The Black Devil, Part 6 – Part 9
Trauell. He walkes.
The Deuill is no idle spirit, but a walker; a vagrant, runnagate walker, like Caine, that cannot rest in a place. I hauehave heard of Trauellers, that hauehave seene many parts of the world; but neuer any perpetuall Peripateticke, or vniuersall walker, but Satan: who hath trauell'd all coasts & corners of the earth; and would of heauen too, if he might bee admitted. He is not like S. Georges statue, euer on horsebacke, and neuer riding: but as if he were Knight Martiall of the whole world, he is euer walking. His motion is circular, and his vnwearied steppes know no rest: he hath a large and endlesse circuite. His walke is a siege, that goes about the Fort, to finde the weakest place, and easiest for battery. Hee walketh about, as a roaring Lyon, seeking whom he may deuoure. 1. Pet. 5, 8.As in other things he is a Serpent; so especially in his walkes; for his whole course is serpentine. All his walkes are after, against, about man. His walkes are the Circumference, and Man the Center. The motiue cause, and maine intention of his iourney, is to win man.
A strange Pilgrime, that makes not an ende of his iourney, till there be an end of Time. He hath beene in heauen, in Paradise, in the earth, in the sea, and in hell, & yet hath not done walking. Some there are, that will go frō Rome to England, to make Proselytes: but the Deuill will go from one end of the world to the other, and walk from Pole to Pole, til he hath put a girdle about the loyns of the earth; to make a man the childe of hell, like himselfe. And in all his trauel, like fame, and a mutinous rebell, vires acquirit eundo, he still enlargeth his owne Dition. It was a true answere that the father of lyes made to Truth it selfe. Iob. 2. I come from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking vp and downe Iob. 2. 2.in it.
Hee walkes any way, to spill any man, by any meanes. Hee is at hand to Saul, he meets Iudas in Forsan crit. minimè quo credit gurgite p…s.the face, and he backes Peter. He walkes like an errant Post betweene the Adulterer and his Harlot: betweene the proud Gallant and his Parasite: betweene the ambitions & his Intelligencer: between the Vsurer and the Broker: betweene the Theefe and receiuer: betweene the greedy Aduocate and the contentious Client: betweene the sacrilegious Patron & the Simoniacal Priest: betwixt the Innes and the Hall: betwixt the Exchange and the warehouse.
Where can a man bestow himselfe, that the deuill cannot walke to him? Art thou in thy priuate Chamber? There can Satan finde thee; as hee did Eue in Paradise, Christ in the Desert. If in any place; he hath there most power and opportunity. Two are better then one. For if either fall, or bee preuailed Eccle. 4. 9.against, the other will lift vp, or rescue him. But Va soli. Woe to him that is alone: for if hee miscarry, there is none to helpe him. The melancholy man, that loues to be sequestred from society, and liues an Hermitical, solitary life, is most exposed to Satans assaultes. Company is good; especially if the companions be good: as being a meanes to hinder Satan from so violent working vponupon our affections. The Philosophers were wont to say: He that liued alone, was either a God, or a Deuil. Yet solitarinesse is not so euill, as euill company. It is better to bustle with one Deuill in a close chamber, then with many Deuils in a riotous Tauerne.
Art thou in the Court? Satan walkes thither too: and will fit Rehoboam with flatterers, Ahab with lyer, Ad multas …upa tendit oues. praedetur vt vnam.Pharaoh with Sorcerers, Belshazzer with cups, Solomon with Concubines. Art thou in the Market? He is ready with oathes, with cozenages. Nay; art thou in the Temple? Thither hee dares trauel too: and peruert the eyes with shewes, the eares with sounds, the thoughts with fancies, the senses with sleepe. Wheresoeuer, whensoeuer, howsoeuer thou art busied, he walkes to thee with his tēptations: and like a nimble, voluble shop-keeper interrupts with a what lacke you? He hath a ship ready for Ionas, a witch for Saul, a wedge for Achan, a rope for Iudas. A booty stands ready for the theefe, a pawne for the broker, a morgage for the merchant, a monopolie for the Courtier, an harlot for the adulterer.
As hee walkes through the streetes, there hee throwes a short measure, a false ballance into a Trades-mans shoppe. Hee steppes into a drinking house, and kindles a quarrell. Hee shoulders to the barre, and pops in a forged euidence, a counterfeit seale. He dares enter the schooles, and commence schismes and contentions: nay, climbe vp into the pulp it, and broach sects and diuisions. He trauels no ground, but like a stinking fogge, or a dying oppressor, he leaues an ill sent behind him. This is he that makes men serue God percunctorily, perfunctorily: to go slowly to it, to sit idlely at it.
Whither, where can we walke, and not behold Satans walkes: and see the prints of his feet as plain, as if his steps were set in snow, or like the Priestes of Bel, in ashes: that we may say, the deuill hath been here? He that shall trauell the lower Prouinces, and in some parts thereof see the Cities ruinated, habitations spoyled, forts battered, Temples demolished, fieldes vntilled: will say, Sure the enemy hath beene here. Hee that with obseruing and weeping eyes beholdes, not our Temples, but the piety in them dissolued; not our Citties, but the Citizens peruerted; not our houses, but their inhabitāts defaced with iniquity; not our fields, but our hearts lying vntilled: our Lawyers turn'd truth defrauders, our Citizens vsurers, our Landlords oppressors, our Gentlemen rioters, our Patrons Simonists; would surely say, this is Satans walke: the deuill hath beene here. Let this fasten on our soules 2. instructions.
1 To keepe out of Satans walkes. Though he visiteth all places, and his inquisition be stricter then the Spanish. (for that catches none but Protestants, the Papists scape) yet hee frequenteth some more then other. Perhaps he may finde thee in the Temple, as he tooke Iudas at the Communion: but carry a faithfull and vpright heart, and then though hee walkes thither to thee, he shall walke to hell without thee. When thou art for company, chuse the best: if they mourne, mourne with them: if they be merry, refuse not mirth with them; so it bee honest, ad societatem, not ad satietatem. VVhen thou art alone, reade, pray, meditate; that either God may talke to thee, or thou to God. So with Scipio, thou shalt be least alone, when most alone. The guard of Angels shall be about thee; and the fellowshippe of the Holy Ghost within thee: and let Satan wa…ke whither hee will, thou art (like Enoch) walking with God.Gen. 5. 24.
2 Since Satan is so walking and busie a spirit, let this teach vsus not to be idle. Indeed, be not too busie in other mens matters: nor too lazie in thine owne. Shall wee knowe, that the enemy walkes, waites, watches to destroy vsus; and shall wee not looke to our selues? Hee sowes tares in the fielde of our hearts, whilest we sleepe: let vsus awake, and plucke them vp, lest they choake the good seede of our graces. It is not allowed vsus to sit still: we must be walking. Eye to thy seeing, eare to thy hearing, hand to thy working, foote to thy walking. Vp, and 1. Kings 19, 7.eate, Elias, arise O Christian, thou hast sit too long, hauing so great a iourney to go. The Seruants in the Law were commaunded to eate the Passeouer Exod. 12, 11.with their shooes on: and Saint Paul chargeth the Sonnes in the Gospell (perhaps not without some Ephes. 6, 15.allusion to that) to stand with their feete shod vvith the preparation of the Gospel of peace. When a man is standing, it is saide, he will bee walking. Astronomers hauehave numbred the miles twixt earth & Heauen, as if they had climbed vp thither by Ladders, to be 900. thousand. But without doubt Christianity is a great iourney: & he that considers the way and distance betwixt mortalitie and immortality, corruption and glory, must needes conclude, it is high time to be walking. Vita breuis, ars longa. Life is short, and this skill not soone learnt. We cannot begin this iourny too early: we hauehave sitten too lōg; it is full time, we were trauelling…. Otherwise a walking Diuel shall condemne a slothful Man.
Tryal. Through dry places.
The discontented Deuill cast out of man, seekes about for a new lodging; and findes all places dry, he esteemes euerie place, but in Mans heart, …irkesome and vnpleasant, as a dry, barren, and heathy Wildernesse. Now, as when a man hath long liued in a fertile Valley, abounding: with delightful fruites, & necessary comforts; the grounds standing thicke with corne, & a pleasant riuer running along, to glad his heart with a welcome moysture: it cannot be other, then a diseasing, displeasing change, to be banished into a mountanous desert, wher the scorching Sunne burnes vp the grasse, and withers the fruite; or the vnhindred force of the wind finds a bleake obiect to worke vponupon; where the veines of bloud, the springs of water rise not, runne not, to madefie the earth, and cherish her plants. Such is Satans case and cause of perplexity. The wicked heart was his delighted Orchyard, where the fruites of disobedience, oaths, lyes, blasphemies, oppressions, coussenages, contentions; drunken, proud, couetous actions and habites made him fat. For as God hath his Vineyard, the Deuill hath his Orchyard. The fruites that God expects and delights to gather, are the good grapes of obedience. Satans desire is wicked and wretched effects. These he eyther found ready, or made ready in the heart of man. Whence displaced, sedibus, aedibus, he is mad for anger, and accounts all places dry.
He finds no rest in dry places. Perhaps the Deuill loues the low Countries, and wet ground. In a moderate, temperate, dry braine, he findes no footing: but in the soule of the swilling drunkard, as a foggy and fenny ground, hee obtaines some residence. Abstemious moderation, and temperate satisfaction of nature is too dry a place, for so hot a spirit as hell fire hath made him, to quench his malicious thirst: but in those that are filled with wine, & strong drinkes, suauiter, molliter acquiescit. VVhen the Son of God threw a Legion out of one poore man, Marke 5, 12.they beg earnestly to bee allowed entrance into the Swine. Of all creatures voyde of reason, it is obserued of those, that they will swill till they swel, drinke till they burst. If Circe's Cup (or if you wil, the Vintners, the Victuallers) hath transformed man into a drunken hogge, this is a moist place that Satan affects. If the head be well tippled, he gets in; and makes the eyes wanton, the tongue blasphemous, the hands ready to stabbe, the throate an open Sepulcher to deuoure.
I deny not, but Paul may meete his friend at the Market of Appium, and drinke with his friends Acts 18, 15.at the three Tauernes. Honest necessities must be releeued. And for this purpose were Tauernes first erected; for the necessary refection of trauellers & strangers. Neyther lawes diuine nor national condemne their vse, but their abuse. Yet Ecclus. 26. A victualler shall not be freed from sinne. You will say it is Apocryphall; and I feare, a man of that profession Ecclus. 26, 30is Apocryphall too; who will not sell riot for money; and winke at those, that fil their brains, to empty their purses. Wine is a good creature, to cheare mans heart: and Paul allowes it to Timothy for his stomackes sake. But those that drinke wine, not to helpe the stomacke, but to surfeit it; not for wholesome and medicinall respects, but with inebriatiue delight, or on some victorious intent, to ouerthrow the company: these are moyst places fit for Satan.
Trouble. Seeking rest.
But is he in any hope to find it? Doth he not carry his hell about him? Can hee get out of the curse and malediction of God? There is no rest to him passiuely, actiuely. 1. Passiuely; the vnappeased anger of Almighty God persecutes him, & denyes him rest. 2. Actiuely; he giues himselfe no rest in tempting and tormenting man. God persecutes him: he persecutes man. Thus through a voluntary and enforced motion, et volenter, et violenter, he seekes rest, but he finds none.
The Deuils malice to mankind is so great, that he cannot rest without their ruine. He begun with the first Parents, and will not end but with the end of the world; til he hath tempted, or at least attempted the last man, that euer their generations shall produce. Hereon it is noted, that the Angels sinning were neuer restored, because they offended without temptation, meerely of malice, being created pure and excellent spirits. But man fel from God, and was againe redeemed to God, because he was seduced of another. Quantò fragilior in natura, tantò facilior ad veniam. The weaker in nature, Albin.and so more apt to fall; the more easie to bee lifted vp againe. But the Deuill fell so fully, so fowly, being sole actor in his owne fault, sole author in his owne fall, that he is neuer to be restored: so neuer obtaines rest. Yet he imagines to himselfe a kind of rest, when he is quietly possessed of mans heart. As a malicious man acquiescit vindict is: so when the Deuill hath wrought mans woe, and brought him to hell, it is a rest vntounto him. But his rest is mans vnrest: his melody our malady. His blustring tempest is not laid, till he hath split the vessell our Body; and drowned the Passenger, our Soule.
His first and chiefe aime is to destroy the soule and to deface that more excellent part of man, that is nearer to the character and diuine impression of Gods image. If the soule be comming, he is sure the body will follow. 2. If hee cannot reach the spirit, then hauehave at the flesh. Let Ioseph looke for the stockes, Peter for the layle, Dauid for exile, Iob for botches. 3. If the restraining power of heauen interdicts him the body, then he sets vponupon the estate: like Iosephs mistrisse, that missing the person, catcheth the garment: or the sauage Beare, which preuented of the bloud and bones, falles a tearing the cloathes, that fell from them. The birds of the ayre, fishes of the sea, beasts of the earth shall pay for it. EueryEvery thing, which belongs to mans health and comfort, shall feele his tyranny. If Iobs person be forbidden the extent of his malice, yet hee will hauehave a fling at his Oxen, Asses, Sheepe, Camels. Iob 1. Mar. 5. 10. 12.VVhen that Legion must leaue the Possessed, they begge (not to be sent away out of the Country) but to be admitted into the Herde. The Inhabitants are freed, then woe to their swine. Rather hogges then nothing. He will play at small game, rather then sitte out. As that bloudy Tyrant banished from extending his cruelty to men, must be still a killing, though (it be) but wormes. He seeketh rest.
Euent or successe. But he findeth none.
So soone as euer this vncleane spirit is throwne out of man, that he begins to serue God, Satan rageth worse then euer: and till he can ouerthrow the beginnings of grace in vsus with a second peruersion, he findes no rest. VVe cannot so soone please God, but we displease the Deuill. Whiles Paul was a Pharise, no man in greater credite: but become a professor and Preacher of the Gospell, none more exposed to dangers and contumelies. If we (doe but) looke toward Ierusalem; as Christ, because his face was as though he would go to Ierusalem, might not be Luk 9, 53.receiued of the Samaritans: or if wee purpose to heauen, as Pau… to Thessalonica, Satan will offer to hinder 1. Thess. 2. 18. Luk…. 22. 31.our passe. The Deuil desires to winnow Peter, not Iudas. The more faithfull seruants of God we be, the more doth Satan bruise vsus with the flaile, or grate vsus with the fanne.
The theefe doth not breake into an empty cottage, but into some furnishd house, or full Granar; where the fatnesse of the booty is a fitnesse to his desires. This vncleane. spirit findes no rest in an Atheist, Vsurer, Drunkard, Swearer, &c. He knowes, a canker hath ouer-runne their consciences already: & that they are as sure, as temptation can make them. No Prince makes war with his owne tractable subiects.
Gloria pugnantes vincere maior erit.Ouid. Iudith. 11. 1.
Holofernes tels Iudith: Feare not in thine heart: for I neuer hurt any, that was willing to serue Nebuchadonozer the King of all the earth. So the deuill; I neuer vse to harme any, that are content to serue me, the King of all the world. VVhat neede he tempt them that tempt themselues? The fowler shoots at birds that be wild, not at Doues and yard-fowls, … plagas nullo …us agent… cadit. Act. 8. 3.tame, and in his owne keeping.
Many stood by the fire, Act. 28. yet the Viper leapes vponupon none of their hands, but Pauls. This viper of …ll labours to sting the best men: reprobates he hath poysoned enough already. The dog barkes at strangers, not at domesticall seruants, or daily-visitant friends. This madde Cerberus bites not those that hauehave giuen him a soppe, their affections and soules: but flyes at the throat of such only, as deny him the fealty of louelove and obedience, and abandon his regiment. Whiles the Israe ites were in Egypt and Pharaoh had some seruice of thē, he doth but oppresse them with burdens, and such slauish impositions: but when they are departed from his territories, & hauehave extricated themselues from his bondage, he comes after them with fire & sword: and nothing but their bloud and death can appease him. Sweare, swagger, couet, couzen, dissemble, defraud, giuegive the deuill homage and allegiance; and his tyranny will be content with the supportation of these burdens: but rebell, reuolt, renounce his soueraignty, and then nothing but fire and fury will flash from him: and, except in thy ruine, he finds no rest.
Thus much for the vncleane spirits vnroosting and vnresting; his relinquishing the Hold, and his demeanour after it; and therein generally for his Egresse. His Regresse is the next act of this Tragedy; his striuing for a re-entry in the Fort he hath lost. Which consists, 1. in his Inte…sien, what hee purposeth. 2. In the Inuention, what hee findeth. His Accesse and Successe is presented in these Scenes His Intention or proiect dwels vponupon, 1. a …esolution. 2. a Reuolution. 3. a Description of his Scare. 4. Affection to the same house, whence he came out.