Adam_
and _Eve_ too: But that I shall leave till I come to the History of the
Royal Family of _Eden_; which I resolve to present you with when the
_Devil_ and I have done with one another.

But not to run down Mr. _Milton_ neither, whose poetry, or his judgment,
cannot be reproached without injury to our own; all those bright Ideas
of his, which make his poem so justly valued, whether they are capable
of proof as to the fact, are notwithstanding, confirmations of my
hypothesis; and are taken from a supposition of the Personality of the
_Devil_, placing him at the head of the infernal host, as a sovereign
elevated Spirit and Monarch of Hell; and as such it is that I undertake
to write his history.

By the word Hell I do not suppose, or at least not determine, that his
residence, or that of the whole army of _Devils_, is yet in the same
local HELL, to which the Divines tell us he shall be at last chain'd
down; or at least that he is yet confin'd to it, for we shall find he is
at present a prisoner at large: of both which circumstances of Satan I
shall take occasion to speak in its course.

But when I call the Devil the Monarch of _Hell_, I am to be understood
as suits to the present purpose; that he is the Sovereign of all the
race of Hell, that is to say of all the Devils or Spirits of the
infernal Clan, let their numbers, quality and powers be what they will.

Upon this supposed personality and superiority of _Satan_, or, as I call
it, the sovereignty and government of one Devil above all the rest; I
say, upon this notion are form'd all the systems of the dark side of
futurity, that we can form in our minds: And so general is the opinion
of it, that it will hardly bear to be oppos'd by any other argument, at
least that will bear to be reason'd upon: All the notions of a parity of
Devils, or making a common-wealth among the black Divan, seem to be
enthusiastick and visionary, but with no consistency or certainty, and
is so generally exploded, that we must not venture so much as to debate
the point.

Taking it then as the generality of mankind do, that there is a Grand
Devil, a superior of the whole black race; that they all fell, together
with their General, _Satan_, at the head of them; that tho' he, _Satan_,
could not maintain his high station in Heaven, yet that he did continue
his dignity among the rest, who are call'd his servants, _in Scripture
his Angels_; that he has a kind of dominion or authority over the