y could.

Here expanding those Wings which Fear, and Horror at their Defeat
furnish'd them, as I hinted before, they hurried away to the utmost
Distance possible, from the Face of GOD their Conqueror, and then most
dreaded Enemy; formerly their Joy and Glory.

Be this utmost remov'd Distance _where it will_, Here, certainly,
_Satan_ and all his _Gang of Devils_, his numberless, tho' routed Armies
retired. Here _Milton_ might, with some good Ground, have form'd his
_Pandemonium_, and have brought them in, consulting what was next to be
done, and whether there was any room left to renew the War, or to carry
on the Rebellion; but had they been cast immediately into _Hell_, closed
up there, the Bottomless pit lock'd upon them, and the Key carried up to
_Heaven_ to be kept there, as Mr. _Milton_ himself in part confesses,
and the Scripture affirms; I say, had this been so, the _Devil_ himself
could not have been so ignorant as to think of any future Steps to be
taken, to retrieve his Affairs, and therefore a _Pandemonium_ or Divan
in Hell, to consult of it, was ridiculous.

All Mr. _Milton_'s Scheme of _Satan_'s future Conduct, and all the
Scripture Expressions about _the Devil_ and his numerous Attendants, and
of his actings since that time, make it not reasonable to suggest that
the _Devils_ were confin'd to their eternal Prison, at their Expulsion
out of _Heaven_; But that they were in a State of Liberty to act, tho'
limited in acting, of which I shall also speak in its place.

CHAP. VII.

_Of the Number of Satan's Host; how they came first to know of the new
created Worlds, now in being, and their Measures with Mankind upon
the Discovery._

Several things have been suggested to set us a calculating the number of
this frightful throng of _Devils_, who with Satan, the _Master-Devil_,
was thus cast out of _Heaven_; I cannot say, I am so much Master of
Political Arithmetick as to cast up the Number of the Beast, no, nor the
Number of the Beasts _or Devils_, who make up this Throng. St.
_Francis_, they tell us, or some other Saint, they do not say who, ask'd
the _Devil_ once, how strong he was? for St. _Francis_, you must know,
was very familiar with him; _The Devil_, it seems, did not tell him, but
presently raised a great Cloud of Dust, by the help, I suppose, of a
Gust of Wind, and bid that Saint count it; He was, I suppose, a
Calculator, that would be call'd grave, who dividing _Satan_'s Troops
in