1. Those who act by direction and confederacy, as I have said already many do. 2. Those whom he acts in, and by, and they (perhaps) know it not, of which sort history gives us plenty of examples, from Machiavel's first disciple

to

the famous Cardinal Alberoni, and even to some more modern than his eminence, of whom I can say no more till farther occasion offers.

1. Those who act by immediate direction of the Devil, and in confederacy with him; these are such as I mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, whose arts are truly black, because really infernal. It will be very hard to decide the dispute between those who really act thus in confederacy with the Devil, and those who only pretend to it; so I shall leave that dispute where I find it; but that there are, or at least have been, a set of people in the world, who really are of his acquaintance, and very intimate with him; and though, as I have said, he has much altered his schemes, and changed hands of late; yet that there are such people, perhaps of all sorts, and that the Devil keeps up his correspondence with them, I must not venture to deny that part, lest I bring upon me the whole posse of the conjuring and betwitching crew, male and female, and they should mob me for pretending to deny them the honour of dealing with the Devil, which they are so exceeding willing to have the fame of.

Not that I am hereby obliged to believe all the strange things the witches and wizards, who have been allowed to be such, nay, who have been hanged for it, have said of themselves; nay, that they have confessed of themselves, even at the gallows; and if I come to have an occasion to speak freely of the matter, I may perhaps convince you that the Devil's possessing power is much lessened of late, and that he either is limited, and his fetter shortened more than it has been, or that he does not find the whole way, as I said before, so fit for his purpose as he did formerly, and therefore takes other measures; but I must adjourn that to a time and place by itself. But we are told that there are another sort of people, and, perhaps, a great many of them too, in whom and by whom the Devil really acts, and they know it not.

It would take up a great deal of time and room, too much for this place, so near the close of this work, to describe and mark out the involuntary devils which there are in the world; of whom it may be truly said, that really the Devil is in them,

FASY TO DISCOVER WHEN SATAN IS AT WORK. 575

and they know it not. Now though the Devil is cunning and managing, and can be very silent where he finds it for his interest not to be known; yet it is very hard for him to conceal himself, and to give so little disturbance in the house, as that the family should not know who lodged in it; yet I say, the Devil is so subtle and so mischievous an agent, that he uses all manner of methods and craft to reside in such people as he finds for his purpose, whether they will or no, and, which is more, whether they know it or no.

And let none of my readers be angry, or think themselves ill used, when I tell them the Devil may be in them, and may act in them, and by them, and they not know it; for I must add, it may, perhaps, be one of the greatest pieces of human wisdom in the world, for a man to know when the Devil is in him, and when not; when he is a tool and agent of hell, and when he is not; in a word, when he is doing the Devil's work, and under his direction, and when not.

It is true, this is a very weighty point, and might deserve to be handled in a more serious way than I seem to be talking in all this book; but give me leave to talk of things my own way, and withal, to tell you that there is no part of this work so seemingly ludicrous, but a grave and well weighed mind may make a serious and solid application of it, if they please nor is there any part of this work, in which a clear sight and a good sense may not see that the author's design .is, that they should do so; and as I am now so near the end of my book, I thought it was meet to tell you so, and lead you to it as far. as I can.

I say, it is a great part of human wisdom to know when the Devil is acting in us and by us, and when not; the next, and still greater part, would be to prevent him, put a stop to his progress, bid him go about his business, and let him know he should carry on his designs no farther in that manner; that we will be his tools no longer; in short, to turn him out of doors, and bring a stronger power to take possession; but this, indeed, is too solid a subject, and too great to begin with here.

But now, as to the bare knowing when he is at work with us; I say, this, though it is considerable, may be done, nor is it so very difficult; for example, you have no more to do but look a little into the microcosm of the soul, and see there how the passions, which are the blood, and the affections, which are the spirit, move in their particular vessels; how they circulate, and in what temper the pulse beats there, and you

may easily see who turns the wheel. If a perfect calm possesses the soul; if peace and temper prevail, and the mind feels no tempests rising; if the affections are regular, and exalted to virtuous and sublime objects; the spirits cool, and the mind sedate, the man is in a general rectitude of mind; he may be truly said to be his own man; heaven shines upon his soul with its benign influences, and he is out of the reach of the evil spirit; for the divine spirit is an influence of peace, all calm and bright, happy and sweet like itself, and tending to everything that is good, both present and future.

But on the other hand, if at any time the mind is ruffled, if vapours rise, clouds gather, if passions swell the breast, if anger, envy, revenge, hatred, wrath, strife; if these, or any of these, hover over you; much more, if you feel them within you; if the affections are possessed, and the soul hurried down the stream to embrace low and base objects; if those spirits, which are the life and enlivening powers of the soul, are drawn off to parties, and to be engaged in a vicious and corrupt manner, shooting out wild and wicked desires, and running the man headlong into crime, the case is easily resolved, the man is possessed, the Devil is in him; and having taken the fort, or at least the counterscarp and outworks, is making his lodgment to cover and secure himself in his hold, that he may not be dispossessed.

Nor can he be easily dispossessed when he has got such hold as this; and it is no wonder that, being lodged thus upon the outworks of the soul, he continues to sap the foundation of the rest, and by his incessant and furious assaults, reduces the man at last to a surrender.

If the allegory be not as just and apposite as you would have it be, you may, however, see by it, in a full view, the state of the man, and how the Devil carries on his designs; nothing is more common, and I believe there are few thinking minds but may reflect upon it in their own compass, than for our passions and affections to flow out of the ordinary channel; the spirits and blood of the soul to be extravasated, the passions grow violent and outrageous, the affections impetuous, corrupt, and violently vicious. Whence does all this proceed? from heaven we cannot pretend it comes; if we must not say it is the Devil, whose door must it lie at? Pride swells the passions; avarice moves the affections; and what is pride, and what is avarice, but the Devil in the inside of the man? uy, as personally and really as ever he was in the herd of swine.

EVERY REIGNING VICE IS A DEVIL TO MAN. 577

Let not any man then, who is a slave to his passions, or who is chained down to his covetousness, pretend to take it ill, when I say he has the Devil in him, or that he is a devil: what else can it be, and how comes it to pass that passion and revenge so often dispossess the man of himself, as to lead him to commit murder, to lay plots and snares for the life of his enemies, and so to thirst for blood, how comes this but by the Devil's putting those spirits of the soul into so violent a ferment, into a fever? that the circulation is precipitated to that degree, and that the man too is precipitated into mischief, and at last into ruin? it is all the Devil, though the man does not know it.

In like manner, avarice leads him to rob, plunder, and destroy for money, and to commit sometimes the worst of violences to obtain the wicked reward. How many have had their throats cut for their money, have been murdered on the highway, or in their beds, for the desire of what they had? It is the same thing in other articles, every vice is the Devil in a man; lust of rule is the devil of great men, and that ambition is their devil, as much as whoring is father . . . . .'s devil; one has a devil of one class acting him, one another, and every man's reigning vice is a devil to him.

Thus the Devil has his involuntary instruments, as well as those who act in confederacy with him; he has a very great share in many of us, and acts us, and in us, unknown to ourselves, though we know nothing of it, and indeed though we may not suspect it of ourselves; like Hazael the Assyrian, who, when the prophet told him how he would act the devil upon the poor Israelites, answered with detestation, Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing? and yet he was that dog, and did all those cruel things for all that; the Devil acting him, or acting in him, to make him wickeder than ever he thought it was possible for him to be.

OF

THE CONCLUSION.

THE DEVIL'S LAST SCENE OF LIBERTY, AND WHAT MAY BR SUPPOSED TO BE HIS END, WITH WHAT WE ARE TO UNDERSTAND OF HIS BEING TORMENTED FOR EVER AND EVER.

As the Devil is a prince of the power of the air, his kingdom is mortal, and must have an end; and as he is called the god of this world, that is, the great usurper of the homage

VOL. III.

PP

and reverence which mankind ought of right to pay to their Maker, so his usurpation also, like the world itself, must have an end: Satan is called the God of the world, as men too much prostrate and prostitute themselves to him, yet he is not the governor of this world; and therefore the homage and worship he has from the world, is an usurpation; and this will have an end because the world itself will have an end; and all mankind, as they had a beginning in time, so must expire and be removed before the end of time.

Since, then, the Devil's empire is to expire and come to an end, and that the Devil himself and all his host of devils are immortal seraphs, spirits that are not embodied, and cannot die, but are to remain in being; the question before us next will be, what is to become of him? what is his state to be? whither is he to wander, and in what condition is he to remain to that eternity to which he is still to exist?

I hope no man will mistake me so much in what I have said as to spirits, which are all flame, not being affected with fire, as if I supposed there was no place of punishment for the Devil, nor any kind of punishment that could affect them; and so of our spirits also, when transformed into flame.

I must be allowed to speak there of that material fire, by which, as by an allegory, all the terrors of an eternal state are represented to us in Scripture, and in the writings of the learned commentators, and by which the pain of sense is described; this, perhaps, I do not understand as they seem to do, and therefore have said,

When we are all flame (that is, all spirit) we shall all fire (that is, all such fire as this) despise. And thus I claim to be understood.

It does not follow from hence, neither do I suggest or so much as think that infinite power cannot form a something (though inconceivable to us here) which shall be as tormenting and as insupportable to a devil, an apostate seraph, and to a spirit, though exalted, unembodied and rarefied into flame, as fire would be to other bodies; in which I think I am orthodox, and do not give the least occasion to an enemy to charge me with profane speaking in those words, or to plead for thinking profanely himself.

It must be atheistical to the last degree to suggest, that whereas the Devil has been heaping up and amassing guilt ever since the creation of man, increasing in hatred of God and rebellion against him, and in all possible endeavour to