Of Hell, as it is reprefented to us; and how the De- vil is to be understood, as being perfonally in Hell, Of the manner of Satan's acting and carrying on his Of the Devil's management in the Pagan hierarchy by omens, entrails, augurs, oracles, and fuch like pa- 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 honeft weak-headed friends, when they themselves know nothing of the matter. Nor is the work fo difficult as fome may imagine. The Devil's hiftory is not so hard to come at, as it feems to be his original and the firft rife 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 expofe himfelf in fome of the moft confiderable tranfactions of his life, and has not fhewn himself a politician at all: Our old friend Machiavel outdid him in many things, and I may in the procefs of this work give an account of feveral of the fons of Adam, and fome focieties of them too, who have outwitted the Devil, nay, who have outfinn'd the Devil, and that I think may be called outfhooting him in his own bow It may perhaps be expected of me in this hiftory, that fince I feem inclined to speak favourably of Satan, to do him justice, and to write his story impartially, I fhould take fome pains to tell you what religion he is of; and even this part may not be fo much a jeft, as at firft fight you may take it to be; for Satan has fomething of religion in him, I affure you; nor is he fuch an unprofitable Devil that way as fome may fuppofe him to be; for though, in reverence to my thren, I will not reckon him among the clergy; no, not fo much as a gifted brother; yet I cannot deny but that he often preaches; and if it be not profitable to his hearers, it is as much their fault, as it is out of his defign. bre It has indeed been fuggefted, that he has taken or ders; and that a certain, Pope, famous for being an extraordinary favourite of his, gave him both inititu tion and induction; but as this is not upon record, and therefore we have no authentic document for the probation, I fhall not affirm it for a truth, for I would not flander the Devil. It is faid alfo, and I am apt to believe it, that he was very familiar with that holy father Pope Silvefter II. and fome charge him with perfonating Pope Hil. debrand on an extraordinary occafion, and himself fitting in the chair apoftolic, in a full congregation; and you may hear more of this hereafter: But as I do not meet with Pope Diabolus among the lift, in all father Platina's lives of the popes, fo 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 am. biguous; for I love to speak pofitively, and with urdoubted evidence. 1. He is a believer. And if in faying fo it fhould follow, that even the Devil has more religion than fome of our men of fame can at this time be charged with, I hope my Lord, and his Grace the -of and fome of the upper clafs in the red-hot club, will not wear the coat, however well it may fit to their fhapes; or challenge the fatire, as if it were pointed at them, because it is due to them: In a word, whatever their lordships are, 1 can affure them that the Devil is no infidel. 2. He fears God. We have fuch abundant evidence of this in facred hiftory, that if I were not at prefent, in common with a few others, talking to an infidel fort of gentlemen, with whom thofe remote things called Scriptures are not allowed in evidence, I might fay it was fufficiently proved; but I doubt not in the procefs of this undertaking to fhew, that the Devil really fears.God, and that after another manner than ever he feared Saint Francis or Saint Dunftan: And if that be proved, as I take upon me to advance, I fhall leave it to judgment, who is the better chriftian, the Devil who believes an trembles, or our modern gentry of lieve neither God nor Devil. who be Having thus brought the Devil within the pale, I fhall leave him among you for the prefent; not but that 1 may examine in its order, who has the best claim to his brotherhood, the Papifts or the Protestants; and among the latter the Lutherans or the Calvinists: and fo, defcending to all the feveral denominations of churches, fee' who has lefs of the Devil in them, and who more; and whether lefs or more, the Devil has not a feat in every fynagogue, a pew in every church, a place in every pulpit, and a vote in every fynod; even from the fanhedrim of the Jews, to our friends at the Bull and Mouth, &c. from the greatest to the least. It will, I confefs, come very much within the compafs of this part of my difcourfe, to give an account, or at least to make an effay towards it, of the share the Devil has had in the fpreading religion in the world; and especially of dividing and fubdividing opinions in religion; perhaps, to eke it out, and make it reach the farther; and alfo to fhew how far he is or has made himself miffionary of the famous clan de propaganda fide; it is true, we find him heartily employed in almost every corner of the world ad propagandum errorem: But that may require an history by itself. As to his propagating religion, it is a little hard indeed at firft fight, to charge the Devil with propagatng religion, that is to fay, if we take it literally, and in the grofs; but if you take it as the Scots infifted to take the oath of fidelity, viz. with an explanation, it is plain Satan has very often had a fhare in the method, if not in the defign, of propagating the Christian faith: For example, I think I do no injury at all to the Devil, to fay that he had a great hand in the old holy war, as it was ignorantly and enthufiaftically called; ftirring up the Chriftian Princes and powers of Europe to run a mading after the Turks and Saracens, and make war with thofe innocent people above a thousand miles off, uns ly because they entered into God's heritage when he had forfaken it; grazed upon his ground when he had fairly turned it into a common, and laid it open for the next comer; fpending their nations treafure, and embarking their kings and people (I fay) in a war above a thousand miles off, filling their heads with that religious madness, called, in thofe days, Holy Zeal, to recover the Terra Sancta, the fepulchres of Christ and the faints, and as they called it falfely the Holy City, though true religion fays it was the accurfed city, and not worth spending one drop of blood for. This religious bubble was certainly of Satan, who, as he craftily drew them in, fo, like a true devil, he left. them in the lurch when they came there, faced about to the Saracens, animated the immortal Saladin against them, and managed fo dextrously, that he left the bonesof about thirteen or fourteen hundred thousand Chriftians there, as a trophy of his infernal politics: And after the Chriftian world had run a la fanta terra, or, in English, a fauntering about a hundred years, he dropt it to play another game lefs foolish, but ten times more wicked than that which went before its namely, turning the crufadoes of the Chriftians one against another; and, as Hudibras faid in another cafe, "Made them fight like mad or drunk, "For Dame Religion, as for punk.' Of this you have a complete account in the hiftory of the Pope's decrees againft the Count de Thouloufe, and the Waldenfes and Albigenfes, with the crufadoes and maffacres which followed upon them; wherein, to do the Devil's politics fome juftice, he met with all the fuccefs he could defire. The zealots of that day executed his infernal orders moft punctually, and planted religion in thofe countries in a glorious and triumphant manner, upon the deftruction of an infinite number of innocent people, whofe blood has fattened the foil for the growth of the Catholic faith, in a manner v particular, and to Satan's full fatisfaction. |