This fall of angels, I muft own, however, appears to me to be very problematical; and though it cannot be faid that the thing is abfolutely impoffible, it seems, upon the face of it, to be very improbable. Befides, if fuch exalted beings as these are fuppofed to have finned, and have thereby become obnoxious to the divine difpleasure, what end could it answer to them to be fo affiduous in feducing mankind? Indeed, upon the fuppofition, that their exiftence and torments were to be everlasting, it may be conceived to give them a gloomy kind of fatisfaction, to have brethren in iniquity for their companions in their fufferings. But this idea of never-ending punishment, refpecting any order of beings, as well as men, has, I apprehend, been fhewn to be unreafonable and abfurd.

The language of the fcriptures is often highly figurative, which may account for the unknown principle, or fource of evil, being perfonified in them, fo as to be called Satan in Hebrew, and Devil, Sason, in Greek; but whatever is actually afcribed to Ff

VOL. II.

this

this being, will appear, if we confider the circumftances of the feveral narrations, to be derived from nothing but the irregular pasfions of men, which are, of themselves, a caufe abundantly adequate to the effect.

Indeed, the manner in which the facred writers fpeak of the vices of thofe men, who are faid to have been actuated by this evil principle, plainly enough intimates, that they did not, in reality, confider their guilt as fhared with them by any other being who prompted and feduced them. Nay, the very contrary doctrine is ftrongly afferted by the apostle James, who fays, ch. i. 14. "But

every man is tempted, when he is drawn

away of his own luft, and enticed." When our Lord faid to Peter, on his fuggefting that his fufferings were unworthy of him, Matt. xvi. 23. "Get thee behind

me, Satan," the very indignation with which he fpake, shows that he conceived the fuggeftion to have arifen only from Peter himself, who, in this cafe, was his Satan, or adverfary, as oppofing the great purposes which were to be anfwered by his

death.

death. And, furely, the ftrong affection which Peter appears to have had for Jesus, joined with the narrowness of his views, may easily be fuppofed to account for his language. In like manner, all that may really be meant by Jesus being tempted by the devil, Matt. iv. may be, that the improper thoughts mentioned in the course of the narrative, either occurred to himself in his private meditations, or were suggested by fome other perfon.

When Satan is faid to have ftirred up David to number the people of Ifrael, 1 Chr. xxi. 1. the thought may, in fact, have arisen from his own pride only, which, being evil, is therefore afcribed to Satan; and it is remarkable, that the very fame scheme is by another hiftorian, 2 Sam. xxiv. 1. afcribed to God, because the purposes of his providence were finally answered by it. So alfo the evil spirit from the Lord, which is faid to have troubled Saul, 1 Sam. xvi. 14. was probably nothing but his own melancholy, or ill-humour, which was relieved by mufic.

All that

may be meant by the "fire of "hell being prepared for the devil and his "angels." Matt. xxv. 41. may be, that this punishment was originally appointed for the deftruction of all evil, and the inftruments of evil; nor can this language, with this conftruction, be faid to be more figurative than that of John, who says, that “death "and hell were caft into the lake of fire." Rev. xx. 14.

As to the demoniacs mentioned in the New Teftament, it is pretty evident, that their diforder was fome fpecies of madness, or lunacy, which, in the time of our Saviour, was ufually afcribed, by Heathens as well as Jews, to the malignant influence, not of the devil, but of demons, or the fouls of evil-difpofed perfons, which were imagined to range about the earth, and to delight in mifchief; an abfurd and unphilofophical notion, but which it was not our Saviour's bufinefs to correct.

The only story of this kind which is not pretty easy to be explained by this hypo

thefis,

I.

thefis, is that in which a legion of demons is faid to have gone out of two men into a herd of fwine, Matt. viii. 28. Mark v. 1. Luke viii. 26. But if the fwine only happened to be drowned about the fame time that the two men were cured, it might have been fufficient to give rife to the ftory; which, it is to be obferved, is not related by any person who was prefent at the tranfaction; Matthew not being called to follow Chrift till after his return from this excurfion beyond the fea of Galilee; fo that there was fufficient room for exaggeration and mistake. Or, which I think most probable, the madness of thefe men might be transferred to the fwine.

Much mistake, with refpect to this fubject, feems to have been occafioned by the ambiguity in the meaning of the words fatan, angel*, and devil, which fignify refpectively, adverfary, meenger, and accufer. Thus the angels that finned, 2 Peter ii. 4. and Jude 6.

It is not unufual with the facred writers to call even the unconscious inftruments of God's pleasure, fuch as natural caufes, &c. angels. Pf. civ. 4. "Who maketh the wind his "angels, and flaming fire his minifters." For fo it may with moft propriety be rendered.

Ff3

may