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.