_Facilis desensus averni, sed revocare gradum Hoc opus hic labor est._---- Virg. All this, as Poetical, we may receive, but not at all as Historical; for then come difficulties insuperable in our way, some of which may be as follow: (1.) Hell is here supposed to be a place; nay a place created for the punishment of Angels and Men, and likewise created long before those had fallen, or these had Being; this makes me say, Mr. _Milton_ was a good Poet, but a bad Historian: _Tophet_ was prepar'd of old, indeed, but it was for the King, that is to say, it was prepar'd for those whose lot it should be to come there; but this does not at all suppose it was prepar'd before it was resolv'd whether there should be subjects for it, or no; else we must suppose both Men and Angels were made by the glorious and upright Maker of all things, on purpose for destruction, which would be incongruous and absurd. But there is worse yet to come; in the next place he adds, that _Hell_ having receiv'd them, clos'd upon them; that is to say, took them in, clos'd or shut its Mouth; and in a word, they were lock'd in, as it was said in another place, they were lock'd in, and the Key is carry'd up to Heaven and kept there; for _we know_ the Angel came down from Heaven, having the Key of the Bottomless-pit; but first, see Mr. _Milton_. 'Nine days they fell, confounded chaos roar'd 'And felt ten-fold confusion in their fall: '----Hell at last 'Yawning receiv'd them all, and on them clos'd; 'Down from the verge of Heaven, eternal wrath 'Burnt after them---- 'Unquenchable. This Scheme is certainly deficient, if not absurd, and I think is more so than any other he has laid; 'tis evident, neither _Satan_ or his Host of _Devils_ are, _no not any of them_, yet, even now, confin'd in the eternal Prison, where the Scripture says, he shall be _reserved in chains of darkness_. They must have mean thoughts of _Hell_, as a Prison, a _local_ Confinement, that can suppose the _Devil_ able to break Goal, knock off his Fetters, and come abroad, if he had been once lock'd in there, as Mr. _Milton_ says he was: Now we know that he is abroad again, he presented himself before _God_, among his neighbours, when _Job_'s case came to be discours'd of; and more than that, it's plain he was a prisoner at large, by his answer to God's question, which was, _whence comest thou?_ to which he answer'd, _from going to and fro thro' the Earth_, &c. this, I say, is plain, and if it be as certain that Hell closed upon them, I demand then, how got he out? and why was there not a Proclamation for apprehending him, as there usually is, after such Rogues as break prison?