him, may receive a considerable addition from those words in their sentence, to be tormented with the Devil, and his angels; for as the absence of the supreme Good is a complete hell, so the hated company of the deceiver, who was the great cause of his ruin, must be a subject of additional horror, and he will be always saying, as a Scotch 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,
“It is no time to trifle with truth.”
I would not treat the very subject itself 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 side 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.
However, I must not compliment the brains of other men at the expence of my own, or talk nonsense be cause they can understand no other. I think all these notions and representations of hell, and of the Devil, to be as profane as they are ridiculous; and I ought no more to talk profanely 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 unutterable, 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 aught we know, to all the other inhabited worlds which God has made, wherever 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 expelled for his treason and rebellion.
His liberty then being thus ascertained, three things seem to be material for us to give an 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. influenced 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 through the course of this whole work, and frequently be touched 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 ourselves down to order and regularity either as to time, or place, or persons; for Satan being a loose, ungoverned fellow, we must be content to trace him where we can find him.
It is true, in the foregoing chapter, I showed you the Devil entered into the herd ecclesiastic, 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 murdering his master the emperor; and the general to recognize the pope in de throning 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 an “hand in it, not a tyrant but he prompts him, not a government but he has an agent 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 Mississippi in France, and to the South Sea; 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 Dod wells 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, inquire within the Sacred page, and you shall know farther.
Chapter 3
OF THE MANNER OF SATAN’S acting and carrying on his affairs in this world; and particularly of his ordinary ivorkings in the dark, by possession and agitation.
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THE DEVIL BEING THUS reduced to act upon mankind by stratagem only, it remains to inquire 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 inquiry 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? It is a little difficult to discover this treasonable correspondence; and that difficulty is, indeed, the Devil’s advantage, and, for aught I see, the chief advantage he has over mankind.
It is also a great inquiry 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 anything 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, that Mr. Milton lays down, to represent the Devil injecting corrupt desires, and wandering 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 fast asleep; I say, this is not so wild a scheme, seeing even now, if you can whisper anything close
