Page:History of the devil, ancient and modern (1).pdf/14

14 and under whom all the little Devils, and all the great Devils, if such there be, are supposed to act; nay, they are supposed to be governed and directed by him. Thus we are told in Scripture of the works of the Devil, 1 John i. 8.; of casting out of the Devil, Mark i. 34; of resisting the Devil, James iv. 7.; of our Saviour being tempted of the Devil, Matth. iv. 1.; of Simon Magus, a child of the Devil, Acts xiii. 10. The Devil came down in great wrath, Rev. xii 12. and the like. According to this usage of speech we go on to this day, and in all the infernal things we converse with in the world are fathered upon the Devil, as one undivided simple essence, by how many agents soever working. Every think evil is frightful in appearance, wicked in its actings, horrible in its manner, monstrous in its effects, is called the Devil; in a word, Devil is the common name for all devils, that is to say, for all evil spirits, all evil powers, all evil works, and even all evil things; yet it is remarkable, the Devil is no Old Testament word; and we never find it used in all that part of the Bible but four times, and then not once in the singular number: and not once, to signify Satan as it is now understood.

Nor, upon the whole, is any wrong done to the Devil by this kind of treatment: it only gives him the sovereignty of the whole army of hell; and, making all the numberless legions of the bottomless pit servants, or, as the scriptures calls them, angels to Satan the grand Devil, all their actions, performances, and achievements, are justly attributed to him, not as Prince of Devils only, but the Emperor of Devils——the Prince of all the Princes of Devils.