VI.

melancholy Gloom, and fweetened the SER M. Temper; he, who had but a limited Power, finding all his further Efforts vain, fled away. And if even Creatures of our own Species can, by the mafterly Strokes of their Pen, affect the Imagination, and by wellwrought Scenes melt the Soul into Pity, and roufe it into Rage; how much more may we fuppofe it in the Power of Spirits, who know each Avenue to the Soul, to work upon the Fancy; to brighten it into Joy, or overcaft it with Melancholy; and to convey what Imagery they please.

The Devil can indeed tempt us, but we ought to thank God, that He can do no more than tempt us; that God, who will not fuffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the Temptation make a Way to efcape, is more able and willing to affift us, than that Evil Spirit can be to feduce us. The Will is an impregnable Fortrefs, which He never forms by Affault, however He may think to undermine it by Sap. He can do juft what wicked Men do, lay Temptations in our Way, but 'tis our own Fault if we comply with them. 'Tis ridiculous to deny, that he follicits us, alledging, that if He did, we fhould diftinctly perceive his Workings. For 'tis his Intereft to conceal himself. The Soul is fufceptible of gentle, filent Impreffions, as well as of violent Movements; and 'tis

VI.

SER M. his Finee and Dexterity to make us think we are following our own Inclinations, at the fame Time that we are pushed forward by his Sollicitations. If we had diftinct and evident Notices that he was operating upon us, we should start back with Horror.

What can be the Caufe of those involuntary Representations, those hideous Appearances, that are forced upon us in Sleep? They must either proceed from Matter, from mere Mechanism of the Body, or from fome Being that is not Matter. They cannot proceed from the former. For can mere Matter in Motion, an undefigning, unactive Cause, be productive of Action and Defign? Can mere Matter make us imagine we fee Objects, that are not before our Eyes, and hear Words that are not fpoken? Nay Words conveying certain diftinct Ideas, Reafon and Sentiment. Can undirected Matter put Questions to us, and return Anfwers? This muft proceed from fome Being that is not Matter, and therefore either from our own Soul, or fome other Intelligent Being. Not from the Soul; for here it is entirely paffive; it does not act, but is acted upon. It could not lay a Plot to terrify itself, and mistake what was it's own Workmanship for a Reality. It would not, if it could prevent it, impose upon itfelf; and then fuffer Mifery from a delu

five Scene. We groan under an imaginary S ERM. we fuppofe ourselves falling,

Burden;
from Precipices; — we grapple with, or
fly from an Enemy pursuing us with a
drawn Sword. It looks then, as if fome
fuperior Being were at Work, forming
Impreffions, and drawing frightful Pictures
upon the Fancy, when all the Inlets, by
which external Objects have Admittance,
are clofed up.

And if fuch Beings, who have fo great an Afcendant over the Imagination, were let loose upon us without Controul; how might they diftract the Soul, overfet it, and drive it to abfolute Frenzy and Despair; by exhibiting to it the moft ghaftly Appearances they could form? But, Thanks be to God, whofe over-ruling Hand curbs thefe Spirits, and restrains their Operations! So much Reason have we to pray to be delivered from the Crafts and Alfaults of the Devil. I would not be thought to lay any great Stress upon this Argument. All that I contend for is, that it is a much ftronger Proof for the Existence and Operation of Evil Spirits, than any that has hitherto been advanced against thefe Points.

But this leads me, in the Laft Place, to make fome Inferences, and fo conclude. We are converfant in the corporeal World from our Infancy. Senfible Objects make L 3

fuch

VI.

V I.

SER M. fuch early, repeated, ftrong Impreffions, that it is fometimes difficult to let in, upon a Mind already immerfed in Matter, one Thought concerning immaterial Beings, through an immoderate Fear of Superftition. For Men talk and write, as if that was the only Evil to be dreaded at prefent. We run into Sadducifm; and left we should fuppofe any Invisible Being immediately concerned, we affign visible Causes, which are plainly unequal to the Effects produced. In order to remedy this, the Scripture has in Part drawn afide the Veil, and let us into the World of Spirits; undoubtedly the most excellent and powerful, and perhaps the most numerous, Part of the Creation. What is my Soul amidst fuch a Multitude of Spirits? No more than a Drop amidst the vaft Collection and Affemblage of Waters. It discovers to us the Being and Offices of Evil Spirits to excite our Caution; and the Reality and Employment of good Angels, to animate our Courage, and to raise our Ambition; for we fhall be as the good Angels of God. And if every green Leaf fwarms with Inhabitants undiscoverable by the naked Eye; if by the Help of Glaffes the Philofophers have discovered new Kingdoms, new Worlds of Beings within the old World; if the leaft Quantity of Water is peopled by Myriads of invisible, fenfible Creatures; it is no Enthusiasm to think, that the Spiritual

World

V I.

World, however undifcover'd, may bear fome SER M. Proportion to the Senfible; and that when we are alone, we are fo far from being in a forlorn Wild of dead, unconfcious Matter, or furrounded only with Space, a lifelefs Void; that innumerable intellectual Beings may be hovering round us, Spectators of our Actions.

And when this Body, the material Curtain, that is drawn between Us and the invifible World of Spirits, is rent afunder; the Wicked may find a fudden Torrent of Light breaking in upon them; a Light more powerful, fharp, and piercing, than even those Pains, which diffolved the vital Union, and divorced the Soul from the Body. He may find himself under the Arrest and Cuftody of Evil Angels, to be thrust down into Places of Horror and Defpair; as, what we learn from the Parable of Lazarus, the Good are conveyed, by a Guard of Angels, to Places of Light and Blifs.

To enlarge our Conceptions let us fuppofe, that, in a fpacious Theatre where a thousand Lights are burning, one is inclofed in a little Cell of Earth, juft as our Spirit in the Body. While it is inclosed, it's Beams ftrike only on it's own narrow Prison, and it has no Communion with thofe without. But let this Cell be broken down, it has full Communion with all thofe thoufands, and joins it's focial Beams with theirs. L 4 Thus