The History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts

by Daniel Defoe

First, (for he began immediately with the very best and wisest of the Race) he drew in King Solomon, in the midst of all his Zeal for the building God’s House, and for the making the most glorious and magnificent Appearance for God’s Worship that ever the World saw; I say, in the middle of all this, he drew him into such immoderate and insatiable an Appetite for Women, as to set up the first, and perhaps the greatest Seraglio of Whores that ever any Prince in the World had, or pretended to before; nay, and to bring whoring so much into Reputation, that, as the Text says, seven hundred of them were Princesses; that is to say, Ladies of Quality: Not as the Grand Seigniors, and Great Moguls, (other Princes of the Eastern World) have since practised, namely, to pick up their most beautiful Slaves; but these, it seems, were Women of Rank, King’s Daughters, as Pharaoh’s Daughter, and the Daughters of the Princes and prime Men among the Moabites, Ammonites, Zidonians, Hittites, &c. 1 Kings xi. 1.

Nor was this all; but as he drew him into the Love of these forbidden Women (for such they were, as to their Nation, as well as Number) so he ensnar’d him by those Women to a Familiarity with their Worship; and by degrees brought that famous Prince (famous for his Wisdom) to be the greatest and most-impos’d-upon old Fool in the World; Bowing down to those Idols by the Inticing of his Whores, whom he had abhorr’d and detested in his Youth, as dishonouring that God for whom, and for whose Worship he had finish’d and dedicated the most magnificent Building and Temple in the World: Nothing but the invincible Subtlety of this Arch Devil could ever have brought such a Man as Solomon to such a Degeneracy of Manners, and to such Meannesses; no, not the Devil himself, without the Assistance of his Whores, nor the Whores themselves, without the Devil to help them.

As to Solomon, Satan had made Conquest enough there, we need hear no more of him; the next Advance he made, was in the Person of his Son Rehoboam; had not the Devil prompted his Pride and tyrannical Humour, he would never have given the People such an Answer as he did; and when he saw a Fellow at the Head of them too whom he knew wanted and waited for an Occasion to raise a Rebellion, and had ripened up the People’s Humour to the Occasion: Well might the Text call it listening to the Council of the young Heads; that it was indeed with a Vengeance! but those young Heads too were acted by an old Devil, who for his Craft is called, as I have observ’d, the Old Serpent.

Having thus pav’d the Way, Jeroboam revolts. So far God had directed him; for the Text says expressly, speaking in the first Person of God himself, This Thing is of Me.

But tho’ God might appoint Jeroboam to be King, (that is to say, of ten Tribes,) yet God did not appoint him to set up the two Calves in the two extreme Parts of the Land, viz. in Dan, and in Bethel; that was Jeroboam’s own doing, and done on purpose to keep the People from falling back to Rehoboam, by being obliged to go to Jerusalem to the publick Worship: And the Text adds, Jeroboam made Israel to sin. This was indeed a Master-piece of the Devil’s Policy, and it was effectual to answer the End, nothing could have been more to the Purpose; what Reason he had to expect the People would so universally come into it, and be so well satisfied with a couple of Calves, instead of the true Worship of God at Jerusalem; or what Arts and Management he (Satan) made use of afterwards, to bring the People in, to join with such a Delusion, that we find but little of in all the Annals of Satan; not is it much to the Case: ’Tis certain the Devil found a strange kind of Propensity to worshiping Idols rooted in the Temper of that whole People, even from their first breaking away from the Egyptian Bondage; so that he had nothing to do but to work upon the old Stock, and propagate the Crime that he found was so natural to them. And this is Satan’s general Way of working, not with them only, but with us also, and with all the World, even then, and ever since.

When he had thus secur’d Jeroboam’s Revolt, we need not trace him among his Successors; for the same Reason of State that held for the setting up the Calves at Bethel and Dan, held good for the keeping them up, to all Jeroboam’s Posterity; nor had they one good King ever after; even Jehu, who call’d his Friends to come and see his Zeal for the Lord, and who fulfill’d the Threatnings of God upon Ahab and his Family, and upon Queen Jezabel and her Offspring, and knew all the while that he was executing the Judgment of the true God upon an idolatrous Race; yet he would not part with his Calves, but would have thought it to have been parting with his Kingdom, and that as the People would have gone up to Jerusalem to worship, so they would at the same Time have transfer’d their civil Obedience to the King of Judah, (whose Right it really was, as far as they could claim by Birth and right Line); so that by the way, Satan any more than other Politicians, is not for the jus divinum of lineal Succession, or what we call hereditary Right, any farther than serves for his Purpose.

Thus Satan ridded his Hands of ten of the twelve Tribes; let us now see how he went on with the rest, for his Work was now brought into a narrower Compass; the Church of God was now reduc’d to two Tribes, except a few religious People, who separated from the Schism of Jeroboam, and came and planted themselves among the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin: The first thing the Devil did after this, was to foment a War between the two Kings, while Judah was governed by a Boy or Youth, Abija by Name, and he none of the best neither; but God’s Time was not come, and the Devil receiv’d a great Disappointment; when Jeroboam was so entirely overthrown; that if the Records of those Ages do not mistake, no less than 500000 Men of Israel were kill’d, such a Slaughter, that one would think the Army of Judah, had they known how to improve as well as gain a Victory, might have brought all the rest back again, and have intirely reduc’d the House of Jeroboam and the ten Tribes that follow’d him to their Obedience; nay they did take a great deal of the Country from them, and among the rest Bethel it self; and yet so cunningly did Satan manage, that the King of Judah, who was himself a wicked King, and perhaps an Idolater in his Heart, did not take down the golden Calf that Jeroboam had there, no nor destroy the Idolatry it self, so that in short, his Victory signified nothing.

From hence to the Captivity, we find the Devil busy with the Kings of Judah, especially the best of them; as for such as Manasseth, and those who transgress’d by the general Tenor of their Lives, those he had no great trouble with.

But such as Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, he hung about them and their Courts, till he brought every one of them into some Mischief or another.

As first, good King Asa, of whom the Scripture says, his Heart was perfect all his Days, yet this subtle Spirit, that could break in upon him no where else, tempted him when the King of Israel came out against him, to send to hire Benhadad the King of Syria to help him; as if God who had before enabled him to conquer the Ethiopians, with an Army of ten hundred thousand Men, could not have saved him from the King of the ten Tribes.