1. It was sufficient to bring Mankind to a Neglect of God, to worship him by halves, and give little or no Regard to his Laws, and so grow loose and immoral, in direct Contradiction to his Commands; this would not go down with them at first, so the Devil went on gradually.2. From a Negligence in worshiping the trueGod, he by Degrees introduc’d the worship of falseGods; and to introduce this he began with theSun,Moon, andStars, call’d in the holy Text the Host of Heaven; these had greater Majesty upon them, and seem’d fitter to command the Homage of Mankind; so it was not the hardest Thing in the World, to bring Men, when they had once forgotten the true God, to embrace the Worship of such Gods as those.3. Having thus debauch’d their Principles in Worship, and led them from the true andonly Object of Worship to a false, it was the easier to carry them on; so in a few Gradations more he brought them to downright Idolatry, and even in that Idolatry he proceeded gradually too; for he began with awful Names, such as were venerable in the Thoughts of Men, asBaalorBell, which, inChaldaickandHebrew, signifies Lord or Sovereign, or Mighty and Magnificent, and this was therefore a Name ascrib’d at first to the true God; but afterwards they descended to make Images and Figures to represent him, and then they were call’d by the same Name, asBaal,Baalim, and afterwardsBell; from which, by a hellish Degeneracy, Saturn brought Mankind to adore every Block of their own hewing, and to worshipping Stocks, Stones, Monsters, Hobgoblins, and every sordid frightful Thing, and at last theDevilhimself.
1. It was sufficient to bring Mankind to a Neglect of God, to worship him by halves, and give little or no Regard to his Laws, and so grow loose and immoral, in direct Contradiction to his Commands; this would not go down with them at first, so the Devil went on gradually.
2. From a Negligence in worshiping the trueGod, he by Degrees introduc’d the worship of falseGods; and to introduce this he began with theSun,Moon, andStars, call’d in the holy Text the Host of Heaven; these had greater Majesty upon them, and seem’d fitter to command the Homage of Mankind; so it was not the hardest Thing in the World, to bring Men, when they had once forgotten the true God, to embrace the Worship of such Gods as those.
3. Having thus debauch’d their Principles in Worship, and led them from the true andonly Object of Worship to a false, it was the easier to carry them on; so in a few Gradations more he brought them to downright Idolatry, and even in that Idolatry he proceeded gradually too; for he began with awful Names, such as were venerable in the Thoughts of Men, asBaalorBell, which, inChaldaickandHebrew, signifies Lord or Sovereign, or Mighty and Magnificent, and this was therefore a Name ascrib’d at first to the true God; but afterwards they descended to make Images and Figures to represent him, and then they were call’d by the same Name, asBaal,Baalim, and afterwardsBell; from which, by a hellish Degeneracy, Saturn brought Mankind to adore every Block of their own hewing, and to worshipping Stocks, Stones, Monsters, Hobgoblins, and every sordid frightful Thing, and at last theDevilhimself.
What Notions some People may entertain of the Forwardness of the first Ages of the World, to run into Idolatry, I do not enquire here; I know they tell us strange Things, of its being the Product of meer Nature, one remove from its primitive State; but I, who pretend to have so critically enquir’d intoSatan’s History, can assure you, and that from very good Authority, that theDevildid not find it so easy a task to obliterate the Knowledge of the true God, in the Minds and Consciences of Men, as those People suggest.
It is true he carried Things a great Length under the Patriarchal Government of the first Ages, but still he was sixteen hundred Years bringing it to pass; and tho’ we have Reason to believe the old World, before the Flood was arrived to a very great Height of Wickedness, andOvidvery nobly describes it by the War of theTitansagainstJupiter, yet we do not read that ever Satan was come to such a Length as to bring them to Idolatry; indeed we do read of Wars carried on among them, whether it was one Nation against another, or only Personal, we cannot tell; But the World seem’d to be swallow’d up in a Life of Wickedness, that is to say, of Luxury and Lewdness, Rapine and Violence, and there wereGiantsamong them, and Men of Renown, that is to say, Men fam’d for their mighty Valour, great Actions of War we may suppose, and their Strength, who personallyoppos’dothers. We read of no considerable Wars indeed, but ’tis not to be doubted but there was such Wars, or else it is to be understood that they liv’d (in common) a Life somewhat like the Brutes, the Strong devouring the Weak; for the Text says,the whole Earth was filled with Violence, hunting and tearing one another in Pieces, either for Dominion or for Wealth, either for Ambition or for Avarice, we know not well which.
Thus far the old Antediluvian World went, and very wicked they were, there is no doubt of that; but we have Reason to believe that was no Idolatry, theDevilhad not brought them to that Length yet: perhaps it would soon have follow’d, but the Deluge interven’d.
After the Deluge,as I have said, he had all his Work to do over again, and he went on by the same Steps;firsthe brought them to Violence and War, then to Oppression and Tyranny, then to neglect of true Worship, then to false worship, and then Idolatry by the meer natural Consequence of the Thing; who were the first Nation or People that fell from the Worship of the true God, is something hard to determine; theDevil, who certainly of allGod’s Creatures is best ableto inform us, having left us nothing upon Record upon that Subject, but we have Reason to believe it was thus introduc’d.
Nimrodwas the Grandson ofHam,Noah’s second Son, the same who was cursed by his Father for exposing him in his Drunkenness: ThisNimrodwas the first who it seemsSatanpick’d out for a Hero: Here he inspir’d him with ambitious Thoughts, dreams of Empire, and having the Government of all the Rest,that is to say, universal Monarchy; the very same Bait with which he has plaid upon the Frailty of Princes, and ensnar’d the greatest of them ever since, even from his most August Imperial Majesty KingNimrodthe first, to his most Christian MajestyLouisthe XIV. and many a mighty Monarch between.
When these mighty Monarchs and Men of Fame went off the Stage, the World had their Memories in esteem many Ages after; and as their great Actions were no otherwise recorded than by oral Tradition, and the Tongues and Memories of fallible Men, Time and the Custom of magnifying the past Actions of Kings, Men soon fabl’d up their Histories,Satan assisting, into Miracle and Wonder: Hence their Names were had in Veneration more and more; Statues and Bustoes representing their Persons and great Actions were set up in public Places, till from Heroes and Champions they made Gods of them, and thus (Satanprompting) the World was quickly fill’d with Idols.
ThisNimrodis he, who according to the received Opinion, tho’ I do not find Satan’s History exactly concurring with it, was first call’dBelus, thenBaal, and worship’d in most of the eastern Countries under those Names; sometimes with Additions of Sir-names, according to the several countries, or People, or Towns where he wasparticularly set up, asBaal Peor,Baal Zephon,Baal Phegor, and in other Places plainBaal, asJupiterin after Times had the like Additions; asJupiter Ammon,Jupiter Capitolinus,Jupiter Pistor,Jupiter Feretrius, and about ten or twelveJupitersmore.
I must acknowledge, that I think it was a Master-piece of Hell to bring the World to Idolatry so soon after they had had such an eminent Example of the infinite Power of the true God, as was seen in the Deluge, and particularly in the Escape ofNoahin the Ark, to bring them (even beforeNoahor his Sons were dead) to forget whose Hand it was, and give the Homage of the World to a Name, and that a Name of a mortal Man dead and rotten, who was famous for nothing when he was alive but Blood and War; I say, to bring the World to set up this Nothing, this meer Name, nay the very Image and Picture of him fora God, it wasfirsta Mark of most prodigious Stupidity in the whole Race of Men, a monstrous Degeneracy from Nature, and even from common Sense; and in the next Place ’twas a token of an inexpressible Craft and Subtilty in theDevil, who had now gotten the People into so full and compleat a Management, that in short, he could have brought them, by the same Rule, to have worship’d any thing; and in a little while more, did bring many of them to worship himself,plain Devil as he was, and knowing him to be such.
As to the Antiquity of this horrible Defection of Mankind, tho’ we do not find the beginning of it particularly recorded, yet we are certain it was not long after the Confusion ofBabel; forNimrod, as is said, was no more thanNoah’s great Grandson andNoahhimself, I suppose, might be alive some Years afterNimrodwas born; and asNimrodwas not long dead, before they forgot thathe was a Tyrant and a Murtherer, and made aBaal, that is a Lord or Idol of him, I say, he was not long dead, forNimrodwas born in the Year of the World 1847, and builtBabylonthe Year 1879; and we findTerahthe Father ofAbraham, who liv’d from the Year 1879 was an Idolater, as was doubtlessBethuel, who wasTerah’s Grandson; for we findLaban, who wasBethuel’s Son, was so, and all this was during the Life of the first Post-Diluvian Family, forTerahwas born within one hundred ninety three Years after the Flood, and one hundred fifty seven Years beforeNoahwas dead; and evenAbramhimself was eight and fifty Years old beforeNoahdied, and yet Idolatry had been then, in all probability, above an hundred Years practised in the World.
N. B. It is worth Remark here, what a terrible Advantage the Devil gain’d by the debauching poorNoah, and drawing him into the Sin of Drunkenness; for by this, as I said, he silenc’d and stop’d the Mouth of the great Preacher of Righteousness, that Father and Patriarch of the whole World, who not being able for the Shame of his own foul Miscarriage, to pretend to instruct or reprove the World any more, theDeviltook hold of them immediately, and for want of a Prophet to warn and admonish, ran that little of Religion which there might be left inShemandJaphet, quite out of the World, and delug’d them all inIdolatry.
N. B. It is worth Remark here, what a terrible Advantage the Devil gain’d by the debauching poorNoah, and drawing him into the Sin of Drunkenness; for by this, as I said, he silenc’d and stop’d the Mouth of the great Preacher of Righteousness, that Father and Patriarch of the whole World, who not being able for the Shame of his own foul Miscarriage, to pretend to instruct or reprove the World any more, theDeviltook hold of them immediately, and for want of a Prophet to warn and admonish, ran that little of Religion which there might be left inShemandJaphet, quite out of the World, and delug’d them all inIdolatry.
How long the whole World may be said to be thus overwhelm’d in Ignorance and Idolatry, we may make some tolerable guess at by the History ofAbraham; for it was not till God call’d him from his Father’s House, that any such Thing as aChurch was establish’d in the World; nor even then, except in his own Family and Successors for almost four hundred Years after that Call; and till God brought theIsraelitesback out ofEgypt, the whole World may be said to be involv’d in Idolatry andDevilworship.
So absolute a Conquest had theDevilmade over Mankind immediately after the Flood, and all taking its Rise and Beginning at the fatal Defeat ofNoah, who had he liv’d untainted and invulnerable, as he had done for six hundred Years before, would have gone a great way to have stem’d the Torrent of Wickedness which broke in upon Mankind; and therefore theDevil, I say, was very cunning and very much in the Right of it, take him as he is a meerDevil, to attackNoahpersonally, and give him a Blow so soon.
It is true, theDevildid not immediately raze out the Notion of Religion and of aGodfrom the Minds of Men, nor could he easily suppress the Principle of Worship and Homage to be paid to a Sovereign Being, the Author of Nature and Guide of the World; theDevilsaw this clearly in the first Ages of the new World, and therefore, as I have said, he proceeded politically and by Degrees: That it was so, is evident from the Story ofJoband his three Friends, who, if we may take it for a History, not a Fable, and may judge of the Time of it by the Length ofJob’s Life, and by the Family ofEliphaztheTemanite, who it is manifest was at least Grandson or Great Grandson toEsau Isaac’s eldest Son, and by the Language ofAbimilechKing ofGerartoAbraham, and ofLabantoJacob, both the Latter being at the same Time Idolaters; I say, if we may judge of it by all these, there were still very sound Notions of Religion in the Minds of Men; nor could Satan with all his Cunning and Policydeface thoseIdeas, and root them out of the Minds of the People.
And this put him upon taking new Measures to keep up his Interest and preserve the Hold he got upon Mankind; and his Method was like himself, subtle and politick to the last Degree, as his whole History makes appear; for seeing he found they could not but believe the Being of a God, and that they would needs worship something, it is evident, he had no Game left him to play but this, namely, to set up wrong Notions of Worship, and bring them to a false Worship instead of a True, supposing the Object worship’d to be still the same.
To finish this Stratagem, he first insinuates that the true God was a terrible, a dreadful, unapproachable Being; that to see him was so frightful, that it would be present Death; that to worship him immediately, was a Presumption which would provoke his Wrath; and that as he was aconsuming Firein himself, so he would burn up those in his Anger that dar’d to offer up any Sacrifice to him, but by the Interposition of some Medium which might receive their Adorations in his Name.
Hence it occur’d presently, that subordinate Gods were to be found out and set up, to whom the People might pay the Homage due to the supreme God, and who they might worship in his Name; this I take from the most ancient Account of Idolatry in the World; nor indeed could the Devil himself find out any other Reason why Men should Cannonise or rather Deify their Princes and Men of Fame, and worship them after they were dead, as if they could save them from Death and Calamity, who were not able to save themselves when they were alive; much less couldSatanbring Men to swallow so gross, so absurd a Thing as the bowing the Knee to a Stock or aStone, a Calf, an Ox, a Lion, nay the Image or Figure of a Calf, such as theIsraelitesmade at MountSinai, and say,These be thy Gods, OIsrael,who brought thee out of the Land ofEgypt.
Having thus, I say, brought them to satisfy themselves that they worship’d the true God and no other, under the Figures and Appearances which they made to represent him, it was easy after that to worship any thing for the true God; and thus in a few Ages they worship’d nothing but Idols, even throughout the whole World; nor has theDevillost this hold in some Parts of the World, nay not in most Parts of the World to this Day; He holds still all the Eastern Parts ofAsia, and the Southern Parts ofAfrica, and the Northern Parts ofEurope, and in them the vast Countries ofChinaandTartary,PersiaandIndia,Guinea,Ethiopia,Zanquebar,Congo,Angola,Monomotapa, &c. in all which,except Ethiopia, we find no Vestiges of any other worship but that of Idols, Monsters, and even theDevilhimself; till after the very coming of our Saviour, and even then, if it be true that the Gospel was preach’d in theIndiesandChinaby St.Thomas, and in other remote Countries by other of the Apostles; we see that whatever GroundSatanlost, he seems to have recovered it again; and allAsiaandAfricais at present overrun with Paganism or Mahometanism, which I think of the two is rather the worst; Besides allAmerica, a Part of the World, as some say, equal in Bigness to all the other, in which theDevil’s Kingdom was never interrupted from its first being inhabited,whenever it was, to the first Discovery of it by theEuropeanNations in the sixteenth Century.
In a Word, theDevilgot what we may call an entire Victory over Mankind, and drove the Worship of the true God, in a Manner quiteout of the World, forcing,as it were, his Maker in a new kind of Creation, the old one proving thus ineffectual to recover a certain Number by Force and meer Omnipotence to return to their Duty, serve him and worship him;But of that hereafter.
Of God’s calling a Church out of the midst of a degenerate World, and of Satan’s new Measures upon that Incident: How he attack’d them immediately, and his Success in those Attacks.
Of God’s calling a Church out of the midst of a degenerate World, and of Satan’s new Measures upon that Incident: How he attack’d them immediately, and his Success in those Attacks.
Satanhaving, as I have said in the preceding Chapter, made, as it were, a full Conquest of Mankind, debauch’d them all to Idolatry, and brought them at least to worshiping the true God by the wretched Medium of corrupt and idolatrous Representations; God seem’d to have no true Servants or Worshippers left in the World, but if I may be allow’d to speak so, was oblig’d, in order to restore the World to their Senses again, to call a select Number out from among the rest, who he himself undertook should own his Godhead or supreme Authority, and worship him as he requir’d to be worship’d; this,I say, God was oblig’d to do, because ’tis evident it has not been done so much by the Choice and Council of Men,for Satan would have over-rul’d that Part, as by the Power and Energy of some irresistible and invincible Operation, and this our Divines give high Names to; but be it what they will, it is the second Defeat or Disappointment that theDevilhe met with in his Progress in the World; the first I have spoken of already.
It is true, Satan very well understood what was threatn’d to him in the original Promise to the Woman, immediately after the Fall, namely,thou shalt bruise his Head, &c. but he did not expect it so suddenly, but thought himself sure of Mankind, till the Fullness of Time when the Messiah should come; and therefore it was a great Surprize to him, to see thatAbrahambeing call’d was so immediately receiv’d and establish’d, tho’ he did not so immediately follow the Voice that directed him, yet in him, in his Loins was all God’s Church at that time contain’d.
In the callingAbraham, it is easy to see that there was no other way for God to form a Church, that is to say, to single out a People to himself, as the World was then stated, but by immediate Revelation and a Voice from Heaven: All Mankind were gone over to the Enemy, overwhelmed in Idolatry, in a Word, were engag’d to theDevil; God Almighty, or as the Scripture distinguishes him,the Lord, the trueGod, was out of the Question; Mankind knew little or nothing of him, much less did they know any thing of his Worship, or that there was such a Being in the World.
Well might it be said theLordappeared toAbraham, Gen. xii. 7. for if God had not appear’d himself, he must have sent a Messenger from Heaven,and perhaps it was so too, for he had not one true Servant or Worshiper that we know of then on Earth, to send on that Errand; no Prophet, no Preacher of Righteousness,Noahwas dead, and had been so above seventeen Year; and if he had not, his preaching, as I observed after his great Miscarriage, had but little Effect; we are indeed told, thatNoahleft behind himcertain Rules and Orders for the true Worship of God, which were call’d the Precepts ofNoah, and remain’d in the World for a long Time; tho’ how written, when neither any Letters, much less Writing were known in the World, is a Difficulty which Remains to be solv’d; and this makes me look upon those Laws call’d the Precepts ofNoahto be a modern Invention, as I do also theAlphabetum Noachi, whichBochartpretends to give an Account of.
But to leave that Fiction, and come back toAbraham; God call’d him, whether at first by Voice without any Vision, whether in a Dream or Night Vision, which was very Significant in those Days, or whether by some awful Appearance, we know not; the second Time, ’tis indeed said expresslyGodappeared to him; Be it which Way it will,Godhimself call’d him, shew’d him the Land ofCanaan, gave him the Promise of it for his Posterity, and withal gave him such a Faith, that theDevilsoon found there was no room for him to meddle withAbraham. This is certain, we do not read that theDevilever so much as attemptedAbrahamat all; some will suggest that the Command toAbrahamto go and offer up his SonIsaac, was a Temptation of theDevil, if possible to defeat the glorious Work ofGod’s calling a holy Seed into the World; for thefirst, ifAbrahamhad disobey’d that Call, the new Favourite had been overcome and made a Rebel of, orsecondly, if he hadobey’d, then the promis’d Seed had been cut off, andAbrahamdefeated; but as the Text is express thatGodhimself proposed it toAbraham, I shall not start the Suggestions of the Criticks, in Bar of the sacred Oracle.
Be it one way or other,Abrahamshew’d a Hero-like Faith and Courage, and if theDevilhad been the Author of it, he had seen himselfdisappointed in both his Views; (1.) byAbraham’s ready and bold Compliance, as believing it to beGod’s Command; and (2.) by the divine Countermand of the Execution, just as the fatal Knife was lifted up.
But if theDevilleftAbraham, and made no attack upon him, seeing him invulnerable, he made himself amends upon the other Branch of his Family, his poorNephewLot; who,notwithstandinghe was so immediately under the particular Care of Heaven, as that the Angel who was sent to destroySodom, could do nothing till he was out of it; and who, tho’ after he had leftZoar, and was retir’d into a Cave to dwell, yet the subtleDevilfound him out, deluded his two Daughters, took an Advantage of the Fright they had been in aboutSodomandGomorrah, made them believe the whole World was burnt too, as well as those Cities, and that in short, they could never have anyHusbands, &c. and so in their abundant Concern to repeople the World, and that the Race of Mankind might not be destroyed, they go and lie with their ownFather; theDeviltelling them doubtless how to do it, by intoxicating his Head with Wine; in all which Story, whether they were not as drunk as their Father, seems to be a Question, or else they could not have supposed all the Men in the Earth were consum’d, when they knew that the little CityZoarhad been preserv’d for their Sakes.
This now was the third ConquestSatanobtain’d by the Gust of humane Appetite; that is to say, once by Eating and twice by Drinking, or Drunkenness, and still the last was the worst and most shameful; forLot, however his Daughters manag’d him, could not pretend he did not understand what the Strength of Wine was; and one would have thought after so terrible aJudgment as that ofSodomwas, which was, as we may say, executed before his Face, his Thoughts should have been too solemnly engag’d in praising God for sparing his Life, to be made drunk, and that two Nights together.
But theDevilplay’d his Game sure, he set his two Daughters to work, and as theDevil’s Instruments seldom fail, so he secur’d his by that hellish Stratagem of deluding the Daughters, to think all the World was consum’d but they two and their Father: To be sure the old Man could not suspect that his Daughters Design was so wicked as indeed it was, or that they intended to debauch him with Wine, and make him drink till he knew not what he did.
Now theDevilhaving carried his Game here, gain’d a great Point; for as there were but two religious Families in the World before, from whence a twofold Generation might be supposed to rise religious and righteous like their Parents, (viz.) that ofAbrahamand this ofLot; this Crime ruin’d the Hopes of one of them; it could no more be said that justLotwas in Being, who vex’d hisrighteous Soulfrom Day to Day with the wicked Behaviour of the People ofSodom; righteousLotwas degenerated into drunken incestuousLot,Lotfallen from what he was, to be a wicked and unrighteous Man; no pattern of Virtue, no Reprover of the Age, but a poor fallen Degenerate Patriarch, who could now no more reprove or exhort, but look down and be asham’d, and nothing to do but to repent; and see the poor mean Excuses of all the three.
Eve says,The Serpent beguil’d me, and I did eat.Noah says, ——My Grandson beguil’d me, or the Wine beguil’d me, and I did drink.Lot says,My Daughters beguil’d me, and I also did drink.
Eve says,The Serpent beguil’d me, and I did eat.
Noah says, ——My Grandson beguil’d me, or the Wine beguil’d me, and I did drink.
Lot says,My Daughters beguil’d me, and I also did drink.
It is observable, that as I said above,Noahwas silenc’d, and his Preaching at an End, after that one Action, so the like may be said ofLot; and in short, you never hear one Word more of either of them after it; as for Mankind, both were useless to them, and as to themselves, we never read of any of their Repentance, nor have we much Reason to believe they did repent.
From this Attack of theDeviluponLot, we hear no more of theDevilbeing so busily employ’d as he had been before in the World; he had indeed but little to do, for all the rest of the World was his own, lull’d asleep under the Witchcraft of Idolatry, and are so still.
But it could not be long that theDevillay idle; as soon as God call’d himself a People, theDevilcould not be at Rest; till he attack’d them.
‘Wherever God sets up a House of Prayer,‘The Devil always builds a Chapel there.
Abrahamindeed went off the Stage free, and so didIsaactoo, they were a Kind of first Rate Saints; we do not so much as read of any failing they had, or of any Thing theDevilhad ever the Face to offer to them; no, or withJacobeither, if you will excuse him for beguiling his BrotherEsau, of both his Birthright and his Blessing, but he was busy enough with all his Children; for Example,
He sentJudahto his Sheep-shearing, and placed a Whore (Tamar) in his Way, in thePosture of Temptation, so made him commit Incest and Whoredom both together.
He sent incestuousReubento lie with his Father’s ConcubineBillah.
He sentDinahto the Ball, to dance with theSichemiteLadies, and play the Whore with their Master.
He enrag’dSimeonandLevi, at the supposed Injury, and then prompted them to Revenge, for which their Father heartily cursed them.
He set them all together to fall upon poorJoseph, first to murther him intentionally, and then actually sell him to theMidianites.
He made them shew the Party-colour’d Coat, and tell a lie to their Father, to make the poor old Man believeJosephwas kill’d by a Lion,&c.
He sentPotiphar’s Wife to attackJoseph’s Chastity, and fill’d her with Rage at the Disappointment.
He taughtJosephto swear by the Life ofPharoah.
In a Word, he debauch’d the whole Race, exceptBenjamin, and never Man had such a Set of Sons, so wicked and so notorious, after so good an Introduction into the World as they all of them had,to be sure; forJacob, no doubt, gave them as good Instruction as the Circumstances of his wandring Condition would allow him to do.
We must now consider theDeviland his Affairs in a quite differing Situation: When the World first appeared peopled by the creating Power of God, he had onlyAdamandEveto take care of, and I think he ply’d his Time with them to purpose enough: After the Deluge he hadNoahonly to pitch upon, and he quickly conquer’d him by the Instigation of hisGrandson.
At the Building ofBabelhe guided them by their acting all in a Body as one Man; so that in short he manag’d them with ease, taking them as a Body politic; and we find they came into his Snare as one Man; but Now, the Children ofIsraelmultiplying in the Land of their Bondage, and God seeming to shew a particular Concern for them, theDevilwas oblig’d to new Measures, stand at a Distance, and look on for some Time.
TheEgyptianswere plagued even without his Help, nor tho’ the cunning Artist, as I said, stood and looked on, yet he durst not meddle; nor could he make a few Lice, the least and meanest of the Armies of Insects raised to afflict theEgyptians.
However, when he perceiv’d that God resolved to bring theIsraelitesout, he prepar’d to attend them, to watch them, and be at Hand upon all the wicked Occasions that might offer, as if he had been fully satisfied such Occasions would offer, and that he should not fail to have an Opportunity to draw them into some Snare or another, and that therefore it was his Business not to be out of the Way, but to be ready (as we say) to make his Market of them in the best Manner he could: How many Ways he attempted them, nay, how many Times he conquer’d them in their Journey, we shall see presently.
First he put them in a fright atBaal-Zephon, where he thought he had drawn them into a Noose, and where he sentPharoahand his Army to block them up between the Mountains ofPiahirothand theRed Sea; but there indeedSatanwas outwitted byMoses, so far as it appeared to be a humane Action, for he little thought of their going dry footedthro’ the Sea, but depended upon having them all cut in Pieces the next Morningby theEgyptians; an eminent Proof,by the Way, that theDevilhasno Knowledge of Events, or any Insight into Futurity; nay that he has not so much as a second Sight, or knows to Day what his Maker intends to do to Morrow; for hadSatanknown that God intended to Ford them over the Sea, if he had not been able to have prevented the Miracle, he would certainly have prevented the Escape, by sending outPharoahand his Army time enough to have taken the Strand before them, and so have driven them to the Necessity of travelling on Foot round the North Point of that Sea, by the Wilderness ofEtan, where he would have pursu’d and harrass’d them with his Cavalry, and in all Probability have destroy’d them: But the blind short-sighted Devil, perfectly in the Dark, and unacquainted with Futurity, knew nothing of the Matter, was as much deceiv’d asPharoahhimself, stood still flattering himself with the Hopes of his Booty, and the Revenge he should take upon them the next Morning; till he saw the frighted Waves in an Uproar, and to his utter Astonishment and Confusion saw the Passage laid open, andMosesleading his vast Army in full March over the dry Space; nay even then ’tis very propable Satan did not know that if theEgyptiansfollow’d them, the Sea would return upon and overwhelm them; for I can hardly think so hard of theDevilhimself, that if he had, he would have suffer’d, much less promptedPharoahto follow the Chase at such an Expence; so that either he must be an ignorant unforeseeing Devil, or a very ungrateful falseDevilto his Friends theEgyptians.
I am enclin’d also to the more charitable Opinion of Satan too, because the Escape of theIsraeliteswas really a Triumph over himself; for the War was certainly his, or at least he was auxiliary toPharoah,it was a Victory overHellandEgypttogether, and he would never have suffer’d the Disgrace, if he had known it beforehand; that is to say, tho’ he could not have prevented the Escape ofIsrael, or the dividing the Water, yet he might have warn’d theEgyptians, and cautioned them not to venture in after them.
But we shall see a great many weak Steps taken by the Devil in the Affair of this very People and their forty Years Wandring in the Wilderness; and tho’ he was in some things successful, and wheedled them into many foolish and miserable Murmurings and Wranglings against God, and Mutinies against poorMoses, yet theDevilwas oftentimes baulk’d and disappointed; and ’tis for this Reason that I choose to finish the first Part of his History with the particular Relation of his Behaviour among theJews, because also, we do not find any extraordinary Things happening any where else in the World for above one thousand five hundred Years, no Variety, no Revolutions; all the Rest of Mankind lay still under his Yoke, quietly submitted to his Government, did just as he bad them, worship’d every Idol he set up, and in a Word, he had no Difficulty with any Body but theJews, and for this Reason, I say, this Part of his Story will be the more useful and instructing.
To return therefore toMosesand his dividing theRed Sea; that the People went over or thro’ it, that we have the sacred History for; but how the Devil behav’d, that you must come to me for, or I know not where you will find a true Account of it, at least not in Print.
1. It was in the Night they march’d thro’, whether theDevilsaw it in the Dark or no, that’s not my Business.
But when he had Day-Light for it, and view’d the next Day’s Work, I make no Question butall Hell felt the Surprise, the Prey being thus snatch’d out of their Hands unexpectedly. ’Tis true theEgyptiansHost was sent to him in their Room, but that was not what he aim’d at; for he was sure enough of them his own Way, and if it was notjust at that Time, yet he knew what and who they were; but as he had devour’d the wholeIsraelitishHost in his Imagination, to the Tune of at least a Million and a half of Souls; Men, Women and Children; it was, no doubt, a great Disappointment to the Devil to miss of his Prey, and to see them all triumphing on the other Side in Safety.
It is true,Satan’s Annals do not mention this Defeat, for Historians are generally backward to register their own Misfortunes; but as we have an Account of the Fact from other Hands, so as we cannot question the Truth of it; the Nature of the Thing will tell us it was a Disappointment to theDevil, and a very great one too.
I cannot but observe here, that I think this Part of theDevil’s Story very entertaining, because of the great Variety of Incidents which appear in every Part of it; sometimes he is like a hunted Fox, curvetting and counter-running to avoid his being pursued and found out, while at the same time he is carrying on his secret Designs to draw the People he pretends to manage, into some Snare or other to their Hurt; at another time, tho’ the Comparison is a little too low for his Dignity, like a Monkey that has done Mischief, and who making his own Escape sits and chatters at a Distance, as if he had triump’d in what he had done; so Satan, when he had drawn them in to worship a Calf, to offer strange Fire, to set up a Schism, and the like; and so to bring the Divine Vengeance upon themselves, leavingthem in their Distress, kept at a Distance, as if he look’d on with Satisfaction to see them Burnt, swallow’d up, swept away, and the like; as the several Stories relate.
His indefatigable Vigilance is, on the other hand, a useful Caveat, as well as an improving View to us; no sooner is he routed and expos’d, defeated and disappointed in one Enterprize, but he begins another, and, like a cunning Gladiator, warily defends himself, and boldly attacks his Enemy at the same time. Thus we see him, up and down, conquering and conquered, thro’ this whole Part of his Story, till at last he receives a total Defeat; of which you shall hear in its place: In the mean time, let us take up his Story again at theRed Sea, where he receiv’d a great Blow, instead of which he expected a compleat Victory; for doubtless the Devil and the King ofÆgypttoo, thought of nothing but Conquest atPiahiroth.
However, tho’ the Triumph of theIsraelitesover theEgyptiansmust needs be a great Mortification to theDevil, and exasperated him very much, yet the Consequence was only this,viz.thatSatan, like an Enemy who is baulk’d and defeated, but not overcome, redoubles his Rage, and reinforces his Army, and what theEgyptianscould not do for him, he resolves to do for himself; in order then to take his Opportunity for what Mischief might offer, being defeated, and provok’d, I say, at the Slur that was put upon him, he resolves to follow them into the Wilderness, and many a vile Prank he plaid them there; as first, he straitens them for Water, and makes them murmur againstGod, and againstMoses, within a very few Days, nay, Hours, of their great Deliverance of all.
Nor was this all, but in less than one Year more we find them, (at his Instigation too) setting upagolden Calf, and making all the People dance about it at MountSinai; even when God himself had but just before appear’d to them in the Terrors of a burning Fire upon the Top of the Mountain;and what was the Pretence?Truly, nothing but that they had lostMoses, who used to be their Guide, and he had hid himself in the Mount, and had not been seen in forty Days, so that they could not tell what was become of him. This put them all into Confusion; a poor Pretence indeed, to turn them all back to Idolatry! but thewatchful Deviltook the Hint, push’d the Advantage, and insinuated that they should never seeMosesagain, that he was certainly devour’d by venturing too near the Flashes of Fire in the Mount, and presuming upon the Liberty he had taken before; in a word, that God had destroyedMoses, or he was starved to Death for want of Food, having been forty Days and forty Nights absent.
All these were, it’s true, in themselves most foolish Suggestions, consideringMoseswas admitted to the Vision of God, and that God had been pleased to appear to him in the most intimate manner; that as they might depend God would not destroy his faithful Servant, so they might have concluded he was able to support his Being without Food as long as he thought fit; but to a People so easy to believe any thing, what could be too gross for theDevilto persuade them to?
A People who could dance round a Calf, and call it their God, might do any thing; that could say to one another, that this was the GreatJehovah,that brought them out of the Land of Egypt; and that within so few Days after God’s miraculous Appearance to them, and for them; I say, such a People were really fitted to beimposed upon, nothing could be too gross for them.
This was indeed his first considerable Experiment upon them asa People, orasa Body; and the Truth is, his Affairs requir’d it, forSatan, who had been a Successful Devil in most of his Attempts upon Mankind, could hardly doubt of Success in any thing after he had carried his Point at MountSinai: To bring them to Idolatry in the very Face of their Deliverer, and just after their Deliverance! It was more astonishing in the main than even their passingthe Red Sea: In a Word, theDevil’s whole History does not furnish us with a Story equally surprising.
And how was poorAaronbewilder’d in it too? He that wasMoses’s Partner in all the great Things thatMosesdid inPharaoh’s Sight, and that was appointed to be his Assistant and Oracle,or Orator rather, upon all public Occasions; that he, above all the rest, should come into this absurd and ridiculous Proposal, he that was singled out for the sacred Priesthood, for him to defile his holy Hands with a polluted abominable Sacrifice, and with making the Idol for them too, (for ’tis plain that he made it,) how monstrous it was!
And see what an Answer he gives to his BrotherMoses, how weak! how simple!I did so and so, indeed, I bad them bring the Ear-rings,&c.and I cast the Gold into the Fire, andit came out this Calf. Ridiculous! as if the Calf came out by meer fortuitous Adventure, without a Mould to cast it in; which could not be supposed: And if it had not come out so without a Mould,Moseswould certainly have known of it; hadAaronbeen innocent, he would have answered after quite another manner, and toldMoseshonestly that the whole Body of the People came to him in a Fright, that they forced him to make theman Idol; which he did, by making first a proper Mould to cast it in, and then taking the proper Metal to cast it from: That indeed he had sinn’d in so doing, but that he was mobb’d into it, and the People terrified him, perhaps they threatned to kill him; and if he had added, that theDevilprompting his Fear beguil’d him, he had said nothing but what was certainly true; for if it was in Satan’s Power to make the People insolent and outrageous enough to threaten and bully the old venerable Prophet (for he was not yet a Priest) who was the Brother of their OracleMoses, and had been Partner with him in so many of his Commissions; I say, if he cou’d bring up the Passions of the People to a Height to be rude and unmannerly to him (Aaron) and perhaps to threaten and insult him, he may be easily suppos’d to be able to intimidateAaron, and terrify him into a Compliance.
See this cunning Agent, when he has Man’s Destruction in his View, how securely he acts! he never wants a handle; the best of Men have one weak place or other, and he always finds it out, takes the Advantage of it, and conquers them by one Artifice or another; only take it with you as you go, ’tis alwaysby Stratagem, neverby Force; a Proof that he is not empower’d to use Violence: He may tempt, and he does prevail; but ’tis allLegerdemain, ’tis all Craft and Artifice, he is still Διαβολὴ, theCalumniatorand Deceiver, that is, the Misrepresenter; he misrepresentsMantoGod, and misrepresentsGodtoMan, also he misrepresents Things; he puts false Colours, and then manages the Eye to see them with an imperfect View, raising Clouds and Fogs to intercept our Sight; in short, he deceives all our Senses, and imposes upon us in Things which otherwise would be the easiest to discern and judge of.
This indeed is in part the Benefit of theDevil’s History, to let us see that he has used the same Method all along; and that ever since he has had any thing to do with Mankind, he has practis’d upon them with Stratagem and Cunning; also ’tis observable that he has carried his Point better that way than he would have done by Fury and Violence, if he had been allowed to make use of it; for by his Power indeed he might have laid the World desolate, and made a Heap of Rubbish of it long ago; but, as I have observed before, that would not have answered his Ends half so well, for by destroying Men he would have made Martyrs, and sent abundance of good Men to Heaven, who would much rather have died, than yielded to serve him, and, as he aimed to have it, to fall down and worship him; I say, he would have made Martyrs, and that not a few: But this was none ofSatan’s Business; his Design lies quite another Way; his Business is to make Mensin, not to make themsuffer; to makeDevilsof them, notSaints; to delude them, and draw them away from their Maker, not send them away to him; and therefore he works by Stratagem, not by Force.
We are now come to his Story, as it relates to theJewishChurch in the Wilderness, and to the Children ofIsraelin their travelling Circumstances; and this was the first Scene of publick Management that the Devil had upon his Hands in the World; for, as I have said,till now, he dealt with Mankind either in their separate Condition, one by one, or else carried all before him, engrossing whole Nations in his Systems of Idolatry, and overwhelming them in an ignorant Destruction.
But having now a whole People as it were snatch’d away from him, taken out of his Government, and, which was still worse, having aView of a Kingdom being set up independent of him, and superior to his Authority, it is not to be wondred at if he endeavour’d to overthrow them in the Infancy of their Constitution, and tried all possible Arts to bring them back into his own Hands again.
He found them not only carried away from the Country where they were even in his Clutches, surrounded with Idols, and where we have Reason to believe the greatest part of them were polluted with the Idolatry of theEgyptians; for we do not read of any stated Worship which they had of their own, or if they did worship the true God, we scarce know in what manner they did it; they had no Law given them, nothing but the Covenant of Circumcision, and evenMoseshimself had not strictly observ’d that, till he was frighted into it; we read of no Sacrifices among them, no Feasts were ordain’d, no solemn Worship appointed, and how, or in what manner they perform’d their Homage, we know not; the Passover was not ordain’d till just at their coming away; so that there was not much Religion among them, at least that we have any Account of; and we may suppose theDevilwas pretty easy with them all the while they were in the House of their Bondage.
But now, to have a Million of People fetch’d out of his Hands, as it were all at once, and to have the immediate Power of Heaven engaged in it, and thatSatansaw evidently God had singled them out in a miraculous manner to favour them, and call themhis own; this allarm’d him at once, and therefore he resolves to follow them, lay close Siege to them, and take all the Measures possible to bring them to rebel against, and disobeyGod, that he might be provok’d to destroy them; and how near he went to bring it to pass, we shall see presently.
This making a Calf, and paying an idolatrous Worship to it (for they acted the Heathens and Idolaters, not in the setting up the Calf only, but in the manner of their Worshiping,viz.DancingandMusick, Things they had not been acquainted with in the Worship of the true God) I mention here, to observe how the Devil not only imposed upon their Principles, but upon their Senses too; as if the awful Majesty of Heaven, whose Glory they had seen in MountSinai, where they stood, and whose Pillar of Cloud and Fire was their Guide and Protection, would be worship’d by dancing round a Calf! and that not a living Creature, or a real Calf, but the mere Image of aCalfcast in Gold, or, as some think, in Brass gilded over.
But this was theDevil’s Way with Mankind, namely, to impose upon their Senses, and bring them into the grossest Follies and Absurdities; and then, having first made them Fools, it was much the easier to make them Offenders.
In this very manner he acted with them thro’ all the Course of their Wilderness Travels; for as they were led by the Hand like Children, defended by Omnipotence, fed by Miracles, instructed immediately from Heaven, and in all things hadMosesfor their Guide; they had no room to miscarry, but by acting the greatest Absurdities, and committing the greatest Follies in Nature; and even these, theDevilbrought them to be guilty of, in a surprising manner: 1. AsGodhimself reliev’d them in every Exigence, and supply’d them in every Want, one would think ’twas impossible they should be ever brought to question either his Willingness or his Ability, and yet they really objected against both; which was indeed very provoking, and I doubt not, that when theDevilhad brought them to actin such a preposterous Manner, he really hoped and believed God would be provok’d effectually: The Testimonies of his Care of them, and Ability to supply them, were miraculous and undeniable; he gave them Water from the Rock, Bread from the Air, sent the Fowls to feed them with Flesh, and supported them all the Way by Miracles; their Health was preserv’d, none were sick among them, their clothes did not wear out, nor their Shoes grow old upon their Feet; could any thing be more absurd, than to doubt whether he could provide for them who had never let them want for so many Years?
But theDevilmanaged them in spight of Miracles; nor did he ever give them over till he had brought six hundred thousand of them to provoke God so highly that he would not suffer above two of them to go into the Land of Promise; so that in short, Satan gained his Point as to that Generation, for all their Carcasses fell in the Wilderness. Let us take but a short View to what a Height he brought ’em, and in what a rude, absurd Manner they acted; how he set them upon murmuring upon every Occasion, now for Water, then for Bread; nay, they murmuredat their Breadwhen they had it;Our Soul loaths this light Bread.
He sow’d the Seeds of Church-Rebellion in the Sons ofAaron, and madeNadabandAbihuoffer strange Fire till they were strangely consumed by Fire for the doing it.
He set them a complaining atTaberah, and a lusting for Flesh at the first three Days Journey from MountSinai.
He planted Envy in the Hearts ofMiriamandAaron, against the Authority ofMoses, to pretendGodhad spoke by them as well as by him, till he humbled the Father, and made a Leper of the Daughter.
He debauch’d ten of the Spies, frighted them with sham Appearances of Things, when they went out to search the Land; and made them fright the whole People out of their Understanding as well as Duty, for which six hundred thousand of their Carcasses fell in the Wilderness.
He rais’d the Rebellion ofKorah, and the two hundred and fifty Princes, till he brought them to be swallowed up alive.
He putMosesinto a Passion atMeribah, and ruffled the Temper of the meekest Man upon Earth, by which he made both him andAaronforfeit their Share of the Promise, and be shut out from theHoly Land.
He rais’d a Mutiny among them when they travelled from MountHor, till they brought fiery Serpents among them to destroy them.
He tried to makeBaalimthe Prophet curse them, but there theDevilwas disappointed: However, he brought theMidianitesto debauch them with Women, as in the Case ofZimriandCosbi.
He temptedAchanwith the Wedge of Gold, and theBabylonishGarment, that he might take of the accursed thing, and be destroy’d.
He tempted the whole People, not effectually to drive out the cursed Inhabitants of the Land of Promise, that they might remain, and be Goads in their Sides, till at last they often oppress’d them for their Idolatry; and, which was worse, debauched them to Idolatry.
He prompted theBenjamitesto refuse Satisfaction to the People, in the Case of the Wickedness of the Men ofGibeah, to the Destruction of the whole Tribe, four hundred Men excepted in the RockRimmon.
At last he tempted them to reject the Theocracy of their Maker, and call uponSamuelto make them a King; and most of those Kings he made Plagues and Sorrows to them in their time, as you shall hear in their Order.
Thus he plagued the whole Body of the People continually, making them sin against God, and bring Judgments upon themselves, to the consuming some Millions of them, first and last, by the Vengeance of their Maker.
As he did with the whole Congregation, so he did with their Rulers, and several of the Judges, who were made Instruments to deliver the People, yet were drawn into snares by thissubtil Serpent, to ruin themselves or the People they had delivered.
He temptedGideonto make anEphod, contrary to the Law of the Tabernacle, and made the Children ofIsraelgo a whoring (that is, a worshiping) after it.
He temptedSampsonto debauch himself with a Harlot, and betray his own happy Secret to a Whore, at the Expence of both his Eyes, and at last of his Life.
He temptedEli’s Sons to lie with the Women, in the very Doors of the Tabernacle, when they came to bring their Offerings to the Priest; and he tempted poorElito connive at them, or not sufficiently reprove them.
He tempted the People to carry the Ark of God into the Camp, that it might fall into the Hands of thePhilistines. And
He temptedUzzito reach out his Hand to hold it up; as if he that had preserved it in the House ofDagonthe Idol of thePhilistines, could not keep it from falling out of the Cart.
When the People had gotten a King, he immediately set to work in diverse Ways to bring that King to load them with Plagues and Calamities not a few.
He temptedSaulto spare the King ofAmaliek, contrary to God’s express Command.
He not temptedSaulonly, but possessed him with an evil Spirit, by which he was left to wayward Dispositions, and was forced to have it fiddl’d out of him with a Minstrel.
He temptedSaulwith a Spirit of Discontent, and with a Spirit of Envy at poorDavid, to hunt him like a Partridge upon the Mountains.
He temptedSaulwith a Spirit of Divination, and sent him to a Witch to enquire ofSamuelfor him; as if God would help him when he was dead, that had forsaken him when he was alive.
After that, he tempted him to kill himself, on a Pretence that he might not fall into the Hands of the Uncircumcised; as ifSelf-Murtherwas not half so bad, either for Sin against God, or Disgrace among Men, as being taken Prisoner bya Philistine! A Piece of Madness none but theDevilcould have brought Mankind to submit to, tho’ some Ages after that, he made it a Fashion among theRomans.
AfterSaulwas dead, andDavidcame to the Throne, by how much he was a Man chosen and particularly savoured by Heaven, theDevilfell upon him with the more Vigour, attack’d him so many Ways, and conquer’d him so very often, that as no Man was so good a King, so hardly any good King was ever a worse Man; in many Cases one would have almost thought theDevilhad made Sport withDavid, to shew how easily he could overthrow the best ManGodcould choose of the whole Congregation.
He made him distrust his Benefactor so much as to feign himself mad before the King ofGath, when he had fled to him for Shelter.
He made him march with his four hundred Cut-throats, to cut off poorNabal, and all his Houshold, only because he would not send him the good Chear he had provided for his honest Sheep-shearers.
He made him, for his Word’s sake, giveZibahalf his Master’s Estate for his Treachery, after he knew he had been the Traitor, and betray’d poorMephiboshethfor the sake of it; in which
‘The good old King, it seems, was very loth‘To break his Word, and therefore broke his Oath.
Then he tempted him to the ridiculous Project of numbring the People, tho’ against God’s express Command; a ThingJoabhimself was not wicked enough to do, tillDavidand theDevilforc’d him to it.
And to make him compleatly wicked, he carried him to the Top of his House, and shew’d him a naked Lady bathing her self in her Garden, in which it appear’d that theDevilknewDavidtoo well, and what was the particular Sin of his Inclination; and so took him by the Right Handle; drawing him at once into the Sins ofMurtherandAdultery.
Then, that he might not quite give him over, (tho’David’s Repentance for the last Sin kept theDeviloff for a while) when he could attack him no farther personally he fell upon him in his Family, and made him as miserable as he could desire him to be, in his Children, three of whom he brought to Destruction before his Face, and another after his Death.
First, he temptedAmmonto ravish his SisterTamar; so, there was an End of her (poor Girl!) as to this World, for we never hear any more of her.
Then he temptedAbsalomto murther his BrotherAmnon, in Revenge forTamar’s Maidenhead.
Then he madeJoabrunAbsalomthro’ the Body, contrary toDavid’s Command.
And afterDavid’s Death he broughtAdonija(weak Man!) to the Block, for usurping KingSolomon’s Throne.
As toAbsalom, he tempted him to Rebellion, and raising War against his Father, to the turning him shamefully out ofJerusalem, and almost out of the Kingdom.
He tempted him, forDavid’s farther Mortification, to lie with his Father’s Wives, in the Face of the whole City; and hadAchitophel’s honest Council been follow’d, he had certainly sent him to Sleep with his Fathers, long before his time—But thereSatanandAchitophelwere both out-witted together.
Thro’ all the Reigns of the several Successors ofDavid, theDeviltook care to carry on his own Game, to the continual insulting the Measures which God himself had taken for the establishing his People in the World, and especially as a Church; till at last he so effectually debauch’d them to Idolatry; that Crime which of all others was most provoking toGod, as it was carrying the People away from their Allegiance, and transposing the Homage they ow’d God their Maker, to a contemptible Block of Wood, or an Image of a brute Beast; and this how sordid and brutish soever it was in it self, yet so did his Artifice prevail among them, that, first or last, he brought them all into it, the ten Tribes as well as the two Tribes; till at last God himself was provoked to unchurch them, gave them up to their Enemies, and the few that were left of them, after incredible Slaughters and Desolation, werehurried away, some intoTartary, and others intoBabylon, from whence very few, of that few that were carried away, ever found their Way Home again; and some, when they might have come, would not accept of it, but continued there to the very coming of the Messiah. See Epistles of St.Jamesand of St.Peter, at the Beginning.
But to look a little back upon this Part (for it cannot be omitted, it makes so considerable a Part of theDevil’s History) I mean his drawing God’s People, Kings and all, into all the Sins and Mischiefs which gradually contributed to their Destruction.
First, (for he began immediately with the very best and wisest of the Race) he drew in KingSolomon, in the midst of all his Zeal for the building God’s House, and for the making the most glorious and magnificent Appearance for God’s Worship that ever the World saw; I say, in the middle of all this, he drew him into such immoderate and insatiable an Appetite for Women, as to set up the first, and perhaps the greatestSeraglioof Whores that ever any Prince in the World had, or pretended to before; nay, and to bring whoring so much into Reputation, that, as the Text says, seven hundred of them were Princesses; that is to say, Ladies of Quality: Not as the Grand Seigniors, and Great Moguls, (other Princes of the Eastern World) have since practised, namely, to pick up their most beautiful Slaves; but these, it seems, were Women of Rank, King’s Daughters, asPharaoh’s Daughter, and the Daughters of the Princes and prime Men among theMoabites,Ammonites,Zidonians,Hittites, &c. 1Kingsxi. 1.
Nor was this all; but as he drew him into the Love of these forbidden Women (for such they were, as to their Nation, as well as Number) so heensnar’d him by those Women to a Familiarity with their Worship; and by degrees brought that famous Prince (famous for his Wisdom) to be the greatest and most-impos’d-upon old Fool in the World; Bowing down to those Idols by the Inticing of his Whores, whom he had abhorr’d and detested in his Youth, as dishonouring that God for whom, and for whose Worship he had finish’d and dedicated the most magnificent Building and Temple in the World: Nothing but the invincible Subtlety of thisArch Devilcould ever have brought such a Man asSolomonto such a Degeneracy of Manners, and to such Meannesses; no, not theDevilhimself, without the Assistance of his Whores, nor the Whores themselves, without theDevilto help them.
As toSolomon,Satanhad made Conquest enough there, we need hear no more of him; the next Advance he made, was in the Person of his SonRehoboam; had not theDevilprompted his Pride and tyrannical Humour, he would never have given the People such an Answer as he did; and when he saw a Fellow at the Head of them too whom he knew wanted and waited for an Occasion to raise a Rebellion, and had ripened up thePeople’sHumour to the Occasion: Well might the Text call itlistening to the Council of the young Heads; that it was indeed with a Vengeance! but those young Heads too were acted by an oldDevil, who for his Craft is called, as I have observ’d, theOld Serpent.
Having thus pav’d the Way,Jeroboamrevolts. So far God had directed him; for the Text says expressly, speaking in the first Person ofGodhimself,This Thing is of Me.
But tho’ God might appointJeroboamto be King, (that is to say, of ten Tribes,) yetGoddid not appoint him to set up thetwo Calvesinthe two extreme Parts of the Land,viz.inDan, and inBethel; that wasJeroboam’s own doing, and done on purpose to keep the People from falling back toRehoboam, by being obliged to go toJerusalemto the publick Worship: And the Text adds,Jeroboam made Israel to sin. This was indeed a Master-piece of theDevil’s Policy, and it was effectual to answer the End, nothing could have been more to the Purpose; what Reason he had to expect the People would so universally come into it, and be so well satisfied with a couple of Calves, instead of the true Worship ofGodatJerusalem; or what Arts and Management he (Satan) made use of afterwards, to bring the People in, to join with such a Delusion, that we find but little of in all the Annals ofSatan; not is it much to the Case: ’Tis certain theDevilfound a strange kind of Propensity to worshiping Idols rooted in the Temper of that whole People, even from their first breaking away from theEgyptianBondage; so that he had nothing to do but to work upon the old Stock, and propagate the Crime that he found was so natural to them. And this isSatan’s general Way of working, not with them only, but with us also, and with all the World, even then, and ever since.
When he had thus secur’dJeroboam’s Revolt, we need not trace him among his Successors; for the same Reason of State that held for the setting up the Calves atBethelandDan, held good for the keeping them up, to allJeroboam’s Posterity; nor had they one good King ever after; evenJehu, who call’d his Friends to come and see hisZeal for the Lord, and who fulfill’d the Threatnings of God uponAhaband his Family, and upon QueenJezabeland her Offspring, and knew all the while that he was executing the Judgment of the true God upon an idolatrous Race; yethe would not part with his Calves, but would have thought it to have been parting with his Kingdom, and that as the People would have gone up toJerusalemto worship, so they would at the same Time have transfer’d their civil Obedience to the King ofJudah, (whose Right it really was, as far as they could claim by Birth and right Line); so that by the way,Satanany more than other Politicians, is not for thejus divinumof lineal Succession, or what we call hereditary Right, any farther than serves for his Purpose.
Thus Satan ridded his Hands of ten of the twelve Tribes; let us now see how he went on with the rest, for his Work was now brought into a narrower Compass; the Church of God was now reduc’d to two Tribes, except a few religious People, who separated from the Schism ofJeroboam, and came and planted themselves among the Tribes ofJudahandBenjamin: The first thing the Devil did after this, was to foment a War between the two Kings, whileJudahwas governed by a Boy or Youth,Abijaby Name, and he none of the best neither; but God’s Time was not come, and the Devil receiv’d a great Disappointment; whenJeroboamwas so entirely overthrown; that if the Records of those Ages do not mistake, no less than 500000 Men ofIsraelwere kill’d, such a Slaughter, that one would think the Army ofJudah, had they known how to improve as well as gain a Victory, might have brought all the rest back again, and have intirely reduc’d the House ofJeroboamand the ten Tribes that follow’d him to their Obedience; nay they did take a great deal of the Country from them, and among the restBethelit self; and yet so cunningly didSatanmanage, that the King ofJudah, who was himself a wicked King, and perhaps an Idolater in his Heart, did not take down the goldenCalf thatJeroboamhad there, no nor destroy the Idolatry it self, so that in short, his Victory signified nothing.
From hence to the Captivity, we find theDevilbusy with the Kings ofJudah, especially the best of them; as for such asManasseth, and those who transgress’d by the general Tenor of their Lives, those he had no great trouble with.
But such asAsa,Jehoshaphat,Hezekiah, andJosiah, he hung about them and their Courts, till he brought every one of them into some Mischief or another.
As first, good KingAsa, of whom the Scripture says, his Heart was perfect all his Days, yet this subtle Spirit, that could break in upon him no where else, tempted him when the King ofIsraelcame out against him, to send to hireBenhadadthe King ofSyriato help him; as ifGodwho had before enabled him to conquer theEthiopians, with an Army of ten hundred thousand Men, could not have saved him from the King of the ten Tribes.
In the same manner he temptedJehoshaphatto join with that wicked KingAhabagainst the King ofSyria, and also to marry his Son toAhab’s Daughter, which was fatal toJehoshaphat, and to his Posterity.
Again, He temptedHezekiahto shew all his Riches to the King ofBabylon’s Messengers; and who can doubt, but that he (Satan) is to be understood by the wicked Spirit which stood before the Lord, 2Chron.xviii. 20. and offered his Service to enticeAhabthe King ofIsraelto come out to Battle to his Ruin, by being a lying Spirit in the Mouths of all his Prophets; and who for that Time had a special Commission, as he had another Time in the Case ofJob? and indeed it was a Commission fit for no body but theDevil:Thoushalt enticehim,and thou shaltalsoprevail: Go out and doevenso, ℣ 21.
Even goodJosiahhimself, of whom it is recorded, thatlike him there was no King before him,neither after him arose there any like him, 2 Kings xxiii. 26. yet theDevilnever left him with his Machinations, till finding he could not tempt him to any Thing wicked in his Government, he tempted or mov’d him to a needless War with the King ofEgypt, in which he lost his Life.
From the Death of this good King, theDevilprevail’d so with the whole Nation of theJews, and brought them to such an incorrigible Pitch of Wickedness, thatGodgave them up, forsook his Habitation of Glory, the Temple, which he suffer’d to be spoil’d first, then burnt and demolish’d; destroying the whole Nation of theJews, except a small Number that were left, and those the Enemy carried away into Captivity.
Nor was he satisfied with this general Destruction of the whole People ofIsrael, for the ten Tribes were gone before; but he follow’d them even into their Captivity; those that fled away toEgypt, which they tell us were seventy thousand, he first corrupted, and then they were destroyed there upon the Overthrow ofEgypt, by the same King ofBabylon.
Also he went very near to have them rooted out, young and old, Man, Woman and Child, who were in Captivity inBabylon, by the Ministry of that true Agent of Hell,HamantheAgagite; but thereSatanmet with a Disappointment too, as in the Story ofHester, which was but the fourth that he had met with, in all his Management since the Creation; I say, there he was disappointed, and his prime MinisterHamanwas exalted, as he deserv’d.
Having thus far traced the Government and Dominion of theDevil, from the Creation of Man to the Captivity; I think I may call upon him to set up his Standard of universal Empire, at that Period; it seem’d just then as if God had really forsaken the Earth, and given the entire Dominion of Mankind up to his outrageous Enemy theDevil; for excepting the fewIsraeliteswhich were left in the Territories of the King ofBabylon, and they were but a few; I say, except among them, there was not one Corner of the World left where the true God was call’d upon, or his Dominion so much as acknowledg’d; all the World was buried in Idolatry, and that of so many horrid Kinds, that one would think, the Light of Reason should have convinc’d Mankind, that he who exacted such bloody Sacrifices as that ofMoloch, and such a bloody cutting themselves with Knives, as the Priests ofBaaldid, could not be aGod, a good and beneficent Being, but must be a cruel, voracious and devouring Devil, whose End was not the Good, but the Destruction of his Creatures: But to such a Height was the blind demented World arriv’d to at that Time, that in these sordid and corrupt Ways, they went on worshiping dumb Idols, and offering human Sacrifices to them, and in a Word, committing all the most horrid and absurd Abominations that they were capable of, or that theDevilcould prompt them to, till Heaven was again put, as it were, to the Necessity of bringing about a Revolution, in favour of his own forsaken People, by Miracle and Surprize, as he had done before.