tho’ in the Beginning of Time all this glorious
Creation was form’d, the Earth, the starry Heavens, and all the
Furniture thereof, and there was a Time when they were not; yet we
cannot say so of the Void, or that nameless no-where, as I call’d it
before, which now appears to be a some-where, in which these glorious
Bodies are plac’d. That immense Space which those take up, and which
they move in at this Time, must be supposed, before they had Being, to
be plac’d there: As God himself was, and existed before all Being, Time,
or Place, so the Heaven of Heavens, or the Place, where the Thrones and
Dominions of his Kingdom then existed, inconceivable and ineffable, had
an existence before the glorious Seraphs, the innumerable company of
Angels which attended about the Throne of God existed; these all had a
Being long before, as the Eternal Creator of them all had before them.
Into this void or abyss of Nothing, however unmeasurable, infinite, and
even to those Spirits, themselves Inconceivable, they certainly launch’d
from the bright Precipice which they fell from, and here they shifted as
well as they could.
[Pg 85]Here expanding those Wings which Fear, and Horror at their Defeat
furnish’d them, as I hinted before, they hurried away to the utmost
Distance possible, from the Face of God their Conqueror, and then most
dreaded Enemy; formerly their Joy and Glory.
Be this utmost remov’d Distance where it will, Here, certainly,
Satan and all his Gang of Devils, his numberless, tho’ routed Armies
retired. Here Milton might, with some good Ground, have form’d his
Pandemonium, and have brought them in, consulting what was next to be
done, and whether there was any room left to renew the War, or to carry
on the Rebellion; but had they been cast immediately into Hell, closed
up there, the Bottomless pit lock’d upon them, and the Key carried up to
Heaven to be kept there, as Mr. Milton himself in part confesses,
and the Scripture affirms; I say, had this been so, the Devil himself
could not have been so ignorant as to think of any future Steps to be
taken, to retrieve his Affairs, and therefore a Pandemonium or Divan
in Hell, to consult of it, was ridiculous.
All Mr. Milton’s Scheme of Satan’s future Conduct, and all the
Scripture Expressions about the Devil and his numerous Attendants, and
of his actings since that time, make it not reasonable to suggest that
the Devils were confin’d to their eternal Prison, at their Expulsion
out of Heaven; But that they were in a State of Liberty to act, tho’
limited in acting, of which I shall also speak in its place.
[Pg 86]
Chap. VII.
Of the Number of Satan’s Host; how they came first to know of the
new created Worlds, now in being, and their Measures with Mankind
upon the Discovery.
Several things have been suggested to set us a calculating the number of
this frightful throng of Devils, who with Satan, the Master-Devil,
was thus cast out of Heaven; I cannot say, I am so much Master of
Political Arithmetick as to cast up the Number of the Beast, no, nor the
Number of the Beasts or Devils, who make up this Throng. St.
Francis, they tell us, or some other Saint, they do not say who, ask’d
the Devil once, how strong he was? for St. Francis, you must know,
was very familiar with him; The Devil, it seems, did not tell him, but
presently raised a great Cloud of Dust, by the help, I suppose, of a
Gust of Wind, and bid that Saint count it; He was, I suppose, a
Calculator, that would be call’d grave, who dividing Satan’s Troops
into three Lines, cast up the Number of the Devils of all sorts in
each Battalia, at ten hundred times a hundred thousand millions of the
first Line, fifty millions of times as many in the second Line, and
three hundred thousand times as many as both in the third Line.
The Impertinence of this account would hardly have given it a place
here, only to hint that it has always been the Opinion, that Satan’s
Name may well be call’d a Noun of Multitude, and that the Devil and
his Angels are certainly no[Pg 87] inconsiderable Number: It was a smart
Repartee that a Venetian Nobleman made to a Priest who rallied him
upon his refusing to give something to the Church, which the Priest
demanded for the delivering him from Purgatory; when the Priest asking
him, if he knew what an innumerable Number of Devils there were to
take him? he answer’d, yes, he knew how many Devils there were in
all: How many? says the Priest, his curiosity, I suppose, being
rais’d by the novelty of the answer. Why ten millions five hundred and
eleven thousand, six hundred and seventy five Devils and a half, says
the Nobleman: A half! says the Priest, pray what kind of a Devil is
that? your self, says the Nobleman, for you are half a Devil already
(and will be a whole one when you come there) for you are for deluding
all you deal with, and bringing us Soul and Body into your Hands, that
you may be paid for letting us go again. So much for their Number.
Here also it would come in very aptly, to consider the state of that
long interval between the Time of their Expulsion from Heaven, and the
Creation of the World; and what the Posture of the Devil’s Affairs might
be, during that Time. The horror of their Condition can only be
conceiv’d of at a Distance, and especially by us, who being embodied
Creatures, cannot fully judge of what is, or is not a Punishment to
Seraphs and Spirits; But ’tis just to suppose they suffer’d all that
Spirits of a Seraphic Nature were capable to sustain, consistent with
their Existence; notwithstanding which they retain’d still the
Hellishness of their rebellious Principles; namely, their Hatred and
Rage against God, and their Envy at the Felicity of his Creatures.
As to how long their time might be, I shall leave that Search; no lights
being given me that[Pg 88] are either probable or rational, and we have so
little room to make a Judgment of it, that we may as well believe Father
M——, who supposes it to be a hundred thousand Years, as those who
judge it one thousand Years; ’tis enough that we are sure, it was before
the Creation, how long before is not material to the Devil’s History,
unless we had some Records of what happen’d to him, or was done by him
in the Interval.
During the wandring Condition the Devil was in at that Time, we may
suppose, he and his whole Clan to be employ’d in exerting their Hatred
and Rage at the Almighty, and at the Happiness of the remaining faithful
Angels, by all the ways they had power to shew it.
From this determin’d stated Enmity of Satan and his Host against
God, and at every thing that brought Glory to his Name, Mr. Milton
brings in Satan, (when first he saw Adam in Paradise, and the
Felicity of his Station there) swelling with Rage and Envy, and taking
up a dreadful Resolution to ruin Adam and all his Posterity, meerly to
disappoint his Maker of the Glory of his Creation; I shall come to speak
of that in its Place.
How Satan, in his remote Situation, got Intelligence of the Place
where to find Adam out, or that any such thing as a Man was created,
is Matter of just Speculation, and there might be many rational Schemes
laid for it: Mr. Milton does not undertake to tell us the Particulars,
nor indeed could he find room for it; perhaps, the Devil having, as I
have said, a Liberty to range over the whole Void or Abyss, which we
want as well a Name for, as indeed Powers to conceive of; might have
discovered that the Almighty Creator had form’d a new and glorious Work,
with infinite Beauty and Variety, filling[Pg 89] up the immense Wast of Space,
in which he, (the Devil) and his Angels, had rov’d for so long a
time, without finding any thing to work on, or to exert their Apostate
Rage in against their Maker.
That at length they found the infinite untrodden Space, on a sudden
spread full with glorious Bodies, shining in self-existing Beauty, with
a new, and to them unknown Lustre, call’d Light: They found these
luminous Bodies, tho’ immense in Bulk, and infinite in Number, yet fixt
in their wondrous Stations, regular and exact in their Motions, confin’d
in their proper Orbits, tending to their particular Centers, and
enjoying every one their peculiar Systems, within which was contain’d
innumerable Planets with their Satellites or Moons, in which (again) a
reciprocal Influence, Motion and Revolution conspired to Form the most
admirable Uniformity of the whole.
Surprized, to be sure, with this sudden and yet glorious Work of the
Almighty; for the Creation was enough, with its Lustre, even to surprize
the Devils; they might reasonably be supposed to start out of their
dark Retreat, and with a Curiosity not below the Seraphic Dignity; for
these are some of the things which the Angels desire to look into,
to take a flight thro’ all the amazing Systems of the fix’d Suns or
Stars, which we see now but at a Distance, and only make Astronomical
Guesses at.
Here the Devil found not subject of Wonder only, but matter to swell his
revolted Spirit with more Rage, and to revive the Malignity of his Mind
against his Maker, and especially against this new encrease of Glory,
which to his infinite Regret was extended over the whole Wast, and which
he look’d upon, as we say in human[Pg 90] Affairs, as a Pays conquis, or, if
you will have it in the Language of the Devil, as an invasion upon his
Kingdom.
Here it naturally occur’d to them, in their State of Envy and Rebellion,
that tho’ they could not assault the impregnable Walls of Heaven, and
could no more pretend to raise War in the Place of Blessedness and
Peace; yet that perhaps they might find Room in this new, and however
glorious, yet inferior Kingdom or Creation, to work some despite to
their great Creator, or to affront his Majesty in the Person of some of
his new made Creatures; and upon this they may be justly supposed to
double their Vigilance, in the survey they resolve to take of these new
Worlds, however great, numberless and wonderful.
What Discoveries they may have made in the other and greater Worlds,
than this Earth, we have not yet had an account; possibly they are
conversant with other Parts of God’s Creation, besides this little
little Globe, which is but as a Point in comparison of the Rest; and
with other of God’s Creatures besides Man, who may, according to the
Opinion of our Philosophers, inhabit those Worlds; but as no body knows
that Part but the Devil, we shall not trouble our selves with the
Enquiry.
But ’tis very reasonable, and indeed probable, that the Devils were
more than ordinarily surpriz’d at the Nature and Reason of all this
glorious Creation, after they had, with the utmost Curiosity, view’d all
the parts of it; The Glories of the several Systems; the immense spaces
in which those glorious Bodies that were created and made part of it,
were allow’d respectively to move; the innumerable fix’d Stars, as so
many Suns in the Center of so many distant Solar Systems; the[Pg 91]
(likewise innumerable) dark opaque Bodies receiving light, and depending
upon those Suns respectively for such light, and then reflecting that
light again upon and for the Use of one another; To see the Beauty and
Splendor of their Forms, the Regularity of their Position, the Order and
Exactness, and yet inconceivable Velocity of their Motions, the
certainty of their Revolutions, and the Variety and Virtue of their
Influences; and then, which was even to the Devils themselves most
astonishing, That after all the rest of their Observations they should
find this whole immense Work was adapted for, and made subservient to
the Use, Delight and Blessing only of one poor Species, in itself small,
and in Appearance contemptible; the meanest of all the Kinds supposed to
inhabit so many glorious Worlds, as appeared now to be form’d; I mean,
that Moon call’d the Earth, and the Creature call’d Man; that all was
made for him, upheld by the wise Creator, on his account only, and would
necessarily end and cease whenever that Species should end and be
determin’d.
That this Creature was to be found no where but (as above) in one little
individual Moon; a Spot less than almost any of the Moons, which were
in such great Numbers to be found attendant upon, and prescrib’d with in
every System of the whole created Heavens; This was astonishing even to
the Devil himself, nay the whole Clan of Devils could scarce
entertain any just Ideas of the thing; Till at last Satan,
indefatigable in his Search or Enquiry into the Nature and Reason of
this new Work, and particularly searching into the Species of Man, whom
he found God had thus plac’d in the little Globe, call’d Earth; he
soon came to an Eclairicissement, or a clear Understanding of the
whole. For Example,
[Pg 92]First, He
found this Creature, call’d Man, was however mean and
small in his Appearance, a kind of a Seraphic Species; that he was
made in the very Image of God, endowed with reasonable Faculties to
know Good and Evil, and possess’d of a certain thing till then
unknown and unheard of even in Hell it self; that is, in the
Habitation of Devils, let that be where it would, (viz.)
2. That God had made him indeed of the lowest and coarsest
Materials, but that he had breath’d into him the Breath of Life,
and that he became a living thing call’d Soul, being a kind of an
extraordinary heavenly and divine Emanation; and consequently that
Man, however mean and Terrestrial his Body might be, was yet,
Heaven-born, in his spirituous Part compleatly Seraphic; and after
a Space of Life here, (determin’d to be a state of probation) he
should be translated thro’ the Regions of Death into a Life purely
and truly Heavenly, and which should remain so for ever; being
capable of knowing and enjoying God his Maker, and standing in his
Presence, as the glorified Angels do.
3. That he had the most sublime Faculties infused into him; was
capable not only of knowing and contemplating God, and which was
still more, of enjoying him, as above; but (which the Devil now
was not) capable of honouring and glorifying his Maker; who also
had condescended to accept of Honour from him.
4. And which was still more, that being of an Angelic Nature, tho’
mix’d with, and confined for the present in a Case of mortal Flesh;
he was intended to be remov’d from [Pg 93]this Earth after a certain time
of Life here, to inhabit that Heaven, and enjoy that very Glory and
Felicity, from which Satan and his Angels had been expell’d.
When he found all this, it presently occur’d to him, that God had done
it all as an act of Triumph over him (Satan,) and that these Creatures
were only created to people Heaven, depopulated or stript of its
inhabitants by his Expulsion, and that these were all to be made
Angels in the Devil’s stead.
If this thought encreas’d his Fury and Envy, as far as Rage of Devils
can be capable of being made greater; it doubtless set him on work to
give a Vent to that Rage and Envy, by searching into the Nature and
Constitution of this Creature, call’d Man; and to find out whether he
was invulnerable, and could by no means be hurt by the Power of Hell, or
deluded by his Subtilty; or whether he might be beguil’d and deluded,
and so, instead of being preserv’d in Holiness and Purity, wherein he
was certainly created, be brought to fall and rebell as he (Satan) had
done before him; by which, instead of being transplanted into a glorious
State, after this Life in Heaven, as his Maker had design’d him to be,
to fill up the Angelic Choir, and supply the Place from whence he
(Satan) had fallen, he might be made to fall also like him, and in a
Word, be made a Devil like himself.
This convinces us that the Devil has not lost his natural Powers by
his Fall; and our learned Commentator Mr. Pool is of the same Opinion;
tho’ he grants that the Devil has lost his moral Power, or his Power
of doing Good, which he can never recover. Vide Mr. Pool upon Acts
xix. 17. where we may particularly observe,[Pg 94] when the Man possess’d with
an evil Spirit flew upon the seven Sons of Scæva the Jew, who would
have Exorcis’d them in the Name of Jesus, without the Authority of
Jesus, or without Faith in him; He flew on them and master’d them, so
that they fled out of the House from the Devil conquered, naked and
wounded: But of this Power of the Devil I shall speak by it self.
In a Word, and to sum up all the Devil’s Story from his first
Expulsion, it stands thus: For so many Years as were between his Fall
and the Creation of Man, tho’ we have no Memoirs of his particular
Affairs, we have Reason to believe he was without any Manner of
Employment; but a certain tormenting Endeavour to be always expressing
his Rage and Enmity against Heaven; I call it tormenting, Because ever
disappointed; every thought about it proving empty; every attempt
towards it abortive; Leaving him only Light enough to see still more and
more Reason to despair of Success; and that this made his Condition
still more and more a Hell than it was before.
After a Space of Duration in this Misery, which we have no light given
us to measure or judge of, He at length discovered the new Creation of
Man, as above, upon which he soon found Matter to set himself to work
upon, and has been busily employ’d ever since.
And now indeed there may be room to suggest a Local Hell, and the
Confinement of Souls (made corrupt and degenerate by him) to it, as a
Place; tho’ he himself, as is still apparent by his Actings, is not yet
confin’d to it; of this Hell, its Locality, Extent, Dimensions,
Continuance and Nature, as it does not belong to Satan’s History, I have
a good excuse for saying nothing,[Pg 95] and so put off my meddling with that,
which if I would meddle with, I could say nothing of to the Purpose.
Chap. VIII.
Of the Power of the Devil at the Time of the Creation of this
World; whether it has not been farther straitn’d and limited since
that Time, and what Shifts and Stratagems he is obliged to make use
of to compass his Designs upon Mankind.
Cunning Men have fabled, and tho’ it be without either Religion,
Authority or physical Foundation, it may be we may like it ne’er the
worse for that; that when God made the Stars and all the Heavenly
Luminaries, the Devil, to mimick his Maker and insult his new
Creation, made Comets, in Imitation of the fix’d Stars; but that the
Composition of them being combustible, when they came to wander in the
Abyss, rolling by an irregular ill-grounded Motion, they took Fire, in
their Approach to some of those great Bodies of Flame, the fix’d
Stars; and being thus kindled (like a Fire-work unskilfully let off)
they then took wild and excentrick, as also different Motions of their
own, out of Satan’s Direction, and beyond his Power to regulate ever
after.
Let this Thought stand by it self, it matters not to our purpose whether
we believe any thing of it, or no; ’tis enough to our Case, that if
Satan had any such Power then, he has no such Power now, and that leads
me to enquire into his more recent Limitations.
[Pg 96]I am to suppose, he and all his Accomplices being confounded at the
Discovery of the new Creation, and racking their Wits to find out the
meaning of it, had at last (no matter how) discover’d the whole
System, and concluded, as I have said, that the Creature, call’d
Man, was to be their Successor in the Heavenly Mansions; upon which I
suggest that the first Motion of Hell was to destroy this new Work, and,
if possible, to overwhelm it.
But when they came to make the Attempt, they found their Chains were not
long enough, and that they could not reach to the Extremes of the
System: They had no Power either to break the Order, or stop the Motion,
dislocate the Parts, or confound the Situation of Things; they
traversed, no doubt, the whole Work, visited every Star, landed upon
every Solid, and sail’d upon every Fluid in the whole Scheme, to see
what Mischief they could do.
Upon a long and full Survey, they came to this Point in their Enquiry,
that in short they could do nothing by Force; that they could not
displace any Part, annihilate any Atom, or destroy any Life in the whole
Creation; but that as Omnipotence had created it, so the same
Omnipotence had arm’d it at all Points against the utmost Power of Hell,
had made the smallest Creature in it invulnerable, as to Satan; so
that without the Permission of the same Power which had made Heaven,
and conquer’d the Devil, he could do nothing at all, as to destroying
any thing that God had made, no, not the little diminutive thing call’d
Man, who Satan saw so much reason to hate, as being created to succeed
him in Happiness in Heaven.
Satan found him placed out of his Power to hurt, or out of his Reach to
touch; and here, by the way, appears the second Conquest of Heaven
over the Devil; that having plac’d his Rival, as it[Pg 97] were, just before
his Face, and shew’d the hateful sight to him, he saw written upon his
Image, Touch him if you dare.
It cannot be doubted, but, had it not been thus, Man is so far from
being a Match for the Devil, that one of Satan’s least Imps or
Angels could destroy all the Race of them in the World, ay World and
all in a moment;
As he is Prince of the Power of the Air, taking the Air for the
Elementary World, how easily could he, at one Blast, sweep all the
Surface of the Earth into the Sea, or drive weighty immense Surges of
the Ocean over the whole Plane of the Earth, and deluge the Globe at
once with a Storm? Or how easily could he, who, by the Situation of the
Empire, must be supposed able to manage the Clouds, draw them up, in
such Position as should naturally produce Thunders and Lightnings, cause
those Lightnings to blast the Earth, dash in Pieces all the Buildings,
burn all the populous Towns and Cities, and lay wast the World;
At the same time he might command suited Quantities of sublimated Air to
burst out of the Bowels of the Earth, and overwhelm and swallow up, in
the opening Chasms, all the Inhabitants of the Globe?
In a Word, Satan left to himself as a Devil, and to the Power, which
by virtue of his Seraphic Original he must be vested with, was able to
have made Devilish Work in the World, if by a superior Power he was not
restrain’d.
But there is no doubt, at least to me, but that with his fall from
Heaven, as he lost the Rectitude and Glory of his Angelic Nature, I mean
his Innocence, so he lost the Power too that he had before; and that
when he first commenc’d Devil, he received the Chains of Restraint too,
as the Badge of his Apostacy, viz. a general[Pg 98] Prohibition, to do any
thing to the Prejudice of this Creation, or to act any thing by Force or
Violence without special Permission.
This Prohibition was not sent him by a Messenger, or by an Order in
Writing, or proclaimed from Heaven by a Law; but Satan, by a strange,
invisible and unaccountable Impression felt the Restraint within him;
and at the same time that his moral Capacity was not taken away, yet his
Power of exerting that Capacity felt the Restraint, and left him unable
to do, even what he was able to do at the same time.
I make no question, but the Devil is sensible of this Restraint, that is
to say, not as it is a restraint only, or as an effect of his
Expulsion from Heaven; But as it prevents his Capital Design against
Man, who, for the Reason I have given already, he entertains a mortal
Hatred of, and would destroy with all his Heart, if he might; and
therefore, like a chain’d Mastiff, we find him oftentimes making a
horrid hellish Clamour and Noise, barking and howling, and frighting the
People, letting them know, that if he was loose he would tear them in
pieces; but at the same time his very Fury shakes his Chain, which lets
them know, to their Satisfaction, he can only Bark, but cannot Bite.
Some are of Opinion that the Devil is not restrain’d so much by the
superior Power of his Sovereign and Maker; but that all his milder
Measures with Man are the effect of a political Scheme, and done upon
mature Deliberation; that it was resolved to act thus, in the great
Council or P——t of Devils, call’d upon this very Occasion, when they
first were inform’d of the Creation of Man; and especially when they
considered what kind of Creature he was, and what might probably be the
Reason of making him, (viz.) to fill up the Vacancies in Heaven; I
say, that then the[Pg 99] Devils resolv’d, that it was not for their
Interest to fall upon him with Fury and Rage, and so destroy the
Species, for that this would be no Benefit at all to them, and would
only cause another original Man to be created; for that they knew God
could, by the same Omnipotence, form as many new Species of Creatures as
he pleased; and, if he thought fit, create them in Heaven too, out of
the Reach of Devils or evil Spirits, and that therefore, to destroy
Man would no way answer their End.
On the other hand, examining strictly the Mould of this new made
Creature, and of what Materials he was form’d; how mixt up of a Nature
convertible and pervertible, capable indeed of infinite Excellence, and
consequently of eternal Felicity; but subject likewise to Corruption and
Degeneracy, and consequently to eternal Misery; That instead of being
fit to supply the Places of Satan and his rejected Tribe (the expell’d
Angels) in Heaven, and filling up the Thrones or Stalls in the Celestial
Choir, they might, if they could but be brought into Crime, become a
Race of Rebels and Traytors like the rest; and so come at last to keep
them Company, as well in the Place of eternal Misery, as in the Merit of
it, and in a Word, become Devils instead of Angels.
Upon this Discovery, I say, they found it infinitely more for the
Interest of Satan’s infernal Kingdom, to go another way to work with
Mankind, and see if it were possible, by the strength of all their
infernal Wit and Counsels, to lay some Snare for him, and by some
Stratagem to bring him to eternal Ruin and Misery.
This being then approv’d as their only Method, (and the Devil shew’d
he was no Fool in the Choice) he next resolv’d that there was no time to
be lost; that it was to be set about immediately, before the[Pg 100] Race was
Multiplied, and by that means the Work be not made greater only, but
perhaps the more difficult too; accordingly the diligent Devil went
instantly about it, agreeably to all the Story of Eve and the serpent,
as before; the belief of which, whether historically or allegorically,
is not at all obstructed by this Hypothesis.
I do not affirm that this was the Case at first, because being not
present in that black Divan, at least not that I know of, for who
knows where he was or was not in his pre-existent State? I cannot be
positive in the Resolve that past there; but except for some very little
Contradiction, which we find in the sacred Writings, I should, I
confess, incline to believe it Historically; and I shall speak of those
things which I call Contradictions to it more largely hereafter.
In the mean time, be it one way or other, that is to say, either that
Satan had no Power to have proceeded with Man by Violence, and to have
destroy’d him as soon as he was made; or that he had the Power, but
chose rather to proceed by other Methods to deceive and debauch him; I
say, be it which you please, I am still of the Opinion that it really
was not the Devil’s Business to destroy the Species; that it would
have been nothing to the purpose, and no Advantage at all to him, if he
had done it; for that, as above, God could immediately have created
another Species to the same end, whom he either could have made
invulnerable, and not subject to the Devil’s Power, or remov’d him out
of Satan’s Reach, plac’d him out of the Devil’s Ken, in Heaven or
some other Place, where the Devil could not come to hurt him; and that
therefore it is infinitely more his Advantage, and more suited to his
real Design of defeating the End of Man’s Creation, to debauch him and
make a Devil of him,[Pg 101] that he may be rejected like himself, and
increase the infernal Kingdom and Company in the Lake of Misery in
æternum.
It may be true, for ought I know, that Satan has not the Power of
Destruction put into his Hand, and that he cannot take away the Life of
a Man: and it seems probable to be so, from the Story of Satan and
Job, when Satan appear’d among the Sons of God, as the Text says,
Job i. 6. Now when God gave such a Character of Job to him, and
ask’d him if he had consider’d his Servant Job, ℣ 8. why did not
the Devil go immediately and exert his Malice against the good Man at
once, to let his Maker see what would become of his Servant Job in his
Distress? On the contrary, we see he only answers by shewing the Reason
of Job’s good Behaviour; that it was but common Gratitude for the
Blessing and Protection he enjoy’d, ℣ 10. and pleading that if his
Estate was taken away, and he was expos’d as he (Satan) was, to be a
beggar and a Vagabond, going to and fro in the Earth, and walking up
and down therein, he should be a very Devil too, like himself, and
curse God to his Face.
Upon this, the Text says, that God answered ℣ 11. Behold all that
he hath is in thy Power; now ’tis plain here, that God gave up Job’s
Wealth and Estate, nay his Family, and the Lives of his Children and
Servants into the Devil’s Power; and accordingly, like a true merciless
Devil, as he is, he destroy’d them all; he mov’d the Sabeans to fall
upon the Oxen and the Asses, and carry them off; he mov’d the
Chaldeans to fall upon the Camels and the Servants, to carry off the
first, and murther the last; he made Lightning flash upon the poor
Sheep, and kill them all; and he blow’d his House down upon his poor
Children, and buried them all in the Ruins.
[Pg 102]Now here is (1.) a Specimen of Satan’s good Will to Mankind, and what
Havock the Devil would make in the World, if he might; and here is a
Testimony too, that he could not do this without leave; so that I cannot
but be of the Opinion he has some Limitations, some Bounds set to his
natural Fury; a certain Number of Links in his Chain, which he cannot
exceed, or, in a Word, that he cannot go a Foot beyond his Tether.
The same kind of Evidence we have in the Gospel, Matth. viii. 31.
where Satan could not so much as possess the filthiest and meanest of
all Creatures, the Swine, till he had ask’d leave; and that still, to
shew his good Will, as soon as he had gotten leave, he hurried them all
into the Sea and choak’d them; these, I say, are some of the Reasons why
I am not willing to say, the Devil is not restrain’d in Power; but on
the other side, we are told of so many mischievous things the Devil has
done in the World, by virtue of his Dominion over the Elements, and by
other Testimonies of his Power, that I don’t know what to think of it;
tho’, upon the whole, the first is the safest Opinion; for if we should
believe the last, we might, for ought I know, be brought, like the
American Indians, to worship him at last, that he may do us no Harm.
And now I have nam’d those People in America, I confess it would go a
great way in favour of Satan’s Generosity, as well as in Testimony of
his Power, if we might believe all the Accounts, which indeed Authors
are pretty well agreed in the Truth of, namely, of the Mischiefs the
Devil does in those Countries, where his Dominion seems to be
establish’d; how he uses them when they deny him the Homage he claims of
them as his Due; what Havock and Combustion he makes[Pg 103] among them; and
how Beneficent he is (or at least negative in his Mischiefs) when they
Appease him by their hellish Sacrifices.
Likewise we see a Test of his wicked Subtilty in his Management of those
dark Nations, when he was more immediately worship’d by them; namely,
the making them believe that all their good Weather, Rains, Dews, and
kind Influences upon the Earth, to make it fruitful, was from Him;
whereas they really were the common Blessings of a higher Hand, and came
not from him, the Devil, but from him that made the Devil, and made
him a Devil or fallen Angel by his Curse.
But to go back to the Method the Devil took with the first of Mankind;
’tis plain the Policy of Hell was right, tho’ the Execution of the
Resolves they took did not fully answer their End neither; For Satan
fastening upon poor, proud, ridiculous Mother Eve, as I have said
before, made presently a true Judgment of her Capacities, and of her
Temper; took her by the right Handle, and soothing her Vanity (which is
to this Day the softest Place in the Head of all the Sex) wheedl’d her
out of her Senses, by praising her Beauty, and promising to make her a
Goddess.
The foolish Woman yielded presently, and that we are told is the Reason
why the same Method so strangely takes with all her Posterity (viz.)
that you are sure to prevail with them, if you can but once persuade
them that you believe they are Witty and Handsome; for the Devil, you
may observe, never quits any Hold he gets, and having once found a way
into the Heart, always takes care to keep the Door open, that any of his
Agents may enter after him without any more Difficulty: Hence the same
Argument, especially the last, has so bewitching an Influence on the
Sex, that they rarely deny you any thing, after they are but weak[Pg 104]
enough and vain enough to accept of the Praises you offer them on that
Head; on the other hand you are sure they never forgive you the
unpardonable Crime of saying they are Ugly or Disagreeable: It is
suggested that the first Method the Devil took to insinuate all those
fine things into Eve’s giddy Head, was by creeping close to her one
Night, when she was asleep, and laying his Mouth to her Ear,
whispering all the fine things to her, which he knew would set her Fancy
a Tip-toe, and so made her receive them involuntarily into her Mind;
knowing well enough that when she had form’d such Ideas in her Soul,
however they came there, she would never be quiet till she had work’d
them up to some extraordinary thing or other.
It was evident what the Devil aim’d at, namely, that she should
break in upon the Command of God, and so having corrupted her self,
bring the Curse upon her self and all her Race, as God had threatn’d;
but why the Pride of Eve should be so easily tickled by the Motion of
her exquisite Beauty, when there then was no prospect of the use or want
of those Charms? that indeed makes a kind of Difficulty here, which the
learn’d have not determined. For,
1. If she had been as Ugly as the Devil, she had no body to rival
her, so that she need not fear Adam should leave her and get
another Mistress.
2. If she had been Bright and Beautiful as an Angel, she had no
other Admirer but poor Adam, and he could have no room to be
jealous of her, or afraid she should cuckold him; so that in short,
Eve had no such Occasion for her Beauty, nor could she make any
use of it either to a bad purpose or to a good, and therefore I
believe the Devil, who is too[Pg 105] cunning to do any thing that
signifies Nothing, rather tempted her by the Hope of encreasing her
Wit, than her Beauty.
But to come back to the Method of Satan’s tempting her, viz. by
whispering to her in her sleep; ’twas a cunning Trick, that’s the Truth
of it, and by that means he certainly set her Head a madding after
Deism, and to be made a Goddess, and then back’d it by the subtle talk
he had with her afterward.
I am the more particular upon this Part, because, however the Devil may
have been the first that ever practised it, yet I can assure him the
Experiment has been tried upon many a Woman since, to the wheedling her
out of her Modesty, as well as her Simplicity; and the Cunning Men tell
us still, that if you can come at a Woman when she is in a deep sleep,
and Whisper to her close to her Ear, she will certainly Dream of the
Thing you say to her, and so will a Man too.
Well, be this so to her Race or not, it was it seems so to her; for she
wak’d with her Head fill’d with pleasing Ideas, and as some will have
it, unlawful Desires; such, as to be sure she never had entertain’d
before; These are supposed to be fatally infused in her Dream, and
suggested to her waking Soul, when the Organ Ear which convey’d them was
doz’d and insensible; strange Fate of sleeping in Paradise! that
whereas we have Notice but of two Sleeps there, that in one a Woman
should go out of him, and in the other, the Devil should come into
her.
Certainly, when Satan first made the Attempt upon Eve, he did not
think he should have so easily conquered her, or have brought his
Business about so soon; the Devil himself could not have imagined she
should have been so soon brought[Pg 106] to forget the Command given, or at
least who gave it, and have ventur’d to transgress against him, and made
her forget that God had told her, it should be Death to her to touch it;
and above all, that she should aspire to be as wise as him, who was so
ignorant before, as to believe it was for fear of her being like
himself, that he had forbid it her.
Well might she be said to be the weaker Vessel, tho’ Adam himself had
little enough to say for his being the stronger of the two, when he was
over-persuaded (if it were done by Persuasion) by his Wife to do the
same thing.
And mark how wise they were after they had Eaten, and what Fools they
both acted like, even to one another; nay, even all the Knowledge they
attain’d to by it was, for ought I see, only to know that they were
Fools, and to be sensible both of Sin and Shame; and see how simply
they acted, I say, upon their having committed the Crime, and being
detected in it.
‘View them to Day conversing with their God,
‘His Image both enjoy’d and understood,
‘To Morrow skulking with a sordid Flight,
‘Among the Bushes from the Infinite,
‘As if that Power was blind, which gave them Sight;
‘With senseless Labour Tagging Fig-Leaf Vests,
‘To hide their Bodies from the sight of Beasts.
‘Hark! how the Fool pleads faint, for forfeit Life,
‘First he reproaches Heaven, and then his Wife;
‘The Woman which thou gav’st as if the Gift
‘Could rob him of the little Reason left,
‘A weak Pretence to shift his early Crime,
[Pg 107]‘As if accusing her would excuse him;
‘But thus encroaching Crime dethrones the Sense,
‘And intercepts the Heavenly Influence,
‘Debauches Reason, makes the Man a Fool,
‘And turns his active Light to Ridicule.
It must be confess’d that it was unaccountable Degeneracy, even of their
common Reasoning, which Adam and Eve both fell into upon the first
committing the Offence of taking the forbidden Fruit: If that was their
being made as Gods, it made but a poor Appearance in its first coming,
to hide their Nakedness when there was no body to see them, and cover
themselves among the Bushes from their Maker; but thus it was, and this
the Devil had brought them to, and well might he, and all the Clan of
Hell, as Mr. Milton brings them in, laugh and triumph over the Man
after the Blow was given, as having so egregiously abused and deluded
them both.
But here, to be sure, began the Devil’s new Kingdom; as he had now
seduc’d the two first Creatures, he was pretty sure of Success upon all
the Race, and therefore prepar’d to attack them also, as soon as they
came on; nor was their encreasing Multitude any Discouragement to his
Attempt, but just the contrary; for he had Agents enough to employ, if
every Man and Woman that should be born was to want a Devil to wait
upon them, separately and singly to seduce them; whereas some whole
Nations have been such willing subjects to him, that one of his Seraphic
Imps may, for ought we know, have been enough to guide a whole
Country; the People being entirely subjected to his Government for many
Ages; as in America, for example, where some will have it, that he
convey’d the first Inhabitants, at least[Pg 108] if he did not, we don’t well
know who did, or how they got thither.
And how came all the Communication to be so entirely cut off between the
Nations of Europe and Africa, from whence America must certainly
have been peopl’d, or else the Devil must have done it indeed? I say,
how came the Communication to be so entirely cut off between them, that
except the time, whenever it was, that People did at first reach from
one to the other, none ever came back to give their Friends any account
of their Success, or invite them to follow? Nor did they hear of one
another afterwards, as we have Reason to think: Did Satan politically
keep them thus asunder, lest News from Heaven should reach them, and so
they should be recover’d out of his Government? We cannot tell how to
give any other rational Account of it, that a Nation, nay a Quarter of
the World, or as some will have it be, half the Globe, should be peopled
from Europe or Africa, or both, and no body ever go after them, or
come back from them in above three thousand years after.
Nay, that those Countries should be peopled when there was no Navigation
in use in these Parts of the World, no Ships made that could carry
Provisions enough to support the People that fail’d in them, but that
they must have been starved to death before they could reach the Shore
of America; the Ferry from Europe or Africa, in any Part (which we
have known Navigation to be practised in) being at least 1000 Miles, and
in most Places much more.
But as to the Americans, let the Devil and they alone to account for
their coming Thither, this we are certain of, that we knew nothing of
them for many hundred Years; and when we did, when the Discovery was
made, they that went from Hence found Satan in a full and quiet
Possession of them,[Pg 109] ruling them with an arbitrary Government,
particular to himself; He had led them into a blind Subjection to
himself, nay, I might call it Devotion, for it was all of Religion that
was to be found among them) worshipping horrible Idols in his Name, to
whom he directed human Sacrifices continually to be made, till he
deluged the Country with Blood, and ripen’d them up for the Destruction
that follow’d, from the Invasion of the Spaniards, who he knew would
hurry them all out of the World as fast as he (the Devil) himself
could desire of them.
But to go back a little to the Original of Things, It is evident that
Satan has made a much better Market of Mankind, by thus subtilly
attacking them, and bringing them to break with their Maker as he had
done before them, than he could have done by fulminating upon them at
first, and sending them all out of the World at once; for now he has
peopled his own Dominions with them, and tho’ a Remnant are snatch’d as
it were out of his Clutches, by the Agency of Invincible Grace, of which
I am not to discourse in this Place; yet this may be said of the
Devil, without Offence, that he has in some Sense carried his Point,
and as it were forc’d his Maker to be satisfied with a Part of Mankind,
and the least Part too, instead of the great Glory he would have brought
to himself by keeping them all in his Service.
Mr. Milton, as I have noted above, brings in the Devil and all Hell
with him, making a Feu de Joye for the Victory Satan obtain’d over
one silly Woman; indeed it was a Piece of Success greater in its
Consequence than in the immediate Appearance; nor was the Conquest so
compleat as Satan himself imagin’d to make, since the Promise of a
Redemption out of his Hands, which was immediately made to the Man, in
behalf of[Pg 110] himself and his believing Posterity, was a great
Disappointment to Satan, and as it were snatch’d the best Part of his
Victory out of his Hands.
It is certain the Devils knew what the meaning of that Promise was,
and who was to be the Seed of the Woman, namely, the incarnate Son of
God, and that it was a second Blow to the whole infernal Body; but as
if they had resolved to let that alone, Satan went on with his
Business; and as he had introduc’d Crime into the common Parent of
Mankind, and thereby secured the Contamination of Blood, and the Descent
or Propagation of the corrupt Seed, he had nothing to do but to assist
Nature in time to come, to carry on its own Rebellion, and act it self
in the Breasts of Eve’s tainted Posterity; and that indeed has been
the Devil’s Business ever since his first Victory upon the Kind, to this
Day.
His Success in this Part has been such, that we see upon innumerable
Occasions a general Defection has follow’d; a kind of a Taint upon
Nature, call it what you will, a Blast upon the Race of Mankind; and
were it not for one thing, he had ruined the whole Family; I say, were
it not for one thing, namely, a selected Company or Number, which his
Maker has resolv’d he shall not be able to corrupt, or if he does, the
sending the promis’d Seed shall recover back again from him, by the
Power of irresistible Grace; which Number thus selected or elected, call
it which we will, are still to supply the Vacancies in Heaven, which
Satan’s Defection left open; and what was before fill’d up with
created Seraphs, is now to be restor’d by recover’d Saints, by whom
infinite Glory is to accrue to the Kingdom of the Redeemer.
This glorious Establishment has robb’d Satan of all the Joy of his
Victory, and left him just where he was, defeated and disappointed; nor[Pg 111]
does the Possession of all the Myriads of the Sons of Perdition, who yet
some are of the Opinion will be snatch’d from him too at last; I say,
the Possession of all these makes no amends to him, for he is such a
Devil in his Nature, that the Envy at those he cannot seduce, eats out
all the Satisfaction of the Mischief he has done in seducing all the
rest; but I must not preach, so I return to things as much needful to
know, tho’ less solemn.
Chap. IX.
Of the Progress of Satan in carrying on his Conquest over Mankind,
from the Fall of Eve to the Deluge.
I doubt if the Devil was ask’d the Question plainly, he would confess,
that after he had conquer’d Eve by his own wicked Contrivance, and
then by her Assistance had brought Adam too (like a Fool as he was)
into the same Gulph of Misery, he thought he had done his Work,
compassed the whole Race, that they were now his own, and that he had
put an End to the grand Design of their Creation; namely, of Peopling
Heaven with a new Angelic Race of Souls, who when glorify’d, should make
up the Defection of the Host of Hell, that had been expung’d by their
Crime; in a Word, that he had gotten a better Conquest than if he had
destroy’d them all.
But in the midst of his Conquest, he found a Check put to the Advantages
he expected to reap from his Victory, by the immediate Promise of Grace
to a Part of the Posterity of Adam, who, notwithstanding the Fall,
were to be purchased by the Messiah, and snatch’d out of his
(Satan’s)[Pg 112] Hands, and over whom he could make no final Conquest; so
that his Power met with a new Limitation, and that such, as indeed fully
disappointed him in the main thing he aim’d at, (viz.) preventing the
Beatitudes of Mankind, which were thus secur’d; (And what if the Numbers
of Mankind were upon this account encreased in such a manner, that the
selected Number should, by Length of Time, amount to just as many as the
whole Race, had they not fallen, would have amounted to in all?) And
thus, indeed, the World may be said to be upheld and continued for the
Sake of those few, since till their Number can be compleated, the
Creation cannot fall, any more than, that without them, or but for them
it would not have stood.
But leaving this Speculation, and not having enquir’d of Satan what he
has to say on that Subject, let us go back to the Antediluvian World:
The Devil to be sure, gain’d his Point upon Eve, and in her upon all
her Race: He drew her into Sin; got her turn’d out of Paradise, and
the Man with her: The next Thing was to go to work with her Posterity,
and particularly with her two Sons Cain and Abel.
Adam having, notwithstanding his Fall, repented very sincerely of his
Sin; receiv’d the Promise of Redemption and Pardon, with an humble but
believing Heart; Charity bids us suppose that he led a very religious
and sober Life ever after; and especially in the first Part of his Time,
That he brought up his Children very soberly, and gave them all the
necessary Advantages of a Religious Education, and a good Introduction
into the World, that he was capable of; and that Eve likewise assisted
to both in her Place and Degree.
Their two eldest Sons Cain and Abel; The one Heir apparent to the
Patriarchal Empire, and the[Pg 113] other Heir presumptive, I suppose also,
lived very sober and religious Lives; and as the Principles of natural
Religion dictated a Homage and Subjection due to the Almighty Maker, as
an Acknowledgment of his Mercies, and a Recognition of their Obedience;
so the receiv’d Usage of Religion dictating at that Time that this
Homage was to be paid by a Sacrifice, they either of them brought a
Free-will-offering to be dedicated to God respectively for themselves
and Families.
How it was, and for what Reason that God had respect to the Offering of
Abel, which the Learn’d say, was a Lamb of the Firstlings of the
Flock, and did not give any Testimony of the like Respect to Cain and
his Offering, which was of the first Fruits of the Earth, the Offerings
being equally suited to the respective Employment of the Men, that is
not my present Business; but this we find made Heart-burnings, and
raised Envy and Jealousy in the Mind of Cain; and at that Door the
Devil immediately entred; for he, who from the Beginning, was very
diligent in his way, never slip’d any Opportunity, or miss’d any
Advantages that the Circumstances of Mankind offered him to do Mischief.
What Shape or Appearance the Devil took up to enter into a Conversation
with Cain upon the Subject, that Authors do not take upon them to
determine; but ’tis generally supposed he personated some of Cain’s
Sons or Grandsons to begin the Discourse, who attack’d their Father, or
perhaps Grandfather, upon this Occasion, in the following manner, or to
that Purpose.
D. Sir, I perceive your Majesty (for the first Race were certainly
all Monarchs as great as Kings, to their immediate Posterity) to be
greatly disturb’d of late, your Countenance is chang’d,[Pg 114] your noble
Chearfulness (the Glories of your Face) are strangely sunk and gone, and
you are not the Man you used to be; please your Majesty to communicate
your Griefs to us your Children, you may be sure, that if it be
possible, we would procure you Relief, and restore your Delights, the
Loss of which, if thus you go on to subject yourself to too much
Melancholy, will be very hurtful to you, and in the End destroy you.
Cain. It is very kind, my dear Children, to shew your Respect thus to
your true Progenitor, and to offer your Assistance: I confess, as you
say, my Mind is oppress’d and displeased; but tho’ ’tis very heavy, yet
I know not which way to look for Relief, for the Distemper is above our
Reach, no Cure can be found for it on Earth.
D. Do not say so, Sir; there can be no Disease sure on Earth but may
be cur’d on Earth; if it be a mental Evil, we have heard that your great
Ancestor, the first Father of us all, who lives still on the great
western Plains towards the Sea, is the Oracle to which all his Children
fly for Direction in such Cases as are out of the Reach of the ordinary
understanding of Mankind; please you to give leave, we will take a
Journey to him, and representing your Case to him, we will hear his
Advice, and bring it to you with all Speed, for the Ease of your Mind.
Cain. I know not whether he can reach my Case or no.
D. Doubtless he may, and if not, the Labour of our Journey is nothing
when plac’d in Competition with the Ease of your Mind; ’tis but a few
Days travel lost, and you will not be the worse if we fail of the
desired Success.
Cain. The offer is filial, and I accept your affectionate Concern for
me, with a just Sense of an oblig’d Parent; go then, and my Blessing be[Pg 115]
upon you; but alas! why do I bless? can he bless whom God has not
bless’d!
D. O! Sir, do not say so, has not God bless’d you? are you not the
second Sovereign of the Earth? and does he not converse with you Face to
Face? are not you the Oracle to all your growing Posterity, and next
after his Sovereign Imperial Majesty Lord Adam, Patriarch of the
World?
Cain. But has not God rejected me, and refused to converse any more
with me, while he daily Favours and Countenances my younger Brother
Abel, as if he resolv’d to set him up to rule over me?
D. No, Sir, that cannot be, you cannot be disturb’d at such a thing;
is not the Right of Sovereignty yours by Primogeniture? can God himself
take that away, when ’tis once given? are not you Lord Adam’s eldest
Son? are you not the firstborn Glory of the Creation? and does not the
Government descend to you by the divine Right of Birth and Blood?
Cain. But what does all that signify to me, while God appears to
favour and caress my younger Brother, and to shine upon him, while a
black Dejection and token of Displeasure surrounds me every Day, and he
does not appear to me as he used to do?
D. And what need your Majesty be concern’d at that, if it be so? if he
does not appear pleased, you have the whole World to enjoy your self in,
and all your numerous and rising Posterity Adore and Honour you; what
need those remote Things be any disturbance to you?
Cain. How! my Children, not the Favour of God be valued! yes, yes, in
his favour is Life; what can all the World avail without the Smiles and
Countenance of him that made it?
[Pg 116]D. Doubtless, Sir, he that made the World and plac’d you at the Head
of it all, to govern and direct it, has made it agreeable, and it is
able to give you a full Satisfaction and Enjoyment, if you please to
consider it well, tho’ you were never to converse with him all the while
you live in’t.
Cain. You are quite wrong there, my Children, quite wrong.
D. But do you not, great Sir, see all your Children as well as us
rejoicing in the Plenty of all Things, and are they not compleatly
happy, and yet they know little of this great God? He seldom converses
among us, we hear of him indeed by your sage Advices, and we bring our
Offerings to you for him, as you direct, and when that’s done, we enjoy
whatever our Hearts desire; and so doubtless may you in an abundant
manner, if you please.
Cain. But your Felicity is wrong plac’d then, or you suppose that God
is pleased and satisfied in that your Offerings are brought to me; but
what would you say, if you knew that God is displeased? that he does not
accept your Offerings? that when I sacrific’d to him in behalf of you
all, he rejected my Offerings, tho’ I brought a princely Gift, being of
the finest of the Wheat, the choicest and earliest Fruits, and the
sweetest of the Oil, an Offering suited to the Giver of them all?
D. But if you offered them, Sir, how are you sure they were not
accepted?
Cain. Yes, yes, I am sure; did not my Brother Abel offer at the same
Time a Lamb of his Flock, for he, you know, delights in Cattle, and
covers the Mountains with his Herds? over him, all the while he was
sacrificing, a bright Emanation shone chearing and enlivening; a Pledge
of Favour, and light ambient Flames play’d hovering in the lower Air, as
if attending his Sacrifice; and when ready[Pg 117] prepar’d, immediately
descended and burnt up the Flesh, a Sweet odoriferous Savour ascending
to him, who thus testified his Acceptance; whereas, over my Head a black
Cloud, misty, and distilling Vapour, hung dripping upon the humble Altar
I had raised, and wetting the finest and choicest Things I had
prepar’d, spoil’d and defac’d them; the Wood unapt to burn by the
Moisture which fell, scarce receiv’d the Fire I brought to kindle it,
and even then, rather smother’d and choaked, than kindled into a Flame;
in a Word, it went quite out, without consuming what was brought to be
offer’d up.
D. Let not our truly reverenc’d Lord and Father be disquieted at all
this; if he accepts not what you bring, you are discharg’d of the Debt,
and need bring no more; nor have the Trouble of such labour’d
Collections of Rarities any more; when he thinks fit to require it
again, you will have Notice, no Question, and then it being call’d for,
will be accepted or else why should it be requir’d?
Cain. That may indeed be the Case, nor do I think of attempting any
more to bring an Offering, for I rather take it, that I am forbidden for
the present; but then, what is it that my younger Brother Triumphs in?
and how am I insulted, in that he and his House are all Joy and Triumph,
as if they had some great Advantage over me, in that their Offering was
accepted when mine was not?
D. Does he Triumph over your Majesty, our Lord and Sovereign? give us
but your Order, and we will go and pull him and all his Generation in
pieces; for to triumph over you who are his elder Brother, is a horrid
Rebellion and Treason, and he ought to be expell’d the Society of
Mankind.
[Pg 118]Cain. I think so too, indeed; however, my dear Children and faithful
Subjects, tho’ I accept your Offer of Duty and Service, yet I will
consider very well, before I take up Arms against my Brother; besides,
our Sovereign Father and patriarchal Lord, Adam, being yet alive, it
is not in my Right to act offensively without his Command.
D. We are ready therefore to carry your Petition to him, and doubt not
to obtain his Licence and Commission too, to empower you to do your self
Justice upon your younger Brother; who being your Vassal, or at least
inferior, as he is junior in Birth, insults you upon the fancied Opinion
of having a larger Share in the Divine Favour, and receiving a Blessing
on his Sacrifices, on Pretence of the same Favour being denied you.
Cain. I am content, go then, and give a just Account of the State of
our Affairs.
D. We shall soon return with the agreeable answer; let not our Lord
and Father continue sad and dejected, but depend upon a speedy Relief,
by the Assistance of thy numerous Issue, all devoted to thy Interest and
Felicity.
Cain. My Blessing be with you in your Way, and give you a favourable
Reception at the venerable Tent of our universal Lord and Father.
Note, Here the cursed Race being fully given up to the Direction of the
Evil-Spirit, which so early possess’d them, and swelling with Rage at
the innocent Abel and his whole Family, they resolved upon forming a
most wicked and detestable lie, to bring about the Advice which they had
already given their Father Cain a touch of; and to pretend that Adam
being justly provok’d at the undutiful Behaviour of Abel, had given
Cain a Commission to chastise him, and by[Pg 119] Force to cut him off and
all his Family, as guilty of Rebellion and Pride.
Fill’d with this mischievous and bloody Resolution, they came back to
their Father Cain, after staying a few Days, such as were Sufficient
to make Cain believe they had been at the spacious Plains, where
Adam dwelt; the same which are now call’d the blessed Valleys, or the
Plains of Mecca in Arabia Fælix, near the Banks of the Red-Sea.
Note here also, that Cain having received a wicked Hint from these
Men, his Children and Subjects, as before, intimating that Abel had
broken the Laws of Primogeniture in his Behaviour towards him, (Cain)
and that he might be justly punish’d for it; Satan, that cunning Manager
of all our wayward Passions, fan’d the Fire of Envy and Jealousy with
his utmost Skill all the while his other Agents were absent; and by the
Time they came back had blown it up into such a Heat of Fury and Rage,
that it wanted nothing but Air to make it burn out, as it soon
afterwards did in a furious Flame of Wrath and Revenge, even to Blood
and Destruction.
Just in the very critical Moment, while Things stood thus with Cain,
Satan brings in his wicked Instruments, as if just arriv’d with the
Return of his Message from Adam, at whose Court they had been for
Orders; and thus they, that is the Devil assuming to speak by them,
approach their Father with an Air of solemn but chearful Satisfaction at
the Success of their Embassy.
D. Hail Sovereign, Reverend, Patriarchal Lord! we come with Joy to
render thee an Account of the Success of our Message.
Cain. Have you then seen the venerable Tents where dwell the
Heaven-born, the Angelic Pair,[Pg 120] to whom all human Reverence highly due,
is and ought always to be humbly paid?
D. We have.
Cain. Did you, together with my grand Request, a just, a humble Homage
for me pay, to the great Sire and Mother of Mankind?
D. We did.
Cain. Did you in humble Language represent the Griefs and Anguish
which oppress my Soul?
D. We did, and back their Blessing to thee bring.
Cain. I hope with humblest Signs of filial Duty you took it for me on
your bending Knees?
D. We did, and had our Share; the Patriarch lifting his Hands to
Heaven express’d his Joy to see his spreading Race, and bless’d us all.
Cain. Did you my solemn Message too deliver, my Injuries impartially
lay down, and due Assistance and Direction crave?
D. We did.
Cain. What spoke the Oracle? he’s God to me; what just Command d’ye
bring, what’s to be done? am I to bear the insulting Junior’s Rage? and
meekly suffer what unjustly he, affronting Primogeniture and Laws of God
and Man, imposes by his Pride unsufferable! Am I to be crush’d, and be
no more the firstborn Son on Earth, but bow and kneel to him?
D. Forbid it Heaven! as Adam too forbids, who with a justice
God-like and peculiar to injur’d Parents, Abel’s Pride resents, and
gives his high Command to thee to punish.
Cain. To punish? say you, did he use the Word, the very Word? am I
commission’d then to punish Abel?
D. Not Abel only, but his rebel Race, as they alike in Crime alike
are join’d in Punishment.
[Pg 121]Cain. The Race indeed have shar’d the Merit with him; how did they all
insult, and with a Shout of Triumph mock my Sorrow, when they saw me
from my Sacrifice dejected come, as if my Disappointment was their Joy?
D. This too the venerable Prince resents, and to preserve the Race in
Bounds of Laws subordinate and limited to Duty, Commands that this first
Breach be not pass’d by, lest the Precedent upon Record stand to future
Times to encourage like Rebellion.
Cain. And is it then my Sovereign Parent’s Will?
D. It is his Will, that thou his eldest Son, his Image, his belov’d,
should be maintain’d in all the Rights of Sovereignty deriv’d to thee
from him; and not be left expos’d to injury and Power usurped, but
should do thy self Justice on the rebel Race.
Cain. And so I will; Abel shall quickly know what ’tis to trample on
his elder Brother; shall know that he’s thus sentenc’d by his Father,
and I’m commission’d but to execute his high Command, his Sentence,
which is God’s, and that he falls by the Hand of Heavenly Justice.
So now Satan had done his Work, he had deluded the Mother to a Breach
against the first and only Command, he had drawn Adam to the same
Snare, and now he brings in Cain prompted by his own Rage, and deluded
by his, (Satan’s,) Craft, to commit Murder, nay a Fratricide, an
aggravated Murther.
Upon this he sends out Cain, while the bloody Rage was in its Ferment,
and wickedly at the same Time bringing Abel, innocent and fearing no
ill, just in his Way, he suggests to his Thoughts such Words as these.
[Pg 122]Look you Cain, see how Divine Justice concurs with your Father’s
righteous Sentence, see there’s thy Brother Abel directed by Heaven to
fall into thy Hands unarm’d, unguarded, that thou may’st do thy self
Justice upon him without Fear; see thou may’st kill him, and if thou
hast a Mind to conceal it, no Eyes can see, or will the World ever know
it, so that no Resentment or Revenge upon thee, or thy Posterity, can be
apprehended, but it may be said some wild Beast had rent him; nor will
any one suggest that thou, his Brother, and Superior, could possibly be
the Person.
Cain prepar’d for the Fact, by his former avow’d Rage and Resolution
of Revenge, was so much the less prepar’d to avoid the Snare thus
artfully contriv’d by the Master of all Subtilty, the Devil; so he
immediately runs upon his Brother Abel, and after a little unarm’d
Resistance, the innocent poor Man expecting no such Mischief, was
conquer’d and murther’d; after which, as is to be supposed, the
exasperated Crew of Cain’s outrageous Race, over-run all his Family
and Houshold, killing Man, Woman and Child.
It is objected here that we have no Authority in Scripture to prove this
Part of the Story; but I answer, ’tis not likely but that Abel, as
well as Cain, being at Man’s Estate long before this, had several
Children by their own Sisters, for they were the only Men in the World
who were allow’d the Marrying their own Sisters, there being no other
Women then in the World; and as we never read of any of Abel’s
Posterity, ’tis likewise as probable they were all murther’d, as that
they should kill Abel only, whose Sons might immediately fall upon
Cain for the Blood of their Father, and so the World have been
involv’d in a Civil War as soon as there were two Families in it.
[Pg 123]But be it so or not, ’tis not doubted the Devil wrought with Cain in
the horrid Murther, or he had never done it; whether it was directly or
by Agents is not material, nor is the Latter unlikely; and if the
Latter, then there is no Improbability in the Story, for why might not
he that made Use of the Serpent to tempt Eve, be as well supposed to
make a Tool of some of Cain’s Sons or Grandsons to prompt him in the
wicked Attempt of murthering his Brother? and why must we be oblig’d to
bring in a Miracle or an Apparition into the Story, to make it probable
that the Devil had any Hand in it, when ’twas so natural to a
degenerate Race to act in such a Manner?
However it was, and by whatever Tool the Devil wrought, ’tis certain
that this was the Consequence, poor Abel was butcher’d, and thus the
Devil made a second Conquest in God’s Creation; for Adam was now, as
may be said, really Childless, for his two Sons were thus far lost,
Abel was killed, and Cain was curst and driven out from the Presence
of the Lord, and his Race blasted with him.
It would be a useful enquiry here, and worthy our giving an Account of,
could we come to a Certainty in it, namely, what was the Mark that God
set upon Cain, by which he was kept from being fallen upon by Abel’s
Friends or Relations? but as this does not belong to the Devil’s
History, and it was God’s Mark, not the Devil’s, I have nothing to do
with it here.
The Devil had now gain’d his Point, the Kingdom of Grace, so newly
erected, had been as it were extinct without a new Creation, had not
Adam and Eve been alive, and had not Eve, tho’ now 130 Years of
Age, been a breeding young Lady, for we must suppose the Woman, in that
State of Longevity, bare Children till they were seven or[Pg 124] eight hundred
Year old: This Teeming of Eve peopled not the World so much as it
restored the blessed Race; for tho’ Abel was kill’d Cain had a
numerous Offspring presently, which had Seth, (Adam’s third Son)
never been born, would soon have replenish’d the World with People, such
as they were; the Seed of a Murtherer, cursed of God, branded with a
Mark of Infamy, and who afterwards fell all together in the universal
Ruine of the Race by the Deluge.
But after the Murther of Abel, Adam had another Son born, namely,
Seth, the Father of Enos, and indeed the Father of the holy Race;
for during his Time and his Son Enos, the Text says that Men began to
call on the Name of the Lord; that is to say, they began to look back
upon Cain and his wicked Race, and being convinc’d of the Wickedness
they had committed, and led their whole Posterity into, they began to
sue to Heaven for Pardon of what was past, and to lead a new sort of
Life.
But the Devil had met with too much Success in his first Attempts, not
to go on with his general Resolution of debauching the Minds of Men, and
bringing them off from God; and therefore as he kept his Hold upon
Cain’s cursed Race, embroil’d already in Blood and Murther; so he
proceeded with his degenerate Offspring, till in a Word he brought both
the holy Seed and the degenerate Race to joyn in one universal Consent
of Crime, and to go on in it with such aggravating Circumstances, as
that it repented the Lord that he had made Man, and he resolv’d to
overwhelm them again with a general Destruction, and clear the World of
them.
The Succession of Blood in the royal original Line of Adam, is
preserv’d in the sacred Histories and brought down as low as Noah and
his three[Pg 125] Sons, for a continu’d series of 1450 Years, say some, 1640
say others; in which Time Sin spread it self so generally thro’ the
whole Race, and the Sons of God, so the Scripture calls the Men of the
righteous Seed, the Progeny of Seth, came in unto the Daughters of
Men, that is, join’d themselves to the curs’d Race of Cain, and
married promiscuously with them, according to their Fancies, the Women
it seems being beautiful and tempting; and tho’ the Devil could not make
the Women handsome or ugly in one or other Families, yet he might work
up the Gust of wicked Inclination on either Side, so as to make both the
Men and Women tempting and agreeable to one another, where they ought
not to have been so; and perhaps, as it is often seen to this Day, the
more tempting for being under legal Restraint.
It is objected here, that we do not find in the Scripture that the Men
and Women of either Race were at that Time forbidden intermarrying with
one another; and it is true, that literally it is not forbid; but if we
did not search rather to make doubts than to explain them, we might
suppose it was forbidden by some particular Command at that Time; seeing
we may reasonably allow every Thing to be forbidden, which they are
tax’d with a Crime in committing; and as the Sons of God taking them
Wives as they thought fit to choose, tho’ from among the Daughters of
the cursed Race, is there charg’d upon them as a general Depravation,
and a great Crime; and for which, ’tis said, God even repented that he
had made them, we need go no farther to satisfy our selves that it was
certainly forbidden.
Satan no doubt too had a Hand in this Wickedness; for as it was his
Business to prompt Men to do every Thing which God had prohibited, so
the Reason given why the Men of those Days[Pg 126] did this Thing was, they saw
the Daughters of Men, that is of the wicked Race or forbidden Sort,
were fair, he tempted them by the Lust of the Eye; in a word, the
Ladies were beautiful and agreeable, and the Devil knew how to make
use of the Allurement; the Men liked and took them by the meer Direction
of their Fancy and Appetite, without regarding the supreme Prohibition;
They took them Wives of all which they chose, or such as they lik’d to
choose.
But the Text adds, that this promiscuous Generation went farther than
the meer outward Crime of it, for it shew’d that the Wickedness of the
Heart of Man was great before God, and that he resented it; In short,
God perceived a Degeneracy or Defect of Virtue had seiz’d upon the whole
Race, that there was a general Corruption of Manners, a Depravity of
Nature upon them, that even the holy Seed was tainted with it, that the
Devil had broken in upon them, and prevail’d to a great Degree; that not
only the Practice of the Age was corrupt, for that God could easily have
restrain’d, but that the very Heart of Man was debauch’d, his Desires
wholly vitiated, and his Senses engag’d in it; so that in a Word, it
became necessary to shew the divine Displeasure, not in the ordinary
Manner, by Judgment and Reproofs of such kind as usually reclaim Men,
but by a general Destruction to sweep them away, clear the Earth of
them, and put an End to the Wickedness at once, removing the Offence and
the Offenders all together; this is signify’d at large, Gen. vi. 5. God
saw that the Wickedness of Man was great in the Earth, and that every
Imagination of the Thoughts of his Heart was only evil continually. And
again ℣ 11, 12. The Earth also was corrupt before God; and the
Earth was fill’d with Violence. And God look’d upon the Earth and
[Pg 127]behold it was corrupt; for all Flesh had corrupted his Way upon the Earth.
It must be confess’d it was a strange Conquest the Devil had made in
the Antediluvian World, that he had, as I may say, brought the whole
Race of Mankind into a general Revolt from God; Noah was indeed a
Preacher of Righteousness, and he had preach’d about 500 Years to as
little Purpose as most of the good Ministers ever did; for we do not
read there was one Man converted by him, or at least not one of them
left, for that at the Deluge there was either none of them alive, or
none spar’d but Noah and his three Sons, and their Wives; and even
they are (’tis evident) recorded, not so much to be sav’d for their own
Goodness, but because they were his Sons; Nay, without Breach of Charity
we may conclude, that at least one went to the Devil even of those
three, namely, Ham or Cham for triumphing in a brutal Manner over
his Father’s Drunkenness; for we find the Special Curse reach’d to him
and his Posterity for many Ages; and whether it went no farther than the
present State of Life with them, we cannot tell.
We will suppose now that thro’ this whole 1500 Years the Devil having so
effectually debauch’d Mankind, had advanc’d his infernal Kingdom to a
prodigious Height; for the Text says, the whole Earth was fill’d with
violence; in a Word, Blood, Murder, Rape, Robbery, Oppression and
Injustice prevail’d every where, and Man, like the wild Bear in the
Forest, liv’d by Prey, biting and devouring one another.
At this Time Noah begins to preach a new Doctrine to them, for as he
had before been a Preacher of Righteousness, now he becomes a Preacher
of Vengeance; first he tells them they shall be all overwhelm’d with a
Deluge, that[Pg 128] for
their Sins God repented they were made, and that he would destroy them all, adding, that to prevent the Ruin of himself
and Family, he resolv’d to build him a Ship to have recourse to when the Water should come over the Rest of the World.
What Jesting, what Scorn, what Contempt did this Work expose the good
old Man to for above a 100 Years? for so long the Work was building, as
antient Authors say; let us represent to our selves in the most lively
Manner how the witty World at that Time behav’d to poor old Noah; how
they took their Evening Walks to see what he was doing, and passed their
Judgment upon it, and upon the Progress of it; I say, to represent this
to our selves, we need go no farther than to our own Witicisms upon
Religion, and upon the most solemn Mysteries of Divine Worship; how we
damn the Serious for Enthusiasts, think the Grave mad, and the Sober
melancholy; call Religion it self Flatus and Hyppo; make the Devout
ignorant, the Divine mercenary, and the whole Scheme of Divinity a Frame
of Priestcraft; and thus no doubt the building an Ark or Boat, or
whatever they call’d it, to float over the Mountains, and dance over the
Plains, what could it be but a religious Frenzy, and the Man that so
busied himself, a Lunatick? and all this in an Age when divine Things
came by immediate Revelation into the Minds of Men! the Devil must
therefore have made a strange Conquest upon Mankind to obliterate all
the Reverence, which but a little before was so strangely impress’d upon
them concerning their Maker.
This was certainly the Height of the Devil’s Kingdom, and we shall
never find him arrive to such a Pitch again; he was then truly and
[Pg 129]literally the universal Monarch, nay the God of this World; and as all
Tyrants do, he governs them with an arbitrary absolute sway; and had not
God thought fit to give him a Writ of Ejectment, and afterwards drown
him out of Possession I know not what would have been the Case, he might
have kept his Hold for ought I know till the Seed of the Woman came to
bruise his Head, that is to say, cripple his Government, Dethrone him
and Depose his Power, as has been fulfill’d in the Messiah.
But as he was, I say, drown’d out of the World, his Kingdom for the
present was at an End; at least, if he had a Dominion he had no
Subjects, and as the Creation was in a Manner renewed, so the Devil
had all his Work to do over again: Unhappy Man! how has he, by his weak
Resistance, made the Devil, recovering his Hold too easy to him, and
given him all the Advantages, except as before excepted, which he had
before? Now whether he retired in the mean Time, and how he got footing
again after Noah and his Family were landed upon the New Surface, that
we come next to enquire.
Chap. X.
Of the Devil’s second Kingdom, and how he got footing in the
renew’d World by his Victory over Noah and his Race.
The Story of Noah, his building the Ark, his embarking himself and all
Nature’s Stock for a new World on board it; the long Voyage they took,
and the bad Weather they met with, tho’ it would embellish this Work
very well, and[Pg 130] come in very much to the Purpose in this Place, yet as
it does not belong to the Devil’s Story, for I cannot prove what some
suggest (viz.) that he was in the Ark among the Rest, I say, for that
Reason I must omit it.
And now having mention’d Satan’s being in the Ark; as I say, I cannot
prove it, so there are, I think, some good Reasons to believe he was not
there: First, I know no Business he had there; secondly, we read of
no Mischief done there, and these joyn’d together make me conclude he
was absent; the last I chiefly insist upon, that we read of no Mischief
done there, which if he had been in the Ark, would certainly have
happen’d; and therefore I suppose rather, that when he saw his Kingdom
dissolv’d, his Subjects all ingulph’d in an inevitable Ruin and
Desolation, a Sight suitable enough to him, except as it might unking
him for a Time; I say, when he saw this, he took care to speed himself
away as well as he could, and make his Retreat to a Place of Safety,
where that was, is no more difficult to us, than it was to him.
It is suggested that as he is Prince of the Power of the Air, he retired
only into that Region. It is most rational to suppose he went no further
on many Accounts, of which I shall speak by and by: Here he stay’d
hovering in the Earth’s Atmosphere, as he has often done since, and
perhaps now does; or if the Atmosphere of this Globe was affected by the
Indraft of the Absorption, as some think, then he kept himself upon the
Watch, to see what the Event of the new Phænomenon would be, and this
Watch, wherever it was, I doubt not, was as near the Earth as he could
place himself, perhaps in the Atmosphere of the Moon, or in a Word, the
next Place of Retreat he could find.
[Pg 131]From hence I took upon me to insist, that Satan has not a more certain
Knowledge of Events than we; I say, he has not a more certain
Knowledge; that he may be able to make stronger Conjectures and more
rational Conclusions from that he sees, I will not deny; and that which
he most outdoes us in is, that he sees more to conclude from than we
can, but I am satisfied he knows nothing of Futurity more than we can
see by Observation and Inference; nor, for Example, did he know
whether God would repeople the World any more or no.
I must therefore allow that he only waited to see what would be the
Event of this strange Eruption of Water, and what God propos’d to do
with the Ark, and all that was in it.
Some Philosophers tell us, besides what I hinted above, that the Devil
could have no Retreat in the Earth’s Atmosphere, for that the Air being
wholly condens’d into Water, and having continually pour’d down its
Streams to deluge the Earth, that Body was become so small, and had
suffer’d such Convulsions, that there was but just enough Air left to
surround the Water, or as might serve by its Pressure to preserve the
natural Position of Things, and supply the Creatures in the Ark with a
Part to breath in.
The Atmosphere indeed might suffer some strange and unnatural Motions at
that Time, but not (I believe) to that Degree, however, I will not
affirm that there could be room in it, or is now for the Devil, much
less for all the numberless Legions of Satan’s Host; but there was, and
now certainly is, sufficient Space to receive him, and a sufficient Body
of his Troops for the Business he had for them at that time, and that’s
enough to the Purpose; or if the Earth’s Atmosphere did suffer any
particular Convulsion on that Occasion, he might make his[Pg 132] Retreat to
the Atmosphere of the Moon, or of Mars, or of Venus, or of any of
the other Planets; or to any other Place, for he that is Prince of the
Air could not want Retreats in such a Case, from whence he might watch
for the issue of Things; certainly he did not go far, because his
Business lay here, and he never goes out of his Way of doing Mischief.
In particular, his more than ordinary Concern was, to see what would
become of the Ark; he was wise enough doubtless to see, that God, who
had directed its making, nay even the very Structure of it, would
certainly take Care of it, preserve it upon the Water, and bring it to
some Place of Safety or other; tho’ where it should be, the Devil with
all his Cunning could not resolve, whether on the same Surface the
Waters drawing off, or in any other created or to be created Place; and
this State of Uncertainty being evidently his Case, and which proves his
Ignorance of Futurity, it was his Business, I say, to watch with the
utmost vigilance for the Event.
If the Ark was (as Mr. Burnet thinks) guided by two Angels, they not
only held it from foundering or being swallow’d up in the Water, but
certainly kept the Waters calm about it, especially when the Lord
brought a strong Wind to blow over the whole Globe, which by the Way was
the first, and, I suppose, the only universal Storm that ever blew, for
to be sure it blew over the whole Surface at once; I say, if it was thus
guided, to be sure the Devil saw it, and that with Envy and Regret
that he could do it no Injury, for doubtless had it been in the Devil’s
Power, as God had drown’d the whole Race of Man, except what was in the
Ark, he would have taken care to have dispatch’d them too, and so made
an End of the Creation at once; but either he was not empower’d[Pg 133] to go
to the Ark, or it was so well guarded by Angels, that when he came near
it he could do it no harm: So it rested at length, the Waters abating on
the Mountains of Arrarat in Armenia, or some where else that Way,
and where they say a Piece of the Keel is remaining to this Day; of
which, however with Dr. ——— I say, I believe not one Word.
The Ark being safe landed, ’tis reasonable to believe Noah prepared to
go on Shore, as the Seamen call it, as soon as the dry Land began to
appear; and here you must allow me to suppose Satan, tho’ himself
cloth’d with a Cloud, so as not to be seen, came immediately, and
pearching on the Roof, saw all the Heaven-kept Houshold safely landed,
and all the Host of living Creatures dispersing themselves down the
Sides of the Mountain, as the Search of their Food or other proper
Occasions directed them.
This Sight was enough; Satan was at no Loss to conclude from hence that
the Design of God was to repeople the World by the Way of ordinary
Generation, from the Posterity of these eight Persons, without creating
any new Species.
Very well, says the Devil, then my Advantage over them, by the Snare I
laid for poor Eve, is good still; and I am now just where I was after
Adam’s Expulsion from the Garden, and when I had Cain and his Race
to go to work with; for here is the old expung’d Corrupted Race still,
as Cain was the Object then, so Noah is my Man now, and if I do not
master him one way or another, I am mistaken in my Mark. Pardon me for
making a Speech for the Devil.
Noah big with a Sense of his late Condition, and while the Wonders of
the Deluge were fresh in his Mind, spent his first Days in the Extasies
of his Soul, giving Thanks, and praising the Power[Pg 134] that had been his
Protection, in and thro’ the Flood of Waters, and which had in so
miraculous a Manner, safely landed him on the Surface of the newly
discover’d Land; and the Text tells us, as one of the first Things he
was employ’d in, He built an Altar unto the Lord, and offered
Burnt-Offerings upon the Altar. Gen. viii. 20.
While Noah was thus employ’d he was safe, the Devil himself could no
where break in upon him; and we may suppose very reasonably, as he found
the old Father invulnerable, he left him for some Years, watching
notwithstanding all possible Advantages against his Sons and their
Children; for now the Family began to encrease, and Noah’s Sons had
several Children; whether himself had any more Children after the Flood
or not, that we are not arriv’d to any Certainty about.
Among his Sons the Devil found Japhet and Shem, good, pious,
religious, and very devout Persons; serving God daily, after the Example
of their good old Father Noah, and he could make nothing of them or of
any of their Posterity; but Ham the second, or according to some, the
younger Son of Noah, had a Son who was nam’d Canaan, a loose young
profligate Fellow, his Education was probably but cursory and
superficial, his Father Ham not being near so religious and serious a
Man as his Brothers Shem and Japhet were; and as Canaan’s
Education was defective, so he prov’d, as untaught Youth generally do, a
wild, and in short a very wicked Fellow, and consequently a fit Tool for
the Devil to go to work with.
Noah, a diligent industrious Man, being with all his Family thus
planted in the rich fruitful Plains of Armenia, or wherever you
please, let it be near the Mountains of Caucasus or Arrarat; went
immediately to work, cultivating and improving[Pg 135] the Soil, encreasing his
Cattle and Pastures, sowing Corn, and among other Things planting Trees
for Food, and among the Fruit Trees he planted Vines, of the Grapes
thereof he made no doubt, as they still in the same Country do make,
most excellent Wine, rich, luscious, strong, and pleasant.
I cannot come into the Notion of our Criticks, who to excuse Noah from
the guilt of what followed, or at least from the Censure, tell us, he
knew not the Strength or the Nature of Wine, but that gathering the
heavy Clusters of the Grapes, and their own weight crushing out their
balmy Juices into his Hand, he tasted the tempting Liquor, and that the
Devil assisting he was charm’d with the delicious Fragrance, and
tasted again and again, pressing it out into a Bowl or Dish, that he
might take a larger Quantity; till at length the heady Froth ascended
and seizing his Brain, he became intoxicate and drunk, not in the least
imagining there was any such Strength in the Juice of that excellent
Fruit.
But to make out this Story, which is indeed very favourable for Noah,
but in it self extremely ridiculous, you must necessarily fall into some
Absurdities, and beg the Question most egregiously in some particular
Cases, which way of arguing will by no means suppose what is suggested;
at first you must support there was no such Thing as Wine made before
the Deluge, and that no Body had been ever made drunk with the Juice of
the Grape before Noah, which, I say, is begging the Question in the
grossest Manner.
If the Contrary is true, as I see no Reason to question, if, I say, it
was true that there was Wine drank, and that Men were or had been drunk
with it before, they cannot then but suppose that Noah, who was a
wise, a great and a good Man, and a Preacher of Righteousness, both[Pg 136]
knew of it, and without doubt had in his preaching against their Crimes,
preach’d against this among the rest, upbraided them with it, reprov’d
them for it, and exhorted them against it.
Again, ’tis highly probable they had Grapes growing, and consequently
Wines made from them, in the Antediluvian World, how else did Noah
come by the Vines which he planted? For we are to suppose, he could
plant no Trees or Shrubs, but such as he found the Roots of in the
Earth, and which no doubt had been there before in their highest
Perfection, and had consequently grown up and brought forth the same
luscious Fruit before.
Besides, as he found the Roots of the Vines, so he understood what they
were, and what Fruit they bore, or else it may be supposed also he would
not have planted them; for he planted them for their Fruit, as he did it
in the Provision he was making for his Subsistence, and the Subsistence
of his Family: and if he did not know what they were, he would not have
set them, for he was not planting for Diversion but for Profit.
Upon the whole it seems plain to me he knew what he did, as well when he
planted the Vines as when he pressed out the Grapes; and also when he
drank the Juice that he knew it was Wine, was strong and would make him
drunk if he took enough of it: He knew that other Men had been drunk
with such Liquor before the Flood, and that he had reprehended them for
it; and therefore it was not his Ignorance, but the Devil took him at
some Advantage, when his Appetite was eager, or he thirsty, and the
Liquor cooling and pleasant; and in short, as Eve said, the Serpent
beguilded her, and she did eat, so the Devil beguiled Noah, and he
did drink; the Temptation was too strong for Noah, not the Wine; he
knew[Pg 137] well enough what he did, but as the Drunkards say to this Day, it
was so good he could not forbear it, and so he got drunk before he was
aware; or as our ordinary Speech expresses it, he was overtaken with
drink; and Mr. Pool and other Expositors are partly of the same Mind.
No sooner was the poor old Man conquer’d, and the Wine had lighten’d his
Head, but it may be supposed he falls off from the Chair or Bench where
he sate, and tumbling backward his Clothes, which in those hot Countries
were only loose open Robes, like the Vests which the Armenians wear to
this Day, flying abroad, or the Devil so assisting on purpose to
expose him, he lay there in a naked indecent Posture not fit to be seen.
In this juncture who should come by but young Canaan, say some; or as
others think, this young Fellow first attack’d him by way of Kindness
and pretended Affection; prompted his Grandfather to drink, on Pretence
of the Wine being good for him, and proper for the Support of his old
Age, and subtilly set upon him, drinking also with him, and so (his Head
being too strong for the old Man’s) drank him down, and then, Devil
like, triumph’d over him; boasted of his Conquest, insulted the Body as
it were dead, uncovered him on purpose to expose him, and leaving him in
that indecent Posture, went and made Sport with it to his Father Ham,
who in that Part, wicked like himself, did the same to his Brethren
Japhet and Shem; but they like modest and good Men, far from
carrying on the wicked Insult on their Parent, went and cover’d him, as
the Scripture expresses it, and as may be supposed inform’d him how he
had been abus’d, and by whom.
Why else should Noah, when he came to himself, shew his Resentment so
much against Canaan his Grandson, rather than against Ham his
Father,[Pg 138] and who ’tis supposed in the Story the guilt chiefly lay upon?
we see the Curse is (as it were) laid wholly upon Canaan the Grandson,
and not a Word of the Father is mention’d, Gen. ix. 25, 26, 27, Cursed
be Canaan, a Servant of Servants shall he be, &c.
That Ham was Guilty, that’s certain from the History of Fact, but I
cannot but suppose his Grandson was the Occasion of it; and in this Case
the Devil seems to have made Canaan the Instrument or Tool to delude
Noah, and draw him in to Drunkenness, as he made the Serpent the Tool
to beguile Eve, and draw her into Disobedience.
Possibly Canaan might do it without Design at first, but might be
brought in to ridicule and make a Jest of the old Patriarch afterward,
as is too frequent since in the Practice of our Days; but I rather
believe he did it really with a wicked Design, and on Purpose to expose
and insult his Reverend old Parent; and this seems more likely too,
because of the great Bitterness with which Noah resented it, after he
came to be inform’d of it.
But be that as it will, the Devil certainly made a great Conquest
here, and as to outward Appearance no less than that which he gain’d
before over Adam; nor did the Devil’s Victory consist barely in his
having drawn in the only righteous Man of the whole Antediluvian World,
and so beginning or initiating the new young Progeny with a Crime; but
here was the great Oracle silenc’d at once; the Preacher of
Righteousness, for such no doubt he would have been to the new World, as
he was to the old, I say, the Preacher was turn’d out of Office, or his
Mouth stopt, which was worse; nay, it was a stopping of his Mouth in the
worst kind, far worse than stopping his Breath,[Pg 139] for had he died, the
Office had descended to his sons Shem and Japhet, but he was dead to
the Office of an Instructor, tho’ alive as to his Being; For of what
Force could his Preachings be, who had thus fallen himself into the most
shameful and beastly Excess?
Besides some are of the Opinion, tho’ I hope without Ground, that Noah
was not only overtaken once in his Drink, but that being fallen into
that Sin it became habitual, and he continued in it a great while, and
that it was this which is the meaning of his being uncovered in his
Tent, and that his Son saw his Nakedness; that is, he continually
exposed himself for a long Time, a hundred Years, say they, and that his
Son Ham, and his Grandson Canaan having drawn him into it, kept him
in it, encourag’d and prompted it, and all the while Satan still
prompting them, join’d their Scoffs and contempt of him, with their
wicked Endeavours to promote the Wickedness; and both with as much
Success as the Devil himself could wish for.
Then as for his two Sons modestly and decently covering their Father,
they tell us, that Represents Shem and Japhet applying themselves in
an humble and dutiful Manner to their Father, to entreat and beseech him
to consider his ancient Glory, his own pious Exhortations to the late
drowned World, and to consider the Offence which he gave by his evil
Courses to God, and the Scandal to his whole Family, and also that they
are brought in effectually prevailing upon him; and that then Noah
cursed the Wickedness of Ham’s degenerate Race, in Testimony of his
sincere Repentance after the Fact.
The Story is not so very unlikely as it is certain that it is not to be
proved, and therefore we had better take it as we find it (viz.) for
one single Act; but suppose it was so, ’tis still certain[Pg 140] that Noah’s
Preaching was sadly interrupted, the Energy of his Words flatter’d, and
the Force of his Persuasions enervated and abated, by this shameful
Fall; that he was effectually silenc’d for an Instructor ever after, and
this was as much as the Devil had Occasion for; and therefore indeed we
read little more of him, except that he lived three hundred and fifty
Years after the Flood; nay, we do not so much as read that he had any
more Children, but the contrary, nor indeed could Noah have any more
Children, except by his old and perhaps super-annuated Wife, who it was
very likely he had had four or five hundred Year, unless you will
suppose he was allow’d to marry some of his own Progeny, Daughters or
Grandaughters, which we do not suppose was allow’d, no not to Adam
himself.
This was certainly a Master-piece of the Devil’s Policy, and a fatal
Instance of his unhappy Diligence, (viz.) that the Door of the Ark was
no sooner open, and the Face of the World hardly dry from the universal
Destruction of Mankind, but he was at work among them; and that not only
to form a general Defection among the Race, upon the Foot of the
original Taint of Nature, but like a bold Devil he strikes at the very
Root, and flies at the next general Representative of Mankind, attacks
the Head of the Family, that in his Miscarriage the Rise and Progress of
a Reformation of the new World should receive an early Check, and should
be at once prevented; I say, like a bold Devil, he strikes at the Root,
and alas! poor unhappy Noah, he proved too weak for him, Satan
prevail’d in his very first Attempt, and got the Victory over him at
once.
Noah thus overcome, and Satan’s Conquest carried on to the utmost of
his own Wishes, the Devil had little more to do in the World[Pg 141] for some
Ages, than to carry on an universal Degeneracy among Mankind, and to
finish it by a like diligent Application, in deluding the Generality of
the Race, and them as they came on gradually into Life; this he found
the less difficult, because of the first Defection which spread like a
Contagion upon the Earth immediately after.
The first Evidence we have of his Success in this mischievous Design was
in the Building that great stupendious Stair-case, for such it seems it
was intended, call’d Babel, which if the whole World had not been
drunk, or otherwise infatuated, they would never have undertaken; even
Satan himself could never have prevail’d with them to undertake such a
preposterous Piece of Work, for it had neither End or Means, Possibility
or Probability in it.
I must confess I am sometimes apt to vindicate our old Ancestors, in my
Thoughts, from the Charge it self, as we generally understand it,
namely, that they really design’d to build a Tower which should reach up
to Heaven, or that it should secure them in case of another Flood; and
Father Casaubon is of my Opinion, whether I am of his or no, is a
Question by it self; his opinion is that the Confusion was nothing but a
Breach among the Undertakers and Directors of the Work, and that the
Building was design’d chiefly for a Store-house for Provisions, in Case
of a second Deluge; as to their Notion of its reaching up to Heaven, he
takes the Expression to be allegorical rather than little, and only to
mean that it should be exceeding high; perhaps they might not be
Astronomers enough to measure the Distance of Space between the Earth
and Heaven, as we pretend to do now; but as Noah was then[Pg 142] alive, and
as we believe all his three Sons were so too, they were able to have
inform’d them how absurd it was to suppose either the one or the other
(viz.) (1.) that they could build up to Heaven, or (2.) that they
could build firm enough to resist, or high enough to overtop the Waters,
supposing such another Flood should happen; I would rather think it was
only that they intended to build a most glorious and magnificent City,
where they might all inhabit together; and that this Tower was to be
built for Ornament and also for Strength, or as above, and for a
Store-house to lay up vast Magazines of Provisions, in Case of
extraordinary Floods or other Events, the City being built in a great
Plain, namely, the Plains of Shimar near the River Euphrates.
But the Story, as it is recorded, suits better with Satan’s Measures at
that Time; and as he was from the Beginning prompting them to every
Thing that was contrary to the Happiness of Man, so the more
preposterous it was, and the more inconsistent with common Sense, the
more to his Purpose; and it shew’d the more what a compleat Conquest he
had gain’d over the Reason as well as the Religion of Mankind at that
Time.
Again, ’tis evident in this Case, they were not only acting contrary to
the Nature of Things, but contrary to the Design and to the Command of
Heaven; for God’s Command was that they should replenish the Earth, that
is, that they should spread their Habitations over it, and People the
whole Globe; whereas they were pitching in one Place, as if they were
not to multiply sufficient to take up any more.
But what car’d the Devil for that, or to put it a little handsomer, that
was what Satan aimed at; for it was enough to him, to bring[Pg 143]
Mankind to act just contrary to what Heaven had directed or commanded them in
any thing, and if possible in every Thing.
But God himself put a stop to this foolish Piece of Work, and it was
time indeed to do so, for a madder thing the Devil himself never
proposed to them; I say, God himself put a stop to this new Undertaking,
and disappointed the Devil; and how was it done? not in Judgment and
Anger, as perhaps the Devil expected and hop’d for, but as pitying the
Simplicity of that dreaming Creature Man, he confused their Speech, or
as some say, divided and confused their Councils, so that they could not
agree with one another, which would be the same Thing as not to
understand one another; or he put a new Shibboleth upon their Tongues,
thereby separating them into Tribes or Families, for by this every
Family found themselves under a Necessity of keeping together, and this
naturally encreased that Differing Jargons of Language, for at first it
might be no more.
What a Confusion this was to them we all know, by their being oblig’d to
leave off their building, and immediately separating one from another;
but what a Surprize it was to the old Serpent, that remains to be
considered of, for indeed it belongs to his History.
Satan had never met with any Disappointment in all his wicked Attempts
till now; for first, he succeeded even to triumph upon Eve, he did the
like upon Cain, and in short upon the whole World, one Man (Noah)
excepted; when he blended the Sons of God, and the Daughters of Hell,
for so the Word is understood, together, in promiscuous voluptuous
Living as well as Generation.
As to the Deluge, Authors are not agreed whether it was a Disappointment
to the Devil or no,[Pg 144] it might be indeed a Surprize to him, for tho’
Noah had preach’d of it for a hundred Year together, yet as he
(Satan) daily prompted the People not to heed or believe what that old
Fellow Noah said to them, and to ridicule his whimsical Building a
monstrous Tub to swim or float in, when the said Deluge should come; so
I am of the Opinion he did not believe it himself, and am positive he
could not foresee it, by any insight into Futurity that he was Master
of.
’Tis true the Astronomers tell us, there was a very terrible Comet seen
in the Air, that it appeared for 180 Days before the Flood continually;
and that as it approach’d nearer and nearer every Day all the while, so
that at last it burst and fell down in a continual Spout or Stream of
Water, being of a watry Substance, and the Quantity so great, that it
was forty Days a falling; so that this Comet not only foretold the
Deluge or drowning of the Earth, but actually perform’d it, and drown’d
it from it self.
But to leave this Tale to them that told it, let us consider the Devil,
surpris’d, and a little amaz’d at the Absorption or Inundation, or
whatever we are to call it, of the Earth in the Deluge, not, I say, that
he was much concern’d at it, perhaps just the Contrary; and if God would
drown it again, and as often as he thought fit, I do not see by any
thing I meet with in Satan’s History, or in the Nature of him, that he
would be at all disturb’d at it; all that I can see in it, that could
give Satan any Concern, would be that all his Favourites were gone, and
he had his Work to do over again, to lay a Foundation for a new Conquest
in the Generation that was to come; But in this his Prospect was fair
enough, for why should he be discouraged, when he had now eight People
to work upon, who met with such Success when he[Pg 145] had but two? and why
should he question breaking in now where Nature was already vitiated and
corrupted, when he had before conquer’d the same Nature, when in its
primitive Rectitude and Purity, just come out of the Hands of its Maker,
and fortify’d with the Awe of his high and solemn Command just given
them, and the threatning of Death also annext to it, if broken?
But I go back to the Affair of Babel: This Confusion of Language or of
Councils, take it which way you will, as the first Disappointment that I
find the Devil met with, in all his Attempts and Practices upon Mankind,
or upon the new Creature, which I mentioned above; for now he foresaw
what would follow; namely, that the People would separate and spread
themselves over the whole Surface of the Earth, and a thousand new
Scenes of Actions would appear, in which he therefore prepares himself
to behave as he should see Occasion.
How the Devil learn’d to speak all the Languages that were now to be
used, and how many languages they were, the several ancient Writers of
the Devil’s Story have not yet determined; some tell us they were
divided only into fifteen, some into seventy two, others into one
hundred and eighty, and others again into several Thousands.
It also remains a doubt with me, and, I suppose, will be so with others
also, whether Satan has yet found out a Method to converse with Mankind,
without the Help of Language and Words, or not: Seeing Man has no other
Medium of Conversing, no not with himself: This I have not time to enter
upon here; however, this seems plain to me (viz.) that the Devil
soon learn’d to make Mankind understand him, whatever Language he spoke,
and no doubt but he found[Pg 146] Ways and Means to understand them, whatever
Language they spoke.
After the Confusion of Languages, the People necessarily sorted
themselves into Families and Tribes, every Family understanding their
own particular Speech, and that only; and these Families multiplying
grew into Nations, and those Nations wanting Room, and seeking out
Habitations wandred some this Way, some that, till they found out
Countries respectively proper for their settling, and there they became
a Kingdom, spreading and possessing still more and more Land as their
People encreased, till at last the whole Earth was scarce big enough for
them: This presented Satan with an Opportunity to break in upon their
Morals at another Door, (viz.) their Pride; for Men being naturally
Proud and Envious, Nations and Tribes began to jostle with one another
for Room; either one Nation enjoy’d better Accommodations, or had a
better Soil or a more favourable Climate than another; and these being
numerous and strong thrust the other out, and encroach’d upon their
Land; the other liking their Situation, prepare for their Defence, and
so began Oppression, Invasion, War, Battle and Blood, Satan all the
while beating the Drums, and his Attendants clapping their Hands, as Men
do when they set Dogs on upon one another.
The bringing Mankind thus to War and Confusion, as it was the first
Game the Devil play’d after the confounding of Languages and Divisions
at Babel so it was a Conquest upon Mankind, purely devilish, born from
Hell, and so exactly tinctured with Satan’s original Sin Ambition,
that it really transform’d Men into meer Devils; for when is Man
transform’d into the very Image of Satan himself, when is he turn’d into
a meer Devil, if it is not when he is fighting with his[Pg 147] fellow
Creatures and dipping his Hands in the Blood of his own Kind? Let his
Picture be consider’d, the Fire of Hell flames or sparkles in his Eyes,
a voracious Grin sits upon his Countenance; Rage and Fury distort the
Muscles of his Face; his Passions agitate his whole Body, and he is
metamorphos’d from a comely Beauteous angelic Creature into a Fury, a
Satyr, a terrible and frightful Monster, nay, into a Devil; for
Satan himself is describ’d by the same Word which on his very Account
is chang’d into a Substantive, and the Devils are call’d Furies.
This sowing the Seeds of Strife in the World, and bringing Nations to
fight and make War upon one another, would take up a great Part of the
Devil’s History, and abundance of extraordinary Things would occur in
relating the particulars; for there have been very great Conflagrations
kindled in the World, by the Artifice of Hell, under this Head, (viz.)
of making War; in which it has been the Devil’s Master-piece, and he
has indeed shewn himself a Workman in it, that he has wheedled Mankind
into strange unnatural Notions of things, in order to propagate and
support the fighting Principle in the World; such as Laws of War, fair
Fighting, behaving like Men of Honour, fighting at the last Drop, and
the like, by which killing and murdering is understood to be
justifiable. Virtue and a true Greatness in Spirit is rated now by Rules
which God never appointed, and the Standard of Honour is quite different
from that of Reason and of Nature: Bravery is denominated not from a
fearless undaunted Spirit in the just Defence of Life and Liberty, but
from a daring Defiance of God and Man, fighting, killing and treading
under Foot his fellow Creatures, at the ordinary Command of the Officer,
whether it be right or wrong,[Pg 148] and whether it be in a just Defence of
Life, and our Country’s Life, that is Liberty, or whether it be for the
Support of Injury and Oppression.
A prudent avoiding causeless Quarrels is call’d Cowardice, and to take
an affront Baseness, and Meanness of Spirit; to refuse fighting, and
putting Life at a Cast on the Point of a Sword, a Practice forbid by the
Laws of God and of all good Government, is yet call’d Cowardice; and a
Man is bound to die duelling, or live and be laugh’d at.
This trumping up these imaginary Things call’d Bravery and Gallantry,
naming them Virtue and Honour, is all from the Devil’s new Management,
and his subtil influencing the Minds of Men to fly in the Face of God
and Nature, and to act against his Senses; nor but for his Artifice in
the Management, could it be possible that such Inconsistencies could go
down with Mankind, or they could pass such absurd Things among them for
reasoning; for Example, A is found in Bed with B’s Wife, B is the Person
injur’d, and therefore offended, and coming into the Chamber with his
Sword in his Hand, A exclaims loudly, Why Sir, you won’t murder me,
will you? as you are a Man of Honour let me rise and take my Sword.
A very good Story indeed! fit for no body but the Devil to put into any
Man’s Head; But so it is, B being put in mind, forsooth, that he is a
Man of Honour, starts back and must act the honourable Part; so he lets
A get up, put on his Clothes and take his Sword; then they fight, and B
is kill’d for his Honour; whereas had the Laws of God, of Nature and of
Reason taken Place, the Adulterer and the Adulteress should have been
taken Prisoners and carried before the Judge, and being taken in the
Fact, should have been immediately sentenc’d, he to the Block and she to
the Stake, and the innocent abus’d[Pg 149] Husband had no Reason to have run
any Risque of his Life for being made a Cuckold.
But thus has Satan abus’d the Reason of Man; and if a Man does me the
greatest Injury in the World, I must do my self Justice upon him, by
venturing my life upon an even Lay with him, and must fight him upon
equal Hazard, in which the injur’d Person is as often kill’d as the
Person offering the Injury: Suppose now it be in the same Case as
above, a Man abuses my Wife, and then to give me Satisfaction, tells
me, he will fight me, which the French call doing me Reason; No
Sir, say I, let me lie with your Wife too, and then if you desire it,
I may fight you; then I am upon even Terms with you; but this indeed is
the Reasoning which the Devil has brought Mankind too at this Day: But
to go back to the Subject, viz. the Devil bringing the Nations to fall
out, and to quarrel for Room in the World, and so to fight in order to
dispossess one another of their Settlements: This began at a Time when
certainly there were Places enough in the World for every one to choose
in, and therefore the Devil, not the want of Elbow-room, must be the
Occasion of it; and ’tis carried on ever since, as apparently from the
same Interest, and by the same original.
But we shall meet with this Part again very often in the Devil’s
Story, and as we bring him farther on in the Management of Mankind, I
therefore lay it by for the Present, and come to the next Steps the
Devil took with Mankind after the Confusion of Languages, and this was
in the Affair of Worship; It does not appear yet that ever the Devil
was so bold, as either,
1. To set himself up to be worship’d as a God, or which was still worse,
2. To persuade Man to believe there was no God at all to worship.
[Pg 150]Both these are introduc’d since the Deluge, one indeed by the Devil,
who soon found Means to set himself up for a God in many Parts of the
World, and holds it to this Day; but the last is brought in by the
Invention of Man, in which it must be confess’d Man has out-sin’d the
Devil; for to do Satan justice, he never thought it could ever pass upon
Mankind, or that any Thing so gross would go down with them; so that,
in short, these modern Casuists, in the Reach of our Days, have, I
say, out-sin’d the Devil.
As then both these are modern Inventions, Satan went on gradually, and
being to work upon human Nature by Stratagem, not by Force, it would
have been too gross to have set himself up as an Object of Worship at
first, it was to be done Step by Step; for Example.
1. It was sufficient to bring Mankind to a Neglect of God, to
worship him by halves, and give little or no Regard to his Laws,
and so grow loose and immoral, in direct Contradiction to his
Commands; this would not go down with them at first, so the Devil
went on gradually.
2. From a Negligence in worshiping the true God, he by Degrees
introduc’d the worship of false Gods; and to introduce this he
began with the Sun, Moon, and Stars, call’d in the holy Text
the Host of Heaven; these had greater Majesty upon them, and seem’d
fitter to command the Homage of Mankind; so it was not the hardest
Thing in the World, to bring Men, when they had once forgotten the
true God, to embrace the Worship of such Gods as those.
3. Having thus debauch’d their Principles in Worship, and led them
from the true and[Pg 151] only Object of Worship to a false, it was the
easier to carry them on; so in a few Gradations more he brought
them to downright Idolatry, and even in that Idolatry he proceeded
gradually too; for he began with awful Names, such as were
venerable in the Thoughts of Men, as Baal or Bell, which, in
Chaldaick and Hebrew, signifies Lord or Sovereign, or Mighty
and Magnificent, and this was therefore a Name ascrib’d at first to
the true God; but afterwards they descended to make Images and
Figures to represent him, and then they were call’d by the same
Name, as Baal, Baalim, and afterwards Bell; from which, by a
hellish Degeneracy, Saturn brought Mankind to adore every Block of
their own hewing, and to worshipping Stocks, Stones, Monsters,
Hobgoblins, and every sordid frightful Thing, and at last the
Devil himself.
What Notions some People may entertain of the Forwardness of the first
Ages of the World, to run into Idolatry, I do not enquire here; I know
they tell us strange Things, of its being the Product of meer Nature,
one remove from its primitive State; but I, who pretend to have so
critically enquir’d into Satan’s History, can assure you, and that
from very good Authority, that the Devil did not find it so easy a
task to obliterate the Knowledge of the true God, in the Minds and
Consciences of Men, as those People suggest.
It is true he carried Things a great Length under the Patriarchal
Government of the first Ages, but still he was sixteen hundred Years
bringing it to pass; and tho’ we have Reason to believe the old World,
before the Flood was arrived to a very great Height of Wickedness, and
Ovid[Pg 152] very nobly describes it by the War of the Titans against
Jupiter, yet we do not read that ever Satan was come to such a Length
as to bring them to Idolatry; indeed we do read of Wars carried on among
them, whether it was one Nation against another, or only Personal, we
cannot tell; But the World seem’d to be swallow’d up in a Life of
Wickedness, that is to say, of Luxury and Lewdness, Rapine and Violence,
and there were Giants among them, and Men of Renown, that is to say,
Men fam’d for their mighty Valour, great Actions of War we may suppose,
and their Strength, who personally oppos’d others. We read of no
considerable Wars indeed, but ’tis not to be doubted but there was such
Wars, or else it is to be understood that they liv’d (in common) a Life
somewhat like the Brutes, the Strong devouring the Weak; for the Text
says, the whole Earth was filled with Violence, hunting and tearing
one another in Pieces, either for Dominion or for Wealth, either for
Ambition or for Avarice, we know not well which.
Thus far the old Antediluvian World went, and very wicked they were,
there is no doubt of that; but we have Reason to believe that was no
Idolatry, the Devil had not brought them to that Length yet: perhaps
it would soon have follow’d, but the Deluge interven’d.
After the Deluge, as I have said, he had all his Work to do over
again, and he went on by the same Steps; first he brought them to
Violence and War, then to Oppression and Tyranny, then to neglect of
true Worship, then to false worship, and then Idolatry by the meer
natural Consequence of the Thing; who were the first Nation or People
that fell from the Worship of the true God, is something hard to
determine; the Devil, who certainly of all God’s Creatures is best
able[Pg 153] to inform us, having left us nothing upon Record upon that
Subject, but we have Reason to believe it was thus introduc’d.
Nimrod was the Grandson of Ham, Noah’s second Son, the same who
was cursed by his Father for exposing him in his Drunkenness: This
Nimrod was the first who it seems Satan pick’d out for a Hero: Here
he inspir’d him with ambitious Thoughts, dreams of Empire, and having
the Government of all the Rest, that is to say, universal Monarchy;
the very same Bait with which he has plaid upon the Frailty of Princes,
and ensnar’d the greatest of them ever since, even from his most August
Imperial Majesty King Nimrod the first, to his most Christian Majesty
Louis the XIV. and many a mighty Monarch between.
When these mighty Monarchs and Men of Fame went off the Stage, the World
had their Memories in esteem many Ages after; and as their great Actions
were no otherwise recorded than by oral Tradition, and the Tongues and
Memories of fallible Men, Time and the Custom of magnifying the past
Actions of Kings, Men soon fabl’d up their Histories, Satan assisting,
into Miracle and Wonder: Hence their Names were had in Veneration more
and more; Statues and Bustoes representing their Persons and great
Actions were set up in public Places, till from Heroes and Champions
they made Gods of them, and thus (Satan prompting) the World was
quickly fill’d with Idols.
This Nimrod is he, who according to the received Opinion, tho’ I do
not find Satan’s History exactly concurring with it, was first call’d
Belus, then Baal, and worship’d in most of the eastern Countries
under those Names; sometimes with Additions of Sir-names, according to
the several countries, or People, or Towns where he was[Pg 154] particularly
set up, as Baal Peor, Baal Zephon, Baal Phegor, and in other
Places plain Baal, as Jupiter in after Times had the like Additions;
as Jupiter Ammon, Jupiter Capitolinus, Jupiter Pistor, Jupiter
Feretrius, and about ten or twelve Jupiters more.
I must acknowledge, that I think it was a Master-piece of Hell to bring
the World to Idolatry so soon after they had had such an eminent Example
of the infinite Power of the true God, as was seen in the Deluge, and
particularly in the Escape of Noah in the Ark, to bring them (even
before Noah or his Sons were dead) to forget whose Hand it was, and
give the Homage of the World to a Name, and that a Name of a mortal Man
dead and rotten, who was famous for nothing when he was alive but Blood
and War; I say, to bring the World to set up this Nothing, this meer
Name, nay the very Image and Picture of him for a God, it was first
a Mark of most prodigious Stupidity in the whole Race of Men, a
monstrous Degeneracy from Nature, and even from common Sense; and in the
next Place ’twas a token of an inexpressible Craft and Subtilty in the
Devil, who had now gotten the People into so full and compleat a
Management, that in short, he could have brought them, by the same Rule,
to have worship’d any thing; and in a little while more, did bring many
of them to worship himself, plain Devil as he was, and knowing him to
be such.
As to the Antiquity of this horrible Defection of Mankind, tho’ we do
not find the beginning of it particularly recorded, yet we are certain
it was not long after the Confusion of Babel; for Nimrod, as is
said, was no more than Noah’s great Grandson and Noah himself, I
suppose, might be alive some Years after Nimrod was born; and as
Nimrod was not long dead, before they forgot that[Pg 155] he was a Tyrant and
a Murtherer, and made a Baal, that is a Lord or Idol of him, I say, he
was not long dead, for Nimrod was born in the Year of the World 1847,
and built Babylon the Year 1879; and we find Terah the Father of
Abraham, who liv’d from the Year 1879 was an Idolater, as was
doubtless Bethuel, who was Terah’s Grandson; for we find Laban,
who was Bethuel’s Son, was so, and all this was during the Life of the
first Post-Diluvian Family, for Terah was born within one hundred
ninety three Years after the Flood, and one hundred fifty seven Years
before Noah was dead; and even Abram himself was eight and fifty
Years old before Noah died, and yet Idolatry had been then, in all
probability, above an hundred Years practised in the World.
N. B. It is worth Remark here, what a terrible Advantage the Devil
gain’d by the debauching poor Noah, and drawing him into the Sin
of Drunkenness; for by this, as I said, he silenc’d and stop’d the
Mouth of the great Preacher of Righteousness, that Father and
Patriarch of the whole World, who not being able for the Shame of
his own foul Miscarriage, to pretend to instruct or reprove the
World any more, the Devil took hold of them immediately, and for
want of a Prophet to warn and admonish, ran that little of Religion
which there might be left in Shem and Japhet, quite out of the
World, and delug’d them all in Idolatry.
How long the whole World may be said to be thus overwhelm’d in Ignorance
and Idolatry, we may make some tolerable guess at by the History of
Abraham; for it was not till God call’d him from his Father’s House,
that any such Thing as a[Pg 156] Church was establish’d in the World; nor even
then, except in his own Family and Successors for almost four hundred
Years after that Call; and till God brought the Israelites back out of
Egypt, the whole World may be said to be involv’d in Idolatry and
Devil worship.
So absolute a Conquest had the Devil made over Mankind immediately
after the Flood, and all taking its Rise and Beginning at the fatal
Defeat of Noah, who had he liv’d untainted and invulnerable, as he had
done for six hundred Years before, would have gone a great way to have
stem’d the Torrent of Wickedness which broke in upon Mankind; and
therefore the Devil, I say, was very cunning and very much in the
Right of it, take him as he is a meer Devil, to attack Noah
personally, and give him a Blow so soon.
It is true, the Devil did not immediately raze out the Notion of
Religion and of a God from the Minds of Men, nor could he easily
suppress the Principle of Worship and Homage to be paid to a Sovereign
Being, the Author of Nature and Guide of the World; the Devil saw this
clearly in the first Ages of the new World, and therefore, as I have
said, he proceeded politically and by Degrees: That it was so, is
evident from the Story of Job and his three Friends, who, if we may
take it for a History, not a Fable, and may judge of the Time of it by
the Length of Job’s Life, and by the Family of Eliphaz the
Temanite, who it is manifest was at least Grandson or Great Grandson
to Esau Isaac’s eldest Son, and by the Language of Abimilech King of
Gerar to Abraham, and of Laban to Jacob, both the Latter being
at the same Time Idolaters; I say, if we may judge of it by all these,
there were still very sound Notions of Religion in the Minds of Men; nor
could Satan with all his Cunning and Policy[Pg 157] deface those Ideas, and
root them out of the Minds of the People.
And this put him upon taking new Measures to keep up his Interest and
preserve the Hold he got upon Mankind; and his Method was like himself,
subtle and politick to the last Degree, as his whole History makes
appear; for seeing he found they could not but believe the Being of a
God, and that they would needs worship something, it is evident, he had
no Game left him to play but this, namely, to set up wrong Notions of
Worship, and bring them to a false Worship instead of a True, supposing
the Object worship’d to be still the same.
To finish this Stratagem, he first insinuates that the true God was a
terrible, a dreadful, unapproachable Being; that to see him was so
frightful, that it would be present Death; that to worship him
immediately, was a Presumption which would provoke his Wrath; and that
as he was a consuming Fire in himself, so he would burn up those in
his Anger that dar’d to offer up any Sacrifice to him, but by the
Interposition of some Medium which might receive their Adorations in his
Name.
Hence it occur’d presently, that subordinate Gods were to be found out
and set up, to whom the People might pay the Homage due to the supreme
God, and who they might worship in his Name; this I take from the most
ancient Account of Idolatry in the World; nor indeed could the Devil
himself find out any other Reason why Men should Cannonise or rather
Deify their Princes and Men of Fame, and worship them after they were
dead, as if they could save them from Death and Calamity, who were not
able to save themselves when they were alive; much less could Satan
bring Men to swallow so gross, so absurd a Thing as the bowing the Knee
to a Stock or a[Pg 158] Stone, a Calf, an Ox, a Lion, nay the Image or Figure
of a Calf, such as the Israelites made at Mount Sinai, and say,
These be thy Gods, O Israel, who brought thee out of the Land of
Egypt.
Having thus, I say, brought them to satisfy themselves that they
worship’d the true God and no other, under the Figures and Appearances
which they made to represent him, it was easy after that to worship any
thing for the true God; and thus in a few Ages they worship’d nothing
but Idols, even throughout the whole World; nor has the Devil lost
this hold in some Parts of the World, nay not in most Parts of the World
to this Day; He holds still all the Eastern Parts of Asia, and the
Southern Parts of Africa, and the Northern Parts of Europe, and in
them the vast Countries of China and Tartary, Persia and India,
Guinea, Ethiopia, Zanquebar, Congo, Angola, Monomotapa, &c.
in all which, except Ethiopia, we find no Vestiges of any other
worship but that of Idols, Monsters, and even the Devil himself; till
after the very coming of our Saviour, and even then, if it be true that
the Gospel was preach’d in the Indies and China by St. Thomas, and
in other remote Countries by other of the Apostles; we see that whatever
Ground Satan lost, he seems to have recovered it again; and all Asia
and Africa is at present overrun with Paganism or Mahometanism, which
I think of the two is rather the worst; Besides all America, a Part of
the World, as some say, equal in Bigness to all the other, in which the
Devil’s Kingdom was never interrupted from its first being inhabited,
whenever it was, to the first Discovery of it by the European
Nations in the sixteenth Century.
In a Word, the Devil got what we may call an entire Victory over
Mankind, and drove the Worship of the true God, in a Manner quite[Pg 159] out
of the World, forcing, as it were, his Maker in a new kind of
Creation, the old one proving thus ineffectual to recover a certain
Number by Force and meer Omnipotence to return to their Duty, serve him
and worship him; But of that hereafter.
Chap. XI.
Of God’s calling a Church out of the midst of a degenerate World,
and of Satan’s new Measures upon that Incident: How he attack’d
them immediately, and his Success in those Attacks.
Satan having, as I have said in the preceding Chapter, made, as it
were, a full Conquest of Mankind, debauch’d them all to Idolatry, and
brought them at least to worshiping the true God by the wretched Medium
of corrupt and idolatrous Representations; God seem’d to have no true
Servants or Worshippers left in the World, but if I may be allow’d to
speak so, was oblig’d, in order to restore the World to their Senses
again, to call a select Number out from among the rest, who he himself
undertook should own his Godhead or supreme Authority, and worship him
as he requir’d to be worship’d; this, I say, God was oblig’d to do,
because ’tis evident it has not been done so much by the Choice and
Council of Men, for Satan would have over-rul’d that Part, as by the
Power and Energy of some irresistible and invincible Operation, and this
our Divines give high Names to; but be it what they will, it is the
second Defeat or Disappointment that the Devil[Pg 160] he met with in his
Progress in the World; the first I have spoken of already.
It is true, Satan very well understood what was threatn’d to him in the
original Promise to the Woman, immediately after the Fall, namely, thou
shalt bruise his Head, &c. but he did not expect it so suddenly, but
thought himself sure of Mankind, till the Fullness of Time when the
Messiah should come; and therefore it was a great Surprize to him, to
see that Abraham being call’d was so immediately receiv’d and
establish’d, tho’ he did not so immediately follow the Voice that
directed him, yet in him, in his Loins was all God’s Church at that time
contain’d.
In the calling Abraham, it is easy to see that there was no other way
for God to form a Church, that is to say, to single out a People to
himself, as the World was then stated, but by immediate Revelation and a
Voice from Heaven: All Mankind were gone over to the Enemy, overwhelmed
in Idolatry, in a Word, were engag’d to the Devil; God Almighty, or as
the Scripture distinguishes him, the Lord, the true God, was out of
the Question; Mankind knew little or nothing of him, much less did they
know any thing of his Worship, or that there was such a Being in the
World.
Well might it be said the Lord appeared to Abraham, Gen. xii. 7. for
if God had not appear’d himself, he must have sent a Messenger from
Heaven, and perhaps it was so too, for he had not one true Servant or
Worshiper that we know of then on Earth, to send on that Errand; no
Prophet, no Preacher of Righteousness, Noah was dead, and had been so
above seventeen Year; and if he had not, his preaching, as I observed
after his great Miscarriage, had but little Effect; we are indeed told,
that Noah left behind him[Pg 161] certain Rules and Orders for the true
Worship of God, which were call’d the Precepts of Noah, and remain’d
in the World for a long Time; tho’ how written, when neither any
Letters, much less Writing were known in the World, is a Difficulty
which Remains to be solv’d; and this makes me look upon those Laws
call’d the Precepts of Noah to be a modern Invention, as I do also the
Alphabetum Noachi, which Bochart pretends to give an Account of.
But to leave that Fiction, and come back to Abraham; God call’d him,
whether at first by Voice without any Vision, whether in a Dream or
Night Vision, which was very Significant in those Days, or whether by
some awful Appearance, we know not; the second Time, ’tis indeed said
expressly God appeared to him; Be it which Way it will, God himself
call’d him, shew’d him the Land of Canaan, gave him the Promise of it
for his Posterity, and withal gave him such a Faith, that the Devil
soon found there was no room for him to meddle with Abraham. This is
certain, we do not read that the Devil ever so much as attempted
Abraham at all; some will suggest that the Command to Abraham to go
and offer up his Son Isaac, was a Temptation of the Devil, if
possible to defeat the glorious Work of God’s calling a holy Seed into
the World; for the first, if Abraham had disobey’d that Call, the
new Favourite had been overcome and made a Rebel of, or secondly, if
he had obey’d, then the promis’d Seed had been cut off, and Abraham
defeated; but as the Text is express that God himself proposed it to
Abraham, I shall not start the Suggestions of the Criticks, in Bar of
the sacred Oracle.
Be it one way or other, Abraham shew’d a Hero-like Faith and Courage,
and if the Devil had been the Author of it, he had seen himself[Pg 162]
disappointed in both his Views; (1.) by Abraham’s ready and bold
Compliance, as believing it to be God’s Command; and (2.) by the divine
Countermand of the Execution, just as the fatal Knife was lifted up.
But if the Devil left Abraham, and made no attack upon him, seeing
him invulnerable, he made himself amends upon the other Branch of his
Family, his poor Nephew Lot; who, notwithstanding he was so
immediately under the particular Care of Heaven, as that the Angel who
was sent to destroy Sodom, could do nothing till he was out of it; and
who, tho’ after he had left Zoar, and was retir’d into a Cave to
dwell, yet the subtle Devil found him out, deluded his two Daughters,
took an Advantage of the Fright they had been in about Sodom and
Gomorrah, made them believe the whole World was burnt too, as well as
those Cities, and that in short, they could never have any Husbands,
&c. and so in their abundant Concern to repeople the World, and that the
Race of Mankind might not be destroyed, they go and lie with their own
Father; the Devil telling them doubtless how to do it, by
intoxicating his Head with Wine; in all which Story, whether they were
not as drunk as their Father, seems to be a Question, or else they could
not have supposed all the Men in the Earth were consum’d, when they knew
that the little City Zoar had been preserv’d for their Sakes.
This now was the third Conquest Satan obtain’d by the Gust of humane
Appetite; that is to say, once by Eating and twice by Drinking, or
Drunkenness, and still the last was the worst and most shameful; for
Lot, however his Daughters manag’d him, could not pretend he did not
understand what the Strength of Wine was; and one would have thought
after so terrible a[Pg 163] Judgment as that of Sodom was, which was, as we
may say, executed before his Face, his Thoughts should have been too
solemnly engag’d in praising God for sparing his Life, to be made drunk,
and that two Nights together.
But the Devil play’d his Game sure, he set his two Daughters to work,
and as the Devil’s Instruments seldom fail, so he secur’d his by that
hellish Stratagem of deluding the Daughters, to think all the World was
consum’d but they two and their Father: To be sure the old Man could not
suspect that his Daughters Design was so wicked as indeed it was, or
that they intended to debauch him with Wine, and make him drink till he
knew not what he did.
Now the Devil having carried his Game here, gain’d a great Point; for
as there were but two religious Families in the World before, from
whence a twofold Generation might be supposed to rise religious and
righteous like their Parents, (viz.) that of Abraham and this of
Lot; this Crime ruin’d the Hopes of one of them; it could no more be
said that just Lot was in Being, who vex’d his righteous Soul from
Day to Day with the wicked Behaviour of the People of Sodom; righteous
Lot was degenerated into drunken incestuous Lot, Lot fallen from
what he was, to be a wicked and unrighteous Man; no pattern of Virtue,
no Reprover of the Age, but a poor fallen Degenerate Patriarch, who
could now no more reprove or exhort, but look down and be asham’d, and
nothing to do but to repent; and see the poor mean Excuses of all the
three.
Eve says, The Serpent beguil’d me, and I did eat.
Noah says, —— My Grandson beguil’d me, or the Wine beguil’d me,
and I did drink.
[Pg 164]Lot says, My Daughters beguil’d me, and I also did drink.
It is observable, that as I said above, Noah was silenc’d, and his
Preaching at an End, after that one Action, so the like may be said of
Lot; and in short, you never hear one Word more of either of them
after it; as for Mankind, both were useless to them, and as to
themselves, we never read of any of their Repentance, nor have we much
Reason to believe they did repent.
From this Attack of the Devil upon Lot, we hear no more of the
Devil being so busily employ’d as he had been before in the World; he
had indeed but little to do, for all the rest of the World was his own,
lull’d asleep under the Witchcraft of Idolatry, and are so still.
But it could not be long that the Devil lay idle; as soon as God
call’d himself a People, the Devil could not be at Rest; till he
attack’d them.
‘Wherever God sets up a House of Prayer,
‘The Devil always builds a Chapel there.
Abraham indeed went off the Stage free, and so did Isaac too, they
were a Kind of first Rate Saints; we do not so much as read of any
failing they had, or of any Thing the Devil had ever the Face to offer
to them; no, or with Jacob either, if you will excuse him for
beguiling his Brother Esau, of both his Birthright and his Blessing,
but he was busy enough with all his Children; for Example,
He sent Judah to his Sheep-shearing, and placed a Whore (Tamar)
in his Way, in the[Pg 165] Posture of Temptation, so made him commit
Incest and Whoredom both together.
He sent incestuous Reuben to lie with his Father’s Concubine
Billah.
He sent Dinah to the Ball, to dance with the Sichemite Ladies,
and play the Whore with their Master.
He enrag’d Simeon and Levi, at the supposed Injury, and then
prompted them to Revenge, for which their Father heartily cursed
them.
He set them all together to fall upon poor Joseph, first to
murther him intentionally, and then actually sell him to the
Midianites.
He made them shew the Party-colour’d Coat, and tell a lie to their
Father, to make the poor old Man believe Joseph was kill’d by a
Lion, &c.
He sent Potiphar’s Wife to attack Joseph’s Chastity, and fill’d
her with Rage at the Disappointment.
He taught Joseph to swear by the Life of Pharoah.
In a Word, he debauch’d the whole Race, except Benjamin, and never Man
had such a Set of Sons, so wicked and so notorious, after so good an
Introduction into the World as they all of them had, to be sure; for
Jacob, no doubt, gave them as good Instruction as the Circumstances of
his wandring Condition would allow him to do.
We must now consider the Devil and his Affairs in a quite differing
Situation: When the World first appeared peopled by the creating Power
of God, he had only Adam and Eve to take care of, and I think he
ply’d his Time with them to purpose enough: After the Deluge he had[Pg 166]
Noah only to pitch upon, and he quickly conquer’d him by the
Instigation of his Grandson.
At the Building of Babel he guided them by their acting all in a Body
as one Man; so that in short he manag’d them with ease, taking them as a
Body politic; and we find they came into his Snare as one Man; but Now,
the Children of Israel multiplying in the Land of their Bondage, and
God seeming to shew a particular Concern for them, the Devil was
oblig’d to new Measures, stand at a Distance, and look on for some Time.
The Egyptians were plagued even without his Help, nor tho’ the cunning
Artist, as I said, stood and looked on, yet he durst not meddle; nor
could he make a few Lice, the least and meanest of the Armies of Insects
raised to afflict the Egyptians.
However, when he perceiv’d that God resolved to bring the Israelites
out, he prepar’d to attend them, to watch them, and be at Hand upon all
the wicked Occasions that might offer, as if he had been fully satisfied
such Occasions would offer, and that he should not fail to have an
Opportunity to draw them into some Snare or another, and that therefore
it was his Business not to be out of the Way, but to be ready (as we
say) to make his Market of them in the best Manner he could: How many
Ways he attempted them, nay, how many Times he conquer’d them in their
Journey, we shall see presently.
First he put them in a fright at Baal-Zephon, where he thought he had
drawn them into a Noose, and where he sent Pharoah and his Army to
block them up between the Mountains of Piahiroth and the Red Sea;
but there indeed Satan was outwitted by Moses, so far as it appeared
to be a humane Action, for he little thought of their going dry footed
thro’ the Sea, but depended upon having them all cut in Pieces the
next Morning[Pg 167] by the Egyptians; an eminent Proof, by the Way, that
the Devil has no Knowledge of Events, or any Insight into Futurity;
nay that he has not so much as a second Sight, or knows to Day what his
Maker intends to do to Morrow; for had Satan known that God intended
to Ford them over the Sea, if he had not been able to have prevented the
Miracle, he would certainly have prevented the Escape, by sending out
Pharoah and his Army time enough to have taken the Strand before them,
and so have driven them to the Necessity of travelling on Foot round the
North Point of that Sea, by the Wilderness of Etan, where he would
have pursu’d and harrass’d them with his Cavalry, and in all Probability
have destroy’d them: But the blind short-sighted Devil, perfectly in the
Dark, and unacquainted with Futurity, knew nothing of the Matter, was as
much deceiv’d as Pharoah himself, stood still flattering himself with
the Hopes of his Booty, and the Revenge he should take upon them the
next Morning; till he saw the frighted Waves in an Uproar, and to his
utter Astonishment and Confusion saw the Passage laid open, and Moses
leading his vast Army in full March over the dry Space; nay even then
’tis very propable Satan did not know that if the Egyptians follow’d
them, the Sea would return upon and overwhelm them; for I can hardly
think so hard of the Devil himself, that if he had, he would have
suffer’d, much less prompted Pharoah to follow the Chase at such an
Expence; so that either he must be an ignorant unforeseeing Devil, or a
very ungrateful false Devil to his Friends the Egyptians.
I am enclin’d also to the more charitable Opinion of Satan too, because
the Escape of the Israelites was really a Triumph over himself; for
the War was certainly his, or at least he was auxiliary to Pharoah,[Pg 168]
it was a Victory over Hell and Egypt together, and he would never
have suffer’d the Disgrace, if he had known it beforehand; that is to
say, tho’ he could not have prevented the Escape of Israel, or the
dividing the Water, yet he might have warn’d the Egyptians, and
cautioned them not to venture in after them.
But we shall see a great many weak Steps taken by the Devil in the
Affair of this very People and their forty Years Wandring in the
Wilderness; and tho’ he was in some things successful, and wheedled them
into many foolish and miserable Murmurings and Wranglings against God,
and Mutinies against poor Moses, yet the Devil was oftentimes
baulk’d and disappointed; and ’tis for this Reason that I choose to
finish the first Part of his History with the particular Relation of his
Behaviour among the Jews, because also, we do not find any
extraordinary Things happening any where else in the World for above one
thousand five hundred Years, no Variety, no Revolutions; all the Rest of
Mankind lay still under his Yoke, quietly submitted to his Government,
did just as he bad them, worship’d every Idol he set up, and in a Word,
he had no Difficulty with any Body but the Jews, and for this Reason,
I say, this Part of his Story will be the more useful and instructing.
To return therefore to Moses and his dividing the Red Sea; that the
People went over or thro’ it, that we have the sacred History for; but
how the Devil behav’d, that you must come to me for, or I know not where
you will find a true Account of it, at least not in Print.
1. It was in the Night they march’d thro’, whether the Devil saw it in
the Dark or no, that’s not my Business.
[Pg 169]But when he had Day-Light for it, and view’d the next Day’s Work, I make
no Question but all Hell felt the Surprise, the Prey being thus
snatch’d out of their Hands unexpectedly. ’Tis true the Egyptians Host
was sent to him in their Room, but that was not what he aim’d at; for he
was sure enough of them his own Way, and if it was not just at that
Time, yet he knew what and who they were; but as he had devour’d the
whole Israelitish Host in his Imagination, to the Tune of at least a
Million and a half of Souls; Men, Women and Children; it was, no doubt,
a great Disappointment to the Devil to miss of his Prey, and to see them
all triumphing on the other Side in Safety.
It is true, Satan’s Annals do not mention this Defeat, for Historians
are generally backward to register their own Misfortunes; but as we have
an Account of the Fact from other Hands, so as we cannot question the
Truth of it; the Nature of the Thing will tell us it was a
Disappointment to the Devil, and a very great one too.
I cannot but observe here, that I think this Part of the Devil’s Story
very entertaining, because of the great Variety of Incidents which
appear in every Part of it; sometimes he is like a hunted Fox,
curvetting and counter-running to avoid his being pursued and found out,
while at the same time he is carrying on his secret Designs to draw the
People he pretends to manage, into some Snare or other to their Hurt; at
another time, tho’ the Comparison is a little too low for his Dignity,
like a Monkey that has done Mischief, and who making his own Escape sits
and chatters at a Distance, as if he had triump’d in what he had done;
so Satan, when he had drawn them in to worship a Calf, to offer strange
Fire, to set up a Schism, and the like; and so to bring the Divine
Vengeance upon themselves, leaving[Pg 170] them in their Distress, kept at a
Distance, as if he look’d on with Satisfaction to see them Burnt,
swallow’d up, swept away, and the like; as the several Stories relate.
His indefatigable Vigilance is, on the other hand, a useful Caveat, as
well as an improving View to us; no sooner is he routed and expos’d,
defeated and disappointed in one Enterprize, but he begins another, and,
like a cunning Gladiator, warily defends himself, and boldly attacks his
Enemy at the same time. Thus we see him, up and down, conquering and
conquered, thro’ this whole Part of his Story, till at last he receives
a total Defeat; of which you shall hear in its place: In the mean time,
let us take up his Story again at the Red Sea, where he receiv’d a
great Blow, instead of which he expected a compleat Victory; for
doubtless the Devil and the King of Ægypt too, thought of nothing but
Conquest at Piahiroth.
However, tho’ the Triumph of the Israelites over the Egyptians must
needs be a great Mortification to the Devil, and exasperated him very
much, yet the Consequence was only this, viz. that Satan, like an
Enemy who is baulk’d and defeated, but not overcome, redoubles his Rage,
and reinforces his Army, and what the Egyptians could not do for him,
he resolves to do for himself; in order then to take his Opportunity for
what Mischief might offer, being defeated, and provok’d, I say, at the
Slur that was put upon him, he resolves to follow them into the
Wilderness, and many a vile Prank he plaid them there; as first, he
straitens them for Water, and makes them murmur against God, and against
Moses, within a very few Days, nay, Hours, of their great Deliverance
of all.
Nor was this all, but in less than one Year more we find them, (at his
Instigation too) setting up[Pg 171] a golden Calf, and making all the People
dance about it at Mount Sinai; even when God himself had but just
before appear’d to them in the Terrors of a burning Fire upon the Top of
the Mountain; and what was the Pretence? Truly, nothing but that they
had lost Moses, who used to be their Guide, and he had hid himself in
the Mount, and had not been seen in forty Days, so that they could not
tell what was become of him. This put them all into Confusion; a poor
Pretence indeed, to turn them all back to Idolatry! but the watchful
Devil took the Hint, push’d the Advantage, and insinuated that they
should never see Moses again, that he was certainly devour’d by
venturing too near the Flashes of Fire in the Mount, and presuming upon
the Liberty he had taken before; in a word, that God had destroyed
Moses, or he was starved to Death for want of Food, having been forty
Days and forty Nights absent.
All these were, it’s true, in themselves most foolish Suggestions,
considering Moses was admitted to the Vision of God, and that God had
been pleased to appear to him in the most intimate manner; that as they
might depend God would not destroy his faithful Servant, so they might
have concluded he was able to support his Being without Food as long as
he thought fit; but to a People so easy to believe any thing, what could
be too gross for the Devil to persuade them to?
A People who could dance round a Calf, and call it their God, might do
any thing; that could say to one another, that this was the Great
Jehovah, that brought them out of the Land of Egypt; and that within
so few Days after God’s miraculous Appearance to them, and for them; I
say, such a People were really fitted to be[Pg 172] imposed upon, nothing could
be too gross for them.
This was indeed his first considerable Experiment upon them as a
People, or as a Body; and the Truth is, his Affairs requir’d it, for
Satan, who had been a Successful Devil in most of his Attempts upon
Mankind, could hardly doubt of Success in any thing after he had carried
his Point at Mount Sinai: To bring them to Idolatry in the very Face
of their Deliverer, and just after their Deliverance! It was more
astonishing in the main than even their passing the Red Sea: In a
Word, the Devil’s whole History does not furnish us with a Story
equally surprising.
And how was poor Aaron bewilder’d in it too? He that was Moses’s
Partner in all the great Things that Moses did in Pharaoh’s Sight,
and that was appointed to be his Assistant and Oracle, or Orator
rather, upon all public Occasions; that he, above all the rest, should
come into this absurd and ridiculous Proposal, he that was singled out
for the sacred Priesthood, for him to defile his holy Hands with a
polluted abominable Sacrifice, and with making the Idol for them too,
(for ’tis plain that he made it,) how monstrous it was!
And see what an Answer he gives to his Brother Moses, how weak! how
simple! I did so and so, indeed, I bad them bring the Ear-rings, &c.
and I cast the Gold into the Fire, and it came out this Calf.
Ridiculous! as if the Calf came out by meer fortuitous Adventure,
without a Mould to cast it in; which could not be supposed: And if it
had not come out so without a Mould, Moses would certainly have known
of it; had Aaron been innocent, he would have answered after quite
another manner, and told Moses honestly that the whole Body of the
People came to him in a Fright, that they forced him to make them[Pg 173] an
Idol; which he did, by making first a proper Mould to cast it in, and
then taking the proper Metal to cast it from: That indeed he had sinn’d
in so doing, but that he was mobb’d into it, and the People terrified
him, perhaps they threatned to kill him; and if he had added, that the
Devil prompting his Fear beguil’d him, he had said nothing but what
was certainly true; for if it was in Satan’s Power to make the People
insolent and outrageous enough to threaten and bully the old venerable
Prophet (for he was not yet a Priest) who was the Brother of their
Oracle Moses, and had been Partner with him in so many of his
Commissions; I say, if he cou’d bring up the Passions of the People to a
Height to be rude and unmannerly to him (Aaron) and perhaps to
threaten and insult him, he may be easily suppos’d to be able to
intimidate Aaron, and terrify him into a Compliance.
See this cunning Agent, when he has Man’s Destruction in his View, how
securely he acts! he never wants a handle; the best of Men have one weak
place or other, and he always finds it out, takes the Advantage of it,
and conquers them by one Artifice or another; only take it with you as
you go, ’tis always by Stratagem, never by Force; a Proof that he is
not empower’d to use Violence: He may tempt, and he does prevail; but
’tis all Legerdemain, ’tis all Craft and Artifice, he is still Διαβολὴ,
the Calumniator and Deceiver, that is, the Misrepresenter;
he misrepresents Man to God, and misrepresents God to Man, also he
misrepresents Things; he puts false Colours, and then manages the Eye to
see them with an imperfect View, raising Clouds and Fogs to intercept
our Sight; in short, he deceives all our Senses, and imposes upon us in
Things which otherwise would be the easiest to discern and judge of.
[Pg 174]This indeed is in part the Benefit of the Devil’s History, to let us
see that he has used the same Method all along; and that ever since he
has had any thing to do with Mankind, he has practis’d upon them with
Stratagem and Cunning; also ’tis observable that he has carried his
Point better that way than he would have done by Fury and Violence, if
he had been allowed to make use of it; for by his Power indeed he might
have laid the World desolate, and made a Heap of Rubbish of it long ago;
but, as I have observed before, that would not have answered his Ends
half so well, for by destroying Men he would have made Martyrs, and sent
abundance of good Men to Heaven, who would much rather have died, than
yielded to serve him, and, as he aimed to have it, to fall down and
worship him; I say, he would have made Martyrs, and that not a few: But
this was none of Satan’s Business; his Design lies quite another Way;
his Business is to make Men sin, not to make them suffer; to make
Devils of them, not Saints; to delude them, and draw them away from
their Maker, not send them away to him; and therefore he works by
Stratagem, not by Force.
We are now come to his Story, as it relates to the Jewish Church in
the Wilderness, and to the Children of Israel in their travelling
Circumstances; and this was the first Scene of publick Management that
the Devil had upon his Hands in the World; for, as I have said, till
now, he dealt with Mankind either in their separate Condition, one by
one, or else carried all before him, engrossing whole Nations in his
Systems of Idolatry, and overwhelming them in an ignorant Destruction.
But having now a whole People as it were snatch’d away from him, taken
out of his Government, and, which was still worse, having a[Pg 175] View of a
Kingdom being set up independent of him, and superior to his Authority,
it is not to be wondred at if he endeavour’d to overthrow them in the
Infancy of their Constitution, and tried all possible Arts to bring them
back into his own Hands again.
He found them not only carried away from the Country where they were
even in his Clutches, surrounded with Idols, and where we have Reason to
believe the greatest part of them were polluted with the Idolatry of the
Egyptians; for we do not read of any stated Worship which they had of
their own, or if they did worship the true God, we scarce know in what
manner they did it; they had no Law given them, nothing but the Covenant
of Circumcision, and even Moses himself had not strictly observ’d
that, till he was frighted into it; we read of no Sacrifices among them,
no Feasts were ordain’d, no solemn Worship appointed, and how, or in
what manner they perform’d their Homage, we know not; the Passover was
not ordain’d till just at their coming away; so that there was not much
Religion among them, at least that we have any Account of; and we may
suppose the Devil was pretty easy with them all the while they were in
the House of their Bondage.
But now, to have a Million of People fetch’d out of his Hands, as it
were all at once, and to have the immediate Power of Heaven engaged in
it, and that Satan saw evidently God had singled them out in a
miraculous manner to favour them, and call them his own; this allarm’d
him at once, and therefore he resolves to follow them, lay close Siege
to them, and take all the Measures possible to bring them to rebel
against, and disobey God, that he might be provok’d to destroy them; and
how near he went to bring it to pass, we shall see presently.
[Pg 176]This making a Calf, and paying an idolatrous Worship to it (for they
acted the Heathens and Idolaters, not in the setting up the Calf only,
but in the manner of their Worshiping, viz. Dancing and Musick,
Things they had not been acquainted with in the Worship of the true God)
I mention here, to observe how the Devil not only imposed upon their
Principles, but upon their Senses too; as if the awful Majesty of
Heaven, whose Glory they had seen in Mount Sinai, where they stood,
and whose Pillar of Cloud and Fire was their Guide and Protection, would
be worship’d by dancing round a Calf! and that not a living Creature, or
a real Calf, but the mere Image of a Calf cast in Gold, or, as some
think, in Brass gilded over.
But this was the Devil’s Way with Mankind, namely, to impose upon
their Senses, and bring them into the grossest Follies and Absurdities;
and then, having first made them Fools, it was much the easier to make
them Offenders.
In this very manner he acted with them thro’ all the Course of their
Wilderness Travels; for as they were led by the Hand like Children,
defended by Omnipotence, fed by Miracles, instructed immediately from
Heaven, and in all things had Moses for their Guide; they had no room
to miscarry, but by acting the greatest Absurdities, and committing the
greatest Follies in Nature; and even these, the Devil brought them to
be guilty of, in a surprising manner: 1. As God himself reliev’d them in
every Exigence, and supply’d them in every Want, one would think ’twas
impossible they should be ever brought to question either his
Willingness or his Ability, and yet they really objected against both;
which was indeed very provoking, and I doubt not, that when the Devil
had brought them to act[Pg 177] in such a preposterous Manner, he really hoped
and believed God would be provok’d effectually: The Testimonies of his
Care of them, and Ability to supply them, were miraculous and
undeniable; he gave them Water from the Rock, Bread from the Air, sent
the Fowls to feed them with Flesh, and supported them all the Way by
Miracles; their Health was preserv’d, none were sick among them, their
clothes did not wear out, nor their Shoes grow old upon their Feet;
could any thing be more absurd, than to doubt whether he could provide
for them who had never let them want for so many Years?
But the Devil managed them in spight of Miracles; nor did he ever give
them over till he had brought six hundred thousand of them to provoke
God so highly that he would not suffer above two of them to go into the
Land of Promise; so that in short, Satan gained his Point as to that
Generation, for all their Carcasses fell in the Wilderness. Let us take
but a short View to what a Height he brought ’em, and in what a rude,
absurd Manner they acted; how he set them upon murmuring upon every
Occasion, now for Water, then for Bread; nay, they murmured at their
Bread when they had it; Our Soul loaths this light Bread.
He sow’d the Seeds of Church-Rebellion in the Sons of Aaron, and made
Nadab and Abihu offer strange Fire till they were strangely consumed
by Fire for the doing it.
He set them a complaining at Taberah, and a lusting for Flesh at the
first three Days Journey from Mount Sinai.
He planted Envy in the Hearts of Miriam and Aaron, against the
Authority of Moses, to pretend God had spoke by them as well as by
him, till he humbled the Father, and made a Leper of the Daughter.
[Pg 178]He debauch’d ten of the Spies, frighted them with sham Appearances of
Things, when they went out to search the Land; and made them fright the
whole People out of their Understanding as well as Duty, for which six
hundred thousand of their Carcasses fell in the Wilderness.
He rais’d the Rebellion of Korah, and the two hundred and fifty
Princes, till he brought them to be swallowed up alive.
He put Moses into a Passion at Meribah, and ruffled the Temper of
the meekest Man upon Earth, by which he made both him and Aaron
forfeit their Share of the Promise, and be shut out from the Holy
Land.
He rais’d a Mutiny among them when they travelled from Mount Hor, till
they brought fiery Serpents among them to destroy them.
He tried to make Baalim the Prophet curse them, but there the Devil
was disappointed: However, he brought the Midianites to debauch them
with Women, as in the Case of Zimri and Cosbi.
He tempted Achan with the Wedge of Gold, and the Babylonish Garment,
that he might take of the accursed thing, and be destroy’d.
He tempted the whole People, not effectually to drive out the cursed
Inhabitants of the Land of Promise, that they might remain, and be Goads
in their Sides, till at last they often oppress’d them for their
Idolatry; and, which was worse, debauched them to Idolatry.
He prompted the Benjamites to refuse Satisfaction to the People, in
the Case of the Wickedness of the Men of Gibeah, to the Destruction of
the whole Tribe, four hundred Men excepted in the Rock Rimmon.
At last he tempted them to reject the Theocracy of their Maker, and call
upon Samuel[Pg 179] to make them a King; and most of those Kings he made
Plagues and Sorrows to them in their time, as you shall hear in their
Order.
Thus he plagued the whole Body of the People continually, making them
sin against God, and bring Judgments upon themselves, to the consuming
some Millions of them, first and last, by the Vengeance of their Maker.
As he did with the whole Congregation, so he did with their Rulers, and
several of the Judges, who were made Instruments to deliver the People,
yet were drawn into snares by this subtil Serpent, to ruin themselves
or the People they had delivered.
He tempted Gideon to make an Ephod, contrary to the Law of the
Tabernacle, and made the Children of Israel go a whoring (that is, a
worshiping) after it.
He tempted Sampson to debauch himself with a Harlot, and betray his
own happy Secret to a Whore, at the Expence of both his Eyes, and at
last of his Life.
He tempted Eli’s Sons to lie with the Women, in the very Doors of the
Tabernacle, when they came to bring their Offerings to the Priest; and
he tempted poor Eli to connive at them, or not sufficiently reprove
them.
He tempted the People to carry the Ark of God into the Camp, that it
might fall into the Hands of the Philistines. And
He tempted Uzzi to reach out his Hand to hold it up; as if he that had
preserved it in the House of Dagon the Idol of the Philistines,
could not keep it from falling out of the Cart.
When the People had gotten a King, he immediately set to work in diverse
Ways to bring that King to load them with Plagues and Calamities not a
few.
[Pg 180]He tempted Saul
to spare the King of Amaliek, contrary to God’s express Command.
He not tempted Saul only, but possessed him with an evil Spirit, by
which he was left to wayward Dispositions, and was forced to have it
fiddl’d out of him with a Minstrel.
He tempted Saul with a Spirit of Discontent, and with a Spirit of Envy
at poor David, to hunt him like a Partridge upon the Mountains.
He tempted Saul with a Spirit of Divination, and sent him to a Witch
to enquire of Samuel for him; as if God would help him when he was
dead, that had forsaken him when he was alive.
After that, he tempted him to kill himself, on a Pretence that he might
not fall into the Hands of the Uncircumcised; as if Self-Murther was
not half so bad, either for Sin against God, or Disgrace among Men, as
being taken Prisoner by a Philistine! A Piece of Madness none but the
Devil could have brought Mankind to submit to, tho’ some Ages after
that, he made it a Fashion among the Romans.
After Saul was dead, and David came to the Throne, by how much he
was a Man chosen and particularly savoured by Heaven, the Devil fell
upon him with the more Vigour, attack’d him so many Ways, and conquer’d
him so very often, that as no Man was so good a King, so hardly any good
King was ever a worse Man; in many Cases one would have almost thought
the Devil had made Sport with David, to shew how easily he could
overthrow the best Man God could choose of the whole Congregation.
He made him distrust his Benefactor so much as to feign himself mad
before the King of Gath, when he had fled to him for Shelter.
[Pg 181]He made him march with his four hundred Cut-throats, to cut off poor
Nabal, and all his Houshold, only because he would not send him the
good Chear he had provided for his honest Sheep-shearers.
He made him, for his Word’s sake, give Ziba half his Master’s Estate
for his Treachery, after he knew he had been the Traitor, and betray’d
poor Mephibosheth for the sake of it; in which
‘The good old King, it seems, was very loth
‘To break his Word, and therefore broke his Oath.
Then he tempted him to the ridiculous Project of numbring the People,
tho’ against God’s express Command; a Thing Joab himself was not
wicked enough to do, till David and the Devil forc’d him to it.
And to make him compleatly wicked, he carried him to the Top of his
House, and shew’d him a naked Lady bathing her self in her Garden, in
which it appear’d that the Devil knew David too well, and what was
the particular Sin of his Inclination; and so took him by the Right
Handle; drawing him at once into the Sins of Murther and Adultery.
Then, that he might not quite give him over, (tho’ David’s Repentance
for the last Sin kept the Devil off for a while) when he could attack
him no farther personally he fell upon him in his Family, and made him
as miserable as he could desire him to be, in his Children, three of
whom he brought to Destruction before his Face, and another after his
Death.
First, he tempted Ammon to ravish his Sister Tamar; so, there was an
End of her (poor Girl!) as to this World, for we never hear any more
of her.
[Pg 182]Then he tempted Absalom to murther his Brother Amnon, in Revenge for
Tamar’s Maidenhead.
Then he made Joab run Absalom thro’ the Body, contrary to David’s
Command.
And after David’s Death he brought Adonija (weak Man!) to the Block,
for usurping King Solomon’s Throne.
As to Absalom, he tempted him to Rebellion, and raising War against
his Father, to the turning him shamefully out of Jerusalem, and almost
out of the Kingdom.
He tempted him, for David’s farther Mortification, to lie with his
Father’s Wives, in the Face of the whole City; and had Achitophel’s
honest Council been follow’d, he had certainly sent him to Sleep with
his Fathers, long before his time—But there Satan and Achitophel
were both out-witted together.
Thro’ all the Reigns of the several Successors of David, the Devil
took care to carry on his own Game, to the continual insulting the
Measures which God himself had taken for the establishing his People in
the World, and especially as a Church; till at last he so effectually
debauch’d them to Idolatry; that Crime which of all others was most
provoking to God, as it was carrying the People away from their
Allegiance, and transposing the Homage they ow’d God their Maker, to a
contemptible Block of Wood, or an Image of a brute Beast; and this how
sordid and brutish soever it was in it self, yet so did his Artifice
prevail among them, that, first or last, he brought them all into it,
the ten Tribes as well as the two Tribes; till at last God himself was
provoked to unchurch them, gave them up to their Enemies, and the few
that were left of them, after incredible Slaughters and Desolation,
were[Pg 183] hurried away, some into Tartary, and others into Babylon, from
whence very few, of that few that were carried away, ever found their
Way Home again; and some, when they might have come, would not accept of
it, but continued there to the very coming of the Messiah. See Epistles
of St. James and of St. Peter, at the Beginning.
But to look a little back upon this Part (for it cannot be omitted, it
makes so considerable a Part of the Devil’s History) I mean his
drawing God’s People, Kings and all, into all the Sins and Mischiefs
which gradually contributed to their Destruction.
First, (for he began immediately with the very best and wisest of the
Race) he drew in King Solomon, in the midst of all his Zeal for the
building God’s House, and for the making the most glorious and
magnificent Appearance for God’s Worship that ever the World saw; I say,
in the middle of all this, he drew him into such immoderate and
insatiable an Appetite for Women, as to set up the first, and perhaps
the greatest Seraglio of Whores that ever any Prince in the World had,
or pretended to before; nay, and to bring whoring so much into
Reputation, that, as the Text says, seven hundred of them were
Princesses; that is to say, Ladies of Quality: Not as the Grand
Seigniors, and Great Moguls, (other Princes of the Eastern World) have
since practised, namely, to pick up their most beautiful Slaves; but
these, it seems, were Women of Rank, King’s Daughters, as Pharaoh’s
Daughter, and the Daughters of the Princes and prime Men among the
Moabites, Ammonites, Zidonians, Hittites, &c. 1 Kings xi. 1.
Nor was this all; but as he drew him into the Love of these forbidden
Women (for such they were, as to their Nation, as well as Number) so
he[Pg 184] ensnar’d him by those Women to a Familiarity with their Worship; and
by degrees brought that famous Prince (famous for his Wisdom) to be the
greatest and most-impos’d-upon old Fool in the World; Bowing down to
those Idols by the Inticing of his Whores, whom he had abhorr’d and
detested in his Youth, as dishonouring that God for whom, and for whose
Worship he had finish’d and dedicated the most magnificent Building and
Temple in the World: Nothing but the invincible Subtlety of this Arch
Devil could ever have brought such a Man as Solomon to such a
Degeneracy of Manners, and to such Meannesses; no, not the Devil
himself, without the Assistance of his Whores, nor the Whores
themselves, without the Devil to help them.
As to Solomon, Satan had made Conquest enough there, we need hear no
more of him; the next Advance he made, was in the Person of his Son
Rehoboam; had not the Devil prompted his Pride and tyrannical
Humour, he would never have given the People such an Answer as he did;
and when he saw a Fellow at the Head of them too whom he knew wanted and
waited for an Occasion to raise a Rebellion, and had ripened up the
People’s Humour to the Occasion: Well might the Text call it listening
to the Council of the young Heads; that it was indeed with a Vengeance!
but those young Heads too were acted by an old Devil, who for his
Craft is called, as I have observ’d, the Old Serpent.
Having thus pav’d the Way, Jeroboam revolts. So far God had directed
him; for the Text says expressly, speaking in the first Person of God
himself, This Thing is of Me.
But tho’ God might appoint Jeroboam to be King, (that is to say, of
ten Tribes,) yet God did not appoint him to set up the two Calves in[Pg 185]
the two extreme Parts of the Land, viz. in Dan, and in Bethel;
that was Jeroboam’s own doing, and done on purpose to keep the People
from falling back to Rehoboam, by being obliged to go to Jerusalem
to the publick Worship: And the Text adds, Jeroboam made Israel to
sin. This was indeed a Master-piece of the Devil’s Policy, and it was
effectual to answer the End, nothing could have been more to the
Purpose; what Reason he had to expect the People would so universally
come into it, and be so well satisfied with a couple of Calves, instead
of the true Worship of God at Jerusalem; or what Arts and Management
he (Satan) made use of afterwards, to bring the People in, to join
with such a Delusion, that we find but little of in all the Annals of
Satan; not is it much to the Case: ’Tis certain the Devil found a
strange kind of Propensity to worshiping Idols rooted in the Temper of
that whole People, even from their first breaking away from the
Egyptian Bondage; so that he had nothing to do but to work upon the
old Stock, and propagate the Crime that he found was so natural to them.
And this is Satan’s general Way of working, not with them only, but
with us also, and with all the World, even then, and ever since.
When he had thus secur’d Jeroboam’s Revolt, we need not trace him
among his Successors; for the same Reason of State that held for the
setting up the Calves at Bethel and Dan, held good for the keeping
them up, to all Jeroboam’s Posterity; nor had they one good King ever
after; even Jehu, who call’d his Friends to come and see his Zeal for
the Lord, and who fulfill’d the Threatnings of God upon Ahab and his
Family, and upon Queen Jezabel and her Offspring, and knew all the
while that he was executing the Judgment of the true God upon an
idolatrous Race; yet[Pg 186] he would not part with his Calves, but would have
thought it to have been parting with his Kingdom, and that as the People
would have gone up to Jerusalem to worship, so they would at the same
Time have transfer’d their civil Obedience to the King of Judah,
(whose Right it really was, as far as they could claim by Birth and
right Line); so that by the way, Satan any more than other
Politicians, is not for the jus divinum of lineal Succession, or what
we call hereditary Right, any farther than serves for his Purpose.
Thus Satan ridded his Hands of ten of the twelve Tribes; let us now see
how he went on with the rest, for his Work was now brought into a
narrower Compass; the Church of God was now reduc’d to two Tribes,
except a few religious People, who separated from the Schism of
Jeroboam, and came and planted themselves among the Tribes of Judah
and Benjamin: The first thing the Devil did after this, was to foment
a War between the two Kings, while Judah was governed by a Boy or
Youth, Abija by Name, and he none of the best neither; but God’s Time
was not come, and the Devil receiv’d a great Disappointment; when
Jeroboam was so entirely overthrown; that if the Records of those Ages
do not mistake, no less than 500000 Men of Israel were kill’d, such a
Slaughter, that one would think the Army of Judah, had they known how
to improve as well as gain a Victory, might have brought all the rest
back again, and have intirely reduc’d the House of Jeroboam and the
ten Tribes that follow’d him to their Obedience; nay they did take a
great deal of the Country from them, and among the rest Bethel it
self; and yet so cunningly did Satan manage, that the King of Judah,
who was himself a wicked King, and perhaps an Idolater in his Heart, did
not take down the golden[Pg 187] Calf that Jeroboam had there, no nor destroy
the Idolatry it self, so that in short, his Victory signified nothing.
From hence to the Captivity, we find the Devil busy with the Kings of
Judah, especially the best of them; as for such as Manasseth, and
those who transgress’d by the general Tenor of their Lives, those he had
no great trouble with.
But such as Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, he hung
about them and their Courts, till he brought every one of them into some
Mischief or another.
As first, good King Asa, of whom the Scripture says, his Heart was
perfect all his Days, yet this subtle Spirit, that could break in upon
him no where else, tempted him when the King of Israel came out
against him, to send to hire Benhadad the King of Syria to help him;
as if God who had before enabled him to conquer the Ethiopians, with
an Army of ten hundred thousand Men, could not have saved him from the
King of the ten Tribes.
In the same manner he tempted Jehoshaphat to join with that wicked
King Ahab against the King of Syria, and also to marry his Son to
Ahab’s Daughter, which was fatal to Jehoshaphat, and to his
Posterity.
Again, He tempted Hezekiah to shew all his Riches to the King of
Babylon’s Messengers; and who can doubt, but that he (Satan) is to
be understood by the wicked Spirit which stood before the Lord, 2
Chron. xviii. 20. and offered his Service to entice Ahab the King of
Israel to come out to Battle to his Ruin, by being a lying Spirit in
the Mouths of all his Prophets; and who for that Time had a special
Commission, as he had another Time in the Case of Job? and indeed it
was a Commission fit for no body but the Devil: Thou[Pg 188] shalt entice
him, and thou shalt also prevail: Go out and do even so, ℣ 21.
Even good Josiah himself, of whom it is recorded, that like him there
was no King before him, neither after him arose there any like him, 2
Kings xxiii. 26. yet the Devil never left him with his Machinations,
till finding he could not tempt him to any Thing wicked in his
Government, he tempted or mov’d him to a needless War with the King of
Egypt, in which he lost his Life.
From the Death of this good King, the Devil prevail’d so with the
whole Nation of the Jews, and brought them to such an incorrigible
Pitch of Wickedness, that God gave them up, forsook his Habitation of
Glory, the Temple, which he suffer’d to be spoil’d first, then burnt and
demolish’d; destroying the whole Nation of the Jews, except a small
Number that were left, and those the Enemy carried away into Captivity.
Nor was he satisfied with this general Destruction of the whole People
of Israel, for the ten Tribes were gone before; but he follow’d them
even into their Captivity; those that fled away to Egypt, which they
tell us were seventy thousand, he first corrupted, and then they were
destroyed there upon the Overthrow of Egypt, by the same King of
Babylon.
Also he went very near to have them rooted out, young and old, Man,
Woman and Child, who were in Captivity in Babylon, by the Ministry of
that true Agent of Hell, Haman the Agagite; but there Satan met
with a Disappointment too, as in the Story of Hester, which was but
the fourth that he had met with, in all his Management since the
Creation; I say, there he was disappointed, and his prime Minister
Haman was exalted, as he deserv’d.
[Pg 189]Having thus far traced the Government and Dominion of the Devil, from
the Creation of Man to the Captivity; I think I may call upon him to set
up his Standard of universal Empire, at that Period; it seem’d just then
as if God had really forsaken the Earth, and given the entire Dominion
of Mankind up to his outrageous Enemy the Devil; for excepting the few
Israelites which were left in the Territories of the King of
Babylon, and they were but a few; I say, except among them, there was
not one Corner of the World left where the true God was call’d upon, or
his Dominion so much as acknowledg’d; all the World was buried in
Idolatry, and that of so many horrid Kinds, that one would think, the
Light of Reason should have convinc’d Mankind, that he who exacted such
bloody Sacrifices as that of Moloch, and such a bloody cutting
themselves with Knives, as the Priests of Baal did, could not be a
God, a good and beneficent Being, but must be a cruel, voracious and
devouring Devil, whose End was not the Good, but the Destruction of his
Creatures: But to such a Height was the blind demented World arriv’d to
at that Time, that in these sordid and corrupt Ways, they went on
worshiping dumb Idols, and offering human Sacrifices to them, and in a
Word, committing all the most horrid and absurd Abominations that they
were capable of, or that the Devil could prompt them to, till Heaven
was again put, as it were, to the Necessity of bringing about a
Revolution, in favour of his own forsaken People, by Miracle and
Surprize, as he had done before.
We come therefore to the Restoration or Return of the Captivity: Had
Satan been able to have acted any thing by Force, as I have observ’d
before, all the Princes and Powers of the World, having been, as they
really were, at his Devotion,[Pg 190] he might easily have made use of them,
arm’d all the World against the Jews, and prevented the Rebuilding the
Temple, and even the Return of the Captivity.
But now the Devil’s Power manifestly received a Check, and the Hand of
God appear’d in it, and that he was resolv’d to reestablish his People
the Jews, and to have a second Temple built: the Devil, who knew the
Extent of his own Power too well, and what Limitations were laid upon
him, stood still as it were looking on, and not daring to oppose the
Return of the Captivity, which he very well knew had been prophesied,
and would come to pass.
He did indeed make some little Opposition to the Building, and to the
fortifying the City, but as it was to no Purpose, so he was soon oblig’d
to give it over; and thus the Captivity being return’d, and the Temple
rebuilt, the People of the Jews encreased and multiplied to an infinite
Number and Strength; and from this Time we may say, the Power of the
Devil rather declin’d and decreas’d, than went on with Success, as it
had done before; It is true the Jews fell into Sects and Errors, and
Divisions of many Kinds, after the Return from the Captivity, and no
doubt the Devil had a great Hand in those Divisions; but he could
never bring them back to Idolatry, and his not being able to do that,
made him turn his Hand so many Ways to plague and oppress them; as
particularly by Antiochus the Great, who brought the Abomination of
Desolation into the holy Place; and there the Devil triumph’d over them
for some Time; but they were deliver’d many Ways, till at last they came
peaceably under the Protection rather than the Dominion of the Roman
Empire: When Herod the Great govern’d them as a King, and reedified,
nay almost[Pg 191] rebuilt their Temple, with so great an Expence and
Magnificence, that he made it, as some say, greater and more glorious
than that of Solomon’s, tho’ that I take to be a great —— Fable, to
say no worse of it.
In this Condition the Jewish Church stood, when the Fullness of Time,
as ’tis call’d in Scripture, was come; and the Devil was kept at Bay,
tho’ he had made some Encroachments upon them as above; for there was a
glorious Remnant of Saints among them, such as old Zacharias the
Father of John the Baptist, and old Simeon, who waited for the
Salvation of Israel; I say, in this Condition the Jewish Church
stood when the Messiah came into the World, which was such another
mortal Stab to the Thrones and Principalities infernal, as that of which
I have spoken already in Chap. III. at the Creation of Man; and
therefore with this I break off the Antiquities of the Devil’s
History, or the antient Part of his Kingdom; for from hence downward we
shall find his Empire has declin’d gradually; and tho’ by his wonderful
Address, his prodigious Application, and the Vigilance and Fidelity of
his Instruments, as well human as infernal and diabolical, and of the
Human as well the Ecclesiastick as the Secular; he has many Times
retriev’d what he has lost, and sometimes bid fair for recovering the
universal Empire he once possess’d over Mankind; yet he has been still
defeated again, repulst and beaten back, and his Kingdom has greatly
declin’d in many Parts of the World; and especially in the Northern
Parts, except Great Britain; and how he has politically maintain’d his
Interest and encreased his Dominion among the wise and righteous
Generation that we cohabit with and among, will be the Subject of the
modern Part of Satan’s History, and of which we are next to give
an Account.
[Pg 192]
PART II. OF THE Modern History OF THE DEVIL.
Chap. I.
I have examined the Antiquities of Satan’s History in the former Part of
this Work, and brought his Affairs down from the Creation, as far as to
our blessed Christian Times; especially to the Coming of the Messiah,
when one would think the Devil could have nothing to do among us. I
have indeed but touch’d at some Things which might have admitted of a
farther Description of Satan’s Affairs, and the Particulars of which we
may all come to a farther Knowledge of hereafter; yet I think I have
spoken to the material Part of his Conduct, as it relates to his Empire
in this World: What has happen’d to his more sublimated Government, and
his Angelic Capacities, I shall have an Occasion to touch at in several
solid Particulars as we go along.
[Pg 193]The Messiah was now born, the Fulness of Time was come, that the old
Serpent was to have his Head broken, that is to say, his Empire or
Dominion over Man, which he gain’d by the Fall of our first Father and
Mother in Paradise, receiv’d a Downfal or Overthrow.
It is worth observing, in order to confirm what I have already mention’d
of the Limitation of Satan’s Power, that not only his Angelic Strength
seems to have received a farther Blow upon the Coming of the Son of God
into the World, but he seems to have had a Blow upon his Intellects; his
Serpentine Craft and Devil-like Subtilty seems to have been
circumscrib’d and cut short; and instead of his being so cunning a
Fellow as before, when, as I said, ’tis evident he outwitted all
Mankind, not only Eve, Cain, Noah, Lot, and all the Patriarchs,
but even Nations of Men, and that in their publick Capacity; and thereby
led them into absurd and ridiculous Things, such as the Building of
Babel, and deifying and worshiping their Kings, when dead and rotten;
idolizing Beasts, Stocks, Stones, any Thing, and even Nothing;
and in a Word, when he manag’d Mankind just as he pleased.
Now and from this Time forward he appeared a weak, foolish, ignorant
Devil, compar’d to what he was before; He was upon almost every
Occasion resisted, disappointed, baulk’d and defeated, especially in all
his Attempts to thwart or cross the Mission and Ministry of the
Messiah, while he was upon Earth, and sometimes upon other and very
mean Occasions too.
And first, how foolish a Project was it, and how below Satan’s
celebrated Artifice in like Cases, to put Herod upon sending to kill
the poor innocent Children in Bethlehem, in hopes to destroy the
Infant? for I take it for granted, it was the[Pg 194] Devil put into
Herod’s Thoughts that Execution, how simple and foolish soever; now we
must allow him to be very ignorant of the Nativity himself, or else he
might easily have guided his Friend Herod to the Place where the
Infant was.
This shews that either the Devil is in general ignorant as we are,
of what is to come in the World, before it is really come to pass; and
consequently can foretel nothing, no not so much as our famous old
Merlin or Mother Shipton did, or else that great Event was hid
from him by an immediate Power superior to his, which I cannot think
neither, considering how much he was concern’d in it, and how certainly
he knew that it was once to come to pass.
But be that as it will, ’tis certain the Devil knew nothing where
Christ was born, or when; nor was he able to direct Herod to find him
out, and therefore put him upon that foolish, as well as cruel Order, to
kill all the Children, that he might be sure to destroy the Messiah
among the rest.
The next simple Step that the Devil took, and indeed the most foolish
one that he could ever be charg’d with, unworthy the very Dignity of a
Devil, and below the Understanding that he always was allow’d to act
with, was that of coming to tempt the Messiah in the Wilderness; it is
certain, and he own’d it himself afterwards, upon many Occasions, that
the Devil knew our Saviour to be the Son of God; and ’tis as certain
that he knew, that as such he could have no Power or Advantage over
him; how foolish then was it in him to attack him in that Manner, if
thou beest the Son of God? why he knew him to be the Son of God well
enough; he said so afterwards, I know thee who thou art, the holy One
of God; how then could he be so weak a Devil as to say, if thou art,
then do so and so?
[Pg 195]The Case
is plain, the Devil, tho’ he knew him to be the Son of God,
did not fully know the Mystery of the Incarnation; nor did he know how
far the Inanition of Christ extended, and whether, as Man, he was
not subject to fall as Adam was, tho’ his reserv’d Godhead might be
still immaculate and pure; and upon this Foot, as he would leave no
Method untried, he attempts him three Times, one immediately after
another; but then, finding himself disappointed he fled.
This evidently proves that the Devil was ignorant of the great Mystery
of Godliness, as the Text calls it, God manifest in the Flesh, and
therefore made that foolish Attempt upon Christ, thinking to have
conquer’d his human Nature as capable of Sin, which it was not; and at
this Repulse Hell groan’d, the whole Army of regimented Devils
receiv’d a Wound, and felt the Shock of it; ’twas a second Overthrow to
them, they had had a long Chain of Success, carried a devilish
Conquest over the greatest Part of the Creation of God; but now they
were cut short, the Seed of the Woman was now come to break the
Serpent’s Head, that is, to cut short his Power, to contract the Limits
of his Kingdom, and in a Word, to dethrone him in the World: No doubt
the Devil receiv’d a Shock, for you find him always afterward, crying
out in a horrible Manner, whenever Christ met with him, or else very
humble and submissive, as when he begg’d leave to go into the Herd of
Swine, a Thing he has often done since.
Defeated here, the first Stratagem I find him concern’d in after it, was
his entring into Judas, and putting him upon betraying Christ to the
Chief Priest; but here again he was entirely mistaken, for he did not
see, as much a Devil as he was, what the Event would be; but when he[Pg 196]
came to know, that if Christ was put to Death, he would become a
Propitiatory and be the great Sacrifice of Mankind, so to rescue the
fallen Race from that Death they had incurr’d the Penalty of, by the
Fall, that this was the fulfilling of all Scripture Prophesy, and that
thus it was that Christ was to be the End of the Law, I say, as soon
as he perceiv’d this, he strove all he could to prevent it, and
disturb’d Pilate’s Wife in her Sleep, in order to set her upon her
Husband to hinder his delivering him up to the Jews; for then, and not
till then, he knew how Christ was to vanquish Hell by the Power of his
Cross.
Thus the Devil was disappointed and exposed in every Step he took, and
as he now plainly saw his Kingdom declining, and even the temporal
Kingdom of Christ, rising up upon the Ruins of his (Satan’s) Power; he
seem’d to retreat into his own Region the Air, and to consult there with
his fellow Devils, what Measures he should take next to preserve his
Dominion among Men; Here it was that he resolv’d upon that truly hellish
Thing call’d Persecution, by which, tho’ he prov’d a foolish Devil in
that too, he flatter’d himself he should be able to destroy God’s
Church, and root out its Professors from the Earth, even almost as soon
as it was establish’d; whereas on the contrary, Heaven counter-acted him
there too, and tho’ he arm’d the whole Roman Empire against the
Christians, that is say, the whole World, and they were fallen upon
every where, with all the Fury and Rage of some of the most flaming
Tyrants that the World ever saw, of whom Nero was the first; yet in
spight of Hell, God made all the Blood, which the Devil caus’d to be
spilt, to be semen Ecclesiæ, and the Devil had the Mortification to
see, that the Number of Christians encreased even under the very Means
he made use[Pg 197] of to root them out and destroy them: This was the Case
thro’ the Reign of all the Roman Emperors, for the first three hundred
Years after Christ.
Having thus tried all the Methods that best suited his Inclination, I
mean those of Blood and Death, complicated with Tortures and all Kinds
of Cruelty, and that for so long a Stage of Time as above; the Devil
all on a suddain, as if glutted with Blood, and satiated with
Destruction, sits still and becomes a peaceable Spectator for a good
while; as if he either found himself unable, or had no Disposition to
hinder the Progress of Christianity in the first Ages of its Settlement
in the World: In this interval the Christian Church was establish’d
under Constantine, Religion flourished in Peace, and under the most
perfect Tranquillity: The Devil seem’d to be at a Loss what he should
do next, and Things began to look as if Satan’s Kingdom was at an End;
but he soon let them see that he was the same indefatigable Devil that
ever he was, and the Prosperity of the Church gave him a large Field of
Action; for knowing the Disposition of Mankind to Quarrel and Dispute,
the universal Passion rooted in Nature, especially among the Church-Men
for Precedency and Dominion, he fell to work with them immediately; so
that turning the Tables, and reassuming the Subtilty and Craft, which, I
say, he seem’d to have lost in the former four hundred Years, he gain’d
more Ground in the next Ages of the Church, and went farther towards
restoring his Power and Empire in the World, and towards overthrowing
that very Church which was so lately establish’d, than all he had done
by Fire and Blood before.
His Policy now seem’d to be edg’d with Resentment for the Mistakes he
had made; as if the[Pg 198] Devil looking back with Anger at himself, to see
what a Fool he had been to expect to crush Religion by Persecution,
rejoyc’d for having discover’d that Liberty and Dominion was the only
way to ruin the Church, not Fire and Faggot; and that he had nothing to
do but to give the zealous People their utmost Liberty in Religion, only
sowing Error and Variety of Opinion among them, and they would bring
Fire and Faggot in fast enough among themselves.
It must be confess’d these were devilish Politicks; and so sure was the
Aim, and so certain was the Devil to hit his Mark by them, that we
find he not only did not fail then, but the same hellish Methods have
prevail’d still, and will do so to the End of the World. Nor had the
Devil ever a better Game to play than this, for the Ruin of Religion, as
we shall have room to show in many Examples, besides that of the
Dissenters in England, who are evidently weaken’d by the late
Toleration: Whether the Devil had any hand in baiting his Hook with an
A— of Parliament or no, History is silent, but ’tis too evident he has
catch’d the Fish by it; and if the honest Church of England does not
in Pity and Christian Charity to the Dissenters, straighten her Hand a
little, I cannot but fear the Devil will gain his Point, and the
Dissenter will be undone by it.
Upon this new foot of Politicks the Devil began with the Emperors
themselves: Arius, the Father of the Hereticks of that Age, having
broach’d his Opinions, and Athanasius the orthodox Bishop of the East
opposing him, the Devil no sooner saw the Door open to Strife and
Imposition, but he thrust himself in, and raising the Quarrel up to a
suited Degree of Rage and Spleen, he involv’d the good Emperor himself
in it first and Athanasius was banish’d and recall’d, and
[Pg 199]banish’d
and recall’d again, several times, as Error ran high, and as the Devil
either got or lost Ground: After Constantine, the next Emperor was a
Child of his own, (Arian) and then the Court came all into the
Quarrel, as Courts often do, and then the Arians and the Orthodox
persecuted one another as furiously as the Pagans persecuted them all
before. To such a Height the Devil brought his Conquest in the very
Infancy of the Question, and so much did he prevail over the true
Christianity of the Primitive Church, even before they had enjoy’d the
Liberty of the pure Worship twenty Years.
Flush’d with this Success, the Devil made one Push for the restoring
Paganism, and bringing on the old Worship of the Heathen Idols and
Temples; but like our King James II. he drove too hard, and Julian
had so provok’d the whole Roman Empire, which was generally at that
time become Christian, that had the Apostate liv’d, he would not have
been able to have held the Throne; and as he was cut off in his
Beginning, Paganism expir’d with him, and the Devil himself might have
cry’d out, as Julian did, and with much more Propriety, Vicisti
Galileane.
Jovian, the next Emperor, being a glorious Christian, and a very good
and great Man, the Devil abdicated for a while, and left the Christian
Armies to re-establish the Orthodox Faith; nor could he bring the
Christians to a Breach again among themselves a great while after.
However, Time and a diligent Devil did the Work at last, and when the
Emperors concerning themselves one way or other, did not appear
sufficient to answer his End, he chang’d Hands again, and went to work
with the Clergy: To set the Doctors effectually together by the Ears,
he[Pg 200] threw in the new Notion of Primacy among them, for a Bone of
Contention; the Bait took, the Priests swallow’d it eagerly down, and
the Devil, a cunninger Fisherman than ever St. Peter was, struck
them (as the Anglers call it) with a quick Hand, and hung them fast
upon the Hook.
Having them thus in his Clutches, and they being now, as we may say, his
own, they took their Measures afterwards from him, and most obediently
follow’d his Directions; nay, I will not say but he may have had pretty
much the Management of the whole Society ever since, of what Profession
or Party soever they may have been, with Exception only to the Reverend
and Right Reverend among our selves.
The Sacred, as above, being thus hook’d in, and the Devil being at the
Head of their Affairs, Matters went on most gloriously his own way;
first, the Bishops fell to bandying and Party-making for the
Superiority, as heartily as ever Temporal Tyrants did for Dominion, and
took as black and devilish Methods to carry it on, as the worst of those
Tyrants ever had done before them.
At last Satan declar’d for the Roman Pontiff, and that upon excellent
Conditions, in the Reign of the Emperor Mauritius; for Boniface, who
had long contended for the Title of Supreme, fell into a Treaty with
Phocas, Captain of the Emperor’s Guards; whether the Bargain was from
Hell or not, let any one judge, the Conditions absolutely entitle the
Devil to the Honour of making the Contract, viz. That Phocas first
murthering his Master (the Emperor) and his Sons, Boniface should
countenance the Treason, and declare him Emperor; and in Return,
Phocas should acknowledge the Primacy of the Church of Rome, and
declare Boniface universal Bishop.[Pg 201] A blessed Compact! which at once
set the Devil at the Head of Affairs in the Christian World, as well
Spiritual as Temporal, Ecclesiastick and Civil. Since the Conquest over
Eve in Paradise, by which Death and the Devil, Hand in Hand,
establish’d their first Empire upon Earth, the Devil never gain’d a
more important Point than he gain’d at this time.
He had indeed prospered in his Affairs tolerably well for some time
before this, and his Interest among the Clergy had got Ground for some
Ages; but that was indeed a secret Management, was carried on privately,
and with Difficulty; as in sowing Discord and Faction among the People,
perplexing the Councils of their Princes, and secretly wheedling in with
the dignified Clergy.
Also he had raised abundance of little Church-Rebellions, by setting up
Hereticks of several Kinds, and raising them Favourers among the Clergy,
such as Ebion, Cerinthius, Pelagius, and others.
He had drawn in the Bishops of Rome to set up the ridiculous Pageantry
of the Key; and while he, the Devil, set open the Gates of Hell to
them all, set them upon locking up the Gates of Heaven, and giving the
Bishop the Key; a Cheat which, as gross as it was, the Devil so gilded
over, or so blinded the Age to receive it, that like Gideon’s Ephod,
all the Catholick World went a whoring after the Idol; and the Bishop of
Rome sent more Fools to the Devil by it than ever he pretended to
let into Heaven, though he open’d the Door as wide as his Key was able
to do.
The Story of this Key being given to the Bishop of Rome by St.
Peter, (who, by the way, never had it himself,) and of its being lost
by Somebody or other, (the Devil it seems did not[Pg 202] tell them who) and
its being found again by a Lombard Soldier in the Army of King
Antharis, who attempting to cut it with his Knife, was miraculously
forced to direct the Wound to himself, and cut his own Throat; that King
Antharis and his Nobles happened to see the Fellow do it, and were
converted to Christianity by it, and that the King sent the Key, with
another made like it, to Pope Pelagius, then Bishop of Rome, who
thereupon assum’d the Power of opening and shutting Heaven’s Gates; and
he afterwards setting a Price or Toll upon the Entrance, as we do here
at passing a Turn-pike; these fine things, I say, were successfully
managed for some Years before this I am now speaking of, and the Devil
got a great deal of Ground by it too; but now he triumph’d openly, and
having set up a Murtherer upon the temporal Throne, and a Church Emperor
upon the Ecclesiastic Throne, and both of his own choosing, the Devil
may be said to begin his new Kingdom from this Epocha, and call it the
Restoration.
Since this time indeed the Devil’s Affairs went very merrily on, and the
Clergy brought so many Gewgaws into their Worship, and such devilish
Principles were mixt with that which we call’d the Christian Faith, that
in a Word, from this Time the Bishop of Rome commenc’d Whore of
Babylon, in all the most express Terms that could be imagin’d: Tyranny
of the worst sort crept into the Pontificate, Errors of all sorts into
the Profession, and they proceeded from one thing to another, till the
very Popes, for so the Bishop of Rome was now called, by way of
Distinction; I say, the Popes themselves, their spiritual Guides,
profess’d openly to confederate with the Devil, and to carry on a
personal and private Correspondence with him at the same time, taking[Pg 203]
upon them the Title of Christ’s Vicar, and the infallible Guide of the
Consciences of Christians.
This we have sundry Instances of in some merry Popes, who, if Fame lies
not, were Sorcerers, Magicians, had familiar Spirits, and immediate
Conversation with the Devil, as well visibly as invisibly, and by this
means became what we call Devils incarnate: Upon this account it is
that I have left the Conversation that passes between Devils and Men
to this Place, as well because I believe it differs much now in his
modern State, from what it was in his ancient State, and therefore that
which most concerns us belongs rather to this part of his History; as
also because, as I am now writing to the present Age, I choose to bring
the most significant Parts of his History, especially as they relate to
our selves, into that Part of Time that we are most concern’d in.
The Devil had once, as I observ’d before, the universal Monarchy or
Government of Mankind in himself, and I doubt not but in that
flourishing State of his Affairs, he governed them like what he is
(viz.) an absolute Tyrant; during this Theocracy of his, for Satan
is call’d the God of this World, he did not familiarize himself to
Mankind so much, as he finds Occasion to do now, there was not then so
much need of it; he governed then with an absolute Sway; he had his
Oracles, where he gave Audience to his Votaries like a Deity, and he had
his Sub-Gods, who under his several Dispositions receiv’d the Homage of
Mankind in their Names; such were all the Rabble of the Heathen Deities,
from Jupiter the Supreme, to the Lares or Houshold Gods of every
Family; these, I say, like Residents, received the Prostrations, but the
Homage was all Satan’s; the Devil had the Substance of it all, which was
the Idolatry.
[Pg 204]During this Administration of Hell, there was less Witchcraft, less
true literal Magick than there has been since; there was indeed no need
of it, the Devil did not stoop to the Mechanism of his more modern
Operations, but rul’d as a Deity, and receiv’d the Vows and the Bows of
his Subjects in more State, and with more Solemnity; whereas since that,
he is content to employ more Agents and take more Pains himself too; now
he runs up and down Hackney in the World, more like a Drudge than a
Prince, and much more than he did then.
Hence all those Things we call Apparitions and Visions of Ghosts,
Familiar-Spirits and Dealings with the Devil, of which there is so great
a Variety in the World at this Time, were not so much known among the
People, in those first Ages of the Devil’s Kingdom; in a Word, the
Devil seems to be put to his Shifts, and to fly to Art and Stratagem for
the carrying on his Affairs, much more now than he did then.
One Reason for this may be, that he has been more discover’d and expos’d
in these Ages, than he was before; then he could appear in the World in
his own proper Shapes, and yet not be known; when the Sons of God
appear’d at the divine Summons, Satan came along with them; but now he
has plaid so many scurvy Tricks upon Men, and they know him so well,
that he is oblig’d to play quite out of sight and act in disguise;
Mankind will allow nothing of his doing, and hear nothing of his saying,
in his own Name; and if you propose any Thing to be done, and it be but
said the Devil is to help in the doing it, or if you say of any Man he
deals with the Devil, or the Devil has a Hand in it, every Body
flies him and shuns him, as the most frightful Thing in the World.
[Pg 205]Nay, if any Thing strange and improbable be done or related to be done,
we presently say the Devil was at the doing it: Thus the great Ditch
at Newmarket Heath, is call’d the Devil’s Ditch; so the Devil
built Crowland Abby, and the Whispering-Place in Gloucester
Cathedral; nay, the Cave at Castleton, only because there’s no getting
to the farther End of it, is call’d the Devil’s A—— and the like:
The poor People of Wiltshire, when you ask them how the great Stones
at Stonehenge were brought thither? they’ll all tell you the Devil
brought them: If any Mischief extraordinary befalls us, we presently say
the Devil was in it, and the Devil would have it so; in a Word, the
Devil has got an ill Name among us, and so he is fain to act more in
Tenebris, more incog. than he used to do, play out of sight himself,
and work by the Sap, as the Engineers call it, and not openly and
avowedly in his own Name and Person, as formerly, tho’ perhaps not with
less Success than he did before; and this leads me to enquire more
narrowly into the manner of the Devil’s Management of his Affairs
since the Christian Religion began to spread in the World, which
manifestly differs from his Conduct in more antient Times; in which if
we discover some of the most consummate Fool’s Policy, the most profound
simple Craft, and the most subtle shallow Management of Things that can
by our weak Understandings be conceiv’d, we must only resolve it into
this, that in short it is the Devil.
[Pg 206]
Chap. II.
Of Hell as it is represented to us, and how the Devil is to be
understood, as being personally in Hell, when at the same Time we
find him at Liberty ranging over the World.
It is true, as that learn’d and pleasant Author, the inimitable Dr.
Brown says, the Devil is his own Hell; one of the most constituting
Parts of his Infelicity is, that he cannot act upon Mankind brevi
Manu, by his own inherent Power, as well as Rage; that he cannot
unhinge this Creation, which, as I have observ’d in its Place, he had
the utmost Aversion to from its Beginning, as it was a stated Design in
the Creator to supply his Place in Heaven with a new Species of Beings
call’d Man, and fill the Vacancies occasion’d by his Degeneracy and
Rebellion.
This fill’d him with Rage inexpressible, and horrible Resolutions of
Revenge, and the Impossibility of executing those Resolutions torments
him with Despair; this added to what he was before, makes him a compleat
Devil, with a Hell in his own Breast, and a Fire unquenchable burning
about his Heart.
I might enlarge here, and very much to the Purpose, in describing
spherically and mathematically that exquisite Quality call’d a devilish
Spirit, in which it would naturally occur to give you a whole Chapter
upon the glorious Articles of Malice and Envy, and especially upon
that luscious, delightful, triumphant Passion call’d Revenge; how
natural to Man, nay even to both Sexes; how pleasant in the very
Contemplation, tho’[Pg 207] there be not just at that Time a Power of
Execution; how palatable it is in it self, and how well it relishes when
dish’d up with its proper Sauces, such as Plot, Contrivance, Scheme, and
Confederacy, all leading on to Execution: How it possesses a human Soul
in all the most sensible Parts; how it empowers Mankind to sin in
Imagination, as effectually to all future Intents and Purposes
(Damnation) as if he had sinned actually: How safe a Practice it is too,
as to Punishment in this Life, namely, that it empowers us to cut
Throats clear of the Gallows, to slander Virtue, reproach Innocence,
wound Honour and stab Reputation; and in a Word, to do all the wicked
Things in the World, out of the Reach of the Law.
It would also require some few Words to describe the secret Operations
of those nice Qualities when they reach the human Soul; how effectually
they form a Hell within us, and how imperceptibly they assimilate and
transform us into Devils, meer human Devils, as really Devils as
Satan himself, or any of his Angels; and that therefore ’tis not so much
out of the Way, as some imagine, to say, such a Man is an incarnate
Devil; for as Crime made Satan a Devil, who was before a bright
immortal Seraph, or Angel of Light; how much more easily may the same
Crime make the same Devil, tho’ every Way meaner and more
contemptible, of a Man or a Woman either? But this is too grave a
Subject for me at this Time.
The Devil being thus, I say, fir’d with Rage and Envy, in consequence
of his Jealousy upon the Creation of Man, his Torment is encreased to
the highest by the Limitation of his Power, and his being forbid to act
against Mankind by Force of Arms; this is, I say, part of his Hell,
which, as above, is within him, and which he[Pg 208] carries with him wherever
he goes; nor is it so difficult to conceive of Hell, or of the
Devil, either under this just Description, as it is by all the usual
Notions that we are taught to entertain of them, by (the old Women) our
Instructors; for every Man may, by taking but a common View of himself,
and making a just Scrutiny into his own Passions, on some of their
particular Excursions, see a Hell within himself, and himself a meer
Devil as long as the Inflammation lasts; and that as really, and to
all Intents and Purposes, as if he had the Angel (Satan) before his
Face, in his Locality and Personality; that is to say, all Devil and
Monster in his Person, and an immaterial but intense Fire flaming about
and from within him, at all the Pores of his Body.
The Notions we receive of the Devil, as a Person being in Hell as a
Place, are infinitely absurd and ridiculous; the first we are certain
is not true in Fact, because he has a certain Liberty, (however
limited that is not to the Purpose) is daily visible, and to be trac’d
in his several Attacks upon Mankind, and has been so ever since his
first Appearance in Paradise; as to his corporal Visibility that is
not the present Question neither; ’tis enough that we can hunt him by
the Foot, that we can follow him as Hounds do a Fox upon a hot Scent: We
can see him as plainly by the Effect, by the Mischief he does, and more
by the Mischief he puts us upon doing, I say, as plainly, as if we saw
him by the Eye.
It is not to be doubted but the Devil can see us when and where we
cannot see him: and as he has a Personality, tho’ it be spirituous, he
and his Angels too may be reasonably supposed to inhabit the World of
Spirits, and to have free Access from thence to the Regions of Life, and
to pass and repass in the Air, as really, tho’ not perceptible to[Pg 209] us,
as the Spirits of Men do after their release from the Body, pass to the
Place (wherever that is) which is appointed for them.
If the Devil was confin’d to a Place (Hell) as a Prison, he could
then have no Business here; and if we pretend to describe Hell, as not
a Prison, but that the Devil has Liberty to be there, or not be there as
he pleased, then he would certainly never be there, or Hell is not
such a Place as we are taught to understand it to be.
Indeed according to some, Hell should be a Place of Fire and Torment
to the Souls that are cast into it, but not to the Devils themselves;
who we make little more or less than keepers and Turnkeys to Hell, as a
Goal; that they are sent about to bring Souls thither, lock them in when
they come, and then away upon the Scent to fetch more: That one Sort of
Devils are made to live in the World among Men, and to be busy
continually debauching and deluding Mankind bringing them as it were to
the Gates of Hell; and then another Sort are Porters and Carriers to
fetch them in.
This is, in short, little more or less than the old Story of Pluto,
of Cerberus, and of Charon; only that our Tale is not half so well
told, nor the Parts of the Fable so well laid together.
In all these Notions of Hell and Devil, the Torments of the first,
and the Agency of the last Tormenting, we meet with not one Word of the
main and perhaps only Accent of Horror, which belongs to us to judge of
about Hell, I mean the Absence of Heaven; Expulsion, and Exclusion from
the Presence and Face of the chief Ultimate, the only eternal and
sufficient Good; and this loss sustain’d by a sordid Neglect of our
Concern in that excellent Part, in exchange for the most contemptible
and justly[Pg 210] condemn’d Trifles, and all this eternal and irrecoverable:
These People tell us nothing of the eternal Reproaches of Conscience,
the Horror of Desperation, and the Anguish of a Mind hopeless of ever
seeing the Glory, which alone constitutes Heaven, and which makes all
other Places dreadful, and even Darkness it self.
And this brings me directly to the Point in Hand, (viz.) the State of
that Hell which we ought to have in view when we speak of the Devil as
in Hell: This is the very Hell, which is the Torment of the Devil;
in short, the Devil is in Hell, and Hell is in the Devil; he is
fill’d with this unquenchable Fire, he is expel’d the Place of Glory,
banish’d from the Regions of Light, Absence from the Life of all
Beatitude is his Curse, Despair is the reigning Passion in his Mind, and
all the little Constituent Parts of his Torment, such as Rage, Envy,
Malice, and Jealousy are consolidated in this, to make his Misery
compleat, (viz.) the Duration of it all, the Eternity of his
Condition; that he is without Hope, without Redemption, without
Recovery.
If any thing can inflame this Hell and make it hotter, ’tis this only,
and this does add an inexpressible Horror to the Devil himself;
namely, the seeing Man (the only Creature he hates) placed in a State
of Recovery, a glorious Establishment of Redemption form’d for him in
Heaven, and the Scheme of it perfected on Earth; by which this Man,
tho’ even the Devil by his Art may have deluded him, and drawn him
into Crime, is yet in a State of Recovery, which the Devil is not; and
that it is not in his (Satan’s) Power to prevent it: Now take the
Devil as he is in his own Nature Angelic, a bright immortal Seraph,
Heaven-born, and having tasted the eternal Beatitude, which these are
appointed to enjoy; the Loss of that[Pg 211] State to himself, the Possession
of it granted to his Rival tho’ wicked like and as himself; I say, take
the Devil as he is, having a quick Sense of his own Perdition, and a
stinging Sight of his Rival’s Felicity, ’tis Hell enough, and more
than enough, even for an Angel to support; nothing we can conceive can
be worse.
As to any other Fire than this, such and so immaterially intense as to
Torment a Spirit, which is it self Fire also; I will not say it cannot
be, because to Infinite every Thing is possible, but I must say, I
cannot conceive rightly of it.
I will not enter here into the Wisdom or Reasonableness of representing
the Torments of Hell to be Fire, and that Fire to be a Commixture of
Flame and Sulphur; it has pleased God to let the Horror of those
eternal Agonies about a lost Heaven, be laid before us by those
Similitudes or Allegories, which are most moving to our Senses and to
our Understandings; nor will I dispute the Possibility; much less will I
doubt but that there is to be a Consummation of Misery to all the
Objects of Misery when the Devil’s Kingdom in this World ending with
the World it self, that Liberty he has now may be farther abridg’d; when
he may be return’d to the same State he was in between the Time of his
Fall and the Creation of the World; with perhaps some additional
Vengeance on him, such as at present we cannot describe, for all that
Treason and those high Crimes and Misdemeanours which he has been guilty
of here, in his Conversation with Mankind.
As his Infelicity will be then consummated and compleated, so the
Infelicity of that Part of Mankind, who are condemn’d with him, may
receive a considerable Addition from those Words in their Sentence, to
be tormented with the Devil and his[Pg 212] Angels; for as the Absence of the
Supreme Good is a compleat Hell, so the hated Company of the Deceiver,
who was the great Cause of his Ruine, must be a Subject of additional
Horror, and he will be always saying, as a Scots Gentleman, who died
of his Excesses, said to the famous Dr. P——, who came to see him on
his Death-bed, but had been too much his Companion in his Life,
O tu fundamenta jecisti———
I would not treat the very Subject it self with any Indecency, nor do I
think my Opinion of that Hell, which I say consists in the Absence of
him, in whom is Heaven, one Jot less Solemn than theirs who believe it
all Fire and Brimstone; but I must own, that to me nothing can be
more ridiculous than the Notions that we entertain and fill our Heads
with about Hell, and about the Devil’s being there tormenting of
Souls, broiling them upon Gridirons, hanging them up upon Hooks,
carrying them upon their Backs, and the like, with the several Pictures
of Hell, represented by a great Mouth with horrible Teeth, gaping like
a Cave on the Sides of a Mountain; suppose that appropriated to Satan
in the Peak, which indeed is not much unlike it, with a Stream of Fire
coming out of it, as there is of Water, and smaller Devils going and
coming continually in and out, to fetch and carry Souls the Lord knows
whither, and for the Lord knows what.
These Things, however intended for Terror, are indeed so ridiculous,
that the Devil himself, to be sure, mocks at them, and a Man of Sense
can hardly refrain doing the like, only I avoid it, because I would not
give offence to weaker Heads.
[Pg 213]However, I must not Compliment the Brains of other Men, at the Expence
of my own, or talk Nonsense because they can understand no other; I
think all these Notions and Representations of Hell and of the
Devil, to be as prophane as they are ridiculous, and I ought no more
to talk prophanely than merrily of them.
Let us learn to talk of these Things then, as we should do; and as we
really cannot describe them to our Reason and Understanding, why should
we describe them to our Senses; we had, I think, much better not
describe them at all, that is to say, not attempt it: The blessed
Apostle St. Paul was, as he said himself, carried up, or caught up
into the third Heaven, yet when he came down again, he could neither
tell what he heard or describe what he saw; all he could say of it was,
that what he heard was inutterable, and what he saw was
inconceivable.
It is the same thing as to the State of the Devil in those Regions
which he now possesses, and where he now more particularly inhabits; my
present Business then is not to enter into those grave Things so as to
make them ridiculous, as I think most People do that talk of them; but
as the Devil, let his Residence be where it will, has evidently free
Leave to come and go, not into this World only; (I mean, the Region of
our Atmosphere,) but for ought we know, to all the other inhabited
Worlds which God has made, where-ever they are, and by whatsoever Names
they are or may be known or distinguished; for if he is not confined in
one Place, we have no Reason to believe he is excluded from any Place,
Heaven only excepted, from whence he was expell’d for his Treason and
Rebellion.
His Liberty then being thus ascertain’d, three Things seem to be
material for us to give an[Pg 214] Account of,
in order to form this Part of his History.
1. What his Business is on this Globe of Earth which we vulgarly
call the World, how he acts among us, what Affairs Mankind and he
have together, and how far his Conduct here relates to Us, and Ours
is, or may be influenc’d by him.
2. Where his Principal Residence is, and whether he has not a
particular Empire of his own, to which he retreats upon proper
Occasions; where he entertains his Friends when they come under his
particular Administration; and where, when he gets any Victory over
his Enemies, he carries his Prisoners of War.
3. What may probably be the great Business this black Emperor has
at present upon his Hands, either in this World or out of it, and
by what Agents he works.
As these Things may perhaps run promiscuously thro’ the Course of this
whole Work, and frequently be touch’d at under other Branches of the
Devil’s History, so I do not propose them as Heads of Chapters or
Particular Sections, for the Order of Discourse to be handled apart; for
(by the way) as Satan’s Actings have not been the most regular Things in
the World, so in our Discourse about him, it must not be expected that
we can always tie our selves down to Order and Regularity, either as to
Time, or Place, or Persons; for Satan being hic & ubique, a loose
ungovern’d Fellow, we must be content to trace him where we can find him.
It is true, in the foregoing Chapter, I shew’d you the Devil entred into
the Herd Ecclesiastick,[Pg 215] and gave you some Account of the first
successful Step he took with Mankind since the Christian Epocha; how
having secretly managed both Temporal and Spiritual Power apart, and by
themselves, he now united them in Point of Management, and brought the
Church Usurpation and the Army’s Usurpation together; the Pope to bless
the General in deposing and murthering his Master the Emperor; and the
General to recognise the Pope in dethroning his Master Christ Jesus.
From this time forward you are to allow the Devil a mystical Empire in
this World; not an Action of Moment done without him, not a Treason but
he has a Hand in it, not a Tyrant but he prompts him, not a Government
but he has a —— in it; not a Fool but he tickles him, not a Knave but
he guides him; he has a Finger in every Fraud, a Key to every Cabinet,
from the Divan at Constantinople, to the Mississipi in France,
and to the South-Sea Cheats at ———; from the first Attack upon the
Christian World, in the Person of the Romish Antichrist, down to the
Bull Unigenitus; and from the Mixture of St. Peter and Confucius
in China, to the Holy Office in Spain; and down to the Emlins and
Dodwells of the current Age.
How he has managed, and does manage, and how in all Probability he will
manage till his Kingdom shall come to a Period, and how at last he will
probably be managed himself, Enquire within, and you shall know
farther.
[Pg 216]
Chap. III.
Of the Manner of Satan’s acting and carrying on his Affairs in
this World, and particularly of his ordinary Workings in the dark,
by Possession and Agitation.
The Devil being thus reduc’d to act upon Mankind by Stratagem only, it
remains to enquire how he performs, and which way he directs his
Attacks; the Faculties of Man are a kind of a Garrison in a strong
Castle, which as they defend it on the one hand under the Command of the
reasoning Power of Man’s Soul, so they are prescribed on the other hand,
and can’t sally out without Leave; for the Governor of a Fort does not
permit his Soldiers to hold any Correspondence with the Enemy, without
special Order and Direction. Now the great Enquiry before us is, How
comes the Devil to a Parley with us? how does he converse with our
Senses, and with the Understanding? How does he reach us, which way does
he come at the Affections, and which way does he move the Passions? ’Tis
a little difficult to discover this treasonable Correspondence, and that
Difficulty is indeed the Devil’s Advantage, and, for ought I see, the
chief Advantage he has over Mankind.
It is also a great Enquiry here, whether the Devil knows our Thoughts
or no? If I may give my Opinion, I am with the negative; I deny that he
knows any thing of our Thoughts, except of those Thoughts which he puts
us upon thinking, for I will not doubt but he has the Art to inject
Thoughts, and to revive dormant Thoughts in us: It is not so wild a
Scheme as some take it to be,[Pg 217] that Mr. Milton lays down, to represent
the Devil injecting corrupt Desires and wandring Thoughts into the
Head of Eve, by Dreams, and that he brought her to Dream whatever he
put into her Thoughts, by whispering to her vocally when she was asleep;
and to this End, he imagines the Devil laying himself close to her Ear,
in the Shape of a Toad, when she was fall asleep; I say, this is not so
wild a Scheme, seeing even now, if you can whisper any thing close to
the Ear of a Person in a deep Sleep, so as to speak distinctly to the
Person, and yet not awaken him, as has been frequently tried, the Person
sleeping shall dream distinctly of what you say to him; nay, shall dream
the very Words you say.
We have then no more to ask, but how the Devil can convey himself to the
Ear of a sleeping Person, and it is granted then that he may have Power
to make us dream what he pleases: But this is not all, for if he can so
forcibly, by his invisible Application, cause us to dream, what he
pleases, why can he not with the same Facility prompt our Thoughts,
whether sleeping or waking? To dream, is nothing else but to think
sleeping; and we have abundance of deep-headed Gentlemen among us, who
give us ample Testimony that they dream waking.
But if the Devil can prompt us to dream, that is to say, to think, yet
if he does not know our Thoughts, how then can he tell whether the
Whisper had its Effect? The answer is plain, the Devil, like the Angler,
baits the Hook, if the Fish bite he lies ready to take the Advantage, he
whispers to the Imagination, and then waits to see how it works; as
Naomi said to Ruth, Chap. iii. 5, 18. Sit still, my Daughter, until
thou know how the Matter will fall, for the Man will not be at rest
until he have finished the thing. Thus[Pg 218]
when the Devil had whisper’d to
Eve in her Sleep, according to Milton, and suggested Mischief to her
Imagination, he only sat still to see how the Matter would work, for he
knew if it took with her, he should hear more of it; and then by finding
her alone the next Day, without her ordinary Guard her Husband, he
presently concluded she had swallowed the Bait, and so attack’d her afresh.
A small deal of Craft, and less by far than we have reason to believe
the Devil is Master of, will serve to discover whether such and such
Thoughts as he knows he has suggested, have taken Place or no; the
Action of the Person presently discovers it, at least to him that lies
always upon the Watch, and has every Word, every Gesture, every Step we
take subsequent to his Operation, open to him; it may therefore, for
ought we know, be a great Mistake, and what most of us are guilty of, to
tell our Dreams to one another in the Morning, after we have been
disturb’d with them in the Night; for if the Devil converses with us
so insensibly as some are of the Opinion he does, that is to say, if
he can hear as far as we can see, we may be telling our Story to him
indeed, when we think we are only talking to one another.
This brings me most naturally to the important Enquiry, whether the
Devil can walk about the World invisibly or no? The Truth is, this is
no question to me; for as I have taken away his Visibility already, and
have denied him all Prescience of Futurity too, and have prov’d he
cannot know our Thoughts, nor put any Force upon Persons or Actions, if
we should take away his Invisibility too, we should undevil him quite,
to all Intents and Purposes, as to any Mischief he could do; nay, it
would banish him the World,[Pg 219] and he might e’en go and seek his Fortune
some where else; for if he could neither be visible or invisible,
neither act in publick or in private, he could neither have Business or
Being in this Sphere, nor could we be any way concern’d with him.
The Devil therefore most certainly has a Power and Liberty of moving
about in this World, after some manner or another; this is verify’d as
well by way of Allegory, as by way of History, in the Scripture it self;
and as the first strongly suggests and supposes it to be so, the last
positively asserts it; and, not to croud this Work with Quotations from
a Book which we have not much to do with in the Devil’s Story, at
least not much to his Satisfaction, I only hint his personal Appearance
to our Saviour in the Wilderness, where it is said, the Devil taketh
him up to an exceeding high Mountain; and in another Place, the Devil
departed from him. What Shape or Figure he appear’d in, we do not find
mentioned, but I cannot doubt his appearing to him there, any more than
I can his talking to our Saviour in the Mouths, and with the Voices of
the several Persons who were under the terrible Affliction of an actual
Possession.
These Things leave us no room to doubt of what is advanced above,
namely, that he, (the Devil) has a certain Residence, or Liberty of
residing in, and moving about upon the Surface of this Earth, as well as
in the Compass of the Atmosphere, vulgarly call’d the Air, in some
manner or other: That is the general.
It remains to enquire into the manner, which I resolve into two Kinds;
1. Ordinary, which I suppose to be his invisible Motions as a
Spirit; under which[Pg 220] Consideration I suppose him to have an
unconfin’d, unlimited, unrestrain’d Liberty, as to the manner of
acting; and this either in Persons, by Possession; or in Things, by
Agitation.
2. Extraordinary; which I understand to be his Appearances in
borrowed Shapes and Bodies, or Shadows rather of Bodies; assuming
Speech, Figure, Posture, and Several Powers, of which we can give
little or no Account; in which extraordinary manner of Appearances,
he is either limited by a Superior Power, or limits himself
politically, as being not the Way most for his Interest or Purpose,
to act in his Business, which is more effectually done in his State
of Obscurity.
Hence we must suppose the Devil has it very much in his own Choice,
whether to act in one Capacity, or in the other, or in both; that is to
say, of appearing, and not appearing, as he finds for his Purpose: In
this State of Invisibility, and under the Operation of these Powers and
Liberties, he performs all his Functions and Offices, as Devil, as
Prince of Darkness, as God of this World, as Tempter, Accuser, Deceiver,
and all whatsoever other Names of Office, or Titles of Honour he is
known by.
Now taking him in this large unlimited, or little limited State of
Action, he is well call’d, the God of this World, for he has very much
of the Attribute of Omnipresence, and may be said, either by himself or
his Agents, to be every where, and see every thing; that is to say,
every thing that is visible; for I cannot allow him any Share of
Omniscience at all.
[Pg 221]That he ranges about every where, is with us, and sometimes in us,
sees when he is not seen, hears when he is not heard, comes in without
Leave, and goes out without Noise, is neither to be shut in or shut out,
that when he runs from us we can’t catch him, and when he runs after
us we can’t escape him, is seen when he is not known, and is known when
he is not seen; all these things, and more, we have Knowledge enough
about to convince us of the Truth of them; so that, as I have said
above, he is certainly walking to and fro thro’ the Earth, &c. after
some manner or other, and in some Figure or other, visible or
invisible, as he finds Occasion. Now in order to make our History of him
complete, the next Question before us is, how, and in what manner he
acts with Mankind? how his Kingdom is carried on, and by what Methods he
does his Business, for he certainly has a great deal of Business to do;
he is not an idle Spectator, nor is he walking about incognito, and
cloth’d in Mist and Darkness, purely in Kindness to us, that we should
not be frighted at him; but ’tis in Policy, that he may act
undiscover’d, that he may see and not be seen, may play his Game in the
dark, and not be detected in his Roguery; that he may prompt Mischief,
raise Tempests, blow up Coals, kindle Strife, embroil Nations, use
Instruments, and not be known to have his Hand in any thing, when at the
same time he really has a Hand in every thing.
Some are of Opinion, and I among the rest, that if the Devil was
personally and visibly present among us, and we conversed with him Face
to Face, we should be so familiar with him in a little time, that his
ugly Figure would not affect us at all, that his Terrors would not
fright us, or that we should any more trouble our selves[Pg 222] about him,
than we did with the last great Comet in 1678, which appear’d so long
and so constantly without any particular known Event, that at last we
took no more Notice of it than of the other ordinary Stars which had
appear’d before we or our Ancestors were born.
Nor indeed should we have much Reason to be frighted at him, or at least
none of those silly Things could be said of him which we now amuse our
selves about, and by which we set him up like a Scare-Crow to fright
Children and old Women, to fill up old Stories, make Songs and Ballads,
and in a Word, carry on the low priz’d Buffoonery of the common People;
we should either see him in his Angelic Form, as he was from the
Original, or if he has any Deformities entail’d upon him by the supreme
Sentence, and in Justice to the Deformity of his Crime, they would be of
a superior Nature, and fitted more for our Contempt as well as Horror,
than those weak fancied Trifles contrived by our antient Devil-raisers
and Devil-makers, to feed the wayward Fancies of old Witches and
Sorcerers, who cheated the ignorant World with a Devil of their own
making, set forth, in terrorem, with Bat’s Wings, Horns, cloven Foot,
long Tail, fork’d Tongue, and the like.
In the next Place, be his frightful Figure what it would, and his
Legions as numerous as the Host of Heaven, we should see him still, as
the Prince of Devils, tho’ monstrous as a Dragon, flaming as a Comet,
tall as a Mountain, yet dragging his Chain after him equal to the utmost
of his supposed Strength; always in Custody of his Jailors the Angels,
his Power over-power’d, his Rage cow’d and abated, or at least aw’d and
under Correction, limited and restrain’d; in a Word, we should see him a
vanquish’d Slave, his Spirit broken,[Pg 223] his Malice, tho’ not abated, yet
Hand-cuff’d and overpower’d, and he not able to work any Thing against
us by Force; so that he would be to us but like the Lions in the Tower,
encag’d and lock’d up, unable to do the Hurt he wishes to do, and that
we fear, or indeed any hurt at all.
From hence ’tis evident, that ’tis not his Business to be public, or to
walk up and down in the World visibly, and in his own Shape; his Affairs
require a quite different Management, as might be made apparent from the
Nature of Things, and the Manner of our Actings, as Men, either with our
selves or to one another.
Nor could he be serviceable in his Generation, as a public Person as now
he is, or answer the End of his Party who employ him, and who, if he was
to do their Business in public, as he does in private, would not be able
to employ him at all.
As in our modern Meetings for the Propagation of Impudence and other
Virtues, there would be no Entertainment and no Improvement for the Good
of the Age, if the People did not all appear in Masque, and conceal’d
from the common Observation; so neither could Satan (from whose
Management those more happy Assemblies are taken as Copies of a glorious
Original) perform the usual and necessary Business of his Profession, if
he did not appear wholly in Covert and under needful Disguises; how, but
for the Convenience of his Habit, could he call himself into so many
Shapes, act on so many different Scenes, and turn so many Wheels of
State in the World, as he has done? as a meer profess’d Devil he could
do nothing.
Had he been oblig’d always to act the meer Devil in his own Clothes, and
with his own Shape, appearing uppermost in all Cafes and Places, he[Pg 224]
could never have preach’d in so many Pulpits, presided in so many
Councils, voted in so many Committees, sat in so many Courts, and
influenc’d so many Parties and Factions in Church and State, as we have
Reason to believe he has done in our Nation, and in our Memories too, as
well as in other Nations and in more antient Times. The Share Satan has
had in all the weighty Confusions of the Times, ever since the first
Ages of Christianity in the World, has been carried on with so much
Secresy, and so much with an Air of Cabal and Intrigue, that nothing can
have been manag’d more subtilly and closely, and in the same Manner has
he acted in our Times, in order to conceal his Interest, and conceal the
Influence he has had in the Councils of the World.
Had it been possible for him to have raised the Flames of Rebellion and
War so often in this Nation, as he certainly has done? Could he have
agitated the Parties on both Sides, and inflam’d the Spirits of three
Nations, if he had appears in his own Dress, a meer naked Devil? It is
not the Devil as a Devil that does the Mischief, but the Devil in
Masquerade, Satan in full Disguise, and acting at the Head of civil
Confusion and Distraction.
If History may be credited, the French Court at the Time of our old
Confusions was made the Scene of Satan’s Politicks, and prompted both
Parties in England and in Scotland also to quarrel, and how was it
done? Will any Man offer to scandalize the Devil so much as to say, or
so much as to suggest that Satan had no Hand in it all? Did not the
Devil, by the Agency of Cardinal Richlieu, send 400000 Crowns at one
Time, and 600000 at another, to the Scots, to raise an Army and march
boldly into England? and did not the same Devil at the same time, by
other Agents, remit 800000 Crowns to the other Party, in order to raise
an Army to fall[Pg 225] upon the Scots? nay, did not the Devil with the
same Subtilty send down the Archbishop’s Order to impose the
Service-Book upon the People in Scotland, and at the same Time raise a
Mob against it, in the great Church (at St. Giles’s)? Nay, did not he
actually, in the Person of an old Woman (his favourite Instrument) throw
the three-leg’d Stool at the Service-Book, and animate the zealous
People to take up Arms for Religion, and turn Rebels for God Sake?
All these happy and successful Undertakings, tho’ ’tis no more to be
doubted they were done by the Agency of Satan, and in a very
surprizing Manner too, yet were all done in secret, by what I call
Possession and Injection, and by the Agency and Contrivance of such
Instruments, or by the Devil in the Disguise of such Servants as he
found out fitted to be employ’d in his Work, and who he took a more
effectual Care in concealing of.
But we shall have Occasion to touch all this Part over again, when we
come to discourse of the particular Habits and Disguises which the
Devil has made use of, all along in the World, the better to cover his
Actions, and to conceal his being concern’d in them.
In the mean Time the Cunning or Artifice the Devil makes use of in all
these Things is in it self very considerable; ’tis an old Practice of
his using, and he has gone on in diverse Measures, for the better
concealing himself in it; which Measures, tho’ he varies sometimes, as
his extraordinary Affairs require, yet they are in all Ages much the
same, and have the same Tendency; namely, that he may get all his
Business carried on by the Instrumentality of Fools; that he may make
Mankind Agents in their own Destruction, and that he may have all his
Work done in such a Manner[Pg 226] as that he may seem to have no Hand in it;
nay he contrives so well, that the very Name Devil is put upon his
opposite Party, and the Scandal of the black Agent lies all upon them.
In order then to look a little into his Conduct, let us enquire into the
common Mistakes about him, see what Use is made of them to his
Advantage, and how far Mankind is imposed upon in those Particulars, and
to what Purpose.
Chap. IV.
Of Satan’s Agents or Missionaries, and their Actings upon and in
the Minds of Men in his Name.
Infinite Advantages attend the Devil in his retired Government, as
they respect the Management of his Interests, and the carrying on his
absolute Monarchy in the World; particularly as it gives him room to act
by the Agency of his inferior Ministers and Messengers, call’d on many
Occasions his Angels, of whom he has an innumerable Multitude, at
his Command, enough, for ought we know, to spare one to attend every Man
and Woman now alive in the World; and of whom, if we may believe our
second sight Christians, the Air is always as full, as a Beam of the
Evening Sun is of Insects, where they are ever ready for Business, and
to go and come as their great Governor issues out Orders for their
Directions.
These, as they are all of the same spirituous Quality with himself, and
consequently invisible like him, except as above, are ready upon all
Occasions to be sent to and into any such Person, and[Pg 227] for such
Purposes, superior Limitations only excepted, as the grand Director of
Devils, (The Devil properly so call’d guides them;) and be the
Subject or the Object what it will, that is to say, be the Person they
are sent to, or into, as above, who it will, and the Business the
Messenger is to do what it will, they are sufficiently qualified; for
this is a Particular to Satan’s Messengers or Agents, that they are not
like us humane Devils here in the World, some bred up one Way, some
another, some of one Trade, some of another, and consequently some fit
for some Business, some for another, some good for something, and some
good for nothing, but his People are every one fit for every Thing, can
find their Way every where, and are a Match for every Body they are sent
to; in a Word, there are no foolish Devils, they are all fully
qualified for their Employment, fit for any thing he sets them about,
and very seldom mistake their Errand or fail in the Business they are
sent to do.
Nor is it strange at all, that the Devil should have such a numberless
Train of Deputy Devils to act under him; for it must be acknowledged
he has a great deal of Business upon his Hands, a vast deal of Work to
do, abundance of public Affairs under his Direction, and an infinite
Variety of particular Cases always before him; for Example.
How many Governments in the World are wholly in his Administration? how
many Divans and great Councils under his Direction? nay, I believe,
’twould be hard to prove that there is or has been one Council of State
in the World for many hundred Years past, down to the Year 1713, (we
don’t pretend to come nearer home) where the Devil by himself, or his
Agents in one Shape or another, has not sat as a Member, if not taken
the Chair.
[Pg 228]And tho’ some learn’d Authors may dispute this Point with me, by giving
some Examples where the Councils of Princes have been acted by a better
Hand, and where Things have been carried against Satan’s Interest, and
even to his great Mortification, it amounts to no more than this;
namely, that in such Cases the Devil has been out-voted; but it does
not argue but he might have been present there, and have push’d his
Interest as far as he could, only that he had not the Success he
expected; for I don’t pretend to say that he has never been
disappointed; but those Examples are so rare, and of so small
Signification, that when I come to the Particulars, as I shall do in the
Sequel of this History, you will find them hardly worth naming; and
that, take it one Time with another, the Devil has met with such a
Series of Success in all his Affairs, and has so seldom been baulk’d;
and where he has met with a little Check in his Politicks, has
notwithstanding, so soon and so easily recover’d himself, regain’d his
lost Ground, or replac’d himself in another Country when he has been
supplanted in one, that his Empire is far from being lessen’d in the
World, for the last thousand Years of the Christian Establishment.
Suppose we take an Observation from the Beginning of Luther, or from
the Year 1420, and call the Reformation a Blow to the Devil’s Kingdom,
which before that was come to such a Height in Christendom, that ’tis a
Question not yet thorowly decided, whether that Medley of Superstition
and horrible Heresies, that Mass of Enthusiam and Idols call’d the
Catholick Hierarchy, was a Church of God or a Church of the Devil;
whether it was an Assembly of Saints or a Synagogue of Satan: I say,
take that Time to be the Epocha of Satan’s Declension and of
[Pg 229]Lucifer’s
falling from Heaven, that is, from the Top of his terrestrial
Glory, yet whether he did not gain in the Defection of the Greek
Church about that Time and since, as much as he lost in the Reformation
of the Roman, is what Authors are not yet agreed about, not reckoning
what he has regain’d since of the Ground which he had lost even by the
Reformation, (viz.) the Countries of the Duke of Savoy’s Dominion,
where the Reformation is almost eaten out by Persecution; the whole
Valtoline and some adjacent Countries; the whole Kingdom of Poland
and almost all Hungary; for since the last War the Reformation, as it
were, lies gasping for Breath, and expiring in that Country, also
several large Provinces in Germany, as Austria, Carinthia, and the
whole Kingdom of Bohemia, where the Reformation once powerfully
planted, receiv’d its Death’s Wound at the Battle of Prague, Ann.
1627, and languish’d but a very little while, died and was buried, and
good King Popery reign’d in its stead.
To these Countries thus regain’d to Satan’s infernal Empire, let us add
his modern Conquests and the Encroachments he has made upon the
Reformation in the present Age, which are, however light we make of
them, very considerable (viz.) the Electorate of the Rhine and the
Palatinate, the one fallen to the House of Bavaria, and the other to
that of Neuburgh, both Popish; the Dutchy of Deux Ponts fallen just
now to a popish Branch, the whole Electorate of Saxony fallen under
the Power of popish Government by the Apostacy of their Princes, and
more likely to follow the Fate of Bohemia, whenever the diligent
Devil can bring his new Project in Poland to bear, as ’tis more than
probable he will do so some time or other, by the growing Zeal as well
as Power of (that House of Bigots) the House of A——.
[Pg 230]But to sum up the dull Story; we must add in the Roll of the Devil’s
Conquests, the whole Kingdom of France, where we have in one Year
seen, to the immortal Glory of the Devil’s Politicks, that his
Measures have prevailed to the total Extirpation of the Protestant
Churches without a War; and that Interest which for 200 Years had
supported it self in spight of Persecutions, Massacres, five civil Wars
and innumerable Battles and Slaughters, at last receiv’d its mortal
Wound from its own Champion Henry IV. and sunk into utter Oblivion, by
Satan’s most exquisite Management under the Agency of his two prime
Ministers Cardinal Richlieu and Lewis the XIV, whom he entirely
possess’d.
Thus far we have a melancholy View of the Devil’s new Conquests, and
the Ground he has regain’d upon the Reformation, in which his secret
Management has been so exquisite, and his Politicks so good, that could
he bring but one Thing to pass, which by his own former Mistake, (for
the Devil is not infallible) he has rendred impossible, he would bring
the Protestant Interest so near its Ruin, that Heaven would be, as it
were, put to the Necessity of working by Miracle to prevent it; the
Case is thus.
Antient Historians tell us, and from good Authority, that the Devil
finding it for his Interest to bring his favourite Mahomet upon the
Stage, and spread the victorious Half-Moon upon the Ruin of the Cross,
having with great Success, rais’d first the Saracen Empire, and then
the Turkish to such a Height, as that the Name of Christian seemed to
be extirpated in those two Quarters of the World, which were then not
the greatest only, but by far the most powerful, I mean Asia and
Africa; having totally laid wast all those antient and flourishing
Churches of Africa, the Labours of[Pg 231] St. Cyprian, Tertullian, St.
Augustine, and 670 Christian Bishops and Fathers, who govern’d there
at once, also all the Churches of Smyrna, Philadelphia, Ephesus,
Sardis, Antioch, Laodicea, and innumerable others in Pontus,
Bithynia, and the Provinces of the lesser Asia.
The Devil having, I say, finish’d these Conquests so much to his
Satisfaction, began to turn his Eyes Northward, and tho’ he had a
considerable Interest in the Whore of Babylon, and had brought his
Power by the Subjection of the Roman Hierarchy to a great Height, yet
finding the Interest of Mahomet most suitable to his devilish
Purposes, as most adapted to the Destruction of Mankind, and laying
waste the World, he resolv’d to espouse the growing Power of the Turk,
and bring him in upon Europe like a Deluge.
In order to this, and to make Way for an easy Conquest, like a true
Devil he work’d under Ground, and sap’d the Foundation of the
Christian Power, by sowing Discord among the reigning Princes of
Europe; that so envying one another they might be content to stand
still and look on while the Turk devoured them one by one, and at last
might swallow them up all.
This devilish Policy took to his Heart’s Content; the Christian
Princes stood still, stupid, dozing, and unconcern’d, till the Turk
conquered Thrace, over-run Servia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and all
the Remains of the Grecian Empire, and at last the Imperial City of
Constantinople it self.
Finding this politic Method so well answer his Ends, the Devil, who
always improves upon the Success of his own Experiments, resolv’d from
that time to lay a Foundation for the making those Divisions and
Jealousies of the Christian Princes immortal; whereas they were at[Pg 232]
first only personal, and founded in private Quarrels between the Princes
respectively; such as Emulation of one another’s Glory, Envy at the
extraordinary Valour, or other Merit of this or that Leader, or
Revenge of some little Affront; for which notwithstanding, so great
was the Piety of Christian Princes in those Days, that they made no
Scruple to sacrifice whole Armies, yea, Nations, to their Piques and
private Quarrels, a certain Sign whose Management they were under.
These being the Causes by which the Devil first sow’d the Seeds of
Mischief among them, and the Success so well answering his Design, he
could not but wish to have the same Advantage always ready at his Hand;
and therefore he resolv’d to order it so, that these Divisions, which,
however useful to him, were only personal, and consequently temporary,
like an Annual in the Garden, which must be rais’d anew every Season,
might for the future be national, and consequently durable and immortal.
To this end it was necessary to lay the Foundation of eternal Feud, not
in the Humours and Passions of Men only, but in the Interests of
Nations: The Way to do this was to form and state the Dominion of those
Princes, by such a Plan drawn in Hell, and laid out from a Scheme truly
political, of which the Devil was chief Engineer; that the Divisions
should always remain, being made a natural Consequence of the Situation
of the Country, the Temper of their People, the Nature of their
Commerce, the Climate, the Manner of living, or something which should
for ever render it impossible for them to unite.
This, I say, was a Scheme truly infernal, in which the Devil was as
certainly the principal Operator, to illustrate great Things by small,
as ever John of Leyden was of the High Dutch Rebellion, or[Pg 233]
Sir John B———t of the late Project, called the South-Sea Stock. Nor
did this Contrivance of the Devil at all dishonour his Author, or the
Success appear unworthy of the Undertaker; for we see it not only answer
the End, and made the Turk victorious at the same Time, and formidable
to Europe ever after, but it works to this Day, the Foundation of the
Divisions remains in all the several Nations, and that to such a Degree
that it is impossible they should unite.
This is what I hinted before, in which the Devil was mistaken, and is
another instance that he knows nothing of what is to come; for this very
Foundation of immortal Jealousy and Discord between the several Nations
of Spain, France, Germany, and others, which the Devil himself
with so much Policy contriv’d, and which serv’d his Interests so long,
is now the only Obstruction to his Designs, and prevents the entire Ruin
of the Reformation; for tho’ the reform’d Countries are very Powerful,
and some of them, as Great Britain and Prussia is particularly, more
powerful than ever; yet it cannot be said that the Protestant Interests
in general are stronger than formerly, or so strong as they were in 1623
under the victorious Arms of the Swede; On the other Hand, were it
possible that the Popish Powers, to wit, of France, Spain,
Germany, Italy and Poland, which are intirely Popish, could
heartily unite their Interests, and should join their Powers to attack
the Protestants, the latter would find it very difficult, if not
impossible, to defend themselves.
But as fatal as such a Union of the Popish Powers would be, and as
useful as it would be to the Devil’s Cause at this time, not the
Devil with all his Angels are able to bring it to pass; no, not with
all his Craft and Cunning; he divided[Pg 234] them, but he can’t unite them; so
that even just as ’tis with Men, so ’tis with Devils, they may do in
an Hour what they can’t undo in an Age.
This may comfort those faint-hearted Christians among us, who cry out of
the Danger of a religious War in Europe, and what terrible Things will
happen when France, and Spain, and Germany, and Italy, and
Poland shall all unite; let this Answer satisfy them, The Devil
himself can never make France and Spain, or France and the Emperor
unite; jarring Humours may be reconcil’d, but jarring Interests never
can: They may unite so as to make Peace, tho’ that can hardly be long,
but never so as to make Conquests together; they are too much afraid of
one another, for one to bear, that any Addition of Strength should come
to the other. But this is a Digression. We shall find the Devil
mistaken and disappointed too on several other Occasions, as we go
along.
I return to Satan’s Interest in the several Governments and Nations, by
vertue of his Invisibility, and which he carries on by Possession; ’tis
by this Invisibility that he presides in all the Councils of foreign
Powers, (for we never mean our own, that we always premise;) and what
tho’ it is alledged by the Criticks, that he does not preside, because
there is always a President; I say, if he is not in the President’s
Chair, yet if he be in the President himself, the Difference is not
much; and if he does not vote as a Counsellor, if he votes in the
Counsellor, ’tis much the same; and here, as it was in the Story of
Ahab the King of Israel, as he was a lying Spirit in the Mouths of
all his Prophets, so we find him a Spirit of some particular evil
Quality or other, in all the Transactions and Transactors on that Stage
of Life we call the State.
[Pg 235]Thus he was a dissembling Spirit in Char. IX. a turbulent Spirit in
Char. V. Emperors; a bigotted Spirit of Fire and Faggot in our Queen
Mary; an apostate Spirit in Hen. IV.; a cruel Spirit in Peter of
Castile; a revengeful Spirit in Ferdinand II.; a Phaeton in
Lewis XIV.; a Sardanapalus in C——— II.
In the Great Men of the World, take them a degree lower than the Class
of Crown’d Heads, he has the same secret Influence; and hence it comes
to pass, that the greatest Heroes, and Men of the highest Character for
Atchievements of Glory, either by their Virtue or Valour, however they
have been crowned with Victories, and elevated by human Tongues,
whatever the most consummate Virtues or good Qualities they have been
known by, yet they have always had some Devil or other in them to
preserve Satan’s Claim to them uninterrupted, and prevent their Escape
out of his Hands; thus we have seen a bloody Devil in a D’Alva; a
profligate Devil in a Buckingham; a lying, artful, or politick Devil
in a Richlieu; a treacherous Devil in a Mazarin; a cruel, merciless
Devil in a Cortez; a debauch’d Devil in an Eugene; a conjuring Devil
in a Luxemburg; and a covetous Devil in a M————h: In a word,
tell me the Man, I tell you the Spirit that reign’d in him.
Nor does he thus carry on his secret Management by Possession in Men of
the first Magnitude only, but have you not had Evidences of it among our
selves? how has he been a lying Spirit in the Mouths of our Prophets,
a factious Spirit in the Heads of our Politicians, a profuse Devil in
a B——s, a corrupt Devil in M——, a proud Spirit in my Lord
Plausible, a bullying Spirit in my Lord Bugbear, a talkative Spirit
in his Grace the D—— of Rattle-hall, a scribling Spirit in my[Pg 236] Lord
H———, a run-away Spirit in my Lord Frightful; and so thro’ a long
Roll of Heroes, whose exceeding, and particular Qualifications proclaim
loudly what Handle the Devil took them by, and how fast he held them;
for these were all Men of ancient Fame, I hope you know that.
From Men of Figure, we descend to the Mob, and ’tis there the same
thing; Possession, like the Plague, is Morbus Plebæi; not a Family but
he is a Spirit of Strife and Contention among them; not a Man but he has
a Part in him; he is a drunken Devil in one, a whoring Devil in
another, a thieving Devil in a third, a lying Devil in the fourth,
and so on, to a thousand, and a hundred thousand, ad infinitum.
Nay, even the Ladies have their Share in the Possession; and if they
have not the Devil in their Heads, or in their Tails, in their Faces
or their Tongues, it must be some poor despicable She-devil that Satan
did not think it worth his while to meddle with; and the Number of those
that are below his Operation, I doubt is very small. But that Part I
have much more to say to in its Place.
From Degrees of Persons, to Professions and Employments, ’tis the same;
we find the Devil is a true Posture-master, he assumes any Dress,
appears in any Shape, counterfeits every Voice, acts upon every Stage;
here he wears a Gown, there a long Robe; here he wears the Jack-Boots,
there the Small-Sword; is here an Enthusiast, there a Buffoon; on
this Side he acts the Mountebank, on that Side the Merry-Andrew;
nothing comes amiss to him, from the Great Mogul, to the Scaramouch;
the Devil is in them, more or less, and plays his Game so well that he
makes sure Work with ’em all: He knows where the Common Foible lies,
which is Universal Passion,[Pg 237] what Handle to take hold of every Man by,
and how to cultivate his Interest so, as not to fail of his End, or
mistake the Means.
How then can it be deny’d but that his acting thus in tenebris, and
keeping out of the sight of the World, is abundantly his Interest, and
that he could do nothing, comparatively speaking, by any other Method?
What would this publick Appearance have signified? Who would have
entertain’d him in his own proper Shape and Person? Even B—— B——
himself, tho’ all the World knows him to have a foolish Devil in him,
would not have been Fool enough to have taken him into his Service, if
he had known him: And my Lord Simpleton also, who Satan has set up
for a cunning Fool, seems to have it sit much better upon him now he
passes for a Fool of Art, than it should have done if the naked Devil
had come and challenged him for a Fool in Nature.
Infinite Variety illustrate the Devil’s Reign among the Sons of Men;
all which he manages with admirable Dexterity, and a Slight particular
to himself, by the mere Advantage of his present conceal’d Situation,
and which, had he been obliged to have appear’d in Publick, had been all
lost, and he capable of just nothing at all, or at least of nothing more
than the other ordinary Politicians of Wickedness could have done
without him.
Now, Authors are much divided as to the manner how the Devil manages
his proper Instruments for Mischief; for Satan has a great many Agents
in the Dark, who neither have the Devil in them, nor are they much
acquainted with him, and yet he serves himself of them, whether of their
Folly, or of that other Frailty call’d Wit, ’tis all one, he makes them
do his Work, when[Pg 238] they think they are doing their own; nay, so cunning
is he in his guiding the weak Part of the World, that even when they
think they are serving God, they are doing nothing less or more than
serving the Devil; nay, ’tis some of the nicest Part of his Operation,
to make them believe they are serving God, when they do his Work. Thus
those who the Scripture foretold should persecute Christ’s Church in the
latter Days, were to think they do God good Service: Thus the
Inquisition, (for Example,) it may be, at this time, in all the acts of
Christian Cruelty which they are so famous for (if any of them are
ignorant enough not to know that they are Devils incarnate) they may,
for ought we know, go on for God’s sake; torture, murther, starve to
Death, mangle and macerate, and all for God, and God’s Catholic Church;
and ’tis certainly the Devil’s Master-piece to bring Mankind to such a
Perfection of Devilism as that of the Inquisition is; for if the
Devil had not been in them, could they christen such a Hell-fire
Judicature as the Inquisition is, by the Name of the Holy Office?
And so in Paganism, how could so many Nations among the poor Indians
offer human Sacrifices to their Idols, and murther thousands of Men,
Women and Children, to appease this God of the Air, when he is angry, if
the Devil did not act in them under the Vizor of Devotion?
But we need not go to America, or to the Inquisition, not to Paganism
or to Popery either, to look for People that are sacrificing to the
Devil, or that give their Peace-offerings to him, while they are
offer’d upon God’s Altar; are not our Churches (ay, and Meeting-houses
too, as much as they pretend to be more sanctified than their
Neighbours) full of Devil Worshipers? Where do his Devotees gratulate
one another, and[Pg 239] congratulate him, more than at Church? where, while
they hold up their Hands, and turn up their Eyes towards Heaven, they
make all their Vows to Satan, or at least to the fair Devils his
Representatives, which I shall speak of in their Place.
Do not the Sons of God make Assignations with the Daughters of Men in
the very House of Worship? Do they not talk to them in the Language of
the Eyes? And what is at the Bottom of it, while one Eye is upon the
Prayer-book, and the other adjusting their Dress? Are they not
sacrificing to Venus and Mercury, nay, and the very Devil they
dress at?
Let any Man impartially survey the Church-Gestures, the Air, the
Postures and the Behaviour; let him keep an exact Roll, and if I do not
shew him two Devil Worshipers for one true Saint, then the Word
Saint must have another Signification than I ever yet understood it
by.
The Church (as a Place) is the Receptacle of the Dead, as well as the
Assembly of the Living; what relates to those below, I doubt Satan, if
he would be so kind, could give a better Account of than I can; but as
to the Superficies, I pretend to so much Penetration as to tell you,
that there are more Spectres, more Apparitions always there, than you
that know nothing of the matter may be aware of.
I happen’d to be at an eminent Place of God’s most devout Worship the
other Day, with a Gentleman of my Acquaintance, who, I observed, minded
very little the Business he ought to come about; first I saw him always
busy staring about him and bowing this Way and that Way, nay, he made
two or three bows and Scrapes when he was repeating the Responses to the
Ten Commandments, and assure you he made it correspond strangely, so
that the Harmony was not so broken[Pg 240] in upon as you would expect it
should; thus; Lord, and a Bow to a fine Lady just come up to her Seat,
have Mercy upon us; —— three Bows to a Throng of Ladies that came
into the next Pew altogether, and incline —— then stop’d to make a
great Scrape to my Lord ——, our Hearts, just then the Hearts of all
the Church were gone off from the Subject, for the Response was over, so
he huddled up the rest in Whispers, for God a Mighty could hear him
well enough, he said, nay, as well as if he had spoken as loud as his
Neighbours did.
After we were come home, I ask’d him what he meant by all this, and what
he thought of it?
How could I help it, said he, I must not be rude.
What, says I, rude to who?
Why, says he, there came in so many she Devils I could not help it.
What, said I, could not you help bowing when you were saying your
Prayers?
O Sir! says he, the Ladies would have thought I had slighted them, I
could not avoid it.
Ladies! said I, I thought you call’d them Devils just now.
Ay, ay, Devils, said he, little charming Devils, but I must not be
rude to them however.
Very well, said I, then you would be rude to God a Mighty, because
you could not be rude to the Devil?
Why that’s true, said he, but what can we do? there’s no going to
Church as the Case stands now, if we must not worship the Devil a
little between whiles.
This is the Case indeed, and Satan carries his Point on every Hand; for
if the fair speaking World, and the fair looking World are generally
Devils, that is to say, are in his Management,[Pg 241] we are sure the foul
speaking and the foul doing World are all on his Side, and you have then
only the fair-doing Part of the World that are out of his Class, and
when we speak of them, O how few!
But I return to the Devil’s managing our wicked Part, for this he does
with most exquisite Subtilty; and this is one Part of it, (viz.) he
thrusts our Vices into our Virtues, by which he mixes the Clean and the
Unclean, and thus by the Corruption of the one, poisons and debauches
the other, so that the Slave he governs cannot account for his own
common Actions, and is fain to be oblig’d to his Maker to accept of the
Heart without the Hands and Feet; to take, as we vulgarly express it,
the Will for the Deed, and if Heaven was not so good to come into
that half in half Service, I don’t see but the Devil would carry away
all his Servants: Here indeed I should enter into a long Detail of
involuntary Wickedness, which in short, is neither more or less than the
Devil in every Body, ay, in every one of you, (our Governors excepted)
take it as you please.
What is our Language when we look back with Reflection and Reproach on
past Follies? I think I was bewitch’d, I was posses’d, certainly
the Devil was in me, or else I had never been such a Sot: Devil in
you, Sir! Ay, who doubts it; you may be sure the Devil was in you, and
there he is still, and next Time he can catch you in the same Snare,
you’ll be just the same Sot that you say you were before.
In short, the Devil is too cunning for us, and manages us his own Way;
he governs the Vices of Men by his own Methods; tho’ every Crime will
not make a Man a Devil, yet it must be owned that every Crime puts the
Criminal in some Measure into the Devil’s Power, gives him a Title[Pg 242]
to the Man, and he treats him magisterially ever after.
Some tell us every single Man, every individual has a Devil attending
him, to execute the Orders of the (Grand Signior) Devil of the whole
Clan; that this attending evil Angel, for so he is call’d, sees every
Step you take, is with you in every Action, prompts you to every
Mischief, and leaves you to do every Thing that is pernicious to your
self; they also alledge that there is a good Spirit which attends him
too, which latter is always accessary to every Thing that we do that is
good, and reluctant to evil; If this is true, how comes it to pass that
those two opposite Spirits do not quarrel about it when they are
pressing us to contrary Actions, one good and the other evil? and why
does the evil tempting Spirit so often prevail? Instead of answering
this difficult Question, I shall only tell you, as to this Story of good
and evil Angels attending every particular Person, ’tis a good Allegory
indeed to represent the Struggle in the Mind of Man between good and
evil Inclinations; but as to the rest, the best Thing I can say of it
is, that I think ’tis a Fib.
But to take Things as they are, and only talk by way of natural
Consequence, for to argue from Nature is certainly the best Way to find
out the Devil’s Story; if there are good and evil Spirits attending
us, that is to say, a good Angel and a Devil, then ’tis no unjust
Reproach upon any Body to say, when they follow the Dictates of the
latter, the Devil is in them; or they are Devils; nay, I must carry
it farther still, namely, that as the Generality and greatest Number of
People do follow and obey the evil Spirit and not the good, and that the
predominate Power is allowed to be the nominating Power; you must then
allow, that in short, the greater Part of[Pg 243] Mankind has the Devil in
them, and so I come to my Text.
To this Purpose give me leave to borrow a few Lines of a Friend on this
very Part of the Devil’s Management.
To Places and Persons he suits his Disguises,
And dresses up all his Banditti,
Who as Pickpockets flock to a Country Assizes,
Croud up to the Court and the City.
They’re at every Elbow and every Ear,
And ready at every call, Sir;
The vigilant Scout plants his Agents about,
And has something to do with us all, Sir.
In some he has Part, and in some he’s the Whole,
And of some (like the Vicar of Baddow)
It can neither be said they have Body or Soul,
But only are Devils in Shadow.
The Pretty and Witty, are Devils in Masque,
The Beauties are meer Apparitions;
The homely alone by their Faces are known,
And the Good by their ugly Conditions.
The Beaus walk about like the Shadows of Men.
And wherever he leads ’em they follow,
But tak’em and shak’em, there’s not one in ten
But’s as light as a Feather and hollow.
Thus all his Affairs he drives on in Disguise,
And he tickles Mankind with a Feather:
Creeps in at our Ears, and looks out at our Eyes,
And jumbles our Senses together.
[Pg 244]
He raises the Vapours, and prompts the Desires,
And to ev’ry dark Deed holds the Candle;
The Passions enflames and the Appetite fires,
And takes ev’ry Thing by the Handle.
Thus he walks up and down in compleat Masquerade,
And with every Company mixes,
Sells in every Shop, works at every Trade,
And ev’ry Thing doubtful perplexes.
How Satan comes by this governing Influence in the Minds and upon the
Actions of Men, is a Question I am not yet come to, nor indeed does it
so particularly belong to the Devil’s History, it seems rather a
Polemick, so it may pass at School among the Metaphysicks, and puzzle
the Heads of our Masters; wherefore I think to write to the learned Dr.
B—— about it, imploring his most sublime Haughtiness, that when his
other more momentous Avocations of Pedantry and Pedagogism will give him
an Interval from Wrath and Contention, he will set apart a Moment to
consider human Nature Deviliz’d, and give us a Mathematical Anatomical
Description of it; with a Map of Satan’s Kingdom in the Microcosm of
Mankind, and such other Illuminations as to him and his Contemporaries
—— and, —— &c. in their great Wisdom shall seem meet.
[Pg 245]
Chap. V.
Of the Devil’s Management in the Pagan Hierarchy by Omens,
Entrails, Augurs, Oracles, and such like Pageantry of Hell; and how
they went off the Stage at last by the Introduction of true
Religion.
I have adjourn’d, not finished, my Account of the Devil’s secret
Management by Possession, and shall reassume it, in its Place; but I
must take leave to mention some other Parts of his retir’d Scheme, by
which he has hitherto manag’d Mankind, and the first of these is by that
Fraud of all Frauds call’d Oracle.
Here his Trumpet yielded an uncertain Sound for some Ages, and like what
he was, and according to what he practised from the Beginning, he
deliver’d out Falshood and Delusion by Retale: The Priests of Apollo
acted this Farce for him to a great Nicety at Delphos; there were
divers others at the same Time, and some, which to give the Devil his
due, he had very little Hand in, as we shall see presently.
There were also some smaller, some greater, some more, some less famous
Places where those Oracles were seated, and Audience given to the
Enquirers, in all which the Devil, or some Body for him, Permissu
Superiorum, for either vindictive or other hidden Ends and Purposes,
was allow’d to make at least a Pretension to the Knowledge of Things to
come; but, as publick Cheats generally do, they acted in Masquerade, and
gave such uncertain and inconsistent Responses, that they were oblig’d[Pg 246]
to use the utmost Art to reconcile Events to the Prediction, even after
things were come to pass.
Here the Devil was a lying Spirit, in a particular and extraordinary
manner, in the Mouths of all the Prophets; and yet he had the Cunning to
express himself so, that whatever happen’d, the Oracle was suppos’d to
have meant as it fell out; and so all their Augurs, Omens and Voices, by
which the Devil amus’d the World, not at that Time only, but since, have
been likewise interpreted.
Julian the Apostate dealt mightily in these Amusements, but the Devil,
who neither wish’d his Fall, or presag’d it to him, evidenc’d that he
knew nothing of Julian’s Fate; for that, as he sent almost to all the
Oracles of the East, and summon’d all the Priests together to inform him
of the Success of his Persian Expedition, they all, like Ahab’s
Prophets, having a lying Spirit in them, encourag’d him and promis’d
him Success.
Nay, all the ill Omens which disturb’d him, they presag’d good from;
for Example, he was at a prodigious Expence when he was at Antioch
to buy up white Beasts, and white Fowls, for Sacrifices, and for
predicting from the Entrails; from whence the Antiochians, in
contempt, call’d him Victimarius; but whenever the Entrails foreboded
Evil, the cunning Devil made the Priests put a different Construction
upon them, and promise him Good: When he entred into the Temple of the
Genij to offer Sacrifice, one of the Priests dropt down dead; this,
had it had any Signification more than a Man falling dead of an
Apoplectic, would have signified something fatal to Julian, who made
himself a Brother Sacrist or Priest; whereas the Priests turn’d it
presently to signify the Death of his Colleague, the Consul Sallust
which happen’d just at the same[Pg 247] Time, tho’ eight hundred Miles off; so
in another Case, Julian thought it ominous that he, who was Augustus
should be nam’d with two other Names of Persons, both already dead; the
Case was thus, the Stile of the Emperor was Julianus Fœlix
Augustus, and two of his principal Officers were Julianus and
Fœlix; now both Julianus and Fœlix died within a few Days of
one another, which disturb’d Him much, who was the third of the three
Names; but his flattering Devil told him it all imported Good to him
(viz.) that tho’ Julianus and Fœlix should die, Augustus
should be immortal.
Thus whatever happen’d, and whatever was foretold, and how much soever
they differ’d from one another, the lying Spirit was sure to reconcile
the Prediction and the Event, and make them at least seem to
correspond in Favour of the Person enquiring.
Now we are told Oracles are ceased, and the Devil is farther limited
for the Good of Mankind, not being allow’d to vent his Delusions by the
Mouths of the Priests and Augurs, as formerly: I will not take upon me
to say how far they are really ceas’d, more than they were before; I
think ’tis much more reasonable to believe there was never any Reality
in them at all, or that any Oracle ever gave out any Answers but what
were the Invention of the Priests and the Delusions of the Devil; I have
a great many antient Authors on my Side in this Opinion, as Eusebius,
Tertullian, Aristotle, and others, who as they liv’d so near the
Pagan Times, and when even some of those Rites were yet in Use, they had
much more Reason to know, and could probably pass a better Judgment upon
them; nay Cicero himself ridicules them in the openest manner; again,
other Authors descend to Particular and shew how the Cheat was[Pg 248] manag’d
by the Heathen Sacrists and Priests, and in what enthusiastic manner
they spoke; namely, by going into the hollow Images, such as the brazen
Bull and the Image of Apollo, and how subtilly they gave out dubious
and ambiguous Answers; that when the People did not find their
Expectations answer’d by the Event, they might be imposed upon by the
Priests, and confidently told they did not rightly understand the
Oracle’s Meaning: However, I cannot say but that indeed there are some
Authors of good Credit too, who will have it that there was a real
prophetic Spirit in the Voice or Answers given by the Oracles, and that
oftentimes they were miraculously exact in those Answers; and they give
that of the Delphic Oracle answering the Question which was given
about Crœsus for an Example, viz. what Crœsus was doing at
that time? to wit, that he was boiling a Lamb and the Flesh of a
Tortoise together, in a brass Vessel, or Boiler, with a Cover of the
same Metal; that is to say, in a Kettle with a brass Cover.
To affirm therefore, that they were all Cheats, a Man must encounter
with Antiquity, and set his private Judgment up against an establish’d
Opinion; but ’tis no matter for that; if I do not see any thing in that
receiv’d Opinion capable of Evidence, much less of Demonstration, I must
be allow’d still to think as I do; others may believe as they list; I
see nothing hard or difficult in the Thing; the Priests, who were always
historically inform’d of the Circumstances of the Enquirer, or at least
something about them, might easily find some ambiguous Speech to make,
and put some double Entendre upon them, which upon the Event solv’d
the Credit of the Oracle, were it one way or other; and this they
certainly did, or we have room to think the Devil knows[Pg 249] less of Things
now than he did in former Days.
It is true that by these Delusions the Priests got infinite Sums of
Money, and this makes it still probable that they would labour hard, and
use the utmost of their Skill to uphold the Credit of their Oracles; and
’tis a full Discovery, as well of the Subtlety of the Sacrists, as of
the Ignorance and Stupidity of the People, in those early Days of
Satan’s Witchcraft; to see what merry Work the Devil made with the
World, and what gross Things he put upon Mankind: Such was the Story of
the Dordonian Oracle in Epirus, viz. That two Pigeons flew out
of Thebes (N. B. it was the Egyptian Thebes) from the Temple of
Belus, erected there by the antient Sacrists, and that one of these
fled Eastward into Lybia, and the Desarts of Africk, and the other
into Greece, namely, to Dordona, and these communicated the divine
Mysteries to one another, and afterwards gave mystical Solutions to the
devout Enquirers; first the Dordonian Pigeon perching upon an Oak
spoke audibly to the People there, that the Gods commanded them to build
an Oracle, or Temple, to Jupiter, in that Place; which was accordingly
done: The other Pigeon did the like on the Hill in Africa, where it
commanded them to build another to Jupiter Ammon, or Hammon.
Wise Cicero contemned all this, and, as Authors tell us, ridiculed the
Answer, which, as I have hinted above, the Oracle gave to Crœsus
proving that the Oracle it self was a Liar, that it could not come
from Apollo, for that Apollo never spoke Latin: In a Word,
Cicero rejected them all, and Demosthenes also mentions the Cheats
of the Oracles; when speaking of the Oracle of Apollo, he said,
Pithia Philippiz’d; that is, that[Pg 250] when the Priests were brib’d with
Money, they always gave their Answers in favour of Philip of
Macedon.
But that which is most strange to me is, that in this Dispute about the
Reality of Oracles, the Heathen who made use of them are the People who
expose them, and who insist most positively upon their being Cheats and
Impostors, as in particular those mentioned above; while the Christians
who reject them, yet believe they did really foretel Things, answer
Questions, &c. only with this Difference, that the Heathen Authors who
oppose them, insist that ’tis all Delusion and Cheat, and charge it upon
the Priests; and the Christian Opposers insist that it was real, but
that the Devil, not the Gods, gave the Answers; and that he was
permitted to do it by a superior Power, to magnify that Power in the
total silencing them at last.
But, as I said before, I am with the Heathen here, against the Christian
Writers, for I take it all to be a Cheat and Delusion: I must give my
Reason for it, or I do nothing; my Reason is this, I insist Satan is as
blind in Matters of Futurity, as we are, and can tell nothing of what is
to come; these Oracles often pretending to predict, could be nothing
else therefore but a Cheat form’d by the Money-getting Priests to amuse
the World, and bring Grist to their Mill: If I meet with any thing in my
Way to open my Eyes to a better Opinion of them, I shall tell it you as
I go on.
On the other hand, whether the Devil really spake in those Oracles, or
set the cunning Priests to speak for him; whether they predicted, or
only made the People believe they predicted; whether they gave Answers
which came to pass, or prevail’d upon the People to believe that[Pg 251] what
was said did come to pass, it was much at one, and fully answer’d the
Devil’s End; namely, to amuse and delude the World; and as to do, or
to cause to be done, is the same Part of Speech, so whoever did it, the
Devil’s Interest was carried on by it, his Government preserv’d, and
all the Mischief he could desire was effectually brought to pass, so
that every way they were the Devil’s Oracles, that’s out of the
Question.
Indeed I have wonder’d sometimes why, since by this Sorcery the Devil
perform’d such Wonders, that is, play’d so many Tricks in the World, and
had such universal Success, he should set up no more of them; but there
might be a great many Reasons given for that, too long to tire you with
at present: ’Tis true, there were not many of them, and yet considering
what a great deal of Business they dispatch’d, it was enough, for six or
eight Oracles were more than sufficient to amuse all the World: The
chief Oracles we meet with in History are among the Greeks and the
Romans, viz.
That of Jupiter Ammon, in Lybia, as above.
The Dordonian, in Epirus.
Apollo Delphicus, in the Country of Phocis in Greece.
Apollo Clavius, in Asia Minor.
Serapis, in Alexandria in Egypt.
Trophomis, in Bæotia.
Sybilla Cumæa, in Italy.
Diana, at Ephesus.
Apollo Daphneus, at Antioch.
Besides many of lesser Note, in several other Places, as I have
hinted before.
I have nothing to do here with the Story mentioned by Plutarch, of a
Voice being heard at[Pg 252] Sea, from some of the Islands call’d the
Echinades, and calling upon one Thamuz, an Egyptian, who was on
board a Ship, bidding him, when he came to the Palodes, other Islands
in the Ionian Seas, tell them there that the great God Pan was dead;
and when Thamuz perform’d it, great Groanings, and Howlings, and
Lamentation were heard from the Shore.
This Tale tells but indifferently, tho’ indeed it looks more like a
Christian Fable, than a Pagan; because it seems as if made to honour
the Christian Worship, and blast all the Pagan Idolatry; and for that
Reason I reject it, the Christian Profession needing no such fabulous
Stuff to confirm it.
Nor is it true in fact, that the Oracles did cease immediately upon the
Death of Christ; but, as I noted before, the Sum of the Matter is this;
the Christian Religion spreading it self universally, as well as
miraculously, and that too by the Foolishness of Preaching, into all
Parts of the World, the Oracles ceas’d; that is to say, their Trade
ceas’d, their Rogueries were daily detected, the deluded People being
better taught, came no more after them, and being asham’d, as well as
discourag’d, they sneak’d out of the World as well as they could; in
short the Customers fell off, and the Priests, who were the Shopkeepers,
having no Business to do, shut up their Shops, broke, and went away; the
Trade and the Tradesmen were hiss’d off the Stage together; so that the
Devil, who, it must be confess’d, got infinitely by the Cheat, became
bankrupt, and was oblig’d to set other Engines at work, as other Cheats
and Deceivers do, who when one Trick grows stale, and will serve no
longer, are forc’d to try another.
[Pg 253]Nor was the Devil to seek in new Measures; for tho’ he could not give
out his delusive Trash as he did before, in Pomp and State, with the
Solemnity of a Temple and a Set of Enthusiasts call’d Priests, who plaid
a thousand Tricks to amuse the World, he then had Recourse to his old
Egyptian Method, which indeed was more antient than that of Oracles;
and that was by Magic, Sorcery, Familiars, Witchcraft, and the like.
Of this we find the people of the South, that is, of Arabia and
Chaldea were the first, from whence we are told of the Wise Men, that
is to say, Magicians, were call’d Chaldeans and Southsayers. Hence
also we find Ahaziah the King of Israel sent to Baalzebub the God
of Ekron, to enquire whether he should live or die? This some think
was a kind of an Oracle, tho’ others think it was only some over-grown
Magician, who counterfeited himself to be a Devil, and obtain’d upon
that Idol-hunting Age to make a Cunning Man of him; and for that Purpose
he got himself made a Priest of Baalzebub, the God of Ekron, and
gave out Answers in his Name. Thus those merry Fellows in Egypt,
Jannes and Jambres, are said to mimick Moses and Aaron, when
they work’d the miraculous Plagues upon the Egyptians; and we have
some Instances in Scripture that support this, such as the Witch of
Endor, the King Manasses, who dealt with the Devil openly, and had
a Familiar; the Woman mentioned Acts xvi. who had a Spirit of
Divination, and who got Money by playing the Oracle; that is,
answering doubtful Questions, &c. which Spirit, or Devil, the
Apostles cast out.
Now tho’ it is true that the old Women in the World have fill’d us with
Tales, some improbable, others impossible; some weak, some ridiculous,
and that this puts a general Discredit upon all[Pg 254] the graver Matrons, who
entertain us with Stories better put together, yet ’tis certain, and I
must be allow’d to affirm, that the Devil does not disdain to take
into his Service many Troops of good Old Women, and Old Women-Men too,
who he finds ’tis for his Service to keep in constant Pay; to these he
is found frequently to communicate his Mind, and oftentimes we find them
such Proficients, that they know much more than the Devil can teach
them.
How far our antient Friend Merlin, or the grave Matron his (Satan’s)
most trusty and well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor, Mother Shipton,
were commissioned by him to give out their prophetic Oracles, and what
degree of Possession he may have arrived to in them upon their Midnight
Excursions, I will not undertake to prove; but that he might be
acquainted with them both, as well as with several of our modern
Gentlemen, I will not deny neither.
I confess it is not very incongruous with the Devil’s Temper, or with
the Nature of his Business, to shift hands; possibly he found that he
had tried the World with Oracular Cheats; that Men began to be forfeited
with them, and grew sick of the Frauds which were so frequently
detected; that it was time to take new Measures, and contrive some new
Trick to Bite the World, that he might not be expos’d to Contempt; or
perhaps he saw the Approach of new Light, which the Christian Doctrine
bringing with it began to spread in the Minds of Men; that it would
out-shine the dim burning ignis fatuus, with which he had so long
cheated Mankind, and was afraid to stand it, lest he should be mobb’d
off the Stage by his own People, when their Eyes should begin to open:
That upon this foot he might in Policy withdraw from those old[Pg 255] Retreats
the Oracles, and restrain those Responses before they lost all their
Credit; for we find the People seem’d to be at a mighty Loss for some
time, for want of them, so that it made them run up and down to
Conjurers, and Man-Gossips, to brazen Heads, speaking Calves, and
innumerable simple Things, so gross that they are scarce fit to be
named, to satisfy the Itch of having their Fortunes told them, as we
call it.
Now as the Devil is very seldom blind to his own Interest, and therefore
thought fit to quit his old way of imposing upon the World by his
Oracles, only because he found the World began to be too wise to be
imposed upon that way; so on the other hand, finding there was still a
Possibility to delude the World, tho’ by other Instruments, he no sooner
laid down his Oracles, and the solemn Pageantry, magnificent
Appearances, and other Frauds of his Priests and Votaries, in their
Temples and Shrines; but he set up a new Trade, and having, as I have
said, Agents and Instruments sufficient for any Business that he could
have to employ them in, he begins in Corners, as the learned and merry
Dr. Brown says, and exercises his minor Trumperies by way of his own
contriving, lifting a great Number of new-found Operators, such as
Witches, Magicians, Diviners, Figure-casters, Astrologers, and such
inferior Seducers.
Now it is true, as that Doctor says, this was running into Corners, as
if he had been expell’d his more triumphant way of giving Audience in
Form, which for so many Ages had been allow’d him; yet I must add, that
as it seem’d to be the Devil’s own doing, from a right Judgment of his
Affairs, which had taken a new Turn in the World, upon the shining of
new Lights from the Christian Doctrine, so it must be[Pg 256] acknowledged the
Devil made himself amends upon Mankind, by the various Methods he
took, and the Multitude of Instruments he employ’d, and perhaps deluded
Mankind in a more fatal and sensible manner than he did before, tho’ not
so universally.
He had indeed before more Pomp and Figure put upon it, and he cheated
Mankind then in a Way of Magnificence and Splendor; but this was not in
above eight or ten principal Places, and not fifty Places in all, public
or private; whereas now fifty thousand of his Angels and Instruments,
visible and invisible, hardly may be said to suffice for one Town or
City; but in short, as his invisible Agents fill the Air, and are at
hand for Mischief on every Emergence, so his visible Fools swarm in
every Village, and you have scarce a Hamlet or a Town but his Emissaries
are at Hand for Business; and which is still worse, in all Places he
finds Business; nay even where Religion is planted and seems to
flourish; yet he keeps his Ground and pushes his Interest according to
what has been said elsewhere upon the same Subject, that wherever
Religion plants, the Devil plants close by it.
Nor, as I say, does he fail of Success, Delusion spreads like a Plague,
and the Devil is sure of Votaries; like a true Mountebank, he can always
bring a Croud about his Stage, and that some Times faster than other
People.
What I observe upon this Subject is this, that the World is at a strange
Loss for want of the Devil; if it was not so, what’s the Reason, that
upon the silencing the Oracles, and Religion telling them that Miracles
are ceas’d, and that God has done speaking by Prophets, they never
enquire whether Heaven has established any other or new Way of
Revelation, but away they ran with[Pg 257] their Doubts and Difficulties to
these Dreamers of Dreams, Tellers of Fortunes, and personal Oracles to
be resolv’d; as if when they acknowledge the Devil is dumb, these could
speak; and as if the wicked Spirit could do more than the Good, the
Diabolical more than the Divine, or that Heaven having taken away
the Devil’s Voice, had furnish’d him with an Equivalent, by allowing
Scolds, Termagants, and old weak and superannuated Wretches to speak for
him; for these are the People we go to now in our Doubts and
Emergencies.
While this Blindness continues among us, ’tis Nonsense to say that
Oracles are silenced, or the Devil is dumb, for the Devil gives
Audience still by his Deputies; only as Jeroboam made Priests of the
meanest of the People, so he is grown a little humble, and makes use of
meaner Instruments than he did before; for whereas the Priests of
Apollo, and of Jupiter, were splendid in their Appearance, of grave
and venerable Aspect, and sometimes of no mean Quality; now he makes use
of Scoundrels and Rabble, Beggars and Vagabonds, old Hags, superannuated
miserable Hermits, Gypsies and Strollers, the Pictures of Envy and ill
Luck.
Either the Devil is grown an ill Master, and gives but mean Wages,
that he can get no better Servants; or else Common Sense is grown very
low priz’d and contemptible; that such as these are fit Tools to
continue the Succession of Fraud, and carry on the Devil’s Interest in
the World; for were not the Passions and Temper of Mankind deeply
pre-engaged in favour of this dark Prince, we could never suffer our
selves to accept of his Favours by the Hands of such contemptible Agents
as these! How do we receive his Oracles from an old Witch of particular
Eminence,[Pg 258] and who we believe to be more than ordinarily inspir’d from
Hell; I say, we receive the Oracle with Reverence; that is to say, with
a kind of Horror, with regard to the Black Prince it comes from, and at
the same time turn our Faces away from the Wretch that mumbles out the
Answers, lest she should cast an Evil Eye, as we call it, upon us, and
put a Devil into us when she plays the Devil before us? How do we
listen to the Cant of those worst of Vagabonds the Gypsies, when at
the same time we watch our Hedges and Hen-roosts for fear of their
thieving?
Either the Devil uses us more like Fools than he did our Ancestors, or
we really are worse Fools than those Ages produced, for they were never
deluded by such low-priz’d Devils as we are; by such despicable
Bridewell Devils, that are fitter for a Whipping-post than an Altar,
and instead of being receiv’d as the Voice of an Oracle, should be sent
to the House of Correction for Pick-pockets.
Nor is this accidental, and here and there one of these Wretches to be
seen, but in short, if it has been in other Nations as it is with us, I
do not see that the Devil was able to get any better People into his
Pay, or at least very rarely: Where have we seen any thing above a
Tinker turn Wizard? and where have we had a Witch of Quality among us,
Mother Je———gs excepted? and if she had not been more of something
else than a Witch, ’twas thought she had never got so much Money by her
Profession.
Magicians, Southsayers, Devil-raisers, and such People, we have heard
much of, but seldom above the Degree of the meanest of the mean People,
the lowest of the lowest Rank: Indeed the Word Wise Men, which the
Devil wou’d fain have had his Agents honour’d with, was[Pg 259] used a while
in Egypt, and in Persia, among the Chaldeans, but it continued but
a little while, and never reach’d so far Northward as our Country; nor,
however the Devil has managed it, have many of our great Men, who have
been most acquainted with him, ever been able to acquire the Title of
Wise Men.
I have heard that in older Times, I suppose in good Queen Bess’s Days,
or beyond, (for little is to be said here for any thing on this Side of
her time) there were some Counsellors and Statesmen who merited the
Character of wise, in the best Sense; that is to say, good, and
wise, as they stand in Conjunction; but as to what has happen’d since
that, or, as we may call it, from that Queen’s Funeral to the late
Revolution, I have little to say; but I’ll tell you what honest Andrew
Marvel said of those Times, and by that you may, if you please, make
your Calculation or let it alone, ’tis all one.
“To see a white Staff-maker, a Beggar, a Lord,
“And scarce a wise Man at a long Council-Board.
But I may be told this relates to wise Men in another Constitution, or
wise Men as they are opposed to Fools; whereas we are talking of them
now under another Class, namely, as Wisemen or Magicians,
South-sayers, &c. such as were in former Times call’d by that Name.
But to this I answer, that take them in which Sense you please, it may
be the same; for if I were to ask the Devil the Character of the best
States-man he had employ’d among us for many Years past, I am apt to
think that tho’ Oracles are ceased, he would honestly, according to the
old ambiguous Way, when I ask’d if they were Christians, answer they
were (his) Privy-Counsellors.
[Pg 260]It is but a little while ago, that I happen’d (in Conversation) to meet
with a long List of the Magistrates of that Age, in a neighbouring
Country, that is to say, the Men of Fame among them; and it was a very
diverting Thing to see the Judgment which was pass’d upon them among a
great deal of good Company; it is not for me to tell you how many white
Staves, Golden Keys, Mareshals Batoons, Cordons Blue, Gordon Rouge and
Gordon Blanc, there were among them, or by what Titles, as Dukes,
Counts, Marquis, Abbot, Bishop, or Justice they were to be
distinguish’d; but the marginal Notes I found upon most of them were
(being mark’d with an Asterism) as follows.
Such a Duke, such eminent Offices added to his Titles (* in the Margin)
——— No Saint.
Such an Arch—— with the Title of Noble added, ——— No Archangel.
Such an eminent Statesman and prime Minister, ——— No Witch.
Such a Ribbon with a Set of great Letters added, ——— No Conjurer.
It presently occurr’d to me that tho’ Oracles were ceased, and we had
now no more double Entendre in such a Degree as before, yet that
ambiguous Answers were not at an End; and that whether those Negatives
were meant so by the Writers, or not, ’twas certain Custom led the
Readers to conclude them to be Satyrs, that they were to be rung
backwards like the Bells when the Town’s on fire; tho’ in short, I durst
not read them backward any where, but as speaking of foreign People, for
fear of raising the Devil I am talking of.
But to return to the Subject; to such mean Things is the Devil now
reduc’d in his ordinary Way of carrying on his Business in the World,
that his Oracles are deliver’d now by the Bellmen[Pg 261] and the
Chimney-Sweepers, by the meanest of those that speak in the Dark, and if
he operates by them, you may expect it accordingly; his Agents seem to
me as if the Devil had singl’d them out by their Deformity, or that
there was something particular requir’d in their Aspect to qualify them
for their Employment; whence it is become proverbial, when our Looks are
very dismal and frightful, to say, I look like a Witch, or in other
Cases to say, as ugly as a Witch; in another Case to look as envious as
a Witch; now whether there is any Thing particularly requir’d in the
Looks of the Devil’s modern Agents, which is assisting in the Discharge
of their Offices, and which make their Answers appear more solemn, this
the Devil has not yet reveal’d, at least not to me; and therefore why
it is that he singles out such Creatures as are fit only to fright the
People that come to them with their Enquiries, I do not take upon me to
determine.
Perhaps it is necessary they should be thus extraordinary in their
Aspect, that they might strike an Awe into the Minds of their Votaries,
as if they were Satan’s true and real Representatives; and that the said
Votaries may think when they speak to the Witches they are really
talking to the Devil; or perhaps ’tis necessary to the Witches
themselves, that they should be so exquisitely ugly, that they might not
be surpriz’d at whatever Figure the Devil makes when he first appears to
them, being certain they can see nothing uglier than themselves.
Some are of the Opinion that the Communication with the Devil, or
between the Devil and those Creatures his Agents, has something
assimulating in it, and that if they were tolerable before, they are,
ipso facto, turn’d into Devils by talking with him; I will not say but
that a[Pg 262] Tremor in the Limbs, a Horror in the Aspect, and a surprizing
Stare in the Eyes may seize upon some of them when they really see the
Devil, and that the frequent Repetition may make those Distortions,
which we so constantly see in their Faces becomes natural to them; by
which if it does not continue always upon the Countenance, they can at
least, like the Posture-Masters, cast themselves into such Figures and
frightful Dislocations of the Lines and Features in their Faces, and so
assume a Devil’s Face suitable to the Occasion, or as may serve the turn
for which they take it up, and as often as they have any use for it.
But be it which of these the Enquirer pleases, ’tis all one to the Case
in Hand; this is certain, that such deform’d Devil-like Creatures,
most of those we call Hags and Witches, are in their Shapes and
Aspects, and that they give out their Sentences and frightful Messages
with an Air of Revenge for some Injury receiv’d; for Witches are fam’d
chiefly for doing Mischief.
It seems the Devil has always pick’d out the most ugly and frightful
old Women to do his Business; Mother Shipton, our famous English
Witch or Prophetess, is very much wrong’d in her Picture, if she was not
of the most terrible Aspect imaginable; and if it be true that Merlin,
the famous Welch Fortune-Teller, was a frightful Figure, it will seem
the more rational to believe, if we credit another Story, (viz.) that
he was begotten by the Devil himself, of which I shall speak by it self:
But to go back to the Devil’s Instruments being so ugly; it may be
observed, I say, that the Devil has always dealt in such sort of Cattle;
the Sybils, of whom so many strange prophetic Things are recorded,
whether true or no is not to the Question, are (if the Italian
Painters may have any Credit given them)[Pg 263] all represented as very old
Women; and as if Ugliness were a Beauty to old Age, they seem to paint
them out as ugly and frightful as (not they, the Painters) but even as
the Devil himself could make them; not that I believe there are any
original Pictures of them really extant; but it is not unlikely that the
Italians might have some traditional Knowledge of them, or some
remaining Notions of them, or particularly that antient Sybil named
Anus, who sold the fatal Book to Tarquin; ’tis said of her that
Tarquin supposed she doated with Age.
I had Thoughts indeed here to have entred into a learned Disquisition of
the Excellency of old Women in all diabolical Operations, and
particularly of the Necessity of having recourse to them for Satan’s
more exquisite Administration, which also may serve to solve the great
Difficulty in the natural Philosophy of Hell; namely, why it comes to
pass that the Devil is oblig’d for want of old Women, properly so
call’d, to turn so many antient Fathers, grave Counsellors both of Law
and State, and especially Civilians or Doctors of the Law into old
Women, and how the extraordinary Operation is perform’d; but this, as a
Thing of great Consequence in Satan’s Management of humane Affairs, and
particularly as it may lead us into the necessary History, as well as
Characters of some of the most eminent of these Sects among us, I have
purposely reserv’d for a Work by it self, to be published, if Satan
hinders not, in fifteen Volumes in Folio, wherein I shall in the first
Place define in the most exact Manner possible, what is to be understood
by a Male old Woman, of what heterogeneous Kind they are produced,
give you the monstrous Anatomy of the Parts, and especially those of the
Head, which being fill’d with innumerable Globules of a[Pg 264] sublime Nature,
and which being of a fine Contexture without, but particularly hollow in
the Cavity, defines most philosophically that antient paradoxical
Saying, (viz.) being full of Emptiness, and makes it very consistent
with Nature and common Sense.
I shall likewise spend some Time, and it must be Labour too, I assure
you, when ’tis done, in determining whether this new Species of
Wonderfuls are not deriv’d from that famous old Woman Merlin, which I
prove to be very reasonable for us to suppose, because of the many
several judicious Authors, who affirm the said Merlin, as I hinted
before, to have been begotten by the Devil.
As to the deriving his Gift of Prophesy from the Devil, by that
pretended Generation, I shall omit that Part, because, as I have all
along insisted upon it, that Satan himself has no prophetic or
predicting Powers of his own, it is not very clear to me that he could
convey it to his Posterity, nil dat quod not habet.
However, in deriving this so much magnified Prophet in a right Line from
the Devil, much may be said in favour of his ugly Face, in which it
was said he was very remarkable, for it is no new Thing for a Child to
be like the Father; but all these weighty Things I adjourn for the
present, and proceed to the Affair in Hand, namely, the several Branches
of the Devil’s Management since his quitting his Temples and Oracles.
[Pg 265]
Chap. VI.
Of the extraordinary Appearance of the Devil, and particularly
of the Cloven-Foot.
Some People would fain have us treat this Tale of the Devil’s
appearing with a Cloven-Foot with more Solemnity than I believe the
Devil himself does; for Satan, who knows how much of a Cheat it is,
must certainly ridicule it, in his own Thoughts, to the last Degree; but
as he is glad of any Way to hoodwink the Understandings, and bubble the
weak Part of the World; so if he sees Men willing to take every
Scarecrow for a Devil, it is not his Business to undeceive them; on the
other Hand, he finds it his Interest to foster the Cheat, and serve
himself of the Consequence: Nor could I doubt but the Devil, if any
Mirth be allow’d him, often laughs at the many frightful Shapes and
Figures we dress him up in, and especially to see how willing we are
first to paint him as black, and make him appear as ugly as we can, and
then stare and start at the Spectrum of our own making.
The Truth is, that among all the Horribles that we dress up Satan in, I
cannot but think we shew the least of Invention in this of a Goat, or a
Thing with a Goat’s Foot, of all the rest; for tho’ a Goat is a Creature
made use of by our Saviour in the Allegory of the Day of Judgment, and
is said there to represent the wicked rejected Party, yet it seems to be
only on Account of their Similitude to the Sheep, and so to represent
the just Fate of Hypocrisy and Hypocrites, and in particular to form the
necessary Antithesis[Pg 266] in the Story; for else, our whimsical Fancies
excepted, a Sheep or a Lamb has a Cloven-Foot as well as a Goat; nay,
if the Scripture be of any Value in the Case, ’tis to the Devil’s
Advantage, for the dividing the Hoof was the distinguishing Character or
Mark of a clean Beast, and how the Devil can be brought into that Number
is pretty hard to say.
One would have thought if we had intended to have given a just Figure of
the Devil, it would have been more apposite to have rank’d him among
the Cat-kind, and given him a Foot (if he is to be known by his Foot)
like a Lion, or like a red Dragon, being the same Creatures which he
is represented by in the Text, and so his Claws would have had some
Terror in them as well as his Teeth.
But neither is the Goat a true Representative of the Devil at all, for
we do not rank the Goats among the Subtle or cunning Part of the Brutes;
he is counted a fierce Creature indeed of his Kind, tho’ nothing like
those other abovemention’d; and he is emblematically used to represent a
lustful Temper, but even that Part does not fully serve to describe the
Devil, whose Operation lies principally another Way.
Besides it is not the Goat himself that is made use of, ’tis the
Cloven-Hoof only, and that so particularly, that the Cloven Foot of a
Ram or a Swine, or any other Creature, may serve as well as that of a
Goat, only that History gives us some Cause to call it the Goat’s
Foot.
In the next Place ’tis understood by us not as a bare Token to know
Satan by, but as if it were a Brand upon him, and that like the Mark
God put upon Cain, it was given him for a Punishment, so that he
cannot get leave to appear without it, nay cannot conceal it whatever
other Dress or[Pg 267] Disguise he may put on; and as if it was to make him as
ridiculous as possible, they will have it be, that whenever Satan has
Occasion to dress himself in any humane Shape, be it of what Degree
soever, from the King to the Beggar, be it of a fine Lady or of an old
Woman, (the Latter it seems he oftenest assumes) yet still he not only
must have this Cloven-Foot about him, but he is oblig’d to shew it
too; nay, they will not allow him any Dress, whether it be a Prince’s
Robes, a Lord Cha—r’s Gown, or a Lady’s Hoop and long Petticoats, but
the Cloven-Foot must be shew’d from under them; they will not so much as
allow him an artificial Shoe or a Jack-Boot, as we often see
contriv’d to conceal a Club-Foot or a Wooden-Leg; but that the
Devil may be known wherever he goes, he is bound to shew his Foot;
they might as well oblige him to set a Bill upon his Cap, as Folks do
upon a House to be let, and have it written in capital Letters, I am
the Devil.
It must be confess’d this is very particular, and would be very hard
upon the Devil, if it had not another Article in it, which is some
Advantage to him, and that is, that the Fact is not true; but the
Belief of this is so universal, that all the World runs away with it; by
which Mistake the good People miss the Devil many times where they
look for him, and meet him as often where they did not expect him, and
when for want of this Cloven-Foot they do not know him.
Upon this very Account I have sometimes thought, not that this has been
put upon him by meer Fancy, and the Cheat of a heavy Imagination,
propagated by Fable and Chymny-Corner Divinity, but that it has been a
Contrivance of his own; and that, in short, the Devil rais’d this
Scandal upon himself, that he might keep his Disguise the better, and
might go a Visiting among[Pg 268] his Friends without being known; for were it
really so, that he could go no where without this particular Brand of
Infamy, he could not come into Company, could not dine with my Lord
Mayor, nor drink Tea with the Ladies, could not go to the Drawing-R——
at ———, could not have gone to Fountainbleau to the King of
France’s Wedding, or to the Diet of Poland, to prevent the Grandees
there coming to an Agreement; nay, which would be still worse than
all, he could not go to the Masquerade, nor to any of our Balls; the
Reason is plain, he would be always discover’d, expos’d and forc’d to
leave the good Company, or which would be as bad, the Company would all
cry out the Devil and run out of the Room as if they were frighted;
nor could all the Help of Invention do him any Service, no Dress he
could put on would cover him; not all our Friends at Tavistock Corner
could furnish him with a Habit that would disguise or conceal him, this
unhappy Foot would spoil it all: Now this would be a great a Loss to
him, that I question whether he could carry on any of his most important
Affairs in the World without it; for tho’ he has access to Mankind in
his compleat Disguise, I mean that of his Invisibility, yet the Learned
very much agree in this, that his corporal Presence in the World is
absolutely necessary upon many Occasions, to support his Interest and
keep up his Correspondences, and particularly to encourage his Friends
when Numbers are requisite to carry on his Affairs; but this Part I
shall have Occasion to speak of again, when I come to consider him as a
Gentleman of Business in his Locality, and under the Head of visible
Apparition; but I return to the Foot.
As I have thus suggested that the Devil himself has politically spread
about this Notion[Pg 269] concerning his appearing with a Cloven-Foot, so I
doubt not that he has thought it for his Purpose to paint this
Cloven-Foot so lively in the Imaginations of many of our People, and
especially of those clear sighted Folks who see the Devil when he is
not to be seen, that they would make no Scruple to say, nay and to make
Affidavit too, even before Satan himself, whenever he sat upon the
Bench, that they had seen his Worship’s Foot at such and such a Time;
this I advance the rather because ’tis very much for his Interest to do
this, for if we had not many Witnesses, viva voce, to testify it, we
should have had some obstinate Fellows always among us, who would have
denied the Fact, or at least have spoken doubtfully of it, and so have
rais’d Disputes and Objections against it, as impossible, or at least as
improbable; buzzing one ridiculous Notion or other into our Ears, as if
the Devil was not so black as he was painted, that he had no more a
Cloven-Foot than a Pope, whose Apostolical Toes have so often been
reverentially kiss’d by Kings and Emperors: but now alas this Part is
out of the Question, not the Man in the Moon, not the Groaning-Board,
not the speaking of Fryar Bacon’s Brazen-Head, not the Inspiration of
Mother Shipton, or the Miracles of Dr. Faustus, Things as certain as
Death and Taxes, can be more firmly believ’d: The Devil not have a
Cloven-Foot! I doubt not but I could, in a short Time, bring you a
thousand old Women together, that would as soon believe there was no
Devil at all; nay, they will tell you, he could not be a Devil without
it, any more than he could come into the Room, and the Candles not burn
blue, or go out and not leave a smell of Brimstone behind him.
Since then the Certainty of the Thing is so well establish’d, and there
are so many good and[Pg 270] substantial Witnesses ready to testify that he has
a Cloven-Foot, and that they have seen it too; nay, and that we have
Antiquity on our Side, for we have this Truth confirm’d by the Testimony
of many Ages; why should we doubt it any longer? we can prove that many
of our Ancestors have been of this Opinion, and divers learn’d Authors
have left it upon Record, as particularly that learned Familiarist
Mother Hazel, whose Writings are to be found in MS. in the famous
Library at Pye-Corner; also the admir’d Joan of Amesbury, the
History of the Lancashire Witches, and the Reverend Exorcist of the
Devil’s of London, whose History is extant among us to this Day; all
these and many more may be quoted, and their Writings referr’d to for
the Confirmation of the Antiquity of this Truth; but there seems to be
no Occasion for farther Evidence, ’tis enough, Satan himself, if he
did not raise the Report, yet tacitly owns the Fact, at least he appears
willing to have it believ’d, and be receiv’d as a general Truth for the
Reasons above.
But besides all this, and as much a Jest as some unbelieving People
would have this Story pass for, who knows but that if Satan is
empower’d to assume any Shape or Body, and to appear to us visibly, as
if really so shap’d; I say, who knows but he may, by the same Authority,
be allow’d to assume the Addition of the Cloven-Foot, or two or four
Cloven-Feet, if he pleased? and why not a Cloven-Foot as well as any
other Foot, if he thinks fit? For if the Devil can assume a Shape, and
can appear to Mankind in a visible Form, it may, I doubt not, with as
good Authority be advanc’d that he is left at Liberty to assume what
Shape he pleases, and to choose what Case of Flesh and Blood he’ll
please to wear, whether real or imaginary; and if this Liberty be
allow’d him,[Pg 271] it is an admirable Disguise for him to come generally with
his Cloven-Foot, that when he finds it for his Purpose, on special
Occasions to come without it, as I said above, he may not be suspected;
but take this with you as you go, that all this is upon a Supposition
that the Devil can assume a visible Shape, and make a real Appearance,
which however I do not yet think fit to grant or deny.
Certain it is, the first People who bestow’d a Cloven-Foot upon the
Devil, were not so despicable as you may imagine, but were real
Favourites of Heaven; for did not Aaron set up the Devil of a Calf
in the Congregation, and set the People a dancing about it for a God?
Upon which Occasion, Expositors tell us, that particular Command was
given, Levit. xvii. 7. They shall no more offer their Sacrifices
unto Devils, after whom they have gone a Whoring; likewise King
Jeroboam set up the two Calves, one at Dan and the other at
Bethel, and we find them charg’d afterwards with setting up the
Worship of Devils instead of the Worship of God.
After this we find some Nations actually sacrificed to the Devil in
the Form of a Ram, and others of a Goat; from which, and that above of
the Calves at Horeb, I doubt not the Story of the Cloven-Foot first
derived; and it is plain that the Worship of that Calf at Horeb is
meant in the Scripture quoted above, Levit. xvii. 7. Thou shalt no
more offer Sacrifices unto Devils: The Original is Seghnirim; that
is, rough and hairy Goats or Calves; and some think also in this
Shape the Devil most ordinarily appeared to the Egyptians and
Arabians, from whence it was derived.
Also in the old Writings of the Egyptians, I mean their hieroglyphick
Writing, before the Use of Letters was known, we are told this was[Pg 272] the
Mark that he was known by; and the Figure of a Goat was the
Hieroglyphick of the Devil; some will affirm that the Devil was
particularly pleased to be so represented; how they came by their
Information, and whether they had it from his own Mouth or not, Authors
have not yet determined.
But be this as it will, I do not see that Satan could have been at a
Loss for some extraordinary Figure to have banter’d Mankind with, tho’
this had not been thought of; but thinking of the Cloven-Foot first,
and the Matter being indifferent, this took place, and easily rooted it
self in the bewildred Fancy of the People, and now ’tis riveted too fast
for the Devil himself to remove it if he was disposed to try; but as I
said above, ’tis none of his Business to solve Doubts or remove
Difficulties out of our Heads, but to perplex us with more, as much as
he can.
Some People carry this Matter a great deal higher still, and will have
the Cloven-Foot be like the great Stone which the Brasilian
Conjurers used to solve all difficult Questions upon, after having used
a great many monstrous and barbarous Gestures and Distortions of their
Bodies, and cut certain Marks or magical Figures upon the Stone; so, I
say, they will have this Cloven-Foot be a kind of a Conjuring-Stone,
and tell us, that in former Times, when Satan drove a greater Trade
with Mankind in publick, than he has done of late, he gave this
Cloven-Foot as a Token to his particular Favourites to work Wonders
with, and to conjure by, and that Witches, Fairies, Hobgoblins, and such
Things, of which the Antients had several Kinds, at least in their
Imagination, had all a Goat’s Leg with a Cloven-Foot to put on upon
extraordinary Occasions; it seems this Method is of late grown out of
Practice,[Pg 273] and so like the melting of Marble and the painting of Glass,
’tis laid aside among the various useful Arts which History tells us are
lost to the World; what may be practised in the Fairy World, if such a
Place there be, we can give no particular Account at present.
But neither is this all, for other wou’d-be-wise People take upon them
to make farther and more considerable Improvements upon this Doctrine of
the Cloven-Foot, and treat it as a most significant Instrument of
Satan’s private Operation, and that as Joseph is said to Divine,
that is to say, to conjure by his Golden Cup which was put into
Benjamin’s Sack, so the Devil has managed several of his secret
Operations, and Possessions, and other hellish Mechanisms upon the
Spirits as well as Bodies of Men, by the Medium or Instrumentality of
the Cloven-Foot; accordingly it had a Kind of an hellish Inspiration
in it, and a separate and magical Power by which he wrought his infernal
Miracles; that the Cloven-Foot had a superior Signification, and was not
only emblematic and significative of the Conduct of Men, but really
guided their Conduct in the most important Affairs of Life; and that the
Agents the Devil employ’d to influence Mankind, and to delude them and
draw them into all the Snares and Traps that he lays continually for
their Destruction, were equipp’d with this Foot in Aid of their other
Powers for Mischief.
Here they read us learn’d Lectures upon the sovereign Operations which
the Devil is at present Master of, in the Government of human Affairs;
and how the Cloven-Foot is an Emblem of the true double Entendre or
divided Aspect, which the great Men of the World generally act with, and
by which all their Affairs are directed; from whence it comes to pass
that there is[Pg 274] no such Thing as a single hearted Integrity, or an
upright Meaning to be found in the World; that Mankind, worse than the
ravenous Brutes, preys upon his own Kind, and devours them by all the
laudable Methods of Flattery, Whyne, Cheat and Treachery; Crocodile
like, weeping over those it will devour, destroying those it smiles
upon, and, in a Word, devours its own Kind, which the very Beasts
refuse, and that by all the Ways of Fraud and Allurement that Hell can
invent; holding out a cloven divided Hoof, or Hand, pretending to save,
when the very Pretence is made use of to ensnare and destroy.
Thus the divided Hoof is the Representative of a divided double Tongue,
and Heart, an Emblem of the most exquisite Hypocrisy, the most fawning
and fatally deceiving Flattery; and here they give us very diverting
Histories, tho’ tragical in themselves, of the manner which some of the
Devil’s inspired Agents have manag’d themselves under the especial
Influence of the Cloven-Foot; how they have made War under the
Pretence of Peace, murther’d Garrisons under the most sacred
Capitulations, massacred innocent Multitudes after Surrenders to Mercy.
Again, they tell us the Cloven-Foot has been made use of in all
Treasons, Plots, Assassinations, and secret as well as open Murthers and
Rebellions. Thus Joab under the Treason of an Embrace, shew’d how
dexterously he could manage the Cloven-Foot, and struck Abner under
the fifth Rib: Thus David play’d the Cloven-Foot upon poor Uriah,
when he had a Mind to lie with his Wife: Thus Brutus play’d it upon
Cæsar; and to come nearer home, we have had a great many retrograde
Motions in this Country by this magical Implement the Foot; Such as
that of the Earl of Essex’s Fate, beheading the Queen of Scots,[Pg 275]
and diverse others in Queen Elizabeth’s Time: That of the Earl of
Shrewsbury and Sir Thomas Overbury, Gondamor and Sir Walter
Raleigh, and many others in King James the I.’s Time; in all which,
if the Cloven-Foot had not been dexterously manag’d, those Murthers had
not been so dexterously manag’d, or the Murtherers have so well been
skreen’d from Justice; for which and the imprecated Justice of Heaven
unappeased, some have thought the innocent Branches of the Royal House
of Stuart did not fare the better in the Ages which follow’d.
It must be confess’d, the Cloven-Foot was in its full Exercise in the
next Reign, and the Generation that rose up immediately after them,
arrived to the most exquisite Skill for Management of it; here they
fasted and pray’d, there they plunder’d and murther’d; here they rais’d
War for the King, and there they fought against him, cutting Throats for
God’s Sake, and deposing both King and kingly Government according to
Law.
Nor was the Cloven-Foot unemployed on all Sides, for ’tis the main
Excellency of this Instrument of Hell, that it acts on every Side, it is
its denominating Quality, and is for that Reason call’d a cloven or
divided Hoof.
This mutilated Apparition has been so publick in other Countries too,
that it seems to convince us the Devil is not confin’d to England
only, but that as his Empire extended to all the sublunary World, so he
gives them all Room to see he is qualified to manage them his own Way.
What abundant Use did that Prince of Dissemblers, Charles V. make of
this Foot? ’twas by the Help of this Apparition of the Foot that he
baited his Hook with the City of Milan, and tickled Francis I.[Pg 276] of
France so well with it, that when he pass’d thro’ France, and was in
that King’s Power, he let him go, and never get the Bait off of the Hook
neither; it Seems the Foot was not on King Francis’s Side at that
Time.
How cruelly did Philip II. of Spain manage this Foot in the Murther
of the Nobility of the Spanish Netherlands, the Assassination of the
Prince of Orange, and at last: in that of his own Son Don Carlos
Infant of Spain? and yet such was the Devil’s Craft, and so nicely
did he bestir his Cloven-Hoof, that this Monarch died consolated (tho’
impenitent) in the Arms of the Church, and with the Benediction of the
Clergy too, those second best Managers of the said Hoof in the World.
I must acknowledge, I agree with this Opinion thus far; namely, that the
Devil acting by this Cloven-Foot, as a Machine, has done great Things in
the World for the propagating his dark Empire among us; and History is
full of Examples, besides the little low priz’d Things done among us;
for we are come to such a Kind of Degeneracy in Folly, that we have even
dishonour’d the Devil, and put this glorious Engine the Cloven-Foot to
such mean Uses, that the Devil himself seems to be asham’d of us.
But to return a little to foreign History, besides what has been
mention’d above, we find flaming Examples of most glorious Mischief done
by this Weapon, when put into the Hands of Kings and Men of Fame in the
World: How many Games have the Kings of France play’d with this
Cloven-Foot, and that within a few Years of one another? First,
Charles IX. play’d the Cloven-Foot upon Gaspar Coligni Admiral of
France, when he caress’d him, complimented him, invited him to
Paris, to the Wedding of the King of Navarre, call’d him Father,
kiss’d him, and when he was[Pg 277] wounded sent his own Surgeons to take Care
of him, and yet three Days after order’d him to be assassinated and
murther’d, used with a thousand Indignities, and at last thrown out of
the Window into the Street to be insulted by the Rabble?
Did not Henry III. in the same Country, play the Cloven-Foot upon the
Duke of Guise, when he call’d him to his Council, and caus’d him to be
murther’d as he went in at the Door? The Guises again plaid the same
Game back upon the King, when they sent out a Jacobin Friar to
assassinate him in his Tent as he lay at the Siege of Paris.
In a Word, this Opera of the Cloven-Foot has been acted all over the
Christian World, ever since Judas betray’d the Son of God with a Kiss;
nay, our Saviour says expresly of him, One of you is a Devil; and the
sacred Text says in another Place, The Devil enter’d into Judas.
It would take up a great deal of Time and Paper too, to give you a full
Account of the Travels of this Cloven-Foot; its Progress into all the
Courts of Europe, and with what most accurate Hypocrisy Satan has
made use of it upon many Occasions, and with what Success; but as in the
elaborate Work of which I just now gave you a Specimen I design one
whole Volume upon this Subject, and which I shall call, The compleat
History of the Cloven-Foot; I say, for that Reason, and diverse
others, I shall say but very little more to it in this Place.
It remains to tell you, that this merry Story of the Cloven-Foot is
very essential to the History which I am now writing, as it has been all
along the great Emblem of the Devil’s Government in the World, and by
which all his most considerable Engagements have been answer’d and
executed; for as he is said not to be able to conceal this Foot, but
that he carries it always with him, it[Pg 278] imports most plainly, that the
Devil would be no Devil if he was not a Dissembler, a Deceiver, and
carried a double Entendre in all he does or says; that he cannot but
say one Thing and mean another, promise one Thing and do another, engage
and not perform, declare and not intend, and act like a true Devil as
he is, with a Countenance that is no Index of his Heart.
I might indeed go back to Originals, and derive this Cloven-Foot from
Satan’s primitive State as a Cherubim or a celestial Being, which
Cherubims, as Moses is said to have seen them about the Throne of God
in Mount Sinai, and as the same Moses, from the Original represented
them afterwards covering the Ark, had the Head and Face of a Man, Wings
of an Eagle, Body of a Lion, and Legs and Feet of a Calf; but this is
not so much to our present Purpose, for as we are to allow that whatever
Satan had of heavenly Beauty before the Fall, he lost it all when he
commenc’d Devil, so to fetch his Original so far up would be only to
say, that he retain’d nothing but the Cloven-Foot, and that all the
rest of him was alter’d and deform’d, become frightful and horrible as
the Devil; but his Cloven-Foot, as we now understand it, is rather
mystical and emblematick, and describes him only as the Fountain of
Mischief and Treason, and the Prince of Hypocrites, and as such we are
now to speak of him.
’Tis from this Original all the hypocritic World copy, he wears the Foot
on their Account, and from this Model they act: This made our blessed
Lord tell them, the Works of your Father ye will do, meaning the
Devil, as he had express’d it just before.
Nor does he deny the Use of the Foot to the meaner Class of his
Disciples in the World, but[Pg 279] decently equips them all upon every
Occasion with a needful Proportion of Hypocrisy and Deceit; that they
may hand on the Power of promiscuous Fraud thro’ all his temporal
Dominions, and wear the Foot always about them as a Badge of their
profess’d Share in whatever is done by that Means.
Thus every Dissembler, every false Friend, every secret Cheat, every
Bearskin-Jobber has a Cloven-Foot, and so far hands on the Devil’s
Interest by the same powerful Agency of Art, as the Devil himself uses
to act when he appears in Person, or would act if he was just now upon
the Spot; for this Foot is a Machine which is to be wound up and wound
down, as the Cause it appears for requires; and there are Agents and
Engineers to act in it by Directions of Satan (the grand Engineer) who
lies still in his Retirement, only issuing out his Orders as he sees
convenient.
Again, every Class, every Trade, every Shopkeeper, every Pedlar, nay,
that meanest of Tradesmen, that Church Pedlar the Pope, has a
Cloven-Foot, with which he Paw wa’s upon the World, wishes them all
well, and at the same time cheats them; wishes them all fed, and at the
same time starves them; wishes them all in Heaven, and at the same time
marches before them directly to the Devil, alamode de Cloven-Foot.
Nay, the very Bench, the everliving Foundation of Justice in the World;
how often has it been made the Tool of Violence, the Refuge of
Oppression, the Seat of Bribery and Corruption, by this Monster in
Masquerade, and that every where (our own Country always excepted)? They
had much better wipe out the Picture of justice blinded, and having the
Sword and Scales in her Hand, which in foreign Countries is generally
painted over the Seat of those who sit to do Justice, and place[Pg 280] instead
thereof a naked unarm’d Cloven-Hoof, a proper Emblem of that Spirit that
Influences the World, and of the Justice we often see administred among
them; human Imagination cannot form an Idea more suitable, nor the
Devil propose an Engine more or better qualified for an Operation of
Justice, by the Influence of Bribery and Corruption; it is this
magnipotent Instrument in the Hands of the Devil, which under the
closest Disguise agitates every Passion, bribes every Affection,
blackens every Virtue, gives a double Face to Words and Actions, and to
all Persons who have any Concern in them, and in a Word, makes us all
Devils to one another.
Indeed the Devil has taken but a dark Emblem to be distinguish’d by, for
this of a Goat was said to be a Creature hated by Mankind from the
beginning, and that there is a natural Antipathy in Mankind against
them: Hence the Scape Goat was to bear the Sins of the People, and to go
into the Wilderness with all that Burthen upon him.
But we have a Saying among us, in Defence of which we must enquire into
the proper Sphere of Action which may be assigned to this Cloven-Foot,
as hitherto described: The Proverb is this; Every Devil has not a
Cloven-Foot. This Proverb, instead of giving us some more favourable
Thoughts of the Devil, confirms what I have said already, that the
Devil rais’d this Scandal upon himself; I mean, the Report that he
cannot conceal or disguise his Devil’s Foot, or Hoof, but that it must
appear, under whatever Habit he shews himself; and the Reason I gave
holds good still, namely, that he may be more effectually conceal’d
when he goes abroad without it: For if the People were fully persuaded
that the Devil could not appear without this Badge of[Pg 281] his Honour, or
Mark of his Infamy, take it as you will; and that he was bound also to
shew it upon all Occasions, it would be natural to conclude, that
whatever frightful Appearances might be seen in the World, if the
Cloven-Foot did not also appear, we had no Occasion to look for the
Devil, or so much as to think of him, much less to apprehend he was
near us; and as this might be a Mistake, and that the Devil might be
there while we thought our selves so secure, it might on many Occasions
be a Mistake of very ill Consequence, and in particular, as it would
give the Devil room to act in the Dark, and not be discover’d, where
it might be most needful to know him.
From this short Hint, thus repeated, I draw a new Thesis, namely, That
Devil is most dangerous that has no Cloven-Foot; or, if you will have
it in Words more to the common Understanding, the Devil seems to be
most dangerous when he goes without his Cloven-Foot.
And here a learned Speculation offers it self to our Debate, and which
indeed I ought to call a Council of Casuists, and Men learned in the
Devil’s Politicks, to determine:
Whether is most hurtful to the World, the Devil walking about without
his Cloven-Foot, or the Cloven-Foot walking about without the Devil?
It is indeed a nice and difficult Question, and merits to be well
enquir’d into; for which Reason, and diverse others, I have referr’d it
to be treated with some Decency, and as a Dispute of Dignity sufficient
to take up a Chapter by itself.
[Pg 282]
Chap. VII.
Whether is most hurtful to the World, the Devil walking about
without his Cloven-Foot, or the Cloven-Foot walking about without
the Devil?
In discussing this most critical Distinction of Satan’s private Motions,
I must, as the Pulpit Gentlemen direct us, explain the Text, and let you
know what I mean by several dark Expressions in it, that I may not be
understood to talk (as the Devil walks) in the dark.
1. As to the Devil’s walking about.
2. His walking without his Cloven-Foot.
3. The Cloven-Foot walking about without the Devil.
Now as I study Brevity, and yet would be understood too, you may please
to understand me as I understand my self, thus.
1. That I must be allow’d to suppose the Devil really has a full
Intercourse in, and through, and about this Globe, with Egress and
Regress, for the carrying on his special Affairs, when, how, and
where, to his Majesty, in his great Wisdom, it shall seem meet;
that sometimes he appears and becomes visible, and that, like a
Mastiff without his Clog, he does not always carry his Cloven-Foot
with him. This will necessarily bring me to some Debate upon the
most important Question of Apparitions, Hauntings, Walkings, &c.
whether of Satan in[Pg 283] human Shape, or of human Creatures in the
Devil’s Shape, or in any other manner whatsoever.
2. I must also be allow’d to tell you that Satan has a great deal
of Wrong done him by the general embracing vulgar Errors, and that
there is a Cloven-Foot oftentimes without a Devil; or, in short,
that Satan is not guilty of all the simple Things, no, or of all
the wicked Things we charge him with.
These two Heads well settled will fully explain the Title of this
Chapter, answer the Query mentioned in it, and at the same time
correspond very well with, and give us a farther Prospect into the main
and original Design of this Work, namely, The History of the Devil. We
are so fond of, and pleased with the general Notion of seeing the
Devil, that I am loth to disoblige my Readers so much as calling in
question his Visibility would do. Nor is it my Business, any more than
it is his, to undeceive them, where the Belief is so agreeable to them;
especially since upon the whole ’tis not one Farthing matter, either on
one Side or on the other, whether it be so or no, or whether the Truth
of Fact be ever discovered or not.
Certain it is, whether we see him or no, here he is, and I make no doubt
but he is looking on while I am writing this Part of his Story, whether
behind me, or at my Elbow, or over my Shoulder, is not material to me,
nor have I once turned my Head about to see whether he is there or no;
for if he be not in the Inside, I have so mean an Opinion of all his
extravasated Powers, that it seems of very little Consequence to me what
Shape he takes up, or in what Posture he appears; nor indeed can I find
in all my Enquiry[Pg 284] that ever the Devil appear’d (Qua Devil) in any
of the most dangerous or important of his Designs in the World; the most
of his Projects, especially of the significant Part of them, having been
carried on another way.
However, as I am satisfied no Body will be pleas’d if I should dispute
the Reality of his Appearance, and the World runs away with it as a
receiv’d Point, and that admits no Dispute, I shall most readily grant
the General, and give you some Account of the Particulars.
History is fruitful of Particulars, whether Invention has supply’d them
or not, I will not say, where the Devil is brought upon the Stage in
plain and undeniable Apparition: The Story of Samuel being rais’d by
the Witch of Endor, I shall leave quite out of my List, because there
are so many Scruples and Objections against that Story; and as I shall
not dispute with the Scripture, so on the other hand, I have so much
Deference for the Dignity of the Devil, as not to determine rashly how
far it may be in the Power of every old (Witch) Woman, to call him up
whenever she pleases, and that he must come, whatever the Pretence is,
or whatever Business of Consequence he may be engaged in, as often as
’tis needful for her to Pa wa for half a Crown, or perhaps less than
half the Money.
Nor will I undertake to tell you, till I have talk’d farther with him
about it, how far the Devil is concern’d to discover Frauds, detect
Murthers, reveal Secrets, and especially to tell where any Money is hid,
and shew Folks where to find it; ’tis an odd thing that Satan should
think it of Consequence to come and tell us where such a Miser hid a
Strong Box, or where such an old Woman buried her Chamber Pot full of
Money, the Value of all which is perhaps but a[Pg 285] Trifle, when at the same
time he lets so many Veins of Gold, so many unexhausted Mines, nay,
Mountains of Silver, as, we may depend upon it, are hid in the Bowels of
the Earth, and which it would be so much to the Good of whole Nations to
discover, lie still there, and never say one Word of them to any Body.
Besides, how does the Devil’s doing Things so foreign to himself, and
so out of his way, agree with the rest of his Character; namely, shewing
a kind of a friendly Disposition to Mankind, or doing beneficent Things?
This is so beneath Satan’s Quality, and looks so little, that I scarce
know what to say to it; but that which is still more pungent in the Case
is, these Things are so out of his Road, and so foreign to his Calling,
that it shocks our Faith in them, and seems to clash with all the just
Notions we have of him, and of his Business in the World. The like is to
be said of those little merry Turns we bring him in acting with us, and
upon us, upon trifling and simple Occasions, such as tumbling Chairs and
Stools about House, setting Pots and Vessels Bottom upward, tossing the
Glass and Crokery Ware about without breaking; and such like mean
foolish Things, beneath the Dignity of the Devil, who, in my Opinion,
is rather employ’d in setting the World with the Bottom upward, tumbling
Kings and Crowns about, and dashing the Nations one against another;
raising Tempests and Storms, whether at Sea, or on Shore; and, in a
word, doing capital Mischiefs suitable to his Nature, and agreeable to
his Name, Devil; and suited to that Circumstance of his Condition,
which I have fully represented in the primitive Part of his exil’d
State.
But to bring in the Devil playing at Push-pin with the World, or like
Domitian catching Flies,[Pg 286] that is to say, doing nothing to the
purpose; this is not only deluding our selves, but putting a Slur upon
the Devil himself; and, I say, I shall not dishonour Satan so much as
to suppose any thing in it: However, as I must have a care too how I
take away the proper Materials of Winter Evening Frippery, and leave the
good Wives nothing of the Devil to fright the Children with, I shall
carry the weighty Point no farther. No doubt the Devil and Dr.
Faustus were very intimate; I should rob you of a very significant [6]
Proverb, if I should so much as doubt it; no doubt the Devil shew’d
himself in the Glass to that fair Lady who look’d in it to see where to
place her Patches; but then it should follow too that the Devil is an
Enemy to the Ladies wearing Patches, and that has some Difficulties in
it which we cannot so easily reconcile; but we must tell the Story, and
leave out the Consequences.
But to come to more remarkable Things, and in which the Devil has
thought fit to act in a Figure more suitable to his Dignity, and on
Occasions consistent with himself; take the Story of the Appearance of
Julius Cæsar, or the Devil assuming that murthered Emperor, to the
great Marcus Brutus, who notwithstanding all the good Things said to
justify it, was no less than a King-killer and an Assassinator, which we
in our Language call by a very good Name, and peculiar to the English
Tongue, a Ruffian.
The Spectre had certainly the Appearance of Cæsar, with his Wounds
bleeding fresh, as if he had just receiv’d the fatal Blow; he had
reproach’d him with his Ingratitude, with a Tu Brute! tu quoque, mi
fili: “What Thou Brutus! [Pg 287]Thou, my adopted Son!” Now History seems
to agree universally, not only in the Story itself, but in the
Circumstances of it; we have only to observe that the Devil had
certainly Power to assume, not a human Shape only, but the Shape of
Julius Cæsar in particular.
Had Brutus been a timorous Conscience-harry’d, weak-headed Wretch,
had he been under the Horror of the Guilt, and terrify’d with the
Dangers that were before him at that time, we might suggest that he was
over-run with the Vapours, that the Terrors which were upon his Mind
disorder’d him, that his Head was delirious and prepossess’d, and that
his Fancy only plac’d Cæsar so continually in his Eye, that it
realiz’d him to his Imagination, and he believ’d he saw him; with many
other suggested Difficulties to invalidate the Story, and render the
Reality of it doubtful.
But the contrary, to an Extreme, was the Case of Brutus; his known
Character plac’d him above the Power of all Hypocondriacks, or fanciful
Delusions; Brutus was of a true Roman Spirit, a bold Hero, of an
intrepid Courage; one that scorn’d to fear even the Devil, as the
Story allows: Besides, he glory’d in the Action; there cou’d be no
Terror of Mind upon him; he valued himself upon it, as done in the
Service of Liberty, and the Cause of his Country; and was so far from
being frighted at the Devil in the worst Shape, that he spoke first to
him, and ask’d him, What art thou? and when he was cited to see him
again at Philippi, answer’d, with a Gallantry that knew no Fear, well
I will see thee there. Whatever the Devil’s Business was with
Brutus, this is certain, according to all the Historians who give us
the Account of it, that Brutus discover’d no Fear; he did not, like
Saul at Endor,[Pg 288] fall to the Ground in a Swoon, 1 Sam. xxviii. 20.
Then Saul fell all along upon the Earth, and there was no Strength in
him, and was sore afraid. In a word, I see no room to charge Brutus
with being over-run with the Hyppo, or with Vapours, or with Fright
and Terror of Mind; but he saw the Devil, that’s certain, and with
Eyes open, his Courage not at all daunted, his Mind resolute, and with
the utmost Composure spoke to him, reply’d to his Answer, and defy’d his
Summons to Death, which indeed he fear’d not, as appear’d afterward.
I come next to an Instance as eminent in History as the other; this was
in Char. VI. of France, sirnamed, The Beloved; who riding over the
Forest near Mans, a ghastly frightful Fellow (that is to say, the
Devil so clothed in human Vizor) came up to his Horse, and taking hold
of his Bridle, stop’d him, with the Addition of these Words, Stop King,
whither go you? You are betray’d! and immediately disappear’d. It is
true, the King had been distemper’d in his Head before, and so he might
have been deceived, and we might have charg’d it to the Account of a
whimsical Brain, or the Power of his Imagination; but this was in the
Face of his Attendants, several of his great Officers, Courtiers, and
Princes of the Blood being with him, who all saw the Man, heard the
Words, and immediately, to their Astonishment, lost Sight of the
Spectre, who vanish’d from them all.
Two Witnesses will convict a Murtherer, why not a Traitor? This must be
the Old Gentleman, emblematically so called, or who must it be? nay,
who else could it be? His Ugliness is not the Case, tho’ ugly as the
Devil, is a Proverb in his Favour; but vanishing out of sight is an
Essential to a Spirit, and to an evil Spirit in our Times especially.
[Pg 289]These are some of the Devil’s Extraordinaries, and it must be
confess’d they are not the most agreeable to Mankind, for sometimes he
takes upon him to disorder his Friends very much on these Occasions, as
in the above Case of Cha. VI. of France; the King, they say, was
really demented ever after; that is, as we vulgarly, but not always
improperly, express it, he was really frighted out of his Wits.
Whether the malicious Devil intended it so, or not, is not certain,
tho’ it was not so foreign to his particular Disposition if he did.
But where he is more intimate, we are told he appears in a manner less
disagreeable, and there he is more properly a familiar Spirit; that
is, in short, a Devil of their Acquaintance: It is true, the Antients
understand the Word, a familiar Spirit, to be one of the kinds of
Possession; but if it serves our turn as well under the Denomination of
an intimate Devil, or a Devil visitant, it must be acknowledg’d to
be as near in the literal Sense and Acceptation of the Word, as the
other; nay, it must be allow’d ’tis a very great Piece of Familiarity in
the Devil to make Visits, and shew none of his Disagreeables, not
appear formidable, or in the Shape of what he is, respectfully
withholding his dismal Part, in Compassion to the Infirmities of his
Friends.
It is true, Satan may be oblig’d to make different Appearances, as the
several Circumstances of Things call for it; in some Cases he makes his
publick Entry, and then he must shew himself in his Habit of Ceremony;
in other Cases he comes upon private Business, and then he appears in
Disguise; in some publick Cases he may thing fit to be incog. and then
he appears dress’d a la Masque; so they say he appear’d at the famous
St. Bartholomew Wedding at Paris, where,[Pg 290] he came in dress’d up like
a Trumpeter, danc’d in his Habit, sounded a Levet, and then went out
and rung the Alarm-Bell (which was the Signal to begin the Massacre)
half an Hour before the Time appointed, lest the King’s Mind should
alter, and his Heart fail him.
If the Story be not made upon him, (for we should not slander the
Devil) it should seem, he was not thoroughly satisfied in King
Charles IX.’s Steadiness in his Cause; for the King, it seems, had
relax’d a little once before, and Satan might be afraid he would fall
off again, and so prevent the Execution: Others say, the King did relent
immediately after the ringing the Alarm-Bell, but that then it was too
late, the Work was begun, and the Rage of Blood having been let loose
among the People, there was no recalling the Order. If the Devil was
thus brought to the Necessity of a secret Management, it must be owned
he did it dexterously; but I have not Authority enough for the Story, to
charge him with the Particulars, so I leave it au croc.
I have much better Vouchers for the Story following, which I had so
solemnly confirm’d by one that liv’d in the Family, that I never doubted
the Truth of it. There liv’d, in the Parish of St. Bennet Fynk, near
the Royal Exchange, an honest poor Widow Woman, who, her Husband
being lately dead, took Lodgers into her House; that is, she let out
some of her Rooms in order to lessen her own Charge of Rent; among the
rest, she let her Garrets to a working Watchwheel-maker, or one some way
concern’d in making the Movements of Watches, and who work’d to those
Shop-keepers who sell Watches; as is usual.
It happened that a Man and Woman went up, to speak with this
Movement-maker upon some[Pg 291] Business which related to his Trade, and when
they were near the Top of the Stairs, the Garret-Door where he usually
worked being wide open, they saw the poor Man (the Watch-maker, or
Wheel-maker) had hang’d himself upon a Beam which was left open in the
Room a little lower than the Plaister, or Ceiling: Surpriz’d at the
Sight, the Woman stop’d, and cried out to the Man who was behind her on
the Stairs that he should run up, and cut the poor Creature down.
At that very Moment comes a Man hastily from another Part of the Room
which they upon the Stairs could not see, bringing a Joint-Stool in his
Hand, as if in great Haste, and sets it down just by the Wretch that was
hang’d, and getting up as hastily upon it pulls a Knife out of his
Pocket, and taking hold of the Rope with one of his Hands, beckon’d to
the Woman and the Man behind her with his Head, as if to stop and not
come up, shewing them the Knife in his other Hand, as if he was just
going to cut the poor Man down.
Upon this, the Woman stopp’d a while, but the Man who stood on the
Joint-Stool continued with his Hand and Knife as if fumbling at the
Knot, but did not yet cut the Man down; at which the Woman cried out
again, and the Man behind her call’d to her. Go up, says he, and help
the Man upon the Stool! supposing something hindred. But the Man upon
the Stool made Signs to them again to be quiet, and not come on, as if
saying, I shall do it immediately; then he made two Strokes with his
Knife, as if cutting the Rope, and then stopp’d again; and still the
poor Man was hanging, and consequently dying: Upon this, the Woman on
the Stairs cried out to him. What ails you? Why don’t you cut the poor
Man down? And the Man behind her,[Pg 292] having no more Patience, thrusts her
by, and said to her. Let me come, I’ll warrant you I’ll do it; and with
that runs up and forward into the Room to the Man; but when he came
there, behold, the poor Man was there hanging; but no Man with a Knife,
or Joint-Stool, or any such thing to be seen, all that was Spectre and
Delusion, in order, no doubt, to let the poor Creature that had hang’d
himself perish and expire.
The Man was so frighted and surpriz’d, that with all the Courage he had
before, he drop’d on the Floor as one dead, and the Woman at last was
fain to cut the poor Man down with a Pair of Scissars, and had much to
do to effect it.
As I have no room to doubt the Truth of this Story, which I had from
Persons on whose Honesty I could depend. So I think it needs very little
Trouble to convince us who the Man upon the Stool must be, and that it
was the Devil who plac’d himself there in order to finish the Murther
of the Man who he had, Devil-like, tempted before, and prevail’d with
to be his own Executioner. Besides, it corresponds so well with the
Devil’s Nature, and with his Business, viz. that of a Murtherer,
that I never question’d it; nor can I think we wrong the Devil at all
to charge him with it.
N. B. I cannot be positive in the remaining Part of this Story,
viz. whether the Man was cut down soon enough to be recover’d, or
whether the Devil carry’d his Point, and kept off the Man and
Woman till it was too late; but be it which it will, ’tis plain he
did his Devilish Endeavour, and stay’d till he was forc’d to
abscond again.
We have many solid Tales well attested, as well in History as in the
Reports of honest People,[Pg 293] who could not be deceived, intimating the
Devil’s personal Appearance, some in one Place, some in another; as
also sometimes in one Habit or Dress, and sometimes in another; and it
is to be observed, that in none of those which are most like to be real,
and in which there is least of Fancy and Vapour, you have any Mention of
the Cloven Foot, which rather seems to be a mere Invention of Men (and
perhaps chiefly of those who had a Cloven Understanding) I mean a
shallow kind of Craft, the Effect of an empty and simple Head, thinking
by such a well-meant, tho’ weak Fraud, to represent the Devil to the
old Women and Children of the Age, with some Addition suitable to the
Weakness of their Intellects, and suited to making them afraid of him.
I have another Account of a Person who travell’d upwards of four Years
with the Devil in his Company, and convers’d most intimately with him
all the while; nay, if I may believe the Story, he knew most part of the
Time that he was the Devil, and yet convers’d with him, and that very
profitably, for he perform’d many very useful Services for him, and
constantly preserv’d him from the Danger of Wolves and wild Beasts,
which the Country he travell’d thro’ was intolerably full of. Where, by
the way, you are to understand, that the Wolves and Bears in those
Countries knew the Devil, whatever Disguise he went in; or that the
Devil has some Way to fright Bears and such Creatures, more than we
know of. Nor could this Devil ever be prevail’d upon to hurt him or
any of his Company. This Account has an innumerable Number of diverting
Incidents attending it; but they are equal to all the rest in Bulk, and
therefore too long for this Book.
[Pg 294]I find too upon some more ordinary Occasions the Devil has appear’d to
several People at their Call: This indeed shews abundance of good Humour
in him, considering him as a Devil, and that he was mighty
complaisant: Nay some, they tell us, have a Power to raise the Devil
whenever they think fit; this I cannot bring the Devil to a Level
with, unless I should allow him to be Servus Servorum, as another
Devil in Disguise calls himself; subjected to ever old Wizard’s Call;
or that he is under a Necessity of appearing on such or such particular
Occasions, whoever it is that calls him; which would bring the Devil’s
Circumstances to a pitch of Slavery which I see no Reason to believe of
them.
Here also I must take Notice again, that tho’ I say the Devil, when I
speak of all these Apparitions, whether of a greater or lesser Kind, yet
I am not oblig’d to suppose Satan himself in Person is concern’d to shew
himself, but that some of his Agents, Deputies and Servants, are sent
to that Purpose, and directed what Disguise of Flesh and Blood to put
on, as may be suitable to the Occasion.
This seems to be the only Way to reconcile all those simple and
ridiculous Appearances which not Satan, but his Emissaries, (which we
old Women call Imps) sometimes make, and the mean and sorry Employment
they are put to: Thus Fame tells us of a certain Witch of Quality, who
call’d the Devil once to carry her over a Brook where the Water was
swell’d with a hasty Rain, and lash’d him soundly with her Whip for
letting her Ladyship fall into the Water before she was quite over. Thus
also, as Fame tells us, she set the Devil to work, and made him build
Crowland Abbey, where there was no Foundation to be found, only for
[Pg 295]disturbing the Workmen a little who were first set about it. So it
seems another laborious Devil was oblig’d to dig the great Ditch cross
the Country from the Fenn Country to the Edge of Suffolk and Essex;
which who ever he has preserv’d the Reputation of, and where it crosses
New-Market Heath, ’tis call’d Devil’s Ditch to this Day.
Another Piece of Punishment no doubt it was, when the Devil was
oblig’d to bring the Stones out of Wales into Wiltshire, to build
Stone-heng: How this was ordered in those Days, when it seems they
kept Satan to hard Labour, I know not; I believe it must be registred
among the antient Pieces of Art which are lost in the World, such as
melting of Stone, painting of Glass, &c. Certainly they had the
Devil under Correction in those Days; that is to say, those lesser
Sorts of Devils; but I cannot think that the muckle Thief Devil, as
they call him in the North, the Grand Seignior Devil of all, was
ever reduced to Discipline. What Devil it was that Dunstan took by
the Nose with his red hot Tongs, I have not yet examin’d Antiquity
enough to be certain of, any more than I can what Devil it was that St.
Francis play’d so many warm Tricks with, and made him run away from
him so often: However, this I take upon me to say, in the Devil’s
Behalf, that it cou’d not be our Satan, the Arch Devil of all
Devils, of whom I have been talking so long.
Now is it unworthy the Occasion, to take notice that we really wrong the
Devil, and speak of him very much to his Disadvantage, when we say of
such a Great Lord, or of such a Lady of Quality, I think the Devil is
in your Grace: No, no, Satan has other Business, he very rarely
possesses F—ls: Besides, some are so far from having[Pg 296] the Devil in
them, that they are really transmigrated into the very Essence of the
Devil themselves; and others again not transmigrated, or assimilated,
but Indeed and in Truth shew us that they are to have mere native
Devils in every Part and Parcel of them, and that the rest is only
Masque and Disguise. Thus if Rage, Envy, Pride and Revenge can
constitute the Parts of a Devil, why should not a Lady of such
Quality, in whom all those Extraordinaries abound, have a Right to the
Title of being a Devil really and substantially, and to all Intents
and Purposes, in the most perfect and absolute Sense, according to the
most exquisite Descriptions of Devils already given by me or any Body
else; and even just as Joan of Arc, or Joan Queen of Naples
were, who were both sent home to their native Country, as soon as it was
discovered that they were real Devils, and that Satan acknowledg’d
them in that Quality.
Nor does my Lady D——ss’s wearing sometimes a Case of Humanity about
her, call’d Flesh and Blood, at all alter the Case; for so ’tis
Evident, according to our present Hypothesis, Satan has been always
allow’d to do, upon urgent Occasions; ay, and to make his Personal
Appearance as such, among even the Sons and Daughters of God too, as
well as among the Children of Men; and therefore her Grace may have
appeared in the Shape of a fine Lady, as long as she has been suppos’d
to do, without any Impeachment of her just Claim to the Title of
Devil; which being her true and natural Original, she ought not, nor
indeed shall not, by me, be denied her Shapes of Honour, whenever she
pleases to declare for a Re-assumption.
And farther, to give every Truth its due Illustration, this need not be
thought so strange;[Pg 297] and is far from being unjust; her Grace (as she,
it may be, is now stiled) has not acted, at least that I never heard of,
so unworthy her great and illustrious Original, that we should think she
has lost any thing by walking about the World so many Years in
Apparition: But to give her the due Homage of her Quality, she has acted
as consonant to the Essence and Nature of Devil, which she has such a
Claim to, as was consistent with the needful Reserve of her present
Disguise.
Nor shall we lead the Reader into any Mistake concerning this part of
our Work, as if this was or is meant to be a particular Satyr upon the
D——ss of —————, and upon her only, as if we had no Devils among
us in the Phenomena of fair Ladies, but this one: If Satan would be so
honest to us as he might be (and ’twou’d be very ingenuous in him, that
must be acknowledg’d, to give us a little of his Illumination in this
Case) we should soon be able to unmasque a great many notable Figures
among us, to our real Surprize.
Indeed ’tis a Point worth our further Enquiry, and would be a Discovery
many ways to our Advantage, were we bless’d with it, to see how many
real Devils we have walking up and down the World in Masque, and how
many Hoop-Petticoats compleat the entire Masque that disguises the Devil
in the Shape of that Thing call’d Woman.
As for the Men, Nature has satisfied her self in letting them be their
own Disguise, and in suffering them to act the old Women, as old Women
are vulgarly understood, in Matters of Council and Politicks; but if at
any time they have Occasion for the Devil in Person, they are oblig’d
to call him to their Aid in such Shape as he pleases to make use of pro
hac vice; and of[Pg 298] all those Shapes, the most agreeable to him seems to
be that of a Female of Quality, in which he has infinite Opportunity to
act to Perfection, what Part soever he is call’d in for.
How happy are those People who they say have the particular Quality, or
acquir’d Habit, call’d the Second Sight; one Sort of whom they tell us
are able to distinguish the Devil, in whatever Case or Outside of
Flesh and Blood he is pleas’d to put on, and consequently could know the
Devil wherever they met him? Were I blest with this excellent and
useful Accomplishment, how pleasant would it be, and how would it
particularly gratify my Spleen, and all that which I, in common with my
fellow Creatures carry about me, call’d Ill-Nature, to stand in the
Mall, or at the Entrance to any of our Assemblies of Beauties, and
point them out as they pass by, with this particular Mark, That’s a
Devil; that fine young Toast is a Devil; There’s a Devil drest in
a new Habit for the Ball; There’s a Devil in a Coach and Six, cum
aliis. In short, it would make a merry World among us if we cou’d but
enter upon some proper Method of such Discriminations: but, Lawr’d,
what a Hurricane would it raise, if, like ———, who they say scourg’d
the Devil so often that he durst not come near him in any Shape
whatever, we cou’d find some new Method out to make the Devil unmask,
like the Angel Uriel, who, Mr. Milton says, had an enchanted Spear,
with which if he did but touch the Devil, in whatever Disguise he had
put on, it oblig’d him immediately to start up, and shew himself in his
true original Shape, mere Devil as he was.
This would do nicely, and as I who am originally a Projector, have spent
some Time upon this Study, and doubt not in a little Time to finish[Pg 299] my
Engine, which I am contriving, to screw the Devil out of every Body,
or any Body; I question not when I have brought it to Perfection, but I
shall make most excellent Discoveries by it; and besides the many
extraordinary Advantages of it to human Society, I doubt not but it will
make good Sport in the World too; wherefore, when I publish my
Proposals, and divide it into Shares, as other less useful Projects have
been done, I question not, for all the severe Act lately pass’d against
Bubbles, but I shall get Subscribers enough, &c.
In a Word, a secret Power of discovering what Devils we have among us,
and where and what Business they are doing, would be a vast Advantage to
us all; that we might know among the Crowd of Devils that walk about
Streets, who are Apparitions, and who are not.
Now I, you must know, at certain Intervals when the Old Gentleman’s
Illuminations are upon me, and when I have something of an
Eclaricissement with him, have some Degrees of this discriminating
Second Sight, and therefore ’tis no strange thing for me to tell a
great many of my Acquaintance that they are really Devils, when they
themselves know nothing of the Matter: Sometimes indeed I find it pretty
hard to convince them of it, or at least they are very unwilling to own
it, but it is not the less so for that.
I had a long Discourse upon this Subject one day, with a young beautiful
Lady of my Acquaintance, who the World very much admired; and as the
World judges no farther than they can see, (and how should they, you
would say) they took her to be, as she really was, a most charming
Creature.
To me indeed she discover’d her self many Ways, besides the Advantage I
had of my extraordinary[Pg 300] Penetration by the magic Powers which I am
vested with: To me, I say, she appear’d a Fury, a Satyr, a fiery
little Fiend as could possibly be dress’d up in Flesh; in short, she
appear’d to me what really she was, a very Devil: It is natural to human
Creatures to desire to discover any extraordinary Powers they are
possess’d of superior to others, and this Itch prevailing in me, among
the rest, I was impatient to let this Lady know that I understood her
Composition perfectly well, nay, as well as she did her self.
In order to this, happening to be in the Family once for some Days, and
having the Honour to be very intimate with her and her Husband too, I
took an Opportunity on an extraordinary Occasion, when she was in the
Height of good Humour, to talk with her; You must note, that as I said,
the Lady was in an extraordinary good Humour, and there had been a great
deal of Mirth in the Family for some Days; but one Evening, Sir E——
her Husband, upon some very sharp Turn she gave to another Gentleman,
which made all the Company pleasant, run to her, and with a Passion of
good Humour takes her in his Arms, and turning to me, says he, Jack,
This Wife of mine is full of Wit and good Humour, but when she has a
Mind to be smart, she is the keenest little Devil in the World: This
was alluding to the quick Turn she had given the other Gentleman.
Is that the best Language you can give your Wife, says my Lady? O Madam,
says I, such Devils as you, are all Angels; ay, ay, says my Lady, I
know that, he has only let a Truth fly out that he does not understand:
Look ye there now, says Sir Edward, could any thing but such a dear
Devil as this have said a thing so pointed? Well, well, adds he,
Devil to a Lady in a Man’s Arms,[Pg 301] is a Word of divers Interpretations.
Thus they rallied for a good while, he holding her fast all the while in
his Arms, and frequently kissing her, and at last it went off, all in
Sunshine and Mirth.
But the next Day, for I had the Honour to lodge in the Lady’s Father’s
House, where it all happen’d; I say, the next Day my Lady begins with me
upon the Subject, and that very smartly, so that first I did not know
whether she was in jest or earnest: Ay, ay, says she, you Men make
nothing of your Wives after you have them, alluding to the Discourse
with Sir Edward the Night before.
Why Madam, says I, we Men, as you are pleas’d to term it, if we meet
with good Wives worship them, and make Idols of them, what would you
have more of us?
No, no, says she, before you have them they are Angels, but when you
have been in Heaven, adds she and smil’d, then they are Devils.
Why Madam, says I, Devils are Angels, you know, and were the highest
Sort of Angels once.
Yes, says she, very smartly, all Devils are Angels, but all Angels
are not Devils.
But Madam, says I, you should never take it ill to be call’d Devil,
you know.
I know, says she, hastily, what d’ye mean by that?
Why Madam, says I, and look’d very gravely and serious, I thought you
had known that I knew it, or else I would not have said so, for I would
not offend you; but you may depend I shall never discover it, unless you
order me to do so for your particular Service.
Upon this she look’d hard and wild, and bid me explain my self.
[Pg 302]I told her, I was ready to explain my self, if she would give me her
Word, she would not resent it, and would take nothing ill.
She gave me her word solemnly she would not, tho’ like a true Devil
she broke her Promise with me all at once.
Well however, being unconcern’d whether she kept her Word or no, I
began, by telling her that I had not long since obtain’d the second
sight, and had some years studied Magic, by which I could penetrate into
many things, which to ordinary Perception were invisible, and had some
Glasses, by the Help of which I could see into all visionary or
imaginary Appearances in a different Manner than other People did.
Very well, says she, suppose you can, what’s that to me?
I told her it was nothing to her any further than that as she knew her
self to be originally not the same Creature she seem’d to be, but was of
a sublime angelic Original; so by the Help of my recited Art I knew it
too, and so far it might relate to her.
Very fine, says she, so you would make a Devil of me indeed.
I took that Occasion to tell her, I would make nothing of her but what
she was; that I suppos’d she knew well enough God Almighty never thought
fit to make any human Creature so perfect and compleatly beautiful as
she was, but that such were also reserved for Figures to be assum’d by
Angels of one Kind or other.
She rallied me upon that, and told me that would not bring me off, for I
had not determined her for any thing Angelic, but a meer Devil; and
how could I flatter her with being handsome and a Devil both at the
same time?
I told her, as Satan, whom we abusively call’d[Pg 303] Devil, was an immortal
Seraph, and of an original angelic Nature, so abstracted from any thing
wicked, he was a most glorious Being; that when he thought fit to encase
himself with Flesh, and walk about in Disguise, it was in his Power
equally with the other Angels to make the Form he took upon himself be
as he thought fit, beautiful or deform’d.
Here she disputed the Possibility of that, and after charging me faintly
with flattering her Face, told me the Devil could not be represented by
any thing handsome, alledging our constant picturing the Devil in all
the frightful Appearances imaginable.
I told her we wrong’d him very much in that, and quoted St. Francis,
to whom the Devil frequently appeared in the Form of the most
incomparably beautiful naked Woman, to allure him, and what Means he
used to turn the Appearance into a Devil again, and how he effected
it.
She put by the Discourse, and returned to that of Angels, and insisted
that Angels did not always assume beautiful Appearances; that sometimes
they appear’d in terrible Shapes, but that when they did not, it was at
best only amiable Faces, not exquisite; and that therefore it would not
hold, that to be handsome, should always render them suspected.
I told her the Devil had more Occasion to form Beauties than other
Angels had, his Business being principally to deceive and ensnare
Mankind. And then I gave her some Examples upon the whole.
I found by her Discourse she was willing enough to pass for an Angel,
but ’twas the hardest thing in the World to convince her that she was a
Devil, and she would not come into that by any means; she argued that I
knew her Father,[Pg 304] and that her Mother was a very good Woman, and was
delivered of her in the ordinary Way, and that there was such and such
Ladies who were present in the Room when she was born, and that had
often told her so.
I told her that was nothing in such a Case as hers; that when the Old
Gentleman had occasion to transform himself into a fine Lady, he could
easily dispose of a Child, and place himself in the Cradle instead of
it, when the Nurse or Mother were asleep; nay, or when they were broad
awake either, it was the same thing to him; and I quoted Luther to her
upon that Occasion, who affirms that it had been so. However I said, to
convince her that I knew it, (for I would have it that she knew it
already) if she pleas’d I would go to my Chamber and fetch her my Magick
Looking-glass, where she should see her own Picture, not only as it was
an angelick Picture for the World to admire, but a Devil also
frightful enough to any Body but herself and me that understood it.
No, no, said she, I’ll look in none of your conjuring Glasses; I know
my self well enough, and I desire to look no otherwise than I am.
No, Madam, says I, I know that very well; nor do you need any better
Shape than that you appear in, ’tis most exquisitely fine; all the World
knows you are a compleat Beauty, and that is a clear Evidence what you
would be if your present appearing Form was reduced to its proper
Personality.
Appearing Form! says she, why, what would you make an Apparition of
me?
An Apparition! Madam, said I, yes, to be sure; why you know, you are
nothing else but an Apparition; and what else would you be, when it is
so infinitely to your Advantage?
[Pg 305]With that, she turn’d pale and angry, and then rose up hastily, and
look’d into the Glass, (a large Peer-glass being in the Room) where
she stood, surveying her self from Head to Foot, with Vanity not a
little.
I took that Time to slip away, and running up into my Apartment, I
fetch’d my Magic Glass as I call’d it, in which I had a hollow
Case so framed behind a Looking-glass, that in the first; she would
see her own Face only; in the second, she would see the Devil’s
Face, ugly and frightful enough, but dress’d up with a Lady’s
Head-Clothes in a Circle, the Devil’s Face in the Center, and as
it were at a little Distance behind.
I came down again so soon that she did not think the Time long,
especially having spent it in surveying her fair self; when I return’d,
I said, Come, Madam, do not trouble your self to look there, that is not
a Glass capable of shewing you any thing; come, take this Glass.
It will shew me as much of my self, says she, a little scornfully, as
I desire to see; so she continued looking in the Peer-glass; after some
time more (for seeing her a little out of Humour, I waited to see what
Observations she would make) I ask’d her if she had view’d her self to
her Satisfaction? She said she had, and she had seen nothing of Devil
about her. Come, Madam, said I, look here; and with that I open’d the
Looking-glass, and she look’d in it, but saw nothing but her own Face;
Well, says she, the Glasses agree well enough, I see no Difference;
what can you make of it? With that I took it a little away; Don’t you?
says I, then I shou’d be mistaken very much; so I look’d in it my
self, and giving it a Turn imperceptible to her, I shew’d it her again,
where she saw the Devil indeed, dress’d[Pg 306] up like a fine Lady, but
ugly, and Devil like as could be desired for a Devil to be.
She started, and cry’d out most horribly, and told me, she thought I was
more of a Devil than she, for that she knew nothing of all those
Tricks, and I did it to fright her, she believ’d I had rais’d the
Devil.
I told her it was nothing but her own natural Picture, and that she knew
well enough, and that I did not shew it her to inform her of it, but to
let her know that I knew it too; that so she might make no Pretences of
being offended when I talk’d familiarly to her of a Thing of this
Nature.
Very well; so, says she, I am a real frightful Devil, am I?
O, Madam, says I, don’t say, Am I? why you know what you are, don’t
you? A Devil! ay, certainly; as sure as the rest of the World believes
you a Lady.
I had a great deal of farther Discourse with her upon that Subject, tho’
she would fain have beat me off of it, and two or three times she put
the Talk off, and brought something else on; but I always found Means to
revive it, and to attack her upon the Reality of her being a Devil, till
at last I made her downright angry, and then she shew’d it.
First she cried, told me I came to affront her, that I would not talk so
if Sir Ed—— was by; and that she ought not to be used so. I
endeavour’d to pacify her, and told her I had not treated her with any
Indecency, nor I would not; because while she thought fit to walk Abroad
incog. it was none of my Business to discover her; that if she thought
fit to tell Sir Ed—— any thing of the Discourse, she was very
welcome, or to conceal it, (which I thought the wisest Course)[Pg 307] she
should do just as she pleas’d; but I made no question I should convince
Sir E—— her Husband, that what I said was just, and that I was
really so; whether it was for her Service or no for him to know it, was
for her to consider.
This calm’d her a little, and she look’d hard at me a Minute without
speaking a Word, when on a sudden she broke out thus: And you will
undertake, says she, to convince Sir Ed—— that he has married a
Devil, will ye? A fine Story indeed! and what follows? why then it
must follow that the Child I go with (for she was big with Child) will
be a Devil too, will it? A fine Story for Sir Ed—— indeed! isn’t
it?
I don’t know that, Madam, said I, that’s as you order it; by the
Father’s Side, said I, I know it will not, but what it may by the
Mother’s Side, that’s a Doubt I can’t resolve till the Devil and I
talk farther about it.
You and the Devil talk together! says she, and looks rufully at me;
why do you talk with the Devil then?
Ay, Madam, says I, as sure as ever you did your self; besides, said I,
can you question that? Pray who am I talking to now?
I think you are mad, says she; why you will make Devils of all the
Family, it may be, and particularly I must be with Child of a Devil,
that’s certain.
No, Madam, said I, ’tis not certain, as I said before, I question it.
Why you say I am the Devil, the Child, you know, has always most of the
Mother in it, then that must be a Devil too I think, what else can it
be, says she?
I can’t tell that, Madam, said I; that’s as you agree among your
selves, this Kind does not go by Generation; that’s a Dispute foreign to
the present Purpose.
[Pg 308]Then I entred into a Discourse with her of the Ends and Purposes for
which the Devil takes up such beautiful Forms as hers, and why it always
gave me a Suspicion when I saw a Lady handsomer than ordinary, and set
me upon the Search to be satisfied whether she was really a Woman or an
Apparition? a Lady or a Devil? allowing all along that her being a
Devil was quite out of the Question.
Upon that very Foot, she took me up again roundly, and so, says she,
you are very civil to me through all your Discourse, for I see it ends
all in that, and you take it as a thing confest, that I am a Devil! A
very pretty piece of good Usage indeed! says she; I thank you for
it.
Nay, Madam, says I, do not take it ill of me, for I only discover to
you that I knew it; I do not tell it you as a Secret, for you are
satisfied of that another way.
Satisfied of what? says she, that I am a Devil? I think the Devil’s in
you: And so began to be hot.
A Devil! yes, Madam, says I, without doubt a meer Devil; take it as you
please, I can’t help that: And so I began to take it ill that she should
be disgusted at opening such a well-known Truth to her.
With that she discover’d it all at once, for she turn’d Fury, in the
very Letter of it; flew out in a Passion, rail’d at me, curst me most
heartily, and immediately disappeared; which you know is the particular
Mark of a Spirit or Apparition.
We had a great deal of Discourse besides this, relating to several other
young Ladies of her Acquaintance, some of which, I said, were mere
Apparitions like her self; and told her which were so, and which not;
and the Reason why they were so,[Pg 309] and for what Uses and Purposes, some
to delude the World one way, and some another; and she was pretty well
pleased to hear that, but she could not bear to hear her own true
Character, which however, as cunning as she was, made her act the Devil
at last, as you have heard; and then vanished out of my sight.
I have seen her in Miniature several Times since; but she proves her
self still to be the Devil of a Lady, for she bears Malice, and will
never forgive me, that I would not let her be an Angel; but like a very
Devil as she is, she endeavours to kill me at a Distance; and indeed the
Poison of her Eyes, (Basilisk-like) is very strong, and she has a
strange Influence upon me; but I that know her to be a Devil, strive
very hard with my self to drive the Memory of her out of my Thoughts.
I have had two or three Engagements since this, with other Apparitions
of the same Sex, and I find they are all alike, they are willing enough
to be thought Angels, but the Word Devil does not go down at all with
them: But ’tis all one, whenever we see an Apparition, it is so
natural to say we have seen the Devil, that there’s no prevailing with
Mankind to talk any other Language. A Gentleman of my Acquaintance, the
other Day, that had courted a Lady a long time, had the Misfortune to
come a little suddenly upon her, when she did not expect him, and found
her in such a Rage at some of her Servants, that it quite disorder’d
her, especially a Footman; the Fellow had done something that was indeed
provoking, but not sufficient to put her into such a Passion, and so out
of her self; nor was she able to restrain her self when she saw her
Lover come in, but damn’d the Fellow, and rag’d like a Fury at him.
[Pg 310]My Friend did his best to compose her, and begg’d the Fellow’s Pardon of
her, but it would not do; nay, the poor Fellow made all the Submissions
that could be expected, but ’twas the same thing: And so the Gentleman,
not caring to engage himself farther than became him, withdrew, and came
no more at her for three Days, in all which time she was hardly cool.
The next Day my Friend came to me, and talking of it in Confidence to
me, I am afraid, says he, I am going to marry a She Devil, and so
told me the Story; I took no Notice to him, but finding out his
Mistress, and taking proper Measures, with some of my particular Skill,
I soon found out that it was really so, that she was a mere
Apparition; and had it not been for that accidental Disorder of her
Passions, which discover’d her Inside, she might indeed have cheated any
Man, for she was a lovely Devil as ever was seen; she talk’d like an
Angel, sung like a Syren, did every thing, and said every thing that was
taking and charming: But what then? it was all Apparition, for she was a
mere Devil. It is true, my Friend marry’d her, and tho’ she was a
Devil without doubt, yet either she behav’d so well, or he was so
good, I never could hear him find Fault with her.
These are particular Instances; but alas! I could run you a Length
beyond all those Examples, and give you such a List of Devils among the
gay Things of the Town, that would fright you to think of; and you would
presently conclude, with me, that all the perfect Beauties are Devils,
mere Apparitions; but Time and Paper fails, so we must only leave the
Men the Caution, let them venture at their Peril. I return to the
Subject.
[Pg 311]We have a great many charming Apparitions of like kind go daily about
the World in compleat Masquerade, and, tho’ we must not say so, they are
in themselves mere Devils, wicked dangerous murthering Devils, that
kill various Ways, some, Basilisk-like, with their Eyes; some
Syren-like, with their Tongues; all Murtherers, even from the
Beginning: It is true, ’tis pity these pretty Apparitions should be
Devils, and be so mischievous as they are; but since it is so, I can do
no less than to advertise you of it, that you may shun the Devil in
whatever Shape you meet with him.
Again, there are some half Devils, they say, like the Sagittarii, half
Man, half Horse, or rather like the Satyr, who, they say, is half
Devil, half Man; or, like my Lord Bishop, who, they say, was
half-headed; whether they mean half-witted or no, I do not find Authors
agreed about it: But if they had voted him such, it had been as kind a
thing as any they cou’d say of him, because it would have clear’d him
from the Scandal of being a Devil, or half a Devil, for we don’t find
the Devil makes any Alliance with F——ls.
Then as to merry Devils, there’s my Master G———, he may indeed have
the Devil in him, but it must be said, to the Credit of Possession in
general, that Satan would have scorn’d to have entred into a Soul so
narrow that there was not room to hold him, or to take up with so
discording a Creature, so abject, so scoundrel, as never made a Figure
among Mankind greater than that of a Thief, a Moroder, moulded up into
Quality, and a Raparee dress’d up a-la-Masque, with a Robe and a
Coronet.
Some little Dog-kennel Devil may indeed take up his Quarters in or near
him, and so run into and out of him as his Drum beats a Call; but[Pg 312] to
him that was born a Devil, Satan, that never acts to no purpose, cou’d
not think him worth being possess’d by any thing better than a Devil of
a dirty Quality; that is to say, a Spirit too mean to wear the Name of
Devil, without some Badge or Addition of Infamy and Meanness to
distinguish it by.
Thus what Devil of Quality would be confin’d to a P————n, who
inheriting all the Pride and Insolence of his Ancestors, without one of
their good Qualities; the Bully, the Billingsgate, and all the
hereditary ill Language of his Family, without an Ounce of their
Courage; that has been rescued five or six times from the Scandal of a
Coward, by the Bravery, and at the Hazard of Friends, and never fail’d
to be ungrateful; that if ever he committed a Murther, did it in cold
Blood, because no body could prove he ever had any hot; who possess’d
with a Poltroon Devil, was always wickeder in the Dark, than he durst
be by Day-light; and who, after innumerable passive Sufferings, has been
turned out of human Society, because he could not be kick’d or cuff’d
either into good Manners or good Humour.
To say this was a Devil, an Apparition, or even a half Devil, would
be unkind to Satan himself, since tho’ he (the Devil) has so many
Millions of inferior Devils under his Command, not one cou’d be found
base enough to match him, nor one Devil found but what would think
himself dishonour’d to be employ’d about him.
Some merry good-for-nothing Devils we have indeed, which we might, if
we had room, speak of at large, and divert you too with the Relation,
such as my Lady Hatt’s Devil in Essex, who upon laying a Joiner’s
Mallet in the Window of a certain Chamber, would come very orderly and[Pg 313]
knock with it all Night upon the Window, or against the Wainscot, and
disturb the Neighbourhood, and then go away in the Morning, as well
satisfied as may be; whereas if the Mallet was not left, he would think
himself affronted, and be as unsufferable and terrifying as possible,
breaking the Windows, splitting the Wainscot, committing all the
Disorders, and doing all the Damage that he was able to the House, and
to the Goods in it. And again, such as the Druming Devil in the Well
at Oundle in Northamptonshire, and such like.
A great many antick Devils have been seen also, who seem’d to have
little or nothing to do, but only to assure us that they can appear if
they please, and that there is a Reality in the thing call’d Apparition.
As to Shadows of Devils, and imaginary Appearances, such as appear,
and yet are invisible at the same time, I had thought to have bestow’d a
Chapter upon them by themselves, but it may be as much to the Purpose to
let them alone, as to meddle with them; ’tis said our old Friend
Luther used to be exceedingly troubled with such invisible
Apparitions, and he tells us much of them, in what they call his
Table-talk; but with Master Luther’s leave, tho’ the Devil passes
for a very great Lyar, I could swallow many things of his own proper
making, as soon as some of those I find in a Book that goes by his Name,
particularly the Story of the Devil in a Basket, the Child flying out of
the Cradle, and the like.
In a word, the walking Devils that we have generally among us, are of
the female Sex; whether it be that the Devil finds less Difficulty to
manage them, or that he lives quieter with them, or that they are fitter
for his Business than the[Pg 314] Men, I shall not now enter into a Dispute
about that; perhaps he goes better disguis’d in the fair Sex than
otherwise; Antiquity gives us many Histories of She-Devils, such as we
can very seldom match for Wickedness among the Men; such now as in the
Text, Lot’s Daughters, Joseph’s Mistress, Sampson’s Dalilah,
Herod’s Herodias, these were certainly Devils, or play’d the
Devil sufficiently in their Turn; one Male Apparition indeed the
Scripture furnishes you with, and that is Judas; for his Master says
expresly of him, One of you is a Devil; not has the Devil, or is
possess’d of the Devil; but really is a Devil, or is a real Devil.
How happy is it, that this great Secret comes thus to be discover’d to
mankind? Certainly the World has gone on in Ignorance a long time, and
at a strange rate, that we should have so many Devils continually
walking about among us in humane Shape, and we know it not.
Philosophers tell us that there is a World of Spirits, and many learned
Pieces of Guess-work they make at it, representing the World to be so
near us, that the Air, as they describe it, must be full of Dragons and
Devils, enough to fright our Imaginations with the very Thoughts of
them; and if they say true, ’tis our great Felicity that we cannot see
any farther into it than we do, which if we could, would appear as
frightful as Hell itself; but none of those Sages ever told us, till
now, that half the People who converse with us are Apparitions,
especially of the Women; and among them especially this valuable Part,
the Woman of Figure, the fair, the beautiful, or patch’d and painted.
This unusual Phænomenon has been seen but a little while, and but a
little way, and the general Part of Mankind cannot come into the same
[Pg 315]Notions about it; nay, perhaps they will all think it strange; but be
it as strange as it will, the Nature of the Thing confirms it, this
lower Sphere is full of Devils; and some of both Sexes have given
strange Testimonies of the Reality of their pre-existent Devilism for
many Ages past, tho’ I think it never came to that Height as it has now.
It is true, in former times Satan dealt much in old Women, and those, as
I have observ’d already, very ugly, Ugly as a Witch, Black as a
Witch, I look like a Witch, all proverbial Speeches, and which
testify’d what Tools it was Satan generally work’d with; and these old
Spectres, they tell us, us’d to ride thro’ the Air in the Night, and
upon Broomsticks too, all mighty homely Doings; some say they us’d to go
to visit their Grand Seignior the Devil, in those Nocturnal
Perambulations: But be that as it will, ’tis certain the Devil has
chang’d hands, and that now he walks about the World cloth’d in Beauty,
cover’d with the Charms of the Lovely, and he fails not to disguise
himself effectually by it, for who would think a beautiful Lady could be
a Masque to the Devil? and that a fine Face, a divine Shape, a heavenly
Aspect, should bring the Devil in her Company, nay, should be herself
an Apparition, a mere Devil.
The Enquiry is indeed worth our while, and therefore I hope all the
enamour’d Beaus and Boys, all the Beauty-hunters and Fortune-hunters,
will take heed, for I suppose if they get the Devil, they will not
complain for want of a Fortune; and there’s Danger enough, I assure you,
for the World is full of Apparitions, non rosa sine spinis; not a
Beauty without a Devil, the old Women Spectres, and the young Women
Apparitions; the ugly ones Witches, and the[Pg 316] handsome ones Devils;
Lord ha’ Mercy, and a ✠ may be Set on the Man’s Door that goes a
courting.
Chap. VIII.
Of the Cloven-Foot walking about the World without the Devil,
(viz.) of Witches making Bargains for the Devil, and
particularly of selling the Soul to the Devil.
I have dwelt long upon the Devil in Masque as he goes about the World
incog. and especially without his Cloven-Foot, and have touched upon
some of his Disguises in the Management of his Interest in the World; I
must say some of his Disguises only, for who can give a full account of
all his Tricks and Arts in so narrow a Compass as I am prescrib’d to?
But as I said, that every Devil has not a Cloven-Foot, so I must add
now for the present Purpose, that every Cloven-Foot is not the Devil.
Not but that wherever I should meet the Cloven-Hoof, I should expect
that the Devil was not far off, and should be apt to raise the Posse
against him, to apprehend him; yet it may happen otherwise, that’s
certain; every Coin has its Counterfeit, every Art its Pretender, every
Whore her Admirer, every Error its Patron, and every Day has its Devil.
I have had some thought of making a full and compleat Discovery here of
that great Doubt which has so long puzzl’d the World, namely, whether
there is any such Thing, as secret making Bargains with the Devil, and
the first positive Assurance I can give you in the Case, is, that if[Pg 317]
there is not, ’tis not his Fault, ’tis not for want of his Endeavour,
’tis plain, if you will pardon me for taking so mean a Step, as that of
quoting Scripture; I say, ’tis evident he would fain have made a
Contract with our Saviour, and he bid boldly (give him his due)
namely, all the Kingdoms of the World for one bend of his Knee:
Impudent Seraph! To think thy Lord should pay thee Homage! How many
would agree with him here for a less Price! They say, Oliver Cromwell
struck a Bargain with him, and that he gave Oliver the Protectorship,
but would not let him call himself King, which stuck so close to that
Furioso, that the Mortification Spread into his Soul, and ’tis said,
he dy’d of a Gangreen in the Spleen. But take Notice and do Oliver
Justice; I do not vouch the Story, neither does the Bishop say one Word
of it.
Fame us’d to say, that the old famous Duke of Luxemburg made a Magic
compact of this Kind; nay, I have heard many an (old Woman) Officer of
the Troops, who never car’d to see his Face, declare that he carry’d the
Devil at his Back. I remember a certain Author of a News Paper in
London was once taken up, and they say, it cost him 50l. for
printing in his News, that Luxemburg was Humpback’d. Now if I have
resolv’d the Difficulty, namely, that he was not hump’d, only carry’d
the Devil at his Back; I think the poor Man should have his 50l.
again, or I should have it for the Discovery.
I confess, I do not well understand this compacting with such a Fellow
as can neither write nor read; nor do I know who is the Scrivener
between them, or how the Indenture can be executed; but that which is
worse than all the rest is, that in the first Place, the Devil never
keeps Articles; he will contract perhaps, and they say[Pg 318] he is mighty
forward to make Conditions; but who shall bind him to the Performance,
and where is the Penalty if he fails? if we agree with him, he will be
apt enough to claim his Bargain and demand Payment; nay, perhaps before
it is due; but who shall make him stand to his.
Besides, he is a Knave in his Dealing, for he really promises what he
cannot perform; witness his impudent Proposal to our Lord mentioned
above. All these Kingdoms will I give thee! Lying Spirit! Why they
were none of thine to give, no not one of them; for the Earth is the
Lords and the kingdoms thereof, nor were they in his Power any more than
in his Right: So (I have heard that) some poor dismal Creatures have
sold themselves to the Devil for a Sum of Money, for so much Cash, and
yet even in that Case, when the Day of Payment came, I never heard that
he brought the Money or paid the Purchase, so that he is a Scoundrel in
his Treaties, for you shall trust for your Bargain, but not be able to
get your Money; and yet for your Part, he comes for you to an Hour: Of
which by it self.
In a Word, let me caution you all, when you trade with the Devil, either
get the Price or quit the Bargain; the Devil is a cunning Shaver, he
will wriggle himself out of the Performance on his Side if possible, and
yet expect you should be punctual on your Side. They tell you of a poor
Fellow in Herefordshire, that offer’d to sell his Soul to him for a
Cow, and though the Devil promised, and as they say, sign’d the
Writings, yet the poor Countryman could never get the Cow of him, but
still as he brought a Cow to him, some body or other came and challeng’d
it, proving that it was lost or stolen from them; so that the Man got
nothing but the Name of a Cow-stealer, and was at last carried to
Hereford[Pg 319] Goal, and condemn’d to be hang’d for stealing two Cows, one
after the other: The wicked Fellow was then in the greatest Distress
imaginable, he summon’d his Devil to help him out, but he failed him,
as the Devil always will; he really had not stolen the Cows, but they
were found in his Possession, and he could give no Account how he came
by them; at last he was driven to confess the Truth, told the horrid
Bargain he had made, and how the Devil often promis’d him a Cow, but
never gave him one, except that several Times in the Morning early he
found a Cow put into his Yard, but it always prov’d to belong to some of
his Neighbours: Whether the Man was hang’d or no, the Story does not
relate; but this Part is to my Purpose, that they that make Bargains
with the Devil, ought to make him give Security for the Performance of
Covenants, and who the Devil would get to be bound for him, I can’t
tell, they must look to that who make the Bargain: Besides, if he had
not had a Mind to cheat or baffle the poor Man, what need he have taken
a Cow so near home? if he had such and such Powers as we talk of, and as
Fancy and Fable furnish for him, could not he have carried a Cow in the
Air upon a Broom-stick, as well as an old Woman? Could he not have stole
a Cow for him in Lincolnshire, and set it down in Herefordshire, and
so have performed his Bargain, saved his Credit, and kept the poor Man
out of Trouble? so that if the Story is True, as I really believe it is,
either it is not the Devil that makes those Bargains, or the Devil has
not such Power as we bestow on him, except on Special Occasions he gets
a Permit, and is bid go, as in the Case of Job, the Gadaren Hogs,
and the like.
We have another Example of a Man’s selling himself to the Devil, that
is very remarkable, and[Pg 320] that is in the Bible too, and even in that, I
do not find, what the Devil did for him, in Payment of the Purchase
Price. The Person selling was Ahab, of whom the Text says expresly,
there was none like him, who did sell himself to work Wickedness in
the Sight of the Lord, 1 Kings xxi. 20, and the 25. I think it might
have been rendred, if not translated in Spight of the Lord, or in
Defiance of God; for certainly that’s the Meaning of it; and now
allowing me to preach a little upon this Text, my Sermon shall be very
short. Ahab sold himself, who did he sell himself to? I answer that
Question by a Question; who would buy him? who, as we say, would give
any thing for him? and the Answer to that is plain also, you may judge
of the Purchaser by the Work he was to do; he that buys a Slave in the
Market, buys him to work for him, and to do such Business as he has for
him to do: Ahab was bought to work wickedness, and who would buy him
for that but the Devil?
I think there’s no room to doubt but Ahab sold himself to the Devil;
the Text is plain that he sold himself, and the Work he was sold to do
points out the Master that bought him; what Price he agreed with the
Devil for, that indeed the Text is silent in, so we may let it alone,
nor is it much to our Purpose, unless it be to enquire whether the
Devil stood to his Bargain or not, and whether he paid the Money
according to Agreement, or cheated him as he did the Farmer at
Hereford.
This buying and selling between the Devil and us, is, I must confess,
an odd kind of Stock-jobbing, and indeed the Devil may be said to sell
the Bear-skin, whatever he buys; but the strangest Part is when he
comes to demand the transfer; for as I hinted before, whether he
Performs or no, he expects[Pg 321] his Bargain to a Tittle; there is indeed
some Difficulty in resolving how and in what Manner Payment is made; the
Stories we meet with in our Chimney-Corner Histories, and which are so
many Ways made Use of to make the Devil frightful to us and our Heirs
for ever, are generally so foolish and ridiculous, as, if true or not
true, they have nothing Material in them, are of no Signification, or
else so impossible in their Nature, that they make no Impression upon
any body above twelve Years old and under seventy; or else are so
tragical that Antiquity has fabled them down to our Taste, that we might
be able to hear them and repeat them with less Horror than is due to
them.
This Variety has taken off our Relish of the Thing in general, and made
the Trade of Soul-selling, like our late more eminent Bubbles, be taken
to be a Cheat and to have little in it.
However, to speak a little more gravely to it, I cannot say but that
since, by the two eminent Instances of it above in Ahab, and in Christ
himself, the Fact is evidently ascertain’d; and that the Devil has
attempted to make such a Bargain on one, and actually did make it with
the other. The Possibility of it is not to be disputed; but then I must
explain the Manner of it a little, and bring it down, nearer to our
Understanding, that it may be more intelligible than it is; for as for
this selling the Soul, and making a Bargain to give the Devil
Possession by Livery and Seisin on the Day appointed, that I cannot come
into by any Means; no nor into the other Part, namely, of the Devil
coming to claim his Bargain, and to demand the Soul according to
Agreement, and upon Default of a fair Delivery, taking it away by
Violence Case and all, of which we have many historical Relations
pretty current among[Pg 322] us; some of which, for ought I know, we might
have hop’d had been true, if we had not been sure they were false, and
others we had Reason to fear were false, because it was impossible they
should be true.
The Bargains of this Kind, according to the best Accounts we have of
them, used to consist of two main Articles, according to the ordinary
Stipulations in all Covenants; namely,
1. Something to be perform’d on the Devil’s Part, buying.
2. Something to be performed on the Man’s Part, selling.
1. The Devil’s Part: This was generally some poor Trifle, for the
Devil generally bought good Penny-worths, and oftentimes like a compleat
Sharper, agreed to give what he was not able to procure; that is to say,
would bargain for a Price he could not pay, as in the Case of the
Hereford Man and the Cow; for Example, 1. Long Life: This tho’ the
deluded Chapman has often had folly enough to contract for, the Devil
never had Power to make good; and we have a famous Story, how true I
know not, of a Wretch that sold himself to the Devil on Condition he,
Satan, should assure him (1.) That he should never want Victuals; (2.)
That he should never be a cold; (3.) That he should always come to him
when he call’d him; and (4.) That he should let him live one and twenty
Years, and then Satan was at Liberty to have him; that is, I suppose, to
take him wherever he could find him.
It seems, the Fellow’s desire to be assur’d of 21 Years Life, was
chiefly, that during that Time, he might be as wicked as he would, and
should yet be sure not to be hang’d, nay, to be free from all
Punishment; upon this Foot ’tis said he commenc’d Rogue, and committed a
great many[Pg 323] Robberies and other villanous Things; now it seems the
Devil was pretty true to his Bargain in several of those things;
particularly, that two or three times when the Fellow was taken up for
petty Crimes, and call’d for his old Friend, he came and frighted the
Constables so, that they let the Offender get away from them: But at
Length having done some capital Crime, a Set of Constables, or such like
Officers, seiz’d upon him, who were not to be frighted with the Devil,
in what Shape soever he appear’d; so that they carry’d him off, and he
was committed to Newgate or some other Prison as effectual.
Nor could Satan with all his Skill unlock his Fetters, much less the
Prison Doors; But he was try’d, convicted, and executed. The Fellow in
his Extremity, they say, expostulated with the Devil for his
Bargain, the Term of 21 Years it seems not being expir’d. But the
Devil, it is said, shuffl’d with him, told him a good while, he would
get him out, bid him have Patience and stay a little, and thus led him
on, till he came as it were within Sight of the Gallows, that is to say,
within a Day or two of his Execution; when the Devil cavill’d upon his
Bargain, told him, he agreed to let him live 21 Years, and he had not
hindred him, but that he did not Covenant to cause him to live that
Time; that there was a great deal of Difference between doing and
suffering; that he was to suffer him to live, and that he did; but he
could not make him live when he had brought himself to the Gallows.
Whether this Story were true or not, for you must not expect we
Historians should answer for the Discourse between the Devil and his
Chaps, because we were not privy to the Bargain: I say, whether it was
true or not, the Inference is to our Purpose several Ways.
[Pg 324]1. It confirms what I have said
of the Knavery of the Devil in his Dealings, and that when he has Stock-jobb’d with us on the best
Conditions he can get, he very seldom performs his Bargain.
2. It confirms what I have likewise said, that the Devil’s Power
is limited; with this Addition, that he not only cannot destroy the
Life of Man, but that he cannot preserve it; in short, he can
neither prevent or bring on our Destruction.
I may be allow’d, I hope, for the Sake of the present Discourse, to
suppose that the Devil would have been so just to this wicked, tho’
foolish Creature, as to have sav’d him from the Gallows if he could; but
it seems, he at last acknowledg’d that it was not in his Power; nay, he
could not keep him from being taken and carry’d to Prison, after he was
gotten into the Hands of a bold Fellow or two, that were not to be
fear’d with his Bluster, as some foolish Creatures had been before.
And how simple, how weak, how unlike any Thing of an Angelick Nature,
was it to attempt to save the poor Wretch, only by little Noises and
sham Appearances, putting out the Candles, rushing and josteling in the
Dark, and the like! If the Devil was that mighty Seraph, which we
have heard of, if he is a God of this World, a Prince of the Air, a
Spirit able to destroy Cities and make Havock in the World; if he can
raise Tempests and Storms, throw Fire about the World, and do wonderful
Things, as an unchain’d Devil no Doubt could do; what need all this
Frippery? and what need he try so many ridiculous Ways, by the
Emptiness, nay, the silly nonsensical Manner, of which, he shews, that
he is able to do no better,[Pg 325] and that his Power is extinguish’d? In a
Word, he would certainly act otherwise, if he could. Sed caret
pedibus, he wants Power.
How weak a thing is it then, for any Man to expect Performance from the
Devil? If he has not Power to do Mischief, which is his Element, his
very Nature, and on many Accounts, is the very sum of his Desires; How
should he have Power to do Good? how Power to deliver from Danger or
from Death? which Deliverance would be in itself a Good, and we know it
is not in his Nature to do Good to or for any Man?
In a Word, the Devil is strangely impudent, to think that any Man
should depend upon him for the Performance of an Agreement of any Kind
whatever, when he knows himself, that he is not able, if he was honest
enough, to be as good as his Word.
Come we next to his expecting our Performance to him; tho’ he is not so
just to us, yet, it seems, he never fails to come and demand Payment of
us at the very Day appointed: He was but a weak Trader in Things of this
Nature, who having sold his Soul to the Devil, so our old Women’s
Tales call the Thing, and when the Devil came to demand his Bargain,
put it off as a Thing of no Force, for that it was done so long ago, he
thought he (the Devil) had forgot it. It was a better Answer, which
they tell us, a Lutheran Divine gave the Devil in the Name of a poor
Wretch, who had sold himself to the Devil, and who was in a terrible
Fright about his coming for his Bargain, as he might well be indeed, if
the Devil has such a Power, as really to come and take it by Force.
The Story (if you can bear a serious one) is this.
The Man was in great Horror of Mind, and the Family fear’d he would
destroy himself; at[Pg 326] length they sent for a Lutheran Minister to talk
with him, and who after some Labour with him, got out the Truth (viz.)
that he had sold himself to the Devil, and that the Time was almost
expir’d, when he expected the Devil would come and fetch him away, and
he was sure he would not fail coming to the Time to a Minute; the
Minister first endeavour’d to convince him of the horrid Crime, and to
bring him to a true Penitence for that Part; and having as he thought
made him a sincere Penitent, he then began to encourage him, and
particularly, desir’d of him, that when the Time was come, that the
Devil should fetch him away, he, the Minister, should be in the House
with him; accordingly, to make the Story short, the Time came, the
Devil came, and the Minister was present, when the Devil came; what
Shape he was in, the Story does not say; the Man said he saw him, and
cry’d out; the Minister could not see him, but the Man affirming he was
in the Room, the Minister said aloud, in the Name of the living God,
Satan, what comest thou here for? The Devil answer’d, I come for my
own; the Minister answer’d, He is not thy own, for Jesus Christ has
redeem’d him, and in his Name I charge thee to avoid and touch him not;
at which, says the Story, the Devil gave a furious Stamp (with his
Cloven-Foot I suppose) and went away, and was never known to molest him
afterward.
Another Story, tho’ it be in it self a long one, I shall abridge (for
your reading with the less Uneasiness) as follows.
A young Gentleman of ——berg, in the Elector of Brandenburgh’s (now
the King of Prussia’s) Dominions, being deeply in Love with a
beautiful Lady, but something above his Fortune, and whom he could by no
Means bring to love him again,[Pg 327] apply’d himself to an old thing call’d
a Witch, for her Assistance, and promised her great Things, if she
could bring the Lady to love him, or any how compass her, so as he might
have his Will of her; nay, at last he told her he would give up his Soul
to her, if she would answer his Desire.
The old Hag, it seems, having had some of his Money, had very honestly
tried what she could do, but all to no Purpose, the Lady would not
comply; but when he offer’d such a great Price, she told him, she would
consider farther against such a Time, and so appointed him the next
Evening.
At the Time appointed he comes, and the Witch made a long Speech to him
upon the Nicety of the Affair; I suppose to prepare him not to be
surpriz’d at what was to come; for she suppos’d he was not so very
desperately bent as he appear’d to be; she told him it was a Thing of
very great Difficulty; but as he had made such a great Offer, of
selling his Soul for it, she had an Acquaintance in the House, who was
better skill’d (than she was) in such particular Things, and would treat
with him farther, and she doubted not but that both together they might
answer his End. The Fellow it seems was still of the same Mind, and told
her, he car’d not what he pawn’d or sold, if he could but obtain the
Lady; well, says the old Hag, sit still a while, and with that she
withdraws.
By and by she comes in again with a Question in her Mouth; pray, says
she, do you seek this Lady for a Wife, or for a Mistress, would you
marry her, or would you only lie with her? The young Man told her no,
no, he did not expect she would lie with him, therefore he would be
satisfied to marry her, but asks her the Reason of the Question; why
truly, says the old Hag, my[Pg 328] Reason is very Weighty; for if you would
have her for your Wife, I doubt, we can do you no Service; but if you
have a Mind to lie with her, the Person, I speak of, will undertake it.
The Man was surpriz’d at that, only he objected that this was a
transient or short Felicity, and that he should perhaps have her no
more; the old Hag bid him not fear, but that if she once yielded to be
his Whore, he might have her as often as he pleased; upon this he
consents, for he was stark mad for the Lady; He having consented, she
told him then, he should follow her, but told him, whoever he saw, he
must speak to no body but her, till she gave him leave, and that he
should not be surpriz’d, whatever happen’d, for no hurt should befall
him; all which he agreed to, and the old Woman going out he follow’d
her.
Being upon this led into another Room, where there was but very little
Light, yet enough to let him see that there was no body in it but
himself and the Woman, he was desired to sit down in a Chair next to a
Table, and the old Woman clapping the Door too after her, he asked her
why she shut the Door, and where was the Person she told him of? At
which she answer’d there he is, pointing to a Chair at a little
Distance: The young Gentleman turning his Head, saw a grave Kind of a
Man sitting in an Elbow-Chair, tho’ he said, he could have sworn there
was no body in the Chair when the old Woman shut the Door; however,
having promis’d not to speak to any body but the old Woman, he said not
a Word.
By and by the Woman making abundance of strange Gestures and Motions,
and mumbling over several Things which he could not understand, on a
suddain a large Wicker-Chair, which stood by the Chimney, removes to the
other End of[Pg 329] the Table which he sat by, but there was no body in the
Chair; in about two Minutes after that the Chair remov’d, there appear’d
a Person sitting in that too, who, the Room being, as is said, almost
dark, could not be so distinguish’d by the Eye, as to see his
Countenance.
After some while, the first Man, and the Chair he sat in, mov’d, as if
they had been one Body, to the Table also; and the old Woman and the two
Men seem’d to talk together, but the young Man could not understand any
Thing they said; after some Time the old Witch turn’d to the young
Gentleman, told him his Request was granted, but not for Marriage, but
the Lady should love and receive him.
The Witch then gave him a Stick dipt in Tar at both Ends, and bid him
hold it to a Candle, which he did, and instead of burning like a Stick
it burnt out like a Torch; then she bid him break it off in the Middle,
and light the other End; he did that too, and all the Room seem’d to be
in a light Flame; then she said, deliver one Piece here, pointing to one
only of the Persons, so he gave the first Fire-stick to the first Man or
Apparition; now says she, deliver the other here, so he gave the other
Piece to the other Apparition, at which they both rose up and spoke to
him Words, which he said he understood not, and could not repeat, and
immediately vanish’d with the Fire-sticks and all, leaving the Room full
of Smoke: I do not remember that the Story says any Thing of Brimstone,
or the Smell of it, but it says the Door continu’d fast lock’d, and no
Body was left in the Room but the young Gentleman and the Witch.
Now the Ceremony being over, he ask’d the Witch if the Business was
done? She said yes. Well, but says he, have I sold my Soul to the[Pg 330]
Devil? Yes, says she, you have, and you gave him Possession, when you
deliver’d the two Fire-sticks to him. To him! says he, why, was that
the Devil? Yes, says the old Hag. At which the young Man was in a
terrible Fright for a while, but it went off again.
And what’s next, says he, when shall I see the Lady for whose sake I
have done all this? You shall know that presently, said she, and opening
the Door, in the next Room she presents him with a most beautiful Lady,
but had charg’d him not to speak a Word to her: She was exactly dress’d
like, and he presently knew her to be the Lady he desir’d; upon which he
flew to her and clasped her in his Arms, but that Moment he had her
fast, as he thought, in his Arms, she vanish’d out of his sight.
Finding himself thus disappointed, he upbraids the old Woman with
betraying him, and flew out with ill Language at her, in a great Rage;
the Devil often deluded him thus, after this, with Shews and
Appearances, but still no Performance; after a while he gets an
Opportunity to speak with the Lady her self in Reality, but she was as
positive in her Denial as ever, and even took away all Hopes of his ever
obtaining her, which put him into Despair; for now he thought he had
given himself up to the Devil for nothing, and this brought him to
himself; so that he made a penitent Confession of his Crime to some
Friends, who took great Care of him, and encourag’d him, and at last
furnish’d him with such an Answer as put the Devil into a Fright, when
he came for the Bargain.
For Satan, it seems, as the Story says, had the Impudence to demand
his Agreement, notwithstanding he had fail’d in the Performance on his
Part; what the Answer was I do not pretend to[Pg 331] have seen, but it seems
it was something like what is mention’d above, (viz.) that he was in
better Hands, and that he durst not touch him.
I have heard of another Person that had actually sign’d a Contract with
the Devil; and upon a Fast kept by some Protestant or Christian
Divines, while they were praying for the poor Man, the Devil was oblig’d
to come and throw the Contract in at the Window.
But I vouch none of these Stories, there may be much in them and much
Use made of them, even whether exactly such in Fact, as they are
related, or no; the best Use I can make of them, is this, if any wicked
desperate Wretches have made Bargain and Sale with Satan, their only
Way is to repent, if they know how, and that before he comes to claim
them; then batter him with his own Guns; play Religion against Devilism,
and perhaps they may drive the Devil out of their Reach; at least he
will not come at them, which is as well.
On the other Hand, how many Stories have we handed about of the Devil’s
really coming with a terrible Appearance at the Time appointed, and
powerfully or by violence carrying away those, that have given
themselves thus up to him; nay, and sometimes a Piece of the House along
with them, as in the famous Instance of Sudbury, Anno 1662. It seems
he comes with Rage and Fury upon such Occasions, pretending he only
comes to take his own, or as if he had leave given him to come and take
his Goods, as we say, where he could find them, and would strike a
Terror into all that should oppose him.
The greatest Part of the Terror we are usually in upon this Occasion, is
from a Supposition, that when this Hell-Fire Contract is once made,
God allows the Devil to come and take the wicked[Pg 332] Creature, how and in
what manner he thinks fit, as being given up to him by his own Act and
Deed; but in my Opinion there’s no Divinity at all in that; for as in
our Law we punish a Felo de se, or Self-murtherer, because, as the
Law suggests, he had no Right to dismiss his own Life; that he being a
Subject of the Common-wealth, the Government claims the Ward or
Custody of him, and so ’twas not Murther only, but Robbery, and is a
Felony against the State, robbing the King of his Liege-Man, as ’tis
justly call’d; so neither has any Man a Right to dispose of his Soul,
which belongs to his Maker in Property and in Right of Creation: The Man
then having no Right to sell, Satan has no Right to buy, or at best he
has made a Purchase without a Title, and consequently has no just Claim
to the Possession.
It is therefore a Mistake to say, that when any of us have been so mad
to make such a pretended Contract with the Devil, that God gives him
leave to take it as his Due; ’tis no such thing; the Devil has
bought, what you had no Right to sell, and therefore, as an unlawful
Oath is to be repented of, and then broken; so your Business is to
repent of the Crime, and then tell the Devil, you have better
consider’d of it, and that you won’t stand to your Bargain, for you had
no Power to sell; and if he pretends to Violence after that, I am
mistaken; I believe the Devil knows better.
It is true, our old Mothers and Nurses have told us other Things, but
they only told us what their Mothers and Nurses told them, and so the
Tale has been handed down from one Generation of old Women to another;
but we have no Vouchers for the Fact other than Oral Tradition, the
Credit of which, I confess, goes but a very little Way with me; nor do I
believe it one Jot[Pg 333] the more for all the frightful Addenda which they
generally join to the Tale, for it never wants a great Variety of that Kind.
Thus they tell us the Devil carried away Dr. Faustus and took a Piece
of the Wall of his Garden along with them: Thus at Salisbury the
Devil as it is said, and publickly printed, carried away two Fellows
that had given themselves up to him, and carried away the Roof of the
House with them, and the like; all which I believe my Share of;
besides, if these Stories were really true, they are all against the
Devil’s true Interest, Satan must be a Fool, which is indeed what I
never took him to be in the Main; this would be the Way not to encrease
the Number of Desperadoes, who should thus put themselves into his Hand,
but to make himself a Terror to them; and this is one of the most
powerful Objections I have against the Thing, for the Devil, I say, is
no Fool, that must be acknowledg’d; he knows his own Game, and generally
plays it sure.
I might, before I quit this Point, seriously reflect here upon our Beau
mond (viz.) the gay Part of Mankind, especially those of the Times we
live in, who walk about in a Composure and Tranquillity inexpressible,
and yet as we all know, must certainly have all sold themselves to the
Devil, for the Power of acting the foolishest Things with the greater
Applause; it is true, to be a Fool is the most pleasant Life in the
World, if the Fool has but the particular Felicity, which few Fools
want, (viz.) to think themselves wise: The learned say, it is the
Dignity and Perfection of Fools, that they never fail trusting
themselves; they believe themselves sufficient and able for every Thing;
and hence their want or waste of Brains is no Grievance to them, but
they hug themselves[Pg 334] in the Satiety of their own Wit; but to bring other
People to have the same Notion of them, which they have of themselves,
and to have their apish and ridiculous Conduct make the same Impression
on the Minds of others, as it does on their own; this requires a general
Infatuation, and must either be a Judgment from Heaven, or a Mist of
Hell; nothing but the Devil can make all the Men of Brains applaud a
Fool, and can any Man believe, that the Devil will do this for nothing?
no, no, he will be well paid for it, and I know no other Way they have
to compound with him, but this of Bargain and Sale.
’Tis the same thing with Rakes and Bullies, as ’tis with Fools and
Beaus; and this brings me to the Subject of buying and selling it
self, and to examine what is understood by it in the World, what People
mean by such and such a Man selling himself to the Devil: I know the
common Acceptation of it is, that they make some Capitulation for some
Indulgence in Wickedness, on Conditions of Safety and Impunity, which
the Devil promises them; tho’ as I said above, he is a Bite in that
too, for he can’t perform the Conditions; however, I say, he promises
boldly, and they believe him, and for this Privilege in Wickedness, they
consent, that he shall come and fetch them for his own, at such or such
a Time.
This is the State of the Case in the general Acceptation of it; I do not
say ’tis really so, nay ’tis even an Inconsistency in it self; for one
would think, they need not capitulate with the Devil to be so, and so,
superlatively wicked, and give him such a Price for it, seeing, unless
we have a wrong Notion of him, he is naturally enclin’d, as well as
avow’dly willing to have all Men be as superlatively wicked as possibly
they can, and must necessarily be always ready to issue out his Licenses
gratis, as[Pg 335] far as his Authority will go in the Case; and therefore I do
not see why the Wretches that deal with him, should article with him for
a Price; but suppose, for Argument sake, that it is so, then the next
Thing is, some capital Crime follows the Contract, and then the Wretch
is forsaken, for the Devil cannot protect him, as he promised; so he is
Trust up, and like Coleman at the Gallows, he exclaims that there
is no Truth in Devils.
It may be true, however, that under the powerful Guard and Protection of
the Devil, Men do sometimes go a great Way in Crime, and that perhaps
farther in these our Days of boasted Morals than was known among our
Fathers; the only Difference that I meet with between the Sons of
Belial in former Days, and those of our Ages, seems to be in the
Devil’s Management, not in theirs; the Sum of which amounts to this,
that Satan seems to act with more Cunning, and they with less; for in
the former Ages of Satan’s Dominion, he had much Business upon his
Hands, all his Art and Engines, and Engineers also, were kept fully
employ’d, to wheedle, allure, betray and circumvent People, and draw
them into Crimes, and they found him, as we may say, a full Employment;
I doubt not, he was call’d the Tempter on that very Account; but the
Case seems quite alter’d now, the Tables are turned; then the Devil
tempted Men to sin, But now, in short, they tempt the Devil; Men push
into Crimes before he pushes them; they out shoot him in his own Bow,
out run him on his own Ground, and, as we say of some hot Spurs who ride
Post, they whip the Post-Boy; in a Word, the Devil seems to have no
Business now but to sit still and look on.
[Pg 336]This, I must confess, seems to intimate some secret Compact between the
Devil and them; but then it looks, not as is they had contracted with
the Devil for leave to sin, but that the Devil had contracted with them,
that they should sin so and so, up to such a Degree, and that without
giving him the Trouble of daily Solicitation, private Management, and
artful screwing up their Passions, their Affections and their most
retir’d Faculties, as he was before oblig’d to do.
This also appears more agreeable to the Nature of the Thing; and as it
is a most exquisite part of Satan’s Cunning, so ’tis an undoubted
Testimony of his Success; if it was not so, he could never bring his
Kingdom to such a height of absolute Power as he has done; this also
solves several Difficulties in the Affair of the World’s present Way of
sinning, which otherwise it would be very hard to understand; as
particularly how some eminent Men of Quality among us, whose upper Rooms
are not extraordinary well furnished in other Cases, yet are so very
witty in their Wickedness, that they gather Admirers by hundreds and
thousands; who, however heavy, lumpish, slow and backward, even by
Nature, and in force of Constitution in better things, yet in their Race
Devil-wards they are of a sudden grown nimble, light of Foot, and outrun
all their Neighbours; Fellows that are as empty of Sense as Beggars are
of Honesty, and as far from Brains as a Whore is of Modesty; on a sudden
you shall find them dip into Polemicks, study Michael Servetus,
Socinus, and the most learned of their Disciples; they shall reason
against all Religion, as strongly as a Philosopher; blaspheme with such
a Keenness of Wit, and satyrise God and Eternity, with such a Brightness
of Fancy, as if the soul of a Rochester or a Hobbs was
[Pg 337]transmigrated into them; in a little length of Time more they banter
Heaven, burlesque the Trinity, and jest with every sacred thing, and all
so sharp, so ready, and so terribly witty, as if they were born
Buffoons, and were singl’d out by Nature to be Champions for the Devil.
Whence can all this come? how is the Change wrought? who but the Devil
can inject Wit in Spight of natural Dullness, create Brains, fill empty
Heads, and supply the Vacuities in the Understanding? and will Satan do
all this for nothing? No, no, he is too wise for that; I can never
doubt a secret Compact, if there is such a thing in Nature; when I see a
Head where there was no Head, Sense in Posse where there is no Sense
in Esse, Wit without Brains, and Sight without Eyes, ’tis all
Devil-Work: Could G—— write Satyrs, that could neither read
Latin or spell English, like old Sir William Read, who wrote a
Book of Opticks, which when it was printed, he did not know which was
the right Side uppermost, and which the wrong? Could this eminent
uninform’d Beau turn Atheist, and make wise Speeches against that Being,
which made him a Fool, if the Devil had not sold him some Wit in
exchange for that Trifle of his, call’d Soul? Had he not barter’d his
Inside with that Son of the Morning, to have his Tongue tip’d with
Blasphemy, he that knew nothing of a God, but only to swear by him,
could never have set up for a Wit, to burlesque his Providence and
ridicule his Government of the World.
But the Devil, as he is God of the World, has one particular Advantage,
and that is, that when he has Work to do he very seldom wants
Instruments; with this Circumstance also, that the Degeneracy of human
Nature supplies him; as the late King of France said of himself, when
they[Pg 338] told him what a Calamity was like to befal his Kingdom by the
Famine: Well, says the King, then I shall not want Soldiers; and it
was so, want of Bread supplied his Army with Recruits; so want of Grace
supplied the Devil with Reprobates for his Work.
Another Reason why, I think, the Devil has made more Bargains of that
Kind we speak of, in this Age, is, because he seems to have laid by his
Cloven-Foot; all his old Emissaries, the Tools of his Trade, the
Engineers which he employ’d in his Mines, such as Witches, Warlocks,
Magicians, Conjurers, Astrologers, and all the hellish Train or Rabble
of human Devils, who did his Drudgery in former Days, seem to be out
of Work: I shall give you a fuller Enumeration of them in the next
Chapter.
These, I say, seem to be laid aside; not that his Work is abated, or
that his Business with Mankind, for their Delusion and Destruction is
not the same, or perhaps more than ever; but the Devil seems to have
chang’d Hands; the Temper and Genius of Mankind is alter’d, and they are
not to be taken by Fright and Horror, as they were then: The Figures of
those Creatures was always dismal and horrible, and that is it which I
mean by the Cloven-Foot; but now Wit, Beauty and gay Things, are the
Sum of his Craft, he manages by the Soft and the Smooth, the Fair and
the Artful, the Kind and the Cunning, not by the Frightful and Terrible,
the Ugly and the Odious.
When the Devil for weighty Dispatches,
Wanted Messengers cunning and bold,
He pass’d by the beautiful Faces,
And pick’d out the Ugly and Old.
[Pg 339]
Of these he made Warlocks and Witches,
To run of his Errands by Night,
Till the over wrought Hag-ridden Wretches,
Were as fit as the Devil, to fright.
But whoever has been his Adviser,
As his Kingdom encreases in Growth;
He now takes his Measures much wiser,
And Trafficks with Beauty and Youth.
Disguis’d in the Wanton and Witty,
He haunts both the Church and the Court,
And sometimes he visits the City,
Where all the best Christians resort.
Thus dress’d up in full Masquerade,
He the bolder can range up and down,
For he better can drive on his Trade,
In any one’s Name than his own.
Chap. IX.
Of the Tools the Devil works with, (viz.) Witches, Wizards or
Warlocks, Conjurers, Magicians, Divines, Astrologers, Interpreters
of Dreams, Tellers of Fortunes; and above all the rest, his
particular modern Privy-Counsellors call’d Wits and Fools.
Tho’, as I have advanc’d in the foregoing Chapter, the Devil has very
much chang’d Hands in his modern Management of the World,[Pg 340] and that
instead of the Rabble and long Train of Implements reckoned up above, he
now walks about in Beaus, Beauties, Wits and Fools; yet I must not omit
to tell you that he has not dismiss’d his former Regiments, but like
Officers in Time of Peace, he keeps them all in half Pay, or like
Extraordinary Men at the Custom-House, they are kept at a Call, to be
ready to fill up Vacancies, or to employ when he is more than ordinarily
full of Business; and therefore it may not be amiss to give some brief
Account of them, from Satan’s own Memoirs, their Performance being no
inconsiderable Part of his History.
Nor will it be an unprofitable Digression to go back a little to the
primitive Institution of all these Orders, for they are very antient,
and I assure you, it requires great Knowledge of Antiquity, to give a
Particular of their Original; I shall be very brief in it.
In order then to this Enquiry, you must know that it was not for want of
Servants, that Satan took this Sort of People into his Pay; he had, as I
have observ’d in its Place, Millions of diligent Devils at his Call,
whatever Business, and however difficult, he had for them to do; but as
I have said above, that our modern People are forwarder than even the
Devil himself can desire them to be; and that they come before they
are call’d, run before they are sent, and crowd themselves into his
Service; so it seems it was in those early Days, when the World was one
universal Monarchy under his Dominion, as I have at large describ’d in
its Place.
In those Days the Wickedness of the World keeping a just Pace with their
Ignorance, this inferior Sort of low priz’d Instruments did the
Devil’s work mighty well; they drudg’d on in his Black-Art so
laboriously, and with such[Pg 341] good Success, that he found it was better to
employ them as Tools to delude and draw in Mankind, than to send his
invisible Implements about, and oblige them to take such Shapes and
Dresses as were necessary upon every trifling Occasion; which, perhaps,
was more Cost than Worship, more Pains than Pay.
Having then a Set of these Voluntiers in his Service, the true Devil
had nothing to do but to keep an exact Correspondence with them, and
communicate some needful Powers to them, to make them be and do
something extraordinary, and give them a Reputation in their Business;
and these, in a Word, did a great Part of, nay almost all the Devil’s
Business in the World.
To this Purpose gave he them Power, if we may believe old Glanville,
Baxter, Hicks, and other learn’d Consultors of Oracles, to walk
invisible, to fly in the Air, ride upon Broom-sticks, and other Wooden
Gear, to interpret Dreams, answer Questions, betray Secrets, to talk
(Gibberish) the universal Language, to raise Storms, sell Winds, bring
up Spirits, disturb the Dead, and torment the Living, with a thousand
other needful Tricks to amuse the World, keep themselves in Veneration,
and carry on the Devil’s Empire in the World.
The first Nations among whom these infernal Practices were found, were
the Chaldeans; and that I may do Justice in earnest, as well as in
jest, it must be allow’d that the Chaldeans, or those of them so
call’d, were not Conjurers or Magicians, only Philosophers and Studiers
of Nature, wise, sober and studious Men at first, and we have an
extraordinary Account of them; and if we may believe some of our best
Writers of Fame, Abraham was himself famous among them for such
Magick, as Sir Walter Raleigh[Pg 342] expresses it, Qui Contemplatione
Creaturarum Cognovit Creatorem.
Now granting this, it is all to my Purpose, namely, that the Devil drew
these wise Men in, to search after more Knowledge than Nature could
instruct them in; and the Knowledge of the true God being at that Time
sunk very low, he debauch’d them all with Dreams, Apparitions,
Conjurers, &c. till he ruin’d the just Notions they had, and made
Devils of them all, like himself.
The learned Senensis, speaking of this Chaldean Kind of Learning,
gives us an Account of five Sorts of them; you will pardon me for being
so grave as to go this Length back.
1. Chascedin or Chaldeans, properly so call’d, being
Astronomers.
2. Asaphim or Magicians, such was Zoroastres and Balaam the
Son of Beor.
3. Chatumim or Interpreters of Dreams and hard Speeches,
Inchanters, &c.
4. Mecasphim or Witches, call’d at first Prophets, afterwards
Malefici or Venefici, Poisoners.
5. Gazarim or Auruspices, and Diviners, such as divin’d by the
Entrails of Beasts, the Liver in particular; mention’d in Ezek.
or as others, call’d Augurs.
Now, as to all these, I suppose, I may do them no wrong, if I say,
however justifiable they were in the Beginning, the Devil got them all
into his Service at last, and that brings me to my Text again, from
which the rest was a Digression.
1. The Chascedin or Chaldean Astronomers turned Astrologers,
Fortune-Tellers, Calculators [Pg 343]of Nativities, and vile Deluders of
the People, as if the Wisdom of the holy God was in them, as
Nebuchadnezzar said of Daniel on that very Account.
2. The Asaphim or Magi, or Magicians; Sixtus Senensis says,
they were such as wrought by Covenants with Devils, but turn’d to
it from their Wisdom, which was to study the practical Part of
Natural Philosophy, working admirable Effects by the mutual
Application of Natural Causes.
3. The Chartumim from being Reasoners or Disputers upon difficult
Points in Philosophy, became Enchanters and Conjurers. So,
4. The Mecasphim or Prophets, they turn’d to be Sorcerers,
Raisers of Spirits, such as wounded by an evil Eye, and by bitter
Curses, and were afterwards fam’d for having familiar Converse with
the Devil, and were called Witches.
5. The Gazarim, from the bare observing of the good and bad
Omens, by the Entrails of Beasts, flying of Birds, &c. were
turn’d to Sacrists or Priests of the Heathen Idols and Sacrificers.
Thus, I say, first or last the Devil engross’d all the Wise-Men of the
East, for so they are call’d; made them all his own, and by them he
work’d Wonders, that is, he fill’d the World with lying Wonders, as if
wrought by these Men, when indeed it was all his own, from Beginning to
the End, and set on Foot meerly to propagate Delusion, impose upon
blinded and ignorant Men; the God of this World blinded their Minds, and
they were led away by the Subtilty of the Devil, to say no worse of
it, till they became Devils themselves, as to Mankind;[Pg 344] for they
carried on the Devil’s Work upon all Occasions, and the Race of them
still continue in other Nations, and some of them among our selves, as
we shall see presently.
The Arabians follow’d the Chaldeans in this Study, while it was kept
within its due Bounds, and after them the Egyptians; and among the
Latter we find that Jannes and Jambres were famous for their leading
Pharaoh by their pretended magic Performances, to reject the real
Miracles of Moses; and History tells us of strange Pranks the
Wise-Men, the Magicians and the Southsayers plaid to delude the People
in the most early Ages of the World.
But, as I say, now, the Devil has improv’d himself, so he did then;
for the Grecian and Roman Heathen Rites coming on, they outdid all
the Magicians and Southsayers, by establishing the Devil’s lying
Oracles, which, as a Master-Piece of Hell, did the Devil more Honour,
and brought more Homage to him, than ever he had before, or could arrive
to since.
Again, as by the setting up the Oracles, all the Magicians and
Southsayers grew out of Credit; so at the ceasing of those Oracles, the
Devil was fain to go back to the old Game again, and take up with the
Agency of Witches, Divinations, Inchantments and Conjurings, as I hinted
before, answerable to the four Sorts mention’d in the Story of
Nebuchadnezzar, (viz.) Magicians, Astrologers, the Chaldeans and
the Southsayers: How these began to be out of Request, I have
mention’d already; but as the Devil has not quite given them over,
only laid them aside a little for the present, we may venture to ask
what they were, and what Use he made of them when he did employ them.
[Pg 345]The Truth is, I think, as it was a very mean Employment for any thing
that wears a human Countenance to take up, so I must acknowledge, I
think, ’twas a mean low priz’d Business for Satan to take up with;
below the very Devil; below his Dignity as an Angelic, tho’ condemn’d
Creature; below him even as a Devil; to go to talk to a parcel of
ugly, deform’d, spiteful, malicious old Women; to give them Power to do
Mischief, who never had a Will, after they enter’d into the State of
old Woman-Hood, to do any thing else: Why the Devil always chose the
ugliest old Women he could find; whether Wizardism made them ugly,
that were not so before, and whether the Ugliness, as it was a Beauty in
Witchcraft, did not encrease according to the meritorious Performance in
the Black-Trade? These are all Questions of Moment to be decided, (if
human Learning can arrive to so much Perfection) in Ages to come.
Some say the evil Eye and the wicked Look were Parts of the Enchantment,
and that the Witches, when they were in the height of their Business,
had a powerful Influence with both; that by looking upon any Person they
could bewitch them, and make the Devil, as the Scots express it,
ride through them booted and spurr’d; and that hence came that very
significant Saying, to look like a Witch.
The strange Work which the Devil has made in the World, by this Sort
of his Agents call’d Witches, is such, and so extravagantly wild, that
except our Hope that most of those Tales happen not to be true, I know
not how any one could be easy to live near a Widow after she was five
and fifty.
All the other Sorts of Emissaries which Satan employs, come short of
these Ghosts; and[Pg 346] Apparitions sometimes come and shew themselves, on
particular Accounts, and some of those Particulars respect doing
Justice, repairing Wrongs, preventing Mischief; sometimes in Matters
very considerable, and on Things so necessary to publick Benefit, that
we are tempted to believe they proceed from some vigilant Spirit who
wishes us well; but on the other Hand, these Witches are never concern’d
in any thing but Mischief; nay, if what they do portends good to one, it
issues in hurt to many; the whole Tenour of their Life, their Design in
general, is to do Mischief, and they are only employ’d in Mischief, and
nothing else: How far they are furnish’d with Ability suitable to the
horrid Will they are vested with, remains to be describ’d.
These Witches, ’tis said, are furnish’d with Power suitable to the
Occasion that is before them, and particularly that which deserves to be
consider’d, as Prediction, and foretelling Events, which I insist the
Author of Witchcraft is not accomplish’d with himself, nor can he
communicate it to any other: How then Witches come to be able to
foretel Things to come, which, ’tis said, the Devil himself cannot
know, and which, as I have shewn, ’tis evident he does not know himself,
is yet to be determin’d; that Witches do foretel, is certain, from the
Witch of Endor, who foretold Things to Saul, which he knew not
before, namely, that he should be slain in Battle the next Day, which
accordingly came to pass.
There are, however, and notwithstanding this particular Case, many
Instances wherein the Devil has not been able to foretel approaching
Events, and that in Things of the utmost Consequence, and he has given
certain foolish or false Answers in such Cases; the Devil’s Priests,
which were[Pg 347] summon’d in by the Prophet Elija, to decide the Dispute
between God and Baal, had the Devil been able to have inform’d them
of it, would certainly have receiv’d Notice from him, of what was
intended against them by Elija; that is to say, that they would be all
cut in pieces; for Satan was not such a Fool as not to know that Baal
was a Non-Entity, a Nothing, at best a dead Man, perish’d and rotting in
his Grave; for Baal was Bell or Belus, an ancient King of the
Assyrian Monarchy, and he could no more answer by Fire to consume the
Sacrifice, than he could raise himself from the dead.
But the Priests of Baal were left of their Master to their just Fate,
namely, to be a Sacrifice to the Fury of a deluded People; hence I infer
his Inability, for it would have been very unkind and ungrateful in him
not to have answer’d them, if he had been able. There is another
Argument raised here most justly against the Devil, with Relation to
his being under Restraint, and that of greater Eminence than we imagine,
and it is drawn from this very Passage, thus; ’tis not to be doubted but
that Satan, who has much of the Element put into his Hands, as Prince
of the Air, had a Power, or was able potentially speaking, to have
answer’d Baal’s Priests by Fire; Fire being in Vertue of his airy
Principality a Part of his Dominion; but he was certainly withheld by
the Superior Hand, which gave him that Dominion, I mean withheld for
the Occasion only: So in another Case, it was plain that Balaam, who
was one of those Sorts of Chaldeans mention’d above, who dealt in
Divinations and Inchantments, was withheld from cursing Israel.
Some are of Opinion that Balaam was not a Witch or a Dealer with the
Devil because ’tis[Pg 348] said of him, or rather he says it of himself, that
he saw the Visions of God, Numb. xxiv. 16. He hath said, who heard
the Words of God, and knew the Knowledge of the most High, which saw
the Visions of the Almighty, falling into a Trance, but having his
Eyes open: Hence they alledge he was one of those Magi, which St.
Augustin speaks of, de Divinatione, who by the Study of Nature, and
by the Contemplation of created Beings came to the Knowledge of the
Creature; and that Balaam’s Fault was, that being tempted by the
Rewards and Honours that the King promised him, he intended to have
curs’d Israel; but when his Eyes were open’d, and that he saw they
were God’s own People, he durst not do it; they will have it therefore,
that except, as above, Balaam was a good Man, or at least that he
had the Knowledge of the true God, and the Fear of that God upon him,
and that he honestly declares this, Numb. xxii. 18. If Balak would
give me his House full of Silver and Gold, I cannot go beyond the Word
of the Lord my God: Where tho’ he is call’d a false Prophet by some, he
evidently owns God, and assumes a Property in him, as other Prophets
did; my God, and I cannot go beyond his Orders; but that which gives me
a better Opinion of Balaam than all this is, his plain Prophesy of
Christ, Chap. xxiv. 17. where he calls him the Star of Jacob, and
declares, I shall see him, but not now, I shall behold him, but not
nigh; there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise
out of Israel, and shall smite the Corners of Moab, and destroy all
the Children of Seth, all which express not a Knowledge only, but a
Faith in Christ; but I have done preaching, this is all by the by, I
return to my Business, which is the History.
[Pg 349]There is another Piece of dark Practice here, which lies between Satan
and his particular Agents, and which they must give us an Answer to,
when they can, which I think will not be in haste; and that is about the
obsequious Devil submitting to be call’d up into Visibility, whenever
an old Woman has her Hand cross’d with a white Six-pence, as they Call
it: One would think that instead of these vile Things call’d Witches,
being sold to the Devil, the Devil was really sold for a Slave to
them; for how far soever Satan’s Residence is off of this State of Life,
they have Power, it seems, to fetch him from home, and oblige him to
come at their Call.
I can give little Account of this, only that indeed so it is; nor is the
Thing so strange in its self, as the Methods to do it are mean, foolish,
and ridiculous; as making a Circle and dancing in it, pronouncing such
and such Words, saying the Lord’s Prayer backward, and the like; now is
this agreeable to the Dignity of the Prince of the Air or Atmosphere,
that he should be commanded forth with no more Pomp or Ceremony than
that of muttering a few Words, such as the old Witches and he agree
about? or is there something else in it, which none of us or themselves
understand?
Perhaps, indeed, he is always with those People call’d Witches and
Conjurers, or at least some of his Camp Volant are always present, and
so upon the least call of the Wizard, it is but putting off the misty
Cloak and showing themselves.
Then we have a Piece of mock Pageantry in bringing those Things call’d
witches or Conjurers to Justice, that is, first to know if a Woman be a
Witch, throw her into a Pond, and if[Pg 350] she be a Witch, she will swim, and
it is not in her own Power to prevent it; if she does all she can to
sink her self, it will not do, she will swim like a Cork. Then that a
Rope will not hang a Witch, but you must get a With, a green Osyer; that
if you nail a Horse-Shoe on the Sill of the Door, she cannot come into
the House, or go out, if she be in; these and a thousand more, too
simple to be believ’d, are yet so vouch’d, so taken for granted, and so
universally receiv’d for Truth, that there is no resisting them without
being thought atheistical.
What Methods to take to know, who are Witches, I really know not; but
on the other Side, I think there are variety of Methods to be used to
know who are not; W—— G——, Esq; is a Man of Fame, his Parts are
great, because his Estate is so; he has threescore and eight Lines of
Virgil by rote, and they take up many of the Intervals of his merry
Discourses; he has just as many witty Stories to please Society; when
they are well told, once over, he begins again, and so he lives in a
round of Wit and Learning; he is a Man of great Simplicity and
Sincerity; you must be careful not to mistake my Meaning, as to the Word
Simplicity; some take it to mean Honesty, and so do I, only that it has
a Negative attending it, in his particular Case; in a Word, W——
G—— is an honest Man, and no Conjurer; a good Character, I think,
and without Impeachment to his Understanding, he may be a Man of Worth
for all that; take the other Sex, there is the Lady H—— is another
Discovery; bless us! what Charms in that Face! How bright those Eyes!
How flowing white her Breasts! How sweet her Voice? add to all, how
heavenly, divinely good her Temper! How inimitable her Behaviour! How
spotless her Virtue![Pg 351] How perfect her Innocence! and to sum up her
Character, we may add, the Lady H—— is no Witch; sure none of our
Beau Critics will be so unkind now as to censure me in those honest
Descriptions, as if I meant that my good Friend W—— G—— Esq; or my
ador’d Angel, the bright, the charming Lady H—— were Fools; but what
will not those Savages, call’d Critics, do, whose barbarous Nature
enclines them to trample on the brightest Characters, and to cavil on
the clearest Expressions?
It might be expected of me, however, in justice to my Friends, and to
the bright Characters of abundance of Gentlemen of this Age, who, by the
Depth of their Politics, and the Height of their Elevations might be
suspected, and might give us Room to charge them with Subterranean
Intelligence; I say, it might be expected that I should clear up their
Fame, and assure the World concerning them, even by Name, that they are
no Conjurers, that they do not deal with the Devil, at least, not by
the Way Witchcraft and Divination, such as Sir T——k, E—— B——,
Esq; my Lord Homily, Coll. Swagger, Jeoffry Well with, Esq; Capt.
Harry Go Deeper, Mr. Wellcome Woollen, Citizen and Merchant Taylor
of London, Henry Cadaver, Esq; the D—— of Caerfilly, the
Marquess of Sillyhoo, Sir Edward Thro’ and Thro’ Bart. and a World
of fine Gentlemen more, whose great Heads and Weighty Understandings
have given the World such Occasion to challenge them with being at least
descended from the Magi, and perhaps engaged with old Satan in his
Politics and Experiments; but I, that have such good Intelligence among
Satan’s Ministers of State, as is necessary to the present
Undertaking, am thereby well able to clear up their Characters: and I
doubt not, but[Pg 352] they will value themselves upon it, and acknowledge
their Obligation to me, for letting the World know the Devil does not
pretend to have had any Business with them, or to have enroll’d them in
the List of his Operators; in a Word, that none of them are
Conjurers: Upon which Testimony of mine, I expect they be no longer
charg’d with, or so much as suspected of having an unlawful Quantity of
Wit, or having any Sorts of it about them, that are contraband or
prohibited, but that for the future they pass unmolested, and be taken
for nothing but what they are, (viz.) very honest worthy Gentlemen.
Chap. X.
Of the various Methods the Devil takes to converse with Mankind.
Having spoken something of Persons, and particularly of such as the
Devil thinks fit to employ in his Affairs in the World, it comes next
of course to say something of the Manner how he communicates his Mind to
them, and by them to the rest of his Acquaintance in the World.
I take the Devil to be under great Difficulties in his Affairs on his
Part, especially occasion’d by the Bounds which are set him, or which
Policys oblige him to set to himself, in his Access to the conversing
with Mankind; ’tis evident he is not permitted to fall upon them with
Force and Arms, that is to say, to muster up his infernal Troops, and
attack them with Fire and Sword; if he was not loose to act in this
Manner as he was able, by his own seraphic Power to[Pg 353] have destroy’d the
whole Race, and even the Earth they dwelt upon, so he would certainly,
and long ago have effectually done it; his particular Interests and
Inclinations are well enough known.
But in the next Place, as he is thus restrain’d from Violence, so
Prudentials restrain him in all his other Actings with Mankind; and
being confin’d to Stratagem, and soft still Methods, such as Persuasion,
Allurement, feeding the Appetite, prompting, and then gratifying corrupt
Desires, and the like; he finds it for his Purpose not to appear in
Person, except very rarely, and then in Disguise; but to act all the
rest in the Dark, under the Vizor of Art and Craft, making Use of
Persons and Methods conceal’d, or at least not fully understood or
discover’d.
As to the Persons whom he employs, I have taken some Pains you see to
discover some of them; but the Methods he uses with them, either to
inform and instruct, and give Orders to them, or to converse with other
People by them, these are very particular, and deserve some Place in our
Memoirs, particularly as they may serve to remove some of our Mistakes,
and to take off some of the frightful Ideas we are apt to entertain in
Prejudice of this great Manager; as if he was no more to be match’d in
his Politics, than he would be to be match’d in his Power, if it was let
loose; which is so much a Mistake, that on the contrary, we read of
several People that have abused and cheated the Devil, a Thing, which
I cannot say, is very honest nor just, notwithstanding the old Latin
Proverb, Fallere fallentem non est fraus, (which Men construe, or
rather render, by way of Banter Upon Satan) ’tis no Sin to cheat the
Devil, which for all that, upon the whole I deny, and alledge, that
let the Devil[Pg 354] act how he will by us, we ought to deal fairly by him.
But to come to the Business, without Circumlocutions; I am to enquire
how Satan issues out his Orders, gives his Instructions and fully
delivers his Mind to his Emissaries, of whom I have mention’d some in
the Title to Chap. IX. In order to this, you must form an Idea of the
Devil sitting in great State, in open Campaign, with all his Legions
about him, in the height of the Atmosphere; or if you will, at a certain
Distance from the Atmosphere, and above it, that the Plan of his
Encampment might not be hurried round its own Axis, with the Earth’s
diurnal Motion, which might be some Disturbance to him.
By this fix’d Situation, the Earth performing its Rotation, he has every
Part and Parcel of it brought to a direct Opposition to him, and
consequently to his View once in twenty four Hours: The last time I was
there, if I remember right, he had this Quarter of the World, which we
call Christendom, just under his Eye; and as the Motion is not so swift,
but that his piercing Opticks can take a strict View of it en passant;
for the Circumference of it being but twenty one thousand Miles, and its
circular Motion being full twenty four Hours performing, he has
something more than an Hour to view every thousand Miles, which, to his
supernatural Penetration, is not worth naming.
As he takes thus a daily View of all the Circle, and an hourly View of
the Parts, he is fully Master of all Transactions, at least such as are
done above Board by all Mankind; and then he dispatches his Emissaries
or Aid du Camps to every Part with his Orders and Instructions: Now
these Emissaries, you are to understand, are not the[Pg 355] Witches and
Diviners, who I spoke of above, for I call them also Emissaries; but
they are all Devils or (as you know they are call’d) Devil’s Angels;
and these may, perhaps, come and converse personally with the
Sub-emissaries I mention’d, to be ready for their Support and Assistance
on all Occasions of Business: These are those Devils which the Witches
are said to raise; for we can hardly suppose the Master Devil comes
himself, at the Summons of every ugly old Woman.
These run about into every Nook and Corner, wherever Satan’s Business
calls them, and are never wanting to him; but are the most diligent
Devils imaginable; like the Turkish Chaiux, they no sooner receive
their Errand, but they execute it with the utmost Alacrity; and as to
their Speed, it may be truly written as a Motto, upon the Head of every
individual Devil,
Non indiget calcaribus.
These are those, who they tell us our Witches, Sorcerers, Wizards, and
such Sorts of Folks converse freely with, and are therefore call’d their
Familiars; and as they tell us, come to them in human Shapes, talk to
them with articulate plain Voices, as if Men, and that yet the said
Witches, &c. know them to be Devils.
History has not yet enlighten’d us in this Part of useful Knowledge, or
at least not sufficiently for a Description of the Persons or Habits of
these Sorts of Appearances; as what Shapes they take up, what Language
they speak, and what particular Works they perform, so we must refer it
to farther Enquiry; but if we may credit History, we are told many
famous Stories of these Appearances; for Example, the famous Mother
Lakland, who was burnt for a Witch[Pg 356] at Ipswich, Anno 1646,
confessed at the Time of her Execution, or a little before it, that she
had frequent Conversation with the Devil himself; that she being very
poor, and withal of a devilish passionate, cruel and revengeful
Disposition before, used to wish she had it in her Power to do such and
such mischievous Things to some that she hated; and that the Devil
himself, who, it seems, knew her Temper, came to her one Night as she
lay in her Bed, and was between sleeping and waking, and speaking in a
deep hollow Voice, told her; if she would serve him in some Things he
would employ her to do, she should have her Will of all her Enemies, and
should want for nothing: That she was much afraid at first, but that he
solliciting her very often, bad her not be afraid of him, and still
urg’d her to yield, and as she says, struck his Claw into her Hand, and
tho’ it did not hurt her, made it bleed, and with the Blood wrote the
Covenants, that is to say, the Bargain between them: being ask’d what
was in them, and whether he requir’d her to curse or deny God or Christ?
She said no.
N. B. I do not find she told them whether the Devil wrote it with
a Pen, or whether on Paper or Parchment, nor whether she sign’d it
or no, but it seems he carry’d it away with him. I suppose, if
Satan’s Register were examin’d, it might be found among the
Archives of Hell, the Rolls of his acta Publica; and when his
Historiographer Royal publishes them, we may look for it among
them.
Then he furnish’d her with three Devils, to wait upon her (I suppose)
for she confess’d they were to be employ’d in her Service; they attended
in the Shapes of two little Dogs and a Mole: The[Pg 357] first she bewitch’d
was her own Husband, by which he lay a while in great Misery and died;
then she sent to one Captain Beal and burnt a new Ship of his just
built, which had never been at Sea; these and many other horrid Things
she did and confess’d, and having been twenty Years a Witch, at last the
Devil left her, and she was burnt as she deserv’d.
That some extraordinary Occasions may bring these Agents of the Devil,
nay, sometimes the Devil himself, to assume human Shapes, and appear
to other People we cannot doubt; he did thus in the Case of our Saviour
as a Tempter, and some think he did so to Manasses as a Familiar,
who the Scripture charges with Sorcery, and having a Familiar or Devil;
Fame tells us that St. Dunstan frequently converst with him, and
finally, took him by the Nose; and so of others.
But in these modern Ages of the World, he finds it much more to his
Purpose to work under Ground as I have observ’d, and to keep upon the
Reserve; so that we have no authentick Accounts of his personal
Appearance, but what are very antient or very remote from our Faith, as
well as our Enquiry.
It seems to be a Question that would bear some debating, whether all
Apparitions are not Devils or from the Devil; but there being so
many of those Apparitions which we call Spirits, which really assume
Shapes and make Appearances in the World, upon such Accounts as we know
Satan himself scorns to be employ’d in, that I must dismiss the
Question in favour of the Devil; assuring them, that as he never
willingly did any good in his Life, so he would be far from giving
himself the Trouble of setting one Foot into the World, on such an
Errand; and for that Reason we maybe assur’d those certain Apparitions,
which[Pg 358] we are told came to detect a Murther in Gloucestershire, and
others who appear’d to prevent the ruining an Orphan for want of finding
a Deed, that was not lost, was certainly some other Power equally
concern’d, and not the Devil.
On the other Hand, neither will it follow that Satan never appears in
human Shape; for tho’ every Apparition may not be the Devil, yet it
does not follow that the Devil never makes an Apparition: All I shall
say to it is, as I have mention’d before, that generally speaking, the
Devil finds it more for his Purpose, to have his Interest in the World
propagated another Way; namely, in private, and his personal Appearances
are reserv’d for Things only of extraordinary Consequence, and, as I may
say, of evident Necessity, where his Honour is concern’d, and where his
Interest could be carried on no other Way; not forgetting to take Notice
that this is very seldom.
It remains to enquire, what then those Things are which we make so much
stir about, and which are call’d Apparitions, or Spirits assuming
human Shapes, and shewing themselves to People on particular Occasions?
whether they are evil Spirits or good? and tho’, indeed, this is out of
my Way at this Time, and does not relate at all to the Devil’s
History, yet I thought it not amiss to mention it; (1.) Because, as I
have said, I do not wholly exclude Satan from all Concern in such
Things; and (2.) Because I shall dismiss the Question with so very short
an Answer, namely, that we may determine which are and which are not the
Devil’s, by the Errand they come upon; every one to his own Business;
if it comes of a good Errand, you may certainly acquit the Devil of
it, conclude him innocent, and that he has no hand in it; if it comes of
a wicked and devilish Errand, you may e’en take him up upon[Pg 359] Suspicion,
’tis ten to one but you find him at the Bottom of it.
Next to Apparitions, we find Mankind disturb’d by abundance of little
odd reserv’d Ways which the Devil is shrewdly suspected of having a
Hand in, such as Dreams, Noises, Voices, &c. smells of Brimstone,
Candles burning blue, and the like.
As to Dreams, I have nothing to say in Satan’s Prejudice at all there; I
make no Question but he deals very much in that Kind of Intelligence,
and why should he not? we know Heaven it self formerly converst very
often with the greatest of Men, by the same Method, and the Devil is
known to mimick the Methods, as well as the Actions of his Maker;
whether Heaven has not quite left off that Way of working, we are not
certain; but we pretty well know the Devil has not left it, and I
believe some Instances may be given where his Worship has been really
seen and talk’d to in sleep, as much as if the Person had been awake
with his Eyes open.
These are to be distinguish’d too, pretty much by the Goodness or
Badness of the Subject; how often have Men committed Murther, Robbery
and Adultery in a Dream, and at the same time except an extraordinary
Agitation of the Soul, and express’d by extraordinary Noises in the
Sleep, by violent Sweating and other such Ways, the Head has never been
remov’d from the Pillow, or the Body so much as turn’d in the Bed?
Whether in such Cases, the Soul with all the Passions and Affections
being agitated, and giving their full assent to the Facts, of whatever
Kind soever, the Man is not as guilty as if the Sins so dream’d of his
committing, had been actually committed? tho’ it be no Doubt to me, but
that it is so, yet as it is foreign to the present Affair, and not at
all relating to the Devil’s History, I[Pg 360] leave it to the Reverend
Doctors of the Church, as properly belonging to them to decide.
I knew a Person who the Devil so haunted with naked Women, fine
beautiful Ladies in Bed with him, and Ladies of his Acquaintance too,
offering their Favours to him, and all in his Sleep; so that he seldom
slept without some such Entertainment; the Particulars are too gross for
my Story, but he gave me several long Accounts of his Night’s Amours,
and being a Man of a virtuous Life and good Morals, it was the greatest
Surprize to him imaginable; for you cannot doubt but that the cunning
Devil made every thing be acted to the Life with him, and in a manner
the most wicked; he own’d with Grief to me, that the very first Attack
the Devil made upon him, was with a very beautiful Lady of his
Acquaintance, who he had been really something freer than ordinary with
in their common Conversation; This Lady he brought to him in a Posture
for Wickedness, and wrought up his Inclination so high in his Sleep,
that he, as he thought, actually went about to debauch her, she not at
all resisting; but that he wak’d in the very Moment, to his particular
Satisfaction.
He was greatly concern’d at this Part, namely, that he really gave the
Consent of his Will to the Fact, and wanted to know if he was not as
guilty of Adultery, as if he had lain with her; indeed he decided the
Question against himself, so forcibly, that I, who was of the same
Opinion before, had nothing to say against it; however, I confirm’d him
in it, by asking him these Questions.
1. Whether he did not think the Devil had the chief Hand in such
a Dream? he answer’d, it could certainly be no body else, it must
be the Devil.
[Pg 361]2. I then ask’d him what Reason the Devil could have for it, if
his Consent to the Fact in Sleep had not been criminal? That’s
true indeed, says he, I am answer’d: But then he ask’d another
Question, which, I confess, is not so easy to answer, namely, How
he should prevent being serv’d so again.
Nor could all my Divinity or his own keep the Devil from attacking him
again; on the other Hand, as I have said, he worried him to that Degree,
that he injur’d his Health, bringing naked Women to him, sometimes one,
sometimes another, sometimes in one Posture of Lewdness, sometimes in
another, sometimes into his very Arms, sometimes with such Additions as
I am not merry enough, and sometimes such as I am not wicked enough to
put into your Heads; the Man, indeed, could not help it, and so the
Devil was more Faulty than he; but as I hinted to him, he might bring
his Mind to such a stated Habit of Virtue, as to prevent its assenting
to any wicked Motion, even in Sleep, and that would be the Way to put an
End to the Attempt; and this Advice he relish’d very well, and
practised, I believe, with Success.
By this same Method, the same Devil injects powerful Incentives to
other Crimes, provokes Avarice, by laying a great Quantity of Gold in
your View, and no body present, giving you an Opportunity to steal it,
or some of it, at the same time, perhaps, knowing your Circumstances to
be such as that you are at that Time in a great want of the Money.
I knew another, who being a Tradesman, and in great Distress for Money
in his Business, dream’d that he was walking all alone in a great Wood,
and that he met a little Child with a Bag of Gold in its Hand, and a
fine Necklace of[Pg 362] Diamonds on its Neck, upon the Sight, his Wants
presently dictated to him to rob the Child; the little innocent
Creature, (just so he dream’d) not being able to resist; or to tell who
it was, accordingly he consented to take the Money from the Child, and
then to take the Diamond Necklace from it too, and did so.
But the Devil, (a full Testimony, as I told him, that it was the
Devil, not contented with that, hinted to him, that perhaps the Child
might some time or other know him, and single him out, by crying or
pointing, or some such Thing, especially if he was suspected and shew’d
to it, and therefore it would be better for him to kill the Child,
prompting him to kill it for his own Safety, and that he need do no more
but twist the Neck of it a little, or crush it with his Knee; He told me
he stood debating with himself, whether he should do so or not; but that
in that Instant his Heart struck him with the Word Murther, and he
entertain’d a Horror of it, refus’d to do it, and immediately waked.
He told me, that when he wak’d, he found himself in so violent a Sweat
as he never had known the like; that his Pulse beat with that Heat and
Rage, that it was like a Palpitation of the Heart to him, and that the
Agitation of his Spirits was such, that he was not fully composed in
some Hours; tho’ the Satisfaction and Joy that attended him, when he
found it was but a Dream, assisted much to return his Spirits to their
due Temperament.
It is neither my Business or Inclination to turn Divine here, nor is the
Age I write to sufficiently Grave to relish a Sermon, if I was disposed
to preach, though they must allow the Subject would very well bear it;
but I shall only ask them, if they think this is not the Devil, what[Pg 363]
they think it is? If they believe it is the Devil, they will act
accordingly I hope, or let it alone, as Satan and they can agree about
it.
I should not oblige the Devil over much, whatever I might do to those
that read it; if I should enter here upon a Debate of Interests,
(viz.) to enquire whether the Devil has not a vast Advantage upon
Mankind this Way, and whether it is not much his Interest to preserve
it; and if I prove the Affirmative, I leave it to you to enquire whose
Interest it is to disappoint and supplant him.
In short, I take Dreams to be the second Best of the Advantages the
Devil has over Mankind; the first, I suppose, you all know (viz.)
the Treachery of the Garrison within; by Dreams he may be said to get
into the Inside of us without Opposition; here he opens and locks
without a Key, and like an Enemy laying siege to a fortified City,
Reason and Nature, the Governor of the City, keep him out by Day, and
keep the Garrison true to their Duty; but in the Dark he gets in and
parlees with the Garrison (the Affections and Passions) Debauches their
Loyalty, stirring up them to Disloyalty and Rebellion, so they betray
their Trust, Revolt, Mutiny, and go over to the Besieger.
Thus he manages his Interest, I say, and insinuates himself into the
Inside of us, without our Consent, nay, without our Knowledge; for
whatever Speculation may do, ’tis evident Demonstration does not assist
us to discover which Way he gets Access to the Soul, while the Organ
tied up, and dozed with Sleep has lock’d it up from Action; that it is
so is clear, but how he does it is a Secret which I do not find the
Antients or Moderns have yet made a Discovery of.
[Pg 364]That Devil of a Creature, Mother Lakland, whose Story I mention’d
above, acknowledg’d that the first Time the Devil attempted to draw
her in to be a Witch was in a Dream, and even when she consented, she
said, she was between sleeping and waking; that is, she did not know
whether she was awake or asleep, and the cunning Devil it seems was
satisfied with her Assent given so, when she was asleep, or neither
asleep or awake, so taking the Advantage of her Incapacity to act
rationally.
The Stories of her bewitching several People, and the manner in which
they died, are so formidable and extravagant, that I care not to put any
one’s Faith to the stretch about them, tho’ publish’d by Authority, and
testified by Abundance of Witnesses; but this is recorded in particular,
and to my Purpose, whether from her own Mouth or not, I do not say,
namely, the Description of a Witch, and the Difference between Witches,
and those other of Satan’s Acquaintance who act in his Name.
1. They have consulted and covenanted with a Spirit or Devil.
2. They have a Deputy Devil, sometimes several to serve and
assist them.
3. These they employ as they please, call them by Name, and command
their Appearance in whatever Shape they think fit.
4. They send them abroad to or into the Persons who they design to
bewitch, who they always torment, and often murther them, as Mother
Lakland did several.
As to the Difference between the several Devils that appear, it relates
to the Office of the Persons who employ them; as Conjurers, who[Pg 365] seem to
command the particular Devil that waits upon them with more Authority,
and raise them and lay them at Pleasure, drawing Circles, casting
Figures, and the like; but the Witch, in a more familiar manner,
whispers with the Devil, keeps the Devil in a Bag or a Sack, sometimes
in her Pocket, and the like, and like Mr. Faux shews Tricks with him.
But all these Kinds deal much in Dreams, talk with the Devil in their
Sleep, and make other People talk with him in their Sleep too; and ’tis
on this Occasion I mention it here; in short, the Devil may well take
this Opportunity with Mankind, for not half the World that came into his
Measures would comply, if they were awake; but of that hereafter.
And yet his thus insinuating himself by Dream, does not seem sufficient,
in my Opinion, to answer the Devil’s End, and to carry on his
Business; and therefore we must be forc’d to allow him a Kind of actual
Possession, in particular Cases, and that in the Souls of some People,
by different Methods from others; Luther is of the Opinion that the
Devil gets a Familiarity with some Souls just at, or rather before
their being embodied; as to the Manner and Method how he gets in, that
is another Question, and may be spoken of by it self; besides, why may
not he, that at Satan’s Request to enter into the Herd of Swine, said
go, give the same Commission to possess a sort of Creatures so many
Degrees below the Dignity of the Gaderenian Swine, and open the Door
too? but as for that, when our Lord said go, the Devil never
enquir’d which Way he should get in.
When then I see Nations, or indeed Herds of Nations set on Fire of Hell,
and as I may say, enflam’d by the Devil; when I see Towns, Parties,[Pg 366]
Factions and Rabbles of People visibly possess’d; ’tis enough to me that
the great Master of the Devils has said to him, go; there’s no need to
enquire which Way he finds open, or at what postern Gate he gets in; as
to his appearing, ’tis plain he often gets in without appearing, and
therefore the Question about his appearing still remains a Doubt, and is
not very easy to be resolv’d.
In the Scripture we have some Light into it, and that is all the Help I
find from Antiquity, and it goes a great Way to solve the Phænomena of
Satan’s appearing; what I mean by the Scripture giving some Light to it,
is this; ’tis said in several Places, and of several Persons, God came
to them in a Dream, Gen. xx. 3. God came to Abimelech in a Dream by
Night, Gen. xxxi. 24. And God came to Laban the Syrian in a
Dream, Matt. ii. 13. The Angel of the Lord appear’d to Joseph in a
Dream; short Comments are sufficient to plain Texts, applying this to
my Friend when he wanted to be satisfied about the How, relating to his
Dream (viz.) how he should come to Dream such wicked Things? I told
him, in short, the Case was plain, the Devil came to him in a Dream by
Night: How and in what manner he form’d the wicked Representations, and
spread debauch’d Appearances before his Fancy, by real Whispers and
Voice, according to Milton, or by what other Methods, the Learned are
not arriv’d to any Certainty about it.
This leads me necessarily to enquire whether the Devil or some of his
Agents are not always in our Company, whether they make any visible
Appearances or no? For my Part I make no Question of it, how else could
he come at the Knowledge of what we do; for as I can allow him no
Prescience at all, as for many Reasons I have[Pg 367] observ’d already, he must
be able to see and know us, and what we are about when we know nothing
of him, or else he could know nothing of us and our Affairs, which yet
we find otherwise; and this gives him infinite Advantage to Influence
our Actions, to judge of our Inclinations, and to bring our Passions to
clash with our Reason, as they often do, and get the better of it too.
All this he obtains by his being able to walk about invisible, and see
when he is not seen, of which I have spoken already; hence that most
wise and solid Suggestion, that when the Candles burn blue the Devil
is in the Room, which great Secret in Nature, that you may more fully be
convinc’d of its imaginary Reality, I must tell you the following Story
which I saw in a Letter directed to a particular Friend, take it Word
for Word as in the Letter; because I do not make my self accountable for
the Facts, but take them ad referendum.
Sir,
We had one Day, very early in the Morning, and for the most Part of the
Day a great deal of Rain with a high Wind, and the Clouds very thick and
dark all Day.
In the Evening the cloudy thick Weather continued, tho’ not the Rain,
when being at a Friend’s House in —— Lane London, and several Ladies
and some Gentlemen in the Room, besides two or three Servants (for we
had been eating) the following Interlude happen’d for our Entertainment:
When the Cloth was taken away, two large Candles were brought upon the
Table and plac’d there with some Bottles and Glasses for the Gentlemen,
who, it seems, were intending to drink and be very merry; two large
Wax-Candles were[Pg 368] also set on another Table, the Ladies being going to
Cards, also there were two large Candles in Sconces over or near the
Chimney, and one more in a Looking-Glass Sconce, on a Peer by the
Window.
With all this Apparatus, the Company separating sat down, the
Gentlemen at their Table, and the Ladies at theirs, to play as above;
when after some time the Gentleman of the House said hastily to a
Servant, what a P—— ails the Candles? and turning to the Servant
raps out an Oath or two, and bids him snuff the Candles, for they burnt
as if the Devil was in the Room.
The Fellow going to snuff one of the Candles, snuffs it out, at which
his Master being in a Passion the Fellow lights it again immediately at
the other Candle, and then being in a little hurry, going to snuff the
other Candle snuffed that out too.
The first Candle that was relighted (as is usual in such Cases) burn’d
dim and dull for a good while, and the other being out, the Room was
much darker than before, and a Wench that stood by the Ladies Table,
bawls out to her Mistress, Law Madam! the Candles burn blue; an old
Lady that sat by says, ay Betty! so they do; upon this one of the
Ladies starts up, Mercy upon us, says she, what is the Matter! In
this unlucky Moment another Servant, without Orders, went to the great
Peer Sconce, and because, as he thought, he would be sure to snuff the
Candle well, he offers to take it down, but very unhappily, I say, the
Hook came out and down falls the Sconce Candle and all, and the
Looking-Glass broke all to pieces, with a horrible Noise; however, the
Candle falling out of the Sconce did not go out, but lay on the Floor
burning dully, and as it is usual on such Cases, all on one[Pg 369] Side,
Betty cries out again, Law Madam, that Candle burns blue too; the
very Moment she said this, the Footman that had thrown down the Sconce,
says to his fellow Servant, that came to his Assistance, I think the
Devil is in the Candles to Night, and away he run out of the Room, for
fear of his Master.
The old Lady, who, upon the Maid Betty’s Notion of the Candles burning
blue, had her Head just full of that old Chimney-Corner Story, the
Candles burn blue when the Spirits are in the Room, heard the Footman
Say the Word Devil, but heard nothing else of what he said; upon this
she rises up in a terrible Fright, and cries out that the Footman said
the Devil was in the Room; as she was, indeed, frighted out of her
Wits, she frighted the Ladies most terribly, and they all starting up
together, down goes the Card Table, and put the Wax-Candles out.
Mrs. Betty, that had frighted them all, runs to the Sconce next the
Chimney, but that having a long Snuff, she cried out it burnt blue too,
and she durst not touch it; in short, tho’ there were three Candles left
still burning in the Room, yet the Ladies we’re all so frighted, that
they and the Maids too run out of the Parlour screaming like mad Folks.
The Master in a Rage kick’d his first Man out of the Room, and the
second Man was run out to avoid, as I said before, the like, so that no
Servant was to be had, but all was in Confusion.
The two other Gentlemen, who were sitting at the first Table, kept their
Seats composed and easy enough, only concern’d to see all the House in
such a fright; it was true, they said, the Candles burnt dim and very
oddly, but they could not perceive they burnt blue, except one of
those over the Chimney, and that on the Table, which[Pg 370] was relighted
after the Fellow had snufft it out.
However, the Maid, the old Lady and the Footman that pull’d down the
Sconce, all insist that the Candles burnt blue, and all pretend that
the Devil was certainly in the Room, and was the Occasion of it; and
they now came to me with the Story, to desire my Opinion of it.
This put me upon Enquiry into the Notion of Candles burning blue when
Spirits are in a Room, which upon all the Search into Things, that I am
able to make, amounts to no more than this; that upon any extraordinary
Emission of sulphureous or of nitrous Particles, either in a close Room,
or in any not very open Place, if the Quantity be great, a Candle or
Lamp, or any such little Blaze of Fire will seem to be, or to burn
blue; and if then they can prove that any such Effluvia attends or is
emitted from a Spirit, then when Satan is at Hand it may be so.
But then ’tis begging the Question grossly, because no Man can assure us
that the Devil has any sulphureous Particles about him.
It is true, the Candles burn thus in Mines and Vaults, and damp Places;
and ’tis as true that they will do so upon Occasion of very damp, stormy
and moist Air, when an extraordinary Quantity of Vapours are supposed to
be dispers’d abroad, as was the Case when this happen’d; and if there
was any Thing of that in it on that Monday Night, the Candles might,
perhaps, burn blue upon that Occasion; but that the Devil was abroad
upon any extraordinary Business that Night, that I cannot grant, unless
I have some better Testimony than the old Lady that heard the
Footman’s out-cry but by halves, or than Mrs. Betty, who first fancied
the Candles burnt blue; so I must suspend my Judgment till I hear
farther.
[Pg 371]This Story however may solve a great many of those Things which pass for
Apparitions in the World, and which are laid to the Devil’s Charge, tho’
he really may know nothing of the Matter; and this would bring me to
defend Satan in many Things, wherein he may truly be said to suffer
wrongfully; and if I thought it would oblige him, I might say something
to his Advantage this Way; however, I’ll venture a Word or two for an
injur’d Devil, take it as you will.
First, it is certain, that as this Invisibility of the Devil is very
much to our Prejudice, so the Doctrine of his Visibility is a great
Prejudice to him, as we make Use of it.
By his Invisibility he is certainly vested with infinite Advantages
against us; while he can be present with us, and we know nothing of the
Matter, he informs himself of all our Measures, and arms himself in the
best and most suitable manner to injure and assault us, as he can
counteract all our secret concerted Designs, disappoint all our Schemes,
and except when Heaven apparently concerns it self to over-rule him, can
defeat all our Enterprizes, break all our Measures, and do us Mischief
in almost every Part of our Life, and all this, because we are not privy
to all his Motions, as he is to ours.
But now for his Visibility and his real Appearance in the World, and
particularly among his Disciples and Emissaries, such as Witches and
Wizards, Demonaists, and the like: Here, I think Satan has a great deal
of Loss, suffers manifest Injury, and has great Injustice done him; and,
that therefore I ought to clear this Matter up a little, if it be
possible, to do Justice to Satan, and set Matters right in the World
about him, according to that useful old Maxim of setting the Saddle upon
the right Horse, or giving the Devil his due.
[Pg 372]First, as I have said, we are not to believe every idle Head, who
pretends even to converse Face to Face with the Devil, and who tells
us, they have thus seen him, and been acquainted with him every Day:
Many of these Pretenders are manifest Cheats; and, however, they would
have the Honour of a private Interest in him, and boast how they have
him at their Beck, can call him this Way, and send him that, as they
please, raise him and lay him when and how, and as often as they find
for their Purpose; I say, whatever Boasts they make of this Kind, they
really have nothing of Truth in them.
Now the Injuries and Injustice done to the Devil, in these Cases, are
manifest; namely, that they entitle the Devil to all the Mischief they
are pleased to do in the World; and if they commit a Murther or a
Robbery, fire a House, or do any Act of Violence in the World, they
presently are said to do it by the Agency of the Devil, and the
Devil helps them; so Satan bears the Reproach, and they have all the
Guilt; this is, (1.) a grand Cheat upon the World, and (2.) a notorious
Slander upon the Devil; and it would be a public Benefit to Mankind,
to have such would-be-Devils as these turn’d inside out, that we might
know when the Devil was really at work among us, and when not; what
Mischiefs were of his doing, and which were not; and that these Fellows
might not slip their Necks out of the Halter, by continually laying the
Blame of their Wickedness upon the Devil.
Not that the Devil is not very willing to have his Hand in any
Mischief, or in all the Mischief that is done in the World; but there
are some low priz’d Rogueries that are too little for him, beneath the
Dignity of his Operation, and which ’tis really a Scandal to the Devil
to charge upon[Pg 373] him. I remember the Devil had such a Cheat put upon
him in East-Smithfield once, where a Person pretended to converse with
the Devil Face to Face, and that in open Day too, and to cause him to
tell Fortunes, foretel Good and Evil, &c. discover stollen Goods, tell
where they were who stole them, and how to find them again, nay, and
even to find out the Thieves; but Satan was really slandered in the
Case, the Fellow had no more to do with the Devil than other People,
and perhaps not so much neither: This was one of those they call’d
Cunning-Men, or at least he endeavour’d to pass for such a one, but
’twas all a Cheat.
Besides, what had the Devil to do to detect Thieves, and restore
stollen Goods? Thieving and Robbing, Trick and Cheat, are part of the
Craft of his Agency, and of the Employments which it is his Business to
encourage; they greatly mistake him, who think he will assist any Body
in suppressing and detecting such laudable Arts and such diligent
Servants.
I won’t say, but the Devil, to draw these People we call
Cunning-Men, into a Snare, and to push on his farther Designs, may
encourage them privately, and in a manner that they themselves know
nothing of, to make use of his Name, and abuse the World about him, till
at last they may really believe they do deal with the Devil, when
indeed ’tis only he deals with them, and they know nothing of the
Matter.
In other Cases he may encourage them in these little Frauds and Cheats,
and give them leave, as above, to make use of his Name to bring them
afterwards, and by Degrees to have a real Acquaintance with him; so
bringing the Jest of their Trade into Earnest, till at length prompting
them to commit some great Villany, he[Pg 374] secures them to be his own, by
their very Fear of his leaving them to be exposed to the World; thus he
puts a Jonathan Wild upon them, and makes them be the very Wretches
they only pretended to be before: So old Parsons of Clithroe, as
Fame tells, was twenty five Years a Cunning-man, and twenty two Years
a Witch; that is to say, for five and twenty Years, he was only
pretending to deal with the Devil, when Satan and he had no manner of
Acquaintance, and he only put his Leger-de-main upon the People in the
Devil’s Name, without his leave; but at length the Devil’s Patience
being tir’d quite out, he told the old Counterfeit, that in short, he
had been his stalking Horse long enough, and that now, if he thought fit
to enter himself, and take a Commission, well and good; and he should
have a Lease to carry on his Trade for so many Years more, to his
Heart’s content; but if not, he would expose his Knavery to the World,
for that he should take away his Peoples Trade no longer; but that he
(Satan) would set up another in his Room, that should make a meer Fool
of him, and carry away all his Customers.
Upon this, the old Man consider’d of it, took the Devil’s Counsel, and
listed in his Pay; so he, that had plaid his Pranks twenty five Years as
a Conjurer, when he was no Conjurer, was then forc’d really to deal with
the Devil, for fear the People should know he did not: Till now he had
ambo dexter, cheated the Devil on one Hand, and the People on the
other; but the Devil gain’d his Point at last, and so he was a real
Wizard ever after.
But this is not the only way the Devil is injur’d neither, for we have
often found People pretend upon him in other Cases, and of nearer
Concern to him a great deal, and in Articles more[Pg 375] Weighty, as in
particular, in the great Business of Possession; it is true this Point
is not thoro’ly understood among Men, neither has the Devil thought fit
to give us those Illuminations about it, as I believe he might do;
particularly that great and important Article, is not, for ought I can
see, rightly explain’d, namely; whether there are not two several Kinds
of Possession, (viz.) some wherein the Devil possesses us, and some in
which we really possess the Devil; the Nicety of which I doubt this Age,
with all its Penetration, is not qualified to explain, and a
Dissertation upon it being too long for this Work, especially so near
its Conclusion, I am oblig’d to omit, as I am also all the practical
Discourses upon the Usefulness and Advantages of real Possession,
whether consider’d one Way or other to Mankind, all which I must leave
to hereafter.
But to come back to the Point in Hand, and to consider the Injustice
done to the Devil, in the various Turns and Tricks which Men put upon
him very often in this one Article (viz.) pretending to Possession,
and to have the Devil in them, when really it is not so; certainly the
Devil must take it very ill, to have all their demented, lunatick Tricks
charg’d upon him; some of which, nay, most of which are so gross, so
simple, so empty, and so little to the Purpose, that the Devil must be
asham’d to see such Things pass in his Name, or that the World should
think he was concern’d in them.
It is true, that Possession being one of the principal Pieces of the
Devil’s Artifice in his managing Mankind, and in which, with the most
exquisite skill he plays the Devil among us, he has the more Reason to
be affronted when he finds himself invaded in this Part, and angry that
any Body should pretend to possess, or be possess’d[Pg 376] without his leave,
and this may be the Reason for ought we know, why so many Blunders have
been made, when People have pretended to it without him, and he has
thought fit not to own them in it; of which we have many Examples in
History, as in Simon Magus, the Devil of London, the fair Maid of
Kent, and several others, whose History it is not worth while to enlarge
upon.
In short, Possessions, as I have said, are nice Things, as it is not so
easy to mimick the Devil in that Part, as it may be in some other;
designing Men have attempted it often, but their manner has been easily
distinguish’d, even without the Devil’s Assistance.
Thus the People of Salem in New-England pretended to be bewitch’d,
and that a black Man tormented them by the Instigation of such and such,
whom they resolv’d to bring to the Gallows: This black Man they would
have be the Devil, employ’d by the Person who they accus’d for a
Witch: Thus making the Devil a Page or a Footman to the Wizard, to go
and torment whoever the said Wizard commanded, till the Devil himself
was so weary of the foolish Part, that he left them to go on their own
Way, and at last they over-acted the murthering Part so far, that when
they confess’d themselves to be Witches, and possess’d, and that they
had Correspondence with the Devil, Satan not appearing to vouch for
them, no Jury would condemn them upon their own Evidence, and they could
not get themselves hang’d, whatever Pains they took to bring it to pass.
Thus you see the Devil may be wrong’d, and falsely accus’d in many
Particulars, and often has been so; there are likewise some other sorts
of counterfeit Devils in the World, such as Gypsies,[Pg 377]
Fortune-Tellers, Foretellers of good and bad Luck, Sellers of Winds,
Raisers of Storms, and many more, some practis’d among us, some in
foreign Parts, too many almost to reckon up; nay I almost doubt whether
the Devil himself knows all the Sorts of them; for ’tis evident he has
little or nothing to do with them, I mean not in the Way of their Craft.
These I take to be Interlopers, or with the Guinea Merchants leave,
separate Traders, and who act under the Skreen and Protection of Satan’s
Power, but without his License or Authority; no doubt these carry away a
great deal of his Trade, that is to say, the Trade which otherwise the
Devil might have carried on by Agents or his own; I cannot but say,
that while these People would fain be thought Devils, tho’ they really
are not, it is but just they should be really made as much Devils as
they pretended to be, or that Satan should do himself Justice upon
them, as he threaten’d to do upon old Parsons of Clithroe
abovemention’d, and let the World know them.
Chap. XI.
Of Divination, Sorcery, the Black-Art, Pawawing, and such like
Pretenders to Devilism, and how far the Devil is or is not
concern’d in them.
Tho’ I am writing the History of the Devil, I have not undertaken to
do the like of all the Kinds of People, Male or Female, who set up for
Devils in the World: This would be a Task for the Devil indeed, and
fit only for him[Pg 378] to undertake, for their Number is and has been
prodigious great, and may, with his other Legions be rank’d among the
Innumerable.
What a World do we inhabit! where there is not only with us a great
Roaring-Lyon-Devil daily seeking whom of us he may devour, and
innumerable Millions of lesser Devils hovering in the whole Atmosphere
over us, nay, and for ought we know, other Millions always invisibly
moving about us, and perhaps in us, or at least in many of us; but that
have, besides all these, a vast many counterfeit Hocus Pocus Devils;
human Devils, who are visible among us, of our own Species and
Fraternity, conversing with us upon all Occasions; who like Mountebanks
set up their Stages in every Town, chat with us at every Tea-Table,
converse with us in every Coffee-House, and impudently tell us to our
Faces that they are Devils, boast of it, and use a thousand Tricks and
Arts to make us believe it too, and that too often with Success.
It must be confess’d there is a strong Propensity in Man’s Nature,
especially the more ignorant part of Mankind, to resolve every strange
Thing, or whether really strange or no, if it be but strange to us, into
Devilism, and to say every Thing is the Devil, that they can give no
Account of.
Thus the famous Doctors of the Faculty at Paris, when John Faustus
brought the first printed Books that had then been seen in the World, or
at least seen there, into the City, and sold them for Manuscripts: They
were surpriz’d at the Performance, and question’d Faustus about it;
but he affirming they were Manuscripts, and that he kept a great many
Clarks employ’d to write them, they were satisfied for a while.
But looking farther into the Work, they observ’d the exact Agreement of
every Book, one[Pg 379] with another, that every Line stood in the same Place,
every Page a like Number of Lines, every Line a like Number of Words; if
a Word was mis-spelt in one, it was mis-spelt also in all, nay, that if
there was a Blot in one, it was alike in all; they began again to muse,
how this should be? in a Word, the learned Divines not being able to
comprehend the Thing (and that was always sufficient) concluded it must
be the Devil, that it was done by Magick and Witchcraft, and that in
short, poor Faustus (who was indeed nothing but a meer Printer) dealt
with the Devil.
N. B. John Faustus was Servant, or Journeyman, or Compositor, or
what you please to call it, to Koster of Harlem, the first
inventor of Printing; and having printed the Psalter, sold them at
Paris as Manuscripts; because as such they yielded a better
Price.
But the learned Doctors not being able to understand how the Work was
perform’d, concluded as above, it was all the Devil, and that the Man
was a Witch; accordingly they took him up for a Magician and a
Conjurer, and one that work’d by the Black Art, that is to say, by
the help of the Devil; and in a Word, they threaten’d to hang him for
a Witch, and in order to it, commenc’d a Process against him in their
criminal Courts, which made such a Noise in the World as rais’d the Fame
of poor John Faustus to a frightful Height, till at last he was
oblig’d, for fear of the Gallows, to discover the whole Secret to them.
N. B. This is the true original of the famous Dr. Faustus or
Foster, of whom we have believ’d such strange Things, as that it
is become a Proverb, as great as the Devil and[Pg 380] Dr. Foster:
Whereas poor Faustus was no Doctor, and knew no more of the
Devil than another Body.
Thus the Magistrates of Bern and Switzerland, finding a Gang of
French Actors of Puppet-shew open’d their Stage in the Town, upon
hearing the surprizing Accounts which the People gave of their wonderful
Puppets, how they made them speak, answer Questions, and discourse,
appear and disappear in a Moment, pop up here, as if they rise out of
the Earth, and down there, as if they vanish’d, and Abundance more Feats
of Art, censur’d them as Demons; and if they had not pack’d up their
Trinkets, and disappeared almost as dextrously as their Puppets, they
had certainly condemn’d the poor Puppets to the Flames for Devils, and
censur’d, if not otherwise punished their Masters. See the Count de
Rochfort’s Memoirs, p. 179.
Wonderful Operations astonish the Mind, especially where the Head is not
over-burthen’d with Brains; and Custom has made it so natural to give
the Devil either the Honour or Scandal of every Thing, that we cannot
otherwise Account for, that it is not possible to put the People out of
the Road of it.
The Magicians were, in the Chaldean Monarchy, call’d the Wisemen;
and tho’ they are joined with the Sorcerers and Astrologers in the same
Place, Dan. ii. 4. yet they were generally so understood among those
People; but in our Language we understand them to be People that have an
Art to reveal Secrets, interpret Dreams, foretel Events, &c. and that
use Enchantments and Sorceries, by all which we understand the same
Thing; which now in a more vulgar Way we express by one general coarse
Expression, Dealing with the Devil.
[Pg 381]The Scripture speaks of a Spirit of Divination, Acts xvi. 16. and a
Wench that was possess’d by this Spirit brought her Master much Gain by
Southsaying, that is to say, according to the Learned, by Oracling or
answering Questions; whence you will see in the Margin, that this
southsaying Devil is there call’d Python, that is, Apollo, who is
often call’d Python, and who at the Oracle of Delphos gave out such
Answers and double Entendres, as this Wench possibly did; and hence
all those Spirits which were call’d Spirits of Divination, were in
another Sense call’d Pythons.
Now when the Apostle St. Paul came to see this Creature, this Spirit
takes upon it to declare that those Men, meaning St. Paul and
Timotheus, were the Servants of the most high God, which shew’d unto
them the Way of Salvation; this was a good turn of the Devil, to
preserve his Authority in the possess’d Girl; she brought them Gain by
Southsaying, that is to say, resolving difficult Questions, answering
Doubts, interpreting Dreams, &c. Among these Doubts, he makes her give
Testimony to Paul and Timotheus, to wheedle in with the new
Christians, and perhaps (tho’ very ignorantly) even with Paul and
Timotheus themselves, so to give a Kind of Credit and Respect to her
for speaking.
But the Devil, who never speaks Truth, but with some sinister End, was
discover’d here and detected; his flattering Recognition not accepted,
and he himself unkennel’d as he deserv’d; there the Devil was
over-shot in his own Bow again.
Here now was a real Possession, and the evil Spirits who possess’d her,
did stoop to sundry little Acts of Servitude, that we could give little
or no Reason for, only that the Girl’s Master might get Money by her;
but perhaps this was a particular Case, and, prepar’d to honour the
[Pg 382]Authority and Power the Apostles had over evil Spirits.
But we find these Things carried a great Way farther in many Cases, that
is to say, where the Parties are thus really possess’d; namely, the
Devil makes Agents of the possess’d Parties to do many Things for the
propagating his Interest and Kingdom, and particularly for the carrying
on his Dominion in the World: But I am for the present not so much upon
the real Possession as the pretended, and particularly we have had many
that have believed themselves possess’d, when the Devil never believed
it of them, and perhaps knew them better; some of these are really poor
Devils to be pitied, and are what I call Diables Imaginaire; these
have notwithstanding done the Devil good Service, and brought their
Masters good Gain by Southsaying.
We find Possessions acknowledg’d in Scripture to be really and
personally the Devil, or according to the Text, Legions of Devils in
the Plural. The Devil or Devils rather, which possessed the Man
among the Tombs, is positively affirm’d to be the Devil in the
Scripture; all the Evangelists agree in calling him so, and his very
Works shew it; namely, the Mischief he did, as well to the poor Creature
among the Tombs, who was made so fierce, that he was the Terror of all
the Country, as to the Herd of Swine and to the Country in the Loss of
them.
I might preach you a Lecture here of the Devil’s Terror upon the
Approach of our Saviour, the Dread of his Government, and how he
acknowledg’d that there was a Time for his Torment, which was not yet
come: Art thou come to torment us before our Time? It is evident the
Devil apprehended that Christ would chain them up before the Day of
Judgment; and therefore some think the Devil here, being, as it were,[Pg 383]
caught out of his due Bounds, possessing the poor Man in such a furious
manner, was afraid, and petition’d Christ not to chain him up for it,
and as the Text says, They besought him to suffer them to go away, &c.
that is to say, when they say, art thou come to torment us before the
Time? the Meaning is, they begg’d he would not cast them into Torment
before the Time, which was already fix’d; but that if he would cast them
out of the Man, he would let them go away, &c.
The Evangelist St. Luke says, the Devil besought him that he would
not command them to go out into the Deep: Our learned Annotators think
that part is not rightly render’d; adding, that they do not believe the
Devil fears drowning; but with Submission, I believe the meaning is,
that they would not be confin’d to the vast Ocean, where no Inhabitants
being to be seen, they would be effectually imprison’d and tied down
from doing Mischief, which would be a Hell to them; as to their going
into the Swine, that might afford us some Allegory; but I am not
disposed to jest with the Scripture, no nor with the Devil neither,
farther than needs must.
It is evident the Devil makes Use of very mean Instruments sometimes,
such as the Damsel possess’d with a Spirit of Divination, and several
others.
I remember a Story, how true I know not, of a weak Creature next Door to
an Ideot, who was establish’d in the Country for an Oracle, and would
tell People strange Things that should be, long before they came to
pass; when People were sick, would tell them whether they should live or
die; if People were married, tell how many Children they should have;
and a hundred such Things as fill’d the People with Admiration, and they
were the easier brought to believe that the Girl was possess’d; but then
they were divided about[Pg 384] her too, and that was the finest spun Thread
the Devil could work, for he carried a great Point in it; some said she
had a good Spirit, and some a bad, some said she was a Prophetess, and
some that she was the Devil.
Now had I been there to decide the Question, I should certainly have
given it for the latter; if it were only upon this Account, namely, that
the Devil has often found Fools very necessary Agents for the
propagating his Interest and Kingdom, but we never knew the good Spirits
do so; on the other Hand, it does not seem likely that Heaven should
deprive a poor Creature of its Senses, and as it were take her Soul from
her, and then make her an Instrument of Instruction to others, and an
Oracle to declare his Decrees by; this does not seem to be rational.
But as far as this kind of Divination is in Use in our Days, yet I do
not find room to charge the Devil with making any great Use of Fools,
unless it be such as he has particularly qualified for his Work, for as
to Ideots and Naturals, they are perfectly useless to him; but a
sort of Fools call’d the Magi, indeed, we have some Reason to think he
often works with.
We are not arriv’d to a certainty yet, in the settling this great Point,
namely, what Magick is? whether a diabolical Art or a Branch of the
Mathematicks? Our most learned Lexicon Technicum is of the latter
Opinion, and gives the Magic Square and the Magic Lantern, two Terms
of Art.
The Magic Square is when Numbers in Arithmetical Proportion are
dispos’d into such Parallels or equal Ranks, as that the Sums of each
Row as well Diagonally as Laterally shall be all equal; for Example,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Place these Nine in a Square of three, they
will directly and diagonally make 18. Thus,
[Pg 385]
This he calls the Magic Square, but gives no Reason for the Term, nor
any Account of what infernal Operations are wrought by this Concurrence
of the Numbers; neither do I see that there can be any such Use made of
it.
The Magic Lantern is an optic Machine, by the Means of which are
represented, on a Wall in the Dark, many Phantasms and terrible
Appearances, but no Devil in all this, only that they are taken for
the Effects of Magic, by those that are not acquainted with the Secret.
All this is done by the help of several little painted Pieces of Glass,
only so and so situated, plac’d in certain Oppositions to one another,
and painted with different Figures, the most formidable being plac’d
foremost, and such as are most capable of terrifying the Spectators; and
by this all the Figures may be represented upon the opposite Wall, in
the largest Size.
I cannot but take Notice, that this very Piece of optic Delusion seems
too much akin to the mock Possessions and infernal Accomplishments,
which most of the Possessionists of this Age pretend to, so that they
are most of them meer Phantasms and Appearances, and no more; Nor is the
Spirit of Divination, the Magic, the Necromancing, and other Arts which
were call’d Diabolical, found to be of any Use in modern Practice, at
least, in these Parts of the World; but the Devil seems to do most of
his Work himself, and by shorter Methods; for he has so compleat an
Influence among those that he now Lists in his Service, that he brings
all the common Affairs of Mankind into a narrower Compass in his
Management, with a[Pg 386] Dexterity particular to himself, and by which he
carries on his Interest silently and surely, much more to the Detriment
of Virtue and good Government, and consequently much more to his
Satisfaction, than ever he did before.
There is a Kind of Magic or Sorcery, or what else you may please to
call it, which, tho’ unknown to us, is yet, it seems, still very much
encourag’d by the Devil; but this is a great Way off, and in Countries
where the politer Instruments, which he finds here, are not to be had;
namely, among the Indians of North-America; This is call’d
Pawawing, and they have their Divines, which they call Pawaws or
Witches, who use strange Gestures, Distortions, horrid Smokes, Burnings,
and Scents, and several such Things which the Sorcerers and Witches in
ancient Times are said to use in casting Nativities, in Philtres, and in
determining, or as they pretended, directing the Fate of Persons; by
burning such and such Herbs and Roots, such as Helebore, Wormwood,
Storax, Devilwort, Mandrake, Nightshade, and Abundance more
such, which are call’d noxious Plants, or the Product of noxious Plants;
also melting such and such Minerals, Gums, and poisonous Things, and by
several hellish Mutterings and Markings over them, the like do these
Pawaws; and the Devil is pleased, it seems, (or is permitted) to
fall in with these Things, and as some People think, appears often to
them for their Assistance upon those Occasions.
But be that as it will, he is eas’d of all that Trouble here; he can
Pawaw here himself, without their aid, and having laid them all aside,
he negotiates much of his Business without Ambassadors; he is his own
Plenipotentiary, for he finds Man so easy to come at, and so easy when
he is come at, that he stands in no need of secret Emissaries, or at
least not so much as he used to do.
[Pg 387]Upon the whole, as the World, within the Compass of a few pass’d Years
is advanc’d in all Kinds of Knowledge and Arts, and every useful Branch
of what they knew before improv’d, and innumerable useful Parts of
Knowledge, which were conceal’d before are discover’d; why should we
think the Devil alone should stand at a stay, has taken no Steps to
his farther Accomplishment, and made no useful Discoveries in his Way?
That he alone should stand at a Stay, and be just the same unimprov’d
Devil that he was before? No, no, as the World is improv’d every Day,
and every Age is grown wiser and wiser than their Fathers; so, no doubt,
he has bestirr’d himself too, in order to an encrease of Knowledge and
Discovery, and that he finds every Day a nearer Way to go to work with
Mankind than he had before.
Besides, as Men in general seem to have alter’d their manner, and that
they move in a higher and more exalted Sphere, especially as to Vice and
Virtue; so the Devil may have been obliged to change his Measures, and
alter his Way of working; particularly, those Things which would take in
former Times, and which a stupid Age would come easily into, won’t go
down with us now: As the taste of Vice and Virtue alters, the Devil is
forc’d to bait his Hook with new Compositions; the very Thing call’d
Temptation is alter’d in its Nature, and that which serv’d to delude our
Ancestors, whose gross Conceptions of Things caused them to be
manageable with less Art, will not do now; the Case is quite alter’d; in
some Things, perhaps, as I hinted above, we come into Crime with ease,
and may be led by a Finger; but when we come to a more refin’d Way of
sinning, which our Ancestors never understood, other and more refin’d
Politics must be made Use of, and the Devil has been put[Pg 388] upon many
useful Projects and Inventions, to make many new Discoveries and
Experiments to carry on his Affairs; and to speak impartially, he is
strangely improv’d either in Knowledge or Experiment, within these few
Years; he has found out a great many new Inventions to shorten his own
Labour, and carry on his Business in the World currently, which he never
was master of before, or at least we never knew he was.
No wonder then that he has chang’d Hands too, and that he has left of
pawawing in these Parts of the World; that we don’t find our Houses
disturb’d as they used to be, and the Stools and Chairs walking about
out of one Room into another, as formerly; that Children don’t vomit
crooked Pins and rusty stub Nails, as of old, the Air is not full of
Noises, nor the Church-Yard full of Hobgoblins; Ghosts don’t walk about
in Winding-Sheets, and the good old scolding Wives visit and plague
their Husbands after they are dead, as they did when they were alive.
The Age is grown too wise to be agitated by these dull scare-crow Things
which their Fore-Fathers were tickled with; Satan has been obliged to
lay by his Puppet-shews and his Tumblers, those things are grown stale;
his morrice-dancing Devils, his mountebanking and quacking won’t do now;
those Things, as they may be supposed to be very troublesome to him,
(and but that he has Servants enough would be chargeable too) are now of
no great Use in the new Management of his Affairs.
In a Word, Men are too much Devils themselves, in the Sense that I
have call’d them so, to be frighted with such little low priz’d
Appearances as these; they are better acquainted with[Pg 389] the old
Arch-Angel than so, and they seem to tell him they must be treated after
another manner, and that then, as they are good-natur’d and tractable,
he may deal with them upon better Terms.
Hence the Devil goes to work with Mankind a much shorter Way; for
instead of the Art of Wheedling and Whining, together with the laborious
Part of Tricking and Sharping, Hurrying and Driving, Frighting and
Terrifying, all which the Devil was put to the Trouble of before; in
short, he acts the Grand Manner as the Architects call it (I don’t know
whether our Free-Masons may understand the Word) and therefore I may
hereafter explain it, as it is to be Diabolically as well as
mathematically understood.
At present my meaning is, he acts with them immediately and personally
by a magnificent Transformation, making them meer Devils to
themselves, upon all needful Occasions, and Devils to one another too,
whenever he (Satan), has Need of their Service.
This Way of embarking Mankind in the Devil’s particular Engagement, is
really very modern; and tho’ the Devil himself may have been long
acquainted with the Method, and as I have heard, began to practise it
towards the Close of the Roman Empire, when Men began to act upon very
polite Principles, and were capable of the most refin’d Wickedness, and
afterwards with some Popes, who likewise were a kind of Church Devils,
such as Satan himself could hardly expect to find in the World; yet I do
not find that he was ever able to bring it into Practice, at least, not
so universally as he does now: But now the Case is alter’d, and Men
being generally more expert in Wickedness than they were formerly; they
suffer the smaller Alteration of the Species, in[Pg 390] being transmigrated;
in a Word, they turn into Devils, with no trouble at all hardly,
either to the Devil or to themselves.
This Particular would want much the less Explanation, could I obtain a
License from Sir Hellebore Wormwood, Bart. or from my Lord
Thwartover, Baron of Scoundrel Hall in the Kingdom of Ireland, to
write the true History of their own Conduct; and how early, and above
all, how easily they commenc’d Devils, without the least Impeachment
of their Characters, as wise Men, and without any Diminution of that
Part of their Denomination which establish’d them for Fools.
How many mad Fellows appear among us every Day in the critical Juncture
of their Transmigration, just when they have so much of the Man left as
to be known by their Names, and enough of the Devil taken up to settle
their Characters? This Easiness of the Devil’s access to these People,
and the great Convenience it is to him in his general Business, is a
Proof to me that he has no more Occasion of Diviners, Magicians,
Sorcerers, and whatever else we please to call those People who were
formerly so great with him; for what Occasion has he to employ Devils
and Wizards to confound Mankind, when he is arriv’d to such a Perfection
of Art as to bring Men, at least in these Parts of the World, to do it
all themselves; upon this Account we do not find any of the old
Sorcerers and Diviners, Magicians or Witches appear among us; not that
the Devil might not be as well able to employ such People as formerly,
and qualify them for the Employment too, but that really there is no
need of them hereabout, the Devil having a shorter Way, and Mankind
being much more easily possess’d; not the old Herd of Swine were
sooner agitated, tho’ there was full 2000 of them together; Nature[Pg 391] has
open’d the Door, and the Devil has egress and regress at Pleasure, so
that Witches and Diviners are quite out of the Question.
Nor let any Man be alarm’d at this Alteration, in the Case as it stands
between Mankind and the Devil, and think the Devil having gain’d so
much Ground, may in time, by Encroachment, come to a general Possession
of the whole Race, and so we should all come to be Devils incarnate; I
say, let us not be alarm’d, for Satan does not get these Advantages by
Encroachment, and by his infernal Power or Art, no not at all; but ’tis
the Man himself does it by his Indolence and Negligence on one Hand, and
his Complaisance to the Devil on the other; and both Ways he, as it
were, opens the Door to him, beckons him with his very Hand to come in,
and the Devil has nothing to do but enter and take Possession: Now if it
be so, and Man is so frank to him; you know the Devil is no Fool not
to take the Advantage when ’tis offer’d him, and therefore ’tis no
wonder if the Consequences which I have been just now naming follow.
But let no Man be discourag’d by this, from reaffirming his natural and
religious Powers, and venturing to shut the Devil out; for the Case is
plain he may be shut out; the Soul is a strong Castle, and has a good
Garrison plac’d within to defend it; if the Garrison behave well, and do
their Duty, it is impregnable, and the cowardly Devil must raise his
Siege and be gone; nay, he must fly, or, as we call it, make his Escape,
lest he be laid by the Heels, that is, lest his Weakness be exposed, and
all his Lurking, lying in Wait, ambuscade-Tricks; this Part would bear a
great Enlargement, but I have not room to be witty upon him, so you must
take it in the Gross, the Devil lies at Blye Bush, as our Country[Pg 392]
People call it, to watch your coming out of your Hold; and if you happen
to go abroad unarm’d he seizes upon and masters you with ease.
Unarm’d, you’ll say, what Arms should I take? what Fence against a
Flail? What Weapons can a Man take to fight the Devil? I could tell
you what to fight him with, and what you might fright him with, for the
Devil is to be frighted with several Things besides Holy Water; but
’tis too serious for you, and you’ll tell me I am a preaching and a
canting, and the like; so I must let the Devil manage you rather than
displease you with talking Scripture and Religion.
Well, but may not the Devil be fought with some of his own Weapons? Is
there no dealing with him in a Way of human Nature? This would require a
long answer, and some Philosophy might be acted, or at least imitated,
and some Magic, perhaps; for they tells us there are Spells to draw away
even the Devil himself; as in some Places they nail Horse-Shoes upon the
Threshold of the Door, to keep him out; in other Places old pieces of
Flint, with so many Holes and so many Corners, and the like: But I must
answer in the Negative, I don’t know what Satan might be scar’d at in
those Days, but he is either grown cunninger since or bolder, for he
values none of those Things now; I question much whether he would value
St. Dunstan and his red hot Tongs, if he was to meet him now, or St.
Francis or any of the Saints, no not the Host itself in full
Procession; and therefore, tho’ you don’t care I should preach, yet in
short, if you are afraid he should charge upon you and attack you, if
you won’t make Use of those Scripture Weapons I should have mention’d,
and which you may hear of, if you enquire at Eph. vi. 16. you must
look for better where you think you can find them.
[Pg 393]But to go on with my Work, the Devil, I say, is not to be fear’d with
Maukins, nor does he employ his old Instruments, but does much of his
Work himself without Instruments.
And yet I must enter a Caveat here too, against being misunderstood in
my saying the Devil stands in no need of Agents; for when I speak so, I
am to be taken in a limited Sense; I don’t say he needs them no where,
but only that he does not need them in those polite Parts of the World
which I have been speaking of, and perhaps not much here; but in many
remote Countries ’tis otherwise still; the Indians of America are
particularly said to have Witches among them, as well in those Countries
where the Spaniards and the English and other Nations have planted
themselves, as amongst those where the European Nations seldom come:
for Example, the People of Canada, that is, of the Countries under
the French Government of Quebeck, the Equimeaux, and other Northern
Climates, have Magicians, Wizards and Witches, who they call Pilloatas
or Pillotoas; these pretend they speak intimately and familiarly with
the Devil, and receive from him the Knowledge of Things to come; all
which, by the Way, I take to be little more than this; that these
Fellows being a little more cunning than the rest, think, that by
pretending to something more than human, they shall make the stronger
Impressions on the ignorant People; as Mahomet amus’d the World with
his Pigeon, using it to pick Peas out of his Ear, and persuaded the
People it brought him superior Revelations and Inspirations from
Paradise.
Thus these Pillotoas gaining an Opinion among the People, behave like
so many Mountebanks of Hell, pretending to understand dark Things, cure
Diseases, practise Surgery, Physick and[Pg 394] Necromancy altogether; I will
not say, but Satan may pick out such Tools to work with, and I believe
does in those Parts, but I think he has found a nearer Way to the Wood
with us, and that is sufficient to my present Purpose.
Some would persuade me the Devil had a great Hand in the late
religious Breaches in France, among the Clergy, (viz.) about the
Pope’s Constitution Unigenitus, and that he made a fair Attempt to set
the Pope and the Gallican Church together by the Ears, for they were
all just upon the Point or breaking out into a Church War, that for
ought we knew might have gone farther than the Devil himself car’d it
should; now I am of the quite contrary Opinion, I believe the Devil
really did not make the Breach, but rather heal’d it, for fear it should
have gone so far among them as to have set them all in a Flame, and have
open’d the Door to the Return of the Hugonots again, which it was in a
fair Way to have done.
But be it one Way or t’other, the historical Part seems to be a little
against me; for ’tis certain, the Devil both wanted and made Use of
Legions of Agents, as well human as infernal, visible and invisible in
that great and important Affair, and we cannot doubt but he has
innumerable Instruments still at work about it.
Like as in Poland, I make no Question but the Devil has thousands of
his Banditti at work at this Time, and in another Country not far from
it, perhaps, preparing Matters for the next General Diet, taking care to
prevent giving any Relaxation to the Protestants, and to justify the
moderate Executions at Thorn, to excite a Nation to quarrel with every
Body who are able to fight with no body; to erect the Apostate Race of
S——y upon a Throne which they have no Title to, and turn an elective
Throne into an hereditary, in favour of Popery.
[Pg 395]I might anticipate all your Objections, by granting the busy Devil at
this Time employing all his Agents and Instruments (for I never told you
they were idle and useless) in striving to enflame the Christian World,
and bring a new War to overspread Europe; I might, perhaps, point out
to you some of the Measures he takes, the Provocatives which his State
Physicians administer to the Courts and Counsellors of Princes, to
foment and ferment the Spirits, and Members of Nations, Kingdoms,
Empires and States in the World, in order to bring these glorious Ends
of Blood and War to pass; for you cannot think but he that knows so much
of the Devil’s Affairs, as to write his History, must know something
of all these Matters more than those that do not know so much as he.
But all this is remote to the present Case, for this is no Impeachment
of Satan’s new Methods with Mankind, in this Part of the World, and in
his private and separate Capacity; all this only signifies that in his
more general and national Affairs, the Devil acts still by his old
Methods; and when he is to seduce or embroil Nations, he, like other
Conquerors, subdues them by Armies, employs mighty Squadrons of
Devils, and sends out strong Detachments, with Generals and
Generalissimos to lead them, some to one Part of the World, some to
another; some to influence one Nation, some to manage and direct
another, according as Business presents, and his Occasions require, that
his Affairs may be carried on currently, and to his Satisfaction.
If it were not thus, but that the Devil by his new and exquisite
Management, of which I have said so much, had brought Mankind in general
to be the Agents of their own Mischiefs, and that the World were so at
his Beck, that he[Pg 396] need but command them to go and fight, declare War,
raise Armies, destroy Cities, Kingdoms, Countries and People; the World
would be a Field of Blood indeed, and all Things would run into
Confusion presently.
But this is not the Case at all, Heaven has not let go the Government of
the Creation to his subdu’d Enemy, the Devil; that would overturn the
whole System of God, and give Satan more Power, than ever he was or will
be vested with; when, therefore, I speak of a few forward Wretches in
our Day, who are so warm in their Wickedness, that they anticipate the
Devil, save him the Trouble to tempt, turn Devils to themselves, and
gallop Hellward faster than he drives; I speak of them as single
Persons, and acting in their own personal and private Capacity, but when
I speak of Nations and Kingdoms, there the Devil is oblig’d to go on in
the old Road, and act by Stratagem, by his proper Machinery, and to make
use of all his Arts, and all his Agents, just as he has done in all
Ages, from the beginning of his politic Government to this Day.
And if it was not thus too, what would become of all his numberless
Legions, of which all Ages have heard so much, and all Parts of the
World have had so much fatal Experience? They would seem to be quite out
of Employment, and be render’d useless in the World of Spirits, where it
is to be supposed they reside; not the Devil himself could find any
Business for them, which by the Way, to busy and mischievous Spirits, as
they are, would be a Hell to them, even before their Time; they would
be, as it were, doom’d to a State of Inactivity, which we may suppose
was one Part of their Expulsion from Blessedness and the Creation of
Man; or as they were for the surprising Interval between the Destruction
of[Pg 397] Mankind by the Deluge and Noah’s coming out of the Ark, when
indeed they might be said to have nothing at all to do.
But this is not Satan’s Case, and therefore let me tell you too, that
you may not think I treat the Case with more Levity than I really do,
and than I am sure I intend to do; tho’ it is too true that our modern
and modish Sinners have arrived to more exquisite Ways of being wicked,
than their Fathers, and really seem, as I have said, to need no Devil to
tempt them; nay, that they do Satan’s Work for him as to others also,
and make themselves Devils to their Neighbours, tempting others to crime
even faster than the Devil desires them, running before they are sent,
and going of the Devil’s Errands gratis; by which Means Satan’s Work
is, as to them, done to his Hand, and they may be said to save him a
great deal of Trouble; yet after all, the Devil has still a great deal
of Business upon his Hands, and as well himself as all his Legions, find
themselves a full Employment in disturbing the World, and opposing the
Glory and Kingdom of their great Superior, whose Kingdom it is their
whole Business, however vain in its End, to overthrow and destroy, if
they were able, or at least to endeavour it.
This being the Case, it follows of course that the general Mischiefs of
Mankind, as well national and public, as family Mischiefs, and even
personal, (except as before excepted) lie all still at the Devil’s
Door, as much as ever, let his Advocates bring him off of it if they
can; and this brings us back again to the manner of the Devil’s
Management, and the Way of his working by human Agents, or if you will,
the Way of human Devils, working in Affairs of low Life, such as we call
Divination, Sorcery, Black-Art, Necromancy, and the[Pg 398] like; all which I
take to consist of two material Parts, and both very necessary for us to
be rightly inform’d of.
1. The Part which Satan by himself or his inferior Devils
empowers such People to do, as he is in Confederacy with here on
Earth; to whom he may be said, like the Master of an Opera or
Comedy, to give their Parts to act, and to qualify them to act it;
whether he obliges them to a Rehearsal in his Presence, to try
their Talents, and see that they are capable of performing, that
indeed I have not enquir’d into.
2. That Part which these empower’d People do voluntier or beyond
their Commission, to shew their Diligence in the Service of their
new Master, and either (1.) to bring Grist to their own Mill, and
make their Market of their Employment in the best manner they can;
or (2.) to gain Applause, be admir’d, wonder’d at, and applauded,
as if they were ten Times more Devils than really they are.
In a Word, the Matter consists of what the Devil does by the Help of
these People, and what they do in his Name without him; the Devil is
sometimes cheated in his own Business; there are Pretenders to
Witchcraft and Black-Art, who Satan never made any Bargain with, but who
he connives at, because at least they do his Cause no harm, tho’ their
Business is rather to get Money, than to render him any Service, of
which I gave you a remarkable Instance before.
But to go back to his real Agents, of which I reckon two.
[Pg 399]1. Those who act
by Direction and Confederacy, as I have said already many do.
2. Those whom he acts in and by, and they (perhaps) know it not, of
which Sort History gives us plenty of Examples, from Machiavel’s
first Disciple —— to the famous Cardinal Alberoni, and even to
some more modern than his Eminence, of whom I can say no more till
farther Occasion offers.
1. Those who act by immediate Direction of the Devil, and in Confederacy
with him; these are such as I mention’d in the beginning of this
Chapter, whose Arts are truly black, because really infernal; it will be
very hard to decide the Dispute between those who really act thus in
Confederacy with the Devil, and those who only pretend to it; so I
shall leave that Dispute where I find it; but that there are, or at
least have been, a Set of People in the World, who really are of his
Acquaintance, and very intimate with him; and tho’, as I have said, he
has much alter’d his Schemes and chang’d Hands of late; yet that there
are such People, perhaps of all Sorts; and that the Devil keeps up his
Correspondence with them; I must not venture to deny that Part, lest I
bring upon me the whole Posse of the conjuring and bewitching Crew, Male
and Female, and they should mob me for pretending to deny them the
Honour of dealing with the Devil, which they are so exceeding willing
to have the Fame of.
Not that I am hereby oblig’d to believe all the strange Things the
Witches and Wizards, who have been allow’d to be such, nay, who have
been hang’d for it, have said of themselves; nay, that they have
confess’d of themselves, even at the Gallows; and if I come to have an
Occasion to[Pg 400] speak freely of the Matter, I may perhaps convince you that
the Devil’s possessing Power is much lessen’d of late, and that he
either is limited, and his Fetter shortened more than it has been, or
that he does not find the old Way (as I said before) so fit for his
Purpose as he did formerly, and therefore takes other Measures, but I
must adjourn that to a Time and Place by itself: But we are told that
there are another Sort of People, and, perhaps, a great many of them
too, in whom and by whom the Devil really acts, and they know it not.
It would take up a great deal of Time and Room, too much for this Place,
so near the Close of this Work, to describe and mark out the involuntary
Devils which there are in the World; of whom it may be truly said,
that really the Devil is in them, and they know it not: Now, tho’ the
Devil is cunning and managing, and can be very silent where he finds
it for his Interest not to be known; yet it is very hard for him to
conceal himself, and to give so little Disturbance in the House, as that
the Family should not know who lodged in it; yet, I say, the Devil is so
subtle and so mischievous an Agent, that he uses all manner of Methods
and Craft to reside in such People as he finds for his Purpose, whether
they will or no, and which is more, whether they know it or no.
And let none of my Readers be angry or think themselves ill used, when I
tell them the Devil may be in them, and may act them, and by them, and
they not know it; for I must add, it may, perhaps, be one of the
greatest Pieces of human Wisdom in the World, for a Man to know when the
Devil is in him, and when not; when he is a Tool and Agent of Hell, and
when he is not; in a Word, when he is doing the Devil’s Work, and under
his Direction, and when not.
[Pg 401]It is true, this is a very weighty Point, and might deserve to be
handled in a more serious Way than I seem to be talking in all this
Book; but give me leave to talk of Things my own way, and withall, to
tell you, that there is no Part of this Work so seemingly ludicrous, but
a grave and well weigh’d Mind may make a serious and solid Application
of it, if they please; nor is there any Part of this Work, in which a
clear Sight and a good Sense may not see that the Author’s Design is,
that they should do so; and as I am now so near the End of my Book, I
thought it was meet to tell you so, and lead you to it as far as I can.
I say, ’tis a great Part of human Wisdom to know when the Devil is
acting in us and by us, and when not; the next and still greatest Part
would be to prevent him, put a Stop to his Progress, bid him go about
his Business, and let him know he should carry on his Designs no farther
in that manner; that we will be his Tools no longer; in short, to turn
him out of Doors, and bring a stronger Power to take Possession; but
this, indeed, is too solid a Subject, and too great to begin with here.
But now, as to the bare knowing when he is at work with us, I say this,
tho’ it is considerable, may be done, nor is it so very difficult; for
Example, you have no more to do but look a little into the Microcosm of
the Soul, and see there how the Passions which are the Blood, and the
Affections which are the Spirit, move in their particular Vessels; how
they circulate, and in what Temper the Pulse beats there, and you may
easily see who turns the Wheel; if a perfect Calm possesses the Soul; if
Peace and Temper prevail, and the Mind feels no Tempests rising; if the
Affections are regular and exalted to vertuous and sublime[Pg 402] Objects, the
Spirits cool, and the Mind sedate, the Man is in a general Rectitude of
Mind, he may be truly said to be his own Man; Heaven shines upon his
Soul with its benign Influences, and he is out of the Reach of the evil
Spirit; for the divine Spirit is an Influence of Peace, all calm and
bright, happy and sweet like it self, and tending to every Thing that is
good both present and future.
But on the other Hand, if at any Time the Mind is ruffled, if Vapours
rise, Clouds gather, if Passions swell the Breast, if Anger, Envy,
Revenge, Hatred, Wrath, Strife; if these, or any of these hover over
you, much more if you feel them within you; if the Affections are
possess’d, and the Soul hurried down the Stream to embrace low and base
Objects; if those Spirits, which are the Life and enlivening Powers of
the Soul, are drawn off to Parties, and to be engag’d in a vicious and
corrupt manner, shooting out wild and wicked Desires, and running the
Man headlong into Crime, the Case is easily resolv’d, the Man is
possess’d, the Devil is in him; and having taken the Fort, or at least
the Counterscarp and Out-Works, is making his Lodgment to cover and
secure himself in his Hold, that he may not be dispossess’d.
Nor can he be easily dispossess’d when he has got such hold as this; and
’tis no wonder, that being lodg’d thus upon the Out-Works of the Soul he
continues to sap the Foundation of the rest, and by his incessant and
furious Assaults, reduces the Man at last to a Surrender.
If the Allegory be not as just and apposite as you would have it be, you
may, however, see by it in a full View, the State of the Man, and how
the Devil carries on his Designs; nothing is more common, and I
believe there are few[Pg 403] thinking Minds but may reflect upon it in their
own Compass, than for our Passions and Affections to flow out of the
ordinary Channel; the Spirits and Blood of the Soul to be extravasated,
the Passions grow violent and outragious, the Affections impetuous,
corrupt and violently vicious: Whence does all this proceed? from Heaven
we can’t pretend it comes; if we must not say ’tis the Devil, whose
Door must it lie at? Pride swells the Passions; Avarice moves the
Affections; and what is Pride, and what is Avarice, but the Devil in
the Inside of the Man? ay, as personally and really as ever he was in
the Herd of Swine.
Let not any Man then, who is a Slave to his Passions, or who is chain’d
down to his Covetousness, pretend to take it ill, when I say he has the
Devil in him, or that he is a Devil: What else can it be, and how
comes it to pass that Passion and Revenge so often dispossess the Man of
himself, as to lead him to commit Murther, to lay Plots and Snares for
the Life of his Enemies, and so to thirst for Blood? How comes this but
by the Devil’s putting those Spirits of the Soul into so violent a
Ferment, into a Fever? that the Circulation is precipitated to that
Degree, and that the Man too is precipitated into Mischief, and at last
into Ruin; ’tis all the Devil, tho’ the Man does not know it.
In like manner Avarice leads him to rob, plunder and destroy for Money,
and to commit sometimes the worst of Violences to obtain the wicked
Reward. How many have had their Throats cut for their Money, have been
murther’d on the Highway, or in their Beds, for the Desire of what they
had? It is the same Thing in other Articles, every Vice is the Devil in
a Man; Lust of Rule is the Devil of great Men, and that[Pg 404] Ambition is
their Devil as much as whoring is Father ———’s Devil, one has a
Devil of one Class acting him, one another, and every Man’s reigning
Vice is a Devil to him.
Thus the Devil has his involuntary Instruments, as well as those who
act in Confederacy with him; he has a very great Share in many of us,
and acts us, and in us, unknown to our selves tho’ we know nothing of
it, and indeed tho’ we may not suspect it of our selves; like Hazael
the Assyrian, who when the Prophet told him how he would act the
Devil upon the poor Israelites, answer’d with Detestation, is thy
Servant a Dog that he should do this Thing, and yet he was that Dog,
and did all those cruel Things for all that; the Devil acting him, or
acting in him, to make him wickeder than ever he thought it was possible
for him to be.
The CONCLUSION.
Of the Devil’s last Scene of Liberty, and what may be supposed
to be his End, with what we are to understand of his being
tormented for ever and ever.
As the Devil is a Prince of the Power of the Air, his Kingdom is
mortal, and must have an End; and as he is call’d the God of this World,
that is, the great Usurper of the Homage and Reverence which Mankind
ought of right to pay to their Maker, so his Usurpation also, like the
World it self, must have an End: Satan is call’d the God of the World,
as Men[Pg 405] too much prostrate and prostitute themselves to him, yet he is
not the Governor of this World; and therefore the Homage and Worship he
has from the World is an Usurpation; and this will have an End, because
the World it self will have an End; and all Mankind, as they had a
beginning in Time, so must expire and be remov’d before the End of Time.
Since then the Devil’s Empire is to expire and come to an End, and
that the Devil himself and all his Host of Devils are immortal
Seraphs, Spirits that are not embodied and cannot die, but are to remain
in being; the Question before us next will be, what is to become of him?
what is his State to be? whether is he to wander, and in what Condition
is he to remain to that Eternity to which he is still to exist?
I hope no Man will mistake me so much in what I have said as to Spirits,
which are all Flame, not being affected with Fire, as if I supposed
there was no Place of Punishment for the Devil, nor any Kind of
Punishment that could affect them; and so of our Spirits also when
transform’d into Flame.
I must be allow’d to speak there of that material Fire, by which, as by
an Allegory, all the Terrors of an eternal State are represented to us
in Scripture, and in the Writings of the learned Commentators, and by
which the Pain of Sense is describ’d; this, perhaps, I do not understand
as they seem to do, and therefore have said,
When we’re all Flame (that is all Spirit) we shall all Fire (that is,
all such Fire as this) despise. And thus I claim to be understood.
It does not follow from hence, neither do I suggest, or so much as think
that infinite Power cannot form a something (tho’ inconceivable to us
here) which shall be as tormenting, and as[Pg 406] insupportable to a Devil, an
apostate Seraph, and to a Spirit, tho’ exalted, unembodied and rarified
into Flame, as Fire would be to other Bodies; in which I think I am
orthodox, and do not give the least Occasion to an Enemy to charge me
with profane Speaking, in those Words, or to plead for thinking
prophanely himself.
It must be Atheistical to the last Degree to suggest, that whereas the
Devil has been heaping up and amassing Guilt ever since the Creation
of Man, encreasing in hatred of God and Rebellion against him, and in
all possible endeavour to dethrone and depose the Majesty of Heaven;
that yet Heaven had not prepar’d, or could not prepare a just Penalty
for him; and that it should not all end in God’s entire Victory over
Hell, and in Satan’s open Condemnation: Heaven could not be just to its
own Glory, if he should not avenge himself upon this Rebel, for all his
superlative Wickedness in his modern as well as ancient Station; for the
Blood of so many millions of his faithful Subjects and Saints whom he
has destroy’d; and if nothing else offer’d it self to prove this Part,
it would appear undoubted to me; but this, I confess, does not belong to
Satan’s History, and therefore I have reserv’d it to this Place, and
shall also be the shorter in it.
That his Condition is to be a State of Punishment, and that by Torment,
the Devil himself has own’d, and his calling out to our blessed Lord
when he cast him out of the furious Man among the Tombs, is a Proof of
it, What have we to do with thee, and art thou come to torment us
before the Time? Luke viii. 28. where the Devil acknowledges four
Things, and three of them are directly to my present Purpose, and if you
won’t believe the Word of God, I hope you will believe the[Pg 407] Devil,
especially when ’tis an open Confession against himself.
1. He confess Christ to be the Son of God (that by the Way) and no
Thanks to him, for that does not want the Devil’s Evidence.
2. He acknowledges he may be tormented.
3. He acknowledges Christ was able to torment him.
4. He acknowledges that there is a Time appointed when he shall be
tormented.
As to how, in what Manner, and by what Means, this tormenting the
Devil is to be performed or executed, that I take to be as needless to
us as ’tis impossible to know, and being not at present inclined to fill
your Heads and Thoughts with weak and imperfect Guesses, I leave it
where I find it.
It is enough to us that this Torment of the Devil is represented to us
by Fire, it being impossible for our confin’d Thoughts to conceive of
Torment by any Thing in the World more exquisite; whence I conclude,
that Devils shall at last receive a Punishment suitable to their
Spirituous Nature, and as exquisitely Tormenting as a burning Fire would
be to our Bodies.
Having thus settl’d my own Belief of this Matter, and stated it so, as I
think will let you see ’tis rightly sounded, the Matter stands thus.
Satan having been let loose to play his Game in this World, has improv’d
his Time to the utmost; he has not fail’d on all Occasions to exert his
Hatred, Rage, and Malice at his Conqueror and Enemy, namely, his
Maker; he has nor fail’d, from Principles of meer Envy and Pride, to
pursue Mankind with all possible Rancour, in order to deprive him of the
Honour and Felicity which he was created for, namely, to succeed the
Devil and his Angels in the State of Glory from which they fell.
[Pg 408]This Hatred of God and Envy at Man, having broken out in so many several
Ways in the whole Series of Time from the Creation, must necessarily
have greatly encreased his Guilt; and as Heaven is righteous to judge
him, must terminate in an encrease of Punishment, adequate to his Crime,
and sufficient to his Nature.
Some have suggested, that there is yet a Time to come, when the Devil
shall exert more Rage, and do more Mischief than ever yet he has been
permitted to do; whether he shall break his Chain, or be unchain’d for a
Time, they cannot tell, nor I neither; and ’tis happy for my Work, that
even this Part too does not belong to his History; if ever it shall be
given an Account of by Mankind, it must be after it is come to pass, for
my Part is not Prophesy of foretelling what the Devil shall do, but
History of what he has done.
Thus, good People, I have brought the History of the Devil down to your
own Times; I have, as it were, rais’d him for you, and set him in
your View, that you may know him and have a Care of him.
If any cunninger Men among you think they are able now to lay him
again, and so dispose of him out of your Sight, that you shall be
troubled no more with him, either here or hereafter, let them go to work
with him their own Way; you know Things future do not belong to an
Historian, so I leave him among you, wishing you may be able to give no
worse an Account of him for the Time to come, than I have done for the
Time past.
F I N I S.
Footnotes:
[1] N. B. He never refus’d setting his hand to any opinion, which he
thought it for his interest to acknowledge.
[2] Mean’t of nothing.
[3] Mr. Pool’s words are these: Some refer the words, This day have
I begotten thee, to the incarnation of the Son of God, others to the
Resurrection: our Translators lay the stress on the preposition of which
the verb is compounded, and by adding again, (viz.) rais’d up Jesus
again, Acts xiii. 33. intend it to be understood of the Resurrection;
and there is ground for it, in the context, for the Resurrection of
Christ, is that which St. Paul had propounded in v. 30. of the same
Chapter, as his theme or argument to preach upon.
Not that Christ at his Resurrection began to be the Son of God, but that he was manifested then to be so.
[4] Satan.
[5] The meaning of the word Devil is Destroyer. See Pool upon Acts xiii. 10.
[6] As great as the Devil and Doctor Faustus. Vulg. Dr. Foster.
Transcriber’s Notes:
Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate
both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as presented in the original text.
Long “s” has been modernized.
The text includes two instances of unmatched round brackets; as these require interpretation to close, they have been left unmatched.
Other than the corrections noted in the text by hover informaiton, printer’s inconsistencies in
spelling, punctuation, and hyphenation usage have been retained.
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