Page:History of the devil, ancient and modern (1).pdf/10

10 safety and prudentials forbid our meddling with our own country we may be taken in by double intendre, and fall unpitied, for being only suspected of touching truths that are so tender, whether we are guilty or no. On these accounts, I must meddle the less with that part, at least for the present.

Be it that the Devil has had a share in some of the late councils of Europe, influencing them this way or that way, to his own advantage :—— What is it to us? For example, What if he had any concern in the affair of Thorn? or in the late councils held at Vienna, placing on the thrones of France and Spain, those whose profession is eternal hatred to the protestants?—— Or placing his Holiness the Pope and the Inquisition in full powers? What is it to us if he influenced Ferdinand of Spain to embroider a petty coat to the Virgin Mary?

It occurs next to inquire from the premises, Whether the Devil has more influence or less in the affairs of the world now than he had in former ages? and this will depend upon comparing, as we go along, his methods and way of working in past times, and the modern politics by which he acts in our days, with the different reception which he has met with among the men of such distant ages. But there is so much to enquire of about the Devil, before we can bring his story down to our modern times, that we must for the present let them drop, and look a little back to the remote parts of this history? drawing his picture, that people may know him when they met him, and see who and what he is, and what he has been doing ever since he got leave to act in the high station he now appears in.