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The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts
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 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.
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.
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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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.
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 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, 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 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,
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 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.
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.
