As to his borrow'd shapes and his subtle transformings, that we have such open testimony of, that there is no room for any question about it; and when I come to that part, I shall be oblig'd rather to give a history of the fact, than enter into any dissertation upon the nature and reason of it.
I do not find in any author, whom we can call creditable, that even in those countries where the dominion of _Satan_ is more particularly establish'd, and where they may be said to worship him in a more particular manner, as _a Devil_; which some tell us the _Indians_ in _America_ did, who worship'd the _Devil_ that he might not hurt them; yet, _I say_, I do not find that even there the _Devil_ appear'd to them in any particular constant shape or personality peculiar to himself.
Scripture and History therefore, giving us no light into that part of the question, I conclude and lay it down, not as my opinion only, but as what all ages seem to concur in, that the _Devil_ has no particular body; that he is a spirit, and that tho' he may, _Proteus_ like, assume the appearance of either man or beast, yet it must be some borrow'd shape, some assum'd figure, _pro hac vice_, and that he has no visible body of his own.
I thought it needful to discuss this as a preliminary, and that the next discourse might go upon a certainty in this grand point; namely, that the Devil, however, he may for his particular occasions put himself into a great many shapes, and clothe himself, perhaps, with what appearances he pleases, yet that he is himself still a meer Spirit, that he retains the seraphic Nature, is not visible by our eyes, which are human and Organic, neither can he act with the ordinary Powers, or in the ordinary manner as bodies do; and therefore, when he has thought fit to descend to the meannesses of disturbing and frightning children and old women, by noises and knockings, dislocating the chairs and stools, breaking windows, and such like little ambulatory things, which would seem to be below the dignity of his character, and which in particular, is ordinarily performed by organic Powers; yet even then he has thought fit not to be seen, and rather to make the poor people believe he had a real shape and body, with hands to act, mouth to speak, _and the like_, than to give proof of it in common to the whole World, by shewing himself, and acting visibly and openly, as a body usually and ordinarily does.