said I, ’Friday, did you go thither to speak to him too?’ He answered, No, they never went that were young men, none but old men, called their Oowakakee, meaning the Indian priests, who went to say O, (so he called saying their prayers) and they returned back, and told them what Benamuckee said. From hence, I could not but observe how happy we Christians are, who have God’s immediate revelation for our certain guide; and that our faith is neither misled, nor our reason imposed upon, by any set of men, such as these Indian impostures.

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tempts Adam’s wife, Eve, to taste of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which God had forbidden.  He appears to her in the shape of a serpent, then a most beautiful creature, and tells her that it was no better than an imposition, which God had put upon her and her husband not to eat of that fair fruit which he had created; that the taste thereof would make them immortal like God himself; and consequently as great and powerful as he.  Upon which she not only eat thereof herself, but made her husband eat also, which brought them both under the heavenly displeasure.’

Here Friday expressed a great concern:  Ah, poor mans! cried he, naughty wonians! naughty devil! make God not love de mans, made mans like devil himself.

‘Friday,’ said I, ’God still loved mankind, and though the devil tempted human nature so far, he would not suffer him to have an absolute power over them.  I have told you before of his tender love to his people, till they, like Lucifer, disobeyed his commands and rebelled against him; and even then, how Jesus Christ, his only Son, came to save sinners.  But still every man that lives in the world is under temptation and trial.  The devil has yet a power, as prince of the air, to suggest evil cogitations in our minds, and prompt us on to wicked actions, that he might glory in our destruction.  Whatever evil thoughts we have, proceed from him; so that God in this our distress, expects we should apply ourselves to him by fervent prayer for speedy redress.  He is not like Benamuckee, to let none come near him but Oowakakee, but suffers the people as well as priests to offer themselves at his feet, thereby to be delivered from the power and temptation of the devil.

But though at first my man Friday expressed some concern at the wickedness of Lucifer, I found it not so easy to imprint the right notions of him in his mind, as it was about the divine essence of God; for there nature assisted me in all my arguments, to show him plainly the necessity of a great first cause, and over-ruling, governing power, of a secret directing Providence, and of the equity and reasonableness of paying adoration to our Creator:  whereas there appeared nothing of all this in the notion of an evil spirit, of his first beginning, his nature, and, above all, of his inclination to evil actions, and his power to tempt us to the like.  And indeed this unlearned Indian, by the mere force of nature, puzzled me with one particular question, more than ever I could have expected.