He had drawn in the Bishops of Rome to set up the ridiculous Pageantry of the Key; and while he, the Devil, set open the Gates of Hell to them all, set them upon locking up the Gates of Heaven, and giving the Bishop the Key; a Cheat which, as gross as it was, the Devil so gilded over, or so blinded the Age to receive it, that like Gideon’s Ephod, all the Catholick World went a whoring after the Idol; and the Bishop of Rome sent more Fools to the Devil by it than ever he pretended to let into Heaven, though he open’d the Door as wide as his Key was able to do.
The Story of this Key being given to the Bishop of Rome by St. Peter, (who, by the way, never had it himself,) and of its being lost by Somebody or other, (the Devil it seems did not tell them who) and its being found again by a Lombard Soldier in the Army of King Antharis, who attempting to cut it with his Knife, was miraculously forced to direct the Wound to himself, and cut his own Throat; that King Antharis and his Nobles happened to see the Fellow do it, and were converted to Christianity by it, and that the King sent the Key, with another made like it, to Pope Pelagius, then Bishop of Rome, who thereupon assum’d the Power of opening and shutting Heaven’s Gates; and he afterwards setting a Price or Toll upon the Entrance, as we do here at passing a Turn-pike; these fine things, I say, were successfully managed for some Years before this I am now speaking of, and the Devil got a great deal of Ground by it too; but now he triumph’d openly, and having set up a Murtherer upon the temporal Throne, and a Church Emperor upon the Ecclesiastic Throne, and both of his own choosing, the Devil may be said to begin his new Kingdom from this Epocha, and call it the Restoration.
Since this time indeed the Devil’s Affairs went very merrily on, and the Clergy brought so many Gewgaws into their Worship, and such devilish Principles were mixt with that which we call’d the Christian Faith, that in a Word, from this Time the Bishop of Rome commenc’d Whore of Babylon, in all the most express Terms that could be imagin’d: Tyranny of the worst sort crept into the Pontificate, Errors of all sorts into the Profession, and they proceeded from one thing to another, till the very Popes, for so the Bishop of Rome was now called, by way of Distinction; I say, the Popes themselves, their spiritual Guides, profess’d openly to confederate with the Devil, and to carry on a personal and private Correspondence with him at the same time, taking upon them the Title of Christ’s Vicar, and the infallible Guide of the Consciences of Christians.
This we have sundry Instances of in some merry Popes, who, if Fame lies not, were Sorcerers, Magicians, had familiar Spirits, and immediate Conversation with the Devil, as well visibly as invisibly, and by this means became what we call Devils incarnate: Upon this account it is that I have left the Conversation that passes between Devils and Men to this Place, as well because I believe it differs much now in his modern State, from what it was in his ancient State, and therefore that which most concerns us belongs rather to this part of his History; as also because, as I am now writing to the present Age, I choose to bring the most significant Parts of his History, especially as they relate to our selves, into that Part of Time that we are most concern’d in.
The Devil had once, as I observ’d before, the universal Monarchy or Government of Mankind in himself, and I doubt not but in that flourishing State of his Affairs, he governed them like what he is (viz.) an absolute Tyrant; during this Theocracy of his, for Satan is call’d the God of this World, he did not familiarize himself to Mankind so much, as he finds Occasion to do now, there was not then so much need of it; he governed then with an absolute Sway; he had his Oracles, where he gave Audience to his Votaries like a Deity, and he had his Sub-Gods, who under his several Dispositions receiv’d the Homage of Mankind in their Names; such were all the Rabble of the Heathen Deities, from Jupiter the Supreme, to the Lares or Houshold Gods of every Family; these, I say, like Residents, received the Prostrations, but the Homage was all Satan’s; the Devil had the Substance of it all, which was the Idolatry.
During this Administration of Hell, there was less Witchcraft, less true literal Magick than there has been since; there was indeed no need of it, the Devil did not stoop to the Mechanism of his more modern Operations, but rul’d as a Deity, and receiv’d the Vows and the Bows of his Subjects in more State, and with more Solemnity; whereas since that, he is content to employ more Agents and take more Pains himself too; now he runs up and down Hackney in the World, more like a Drudge than a Prince, and much more than he did then.
Hence all those Things we call Apparitions and Visions of Ghosts, Familiar-Spirits and Dealings with the Devil, of which there is so great a Variety in the World at this Time, were not so much known among the People, in those first Ages of the Devil’s Kingdom; in a Word, the Devil seems to be put to his Shifts, and to fly to Art and Stratagem for the carrying on his Affairs, much more now than he did then.
One Reason for this may be, that he has been more discover’d and expos’d in these Ages, than he was before; then he could appear in the World in his own proper Shapes, and yet not be known; when the Sons of God appear’d at the divine Summons, Satan came along with them; but now he has plaid so many scurvy Tricks upon Men, and they know him so well, that he is oblig’d to play quite out of sight and act in disguise; Mankind will allow nothing of his doing, and hear nothing of his saying, in his own Name; and if you propose any Thing to be done, and it be but said the Devil is to help in the doing it, or if you say of any Man he deals with the Devil, or the Devil has a Hand in it, every Body flies him and shuns him, as the most frightful Thing in the World.
Nay, if any Thing strange and improbable be done or related to be done, we presently say the Devil was at the doing it: Thus the great Ditch at Newmarket Heath, is call’d the Devil’s Ditch; so the Devil built Crowland Abby, and the Whispering-Place in Gloucester Cathedral; nay, the Cave at Castleton, only because there’s no getting to the farther End of it, is call’d the Devil’s A—— and the like: The poor People of Wiltshire, when you ask them how the great Stones at Stonehenge were brought thither? they’ll all tell you the Devil brought them: If any Mischief extraordinary befalls us, we presently say the Devil was in it, and the Devil would have it so; in a Word, the Devil has got an ill Name among us, and so he is fain to act more in Tenebris, more incog. than he used to do, play out of sight himself, and work by the Sap, as the Engineers call it, and not openly and avowedly in his own Name and Person, as formerly, tho’ perhaps not with less Success than he did before; and this leads me to enquire more narrowly into the manner of the Devil’s Management of his Affairs since the Christian Religion began to spread in the World, which manifestly differs from his Conduct in more antient Times; in which if we discover some of the most consummate Fool’s Policy, the most profound simple Craft, and the most subtle shallow Management of Things that can by our weak Understandings be conceiv’d, we must only resolve it into this, that in short it is the Devil.