Page:The Political History of the Devil - Defoe (1726).djvu/25

 all possible alacrity, with the proposal ; so the Jesuits and he form'd a hotch-potch of religion made up of Popery and Paganism, and calculated to leave the latter rather worse than they found it, blending the faith of Christ and the philosophy or morals of Confucius together, and formally christening them by the name of religion; by which means the politick interest of the mission was preserved, and yet Satan lost not one inch of ground with the Chineses, no, not by the planting the Gospel it self, such as it was, among them.

Nor has it been much disadvantage to him that this plan or scheme of a new modell'd religion would not go down at Rome, and that the Inquisition damn'd it with Bell, Book and Candle; distance of place serv'd his new allies, the missionaries, in the stead of a protection from the Inquisition; and now and then a rich present well plac'd found them friends in the congregation it self; and where any Nuncio with his impudent zeal pretended to take such a long voyage to oppose them, Satan took care to get him sent back re infecta, or inspir'd the mission to move him off the premisses, by methods of their own (that is to say, being interpreted) to murther him.

Thus the mission has in it self been truly devilish, and the Devil has interested himself in the planting the christian religion in China.

The influence the Devil has in the Politicks of mankind, is another especial part of his history, and would require, if it were possible, a very exact description, but here we shall necessarily be obliged to inquire so nicely into the Arcana of circumstances, and unlock the cabinets of state in so many