Title Page
Introduction
Authors
The Political History of the Devil
Paradise Lost
The Devil on Two Sticks
About the Publisher
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WELCOME TO THE 3 Books To Know series, our idea is to help readers learn about fascinating topics through three essential and relevant books.
These carefully selected works can be fiction, non-fiction, historical documents or even biographies.
We will always select for you three great works to instigate your mind, this time the topic is: The Devil.
The Political History of the Devil is a 1726 book by Daniel Defoe. General scholarly opinion is that Defoe really did think of the Devil as a participant in world history. He spends some time discussing John Milton's Paradise Lost and explaining why he considers it inaccurate. His view is that of an 18th-century Presbyterian – he blames the Devil for the Crusades and sees him as close to Europe's Catholic powers. The book was banned by the Roman Catholic Church.
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. The first version, published in 1667, consisted of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification. It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time. The poem concerns the biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is to "justify the ways of God to men."
The Devil on Two Sticks is a 1707 novel by French writer Alain-René Lesage. It is set in Madrid, and it tells the story of demon king Asmodeus, Don Cleophas Leandro Perez Zambullo and his beloved, Donna Thomasa.
This is one of many books in the series 3 Books To Know. If you liked this book, look for the other titles in the series, we are sure you will like some of the topics.
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JOHN MILTON, (born December 9, 1608, London, England—died November 8, 1674, London), English poet, pamphleteer, and historian, considered the most significant English author after William Shakespeare.
Daniel Defoe, (born 1660, London, Eng.—died April 24, 1731, London), English novelist, pamphleteer, and journalist, author of Robinson Crusoe (1719–22) and Moll Flanders (1722).
Alain-René Lesage, (born May 6, 1668, Sarzeau, France—died Nov. 17, 1747, Boulogne), prolific French satirical dramatist and author of the classic picaresque novel Gil Blas, which was influential in making the picaresque form a European literary fashion.
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DANIEL DEFOE
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“THIS SIXTH EDITION of the History of the Devil, besides large impressions of the first, second, third and fourth, is a certificate from the world of its general acceptation; so that we need not, according to the custom of modern editors, boast of it without evidence, or tell a fib in its favor.
“The subject is singular, and it has been handled after a singular manner. The wise part of the world has been pleased with it, the merry part has been diverted with it, and the ignorant part has been taught by it; none but the malicious part of the world has been offended at it. Who can wonder then, that when the Devil is not pleased, his friends should be angry?
“The strangest thing of all is, to hear Satan complain that the story is handled profanely. But who can think it strange, that his advocates should be, what he was from the beginning?
“The author affirms, and has good vouchers for it (in the opinion of such whose judgment passes with him for an authority,) the whole tenor of the work is solemn, calculated to promote serious religion, and capable of being improved in a religious manner. But he does not think, that we are bound never to speak of the Devil but with an air of terror, as if we were always afraid of him.
“It is evident the Devil, as subtle and as frightful as he is, has acted the ridiculous and foolish part, as much as most of God’s creatures, and daily does so. And he cannot believe it is any sin to expose him for a foolish devil, as he is, or show him to the world, that he may be laughed at.
“Those who think the subject not handled with gravity enough, have all the room given them in the world to handle it better; and as the author professes he is far from thinking his piece perfect, they ought not to be angry, that he gives them leave to mend it.
“He has had the satisfaction to please some readers, and to see good men approve it; and for the rest, as my Lord Rochester says, in another case,
He counts their censure fame.
“As for a certain reverend gentleman, who is pleased gravely to dislike the work, (he hopes, rather for the author’s sake than the Devil’s;) he only says, Let the performance be how it will, and, the author what he will, it is apparent he has not yet preached away all his hearers.
“It is enough for me (says the author) that the Devil himself is not pleased with my work, and less with the design of it; let the Devil and all his fellow complainers stand on one side, and the honest, well-meaning, charitable world, who approve my work, on the other.”
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INTRODUCTION TO THE whole work,
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I DOUBT NOT BUT THE title of this book will amuse some of my reading friends a little at first; they will make a pause, perhaps, as they do at a witch’s prayer, and be some time resolving whether they had best look into it or no, lest they should really raise the Devil, by reading his story.
Children and old women have told themselves so many frightful things of the Devil, and have formed ideas of him in their minds, in so many horrible and monstrous shapes, that really it were enough to fright the Devil himself to meet himself in the dark, dressed up in the several figures which imagination has formed for him in the minds of men; and, as for themselves, I cannot think by any means that the Devil would terrify them half so much, if they were to converse face to face with him.
It must certainly therefore be a most useful undertaking, to give a true history of this tyrant of the air, this god of the world, this terror and aversion of mankind, which we call Devil; to show what he is, and what he is NOT; where he is, and where he is NOT; when he is IN us, and when he is NOT; for I cannot doubt but that the Devil is really and bona fide in a great many of our honest weak-headed friends, when they themselves know nothing of the matter.
Nor is the work so difficult as some may imagine.
The Devil’s history is not so hard to come at, as it seems to be; his original and the first rise of his family is upon record; and as for his conduct, he has acted indeed in the dark, as to method, in many things; but in general, as cunning as he is, he has been fool enough to expose himself in some of the most considerable transactions of his Ike, and has not shown himself a politician at all; our old friend Matchiavel outdid him in many things, and I may, in the process of this work, give an account of several of the sons of Adam, and some societies of them too, who have outwitted the Devil, nay, who have outsinned the Devil, and that I think may be called outshooting him in his own bow.
It may, perhaps, be expected of me in this history, that since I seem inclined to speak favorably of Satan, to do him justice, and to write his story impartially, I should take some pains to tell you what religion he is of: and even this part may not be so much a jest, as at first sight you may take it to be; for Satan has something of religion in him, I assure you; nor is he such an unprofitable Devil that way as some may suppose him to be; for though, in reverence to my brethren, I will not reckon him among the clergy; no not so much as a gifted brother; yet I cannot deny, but that he often preaches; and if it be not profitable to his hearers, it is as much their fault, as it is out of his design.
It has indeed been suggested, that he has taken orders; and that a certain Pope, famous for being an extraordinary favorite of his, gave him both institution and induction; but as this is not upon record, and therefore we have no authentic document for the probation, I shall not affirm it for a truth, for I would not slander the Devil.
It is said also, and I am apt to believe it, that he was very familiar with that holy father Pope Silvester II., and some charge him with personating Pope Hildebrand on an extraordinary occasion, and himself sitting in the chair apostolic, in a full congregation; and you may hear more of this hereafter; but as I do not meet with Pope Diabolus among the list; in allFather Platina’s Lives of the Popes, so I am willing to leave it as I find it.
But to speak to the point, and a nice point it is, I acknowledge; namely, what religion the Devil is of; my answer will indeed be general, yet not at all ambiguous; for I love to speak positively, and with undoubted evidence.
1. He is a believer. And if in saying so it should follow, that even the Devil has more religion than some of our men of fame can at this time be charged with, I can assure them, however, that the Devil is no infidel.
2. He fears God. We have such abundant evidence of this in sacred history, that if I were not at present, in common with a few others, talking to an infidel sort of gentlemen, with whom those remote things called scriptures are not allowed in evidence, I might say it was sufficiently proved; but I doubt not in the process of this undertaking, to show that the Devil really fears God, and that after another manner than ever he feared Saint Francis or Saint Dunstan, and if that be proved, as I take upon me to advance, I shall leave it to judgment, who is the better Christian, the Devil who believes and trembles, or our modern infidels who believe neither God nor Devil.
Having thus brought the Devil within the pale, I shall leave him among you for the present; not but that I may examine in its order, who has the best claim to his brotherhood, the papists or the protestants; and among the latter, the Lutherans or the Calvinists; and so descending to all the several de nominations of churches, see who has less of the Devil in them, and who more; and whether less or more, the Devil has not a seat in every synagogue, a pew in every church, a place in every pulpit, and a vote in every synod; even to the Sanhedrim of the Jews.
I think I do no injury at all to the Devil, to say that he had a great hand in the old Holy War, as it was ignorantly and enthusiastically called; stirring up the Christian princes and powers of Europe to run a madding after the Turks and Saracens, and make war with those innocent people above a thousand miles off, only because they entered into God’s heritage when he had forsaken it; grazed upon his ground when he had fairly turned it into a common, and laid it open for the next comer; spending their nations’ treasure, and embarking their kings and people, I say, in a war above a thousand miles off, filling their heads with that religious madness, called, in those days, holy zeal to recover the terra sancta, the sepulchres of Christ and the saints, and as they called it falsely, the holy city, though true religion says it was the accursed city, and not worth spending one drop of blood for.
This religious bubble was certainly of Satan, who, as he craftily drew them in, so like a true Devil he left them in the lurch when they came there, faced about to the Saracens, animated the immortal Saladin against them, and managed so dextrously, that he left the bones of about thirteen or fourteen hundred thousand Christians there, as a trophy of his infernal politics: and after the Christian world had run d la santa terra, or in English, a sauntering about a hundred year, he dropt it to play another game less foolish, but ten times wickeder than that which went before it, namely, turning the crusadoes of the Christians, one against another; and, as Hudibras said in another case,
“Made them fight like mad or drunk,
For Dame Religion, as for Punk.”
Of this you have a complete account in the history of the Pope’s decrees against the Count de Thoulouse, and the Waldenses and Albigenses, with the crusadoes and massacres which followed upon them; wherein, to do the Devil’s politics some justice, he met with all the success he could desire; the zealots of that day executed his infernal orders most punctually, and planted religion in those countries in a glorious and triumphant manner, upon the destruction of an infinite number of innocent people, whose blood has fattened the soil for the growth of the Catholic faith, in a manner very particular, and to Satan’s full satisfaction.
I might, to complete this part of his history, give you the detail of his progress in these first steps of his alliances with Rome; and add a long list of massacres, wars and expeditions, in behalf of religion, which he has had the honor to have a visible hand in; such as the Parisian massacre, the Flemish war, under the Duke d’Alva, the Smithfield fires in the Marian days in England, and the massacres in Ireland; all which would most effectually convince us, that the Devil has not been idle in his business; but I may meet with these again in my way; it is enough while I am upon the generals only, to mention them thus in a summary way: I say, it is enough to prove that the Devil has really been as much concerned as any body, in the methods taken by some people for propagating the Christian religion in the world.
Some have rashly, and I had almost said maliciously, charged the Devil with the great triumphs of his friends the Spaniards in America, and would place the conquest of Mexico and Peru to the credit of his account.
But I cannot join with them in this at all: I must say, I believe the Devil was innocent of that matter; my reason is, because Satan was never such a fool as to spend his time, or his politics, or embark his allies, to conquer nations who were already his own; that would be Satan against Beelzebub, a making war upon himself, and at least doing nothing to the purpose.
But the greatest piece of management, which we find the Devil has concerned himself in of late, in the matter of religion, seems to be that of the mission into China; and here, indeed, Satan has acted his masterpiece: it was, no doubt, much for his service, that the Chinese should have no insight into matters of religion, I mean, that we call Christian; and, therefore, though popery and the Devil are not at so much variance as some may imagine, yet he did not think it safe to let the general system of Christianity be heard of among them in China. Hence when the name of the Christian religion had but been received with some seeming approbation in the country of Japan, Satan immediately, as if alarmed at the thing, and dreading what the consequences of it might be, armed theJapanese against it with such fury, that they expelled it at once.
It was much safer to his designs, when, if the story be not a fiction, he put that Dutch witticism into the mouths of the States’ commanders, when they came to Japan; who, having more wit than to own themselves Christians in such a place as that, when the question was put to them, answered negatively, that they were not, but that they were of another religion, called Hollanders.
However, it seems the diligent Jesuits outwitted the Devil in China, and, as I said above, overshot him in his own bow; for the mission being in danger by the Devil and the Chinese Emperor’s joining together, of being wholly expelled there too, as they had been in Japan, they cunningly fell in with the ecclesiastics of the country, and joining the priestcraft of both religions together, they brought Jesus Christ and Confucius to be so reconcilable, that the Chinese and the Roman Idolatry appeared capable of a confederacy, of going on hand in hand together, and consequently of being very good friends.
This was a master-piece indeed, and, as they say. almost frighted Satan out of his wits; but he, being a ready manager, and particularly famous for serving himself of the rogueries of the priests, faced about im mediately to the mission, and making a virtue of necessity, clapt in, with all possible alacrity, with the proposal*; so the Jesuits and he formed a hotch-potch of religion made up of popery and paganism, and calculated to leave the latter rather worse than they found it, blending the faith of Christ and the philosophy or morals of Confucius together, and formally christening them by the name of religion; by which means the politic interest of the mission was preserved; and yet Satan lost not one inch of ground with the Chinese, no, not by the planting the gospel itself, such as it was, among them.
N.B. He never refus’d setting his hand to any opinion, which he thought it for his interest to acknowledge.
Nor has it been such disadvantage to him that this plan or scheme of a new-modelled religion would not go down at Rome, and that the Inquisition damneol it with bell, book and candle; distance of place served his new allies, the missionaries, in the stead of a protection from the Inquisition; and now and then a rich present well placed found them friends in the congregation itself; and where any nuncio with his impudent zeal pretended to take such a long voyage to oppose them, Satan took care to get him sent back re infecta, or inspired the mission to move him off the premises, by methods of their own; that is to say, being interpreted, to murder him.
But there is so much to inquire of about the Devil, before we can bring his story down to our modern times, that we must for the present let them drop, and look a little back to the remoter parts of this history; drawing his picture, that people may know him when they meet him, and see who and what he is, and what he has been doing ever since he got leave to act in the high station he now appears in.
But, however, he knows the certainty of this fact, that when he endeavors the seducing the chosen servants of the Most High, he fights against God himself, struggles with irresistible grace, and makes war with infinite power; undermining the church of God, and that faith in him, which is fortified with the eternal promises of Jesus Christ, that the gates of hell, that is to say, the Devil and all his power, shall not prevail against them; I say, however he knows the impossibility there is that he should obtain his ends, yet so blind is his rage, so infatuate his wisdom, that he cannot refrain breaking himself to pieces against this mountain, and splitting against the rock.
But to leave this serious part, which is a little too solemn for the account of this rebel: seeing we are not to expect he will write his own history for our information and diversion, I shall see if I cannot write it for him: in order to this, I shall extract the substance of his whole story, from the beginning to our own times, which I shall collect out of what is come to hand, whether by revelation or inspiration, that’s nothing to him: I shall take care so to improve my intelligence, as may make my account of him authentic, and, in a word, such as the Devil himself shall not be able to contradict.
In writing this uncouth story, I shall be freed from the censures of the critics, in a more than ordinary manner, upon one account especially; namely, that my story shall be so just, and so well-grounded, and, after all the good things I shall say of Satan, will be so little to his satisfaction, that the Devil himself will not be able to say, I dealt with the Devil in writing it: I might, perhaps, give you some account where I had my intelligence, and how all the arcana of his management have come to my hands; but pardon me, gentlemen; this would be to betray conversation, and to discover my agents; and you know statesmen are very careful to preserve the correspondences they keep in the enemy’s country, lest they expose their friends to the resentment of the power whose counsels they betray.
Besides, the learned tell us, that ministers of state make an excellent plea of their not betraying their intelligence, against all party inquiries into the great sums of money pretended to be paid for secret service; and whether the secret service was to bribe people to betray things abroad, or at home; whether the money was paid to somebody, or to nobody; employed to establish correspondences abroad, or to establish families, and amass treasure, at home; in a word, whether it was to serve their country, or serve themselves; it has been the same thing, and the same plea has been their protection: likewise in the important affair which I am upon, it is hoped you will not desire me to betray my correspondents; for you know Satan is naturally cruel and malicious, and who knows what he might do, to show his resentment? at least it might endanger a stop of our intelligence for the future.
And yet, before I have done, I shall make it very plain, that however my information may be secret and difficult, that yet I came very honestly by it, and shall make a very good use of it; for it is a great mistake in those who think that an acquaintance with the affairs of the Devil may not be made very useful to us all: they that know no evil can know no good: and, as the learned tell us, that a stone taken out of the head of a toad is a good antidote against poison; so a competent knowledge of the Devil, and all his ways, may be the best help to make us defy the Devil, and all his works.
OF THE WORD DEVIL, as it is a proper name to the Devil, and any or all of his host, angels, &c.
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IT IS A QUESTION, NOT yet determined by the learned, whether the word Devil be a singular, that is to say, the name of a person standing by himself, or a noun of multitude: if it be a singular, and so must be used personally only as a proper name, it consequently implies one imperial Devil, monarch or king of the whole clan of hell; justly distinguished by the term the Devil, or, as the Scots call him, the muckle horrid Dee’l, or, as others in a wilder dialect, the Devil of hell, that is to say, the Devil of a Devil; or (better still) as the scripture expresses it, by way of emphasis, the great red Dragon, the Devil, and Satan.
But if we take this word to be, as above, a noun of multitude, and so to be used ambo-dezter, as occasion presents, singular or plural; then the Devil signifies Satan by himself, or Satan with all his legions at his heels, as you please, more or less; and this way of understanding the word, as it may be very convenient for my purpose, in the account I am now to give of the infernal powers, so it is not altogether improper in the nature of the thing: it is thus expressed in scripture, where the person possessed (Mark v. 9,) is first said to be possessed of the Devil (singular); and our Saviour asks him, as speaking to a single person, What is thy name? and is answered in the plural and singular together, My name is Legion, for we are many.
Nor will it be any wrong to the Devil, supposing him a single person, seeing entitling him to the conduct of all his inferior agents, is what he will take rather for an addition to his infernal glory, than a diminution or lessening of him, in the extent of his fame.
Having thus articled with the Devil for liberty of speech, I shall talk of him sometimes in the singular, as a person, and sometimes in the plural, as an host of devils, or of infernal spirits, just as occasion requires, and as the history of his affairs makes necessary.
The truth is, God and the Devil, however opposite in their nature, and remote from one another in their place of abiding, seem to stand pretty much upon a level in our faith: for as to our believing the reality of their existence, he that denies one, generally denies both; and he that believes one, necessarily believes both.
Very few, if any, of those who believe there is a God, and acknowledge the debt of homage which mankind owes to the Supreme governor of the world, doubt the existence of the Devil, except here and there one, whom we call practical Atheists; and it is the character of an Atheist, if there is such a creature on earth, that he believes neither God nor Devil.
As the belief of both these stands upon a level, and that God and the Devil seem to have an equal share in our faith, so the evidence of their existence seems to stand upon a level too, in many things; and as they are known by their works in the same particular cases, so they are discovered after the same manner of demonstration.
Nay, in some respects it is equally criminal to deny the reality of them both; only with this difference, that to believe the existence of a God is a debt to nature, and to believe the existence of the Devil is a like debt to reason: one is a demonstration from the reality of visible causes, and the other a deduction from the like reality of their effects.
One demonstration of the existence of God, is from the universal well-guided consent of all nations to worship and adore a supreme power: one demonstration of the existence of the Devil, is from the avowed ill-guided consent of some nations, who, knowing no other God, make a God of the Devil for want of a better.
It may be true, those nations have no other ideas of the Devil than as of a superior power; if they thought him a supreme power, it would have other effects on them, and they would submit to and worship him with a different kind of fear.
But it is plain they have right notions of him as a devil, or evil spirit; because the best reason, and in some places the only reason they give for worshipping him is, that he may do them no hurt; having no notions at all of his having any power, much less any inclination, to do them good; so that indeed they make a mere devil of him, at the same time that they bow to him as God.
All the ages of paganism in the world have had this notion of the Devil: indeed in some parts of the world they had also some deities which they honored above him, as being supposed to be beneficent, kind, and in clined, as well as capable, to give them good things; for this reason the more polite heathens, such as the Grecians and Romans, had their Lares, or household gods, whom they paid a particular respect to; as being their protectors from hobgoblins, ghosts of the dead, evil spirits, frightful appearances, evil geniuses, and other noxious beings from the invisible world; or, to put it into the language of the day we live in, from the Devil, in whatever shape or appearance he might come to them, and from whatever might hurt them; and what was all this but setting up Devils against Devils, supplicating one Devil under the notion of a good spirit, to drive out and protect them from another, whom they called a bad spirit, the white Devil against the black Devil?
This proceeds from the natural notions mankind necessarily entertain of things to come: superior or in ferior, God and the Devil, fill up all futurity in our thoughts; and it is impossible for us to form any image in our minds of an immortality, and invisible world, but under the notions of perfect felicity, or extreme misery.
Now as these two respect the eternal state of man after life, they are respectively the object of our reverence and affection, or of our horror and aversion; but notwithstanding they are placed thus in a diametrical opposition in our affections and passions, they are on an evident level as to the certainty of their existence, and, as I said above, bear an equal share in our faith.
It being then as certain that there is a Devil, as that there is a God, I must from this time forward admit no more doubt of his existence, nor take any more pains to convince you of it; but speaking of him as a reality in being, proceed to inquire who he is, and from whence, in order to enter directly into the detail of his history.
Now not to enter into all the metaphysical trumpery of his schools; nor wholly to confine myself to the language of the pulpit; where we are told, that to think of God, and of the Devil, we must endeavor first to form ideas of those things which illustrate the descriptions of rewards and punishments; in the one the eternal presence of the highest good, and, as a necessary attendant, the most perfect, consummate, durable bliss and felicity, springing from the presence of that being in whom all possible beatitude is inexpressibly present, and that in the highest perfection; on the contrary, to conceive of a sublime fallen archangel attended with an innumerable host of degenerate, rebel seraphs, or angels, cast out of heaven together; all guilty of inexpressible rebellion, and all suffering from that time, and to suffer for ever, the eternal vengeance of the Almighty, in an inconceivable manner; that his presence, though blessed in itself, is to them the most complete article of terror; that they are in themselves perfectly miserable; and to be with whom for ever, adds an inexpressible misery to any state as well as place; and fills the minds of those who are to be, or expect to be, banished to them, with inconceivable horror and amazement.
But when you have gone over all this, and a great deal more of the like, though less intelligible language, which the passions of men collect to amuse one another with; you have said nothing, if you omit the main article, namely, the personality of the Devil; and till you add to all the rest some description of the company with whom all this is to be suffered; namely, the Devil and his angels.
Now who this Devil and his angels are, what share they have either actively or passively in the eternal miseries of a future state, how far they are agents in, or partners with, the sufferings of the place, is a difficulty yet not fully discovered by the most learned; nor do I believe it is made less a difficulty by their meddling with it.
But to come to the personal and original of the Devil, or, as I said before, of Devils; I allow him to come of an ancient family, for he is from heaven; and, more truly than the Romans could say of their idolized Numa, he is of the race of the gods.
That Satan is a fallen angel, a rebel seraph, cast out for his rebellion, is the general opinion, and it is not my business to dispute things universally received; as he was tried, condemned, and the sentence of expulsion executed on him, in heaven, he is in this world like a transported felon never to return; his crime, whatever particular aggravations it might have, it is certain, amounted to high treason against his Lord and Governor, who was also his Maker; against whom he rose in rebellion, took up arms, and, in a word, raised an horrid and unnatural war in his dominions; but being overcome in battle, and made prisoner, he and all his host, whose numbers were infinite, all glorious angels like himself, lost at once their beauty and glory with their innocence, and commenced Devils, being trans formed by crime into monsters and frightful objects; such as to describe, human fancy is obliged to draw pictures and descriptions in such forms as are most hateful and frightful to the imagination.
These notions, I doubt not, gave birth to all the beauteous images and sublime expressions in Mr. Milton’s majestic poem; where, though he has played the poet in the most luxuriant manner, he has sinned against Satan most egregiously, and done the Devil a manifest injury in a great many particulars, as I shall show in its place. And as I shall be obliged to do Satan justice when I come to that part of his history, Mr. Milton’s admirers must pardon me, if I let them see, that though I admire Mr. Milton as a poet, yet that he was greatly out in matters of history, and especially the history of the Devil; in short, that he has charged Satan falsely in several particulars; and so he has Adam and Eve too: but that I shall leave till I come to the history of the royal family of Eden; which I resolve to present you with when the Devil and I have done with one another.
But not to run down Mr. Milton neither, whose poetry, or his judgment, cannot he reproached without injury to our own; all those bright ideas of his, whicli make his poem so justly valued, whether they are capable of proof as to the fact, are, notwithstanding, confirmations of my hypothesis; and are taken from a supposition of the personality of the Devil, placing him at the head of the infernal host, as a sovereign elevated spirit, and monarch of hell; and as such it is that I undertake to write his history.
By the word hell I do not suppose, or at least not determine, that his residence, or that of the whole army of Devils, is yet in the same local hell, to which the divines tell us he shall be at last chained down; or at least that he is yet confined to it; for we shall find he is at present a prisoner at large; of both which circumstances of Satan, I shall take occasion to speak in its course.
But when I call the Devil the monarch of hell. I am to be understood as suits to the present purpose; that he is the sovereign of all the race of hell, that is to say, of all the devils or spirits of the infernal clan, let their numbers, quality and powers be what they will.
Upon this supposed personality and superiority of Satan, or, as I call it, the sovereignty and government of one Devil above all the rest; I say, upon this notion are formed all the systems of the dark side of futurity, that we can form in our minds: and so general is the opinion of it, that it will hardly bear to be opposed by any other argument, at least that will bear to be reasoned upon: all the notions of a parity of Devils, or making a commonwealth among the black divan, seem to be enthusiastic and visionary; but with no consistency or certainty; and is so generally exploded, that we must not venture so much as to debate the point.
Taking it then, as the generality of mankind do, that there is a grand Devil, a superior of the whole black race; that they all fell, together with their general, Satan, at the head of them; that though he,
Satan, could not maintain his high station in heaven, yet that he did continue his dignity among the rest; who are called his servants, in scripture, his angels; that he has a kind of dominion or authority over the rest; and that they were all, how many millions soever in number, at his command; employed by him in all his hellish designs, and in all his wicked contrivances for the destruction of man, and for the setting up his own kingdom in the world;
Supposing then that there is such a superior master Devil over all the rest, it remains that we inquire into his character, and something of his history; in which, though we cannot perhaps produce such authentic documents as in the story of other great monarchs, tyrants and furies of the world; yet I shall endeavor to speak some things which the experience of mankind may be apt to confirm, and which the Devil himself will hardly be able to contradict.
It being then granted, that there is such a thing or person, call him which we will, as a master Devil; that he is thus superior to all the rest in power and in authority; and that all the other evil spirits are his angels, or ministers, or officers, to execute his commands, and are employed in his business; it remains to inquire, Whence he came? How he got hither, into this world? What that business is which he is em ployed about? What his present state is, and where, and to what part of the creation of God, he is limited and restrained? What the liberties are he takes, or is allowed to take? In what manner he works, and how his instruments are likewise allowed to work? What he has done ever since he commenced Devil, what he is now doing, and what he may yet do before his last and closer confinement? as also, What he cannot do, and how far we may or may not be said to be exposed to him, or have or have not reason to be afraid of him 7 These, and whatever else occurs in the history and conduct of this arch-devil and his agents, that may be useful for information, caution, or diversion, you may expect in the process of this work.
I know it has been questioned by some, with more face than fear, how it consists with a complete victory of the Devil, which they say was at first obtained by the heavenly powers over Satan and his apostate army in heaven, that when he was cast out of his holy place, and dashed down into the abyss of eternal darkness, as into a place of punishment, a condemned hold, or place of confinement, to he reserved there to the judgment of the great day; I say. how it consists with that entire victory, to let him loose again, and give him liberty, like a thief that has broken prison, to range about God’s creation, and there to continue his rebellion, commit new ravages and acts of hostility against God, make new efforts at dethroning the Almighty Creator; and in particular to fall upon the weakest of his creatures, man? How Satan being so entirely vanquished, he should be permitted to recover any of his wicked powers, and find room to do mischief tcr mankind?
Nay, they go farther, and suggest bold things against the wisdom of heaven, in exposing mankind, weak in comparison of the immense extent of the Devil’s power, to so manifest an overthrow, to so unequal a fight, in which he is sure, if alone in the conflict, to be worsted; to leave him such a dreadful enemy to engage with, and so ill-furnished with weapons to assist him.
These objections I shall give as good an answer to, as the case will admit of in this course, but must adjourn them for the present.
That the Devil is not yet a close prisoner, we have evidence enough to confirm: I will not suggest, that like our Newgate thieves (to bring little devils and great devils together) he is let out by connivance, and has some little latitudes and advantages for mischief, by that means; returning at certain seasons to his confinement again.
This might hold, were it not that the comparison must suggest, that the power which has cast him down could be deluded, and the under-keepers or gaolers, under whose charge he was in custody, could wink at his excursions, and the Lord of the place know nothing of the matter. But this wants farther explanation.
OF THE ORIGINAL OF the Devil, who he is, and what he was before his expulsion out of Heaven, and in what state he was from that time to the creation of man,
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TO COME TO A REGULAR inquiry into Satan’s affairs, it is needful we should go back to his original, as far as history and the opinion of the learned world will give us leave.
It is agreed by all writers, as well sacred as profane, that this creature we now call a Devil, was originally an angel of light, a glorious seraph; perhaps the choicest of all the glorious seraphs. See how Milton describes his original glory:
“Satan, so call him now; his former name
Is heard no more in heaven: he of the first,
If not the first archangel; great in power,
In favor and preeminence.”
—— Lib. v. fol. 140.
And again the same author, and upon the same subject:
“Brighter once amidst the host
Of angels, than that star the stars among.”
—— Lib. vii. fol. 189.
The glorious figure which Satan is supposed to make among the thrones and dominions in heaven is such, as we might suppose the highest angel in that exalted train could make; and some think, as above, that he was the chief of the archangels.
Hence that notion (and not ill-founded); namely, that the first cause of his disgrace, and on which ensued his rebellion, was occasioned upon God’s proclaiming his son generalissimo, and with himself supreme ruler in heaven; giving the dominion of all his works of creation, as well already finished, as not then begun, to him; which post of honor (say they) Satan .expected to be conferred on himself, as next in honor, majesty, and power, to God the Supreme. 3
This opinion is followed by Mr. Milton too, as appears in the following lines, where he makes all the angels attending a general summons, and God the Father making the following declaration to them:
“Hear all ye angels, progeny of light,
Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers!
Hear my decree, which unrevok’d shall stand.
This day I have begot whom I declare
My only Son, and on this holy hill
Him have anointed, whom ye now behold
At my right hand; your head I him appoint:
And by myself have sworn, to him shall bow
All knees in heav’n, and shall confess him Lord;
Under his great vicegerent reign abide
United, as one individual soul,
For ever happy: him who disobeys,
Me disobeys, breaks union; and that day
Cast out from God, and blessed vision, falls
Into utter darkness, deep ingulph’d, his place
Ordain’d without redemption, without end.”
Satan, affronted at the appearance of a new essence or being in heaven, called the Son of God, for God, says Mr. Milton, (though erroneously,) declared himself at that time, saying, This day have I begotten him, and that he should be set up above all the former powers of heaven, of whom Satan (as above) was the chief, and expecting, if any higher post could be granted, it might be his due; I say, affronted at this, he resolved
“With all his legions to dislodge, and leave
Unworship’d, unobey’d, the throne supreme,
Contemptuous.”
—— Par. Lost, lib. v. fol. 140.
But Mr. Milton is grossly erroneous in ascribing those words, This day have I begotten thee, to that declaration of the Father, before Satan fell, and consequently to a time before the creation; whereas it is by interpreters agreed to be understood of the incarnation of the Son of God, or at least of the resurrection: see Pool upon Acts xiii. 33.1
1 Mr. Pool’s words are these: Some refer the words, this day have I begotten thee, to the incarnation of the Son of God, others to the resurrection; our translators lay the stress on the preposition of which the verb is compounded, and by adding again, (namely) raised up Jesus again, (Acts xiii. 33,) intended it to be understood of the resurrection; and there is ground for it in the context; for the resurrection of Christ is that which St. Paul had propounded in verse 30 of the same chapter, as his theme or argument to preach upon.
Not that Christ at his resurrection began to be the Son of God, but that he was manifested then to be so.
In a word, Satan withdrew with all his followers, malcontent and chagrin, resolved to disobey this new command, and not yield obedience to the Son.
Now Mr. Milton agrees in that opinion, that the number of angels which rebelled with Satan was infinite; and suggests in one place, that they were the greatest half of all the angelic body, or seraphic host.
“But Satan with his powers
An host
Innumerable as the stars of night,
Or stars of morning, dew-drops, which the sun
Impearls on ev’ry leaf, and ev’ry flower.”
—— Ib. lib. v. fol. 142.
Be their number as it is, numberless millions, and legions of millions, that is no part of my present inquiry; Satan, the leader, guide and superior, as he was author of the celestial rebellion, is still the great head and master-devil as before; under his authority they still act, not obeying, but carrying on the same insurrection against God, which they began in heaven; making war still against heaven, in the person of his image and creature, man; and though vanquished by the thunder of the Son of God, and cast down headlong from heaven, they have yet reassumed, or rather not lost, either the will or the power of doing evil.
This fall of the angels, with the war in heaven which preceded it, is finely described by Ovid, in his War of the Titans against Jupiter; casting mountain upon mountain, and hill upon hill, (Pelion upon Ossa,) in order to scale the adamantine walls, and break open the gates of heaven; till Jupiter struck them with his thunder-bolts, and overwhelmed them in the abyss. Vide Ovid Metam., new translation, lib. i. p. 19.
“Nor were the gods themselves secure on high;
For now the giants strove to storm the sky:
The lawless brood with bold attempt invade
The gods, and mountains upon mountains laid.
But now the bolt, enrag’d, the Father took:
Olympus from her deep foundations shook:
Her structure nodded at the mighty stroke,
And Ossa’s shatter’d top o’er Pelion broke:
They ‘re in their own ungodly ruins slain.”
Then again speaking of Jupiter, resolving in council to destroy mankind by the deluge, and giving the reasons of it to the heavenly host, says thus, speaking of the demigods, alluding to good men below:
“Think you that they in safety can remain,
When me myself, who o’er immortals reign,
Who send the lightning, and heaven’s empire sway,
The stern Lycaon* practis’d to betray.”
Ib. p. 10.
* Satan.
Since then so much poetic liberty is taken with the Devil, relating to his most early state, and the time before his fall, give me leave to make an excursion of the like kind, relating to his history immediately after the fall, and till the creation of man; an interval which I think much of the Devil’s story is to be seen in, andf which Mr. Milton has taken little notice of; at least it does not seem completely filled up; after which I shall return to honest prose again, and pursue the duty of an historian.
Satan, with hideous ruin thus supprest,
Expell’d the seat of blessedness and rest,
Looked back, and saw the high eternal mound,
Where all his rebel host their outlet found,
Restored impregnable: the breach made up,
And garrisons of angels ranged a-top
In front an hundred thousand thunders roll,
And lightnings temper’d to transfix a soul,
Terror of devils. Satan and his host,
Now to themselves as well as station lost,
Unable to support the hated sight,
Expand seraphic wings, and swift as light
Seek for new safety in eternal night.
In the remotest gulfs of dark they land:
Here vengeance gives them leave to make their stand:
Not that to steps and measures they pretend,
Councils and schemes their station to defend;
But broken, disconcerted, and dismayed,
By guilt and fright to guilt and fright betrayed j
Rage and confusion ev’ry spirit possessed,
And shame and horror swelled in ev’ry breast;
Transforming envy their essentials burns,
And the bright angel a frightful devil turns.
Thus hell began; the fire of conscious rage
No years can quench, no length of time assuage.
Material fire, with its intensest flame,
Compar’d with this, can scarce deserve a name;
How should it up to immaterials rise?
“When we ‘re all flame, we shall all fire despise.
This fire outrageous, and its heat intense,
Turns all the pain of loss to pain of sense,
The folding flames concave and inward roll,
Act upon spirit, and penetrate the soul:
Not force of devils can its new pow’rs repel,
Where’er it burns it finds or makes a hell:
For Satan, flaming with unquenched desire,
Forms his own hell, and kindles his own fire: Vanquished, not humbled, not in will brought low 3
But, as his pow’rs decline, his passions grow:
The malice, viper-like, takes vent within,
Gnaws its own bowels, and bursts in its own sin:
Impatient of the change, he scorns to bow:
And never impotent in power till now;
Ardent with hate, and with revenge distract,
A will to new attempts, but none to act;
Yet all seraphic, and in just degree,
Suited to spirits’ high sense of misery,
Derived from loss which nothing can repair,
And room for nothing left but mere despair.
Here’s finish’d Hell! what fiercer fire can burn?
Enough ten thousand worlds to overturn.
Hell’s but the phrensy of defeated pride,
Seraphic treason’s strong impetuous tide,
Where vile ambition disappointed first,
To its own rage, and boundless hatred, cursed j
The hate’s fann’d up to fury, that to flame;
For fire and fury are in kind the same;
These burn unquenchable in ev’ry face,
And the word ENDLESS constitutes the place.
state of being! where being’s the only grief,
And the chief torture’s to be damn’d to life!
Life! the only thing they have to hate;
The finish’d torment of a future state;
Complete in all the parts of endless misery,
And worse ten thousand times than not to BE!
Could but the damn’d th’ immortal law repeal,
And devils die, there ‘d be an end of Hell;
Could they that thing called being annihilate,
There ‘d be no sorrows in a future state;
The wretch whose crimes had shut him out on high,
Could be reveng’d on God himself, and die:
Job’s wife was in the right, and always we
Might end by death all human misery;
Might have it in our choice, to be or not to be.
OF THE NAME OF THE Devil, his original, and the nature of his circumstances since he has been called by that name.
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THE SCRIPTURE IS THE first writing on earth where we find the Devil called by his own proper distinguishing denomination, DEVIL, or the Destroyer;2 nor indeed is there any other author of antiquity, or of sufficient authority, which says anything of that kind about him.
The meaning of the word Devil is destroyer. See Pool upon Acts xiii. 10.