The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts
These notions, I doubt not, gave birth to all the beauteous Images and sublime expressions in Mr. Milton’s majestick Poem; where, tho’ he has play’d the Poet in a most luxuriant manner, he has sinn’d against Satan most egregiously, and done the Devil a manifest injury in a great many particulars, as I shall shew in its place. And as I shall be oblig’d 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 tho’ 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 falsly 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 be reproached without injury to our own; all those bright Ideas of his, which 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 chain’d down; or at least that he is yet confin’d 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 form’d 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 oppos’d by any other argument, at least that will bear to be reason’d upon: All the notions of a parity of Devils, or making a common-wealth among the black Divan, seem to be enthusiastick 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 tho’ he, Satan, could not maintain his high station in Heaven, yet that he did continue his dignity among the rest, who are call’d 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; employ’d 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 enquire into his character, and something of his History; in which, tho’ we cannot perhaps produce such authentick documents as in the story of other great Monarchs, Tyrants, and Furies of the World; yet I shall endeavour 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 employ’d in his business; it remains to enquire, whence he came? how he got hither, into this World? what that business is which he is employ’d 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 allow’d to take? in what manner he works, and how his instruments are likewise allow’d to work? what he has done ever since he commenc’d 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? 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 question’d by some, with more face than fear, how it consists with a compleat 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 dash’d down into the abyss of eternal darkness, as into a place of punishment, a condemn’d hold, or place of confinement, to be 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 vanquish’d, he should be permitted to recover any of his wicked powers, and find room to do mischief to 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 furnish’d with weapons to assist him.
These objections I shall give as good an answer to as the case will admit 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 jaylors, 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.
Chap. III
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 ManTo come to a regular enquiry into Satan’s affairs, ’tis 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 prophane, 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 nameIs heard no more in Heaven: He of the first,If not the first Archangel; great in power,In favour and preeminence. lib. v. fol. 140.And again the same author, and upon the same subject:
– Brighter once amidst the hostOf 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 Arch-angels.
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 finish’d, as not then begun, to him; which post of honour (say they) Satan expected to be conferr’d on himself, as next in honour, majesty and power to God the Supreme.
This opinion is follow’d by Mr. Milton too, as appears in the following lines, where he makes all the Angels attending all a general summons, and God the Father making the following declaration to them.
“Here, all ye Angels, prodigy of light,“Thrones, dominions, princedoms, virtues, pow’rs!“Hear my decree, which unrevok’d shall stand.“This day I have begot whom I declare“My only Son, and on this hill“Him have anointed, whom you now behold“At my right hand; your Head I Him appoint:“And my self have sworn to him shall bow“All knees in Heav’n, and shall confess him Lord,“Under his great vice-gerent 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, call’d the Son of God; for God, says Mr. Milton, (tho’ 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 resolv’d
“With all his Legions to dislodge, and leave“Unworship’d, unobey’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 God, 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 God, 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 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 describ’d 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 overwhelm’d them in the abyss: Vide Ovid Metam. new translation, lib. i. p. 19.
“Nor were the Gods themselves secure on high,“For now the Gyants 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,“Their structure nodded at the mighty stroke,“And Ossa’s shatter’d top o’er Pelion broke,“They’re in their own ungodly 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-Gods 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 stern4 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 supprestExpell’d the seat of blessedness and rest,Look’d back and saw the high eternal mound,Where all his rebel host their outlet foundRestor’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 lightSeek 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 Hell began; the fire of conscious rageNo years can quench, no length of time asswage.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 intenseTurns 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 Hell;For Satan flaming with unquench’d desireForms his own Hell, and kindles his own fire,Vanquish’d, not humbl’d, not in will brought low,But as his powers 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 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 Hell! what fiercer fire can burn?Enough ten thousand Worlds to over-turn.Hell’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 constitutes the place.O state of Being! where being’s the only grief,And the chief torture’s to be damn’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 Damn’d the immortal law repeal,And Devils dye, there’d be an end of Hell;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 God himself and die;Job’s Wife was in the right, and always weMight 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 circumstances since he has been called by that nameThe Scripture is the first writing on earth where we find the Devil called by his own proper distinguishing denomination, DEVIL, or the5 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 God of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4.
The Foul Spirit, Mark ix. 5.
The Unclean Spirit, Mark i. 27.
The Lying Spirit, 2 Chron. xxx.
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 title 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 Goddess, to whom the Athenians built altars and offer’d Sacrifices upon some solemn occasions, and they call her Διαβολὴ from whence came the masculine Διάβολος 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 Hell, 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 Hell, 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 circumstances 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 titles which he is best known by among us; for indeed having so many, ’tis not very easy to call him out of his name.