_Satan_'s Defection left open; and what was before fill'd up with
created Seraphs, is now to be restor'd by recover'd Saints, by whom
infinite Glory is to accrue to the Kingdom of the Redeemer.

This glorious Establishment has robb'd Satan of all the Joy of his
Victory, and left him just where he was, defeated and disappointed; nor
does the Possession of all the Myriads of the Sons of Perdition, who yet
some are of the Opinion will be snatch'd from him too at last; I say,
the Possession of all these makes no amends to him, for he is such a
_Devil_ in his Nature, that the Envy at those he cannot seduce, eats out
all the Satisfaction of the Mischief he has done in seducing all the
rest; but _I must not preach_, so I return to things as much needful to
know, tho' less solemn.

CHAP. IX.

_Of the Progress of Satan in carrying on his Conquest over Mankind, from
the Fall of_ Eve _to the Deluge._

I doubt if the Devil was ask'd the Question plainly, he would confess,
that after he had conquer'd _Eve_ by his own wicked Contrivance, and
then by her Assistance had brought _Adam_ too (like a Fool as he was)
into the same Gulph of Misery, he thought he had done his Work,
compassed the whole Race, that they were now his own, and that he had
put an End to the grand Design of their Creation; namely, of Peopling
Heaven with a new Angelic Race of Souls, who when glorify'd, should make
up the Defection of the Host of Hell, that had been expung'd by their
Crime; in a Word, that he had gotten a better Conquest than if he had
destroy'd them all.

But in the midst of his Conquest, he found a Check put to the Advantages
he expected to reap from his Victory, by the immediate Promise of Grace
to a Part of the Posterity of _Adam_, who, notwithstanding the Fall,
were to be purchased by the _Messiah_, and snatch'd out of his
(_Satan_'s) Hands, and over whom he could make no final Conquest; so
that his Power met with a new Limitation, and that such, as indeed fully
disappointed him in the main thing he aim'd at, (_viz._) preventing the
Beatitudes of Mankind, which were thus secur'd; (And what if the Numbers
of Mankind were upon this account encreased in such a manner, that the
selected Number should, by Length of Time, amount to just as many as the
whole Race, had they not fallen, would have amounted to in all?) And
thus, indeed, the World may be said to be upheld and continued for the
Sake of those few, since till their Number c