But then, what comes of the long and bloody War that Mr. Milton gives such a full and particular account of, and the terrible Battles in Heaven between Michael with the royal Army of Angels on one hand, and Satan with his rebel Host on the other; in which he supposes the numbers and strength to be pretty near equal? but at length brings in the Devil’s Army, upon doubling their rage and bringing new engines of war into the field, putting Michael and all the faithful Army to the worst; and, in a word, defeats them? For tho’ they were not put to a plain flight, in which case he must, at least, have given an account of two or three thousand millions of Angels cut in pieces and wounded, yet he allows them to give over the fight, and make a kind of retreat; so making way for the compleat victory of the Son of God: Now this is all invention, or at least, a borrow’d thought from the old Poets, and the Fight of the Giants against Jupiter, so nobly design’d by Ovid, almost two thousand years ago; and there ’twas well enough; but whether Poetic Fancy should be allow’d to fable upon Heaven, or no, and upon the King of Heaven too, that I leave to the Sages.
By this expulsion of the Devils, it is allow’d by most Authors, they are, ipso facto, stript of the Rectitude and Holiness of their Nature, which was their Beauty and Perfection; and being ingulph’d in the abyss of irrecoverable ruin, ’tis no matter where, from that very time they lost their Angelic beautiful Form, commenc’d ugly frightful Monsters and Devils, and became evil doers, as well as evil Spirits; fill’d with a horrid malignity and enmity against their Maker, and arm’d with a hellish resolution to shew and exert it on all occasions; retaining however their exalted spirituous Nature, and having a vast extensive power of Action, all which they can exert in nothing else but doing evil, for they are entirely divested of either Power or will to do good; and even in doing evil, they are under restraints and limitations of a superior Power, which it is their Torment, and, perhaps, a great part of their Hell that they cannot break thro’.
Chap. VI.
What became of the Devil and his Host of fallen Spirits after their being expell’d from Heaven, and his wandring condition till the Creation; with some more of Mr. Milton’s absurdities on that subject.
Having thus brought the Devil and his innumerable Legions to the edge of the Bottomless-pit, it remains, before I bring them to action, that some enquiry should be made into the posture of their affairs immediately after their precipitate Fall, and into the place of their immediate Residence; for this will appear to be very necessary to Satan’s History, and indeed, so as that without it, all the farther account we have to give of him, will be inconsistent and imperfect.
And first, I take upon me to lay down some Fundamentals, which I believe I shall be able to make out Historically, tho’, perhaps, not so Geographically as some have pretended to do.
1. That Satan was not immediately, nor is yet lock’d down into the Abyss of a local Hell, such as is supposed by some, and such as he shall be at last; or that,
2. If he was, he has certain liberties allowed him for excursions into the Regions of this Air, and certain spheres of action, in which he can, and does move, to do, like a very Devil as he is, all the mischief he can, and of which we see so many examples both about us and in us; in the inquiry after which, I shall take occasion to examine whether the Devil is not in most of us, sometimes, if not in all of us one time or other.
3. That Satan has no particular residence in this Globe or Earth where we live; that he rambles about among us, and marches over and over our whole country, he and his Devils in Camps volant; but that he pitches his grand Army or chief Encampment in our Adjacencies or Frontiers, which the Philosophers call Atmosphere; and whence he is call’d the Prince of the Power of that Element or part of the World we call Air; from whence he sends out his Spies, his Agents and Emissaries, to get intelligence, and to carry his Commissions to his trusty and well beloved Cousins and Counsellors on Earth, by which his business is done, and his affairs carried on in the World.
Here, again, I meet Mr. Milton full in my face, who will have it, that the Devil, immediately at his expulsion, roll’d down directly into a Hell proper and local; nay, he measures the very distance, at least gives the length of the journey by the time they were passing or falling, which, he says, was nine days; a good Poetical flight, but neither founded on Scripture or Philosophy; he might every jot as well have brought Hell up to the Walls of Heaven, advanc’d to receive them, or he ought to have consider’d the space which is to be allow’d to any locality, let him take what part of infinite distance between Heaven and a created Hell he pleases.
But let that be as Mr. Milton’s extraordinary genius pleases to place it; the passage, it seems, is just nine days betwixt Heaven and Hell; well might Dives then see father Abraham, and talk to him too; but then the great Gulph which Abraham tells him was fix’d between them, does not seem to be so large, as according to Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Halley, Mr. Whiston, and the rest of our Men of Science, we take it to be.
But suppose the passage to be nine Days, according to Mr. Milton, what follow’d? why Hell gap’d wide, open’d its frightful mouth, and received them all at once; millions and thousands of millions as they were, it received them all at a gulp, as we call it, they had no difficulty to go in, no, none at all.
Facilis desensus averni, sed revocare gradum
Hoc opus hic labor est.—— Virg.
All this, as Poetical, we may receive, but not at all as Historical; for then come difficulties insuperable in our way, some of which may be as follow: (1.) Hell is here supposed to be a place; nay a place created for the punishment of Angels and Men, and likewise created long before those had fallen, or these had Being; this makes me say, Mr. Milton was a good Poet, but a bad Historian: Tophet was prepar’d of old, indeed, but it was for the King, that is to say, it was prepar’d for those whose lot it should be to come there; but this does not at all suppose it was prepar’d before it was resolv’d whether there should be subjects for it, or no; else we must suppose both Men and Angels were made by the glorious and upright Maker of all things, on purpose for destruction, which would be incongruous and absurd.
But there is worse yet to come; in the next place he adds, that Hell having receiv’d them, clos’d upon them; that is to say, took them in, clos’d or shut its Mouth; and in a word, they were lock’d in, as it was said in another place, they were lock’d in, and the Key is carry’d up to Heaven and kept there; for we know the Angel came down from Heaven, having the Key of the Bottomless-pit; but first, see Mr. Milton.
‘Nine days they fell, confounded chaos roar’d
‘And felt ten-fold confusion in their fall:
‘——Hell at last
‘Yawning receiv’d them all, and on them clos’d;
‘Down from the verge of Heaven, eternal wrath
‘Burnt after them ——
‘Unquenchable.
This Scheme is certainly deficient, if not absurd, and I think is more so than any other he has laid; ’tis evident, neither Satan or his Host of Devils are, no not any of them, yet, even now, confin’d in the eternal Prison, where the Scripture says, he shall be reserved in chains of darkness.