The History of the Devil Part 25

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 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 _h.e.l.l-Fire Contract_ is once made, G.o.d allows the _Devil_ to come and take the wicked 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 t.i.tle, 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 G.o.d 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 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 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 h.e.l.l; 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 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 circ.u.mvent 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.

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 s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up their Pa.s.sions, 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 Const.i.tution 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 Wh.o.r.e 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 G.o.d and Eternity, with such a Brightness of Fancy, as if the soul of a _Rochester_ or a _Hobbs_ was 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d of the World, has one particular Advantage, and that is, that when he has Work to do he very seldom wants Instruments; with this Circ.u.mstance also, that the Degeneracy of human Nature supplies him; as the late King of _France_ said of himself, when they 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 h.e.l.lish 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 pa.s.s'd by the beautiful Faces, And pick'd out the _Ugly_ and _Old_.

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, 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 Inst.i.tution of all these _Orders_, for they are very antient, and I a.s.sure 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 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 Wors.h.i.+p, 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_ 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 G.o.d 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 of Nativities, and vile Deluders of the People, as if the Wisdom of the holy G.o.d 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.