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 Silvester 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 anfwer will indeed be general, yet not at all am. biguous; for I love to fpeak pofitively, and with un doubted 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, I 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 process 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 1 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 I may examine in its order, who has the beft claim to his brotherhood, the Papifts or the Proteftants 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 fhare 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 Chriftian faith: For example, I think I do no injury at all to the Devil, to say 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 thoufand miles off, on y 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 madnefs, called, in thofe days, Holy Zeal, to recover the Terra Sancta, the fepulchres of Chrift and the faints, and as they called it fallely 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 dextroufly, that he left the bones of 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, Of this you have a complete account in the hiftory of the Pope's decrees against the Count de Thoulouse, 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 Imanner, upon the deftruction of an infinite number of innocent people, whofe blood has fattened the foil fo the growth of the Catholic faith, in a manner ve particular, and to Satan's full fatisfaction. I might, to complete this part of the hiftory, give you the detail of his progrefs in these first steps of his alliances with Rome, and add a long lift of maffacres, wars, and expeditions in behalf of religion, which he has had the honour to have a visible hand in; fuch as the Parifian maffacre, the Flemish war under the Duke d'Alva, the Smithfield fires in the Marian days in England, and the maffacres in Ireland; all which would moft effectually convince us, that the Devil has not been idle in his business but I may meet with these again in my way; it is enough, while I am upon the generals only, to mention them thus in a fummary way: I fay, it is enough to prove, that the Devil has really been as much concerned as any body, in the methods taken by fome people for propagating the Chriftian religion in the world. Some have rafhly, and I had almost faid maliciously, charged the Devil with the great triumphs of his friends the Spaniards in America, and would place the conqueft of Mexico and Peru to the credit of his ac count. But I cannot join with them in this at all. I must fay, I believe the Devil was innocent of that matter: my reafon is, because Satan was never fuch a fool as to fpend his time or his politics, or embark his allies, to conquer nations who were already his own; that would be Satan against Beelzebub, a making war upon himfelf, and at leaft doing nothing to the purpose. If they fhould charge him, indeed, with deluding Philip I. o Spain into that prepofterous attempt called the Armada Anglice, the Spanish invafion) I should indeed more readily join with them: But whether he did it weakly, in hope, which was indeed not likely, that it would fucceed; or wickedly, to deftroy that great fleet of the Spaniards, and draw them within the reach of his dominions, the elements: this being a queftion which authors differ exceedingly' about, I thall Teave it to decide itself.. But the greatest piece of management which we find Devil has concerned himself in of late, in the mat ter of religion, feems to be that of the miffion into China; and here indeed Satan has acted his masterpiece. It was, no doubt, much for his fervice, that the Chinese should have no infight into matters of religion, I mean that we call Chriftian; and therefore, though Popery and the Devil are not at fo much variance as fome may imagine, yet he did not think it fafe to let the general fyftem of Chriftianity be heard of among them in China. Hence, when the name of the Chriftian religion had but been received with fome feeming approbation in the country of Japan, Satan immediately, as if alarmed at the thing, and dreading what the confequence of it might be, armed the Japanese against it with fuch fury, that they expelled it at once. It was much fafer to his designs, when, if the story be not a fiction, he put that Dutch witticism into the mouths of the States commanders, when they came to Japan; who, having more wit than to own themfelves Chriftians in fuch a place as that, when the queftion was put to them, anfwered negatively, That they were not; but that they were of another religion, called Hollanders. However, it feems the diligent Jefuits outwitted the Devil in China, and, as I said above, overshot him in his own bow; for the miffion being in danger, by the Devil and the Chinese Emperor's joining together, of being wholly expelled there too, as they had been in Japan, they cunningly fell in with the ecclefiaftics of the country, and joining the prieftcraft of both religions together, they brought Jefus Chrift and Confu cius to be fo reconcileable, that the Chinese and the Ro man idolatry appeared capable of a confederacy, of going on hand in hand together; and confequently of being very good friends. ་་ This was a mafter-piece indeed, and, as they fay,.. almolt frighted Satan out of his wits; but he, being a ready manager, and particularly famous for ferving himself of the rogueries of the priests, faced about immediately to the miffion, and making a virtue of necef 1 |