Of The Power Of The Devil At The Time Of The Creation Of This World

Of the Power of the Devil at the Time of the Creation of this World;

whether it has not been farther straitn'd and limited since that

Time, and what Shifts and Stratagems he is obliged to make use of to

compass his Designs upon Mankind.





Cunning Men have fabled, and tho' it be without either Religion,

Authority or physical Foundation, it may be we may like it ne'er the

worse fo that; that when God made the Stars and all the Heavenly

Luminaries, the Devil, to mimick his Maker and insult his new

Creation, made Comets, in Imitation of the fix'd Stars; but that the

Composition of them being combustible, when they came to wander in the

Abyss, rolling by an irregular ill-grounded Motion, they took Fire, in

their Approach to some of those great Bodies of Flame, the fix'd

Stars; and being thus kindled (like a Fire-work unskilfully let off)

they then took wild and excentrick, as also different Motions of their

own, out of Satan's Direction, and beyond his Power to regulate ever

after.



Let this Thought stand by it self, it matters not to our purpose whether

we believe any thing of it, or no; 'tis enough to our Case, that if

Satan had any such Power then, he has no such Power now, and that leads

me to enquire into his more recent Limitations.



I am to suppose, he and all his Accomplices being confounded at the

Discovery of the new Creation, and racking their Wits to find out the

meaning of it, had at last (no matter how) discover'd the whole

System, and concluded, as I have said, that the Creature, call'd

Man, was to be their Successor in the Heavenly Mansions; upon which I

suggest that the first Motion of Hell was to destroy this new Work, and,

if possible, to overwhelm it.



But when they came to make the Attempt, they found their Chains were not

long enough, and that they could not reach to the Extremes of the

System: They had no Power either to break the Order, or stop the Motion,

dislocate the Parts, or confound the Situation of Things; they

traversed, no doubt, the whole Work, visited every Star, landed upon

every Solid, and sail'd upon every Fluid in the whole Scheme, to see

what Mischief they could do.



Upon a long and full Survey, they came to this Point in their Enquiry,

that in short they could do nothing by Force; that they could not

displace any Part, annihilate any Atom, or destroy any Life in the whole

Creation; but that as Omnipotence had created it, so the same

Omnipotence had arm'd it at all Points against the utmost Power of Hell,

had made the smallest Creature in it invulnerable, as to Satan; so

that without the Permission of the same Power which had made Heaven,

and conquer'd the Devil, he could do nothing at all, as to destroying

any thing that God had made, no, not the little diminutive thing call'd

Man, who Satan saw so much reason to hate, as being created to succeed

him in Happiness in Heaven.



Satan found him placed out of his Power to hurt, or out of his Reach to

touch; and here, by the way, appears the second Conquest of Heaven

over the Devil; that having plac'd his Rival, as it were, just before

his Face, and shew'd the hateful sight to him, he saw written upon his

Image, Touch him if you dare.



It cannot be doubted, but, had it not been thus, Man is so far from

being a Match for the Devil, that one of Satan's least Imps or

Angels could destroy all the Race of them in the World, ay World and

all in a moment;



As he is Prince of the Power of the Air, taking the Air for the

Elementary World, how easily could he, at one Blast, sweep all the

Surface of the Earth into the Sea, or drive weighty immense Surges of

the Ocean over the whole Plane of the Earth, and deluge the Globe at

once with a Storm? Or how easily could he, who, by the Situation of the

Empire, must be supposed able to manage the Clouds, draw them up, in

such Position as should naturally produce Thunders and Lightnings, cause

those Lightnings to blast the Earth, dash in Pieces all the Buildings,

burn all the populous Towns and Cities, and lay wast the World;



At the same time he might command suited Quantities of sublimated Air to

burst out of the Bowels of the Earth, and overwhelm and swallow up, in

the opening Chasms, all the Inhabitants of the Globe?



In a Word, Satan left to himself as a Devil, and to the Power, which

by virtue of his Seraphic Original he must be vested with, was able to

have made Devilish Work in the World, if by a superior Power he was not

restrain'd.



But there is no doubt, at least to me, but that with his fall from

Heaven, as he lost the Rectitude and Glory of his Angelic Nature, I mean

his Innocence, so he lost the Power too that he had before; and that

when he first commenc'd Devil, he received the Chains of Restraint too,

as the Badge of his Apostacy, viz. a general Prohibition, to do any

thing to the Prejudice of this Creation, or to act any thing by Force or

Violence without special Permission.



This Prohibition was not sent him by a Messenger, or by an Order in

Writing, or proclaimed from Heaven by a Law; but Satan, by a strange,

invisible and unaccountable Impression felt the Restraint within him;

and at the same time that his moral Capacity was not taken away, yet his

Power of exerting that Capacity felt the Restraint, and left him unable

to do, even what he was able to do at the same time.



I make no question, but the Devil is sensible of this Restraint, that is

to say, not as it is a restraint only, or as an effect of his

Expulsion from Heaven; But as it prevents his Capital Design against

Man, who, for the Reason I have given already, he entertains a mortal

Hatred of, and would destroy with all his Heart, if he might; and

therefore, like a chain'd Mastiff, we find him oftentimes making a

horrid hellish Clamour and Noise, barking and howling, and frighting the

People, letting them know, that if he was loose he would tear them in

pieces; but at the same time his very Fury shakes his Chain, which lets

them know, to their Satisfaction, he can only Bark, but cannot Bite.



Some are of Opinion that the Devil is not restrain'd so much by the

superior Power of his Sovereign and Maker; but that all his milder

Measures with Man are the effect of a political Scheme, and done upon

mature Deliberation; that it was resolved to act thus, in the great

Council or P----t of Devils, call'd upon this very Occasion, when they

first were inform'd of the Creation of Man; and especially when they

considered what kind of Creature he was, and what might probably be the

Reason of making him, (viz.) to fill up the Vacancies in Heaven; I

say, that then the Devils resolv'd, that it was not for their

Interest to fall upon him with Fury and Rage, and so destroy the

Species, for that this would be no Benefit at all to them, and would

only cause another original Man to be created; for that they knew GOD

could, by the same Omnipotence, form as many new Species of Creatures as

he pleased; and, if he thought fit, create them in Heaven too, out of

the Reach of Devils or evil Spirits, and that therefore, to destroy

Man would no way answer their End.



On the other hand, examining strictly the Mould of this new made

Creature, and of what Materials he was form'd; how mixt up of a Nature

convertible and pervertible, capable indeed of infinite Excellence, and

consequently of eternal Felicity; but subject likewise to Corruption and

Degeneracy, and consequently to eternal Misery; That instead of being

fit to supply the Places of Satan and his rejected Tribe (the expell'd

Angels) in Heaven, and filling up the Thrones or Stalls in the Celestial

Choir, they might, if they could but be brought into Crime, become a

Race of Rebels and Traytors like the rest; and so come at last to keep

them Company, as well in the Place of eternal Misery, as in the Merit of

it, and in a Word, become Devils instead of Angels.



Upon this Discovery, I say, they found it infinitely more for the

Interest of Satan's infernal Kingdom, to go another way to work with

Mankind, and see if it were possible, by the strength of all their

infernal Wit and Counsels, to lay some Snare for him, and by some

Stratagem to bring him to eternal Ruin and Misery.



This being then approv'd as their only Method, (and the Devil shew'd

he was no Fool in the Choice) he next resolv'd that there was no time to

be lost; that it was to be set about immediately, before the Race was

Multiplied, and by that means the Work be not made greater only, but

perhaps the more difficult too; accordingly the diligent Devil went

instantly about it, agreeably to all the Story of Eve and the serpent,

as before; the belief of which, whether historically or allegorically,

is not at all obstructed by this Hypothesis.



I do not affirm that this was the Case at first, because being not

present in that black Divan, at least not that I know of, for who

knows where he was or was not in his pre-existent State? I cannot be

positive in the Resolve that past there; but except for some very little

Contradiction, which we find in the sacred Writings, I should, I

confess, incline to believe it Historically; and I shall speak of those

things which I call Contradictions to it more largely hereafter.



In the mean time, be it one way or other, that is to say, either that

Satan had no Power to have proceeded with Man by Violence, and to have

destroy'd him as soon as he was made; or that he had the Power, but

chose rather to proceed by other Methods to deceive and debauch him; I

say, be it which you please, I am still of the Opinion that it really

was not the Devil's Business to destroy the Species; that it would

have been nothing to the purpose, and no Advantage at all to him, if he

had done it; for that, as above, God could immediately have created

another Species to the same end, whom he either could have made

invulnerable, and not subject to the Devil's Power, or remov'd him out

of Satan's Reach, plac'd him out of the Devil's Ken, in Heaven or

some other Place, where the Devil could not come to hurt him; and that

therefore it is infinitely more his Advantage, and more suited to his

real Design of defeating the End of Man's Creation, to debauch him and

make a Devil of him, that he may be rejected like himself, and

increase the infernal Kingdom and Company in the Lake of Misery in

aeternum.



It may be true, for ought I know, that Satan has not the Power of

Destruction put into his Hand, and that he cannot take away the Life of

a Man: and it seems probable to be so, from the Story of Satan and

Job, when Satan appear'd among the Sons of GOD, as the Text says,

Job i. 6. Now when God gave such a Character of Job to him, and

ask'd him if he had consider'd his Servant Job, ver. 8. why did not

the Devil go immediately and exert his Malice against the good Man at

once, to let his Maker see what would become of his Servant Job in his

Distress? On the contrary, we see he only answers by shewing the Reason

of Job's good Behaviour; that it was but common Gratitude for the

Blessing and Protection he enjoy'd, ver. 10. and pleading that if his

Estate was taken away, and he was expos'd as he (Satan) was, to be a

beggar and a Vagabond, going to and fro in the Earth, and walking up

and down therein, he should be a very Devil too, like himself, and

curse God to his Face.



Upon this, the Text says, that God answered ver. 11. Behold all that

he hath is in thy Power; now 'tis plain here, that God gave up Job's

Wealth and Estate, nay his Family, and the Lives of his Children and

Servants into the Devil's Power; and accordingly, like a true merciless

Devil, as he is, he destroy'd them all; he mov'd the Sabeans to fall

upon the Oxen and the Asses, and carry them off; he mov'd the

Chaldeans to fall upon the Camels and the Servants, to carry off the

first, and murther the last; he made Lightning flash upon the poor

Sheep, and kill them all; and he blow'd his House down upon his poor

Children, and buried them all in the Ruins.



Now here is (1.) a Specimen of Satan's good Will to Mankind, and what

Havock the Devil would make in the World, if he might; and here is a

Testimony too, that he could not do this without leave; so that I cannot

but be of the Opinion he has some Limitations, some Bounds set to his

natural Fury; a certain Number of Links in his Chain, which he cannot

exceed, or, in a Word, that he cannot go a Foot beyond his Tether.



The same kind of Evidence we have in the Gospel, Matth. viii. 31.

where Satan could not so much as possess the filthiest and meanest of

all Creatures, the Swine, till he had ask'd leave; and that still, to

shew his good Will, as soon as he had gotten leave, he hurried them all

into the Sea and choak'd them; these, I say, are some of the Reasons why

I am not willing to say, the Devil is not restrain'd in Power; but on

the other side, we are told of so many mischievous things the Devil has

done in the World, by virtue of his Dominion over the Elements, and by

other Testimonies of his Power, that I don't know what to think of it;

tho', upon the whole, the first is the safest Opinion; for if we should

believe the last, we might, for ought I know, be brought, like the

American Indians, to worship him at last, that he may do us no Harm.



And now I have nam'd those People in America, I confess it would go a

great way in favour of Satan's Generosity, as well as in Testimony of

his Power, if we might believe all the Accounts, which indeed Authors

are pretty well agreed in the Truth of, namely, of the Mischiefs the

Devil does in those Countries, where his Dominion seems to be

establish'd; how he uses them when they deny him the Homage he claims of

them as his Due; what Havock and Combustion he makes among them; and

how Beneficent he is (or at least negative in his Mischiefs) when they

Appease him by their hellish Sacrifices.



Likewise we see a Test of his wicked Subtilty in his Management of those

dark Nations, when he was more immediately worship'd by them; namely,

the making them believe that all their good Weather, Rains, Dews, and

kind Influences upon the Earth, to make it fruitful, was from Him;

whereas they really were the common Blessings of a higher Hand, and came

not from him, the Devil, but from him that made the Devil, and made

him a Devil or fallen Angel by his Curse.



But to go back to the Method the Devil took with the first of Mankind;

'tis plain the Policy of Hell was right, tho' the Execution of the

Resolves they took did not fully answer their End neither; For Satan

fastening upon poor, proud, ridiculous Mother Eve, as I have said

before, made presently a true Judgment of her Capacities, and of her

Temper; took her by the right Handle, and soothing her Vanity (which is

to this Day the softest Place in the Head of all the Sex) wheedl'd her

out of her Senses, by praising her Beauty, and promising to make her a

Goddess.



The foolish Woman yielded presently, and that we are told is the Reason

why the same Method so strangely takes with all her Posterity (viz.)

that you are sure to prevail with them, if you can but once persuade

them that you believe they are Witty and Handsome; for the Devil, you

may observe, never quits any Hold he gets, and having once found a way

into the Heart, always takes care to keep the Door open, that any of his

Agents may enter after him without any more Difficulty: Hence the same

Argument, especially the last, has so bewitching an Influence on the

Sex, that they rarely deny you any thing, after they are but weak

enough and vain enough to accept of the Praises you offer them on that

Head; on the other hand you are sure they never forgive you the

unpardonable Crime of saying they are Ugly or Disagreeable: It is

suggested that the first Method the Devil took to insinuate all those

fine things into Eve's giddy Head, was by creeping close to her one

Night, when she was asleep, and laying his Mouth to her Ear,

whispering all the fine things to her, which he knew would set her Fancy

a Tip-toe, and so made her receive them involuntarily into her Mind;

knowing well enough that when she had form'd such Ideas in her Soul,

however they came there, she would never be quiet till she had work'd

them up to some extraordinary thing or other.



It was evident what the Devil aim'd at, namely, that she should

break in upon the Command of GOD, and so having corrupted her self,

bring the Curse upon her self and all her Race, as GOD had threatn'd;

but why the Pride of Eve should be so easily tickled by the Motion of

her exquisite Beauty, when there then was no prospect of the use or want

of those Charms? that indeed makes a kind of Difficulty here, which the

learn'd have not determined. For,



1. If she had been as Ugly as the Devil, she had no body to rival

her, so that she need not fear Adam should leave her and get

another Mistress.



2. If she had been Bright and Beautiful as an Angel, she had no

other Admirer but poor Adam, and he could have no room to be

jealous of her, or afraid she should cuckold him; so that in short,

Eve had no such Occasion for her Beauty, nor could she make any

use of it either to a bad purpose or to a good, and therefore I

believe the Devil, who is too cunning to do any thing that

signifies Nothing, rather tempted her by the Hope of encreasing her

Wit, than her Beauty.





But to come back to the Method of Satan's tempting her, viz. by

whispering to her in her sleep; 'twas a cunning Trick, that's the Truth

of it, and by that means he certainly set her Head a madding after

Deism, and to be made a Goddess, and then back'd it by the subtle talk

he had with her afterward.



I am the more particular upon this Part, because, however the Devil may

have been the first that ever practised it, yet I can assure him the

Experiment has been tried upon many a Woman since, to the wheedling her

out of her Modesty, as well as her Simplicity; and the Cunning Men tell

us still, that if you can come at a Woman when she is in a deep sleep,

and Whisper to her close to her Ear, she will certainly Dream of the

Thing you say to her, and so will a Man too.



Well, be this so to her Race or not, it was it seems so to her; for she

wak'd with her Head fill'd with pleasing Ideas, and as some will have

it, unlawful Desires; such, as to be sure she never had entertain'd



before; These are supposed to be fatally infused in her Dream, and

suggested to her waking Soul, when the Organ Ear which convey'd them was

doz'd and insensible; strange Fate of sleeping in Paradise! that

whereas we have Notice but of two Sleeps there, that in one a Woman

should go out of him, and in the other, the Devil should come into

her.



Certainly, when Satan first made the Attempt upon Eve, he did not

think he should have so easily conquered her, or have brought his

Business about so soon; the Devil himself could not have imagined she

should have been so soon brought to forget the Command given, or at

least who gave it, and have ventur'd to transgress against him, and made

her forget that GOD had told her, it should be Death to her to touch it;

and above all, that she should aspire to be as wise as him, who was so

ignorant before, as to believe it was for fear of her being like

himself, that he had forbid it her.



Well might she be said to be the weaker Vessel, tho' Adam himself had

little enough to say for his being the stronger of the two, when he was

over-persuaded (if it were done by Persuasion) by his Wife to do the

same thing.



And mark how wise they were after they had Eaten, and what Fools they

both acted like, even to one another; nay, even all the Knowledge they

attain'd to by it was, for ought I see, only to know that they were

Fools, and to be sensible both of Sin and Shame; and see how simply

they acted, I say, upon their having committed the Crime, and being

detected in it.



'View them to Day conversing with their God,

'His Image both enjoy'd and understood,

'To Morrow skulking with a sordid Flight, }

'Among the Bushes from the Infinite, }

'As if that Power was blind, which gave them Sight; }

'With senseless Labour Tagging Fig-Leaf Vests,

'To hide their Bodies from the sight of Beasts.

'Hark! how the Fool pleads faint, for forfeit Life,

'First he reproaches Heaven, and then his Wife;

'The Woman which thou gav'st as if the Gift

'Could rob him of the little Reason left,

'A weak Pretence to shift his early Crime,

'As if accusing her would excuse him;

'But thus encroaching Crime dethrones the Sense,

'And intercepts the Heavenly Influence,

'Debauches Reason, makes the Man a Fool,

'And turns his active Light to Ridicule.





It must be confess'd that it was unaccountable Degeneracy, even of their

common Reasoning, which Adam and Eve both fell into upon the first

committing the Offence of taking the forbidden Fruit: If that was their

being made as Gods, it made but a poor Appearance in its first coming,

to hide their Nakedness when there was no body to see them, and cover

themselves among the Bushes from their Maker; but thus it was, and this

the Devil had brought them to, and well might he, and all the Clan of

Hell, as Mr. Milton brings them in, laugh and triumph over the Man

after the Blow was given, as having so egregiously abused and deluded

them both.



But here, to be sure, began the Devil's new Kingdom; as he had now

seduc'd the two first Creatures, he was pretty sure of Success upon all

the Race, and therefore prepar'd to attack them also, as soon as they

came on; nor was their encreasing Multitude any Discouragement to his

Attempt, but just the contrary; for he had Agents enough to employ, if

every Man and Woman that should be born was to want a Devil to wait

upon them, separately and singly to seduce them; whereas some whole

Nations have been such willing subjects to him, that one of his Seraphic

Imps may, for ought we know, have been enough to guide a whole

Country; the People being entirely subjected to his Government for many

Ages; as in America, for example, where some will have it, that he

convey'd the first Inhabitants, at least if he did not, we don't well

know who did, or how they got thither.



And how came all the Communication to be so entirely cut off between the

Nations of Europe and Africa, from whence America must certainly

have been peopl'd, or else the Devil must have done it indeed? I say,

how came the Communication to be so entirely cut off between them, that

except the time, whenever it was, that People did at first reach from

one to the other, none ever came back to give their Friends any account

of their Success, or invite them to follow? Nor did they hear of one

another afterwards, as we have Reason to think: Did Satan politically

keep them thus asunder, lest News from Heaven should reach them, and so

they should be recover'd out of his Government? We cannot tell how to

give any other rational Account of it, that a Nation, nay a Quarter of

the World, or as some will have it be, half the Globe, should be peopled

from Europe or Africa, or both, and no body ever go after them, or

come back from them in above three thousand years after.



Nay, that those Countries should be peopled when there was no Navigation

in use in these Parts of the World, no Ships made that could carry

Provisions enough to support the People that fail'd in them, but that

they must have been starved to death before they could reach the Shore

of America; the Ferry from Europe or Africa, in any Part (which we

have known Navigation to be practised in) being at least 1000 Miles, and

in most Places much more.



But as to the Americans, let the Devil and they alone to account for

their coming Thither, this we are certain of, that we knew nothing of

them for many hundred Years; and when we did, when the Discovery was

made, they that went from Hence found Satan in a full and quiet

Possession of them, ruling them with an arbitrary Government,

particular to himself; He had led them into a blind Subjection to

himself, nay, I might call it Devotion, for it was all of Religion that

was to be found among them) worshipping horrible Idols in his Name, to

whom he directed human Sacrifices continually to be made, till he

deluged the Country with Blood, and ripen'd them up for the Destruction

that follow'd, from the Invasion of the Spaniards, who he knew would

hurry them all out of the World as fast as he (the Devil) himself

could desire of them.



But to go back a little to the Original of Things, It is evident that

Satan has made a much better Market of Mankind, by thus subtilly

attacking them, and bringing them to break with their Maker as he had

done before them, than he could have done by fulminating upon them at

first, and sending them all out of the World at once; for now he has

peopled his own Dominions with them, and tho' a Remnant are snatch'd as

it were out of his Clutches, by the Agency of Invincible Grace, of which

I am not to discourse in this Place; yet this may be said of the

Devil, without Offence, that he has in some Sense carried his Point,

and as it were forc'd his Maker to be satisfied with a Part of Mankind,

and the least Part too, instead of the great Glory he would have brought

to himself by keeping them all in his Service.



Mr. Milton, as I have noted above, brings in the Devil and all Hell

with him, making a Feu de Joye for the Victory Satan obtain'd over

one silly Woman; indeed it was a Piece of Success greater in its

Consequence than in the immediate Appearance; nor was the Conquest so

compleat as Satan himself imagin'd to make, since the Promise of a

Redemption out of his Hands, which was immediately made to the Man, in

behalf of himself and his believing Posterity, was a great

Disappointment to Satan, and as it were snatch'd the best Part of his

Victory out of his Hands.



It is certain the Devils knew what the meaning of that Promise was,

and who was to be the Seed of the Woman, namely, the incarnate Son of

God, and that it was a second Blow to the whole infernal Body; but as

if they had resolved to let that alone, Satan went on with his

Business; and as he had introduc'd Crime into the common Parent of

Mankind, and thereby secured the Contamination of Blood, and the Descent

or Propagation of the corrupt Seed, he had nothing to do but to assist

Nature in time to come, to carry on its own Rebellion, and act it self

in the Breasts of Eve's tainted Posterity; and that indeed has been

the Devil's Business ever since his first Victory upon the Kind, to this

Day.



His Success in this Part has been such, that we see upon innumerable

Occasions a general Defection has follow'd; a kind of a Taint upon

Nature, call it what you will, a Blast upon the Race of Mankind; and

were it not for one thing, he had ruined the whole Family; I say, were

it not for one thing, namely, a selected Company or Number, which his

Maker has resolv'd he shall not be able to corrupt, or if he does, the

sending the promis'd Seed shall recover back again from him, by the

Power of irresistible Grace; which Number thus selected or elected, call

it which we will, are still to supply the Vacancies in Heaven, which

Satan's Defection left open; and what was before fill'd up with

created Seraphs, is now to be restor'd by recover'd Saints, by whom

infinite Glory is to accrue to the Kingdom of the Redeemer.



This glorious Establishment has robb'd Satan of all the Joy of his

Victory, and left him just where he was, defeated and disappointed; nor

does the Possession of all the Myriads of the Sons of Perdition, who yet

some are of the Opinion will be snatch'd from him too at last; I say,

the Possession of all these makes no amends to him, for he is such a

Devil in his Nature, that the Envy at those he cannot seduce, eats out

all the Satisfaction of the Mischief he has done in seducing all the

rest; but I must not preach, so I return to things as much needful to

know, tho' less solemn.