all taking its Rise and Beginning at the fatal
Defeat of _Noah_, who had he liv'd untainted and invulnerable, as he had
done for six hundred Years before, would have gone a great way to have
stem'd the Torrent of Wickedness which broke in upon Mankind; and
therefore the _Devil_, I say, was very cunning and very much in the
Right of it, take him as he is a meer _Devil_, to attack _Noah_
personally, and give him a Blow so soon.

It is true, the _Devil_ did not immediately raze out the Notion of
Religion and of a GOD from the Minds of Men, nor could he easily
suppress the Principle of Worship and Homage to be paid to a Sovereign
Being, the Author of Nature and Guide of the World; the _Devil_ saw this
clearly in the first Ages of the new World, and therefore, as I have
said, he proceeded politically and by Degrees: That it was so, is
evident from the Story of _Job_ and his three Friends, who, if we may
take it for a History, not a Fable, and may judge of the Time of it by
the Length of _Job_'s Life, and by the Family of _Eliphaz_ the
_Temanite_, who it is manifest was at least Grandson or Great Grandson
to _Esau Isaac_'s eldest Son, and by the Language of _Abimilech_ King of
_Gerar_ to _Abraham_, and of _Laban_ to _Jacob_, both the Latter being
at the same Time Idolaters; I say, if we may judge of it by all these,
there were still very sound Notions of Religion in the Minds of Men; nor
could Satan with all his Cunning and Policy deface those _Ideas_, and
root them out of the Minds of the People.

And this put him upon taking new Measures to keep up his Interest and
preserve the Hold he got upon Mankind; and his Method was like himself,
subtle and politick to the last Degree, as his whole History makes
appear; for seeing he found they could not but believe the Being of a
God, and that they would needs worship something, it is evident, he had
no Game left him to play but this, namely, to set up wrong Notions of
Worship, and bring them to a false Worship instead of a True, supposing
the Object worship'd to be still the same.

To finish this Stratagem, he first insinuates that the true God was a
terrible, a dreadful, unapproachable Being; that to see him was so
frightful, that it would be present Death; that to worship him
immediately, was a Presumption which would provoke his Wrath; and that
as he was a _consuming Fire_ in himself, so he would burn up those in
his Anger that dar'd to offer up any Sacrifice to him, but by th