THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL (The Political and the Religious Aspects - Devil's Role in the History of Civilization). Даниэль Дефо

but by a general Destruction to sweep them away, clear the Earth of them, and put an End to the Wickedness at once, removing the Offence and the Offenders all together; this is signify’d at large, Gen. vi. 5. God saw that the Wickedness of Man was great in the Earth, and that every Imagination of the Thoughts of his Heart was only evil continually. And again ℣ 11, 12. The Earth also was corrupt before God; and the Earth was fill’d with Violence. And God look’d upon the Earth and behold it was corrupt; for all Flesh had corrupted his Way upon the Earth.

      It must be confess’d it was a strange Conquest the Devil had made in the Antediluvian World, that he had, as I may say, brought the whole Race of Mankind into a general Revolt from God; Noah was indeed a Preacher of Righteousness, and he had preach’d about 500 Years to as little Purpose as most of the good Ministers ever did; for we do not read there was one Man converted by him, or at least not one of them left, for that at the Deluge there was either none of them alive, or none spar’d but Noah and his three Sons, and their Wives; and even they are (’tis evident) recorded, not so much to be sav’d for their own Goodness, but because they were his Sons; Nay, without Breach of Charity we may conclude, that at least one went to the Devil even of those three, namely, Ham or Cham for triumphing in a brutal Manner over his Father’s Drunkenness; for we find the Special Curse reach’d to him and his Posterity for many Ages; and whether it went no farther than the present State of Life with them, we cannot tell.

      We will suppose now that thro’ this whole 1500 Years the Devil having so effectually debauch’d Mankind, had advanc’d his infernal Kingdom to a prodigious Height; for the Text says, the whole Earth was fill’d with violence; in a Word, Blood, Murder, Rape, Robbery, Oppression and Injustice prevail’d every where, and Man, like the wild Bear in the Forest, liv’d by Prey, biting and devouring one another.

      At this Time Noah begins to preach a new Doctrine to them, for as he had before been a Preacher of Righteousness, now he becomes a Preacher of Vengeance; first he tells them they shall be all overwhelm’d with a Deluge, that for their Sins God repented they were made, and that he would destroy them all, adding, that to prevent the Ruin of himself and Family, he resolv’d to build him a Ship to have recourse to when the Water should come over the Rest of the World.

      What Jesting, what Scorn, what Contempt did this Work expose the good old Man to for above a 100 Years? for so long the Work was building, as antient Authors say; let us represent to our selves in the most lively Manner how the witty World at that Time behav’d to poor old Noah; how they took their Evening Walks to see what he was doing, and passed their Judgment upon it, and upon the Progress of it; I say, to represent this to our selves, we need go no farther than to our own Witicisms upon Religion, and upon the most solemn Mysteries of Divine Worship; how we damn the Serious for Enthusiasts, think the Grave mad, and the Sober melancholy; call Religion it self Flatus and Hyppo; make the Devout ignorant, the Divine mercenary, and the whole Scheme of Divinity a Frame of Priestcraft; and thus no doubt the building an Ark or Boat, or whatever they call’d it, to float over the Mountains, and dance over the Plains, what could it be but a religious Frenzy, and the Man that so busied himself, a Lunatick? and all this in an Age when divine Things came by immediate Revelation into the Minds of Men! the Devil must therefore have made a strange Conquest upon Mankind to obliterate all the Reverence, which but a little before was so strangely impress’d upon them concerning their Maker.

      This was certainly the Height of the Devil’s Kingdom, and we shall never find him arrive to such a Pitch again; he was then truly and literally the universal Monarch, nay the God of this World; and as all Tyrants do, he governs them with an arbitrary absolute sway; and had not God thought fit to give him a Writ of Ejectment, and afterwards drown him out of Possession I know not what would have been the Case, he might have kept his Hold for ought I know till the Seed of the Woman came to bruise his Head, that is to say, cripple his Government, Dethrone him and Depose his Power, as has been fulfill’d in the Messiah.

      But as he was, I say, drown’d out of the World, his Kingdom for the present was at an End; at least, if he had a Dominion he had no Subjects, and as the Creation was in a Manner renewed, so the Devil had all his Work to do over again: Unhappy Man! how has he, by his weak Resistance, made the Devil, recovering his Hold too easy to him, and given him all the Advantages, except as before excepted, which he had before? Now whether he retired in the mean Time, and how he got footing again after Noah and his Family were landed upon the New Surface, that we come next to enquire.