Nay they go farther, and suggest bold things against the wisdom of Heaven, in exposing mankind, weak in comparison of the immense extent of the _Devil_'s power, to so manifest an overthrow, to so unequal a fight, in which he is sure, if alone in the conflict, to be worsted; to leave him such a dreadful enemy to engage with, and so ill furnish'd with weapons to assist him.
These objections I shall give as good an answer to as the case will admit in this course, but must adjourn them for the present.
That the Devil is not yet a close prisoner, we have evidence enough to confirm; I will not suggest, that like our _Newgate_ Thieves, (to bring little Devils and great Devils together) he is let out by connivance, and has some little latitudes and advantages for mischief, by that means; returning at certain seasons to his confinement again. This might hold, were it not, that the comparison must suggest, that the power which has cast him down could be deluded, and the under-keepers or jaylors, under whose charge he was in custody, could wink at his excursions, and the Lord of the place know nothing of the matter. But this wants farther explanation.
_Of the original of the_ DEVIL, _who he is, and what he was before his expulsion out of Heaven, and in what state he was from that time to the creation of Man._
To come to a regular enquiry into Satan's affairs, 'tis needful we should go back to his original, as far as history and the opinion of the learned World will give us leave.
It is agreed by all Writers, as well sacred as prophane, that this creature we now call a Devil, was originally an Angel of light, a glorious Seraph; perhaps the choicest of all the glorious Seraphs. See how _Milton_ describes his original glory:
_Satan_, so call him now, his former name Is heard no more in Heaven: He of the first, If not _the first Archangel_; great in power, In favour and preeminence.
And again the same author, and upon the same subject:
------Brighter once amidst the host Of Angels, than that star the stars among.
The glorious figure which Satan is supposed to make among the _Thrones_ and _Dominions_ in Heaven is such, as we might suppose the highest Angel in that exalted train could make; and some think, _as above_, that he was the chief of the Arch-angels.