3 books to know The Devil. Джон Мильтон

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      Upon this discovery, I say, they found it infinitely more for the interest of Satan’s infernal kingdom, to go another way to work with mankind, and see if it were possible, by the strength of their infernal wit and counsels, to lay some snare for him, and by some stratagem to bring him to eternal ruin and misery.

      This being then approved as their only method, (and the Devil showed he was no fool in the choice,) he next resolved, that there was no time to be lost; that it was to be set about immediately, before the race was multiplied, and by that means the work be not made greater only, but perhaps the more difficult too. Accordingly the diligent Devil went instantly about it, agreeably to all the story of Eve and the serpent, as before; the belief of which, whether historically or allegorically, is not at all obstructed by this hypothesis.

      I do not affirm that this was the case at first, because being not present in that black divan, at least not that I know of, (for who knows where he was, or was not, in his preexistent state?) I cannot be positive in the resolve that passed there; but except for some very little contradiction, which we find in the sacred writings, I should, I confess, incline to believe it historically; and I shall speak of those things which I call contradictions to it more largely hereafter.

      In the mean time, be it one way or other, that is to say, either that Satan had no power to have proceeded with man by violence, and to have destroyed him as soon as he was made; or that he had the power, but chose rather to proceed by other methods to deceive and debauoh him; I say, be it which you please, I am still of the opinion, that it really was not the Devil’s business to destroy the species; that it would have been nothing to the purpose, and no advantage at all to him, if he had done it; for that, as above, God could immediately have created another species to the same end, whom he either could have made invulnerable, and not subject to the Devil’s power, or removed him out of Satan’s reach; placed him out of the Devil’s ken, in heaven, or some other place, where the Devil could not come to hurt him; and that, therefore, it is infinitely more his advantage, and more suited to his real design of defeating the end of man’s creation, to debauch him, and make a devil of him, that he may be rejected like himself, and increase the infernal kingdom and company in the lake of misery, in ceternum.

      It may be true, for aught I know, that Satan has not the power of destruction put into his hand, and that he cannot take away the life of a man: and it seems probable to be so, from the story of Satan and Job, when Satan appeared among the sons of God, as the text says, (Job i. 6.) Now when God gave such a character of Job to him, and asked him if he had considered his servant Job, (verse 8,) why did not the Devil go immediately and exert his malice against the good man at once, to let his Maker see what would become of his servant Job in his distress? On the contrary, we see he only answers by showing the reason of Job’s good behavior; that it was but common gratitude for the blessing and protection he enjoyed, (verse 10,) and pleading that if his estate was taken away, and he was exposed as he (Satan) was, to be a beggar and a vagabond, going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down therein, he should be a very devil too like himself, and curse God to his face.

      Upon this, the text says that God answered, (verse 11,) “ Behold, all that he hath is in thy power.” Now it is plain here, that God gave up Job’s wealth and estate, nay, his family, and the lives of his children and servants, into the Devil’s power; and accordingly, like a true merciless devil, as he is, he destroyed them all; he moved the Sabeans to fall upon the oxen arid the asses, and carry them off; he moved the Chaldeans to fall upon the camels and the servants, to carry off the first, and murder the last; he made lightning flash upon the poor sheep, and kill them all; and he blowed his house down upon his poor children, and buried them all in the ruins.

      Now here is a specimen of Satan’s good will to mankind, and what havoc the Devil would make in the world, if he might; and here is a testimony too, that he could not do this without leave; so that I cannot but be of the opinion he has some limitations, some bounds set to his natural fury; a certain number of links in his chain, which he cannot exceed, or, in a word, that he cannot go a foot beyond his tether.

      The same kind of evidence we have in the gospel, (Matt. viii. 31,) where Satan could not so much as possess the filthiest and meanest of all creatures, the swine, till he had asked leave; and that still, to show his good will, as soon as he had gotten leave, he hurried them all into the sea, and choked them; these, I say, are some of the reasons why I am not willing to say, the Devil is not restrained in power. But, on the other side, we are told of so many mischievous things the Devil has done in the world, by virtue of his dominion over the elements, and by other testimonies of his power, that I do not know what to think of it; though, upon the whole, the first is the safest opinion; for if we should believe the last, we might, for aught I know, be brought, like the American Indians, to worship him at last, that he may do us no harm.

      And now I have named the Indians in America, I confess it would go a great way in favor of Satan’s generosity, as well as in testimony of his power, if we might believe all the accounts which indeed authors are pretty well agreed in the truth of; namely, of the mischiefs the Devil does in those countries, where his dominion seems to be established; how he uses them when they deny him the homage he claims of them as his due; what havoc and combustion he makes among them; and how beneficent he is (or at least negative in his mischiefs) when they appease him by their hellish sacrifices.

      Likewise we see a test of his wicked subtilty in his management of those dark nations, when he was more immediately worshipped by them; namely, the making them believe, that all their good weather, rains, dews, and kind influences upon the earth, to make it fruitful, were from him; whereas they really were the common blessings of an higher hand, and came not from him, (the Devil,) but from him that made the Devil, and made him a devil, or a fallen angel, by his curse.

      But to go back to the method the Devil took with the first of mankind; it is plain the policy of hell was right, though the execution of the resolves they took did not fully answer their end neither: for Satan, fastening upon poor, proud, ridiculous Mother Eve, as I have said before, made presently a true judgment of her capacities, and of her temper; took her by the right handle, and, soothing her vanity, (which is, to this day. the softest place in the head of all the sex,) wheedled her out of her senses by praising her beauty, and promising to made her a goddess.

      The foolish woman yielded presently, and that we are told is the reason why the same method so strangely takes with all her posterity; namely, that you are sure to prevail with them, if you can but once persuade them that you believe they are witty and handsome; for the Devil, you may observe, never quits any hold he gets; and, having once found a way into the heart, always takes care to keep the door open, that any of his agents may enter after him without any more difficulty: hence the same argument, especially the last, has so bewitching an influence on the sex, that they rarely deny you anything, after they are but weak enough, and vain enough, to accept of the praises you offer them on that head: on the other hand, you are sure they never forgive you the unpardonable crime of saying they are ugly or disagreeable. It is suggested, that the first method the Devil took to insinuate all those fine things into Eve’s giddy head was by creeping close to her one night, when she was asleep, and laying his mouth to her ear, whispering all the fine things to her, which he knew would set her fancy on tip-toe, and so make her receive them involuntarily into her mind; knowing well enough, that when she had formed such ideas in her soul, however they came there, she would never be quiet till she had worked them up to some extraordinary thing or other.

      It was evident what the Devil aimed at, namely, that she should break in upon the command of God, and so, having corrupted herself, bring the curse upon herself and all the race, as God. had threatened: but why the pride of Eve should be so easily tickled by the notion of her exquisite beauty, when there then was no prospect of the use or want of those charms, that indeed makes a kind of difficulty here, which the learned have not determined. For,

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