History of the Devil

Daniel Defoe

• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9783748171744
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politik & Internationale Beziehungen
• Subtopic: Politische Freiheit

The Subject is singular, and it has been handled after a singular Manner: The wise World has been pleased with it, the merry World has been diverted with it, and the ignorant World has been taught by it; none but the malicious part of the World has been offended at it: Who can wonder, that when the Devil is not pleased, his Friends should be angry?The strangest thing of it all is, to hear Satan complain that the Story is handled prophanely: But who can think it strange that his Advocates should be, what he was from the Beginning?The Author affirms, and has good Vouchers for it (in the Opinion of such whose Judgment passes with him for an Authority) that the whole Tenor of the Work is solemn, calculated to promote serious Religion, and capable of being improv'd in a religious manner. But he does not think that we are bound never to speak of the Devil but with an Air of Terror, as if we were always afraid of him.

Chap. XI.

Of God’s calling a Church out of the midst of a degenerate World, and of Satan’s new Measures upon that Incident: How he attack’d them immediately, and his Success in those Attacks.

Satanhaving, as I have said in the preceding Chapter, made, as it were, a full Conquest of Mankind, debauch’d them all to Idolatry, and brought them at least to worshiping the true God by the wretched Medium of corrupt and idolatrous Representations; God seem’d to have no true Servants or Worshippers left in the World, but if I may be allow’d to speak so, was oblig’d, in order to restore the World to their Senses again, to call a select Number out from among the rest, who he himself undertook should own his Godhead or supreme Authority, and worship him as he requir’d to be worship’d; this,I say, God was oblig’d to do, because ’tis evident it has not been done so much by the Choice and Council of Men,for Satan would have over-rul’d that Part, as by the Power and Energy of some irresistible and invincible Operation, and this our Divines give high Names to; but be it what they will, it is the second Defeat or Disappointment that theDevilhe met with in his Progress in the World; the first I have spoken of already.

It is true, Satan very well understood what was threatn’d to him in the original Promise to the Woman, immediately after the Fall, namely,thou shalt bruise his Head, &c. but he did not expect it so suddenly, but thought himself sure of Mankind, till the Fullness of Time when the Messiah should come; and therefore it was a great Surprize to him, to see thatAbrahambeing call’d was so immediately receiv’d and establish’d, tho’ he did not so immediately follow the Voice that directed him, yet in him, in his Loins was all God’s Church at that time contain’d.

In the callingAbraham, it is easy to see that there was no other way for God to form a Church, that is to say, to single out a People to himself, as the World was then stated, but by immediate Revelation and a Voice from Heaven: All Mankind were gone over to the Enemy, overwhelmed in Idolatry, in a Word, were engag’d to theDevil; God Almighty, or as the Scripture distinguishes him,the Lord, the true God, was out of the Question; Mankind knew little or nothing of him, much less did they know any thing of his Worship, or that there was such a Being in the World.

Well might it be said theLordappeared toAbraham, Gen. xii. 7. for if God had not appear’d himself, he must have sent a Messenger from Heaven,and perhaps it was so too, for he had not one true Servant or Worshiper that we know of then on Earth, to send on that Errand; no Prophet, no Preacher of Righteousness,Noahwas dead, and had been so above seventeen Year; and if he had not, his preaching, as I observed after his great Miscarriage, had but little Effect; we are indeed told, thatNoahleft behind him certain Rules and Orders for the true Worship of God, which were call’d the Precepts ofNoah, and remain’d in the World for a long Time; tho’ how written, when neither any Letters, much less Writing were known in the World, is a Difficulty which Remains to be solv’d; and this makes me look upon those Laws call’d the Precepts ofNoahto be a modern Invention, as I do also theAlphabetum Noachi, whichBochartpretends to give an Account of.

But to leave that Fiction, and come back toAbraham; God call’d him, whether at first by Voice without any Vision, whether in a Dream or Night Vision, which was very Significant in those Days, or whether by some awful Appearance, we know not; the second Time, ’tis indeed said expressly God appeared to him; Be it which Way it will, God himself call’d him, shew’d him the Land ofCanaan, gave him the Promise of it for his Posterity, and withal gave him such a Faith, that theDevilsoon found there was no room for him to meddle withAbraham. This is certain, we do not read that theDevilever so much as attemptedAbrahamat all; some will suggest that the Command toAbrahamto go and offer up his SonIsaac, was a Temptation of theDevil, if possible to defeat the glorious Work of God’s calling a holy Seed into the World; for thefirst, ifAbrahamhad disobey’d that Call, the new Favourite had been overcome and made a Rebel of, orsecondly, if he hadobey’d, then the promis’d Seed had been cut off, andAbrahamdefeated; but as the Text is express that God himself proposed it toAbraham, I shall not start the Suggestions of the Criticks, in Bar of the sacred Oracle.

Be it one way or other,Abrahamshew’d a Hero-like Faith and Courage, and if theDevilhad been the Author of it, he had seen himself disappointed in both his Views; (1.) byAbraham’s ready and bold Compliance, as believing it to be God’s Command; and (2.) by the divine Countermand of the Execution, just as the fatal Knife was lifted up.

But if theDevilleftAbraham, and made no attack upon him, seeing him invulnerable, he made himself amends upon the other Branch of his Family, his poorNephewLot; who, notwithstanding he was so immediately under the particular Care of Heaven, as that the Angel who was sent to destroySodom, could do nothing till he was out of it; and who, tho’ after he had leftZoar, and was retir’d into a Cave to dwell, yet the subtleDevilfound him out, deluded his two Daughters, took an Advantage of the Fright they had been in aboutSodomandGomorrah, made them believe the whole World was burnt too, as well as those Cities, and that in short, they could never have anyHusbands, &c. and so in their abundant Concern to repeople the World, and that the Race of Mankind might not be destroyed, they go and lie with their ownFather; theDeviltelling them doubtless how to do it, by intoxicating his Head with Wine; in all which Story, whether they were not as drunk as their Father, seems to be a Question, or else they could not have supposed all the Men in the Earth were consum’d, when they knew that the little CityZoarhad been preserv’d for their Sakes.

This now was the third ConquestSatanobtain’d by the Gust of humane Appetite; that is to say, once by Eating and twice by Drinking, or Drunkenness, and still the last was the worst and most shameful; forLot, however his Daughters manag’d him, could not pretend he did not understand what the Strength of Wine was; and one would have thought after so terrible a Judgment as that ofSodomwas, which was, as we may say, executed before his Face, his Thoughts should have been too solemnly engag’d in praising God for sparing his Life, to be made drunk, and that two Nights together.

But theDevilplay’d his Game sure, he set his two Daughters to work, and as theDevil’s Instruments seldom fail, so he secur’d his by that hellish Stratagem of deluding the Daughters, to think all the World was consum’d but they two and their Father: To be sure the old Man could not suspect that his Daughters Design was so wicked as indeed it was, or that they intended to debauch him with Wine, and make him drink till he knew not what he did.

Now theDevilhaving carried his Game here, gain’d a great Point; for as there were but two religious Families in the World before, from whence a twofold Generation might be supposed to rise religious and righteous like their Parents, (viz.) that ofAbrahamand this ofLot; this Crime ruin’d the Hopes of one of them; it could no more be said that justLotwas in Being, who vex’d hisrighteous Soulfrom Day to Day with the wicked Behaviour of the People ofSodom; righteousLotwas degenerated into drunken incestuousLot, Lot fallen fr...