Thus _the Devil_, as mean thoughts as you may have of him, is of a better family than any of you, nay than the best Gentleman of you all; what he may be fallen to, is _one thing_, but what he is fallen from, _is another_; and therefore I must tell my learned and reverend friend _J. W._ LL. D. when he spoke so rudely of _the Devil_ lately, That in my opinion he abus'd his Betters. Nor is the Scripture more a help to us in the search after _the Devil_'s Original, than it is in our search after his Nature: it is true, Authors are not agreed about his age, what time he was created, how many years he enjoy'd his state of blessedness before he fell; or how many years he continued with his whole army in a state of darkness, and before the creation of man. 'Tis supposed it might be a considerable space, and that it was a part of his punishment too, being all the while unactive, unemploy'd, having no business, nothing to do but gnawing his own Bowels, and rolling in the agony of his own self-approaches, being a Hell to himself in reflecting on the glorious state from whence he was fallen. How long he remain'd thus, 'tis true, we have no light into from History, and but little from Tradition; _Rabbi Judah_ says, the _Jews_ were of the opinion, that he remain'd twenty thousand years in that condition, and that the World shall continue twenty thousand more, in which he shall find work enough to satisfy his mischievous desires; but he shews no authority for his opinion. Indeed let the _Devil_ have been as idle as they think he was before, it must be acknowledg'd that now he is the most busy, vigilant and diligent, of all GOD's creatures, and very full of employment too, _such as it is_. Scripture indeed, gives us light into the enmity there is between the two natures, the Diabolical and the Human; the reason of it, and how and by what means the power of _the Devil_ is restrain'd by the _Messias_; and to those who are willing to trust to Gospel-light, and believe what the Scripture says of _the Devil_, there may much of his History be discover'd, and therefore those that list may go there for a fuller account of the matter. But to reserve all Scripture-evidence of these things, as a Magazine in store for the use of those with whom Scripture-testimony is of force, I must for the present turn to other enquiries, being now directing my story to an age, wherein to be driven to Revelation and Scripture-assertions is esteem'd giving up the dispute; people now-a-days must have demonstration; and in a word, nothing will satisfy the age, but such evidence as perhaps the nature of the question will not admit.