either it is not the Devil that makes those Bargains, or the Devil has not such Power as we bestow on him, except on Special Occasions he gets a Permit, and is bid go, as in the Case of _Job_, the _Gadaren Hogs_, and the like. We have another Example of a Man's selling himself to the _Devil_, that is very remarkable, and that is in the Bible too, and even in that, I do not find, what the _Devil_ did for him, in Payment of the Purchase Price. The Person selling was _Ahab_, of whom the Text says expresly, _there was none like_ him, _who did sell himself to work Wickedness in the Sight of the_ LORD, 1 _Kings_ xxi. 20, and the 25. I think it might have been rendred, if not translated _in Spight of the Lord_, or _in Defiance of God_; for certainly that's the Meaning of it; and now allowing me to preach a little upon this Text, my Sermon shall be very short. _Ahab_ sold himself, who did he sell himself to? I answer that Question by a Question; who would buy him? who, _as we say_, would give any thing for him? and the Answer to that is plain also, you may judge of the Purchaser by the Work he was to do; he that buys a Slave in the Market, buys him to work for him, and to do such Business as he has for him to do: _Ahab_ was bought to work wickedness, and who would buy him for that but the _Devil_? I think there's no room to doubt but _Ahab_ sold himself to the Devil; the Text is plain that he sold himself, and the Work he was sold to do points out the Master that bought him; what Price he agreed with the _Devil_ for, that indeed the Text is silent in, so we may let it alone, nor is it much to our Purpose, unless it be to enquire whether the _Devil_ stood to his Bargain or not, and whether he paid the Money according to Agreement, or cheated him as he did the Farmer at _Hereford_. This buying and selling between the _Devil_ and us, is, I must confess, an odd kind of Stock-jobbing, and indeed the _Devil_ may be said to sell the _Bear-skin_, whatever he buys; but the strangest Part is when he comes to demand the transfer; for as I hinted before, whether he Performs or no, he expects his Bargain to a Tittle; there is indeed some Difficulty in resolving how and in what Manner Payment is made; the Stories we meet with in our Chimney-Corner Histories, and which are so many Ways made Use of to make the _Devil_ frightful to us and our Heirs for ever, are generally so foolish and ridiculous, as, if true or not true, they have nothing Material in them, are of no Signification, or else so impossible in their Nature, that they make no Impression upon any body above twelve Years old and under seventy; or else are so tragical that Antiquity has fabled them down to our Taste, that we might be able to hear them and repeat them with less Horror than is due to them. This Variety has taken off our Relish of the Thing in general, and made the Trade of Soul-selling, like our late more eminent Bubbles, be taken to be a Cheat and to have little in it.