Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe With His Vision of the Angelick World

SERIOUS REFLECTIONS DURING THE LIFE...

the spirit embodied, for its good; unless you will call it Divine revelation, which I see no ground for.

All these reasonings make it abundantly our concern to regard these things, as what we are greatly concerned in; however, that is not the chief use I make of them here, but (1.) they abundantly explain the nature of the world of spirits, and the certainty of an existence after death; (2.) they confirm that the disposition of Providence concerning man, and the event of things, are not so much hidden from the inhabitants of that world as they are from us; as also (3.) that spirits unembodied see with a sight differing from us, and are capable of knowing what attends us, when we know nothing of it ourselves.

This offered many useful reflections to my mind, which, however, ‘tis impossible for me to communicate with the same vivacity, or to express with the same life, that the impressions they make on my own thoughts came with.

The knowledge of there being a world of spirits, may be many ways useful to us, and especially that of their seeing into futurity, so all to be able to communicate to us, by what means soever they do it, what we shall or shall not do, or what shall or shall not befall us; to communicate dangers before us so as they may be avoided, and mischiefs awaiting us, so as they may be prevented, and even death itself, so at we may prepare for it; for we may certainly, if we would attend to these things, increase our acquaintance with them, and that very much to our advantage.

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I would be far from prompting the crazy imaginations of hypochondriac distempered heads, which run men out to so many extravagancies, and which, in fixing their thoughts upon the real world of spirits, make this an imaginary world of spirits to them; who think they are talked to from the invisible world by the howling of every dog, or the screeching of every owl. I believe it was much of this vapourish dreaming fancy by which the augurs of the Romans determined events from the flying of birds, and the entrails of beasts.

It will be hard for me to be prevailed on to suppose that even those intelligent spirits which I speak of, who are able by such easy ways, as the impulses of our minds, dreams, and the like, to convey the knowledge of things to us, can be put to the necessity, or find reason to make use of the agency of dogs and birds, to convey their notices by; this would be to suppose them to be much more confined in their converse with us, than we evidently find they are; and, on the other hand, would suppose the inanimate world to have more knowledge of the invisible than we have, whereas, on the other hand, we know they have nothing at all to do with it.

There is only this to be said for it, namely, that those inanimate creatures do it involuntarily, and, as it were, under the power of a possession.

I will not affirm but that the invisible inhabitants I have been speaking of may have power to act upon the brute creatures, so as to employ them, or make use of their agency, in the warnings and notices which they give to us of things to come;

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but that the brutes have otherwise any farther sight of things than we have, I can see nothing at all of that. It is true Balaam’s ass saw the angel with the flaming sword standing in the road when the prophet did not, but the reason is plainly expressed; the angel was really there, and actually presenting terror to them with a flaming sword in his hand, only the prophet’s eyes were miraculously withheld that he could not see him.

I shall unriddle this mystery of the agency of beasts and birds as far as reason dictates; and it seems to be easy upon the scheme of the nearness of the spirits I am speaking of to us, and their concern to convey intelligence to us. They may, I say, have power to terrify the brutes by horrible apparitions to them, so as to force those howlings and screechings we have been told of, and to do this in such places, and at such times, as shall suit with the circumstances of the family or person concerned, and so far their said extraordinary howlings and acreechings may be significant; but that the brutes can either, by sense or by extraordinary sight, have any foreknowledge of things in futurity relating to us, or to themselves, this has no foundation in reason or philosophy, any more than it has in religion. Matter may act upon material objects, and so the understanding or sense of a brute may act upon visible objects, but matter cannot act upon immaterial things, and so the eye of a beast cannot see a spirit, or the mind of a brute act upon futurity, eternity, and the sublime things of a state to come.

What use, then, the spirits we speak of, inhabiting the invisible world, can make of the inanimate world to direct them,

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as missionaries to us, I do not see, neither did I in all my altitudes perceive they employed any such agents.

It is from the misunderstanding of these things that we place abundance of incidents, merely fortuitous, to the devil’s account, which he knows nothing of. Many a storm blows that is none of his raising; many a midnight noise happens that is none of his making. If Satan or his instruments had one tenth part of the power, either of the air, or in the air, or over the elements, that we give them in our imaginations, we should have our houses burnt every night, hurricanes raised in the air, floods made in the country, and, in a word, the world would not be habitable; but you remember I told you, as powerful as he is, he is chained, he has a great clog at his foot, and he can do nothing by violence, or without permission.

I might hint here at abundance of idle, ridiculous devils, that we are daily told of, that come and only make game among us, put out our candles, throw chairs and stools about the house, break glasses, make a smoke, a stink of brimstone, &c., whereas, after all, the devil has no more sulphur about him than other folks, and I can answer for it that Satan is not disposed for mirth; all the frolics and gambols we ascribe to him, I dare say, are antics of our own brain. I heard of a house in Essex which they told me was haunted, and that every night the devil or a spirit, call it which you will, came into such a room, and made a most terrible knocking, as if it had a hammer or a mallet, and this for two or three hours together. At length, upon looking about in an empty closet in that room, there was found an old mallet, and this was presently conclud-

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ed to be the mallet which the devil made such a noise with, so it was taken away; but the next night they said the devil made such a racket for want of the mallet, that they were much more disturbed than before, as they were obliged to leave the mallet there again, and every night the devil would come and knock in the window, for two or three hours together, with that mallet. I have seen the room and the mallet, in neither of which was anything extraordinary, but never heard the noise, though I sat up to wait for it, nor after causing the mallet to be taken away was there any noise; belike the mannerly spirit would not disturb us who were strangers.

This passed for a most eminent piece of walking or haunting, and all the difficulty was to inquire to what purpose all this disturbance was made, seeing there was no end answered in it, and I always thought the devil was too full of business to spend his time to no manner of purpose.

At last all the cheat was discovered, viz., that a monkey, kept in a house three or four houses from it, had found the way into that room, and came every night almost about midnight, and diverted himself with the frolic, and then went home again.

If these things were not frequently detected, it would be a great scandal upon the devil that he had nothing to employ himself in more significant than rapping all night with a hammer to fright and disturb the neighhours, making noises, putting out candles, and the like. When we come into the invisible state, of which we now know so little, we shall be easily

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convinced that the devil is otherwise employed, and has business of much more importance upon his hands.

It would be very insignificant to have us so frequently warned against Satan’s devices, to have us be cautioned to be sober and vigilant, knowing that our adversary, the devil, goes about like a roaring lion, seeking, &c. All these things import that he is diligent in attacking us, watching all advantages, hunting us down, circumventing, waiting, and constantly plying us with snares that he may trepan and devour us. This admits not any of those simple, ludicrous, and senseless digressions which we set him to work upon in our imaginations.

Perhaps it may be expected I should enter here upon the subject of apparitions, and discourse with equal certainty of that undecided question concerning the reality of apparitions, and whether departed souls can revisit the place of their former existence, take up shapes, bodies, and visible and apparent beings, assume voices, and concern themselves with the affairs of life, of families, persons, and even of estates, and the like, as many have affirmed they have been witnesses to.

I must be allowed to leave this where I find it. There are some difficulties which I am not yet got over in it, nor have I been elevated high enough to determine that point, and shall not venture to decide it without more certainty than I am yet arrived to.

I would warn all people not to suffer their imagination to form shapes and appearances where there are none; and I may

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take upon me to say that the devil himself does not appear half so often as some people think they see him: fancy governs many people, and a sick brain forms strange things to itself; but it does not follow from thence that nothing can appear because nothing does at that time.

However, as my design is to instruct, not amuse, so, I say, I forbear to enter upon a subject which I must leave as doubtful as I find it, and consequently talk of to no purpose.

I have heard of a man that would allow the reality of apparitions, but would have it be nothing but the devil; that the souls of men departed or good spirits never appeared. It happened that to this very man something appeared, as he said, and insisted upon it to the last. He said he saw the shape of an ancient man pass by him in the dusk of the evening, who, holding up his hand as it were in a threatening posture, said aloud, “O wicked creature! repent, repent.” He was exceedingly terrified, and consulted several people about it, who a11 advised him seriously to take the advice, for his life made it well known, it seems, that he stood in need of it; but being seriously debating about it, one of his friends asked what he thought of the apparition, and whether it was any of the devil’s business to bid him repent. This puzzled his thoughts, and, in a word, he grew a very sober man; but, after all, it was a real man, and no apparition, that spoke to him, though his frighted fancy made him affirm that he vanished out of his sight, which he did not; and the person who did it, being a grave and pious gentleman, met him by mere accident, without any design,

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and spoke as he did, from the knowledge he had of his being indeed a most wretched wicked fellow. By the way, the gentleman had the opportunity to hear the use that was made of it, and to hear himself mistaken for an apparition of the devil, but he was so prudent as not to discover it to the man, lest the reformation, which was the consequence of the fright, should wear off, when he should know that there was nothing in the thing but what was common.

If we would always make the like good use of Satan’s real appearances, I do not know but it would go a great way to banish him from the visible world; for I am well assured he would very seldom visit us, if he thought his coming would do us any good; at least, he would never come but when be was sent, he would never come willingly; for he is so absolutely at the Divine disposal, that if Heaven commands he must go, though it were to do the good he abhors. Not that I believe Heaven ever thinks fit to employ him in doing good; if ever he is let loose, ‘tis to act in judgment as an instrument of vengeance, and some are of opinion he is often employed as a destroying angel, though I do not grant that; I can hardly think the justice of God would gratify Satan’s gust of doing evil so far as to suffer him to be even so much as an executioner; but that it by the way.

I have another turn to give this part of my observations, which though, perhaps, some may not think so much to the purpose as entering into a critical inquiry after the devil’s particular mission in these cases, yet I think otherwise.

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I have observed that some desperate people make a very ill use of the general notion, that there are no apparitions, nor spirits at all; and really, the use they make of it is worse than the extreme of those who, as I said, make visions and devils of everything they see or hear. For these men persuade themselves there are no spirits at all, either in the visible or invisible world, and, carrying it on farther, they next annihilate the devil, and believe nothing about him, either of one kind or another.

This would not be of so much bad consequence if it was not always followed by a worse, namely, that when they have prevailed with themselves to believe there is no devil, the next thing is, and they soon come to it, that there is no God, and so atheism takes its rise in the same sink, with a carelessness about futurity.

I have no mind to enter upon an argument to prove the being of our Maker, and to illustrate His power by words, who has so many undeniable testimonies in the breasts of every rational being to prove His existence. But I have a mind to conclude this work with a short history of some atheists, which I met with many years ago, and whether the facts are testified or not, may be equally useful in the application, if you do not think them a little too religious for you.

Some years ago there was a young gentleman, a scholar at the university, eminent for learning and virtue, of prompt parts and great proficiency, insomuch that he was taken great notice of by the masters and fellows, and everyone promised

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fair in their thoughts for him, that he would be a great man. It happened, whether from his earnest desire of more knowledge, or the opinion of his own great capacity, I know not which, that this gentleman, falling upon the study of divinity, grew so opinionative, so very positive and dogmatic in his notions in religious things, that by degrees it came so this height, that his tutor saw plainly that he had little more than notions in all his religious pretences to knowledge, and concluded he would either grow enthusiastic or obstinately profane and atheistic.

He had three chums, or companions, in his studies, and they all fell into the same error, as well by the consequence of a great deal of wit and little grace, as by the example and leading of this other young gentleman, who was, indeed, their oracle almost in everything.

As his tutor, who was a very good man, feared for him, so it came to pass with him and all the rest; for they ran up their superficial notions in divinity to such a height that, instead of reasoning themselves into good principles of religion, they really reasoned themselves out of all religion whatsoever, running on to expunge every right idea from their minds; pretending those things really were not, of which they could not define both how and what they were, they proceeded to deny the existence of their Maker, the certainty of a future State, a resurrection, a judgment, a heaven, or a hell.

They were not contented to satisfy themselves with these impious foundations, but they set up to dispute in private so-

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