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to his hearers, it is as much their fault as it is out
of his deſign.
It is ſaid alſo, and I am very apt to belive it,
that he was very familiar with that holy Father
Pope Silveſter II. and ſome charge him with per-
ſonating Pope Hildebrand on an extraordinary
occaſion, and himſelf ſitting in the chair apoſtolic,
in a full congregation; and you may hear the
more of this hereafter: but as I do not meet
with Pope Diabolus among the liſt, in all Fa-
ther Platina's lives of the Popes, ſo I am willing
to leave it as I find it.
But to ſpeak to the point, and a nice point
it is I acknowledge; namely, what religion the
Devil is of; my anſwer will indeed be general,
yet not all ambiguous; for I love to ſpeak poſi-
tively and with undoubted evidence.
1. He is a believer. I think none of my readers
will doubt but he has more religion that is to be
found in all the preſent French Convention, that
even ſome of our own countrymen ſhow them-
ſelves Devils enough to admire; for beſides ab-
juring God and all religion, they even refuſed the
reſpect that Satan thinks he has a right to, as
they have decreed, that all the people of France
ſhall believe death is eternal ſleep; thus putting
even the Devil out of the queſtion: but as he
wiſhes to be ſupreme in that reſpect, he ſoon
brought part of them to the guillotine, and the
reſt taking the hint, ſet up Paganiſm, and worſhip
even at preſent his infernal majeſty under the
title of the God of Reaſon, only inſtead of allow-
ing every ſeventh day to him, as they uſed to do
to God, they give him every tenth. Thus have
they and their Britiſh admirers far out deviled
Satan: for I can aſſure them their prototype the
Devil is no infidel.
