not so pleased with the hopes of being made a Goddess; That the pride of
a Seraphic Knowledge did not so much work upon her imagination to bring
her to consent, as a certain secret Notion infus'd into her head by the
same wicked instrument, that she should be wiser than _Adam_, and should
by the superiority of her understanding, necessarily have the government
over him; which, at present, she was sensible she had not, he being
master of a particular air of gravity and majesty, as well as of
strength, infinitely superior to her.
This is an ill-natur'd suggestion; but it must be confess'd the
impatient desire of government, which (since that) appears in the
general Behaviour of the sex, and particularly of governing husbands,
leaves too much room to legitimate the supposition.
The Expositors, who are of this opinion, add to it, that this being her
original crime, or the particular temptation to that crime; Heaven
thought fit to shew his justice, in making her more entire subjection to
her husband be a part of the Curse, that she might read her sin in the
punishment, (_viz._) _he shall rule over thee_.
I only give the general hint of these things as they appear recorded in
the annals of _Satan_'s first Tyranny, and at the beginning of his
government in the World; those that would be more particularly inform'd,
may enquire of him _and know farther_.
I cannot however, but observe here _with some regret_, how it appears by
the consequence, that the Devil was not mistaken when he made an early
judgment of Mrs. _Eve_; and how _Satan_ really went the right way to
work, to judge of her; 'tis certain the Devil had nothing to do but to
look in her face, and upon a near steady view he might easily see there,
an instrument for his Turn; nor has he fail'd to make her a Tool ever
since, by the very methods which he at first proposed; to which,
perhaps, he has made some additions in the corrupting her composition,
as well as her understanding; qualifying her to be a compleat snare to
the poor _weaker vessel_ MAN; to wheedle him with her _Syren_'s voice,
abuse him with her smiles, delude him with her crocodile tears, and
sometimes cock her crown at him, and terrify him with the thunder of her
TREBLE; making the effeminated _Male Apple-eater_ tremble at the noise
of that very Tongue, which at first commanded him to Sin. For it is yet
a debate which the Learned have not decided, whether she persuaded and
entreated him, or like a true she-tyrant, exercised her authority and
oblig'd him to eat the forbidden fruit.
And therefore a certain author, whose name, _for fear of the Sex's
resentment_ I conceal, brings her in, calling to _Adam_ at a great
distance, in an imperious haughty manner, beckoning to him with her
hand, thus; _Here_, says she, _you cowardly faint-hearted wretch, take
this branch of heavenly fruit, eat and be a stupid fool no longer; eat
and be wise; eat and be a God; and know, to your eternal shame, that
your wife has been made an enlightn'd Goddess before you_.
He tells you _Adam_ hung back a little at first, and trembl'd, _afraid
to trespass_: _What ails the_ SOT, says the new Termagant? _what are you
afraid of? did God forbid you! yes, and why? that we might not be
knowing and wise like himself! What reason can there be that we, who
have capacious souls, able to receive knowledge, should have it
withheld? take it, you Fool, and eat; don't you see how I am exalted in
soul by it, and am quite another Creature? Take it_, I say, _or, if you
don't, I'll go and cut down the Tree, and you shall never eat any of it
at all, and you shall be still a fool, and be governed by your wife for
ever_.
Thus, if this interpretation of the thing be just, she Scolded him into
it; Rated him, and brought him to it by the terror of her voice; a thing
that has retained a dreadful influence over him ever since; nor have the
greatest of _Adam_'s Successors, how light soever some husbands make of
it in this age, been ever able, since that, to conceal their terror, at
the very Sound; nay, if we may believe history, it prevailed even among
the Gods; not all the noise of _Vulcan_'s hammers could silence the
clamours of that outrageous whore his Goddess; nay, even _Jupiter_
himself led such a life with a termagant wife, that once, they say,
_Juno_ out-scolded the noise of all his Thunders, and was within an ace
of brawling him out of Heaven. But to return to the Devil.
With these views he resolv'd, it seems, to attack the woman; and if you
consider him as a Devil, and what he aim'd at, and consider the fair
prospect he had of success, I must confess, I do not see who can blame
him, or at least, how any thing less could be expected from him; But we
shall meet with it again by and by.
CHAP. V.
_Of the station Satan had in Heaven before he fell; the nature and
original of his crime, and some of Mr._ Milton_'s mistakes about
it._
Thus far I have gone upon general observation, in this great affair of
_Satan_ and his Empire in the World; I now come to _my Title_, and shall
enter upon the historical part, as the main work before me.
Besides what has been said Poetically, relating to the fall and
wandering condition of the _Devil_ and his Host, which poetical part I
offer only as an excursion, and desire it should be taken so; I shall
give you what I think is deduc'd from good originals on the part of
_Satan_'s story in a few words.
He was one of the created Angels, form'd by the same omnipotent hand and
glorious power, who created the Heavens and the Earth, and all that is
therein: This innumerable heavenly host, as we have reason to believe,
contain'd Angels of higher and lower stations, of greater and of lesser
degree, express'd in the Scripture by _Thrones_, _Dominions_, and
_Principalities_: This, I think, we have as much reason to believe, as
we have, that there are Stars in the Firmament (or starry Heavens) of
greater and of lesser magnitude.
What particular station among the immortal Choir of Angels, this
Arch-seraph, this Prince of _Devils_, call'd _Satan_, was plac'd in
before his expulsion, that indeed, we cannot come at the knowledge of,
at least, not with such an Authority as may be depended upon; but as
from Scripture authority, he is plac'd at the head of all the Apostate
armies, after he was fallen, we cannot think it in the least assuming to
say, that he might be supposed to be one of the principal Agents in the
_Rebellion_ which happen'd in Heaven, and consequently that he might be
one of the highest in dignity there, before that Rebellion.
The higher his station, the lower, and with the greater precipitation,
was his overthrow; and therefore, those words, tho' taken in another
sense, may very well be apply'd to him: _How art thou fallen_, O
Lucifer! _Son of the Morning!_
Having granted the dignity of his Person, and the high station in which
he was placed among the heavenly Host; it would come then necessarily to
inquire into the nature of his fall, and _above all_, a little into the
reason of it; certain it is, _he did fall_, was guilty of Rebellion and
Disobedience, the just effect of Pride; sins, which, in that holy place,
might well be call'd wonderful.
But what to me is more wonderful, and which, I think, will be very ill
accounted for, is, how came seeds of crime to rise in the Angelic
Nature? created in a state of perfect, unspotted holiness? how was it
first found in a place where no unclean thing can enter? how came
ambition, pride, or envy to generate there? could there be offence where
there was no crime? could untainted purity breed corruption? could that
nature contaminate and infect, which was always Drinking in principles
of perfection?
Happy 'tis to me, _that_ writing the History, _not_ solving the
Difficulties of _Satan_'s Affairs, is my province in this Work; that I
am to relate the Fact, not give reasons for it, or sign causes; if it
was otherwise, I should break off at this difficulty, for I acknowledge
I do not see thro' it; neither do I think that the great _Milton_, after
all his fine Images and lofty Excursions upon the Subject, has left it
one jot clearer than he found it: Some are of opinion, and among them
the great Dr. _B----s_, that crime broke in upon them at some interval,
when they omitted but one moment fixing their eyes and thoughts on the
glories of the divine face, to admire and adore, which is the full
employment of Angels; but even this, tho' it goes as high as imagination
can carry us, does not reach it, nor, to me, make it one jot more
comprehensible than it was before; all I can say to it here, is, that
_so it was_, the fact was upon Record, and the rejected Troop are in
being, whose circumstances confess the Guilt, and still groan under the
Punishment.
If you will bear with a poetic excursion upon the subject, not to solve
but to illustrate the difficulty; take it in a few lines, thus,
Thou sin of Witchcraft! firstborn child of Crime!
Produc'd before the bloom of Time;
Ambition's maiden Sin, in Heaven conceiv'd,
And who could have believ'd
Defilement could in purity begin,
And bright eternal Day be soil'd with Sin?
Tell us, sly penetrating Crime,
How cam'st thou there, thou fault sublime?
How didst thou pass the Adamantine Gate;
And into Spirit thy self insinuate?
From what dark state? from what deep place?
From what strange uncreated race?
Where was thy ancient habitation found
Before void Chaos heard the forming sound?
Wast thou a Substance, or an airy Ghost,
A Vapour flying in the fluid waste
Of unconcocted air?
And how at first didst thou come there?
Sure there was once a time when thou wert not,
By whom wast thou created? and for what?
Art thou a steam from some contagious damp exhal'd?
How should contagion be intail'd,
On bright seraphic Spirits, and in a place
Where all's supreme, and Glory fills the Space?
No noxious vapour there could rise,
For there no noxious matter lies;
Nothing that's evil could appear,
Sin never could Seraphic Glory bear;
The brightness of the eternal Face,
Which fills as well as constitutes the place,
Would be a fire too hot for crime to bear,
'Twould calcine Sin, or melt it into air.
How then did first defilement enter in?
Ambition, thou first vital seed of Sin!
Thou Life of Death, how cam'st thou there?
In what bright form didst thou appear?
In what Seraphic Orb didst thou arise?
Surely that place admits of no disguise,
Eternal Sight must know thee there,
And being known, thou soon must disappear.
But since the fatal Truth we know,
Without the matter whence or manner how:
Thou high superlative of Sin,
Tell us thy nature, where thou didst begin?
The first degree of thy increase,
Debauch'd the Regions of eternal Peace,
And fill'd the breasts of loyal Angels there
With the first Treason and infernal War.
Thou art the high extreme of pride,
And dost o'er lesser crimes preside;
Not for the mean attempt of Vice design'd,
But to embroil the World, and damn Mankind.
Transforming mischief, now hast thou procur'd
That loss that ne'er to be restor'd,
And made the bright Seraphic Morning-star
In horrid monstrous shapes appear?
_Satan_, that while he dwelt in glorious light,
Was always then as pure as he was bright,
That in effulgent rays of glory shone,
Excell'd by eternal Light, by him alone,
Distorted now, and stript of Innocence,
And banish'd with thee from the high Pre-eminence,
How has the splendid Seraph chang'd his face,
Transform'd by thee, and like thy monstrous race?
Ugly as is the crime, for which he fell, }
Fitted by thee to make a local Hell, }
For such must be the place where either of you dwell. }
Thus, as I told you, I only moralize upon the subject, but as to the
difficulty, I must leave it as I find it, unless, _as I hinted at
first_, I could prevail with Satan to set pen to paper, and write this
part of his own History: No question, but he could let us into the
secret; but to be plain, I doubt I shall tell so many plain truths of
the _Devil_, in this History, and discover so many of his secrets, which
it is not for his interest to have discover'd, that before I have done,
the _Devil_ and I may not be so good friends as you may suppose we are;
at least, not friends enough to obtain such a favour of him, tho' it be
for public good; so we must be content till we come ont' other side the
_Blue-Blanket_, and then we shall know the whole Story.
But now, tho' as I said, I will not attempt to solve the difficulty, I
may, I hope, venture to tell you, that there is not so much difficulty
in it, as at first sight appears: and especially not so much as some
people would make us believe; let us see how others are mistaken in it,
perhaps, that may help us a little in the enquiry; for to know _what it
is not_, is one help towards knowing _what it is_.
Mr. _Milton_ has indeed told us a great many merry things of the Devil,
in a most formal, solemn manner; till in short he has made a good PLAY
of _Heaven_ and _Hell_; and no doubt if he had liv'd in our times, he
might have had it acted with our _Pluto_ and _Proserpine_. He has made
fine Speeches both for _God_ and the _Devil_, and a little addition
might have turn'd it _a la modern_ into a _Harlequin Dieu & Diable_.
I confess I don't well know how far the dominion of Poetry extends
itself; it seems the Buts and Bounds of _Parnassus_ are not yet
ascertain'd; so that for ought I know, by vertue of their antient
privileges call'd _Licentia Poetarum_, there can be no _Blasphemy_ in
_Verse_; as some of our Divines say there can be no _Treason_ in the
_Pulpit_. But they that will venture to write that way, ought to be
better satisfy'd about that Point than I am.
Upon this foot Mr. _Milton_, to grace his Poem, and give room for his
Towring Fancy, has gone a length beyond all that ever went before him,
since _Ovid_ in his _Metamorphosis_. He has indeed complimented GOD
_Almighty_ with a flux of lofty words, and great sounds; and has made a
very fine Story of the _Devil_, but he has made a meer _je ne scay Quoi_
of _Jesus Christ_. In one line he has him riding on a _Cherub_, and in
another sitting on a Throne, both in the very same moment of action. In
another place he has brought him in making a Speech to his _Saints_,
when 'tis evident he had none there; for we all know _Man was not
created till a long while after_; and no body can be so dull as to say
the _Angels_ may be called _Saints_, without the greatest absurdity in
nature. Besides, he makes CHRIST himself distinguish them, as in two
several Bands, and of differing Persons and Species, as to be sure they
are.
Stand still in bright array, _ye Saints_------
---- ------ -------- -------- Here stand,
_Ye Angels_. ------
_Par. Lost. lib._ vi. _fo._ 174.
So that CHRIST here is brought in drawing up his Army before the last
Battle, and making a Speech to them, to tell them they shall only stand
by in warlike order, but that they shall have no occasion to fight, for
he alone will engage the Rebels. Then in embattling his Legions, he
places the Saints here, and the Angels there, as if one were the main
Battle of Infantry, and the other the Wings of Cavalry. But who are
those Saints? they are indeed all of _Milton_'s own making; 'tis certain
there were no Saints at all in _Heaven_ or _Earth_ at that time; GOD and
his _Angels_ fill'd up the place; and till some of the _Angels_ fell,
and Men were created, had liv'd, and were dead, there could have been no
_Saints_ there. Saint _Abel_ was certainly the _Proto-Saint_ of all that
ever were seen in _Heaven_, as well as the Proto-martyr of all that have
been upon _Earth_.
Just such another Mistake, not to call it a Blunder, he makes about
_Hell_; which he not only makes LOCAL, but gives it a being before the
Fall of the _Angels_; and brings it in opening its mouth to receive
them. This is so contrary to the nature of the thing, and so great an
absurdity, that no Poetic License can account for it; for tho' Poesie
may form Stories, as Idea and Fancy may furnish Materials, yet Poesy
must not break in upon Chronology, and make things which in time were to
exist, act before they existed.
Thus a Painter may make a fine piece of Work, the fancy may be good, the
strokes masterly, and the beauty of the Workmanship inimitably curious
and fine, and yet have some unpardonable improprieties which marr the
whole Work. So the famous Painter of _Toledo_ painted the story of the
three Wisemen of the _East_ coming to worship, and bring their presents
to our Lord upon his birth at _Bethlehem_, where he represents them as
three _Arabian_ or _Indian_ Kings; two of them are white, and one black;
But unhappily when he drew the latter part of them kneeling, which to be
sure was done after their faces; their legs being necessarily a little
intermix'd, he made three black feet for the _Negroe_ King, and but
three white feet for the two white Kings, and yet never discover'd the
mistake till the piece was presented to the King, and hung up in the
great Church. As this is an unpardonable error in Sculpture or Limning,
it must be much more so in Poetry, where the Images must have no
improprieties, much less inconsistencies.
In a word, Mr. _Milton_ has indeed made a fine Poem, but it is _the
Devil of a History_. I can easily allow Mr. _Milton_ to make Hills and
Dales, flowry Meadows and Plains (and the like) in Heaven; and places of
Retreat and Contemplation in _Hell_; tho' I must add, that it can be
allowed to no Poet on Earth but Mr. _Milton_. Nay, I will allow Mr.
_Milton_, if you please, to set the _Angels_ a dancing in _Heaven_,
_lib._ v. _fo._ 138. and the _Devils_ a singing in Hell, _lib._ i. _fo._
44. tho' they are in short, especially the last, most horrid
Absurdities. But I cannot allow him to make their Musick in _Hell_ to be
harmonious and charming as he does; such Images being incongruous, and
indeed shocking to Nature. Neither can I think we should allow things to
be plac'd out of time in Poetry, any more than in History; 'tis a
confusion of Images which is allow'd to be disallow'd by all the
Criticks of what tribe or species soever in the world, and is indeed
unpardonable. But we shall find so many more of these things in Mr.
_Milton_, that really taking notice of them all, would carry me quite
out of my way, I being at this time not writing the History of Mr.
_Milton_, but of the _Devil_: besides, Mr. _Milton_ is such a
celebrated Man, that who but he that can write the History of the
_Devil_ dare meddle with him?
But to come back to the business. As I had caution'd you against running
to Scripture for shelter in cases of difficulty, Scripture weighing very
little among the people I am directing my Speech to; so indeed Scripture
gives but very little light into any thing of the _Devil_'s Story before
his Fall, and but _to very little_ of it for some time after.
Nor has Mr. _Milton_ said one word to solve the main difficulty (_viz._)
How the _Devil_ came to fall, and how Sin came into Heaven; how the
spotless Seraphic Nature could receive infection, whence the contagion
proceeded, what noxious matter could emit corruption there, how and
whence any vapour to poison the Angelick Frame could rise up, or how it
increas'd and grew up to crime. But all this he passes over, and
hurrying up that part in two or three words, only tells us,
------ his Pride,
Had cast him out of Heaven with all his Host
Of rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
He trusted to have equal'd the most High.
_lib._ i. _fo._ 3.
_His pride!_ but how came _Satan_ while an Arch-angel to be proud? How
did it consist, that Pride and perfect Holiness should meet in the same
Person? Here we must bid Mr. _Milton_ good night; for, in plain terms,
he is in the dark about it, and so we are all; and the most that can be
said, is, that we know the fact is so, but nothing of the nature or
reason of it.
But to come to the History: The Angels fell, they sinn'd (wonderful!) in
Heaven, and God cast them out; what their sin was is not explicit, but
in general 'tis call'd a Rebellion against GOD; all sin must be so.
Mr. _Milton_ here takes upon him to give the History of it, as
particularly as if he had been born there, and came down hither on
purpose to give us an account of it; (I hope he is better inform'd by
this time;) but this he does in such a manner, as jostles with Religion,
and shocks our Faith in so many points necessary to be believ'd, that we
must forbear to give up to Mr. _Milton_, or must set aside part of the
sacred Text, in such a manner, as will assist some people to set it all
aside.
I mean by this, his invented Scheme of the Son's being declared in
Heaven to be begotten then, and then to be declar'd Generalissimo of all
the Armies of Heaven; and of the Father's Summoning all the Angels of
the heavenly Host to submit to him, and pay him homage. The words are
quoted already, page 32.
I must own the Invention, indeed, is very fine; the Images exceeding
magnificent, the Thought rich and bright, and, in some respect, truly
sublime: But the Authorities fail most wretchedly, and the miss-timing
of it, is unsufferably gross, as is noted in the Introduction to this
Work; for Christ is not declar'd the Son of God but on Earth; 'tis true,
'tis spoken from Heaven, but then 'tis spoken as perfected on Earth; if
it was at all to be assign'd to Heaven, it was from Eternity, and there,
indeed, his eternal Generation is allow'd; but to take upon us to say,
that _On a day, a certain day_, for so our Poet assumes, lib. v. fol.
137.
------ 'When on a day,
------ 'On such a day
'As Heaven's great Year brings forth, the empyreal Host
'Of Angels by imperial Summons call'd,
'Forthwith from all the ends of Heaven appear'd.
This is, indeed, too gross; at this meeting he makes God declare the Son
to be _that day begotten_, as before; had he made him not begotten that
day, but declared General that day, it would be reconcileable with
Scripture and with sense; for either the begetting is meant of ordaining
to an office, or else the eternal Generation falls to the ground; and if
it was to the office (Mediator) then Mr. _Milton_ is out in ascribing
another fix'd day to the Work; see lib. x. fo. 194. But then the
declaring him _that day_, is wrong chronology too, for Christ is
declar'd _the Son of God with power_, only _by the Resurrection of the
dead_, and this is both a Declaration in Heaven and in Earth. _Rom._ i.
4. And _Milton_ can have no authority to tell us, there was any
Declaration of it in Heaven before this, except it be that dull
authority call'd _poetic License_, which will not pass in so solemn an
affair as that.
But the thing was necessary to _Milton_, who wanted to assign some cause
or original of the _Devil_'s Rebellion; and so, _as I said above_, the
design is well laid, it only wants two Trifles call'd _Truth_ and
_History_; so I leave it to struggle for itself.
This Ground-plot being laid, he has a fair field for the _Devil_ to play
the Rebel in, for he immediately brings him in, not satisfy'd with the
Exaltation of the Son of God. The case must be thus; _Satan_ being an
eminent _Arch-angel_, and perhaps, the highest of all the Angelic Train,
hearing this Sovereign Declaration, that the _Son of God_ was declar'd
to be Head or Generalissimo of all the heavenly Host, took it ill to see
another put into the high station _over his head_, as the Soldiers call
it; he, perhaps, thinking himself the senior Officer, and disdaining to
submit to any but to his former immediate Sovereign; in short, he threw
up his Commission, and, in order not to be compel'd to obey, revolted
and broke out in open Rebellion.
All this part is a Decoration noble and great, nor is there any
objection to be made against the invention, because a deduction of
probable Events; but the Plot is wrong laid, as is observ'd above,
because contradicted by the Scripture account, according to which Christ
was declared in Heaven, not then, but from Eternity, and not declared
with power, but on Earth, (_viz._) in his victory over Sin and Death, by
the Resurrection from the dead: so that Mr. _Milton_ is not orthodox in
this part, but lays an avow'd foundation for the corrupt Doctrine of
_Arius_, which says, there was a time when Christ _was not_ the Son of
GOD.
But to leave Mr. _Milton_ to his flights, I agree with him in this part,
_viz._ that the wicked or sinning Angels, with the great Arch-angel at
the head of them, revolted from their obedience, even in Heaven it self;
that _Satan_ began the wicked defection, and being a Chief among the
heavenly Host, consequently carry'd over a great party with him, who all
together rebel'd against God; that upon this Rebellion they were
sentenc'd, by the righteous judgment of GOD, to be expel'd the holy
Habitation; this, besides the authority of Scripture, we have visible
testimonies of, from the Devils themselves; their influences and
operations among us every day, of which Mankind are witnesses; in all
the merry things they do in his name, and under his protection, in
almost every scene of life they pass thro', whether we talk of things
done openly or in Masquerade, things done in--or out of it, things done
in earnest or in jest.
But then, what comes of the long and bloody War that Mr. _Milton_ gives
such a full and particular account of, and the terrible Battles in
Heaven between _Michael_ with the royal Army of Angels on one hand, and
_Satan_ with his rebel Host on the other; in which he supposes the
numbers and strength to be pretty near equal? but at length brings in
the _Devil_'s Army, upon doubling their rage and bringing new engines of
war into the field, putting _Michael_ and all the faithful Army to the
worst; and, in a word, defeats them? For tho' they were not put to a
plain flight, in which case he must, at least, have given an account of
two or three thousand millions of Angels cut in pieces and wounded, yet
he allows them to give over the fight, and make a kind of retreat; so
making way for the compleat victory of the Son of GOD: Now this is all
invention, or at least, a borrow'd thought from the old Poets, and the
Fight of the _Giants_ against _Jupiter_, so nobly design'd by _Ovid_,
almost two thousand years ago; and there 'twas well enough; but whether
Poetic Fancy should be allow'd to fable upon _Heaven_, or no, and upon
the King of Heaven too, that I leave to the Sages.
By this expulsion of the _Devils_, it is allow'd by most Authors, they
are, _ipso facto_, stript of the Rectitude and Holiness of their Nature,
which was their Beauty and Perfection; and being ingulph'd in the abyss
of irrecoverable ruin, _'tis no matter where_, from that very time they
lost their Angelic beautiful Form, commenc'd ugly frightful Monsters and
_Devils_, and became evil doers, as well as evil Spirits; fill'd with a
horrid malignity and enmity against their Maker, and arm'd with a
hellish resolution to shew and exert it on all occasions; retaining
however their exalted spirituous Nature, and having a vast extensive
power of Action, all which they can exert in nothing else but doing
evil, for they are entirely divested of either Power or will to do good;
and even in doing evil, they are under restraints and limitations of a
superior Power, which it is their Torment, and, perhaps, a great part of
their Hell that they cannot break thro'.
CHAP. VI.
_What became of the_ Devil _and his Host of fallen Spirits after their
being expell'd from Heaven, and his wandring condition till the
Creation; with some more of Mr._ Milton's _absurdities on that
subject._
Having thus brought the _Devil_ and his innumerable Legions to the edge
of the Bottomless-pit, it remains, before I bring them to action, that
some enquiry should be made into the posture of their affairs
immediately after their precipitate Fall, and into the place of their
immediate Residence; for this will appear to be very necessary to
_Satan_'s History, and indeed, so as that without it, all the farther
account we have to give of him, will be inconsistent and imperfect.
And first, I take upon me to lay down some Fundamentals, which I believe
I shall be able to make out Historically, tho', perhaps, not so
Geographically as some have pretended to do.
1. That _Satan_ was not immediately, nor is yet lock'd down into
the Abyss of a _local Hell_, such as is supposed by some, and such
as he shall be at last; or that,
2. If he was, he has certain liberties allowed him for excursions
into the Regions of this Air, and certain spheres of action, in
which he can, and does move, to do, _like a very Devil as he is_,
all the mischief he can, and of which we see so many examples both
about us and in us; in the inquiry after which, I shall take
occasion to examine whether the Devil is not in most of us,
sometimes, if not in all of us one time or other.
3. That _Satan_ has no particular residence in this Globe or Earth
where we live; that he rambles about among us, and marches over and
over our whole country, he and his Devils in _Camps volant_; but
that he pitches his grand Army or chief Encampment in our
Adjacencies or Frontiers, which the Philosophers call _Atmosphere_;
and whence he is call'd the Prince of the Power of that Element or
part of the World we call _Air_; from whence he sends out his
Spies, his Agents and Emissaries, to get intelligence, and to carry
his Commissions to his trusty and well beloved Cousins and
Counsellors on Earth, by which his business is done, and his
affairs carried on in the World.
Here, again, I meet Mr. _Milton_ full in my face, who will have it, that
_the Devil_, immediately at his expulsion, roll'd down directly into a
Hell proper and local; nay, he measures the very distance, at least
gives the length of the journey by the time they were passing or
falling, which, he says, was _nine days_; a good Poetical flight, but
neither founded on Scripture or Philosophy; he might every jot as well
have brought _Hell_ up to the Walls of _Heaven_, advanc'd to receive
them, or he ought to have consider'd the space which is to be allow'd
to any locality, let him take what part of infinite distance between
_Heaven_ and a created Hell he pleases.
But let that be as Mr. _Milton_'s extraordinary genius pleases to place
it; the passage, it seems, is just _nine days_ betwixt Heaven and Hell;
well might _Dives_ then see father _Abraham_, and talk to him too; but
then the great Gulph which _Abraham_ tells him was fix'd between them,
does not seem to be so large, as according to Sir _Isaac Newton_, Dr.
_Halley_, Mr. _Whiston_, and the rest of our Men of Science, we take it
to be.
But suppose the passage to be nine Days, according to Mr. _Milton_, what
follow'd? why Hell gap'd wide, open'd its frightful mouth, and received
them all at once; millions and thousands of millions as they were, it
received them all at a gulp, _as we call it_, they had no difficulty to
go in, no, none at all.
_Facilis desensus averni, sed revocare gradum
Hoc opus hic labor est._---- Virg.
All this, as Poetical, we may receive, but not at all as Historical; for
then come difficulties insuperable in our way, some of which may be as
follow: (1.) Hell is here supposed to be a place; nay a place created
for the punishment of Angels and Men, and likewise created long before
those had fallen, or these had Being; this makes me say, Mr. _Milton_
was a good Poet, but a bad Historian: _Tophet_ was prepar'd of old,
indeed, but it was for the King, that is to say, it was prepar'd for
those whose lot it should be to come there; but this does not at all
suppose it was prepar'd before it was resolv'd whether there should be
subjects for it, or no; else we must suppose both Men and Angels were
made by the glorious and upright Maker of all things, on purpose for
destruction, which would be incongruous and absurd.
But there is worse yet to come; in the next place he adds, that _Hell_
having receiv'd them, clos'd upon them; that is to say, took them in,
clos'd or shut its Mouth; and in a word, they were lock'd in, as it was
said in another place, they were lock'd in, and the Key is carry'd up to
Heaven and kept there; for _we know_ the Angel came down from Heaven,
having the Key of the Bottomless-pit; but first, see Mr. _Milton_.
'Nine days they fell, confounded chaos roar'd
'And felt ten-fold confusion in their fall:
'----Hell at last
'Yawning receiv'd them all, and on them clos'd;
'Down from the verge of Heaven, eternal wrath
'Burnt after them----
'Unquenchable.
This Scheme is certainly deficient, if not absurd, and I think is more
so than any other he has laid; 'tis evident, neither _Satan_ or his Host
of _Devils_ are, _no not any of them_, yet, even now, confin'd in the
eternal Prison, where the Scripture says, he shall be _reserved in
chains of darkness_. They must have mean thoughts of _Hell_, as a
Prison, a _local_ Confinement, that can suppose the _Devil_ able to
break Goal, knock off his Fetters, and come abroad, if he had been once
lock'd in there, as Mr. _Milton_ says he was: Now we know that he is
abroad again, he presented himself before _God_, among his neighbours,
when _Job_'s case came to be discours'd of; and more than that, it's
plain he was a prisoner at large, by his answer to God's question, which
was, _whence comest thou?_ to which he answer'd, _from going to and fro
thro' the Earth_, &c. this, I say, is plain, and if it be as certain
that Hell closed upon them, I demand then, how got he out? and why was
there not a Proclamation for apprehending him, as there usually is,
after such Rogues as break prison?
In short, the true Account of the _Devil_'s Circumstances, since his
Fall from _Heaven_, is much more likely to be thus: That he is more of a
Vagrant than a Prisoner, that he is a Wanderer in the wild unbounded
Wast, where he and his Legions, like the Hoords of _Tartary_, who, in
the wild Countries of _Karakathay_, the Desarts of _Barkan_, _Kassan_,
and _Astracan_, live up and down where they find proper; so Satan and
his innumerable Legions rove about _hic & ubique_, pitching their Camps
(being Beasts of prey) where they find the most Spoil; watching over
this World, (and all the other Worlds for ought we know, and if there
are any such,) I say watching, and seeking who they may devour, _that
is_, who they may deceive and delude, and so destroy, for devour they
cannot.
_Satan_ being thus confin'd to a vagabond, wandring, unsettl'd
Condition, is without any certain Abode; For tho' he has, in consequence
of his Angelic Nature, a kind of Empire in the liquid Wast or _Air_;
yet, this is certainly part of his punishment, that he is continually
hovering over this inhabited Globe of Earth; swelling with the Rage of
Envy, at the Felicity of his Rival, Man; and studying all the means
possible to injure and ruin him; but extremely limited in Power, to his
unspeakable Mortification: This is his present State, without any fix'd
Abode, Place, or Space, allow'd him to rest the Sole of his Foot upon.
From his Expulsion, I take his first View of Horror to be that, of
looking back towards the Heaven which he had lost; there to see the
Chasm or Opening made up, out at which, as at a Breach in the Wall of
the holy Place, he was thrust Head-long by the Power which expel'd him;
I say, to see the Breach repair'd, the Mounds built up, the Walls
garison'd with millions of Angels, and arm'd with Thunders; and, above
all, made terrible by that Glory from whose Presence they were expel'd,
as is Poetically hinted at before.
Upon this sight, 'tis no wonder (if there was such a Place) that they
fled till the Darkness might cover them, and that they might be out of
the View of so hated a Sight.
Wherever they found it, you may be sure they pitch'd their first Camp,
and began, after many a sour Reflection upon what was pass'd, to
consider and think a little, upon what was to come.
If I had as much personal Acquaintance with the _Devil_, as would admit
it, and could depend upon the Truth of what Answer he would give me, the
first Question I would ask him, should be, what Measures they resolv'd
on at their first Assembly? and the next should be, how they were
employ'd in all that space of Time, between their so flying the Face of
their almighty Conqueror, and the Creation of Man? as for the Length of
the Time, which, according to the Learn'd, was twenty thousand Years,
and according to the more Learned, not half a Quarter so much, I would
not concern my Curiosity much about it; 'tis most certain, there was a
considerable time between, but of that immediately; first let me enquire
what they were doing all that time.
The Devil and his Host, being thus, I say, cast out of Heaven, and not
yet confin'd strictly to _Hell_, 'tis plain they must be _some where_.
Satan and all his Legions did not lose their Existence, no, nor the
Existence of _Devils_ neither; GOD was so far from annihilating him,
that he still preserv'd his Being; and this not Mr. _Milton_ only, but
GOD himself has made known to us, having left his History so far upon
record; several expressions in Scripture also make it evident, as
particularly the story of _Job_, mentioned before; the like in our
Saviour's time, and several others.
If Hell did not immediately ingulph them, as _Milton_ suggests, 'tis
certain, I say, that they fled Somewhere, from the anger of Heaven, from
the face of the Avenger; and his absence, and their own guilt, _wonder
not at it_, would make Hell enough for them wherever they went.
Nor need we fly to the Dreams of our _Astronomers_, who take a great
deal of pains to fill up the vast Spaces of the starry Heavens with
innumerable habitable Worlds; allowing as many _solar Systems_ as there
are fix'd Stars, and that not only in the known Constellations, but even
in _Gallaxie_ it self; who, to every such System allow a certain number
of Planets, and to every one of those Planets so many _Satellites_ or
_Moons_, and all these Planets and Moons to be Worlds; solid, dark,
opaque Bodies, habitable, and (as they would have us believe) inhabited
by the like Animals and rational Creatures as on this Earth; so that
they may, at this rate, find room enough for the _Devil_ and all his
Angels, without making a Hell on purpose; nay they may, for ought I
know, find a World for every _Devil_ in all the _Devil'_s _Host_, and so
every one may be a Monarch or _Master-Devil_, separately in his own
Sphere or World, and play the _Devil_ there by himself.
And even if this were so, it cannot be denied but that one _Devil_ in a
place would be enough for a whole systemary World, and be able, if not
restrained, to do mischief enough there too, and even to ruin and
overthrow the whole body of People contain'd in it.
But, I say, we need not fly to these shifts, or consult the Astronomers
in the decision of this point; for wherever _Satan_ and his defeated
Host went, at their expulsion from _Heaven_, we think we are certain,
none of all these Beautiful Worlds, or be they Worlds or no, I mean the
fix'd Stars, Planets, _&c._ had then any existence; for the Beginning,
as the Scripture calls it, was not yet Begun.
But to speak a little by the rules of Philosophy, that is to say, so as
to be understood by others, even when we speak of things we cannot fully
understand ourselves: Tho' in the Beginning of Time all this glorious
Creation was form'd, the Earth, the starry Heavens, and all the
Furniture thereof, and there was a Time when they were not; yet we
cannot say so of the Void, or that nameless _no-where_, as I call'd it
before, which now appears to be a _some-where_, in which these glorious
Bodies are plac'd. That immense Space which those take up, and which
they move in at this Time, must be supposed, before they had Being, to
be plac'd there: As God himself was, and existed before all Being, Time,
or Place, so the Heaven of Heavens, or the Place, where the Thrones and
Dominions of his Kingdom then existed, inconceivable and ineffable, had
an existence before the glorious Seraphs, the innumerable company of
Angels which attended about the Throne of God existed; these all had a
Being long before, as the Eternal Creator of them all had before them.
Into this void or abyss of Nothing, however unmeasurable, infinite, and
even to those Spirits, themselves Inconceivable, they certainly launch'd
from the bright Precipice which they fell from, and here they shifted as
well as they could.
Here expanding those Wings which Fear, and Horror at their Defeat
furnish'd them, as I hinted before, they hurried away to the utmost
Distance possible, from the Face of GOD their Conqueror, and then most
dreaded Enemy; formerly their Joy and Glory.
Be this utmost remov'd Distance _where it will_, Here, certainly,
_Satan_ and all his _Gang of Devils_, his numberless, tho' routed Armies
retired. Here _Milton_ might, with some good Ground, have form'd his
_Pandemonium_, and have brought them in, consulting what was next to be
done, and whether there was any room left to renew the War, or to carry
on the Rebellion; but had they been cast immediately into _Hell_, closed
up there, the Bottomless pit lock'd upon them, and the Key carried up to
_Heaven_ to be kept there, as Mr. _Milton_ himself in part confesses,
and the Scripture affirms; I say, had this been so, the _Devil_ himself
could not have been so ignorant as to think of any future Steps to be
taken, to retrieve his Affairs, and therefore a _Pandemonium_ or Divan
in Hell, to consult of it, was ridiculous.
All Mr. _Milton_'s Scheme of _Satan_'s future Conduct, and all the
Scripture Expressions about _the Devil_ and his numerous Attendants, and
of his actings since that time, make it not reasonable to suggest that
the _Devils_ were confin'd to their eternal Prison, at their Expulsion
out of _Heaven_; But that they were in a State of Liberty to act, tho'
limited in acting, of which I shall also speak in its place.
CHAP. VII.
_Of the Number of Satan's Host; how they came first to know of the new
created Worlds, now in being, and their Measures with Mankind upon
the Discovery._
Several things have been suggested to set us a calculating the number of
this frightful throng of _Devils_, who with Satan, the _Master-Devil_,
was thus cast out of _Heaven_; I cannot say, I am so much Master of
Political Arithmetick as to cast up the Number of the Beast, no, nor the
Number of the Beasts _or Devils_, who make up this Throng. St.
_Francis_, they tell us, or some other Saint, they do not say who, ask'd
the _Devil_ once, how strong he was? for St. _Francis_, you must know,
was very familiar with him; _The Devil_, it seems, did not tell him, but
presently raised a great Cloud of Dust, by the help, I suppose, of a
Gust of Wind, and bid that Saint count it; He was, I suppose, a
Calculator, that would be call'd grave, who dividing _Satan_'s Troops
into three Lines, cast up the Number of the _Devils_ of all sorts in
each Battalia, at ten hundred times a hundred thousand millions of the
first Line, fifty millions of times as many in the second Line, and
three hundred thousand times as many as both in the third Line.
The Impertinence of this account would hardly have given it a place
here, only to hint that it has always been the Opinion, that _Satan_'s
Name may well be call'd a Noun of Multitude, and that _the Devil_ and
his _Angels_ are certainly no inconsiderable Number: It was a smart
Repartee that a _Venetian_ Nobleman made to a Priest who rallied him
upon his refusing to give something to the Church, which the Priest
demanded for the delivering him from Purgatory; when the Priest asking
him, _if he knew what an innumerable Number of_ Devils _there were to
take him_? he answer'd, _yes, he knew how many_ Devils _there were in
all_: _How many?_ says the Priest, his curiosity, I suppose, being
rais'd by the novelty of the answer. _Why ten millions five hundred and
eleven thousand, six hundred and seventy five Devils and a half_, says
the Nobleman: _A half!_ says the Priest, _pray what kind of a Devil is
that? your self_, says the Nobleman, _for you are half a Devil already
(and will be a whole one when you come there) for you are for deluding
all you deal with, and bringing us Soul and Body into your Hands, that
you may be paid for letting us go again_. So much for their Number.
Here also it would come in very aptly, to consider the state of that
long interval between the Time of their Expulsion from _Heaven_, and the
Creation of the World; and what the Posture of the Devil's Affairs might
be, during that Time. The horror of their Condition can only be
conceiv'd of at a Distance, and especially by us, who being embodied
Creatures, cannot fully judge of what is, or is not a Punishment to
_Seraphs_ and _Spirits_; But 'tis just to suppose they suffer'd all that
Spirits of a Seraphic Nature were capable to sustain, consistent with
their Existence; notwithstanding which they retain'd still the
_Hellishness_ of their rebellious Principles; namely, their Hatred and
Rage against God, and their Envy at the Felicity of his Creatures.
As to how long their time might be, I shall leave that Search; no lights
being given me that are either probable or rational, and we have so
little room to make a Judgment of it, that we may as well believe Father
_M----_, who supposes it to be a hundred thousand Years, as those who
judge it one thousand Years; 'tis enough that we are sure, it was before
the Creation, how long before is not material to _the Devil's History_,
unless we had some Records of what happen'd to him, or was done by him
in the Interval.
During the wandring Condition the Devil was in at that Time, we may
suppose, he and his whole Clan to be employ'd in exerting their Hatred
and Rage at the Almighty, and at the Happiness of the remaining faithful
Angels, by all the ways they had power to shew it.
From this determin'd stated Enmity of _Satan_ and his Host against
_God_, and at every thing that brought Glory to his Name, Mr. _Milton_
brings in _Satan_, (when first he saw _Adam_ in _Paradise_, and the
Felicity of his Station there) swelling with Rage and Envy, and taking
up a dreadful Resolution to ruin _Adam_ and all his Posterity, meerly to
disappoint his Maker of the Glory of his Creation; I shall come to speak
of that in its Place.
How _Satan_, in his remote Situation, got Intelligence of the Place
where to find _Adam_ out, or that any such thing as a Man was created,
is Matter of just Speculation, and there might be many rational Schemes
laid for it: Mr. _Milton_ does not undertake to tell us the Particulars,
nor indeed could he find room for it; perhaps, the _Devil_ having, _as I
have said_, a Liberty to range over the whole Void or Abyss, which we
want as well a Name for, as indeed Powers to conceive of; might have
discovered that the Almighty Creator had form'd a new and glorious Work,
with infinite Beauty and Variety, filling up the immense Wast of Space,
in which he, (the _Devil_) and his _Angels_, had rov'd for so long a
time, without finding any thing to work on, or to exert their Apostate
Rage in against their Maker.
That at length they found the infinite untrodden Space, on a sudden
spread full with glorious Bodies, shining in self-existing Beauty, with
a new, and to them unknown Lustre, call'd Light: They found these
luminous Bodies, tho' immense in Bulk, and infinite in Number, yet fixt
in their wondrous Stations, regular and exact in their Motions, confin'd
in their proper Orbits, tending to their particular Centers, and
enjoying every one their peculiar Systems, within which was contain'd
innumerable Planets with their Satellites or Moons, in which (_again_) a
reciprocal Influence, Motion and Revolution conspired to Form the most
admirable Uniformity of the whole.
Surprized, to be sure, with this sudden and yet glorious Work of the
Almighty; for the Creation was enough, with its Lustre, even to surprize
_the Devils_; they might reasonably be supposed to start out of their
dark Retreat, and with a Curiosity not below the Seraphic Dignity; for
_these are_ some of _the things which the Angels desire to look into_,
to take a flight thro' all the amazing Systems of the fix'd Suns or
Stars, which we see now but at a Distance, and only make Astronomical
Guesses at.
Here the Devil found not subject of Wonder only, but matter to swell his
revolted Spirit with more Rage, and to revive the Malignity of his Mind
against his Maker, and especially against this new encrease of Glory,
which to his infinite Regret was extended over the whole Wast, and which
he look'd upon, as we say in human Affairs, as a _Pays conquis_, or, if
you will have it in the Language of the _Devil_, as an invasion upon his
Kingdom.
Here it naturally occur'd to them, in their State of Envy and Rebellion,
that tho' they could not assault the impregnable Walls of Heaven, and
could no more pretend to raise War in the Place of Blessedness and
Peace; yet that perhaps they might find Room in this new, and however
glorious, yet inferior Kingdom or Creation, to work some despite to
their great Creator, or to affront his Majesty in the Person of some of
his new made Creatures; and upon this they may be justly supposed to
double their Vigilance, in the survey they resolve to take of these new
Worlds, however great, numberless and wonderful.
What Discoveries they may have made in the other and greater Worlds,
than this Earth, we have not yet had an account; possibly they are
conversant with other Parts of God's Creation, besides this little
little Globe, which is but as a Point in comparison of the Rest; and
with other of God's Creatures besides Man, who may, according to the
Opinion of our Philosophers, inhabit those Worlds; but as no body knows
that Part but the _Devil_, we shall not trouble our selves with the
Enquiry.
But 'tis very reasonable, and indeed probable, that _the Devils_ were
more than ordinarily surpriz'd at the Nature and Reason of all this
glorious Creation, after they had, with the utmost Curiosity, view'd all
the parts of it; The Glories of the several Systems; the immense spaces
in which those glorious Bodies that were created and made part of it,
were allow'd respectively to move; the innumerable fix'd Stars, as so
many Suns in the Center of so many distant _Solar Systems_; the
(likewise innumerable) dark opaque Bodies receiving light, and depending
upon those Suns respectively for such light, and then reflecting that
light again upon and for the Use of one another; To see the Beauty and
Splendor of their Forms, the Regularity of their Position, the Order and
Exactness, and yet inconceivable Velocity of their Motions, the
certainty of their Revolutions, and the Variety and Virtue of their
Influences; and then, which was even to the Devils themselves most
astonishing, That after all the rest of their Observations they should
find this whole immense Work was adapted for, and made subservient to
the Use, Delight and Blessing only of one poor Species, in itself small,
and in Appearance contemptible; the meanest of all the Kinds supposed to
inhabit so many glorious Worlds, as appeared now to be form'd; I mean,
that Moon call'd the Earth, and the Creature call'd Man; that all was
made for him, upheld by the wise Creator, on his account only, and would
necessarily end and cease whenever that Species should end and be
determin'd.
That this Creature was to be found no where but (as above) in one little
individual _Moon_; a Spot less than almost any of the Moons, which were
in such great Numbers to be found attendant upon, and prescrib'd with in
every System of the whole created Heavens; This was astonishing even to
the _Devil_ himself, nay the whole Clan of _Devils_ could scarce
entertain any just Ideas of the thing; Till at last _Satan_,
indefatigable in his Search or Enquiry into the Nature and Reason of
this new Work, and particularly searching into the Species of Man, whom
he found God had thus plac'd in the little Globe, call'd _Earth_; he
soon came to an _Eclairicissement_, or a clear Understanding of the
whole. _For Example_,
_First_, He found this Creature, call'd Man, was however mean and
small in his Appearance, a kind of a Seraphic Species; that he was
made in the very Image of God, endowed with reasonable Faculties to
know Good and Evil, and possess'd of a certain thing till then
unknown and unheard of even in Hell it self; that is, in the
Habitation of Devils, let that be where it would, (_viz._)
2. That GOD had made him indeed of the lowest and coarsest
Materials, but that he had breath'd into him the Breath of Life,
and that he became a living thing call'd SOUL, being a kind of an
extraordinary heavenly and divine Emanation; and consequently that
Man, however mean and Terrestrial his Body might be, was yet,
Heaven-born, in his spirituous Part compleatly Seraphic; and after
a Space of Life here, (determin'd to be a state of probation) he
should be translated thro' the Regions of Death into a Life purely
and truly Heavenly, and which should remain so for ever; being
capable of knowing and enjoying God his Maker, and standing in his
Presence, as the glorified Angels do.
3. That he had the most sublime Faculties infused into him; was
capable not only of knowing and contemplating God, and which was
still more, of enjoying him, as above; but (which the _Devil_ now
was not) capable of honouring and glorifying his Maker; who also
had condescended to accept of Honour from him.
4. And which was still more, that being of an Angelic Nature, tho'
mix'd with, and confined for the present in a Case of mortal Flesh;
he was intended to be remov'd from this Earth after a certain time
of Life here, to inhabit that Heaven, and enjoy that very Glory and
Felicity, from which Satan and his Angels had been expell'd.
When he found all this, it presently occur'd to him, that God had done
it all as an act of Triumph over him (Satan,) and that these Creatures
were only created to people Heaven, depopulated or stript of its
inhabitants by his Expulsion, and that these were all to be made
_Angels_ in the _Devil_'s stead.
If this thought encreas'd his Fury and Envy, as far as _Rage of Devils_
can be capable of being made greater; it doubtless set him on work to
give a Vent to that Rage and Envy, by searching into the Nature and
Constitution of this Creature, call'd _Man_; and to find out whether he
was invulnerable, and could by no means be hurt by the Power of Hell, or
deluded by his Subtilty; or whether he might be beguil'd and deluded,
and so, instead of being preserv'd in Holiness and Purity, wherein he
was certainly created, be brought to fall and rebell as he (_Satan_) had
done before him; by which, instead of being transplanted into a glorious
State, after this Life in Heaven, as his Maker had design'd him to be,
to fill up the Angelic Choir, and supply the Place from whence he
(_Satan_) had fallen, he might be made to fall also like him, and in a
Word, be made a _Devil_ like himself.
This convinces us that the _Devil_ has not lost his natural Powers by
his Fall; and our learned Commentator Mr. _Pool_ is of the same Opinion;
tho' he grants that the _Devil_ has lost his moral Power, or his Power
of doing Good, which he can never recover. _Vide_ Mr. _Pool_ upon _Acts_
xix. 17. where we may particularly observe, when the Man possess'd with
an evil Spirit flew upon the seven Sons of _Scaeva_ the _Jew_, who would
have Exorcis'd them in the Name of _Jesus_, without the Authority of
_Jesus_, or without Faith in him; He flew on them and master'd them, so
that they fled out of the House from the Devil conquered, naked and
wounded: But of this Power of the Devil I shall speak by it self.
In a Word, and to sum up all the _Devil_'s Story from his first
Expulsion, it stands thus: For so many Years as were between his Fall
and the Creation of Man, tho' we have no _Memoirs_ of his particular
Affairs, we have Reason to believe he was without any Manner of
Employment; but a certain tormenting Endeavour to be always expressing
his Rage and Enmity against Heaven; I call it tormenting, Because ever
disappointed; every thought about it proving empty; every attempt
towards it abortive; Leaving him only Light enough to see still more and
more Reason to despair of Success; and that this made his Condition
still more and more a Hell than it was before.
After a Space of Duration in this Misery, which we have no light given
us to measure or judge of, He at length discovered the new Creation of
Man, as above, upon which he soon found Matter to set himself to work
upon, and has been busily employ'd ever since.
And now indeed there may be room to suggest a Local _Hell_, and the
Confinement of Souls (made corrupt and degenerate by him) to it, as a
Place; tho' he himself, as is still apparent by his Actings, is not yet
confin'd to it; of this Hell, its Locality, Extent, Dimensions,
Continuance and Nature, as it does not belong to Satan's History, I have
a good excuse for saying nothing, and so put off my meddling with that,
which if I would meddle with, I could say nothing of to the Purpose.
CHAP. VIII.
_Of the Power of the Devil at the Time of the Creation of this World;
whether it has not been farther straitn'd and limited since that
Time, and what Shifts and Stratagems he is obliged to make use of to
compass his Designs upon Mankind._
Cunning Men have fabled, and tho' it be without either Religion,
Authority or physical Foundation, it may be we may like it ne'er the
worse for that; that when God made the Stars and all the Heavenly
Luminaries, the _Devil_, to mimick his Maker and insult his new
Creation, made Comets, in Imitation of the fix'd Stars; but that the
Composition of them being combustible, when they came to wander in the
Abyss, rolling by an irregular ill-grounded Motion, they took Fire, in
their Approach to some of those great Bodies of Flame, _the fix'd
Stars_; and being thus kindled (like a Fire-work unskilfully let off)
they then took wild and excentrick, as also different Motions of their
own, out of Satan's Direction, and beyond his Power to regulate ever
after.
Let this Thought stand by it self, it matters not to our purpose whether
we believe any thing of it, or no; 'tis enough to our Case, that if
Satan had any such Power then, he has no such Power now, and that leads
me to enquire into his more recent Limitations.
I am to suppose, he and all his Accomplices being confounded at the
Discovery of the new Creation, and racking their Wits to find out the
meaning of it, had at last (_no matter how_) discover'd the whole
System, and concluded, _as I have said_, that the Creature, _call'd
Man_, was to be their Successor in the Heavenly Mansions; upon which I
suggest that the first Motion of Hell was to destroy this new Work, and,
if possible, to overwhelm it.
But when they came to make the Attempt, they found their Chains were not
long enough, and that they could not reach to the Extremes of the
System: They had no Power either to break the Order, or stop the Motion,
dislocate the Parts, or confound the Situation of Things; they
traversed, no doubt, the whole Work, visited every Star, landed upon
every Solid, and sail'd upon every Fluid in the whole Scheme, to see
what Mischief they could do.
Upon a long and full Survey, they came to this Point in their Enquiry,
that in short they could do nothing by Force; that they could not
displace any Part, annihilate any Atom, or destroy any Life in the whole
Creation; but that as Omnipotence had created it, so the same
Omnipotence had arm'd it at all Points against the utmost Power of Hell,
had made the smallest Creature in it invulnerable, as to _Satan_; so
that without the Permission of the same Power which had made _Heaven_,
and conquer'd the _Devil_, he could do nothing at all, as to destroying
any thing that God had made, no, not the little diminutive thing call'd
Man, who _Satan_ saw so much reason to hate, as being created to succeed
him in Happiness in _Heaven_.
Satan found him placed out of his Power to hurt, or out of his Reach to
touch; and here, by the way, appears the second Conquest of _Heaven_
over the _Devil_; that having plac'd his Rival, as it were, just before
his Face, and shew'd the hateful sight to him, he saw written upon his
Image, _Touch him if you dare_.
It cannot be doubted, but, had it not been thus, Man is so far from
being a Match for the _Devil_, that one of Satan's least Imps or
_Angels_ could destroy all the Race of them in the World, ay World and
all in a moment;
As he is Prince of the Power of the Air, taking the Air for _the
Elementary World_, how easily could he, at one Blast, sweep all the
Surface of the Earth into the Sea, or drive weighty immense Surges of
the Ocean over the whole Plane of the Earth, and deluge the Globe at
once with a Storm? Or how easily could he, who, by the Situation of the
Empire, must be supposed able to manage the Clouds, draw them up, in
such Position as should naturally produce Thunders and Lightnings, cause
those Lightnings to blast the Earth, dash in Pieces all the Buildings,
burn all the populous Towns and Cities, and lay wast the World;
At the same time he might command suited Quantities of sublimated Air to
burst out of the Bowels of the Earth, and overwhelm and swallow up, in
the opening Chasms, all the Inhabitants of the Globe?
In a Word, _Satan_ left to himself as a Devil, and to the Power, which
by virtue of his Seraphic Original he must be vested with, was able to
have made Devilish Work in the World, if by a superior Power he was not
restrain'd.
But there is no doubt, _at least to me_, but that with his fall from
Heaven, as he lost the Rectitude and Glory of his Angelic Nature, I mean
his Innocence, so he lost the Power too that he had before; and that
when he first commenc'd Devil, he received the Chains of Restraint too,
as the Badge of his Apostacy, _viz._ a general Prohibition, to do any
thing to the Prejudice of this Creation, or to act any thing by Force or
Violence without special Permission.
This Prohibition was not sent him by a Messenger, or by an Order in
Writing, or proclaimed from Heaven by a Law; but _Satan_, by a strange,
invisible and unaccountable Impression felt the Restraint within him;
and at the same time that his moral Capacity was not taken away, yet his
Power of exerting that Capacity felt the Restraint, and left him unable
to do, even what he was able to do at the same time.
I make no question, but the Devil is sensible of this Restraint, that is
to say, _not_ as it is a restraint only, or as an effect of his
Expulsion from _Heaven_; But as it prevents his Capital Design against
Man, who, for the Reason I have given already, he entertains a mortal
Hatred of, and would destroy with all his Heart, if he might; and
therefore, like a chain'd Mastiff, we find him oftentimes making a
horrid hellish Clamour and Noise, barking and howling, and frighting the
People, letting them know, that if he was loose he would tear them in
pieces; but at the same time his very Fury shakes his Chain, which lets
them know, to their Satisfaction, he can only Bark, but cannot Bite.
Some are of Opinion that the Devil is not restrain'd so much by the
superior Power of his Sovereign and Maker; but that all his milder
Measures with Man are the effect of a political Scheme, and done upon
mature Deliberation; that it was resolved to act thus, in the great
Council or P----t of Devils, call'd upon this very Occasion, when they
first were inform'd of the Creation of Man; and especially when they
considered what kind of Creature he was, and what might probably be the
Reason of making him, (_viz._) to fill up the Vacancies in Heaven; I
say, that then the _Devils_ resolv'd, that it was not for their
Interest to fall upon him with Fury and Rage, and so destroy the
Species, for that this would be no Benefit at all to them, and would
only cause another original Man to be created; for that they knew GOD
could, by the same Omnipotence, form as many new Species of Creatures as
he pleased; and, if he thought fit, create them in Heaven too, out of
the Reach of _Devils_ or evil Spirits, and that therefore, to destroy
Man would no way answer their End.
On the other hand, examining strictly the Mould of this new made
Creature, and of what Materials he was form'd; how mixt up of a Nature
convertible and pervertible, capable indeed of infinite Excellence, and
consequently of eternal Felicity; but subject likewise to Corruption and
Degeneracy, and consequently to eternal Misery; That instead of being
fit to supply the Places of Satan and his rejected Tribe (the expell'd
Angels) in Heaven, and filling up the Thrones or Stalls in the Celestial
Choir, they might, if they could but be brought into Crime, become a
Race of Rebels and Traytors like the rest; and so come at last to keep
them Company, as well in the Place of eternal Misery, as in the Merit of
it, and in a Word, become Devils instead of Angels.
Upon this Discovery, I say, they found it infinitely more for the
Interest of Satan's infernal Kingdom, to go another way to work with
Mankind, and see if it were possible, by the strength of all their
infernal Wit and Counsels, to lay some Snare for him, and by some
Stratagem to bring him to eternal Ruin and Misery.
This being then approv'd as their only Method, (and the _Devil_ shew'd
he was no Fool in the Choice) he next resolv'd that there was no time to
be lost; that it was to be set about immediately, before the Race was
Multiplied, and by that means the Work be not made greater only, but
perhaps the more difficult too; accordingly the diligent Devil went
instantly about it, agreeably to all the Story of _Eve_ and the serpent,
as before; the belief of which, whether historically or allegorically,
is not at all obstructed by this Hypothesis.
I do not affirm that this was the Case at first, because being not
present in that black _Divan_, at least not that I know of, _for who
knows where he was or was not in his pre-existent State?_ I cannot be
positive in the Resolve that past there; but except for some very little
Contradiction, which we find in the sacred Writings, I should, I
confess, incline to believe it Historically; and I shall speak of those
things which I call Contradictions to it more largely hereafter.
In the mean time, be it one way or other, _that is to say_, either that
Satan had no Power to have proceeded with Man by Violence, and to have
destroy'd him as soon as he was made; or that he had the Power, but
chose rather to proceed by other Methods to deceive and debauch him; _I
say_, be it which you please, I am still of the Opinion that it really
was not the _Devil_'s Business to destroy the Species; that it would
have been nothing to the purpose, and no Advantage at all to him, if he
had done it; for that, as above, God could immediately have created
another Species to the same end, whom he either could have made
invulnerable, and not subject to the Devil's Power, or remov'd him out
of _Satan_'s Reach, plac'd him out of the _Devil_'s Ken, in Heaven or
some other Place, where the Devil could not come to hurt him; and that
therefore it is infinitely more his Advantage, and more suited to his
real Design of defeating the End of Man's Creation, to debauch him and
make a _Devil_ of him, that he may be rejected like himself, and
increase the infernal Kingdom and Company in the Lake of Misery _in
aeternum_.
It may be true, for ought I know, that Satan has not the Power of
Destruction put into his Hand, and that he cannot take away the Life of
a Man: and it seems probable to be so, from the Story of _Satan_ and
_Job_, when _Satan_ appear'd among the Sons of GOD, as the Text says,
_Job_ i. 6. Now when God gave such a Character of _Job_ to him, and
ask'd him _if he had consider'd his Servant Job_, ver. 8. why did not
the Devil go immediately and exert his Malice against the good Man at
once, to let his Maker see what would become of his Servant _Job_ in his
Distress? On the contrary, we see he only answers by shewing the Reason
of _Job_'s good Behaviour; that it was but common Gratitude for the
Blessing and Protection he enjoy'd, ver. 10. and pleading that if his
Estate was taken away, and he was expos'd as he (Satan) was, to be a
beggar and a Vagabond, going _to and fro in the Earth, and walking up
and down therein_, he should be a very Devil too, like himself, and
curse God to his Face.
Upon this, the Text says, that God answered ver. 11. _Behold all that
he hath is in thy Power_; now 'tis plain here, that God gave up _Job_'s
Wealth and Estate, nay his Family, and the Lives of his Children and
Servants into the Devil's Power; and accordingly, like a true merciless
Devil, _as he is_, he destroy'd them all; he mov'd the _Sabeans_ to fall
upon the Oxen and the Asses, and carry them off; he mov'd the
_Chaldeans_ to fall upon the Camels and the Servants, to carry off the
first, and murther the last; he made Lightning flash upon the poor
Sheep, and kill them all; and he blow'd his House down upon his poor
Children, and buried them all in the Ruins.
Now here is (1.) a Specimen of Satan's good Will to Mankind, and what
Havock the _Devil_ would make in the World, if he might; and here is a
Testimony too, that he could not do this without leave; so that I cannot
but be of the Opinion he has some Limitations, some Bounds set to his
natural Fury; a certain Number of Links in his Chain, which he cannot
exceed, or, in a Word, that he cannot go a Foot beyond his _Tether_.
The same kind of Evidence we have in the Gospel, _Matth._ viii. 31.
where Satan could not so much as possess the filthiest and meanest of
all Creatures, _the Swine_, till he had ask'd leave; and that still, to
shew his good Will, as soon as he had gotten leave, he hurried them all
into the Sea and choak'd them; these, I say, are some of the Reasons why
I am not willing to say, the _Devil_ is not restrain'd in Power; but on
the other side, we are told of so many mischievous things the Devil has
done in the World, by virtue of his Dominion over the Elements, and by
other Testimonies of his Power, that I don't know what to think of it;
tho', upon the whole, the first is the safest Opinion; for if we should
believe the last, we might, for ought I know, be brought, like the
_American Indians_, to worship him _at last_, that he may do us no Harm.
And now I have nam'd those People in _America_, I confess it would go a
great way in favour of Satan's Generosity, as well as in Testimony of
his Power, if we might believe all the Accounts, which indeed Authors
are pretty well agreed in the Truth of, namely, of the Mischiefs the
_Devil_ does in those Countries, where his Dominion seems to be
establish'd; how he uses them when they deny him the Homage he claims of
them as his Due; what Havock and Combustion he makes among them; and
how Beneficent he is (or at least negative in his Mischiefs) when they
Appease him by their hellish Sacrifices.
Likewise we see a Test of his wicked Subtilty in his Management of those
dark Nations, when he was more immediately worship'd by them; namely,
the making them believe that all their good Weather, Rains, Dews, and
kind Influences upon the Earth, to make it fruitful, was from Him;
whereas they really were the common Blessings of a higher Hand, and came
not from him, the _Devil_, but from him that made the _Devil_, and made
him a Devil or fallen Angel by his Curse.
But to go back to the Method the Devil took with the first of Mankind;
'tis plain the Policy of Hell was right, tho' the Execution of the
Resolves they took did not fully answer their End neither; For _Satan_
fastening upon poor, proud, ridiculous Mother _Eve_, as I have said
before, made presently a true Judgment of her Capacities, and of her
Temper; took her by the right Handle, and soothing her Vanity (which is
to this Day the softest Place in the Head of all the Sex) wheedl'd her
out of her Senses, by praising her Beauty, and promising to make her a
Goddess.
The foolish Woman yielded presently, and that we are told is the Reason
why the same Method so strangely takes with all her Posterity (_viz._)
that you are sure to prevail with them, if you can but once persuade
them that you believe they are Witty and Handsome; for the Devil, you
may observe, never quits any Hold he gets, and having once found a way
into the Heart, always takes care to keep the Door open, that any of his
Agents may enter after him without any more Difficulty: Hence the same
Argument, especially the last, has so bewitching an Influence on the
Sex, that they rarely deny you any thing, after they are but weak
enough and vain enough to accept of the Praises you offer them on that
Head; on the other hand you are sure they never forgive you the
unpardonable Crime of saying they are Ugly or Disagreeable: It is
suggested that the first Method the Devil took to insinuate all those
fine things into _Eve_'s giddy Head, was by creeping close to her _one
Night_, when she was asleep, and laying his Mouth to her _Ear_,
whispering all the fine things to her, which he knew would set her Fancy
a Tip-toe, and so made her receive them involuntarily into her Mind;
knowing well enough that when she had form'd such Ideas in her Soul,
however they came there, she would never be quiet till she had work'd
them up to some extraordinary thing or other.
It was evident what the _Devil_ aim'd at, _namely_, that she should
break in upon the Command of GOD, and so having corrupted her self,
bring the Curse upon her self and all her Race, as GOD had threatn'd;
but why the Pride of _Eve_ should be so easily tickled by the Motion of
her exquisite Beauty, when there then was no prospect of the use or want
of those Charms? that indeed makes a kind of Difficulty here, which the
learn'd have not determined. For,
1. If she had been as Ugly as the _Devil_, she had no body to rival
her, so that she need not fear _Adam_ should leave her and get
another Mistress.
2. If she had been Bright and Beautiful as an Angel, she had no
other Admirer but poor _Adam_, and he could have no room to be
jealous of her, or afraid she should cuckold him; so that in short,
_Eve_ had no such Occasion for her Beauty, nor could she make any
use of it either to a bad purpose or to a good, and therefore I
believe the _Devil_, who is too cunning to do any thing that
signifies Nothing, rather tempted her by the Hope of encreasing her
Wit, than her Beauty.
But to come back to the Method of Satan's tempting her, _viz._ by
whispering to her in her sleep; 'twas a cunning Trick, that's the Truth
of it, and by that means he certainly set her Head a madding after
_Deism_, and to be made a Goddess, and then back'd it by the subtle talk
he had with her afterward.
I am the more particular upon this Part, because, however the Devil may
have been the first that ever practised it, yet I can assure him the
Experiment has been tried upon many a Woman since, to the wheedling her
out of her Modesty, as well as her Simplicity; and the Cunning Men tell
us still, that if you can come at a Woman when she is in a deep sleep,
and Whisper to her close to her Ear, she will certainly Dream of the
Thing you say to her, and so will a Man too.
Well, be this so to her Race or not, it was it seems so to her; for she
wak'd with her Head fill'd with pleasing Ideas, and as some will have
it, unlawful Desires; such, as to be sure she never had entertain'd
before; These are supposed to be fatally infused in her Dream, and
suggested to her waking Soul, when the Organ Ear which convey'd them was
doz'd and insensible; strange Fate of sleeping in _Paradise_! that
whereas we have Notice but of two Sleeps there, that in one a _Woman_
should go out of him, and in the other, the _Devil_ should come into
her.
Certainly, when Satan first made the Attempt upon _Eve_, he did not
think he should have so easily conquered her, or have brought his
Business about so soon; the _Devil_ himself could not have imagined she
should have been so soon brought to forget the Command given, or at
least who gave it, and have ventur'd to transgress against him, and made
her forget that GOD had told her, it should be Death to her to touch it;
and above all, that she should aspire to be as wise as him, who was so
ignorant before, as to believe it was for fear of her being like
himself, that he had forbid it her.
Well might she be said to be the weaker Vessel, tho' _Adam_ himself had
little enough to say for his being the stronger of the two, when he was
over-persuaded (if it were done by Persuasion) by his Wife to do the
same thing.
And mark how wise they were after they had Eaten, and what Fools they
both acted like, even to one another; nay, even all the Knowledge they
attain'd to by it was, for ought I see, only to know that they were
Fools, and to be sensible both of _Sin_ and _Shame_; and see how simply
they acted, I say, upon their having committed the Crime, and being
detected in it.
'View them to Day conversing with their God,
'His Image both enjoy'd and understood,
'_To Morrow_ skulking with a sordid Flight, }
'Among the Bushes from the _Infinite_, }
'As if that Power _was blind_, which gave them _Sight_; }
'With senseless Labour Tagging Fig-Leaf Vests,
'To hide their Bodies from the sight of Beasts.
'Hark! how the Fool pleads faint, for forfeit Life,
'First he reproaches Heaven, and then his Wife;
'_The Woman which thou gav'st_ as if the Gift
'Could rob him of the little Reason left,
'A weak Pretence to shift his early Crime,
'As if accusing her would excuse him;
'But thus encroaching Crime dethrones the Sense,
'And intercepts the Heavenly Influence,
'Debauches Reason, makes the Man a Fool,
'And turns his active Light to Ridicule.
It must be confess'd that it was unaccountable Degeneracy, even of their
common Reasoning, which _Adam_ and _Eve_ both fell into upon the first
committing the Offence of taking the forbidden Fruit: If that was their
being made as Gods, it made but a poor Appearance in its first coming,
to hide their Nakedness when there was no body to see them, and cover
themselves among the Bushes from their Maker; but thus it was, and this
the Devil had brought them to, and well might he, and all the Clan of
Hell, as Mr. _Milton_ brings them in, laugh and triumph over the Man
after the Blow was given, as having so egregiously abused and deluded
them both.
But here, to be sure, began the _Devil_'s new Kingdom; as he had now
seduc'd the two first Creatures, he was pretty sure of Success upon all
the Race, and therefore prepar'd to attack them also, as soon as they
came on; nor was their encreasing Multitude any Discouragement to his
Attempt, but just the contrary; for he had Agents enough to employ, if
every Man and Woman that should be born was to want a _Devil_ to wait
upon them, separately and singly to seduce them; whereas some whole
Nations have been such willing subjects to him, that one of his Seraphic
Imps may, _for ought we know_, have been enough to guide a whole
Country; the People being entirely subjected to his Government for many
Ages; as in _America, for example_, where some will have it, that he
convey'd the first Inhabitants, at least if he did not, we don't well
know who did, or how they got thither.
And how came all the Communication to be so entirely cut off between the
Nations of _Europe_ and _Africa_, from whence _America_ must certainly
have been peopl'd, or else the _Devil_ must have done it indeed? I say,
how came the Communication to be so entirely cut off between them, that
except the time, _whenever it was_, that People did at first reach from
one to the other, none ever came back to give their Friends any account
of their Success, or invite them to follow? Nor did they hear of one
another afterwards, as we have Reason to think: Did _Satan_ politically
keep them thus asunder, lest News from Heaven should reach them, and so
they should be recover'd out of his Government? We cannot tell how to
give any other rational Account of it, that a Nation, nay a Quarter of
the World, or as some will have it be, half the Globe, should be peopled
from _Europe_ or _Africa_, or both, and no body ever go after them, or
come back from them in above three thousand years after.
Nay, that those Countries should be peopled when there was no Navigation
in use in these Parts of the World, no Ships made that could carry
Provisions enough to support the People that fail'd in them, but that
they must have been starved to death before they could reach the Shore
of _America_; the Ferry from _Europe_ or _Africa_, in any Part (which we
have known Navigation to be practised in) being at least 1000 Miles, and
in most Places much more.
But as to the _Americans_, let the _Devil_ and they alone to account for
their coming Thither, this we are certain of, that we knew nothing of
them for many hundred Years; and when we did, when the Discovery was
made, they that went from Hence found _Satan_ in a full and quiet
Possession of them, ruling them with an arbitrary Government,
particular to himself; He had led them into a blind Subjection to
himself, nay, I might call it Devotion, for it was all of Religion that
was to be found among them) worshipping horrible Idols in his Name, to
whom he directed human Sacrifices continually to be made, till he
deluged the Country with Blood, and ripen'd them up for the Destruction
that follow'd, from the Invasion of the _Spaniards_, who he knew would
hurry them all out of the World as fast as he (_the Devil_) himself
could desire of them.
But to go back a little to the Original of Things, It is evident that
_Satan_ has made a much better Market of Mankind, by thus subtilly
attacking them, and bringing them to break with their Maker as he had
done before them, than he could have done by fulminating upon them at
first, and sending them all out of the World at once; for now he has
peopled his own Dominions with them, and tho' a Remnant are snatch'd as
it were out of his Clutches, by the Agency of Invincible Grace, of which
I am not to discourse in this Place; yet this may be said of the
_Devil_, without Offence, that he has in some Sense carried his Point,
and as it were forc'd his Maker to be satisfied with a Part of Mankind,
and the least Part too, instead of the great Glory he would have brought
to himself by keeping them all in his Service.
Mr. _Milton_, as I have noted above, brings in the _Devil_ and all Hell
with him, making a _Feu de Joye_ for the Victory _Satan_ obtain'd over
one silly Woman; indeed it was a Piece of Success greater in its
Consequence than in the immediate Appearance; nor was the Conquest so
compleat as Satan himself imagin'd to make, since the Promise of a
Redemption out of his Hands, which was immediately made to the Man, in
behalf of himself and his believing Posterity, was a great
Disappointment to Satan, and as it were snatch'd the best Part of his
Victory out of his Hands.
It is certain the _Devils_ knew what the meaning of that Promise was,
and who was to be the _Seed of the Woman_, namely, the incarnate _Son of
God_, and that it was a second Blow to the whole infernal Body; but as
if they had resolved to let that alone, _Satan_ went on with his
Business; and as he had introduc'd Crime into the common Parent of
Mankind, and thereby secured the Contamination of Blood, and the Descent
or Propagation of the corrupt Seed, he had nothing to do but to assist
Nature in time to come, to carry on its own Rebellion, and act it self
in the Breasts of _Eve_'s tainted Posterity; and that indeed has been
the Devil's Business ever since his first Victory upon the Kind, to this
Day.
His Success in this Part has been such, that we see upon innumerable
Occasions a general Defection has follow'd; a kind of a Taint upon
Nature, _call it what you will_, a Blast upon the Race of Mankind; and
were it not for one thing, he had ruined the whole Family; _I say_, were
it not for one thing, namely, a selected Company or Number, which his
Maker has resolv'd he shall not be able to corrupt, or if he does, the
sending the promis'd Seed shall recover back again from him, by the
Power of irresistible Grace; which Number thus selected or elected, call
it which we will, are still to supply the Vacancies in Heaven, which
_Satan_'s Defection left open; and what was before fill'd up with
created Seraphs, is now to be restor'd by recover'd Saints, by whom
infinite Glory is to accrue to the Kingdom of the Redeemer.
This glorious Establishment has robb'd Satan of all the Joy of his
Victory, and left him just where he was, defeated and disappointed; nor
does the Possession of all the Myriads of the Sons of Perdition, who yet
some are of the Opinion will be snatch'd from him too at last; I say,
the Possession of all these makes no amends to him, for he is such a
_Devil_ in his Nature, that the Envy at those he cannot seduce, eats out
all the Satisfaction of the Mischief he has done in seducing all the
rest; but _I must not preach_, so I return to things as much needful to
know, tho' less solemn.
CHAP. IX.
_Of the Progress of Satan in carrying on his Conquest over Mankind, from
the Fall of_ Eve _to the Deluge._
I doubt if the Devil was ask'd the Question plainly, he would confess,
that after he had conquer'd _Eve_ by his own wicked Contrivance, and
then by her Assistance had brought _Adam_ too (like a Fool as he was)
into the same Gulph of Misery, he thought he had done his Work,
compassed the whole Race, that they were now his own, and that he had
put an End to the grand Design of their Creation; namely, of Peopling
Heaven with a new Angelic Race of Souls, who when glorify'd, should make
up the Defection of the Host of Hell, that had been expung'd by their
Crime; in a Word, that he had gotten a better Conquest than if he had
destroy'd them all.
But in the midst of his Conquest, he found a Check put to the Advantages
he expected to reap from his Victory, by the immediate Promise of Grace
to a Part of the Posterity of _Adam_, who, notwithstanding the Fall,
were to be purchased by the _Messiah_, and snatch'd out of his
(_Satan_'s) Hands, and over whom he could make no final Conquest; so
that his Power met with a new Limitation, and that such, as indeed fully
disappointed him in the main thing he aim'd at, (_viz._) preventing the
Beatitudes of Mankind, which were thus secur'd; (And what if the Numbers
of Mankind were upon this account encreased in such a manner, that the
selected Number should, by Length of Time, amount to just as many as the
whole Race, had they not fallen, would have amounted to in all?) And
thus, indeed, the World may be said to be upheld and continued for the
Sake of those few, since till their Number can be compleated, the
Creation cannot fall, any more than, that without them, or but for them
it would not have stood.
But leaving this Speculation, and not having enquir'd of Satan what he
has to say on that Subject, let us go back to the Antediluvian World:
The _Devil_ to be sure, gain'd his Point upon _Eve_, and in her upon all
her Race: He drew her into Sin; got her turn'd out of _Paradise_, and
the Man with her: The next Thing was to go to work with her Posterity,
and particularly with her two Sons _Cain_ and _Abel_.
_Adam_ having, notwithstanding his Fall, repented very sincerely of his
Sin; receiv'd the Promise of Redemption and Pardon, with an humble but
believing Heart; Charity bids us suppose that he led a very religious
and sober Life ever after; and especially in the first Part of his Time,
That he brought up his Children very soberly, and gave them all the
necessary Advantages of a Religious Education, and a good Introduction
into the World, that he was capable of; and that _Eve_ likewise assisted
to both in her Place and Degree.
Their two eldest Sons _Cain_ and _Abel_; The one Heir apparent to the
Patriarchal Empire, and the other Heir presumptive, I suppose also,
lived very sober and religious Lives; and as the Principles of natural
Religion dictated a Homage and Subjection due to the Almighty Maker, as
an Acknowledgment of his Mercies, and a Recognition of their Obedience;
so the receiv'd Usage of Religion dictating at that Time that this
Homage was to be paid by a Sacrifice, they either of them brought a
Free-will-offering to be dedicated to God respectively for themselves
and Families.
How it was, and for what Reason that God had respect to the Offering of
_Abel_, which the Learn'd say, was _a Lamb_ of the Firstlings of the
Flock, and did not give any Testimony of the like Respect to _Cain_ and
his Offering, which was of the first Fruits of the Earth, the Offerings
being equally suited to the respective Employment of the Men, that is
not my present Business; but this we find made Heart-burnings, and
raised Envy and Jealousy in the Mind of _Cain_; and at that Door the
_Devil_ immediately entred; for he, who from the Beginning, was very
diligent in his way, never slip'd any Opportunity, or miss'd any
Advantages that the Circumstances of Mankind offered him to do Mischief.
What Shape or Appearance the Devil took up to enter into a Conversation
with _Cain_ upon the Subject, that Authors do not take upon them to
determine; but 'tis generally supposed he personated some of _Cain_'s
Sons or Grandsons to begin the Discourse, who attack'd their Father, or
perhaps Grandfather, upon this Occasion, in the following manner, or to
that Purpose.
* * * * *
_D._ Sir, I perceive _your Majesty_ (for the first Race were certainly
all Monarchs as great as Kings, to their immediate Posterity) to be
greatly disturb'd of late, your Countenance is chang'd, your noble
Chearfulness (the Glories of your Face) are strangely sunk and gone, and
you are not the Man you used to be; please your Majesty to communicate
your Griefs to us your Children, you may be sure, that if it be
possible, we would procure you Relief, and restore your Delights, the
Loss of which, if thus you go on to subject yourself to too much
Melancholy, will be very hurtful to you, and in the End destroy you.
_Cain._ It is very kind, my dear Children, to shew your Respect thus to
your true Progenitor, and to offer your Assistance: I confess, as you
say, my Mind is oppress'd and displeased; but tho' 'tis very heavy, yet
I know not which way to look for Relief, for the Distemper is above our
Reach, no Cure can be found for it on Earth.
_D._ Do not say so, Sir; there can be no Disease sure on Earth but may
be cur'd on Earth; if it be a mental Evil, we have heard that your great
Ancestor, the first Father of us all, who lives still on the great
western Plains towards the Sea, is the Oracle to which all his Children
fly for Direction in such Cases as are out of the Reach of the ordinary
understanding of Mankind; please you to give leave, we will take a
Journey to him, and representing your Case to him, we will hear his
Advice, and bring it to you with all Speed, for the Ease of your Mind.
_Cain._ I know not whether he can reach my Case or no.
_D._ Doubtless he may, and if not, the Labour of our Journey is nothing
when plac'd in Competition with the Ease of your Mind; 'tis but a few
Days travel lost, and you will not be the worse if we fail of the
desired Success.
_Cain._ The offer is filial, and I accept your affectionate Concern for
me, with a just Sense of an oblig'd Parent; go then, and my Blessing be
upon you; but alas! why do I bless? can he bless whom God has not
bless'd!
_D._ O! Sir, do not say so, has not God bless'd you? are you not the
second Sovereign of the Earth? and does he not converse with you Face to
Face? are not you the Oracle to all your growing Posterity, and next
after his Sovereign Imperial Majesty Lord _Adam_, Patriarch of the
World?
_Cain._ But has not God rejected me, and refused to converse any more
with me, while he daily Favours and Countenances my younger Brother
_Abel_, as if he resolv'd to set him up to rule over me?
_D._ No, Sir, that cannot be, you cannot be disturb'd at such a thing;
is not the Right of Sovereignty yours by Primogeniture? can God himself
take that away, when 'tis once given? are not you Lord _Adam_'s eldest
Son? are you not the firstborn Glory of the Creation? and does not the
Government descend to you by the divine Right of Birth and Blood?
_Cain._ But what does all that signify to me, while God appears to
favour and caress my younger Brother, and to shine upon him, while a
black Dejection and token of Displeasure surrounds me every Day, and he
does not appear to me as he used to do?
_D._ And what need your Majesty be concern'd at that, if it be so? if he
does not appear pleased, you have the whole World to enjoy your self in,
and all your numerous and rising Posterity Adore and Honour you; what
need those remote Things be any disturbance to you?
_Cain._ How! my Children, not the Favour of God be valued! yes, yes, in
his favour is Life; what can all the World avail without the Smiles and
Countenance of him that made it?
_D._ Doubtless, Sir, he that made the World and plac'd you at the Head
of it all, to govern and direct it, has made it agreeable, and it is
able to give you a full Satisfaction and Enjoyment, if you please to
consider it well, tho' you were never to converse with him all the while
you live in't.
_Cain._ You are _quite wrong_ there, my Children, _quite wrong_.
_D._ But do you not, great Sir, see all your Children as well as us
rejoicing in the Plenty of all Things, and are they not compleatly
happy, and yet they know little of this great GOD? He seldom converses
among us, we hear of him indeed by your sage Advices, and we bring our
Offerings to you for him, as you direct, and when that's done, we enjoy
whatever our Hearts desire; and so doubtless may you in an abundant
manner, if you please.
_Cain._ But your Felicity is wrong plac'd then, or you suppose that God
is pleased and satisfied in that your Offerings are brought to me; but
what would you say, if you knew that God is displeased? that he does not
accept your Offerings? that when I sacrific'd to him in behalf of you
all, he rejected my Offerings, tho' I brought a princely Gift, being of
the finest of the Wheat, the choicest and earliest Fruits, and the
sweetest of the Oil, an Offering suited to the Giver of them all?
_D._ But if you offered them, Sir, how are you sure they were not
accepted?
_Cain._ Yes, yes, I am sure; did not my Brother _Abel_ offer at the same
Time a Lamb of his Flock, for he, you know, delights in Cattle, and
covers the Mountains with his Herds? over him, all the while he was
sacrificing, a bright Emanation shone chearing and enlivening; a Pledge
of Favour, and light ambient Flames play'd hovering in the lower Air, as
if attending his Sacrifice; and when ready prepar'd, immediately
descended and burnt up the Flesh, a Sweet odoriferous Savour ascending
to him, who thus testified his Acceptance; whereas, over my Head a black
Cloud, misty, and distilling Vapour, hung dripping upon the humble Altar
I had raised, and wetting the finest and choicest Things I had
prepar'd, spoil'd and defac'd them; the Wood unapt to burn by the
Moisture which fell, scarce receiv'd the Fire I brought to kindle it,
and even then, rather smother'd and choaked, than kindled into a Flame;
in a Word, it went quite out, without consuming what was brought to be
offer'd up.
_D._ Let not our truly reverenc'd Lord and Father be disquieted at all
this; if he accepts not what you bring, you are discharg'd of the Debt,
and need bring no more; nor have the Trouble of such labour'd
Collections of Rarities any more; when he thinks fit to require it
again, you will have Notice, no Question, and then it being call'd for,
will be accepted or else why should it be requir'd?
_Cain._ That may indeed be the Case, nor do I think of attempting any
more to bring an Offering, for I rather take it, that I am forbidden for
the present; but then, what is it that my younger Brother Triumphs in?
and how am I insulted, in that he and his House are all Joy and Triumph,
as if they had some great Advantage over me, in that their Offering was
accepted when mine was not?
_D._ Does he Triumph over your Majesty, our Lord and Sovereign? give us
but your Order, and we will go and pull him and all his Generation in
pieces; for to triumph over you who are his elder Brother, is a horrid
Rebellion and Treason, and he ought to be expell'd the Society of
Mankind.
_Cain._ I think so too, indeed; however, my dear Children and faithful
Subjects, tho' I accept your Offer of Duty and Service, yet I will
consider very well, before I take up Arms against my Brother; besides,
our Sovereign Father and patriarchal Lord, _Adam_, being yet alive, it
is not in my Right to act offensively without his Command.
_D._ We are ready therefore to carry your Petition to him, and doubt not
to obtain his Licence and Commission too, to empower you to do your self
Justice upon your younger Brother; who being your Vassal, or at least
inferior, as he is junior in Birth, insults you upon the fancied Opinion
of having a larger Share in the Divine Favour, and receiving a Blessing
on his Sacrifices, on Pretence of the same Favour being denied you.
_Cain._ I am content, go then, and give a just Account of the State of
our Affairs.
_D._ We shall soon return with the agreeable answer; let not our Lord
and Father continue sad and dejected, but depend upon a speedy Relief,
by the Assistance of thy numerous Issue, all devoted to thy Interest and
Felicity.
_Cain._ My Blessing be with you in your Way, and give you a favourable
Reception at the venerable Tent of our universal Lord and Father.
* * * * *
Note, Here the cursed Race being fully given up to the Direction of the
Evil-Spirit, which so early possess'd them, and swelling with Rage at
the innocent _Abel_ and his whole Family, they resolved upon forming a
most wicked and detestable lie, to bring about the Advice which they had
already given their Father _Cain_ a touch of; and to pretend that _Adam_
being justly provok'd at the undutiful Behaviour of _Abel_, had given
_Cain_ a Commission to chastise him, and by Force to cut him off and
all his Family, as guilty of Rebellion and Pride.
Fill'd with this mischievous and bloody Resolution, they came back to
their Father _Cain_, after staying a few Days, such as were Sufficient
to make _Cain_ believe they had been at the spacious Plains, where
_Adam_ dwelt; the same which are now call'd the blessed Valleys, or the
Plains of _Mecca_ in _Arabia Faelix_, near the Banks of the _Red-Sea_.
Note here also, that _Cain_ having received a wicked Hint from these
Men, his Children and Subjects, as before, intimating that _Abel_ had
broken the Laws of Primogeniture in his Behaviour towards him, (_Cain_)
and that he might be justly punish'd for it; Satan, that cunning Manager
of all our wayward Passions, fan'd the Fire of Envy and Jealousy with
his utmost Skill all the while his other Agents were absent; and by the
Time they came back had blown it up into such a Heat of Fury and Rage,
that it wanted nothing but Air to make it burn out, as it soon
afterwards did in a furious Flame of Wrath and Revenge, even to Blood
and Destruction.
Just in the very critical Moment, while Things stood thus with _Cain_,
Satan brings in his wicked Instruments, as if just arriv'd with the
Return of his Message from _Adam_, at whose Court they had been for
Orders; and thus they, that is the _Devil_ assuming to speak by them,
approach their Father with an Air of solemn but chearful Satisfaction at
the Success of their Embassy.
* * * * *
_D._ Hail Sovereign, Reverend, Patriarchal Lord! we come with Joy to
render thee an Account of the Success of our Message.
_Cain._ Have you then seen the venerable Tents where dwell the
Heaven-born, the Angelic Pair, to whom all human Reverence highly due,
is and ought always to be humbly paid?
_D._ We have.
_Cain._ Did you, together with my grand Request, a just, a humble Homage
for me pay, to the great Sire and Mother of Mankind?
_D._ We did.
_Cain._ Did you in humble Language represent the Griefs and Anguish
which oppress my Soul?
_D._ We did, and back their Blessing to thee bring.
_Cain._ I hope with humblest Signs of filial Duty you took it for me on
your bending Knees?
_D._ We did, and had our Share; the Patriarch lifting his Hands to
Heaven express'd his Joy to see his spreading Race, and bless'd us all.
_Cain._ Did you my solemn Message too deliver, my Injuries impartially
lay down, and due Assistance and Direction crave?
_D._ We did.
_Cain._ What spoke the Oracle? he's God to me; what just Command d'ye
bring, what's to be done? am I to bear the insulting Junior's Rage? and
meekly suffer what unjustly he, affronting Primogeniture and Laws of God
and Man, imposes by his Pride unsufferable! Am I to be crush'd, and be
no more the firstborn Son on Earth, but bow and kneel to him?
_D._ Forbid it Heaven! as _Adam_ too forbids, who with a justice
God-like and peculiar to injur'd Parents, _Abel_'s Pride resents, and
gives his high Command to thee to punish.
_Cain._ To punish? say you, did he use the Word, the very Word? am I
commission'd then to punish _Abel_?
_D._ Not _Abel_ only, but his rebel Race, as they alike in Crime alike
are join'd in Punishment.
_Cain._ The Race indeed have shar'd the Merit with him; how did they all
insult, and with a Shout of Triumph mock my Sorrow, when they saw me
from my Sacrifice dejected come, as if my Disappointment was their Joy?
_D._ This too the venerable Prince resents, and to preserve the Race in
Bounds of Laws subordinate and limited to Duty, Commands that this first
Breach be not pass'd by, lest the Precedent upon Record stand to future
Times to encourage like Rebellion.
_Cain._ And is it then my Sovereign Parent's Will?
_D._ It is his Will, that thou his eldest Son, his Image, his belov'd,
should be maintain'd in all the Rights of Sovereignty deriv'd to thee
from him; and not be left expos'd to injury and Power usurped, but
should do thy self Justice on the rebel Race.
_Cain._ And so I will; _Abel_ shall quickly know what 'tis to trample on
his elder Brother; shall know that he's thus sentenc'd by his Father,
and I'm commission'd but to execute his high Command, his Sentence,
which is God's, and that he falls by the Hand of Heavenly Justice.
* * * * *
So now Satan had done his Work, he had deluded the Mother to a Breach
against the first and only Command, he had drawn _Adam_ to the same
Snare, and now he brings in _Cain_ prompted by his own Rage, and deluded
by his, (Satan's,) Craft, to commit Murder, nay a Fratricide, an
aggravated Murther.
Upon this he sends out _Cain_, while the bloody Rage was in its Ferment,
and wickedly at the same Time bringing _Abel_, innocent and fearing no
ill, just in his Way, he suggests to his Thoughts such Words as these.
Look you _Cain_, see how Divine Justice concurs with your Father's
righteous Sentence, see there's thy Brother _Abel_ directed by Heaven to
fall into thy Hands unarm'd, unguarded, that thou may'st do thy self
Justice upon him without Fear; see thou may'st kill him, and if thou
hast a Mind to conceal it, no Eyes can see, or will the World ever know
it, so that no Resentment or Revenge upon thee, or thy Posterity, can be
apprehended, but it may be said some wild Beast had rent him; nor will
any one suggest that thou, his Brother, and Superior, could possibly be
the Person.
_Cain_ prepar'd for the Fact, by his former avow'd Rage and Resolution
of Revenge, was so much the less prepar'd to avoid the Snare thus
artfully contriv'd by the Master of all Subtilty, the _Devil_; so he
immediately runs upon his Brother _Abel_, and after a little unarm'd
Resistance, the innocent poor Man expecting no such Mischief, was
conquer'd and murther'd; after which, as is to be supposed, the
exasperated Crew of _Cain_'s outrageous Race, over-run all his Family
and Houshold, killing Man, Woman and Child.
It is objected here that we have no Authority in Scripture to prove this
Part of the Story; but I answer, 'tis not likely but that _Abel_, as
well as _Cain_, being at Man's Estate long before this, had several
Children by their own Sisters, for they were the only Men in the World
who were allow'd the Marrying their own Sisters, there being no other
Women then in the World; and as we never read of any of _Abel_'s
Posterity, 'tis likewise as probable they were all murther'd, as that
they should kill _Abel_ only, whose Sons might immediately fall upon
_Cain_ for the Blood of their Father, and so the World have been
involv'd in a Civil War as soon as there were two Families in it.
But be it so or not, 'tis not doubted the Devil wrought with _Cain_ in
the horrid Murther, or he had never done it; whether it was directly or
by Agents is not material, nor is the Latter unlikely; and if the
Latter, then there is no Improbability in the Story, for why might not
he that made Use of the Serpent to tempt _Eve_, be as well supposed to
make a Tool of some of _Cain_'s Sons or Grandsons to prompt him in the
wicked Attempt of murthering his Brother? and why must we be oblig'd to
bring in a Miracle or an Apparition into the Story, to make it probable
that the _Devil_ had any Hand in it, when 'twas so natural to a
degenerate Race to act in such a Manner?
However it was, and by whatever Tool the _Devil_ wrought, 'tis certain
that this was the Consequence, poor _Abel_ was butcher'd, and thus the
_Devil_ made a second Conquest in God's Creation; for _Adam_ was now, as
may be said, really Childless, for his two Sons were thus far lost,
_Abel_ was killed, and _Cain_ was curst and driven out from the Presence
of the Lord, and his Race blasted with him.
It would be a useful enquiry here, and worthy our giving an Account of,
could we come to a Certainty in it, namely, what was the Mark that God
set upon _Cain_, by which he was kept from being fallen upon by _Abel_'s
Friends or Relations? but as this does not belong to the _Devil_'s
History, and it was God's Mark, not the _Devil_'s, I have nothing to do
with it here.
The _Devil_ had now gain'd his Point, the Kingdom of Grace, so newly
erected, had been as it were extinct without a new Creation, had not
_Adam_ and _Eve_ been alive, and had not _Eve_, tho' now 130 Years of
Age, been a breeding young Lady, for we must suppose the Woman, in that
State of Longevity, bare Children till they were seven or eight hundred
Year old: This Teeming of _Eve_ peopled not the World so much as it
restored the blessed Race; for tho' _Abel_ was kill'd _Cain_ had a
numerous Offspring presently, which had _Seth_, (_Adam_'s third Son)
never been born, would soon have replenish'd the World with People, such
as they were; the Seed of a Murtherer, cursed of God, branded with a
Mark of Infamy, and who afterwards fell all together in the universal
Ruine of the Race by the Deluge.
But after the Murther of _Abel_, _Adam_ had another Son born, namely,
_Seth_, the Father of _Enos_, and indeed the Father of the holy Race;
for during his Time and his Son _Enos_, the Text says that Men began to
call on the Name of the Lord; that is to say, they began to look back
upon _Cain_ and his wicked Race, and being convinc'd of the Wickedness
they had committed, and led their whole Posterity into, they began to
sue to Heaven for Pardon of what was past, and to lead a new sort of
Life.
But the _Devil_ had met with too much Success in his first Attempts, not
to go on with his general Resolution of debauching the Minds of Men, and
bringing them off from God; and therefore as he kept his Hold upon
_Cain_'s cursed Race, embroil'd already in Blood and Murther; so he
proceeded with his degenerate Offspring, till in a Word he brought both
the holy Seed and the degenerate Race to joyn in one universal Consent
of Crime, and to go on in it with such aggravating Circumstances, as
that it repented the Lord that he had made Man, and he resolv'd to
overwhelm them again with a general Destruction, and clear the World of
them.