John Milton - 3 books to know The Devil

This now was the third conquest Satan obtained by the gust of human appetite; that is to say, once by eating, and twice by drinking, or drunkenness; and still the last was the worst, and most shameful; for

Lot, however his daughters managed 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 of Sodom was, which was, as we may say, executed before his face, his thoughts should have been too solemnly engaged in praising God for sparing his life, to be made drunk, and that two nights together.

But the Devil played his game sure, he set his two daughters to work; and as the Devil’s instruments seldom fail, so he secured his by that hellish stratagem of deluding the daughters to think all the world was consumed 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 the Devil, having carried his game here, gained 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, namely, that of Abraham, and this of Lot; this crime ruined the hopes of one of them; it could no more be said that just Lot was in being, who vexed his righteous soul from day to day with the wicked behavior of the people of Sodom; righteous Lot was degenerated into drunken, incestuous Lot, Lot fallen from what he was, to be a wicked and unrighteous man; no pattern of virtue, no reprover of the age, but a poor, fallen, degenerate patriarch, who could now no more reprove or exhort, but look down and be ashamed, and nothing to do but to repent; and see the poor mean excuses of all the three:

Eve says, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”

Noah says, “my grandson beguiled me, or the wine beguiled me, and I did drink.”

Lot says, “My daughters beguiled me, and I also did drink.”

It is observable, that, as I said before, Noah was silenced, and his preaching at an end, after that one action, so the like may be said of Lot; and, in short, you never hear one more word of either of them after it; as for mankind, both were useless to them; and as to themselves, we never read of any of their repentance, nor have we much reason to believe they did repent.

From this attack of the Devil upon Lot, we hear no more of the Devil being so busily employed as he had been before in the world; he had indeed but little to do; for all the rest of the world was his own, lulled asleep under the witchcraft of idolatry, and are so still.

But it could not be long that the Devil lay idle; as soon as God called himself a people, the Devil could not be at rest till he attacked them.

“Wherever God sets up an house of prayer,

The Devil always builds a chapel there.”

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 anything 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 sent Judah to his sheep-shearing, and placed Tamar in his way, in the posture of temptation; so made him commit incest.

He sent incestuous Reuben to take his father’s concubine, Bilhah.

He sent Dinah to the ball, to dance with the Shechernite ladies, and play the sinner with their master.

He enraged Simeon and Levi at the supposed injury, and then prompted them to revenge; for which their father heartily cursed them.

He set them all together to fall upon poor Joseph, first to murder him intentionally, and then actually sell him to the Midianites.

He made them show the party-colored coat, and tell a lie to their father, to make the poor old man believe Joseph was killed by a lion, &c.

He sent Potiphar’s wife to attack Joseph’s chastity, and filled her with rage at the disappointment.

He taught Joseph to swear by the life of Pharaoh.

In a word, he debauched the whole race, except Benjamin; and never man had such a set of sons; so wicked, and so notorious, after so good an introduction into the world as they all of them had, to be sure; for Jacob, no doubt, gave them as good instruction as the circumstances of his wandering condition would allow him to do.

We must now consider the Devil and his affairs in a quite differing situation. When the world first appeared peopled by the creating power of God, he had only Adam and Eve to take care of, and I think he plied his time with them to purpose enough. After the deluge he had Noah only to pitch upon, and he quickly conquered him by the instigation of his grand-son.

At the building of Babel he guided them by their acting all in a body, as one man; so that, in short, he managed them with ease, taking them as a body politic; and we find they came into his snare as one man; but now, the children of Israel multiplying in the land of their bondage, and God seeming to show a particular concern for them, the Devil was obliged to new measures, stand at a distance, and look on for some time.

The Egyptians were plagued even without his help; for, though the cunning artist, as I said, stood and looked on, yet he durst not meddle; nor could he make a few lice, the least and meanest of the armies of insects raised to afflict the Egyptians.

However, when he perceived that God resolved to bring the Israelites out, he prepared to attend them, to watch them, and be at hand upon all the wicked occasions that might offer; as if he had been fully satisfied such occasions would offer, and that he should not fail to have an opportunity to draw them into some snare or other; and that therefore it was his business not to be out of the way, but to be ready (as we say) to make his market of them in the best manner he could. How many ways he attempted them, nay, how many times he conquered them in their journey, we shall see presently.

First he put them in a fright at Baal-Zephon, where he thought he had drawn them into a noose, and where he sent Pharaoh and his army to block them up between the mountains of Pihahiroth and the Red Sea; but there indeed Satan was outwitted by Moses, so far ajs it appeared to be an human action; for he little thought of their going dry-footed through the sea, but depended upon having them all cut in pieces the next morning by the Egyptians; an eminent proof, by the way, that the Devil has no knowledge of events, or any insight into futurity; nay, that he has not so much as a second sight, or knows today what his Maker intends to do tomorrow; for had Satan known that God intended to ford them over the sea, if he had not been able to have prevented the miracle, he would certainly have prevented the escape, by sending out Pharaoh and his army time enough to have taken the strand before them, and so have driven them to the necessity of travelling on foot round the north point of that sea, by the wilderness of Etan, where he would have pursued and harassed them with his cavalry, and in all probability have destroyed them: but the blind, short-sighted Devil, perfectly in the dark, and unacquainted with futurity, knew nothing of the matter, was as much deceived as Pharaoh himself, stood still, flattering himself with the hopes of his booty, and the revenge he should take upon them the next morning; till he saw the frighted waves in an uproar, and to his utter astonishment and confusion, saw the passage laid open, and Moses leading his vast army in full march over the dry space; nay, even then it is very probable Satan diAnot know that if the Egyptians followed them, the sea would return upon and overwhelm them; for I can hardly think so hard of the Devil himself, that if he had, hewould have suffered, much less prompted Pharaoh to follow the chase at such an expense; so that either he must be an ignorant, unforeseeing Devil, or a very un grateful, false Devifto his friends the Egyptians.