What Shape or Appearance the Devil took up to enter into a Conversation with Cain upon the Subject, that Authors do not take upon them to determine; but ’tis generally supposed he personated some of Cain’s Sons or Grandsons to begin the Discourse, who attack’d their Father, or perhaps Grandfather, upon this Occasion, in the following manner, or to that Purpose.
D. Sir, I perceive your Majesty (for the first Race were certainly all Monarchs as great as Kings, to their immediate Posterity) to be greatly disturb’d of late, your Countenance is chang’d, your noble Chearfulness (the Glories of your Face) are strangely sunk and gone, and you are not the Man you used to be; please your Majesty to communicate your Griefs to us your Children, you may be sure, that if it be possible, we would procure you Relief, and restore your Delights, the Loss of which, if thus you go on to subject yourself to too much Melancholy, will be very hurtful to you, and in the End destroy you.
Cain. It is very kind, my dear Children, to shew your Respect thus to your true Progenitor, and to offer your Assistance: I confess, as you say, my Mind is oppress’d and displeased; but tho’ ’tis very heavy, yet I know not which way to look for Relief, for the Distemper is above our Reach, no Cure can be found for it on Earth.
D. Do not say so, Sir; there can be no Disease sure on Earth but may be cur’d on Earth; if it be a mental Evil, we have heard that your great Ancestor, the first Father of us all, who lives still on the great western Plains towards the Sea, is the Oracle to which all his Children fly for Direction in such Cases as are out of the Reach of the ordinary understanding of Mankind; please you to give leave, we will take a Journey to him, and representing your Case to him, we will hear his Advice, and bring it to you with all Speed, for the Ease of your Mind.
Cain. I know not whether he can reach my Case or no.
D. Doubtless he may, and if not, the Labour of our Journey is nothing when plac’d in Competition with the Ease of your Mind; ’tis but a few Days travel lost, and you will not be the worse if we fail of the desired Success.
Cain. The offer is filial, and I accept your affectionate Concern for me, with a just Sense of an oblig’d Parent; go then, and my Blessing be upon you; but alas! why do I bless? can he bless whom God has not bless’d!
D. O! Sir, do not say so, has not God bless’d you? are you not the second Sovereign of the Earth? and does he not converse with you Face to Face? are not you the Oracle to all your growing Posterity, and next after his Sovereign Imperial Majesty Lord Adam, Patriarch of the World?
Cain. But has not God rejected me, and refused to converse any more with me, while he daily Favours and Countenances my younger Brother Abel, as if he resolv’d to set him up to rule over me?