he Criticks, in Bar of
the sacred Oracle.

Be it one way or other, _Abraham_ shew'd a Hero-like Faith and Courage,
and if the _Devil_ had been the Author of it, he had seen himself
disappointed in both his Views; (1.) by _Abraham_'s ready and bold
Compliance, as believing it to be GOD's Command; and (2.) by the divine
Countermand of the Execution, just as the fatal Knife was lifted up.

But if the _Devil_ left _Abraham_, and made no attack upon him, seeing
him invulnerable, he made himself amends upon the other Branch of his
Family, his poor _Nephew_ LOT; who, notwithstanding he was so
immediately under the particular Care of Heaven, as that the Angel who
was sent to destroy _Sodom_, could do nothing till he was out of it; and
who, tho' after he had left _Zoar_, and was retir'd into a Cave to
dwell, yet the subtle _Devil_ found him out, deluded his two Daughters,
took an Advantage of the Fright they had been in about _Sodom_ and
_Gomorrah_, made them believe the whole World was burnt too, as well as
those Cities, and that in short, they could never have any _Husbands_,
&c. and so in their abundant Concern to repeople the World, and that the
Race of Mankind might not be destroyed, they go and lie with their own
_Father_; the _Devil_ telling them doubtless how to do it, by
intoxicating his Head with Wine; in all which Story, whether they were
not as drunk as their Father, seems to be a Question, or else they could
not have supposed all the Men in the Earth were consum'd, when they knew
that the little City _Zoar_ had been preserv'd for their Sakes.

This now was the third Conquest _Satan_ obtain'd by the Gust of humane
Appetite; that is to say, once by Eating and twice by Drinking, or
Drunkenness, and still the last was the worst and most shameful; for
_Lot_, however his Daughters manag'd him, could not pretend he did not
understand what the Strength of Wine was; and one would have thought
after so terrible a Judgment as that of _Sodom_ was, which was, as we
may say, executed before his Face, his Thoughts should have been too
solemnly engag'd in praising God for sparing his Life, to be made drunk,
and that two Nights together.

But the _Devil_ play'd his Game sure, he set his two Daughters to work,
and as the _Devil_'s Instruments seldom fail, so he secur'd his by that
hellish Stratagem of deluding the Daughters, to think all the World was
consum'd but they two and their Father: To be sure the old Man could not
suspec