Deeds and Description of the Human Agents of the Devil
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 inform’d of.
1. 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.
2. That Part which these empower’d People do volunteer or beyond their Commission, to show their Diligence in the Service of their new Master, and either (1.) to bring Grist to their own Mill, and make their Market of their Employment in the best manner they can; or (2.) to gain Applause, be admired, wonder’d at, and applauded, as if they were ten 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, whom Satan never made any Bargain with, but who he connives at, because at least they do his Cause no harm, tho’ 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 two.
[]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 mention’d 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 tho’, as I have said, he has much alter’d his Schemes and chang’d 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 Honour of dealing with the Devil, which they are so exceeding willing to have the Fame of.
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 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.
