In this page Donne passes into rhetorical extravagance, after the manner of too many of the Fathers from Tertullian to Bernard.
Ib.
p. 66. A.
Some of the later authors in the Roman Church ... have noted (in several of the Fathers) some inclinations towards that opinion, that the devil retaining still his faculty of free-will, is therefore capable of repentance, and so of benefit by this coming of Christ.
If this be assumed, — namely, the free-will of the devil, — as a consequence would indeed follow his capability of repenting, and the possibility that he may repent. But then he is no longer what we mean by the devil; he is no longer the evil spirit, but simply a wicked soul.
Ib.
p. 68. C.
As though God had said Qui sum, my name is I am; yet in truth it is Qui ero, my name is I shall be.
Nay,
I will or shall be in that I will to be