Chapter IX: Part II: Chap. I (7)

This indeed is in part the Benefit of the _Devil_'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 of _Satan_'s Business; his Design lies quite another Way; his Business is to make Men _sin_, not to make them _suffer_; to make _Devils_ of them, not _Saints_; 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 the _Jewish_ Church in the Wilderness, and to the Children of _Israel_ in 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 a View 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 the _Egyptians_; 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 even _Moses_ himself 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 the _Devil_ was 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 that _Satan_ saw evidently God had singled them out in a miraculous manner to favour them, and call them _his 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 disobey GOD, 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._ _Dancing_ and _Musick_, 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 Mount _Sinai_, 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 a _Calf_ cast in Gold, or, as some think, in Brass gilded over.

But this was the _Devil_'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 had _Moses_ for their Guide; they had no room to miscarry, but by acting the greatest Absurdities, and committing the greatest Follies in Nature; and even these, the _Devil_ brought them to be guilty of, in a surprising manner: 1. As GOD himself 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 the _Devil_ had brought them to act in 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 the _Devil_ managed 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 murmured _at their Bread_ when they had it; _Our Soul loaths this light Bread._

He sow'd the Seeds of Church-Rebellion in the Sons of _Aaron_, and made _Nadab_ and _Abihu_ offer strange Fire till they were strangely consumed by Fire for the doing it.

He set them a complaining at _Taberah_, and a lusting for Flesh at the first three Days Journey from Mount _Sinai_.

He planted Envy in the Hearts of _Miriam_ and _Aaron_, against the Authority of _Moses_, to pretend GOD had 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 of _Korah_, and the two hundred and fifty Princes, till he brought them to be swallowed up alive.

He put _Moses_ into a Passion at _Meribah_, and ruffled the Temper of the meekest Man upon Earth, by which he made both him and _Aaron_ forfeit their Share of the Promise, and be shut out from the _Holy Land_.

He rais'd a Mutiny among them when they travelled from Mount _Hor_, till they brought fiery Serpents among them to destroy them.

He tried to make _Baalim_ the Prophet curse them, but there the _Devil_ was disappointed: However, he brought the _Midianites_ to debauch them with Women, as in the Case of _Zimri_ and _Cosbi_.

He tempted _Achan_ with the Wedge of Gold, and the _Babylonish_ Garment, 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 the _Benjamites_ to refuse Satisfaction to the People, in the Case of the Wickedness of the Men of _Gibeah_, to the Destruction of the whole Tribe, four hundred Men excepted in the Rock _Rimmon_.

At last he tempted them to reject the Theocracy of their Maker, and call upon _Samuel_ to 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 this _subtil Serpent_, to ruin themselves or the People they had delivered.

He tempted _Gideon_ to make an _Ephod_, contrary to the Law of the Tabernacle, and made the Children of _Israel_ go a whoring (that is, a worshiping) after it.

He tempted _Sampson_ to 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 tempted _Eli_'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 poor _Eli_ to 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 the _Philistines_. And

He tempted _Uzzi_ to reach out his Hand to hold it up; as if he that had preserved it in the House of _Dagon_ the Idol of the _Philistines_, 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 tempted _Saul_ to spare the King of _Amaliek_, contrary to God's express Command.

He not tempted _Saul_ only, 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 tempted _Saul_ with a Spirit of Discontent, and with a Spirit of Envy at poor _David_, to hunt him like a Partridge upon the Mountains.

He tempted _Saul_ with a Spirit of Divination, and sent him to a Witch to enquire of _Samuel_ for 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 if _Self-Murther_ was not half so bad, either for Sin against God, or Disgrace among Men, as being taken Prisoner by _a Philistine_! A Piece of Madness none but the _Devil_ could have brought Mankind to submit to, tho' some Ages after that, he made it a Fashion among the _Romans_.

After _Saul_ was dead, and _David_ came to the Throne, by how much he was a Man chosen and particularly savoured by Heaven, the _Devil_ fell 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 the _Devil_ had made Sport with _David_, to shew how easily he could overthrow the best Man _God_ could choose of the whole Congregation.

He made him distrust his Benefactor so much as to feign himself mad before the King of _Gath_, when he had fled to him for Shelter.

He made him march with his four hundred Cut-throats, to cut off poor _Nabal_, 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, give _Ziba_ half his Master's Estate for his Treachery, after he knew he had been the Traitor, and betray'd poor _Mephibosheth_ for 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 Thing _Joab_ himself was not wicked enough to do, till _David_ and the _Devil_ forc'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 the _Devil_ knew _David_ too 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 of _Murther_ and _Adultery_.

Then, that he might not quite give him over, (tho' _David_'s Repentance for the last Sin kept the _Devil_ off 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 tempted _Ammon_ to ravish his Sister _Tamar_; so, there was an End of her (_poor Girl!_) as to this World, for we never hear any more of her.

Then he tempted _Absalom_ to murther his Brother _Amnon_, in Revenge for _Tamar_'s Maidenhead.

Then he made _Joab_ run _Absalom_ thro' the Body, contrary to _David_'s Command.

And after _David_'s Death he brought _Adonija_ (weak Man!) to the Block, for usurping King _Solomon_'s Throne.

As to _Absalom_, he tempted him to Rebellion, and raising War against his Father, to the turning him shamefully out of _Jerusalem_, and almost out of the Kingdom.

He tempted him, for _David_'s farther Mortification, to lie with his Father's Wives, in the Face of the whole City; and had _Achitophel_'s honest Council been follow'd, he had certainly sent him to Sleep with his Fathers, long before his time--But there _Satan_ and _Achitophel_ were both out-witted together.

Thro' all the Reigns of the several Successors of _David_, the _Devil_ took 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 to GOD, 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, were hurried away, some into _Tartary_, and others into _Babylon_, 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. _James_ and 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 the _Devil_'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 King _Solomon_, 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 greatest _Seraglio_ of 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, as _Pharaoh_'s Daughter, and the Daughters of the Princes and prime Men among the _Moabites_, _Ammonites_, _Zidonians_, _Hittites_, &c. 1 _Kings_ xi. 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 he ensnar'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 this _Arch Devil_ could ever have brought such a Man as _Solomon_ to such a Degeneracy of Manners, and to such Meannesses; no, not the _Devil_ himself, without the Assistance of his Whores, nor the Whores themselves, without the _Devil_ to help them.

As to _Solomon_, _Satan_ had made Conquest enough there, we need hear no more of him; the next Advance he made, was in the Person of his Son _Rehoboam_; had not the _Devil_ prompted 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 the People's Humour to the Occasion: Well might the Text call it _listening to the Council of the young Heads_; that it was indeed with a Vengeance! but those young Heads too were acted by an old _Devil_, who for his Craft is called, as I have observ'd, the _Old Serpent_.

Having thus pav'd the Way, _Jeroboam_ revolts. So far God had directed him; for the Text says expressly, speaking in the first Person of GOD himself, _This Thing is of Me_.

But tho' God might appoint _Jeroboam_ to be King, (that is to say, of ten Tribes,) yet GOD did not appoint him to set up the _two Calves_ in the two extreme Parts of the Land, _viz._ in _Dan_, and in _Bethel_; that was _Jeroboam_'s own doing, and done on purpose to keep the People from falling back to _Rehoboam_, by being obliged to go to _Jerusalem_ to the publick Worship: And the Text adds, _Jeroboam made Israel to sin_. This was indeed a Master-piece of the _Devil_'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 of GOD at _Jerusalem_; 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 of _Satan_; not is it much to the Case: 'Tis certain the _Devil_ found a strange kind of Propensity to worshiping Idols rooted in the Temper of that whole People, even from their first breaking away from the _Egyptian_ Bondage; 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 is _Satan_'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'd _Jeroboam_'s Revolt, we need not trace him among his Successors; for the same Reason of State that held for the setting up the Calves at _Bethel_ and _Dan_, held good for the keeping them up, to all _Jeroboam_'s Posterity; nor had they one good King ever after; even _Jehu_, who call'd his Friends to come and see his _Zeal for the Lord_, and who fulfill'd the Threatnings of God upon _Ahab_ and his Family, and upon Queen _Jezabel_ and her Offspring, and knew all the while that he was executing the Judgment of the true God upon an idolatrous Race; yet he 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 to _Jerusalem_ to worship, so they would at the same Time have transfer'd their civil Obedience to the King of _Judah_, (whose Right it really was, as far as they could claim by Birth and right Line); so that by the way, _Satan_ any more than other Politicians, is not for the _jus divinum_ of 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 of _Jeroboam_, and came and planted themselves among the Tribes of _Judah_ and _Benjamin_: The first thing the Devil did after this, was to foment a War between the two Kings, while _Judah_ was governed by a Boy or Youth, _Abija_ by Name, and he none of the best neither; but God's Time was not come, and the Devil receiv'd a great Disappointment; when _Jeroboam_ was so entirely overthrown; that if the Records of those Ages do not mistake, no less than 500000 Men of _Israel_ were kill'd, such a Slaughter, that one would think the Army of _Judah_, 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 of _Jeroboam_ and 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 rest _Bethel_ it self; and yet so cunningly did _Satan_ manage, that the King of _Judah_, who was himself a wicked King, and perhaps an Idolater in his Heart, did not take down the golden Calf that _Jeroboam_ had there, no nor destroy the Idolatry it self, so that in short, his Victory signified nothing.

From hence to the Captivity, we find the _Devil_ busy with the Kings of _Judah_, especially the best of them; as for such as _Manasseth_, and those who transgress'd by the general Tenor of their Lives, those he had no great trouble with.

But such as _Asa_, _Jehoshaphat_, _Hezekiah_, and _Josiah_, he hung about them and their Courts, till he brought every one of them into some Mischief or another.

As first, good King _Asa_, 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 of _Israel_ came out against him, to send to hire _Benhadad_ the King of _Syria_ to help him; as if GOD who had before enabled him to conquer the _Ethiopians_, 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 tempted _Jehoshaphat_ to join with that wicked King _Ahab_ against the King of _Syria_, and also to marry his Son to _Ahab_'s Daughter, which was fatal to _Jehoshaphat_, and to his Posterity.

_Again_, He tempted _Hezekiah_ to shew all his Riches to the King of _Babylon_'s Messengers; and who can doubt, but that he (_Satan_) is to be understood by the wicked Spirit which stood before the Lord, 2 _Chron._ xviii. 20. and offered his Service to entice _Ahab_ the King of _Israel_ to 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 of _Job_? and indeed it was a Commission fit for no body but the _Devil_: _Thou shalt entice_ him, _and thou shalt_ also _prevail: Go out and do_ even _so_, ver. 21.

Even good _Josiah_ himself, of whom it is recorded, that _like him there was no King before him_, _neither after him arose there any like him_, 2 Kings xxiii. 26. yet the _Devil_ never 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 of _Egypt_, in which he lost his Life.

From the Death of this good King, the _Devil_ prevail'd so with the whole Nation of the _Jews_, and brought them to such an incorrigible Pitch of Wickedness, that _God_ gave 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 the _Jews_, 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 of _Israel_, for the ten Tribes were gone before; but he follow'd them even into their Captivity; those that fled away to _Egypt_, which they tell us were seventy thousand, he first corrupted, and then they were destroyed there upon the Overthrow of _Egypt_, by the same King of _Babylon_.

Also he went very near to have them rooted out, young and old, Man, Woman and Child, who were in Captivity in _Babylon_, by the Ministry of that true Agent of Hell, _Haman_ the _Agagite_; but there _Satan_ met with a Disappointment too, as in the Story of _Hester_, 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 Minister _Haman_ was exalted, as he deserv'd.

Having thus far traced the Government and Dominion of the _Devil_, 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 the _Devil_; for excepting the few _Israelites_ which were left in the Territories of the King of _Babylon_, 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 of _Moloch_, and such a bloody cutting themselves with Knives, as the Priests of _Baal_ did, could not be a GOD, 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 the _Devil_ could 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.

We come therefore to the Restoration or Return of the Captivity: Had _Satan_ been able to have acted any thing by Force, _as I have observ'd before_, all the Princes and Powers of the World, having been, as they really were, at his Devotion, he might easily have made use of them, arm'd all the World against the _Jews_, and prevented the Rebuilding the Temple, and even the Return of the Captivity.

But now the _Devil_'s Power manifestly received a Check, and the Hand of God appear'd in it, and that he was resolv'd to reestablish his People the _Jews_, and to have a second Temple built: the _Devil_, who knew the Extent of his own Power too well, and what Limitations were laid upon him, stood still as it were looking on, and not daring to oppose the Return of the Captivity, which he very well knew had been prophesied, and would come to pass.

He did indeed make some little Opposition to the Building, and to the fortifying the City, but as it was to no Purpose, so he was soon oblig'd to give it over; and thus the Captivity being return'd, and the Temple rebuilt, the People of the _Jews_ encreased and multiplied to an infinite Number and Strength; and from this Time we may say, the Power of the _Devil_ rather declin'd and decreas'd, than went on with Success, as it had done before; It is true the _Jews_ fell into Sects and Errors, and Divisions of many Kinds, after the Return from the Captivity, and no doubt the _Devil_ had a great Hand in those Divisions; but he could never bring them back to Idolatry, and his not being able to do that, made him turn his Hand so many Ways to plague and oppress them; as particularly by _Antiochus_ the Great, who brought the Abomination of Desolation into the holy Place; and there the Devil triumph'd over them for some Time; but they were deliver'd many Ways, till at last they came peaceably under the Protection rather than the Dominion of the _Roman_ Empire: When _Herod_ the Great govern'd them as a King, and reedified, nay almost rebuilt their Temple, with so great an Expence and Magnificence, that he made it, as some say, greater and more glorious than that of _Solomon_'s, tho' that I take to be a great ---- Fable, to say no worse of it.

In this Condition the _Jewish_ Church stood, when the Fullness of Time, as 'tis call'd in Scripture, was come; and the _Devil_ was kept at Bay, tho' he had made some Encroachments upon them as above; for there was a glorious Remnant of Saints among _them_, such as old _Zacharias_ the Father of _John_ the Baptist, and old _Simeon_, who waited for the Salvation of _Israel_; I say, in this Condition the _Jewish_ Church stood when the _Messiah_ came into the World, which was such another mortal Stab to the Thrones and Principalities infernal, as that of which I have spoken already in Chap. III. at the Creation of Man; and therefore with this I break off the Antiquities of the _Devil_'s History, or the antient Part of his Kingdom; for from hence downward we shall find his Empire has declin'd gradually; and tho' by his wonderful Address, his prodigious Application, and the Vigilance and Fidelity of his Instruments, as well human as infernal and diabolical, and of the Human as well the Ecclesiastick as the Secular; he has many Times retriev'd what he has lost, and sometimes bid fair for recovering the universal Empire he once possess'd over Mankind; yet he has been still defeated again, repulst and beaten back, and his Kingdom has greatly declin'd in many Parts of the World; and especially in the Northern Parts, except _Great Britain_; and how he has politically maintain'd his Interest and encreased his Dominion among the wise and righteous Generation that we cohabit with and among, will be the Subject of the _modern_ Part of _Satan_'s _History_, and of which we are next to give an Account.