 Part 2 Chapter 11b of the History of the Devil. The magic lantern is an optic machine, by the means of which are represented on a wall in the dark many phantasms and terrible appearances, but no devil in all this, only that they are taken for the effects of magic by those that are not acquainted with the secret. All this is done by the help of several little painted pieces of glass, only so and so situated, placed in certain oppositions to one another, and painted with different figures, the most formidable being placed foremost, and such as are most capable of terrifying the spectators, and by this all the figures may be represented upon the opposite wall in the largest size. I cannot but take notice that this very piece of optic delusion seems too much akin to the mock possessions and infernal accomplishments, which most of the possessionists of this age pretend to, so that they are most of them mere phantasms and appearances and no more, nor is the spirit of divination, the magic, the necromancing, and other arts which were called diabolical, found to be of any use in modern practice, at least in these parts of the world, but the devil seems to do most of his work himself, and by shorter methods, for he has so complete an influence among those that he now lists in his service that he brings all the common affairs of mankind into a narrower compass in his management, with a dexterity particular to himself, and by which he carries on his interests silently and surely much more to the detriment of virtue and good government, and consequently much more to his satisfaction than ever he did before. There's a kind of magic or sorcery, or what else you may please to call it, which though unknown to us is yet, it seems, still very much encouraged by the devil, but this is a great way off and in countries where the politer instruments, which he finds fear are not to be had, namely among the Indians of North America, this is called pa-wa-ing, and they have their divines, which they call pa-was, or witches, who use strange gestures, distortions, horrid smokes, burnings, and scents, and several such things which the sorcerers and witches in ancient times are said to use in casting nativities and filters, and in determining, or as they pretended directing the fate of persons, by burning such and such herbs and roots such as hellebore, wormwood, storacks, devil wart, mandrake, nightshade, and abundance more such which are called noxious plants, or the product of noxious plants, also melting such and such minerals, gums, and poisonous things, and by several hellish mutterings and markings over them, the like do these pa-was, and the devil is pleased, it seems, or is permitted to fall in with these things, and as some people think appears often to them for their assistance upon those occasions. But be that as it will, he is eased of all that trouble here, he can pa-wa hear himself without their aid, and having laid them all aside he negotiates much of his business without ambassadors, he is his own plenty potentiary, for he finds man so easy to come at, and so easy when he is come at that he stands in no need of secret emissaries, or at least not so much as he used to do. Upon the whole as the world, within the compass of a few past years, is advanced in all kinds of knowledge and arts, and every useful branch of what they knew before improved, and innumerable useful parts of knowledge which were concealed before are discovered, why should we think the devil alone should stand at a stay, has taken no steps to his father accomplishment, and made no useful discoveries in his way, that he alone should stand at a stay and be just the same unimproved devil that he was before, no no as the world is improved every day, and every age is grown wiser and wiser than their fathers, so no doubt he has bestowed himself too in order to an increase of knowledge and discovery, and that he finds every day a nearer way to go to work with mankind than he had before. Besides as men in general seem to have altered their manner, and that they move in a higher and more exalted sphere especially as device and virtue, so the devil may have been obliged to change his measures and alter his way of working, particularly those things which would take in former times and which a stupid age would come easily into won't go down with us now. As the taste of vice and virtue alters, the devil is forced to bait his hook with new compositions, the very thing called temptation is altered in its nature, and that which served to delude our ancestors whose gross conceptions of things cause them to be manageable with less art will not do now. The case is quite altered in some things perhaps as I hinted above, we come into crime with ease and may be led by a finger, but when we come to a more refined way of sinning which our ancestors never understood other and more refined politics must be made use of, and the devil has been put upon many useful projects and inventions to make many new discoveries and experiments to carry on his affairs, and to speak impartially he has strangely improved either in knowledge or experiment within these few years, he has found out a great many new inventions to shorten his own labor and carry on his business in the world currently which he never was master of before or at least we never knew he was. No wonder then that he has changed hands to and that he has left of paw pawing in these parts of the world that we don't find our houses disturbs as they used to be and the stools and chairs walking about out of one room into another as formerly that children don't vomit crooked pins and rusty stub nails as of old the air is not full of noises nor the churchyard full of hobgoblins ghosts don't walk about in winding sheets and the good old scolding wives visit and plague their husbands after they are dead as they did when they were alive the age is grown too wise to be agitated by these doll scare grow things which for their forefathers were tickled with satan has been obliged to lay by his puppet shows and his tumblers those things are grown stale his morris dancing devils his mount to banking and quacking won't do now those things as they may be supposed to be very troublesome to him and but that he has servants enough would be chargeable to are now of no great use in the new management of his affairs in a word men are too much devils themselves in the sense that i've called them so to be frighted with such little low prized appearances as these they are better acquainted with the old arc angel than so and they seem to tell him they must be treated after another manner and that then as they are good natured and tractable he may deal with them upon better terms hence the devil goes to work with mankind a much shorter way for instead of the art of weedling and whining together with the laborious part of tricking and sharpening hurrying and driving frightening and terrifying all which the devil was put to the trouble of before in short he acts the grand manner as the architects call it i don't know whether our free masons may understand the word and therefore i may hereafter explain it as it is to be diabolically as well as mathematically understood at present my meaning is he acts with them immediately and personally by a magnificent transformation making them mere devils to themselves upon all needful occasions and devils to one another to whenever he satan has need of their service this way of embarking mankind in the devil's particular engagement is really very modern and though the devil himself may have been long acquainted with the method and as i've heard began to practice it towards the close of the roman empire when men began to act upon very polite principles and were capable of the most refined wickedness and afterwards with some popes who likewise were a kind of church devils such as satan himself could hardly expect to find in the world yet i do not find that he was ever able to bring it into practice at least not so universally as he does now but now the case is altered and men being generally more expert in wickedness than they were formally they suffer the smaller alteration of the species in being transmigrated in a word they turn into devils with no trouble at all hardly either to the devil or to themselves this particular would want much the less explanation could i obtain a license from sir hellebore wormwood bart or from my lord thwart over baron of scoundrel hall in the kingdom of ireland to write the true history of their own conduct and how early and above all how easily they commence devils without the least impeachment of their characters as wise men and without any diminution of that part of their denomination which established them for fools how many mad fellows appear among us every day in the critical juncture of their transmigration just when they have so much of the man left as to be known by their names and enough of the devil taken up to settle their characters this easiness of the devil's access to these people and the great convenience it is to him in his general business is a proof to me that he has no more occasion of diviners magicians sorcerers and whatever else we pleased to call those people who were formerly so great with him for what occasion has he to employ devils and wizards to confound mankind when he has arrived to such a perfection of art as to bring men at least in these parts of the world to do it all themselves upon this account we do not find any of the old sorcerers and diviners magicians or witches appear among us not that the devil might not be as well able to employ such people as formally and qualify them for the employment too but that really there is no need of them here about the devil having our shorter way and mankind being much more easily possessed not the old herd of swine were sooner agitated though there was full 2000 of them together nature has opened the door and the devil has egress and regress at pleasure so that witches and diviners are quite out of the question nor let any man be alarmed at this alteration in the case as it stands between mankind and the devil and think the devil having gained so much ground me and time by encroachment come to a general possession of the whole race and so we should all come to be devils incarnate I say let us not be alarmed for satan does not get these advantages by encroachment but by his infernal power or art no not at all but is the man himself does it by his indolence and negligence on one hand and his complacence to the devil on the other and both ways he as it were opens the door to him beckons him with his very hand to come in and the devil has nothing to do but enter and take possession now if it be so a man is so frank to him you know the devil is no fool not to take the advantage when to offer him and therefore it is no wonder if the consequences which I have been just now naming follow but let no man be discouraged by this from reaffirming his natural and religious powers and venturing to shut the devil out for the case explained he may be shut out the soul is a strong castle and as a good garrison placed within to defend it if the garrison behave well and do their duty it is impregnable and the cowardly devil must raise his siege and be gone nay he must fly or as we call it make his escape lest he be laid by the heels that is lest his weakness be exposed and all his lurking lying in wait ambush god tricks this part would bear a great enlargement but i have not room to be witty upon him so you must take it in the gross the devil lies at bly bush as our country people call it to watch your coming out of your hold and if you happen to go abroad unarmed he seizes upon and masters you with ease an armed duel say what arms should I take what fence against the flail what weapons can a man take to fight the devil I could tell you what to fight him with and what you might fright him with for the devil is to be frighted with several things besides holy water but is too serious for you and you tell me I am preaching and accounting and the like so I must let the devil manage you rather than displease you with talking scripture and religion well but may not the devil be fought with some of his own weapons there's no dealing with him in a way of human nature this would require a long answer and some philosophy might be acted or at least imitated and some magic perhaps for they tells us there are spells to draw away even the devil himself as in some places they nail horseshoes upon the threshold of the door to keep him out in other places old pieces of flint with so many holes and so many corners and the like but I must answer in the negative I don't know what Satan might be scared at in those days but he is either grown cunninger since or bolder for he values none of those things now I question much whether he would value saint Dunstan and his red hot tongs if he was to meet him now or st francis or any of the saints no not the host itself in full procession and therefore though you don't care I should preach yet in short if you are afraid he should charge upon you and attack you if you won't make use of those scripture weapons I should have mentioned and which you may hear of if you inquire at Ephesians 6 16 you must look for better where you think you can find them but to go on with my work the devil I say is not to be feared with malkins nor does he employ his old instruments but does much of his work himself without instruments and yet I must enter a caveat here too against being misunderstood am I saying the devil stands in no need of agents for when I speak so I am to be taken in a limited sense I don't say he needs them nowhere but only that he does not need them in those polite parts of the world which I have been speaking of and perhaps not much here but in many remote countries tis otherwise still the Indians of America are particularly said to have witches among them as well in those countries where the Spaniards and the English and other nations have planted themselves as amongst those where the European nations seldom come for example the people of Canada that is of the countries under the French government of Quebec the Eskimo and other northern climates have magicians wizards and witches who they call pelotas or pelotoas these pretend they speak intimately and familiarly with the devil and receive from him the knowledge of things to come of which by the way I take to be a little more than this that these fellows being a little more cunning than the rest think that by pretending to something more than human they shall make the stronger impressions on the ignorant people as Muhammad amused the world with his pigeon using it to pick peas out of his ear and persuade the people that brought him superior revelations and inspirations from paradise thus these pelotoas gaining an opinion among the people behaved like so many mountain banks of hell pretending to understand dark things cure diseases practice surgery physical and necromancy altogether I will not say but Satan may pick out such tools to work with and I believe does in those parts but I think he has found a nearer way to the wood with us and that is sufficient to my present purpose some would persuade me the devil had a great hand in the late religious breaches in France among the clergy viz about the pope's constitution unit genitus and that he made a fair attempt to set the pope and the gallican church together by the ears for they were all just upon the point of breaking out into a church war that for ought we knew might have gone farther than the devil himself carried it should now I'm of that quite contrary opinion I believe the devil really did not make the breach but rather healed it for fear it should have gone so far among them as to have set them all in a flame and have opened the door to the return of the Huguenots again which it was in fair way to have done but be it one way or another the historical part seems to be a little against me for to certain the devil both wanted and made use of legions of agents as well human as infernal visible and invisible in that great and important affair and we cannot doubt but he has innumerable instruments still at work about it like as in parlor and I make no question but the devil has thousands of his bandit at work at this time and in another country not far from it perhaps preparing matters for the next general died taking care to prevent giving any relaxation to the Protestants and to justify the moderate executions at thorn to excite a nation to quarrel with everybody who are able to fight with nobody to erect the apostate race of s blank blank y upon the throne which they have no title to and turn an elective throne into an hereditary in favor of potpourri I might anticipate all your objections by granting the busy devil at this time employing all his agents and instruments for I never told you they were idle and useless in striving to inflame the Christian world and bring a new war to overspread Europe I might perhaps point out to you some of the measures he takes the provocatives which is state physicians administered to the courts and counselors of princes to foment and ferment the spirits and members of nations kingdoms empires and states in the world in order to bring these glorious ends of blood and war to pass for you cannot think but he that knows so much of the devil's affairs as to write his history must know something of all these matters more than those that do not know so much as he but all this is remote to the present case for this is no impeachment of satan's new methods with mankind in this part of the world and in his private and separate capacity all this only signifies that in his more general and national affairs the devil acts still by his old methods and when he is to seduce or embroil nations he like other conquerors subdues them by armies employs mighty squadrons of devils and sends out strong detachments with generals and general listeners to lead them some to one part of the world some to another some to influence one nation some to manage and direct another according as business presents and his occasions require that his affairs may be carried on currently and to his satisfaction if it were not thus but that the devil by his new and exquisite management of which I have said so much had brought mankind in general to be the agents of their own mischiefs and that the world were so at his back that he need but command them to go and fight declare war raise armies destroy cities kingdoms countries and people the world would be a field of blood indeed and all things would run into confusion presently but this is not the case at all heaven has not let go the government of the creation to his subdued enemy the devil that would overturn the whole system of god and give satan more power than ever he was or it will be vested with when therefore I speak of a few forward wretches in our day who are so warm in their wickedness that they anticipate the devil save him the trouble to tempt turn devils to themselves and gallop helward faster than he drives I speak of them as single persons and acting in their own personal and private capacity but when I speak of nations and kingdoms they are the devil is obliged to go on in the old road and act by stratagem by his proper machinery and to make use of all his arts and all his agents just as he has done in all ages from the beginning of his politic government to this day and if it was not thus to what would become of all his numberless legions of which all ages have heard so much in all parts of the world have had so much fatal experience they would seem to be quite out of employment and be rendered useless in the world of spirits where it is to be supposed they reside not the devil himself could find any business for them which by the way too busy and mischievous spirits as they are would be a hell to them even before their time they would be as it were doomed to a state of inactivity which we may suppose was one part of their expulsion from blessedness and the creation of man or as they were for the surprising interval between the destruction of mankind by the deluge and Noah's coming out of the ark when indeed they might be said to have nothing at all to do but this is not Satan's case and therefore let me tell you too that you may not think I treat the case with more levity than I really do and that I am sure I intend to do though it is too true that our modern and modish sinners have arrived to more exquisite ways of being wicked than their fathers and really seem as I've said to need no devil to tempt them nay that they do Satan's work for him as to others also and make themselves devils to their neighbors tempting others to crime even faster than the devil desires them running before they are sent and going of the devil's errands gratis by which means Satan's work is as to them done to his hand and they may be said to save him a great deal of trouble yet after all the devil has still a great deal of business upon his hands and as well himself as all his legions find themselves a full employment in disturbing the world and opposing the glory and kingdom of their great superior whose kingdom it is their whole business however vain in its end to overthrow and destroy if they were able or at least to endeavor it this being the case it follows of course that the general mischiefs of mankind as well national and public as family mischiefs and even personal except as before accepted lie all still at the devil's door as much as ever let his advocates bring him all of it if they can and this brings us back again to the manner of the devil's management and the way of his working by human agents or if you will the way of human devils working in affairs of low life such as we call divination sorcery black art necromancy and the like all which i take to consist of two material parts and both very necessary for us to be rightly informed of one the part which satan by himself or his inferior devils empowers such people to do as he is in confederacy with here on earth to whom he may be said like the master of an opera or comedy to give their parts to act and to qualify them to act it whether he obliges them to a rehearsal in his presence to try their talents and see that they are capable of performing that indeed i have not inquired into to that part which these empowered people do volunteer or beyond their commission to show their diligence in the service of their new master and either one to bring risk to their own mill and make their market of their employment in the best manner they can or to gain applause be admired wondered at and applauded as if they were 10 times more devils than really they are in a word the matter consists of what the devil does by the help of these people and what they do in his name without him the devil is sometimes cheated in his own business there are pretenders to witchcraft and black art who satan never made any bargain with but who he connives at because at least they do his cause no harm though their business is rather to get money than to render him any service of which i gave you a remarkable instance before but to go back to his real agents of which i reckon to one those who act by direction and confederacy as i have said already many do to those whom he acts in and by and they perhaps know it not of which sort history gives us plenty of examples from mackey of elves first disciple blank to the famous cardinal albaroni and even to some more modern than his remnants of whom i can say no more to farther occasion offers one 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 bewitching crew male and female and they should mob me for pretending to deny them the honor of dealing with the devil which they are so exceeding willing to have the fame out 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 lessen of late and that he either is limited and is better shortened more than it has been or that he does not find the old way as i said before so fit for his purpose as he did formally 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 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 and 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 use when i tell them the devil may be in them and may act them and by them and 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 an 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 with all 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 sighting 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 me 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 greatest part would be to prevent him put a stop to his progress but 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 bear knowing when he is at work with us i say this so 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 they're 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 pause 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 tempest rising if the affections are regular and exalted to virtuous and sublime objects the spirits cool and the minds to date the man is in a general rectitude of mine 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 intending to everything that is good both present and future but on the other hand if at any time the mind is ruffled if vapors rise clouds gather if passions swell the breast if anger and the 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 ford or at least the counter-scarp and outworks is making his lodgement 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 is no wonder that being lodged thus upon the outworks of the soul he continues to set 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 opposite as you would have it be you may however see by 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 a 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 extra besated the passions were violent and outrageous the affections impetuous corrupt and violently vicious whence does all this proceed from heaven we can't pretend it comes if we must not say to 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 I as personally and really as ever he was in the herd of swine 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 devils putting those spirits of the soul into so violent affirmant into a fever that the circulation has precipitated to that degree and that the man too is precipitated into mischief and at last into ruin to solve 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 had 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 blanks 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 access and in us unknown to ourselves though we know nothing of it and indeed though we may not suspect it of ourselves like haza el 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 the wicketer than ever he thought it was possible for him to be in part two chapter 11 b conclusion of the history of the devil this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox org the history of the devil by daniel defoe conclusion of the devil's last scene of liberty and what may be supposed to be his end with what we are to understand of his being tormented forever and ever as the devil is a prince of the power of the air his kingdom is mortal it must have an end and as he has called the god of this world that is the great usurper of the homage and reverence which mankind ought of right to pay their maker so his usurpation also like the world itself must have an end saint in 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 whether 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 the spirits which are all flame not being affected with fire is if i suppose 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 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're all flame that is all spirit we shall 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 torment 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 which i think i'm orthodox and do not give the least occasion to an enemy to charge me with profane speaking in those words or deplete from thinking profanely himself it must be atheistical to the last degree to suggest that whereas the devil has been heaping up in amassing guilt ever since the creation of man increasing in hatred of god and rebellion against him in an all possible endeavor to dethrone and depose the majesty of heaven that yet heaven had not prepared or could not prepare a just penalty for him and that it should not all end in god's entire victory over hell and in satan's open condemnation heaven could not be just to its own glory if he should not avenge himself upon this rebel for all his superlative wickedness in his modern as well as ancient station for the blood of so many millions of his faithful subjects and saints whom he has destroyed and if nothing else offered itself to prove this part it would appear undoubted to me but this i confess does not belong to satan's history and therefore i've reserved it to this place and shall also be the shorter in it that his condition is to be a state of punishment and that by torment the devil himself has owned and his calling out to a blessed lord when he cast him out of the furious man among the tombs is a proof of it what have we to do with the an art thou come to torment us before the time luke 8 verse 28 where the devil acknowledges four things and three of them are directly to my present purpose and if you won't believe the word of god i hope you will believe the devil especially when tizan opened confession against himself one he confessed christ to be the son of god that by the way and no thanks to him for that does not want the devil's evidence two he acknowledges he may be tormented three he acknowledges christ was able to torment him four he acknowledges that there is a time appointed when he shall be tormented as to how and what matter and by what means this tormenting the devil is to be performed or executed that i take to be as needless to us as tis impossible to know in being not at present inclined to fill your heads in thoughts with weak and imperfect guesses i leave it where i find it it is enough to us that this torment of the devil is represented to us by fire it being impossible for our confined thoughts to conceive of torment by anything in the world more exquisite once i conclude that devil shall at least receive a punishment suitable to their spiritist nature and as exquisitely tormenting as a burning fire would be to our bodies having thus settled my own belief of this matter and stated it so as i think we'll let you see tiz rightly sounded the matter stands thus satan having been let loose to play his game in this world has improved his time to the utmost he has not failed on all occasions to exert his hatred rage and malice at his conqueror and enemy namely his maker he has nor failed from principles of mere envy and pride to pursue mankind with all possible rancor in order to deprive him of the honor and felicity which he was creative for namely to secede the devil and his angels in the state of glory from which they fell this hatred of god an envious man having broken out in so many several ways in the whole series of time from the creation must necessarily have greatly increased his guilt and as heaven is righteous to judge him must terminate in an increase of punishment adequate to his crime and sufficient to his nature some have suggested that there is yet a time to come when the devil shall exert more rage and do more mischief than ever yet he has been permitted to do whether he shall break his chain or be unchained for a time they cannot tell nor i neither and tiz happy for my work that even this part too does not belong to his history if ever it shall be given an account of by mankind it must be after it has come to pass for my part is not prophecy of foretelling what the devil shall do but history of what he has done thus good people have brought the history of the devil down to your own times i have as it were raised him for you and set him in your view that you may know him and have a care of him if any cunning your man among you think they are able now to lay him again and so dispose of him out of our sight that you shall be troubled no more with him either here or hereafter let them go to work with him their own way you know things future do not belong to an historian so i leave him among you wishing you may be able to give no worse than account of him for the time to come than i have done for the time past finny end of conclusion him end of the history of the devil by daniel defoe