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of their motions, the certainty of their revolutions, and the variety and virtue of their influences; and then, which was even to the Devils themselves most astonishing, that after all the rest of their observations they should find this whole immense work was adapted for. and made subservient to, the use, delight, and blessing, only of one poor species, in itself small, and in appearance contemptible; the meanest of all the kinds supposed to inhabit so many glorious worlds, as appeared now to be formed; I mean, that moon called the earth, and the creature called man; that all was made for him, upheld by the wise Creator, on his account only; and would necessarily end and cease whenever that species should end, and be 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 within, every system of the whole created Heavens: this was astonishing even to the Devil himself; nay, the whole clan of devils could scarce entertain any jnst ideas of the thing; till at last Satan, indefatigable 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 eclair cissement, or a clear understanding of the whole. For example:
1. He found this creature, called man, was, however mean and small in his appearance, a kind of a seraphic species: that he was made in the very image of God, endowed with reasonable faculties to know good and evil, and 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; namely,
2. That God had made him indeed of the lowest and coarsest 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 spirituous part completely seraphic; and after a space of life here, (determined to be a state of probation,) he should be translated through the regions of death into a life purely and truly heavenly, and which should remain so forever: being capable of knowing and en joy ingGod, his Maker, and standing in his presence, as the glorified angels do.
3. That he had the most sublime faculties infused into him; was capable not only of knowing and contemplating God, and, which was still more, of enjoying him, as above; but (which the Devil now was not,) capable of honoring and glorifying his Maker; who also had condescended to accept of honor from him.
4. 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, it 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 stript of its inhabitants by his expulsion; and that these were all to be made angels in the devils’ 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 a vent 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 subtilty; 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. Vide Mr. Pool upon Acts xix. 16, where we may particularly observe, when the man possessed with an evil spirit flew upon the seven sons of Sceva, the Jew, who would have exorcised 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, arid wounded. But of 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 abortive; leaving him only light enough to see still more and more reason to despair of success; and that this made his condition still more and more an hell than it was before.
After a space of duration in this misery, which we have no light given us to measure, or judge of, he at length discovered the new creation of man, as above; upon which he soon found matter to set himself to work, 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 con&ned 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.
Chapter 8
OF THE POWER OF THE Demi at the time of the creation of this world; whether it has not been farther straitened and limited since that time; and what shifts and stratagems he is obliged to make use of to compass his designs upon mankind.
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CUNNING MEN HAVE FABLED, and though it be without either religion, authority, or physical foundation, it may be we may like it never the worse for that; that when God made the stars, and all the heavenly luminaries, the Devil, to mimic his Maker, and insult his new creation, made comets, in 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 unskilfully 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 pur purpose whether we believe anything of it, or no; it 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 at 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 the extremes of the systems. They had no power either to break the order, or to 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 riot displace any part, annihilate any atom, or destroy any life, in the whole creation;