The apparent universalism of Communism has become, in last analysis, a mystification. The explanation for this reluctance lies, in my view, in the enduring mythologies of anti-Fascism, including those related to the Spanish Civil War, Communist participation in the resistance movements, and a failure to admit that Nazism was not the offspring but the entranced enemy of liberal capitalism. The party as the incarnation of historical rationality, with the revolutionary avant-garde elected to lead the otherwise lethargic masses into the Communist paradise, was the hallmark of the Leninist intervention in the political praxis of the twentieth century.
Without the party, there would be no Bolshevik revolution and no gulag, one can say. The myth of the party, more than the myth of the leader, explains the longevity and endurance of the Leninist project. The other side, the Fascists, while invoking the commands of historical providence, invested the ultimate center of power less in the institution than in the infallible "genius" of the leader.
The party mattered, but there was never the same type of institutional charismatic magnet that Leninist formations represented, particularly in the case of Nazi Germany. In Italy proper the party disintegrated, while in the Salo Republic the part of the country under German control Mussolini simply became a puppet in Hitler's hands. Mussolini had lost the ability to perform the role of "of a modern propheta who offered his followers a new 'mazeway' world-view to redeem the nation from chaos and lead it into a new era, one that drew on a mythicized past to regenerate the future.
Ian Kershaw remarked that his personality cult, as the nexus of "the social expectations and motivations invested in him by his followers," rather experienced a "slow deflation rather than the swift puncture. A note should be made here regarding the possible difference between Italian Fascism and Nazism. Leaving aside its all-out religious aspects, Lenin's cult took the form of a myth of the founding father as the infinite source of ideological rebirth and sustenance for the Communist polity.
And indeed the return to "true Leninist principles" repeatedly brought relief for the Soviet regime. The perpetuation and domination of a Khrushchevite understanding of post-Stalinist Communist systems allowed for the invocation of Lenin the leader without sin, to paraphrase Kershaw as safeguard of the original utopia, regardless of the latter's terrible toll on the societies that enacted it. Only the consistent failure of such ideological, cultic revivals finally showed the obsolescence of the "Lenin myth," which ultimately crumbled under its violent legacy.
In Gentile's words, "It was created out of the collective experience of a movement that considered itself invested with a missionary charisma of its own, one that was in fact not, in its beginnings, identified with Mussolini. The Mussolini myth came into being within the environment of the Fascist religion once the latter had been institutionalized.
An Italian jurist contemporary to those times formulated the problem as follows: "If the new state is to become a permanent way of being, that is a 'life-system,' it cannot do without the role of the Leader because of its hierarchical structure, even if this Leader does not have the extraordinary magnitude of the Man who promoted the revolution in the first place.
You should have no other example in life except him. In fact, the struggle between Stalin and his arch-rival Trotsky revolved around the crucial question, Who can legitimately claim to be "today's Lenin"? The primary form of charisma, in the Soviet case, was that of the party as scientific socialism incarnate, the eschatological agent that stressed "the gap between the proletariat 'in itself' and the proletariat 'for itself' and the creation of an agent charged with closing this gap.
Under Stalinism, "the fact that the party existed as a continuous, integrated hierarchy, which was institutionally and ideologically embedded in the system, meant that it always existed as a resource for correcting and reining in the regime's most extreme policies.
The institutional continuity of the party provided the basis for self-containment. One possible explanation for the immensely explosive impact of Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" February was, besides the classical remark about the acceptance of fallibility in the implementation of the party line at the highest level of power, that the revealed crimes were against the party. The Stalin myth irreversibly subverted the party's "charismatic impersonalism" in the words of Ken Jowitt.
The bottom line is, for the moment, that both Fascism in its Italian avatar and Leninism had the possibility of charismatic regeneration built in regardless of the leadership's persona.
What counted for true believers was the salvific promise incarnated in the party-the source of freedom through successful experimentation with history. However, in the Italian case, such a revival of the party after Mussolini's demise proved impossible because of the disastrous situation in which the country found itself as a result of the National Fascist Party's shockingly incompetent administration of the war effort.
Historian R. Bosworth noticed that even during the Salo Republic, "the new regime carefully avoided the word 'Fascist,' opting instead for 'social' as a signal of its revolutionary commitment to a 'new order' at home and abroad.
There was a major distinction between Communism and Fascism in identifying the place of charisma: Leninists worshipped the party and the leader as the guarantor of the correct party line , whereas Fascists lionized the magnetic personality of a presumably infallible leader. This explains the enduring fascination with Communism among individuals who continued to believe in its promise of a new society and of social, economic, cultural, and political transformation, even after Khrushchev exposed Stalin's abominable crimes.
A lingering sentiment that there was after all something moral in Bolshevik utopianism, plus the exploitation of anti-Fascist emotions, led to a persistent failure to acknowledge the basic fact that, from its inception, Sovietism was a criminal system. Simply put, to document and condemn the bestiality of the Nazis was acceptable, but to focus on analogous atrocities perpetrated by the radical Left appeared as primitive anti-Communism. Albert Camus once summarized the moral perplexity provoked by such a consistent barrage of ideologically motivated prejudice: "When I demand justice, I seem to be asking for hate.
The Soviet bloc's efforts to create the City of God here and now, the search for the perfect society, turned out to be an abysmal disaster. The record sheet of these regimes was one of absolute failure, economically, politically, and morally. It is high time for their victims to be remembered. Norman Naimark has formulated a priority for historical scholarship: "In the final analysis, both totalitarianstates-Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia-were perpetrators of genocide, the 'crime of crimes.
The crucial issue of intentionality and criminal culpability in the Soviet case can only be settled definitively with full access to Russian archives and to thoseresponsible, who stillsurvive.
In each of these cases one can see how the persistence of the will to sacrifice entire sections of society on the altar of the political myth materialized in a large-scale commitment to violence. The comparative evaluation and memory of Communism and Fascism were undeniably marked, mediated, and instrumentalized by the tradition of anti-Fascism in the West. At the root of this fundamental intellectual and public ethos lay a flawed and guilty interpretation of the Communist past.
The latter was defined, on the one hand, by silence, partiality, or ignorance regarding the crimes and dictatorship of Leninist party-states, and on the other hand, by the difficulty of separating anti-Fascism from the imperialist propaganda of the Soviet Union during the twentieth century or China, and their various satellites. The case of the Spanish Civil War remains paradigmatic for the entire history of anti-Fascism.
In Furet's words, "In the hour of the Great Terror, Bolshevism reinvented itself as liberty by virtue of a negation. Subsequently, anti-Fascism was put in the situation of always turning out to be a mere rhetoric of democracy and freedom. It harbored "existential untruths" to use Diner's term , which it consistently failed to address because of its unflinching dedication to the Communist i.
Anti-Fascism therefore acquired a split personality: "It encompassed the totalitarian satraps of Eastern Europe as well as the political cosmos of the Western European Left from well into the s.
This anti-Fascist monopoly over the past "afflicted the very past itself. The anti-Fascist promise failed because of its umbilical connection to the Moscow center. It is difficult, therefore, to agree with historian Geoff Eley, who stated that the moment of anti-Fascist unity lost out because of "the sharpening tensions between the Soviet Union and United States It failed because it accepted the same contract of silence, the one it endorsed during the Great Terror, regarding the Zhdanovist offensive and the already sweeping Sovietization of some Eastern European countries for example, the extermination camps and mass executions in Bulgaria between and Of the station Satan had in Heaven before he fell; the nature and original of his crime, and some of Mr.
Thus far I have gone upon general observation, in this great affair of Satan and his Empire in the World; I now come to my Title , and shall enter upon the historical part, as the main work before me. Son of the Morning! But what to me is more wonderful, and which, I think, will be very ill accounted for, is, how came seeds of crime to rise in the Angelic Nature? If you will bear with a poetic excursion upon the subject, not to solve but to illustrate the difficulty; take it in a few lines, thus,.
How didst thou pass the Adamantine Gate; And into Spirit thy self insinuate? From what dark state? From what strange uncreated race? Where was thy ancient habitation found Before void Chaos heard the forming sound? And how at first didst thou come there? Sure there was once a time when thou wert not, By whom wast thou created? How then did first defilement enter in? Ambition, thou first vital seed of Sin! In what bright form didst thou appear? In what Seraphic Orb didst thou arise?
Surely that place admits of no disguise, Eternal Sight must know thee there, And being known, thou soon must disappear. But since the fatal Truth we know, Without the matter whence or manner how: Thou high superlative of Sin, Tell us thy nature, where thou didst begin?
Ugly as is the crime, for which he fell, Fitted by thee to make a local Hell, For such must be the place where either of you dwell.
Upon this foot Mr. Milton , to grace his Poem, and give room for his Towring Fancy, has gone a length beyond all that ever went before him, since Ovid in his Metamorphosis.
He has indeed complimented God Almighty with a flux of lofty words, and great sounds; and has made a very fine Story of the Devil , but he has made a meer je ne scay Quoi of Jesus Christ.
In one line he has him riding on a Cherub , and in another sitting on a Throne, both in the very same moment of action. Besides, he makes Christ himself distinguish them, as in two several Bands, and of differing Persons and Species, as to be sure they are.
Stand still in bright array, ye Saints ——— —— ——— ———— ———— Here stand, Ye Angels. Then in embattling his Legions, he places the Saints here, and the Angels there, as if one were the main Battle of Infantry, and the other the Wings of Cavalry. But who are those Saints? Saint Abel was certainly the Proto-Saint of all that ever were seen in Heaven , as well as the Proto-martyr of all that have been upon Earth.
Just such another Mistake, not to call it a Blunder, he makes about Hell ; which he not only makes local , but gives it a being before the Fall of the Angels ; and brings it in opening its mouth to receive them.
Thus a Painter may make a fine piece of Work, the fancy may be good, the strokes masterly, and the beauty of the Workmanship inimitably curious and fine, and yet have some unpardonable improprieties which marr the whole Work. As this is an unpardonable error in Sculpture or Limning, it must be much more so in Poetry, where the Images must have no improprieties, much less inconsistencies.
In a word, Mr. Milton has indeed made a fine Poem, but it is the Devil of a History. I can easily allow Mr. Nay, I will allow Mr. Milton , if you please, to set the Angels a dancing in Heaven , lib. But I cannot allow him to make their Musick in Hell to be harmonious and charming as he does; such Images being incongruous, and indeed shocking to Nature. But we shall find so many more of these things in Mr.
Milton , that really taking notice of them all, would carry me quite out of my way, I being at this time not writing the History of Mr. Milton , but of the Devil : besides, [Pg 72] Mr. Milton is such a celebrated Man, that who but he that can write the History of the Devil dare meddle with him? But to come back to the business. Nor has Mr. Milton said one word to solve the main difficulty viz. But all this he passes over, and hurrying up that part in two or three words, only tells us,.
His pride! How did it consist, that Pride and perfect Holiness should meet in the same Person? Here we must bid Mr. Milton good night; for, in plain terms, he is in the dark about it, and so we are all; and the most that can be said, is, that we know the fact is so, but nothing of the nature or reason of it.
Milton , or must set aside part of the sacred Text, in such a manner, as will assist some people to set it all aside. The words are quoted already, page This is, indeed, too gross; at this meeting he makes God declare the Son to be that day begotten , as before; had he made him not begotten that day, but declared General that day, it would be reconcileable with Scripture and with sense; for either the begetting is meant of ordaining to an office, or else the eternal Generation falls to the ground; and if it was to the office Mediator then Mr.
But to leave Mr. Milton to his flights, I agree with him in this part, viz. 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? 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.
Here, again, I meet Mr. But let that be as Mr. 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. Facilis desensus averni, sed revocare gradum Hoc opus hic labor est.
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 himself in part confesses, and the Scripture affirms; I say, had this been so, the Devil himself could not have been so ignorant as to think of any future Steps to be taken, to retrieve his Affairs, and therefore a Pandemonium or Divan in Hell, to consult of it, was ridiculous.
All Mr. Several things have been suggested to set us a calculating the number of this frightful throng of Devils , who with Satan, the Master-Devil , was thus cast out of Heaven ; I cannot say, I am so much Master of Political Arithmetick as to cast up the Number of the Beast, no, nor the Number of the Beasts or Devils , who make up this Throng.
Why ten millions five hundred and eleven thousand, six hundred and seventy five Devils and a half , says the Nobleman: A half! So much for their Number. Milton brings in Satan , when first he saw Adam in Paradise , and the Felicity of his Station there swelling with Rage and Envy, and taking up a dreadful Resolution to ruin Adam and all his Posterity, meerly to disappoint his Maker of the Glory of his Creation; I shall come to speak of that in its Place.
How Satan , in his remote Situation, got Intelligence of the Place where to find Adam out, or that any such thing as a Man was created, is Matter of just Speculation, and there might be many rational Schemes laid for it: Mr.
For Example ,. That he had the most sublime Faculties infused into him; was capable not only of knowing and contemplating God, and which was still more, of enjoying him, as above; but which the Devil now was not capable of honouring and glorifying his Maker; who also had condescended to accept of Honour from him. This convinces us that the Devil has not lost his natural Powers by his Fall; and our learned Commentator Mr.
Vide Mr. Pool upon Acts xix. As he is Prince of the Power of the Air, taking the Air for the Elementary World , how easily could he, at one Blast, sweep all the Surface of the Earth into the Sea, or drive weighty immense Surges of the Ocean over the whole Plane of the Earth, and deluge the Globe at once with a Storm? Or how easily could he, who, by the Situation of the Empire, must be supposed able to manage the Clouds, draw them up, in such Position as should naturally produce Thunders and Lightnings, cause those Lightnings to blast the Earth, dash in Pieces all the Buildings, burn all the populous Towns and Cities, and lay wast the World;.
At the same time he might command suited Quantities of sublimated Air to burst out of the Bowels of the Earth, and overwhelm and swallow up, in the opening Chasms, all the Inhabitants of the Globe? This Prohibition was not sent him by a Messenger, or by an Order in Writing, or proclaimed from Heaven by a Law; but Satan , by a strange, invisible and unaccountable Impression felt the Restraint within him; and at the same time that his moral Capacity was not taken away, yet his Power of exerting that Capacity felt the Restraint, and left him unable to do, even what he was able to do at the same time.
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 pre-existent State?
I cannot be positive in the Resolve that past 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.
The same kind of Evidence we have in the Gospel, Matth. The foolish Woman yielded presently, and that we are told is the Reason why the same Method so strangely takes with all her Posterity viz.
If she had been as Ugly as the Devil , she had no body to rival her, so that she need not fear Adam should leave her and get another Mistress. If she had been Bright and Beautiful as an Angel, she had no other Admirer but poor Adam , and he could have no room to be jealous of her, or afraid she should cuckold him; so that in short, Eve had no such Occasion for her Beauty, nor could she make any use of it either to a bad purpose or to a good, and therefore I believe the Devil , who is too [Pg ] cunning to do any thing that signifies Nothing, rather tempted her by the Hope of encreasing her Wit, than her Beauty.
I am the more particular upon this Part, because, however the Devil may have been the first that ever practised it, yet I can assure him the Experiment has been tried upon many a Woman since, to the wheedling her out of her Modesty, as well as her Simplicity; and the Cunning Men tell us still, that if you can come at a Woman when she is in a deep sleep, and Whisper to her close to her Ear, she will certainly Dream of the Thing you say to her, and so will a Man too.
Milton brings them in, laugh and triumph over the Man after the Blow was given, as having so egregiously abused and deluded them both. I say, how came the Communication to be so entirely cut off between them, that except the time, whenever it was , that People did at first reach from one to the other, none ever came back to give their Friends any account of their Success, or invite them to follow?
We cannot tell how to give any other rational Account of it, that a Nation, nay a Quarter of the World, or as some will have it be, half the Globe, should be peopled from Europe or Africa , or both, and no body ever go after them, or come back from them in above three thousand years after.
And thus, indeed, the World may be said to be upheld and continued for the Sake of those few, since till their Number can be compleated, the Creation cannot fall, any more than, that without them, or but for them it would not have stood. But what does all that signify to me, while God appears to favour and caress my younger Brother, and to shine upon him, while a black Dejection and token of Displeasure surrounds me every Day, and he does not appear to me as he used to do? But do you not, great Sir, see all your Children as well as us rejoicing in the Plenty of all Things, and are they not compleatly happy, and yet they know little of this great God?
That may indeed be the Case, nor do I think of attempting any more to bring an Offering, for I rather take it, that I am forbidden for the present; but then, what is it that my younger Brother Triumphs in? Does he Triumph over your Majesty, our Lord and Sovereign?
We are ready therefore to carry your Petition to him, and doubt not to obtain his Licence and Commission too, to empower you to do your self Justice upon your younger Brother; who being your Vassal, or at least inferior, as he is junior in Birth, insults you upon the fancied Opinion of having a larger Share in the Divine Favour, and receiving a Blessing on his Sacrifices, on Pretence of the same Favour being denied you.
We shall soon return with the agreeable answer; let not our Lord and Father continue sad and dejected, but depend upon a speedy Relief, by the Assistance of thy numerous Issue, all devoted to thy Interest and Felicity.
My Blessing be with you in your Way, and give you a favourable Reception at the venerable Tent of our universal Lord and Father. Hail Sovereign, Reverend, Patriarchal Lord! Have you then seen the venerable Tents where dwell the Heaven-born, the Angelic Pair, [Pg ] to whom all human Reverence highly due, is and ought always to be humbly paid?
Did you, together with my grand Request, a just, a humble Homage for me pay, to the great Sire and Mother of Mankind? I hope with humblest Signs of filial Duty you took it for me on your bending Knees? Did you my solemn Message too deliver, my Injuries impartially lay down, and due Assistance and Direction crave? What spoke the Oracle? Forbid it Heaven! To punish? Upon this he sends out Cain , while the bloody Rage was in its Ferment, and wickedly at the same Time bringing Abel , innocent and fearing no ill, just in his Way, he suggests to his Thoughts such Words as these.
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. 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.
It is suggested that as he is Prince of the Power of the Air, he retired only into that Region. If the Ark was as Mr. 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. Pardon me for making a Speech for the Devil. Noah , a diligent industrious Man, being with all his Family thus planted in the rich fruitful Plains of Armenia , or wherever you please, let it be near the Mountains of Caucasus or Arrarat ; went immediately to work, cultivating and improving [Pg ] the Soil, encreasing his Cattle and Pastures, sowing Corn, and among other Things planting Trees for Food, and among the Fruit Trees he planted Vines, of the Grapes thereof he made no doubt, as they still in the same Country do make, most excellent Wine, rich, luscious, strong, and pleasant.
But to make out this Story, which is indeed very favourable for Noah , but in it self extremely ridiculous, you must necessarily fall into some Absurdities, and beg the Question most egregiously in some particular Cases, which way of arguing will by no means suppose what is suggested; at first you must support there was no such Thing as Wine made before the Deluge, and that no Body had been ever made drunk with the Juice of the Grape before Noah , which, I say, is begging the Question in the grossest Manner.
For we are to suppose, he could plant no Trees or Shrubs, but such as he found the Roots of in the Earth, and which no doubt had been there before in their highest Perfection, and had consequently grown up and brought forth the same luscious Fruit before. Besides, as he found the Roots of the Vines, so he understood what they were, and what Fruit they bore, or else it may be supposed also he would not have planted them; for he planted them for their Fruit, as he did it in the Provision he was making for his Subsistence, and the Subsistence of his Family: and if he did not know what they were, he would not have set them, for he was not planting for Diversion but for Profit.
Upon the whole it seems plain to me he knew what he did, as well when he planted the Vines as when he pressed out the Grapes; and also when he drank the Juice that he knew it was Wine, was strong and would make him drunk if he took enough of it: He knew that other Men had been drunk with such Liquor before the Flood, and that he had reprehended them for it; and therefore it was not his Ignorance, but the Devil took him at some Advantage, when his Appetite was eager, or he thirsty, and the Liquor cooling and pleasant; and in short, as Eve said, the Serpent beguilded her , and she did eat , so the Devil beguiled Noah , and he did drink ; the Temptation was too strong for Noah , not the Wine; he knew [Pg ] well enough what he did, but as the Drunkards say to this Day, it was so good he could not forbear it, and so he got drunk before he was aware; or as our ordinary Speech expresses it, he was overtaken with drink ; and Mr.
Pool and other Expositors are partly of the same Mind. The Story is not so very unlikely as it is certain that it is not to be proved, and therefore we had better take it as we find it viz. But God himself put a stop to this foolish Piece of Work, and it was time indeed to do so, for a madder thing the Devil himself never proposed to them; I say, God himself put a stop to this new Undertaking, and disappointed the Devil; and how was it done?
Satan had never met with any Disappointment in all his wicked Attempts till now; for first, he succeeded even to triumph upon Eve , he did the like upon Cain , and in short upon the whole World, one Man Noah excepted ; when he blended the Sons of God, and the Daughters of Hell, for so the Word is understood, together, in promiscuous voluptuous Living as well as Generation. But I go back to the Affair of Babel : This Confusion of Language or of Councils, take it which way you will, as the first Disappointment that I find the Devil met with, in all his Attempts and Practices upon Mankind, or upon the new Creature, which I mentioned above; for now he foresaw what would follow; namely, that the People would separate and spread themselves over the whole Surface of the Earth, and a thousand new Scenes of Actions would appear, in which he therefore prepares himself to behave as he should see Occasion.
It also remains a doubt with me, and, I suppose, will be so with others also, whether Satan has yet found out a Method to converse with Mankind, without the Help of Language and Words, or not: Seeing Man has no other Medium of Conversing, no not with himself: This I have not time to enter upon here; however, this seems plain to me viz. After the Confusion of Languages, the People necessarily sorted themselves into Families and Tribes, every Family understanding their own particular Speech, and that only; and these Families multiplying grew into Nations, and those Nations wanting Room, and seeking out Habitations wandred some this Way, some that, till they found out Countries respectively proper for their settling, and there they became a Kingdom, spreading and possessing still more and more Land as their People encreased, till at last the whole Earth was scarce big enough for them: This presented Satan with an Opportunity to break in upon their Morals at another Door, viz.
A very good Story indeed! As then both these are modern Inventions, Satan went on gradually, and being to work upon human Nature by Stratagem, not by Force, it would have been too gross to have set himself up as an Object of Worship at first, it was to be done Step by Step; for Example. It was sufficient to bring Mankind to a Neglect of God, to worship him by halves, and give little or no Regard to his Laws, and so grow loose and immoral, in direct Contradiction to his Commands; this would not go down with them at first, so the Devil went on gradually.
In a Word, the Devil got what we may call an entire Victory over Mankind, and drove the Worship of the true God, in a Manner quite [Pg ] out of the World, forcing, as it were , his Maker in a new kind of Creation, the old one proving thus ineffectual to recover a certain Number by Force and meer Omnipotence to return to their Duty, serve him and worship him; But of that hereafter.
Well might it be said the Lord appeared to Abraham , Gen. Abraham indeed went off the Stage free, and so did Isaac too, they were a Kind of first Rate Saints; we do not so much as read of any failing they had, or of any Thing the Devil had ever the Face to offer to them; no, or with Jacob either, if you will excuse him for beguiling his Brother Esau , of both his Birthright and his Blessing, but he was busy enough with all his Children; for Example,.
He set them all together to fall upon poor Joseph , first to murther him intentionally, and then actually sell him to the Midianites. Truly, nothing but that they had lost Moses , who used to be their Guide, and he had hid himself in the Mount, and had not been seen in forty Days, so that they could not tell what was become of him. This put them all into Confusion; a poor Pretence indeed, to turn them all back to Idolatry!
And see what an Answer he gives to his Brother Moses , how weak! 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 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. 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 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 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. At last he tempted them to reject the Theocracy of their Maker, and call upon Samuel [Pg ] 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 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 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!
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. 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. See Epistles of St. James and of St. Peter , at the Beginning. 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.
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.
Jovian , the next Emperor, being a glorious Christian, and a very good and great Man, the Devil abdicated for a while, and left the Christian Armies to re-establish the Orthodox Faith; nor could he bring the Christians to a Breach again among themselves a great while after.
Peter was, struck them as the Anglers call it with a quick Hand, and hung them fast upon the Hook. He had indeed prospered in his Affairs tolerably well for some time before this, and his Interest among the Clergy had got Ground for some Ages; but that was indeed a secret Management, was carried on privately, and with Difficulty; as in sowing Discord and Faction among the People, perplexing the Councils of their Princes, and secretly wheedling in with the dignified Clergy.
Also he had raised abundance of little Church-Rebellions, by setting up Hereticks of several Kinds, and raising them Favourers among the Clergy, such as Ebion , Cerinthius , Pelagius , and others.
Of Hell as it is represented to us, and how the Devil is to be understood, as being personally in Hell, when at the same Time we find him at Liberty ranging over the World. But this is too grave a Subject for me at this Time. Indeed according to some, Hell should be a Place of Fire and Torment to the Souls that are cast into it, but not to the Devils themselves; who we make little more or less than keepers and Turnkeys to Hell, as a Goal; that they are sent about to bring Souls thither, lock them in when they come, and then away upon the Scent to fetch more: That one Sort of Devils are made to live in the World among Men, and to be busy continually debauching and deluding Mankind bringing them as it were to the Gates of Hell ; and then another Sort are Porters and Carriers to fetch them in.
This is, in short , little more or less than the old Story of Pluto , of Cerberus , and of Charon ; only that our Tale is not half so well told, nor the Parts of the Fable so well laid together.
And this brings me directly to the Point in Hand, viz. As to any other Fire than this, such and so immaterially intense as to Torment a Spirit, which is it self Fire also; I will not say it cannot be, because to Infinite every Thing is possible, but I must say, I cannot conceive rightly of it.
P—— , who came to see him on his Death-bed, but had been too much his Companion in his Life,. These Things, however intended for Terror, are indeed so ridiculous, that the Devil himself, to be sure, mocks at them, and a Man of Sense can hardly refrain doing the like, only I avoid it, because I would not give offence to weaker Heads.
Let us learn to talk of these Things then, as we should do; and as we really cannot describe them to our Reason and Understanding, why should we describe them to our Senses; we had, I think, much better not describe them at all, that is to say, not attempt it: The blessed Apostle St. Paul was, as he said himself, carried up, or caught up into the third Heaven , yet when he came down again, he could neither tell what he heard or describe what he saw ; all he could say of it was, that what he heard was inutterable , and what he saw was inconceivable.
Where his Principal Residence is, and whether he has not a particular Empire of his own, to which he retreats upon proper Occasions; where he entertains his Friends when they come under his particular Administration; and where, when he gets any Victory over his Enemies, he carries his Prisoners of War.
What may probably be the great Business this black Emperor has at present upon his Hands, either in this World or out of it, and by what Agents he works. From this time forward you are to allow the Devil a mystical Empire in this World; not an Action of Moment done without him, not a Treason but he has a Hand in it, not a Tyrant but he prompts him, not a Government but he has a —— in it; not a Fool but he tickles him, not a Knave but he guides him; he has a Finger in every Fraud, a Key to every Cabinet, from the Divan at Constantinople , to the Mississipi in France , and to the South-Sea Cheats at ———; from the first Attack upon the Christian World, in the Person of the Romish Antichrist, down to the Bull Unigenitus ; and from the Mixture of St.
How he has managed, and does manage, and how in all Probability he will manage till his Kingdom shall come to a Period, and how at last he will probably be managed himself, Enquire within, and you shall know farther.
Now the great Enquiry before us is, How comes the Devil to a Parley with us? How does he reach us, which way does he come at the Affections, and which way does he move the Passions? It is also a great Enquiry here, whether the Devil knows our Thoughts or no? If I may give my Opinion, I am with the negative; I deny that he knows any thing of our Thoughts, except of those Thoughts which he puts us upon thinking, for I will not doubt but he has the Art to inject Thoughts, and to revive dormant Thoughts in us: It is not so wild a Scheme as some take it to be, [Pg ] that Mr.
Milton lays down, to represent the Devil injecting corrupt Desires and wandring Thoughts into the Head of Eve , by Dreams, and that he brought her to Dream whatever he put into her Thoughts, by whispering to her vocally when she was asleep; and to this End, he imagines the Devil laying himself close to her Ear, in the Shape of a Toad, when she was fall asleep; I say, this is not so wild a Scheme, seeing even now, if you can whisper any thing close to the Ear of a Person in a deep Sleep, so as to speak distinctly to the Person, and yet not awaken him, as has been frequently tried, the Person sleeping shall dream distinctly of what you say to him; nay, shall dream the very Words you say.
We have then no more to ask, but how the Devil can convey himself to the Ear of a sleeping Person, and it is granted then that he may have Power to make us dream what he pleases: But this is not all, for if he can so forcibly, by his invisible Application, cause us to dream, what he pleases, why can he not with the same Facility prompt our Thoughts, whether sleeping or waking? To dream, is nothing else but to think sleeping; and we have abundance of deep-headed Gentlemen among us, who give us ample Testimony that they dream waking.
But if the Devil can prompt us to dream, that is to say, to think, yet if he does not know our Thoughts, how then can he tell whether the Whisper had its Effect? The answer is plain, the Devil , like the Angler, baits the Hook, if the Fish bite he lies ready to take the Advantage, he whispers to the Imagination, and then waits to see how it works; as Naomi said to Ruth , Chap. Sit still, my Daughter, until thou know how the Matter will fall, for the Man will not be at rest until he have finished the thing.
Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. The political history of the devil, as well ancient as modern : in two parts ; part I.
Containing a state of the devil's circumstances, and the various turns of his affairs Containing his more private conduct, down to the present times Item Preview. EMBED for wordpress.
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