3 books to know The Devil. Джон Мильтон

Чтение книги онлайн.

      THE STORY OF NOAH, his building the ark, his embarking himself and all nature’s stock for a new world on board it, the long voyage they took, and the bad weather they met with, though it would embellish this work very well, and come in very much to the purpose in this place; yet as it does not belong to the Devil’s story, for I cannot prove what some suggest; namely, that he was in the ark among the rest; I say, for that reason I must omit it.

      And now having mentioned Satan’s being in the ark; as I say, I cannot prove it, so there are, I think, some good reasons to believe he was not there: first, I know no business he had there; secondly, we read of no mischief done there; and these joined together make me conclude he was absent; the last I chiefly insist upon, that we read of no mischief done there; which, if he had been in the ark, would certainly have happened; and therefore I suppose rather, that when he saw his kingdom dissolved, his subjects all ingulfed in an inevitable ruin and desolation, a sight suitable enough to him, except as it might unking him for a time: I say, when he saw this, he took care to speed himself away as well as he could, and make his retreat to a place of safety; where that was, is no more difficult to us, than it was to him.

      It is suggested, that as he is prince of the power of the air, he retired only into that region. It is most rational to suppose he went no farther on many accounts, of which I shall speak by-and-by. Here he staid hovering in the earth’s atmosphere, as he has often done since, and perhaps now does; or, if the atmosphere of this globe was affected by the indraught of the absorption, as some think, then he kept himself upon the watch, to see what the event of the new phenomenon would be; and this watch, wherever it was, I doubt not, was as near the earth as he could place himself, perhaps in the atmosphere of the meon; or, in a word, the next place of retreat he could find.

      From hence I took upon me to insist, that Satan has riot a more certain knowledge of events than we; I say, he has not a more certain knowledge; that he may be able to make stronger conjectures, and more rational conclusions from that he sees, I will not deny; and that which he most outdoes us in is, that he sees more to conclude from than we can; but I am satisfied he knows nothing of futurity more than we can see by observation and inference; nor, for example, did he know whether God would re-people the world any more or no.

      I must therefore allow, that he only waited to see what would be the event of this strange eruption of water; and what God proposed to do with the ark, and all that was in it.

      Some philosophers tell us, besides what I hinted above, that the Devil could have no retreat in the earth’s atmosphere; for that the air being wholly condensed into water, and having continually poured down its streams to deluge the earth, that body was become so small, and had suffered such convulsions, that there was but just enough air left to surround the water, or as might serve by its pressure to preserve the natural position of things, and supply the creatures in the ark with a part to breathe in.

      The atmosphere indeed might suffer some strange and unnatural motions at that time, but not (I believe) to that degree; however, I will not affirm, that there could be room in it, or is now, for the Devil, much less for all the numberless legions of Satan’s host; but there was, and now certainly is, sufficient space to receive him, and a sufficient body of his troops for the business he had for them at that time, and that is enough to the purpose; or if the earth’s atmosphere did suffer any particular convulsion on that occasion, he might make his retreat to the atmosphere of the rnoon, or of Mars, or of Venus, or of any of the other planets; or to any other place; for he that, is prince of the air could not want retreats in such a case, from whence he might watch for the issue of things; certainly he did not go far, because his business lay here, and he never goes out of his way of doing mischief.

      In particular, his more than ordinary concern was, to see what would become of the ark. He was wise enough, doubtless, to see, that God. who had directed its making, nay, even the very structure of it, would certainly take care of it, preserve it upon the water, and bring it to some place of safety or other; though where it should be, the Devil with all his cunning could not resolve, whether on the same surface, the waters drawing off, or in any other created, or to be created place; and this state of uncertainty beirf evidently his case, and which proves his ignorance of futurity, it was his business, I say, to watch with the utmost vigilance for the event.

      If the ark was, (as Mr. Burnet thinks,) guided by two angels, they not only held it from foundering, or being swallowed up, in the water, but certainly kept the waters calm about it, especially when the Lord brought a strong wind to blow over the whole globe, which, by the way, was the firsthand, I suppose, the only universal storm that ever blew; for to be sure, it blew over the whole surface at once; I say, if it was thus guided, to be sure the Devil saw it, and that with envy and regret, that he could do it no injury; for, doubtless, had it been in the Devil’s power, as God had drowned the whole race of man, except what was in the ark, he would have taken care to have despatched them too, and so made an end of the creation at once; but either he was not empowered to go to the ark, or it was so well guarded by angels, that when he came near it, he could do it no harm: so it rested at length, the waters abating, on the mountains of Ararat in Armenia, or somewhere else that way, and where they say a piece of the keel is remaining to this day; of which, however, with Dr. — — I say, I believe not one word.

      The ark being safe landed, it is reasonable to believe Noah prepared to go on shore, as the seamen call it, as soon as the dry land began to appear; and here you must allow me to suppose Satan, though himself clothed with a cloud, so as not to be seen, came immediately, and, perching on the roof, saw all the heaven-kept household safely landed, and all the host of living creatures dispersing themselves down the sides of the mountains, as the search of their food, or other proper occasions, directed them.

      This sight was enough; Satan was at no loss to conclude from hence, that the design of God was to repeople the world by the way of ordinary generation, from the posterity of these eight persons, without creating any new species.

      Very well, says the Devil; then my advantage over them, by the snare I laid for poor Eve, is good still; and I am now just where I was after Adam’s expulsion from the garden, and when I had Cain, and his race, to go to work with; for here is the old expunged corrupted race still: as Cain was the object then, so Noah is my man now; and if I do not master him one way or another, I am mistaken in my mark. Pardon, me for making a speech for the Devil.

      Noah, big with a sense of his late condition, and while the wonders of the deluge were fresh in his mind, spent his first days in the ecstasies of his soul, giving thanks, and praising the power that had been his protection in and through the flood of waters, and which had in so miraculous a manner safely la-nded him on the surface of the newly discovered land; and the text tells us, as one of the first things he was em ployed in, he built an altar unto СКАЧАТЬ