Of God's Calling A Church Out Of The Midst Of A Degenerate World

Of God's calling a Church out of the midst of a degenerate World, and of

Satan's new Measures upon that Incident: How he attack'd them

immediately, and his Success in those Attacks.





Satan having, as I have said in the preceding Chapter, made, as it

were, a full Conquest of Mankind, debauch'd them all to Idolatry, and

brought them at least to worshiping the true God by the wretched Medium
br /> of corrupt and idolatrous Representations; God seem'd to have no true

Servants or Worshippers left in the World, but if I may be allow'd to

speak so, was oblig'd, in order to restore the World to their Senses

again, to call a select Number out from among the rest, who he himself

undertook should own his Godhead or supreme Authority, and worship him

as he requir'd to be worship'd; this, I say, God was oblig'd to do,

because 'tis evident it has not been done so much by the Choice and

Council of Men, for Satan would have over-rul'd that Part, as by the

Power and Energy of some irresistible and invincible Operation, and this

our Divines give high Names to; but be it what they will, it is the

second Defeat or Disappointment that the Devil he met with in his

Progress in the World; the first I have spoken of already.



It is true, Satan very well understood what was threatn'd to him in the

original Promise to the Woman, immediately after the Fall, namely, thou

shalt bruise his Head, &c. but he did not expect it so suddenly, but

thought himself sure of Mankind, till the Fullness of Time when the

Messiah should come; and therefore it was a great Surprize to him, to

see that Abraham being call'd was so immediately receiv'd and

establish'd, tho' he did not so immediately follow the Voice that

directed him, yet in him, in his Loins was all God's Church at that time

contain'd.



In the calling Abraham, it is easy to see that there was no other way

for God to form a Church, that is to say, to single out a People to

himself, as the World was then stated, but by immediate Revelation and a

Voice from Heaven: All Mankind were gone over to the Enemy, overwhelmed

in Idolatry, in a Word, were engag'd to the Devil; God Almighty, or as

the Scripture distinguishes him, the Lord, the true GOD, was out of

the Question; Mankind knew little or nothing of him, much less did they

know any thing of his Worship, or that there was such a Being in the

World.



Well might it be said the Lord appeared to Abraham, Gen. xii. 7. for

if God had not appear'd himself, he must have sent a Messenger from

Heaven, and perhaps it was so too, for he had not one true Servant or

Worshiper that we know of then on Earth, to send on that Errand; no

Prophet, no Preacher of Righteousness, Noah was dead, and had been so

above seventeen Year; and if he had not, his preaching, as I observed

after his great Miscarriage, had but little Effect; we are indeed told,

that Noah left behind him certain Rules and Orders for the true

Worship of God, which were call'd the Precepts of Noah, and remain'd

in the World for a long Time; tho' how written, when neither any

Letters, much less Writing were known in the World, is a Difficulty

which Remains to be solv'd; and this makes me look upon those Laws

call'd the Precepts of Noah to be a modern Invention, as I do also the

Alphabetum Noachi, which Bochart pretends to give an Account of.



But to leave that Fiction, and come back to Abraham; God call'd him,

whether at first by Voice without any Vision, whether in a Dream or

Night Vision, which was very Significant in those Days, or whether by

some awful Appearance, we know not; the second Time, 'tis indeed said

expressly GOD appeared to him; Be it which Way it will, GOD himself

call'd him, shew'd him the Land of Canaan, gave him the Promise of it

for his Posterity, and withal gave him such a Faith, that the Devil

soon found there was no room for him to meddle with Abraham. This is

certain, we do not read that the Devil ever so much as attempted

Abraham at all; some will suggest that the Command to Abraham to go

and offer up his Son Isaac, was a Temptation of the Devil, if

possible to defeat the glorious Work of GOD's calling a holy Seed into

the World; for the first, if Abraham had disobey'd that Call, the

new Favourite had been overcome and made a Rebel of, or secondly, if

he had obey'd, then the promis'd Seed had been cut off, and Abraham

defeated; but as the Text is express that GOD himself proposed it to

Abraham, I shall not start the Suggestions of the Criticks, in Bar of

the sacred Oracle.



Be it one way or other, Abraham shew'd a Hero-like Faith and Courage,

and if the Devil had been the Author of it, he had seen himself

disappointed in both his Views; (1.) by Abraham's ready and bold

Compliance, as believing it to be GOD's Command; and (2.) by the divine

Countermand of the Execution, just as the fatal Knife was lifted up.



But if the Devil left Abraham, and made no attack upon him, seeing

him invulnerable, he made himself amends upon the other Branch of his

Family, his poor Nephew LOT; who, notwithstanding he was so

immediately under the particular Care of Heaven, as that the Angel who

was sent to destroy Sodom, could do nothing till he was out of it; and

who, tho' after he had left Zoar, and was retir'd into a Cave to

dwell, yet the subtle Devil found him out, deluded his two Daughters,

took an Advantage of the Fright they had been in about Sodom and

Gomorrah, made them believe the whole World was burnt too, as well as

those Cities, and that in short, they could never have any Husbands,

&c. and so in their abundant Concern to repeople the World, and that the

Race of Mankind might not be destroyed, they go and lie with their own

Father; the Devil telling them doubtless how to do it, by

intoxicating his Head with Wine; in all which Story, whether they were

not as drunk as their Father, seems to be a Question, or else they could

not have supposed all the Men in the Earth were consum'd, when they knew

that the little City Zoar had been preserv'd for their Sakes.



This now was the third Conquest Satan obtain'd by the Gust of humane

Appetite; that is to say, once by Eating and twice by Drinking, or

Drunkenness, and still the last was the worst and most shameful; for

Lot, however his Daughters manag'd him, could not pretend he did not

understand what the Strength of Wine was; and one would have thought

after so terrible a Judgment as that of Sodom was, which was, as we

may say, executed before his Face, his Thoughts should have been too

solemnly engag'd in praising God for sparing his Life, to be made drunk,

and that two Nights together.



But the Devil play'd his Game sure, he set his two Daughters to work,

and as the Devil's Instruments seldom fail, so he secur'd his by that

hellish Stratagem of deluding the Daughters, to think all the World was

consum'd but they two and their Father: To be sure the old Man could not

suspect that his Daughters Design was so wicked as indeed it was, or

that they intended to debauch him with Wine, and make him drink till he

knew not what he did.



Now the Devil having carried his Game here, gain'd a great Point; for

as there were but two religious Families in the World before, from

whence a twofold Generation might be supposed to rise religious and

righteous like their Parents, (viz.) that of Abraham and this of

Lot; this Crime ruin'd the Hopes of one of them; it could no more be

said that just Lot was in Being, who vex'd his righteous Soul from

Day to Day with the wicked Behaviour of the People of Sodom; righteous

Lot was degenerated into drunken incestuous Lot, LOT fallen from

what he was, to be a wicked and unrighteous Man; no pattern of Virtue,

no Reprover of the Age, but a poor fallen Degenerate Patriarch, who

could now no more reprove or exhort, but look down and be asham'd, and

nothing to do but to repent; and see the poor mean Excuses of all the

three.



Eve says, The Serpent beguil'd me, and I did eat.



Noah says, ---- My Grandson beguil'd me, or the Wine beguil'd me,

and I did drink.



Lot says, My Daughters beguil'd me, and I also did drink.





It is observable, that as I said above, Noah was silenc'd, and his

Preaching at an End, after that one Action, so the like may be said of

Lot; and in short, you never hear one Word more of either of them

after it; as for Mankind, both were useless to them, and as to

themselves, we never read of any of their Repentance, nor have we much

Reason to believe they did repent.



From this Attack of the Devil upon Lot, we hear no more of the

Devil being so busily employ'd as he had been before in the World; he

had indeed but little to do, for all the rest of the World was his own,

lull'd asleep under the Witchcraft of Idolatry, and are so still.



But it could not be long that the Devil lay idle; as soon as God

call'd himself a People, the Devil could not be at Rest; till he

attack'd them.



'Wherever God sets up a House of Prayer,

'The Devil always builds a Chapel there.





Abraham indeed went off the Stage free, and so did Isaac too, they

were a Kind of first Rate Saints; we do not so much as read of any

failing they had, or of any Thing the Devil had ever the Face to offer

to them; no, or with Jacob either, if you will excuse him for

beguiling his Brother Esau, of both his Birthright and his Blessing,

but he was busy enough with all his Children; for Example,



* * * * *



He sent Judah to his Sheep-shearing, and placed a Whore (Tamar)

in his Way, in the Posture of Temptation, so made him commit

Incest and Whoredom both together.



He sent incestuous Reuben to lie with his Father's Concubine

Billah.



He sent Dinah to the Ball, to dance with the Sichemite Ladies,

and play the Whore with their Master.



He enrag'd Simeon and Levi, at the supposed Injury, and then

prompted them to Revenge, for which their Father heartily cursed

them.



He set them all together to fall upon poor Joseph, first to

murther him intentionally, and then actually sell him to the

Midianites.



He made them shew the Party-colour'd Coat, and tell a lie to their

Father, to make the poor old Man believe Joseph was kill'd by a

Lion, &c.



He sent Potiphar's Wife to attack Joseph's Chastity, and fill'd

her with Rage at the Disappointment.



He taught Joseph to swear by the Life of Pharoah.



* * * * *



In a Word, he debauch'd the whole Race, except Benjamin, and never Man

had such a Set of Sons, so wicked and so notorious, after so good an

Introduction into the World as they all of them had, to be sure; for

Jacob, no doubt, gave them as good Instruction as the Circumstances of

his wandring Condition would allow him to do.



We must now consider the Devil and his Affairs in a quite differing

Situation: When the World first appeared peopled by the creating Power

of God, he had only Adam and Eve to take care of, and I think he

ply'd his Time with them to purpose enough: After the Deluge he had

Noah only to pitch upon, and he quickly conquer'd him by the

Instigation of his Grandson.



At the Building of Babel he guided them by their acting all in a Body

as one Man; so that in short he manag'd them with ease, taking them as a

Body politic; and we find they came into his Snare as one Man; but Now,

the Children of Israel multiplying in the Land of their Bondage, and

God seeming to shew a particular Concern for them, the Devil was

oblig'd to new Measures, stand at a Distance, and look on for some Time.



The Egyptians were plagued even without his Help, nor tho' the cunning

Artist, as I said, stood and looked on, yet he durst not meddle; nor

could he make a few Lice, the least and meanest of the Armies of Insects

raised to afflict the Egyptians.



However, when he perceiv'd that God resolved to bring the Israelites

out, he prepar'd to attend them, to watch them, and be at Hand upon all

the wicked Occasions that might offer, as if he had been fully satisfied

such Occasions would offer, and that he should not fail to have an

Opportunity to draw them into some Snare or another, and that therefore

it was his Business not to be out of the Way, but to be ready (as we

say) to make his Market of them in the best Manner he could: How many

Ways he attempted them, nay, how many Times he conquer'd them in their

Journey, we shall see presently.



First he put them in a fright at Baal-Zephon, where he thought he had

drawn them into a Noose, and where he sent Pharoah and his Army to

block them up between the Mountains of Piahiroth and the Red Sea;

but there indeed Satan was outwitted by Moses, so far as it appeared

to be a humane Action, for he little thought of their going dry footed

thro' the Sea, but depended upon having them all cut in Pieces the

next Morning by the Egyptians; an eminent Proof, by the Way, that

the Devil has no Knowledge of Events, or any Insight into Futurity;

nay that he has not so much as a second Sight, or knows to Day what his

Maker intends to do to Morrow; for had Satan known that God intended

to Ford them over the Sea, if he had not been able to have prevented the

Miracle, he would certainly have prevented the Escape, by sending out

Pharoah and his Army time enough to have taken the Strand before them,

and so have driven them to the Necessity of travelling on Foot round the

North Point of that Sea, by the Wilderness of Etan, where he would

have pursu'd and harrass'd them with his Cavalry, and in all Probability

have destroy'd them: But the blind short-sighted Devil, perfectly in the

Dark, and unacquainted with Futurity, knew nothing of the Matter, was as

much deceiv'd as Pharoah himself, stood still flattering himself with

the Hopes of his Booty, and the Revenge he should take upon them the

next Morning; till he saw the frighted Waves in an Uproar, and to his

utter Astonishment and Confusion saw the Passage laid open, and Moses

leading his vast Army in full March over the dry Space; nay even then

'tis very propable Satan did not know that if the Egyptians follow'd

them, the Sea would return upon and overwhelm them; for I can hardly

think so hard of the Devil himself, that if he had, he would have

suffer'd, much less prompted Pharoah to follow the Chase at such an

Expence; so that either he must be an ignorant unforeseeing Devil, or a

very ungrateful false Devil to his Friends the Egyptians.



I am enclin'd also to the more charitable Opinion of Satan too, because

the Escape of the Israelites was really a Triumph over himself; for

the War was certainly his, or at least he was auxiliary to Pharoah,

it was a Victory over Hell and Egypt together, and he would never

have suffer'd the Disgrace, if he had known it beforehand; that is to

say, tho' he could not have prevented the Escape of Israel, or the

dividing the Water, yet he might have warn'd the Egyptians, and

cautioned them not to venture in after them.



But we shall see a great many weak Steps taken by the Devil in the

Affair of this very People and their forty Years Wandring in the

Wilderness; and tho' he was in some things successful, and wheedled them

into many foolish and miserable Murmurings and Wranglings against God,

and Mutinies against poor Moses, yet the Devil was oftentimes

baulk'd and disappointed; and 'tis for this Reason that I choose to

finish the first Part of his History with the particular Relation of his

Behaviour among the Jews, because also, we do not find any

extraordinary Things happening any where else in the World for above one

thousand five hundred Years, no Variety, no Revolutions; all the Rest of

Mankind lay still under his Yoke, quietly submitted to his Government,

did just as he bad them, worship'd every Idol he set up, and in a Word,

he had no Difficulty with any Body but the Jews, and for this Reason,

I say, this Part of his Story will be the more useful and instructing.



To return therefore to Moses and his dividing the Red Sea; that the

People went over or thro' it, that we have the sacred History for; but

how the Devil behav'd, that you must come to me for, or I know not where

you will find a true Account of it, at least not in Print.



1. It was in the Night they march'd thro', whether the Devil saw it in

the Dark or no, that's not my Business.



But when he had Day-Light for it, and view'd the next Day's Work, I make

no Question but all Hell felt the Surprise, the Prey being thus

snatch'd out of their Hands unexpectedly. 'Tis true the Egyptians Host

was sent to him in their Room, but that was not what he aim'd at; for he

was sure enough of them his own Way, and if it was not just at that

Time, yet he knew what and who they were; but as he had devour'd the

whole Israelitish Host in his Imagination, to the Tune of at least a

Million and a half of Souls; Men, Women and Children; it was, no doubt,

a great Disappointment to the Devil to miss of his Prey, and to see them

all triumphing on the other Side in Safety.



It is true, Satan's Annals do not mention this Defeat, for Historians

are generally backward to register their own Misfortunes; but as we have

an Account of the Fact from other Hands, so as we cannot question the

Truth of it; the Nature of the Thing will tell us it was a

Disappointment to the Devil, and a very great one too.



I cannot but observe here, that I think this Part of the Devil's Story

very entertaining, because of the great Variety of Incidents which

appear in every Part of it; sometimes he is like a hunted Fox,

curvetting and counter-running to avoid his being pursued and found out,

while at the same time he is carrying on his secret Designs to draw the

People he pretends to manage, into some Snare or other to their Hurt; at

another time, tho' the Comparison is a little too low for his Dignity,

like a Monkey that has done Mischief, and who making his own Escape sits

and chatters at a Distance, as if he had triump'd in what he had done;

so Satan, when he had drawn them in to worship a Calf, to offer strange

Fire, to set up a Schism, and the like; and so to bring the Divine

Vengeance upon themselves, leaving them in their Distress, kept at a

Distance, as if he look'd on with Satisfaction to see them Burnt,

swallow'd up, swept away, and the like; as the several Stories relate.



His indefatigable Vigilance is, on the other hand, a useful Caveat, as

well as an improving View to us; no sooner is he routed and expos'd,

defeated and disappointed in one Enterprize, but he begins another, and,

like a cunning Gladiator, warily defends himself, and boldly attacks his

Enemy at the same time. Thus we see him, up and down, conquering and

conquered, thro' this whole Part of his Story, till at last he receives

a total Defeat; of which you shall hear in its place: In the mean time,

let us take up his Story again at the Red Sea, where he receiv'd a

great Blow, instead of which he expected a compleat Victory; for

doubtless the Devil and the King of AEgypt too, thought of nothing but

Conquest at Piahiroth.



However, tho' the Triumph of the Israelites over the Egyptians must

needs be a great Mortification to the Devil, and exasperated him very

much, yet the Consequence was only this, viz. that Satan, like an

Enemy who is baulk'd and defeated, but not overcome, redoubles his Rage,

and reinforces his Army, and what the Egyptians could not do for him,

he resolves to do for himself; in order then to take his Opportunity for

what Mischief might offer, being defeated, and provok'd, I say, at the

Slur that was put upon him, he resolves to follow them into the

Wilderness, and many a vile Prank he plaid them there; as first, he

straitens them for Water, and makes them murmur against GOD, and against

Moses, within a very few Days, nay, Hours, of their great Deliverance

of all.



Nor was this all, but in less than one Year more we find them, (at his

Instigation too) setting up a golden Calf, and making all the People

dance about it at Mount Sinai; even when God himself had but just

before appear'd to them in the Terrors of a burning Fire upon the Top of

the Mountain; and what was the Pretence? Truly, nothing but that they

had lost Moses, who used to be their Guide, and he had hid himself in

the Mount, and had not been seen in forty Days, so that they could not

tell what was become of him. This put them all into Confusion; a poor

Pretence indeed, to turn them all back to Idolatry! but the watchful

Devil took the Hint, push'd the Advantage, and insinuated that they

should never see Moses again, that he was certainly devour'd by

venturing too near the Flashes of Fire in the Mount, and presuming upon

the Liberty he had taken before; in a word, that God had destroyed

Moses, or he was starved to Death for want of Food, having been forty

Days and forty Nights absent.



All these were, it's true, in themselves most foolish Suggestions,

considering Moses was admitted to the Vision of God, and that God had

been pleased to appear to him in the most intimate manner; that as they

might depend God would not destroy his faithful Servant, so they might

have concluded he was able to support his Being without Food as long as

he thought fit; but to a People so easy to believe any thing, what could

be too gross for the Devil to persuade them to?



A People who could dance round a Calf, and call it their God, might do

any thing; that could say to one another, that this was the Great

JEHOVAH, that brought them out of the Land of Egypt; and that within

so few Days after God's miraculous Appearance to them, and for them; I

say, such a People were really fitted to be imposed upon, nothing could

be too gross for them.



This was indeed his first considerable Experiment upon them as a

People, or as a Body; and the Truth is, his Affairs requir'd it, for

Satan, who had been a Successful Devil in most of his Attempts upon

Mankind, could hardly doubt of Success in any thing after he had carried

his Point at Mount Sinai: To bring them to Idolatry in the very Face

of their Deliverer, and just after their Deliverance! It was more

astonishing in the main than even their passing the Red Sea: In a

Word, the Devil's whole History does not furnish us with a Story

equally surprising.



And how was poor Aaron bewilder'd in it too? He that was Moses's

Partner in all the great Things that Moses did in Pharaoh's Sight,

and that was appointed to be his Assistant and Oracle, or Orator

rather, upon all public Occasions; that he, above all the rest, should

come into this absurd and ridiculous Proposal, he that was singled out

for the sacred Priesthood, for him to defile his holy Hands with a

polluted abominable Sacrifice, and with making the Idol for them too,

(for 'tis plain that he made it,) how monstrous it was!



And see what an Answer he gives to his Brother Moses, how weak! how

simple! I did so and so, indeed, I bad them bring the Ear-rings, &c.

and I cast the Gold into the Fire, and it came out this Calf.

Ridiculous! as if the Calf came out by meer fortuitous Adventure,

without a Mould to cast it in; which could not be supposed: And if it

had not come out so without a Mould, Moses would certainly have known

of it; had Aaron been innocent, he would have answered after quite

another manner, and told Moses honestly that the whole Body of the

People came to him in a Fright, that they forced him to make them an

Idol; which he did, by making first a proper Mould to cast it in, and

then taking the proper Metal to cast it from: That indeed he had sinn'd

in so doing, but that he was mobb'd into it, and the People terrified

him, perhaps they threatned to kill him; and if he had added, that the

Devil prompting his Fear beguil'd him, he had said nothing but what

was certainly true; for if it was in Satan's Power to make the People

insolent and outrageous enough to threaten and bully the old venerable

Prophet (for he was not yet a Priest) who was the Brother of their

Oracle Moses, and had been Partner with him in so many of his

Commissions; I say, if he cou'd bring up the Passions of the People to a

Height to be rude and unmannerly to him (Aaron) and perhaps to

threaten and insult him, he may be easily suppos'd to be able to

intimidate Aaron, and terrify him into a Compliance.



See this cunning Agent, when he has Man's Destruction in his View, how

securely he acts! he never wants a handle; the best of Men have one weak

place or other, and he always finds it out, takes the Advantage of it,

and conquers them by one Artifice or another; only take it with you as

you go, 'tis always by Stratagem, never by Force; a Proof that he is

not empower'd to use Violence: He may tempt, and he does prevail; but

'tis all Legerdemain, 'tis all Craft and Artifice, he is still Diabole,

the Calumniator and Deceiver, that is, the Misrepresenter; he

misrepresents Man to GOD, and misrepresents GOD to Man, also he

misrepresents Things; he puts false Colours, and then manages the Eye to

see them with an imperfect View, raising Clouds and Fogs to intercept

our Sight; in short, he deceives all our Senses, and imposes upon us in

Things which otherwise would be the easiest to discern and judge of.



This indeed is in part the Benefit of the Devil's History, to let us

see that he has used the same Method all along; and that ever since he

has had any thing to do with Mankind, he has practis'd upon them with

Stratagem and Cunning; also 'tis observable that he has carried his

Point better that way than he would have done by Fury and Violence, if

he had been allowed to make use of it; for by his Power indeed he might

have laid the World desolate, and made a Heap of Rubbish of it long ago;

but, as I have observed before, that would not have answered his Ends

half so well, for by destroying Men he would have made Martyrs, and sent

abundance of good Men to Heaven, who would much rather have died, than

yielded to serve him, and, as he aimed to have it, to fall down and

worship him; I say, he would have made Martyrs, and that not a few: But

this was none of Satan's Business; his Design lies quite another Way;

his Business is to make Men sin, not to make them suffer; to make

Devils of them, not Saints; to delude them, and draw them away from

their Maker, not send them away to him; and therefore he works by

Stratagem, not by Force.



We are now come to his Story, as it relates to the Jewish Church in

the Wilderness, and to the Children of Israel in their travelling

Circumstances; and this was the first Scene of publick Management that

the Devil had upon his Hands in the World; for, as I have said, till

now, he dealt with Mankind either in their separate Condition, one by

one, or else carried all before him, engrossing whole Nations in his

Systems of Idolatry, and overwhelming them in an ignorant Destruction.



But having now a whole People as it were snatch'd away from him, taken

out of his Government, and, which was still worse, having a View of a

Kingdom being set up independent of him, and superior to his Authority,

it is not to be wondred at if he endeavour'd to overthrow them in the

Infancy of their Constitution, and tried all possible Arts to bring them

back into his own Hands again.



He found them not only carried away from the Country where they were

even in his Clutches, surrounded with Idols, and where we have Reason to

believe the greatest part of them were polluted with the Idolatry of the

Egyptians; for we do not read of any stated Worship which they had of

their own, or if they did worship the true God, we scarce know in what

manner they did it; they had no Law given them, nothing but the Covenant

of Circumcision, and even Moses himself had not strictly observ'd

that, till he was frighted into it; we read of no Sacrifices among them,

no Feasts were ordain'd, no solemn Worship appointed, and how, or in

what manner they perform'd their Homage, we know not; the Passover was

not ordain'd till just at their coming away; so that there was not much

Religion among them, at least that we have any Account of; and we may

suppose the Devil was pretty easy with them all the while they were in

the House of their Bondage.



But now, to have a Million of People fetch'd out of his Hands, as it

were all at once, and to have the immediate Power of Heaven engaged in

it, and that Satan saw evidently God had singled them out in a

miraculous manner to favour them, and call them his own; this allarm'd

him at once, and therefore he resolves to follow them, lay close Siege

to them, and take all the Measures possible to bring them to rebel

against, and disobey GOD, that he might be provok'd to destroy them; and

how near he went to bring it to pass, we shall see presently.



This making a Calf, and paying an idolatrous Worship to it (for they

acted the Heathens and Idolaters, not in the setting up the Calf only,

but in the manner of their Worshiping, viz. Dancing and Musick,

Things they had not been acquainted with in the Worship of the true God)

I mention here, to observe how the Devil not only imposed upon their

Principles, but upon their Senses too; as if the awful Majesty of

Heaven, whose Glory they had seen in Mount Sinai, where they stood,

and whose Pillar of Cloud and Fire was their Guide and Protection, would

be worship'd by dancing round a Calf! and that not a living Creature, or

a real Calf, but the mere Image of a Calf cast in Gold, or, as some

think, in Brass gilded over.



But this was the Devil's Way with Mankind, namely, to impose upon

their Senses, and bring them into the grossest Follies and Absurdities;

and then, having first made them Fools, it was much the easier to make

them Offenders.



In this very manner he acted with them thro' all the Course of their

Wilderness Travels; for as they were led by the Hand like Children,

defended by Omnipotence, fed by Miracles, instructed immediately from

Heaven, and in all things had Moses for their Guide; they had no room

to miscarry, but by acting the greatest Absurdities, and committing the

greatest Follies in Nature; and even these, the Devil brought them to

be guilty of, in a surprising manner: 1. As GOD himself reliev'd them in

every Exigence, and supply'd them in every Want, one would think 'twas

impossible they should be ever brought to question either his

Willingness or his Ability, and yet they really objected against both;

which was indeed very provoking, and I doubt not, that when the Devil

had brought them to act in such a preposterous Manner, he really hoped

and believed God would be provok'd effectually: The Testimonies of his

Care of them, and Ability to supply them, were miraculous and

undeniable; he gave them Water from the Rock, Bread from the Air, sent

the Fowls to feed them with Flesh, and supported them all the Way by

Miracles; their Health was preserv'd, none were sick among them, their

clothes did not wear out, nor their Shoes grow old upon their Feet;

could any thing be more absurd, than to doubt whether he could provide

for them who had never let them want for so many Years?



But the Devil managed them in spight of Miracles; nor did he ever give

them over till he had brought six hundred thousand of them to provoke

God so highly that he would not suffer above two of them to go into the

Land of Promise; so that in short, Satan gained his Point as to that

Generation, for all their Carcasses fell in the Wilderness. Let us take

but a short View to what a Height he brought 'em, and in what a rude,

absurd Manner they acted; how he set them upon murmuring upon every

Occasion, now for Water, then for Bread; nay, they murmured at their

Bread when they had it; Our Soul loaths this light Bread.



He sow'd the Seeds of Church-Rebellion in the Sons of Aaron, and made

Nadab and Abihu offer strange Fire till they were strangely consumed

by Fire for the doing it.



He set them a complaining at Taberah, and a lusting for Flesh at the

first three Days Journey from Mount Sinai.



He planted Envy in the Hearts of Miriam and Aaron, against the

Authority of Moses, to pretend GOD had spoke by them as well as by

him, till he humbled the Father, and made a Leper of the Daughter.



He debauch'd ten of the Spies, frighted them with sham Appearances of

Things, when they went out to search the Land; and made them fright the

whole People out of their Understanding as well as Duty, for which six

hundred thousand of their Carcasses fell in the Wilderness.



He rais'd the Rebellion of Korah, and the two hundred and fifty

Princes, till he brought them to be swallowed up alive.



He put Moses into a Passion at Meribah, and ruffled the Temper of

the meekest Man upon Earth, by which he made both him and Aaron

forfeit their Share of the Promise, and be shut out from the Holy

Land.



He rais'd a Mutiny among them when they travelled from Mount Hor, till

they brought fiery Serpents among them to destroy them.



He tried to make Baalim the Prophet curse them, but there the Devil

was disappointed: However, he brought the Midianites to debauch them

with Women, as in the Case of Zimri and Cosbi.



He tempted Achan with the Wedge of Gold, and the Babylonish Garment,

that he might take of the accursed thing, and be destroy'd.



He tempted the whole People, not effectually to drive out the cursed

Inhabitants of the Land of Promise, that they might remain, and be Goads

in their Sides, till at last they often oppress'd them for their

Idolatry; and, which was worse, debauched them to Idolatry.



He prompted the Benjamites to refuse Satisfaction to the People, in

the Case of the Wickedness of the Men of Gibeah, to the Destruction of

the whole Tribe, four hundred Men excepted in the Rock Rimmon.



At last he tempted them to reject the Theocracy of their Maker, and call

upon Samuel to make them a King; and most of those Kings he made

Plagues and Sorrows to them in their time, as you shall hear in their

Order.



Thus he plagued the whole Body of the People continually, making them

sin against God, and bring Judgments upon themselves, to the consuming

some Millions of them, first and last, by the Vengeance of their Maker.



As he did with the whole Congregation, so he did with their Rulers, and

several of the Judges, who were made Instruments to deliver the People,

yet were drawn into snares by this subtil Serpent, to ruin themselves

or the People they had delivered.



He tempted Gideon to make an Ephod, contrary to the Law of the

Tabernacle, and made the Children of Israel go a whoring (that is, a

worshiping) after it.



He tempted Sampson to debauch himself with a Harlot, and betray his

own happy Secret to a Whore, at the Expence of both his Eyes, and at

last of his Life.



He tempted Eli's Sons to lie with the Women, in the very Doors of the

Tabernacle, when they came to bring their Offerings to the Priest; and

he tempted poor Eli to connive at them, or not sufficiently reprove

them.



He tempted the People to carry the Ark of God into the Camp, that it

might fall into the Hands of the Philistines. And



He tempted Uzzi to reach out his Hand to hold it up; as if he that had

preserved it in the House of Dagon the Idol of the Philistines,

could not keep it from falling out of the Cart.



When the People had gotten a King, he immediately set to work in diverse

Ways to bring that King to load them with Plagues and Calamities not a

few.



He tempted Saul to spare the King of Amaliek, contrary to God's

express Command.



He not tempted Saul only, but possessed him with an evil Spirit, by

which he was left to wayward Dispositions, and was forced to have it

fiddl'd out of him with a Minstrel.



He tempted Saul with a Spirit of Discontent, and with a Spirit of Envy

at poor David, to hunt him like a Partridge upon the Mountains.



He tempted Saul with a Spirit of Divination, and sent him to a Witch

to enquire of Samuel for him; as if God would help him when he was

dead, that had forsaken him when he was alive.



After that, he tempted him to kill himself, on a Pretence that he might

not fall into the Hands of the Uncircumcised; as if Self-Murther was

not half so bad, either for Sin against God, or Disgrace among Men, as

being taken Prisoner by a Philistine! A Piece of Madness none but the

Devil could have brought Mankind to submit to, tho' some Ages after

that, he made it a Fashion among the Romans.



After Saul was dead, and David came to the Throne, by how much he

was a Man chosen and particularly savoured by Heaven, the Devil fell

upon him with the more Vigour, attack'd him so many Ways, and conquer'd

him so very often, that as no Man was so good a King, so hardly any good

King was ever a worse Man; in many Cases one would have almost thought

the Devil had made Sport with David, to shew how easily he could

overthrow the best Man God could choose of the whole Congregation.



He made him distrust his Benefactor so much as to feign himself mad

before the King of Gath, when he had fled to him for Shelter.



He made him march with his four hundred Cut-throats, to cut off poor

Nabal, and all his Houshold, only because he would not send him the

good Chear he had provided for his honest Sheep-shearers.



He made him, for his Word's sake, give Ziba half his Master's Estate

for his Treachery, after he knew he had been the Traitor, and betray'd

poor Mephibosheth for the sake of it; in which



'The good old King, it seems, was very loth

'To break his Word, and therefore broke his Oath.





Then he tempted him to the ridiculous Project of numbring the People,

tho' against God's express Command; a Thing Joab himself was not

wicked enough to do, till David and the Devil forc'd him to it.



And to make him compleatly wicked, he carried him to the Top of his

House, and shew'd him a naked Lady bathing her self in her Garden, in

which it appear'd that the Devil knew David too well, and what was

the particular Sin of his Inclination; and so took him by the Right

Handle; drawing him at once into the Sins of Murther and Adultery.



Then, that he might not quite give him over, (tho' David's Repentance

for the last Sin kept the Devil off for a while) when he could attack

him no farther personally he fell upon him in his Family, and made him

as miserable as he could desire him to be, in his Children, three of

whom he brought to Destruction before his Face, and another after his

Death.



First, he tempted Ammon to ravish his Sister Tamar; so, there was an

End of her (poor Girl!) as to this World, for we never hear any more

of her.



Then he tempted Absalom to murther his Brother Amnon, in Revenge for

Tamar's Maidenhead.



Then he made Joab run Absalom thro' the Body, contrary to David's

Command.



And after David's Death he brought Adonija (weak Man!) to the Block,

for usurping King Solomon's Throne.



As to Absalom, he tempted him to Rebellion, and raising War against

his Father, to the turning him shamefully out of Jerusalem, and almost

out of the Kingdom.



He tempted him, for David's farther Mortification, to lie with his

Father's Wives, in the Face of the whole City; and had Achitophel's

honest Council been follow'd, he had certainly sent him to Sleep with

his Fathers, long before his time--But there Satan and Achitophel

were both out-witted together.



Thro' all the Reigns of the several Successors of David, the Devil

took care to carry on his own Game, to the continual insulting the

Measures which God himself had taken for the establishing his People in

the World, and especially as a Church; till at last he so effectually

debauch'd them to Idolatry; that Crime which of all others was most

provoking to GOD, as it was carrying the People away from their

Allegiance, and transposing the Homage they ow'd God their Maker, to a

contemptible Block of Wood, or an Image of a brute Beast; and this how

sordid and brutish soever it was in it self, yet so did his Artifice

prevail among them, that, first or last, he brought them all into it,

the ten Tribes as well as the two Tribes; till at last God himself was

provoked to unchurch them, gave them up to their Enemies, and the few

that were left of them, after incredible Slaughters and Desolation,

were hurried away, some into Tartary, and others into Babylon, from

whence very few, of that few that were carried away, ever found their

Way Home again; and some, when they might have come, would not accept of

it, but continued there to the very coming of the Messiah. See Epistles

of St. James and of St. Peter, at the Beginning.



But to look a little back upon this Part (for it cannot be omitted, it

makes so considerable a Part of the Devil's History) I mean his

drawing God's People, Kings and all, into all the Sins and Mischiefs

which gradually contributed to their Destruction.



First, (for he began immediately with the very best and wisest of the

Race) he drew in King Solomon, in the midst of all his Zeal for the

building God's House, and for the making the most glorious and

magnificent Appearance for God's Worship that ever the World saw; I say,

in the middle of all this, he drew him into such immoderate and

insatiable an Appetite for Women, as to set up the first, and perhaps

the greatest Seraglio of Whores that ever any Prince in the World had,

or pretended to before; nay, and to bring whoring so much into

Reputation, that, as the Text says, seven hundred of them were

Princesses; that is to say, Ladies of Quality: Not as the Grand

Seigniors, and Great Moguls, (other Princes of the Eastern World) have

since practised, namely, to pick up their most beautiful Slaves; but

these, it seems, were Women of Rank, King's Daughters, as Pharaoh's

Daughter, and the Daughters of the Princes and prime Men among the

Moabites, Ammonites, Zidonians, Hittites, &c. 1 Kings xi. 1.



Nor was this all; but as he drew him into the Love of these forbidden

Women (for such they were, as to their Nation, as well as Number) so

he ensnar'd him by those Women to a Familiarity with their Worship; and

by degrees brought that famous Prince (famous for his Wisdom) to be the

greatest and most-impos'd-upon old Fool in the World; Bowing down to

those Idols by the Inticing of his Whores, whom he had abhorr'd and

detested in his Youth, as dishonouring that God for whom, and for whose

Worship he had finish'd and dedicated the most magnificent Building and

Temple in the World: Nothing but the invincible Subtlety of this Arch

Devil could ever have brought such a Man as Solomon to such a

Degeneracy of Manners, and to such Meannesses; no, not the Devil

himself, without the Assistance of his Whores, nor the Whores

themselves, without the Devil to help them.



As to Solomon, Satan had made Conquest enough there, we need hear no

more of him; the next Advance he made, was in the Person of his Son

Rehoboam; had not the Devil prompted his Pride and tyrannical

Humour, he would never have given the People such an Answer as he did;

and when he saw a Fellow at the Head of them too whom he knew wanted and

waited for an Occasion to raise a Rebellion, and had ripened up the

People's Humour to the Occasion: Well might the Text call it listening

to the Council of the young Heads; that it was indeed with a Vengeance!

but those young Heads too were acted by an old Devil, who for his

Craft is called, as I have observ'd, the Old Serpent.



Having thus pav'd the Way, Jeroboam revolts. So far God had directed

him; for the Text says expressly, speaking in the first Person of GOD

himself, This Thing is of Me.



But tho' God might appoint Jeroboam to be King, (that is to say, of

ten Tribes,) yet GOD did not appoint him to set up the two Calves in

the two extreme Parts of the Land, viz. in Dan, and in Bethel;

that was Jeroboam's own doing, and done on purpose to keep the People

from falling back to Rehoboam, by being obliged to go to Jerusalem

to the publick Worship: And the Text adds, Jeroboam made Israel to

sin. This was indeed a Master-piece of the Devil's Policy, and it was

effectual to answer the End, nothing could have been more to the

Purpose; what Reason he had to expect the People would so universally

come into it, and be so well satisfied with a couple of Calves, instead

of the true Worship of GOD at Jerusalem; or what Arts and Management

he (Satan) made use of afterwards, to bring the People in, to join

with such a Delusion, that we find but little of in all the Annals of

Satan; not is it much to the Case: 'Tis certain the Devil found a

strange kind of Propensity to worshiping Idols rooted in the Temper of

that whole People, even from their first breaking away from the

Egyptian Bondage; so that he had nothing to do but to work upon the

old Stock, and propagate the Crime that he found was so natural to them.

And this is Satan's general Way of working, not with them only, but

with us also, and with all the World, even then, and ever since.



When he had thus secur'd Jeroboam's Revolt, we need not trace him

among his Successors; for the same Reason of State that held for the

setting up the Calves at Bethel and Dan, held good for the keeping

them up, to all Jeroboam's Posterity; nor had they one good King ever

after; even Jehu, who call'd his Friends to come and see his Zeal for

the Lord, and who fulfill'd the Threatnings of God upon Ahab and his

Family, and upon Queen Jezabel and her Offspring, and knew all the

while that he was executing the Judgment of the true God upon an

idolatrous Race; yet he would not part with his Calves, but would have

thought it to have been parting with his Kingdom, and that as the People

would have gone up to Jerusalem to worship, so they would at the same

Time have transfer'd their civil Obedience to the King of Judah,

(whose Right it really was, as far as they could claim by Birth and

right Line); so that by the way, Satan any more than other

Politicians, is not for the jus divinum of lineal Succession, or what

we call hereditary Right, any farther than serves for his Purpose.



Thus Satan ridded his Hands of ten of the twelve Tribes; let us now see

how he went on with the rest, for his Work was now brought into a

narrower Compass; the Church of God was now reduc'd to two Tribes,

except a few religious People, who separated from the Schism of

Jeroboam, and came and planted themselves among the Tribes of Judah

and Benjamin: The first thing the Devil did after this, was to foment

a War between the two Kings, while Judah was governed by a Boy or

Youth, Abija by Name, and he none of the best neither; but God's Time

was not come, and the Devil receiv'd a great Disappointment; when

Jeroboam was so entirely overthrown; that if the Records of those Ages

do not mistake, no less than 500000 Men of Israel were kill'd, such a

Slaughter, that one would think the Army of Judah, had they known how

to improve as well as gain a Victory, might have brought all the rest

back again, and have intirely reduc'd the House of Jeroboam and the

ten Tribes that follow'd him to their Obedience; nay they did take a

great deal of the Country from them, and among the rest Bethel it

self; and yet so cunningly did Satan manage, that the King of Judah,

who was himself a wicked King, and perhaps an Idolater in his Heart, did

not take down the golden Calf that Jeroboam had there, no nor destroy

the Idolatry it self, so that in short, his Victory signified nothing.



From hence to the Captivity, we find the Devil busy with the Kings of

Judah, especially the best of them; as for such as Manasseth, and

those who transgress'd by the general Tenor of their Lives, those he had



no great trouble with.



But such as Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, he hung

about them and their Courts, till he brought every one of them into some

Mischief or another.



As first, good King Asa, of whom the Scripture says, his Heart was

perfect all his Days, yet this subtle Spirit, that could break in upon

him no where else, tempted him when the King of Israel came out

against him, to send to hire Benhadad the King of Syria to help him;

as if GOD who had before enabled him to conquer the Ethiopians, with

an Army of ten hundred thousand Men, could not have saved him from the

King of the ten Tribes.



In the same manner he tempted Jehoshaphat to join with that wicked

King Ahab against the King of Syria, and also to marry his Son to

Ahab's Daughter, which was fatal to Jehoshaphat, and to his

Posterity.



Again, He tempted Hezekiah to shew all his Riches to the King of

Babylon's Messengers; and who can doubt, but that he (Satan) is to

be understood by the wicked Spirit which stood before the Lord, 2

Chron. xviii. 20. and offered his Service to entice Ahab the King of

Israel to come out to Battle to his Ruin, by being a lying Spirit in

the Mouths of all his Prophets; and who for that Time had a special

Commission, as he had another Time in the Case of Job? and indeed it

was a Commission fit for no body but the Devil: Thou shalt entice

him, and thou shalt also prevail: Go out and do even so, ver. 21.



Even good Josiah himself, of whom it is recorded, that like him there

was no King before him, neither after him arose there any like him, 2

Kings xxiii. 26. yet the Devil never left him with his Machinations,

till finding he could not tempt him to any Thing wicked in his

Government, he tempted or mov'd him to a needless War with the King of

Egypt, in which he lost his Life.



From the Death of this good King, the Devil prevail'd so with the

whole Nation of the Jews, and brought them to such an incorrigible

Pitch of Wickedness, that God gave them up, forsook his Habitation of

Glory, the Temple, which he suffer'd to be spoil'd first, then burnt and

demolish'd; destroying the whole Nation of the Jews, except a small

Number that were left, and those the Enemy carried away into Captivity.



Nor was he satisfied with this general Destruction of the whole People

of Israel, for the ten Tribes were gone before; but he follow'd them

even into their Captivity; those that fled away to Egypt, which they

tell us were seventy thousand, he first corrupted, and then they were

destroyed there upon the Overthrow of Egypt, by the same King of

Babylon.



Also he went very near to have them rooted out, young and old, Man,

Woman and Child, who were in Captivity in Babylon, by the Ministry of

that true Agent of Hell, Haman the Agagite; but there Satan met

with a Disappointment too, as in the Story of Hester, which was but

the fourth that he had met with, in all his Management since the

Creation; I say, there he was disappointed, and his prime Minister

Haman was exalted, as he deserv'd.



Having thus far traced the Government and Dominion of the Devil, from

the Creation of Man to the Captivity; I think I may call upon him to set

up his Standard of universal Empire, at that Period; it seem'd just then

as if God had really forsaken the Earth, and given the entire Dominion

of Mankind up to his outrageous Enemy the Devil; for excepting the few

Israelites which were left in the Territories of the King of

Babylon, and they were but a few; I say, except among them, there was

not one Corner of the World left where the true God was call'd upon, or

his Dominion so much as acknowledg'd; all the World was buried in

Idolatry, and that of so many horrid Kinds, that one would think, the

Light of Reason should have convinc'd Mankind, that he who exacted such

bloody Sacrifices as that of Moloch, and such a bloody cutting

themselves with Knives, as the Priests of Baal did, could not be a

GOD, a good and beneficent Being, but must be a cruel, voracious and

devouring Devil, whose End was not the Good, but the Destruction of his

Creatures: But to such a Height was the blind demented World arriv'd to

at that Time, that in these sordid and corrupt Ways, they went on

worshiping dumb Idols, and offering human Sacrifices to them, and in a

Word, committing all the most horrid and absurd Abominations that they

were capable of, or that the Devil could prompt them to, till Heaven

was again put, as it were, to the Necessity of bringing about a

Revolution, in favour of his own forsaken People, by Miracle and

Surprize, as he had done before.



We come therefore to the Restoration or Return of the Captivity: Had

Satan been able to have acted any thing by Force, as I have observ'd

before, all the Princes and Powers of the World, having been, as they

really were, at his Devotion, he might easily have made use of them,

arm'd all the World against the Jews, and prevented the Rebuilding the

Temple, and even the Return of the Captivity.



But now the Devil's Power manifestly received a Check, and the Hand of

God appear'd in it, and that he was resolv'd to reestablish his People

the Jews, and to have a second Temple built: the Devil, who knew the

Extent of his own Power too well, and what Limitations were laid upon

him, stood still as it were looking on, and not daring to oppose the

Return of the Captivity, which he very well knew had been prophesied,

and would come to pass.



He did indeed make some little Opposition to the Building, and to the

fortifying the City, but as it was to no Purpose, so he was soon oblig'd

to give it over; and thus the Captivity being return'd, and the Temple

rebuilt, the People of the Jews encreased and multiplied to an infinite

Number and Strength; and from this Time we may say, the Power of the

Devil rather declin'd and decreas'd, than went on with Success, as it

had done before; It is true the Jews fell into Sects and Errors, and

Divisions of many Kinds, after the Return from the Captivity, and no

doubt the Devil had a great Hand in those Divisions; but he could

never bring them back to Idolatry, and his not being able to do that,

made him turn his Hand so many Ways to plague and oppress them; as

particularly by Antiochus the Great, who brought the Abomination of

Desolation into the holy Place; and there the Devil triumph'd over them

for some Time; but they were deliver'd many Ways, till at last they came

peaceably under the Protection rather than the Dominion of the Roman

Empire: When Herod the Great govern'd them as a King, and reedified,

nay almost rebuilt their Temple, with so great an Expence and

Magnificence, that he made it, as some say, greater and more glorious

than that of Solomon's, tho' that I take to be a great ---- Fable, to

say no worse of it.



In this Condition the Jewish Church stood, when the Fullness of Time,

as 'tis call'd in Scripture, was come; and the Devil was kept at Bay,

tho' he had made some Encroachments upon them as above; for there was a

glorious Remnant of Saints among them, such as old Zacharias the

Father of John the Baptist, and old Simeon, who waited for the

Salvation of Israel; I say, in this Condition the Jewish Church

stood when the Messiah came into the World, which was such another

mortal Stab to the Thrones and Principalities infernal, as that of which

I have spoken already in Chap. III. at the Creation of Man; and

therefore with this I break off the Antiquities of the Devil's

History, or the antient Part of his Kingdom; for from hence downward we

shall find his Empire has declin'd gradually; and tho' by his wonderful

Address, his prodigious Application, and the Vigilance and Fidelity of

his Instruments, as well human as infernal and diabolical, and of the

Human as well the Ecclesiastick as the Secular; he has many Times

retriev'd what he has lost, and sometimes bid fair for recovering the

universal Empire he once possess'd over Mankind; yet he has been still

defeated again, repulst and beaten back, and his Kingdom has greatly

declin'd in many Parts of the World; and especially in the Northern

Parts, except Great Britain; and how he has politically maintain'd his

Interest and encreased his Dominion among the wise and righteous

Generation that we cohabit with and among, will be the Subject of the

modern Part of Satan's History, and of which we are next to give

an Account.