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

How glorious is the wisdom and goodness of the great Creator of the World! in thus restraining these seraphic outcasts from the power of assuming human or organic bodies! which could they do, envigorating them with the supernatural Powers, which, as Seraphs and Angels, they now possess and might exert, they would be able even to fright mankind from the face of the Earth, and to destroy and confound God’s Creation; nay, even as they are, were not their power limited, they might destroy the Creation it self, reverse and over-turn nature, and put the World into a general conflagration: But were those immortal Spirits embodied, tho’ they were not permitted to confound nature, they would be able to harrass poor weak and defenceless man out of his wits, and render him perfectly useless, either to his Maker or himself.

But the Dragon is chain’d, the Devil’s Power is limited; he has indeed a vastly extended Empire, being Prince of the Air, having, at least, the whole Atmosphere to range in, and how far that Atmosphere is extended, is not yet ascertain’d by the nicest observations; I say at least, because we do not yet know how far he may be allow’d to make excursions beyond the Atmosphere of this Globe into the planetary Worlds, and what power he may exercise in all the habitable parts of the solar system; nay, of all the other solar systems, which, for ought we know, may exist in the mighty extent of created space, and of which you may hear farther in its order.

But let his power be what it will there, we are sure ’tis limited here, and that in two particulars; first, he is limited as above, from assuming body or bodily shapes with substance; and secondly, from exerting seraphic Powers, and acting with that supernatural force, which, as an Angel, he was certainly vested with before the fall, and which we are not certain is yet taken from him; or at most, we do not know how much it may or may not be diminish’d by his degeneracy, and by the blow given him at his expulsion: this we are certain, that be his Power greater or less, he is restrain’d from the exercise of it in this World; and he, who was one equal to the Angel who kill’d 180000 men in one night, is not able now, without a new commission, to take away the life of one Job, nor to touch any thing he had.

But let us consider him then limited and restrained as he is, yet he remains a mighty, a terrible, an immortal Being; infinitely superior to man, as well in the dignity of his nature, as in the dreadful powers he retains still about him; it is true the brain-sick heads of our Enthusiasticks paint him blacker than he is, and, as I have said, wickedly represent him clothed with terrors that do not really belong to him; as if the power of good and evil was wholly vested in him, and that he was placed in the Throne of his Maker, to distribute both punishments and rewards; In this they are much wrong, terrifying and deluding fanciful people about him, till they turn their heads, and fright them into a belief that the Devil will let them alone, if they do such and such good things; or carry them away with him they know not whither, if they do not; as if the Devil, whose proper business is mischief, seducing and deluding mankind, and drawing them in to be rebels like himself, should threaten to seize upon them, carry them away, and in a word, fall upon them to hurt them, if they did evil, and on the contrary, be favourable and civil to them, if they did well.

Thus a poor deluded country fellow in our Town, that had liv’d a wicked, abominable, debauch’d life, was frighted with an Apparition, as he call’d it, of the Devil; He fancy’d that he spoke to him, and telling his tale to a good honest christian Gentleman his neighbour, that had a little more sense than himself; the Gentleman ask’d him if he was sure he really saw the Devil? yes, yes, Sir, says he, I saw him very plain, and so they began the following discourse.

Gent. See him! See the Devil! art thou sure of it, Thomas?

Tho. Yes, yes, I am sure enough of it, Master; to be sure ’twas the Devil.

Gent. And how do you know ’twas the Devil, Thomas? had you ever seen the Devil before?

Tho. No, no, I had never seen him before, to be sure; but, for all that, I know ’twas the Devil.

Gent. Well, if you’re sure, Thomas, there’s no contradicting you; pray what clothes had he on?

Tho. Nay, Sir, don’t jest with me, he had no clothes on, he was clothed with fire and brimstone.

Gent. Was it dark or day light when you saw him?

Tho. O! it was very dark, for it was midnight.

Gent. How could you see him then? did you see by the light of the fire you speak of?

Tho. No, no, he gave no light himself; but I saw him, for all that.

Gent. But was it within doors, or out in the street?

Tho. It was within, it was in my own Chamber, when I was just going into bed, that I saw him.

Gent. Well then, you had a candle, hadn’t you?

Tho. Yes, I had a candle, but it burnt as blue! and as dim!

Gent. Well, but if the Devil was clothed with fire and brimstone, he must give you some light, there can’t be such a fire as you speak of, but it must give a light with it.

Tho. No, no, He gave no light, but I smelt his fire and brimstone; he left a smell of it behind him, when he was gone.

Gent. Well, so you say he had fire, but gave no light, it was a devilish fire indeed; did it feel warm? was the room hot while he was in it?

Tho. No, no, but I was hot enough without it, for it put me into a great sweat with the fright.

Gent. Very well, he was all in fire, you say, but without light or heat, only, it seems, he stunk of brimstone; pray what shapes was he in, what was he like; for you say you saw him?

Tho. O! Sir, I saw two great staring saucer eyes, enough to fright any body out of their wits.

Gent. And was that all you saw?

Tho. No, I saw his cloven-foot very plain, ’twas as big as one of our bullocks that goes to plow.

Gent. So you saw none of his body, but his eyes and his feet? a fine vision indeed!

Tho. Sir, that was enough to send me going.

Gent. Going! what did you run away from him?

Tho. No, but I fled into bed at one jump, and sunk down and pull’d the bed-clothes quite over me.

Gent. And what did you do that for?

Tho. To hide my self from such a frightful creature.

Gent. Why, if it had really been the Devil, do you think the bed-clothes would have secur’d you from him?

Tho. Nay, I don’t know, but in a fright it was all I could do.

Gent. Nay, ’twas as wise as all the rest; but come, Thomas, to be a little serious, pray did he speak to you?

Tho. Yes, yes, I heard a voice, but who it was the Lord knows.

Gent. What kind of voice was it, was it like a man’s voice?

Tho. No, it was a hoarse ugly noise, like the croaking of a Frog, and it call’d me by my name twice, Thomas Dawson, Thomas Dawson.

Gent. Well, did you answer?

Tho. No, not I, I could not have spoke a word for my life; why, I was frighted to death.

Gent. Did it say any thing else?

Tho. Yes, when it saw that I did not speak, it said, Thomas Dawson, Thomas Dawson, you are a wicked wretch, you lay with Jenny S – last night; if you don’t repent, I will take you away alive and carry you to Hell, and you shall be damned, you wretch.

Gent. And was it true, Thomas, did you lye with Jenny S — the night before?

Tho. Indeed Master, why yes it was true, but I was very sorry afterwards.

Gent. But how should the Devil know it, Thomas?

Tho. Nay, he knows it to be sure; why, they say he knows every thing.

Gent. Well, but why should he be angry at that? he would rather did you lye with her again, and encourage you to lye with forty whores, than hinder you: This can’t be the Devil, Thomas.

Tho. Yes, yes. Sir, ’twas the Devil to be sure.

Gent. But he bid you repent too, you say?

Tho. Yes, he threatn’d me if I did not.

Gent. Why, Thomas, do you think the Devil would have you repent?

Tho. Why no, that’s true too, I don’t know what to say to that; but what could it be? ’twas the Devil to be sure, it could be nobody else?

Gent. No, no, ’twas neither the Devil, Thomas, nor any body else, but your own frighted imagination; you had lain with that wench, and being a young sinner of that kind, your Conscience terrified you, told you the Devil would fetch you away, and you would be damn’d; and you were so persuaded it would be so, that you at last imagin’d he was come for you indeed; that you saw him and heard him; whereas, you may depend upon it, if Jenny S — will let you lye with her every night, the Devil will hold the candle, or do any thing to forward it, but will never disturb you; he’s too much a friend to your wickedness, it could never be the Devil, Thomas; ’twas only your own guilt frighted you, and that was Devil enough too, if you knew the worst of it, you need no other enemy.

Tho. Why that’s true, Master, one would think the Devil should not bid me repent, that’s true; but certainly ’twas the Devil for all that.

Now Thomas was not the only man that having committed a flagitious crime had been deluded by his own imagination, and the power of fancy, to think the Devil was come for him; whereas the Devil, to give him his due, is too honest to pretend to such things; ’tis his business to persuade men to offend, not to repent; and he professes no other; he may press men to this or that action, by telling them ’tis no sin, no offence, no breach of God’s Law, and the like, when really ’tis both; but to press them to repent, when they have offended, that’s quite out of his way; ’tis none of his business, nor does he pretend to it; therefore, let no man charge the Devil with what he is not concern’d in.

But to return to his Person, he is, as I have said, notwithstanding his lost glory, a mighty, a terrible and an immortal Spirit; he is himself call’d a Prince, the Prince of the Power of the Air; the Prince of Darkness, the Prince of Devils, and the like, and his attending Spirits are call’d his Angels: so that however Satan has lost the glory and rectitude of his Nature, by his apostate state, yet he retains a greatness and magnificence, which places him above our rank, and indeed above our conception; for we know not what he is, any more than we know what the blessed Angels are; of whom we can say no more than that they are ministring Spirits, &c. as the Scripture has describ’d them.

Two things, however, may give us some insight into the nature of the Devil, in the present state he is in; and these we have a clear discovery of in the whole series of his Conduct from the Beginning.

1. That he is the vanquish’d but implacable enemy of God his Creator, who has conquer’d him, and expell’d him from the habitations of bliss; on which account he is fill’d with envy, rage, malice, and all uncharitableness; would dethrone God and overturn the thrones of Heaven, if it was in his power.

2. That he is man’s irreconcilable Enemy; not as he is a man, nor on his own account simply, nor for any advantage he (the Devil) can make by the ruin and destruction of man; but in meer envy at the felicity he is supposed to enjoy as Satan’s rival; and as he is appointed to succeed Satan and his Angels in the possession of those glories from which they are fallen.

And here I must take upon me to say, Mr. Milton makes a wrong judgment of the reason of Satan’s resolution to disturb the felicity of man; He tells us it was meerly to affront God his Maker, rob him of the glory design’d in his new work of creations and to disappoint him in his main design, namely, the creating a new species of creatures in a perfect rectitude of soul, and after his own image, from whom he might expect a new Fund of glory should be rais’d, and who was to appear as the triumph of the Messiah’s victory over the Devil. In all which Satan could not be fool enough not to know that he should be disappointed by the same Power which had so eminently counter-acted his rage before.

But, I believe, the Devil went upon a much more probable design; and tho’ he may be said to act upon a meaner principle than that of pointing his rage at the personal glory of his Creator; yet I own, that in my opinion, it was by much the more rational undertaking, and more likely to succeed; and that was, that whereas he perceived this new species of creatures had a sublime as well as a human part, and were made capable of possessing the mansions of eternal Beatitude, from whence, he (Satan) and his Angels were expell’d and irretrievably banish’d; envy at such a rival mov’d him by all possible artifice, for he saw him deprived of capacity to do it by force, to render him unworthy like himself; that bringing him to fall into rebellion and disobedience, he might see his Rival damn’d with him; and those who were intended to fill up the empty spaces in Heaven, made so by the absence of so many millions of fallen Angels, be cast out into the same darkness with them.

How he came to know that this new species of creatures were liable to such imperfection, is best explain’d by the Devil’s prying, vigilant disposition, judging or leading him to judge by himself; (for he was as near being infallible as any of God’s creatures had been) and then inclining him to try whether it was so or no.

Modern Naturalists, especially some who have not so large a charity for the fair sex, as I have, tell us, that as soon as ever Satan saw the woman, and look’d in her face, he saw evidently that she was the best form’d creature to make a Tool of, and the best to make a hypocrite of, that could be made, and therefore the most fitted for his purpose.

1. He saw by some thwart lines in her face, (legible, perhaps, to himself only) that there was a throne ready prepar’d for the sin of pride to sit in state upon, especially if it took an early possession: Eve you may suppose was a perfect Beauty, if ever such a thing may be supposed in the human frame; her figure being so extraordinary, was the groundwork of his project; there needed no more than to bring her to be vain of it, and to conceit that it either was so, or was infinitely more sublime and beautiful than it really was; and having thus tickl’d her vanity, to introduce Pride gradually, till at last he might persuade her, that she was really Angelic, or of heavenly Race, and wanted nothing but to eat the forbidden fruit, and that would make her something more excellent still.

2. Looking farther into her Frame, and with a nearer view to her imperfections, he saw room to conclude that she was of a constitution easy to be seduc’d, and especially by flattering her; raising a commotion in her Soul, and a disturbance among her passions; and accordingly he set himself to work, to disturb her repose, and put dreams of great things into her head; together with something of a nameless Kind, which (however, some have been ill-natur’d enough to suggest) I shall not injure the Devil so much as to mention, without better evidence.

3. But, besides this, he found, upon the very first survey of her outside, something so very charming in her mein and behaviour, so engaging as well as agreeable in the whole texture of her person, and withal such a sprightly wit, such a vivacity of parts, such a fluency of tongue, and above all, such a winning prevailing whine in her smiles, or at least in her tears, that he made no doubt if he could but once delude her, she would easily be brought to delude Adam, whom he found set not only a great value upon her person, but was perfectly captivated by her charms; in a word, he saw plainly, that if he could but ruin her, he should easily make a Devil of her, to ruin her husband, and draw him into any gulph of mischief, were it ever so black and dreadful, that she should first fall into herself; how far some may be wicked enough, from hence, to suggest of the fair sex, that they have been Devils to their husbands ever since, I cannot say; I hope they will not be so unmerciful to discover truths of such fatal consequence, tho’ they should come to their knowledge.

Thus subtle and penetrating has Satan been from the beginning; and who can wonder that upon these discoveries made into the woman’s inside, he went immediately to work with her, rather than with Adam? not but that one would think, if Adam was fool enough to be deluded by his wife, the Devil might have seen so much of it in his countenance, as to have encourag’d him to make his attack directly upon him, and not go round about, beating the bush, and ploughing with the Heifer; setting upon the woman first, and then setting her upon her husband, who might as easily have been imposed upon as she.

Other Commentators upon this critical Text suggest to us, that Eve was not so pleased with the hopes of being made a Goddess; That the pride of a Seraphic Knowledge did not so much work upon her imagination to bring her to consent, as a certain secret Notion infus’d into her head by the same wicked instrument, that she should be wiser than Adam, and should by the superiority of her understanding, necessarily have the government over him; which, at present, she was sensible she had not, he being master of a particular air of gravity and majesty, as well as of strength, infinitely superior to her.

This is an ill-natur’d suggestion; but it must be confess’d the impatient desire of government, which (since that) appears in the general Behaviour of the sex, and particularly of governing husbands, leaves too much room to legitimate the supposition.

The Expositors, who are of this opinion, add to it, that this being her original crime, or the particular temptation to that crime; Heaven thought fit to shew his justice, in making her more entire subjection to her husband be a part of the Curse, that she might read her sin in the punishment, (viz.) he shall rule over thee.

I only give the general hint of these things as they appear recorded in the annals of Satan’s first Tyranny, and at the beginning of his government in the World; those that would be more particularly inform’d, may enquire of him and know farther.

I cannot however, but observe here with some regret, how it appears by the consequence, that the Devil was not mistaken when he made an early judgment of Mrs. Eve; and how Satan really went the right way to work, to judge of her; ’tis certain the Devil had nothing to do but to look in her face, and upon a near steady view he might easily see there, an instrument for his Turn; nor has he fail’d to make her a Tool ever since, by the very methods which he at first proposed; to which, perhaps, he has made some additions in the corrupting her composition, as well as her understanding; qualifying her to be a compleat snare to the poor weaker vessel Man; to wheedle him with her Syren’s voice, abuse him with her smiles, delude him with her crocodile tears, and sometimes cock her crown at him, and terrify him with the thunder of her Treble; making the effeminated Male Apple-eater tremble at the noise of that very Tongue, which at first commanded him to Sin. For it is yet a debate which the Learned have not decided, whether she persuaded and entreated him, or like a true she-tyrant, exercised her authority and oblig’d him to eat the forbidden fruit.

And therefore a certain author, whose name, for fear of the Sex’s resentment I conceal, brings her in, calling to Adam at a great distance, in an imperious haughty manner, beckoning to him with her hand, thus; Here, says she, you cowardly faint-hearted wretch, take this branch of heavenly fruit, eat and be a stupid fool no longer; eat and be wise; eat and be a God; and know, to your eternal shame, that your wife has been made an enlightn’d Goddess before you.

He tells you Adam hung back a little at first, and trembl’d, afraid to trespass: What ails the Sot, says the new Termagant? what are you afraid of? did God forbid you! yes, and why? that we might not be knowing and wise like himself! What reason can there be that we, who have capacious souls, able to receive knowledge, should have it withheld? take it, you Fool, and eat; don’t you see how I am exalted in soul by it, and am quite another Creature? Take it, I say, or, if you don’t, I’ll go and cut down the Tree, and you shall never eat any of it at all, and you shall be still a fool, and be governed by your wife for ever.

Thus, if this interpretation of the thing be just, she Scolded him into it; Rated him, and brought him to it by the terror of her voice; a thing that has retained a dreadful influence over him ever since; nor have the greatest of Adam’s Successors, how light soever some husbands make of it in this age, been ever able, since that, to conceal their terror, at the very Sound; nay, if we may believe history, it prevailed even among the Gods; not all the noise of Vulcan’s hammers could silence the clamours of that outrageous whore his Goddess; nay, even Jupiter himself led such a life with a termagant wife, that once, they say, Juno out-scolded the noise of all his Thunders, and was within an ace of brawling him out of Heaven. But to return to the Devil.

With these views he resolv’d, it seems, to attack the woman; and if you consider him as a Devil, and what he aim’d at, and consider the fair prospect he had of success, I must confess, I do not see who can blame him, or at least, how any thing less could be expected from him; But we shall meet with it again by and by.