t tut mwiowtt * PRINCETON, N. J. Collection of Puritan Literature. ;ccl Divisu n Section // j I Number THE ANTI-UNIVERSALIST, OR HISTORY OF THE FALLEN ANGELSOFTHESCRIPTURES PROOFS OF THE BEING OF SATAN AND OF EVIL SPIRITS, MANY OTHER CURIOUS MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH. y BY JOSIAH PRIEST, HOR OF THE MILLENIUM, AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES, ETC. EMBELLISHED WITH TWELVE ENGRAVINGS. PART I. ALBANY: PRINTED BY J. MUNSELL, 55 STATE STREET. 1839. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/antistOOprie PREFACE No subject that lias been agitated since man was created, can be said to have engaged the attention of all people, as that of re- ligion, whether among Pagan or Christian nations. That it is thus, is, however, perfectly natural ; because it claims to involve the interests of man, relative to both time and eternity, as univer- sally allowed. In all ages, and under all circumstances, religion, whether handed down from father to son by tradition, or from God by inspiration, as in the case of the Holy Scriptures, has ever pre- sented to notice two beings, who are shown as opposed to each other in their natures and pursuits. These two beings are known, or spoken of, by the terms Jehovah, and Satan ; the good and the evil being, in Jewish and Christian countries ; while in other parts of the earth, are equally acknowledged, if not thus named — differ- ing only as languages differ, but conveying the same ideas. Jehovah is represented as being infinitely good, and as having innumerable hosts of spiritual beings, or angels of a supernatural character, who act in his universal providence, among the works of his hands ; not only in this, but in all worlds, as agents, exerting a benign and protecting influence : — while the other, namely, Satan, is also shown as having under his supervision hosts of spirits, or angels, of a supernatural character, but of malevolent natures, who act in the way of both moral and physical ruin, so far as in their power in opposition to God. These two beings are acknowledged by all religions, in all coun- tries, and in all ages, under various names, ideas and attributes ; and were likely to have thus remained in opposition to each other, a while longer — even to the end of the world — had not the Univer- salis! sect of religion arisen, who it seems are determined that one of these beings shall exist no longer — putting their veto upon the judgment of all past ages, and inspiration to boot. This most important of all subjects, namely, religion, has both by tradition from remotest antiquity, and from the Bible, ever pre- sented its sanctions, as existing or taking place in another world, err lv - PREFACE. after death ; and lias qualified those sanctions, in dooming the bad, who pass out of this life having that character, to a state of unutter- able wo : while on the contrary, the good, sustaining that character when they change worlds, enter into a state of rapturous and cease- less happiness — a trait of jurisprudence in the government of God, seemingly well suited to restrain over acts and injurious behaviour among his subjects, so far as threatened coercion can have such an effect ; and likewise to encourage the practice of virtue. But there has arisen, out of the great sea of religious opinions, in these latter days, a sect, namely, the Universalists, who deny not only the being of this one Satan, and his coadjutors or associate evil spirits ; but the whole of the penal sanctions of this great sub- ject, religion, as being inflicted, or as existing after this life, not- withstanding the Scriptures seem to be against them — the text of which they acknowledge — whose influence we will not deny is very great, and pervades all ranks of people, all communions of Chris- tians, far more than is commonly supposed, and is exerted against the doctrines of the orthodox sects, and as we believe the Bible itself. The object of this work therefore is to examine the Bible in re] lation to the claims of either side to the truth. We have from childhood heard of the existence of a devil, or Satan, from books, the Bible, in prayers, sermons, and conversation on the subject of religion, as if there could be 710 doubt of it — and also of evil spirits, and yet we have never met with any attempt to examine this trait of theology, as we have the rest, the being of a God, the existence of a. hell, a day of judgment, &c. : ice have therefore undertaken to give our opinion of this belief — the being of Satan and evil spirits. In traversing the subject, we of necessity have been compelled to clip into many curious things connected with our main one, yet we have aimed so to manage it as not to debate disputed topics with any of the orthodox orders, endeavoring to maintain all the great and leading features of their faith ; while we combat only with the ■doctrines of Universalists ; who, in our opinion, pervert the whole design of the Scriptures by their dogmas. The course we have pursued in this work has been to avoid prolixity, aiming to furnish ready and short arguments against Universalist sentiments, for the use of the rising generation, and such as scarcely know what to believe, having not much considered the matter ; believing we have done what we can in this work to counteract the influence of those principles, we ho-pe for support and patronage, therefore PREFACE. V. Wo do not hesitate to express a belief that we have advanced much curious matter on many curious subjects, worthy the reader's attention, which are doubtless calculated to induce thought and elicit conversation, and lead men to read the Bible, which, in reality, contains more useful and wonderful information, than all the books of mankind put together. The nature of the subjects, upon which we have treated in this work, are of necessity, such as are denominted the terrible; but on this account, we hope it will not be rejected, while we remember thai it is written by St. Paul: (2d Cor. v. 11,) "Knoicing the TERROR of the Lord, ice persuade men." With this view, there- fore, namely, to persuade men to read the Bible, and the more earnestly to examine it, to arouse the attention of men to the sub- jects we have treated upon, and to check — according to our ability, Universalist opinions, in their overflow of the land, — we set it afloat on the sea of public opinion, asking the favor of a wide •dispersion of the work, and of its being thoroughly read and com- pared with the Scriptures — having with respect to these objects, the good wishes, at least, of THE AUTHOR, i \ I ) E X T O P A H T F I R S T Genesis, third chapter, examined in relation to the original meaning of the word Serpent; and inquiry as to ichat kind of animal it was which Satan made use of to beguile the first woman — was it u Snake, or was it the Orang oiitang ? with a full account of the latter kind of animal 9 Arguments and traditions, which, in the estimation of many, go to support the ideathat a Sjiake was the animal of the text of Moses, by which Eve was deceived ; with a full account of several specimens of this kind of animal, a reptile, as known to the ancients 26 The manner in which serpents moved over the ground before the curse, according to a certain ancient author ; with a full account of the serpent- worship of the ancients ; and of the capture and size of one of the largest description, by the Egyptians. • • 31 Strictures on Mr. Balfour's opinions against the existence of any animal whatever, as used by Satan, in the beguiling of the first woman ; with other subjects 47 Strictures on Mr. Balfour's opinions, respecting orthodox Christians having derived many opinions from the ancient Persians, or the writings of Zoroaster ; with other subjects & 7 Origin of Satan, and cause of sin ; with many other curious matters : as of the first creative acts of God ; whether matter is eternal or not ; with proofs of the necessary and uribeginning existence of God ; whether mind is produced from organization ; whether God was active prev'wtts to his first creative act; and whether mind or matter was first created ; the heaven of the angels ; its location ; where, &c ; have any other worlds of the universe sinned besides this on which we dwell? a query of the author of the Age of Reason, against Christianity, an- swered, &c 60 Condition of the first spirits ; proofs that they were made in a great variety of orders ; cause of the being of Satan, &c 85 Further examinations of the same subjects ; with enquiries whether the angels of the Scriptures were men or spirits; the latter of which, by some Universalists, is denied, 91 Supposed voyages of the angels, or spirits, out from their heaven into the ocean of space, before anything else waa created ; naturs of mind ; of frco agency ; strictures on Universalists' opinions respecting free agentfy ; with many other curious matters, 164 INDEX. Proofs of the fall of the angels; refutation of several propo- sitions of Balfour, which accuses the orthodox sects of deriving thoir peculiar opinions fiom tho writings of Zoroaster, the Persian ; of the sin of Eve; with strictures on the Universalis opinion, that all the deed there was which misled Eve was her lusls ; with other curious matters, 124 Fall of the angels; and cause of Satan's being, still further examined; Hod revealed to the angels; his reasons for creating free agents, though he foreknew thai some would sin, 138 Mode of the trial or probation of the angels, long before the world was mado ; and an account of those who fell in that trial ; the argument which was carried on between Michael and Lucifer, (both good angels at that time,) constituting what is called in Scripture a war in heaven ; and by what means this war was onded ; their first discovery of creation, &c 144 Respecting Lucifer, son of the morning ; who and what ho was, as spoken of by Isaiah the prophet ; whether the king of Babylon or Satan the fallen angel, 167 What became of the wicked angels after their fall ; is there a located hell or not in another world ; and is there yet to come a day of particular and general judgment 1 with further proofs of the existence of a devil and evil spirits; with strictures on the Universalist opinion, lhat the ruining the Jews by the Romans was the day of judgment spoken of in the New Testament ; with other curious matters, 171 The famous text, by which Universalists think they prove that the worst hell there is in existence is in this life, examined ; and is found Psalms, Ixxxvi. 13 ; with other interesting subjects, • • . 20o Respecting whether other worlds may have been destroyed in ages past, by fire, as this is to be ; with proofs of such occurrences, according to the archives of astronomy, 215 INDEX TO PART SECOND Account of the operation of Satan, with the heads of our raC e — Adam and Eve ; with further evidence of the real existence of Satan and evil spirits,— with strictures on the Universalist belief, that the lusls of human nature — its diseases — tho idols of the heathen, &c, are all the devils there are in existence; with other curious matters, about the fall of our first parents 257 What would have been the condition of Eve, if when she had broken the law about the forbidden tree, and offered its fruit to Adam, if he had not received it; and what would have been the condition of our rac», urder Bjch a y.ew of the SJibjeci 246 Vlli INDEX. Further proofs of the being of Satan, and of his real identity, as shown from the book of Job, and other Scriptures ; with further strictures about the lusts of Eve, before she had sinned — according to Universalists ; and other curious matters 24$ Further evidence still, of the real existence of Satan, and evil angels — shown from the text of the New Testament — his operation against the Saviour, and possession of many people — and of their being cast out of them, &c; with stiicfures on the Universalis! belief, that the carnal mind is one of the devils of human nature, &c ^. . 264 Further accounts of the being of Satan; with proofs that the world is to be destroyed by fire , &c 279 The subject of rewards and punishments — whether awarded in this life, or in another; a guilty conscience purgatory — as held by Universalists — examined ; the deaths of St. Paul and Voltaire con- trasted ; of a day of judgment to come, &c ; with strictures on Univer- salist opinions, about the penal fire of the New Testament; with other subjects, kc. .' 287 An enquiry, how Satan, and evil spirits were worshiped in ancient times — with proofs that they were worshiped, — and even in modern times 318 An enquiry as to the original cause of diseases and death ; are they of God or of Satan 1 with other curious matters, 328 On the subjects of evil spirits — the opinions of the Jews on this subject — of Simon Magus, and the Gnostics; evil spirits cast out of many who were possessed ; of the wonderful consequences which followed 334 Miscellaneous strictures and remarks on the subjects of Uni- versalist doctrines and opinions 862 On the subject of the forms or shapes of good and evil spirits, and of the human soul when disembodied ; with conjectures how evil spirits get the possession of human beings, 404 Attributes of Satan, and evil spirits 414 Evidence of Polycarp, the Martyr, against Universalists, in relation to a hell after death 417 Proofs of the immortality of the human soul, or that it does not die or sleep, from death till the resurrection — as held by some Uni- versalists, 418 TO THE SUBSCRIBER. ft?" Although the Index does not particularise all we have allu- ded to in the allusions of the Prospectus, yet we have treated on all the promised subjects, and many more. HISTORY OF TUE FALLEN ANGELS, &C. PART FIRST. That there exists a supernatural being, designated by the original term, and name, Satan, is believed by all the Christian its, denominated orthodox; yet we do not find among the great number of this description of Christians any belief extant of the existence of but one such being ; while it is held by them that there are many evil spirits or supernatural demons, who are inferior in mental ability, and sul ordinate to this one Satan ; who before he full, was one of the only two archangels, of all the intel- lectual powers, which God created in the very out-set and begin- ning of existences. The names of those two archangels, when first created, were Michael and Lucifer, as we shall show in the course of the work; Michael signifying, l '-/he might of God? and Lucifer. Light-bringer. St. Jude, the Prophets Daniel and Isaiah, speak of r . Milder those names; orthodox christians believe that th? s ,v two highest of all angelic orders, as well as all beneath them, were created by the Word of God, who, in the course of not only our earth, but all other worlds, andcontin- as he pleases, and will continue thus to create ad infinitum, peopling them and constituting them as he will ; and that tins Word of God — the Second Person of the ever-adorable and my Trinity — in the fullness of periods, became in- carnate, or in etlwr words, became flesh and dwelt among men : when I Ithenameof Jesus Christ According to these, the orthodox sects, it is believed that one of these archangels, namely. Lucifer, fell from his first condi- tion, toL other angels of lower orders, and were therefore, necessarily, bereft of all happiness, which constitutes their departure from, or fall from heaven, their first estate. The first information, of this oernrrcnee, they believe is found in Gen rsis. the !>ook of tin 1 generations of the heavens and the earth, at the beginning of the 3d chapter, as written by Moses; and is believed to be the eldest literary work now in being: the Chinese and Hindoo books not excepted: which by some it it is said, however, claim an astonishing antiquity, amounting even t* millions of years, if not of ages; but are known, and ascertained by the enlightened antiquarian societies of the age, and especially 2 10 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN the one established in China, to be preposterous in the extreme. In this Chapter, it is believed, is found the first proof of the exis- tence of such a being, who by Eve, the first woman, was called Serpent, as stated by Moses ; and by St. Paul, 2d Cor. xi. 3, and St. John, Rev. xx ; who adds the names of Devil and Salmi, to the word Serpent. Here in the disguise of an animal, calicd in our English translation of the Bible, the Serpent, this fallen an- gel is noticed conversing with Eve, the mother of the whole hu- man race. But as it respects proof, that there was a fallen angel, called Satan, the Serpent, and the Devil, an intellectual being, who by sophistry, false argument, and lies, misled, beguiled and de- ceived Eve, we shall defer it for the present ; for the purpose of ascertaining the kind of animal Eve meant, when she said to the Lord, that the Serpent had beguiled her, and she did eat ; which when we shall have ascertained we shall resume again. As it respects the kind of animal, thus spoken of, and called a serpent, it was believed by the pious, learned, and celebrated Adam Clarke, one of the most laborious and voluminous Bible commentators of the age, that it was not a snake or serpent ; but a creature of the Simla species : namely, the Orang Outang, or the wild man of the woods, which is the meaning of the word in the Chinese language : the wild man of the woods because it looks so much like a man. This opinion may, perhaps, appear extremely singular to many, if not wholly absurd, on account of having always from infancy supposed it to have been a snake ; yet before we condemn this opinion, no doubt we shall do well to attend to the reasoning of that great man, as well as to the argu- ments of others, of the same opinion. We intend, however, to give all the reasons we can find in support of the common belief, as well as in support of the other; between which the reader will make his choice, if he values the question. Dr. Clarke's reasons against the animal having been a snake are as follows. He says the word which is translated serpent, and has led the whole world to believe that the creature was a snake, is in the original Hebrew written Nachash, or Nahash, and that it is susceptible of no less than three distinct siguiiicii- tions. First: it signifies to observe attentively, to divine or fbretel events; or to use enchantments as did the ancient avgers or seers, by viewing attentively the flights of birds, the entrails of beasts when slain, the course of the clouds. Jcc. Second: the word Nachash signifies to acquire knowledge by experience^ as by suffering, by enjoyment, society, &c. Thud: it signifies brass, and is translated in the Bible not. only brass, but chains tindfe/lcrs of brass, and in several places even . teel, or any thing which glitters or is highly burnished. ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 11 From which it is clear, says this writer, that from the various ac- ceptations of the word, and the different meanings which it bears, in the sacred writings, that it was a sort of general term in the Hebrew language, confined to no one specific sense, to the ex- clusion of all others. Here it will he necessary to follow his rea- soning, in his examination of the roof of thai word; to see if its original ideal meaning will not enable us to discover the true animal intended in the text, and spoken of by Eve to the Lord. We have already seen, he says, that the word Nachash signi- fies, among other meanings, to view attentively, and iilso to ac- quire knowledge by experience, as it is used in Gen. xxx. 27, by Jacob: who, in speaking of the hard treatment he met with at the hand of Laban, his father-in-law, says Nachashti; signi- fying, I have now learned by experience: for his father-in-law had cheated him, or changed ihc conditions of his services no less than ten times,— and this meaning appears to be its most gene- ral meaning in the Bible, namely, that of acquiring knowledge, by experience or otherwise. But this word Nad-ask was, by the Greek translators, who translated parts of the Old Testament into their language, nearly three hundred years before Christ, made to mean Op is, or Ophi^ a creeping animal — the snake. They do not seem, says Dr. Clarke, to have done this because this was its fixed and deter- minate meaning in the sacred writings, but because it was the best that occurred to the then translators, who do not seem to have given themselves much trouble about it. We may suppose however, another reason which we will add to the above, as ad- ditional, why they may have supposed the word to mean a snake. We have seen that one of its significations, under the third head of its general meanings, was anything which was bright ana" highly burnished, glittering in the sun, and being beautiful to the sight of the beholder. Now this meaning of the word, was very well suited to the glossy, bright, and variegated shining of many kinds of serpents, which abound in Greece, and all tropical countries, or in very warm latitudes: on which account, and not being acquainted with the orang-outang, a creature of the hotest regi >ns of Africa and the East Indies, — the snake, for the reason j;ist remarked, and not on account of its subtilty, was supposed by Greek translators, to have been the animal which Eve mentioned, as statu! by Mioses. from that translation therefore, which is called the Septua- gtnt, says Dr. Clarke, we can derive no light, nor indeed from any other of the ancient versions of the Scriptures, which are all subsequent to that translation. Wherefore, he says, in all this uncertainty about th:* meaning of the word Nachash, in the ancient Hebrew, it is natural for a determined and serious enqui- rer alter truth, to look everywhere for information ; and that in f2 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN such an enquiry, the Arabic language may be expected (o aifom some help, on account of its great similarity, and even relation to the Hebrew. Here, before we pursue, this author's reasonings on this sub- ject, at length, we will take occasion to state the" reasons why the Hebrew and Arabic languages, were most undoubtedly simi- lar, if not identically the same in the time of Moses, when the book of Genesis was written, — and therefore may be resorted to, as an aid in the interpretation of the Hebrew word Nachash, as well as of many others in that language. The Arabians claim Abraham as their father, through the ancestry of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, by the Egyptian girl, or servant-maid of Sarah, the wife of Abraham. On which account, the Arabians were anciently known, and named among the nations, Ishmaelites, the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham. Now the language which Hagar and her son spoke : who was but thirteen T^ears old, when he, with his mother, was compelled to leave the dwelling and company of Abraham's numerous household, — most assuredly was that cf Abraham ; consequently, it is clear, that the two languages, have the same origin, and that one of them arose out of the other: and who can now determine which is the purer Hebrew, the old Arabic, or Ishmaelite language, or the language of Moses and the Israel- ites, when they were among the Egyptians. It is true, that from the time in which Hagar and her son went out from Abraham, into the great wilderness, to commence the fulfilment of God's word of promise to Abraham, concerning Ishmael, namely, that he should become a multitude, and thi ! he should be a wild man, and that out of him twelve kings should proceed ;— was till the time of Moses, all of four hundred years; yet on account of the proximity of the Egyptians, where the Israelites in the land of Goshen were,during this four hundred years, and the Arabians, or Ishmaelite country, the language or dialect of the two races, cannot with any show of reason, be sup- posed to have been at all dissimilar; as the fact is, even now, they are exceedingly alike. Which of the two languages, as spoken by Moses, or as spoken by the Arabians, when the Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments, were -first translated into their language, (which was not till after the Christian Era.) was most like the language of Abraham, is hard to decide. But of the Arabic language, Dr. Clarke says, thatit is of great use, even now. in understanding the most ancient Hebrew Manuscripts of the Bible. The fact, no doubt is, the two languages arc brothers, arising out of the same source, and from the little intercourse of the Arabians or Ishma- elites, from time immemorial, with other nations, has aided in retaining their ancient manners, their customs, and their Ian- XNGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 13 guage, in much the same condition they, wero, in all times of their existence, from the time they were first known as Ishmaei- 2tos till now, or till the time when the Bible was translated into their language, after the ( Jhristian Era, la the very era of Closes, the Phrenicians — the first peopli after the Deluge, who arrived at an extensive empire, having commenced under the auspices of Nimrod, the grand-son of Noah;— comprehended the countries afterward known in scrip- ■ history, of Palestine^ Tyre, Sidon, the whole country of the old Cana and the Hebrews, Syria, Syro-Phoenicia, Ant- ram, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Babylon, and Chaldea. In all these countries A, author of "Book of Nature " the same language was spoken, and the same alphabet was used,-— differing no more in their dialects, than the Scotch and Eng But while all other nations have passed away, with then- La and usages, the Arabians, inhabiting a country. which, on account of its deserts and location, secluded its inhabi rants from mingling in commerce, with surrounding nations, have retained therefore, their ancient manners and language, more pure than any oilier people of the whole earth. For this very he propriety of going to the Arabic language, to aid in deciphering the true and identical meaning of the word Nackash ; a word, used by the mother of the human race, in conversation with God himself when she complained to him, that she had been deceived by this creature, according to the account Mo jiven us of the transaction. Well, what word is there m the Arabic language, which can help us in this difficulty? It is due word Cha-nass. The word Cha-nass, says Dr. Clarke, is a root, in the Arabic, and casts light on this subject, as it is similar in formation and sound, to the Hebrew Nackash. The word Chan ass, or K-ka-nassa, — signifies, departed, drew oil" lay hid, seduced, slunk away. From this root, comes A-ka-ka-nass, K-h-nass, and K-ha-noos, all of which signify, an Ape, or Satyrus, or any creature of the Simla, or Ape genus, at the head of which, is placed the Orang-outang, or man of the woods. It is very remarkable, says J)r. ( larke, that one of these words -namely, K-ha-nass, means the devil, that fallen angel, in the Arabic,— and is derived from the root, Cha- nass, or K-ha-nassa, which means a Seducer Now is it not strange, that the Arabic Satan, devil, or fallen mgeL, should have the same name, with that of the Orang-outang. ana derived from the same root, and that root so very similar to the Hebrew word Nackash, unless they signified the same thing in the outset, and common parent language, as spoken in the family of Abraham, and at the time of Moses, by the Hebrews? We have seen that one of the meanings of the Hebrew Nach- ash, was that of foretelling events, embracing under that idea, 14 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN that of necromancy, which is a deceptive, deceitful pretension, and agrees with the Arabic word Cha-nass, or K-ha-nassa, — which signifies to seduce, and then to hide, by secretly departing from the sight, so that the seduced cannot even suspect they are deceived. By examining the Hebrew, as now extant, it is found, that the word Koph or Kooph, signifies an ape r or any creature of the simia, or ape genus, — which words, in their formation and sound, are extremely similar to the Arabic word K-ha-noos T the name for the same creature in the Arabic, and would seem to prove, that the words in both languages, were derived originally from the same root, Cha-nass, and shows them to have sprung out of the same origin, and family : that of Abraham the Chaldean, With this view it is extremely singular, that the Greek trans- lators should have rendered the Hebrew word Nachask — which we believe arose out of the root Cha-nass — to signify a snake, or opts or ophi, which are terms in that language for the serpent, instead of having translated it Pithe-kos, which is the Greek name of the Ape, or any creature of the Simia race, and has for its head the Orang-outang or wild man of the woods. They must have been influenced by some such reasons as we have already given, namely, that as the snakes in the warm countries, and islands oi the Greeks, were very beautiful, glossy and shining in their appearance, they seemed to have supposed that the word Nach- ash, meant this creature, as that any thing which was highly burnished and glittered in the rays of the sun, was one of its ideal meanings. But if they had discovered its other meaning, — which was, to deceive, and seduce, by subtilty, cunning, &c, — they no doubt would have translated the word Nachash, Pi-the-kos, which was in Greek, the Orang-outang, or any creature of the Ape genus. The word Pi-the-kos, is more than fifty per cent affinity to both the Hebrew and Arabic names of the same creature. We will exhibit them together, that the reader may at once per- ceive their likeness: Nach-ash, Kooph, which are Hebrew, K- ha-twos, K-ha-nass, which are Arabic, and Pi-the-kos, which is Greek. Do they not evidently bear to each other a strong consanguinity in sound and formation. x\nd why should they not? As the ancient Hebrew, the an- cient Greek, and the ancient Arabic, were all spoken in small countries, bordering on each other, at a time but little removed from the time of the flood, and must of necessity at that period of the world, have been much more alike; springing as they did, out of the language of Noah, and retaining their then affinities, far more than such of them as now remain, can possibly be expected to do — except the Arabic alone, for the reasons already given. But to return from the subject of the creature's name, more ANGLLS OF TEIE SCRIPTURES. 15 particularly to what is said of its attributes, as examined by Ad- am Clarke, —" Now the Nac has Ii '.was more subtle, more wise, and prudent, than any beast of the field, [or earth] which the Lord God had made. In this account, we find, — First: that whatever tin's Nachash was, it stood at the head of the whole animal creation, for wisdom, subtilty, and understanding. And Second; that it walked or went upright ; as this is necessa- rily implied in its punishment: — 'on thy belly shalt thou go:' i.e. on all fours, like other quadrupeds. Could this have been said of a creeping serpent, or reptile, of any kind, as none of them overdid, and inner could walk erect, as they have no means, by which they could have thus made progress over the ground? If therefore, the animal was a snake, a creature which had crept along on the ground from its creation, it could have been neither curse nor punishment, for them to go on their bellies, as they had always done, and must do while the race endures." In the motions of a serpent, there appears to be no kind of inconvenience; as it glide.-; rapidly and secretly on its way, how- ever rough and uneven it may be, or dangerous to other animals that have legs, on which account, the creature is most evident- ly better commoded, than if it had not been cursed. How could legs be placed upon a, serpent ten, twenty, or eighty feet in length, as some are known to be, so as to be of use to the reptile. Four legs, as quadrupeds have, could not be placed in such a manner, as to prevent the sagging down to the ground of all that part of a long serpent's body, situated between those legs: unless a muscular power had been conferred upon them, so as to enable them to describe an arch from the place where the legs might be inserted, sufficient to prevent their bodies from being exposed to so great an inconvenience, as that of sweeping the ground between; as a muscular power sufficient to enable a long snake to keep itself in a horizontal line, would be unnatural, and monstrous,— requiring the creature's whole strength, to perpetually maintain this position ; and besides, this together with the legs, would en- tirely destroy the fine evolving motions of the serpent ; and annihilate the identity of the creature altogether: so that if this were the case, we should have no snake at all. The serpent has no organs of speech, nor any kind of voice, as all other animals have, but can only hiss. There is however, one exception to this trait of the history of serpents, and this is concerning the crested Basilisk of India, which, it is said, has a very loud and horrid cry, of which we shall soon give a more full account. On account of the evident want of capacity in the serpent to answer the creature of the text, "we are obliged," says Adam < larke, " to seek some other creature, to designate the Nach-ash, rather than the common snake, as generally believed, which on every view of the subject appears inapplicable." We have seen, 16 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN according to the above writer, that one of the ideal meanings of the root of all these words, namely, Cha-nass, is, to seduce and deceive; and that K-ha-nas, or K-ha-noos means the devil, a wicked supernatural spirit, in the Arabic, and was that spirit who seduced Eve from God and truth, and then departed from his disguised and hidden condition, no more to appear in that form. "It therefore appears that a creature of the Ape species, is intended instead of a snake, and that Satan made use of the former, as the most proper instrument for the accomplishment of his murderous purposes, against the life and soul of man," The creature, whatever it was. according to the text, stood at the head of the whole animal world, and as the Ape genus, are known to be more cunning, and subtle, than any other beast of the field, we are justified in selecting the Orang-outang, as the identical creature, which Satan made use of on the occasion of Eve's ruin; because the Orang-outang stands at the head of the whole simia race, and is In this way proven to be the subtilist, or most intellectual animal of the whole creation — man alone excep- ted. " It is evident," says Clarke, " from the structure of the limbs of this creature, that it originally went upright, like a man, and that nothing but a sovereign controlling power, could have indu- ced it to put down hands, which in every respect are formed like those of man, and compelled the race to go on all fours, like those animals which have hoofs and paws, instead of hands." If it is objected to this, that the Orang-outang, in its natural state, goes erect, even now, and therefore cannot be the creature, intended in the text of Moses, — we have it to reply, that the erect position of the animal is assumed but occasionally, and is evi- dently a labored action, resorted to only when the creature is forced to it, as in descending a steep place, being pursued, or when it fights in close combat. But as much can be said of a dog, or a bear, which frequently fight standing on their hinder legs ; and the latter can even run in that position, and no one ever thought of believing that bears go erect naturally and of choice, when not compelled by some unavoidal on. The Orang- outang is an animal, which approaches very near in form, to our race, differing in conformation, only in the creature's having two vertebra, or joints of the spinal bone, less than man,— and in feet being hands, with a thumb on each, as well as its bunds; by which we perceive Vne creature, says Dr. Clarke, was at first adapted to climbing, as well as to walking or running upright ; the former of which, thatof climbing, they yet retain, and excel all other animals, dwelling when they please, in the toj>s of the thick forests of India. No man can view an animal of this kind, especially the Pongo Orang-outang, and not be impressed with a feeling of certainty, of its intellectual approach to the human spe- cies, above all other creatures. But when it acts t its subtilty, ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 17 cunning, and intellectual condition, is at once perceived, still more than at rest; as there is a steadiness in its manner of con- templating objects, — a readiness, and aptitude to learn, and to seem to comprehend, when instructed, as is evident to all who have witnessed their exploits; even the common Ape, — acrca- ture, much below the Orang-outang in intellectual endowments, an animal of the same genus, will do astonishing feats of horse* manship, and other imitations of human performances, at the word of command, or bare signal of its master, as is often witnes- sed in the menageries of the country. Of this creature, the Orang-outang, naturalists relate, that in their nati\e woods, in a wild condition, some of them are very large and siren:'-, exceeding by a considerable amount, the ordi- nary size of men, '■ es lonnd full six feet in height, when stretched tip erect, being very Savage and : an kill- ing the negroes, when they happen to meet in the i f Afri- ca, and | I: are found. They are more than a match for the elephant, yean hurl stones and clubs with great violence and precision, with infiiate grimmace and horrid gestures, so that th< ■ ; is glad to escape so crafty an enemy. At the time when Alexander the Greal was in India, where he had been l< d on by of war — he met a host, or small army of Orang-outangs, and m m their formidable a] pearance, naked, hairy, horrible, and m< nacing attitudes, he was induced to make ready to give them battle, in case they came too nigh; but whether a fight took place, is not related by the historian. But Hanno, the Carthaginian general, having met with a lar encounter, on an island near the coast of Africa, did in reality, net only ma! / his men t'rr the battle, 1 ut actually fought a small army of tures, wfo ■ ■ and stones were found insufficient! with the spears, slii words of Hanno's soldiers : fell therefore, in great hut I : and being frightened by the y< lis of the army and sound < f the drums and trumpets, fled {■> the i g to the Carthaginians the held and the victims. S< v ra] of these Hanno caused to 1 eskin ned, salted, sewed up, and stuffed with < : . . . and con veyed to Carthage, where th< y were placed in the temj le of Juno, queen of heawen, and w re found there, when that city was taken by the i i . Inc. vol. 26, letters < IRA. From these accounts, we sec this creature is capable of plotting and making n :e of its native haunts, in a man- i i emblmg the actions of men, even acting in concert. No mere animal can ascend as high in cultivation as the Orang-outang, their memories being exceedingly retentive, much men: so, than any other beast of the creation. In proof of this, we give the following accounts. There was an Orang-outang, carried from some part of Africa, in a Dutch 18 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN vessel to Holland, which, while on board, fell sick. The physi- cian of the ship, took it in his head to bleed the creature, the same as he would a man ; after which, it grew better and scon recov- ered. But what was their surprise, when, before the voyage was finished, the Orang-outang, on again feeling itself in pain, from ill-health, went to the men. making signs to be again bled in its arm, remembering the ease it experienced from the former operation. Is not this a proof, that the animal has in a wonder- ful degree, the power of reflecting, and of combining circumstan- ces, so as to make deductions, approaching very near to that of man.— falling short however, of absolute moral capacity. A traveller in the island of Java,— a tropical country, situate at the southern extremity of the Chinese sea, — relates, that he saw there, a female Orang-outang, which was so well educated, that it made its own bed, as a human being would, and then laid down upon it, with her head upon the pillow,— which was stuffed with straw, or dry grass. — covering up her bedy with the quilt; this she did at night, when she desired to sleep. When her head ached, she would tie a handkerchief round it, having been instructed to do so by the person who owned her. Vosman gives an account of one of these animals, which was brought io Holland, in 1776, and presented to the Prince of Orange. It was about two and a half Rhenish feet high. In its manners, it was grave and melancholy. It was exceedingly fend of the coni- pany of man. When company — which often visited it — retired, so that it was left alone, it would throw itself on the ground, ma- king lamentable cries, showing all the signs of grief and despair, a human being could — speech alone excepted. When the keep- er appeard, it see] nod comforted, and would make signs for him to come close by, shaking up, and spreading out the diy grass of its bed, for him to sit upon. It used the fork and spoon, in eating, in the same manner men do, to convey food to the mouth, as if it were a human being. "There is even now, in the Museum of Natural History, in Paris, a young Orang-outang, brought from Sumatra. This not only possesses great docility, but seems to understand many of the feelings and actions of man ; he is sensible of reproof, and sheds tears and pants when scolded, as a child wjould do. Ho imitates with great skill what lie sees done, and even invents ap- propriate means, well fitted to attain his ench, when he moots with obstacles. For example, when he was unable to catch a little dog. more nimble than himself, which had been placed in his room as its companion, and found himself worsted in the pursuit, he seized upon the end of a rope, suspended in the middle of the room, and swinging, leaped in every direction, till he caught the dog. At another time lie tried to open the door, as his master had done, with the key : but having put the wrong ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 19 i end of it into the lock, he soon however, perceived the mistake, took it out and put in the other end. In the year 1817, there was Brought by a Doct. Abel, from Jara to England, an Orang-outang ; the account of which, we here extract from the Penny magazine, vols. 1 and 2, page 157, for the year 1K32, as follows: "The Orang-outang, on his arrival in Java, was allowed to be entirely at liberty, till within a few days of being put on board the Caesar to be convey- ed to England, and whilst at large, made no attempt to escape; but became violent, when put in a large railed bamboo cage, for the purpose of being conveyed from the Island. As soon as he felt himself in confinement, he took the rails of the cage in his hands, and shaking them violently, endeavored to break them in pieces, but finding that they did dot yield, generally; lie then tried them separately, and soon discovering one weaker than the rest, worked at it constantly, till he had broken it out and made his escape. He was again captured, and taken on board the ship, where an attempt was made to secure him to a strong sta- ple by a cord, which lie instantly untied with his fingers, as rea- dily as a man could have done, and rem off with the chain drag- ging behind; but finding himself embarrassed by its length, he eoiled it up and threw it over his shoulders. This feat he often repeated ; and when he found it would not remain on his shoul- ders, he took into his mouth. They now allowed him freely to wander about the ship, as he showed no disposition to leap over- board, and soon became familiar with the sailors, greatly surpass- ing them in agility. They would often chase him about the rigging, which gave him frequent opportunity of displaying his ability in managing to get away from them. On first starting he would endeavor to outstrip his pursuers by mere speed, but when hard pressed, would elude them by seizing a loose rope, and swinging out of their reach. At other times he would pa- tiently wait on the shrouds, or at the mast-head, till his pursu- ers almost touched him, and then suddenly lower himself to the deck by any rope, that was near him, or bound along the main- stay, from one mast to another, or swinging by his hands, moving them one over the other, the same as a man would do. When in a playful humor, he would often swing by some loose rope, within arms' length of his pursuer, and having struck him with his hand which was at liberty, would throw himself from him, with all the alertness and sport of a human being. Hi commonly slept at mast-head,— after wrapping himself in a sail ; in making his bed. he would use the greatest pains to re- move every thing out of his way, which might render the surface on which lie intended to lie. uneven ; and having satisfied him- self with this part of his arrangement, would spiced out the sail, and lying down upon it, drawing it over his body, with all 20 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN the signs of reason on the point, which seemed necessary for the occasion. Off the Cape of Good Hope, he suffered much from cold, especially early in the morning, — when he would descend from his .sleeping- place on the top of the mast, shudering with cold, and running up to any one of his friends, would climb into his arms, and clasping them closely, till he felt himself growing warm, — screaming violently at any attempt to take him away. In his attempts to obtain food, while on board the vessel, lie offer- ed many opportunities of judging of his sagacity and disposition. He was always very impatient to seize it, when held out to him, and became passionate when it was not soon given up, and would chase a person all over the ship to obtain it. Sometimes, says Doct. Abel, I would endeavor to evade him by ascending to the mast-head, but was always overtaken or intercepted in my progress. But if he found it impossible to overtake, on account of my having somehow got the start of him, he would climb to a considerable height on the loose rigging, and then drop suddenly upon me, and rifle me of the food in my pockets. But if I, per- ceiving his intentions, attempted to descend, before he could aiight upon me in that way, he would quickly slide down some rope, and meet me at the bottom of the shrouds, and then obtain his desires. Sometimes I would fasten an orange at the end of a rope, and lower it from aloft to the deck, but as soon as he attempted to seize it, drew it rapidly up cut of his reach. After being several times foiled in this way, by endeavoring to obtain it by direct means, he would then alter his plan, by appearing to care very little about it, — removing to some distance, and ascend some piece of rigging very leisurely for some time; then by a sudden spring, would catch the rope, to which it was fastened. But if defeated again, by my suddenly jerking il away, he would at first seem quite in despair, relinquish his efforts, and rush about the rigging, screaming violently; yet he would always return, to a renewed trial, tiil he could seize the rope,— di^ regard- ing the jerking, and allow it to run through one of his bauds, till within reach of the orange, and thus obtain it. The animal nei- ther practised the grimmace, nor antics of other monkies, nor possessed their perpetual proneness to mischief. Gravity ap- proaching to mildness and melancholly, were sometimes strongly expressed in his countenance. When he first came among stran i^ers, he would sit for hours with his hand upon his head, look- ing pensively at all around him." On board the same ship, there were several monkies, of which the Orang-outang would take no notice, when seen by any per- son ; and if at any time he did allow them to play with him, it was by stealth; while with the boys and men of the ship, ho would romp and play, freely and eagerly. At one time he was detected in an attempt to throw a cage of small monkies into the ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 23 ?oa, as if he knew that water could kill them, — but was prevented by the sailors; this he did -it was supposed — because he had noticed that food was given them, which he desired himself. This Orang-outang remained in England nearly two years, when ii fell sick and died : during which, it mourned and seemed afflicted, nearly as much as a human creature could have been, and seemed to implore assistance, and relief from pain, of such as stood near him. This animal was but a small one of the species, being but about two and a half feet high ; while some have been seen in their native woods, as large? as men ; but invariably go on all fours, except under particular circumstances. What animal of the earth, can compete with this, in giving evidence of intellectual subtilty, and approach to man, — as ap- from the foregoing accounts? None, we may fearlessly state; proving, as we deem, that this is the creature pointed cut in the text. '] 'his is the species of animal, one oi' which Satan, the fallen angel, an invisible spirit, made use of to hide him- self in, to deceive the woman,— by inspiring it with the gift of speech, and faculty of more than human reasoning, for the time being. In its upright form, which no doubt, was its original {x>sition, well a | articular, with the purpose of the evil one ; we see the animal, earnestly soliciting, and reasoning with the woman: — heaping argument on argument, with ad- volubility, and eloquence; more vehemi Jit and ravishing, than ever echoed in the halls of Greek or Roman eloquence ; attended with attitudes and tact of persuasion, beyond all mortal power; with blandishments infinite, to allure the woman, in pursuit of knowledge, to pluck the fruit of that tree. (See the Plate) The mind educated to believe the animal was vot a creature of the Ape genus, but a serpent, would do well to recollect, that the terms, as found in Genesis, : - on thy belly shalt thou go," are far from saying. —on thy belly shalt thou creep : as goingj or walking, is very different from the creeping,OT crawling mo- tions c.{ the snake; plainly showing, that to go on four feet or hands, is to go as pointed out in the text. Is it possible to con- ceive an idea more preposterous, than that a long tissue of a lire, such as the snake is, could ever have walked or none upright, on the sharp end of its tail. If it is said, that it might originally, have had legs and feet: y.t we cannot perceive, where they could have boon placi d, to any advantage to the creature, as they e\ idently must have been in its way. But, if to this, it is replied, that God, when he cursed the animal, took its legs off, and laid the creature out straight on its belly; we in our turn, reply, by asking the authority for such a notion, — as there is no allusion in the text, to any dismemberment of the animal. Wo have another argument, to advance against the animal's having 24 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN been a creature, which crept on its belly, as does the snake ; and this arises out of the phraseology of the curse, which reads, — ** cursed art thou above all cattle? Now, are cattle classed with snakes, or reptiles? Do snakes belong to quadrupeds? Are they so classed in the science of zoology? No, they are not: and never have been, in any age of the world, but be long to the reptile division of nature. The word Cattle, in the Hebrew, is Behema, and distinguishes all those kinds of animals not belonging to fishes, reptiles, fowls, or insects : — but to beasts, which walk on the earth, with four feet. But Serpents are classed among reptiles, — and consequently, could never, with propriety, have been thus alluded to, as a part of the creatures, belonging to such as the Divine Being, has in the text denounced Cattle, or Behema. By some, however, this meaning is denied, who are determined to believe that the creature was a mere snake: and contend that the phraseology, — cursed art thou above all cattle,- — meant : cursed art thou above all kinds of animals : whether of beasts, fishes, fowls, reptiles, or insects. But as the term Cattle, or Be- hema, is not descriptive of all kinds of animals, existing under all possible forms and circumstances, we conclude, that the crea- ture belonged to that division of nature, called Behema, or it would have been said: cursed art thou above every creature under heaven, instead of— all cattle. But says the querist, how is this?— could the Orang-outang, have been classed with creatures which went on four feet, when it is supposed that it went upright on two, like men ? Yes, is our reply ; it may so have been, on account of its arms being of great length : much longer, than those of man ; and because the Divine Being, knowing his own purpose of then reducing this hitherto exalted animal, to the condition of all cattle, — namely, go on four feet. But, says \\v?, querist, how is it, that this animal is cursed more than any other creature? Does it not in all res- pects enjoy itself, as an" animal, as well as all other beings of the creation? Our answer is: no doubt it dors, as it cannot know anything of its former shape, or attitude; yet in its motions,— whether upright, or on all fours —there is a strange shambling awkwardness, which characterises the creature. — not accompa- nying the motions of any other animal of the whole creation: which marks it as having been cursed, and changed from its first erect and easy position of action. That the animal originally went uptight, like a man, is shown, from the words of Moses: — '• on thy belly shalt thou go ;" or these words are without mean- ing, and the curse a solemn nothing. If it is enquired, whether the Orang-outang, or any of the Ape genus eat dust : as the text reads, — "dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life :" it is an- swered, they do ; inasmuch as they now are entirely indif- ANGELS OF TllE SCRlPTtltES. 25 fcrent to the circumstance of their food being in, or among the dust of the ground ; hut was not originally so, having in their upright position picked their food, which was the fruit of the woods, from the boughs, with their fingers, clean and pure, as produced from the hud and (lowers of the trees, — unmigled with the dust of the ground. Dust, of itself, imparts no nourishment to any creature, and is never taken into the stomach of any ani- mal, except by accident, or for some property, it often possesses, which is detected by the senses: such as salts, sacharine, ccc. On this very account, we learn that the eating of dust) as the text reads, must take place, only in the act of receivering other food : as it is incapable of sustaining animal life, and could never have meant that dust was to be the only food of any creature. Ufjt to those who will believe a snake was the animal, we ask : does the snake, of any kind, subsist on dust ? We answer, no : — as flesh, living flesh is the food of all the serpent tribes, or otherwise, they e&t nothing : but upon this, they feed, even to surfeiting, so as to disable them from crawling, — exceeding ail bounds, except their own unconscionable stomachs. This fact is of itself sufficient, without one additional reason to veto the idea of the creature having been a serpent,— such as is commonly supposed. But, whatever this subtilist beast, or Bchcma of all the field, or world, was ; we cannot suppose with some, who are of great account in the learned world, that it had naturally, the power of speech. The power of speech, so as to articulate words, conveying distinct ideas, supposes the presence of a rational soul, and of an intellectual mind, — which great and ifr. is denied to all brute existences. It is true, how- ever, that the animal in question, was found holding a conversa- tion by articulate sounds, and intellectual reasoning, with the first woman: which at once proves it was inspired by some power superior to itself, which we believe to have been a bad. or evil power, and such an evil power as the Scriptures are commonly understood to assign to the nature of the devil, — whose character, and .('iug, we shall in due time and order examine. If we admit the animal had naturally, the ability of reasoning, and gift of speech; we at once plunge into a number of strange absurdities, no less amn ing than foolish. The first absurdity, is : we are pr » nl d with an instance of a men" brute, having a reasonable soul,- or it could not have been capable of articulate speech, — and consequently of rational thought, and powers of argumenta- tion. A second absurdity, is : we are presented with a dumb beast, which knew far more of the Law cf God, and of the con • • • f breaking it. than even the man and woman — as ■jfirfct asth< of whom it is said in Scripture, that ho was created, head and superior, of all the works of God, belong- 26 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN ing to the earth ; but this animal knew more, on the abstruse points of moral law, than both of them together. A third absur- dity follows on this supposition, which is this: the animal, and consequently its whole race, were very likely to have become the teachers and monitors, of the human "family, as we see they had, in the instance of this leading animal, already commenced a course of instruction, even on theology, when as yet, the two first of the human race, were in a state of sinless perfection. But if we believe some evil being, such as the Scriptures make Satan to be, entered into the organs of the animal's brain, and influenced it for the tims being, causing it to utter words, accompanied with accurate reasoning powers, then we avoid the foregoing difficul- ties and absurdities. But Universalists however, deny that there was any animal in the case, interpreting the whole affair, as descriptive of what they call the lusts of Eve, even before she had sinned. But as we shall have much to say on this subject, before we finish the work, we desist for the present, and bring forward in our next chapter, an account of serpents, and the arguments in favor of one of the species, having been the instrument of Satan in deceiving Eve, according to the popular opinion — instead cf an Grang- er gvmenis and Ancient Tradition which go to prove, in the estimation of many, that a Snake urns the Animal of the Text of Moses, made use of as an Instrument by Satan io deceive the First Woman, preluded by the opinion of Mil- tan on that subject, as expressed in kis Paradise Lost. But notwithstanding the foregoing remarks, respecting the identity of the animal called in the book of Genesis, the subtilist beast of all the field, we shall in this chapter, introduce to the reader's notice, other opinions, respecting that matter. The popular, though in all probability, erroneous belief, that a snake was the instrument, by which Satan ruined our common parents, has obtained in all ages, and has spread abroad on the wide wings of tradition, and ilown to the ends of the world : as all nations have in some shape, accounts of the seduction of the first woman, by a serpent, which tradition has obtained, even among the aboriginal Indians of both South and North America. Hum- boldt, in his researches in Mexico, found in their parchment hooks, the story of that occurrence, recorded by a picture paint- ing, which exhibits a serpent, standing on the extreme point, or ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 29 end of its tail, in the act of conversing with a woman, by vibra- ting its forked tongue. Upon the supposition of the animal having been a snake, Mil- ton, the prince of poets, has beautifully told the story, in blank verse, in his Paradise Lost, which we will here briefly repeat in prose. From this writer's views, it appears, that after the fall of the angels, — who kept not their first estate, and had seconded the rebellion of Lucifer, and had been cast down from heaven to hell, with their great chief: that he made his escape from this prison,. — which is situated somewhere in space, far beyond the bounds of the rest of creation, — and found his way to the Sun, where he seems to have halted awhile in his flight, for the purpose of observation. From so conspicuous a place, he viewed the several planets, or worlds, which roll in their orbits around the sun. And now remembering an ancient prophecy once rumored among the angels of heaven, before his fall, that a cer- tain world was to be created, which should be inhabited by a race of beings, extremely singular, who were to be endowed with. corporeal bodies, of a peculiar shape, and with minds, but little mferior to themselves, and were to be beloved by the Creator, in o very tender degree. But which of the worlds, then in view, was die one, he could not make out: or whether it belonged to the family of the sun, on which he then stood, as there were others in sight, rolling through the vast ocean of space. But from this dilemma of uncertainty, respecting the exact globe which con- tained the singular race called man, he was relieved by the sud- den appearance of a youthful angel, who came flying on the easy pinions of excursive discovery, among the works of God. Of this youthful angel, Satan was resolved to enquire : but first, in a twinkling of light, before he should be discovered by the journeying seraph, he changed his shape and habiliments, from those of a thunder-scarred, and hell-burnt fugitive, with shorn and sooty wings, to those of a stripling angel, clothed with the bright and happy rays of heaven. (See the Plate.) This done, Satan by a flutter of his wings, attracted the ear of the heavenly traveller, who in a moment, from celestiai courtsey, let fall his gorgeous wings — which from his shoulders to his feet, clad him round with a starry brightness, — and bowed him low, as heavenly spirits are wont to do, when they meet. But Satan, not a whit behind in good manners, being thus compelled by his own duplicity, also bowed in return. Compliments being ended, Satan, with submissive voice, as became his seeming youth, enquired which of all the worlds in sight, was the abode of man, as much he said, he wished to sec and to admire this late display of creative power and wisdom. The angel which he here fell in with, was according to Milton, Uriel, one of the seven swift winged ministers of the throne of God, who were ever ready 3 30 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN to bear the commands of the Eternal to all worlds ; who stood in waiting, in an attitude of heavenly condescension, to the enqui- ring seraph, as in a moment he pointed out our globe ; when each waving a hand in token of departure, they spread their wings aloft; Uriel onward shot, as from his pinions there went forth a sweet perfume, filling a wide circuit of the sky; while Satan, plunged him headlong down to the ecliptic, nor stayed his rapid flight till his feet stood on the summit of a blooming mountain, in the very circuit of Paradise. He now betook himself to the task of ascertaining the habitation of those singular beings : whom he soon descried in a beautiful bower, laden" with fruit, and that they were male and female, a condition to Satan, wholly till now, unknown. He now disap- peared, or became invisible, and stood beside them unseen, and listened to their conversation : by which he learned their moral condition, and that they were under restraint in one — and but one particular, and this was respecting a certain tree, and its fruit, which he found was forbidden them, and was meant as a test of love and obedience, while all things else beneath the whole heaven was theirs to enjoy. On the forehead of the man, and on his limbs, was seen and known the stamp of God-like work, though formed of matter, a thing till now never conceived of by this sining angel. But most of all, there burned the mild fires of heavenly origin in the eyes of Adam, beaming forth in serene, but commanding majesty, the very image of the invisible God, as it was there he met the heaven-abashing power of high and holy intelligence in its brilliancy, though connected with unthinking matter. There was also the companion of Adam, a female glowing in holy beauty, fearful to look upon, so bright and fulgent were the glories of her person, which was shaded to the feet, with shining golden locks, full and redundant, as the rays of a morning sun, which played in the softly moving winds, like the very fibres of life, in joyous assemblage. She also was formed as man, but more soft and tenderly made, in every limb and feature, while in her eyes, there was the heaven of mildness, pouring forth their beams, as the fountains of life, beneath the sapphire throne of bliss. He heard them commune of joys: while each turned on the other looks of sweetness, beyond com- pare ; this moved his malice and hatred, which as a hell of moulten iron within his heart, raged a tempest ; when Satan resolved their ruin, and straightway put in requisition all his wiles, as he knew they could not be destroyed, except by being induced to disobey that one only law, or prohibition, of the tree and its fruit. Wherefore, it was not long ere he discovered the Scrpe?il, or snake to be the subtilist beast of all the field, or ani- mals of the earth, and having found one of a prodigious size, and withal exceedingly beautiful, being covered with green and gold, striped and spotted with every shade and hue of the rain- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 31 bow, or that tips the wings of beauteous fowls, and flowers of earth, so ransrod and mingled, that it seemed a creature fit to be irazed upon even by angels, into this serpent, in a moment .Satan transfused himself, being a spirit, and took his seat in the brain : by which he soon gave tone to the organs of the creature, so that speech rolled as fluently from his fiery tongue, as from the lips <>f five herself. But according to this author, the incomparabl< Milton, the serpent was not then as now, prone on the ground, winding its way over the earth like a contemptible worm, dragging its snakey folds far behind ; but Mas formed in a roil, a tower oi rising folds, like a cable to some stately ship, which the sailor bends in a ring, on the ample deek of a man o( war. while its head, with eyes of carbuncle or diamond, towered aloft, viewing all things far and wide, privileged in this respect also, as in the gift of cunning, above all the other beasts. Its motion, in this form, was rapid as the whirlwind, moving round and round, on its own base, with a quivering velocity, and seemed a rushing flame, while its head on high, kept its course, with eyes so bright and sparkling, that stars .seemed to leap forth on the air, as the creature in its swiftness, rushed over the plains. Such was the animal, and such the original manner of its mo- tions, till God, by the curse, •'• on thy belly shalt thou go," (creep) straightened it on the ground, according to Milton. By which we certainly think the creature was the gainer, as its present mode of moving is far better adapted to pass over rough ground, water or marshy places and mountainous districts, than in its upright ojr pyramidal form. (See the plate.) We have said a few pages since, that the tradition of all na tions, favors the belief that the animal was a snake, which Satan made use of to deceive the first woman, and this we now proceed to show. But whether it should be allowed to prove any thing, as to its real identity, must be left to the reader after all. On this curious subject, under the head serpent, see Watson's Theo- logical Dictionary, 1832, as follows: — "In Egypt and other oriental countries a serpent was the common symbol of a power- ful monarch ; it was embroidered on the robes of princes, and blazoned on their diadems, to signify their power and invineibl< might, and that as the wound inflicted by the basilisk is incu- rable, so the fatal effects of the displeasure of kings were neither to be avoided nor endured. The basilisk is of a redish color, and its head is adorned with a crown in the form of a cone of a briglut yellow; it is not entirely prostrate, like other serpents, but runs with its head and half its body erect, the hinder part sweeping the ground as it moves. On these accounts, its crown and haff erect position, the symbol of this serpent was preferred to all crea- tures, as a token of regal power. This fact is attested by the Arabian name of this serpent, which is melceha, from the Hebrew verb malach. to reign ; and was therefore considered the king 32 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN of serpents. In agreement with which, it is said that all other serpents acknowledge the superiority of the basilisk, by flying its presence, and hiding from its sight. This serpent is supposed to live longer than any other. The ancient heathen have therefore pronounced it immortal, and placed it among the number of their gods. This species of serpent, it appears, is still found in the mountains of India, growing to a great size, covered with scales, resplendant with burnished gold, having a kind of beard hanging from their lower jaw, which renders their aspect exceedingly frightful, whilo they have a cry, shrill and fearful/' a circum- stance attending no other serpent in being, as the voice of the ser- pent species, except this, is but a hiss.. " The trait which distin- guishes this dreadful serpent as belonging to the basilisk family, is its crown of bright yellow/' growing on its head in the manner of the dung hill cock,. <* with a_ protuberance projecting out besioV it as red as a burning coal." {/See the plate!) There are other serpents of India which are very dreadful, among which are the great li-boa and anaconda, the real drag. ons of the ancients. " To these serpents rites were devised, tem- ples built to their honor,, and priests appointed to- conduct the ceremonies of their worship. These miserable idolators, appeared before the altars of their serpent deities in gorgeous vestments, their heads arrayed with real serpents, or with the figures of Serpents, embroidered on their tiaras, while with. frantic exclama- tions they cried out,. Eva ! Eva ! which exclamation is thought by some to have been in evident allusion* to the triumph, the old serpent, the devil, obtained over our first mother Eve. In conse- quence of this, some do not doubt, but the snake was indeed the very instrument of Satan ; and in pursuance of this idea they sup- pose the evil spirit was permitted. to insuit our fallen race, by exalt- ing the serpent, his chosen instrument in accomplishing our ruin.. to the first place among the deities of the heathen world, and to be reverenced by the most sober and solemn acts of worship. The figures of serpents adorned the portals of the proudest temples of the east : the serpent was a very common symbol of the sun, and i;> represented biting its own tail with its body formed in a circle, in order to indicate the ordinary course of this luminary, and under this form, it was an emblem of both time and eternity. A serpent was the symbol of medicine, and of the gods which pre- - sided over it, as of Apollo and Esculapius. Inmost of the an- cient rites is found some allusion to the serpent under the titles of Ob, Ops, Python, &c. In the orgies of Bacchus, says Bry- ant, the persons who partook of the ceremonies, used to carry serpents in their hands, and with horrid screams call out Eva, Eva ; being according to the author just named, the same as Epha, or Opha, which the Greeks rendered Ophis, denoting i\ serpent ; but having no allusion to Eve as supposed by some. These ceremonies, and this serpent worship, began among the ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 35 Magi, who were the sons of Cash, the children of //am, the son of Noah, and by them was propagated in various parts of the world. Wherever this people founded any place of worship, and introduced their rites, there was generally some horrid story of a serpent. There was a legend of a serpent at Colchis, in Egypt, at Thebes, in the same country, and at otlier places. The Greeks called Apollo himself, Pythian, (the destroyer of a mon- strous serpent bred in tlte mud of the deluge,) which is the same as oupis, oroub, and is a serpent. In Egypt there was a ser- ])cnt named Thermutlds, which was looked upon as very sacred, the likeness of which the natives are said to have used as a royal tiara, with which they ornamented the statues of Isis, their ox god. The kings of Egypt wore high bonnets terminating in a round ball, surrounded with figures of asps ; their priests also had the figures of serpents on their bonnets/' which they wore in the temples of their gods. " Abaddon, the destroyer, mentioned in Rev. ix. 11, as a name of the 4evil, is supposed by Mr. Bryant to have been the name of the ophite, or snake god, with whose worship die world had }>een long infested. This worship began among the people of Chaldea, who built the city of Ophis, [or snake city] on the river Tigris, and were greatly addicted to divination, and the worship of serpents. From Chaldea this worship passed into Egypt, where the serpent deity was called Canoph, Caneph, and C'neph. it also had the name of Ob, or Oub, and was the same as Basi- lisk, or Basiliscus, the same as the Egyptian Thermuthis, and made use of by way of ornament to the statues of their gods. As the worship of the serpent began among the sons of Cush," the father of the African or Negro nations, the descendants of Ham, " Mr. Bryant conjectures that from thence they were de- nominated Ethiopians, and Athiopians, from Alh-ope, or Ath- cpes, the god whom they worshipped, and not from their com- plexion. The Ethiopians brought their rites into Greece, and < -ailed the island where they first established themselves, Elo- phia Solis Serpentis insxda ; the same with Euboea orOu- boia, that is, the Serpent island, or where the ophis, or snakes, were worshipped. The same learned writer discovers traces of the serpent worship among the Hyperboreans, at Rhodes, in what is now called France, named Ophiusa, in Phrygia, and upon the Hellespont, in the island of Cyprus, in Crete, among the Athenians, in the name of Cecrops, among the natives of Thebes, in Baitia, among the Lacedemonians, in Italy, in Syria, vfcc. and in the names of many places, as well as people, where the Ophites settled. One of the earliest heresies introduced into the Christian ehurch was that of the Ophites who held serpents as emblematical of supernatural power, the traits of which are still seen on many of their medals, the relics of Gnosticism, which are still extant-, 36 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN" specimens of which are shown toward the close of this work, m fac similie. The form assumed, or animal used by the tempter, when hr seduced our first parents, has been handed down in the traditions of the most ancient nations; and though animals of the serpent tribes were generally worshipped by the pngans, as symbols of the agaihademon, they were likewise considered the types of figures of the evil being. One of the most remarkable accounts of the primeval tempter, under the shape of a serpent, occurs in the Zendavesta of the ancient Persians, a book on theology and the worship of the gods. The dragon, or Ah-riman of the Per- sians, and the malignant serpent Caliga of Hindoo theology, appear to be closely allied. This dragon of the Persians is rep resented as the decided enemy of the mediatorial god, whom be persecutes with the utmost fury : though, as the Zendavesla teaches, he is finally to be vanquished by his celestial opponent, the mediatorial god." But from whom did the Persians derive their idea of a mediator 1 We answer, from Melchisadec, the son of Noah. " The serpent Typhon, of the Egyptians, who is sometimes identified with the ocean, because the deluge was esteemed as the work of the evil being, and the serpent Python, or Apolyon. of the Greeks, who is evidently the same as that of the Egyp- tians, appear to have the same origin, which was a tradition of the form which Satan assumed when in Paradise. Perhaps also the belief that the serpent Python or Typhon was once ora- cular, or had a human voice, which caused the so frequent use of serpents in their rites of divination, arose from a tradition of the vocal responses which the tempter gave to Eve, under the borrowed form of the serpent. We may still ascribe to the same source, that rebellious serpent, whose treason seems to have been so well remembered among the inhabitants of Syria. Pherecydes, a native of Syria, bestows upon him the Greek name of Ophioneus, or the serpent god ; yet extends his view of him, under the name of Ophioneus, as being the prince of those evil spirits who once contended with the supreme god, Cronus, who cast them out of heaven. Their happiness being thus justly forfeited, they henceforth were plunged into the depths of Tar- tarus, in the fiery bowels of the deep, hateful and hating each other. From Syria and the east, this history passed into Greece, miiK gled, however, with allusions to the deluge. The same evil being, in the same form, appears again in the mythology of the Goths, or Sythians. We are told by the ancient scalds, or bards v that the evil being, whom they denominate Loke, unites groat personal beauty with a malignant and inconstant nature ; sur- passing all creatures in the depths of his cunning and perfid\\ Here the primitive glory and majesty of Satan, before the linea . ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 37 ments of celestial beauty were defaced, by his rebellious aposta- cy, is not obscurely alluded to ; while the craft and malevolence which marks his character as a fallen angel, are depicted with sufficient accuracy." Thus we have shown that the worship of serpents may be traced in almost every religion, through ancient Asia, Europe, and Africa. From which we derive at least this great fact : that the traditions of all ages and nations of the earth, corroborate the Mosaic account of the fall of man, by the machinations of an evil spirit in the disguise of some animal; which it is true, this tradition seems to point out as having been some monstrous Serpent, Snake or Dragon. But if the word Nachash, in the text of Moses, does not mean definitely the Ophi, or snake, the whole foregoing history goes for nothing: so far as it regards proof, as to the identity of the animal Satan made use of on the occasion of man's ruin. But if a snake was not the creature, — How then, it may be enquired, came this universal tradition in existence? How is it that this opinion has seemed to prevail in the earliest ages, and handed the serpe2it down to posterity, as the identical animal which opposed the good being, the mediatorial, or redeeming god. and secured the worship and veneration of men ? To this we answer ; its worship may have been induced from its native hor- ror of aspect ; its deadly power of poisoning, by a sting of its fangs ; its insiduous and silent manner of approach, so that ere its victim is aware, death, in the form of a terrific serpent, has stung life away, in dreadful agonies. No creature which God has made, is so universally dreaded, and so formidable, as the serpent, especially the larger kinds, such as the boa, the anacon- da, and the crested basiliscus of India. On these accounts, this species of animal, as we have seen, became early in time, the symbols of power, of terror, and of death, on the brows of kings and priests, and were chosen badges of authority, of royalty, and of rule among men. From this circumstance, the transition was easy, to that of a higher cast, even veneration, worship, and deification, which have been bestowed on less fearful ani- mals and for smaller reasons, among barbarous and ignorant nations. But can this circumstance account for the belief which prevailed in the world even before Moses wrote the book of Gen- esis, that the serpent was the animal which Satan made use ot in the ruin of man. We think it can: and on this principle, which was, that the serpent was then considered as the xoorst creature in the whole creation, and therefore, exactly fit for the worst spirit in being, to make use of, in a work so ruinous : on which account it was not hard to slide into this belief, after the time of the flood, and the history of it retained only by tradition, in the keeping of wandering families, and tribes. As to the subtilty of serpents, there is no evidence with which we are acquainted, unless it be their courage, their fierceness, 38 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN their voracity, their power to charm, or fascinate, and their abil- ity to inspire horror. That they manifest art and calculation — especially those large serpents of the tropical countries— in secu- ring prey, is not denied ; but as much can be asserted of all kinds of animals. Of these kinds, their strength is irresistable, when brought in competition with any other creature, and their cour- age equal to their strength, as they will not turn aside for the fiercest tiger, elephant, leopard, or human being • nay, they all flee its sight in the utmost consternation. When one of these creatures has seized its victim, even though it be a tiger of the largest size, it never lets go its hold, though the struggle continue for days before it gets the victory. Its management during such contests, its patience till it has the mastery, the advantage it secures over its victim at every struggle, certainly shows the creature's calculation : but as much may be said of any other animal. There is, it is true, a terrific majesty in the appearance and demeanour of a large serpent, as whoever has met with a rattlesnake, can testify, This serpent will not precipitately flee when discovered^ but if it moves at all, its motions are at its leis- ure, maintaining a grave majesty as it views its disturber, with a sideway look, as if ascertaining the nature of its enemy, as it retires from sight.. Its manners in this respect may be compared to the lion, which maintains its majesty by its slow and consid- erate attitudes, when suddenly aroused from its lair. But before we leave this subject, we will give several accounts of the larger animals of the serpent species, as known in the trop- ical countries of the old world. " Not many years since, Mr. Edwards, the English resident in the Island of Ceylon, saw there a serpent which measured thirty-three feet four inches. It was covered with scales, ridged, or partly elevated along the back. Its head was of a green color, with large black spots, in the mid- dle, and yellow streaks around the jaws, and a yellow circle, like a golden collar around his neck, and behind that a black spot. Its head was flatish, and broad, its eyes monstrously large, very bright and terrible. Its sides were of a dusky olive color. Its back was very beautiful, a broad streak of yellow curled and waved at the sides ; along the edges of this, ran a narrow streak of flesh color, on the outsides of which was a broad streak of a bright yellow, waved, colored and spotted at small distances, with roundish and long blotches, of a blood color. When it moved in the sun, it appeared exquisitely beautiful. It had coiled itself among the branches of a large palm tree, watching for its prey ; when, not long after, there passed beneath it a crea- ture of the fox kind, when it darted down as swift as a ray of light, seized it, broke its bones, and soon swallowed it ; when it again resumed its place among the boughs of the tree, where it remained during the night, which circumstance was known from what transpired in the morning ; which was as follows : — ANGEL8 OF THE SCRIPTURES. 39 The sun was but a little way up, when there passed on its way beneath the fatal tree, a tiger, about the size of a yearling heifer, which was no sooner exactly beneath the serpent, and within its reach, than he darted down, seized the animal by the back with his teeth, at the same time twining itself several times around its body. It then loosened its teeth from the tiger's back, and griped its entire head in its mouth, tearing, grinding and choking it all at once, while the furious tiger resisted and fought to the utmost of its power. But finding it hard to con- quer, and the bones not easily broken, it had recourse to strata- gem ; which was to wind its tail around the tiger's neck, and drag him to the tree, against which the serpent leaned its victim, when it darted its coils several times round both the tiger and the tree, crushing him against it, till his ribs and bones were broken and bruised to pieces. After it had killed the tiger, with inexpressible torture, of about a day's continuance, the serpent, during the night, slavered it over with the juices of its tongue, and the day following swallowed it whole. This distended its stomach so much that it could not run ; when Mr. Edwaids and several of the islanders assailed and killed it. Br oxen's Bible Dictionary., under Hie head "Serpent? But we have accounts which maybe relied on, of serpents of a much greater length, amounting even to eighty and a hundred and twenty feet, natives of Africa, the Indies, and of the tropical islands. A curious and thrilling account of the capture of one of these animals in Egypt is given by Diodorus Siculus who lived in the time of Augustus Caesar, the greatest historian of the age. u A number of hunters, says that author, encouraged by the munificent offers of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, resolved to bring him one of those serpents to Alexandria. This enormous reptile, thirty cubits long, (which is fifty feet) lived on the banks of a cer- tain river, the Nile it is likely. There he dwelt, reclined upon the ground, near his cave ; his body coiled in a circle ; but when it saw any animal approach the bank where he lay, he darted upon it with dreadful impetus, seized it in his jaws, or strangled it in the folds of his tail. The hunters descrying him from a distance, conceived that they should easily succeed in taking him alive in their nets and load him with chains. They advanced with resolution, but when they were come within a short distance of the huge animal, the ferocious glare of his eyes, his rough and scaly hide, the noise which he made in rousing himself, and his £>pen mouth armed with long and curved teeth, inspired them with alarm. They ventured, however, to approach, step by step, till so near as to throw some heavy chains upon him ; but scarce- ly had they touched the monster, when he turned furiously round, seized the nearest hunter in his mouth, and killed another by a stroke of his tail. The rest now fled in terror ; but being unwilling to forego the reward? of the king, they invented another 40 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN method of accomplishing their purpose. They made a net of strong ropes, proportioned in size to that of the serpent, so as to hold him if they could but entangle him in it. To accomplish this, they watched a time when he left his cave to seek for prey, and blocked up its mouth with large stones. Then at a lit- tle distance, they spread the net over a space of ground, and kept themselves as silent as as they could, till the serpents return, when he found his abode beset by a host of armed men, horses, and dogs. At first, on discovering this, the mon- ster raised his head to a great height, so as to overlook men, horses and all, uttering frightful hissings. But being intimida- ted at the great number of his foes, and as the darts and (iron) arrows," shot from steel bows, " assailing him from every quar- ter, he rushed with violence to the entrance of his cave. But finding this blocked up, and at a loss how to escapo from the attack of the hunters, the noise of their trumpets and dogs, he turned to flee, or to fight, when they drew the net around him, in which he became entangled, and soon wearied himself with tremendous efforts to break through, but was subdued, and conveyed to Alexandria, to the great astonishment of the popu- lace, where he was kept in a place fited up for his reception. If the passion of anger and rage, is an evidence of the sublilty of serpents, then have they the pre-eminence over all other crea- tures, and especially the boa, the anaconda, with the crested basi- liscus of India ; but we do not know that this circumstance is evidence. Now a serpent of either of these kinds, but especially the ana- conda., as it is the longest of all land serpents, rolling or whirling its folds in a pyramid along the earth, as Milton has supposed, towering on high, glittering in its glory of maculated splendor, would not be an unseemly minister of the arch fiend, whereby to introduce himself to Eve, the queen of the earth, and of the human race, on a business which was to determine the fates of millions, so far as the sufferings of this life was concerned, at least. To give the reader an idea of the brilliant thought of Milton, respecting the original form and manner of the moving of the serpent, as it existed on the plains of Paradise, we present a plate of the creature, beneath the thick boughs of a tree, around which are entwined the redundant foliage of the grape vine, laden with fruit as large as apples. (See the Plate.) But as it respects certainty about the foregoing, in identifying the true animal by which Eve was destroyed, the reador will have his own belief; yet the writer of these sheets inclines to the opinion that it was the Orang-outang, because that crea- ture is the most cunning, the most artful, and the most subtil of all the animals of the globe, and approaches nearer to man, both in intellect and form, than any other creature. The female suckles her young at the breast, holding it in her arms, the same ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 43 as a woman would do. fondling it with equal delight and endear- ment. As a powerful evidence that the serpent was the animal which Satan made use of on the oecasion of the fall, as thought by many, is the circumstance of the universal terror this creature inspires, when met with hy man ; imagining that in this fact is fulfilled the word of God, which was addressed to the serpent, at the time he was judged, in the garden with Adam and Eve ; which was, -And I will put enmity bet ween thee and the woman, and be- tween thy seed and her seed, it (Christ) shall bruise thy head, (the devil) and thou (devil) shait bruise his (Christ's) heel,"' m death. Christ is the seed here meant, which was emphatically the seed of the woman, (Mary) and not of man ; which cannot be said of any other daughter of Adam's race, as it is from the man that [he germinating principle of human existence proceeds. The enmity therefore, which is here alluded to, was to exist between Satan and Christ, and not between the human race and the race of snakes, or any other animal ; as it is said in scripture, that Christ came into the world to destroy the works of the devil, and to bruise Satan under the feet of the saints, according to the New Testament, and has nothing to do with the shuddering sen- sations felt when we meet "with this reptile. But Universalists believe this enmity consisted in the opposition the heavenly man and the earthly man had to each other in the human breast, when first created. But this idea is exploded, when we recollect that God could never have been the author of two contending powers in the same human soul, as it came first from his hand, the one an enemy to all righteousness, and the other consonant to all holiness ; as this would seem to be a conflict, between the powers of the mind and the passions, set on foot by the creator, for no other purpose than man's ruin. "Thou shalt bruise his heel: — this is understood of Christ, the seed of the woman. His keel means, first his Juimanity. whereby lie trod upon the earth, and which the devil by the in- strumentality of wicked men, bruised and killed. Second his people, his members, whom Satan in divers ways bruises, vexes, and afflicts, while they are On earth, but cannot reach either Christ their head in heaven, or themselves, when they shall 1h> advanced thither. In this verse therefore, notice is given of a perpetual quarrel commenced between the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of the devil, among men ; war is proclaimed l>etween the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent, the devil." Rev. xii. 17. Benson's Commentary on Genesis, ?>d Chap. But were we to conclude, that the word of God in the above respect is fulfilled, in the circumstance of the inclination we feel to kill this frightful reptile when met with, and the inclination of serpents to bite whatever ccmes in their way, we do not perceive, 44 IIISTORY OF THE FALLEN that by this, any great thing worthy of the divine foresight, or of use to man, is made out ; as all snakes will die some how or other, even if this enmity had never existed. It is true nevertheless, that a natural enmity exists between serpents and men, and also, between the serpent tribes and all other animals ; but wholly on account of the poison fang of smaller serpents of various kinds, and of the bone breaking power of the larger, which have not the poison teeth : and this is reason enough, without superadding the influence of Satan, to those two qualifications. Whoever may have contemplated a serpent of the larger kinds, or even the common rattlesnake, and especially its head, will bear witness, that there is assembled all that is necessary to con- stitute horror, to freeze the blood, to paralize courage, and to cower the fiercest eye, whether of man or beast ; as if the auda- cious spirits, the fallen angels, had taken up their abode in, the bodies of serpents. The terrifying form of a serpent's head above that of all other animals, must have been the reason why the son of Sirach. the writer of the book of Ecclesiasticus, chap. xxv. 15, has said, " there is no head above the head of a serpent." Apo- crypha. There is no animal which will fight more obstinately than the serpent, with any creature which attacks it. There is noth- ing which can inspire equal terror with the anaconda and great li-boa ; a whole town or neighborhood, in the countries where they are found, is thrown into the utmost consternation, if it is but announced that an animal of this sort has been seen any- where near, none daring to stir abroad till the creature's depar- ture. In certain districts of both Africa and South America, the serpents have so multiplied, of all sorts, as that they have obtained exclusive possession, frightening away every other creature, even animals of the most ferocious description. Regulus, a Roman general, nearly three hundred years R C, while leading his army along the banks of the river Bagrada, in Africa, met with a ser- pent, which disputed his passage across, destroying great num- bers of his men, which he however killed, with his battering- rams and catapulta, machines formed for the purpose of heaving large stones with force and precision. Pliny, the most learned of the Roman historians who flourished in the first century, states that he had seen the skin of this serpent, and that it was one hundred and twenty feet in length. Though we have indulged our thoughts at some length on the subject of serpents, yet we cannot well forbear to give an account which respects the power of serpents to charm or fasci- nate such creatures as venture to gaze steadfastly upon its eyes. But whether such a power, if it exists, is the result of subtilty and cunning, or is the mere force of instinct, in the animal, is the question, which, as yet is not decided, and ma ay doubt it altogether. Few human beings so for as we have ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 45 hoard, have tried by experiment, whether they have this power or not i oae, however, as related by a pioneer settler and hunter in the early times of Vermont, states the following respecting himself. i: In one of my hunting excursions, on a fine morning, accom- panied by my wife, (as we were but just married,) the sun wa> shining warm and sultry, while all above was clear and bright I had left my companion at a certain place r beneath the shade of a young pine, for a short time, in pursuit of game, which drew up a steep, ledgy hill, and while struggling to ascend, I was startled by a quick grating rattle very near me ; when looking eagerly about. I discovered a short space before me. on a smooth rock which lay fair to the sun, a large rattlesnake, coiling him- self, to make the deadly spring. The serpent was within a few feet of me, and I paused for a moment, ere I should kill it, to survey it. But while doing so. yet I know not why, a strange feeling of curiosity came over me, which unaccountably fixed my atten- tion. Suddenly the snake unwound his coil, as if relenting from us purpose of hostility, and raising his head he fixed his bright eyes directly upon my own. A chilling and incredible sensation, totally different from any thing I had ever before experienced, followed this movemement of the serpent. Yet I stood still and gazed steadily and earnestly, for at that moment there was a visible change hi the reptile : his form seemed to grow larger and his colors brighter. His body now seemed to move with a slow and almost imperceptible motion toward me. while there came a low hum of music from him, or at least it sounded in my ear, a strange sweet melody, faint as from the throat of the hum- mmcr bird. Then the tints of his body deepened, and changed, and glowed with green, purple, scarlet, and gold, until I lost sight of the serpent entirely, seeing only wild and curiously wo- ven circles of various colors, quivering around me like an atmos- phere of rainbows. I seemed in the centre of a great prison,- - a world of mysterious colors : the tints varied, and darkened, and lighted up again, around me, and the low music went on without ceasing, until my brain reeled, and fear now for the first, came like a shadow over me. This sensation gained upon me rapidly, and I could feel the cold sweat gushing irorn my brow. I had no certainty of danger in my mind— no definite ideas of peril — all was vague and clouded like the unaccountable terrors of a dream : and yet my limbs shook and I fancied I could feci the blood stiffening with cold as it passed along my veins. I would have given worlds to have been able to tear myself from the spot; I even attempted to do so, or thought I did': but the body obeyed not the impulse of the mind — not a muscle moved, I yet stood still, as if my feet had grown to the solid rock, with Ihe infernal music of the tempter in my ear, and the baleful colorings of enchantment around me. S'uddenlv a new sound 46 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN came on my ear — it was a human voice ; but it seemed strange, and awful — again — again — but I stirred not — and then a white form stood beside me, and grasped my arm; it was my wife. With her touch the horrible spell was broken — the strange col- ors passed away from my vision. The rattlesnake was coiling at my feet, with burning eyes, reckless of danger ; when with a quick stamp of one foot — having on shoes of hard leather — I ('rushed its head to powder — and thus I escaped." But whether the larger kinds, as the boa, anaconda. &c. have this power is unknown, yet it is supposed they have not, as there appears no necessity of its being thus endowed : their agility and strength being equal to all their necessities. The steady unvarying glare of the rattlesnake, is aided by its never winking, as nature has covered their eyes with a transparent shining sub- stance, which protects it from injury, and answers a better pur- pose — as they burrow in the earth — than eyelids, like other animals. Adaptation appeal's to characterize all the works of God, as- well as first principles, starting points, and data. Man, there- fore, is the starting point of alf animal creation, as he stands at their head in the perfection of limbs, and intellect, and power of improvement and expression by speech. From this data, we therefore judge, that as animals approach in their forms, to that of man, that also their intellect conforms to the same rule. If this be so, we at once perceive that the Orang-outang is the creature marked by Moses, as the instrument of the devil in the ruin of man ; because the shape of that creature is more like man than any other ; while that of a serpent is farther removed from that form than the whole creation besides : being nothing more than a congeries of long muscles, like a rope made from the fibres of hemp, having a head at one end and a tail at the other, without legs arms or wings, and is next in grade on the descending scale to the very worms of the dust, and could never therefore, have been the animal of the text of Moses, as it is not the subtilest beast of all the field ; while the Orang-outang, in our opinion, most certainly is, and was therefore the identical animal. But as conclusive on this subject, the identity of the kind of animal in question, we are able to give the evidence of an accre- dited writer of great celebrity, who lived a thousand years before the time of Christ, that whatever animal it was : it was not a snake, and that the snake was not considered, in his time, as a beast of as much subtilty as the other animals of creation. This writer was the famous Solomon, of the Scriptures, whose wisdom has been celebrated in all ages and countries, since 1 his time. Respecting his opinion about the subtilty of snakes, see Book of Wisdom, chap. xi. 15, where, speaking of the worship of the Egyptians in the tinr of Moses, he says, that from " the foolish devices of their wickeu'ness, wherewith being deceived, they WOT- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 4/ shipped serpents, (or the ophi,) void of reason" This, in run- opinion, is sufficient to show that Solomon did not consider thr ophi, or snake, as the snbtilest beast of all the held, or earth : as he expressly says, it was void of reason, or suhtilty. and therefore he did not understand Moses, in the third chapter of Genesis, where the account of Eve and the Nach ash is given, to have any allusion to such an animal as a snake, but rather to sonic other creature, which was not naturally A'oid of reason, as he esteemed serpents or snakes to be. That the Egyptians worshipped snakes in the time of .Moses, is shown from this very statement by Solomon, as also from an- cient history. The Egyptians were exceedingly superstitious, and worshipped all kinds of animals ; but the serpent was had m particular veneration, as it was this reptile which even Jeho- vah came out against, when he caused the rod of Moses to be- come a serpent, and to devour the serpents of the magicians. hi the time of Solomon they had not abandoned the wor- ship of this creature, as he seems to speak of it, as quoted above. in the present tense, at the time of his reign. But to all we have said on this subject, namely, of the exist- ence of some kind of animal which Satan made use of on the occasion of man's fall. Jnivcrsalists turn a deaf ear, for they allege, that there was no animal in the case, and that the whole that has been written in the Bible on that subject is but descriptive of Eve herself her appetites and passions. This is necessary for them to do. as any acknowledgment of the existence of some creature having been used as an instrument of deception in the fall of Eve, draws after it the existence of an evil spirit, as certain- ly as effect follows cause, and this would ruin their scheme, as a supernatural evil spirit, having a real being, is that which they everywhere deny. We think the account, as written by Moses, is of exceedingly great importance on this subject ; for if the existence of Satan. or of an evil being, who was engaged in the moral destruction of the wife of Adam, cannot be made out from that account, we do not hesitate to acknowledge, that such an existence becomes ex- tremely doubtful, notwithstanding so much is said in all the Bible of such a beimr ; for if this cannot he shown at the head of the stream, how is it to 1x3 done at any other point farther down. On this subject, we shall now bring forward some of the opin- ions of Balfour, as found in his book entitled his u Second En- quiry" and is written expressly to disprove the existence of a devil, as a being, who contends that all references to such a being, as are found in the Scriptures, are to be understood only of human beings, and their faculties, when engaged in immoral pursuits. That there is no such being he seems to make out, to his own satisfaction, from the circumstance that Moses has not plainly, or in so many words said there is. He supposes that if 43 HISTORY OF THLE FALLEN there was such a being,, who was so dangerous to the repose of Adam and his wife, that God ought to have forewarned them with an account of him, so that they might have guarded against his enmity. "It is evident," he says, on page 24, "that not a word of caution was given them," But to this we reply God did caution them against the wiles of this being, when he said: "in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die? And to prove this to have been a caution,, we bring forward what St. Paul has said about death and him who has the power of death, that is the devil. Heb. ii. 1 4. Now if no being has the power of death but the devil,, so far as it relates to our race, it follows that if they ate that fruit which was forbidden them, thai the devil would be the being who had induced their death by tempting the woman to a breach of God's holy law ; or here is a death which takes place aside, as to its cause from that of the devil, notwithstanding St. Paul's opinion to the contrary. Now inasmuch as God informed them of the possibility of death, he informed them of him wha had the power of death, or else the revelation was an imperfect one, so far as it related to- warning; Adam against tasting that fruit. Now, inasmuch as God named the name of death, it is evidence that he cautioned them against this being, who had this power, and of necessity ascertains the existence of the devil, or St. Paul knew nothing of the subject he was speaking about. Mr. Balfour, on pages 24 and 25, of his book, seems to think that it was much worse, and much: more ruinous to mankind to have fallen by the temptations of an evil spirit or apostate angel, than by any other means, although the consequences should be exactly the same ; yet appears perfectly willing to have man fall, if he did fall, by the means of his own heart ; but is vevy much op- posed to its having been promoted by such a being as the devil, yet seems inclined to think that it woud have been far more chaste, delicate and orthodox, to believe that God made Adam and his wife just strong enough not to stand but a short time, and then to fall, by an inevitable and inherent propensity to sin, implanted by the everblessed Creator in their natures. In this, Balfour is more careful of the devil's character, than even those who believe in his existence, inasmuch as man's fall, if he did fall, was occasioned by the Creator himself, as Universalists view the subject. The very fact, which proves there was a fallen spirit or angel, called Satan, the Serpent and the Devil, who tempted Eve to ner ruin, is taken by Balfour, as evidence that there is no such being. That conclusion is shown from his own statements, which are, that the creature, whatever it was, knew all about the prohibition ; for says Balfour, this serpent began the conversation with the woman, which he says a dumb beast could not have done; to which wo heartily respond, and say, that no animal could have known this, on which very account we see a neces- ANGELS OF Till* SCRIPTURES. 49 sity for the existence and presence of just such a being as the devil is shown to be, wherever he is spoken of in all the Scriptures, or such an effect could not have been produced on a dumb animal. Page 26. of the Enquiry, he makes himself much sport, on account of Eve's conversing with so frightful a creature as a talking snake, and thinks it was an instrument far enough from being calculated to seduce any body, on which account, he be- lieves it could not have been so. But in this* slur, there is but little force, when it is recollected, that a holy and innocent being as Bve was in her sphere, could not possibly/ear, or be startled by any accident. The only reason why she noticed, or listened to the tempter, in the form of a beast, no doubt was, because it spoke to her of an increase of knowledge, which to acquire, to her appeared a virtue of the highest order. All creatures were harmless to Eve, whatever their forms were, and however hide- ous or repulsive. She may have been often amused by the gambols and the varieties, every where met with in her walks, but could fear none, while in her innocence. Fear has torment in its nature, and is known no where, except with the guilty. In one place of his book, namely, on the 2Gth page, he thinks we are indebted to Milton, rather than to Moses, lor a belief in the existence of a devil : but if this is so, we ask, to whom were the early writers and fathers indebted, who lived and wrote many hundred years before Milton was born, who have transmitted on the page of Ecclesiastical history, the same opinions and doc- trines now held by the orthodox sects, about the devil ? In an other place of his book, however, he is sure that we have derived all our peculiar opinions, such as a hell, a day of judgment, and the being of a devil, from the writings of Zoroaster, to which we shall give our attention in its proper place. He seems not even to dream that we have derived them from the Bible, although its phraseology and composition abounds with accounts of the kind. Nay, it is the very object of the whole Scriptures to reveal these truths, and to teach men how to be good, and to flee the wrath to come, in an other world, as we understand them. On page 27, of his work'. Balfour says that Moses selected the serpent or snake as a mere figure of the deceitful nature of Eve's passions, appetites, and desires, which he calls lusts, because it wasa creature " celebrated for its subtilty among mankind." But this statement, is what neither Mr. Balfour, nor any other man can prove; namely, that serpents were celebrated in the time of Moses for subtilty. What record is there of this thing? none that we know of. The Bible, the oldest book in the world, lias no hint or allusion to this effect ; while we have produced a very early writer of a part of the Scriptures, namely, Solomoji, who says that the serpents which the Egyptians worshipped, were void of reason or subtilty, and therefore, in his time, could not have been thus celebrated. We have said above, that we know 4 50 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN of no allusion in the Bible, which can lead to a supposition that snakes are ivise or subtil ; but lest the reader should be alarmed, we make haste to quote what Christ said at a certain time to his disciples, on the subject of serpents, and to explain it. He said, a . be ye wise as serpents but harmless as doves." Does not this, says one, not only hint, but plainly make out, that serpents are indeed wise and cunning, and were so considered by Jesus Christ ? we think not ; and the following is our reason. A man, or a human being, is certainly far more wise and subtil than a snake. If so, then the Saviour could never have chosen this con - temptible reptile as a figure of emulation for his disciples. Did he, indeed, wish them to be as wise as common snakes ? This would be to suppose them at least, somewhat below serpents in ability, a very strange predicament for human beings, who had the use of their reason. The supposition is altogether ridicu- lous. What then did he mean ? He meant, no doubt, that they should be as wise as devils — or evil spirits, of whose wiles St. Paul said, on a certain occasion, that the saints of his day were not ignorant. Also — he meant, that he desired his disciples to be as wise as the Jews their enemies, who on two occasions are called a generation of vipers, or serpents. So that in our opin- ion these texts give no countenance to the idea of the wisdom of snakes. But more than this, Mr. Balfour makes Moses choose this creature, not because it is. or was in fact the subtilest beast among animals ; but because it was thus celebrated, as he as sumes to believe. Such a course w T ould be deception, even in Moses, for if the snake in fact, is not such a creature, then has Moses made his selection unwisely and deceitfully, as he should have been guided, not by a false celebrity, but by matter of fact, or the lusts of Eve were not fitly represented. But here we wish to remark, that in our opinion, this stroke of Mr. Balfour's inven- tion, should go for nothing, as it is not true in its main feature. And what is its main feature ? It is this : he says, Moses chose this animal as descriptive of Eve's nature, as it related to her appetites ; but where is the proof of this, that Moses chose it for that purpose ? we answer there is no proof — while, to the con- trary there is proof irrefragible, that he did not. But how is this, says one, did he not write the book of Genesis, where the whole account is found? Most certainly he did. How then is it, that he did not choose this creature for the purpose Mr. Balfour al- ledges ? This is our proof and our reason : — Moses has but recorded the conversation which took place between God and Eve ; and says that Eve said the serpent or nachash beguiled her. Now if any body chose an animal for this purpose, it was Eve, herself, while Moses does nothing but rehearse the fact as a matter of history and truth. Are we to believe she chose this horrid animal, to show up to her God, by a hieroglyphic of this sort, the very nature which himself had but a few days previous ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. W created? we think not. She did nothing more than to speak of the creature which she supposed had misled her, having no idea whatever, that the devil who had the power of death, had en- tered into the animal, and inspired it with the abilities of articu- lation and reason. Wherefore, so far as we are able to compre- hend our subject, Mr. Balfour has failed, totally failed, to make out that either Moses or Eve chose an animal as a representative of her appetites; on which account it remains, that the belief of a real animal called by Eve the nachash, being" inspired, by Satan, conversed with her, is a true belief. What follows, therefore, on this fact ? it follows that there was an evil spirit or being, who was the real tempter, and not the animal. This is made out from Balfour's own showing ; who, in his struggle to oppose the being of Satan, says on page 25 of his work, that a -dumb beast could not have thus conversed. To this we agree, no dumb beast could ever talk except by the aid of a superior and competent power. Now, as he has failed in his statement about Moses' choosing this animal for the purpose of a figure, he fails to disprove the existence of the devil in the case of Eve, as the animal could not of itself have said any thing of the matter. We wish to be particular on this subject, in this place, for if we fail to make out in a reasonable manner, the existence of an evil being, who was engaged in Eve's ruin, we fail in a great measure of the main object of this work, as before remarked. Mr. Balfour thinks it foolish and ridiculous to believe that any animal whatever, was made use of by any being in the ruin of Eve, and contends in his work, page 26, that the doctrine inten- ded by the reference of Moses to an animal, which conversed with woman, is simply to inform us that Eve's lusts or desires, after food when she was hungry, was the true serpent, or devil, which destroyed her, if she was destroyed. But to refute this in another form, we ask : could lusts or desixes have known more about the forbidden fruit, and the consequences which would follow on her tasting it, than Eve did herself? Did her appetites know more than her mind ? This must have been the case, however preposterous the opinion may appear, if nothing but her appetites are intended by Moses, or by Eve ; for we see her lusts, as Balfour calls her desires, commencing the conver- sation with Eve, by saying, " God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, that your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as the gods [the angels] knowing good and evil." How is it that Eve's superior powers, her mind, her reason, her perception, knew nothing of this, while her inferior powers, her mere animal inno- cent appetites for food when hungry, knew all about it; we might as well argue that her body, composed of muscles and limbs, were superior in their nature to her mind, her soul, her immortal and her undying intellect. But if indeed, the opinion is correct, as Balfour holds, is it not strange that Moses, who 52 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN must have understood the whole matter, speaks of her lusts, in the masculine gender he, as Eve was a woman : and then again to allude to her lusts, which is plural, in the use of the pronoun he, which is singular, as if she had but one lust, and that was a he one. But as to the real fact of the case, this writer, Mr. Balfour, says, the whole matter is to be solved, by supposing Eve to have held a dialogue between herself and her lusts, on the subject of the forbidden fruit, her appetite exciting her to transgress, while her reason opposed it. But as before argued, this was impossible, for neither her reason, or her appetites could foreknow that her eyes should be opened, to know, either more or less. Wherefore, it is as evident as evidence can make it, that there must have been in the case a supernatural evil being, who, thus understood the subject, and thus foretold the effect, if she eat of that fruit Universalis! writers, however, do not all agree on this subject, for while Mr. Balfour admits the fact of the law which forbade Adam and Eve tasting the fruit of a real tree, situated in the literal garden of Eden, Mr. Ballou reduces the whole account to a mere, but beautiful allegory : setting forth the law of God, and man's natural opposition to it : each writier striking out for himself, a code of opinions, diverse from his fellows of the same communion, so that we know not where to find them as a people, on scarce any subject, except that there is no devil, no hell, and no day of judgment ; in this they are all pretty well agreed : in- sisting that the orthodox sects of the christian world have derived these opinions from the old heathen Persians, by the way of the writings of Zoroaster; — but more of this in another place. On the 30th page of his Enquiry, Mr. Balfour endeavors to show that because the New Testament writers speak of the lusts of the human heart, as being the root and origin of sin : that of necessity we are to refer this fact to Eve's case, — as if she was in the same fallen and depraved condition before her fall, that she was after. This is a strange way of reasoning, and will not an- swer, unless we are to believe that God placed lusts as the origin of sin, in the soul of Eve, on purpose for her ruin. Now Uni- versalists— with Ballou and Balfour at their head— make a great matter of it, because the orthodox sects believe in the existence of a devil, who tempted Eve, and ask, and wonder why Gcd did not prevent his doing so, as if he certainly ought so to have done, and yet they say God himself did it, by creating in the soul of Eve— what they improperly call her lusts, which became the occasion of her ruin. Is not this a strange thing to wonder at? Is it not as well that Satan should tempt man to his ruin, as that God should do it by his own direct will ? But we deny, and no man can make it appear, that the simple tact of Eve's having the natural appetites to eat and to drink when ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 53 hungry and thirsty, were lusts in any sense ; more than the same desires or appetites are lust in a wild fawn of the woods. Lust is a moral disqualification of the spirit or mind of man, consisting in a will to disobey the commands of God, or to outrage moral principle in some way or other, after corruption has enter- ed, and not before. Eve had no such lust, as she came pure from the hand of God; yet she had appetite for food or she could not have lived, however pure and innocent she was, but cannot be termed lust in any sense of the word. But no doubt the grand secret of this doctrine of Universalists, respecting Eve's being created with lustful appetites and desires, is to make out that man is not fallen in Adam, as held by the orthodox sects, and that man is not sinful by nature, but only by accident, or fortuitously and relatively. Men, therefore, are now by nature, exactly what they were in their original heads — Adam and Eve — until they do something which is considered merely relatively wrong. This is the reason why thorough bred Universalists deny the use of the vicarious atonement made for the world, by the volun- tary death of Jesus Christ ; as from that view of theirs, it is not needed ; this is deism. Mr. Balfour says, on page 30, of his Sec- ond Enquiry, that "lust, the source of sin, is always represented in Scripture as being deceitful and beguiling." This we admit, but deny that Eve came from the hand of God in such a condi- tion, having within her the seeds of moral death ; for if she did, then the occurrence of sin is but the fruit of the planting of God himself, and the horrible harvest of moral depravity is of his own providing. On this view of the subject, there is no sin in the world, as God can do no evil. But if Eve was created with lusts, and these lusts were to be in their inevitable operation her ruin, to be demonstrated as soon as the law of God should be given her, against which they were to act in war and conflict ; might she not have exclaimed, even before she had sinned: — O wretched WOMAN that I am ! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death ! What a picture is this of man's original condition ! We do not wonder that Univer- salism is the timber out of which the whole superstructure of mod- ern infidelity to the Scriptures is made; as with such views, and such conclusions, of what they teach respecting the origin of good and evil, it is no marvel that they should offend the rea- der. The Scriptures state that Christ was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Well, what is this devil which lie came to (1 ->troy? Why ; according to Universalists, it is the lusts of Eve and all her race. Well, who made the lusts of Eve and her race ? Why, God — say they — as he is the only Creator. What then follows on this view ? Why, that Christ came as the Son of God to destroy that which his father had made, and called very good, in the beginning. Is not this a kingdom divided 64 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN against itself, and therefore cannot stand? No wonder deism flourishes under the auspices of such theology. Mr. Balfour complains in his Enquiry, and says that Moses ought to have stated plainly that the serpent which tempted Eve was a f alien angel, if the thing is true. But on the part of tho orthodox, have we not as good a right to complain that Moses has not said that there is not, or at least we have a right to com- plain that the cause of her ruin is so mysteriously hidden under the cover of a deep and difficult allegory, or under the term, ser- pent, which creature after all is but a hieroglyphic, intended to represent certain passions and appetites ? If the truth is, that it was her lusts or appetites which destroyed her, how is it that Moses does not say so ; as he easily might have done ; — as plain fact, stated in the plainest manner, best becomes the dignity of holy inspiration. That he did state plainly, that there is such a being as a wicked fallen angel, now called Satan, is shown when he says, that Eve said, the serpent beguiled her ; as we know, as before argued, that no beast can or ever did use articulate speech, except by mere imitation ; it follows, therefore that an evil being destroyed her by temptation. To us it appears that the orthodox sects, in their view of this subject, are much more modest and retiring than are Universalists ; as the former charge the blame on Satan as a mere tempter, and on Adam and Eve as dupes ; while the latter at once and unblushingly ascribe the whole to God ; when they say he created them with lusts, the very seeds of their ruin as shown in their fall. Mr. Balfour in the 3d section of his Second Enquiry, endeav- ors to make it appear that the word Satan, in the original He- brew and Greek, meant in no case where it is used, a fallen angel, a supernatural wicked spirit or being. But contends that the word was restricted solely to such beings and subjects as are in opposition to each other ; and from the fact of such op- post es, the term Satan is made out signifying merely an adver- sary. Though this may be true in relation to any ordinary subject it may be applied to, yet we do not perceive how this can exclude its application to such a being as Satan is supposed to be. He is shown in Scripture to be opposed to God's holy gov- ernment of the universe, and is therefore a Satan, meaning an enemy. But when we consider that God is opposed to sin, wo dare not say he is therefore a Satan, as such a course would bo to confound and abuse language, distracting the reader with ideas of good and bad Satans. Because this term may be applied to ordinary cases — such as enmity between men or nations — is it therefore to be excluded from a higher and more extended mean- ing? We should suppose not. The idea of good is derived from God, because he is good ; and from that, the word good has its being. But on this account, are we to exclude its higher signification, and application to God ? By no means. How then ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 55 is the word Satan to be restricted to the common affairs of man, any more than the word good 1 If the word Satan is to be re- stricted, and made to signify the opposition one man may have to another ; how is it that St. Peter has named but onel — see his 1st Epistle, v. 8, — where lie warns all Christians to be sober, to be vigilant, because their adversary, Satan, or the devil, as a roaring lion went about, seeking whom he might destroy. We repeat it, how is it that he has named but one, seeing thousands of the Jews were opposed to the infant church? Surely thousands and tens of thousands could not have meant but one; surely, if it did, St. Peter should have warned them against many Satans, instead of one — and but one. Balfour contends that it was God who afflicted Job, and not Satan, or the Christian devil as he calls him — nor the Persian Ai iman and evil being. Because Job says, chap. xxi. the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. This was said by Job because he supposed it was so — we have no evidence that Job then knew that Satan had appeared among the angels, the sons of God, and accused Job of serving God from interested purposes, namely, because he al- lowed him to become rich. But the fact of Satan's being- alloiced to afflict him, is what is meant by Job, when he said the Lord did it, he did it by this agent. Moses in relating this story, makes even God to say that it was Satan who moved him against Job without a cause. This is extremely singular, for the Per- sian Ahriman or the Christian Satan, being both of them a per- fect nonentity, according to Balfour, puts the whole affair upon God, and makes Moses say that God moved God against Job without a cause — which is considerably worse than nonsense. At the end of Job's trial, there is no doubt but he was given to understand this whole matter, and the particular reason why the Lord had suffered Satan to thus torment him without any seem- ing reason — and that it was the devil, ever eager for work of the kind, who had moved him thereto, which he had consented to — for the very purpose of destroying a doctrine which it seems men had imbibed, namely, that in this life the good and the bad have their rewards — a doctrine precisely the same with that now held by modern Universalists. But God, in the affair of Job, shows it to be a false doctrine. And seeing Job was a good and right- eous man, we do not exactly understand how it is that Univer- salists justify the Divine Being in afflicting Job unjustly ; as they teach that all men suffer only as they sin, and that instantly. Job being righteous, how was it just in God thus to have tor- mented him? But on the orthodox plan, we at once understand the reason, which was two fold ; namely, to destroy the Univer- salist notion of the age, which was that the bad were punished in this life, while the good were rewarded with riches, favors, &c. — and also to show that many are the afflictions of the right- 56 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN eous ; and that the Lord chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth ; a point of the divine administration, exactly oppo- site to the Universalist opinion. Balfour seems to think the Satan which is so often spoken of in the book of Job, and is there shown as being the cause of Job's sorrows, was the freebooters of the country, the Chaldeans, Sa- beans, &c. This being true — how could Moses by any stretch of language whatever, either allegorical or parabolical, say that the freebooters of the country, came and appeared before God on a certain day, when the sons of God came together ? and more than this, how could he say that it was the Chaldeans and Sabeans who smote Job with sore biles ? He could not ; it is impossible. That this is Balfour's opinion, see his Second En- quiry, page 57. It were equally easy to show from the book of Job that Moses has there said nothing about the being of God, as that he has said nothing about the being of Satan ; and as well might it be urged by Universalists that the book of Job was writ- ten for the express purpose of proving that there is no God, as that it was written to prove there is no Satan who exists as a real being. If the book of Job was intended as a mere irony by Moses, and on that account the Ahriman or Satan of those ages, was allowed to personify the principle of evil, surely it became the honor the dignity as well as the truth of inspiration, to have said as much, and most certainly — if we might not exactly look for this in the book itself, we might expect it in the commenta- ries of the Jews, and most of all in the New Testament, from the lips of Christ or some of disciples, who wrote his life. But it does not appear in any of these. Surely, an irony or a sarcasm, when carried so far, looks very much as if it were really meant to be truth of the soberest kind, and such we believe it is. Balfour complains that none of the early writers of the Bible have said any thing about the devil being a fallen angel ; but to this we need only remark, that it was taken for granted all along from what Moses had said about the being who deceived Eve, in the matter of the command respecting the forbidden fruit, ne- ver even dreaming that it was not, or that it was, as Universal- ists now-a-days contend, namely, that it was merely the innocent appetite of the first woman. This writer also makes himself much sport about what he calls the Christian devil, and that the orthodox hold him, or ra- ther represent him as the great rival of the Eternal God. But this we deny, as there can be no rival to the Supreme Being. Satan is as far from bearing this character as any other enemy of all holiness ; as the utmost he can do is to tempt such as are not as bad as himself, and such as are on probation. But if or- thodox Christians are accused of setting up Satan as the rival of God, whom we believe to be a fallen angel, what are we to think of Universalists, and what ought they to think of them- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 57 selves, when they say the devil of the Scriptures, which ihey believe is human nature, the work of God's own hand, is set up by them as this rival? for they have never attempted to abate one jot or tittle of the virulence of this devil, but allowed it to take the exact place of the orthodox devil, in their theology. Now, who most dishonors God, the orthodox believer, who says, a fallen free-agent, or angel, is this opponent to the ways of God, or the Univcrsalist, who says human nature, which God himself has made, is this opponent? lias God made an enemy to himself/ The idea is unfounded and utterly preposterous and impossible. In support of the opinion that it was a fallen angel called Satan, who by the permission of Gcd, for a wise reason before noticed, we bring a strange concession from Mr. Balfour himself, on this subject, which the reader may find in his book, called his Second Enquiry, pages 58, 59. He says, the ancient heathen Persians, in the time of Job, held that there were two gods ; the one the author of all good, and the other of all evil. This latter god, however, he says, the Old and New Testamc nt esteemed (seep. 56 of the Second Enquiry) as the principle of evil deified, and not as a being. But whereabouts this is so con- sidercd in the Bible we are not able to ascertain. This being the case, namely, that the heathen in the time cf Job are consid- ered, as Balfour says, even by the Bible itself, to have worshipped or rather deified the mere principle of evil, says, " it is strange, and has always appeared strange, that in this account Satov, (or this evil,) should be represented as conversing freely and fami- liarly with God." This we consider a grand concession ; as indeed it is passing strange that divine inspiration shculd thus state the matter, if it was not so in fact. Would the Holy Ghost, who moved men of old to write the Scriptures, have so far re- spected the opinion of the heathen Persians of the lime of Job, as to have given it the name of Satan, the identily of a being, and of such a beinc: as could reason, accuse, abuse, iradvee, pass up and down in the earth, doing any and all things, like a real being, and yet a mere fiction, or abstract principle, which cannot reason, or do any thing else, in and of itself ; for if there be no being which is evil, there can exist no abstract evil. Sa- tan is a being, therefore, and so considered 1 y the sense of the Scripture ; and no wonder Mr. Balfour has said, " it has always appeared strange to him, that in this account, Satan should be represented as conversing freely and familial ly with Gcd," a thing, we add, an abstract principle could not do. Balfour, in trying to show that Christianity, as held lythe orthodox sects, respecting the being of the devil, was d( rived from Xorodster, the great reformer of the more ancient ^:ai;ian religion of the ancestors of the ]\:cdes and Persians, ai d that in doing this he incorporated into it one new idea, which was that there was one supreme and eternal God, who was above all. and 58 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN was the author of all good. Previous to his time, they had held that there were two gods, one good and the other bad, whose powers were equal ; but Zoroaster exploded this doctrine, and gave to the Supreme God exclusive rule, the same as the Scrip- tures do, while the evil god or angel was far less, and was finally to be overcome and destroyed in everlasting darkness. He also taught, says Balfour, as he is informed by P. Michaelis, the doctrine of a final resurrection. No doubt both these opinions he had learned of the Jewish Scriptures, as he thinks he was a Jew by birth and education, and was deeply learned, and thinks it very likely that he was, when young, a servant to one of the prophets, of whom the true sense of the Scriptures might have been learned by him. All this we do not doubt, but now comes the wonder. This same Zoroaster taught also the doctrine of a final day of judg- ment, and the being of a devil, who was inferior to God, just the same as Christianity teaches now-a-days, as promulged by the orthodox churches ; and yet he never could have learned it from the Bible, says Balfour, when both opinions had been taught many hundred years before Zoroaster was born, both by Job and by Moses. Is not this a wonder ? What is the reason that these two latter doctrines could not have been learned of him from the same writings that the other two were, when they are equally plainly taught, especially in the book of Job. How is it that Zoroaster could learn the doctrine of the resurrection from a mere trait in the book of Job, where he says, he knew that his Redeemer lived, and that in the latter day he should stand upon the earth : and that although worms should devour his skin, yet in his flesh he should see God ; and not also learn a belief in the being of the devil, when it is over and over again taught by his being named, identified and conversed with by the Almighty ? This is the most illogical conclusion we have ever met with in the writings of any man, for Balfour does not say that Zoroaster learned the opinion of the inferiority of the Persian evil god from them, but invented it himself, as well as that of a day of judgment ; and on this account he is chiefly to be considered as a much greater impostor than Mahomet was. But because he taught a final resurrection from the dead, he is, we suppose, in this, no impostor at all, because Universalists believe this: but because he taught as he had learned from Moses, Job and David, the belief in a hell, a devil, and a day of judgment, he was there- fore a very great impostor — the same which the Saviour and all the New-Testament writers taught, and yet these were not im- postors : how wonderful ! Here follows another strange conclusion, and equally logical with the other : which is, (pages 70, 71,) that Zoroaster, impostor as he was, did not choose to make God the author of evil, and that his conscience was more scrupulous than this — in which he ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 59 excelled some Christians ; and yet Universalists teaeh us a doc- trine, everywhere to be viewed, that if the evil exists at all, it is by the appointment of the Creator, for the wisest and best of pur- poses ; for, says Ballon, God has a use for every volition of man, and that he is so situated as that he acts wholly from necessity. Whose conscience in this thing is the best, the universalist or the orthodox ? We leave Universalists themselves to judge; for we make evil to arise from the abuse of free-agency, while Univer- salists make God its direct author. They are worse, therefore, from their own showing, than Zoroaster was. We conclude this chapter, therefore, being satisfied that it is impossible for any man, after duly considering this subject, to deny that Moses has in a manner satisfactory to the Jews, their prophets, to Jesus Christ and his disciples, and the church in all ages — stated as plainly as pleased the holy ghost — that Satan, an evil apostate or fallen angel, beguiled the first woman with argu- ments and false reasoning, such as no beast or the appetites of Adam and Eve, could ever have made use of, as neither of them were capable, in the least degree, of moral perception, or power of reasoning ; leaving the mind convinced that there must have been just such a being as the devil is supposed to be, who misled her, or she was not misled at all. Or if, as Mr. Ballou supposes, the whole account of Eve's fall is but an allegory, intended to teach the final predominance of her passions over her reason — yet, this will not meet even one difficulty, arising out of such a posi- tion. For if Moses invented an allegory for the above pupose— namely, to illustrate the power of Eve's passions over her reason and innocence, yet it could not have been right, or according to truth, for her to make his allegory tell lies, as he has, if the ac- count is bat allegory. But how is this, says one ; how docs it tell lies, even allowing the account to be an allegory? We will show you — does not Moses say, that the serpent (which Mr. Balfour says was her lusts or appetites for food,) told her that her eyes should be opened, and that she should become as the geds, in the day she should eat of that fruit. Now this was false in the allegory, as it was impossible for the serpent (if that serpent was nothing more than her appetites.) for it to fore/ell any thing about it, as there is no perception in the mere cravings of hun- ger, or any other animal desire of her nature, or in any body else, since the world began. E\es whole powers of body, mind and spirit, put together, could never have — unaided by supernatural assistance— foreseen, foretold, or foreknown, one jot or tittle of the effects of her eating that fruit; how much 'ess, therefore, her appetites, or the serpent of Universalists. To suppose it was an allegory, is much worse than Balfour's opinion, which is that it was a real conflict, or dialogue, in her mind, relative to eating of that tree; it is worse, because the sense is more hidden and'ab- GO HISTORY OF THE FALLEN struse, and less calculated to inform the reader what the real facts were, and how the law of God was infringed. There is another view of the matter, which goes far to show that there was an evil spirit, or fallen angel engaged in Eve's ruin ; and this is, that Eve could not have been hungry at the time, as she had universal and unlimited access to all the fruits of Eden. It is true that the text states, that when she saw the tree was good for food that she did eat. But this was no reason why she tasted it ; as her only and highest reason was, she had been told that it would make her icise, and as wise as the gcds, or holy angels of heaven, who, no doubt, she often saw and con- versed with. Now if there is no good reason to suppose she was hungry at the time, then there is left no good reasoning why she should taste it, except being incited so to do, by an evil spirit, of whom it is said expressly, under the name of serpent, that he be- guiled her in that matter ; and thus understood all the writers of the New Testament, who have spoken of the fall of Eve. The whole stress of the matter is laid on her estimation of the power the fruit had of making her wise, while the circumstance of its being good for food, was but secondary, or of small account ; unless we suppose her a hungry voracious animal, seeking every- where, as her chief good, that which could sustain her body only. Origin of Satan, and Cause of Sin, with many Curious Subjects connected therewith. Having thus far treated on the subject of the identity of the creature, called in the English translation of Genesis, the serpent, and of the being who used it as an instrument of deception, as pre- liminary to our main object; we now hasten to ascertain the origin of Satan, and cause of sin, or moral evil, if there be such a being, and if there be real moral evil at all — which many Universalists deny. But were we now to adopt the opinion of Universalists, with several other sects of the same genus, we should save ourselves the labor of writing the present work ; as we should at once discover the being of Satan, such as they be- lieve him to be, to have been produced by the will and power of God ; inasmuch as these people believe that there is no such being in existence, but a principle only, which they call the evil principle, or devil : and consists of the bad passions of the human soul, and appetites of the body: and that they were placed there by the Creator, at the moment of man's creation, for good and wise purposes. It is impossible to manage this ques- tion in any but one of two ways ; either there must be a real personal spiritual Satan, or being distinct in existence/rom man, ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 61 or man is as he should be, in the sight of God — pure, innocent, and holy— arid not fallen and corrupted, as generally supposed and believed. Because, to us it appears monstrous and absurd, to suppose man was created with latent and inherent tendencies, or principles, which were to produce, and have produced, the immense mass of natural and moral evil, now and always extant, since the fall, and would seem an impeachment of the goodness, wisdom, and power of God. For God cannot be good, if he is •the author of moral, and consequently of natural evil. He can- not be wise in instituting a scene of things, so horrible, and contrary to all moral happiness. He cannot be 'powerful, nor good, or he would have prevented, if he consistently could, so dreadful a state of things as now, and ever has existed in the world. We need not draw out an argument here, to prove that the earth mourns, through all her tribes over its entire surface, among the ranks of man, that temporal and moral death have the whole race in their grasp. We need not personate the monster — war, whose jaws are reeking with the blood of millions: — we need not mention famine, — diseases of mind and body, — with all the catalogue of sorrows, more in number than human calculation can make out, which are now the inheritagc of man : — we need not bring to view a picture of all the horrid passions of the souls of both cultivated and uncultivated men, as exhibited in pride, in lust, in falsehood, in anger, in selfishness, in prejudice, in bigotry, in the love of dominion, in treachery, impiety, and reck- lessness of spirit, to prove that moral evil exists ; as no man denies it, except such as do not receive the Bible as the man of their council, and guide of life. Yet there are those who profess even Christianity, and at the same time, unwitingly, and others designedly deny the fall of man into a sinful state, by saying that all this evil is but seeming evil, and is necessary for human hap- piness, upon the whole, by way of contrast ; and such are Uni- versalists, with all of that school. To maintain this belief res- pecting natural evil, were it not, say they, for labor and weari- ness, w r e could know no rest:— were it not for hunger and thirst, we should know no pleasure in the use of food and pleasant drinks: — were it not for weariness, we should know no sweet repose : — were it not for silence and want of soci- ety, the power of speech, conversation, could have no charms :— - were it not for a contrariety of thoughts, concord and harmony could not be distinguished as a blessing: — were it not for a vari- ety of fancy, the joy of choice could have no being. All of which is true, and not even inconsistent with a Paradisical state of innocence and purity: if not carried to extremes, as could not have been the case, if man had not fallen ; as his prudence and equanimity of temperament, would have in such a case prevented this forever. But when the idea respecting contrast- 02 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN ing temporal good and evil is made to apply to our 'present con- dition, now that we are fallen ; it is as much as to say, that natu- ral evil is a natural good, and supposes that were it not for pains, distresses, and sickness, we could know nothing of the joys of health ; were it not for famine, we could know nothing of the happines of plenty ; were it not for tear and murder with all their horrors, we could know nothing of a state of peace and safety ; were it not for nakedness we could know nothing of the pleasure of comfortable habiliments ; such a notion would be but the evidence of theological and fanatical insanity, because all these blessings are easily appreciated, intuitively, without expe- riencing their opposites, as such is the constituted and natural ability of our race, when left to the free use, action, and power of reasoning. But when this contrast doctrine is carried forward, and made to apply its influence in a moral light, it is still more ridiculous : for if we say, (which is proper to say, if the doctrine of contrasts is true, in order to find out what happiness is,) that we can know nothing of the happiness of truth and veracity till we have lied a few times — nothing of the comforts of sympathy and kindness, till we have been cruelly treated and oppressed — nothing of the joys of chastity of mind and person, till we have outraged all decency — nothing of the happiness of civilized soci- ety, based on christian principles, till we have passed through a state of anti-christian anarchy and confusion — nothing of the bliss of piety toward God, till we have been all that is vile, abom- inable and revolting, in person and action; as if moral and phy- sical happiness, could not be appreciated, nor enjoyed, only by the experience of passing through the horrid ordeal of opposites. Did the Creator thus constitute our condition, and make evil necessary to our happiness ? then evil is not evil, but a good, equal with good itself. And if this was the way in which it was appointed for man to ascertain temporal good, we have a right to the other supposition, as expressed above, in relation to the as- certainment of moral good ; which would also make sin or moral evil necessary to our moral happiness ; and therefore, in the eco- nomy of God, militates as much for our happiness, as moral good can possibly be supposed to do. But this was not the way in which man was constituted ; for God made them upright, mo- rally upright, and indeed we scarcely need the Scriptures to tell uh this, as it was impossible for him to have made them, or any other beings, otherwise than good and morally upright, of the in- tellectual cast of existences. It does not appear from the Scriptures, nor from any reasoning we are acquainted with, that man moved himself to sin and ruin; and much less does it appear, if it were possible, that God so modified the powers of their minds, as that a prcponderency of the passions and powers of the mind existed toward moral evil, (as Ballou supposes) and finally tumbled him into the gulph ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 63 where the atonement found him, as such a feat would have been the child and offspring of divine purity, an idea almost too mon- strous for existence. Wherefore, we conclude, that if there was no foreign tempter, no devil, no Satan, or real being called the serpent in all parts of the Scripture, where the fall of man is al- luded to, whose cunning and subtilty bore eminently upon that catastrophe, and introduction of moral evil into the world; then man is not fallen, is not corrupted, has not departed from his original condition, and is now as good, and as holy in nature, and as upright, and has still as much the image and impress of God on his mind and soul, as it respects moral rectitude, as he had the moment God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and gave him an eternal spirit, or living soul : all is now right, however bad it may seem to be. as man could not trill to move himself to evil, being pure in his very nature, like his glorious Creator. On this ground, the promise of a Redeemer is but a fiction, as it could not have been of God, as there was nothing to redeem ; no apostacy had taken place, and therefore no expia- tory sacrifice, nor any other kind of atonement was required, on man's account ; being as he should be, or as he was created by the Most High at first. These sects, therefore, who disbelieve the existence of such a being as Satan, and that he was the moving cause of man's fall into sin, if there is any sin, are, so far as we are able to discern, uncalled for in the Christian world, as there is, on that position, no sin to be reproved, none to be repented of, or to suffer for, or to be pardoned ; a Redeemer is not needed, deism is true : on which account, we cannot but look upon those sects, and espe- cially the Universal ists, as insincere and mercenary in their Christian professions, and their exertions to disciple and raise up churches through the world, for the promotion of their dog mas, as mere priestcraft, duping the public with stories about sin, and that men have need of God's mercy — which they do not, nor cannot, as Universalists themselves believe, for the reasons above written. But whether there is a devil or not, we shall in the course of this work further determine, if the Scriptures are allowed to be a guide in such an inquiry, while for the present, and for reasons already given, we shall hold there is, and proceed to inquire from whence he came, or the cause of his existence — as all things must have a cause, God alone excepted, who is uncaused, and cannot therefore be spoken of as among the number of entities, called things, as lie is a being above and distinct from all things, or creatures, whatever, whether material or immaterial. In our attempt, as above proposed, to account for the being of Satan and cause of sin, it becomes necessary to put on the swift wings of imagination, and travel back through countkess ages, up to a time when the Divine Being put forth his first creative act. 64 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN And although we believe the Almighty is from everlasting, and that he exists of necessity, yet we are compelled to believe that a first act of creative power, did take place, at some period in past eternity ; so to speak. To deny a first act of creative power, which produced that which did not before exist, is to make all the items of creation as eternal as God is himself; and if so, were consequently never created at all. Now if any por- tions of matter or spiritual being exist, without having been crea- ted, God excepted, then all may so exist ; and if so, then a creator is not called for, and does not therefore exist, on that hypothesis ; as two eternal beings, matter and spirit, cannot have existed from everlasting. God, of necessity, if he exists at all, existed before all things, and by him all things were made, whether spirit or matter. On this subject, however, some have said, that as the Divine Being is an Eternal Being, that he is therefore, an eternal worker ; by which argument, it is shown, that God's xcorks are as eternal as himself, which is impossible. But it does not follow, that because he always had the power to work, that he has always done so ; as the exercise of that power is always optional with him, or he could not be a free spirit or being, as he declares himself to be. but would be unceasingly subject to his attribute of power, doing perpetually all he can by way of creation, and all he can by way of destruction. On the subject whether matter is eternal or not, see the rea- soning of Dr. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on Heb. xi. 6, which is termed a mode of reasoning a-priori, or proofs that it is impossible for God not to have existed as he is ; a mode of reasoning winch does not attempt to prove his being, from any of his works, or from that which appears in nature, but alto- gether from reasonings a-priori as follows : " First. — If there be no one being in the universe, but such as might possibly not have been, it follows, that there might possibly have been no existence at all : and if that could be so, it would be also possi- ble that the present existence might have arisen from, or out of, total non-existence, which is absurd and impossible. Therefore, it is not possible, that there might have been no existence at all : consequently an impossibility of not existing, must be found somewhere ; there must have been a being whose non-existence is impossible. Second. — The whole nature of an unoriginated being, or aggregate of his attributes, must be unoriginated, and necessarily what they are. A being cannot produce its own attributes; for' this would suppose it acted before it existed. There is nothing in the nature of this being that is contingent, or that could have been otherwise than it is ; for whatever is contingent must have a cause, to determine its mode of exis- tence. Third.— The attributes of an unoriginated being must be possessed by it unlimitedly ; for, to possess an attribute imper- fectly, or only in a certain degree, must suppose some cause ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 65 to have modified this toeing, so as to make him incapable of hav- ing that attribute in any other than an imperfect degree. But no cause can be admitted in this case, because this is the first of all beings, and the cause of all things. Further, an imperfect attribute, or any one, that is not in its highest degree, must be capable oi improvement, by exercise and experience: which would imply that the unoriginated being must have been origin- ally imperfect ; and that he is deriving further degrees of per- fection, from the exercise of his own powers, and acquaintance with his own works, which is absurd, and would make the Divine Being indebted to his own works for his unlimited perfections. Fourth. — The unoriginated being must exist everywhere, in the same manner he docs anywhere; for if he did not, it would suppose some cause, by which his presence was limited, but there can be no cause to limit that presence, as before said. Fifth. — This unoriginated being, must be a simple uncom- pounded being, identically the same everywhere ; not consisting of parts, for these must be distinct and independent ; nor oi whole, for this is the agsregrate of parts ; nor of magnitude, or quan- tity, for these signify a composition oi parts. This being must be as truly one, and omnipresent, as the present moment of time is indivisibly one, in all places at once ; and can no more be limited or measured by time, than the present moment can be measured by duration. Hence, this being cannot be matter, because to this belongs extension, divisibility, figurability and mobility, which imply limitation : God and matter have essen- tially contrary properties, as God is not material but immaterial. Jt has already been shown, that there necessarily must exist, one infinite, unoriofinated. and eternal being. Now this beino- must be a thinking being ; for it is as impossible to conceive, that unthinking matter could produce a thinking intelligent being, as it is to conceive that nothing could produce something. God therefore is not indebted to matter for his being. Let us suppose any parcel of matter to be eternal, we shall find it in itself, una- ble to produce anything. Let us suppose its parts firmly at rest together; if there were no other being, must it not eternally re- main so, a dead inactive lump? is it possible to conceive that it can add motion to itself, or produce it, in other portions of matter ? Matter, therefore, by its own strength, cannot produce in itself, so much as motion. The motion it has, must also be from eternity, or else added to matter by some other being more powerful than itself. But let us suppose motion eternal too ; yet matter, unthinking matter and motion, could never produce thought. Knowledge will still be as far beyond the power of motion and matter to produce, as matter is beyond the power of nothing to produce. Divide matter into as minute parts as you will, vary the figure and motion of it, as much as you please, it 5 66 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN will operate no other ways upon other bodies of proportionate bulk, than it did before this division. The minutest particles of matter strike, impel and resist one another, just as the greater do ; and that is all that they can do. So that if we will suppose noth- ing eternal, matter can never begin to be. If we suppose bare matter, without motion, eternal, then motion can never begin to be. If we suppose only matter and motion eternal, then thought can never begin to be. For it is impossible to conceive, that matter, either with or without motion, could have originally. in and from itself, sense, perception, and knowledge ; as is evi- dent from hence, that sense, perception, and knowledge, must be properties eternally separate from matter, and every particle of it. It necessarily follows, therefore, that the Eternal Being can- not be matter, but a being of infinite and eternal perception. Sixth. — This being must possess intelligence, and poicer un- limited, and all other attributes, that are in themselves absolute perfections. Attributes are divided into natural and rnoraL or primary and secondary. The first, are those which essentially belong to the nature of a being considered in itself; the second, in its" manner of acting towards others. All the attributes of God being uncontingent, must be unlimited ; and, therefore, his knowledge must" extend to all that does or can exist, or that cannot and never \y\\\ exist ; "and his power to do every thing that can be done," and there is nothing which is consistent with truth, harmony, and reason, and God the judge of that truth, harmony, and " reason, that is impossible for God to do, Sev- enth. — There cannot be in the universe more than one unoriginat- ed being : for as this being is possessed of infinite attributes, let us suppose a second unoriginatcd being. He must possess the same: for both these beings are eternal, and necessarily the same, everywhere alike present, without any possible difference or distinction, and therefore one and the same. Two such can- not subsist : and the supposition of a second such being," is as absurd as twenty would be, and would therefore be "only a men- tal repetition of the being and attributes of the first. Eighth.— Absolute power, as an attribute of God. does not act of necessity, but freely," and as directed by his will ; "the power may exist without being exerted ; if it cannot, then it acts by necessity ; and if so, then necessity is the agent, and not the free"' will "of the independent God ; he can do what he will; but lie will do only what is right," as he cannot will what is wrong, any more than lie can cease to be. Matter, therefore, as above argued, we perceive, whether con- nected with spirit or otherwise, cannot be from eternity. The doctrine of the eternity of matter, accordingly, is unfounded in reason* as some philosophers affect to believe ; setting up a god which they call nature, while they deny the author of nature, which is nothing but a system of spirit and matter, produced by ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 67 his will and power. Matter as matter, whether animate or inani- mate, whether existing in the four great elelements, earth, air, fire and water, or as amalgamated in the forms of animals or men, is not endowed with the power of thought ; and more than this — it has not, as matter, even one sensation, as the moment a certain principle called life, ceases to animate a body, it ceases to have tiie sensation of feeling, although there is not a particle less of matter, than a moment before this principle left it. Mat- ter as matter, is not capable of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, nor feeling; as the instant that mysterious principle called life, passes away, these powers go with it, and who can say that they do not in some unknown manner continue, and attach them- selves to the spirits of men, in a disembodied condition, and thus are held in reserve against the hour of the resurrection, to be- come in another state constituent parts of the mode of being which shall then be entered into ; when the soul, which is the five senses with the passions ; and spirit, which is the mind, and the body, which is the companion of both, shall again be eternally united, either for good or ill, as character will decide. But some have strangely imagined, that the organization of matter pro- duces mind, a species of being wholly distinct from the nature of matter. Were this so, we should have one instance, at least, ' of an effect's rising above its cause, which sentiment, in philoso- phy, is held by all classes of reasoners, as wholly absurd ; be- cause mind is superior to matter, however it may be organized. Rational mind is not, therefore, the result of organization ; it is a result of the wisdom and power of God, and was an endow- ment superadded to the formation and organization of the human body, by which that body of organized matter was to be governed. If then it is superior to the body, and is the effect of the power and wisdom of God, in a sense superior to the creation of matter, it is then immortal of necessity, on account of its origin and paren- tage, who is the God, of whom it is said, that he is the Father of the spirits of all flesh ; namely, of all human flesh, in a differ- ent and more exalted way than lie is of the spirits of dumb beasts. As to atheistical opinion that matter is eternal ; and that out of organized matter, mind, or spirit arises ; it is refuted, When we recollect that mind is superior to matter, and therefore could never have been produced in that way, as an effect can never exceed in excellence its cause. But this conclusion is met as Atheists suppose : when they contend, but do not maintain, that mind, spirit, or thought, is but mere matter after all, though of a very refined and delicate description ; yet, is nothing more nor less than pure matter, the product of organization, as in the case of man and all other animals. But this conclusion is still refuted, by another view of the subject as follows : If mind, spirit and thought, is matter, an accumulation of this kind of matter, must at last, where a sufficient amount of these delicate particles are OS HISTORY OF THE FALLEN collected together, become tangible : as it is impossible to have any other conception of the subject than this, on the principle that like begets like, through all the ranks of being of a terestial character. If mind is matter, then thoughts, which are the Esniing of mind, are but the finer particles of such matter ; arid may therefore be supposed as being capable of an accumulation. - I become tangible. Now can this be shown to ever have happened, during all the past ages of the earth ! It cannot be shown : notwithstanding their incessant product ion and accumu- lation above every other production of organized matter, as to numbers and multitudes. Were all the human race now living. with all that may yet come into being, not only on this globe, but on all globes of the universe, during unending ages, to rix their thoughts on one located point, however small, there would not appear the least particle of matter : neither would there be any disorder in their condition, on account of that focal point, no more man if such accumulation of thought had never existed. This conclusion, arises out of the fact that no such accumula- tion, ..ranee of matter, has ever taken place, as arising out of such a cause. The products of organized matter, in all other instances, as of animal or vegetable existencies. can be. and are made tangible, to some one or more of the senses, by accumula- tion, however refined, in odors, gasses, or otherwise : yet this product of matter, called mind, spirit, or thought, has never been thus collected and made tangible : and until it can be done we claim the argument, which denies that mind or spirit is the pro- duct of matter : but the exact contrary ; matter must have mind : : ts origin, and that mind is God the creator of all. That mind is not matter, is farther shown, from the fact | though hinted at above that real matter of any and all kinds, however gross or rarified. is perceiveable by some one or all the senses : as manifested by smelling, tasting, feeling, hearing and seeing. By.: mind is not thus ascertained : mind cannot be seen, heard, smelt, felt nor las I we know it exists : and therefore is not matter nor the product of matter, or it could be tested by some one or all of the sens All the organizations which are called animal organizations, we ascertain is produced by this creator : who. in the creation of each species, not only made them male and female, but orave them the desire and the power to propagate : by winch, we per- ceive designs, of winch mere matter is not capable. Were the earth of itself, anciently capable of producing animal organiza- tion, as we find now existing ; what is the reason it does not now produce them : and why has it not done so in all past ages, as far back as the annals of man extend ? No Atheist can answer this. All the operations of chance, as the falling of trees, the casting their leaves, the tumbling 1 of buildings, when thrown down by the winds, or by convulsions, the drift-wood of a head- ANGELS OF THE - stream : are a]] alive of the conih- nps the mass r.ith disar: at But seen in I : the theanang of the worlds in .';eir vek on and repulsion of each various pro rising anted p. nit; on of mind; for at it. that chance is noth . onfusion, and n r and me J arrangement, of which ijcated in Christian countri . I to ac- knowle/; nal icham nechan< uni than to rial existence of mere tter, whi: ;. and therefore could n l in 1 .- I- God mind or matter, are not from etern : of neoe that there was a ftfVM and at period it was that the m also follows, that as much of bou:. rnity had al- ready been, as shall ewes be. from that time or period — as it is impossr _*ht. to make ard the boundaries of that which is boundless, or of that which has no eginning. B .:: ^ low from th vho has am himself to the as consistent as was its application to the fallen case of this world's inhabitants. God can never be straightened, to effect any thing which is not inconsistent, and can therefore, as easily send his angels, to any and to all worlds, which may have, or yet may fall, as to have sent them to this, to the Shepherds of Judea, to announce the fact of the arrival of the atoneing victim. In our case, we perceive that a band of angels were commissioned to this earth, as its first Gospel ministers, and if to us, why not to others, and to all such worlds as have, or may yet fall in the uni- verse of God ? Wherefore, we believe, that if any other worlds in the past ages of eternity, before this earth, and the system to which it belongs, was created ; and the incarnation of the Creator took place ; fell or apostatised as this has done ; that the angels of God may have been employed to announce to such fallen beings; accompanied with a sufficient amount of evidence, for their faith ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 83 to lay hold of, that in the fullness of periods, the Creator would become incarnated, as a sacrificial victim for sin, in a certain world or globe, not yet created : and the whole system of salva- tion, as revealed from heaven to us, was thus revealed to them. If such may have been the case, that one globe, or even all, may have, or yet may apostatize ; such angels, to whom such a com- mission might or may be given, were, and may be permitted to give evidence as notable, as was the evidence given of the origin of the Law on Mount Sinia, or of the atonement to the Shep- herds ; then might such fallen beings become ministers of the grace of God, to their fellow beings, as is the fact in this world ; preaching and turning poor sinners to the wisdom of the just. In support of this opinion, we see no good reason why the words of St. Paul may not be extended to such cases ; for who can fix the boundaries of the wisdom and mercy of God, to the fallen, if fallen under such circumstances as not to preclude the just exer- cise of mercy, as it appears was our condition. See Romans, vi. 10, " For in that he died, he died unto sin once/' or on the ac- count of sin, once, and but once forever more ; and as he is risen from the dead ''-death hath no more dominion over him" On which account, he cannot die any more, though millions of worlds were to fall as this has done ; yet the benefits of his death here, may, for aught we can object, be extended to all such cases, by the ministration of angels, and the reception of such ministration by faith, be the condition of their salvation, as well as of ours. St. Paul has recorded the same idea, in his epistle to the Hebrews, x. 12, " But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice (that of himself) for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God," never to suffer again for offenders. This view of the subject of the incarnation of God, and of the one atonement for sinners, such sinners as are eligible to pity ; and of the resurrection of the dead body of Christ, and his ascension to heaven ; we think en- tirely answers the query of the author of the Age of Reason, Thomas Paine ; which runs thus : There being many worlds in existence, all of which there can be no doubt, are inhabited, and in as much danger of falling as Adam was ; if so, then the Son of God has nothing less to do, than to keep on dying for sinning worlds, as they may happen to apostatize, all along the endless ages of eternity. If so, then an accumulation of corpo- real bodies, would be the consequence ; and were it so, would present an insurmountable difficulty, which Christianity never could solve or endue that we can see. But on the view of his dying but once, and the benefits of that death being extended to all cases of sin, which can be commiserated, in all worlds, in the great family of nature ; then the objection of Paine is obviated, and need give no further trouble. On this view, how amazingly is the redeeming power of Christ's death enhanced, in its glory, in its capability of extending without end to all possible cases of 84 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN commiseration. On this plan, contemplation may riot in a boundless, fathomless ocean of display on the part of God ; and in ceaseless degrees of intellectual beings, as well as of numbers and happiness, on the part of his creatures. What hosts there are, and shall forever be ; besides those of this earth, who shall ascribe salvation to God and the Lamb, who from all worlds, both fallen and not fallen, shall pour as mighty torrents, in per- petual flow, to that one heaven ; to rest from their labors, and to ascend in the scale of intellectual happiness, without end. For if there are worlds of intellectual beings who have not sinned as we have done ; yet this circumstance must not be allowed to pre- vent their advancement in the scale of being ; lest such as have sinned, and have been subjected to death on that account, might seem to have superior privileges, on account of their resurrection, and happy arrival in heaven ; which could not have been if they iiad not sinned, says one. But such an opinion is not cor- rect, for if our race, or any other race of intellectual beings, on any part of the universe of God, had never sinned, nor ever shall sin, some mode by which the)* could be removed to give place to others, as they should be born into life, must be resorted to. and that mode would have been translations. That such is the mode, where death has not come, the two instances of the translations of Enoch and Elijah has been afforded to prove it ? as well also, as to show how the saints are to get to heaven, who are not to die, and will be found alive on the earth at the time of the last day. For, on this very subject, St. Paul has said, Thes. i. 17, " Then we (they) which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them (those who shall then be raised from their graves) in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we even be with the Lord." This being caught up alive is translation, the same as Enoch and Elijah ; the same doctrine therefore, may be applied to all worlds, so that equality of oppor- tunity may obtain to those who have not sinned, as well as to them who have. On this subject, the ministration of angels to other worlds, respecting what the Son of God did in this for sinners, may it not be conjectured, that from his birth till his ascension into heaven, that myriads of these supernatural min- isters were ever with him, noting down, as heavenly historians, his acts and his sufferings. And that when the mighty history- was finished, away they sped, as rays of light, to the respective worlds of the universe, which then existed, or may exist, to tell the tidings of salvation, and of the great atonement. But says one, how did they communicate it? This is answer- ed by referring to the case of the angels, who first of all announ- ced salvation to the shepherds of Bethlehem. And further, such angels may have even mingled with the inhabitants of such worlds to which they were sent, and face to face, in familiar converse, told them the thrilling story of the wisdom, benevo- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 85 lence and power of the Creator, as shown in the incarnation, death and resurrection of the Son of God. On this supposition, that of Jesus Christ heing a propitiation for the sin of all worlds, there follows another consideration of the most animating de- scription to Christians of this earth, and this is it. Such as shall be saved, and shall safely arrive in the kingdom of heaven be- yond this life, will no doubt be admitted to accompany the Son of God on the great occasions of the judgment days of such worlds as may sin, as this has done, to whom some part in the awful pa- geantry may be committed, as will be committed to the angels of God at the end of this world, and to the souls of the just who are now in paradise, and shall accompany Him when he shall de- scend from heaven at the last day. Ah, who can foretel the ravishing events and developements of the wisdom and power of God, as ceaseless ages shall unfold their secrets ; which events and developements will occupy the minds of the highest intelligences, whether of heaven itself, or of the spirits of other worlds, without end, perpetually increasing the happiness of that much desired state of things; while those who shall be lost will be covered with perpetual darkness or ig- norance of what is going forward in the Empire of the Eternal God. 'Twere easy to dilate here in so bright and wide a field, but we desist. Condition of the first Spirits, and Proofs that they were made in a great variety of Orders and Degrees of Intellectual Power, and that their first Thoughts or Probation was about their Being, and of the origin of Satan. But to return to the subject of the employment of those first angelic beings, which we have left some six or eight pages above, with the view of now persuing it somewhat further, and to ascer- tain tj^e origin of Satan. We remark that it is impossible to imagine any other subject of contemplation and mental exertion, than the mystery of their beinor, could at that period have occupied their minds, as there existed at that time no part of the visible creation, themselves and their own heaven excepted, to furnish matter of reflection, and of communication. On comparing the thoughts of their minds with each other, they could but find a similarity of men- tal pursuit; and the little as yet acquired on this subject could but stimulate to further research. At first it may have appeared to them that they had existed always, as no man, and it is likely no angel, can remember the time when he did not exist ; yet they may have been able from a comparison of ideas, acquired by 86 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN mental exercise and experience of this sort among themselves, to have come to "a conclusion that they had not been long in a state of society at any rate ; but hoio, or in what manner, or from tohence they had arrived must have been a mystery to them, till such time as information, from a competent source could be an- nounced, are believed by them. Could Adam ever have solved the problem of the commencement of his being ; could he have ever made out in and of himself the author of his own and his Eve's origin? We think not. On which account it was neces- sary that a revelation on this very point, should be had from a competent source ; yet they could, by comparing their thoughts with each other, and from what they could see, hear, and remem- ber, conclude that they had not been long in a state of society with each other. But whether they had or had not, separately existed a greater or a less length of time, or whether always they could not have known, if the)'' had not been told by their Maker. Adam could never have known from whence his Eve had come if God had not told him ; for when his side was opened and a part thereof taken away, out of which she was formed, Adam was in a deep sleep ; much less, therefore, could he fathom the higher mystery of his own creation, and that of the globe, if God had not told him. If then it is reasonable to believe that the mystery of their being was the first field of angelic employment, it is also as reasonable to suppose that the Creator did not at first reveal himself to these first-born sons of light ; but left them awhile to the exercise of their own powers, while himself remained invisible as he now does to the inhabitants of this, and all worlds except heaven it- self; but took cognizance of all their ways and mental operations. Out of such a state of things we may easily perceive that vari- ous opinions may have obtained among these sons of the morn- ing, these stars of God, about their existence ; yet whatever else their opinions may have been, they could never have come to the all astounding hypothesis that they had been their own creators, as that was impossible ; and more than this, it is much to be doubted whether an idea of their having been created at aJJ ever entered their thoughts till revealed ; because so high, so deep and so incomprehensible a matter, is in our opinion above the reach or the invention of finite intellect, whether of men or of angels, and could never have obtained in earth or heaven, if this fact, this trait of omnipotence, had not been revealed by the Creator ; so important is it, in our opinion, to the glory of God, that all matters of moral doctrine should be a subject of revelation, and that, of Himself, as men nor angels by their wisdom could never have found it out. But we hasten to prove from the Scriptures that the angels were created in a great variety of orders or of intellectual degrees. Such an arrangement cannot but be regarded as beautiful ; for ANGELS OP THE SCRIPTURES. 87 variety even among celestial beings, would conduce to their hap- piness. Variety among men, in the powers of their minds, the form of their bodies, and lineaments of countenance, conduce to happiness ; as well also as the endless variety found through all animal and vegetable life ; the herbage, forests, minerals and flowers of the earth beautify and adorn creation, making it more the abode of comfort and delight. But as heads of all the heavenly orders of holy angels, Michael and Lucifer seem to be pointed out. We know, however, that the term Lucifer sounds exceedingly repulsive, because by it, is 71010 understood the devil — the destroyer. But such was not the original meaning of the name, and did not describe a malevo- lent being, any more than did the word Michael, the name of the other archangel. The term Lucifer, as used by Isaiah the Pro- phet, when applied in a certain sense to Nebuchadnezzar, meant in that tongue, which was the Chaldean, Light-bringer ; while Michael signified the might of God — both equally honorable equally glorious. But since the apostacy of Lucifer, Mi- chael alone is spoken of as the only arch-angel of heavan by St. Jude, which we learn from his using the article the in relation to him, which proves there is but one, and speaks of his having once contended with the devil about the body of Moses, and gives him the dignified appellation of Michael the arch angel, by which is understood the highest of angelic natures then existing. Gabriel is also an angel of another order, but low- er, as he is never in the Scriptures called an arc/j-angel, yet is spoken of as a mighty angel. The ministration of this latter spiritual being is several times spoken of in the Bible. Sec Dan. viii. 16, where it is said, " And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, (or the Chaldean name of the Euphrates) which called and said, Gabriel, make this man (Daniel) to understand the vision." Again in the next chapter, the 9th of Daniel. 21, it is further stated respecting this spirit as follows : " Yea, while I (Daniel) was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision, at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation." The same angelic being was seen of Zecherias in the inner temple, stand- ing on the right hand side of the altar of incense, who said, " I am Gabeiel that standeth in the (immediate) presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee good tidings." Luke i. 19. There are also in the book of Rev. many passages which favor this opinion ; viz. — of a variety of supernatural angelic orders, a few of which are as follows : Rev. i. 1. u The revelation of Jesus Christ * * * and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John." Rev. iv. 4. There are twenty-four glorious beings mentioned and distinguished as elders, even in heaven ; which proves them as superiors, — as follows: M Around about 88 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN the throne were four' and twenty seats : and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting clothed in white raiment ; and they had on their heads crowns of gold." In the same chapter, verse 8, is found other orders, differing from the elders in several remarkable particulars ; such as — that they were full of eyes within and without ; besides being clothed with three pair of gorgeous wings; who were employed in ascribing praises to Him, which was, and is, and is to come. In the fifth chapter of this book, verse second, is another evidence to the same effect : M And I saw a stro7ig angel, proclaiming, or crying with a loud voice : who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof. And 11th verse, of the same chapter, is a further account ; from which we infer the doctrine of a great variety of orders among the angels of God : — " And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders : and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.*' Rev. x. 1, 2, 3 : " And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud : and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire : And he had in his hand a little book open : and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left on the earth : And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth, lifting up his hands to heaven, and swore by him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven and earth, and the things that are therein, that there should be time no longer? If then, to digress a moment, there is a time to come, when time shall be no longer, will not that time be the end of time, — and consequently the end of the world ; which is the day of Judgment, so often alluded to in the Bible ; and cannot be the destruction of Jerusalem : because time did not come to an end at that time. Also, Rev. xx. 1. 2: " And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, [bottomless, or endless, because there is the place of unending torments.] and a great chain in his hand: And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him (See the Plate,) a thousand years,— du- ring which time will be the Millenium. See Eph. i. 21, for our final proof of the belief of the doctrine of a multitude of orders arid degrees among the angels of heaven. In that place, the writer, who was St. Paul, speaks of the exaltation of the Son of Man, after his resurrection, and says that he was set " far above all principalities, power, might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also that which is to come." By which we learn, that there are names designating powers, principalities, and dominions, as well in a world of spirits, as in this ; which we think, proves the belief of the great ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 91 amount of intellectual variety among the angels of God, as at first created] notwithstanding, many, if not all Universalists, deny angelic existences, as mentioned in the Scriptures, the same as did the Saducees, in the time of Christ; the Deists of that age ; and the most opposed to the introduction of true Chris- tianity : the same as all I'liiversalists, in every age, have been guilty o£ like their true brethren above named: and will ever be, till they renounce their opinions as a people. We cannot however, condemn every one of this opinion, as Deists ; because there are some of that order, who appear to be in reality converted persons, and talk about religion, and the Sa- viour, the same as the other sects ; but such talk, and such con- version, never arose out of the true Universalist opinions ; as those opinions deny spiritual conversion, the Deity of Christ, his expiatory death, the real fall of Adam, the existence of abso- lute sin, or moral evil : which to deny, is to deny the whole essence of Christianity, the new birth and all. The Subject of Spiritual and Angelic Existence, further examined : to ascertain whether the Accounts of such Be- ings, as found in the Bible, signify Men or Spirits. This we think proper to do, before we come to the main point ; the cause of the being of Satan — as an evil being. Many Universal ists, as we before have noticed, deny that the Scriptures, by the word angel, means any thing more or less than men ; as prophets, apostles, evangelists, and ministers of reli- gion, or messengers of good or ill. But why do they deny this ? Because, if they admit the existence of good angels, they, of necessity, must admit the existence of evil angels, such as St. Jude speaks of. who kept not their first estate, but were cast down to hell : and this would he to admit at once that there is a Satan, and devils, and also a hell — as is believed by other sects of Chris- tians; therefore, their existence must be denied totally. — and accordingly is, by all who are thorough in that creid. Angels are almost everywhere spoken of. in both the Old and New Tes- tament: commencing as early in time as Abraham, and ending but with St. John, the Revelator : under such circumstances as precludes the possibility of their having been men, in any view of the subject. Let such as deny the being of spirits, called angels, examine the quotations we have already made in proof of a variety of orders amon^ the angels, and those we are now about to make; but especially the whole of chapters 17, IS, and 19, of Genesis, the story of which is as follows. When Abraham was ninety- 92 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN nine years old, the Lord appeared to him in the form of a man, had said " I am the Almighty Gad ;" when he instructed Abra- anm relative to circumcision, and of the coming of the Messiah. And when he left off talking with him, God went ascending from his sight, up toward heaven, maintaining to the last glimpse, the form of a man. Gen. xvii. 22. Bat at another time — which, however, was soon after this first appearance — the Almighty appeared to Abraham again, and in the form of a man : with two of his angels with him, having also the same form. Gen. xviii. 1, 2 : " And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent-door in the heat of the day : And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three man stood by him." It would seem that these three men had not been discovered in their approach, but had suddenly mada themselves visible from a previous invisible state; or it could not well have been stated by Moses, that those three men stood by Abraham, without also mentioning that their approach had been noticed by him, if they were nothing more than ordi- nary men. But notwithstanding this sudden appearance, Abra- ham, it seems, did not know that his guests were from heaven, for he made haste, from the goodness of his heart, to prepare them food, and. after they had seemed to eat, he arose and went on a while with them, toward the vale of Sodom — whither they were going ; but ere he parted from them — by some means, not recorded — he found out that the Lord of Hosts, witli two of his holy angels, had been his visitors, and that they were come forth to destroy by fire, the five cities of the vale of Sodom. At this time the noted plea for mercy, made by Abraham to the Lord, for these davoted cities, took place ; after which, it is said, the Lord went his way. Now if Abraliam had been a Universalist — as that paople claim he was, as also all the prophets — where was the propriety of his plea of mercy, for the mere lives of the So- domites — seeing they were so exceedingly wicked, as to have become a nuisance on the face of the earth — when he must have known that their death would be their eternal reformation and happiness in another world. In the 19th chapter of Genesis, is found an account of two angels rescuing Lot and his two daughters from ruin. But the proof that those two strangers whom it appears Lot — from the hospitableness of his disposition, rescued from being lodgers in the street, were angels, or supernatural beings, is : that as the wicked man of Sodom beset the house of righteous Lot, they, the angels, struck them with blindness ; such power, we believe, is not conferred on mortals, so as to inflict blindness, or any other disorder, by invisible means. After this, soma twenty five years had rolled away, when Isaac the so a of Abraham, had grown to m in 1 *: estate ; the Lord, it appears, rcpiired the sacrifice of this son to try the fealty of ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 95 Abraham's heart to God. But as he did not hesitate to do even this, nor delay by standing to reason the case in his own mind, and was about to deal the blow of death ; there suddenly was heard the cry of an angel's voice, in the air above him, there on the wild and spiry summit of Mount Moriah, saying, Abraham, Abraham, lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do any thing unto him : for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. Now the proof that this angel was not a man, but a spirit, is, that Moses states, the angel of the Lord called to Abraham out of heaven, (See the Plate,) the atmosphere above, a place where men do not often appear. Gen. xxii. 11, 12. How it is that Universalists can deny the existence of supernatural angelic beings — as many of them do, and contend that the Scriptures do not justify the belief, and at the same time are acquainted with accounts those books give of such beings, is to us an unaccountable problem — if they credit the Bible at all. Among a multitude of such facts, the fol- lowing is not one of the least notable, that go to prove the be- lief true : see 2d Kings, chap, vi., verses 8 to 23 inclusive, in which a most interesting and extraordinary account of the kind is given in the case of a Syrian king and his army, who were making war upon one of the kings of Israel. In this account, it is stated, that there was a prophet — namely, Elisha — who in- formed the king of Israel several times of certain snares and ambushes, which the Syrian king had contrived — by which his capture was intended — and that on this account, he escaped. This was a matter of wonder to the Syrian monarch, and led him to suspect there were traitors in his own army, to his cause. But this was indignantly contradicted by his officers, who stated that the prophet Elisha informed the king of Israel of all that he did, even of the very words he uttered in his bed chamber. On this account, tire Syrian king became determined to take him prisoner. Accordingly he despatched a small army to a place called Doth an — where Elisha then was — which place they entirely surrounded, under cover of night. This circumstance, it appears, was unknown to the prophet, until his servant Gehiza, who had risen very early in the morning, and having gone out of the house, saw the place entirely invested by men in arms, and by horsemen and chariots, a great multitude. This circum- stance greatly frightened the young man, for he now ran in to his master, crying " alas master hoio shall v:e do." The proph- et, however, was perfectly cool, notwithstanding this alarming in- telligence, and said to his servant, "fear vol, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them" — when he lifting his hands to heaven said, u O Lord, I pray tbee, open his eyes that he may sec. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man ; and he saw, and behold the mountains were full of horses and chariots of lire round about Elisha." These were the angels of 96 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN God invisible beings, or the eyes of the servant need not to have been opened, in order for him to have seen them. From this it appears that we are in all probability always surrounded by beings of this description, the messengers of the Almighty, whose habitations are throughout the whole universe of God, who see and know all that is passing in any and all the worlds of space. Another notable instance of angelic interference is found in Luke, xxii. 43. in the case of our Lord's agony in the garden of Gethsemane, where it is said, " and there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him," as his agony at that point was even greater than on the cross, in which human nature, even as possessed by the Son of God, was found inadequate to bear, without submitting to death too soori to fulfill the prophe- cies of his crucifiction by wicked hands. This angel who thus strengthened him, is shown not to have been a man, as he is called an angel from heaven, and there is no such place on earth that we have heard of; besides, what man was he who was able to give support to the mental agonies of the soul of Jesus Christ, when by suffering he made atonement for the world. Cornelius, a Gentile of Cesarea, and a military officer of the Roman army, saw at a certain time in a vision, not while in sleep, but in the day tims, about the ninth hour, an angel of God: " and when he looked on him he was afraid, and said what is it Lord?" Now if this had been a mere man, would this Roman officer have been afraid, and called him Elohim, the Lord or Most High ? no, not even if it had been in a drea?n — as a dream under the direction or influence of inspiration, could never have thus proceeded, if not true in every sense of the word. But in Acts, 12th chap, there is an account of this kind far more remarkable than the one last above related. This is res- pecting St. Peter, who having been put in prison by the Jewish rulers, on acconntof his being a Christian, was bound therewith two chains, and placed during the night season, between two soldiers, who slept on each side of him, as a guard against his escape. From this situation Peter was released by an angel of God ; the facts of which we will give in detail, as found in the book of Acts, as follows : " Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was m;xd3 without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison. And behold the an^el of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison, ahd he smote (touched) Peter on the side and raised him up saying, arise quickly, and his chains fell off his hands. And the angel said unto him, gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals, and so he did. And he saith unto him, cast thy garment about thee and follow me. And he went out and fol- lowed him : and wist not that it was true which was done by ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 97 the angel, but thought he saw a vision. When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city, which opened to them of its own accord, and they went out, and passed on through one street, and forth- with the angel departed from him." But says an objector, all this may have been done by some friend to Peter, who had by cunning, given the sentry at the door, and the two soldies who slept by his side, some sleeping potion, and having procured a key, not only to the prison doors, but to the outer gate of the city, and the chain which manacled him, went in and released him as they slept, and all this done in answer to prayer ; and the person so doing was an angel or messenger of God to Peter, but was no spirit of another world ! But that this angel was a man could not have been the fact, as it is stated in the account, that the outer gate of the city open- ed of itself, that is, without a key, or any visible means ; and certainly St. Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, could not be guilty of telling an untruth in this matter, or have been deceived, as he was an inspired writer, in the matters of the New Testa- ment, at any rate. St. Peter's opinion of the matter was, that the Lord had sent his angel ; for he said, " now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod" — which thing St. Peter could never have said, if he knew that some fricsid had so delivered him and afterwards informed him of it, as such a friend most certain- ly would have done. The case of St. Paul is another proof of angelic existence, of a supernatural character, of which he speaks as experienced by himself on board the ship, in the Adriatic sea : who says, " For there stood by me this night, the angel of the Lord, whose I am. and whom I serve, saying, fear not Paid ; thou must be brought before Caisar : and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore sirs be of Good cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be even as it teas told me" By which he informs us that his information was from heaven, and therefore the messenger, which was an angel, was also from hea- ven, who had stood by St. Paul that night, and told him such things. The New Testament is almost a continued history of super- natural occurrences, and ot supernatural angels, both good and bad. as we shall show before we close the volume: yet there are those who deny everything of the kind, and at the same time profess to believe the Scriptures, and to build their Christian be- lief from its pages; but how far are such persons from real Christianity in their faith. See Matthew xxviii. 2, 3, 4, where there is a most convincing instance of supernatural operation related, as connected with the resurrection of our Lord's crucified body, done by an angel, of a 98 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN supernatural character and origin. " Behold, there was a great earthquake ; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door (of the cave) and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow, and for fear of him the keepers (the Ro- man guard) did shake and become as dead men." This could not have been a man, as men do not have countenances like lightning, nor do they descend from heaven, nor cause earth- quakes, nor have power ro frighten, (one alone) a whole band of fierce and armed soldiers, so as to cause them to become as dead men, by their in ere looks, as was the fact in this case. See Judges, chap. xiii. where there is an account of an angel of God who foretold the birth of Samson, his manner of life, &c. and then, in the sight of Manoah and his wife, ascended from the the face of the rock, in the flame of the sacrifice, which they of- fered there to the Lord, of which angel it is there said, that he did wondrously, by which no doubt is meant his going up in the flame, to a considerable height, [See the Plate) and the vanish* ing out sight. Which occurrence greatly frightened Manoah, the same man who was afterwards the father of Samson, the strongest, as well as the most foolish fellow that ever judged a people. Of this angel, as seen by Manoah, it is said in the account gi- ven in Judges, that his countenance was not as that of a man, though having the lineaments; yet was of a superior cast. Mark the words of inspiration : " His countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible" or glorious to look upon, which could not have been said of a mere man : and that he went up in the flame of the sacrifice, toward the heavens, proves beyond all contradiction that this angel was not a mortal man ; as the thing could not possibly have been performed by the natural ability of any one of the race. We have now a most interesting account to give, as much so perhaps as any in the whole Scriptures, by which not only the existence of supernatural angels is corroborated, but the doc- trine of a variety of orders among the angelic hosts proven, as before attempted to be done, as well also as the existence of evil angels, and their respective influence on the minds of men. See Daniel, chap. x. in the course of which we read, that the prophet stood by the river Hidekel, or as it is now termed the Arazares. He saw a glorious being who appeared to be clothed " in linen, and his loins girded with fine gold of Uphaz, (or of Ophir) his body also was like the beryl, (a pellucid gem of a blueish-green color) and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude." With this angel Daniel conversed respecting many things which were to come to pass in after ages ; wonder. ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 101 fully describing the rise and fall of various great empires, and of the care himself and Michael the archangel had over the desti- nies of the Jews. He told him also that from the day Daniel set his heart to understand and to chasten himself, (not Ly flagella- tions with a whip, &c. as some fanatics or deceivers have done,) before God, that he had desired to come to him, and to instruct him in a knowledge of future events; but that theprince of the kingdom of Persia, withstood him from doing so, one and licen- ty days ; but lo Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help him. We wish to notice in particular in this place one expression, as pertinent to the idea of different orders of angels, and this is it — "lo Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me." By which we understand that as Michael was one of those chief princes among the angelic orders, that there are also other prin- ces, or it could not have been said with propriety that he was one of them. From which account it appears that we here as- certain certainly three different orders of being ; first, the glori- ous angel, who is particularly described above, and who con- versed with Daniel : and second, Michael the archangel, who came to help him against the prince of Persia, an evil angel, who opposed the interests of the Jews in the mind of Cyrus : and an- other angel who is denominated the prince of Grecia, who was to come as soon as this glorious angel, who had communed with Daniel, had gone forth from him. But why did this evil angel, called the prince of Persia, op- pose himself to those other angels, who were favorable to the interests of the Jews? (For this was the case; as appears by the statement of the angel who had conversed with Daniel, who said to him, at last, when he had caused him to know, and to under- stand fully, icliy he had visited him, that he would then return to fight with this prince of Persia,) because it is likely he knew that if the Jewish nations could by any means be prevented rebuild- ing their ruined city walls and temple, and restoring their religion, with all its typical observances and moral influence, which had ceased during their captivity at Babylon ; that this people with their religion, would be entirely lost among the pagan nations. By this means, he hoped to prevent the coming of the Messiah into the world ; and therefore fought against all impressions made on the mind of Cyrus, the monarch of the Persians, by Michael, Gabriel and other spiritual beings, who favored the Jews in the holy enterprise. And this is what is meant, when it is said that the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood the glorious anjjel one and twenty days, which was exactly the num- ber of days which Daniel prayed and chastened himself — and what was also meant by his saying, "and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia." It will not do to say, in order to get rid of the being of those spirits, that this prince of Persia 102 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN was Cyrus, because he was then favorable to the restoration of the Jews and their religion, and had given orders exceedingly- strict and broad, about the rebuilding of the walls of the city, temple, &c. This glorious angel therefore, who said he would return from Daniel to fight with the prince of Persia, was a spir- it, and meant that he would go and counteract the impressions of this evil spirit on the mind of Cyrus and his people, lest the Jews and their works should be defeated. [See the Plate.) Can this account mean anything else ? if it does, we do not perceive it. But who was this Michael, called one of the chief princes, who aided the glorious angel in his labors for the Jews ; was he of earth, a mere man, or of heaven, a spiritual being? St. jude set- tles this question, who says, " Michael the arch angel ; who con- tended with the devil about the body of Moses," which shows him to have been a supernatural being or he could not have thus contended in an unseen manner ; for if Michael and this being called the devil, were mere men, and contended respecting what should be done with the body of that great Jewish legislator ; the Jews would have known this, and the place of his burial would have been known also, which the Scripture says, is un- known, and that the Lord buried him. See Deut. xxxiv. 5, 6. John the Revelator, corroborates St. Jude in this thing. See chapter xii. 7, who speaks of him (Michael) as being at the head of those angels who kept their first estate ; who stood fast during their probation, or trial : and that he, with his angels fought against the dragon and his angels, even in heaven : who were cast out ; of which we shall more fully treat, by and by. But in Hebrews, ii. 6, 7, there is an account, which places this subject beyond controversy, as both the natures of men and angels are there distinguished, and spoken of, allowing one to be superior to the other ; as follows : " What is man that thou art mindful of him ? or the Son of man, that thou visiteth him ? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels : thou crown- edst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands." The term man, as above used, stands for the whole species. But if the beings, called angels — mentioned in the passage — are said to be above the race of man — which is implied, when it is said that " man was made a little lower than the angels," — then the two kinds of beings are distinct from each other, in their very natures ; so that the opinion as held by many Universalists, — namely : that the term angels, as used in the Scriptures, is always restricted to, and signifies men, messen- gers of men, and no more : falls to the ground, from the force of that one passage in Hebrews, while it is corroborated by many others, and the whole sense of the whole Bible, on that subject. The words of Christ himself prove this doctrine, beyond all possible contradiction. See Matthew xxvi. 53, where the ac- count of his apprehension in the garden of Gethsemane is given: ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 103 who when the Jews as guided by Judas came rushing upon him. Peter would have defended him with a sword, when he said, that he could pray to his father and he would send him more than twelve legions of angels to defend Irim from the Jews and all his enemies. Now how many in number would twelve legions amount to ? This is answered by ascertaining what was meant by one legion. The term legion was a word signifying 6000 soldiers in the Ro man armies at that time. This number multiplied by twelve amounts to seventy-two thousands. Now if the Universalist in- terpretation of the word angel is to be relied on, as restricted by them to answer their purpose, who say that it signifies nothing more than men who are messengers either of God, kings, or assemblies of men — then it follows that at that very time, Christ could have commanded an army of at least seventy two thou- sand men from among the multitude of the Jews, Romans, and other people then in Judea, whicli would at once argue him a great military captain, and standing at the head of an immense banditti in the very heart of the country. This would contra- dict his own words in another place ; see John xviii. 36. " Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of (his world ; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my sexvnnXs fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews." But if the word is restricted wholly to ministers of religion, as Universal ists generally contend, then it follows that Christ told a lie ; for at that very time all the Jewish ministers of their religion, together with the very few of the Christian system, did not amount to one fourth part of that number. But if it be still re- stricted to ministers of the Christian system, as then but just commenced ; then the words more than twelve legions, are al- most without any meaning at all, or a lie is told of the most ri- diculous character — even exceeding the tales of the Arabian Nights ; as it is impossible to make out over one hundred and fifty one. including both seventies— companies of disciples sent out by the Saviour, together with the eleven who were always with him. It appears therefore that the twelve legions of angels alluded to by the Saviour, were not men of the earth, but were of the hosts of heaven, altc gether of a supernatural character, not be* longing to the earth. But now, if the reader believes that we have in the preceding pages, on this subject, established— first : that angels— such as we have given an account of— were spirits of a supernatural description; and — second: that their numbers are innumerable; and — third : were created in various orders, or degrees of intel- lectual difference ; we are now prepared to investigate more im- mediately the origin of sin and cause of the being of Satan and ias subordinate devils, or fallen angels. 7 104 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN Accounts of the Voyages of the first Angels far into Space be- fore any thing was created but themselves, and the Mode of their Trial, Nature of Mind, fyc. In pursuance therefore of the above subject, we will remind (he reader that some twenty pages above, we have supposed that the first angelic beings were left in their incipient state, to con- jecture about the mystery of their being; and that various and conflicting opinions on that subject, must have arisen among them : and however greatly any number of them may have ex- celled their fellows in their powers of mind, yet that circumstance gave no advantage in penetrating this mystery, because as yet there had been no clue, no revelation on the subject afforded them. But in proportion, it may be supposed, to the amount of intel- lectual subtilty possessed by any finite unfallen being, there is always manifested a corresponding activity in the business of research, in relation to such matters as occupy their powers ; on which account there can be but little doubt, that after all was known, that could be known in their congregated condition, in heaven ; that they instituted among themselves a systematic mode of exploring; other tracts of space, than the one immediately comprehending their location. But whither could they go ? to what region could these primeval troops direct their course ? as on all hands, and in every point of heaven's compass, darkness reigned in the awful distance. There was no light, blackness deep and wide as immensity itself, reigned through boundless space. There were no sounds, no voice of any creature had broken the hitherto eternal silence. There was no heat, nor cold, wet nor dry, all was a boundless, blank eternity. There were no suns nor moons, stars nor constellations, no winds mov- ing through empty space, no light had shed a ray on the inter- minable vacuum, except that of the home of the angels, where they then were, which was light. itself. There was no ocean's roar, no tide waters rocked as now, in the hollow of the seas, the cradle of the floods ; no billows dashing against mountains, nor on the sands and stony shores of continents; no rivers, nor streams, nor fountains of waters; no forests, herbage, fishes, fowls, nor animal life of any land, all was void, deep and fathom- less nonentity. But notwithstanding this, and though no rumor of distant regions had reached their ear; yet, in bands and cohorts, they became resolved to navigate this ocean in straight lines, starting out from their heaven as their centre, and continuing their res- pective courses, till they should wish to return : when "observing the same rule, it could but bring them back to the same point, and prevent their being forever lost in the wastes of boundless ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 107 space. Heaven's inhabitants now having arranged themselves, such as were of the number of the adventurers, soared aloft, for every point of the compass from that first centre, was up, though opposite directions were pursued, they were nevertheless per- pendicular ones. (See the plate.) This is shown, by supposing ourselves on the sun, which is the centre of our planetary system; any direction from the sun is a perpendicular direction, as the sun by necessity is the lowest point in the solar system. Heaven, therefore, if in the centre of the great and increasing universe of God, is also the lowest point (re- latively speaking) in wide creation ; from which it follows that any direction therefrom is a perpendicular direction. Although in this sense, heaven is the lowest point in the universe ; yet in moral excellence it is the highest, for it is God's throne — loca- tion, or mere position, adds no excellence to any being or place, it is moral character that does this. On this account it is, that God is said to look down from heaven upon the works of his hands. It was impossible for those voyaging angels to arrange how long should be their journey, as there then existed no rule by which time or distance could be measured; as day and night, arising from the revolutions of globes, and systems of matter, did not then exist, as signs and guides in this respect. Eternity had not yet erected her time piece, by which she is cut up into ages, periods, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds ; their own feelings, as to the time of return, was their only guide. Now heaven was bereft in part, of its people, as the journey- ing millions shot off in all directions of heaven's compass, like dashes of fire from a nucleus of light, in search of they knew not what, as they could form no idea of things, or of beings, of which they had not heard or seen; yet their spirit of activity may be supposed thus to have exerted itself. But how far these exploring angels penetrated the heights of boundless space, none can tell ; yet perhaps even further than where now exists the utmost bounds of creation; where the outermost circles of sys- tems of worlds look off into the yet boundless and yet unexplored abyss of eternity, save by onmiscenee itself; but without having made one discovery, except that there was no end to nonentity, which was the universal report, on the return of each cohort, shouting as they descended, there is nothing, nothing , beside ourselves and this our place of dwelling. But on account of this void condition of space, are we to sup- pose the angels were in the least unhappy, or discontented? not at all ; for this one reason : it is not possible that a thought of the existence of what is now called matter, as distinguished by tangi- bility, could have entered their minds, nor ever would have done so, had not he who created them, at such times as seemed good to himself, have created also the universe, consisting of 108 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN matter, variously modified and mingled with spirit, and furnish- ing occupancy and ground of improvement, to intellectual beings. Is it possible for the most cultivated of the race of man, to think of, or to invent, any substance dilferent from what he has seen, heard of, and known to exist, or to add a single first principle to trie great machine of nature, that could be of any use ; as is den- sity, divisibility, gravity or attraction, repulsion, color, heat, cold, wet, dry, light, darkness, sensation, nutrition, sound, &c. ? it is impossible ; we can conceive of no possible useful addition of any first principle. Neither could the angels have done this, more than to have been creators ; they were not capable of invention to any such extent as to be able to make improvements on their own nature ; and never could have had any further ideas of any tiling beside their own condition, and their associate circum- stances, had not the Divine Being have produced a tangible .state of things, and presented it to them, which, when done,"was a revelation, known and read of all. Man knows nothing, absolutely nothing, in and of himself ; he cannot originate one single idea without help, without a revela- tion of some kind as a starting point. What, therefore, is the mind of man ? we cannot tell ; yet we may say it is a being, a creation of something, capable of improvement almost to infinity, yet, without knowledge^ or even thought, till revelation comes to its rescue, and one species of revelation is nature as now de- veloped, with all its first principles. That instant the mind shoots off with amazing velocity, in its course of improvement, outstripping even the winds and the lightnings, in its pursuits of knoweldge, bounded only by boundless existence. That such is the vague and blank character oimind in the abstract, before it feels the genial rays of revelation, is shown from the history of the late mysterious German boy Casper Havser ; who it seems. for reasons yet unknown, was shut up in a place so small as not to allow him even from infancy to the age of about sixteen years, room to stand up in, but always sitting fiat on the floor, with his legs extended out before him. During that whole time he had never seen light, either of the sun nor any other kind, nor heard the voice of man, nor seen his shape, nor the shape of anything else, till a little before his release from prison. On his first being ushered into light, and left to his own way, he seemed to hear, without knowing what it was, to see, without perceiving or know- ing it was sight, and to move his feet and limbs, without knowing their use — although so old — nor ever could have known, had he not been released from captivity. His language consisted only of tears, and moans, and strange inward sounds, though soon after his release from prison he seemed to have invented two words, which rushed out spontaneously. For man, the word Bua, whether to male or female, old or young, was indiscrimi- nately applied ; for all other things, whether applied to animals, ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 109 trees, the clouds, or whatever struck his attention, the word Roff, was used. After he had received in part an education, he could not recollect anything of himself, except that after waking from sleep, there was always bread and water by his side ; articles which he afterwards learned to distinguish by those names. But to prove that his mind was totally vacant, and without any ideas, and would always have remained thus, if he had not bcen released ; it is said of him that he never dreamed anything, till after his enlargement and acquaintance with things, for a particular account in detail of this singular affair, and of the death of the lad, see Penny Magazine, part 23, No. 118, 1834. Such is the mind of man. till the light of circumstances and association is poured upon it, when it rouses into strength and activity, seizes upon surrounding circumstances, with all its per- ception, which progress on from sight, touch and taste, to com- parison, and from thence to knowledge and understanding; displayed in arrangement without end. In some such predica- ment, we may suppose, the angels were created, and that the greatness of their minds, over and above what man is found to possess, did not consist at first, so much in a knowledge of a multitude of things, as in their capability to receive, to improve, to understand, and to enjoy more abundantly, when the Creator should call their capacities into a more spacious field of labor, and investigation. On which account, it is said in Scripture, that the angels excel in strength ; which strength, we understand to be wholly of an intellectual description. And that man was made a little lower than the angels — that is : with less power of mental and moral improvement — in this state of things ; while the angels were created higher in that respect, in their first out- set of existence, inculcates the same opinion. We may therefore call this state of the angels — before the Creator revealed himself to them, either by appearance or by works — their incipient, or commencing condition, and preceded the beginning of their state of trial, or probation. A state of trial, or probation, was not instituted toward Adam, except by revealed laic : so as to mark out, and require the observance, and obed- ience to such law. Had our first parents have been left without a revealed law, with its penalty, they never could have passed through a probationary state, and consequently could never have been cither praise or blame worthy, nor been placed in a situa- tion in which they could have evinced, by any act whatever, the native condition of their spirits : but would have been left in an indifferent, insipid, and irresponsible state of being — forever precluded from opportunity of improvement, above any other animal of the globe, whose laws of appetite are mere instinct. But as it respects those first spirits, we believe it was somewhat different ; and that they were introduced to a knowledge of the important fact of the possession of moral free agency, and that 1 LO HISTORY OF THE FALLEN they had original power and ability to choose gocd or evil, without any intimation of penalties — as was man's case. The simple requirement of love and obedience toward the Creator, without naming psnalties, was doubtless sufficient, and as much as could have been consistent in their case : because of their superior intellectual state above that of Adam and Eve. On this account therefore, it would have been proper, and doubtless was the fact, for the Divine Being to have kept them in ignorance of the consequences of delinquency, or of failure, so that their obedience should proceed solely from pure principle and love — free unassisted love, unmixed with dread, or allusion to penal- ties, or any such thing. Had the angels, who kept not their first estate, have known that to sin, or to become opposed to the commands of Him who claimed to be their Creator, would inevitably plunge them into irretrievable damnation — which damnation would consist in the change and entire obliteration of their characters, as virtuous and holy beings : as well as added thereto, there should follow a ceaseless state of penal tormenting suffering — they never would have sinned from pure selfishness. On such a base as this, we may easily perceive, that holiness and true virtue, could not sub- sist ; as that which they would have done under such circum- stances, would have been far enough from being the result of pure principle and love to God, or love of righteousness, for righteousness sake — but of selfishness. But before it could have been possible for them to have begun to form their characters, it was necessary for them to receive law from a competent source ; but that law must have been without a promise of reward, or threat of punishment : so that a free and perfect exhibition of what they would do, as the creatures of God, might appear as well to themselves, as to the Divine Being. This course would greatly enhance their happiness, when they should come to know how dreadful a thing it is to sin against God : as their reflections would be, that they had acted from pure principle, unbiased by promise of reward, or threat of pun- ishment. But in Adam's case it was not improper, nor inconsistent to make the law of obedience, in relation to 'penalty and reward ; because his grade of intellectual being, was of a lower order than the angels, that it might exert its influence on his mind, by pro- ducing fear. He was therefore placed in the neighborhood of solicitude to obey, not only from a desire to please God, in his love of virtue from pure principle, but also to avoid death — the amount and nature of which, he no doubt well understood — or it could have been of no force or influence on his mind, nor that of his companion : and of course of no moral use. Under such a view of the case, it is natural to enquire — how is it that the angels -cannot be supposed to have been under a law which ANGELS' OF THE SCRIPTURES. Ill threatened punishment and promised rewards, without incurring to themselves, the eharacter of acting on selfish principles: while at the same time we argue that Adam and Eve could act under such a law, and yet go clear of this charge ? The solu- tion consists simply in the difference between the natures and moral abilities of the two sorts of beings ; so that it was an equal administration in God to make this difference ; and yet the actions of each go clear of the baleful charge of unrighteous sel- fishness ; as pure obedience, after all, under both conditions, was all thai was required. But if the position still appears paradoxical, we will illustrate it by the following simile: — A child obeys its father when it is commanded and enforced by threat or promise; as without such command, it knows not what to do. But a man being higher in intellectual improvement, will obey from his own knowledge of what his father wishes to have done, without this threat and promise ; both having the character of unalienated children — so in the case of Adam and the angels. In relation to the angels, it appears to us of momentous pro priety that they should have been left awhile purely to them- selves, without any law, or any knowledge of a Creator, as that from such a condition, a preparation to receive law, and com- mand, could be produced, which would arise from the various conclusions on any and all subjects within the reach of their condition, yet without sin : as to disagree, sentimentally and vir- tuously, implies no moral or depraved defect in their being, or constitution of spirit. But the Divine Being intended soon to re- veal himself, and to give them a standard of action, as a guide to their various and exalted powers, by claiming to himself su- preme authority and direction. Can it be supposed that the Divine Being could not have con- sistently withheld a knowledge of his own being from those first spirits, as long as to him might have seemed good ; by what ar- gument does it appear, that of necessity he must immediately be known to beings which he has or may create ? None that we know of. If angels and men may know more and more of the Divine Being, the longer they exist, it follows that at first they must have known nothing at all, as there must have been a com- mencement of such knowledge, and previous to that commence- ment, were it but a moment, yet even a moment is a time, and gains the point, as a principle aHeast, of a condition which pre- ceded the knowledge of law, by a direct revelation. But it is said by some, that in the oase of Adam there was a law, in his very nature, written on his heart, that required him to love G >d, and that this law preceded the law of trial, respect ing the forbidden tree. Had this been true, this law must have 1 inactive and without application, until it was known to Adam that there was a God to love, who, when he knew, he 112 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN loved, from the very nature of himself ; not being then depraved as are his descendants at the present time, and are the natural enemies of God. But we disallow such a circumstance to be a law at all, other- wise than the nature of anything which has been created, whe- ther spirits or animals, or mere matter, may be said to consist after some mode, and that the mode of their consistency is the law of their natures. Were this so, there were no freedom of action, deviation from rectitude, in this way, is made impossible, as nature, or nature's principles, as produced by the Divine Power cannot and never did err. When we speak of anything which has been created, whether it is spirit or matter, it is com- mon to conceive that it consist after some fashion or manner ; but is it right to say that its fashion, or manner of consistency, is a laic 1 By no means, as all that can be properly said on the sub- ject is that so and so is its nature and not its law. Though Adam and Eve, as well as angels, were created pure and good by the Divine Being, yet this cannot prove that such a circumstance shows them to have instantly, or as it were by in- tuition, known God, any more than any thing else could know and admire its Creator by intuition. Law forever supposes the possibility of violation ; but fixed principles in nature never go astray, because they have no free- dom of the kind, and cannot err, and are not therefore subject to moral law. If it be said the law was written on the heart of Adam and of angels at first, to love God, yet this does not prove that they instantly knew him ; but it proves they were capaci tated to love him so soon as they should know him ; and how could they kncno him till he revealed or manifested himself in some manner or other as should please him. We therefore per- ceive no inconsistency in supposing that the angels were at first left awhile without revealed law, as well as Adam and Eve, who were certainly thus dealt with ; for he did not receive the law till some time after his creation ; not till Eve was created and both of them shown how to till and dress the garden : when, or soon thereafter, the L»w of Paradise was given them. On account of this delay, we are sure that Adam knew nothing either of God or his law till sometime after his creation ; during which time, his thoughts and the thoughts of Eve, were occupied with them- selves and the objects which were presented to their senses, as it was not possible that their thoughts could extend to any thing further till a further revelation should be given them. Such a procedure on the part of God, placed him in a consis- tent position to give law to the angels, (as well as to Adam and Eve.) and to receive their fealty and love, bringing all their vari- ous powers into an agreement with each other, and directing their energies toward himself, the centre of all moral happiness. It is announced of the Son of God, who was the creator of angels, ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 113 in the New Testament, that he is " meek and lowly in heart," on which account, to us, there appears an exceeding beauty and agreement with such a disposition of mind, shown in withhold- ing from the angels a knowledge of his existence, till such time as he should propose himself to them ; but in such a way and manner as should not astovnd them with the majesty of his glo- ry, and at the same time give evidence in a degree of the right of his claim, as being God over all; inviting, not compelling their love, obedience and adoration. To us it appears a material point in the divine government, that he should not astovnd his subjects on trial, with an overxchelming amount of evidence in relation to any thing he may, or has required their acknowledg- ment of; but rather to give that quantum of evidence to their consideration which shall exactly harmonise with their degree of intelligence, liberty and free agency. Otherwise than this, there could be no trial, no probation, no matter of choice, whether they would accede or not; free agency would be out of the question, as no room, under such circumstances, could be found for its ex- ercise, as the whole influence of such a procedure would be ab- solute compulsion. To illustrate this conclusion, we will suppose that at the time of our Saviour's advent among men, there had accompanied him at his birth myriads of the angels of heaven, who should have visibly encamped round about the city of Jerusalem, holding continual and intimate intercourse with all the citizens during the whole period of his sojourn among the Jews, who should have continually declared, this is your Messiah, this is he who was to come — the Messiah foretold by Moses and all the prophets — this is the seed of the woman who is to bruise the serpent's head — the Son of the Living God — the Messiah of your expecta- tion. Under such a state of evidence in relation to the identity of the Messiah, it could not be said that they had believed freely, and of their own mind^, by comparing Scripture with his works and claims, and thus arrive at the conclusion, and thus consti- tute true faith. Would not such a course have been in the high- est degree compulsory ; so thai the free exercise of free agency, in its untramelled purity, on that subject, would have been im- possible. Had our Lord compelled by such a course, as above described, or by any other irrisistil !e way, mankind to lelievein him, would it have been consistent with man's free agency? if so it would have been done. But as it was not consistent, it was not done. The mode of Gods government, it seems, cannot ad- mit of such a procedure, as it would at once neutralise the high- est and most beautiful trait of the natures of both nun and an- gels, which is their free agi ney, the very trait which distinguish- es them from all the oiher works of (Sod, and furnishes intellec- tual moral existence with all iis value. Without this, I oth n en and angels would be but mental machines without mental liberty, 114 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN going- round and round, exactly as acted upon, having no self- del ermining power ; not choosing or refusing any thing of them- selves, and would demonstrate that the Divine Being is the only free mental actor in the universe. If such were the case, how- ever great the errors of any of his creatures might be, such er- rors could not be treated as 5 in ; as their acts, their thoughts, and even their designs, and the spirit in which they performed them, would owe their origin, operations and strength to God, on account of the lack oifree agency. On such a hypothesis the system of Christianity is not called for, as there can be nothing to be redeemed, unless we go about to show that He who acts upon all actors irresistibly, has so acted upon our race, that the results are ruinous and need repair, which idea is monstrous and absurd. Bat this is not the case, this cannot be ; free agency does exist in the minds of men and angels, and is the inost beautiful trait of the operations of the Divine Hand that we are acquainted with ; which beautiful trait he regards with the most consummate delicacy, as he will not, and doe^ not force it ; which if he did would at once nullify and render void the operation of his own creative wisdom as shown in the constitution of the very repre- sentatives of his own intellectual image, that of men and angels. Here then the awful secret, if secret it may be called, is announ- ced why men and some angels have fallen from their first estate ; which indeed appears impossible even for the Divine Being to have prevented, without his having first taken away and des- troyed this amazing power. If this had been done, it would have been the same as to uncreate in part, the most glorious of the operations of the hand of the Divine Being, and would have been confusion, which cannot be admitted. Here, in our esti- mation, turns the grand point of human or angelic accountability as it would appear to be beyond the consistent power, even of the Deity, to compel any of his intellectual creatures to the ob- servance of himself or laws ; as compulsion, in this department of his works, that of intellect, is not to be controlled by any cause whatever, whether by direct power, object, or any thing else ; were it not so, sin among men, could not take place any more than among the cattle of the mountains. And because Univer- salists do not believe in man's absolute free agency, is their rea- son for denying the existence of absolute moral evil or sin, and contend that sin is merely a relative evil, existing only between man and mm, and upon the whole is for the best. Miy it not therefore be said, free agency is a dangerous quali- fication ; if so, we can only reply, that without it there can be neither mjn nor angels, as this qualification is essential to their very being" as rational creatures; without it there could be no clivio ! nnrtl govern milt, adiptcd as now to the powers of free a i ' its, 1 1 ■ whole universe of rational conscious existi)ne^; would be but a splendid machine, not a whit however, more splendid ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 115 or more to be admired than any and all the other grades of ani- mated nature. Without it, the whole system of accountability, as taught by Christianity, falls to the ground ; vice as vice, and virtue as virtue are extinct ; even the idea of a God, as the go- vernor of intellectual beings, seems not called for, and if not called for, goes far in support of the most horrid of all ideas, which is Atheism. That the whole moral and natural universe of God, and his administration of law, or government over them, is but a great and multiform machine, which never has, nor never can move wrong, and that all and singular, from the greatest to the small est transaction, whether it is the effortsofthe most exalted mind, which God has made, or the accidental movement of the least particle of matter in creation ; is comprehended in the move ments of this machine : is believed and contended for by the most refined and best instructed Universalists of the age. If this were true, we do not wonder that they have come to the conclu- sion that there is not in existence, nor ever can be absolvle moral evil, or sin. Hence they teach that sin, relatively so called, is not upon the whole, amoral evil, but a good : and was so intend- ed by the Creator. On this view they deny the fall of man- as held by the orthodox sects ; and of necessity, they also deny an expiatory atonement, made toward God in the death of Jesus Christ, for the sins of the world ; upon the heels of which, spir- itual regeneration, by them is taught to be of no importance, or a matter of mere fancy. Were this the true state of the case, we cannot perceive how sin exists at all ; as that which is best upon the whole, is also best in all its parts : and he who teaches that sin exists under stick circumstances, publishes a libel on the operation of God's great machine — destroys the possibility of i\ee agency, or of human responsibility, either to God, or to one another. For if whatever we do or think, is but the moving on of this great machine — as God has designed— then who is he that has erred since the world began, in thought, word, or deed. Though men behave never so absurdly, and abominably toward each other, yet this is known of Gcd, as the very thing he wished should be effected by his machine, with a view to the gocd of the gn-at whole ; where then is there room to find fault, or for the existence of relative sin, or moral evil? we declare without fear <>!' being refuted— that there is none ; as the whole operation of universal nature, both in physics and morals, is resolved into the horrid idea of/ate: which destroys the idea of a Gcd governing a universe of intellectual beings, according to character; and would be equally well governed, without any Cod at all ; as fate cannot err, having in its nature no optional powers whatever. There is nothing in existence which has 1 een created, that may not be said to be an agent : and is either a free age at, or a 711a- chlne agent. All mailer, belongs to the ehuss which may be 116 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN denominated, machine agents ; — all spirits, which are intellec- tual and rational, belong to the class of free agents. But it is impossible to constitute a free rational agent, so as to empower it to do morally right, without the accompanying qualification of a power to do morally wrong; and one is as free as the other; otherwise the thing itself cannot be. The idea of intellectual free agency, cannot be separated from the idea of reason and will ; powers which agree together, in making out a free agent : but are not required in making out a ?nachine agent. To deny therefore, that there is any such qualification belong- ing to men or angels, as free agency — which is the power of choice between objects — is to say that the Divine Being cannot, or has not ascended in the exercise of his power and wisdom, above the production of mere brutes, which are not capable of moral good or evil, and shamefully retrenches the unlimited ability of God, in the consistent exercise of his power. It is well written by the Rev. Timothy Merritt, in his Strictures on Hosea Bailouts " Treatise on Atonement" — that "mankind could not be accountable for their volitions and actions, if they were not free ; for if their actions are not free, they are not their own, but His, whose will influences and determines them. Nor will that account of the freedom of the will, which Ballon, and some others give, mend the matter ; who teach that all our liberty consists in being free to choose what is ?nost agreeable to us. But on this supposition, the unregenerated sinner would choose, that is, icould be impelled on in a course of disobedience by his evil propensities, without having it in his power to make the least resistance, or to abstain from one sinful action. In this case therefore, he would have no liberty, he would be under an absolute necessity of choosing and acting as he does. Such an one might be the object of pity, as the most unfortunate creature in the world : but surely he could not be blamed in any sense. This would take away all the turpitude of sin, from the sinner, and fix it on Him whose will, however remotely, governs all the creature's volitions and actions. The curious notion of Ballou, and of some others, on human moral liberty, which is, that men are free only to choose that which is most agreeable to them, may be illustrated by the fol- lowing similie: a fish is free to swim in the water, as it cannot do so in any other way ; it is free to stay in the water, because it cannot very well get out. A tree grows with its top towards the zenith, instead of its roots, because it is impossibte for it to grow in any other way. Now this is a wonderful picture of hu- man liberty, as held by Universalists ; yet it is a true picture, if men cannot do that only which is most agreeable to them. But says the objector, I still contend thai no human soul can choose that which it does not choose. Well suppose he cant ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 117 choose that which he does not choose, yet you cannot deny but he may do that which he does not choose to do, and that men do often, in virtue of this power, many things which are not according to their best interests, and of course contrary to their most rational choice. Now the whole course of a sinful world , is a course of mental perversion ; in which all sinful actions are not according to man's best rational choice : yet they do many- things contrary to their better reason, or better choice ; but were they not free agents, men could never do this, as the high- est reason for an act of any kind, would always preponderate in favor of its being done, and would inevitably secure its perform- ance. But free agency secures the power of doing that which men do not choose, as well as that which they do : or free agency does not exist at all. The notion of being only able to choose that which seems most agreeable — as Universalists believe — puts the cause of such choice in the thing chosen ; which thing, is therefore, the agent, the acting agent; while the person having the mind, is passive- ly compelled to accept : and destroys all idea of human liberty, or ability of choice, in the receiver ; and is no more an agent in the matter, than a tree is an agent when it is the mark lor the bullet of the shooter. There is a power in man, by which he can do that which he does not choose to do, both negatively and affirmatively. All that class of actions which men perform, that are contrary and disagreeable to the senses, are proofs that he does often act contrary to that which appears most agreeable. Self-murder, for instance, a crime the most abhorent to sensation and reason, is often committed ; though the love of life is the strongest passion of animal existence : and can never be per- petrated from choice — based on the expectation of an immediate or remote benefit, except in one or two cases, and these are : when a person who is sick of life, and believes in the immediate annihi- lation of his mind, or in an immediate transition of that mind to a happy state with God in eternity, as do the Universalists ; either of whom might commit in such cases even self-murder, as all reason why they should not, is taken away : and the only reason why suicides do not prevail among that people, when in trouble, is because they do not in the most unbounded sense of the word trust to that belief, or else, because they are in no hurry to exchange the pleasures of sin and animal happiness for the company of God and the joys of heaven. It is of no importance for the Universalist.s to resist this conclu- sion, from a pretended submission to evil, on account of its being probably the host on the great whole, according to their belief: as there is no man of such mighty moral patriotic feelings, who will sacrifice his own immediate happiness for such a reason, when he knows it is within his own power to relieve himself by 118 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN suicide, and enter into happiness — or at least into a state of insen- sibility. It is of no avail to insist that it is contrary to the will of God, the order of nature, or to the natural sensations, for one to lay violent hands upon his own life and destroy it ; tor Uni- versalists hold, that every volition of man is required by the Divine Being — and that we act from necessity. To endure evil, therefore, has no virtue in it ; for if, in any vmy, we can relieve ourselves, it is our duty to do so — and if we cannot re- lieve ourselves, but are compelled to endure it, where is the virtue of patience? Would Job have done a foolish act, if he iiad killed himself, in the midst of his sorrows, instead of endu- ring ? we think not ; except such an act would have prejudiced his happiness after death ; and we do not hesitate to say that he would have done so, had he been a Universalist ; as that course which promises the greatest and most immediate happiness, must of necessity, according to Ballon, who holds that men act from the greatest motive, have produced such an end to Job. But Job knowing full well, that if he should kill himself, he w T ould secure his own misery in another world ; for he was not ignorant that, a murderer hath not eternal life abiding in him. Had he be- lieved as Universalists believe, that the resurrection, after the soul and body had bleached in the earth many ages, would bring him up again, in a state of purity and holiness ; w r ould he not have killed himself, rather than to live a few short days, even though he could have foreknown the prosperity which after- wards smiled upon the residue of his years? We think he would — as no possible evil could have befel him, had he taken such a course ; while an immediate relief from a state of the most horrid sufferings, would have ensued ; if the Universalist opinion about the immunities of the resurrection is true, and that there is no suffering on account of sin to the wicked after this life, then he may have put an end to his days with impunity; while no principle in morals could condemn him for having so done. Men have power to do acts when not necessitated, which pro- mise no immediate nor remote pleasure, but the contrary, with augmenting evil influence and perpetuity. Who can deny but a man can do as much by will as he can by accident. By acci- dent, a man may set on fire the treasures of his only and best friend ; and is it impossible for him to do so, even if he does not desire it? does the circumstance of his want of desire to do so great a mischief, deprive him of the ability ? we imagine not, for virtue co?isists in the right use of a power to do wrong. If not, then has man no power to do either right or wrong, by vir- tue of an inward or inherent ability, but only as he is acted on by surrounding circumstances ; and is thus impelled one way or the other, as is mere matter by a concussion with mere matter. This, were it true, is a noble view of the noblest work of God, the crea- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 119 tion of mind, which view, however, is the true child and offspring of fatalism, and a consequence of Universalism, as it regards human agency. On this plan, it can never be said, that men resist temptation ; for if at any time they do not comply with solicitations to do evil, all that can be conceived, as a reason why not, is that the temptation did not tempt strong enough, and is no evidence of virtue in him who imagined that he had resisted, as force in the attractor was wanting, itnd found insufficient. If stick were the situation of the mind of human society, it were impossible to adapt law for its government ; and far more impos- sible with any show of justice to attach penalties for the breach of law, as the penalties, as well as the law, should be addressed by statute to the leniptors, and not the tempted. On this ground it is the horse which is stolen, that is to be punished for tempt- ing and-exerting so strong an influence on the poor passive thief, and thus of all other crimes men arc tempted to do. If this ex- change between the tempted and temptor could but take place, it were a fine affair, as man would find himself free from guilt, depravity, and alt the consequences of sin, from self murder, down to the mere flit of an evil thought through the mind of the most simple and ignorant. But such a notion is base trifling with the height of human intellect and human responsibility, as well as with God, for man has a power to do evil, and to sin, not only relatively, as against his fellow, but also against God in the abstract, inasmuch as all sin has its root in the mind, (or no where) ere it is carried out into action, with all its wide spread ruin, as known in the world. Man can sin in some cases against Gcd, according to the Scriptures ; which sins are not against our fellow. This is taught by the Saviour, when he said to the Jews, that if a man did but look on a woman to lust after her, that he committed already adultery in his heart. Here is a sin which is not rela- • tive, as it is unknown, except to the sinner and the Creator, and affects no being in a relative sense. Now if one sin can be com- mitted which is not relative to our fellows, then the principle, as a principle is established, and proves that men can sin against God, abstract from all the circumstances of human life. If so, then it follows that man's nature is wrong, and that nothing can right it, but a supernatural and spiritual conversion to God, in which change the nature is set right again. To prove this posi- tion still further, we recollect that it is said in Scripture, that the law of God is exceeding broad, extending even to the thoughts and intents of the heart, of which there is no need, however, if all sin, is but merely relative, as conteneled by Universalists. Hundreds of passages and positions of the Scriptures can 1x5 found to establish the fact that sin exists primarily against the Supreme Being, and but secondarily agamst ourselves and our fellows. 120 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN Man has, therefore, a power, by virtue of his own liberty of will, or in other words, his free agency to do acts of pure turpi- tude and horror, which do not promise, either at the time of commission, or at any future time, any degree of happiness, and more than this, has power to will his own misery, (though not to love it,) even without a hope of recompense, which is often done in pure spite to an upbraiding conscience, and of the coun- sels of the just and the good. There is such a thing as abstract wickedness, and is called heart wickedness, or sin does not exist at all as a principle, and lias no being among men, any more than it has among dumb animals ; for animals often hurt, rob and kill each other, yet this is not sin, either against themselves or each other, or any evi- dence of depravity in their natures, as is the case with man ; and the reason is because they are not moral agents. Man has the power even to amputate his own limbs, to de- stroy his neighbor and his neighbors property, to commit sui- cide, and all manner of enormities ; which if he had not, the omission of such evils, when tempted thereto, could not be a vir- tue. " The will is not necessitated, or so determined toward good as not to be able to do the opposite. This was the judg- ment of all antiquity, and of the church universal." Watson's Dictionary, page 899. So that the will is left free. We feel and know intuitively, that we have a power presump- tuously and foolishly to thrust ourselves into the water, into the fire, from the summit of a precipice, and upon death in many ways, even though we may not have the will to do so ; and that we are able to use such power, even to our own destruction, without the hope of present or future good of any description. Power and will, it should be noticed, are two distinct principles, and are possessed by all accountable beings, and may be exerted preposterously, as well as consistently and virtuously, or man is not a subject of moral government, is not a free agent, cannot sin against God, his fellow, or himself. But if, as before hinted, free agency is a dangeroits gift, it may be also said to be a glorious and valuable gift, as by it the only means of approach to the Divine likeness is afforded ; as to this power, the law of God, which includes the whole system of Christianity, is addressed : so that an immeasurable amount of happiness may accrue from its right use, which could not take place on a contrary opinion. With this amazing qualification, which men and angels have, the doors of future happiness in eternal perpetuity, are unlocked to every virtuous aspirant, as they shall advance to boundless fields yet unknown, of pleasures untasted and unseen, in the empire of ceaseless duration ; and would remain thus locked to endless ages, were it not for the right use of this key, intellectual free agency. Were it not for this qualification, man could not have either stood or fell, in the ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 121 proper sense of the word ; yet free agency does not include in its nature the right to do wrong, but the power only. What though it is contended by Universalis^ and some others, that man can choose nothing except that which is most agreeable to him, and therefore deny his essential moral freedom ; yet they fail to prove this opinion ; for even the very act of choosing that which is most agreeable, shows his freedom ; for. if he chooses at all, it implies that he might not have thus chosen, and therefore, even in this case the power is still seen in its full force. We know it is impossible to be approached by two objects dissimilar to each other ; the one pleasing and the other displeasing, with- out our perceiving it ; but this very power of perceiving the difference, and of choosing the one and rejecting the other, is the proof of free agency, as without this power we could not per- ceive the supposed difference. In this respect, ail animal life is alike ; man only ascending by virtue of his rationality to moral subjects, while all the other grades of being below him, are lef; destitute, yet equally free to reject that which to them appears disagreeable. The fact, therefore, that man naturally choose? that which to him appears most agreeable, is as strong a proof o: the existence of true free agency, as are the contrary exertions of the same power, shown in rejecting that which is disagreeable : for surely, he who can move forward can also move backward! though not with equal ease. When we speak of man's naturally choosing that which to him appears the most agreeable, we are not to compare this natural freedom with the freedom of water to run down hill, or the natural gravity of all ponderous bodies. as this latter fact cannot be estimated as moral freedom, there being no reflection or thought exerted in the case ; while in the former there is reflection, and therefore choice is shown to be free ; or choice cannot be shown to exist at all. The faculty, or power of free choice, is certainly shown to exist in the Scripture, where it is written, " choose ye this day whom ye will serve f and in another place, " ye choose death in the error of your ways." It also is written of Moses, that when he had the oppor- tunity of being king of Egypt, being heir apparent to the throne, on account of Thcrmutis, the daughter of Pharaoh, having adopted him as her son, that he chose to suffer reproach rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. In this case, it is clearly shown, that the most agreeable object, as it regarded the senses of Moses, w r as rejected on the account of a more dis- tant reward, not to be enjoyed till after death. The fact that man is able to reject any object which may be presented to the senses, which promises immediate gratification, on the account of a more distant and elevated good, of a mental and moral character, is evidence of man's moral free agency, or freedom. If it be urged, however, by the opponent, that although 122 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN this power is in the possession of our race, yet it simply sho ws, after all, man's utter inability to choose that, which upon the whole, appears as the best or most agreeable, either to the senses, or the more elevated powers of the mind ; we still maintain, not- withstanding, that his freedom is shown equally clear, or the word choice has no application to the condition of man ; and would, were it so, render the application of moral law to the race, as improper and useless, as would be the application of moral law to the fishes of the deep. But if the term choice is descriptive of an optional power in the human soul, however it may be influ- enced by agreeable objects, whether physical or moral, then the doctrine of man's free agency is made oat. The five senses, hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling, are exactly adapted to our present condition ; but if that higher power, called mind, one ingredient of which is its freedom of action, cannot govern those senses, then it follows that we see, not because the mind directs to the contemplation of objects ; the ear hears, not because the mind watches to distinguish sounds ; we feel, not because the mind discovers where the sensation is; we taste, not because the mind acknowledges this qualification of the glands of the mouth ; we smell, not because the mind is delighted with this mysterious power ; but because all these objects which are recognized by the senses, rush fortuitously upon them ; not being directed by the mind how to distinguish between ob- jects ; which, were it so, would be to half uncreate the soul and body of man, and render him wholly unfit for the present mode of existence. The mind therefore, has this power of choice ; it is not situated in any of the senses ; the senses cannot control it ; }>ecause it is a power wholly above that which is agreeable or disagreeable to these five avenues p{ the mind. Mind, therefore, is free, though adapted to the identical condition of the senses, which have no power of choice ; and would, were it so, entirely destroy its existence, and reduce the whole animal world to the condition of mere matter. The fact is, the senses could be no senses, except the mind exists to comprehend them ; and yet the mind can neither see, hear, smell, taste, nor feel. To suppose an organized body, without a mind, having all the senses, is to suppose the existence of eyes which cannot see, of ears that can- not hear, of taste which cannot taste, of smell which cannot smell, and of feeling which cannot feel. Now ought it to be believed that these unthinking, unknow- ing senses, can, or do control the mind ? if not, then it is clear that the mind can act independent of them, and above their solicitations; which proves its absolute power of freedom, or free agency, and the judge of what is best to be indulged in. But notwithstanding all this, we still admit that the mind cannot choose that which is disagreeable to it ; yet contend, that this very fact is the whole amount of the evidence of its real free ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 123 agency; or, as we have before said, the term choice, has no ap- plication to the condition of our race ; and also contend that this qualification gives not the right to do wrong, but only the power. This view of the subject entirely clears the Divine Being of desiring, or of determining the fall of man, or of being the cause of sin, directly or remotely ; which, were it so, would prove be- yond all doubt, a determination that sin should somehow come to pass, that our first parents should fall, that a breach of God's law should be perpetrated, that contempt should be poured upon his own government. This would be strange work indeed, and so far as we are able to perceive, would make God a party with transgressors, or at least would afford the Most High an oppor- tunity of demonstrating, how easily and wonderfully he could repair moral ruin, which himself was pleased to have take place, and more than this, would at once show that sin does not exist, as says the Deist, because any thing instituted, carried on, and perfected by the Divine Being, either by his own direct power, or by remote agencies of his, is right in principle and in effect, and therefore is no sin. But sin does exist, not only secondarily, as against our fellows, but also primarily against God, as the governor or statute of the universe ; and though we believe the fall of man or angels were not desired events, on the part of God ; yet we believe that he was greatly glorified in the redemption of our race, but dare not say as some have said, that more glory accrues to the Divine Being on that account, than if the law had not been kept by our first parents ; for we ask, what more can even a redeemed creature do after all, than to keep God's holy law, which is no more, however, than could have been done, if men, or angels, had not have fallen. We dare not in this way, or any other way, make the Divine Being indebted to sin, which is the transgression of his own law, for an additional amount of glory to himself; nor dare we write and propagate among men, that the occurrence of sin was a desired event of the ever blessed God, as do Universal ists. We are taught in Scripture that the immaculate life of Christ, as a man, honored for man the law, which had been dishonored by the disobedience of Adam and Eve ; but there is no intimation in that book that it was more than honored, even by Christ himself, a thing impossible ; how then can more glory arise to God, through the redemption, than if man had not sinned ? But on the other hypothesis, this must be true, even though it is impossible, and brings the glory of God in debt to sin ; because, if sin had not taken place, redemption would not have been applicable to our race. But if we believe the fall of man was contrary to the will and desire of God, as produced by rebelling free agents, we then at once perceive how exceedingly glorious an undertaking the plan and execution of redemption was, and how wide a field in this occurrence, was opened for the exercise of real benevolence on 124 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN the part of God. But on the other idea, which supposes the Creator as willing, and desiring the fall of man, redemption dwindles in its glory down to a mere show and ostentatious pa- rade of pity, which even in man could be nothing short of magnifi- cently disgraceful ; for if the fall of man was caused by the will of God, common generosity, nay, justice itself, would require that he should restore him again, if his fall into sin did not please him. But such was not the case ; the fall of man was contrary to the eternal will of God ; yet he could not prevent it, unless he would control, or take away their free agency, which would have been in part to have uncreated man, a thing impossible, as the Creator changeth not in mind, though the principalities and powers of rational existence which he has made, change in moral character ever so much. Proofs of the Fall of the Angels, Refutation of several Propo- sitions of Balfour respecting the Opinions of Zoroaster, as copied by the Orthodox Sects, according to this Author, with many other Curious Matters. But to return again to the case of sinning angels, who kept not their first estate, as recorded by St. Jude and others, so as to ascertain the true origin of their sin, and reason of their apostacy, and of the being of Satan ; as this subject is one of the chief objects of this work. But before we proceed to investigate this subject, we are necessitated to prove that some of the angels, whose existence and supernatural character we have made out already in this work, fell from heaven, their first habitation, and became enemies to God, and all his works, with him, now called Satan at their head. We undertake to prove this, because it is denied by those sects who do not believe that there is literally a personal conscious being called Satan, or beings called devils, demons, and evil spirits, beings of an invisible state ; which, if we fail to perform, the chief design of this book is not made out, and the faith of those sects who deny their existence, stands unshaken in these respects. In pursuit of such proof, we know not where to turn, except to the Scriptures ; a book which is venerated by all, as the great text book of Christian theology, from whence all men draw authority in support of their religious faith, and is therefore an accredited source of information, on all subjects upon which it treats ; and this subject, that of the fall of some of such angels, is one. A book .90 sacred, and so high in authority, upon which, as upon a foundation of adamant, is built not only the hopes of this life, in moralizing and evangelizing the world; but that of ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 125 eternal existence and eternal happiness, should be allowed as a competent and sufficient arbiter on this subject; what, therefore, does it establish in relation to it? See St. Jude, who in relating several instances of God's severity toward the incorrigibly wicked, as in the case of the unbelieving and rebellions Jews, who died on that account, in the great desert, between the country of Canaan and Egypt, and of the cities of the vale of Sodom, as suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, speaks also of the " angels who kept not /heir first estate, but left their own habitation, he (God) hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day? But is this fact, the fall of the angels, as stated by St. Jude, any where corroborated in the New "Testament? it most certainly is; see John, viii. 44, where it is said, that our Lord said to the blaspheming Jews, that they did the lusts of their father the devil ; "who was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth? Now who is this devil, who is said by even Jesus Christ to be the father of the Jewish lusts, which they did? Was it Zoroas- ter, the great leader of the Persian Magian religion, of fire wor- shippers, who having been a Jew, left that religion, according to Balfour, and seizing on many new dogmas, which he received from the heathen, among whom he went, grafted them upon the Jewish stock, and taught them to the Persians ? if so, it must be shown that Zoroaster's apostacy from the Jewish religion, was the beginning of error in the world ; and therefore, that Moses was miserably mistaken, when many hundred years before Zoroaster's time, he had written the account of the fall of Adam and Eve from the truth, and the wickedness of all the human race, till his own time. Mr. Balfour has labored hard, see his " Enquiry. " section first, to prove that the orthodox Christians have borrowed all their peculiar sentiments, such as the existence of devils, the idea of a hell, of a day of future and general judgment, &c, from this Zo- roaster, and that Zoroaster got them from the heathen Greeks ; as he thinks it impossible for him to have derived these opinions from the Old Testament, although as we understand them are found in many parts of it, as in Genesis, Deuter- onomy, Judges, Samuel, Kings, the Prophets, Job, the Psalms, book of Solomon, and the Proverbs. Out of these books Zoro- aster enriched his works — and especially from the book of Psalms, which he nearly transcribed into his Zendavesta. It is impossible that so correct a knowledge of the character of the true God, could have been obtained by this Zoroaster, except from the writings of Moses and others of the Old Testament — as is here given from Eusebius, who says he had read the following words verbatim, in a book of Zoroaster, which was extant in his time, and entitled "Sacred Collection of Persian Monu- ments." u God is the first of all incorruptible beings, eternal 126 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN and unbegotten. He is not compounded of parts. There is none like nor equal to him. He is the author of all good, and entirely disinterested, the most excellent of all beings, and the wisest of all intelligent natures ; the father of equity, the parent of good laws, self instructed, and the first former of nature." Saristhani, quoted by Doctor Hyde, says that the first Magi, or most ancient Persian ministers of their religion, did not look upon the good and evil principles as both of them co-eternal, but thought that light was indeed eternal, but that darkness was produced in time by the disloyalty of Ahriman, the chief of the Genii. Here it is plain that the Persians, before Zoroaster was born, had somehow received the belief of the fall of the angels, which came originally, after the flood, from Noah ; but was more fully understood in Zoroaster's time, 600 years B. C, on account of his acquaintance with the Bible of the Jews. The writings of the Chinese abound with references and quotations from the writings of Soliman Ben Doud, or Solomon the son of David, and no doubt carried thither by their own travelling philosophers. Mr. Balfour thinks it impossible for the orthodox sects to have taken their belief from the New Testament, but wholly from Zo- roaster. But how this can be we know not, and we believe is equally unknown to Mr. Balfour, as the writings of Zoroaster have never been known to the Christian church, otherwise than to a very few learned men, but never made common. If the or- thodox sects are guilty of Zoroasterism, then was Christ, his dis- ciples, and their immediate followers Zoroasterans, as those pecul- iar sentiments of the orthodox sects are certainly found in the New Testament, and there learned, as not one man among a hundred million Christians, ever saw the writings of that phi- losopher, or ever even heard of him. In accusing the orthodox sects of having taken their peculiar opinions from Zoroaster, Mr. Balfour accuses even the inspired writers of the New Testament with this plagiarism, as that book is all the authority the Chris- tian churches ever had or ever heard of, for its peculiar opinions, which Universalists oppose. It is to the Old and to the New Testament these doctrines are to be traced, even though miscon- ceived of, as Universalists seem to suppose ; yet from those books we know we derive our authority, knowing of no other. This ridicule therefore of Balfour is of no importance, as we rely whol- ly upon the New Testament, as it reads, for those peculiar senti ments — that of the being of Satan, the existence of devils or evil spirits, a hell and future day of Judgment at the end of the world, &c. (fee. If then the beginning, of which St. John (viii. 44,) speaks, when he says the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, has nothing to do with Zoroaster the great Persian theological law-giver, to what period does he relate? What truth did this devil forsake, if it was not Ins fall from hea- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 127 ven, or first estate ? That any angel ever fell from heaven is abhorrent to the ideas of Mr. Balfour, the great divine of the Uni- versalists ; for if this can be proved their whole opposition to the orthodox belief on these subjects vanishes away; on which ac- count the texts most in point, by which it is proven, are avoided, or assumed not to mean this thing, whatever else they may mean. Hut St. Jude is corroborated in his statement by St. Peter as well as St. John, to all intents and purposes; for this apostle hav- ing the same subject in view, that of God's severity toward the incorrigibly and perseveringly wicked, mentions false prophets then among the people, who brought in damnable heresies, deny- ing the Lord that bought them, whose damnation slumbered not ; and urges the certainty of their doom from the fact that u God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment* 2 Peter, ii. 4. How is it that Universalists have become so much wiser on this subject than all former ages, for "the traditions of their fall, says Adam Clarke, is in all countries, and in all religions ; and why I because the sense of all mankind so understood this ac- count of the Scriptures, who have had them to read, except a few, we will add, of recent origin and fast spreading notoriety. It was the belief of the Jew r s that Satan, a fallen angel, slew Adam, and in him slew all his descendants." Their opinion on this matter we think should have some weight, as we do not find it corrected by the Messiah, nor by his disciples who have given us his doctrine on this point, as on all the other peculiar opinions of the orthodox sects. It is no marvel that among the gentiles, or heathen nations of remotest antiquity, a belief of the fall of the angels should have been extant ; for we are not to suppose that Noah was ignorant of the account of their fall — as given by Moses, in the book of Genesis, — nor any of his immedi- ate descendants, even for five hundred years after the subsi- ding of the flood; for Shem, his oldest son, lived that length of time after the flood, and no doubt inculcated this account among all the descendants of Noah as much as was in his power. We believe this the more as it relates to Shem in particular, as there is much evidence that this same Shem was Melchisedek who was cotemporary with Abraham two thousand years before Christ. All the other branches of Noah's family must have car- ried this account with them every where, and in this way have filled the world with the tradition ; so that even if Zoroaster had never seen a copy of that part of the Old Testament, so far as written in the time of Isaiah, he would have had, as a well infor- med religious teacher of his time, a knowledge of such a doctrine as that of (he fall of the angels. It was a fact that the doctrine of a good god and an evil god, who were opposed to each other, 128 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN was a belief of the most ancient Persians. But from whom this idea was derived, Balfour, who admits this fact, does not relate, but seems to imagine it of their own invention. This however is a resort for its origin not called for, as it was an anledeluvian tenet of the Patriarchs descending from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to the time of Moses. But how is this proven ? It is proven from the staternent in Genesis 3d, where the account of Eve's having been deceived by the serpent is given. We know very well that no brute animal of the creation could ever talk or reason, and therefore if one of them did do so, as in the case of Eve, that it must have been in- spired by a superior and supernatural being, as no one of a natu- ral or earthly condition could do it. This supernatural being was, therefore, that fallen angel, who had by his fall become the enemy of God and all his works, or it was nothing ; and thus we believe Moses understood it. To go on the ground which Balfour and all Universalists do in the illustration of that subject, is to our understanding amaz- ingly out of joint. His and their opinions are, that Eve's lusts were the serpent which out-reasoned her understandings Is it to be conceived as having been possible that the soul of Eve, the creature of God, new from his hand, was endowed with lusts which were to pro- duce her ruin as certainly as that God should place her under law, as that law would as certainly draw out those lusts into ac- tion against such law, as flint and steel when driven against each other produce fire. However pure and good all the* other parts of creation may have been, and however loudly the Divine Arbi- ter may have pronounced them so, yet could he not do this in re- lation to man ? as it is impossible for the unutterably Holy Crea- tor to approve of that which is radically evil in its very nature, or tending to evil. Yet he has done this, if Universalists are cor- rect ; as it is said that man was made in his own image and like- ness. Has God any lusts ? if not, then a being having lust is not his image, and of course, according to Balfour, neither Adam nor Eve were made in his image, nor in any sense morally up- right, as the Scriptures assert they were. Lust is the offspring of her fall, not the cause, and could not have existed in her moral nature before that event. Balfour, in order to support this opinion of the lusts of Eve before she fell, quotes St. James i. 15, who says — " Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin ; and sin, when it is fin- ished, bringeth forth death." But this is arguing with the cart before the horse ; as lust, which bringeth death, is now in man's nature, but was not originally ; for if it was, then man is not fall- on, has not sinned — nay cannot sin ; as the legitimate action of all first principles implanted in man's nature cannot act against God nor his law, as Balfour says Eve's did ; unless we suppose ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 129 the Supreme Being was divided against himself when he made them. This sentiment of Universalists is pure Deism, as it ex- cuses man from sin, and makes out by inevitable consequence that man has never sinned — a Redeemer, therefore, was never needed, all is now right, the religion of Nature is the only true religion. "It is true (however) that when lust hath conceived it bringelh forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death" — moral and eternal ; which applies to the case of all the incorrigibly wicked ; but never was intended to apply to the condition of Eve nor of her husband before they had sinned. That Balfour is at fault in this respect, we further show by his statement in his Enquiry, page 30, about what lust is, who there says lust and desire are the same. If this were so, then all the animals of creation have lusts, as they have desire ! Whoever thought of supposing animals morally evil on that account ? — How then was man originally in a worse condition than the ani- mals ? All that Adam and Eve did was to act as they were made to act, like all other creatures, and therefore have not sinned ! This conclusion is as plain to Balfour, and to any Universalist as it is to us. Is it possible, that Moses being inspired by the spirit of God, could deliberately write such stuff: as that Eve's lusts had the power of reasoning — and by artifice and stratagem, out-witted and beguiled her own understanding? We should imagine that had she the lust supposed, and being a part of her own nature, that they could not have dealt so treacherously with her, and have planned her ruin, so understanding^ : knowing far more of the nature of law, or pretended to know, more than Eve herself did. Lusts have no understanding ; appetites have no percep- tion ; they are not capable of argument, and could never mislead any one, were it not for the corrupted imagination, and corrup- ted powers of the mind : which on account of the fall, have become alienated from the life of God — which was in him before that event. For which reason, Moses could not with propriety, according with eternal truth — have personated by a real being, or image, the passions of Eve — as if they were a distinct exis- tence from herself — having the power of discernment, so as to be entitled to the appellation of — subtilest beast of all the field. This he could not have done, unless we suppose he intended to ridicule the work of God in producing the woman ; as Balfour, in consequence, makes him to do, in saying that she had lusts, as she came new from the hand of God : and by making him call those lusts, the subtil ist beast of all the field, or world, and sets the Divine Being to curse his own work, and to say that a part of Eve should go on its belly all the days of its life, and eat dust — being cursed above all cattle. This is a most glorious view of the first man and woman's nature, as produced by the hand of heaven, in the very outset of our race. The whole sys- 130 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN tern of Ilnversalist notions hangs here ; for if they cannot main- tain that Eve had in her very being, as first created, deceitful, misleading and beguiling lusts, by which she fell, or was already corrupt, even before her fall : they are cut asunder from their hope and belief, that there are no fallen angels, and of conse- quence, no devil, or evil spirit, vanishes into smoke, from where it arose. This doctrine of the fall of the angels, was known, and believ- ed by the writers of the book of the history of Job, which there can be but little doubt was written by Moses — the same who wrote the book of Genesis — and consequently knew all about it, having a knowledge of all tradition, by education among the Hebrews, and the Egyptians : and also by inspiration, as he was a prophet, and the greatest legislator, who has ever appeared among men. In chapter iv. 18, of the history of Job, it is said: " Behold He [God] put not trust in his servents, and his angels he charged [in the past tense : observe it,] with folly." Now this stroke of the pen of Moses, about the angels, which God there charged with folly, we learn, they were not of the race of man, but superhuman beings, as is shown from the next verse, (the 19th) by the contrast it presents — which is : that if God put not trust in those angels, and charged them with folly — u How much less (can he trust) in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust" mere mortals ; and how much more therefore, may not man be thus charged. Here the distinc- tion is clearly made out. between fallen angels, and men who dwell in houses of clay, which are crushed before the moth. The houses of clay, signifies, no doubt, our bodies which are made of dust, and to dust soon return again. This makes out their existence and their fall, or how could his angels have been charged with folly ; and if such angels as are there charged with said folly, are distinguished from any, and all the race of man, by their not having their natural dwelling in houses of clay, then it follows that fallen angels are meant, and no other. St. Jude believed this, and says the devil was present at the death of Moses, and there contended for his body, who wanted the Jews should have it to bury, and as belonging to his empire — that of death, with the view of getting it idolized by the Israelites, and thus cause Moses' body to be a stumbling block to them — as is supposed. See Jude ix. John the Revelator, believes this doctrine — See chapter xii. 9, where the fact of his fall, and that of his associate angels, is plainly stated, and that they were cast out into the earth ; their leader being called that old serpent — the devil and Satan. This is pretty hard talk, if he meant Eve, with her constituent pow- ers, as created by the Almighty — which is so, however, if we are to believe Balfour. . St. Paul believed this doctrine, or he would never have written as he did. See Cor. xi. 3 — " But I ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 13 1 fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his [not her] subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." If Paul believed — as does Balfour, and all Universalists, on this point — we should suppose that he might have said as much, in plain words, seeing the New Testa- ment is but a carrying out of all the first principles of theology, found in the Old, and himself, the greatest of commentators, with inspiration in the bargain. Besides, as Eve was a woman, her lusts — as Balfour calls her passions — before she sinned, we should imagine, should have been spoken of in the feminine gender also ; but St. Paul does not do this, but speaks of the ser- pent in the masculine, when he says : the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, not her subtilty. But the Divine Being himself, sanctions this belief, and is the true origin of it : when he said to the serpent which had deceived Eve : the seed of the woman (Christ) shall bruise thy head, (in the atonement.) Now if he meant Eve's lusts, pray, which end of them is their head ! as certainly there is a head to be bruised, or no bruising could take place ; and more than this, it must be the very Ivsts of Eve, which are to be bruised, as it was her lusts, not those of her pos- terity which was threatened ; and then according to this view, this serpent, which was the lusts of Eve, was to bruise this seed's heel, for bruising her lusts, which is the same as her lusts bruis- ing themselves, — as they are the true serpent — long before the seed spoken of came into being : as it must be done in Eve's life time, as her lusts after her death, according to Universalists, were a hard matter to find, as such things do not follow our race out of this life. Universalists themselves, do not disallow, but the seed which was to bruise the serpent's head, was Jesus Christ, whom they know did not come into the world till four thousand years after the time of that promise ; therefore, how was the serpent the lusts of her soul, to be bruised in her life time, and so many ages before the existence of that seed, by that very seed ? Here is a mysticism with a vengeance, not more easily understood than are many of the dark things of Pagan theology. Now all these Scriptures — except such as we have drawn from the New Testament, in favor of the doctrine of fallen angels — were known to Zoroaster, who was well acquainted with the opinions of the Jewish doctors on this subject, as he has trans- cribed nearly all of the Psalms, with other parts of the Old Tes- tament, into his writings. How then is it, that Mr. Balfour, in his far-fetched and round-about argument, about Zoroaster's doc- trines of a future judgment — the being of a devil, and of fallen angels — with other opinions held by orthodox sects, now-a-days, and in all former days of the Christian era, should so greatly wonder from whence that Persian minister of the fire worship- pers got those ideas? — and finally thinks he received them from the heathen Greeks, but don't tell us from whence the Greeks 132 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN derived them. This however, we will suppose, as before sugges- ted, they learned from the Egyptians, colonies who settled among them hundreds of years before the time of Zoroaster, and taught them the arts — who, in those ages were barbarous hordes of semi-savages. But who taught the Egyptians such doctrines 1 We reply : the Jews, when slaves in Egypt — who received them from Abraham, and Abraham from Melchisadek, or Shem, the son of Noah, and Noah from Methuselah, and Methuselah from Enoch, and Adam from God himself. We deny that such sub- jects, as the doctrine of the fall of angels — the being of Satan — future accountability, including a day of general judgment, at the end of time — and the place called hell, are the inventions of the Greeks, or of any other people whatever, originally ; but are matters of pure revelation of fact : however, now covered over, distorted, and disguised, by crafty priests of heathen nations ; yet in their real origin, are derived from a source, higher than the inventions of man, and have come down the course of time, till embodied in the books of Moses, and other men of the primitive nations, and are sanctioned by all the writers of the books of the New Testament — as dictated by the Holy Ghost ; Mr. Balfour, and all his adherents, to the contrary, notwithstanding. This author, as strange as it may appear, argues on page 138, 139, of his Enquiry, to show that the law of God has bred lust, and lust in all men, (and in Adam and Eve, of course,) and brought forth sin ; yet St. Paul says the law is holy, just, and good, and therefore is not the origin of sin, of lusts, and of moral evil, but man's own disobedience of that law, was the origin. But some may retort, and say, if the law had not been made, could sin have existed ? We answer, no ! nor virtue either ; and moreover, had not God made man at all, he then could not have sinned : and accordingly, as much blame is to be charged on the act of creation, as upon a law given for the happiness of intellectual beings, but the truth is, neither are to blame. Balfour in his comment — see his Enquiry, page 137— on Heb. ii. 11, 15, where St. Paul states that the object of Christ com ing into our world, was to destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil ; endeavors to make out that the devil there meant by St. Paul, is the lusts of men, and that this lust was engendered by the law of God : and that St. Paul among other things, thanked God for the victory over the law. Who- ever heard the like ; when it is acknowledged as a cardinal point of the New Testament, that love to God is the fulfilling of the law of God ; and did St. Paul then give thanks that he had the victory over love, and consequently was not under its bondage : although it is called even by that apostle the law of liberty. This is the kind of liberty Universalists appear to be fond of; that of victory over the law of God, and all the sanctions of his government ; and no wonder Balfour imagines St. Paul gave ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 133 thanks even to God, for victory over the law of God : a conclu- sion of all others the most out of joint, and novel. Were we to helieve that the passions of Eve were lusts, which were created in her mind, as she came from the hand of God, the following simile would he discriptive of her condition. Her lust, as Balfour calls her first and innocent desires, we will rep- resent hy a magazine of powder ; and the law of God, which said thou shall not touch nor taste the fruit of a certain tree, we will signify by a red hot iron ; now as soon as this hot iron, the law, came in contact with Eve's lusts, which was the powder, there was an explosion, which shook the universe ; the trembling of which has not yet subsided, nor the ruin produced through all the ranks of our race. But, in such a case, who was to blame? was not that power which made the powder and then heat the iron and applied it to that combustible ') we should answer, it would seem so beyond a doubt. But we deny that Eve had any lusts, while we do not doubt she had desires and passions, for as much may be said of an angel of heaven, or of the human soul, in a glorified condition in eternity, as there can be no such condition in this or any other life, as that of indifference, or nonentity of desire. The fact of her having desires, therefore, cannot prove that they must of necessity have produced opposition to the law of God, so soon as the law should be made known to her, any more than the government of God can have such an effect now in heaven. This writer imagines he proves much against the being of a fallen angel called Satan, because St. Paul, 2d Cor. xv. 57, thanks God for the victory through Jesus Christ, over death, the grave, and sin ; but does not mention any thing about the devil. He seems to think that if St. Paul tells the truth in Heb. ii. 14, where he says the devil lias the power of death, that he ought to have given thanks for victory over the devil. But dear reader, if you or me get the victory over an enemy's works and all his power, is not that a victory over the operator to all intents and purposes, so far as regards his influence. It was, however, no part of St. Paul's business, nor of any other Christian under heaven, to get the victory over the person and influence of Satan ; this is a mat ter which belongs to the Son of God, while man's business is merely to resist that evil spirit, in a specified manner, which if we do, it is promised that he will flee from, us. We are not called to grapple personally with Satan, and to achieve victories over him in this way, but are to resist his temptations and Satanic influence, on and in our minds, by obedience to the law and commands of God, through grace in the Mediator. The writer of the book u Wisdom of Solomon" see Apocry- pha, ii. 24, believed in the beincr of a fallen angel called the devil, who says, that "through envy of the devil, came death into the world." This idea, says Balfour in his Enquiry, page SO, is an 134 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN allusion to Genesis, iii. — from " which Christians have derived the idea that it was the devil that deceived Eve," and adds, if they can show a better source for this opinion, he hopes it will be done. But really, we do not see that better authority is needed, than the account as given by Moses, Genesis iii., see the whole chapter ; and because the writer of the Book of Wisdom, which was Solomon, the son of David, believed as we do on the reading of that account, and has so stated his belief, can be no reason in our mind why the authority of the statement of Moses, is les- sened about it. Balfour, with all Universalists, who are extreme- ly anxious to annihilate the devil — for reasons best known to themselves — seem to think that Moses should have said in plain words, that the devil, or Satan, said thus and thus unto the woman, instead of saying the serpent, &c, said &c, and then the subject would have been clear, and his being could not then have become a subject of dispute. Now we believe he did say so, in that same 3d chapter of Genesis. See our remarks on the Hebrew words Naehas, Nachashti, dec, in the former part of this work ; where we have shown that Nachash was rendered improperly by the Greek translators, Ophi, but should have been rendered Pithekos, which is the word in Greek for the Ape, or Orang-outang. We have shown, as we believe, that the He- brew words Nuchas and Kooph, and the Arabic words K-ha- nass and K-ha-noos, were the same in signification in the family of Abraham, and in the time of Moses ; as the Arabic and ancient Hebrew are of the same origin. We have shown that the words K-ha-nass and K-ha-noos, in the Arabic is an Ape or Orang- outang, and is also the name of the devil in that language, and accordingly, Nachash was the same in the Hebrew ; so that if Moses had written, now the Kooph, or the K-ha-nass, or K-ha- noos, was more subtil than any beast of the field, it would have been just as proper as was the word Nachash, as they all allude to the same creature, and were the same in meaning. Now, unless this is a right view of this criticism, on those Hebrew and Arabic words, we should like to know how St. Paul, 2d Cor. xi. 3, could there speak of the serpent as beguiling Eve, unless he means the Arabic K-ha-noos, which is the devil ; because St. Paul knew, that no animal had the power to mislead any human bein£, by acts of sophistry, as that K-ha-noos did the mother of us all. St. Paul was a Hebrew scholar of the first order, and knew well, that Nachash, Kooph, and K-ha-noos, were indif- ferent words in the language of Moses, and does not, therefore, hesitate to say, as does John the Revelator, xii. 9, that the being who beguiled Eve and the whole world, was the devil, not Eve's lusts ; because at that time, she had no lust, such as now cor- rupts the human mind, fallen as we are from our first condition in our first parents. We ask Mr. Balfour with all others who hold with him in this ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 135 thing, how they make out that Eve's nature was any worse after her commission of the breach of the command than it was before, as there certainly was on their hypothesis, a disposition in her to sin before she did the act, which disposition was sin itself, and therefore ascertains her to be already as wicked the very moment she became a conscious being as she ever was afterward. The reader will perceive that the serpent, which was her lusts according to Balfour, had conceived the plan of disobedience and had determined to execute it ; which determination was as much a sin in the sight of God as the act itself, because God looketh on the heart, and is an observer of the intents of the mind. But did God produce a creature of this sort ? Never — it was impos- sible. He cannot make a natural rebel to himself — it is morally impossible ; yet such icas the fact, if that being or thing called a serpent in our language, which misled the woman by sophistry of which her innocence was incapable, was her lusts. But now that man has fallen he has lusts and inherent capa- cities, which are in and of themselves ready to explode and to manifest themselves the very instant moral law is announced of God for the government of the human soul. This is the reason St. Paul said he had not known lust but by the law, for the very reason that the incipient principle had not, till the law on the commandment came, found any thing to resist. But such was not the condition of Eve ; unless we can believe that her spirit before she fell and our spirits now that we are fallen, were in one and the same condition ; which, were it so, would make out that mankind is not now fallen or depraved. The word in therHebrew which is rendered lust, into the Greek language is aout ; see Deut. ii. 15, 20 : the Greek word is Epi- thumia, and in our language it is lust, concupiscence and libidi- ousness, or wicked desires of any kind. Lusts and innocent de- sire are different in their nature, but Balfour makes them one in the primitive mind of Eve, which is charging God with the cor- ruption of 'her nature; which were it so, would have been her and all the world's excuse ; nay more, there would have been no sin or God is a sinner in having made the first sinner, which is impossible. But Balfour thinks that Moses having found out the snake was the most cunning, most subtil, the most understanding and malignant animal of creation, chose it therefore, as a figure of her mind and disposition. But there is much to prove, ere the snake can be satisfactorily relied on, as having been at that time, or even now, the wisest animal of creation. Nay, we aver that it is not, by an immense amount, when compared with the Orang-outang, the elephant, or even the dog. But it should be recollected, that Moses does not say the serpent, which he there speaks of, was a malignant animal, but only a subtil, or under- standing animal ; and therefore, Mr. Balfour fails in his supposi- 136 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN tion, that Moses chose this creature to portray the wickedness ef the pristine mind of Eve, before her sin. It were a strange thing indeed, had Moses selected the worst and most malignant reptile in nature, as the picture and representative of the mind of the most pure and exalted creature which God had created on the earth. Surely inspiration must have been strangely inclined to ridicule, and slander the operation of Divine Wisdom, if Mr. Bal- four is right in his conjecture. From every view we are able to take of this subject, we are compelled to believe in the existence and presence of a fallen an- gel, who being superior in subtilty to Eve, had the power to tempt and deceive her in the form or disguise of such an animal as is alluded to by Moses and called the Nachash or K-ha-noos, as no animal which was created had the ability to do so ; nor are we at liberty to imagine that Eve had wicked lusts in her which could have misled, out-reasoned, deceived and ruined her, prior to her fall, if we wish to represent the Divine Being as infinitely good and holy, in the operation of his hands. The solution which Universalists give of the account, as given by Moses, respecting the serpent which beguiled Eve, makes her tell a lie, even to God, when she replied to his interrogation of " What is this that thou hast done ?" she said : the serpent beguiled me ; as she never could have meant that an animal had caused her to do it, if it was herself alone. This is the fair result, unless it can be shown that she said in reply to the ques- tion that it was the Aout, (Hebrew) which beguiled her. Had she have used this word, it would then have been a clear case that she meant that her lusts had beguiled her ; but this she did not say : while she did say that the Kooph, or the Nachash had done it — which words did not signify cither herself or her passions. Now if Moses only meant to show the malignity of Eve's state of mind by the figure of a serpent, because it was the worst animal in being ; yet there was no need of his saying that Eve had said so, and thus make her the author of a falsehood, if there was no animal in the case. But says an objector, did Eve mean to tell the Lord, that the devil, or an evil spirit, a distinct being from herself, had beguiled her ? We answer — no ; for at that time it cannot be supposed that she knew any thing of such a being ; she therefore said that the Nachash, an animal — if it was so called at that time — had done it. This was a proper answer for her to give, as she had seen and conversed with nothing, in her estimation, but that animal — the Nachash ; as the evil being who had possessed it, was all that time invisible, but caused the creature to open its mouth, and to utter articulate sounds, clothed with argument and sophistical reasoning. According to the Universalist solution of this subject, she ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 137 should have said to the Lord, that it was herself, her passion*, which had beguiled her, instead of the Nachash. But Moses- has given the account as handed down to him by the tradition of the antedeluvian patriarchs — and especially as given by Mel- chesidek to Abraham — who gave it to Isaac, and Isaac to Jacob, and from him it descended to all the branches of his race, as well as to the Egyptians, among whom Moses was brought up ; as well as among the Hebrews, then living in Egypt. If there was no animal used in the case, it is certainly an uncalled for addi- tion to the account, when Moses said, that Eve said the Nachash had deceived her ; when, according to Universalist writers, it was wholly the invention of Moses, merely to illustrate by the serpent, as a figure, the horrid condition of Eve's mind at the time when she did just what God wanted her to do, by the means of her lusts, as implanted in her soul by himself. Universalists, in their ridicule of the belief which orthodox people hold about the being of Satan, as having entered the or- gans of the subtilist beast of all the field, to deceive Eve ; inquire with much archness, and certainty of not being answered, why God should have cursed the poor animal, as it could not have been to blame, having been only a passive instrument in the hands of this fallen angel? To this it is answered, that the curse did the creature no harm, as it does not appear that it was put in pain on that account, or that it ever knew any thing about it ; being of necessity ignorant that any change had passed upon it. Why then was it cursed at all ? simply for this reason, is our reply : by that act of God, a perpetual momento of the Divine Being's dipleasure against the sin of Eve, was established, which not only subjugated the woman to pain and death, with all her offspring, but extended to the very instrument of that sin, as descriptive of the Supreme Being's displeasure at the act. The same may be said of the earth, whose soil was also cursed ; the meaning of which, is doubtless, that a great change was allowed, or caused to take place in the atmosphere of the globe, so that the very elements fell into conflict, producing more heat, hu- midity, and more cold, than otherwise would have been, if the soil had not been thus cursed, or changed for the worse, on ac- count of Adam's sin. The Divine Being could have sustained the earth and the elements in its first perfection and beauty ; there was no necessity, following as a consequence of sin, that the earth should be thus affected ; but God, to show his marked displeasure at sin, has, as it were, almost abandoned his support of the earth, and allowed it to fall into a state of partial confusion, that man may have forever before his eyes the signs of his sin, stamped on the very circumstances which ministefto his natural life ; yet of all this the earth knows nothing, and is not wronged any more than was the animal. But if it be insisted still, that there was no animal in the case, but Eve's lust only, we should 9 138 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN like to be informed what part, or on which side of her lust it is considered the belly was situated, because it was said, on thy belly shalt thou go; a belly therefore, should somewhere, or somehow be accounted for, or the language of inspiration in this case seems to have no meaning. But if we receive the account as it is written, and allow the existence of a fallen angel, now known to Scripture as the devil, who made use of an animal, so as to bring himself into a tangible situation in relation to Eve, then all the language of that account, as given in Genesis, is consistent, and easy to be understood, and not otherwise. Some have imagined, that by this account of the sinning angels, as given by St. Jude, is meant the apostacy of some of the early ??iinislers of Christianity, and that the chains of dark- ness^ and the hell into which they were cast, was their ignorance and misery of mind ; and that the judgment for which they were reserved, was the destruction of the city and nation of the Jews, by the Romans under Titus. This idea, is as foolish and as lame a solution, perhaps as can well be invented ; because it is impossible to show, that any of the first angels or ministers of the gospel apostatized at all, except Hymenus and Philetus ; and even if there were others, and the account is not given us, yet it is impossible to show that they did not return again ; or if it be supposed they did not, yet still it is impossible to show that they lived till the time of the destruction of that city. And unless that can be proved, this notion is without the shadow of a foun- dation, while the belief that they were superhuman angels, who thus fell, as stated by Str Jude, St. Peter, and St. John, as alluded to in many other parts of the New Testament remains steadfast. If then we have succeeded in showing that those angels were superhuman beings, and fell from a superhuman condition, and state of happiness, called their own habitation and first estate, we shall now proceed to examine the maimer of their fall, the cause of Satan, and how it may have taken place. Fall of the Angels, and Cause of Satan's Being ; with other Subjects connected therewith. We have supposed already, as the reader may recollect, that the angels were not put on trial or probation immediately after their creation, but were left awhile in an incipient state, or con- dition, for a purpose which we have before stated, till such time, or times, as the Creator should see fit to reveal himself to them, as the author of their being. But not, however, in such a way and manner, or with such degrees of evidence of that fact, as to ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 139 overwhelm their powers, rendering- thereby the gift of free agency nugatory and without opportunity of action, so as to prevent their voluntary acceptance of him as their creator and rightful king; as on this point, it was determined, as we believe, that a confir- mation and continuance of their happy state should ensue. This point we have before argued, yet in this place for the sake of perspicuity we will repeat : that to us it appears a mate- rial law in the Divine government, not to astound his subjects on probation, with an overwhelming amount of compulsory evi- dence, in relation to any subject to be presented for their investi- gation and belief; but rather giving that quantum of evidence to their consideration, which should exactly harmonize with their degree of liberty and free agency; otherwise than this, there could have been no trial whether they would have chosen good or evil, free agency would have been out of the question, as no room under such circumstances, could be found for its exercise, as before remarked. But, in pursuance of this subject, we wish not to forget, that we are now at an amazing height in theology ; even laboring at the point where sin had its origin ; and if we ask the question at all, we will ask it here : Why, if God foreknew, as he certainly did, that man, and some angels, would fall, and the latter beyond recovery, while also many of the former would be finally lost ; why, we ask, did he create them at all ? why not prefer for them an eternal state of nonentity as to their existence, rather than to bring into a conscious condition, beings capable of endless dura- tion, and of endless sufferings? As to this question, we have satisfied our own mind in the following manner, by supposing the Creator may have thus communed with himself, on this very subject, long before he created any thing. Not that we believe in a succession of ideas in the Divine mind, yet as we have no other way to express ourselves on such a point, we have said that he may have thus communed with himself on the sub- ject of intellectual creation, as follows : I am that I am, the Eternal God, there is none beside me, and shall never be fully known to any but myself; and from the benevolence of my nature, or attributes, I am determined to bring into being innu- merable existences of mind, of animals, and of matter. Mat- ter, I know, although I create thousands of systems of worlds of it, yet can it never think, know, love, obey, ox fear me, and there- fore cannot as mere matter, unaccompanied by other and superior existences, glorify me as its Creator, not having a knowledge even of its own substance or being. And though I were to peo- ple as many systems, with innumerable animals, having no rational powers ; yet these cannot know, love, fear, or glorify me as their Creator; for neither can these know, that even themselves exist. And, therefore, if I will be known, loved, feared and glorified, as Creator of all things, 1 shall find it neces- 140 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN sary to bring into being existences, which shall be endowed with a likeness and image of my own moral and eternal intel- lect, on which account such beings will live to eternity, coeval with myself, and never either become insensible, or cease to be, as it shall relate to their minds. These having in a de- gree my image, as it relates to moral powers ; and as it relates to eternity of being, my full likeness, forth forward from the time of their creation, will, in distinction from all matter, whether animate or inanimate, have a power of perception, so as to be able, not only to know that they themselves exist, but also in proportion as I will reveal myself to them, may know, love, obey and glorify me. By this means, therefore, though I create myriads of systems of matter, in the form of globes, or worlds, and shall people them with as many kinds of animals ; yet all these, though they cannot know either themselves or me, shall glorify me, as through them in a measure, my eternal power and Godhead shall be known, to such beings as I shall make in my image and likeness. But I must not only endow them with a measure of rational under- standing, but also with the power of moral freedom of will, or they will not be able to make use of their understanding; which if they cannot, will be to them a useless attribute, and a useless attribute is the same as none at all : for as I am a free spirit, a portion of this principle must be given them, as the crown of their intellectual natures, and my peculiar like- ness. By this, they will be constituted intellectual free agents, having power to will and to do, in a limited sense ; but not so limited, however, as that their acts shall not be their own, and their vice or their virtue their own, not mine. If this is not done, they will not be above that grade of my works comprehending mere animals, and therefore, incapable of moral action and moral accountability, and in such a con- dition can never know, love, obey, nor glorify me, as their Creator ; yet if I shall thus endow them with freedom of will, or in other words constitute them free agents, in the volitions of their mind ; then they will most assuredly be liable to fall, and to apostatize from me, and loose the holy, innocent, up- right state, in which I, as God, can do no otherwise than cre- ate them, as I can never create that which is evil, or having any tendency thitherward, for liability and tendency are two distinct principles. But if I do not thus endow them, then they cannot act freely, and can never be moral agents, nor in any degree be above that scale of existences which will dis- tinguish the brute creation ; who can never act, except as the law of instinct and sensation shall direct ; for which reason it is impossible for them to be accountable for their acts, as there will be no intellectual moral freedom of choice in their ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 141 power. Under such circumstances, should I give them a law, it cannot be such a law as shall make them accountable, as it will not be possible for them to err in a moral sense, as they will act only as they shall be acted upon ; moral law to such beings cannot be in any sense applicable. In the creation of mind and matter, 1 seek my own declara- tive glory, by communicating a knowledge of myself to the intellectual part of my works ; and in return, desire to receive their love, obedience and adoration, which, if performed, will insure their happiness, and shall be required in the nature of such laws as I shall adapt to their state of being. But if I do not make rational moral free agents, then shall I be forever prevented from being declaratively glorified, as no other kind of being can do it, but such as shall have this tremendous qualification ; and in consequence, so far as it can relate to my declared glory, will be the same as if I should never create anything at all. 1 therefore determine to create such beings as shall be intellectually free to act morally right or wrong, as they alone may elect ; otherwise than this, it will be im- possible for me to introduce beings into existence having capacities of intellectual happiness, and will baffle my great design of endless benevolence, and of being thus glorified by the works of my hands, and to manifest the glory of my power. But should I make angels and men, in such a condition as to them shall appear that they act freely, but in fact shall not be free, and on that account should enter into judgment with them, if any should err ; when at the same time I shall know that my unseen power propels them to every action, and that their doings will be but the echo of my own will, and that I could succeed in hiding this fact from them to all eternity ; yet in me, such a procedure could never be sanctioned by my holiness, and therefore such a state of things can never take place, because it would be morally inconsistent, and therefore impossible, under the administration of heaven. And now that the subject has been duly weighed in the eter- nal mind, as it relates to the condition in which I will produce intellectual beings, and find it can be no otherwise accom- plished ; shall it, therefore, be done ? seeing I foreknow that some will abuse this amazing qualification of their being:, which is free agency, and descend to unutterable ruin, whether redeemed or not. Benevolence being a trait and an attribute of my nature, as well as that of omniscence, is it consistent with that benevolence that I shall create beings and endow them with so fearful a power, which will put ruin with- in their reach, seeing I also know that some ivill abuse that power, to their own endless destruction ? // is consistent': inasmuch as the creation of that power cannot be the cause of 142 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN their ruin, nor the possession of that power, nor any secret operation of mine ; but solely its abuse and pervertion to pur- poses which can never be sanctioned by my holiness, will be the real and only cause of sin, and their destruction. I shall there- fore create them thus ; for if I do not, they cannot be moral agents, and never can enjoy true intellectual happiness, and will compel me to create, if I will create at all, nothing higher than mere irresponsible animals, and the globes on which they must subsist, whose mere existence can bring no glory to my great name, under such circumstances, and therefore I may as well renounce forever any such operation. But I shall not renounce it, as it is consistent to create beings with this exceeding endow- ment ; for if I do not, my declarative honor will be forever prevented ; and besides this, shall I suffer the foreseen evil and apostacy of so?jic, to prevent me of the creation of countless myriads of others, whom I know will not abuse that gift, and will remain forever happy? shall I suffer some evil foreseen, to overcome and prevent an immensity of good, as it shall relate to others, who will not abuse that power? But were it foreseen of me, that more evil will ensue from the abuse of free agency among the moral beings which I am able to produce, than good, then a reason why creation should not be allowed to proceed, from motives of universal benevolence, would seem to be afford- ed ; yet even under such a predicament, as that of the existence of more evil than good, the principle of benevolence in me, would remain unimpeached, as it is impossible for me to will the ruin of any part of my intellectual creation, however I may fore- see the abuse of my gifts ; which abuse will be their ruin, but not by my will. But if the gift of free agency shall render all liable, may not all the intellectual beings which I may bring into being, descend into a state of ruin ? this is even possible, and may so turn out, as my mere foreknowledge of events can have no influ- ence on the action of free creatures. And if I will continue to them the power of free agency, I, even I, cannot prevent their fall by sin, as it is a free principle, and cannot otherwise exist, than by its own freedom, which I will not destroy out of their natures ; for were I to do this, it would be to render them unaccountable, and to retrench a part, and the most beautiful part of my intel- lectual creation. But on the other hand, is it not equally possible by virtue of this ennobling gift, that none of all the myriads of intellectual beings which I may cause to exist, will abuse their gift of free agency, and therefore may, if they will, live forever in a state of progressive perfection ; yet even such a state of things cannot ensue, merely because I foreknow all events ; but because they can will obedience to me, which power will be the very design of their liberty of will, and glory of their natures. Rut on the principle of my foreknowledge of their abuse of this free power ; how is it, as a principle, either consistent or bencvo- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 143 lent for me to create such beings or individuals at all? on this ground, and this alone, it is answered : I shall he benevolent in design, and for the same reason shall be consistent in principle, as inconsistent benevolence cannot find a place in the Divine mind. There is no reason, therefore, that foreseen evil should prevent the operations of my hand, if such foreseen evil shall arise solely out of the abuse of high and holy privileges, but not out of my works, as a matter of necessity. Could such an event transpire, as that sin and moral ruin should arise, as a matter of course or necessity, out of the operations of my hands, then indeed will it be seen of those to whom intellectual perception shall be given, that my wisdom, my goodness and ability to arrange and create orders and systems of being without containing in them the germs of dissolution, and moral damnation, does not exist ; which is not according to truth ; but were it so, would argue me, and more than argue, would prove me, in the view of such beings, a God for enough from possessing consistent unlim- ited power, wisdom and goodness. But I am certainly able to produce beings of such moral powers, and having such degrees of free agency as shall enable them to decide their own happi- ness, or their own misery, by the abuse or the right use of prin- ciples and powers which I can give them ; or I am not entitled to the claim of universal homage, as having unlimited, consistent power and goodness. Were I -not able to do this, then were it impossible for me to produce beings who could be accountable to me, as it would be impossible, on that account to address to their attention moral law. as moral law would be as unfitly applied to beings of such a description, as to the beasts of the wilderness, not having power to accept and obey, or to reject and disobey. On this ground, as it will be impossible for them to sin, so will it be equally impossible for them to serve me, only as unthinking matter shall serve me, moving only as it shall be acted upon, which is in no degree intellectual service. But I do know, that a vast amount, both of angels and men, who shall people heaven, and the worlds, and systems of worlds which I will frame, will not abuse this gift, will not pervert their agency, however severe ly they may be tempted, will not rebel against my goodness, to be developed in my laws and government ; but will stand, hold- ing fast their first estate, in eternal fruition and perpetuity, by a right use of their free agency, of which gift I will be the author, and will ever honor, as the brightest trait in their intellectual being, without which gift their being can be of no real value. Thus we have satisfied our own mind, and, as we think, hive justified the Divine Being in bringing forward, from a state of non-existence, the creation of men and angels, even though he knew that some would foil away from their first condition of innocence ; by showing that his design was benevolent, and that ke could not have willed the sin and ruin of any, nor have made 144 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN them accountable, without also making them liable. Sin, there- lore, came into beinof, not of Gods set purpose, but from the abuse of the very gift which constitutes the moral existence of all intellectual beings. But says the Universalist, who objects to the fact of man's free agency, as qualified by the orthodox sects of religion ; can it be maintained that a good and powerful father can be consistently benevolent, who shall bring into being a child, and then put a dangerous weapon in that child's hand, by which that father foreknows his child will certainly destroy its own life ? we think it can be maintained, but on one ground, and on no other. Pray what ground is that ? it is this, and this alone ; if that knife, or weapon, is made essential to the whole happiness and well being of the child, if properly used, it is consistent, as without it, it could not be happy. This similie illustrates our idea of intellectual free agency, as without it intellectual beings cannot be happy, though it is a dangerous gift. Any other view, of this subject neutralizes man's accountability to God, either in this life or the life to come, as well as to himself, or to his fellow man ; for virtue starts from th@ same point, where sin may also have its beginning. On the Mode or Manner of the Trial of the Angels, and respecting those who fell. But to return again to the main point, that of the first sin, and reason of the being of the devil or Satan, with other fallen an- gels. But what light is there that shines on a path whose track runs over so high a region? None, except that of mere human research and speculation. John Milton, the greatest of English poets, has struck out for himself, in blank verse the most exalted, way over this moral Alps, as found in his Paradise Lost, the story of which is as follows : Long before the creation of this world, or any part of the solar system, when the space it now occupies was dark and void, when chaos reigned, as it had reigned from unbeginning eter- nity ; on a certain day, such days as eternity brings forth, all the angels or first beings, were, by the summons of the Most High, brought immediately around the throne of the supreme pre- >'Mice ; who, as they arrived, took their places according to their degrees of intellectual excellence, in circles, one beyond another, orb encircling orb, of circuits inexpressible, on account of their multitudes. From all the ends of heaven they journeyed on golden wings, under their various hierarchs, or angcl-captains, waving as they came on, myriads of ensigns, standards and gon- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 147 falons, twixt van and rear serving as distinctions of their various orders and degrees. But when arrived around the flaming throne of God, which arose from the heights of a mount, whose top was involved in light which made it invisible, silence was required : then the glittering wings of these morning stars fell from their outspread glories, as so many rotes of state, in majesty about their forms, shrouding all their lineaments divine in the habiliments of light. Now the purpose for which they were come together, from all the provinces of heaven, was announced from out of the midst of the mount, by a voice which sounded as the roar of many wa- ters, or as the sound of many thunders, informing them that it had pleased the Creator to reveal to their notice a character and a person, of whom as yet they knew nothing. This person, by that voice was called the Son of God, who now appeared on the summit of that mount, in excessive glory and beauty, [See the Plate) bearing the human form, whom all the angels were now required to worship and forever obey. This mandate heard, each to their province and palace of abode sped their way, in ranks and orders as they came, peopling heaven's far spread plains with the sons of light, seeming well pleased with their new allegiance to this before unknown Son of God. But it soon appeared that all were not thus pleased, as there was one among their number who was higher than all the rest, the only arch- angel of the heavenly powers, and the brightest of the celestial hosts ; who, as he journeyed on rapid wings, far from the throne of God, " in the sides of the north," whispered treason in the ear of one of the angels, next in power to himself. He cautiously unveiled his mind respecting this Son of God, to whom knee- service, as he called it, was required ; insinuating that himself, with all the rest, were imposed upon, as it was his right, not this stranger's to receive honor and obedience from all the angels, as their only superior, God alone excepted. Here, according to Milton, sin had its origin, commencing in the mind of this spirit, the highest free-agent which God had made, who took envy at the Son, whose glory and majesty ex- celled his own, with attitudes of dignity and command, far sur- passing all the glories of angelic natures — so that he suffered un- conquerable hatred to take the place of his previously happy feel- ings of subordination and peace toward the Most High. The heresy of this angel soon spread among the sons of light, and at length seduced full one-third of their number ; who, embodying themselves under this angel, waged war upon the other angels, who would not receive this doctrine of opposition to the Son of God, intending to besiege and conquer the throne itself, and seize upon unlimited rule in heaven, compelling even God himself to a state of vassalage. But against this apostacy all the other angels contended in array on the field of battle, yet without success or 149 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN defeat for the space of two days ; but on the third day, the Son of God, whom they had despised, entered the arena alone and single handed, against this mighty boaster and traitor of heaven, with all his company. This Son of the Most High, whose gentle man- ners on the day they first saw him they had despised, now put on terrors dreadful and severe, gathering in his countenance frowns irresistible, and mounted his chariot of power, whose wheels shook heaven, all but the throne itself, as he rolled in fury toward the rebel ranks. But soon he arrived among them, when with his right hand grasping ten thousand thunders, rolled over them such a storm of horror, (See the Plate,) as reduced their courage, and, astonished, all resistance lost, down their idle weapons dropt, while o'er shields and helmets, and helmed heads, he rode ; thrones and powers,and mighty seraphim, prostrate on the ground crushed and bruised beneath his force. From the wheels, as they turned swift as light, there shot forth storms of iron arrows, while there glared on every side eyes so fierce and dreadful, as quailed the stoutest gaze of either good or bad, and all the while voices pealed damnation, through their being. Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked his thunders in mid vol- ley, for he meant not to annihilate, but to drive them out of hea- ven, down to hell, which already the divine vengeance had crea- ted for them, far in the bowels of boundless darkness. But whether such were the mode of their trial we doubt, and have therefore chosen another hypothesis, as before alluded to, in which we have supposed that their trial proceeded on a ques- tion respecting their creation and Creator, rather than on the revelation of an unknown person in company with the God Head, as is Milton's opinion, and many others who follow him on this subject. But to us it appears that such a revelation to the angels was not required, as the announcement of the Son of God among men to be a sacrifice for sin, could no way affect these primitive beings, for good or ill, but only as a subject of wonder and sur- prise, and cause of admiration. Yet we know it is said, Heb. i. 6, in relation to the Son of God, " And let all the angels of God worship him." But we ask when was this said to the angels, and where was the Son of God when they were thus command- ed? Not in heaven, for there he was never known previous to his incarnation, as the Son of God, having forever existed as the Word, or wisdom of God, but not the Son ; as it was in this life, among men, as born of a woman, that he was first known as a Son, as it was said to Mary, Luke i. 35, " that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Shall be, not is now, nor was previously, but shall be so called when he shall be born of the woman. According to the phraseology of Heb. i. 6, as above quoted, it appears to have been a new commandment to the angels, or why ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 151 should it have been said, that they should (future) worship him if they had always known him in heaven ? But the reader will do well here to discriminate the peculiar form of speech made use of in this injunction to the angels, which was, that they should worship him when u He (God) bringeth in the first be- gotten into the world;" and to us is sufficient proof that the Son was an adapted term, suited to his incarnation, and not to his previous being from everlasting, the fellow of the Almighty, and express image of his person. On which account, we think Milton has failed in his imagination, in supposing that the trial of the angels proceeded on the ground of a revelation of the Son of God in heaven, as at that time no Son existed, and no need of such a revelation to that class of beings ; but to men prima- rily, and to angels secondarily on man's account. But respecting this great yet rebelling angel, it is said — John, viii. 41 — -that he abode not in the truth :" and is called by that Apostle, the devil, and father of all the wicked ; also, " a mur- derer from the beginning P But let it be remembered, that this account of that spirit, is Christ's ; who knew him — as he was his Creator, as a good angel ; and when he fell from his first condi- tion, and the reason or cause of that fall — on which account, he could give that description of him, which admits of no doubt or controversy ; which says that he was a murderer from the begin- ning. But what beginning is this, to which he alludes ? We answer, — the beginning of his apostacy, in heaven. But how was he a murderer ? This is also answered : — by his propos- ing and aiding a revolt among the angels of God ; which, when for themselves they had sanctioned, originated sin in their own individual natures, and was the seal of their moral death, and banishment from their first condition ; for which reason, he is called a murderer, as it was in his will to destroy the works of his Creator, as far as possible, or as lay wi thing the reach of his subtilty. But he abode not in the truth. Now what truth was that in which he did not abide ; the forsaking of which, produced so great a change in his nature, and state of being? It could not have been the truth which God announced to Adam ; that his moral, as well as his natural, or animal life, depended on his obedience to the law he gave him, respecting the tree and its fruit ; as such a test, or such a law, could not have suited the condition of an immaterial being, such as Satan is. It is true, however, that this spirit contradicted to Eve, the consequences of which God had forewarned her, and her husband, if they touched the tree ; but it does not appear, that this truth had any- thing to do with angels ; and cannot, therefore, be said to be the truth, from which this fallen angel had departed ; as he had never been interested in it, for himself. It is easily shown that he was a sinning angel, previous to the transgression of Adam j in the fact of his having entered into the mental organs of the 152 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN animal called the subtilist beast of all the field, even before the conversation took place, between it and the woman, about that commandment, respecting a certain tree and its fruit. But we can go still further back, in showing that spirit to have been a rebel against God and his creation, than even the commencement of his temptation, to seduce our common mother, by means of the creature called a serpent, or k-ha-noos ; as previous to his posses- sing the organs of that animal, he must have willed to do this thing, ere he could have sought to accomplish it ; so that this feat performed against the soul and life of Eve, was not his first derilection from truth and righteousness ; it was not his first murderous act. We therefore feel perfectly at liberty now to ascend beyond the time of that transaction, when that evil spirit first conceived the ruin of the first woman, to seek for the first sin ; and the time when Satan forsook the abodes of truth, and became a murderer, a sinner, and must so remain, till sin can work its own redemp- tion, and annihilate its own nature — which will be when effect shall rise above its cause ; as we know of no atonement made for sinning angels, or that they can make atonement for them- selves. But how far back it was in the annals of eternity, when this and his fellow angels sinned, is not revealed in Scripture. There is no clue to guide in this research. All we know of it is, that they fell from their first estate ; and that the one called the devil, and Satan was present at the time of the creation of the globe and of the first man and woman, and stood ready to exert his pow- er in the ruin of our race, which is now nearly six thousand years since, according to Scripture chronology. As it respects the truth, in which he did not abide, we believe it was the virtue of reliance, that God was truth, or in other words, that God was God ; and the very error which this leading and first apostate committed, was the error of unbelief respecting the being of a God ; and un- belief is the high road to lying, as it is said of Satan that he is a liar, and the father of it, and that he sinneth from the beginning ; that is, from the time of his own apostacy — the beginning of sin. But how was it possible for him — being good, innocent, and holy at first — to commence to be evil ? as it is hard to conceive how a sweet fountain of itself, can send forth bitter water, or that which is pure, can begin to be otherwise, as it is hard to understand how a lever can have a purchase, except it have a fulcrum to rest upon. In answer to this, we shall show how both a lever and a ful- crum can grow into being together ; how sweet water may in the course of its flowing, grow bitter ; and how that which is pure can begin to become otherwise; according to the best argu- ment this subject affords — as we have presumed to judge — and will embrace in detail the progress of the trial of the angels, and will ascertain the precise point where active rebellion, with its root, had its birth. ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 153 We have already supposed, as the reader may recollect, that the Divine Being did not at first reveal himself to the angels, which he had created, except on a gradual scale of develope- ment ; not in full plenitude, overwhelming their powers of cool investigation — as such a procedure would have prevented forever the made of their trial ; which was, as we believe, to progress on the ground of a gradual revelation, or developement of the evi- dence of his being, suited to the capacities and the reasoning powers of the angels. For if he had at once poured upon them an ocean of evidence — as he could have done — to prove to them his claims to the glory and honor of being their Creator, it would have been at once a state of knowledge — of absolute knowledge, and certainty : faith, or belief, founded on such degrees of evi- dence, as should excite their examination and research, and bring into exercise the various powers of their minds before they could determine, would have been driven out of the question ; a trial of their fealty, or free choice of his government, could not have taken place : so that the highest gift or qualification of their na- tures — which was their freedom of will — would have been ren- dered nugatary, as before argued; on which account, faith, or belief, founded on the investigation of facts, affording certain conclusions, would not have existed, in their case ; all would have been compulsion, force, and coercion ; which is not God's way of dealing with intelligent beings. But as to the peculiar mode, or manner of revealing himself to them after they had remained awhile in their incipient or infant condition, for the purpose of their having opportunity to bring into operation, by association, the powers of their minds, we are inclined to believe, was by his becoming visible, and of putting on the appearance and form of an angel, like one of their number, and mingling with them, though somewhat superior in majesty and splendor, by which to attract attention, and as pre- paratory to his claims upon their fealty to him as their God, their Creator and king. Of the arrival or first appearance of this be- ing among them, we have supposed the circumstance as follows : Heaven's vales, its hills, mountains and savannas were peopled again with the angels, after their return from their voyages of discovery, in the regions of space, an account of which we have before given ; and while employed in such ways as occupy an- gel minds, in groups or singly, over all heaven's empire, their at- tention was suddenly turned to the heights above, as there ap- peared in one particular direction, a light, far off, in the darkness which encompassed their heaven, beyond its rays. This light to them appeared as a bright comet would appear to us, were there no other lights in the firmament above, and seemed to be de. scending with immense velocity toward their world, while its rays shot sweetly over all the heavenly regions. But as it neared their atmosphere, they began to discern in the midst of the light 154 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN a glorious being, from whom, as from a centre, there went out in- cessant streams of light, which at various distances formed a mul- titude of haloes round about, as so many newly born rainbows ; while the centre glowed with a vividness excessively bright, as if there was the lightning's origin. This appearance, as it drew nigher, began to develope the human form, or shape of angels, [See the Plate) whose glory seemed to lessen as it approached, till his splendor did not much exceed that of the two great arch- angels, who stood at the head of all the angelic powers ; since known among men as Lucifer and Michael. But soon from the heights above, the sound as of torrents in the sky, struck their hearing as rapidly he descended on the wings of power, and in an instant more he stood among them, as now from ail parts of that amazing world, all the angel powers had drawn together to know the import of the celestial phenomenon. " / am that I am" (Ex. iii. 14,) the Almighty God, your Creator ; love, worship and obey me, — was his announcement in their midst, while majesty, mingled with meekness, marked his countenance and demeanor, while traits of boundless affec- tion poured from his pleased look, over all their myriads, and their glorious heaven. Here the first idea of their having been created was received ; which previously had not been conceived of, as we have already supposed, that the idea of creation, the producing something where there was nothing previously, was an idea equally above and beyond the power of angel conception as well as men ; and must therefore have been first revealed, and brought within the range of human and superhuman inves- tigation, by Him who is the author of the fact, as well as the idea of revelation. In a moment, far and wide this new doctrine, this strange intelligence was seized and acted upon, by these celestial legis- lators. Everywhere were seen congregrated seraph and sera- phim, orders and powers of the heavenly hosts, in deep and earnest debate, on the subject of this stranger's claim. The subject of creation, and especially of the creation of themselves, was new and strange, and of vast account ; because, if this per- sonage who had appeared among them was their Creator, then indeed the worship, love, and obedience of all the powers of hea- ven was his due, and their happiness. On which account, there were many who argued immediate acquiescence, and were urgent to hasten and freely choose him their sovereign Lord, and from his mouth receive law and government divine. Among the hosts of heaven, there was but one equalled in glorious dignity, power of intellect, majesty of mein, and deep research, that one angel now called Satan ; this was Michael, the arch-angel, spoken of by St. Jude. Than this one angel, now known as Lucifer, none had with more scrupulous, attentive, and profound thought, endeavored to understand the true char- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 157 ' actcr and subject of this stranger's claims. Face to face, he had beheld him, and though from the glance of his eye there shot forth command, which seemed to second his claims of power ; yet in dignity, so far as this angel could discern, did not much excel the fulgence of his own glory and excellency of being. He had found him deeply expert in hard questions, such as angels could then ask, evincing intellectual power, even greater than his own, yet coupled with sweet humility, seeming more to seek their love than fear. But as to the subject of creation, this he could not understand ; but seemed to doubt, which doubt he soon diffused among his followers, raising arguments against the possibility of the thing ; as that something could not be made from nothing, as many on earth have done since, holding matter to be eternal, and never was created, or any thing else. Here the war in heaven, as waged between Michael and his angels, and him who afterwards became Satan, and his angels, first began, as stated Rev. xii. 7, as follows : " And there was war in heaven ; Michael and his angels fought against the drag- on, and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was there place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." This is too explicit personal, and particular, to be doubted of in its application (as we shall show in another place toward the end of the work) in rela- tion to the war in heaven ; but not a war of arms, or of sword and spear, with pomp and martial array, as Milton has it ; but a war of words, a contest of doctrine, of sentiment, and of argu- ment, among the celestial powers, in which was employed all the talent, the eloquence and tact, angelic natures were then capa- ble of. The great question was : is creation possible, is this our God and Creator ? which it seems divided their numbers ; some holding with Michael, that he ivas, as no duplicity, or sign of impotency had appeared in his ways, and withal, so sweet an attraction came over their spirits, adding a degree of joy when they met his eye, which never till then had been known in hea- ven. But those who took a contrary position in that field of trial, did not do so from malice, (as such a disposition would have shown them wicked in their very nature, and thus created,) but from innocent caution, lest ere long, it might appear to their universal mortification, that they had been too hasty, and too credulous, not having canvassed sufficiently close so important a subject. On this account they withheld their worship, till their doubts might be dissolved ; while the others, with Michael at their head, with songs and hallelujahs poured round his glo- rious person, and freely expressed their joy, and hailed him king of heaven. At such a sight as this, those who had demurred from mere caution, instead of quietly waiting till further evidence of the stranger's claims should be given ; conceived a degree of sur. 159 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN prise toward their brother angels, because they had so soon made him supreme ; imagining that they had there by poured contempt upon themselves and all angelic existences. Debate now fol- lowed debate, in all the force and form of sober argumentation, pouring from the lips of celestial orators ; each urging his views with honest zeal, not doubting on either side but they were right Michael and his angels, as opposed to him who became Satan, maintained the stranger's right to the kingdom, by virtue of the eternity of his being, and also because he possessed the power to create, and from the fact that he had created them all ; urging the vast amount of ingratitude they should be guilty of, if they did not all so receive him. To whom the opposing angels (but yet innocent of sin, as an error of judgment is not sin, till the will becomes enlisted, and sanctions that error,) replied : if, in- deed, we were sure that this character is above us, and is the cause of our being, it were right that we receive him as our head, and to crown him Lord of all, as thou hast already done. But I demur that we were created at all, as the thing itself to me and those who think with me, is believed to be impossible. Who among us can remember when this heaven was made, or when ourselves commenced to be. We know no time when we were not as now, and this sweet world our dwelling. Who were before us ? If none, are we not eternal therefore,"and uncaused, not having been created, and owe homage to none ; yet are will- ling to practice heavenly courtesy ; as worth shall claim, as each our dues from all, on which account, to me and thee, the highest honors belong, as the heads of all these powers, unless this one shall excel. The hasty crowning of this stranger therefore seems a rebellion against our own natures and dignity of being. If then we were not created, as I with these ten thousands do not as yet believe, — it then appears at once, that this, though glorious being, who is much like ourselves, and doubtless — when the truth shall be known — is but one of our own number, who has hit on this experiment, merely to try us, whether we will be true to our own natures, or will easily relinquish our state and power to another, and a superior — were there any such in being. If we cannot remember when we commenced to be ; nor when this heaven was made ; is it not an argument that our being is underived, and Creation — as thou callest it — is but a chimera, a word, a name, which has no meaning ; and in consequence, a Creator does not exist, but in fancy only : we are, therefore, underived, uncaused, and exist of necessity, not by our own, or the exertions of any other being. But to this, Michael replied — while all heaven, both his own, and the opposing angel?, listened — who said : that a concentra- tion of truth and perfection must be found somewhere in an unlimited degree, consisting in power, knowledge, wisdom, eter- nity, goodness, and omniscience; must be somewhere ascertained ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 159 ui the aggregate, as they do not exist in us as parts, or as a whole. Thou nor me, do not certainly know that there is no Creator; which proves its ignorant, and admits of the possibility of such an existence, for aught we know to the contrary- There can be but one such concentration of all truth, knowledge, goodness, wisdom, power, eternity, and omniscience ; but one eternal, self- existent being, who never did begin to be, but exists of necessity ; it being impossible for him not to exist ; and that, from everlas- ting to everlasting, the same, filling unbounded space, perfectly infinite in all his attributes. And for this very reason, a mnlti- tudc, as thou knowest we are, cannot be self existent, as there is no conceivable room for but one such being. A multitude of beings supposed to possess such attributes as above, in an uniim ited measure, is therefore an absurdity. As for ourselves, we feel that we do not know all things, — have not all power, or this argument and strife of opinion could not have arisen among us, as all doubt is extinct, where all knowledge is present. We have, therefore, a Creator, as we feel ourselves not infinite in any sense, and this is he, to whom we advise immediate submis- sion and worship, before this error of judgment shall come to be sanctioned by your wills, and obstinacy of feeling ; when all will be lost, as that will be tin ; which as yet is unborn, and has no being, nor can have, till thou, or some other shall, with the will, set up their own judgment, as a standard, in opposition to any and all other power, and determine on rebellion against him, who myself and these, in number more than thy myriads, deem our God, King and Creator. That he whom thou stylest God, and king, rejoined Lucifer, the opposing angel, is a Creator, and created us, I still demur; and till more evidence, and of a more convincing kind, shall be produced, on which to build so strong a faith as thine, myself, and all those who hold with me, shall refuse him worship, and doubt both the existence of Creator and created. But notwith- standing this opposition to the opinions of Michael and his fol- lowers, yet it was not sin ; this monster was not yet brought forth ; yet they were in deep perplexity, whether the claims of this stranger should or should not receive their consent. Neither were the other angels without their perplexities, as a state of trial, or probation, most certainly supposes, and must involve in it some such thing as belief, confidence, or credit, arising out of a dispensation of evidence. But belief, confidence, or credit, is far from being a state of absolute knowledge ; as knowledge ex- cludes belief, by reason of its going beyond, or by carrying the principle of belief forward, till it ripens into knowledge so sure and palpable, as not to require the aid of evidence; as evidence producing belief, confidence, &c, are all absorbed in knoweldge, where faith, belief, credit, and trial cease, and certainly ensues. But though the angels who stood out their time of trial, and 10 160 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN passed that rubicon of heaven, and consequently become con- firmed in their state of happiness, so as no more to be liable to fall, had, during their probation, been perplexed in relation to their course, does not, therefore, argue the presence of sin, no more nor less than the perplexities of those who fell, till the time their wills seconded their error of judgment. There can be no doubt but Abraham had his perplexities, when God commanded him to kill his son; yet his faith, his confidence and trust in God, carried him through, till knowledge sup- plied the reason of that command ; yet furnishes no argument that moral evil was in the mind of Abraham on that account. Are not the providences of God over this world, in many res- pects hidden and mysterious, so that even the minds of the just and pious, are exceedingly perplexed, but is no argument of sin in them, but of their imperfection in knowledge only. We do not suppose that the investigation of subjects even now among the angels, which employs their powers, supposes sin, or moral imbecility, present or even possible on thai account. Wherefore we arrive at the conclusion, that the angels who fell did not sin during the time of their trial, but at the \ery end of it, as the moment sin was committed by them, their trial ended, their fall was complete, as much so as the fall of a stone toward the centre, w T hich is suspended by a cord, is complete when that cord is cut asunder. The reader will recollect, that a little above, the opposing angel Lucifer, who resisted Michael in the argument, and is now known among men as Satan, that he still doubted the doctrine of both a Creator and creation, and that he should continue to doubt, till more evidence should appear to justify so strong a faith. This speech did not pass unheeded of the Eternal ear, and as it was according to his plan of their trial, namely, to give sufficient evidence of his claims, he soon, by anj gelic acclamation, caused it to be announced over all the plains* of heaven, whither in this debate they were spread ; that the sovereign will was about to give such farther evidence of the righteousness of his claim of being God over all, as should be sufficient to satisfy the most wary among all the hosts of heav- en, on the great subject which had thus divided them in their opinions, but not as yet in their affections. This said, they ceas- ed from war, a war in which the powers of heaven, had put forth their utmost in debate, more than human genius can devise ; to learn what more might now ensue, in confirmation or in de- duction from the claims of either party, of holding the truth. This done, there suddenly appeared in the all surrounding darkness, that lay beyond the light of heaven, which was shut in on every side, like a diamond in a dungeon, a rim of light passing wholly around heaven's circumference, at a vast dis- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 163 tancc, appearing to the angels much as the milky way does now to mortals. (See the plale.) This phenomenon threw all the angelic hosts into astonishment, both those who doubt- ed and those who doubted not, as this appearance was entirely beyond their hnowledge. This strange and new appearance had occupied their atten- tion and wonder but a short space, when millions of the bright beings of heaven, sprang on light yet rapid wings, in every direction from this great nucleus of creation, toward the rim of light which so suddenly had thrown its blush over so im- mense a tract of ancient space, the home and empire of uncreated night. This sparkling, though when first discov- ered, appeared as nearly amalgamated, they found on near approach to be derived from a countless number of sans, of various magnitudes, situated at various and vast distances from each other ; around which there were moving many brilliant stars, in immense orbits, with speed inconceivable, circles within circles, as about a centre, held and balanced in their courses by two mysterious principles, since called attraction and repulsion. These, on a still nearer approach, they found were worlds, clothed with all manner of verdure, pleasant to the si^ht ; adorned with oceans, rivers, springs and fountains of water, surrounded by atmospheres, tempered with aqueous particles, mingled with light and the winds of heaven, in which there flew all manner of fowls, whose songs and feathery millions filled with life and animation the track- less fields of ether surrounding them. Their oceans, lakes, rivers, and fountains of water, with all springs, were full of all manner of life, in the form of animals, both great and small ; while there also appeared on the dry land, various beasts, huge and diminutive ; but more extraordinary far, than all the rest, there was seen walking erect, with majesty of me in, on every globe, tivo, as monarehs of all the rest, creatures of upright form, with faces of human mould, beaming with the graces of high intellectual character, having a striking like- ness and image of him who claimed to be the great Creator in heaven ; these were the Adams and Eves of every globe of the universe, then created, which was long before the exis- tence of the system on which we live. But passing on from these, downwards to the centres of systems, which were all suns, giving light to the various fam- ilies of the worlds of the Universe : these they also found to be globes of earth, or of opake matter, of huge dimensions, exceeding by millions, in bulk, the size of any one individual globe; whose orbs swept the great circles of their Zodiacs, embellished in all respects as the others ; with seas, rivers, and fountains of waters ; with animals, fowls and fishes : and 164 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN man, with liis consort, crowning the whole with intellectual heads. The immensity of light — the suns, which as so many oceans of fire, flaming out to all worlds — they found to be nothing more than their own luminous atmosphere ; so consti- tuted by the Creator, as to give off perpetual corruscations ; not only for the purpose of enlightening other worlds, but their own surfaces beneath, by the refraction of their own rays. This arrangement however, was found of no manner of inconvenience to their inhabitants, of either man or ani- mals, as there went up at certain hours of time, a dense and humid mist, which extending over their whole surface, sha- ded with a grateful twilight those regions beneath ; so that ihere y as in other globes, was an interchange of day and night, taking place in perpetual succession. The planets — as they are called — or worlds of earth — the families of the suns — they found to shine by borrowed light, received in their at- mospheres, and on the face of the waters and the polar snows ; and thus as they turned on their axles, maintained through all their numbers, as they fled through space, and revolving by systems, not only round their suns, their respective cen- tres, but suns and all round heaven, the home and origin of intellect, and doubtless, the grand centre of all revolving mat- ter, as well as of all happiness. Such, the scouting angels found the rim of light to be, when swift as thought, they returned to heaven ; and as most natural, it was supposed that those who had doubted would now be satisfied, that the stranger was indeed their God and Maker, and would hasten to offer him love and worship. But not so, as now, their leader saw him ascending in the very midst of heaven, a mountain of light, which till then, none had seen, which was vast and high, pure as crystal, whereon was set a throne of exceeding majesty, with steps of beryl, befrin- ged with light ; while on either hand there ministered ten thousand times ten thousand spirits of heaven, while he sat down on his throne — the seat of the ancient of days — who all the while had been in their midst, but invisible, yet knowing all their thoughts and ways. He smiled upon the militant hosts, and all heaven leapt for joy in return; each hill and dale, with savannas broad, and every silver flood, with all flowers and blooming groves sent forth sounds — voices new and sweet, to celebrate the glories of the king of heaven. Now, was the time but short, for those who had differed with Michael, to have renounced their error of judgment, not their sin, for heaven is just, and gives to all, both angels and men, a time of retrieving power, according as their light and circum- stances may be. Now was the time when this mighty angel, jvho had led on the powers, hierarchs, and orders beneath AXGEL8 OF THE SCRIPTURES. 165 him in this great debate; when they, with joy, with all his hosts, shouldhavc freely admitted as the others had done, the glorious Being on the throne to be the Creator, all blessed forever more ; as the amount of evidence which Lucifer had required, had now been given. But instead of this, he with all his company, that moment, seconded their error of opinion by their wills ; when there arose in their minds, a deathless hatred against the eternal king — as they thought themselves impaired or injured. All now was lost ; as the immaculate image of the great Creator had forsaken their moral being — which was their innocence ; and as no mediator could be ad- mitted, they having sinned wilfully, and in so high a grade of being and privilege, they were lost to all recovery, and that without end. But we do not believe, as before remarked on this subject, that an inkling of penalty and suffering, or retrenchment of glory, and dignity of being, had crossed their minds; as penal law, to restrain beings so high, and so near the throne of heaven, would have been unfit and absurd ; as affection free- ly bestowed, on the ground of sufficient evidence, that he who claimed at their hand, this proof of fealty, was all he could consistently receive or admit. Here the first sin was perpetrated : here its foundation arid origin is discovered : here damnation was born : here the in- cipient principle, pioneer, and forerunner of all moral derilec- tion sprang up ; here one of the only two of the highest of angelic orders, was in an instant changed from a state of inno- cence, and great glory, to a devil — foul and hideous, full of all evil — a loathsome spirit, in the sight of all heaven, and of his own associates, who were also fallen — who in their fall took natures exactly opposite in all respects, to their former condition ; as was but natural they should do. This is the precise point, or period — however far back it may have been in past eternity — when that horrible eclipse of sin was first seen rising over the moral disc of heaven, far in the sides of the north ; where Lucifer, or the light-bringer had by the Divine appointment, his realm of happiness; with all those angels classed beneath his supervision. That was the time and place, when and where that eleva- ted being by his own will changed himself from a holy, happy being, to one equally unholy and unhappy ; and will thus remain, till wickedness can work its own cure, and annihilate its own cause ; unless it can be shown from the Scripture that a ransom has been found which can satisfy the severity of justice, a3 a principle ; as in the case of man. Of the mediator of the human race, Jesus Christ, it is said that he took not upon him the nature of angels, either good 1GG HISTORY OF THE FALLEN or bad, but the nature of man, his fallen propensities excep- ted ; by which we at once discover that his mediation and atonement has done nothing for that class of delinquents call- ed fallen angels : how, therefore, can they be finally saved, as is believed by Restorationists ? To enquire what the ivill is, in human or superhuman minds, were doubtless, a useless task, as it is much beyond mortal research, or any, and all the first principles of nature ; such as gravitation, matter, life, hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and feeling. What these are in their essences, can be known only to Him who created them; — so with the will; it is an indefinable principle, yet a property of all intellectual being, and is the principle by which all free agents are enabled to be virtuous, or otherwise ; and on which account, respon- sibility to Him who made us all, is ascertained. To say therefore, that the will caused him to sin, is saying just noth- ing at all; as this very will is the sinner itself; — as the will sins, in willing contrary to knowledge, and understanding, that which is not right, or in order with the moral harmony of God's Universe. If we suppose any principle whatever, so powerful as to irresistably influence the will ; then will is no longer will, and can act only as it is acted upon ; or in other words, does not act at all. In this way, it were not a hard matter, to trace the cause of sin up to God ; inasmuch as it was he who put the angels on trial — gave them this power of ivill, with all their other powers : as knowledge, understand- ing and ability of enjoyment : and if we conceive him as exert- ing an irresistable and controlling influence over this will, then that which is supposed to be si?i, is no sin ; as on such an hypothesis, sin was brought into being by his own procur- ing and design ; which cannot be, and which all men with abhorence reject. But if we can admit the creation of beings possible with God — who can be endowed with this principle, independent in its operations, having power to will even mor- al evil, and disobedience to God ; we then ascertain, as with that same will, he could, and should have submitted to the force of evidence, as did the other angels; but he would not. Now if we continue to enquire : — why would not that spirit yield to the force of evidence, as the others did? — we can only reply, that he would not — as any deviation from this position, furnishes a cause, and at once would be both his, and all the fallen spirits of hell's apology for sin, as well also as of all the sinners of the globe ; an apology which the equi- ty of heaven, and heaven's Eternal King, could not disregard or turn aside. But as already remarked, it cannot be admitted that Satan, with all who fell with him, had entertained the least glimpse ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 167 of the penal consequences which would follow on their act of sin and rebellion : for it is altogether consistent to suppose, that such a consequence should have been concealed from their knowledge, as the high state in which they were created, could not admit of revealed penalties, as their acts must not be influenced by any coercion, or allusions to coercion, pun- ishment or reward ; love, and love alone, must have been their only inducement to obedience. Their state of trial, in distinction from that of Adam's, could not admit of either pro- mise or threat, as all their acts must arise out of their will, carried into operation by their free agency, which two powers are never separated. This is doubtless the reason why no redemption is possible in their case, as in the case of man ; as the sin of Satan and his angels was of a more aggravated nature than that of the woman's, not being in any way misled or deceived ; or as Adam, who for the sake of his wife, en- tered into her condemnation, not being willing to be separated from her in her distress, yet by no means desiring to disobey God. But at the moment when the lost angels had made their last resolve not to accept of a Creator then on the throne ; there shot through their natures, as the flash of a thunderbolt, all the constituent passions and powers which constitute the nature of devils ; hatred, unconquerable hatred, that moment began to writhe within them, against God, and all his works. On this account, they instantly rallied around their great leader, in motion to depart to that region or province of heaven, which they considered their own ; as the presence of God, and the angels who had not fallen, was now insufferably disagreeable ; where they would build for themselves habitations of splendor and happiness, in a state of independence, with their chief, as sovereign king and lord ; but were prevented, by being driven out of heaven, toward hell, their future and final home. Thus we think we have shown how Lucifer became Satan, or the devil, and how the angels who kept not their first estate, departed from it, and why they were cast down to hell, or thitherward, where they will be finally sent at the day of judgment. Respecting Lucifer, Son of the Morning, who and what he was, as mentioned by Isaiah the Prophet. Of some such occurrence as the fall of the angels, having taken place in the world of spirits, there seems to be an allu- sion in the book of Isaiah, chap, xiv., as follows; " Lucifer, 168 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN son of the morning, how art thou cut down to the ground, who did weaken the nations ; for thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God ; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." Although there can be no doubt but this was spoken literally of Nebuchadnezzar, one of the kings of ancient Chaldea, who nourished about six hundred years B. C, in whose time the Chaldean empire had became very large and powerful, comprehending Chaldea, Assyria, Arabia, Syria and Palestine, reaching even to India. It is probable this monarch, in the greatness of his pride and kingly ambition, had desired in his heart, and probably expressed to his confidants, his intention of bringing all the nations of Africa and Asia, to pay homage to his crown, and to be subject to his rule, for the glory of great Babylon, the most splendid and the most populous, as well as the largest walled city of the globe, either before or since that time, being fifteen miles square, and sixty in circumference. But notwithstanding the insatiate desires, and the achieve- ments of this mortal, we cannot but think that Isaiah has used language and figures too strong and foreign to the fact ; unless there is a reference in this description, to the desires and plans of Satan after his fall, as well as to Nebuchadnezzar, the mortal type of that immortal rebel against Gcd and all his works. Can such language as here follows, be seriously applied to the doings of any mere man, " I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High;" a thing impossible for a man even to think of, if his ideas of the Most High are as exalted as the description the Jewish Scriptures give of him. But if we apply this language to the apostacy of that rebel angel, who by his rebellion became a devil ; then such a description, couched in the strong and majestic words of inspiration, are not improperly descriptive ; but portrays the ambition of this Lucifer, son of the morning, and his attempt to fight against God, and to ascend the mount of the congregation, in heaven, and to be like the Most High, nothing doubting but he could do it. That this king should be called in Scripture, Lucifer, and also son of the morning, which is the same as morning star, or in other words light bringer, is very singular, as his name was Nebuchadnez- zar ; the meaning of which, in the Chaldean language, was tears and groans of judgment; very different indeed, both in sound and meaning, from that of Lucifer, or light bringer. But if we understand this description, as given by Isaiah, literally of the man Nebuchadnezzar, and spiritually of Satan, or Lucifer, and of his fall from his first estate in heaven, then we perceive a pro- priety in his being called Lucifer, Son of the Morning, Light Bringer, (fee. For if lie was one of the two highest angels which God had made, it might well be said of him, that he was a light ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 109 bringer, on account of his immense intellectual abilities ; in which he was an expression of the divine mind, and a manifes- tation of his power to produce beings of this description, having the light of godlike intellect, and in this respect was a light b ringer. Of such a being, it might well be said : O Lucifer, light briv.ger, how art thou fallen from heaven, son of the morning, or of the first creation ; for thou hast said, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, (the angels,) 1 will sit upon the mount of the congregation (of angels) in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, (even heaven's glory,) I will be like the Most High, (if not above him :) which disposition he still retains, as is said of him in the New Testament, "the devil sinneth from the beginning." As before expressed, we have no doubt that his sin was com- menced at the very moment when he conceived resistance to the claims of God to the love and obedience of the spirits which he had made, and was the act of his own free will. On having found his views were wrong, and that his judgment was not infallible, he conceived on the instant, hatred to his great oppo- nent, the Creator, with meditated revenge, the natural offspring of hatred ; which disposition, in the twinkling of an eye, forever confirmed him, with all those who had sanctioned his ways, in a state of deathless opposition to all good. And such was their condition, so high, and so encompassed with light, which they at that fatal moment dared to despise, that retraction and repent- ance became impossible ; and never from that moment have they felt repentant emotions, nor ever will to all eternity. So deep and so remedyless is their fall, that still they feel a horrid satis- faction in the enmity of their natures, against the Divine Being and all his works. But could these fallen angels have exercised a moment before their first sin, any other feeling than that of hatred and rebellion, on finding themselves mistaken in their opinions 1 most certainly they could, as their natures were, the moment previous, unbiassed to sin, and might therefore, both on that account and the account oi'their free agency, have rejoiced to find their error corrected ; but instead of doing this, they willed at that moment an eternal opposition to God, wfien unbounded rage took possession of their natures, which from that time has never subsided nor ever can. At that instant, the divine support, which had brought them into being, and from whom their orig- inal innocence anJ holiness was derived, became forfeit, beyond the power of consistent redemption. If it 1x3 admitted for a moment, that they could not have exercised other feelings and dispositions than they did, then in that same moment we admit that they could not help their fall ; if so, then they were not to blame, and of course are not fallen, have not sinned, as it is not for the things we cannot, but for the things we can do, yet do 11 170 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN not, that the Supreme Being calls his creatures to an account. The angels were as free to fall, as to stand, being in wo way necessiated or misled, as there was no darkness or doubt at the time, on the subject of law by which they were tried, as the evidence of the fact, which they had disputed, was then abun- dant, even to their own understandings. It was, therefore, their own act, abstractedly so, or it was not theirs at all. But at that instant, every good quality forsook them, of necessity ; as much so as a golden vessel filled with the pure waters of a pure foun- tain, is changed, every particle and atom thereof; if but a grain of coloring substance, or of poison, be cast therein, it is destroyed of its first purity. So with those pure spirits; love became hatred, humility became pride, good will became malice, eternal life became eternal death, joy and happiness became anguish and misery, free agency and free will became fate ; so that they are necessitated to remain, unwilling to will anything but enmity to God. Anticipation of a perpetuity of happiness, became a fear- ful looking for, of fiery indignation and judgment to come, to be poured out upon them. Confidence in their own uprightness became dastardly fear ; and knowledge, with every high ability of their intellectual natures, was prostituted and perverted to the ways and wiles of devils, taking in all things, the exact opposite of order, peace, and happiness. There is a line of demarkation, which pervades all first prin- ciples, whether of morals, politics, or physics, beyond which, if a man proceed he cannot return. If in physics, a man place him- self, by design or accident, within the suck of the falls of Niagara, who can redeem him. If in politics, a man forfeit all the rights of human society, he is cast forth as an outlaw or a victim ; who can redeem him? Why not, therefore, much more so in morals, as the higher we ascend, the more and the greater the responsi- bility 1 The line of demarkation once passed over here, as in the other cases, cannot be retraced ; beyond which, even mercy itself cannot go, except at the expense of justice. How then was Adam and Eve redeemed, it may be inquired, who had passed, as supposed, the line of demarkation ? but this we do not admit, was the final line of demarkation with them ; as we see mercy iz-rts extended to them, in the promised seed, as in the atonement ; which was not contrary to, nor inconsistent with divine justice, or it could never have taken place. Yet in man's case there is such a line of demarkation, and it is arrived at and passed, when a redeemed human beinjr has despised or neglected his last and only hope, the opportunity of grace in this life. As it is said in Heb. ii. 2, 3, " For if the word spoken by angels (in the giv- ing of the law) was steadfast, and every transgression and diso- bedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation" The account which is given of the fall of the angels in the New Testament, is that ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 171 " they kept not their first estate ;" which, if true, proves that they left it, which also proves that with or by the same power they left it, they could have also kept it till this time, and forever. What became of the Atigels after their Fall ; is there a Hell or not in another World 1 and is there yet to be a Day of particular and getter al Judgment 7 with further Proofs of the existence of a Devil. Thus far we have pursued the above subject, and think we have shown how a part of the first angels became evil spirits, or devils, and on what principle sin had its beginning ; by which procedure we have cleared the Divine Being from the charge of being the cause of sin ; and more than this, that he could nol even have prevented it, unless he would have destroyed free agency and free will out of their natures ; which had he done, would have been inconsistent. Our next inquiry, therefore, will be to ascertain what became of those fallen angels after their apostacy and loss of heaven. Concerning this, it is said 2d Peter, ii. 4, that " God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment," or to the judgment of the great day. Now were we to believe on this subject as do Universalists. namely, that there never were any such angels or beings, who fell from a first condition of happiness ; who God would not spare, but cast down to hell, we should save ourselves the trou- ble of this enquiry ; as there could be no hell to cast them into ; for if such angels do not exist, a hell for them cannot be found of course. But the passage states that those angels were not only cast down to hell, but that they are under chains of dark- ness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. See St. Jude, vi. " And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitations, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." The orthodox sects believe that Satan, who tempted Eve in the garden, and Christ in tfie wilderness, was the same evil being whom Christ calls the prince of this world — see John, xiv. 30 — who came to him, and found nothing in him, just before his death on the cross. But Balfour believes, that this prince was the civil and ecclesi- astical powers, consisting of the Romans as the civil power, and of the Jewish doctors of their law, as the ecclesiastical power. But we would ask, in the name of logic, how two powers, so opposite in nature, object, aim, and origin, as were the imperious heathen Romans, the conquerors of the Jews, and the ministers 172 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN of the Jewish religion, which was of God, can be considered as consolidated^ so as to be spoken of as one prince, and as coming to Christ, and finding nothing in him to suit his purpose. The Romans, in the cruciiiction of Christ, acted somewhat passively, as they did it in compliance with the wishes of the wicked Jews, and the mob which had come together on that occasion, and not of their own wish and prosecution ; therefore, the whole affair is to be resolved into the act of the Sanhedrim, or court of Jewish Elders. If so, how are the Jews to be reckoned as the prince of this world ; even allowing Judea to have been solely meant by the word world, seeing they were not then the ruling power, as even the privilege to keep up their religion, was by the clemency of the Roman Emperor, and could not therefore have any claim to the word prince. But if it be insisted, that this prince who came to our Lord, and found nothing in him, was the Roman authorities, urged on by the Jews, how is it said of him as in John, xii. 31, "Now is the judgment of this world, now is the prince of this world cast out ;" as the Romans were not cast out of their dominion of Judea, nor of their other provinces, till many ages thereafter ; which should have been done at that very time, if that prince was the Roman power. That the Jews were cast out some forty years after that time, by these very Romans, has nothing to do with the case ; because it cannot be shown that the terms prince of this world, is applicable to their then situa- tion, having been for more than thirty years from that very time back, despoiled of their civil power by the Romans, and had been and then were, governed by the emperor's substitutes, the Herods. It follows, therefore, that this prince, who came to Christ, and found nothing in him which was corrupt, was the devil, that fallen angel : who with his associate angels, were then bound under chains of moral darkness, and reserved unto the judgment of the great day, as said by St. Jude, when they are to be cast into hell, which it is said was prepared for the devil and his angels. But if it be said that this devil and his angels were the evil principle of sin, and the superstition of the ancient heathen ; how is it that they have been cast out, and what is the hell into which they have been cast ? seeing that even to this day, those nations remain the same, and have so remained, with the excep- tion of here and there a Christian society, which appeared for a little time and then vanished away. If it be said that the whole Roman empire, in the days of Constantine, became Christianized, and that thus those angels of evil were cast down, or out of their places of power ; yet we do not allow that true religion gained anything in the world by that occurrence, as from that founda- tion, and from that period, the Roman Catholic heresy sprang up, which has tormented the human race ever since. But if it be insisted that this was the fall of the angels, we ask what then was the hell into which they were cast, and what ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. . 173 were the chains of darkness under which they were confined, and what is the judgment of the great day to which they were refert ed? Surely, it will not he said that the Romans being compelled -o favor Christianity, and her doctrines being taught at first pure in the ancient temples of their gods, was the hell into which they were cast ; nor was this circumstance, those chains of darkness, nor the judgment of the great day, for which they had been so long reserved — as spoken of by St. Peter and St. Judc. This national conversion, though it is likely but few in heart, and in truth, were individually converted, must have been the hell spo- ken of, by those writers in the New Testament ; as there is no other way of interpretation, but that of the orthodox sects, remaining, for our belief. If the fact, stated in that saying of our Lord, namely — John xii. 31 — "Now is the judgment of this world ; now shall the prince of this world be cast out," is believed to have meant the devil, that fallen angel, then the matter stands thus by way of interpretation : — Christ was about to permit the sacrifice of his own soul and body, for the sin of the world ; and by that means to fulfil all promises, all covenants, and prophecies, respecting himself, and to open a way by which the ruined souls of the hu- man race might be restored, and fitted for the enjoyment of God ; and thus counteract the machinations of the devil, by laying the foundation of that train of things which is to result in the casting out of the prince of this world — the devil — and total destruction of his power in the earth. With this view, it might well be said, that " now is the judgment of this world ; now shall the prince of this world be cast out." But as to the idea of a hell, Universalists have found out thai there is no other hell than the grave, temporal sorrows, and the guilty or troubled consciences of bad men, in this life ; yet much is said in the Scriptures of such a place, and that the wicked shall go thither ; which if it were in the conscience only, the distance were but short ; and as all the world being guilty before God, are even now, and ever have been in hell, and hell in them : on which account there is no distance at all, as every man has it ever with him ; as all are wicked according to those people's views, and always will be in this life, and were even made in hell nt first, as Adam and Eve had their lusts, and lust is sin, and sin is guilt, and guilt is in the conscience, and a guilty conscience is a Universalis^ hell ; Adam and Eve, of course, were made in it, and all their children were born in it, out of which they never can get, only by dying and descending to the grave. Sin, there- fore, is all the Saviour there is ; for if sin had not come into the world, men would not die, as death of all kinds came by sin : and if men had not died, and were not still to die, they never could get out of this hell, as they never could die, — so glory to Bin, and death for salvation, from the lusts of Adam and Eve. 174 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN before they fell ; a most wonderful philosophy this, a cause des- troyed by its own effect. No man will contend that those sinning angels, whatever they were, were cast down, or into the grave, as that is but the com- mon receptacle of all the human race, both the good, as well as the bad, and therefore, can never be thought of as a place of pun- ishment, or a hell for the wicked ; neither is it very philosophies to contend that they were cast down to a guilty conscience, as they must have had this within them, before they started. But St. Peter is very explicit in stating that those angels who sinned, were cast down to hell, and are reserved unto the judgment ; and St. Jude says, unto the judgment of the great day, — which we have shown, could not have been the subversion of the Roman heathen powers to Christianity : a guilty conscience : the grave : nor yet the destruction of the Jews by the Romans: — there remains, therefore, but one other idea of solution, — and this is, there is a hell in eternity, prepared for fallen angels, and finally wicked and impenitent men. But before we proceed further in this subject, we deem it prop- er to clear up a seeming difficulty, with respect to the place to which those fallen angels were sent, by the power that expelled them from heaven. This difficulty is found in Revelations xii. 7, 8, 9 — as follows : " And there was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought against the dragon : and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out — that old serpent, called the devil — and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world : He was cast out into the earth ; and his angels were cast out with him/' This statement is exceedingly clear, respecting the existence of such a being as the devil, and his angels, and of their being expelled from a happy condition called ^heaven; yet it does not state that they were cast down to hell ; as does St. Peter, St. Jude, and St. Matthew, but "into the earth." Is the earth hell therefore? No, and we explain it as follows : At the time when the angels first sinned, God cast them oft', by withholding his favor, which shut them out from all happiness ; and in addition to this, it appears, as we shall show, in the course of our remarks, that he created somewhere in boundless space, a place, or location of fire, and called it hell : designed for the final state, and place of pun- ishment for those angels, and all who assimilate themselves to their characters ; but as yet, are not confined there, having the liberty — for reasons known to God — to dwell on and in the earth, and in the air, — though to mortals invisible, and doubtless in other worlds also. But how is it that it is said, they were cast down to hell, if they are found in the earth ? Surely this globe is not that hell :{»<>ken of, as it is not a world of fire: it is because they were ANGELS OP THE SCRIPTURES. 175 cast thitherward; having fitted themselves for such a place; and because, in the determination of God, they were decreed to that end and place, not from all eternity, but at the time of their sin, and are now actually descending to that doom, inasmuch as the fixed time draws nigher and nigher when it shall be done. It was not, therefore, improper for the apostles, in speaking of this thing, to speak of it as already done, as it was made certain, without condition or contingency, by a judicial decree, which cannot be revoked, and is to be accomplished at the time of the final judgment and end of the world, or end of this mundane system. But ere they arrive at that period, have been, and are now permitted to wander among the worlds, which God has made, and for aught we know to the contrary, for the trial of the inhabitants of those worlds, as we find is the fact on this ; so that both ideas are true, as he, with his angels, are not only cast down to hell by decree, but into the earth also, while de- scending thitherward, in the progression of time and events. In agreement with this, the Revelator says, chap- xii. 12, " Wo to the inhabitants of the earth, for the devil has come doxrn unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath kut a short time," before he, with his angels, will be cast into the hell which is prepared for them. But on the supposition that this devil, of whom St. John here speaks, was the lusts and evil pas- sions of the human soul, as developed since the fall, how could he say, that the jiassions of man know anything ? See above, because he knoweth that he hath a short time, &c. And how, or by what rule, can the passions of men be spoken of in the singular number, and how can they be contemplated as a being, and brought to notice by the personal pronoun he, as they are in this passage, if Universalists are correct ? That there is such a hell, located somewhere in infinite space of vast extent, is evident from Matth. xxv. 41. u Then shall He say, (at the time when all nations shall be gathered before him) also unto them on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared (or created) for the devil and his an- gels." Now anything which is prepared, is so done by somn means, or being ; and as no means or being is able to prepare, or create, a place of fire, as a habitation for devils, but God, we find that He is its creator, if it exists at all ; and if it exists, it has a location, because all things created are located, or in other words are somewhere, which is location. That this hell is of vast ex- tent, we learn from the circumstance of that which is to trans- pire at the end of the world, or general conflagration ; which is that this earth, on which we now dwell, is to be cast into it. 1 y the power of the Almighty arm ; on which account, we get a glimpse of its immensity; where doubtless all other worlds, whose inhabitants have or may yet apostatize, as this has done. 176 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN are to be cast, out of the universe, into this dreadful hell, all along the course of eternal ages. But where is the proof that such is to be the end of this earth? See Rev. xx. 13, 14. " And the sea gave up the dead, (those drowned therein) which were in it ; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them ; and they were judged, every man according to their works. And death and hell were (are to be) cast into the lake of fire : this is the second death." But how does this prove it ? It proves it as follows : Death is here put for the grave, or the earth, as the earth is but one immense grave, where sleep all the dead bodies of the human race, and must sleep till the sounding of the last trump, at the day of judgment, which shall raise them up again, when death or the grave shall give up the dead which are in it. Respecting this, it is the opinion of Adam Clarke, as found in his Commentary, on this subject, that death is here personified, and represented as a keeper of dead human bodies, and means no more nor less than the grave or earth, as properly belonging to the empire of death, but at that period it is to give up its prisoners. But hell, which is here connected with death, is also to give up its dead ; what does this mean ? The same author says hell or hades, the place of separate (wicked) spirits. Death or the grave has the bodies of all human beings, both the good and the bad, while hades has the spirits of the wicked only. Hades is therefore to give up its dead, or damned spirits, to the scrutinies of the judg- ment, while death, or the grave, or the earth, is to release the bodies of both the good and the bad, when the souls of those who are in paradise will come to their respective bodies again, and the souls of those in hades, or the place of the wicked separate spirits, will also be again united to their former bodies. But where is this hades, the present place of separate wicked human spirits ? We answer, that it is our full and only belief, that it is in the bowels of this same earth, on which we live, or the revelator could not have spoken of both the grave and hades as being united in the possession of the souls and bodies of the same beings. If so, then we gain the point, that the earth is to be cast into that ocean of fire, which was origin all y made for the fallen angels. Now except this is the meaning of the reve- lator, namely, that u death and hell," as in this earth, are to be cast into the lake, or world of fire, we know not what the mean- ing is ; as the language is too strong and glaring to have any application, by way of figure, to the affairs of men in this life. This idea, that of the grave or death, and hades being united in this earth, in containing both the souls and bodies of the wicked, is certainly not unphilosophic, as we can conceive of no sufficient reason why the earth should not hold them both, till the time of judgment. What could be gained by separating them, and by causing the spirit to be transported millions of ANGELS OP THE SCRIPTURES. 177 miles, to some other place in the great ocean of space ; and then at the time of the judgment, to be remanded from thence to the earth again ; while their bodies should remain here, in their graves, the house and habitation of death ? Nothing that we can see, either in consistency or convenience. Why not both remain where they both were created, redeemed, and lived, till both shall again be united in the resurrection, to be reckoned with by the Creator, for their delinquencies during this life ? This opinion is more than intimated by Daniel, chap. xii. 2. "A?id many of them (or they) that sleep in the dust (graves) of the earth, shall awake,' some to everlasting life, and some to shame, and everlasting contempt." Now as the body is not capable of the sensations of shame, it follows that the spirit or mind is the being which is to feel, and be subject to this distress- ing emotion ; and as the body cannot awake alone to this feel- ing, it follows that it shall be the mind ; which, on entering the gathered particles of its ancient body, that body shall awake ; but the mind within is that being who shall feel this shame and con- tempt, and would seem to favor the idea, that the spirit had been confined here, as well as the body, till the sounding of the last trump, or day of judgment. The idea of awakening is wholly applicable to the body, as the spirit or mind will never sleep in the dust, or anywhere else ; on which account, it is said by that verse that many of them that sleep, meaning all the dead, shall awake ; many, or some, of both characters, to their respective destinies, determined by their former characters, which is to be life everlasting, and shame everlasting. We believe, therefore, that wicked human spirits, are immediately after death, driven down into the bowels of the earth, or hades, and kept under chains of darkness, till the end of the world ; while the souls of the righteous immediately go away into paradise ; which for aught we know is situated beyond the atmosphere of this globe, in the circumambient re- gions of space ; where they rest from their labors, till the day of judgment, to descend again to be united with their old compan- ion, their respective bodies. Perhaps this place, paradise, is what is meant by the remark of the Saviour, when on the cross ; who said to the penitent thief, "this day shalt thou be with me in paradise." But paradise is not the ultimate heaven and home of happy human spirits ; yet this opposes no difficulty to the fulfilment of the promise to the disciples, which was, "where I am, there shall my disciples be also," as this shall be fulfilled at the time of the day of judgment. In this paradise it was, that Christ when he would, remained during the forty days which elapsed from the time of his resurrection and his ascension to hea- ven, from mount Olivet, as he told Mary (John, xx. 17) that he had not yet ascended to his father ; which proves beyond all doubt or contradiction, that the paradise in which the Saviour on the cross 178 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN promised to the dying and pardoned thief, that he should be with him there that very day, because he told Mary, which was the third day after his death, that he had not yet ascended to her Fa- ther and his Father, to his God and to her God, which place is the great and final heaven of the saints. In this paradise it was where the souls of Lazarus, of the widow's son. and of Jarius's daughter, were at rest, which Christ remanded when he raised those persons from the dead. It was from thence the soul of the lad, which Elijah the prophet prayed might come again into his body, was remanded ; and from whence came the souls of all those saints which arose from their graves at the time of the re- surrection of our Lord, and appeared to many in the holy city ; and in our opinion, for the reason above given, is where all the souls of all the righteous, from Abel the son of Adam to this pre- sent time, and from hence till the death of the last saint, do rest till Christ shall come from heaven, his ancient seat of empire, to judge the world, when the whole company of paradise, with their raised and spiritualised bodies, shall go away with him to eternal glory, in the first and primeval heaven of the angels, from whence they who sinned were cast out. That there is such a place as hell, see Rev. xix. 20. u And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet, that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive (after the resurrection ) into a lake of fire bunting with brimstone? To such a place as a lake of fire, the Revelator has several al- lusions. See chap. xx. 10. "And the devil that deceived them was [is to be] cast into a lake of tire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and nigh t, forever and ever." The words here, ever and ever, are repeated merely for harmony's sake ; as on and onward, can never fur- nish an argument — as Balfour supposes of limitation, merely because the words are repeated — and add nothing to their mean- ing. The often-repeated forever and ever, in both the Hebrew and Greek, is agreeable with the idioms of both languages, and was always used to give force and interiseness, by the best wri- ters of the ages, when those languages were in use. No good scholar can dispute this. The quibble therefore, of Universalists on these words, forever and ever, is but a quibble ; because they are found applied to lesser subjects than eternal ones. The terms day and night, likewise, are seized upon by Universalists, to show that all this torment and pain, is suffered in this life, because it is here that day and night exists, but not in eternity : and though they may not, yet may nevertheless be used in reference to eternal suffer- ings ; inasmuch as day and night comprehends all time here ; and that while day and night succeed among the globes of God ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 181 for the accommodation of their inhabitants, while eternity en- dures ; so shall the beast and the false prophet, and they that have his mark in their hand, or forehead, be tormented in this lake of fire. See again the same chapter, (xx.) verse 15. "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life [salvation in eternity] was cast into the lake of fire." Also, chap. xxi. 8. " But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerors, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake of fire which burneth with brimstone : which is the second death. Now if this language does not in fact, describe literally, the existence of a hell in eternity, we have no conception of its mean- ing, whatever ; as there is no condition in this life, which is not more or less mingled with circumstances of comfort, while life lasts, and especially with such as walk about at liberty, though ever so wicked. But the Revelator speaks of a punishment which has in it no relief, no circumstances of amelioration, no hope, no comfort, but one unmingled state of suffering and pain. See chap. xiv. 10. " The same [such as worship the beast and his image] shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture, into the cup of his indignation ; and lie [or they] shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb." Can such a condition be realized in this life ? Never ! But when is this earth to set out on its journey of damnation ? We answer : at the end of time — according to Scripture — when the bodies of both the good and the bad, shall be made to live again ; and the spirits, or minds which once inhabited them on the earth, shall be brought from their respective abodes, hades, and para- dise, and be united again. At that time, the good are to be divi- ded from the bad: the former are to be taken to heaven, while the latter are to be left on the earth, — when it is to be set on fire, and cast far off out of the family of the universe, into the hell which was created for the purpose before stated ; where it will sink down in its dreary depths, and become, by the action of fire, amalgamated with that world of horror. [See the Plate.) The overturning of empires — the sacking of cities, towns and countries — pestilence and death, with all the miseries to which human temporal existence is exposed — is nothing, when com- pared with the figures — if they are but figures — which are used in the book of Revelations, and other parts of the Bible to describe the sorrows of the damned in another world. If those appalling descriptions extend to nothing more than what happens in this life — the worst of which, is the way to death, and that is the end of it, according to Universalists — then are those descrip- tions untrue, and unbecoming the dignity of holy inspiration ; as the mind is led thereby to apprehend that which is never to take place, and very much needs the consoling sophisms of Univer- 182 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN salist divinity, to allay unnecessary fears, conjured up in the mind, by reading that book of truth — the holy Scriptures. For this great text book of the Christian world, to say that there is a place of unutterable torment, consisting of the sting of the worm (despair and guilt,) that dieth not, and of a lake of fire, the smoke of which ascendeth up forever and ever ; in which the wicked, the beast, and the false prophet, the devil and his angels, are to be tormented without end, — is unaccountable ; and surpasses all the stories of tragic romance, produced by the wildest effusions of mad men, if it is to be understood in the way which Universalists doctrinize on such subjects. What sorrow, or temporal afflic- tion, is that, which can be compared to dwelling in devouring flames, or to being cast alive into a lake of fire, even for a day, or an hour 7 but when we are told that it is to be without end, how much does this exceed all the sorrows of this life, whether of body or of mind ; and is it right, is it logical, that the figure should so much exceed the reality ? But the reality is not exceeded by the figure ; we cannot bring ourselves to believe that these descriptions are false and fictitious, or that effort is made in that book, the Bible, to conjure up unreal fears. If it is Scriptural, philosophical, and agreeable, with the government of God, that anything called a hell in this life, should be a fact, as Universalists contend is the fact, how is it to be shown, that under the government of the same God, there can be no such existence in eternity. If there is no hell in eter- nity, if there are no fallen angels, no devil, nor a day of judg- ment to come, why does not the Scripture say so; as these opinions were held by the Jews at the time of our Lord and the writers of the New Testament ; who have not so much as glanced at their non-existence, nor anywhere opposed those errors, but everywhere shown these things to be true, and every- where warned men to secure themselves from them, by laying hold on the hope of the gospel. But if men will not lay hold of this hope, it makes but little difference according to Universalists, as the poor creatures will soon pass off the stage of life to a sound sleep of both body and soul, in the grave, (or hell,) till the time of the resurrection, when they will awake, some from the grave of a suicide, others from a state of moral degradation, far enough below a brute, to all the joys of holiness at God's right hand. But the idea of such a place is not entirely peculiar to the New Testament, as we meet with allusions to it in the book of Job, chap. xi. 8, where it is said that the wisdom of God is " as high as heaven," and "deeper than Ae//." If the hell here alluded to is but the grave, the comparison is but a poor one ; as the depth of a grave contrasts but poorly with the height of hea- ven, whether it be the heaven of heavens, or the ordinary height of the atmosphere. In 2d Samuel, xxii. 0, David says that the sorrows of hell compassed him about. Now if the grave alone ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 183 is meant here by David, it is very singular, as there is no pain or sorrow in the grave, and could not therefore be alluded to as having sorrows of any kind, but as only a state of insensibility ; therefore hell is a place of sorrow, and was believed in as such by David. But the sorrows which encompassed David about, which he calls the sorrows of hell, were not, however, the sor- rows of a guilty conscience, but the persecutions of Saul, his father-in-law, and his assassin soldiers ; as the time and occur- rences which he celebrates in that psalm, were long before his sin in the affair of Uriah and Bathsheba, and his sorrows on that account ; which, however, he never calls a hell. Or if we say this hell, which is not so deep as the wisdom of God, is the guilty consciences of the wicked ; still there is a poverty in the com- parison which is utterly unworthy the divine inspiration. But if the wisdom of God in the comparison, is allowed to reach beyond all finite happiness, even as it is developed in heaven, and beyond all suffering as it is developed in hell, then is there a majesty, a strength, and force in the comparison ; as it exhibits the wisdom of God as reaching above and beneath all power, all being and principle, distinct from God, and even to the mystery of his own incommunicable being. That great Hebrew poet, prophet and king, has, in another place — see one of his Psalms, namely, ix. 17 — spoken as plainly as language can speak, on this matter, by stating that "the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." But if the grave is the hell which is here meant, then the same fate awaits the righteovs as the wicked, for they must all die and return into the earth. Most certainly David meant to make more difference than this between the final end of the good and the bad ; yet as any one can see, there is no difference made, if the mere grave is all. But if it be said that a guilty conscience was the hell he meant, yet the application is rather awkward, as a guilty conscience is already in the minds of the wicked ; and how are they to be turned into their own minds or consciences? But if there is such a place, then is there force in that word of inspiration, " the wicked shall be turned into hell? But if they repent and live, then their characters as wicked characters, cease to exist, on which account they cannot be turned into hell ; as they are not wicked after having repented, and pardon having been bestowed, if they die in that condition. Here then another quibble of Universalists against the orthodox opinion about a hell, is answered. They, the Universalists, say that if the wicked are to be turned into hell, then all the inhabit- ants of the earth in all ages will go there, because they are all wicked; and in this way make it out for the orthodox, that a universal damnation must take place. But to this we reply, that if the wicked become changed in their character, then the penalty cannot touch them. Thus we get clear of the charge 184 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN of damning the whole race; while Universalists do not even pretend to save one single individual of the whole family of man from that place, but teach that all men must inevitably descend into hell. But how do they do this ? why by making a man's own bosom or conscience that hell, out of which he is to come as soon as he has suffered enough. David, how- ever, says nothing about any one getting out of it, by any means; how, therefore, came Universalists so much wiser than David, or than any of the writers of either the Old or the New Testament, as we do not find any mention of a re- lease from such a condition, in all their writings. If there is no created hell, such as we find described in the Scriptures, how is it that Christ has said, (Matth. v. 22,) in his sermon on the Mount, a long while before the subject of the destruction of the Jews is agitated in the New Testament, that for a certain sin which a man could commit, he should be in danger of hell fire. But how is this possible, if there is no such hell ? How can a man be in danger of that which does not exist ? This would have been but an awkward po- sition for Him who spoke as never man spoke ; of which the cunning Jews, would not fail to have upbraided him with. The difficulty, however, says a Universalist, is easy enough got along with ; as that fire to which the Saviour there alludes, was but the fire of the valley of the son of Hinnom, in which, if a man called his brother a fool, he was exposed to be burnt. But the Jews did not understand the Saviour as speaking of that fire, because at that time it had been ex- tinguished, and out of use many hundred years. Respecting this, we have the following from the pen of Adam Clarke ; who says, that " from the circumstance of this valley having once been the scene of infernal sacrifices, as practiced by the Canaanitish pagans : the Jews in our Saviour's time, used the word Gehenna, or Ghihinom, or place of the valley of the son of Hinnom, — for hell, the place of the damned in eternity." From which, the thing is clear that our Lord spoke not of the fire of that valley — as once in use, hundreds of years before that time — but of the fire of hell; of which the fire of that valley was a type, as understood by the Jews. If this was not so, the Jews could have laughed him to scorn, when he told them in his inimitable sermon on the Mount, that for a certain sin a man should be in danger of the fire of the valley of the son of Hinnom, when they all knew that there was no fire there of the kind, nor had been for many centuries. It is true, however, that the Jewish elders, forming the great- er Sanhedrim, cpuld condemn to death by fire, any Jew who should call a brother a fool ; which meant in the language as spoken by them at that time, apostacy from their religion, ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 185 which they expressed by the word Moreh. Now if a Jew, in malice, so charged his brother with being an apostate from God and the law of Moses, and could not prove it, the greater Sanhedrim, could, if they pleased, punish him with death by fire. But though this was the case, yet as there is no fire in a man's conscience, even though he is guilty of sin, nor yet in the grave, both of which Universalists say are hells ; there could have been no propriety in the Saviour's calling the fire, with which such an offender might have been burned, hell fire, but should rather have said the fire of the Sanhedrim, as it was their officers who must kindle it, if it was kindled at all ; as the fires of Gehenna had long ceased to be in use for the purposes practised by the ancient people of the country, the Canaanites, such as burning their children, and offering by fire human sacrifices to their gods. For which reason the Jews, in our Saviour's time, used the word Ghi- hinom, or Gehenna, or any word by which that valley was known, for hell, the place of the damned in another world. Disprove this who can. But in further proof of this opinion, we bring from the 13th chapter of Matthew, several statements of the Saviour to his disciples. It appears that at a certain time he had spoken to the multitude several parables, as that of the sower, the tares and the wheat, and of the taking of fishes in a net, the mean- ing of which his disciples did not at all comprehend. But af- ter their master had sent away the multitude, he took his dis- ciples into a house, and at their request explained the literal meaning of the parables in so clear a manner, as that all pos- sible mistake is moved out of the way. But what was the literal meaning of the parables which had but just then been given to the people, they were as follows. The field, he told them is the world, (not Judea alone, but the whole world) the good seed is the children of the kingdom, or in other words, the righteous in the estimation of God ; but the tares are the wicked, or children of the wicked one, the devil; and also the enemy who had sowed the tares in the field, was the de- vil, and the harvesting of that field i3 to be the end of the worh!, and the reapers are to be the angels of God. He also told them, that as men, in harvesting a field always gather out the tares from the wheat, and bind them in bundles, and burn them wi\h fire — so it shall be in the end of this world. For the s>n of man, meaning himself, will at this time send out his angeb from heaven, (not from Rome) and gather out of hia kingdom all things that offend, and them which do ini- quity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, which is the hell of the Scriptures. Our Lord says that the reapers of his field, at the end of 186 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN the world, will be the angels ; but Universalists say that those angels were to be the Roman soldiers under Titus, who con- sisted of a vast assemblage of many nations, subject to the arms of Rome, heathen, savage, half-savage and civilized — who, as a mighty flood, poured, at the time of the siege of that city, around Jerusalem, fierce as evening wolves in search of prey. Fine angels these, to be supposed as belonging to Christ, and to be sent by him to gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, when these very angels were the quintessence of iniquity itself, and are in a certain place, by anticipation, spoken of by the Sa- viour, as the abomination foretold by Daniel, which maketh desolate, which by no Scripture precedent that we are ac- quainted with, could be called angels of God, in any sense of the word. But we think we are able to bring several Scriptures in support of the 13th of Matthew, and of a day of judgment, and of the destruction of the whole mundane system or earth, at that time, by which also to disprove the opinion of the de- struction of Jerusalem by the Romans, having been that day of judgment. See Matth. xxv. 31. "When the son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels (of heaven) with him, then he shall sit upon the throne of his glory. And be- fore him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Now to show plainly that the powers of the Romans could not have been the angels of which the above question speaks, we notice the remarka- bly qualifying words ; "All the holy angels with him." The Romans were not holy, but rather abominable, as we have already shown, and therefore were not the angels spoken of. But there is another feature to accompany the coming of Christ, at the end of the world, — for which we are now con- tending, and that is : he is to come in his glory ; u and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him ; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Rev. i. 7. Did Christ appear at the siege of Jerusalem in his glory, accompanied by angels ? We have not heard that he did ; — Josephus says nothing of it. But another feature still : — " When the Son of man shall come, he is to sit upon a throne, and before him all nations are to be gathered." At the siege of Jerusalem, there was only one nation gathered, and that was the Jews ; as no man will be so beside himself, as to say the Romans were judged ANGELS OP THE SCRIPTURES. 187 at ihat time, when they were the triumphant and victorious party : neither did they comprise all the nations of (he earth. That time, therefore, was not the day of judgment which the text alluds to, as it does not accomplish the things foretold of it. At the true day of judgment, every eve is to see him (Christ) and particularly those who pierced him on the cross, according to the Scripture, as above quoted, when truly all the nations which have lived on the earth's sur- face, shall stand before him to give an account of the deeds done in the body, with every idle word — which was not done at the siege of Jerusalem. St. Mark gives much the same description. See chap. Till. 38. u Whosoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels.'''' Here again it is said that his angels, who were to accompany him at that day, were to be holy ; which the Romans were not, for they are called the abomination which maketh desolate, and therefore were not the angels alluded to ; and of consequence the destruction of the Jews by the Romans was not the day of judgment of the Scriptures, which is to take place at the end of the world. St. Luke says the same thing. (See chap. ix. 26.) That there is to be a day of judgment different from that of the ruin of the Jews, we further prove from IstThes. iv. 16. u For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, (Michael) and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise." Now as before ask- ed we here ask again, did the Lord himself descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God ? and did the dead in Christ rise to life at the siege of Jerusalem ? We have never heard that any of these things transpired at that time. To be in Christ, is to be alive, in the moral sense of the word ; by which we per- ceive that to be the dead in Chsist, is to be dead in the grave, having died a Christian: to be raised, therefore, from the dead, is to be raised from the grave, at the time of the resur- rection ; which did not take place at the siege of Jerusalem, as the Christians were not dead at that time, either morally or naturally, and could not therefore be the subjects of a re- surrection in any sense. 2d Thes. i. 7, speaks of the same thing as follows : " And to you who are troubled, rest with ub : when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flau.ing fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord 12 188 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting (eternal as it is in the original) destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power." What did the apostle mean, by saying, " rest with us ?" Did he not mean rest with us in hope, till the time when Christ shall come to judge the world in righteousness 1 But it is contended, by Universalists, that as the Jews, who were carried away cap- tives by the Romans, have never recovered their national exist- ence, that it is they who were to suffer everlasting- 'punish- ment and banishment from the glory of his power. But this cannot be, as the Jews were no more banished from the glo- ry of God's power, than any of the rest of the human race, as the works of his hands, in nature and in providence, were around about the Jews, in captivity as at Jerusalem, and were not, therefore, banished from his presence and the glory of his power. Consequently some other time, circumstance or period is meant, when such things are to take place, than took place when the Jews were overturned as a nation. St. Paul believed in such a day of judgment, as we are con- tending for, when all mankind shall be judged at once, and every one give an account for himself to God, for the things done in his body, or lifetime. See Acts, xvii. 31. "Because He (God) hath appointed a day (or time) in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man (Jesus,) whom he hath or- dained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Now if we are to believe that the destruction of Jerusalem was the very day of judgment, so often spoken of in the New Testament, and no other, we are compelled to the strange conclusion, that for that cause alone, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead — merely to give assurance to all men, that some forty years from that time the Romans were going to destroy the Jews as a nation, but not as a people ; which would as surely have taken place without that assurance as with it. And of what consequence could it have been to all men, whether they knew this or not ? as Jerusalem was of no account to those parts of the earth having nothing to do with her ; and if to give assurance to all men of that war between the Jews and the Romans, was all the reason why God raised his Son the Lord from the dead, we think the forerunner or sign greater than the event signified ; which is to invert the order of things, and ridicules the ways of the Eternal Mind. Universalists generally contend, that Christ was raised from the dead merely to demonstrate and to bring to light the doctrine of a general resurrection of all human beings from death, at a set time, which set time is the day of final judgment, as held by the orthodox. But if St. Paul here meant that Christ arose from the dead, merely in order to give assurance to all men that God, by the Romans, was going to punish the Jews some time or ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 189 other, then are Universalists entirely out of the balance ; for the circumstance cannot be used to give assurance of both events, the destruction of the Jews and the resurrection of mankind. But the truth is, neither of these events are alluded to by St. Paul in that verse ; because he says, that at a given day, the world, the whole world, is to be judged; and as Judea was not the whole world, and as the dead were not then raised, it follows of necessity that the destruction of the Jews, by the Romans, was not the event spoken of in the text, but the end of the world, yet to come. This opinion is still further corroborated by St. Mat- thew, by St. Peter, and by St. Paul. See Matth. xii. 36, where the speaker is the Son of God himself, who there says in relation to the day of judgment : « But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof at the day of judgment." Was this done at the siege of Jerusalem ? did any man there give an account of every idle word which he may have spoken, or even of one word, in his whole life before ? No, the idea is too simple to be mentioned. That this text embra- ces all mankind, who are thus to account for every idle word, is shown from the terms men shall speak ; as the word men stands for the whole race, in all ages of the world, even till the last day. In allusion to this day, St. Peter has written — 1st Peter, iv. 5 — respecting the finally impenitent, who he says, " shall give ac- count to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead." Also, Romans, xiv. 12, " So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." We know that much stress is laid on the fact of the afflictions of the wretched Jews, when their city, their government, and their religion, was brought to an end by the Romans ; and that Universalists seem to think their sufferings to have been bad enough to bear all the dreadful figures and prophecies of their troubles, without refering such figures and such prophesyings to the burning of the world for their fulfilment. But to this we demur, and ask the question, Was the condition of the Christians (though at the exact juncture when Jerusalem was overthrown, they were permitted by the Divine Providence to flee from that doomed metropolis, to a place called Pella, where they were safe.) any better upon the whole than the Jews? we think not; for who does not know, that they, in a very little time, became the objects of universal hatred and persecution ; which continued till the age of Constantino, with but little intermission, a period of nearly three hundred years ; during which time, no less than ten general persecutions took place, by which hundreds of thou- sands were destroyed from the earth, in all the ways that bigotry, malice and cruelty could invent, as exerted upon them by these very Roman powers, who had the Jews in captivity ; and since that lime as many more by the Roman Catholics, according to the history of the church. On which account we do not per- 190 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN ceive, that What is called by Universalists the hell of the Jews, in a state of slavery and national ruin, was any worse, if as bad as the hell of the Christians in a state of persecution. Wherefore it is clear that the plan of the Universal its, in interpreting Scrip- ture, makes out no difference, even in this life, between the good and the bad, on a large scale ; no difference between the tares and the wheat, as to their temporal or eternal condition ; making revealed religion a complete nulity in the affairs of men ; which is Deism. We should think that religion, if Universalism is true, and the faith of the gospel, would produce temporal happiness, above that of irreligion; as it is a system altogether earthly, according to Universalists, having nothing to do with eternity. But do the Scriptures say thus ? see Pslams, chap, xxxiv. 19, u Many are the afflictions of the righteous." The same fact is attested by several of the New Testament writers, see John, xvi. 33, " In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world? Do you think he meant Judea by the word world, which he had overcome ? or did he mean that he was about to make atonement for the sin of the world, the whole human race ? Also, Acts, xiv. 22, it is said, "that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the king- dom of God." Rev. i. 9, the Revelator told the Christian churches that he was their " companion and brother in tribula- tion, in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ;" and in chap. ii. 9, he has said again, that the spirit knew their " works, and tribxdation and poverty P He tells them to fear none of the things which they should suffer ; for even the devil, by the means of wicked men, should cast some of them into pri- son, that they might be tried ; but that they must be faithful until death, when, or immediately after, they should have a crown of life. Again, Rev. vii. 14, St. John speaks of what an angel said to him, relative to the souls of the righteous in eternity ; and states that they had come out of great tribulation, and had washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb ; but in heaven there should be an end of their sorrows. It is said of God, that he scourgeth every son whom 'he receiveth. But as it respects the wicked, they are spoken of as being wiser and more happy in their temporal condition, than the righteous in* this life ; see Luke, xvi. 8, « for the children of this world, (do you think he here meant the people of the Jeivs only, by the word world,) are, in their generation, wiser than the children of light;" that is, are more cunning, more wise and crafty, not having the unsophisticated manners and spirit of the children of light, or of true religion, till converted. By these Scriptures, it is ascer- tained that the righteous are much worse off in this life than the wicked ; .except in the item of conscience j el after all, even this exception amounts to a mere nothing, tricked are to have as bright a heaven, as if they had been good all their life ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 191 time ; and a little brighter, on account of their having suffered so awfully in their poor consciences, for their wickedness in this icorld ; not only in the Judea world, but in this great world which goes every year around the sun. But we have strong doubts, whether such persons as do indeed and in fact, most unboundedly and confidingly, believe (which, however, we think hardly credible,) Universalist sentiments, in respect to punishment for sin, not of sin, but for sin in another life, know anything about a good or a bad conscience toward God ; as indeed we see no need of any, as it can answer no possible purpose ; because such persons know, or think they know, that however wicked they may be, this can make no difference in their relation to God, or retard a happy state after death, as God loves the bad equally with the good. Were the writer of this work a Universalist, we do not see why we should not make haste to become so wicked as to destroy all the susceptibility of conscience out of our bosom, as in this way we should escape, what Universal ists call the hell of conscience, in this life. But can this be done ? we answer, upon the authority of Scripture, the inspiration of which is certainly to be relied on, that it has and can be done ; see 1st Timothy, iv. 2, " Now the spirit speak- eth expressly, that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron." That such a thing is possible, we further prove, from Ephesians, iv. 18, 19: "Having their understanding dark- ened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts : who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lascivious- ness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." By these two witnesses, we prove the doctrine, which cannot be contradicted from the Scriptures : that a man may so harden his heart, and abuse this most delicate of all the powers of the soul, the con- science, as to kill or destroy its feeling, and reduce the mind to a seared and insensible condition, as to moral susceptibility and life. Now, if it is possible, why is it not best, as thereby all the hell there is in being, according to Universalists, will be effectu- ally avoided. For the sake of a good conscience, millions have suffered all manner of tortures, rather than violate this power of the soul ; and have done themselves no good after all, as heaven and a happy state after death, was made none the surer on that account ; and even those who tortured them, went thither as swift- ly and as surely, as soon as dead. With this view, would it not be better that men should remain in their natural condition, which is that of moral death, than to be made to feel sorrow and pain for sin ; as it can do no possible good, in relation to another world, and is sure to secure affliction in this. Wherefore, the harder and more unfeeling a man's conscience is, toward either 192 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN God or man, the better it is for him ; as by that means he abso- lutely escapes all the hell there is, except barely the process of hardening a little while at first. With this view, we do not wonder that Universalists ridicule, what is called in the Scrip- tures, and by the orthodox sects, conviction for sin, conversion to God, pardon, regeneration, and the new birth, by the spirit from above ; disclaiming loudly and boldly, even from the desk, all mysterious operations of the kind, on the heart of man ; imagining a mere change of conduct and belief sufficient, with- out inquiring into the cause of that change, caring nothing about the moral condition of the heart or mind, if so be the conduct is but relatively fair. No wonder these men tell us there is no hell in another world, as indeed there cannot be, for man, at any rate, if such is the condition of the heart ; and no more is required than that he should be outwardly circumspect in relation to hu- man society. This is precisely the ground all Deists take, and is called natural religion ; which denies the fall, reprobates a sacri- ficial atonement, pours contempt on a change of heart, and any hopes of a future happy condition, on any such ground as being founded in Jesus Christ, but nature only. We repeat it, they hold that heaven is the unalienable right or inheritance of all the human race, by virtue of the immutability of the Creator ; and it is impossible by anything that man can do, to put this certainty in jeopardy; and has, therefore, never been lost to them; on which account, a sacrificial atonement, the just for the unjust, for its recovery, has never been needed, or taken place ; and yet claim to have Jesus Christ as their teacher and foundation. But even one's belief, or faith, is not by Universalists consid- ered important to salvation — if so be the moral conduct is not greatly reprehensible. We come to this conclusion, from the fact that this people will not even allow that sin, be it ever so heinous or horrible, even self-murder, staining the soul on its entrance into eternity, and the presence of God, can possibly bar it from admission into the kingdom of heaven, and eternal felicity. We prove this from some remarks made by a Mr. Lefevre, a very popular man among Universalists, (See a paper published by that people, entitled — Universalist Union, for July 2, 1836, vol. 1st, No. 34, page 270 — where the remarks alluded to are printed,) in which such a case is argued, and decided that though a man might go into eternity, having his soul stained with the sin of the murder of his neighbor, and then of himself by the same dagger, that in the general resurrection, that man, soul and body, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, on the same foot- ing that the triumphant St. Paul will, or any other person, who departs this life as a Christian. This, their opinion, is bottomed on the words of St. Paul — 1st Cor. xv. 52, and on Phil. iii. 21 — where it is written of the saints ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 193 only, that in the resurrection, they shall be changed, and their vile bodies fashioned after the likeness of Christ's glorious body. But Universalists claim this glorious change for all mankind, however bad, merely because St. Paul has used the words we and our. This reminds us of the fable, in which an apple and a nameless article were afloat together in a stream, when the name- less article said to the apple, how toe apples do swim. This doc- trine of the salvation of such as die in their sins, is certainly op- posed to the express word of Jesus Christ, on this very subject : (St. John, viii. 21, 24,) " Then said Je^us again unto them, (the Jews) I go my way and ye shall seek me, and die in your sins : whith- er I go ye cannot come : I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins ; for if ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins." Now that the Saviour has here stated a case in which a person dying a sinner, could not, and shall not go where Christ is ; inasmuch as he says — " whither I go ye cannot come." That the Saviour was speaking of his own death, then soon to take place, is shown from their own words — as seen in the 22d verse of the same chapter — as follows : " Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go ye cannot come." That this was a right view of his meaning, we have only to look at the 28th verse of the same chapter, which reads : " Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he ;" — that is, the Christ, the thing they disbelieved, and for which, they were to die in their sins, if they continued in their unbelief ; and after which they could not go to the place where Christ was — which is heav- en ; for when he ascended — it is said in the book of Acts — that he went into heaven. St. John the Revelator, (we suppose we may quote this book, notwithstanding Universalists have their doubts of its authen- ticity — for we find they often quote it, especially if they fancy they have found some text there which makes against an antago- nist,) we repeat it, St. John says, Rev. xiv. 13, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth : yea saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors : and their works do follow them." But is it anywhere written, blessed are the dead who die in their sins ? No it is not ; while it is written as above noticed, that a man dying in his sins, as in the case of self-mur- der, by a shot through the heart, cannot go to heaven, or t© the place where Christ has gone. If such persons go to heaven, it must of necessity be a heaven where there is no Lord Jesus Christ ; on which account we are of the opinion that it will be very much like hell, If such as die in the Lord are to have their good works follow them, as a justification and evidence of their righteousness, before all heaven's hosts, is it not to be infered, that such as die in their sins shall also have their works of wick- edness follow them, as evidence of their evil characters, before 194 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN all heaven's hosts, to be required at their hands ? for it is said by Christ himself, Math. xii. 36, 37, " But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justi- fied, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned," or damned, which is the true meaning. In the same paper to which we have alluded above, under the head of "4 Question considered" — by Mr. Williamson, pastor of a Universalist church, in Albany, N.'Y. — it is contended that all men are sinners, all their life long, even till death ; and that they ciio in this condition, — as he says : " We hear much of changes in this life, and we are free to grant that men's views and feelings, and conduct frequently change : but we know of no change on earth, which renders a man free from every stain of sin." Now, Mr. Lefevre, in the same paper, and in his sermon, as above noticed — argues that the least sin a man can commit, and which he may commit, a moment before he dies, will as effec- tually shut him out of heaven, according to the orthodox, as one that is larger ; even self-murder. We therefore conclude, if this is true, that all men will die as deeply stained with sin, as if the whole human race were to commit suicide ; an.d yet the general resurrec- tion is to bring them up, changed and fitted for heaven. That all men are thus to die, sinners, saints, and all, does not seem to com- port well with many parts of the Scriptures ; for then it cannot be said of the righteous, that they die in the Lord when they die, any more than a drunkard who dies in that condition, dies in the Lord : — wherefore, it is unwisely said by the Revelator, « Bless- ed are the dead ivho die in the Lord :" seeming to make a dis- tinction, when the truth is no man dies in the Lord, according to the above writer, who no doubt, speaks the universal sentiment of the Universalists on that point ; or else all, both good and bad, die in the Lord alike. Now on the supposition, that the general resurrection is to bring up all mankind in a fit condition for heaven, we clearly perceive that Universalists do not believe in the immortality of the human soul ; but believe that it dies with the body, or at least, sleeps in a dormant condition, like a frog in a morass, in a cold climate, till it shall be aroused by the sound of the last trumpet. We believe that such an idea cannot be supported by Scripture, or reason : as in the first place, the soul of the thief on the cross, which was to be, on that same day in which his body was cruci- fied, was to be in Paradise with Jesus Christ ; which certainly contradicts the idea of the sleep of the soul after death. It also contradicts the existence of Enoch and Elijah, as being in a quick or active condition, as shown in the Scriptures ; of whom it is said that they did not die as other men do, but were transla- ted, and did not see death. It contradicts the hope of St. Paul ; ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 195 who when speaking of his death — which was then soon to take place — says : (Phil. i. 23,) " I am in a strait, betwixt two, hav- ing a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better, and to remain in the flesh for the sake of the church." Now if the soul of St. Paul was to sleep on from the time of Ills death till the time of the general resurrection, or day of judg- ment, how could he anticipate being present with Christ, as soon as he should have passed the fatal Rubicon ? which his state- ment certainly supposes. Does not some thousands of years make any difference in the idea of being with Christ, as soon as death should permit it ? The ideas are put opposite to each other : that of remaining there with the church, or then leaving it, to be with Christ immediately, — without the intervention of thousands of years. It contradicts all the hopes of all Christians since the world began : — for if this doctrine of the sleep of the soul, from death till the resurrection is true, then from the time of the death of righteous Abel, with that of all the holy prophets, oven including the soul of Moses, and all the the martyrs of the age — are asleep now in the dust of earth. What a blow is this to strike on the face of the ardent hopes of the good ; who as soon as this life shall be passed, expect to enter into an active state of being and happiness. Second, it contradicts reason on this subject ; for if God is the father of the spirits of all flesh that is human, and he is the liv- ing God ; it follows of necessity that such spirits partake of the father's nature, in respect to perpetual being and activity of the living principle. Of this principle — the non-immortality of the human soul — Universalists are rather shy ; keeping it in an ambiguous condition, not exactly avowing it, or denying it ; seeming to wait till their sentiments shall gain a stronger footing in the land than at present, when that or any other unscriptural vagary may be taught to the people, as the morality of Jesus Christ. That in the resurrection, the whole human race, both good and bad, are to be punished, and then and there made meet for heaven, is the reason why Universalists cannot see the necessity of a man's having his soul converted to God in this life, by the renewing of his mind, by the operation of the power of the Holy Ghost : no necessity of being born again from above, as Christ taught Nicodemus, the disciples, and the Jews, and that without this they could not enter the kingdom of heaven : no necessity of all this — say Universalists — because the resurrection will do it after death. But why this people assume so much to be done for the soul, in the resurrection, is unaccountable ; when they all know that the full extent of the operation of that event, reaches no further than to the mere bodies of men, and that of the saints only ; whose bodies are to be changed from a state of corruption, to a 196 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN state of purity and incorruptibility, like Christ's glorious body ; while there is not a word spoken about the soul, mind, or spirit, in all the account of the operation of the resurrection : — not one word ; it is all about the body. Of the wicked, it is not said in any part of the Bible, that their vile bodies are to be gloriously changed like those of the saints ; but to the contrary : for Daniel says expressly, that some — meaning the wicked — shall rise from the dust of the earth, with shame, and eternal contempt ; for the word eternal is used in the original. The same thing is made out by St. John, the Revelator, chap, xx., where we are informed that two resurrections are to take place ; the first is to consist of all the righteous, in all ages, — and the second of all the wicked : there being a thousand years put between the two. St. Paul has said the same thing, in amount, long before the book of Revela- tions was written ; to which St. John here subscribes : (see 1st Thess. xvi.) " For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God — and the dead in Christ shall rise first." It is true St. Paul does not state how long first ; but St. John does, and says it will be a thousand literal years. Now with this view, it is clear, that all the immunities of the first resurrection, in relation to the changing of the bodies of the saints, is spoken of them, and them only, and that merely of their bodies, while there is no promise of such a resurrection, to such as die in their sins. If the spiritual conversion of the soul of man to God, by the Holy Ghost, is not necessary in order to prepare men for heaven, in this life ; relying solely on the resurrection for all that may be necessary to be done ; then we clearly see why Universal ists de- nounce what is commonly believed by the orthodox churches, about being born again ; even making ridicule of it, as being the whim of fanatics. Universalists contend that it is no matter how a man dies — see the same paper, the Univcrsalist Union, before alluded to — where Mr. Williamson states that the frame of mind in which a man may happen to die, is of no more importance to his future happiness, than is the disease of which he may happen to die. If this is truly so, then it follows that the triumphant deaths of all the holy martyrs of every age — including all the apostles, with St. Paul, who said he had fought the good fight, and finish- ed his course ; when he had death in his view, and but a few days before him, triumphed, because, thenceforward, there was a crown laid up for him, which he said he was to receive — is to be put on a level with the curses, blasphemies, and howlings of several famous infidels, whom we can easily name, in their last sickness, and at their deaths. Why this difference if the state of one's mind indicates nothing in relation to the future, at the solemn hour of death ? Universalists teach that Christ died as a^mere martyr, for his ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 197 opinions, but not as a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, as the Scriptures state he did, in a multitude of placecs; on whose account alone the opportunity of salvation was made possible. The whole drift of all the prophets, wherever Christ is alluded to by them, is that he was to die for the people, and not on his own account, as a martyr. To this effect, see Daniel ix. 26. " And after three score and two weeks (434 years) shall Messiah be cut off, (now mind what is said) but not for him- self." It would seem that the spirit of inspiration, in this very expression, "but not for himself" intends it as a refutation of this very Universalist notion, that of Christ dying as a martyr, on his own account, and of course accidentally. He contradicts it himself; for he says that he had power to lay down his own life, and to take it up again. He also says, that no man taketh my life from me, except by his permission. But if he died as a mar- tyr, then his persecutors took his life, to all intents and purposes, which he ought to have prevented, if possible — as all martyrs would have done if they could. But to this point, Christ, after his resurrection, while teaching the two disciples, as they were on their way to Emaus, a small town near Jerusalem, told them plainly that Christ ought to suf- fer. Now what does he mean by this, except it be understood that he suffered a vicarious death, the innocent for the guilty, and not for himself, as a martyr ? The whole force of the New Testament is to this effect ; so much so, that his blood is there, often called most precious; and as meritorious, availing for the guilty with God, and that men are to pray in his name, making mention of his death and sufferings, as the cause of gifts and mercies from God to man. Universalists, it is true, allow that Christ is a mediator between God and man, but in no other sense than any moral teacher is a mediator between him and us — inasmuch as he was simply a medium of information — a news-bearer, and taught a good sys- tem of morality. Deists say the same thing of Christ, who extol him equally with Universalists in this respect. As it respects a vicarious sacrifice being required of God, on which account he might justly extend mercies to rebels, Universalists can have no conceptions and believe such an opinion highly ridiculous, and derogatory to the character of God. Yet the Scriptures say that he was delivered for our offences, and by his stripes we are healed; and that he was stricken of God, spit upon and crucified on man's account, and not his own. One writer in the paper to which we have before alluded, who signs himself L. D. W., says : " The idea of a vicarious atone- ment strikes us as highly derogatory to the character of God, and injurious to the moral health of man. It supposes God to have prepared some tremendous infliction of punishment, and that his arm has only been arrested by the interposition of his 198 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN son, whose blood has flowed from that blow which was the just award of the guilty. We confess (he says) our inability to dis- cover the beauty and propriety of this system." As speaks this man, so say all Universalists, and so say all Deists. There is no difference between them on this subject. Universalists are therefore Deists, in the most essential sense of the word, and yet would pass for a Christian sect. What du- plicity ! what deception ! It is unequalled in the arts of theologi- cal knavery. If it is true that Christ died as a martyr, simply, and not as a sacrifice, and had power to have saved his life, he ought to have dene it — or it will be a hard thing to clear him from the guilt of suicide. To avoid this, however, Universalists say that he died a voluntary martyr — a mode of expression wholly without meaning, as it is impossible to have any conceptions of such a thing as a voluntary death, which may be avoided, and claim the honor of true martyrdom. Christ said to his disciples, when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another ; by which we understand him to advise or even command them to live in the world as long as possible. But this he did not do himself, when persecuted, as he might have done, but gave himself into their power on purpose to be put to death for transgressors. But if he did not die as a sacrifice, nor as a martyr, in the common acceptation of the word, then he is tacitly guilty of suicide, on the Universalist view of the subject. To say that he died so as to procure the opportunity of rising from the dead, for the purpose of bringing this doctrine or belief into view, namely, of the resurrection of the human race from the dead — and for this alone — it would seem that he died to pro- duce a belief already in both the Jewish and Christian churches. Martha understood this doctrine ; for she said to the Saviour after the death of her brother Lazarus, 1 know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. But as the orthodox sects view this subject, they say he rose from the dead, in order to justify such as should believe in the 7ncrit of his vicarious death ; and for another reason, namely, because it was impossible for him to see corruption, or to be holden by the power of death, on account of his being immaculate in character, and as having no sin, or a sinful nature, as have the individuals of the whole human race besides ; death therefore, had no just claim upon him, as death got his power over mortals on account of sin, and sin alone. Christ did not die as a martyr, either voluntarily or by perse- cution, but as a self devoted victim, for the offences of the world, and to procure of the satisfied justice of God the opportunity of salvation to all such shall have been, or as may be, converted or born again, in all the world, in every nation — whether they may have heard of Christ or not — according as their situation may be ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 199 — and their compliance with the inward motions of the eternal spirit, who on the account of the merit of Christ's death, strives with every soul of the human race, moving them to do the things which are morally right, notwithstanding their education, what- ever it may be. This is the importance orthodox Christians attach to the death of Jesus ; while Universalists attach no importance at all, over that of mere constancy to himself and his opinions, a virtue any man may acquire. Universalists tell us that they have no conceptions of the pro- priety of the innocent suffering for the guilty ; and of Divine justice being thus satisfied, in the death of the Son of God, instead of the world. That this is the fact, the whole Bible, wherever this point is noticed, proves, however it may be above mortal conception ; and no doubt is to be classed among the sullimest and deepest mysteries of revealed religion ; a trait of character which cannot but be expected, when its origin and author are so superior to our grade of being, fallen as we are. But if one man, touched with sympathy for the distress of another, may be permitted to plunge even into danger and death for his relief, and no principle of virtue or justice be infringed on that account, how is it that God is to be prohibited from an act of the kind, when millions on millions are concerned, on the charge of injustice ? if he does, how is it that God must not be allowed to be as generous with his delinquent creatures, as man may be with his fellows ? Such a procedure as finds fault with the sacrifice of the innocent for the guilty, as in the case of the death of Christ for the world, would banish every trait of virtu- ous generosity and piety, not only from the earth, but from heaven also. But when such a benefactor is found, and the rescued one, so soon as he shall see him, begins to pour contempt upon him, and to impugn his reasons for interference, then it is that justice resumes his power, and the rescued one is overwhelmed with a tenfold wo, proportioned precisely to the happiness which was intended him in his rescue ; because ingratitude is found to bud and bring forth its bitter fruit, where goodness, meekness, submis- sion and repentance, with reformation, should have been produced. Such are Universalist sentiments in relation to the rescue of the world from the consequences of our first parents' sin ; which has procured for us animal life, moral life, and the opportunity of eternal life, in their neutralizing power, respecting the full amount of what Christ, in his life, his teaching, his death, and his resur- rection, has procured and done for man ; because they impugn even the divine procedure, in allowing the innocent to suffer ibr the guilty, as laid down in the New Testament, thus shutting the door against even the philanthropy and generous benevolence of heaven itself in favor of poor mortals, not allowing that a ransom is even possible ; contending that each soul of man has no need 200 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN of this rescue, being just as he ought to be, placed physically and morally on the earth as we find we are. But as it respects the existence of a hell beyond this life, Mr. Ballou, a standard writer of the Universal ist order, asserts, and challenges all men to show the contrary, that the Scriptures speak of no other hell than the grave and a disturbed con- science. This is pretty bold, when compared with that which is said on the subject by the Saviour, who certainly knew better than Ballou, and says that there is such a place, as he was its creator, if it exists at all ; as he created all things, except moral evil. Universalists hold that Jesus Christ, however great, good, or miraculous his character and doings, were on earth, that never- theless, he was but a created, dependant creature, the same as any other man, and that all his power to do miracles, was derived. This they believe, or try to believe, if we may believe them, notwithstanding their acquaintance with St. Paul's opinion of him, to the contrary ; which was, that he is the Creator, and upholds all things by the word of his power. See Heb. i. 3, " Who being the brightness of his (the Father's) glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power : when he had by himself, purged our sins, sit down on the right hand of the majesty on high." In verse eight of the same chapter, even God himself calls his son God, " But unto the Son he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and evti," or eternal. Isaiah, in speaking of him, calls him the Mighty God. St. John says that he is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He says of himself, that he had all power in heaven and earth. What more is necessary to consti- tute him the very God of nature, connected with man — or as it is said, God manifested in the flesh ; yet Universalists call him a created being, and dependent like other men, simply because the human soul which he took, in his manifestation, confesses its inferiority to God, and often prayed to him. St. Paul, who certainly understood this subject, seems to have anticipated the very objections of Universalists to the Deity of Christ, and to the mysteries in the Christian religion : see 1st Tim. iii. 16, " With- out controversy, great is the mystery of godliness : God was manifest in the flesh." Now to show that Jesus Christ was the being to whom St. Paul certainly refers in the above quotation — who he calls God in the flesh — we have only to follow him through the verse, and see in the end of it, this manifestation was received up into glory, or heaven, meaning the ascension of our Lord to heaven after his resurrection. They even go so far with their neutralising and levelling system of theology, as to deny that Christ was miraculously brought into the world, and that his natural human body was begotten by an invisible power, the Holy Ghost. They say he had a natural father, the same ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 201 as any other man ; but Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, say he had not, but that he was begotten by the Holy Ghost in the womb of his virgin mother. No doctrine in the whole New Testament is more pointedly and fully insisted upon, than this one, the miraculous conception and birth of the Saviour, without a natural father, or intervention of a man. Yet Universalists deny this, the same as do all Deists in all the world ; how is it therefore, that they have a claim to be considered a Christian sect 7 why not style themselves Deists, differing merely with respect to the resurrection of the dead, and the revelation of the Scriptures, but in all things else, alike? But what is the consequence of this belief to the character of Jesus Christ ? This is the consequenec ; he is made to be the off- spring of illegitimate love : for the Scriptures, as written by the four evangelists, are explicit in stating that Joseph, who became the husband of Mary, was not the father of her first child, Jesus Christ. Now if he was not, who was ? This is unknown, ex- cept we receive the account as it is written, that God was his father, and that he was begotten by the power of the Highest, without tho intervention of man. If Mary was found in a con- dition which dissatisfied Joseph, the man who had promised to marry her, is it to be supposed that God would send from the invisible world an angel, namely, Gabriel, to make Joseph be- lieve that the girl was a virgin, and that the cause of his dissatis- faction was not her fault, but was of God ? Never. But this must be believed, if we are to allow that Universalists are right in this thing : namely, that Jesus Christ had a natural father, the same as other human beings. This most awful sentiment ruins Christianity at its very foun- tain, sinking its author, and the author's only earthly parent, his virgin mother, to a level with a common prostitute, and her son the fruit of that prostitution. There is no way to avoid this hor- rible consequence, the very thing all infidels charge upon Chris- tianity, in their bitterest moments of derision against revealed religion. To show that she was previously married, and that Christ was a son of that marriage, is impossible ; and even if it was possible, yet Christ could not have been the fruit of that or any other marriage, because she is said by all the evangelists to have been a virgin when she was espoused ; that is, was contracted or promised to Joseph : and that she was found in that condition after that espousal was made. Now except the thing was of God, and that the power of the Highest overshadowed her, and produced the infant Saviour in that miraculous manner, then is Christianity and its author more polluted at the very fountain, than any of the ancient religions of mankind, whose gods were the result of the speculating brains of hypocritical and venial priests, who presented them as being half animal and half man ; 202 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN adapted precisely to the baser passions of fallen human nature, inasmuch as it pretends to more sanctity and more purity — even to immaculate perfection. This is the reason why it is more base, if it is not in all respects literally true, as stated by the evan- gelists. Now these are the men who say that Christianity is corrupted by the orthodox clergy. Of this we leave mankind to be the judges. See Matth. x. 28, for further proof that there is a hell, not to be found in this life : " Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to des- troy both soul and body in hell." The same is said by St. Luke, xii. 4, 5, " I say unto you my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do : but I will forewarn you whom to fear : fear him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell ; yea, I say unto you fear him." Now here Ballou, Balfour, and all Universalis ts, with all such persons who as do not believe there is a hell in another world, are found at variance with Christ the son of God, on that subject. If there is no hell in another world, not even God him- self has power to cast either body or soul into it ; a place, or con- dition, which does not, nor ever did, or ever can exist, if we are to believe Universalists. Consequently that warning of Christ, who said I forewarn you whom to fear, is just a solemn nothing. But says the Universalist, we do not deny but there is a hell, and even more than one ; as there is the grave, which is one ; and there is a guilty conscience, t/"any body is wicked, and that is two ; and there is the ruin of the Jews by the Romans, which is three ; and all these in this life. Oh, how extraordinary; is it so, is this the fact 1 if so let us try the above Scripture according to such a meaning. Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to des- troy both soul and body in the grave ; both soul and body in a guilty conscience, both soul and body in the destruction of the Jews by the Romans ; all three of which is impossible, as it res- pects the soul, as the soul is not subject to death, but must remain a living principle as long as God endures, as we have already proved. Now if there is a hell in which God can destroy the soul, and that hell is not in eternity, or in another world, where then is it ? It must be found somewhere, or the allusion to such nlace, or condition, is but a fiction, a mere scarecrow ; which idea cannot be ascribed to the Saviour without injury to his char- acter ; which, however, is the fair result, if no hell in this life can be found, in which God can, if he would, kill the human sonl. B> • e arises another difficulty for Universalists to clear up, whir .it of the immortality of the soul, a doctrine they deny, believing it dies with the body, and shall be restored again with ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 203 the body at the resurrection. If this is so, we ask where is the fear founded, and upon what? for if the soul dies, and becomes inert with the body, it cannot suffer ; and therefore has no cause to fear even God, though he should kill the body, as the soul must die at the same time. But the whole force of the injunc- tion is based upon the fact, that the soul does not die with the body, but remains a conscious being, or there can be no reason in that saying of Christ, " fear him who after he hath killed the body, hath power to cast the soul into hell." This Scripture proves, both the fact of the ceaseless life and nature of the soul of man, and the existence of a hell beyond this life ; doctrines which Universalists deny. Man can kill the body, but the soul he cannot touch ; yet God can do this, and on that account the Saviour admonished his disciples to fear that Being. Yet there was no cause for such fear rf there is no hell after the death of the body ; and if the soul dies with the body (a thing utterly impossible, as it is a " living souF or principle, which is not said of the body, because it is subject to death) there could be no cause for such fear. If the soul dies at the time of the death of the body, then the same blow which kills the body also kills the soul. And therefore, were this true, man can hill the soul, although the Scriptures, as above quoted, de- clare that he cannot : — and more than this, Scripture does not say that even God can annihilate the soul, — though there is no doubt but he can ; but that he can destroy it in hell ; that is, can place it in a ceaseless state of ruin, and a ceaseless state of suffer- ing. This destruction is infinitely worse than annihilation itself; which, could it be, we have no doubt would be resorted to, rather than to unlimited suffering in hell, by the Divine Being. That the Saviour was speaking of the death of the bodies of his disciples, by persecution and martyrdom ; and not of the ruin of the body politic, or body religions of the Jews, by the Ro- mans, or any other cause, is evident from the context of the sub- ject, in the same chapter, in which the above text is found, which we have produced as a proof of a hell in another world — see ver- ses 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 28 — in which that subject is pursued, and finished as follows : " But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their syna- gogues : and ye shall be brought before governors, and kino-s for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles : And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death ; and the father the child : and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death : And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another/' But notwithstanding all this, he told them not to be intimidated from their duty, nor to fear their persecu- tors i but to continue to fear him only who was " able to destroy 13 204 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN both soul and body in hell" Now if there is a hell in another world, then is there force in that warning ; and if the soul continues its consciousness, though the body dies, then is there reason to fear, least the soul pass into eternity unpre- pared ; and finally be cast into that hell, with its body, at the time of the general resurrection and day of judgment, accor- ding to the Scriptures. Moses, the first writer of the Scriptures, clearly alludes to a state of punishment after death — see Deuteronomy, xviii. 15, 19 — where God himself is the speaker. "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee (the Jews) a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me ; unto him ye shall hearken. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." Now on this statement of the Al- mighty, " I will require it of him," St. Peter, in Acts, iii. 23, says, " And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." This is what St. Peter seems to understand by the words, " I will require it of him ; and carries it out to mean the destruction or damnation of such a soul. Under the Christian dispensation, we have no intimation that if a person refused to believe in Christ, or to hearken to his words and practice his principles, that such a person was put to death, or even punished in any manner whatever ; as the Christian church had no such power given it, either eccle- siastically or politically. How then was the thing to be done ? how was such a soul to be destroyed or cut off from among the people ? There is but one way, namely, that of the dam- nation of such a soul in eternity, in accordance with what we have alieady quoted, and here repeat: "Fear God who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell," in eternity, as there is no such hell in this life, in which God will destroy such a soul. Now as the teachings of Christianity are directed to indi- vidual men, women and children, of a proper age, we cannot refer the cutting off such as will not hear that prophet, to the nation of the Jews, as a nation exclusively, and that this was done in their destruction as a nation by the Romans ; we say it cannot be referred to them alone ; because the statement is broad, extending to all the souls of the human race, who have it in their power to hear this prophet. Were we to restrict the fulfilment of this denunciation to that nation only, and to no other persons of the human race, then we should falsify the text, which says, " that every soul which will not hear that prophet, shall be cut off from among the people ;" and as we consider, means Gentiles as well as Jews, and all people ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES, 205 of all ages, who have the opportunity of hearkening to his doc- trines. If the words every soul, are to be regarded, then it will follow that the injunction is wholly of an individual char- acter, and not exclusively national. Now, while life lasts, no man is cut ofF from among the people, even though he will not hearken to this prophet ; we are compelled, therefore, in order to sustain the veracity of God, to carry this matter into another world after death, where such souls as had the opportunity of hearkening to that prophet and would not, shall be cut off from among the people of the saints of the Most High, and destroyed in hell ; in which, it is written, that God is able to destroy both soul and body. But before we leave this subject, it will be proper to exam- ine the famous text upon which Universalists ground their doctrine of a conscience hell, for sins committed ; by which expiation or release is obtained, and the sinner made righteous in the sight of God, but not by the blood and merit of Jesus Christ. These people believe that sin brings with itself its own punishment, its own whip, or correction ; as that when one sins, he immediately is distressed in his mind on account of it, and that distress, uneasiness, ordisquitude, is the very expiation for the sin itself; by which we perceive that sin is its own Saviour, and works its own cure ; and this is what they call one kind of hell. If this were so, it might be called a most glorious hell; and so far as we are able to discover, might have saved the Lord of life and glory, the trouble of coming into the world to die for sinners, and the horrid ago- nies of the cross by the Romans. No man who can think, will ever suppose that Christ came into the world, honored the law of God, which Adam, with all his posterity have dis- honored, and then by his own voluntary act submit to a shameful and cruel death; and all for no other purpose than to procure for sinners the opportunity of suffering for their sins in their conscience ; a thing which would have been just as sure, on the principle of justice, as if he had not thus came, and thus suffered for sin and sinners. On this plan, therefore, as propagated by Universalists, this conscience hell, is the only and true Saviour from sin, in which there is neither necessity of belief or disbelief, knowledge or ignorance, re- pentance or pardon ; as whoever sins, creates in and with that sin, his own remedy. This is the nullification of all law and of all penally, with a vengeance. But the famous text, by which Universalists prove that the worst hell there is in existence, (and had king David for its tenant, at a certain time ; out of which he escaped, however. 206 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN and all in this life,) is found in the 86th Psalm, 13th verse, as follows : " For great is thy mercy toward me ; and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell." Now, say Universalists, in a way of triumph, is there any worse hell than the lowest one. Here they fix themselves, to this point, and proceed to interpret all other texts of Scripture, which speak of a hell, by this, as by the great, and only con- text on this subject, — by which they ascertain it to be a far worse hell than the grave ; and yet, strange to tell, it is pre- ferred to the grave by them, by an immense difference, after all ; as it is found by experiment, that sinners can live in it much better than they can in the grave. It is highly proper that we enquire what is meant by this lowest hell, out of which David was delivered : — whether it was temporal sorrows and affliction, or a guilty conscience, on account of sin, from which he was so miraculously delivered by the providence and inrerposition of his God ? as we deny its having been the latter in any degree whatever. All men who are at all acquainted with the history of king David, from the time of his victory over Goliah of Gath, till he was crowned king of Israel, know well through what difficulties and opposition of enemies — with Saul at their head — he passed to the throne. Seven years, or nearly so, he was treated as an outlaw, and compelled to flee his country, pursued by one continued storm of persecution, of hair-breadth escapes, in fleeing from mountain to mountain, and from cave to cave — pursued, waylaid, ambushed, and hunted like a wild beast, or a partridge, asleep or awake — pressed on every side by con- tinual dangers — in perpetual fear of the assassin's dagger — the emissaries of Saul. On these very subjects — and relating to these very troubles, several of the Psalms were written, which describe his situation, his distress ; as also the many miracu- lous deliverances which God the afforded him from his pur- suers. In one of these Psalms, is found this famous text, as quoted above — namely t " thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell" This is descriptive, and comparative lan- guage ; by which is understood his final victory over all his enemies, and persecutors of the house, and kingdom of Saul, and of his exhaltation to the throne of Israel. His troubles during that time were so great, that he has used a figure of speech, by which they are shown to have been worse than death, or the grave could could have been to him, at that time. That his afflictions during that period — a lapse of nearly seven years — are meant by these strong words : the lowest hell, we think we prove by the residue of the chapter, imme- diately following that statement, — which is : " O God, the ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 207 proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul [life.] But thou, Lord, art full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me ; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thy handmaid. Shew me a token for good, that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed." Do not the above words plainly allude to his temporal distresses at that time ? if not, how could he pray to be delivered from the assemblies of violent men, and from them that hated him, and sought after his soul or life, to take it away from the earth ? who did this but Saul and his warriors, in their zeal to kill David ; because he had been appointed to the kingdom by the prophet Samuel, some time before he had the fight with Goliah ? In this class of the Psalms of David, which describe his sorrows of that time, there are various direct allusions, in which he praises God for signal help, and deliverances in battle from death, and from being taken by the soldiers of Saul ; see chapter lv. of his Psalms, 18, 21, "He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many (invisible beings, or angels of God) with me. He (Saul) hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him, (meaning himself,) he hath broken his cove- nant, (with me David.) The words of his mouth were smoother than butter; but war (murder) was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords." By the same rule of comparison that he calls Saul's words drawn swords, he calls his troubles with that monarch hell, and the sorrows of hell which compassed him round about. If David had not believed there is a hell in which there are sorrows, he could never have used the word as descriptive of his own troubles ; but the grave, in this comparison, is ex- cluded, as there are no sorrows in the grave, work nor device. But from the account as given by David himself, there can be nothing clearer than that he meant the deceit and treachery of Saul, his father-in-law, who had several times broken his covenants with David, by which his life was endangered, but was as often saved by the kind and noble hearted Jonathan, the son of Saul. In the 56th Psalm, 11, 12, he says, " In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me. For thou hast delivered my soul (life) from death," which Saul and his assassins were in pursuit of. In the 116th Psalm, 3, 4, 8, he has the same afflictions in view, which drove him from the sanctuary of his religion, to dwell among pagans and idolators, where he remained till Saul's death. There he says, " The sorrows of death compassed him, and the pains of hell got hold of him, I found trouble and sorrow" But 208 HISTORY OP THE FALLEN not the troubles of a guilty conscience, as there is no confes- sion of sins, or of any particular sin, in any of this class of his Psalms, as there are in those of his writing after the murder of Uriah, and abduction of Uriah's wife. Sin and a distressed conscience, therefore, was not his trouble at that time; but his outlawed condition, being compelled even to sleep with his life in his hand, as he fled hither and thither from his pur- suers. But to settle the question whether this lowest hell, out of which David was delivered, was a guilty conscience or not, we bring the 22d chapter of 2d Samuel, in which it is plainly stated that this hell was the persecutions of Saul. " And David spake unto the Lord the words of this song, in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul. And he said, the Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer ; The God of my rock (or hope) in him will I put my trust : He is my shield, and the horn (hope) of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my saviour ; thou savedst me from vio- lence, (from Saul and his dagger,) I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised ; so shall I be saved from my enemies. When the waves of death made me afraid, the sor- rows of hell compassed me about, the snares of death pre- vented (or were aboutj me. 17, 18, He sent from above, he took me ; he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, fSaulJ and from them that hated me, for they were too strong for me. 1 ' And to show that these sorrows of David were not on account of sin, he says, verses 21, 22, "The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness ; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God." This cannot have been said of Christ, as if it were possible for him to have wickedly departed from his God ; though it is likely there are some allusions to the day and time of Christ in this class highly descriptive Psalms ; but chiefly it alludes to the seven 3'ears persecution of Saul, and other enemies, before he came to the throne, over whom he finally triumphed. He says, verse 41, 42, "Thou hast also given me the neck of mine enemies, the heathen, that I may destroy them that hate me. Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street." This could have no allusion to Christ, as thus he came not to do, to his enemies of this life ; but David, as a conqueror of many nations round about, may on that account, be said thus to have done to his enemies. In the above examination, we feel confident that we have shown clearly, that the loiuest hell out of which God dcliv- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 209 ered David, was not any conscience suffering, as imagined by Universalists ; wherefore they must look for some other pas- sage, by which to prove that the worst hell there is in exis- tence is in this life, as from that passage it cannot be made out. But as his sorrows were of an exceedingly aggravated nature, he was justified in seizing upon the strongest lan- guage, and in making allusions to the worst of sufferings, even to the sufferings of the damned. Now if any Universalist should happen to agree with us in this exposition, namely, that it was not from the sufferings of a guilty conscience that David was at that time delivered, but from personal afflictions of an outward and domiciliary character, then such Universalists will admit that this lowest hell consisted of mere trouble, such as may fall upon the most pure character; and will be compelled to place such troubles in the scale of human suffering in this life, above even the sufferings of a guilty conscience, and presents a problem of rather a vexatious aspect ; for as we understand Universalists, it is sin which produces the worst hell that can exist ; while according to David, it is temporal affliction ; if it be disal- lowed that he borrowed his idea of hell from the belief of the existence of a hell in eternity, into which, in a certain place, David himself has said, all the wicked, and the nations who forget God, shall be finally turned. Psalms, ix. 17. That there is such a hell in another world, is no where contradicted in the Scriptures ; which, we should think, the all seeing eye of inspiration would have done, if there is not ; as the error is a monstrous one in theology, and could not have escaped the foreknowledge of God, nor been allowed to remain unforetold, as other errors are in relation to what is essential to be believed or rejected, and that there is no hell is very essential with Universalists. We know as well as Universalists, that the word hell, in many places in the Scrip- tures, means no more than the grave, and very great afflic- tions in this life, &c. ; but we also know, and Universalists know, and might believe, that the word occurs, in many places, and in such connection, as that allusions to the grave, a guilty conscience, or to earthly afflictions of any kind, are as impossible as that the word should allude to heaven, or any other condition of happiness. Is the hell of which David speaks, as just above quoted, the grave? if so, then as before stated, the righteous have as much to fear as have the wicked, and thither they must as surely descend. Was this hell of which David speaks, the afflictions of this life ? if so, then the righteous are even more exposed, and worse tormented in this hell than are the wicked ; for it is written in Scripture of them, that they " are 210 HISTORY OF THE TALLEST not troubled as are other men, neither are they plagued as other men ; and that there are no bonds (or fears of hell) in their death." Psalms, lxxiii. 4, 5. From these passages, it is evident that it is best to be of the number of the wicked, if there is no hell to be feared beyond this life, as by that means, much suffering for righteousness sake would be avoided. But respecting this hell's consisting of fire and brimstone, many eminent men of the orthodox sects have doubted, and wholly deny its being composed of those materials, or of any other mate- rial, yet believe in its existence. But how such an opinion is to be maintained, we should imagine very difficult to make out ; seeing the Scriptures of the New Testament, as well as the old, speak of it as having been prepared, or created. These imag- ine that all the strong and specific language in the Bible, about hell, is but figurative, and intend nothing more than a state of mind wholly cast off from God, and abandoned to irretrievable and incessant depravity and despair in eternity. But this cannot be, as in such a case the Scripture would not say that hell was ordained of old ; see Isaiah, xxx. 33, and in Matthew, xxv. 41, that it was prepared or created for the devil and his angels. If hell is but a state, or condition of mind only, how are we to im- agine such a state as having been prepared beforehand, by the Divine Being? Mental suffering does not, and cannot exist, beforehand ; the idea is as impossible as preposterous. It cannot be said of God that he has prepared a condition of mental suffer- ing, as being distinct and apart from the mind or spirit which may suffer ; for mental distress is dependent on the being of mind. It cannot be said that God made fallen angels wicked j and unless this can be said, it cannot be allowed that he pre- pared their punishment, if it is but of a mental nature ; for their punishment, in such a case, is in their own wickedness and men- tal suffering. That the wicked suffer mentally, we do not deny, except in those cases where they are past feeling ; but that God created or prepared mental suffering, we do deny, as that is a consequence following on the commission of sin, and cannot precede it ; on which account it needed not to be created or prepared by the Su- preme Being, as it is of spontaneous growth, from its own origin, that of sin and rebellion. If the hell of eternity is wholly mental, — how is it then that the bodies of the wicked are to be cast into it? For it is said — as we have already frequently quoted — that the Saviour caution- ed his disciples to fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell, which cannot be done, if there is no literal hell, as the body cannot sutler mentally and knowingly. If the terms fire and brimsone, lake of fire, hell fire, the unquenchable fire, and eternal fire, are all to be understood as merely figuritive, we ask, what is gained by it? This, and this only; hell is much ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 211 worse than the literal sense of the Bible makes it to be ; and what right has any man to do this ? But the truth is, all such persons as thus believe, do by no means intend to lessen the hor- rors of that state ; yet they do so, in the most direct sense ; as it is impossible for the mind to conceive of mental suffering as acutely as it can of the suffering of the senses. To prove this, we will state a case, thus : let a person who is endowed with the powers of eloquence, to such a degree, that an audience consist- ing of thousands, are carried in his flights of language to the very heavens, and made almost to feel, to see, and to hear, the unutterable things of which St. Paul speaks, which he saw in Paradise — let him paint the horrors of war till the blood freezes in the veins, or the fountains of the head gush out in tears, at the recital of pain and suffering ; let such an one describe — as is often done — the deep, deep chasms of hell — consisting of burn- ing flames which never go down — of waves, of gulphs, and floods of rolling fiery billows, that sweep in ceaseless tempests over that dismal ocean of wo, without end, — till the very hairs of the head stand erect, and the blood rushes to the heart for shel- ter — with eyeballs distended in their sockets — thrilling soul and body with agonies intolerable ; but the instant it is said, by way of paraphrase, by the orator, that all this is but a figure, the mind and body, in a moment, are released, as from the wreck, and lose their tension — while a sensation of comfort passes over the mind, on account of the transition from fact, to that which is merely a figure. A figure is infinitely less, in every sense of the word, than the thing it signifies ; on which account, those among the ortthodox, who teach that hell is not literally what it is stated to be in the bible, throw it so far beyond all human con- ception, that it ceases to have any effect ; and is of just as much force to deter from the commission of sin, as the threatnings of a parent of condign punishment would be to an infant of a day old : which is just none at all. We therefore, believe it to be of literal existence — according to the word and letter of the Bible. Such a place is suited to the purposes of suffering and punish- ment of both soul and body ; while a mental state of distress is adapted to but one, and besides, it is anti-Scriptural ; as no man has a right to exceed the letter of Scripture, in his descriptions, either of hell or heaven — nor yet to fall below that letter. Such of the orthodox sects, as flinch in their faith of a literal hell, and are ashamed of its horrors, and would fain hide themselves under a figure, are doing the cause of religious truth no good ; as by such a course, the sanctions of moral law are greatly lessen- ed, if not entirely taken away, on account of this inconceivable figurability. Tangible objects — such as fire and brimstone, or any thing else which is matter — can never be used as figures of mental distress, or the sufferings of spirit or mind, because they are not in any sense similar to each other. The howling of the 212 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN winds, the commotions of flood in uproar, the tumbling of moun- tains or worlds to atoms, or the rage of oceans of flame, fed by the combustion of the universe, could be no figure of mental ruin ; as no conception thereby is obtained of such a condition. The opinion of the existence of such a place, is coeval with human existence ; and seems exactly adapted to our condition under the Divine government : as from this idea, all the force of moral law is derived, and even the force of human laws ; for what human law is that, in any nation — in any age of the world, which has no penal sanction. The belief, therefore, in the ex- istence of this great and terrible sanction of the Divine govern- ment, is but in accordance with the fitness of things in every age of the earth, and ascends in importance, as it is adapted to the immensity of the great universe of God. If it be said that the doctrine of the existence of a hell in anoth- er world, is of no importance to the inducement of a good life in this, then it may be said with equal truth, that penal sanctions, as it respects human laws, are of no importance in their observance among men, which were a man to assert, he would be set down as a fool — even by Universalists, themselves. Is it not, therefore, proper to believe, that God, the Almighty Ruler of the whole uni- verse, is as strict in his sanction of his laws as man is, and in- finitely more so, and that from this fact, the very idea, as well as the necessity of penal sanction, was derived to human society. Concerning this place, it is said in Psalms, that — " the wicked shall be turned into" it, "with all the nations that forget God." Now, how is this ? Are they to be emptied out into infinite space, like a bag of chaff, to wander where they will? Then, infinite space is hell ; which cannot be. By this remark of inspi- ration, it would seem they are to be in company : and as finite beings are of necessity local, then this hell is a location, — which cannot be said of infinite space : which is not a location, but is its exact opposite in its nature : as that which is everywhere present, cannot be a location. Now, as the bodies of the wicked are to accompany their minds ; and as soul and body, both are local, it follows, that the hell into which they are to be turned, is also local, and if local, then it is of necessity literal, and if liter- al, it was of necesity created, or prepared ; as the Scripture of St. Matthew says, it was for the devil and his angels, into which this earth, at the day of judgment, is to be cast ; and also all other worlds, if any there are,"or may be, which shall apostatize — will, it is likely, be also cast, at the respective times of their reckoning with the offended Creator. Thus we have made a few remarks on the belief which some orthodox persons entertain, that the strong language of Scrip- ture, namely : that of fire and brimstone, is wholly figurative, — which opinion cannot be otherwise than anti- Scriptural. ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 213 That this hades, which is however quite another thing, was in the bowels of the earth, was believed by the ancient Greeks, before the Christian era, whither the souls of the wicked after death were sent, and was by them called Tartarus ; where, in this dungeon of the globe, they are bound in penal chains, with- out hope or mitigation of wo. But how came the Greeks by such an opinion in their religion ? Very easily, as some parts of the Old Testament, to wit, the book of Genesis, and of Job, which were written sixteen hundred years before the Christian era, and other parts, as Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteron- omy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, the book of Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes ; a thousand years, and some of these last mentioned more than a thousand years before that time ; in which books such an idea is frequently inculcated, and plainly stated, as in Job and Psalms, as before quoted, from which such Greeks as could understand the Hebrew might have derived it. This opinion is also taught more or less in several of the prophets af- ter the time of David and Solomon, especially by Isaiah. It is also recorded in the Book of Wisdom, in the Apocraphy ; which if not of inspired authority, shows, however, that the writers of the book, even four hundred years before the Christian era, be- lieved this doctrine. Socrates, the greatest moral philosopher of ancient Greece, be- lieved, not only in the immortality of the soul, but in this Tar- tarus, and in rewards and punishments in another world, whose remarks on that subject to his pupils and disciples at the very time of his death, were as follows: " Set not too high a value upon your children, your life, or anything in this world, as upon justice : that when you appear before the tribunal of Pluto, '{the king or God of hell) you may not be at a loss to defend yourself in the presence of your judges: 1 Di- rectly after this, he adds, that such as will live in despite to the laws of justice in this world, shall have the laws for their enemy ; ' : and when you arc dead, our sisters the laics in the regions below, icill be as little favorable to you.' 1 Rollin, vol. 4, p. 36. It is impossible to understand this great and renowned man, who lived over four hundred years before Christ but of such a hell, or TartaniSj as existing in the bowels of the globe. The Greeks were amazing in their love of knowledge, and travelled everywhere in its pursuit ; and what should hinder their knowing the theology of the Jews ? as it was an easy matter for them to ^o to Jerusalem, which in those ages was more famous for its religious knowledge, than any other city or country on the globe. How could a Greek understand anything else, than that such a place is in the bowels of the earth ; from reading Isaiah in the Hebrew, who wrote six hundred years before Christ. See chap. xvi. 9, where hell from beneath, is said to have been moved on the occasion of the death of one of the kings of Babylon. 214 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN What could they understand from the words hell from beneath, but that it was in the earth, which they called Tartarus. That the Jews believed this opinion long before Christ, we show from the prayer of king Manasses, while at Babylon as a captive, a sentence of which reads thus : " Be not angry with me forever, by reserving evil for me ; neither condemn me into the lower parts of the earth? See Apochraphy. Which prayer is al- luded to in 2d Chronicles, xxviii. 13. Manasses had been ex- tremely wicked as a king at Jerusalem, and had caused his peo- ple even to excel the very heathen in idolatrous abominations ; which, when he went a captive to Babylon, he repented of and prayed, not to be cut off and sent down to Tartarus, or the lower parts of the earth, which prayer was heard ; as he was restored finally to Judea again, and passed the residue of his days in acts of righteousness. His prayer, therefore, cannot be understood as extorted by the mere fear of death and the grave ; as he knew he must die finally, as well as others ; but rather from a divine conviction of sin, and the dread of damnation in another world, on which account he prayed against so dreadful an end, and was heard. But as corroborative and also as proof positive of the truth of this belief, we bring the remarkable statement of St. Peter ; by whom in the Greek this word Tartarus, is used, to denote the place to which the fallen angels were doomed. See 2d Peter ii. 4. " For if God spared not the angels that (who) sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus" — which is translated hell in the English, and certainly means more than the grave in the Greek, and of course must also in the English, or any other language. By this expression of St. Peter in the Greek, it is the opinion of Adam Clarke, as he understood the Greek well, that he meant a place of darkness and wretchedness, from which it is impossi- ble for them to escape . That the thing is true, and that there is a Tartarus, or hell, in the bowels of this earth, where the fallen angels, such as are allowed to be here, are liable to be sent, be- sides the hell which was prepared expressly for them somewhere in infinite space, to which they must all go at the day of judg- ment. See Luke viii. 31. " And they (the evil spirits which had possessed the man among the tombs) besought him (Christ) that he would not command them to go out into the deep? This deep against which they prayed, could not have been the lake Genesareth, nor yet the ocean, because to go into the waters was the very thing they desired, which they did, in company with a great herd of swine; wherefore, their apprehensions were directed to the deep of Tartarus in the fires of the globe, in its centre or internal parts, or their request had no meaning at all. But although we believe in this prison-house - mitted to this abuse from the infernal spirit, so as to become a ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 271 faithful High Priest to all who should put their trust in him ; and that men might know that he had gone down to the depths of degradation, for their sakes, and that he had come up from thence without a stain, and had conquered the devil's malice and pride by his meekness and wisdom. Concerning the temptation of Christ in the wilderness by the devil, some believe that the whole event transpired in a dream or a vision. But this, no more than the other problem about per- soniiied human nature, explains the difficulty, as there is no in- timation of its having been a dream or a vision : and more than this, it is incipient blasphemy even to imagine that the Holy Ghost might have- presented the image of Satan in a dream or vision of the Saviour, if he does not exist ; as such a procedure must have been a false representation. But some have imagined, that because the Saviour was tempt- ed of the devil, that a possibility of his having been overcome, did exist, as well as in the case of man ; wherefore they have supposed that it was within the reach of possibility that he might have failed ; and God's promises, with all the prophecies, and the atonement and salvation of men, been utterly defeated. But the thought should never be harbored for a moment, that be- cause the Son of God condescended to be tried, by abuse even from the devil, that on that account he was liable to sin, as that was impossible. Satan himself knew better than this, yet that was no reason why he should not exert his power to afflict him, in his humiliation ; for Satan is mean as well as wicked. We are not to suppose that our Lord was tempted to sin as men are now tempted, who are fallen, impure and prone to evil continu- ally ; whose appetites and passions are wrought upon by the devil, by his exciting unlawful gratification. But this cannot be said of Jesus Christ, as he did not take upon him man's fallen nature, but only the same as that of Adam before his fall ; conse- quently there was nothing in him to which the temptation to sin could have been suited or adapted. What then is meant, when it is said, as in Heb. iv, 15, that Jesus Christ "icas in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin ?" This is the meaning, as we apprehend : he was tried and afflicted by suffer- ings, in all points as we are, yet he did not sin ; on which very account it is said in the same verse, that " he can be touched with the feeling of our (sinless) infirmities, because he hath fell the same." This sense is confirmed in Luke xxii. 28, where it is seen that the Saviour said to his disciples, " Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations" afflictions and trials, and have not forsaken me on that account. When it is said in the Lord's prayer, " lead us not into temptation" we are not to suppose that we are to pray to God not to lead us to com- mit sin ; as this would be admitting that he might possibly, un- der some circumstances, sometimes, even lead us to commit sin, 272 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN which is impossible for him to do, as he tempteth no man. But the meaning is, lead us not into afflictions, sorrows, and dis- tressing circumstances, of a temporal nature ; as of extreme poverty, war, famine, pestilence, accidents, and the extraordinary exigencies of human existence ; but if such, in the divine provi- dence, should be found necessary as disciplinary punishment, it was proper to say, deliver us from evils of this kind, as well also as from those of a sinful nature. That Christ was led of the spirit of God into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil, is attested to in the most particular and satisfactory manner, by St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke. But on the supposition, which Universalists indulge in — namely : that there was no devil which tempted him on that occasion, except the corrupt desires of his own bosom — such as all men are afflic- ted with, then there was no need that he should go forty days tnio the woods, among wild beasts ; for the devil which tempted him was ever with him, forming a part of his very nature, and frame of spirit. Can it be supposed that he imagined, that were he to withdraw himself entirely from the company of men, into the wilderness, that by so doing, he should afford himself a better opportunity, to tempt himself to his own defeat and ruin ? We should think not : as by this act there could have been no diminution, or in- crease of the evils of his nature, even on the view Universalists have of that transaction, and therefore, he might as well have staid among his disciples. On the Universalist view of this subject, we are not able to ascertain the reason why Christ went into the wilderness at all ; as there is no devil, — but human nature alone. Mr. Ballou in his Treatise on Atonement, page 54, asks the question in a kind of shrexod manner, as if secure of victory ; — whether the devil ever tempts any body contrary to their passions and the influence of motives ? He answers — No ! He then states a case as follows: "Suppose a man to be exceedingly- hungry, and an agreeable meal is set before him, and he is invi- ted to refresh ; at that moment the devil comes and tempts him to eat. What would the temptation avail on the hungry man, supposing, in room of tempting him to eat, he should tempt him not to eat ? would he be likely to succeed?" On this view of the subject, we grant that in such a case, the word, and even the idea of temptation, in relation to a man's eating when hungry, is as inapplicable as if it were applied to a dumb beast, which should do the same thing ; for the operation of natural philosophy, or of simple nature, as in the case of hun- ger, needs nothing to excite, farther than mere appetite. But will this similie do, when the case is carried higher, and assumes a tincture of moral evil ? we think not ; because, if a man refuses to eat when hungry — and it is lawful for him to do so — he then sins against his own comfort, as well as the benevo- ANGLLS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 273 lent purposes of the Divine Providence. How many have starved themselves to death contrary to the cravings of appetite ? Thousands ! It may be replied, nature with all her frowns for- bidding such a course. Of such an one, it may be said, that he is tempted of the devil, to do an act contrary to this innocent trait of animal nature ; as any other reason why a man should do so is hard to Learn, But respecting the existence of a devil, this writer says on the same page, as above quoted — namely, the 54th — that he has "no objection to believing that there is suck a devil as the Scrip- ture speaks of, and adds: he is called the old serpent, and is the same which beguiled the woman, in the beginning; and is the carnal mind, which is enmity against God. one who was a liar from the beginning. In the account "of the Creation of Adam and Eve, we hear nothing of there having been created within them a carnal mind, if they had such a mind ; but according to Mr. Ballou, this was the fact, as they could have derived it from no other source, there being no other cause. God says, respecting them, that they were created very ssood, pure, holy and upright ; but Mr. Ballou says they were at enmity with God from the beginning, in their lusts, and that he created them thus, for wise purposes. This doctrine he backs up on his book, page 68, Treatise on Atonement, by saying that "the Almighty lias a good intention, in every volition of man ; and that man is dependent for his voli- tions, and moves (or acts) by necessity/' On this view, no blame can attach itself to the characters of our first parents, however deep and palpable their enmity to God may have been, no more than to any and all the works of God beside — whether animals, trees, the waters, or any of the elements of nature — dereliction from right, or their fall from their primitive condition, cannot be made out, on this view of the subject. Mr. Balloifs belief that there is no other devil in being, except the carnal mind, which is found in the soul of man, ruins the character of Christ, as well as of Adam and Eve. As it is fol- lowed up with a consequence equally horrible with the one above noted — that of our first parents being created wicked ; as it will show that Jesus Christ — of whom it is said, that he was with- out sin, blameless, spotless, and immaculate — had within him, and as deeply fixed, this same devil, or carnal mind, which is enmity against God, as any other being of the human race. How is this made out I According to Mr. Ballou's opinion, it is made out by St. Matthew. St. .Mark, and St. Luke, when they say that Christ went into the wilderness to be /: mpted of the devil ; or in other words — as Mr. Ballou understands them — went into the wilderness to be tempted of his own carnal mind ; which he says, is the same devil, old serpent, and Satan, which sinncth - 17 274 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN from the beginning, the same who deceived Eve. This is back- ing up the Jews, who hated Christ, with a most malignant hatred — saying of him that he had a devil and was mad ; for Mr. Bal- lou makes out the same thing, by saying he had a carnal mind ; which is the true and only devil of the Scriptures, as he believes. What are we to think of this ? A people claiming patronage of Christianity, and of Christian people of the world at large, and at the same time make such horrible work of the Holy Scriptures ? We are at a loss how to express our sorrow at such doings — such mangling — such barefaced and strange perversions of matters of fact ; done because Universalists have struck out for themselves a path, which recognizes no devil, no hell, and no day of judgment : as these things are too frightful and appalling to the imaginations of the wicked; they therefore, must and shall be rejected from the code of Christianity. This plan is as fitly chosen, and adapted to the wicked propensities of men, in their fallen and natural condition, as was Mahomet's; who taught that heaven abounded in sensual gratifications, in the fullest sense of the word, in eternal perpetuity. How do we make this out? Why because Universalists teach that there is no such thing as a spiritual supernatural regeneration of man's soul in this life, to fit him for heaven, as heaven is sure to all the race without it. On this belief, who is the man that will deny him- self of passion indulgences, and take up his cross and follow Christ, sorrowing for his sins, seeking to be born again, to be renewed after the image of him who created him ; to be made holy, suffering persecution for Christ's sake, in meekness and fear? No man! as he certainly will recollect that of all this there is no necessity, heaven being as sure to Voltaire as to St. Paul, and of course to him. It is impossible, with this belief in the heart, for a human soul ever to become possessed of true Christianity, in the spiritual sense of the word ; as the whole great scheme is withered down to a mere selfish morality, and to a mere nominal belief, that men ought to do right toward each other— a thing as well known by Pagans as by Universalists, without the aid of their teachings — and places Christ on a level, as to mere human nature, with Seneca, Socrates, Aristotle, and all the philosophers of Greece and Rome, either before or after the era of Christianity, reducing him to a mere teacher of mor- ality. The whole stupendous fabric of a world redeemed of the incarnation of God in human nature — of the sacrificial death of that sinless human nature or body — of salvation on the condi- tion of faith in that Redeemer, from sin in this life and the life to come — of the new birth — of the sanctions of the law of God — a day of judgment, and a final hell for the finally wicked, is broken down at a blow, at one buffet of this neutralizing, stupifyiner, withering, sophistical, unscriptural, son of infidelity, Universal- ism ; and all this because it is too humbling to the proud, wicked A.KOELG Or THE SCRIPT UREA. ~* O heart of man to submit to sue for mercy, to ask the pardon of sins, to fear God on , account of the awful sanctions of his law, and the debased condition of the fallen spirit of man ; a smoother path therefore, they think they have found, in which no track of a devil, or smell of future punishment is known ; inviting all men to enter this broad, smooth, delectable highway, and rush with them through the broad gate that opens into eternal bliss, in exact opposition to the declaration of the Son of God, who said, » Straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth to life, and k\v there be that find it ; while wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat." Matth. vii. 13, 14. I'h at Jesus Christ was naturally as depraved .a being as any other man, is not strange for Universalists to believe; for as we have before shown, they hold that lie had a natural father, the same as other men, and of course was of necessity as depraved as other men by nature, and possessed of as much enmity to God as other men, having a carnal mind — which is enmity against God — the same as all men have. On which account they^deny the presence of the devil, as a being distinct from that of Christ, in his temptation or trial in the wilderness, as unnecessary to the meaning of St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. Luke, on that subject. But if Christ had no natural father, but was an incarnation of the deity, then he was not a fallen creature — had not a depraved spirit — a carnal mind — nor any traces of depravity — being the second Adam, the Lord from heaven ; then it must follow, that the being called the devil, who tried the Saviour, by abuse, dec, as we have before described, was a distinct being from Christ himself; and proves the fact of the existence of a supernatural Satan, such as the orthodox churches believe exists. That Universalists believe Christ to have been as depraved and sinful as other men of his time -were, we quote Hosea Ballou a^ain — see Treatise on Atonement, pages 50, 51, 52, where he is endeavoring to make it clear that all the devil there is, consists in the lusts, passions, and carnal-mindedness of men ; which to make out, he quotes the Apostle — St. James, i. 14: -When a man is tempted, he is drawn away by his own lusts, and enticed," and lie then adds, that — "Any person who is wholly dictated by a fleshy mind, may justly be called a devil." This conclusion of his, we now apply to the human nature of Jesus Christ, viewed through Mr. Ballou's reasonings; who says, '-'when he hunger- ed, he was tempted by a fleshy appetite. When he had a view of all the kingdoms of the earth, and their glory, he was tempted to avail himself of them. Here was natural ambition ; such as gave rise to the victories of an Alexander, when he was tempted to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple : here was that passion which gives rise to presumption, and wishes to avoid duty." Does not this view of Christ make him 276 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN in his hearty as depraved as other men: — equally so with (he ferocious conqueror of the world, Alexander the Great ? It most certainly does: — though there was a great difference in their acts, yet at heart they were alike. What though Christ conquered these passions, and would not allow them to reign, yet they are found within him. according to Mr. Baliou, winch makes him just as depraved at heart, as any oilier man ; and depravity is sin, and corruption ; and yet Mr. Baliou calls him a sinless being : as were he to write him a sinner, it would be too barefaced : the people would not bear it : yet by inference, he makes him equally wicked, as to his nature, with any and all other men. If there is no other devil, but the lusts of the human heart, then indeed was Christ a depraved and corrupt being, as infered from the writings of Universalists. because St. James straightiy says, "When a man is tempted, he is drawn away by his own lusts." And Christ most certainly was tempted by the devil, or rather by his lusts, as Universalists say. Now would it not be far better — more modest, more wise, and more according to the analogy of truth, and matter of fact — as stated over and over in the New Testament — to believe in the existence of a devil, rather than to make our Lord — the Saviour of all that put their trust in him — to be a poor miserable depraved man, the same as ourselves are — full of lusts, bad passions, and appetites? Earth, heaven, and even hell, answers Amen : it would be more modest, more wise, and more according to truth. But a querist may still wish to know, what St. James meant, when he said, that "When a man is"" tempted, he is drawn away by his own lusts :" as if there is no other tempter, but that of lust alone. To give our view of his meaning, we will suppose — as Universalists contend — that there is no devil, except the carnal mind, which, as we believe, had its origin in the fall of our first parents. This carnal-mindedness is, in and of itself, ever point- ing to acts of hostility, and sin against the law of God — even without a devil to tempt, as its own nature is enmity against God, and cannot cease from sin, till it is destroyed in regenera- tion, by the Holy Ghost. "We wish to be understood, that such is our view of the fallen and depraved state of the human race, that they will sin on, even though there were no devil in exist- ence, till renewed, by the spirit of the Lord. Yet though we believe this, and that this was the meaning of St. James ; yet we do not allow that St. James did not also believe in the being of a devil, distinct from man's lusts ; because he has himself stated to the contrary— sec chap. iv. of his Epistle, at the 7th verse, where it is written — u resist the devil, and he will flee from you" But, says one, how does this statement of his, prove his belief in the existence of a devil, other than our lusts? It proves it from this consideration ; though a man resist his lusts, and over anx- ious appetites, never so much, and ever so successfully, yet they ANGELS Or THE .SCRIPTURES. 277 do not forsake him. nor floe from him; as the appetites and pas- sions of human nature will continue with us as long as life lasts ; religion, if we have it, merely controlling them, and bringing them into subjection to the law of God, but not causing them to flee away from us, or out of our nature; as St. James says the devil will, if we resist him in the name of the Lord Jesus, as we suppose he means. If the Apostle meant to say, that if we resist the cravings of our lusts, or appetites, we shall overcome them ; then it would seem that he ought so to have written it, instead of saying they will flee away from you. There is another reason why he never could have meant the passions of our nature in that text ; and this is it : the passions and appetites are many, which cannot be spoken of but in the plural number ; while St. James has used the singular, the devil — which is but one ; and besides this, he has used the masculine gender he, in relation to the be- ing he speaks of, which cannot be made to apply to the passions and appetites of men, at no rate at all. But, says a Univcrsalist, the whole of your remarks on this subject, so far as they relate to charging us with believing that Christ was a depraved being, go for nothing ; as we do not be- lieve depravity exists at all, except in sinful actions : now as we believe Christ did not si/i, we contend he was not depraved ; the same we say of all men, beginning with Adam : — no man is de- praved, only as his actions are such, and contaminates their influence ? But to refute this, we proceed to show that all the progeny of Adam are depraved in nature, prior to actions ; both from Scripture and matter of fact. We begin with, (Genesis, vi. 5,) -And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that ev ry im- agination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continual- ly." Isaiah i. 5, 6. " The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, (spiritually) there is no soundness in it ;" — that is, there is no soundness in the heart. Jer. iv. 14 — "O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved : How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee." Jer. xvii. 9 — " The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it .*" We answer, none but God can know how wicked and depraved it is. St. Paul has clearly shown the nat- ural corruption and utter depravity of the human heart. See Rom. hi., from the 9th to the ISth verse inclusive ; in which he has made no difference, even between himself, the Christian, and those who had slandered them, showing that all men, both Jew and Gentile, were concluded under sin, in the estimation of God ; his remarks are as follows : "What then? are we better than they? (by nature) No! in nowise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written : There is none righteous ; (naturally) no, not 278 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN one :" — as we understand him, since the fall in Adam. " There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They arc all (the whole human family) gone out of the way ; (in the fall) they are tog-ether become unprofitable : there is none that doeth good ; (by nature) no, not one. The same doctrine -is taught by the same Apostle, in another place, namely, Romans, viii. 7, 8 — " The carnal mind is enmity against God ; (since the fall, as a carnal mind did not exist be- fore) for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be;" as its very nature is the exact opposite to all virtue. "So then they that are in the flesh, (that is, such as are not born again) cannot please God.' ; And to show that St. Paul means such persons of the human race, by the terms, — "they that are in the flesh? as are not born again : we notice what he says respecting believers : " But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be the spirit of God dweli in you :'* and yet the very- persons who lie says were not in the flesh, were mortal men, just such as himself was, and every body else, living by eating and drinking, according to the common course of nature. So that the case is clear, that St. Paul believed in the depravity of the soid, heart, and spirit of man. even before actions are put forth, or he could not have made the distinction he has. He, St. Paul, long 1 after the writing of his Epistle to the Ro- mans, did not forget to put the church in mind of this fact, namely, of the utter depravity of the race of man ; which to prove, see 2d Cor. hi. 5 — " Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing, (good) as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God :" — not relying on the cripple, depraved, and corrupt energies of human nature — since the fall— for the least aid in coming to God, or in partaking of his likeness in holiness, and peace of mind. He has said the same thing in his writings to the Eph. ii. 1, 2, 3, confessing the helpless depravity of all mankind by nature since the fall ; including himself, with the whole multitude of the disciples in every place, and admitting that himself, with all the rest, were, previous to their conversion to Christianity, and change of their hearts, exposed to the wrath of God. The man- ner in which he has expressed his belief in this doctrine, is as follows : "And you hath he quickened who were dead in tres- passes and in sins. Wherein in time past, ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the power of the prince of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobe- dience. Among whom we also all had our conversation in times past, in the -lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the (depraved) mind, and were by nature (after the fall) the children of wrath, even as others." This doctrine of the entire depravity of the nature of man, abstracted from the assisting grace of God, is shown from the ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 279 statement of Christ, which is direct to the point, the same with all the quotations above cited, and brought to bear on this subject : see Mark, viii. from 21 to 23 — :i For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within." It would appear as useless to add more evidence of the horrible fact of man's inherent and natural depravity, from the Scriptures ; as the number already brought to notice are suffi- cient to convince any man of its truth, except such as have deter- mined not to believe it, however well it may be substantiated. Reason and matter of fact, loudly responds to this truth ; for how is it possible to conceive of depraved conduct, which Universal- ists contend is all, except the heart, the soul, or wind is first arfucted by it. Were there no fountains of water within the earth, there could arise no running streams ; were there no vegetative powers in the ground, which act on the seeds of all trees when buried in it, there could arise neither bramble nor forest, blade, nor harvest; so also, were there not a depraved spirit within the heart of man, there could arise no depravity of conduct. If, therefore, we have proven the natural depravity of our na- ture, we will return to our first argument respecting Christ and say, if Christ was but a mere man, and had a natural father, as Universalists contend, then it is not possible to clear him from having been as depraved a being as any other individual of the human family at heart, although he did not sin actually ; for depravity at heart, or in nature, makes out a corrupted being, even though that corruption is supposed to have been restrained from actual rebellion against God and his holy law. Now as all Scripture and reason go to clear Christ from both sorts of depravity, whether of the heart or of life, it follows of necessity, that some being distinct from that of himself did tempt or try him, in the wildrneess, as stated by the three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke ; which proves the real being of the devil, Universalists, their preaching and writings to the contrary notwithstanding. Further Proofs of the Being- of Satan, as found in the New Testament, of the End of the World, <$*c To make it appear that Satan is any thing but that which the Scriptures most evidently assert he is, Universalists make a bold, and free use of Matth. xvi. 22, 23; in which it is stated, as they suppose, that Christ called St. Peter, Satan, and if so, they seem 290 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN to think they prove, that a man may be a Satan. The account by St. Matthew is as follows : " From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go to Jerusa- lem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed. Then Peter took him, and began to re- buke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord ; this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind ?7ie, Satan ; thou art an offence unto me : for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men."' Doct. Adam Clarke, who was a skilful scholar in both the Hebrew and the Greek, as well as in many other languages, more in number than was ever acquired by any other man, says the words in the He- brew are, get thee behind me, thou adversary. The question here to be decided is, whether our Lord did actually call Peter a Satan, when he knew in his heart that Peter meant to be his friend in the most ardent sense of the word. The language he used on that occasion was nearly similar to that used by him at another time, namely, at a time when Satan tried our Saviour in the wilderness, an account of which has just been given. The words in that place are, " get thee hence Satan? But in the case now under consideration, the words are, " get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me." We do not perceive that the Saviour, in this case, called Peter Satan, or adversary, and the text does not say he did. The reader will please to notice the peculiar form and turn of the words the Saviour made use of at that time ; which were, " But he turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me Satan." It does not read that he turned and called Peter Satan, but tha? ho only said unto Peter, &c. Thus we understand it, the Saviour turned and said to Peter that Satan was an offence unto him, inasmuch as that evil spirit was the author of that thought which Peter had just then unwittingly uttered, namely, that Christ must not die, as he had just said must be his fate, shortly, at Je- rusalem. It appears to us in this way : that Jesus turned, and looking at Peter, engaged his attention while he said "get thee behind me, Satan ; by which Peter did not understand that himself was meant, or that he called him Satan, in the primary sense of the word, but merely felt himself reproved for uttering sentiments which he in his heart imagined to be right and pro- per, as he did not then comprehend the necessity of his Master's death for the world ; but at the same time was made to feel that what he had said was in exact accordance with all that Satan could have wished might not take place. Our Lord, by virtue of his omniscience, saw Satan taking advantage of Peter's tender feelings, and love of his great teacher, and that he suggested to his mind the propriety of his dissuading the Lord from subject- ing himself to death ; which advice went exactly against the per- fecting of his great design, which was the redemption of the ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 281 world by the sacrifice of himself on the cross ; he therefore said unto Satan, " get thee behind me, thou savorest not the things that be of God." This care and sympathy of Peter for his master, was not in itself wrong ; bnt as it blinded him from per- ceiving, that for this very purpose, namely, the suffering of death, Christ came into the world ; he needed to be corrected, as we find he was. and Satan rebuked for his wickedness, in mislead- ing the well meaning mind of Peter. It is impossible to accuse Peter of being the malicious author of that thought, unless we can believe he was understanding! y an enemy to the plan of the atonement, by the death of Christ, and had of set purpose deter- mined to dissuade him from such a determination. And there- fore, as the malice against God's promise, namely, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, and also against the human race in trying to prevent the atonement, was not knowingly Peter's ; our Lord, therefore, as a discerner of spirits, addressed his reproof where it chiefly belonged, namely, to Satan, as to the prime and moving cause of St. Peter's remarks. Now. if the Saviour meant Peter, and him solely, when he said, " get thee behind me Satan" we find Peter did not so understand him ; for instead of getting behind him, or of departing from his presence, as was the import of the words, he still remained with his master, sharing the confidence of him who had called him to be an apostle and a minister of his word, and even honored him, a few days after, by allowing him to be present with him, in company with two others of his disciples, on the mount of his transfiguration. The reproof, however, was no doubt given in the following sense : Peter, that thought of thine is of the devil ; beware how you give it place in your mind, as it savors not of God, it is of earth, mere earthly selfishness ; cast it from thee, and know, that for this very purpose, to die for the offences of man on the cross of the Romans, am I come forth, which your well meant tenderness directly opposes, and agrees exactly with the desires of Satan, the great enemy of mankind. That the Jews in our Saviour's time, believed in the being of a Satan, as a bad, or fallen angel, we prove from their accusations against our Lord ; which was, that he cast out devils by the aid-of the prince of devils ; see Matth. ix. 33, 34 — "And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake, and the multitudes mar- veled, saying, it was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, he casteth out devils through the prince of the devils." Also, in Matth. xii. 24, and Mark, hi. 22, the same charge was preferred against him, namely, that he cast out devils by the power of the prince of the devils ; setting forth that he was at most nothing more than an accomplished magician. But what said Jesus to this charge ? why, that " if Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself, how then shall his kingdom stand. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your chil- 18 282 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN dren (or disciples) cast them out, therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then is the kingdom of God come nigh unto you." In this reply we per- ceive that the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God, are both declared to exist ; and if one is a fiction, on a mere idea, why not both ? and the heads of these two kingdoms equally fictious. If a belief in the existence of Satan, and of devils, as real beings, was an error in the time of our Saviour, in the the- ology of the Jews, then did our Lord omit to correct that error ; leaving the people uninformed on this subject, and never insruct- ed his disciples to correct it. We therefore consider the point as settled and established by unavoidable inference, the most satis- factory, except to those who have made up their wills not to believe this thing, however clearly it may be proved from the Bible, and such there are in great abundance. But if inference on this subject is not esteemed as sufficient evidence to prove this belief, we should imagine that express Scripture is, and that Scripture, the very word of the Son of God, who certainly knew whether there is a Satan, and evil spirits, or not, as real beings. See Matth. xiii. from verse 24 to 30, inclusive. " The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field : But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the house- holder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field ? from whence then hath it tares ? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this." But we ask, who was that enemy ? Who sowed the tares ? See verse 39 of the same chapter ; where it is said, that it was the devil. But on the plan of the Universalist doctrine, which is, that the evil passions and lusts of the soul, are the only devil there is, and that it was this, which the Saviour said was the enemy who sowed the tares ; it will then follow, that the tares are the very evil passions, and devil, or enemy spoken of in the text, and that they sowed themselves in human nature ; which thing, it is impossible to have any consistent conception of. But if the tares did not sow themselves in human nature — which they could not have done, — then, as man is held by Universalists, to be in the condition in which God created him in Adam and Eve, — it follows that God was that enemy who had sowed the tares in the field of human nature, if they were sowed at all ; and that he sowed them for the best and wisest of purposes, namely, for the great good of the great whole. But if God sowed them, it follows that they are not tares ; for whatsoever he does, is right, and in and of itself, intrinsically holy ; and destroys the idea of the existence of tares at all, in the field of human nature, as he cannot create a sinner. But in relation to the parable, consisting of the field, the hus* ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 283 bandman who sowed the good seed, and of the good seed itself, with the tares, the reapers, the bam into which the wheat was to be gathered, and the fire which was to burn the tares at the end of the world, were all, as it appears, brought forward in the form of a parable, which even the disciples did not understand, as shown on verse 36, of the same chapter. On which account, after the Saviour had finished his discourse to the multitude, and had retired into a house near by, his disciples said unto him, — " Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field." To which the Saviour replied. " He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man: ( meaning himself) The field is the world: (not Judea alone) the good seed are the children of the kingdom : but the tares are the children of the wicked one : The enemy that sowed them is the devil : the harvest is the end of the world : (mundane system) and the reapers are the angels (of heaven.) As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world," (not of Judea alone) but when time shall be no longer. Now this exposition of the parable, by the author of it — the Saviour himself— who certainly understood his own meaning, makes it clear that there is a devil, or Satan, who is capable of corrupting the minds of men, in catching away the good impressions, which by any means are made upon the heart. That he is capable of doing this, if not resisted by the soul in holy prayer ; we prove from Luke, viii. 12 — the influence of the devil, as follows : " Then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved." But if there is no devil who has a distinct being, then, as it appears to us, the language of Jesus Christ was wrong ; for he has pointed out a being, and given him a name, a person, and identity, as plainly as language can speak, and has shown him to be his enemy, in catching away the seed out of men's hearts, which himself had sown. He should, however, rather have told them, that there was no devil but themselves, who were their worst and only enemies. But instead of this, he taught an entire contrary doctrine, by telling the Jews, and all whoheard him, that it was the devil who came, and caught away the seed out of their hearts, because men did not resist him ; as is shown by other parts of the New Testament, to be theirs, and all men's privilege. Mr. Ballou, an apostle of the Universalist order, in his book on the parables of the New Testament, gives us no account of this enemy in that parable, who sowed the tares in God's field, called the world, and seems to be somewhat averse to med- dle with him at all, and throughout the whole work, treats him but indifferently. This, he should net have omitted, as that something called a devil, and Satan, appears to have been in those days, at any rate, the prime enemy of ail righteousness, and great opposer of Jesus Christ, in the establishment oi his s^ir- 284 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN itual kingdom among men ; and so much so, that he is everywhere alluded to in the New Testament as an enemy. A little above, the reader may recollect, that on the subject of the tares, it is said they are to be gathered and burned in the fire, at the end of the world, as men burn tares gathered from among the wheat when harvesting. Perhaps in this place it will be well to enquire, what world is meant, at the end of which, it is said the tares are to be burnt ? whether the end of the Jew- ish polity, as a nation, or the end of this mundane system, the globe, or the end of time, as it is well known that Universalists believe the former ? In this enquiry, we shall no doubt do well if we can explain Scripture by Scripture, so as to find out what world is meant, that was to have an end. On this point, see the following quotations : Romans, v. 12, " Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world." Is more than Judea meant here by the word world, think ye ? Romans, v. 13, " For until the law (of Moses) sin was in the world." Was Judea alone that xcorld in which sin was found, till the law was given by Moses ? We think not ; as Judea, previous to the law, was unknown, as also the Jewish nation, by that particular name. Romans, x. 18, "But I say, have they not heard! yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the xcorld" In this quotation we find both the word earth and world used as synonomous, and means more than Judea ; for the apostle was declaring to the Romans that a rumor of salvation by Christ, had gone into all the world, even to the ends of the earth, or entirely around it, among all nations. Mark, viii. 36, " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and loose his own soul." The word xcorld, in this place, no doubt means more than the land of Judea, even the whole earth. The same is said by Luke, ix. 25, " For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and loose himself, or be a cast away." This word world, is used by St. Mark, xiv. 9, in a sense which at once is plain, that he meant the whole earth, as follows : " Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done (a certain woman) shall be spoken of, for a memorial of her." Also, St. John's Gospel, chap. i. 10, the whole earth is comprehended by the word xcorld: "He (Christ) was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not." Also, St. Paul uses the word in this sense, as com- prehending the whole earth ; see Acts, xvii. 24, " God that made the ivorld, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of hea- ven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands." Again, St. John, hi. 16, uses the word in a sense which embraces the whole world, instead of the land of Judea only : " For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who- soever believcth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 286 life. For God sent not his Son into the icorld to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." Also, the same writer, namely, St. John, chap. iv. 42, has used trie word in a sense which embraces not only Judea, but all the world : " Now we believe, (said the Samaritans to the woman,) net because of thy saying, (alone,) for we have heard him our- selves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the (conditional) Saviour of the loorld." Again, 1st John, iv. 14, "We have seen and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world," (conditionally.) John, xvi. 33, " In the world ye shall have tribulation ; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Was it in Judea only that Christians were to have tribulation ? and was it Judea only that he meant, when he said to his disciples, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world ? We think not. 1st John, ii. 2, "And he (Christ) is the propitia- tion for our sins : and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world? Does this mean Judea only, and not the whole of mankind ? St. John, xii. 46, "I came a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in dark- ness." Was it Judea alone that he came to enlighten ? We think even a Universalist will not admit this, though he loose in that respect, the restricting of the word world to the little country of Judea. W"e will now repeat the text, which we are attempting to ex- plain by all the foregoing quotations, respecting the word world, as follows : u As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world." Now as we have shown that the word icorld, in a multitude of places as used in the New Testament, cannot be restricted to the mere country of Judea, why, therefore, should it be restricted in that one text, except it be to answer the Universalists a particular purpose, in making out that the end of the world, so often spoken of, was to be the end of the Jewish nation only ? which it cannot be made to do except by violence. It is no where said in the New Testament, that the end of the Jewish nation, as a people, or ecclesiastical body, was to be the end of the world. It is no where said in the New Testament, that Judea was a world, and that the destruction of that people was considered as the end of the world. Could it be found any where in the Bible that their country was called the Jewish world, there would then be some countenance for the Universalist opinion about the end of that world, and no other. Why should they be thus distinguished, any more than other nations round about them, who were greater than they ? That an end of the world of mankind, and the enrth itself, is to come, is shown even by Universalists themselves, inas- much as they believe most strongly in a general resurrection of all the dead of the human race, at a given time or period. Now this being so, it will follow that the earth is to be bereft of its 286 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN inhabitants, and will be of no further use to our race ; why not therefore allow that time to be the end of the world, so often spoken of in the New Testament ? and why not allow that it may be burnt up, as St. Peter has declared it shall be ? But no doubt Universalists will reply that St. Peter has said no such thing. Perhaps it were well just to look and see, how this is. 2 Peter, iii. 6, 7, as follows : " Whereby the world, (not Judea.) that then was being overflowed with water, (which was Noah's flood) perished. But the heavens and the earth, which now by the same word (or power) are kept in store and reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Now this is the day or end of the world, which to us appears to be alluded to by our Lord, when expounding on the subject of the tares to his disciples, he said so it shall be in the end of the world, namely, that of the wicked, which he shows to be tares, and shall be cast into a hell of unquenchable fire. Does not the similitude used by the Saviour to illustrate this case, fairly come to this conclusion, namely, that as men, after threshing the wheat of the harvest from the chaff and straw, burn the latter with fire ? So God will do at the end of the world, or harvest of the judg- ment ; separating the wheat — the saints — from among the chaff, which denotes the wicked ; then cast the latter into unquencha- ble fire, as the text reads. But Mr. Ballou seems to think, as do all Universalists, that as chaff is necessary to the growth and protection of the wheat, that the sins of the human race are necessary for the perfcting of the saints ; and that when sin shall have answered this good and wise purpose, it shall then be destroyed by the unquenchable fire of the Holy Ghost ; and thus all the human race, especially the bad, will turn out to be wheat of the first order, to be gathered into the garner of God Almighty in heaven. But the text respecting the tares, will not bear this construction, because it plainly says the tares are the children of the wicked one — not the sins of the wicked one, but his children — meaning sinners — not the sins of the wicked, separately considered from the sinner, but the sinner himself, is that child of the wicked one, and is in the text called a tare, or base weed, injurious to the wheat, and fit only to be destroyed in hell, as the text reads. This fire which is said to be unquenchable destruction in the text, and in other texts to be hell fire, Universalists say is the grace or love of God ; or in other words is the purifying of the Holy Ghost on the soul of man, and is the only fire that they know of which is unquenchable. Can it be so ? then it must follow, that the vengeance of that eternal fire which St. Judc says the Sodomites are now suffering, is the fire of the Holy Ghost. Is this true ? if so, then there follows another curious result — which is, that to be purified from sin by the fire of the Holy Ghost, is a state of inexpressible suffering, and that without ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 287 end ; for St. Jude is particular in stating, that the Sodomites are suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. We have always sup- posed that religion makes the soul happy ; but we are here instructed by Universalists, that it is a state of suffering — unut- terable suffering — and that to all eternity ; for they contend that the fire of the Holy Ghost is the only eternal, or unquenchable fire they know of in existence, the power of which the Sodomites are now suffering. But if the Universalists persist in the idea that the destruction of Jerusalem, and the enslaving of the Jews who escaped the great massacre by the Romans, was that fire into which the wicked Jews or tares were actually cast and burnt, we have only to reply, that the Christians who escaped, fared no better ; as thGy became almost immediately the objects of a universal per- secution, which lasted nearly three hundred years, during which time several millions lost their lives by all manner of tor- tures ; which hell, therefore, if it is all to be confined to this life, was the worst ? We answer, that the Christian's hell, by ten thousand per cent ; as it cannot be shown that the Jews fared any worse than other prisoners of war, after the war had ended ; while the horrors and distresses of the persecuted Chris- tians, had scarcely any intermission for nearly three hundred years — so that the good seed was cast into a tcorse fire than even the tares, on that plan of interpretation ; and cannot therefore, be the true one alluded to by our Lord, in which the tares are to be burnt at the end of the world. The Subject of Rewards and Punishments^ whether in this Life, or in another: that Mankind are to be dealt with according to Character — examined. A Guilty Conscience suffering examined, as supposed to take Place in this Life for Sin — with many other curious Subjects. If there is neither reward for virtue, nor punishment for vice, in another world, but both qualities receive their dues here — as taught by Universalists — why did St. Paul (1st Cor. xv r . 19,) state, that if in this life only, the Christian has hope in Christ, that of all men they are the most miserable? As to the permanency, and certainty of happiness after death, Universalists tell us, that St. Paul, who spent his life in propagating Christianity, after his conversion, and finally suffered martyrdom at Rome, on that account ; and Voltaire, who was an Atheist, and opposed Chris- tianity all his life, even till old age, are equally interested, and 2S8 niSTORY OF THE FALLEN equally certain — their characters making no difference at all, as to that matter. Now according to that sentiment, a hope of heaven after death, can be no reason why a man should be vir- tuous here, and suffer for virtue's cause : as that happy state after death, can neither be put in jeopardy, nor made surer on any such account, and is not looked to as a result of a well spent life, according to Universal ists. But we are sure this sentiment is contrary to Bible truth ; which we prove by the following quotations. (2d Tim. iv. 8.) u Henceforth," says St. Paul, " there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall give me at that day ; and not me only, but unto all them also, that love his appearing." Now as St. Paul was in prison at Rome, when he wrote this Epistle, out of which this quotation is taken, and was shortly after put to death by the order of Nero, we are sure that this crown of righteousnesss, of which he speaks, and says was laid up, or was in readiness for him, was not in this life, but awaited him after death. Could Voltaire have said as much, and rejoiced at his death, as did St. Paul, who when in hourly expectation of being put to death, said triumphantly, " I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith : Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of right- eousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day? Of Voltaire, it is said that he died in horrors unut- terable ; but of Paul, that he rejoiced exceedingly. What made the difference ? We answer : their different expectations after death made the difference. What else could ? What a pity some wise Universalis had not stood by St. Paul to have checked a little the exuberance of his joy, by just stating to him that his goodness, his virtue, nor his having kept the faith, nor his having fought a good fight, could possibly make any difference with him after death ; as heaven, and heavenly joys, were not made surer by any thing a man, by the grace of God, can do in this life ; and that there is no such thing as rewards in heaven for the righteous, more than for the wicked. What a pity some wise Universalists had not stood by the raving Voltaire, as he lay on his dying pillow, to have comforted him with assurances of hap- piness after death ; and that his wicked life, which had been spent in opposition to Jesus Christ, in ridicule of his name, of his birth, and of his Gospel, — calling him an illegitimate, and his mother a prostitute, could make no possible difference in another world, as God has arranged matters in such a way, that a man's character cannot disqualify him for the enjoyments of happiness in heaven. From St. Paul's peculiar manner of speaking about the crown whicli he expected to receive, we perceive that he had it not at the time in which he was writing about it to Timothy, but was to ANGELS OF TITE SCRIPTURES. 289 receive it at a certain time, or day ; as he says — " which the righteous Judge shall give me at that day? But, says a Uni- versalist, I can tell you what day he meant easily enough ! Well, we wish to know ! Why, it was, no doubt, the day on which he was to be put to death ; and the crown, was the crown of martyrdom. Well done ! Was that the crown which was laid up for him by the righteous Judge ? O yes ; most certainly ! Well then, who was this Judge, who adjudged him to die a mar- tyr ? Was it God, — or Nero, the crnel and wicked Emperor ? If you say it was God, — why then, the murder of St. Paul was right, as God can do nothing wrong ? But if it was Nero, we then arrive at a certainty, that the Judge who was to give Paul his crown, was God, and that Nero was a wicked judge ; because he says : which God, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and proves that day, was not the day of his death, nor that crown, the crown of martyrdom ; as the putting to death of Paul, for the sake of his religion, could never be called a righteous act ; and therefore, if martyrdom be called a crown, yet it was not that crown of righteousness, which the righteous Judge had in reversion for Paul ; and of necessity, extends the matter beyond this life, to arrive at the crown spoken of; and therefore amounts to a reward, which is the favor of God, to be bestowed in heaven, on account of the merits of Christ. But St. Paul says that such a crown was to be given, not to him only, but to all them also, that love Christ's appearing. Now if the crown there spoken of, which was promised to all the dis- ciples of Christ, was a crown of martyrdom, it then follows that all disciples must die violent deaths, or must die martyrs, which is by no means the fact ; and if this is not a fact, then is St. Paul mistaken ; unless this crown of righteousness is to be had after death, and is to be given them in consequence of loving Jesus Christ, and looking for his appearing at that day — the day of final and general judgment. And that there is to be such a day T , we further prove from Acts, xvii. 31 — " Because he (God) hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in right- eousness, by that man whom he hath ordained.'' But what man was that, who was thus ordained to judge the world in right- eousness ? Was it Titus, the Roman emperor, — and was that world Jerusalem, which was to be thus judged ? We think not ; because St. Paul says that God hath given assurance of this thine, the judgment, unto all men, in that he hath raised him, Christ from the dead. Therefore it was not Titus ; as he was never raised from the dead : and if Titus was not the man who was ordained to judge the world, then it was not Jerusalem which is alluded to in the text of Acts, xvii. 31 ; as it was Titus who destroyed that city and nation : but Jesus Christ who shall judge the world in righteousness at the last day. That there is to be a last day, we show from what Martha said to the Saviour 290 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN on the occasion of the death of her brother Lazarus. John xi. 24. " Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again, in the resurrection, at the last day." Also John, xii. 48. — " He that rejecteth me, (Jesus Christ) and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him : the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day." John vi. 39, it is said : " And this is the Father's will who hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing ; but should raise it up at the last day. Also in the same chapter, verses 40 and 44, the same thing is repeated ; — " And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life : and I will raise him up at the last day" No man can come to me, except the Father who hath sent me draw him : and I will raise him up at the last day." From these examples of Scripture on the subject of a last day, we conclude that this last day is the one on which St. Paul says God would give him a crown of righteousness, namely, at the time of the general and final judgment after the resurrection of the just, or time of the first resurrection, which idea — that of a first resurrection — is taught by St. Paul himself: (1 Cor. iv. 16.) " For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first." And if any one wishes to know how long first, — our answer is : a thousand years; du- ring which period will be the millenium. And if they wish the proof of this, please look at Rev. xx. 4, 5 : " And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them : and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the wojd of God, and which had not worship- ped the beast, neither his image, neither had receieved his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." But the rest of the dead, (the wicked dead,) lived not again until the thousand years were finished." That will be the day, the time, and the moment after the first resurrection, when Paul will receive that crown of righteousness, with al) them that love, and look for the appearing of the great God, our Saviour Jesus Christ, or, as Uni- versalists will have it — a mere man ; (Titus ii. 13,) which will not be in this life, but that which is to come. But is this Scripture, as above presented and argued, the only one which proves the doctrine of rewards for the righteous in eternity ? We believe not. See Matth. v. 12 : " Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." Also in Luke vi. 23 : "Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy ; for behold your reward is great in heaven : for in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets." See Collossians, iii. 24 : "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 291 men : knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance." Now what inheritance is this spoken of here t We answer: it is heaven ; as the Christians at that time had all they could have on earth of religions happiness, because of their faith in Christ. But as the Apostle speaks of an inheritance which was future, and which he called a reward, it follows of necessity that the reward alluded to, was not to be arrived at till after death, in the kingdom of heaven. This hope of future reward, was all that upheld the Christian church at that, or any other age : but especially at that period of distress and persecu- tion. Without this hope, — who, in. those ages, would have em- braced Christianity, when they knew that with it, they must embrace shame, contempt, poverty, persecution and death ? But had they have known the advantages of Universalist opinions, namely, that heaven, and the rewards of heaven, were just as sure to the wicked, and to their persecutors, as to themselves, they would have spurned it as a useless system, upon the great whole, and never would have embraced it at all. Where is the man now to be found among the Universulist ranks, who would go to the fiery stake for his opinions, — looking to the recompense of reward after death ? Such a character cannot be found ; be- cause they believe that both the good and the bad are to be happy alike, in another world, independent of character. St. Paul in his book to the Hebrews, chap. x. 34, 35, has taught the same doctrine, — that of rewards in Jesus Christ, in heaven after death, as follows : " For ye had compassion of me, in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, know- ing ye have in heaven, a better, and an enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore your confidence, which hath great re- compense of reward" (in heaven.) Now if there is no such thing as rewarding religions virtue in heaven, where then, was those disciples who had been des- poiled of all their earthly goods, to receive this great recompense of reward, of which St. Paul speaks, by way of comforting them in the midst of their sorrows ? If it be said — as Universalists will say— why it was in their own minds, just at that very time, then it will follow, that the Apostle's opinion, expressed as fol- lows, was of little worth : " For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." If they were every instant receiving that recompense, then at that very time, why have need of patience, as if something more was in expectation, called a reward, or recompense ? This sentiment is taught by St. John, the Revelator, chap. xi. 18. " And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the lime of the dead, that they should bo, judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great : and should destroy them which destroyed the earth." 292 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN In this verse, all the prophets who were dead hundreds of years before the time of St. John, with all the saints in their times, as well as the times of the apostles themselves, and thereafter to the time of the general resurrection or last day, are here shown \e be in expectation of that reward. It is impossible to interpret this verse in any other way than that of a reward to be given, not claimed as of debt, at the resurrection of the just, on account of the ancient prophets being named among the rest, who were then dead ; and that the time to reward them in the view of the Revelator was in prospect, and yet to come. The same Apostle, in another place, gives the same idea, though in different words — chap. xxii. 12 — " Behold I come quickly ; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Now, as St. John the Revelator, did not write his book of Reve- lations till about twenty six years after the destruction of the city, and temple, and nation of the Jews, which took place August 10, in the year of our Lord 70 — it follows that all he has said'of a day and time of judgment, besides the text we are now considering, that it is impossible to interpret that text of the destruction of Jerusalem, the favorite day of judgment of the Universalits, unless he prophesied backwards. And even could it be shown that the book of Revelation was written before the overthrow of that city, yet the text could have no allusion to that catastrophe ; because the dead did not rise then, nor were the dead judged, nor were the prophets rewarded, nor the saints, and ail them that fear God, both small and great, who had suffered and been put to death for the truth's sake, before St. John's time, as well as after ; for his form of speech in this verse comprehends all time, the whole age of the earth till the end. The same doc- trine is taught, as we apprehend, by our Lord, in Matth. xvi. 27, though strongly contended to the contrary by Universalists. The text reads thus : " For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his father, with his angels ; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." Now what is the glory of the father, in that text? was it the pomp and martial array of a man ; Titus, the Roman emperor, and his fellow worms, his soldiery, accompanied with somewhat of a noise, which possibly might have been heard two miles at the farthest ? Was every man then rewarded according to his works ? There is no evidence that any were so rewarded, in the moral sense of the word ; nor is there any evidence that even one of the angels of the Father was seen at the siege of Jerusalem. Or if we say those angels may have meant the Apostles, and first preachers of the cross, yet none of these were there, as they were all dead except St. John the Revelator, and he extremely old, and far away from the environs of that city at the time of its investment by the Ro- mans ; so that in no sense perceivable, can it be said, that tho destruction of Jerusalem was the time meant by our Saviour in ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 293 the text. As to the idea of the glory of the Father, in which Christ said he was to come, see Daniel, vii. 9, 10 : "I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the ancient of days did sit ; whose garments were white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool ; his throne was like the fiery rime, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him ; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him : the judg- ment was set, and the books were opened." There was nothing like this seen at the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans ; Christ was not seen, nor any of the angelic hosts ; how then can the text we are now considering, describe any thing more or less, than the day of the final judgment of the human race, and end of the world. That this was the meaning of the Saviour, see what he said to the high priest, who examined him at the time of his trial, the evening before he was crucified ; when that high priest asked him, and adjured him by the living God, to say whether he was the Son of God or not. To which he answered, " thou hast said ;" which was as much as to* say, / am ; and so the high priest understood him. But to this he added, as he still replied to the high priest, " Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." If, therefore, this means his coming, as Uni- versalists say it does, namely, to destroy the Jews by the Roman sword, then he should have been seen sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven, at that time. But in further proof of the real coming of Christ to our earth, in a manner which has not yet taken place, see Acts, i. 11, " This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into hea- ven." But for what purpose is he to come ? Why, to raise the righteous dead, and to destroy the wicked who may be then on the earth, and to restore the world for a thousand years to a con- dition of moral rectitude ; and at the end of that time he is to raise the wicked dead, and to judge the world in righteousness, and to give to every man as his work shall be. There are many passages in the Scriptures, from which this doctrine, that of rewards in heaven for the righteous, is inferred, and several of which assert that it is positively so, as already quoted. But we shall give one more example of the kind, before we leave the subject : Mark, x. 28, 29, 30 — " Then Peter began to say unto him, (the Saviour,) Lo, we have left all and have followed thee, what shall we have therefore?" Matth. xix. 27, u And Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lauds, foi my sake and the gos- pel'., but he shall receive an hundred fold, now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and u^iicrs, and children, and 294 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN lands, with persecution : and in the tvorld to come, eternal life? But St. Luke states it, " in this present time? (or life.) chap, xviii. 30, " and in the world to come, life everlasting? From these two places — Mark, x. 30, and Luke, xviii. 30 — we see that the words eternal and everlasting are used in precisely the same sense, both meaning one thing, which is eternal life in eternity. But as to the fulfilment of the temporal part of the above promise, it is fulfilled in the benevolence the Gospel prompts in the hearts of Christians toward one another, and produces those fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, children, houses, lands, which are promised ; but at the end, eternal or everlast- ing life. These remarks of the Saviour to his disciples, as above recited, were occasioned, as we find — Matth. xix. 27 — by a question put by Peter to Jesus Christ ; and this is the question : " Then an- swered Peter and said unto him, behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee, what shall ive have therefore ?" To this he answered as above, and promised them as a reward, for having forsaken all for his sake, eternal life in the world to come. But says a Universalist, the world to come there mentioned, meant the next age, or some other age which was to follow the time of the Saviour ; and that Christians all along the course of time, in every age, or in every world to come, should have this eternal life, and therefore did not mean after death, or in eternity. Were this a proper explanation of the promise, then it will follow, that the disciples to whom the promise was immediately made, never realised this promise for themselves, as they did not live to the time of the next age, or world to come. It is of no man- ner of force, if it is said that they then had this eternal life in them, because the promise had nothing to do with that present time, so far as it related to eternal life in them then; but extended to the world to come, and then was to be fulfilled or no where. And as the disciples to whom the promise was imme- diately made, did not live till the next age, as Universalists inter- pret, it follows of necessity that if these very disciples ever re- ceived the fulfilment of that promise, because they had forsaken all and followed Christ, that they must have received it after death, in the eternal world, as a reward for their love, and for proving that love, by forsaking all for the sake of Christ and his gospel, which reward is God himself; as said to Abraham, Gen. xv. 1. " Fear not Abraham, lam thy shield and exceeding great reward? From a review of this subject, it is clear that the terms, — now in this present time, are set opposite to the terms world to come, in which eternal life, in its fullest sense, is to be conferred as a reward. But if eternal life, as Universalists hold, is the natural and un- alienable right of man, by virtue of the goodness of God, as a Creator, how can it be held out as an incitement to virtue, or as a ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 295 reward to the righteous and be embraced in a promise in that light ? It is inconsistent and impossible. But from this Scripture, we see that eternal life in heaven, is the subject of promise to the disciple, to induce a belief and perseverance in Christ, with all the ben- efits of religion on earth. Who can deny this with impunity ? Yet this is denied (see Notes on the Parables) by Hosea Ballou ; who says, on the last page of that work : " Nor is it believed by your servant, that any passage (in the Bible,) can be found, which speaks of rewarding men for their good works, and of punishing others for their evil works, which can with the least color of propriety, be applied to the state of men, when this mor- tal shall have put on immortality, and this corruption incorrup- tion." This is strange work : as Mr. Ballou knew well at the moment he wrote the above opinion, that Christ had said to his disciples, (Matth. v. 12,) " Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." And St. Luke, vi. 22, 23, says the same thing : " Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake ; rejoice ye in that day, for behold your reward is great in heaven" Surely the doctrine of rewards, and that in heaven, is taught in the foregoing, and could never be denied, except by such as are theologically mad. But if there is Scripture to prove that the righteous are to be rewarded in heaven as a consequence of the course they choose on earth, in Christ Jesus, so also is there Scripture to prove that the unrighteous are to be rewarded in hell, as a consequence of the course they chose on earth, in the error of their ways, out of Christ Jesus, and in default of all virtue ; and that both of these conditions are in the invisible world. To this effect see Matth. xxv, 31, 32, 41, 46. " When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations ; and he shall separate them from one another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep (the righteous) on his right hand, (approbation) but the goats (the wicked) on his left hand (rejection.) Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, (the rejected ones) depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting Jire prepared for the devil and his angels. And these shall go away into everlasting pun- ishment; but the righteous into life eternal." Here life eternal is placed as the opposite of everlasting punishment, and conse- sequently one will as soon end as the other ; for in the original Greek in this place, the same identical word, without any varia- tion, or shadow of difference, is used to express the unending nature and duration of both conditions, but were translated eter- nal and everlasting, merely to avoid a repetition of the same 296 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN word so near each other, which any person can see, would not have read as well as it does now, and by no means was intended to alter the sense. The word which is rendered eternal, is in the Hebrew, olam, and in the Greek, axon, and mean the same thing ; which is, unending, ever-during, eternal, and is there- fore applied to the unending Being of God — to the human soul, and to the judgments of the Divine Being. No stickler of Universalist opinions, and particularly respecting a limited everlasting, as they seem to believe in, will deny, but the word when applied to the ever during being of God, is, in the fullest sense, eternal, as used in the case of Abraham ; who, when he had planted a grove, called upon the name of the ever- lasting God ; Gen. xxi. 33. The following quotations are of the same import, and equally direct to the point — Dan. vii. 18 — " But the saints of the Most High shail take the kingdom and possess it forever, even forever and ever? xii. 2, 3, "And many of them. that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma- ment ; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Psalms cxii. 6. " The righteous shall be in ever- lasting remembrance." Isaiah ix. 6 — " and his name (Jesus Christ) shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father." — xxvi. 4. " Trust ye in the Lord for- ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." Prov. viii. 23. " I (wisdom) was set up from everlasting." Rom. vi. 22. " But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life." Gal. vi. 8. " For he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting." Rev. i. 18. "I (Jesus Christ) am he that liveth, and was dead ; and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of death and hell." In all these instances of holy writ, this word is used in the unlimited sense. It is also used in this sense — 2d Thess. i. 7, 8, 9 ; where it is written to the afflicted and persecuted Christians, by St. Paul : " And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the (approving) presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power (in heaven.) Mr. Ballou, in treating on this passage, (see Treatise on Atonement, page 183,) endeavors, as appears to us, to wrest the meaning from the true one, and to fix it on that which is not true — as follows : he says "the word everlasting," in the text above given, "is not applied to the duration of punishment, but to the destruction with which the sinner is punished :' ▲N«ELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 297 meaning that the sinner's sins arc thus to he destroyed, and not Che sinner as a person. JJut a careful reader in Looking at the text, will perceive that the sins are not the objects aimed at, in any sense of the word, (for God knows that sin, as sin, cannot be made subject to his law) but that persons, the sinners, who shall be punished, &Ci were the objects of the text. *SV/?, as nn, abstract from the sinner) is a perfect nonentity, and could never be addressed by the terms who, and then — as is done in that scripture. If not, then it follows that the sinner who dies im- penitent is thus to be endlessly destroyed, with an everlasting destruction, instead of his sins, abstracted from him; a tiling, wholly absurd and foolish. We will repeat Mr. Ballou's ideas, as above, who says that the destruction named in the text, does not apply to the duration of the punishment, but to the destruc- tion with which the sinner is actually punished. And what pun- ishment is this, which he thinks the text means? It is the sin- ner's release from all his sins, everlastingly: — for he argues that the flaming fire in which Christ is to be revealed from heaven, is the fire of salvation, and this is the vengeance he is to take on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that this vengeance is every day accom- plished, when men become Univcrsalists in their opinion, as Ave presume he means, with all who hold with him. Is it pos- sible ? Does the context to those three verses justify such a be- lief? We answer — No, it docs not, The reader may wish to know what the context is: it is this : (see verse 6 of the same chapter,) " Seeing it is a righteous thing with God, to recom- pense tribulation to them that trouble you." Now if this de- struction, or recompensing of the wicked at that day, who grievously persecuted the Christians, was after all to be nothing but salvation, how can it be called tribulation ? Surely, it can- not; seeing salvation is not a process of suffering : yet it must be so, if Univcrsalists arc rig] it about the meaning of that passage of Scripture. A terrible vengeance this! and a most happy re- compense of tribulation to such as opposed themselves to the Son of God, his cause, and his people, and thus continue to the end of life. Had the blaspheming Jews and Gentiles of that day known this thing, with what surprising fury might they not have rushed upon all saints, even to utter extermination ; as so much the more would they have exposed themselves to the ven- geance of salvation, and the righteous retribution of a sin-aveng- ing God, in this way. Tins having been true, what a silly mass of human beings w r ere the multitudes of Christians who went to the death for Christ 1 s sake , when if they had but denied him, as did their persecutors, salvation, equally great and powerful, would have been their lot. It is clear, therefore, that the de- struction named in the text, was not salvation, as Universahts 19 29S HISTORY OF THE FALLEN contend, but the final, total, and eternal damnation of the finally wicked and impenitent in hell, in another world. It is out of our power to draw any other conclusion than this, however dreadful it may appear, if we are to argue from the open and ab- solute phraseology of those four verses of the 1st chapter of 2d Thessalonians, namely, the 6th. 7th, 8th and 9th. Wherefore, let no man deceive himself by supposing the pun- ishment spoken of in Matth. xxv. 46, is to have an end, because it is found in many instances in the Scripture, that the same words, in both Hebrew and Greek, have frequently an accommo- dated meaning, intended to express no more than the natural ex- istence of the thing, or subject spoken of, though arising out of those illimitable words. Suppose a man receive a deed for a piece of land, which promises him and his successors the ever* lasting possession — the root of which word everlasting, when examined, is found to be eternal, and consequently the fee simple is in that man and his successors to eternity, if the earth endure so long ; and is therefore used in such a ease, in its accommo- dated sense only. The everlasting hills, as they are often called in the Bible, are specimens of its use in this sense, and are truly eternal if the world could endure so long. The same may be said of servants, who in certain cases, among the Jews, were to serve their masters forever, which was truly eternal, if the servant and master endured so long ; and so of all the cases, where the word is used in an accommodated sense. But in the case of the goats, in the parable of St. Matthew, and other Scrip- ture, the word is not used in the accommodated sense, but in its direct, and highest meaning : because God's judgments are eter- nal judgments, Heb. vi. 2; and also because the soul is an eternal, unending, and undying being. Now we know the time alluded to in the above verse, namely, the 46th verse of the 25th chapter of Matthew, and other Scrip- tures of the same import, is to be the day of general and final judgment ; because the 32d verse of the same chapter says, that at that time " all nations shall be gathered before him," and is therefore, to be at the end of the world, or after the resur- rection ; as that this side of that event, there has as yet, been no such judgment, when all nations have been arraigned and divided, each to their several destinies, as described in that account. And as we find in that account, that eternal pun- ishment is set opposite to eternal life, both to commence at that time, in that pecidiar sense ; we prove beyond all logical contradiction, that the penal punishment of sinners does not take place in this life, any more than the whole duration of eter- nal life can take place here. Universalists never dream of tell in or the people that eternal life is to have an end ; how, there- fore, is it that they teach, that eternal death shall have an end ; A.NGELS OF THE •CRIPTURES 299 as both tliese ideas are certainly taught in the Bible, as in the texts above argued, and in many other places. t But as it is -said, "these shall go away into everlasting (or eternal) punish- ment," it is proper to enquire of what this punishment is to consist, or what the instrument is? The answer to this is at hand, in a multitude of places, though in this place we will notice but sue, which may settle the point as easily as an hund- red ; see the 41st verse of the same 25th chapter of St. Matthew : Ji Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting (or eternal) fire prepared for lie devil and his angels, 1 '' Surely this language is rather too strong, if it is as Universalists tell us, namely, that this eternal fire was nothing more nor less than the destruction of the Jews by the Romans. But a common man, under the dictates of his reason, in reading it over, would never come to such a conclu- sion ; and no man ever would, had it not have been that the wise ak wholly on one and the same subject, which they think is moral reformation from sin and death in this life. They think the word graves, there used, means to be dead in trespasses and sins in this life ; and that to come forth from those graves is to become Christians, in their sense of the word Christian. But on tiis view of the subject, there is a wonderful difficulty to be got over, or it will not do. And what is this difficulty? ' Why it is this, that the good are also to be raised up out of the same state of death, carnal mindedness and sin, as well as the bad; and shows that the good are in their graves, and in as much need of conversion as the bad ; which is a sort of jumbling of matters unknown to straight forward theology. The prophet Daniel has contemplated the same thing, and f >retold the same event, making the same difference between the final end of the good and the bad, which the Saviour has done, in the texts above examined. Daniel, xii. 2, as follows : "And many of them that sleep (are dead) in the dust of the earth, (the graves) shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." But tiiis text also, is otherwise inter- preted by Universalists ; who imagine it was written by Daniel in reference to the deliverance of the Jews from their then state of Babylonian captivity, which was soon to take place ; and that the terms, dust of the earth, signified their state of servitude and slavery, in which they slept as a people, and were nationally dead. But this interpretation cannot be the right one ; because of the impossibility of shame and everlasting contempt attaching its opprobrium to any part of the Jews so raised up, and delivered from that dust of the earth their national grave. It cannot be the right interpretation, from another view of the subject; be- cause a part of them so to be raised up, were to be raised up, or werj to awake to eternal or everlasting life. Now if this awaking from the dust of the earth, was the national resurrec- tion of the Jews from their captivity, how can such a circum- stance 1x3 called everlasting lifc, cWn though they had main- 316 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN tained it thereafter even till this time, and to the end of the world, their national standing as it was after their recovery from their then state of degradation, as 'politics or nationality has nothing to do with everlasting life? But when we call to mind that the Jewish nation, in less than six hundred years from the time of their Babylonian captivity in Daniel's time were again destroyed and dispersed over the earth by the Romans, the successors of the Greeks, who were the successors of the Chaldeans, or Babylo- nians, it is still farther removed from the idea of everlasting life, unless we can suppose an everlasting life amounting to no more duration than less than six hundred years. How can it be pos- sible that shame and everlasting contempt could follow to one of them as a consequence of their release from a shameful state of slavery, which had endured seventy years, and from their resto- ration to their country, government, and religion ? It is nonsense to suppose such a thing ; yet so the Universalists instruct the people, and many there are who hear them. The graves mentioned by St. John, v. 28, from which all that are in them are to arise when they shall hear the voice of the Son of God, are said, as before remarked, by Universalists, to be the carnal state of men in their sins ; and their resurrection from those graves at the voice of the Son of God, is their conversion to Christianity : how, therefore, we enquire with much wonder, how in the name of logic can it be said to be a resurrection of damnation, or to ease this a little, a resurrection of condemna- tion, or shame and dishonor ? And, respecting the good, we enquire with equal surprise, what graves they are out of which they were to arise and come forth? Surely not the grave of a carnal mind ; as this cannot be supposed to be the condition of the good in no age of the earth ; a resurrection of temporal moral character, cannot be supposed as applicable to their condition, as it is to that of the wicked. It is clear, therefore, that the time alluded to by the Saviour, when all that are in their graves of the earth, shall hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth, is to be the end of the world ; and that the graves there named, are the real literal graves of all the dead, which are finally to give up the prisoners. But as a further proof of a day of judgment to take place at the end of the world, we give the account, as written by St. Luke, (x. 10, 12, 14,) respecting certain remarks the Saviour made to the seventy disciples, when he sent them out to preach, and to heal the sick, and to say to the people that the kingdom of heaven was come niofh to them. These remarks were as follows : " But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you : But I say unty you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city." And as it respects what is ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 317 meant by the words ' that day as in the above text — it is ex- plained in the 14th verse, as follows : " But it shall be more tol- erable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you." Thus we see that in the judgment, the cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Gomorrah, or the inhabitants thereof, are to be dealt with less severe than the inhabitants of such cities as should reject and scorn those disciples he was then sending out. Now as Sodom and Gomorrah at that very time, had been destroyed by fire from above, nearly two thousand years, and then lay beneath the hor- rid waters of the Dead Sea, which yet remains ; by what mode of reasoning can it be shown, that such a denouncement can be fulfilled, if there is to be no day of judgment at the end of time, or the end of the world. From this statement, it certainly appears that the people of Sodom, who were destroyed by fire, and according to St. Jude, were in his time suffering' the vengeance of eternal fire, are yet to appear at the judgment, at which time, according to St. Luke, they are to be dealt with less severely than the people of the cities, who should reject the preaching of the seventy disciples. Now unless this is to be the fact, where is the sense of the Sa- viour's remark, when putting it in the future, he says, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom, in that day. than for that city? Can it be shown that Sodom, since the day of its ruin by fire, has been brought into judgment, in any way whatever, and less severely dealt with, than the cities which may have rejected the disciples' preaching? We think it cannot be shown : and if it cannot, then the day of judgment, of which Christ spoke, is yet to take place. It is impossible to be shown that Sodom, at the time Jerusalem was destroyed, was brought to view, in any sense : while it is easy to be shown, that Sodom was far worse dealt with, when it was overwhelmed and burned by fire, and the very country where it stood, with its sister cities, sunk down into the earth, and was buried beneath the bituminous waters of the lake Asphaltites, and the inhabitants doomed to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. The temporal doom of the Jews can- not be compared with this; as their country was left, and rem- nants of the city yet remains, and a promise that they shall as a nation, yet return to inhabit that country, as commonly believed. Now if the destruction of Jerusalem, is all the day of judgment there is to be, and in that circumstance, was fulfilled all that is said in the New Testament about such a day, then it is clear that the statement of Jesus Christ, is not likely to be fulfilled ; as there never can come a time, when Sodom can be less severely dealt with, than such cities as rejected the preaching of his dis- ciples, and there never can come a time, period, or day, when such cities can be wort severely dealt with than Sodom and Gomorrah were, except the final judgment. There is a final judgment to come, when hades itself— the place in which de- 318 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN parted sinners are in a state of partial punishment in the invisible world — shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, with ali it contains, which is the second death. Rev. xx. 14. Thus we believe we have maintained the Bible doctrine of a day of judgment to come, in which the whole human race are interested, different from that of the destruction of Jerusalem ; as well also, that there is a dreadful hell of fire and brimstone, situ- ated somewhere in boundless space, into which all the wicked, not only of this globs, but of all others which may have fallen, together with the worlds on which they have lived, shall he cast from time to time, as their respective days of judgment will take place, as before argued. An Enquiry respecting how Satan and Evil Spirits were Worshipped in Ancient Times; with further Proof of the real Existence of such Beings. The influence of Satan previous to the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, was far greater than since that time. We may not doubt this, as it is not conjecture, when we say all the na- tions of the globe, except the Jews, hundreds of years before the time of St. Paul, did under various forms and modes, worship the devil, and evil spirits, who hod become true enough, as is written by St. Paul to the Corinthians, 2d Epistle, iv. 4, — that " The god of this world (the devil) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them ;" and had them under his influence. St. Paul understood this subject perfectly, as he had travelled much among heathen nations, and was a man of great erudition, knowing the manners and customs of the nations in Asia, Africa, and Europe, in those early times, who says expressly that the Gentiles worshipped devils ; see 1st Cor. x. 21, 22 : < ; But 1 say unto you, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice unto devils, and not unto God. And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils : ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils." But in relation to the worship of devils, as stated by St. Paul, above quoted, it may be enquired, how this was done; and how the attention of men became so exclusively appropriated to the service and veneration of Satan and evil spirits, in those early ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 319 ages of the earth? To this it is replied, that they secured the worship and veneration of men, not by becoming visible, and patting ©n forms of hideous and repulsive shapes, or of any other, but by securing the passions of the soul, its affections, appetites, and animal desires, so as in their gratification to be driven beyond the requirements of nature, excelling the bounds which are mark- ed out by the Creator— which bounds wore intended to facilitate a state of social happiness, in the use and exercise of virtuous affections, desires, and appetites. But under the direction and influence of Satan, these became deified among men, and were represented by various images, which were fashioned after the supposed forms of beings, which were imagined to be the governors or controllers of that class of appetites and passions winch the images resembled, in distinction from all the rest ; so that man, soul and body, became struck out into districts, cantons and parishes, and placed under appropriate, or congenial demons, or genii, as their guides, or tutelar spirits. This is the reason why the passions of anger, cruelty, revenge, and the love of power, became the god of war, and of bloodshed. Mars, was the name of this god, among seme of the ancient nations, whose image was made, so as to present all the linea- ments of countenance and attitude best calculated to describe those passions. His frame was of Herculean size — distorted, with muscular angry attitudes — a face of flame — with dishevelled hair — eyes glaring with fury — every lineament and limb on the stretch, as if hurried by internal lightnings ; while he held a torch of flames, to set on fire the nations with wrath and war against each other, as he sped his way in a whirlwind around the earth : the image of this passion was the £od of war. The appetite of drunkenness and intemperance furnished the image of mirth and hilarity; whose countenance was Hushed with wine, as he revelled among the vines and the foliage of the grape ; in whose temples every extravagance of which human nature and the bad passions let loose, are capable, were perpetrated : the name of this god was Bacchus — the god of drunkenness and glutony. The passion of love, furnished to many nations va- rious images of a beautiful and magnificent female, who was adored as a goddess — under whose auspices, and to whose honor, immense temples were erected, in which the contrary of all virtue and chastity, became deeds of piety and acts of devo- tion, and a branch of the religion of the nations, whose influence in opposing the true happiness of mankind, in a social sense, cannot be calculated. The planet Venus, a beautiful star of the heavens, is to this day the representative of this idea, — as well as the planet Mars is that of war. But under the government of God, as published from heaven, to Adam and the patriarchs, and as finally embodied in the Bible, the books of the Old and New Testament, -that passion, namely, connubia made to be 320 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN productive of a vast amount of social happiness to the human race, in the institution of marriage. Out of this trait of divine wisdom, arises the distinction of families, neighborhoods, com- munities, nations and governments, with all the improvements in human society, both of arts and science, as well as of morals and religious virtue. But by its prostitution, all these mercies are annihilated, anarchy ensues, the ties of virtuous love and social order, whether of families, neighborhoods, or nations, are dashed into ruin ; while headlong furious liceutiousness, and lust, as a stream broad and deep, with the wreck of ages, plunges onward from cataract to cataract, till lost in the depths of fathom- less ruin. " The establishment of the worship of devils, (as invisible beings) so general in some form, throughout a great part of the heathen world, is at once a painful and a curious subject, and deserves a more careful investigation than it has as yet re- ceived. In modern times, devil-worship is seen systematized in Ceylon, Burmah, and in many parts of the East Indies ; and an order of devil-priests exists, though contrary to the Budhist reli- gion, against the temples ot which it sets up rival altars." — Wat- son's Dictionary, page 305. The same author, in the same work, and the same page, says that even now, in and about the country of ancient Ninevah and Bagdad, are found a people who worship the devil as a being, who they say has a quarrel against the Supreme Being ; whose customs and ceremonies in their worship is very horrid. They justify themselves on the ground that Satan, the object of their veneration, is ere long to receive a full pardon for his sins, and then himself and his followers are to be taken to heaven together. This ground of hope they consider much safer than to trust to their own merits, as is the confidence and faith of the other pagan religions of that country. The person of the devil they look upon as sacred, and when they affirm anything solemnly, they do it by his name. These people at Ninevah and Bagdad, who are devil- worshippers, were once, or rather first cf all, Chris- tians, then Mahometans, and lastly worshippers of Satan ; they are barbarians, uncultivated and miserable heathen. But how came they by the belief of a devil at all? We reply, from the New Testament, which they once had among them; or they received it from the first disciples, in the first ages of Christianity ; who everywhere taught the real personal existence of Satan, and of other evil spirits, as opposed to the gospel of Christ, the same as that book now teaches. The grand policy of Satan and of evil spirits, the direct oppo- sers of all good, and of all happiness which is reasonable, temper- ate, and virtuous, is nov), and ever has been, to derange and destroy, by corrupting the minds of free agents; and having got access by way of the fell, to the passions of the human soul, have '$2\ entrenched tl by appropriating so far as dec-; lusion, andfalseh I ) their own minions pur; ing in producing wretch- edness and mis; .1 that way. as there is no other in which they are permitted as climax of the appropriation of t ; sin and confusion, to sions were invented, by which they became visible, and tl the more sedi fatuating the minds of ile and female, to that degree thai :he most ex- travagant and obscene b haviour, in the 1 of their gods, 3 of devol rious virtues, putting moral d. moral til . in the most glaring sense. This is the very reason wl try, the most foolish thing over invent) : men, was in the ancient ages, and is even now, in many 1 countries, so in- toxicating to the im igination, ami itselfin the corrupted and mi-led minds of image-worshippers. This was the very rea- son why the Juvr^. during their early history, were so frequently misled by their pagan n . and induced to forsake the chaste and refined w instituted among them by M , for that which gave immediate animal happi- ness. Tot!. . in process of time, were consecrat wilt, orders of priests were created, and sacrifices ordained to be made lo them, and celebrated with lasci the invisible powers, who were supposed to preside over the passions. And these invisible powers and ! eings thus propitiated and worship- ed, were the very devils to wl ' s when he says, they sacrificed t-) devils or evil spirits. We might here relate many strange thi cting the modi s of evoking evil spirits as practised by nations who | necromancy, and of the ef- fects of such evocations ; but do not aim in this work at the pul n of su nations, but only to show the Scripture allusion to such practices and such Now by th • c >ming of ( Jhrist into the world, and by his • coming Satan, in his trial with him in I by the introduction tan began to lose his hold of the war: hip and v< \ through the avenues of the passions ; on which ; 1 the seventy disciples had returned, and were relating to the Saviour how that evil spirits were subji cl to them, through his name, he re- plied, that ho saw Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven -the ele- vation he had hitherto p in the worship and veneration of men, no more to rise to the same universal height, and should continue to fall till tl hip of the true God, the Creator, should be established in all the world. But did the Savioui him fall visibly? The text, (see Luke x. 18,) says he did: 322 HISTORY OF THE FALLE5T f: And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." Now as it is said of Satan that he is the power and the prince of the air, Christ might, in the most visible manner, have seen him fall from the heights of the atmosphere to the earth as a token to himself, that ere long he must be cast down to hell in a maimer equally apparent and visible to spiritual beings. What were they which the seventy disciples said were subject to his name, which they called the devils 1 and which the Saviour in reply said were spirits 7 Were these the mere passions of the soul of man, or the diseases of his body, or both / We think not : as a spiiit cannot be called a passion. In Acts v. 3, is a remark- able case, which goes to prove the being of Satan, found in the words of Peter to a member of the church at that time, as fol- lows : " Annanias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost f* On this text we have the following from the pen of Adam Clarke : " It was a common belief, as well among the heathen as among the Jews and Christians, that when a man did evil, that he was excited thereto by the influence and malice of an evil spirit. The words of St. Peter here prove that such an agency is not a fiction. If there had been no Satan, as some wish, and perhaps feel it their interest to believe, or if this Satan or devil, had no influence on the souls of men, Peter, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, would not have expressed himself in such a way; for if the thing were not so, it was the most di- rect way to have led the disciples to a false opinion on this sub- ject, and to confirm them in an old and absurd prejudice." But so was not the fact, as it was not an old and absurd pre- judice, but an old and well established truth ; as old as from the fall of Adam ; or the mission of the Son of God among men was without object, aim or consequence ; as his professed and chief object was to destroy the devil and his works in the earth — see John, iii. 8: "For this purpose the Son of God was manifest, that, he might destroy the works of the devil." And Heb. ii. 14 : K That through death he (Christ) might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil ;" which, however, is entirely false, except there is \ devil. If there is no personal devil, how is it that St. Paul speaks of him in the singular number, him that hath the power of death ? This is very strrnge, if the Apostle only meant to say Christ came into the world to destroy the bad passions of men, and in a few, to cure the diseases of the body. But the Apostle is still more singular, when he says this devil or Satan, had the 'power of death, if we are to understand by it nothing but the bad passions of fallen nature, especially if we believe as Universal ists do, which is, that all the passions of the soul were produced by the Creator ; as this idea would ascer- tain God as the author of this very devil which he has sent his Son into the world to destroy ; so that God is found operating against his own work, namely, human nature, in which is situ- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 323 &ted the carnal mind. But this being is equally brought to view in the following, as in the above Scripture — see 2d Cor. ii. 11 — u Lest Satan should get an advantage over us ; for we are not ignorant of his devices,'' Are we to believe that St. Paul's remarks, as above noticed, were for the purpose of putting the disciples in all the churches among the Jews and Gentiles, upon their guard against catching some kind of disease of body or mind, then prevalent among the people? Certainly, we are thus to understand him, if he had no allusion to any other devil than those diseases, the lusts and passions of human nature — with the wiles and devices of whom the Christians were well acquainted at that time. The carnal mind, its diseases, and the diseases of the body, however, we should think could not be spoken of by so highly an educated man as was St. Paul, under the idea of a person, as he has, by saying, we are not ignorant of ins devices, without violence to the language in which he wrote, as pluralities are not represent- ed in any language by the singular. In the same epistle, 2d Cor. xii. 7, the same Apostle speaks of the same being, and calls him Satan ; who, it appears, was per- mitted to afflict St. Paul with some grievous disease, of which he says, u and lest I should be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelation, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me." But some have imagined, that this thorn in Paul's flesh, was the preaching of a certain minister, who opposed him at Corinth, by adultera- ting the gospel with heresies and untenable dogmas, on which account he is supposed to have been grievously afflicted. But if this were so, he could not have been a thorn in his flesh, but in his mind only ; and more than this, he could not have called it his infirmity, nor have gloried in it, unless we can suppose he would glory in a wicked opposition to himself and the gospel. It could not have been any false accuser or slanderer, as in such a case he could not have said it was an infirmity of his own flesh and that he gloried in it, as he could not have gloried in being falsely accused. It could not have been a slanderer and a tra- ducer of the gospel, as that would have been a heinous sin, com- mitted against God ; on which account the Apostle could never have said that he gloried in it, nor could he have called it his own infirmity, or sin. That this thorn in his flesh was a disease in his own body, appears from the statement which he made respecting his prayer to God about it, which was, that " for this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me." Now could he have called an accuser, a slanderer, or an opposer of the gospel a thing, as a tiling is not a person ? Neither could he" have spoken of a person of that description, nor of any other descrip- tion, by the monosyllable it. as it is not a person in any case 321 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN But if wc allow this thorn in his flesh to have been a disease of some land, then the words it and thing are properly used in re- lation to it, and not otherwise. the I iivine Being did not see lit to remove* this thorn, again: I v. hich he had prayed of set purpose most earnestly, n< rice, with what propriety he could say, " most gladly, therefore, will I glory in mine infir- mities" of body, or bodily weakness, as thereby the power of Christ might rest upon him, or be the more manifest. If it be said that this infirmity, this thorn, the messenger of Salem, was the depraved nature of St. Paul, in common with all other men r who are not regenerated, then it follows that God would not sanctify him from all sin, which he has promised to do to all who ask him, and makes the Apostle to say, that most gladly he gloried in his depravity and evil dispositions of mind, so that the power of Christ might be manifest in him \ which would be a contradiction, as the power of Christ consists in the sanctifica- tion of the mind, and not in compelling the soul to remain in its sins and pollutions. There is therefore but one way to solve the problem, and that is, to allow that there is a Satan, the same who misled Eve, accused Job, tempted or tried the Saviour in the wilderness, en- tered into Judas Tscariot, desired to have Peter that he might sift him as wheat, deceives the whole world, and was permitted to buffet St. Paul, with the infliction of some grievous sore in his body, called a thorn in his flesh, or the messenger of Satan, and would have killed the Apostle, as he would have killed Job, had lie not been restrained. That there is such a being is still further shown, 2d Thess. ii. 2, 4, 9, where St. Paul is showing beforehand the rise and com- ing of a character which he denominates the mem of sin, which should exalt himself above all earthly power, and even above God himself, so that he as God would sit in the temple of God, the Christian church, showing himself that he is God on earth. But the peculiar method by which lie should rise to such power in and over the church, as to claim the worship, obedience and veneration of its members, should be by signs and lying won- ders, after the working of Satan, with ail deceivableness of un- righteousness. But if there is no Satan, or devil, who is the fa- ther of lies, whose intellectual powers are greater than those of men, how is ii that the Apostle has not slated the ease according to truth, which he has not, if Universalists are right? Be should have said that this man of sin, whatever it was or is, should rise into power, by and after the working of human nature, or the carnal mind, instead of Satan ; which name, in no language, is put for human nature, and therefore cannot be descriptive of hu- man nature, nor of its passions, however bad they are. The Apostle states, that the coming of this man of sin, should be after, or likd the working of Satan : by winch we perceive ASGFA.fi OF THE SCRIPTURES. 32;"> he cannot moan human nature, as it would be foolishness to say that human nature was like itself] as tins method could afford no data of corapai eon : as v. e see there is between tins man ol sin and Satan. The result is, therefore, that there is such a being as ►Satan, distinct from human nature and human passion and exists after a different manner or mod; 1 . In the book of Revelations we find tins being spoken of in such a manner as is impossible to be interpreted of a disease, ei- t'i t of body or mind — of any human being, or of the bad pas- sions of human beings, which existed in the days of Paul, or in any age or nation of the earth. We will give the quotations, and leave the reader to judge. (See Rev. xx., 1, 2, 'S, 7, S, 10.) ••And I saw (prospectively) an angel come down from heaven, having the key (knowledge how to bind such a being) of the bottomless pit. (hell) and a great chain (power) in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, (which time will be the milleneum.) And cast him into the bottomless pit, (endless in duration) and shut him up, and set a seal upon him that he should deceive (deception can be practised only by an intellectual being) the nations no more till the thousand years (the milleneum) should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed for a little season, (a few years to try such as shall be born during the time of the milleneum, as there will be no sin in the earth during that period.) And when the thousand years are (shall have) expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are (or shall be) in the four quarters of the earth. And the devil that deceived them was (is to be) cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, (hell) where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be torment- ed day and night, forever and ever." But if the foregoing is not to be literally fulfilled, how extra- ordinary is all this. Can it be that the divine inspiration should indite in the heart of his Apostle, a matter so calculated to estab- lish beyond all doubt so dreadful an error? — a fiction so magni- ficently foolish, as of the existence of a being which does not exist at all. Can it be that God would interest himself to tablish this fiction in the world, and then, on the ground of this very fiction to get a great name among men, by pretending to overcome this non-existence? — which, however, he has done, if there is no such being as Satan, who is of a nature and mode of being different from that of man. If indeed it were true, that this Sat, in. of winch the Revelator has here given such a cir- cumstantial account, was some slanderer, accuser or adversary. or enemy of Christianity, in the time of St. John, to whom he has here alluded, there is then a mighty difficulty to get over, as it is impossible to point out the man. person or character, and to show when and where he was put, when put into the place 326 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN called a bottomless pit, for the long space of a thousand years, and then let out again. Or if it be supposed to mean the united operation of a succession of wicked emperors or powers engaged against Christianity, the same difficulty arises, as in the case of one man, because he that believes it, must show, for his own sa- tisfaction, how they were shut up a thousand years, as said by the Revelator, and then let out again : which we think is not possible. Or, if it be imagined that this Satan, old dragon, ser- pent, or devil, signifies the sinful nature of man, taken collect- ively, as existing in the whole race, and is here personified, and named Satan, the difficulty still continues, because he that be- lieves it must show, for his own satisfaction, when human na- ture was thus the victim of the divine vengeance ; and how and when thus shut up in a pit a thousand years, and then let out again. Or, if the description is considered as wholly figurative, the difficulty still remains, which consists in making out what it signifies ; what it was that was to be shut up a thousand years, and then let out again, which took the power and knowledge of a mighty figurative angel from heaven to accomplish. But if the account is received as literal, then, with the utmost propriety it can be conceived of, that a spiritual being, such as Satan is described to be in all parts of the Bible where he is spoken of, can be seized upon by such a being as a mighty angel from hea- ven, and confined wheresoever the Divine Being shall or has ap- pointed, and can allow his release for a time, at the end of the thousand years, as it is written he will do. Thus we have shown how devils were worshipped in ancient times, and in what manner they acquired the veneration and fear of men, as well also as further proofs of his real being. We now hasten to other matters, of en equally interesting nature. An Enquiry as to the Cause of Sickness, Diseases, and Death; is it of God or Satan ? with other Curious Matters. In this place, we think it not amiss to venture a few remarks on the real cause of the disease, sickness and death of the human race ; a subject, perhaps, not so frequently a matter of reflection as are many others. We are apt to say, when any one is afflict- ed, diseased, distressed, tormented, or dead, that the Lord has done it, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Now, this is right to say and to believe, if we speak of it, and believe, respecting it, according to truth, and a right understanding of the subject. With this view, a right understanding of the mat- ter, we ask the following questions : — Is there sin in existence ? AS'GELS OF TIIK SC RIPTt'RES. 32? It is answered yes. Was God the cause of it 7 It is answered no ; for if he was, then sin is not sin, as God can do no sin, nor be its cause, direct nor indirect, immediate or remote. What then was the first cause of sin ? It is answered, Satan or the devil was its cause, and originated the first sin. This is believed by all Christendom, with the exception of a few sects, who have indeed discovered the exact contrary, inasmuch as they say there is no Satan or devil, as is commonly believed ; by which they make God the author of sin, if indeed there is any sin on that view of the subject, in the world. But as held by others, and as established by the Scriptures, it is plain that the devil was the author of sin. If the devil then, is the originator of sm, then is not the devil the true cause of the diseases and death of the hu- man race ? as it was that evil being who misled our first mother to sin, on which account death entered into the world and has passed upon all men, because that ail have sinned in our first head, Adam and Eve. But God is the author of life, and not of death, among intel- lectual beings, and everywhere as in our earth, so far as is consistent, counteracts death and diseases, and will finally so counteract, as to destroy both death and its cause, which is the devil, who has the power of death, so far as it relates to the bodies and the souls of the righteous after this life. But as Satan, who induced the sin of Eve and her husband, thereby obtained a right to kill the human race with temporal death, cannot now, consistent with the government of God be prevented ; but will continue to exert this power and right till the age of the earth, or the probationary state of man shall be completed. It was on ac- count of this right, obtained however wickedly, in seducing the mind of Eve, and by her as a means, the mind of Adam, that it was appointed unto man once to die, there having entered by sin the seeds of death, and final dissolution of the organized part of our race, to wit, the body of man. It is true, however, that as man's body was formed of the dust of the earth, and was made dependant for its continuance in health and undying condition, upon various means, as food, water, clothing, breath and other circumstances ; that if those means should have been withdrawn death would have been the consequence, even if sin had not en- tered into the world at all. But against this natural tendency to dissolution, God in his providence, fixed appetites, and the love of life ; while himself was engaged to prevent all fatal accidents, so that death could not have entered if sin had not been com- mitted ; but sin being committed, gave the devil, who has the power of death, the right to kill the human race, as before re- marked. We do not forget, however, that the idea of death had been suggested by the Divine Being when he srave the law to Adam and Eve respecting the tree of knowledge ; which was the very time when death was conditionally ordained or appoint- 328 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN ed. and depended for its existence in fact) on a breach of God's holy law, which breach God did not sanction ; so that death is properly and originally of the devil, and not of God, any more than sin was. At the moment of the transgression, our iirst pa- rents were struck with death, and commenced their descent toward the grave, having forfeited the peculiar providence of God in the use of the fruit of the tree of life, and in preventing the occurrence of fatal accidents, so that in a few years he returned to dust, from whence he came. At the same moment, that of the breach of the law, Adam and Eve became also exposed to eternal death, from which there could have been no escape, except there had been found a ransom beforehand, namely, the seed of the woman, which ere long was to be announced to them, as the reason of the continuance of their natural or animal lives, as well also as that of a chance to escape by that same seed, the eternal death of both soul and body in hell, which is called in the Scripture the second death. Had it not been for this Redeemer, who was esteemed of God as slain from the very foundation of the world— Rev. xiii. 8 — Adam and Eve would have been instantly damned, and sent into hades, till such time as God should have seen fit to cast this earth into the lake of fire and brimstone, its final destiny, where the devil and his angels, are at the end of the world also to arrive, as stated by Matthew, xxv. 41. This would forever ha\^e pre- vented the existence of the human race by Adam and Eve, as surely as the drying up of a fountain destroys the stream which might flow from it : Satan, therefore, was the cause of death, but God the cause of life, both animal and moral, both originally and when both kinds of life were forfeited and lost in the sin of our first parents, they were restored in Christ the Redeemer, so that every way he is the author of life and health, but never of death, moral or temporal. We do not forget, however, that when Job had suffered the loss of not only his property, but that of all his children by death, that he replied, the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord; yet this does not establish it as being done by the Almighty ; when we know it was done by Satan, who had the divine permission to take the lives of Job's children, who for aught that can be objected, had in some way by acts unknown to their father, forfeited their lives to the just judgment of an avenging providence ; on which account, Satan had a risjht to destroy them if they had rejected all opportunities of amendment and repentance, till forbearance in the Divine Being was no longer consistent. This, no doubt, is an eternal rule of the divine government, that when forbearance and a lenient state of circumstances are without effect to produce piety and moral excellence, that such lenient circumstances must, of necessity, he abrogated, or the divine government becomes a coadjutor to sin. And if abrogated, then severity, without mix- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 329 ture of lenity or mercy, succeeds ; as it is impossible to be other- wise, without supposing the Divine Government indifferent to moral evil — which would be blasphemy even to suppose. But does not God know beforehand, the inefficiency, in thousands of instances, of lenient circumstances, to produce moral virtue? Most assuredly; — yet as intellectual beings are created, and created free, they must be dealt with as such, or God himself could not maintain his justice of character, nor his Divine Gov- ernment, — as any other condition of affairs would destroy the very idea of Divine Government altogether. But there are many who believe that death was originally designed, and intended to take away from the earth its over increase of human population — which, of necessity, would take place, on the ground of uninterrupted propagation — and there- fore, that death takes place according to the order of nature, the same as the death of the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; and was not occasioned by the sin of our first parents, as generally believed. But this opinion is rejected, when we perceive that sickness, misery, pain and sorrow, are the paths which lead to death, — all of which, are afflictions of the most acute descrip- tions, and never therefore, could have been the original order, in the Creation of God ; which opinion is justified by the express statement of the Creator, who says, "He doth not willingly afflict, nor grieve the children of men." " Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedcth not evil and good." Lam. iii. 33, 38. From which, we conclude, that from his hand as a benevolent and consistent being, there does not proceed both evil and good, but good only ; and that wherever evil is found of a physical char- acter, among the human race, it is to be traced to sin, as the cause, which is often ascertained and felt, as the natural conse- quence of evil courses ; while also not unfrequently, evil spirits, even the very devil himself, is permitted to administer in his own way — as in the case of Job, and as he desired to do with Peter, but was not allowed. Death counteracts life, and therefore, cannot have God for its author, as such a proceedure were con- fusion on the very face of the subject. We know very well however, that if some way were not originally designed to remove from the earth's surface, the human race, as its numbers should become too great for their convenience, as most certainly would have been the case, that there must have ensued dis- order, confusion, and finally death, even if sin had never have been committed by one individual of the race. There is no way to avoid this conclusion, as every located tangible being, must have not only room to subsist in, but the means to subsist by. But if the human race had gone on to increase their numbers according to the original blessing, which was not only to subdue but also to replenish the earth with human beings, there would 23 330 HTSTORY OF THE FALLEN have transpired but a few ages, when the earth would have been so over peopled that sufficient food and room could not been found to accommodate them. But as a preventive to such a state of things — without calling in the aid of the destroyer — the transla- tion of the human race to heaven, in such numbers as should opportunely prevent any such catastrophe, would have been resorted to. The entire translation of body and soul, from earth to heaven, from a tangible and gross condition, to one of a sub- limated and superior nature, the same as the bodies of Enoch and Elijah, would have taken place, and that in numbers, and at periods, as would have best suited the happines of all. This is as easily conceived of, and as easily believed, as that at the time of the last resurrection, all such persons as shall then be on the earth, and shall be righteous who have not died, shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and caught up into the air to be forever with the Lord. 1st Cor. xv. 51, 1st Thess. iv. 17. Now this will be the translation of body and soul, to all intents and purposes, the same — specifically the same, as would have been the case of all the inhabitants of the earth, as long as God would have seen fit to have continued the globe in being, had not sin entered our world and prevented this original order and intention of the Divine Being. But some may enquire, — was God therefore, disappointed be- cause his intention in this respect, was thwarted ? "We answer, by no means ; as such a thing is impossible : as we do not believe that the Divine Being has arbitrarily intended or fixed anything as indubitably certain, which is left to the volitions of free agents ; on which account, however contrary we may act to divine direction, God is not disappointed ; as all that class of occurrences and consequences which arise out of the acts of free agents, are not arbitrarily fixed by the divine decree or power ; which were it so, would fix all things in fate, and prevent the possibility of moral government at all, and nullify the who 1 e pro- ceedure of the Almighty, in his universe of intellectual beings. The occurrence of death, therefore, is no disappointment to God, though his good intentions are thereby thwarted, in relation to intellectual free agents. For who can tell the amount of enjoy- ment the human race have lost by having fallen into sin through Adam, even in this life, besides the pain, ignominy and horrors of dying, and the long lapse of putrifaction, silence and inertness of the body, to take place from the time of our death till our resur- rection at the last day, together with the liability of being damned in hell, on account of onr own offences. All this would have been prevented, if our moral as well as temporal representative had kept his first estate. Who had not rather, if it were now possil.le, be translated to a superior state in the supernatural world, in tht; twinkling of an eye, than to pass through some dole- ful sickness, or mangling accident, down to the grave, and there ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 331 to lie many ages, to be tossed here and there by the diggers of earth, as is often the case, and perhaps be moulded into bricks, and other uses to the living ? Who had not rather gain all this time thus lost to the body, and enjoy it in a happy existence, actively employed in the mystic evolutions of the operations of industrious heaven, than to be cast into darkness so great a lapse of ages, as may be the case? All this kind of good, which was intended in our first creation, has been thwarted by the occur- rence of sin, in the persons of Adam and Eve. A resurrection from the dead of all the human race, is the very evidence that God is not the author of death ; for if he is, he would never thus counteract his own works by a resurrection, when, translation without the evil, the pain, and dishonor of death, would have, in a most glorious manner, produced the transition from earth to a celestial condition, in correspondence with a perpetuity of being, the inheritance of every intellectual creature of the universe, much better than to have passed thither through the gloomy horrors of a corporeal dissolution. There never was a more preposterous idea propagated, than that death is according to the original will of God, and everywhere takes place, according to the first and primeval order of nature, as it respected the race of man. Accordingly, from the good and benevolent nature of the Supreme Being, not an instant of time would be allowed to pass, ere pain, sickness and death, would be abolished from the earth, were it consistent, and the original plan go immediately into effect, that of translation from the earth to a spiritual condition. But so long as depravity and sin remain, so long will death reign ; for by sin death, temporal, entered into the world, and has passed upon all men, because all men are concluded under sin, on account of the defalcation of the root and fountain of the race, Adam and Eve. Sin and depravity, the children of Satan, is the reason why Satan has a right to kill the inhabitants of the earth, as these qualifications are the agents and representatives of himself, who have been received and harbored by us ; on which account we have struck hands with death, and chosen it for a companion, and entered into fel- lowship with it, and must therefore abide by it, till such time as God shall destroy in hell this author of death, which is the devil. But his power is restrained in some degree, on account of the atonement, which so far benefits every individual of human kind, as to allow them being, the blessings of animal and intel- lectual life, with an opportunity of obtaining salvation from sin, and an assurance of heaven ; yet death must and will finally devour its victim, and hold it till the resurrection, which e\en the Diviue Being cannot consistently prevent till that time. Till then, Satan will reign in a degree, and he a minister of distress, in as many cases as are possible ; yet alleviating circumstances ob- tained on the ground of the atonement, in the midst of sufferings 332 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN are dispensed ; while it appears, that the atonement, as great as it is, cannot, till the round of certain periods, completely triumph orer this destroyer. That Satan is the sole cause of misery to the human race, we further prove from Luke, xiii. 16, as follows : " Ought not this woman, (said the Saviour,) being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, (to) be loosed from this bond ?" from which he then set her free, so that she immediately walked erect and strong. On this subject we have the following from the pen of Adam Clarke : " The woman's infirmity, what was its origin ? Sin. Had this never entered the world, there had been neither pain, distortion or death. Who was the principal in it ? Satan ; and demons have often acted in and on the persons of men and women ; and it is not impossible that the principle part of unaccountable and inexpli- cable disorders, still come from that source." In pursuance of this fact, that of Satan's having wickedly obtained a right to afflict the children of men, in certain degrees, and under certain limited conditions ; which conditions are known to the invisible powers of both the good and the bad in another world ; we have not a doubt but he had requested of our Lord, at a certain time, the privilege of tormenting Peter, the disciple of Christ, out of the ordinary way of human troubles, and in some very awful manner. We found our opinion res- pecting this, on the extraordinary announcement of the Saviour to that disciple, found Luke, xxii. 31 : "And the Lord said Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." By which we understand, Satan desired to torment Peter, as he did poor Job, with the view of not only causing him to apostatize from Christianity, but to torment him with some dreadful disease in his flesh and mind, or both. Was it Peter's carnal mind, which had desired to sift him as wheat ? and yet Peter, it seems, knew nothing about it until Christ in- formed him of it, saying, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you ; this must have been the fact, however, if Universal- ists are right on the subject of there being no devil but that of the human spirit. Does not this notice of Satan by our Lord, prove beyond all contradiction, the real being of such a spirit ? for in this case there was no sickness, no derangement of body or of mind, no wickedness, reproved in Peter, nor any slanderer or accuser of that disciple mentioned ; but simply this, that Satan had desired to sift him by afflictions, as a farmer sifts his wheat in the wind, with great commotion and violence. Is it possible for desire to exist independent of being ? We think not ; yet here is a case of desire independent of any being, except it is allowed that Satan was that being, who originated that desire. Who ever heard of thought or desire existing in an abstract condition from ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 333 that of being ? If the thing is impossible, it follows, therefore, that Satan, who desired to have Peter, was possessed of mind, and mind is being, and being- is existence, which identifies the being called Satan, in that text, as a mental, conscious, thinking creature ; and is all the evidence by which the identity of any being whatever can be ascertained, who are of an intellectual cast. This being, therefore, was the devil, whose ways and whose thoughts and desires were not hidden from the omniscient eye of God, to whom the thoughts of all the spiritual beings of eternity, are and were always open, as well as in that case ; for he needed not that any one should inform him respecting the thoughts of spirits, any more than of the thoughts of man. That Satan sometimes has power, even over the bodies of good men, by the means of the wicked, is shown Rev. ii. 10: : < Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer ; behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried." By which it appears there is not a doubt but they were tried by death, as martyrs ; for when the Revelator wrote the above text, it was a time of great and dreadful persecution to the Christians, in all parts of the Roman empire. By which, and the foregoing, we are satisfied that Satan, with his evil angels, are the cause of all the sorrows and death of the human race, primarily, instead of the Divine Being. All those cases of judicial punishment by death, either according to the ecclesiastical law of the Jews, or by the immediate judgment of God, as in the case of Korah and his company, the false prophets slain by the hand of Elijah the Tishbite, in the temple of Baal, and at the brook Kishon ; and those one hundred in number, who were destroyed by fire from heaven, at the intercession of Elisha the prophet, with Annanias and Saphira ; the people who were drowned in the flood, and the Sodomites, with many other instances of the like character, mentioned in the Scriptures, are to be ascribed to the agency of evil spirits, in seducing mankind to sin against God, so that his providence is withdrawn, and they given over to this destroyer, the devil, so far at any rate, as relates to the life of the body, to which our remarks in this chapter are chiefly confined. But to close this subject, we will remark, that though Satan has, by the sin of our first parents, gained the power of death over our race, and would at one fell sweep have swept them in their federal head into hell, yet the atonement purchased back animal life, with all the ameliorating circumstances of human existence, from infancy till death, with all that train of things denominated the providence of God among men ; but not to the exclusion of mneh sorrow and of final death, as this was impossible, or it would have been done. 334 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN On the subject of Evil Sprits, with Proofs of their being Supernatural Beings, and of their Acts among Men, still further than heretofore advanced in this Work ; of Simon Magus, and the Gnostics, fyc. "There was an opinion extant among the Jews, and is yet extant, that there was a certain fallen angel, who was called Malak-hamaveth, the angel of death, i. e. he who had the power of separating the soul from the body, when God decreed that any one should die. Sammael is a common name for the devil among the Jews ; and they have a tradition that the angel of death shall be destroyed by the Messiah, and that at a certain time Sammael said to the holy blessed God, "Lord of the world show me the Messiah ?" The Lord answered, come and see him. And when Sammael had seen him he was terrified, and his countenance fell, and he said, most certainly this is the Mes- siah, who shall cast me and all the nations into hell, as it is writ- ten, Isaiah, xxv. 8: The Lord shall swallow up death forever. This is a remarkable account, and the Apostle shows that it is true, for the Messiah came to destroy him who had the power of death, which is the devil." — Clarke. The Apostle Paul speaks of this being, with others of the like character, in Ephesians, vi. 12. as follows : " Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." That this allusion did not refer to kings, rulers, or powers, and combinations of men formed against the gospel, is evident from the Apostle's remarka- ble qualifying words, which are, " we wrestle not against flesh and blood," of which the human opponents of the religion of Christ were composed. And who are the rulers of the darkness of this world ? The answer is according to the text, that Satan and the subordinate demons, the nobles of his empire. "Com- mentators in general," says Dr. Clarke, "on these verses, 1 elieve that by principalities and powers, is meant the different orders of evil spirits, who are employed under the devil, their great leader and head, to prevent the spread of the gospel in the world, and to destroy by sin the souls of mankind ; and that they have their various stations in the regions of the air, all around the earth." " These are the spirits," says John Wesley, " who continually oppose faith, love, and holiness, and labor to infuse unbelief, pride, idolatry, lusts, malice, covetousness, envy, anger and hatred, into the minds of men." That there are many evil spirits, fallen angels, or devils, rs shown from all parts of the New Testament ; a few of which we proceed to exhibit, more than already done. James, ii. 19 1 ANGELS OF THE 8CRIPTURES. 336 ♦♦'Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well, the devils believe and tremble." Now if the Jews called the idols of the heathen devils, as appears they did— see Dent, xxxii. 17 — 2d Chron. xi. 15 — and Psalms, cvi. 3(5, 37 — yet by St. James, in the above text, we discover that such devils as he there speaks of, were no idols, or images of any description, but were in reality conscious beings, having a capacity of believing, of understand- ing, and of fearing ; so much so, as that they knew there was one God, and trembled on that account. But why were the idols of the heathen called devils by the Jews ? Because, as before shown, the devil was the author of that kind of worship, whereby he governed and subverted the passions of men the more effectually, and prostituted them to the basest of purposes. Out of this text of St. James, arises one idea which overturns one branch of Universalism at least, beyond all doubt, which even themselves can't help perceiving, blinded as they are with the sophisms of their belief. This idea is, that there is a state of suffering among some supernatural beings in another world, or in eternity, and consequently a hell beyond the grave ; for sufferings there can be nothing short of a hell. If this is not so, why has St. James said, that the fact of the being of a God, causes beings, which he calls devils, to tremble, which is the sign of horror and distress ; for he says the devils believe there is one God, and tremble on that account. Now who, or what, are those beings here called devils ? They cannot have been the images or idols of the heathen, as they were not able to believe or disbelieve. They cannot have been the diseases of the bodies or minds of men, as disease of any and all descriptions, are incapable of believing or disbelieving any thing. They cannot have been the carnal mind, because this no more than the others, is capable of believing, or of being conscious of anything abstract- ed from the spirit or soul of man ; as the carnal mind is but a quality of the nature of a sinful being, but not a being itself; on which account it could not believe or disbelive anything — fear, hate, or love anything — and are therefore not the beings of which St. James speaks, called devils, ?.s these could believe, fear and tremble, because there is a God who was opposed in his very nature to their characters. They cannot have been men, or human beings, as human beings are never called devils, in the sacred writings ; and for another reason, St. James said even to the unbelieving Jews, that they did well in believing that there is one God, and therefore, that belief was to them no cause of terror or of trembling, as it was to the devils, or the fallen angels, who have reason to tremble at the idea of a God, whom they have caused to become their enemy, on account of their rebellion against his government. If this is not true, why do they trem- ble because there is a God, which to every redeemed being is the very climax of hope J To this there can be but one answer, and 336 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN that is, that they are unhappy, and not in a condition of amity with the Creator ; and proves, therefore, not only the existence of evil spirits, but that a state of misery in eternity, as endured by those beings called by St. James " the devils" is a truth, which none but infidels and semi-infidels will think of denying. That those beings called devils, who tremble at the idea of a God, are in expectation of a heavier doom in some future time, is shown from a question put by themselves to the Saviour, on a certain occasion — see Matth. viii. 28, 29 — where we read the account of his visit to the country of the Gadarenes, among whom was found two men possessed with devils ; the history of this is as follows : « And when he was come to the other side (of the lake or bay of Genesereth, a wide place in the river Jordan,) into the country of the Gadarenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of (or from among) the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass that way. And behold they cried out saying, what have we to do with thee Jesus, thou Son of God, art thou come to torment us before the time ?" Here it appears, that the devils who possessed these men, feared a cer- tain time, in which a heavier doom is to be inflicted upon them; on which account they seemed to be greatly alarmed on seeing him whom they knew to be the Son of God, and enquired how it could be that he should come to torment them before the time. Mark and Luke relate the same thing, though with various cir- cumstances, not spoken of by Matthew, which we will give, as the accounts are very curious. Mark, v. 1, 7: "And they (the Saviour and his disciples,) came over to the other side of the sea, (or lake Genesereth,) into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, (or large sail boat with oars,) immediately there met him out of (or from among) the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs ; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, (so as to hold him,) because that he had been often bound, (in his more lucid moments,) with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces ; neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and icor- shipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, what have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God ? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not."' Here the same idea, that of being tormented at a certain time, is alluded to by the spirit who then spoke by the lips of the man, and was one of the number who possessed him, which was to be inflicted by the Son of God ; this is strange enough, if there are no devils. The same account is given by St. Luke, viii. 26, 33, inclusive, as follows: "And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. And when he went forth to laud, ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 337 there met him a certain man who had devils (a) long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. When he saw Jesns, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high ? I beseech thee torment me not. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him, and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters ; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness. And Jesus asked him, what is thy name ? And he said, Legion, because may devils were entered into him, (or many carnal minds, according to Univer- salists.) And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep." Here also, allusion is made to a power the Son of God had, and to a time when it was to be ex- erted in their further damnation in a state of suffering. " And there was there an herd of many swine, feeding on the mountain : and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. Then went the devils out of the ?nan, (that is, many carnal minds went out of him,) and entered into the swine : and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked." But as St. Matthew re- lates the account, it is seen that those evil spirits enquired of Christ, whether he had come to torment them before the time. Now what time is this to which the spirits here referred, and seemed so much to dread? St. Peter gives the answer — 2d Peter, ii. 4: " For if God spaced not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of dark- ness to be reserved unto judgment," it follows, therefore, that the time of judgment here alluded to by those spirits, who pos- sessed the men among the tombs, and the time here spoken of by St. Peter, is to take place at the end of time. At which time it is declared, that the same earth which perished in the waters of the flood of Noah, are now kept in store, and reserved to be burnt up with all the works of men, at the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men ; which of necessity must be an entire different affair from that of the destruction of the nation and city of the Jews, unless it can be shown that the Jews, their city, their government, and their religion, all existed before the flood of Noah, and were destroyed in the waters of that flood, yet are reserved to be destroyed again by the Romans, and was so des- troyed, according to the Universalists ; St. Peter, with all the New Testament writers, to the contrary notwithstanding. To us, therefore, the time to which the devils, in the case of the men among the tombs, alluded, when they said to the Saviour, we adjure thee by the ever-living God, not to torment us before the time, is the time of the last day, the general and particular judg- ment of every creature of the human race. By this, we also discover a state of punishment in another world, which was in 338 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN operation even in the Saviour's time, as shown from the terror felt by the devils at the idea of a God, and from their allusion to a time when they expect the Son of God will still more severely punish them, and to such spirits is a never ending source of dread and horror, as appears from the above. But to all the foregoing evidence of the existence of Satan, and of the being of devils, Universalists turn a deaf ear, and endeavor to interpret all that is said on the subject of the demoniacs of St. Luke, and elsewhere in the Bible, of the diseases of the bodies and the minds of men. They say that all the devils which were cast out of the people by Jesus Christ, or by his disciples, were of the same description : carnal mindedness, bodily disease, cripples made whole, infirmities removed, madness and derange- ments of mind subverted, &c. But if this is so, and the Scrip- tures on this subject will bear no other interpretation, then are we presented in the very outset of Christianity, with a mummery, equal, if not surpassing that of the Indian doctors, or Esquimaux conjurers ; who, in order to cure diseases, feign to converse with them, as if they were reasonable beings, and to drive them away by threats, or by promises, and by their great power and wisdom ; for it seems that the sickness or madness called devils, knowing the power of Christ, said, "if thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the swine : and he said unto them go." Now, if those evil spirits which had possessed the men of the tombs, were nothing but diseases natural to the human race, whether of body or mind, then we find, that in those days diseases could speak, could pray, could reason, and act in many respects, just like other thinking beings ; this, therefore, greatly surpasses the Esquimaux conjurers; as we do not learn from travellers that these northern doctors ever get any replies from diseases, but merely cause them very modestly and silently to make off with themselves, except a groan or so uttered in their name by the operator, as they are departing. If we are to believe with Uni- versalists, that in those two cases there was no spiritual super- natural possession, we are compelled to believe a thing much har- der to believe than that of Satanic possession ; which is, that the diseases of those men, had become discontented with their habi- tation of human flesh, and chose, fceing a little romantic, to take a leap into the lake, in the bodies of some two thousand swine ; for we see they besought the Saviour's permission, if cast out, to enter the swine, and to descend into the sea. However, it is no more than fair, that we should state that some learned men of the Universalist school have contended that those demoniacs of Gadara, were, upon the whole, a couple of outrageous madmen ; and instead of anything that had been in those men, and was cast out of them, as the account states, that they, of their own accord, took a furious delight in running after the hogs on the mountains, and finally drove them into the sea. ANGEL8 OF THE SCRIPTURES. 339 Who but such men as would wish to bring the Scriptures into disrepute, and cause them to be loathed by every discerning: per- son, would hit upon such methods of interpretation as above noticed; and would give to diseases the ability of speaking Greek, as that was the language they spoke in, if they spoke at all, rather than allow the existence of supernatural beings called fallen angels, evil spirits, and devils, as the Scriptures call them, and to admit of their influence in any way among men ; because such an admission would sap the foundation of the no hell, no devil, and no future judgment, sects of the day. But after all, though we were even to admit, that the men of the tombs were not possessed with devils, as commonly believed, yet we do not perceive how we should go to work to make out that they were either sick in body or deranged in mind, except by Satanic influ- ence ; because all disorders, either of body or mind, are debili- tating, and soon prostrate the subject, so as to make it impossible to be capable of violent action, except by paroxisms of short duration. But these men had their very dwellings among the tombs, and in the mountains, instead of a sick chamber, or under the care of nurses, and went naked in the open air, by night and by day, in all weathers, and had done so for a long time ; and yet their strength was not exhausted, their activity not impaired, as they had become the terror of all the country round. Were there no other evidence of their having been possessed with devils, than the bare fact of their dwelling naked in the open tombs night and day, in all weathers, for a long time, and yet continuing strong and powerful, it were enough, and would be so esteemed, even now, were such a thing to happen. Chains and fetters of brass and iron, were as nothing in their hands when bound, as they could pluck them asunder at their plea- sure. Could this have been done by the sick ? was there ever a case of such perternatural strength, proceeding purely from a nervous or mental disease ? If it be said that the case was a pure madness, insanity, or distraction of mind ; yet distraction of mind however it may string up the nerves for a short time, cannot sustain the energy but a little while, when universal prostration ensues, with death to close the scence. But these men could run, leap, and shout amon£ the hills, and cut themselves, pouring out their blood, without signs of weakness, could snap asunder the strongest fetters, could terrify the whole country with their uproar, and set at defiance the energy, the strength, and the prudence, of the neighborhood of their resort ; surely no sick- ness of any description can do this, in any period of the world. But still more singular is the fact, than even the perternatural strength of these men of the tombs, that they should kn mo far more than all the people of that place, who hnd the right use of their minds ; which appears, from their immediate knowledge of the person of the Son of God, while every body else among the 34.0 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN Gadarenes knew nothing of him, as he had never been in that place before, and was therefore a stranger among them. Yet these men knew him, even at a great distance, and distinguished him from all other men, who were with and about him, and ran with all their might, or with great swiftness, to meet him, and fell down at his feet, and without any means by which they could have come at a knowledge of his name and character, called him " Jesus, So?i of the most high God ;" acknowledging his true character, of which even his own disciples, at that time, knew scarcely anything. Surely that was a strange sickness, derangement, carnal mind, disorder, or whatever it may be named of this character, by Universalists, or others of the same school, which could so imbue them with superhuman perception respecting the Messiah, the Son of God, which all men in their right minds were so slow to acknowledge. Was it the madness of these men which knew the Saviour at so great a distance ? Was it their disease which caused them to cry out in a loud voice, Jesus, thou Son of God ? Was it their insanity and carnal mindedness, which made them fall down at his feet and worship him? Was it their malady which enquired of the Saviour if he had come to torment them before their time ; and also adjured him by the living God not to do it 7 Who ever heard of a disease requesting not to be tormented, or not to be sent away out of the country, or into the deep ? Who ever heard of a sickness that offered, and actually performed worship ? Who ever heard of a disease that could tell its own name, as did theirs when questioned respecting it by the Saviour, and immediately responded that its name was Legion, because we are many? But this subject is settled by the Saviour, when he came to cast out the cause of their strange behaviour, when he said, " come out of the man thou unclean spirit" commanding one for all. By this we find they were not sick, were not afflicted by any natural disorder, of body or of mind, but by supernatu- ral beings, such as could think, could fear, could pray, and beg not to be tormented before the time, not to be sent out of the country, but rather into a herd of swine, which were feeding nigh ; evincing powers and attributes which belong to no class of disorders, whether of a physical or mental character, incident to mortals. That these men were affected, not by any natural disorder of the body or the mind, is evident also, from what the people did and said, who had witnessed the whole transaction, which is as follows : " And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country ; and they went out to see what was done ; and they came to Jesus, and see him that was pos- sessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting and clothed, and in his right mind." What, therefore, is the public to think of such men, as assume to doctrinise on theology, professing to believe the Bible, and at the same time teach the people that ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 341 there are no devils, no Satan, no evil spirits, or fallen angels? As well, and with equal propriety, might they undertake to cause it to be believed that there were no such people as the Gadarenes, no such men as are said to have been possessed by devils at Gadara, among the tombs ; or that such a person as Jesus Christ ever existed, and went over the lake Genesereth with his disci- ples in a boat, or ship, on that occasion, as to feign to maintain that the Scriptures say nothing about a superhuman Satan, devils, and evil spirits, merely because they never saw any such beings. But Universal ists have another comment on this subject, still more ridiculous and anti-scriptural than the idea of those men having been merely madmen. The heathen nations say they, surrounding the Jews in ancient times, had by some means im- bibed a multitude of superstitious and religious absurdities ; among which, and as chief, and the deepest rooted, was a belief in the existence of evil spirits, to whom as to real beings, they offered religious sacrifices ; the dread of whom had gained a fearful ascendancy over their feelings and manners, so far as even to induce the shedding the blood, and the offering in sacrifice, human beings, men, women and children, to these infernal dei- ties, as they esteemed them. From those nations, the Jews in very early times, imbibed the belief of the existence of devils, demons, and evil spirits ; which belief was in full force in the time of Jesus Christ ; so much so, that they imagined many per- sons among them to be possessed by one or more such evil spirits. On which account, when many of the Jews, who heard the preaching, and saw the miracles of the Saviour, forthwith car- ried from all quarters, such persons as they supposed to be thus possessed, to be healed. But suppose all this was not true, as im- agined by Univesalists, did the Saviour sanction that belief, or supposition ? He did sanction it ; and proves, therefore, that the belief was not derived from the old heathen superstitions, but from the Scriptures. But how do we show the Saviour sanc- tioned that belief? We show it by his treatment of the subject ; for when any one who was supposed to be possessed with a devil, was brought to him to be cured, he straightway cast it out ; and in no such cvsj can it be shown that he said to the people, this is no Satanic possession, as you imagine it to be, because there is no Satan, there are no such beings as devils, no evil spirits of any kind, except you "selves, these, therefore, are not possessed by any foreign agent. This opinion of yours, about evil beings of a supernatural character, is but a pagan delusion ; flee from it, renounce it as false and injurious, and believe that such per- sons are only sick or deranged, or something of that sort, and I will heal them. Did he treat the subject thus ? No, he did not; even Universalists will not pretend it ; but did the exact contrary, and seconded the belief, in casting them out, and treating the 342 HISTORY OP THE FALLEN matter as a sober and lamentable fact ; which, if it were not so. was hypocrisy even in him who knew no sin. But Universal- ists imagine that the Saviour thought it best not to contradict this delusion of the Jews, on account of its strength and inveter- acy, and therefore left them in their error, as it had became a national one, and even a branch of their religion, too deep rooted and too strong to be eradicated. But what is the consequence to the Saviour's character, arising out of such a view of the sub- ject ? Why, that he was a sycophant, and dare not oppose this popular error, concluding it best to connive at it ; and more than this, took occasion by it to rise into great repute and fame, treating it as a fact, casting them out, and sending them away, with charges never to return. For this very reason, his fame spread all abroad ; while the truth was, if we are to believe Universal- ists, he only healed their natural maladies, while he allowed them to believe that he actually cast supernatural devils out of them. This is a most glorious light to exhibit the Son of God in : what more can a man wish, who desires to make out that Jesus Christ was an imposter, than to get this kind of compromising attached to his character ? And yet, these are the men who teach in his name, as they say — spreading out their hands, and lifting up their unblushing faces toward the heavens, as if they wished men to credit their sincerity, in a belief of Christianity, and its Author. Why not profess Deism at once, and be honest, and not slide into a kind of credit, under the mantle and profes- sion of Christianity, because it is, and is likely to be a popular cause, while the world endures? In Matth. x. 16, is found a remark of the Saviour to his disci- ples, which to us, is no small proof of the existence of evil spirits, or devils, which is : " Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Now did he mean, that he wished his disci- ples to have no more wisdom than a common snake, or an Orang-outang? This cannot have been. What then did he mean, by the word serpents ? He meant, as we believe, the fallen angels who had become devils, and are said in many parts of the New Testament, to be exceedingly wise and crafty in ways of wickedness, so much, that St. Paul, in one place — namely, Eph. vi. 11 — says, "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." But if he meant by the word serpents, nothing more than the wicked Jews, what then did he mean by the word doves ? For if in this case, one kind of animal meant the Jews — namely, serpents — why not the other, the Gentiles ?— as there were no other people on the earth but Jew and Gentile. But if the word serpent is under- stood as equivalent to that of devil, or evil spirits, and the word devil is understood as meaning a disease of some kind, then the Saviour meant the disciples should understand him to admonish ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 345 them to be as wise as a sickness, or bodily infirmities, — a mad- ness, or peradventure an allegory. We know of no case in the New Testament, where a subject was brought to the Saviour to be healed of bodily infirmities, but are distinctly named, so as to leave no doubt on the reader's mind. If it was a palsy, or blindness, a deafness, a lameness, a fever, or any other natural disorder which was so named ; or if it was a supernatural affliction, the same is plainly stated, always making the proper distinction between such as were brought to have a devil cast out, or to have a bodily disease removed. To this fact St. Matthew viii. 16, bears testimony : "and he (Christ) cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick ;" which marks the distinction, as plainly as if intended by inspi- ration originally, to aid in the refutation of Universalis. What sickness is that, which in ancient or in modern times, has been called a devil — whether mental, or physical? What lameness, sickness, blindness, deafness, fever, palsy, or madness, is called an evil spirit 7 None, that we have as yet, heard o£ But suppose — merely for supposition's sake, that the term devils, did mean disorders in general, to which the body and soul of man is subject ; we enquire, therefore, how is it that they are spoken of in the masculine gender and singular number, as they always are in the New Testament ? A disease in no age or country, can be spoken of thus ; as it is improper to speak of maladies, as being male or female, in any language. But we find that Sa- tan, and devils are always spoken of in the singular number and masculine gender ; which to prove, we will give one passage out of many, as follows , " And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself, how then shall his kingdom stand." Matthew, xii. 26. Satan, or Bslzebub, was called the prince of the devils by the Jews ; who said that Christ cast out devils by this prince. Now if by the term devils, diseases were sometimes meant, it follows that some disease, among the catalogue of human maladies, stands as prince over the rest ; and was in those times known by the name Belzebub, and had a kingdom over which he ruled, and by which the Jews said the Saviour cast out other diseases, or devils. But what disease was it which had such a pre-emi- nence ? Perhaps some no devil-believer can tell us ; so that due honors may be paid by the other diseases of mortal flesh, to so great a potentate. The following is another remarkable proof of the existence of devils: "And there was in the Synagogue (at Capernaum,) a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, (the spirit cried out with the man's voice) saying, let us alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth : art thou come to destroy us ? I know thee who thou art, — the holy one of Cod." What did this spirit mean by saying, "I know thee who thou art ? n 344 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN Did he not mean that he had known him before he came into the world, at the time when the sinning angels were cast down to hell, or thitherward ? — as that same spirit was one of them who kept not his first estate in heaven. It cannot be supposed that the poor wretched man had some time before that, been acquain- ted with the Saviour, and now claimed that acquaintance. This is impossible, from the condition he was in, on account of the possession the devil had of him ; and besides that, it was not the man's mind which dictated that asservation, and claimed that knowledge of the being of Christ, because the man could not know that he was the holy one of God. It appears also from another view of the subject, that it was not the man's mind which dictated the words which his mouth was made to utter, on that occasion, from the fact of his saying — " what have we to do with thee ? Art thou come to destroy us ?" &c. which are both in the 'plural number, and cannot therefore, apply to the man, as he was but one single individual, and occupied only the singular number. " But Jesus rebuked him, (the unclean spirit) saying, hold thy peace and come out of him (the man.) And when the unclean spirit had torn him, (the man) and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him? We wish here to request the reader, to observe critically two words in the last line of the above quotations, namely, he and him, as here are two distinct beings alluded to by those two words. The evil spirit is distinguished by the word he, and the man by the word him, who were separated by the authority of Christ. Does not this prove that Satanic possession was a truth, and that Christ and the Jews both bear testimony to the fact ? Yet Universalists ridicule and deny this truth, for no other reason, than because they ivill; having entered the list they feel interested to defend it, whatever the consequence may be. But what followed on the healing of this man ? Why, they (who beheld it) were all amazed, inasmuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this ? What new doc- trine is this? For with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. And immediately his fame spread abroad through all that region round about Galilee." Now here it is plain, that on the very account of the Saviour's power to cast out and separate devils from the persons they had possession of, that his fame was greatly enhanced ; but if there was no truth in the thing itself, then was the Saviour any thing except that which he pretended to be. But he had scarcely gone out of the Synagogue from casting out the devil from that man, when he went into the house of one Simon, whose wife's mother lay sick of a fever — but not of a devil, as the sickness is called a fever. "And he (Jesus) came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up, and immediately the fever (not the devil) left her." "And at even, when the sun ANGB&S OF TI1L SC&tffTUftBft. 345 did set, they brought unto him (in the cool of the evening,) all that were diseased^ (or were sick) and them that were possessed with devils, and all the city was gathered t< at the door. And he healed many that were sick with divei \ and cast out many devils" ISnt stranger than ail the rest, on the suppo- sition that there is no devil. red not the devils to speak. Now, was it diseases which he suffered not to speak, and was it the diseases which arc here said to have known him, and to have been acquainted with his true character? Impossible, impossible, utterly impossible. In St. Mark iii. 11, 12, it is said "And the unclean spirits, when they saw him-, fell down before him, and cried out saying, thou art the Son of God. And he straightway charged them that they should not make him known. Certainly these were beings of a spiritual character, as it is said of them in this place that they could see, could fall down at the feet of the Saviour, and could cry out, saying, this is the Son of God, &c. If all this was nothing but diseases, the bad passions of the mind, and the like, it is exceedingly strange that they should know the Messiah much more readily than did the peo- ple themselves. This was truly very wonderful ; was it not ? There is in the 9th chapter of St. Mark, an account which al- so establishes the doctrine of Satanic possession, as well also as of Satanic existence. It appears from that account that while the Saviour, with three of his disciples, were gone to the mount where he was transfigured, that there came a certain man to the company of the residue of the disciples, with a young lad, his son, which he said had a dumb spirit. This the disciples es- sayed to cast out, but could not. On which account, there had gathered a multitude about them, &c. At the very time the Saviour returned, while the people were in earnest conversation with the disciples, and inquired of them what it was they were conversing about so earnestly. When one among the multi- tude, who it appears had good reasons to be more interested than any of the rest, "Answered and said, Master, I have brought un- to thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit ; and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him ; and he foameth at the mouth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away : and I spoke to thy disciples that they should cast him out, and they could not." The Saviour now said, Bring him to me, and they brought tho child to Jesus. " Straightway the spirit tore him, and he fell on tho ground and wallowed, foaming. And he (the Saviour) ask- ed his (the lad's) father, how long is it ago since this came unto him ? And he said of a child ; and oftimes it hath cast him into the lire, and into the water, to destroy him; but if thou canst do anything, have compassion or. us, and help us." Now was the time for the Saviour to have informed this man and the multi- tude, that the lad was r of an evil spirit, if it were not so. and to have shown them that his dumbness pror 24 340 UHKFORY Otf ailE S/A&LE^ entirely from some organic imperfection in his head, and was by no means a supernatural affection, as they seemed to ima- gine ; but this he did not do. During his conversation, name- ly, with the child's father, the people came running from alt quarters, to see what was doing, and found as they came a lad lying on the ground, in great agony, distorted with the most re- volting convulsions, foaming at the mouth, and gnashing his teeth, but in perfect silence, as no sound escaped his lips, because he was dumb. But his father, whose eyes had not wandered from the face of his child, the object of his yearning heart, ex- cept in now and then a glance of his eye to the Saviour's coun- tenance, to see if he was about to do anything for his poor son ; but so great was the strength of his sympathy, that he could not contain himself any longer, but cried out suddenly with a loud voice, " Lord 1 believe (thou canst help him) help thou mine un- belief." Now when Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, thou dumb and and deaf spirit, I charge thee to come out of him, and to enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him ; and he (the lad) was as one dead, inso- much that many said he is dead ; but Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up, and he arose." (See the plate, which shows the Saviour, the multitude, and the child lying as dead, with the evil spirit in the form of a human being, just passing away with terror, and the father looking on, as the Saviour has hold of the boy's hands. What a pity a Balfour, a Ballou, or some sharp-sighted Uni- versalist preacher, had not been on the spot, to have told the Son of God just how it was ; and that he might depend upon it there was no evil spirit that troubled the child, as that he could not see any ; and no doubt it is a natural deafness and dumb- ness, which always accompany each other ; and perhaps to cut the string of his tongue, and pour a drop or two of rattlesnake's grease in his ear, might be of essential service to the child, as he had known this kind of treatment to be very successful indeed. Had this been the case, it is quite likely he would have received a rebuke, such as St. Paul bestowed on the ears of one Elymas, a sorcerer, saying, " O thou, full of all subtilty and all mischief, the child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of tho Lord ?" Acts, xiii. 10. On this subject, the curing of this lad, we give tho remarks of Adam Clarke, who says, " Considerable emphasis should be laid on tho words, Hhou didst resist the command of my disci- ples, now 1 command thee to come out.' If this had been only a natural disease, for instance the epilepsy, aa some have argued, *a'OEVfli>i ? tun erjmp'ruruss. 3#J cow/4 our Lord havo addressed it with any propriety, as he has done here, in saying, ' thou dumb and deaf spirit eomo out of him, and enter no more into him.' Is the doctrine of demoniacal influence false ? If so, then Je- sus took the most direct method to perpetuate the belief of that falsity, by accommodating himself so completely to the deceived vulgar. But this was impossible ; therefore the doctrine of de- moniacal influence is a true doctrine, otherwise Christ would ne- ver have given it the least countenance or support, as he every wliere has done," There is one thing remarkable m the above account, which is, that when the Saviour commanded the spirit to come out of the lad, that it wied out with a voice of its own, the lad being dumb, and unable to utter a sound, from exhaustion and loss of strength ; by which we discover, the spirit itself cried out with its own voice, by the means of the lips of the child ; this the text justifies beyond all doubt, by which is identified the presence of one of those fallen angels, now called devils. We come now to relate a no less remarkable account of the same description, found in Acts xix., and was followed with consequences, the most advantageous to Christianity, but no thanks to the evil spirit therefore. While St. Paul was at Lphesus — a city in Asia Minor, on the eastern side of the Mediterranean — great success attended his preaching- there among the pagans, on account of a miracle done by him, in the name of Jesus Christ ; so that if even a garment, or a handker- chief which had been about the person of St. Paul, was carried, and placed upon the body of any one who was sick, or were pos- sessed with evil spirits, they were immediately cured of their diseases, and the evil spirit went out of them On which account, certain vagabond Jews took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul prcacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so, and the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus J know, and Paul 1 know, but who are ye? And lie in whom the evil spirit was, leaped on them and overcome them, and prevailed against them, so that they lied out of that house, naked and wounded. And this was known to all the jews, ami Greeks, dwelling at Ephe- sus, and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed, came and confessed, and shewed their deeds ; many of them also which used cu- rious arts, brought their books together and burned them be- fore all men, and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver," — amounting to seventeen hundred and sixty-five dollars ; the pieces being the Greek scs- 350 IlISTOHY OF THE FALLEN tertius, worth something over three and a half cents of the Ame- rican currency. Now here was a great reformation from Paganism to Chris tianity. occasioned by a mad man. who took it into Ins head to jump on the hacks of a lot of Jews, who happened to come in his way,, and drove them forth in true pugilistical style — if we are to believe what CJniversalists tell us about these things. [See the Plate.) A reformation got up on such grounds — if there was nothing supernatural in the performance of this demoniac — we should imagine, would been of short duration, as it would have soon appeared to be no fact, above a common occurrence, or a mere scuffle, and besides this, the spirit of the Lord is also suppo- sed, as taking the advantage of the circumstance, by which Paul and the then ministers of Christianity, were greatly en- couraged to go on, and to preach with great boldness, all bot- tomed on this freak of a mad man, and his caper with the se- ven sons of Sceva, a jew. But as this reformation continued and prevailed, and was c ' the Most High, we conclude the spirit, which was in the man, was a devil, or he never could have overcome seven to one, and that the circumstance caused great fear and concern on religious subjects, which occasioned multitudes to resort to the Apostle's preaching, to know what they should do to be saved, and were converted to the Christian faith. Respecting this demoniac, we give the remarks of Adam Clarke, as follows : -Certain of the vagabond Jews, who went about p; exorcism, finding that Paul cast out demons through the name of Jesus, thought by using the same name, that they might produce the same effects, and if they could, they knew it would be to them an ample source of revenue — for de- moniacs abounded in the i Josephus, while speaking of the wisdom of Solomon, says, that lie had the skill by v • re expelled, and that he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms, by which they were cast out, arid that those arts were known to his coun- trymen, the Jews, down to his own. time, eighty years after the time of s the following relation. ' ; I have seen (says Josephus) a c< i of my own country, a Jew, v. ' namewi ;ar, releasi pie that were demoniacs, in the presence of I n, the emperor, and of his sous, his captains, and tin i lultitude of ' The manner of tho cum was thi : ! I • put a ring that had a root of one of those sorts, mentioned by I nostrils of, i lie demoniac, when he drew out the demon through the and when the man fell down, ho imm< I piril to return into th^ person while mention « ,t * Solomon, ILLiS OF Tin* SCRIPTURES. 853 and reciting tho incantation which Solomon had composed." — Josephu? Book of A iniquities of the Jews i vol. S, chap. 2, section 5. Dr. Clarke says - in his Comment on 1st Kings xi. —respec- ting the reputed wisdom of Solomon, that the writings of the East, among the Persians, Chinese, and Hindoos, which are famous for their wisdom, have derived their celebrity— if we may believe their own best writers— in a great measure from Solomon. Encomiums of his wisdom, are everywhere to be met with in the Asiastic writers, and his name is famous in every part of the ! . t of the Oriental historians, poets, and philosophers, men- tion Solomon ben Daud, or Solomon the son of David: who say, that during his reign, God, not only subjected to his reign, men, but good and evil spirits. Solomon's seal, and Solomon's are highly celebrated by them, and to which, they attri- bute ;; gr .it variety of magical effects. The best and oldest wri- ■' this description, speak of him in terms of the profonndest respect, as being the wisest man in all branches of human attain- ments, on the earth. That th ians should have had a knowledge of the true God. is net surprising, when it is recollected that the whole nation of the Jews was carried into that country, and that with them went the Scriptures of the Old Testament, as much of it as .. en at that time, which comprehended all the bocks from Genesis to tiie book of Ezekiel, inclusive. That the Persians did not teach the Jews a knowledge of the true God, as some have supposed, is shown from the sayings of the kings of Babylon, who in various conversations with Daniel, the Prophet, and in certain decrees of those kings, who say that the God of heaven was Daniel's God, who was the God of the Jews, and gave directions by decrees, that all the nations of the Mcdo- in empire, should fear and tremble before the God of Daniel, as that he was able to do his will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. Daniel and his fellows, not only taught the existence and at- tributes of the true God. there at Babylon, but also the doctrine of the existence of the Sen of God, as follows : " I saw in the night, visions, and behold one like the Son of Man. came with •vn. (his holy angels,) and came to the an- cient of days, and they brought him near before him. And tb< -re was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all nations should serve him.'- Daniel vii. "13, 14. Also Daniel iii. 24, 25.. — " Then Nebuchadnezzer the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast tl n bound into the midst of the fire / They i rid. True, D king, lie answered, (in re- 354 HISTORY OP THE FALS.EN ply) Lo, 1 sco four men walking in tho midst of tho ftra, and they have no hurt ; and the form of tho fourth is like the So?i of God.''' Again, chap, ix., the angel Gabriel spoke to Daniel, and told him plainly when the Messiah, Jesus Christ, should come into the world— see verses 21, 25, 26, 27, — and that it would be seventy weeks till that time, which was four hundred and ninety years. It cannot therefore, with any show of probability, be supposed that the Jews learned these things of the Persian Magi, as it is clear that Daniel, his fellows, and the Jewish Scriptures taught them to the Persians ; from whom there is not a doubt but Zo- roaster received his opinions, so far as arc found to agree with the Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testaments, and as now taught by the orthodox sects. Hence the opinion — which obtained among the Persian Magi — of a Mediatorial God, who was finally to overcome Ahriman, the evil being, or Satan, was derived. From the same source, the Jews, and their Scriptures, the Per- sians, Zoroaster, and all, learned all the peculiar doctrines as now taught by the orthodox sects, notwithstanding the taunt of the Universalists to the contrary, namely, that the orthodox learned them of the Persians. The notice these early eastern writers give us of Solomon, the son of David, who built the famous temple at Jerusalem, answers and refutes a certain statement made in a pamphlet by the Athe- ist Club, a few years since, in the city of New- York ; who in the plenitude of vast information, and insolence unbounded, de- fied the whole Christian world to show that the Jewish people had any existence, on the page of history, farther back from the time of Christ than five hundred years : which, if it were true, would sweep out of existence the history of the creation, the fall of man, the flood, the account of Abraham, the giving the law by Moses, and all the acts of the Israelitish people, down to the time of their release from a state of captivity among the Chalde- ans, at Babylon, and prove the entire ruin of the whole Old Tes- tament veracity. But the statement is false, and was made in ignorance, as well as in malice ; for Solomon lived a thousand years before the Christian era, which is shown from Josephus, as well as from the Bible chronology; the writings of the Egyptians, as quoted by Josephus, in his refutation of certain slanders these writers propagated about the Jews or Israelites, while in Egypt in servi- tude ; and also by the traditions of the Arabs to this day, claim- ing to be the descendants of Abraham, by way of his son Ish- mael ; as also by the above notiecd eastern historians, in the ANOKL0 OF TnH SCRIPTURES. 35o Chinese language, written six or eight hundred years before the ( Christian era. Bat to return to the subject. "Exorcisms, or the adjuration of evil spirits were frequent/ 5 says Dr. Clarke, '• in the primitive church ; the name of Jesus was that alone which was used. The primitive fathers speak strong and decisive concerning the power of this name, and how demons were expelled by it, not only from individuals, but from the temples of the heathen, which were turned into Christian churches in the Roman empire, the very places where from old, they, the devils, had been worship- ped and sacrificed unto. Ephesus, at the time Christianity was planted there by St. Paul, abounded with characters professing necromancy; even Adrian the Emperor of Rome, was exceedingly addicted to the use of necromantic arts, and practised divination and magic, according to Dio, a historian of the first century, such practises prevailed in all the nations of the earth," as was a result of the devil wor- ship of those ages. " Tho books which they burnt at Ephesus, were of that kind which instructed the people in the use of amulets, stones on which were cut the strange characters, whose influence, they believed, was exerted over the various orders of evil spirits. Among these, the Ephesian characters ranked very high, as be- ing exceedingly powerful in this way, both in expelling devils and evoking their aid when desired. On this subject, Suidas, who flourished in the tenth century, says the ancients used cer- tain obscure incantations, and gives the following as a proof : When Milcsius and Ephisus wrestled at the Olympic games, Milcsius could not prevail, though vastly stronger than his fel- low : but while he continued to struggle with his weaker oppo- nent, it was discovered that the small man had bound on the bottom of his feet tho famous Ephesian letters, or characters, which were taken away, when Milcsius threw the other thirty times. Heschius, who flourished in the third century, spenks also of the same thing, but is more particular and curious. He says the Ephesian letters were formerly six in number ; but that certain deceivers, who did not understand their use added others ; but the true letters were these : Ask ion, Kataskion, Lix, Trtrax, Damnamkneus, and Aision. The meaning of which, says Dr. Clarke, in English, is as follows : Askion, or darkness ; Kataskion, or light ; Lix, or the earth ; Tetrc.r. tho year ; Damnamcneus, the sun ; and Aision, or truth ; all of which arc sacred and important things. These words, no doubt, served as the key to different rpells and incantations, and were used in order to the attainment of a groat variety of ends. Tho Abraxas of the Bassillidans, a sect 35() HISTORY OF THE FALLEN of Egyptian Gnostics, of the second century, were formed on the basis of the Ephesian letters."' — Clarke. We here give a facsimile specimen of some of the figures and characters, cut in the amulets and charmed stones of those ages of Gnosticism, which were worn about their persons, ready for use when they wished to operate supernaturally, and were thus used by the Gnostics, a set of spurious Christians, whose extravagant opinions spread over all the east at a very early period, vestiges of which are yet remaining, and are often found beneath the soil, in many parts of Asia and Africa. (See the Plate.) Simon Magus, is, by many writers, considered as the father of all the Gnostic heresies. He had been a wizard by profes- sion ; and so persuaded were the people of Samaria that he was some extraordinary person, that they affirmed him to be the great power of God. Acts, viii. 9, 10. But being converted by Phil- lip's preaching, he believed and was baptized ; but relapsing soon alter into his old ways, we see him offering money to Peter and John, to be endued like them with the power of working mira- cles. The terrible rebuke this impious proposal met with, brought him for a season, to a penitent frame of mind : here, however, the Apostolic narrative leaves him, and to complete his history we must refer to other sources of information. We learn from Origan, of ilio second century, ono of the fathers of Ecclesiastical history, that Simon Magus was at Home during the persecutions under Nero, and taught his followers that they might conform to the rites of paganism without sin ; and that, by this latitudinarian doctrine he saved them from martyrdom. This wretched man went so far as to announce himself to be the Saviour of the world. Nor was this enough : he united in his own nature all the persons of the Trinity ; in Samaria, his native country, he was the Father, in Judea, the So?i, amongst the Gentiles, the Holy Ghost. All the enormities of this odious magician need not be related ; one, however, is too singular to be omitted : he carried about with him a lady named Helena, and announced her as the identical person whose fatal beauty had occasioned the Trojan war, (a thousand years before.) She had passed, by a hundred transmigrations, into her present form ; she was the first conception, he said, of his own eternal mind ; by her he had begotten angels and archangels, and by these had the world been created. This heresy was not much ahead of that of the Shakers of the present day, who believe that Ann Lee, the wife of a blacksmith in England, and the mother of many children, was the bride of the Lamb, or the Lamb's wife ; and that she was the woman of the Revelations, who was clothed with the sun, and had the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars : and that by her, not only the door of complete and finished salvation was opened to this world, but the world to come ; and that she suffered in liko manner for AXGELfl OF THE 6CR1 PTURES. 357 Bin, and that without her Christ himself is imperfect. — Brown's History of the Shaken^ pages 111, 115, 886. And that her pretensions readied even beyond this life, according to the same author, in the same work : he says of her, that at a certain time during the Revolution, when Ann Lle was imprisoned in the city of Albany, with other Shakers, on a suspicion of toryism, of which they were not guilty, that she declared that many de- parted human spirits had corne to her, and had confessed their sins, and accordingly were absolved, and immediately entered into rest. The disciples of this impostor, Simon Magus, represented him under the form of Jupiter, and his female associate under that of Minerva: and these representations were probably the first of those Gnostic amulets, which afterwards became so numerous. The annexed engraving (marked No. 1) is from a gem in the col- lection of Dr. Walsh, which he thinks was fabricated by the im- mediate followers of Simon Magus. The stone is a chalcedony, and the sculpture rude. Jupiter is represented in armor, an im- age of victory on his hand, and the eagle and the thunderbolt at his feet. On the reverse is an inscription, which has not been explained. The singular arrangement of the letters is supposed to be expressive of the coil of a serpent, a favorite Gnostic emblem, found in various forms and combinations upon most of their ta- lismonic remains. The figure marked No. 2. is another of those Gnostic "ferns. The female figure, with a finger placed on the lip, is a token of silence, in imitation of the Saurian priests, who prescribed taciturnity to their followers. The other figure with the head of a deer, is the Egyptian Anubifl ; the characters are not as yet interpreted. No. 3, is also a Gnostic amulet, which shows the arch; Michael, having a body like a man, but a head and wings like a hawk. The opposite characters signify the >"mi r jld of Mi- chael,' so monstrous and foolish were the notions of this spurious sect of Christians ; who blended parts of Judaism. Paganism, and Christianity together, besides much invention of their own, more monstrous than all the errors of the whole pagan world put together, to make out their entire system of wickedness ; we say wickedness, because they taught the gratification of all the pas- sions in the fullest extent, to be the only way to recommend them to God. No. 1 is a gem of great beauty, which is in the possession of Lord S'rangford, and was an emblem of a sect of Gnostics, who worshipped the serpent, and are called the Ophites-oi" Egypt. This sect believed that Christ was disguised in that reptikC and accordingly, as nla : here one of the 1- ~>ntnvcd to build a wall, leaving space at i for it to move about in. and over the cave they elected an altar for wor 25 3^8 HISTORt OF THE FALLEN ship. The animal they succeeded to tame, by enticing it from its retreat with such food as pleased its appetite. This done, they would place the elements of the eucharist, so that the tongue of the serpent might be extended to them, after which they partook of them as from the hand of the Redeemer. On this gem is shown a serpent, with the head of a lion encompassed with rays, and is supposed to signify Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah. The right line traversed by three curved ones, on the other face of this gem, remains unexplained. The upper inscription is the mystic term ABRAXAS, or God. The lower characters have been generally taken as a Greek corruption of the awful tetragrammaton of the Jews, or Jehovah of the Gnostics ; one of their most remarkable tenets was that malevo- lent spirits ruled the world, presided over all nature, and caused all the diseases and sufferings of the human race. But by- knowledge, which is the meaning of the word Gnostic, they believed these spirits could be controlled, their power suspended, and even made subservient to the use and benefit of man. Of this science they boasted of being masters ; which consisted chiefly in the efficacy of numbers, and certain mysterious hiero- glyphics, and emblematic characters, adopted chiefly from the Egyptians. Hence they made systems of what they called monads, tryads, and decads ; and formed figures of the dog Anubis, the serpent Serapis, and other idols, combined in a thousand varieties, with the forms of serpents and other animals of mythological renown. These compositions of mystic num- bers and figures, they sculptured on gems and stones of different kinds, and maintained that whoever bore one of them upon his person, was secured by it from the particular evil it was construc- ted to guard against. Amulets against diseases were formed of materials having an imaginary connection with the distemper ; as read against all morbid affections of an inflamatory character ; ehrystal, glass, or some pale colored stone, against those that were watery or drop- sical ; and so of all others. No. 5 is a gem with a charm engraved upon it, to guard as^iinst the ague, constructed by an eminent follower of Bassil- licles, the Egyptian leader of the Gnostics. On one side is a human figure, with a head of a cock, the legs are serpents, and between them is the mystic word IAw. On the opposite are the elements of an Abracadabra, showing the process of the deity through the corporeal world, formed in this manner : A E H I O Y E H I O Y HlOY I O Y O Y Y ANGELS OF TUB SCRIPTURES. 350 But lastly, in pursuit of evldcnco of the being of evil spirits, we bring the case of the Phillippian girl, which is recorded in the book of Acts, chap. xvi. who was possessed of a devil. This account, were it the only one in the whole Bible, would prove beyond all decent contradiction, that the belief is according to the truth. The account is as follows : The Apostles Paul and Silas, being in the city of Phillippi, in Macedonia, went out on a certain Sabbath day, by the side of a river, where was a place to which the Jews in that city resorted to pray, and to worship. But as they went, a certain young woman, who had for several days before followed Paul and Silas, as they went about teaching the new doctrine of Christianity, crying with a loud voice, " these are the servants of the most higfy God. which shew unto us the way of salvation ;" so she continued to do on this day also. But Paul being grieved with her crying this thing continually, as he did not wish the testimony of one who was possessed with a devil to aid the cause of truth, which he was preaching, he turned to her "and said to the spirit, I command thee, in the name of Jesus- Christ, to come out of her ; and he came out of her the same hour." This girl, it appears, was possessed with a spirit of divination, by which means the persons with whom she lived got much money, as by the spirit she could tell fortunes, and discover things that were lost. But by a mere word spoken by the Apostle, not to the girl, but to the spirit, by which she could divine, this power or gift at once forsook her, so that her masters perceived that the hope of their gain was gone. On which account a mob was soon collected, and both Paul and Silas cast into prison. But the same night which followed the day in which those things took place, the whole city was shaken by an earthquake. The prison in which they were put trembled to its foundations ; when the fetters aud chains of all the prisoners were broken loose, a thing which a common earthquake could not have done, without breaking the limbs of the prisoners and causing their immediate death. Now respecting this young woman, it is not said that she was sick or in any way afflicted with disease, or that she was mad, or distrated, or in any way outrageous : but that she simply an- swered questions as they were put to her, by those who wished to profit by what she could tell them. Yet the Apostle, by the power which he had of discerning spirits, saw that a devil had posses- sion of her, and that this same devil knew the character and business of Paul and Silas, and from whence they derived it. This spirit knew those men, as all the devils knew the Messiah before he came into the world, to be the dreadful Son of God, the Messiah, by whose power they had been driven down from heaven ; and by whose power a hell of fire and brimstone had been created for them, into which they knew they were finally and permanently to be cast at the day of judgment. And for 3G0 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN this same reason, tho devils spoken of in Mattb. viii. 29, who were cast out of the men who had their dwelling among the tombs, adjured the Saviour, by the living God, not to torment them before the time of that judgment. "And when this spirit which had possession of the girl, heard Paul and Silas preaching in the name of the Son of God, knew them to be his ministers, and immediately incited this poor ignorant young woman to cry out, "these are the servants of the most high God," or of Jesus Christ, which is the same ; and proves that Christ was God, for Paul and Silas were the servants of Christ. But possibly, it may be said by some who do not believe in the being of devils, otherwise than shown in the human heart, that as the girl had for several days heard the Apostles preach, she might take it into her head to hallo after them in this manner, saying, these are the servants of the most high God, &c. and therefore there was nothing supernatural about it. If this should be said, it is replied, that it appears the girl, however, was cor- rect, and evinced by far a greater knowledge of the Messiah's kingdom than the disciples themselves, who had -been with him several years before his death ; and especially Thomas, who did not find out that he was his Lord and his God till after his resurrection, and even then with considerable difficulty. This is more than should be expected of the poor heathen girl, who did not know there was a most high God, having been taught, if taught at all, to believe in the existence of many gods, as images, the sun, moon, and stars, &c. That she was possessed, therefore, by a power superior to herself, is clear : and knew more than even the wisest citizens of Phillippi, which is the proof of Satanic influence. But some may wish to know why St. Paul was displeased with the testimony which the girl gave, as it went to establish the truth of his preaching ? This question is answered by Adam Clarke, and appears to be sufficient, who says : " Mark the deep design and artifice of this evil spirit. 1st. He well knew that the Jewish law abhored all magic, incantations, and dealings with familiar spirits ; he therefore bears testimony to what was in itself true, that by it he might destroy their credit, and ruin their usefulness ; as the Jews would at once be led to believe that the Apostles were in compact with demons, and that the miracle which had been wrought on the girl, was done by the aid of wicked spirits, and that the whole was the effect of magic. This conclusion of course, would have hardened their hearts against their preaching. 2d. The Gentiles finding that their own demon bore testimony to the Apostles, would most naturally consider that the whole was one system, and that they had noth- ing to learn, nothing to correct, and thus their preaching would have proved useless in that part of the country. In this pred ic a merit, nothing could have saved the credit of the Apostles bu ANGE16 OP THE BCRIPTttlES. S61 neir dispossessing tliis woman of her familiar spirit, and that in the most incontestible manner. Every circumstance of this case proves it to have been a real demoniac possession. St. Luke, in recording the account as it was him who wrote the book of Acts — speaks both of the spirit and of the damsel as distinct beings. The damsel had a spirit of divination. Paul turned to the spirit^ not to the girl solely, but to the spirit, and said. I command thee to come out of her. and lie came out the saVrie hour. Had not St. Luke considered this a real case of inic possession, lie has made use of the most improper lan- guage that could be thought of : language and forms of speech calculated to deceive all his readers, and cause them to believe a lie. But this is impossible, as the holy Apostle could not do so : because he was a good man : it was impossible, because he was a wise man ; it was impossible, because he Avas an inspired man, and could not be imposed upon, by either the cunning of men or devils." We know not that it is needful to pursue this subject farther, as we have proved the fact of Satanic existence from the Scrip- tures ; and by so doing, have overturned the whole baseless fabric of Vniversalism, in showing that there is a being known to God as Statan, and evil spirits known as devils, or fallen angels. And in showing this, we show that in the spiritual world there arc sinners, for the Scriptures say the devil sinneth from the beginning ; and showing there are sinners in that state, we show, even on the Universalist's own admissions, that there is at least a mental hell, as sinners are miserable wherever they are : and therefore proves a local hell, as all spirits are local, except God. and arc always somewhere, and that somewhere is their location, and the place of their hell, even though it is noth- ing more than mental. In proving the existence of Satan, we corroborate the belief that Satan was that being who is called Ihc serpent by the Revelator. xii. 9. the devil and Satan also; and was he who tempted and misled Eve in paradise ; and in proving this we show that Eve was not self tempted, self de- luded, self destroyed ; and that man is fallen, and does not stand in the same moral relation to God that he did when first created, as all deists bolieve he does, and so far as we are able to discern, all Universal ists likewise, who are thorough in their faith. And in proving the fall of man, we show that an atonement is admis- sible ; on which ground, offers of reconciliation can be made to she world, conviction for sin, and repentance for the same, with pardon and sanctification of the mind, and final salvation be obtained, on that and no other account ; which includes all the conditions of gospel economy, or of Christian theology, which are denied by all I'niversalisls as well as by all deists, who must ttand or fall to their own masters, in the great day of final reck- 362 HISTORY OP THE FALLEN Strictures and Miscellaneous Remarks on the Subject of Universalist Doctrines and Opinions. It is announced in the Scriptures, that the Son of God was manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil. But if there is no other devil but that of human nature, it follows then that human nature, which includes its passions, was the particu- lar object of his displeasure, and marked victim of ruin. But this is extremely singular, if* a certain opinion which is held by some Universalists is true, namely, that our race is not truly and radically fallen from their first and original condition ; or, in other words, are as they ought to be, with respect to disposition, passions, &c. On which account, it is extremely difficult to conceive why Christ should have come into the world to destroy this human nature devil, seeing it is the work of his own hands. In support of this opinion, namely, that the passions are all right, it is frequently alleged by Universalists, that all the pas- sions of the soul, and powers of the mind, as now found in exercise in human society, are necessary on the whole for the ascertainment of social happiness, by way of contrast, as once before stated in this work, but now again mentioned, for further examination. By hatred, love is the better known ; by pride, humility is discovered : memory is the opposite of forgetfulness. By cruelty, the beneficence of kindness and tenderness of heart are known ; by dishonesty, the glory of uprightness and truth ; by obscenity and lasciviousness, the excellence of chastity is ap- preciated the more readily ; by envy, lying, and malice, meek- ness, good will, and love, are seen ; by war, anger, and fierce- ness, the blessings of peace, contentment, and quietness come to light ; by superstition and bigotry. — liberal mindedness and rea- son, shine the more brilliantly ; by all kinds of wickedness, all kinds of righteousness make their appearance. Thus by way of contrast, all the virtues are the more easily ascertained in hu- man society. And to enforce this doctrine, it is said that all the pleasures of sense are ascertained in the same way, and by the same rule. Sight is known by blindness ; feeling, tasting, and smelling, by the opposite of these, insensibility and death. Hun- ger announces the joys of food ; thirst, the pleasures of the cool- ing fountain : rest is known by labor, and the exhaustion of the muscular powers ; alertness and activity, by drowsiness languor, and sleep. But if this principle, or rule of contrasting one thing with an- other, is correct, and by it good is thereby found out, we suppose it impossible to carry the idea too far, as truth never runs ashore, or entangles itself by being extended ; if not, then we have the following remarkable result : If there is a heaven of ineffable glo- ry, and eternal duration, there is a hell of unutterable woe, and Axur.Ls ov 'rnis scriptures. 363 of equal continuance, as its contrast. If there arc happy angels, who never sinned in heaven, there may be unhappy angels in hell, who have sinned. If there are happy souls of men who have departed this life in the triumphs of the Christian faith, in heaven, there may be unhappy souls of men who have departed this life in unbelief, and are now in hell, or in confinement for that end. If there is a holy archangel of heaven, who occupies a condition of intellectual height above all other holy angels — as the Scriptures seem to justify — called Michael, there may be an archangel of hell, who is higher in intellectual abilities — posses- sing all the opposites of the holy character of Michael — who reigns over the fallen angels of the bottomless pit, and is called Lucifer, or the devil. Thus we perceive that on the very premises Universal ists lay down to justify the existence of evil in this world, there is made out from it, the existence of evil in eternity, or in another world, with equal feasibility ; for if God has a use for sin here, as Uni- versalists say he has, who is he that can show, it will not exist in eternity ? But if we are mistaken and the Universahsts are right, about this contrast doctrine, and it remains a truth, then are all the powers and passions of our race, as they should be, and as they were created ; then indeed, men, nor angels, are not fallen, as commonly supposed ; and there is no hell, nor devil, sure enough ; and more than this, there is no Redeemer — there was no broken law — no offence on the part of man, against God, as understood in the book of Genesis. There is no need of a days- man, or Mediator between God and man, as taught In the Scrip- tures ; whence Deism is true, and the only truth men need believe ; and even this is of no mortal use, as all is just as well without it. Universahsts say it makes the people much happier to learn that there is nothing to fear on the account of sin, beyond this life, and that there is no hell, &c. To this it is replied, that no doubt all the vagabonds and criminals of the globe, would be exceeding happy to learn that all law and punishment for crimes were abolished ; yet we are far from supposing that such a change in their favor would make their hearts or natures any better, even if they were seemingly happier for a short time ; as it is certain that the abolishment of the sanctions of human laws, would not be for the happiness of either the good or the bad, in no age or country. We may say the same respecting a man who is wicked even to extremities, yet always believed, even from infancy, that there is a hell beyond this life, into which he may finally fall. Now let this man be informed that his belief and his apprehensions are entirely unfounded, and cause him to rely upon it, what would be the effect ? Why, in a moment he would be relieved of a grievous burden, the fear of damnation 364 riKiTORV OP THE FALLEN after death would be taken away ; but not because his heart could be made better thereby, or because he would view God as any more amiable than before this change of opinion ; but for no other reason than that his fears would be removed; the same, precisely the same, as in the case of the abolishment of the punishment for criminals, as we have shown before ; the evil propensities remaining, nay more, those propensities are in- creased in exact proportion as they are pampered and fears sub- side in the actor. To talk about the goodness of God manifested in such a way, would be preposterous, and open a door for the most abandoned to enquire, what goodness, and how does it appear 7 The an- swer to this would be, according to Universalists, that it appears in this, that he has made no hell for the wicked in another life, though men leave the world as wicked as can be conceived of. But, enquires the sinner, would it be just for God to have done this ? If it be answered yes, it would have been just, then his reply is, because he has not done it, he is therefore unjust ; and a God unjust is a wicked God. But if the sinner is told that the creation of a hell for sinners would be an unjust, wrong, and foolish thing, and that therefore he has not done it, then the sin- ner still continues his enquiry, wishing to know from whence the goodness of God appears on that account, as it was impos- sible for him to have done if it were an unjust and foolish thing. The result of this enquiry is, that God's goodness does not appear at all, on this particular subject, that of the non-crea- tion of a hell in another world ; as on that account there is noth- ing brought to light, except his great indifference to sin and sin- ners, as there is no penalty of more importance than is merely temporal ; and even that is not absolutely certain, as appears from the prosperity and temporal happiness of many of the great and the rich in this life. By Universalists it is contended that it is contrary to the good- ness of God, as a father and a creator, to permit, allow, or cause to be, a state of endless punishment in another world, on account of anything which the human soul can do in this life, in the way of sin and transgression against the law of God. As well, how- ever, might it be maintained that he who should sever a limb from his own hody in his youth, by a wanton act of heedlessness or desperation, which God in his goodness had furnished him with, that this same goodness is bound as a father and a creator, to prevent, or immediately to* restore. For it may be enquired, why should the act of a moment subject a man to the mortifica- tion and want of a limb, twenty, fifty, or eighty years I But as we see such privations are consistent with the goodness and fatherly government of the Most High, though done in the great- est wantonness, and in a moment of time, how is it to be shown, that if a man incapacitate himself, in a moral point of light, for aS'of.lb of tiik sciin-'Ti Jccause if would be impious and foolish to suppose that God ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTUItB*. 373 is any thing in such a manner as to need an atonement, or a corrector thrown into his works. It would be the height of nonsense to suppose that God balances things in such a manlier as that his works are prone to run to ruin, and therefore, is every now and then compelled to throw in a corrector. If therefore, at any time, it is imagined that men do not love God, let it be recollected that this is"a mistake— according to Univer- salists; as those actions, which are supposed as evidence, that men do not love God, are the very actions which the Divine Being has his own use for, and it ill becomes any man to find fault wild his business. To talk therefore, about what Univer- salists call atone?nent } or a process of love to God, passing in the heart, is as idle as to say the passing of the winds through the empty space is atonement, when it is all as it should be, respect- ing human actions, and is impossible for any thing to be other- wise. Mr. Ballon says, on page 68 of his Treatise on Atone- ment — " that man is dependent in all his volitions, and moves by necessity" and that "the Almighty has a good intention in every volition of man." What more need we, in evidence that sin does not exist, if the sentiments above are true? Man moves by necessity ; how then can he help it ? And whatever he does, is the good intention of God ; therefore all man's acts, are God's acts : how then does sin exist ? Where is the room, or need of atonement of any kind 1 Universalism, is therefore Deism ; as on the seale of Deism, no atonement, or divine revelation, is necessary, as God's works are not out of order, and never can be, whether moral or physical. That God's own proper works are out of order, we do not be- lieve, but the free volitions of intellectual beings are not God's own proper works, but are the works of his creatures, or moral evil does not exist. If it is enquired, who is the author of free will, or free agency, — it is answered, God is the author. But must it follow therefore, that he is the author of its misuse, or abuse? By no means ! — for the very idea of free agency, pre- cludes such a notion. But if free agency is a mere chimera, then is there no free volition, and man acts from necessity, and therefore cannot sin ; and even it is not in the power of God to make him commit sin, for every act of necessity is the act of God, who cannot sin; therefore sin does not exist, and never can, as God is good, just and w r ise. A system of salvation, therefore, as we have often before said in this work, is not need- ed, and therefore, is not extant, on the Universalist plan : Chris- tianity is bin ;\ system of philosophy ; and though the best ever introduced among men, has nothing however, in it that can be considered supernatural, any more than other systems, which are the invention of men. That Mr. Ballou does not hesitate to wrest the Scriptures to his own particular purpose of unconditional salvation, we show 27 3?i HISTORY OF THE FALLEN from page 1S3, of his Treatise on Atonement, where he quotes a small part of an idea, of which St. Paul was the author ; see 2d Thess. i. 7, S, 9 : " And to you who are troubled, rest with ns, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming lire, taking vengeance," &c. There, Mr. Ballou stops the quotation, and leaving out the whole phraseology of the Scripture, in the 8th verse, which goes to show tcho and what it is that is to be destroyed, and substitutes his own remarks on the 7th verse, and on that part of the 8th which does not respect the final meaning and amount of the whole three verses. He leaves off his quotation as shown above, at the word vengeance, and resumes it again after skipping, as follows: "On them that know not God, and obey not the gos- pel of mir Lord Jesus Christ" which he should not have done : but the reader can unite the part which he has left out, and ascertain that it is the very soul of the three verses. But he resumes the quotation, and gives the whole of the next verse, as follows : " Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. 77 Now the great enquiry in these three verses, is to ascertain what or who it is, which is threatened with everlasting destruction. To ascertain this, Mr. Ballou says he calls in his key text ; which is found 1st Cor. iii. 12, 13, 14, 15 — where it is shown that it is the hay, wood, and stubble, which is to be destroyed by the flaming fire, with an everlasting destruction, &c; or in othcT words, his view is, that men's sins, which he seems to think, is represented by the terms, " hay, wood, and stubble." But Mr. Ballou has been a little too fast here, with his key text, in sup- posing the hay, wood, and stubble, is what is meant in the other text, namely, the 7th, Sth, and 9th of 2d Thess., because the key text, as he calls it, does not say that the hay, wood, and stubble, shall certainly be burnt or destroyed, but merely makes it suppo- sable, as follows : "If any man's work shall be burned, (see, it says if,)he shall sufTer loss," &c, so that it is very far from being abso- lute. While the other subjects of denunciation, in 2d Thess. i. 7, 8, 9, is absolute, and personal ; see how it reads, — i: taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ;" all of which, from the word ven- geance, Mr. Ballou left entirely out, thinking thereby, to lead the reader's mind to a belief, that it is men's sins, or their hay, wood, and stubble, which is thus to be everlastingly destroyed, and not the wicked persons themselves. But the spirit of inspi- ration has been a little too particular, to answer Universalists a good purpose, in this portion of Scripture, namely, 2d Thess., for it is written there, — the Lord Jesus, when he shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, will take vengeance on — who — hay, wood, and stubble, or sin itself? No, not at all ; but on them (}>erso7is or sinners) that know not God, and obey ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURE*. 375 not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who (persons or sin- ners) shall be punished with everlasting destruction, &c. Now hay, wood, and stubble, or sin, if you please, are not subjects of moral government — are not beings, and cannot therefore, be supposed capable of obeying or disobeying the gospel ; and besides this, sin has no being, only as originated by a conscious thinking being, and therefore, cannot be punished. It is not sin which feels the pain of a troubled conscience, as sin has no conscience : it is not the oath which the profane has uttered, which feels guilty, but the author of the oath, the perpetrator of the sin ; he it is who feels a conscious guilt, and is him who is capable of being thus everlastingly destroyed, according to the sense of the text. It is the unrepenting wicked who are to be destroyed, and not their sin as distinguished from the author. Mr. Ballou says on this subject : " That which is destroyed, I grant, is endlessly destroyed." Now do we not clearly show, as above, that it is the sinner, and not his sins, which are to be pun- ished with an everlasting destruction : consequently, Mr. Ballou himself, has unwittingly admitted the endless death, or destruc- tion of the wicked, at the time when the Lord Jesus shall be thus revealed. But still more curious on this subject, Mr. Ballou has turned the vengeance of the Judge of quick and dead into sal- vation to the sinner, and says the me which the Lord Jesus shall be revealed in from heaven, taking vengeance on them who know not God, is the fire '-which alone is able to effect his sal- vation," Page 1S3, Treatise on Atonement — near the bottom of the page. Now if this is the fire which is to save the sinner, what is to become of the righteous, who are not threatened with it ? Surely, they are to have a hard lot ; as they are to be de- prived of this everlasting destruction salvation. If this is not subverting and wresting Scripture, we know not what is ? Mr. Ballou says, that "The literal death of the man Christ Jesus, is figurative ; and all the life we obtain by it, is by learn- ing what is represented:' — Treatise on Atonement, page 131. Now if all the benefit of Christ's death, to the human race, is to depend on their knowledge of its figurative meaning, there are but few who will be benefitted or saved by it ; what then is to become of the rest ? Just nothing at all, as their end is to be precisely the same. We have always supposed that the ceremonial law of the Jewish Church was figurative of Clirist's death and passion on the cross, for the sins of the world, but did not know that Christ's death was also a figure ; by which, if true, there is shown noth- ing but figure from Genesis to Revelation. A figurative church, as of the Jews, a figurative atonement, and a figurative salva- tion : much £ood may it do its figurative supporters ; it were much better for the world were there less such figuring writers on theology ; there would be fewer deists. 376 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN Mr. Ballou, in showing the use God had for the wicked mur- derers of Jesus Christ, says in conclusion: "Then it is plain. that to do evil that good may come is possible: 1 But St. Paul was of a different opinion, when he says, " shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.' 7 Romans, vi. 12. Or in other words, shall we do evil that good may come by it ? God forbid. But if there shall ever come a time when all men will believe that God has a use for the sins of each individual, as well as for his righteous acts, that will be the time when con- science will cease to have a being in the human soul ; that will be the time when moral government can have no application to the human race ; and that will be the time when the doctrines of Universalist theology shall be thoroughly understood and be- lieved in the world *, for how is it possibfe for the wicked to feel guilty for deeds done, if they can but believe such deeds are required by the Creator, for his own purposes? and establishes that which we have in several parts of this work already said. namely, that on the Universalist plan, there is, nor never has been, sin, or moral evil in the world ; and consequently Chris- tianity is dwindled down to a mere moral philosophy. One of the main points of Universalist doctrine is, that salva- tion to the human race is altogether an unconditional thing. God, they say, has in his wisdom made the salvation of our race to depend, not on the instability of human volition, but on his goodness and power ; on which account, salvation is of necessity to be universal and particular, as we are all the creatures of his power, and consequently of his unalterable and unconditional love. Again, Universalists tell us,that the salvation of the Scriptures has nothing to do with eternity, but is wholly confined to this life ; as man's happy immortality after death was never other- wise than indubitably certain, not being liable to be effected by the thoughts or actions of the human soul in this present state of being, and was therefore not procured by Jesus Christ, in any sense of the word. If then salvation to the human race is not conditional, how comes it to pass, that even on the Universalist notion of the thing, there are but few who are saved, even here, as most men are wicked, and far enough, even from a Univer- salist's salvation? We ask again, what does this mean? How is this possible? Why are not all human beings in a state of sal- vation, seeing it is not a conditional thing, as Universalists say ? To this we suppose they will answer, it is because men do not consider their ways, and seek after righteousness : or as Mr. Ballou calls it, they do not seek to have a divine process pass in the heart, so as thereby to be saved by it. Now. if this is the answer, namely, that men do not seek to have this divine pro- cess pass upon their hearts, then is not this omission the reason why they are not now saved ? Most certainly, this is the rea- A.NGELI OF THE SCRIPTURES. '.\7 7 son. If then this is the reason, is not salvation therefore condi- tional to all intents and purposes, inasmuch as it is to be sought in order to be possessed? Universalists know as well as their opponents, that many men neglect religion altogether, and pass their whole lives in an utter aversion to it, and even die in this condition. Now, on their own view of the subject, such persons were never saved in their lifetime. And why were they not? This cannot be answered except in one way: it was because God did not see fit to save them, as he had need of their sins, with the view of the good of the great whole of the human race. If so, then their salvation was impossible. In our remarks on the fact of salvation, as opposed to the Universalists' ideas, we disallow entirely that the circumstance of the inevitable happiness of the human race in another world, as held by this people, is sal cation at all; for salvation always supposes a rescue from danger ; and as these people hold it is not possible to put eternal happiness in jeopardy, as it respects all the human race, it is improper, therefore, to say that a place or admittance into heaven, is salvation at all. It would be highly improper to say that God is saved ; because he is happy, and cannot be otherwise than happy ; and it is equally improper and foolish, to talk about salvation, as it respects the human race, if their final happy condition after this life is as sure as the hap- piness of God is sure. Salvation, on this view, has no applica- tion to onr case, no more than it has to God. If then the term, and the fact, are to be confined to this present state of things, we enquire, is it or is it not conditioned ? I niversalists will an- swer, as we fancy they are compelled to answer, that it is condi- tional, inasmuch as it is to be sought, or not had. Now as it is certain that many are never saved in this life, even as they view the thing, and pa^s out of time unsaved, it follows of necessity, that salvation is not unconditional nor universal, as Univer- salists boast and vainly hope. If it is unconditional we ask with great surprise, why are not all bad men made g^ood instant- ly, as God is good and powerful? — and why have not all men been good in all ages, and from the very beginning, for the same reason? We cannot tell, except we give the I niversalists' rea- son, and this is it, namely, that God has a i/sc for every volition of man, good or bad, as we have shown already from Mr. Bal- lou's Treatise on Atonement. Now. if God has a use for every volition of man, whether sinful or not, it follows that there is no sin. and that the term salvation from .sin is wholly inapplicable to the human race, even in this state of being; and therefore, there is no salvation anywhere ; the term is a burlesque on the works of God, implying thai he has need of something by way of repair; which is folly, and cannot be admitted in relation to the proper and identical works of God. Now, this is pure Deism, a name which Universalists affect to despise, and con- 378 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN sider as derogatory to them as a sect ; while in truth and in fact they are pure and radical deists in these respects, whether they know it or not. Deists are willing to admit, that Jesus Christ was a good teacher, and even a great philosopher, but nothing more; and Universalists say the same thing, giving him the place of a mere man, and denying the vicarious nature of his death on the cross, and his deity: what else is this but Deism? and is not Deism infidelity ? Universalists, as a people, lay great stress on the mercifulness of God to mankind, in relation to salvation ; yet by consequence of their sentiments, deny this very mercifulness. But how do they deny it? As follows, is our answer: they teach that with God there is no pardon for sin, inasmuch as every man rnnst suffer to the full extent of the demerit of his actions in this life. Now, on this view, where is the room for mercy to enter ? Is it not excluded ? It is true, however, as a kind of palliation to so monstrous a notion, they say God forgives men their sins after they have suffered for them ; a thing as impossible as it is foolish. Just look at the idea for a moment : say a man has committed a sin, for which he suffers, or is suffering. Now when the suffer- ing is over, what more ? Why pardon follows, say they. But suppose pardon should not follow, will he suffer on? O no ! because that would be unjust in God. By this we see that par- don, after suffering, is of no possible use, and therefore, is not called for, and is worse than a chimera ; because it shows up this all important trait of Christian theology in a light which is tantamount to a flat denial. Even Mr. Ballou has scouted this notion of forgiveness after suffering has been executed; see Treatise on Atonement, p. 79, where, in ridiculing the common belief of sins being forgiven to men on account of the atonement : "But how (says he) can I forgive a man a debt, and (yet) oblige him to pay it ? this is more than I can see." But on this subject, that of the atonement, Universalists will not see, that all it can do is to make it possible for God to pardon sinners, on condition of faith, repentance, and reformation. Without this atonement, we cannot have even this opportunity of salvation. If all the blessings of nature are extended to man on condition of acceptance and use, why not that of salvation, under the administration of the same God or governor of the Universe. To suffer according to the demerit of sin, is not salvation ; but pardon on the account of the merit of Jesus Christ is salva- tion ; if pardon, therefore, be rejected as a Scriptural doctrine, then salvation is not possible to any individual of the human race, as it is not applicable to their condition, being of no possi- ble use, any more than salvation can be of use to that which cannot be lost. Universalists, when pressed hard to make known the use of ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 379 their preaching; give for answer, that it is to save the people from the fear of hell in another world. Were they to answer, that it is to make the morals of the people better, this is refuted by their belief that God has a use for every evil volition of mans mind, and therefore are not called to better the works of God by reforming the morals of the human race. That God has a use for every volition of the human heart, is similar to an opinion of one of the ancient Gnostic sects; which was, that to indulge all the propensities of our nature was the only true way to please the deity ; for they argued, that for this purpose the passions were given. But as to the use of I niversalist preaching, as above stated, which is. namely, to save the people from the fear of an ortho- dox hell, this answer is surely iinphilosophic ; because, were all people to become Universal ists, their preaching would be at an end, as there could be no further use for it. It is unphilosophic also, from another consideration; which is, that the more man- kind are led to fear and tremble respecting their future happi- ness, the greater will be their surprise on being ushered from this state into a glorious heaven. Now, inasmuch as Univer- salists go about to take awav this fear, they go about to lessen the future happiness of a future state ; surely this is a work of retrogade supererogation, as strange as it is erroneous. Were this fear destroyed from the minds of the individuals of Chris- tendom, what might not be the demoralizing consequence? Where there is no fear there is no reverence ; and where there is no reverence in morals there is no religious virtue; conse- quently no spiritual religion : hence Universalists do not believe in spiritual, mysterious, and miraculous conversions, as do the orthodox sects ; which doctrine is taught by the Saviour him- self; in his account of that change as given to one of the elders of the Jewish Sanhedrim, see John, iii. 3: "Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the king- dom of God." Now, were the countries of Christendom inhabited by a peo- ple who should not fear this hell of the Scriptures, as believed in by the orthodox sects, how long would it be ere they would in fact know or care any thing about Jesus Christ, so long as they should know that there is no hell in another world ! We think it would be no great lapse of time. What a happy state of things this would be ; how men would rejoice in God, on account of his goodness and lenity to their crimes and sins ; how amazingly would this belief restrain the outbreakings of depraved nature; it would soon be a universal paradise here below, on account of the free unrestrained operations of the ever active spirit of man let loose in all its powers, on the face of the earth; which spirit is inclined to do evil, and that continually, according to the Scripture account of our natures. 380 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN The Scriptures teach, that men should pray always, and in every thing give thanks to God : do Universalists, as a people, believe and practice this? We believe not; as on their view of religion, there can be no possible use for it: for, say they, who can alter the mind of God, or inform him of anything by pray- ing — not seeming to know that prayer was ordained for the spiritual cultivation of the human soul, and is the very reason why God will not bestow religious blessings, except he be sought unto in this very way, in the name of Jesus Christ — where that name is known. Universalists believe that the death of Christ is of no use to mankind, only as the figurative meaning of that event is under- stood. To prove this we cite page 131, of Hosea Ballous Trea- tise on Atonement, where he says—" The literal death of the man Christ Jesus is figurative ; and all the life we obtain by it, is by learning what is represented." Here, learning is put as the means of salvation; whereas faith, by the New Testament, is put as the means, which is a principle very far in its nature from learning, knowledge, or information, in our opinion. We have always believed, that the ceremonies and sacrifices of the temple worship of the Jews, was figurative of the final, and one great sacrifice of the soul and body of Jesus Christ, for the sin of Adam, and for the sins of the whole world; but here we are taught by Universalists, that the sacrifices of the Jewish religion, were the figures of nothing but a figure after all : where, therefore, is the end of this figurability of Universalists ? Suppose we were to understand all the Scriptures say about God, about heaven, and about moral obligation, as figurative ; even Universalists might object, yet, to us, it apppears that the Scriptures are not less definite about the vicarious and expia- tory death of Jesus Christ, than they are about the being of God, the reality of heaven, and moral obligations. The New Testament Scriptures, teach that repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, are the conditions of salvation ; but Universalists say. that the condition is the under- standing of a figure, which implies neither repentance or faith, but a mere trait of information only. This is Gnosticism, or salvation acquired by knowledge, as held by the Gnostics — a sect of spurious Christians, which overrun many countries, in the first ages of Christianity. On this plan as set forth by Mr. Bal- lou, how few even in Christendom, are there who can be saved, as the death of Christ can do no good to any man, only as he can understand the abstruse, allegorical and figurative meaning of matters too high for the entire comprehension of the human mind. Even Mr. Ballon himself, at the very moment of his writing the above sentiment, was far from being sure of his own salvation, as attainable in this life ; inasmuch as he was not absolutely certain, that he did fully and completely understand the figurative meaning of Christ's death. But on the orthodox plan ot' faith, the simple as well as ' saved : as. faith in its very i; >poses something materially different from knov od is in a manner, a c l of ignorance ; on which . r aith has ce. On this plan, the ignorant may come to God as well as the. wise ; believing his wor ^editing those things in his word, which are too r their understanding, (as did Abraham) as are many subjects of true theology. Is not this a better way than to expect salvation by mere knowledge, or by the under- standing of abstruse figures, and better adapted to the uni\ condition of mankind !■ We Leave the reader to decide, even though a Universalist Universalists do not believe that the conduct of human be whether good or had in this life, can in any way affect their con- dition in eternity, as being either rewardable or punishable; yet says Mr. Baltou, in his Treatise oh A tonem " 144, in speaking of "atoning grace,'' says, " it opens a door of everlas- ting hope, and conducts the soul, by way of the cross, to immor- tality and eternal life." Now this sentence is admitting, in the fullest sense, that salvation in another world is conditional; because he ascribes it to atoning irrace ; which grace, had it never been manifested, no door of hope about immortality and eternal life could ever have been opened ; and if no door had been opened, then no soul could ever enter into such a state, consequently salvation is conditional, depending on c; atoning grace/' The chief inconsistency, however, of the above senti- ment, consists in ascribing eternal salvation to grace; as eter- nal salvation, according to Universalist doctrine, was never placed in relation to the human race, in any other attidude than that of absolute certainty, without reference to any condition or circumstance whatever, other than the eternal will of God : to say it is of grace, therefore, on account of any medium, is to contradict, point blank, this indubitable certainty, and overturns their opinion of unconditional salvation, inasmuch as atoning grace, may or may not be received, as the human soul may elect, as the Scriptures teach — which say : " Hive diligence to make your calling and election sure. . . . for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the evi rlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesu On the Universalist plan, " immortality and eternal life" is just as sure to all mankind, without this -dorr of hope :" without the way of the cro ring grac they do not hold that the death of ] procured any- thing for the world in relation to this thing, but was merely an attestation of good wishes, but not in any sense vicarious or expiatory. 3S2 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN The Scriptures, in both the Old and New Testaments, speak mnch of the merciful disposition of God toward mankind. But this is entirely contradicted by the theory of Universalis^ ; inas- much as they hold that each sinner, from Adam down to the last human being which may be born into the world, must suffer ac- cording to the demerit of each sin, in their own souls and per- sons ; by which doctrine mercy is excluded altogether from the earth, or rather never had an entrance here, unless it is contended that a privilege to suffer is the mercy of God ; which to us how- ever, appears a great and very curious absurdity. If it is true that God has a use for every volition of the human heart, whether good or bad, as stated in Mr. Ballou's Treatise on Atonement, as follows : « The Almighty has a good intention in every volition of man," how is it, therefore, that it can be shown a just thing, that any man, however sinful, should suffer, as by it God's good intention is carried into effect ? To this a Universalist will reply, by saying, however sinful each wicked volition of each individual of the human race may be, they are nevertheless, when considered as a great whole, not at all sinful. But to this we reply in our turn and say, that which is not sin- ful as a great whole, cannot be sinful in its parts, as this would be a contradiction in the very nature of the thing, and therefore absurd. On the subject of man's becoming a sinful creature, Univer- salists, who have given themselves the trouble to make out a theory on this subject, have the following curious opinions : They believe that when God created Christ, long before the creation of this world and of man, that he created man in Christ ; at which time, and in which condition, the law of the spirit of life was the whole governing principle of his nature. But at this time, when so created in Christ, man as yet had no form or tangible being, yet was in a condition in which the law of the spirit of life was his governing principle ; however difficult this is to be conceived of, so they think it was. But after this first creation, in which man was good, — God, as if not satisfied with him, reduced him to a state of flesh and blood, or to a state of formation ; in which condition, the law of sin became the gov- erning principle of the whole man. In this condition, it appears the great Supreme does not like him, half as well as before ; and accordingly institutes the gospel to bring him back again from this formed condition, and from under the taw of sin, to his original state of being in Christ, before he had any tangible exis- tence, or was placed on the earth, as stated by Moses. That we are not mistaken about their views on this subject, we quote Hosea Ballou, from his Treatise on Atonement, page 145, as follows : "1. God created man in Christ the Mediator, in which creation, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. . . . was the whole governing principle of his nature. AM. ELS OF THE SCRIPTl tttES. 3$3 2d. After the creation of man in this divine constitution, it pleased the Almighty to reduce him to a state of formation in flesh and blood, in which constitution the law of sin. . . . became the governing principle of the whole man. 3d. God has revealed his divine and glorious purpose of bringing man back from his formed state, and from under the law of the earthly Adam, to his original created slate, forever to be under the governing power of the law of the heavenly constitution.'' Now what are the errors of this invention, about the introduc- tion of sin into the world ? They are as follows : 1st. It sup- poses that Christ, the Eternal word, was at some vast distance of past eternity, created and brought into being ; which is absurd, unless we can suppose there was a time when God had no word, or in other words, no power, notwithstanding the Scriptures state plainly that — u In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. and the word was God. And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the lather, full of srrace and truth." St. John i. 1, 14. Now, as to this beginning, — what was it ? Uni- versalists will probably say, it was the time when God made his own word, or power, or in other words, when he made Christ. But the orthodox sects, say it was the time when Christ, the word, the poxcer of God began first of all to make angels — the first spirits of heaven — and subsequently, all worlds, with their various inhabitants. This we prove from the same chapter, verse 3, as follows : « All things were made by him, (Christ) and without him was not anything made that was made." Con- sequently he made angels, as well as men, and all things else, which can be called being, himself excepted; as God, and the word of God, or the power of God, is independent, and self-exis- tent — a being without a cause. So that we perceive their first error, namely, that Christ was created, is a palpable one, of the first magnitude ; setting forth as if God created his own u-ord, or power, which, in, and of itself, is absurd. To this sense, respecting the deity of Christ, there is no contradiction, as sup- posed by Universalists, in the 14th verse of the 3d of Revelation, which calls him the " Beginning of the Creation of God f as if God created him ; when the truth is, the passage means that Christ, the word, and power of God, was the beginner of the Creation of God, instead of being created, and is properly the king of all created beings. He even created his own body, in which he afterwards appeared ; as it is said, a body hast thou prepared for me. A second error is therefore, that man Was never so created, as supposed above, by Mr. Ballou ; for if Christ was not created, it follows of necessity, that man was never created in him — in the sense of the above author — before he was made flesh and blood, 3S1 HISTORY OF THi; FALLEN as we find him in the garden of Eden. This also makes confu- sion, with the account of man's condition, as given by Moses. when it is said, that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul," or spirit. Gen. ii. 7. But, says the reader, how does the confusion appear, as spoken above ? It ap- pears in his having two spirits ; the first spirit, which was made in Christ, before he was formed of dust, and the second spirit, after he was formed of dust, and thus the confusion is made out ; because a man with two souls, or two spirits, would be a monster, as well as a man with two bodies. And third, it makes God the direct author of sin ; not only of sin as a great whole, but of sin in each individual of the human race, by fixing it into the nature of the first individual from whom each individual was to proceed, till the birth of the last human being, while time shall endure. It shows up the Divine being in a changeable light ; inasmuch as the opinion makes it out that God did not like man, as he was in his first created condition in Christ, before he was formed of the dust, although he was then wholly under the laio of the spirit of life, and consequently took him out of that first condition, and reduced him to flesh and blood — in which condition, the law of sin, was made to wholly govern him. And now, according to Mr. Ballon, he did not like him, and therefore, has instituted the gospel to bring him back again to his first condition, as he was before he was made of dust, and if he might not even then be suited with him, who can tell what next the Supreme Being may see fit to reduce him to. To substantiate this opinion, that of man's existence, before he was reduced to.an earthly creation, he refers the reader to the second chapter of Genesis, fifth verse, where it is said : " And there was not a man to till the ground." From that place, he infers that the account of the creation of Adam and Eve, as given in the first chapter, relates entirely to Adam's having first been created in Christ, before he was reduced from that condi- tion to a condition of flesh and blood. But this inference is disallowed, when we examine that first chapter in relation to this thing, which is as follows, sec verse 26 : " And God said let ms make man in our image, after our likeness ; let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Now if the" notion of Mr. Ballon is the right notion on this subject, we enquire in what way could man, or could Adam and Eve, have exerted their delegated government and control of the animals of the earth, if atthat time they existed only in the fanciful and chimerical manner he has represented ? And more than this, how could they have, in that condition, multiplied, replenished, and subdued the earth, governed the animals, &c? a \., - 388 The thing was impossible, and therefore untrue ; by which we ascertainthi 'man's creation, asgiven inthejirst chapter, is the i '. with only this difference, in the s • ■ >nd th d, namely, of t, while i:i the firsts th the manner is de- Lrtheron. That man was thus i creal d, is con- tends! by u, on page 35 el' his Treatise on Atone- ment : the most unprbveable • started by man, and the most chimeri appears to uj . I [e thinks, because it is d in Gen. le in the image of God, !>. i. 2; '.5. that the Son of God is theex- i of God, that consequently Christ the .! ever i reated. But this can- not be true, as it has for \ uence this wonderful conclu- sion, namely, that the.- and is the Mediator between God and man, and is in truth the man Christ Jesus. "We prove this to be his opinion, from his own statement, in his Treatise on Atonement^ page 123, as follows : "It is plain to me, from Scripture, that the" Mediator is the first human soul which was created/' But this is refuted, when it is recollected that the body of Adam was formed before we hear anything about his soul n. ii. 7, "And the Lord Gcd formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of (animal) life, and man became a living (immortal and intellec- tual) soul. Here. is no intimation < soul of Adam having been in existence before his body was made ; nay. the very for- mation of the sentence shows point blank, that it was created, and produced 1 y the mighty power of God, which was Christ the eternal word . ubsequt ni to the formation of his body, inas- much as it reads thus : " and man I a living soul :"' which form of speech shows its progression at that identical time, into being, under the Almighty hand ; and that it had no previous existence as supposed by Mr. Ballon. On this view, namely, that God created ( !hrist, and then that Christ created all things else, there follows another exceedingly curious result, which is, that Christ created himself: for it is said of him — John, i. 3 — that "all things were made by him ; and without him was not any thing made that was made ;" and consequently he must have made himself, if lie is not the self-existent God, or the Scripture as above quoted is not true, which says Christ made all things, and includes himself if he is a created being, and is included in the idea of all things. That man's soul, or that the first human soul which was made was not Christ the Mediator, as supposed and plainly stated by Mr. IJallou, appears from another quarter : see John xvii. 5, as follows: -And now, father (of my humanity) glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had 3S6 History of the fallen With thee before the world was." Here it is proven that Christ existed before the creation of this earth, or mundane system. Bat as it respects the first human soul, it was not made till the whole world was finished, animals and all ; when on the sixth day of creation the body of Adam was made, and the soul brought forth from non-existence immediately after, and united with it. Wherefore we think we have overturned the idea of Christ having been created, as well also as that he was the first human soul which was created ; and refutes the idea of man's heavenly nature existing before it did exist in his soul, as first produced at the time his body and soul were united in the terres- tial paradise. But as to the image of God, in which man was at first created, we ought to give our opinion, inasmuch as we have contra- dicted the opinion of others. We think it was simply the im- mortality of the soul, together with its intellectuality and free agency, in which respects it is the image of God. This opinion also includes the body of man, as it is to be raised from the dead ; and the same numercial particles, which for a time the spirit is to be separated from, are to assume a different mode of ex- istence, which as mere matter, considered abstractedly from the spirit, cannot be shown to have been affected by the change called death : and therefore this vehicle of the ever living spirit, is, as to its endless being from the time of its creation, equally the image of God with the soul. Therefore it is said that man, including both soul and body, and reasoning faculties, was made in the image of God. But says one, and possibly a Hicksite Friend, what reason can there be in raising up the very same body from the grave, which died and was buried there, and soon returned to dust as it was ? where is the propriety of such a supposition? We answer this as follows : will it not be an in- gredient in the happiness of the blessed, that identity, as well of body as of mind shall then exist ? will it not be to the praise of the glory of God, that the very evidence of Christ's victory over death shall be ever present among the hosts of heaven ? is it not a virtue and a pleasure, when a poor miserable wretch, who is suddenly exalted to great opulence and power, should preserve the remembrance of his former poverty, and thus have the cause of both praise and humility ever before his eyes ? The same, so far as this simile can apply, may be supposed of the resur- rection bodies of the saints. It must be a pleasure, that the same bodies and minds which were originated together in the earth, were redeemed together, did acts of worship, homage and praise together, were afflicted together, should be together in fairer worlds than this, to be the evidence of the state from whence they were raised up to eternal glory by the death and merits of Jesus Christ. All the distinctness of limb and counte- nance, for identity's sake, must accompany a resurrection of ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 3S* the body. Whether the subject were in infancy, youth, or old age, male or female, whether great or small, there must remain the traits of identity — which very circumstance will greatly en- hance the happiness of the saved, as by this means they can know each other. The same argument will apply in relation to the damned ; the same bodies which must then accompany the same mind, which agreed so well together in acts of sin and depravity. Therefore not only teeth lor identity's sake, but all the limbs, with the countenance, attitudes and gestures, must and will ac- company the mind through all the dismal journey of eternal damnation, as the evidence of their origin on earth, and of the opportunities they there enjoyed of having secured a better in- heritance, and also the use they made of such opportunities; which reflections will cause them to gnash their teeth, and blas- pheme the righteous judge of their doom ; and thus possibly we see the reason of that singular expression — gnash their teeth for pain. But as it respects the Scriptures, which state that Jesus Christ is the express image of the person of God, they are to be under- stood in a much higher sense ; for while man has but few traits of the eternal God. Christ has all the traits of that being. Now mark what is said in Hebrews on this point, respecting the true character and person of Christ, as follows : " Who being the brightness of his (God's) glory, and the express image of his person," &c. In the account of man's being the image of God, as given in Genesis, there are no such statements as ex- press image, brigJitness of his glory, &c. which sufficiently marks the immense difference there is between the sense in which man is the image of God, and that in which Christ is his image. Mr. Ballou seems to believe, on page 151 of his Treatise on Atonement, that could it be shown in Scripture that a soul on leaving this life in an unsanctiried and unprepared condition. cannot in eternity be altered for the better, that it would present a formidable, if not an unanswerable objection to universal sal- vation ; but avers that no such Scripture can be found. To prove this, we have no idea of quoting what he calls an addition to the Scriptures, which reads, " as the tree falls so it lies ; as death leaves its, so judgment will find us ;" as we do not know that it can be found in the Bible ; yet there are passages having pretty much that meaning, which we will now present the read- er. " For what is man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ; or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matth. xvi. 2(5. The same is stated by St. Luke, ix. 25. < : For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world and lose himself, or be a castaway?" That these passa- ges do not allude to the loss of one's natural life, is clear 5 be- 3SS HISTORY OF lili: FALLEN cause all men, both rich and poor, must and do die, and there-* fore the terms - : lose himself, or be a cast away/' cannot refer to this fact. It most evidently has a moral allusion, therefore, and alludes to the penal death of the soul in another world. There is no other sense in which the terms cast away can be understood, as there is hope in all cases, while there is life remainining, on which account the terms arc inapplicable to any temporal condi- tion. No man can lose his soul in this life, or, if the reader please, no man can lose his life, while he is alive. It is clear, therefore, the loss cannot be sustained except when temporal life is past, and in another world. This is what St. Paul meant when he said, "But 1 keep my body under, and bring- it into subjection, least that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away . : ' 1 Cor. ix. 27. Now did this Apostle mean by the words cast-away, temporal death / By no means ; as however much he might keep his body under temporal death could not be avoided. It remains, therefore, that he meant by the terms cast away, damnation after death, and nothing else but this. There are other passages which go to show the loss of the soul after death, as in Luke xvi. 23, where is an account of the death and damnation of the soul of a cer- tain rich man, of whom it is said that he died, " and in hell he lifted up his eyes, (instinctive knowledge of the condition he was in,) being in torments . . . tormented in this flame? Much in- genuity has been expended by Universalists, to do away the ev- idence it gives of such a state after death, but evidently very far fetched, and without the least plausibility. Could they but find one passage in all the Bible half as plain as it relates to the really unconditional salvation of all mankind, they would seize upon it as upon hid treasure ; but it cannot be found. It cannot be ap- plied to the Gentiles, as their condition was a condition of hope ; for they were promised to the Messiah, who was to reign over them in the fullness of time, which he could not do if they were in hell. The hell they were in could not be the grave, as in it there is no suffering ; it could not have been a guilty con- science suffering in this life, as in such a case there is hope ; while in the case of the damnation of this rich man's soul, the text offers no kind of hope, when it says that an impassable gulf intervened between him and a happy state. Also in Luke xii. 20, is an account, of another rich man, who had promised himself a long and luxurious life, in the enjoyment of his wealth ; but as it was seen of God that he so unboundedly trusted to his wealth, to the exclusion of the support of the Supreme Being, it was seen fit to take him from the earth, as we learn from the above Scripture, where it is said in relation to him, "Thou fool, this night shall tin/ soul be required of thee" Concerning these two cases as above alluded to, even though they could be said to be parables, which, however, we believe ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 3S0 cannot be made out — yet they must be considered as true, as no parable can convey a false doctrine and have God for its author, by the use of over strained language — which is done in Luke, 16 — if there is no hell; for the terms, "hell" "tormented in this flame" &c. or flames, is language altogether too severe and horrible to be applied to any condition of man in this life — Jew or Gentile — saint or sinner — savage or civilized. Now if it is impossible that any soul of man can be a cast- away after death, as Cnivcrsalists believe, then the above quoted Scriptures are without meaning, as according to them no place or condition, either in this life or in that which is to come, can the soul of man be considered as cast away, or as wholly lost, which is the meaning of the term. It would appear that the Revelator believed this thing possible, when he says. Rev. xx. C, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power." The second death in this place, it appears, is to take place after the first resurrec- tion ; which first resurrection is that of the saints, as stated by St. Paul, 1st Thes. iv. 16, " the dead in Christ shall rise first/' But those who are not privileged with a resurrection at that time will not be considered the dead in Christ, and will there- fore be hurt by the second death, which is damnation in hell, from which we have heard of no deliverance, and is to be con- summated in a lake, or ocean, or world of fire and brimstone, which is the second death. The first death w r as that of the fall of the whole human race in Adam ; the second death will be that death which will follow this life, and will be visited upon all such as shall, in the estimation of God, be guilty of finally rejecting his offers of mercy in his Son, when his mediation shall have ended, which will end at the time of the final judg- ment, or end of the world. To lessen the force of this last quotation — Rev. xx. 6 — there need be no attempt made by Universalists, because it is found in the book of Revelation ; for Ballou, Balfour, and the best writers of the order, quote that book freely, wherever it suits their pur- pose, therefore it must be authentic and good Scripture. " Fear God who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell." Matth. x. 28. "But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear : fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell ; yea. I say unto you fear him." Luke, xii. 5. Now, if as Mr. Ballou seems to believe, the souls of wicked persons leaving the world in that condition, are to be privileged with an opportunity of further improvement, in a moral point of light, it appears they arc to take their first lesson in hell ; and whether they will im- prove fast enough ever to get out, is extremely doubtful, as we have no intimation that the judgments of God is to be reversed or mitigated, but the contrary, which is eternal — Heb, vi. 2. 29 390 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN That the best writers among Universalists do believe that the wicked, leaving this life in that character, may be converted after death, we prove from Mr. Ballou's Treatise on Atonement, page 169, as follows : " Why the idea has become so general, that souls cannot be enlightened and converted from sin to holiness after the death of the body, is difficult for me to determine.'' Here we see this writer admits the belief, and contends for it, and could he but perceive it, yields to the idea of there being a hell in another world, inasmuch as in the above sentence he admits that human souls may be in a sinful state, and conse- quently in an unhappy and miserable one in eternity, even from his own showing, for he says that sin and misery are insepara- ble. But that such may be the case, is extremely improbable, on account of powerful Scripture intimations to the contrary, which we have already shown, and still proceed to show — see Ecc. xi. 3 : " And if the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be." Respecting this quotation from Ecclesiastes, are we to imagine that it means no more than to inform men that a tree will lie still on the ground when cut down, if nobody don't draw it away. till it rots : or are we to gather from it that the spirit of inspira- tion, intends by the figure to apply it to the final characters of the human race after death; and as the natural position of a tree when felled to the earth is inherently an unalterable one, so also is the condition of all human souls, who pass from time to eternity, retaining without end the same characters, whether good or bad, in which they leave this life. If so, then we have a meaning worthy inspiration ; but if it apply simply to a tree, and the manner of its lying on the ground, it appears to us a very simple communication indeed. But, if we have hit the right meaning of the passage, we think we can corroborate it still further than we have already done ; see Heb. ix. 27 : "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." But what kind of a judgment is that to be which is to take place after death ? We will let St. Paul inform us ; see 2d Cor. v. 10 : l: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad " It is useless for Universalists to pretend that this is done every hour and every day, as in that case the Apostle could not have put it in the future even after death, as he has done, but would have written, that men do now appear before the judgment seat of Christ, in the present tense ; which he has not done, as Universalists wish he had. This was a doctrine believed by Solomon, who lived a thousand years before the time of Christianity, (and five hundred years before the time of Zoroaster.) as appears from the last verse of the last chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes, who says that " God shall bring every work into judgment, with every ANOELS OF TQE SCRIPTURES. 391 secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." This is also put in the future, the same as St. Paul has stated the doc- trine, and cannot therefore be in this life. That the wicked, departing this life in that character, are never to change for the better, or be converted in eternity, we further show from Rev. xxii. 11, as follows : " He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he which is filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous let him be righteous still, and he that is holy let him be holy still." That this statement of the Revelator is intended to be applied to the moral condition of the souls of men after death, is evident from the fact, that in no period of human life, does the word of God so fix the conditions of men as that it can be said of them, " he that is filthy let him be filthy still ;" or, " he that is unjust let him be unjust still ;" as if at some period of life, it were impossible after that to reform one's char- acter. It is in vain to apply this Scripture to the overthrow of the Jews by the Romans, because it was not written till about twenty years after that occurrence, according to the best authors on that subject, as we have before shown. This sense of the quotation is confirmed by Jesus Christ to the Revelator, in the verse next ensuing, who says, " Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." But says the reader, how can this Scripture be ap- plied to the day of judgment, on account of its saying, " Behold I come quickly" as if it were expected this should be fulfilled immediately ? It can be applied in this way, the Christian dis- pensation is the last dispensation of the earth ; or as it is said in another place, " it is the last time ;" which dispensation will soon be over, when the end will come ; and then shall every man receive according to his doings, and if found filthy ana* unjust, so he must remain, for all any light the Scriptures give Dn this subject to the contrary. We have not the least possible doubt that the 46th verse of the 25th of St. Matthew has this very subject in view when it says, u And these shall go away into (eternal or) everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life (everlasting or) eternal." Now if these are to go away into eternal punishment, which is according to the original, it is impossible to be understood otherwise, as every educated Uni- versalist or orthodox scholar well knows ; how is it therefore possible, that the idea, as suggested by Mr. Ballou, of conversion after death, is in any way admissible ? And if not, then an in- surmountable barrier is opposed to universal, unconditional sal- vation, sure enough, even according to Mr. Ballou's own admis- sion. It is, however, proper for us in this place to state, that after Mr. Ballou had written his Treatise on Atonement, in which he has suggested the possibility of men's dying in their sins, and of their being converted after death, as above noticed, that he has seen fit in his preface of that work to draw back a 392 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN little from the position, and rather to disallow either ; as no doubt he found out that it was in reality admitting the existence of too much hell after death, as he says sin and misery are not to be separated. In relation to this we remark, that it is likely Mr. Ballou and his coadjutors in opinions, had not exactly made up their minds to believe in the grand salvo of the resurrection, which is to save all, both good and bad, and to fit them for hea- ven. Thus we see that it is a thriving system, and to what size it may yet arrive is hard to guess. But we come now to notice one of the strangest vagaries on theology ever propagated as sober truth, and this is the opinion of Universalists about the fire of the New Testament, into which sinners are there threatened to be cast, and to be burnt without end. We will quote a few passages, and then state their belief of their meaning. " And now, also, the axe is laid unto the root of the trees, therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire." Matthew, iii. 1 0. Also, in verse 12, it is said of Jesus Christ, that " he will tho- roughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner ; but he will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire? " And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and east it from thee : for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body should be cast into hell." Matth. v. 29. " But whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire? Verse 22. Also, in Mark, chap. ix. verses 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, the subject of the fire of hell, which is there called un- quenchable, is over and over repeated, in the same form of speech, and set forth as a state of distress and punishment, as well as the other passages before quoted on the subject of hell fire. But what think ye is the opinion of Universalists of all these passa- ges, and others like them, as found in all the Scriptures ? Why that they denote salvation, the fire of God's love, &c; which, were it so, all we can reply is, that the wicked in the New Tes- tament, are threatened with nothing less than eternal salvation for all their sins ; a circumstance remarkably calculated to re- form the wicked wherever they may chance to be read. Accor- ding to this opinion, the hell fire which can never be quenched, and into which the wicked, which are called chaff, are threat- ened with being cast, is the love of God, the happiness of the Christian religion, and salvation. To prove Universalists be- lieve this, see Ballou's Treatise on Atonement, pages 161 to 167 inclusive. Of this belief, says Mr. Ballou, "I am as fully persuaded .... as 1 am of any idea in all my study." If threatenings and promises mean the same thing, then vir- tue and vice are but one, reioards and ptniishment are the same, heaven and hell are the same, God and the devil are but one and the same being, saint and sinner are but the same char- acters, moral government is a farce, accountability is nothing, ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 393 farther than a mere accountability to one's self, and even this is of no mortal use : angels are men, and men are devils, and devils are saints ; because men are saints, the fall is no fall, sin is not sin, death is an enemy, yet was appointed of God, Christ was a mere man, and needed salvation as well as others ; there is no free agency, all is fate, all is one great machine, all is according to the will and desire of God ; and yet sin, it is argued, exists. Thus Universalist arguments on the Scriptures, jumble and con- found truth and error, without end, object, or aim, so far as we are able to understand their views ; on which account we con- sider their system a system of infidelity, of the most complex, confused and bewildering description, ever propagated amongst men. Here also we will state that Mr. Ballou in the preface of his book on Atonement, has in a measure, recanted, in relation to the fire, so often spoken of in the New Testament ; which, in the body of that work, he says was that fire which purifies the soul of man, but that he now thinks it wholly applicable to the ruin of the Jews, and their suffering. Here also we discover the instability of these writers : they seem to have but little con- dence, after all, in their strange dogmas ; and that which they write at one time, they will perhaps disallow at another ; but whether their alterations will be better or worse, we shall have to wait and see before we can tell : as it respects the above draw backs, we do not perceive that he has bettered the matter at all. In a certain place, it is said by St. Paul, that if in this life, Christians have hope only, that of all men they were the most miserable. Now on the ground of Universalism, had not Paul have been far happier, and better off, if he had abandoned Chris- tianity ? — as from his own statement, he has made out that he and his fellows were the most miserable of men, except the hope they had of heaven, if they proved faithful to the end. But according to Universal ists, Paul had no more hope than any other man ; as heaven was sure to all alike : was he not there- fore foolish that he did not abandon it ? It is of no use for Uni- versalists to say that St. Paul was happy in the midst of his sorrows ; for Paul himself, has said that he and his fellows were of all men the most miserable, without that hope: and as Uni- versalists do not allow that heaven is to be a reward, for what a man may suffer here for righteousness' sake, — we perceive that Paul's hope, (with that of all Christians,) was not a reason why they should suffer, as Christians, so ??iuch misery, as he speaks of ; consequently they suffered as fools, if Universalism is true. A greater deception was never practiced, than is practiced In- Universal ist writers ; who, when they find any general expres- sions of Scripture, making large, free, and full promises to the righteous, who have complied with the conditions, immcdiately seise upon it, and claim it for all, both good and bad — uncondi- 394 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN tionally. One such text, we will here exhibit, upon which Uni- versalists seize as a key text, by which they explain many others, in the same way. This text is Gen. xii. 3 : "And I will bless them that bless thee, (Abraham) and curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Now on this text, they claim universal salvation for each individual of the human race, as if anything short of this could not be a blessing, though ever so much opportunity were afforded to all the families of the earth, and to such persons as should choose to abuse the blessing of opportunity, to be saved — could be no bless- ing. But to show that this promise was, after all, a conditional one, as it related to certain salvation in heaven, we quote Gal. iii. 8, 9, where it is found that faith was to be the condition of salvation. The text reads: "And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." Here it is shown by St. Paul himself, who wrote by the inspi- ration of the Holy Ghost, that though the promise to Abraham included all the families of the earth, yet not one of those families could be saved, except they should have the faith of faithful Abraham : and which of all the Universalist Rabbies can prove that God would compel them to believe, or to have faith in the Saviour — the seed of Abraham ? If the salvation of the Scriptures is not to be extended to indi- viduals of the human race, conditionally, then it would appeal to us, that in the economy of God's government of the world . means should have been arbitrarily taken, as early as the apos- tacy of Adam, if not before, to have rendered it impossible for sin to have taken place, if God does not like it — and that he does not, is shown from the Scripture, where it is said that God can- not look upon sin with the least allowance — hence, he was not its author, as he is not pleased with it. There being many Scriptures which speak of the restitution of all things, and that all nations are yet to serve Christ, and that all tears shall be wiped from all eyes, and that there shall be no more sorrow nor crying, — they are to be understood as coming to pass conditionally, and as nationally. What though all nations may yet serve Christ, before the millennium, yet this does not prove that every individual will do so, or that every individual will certainly be saved, even in this life, according to the Univer- salist view of salvation, because tears are to be wiped from all eyes ; for it is to be understood after all, that tears can be wiped only from such eyes as weep ; the wicked do not weep much in this life, — it is the righteous who weep, because it is through great tribulation thaMhey enter into the kingdom : but not so the wicked, as they are not plagued as are the righteous, nor ANGELS OF TIIE SCRIPTURES, 395 chastened, nor scourged, as sons that they may be received at last. As to the times of the restitution of all things in the earth, it is to be understood in relation to the rectifying of the disorders and wretchedness, sin has produced in the world, the ignorance of mankind, their want of civil governments, in which the rights of man are to be known and respected, as are at present in the countries of Christendom — the lands of the Bible — and in no others to the same extent : all of which, we owe to God. through Jesus Christ. This will be a restitution good enought to suit a Universalist, as common morality is all the religion a man needs, or that the Scriptures speak of — as they teach the people — and such will be a restitution good enough to answer the fulfilment of the text on that subject, which the reader may find Acts, iii. 20, 21, and reads thus : " And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive (retain) until the times of restitution of all things, which God hatn spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world (the earth) began ; for Enoch was a prophet, and lived before the flood. The phraseology of the above text, shows plainly, that from time to time, or from period to period, called collectively, times of restitution, the influence of religious truth shall prevail in the earth, till all things relative to human happiness — so far as a state of good morals can bring about — shall be restored, and man as a great whole, be temporarily happy, or at least, shall know the rights of both God and men — which, as yet, they have not fully known. Till this is done by the influence of the Bible, the heaven must retain Jesus Christ, when he will come to gather in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth. This text is found Eph. i. 10. By the things in earth, we understand the souls of men and their bodies, who have had the faith of Abraham in its essence ; and whether dead or living when Christ shall come from the heaven now retaining him, they shall be gathered from the four winds, or from all parts of the earth and the sea to him, to ascend to heaven. As to the things in heaven, which are also to be gathered into Christ, or by Christ, we understand the souls of all such as have died in the faith of Abraham, and are now in 'paradise ; which we have before said in this work, is situated in the heaven all round the globe, where they are kept till the resurrection, when they and those on the earth shall be all brought together, to ascend to the final heaven of eternal happiness, with Christ, the head and captain of their salvation. Or it may be that the expressions all nations shall serve Christ, means the glorious time of the mil- lenium, which is to endure a thousand years, when truly all nations will serve Christ. But allowing they will, this circum- stance cannot benefit such nations and individuals as have not 396 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN served him. Because one man or nation is good, does that cir- cumstance ensure that good man's or good nation's reward to the wicked? Never. Thus we have, in a short way, explained, in our estimation, those all engrossing texts so much resorted to by Universalists, by the use of our key text, furnished by St. Paul, respecting how to understand the promise made to Abraham, which was to all people, on the condition of faith, and not otherwise. This is not to be considered as contradicted by any of the prophets, since the world began, however it may thwart the notion of Universalists about an unconditional entrance of all mankind, both good and bad finally into heaven. Mr. Ballou, Balfour, and all Universalists, make themselves much sport in trying to show that the orthodox sects by fair consequence, make out the devil to be rather more powerful than God is, on account of his having far more subjects among men than God has. But do Universalists fix things any better? We think not ; for their devil, the lust of men, has full as many in his power, if not a great many more ; which God should pre- vent, unless their lust-devil is supposed by them to be somewhat stronger than God. Universalists allow, nay they contend, that all mankind, are always more or less wicked till death, on their view of wickedness ; consequently their lust-devil is cer- tainly much stronger than God. Thus we see, this ridicule of theirs, in charging the orthodox with having a devil who is stronger than God, is turned upon themselves. But neither of these, the fallen angel of the orthodox faith, or the lust-devil of the Universalist faith, are strong at all ; only as human beings allow them by temptation to get the mastery, which need not be. Mr. Ballou, in his Treatise on Atonement, spends many pages of that work to make it appear that if any of the human race are, or will be miserable after death, then all will be ; and this he makes out on the ground of sympathy, supposing that all holy beings must sympathize, and therefore suffer, on the account of those who are damned. But this chimera is refuted in two ways. The first is, from a consideration that God is the best, the holiest, and consequently the most sympathetic being there is in existence. Now this God being perfectly acquainted with all the cases of sufferings and distress, not only in this world, but in the universe, and has from eternity known this, and must continue to know, even after all suffering shall come to an end, supposing such a thing possible ; is therefore just as miserable as he is sympathetic, on the position of Ballou, as above alluded to ; and makes God, therefore, the most miserable of all beings, which all will at once deny notwithstanding, and proves his position absurd. It is refuted secondly, from the possibility that God may eternally prevent a thought of the sufferings of the damned ever crossing the minds of heaven's in- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 397 habitants, except the holy angels, in whose presence and that of the Lamb, it is said they shall be tormented forever and ever. It is refuted on another view, even though all the souls who shall be saved from the earth should forever know the sufferings of the lost, from a consideration that just as much as they who are saved shall partake of the nature of God in the quality of holi- ness, will just so far be removed from a liability to suffer by sympathy, on account of the sufferings of the damned, even though Ballou's doctrine of sympathy suffering were certainly true ; for if God does not suffer on that account, with respect to the misery now endured in this earth, how is it to be shown that he cannot endue those who shall be saved in heaven with as great a quantum of his own nature as shall protect them from this supposed sampathy suffering ? it certainly can be thus sup- posed, and thus believed. We consider the position, therefore, answered and refuted ; as God does not suffer from sympathy, on account of the sufferings of others, as now experienced in this world and in others ; the Sodomites for instance, who in the time of St. Jude, were suffering the vengeance of eternal fire — not of eternal salvation — nor yet that of the destruction of the Jews by the Romans — who did not exist as a nation by thirteen hundred years, as soon as did the Sodomites. For salvation from all sin, Universalists depend on the opera- tion of God, to be exerted in and upon them at the time of the general resurrection ; by which they contend that then every human being is to be treated alike, all having a glorious resur- rection, from not only the dead, but from all sin contracted in their life time, so as to fit them for the joys of heaven. But that an equal consequence arising out of that great event, is to accrue to all of the human race alike, is shown not to be true, from Heb. xi. 35. In that chapter is St. Paul's account of the horrid suffering of thousands of Christians in his time, of whom he mentions even women, who refused to receive deliverance from torture on such conditions as no doubt was offered them, con- trary to their consciences ; submitting to death for Christ's sake, expecting thereby to have a better resurrection. This, how- ever, cannot be true, if the rusurrection is to operate on all alike. What resurrection did those martyrs suppose could not be a good one, on which account they desired a better ? This is answered in many places of the Scriptures, where it is said that the wicked dead are to rise or come forth to a resurrection of damnation, and of shame and eternal contempt, as the original every where reads. This only hope of all Universalists, there- fore, is in this Scripture annihilated beyond all doubt, as a good and a bad resurrection are here spoken of. In order to give God a good chance to make all mankind holy in an arbitrary and coercive manner, Universalists suppose the soul dies when the body does, or sleeps, to say the least of it ; till 398 HISTORY OP THE FALLEN the resurrection ; this is their reason for not believing in the soul's immortality ; but this is but a fond chimera, in order to save all who die in their sins, notwithstanding Christ has said that if a man dies in his sins that he cannot come where he is, the place which he has promised to all his saints who shall die in the Lord. It is said by the Saviour, respecting Judas his betrayer, that it had been better for that man had he never been born. Mark, xiv. 21. But if universal salvation in heaven is certainly to be the lot of all men, this Scripture cannot be true ; as no matter how great a man's suffering may be in this life, if he goes to heaven at last ; it cannot be said of him in any way it can be viewed, that it would been better if he had not been born. Here then the doctrine of future sufferings is also taught, which no Unversalist can possibly avoid or subvert, and give the text its full force and meaning. Even though it could be said of Judas, that in addition to any sufferings he may have endured during his natural life and at his death, he should suffer in hell myriads of ages, and then be released, and enter into a ceaseless state of happiness, it could not be said with truth, that it would be better if he had not been born. There is no way to make this out but on the idea of eternal punishment. By Universal- ist writers, however, it has been attempted to be shown that the Saviour's words, " good were it for that man (Judas) if he had never been born," than to have betrayed the son of man — meant after all, nothing more than a mere allusion to the sufferings of Judas, from the time he went out and told the Sanhedrin that he had betrayed the innocent blood, till the time he went and hung himself, including his death ; and that the words, "good had it been," &c. were but a common mode of expression, then in use among the Jews, when they wished to speak of any one whose crimes had rendered them obnoxious to the laws of so- ciety. They contend that the Saviour used these words only in their common acceptation, as in use among the Jews. But if so, then it follows that the same might have been said by him in relation to all the Christians of that day, for they were counted as criminals, and went to the death for their opinions ; good then, it might have been said, had they never been born, as Judas' condition was no worse than that of the martyrs, who were put to death in the most awful manner, except his soul was damned. But we are not at liberty to suppose the Saviour would bandy words, or common place speeches, with but little and uncertain meaning, even allowing the Jews did often use it in such a manner ; for all the words of Jesus Christ are the words of the eternal God, incarnate, who spoke as never man spake. According to Universalists, Judas Iscariot, in a few hours after his crime, went directly to heaven, or to a peaceful grave, soul ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 399 and body, to await with all saints the sound of the last trump, when he with them, and all the good and the bad togeth- er, are to ascend to heaven ; while the disciples, who did not betray Christ, remained on the earth, some a longer and •ome a shorter time, suffering all mariner of abuses, and lastly death, in the most shameful manner ; and gained nothing there- by, more than Judas did, who saved himself the trouble of a longer state of suffering by his more sudden death. Are we to believe, in order to make out that there is no hell after death, as do Universalists, that Christ had no other allusion than to the few hours of affliction Judas endured, after he had betrayed his master, in those awful words, " good had it been for that man had he never been born ?" We are not — except we wish to charge the Saviour with a falsehood ; as except the soul of Judas went to a ceaseless hell in eternity, the words he there uttered are not strictly true. Christ came not into the world to use uncertain language, or common place phrases, by which to communicate his doctrines — but to speak the truth — to be a re- prover — a corrector of errors — a purifyer of opinions and doc- trines — to guide men in all coming ages till the end, into all truth ; it is derogatory to his God-like character to think other- wise. Had poor wretched Judas have known the doctrine of Universalists, as to the final happiness and holiness of all men, how it would have buoyed his soul up with hope in that dreadful hour, and would have made him so happy as that he might al- most have been persuaded to kill himself, with joy and triumph, i nstead of horror. Whether there is a state of suffering or not after death, there would seem to be no doubt, from the reading of the 73d Psalm ; and though we have so abundantly proved that there is in the course of this work, yet we will add the following : David, it appears, had nigh well given up his religion, and concluded that as the wicked were so prospered in this life, that he had suffered for naught in the cause of his God and religion ; he even went so far as to say that he had cleansed his heart and washed his hands in innocency in vain ; but that when he went into the sanctuary God had shown him that this was not true ; for he there discovered that the end of the wicked was to be damna- tion in hell after death, as we understand him ; then he made his confession, and acknowledged that he had been exceeding foolish. See what he says of them in that Psalm : " There are no bonds (or fears) in their death, their strength (of mind at that hour, is firm," (being ignorant.) During their lifetime, he says of them that they were not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued as other men. Their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart can wish. And they say, How doth God know l is there knowledge in the Most High ? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world." But what is 400 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN the closing scene respecting them ? " Surely thou didst set them in slippery places : thou castedest them down into destruc- tion. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment ? they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awakeneth, so O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image." Now, when can all this take place respecting these characters 1 Certainly not in this life ; because the text- describes them as temporally happy all their lives, even to death, and even then they have no fears. We defy, therefore, all the ingenuity of all the Universalists of Christendom, to save these characters from a state of suffering after death, as here attested to by David ; and if they cannot, then the hell which the orthodox sects believe exists, is made out. Who are the characters in this life, whose image God despises ? No7ie is our answer ; for it is written, < : his tender mercies are over all his works" (in this life.) But there is coming a time when this will not be true — a time when God will despise the image of the wicked, and will utterly destroy them with terrors. If Universalism is true, then the Apostles preached it ; but if they preached the glad tidings of no hell, no day of judgment, and no devil, why did the Pagans persecute them ? Nay, it was because they preached the exact contrary in all the above res pects. Can an instance be found, where the wicked have ever put to death a Universalist, for telling them that these things do not exist ? It cannot. Their doctrine agrees so well with the carnal mind, that persecution cannot be produced from that quar- ter. Do not the wicked, if they believe it, rejoice in Universalism ? as it offers them the prospect of happiness after death, on which account they care nothing about this life ? and no reason why they should, for if heaven is sure to all, why trouble themselves with self denial and the spirituality of orthodox Christianity ? Universalists deny the doctrine of the forgiveness of sin, when men repent and reform, holding that the conscience suf- fers, till divine justice is satisfied ; on which account pardon is made impossible. But the Scriptures are against this dogma of theirs, which to prove we quote as follows : Col. iii. 13, " For- bearing one another, and forgiving one another ; if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." In the Lord's prayer, the doctrine of forgiveness is as prominent a doctrine as any inculcated in it ; which says, " for- give us our trespasses, as we forgive them who trespass against us." As far back in time as the era of David, this doctrine was believed, even in the Jewish church ; see the 32d Psalm, verse 5 : "I acknowledge my sin unto thee, (O God,) and mine ini- quity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord : and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." In the same Psalm, at the 1st verse, the same doctrine is expressed : " Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven" Also in the ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 401 51st Psalm, it is written by David : " Have mercy upon me O God ! according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions." Also, in Nehemiah, ix. 17, it is said : " But thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness." Isaiah, lv. 7, teaches the same belief, where it is written : " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abun- dantly PARDON." That remission of sins might be made possible to man on repentance, was the very object of the promise of the seed of the woman, who was to come. This we prove from Luke, xxiv. 45, 46, 47 : " Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day : and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." In this last quotation it is shown, that both the doc- trine of the remission of sins, and that of repentance, are taught ; and that by the eternal God himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, after his resurrection from the dead ; and yet both these doctrines, so deeply interesting the character of the Son of God, and the happiness of all true penitents, is denied by Universal- ists, for the reason above given. As it respects repentance, they consider this doctrine as held by the orthodox and as taught in the Scriptures, as highly licentious ; for say they, it allows a man to be as wicked as he will all his life long, providing he repents but a moment before his death, which saves him. But this is a false view of the subject ; for as life is so uncertain, it is always recommended to all men, by all orthodox ministers of religion, to repent now ; and besides this, they always teach the immense importance of spending the whole life in piety and re- ligion ; because they believe this circumstance will greatly enhance their glorification in heaven, as a reward which the righteous judge will bestow according to character, at the gen- eral resurrection. With this view, are the doctrines of repent- ance and pardon licentious ? We think not ; while on the con- trary opinion, as held by Universalists, namely, that repentance and remission are not possible, we show that such an opin- ion is directly licentious, as follows : Will any man be religious, or lead a virtuous life, except it be for his temporal interest, when he believes that his own conscious sufferings when he sins will expiate the guilt ? and when he believes that if he hap- pens to die suddenly, or by accident, a vile and wicked person, that the general resurrection will bring him up soul and body, fitted for heaven ? We think not ; and indeed we aver that he will not ; as such a conclusion is as natural as is effect from 402 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN cause. The charge of licentiousness lies at the door of Univer- salists, therefore, so far as we are able to understand the subject. We could multiply Scripture quotation to a great length, in sup- port of the truth of the doctrines of the remission of sins, and of repentance, but think the above sufficient. But some Univer- salists, being aware how extremely preposterous it is to deny these wholesome and strictly Bible doctrines, confound repent- ance, remission, and conscience suffering, all together, believing it consistent to be pardoned and punished besides ; which belief equally nullifies both ideas ; for if a man is punished according to the demands of divine justice, how is he pardoned ? or if he is pardoned how is he punished ? We answer, that on this view, punishment and pardon are both destroyed. This doctrine, that of no repentance, and no remission of sins, as bestowed by the Supreme Being for the sake of his Son, is radically bad in its influence on the morals and dispositions of men. But in what way, says one ? As follows, we reply : if God the best of beings, will not pardon offences on repentance, how is it that men who are infinitely less good than God is, can pardon each other ? Most certainly if God will not pardon why should men do so ? As far as possible, men should imitate in their disposition the excellencies of their Creator ; and therefore if God will not pardon, but will exact punishment in this life to the full amount, why should not men do so when they trespass against each other ? Such an influence on society would be very horrible ; and yet it is the direct influence of the no par- don system of Universalists. But the Scriptures are against it, as in all the above quotations on these subjects, and especially where it is writen, that except men forgive one another their trespasses, neither will God forgive them. Christ said to the man sick of the palsy, " Son be of good cheer, thy sins be for- given thee." Matth. ix. 2. But as a climax of inconsistency and perversion of Scripture, as is common to Universalists, we notice Mr. Ballou's free and fearless use he has made of the 4th verse of the 21st of Rev., which reads, " And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more (temporal) death, neither sor- row nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." From this text Mr. Ballou is sure that an end to all suffering is then to be made — when he could but have known that the whole was spoken of the perse- vering saints, of whom it is said in another place — Rev. ii. 10 : " Be thou faithful (this was on condition,) until death, and I will give thee a crown of life." We say he (Ballou,) could have but known, that the above 4th verse of the 21st of Rev. was spoken of the righteous at the end of time ; because the chapter preceding, namely, the 20th of Rev., from the 11th to the 15th verses inclusive, describes the damnation of the finally imperii- ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 403 rent at the end of time, as follows : "And I saw a great white throne, and him (Christ) that sat upon it ; from whose face the earth and the heaven (its atmosphere) fled away, (into hell,) and there was found no more place (in the universe) for them. And I saw the dead, both small and great, stand before God, (Christ,) and the books (the Old and New Testaments,) were opened ; and another book was opened, which is the book of life, (in which is written in heaven the names of such as have been faithful until death,) and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death (the grave.) and hell, (or hades.) delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to his works, (to consist in degrees suited in severity to their charac- ters, but all eternal, as God's judgments are eternal.) And death and hell (the globe and hades, which is in its centre,) were cast into the lake of fire : this is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire," or the second death. But as it respected the righteous, who had been faithful until death, a crown of life was given to every one of them, and from whose eyes accordingly all tears were wiped away. How, therefore, Mr. Ballou can infer, that in the above acount St. John has made no difference between the finally good and finally bad, at the day of judgment, is strange. Now, could we but believe as Universalists do, we should immediately discover that all those of whom the Revela- tor speaks, when he says that "whosoever was not found writ- ten in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire," — that this lake of fire is nothing after all but the fire of God's love — the fire of the Holy Ghost — or the fire of the destruction of the Jews by the Romans — the fire of salvation from alll sin — then we might say with Mr. Ballou, that sure enough, there should be no more sorrow, nor crying, nor sighing, nor any more pain, except what the captive Jews might cry and feel. But this is not so ; as in the operation of the real fire of salvation, there is no mention made of brimstone, as is in the case of the fire of the hell of the damned — which is a very remarkable distinction, which, if it is foolish and absurd, the matter lies between God and those who disbelieve it. There was no brimstone used at the siege of Jerusalem, was there ? The result, therefore, is, that no more sorrow and crying is to be feared or felt by the finally righteous, after the day of final account ; while to the other there is to be no end of sorrows. 404 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN Shapes of Spirits, both Good and Bad. As to the forms or shapes of evil spirits, in their natural or first condition, immediately after their fall, or at the present time, there is no reason to doubt but they retain the same which they had before their fall — except the lineaments of innocency, hap- piness, and glory of their first condition has departed. But what was their first shape or fashion of existence ? This can be answered in no way but by ascertaining what the shape of those angels was who never fell from their first condition in which they were crea- ted. And as to the shape of such angels, we have no clue by which to ascertain their forms, except those instances in which they have appeared to men ; and those have always been in the human form, clothed with wings, or with white robes. To prove this, we bring forward the Bible accounts of such appearances. And in doing this, we shall avoid all those cases in which there is a doubt whether the being called an angel was a man or a spirit; and those other cases, where angels are spoken of, of whom there is no doubt of their being spirits, but their forms are not specified. But such as are specified, are as follows : Judges, xiii. read the whole chapter, and it will appear that the angel was in the form of a man, because the wife of Manoah, and the mother of Samson, speaks of him to her husband as being a man, not knowing at first to the contrary. But the sequel, which is found at the 20th verse, shows him to have been a spirit ; for when the flame of the sacrifice, which Manoah of- fered to the Lord on a rock, the angel ascended in the flame up toward heaven ; which a mere man could not have done. At the 6th verse of this chapter, the wife of Manoah said to her husband, in describing the looks of the man who had been at their house in " his absence, that his countenance (or face) was like an angel of God, very terrible." Daniel, viii. 21, " Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision, at the begin- ning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation," and informed him of things to come in after times, respecting the Messiah. The proof that this man called Gabriel, was a spirit, is that he flevi, or was caused, as the text reads, " to fly swiftly" and to reveal to Daniel things in futurity. Can a man fly? We know they cannot; this then was a supernatural angel, and his form was that of a man, or Daniel would not have called him a man, if he had not been in that form. This same angel, who appeared to Daniel, about five hundred years afterwards appeared to Zacharias, at a time when he was within the holy of holies in the temple, offering the annual oblation, according to the law of Moses, and said to him, "I am ANGELS Oy THE SCRIPTURES. 405 Gabriel, that stand m the presence of God. and am sent to speak unto thee." The proof that this Gabriel was a spirit in the form of a man, is that no man was allowed to enter the holy of holies, except the High Priest, and him hut once a year. And further, m proof that he was a spirit, when Zachanas came out of the holy of holies, or from behind the veil of the temp le, he was dumb and could not speak, by which they perceived that lie had seen :i vision. Luke, i. 19, 22. It was this same angel who an- nounced to Mary, the mother of our Lord's human nature, that the Messiah should be born of her ; as that same angel who appeared to her is called Gabriel. Luke, i. 26 to 33 inclusive. It was in the form of a man, that the anc{el appeared, who came and rolled away the great stone which had been placed at the door of the tomb, where the Saviour's body was laid after his crucifixion; see Matth. xxviii. 2, 3, "And behold there was a great earthquake : for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow ; and for fear of him the keepers (the Roman guard,) did shake, and became as dead men." The proof that this same angel was in the form of a man, is found in Mark, xvi. o, 6: " And entering into the sepulchre they, (the women, Mary and others.) saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment ; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, be not afFrighted. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified : he is risen ; he is not here : behold the place where tiiey laid him." The proof that this angel was also a spirit, is that he, " the angel of the Lord descended from heaven." The same is shown also, from St. Luke, xxiv. 4 : -And it came to pass, as they (the women, Mary and others,) were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments ; (such no doubt as adorned the Saviour, when he was transfigured on the mount, when his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can while them,) and as they (the women,) were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they (the an- gels,) said unto them, He is not here, but is risen." The account given of the angels who appeared to the women, who went to the tomb of the Saviour, by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, is very similar to another account, found in Daniel, x. 5, 90 far as relates to the form and appearance of angels, which reads as follows : -Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: his body was like the beryl, (a bluish ereen pelucid hue.) and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and hi^ arms and his feet like in color to polnhcd bra^. and the voice of his words like the voice 30 406 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN of a multitude." How wonderful a being was this ; yet his shape was that of man: how ennobled and glorious the human form, if even the heavenly hosts have this form, and worthy therefore being redeemed, to be raised from the dead, and to live forever in heaven, when it shall be made like unto Christ's glorious body. And how does that glorious body look ? see Rev. i. from 13 to 15 inclusive : " And in the midst of the seven candlesticks (John saw) one like unto the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps (the bosom,) with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow ; and his eyes as a flame of fire ; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace ; and his voice as the sound of many waters," in com- motion. This was the Son of God, Rev. ii. IS, and was also the Alpha and Omega, Rev. i. 11. As to the form of departed human spirits, we believe they retain the same shape as when connected with their bodies, and that that shape is the same as is the body. Our proof of this, is the appearance of Moses and Elijah, on mount Tabor, when the Saviour was transfigured, in the presence of three of his disciples, who immediately knew Moses and Elijah, because they ap- peared in their original shape, as when in this life, or the disci- ples could never have distinguished them as being of the human kind, were it not for this reason. And if we ascertain that even one departed spirit is of the human form, we gain the principle, which establishes that all are the same. Many instances of the appearance of human spirits might here be given, if history and credible accounts might be allowed as evidence ; but we desist, as we wish to build all our remarks, deductions, and inferences, in this work, on the statements of Scripture, and that alone. But all such appearances have ever been reported to have been in the human form, who have been seen by mortals. By the foregoing, we think we have clearly established, that the form of angels is that of the human form: and therefore, think we have also ascertained, such to be the form of Satan and his angels ; though shorn of their first splendor by the ruin of their apostacy, and the damnation of their being. So that were they permitted to appear in their true form, all that distin- guishes the happy angels of heaven, would appear in these lost spirits, in an inverse degree ; all that is glorious in one, would be all that is horrible in the other ; other language we have not, by which to describe beings so lost, so ruined, so thunder scarred, and burnt by the blast of the just vengeance of the Eternal. But by what means evil spirits, as stated in Scripture, got possession of human souls and bodies, is not revealed ; the facts are stated, but the manner is conjecture. We know, that in the common walks of life, the associations of man with man, that one person's spirit influences another: and so powerfully, ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 407 that not unfrequently the ruin of a fellow associate is secured ; while a contrary influence is also often exerted by the good, and result in consequences as felicitous as the other is disastrous. The whole intercourse of men is carried on by spiritual influ- ence; which is evident when two persons converse, or when ideas are exchanged, by voice, by signs, or by writing ; all is the work of mind, and mind is spirit. The body has nothing to do in this matter, and knows no more about the operations of the mind, no, not even the brain, than the chariot which con- veys us when we ride for our pleasure, or the ship which bears its tonnage in gold, from one port to another. The body fur- nished with a tongue, with lips and the organs of speech, is that mode, by the means of which, we commonly communicate ideas, and is adapted to this state of existence. But this circumstance cannot preclude the idea that there exists no other modes by which spirits, without corporeal bodies, may operate upon, or influence other spirits than themselves, either for good or evil. If it does, then all the spiritual beings of another state, are with- out the means of association, a condition far inferior to us. But this is not so, as can easily be shown, from the evidence there is of the happy state of the society of the blessed, in communion with God, and association with each other. If then we per- ceive, that in the economy of the Creator toward rational exis- tences, society itself is based upon the power of spiritual influ- ence, whether with a body or without one, then a possibility presents itself of such spirits as have no corporeal bodies, influ- encing such as have. But how a thought can be suggested to the mind of man, without the means of sound or signs, by a spirit, is undefina- ble by human powers ; yet such is the fact, as can be shown from God's own word, who certainly knows what is the truth on this subject ; see Acts, v. 3, " But Peter said, Ananias why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost." And another case, similar to that of Ananias, is that of Judas, in his treachery to his Lord ; see Luke, xxii. 3, 4, « Then Satan en- tered into Judas, and he went his way and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him (the Sa- viour) unto them." Is it not clear, therefore, that Satan sug- gested tins thought to the mind of Judas ? and is it not this which is meant by the words, "then entered Satan into Judas," by influencing his mind in addressing the suggestion to his con- stitutional or besetting sin, which was doubtless covetousness, but might have been resisted, as there were reasons why he should not have acquiesced, of far greater weight than those by which he allowed himself to be led and overcome ? Good spirits likewise have power to suggest thoughts to the minds of men, as can be proven from many places in the Bible ; as when angels are said to have appeared to any one in a dream, 408 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN or in a vision, in open conversation or by impressions, as in the case of St. Paul, while tossing about in the Adriatic sea, exposed every moment to be plunged to the bottom ; he says, " there stood by me this night the angel of God. . . .saying, fear not Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar ; and lo, GJod hath given thee all them that sail with thee f how good a thing it is sometimes, for the wicked to be in company with a good man. It does not appear that Paul saw the angel ; yet he knew that one had stood by him that night, while he no doubt was praying for his own life, on account of the infant cause of Christianity, but also for the lives of the ship's company ; and knew, from a powerful and sudden impression, that his prayer should be an- swered. Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus the Saviour, was warned in a dream, to flee into Egypt, to save the life of the child. St. Peter also, and the Centurion, were both the subjects of visions; in which one of them, namely, Corne- lius, w r as warned of God by a holy angel, to send for Peter, This angel he saw evidently about the ninth hour of the day, of whom he enquired what he should do. Acts, x. 3, 4. It is not contrary to the laws of eternity, or of invisible beings, to commune or to converse with mortals ; for even God him- self, is said frequently to have done this, as in the case of Moses, who talked face to face with him, though invisible. Also, he conversed with Solomon twice ; but these cases was in a dream, in which it is said that God appeared to Solomon — see 2d Chron. vii. 12 — and related to that monarch that he had heard his prayer ; and that he would answer it, and fulfill all that he had promised to David his father, if he, Solomon, and the Jews would keep his law. Agreeable to this rule of spiritual impressions, we do not doubt that the whole race of man, including every individual who has the use of right reason, are from time to time, more or less the subjects of supernatural impressions, as carried on by both good and bad spirits, as well as by the Most High himself; and that those spiritual impressions are intended for the good and ill of mortals; by which human spirits now on probation may be profited or damaged as they may choose to make use of such impressions. It is said in the New Testament — see Acts, vii. 53 — by St. Stephen, when about to be stoned to death, that the Jews had even received the law by the disposition of angels, but that they had not kept it. The whole Scriptures are but one continued proof of the assiduity and care of good spirits in another world ; as also the malevolence and assiduity of evil spirits to injure mankind. In proof of this last idea, we bring the case of Ahab, one of the kings of Israel — see 1st Kings, xxii. from the 19th to the 23d verse inclusive — where the anxiety of an evil spirit, or one of the fallen angels, is manifested, to go and influence Ahab ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 4() l .i to go to the field of battle that he might there be slain ; see the 20th and 2lst verses of this chapter, which are exceedingly in- teresting, as follows: '-And the Lord said, who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ivamoth-gilead ? And one said on this, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and sad, / will persuade him ;' ; which lie did, and was the cause of Allah's death ; for lie was persuaded by this lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab's false prophets, to go to the battle, who said he should return in safety ; but this was false, as he died on the day of bat tie, from the wound of an arrow, shot at a venture, which entered his body between the joints of his coat of mail. Does not this fact prove also, beyond a doubt, the real existence of evil angels; for we see he became a lying spirit in the mouths of the false prophets, to the ruin of Ahab — a work which a good angel could not engage in. Philip, also, was directed by the angel of the Lord to go and baptize the Ethiopian. Acts, viii. 26. Peter was released from prison by the ministration of an angel. Acts, v. 19. Many other instances of spiritual impression, by dream, by vision, and open sight, might be brought from the Scriptures, as evidence of our position, but let these suffice. If then we have succeeded in showing that spirits can and do influence spirit, both good and bad — natural and supernatural, we are now prepared, in a measure, to show how Satan, and evil sprits, may have had, in ancient times, and even now, can have the possession of the souls and bodies of such as give them- selves into his power— even in this life. In order to investigate this mysterious subject, we shall bring to our aid, the all pow- erful principle of faith — a fact of the utmost importance to Christian theology, as well as to all other systems, whether reli- gious or political — for it is said as a starting point, " that he that cometh to God must believe that hew;" by which immense and unending consequences, to the human soul, as well as body, are effected. And by a parity of reasoning, may it not be said also of such as do believe in the being of Satan, that they may, if they will, of a set and intense purpose, come as nigh to him, and receive of his nature, in evil influence, equally as much as the same set and intense purpose, would procure to the soul and body of a man of an opposite and good inilnencc in drawing nigh to God ) If a man can be as holy as is possible, he also can be as wicked as is possible ; and who can mark the boun- daries of either of those principles, even in this life? It cannot be ascertained. The power of fa ith and prayer, have been in all a^es, the most effective means in conforming and influencing the soul to holy affections, and religious happiness : so much so, that the mind may in deed, and in truth, commune with God face to 410 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN face, though to the mortal, God is invisible, yet that circum- stance makes no difference, because faith to the soul is as sight to the body, and equally convincing and satisfactory. Can this be otherwise l seeiug that Enoch was translated by faith from earth to heaven, as stated Heb. xi. 5. Was it not by this princi- ple, that Elisha the prophet, drew around him, while at Dotham, — being hemmed in by the Assyrian army — an exceeding great host of angels, so that he said to his frightened servant, Gehiza, " they that be with us, are more than they that be with them ?" 2d Kings, vi. 16. By this principle, thousands and millions have died with transports^ while characters of an opposite cast, have departed with curses and blasphemies burning on their tongues, or in stupid and sullen insensibility of mind, of which infidels make their boast. Now, is not this perfectly reason- able, and in accordance with the Scriptures ? for it is written, "driw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." James, iv. 8 — but how nigh is not stated. And by a parity of reasoning, may it not be said, he that draws nigh to the devil, in ardor of desire to become exceedingly wicked, that the devil will draw nigh to him ? It is said by James, iv. 7 : " Resist the devil, and he will flee from you ;" and of course, if he is not resisted, he will not fly from us, but come nigher and nigher, as our conduct and evil affections may invite ; even till a complete possession takes place, as can be proved, both from Scripture and otherwise. But as to certain arts, by which evil spirits can be evoked, there is no doubt, yet little is known of such things in Christian countries. But among nations not blessed with the salvation of Christianity, they are known, or ancient history, with the Bible itself, is not to be relied on. To this very point, see Acts, xix. 19, " And many of them that used curious arts, brought their books together, and burned them," — it is clear that at the time of the Saviour's ministry, the Jews had among them many demoniacs, as well as the Gentiles, and wherever the Gospel was carried, multitudes of evil spirits were dispossessed of their prey, by its power, and that on that very circumstance the name of Jesus Christ acquired its celebrity, as being of heavenly origin — " un- clean spirits, crying with loud voices, came out of many," in subjection to that name. Acts, viii. 7. Were we to travel in those countries, at the present time, where the devil is worshipped systematically, as in some parts of Persia, about the ancient site of Ninevah, in Ceylon, Burmah, Bagdad, and many parts of the East Indies, and other heathen countries, and were we particularly acquainted with circum- stances and things relative to the effects, we should find equally as many, even now, who are possessed with devils, or evil spirits, as in the time of the Saviour ; as there is no good reason why not. ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 411 As to the manner by which evil spirits, in ancient, or modern times, o^ot the possession of human beings, is a matter of pure conjecture, as before remarked, and therefore, we proceed on that ground to ascertain the manner of such possessions. It is a fact we believe, that the human constitution of mind is more inclined to sad and sorrowful sensations than to joyful ones. This we believe, is the universal experience ; and if a happy sensation crosses the mind, it is the offspring of hope, or of labored excite- ment, while the general tenor of the feelings of the soul are tinc- tured with gloom, and tending to ferocity. This is everwhere known to be the case, among savage nations, and would be our condition, were it not for the labors of social, and Christian edu- cation, which goes to counteract that natural state of mind ; yet even under this influence, the tenor of the mind is to sadness, the genuine offspring of the fall. Concerning this, it is said in Scripture, 2d Cor. vii. 10, that the " sorrow of this world work- eth death f and who can define in how many different ways? as when it is deep and poignant, distraction and self-murder are its consequences, not unfrequently, in all ages of the world. But if the sorrows of this world do not always lead to such ends, yet persons of a more than ordinary desponding cast of consti- tution, by giving way to fits of melancholly, to rage and anger, unrestrained, and to murmuring against God's providence, being dissatisfied with all the circumstances of life, fancying that every one is against them, and that God is their enemy, — it seldom fails but such persons become dangerous characters in society. Their manners arc uninviting and gloomy, seeming to be dis- tressed when any one is prospered, and to rejoice and show signs of pleasure, when any one is ruined in character or property. They seek to be alone, and to wander in the dark', and in soli- tudes, avoiding human society as much as their necessities will admit of, invariably fixing the impression, when met with, that they are possessed with a devil, or some extraordinary affection. If the passions of hatred and revenge in any one, are secretly indulged, meditating mischief continually, toward the cause of their dislike, deeply imbuing the love of unbounded injury, so as at times to gnash the teeth in secret ; and if this state of mind it suffered to continue, it will increase in malignity, till reason is dethroned, or not allowed to operate, when the person is a ma- niac ; and it may be said that Satan has the possession- Their looks denote it, the eye beaming with a fearful glare, is never irradiated with a smilo, the hair is suffered to grow till long and tangled, the clothes become neglected and filthy — indifference of food takes place, till nearly starved, or else cramming at times beyond all human appetite — universal ruin and death is the climax. There are many courses which produce distraction ; as exces- sive jealousy, excessive and inordinate lovc ; excessive oppres- 412 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN sion, and religious despair and fanaticism, all of which are of the devil, and avenues by which devils may enter into the posses- sion of the mind, and the passions of the human race, and have so done in thousands of instances, as we believe. Hopeless revenge for irreparable injuries, as in cases of inconstancy be- tween lovers, husbands and wives, have produced shocking- cases of Satanic possession, so judged to be from the malignancy shown in their behaviour. Some have gone distracted in a few hours, from a lit of anger. A certain person known to the wri- ter, who had been religiously affected by the preaching of a certain order of Christians, which her husband opposed, to that degree, by way of hectoring and tormenting her, till at a certain time she gave way to a burst of passion, instead of prayer, when she threw a brickbat at her husband, with all the violence of intended murder, and that moment lost her reason, and never recovered it again. Another instance, though of a different cast, is known to the writer, of a woman, whose natural temper was of the fractious and irrascible description, in which she had through life in- dulged in a very extraordinary manner, rendering herself ex- tremely disagreeable to her family and all about her. At a cer- tain time, a daughter of hers, a young lady of mature age, became religiously concerned, and continued thus about two weeks, when she experienced comfort, through faith in the Saviour of men. At which time, her mother, who had during the 'concern of the daughter made some opposition, became also concerned on the same account, especially when she witnessed the happi- ness of her child, and the praise she gave to - a God of love. She immediately took to her bed, and wept on account of her condi- tion, as was supposed, for about twenty- four hours; when she burst out into a rage of profane and blasphemous language, too horrible for mortal ear, and went immediately distracted. She continued nine years in that condition, chained most of the time ; and died without any change for the better, a spectacle of horror and dismay. She was undoubtedly possessed of a devil, as all who beheld her were of that opinion ; which condition was brought about, first, from so long indulgence in angry disposi- tion ; and second, because she resisted conviction for sm ; and probably cursed the cause in her heart, and became a maniac. There arc others, who from one degree of spiritual wicked- ness to another, progress till a self-willed sufficiency takes place in the mind ; so much so as that they fancy themselves some important supernatural character, as the Messiah, a prophet, or some extraordinary messenger of providence, and claim atten- tion and honor accordingly. This sort, by way of sanctity and self importance, allow their hair and beards to grow its full length, putting on distracted airs, affecting to converse with spirits, and invisible beings ; and who AN'OELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 413 can say they do not ? by which they acquire the dread of all men, however lbrtified by philosophy, or even religion itself. By pursuing this course, the restraining influence of God's good spirit leaves them to the full operation of all evil, when Satan takes possession. Now the man is prepared for wickedness by rule : no human face can daunt him, no threatened punishment is dreaded, he becomes incased in his own fury and self-will, so that a terror seems to surround him, a kind 01 unearthly influ- ence is found creeping over us if he approaches. If their opin- ions and assumptions are treated with contempt by any one, 77ialice is seen to work its snaky evolutions along their features, when thoughts of revenge become the happiness of the mind. Many instances of this kind have arisen from time to time all alons:, since the time of our Lord, of men setting themselves up as Messiahs : even within a few years, there was a wretch of this sort in Ohio, who claimed to be Christ, and seduced quite a number of the inhabitants to follow him, and to believe in him for a time. We have said before, that all transactions among men are car- ried on by spiritual influence, one mams mind operating on another, while all the limbs and organization of the body, are in ignorance of what is passing. In this way one man begets, or implants his likeness in the mind of another, that is, the likeness of his thoughts or opinions. Now, if the very image of one per- son^ opinions can be infused, or in any way implanted in anoth- er, or in thousands, so as to have an abiding influence, who is prepared to say that spirits, good or bad, if permitted, cannot do as much, or more. As the form of spirits is no interruption to their passing through solids as easily as through open space, as they are immaterial not tangible, any more than is thought ; how easily, therefore, if permitted, could an evil spirit enter the heart and brain of a human being, and there abide, giving tone and direction to all their actions at times, by influencing the mind to operate on the nerves, by which actions, words and thoughts should become extravagant and supernatural, or out of the common order of human conduct. Evil spirits are beings, and therefore are continually somewhere, and that somewhere is their location, and if that location is sometimes in the brain of a human being, distraction of some sort is sure to be effected. It was no doubt in this way the devils, being intangible, and having permission, entered into the brains of the swine, so as to have the power to cause them to run into the saa. But there is, no doubt, a vast difference to be made between such demoniacal possessions and those who by arts, known to some, evoke and command the services of evil spirits : as in the latter case, the person having and vising such an art, is the controller, while in the former the evil spirit i> the one who rules. 414 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN We think, therefore, that the manner by which a devil may enter into a man, is plainly enough stated and settled in the New Testament, to have been by simply entering in, as easily as they can go any where else, if allowed ; which, for reasons un- searchable, have often been permitted, or Scripture and history are both false on this subject. Were it not for the invisible providence of God, this same Satan, with his angels would in- stantly enter in, derange and destroy, the whole human race ; and the cases where evil spirits have taken the possession of any one, were doubtless, in most cases r sueh as had by a course of inward wickedness, caused the Holy Spirit to with- draw his protecting as well as his gracious influence ; so that devils being permitted to have the possession, did actually enter, and torment such victims of their own folly, as in a mul- titude of places in the New Testament are spoken of. Bat to conclude on this subject, we give the belief of that emi- nent and holy man, Adam Clarke, on the subject of spirits, and of the possibility of acquaintance with them, and of their ability to appear to men. See his comment on 1st Samuel, xxviii, 15, on the subject of the woman of Endor, as follows : 1st. "I believe there is a supernatural and spiritual world, in which human spirits, both good and bad, live in a state of con- sciousness. 2d. I believe there is an invisible world, in which various orders of spirits, not human, good and bad, live and act. 3d. I believe that any of these spirits, may, according to the order of God, in the laws of their place of residence, have inter- course with this world, and become visible to mortals. 4th. I believe there is a possibility, by arts not strictly good, to evoke and have intercourse with spirits not human ; and to employ, in a certain limited way, their power and influence. 5th. I be- lieve that the woman of Endor had no power over the spirit of Samuel the prophet ; nor that any incantation can avail, over any departed saint of God, nor indeed over any human spirit whatever." Attributes of Satan, and Evil Spirits. But as to Satan, and his demon coadjutors, what are their powers and attributes ? are they everywhere present or not, which some incline to believe ? This is impossible, as there can be but one everywhere present being, and that is God. How is it then, as some may enquire ; as Satan appears to be everywhere present by being a universal tempter to evil ? This is probably the secret of it : the heart of man is Satan's repre- sentative ; and has, ever since the fall of Adam, been his faithful ANGELS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 41r» representative, by way of depravity ; and were that being, with all his associate fallen spirits, at a blow of the Almighty hand, swept out of being, yet men would continue sinners ; because they have naturally bad and corrupt natures, even from infancy, tending thitherward. But it is our opinion, that wore there no Satan nor subordinate spirits of that description, that the world would not witness so many violent acts of wickeness as it now does — deeds of horror, as in some cases, which seems to exceed the capabilities of mam But although Satan, or any of the fallen angels, are not omnipresent, yet they are spirits ; and as such, possess the power of inconceivable swiftness, so that the circuit of the earth can probably be made by them in a few minutes. But notwith- standing this, the Scripture settles the point, that Satan moves over the earth leisurely and at his will, seeking opportunities of moral ruin ; see 1st Peter, v. 8, who says, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seek- ing whom he may devour/ 7 And also, Job, ii. 2, where it is seen that Satan's answer to the interogation of the Almighty, respecting from whence he came, was that, " from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." But how do we prove that spirits can pass swiftly from one place to another ? We prove it from Daniel, ix. 21, who says that while he was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, who was a spirit or angel, flew swiftly, and touched him about the time of the evening oblation. But from whence did he fly ? We cannot tell ; but most certainly from some place in immen- sity of space ; perhaps from heaven itself, on this errand to pious Daniel. That Satan can pass swiftly from one part of space to another, is more than intimated by the New Testament, which says that Satan is the prince of the power of the air, the region in which speed by flight is performed. So that if he will, he can visit any quarter or particular part of the earth or the plan- ets, as speedily as he may desire, and from thence away, or can remain, as the interests of his kingdom may require. Who does not know with what amazing velocity a thought can travel, and how much it can review in a few moments? and that it has only to think of the most distant regions of the far heavens, when lo it is there, and as quickly as far away in some other direction, if it will ? Now allowing that Satan has as much power in this respect, as the mind of man, there is no diffi- culty in ascribing to him and to his subordinate spirits, a suffi- cient degree of omnipresence for all the purposes of his evil nature, and to bear out the Scriptures in their incidental state- ments of his power and attributes to do evil, and to superintend the affairs of his kingdom, in opposition to God and his Christ. We have no doubt he can descend into the earth — as all evil spirits can — and return when he will ; or pass through any 416 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN globe of the universe, as substances are no objection to the pro- gress of spirits. But there is another advantage which Satan has, besides that of tire power of velocity; which is. there are multitudes of fallen spirits like himself, but inferior to Satan, and various among themselves, as to intellectual powers, who are at his command, and do his will, so far as their power extends. That he is a king, is shown from Rev. ix. 11, "And they (the inhabitants of hell,) had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottom- less pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek hath his name Apollyon": both of which names signi- fy a destroyer. If then he is a king, or a prince, as he is fre- quently called in the New Testament, he must of necessity have subjects, and lavis, by which they are governed, who are no doubt the fallen angels, who fell from heaven at the same time with himself. But what those laws are, is unknown to mortals, as they belong to the invisible mysteries of eternity ; but no doubt consist in part of schemes, plans, and stratagems, by which to injure the creatures of God, who are endowed with the gift of free agency, as well as of intellectual powers. That good spirits are engaged in aiding man's happiness, as well as that bad spirits are equally engaged to produce contrary effects, is shown from the Bible ; see Dan. x. 13. and onward, < : But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twen- ty days ; but lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and now 1 am come to make thee understand what shall befal thy people in the latter days." But this is not the only in- stance which can be brought as proof that good and bad angels contend about the affairs of men ; sec St. Jude, 9th verse, where is an account of the contention which took place about the body of Moses, between Michael, the same arch-angel mentioned above, and Satan. But why single out those two instances, when the whole Bible is full of accounts to this effect, by which it appears that heaven and hell are in constant conflict on mans account, each addressing themselves to man's free agency, the one for his salvation, the other for his ruin. But the reason why Satan delights himself in the work of our ruin, is because man is a creature of God, an intellectual being, having in this sense the image of God in some degree, by which the evil one is gratified, and in a manner revenged for his loss of heaven ; and because it is also the direct operation of his very nature, now that he is fallen, and shipwrecked of all the excel- lencies he was in possion of in heaven. From which it is easy to perceive how the devil is a universal tempter ; which we have said is, first, himself, second, by the assistance of associate spirits, and third, by the fallen nature of man, which is by far the most efficient aid to his purposes in the earth ; which are counteracted only by faith in tho blood and merits of Jesus Christ. ANGELS OF THH fCRIPTUREI. 417 Evidence of Polycarp, the Martyr, against Universalis?*) in Relation to a Hell, after Death. Universalists vainly boast that all the apostles, disciples, and first Christians of the first age of Christianity, believed as they do, about the universal and unconditional happiness of all the human race, after death. But how should they bow their heads in confusion, and hide their faces for shame, when they read the sentiments uttered by the martyr Polycarp, to the pro-consul of Tragan — the emperor of Rome, at that time — when he was about to be burnt, because he was a Christian. What does he say in that awful hour, when his faith was about to be put to the severest test, by torture ; when the pro-consul threatened to burn him alive if he would not swear by the genius of the Em- peror, and blaspheme Christ, the crucified ? He replied : " You threaten me with fire, which bums for a moment, and will soon be extinguished ; but alas, you arc ignorant of the judg- ment to come, and of the fire of everlasting torments, reserved for the ungodly T No man will pretend, that Polycarp meant, by the words "judgment to come,-'' the destruction of Jerusalem ; as that had happened sometime before Polycarp's death. What fire of everlasting torments did Polycarp refer to, in that speech to the pro-consul ? Certainly, to no event which could happen in this life. It could not have been the fire of salvation so often alluded to in this work, as believed in, by Ballou, which he has partly discarded in the Preface of his work. It could not have been the destruction of Jerusalem : as the ungodly of that time could not be effected by it, in a way of torment. There is no way to understand him, but of the damnation of hell, after death, when the ungodly are to go into a fire of everlasting torments, as tho martyr has called it. That this was the universal belief of the Asiatic Christians, at that time, which was but one hundred and thirty-three years after the crucifixion of Christ, is shown from the fact that Poly- carp was the great teacher of the Churches, by his writings and preaching, in that quarter of the globe ; and that this was the fact, is shown from the acclamations of the multitude when they burnt him, who cried aloud. ;i This is the great doctor of Asia, the father of the Christ talis ; this is the destroyer of our gods, who hath taught men not to offer sacrifices, nor to worship them? And to prove this was die belief of the writers of the New Testament, if such proof is required, more than their own statements in their writings, we have only to recollect that this same Polycarp was a disciple of St. John, the Revelator, of whom lie learnt this ^reat doctrine. John, the Revelator, lived till nearly the end of the first century, with whom Polycarp had 418 HISTORY OF THE FALLEN been acquainted from his youth, a lapse of about thirty-eight years. This we make out from Eusebius, one of the early wri- ters of ecclesiastical history ; who says that Polycarp died aged ninety-five, and that lie died in the year of our Lord 166 ; which would make their acquaintance about thirty-eight years, as St, John died about the year A. D. 100 ; see Eusebius, page 146. What are Universalists to do with this witness against them ? by whom we prove, that in the first age of Christianity the doc- trine of the eternal punishment of the finally impenitent in hell in eternity, was believed in ; because they so read and so under- stood the Bible on that subject, and especially the New Testa- ment. It is of no importance for them to cite the writings of Origen, a man of great importance as a heretic, who was not born till about twenty years after the death of Polycarp, but who it is true, did not believe the orthodox doctrine on this subject. We say it is of no importance that this writer believed a con- trary opinion, because the opinion came into being too late to give it force and influence, as those opinions nearest the foun- tain are the most to be relied on. Origen was a great critic, and a scholar in the languages, but of no importance as a spiritual or orthodox teacher. Origen's opinions were considered here- sies, and were opposed by the orthodox church for many ages, the same as they are now opposed in the Arians, Socinians, and Universalists, by the orthodox of the present times ; and came up too late to claim fellowship with the primitive belief of the first Christians. Proofs of the Immortality of the Human Soul. That the souls of the human race die at the time the body dies, is unreasonable and unnecessary, as well as contrary to Scripture. It is unreasonable, inasmuch as there appears to be no use in such a procedure ; for it may be enquired, of what importance can it be that the soul should die with the body, and thus leave a blank in its being of some thousands of years before the resurrection of the bodies ? It it unnecessary ; for the same reason that it is unreasonable. There can arise out of such a circumstance, no developement of Divine wisdom, toward the furtherance of human happiness ; as we can easily perceive there does in the death of the body, now that its companion, the soul, has become a sinner ; as we have hinted in another place, in this work. It is contrary to Scripture, direct to the point, as well as contrary to fair inference, in many places in that book. The fact that God breathed in the nostrils of Adam, the breath ANGEL9 OF THE SCRIPTURES. 4l# o( life ; and of his becoming therefore a living soul, is proof direct to the point. See Gen. 1st chapter. The reason we con- sider this a proof of the undying nature of the soul of man, is because the same word, living-, is applied to God, who is called the living God, who, no person believes, can ever die. That the soul lives, after being separated from the earth, is shown from several passages of the Bible, which we proceed to give to the inspection of the reader ; as follows : "And Enoch walked with God, and he was not ; for God took him." — Gen. v. 24. Concerning this it is said by St. Paul, that 11 Enoch by faith was translated, that he should not see (or taste of) death ; and was not found, because God had translated him." Now, if he did not die, as St. Paul states, it follows that he is not dead, either body or soul ; as it is not likely that his soul would die, while his body should be kept alive. We there- fore, think that we prove by this, that there is at least, one im- mortal soul, of the human race, if no more. The case of Elijah, the Tishbite, is similar to the one above ; who was also transla- ted without passing through death ; see 2d book of Kings ii. 11. Now that the soul of Elijah, the prophet, did not die, and is not now dead, is shown from his appearing on the Mount, of trans- figuration, to Peter, James, and John, who heard him converse with Christ. Also, that the souls of men do not die when their bodies die, we show from the appearance of the soul of Moses, at the same time with Elijah, on the Mount ; who also was heard to converse with the Saviour. But to settle this question, we give the two following Scrip- ture accounts, which to us, is irresislable testimony that the soul lives in a state of as perfect consciousness, as it does while con- nected with its companion, the body, in this life. See St. Luke, xxiii. 43, where an account of a certain conversation which took place between the Saviour and one of the malefactors with him on the cross : " And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." This he said to the thief, because he had believed on him — had repented of his sins, and on the cross was born again, and had in his agony, prayed to the Messiah, to be remembered \v hen he should come into his invisible kingdom, in another world, after death. Now as the thief's body was not taken away from the earth, but was disposed of according to the rites of sepultre, belonging to executed crim- inals ; andlhat it could not go from Jerusalem, where it died, it follows, that when the thief prayed, saying "remember we,"