TAKING the Orthodox views of Christianity, there are four personages
connected with divine revelation, and each has a different department to
act out. The first three are the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Leaving,
for the present, the first three, our attention will, in this chapter,
be directed to the fourth and last, namely, the Devil. And so much
consequence do Christian sects attach to the existence of the Devil,
that, to deny it, or even to doubt it, would be enough to separate a
member from the church. Religious people must have a Devil; for, as the
Devil, by his incessant cunning and temptation, is the indirect author
of men's sins, so, on the other hand, the Saviour stands ready to ransom
the guilty. It then follows, that the sinner, after all, stands on
pretty good ground; for, if the Devil tempts him to commit one-half of
his crimes, and the Saviour pardons the other half, man is not in much
danger of being condemned.
In this chapter, it will be seen, what an amount of evil has arisen to
the peace and happiness of the human race, not from what the Devil
really has done, but from what mortals have believed he has done, by
supposing him to have almost unlimited power. And here we can perceive,
what evil has transpired from what never has, nor ever could have taken
place, but from what has been believed to have really happened. This has
been in consequence of the credulity of the human mind when reason is
departed from, and man becomes the creature of imagination. It is then
that man can give credit to the most glaring absurdities, and honestly
reject the plain dictates of common sense. It is then that he leaves the
solid earth on which he treads, and launches into the region of airy
nothings; and, by the ductility of his mind, creates beings of so
terrific a nature, that, at the thought of them, the stoutest hearts
have been made to quail. This is strictly true as to the existence and
influence of the Devil.
That the New Testament sanctions the existence of the Devil, there
remains not a doubt. The temptation of Christ is proof positive. But
that alone should not suffice. The case of Mary Magdalene, and also the
expulsion of devils by Jesus and his disciples, put all doubt out of the
question. When we consider the terrible consequences of this belief on
the peace and happiness of the human race, we can but pity the deluded
creatures, who, in different ages of Christianity, have been sufferers
for the supposed commission of a crime that never was, nor ever will be
committed. All nations, in all ages, have credited, to a lesser or a
greater extent, the existence of a being, or beings, of a malignant
nature, possessing power beyond man's conception; who, from some cause
unknown, delighted in doing mischief to the human family. And ever since
the introduction of the Christian religion, it has been credited that
such wicked spirits could delegate power to human beings equally wicked
as themselves; by which power, they, for a time, could vent their
malice, and do wonders by selling themselves, or by some infernal
contract could do harm to, or among those of, their neighbors who were
so unfortunate as to fall under their displeasure.
This sin, which never was, and never can be committed, has ever been
thought the worst of crimes; and less mercy shown to the supposed guilty
person than if guilty of murder itself. And so extensively has it been
credited, and so great has been its influence, that laws have, in most
nations, been passed for its punishment; and thousands, and tens of
thousands have been put to death under circumstances of torture at which
the human heart sickens. Surely, if our minds are not entirely darkened
by the ignorance of past ages, we must be able to see that the Bible has
been the most destructive book that was ever written; and is unworthy to
claim infinite power, wisdom, and goodness for its author. If the belief
in witchcraft and sorcery had been confined to the ignorant and
unlearned of all nations, its evil would have been so limited that not
much misery would have followed, because men of good sense and talent
would have stood in the way of its progress. But, unfortunately, this
has not so happened. Its evil influence has ascended to the highest
classes in society. The king on his throne, and the learned judge seated
in the chair of impartial justice, have partaken of its deadly
contagion. The reader will now be presented with facts of the most
undoubted authority, showing what wretchedness has occurred from
believing in the existence and malignity of the Devil--a doctrine
supported by divine revelation.
The first fact that is brought forward, took place at Bury, St. Edmonds,
in the County of Suffolk, (England,) in the year 1664. Amy Duny and Rose
Callender, two poor women, who were ignorant, and of the coarsest
materials, had, for eight years previous, the reputation of being
witches. So horrid were they considered, that the fishermen would not
sell them fish, and the boys in the streets were taught to fly from them
with horror. The principal charges against them were, that the children
of two families had been many times seized with fits in which they
exclaimed that they saw Amy Duny and Rose Callender coming to torment
them. They vomited, and in their vomit were often found pins, and once
or twice a two-penny nail.
One or two of the children died. To support these allegations, a wagoner
appeared, whose wagon had been twice overturned in one morning in
consequence of the curses of one of these witches. Sir Matthew Hale
presided at the trial, assisted by Sir Thomas Brown, two of the most
able and learned Judges then in England. Those two poor women were by
the jury found guilty, and hanged on the seventeenth day of March, 1664,
one week after their trial.
Sir Matthew Hale refused to sum up the evidence, but left it to the
jury, to whom he said, "That the Scriptures left no doubt that there was
such a thing as witchcraft; and instructed them that all they had to do,
was, first, to consider whether the children were really bewitched; and,
secondly, whether the witchcraft was sufficiently brought home to the
prisoners at the bar." The Jury found them guilty, and they were hanged
as before stated.
Here we have a shocking account of the credulity of the human mind. The
whole English nation were laboring under a mental delusion. Here it was
not to be said, "_O, ye of little faith!_" but, "_O, ye religious
madmen! your faith has changed your nature from kindness and pity, to
perform acts of cruelty which the savage cannibal would shudder to put
into practice._" I would here remind the reader, that Judge Hale was
considered a just and humane Judge. What a dreadful state a nation must
be in, when such laws as have been referred to, were in full force, and
the jurisprudence of England was, as it were, under the influence of a
Being the supposed enemy of man! And it may in truth be said, that an
unknown and invisible world governed one that was known and visible.
Now, in the case of those two poor women, who were really murdered, the
question arises, who were their murderers? Was it Judge Hale, or the
Jury? It was neither. It was the Bible---a book which records the
existence of a Devil, the sworn enemy of God and men. Reader! can you
withhold pity from two poor creatures in such circumstances, and can you
still praise to the skies a Book that has made the best and wisest of
men cruel brutes,--who, at the same time, were happy to have a chance to
make war against the Devil, by destroying two helpless beings whose only
crime, in all probability, was poverty and ignorance? Every humane
unbeliever must exclaim, "O God! O Nature! what havoc have ignorance and
superstition made among your works!"
Nothing could be better calculated to give importance to the credibility
of the activity and influence of the Devil's employing and entering into
a league with wicked and ill-disposed persons, after Christianity became
established, than the Scripture account of the Devil's tempting Jesus,
and endeavoring to make a contract with him to obey and submit to his
proposals. But as the Devil was non-suited by the Saviour of mankind, it
might be expected that after Jesus had left this world, the Devil would
endeavor to enlist into his service many of those who had embraced the
religion of that Saviour whom he had tried to seduce.
In the course of time, in the middle or dark ages, when' men's
imaginations were active, and reason was nearly banished from among
Christians, it became a matter of faith and certainty, that persons in
different towns and villages had really entered into a contract, for a
certain number of years, with the Devil himself; and to carry out and
complete this supposed covenant with the enemy of God and man, a motion
was started of the Devil's Sabbath, on which, a place being appointed,
wicked men and women could meet and contract with Old Lucifer himself;
and books were printed to show the nature of the contract After this
strange opinion became fully credited, and witchcraft was made a crime
punishable by law, those persons who were accused of witchcraft were
tortured, in order to compel them to own that they had attended the
Sabbath of the Devil.
Another fact will now be stated, to show what ideas of the Devil's
influence prevailed in England and Scotland, in the days of Elizabeth.
James the First, of England, who, succeeding Elizabeth, was born in
1566, was the only direct heir to the Crown of Scotland, and had a
prospect of succeeding Elizabeth in England, which he did on the death
of the Queen. James had witnessed a great number of prosecutions for
witchcraft, in Scotland, in the reign of Mary; and he, as might be
expected, most firmly believed that the Devil was very active in the
country of his birth; so that, when he came to the Crown of England, his
mind was di-rected to put a stop to the prevailing crime of witchcraft
and to break up the Devil's Sabbath, he believing that numbers of his
English subjects were visitors to those unholy meetings. A circumstance
will now be mentioned which will fully prove what views the people of
England and Scotland had of the activity of the Devil in drawing persons
into his service and kingdom; for it is impossible to evade the truth,
that the existence and opposition of the Devil against the progress of
the Gospel, was strengthened by what had been recorded of the Devil in
the New Testament.
James the First, of England, is here cited to show what was then the
prevailing opinion of the existence of witchcraft in that kingdom. And
although it is painful to reflect on the sufferings of thousands, it
may, by its recital, assist those who are still somewhat in darkness, to
discover how the human race have been deluded. James the First had fixed
his mind on a daughter of the King of Denmark. A splendid embassy was
sent from England to conclude the treaty of marriage, and to bring home
James's royal consort; but the ships met with violent storms, and
instead of arriving at the capital of Scotland, the news came that the
ship in which the Princess had taken passage, was driven back on the
coast of Norway; nothing uncommon m these seas at that, season of the
year. The King, being disappointed, sailed to the place where the
shattered ships lay, and the marriage was consummated; and the King and
Queen remained at Copenhagen, and did not arrive at Edinburgh until the
first of May, 1590. The storm was, after their return, considered to be
the result of some supernatural interference.
The King, after his return, suspecting that witchcraft had something to
do in raising the storm which drove his intended wife on the coast of
Norway, set to work to make discoveries; and two of his female servants
were suspected of causing the storm before alluded to. Their names were
Geillis Duncan and Agnes Sampson. Both of them were put to the torture
to extort confession. These poor young women, broken down and exhausted
by so dreadful an operation, became willing to answer such questions as
this royal blockhead had prepared to put to them. Agnes Sampson told the
King, that she, in company with two hundred other witches, had sailed in
sieves from Leith to North Berwick Church; how they had there
encountered the Devil in person; how they had feasted with him, and what
obscenities had been; practised. She related, that in this voyage they
had drowned a cat, having first baptized it; and that immediately a
dreadful storm arose, and in this very storm the King's ship had been
separated from the rest of the fleet. Inconsequence of this confession,
Agnes Sampson was condemned to the flames. The system of torture
resorted to under cir-circumstances of suspicion, compelled poor
suffering creatures to answer any questions put to them to satisfy their
cruel tormentors and in many cases, after all, they were put to death.
King James the First published his Dialogues on Demonology in three
books. But many years after he renounced his belief in the real
existence of Witchcraft altogether; and in the latter part of his reign,
declared that all he had done was the effect of delusion.
These were dreadful times for humanity. Thousands and tens of thousands
of victims suffered every kind of torture that savage, ingenuity could
devise; and what made it the more to be deplored, the ignorant creatures
who inflicted the torments were honest in their abhorrence of those
unfortunate persons, who suffered for what was, in those dark ages,
considered the worst of crimes. In what horror, then, were persons held
who could be so wicked as to have dealings with the devil? The case of
James is here recorded, to show the reader that the belief in witchcraft
was not confined to the ignorant: and unlettered portion of society; but
that England, and Scotland, and, it may be said, every Christian nation
with its government, and the army also, were all laboring under this
delusion. And the truth of its existence was then, and is now, supported
by the New Testament, and fully confirmed by the Devil's temptation of
Jesus, the Christian's _Son of God_; for the desire manifested by the
Devil to entice Jesus to enter into his service, did, in those dark
ages, strengthen persons in the conclusion that the Devil, although he
failed to seduce the Redeemer, would continue to enlist, if possible,
great numbers into his service. The firm belief of his attempts on the
_Son of God_ would dispose persons to credit the fact that people of
abandoned characters would hire themselves to the Devil. In the days of
Oliver Cromwell, a story is recorded by Echard, the historian, as
shockingly illustrative of the credulity of the age in which he lived.
It takes its date from the morning of the third of September, 1651, when
Cromwell gained the battle of Worcester against Charles the Second. It
is on the authority of Colonel Lindsey, who was senior captain in
Cromwell's own regiment. The story recorded is, "That on the morning of
the battle, Cromwell took with him Colonel Lindsey to the side of a
wood, not far from the army, and bade him alight and follow him into the
wood, and to take particular notice of what he saw and heard. And having
secured their horses, and walked some little way into the wood, Lindsey
began to turn pale, and to be seized with horror from some unknown
cause. Cromwell asked him how he felt himself? He answered, that he was
in such a trembling that he never felt the like in all the conflicts and
battles he had ever been engaged in. 'How, now,' said Cromwell, 'what!
troubled with the vapors? Come forward, man.' They had not gone far,
before Lindsey stood still, and said it was impossible for him to go one
step further. Upon which, Cromwell called him a faint hearted fool, and
bade him stand there and observe, or witness. And then the General,
advancing to some distance from him, met a grave elderly man with a roll
of parchment in his hand, who delivered it to Cromwell, and he eagerly
perused it Lindsey, a little recovered from his fear, heard several loud
words between them, particularly Cromwell said, 'this is but for seven
years, I was to have it for one and twenty.' The grave elderly man told
him positively, it could not be for more than seven. Cromwell cried with
great fierceness, 'It shall, however, be for fourteen years.' Cromwell
then took his parchment, and returning to Lindsey, 'Now, Lindsey,' said
he, 'the battle is our own, I long to be engaged.' It did then commence.
After the first charge, Lindsey deserted his post and rode away with all
speed to a friend's in the county of Suffolk, and never returned.
Cromwell offered a great reward for him, dead or alive. Cromwell died on
that day seven years, September 3, 1658."
It is of no consequence whether this story is true or not It fully
proves that at that time it was believed, that men sold themselves to
the Devil.