In a word, Satan withdrew with all his followers malecontent and chagrine, resolv'd to disobey this new command, and not yield obedience to the Son.
But Mr. _Milton_ agrees in that opinion, that the number of Angels which rebel'd with _Satan_ was infinite, and suggests in one place, that they were the greatest half of all the angelick Body or seraphick Host.
"But Satan with his Power, "An host "Innumerable as the stars of night, "Or stars of morning, dew drops, which the Sun "Impearls on ev'ry leaf and ev'ry flower.
Be their number as it is, numberless millions and legions of millions, that is no part of my present enquiry; Satan the leader, guide and superior, as he was author of the celestial rebellion, is still the great Head and Master-Devil as before; under his authority they still act, not obeying but carrying on the same insurrection against God, which they begun in Heaven; making war still against Heaven, in the person of his Image and Creature man; and tho' vanquish'd by the thunder of the Son of God, and cast down headlong from Heaven, they have yet reassumed, or rather not lost either the will or the power of doing evil.
This fall of the Angels, with the war in Heaven which preceded it, is finely describ'd by _Ovid_, in his war of the _Titans_ against _Jupiter_; casting mountain upon mountain, and hill upon hill (_Pelion_ upon _Ossa_) in order to scale the Adamantine walls, and break open the gates of _Heaven_; till _Jupiter_ struck them with his thunder-bolts and overwhelm'd them in the abyss: _Vide Ovid Metam._ new translation, lib. i. p. 19.
"Nor were the Gods themselves secure on high, "For now the _Gyants_ strove to storm _the sky_, "The lawless brood with bold attempt invade "THE GODS, and mountains upon mountains _laid_. "But now the _bolt_, enrag'd _the Father_ took, "_Olympus_ from her deep foundations shook, "Their structure nodded at the mighty stroke, "And _Ossa_'s shatter'd top o'er _Pelion_ broke, "They're in their own ungodly ruines slain.--
Then again speaking of _Jupiter_, resolving in council to destroy mankind by a deluge, and giving the reasons of it to the heavenly Host, say thus, speaking of the demy-Gods alluding to good men below.
"Think you that they in safety can remain, "When I my self who o'er Immortals reign, "Who send the lightning, and Heaven's empire sway, "The stern [4] Lycaon practis'd to betray.