The Political History of the Devil

THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE DEVIL

the first, to his most Christian Majesty Louis the 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 (Satan prompting) the World was quickly fill’d with Idols.

This Nimrod is he, who according to the received Opinion, tho’ I do not find Satan’s History exactly concurring with it, was first call’d Belus, then Baal, 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 was particularly set up, as Baal Peor, Baal Zephon, Baal Phegor, and in other Places plain Baal, as Jupiter in after Times had the like Additions; as Jupiter Ammon, Jupiter Capitolinus, Jupiter Pistor, Jupiter Feretrius, and about ten or twelve Jupiters more.

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 of Noah in the Ark, to bring them (even before Noah or his Sons were dead) to forget whose Hand it was, and give the Hom-

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age 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 for a God, it was first a 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 the Devil, 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 of Babel; for Nimrod, as is said, was no more than Noah’s great Grandson and Noah himself, I suppose, might be alive some Years after Nimrod was born; and as Nimrod was not long dead, before they forgot that he was a Tyrant and a Murtherer, and made a Baal, that is a Lord or Idol of him, I say, he was not long dead, for Nimrod was born in the Year of the World 1847, and built Babylon the Year 1879; and we find Terah the Father of Abraham, who liv’d from the Year 1879 was an Idolater, as was doubtless Bethuel, who was Terah’s Grandson; for we find Laban, who was Bethuel’s Son, was so, and all this was during the Life of the first Post-Diluvian Family, for Terah was born within one hundred ninety three Years after the Flood, and one hundred fifty seven Years before Noah was dead; and

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even Abram himself was eight and fifty Years old before Noah died, 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 poor Noah, 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, the Devil took hold of them immediately, and for want of a Prophet to warn and admonish, ran that little of Religion which there might be left in Shem and Japhet, quite out of the World, and delug’d them all in IDOLATRY.

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 of Abraham; for it was not till God call’d him from his Father’s House, that any such Thing as a Church 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 the Israelites back out of Egypt, the whole World may be said to be involv’d in Idolatry and Devil worship.

So absolute a Conquest had the Devil made over Mankind immediately after the Flood, and all taking its Rise and Beginning at the fatal Defeat of Noah, 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

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therefore the Devil, I say, was very cunning and very much in the Right of it, take him as he is a meer Devil, to attack Noah personally, and give him a Blow so soon.

It is true, the Devil did not immediately raze out the Notion of Religion and of a GOD from 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; the Devil saw 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 of Job and 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 of Job’s Life, and by the Family of Eliphaz the Temanite, who it is manifest was at least Grandson or Great Grandson to Esau Isaac’s eldest Son, and by the Language of Abimilech King of Gerar to Abraham, and of Laban to Jacob, 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 Policy deface those Ideas, 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

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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 a consuming Fire in 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 could Satan bring Men to swallow so gross, so absurd a Thing as the bowing the Knee to a Stock or a Stone, a Calf, an Ox, a Lion, nay the Image or Figure of a Calf, such as the Israelites made at Mount Sinai, and say, These be thy Gods, O Israel, who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt.

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 through-

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CHAPTER XI

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

Satan having, 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

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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 the Devil he 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 that Abraham being 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 calling Abraham, 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 the Devil; God Almighty, or as the Scripture distinguishes him, the Lord, the true GOD, 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 the Lord appeared to Abraham, 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

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not one true Servant or Worshiper that we know of then on Earth, to send on that Errand; no Prophet, no Preacher of Righteousness, Noah was 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, that Noah left behind him certain Rules and Orders for the true Worship of God, which were call’d the Precepts of Noah, 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 of Noah to be a modern Invention, as I do also the Alphabetum Noachi, which Bochart pretends to give an Account of.

But to leave that Fiction, and come back to Abraham; 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 expressly GOD appeared to him; Be it which Way it will, GOD himself call’d him, shew’d him the Land of Canaan, gave him the Promise of it for his Posterity, and withal gave him such a Faith, that the Devil soon found there was no room for him to meddle with Abraham. This is certain, we do not read that the Devil ever so much as attempted Abraham at all; some will suggest that the Command to Abraham to go and offer up his Son Isaac, was a Temptation of the Devil, if possible to defeat the glorious Work of GOD’s calling a holy Seed into the World; for the first, if Abraham had disobey’d that Call, the new Favourite had been overcome and made a Rebel of, or secondly, if he had obey’d, then

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the promis’d Seed had been cut off, and Abraham defeated; but as the Text is express that GOD himself proposed it to Abraham, I shall not start the Suggestions of the Criticks, in Bar of the sacred Oracle.

Be it one way or other, Abraham shew’d a Hero-like Faith and Courage, and if the Devil had been the Author of it, he had seen himself disappointed in both his Views; (1.) by Abraham’s ready and bold Compliance, as believing it to be GOD’s Command; and (2.) by the divine Countermand of the Execution, just as the fatal Knife was lifted up.

But if the Devil left Abraham, and made no attack upon him, seeing him invulnerable, he made himself amends upon the other Branch of his Family, his poor Nephew LOT; who, notwithstanding he was so immediately under the particular Care of Heaven, as that the Angel who was sent to destroy Sodom, could do nothing till he was out of it; and who, tho’ after he had left Zoar, and was retir’d into a Cave to dwell, yet the subtle Devil found him out, deluded his two Daughters, took an Advantage of the Fright they had been in about Sodom and Gomorrah, made them believe the whole World was burnt too, as well as those Cities, and that in short, they could never have any Husbands, &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 own Father; the Devil telling 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

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