Cunning Men have fabled, and tho' it be without either Religion, Authority or physical Foundation, it may be we may like it ne'er the worse for that; that when God made the Stars and all the Heavenly Luminaries, the _Devil_, to mimick his Maker and insult his new Creation, made Comets, in Imitation of the fix'd Stars; but that the Composition of them being combustible, when they came to wander in the Abyss, rolling by an irregular ill-grounded Motion, they took Fire, in their Approach to some of those great Bodies of Flame, _the fix'd Stars_; and being thus kindled (like a Fire-work unskilfully let off) they then took wild and excentrick, as also different Motions of their own, out of Satan's Direction, and beyond his Power to regulate ever after. Let this Thought stand by it self, it matters not to our purpose whether we believe any thing of it, or no; 'tis enough to our Case, that if Satan had any such Power then, he has no such Power now, and that leads me to enquire into his more recent Limitations. I am to suppose, he and all his Accomplices being confounded at the Discovery of the new Creation, and racking their Wits to find out the meaning of it, had at last (_no matter how_) discover'd the whole System, and concluded, _as I have said_, that the Creature, _call'd Man_, was to be their Successor in the Heavenly Mansions; upon which I suggest that the first Motion of Hell was to destroy this new Work, and, if possible, to overwhelm it. But when they came to make the Attempt, they found their Chains were not long enough, and that they could not reach to the Extremes of the System: They had no Power either to break the Order, or stop the Motion, dislocate the Parts, or confound the Situation of Things; they traversed, no doubt, the whole Work, visited every Star, landed upon every Solid, and sail'd upon every Fluid in the whole Scheme, to see what Mischief they could do. Upon a long and full Survey, they came to this Point in their Enquiry, that in short they could do nothing by Force; that they could not displace any Part, annihilate any Atom, or destroy any Life in the whole Creation; but that as Omnipotence had created it, so the same Omnipotence had arm'd it at all Points against the utmost Power of Hell, had made the smallest Creature in it invulnerable, as to _Satan_; so that without the Permission of the same Power which had made _Heaven_, and conquer'd the _Devil_, he could do nothing at all, as to destroying any thing that God had made, no, not the little diminutive thing call'd Man, who _Satan_ saw so much reason to hate, as being created to succeed him in Happiness in _Heaven_. Satan found him placed out of his Power to hurt, or out of his Reach to touch; and here, by the way, appears the second Conquest of _Heaven_ over the _Devil_; that having plac'd his Rival, as it were, just before his Face, and shew'd the hateful sight to him, he saw written upon his Image, _Touch him if you dare_.