 Part 1 Chapter 7 of the History of the Devil. Of the number of Satan's hosts, how they came first to know of the new created worlds, now in being and their measures with mankind upon the discovery. Several things have been suggested to set us of calculating the number of this frightful throng of devils who with Satan the master devil was thus cast out of heaven. I cannot say I am so much master of political arithmetic as to cast up the number of the beast, no, nor the number of the beasts or devils who make up this throng. Saint Francis they tell us or some other saint they do not say who asked the devil once how strong he was, for Saint Francis you must know was very familiar with him. The devil it seems did not tell him but presently raised a great cloud of dust by the help I suppose of Augusta Wind and bid that saint count it. He was, I suppose, a calculator that would be called Grave, who dividing Satan's troops into three lines cast up the number of the devils of all sorts in each battalion at ten hundred times a hundred thousand millions of the first line, fifty millions of times as many in the second line and three hundred thousand times as many as both in the third line. The impertinence of this account would hardly have given it a place here only to hint that it has always been the opinion that Satan's name may well be called a noun of multitude and that the devil and his angels are certainly no inconsiderable number. It was a smart repartee that a Venetian nobleman made to a priest who rallied him upon his refusing to give something to the church which the priest demanded for the delivering him from Purgatory when the priest asking him if he knew what an innumerable number of devils there were to take him. He answered, yes, he knew how many devils there were in all. How many, says the priest, his curiosity, I suppose, being raised by the novelty of the answer. Why, ten millions, five hundred and eleven thousand, six hundred and seventy-five devils and a half, says the nobleman. A half, says the priest, pray what kind of a devil is that? Yourself, says the nobleman, for you are half a devil already and will be a whole one when you come there for you are for deluding all you deal with and bringing us soul and body into your hands that you may be paid for letting us go again so much for their number. Here also it would come in very aptly to consider the state of that long interval between the time of their expulsion from heaven and the creation of the world and what the posture of the devil's affairs might be during that time. The horror of their condition can only be conceived of at a distance and especially by us who being embodied creatures cannot fully judge of what is or is not a punishment to seraphs and spirits, but is just to suppose they suffered all that spirits of a seraphic nature were capable to sustain consistent with their existence, not withstanding which they retain still the hellishness of their rebellious principles, namely their hatred and rage against God and their envy at the felicity of his creatures. As to how long their time might be, I shall leave that search, no lights being given me that are either probable or rational, and we have so little room to make a judgment of it that we may as well believe Father M, who supposes it to be a hundred thousand years as those who judge it one thousand years, is enough that we are sure it was before the creation how long before is not material to the devil's history unless we had some records of what happened to him or was done by him in the interval. During the wandering condition the devil was in, at that time we may suppose he and his whole clan to be employed in exerting their hatred and rage at the Almighty and at the happiness of the remaining faithful angels by all the ways they had power to show it. From this determined stated enmity of Satan and his host against God and at everything that brought glory to his name Mr. Milton brings in Satan when first he saw Adam in paradise and the felicity of his station there, swelling with rage and envy and taking up a dreadful resolution to ruin Adam and all his posterity merely to disappoint his maker of the glory of his creation. I shall come to speak of that in its place. How Satan, in his remote situation, got intelligence of the place where to find Adam out or that any such thing as a man was created is matter of just speculation and there might be many rational schemes laid for it. Mr. Milton does not undertake to tell us the particulars, nor indeed could he find room for it, perhaps the devil having, as I have said, a liberty to range over the whole void or abyss which we want as well a name for, as indeed powers do conceive of, might have discovered that the Almighty Creator had formed a new and glorious work with infinite beauty and variety filling up the immense waste of space in which he, the devil, and his angels had rode for so long a time without finding anything to work on or to exert their apostate rage in against their maker. That at length they found the infinite untrodden space on a sudden spread full with glorious bodies shining in self-existing beauty with a new and to them unknown luster called light. They found these luminous bodies, though immense in bulk and infinite in number, yet fixed in their wondrous stations, regular and exact in their motions, confined in their proper orbits, tending to their particular centers and enjoying every one their peculiar systems within which was contained innumerable planets with their satellites or moons in which again a reciprocal influence, motion and revolution conspired to form the most admirable uniformity of the whole. Surprised to be sure with this sudden and yet glorious work of the Almighty for the creation was enough with its luster even to surprise the devils, they might reasonably be supposed to start out of their dark retreat and with a curiosity not below the seraphic dignity for these are some of the things which the angels desire to look into to take a flight through all the amazing systems of the fixed suns or stars which we see now but at a distance and only make astronomical guesses at here the devil found not subject of wonder only but matter to swell his revolted spirit with more rage and to revive the malignity of his mind against his maker and especially against this new increase of glory which to his infinite regret was extended over the whole waste in which he looked upon as we say in human affairs as a payee kong gi or if you will have it in the language of the devil as an invasion upon his kingdom here it naturally occurred to them in their stated envy and rebellion that though they could not assault the impregnable walls of heaven and could no more pretend to raise war in the place of blessedness and peace yet that perhaps they might find room in this new and however glorious yet inferior kingdom or creation to work some despite to their great creator or to affront his majesty in the person of some of his new made creatures and upon this they may be justly supposed to double their vigilance in the survey they resolved to take of these new worlds however great numberless and wonderful what discoveries they may have made in the other and greater worlds than this earth we have not yet had an account possibly they are conversant with other parts of God's creation besides this little little globe which is but as a point in comparison of the rest and with other of God's creatures besides man who may according to the opinion of our philosophers in habit those worlds but as nobody knows that part but the devil we shall not trouble ourselves with the inquiry but is very reasonable and indeed probable that the devils were more than ordinarily surprised at the nature and reason of all this glorious creation after they had with the utmost curiosity viewed all the parts of it the glories of the several systems the immense spaces in which those glories bodies that were created and made part of it were allowed respectively to move the innumerable fixed stars as so many sons in the center of so many distant solar systems the likewise innumerable dark opaque bodies receiving light and depending upon those sons respectively for such light and then reflecting that light again upon and for the use of one another to see the beauty and splendor of their forms the regularity of their position the order and exactness and yet inconceivable velocity of their emotions the certainty of their revolutions and the variety in virtue of their influences and then which was even to the devils themselves most astonishing that after all the rest of their observations they should find this whole immense work was adapted for and made subservient to the use delight and blessing only of one poor species in itself small and in appearance contemptible the meanest of all the kinds supposed to inhabit so many glorious worlds as appeared now to be formed I mean that moon called the earth and the creature called man that always made for him upheld by the wise creator on his account only and would necessarily end and cease whenever that species should end and be determined that this creature was to be found nowhere but as above in one little individual moon a spot less than almost any of the moons which were in such great numbers to be found attendant upon and prescribed with in every system of the whole created heavens this was astonishing even to the devil himself neither whole clan of devils could scarce entertain any just ideas of the thing till it last satan into fatigable in his search or inquiry into the nature and reason of this new work and particularly searching into the species of man whom he found God had thus placed in the little globe called earth he soon came to an accolades among or a clear understanding of the whole for example first he found this creature called man was however mean and small and his appearance a kind of us a graphic species that he was made in the very image of God endowed with reasonable faculties to no good and evil and possessed of a certain thing till then unknown and unheard of even in hell itself that is in the habitation of devils let that be where it would these do that God had made him indeed of the lowest and most important courses materials but that he had breathed into him the breath of life and that he became a living thing called soul being a kind of an extraordinary heavenly and divine emanation and consequently that man however mean and terrestrial his body might be was yet heaven born in his spirit is part completely suratfic and after a space of life here determined to be a state of probation he should be translated through the regions into a life purely and truly heavenly and which should remain so forever being capable of knowing and enjoying God as maker and standing in his presence as the glorified angels do three that he had the most sublime faculties infused into him was capable not only of knowing and contemplating God and which was still more of enjoying him as above but which the devil now was not capable of honoring and glorifying his maker who also had condescended to accept of honor from him for and which was still more that being of an angelic nature though mixed with and confined for the present in a case of mortal flesh he was intended to be removed from this earth after a certain time of life here to inhabit that heaven and enjoy that very glory and felicity from which Satan and his angels had been expelled when he found all this at presently occurred to him that God had done it all as an act of triumph over him Satan and that these creatures were only created to people heaven depopulated or stripped of its inhabitants by his expulsion and that these were all to be made angels in the devil's stead if this thought increased his fury and envy as far as rage of devils can be capable of being made greater it doubtless set him on work to give event to that rage and envy by searching into the nature and constitution of this creature called man and to find out whether he was invulnerable and could by no means be hurt by the power of hell or deluded by his subtlety or whether he might be beguiled and deluded and so instead of being preserved in holiness and purity wherein he was certainly created be brought to fall and rebel as he satan had done before him by which instead of being transplanted into a glorious state after this life in heaven as his maker had designed him to be to fill up the angelic choir and supply the place from whence he satan had fallen he might be made to fall also like him and in a word be made a devil like himself this convinces us that the devil has not lost his natural powers by his fall and our learned commentator mr. pool is of the same opinion though he grants that the devil has lost his moral power or his power of doing good which he can never recover we day mr. pool upon acts 1917 where we may particularly observe when the man possessed with an evil spirit flew upon the seven sons of ski wa the jew who would have exercised them in the name of jesus without the authority of jesus or without faith in him he flew on them and mastered them so that they fled out of the house from the devil conquered naked and wounded but if this power of the devil i shall speak by itself in a word and to sum up all the devil's story from his first expulsion it stands thus for so many years as were between his fall and the creation of man though we have no memoirs of his particular affairs we have reason to believe he was without any manner of employment but a certain tormenting endeavor to be always expressing his rage and enmity against heaven i call it tormenting because ever disappointed every thought about it proving empty every attempt towards it aborted leaving him only light enough to see still more and more reason to despair of success and that this made his condition still more and more a hell than it was before after a space of duration in this misery which we have no light given us to measure or judge of he had length discovered the new creation of man as above upon which he soon found matter to set himself to work upon and has been busily employed ever since and now indeed there may be room to suggest a local hell and the confinement of souls made corrupt and degenerate by him to it as a place though he himself as is still apparent by his actings is not yet confined to it of this hell its locality extent dimensions continuance and nature as it does not belong to satan's history i have a good excuse for saying nothing and so put off my meddling with that which if i would meddle with i could say nothing of to the purpose end of part one chapter seven part one chapter eight of the history of the devil this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox dot org recording by rick vena the history of the devil by daniel defoe part one chapter eight of the power of the devil at the time of the creation of this world whether it has not been farther straightened 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 though it be without either religion authority or physical foundation it may be we may like it near the worse for that that when god made the stars in all the heavenly luminaries the devil to mimic his maker and insult his new creation made comets an imitation of the fixed 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 fixed stars and being thus kindled like a firework unskillfully let off they then took wild and eccentric 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 itself it matters not to our purpose whether we believe anything of it or no is enough to our case that if Satan had any such power then he has no such power now and that leads me to inquire 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 it last no matter how discovered the whole system and concluded as I have said that the creature called 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 sailed 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 inquiry 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 armed 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 conquered the devil he could do nothing at all as to destroying anything that god had made no not the little diminutive thing called 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 placed his rival as it were just before his face and showed 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 I 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 to 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 waste 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 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 restrained 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 to that he had before and that when he first commenced devil he received the chains of restraint to as the badge of his apostasy that is to say a general prohibition to do anything to the prejudice of this creation or to act anything 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 at Mastiff we find him oftentimes making a horrid hellish clamor and noise barking and howling and frightening 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 the opinion that the devil is not restrained 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 of devils called upon this very occasion when they first were informed 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 that is to say to fill up the vacancies in heaven I say that then the devils resolved 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 mold of this new made creature and of what materials he was formed how mixed 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 expelled 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 traitors 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 councils to lay some snare for him and by some stratagem to bring him to eternal ruin and misery this being then approved as their only method and the devil showed he was no fool in the choice he next resolved 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 to 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 passed there but except for some very little contradiction which we find in the sacred writings I should I confess inclined to believe it historically and I shall speak of those things which I call contradictions to it more largely hereafter in the meantime be it one way or other that is to say either that Satan had no power to have proceeded with men by violence and to have destroyed him as soon as he was made or that he had the power but chose rather to proceed by other methods to deceive and to botch 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 removed him out of Satan's reach placed him out of the devil's can 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 I turn him it may be true for odd 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 appeared among the sons of God as the text says Job one six now when God gave such a character of Job to him and asked him if he had considered his servant Job v. eight why did not the devil go immediately and exert his malice against a 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 showing the reason of Job's good behavior that it was but common gratitude for the blessing and protection he enjoyed v. 10 and pleading that if his estate was taken away and he was exposed 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 to like himself and curse God to his face upon this the text says that God answered v. 11 behold all that he had is in thy power now to explain 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 destroyed them all he moved the Sabians to fall upon the oxen and the asses and carry them off he moved the Chaldeans to fall upon the camels and the servants to carry off the first and murder the last he made lightning flash upon the poor sheep and kill them all and he blowed his house down upon his poor children and buried them all in the ruins now here is one a specimen of Satan's good will to mankind and what havoc the devil would make in the world if he might and here is a testimony to 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 afoot beyond his tether the same kind of evidence we have in the gospel Matthew 831 where Satan could not so much as possess the filthiest and meanest of all creatures the swine till he had asked leave and that still to show his good will as soon as he had gotten leave he hurried them all into the sea and choked them these I say are some of the reasons why I am not willing to say the devil is not restrained 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 though upon the whole the first is the safest opinion for if we should believe the last we might for odd I know be brought like the American Indians to worship him at last that he may do us no harm and now I have named those people in America I confess it would go a great way in favor 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 the mischiefs the devil does in those countries where his dominion seems to be established how he uses them when they deny him the homage he claims of them as his do what havoc 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 subtlety in his management of those dark nations when he was more immediately worshiped by them namely the making them believe that all their good weather rains dues 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 his plane the policy of hell was right though 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 weedled 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 that is to say 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 be witching an influence on the sex that they rarely deny you anything 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 tiptoe and so made her receive them involuntarily into her mind knowing well enough that when she had formed such ideas in her soul however they came there she would never be quiet till she had worked them up to some extraordinary thing or other it was evident what the devil aimed at namely that she should break in upon the command of God and so having corrupted herself bring the curse upon herself and all her race as God had threatened 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 learned have not determined for one 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 to 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 anything that signifies nothing rather tempted her by the hope of increasing her wit than her beauty but to come back to the method of Satan's tempting her that is to say by whispering to her in her sleep was 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 backed 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 practiced it yet I can assure him the experiment has been tried upon many a woman since to the weedling 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 waked with her head filled with pleasing ideas and as some will have it unlawful desires such as to be sure she never had entertained before these are supposed to be fatally infused in her dream and suggested to her waking soul when the organ ear which conveyed them was dozed 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 ventured 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 is so ignorant before as to believe it was for fear of her being like himself that he had forbidden her well might she be said to be the weaker vessel though 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 attained to by it was for odd 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 today conversing with their God his image both enjoyed and understood tomorrow skulking with a sordid flight among the bushes from the infinite as if that power was blind which gave them sight with senseless labor 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 gave us as if the gift could rob him of the little reason left a weak pretense to shift his early crime as if accusing her with 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 confessed that it was unaccountable degeneracy even of their common reasoning which Adam and Eve both fell into upon the first committing the offense 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 in 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 eluded them both but here to be sure began the devil's new kingdom as he had now seduced the two first creatures he was pretty sure of success upon all the race and therefore prepared to attack them also as soon as they came on nor was there increasing 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 an America for example where some will have it that he conveyed the first inhabitants at least if he did not we don't well know who did or how they got there 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 peopled 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 less news from heaven should reach them and so they should be recovered out of his government we cannot tell how to give any other rational account of it that a nation may 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 nobody 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 sailed 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 practiced in being at least one thousand 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 ripened them up for the destruction that followed 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 subtly 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 though a remnant are snatched 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 offense that he has in some sense carried his point and as it were forced his maker to be satisfied with a part of mankind and the least part to instead of the great glory he would have brought 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 foodie joie for the victory Satan obtained 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 complete as Satan himself imagined to make since the promise of 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 snatched 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 introduced 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 itself 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 followed 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 resolved he shall not be able to corrupt or if he does the sending the promised 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 filled up with created seraphs is now to be restored by recovered saints by whom infinite glory is to accrue to the kingdom of the redeemer this glorious establishment has robbed 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 snatched from him to 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 though less solemn end of part 1 chapter 8 part 1 chapter 9 of the history of the devil this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rick Vina the history of the devil by Daniel Defoe part 1 chapter 9 of the progress of Satan in carrying on his conquest over mankind from the fall of Eve to the deluge I doubt if the devil was asked to question plainly he would confess that after he had conquered Eve by his own wicked contravence and then by her assistance had brought Adam to like a fool as he was into the same gulf of misery he thought he had done his work come past the whole race that they were now his own and that he had put an end to the grand design of their creation namely of peopling heaven with a new angelic race of souls who when glorified should make up the defection of the host of hell that had been expunged by their crime in a word that he had gotten a better conquest than if he had destroyed them all but in midst of his conquest he found a check put to the advantages he expected to reap from his victory by the immediate promise of grace to a part of the posterity of Adam who not withstanding the fall were to be purchased by the Messiah and snatched out of his Satan's hands and over whom he could make no final conquest so that his power met with a new limitation and that such as indeed fully disappointed him in the main thing he aimed at that is to say preventing the beatitudes of mankind which were thus secured and what if the numbers of mankind were upon this account increased in such a manner that the selected number should by length of time amount to just as many as the whole race had they not fallen would have amounted to in all and thus indeed the world may be said to be upheld and continued for the sake of those few since till their number can be completed the creation cannot fall any more than that without them or but for them it would not have stood but leaving this speculation and not having inquired of Satan what he has to say on that subject let us go back to the anti-Diluvian world the devil to be sure gained his point upon Eve and in her upon all her race he drew her into sin got her turned out of paradise and the man with her the next thing was to go to work with her posterity and particularly with her two sons Cain and able Adam having not withstanding his fall repented very sincerely of his sin received the promise of redemption and pardon with an humble but believing heart charity bids a suppose that he let a very religious and sober life ever after and especially in the first part of his time that he brought up his children very soberly and gave them all the necessary advantages of a religious education and a good introduction into the world that he was capable of and that Eve likewise assisted to both in her place and degree their two eldest sons Cain and able the one heir apparent to the patriarchal empire and the other heir presumptive I suppose also lived very sober and religious lives and as the principles of natural religion dictated a homage and subjection due to the almighty maker as an acknowledgement of his mercies and a recognition of their obedience so the received usage of religion dictating at that time that this homage was to be paid by a sacrifice they either of them brought a free will offering to be dedicated to God respectively for themselves and families how it was and for what reason that God had respect to the offering of able which to learn it say was a lamb of the firstlings of the flock and did not give any testimony of the like respect to Cain and his offering which was of the first fruits of the earth the offerings being equally suited to the respective employment of the men that is not my present business but this we find made heart burnings and raised envy and jealousy in the mind of Cain and at that door the devil immediately entered for he who from the beginning was very diligent in his way never slipped any opportunity or missed any advantages that the circumstances of mankind offered him to do mischief what shape or appearance the devil took up to enter into a conversation with Cain upon the subject that authors do not take upon them to determine but his generally supposed he personated some of Cain's sons or grandsons to begin the discourse who attacked their father or perhaps grandfather upon this occasion in the following manner or to that purpose D sir I perceive your majesty for the first race were certainly all monarchs as great as kings to their immediate posterity to be greatly disturbed of late your countenance is changed your noble cheerfulness the glories of your face are strangely sunk and gone and you are not the man you used to be please your majesty to communicate your griefs to us your children you may be sure that if it be possible we would procure you relief and restore your delights the loss of which if thus you go on to subject yourself to too much melancholy will be very hurtful to you and in the end destroy you Cain it is very kind my dear children to show your respect thus to your true progenitor and to offer your assistance I confess as you say my mind is oppressed and displeased but though this very heavy yet I know not which way to look for relief for the distemper is above our reach no cure can be found for it on earth D do not say so sir there can be no disease sure on earth but may be cured on earth if it be a mental evil we have heard that your great ancestor the first father of us all who lives still on the great western plains towards the sea is the oracle to which all his children fly for direction in such cases as are out of the reach of the ordinary understanding of mankind please you to give leave we will take a journey to him and representing your case to him we will hear his advice and bring it to you with all speed for the ease of your mind Cain I know not whether he can reach my case or no D doubtless he may and if not the labor of our journey is nothing when placed in competition with the ease of your mind Tiz would a few days travel lost and you will not be the worse if we fail of the desired success Cain the offer is filial and I accept your affectionate concern for me with a just sense of an obliged parent go then and my blessing be upon you but alas why do I bless can he bless whom God has not blessed D oh sir do not say so has not God blessed you are you not the second sovereign of the earth and does he not converse with you face to face are not you the oracle to all your growing posterity and next after his sovereign imperial majesty Lord Adam patriarch of the world Cain but has not God rejected me and refused to converse any more with me while he daily favors and countenances my younger brother Abel as if he resolved to set him up to rule over me D no sir that cannot be you cannot be disturbed at such a thing is not the right of sovereignty yours by primogeniture can God himself take that away went his once given are not you Lord Adam's eldest son are you not the firstborn glory of the creation and does not the government descend to you by the divine right of birth and blood Cain but what does all that signify to me while God appears to favor and caress my younger brother at the shine upon him while a black dejection and token of displeasure surrounds me every day and he does not appear to me as he used to do D and what need your majesty be concerned at that if it be so if he does not appear pleased you have the whole world to enjoy yourself in in all your numerous and rising posterity adore and honor you what need those remote things be any disturbance to you Cain how my children not the favor of God be valued yes yes in his favor is life what can all the world avail without the smiles and countenance of him that made it D doubtless sir he that made the world and placed you at the head of it all to govern and direct it has made it agreeable and it is able to give you a full satisfaction and enjoyment if you please to consider it well though you were never to converse with him all the while you live in it Cain you are quite wrong there my children quite wrong D but do you not great sir see all your children as well as us rejoicing in the plenty of all things and are they not completely happy and yet they know little of this great God he seldom converses among us we hear of him indeed by your sage advices and we bring our offerings to you for him as you direct and when that's done we enjoy whatever our hearts desire and so doubtless may you in an abundant manner if you please Cain but your felicity is wrong place then or you suppose that God is pleased and satisfied in that your offerings are brought to me but what would you say if he knew that God is displeased that he does not accept your offerings that when I sacrifice to him in behalf of you all he rejected my offerings though I brought a princely gift being of the finest of the wheat the choicest and earliest fruits and the sweetest of the oil an offering suited to the giver of them all D but if you offered them sir how are you sure they were not accepted Cain yes yes I am sure did not my brother Abel offer at the same time a lamb of his flock for he you know the lights and cattle and covers the mountains with his herds over him all the while he was sacrificing a bright emanation shown cheering and living a pledge of favor and light ambient flames played hovering in the lower air as if attending his sacrifice and when ready prepared immediately descended and burnt up the flesh a sweet odoriferous savor ascending to him who thus testified his acceptance whereas over my head a black cloud misty and distilling vapor hung dripping upon the humble altar I had raised and wetting the finest and choicest things I had prepared spoiled and defaced them the wood untapped to burn by the moisture which fell scarce received the fire I brought to kindle it and even then rather smothered and choked then kindled into a flame in a word it went quite out without consuming what was brought to be offered up D let not our truly reverenced Lord and Father be disquieted at all this if he accepts not what you bring you are discharged of the debt and need bring no more nor have the trouble of such labored collections of rarities anymore when he thinks fit to require it again you will have notice no question and then it being called for will be accepted or else why should it be required Cain that may indeed be the case nor do I think of attempting any more to bring an offering for I rather take it that I am forbidden for the present but then what is it that my younger brother triumphs in and how am I insulted in that he and his house are all joy and triumph as if they had some great advantage over me in that their offering was accepted when mine was not D does he triumph over your majesty our Lord and sovereign give us but your order and we will go and pull him in all his generation in pieces for to triumph over you who are his elder brother is a horrid rebellion and treason and he ought to be expelled the society of mankind Cain I think so too indeed however my dear children and faithful subjects though I accept your offer of duty and service yet I will consider very well before I take up arms against my brother besides our sovereign father and patriarchal Lord Adam being yet alive it is not in my right to act offensively without his command D we are ready therefore to carry your petition to him and doubt not to obtain his license and commission to to empower you to do yourself justice upon your younger brother who being your vassal or at least inferior as he is junior in birth insults you upon the fancied opinion of having a larger share in the divine favor and receiving a blessing on his sacrifices on pretense of the same favor being denied you came I am content go then and give a just account of the state of our affairs D we shall soon return with the agreeable answer let not our Lord and father continue sad and ejected but depend upon a speedy relief by the assistance of the numerous issue all devoted to thy interest and felicity Cain my blessing be with you in your way and give you a favorable reception at the venerable tent of our universal Lord and father note here the cursed race being fully given up to the direction of the evil spirit which so early possessed them and swelling with rage at the innocent able and his whole family they resolved upon forming a most wicked and detestable lie to bring about the advice which they had already given their father Cain a touch of and to pretend that Adam being justly provoked at the undutiful behavior of able had given Cain a commission to chastise him and by force to cut him off and all his family as guilty of rebellion and pride filled with this mischievous and bloody resolution they came back to their father Cain after staying a few days such as were sufficient to make Cain believe they had been at the spacious planes where Adam dwelt the same which are now called the blessed valleys or the planes of Mecca in Arabia Felix near the banks of the Red Sea note here also that Cain having received a wicked hint from these men his children and subjects as before intimating that able had broken the laws of primogeniture in his behavior towards him Cain and that he might be justly punished for it Satan that cunning manager of all our wayward passions fanned the fire of envy and jealousy with his utmost skill all the while his other agents were absent and by the time they came back had blown it up into such a heat of fury and rage that it wanted nothing but air to make it burn out as it soon afterwards did in a furious flame of wrath and revenge even to blood and destruction just in the very critical moment while things stood thus with Cain Satan brings in his wicked instruments as if just arrived with the return of his message from Adam at whose court they had been for orders and thus they that is the devil assuming to speak by them approach their father with an air of solemn but cheerful satisfaction at the success of their embassy D hail sovereign reverent patriarchal Lord we come with joy to render the in account of the success of our message Cain have you then seen the venerable tents where dwell the heaven-born the angelic pair to whom all human reverence highly due is and ought always to be humbly paid D we have Cain did you together with my grand request a just a humble homage for me pay to the great sire and mother of mankind D we did Cain did you in humble language represent the griefs and anguish which oppress my soul D we did and back their blessing to thee bring Cain I hope with humblest signs of filial duty you took it for me on your bending knees D we did and had our share the patriarch lifting his hands to heaven expressed his joy to see his spreading race and bless this all Cain did you my solemn message to deliver my injuries impartially lay down and you assistance and direction crave D we did Cain what spoke the oracle he's God to me what just command do you bring what's to be done am I to bear the insulting juniors rage and meekly suffer what unjustly he a fronting primogeniture and laws of God and man imposes by his pride unsufferable am I to be crushed and be no more the firstborn son on earth but bow and kneel to him D forbid it heaven as Adam to forbids who with a justice godlike and peculiar to injured parents Abel's pride resents and gives his high command to thee to punish Cain to punish say you did he use the word the very word am I commissioned then to punish Abel D not Abel only but his rebel race as they alike in crime alike are joined in punishment Cain the race indeed have shared the merit with him how did they all insult and with a shadow of triumph mock my sorrow when they saw me from my sacrifice dejected come as if my disappointment was their joy D this too the venerable prince resents and to preserve the race in bounds of laws subordinate and limited to Judy commands that this first breach be not passed by lest the precedent upon record stand to future times to encourage like rebellion Cain and is it then my sovereign parents will D it is his will that thou his eldest son his image his beloved should be maintained in all the rights of sovereignty derived to thee from him and not be left exposed to injury and power usurped which do thyself justice on the rebel race Cain and so I will Abel shall quickly know what is the trample on his elder brother shall know that he's thus sentenced by his father and I'm commissioned but to execute his high command his sentence which is God's and that he falls by the hand of heavenly justice so now Satan had done his work he had deluded the mother to a breach against the first and only command he had drawn Adam to the same snare and now he brings in Cain prompted by his own rage and deluded by his Satan's craft to commit murder nay a fratricide an aggravated murder upon this he sends out Cain while the bloody rage was in its ferment and wickedly at the same time bringing Abel innocent and fearing no ill just in his way he suggests to his thoughts such words as these look you Cain see how divine justice concurs with your father's righteous sentence see there's thy brother Abel directed by heaven to fall into thy hands unarmed unguarded that thou mayest do thyself justice upon him without fear see thou mayest kill him and if thou hast a mind to conceal it no eyes can see or will the world ever know it so that no resentment or revenge upon thee or thy posterity can be apprehended but it may be said some wild beast had rent him nor will anyone suggest that thou his brother and superior could possibly be the person Cain prepared for the fact by his former avowed rage and resolution of revenge was so much the less prepared to avoid the snare thus artfully contrived by the master of all subtlety the devil so he immediately runs upon his brother Abel and after a little unarmed resistance the innocent poor man expecting no such mischief was conquered and murdered after which as is to be supposed the exasperated crew of Cain's outrageous race overrun all his family and household killing man woman and child it is objected here that we have no authority in scripture to prove this part of the story but I answer is not likely but that Abel as well as Cain being at man's estate long before this had several children by their own sisters for they were the only men in the world who were allowed the marrying their own sisters there being no other women then in the world and as we never read of any of Abel's posterity his likewise as probable they were all murdered as that they should kill Abel only whose sons might immediately fall upon Cain for the blood of their father and so the world have been involved in a civil war as soon as there were two families in it but be it so or not his not doubted the devil rot with Cain in the horrid murder or he had never done it whether it was directly or by agents is not material nor is the latter unlikely and if the latter then there is no improbability in the story for why might not he that made use of the serpent to tempt Eve be as well supposed to make a tool of some of Cain's sons or grandsons to prompt him in the wicked attempt of murdering his brother and why must we be obliged to bring in a miracle or an apparition into the story to make it probable that the devil had any hand in it when twas so natural to a degenerate race to act in such a manner however it was and by whatever tool the devil wrought to certain that this was the consequence poor Abel was butchered and thus the devil made a second conquest in God's creation for Adam was now as maybe said really childless for his two sons were thus far lost Abel was killed and Cain was cursed and driven out from the presence of the Lord and his race blasted with him it would be a useful inquiry here and worthy our giving an account of could we come to a certainty in it namely what was the mark that God set upon Cain by which he was kept from being fallen upon by Abel's friends or relations but as this does not belong to the devil's history and it was God's mark not the devil's I have nothing to do with it here the devil had now gained his point the kingdom of grace so newly erected had been as it were extinct without a new creation had not Adam and Eve been alive and had not Eve though now 130 years of age been a breeding young lady for we must suppose the woman in that state of longevity bear children till they were seven or eight hundred year old this teeming of Eve people not the world so much as it restored the blessed race for though Abel was killed Cain had a numerous offspring presently which had Seth Adam's third son never been born would soon have replenished a world with people such as they were the seed of a murderer cursed of God branded with a mark of infamy and who afterwards fell all together in the universal ruin of the race by the deluge but after the murder of Abel Adam had another son born namely Seth the father of Enos and indeed the father of the holy race for during his time and his son Enos the text says that men began to call on the name of the Lord that is to say they began to look back upon Cain and his wicked race and being convinced of the wickedness they had committed and led their whole posterity into they began to sue to heaven for pardon of what was passed and to lead a new sort of life but the devil had met with too much success in his first attempts not to go on with his general resolution of debauching the minds of men and bringing them off from God and therefore as he kept his hold upon Cain's cursed race embroiled already in blood and murder so he proceeded with his degenerate offspring till in a word he brought both the holy seed and the degenerate race to join in one universal consent of crime and to go on in it with such aggravating circumstances as that it repented the Lord that he had made man and he resolved to overwhelm them again with a general destruction and clear the world of them the succession of blood in the royal original line of Adam is preserved in the sacred histories and brought down as low as Noah and his three sons for a continued series of one thousand four hundred fifty years say some one thousand six hundred forty say others in which time sin spread itself so generally through the whole race and the sons of God so the scripture calls the men of the righteous seed the progeny of Seth came in unto the daughters of men that is joined themselves to the cursed race of Cain and married promiscuously with them according to their fancies the women it seems being beautiful and tempting and though the devil could not make the women handsome or ugly in one or other families yet he might work up the gust of wicked inclination on either side so as to make both the men and women tempting and agreeable to one another where they ought not to have been so and perhaps as it is often seen to this day the more tempting for being under legal restraint it is objected here that we do not find in the scripture that the men and women of either race were at that time forbidden into marrying with one another and it is true that literally it is not for bid but if we did not search rather to make doubts than to explain them we might suppose it was forbidden by some particular command at that time seeing we may reasonably allow every thing to be forbidden which they are taxed with a crime in committing and as the sons of God taking them wives as they thought fit to choose though from among the daughters of the cursed race is there charged upon them as a general deprivation and a great crime and for which to said God even repented that he had made them we need go no farther to satisfy ourselves that it was certainly forbidden Satan no doubt to had a hand in this wickedness for as it was his business to prompt men to do everything which God had prohibited so the reason given why the men of those days did this thing was they saw the daughters of men that is of the wicked race or forbidden sort were fair he tempted them by the lust of the eye in a word the ladies were beautiful and agreeable and the devil knew how to make use of the allurement the men liked and took them by the mere direction of their fancy and appetite without regarding supreme prohibition they took them wives of all which they chose or such as they liked to choose but the text adds that this promiscuous generation went farther than the mere outward crime of it for it should that the wickedness of the heart of man was great before God and that he resented it in short God perceived a degeneracy or defect of virtue had seized upon the whole race that there was a general corruption of manners a depravity of nature upon them that even the holy seed was tainted with it that the devil had broken in upon them and prevailed to a great degree that not only the practice of the age was corrupt for that God could easily have restrained but that the very heart of man was debauched his desires wholly vitiated and his senses engaged in it so that in a word it became necessary to show the divine displeasure not in the ordinary manner by judgment and reproofs of such kind as usually reclaim men but by a general destruction to sweep them away clear the earth of them and put an end to the wickedness at once removing the offense and the offenders altogether this is signified at large genesis six five God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and again v eleven twelve the earth also was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence and God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth it must be confessed it was a strange conquest the devil had made in the anti deluvian world that he had as I may say brought the whole race of mankind into a general revolt from God Noah was indeed a preacher of righteousness and he had preached about five hundred years to as little purpose as most of the good ministers ever did for we do not read there was one man converted by him or at least not one of them left for that at the deluge there was either none of them alive or none spared but Noah and his three sons and their wives and even they are his evident recorded not so much to be saved for their own goodness but because they were his sons nay without breach of charity we may conclude that at least one went to the devil even of those three namely ham or champ for triumphant in a brutal manner over his father's drunkenness for we find the special curse reached to him and his posterity for many ages and whether it went no farther than the present state of life with them we cannot tell we will suppose now that through this whole fifteen hundred years the devil having so effectually debauched mankind had advanced his infernal kingdom to a prodigious height for the text says the whole earth was filled with violence in a word blood murder rape robbery oppression and injustice prevailed everywhere and man like the wild bear in the forest lived by prey biting and devouring one another at this time Noah begins to preach a new doctrine to them for as he had before been a preacher of righteousness now he becomes a preacher of vengeance first he tells them they shall be all overwhelmed with a deluge that for their sins God repented they were made and that he would destroy them all adding that to prevent the ruin of himself and family he resolved to build him a ship to have recourse to when the water should come over the rest of the world what justing what scorn what contempt did this work expose the good old man to for above a hundred years for so long the work was building as ancient author say let us represent to ourselves in the most lively manner how the witty world at that time behaved to poor old Noah how they took their evening walks to see what he was doing and pass their judgment upon it and upon the progress of it I say to represent this to ourselves we need go no farther than to our own witticisms upon religion and upon the most solemn mysteries of divine worship how he damned serious for enthusiasts think the grave mad and the sober melancholy call religion itself flades and hippo make the devout ignorant the divine mercenary and the whole scheme of divinity a frame of priest craft and thus no doubt the building an arc or boat or whatever they called it to float over the mountains and dance over the planes what could it be but a religious frenzy and the man that so busy himself a lunatic in all this in an age when divine things came by immediate revelation into the minds of men the devil must therefore have made a strange conquest upon mankind to obliterate all the reverence which but a little before was so strangely impressed upon them concerning their maker this was certainly the height of the devil's kingdom and we shall never find him arrive to such a pitch again he was then truly and literally the universal monarch nay the God of this world and as all tyrants do he governs them with an arbitrary absolute sway and had not God thought fit to give him a writ of ejectment and afterwards drown him out of possession I know not what would have been the case he might have kept his hold for ought I know till the seed of the woman came to bruise his head that is to say cripple his government dethrone him and depose his power as has been fulfilled in the messiah but as he was I say drowned out of the world his kingdom for the present was at an end at least if he had a dominion he had no subjects and as the creation was in a manner renewed so the devil had all his work to do over again unhappy man how has he by his weak resistance made the devil recovering his hold too easy to him and given him all the advantages except as before accepted which he had before now whether he retired in the meantime and how he got footing again after Noah and his family were landed upon the new surface that we come next to inquire and of part one chapter nine