But then, what comes of the long and bloody War that Mr. _Milton_ gives such a full and particular account of, and the terrible Battles in Heaven between _Michael_ with the royal Army of Angels on one hand, and _Satan_ with his rebel Host on the other; in which he supposes the numbers and strength to be pretty near equal? but at length brings in the _Devil_'s Army, upon doubling their rage and bringing new engines of war into the field, putting _Michael_ and all the faithful Army to the worst; and, in a word, defeats them? For tho' they were not put to a plain flight, in which case he must, at least, have given an account of two or three thousand millions of Angels cut in pieces and wounded, yet he allows them to give over the fight, and make a kind of retreat; so making way for the compleat victory of the Son of GOD: Now this is all invention, or at least, a borrow'd thought from the old Poets, and the Fight of the _Giants_ against _Jupiter_, so nobly design'd by _Ovid_, almost two thousand years ago; and there 'twas well enough; but whether Poetic Fancy should be allow'd to fable upon _Heaven_, or no, and upon the King of Heaven too, that I leave to the Sages. By this expulsion of the _Devils_, it is allow'd by most Authors, they are, _ipso facto_, stript of the Rectitude and Holiness of their Nature, which was their Beauty and Perfection; and being ingulph'd in the abyss of irrecoverable ruin, _'tis no matter where_, from that very time they lost their Angelic beautiful Form, commenc'd ugly frightful Monsters and _Devils_, and became evil doers, as well as evil Spirits; fill'd with a horrid malignity and enmity against their Maker, and arm'd with a hellish resolution to shew and exert it on all occasions; retaining however their exalted spirituous Nature, and having a vast extensive power of Action, all which they can exert in nothing else but doing evil, for they are entirely divested of either Power or will to do good; and even in doing evil, they are under restraints and limitations of a superior Power, which it is their Torment, and, perhaps, a great part of their Hell that they cannot break thro'. CHAP. VI. _What became of the_ Devil _and his Host of fallen Spirits after their being expell'd from Heaven, and his wandring condition till the Creation; with some more of Mr._ Milton's _absurdities on that subject._ Having thus brought the _Devil_ and his innumerable Legions to the edge of the Bottomless-pit, it remains, before I bring them to action, that some enquiry should be made into the posture of their affairs immediately after their precipitate Fall, and into the place of their immediate Residence; for this will appear to be very necessary to _Satan_'s History, and indeed, so as that without it, all the farther account we have to give of him, will be inconsistent and imperfect.