The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts

Cain. Did you in humble Language represent the Griefs and Anguish which oppress my Soul?

D. We did, and back their Blessing to thee bring.

Cain. I hope with humblest Signs of filial Duty you took it for me on your bending Knees?

D. We did, and had our Share; the Patriarch lifting his Hands to Heaven express’d his Joy to see his spreading Race, and bless’d us all.

Cain. Did you my solemn Message too deliver, my Injuries impartially lay down, and due Assistance and Direction crave?

D. We did.

Cain. What spoke the Oracle? he’s God to me; what just Command d’ye bring, what’s to be done? am I to bear the insulting Junior’s Rage? and meekly suffer what unjustly he, affronting Primogeniture and Laws of God and Man, imposes by his Pride unsufferable! Am I to be crush’d, and be no more the firstborn Son on Earth, but bow and kneel to him?

D. Forbid it Heaven! as Adam too forbids, who with a justice God-like and peculiar to injur’d Parents, Abel’s Pride resents, and gives his high Command to thee to punish.

Cain. To punish? say you, did he use the Word, the very Word? am I commission’d then to punish Abel?

D. Not Abel only, but his rebel Race, as they alike in Crime alike are join’d in Punishment.

Cain. The Race indeed have shar’d the Merit with him; how did they all insult, and with a Shout of Triumph mock my Sorrow, when they saw me from my Sacrifice dejected come, as if my Disappointment was their Joy?

D. This too the venerable Prince resents, and to preserve the Race in Bounds of Laws subordinate and limited to Duty, Commands that this first Breach be not pass’d by, lest the Precedent upon Record stand to future Times to encourage like Rebellion.

Cain. And is it then my Sovereign Parent’s Will?

D. It is his Will, that thou his eldest Son, his Image, his belov’d, should be maintain’d in all the Rights of Sovereignty deriv’d to thee from him; and not be left expos’d to injury and Power usurped, but should do thy self Justice on the rebel Race.

Cain. And so I will; Abel shall quickly know what ’tis to trample on his elder Brother; shall know that he’s thus sentenc’d by his Father, and I’m commission’d but to execute his high Command, his Sentence, which is God’s, and that he falls by the Hand of Heavenly Justice.

So now Satan had done his Work, he had deluded the Mother to a Breach against the first and only Command, he had drawn Adam to the same Snare, and now he brings in Cain prompted by his own Rage, and deluded by his, (Satan’s,) Craft, to commit Murder, nay a Fratricide, an aggravated Murther.

Upon this he sends out Cain, while the bloody Rage was in its Ferment, and wickedly at the same Time bringing Abel, innocent and fearing no ill, just in his Way, he suggests to his Thoughts such Words as these.

Look you Cain, see how Divine Justice concurs with your Father’s righteous Sentence, see there’s thy Brother Abel directed by Heaven to fall into thy Hands unarm’d, unguarded, that thou may’st do thy self Justice upon him without Fear; see thou may’st kill him, and if thou hast a Mind to conceal it, no Eyes can see, or will the World ever know it, so that no Resentment or Revenge upon thee, or thy Posterity, can be apprehended, but it may be said some wild Beast had rent him; nor will any one suggest that thou, his Brother, and Superior, could possibly be the Person.

Cain prepar’d for the Fact, by his former avow’d Rage and Resolution of Revenge, was so much the less prepar’d to avoid the Snare thus artfully contriv’d by the Master of all Subtilty, the Devil; so he immediately runs upon his Brother Abel, and after a little unarm’d Resistance, the innocent poor Man expecting no such Mischief, was conquer’d and murther’d; after which, as is to be supposed, the exasperated Crew of Cain’s outrageous Race, over-run all his Family and Houshold, killing Man, Woman and Child.

It is objected here that we have no Authority in Scripture to prove this Part of the Story; but I answer, ’tis not likely but that Abel, as well as Cain, being at Man’s Estate long before this, had several Children by their own Sisters, for they were the only Men in the World who were allow’d the Marrying their own Sisters, there being no other Women then in the World; and as we never read of any of Abel’s Posterity, ’tis likewise as probable they were all murther’d, as that they should kill Abel only, whose Sons might immediately fall upon Cain for the Blood of their Father, and so the World have been involv’d in a Civil War as soon as there were two Families in it.

But be it so or not, ’tis not doubted the Devil wrought with Cain in the horrid Murther, or he had never done it; whether it was directly or by Agents is not material, nor is the Latter unlikely; and if the Latter, then there is no Improbability in the Story, for why might not he that made Use of the Serpent to tempt Eve, be as well supposed to make a Tool of some of Cain’s Sons or Grandsons to prompt him in the wicked Attempt of murthering his Brother? and why must we be oblig’d to bring in a Miracle or an Apparition into the Story, to make it probable that the Devil had any Hand in it, when ’twas so natural to a degenerate Race to act in such a Manner?

However it was, and by whatever Tool the Devil wrought, ’tis certain that this was the Consequence, poor Abel was butcher’d, and thus the Devil made a second Conquest in God’s Creation; for Adam was now, as may be said, really Childless, for his two Sons were thus far lost, Abel was killed, and Cain was curst and driven out from the Presence of the Lord, and his Race blasted with him.

It would be a useful enquiry here, and worthy our giving an Account of, could we come to a Certainty in it, namely, what was the Mark that God set upon Cain, by which he was kept from being fallen upon by Abel’s Friends or Relations? but as this does not belong to the Devil’s History, and it was God’s Mark, not the Devil’s, I have nothing to do with it here.

The Devil had now gain’d his Point, the Kingdom of Grace, so newly erected, had been as it were extinct without a new Creation, had not Adam and Eve been alive, and had not Eve, tho’ now 130 Years of Age, been a breeding young Lady, for we must suppose the Woman, in that State of Longevity, bare Children till they were seven or eight hundred Year old: This Teeming of Eve peopled not the World so much as it restored the blessed Race; for tho’ Abel was kill’d Cain had a numerous Offspring presently, which had Seth, (Adam’s third Son) never been born, would soon have replenish’d the World with People, such as they were; the Seed of a Murtherer, cursed of God, branded with a Mark of Infamy, and who afterwards fell all together in the universal Ruine of the Race by the Deluge.

But after the Murther of Abel, Adam had another Son born, namely, Seth, the Father of Enos, and indeed the Father of the holy Race; for during his Time and his Son Enos, the Text says that Men began to call on the Name of the Lord; that is to say, they began to look back upon Cain and his wicked Race, and being convinc’d of the Wickedness they had committed, and led their whole Posterity into, they began to sue to Heaven for Pardon of what was past, and to lead a new sort of Life.

But the Devil had met with too much Success in his first Attempts, not to go on with his general Resolution of debauching the Minds of Men, and bringing them off from God; and therefore as he kept his Hold upon Cain’s cursed Race, embroil’d already in Blood and Murther; so he proceeded with his degenerate Offspring, till in a Word he brought both the holy Seed and the degenerate Race to joyn in one universal Consent of Crime, and to go on in it with such aggravating Circumstances, as that it repented the Lord that he had made Man, and he resolv’d to overwhelm them again with a general Destruction, and clear the World of them.

The Succession of Blood in the royal original Line of Adam, is preserv’d in the sacred Histories and brought down as low as Noah and his three Sons, for a continu’d series of 1450 Years, say some, 1640 say others; in which Time Sin spread it self so generally thro’ the whole Race, and the Sons of God, so the Scripture calls the Men of the righteous Seed, the Progeny of Seth, came in unto the Daughters of Men, that is, join’d themselves to the curs’d Race of Cain, and married promiscuously with them, according to their Fancies, the Women it seems being beautiful and tempting; and tho’ the Devil could not make the Women handsome or ugly in one or other Families, yet he might work up the Gust of wicked Inclination on either Side, so as to make both the Men and Women tempting and agreeable to one another, where they ought not to have been so; and perhaps, as it is often seen to this Day, the more tempting for being under legal Restraint.

It is objected here, that we do not find in the Scripture that the Men and Women of either Race were at that Time forbidden intermarrying with one another; and it is true, that literally it is not forbid; but if we did not search rather to make doubts than to explain them, we might suppose it was forbidden by some particular Command at that Time; seeing we may reasonably allow every Thing to be forbidden, which they are tax’d with a Crime in committing; and as the Sons of God taking them Wives as they thought fit to choose, tho’ from among the Daughters of the cursed Race, is there charg’d upon them as a general Depravation, and a great Crime; and for which, ’tis said, God even repented that he had made them, we need go no farther to satisfy our selves that it was certainly forbidden.

Satan no doubt too had a Hand in this Wickedness; for as it was his Business to prompt Men to do every Thing which God had prohibited, so the Reason given why the Men of those Days did this Thing was, they saw the Daughters of Men, that is of the wicked Race or forbidden Sort, were fair, he tempted them by the Lust of the Eye; in a word, the Ladies were beautiful and agreeable, and the Devil knew how to make use of the Allurement; the Men liked and took them by the meer Direction of their Fancy and Appetite, without regarding the supreme Prohibition; They took them Wives of all which they chose, or such as they lik’d to choose.

But the Text adds, that this promiscuous Generation went farther than the meer outward Crime of it, for it shew’d that the Wickedness of the Heart of Man was great before God, and that he resented it; In short, God perceived a Degeneracy or Defect of Virtue had seiz’d upon the whole Race, that there was a general Corruption of Manners, a Depravity of Nature upon them, that even the holy Seed was tainted with it, that the Devil had broken in upon them, and prevail’d to a great Degree; that not only the Practice of the Age was corrupt, for that God could easily have restrain’d, but that the very Heart of Man was debauch’d, his Desires wholly vitiated, and his Senses engag’d in it; so that in a Word, it became necessary to shew the divine Displeasure, not in the ordinary Manner, by Judgment and Reproofs of such kind as usually reclaim Men, but by a general Destruction to sweep them away, clear the Earth of them, and put an End to the Wickedness at once, removing the Offence and the Offenders all together; this is signify’d at large, Gen. vi. 5. God saw that the Wickedness of Man was great in the Earth, and that every Imagination of the Thoughts of his Heart was only evil continually. And again ℣ 11, 12. The Earth also was corrupt before God; and the Earth was fill’d with Violence. And God look’d upon the Earth andbehold it was corrupt; for all Flesh had corrupted his Way upon the Earth.

It must be confess’d it was a strange Conquest the Devil had made in the Antediluvian World, that he had, as I may say, brought the whole Race of Mankind into a general Revolt from God; Noah was indeed a Preacher of Righteousness, and he had preach’d about 500 Years to as little Purpose as most of the good Ministers ever did; for we do not read there was one Man converted by him, or at least not one of them left, for that at the Deluge there was either none of them alive, or none spar’d but Noah and his three Sons, and their Wives; and even they are (’tis evident) recorded, not so much to be sav’d for their own Goodness, but because they were his Sons; Nay, without Breach of Charity we may conclude, that at least one went to the Devil even of those three, namely, Ham or Cham for triumphing in a brutal Manner over his Father’s Drunkenness; for we find the Special Curse reach’d to him and his Posterity for many Ages; and whether it went no farther than the present State of Life with them, we cannot tell.

We will suppose now that thro’ this whole 1500 Years the Devil having so effectually debauch’d Mankind, had advanc’d his infernal Kingdom to a prodigious Height; for the Text says, the whole Earth was fill’d with violence; in a Word, Blood, Murder, Rape, Robbery, Oppression and Injustice prevail’d every where, and Man, like the wild Bear in the Forest, liv’d by Prey, biting and devouring one another.

At this Time Noah begins to preach a new Doctrine to them, for as he had before been a Preacher of Righteousness, now he becomes a Preacher of Vengeance; first he tells them they shall be all overwhelm’d with a Deluge, that for their Sins God repented they were made, and that he would destroy them all, adding, that to prevent the Ruin of himself and Family, he resolv’d to build him a Ship to have recourse to when the Water should come over the Rest of the World.

What Jesting, what Scorn, what Contempt did this Work expose the good old Man to for above a 100 Years? for so long the Work was building, as antient Authors say; let us represent to our selves in the most lively Manner how the witty World at that Time behav’d to poor old Noah; how they took their Evening Walks to see what he was doing, and passed their Judgment upon it, and upon the Progress of it; I say, to represent this to our selves, we need go no farther than to our own Witicisms upon Religion, and upon the most solemn Mysteries of Divine Worship; how we damn the Serious for Enthusiasts, think the Grave mad, and the Sober melancholy; call Religion it self Flatus and Hyppo; make the Devout ignorant, the Divine mercenary, and the whole Scheme of Divinity a Frame of Priestcraft; and thus no doubt the building an Ark or Boat, or whatever they call’d it, to float over the Mountains, and dance over the Plains, what could it be but a religious Frenzy, and the Man that so busied himself, a Lunatick? and all this in an Age when divine Things came by immediate Revelation into the Minds of Men! the Devil must therefore have made a strange Conquest upon Mankind to obliterate all the Reverence, which but a little before was so strangely impress’d upon them concerning their Maker.

This was certainly the Height of the Devil’s Kingdom, and we shall never find him arrive to such a Pitch again; he was then truly and literally the universal Monarch, nay the God of this World; and as all Tyrants do, he governs them with an arbitrary absolute sway; and had not God thought fit to give him a Writ of Ejectment, and afterwards drown him out of Possession I know not what would have been the Case, he might have kept his Hold for ought I know till the Seed of the Woman came to bruise his Head, that is to say, cripple his Government, Dethrone him and Depose his Power, as has been fulfill’d in the Messiah.

But as he was, I say, drown’d out of the World, his Kingdom for the present was at an End; at least, if he had a Dominion he had no Subjects, and as the Creation was in a Manner renewed, so the Devil had all his Work to do over again: Unhappy Man! how has he, by his weak Resistance, made the Devil, recovering his Hold too easy to him, and given him all the Advantages, except as before excepted, which he had before? Now whether he retired in the mean Time, and how he got footing again after Noah and his Family were landed upon the New Surface, that we come next to enquire.

Chap. X

Of the Devil’s second Kingdom, and how he got footing in the renew’d World by his Victory over Noah and his Race

The Story of Noah, his building the Ark, his embarking himself and all Nature’s Stock for a new World on board it; the long Voyage they took, and the bad Weather they met with, tho’ it would embellish this Work very well, and come in very much to the Purpose in this Place, yet as it does not belong to the Devil’s Story, for I cannot prove what some suggest (viz.) that he was in the Ark among the Rest, I say, for that Reason I must omit it.

And now having mention’d Satan’s being in the Ark; as I say, I cannot prove it, so there are, I think, some good Reasons to believe he was not there: First, I know no Business he had there; secondly, we read of no Mischief done there, and these joyn’d together make me conclude he was absent; the last I chiefly insist upon, that we read of no Mischief done there, which if he had been in the Ark, would certainly have happen’d; and therefore I suppose rather, that when he saw his Kingdom dissolv’d, his Subjects all ingulph’d in an inevitable Ruin and Desolation, a Sight suitable enough to him, except as it might unking him for a Time; I say, when he saw this, he took care to speed himself away as well as he could, and make his Retreat to a Place of Safety, where that was, is no more difficult to us, than it was to him.

It is suggested that as he is Prince of the Power of the Air, he retired only into that Region. It is most rational to suppose he went no further on many Accounts, of which I shall speak by and by: Here he stay’d hovering in the Earth’s Atmosphere, as he has often done since, and perhaps now does; or if the Atmosphere of this Globe was affected by the Indraft of the Absorption, as some think, then he kept himself upon the Watch, to see what the Event of the new Phænomenon would be, and this Watch, wherever it was, I doubt not, was as near the Earth as he could place himself, perhaps in the Atmosphere of the Moon, or in a Word, the next Place of Retreat he could find.

From hence I took upon me to insist, that Satan has not a more certain Knowledge of Events than we; I say, he has not a more certain Knowledge; that he may be able to make stronger Conjectures and more rational Conclusions from that he sees, I will not deny; and that which he most outdoes us in is, that he sees more to conclude from than we can, but I am satisfied he knows nothing of Futurity more than we can see by Observation and Inference; nor, for Example, did he know whether God would repeople the World any more or no.

I must therefore allow that he only waited to see what would be the Event of this strange Eruption of Water, and what God propos’d to do with the Ark, and all that was in it.

Some Philosophers tell us, besides what I hinted above, that the Devil could have no Retreat in the Earth’s Atmosphere, for that the Air being wholly condens’d into Water, and having continually pour’d down its Streams to deluge the Earth, that Body was become so small, and had suffer’d such Convulsions, that there was but just enough Air left to surround the Water, or as might serve by its Pressure to preserve the natural Position of Things, and supply the Creatures in the Ark with a Part to breath in.

The Atmosphere indeed might suffer some strange and unnatural Motions at that Time, but not (I believe) to that Degree, however, I will not affirm that there could be room in it, or is now for the Devil, much less for all the numberless Legions of Satan’s Host; but there was, and now certainly is, sufficient Space to receive him, and a sufficient Body of his Troops for the Business he had for them at that time, and that’s enough to the Purpose; or if the Earth’s Atmosphere did suffer any particular Convulsion on that Occasion, he might make his Retreat to the Atmosphere of the Moon, or of Mars, or of Venus, or of any of the other Planets; or to any other Place, for he that is Prince of the Air could not want Retreats in such a Case, from whence he might watch for the issue of Things; certainly he did not go far, because his Business lay here, and he never goes out of his Way of doing Mischief.

In particular, his more than ordinary Concern was, to see what would become of the Ark; he was wise enough doubtless to see, that God, who had directed its making, nay even the very Structure of it, would certainly take Care of it, preserve it upon the Water, and bring it to some Place of Safety or other; tho’ where it should be, the Devil with all his Cunning could not resolve, whether on the same Surface the Waters drawing off, or in any other created or to be created Place; and this State of Uncertainty being evidently his Case, and which proves his Ignorance of Futurity, it was his Business, I say, to watch with the utmost vigilance for the Event.

If the Ark was (as Mr. Burnet thinks) guided by two Angels, they not only held it from foundering or being swallow’d up in the Water, but certainly kept the Waters calm about it, especially when the Lord brought a strong Wind to blow over the whole Globe, which by the Way was the first, and, I suppose, the only universal Storm that ever blew, for to be sure it blew over the whole Surface at once; I say, if it was thus guided, to be sure the Devil saw it, and that with Envy and Regret that he could do it no Injury, for doubtless had it been in the Devil’s Power, as God had drown’d the whole Race of Man, except what was in the Ark, he would have taken care to have dispatch’d them too, and so made an End of the Creation at once; but either he was not empower’d to go to the Ark, or it was so well guarded by Angels, that when he came near it he could do it no harm: So it rested at length, the Waters abating on the Mountains of Arrarat in Armenia, or some where else that Way, and where they say a Piece of the Keel is remaining to this Day; of which, however with Dr. – I say, I believe not one Word.

The Ark being safe landed, ’tis reasonable to believe Noah prepared to go on Shore, as the Seamen call it, as soon as the dry Land began to appear; and here you must allow me to suppose Satan, tho’ himself cloth’d with a Cloud, so as not to be seen, came immediately, and pearching on the Roof, saw all the Heaven-kept Houshold safely landed, and all the Host of living Creatures dispersing themselves down the Sides of the Mountain, as the Search of their Food or other proper Occasions directed them.

This Sight was enough; Satan was at no Loss to conclude from hence that the Design of God was to repeople the World by the Way of ordinary Generation, from the Posterity of these eight Persons, without creating any new Species.

Very well, says the Devil, then my Advantage over them, by the Snare I laid for poor Eve, is good still; and I am now just where I was after Adam’s Expulsion from the Garden, and when I had Cain and his Race to go to work with; for here is the old expung’d Corrupted Race still, as Cain was the Object then, so Noah is my Man now, and if I do not master him one way or another, I am mistaken in my Mark. Pardon me for making a Speech for the Devil.