by Daniel Defoe
needs be a greater Godthan their Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could nothear till they went up to the great mountains where he dwelt to speak tohim. I asked him if ever he went thither to speak to him? He said, No;they never went that were young men; none went thither but the old men,whom he called their Oowokakee; that is, as I made him explain it to me,their religious, or clergy; and that they went to say O (so he calledsaying prayers,) and then came back, and told them what Benamuckee said.By this I observed, that there is priestcraft even among the mostblinded, ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy of making a secretof religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the people to theclergy, is not only to be found in the Roman, but perhaps among allreligions in the world, even among the most brutish andbarbarous savages.
I endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man Friday; and told him,that the pretence of their old men going up to the mountains to say O totheir god Benamuckee was a cheat; and their bringing word from thencewhat he said was much more so; that if they met with any answer, orspake with any one there, it must be with an evil spirit: and then Ientered into a long discourse with him about the devil, the original ofhim, his rebellion against God, his enmity to man, the reason of it, hissetting himself up in the dark parts of the world to be worshippedinstead of God, and as God, and the many stratagems he made use of todelude mankind to their ruin; how he had a secret access to ourpassions and to our affections, and to adapt his snares to ourinclinations, so as to cause us even to be our own tempters, and runupon our destruction by our own choice.
I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind aboutthe devil, as it was about the being of a God: nature assisted all myarguments to evidence to him even the necessity of a great First Cause,and over-ruling, governing Power, a secret, directing Providence, and ofthe equity and justice of paying homage to him that made us, and thelike; but there appeared nothing of this kind in the notion of an evilspirit; of his original, his being, his nature, and, above all, of hisinclination to do evil, and to draw us in to do so too: and the poorcreature puzzled me once in such a manner, by a question merely naturaland innocent, that I scarce knew what to say to him. I had been talkinga great deal to him of the power of God, his omnipotence, his aversionto sin, his being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity; how, ashe had made us all, he could destroy us and all the world in a moment;and he listened with great seriousness to me all the while. After this,I had been telling him how the devil was God's enemy in the hearts ofmen, and used all his malice and skill to defeat the good designs ofProvidence, and to ruin the kingdom of Christ in the world, and thelike. "Well," says Friday, "but you say God is so strong, so great; ishe not much strong, much might as the devil?"--"Yes, yes," says I,"Friday, God is stronger than the devil: God is above the devil, andtherefore we pray to God to tread him down under our feet, and enable usto resist his temptations, and quench his fiery darts."--"But," says heagain, "if God much stronger, much might as the devil, why God no killthe devil, so make him no more do wicked?" I was strangely surprised atthis question; and, after all, though I was now an old man, yet I wasbut a young doctor, and ill qualified for a casuist, or a solver ofdifficulties; and, at first, I could not tell what to say; so Ipretended not to hear him, and asked him what he said; but he was tooearnest for an answer, to forget his question, so that he repeated it inthe very same broken words as above. By this time I had recovered myselfa little, and I said, "God will at last punish him severely; he isreserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into the bottomless pit, todwell with everlasting fire." This did not satisfy Friday; but hereturns upon me, repeating my words, "_Reserve at last_! me nounderstand: but why not kill the devil now; not kill great ago?"--"Youmay as well ask me," said I, "why God does not kill you and me, when wedo wicked things here that offend him: we are preserved to repent and bepardoned." He mused some time on this: "Well, well," says he, mightyaffectionately, "that well: so you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve,repent, God pardon all." Here I was run down again by him to the lastdegree; and it was a testimony to me, how the mere notions of nature,though they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God,and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as theconsequence of our nature, yet nothing but divine revelation can formthe knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of redemption purchased for us, of aMediator of the new covenant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool ofGod's throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form thesein the soul; and that, therefore, the gospel of our Lord and SaviourJesus Christ, I mean the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, promisedfor the guide and sanctifier of his people, are the absolutely necessaryinstructors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge of God, and themeans of salvation.
I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man, risingup hastily, as upon some sudden occasion of going out; then sending himfor something a good way off, I seriously prayed to God that he wouldenable me to instruct savingly this poor savage; assisting, by hisSpirit, the heart of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light ofthe knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to himself, and wouldguide me to speak so to him from the word of God, as his consciencemight be convinced, his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he cameagain to me, I entered into a long discourse with him upon the subjectof the redemption of man by the Saviour of the world, and of thedoctrine of the gospel preached from heaven, viz. of repentance towardsGod, and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus. I then explained to him aswell as I could; why our blessed Redeemer took not on him the nature ofangels, but the seed of Abraham; and how, for that reason, the fallenangels had no share in the redemption; that he came only to the lostsheep of the house of Israel, and the like.
I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods Itook for this poor creature's instruction, and must acknowledge, what Ibelieve all that act upon the same principle will find, that in layingthings open to him, I really informed and instructed myself in manythings that either I did not know, or had not fully considered before,but which occurred naturally to my mind upon searching into them, forthe information of this poor savage; and I had more affection in myinquiry after things upon this occasion than ever I felt before: sothat, whether this poor wild wretch was the better for me or no, I hadgreat reason to be thankful that ever he came to me; my grief satlighter upon me; my habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure:and when I reflected, that in this solitary life which I had beenconfined to, I had not only been moved to look up to heaven myself, andto seek to the hand that had brought me here, but was now to be made aninstrument, under Providence, to save the life, and, for aught I knew,the soul, of a poor savage, and bring him to the true knowledge ofreligion, and of the Christian doctrine, that he might know ChristJesus, in whom is life eternal; I say, when I reflected upon all thesethings, a secret joy ran through every part of my soul, and I frequentlyrejoiced that ever I was brought to this place, which I had so oftenthought the most dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly havebefallen me.
I continued in this thankful frame all the remainder of my time; and theconversation which employed the hours between Friday and me was such,as made the three years which we lived there together perfectly andcompletely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can he formedin a sublunary state. This savage was now a good Christian, a muchbetter than I; though I have reason to hope, and bless God for it, thatwe were equally penitent, and comforted, restored penitents. We had herethe word of God to read, and no farther off from his Spirit to instruct,than if we had been in England. I always applied myself, in reading theScriptures, to let him know, as well as I could, the meaning of what Iread; and he again, by his serious inquiries and questionings, made me,as I said before, a much better scholar in the Scripture-knowledge thanI should ever have been by my own mere private reading. Another thing Icannot refrain from observing here also, from experience in this retiredpart of my life, viz. how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it isthat the knowledge of God; and of the
doctrine of salvation by ChristJesus, is so plainly laid down in the word of God, so easy to bereceived and understood, that, as the bare reading the Scripture made mecapable of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on tothe great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of aSaviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice, andobedience to all God's commands, and this without any teacher orinstructor, I mean human; so the same plain instruction sufficientlyserved to the enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to besuch a Christian, as I have known few equal to him in my life.
As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention which havehappened in the world about religion, whether niceties in doctrines, orschemes of church-government, they were all perfectly useless to us,and, for aught I can yet
