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

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Daniel Defoe The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts
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D. The Devil! the Devil he did? what you’re going to quote Scripture, are you? Prithee don’t tell me of Scripture , I know what you mean, the Devils believe and tremble ; why then I have the whip-hand of the Devil , for I hate trembling; and I am deliver’d from it effectually, for I never believed any thing of it, and therefore I don’t tremble.

Gr. And there, indeed, I am a wickeder creature than the Devil , or even than my Lord Duke , for I believe, and yet don’t tremble neither.

D. Nay, if you are come to your penitentials I have done with you.

Gr. And I think I must have done with my Lord Duke , for the same reason.

D.Ay, ay , pray do, I’ll go and enjoy my self; I won’t throw away the pleasure of my life, I know the consequence of it.

Gr. And I’ll go and reform my self, else I know the consequence too.

This short Dialogue happen’d between two men of quality, and both men of wit too; and the effect was, that the Lord brought the reality of the Devil into the question, and the debate brought the profligate to be a penitent; so in short, the Devil was made a preacher of repentance.

The Truth is, God and the Devil , however opposite in their nature, and remote from one another in their place of abiding, seem to stand pretty much upon a level in our faith: For as to our believing the reality of their existence, he that denies one, generally denies both; and he that believes one, necessarily believes both.

Very few, if any of those who believe there is a God, and acknowledge the debt of homage which mankind owes to the supreme Governor of the World, doubt the existence of the Devil , except here and there one, whom we call practical Atheists; and ’tis the character of an Atheist, if there is such a creature on Earth, that like my Lord Duke , he believes neither God or Devil .

As the belief of both these stands upon a level, and that God and the Devil seem to have an equal share in our faith, so the evidence of their existence seems to stand upon a level too, in many things; and as they are known by their Works in the same particular cases, so they are discover’d after the same manner of demonstration.

Nay, in some respects ’tis equally criminal to deny the reality of them both, only with this difference, that to believe the existence of a God is a debt to nature, and to believe the existence of the Devil is a like debt to reason; one is a demonstration from the reality of visible causes, and the other a deduction from the like reality of their effects.

One demonstration of the existence of God, is from the universal well-guided consent of all nations to worship and adore a supreme Power; One demonstration of the existence of the Devil , is from the avow’d ill-guided consent of some nations, who knowing no other God, make a God of the Devil , for want of a better.

It may be true, that those nations have no other Ideas of the Devil than as of a superior Power; if they thought him a supreme Power it would have other effects on them, and they would submit to and worship him with a different kind of fear.

But ’tis plain they have right notions of him as a Devil or evil Spirit, because the best reason, and in some places the only reason they give for worshiping him is, that he may do them no hurt; having no notions at all of his having any power, much less any inclination to do them good; so that indeed they make a meer Devil of him, at the same time that they bow to him as to a God.

All the ages of Paganism in the World have had this notion of the Devil : indeed in some parts of the World they had also some Deities which they honour’d above him, as being supposed to be beneficent, kind and inclined, as well as capable to give them good things; for this reason the more polite Heathens, such as the Grecians and the Romans , had their Lares or houshold Gods, whom they paid a particular respect to; as being their Protectors from Hobgoblins, Ghosts of the Dead, evil Spirits, frightful Appearances, evil Genius’s and other noxious Beings from the invisible World; or to put it into the language of the day we live in, from the Devil , in whatever shape or appearance he might come to them, and from whatever might hurt them: and what was all this but setting up Devils against Devils , supplicating one Devil under the notion of a good Spirit, to drive out and protect them from another, whom they call’d a bad Spirit, the white Devil against the black Devil ?

This proceeds from the natural notions mankind necessarily entertain of things to come; superior or inferior , God and the Devil , fill up all futurity in our thoughts; and ’tis impossible for us to form any images in our minds of an immortality and an invisible World, but under the notions of perfect felicity, or extreme misery.

Now as these two respect the Eternal state of man after life, they are respectively the object of our reverence and affection, or of our horror and aversion; but notwithstanding they are plac’d thus in a diametrical opposition in our affections and passions, they are on an evident level as to the certainty of their existence, and, as I said above, bear an equal share in our faith.

It being then as certain that there is a Devil , as that there is a God , I must from this time forward admit no more doubt of his existence, nor take any more pains to convince you of it; but speaking of him as a reality in Being, proceed to enquire who he is, and from whence, in order to enter directly into the detail of his History.

Now not to enter into all the metaphysical trumpery of his Schools, nor wholly to confine my self to the language of the Pulpit; where we are told, that to think of God and of the Devil , we must endeavour first to form Ideas of those things which illustrate the description of rewards and punishments; in the one the eternal presence of the highest good, and, as a necessary attendant, the most perfect, consummate, durable bliss and felicity, springing from the presence of that Being in whom all possible Beatitude is inexpressibly present, and that in the highest perfection: On the contrary, to conceive of a sublime fallen Arch-angel, attended with an innumerable host of degenerate, rebel Seraphs or Angels cast out of Heaven together; all guilty of inexpressible rebellion, and all suffering from that time, and to suffer for ever the eternal vengeance of the Almighty, in an inconceivable manner; that his presence, tho’ blessed in it self, is to them the most compleat article of terror; That they are in themselves perfectly miserable; and to be with whom for ever, adds an inexpressible misery to any state as well as place; and fills the minds of those who are to be, or expect to be banish’d to them with inconceivable horror and amazement.

But when you have gone over all this, and a great deal more of the like, tho’ less intelligible language, which the passions of men collect to amuse one another with; you have said nothing if you omit the main article, namely, the personality of the Devil ; and till you add to all the rest some description of the company with whom all this is to be suffer’d, viz. the Devil and his Angels .

Now who this Devil and his Angels are, what share they have either actively or passively in the eternal miseries of a future state, how far they are Agents in or Partners with the sufferings of the place, is a difficulty yet not fully discover’d by the most learned; nor do I believe ’tis made less a difficulty by their medling with it.

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