be a hundred thousand Years, as those who
judge it one thousand Years; 'tis enough that we are sure, it was before
the Creation, how long before is not material to _the Devil's History_,
unless we had some Records of what happen'd to him, or was done by him
in the Interval.

During the wandring Condition the Devil was in at that Time, we may
suppose, he and his whole Clan to be employ'd in exerting their Hatred
and Rage at the Almighty, and at the Happiness of the remaining faithful
Angels, by all the ways they had power to shew it.

From this determin'd stated Enmity of _Satan_ and his Host against
_God_, and at every thing that brought Glory to his Name, Mr. _Milton_
brings in _Satan_, (when first he saw _Adam_ in _Paradise_, and the
Felicity of his Station there) swelling with Rage and Envy, and taking
up a dreadful Resolution to ruin _Adam_ and all his Posterity, meerly to
disappoint his Maker of the Glory of his Creation; I shall come to speak
of that in its Place.

How _Satan_, in his remote Situation, got Intelligence of the Place
where to find _Adam_ out, or that any such thing as a Man was created,
is Matter of just Speculation, and there might be many rational Schemes
laid for it: Mr. _Milton_ does not undertake to tell us the Particulars,
nor indeed could he find room for it; perhaps, the _Devil_ having, _as I
have said_, a Liberty to range over the whole Void or Abyss, which we
want as well a Name for, as indeed Powers to conceive of; might have
discovered that the Almighty Creator had form'd a new and glorious Work,
with infinite Beauty and Variety, filling up the immense Wast of Space,
in which he, (the _Devil_) and his _Angels_, had rov'd for so long a
time, without finding any thing to work on, or to exert their Apostate
Rage in against their Maker.

That at length they found the infinite untrodden Space, on a sudden
spread full with glorious Bodies, shining in self-existing Beauty, with
a new, and to them unknown Lustre, call'd Light: They found these
luminous Bodies, tho' immense in Bulk, and infinite in Number, yet fixt
in their wondrous Stations, regular and exact in their Motions, confin'd
in their proper Orbits, tending to their particular Centers, and
enjoying every one their peculiar Systems, within which was contain'd
innumerable Planets with their Satellites or Moons, in which (_again_) a
reciprocal Influence, Motion and Revolution conspired to Form the most
admirable Uniformity of the whol