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.