PART II. OF THE MODERN HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. CHAP. I. I have examined the Antiquities of Satan's History in the former Part of this Work, and brought his Affairs down from the Creation, as far as to our blessed Christian Times; especially to the Coming of the _Messiah_, when one would think the _Devil_ could have nothing to do among us. I have indeed but touch'd at some Things which might have admitted of a farther Description of Satan's Affairs, and the Particulars of which we may all come to a farther Knowledge of hereafter; yet I think I have spoken to the material Part of his Conduct, as it relates to his Empire in this World: What has happen'd to his more sublimated Government, and his Angelic Capacities, I shall have an Occasion to touch at in several solid Particulars as we go along. The _Messiah_ was now born, _the Fulness of Time was come_, that the old Serpent was to have his _Head broken_, that is to say, his Empire or Dominion over Man, which he gain'd by the Fall of our first Father and Mother in _Paradise_, receiv'd a Downfal or Overthrow. It is worth observing, in order to confirm what I have already mention'd of the Limitation of Satan's Power, that not only his Angelic Strength seems to have received a farther Blow upon the Coming of the Son of God into the World, but he seems to have had a Blow upon his Intellects; his Serpentine Craft and _Devil-like_ Subtilty seems to have been circumscrib'd and cut short; and instead of his being so cunning a Fellow as before, when, _as I said_, 'tis evident he outwitted all Mankind, not only _Eve_, _Cain_, _Noah_, _Lot_, and all the Patriarchs, but even Nations of Men, and that in their publick Capacity; and thereby led them into absurd and ridiculous Things, such as the Building of _Babel_, and deifying and worshiping their Kings, when dead and rotten; idolizing _Beasts_, _Stocks_, _Stones_, _any Thing_, and even _Nothing_; and in a Word, when he manag'd Mankind just as he pleased. Now and from this Time forward he appeared a weak, foolish, ignorant _Devil_, compar'd to what he was before; He was upon almost every Occasion resisted, disappointed, baulk'd and defeated, especially in all his Attempts to thwart or cross the Mission and Ministry of the _Messiah_, while he was upon Earth, and sometimes upon other and very mean Occasions too. And first, how foolish a Project was it, and how below Satan's celebrated Artifice in like Cases, to put _Herod_ upon sending to kill the poor innocent Children in _Bethlehem_, in hopes to destroy the Infant? for I take it for granted, it was the _Devil_ put into _Herod_'s Thoughts that Execution, how simple and foolish soever; now we must allow him to be very ignorant of the Nativity himself, or else he might easily have guided his Friend _Herod_ to the Place where the Infant was.