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"carry you to hell, and you fhall be damn'd, you "wretch."

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

Tho. Indeed, mafter, why, yes, it was true; but I was very forry afterwards.

Gent. But how fhould the Devil know it, Thomas? Tho. Nay, he knows it to be fure; why, they fay he kw's every thing.

Gent. Well, but why fhould he be angry at that? He would rather bid you lie with her again, and encourage you to lie with forty whores, than hinder you: this can't be the Devil, Thomas.

Tho. Yes, yes, Sir, 'twas the Devil to be fure.
Gent. But he bid you repent too, you fay?
Tho. Yes, he threatened me if I did not.

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

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Tho. Why no, that's true too; I don't know what to fay to that; but what could it be? "Twas the Devil to be fure, it could be nobody else,

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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 finner of that kind, your confcience terrified you, told you the Devil would fetch you away, and you would be damn'd; and you were fo perfuaded it would be so, you at last imagined he was come for you indeed: that faw him, and heard him; whereas, you may depend upon it, if Jenny S― will let you lie with her every night, the Devil will hold the candle, or do any thing to forward it, but will never difturb you; he's too much a friend to your wickednefs; 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.

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Tho. Why that's true, maller; one would think the Devil fhould not bid me repent, that's true; but ce tainly '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 honeft to pretend to fuch things; 'tis his business to perfuade men to offend, not to repent; and he profeffes no other: He may prefs men to this or that action, by telling them 'tis no fin, no offence, no breach of God's law, and the like, when really 'tis both; but to prefs them to repent, when they have offended, that's quite out of his way; 'tis none of his bufinefs, nor does he pretend to it: therefore, let no man charge the Devil with what he is not concerned in.

But to return to his perfon; he is, as I have faid, notwithstanding his loft glory, a mighty, a terrible, and an immortal fpirit; he is himself called a Prince, the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Prince of Darknefs, the Prince of Devils, and the like; and his attending fpirits are called his angels: fo that however Satan has loft the glory and rectitude of his nature, by his apoftate ftate, yet he retains a greatness and mag nificence, 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 bleffed angels are; of whom we can fay no more, than that they are miniftring fpirits, &c. as the Scripture has defcrib

ed them.

Two things, however, may give us fome infight into the nature of the Devil, in the prefent ftate he is in, and these we have a clear difcovery of in the whole series of his conduct from the beginning.

1. That he is the vanquished, but implacable enemy of God, his Creator, who has conquered him, and expelled him from the habitations of blifs; on which account he is filled with envy, rage, malice, and all uncharitablènefs; would dethrone God, and overturn the thrones of heaven, if it was in his power.

2. That he is man's irreconcileable enemy; not as he is a man, nor on his own account fimply, nor for any advantage he (the Devil) can make by the ruin and deftruction of man; but in mere envy at the felicity he is fuppofed to enjoy as Satan's rival; and as he is appointed to fucceed Satan, and his angels, in the poffeffion of thofe glories from which they are fallen.

And here I must take upon me to fay, Mr Milton makes a wrong judgment of the reafon of Satan's refolution to disturb the felicity of man: He tells us it was merely to affront God his Maker, rob him of the glory defigned in his new work of creation, and to difappoint him in his main defign, namely, the creating a new fpecies of creatures in a perfect rectitude of foul, and after his own image, from whom he might expect a new fund of glory fhould be raised, and who was to appear as the triumph of the Meffiah's victory over the Devil. In all which Satan could not be fool enough not to know that he fhould be difappointed by the fame power which had fo eminently counteracted rage before.

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But, I believe, the Devil went upon a much more probable defign; and tho' he may be faid to act upon a meaner principle than that of pointing his rage at the perfonal glory of his Creator, yet own, that in my opinion, it was by much the more rational undertaking, and more likely to fucceed; and that was, that whereas he perceived this new fpecies of creatures had a fublime as well as an human part, and were made capable of poffeffing the manfions of eternal beatitude, from whence, he (Satan) and his angels were expelled, and irretrivably banished; envy at fuch a rival moved him by all poffible artifice, for he faw him deprived of capacity to do it by force, to render him unworthy like himself that, bringing him to fall into rebellion and difobedience, he might fee his rival damned with him; and those who were intended to fill up the empty spaces in heaven, made fo by the abfence of fo ma

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ny millions of fallen angels, be cast out into the fame darkness with them.

How he came to know, that this new fpecies of creatures were liable to fuch imperfection, is beft explained by the Devil's prying, vigilant difpofition, 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 fo or no.

Modern naturalifts, especially fome who have not so large a charity for the fair fex as I have, tell us, that as foon as ever Satan faw the woman, and looked in her face, he faw evidently, that she was the beft formed creature to make a tool of, and the best to make an hypocrite of, 'that could be made, and therefore the moft fitted for his purpose.

1. He faw by fome thwart lines in her face (legible, perhaps, to himself only), that there was a throne ready prepared for the fin of pride to fit in ftate upon, efpecially if it took an early poffeffion: Eve you may fuppofe was a perfect beauty, if ever fuch a thing may be fuppofed in the human frame; her figure be ing fo extraordinary, was the ground-work of his project; there needed no more than to bring her to be vain of it, and to conceit that it either was fo, or was infinitely more fublime and beautiful than it really was; and having thus tickled her vanity, to produce pride gradually, till at laft he might perfuade her, that fhe was really angelic, or of heavenly race, and wanted nothing but to eat the forbidden fruit, and that would make her fomething more excellent fill.

2. Looking farther into her frame, and with a nearer view to her imperfections, he saw room to conclude, that she was of a conftitution easy to be feduced, and efpecially by flattering her; raifing a commotion in her foul, and a difturbance among her paffions; and accordingly he fet himself to work, to disturb her repofe, and put dreams of great things into her head; together with fomething of a namelefs kind, which

(however fome have been ill-natured enough to fuggeft) I fhall not injure the Devil fo much as to mention, without better evidence.

3. But, befides this, he found, upon the very firft furvey of her outfide, fomething fo very charming in her mien and behaviour, fo engaging as well as agreeable in the whole texture of her perfon, and withal fuch a fprightly wit, fuch a vivacity of parts, fuch a fluency of tongue, and, above all, fuch a winning prevailing whine in her fmiles, or at leaft in her tears, that he made no doubt, if he could but once delude her, fhe would eafily be brought to delude Adam, who he found fet not only a great value upon her perfon, but was perfectly captivated by her charms; in a word, he faw plainly, that if he could but ruin her, he fhould easily make a devil of her, to ruin her huf band, and draw him into any gulph of mifchief, were it ever fo black and dreadful, that fhe' fhould first fall into herfelf. How far fome may be wicked enough, from hence, to fuggeft of the fair fex, that they have been devils to their husbands ever fince, I cannot say; I hope they will not be fo unmerciful to difcoyer-truths of fuch fatal confequence, though they should come to their knowledge.

Thus fubtle and penetrating has Satan been from the beginning; and who can wonder, that upon these discoveries made into the woman's infide, 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 feen fo much of it in his countenance, as to have encouraged him to make his attack directly upon him, and not go round about, beating the bufh, and plowing with the heifer? fetting upon the woman firft, and then fetting her upon her husband, who might as eafily have been impofed upon as fhe?

Other commentators upon this critical text fuggeft to us, that Eve was not fo pleafed with the hopes of being made a goddess, that the pride of a feraph

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