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 Sir John B 1 of the late project, called the South Sea Stock.
Nor did this contrivance of the Devil at all dishonor its author, or the success appear unworthy of the undertaker; for we see it not only answered 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, contrived, and which served his interests so long, is now the only obstruction to his designs, and prevents the entire ruin of the reformation; for though the reformed countries are very powerful, and some of them, as Great Britain and Prussia are 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 entirely 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 an 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 is able to bring it to pass; no, not with all his craft and cunning; he divided them, out he cannot unite them; so that even just as it is Avith men, so it is with devils, they may do in an hour what they cannot undo in an age.
This may comfort those faint-hearted Christians among us, who cry out of the dangers of 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 humors may be reconciled, but jarring interests never can. They may unite so as to make peace, though 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 occasions, as we go along,
I return to Satan’s interest in the several governments and nations, by virtue of his invisibility, and which he carries on by possession: it is 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 though it is alleged by the critics, 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, it is much the same; and here, as it was in the story of Abab, 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.
Thus he was a dissembling spirit in Charles IX., a turbulent spirit in Charles V. emperor; a bigoted spirit of fire and fagot in our Queen Mary; an apostate spirit in Henry IV.; a cruel spirit in Peter of Castile; a revengeful spirit in Ferdinand II.; a phaeton in Louis XIV.; a Sardanapalus in C II.
In the great men of the world, take them a degree lower than the class of crowned heads, he has the same secret influence; and hence it comes to pass, that the greatest heroes, and men of the highest character for achievements of glory, either by their virtue or valor; 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 politic devil in a Richelieu; a treacherous devil in a Mazarin; a cruel, merciless devil in a Cortez; a de bauched 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 will tell you the spirit that reigned 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 ourselves? How has he been a lying spirit in the mouths of our prophets, a factious spirit in the heads of our politicians, a proud spirit in my Lord Plausible, a bullying spirit in my Lord Bugbear, a talkative spirit in his grace the duke of Rattle-hail, a scribbling spirit in my Lord Hateful, a run-away spirit in my Lord Frightful; and so through 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 it is there the same thing. Possession, like the plague, is morbus plebcei: 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 vile devil in another, a thieving devil in a third, a lying devil in a fourth, and so on to a thousand, and an hundred thousand, ad infinitum.
Nay, even the ladies have their share in the possession; and if they have not the Devil in their heads, in their faces, or their tongues, it must be some poor despicable 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, it is 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 en thusiast, 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 them all. He knows where the common foible lies, which is universal passion, 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 denied 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?
Infinite variety illustrates 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 concealed situation, and which, had he been obliged to have appeared in public, 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 called wit, it is all one, he makes them do his work, when 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, it is some of the nicest part of his operation, to make them
