"With all his Legions to dislodge, and leave "Unworship"d, un.o.bey"d, the throne supreme "Contemptuous. ------
_Par. lost_, lib. v. fo. 140.
But Mr. _Milton_ is grosly 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 G.o.d, or at least of the Resurrection: [3] see _Pool_ upon _Acts_ xiii.
33.
In a word, Satan withdrew with all his followers malecontent and chagrine, resolv"d to disobey this new command, and not yield obedience to the Son.
But Mr. _Milton_ agrees in that opinion, that the number of Angels which rebel"d with _Satan_ was infinite, and suggests in one place, that they were the greatest half of all the angelick Body or seraphick Host.
"But Satan with his Power, "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. fo. 142.
Be their number as it is, numberless millions and legions of millions, that is no part of my present enquiry; 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 G.o.d, which they begun in Heaven; making war still against Heaven, in the person of his Image and Creature man; and tho" vanquish"d by the thunder of the Son of G.o.d, and cast down headlong from Heaven, they have yet rea.s.sumed, 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 describ"d by _Ovid_, in his war of the _t.i.tans_ 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 overwhelm"d them in the abyss: _Vide Ovid Metam._ new translation, lib.
i. p. 19.
"Nor were the G.o.ds themselves secure on high, "For now the _Gyants_ strove to storm _the sky_, "The lawless brood with bold attempt invade "THE G.o.dS, and mountains upon mountains _laid_.
"But now the _bolt_, enrag"d _the Father_ took, "_Olympus_ from her deep foundations shook, "Their structure nodded at the mighty stroke, "And _Ossa_"s shatter"d top o"er _Pelion_ broke, "They"re in their own unG.o.dly ruines slain.--
Then again speaking of _Jupiter_, resolving in council to destroy mankind by a deluge, and giving the reasons of it to the heavenly Host, say thus, speaking of the demy-G.o.ds alluding to good men below.
"Think you that they in safety can remain, "When I my self who o"er Immortals reign, "Who send the lightning, and Heaven"s empire sway, "The stern [4] Lycaon practis"d to betray.
_ib._ p. 10.
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, and which Mr. _Milton_ has taken little notice of, at least it does not seem compleatly fill"d up; after which I shall return to honest Prose again, and persue the duty of an Historian.
_Satan_, with hideous ruin thus supprest _Expell"d_ the seat of blessedness and rest, Look"d back and saw the _high eternal mound_, Where all _his rebel host_ their _outlet_ found _Restor"d impregnable_: The breach made up, And garrisons of Angels rang"d a top; In front a 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 gulphs _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 _dismay"d_, By guilt and fright to guilt and fright _betray"d_; Rage and confusion ev"ry Spirit possess"d, And _shame_ and _horror_ swell"d in ev"ry breast; Transforming envy to their essentials burns, And _the bright_ Angel to a _frightful Devil_ turns.
_Thus h.e.l.l began_; the fire of conscious rage No years can quench, no length of time a.s.swage.
_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 powers repel, Where"er it burns _it finds_ or _makes_ a h.e.l.l; For _Satan_ flaming with unquench"d desire Forms _his own h.e.l.l_, and kindles _his own fire_, Vanquish"d, _not humbl"d_, not in will brought low, But as _his powers_ decline _his pa.s.sions_ 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 _seraphick_, and in just degree, Suited _to Spirits high sense_ of misery, Deriv"d from _loss_ which _nothing_ can repair, And _room for nothing left_ but meer despair.
_Here"s finish"d h.e.l.l!_ what fiercer fire _can burn_?
Enough ten thousand Worlds to over-turn.
h.e.l.l"s but the frenzy of defeated pride, Seraphick Treason"s strong impetuous tide, Where vile ambition _disappointed_ first, To its _own rage_ and _boundless hatred_ curst; The hate"s _fan"d up to fury_, that to _flame_, For _fire_ and _fury_ are in kind the same; These burn unquenchable in every face, And the word ENDLESS const.i.tutes the place.
O _state of Being!_ where being"s the only grief, And the _chief torture_"s to be d.a.m.n"d to life; _O life!_ the only thing they have to hate; The _finish"d torment_ of a future state, Compleat in all the parts of endless misery, And worse ten thousand times than _not_ to BE!
Could but the d.a.m.n"d _the immortal law_ repeal, And _Devils dye_, there"d be _an end of h.e.l.l_; Could they that thing call"d _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 G.o.d 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. }
CHAP. IV.
_Of the name of the Devil, his original, and the nature of his circ.u.mstances since he has been called by that name._
The Scripture is the first writing on earth where we find the _Devil_ called by his own proper distinguishing denomination, DEVIL, or the [5]
_Destroyer_; nor indeed is there any other author of antiquity or of sufficient authority which says any thing of that kind about him.
Here he makes his first appearance in the world, and on that occasion he is called the _Serpent_; but the _Serpent_ however since made to signify the _Devil_, when spoken of in general terms, was but the Devil"s representative, or the Devil _in quo vis vehiculo_, for that time, clothed in a bodily shape, acting under cover and in disguise, or if you will the _Devil_ in _masquerade_: Nay, if we believe Mr. _Milton_, the _Angel Gabriel_"s spear had such a secret powerful influence, as to make him strip of a sudden, and with a touch to unmask, and stand upright in his naked original shape, meer _Devil_, without any disguises whatsoever.
Now as we go to the Scripture for much of his history, so we must go there also for some of his names; and he has a great variety of names indeed, as his several mischievous doings guide us to conceive of him.
The truth is, all the ancient names given him, of which the Scripture is full, seems to be originals derived from and adapted to the several steps he has taken, and the several shapes he has appeared in to do mischief in the world.
Here he is called the _Serpent_, Gen. iii. 1.
The _old Serpent_, Rev. xii. 9.
The _great red Dragon_, Rev. xii. 3.
The _Accuser of the Brethren_, Rev. xii. 10.
The _Enemy_, Matt. xxiii. 29.
_Satan_, Job i. Zech. iii. 1, 2.
_Belial_, 2 Cor. vi. 15.
_Beelzebub_, Matt. xii. 24.
_Mammon_, Matt. vi. 24.
The _Angel of light_, 2 Cor. xi. 14.
The _Angel of the bottomless pit_, Rev. ix. 11.
The _Prince of the power of the air_, Eph. ii. 2.
_Lucifer_, Isa. xiv. 12.
_Abbaddon_ or _Apollion_, Rev. ix. 11.
_Legion_, Mark v. 9.
The _G.o.d of this world_, 2 Cor. iv. 4.
The _Foul Spirit_, Mark ix. 5.
The _Unclean Spirit_, Mark i. 27.
The _Lying Spirit_, 2 Chron. x.x.x.
The _Tempter_, Matt. iv. 3.
The _Son of the morning_, Isa. xiv. 12.
But to sum them all up in one, he is called in the new Testament _plain_ DEVIL; all his other names are varied according to the custom of speech, and the dialects of the several nations where he is spoken of; But in a word, _Devil_ is the common name of the _Devil_ in all the known languages of the earth. Nay, all the mischiefs he is empowered to do, are in Scripture placed to his account, under the particular t.i.tle of the _Devil_, not of _Devils_ in the plural number, though they are sometimes mentioned too; but in the singular it is the identical individual _Devil_, in and under whom all the little _Devils_, and all the great _Devils_, if such there be, are supposed to act; nay, they are supposed to be govern"d and directed by him. Thus we are told in Scripture of the works of _the Devil_, 1 John iii. 8. of casting out _the Devil_, Mark i. 34. of resisting _the Devil_, James iv. 5. of our Saviour being tempted of _the Devil_, Mat. iv. 1. of _Simon Magus_, a child of the _Devil_, Acts xiii. 10. The _Devil_ came down in a great wrath, _Rev._ xii. 12. _and the like_. According to this usage in speech we go on to this day, and all the infernal things we converse with in the world, are fathered upon the _Devil_, as one undivided simple essence, by how many agents soever working: Every thing evil, frightful in appearance, wicked in its actings, horrible in its manner, monstrous in its effects, is called the _Devil_; in a word, _Devil_ is the common name for all _Devils_; that is to say, for all evil Spirits, all evil Powers, all evil Works, and even all evil things: Yet "tis remarkable _the Devil_ is no old Testament word, and we never find it used in all that part of the Bible but four times, and then not once in the singular number, and not once to signify _Satan_ as "tis now understood.
It is true, the Learned give a great many differing interpretations of the word _Devil_; the _English_ Commentators tell us, it means _a destroyer_, others that it signifies a deceiver, and the _Greeks_ derive it from a _Calumniator_ or false witness; for we find that _Calumny_ was a _G.o.ddess_, to whom the _Athenians_ built altars and offer"d Sacrifices upon some solemn occasions, and they call her Diabole from whence came the masculine Diabolos which we translate _Devil_.
Thus we take the name of _Devil_ to signify not persons only, but actions and habits; making imaginary Devils, and transforming that substantial creature call"d DEVIL into every thing noxious and offensive: Thus St. _Francis_ being tempted by the _Devil_ in the shape of a bag of money lying in the highway, _the Saint_ having discover"d the fraud, whether seeing his _Cloven-foot_ hang out of the purse, or whether he distinguish"d him by his smell of _sulphur_, or how otherwise, authors are not agreed; but, I say, the Saint having discover"d the cheat, and out-witted the _Devil_, took occasion to preach that eminent sermon to his disciples, where his Text was, _Money is_ THE DEVIL.
Nor, upon the whole, is any wrong done to _the Devil_ by this kind of treatment, it only gives him the sovereignty of the whole army of h.e.l.l, and making all the numberless legions of the bottomless pit servants; or, _as the Scripture calls them_, Angels to _Satan_ the grand _Devil_; all their actions, performances and atchievements are justly attributed to him, not as the prince of _Devils_ only, but the Emperor of _Devils_; the prince of all the princes of _Devils_.
Under this denomination then of DEVIL, all the Powers of h.e.l.l, all the Princes of the air, all the black armies of _Satan_ are comprehended, and in such manner they are to be understood in this whole work; _mutatis mutandis_, according to the several circ.u.mstances of which we are to speak of them.
This being premis"d, and my authority being so good, _Satan_ must not take it ill, if I treat him _after the manner of men_, and give him those t.i.tles which he is best known by among us; for indeed having so many, "tis not very easy to call him out of his name.