Of Hell As It Is Represented To Us And How The Devil Is To Be Understood As Being Personally In Hell When At The Same Time We F

It is true, as that learn'd and pleasant Author, the inimitable Dr.

Brown says, the Devil is his own Hell; one of the most constituting

Parts of his Infelicity is, that he cannot act upon Mankind brevi

Manu, by his own inherent Power, as well as Rage; that he cannot

unhinge this Creation, which, as I have observ'd in its Place, he had

the utmost Aversion to from its Beginning, as it was a stated Design in

the Creator t supply his Place in Heaven with a new Species of Beings

call'd Man, and fill the Vacancies occasion'd by his Degeneracy and

Rebellion.



This fill'd him with Rage inexpressible, and horrible Resolutions of

Revenge, and the Impossibility of executing those Resolutions torments

him with Despair; this added to what he was before, makes him a compleat

Devil, with a Hell in his own Breast, and a Fire unquenchable burning

about his Heart.



I might enlarge here, and very much to the Purpose, in describing

spherically and mathematically that exquisite Quality call'd a devilish

Spirit, in which it would naturally occur to give you a whole Chapter

upon the glorious Articles of Malice and Envy, and especially upon

that luscious, delightful, triumphant Passion call'd REVENGE; how

natural to Man, nay even to both Sexes; how pleasant in the very

Contemplation, tho' there be not just at that Time a Power of

Execution; how palatable it is in it self, and how well it relishes when

dish'd up with its proper Sauces, such as Plot, Contrivance, Scheme, and

Confederacy, all leading on to Execution: How it possesses a human Soul

in all the most sensible Parts; how it empowers Mankind to sin in

Imagination, as effectually to all future Intents and Purposes

(Damnation) as if he had sinned actually: How safe a Practice it is too,

as to Punishment in this Life, namely, that it empowers us to cut

Throats clear of the Gallows, to slander Virtue, reproach Innocence,

wound Honour and stab Reputation; and in a Word, to do all the wicked

Things in the World, out of the Reach of the Law.



It would also require some few Words to describe the secret Operations

of those nice Qualities when they reach the human Soul; how effectually

they form a Hell within us, and how imperceptibly they assimilate and

transform us into Devils, meer human Devils, as really Devils as

Satan himself, or any of his Angels; and that therefore 'tis not so much

out of the Way, as some imagine, to say, such a Man is an incarnate

Devil; for as Crime made Satan a Devil, who was before a bright

immortal Seraph, or Angel of Light; how much more easily may the same

Crime make the same DEVIL, tho' every Way meaner and more

contemptible, of a Man or a Woman either? But this is too grave a

Subject for me at this Time.



The Devil being thus, I say, fir'd with Rage and Envy, in consequence

of his Jealousy upon the Creation of Man, his Torment is encreased to

the highest by the Limitation of his Power, and his being forbid to act

against Mankind by Force of Arms; this is, I say, part of his Hell,

which, as above, is within him, and which he carries with him wherever

he goes; nor is it so difficult to conceive of Hell, or of the

Devil, either under this just Description, as it is by all the usual

Notions that we are taught to entertain of them, by (the old Women) our

Instructors; for every Man may, by taking but a common View of himself,

and making a just Scrutiny into his own Passions, on some of their

particular Excursions, see a Hell within himself, and himself a meer

Devil as long as the Inflammation lasts; and that as really, and to

all Intents and Purposes, as if he had the Angel (Satan) before his

Face, in his Locality and Personality; that is to say, all Devil and

Monster in his Person, and an immaterial but intense Fire flaming about

and from within him, at all the Pores of his Body.



The Notions we receive of the Devil, as a Person being in Hell as a

Place, are infinitely absurd and ridiculous; the first we are certain

is not true in Fact, because he has a certain Liberty, (however

limited that is not to the Purpose) is daily visible, and to be trac'd

in his several Attacks upon Mankind, and has been so ever since his

first Appearance in Paradise; as to his corporal Visibility that is

not the present Question neither; 'tis enough that we can hunt him by

the Foot, that we can follow him as Hounds do a Fox upon a hot Scent: We

can see him as plainly by the Effect, by the Mischief he does, and more

by the Mischief he puts us upon doing, I say, as plainly, as if we saw

him by the Eye.



It is not to be doubted but the Devil can see us when and where we

cannot see him: and as he has a Personality, tho' it be spirituous, he

and his Angels too may be reasonably supposed to inhabit the World of

Spirits, and to have free Access from thence to the Regions of Life, and

to pass and repass in the Air, as really, tho' not perceptible to us,

as the Spirits of Men do after their release from the Body, pass to the

Place (wherever that is) which is appointed for them.



If the Devil was confin'd to a Place (Hell) as a Prison, he could

then have no Business here; and if we pretend to describe Hell, as not

a Prison, but that the Devil has Liberty to be there, or not be there as

he pleased, then he would certainly never be there, or Hell is not

such a Place as we are taught to understand it to be.



Indeed according to some, Hell should be a Place of Fire and Torment

to the Souls that are cast into it, but not to the Devils themselves;

who we make little more or less than keepers and Turnkeys to Hell, as a

Goal; that they are sent about to bring Souls thither, lock them in when

they come, and then away upon the Scent to fetch more: That one Sort of

Devils are made to live in the World among Men, and to be busy

continually debauching and deluding Mankind bringing them as it were to

the Gates of Hell; and then another Sort are Porters and Carriers to

fetch them in.



This is, in short, little more or less than the old Story of Pluto,

of Cerberus, and of Charon; only that our Tale is not half so well

told, nor the Parts of the Fable so well laid together.



In all these Notions of Hell and Devil, the Torments of the first,

and the Agency of the last Tormenting, we meet with not one Word of the

main and perhaps only Accent of Horror, which belongs to us to judge of

about Hell, I mean the Absence of Heaven; Expulsion, and Exclusion from

the Presence and Face of the chief Ultimate, the only eternal and

sufficient Good; and this loss sustain'd by a sordid Neglect of our

Concern in that excellent Part, in exchange for the most contemptible

and justly condemn'd Trifles, and all this eternal and irrecoverable:

These People tell us nothing of the eternal Reproaches of Conscience,

the Horror of Desperation, and the Anguish of a Mind hopeless of ever

seeing the Glory, which alone constitutes Heaven, and which makes all

other Places dreadful, and even Darkness it self.



And this brings me directly to the Point in Hand, (viz.) the State of

that Hell which we ought to have in view when we speak of the Devil as

in Hell: This is the very Hell, which is the Torment of the Devil;

in short, the Devil is in HELL, and HELL is in the Devil; he is

fill'd with this unquenchable Fire, he is expel'd the Place of Glory,

banish'd from the Regions of Light, Absence from the Life of all

Beatitude is his Curse, Despair is the reigning Passion in his Mind, and

all the little Constituent Parts of his Torment, such as Rage, Envy,

Malice, and Jealousy are consolidated in this, to make his Misery

compleat, (viz.) the Duration of it all, the Eternity of his

Condition; that he is without Hope, without Redemption, without

Recovery.



If any thing can inflame this Hell and make it hotter, 'tis this only,

and this does add an inexpressible Horror to the Devil himself;

namely, the seeing Man (the only Creature he hates) placed in a State

of Recovery, a glorious Establishment of Redemption form'd for him in

Heaven, and the Scheme of it perfected on Earth; by which this Man,

tho' even the Devil by his Art may have deluded him, and drawn him

into Crime, is yet in a State of Recovery, which the Devil is not; and

that it is not in his (Satan's) Power to prevent it: Now take the

Devil as he is in his own Nature Angelic, a bright immortal Seraph,

Heaven-born, and having tasted the eternal Beatitude, which these are

appointed to enjoy; the Loss of that State to himself, the Possession

of it granted to his Rival tho' wicked like and as himself; I say, take

the Devil as he is, having a quick Sense of his own Perdition, and a

stinging Sight of his Rival's Felicity, 'tis Hell enough, and more

than enough, even for an Angel to support; nothing we can conceive can

be worse.



As to any other Fire than this, such and so immaterially intense as to

Torment a Spirit, which is it self Fire also; I will not say it cannot

be, because to Infinite every Thing is possible, but I must say, I

cannot conceive rightly of it.



I will not enter here into the Wisdom or Reasonableness of representing

the Torments of Hell to be Fire, and that Fire to be a Commixture of

Flame and Sulphur; it has pleased God to let the Horror of those

eternal Agonies about a lost Heaven, be laid before us by those

Similitudes or Allegories, which are most moving to our Senses and to

our Understandings; nor will I dispute the Possibility; much less will I

doubt but that there is to be a Consummation of Misery to all the

Objects of Misery when the Devil's Kingdom in this World ending with

the World it self, that Liberty he has now may be farther abridg'd; when

he may be return'd to the same State he was in between the Time of his

Fall and the Creation of the World; with perhaps some additional

Vengeance on him, such as at present we cannot describe, for all that

Treason and those high Crimes and Misdemeanours which he has been guilty

of here, in his Conversation with Mankind.



As his Infelicity will be then consummated and compleated, so the

Infelicity of that Part of Mankind, who are condemn'd with him, may

receive a considerable Addition from those Words in their Sentence, to

be tormented with the Devil and his Angels; for as the Absence of the

Supreme Good is a compleat Hell, so the hated Company of the Deceiver,

who was the great Cause of his Ruine, must be a Subject of additional

Horror, and he will be always saying, as a Scots Gentleman, who died

of his Excesses, said to the famous Dr. P----, who came to see him on

his Death-bed, but had been too much his Companion in his Life,



O tu fundamenta jecisti------





I would not treat the very Subject it self with any Indecency, nor do I

think my Opinion of that Hell, which I say consists in the Absence of

him, in whom is Heaven, one Jot less Solemn than theirs who believe it

all Fire and Brimstone; but I must own, that to me nothing can be

more ridiculous than the Notions that we entertain and fill our Heads

with about Hell, and about the Devil's being there tormenting of

Souls, broiling them upon Gridirons, hanging them up upon Hooks,

carrying them upon their Backs, and the like, with the several Pictures

of Hell, represented by a great Mouth with horrible Teeth, gaping like

a Cave on the Sides of a Mountain; suppose that appropriated to Satan

in the Peak, which indeed is not much unlike it, with a Stream of Fire

coming out of it, as there is of Water, and smaller Devils going and

coming continually in and out, to fetch and carry Souls the Lord knows

whither, and for the Lord knows what.



These Things, however intended for Terror, are indeed so ridiculous,

that the Devil himself, to be sure, mocks at them, and a Man of Sense

can hardly refrain doing the like, only I avoid it, because I would not

give offence to weaker Heads.



However, I must not Compliment the Brains of other Men, at the Expence

of my own, or talk Nonsense because they can understand no other; I

think all these Notions and Representations of Hell and of the

Devil, to be as prophane as they are ridiculous, and I ought no more

to talk prophanely than merrily of them.



Let us learn to talk of these Things then, as we should do; and as we

really cannot describe them to our Reason and Understanding, why should

we describe them to our Senses; we had, I think, much better not

describe them at all, that is to say, not attempt it: The blessed

Apostle St. Paul was, as he said himself, carried up, or caught up

into the third Heaven, yet when he came down again, he could neither

tell what he heard or describe what he saw; all he could say of it was,

that what he heard was inutterable, and what he saw was

inconceivable.



It is the same thing as to the State of the Devil in those Regions

which he now possesses, and where he now more particularly inhabits; my

present Business then is not to enter into those grave Things so as to

make them ridiculous, as I think most People do that talk of them; but

as the Devil, let his Residence be where it will, has evidently free

Leave to come and go, not into this World only; (I mean, the Region of

our Atmosphere,) but for ought we know, to all the other inhabited

Worlds which God has made, where-ever they are, and by whatsoever Names

they are or may be known or distinguished; for if he is not confined in

one Place, we have no Reason to believe he is excluded from any Place,

Heaven only excepted, from whence he was expell'd for his Treason and

Rebellion.



His Liberty then being thus ascertain'd, three Things seem to be

material for us to give an Account of, in order to form this Part of

his History.



1. What his Business is on this Globe of Earth which we vulgarly

call the World, how he acts among us, what Affairs Mankind and he

have together, and how far his Conduct here relates to Us, and Ours

is, or may be influenc'd by him.



2. Where his Principal Residence is, and whether he has not a

particular Empire of his own, to which he retreats upon proper

Occasions; where he entertains his Friends when they come under his

particular Administration; and where, when he gets any Victory over

his Enemies, he carries his Prisoners of War.



3. What may probably be the great Business this black Emperor has

at present upon his Hands, either in this World or out of it, and

by what Agents he works.





As these Things may perhaps run promiscuously thro' the Course of this

whole Work, and frequently be touch'd at under other Branches of the

Devil's History, so I do not propose them as Heads of Chapters or

Particular Sections, for the Order of Discourse to be handled apart; for

(by the way) as Satan's Actings have not been the most regular Things in

the World, so in our Discourse about him, it must not be expected that

we can always tie our selves down to Order and Regularity, either as to

Time, or Place, or Persons; for Satan being hic & ubique, a loose

ungovern'd Fellow, we must be content to trace him where we can find

him.



It is true, in the foregoing Chapter, I shew'd you the DEVIL entred into

the Herd Ecclesiastick, and gave you some Account of the first

successful Step he took with Mankind since the Christian Epocha; how

having secretly managed both Temporal and Spiritual Power apart, and by

themselves, he now united them in Point of Management, and brought the

Church Usurpation and the Army's Usurpation together; the Pope to bless

the General in deposing and murthering his Master the Emperor; and the

General to recognise the Pope in dethroning his Master Christ Jesus.



From this time forward you are to allow the Devil a mystical Empire in

this World; not an Action of Moment done without him, not a Treason but

he has a Hand in it, not a Tyrant but he prompts him, not a Government

but he has a ---- in it; not a Fool but he tickles him, not a Knave but

he guides him; he has a Finger in every Fraud, a Key to every Cabinet,

from the Divan at Constantinople, to the Mississipi in France,

and to the South-Sea Cheats at ------; from the first Attack upon the

Christian World, in the Person of the Romish Antichrist, down to the

Bull Unigenitus; and from the Mixture of St. Peter and Confucius

in China, to the Holy Office in Spain; and down to the Emlins and

Dodwells of the current Age.



How he has managed, and does manage, and how in all Probability he will

manage till his Kingdom shall come to a Period, and how at last he will

probably be managed himself, Enquire within, and you shall know

farther.