other cases, brisking up to him as if she would fight him; Resist the Devil, says she, and he shall flee from us! come for me! added she, I'll venture that! for I am sure thou liest, Satan, thou hast nothing to do with me. The Devil called her whore, and told her she loved such a man, who was a married man, and therefore she had intentionally committed whoredom with him, and should be damned. (It seems the lady had loved that gentleman before he was otherwise engaged by marrying; but had never had any thought towards him, or the least acquaintance with him afterwards.) Thou showest thyself, says she, to be full of subtlety, a real devil, and even malice itself: it is true, I did love that gentleman, says she, and thou settedst him to work to persuade me that he loved me, and to court me with honourable pretensions, and so far gained upon me, that I really loved him; but Here he interrupted her, and told her, Such a time, says the Devil, you wished you were a-bed with him, and you are as guilty by wishing to sin, as if you had done it. Thou art the father of lies, Satan, says she, and the father of liars, and thou liest in this; nay, thou liest like a devil, that is maliciously, for thou knowest that it is not true. You will be damned, says he, and I will take you away this minute. Thou canst not take me away without God's permission, says she, and he will not give me into thy hands; therefore touch me at thy peril: and with that she fell down on her knees, and cried, Lord, preserve me from the evil spirit: with which the Devil left her, and walked off. These are apparitions that may be called apparitions of devils indeed, and by his works you may know him, for this is acting like himself: but where there is no guilt we need not be afraid of the Devil, in whatever shape or frightful figure he thinks to attack us in. This lady had never been able to reproach Satan with lying, if what he said had been true; but she knew herself innocent, and that put courage into her soul, that she indeed bullied the Devil, defied him, and bade him do his worst. It seems the Devil rummaged hard to find a crime out to charge this lady with, and came up to her very close; but he was put to his shifts for evidence; for even in collecting all the actions of her life, he could not find anything of real guilt to load her with. He attacked her after this in several shapes, and one time he told her she would be damned for a hypocrite; For, says he, for all your pretended sanctity you was in a violent passion at such a time, and you cursed your cousin ; naming her name to her. She answered, as before, boldly; And Satan, says she, though you are a devil, and cannot be ashamed, yet you are too cunning and too knowing to act like a fool; I was angry, but in no passion; and for my anger I had just cause; but thou wast the cause of the crime, and so of the anger too: (for she owned the Devil tempted her kinswoman to rob her;) so thou hast been the occasion both of her sin, and of my anger. But you cursed her, and wished the Devil (meaning me, says he) might take her. That's like thee again, Devil, says the lady; I was far from wishing thou shouldst take her, I am not so much thy friend to wish thou shouldst be gratified in any one's ruin. But I told her, indeed, if she did such things, thou wouldst take her away. But you lied in that, says he, for I won't hurt her. I am sorry, says she, thou art so much her friend. She is mine already, adds the Devil, I shall not do her any harm. Very well, Devil, says she; then I hope I am out of your list, or why else are you raging at me? Yes, yes, says he, you shall be mine quickly, as well as she. I defy thee, says she again, and I'll tell the poor girl what you say of her. I hope she will get out of your hands again. Then I'll break her neck that minute, says he. Well, but, says he, you played at cards on Sunday morning last. She was a little surprised at the charge, and stopped awhile; but recovering her courage, 'Tis strange, Devil, says she, thou canst bring nothing but lies against me; why, I have faults enough, that are real faults, and true, and that I could not deny. Why, I think Satan's turned fool, adds she, as if she jeered him. Why don't you fall upon me in those things I am guilty of, and not make lies for the sake of lying? I did play at cards a Saturday night, but not a Sunday morning. But, said he, you played at cards against your conscience too, when you believed it was a sin to play, and you will be damned for that. Why truly, Devil, says she, you go nearest the truth in this, of anything you have said; for after our minister's talking against play, one evening, he so far persuaded me that it was not lawful, that I did resolve to leave it off. But you broke your word, and played again; and did it, I tell you, against your conscience. I did not tie myself by any promise, but I did question a little, indeed, whether I should play any more or no. Yes, and did it against your conscience, I tell you, and you shall be damned for that. Here the lady could not refrain tears; but still she answered the Devil boldly, As thou art a liar, Satan, I hope I shall not, because thou sayest I shall. However, thou shalt never have it to upbraid me with again; for though I did never promise to man, I now promise it to the Devil, I will never play more. It's too late now, says he, and threatened her again. No, Satan, says she, never too late for any one to repent, but thee; and thou shalt never repent, or be forgiven. With this, says my story, the Devil left her. I have taken this, by abridgment, from a very large account of the several disputes this courageous lady had with the Devil for some years; which if I could assert the particulars so as to be sure of the truth of every part, and of my own knowledge too, I should make further use of here; but thus far they are to the present occasion, namely, 1. That where the Devil appears, he always does it like a devil, for some wicked purpose or other. 2. Where he cannot prevail and excite to do mischief, he assaults with rage, and threatens with suffering mischief. The good spirits or good angels are quite of another kind; and as they come, or are sent from other hands, so they come of other errands, and in another manner, as I shall give a more particular account of presently. But let us from hence inquire into an opinion which I have met with, and that of some men of learning and judgment, viz., that take the apparitions in general, whether of good or bad spirits, they never, or very rarely, do any harm. As for the good spirits, we know, as above, they will do none; and if the bad do not, it is because they cannot. : The good spirits, it is certain, will do no harm ; it is by their general appearing for good, that we determine them to be good spirits; and that kind of judgment is certainly very just but if the evil spirits, which do appear, do no harm neither, it is because they are under some extraordinary restraint of divine power; so that though they may come about in the air, they are not suffered to do any considerable mischief in the world. In both which cases all the occasion of our terror about them is taken away; for whether they are good spirits, or evil spirits restrained, it is much the same; one will do you no hurt, and the other cannot; and there remains no room then for the panic which is so much upon us when we hear of them. It is true that angels have sometimes been sent in judgment from heaven, and have executed God's terrible threatenings upon men in an apparent shape; as the angel, called the destroying angel, which David saw in the air, with his sword drawn and stretched over Jerusalem to destroy it, 1 Chron. xxi. 15. So the angel of the Lord that slew one hundred and eighty thousand of the Assyrians in one night; and it is not improbable that an host of angels or apparitions appeared in the Assyrian camp, and cut in pieces the Assyrian army, with a terror that they were not able to resist. These are extraordinary and miraculous cases; so likewise is that when the angel appeared to Balaam with a flaming sword, and told him that if the ass had not turned away from him, he, the angel, had slain him, Numb. xxii. 33. But we are not now speaking of angels sent out with especial commissions to execute God's vengeance, but of the |