leaves man a lawless being, and takes off all responsibility, in point of justice, for individual action. It would be the summit of injustice to punish him for crimes, if they were occasioned by any cause not under the controul of his reason. Even man, with all his imperfections, is too much alive to sympathy and justice, to punish the conduct of a disordered lunatic; besides which, its effects are of material consequence, in checking the growth of rising virtue; it damps all the energies of the human mind, and renders man gloomy and fearful; it is like a mill-stone to the neck, it chains his looks to the ground in misery and despair; every crime that he hears, and every suffering malefactor he hails, as bringing arguments indisputable of the truth of this doctrine; even the cries of the helpless infant have been urged in its favour, and are deemed' convulsions of an evil spirit ready to war against God and man.

If suffering humanity, instead of exciting commiseration and pity, is to be reared up to support speculative opinion, and barbarous doctrines, it certainly indicates a want of argument as well as feeling. Sin has always existed since. the world began, and necessarily will in a partial degree, as long as man is composed of his present materials, and remains indifferent to the forming of his mind and disposition. It is that man alone, who can look into his conduct, and examine his motives with the eye of reason and philosophy-who can regulate all his desires, and subdue every passion to certain and fixed rules-that can rise to exalted virtue and moral excellence. It is ridiculous to expect a man to be good, if you tell him he is corrupt at the heart, and without means of improvement. If we wish him to be virtuous, place him in a favourable situation, represent to his mind his entire dependance upon the Supreme Being for all the blessings he enjoys, and the gratitude and obligation he owes him for the constant favours he receivesshew him the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God, as displayed in vegetive and animal nature-impress upon his mind his own pre-eminence as possessing a system of reasoning faculties, on the exercise of which depends all his happiness in this life, in performing his social and domestic duties-that whether he would be shunned or esteemed, solely lays with himself that he is the compleat and entire master of choosing and directing his own ac tions and that if he plays his part honourably-if he is just, benevolent, and kind, towards his fellow creatures, and believes in the resurrection of Jesus-that God has declared that such should be raised in a future life, and be rewarded

with endless happiness-give him the scriptures, his hopes would soon be realized by the simple and evident facts it contains and he would feel himself bound, if free from prejudice and the trammels of priests, to reject every doctrine which tarnishes the honour, or abuses the justice, of a good and merciful God.

I shall now conclude with the advice of Jesus-" Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Your's, &c. Old-street, April 16, 1813.

J. C.

ON THE EXISTENCE OF THE DEVIL.

(Concluded from vol. ii. p. 415.)

To the Editor of the Freethinking Christians' Magazine.

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SIR,

THE existence of a supernatural being called a Devil, I trust, I have proved in my former letters to be entirely unnecessary to account for any effect, which transpires ei ther in the natural or moral world; and finding not the slightest allusion to such a being in the scripture account of the creation, I shall, in this letter, proceed with noticing those detached passages in the Old Testament, where an evil spirit is spoken of, and also the passages where the words Devil or Satan occur, and request your readers will bear in mind that those words are not proper names, but that they are used to denote the Being adverse or in opposi tion to the person or thing spoken of, whether good or bad.

An evil spirit being frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, the advocates of the doctrine we are explodinghave taken for granted, that by an evil spirit we are to un derstand the Devil, than which nothing can be more fallacious, as the term spirit does not necessarily imply a supernatural being: but where it is connected with the transactions of men, it uniformly refers to the minds and disposi tions of man. Thus we read of a week spirit, a wounded spirit, a fierce spirit, and Judges ix. 23, of an evil spirit, which God sent between Abimele ch and the men of Sechem, evidently an evil or improper disposition towards each other, which led the men of "Sechem to deal treache rously with Abimelech." And in the account we have of an evil spirit troubling Saul the King of Israel, it is manifest, from all the circumstances recorded, that it was a disordered mind, most probably a state of melancholy arising from his misfortunes, and a knowledge that his kingdom

was about to be taken from him; which calamities were considered, by Saul and his friends, as the immediate manifestations of God's displeasure. At any rate the "evil spirit from God," which troubled Saul, could not be the Devil of the Christians; for " David played upon the harp, and Saul was refreshed and well, and the evil spirit departed from him," whereas priests of all orders pretend to eject the Devil by a few cabalistical words; we never read of any exorcist who attempted to remove this imaginary being by soft or melodious sounds. But, "Music has charms to sooth the savage breast," to attune all the boisterous passions, and bring them into harmony; thus Saul, afflicted in mind, was cheered and brought to enjoy the blessings of society at intervals, by the skill and exertions of David on the harp. The representations of Maicaih to Ahab, of what God had made known to him concerning the fate of the armies of Israel, which were going "up to Ramoth Gilead," 1 Kings xxii. 19, (evidently in vision,) cannot possibly have any thing to do with a supernatural evil being; for the evil spirit, which the prophet speaks of, was one of "the host of heaven," which stood before the throne of God-one who is represented as entering into his councils. Yet surely when we read of "God seated upon a throne, assembling his host and asking counsel of them--that one said in this manner, and another said in that manner". even bigotry itself must admit that it is a figurative or allegorical representation, perfectly consistent with the style of the East, and calculated to answer the purpose intended, on the idolatrous king to whom it was addressed, but who, it is clear, knew not any thing of a being possessed of the powers attributed to the Devil. Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him-with whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?"

The book of Job has long been considered the bulwark of the doctrine we are examining, but if it proves any thing it proves too much; for it does not represent Job as tempted by Satan, but when the sons of God met together, Satan came also among them," and the Lord (as though Satan was a being of whom he had no knowledge), said unto Satan, from whence comest thou? a conversation ensues, in which the Lord having given Job a most excellent character, Satan answered, and said, "Doth Job fear God for nought? Put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face." And the Lord said, "Behold

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all that he hath is in thy power, &c." Here Satan tempts the Lord, and the Lord falls in with the temptation. This ill accords with a fallen degraded being, that he should tempt the power which had humbled him; but surely, no man who examines this book, will be either so weak or so wicked, as, by interpreting it literally, thus to libel the cha racter of that God, who cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth any man." But by reading this piece atten tively, we shall find it is a dramatic poem, with all the dress or figures essential to such a production. The sub stance of this drama is evidently calculated to set forth the ways of Providence, by exhibiting to us the sufferings of a good man-one who feared God and eschewed evil-and the fortitude with which he bore these afflictions-the ani mation with which he defended his character against the insinuations of his worthy but misjudging friends, and the testimony he bore to the righteous judgments of God, "For in all this Job sinned not with his lips." The two first chapters are the prologue, containing the ground work of the dialogues which follow. The sons of God assembling, and Satan appearing with them to present themselves before the Lord-the conversation and debate which is represented as taking place between Satan and the Lord-and the result that flowed from it-are mere allegories of the writer's to introduce his subject with force and grandeur, and which per fectly agrees with the poetic genius of all ages.

But who was the Satan, or what were the causes that led to the adversity of Job? The Sabeans fell upon his asses and oxen, and slew his servants; the fire of God (probably lightning), burnt up his sheep and his servants; the Chal deans, in three bands, attacked and carried away his camels; a strong east wind blew down the house, and destroyed the children, and-slew his servants; and to compleat his calamities, he was afflicted with a disease, which covered him with biles from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. These were the Satans or adversaries of Job-and not a supernatural evil being, as I think must appear evident to every unprejudiced mind, especially when we consider that no reference whatever is made to such a being in the after part of this book.

The prophet, Zach. iii. 1, 2, among various figurative representations of the state of the Jewish nation, is "shewed Joshua the high-priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him." The natural inquiry upon reading this is, to what peculiar time and circumstances does this relate? If we refer to the

books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we shall find that Jeshua or Joshua, Zachariah, Haggai, and others, were among the number of captive Jews in Babylon, at the time Cyrus proclaimed, "Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God which is in Jerusalem, &c." In consequence of this decree, they left their captivity with their families, and returning to Jerusalem they commenced building their temple. But when their adversaries (Satans) heard of it, they came unto Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the chiefs of the fathers, saying, "Let us build with you, for we seek your God as ye do." But Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and the rest of the chiefs of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, "You have nothing to do with us, to build an house to our God, but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, according to the command of Cyrus." And finding they could not obtain their ends, "they weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus King of Persia, even unto the reign of Darius." The Satan, therefore, was evidently Sanballat, Tobiah, or any of those mentioned by Nehemiah as adverse to building the temple at Jerusalem, for which Cyrus had made a decree.

Thus, Sir, I have briefly noticed those parts of the Jewish scripture, which have been supposed to favour the popular doctrine of the existence of an evil being, whose mind is filled with malignity, and endowed with supernatural powers to gratify his destructive machinations on the unfortunate victims of his hatred, who are beings different in nature and constitution, and consequently unable to resist his wily artifices. But neither in the historical or prophetic books can any passage be found, that would not naturally and clearly, in its connection, bear a rational explanation, suited to the ideas of the enlightened part of mankind, and perfectly consistent with every attribute which reason, exalted and ex'panded by revelation, has ascribed to the Creator of heaven and earth; while, to explain them as supporting the doctrine I am exploding, requires all the sophistry and enthusiasm of the most narrow minded bigot, whose heated imagination disfigures all he reads, sees, or hears, whose

"Fancy weaves Her flimsy web, while sober Reason sits, And smiling wonders at the puny work.”

CRITO.