LECT. I. not admit of this argument for even the existence of the Divine Being; but with all due respect for their piety, learning, and ability, I must decidedly differ from them. I cannot at this time assign my

An important fact

stated.

reasons.

It may just be mentioned here, not so much as an argument in support of the doctrine which I am endeavouring to maintain, though I am far from thinking that it is destitute of weight in this respect, but as an important fact, one which may well cause us to pause, and to examine most carefully every step which we take, every concession which we make, every conclusion to which we come, that those who maintain that evil spirits are the figments of a deluded imagination, very generally deny the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel. If we listen to them, and adopt their modes of interpretation, we must come to the conclusion, with the Sadducees of old, that there are neither angels nor spirits, good or bad; that Jesus Christ was but a man like ourselves when on earth, and that he is now only one of the most illustrious of glorified saints in heaven, if they will allow us to know even this much respecting him. For one of their leaders assures us that "we are totally ignorant of the place where he resides, and of the occupation in which he is engaged!!" Strange language! inconceivably strange to be uttered by one who had repeatedly read the assertion of the inspired apostle, that he is " gone into heaven and is on

the right hand of God," and that "he ever liveth LECT. I. to make intercession for us." Would Mr. Belsham say we know not where or what heaven is? We reply it is enough we are certain that wherever it is, He is there, and that the Saviour himself said to those whose knowledge was so circumscribed, that in this respect the very least in the kingdom of heaven now, are greater than they were at that time, "Whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know." And surely we can form pretty clear ideas of what "intercession" means. Farther, we shall find that those who do not believe in the existence of evil spirits maintain that there is no Holy Ghost, as it regards distinct personality; that no atonement has been made for human guilt, and in fact, that it needed none; for according to them, sin is rather a misfortune or imperfection than a crime; that man can renew his own heart; that divine influence is neither necessary nor to be expected; and that all the difference between the most holy and the most impious persons on earth, as it regards their prospects for the future, is, that the former shall arrive at heaven sooner than the latter, and by a more direct and pleasant path; while both shall take up in it their last and eternal abode; and that the flames of hell shall prove an effectual purgatory to those who while they were on earth had resisted all the influence of truth and of the blood of sprinkling. Now we care not what may be the number or the

LECT. I. nature of the preconceived opinions which we may have to reject, or however strange and contrary to our former belief may be the dogmas which we are required to receive, provided sufficient proof be afforded that the former are prejudices, and that the latter are the doctrines of the word of God. We wish to be prepared to follow truth wherever it may lead, or whatever the sacrifices of long-cherished opinions which it may require us to make. If Socinianism, in even its lowest forms, in those in which it appears to us at present to be most directly opposed to the volume of inspiration, be truth, may God reveal it to us, and enable us to embrace it! We have often felt how congenial it is to certain principles and inclinations of fallen human nature, and what painful sacrifices of views and wishes must be made to the authority of Scripture, in order to embrace some tenets of a contrary system-sacrifices so painful that nothing but deference to the testimony and command of God could induce us to make them. It would be, on many accounts, a grateful discovery, if we should find that our sentiments respecting evil spirits have no foundation in the word of God, and that we are mistaken in imagining that myriads of noble and glorious beings have transformed themselves, by their wilful rebellion against their Maker and Sovereign, into the most guilty, depraved, and wretched creatures in the universe; and that they are constantly labouring, with all

the craft and energy which their powers and LECT. I. malice can put in requisition, to render the whole human race as criminal and miserable as they are themselves. For how much is there appalling and mysterious in the doctrine! What could induce any man, who possesses either a spark of true benevolence or piety, to embrace it, but sufficient, nay, overwhelming evidence of its truth? And such evidence, we most confidently assert, is furnished by the Bible in great abund

ance.

no evil spirits, it is

the belief in

them should

have pre

so

widely and

so long.

It may be noticed here, that if there are no If there are such beings as evil spirits in existence, it is very strange that strange, and not very honourable to the Scriptures, that after their canon had been completed, so that no more communications could be expected from heaven to correct any mistakes into which the disciples of Christ had fallen, after the Saviour himself had appeared on earth as the light of the world, as the great prophet and teacher, and after he had poured out his Spirit on his apostles to lead them into all truth, and after they had imparted to the world all that their Master had given them in charge to teach— it is very strange that after all, still this dogma of the non-existence of devils should have been almost, if not altogether unknown for nearly eighteen hundred years; and that comparatively very few can find it in the Bible, even now, after all the light which has been thrown on it by new translations and expositions. And it appears from

LECT. I. the researches of the most learned men, of those who are best qualified to judge on this subject, that during more than seventeen hundred years the Christian world, (however otherwise divided,) had on this point no difference of opinion. Even of the denomination whose leaders have, in our own times, embraced with the greatest warmth the negative side of the controversy, the earlier writers never questioned the existence of evil spirits in general, or of the Evil One, pecuThe opin- liarly so called. Socinus and Crellius, and the cinus and other commentators of the Racovian school, this subject. received and maintained the doctrine of the

ions of So

Crellius on

devil and his angels, not only without qualification, but apparently without suspecting that any qualification of it was possible. Paulus, cùm de Christianorum hominum pugnâ loquitur, non obscurè carnem et sanguinem opponit spiritibus malis, quibuscum nobis est luctandum."* I repeat what I have asserted: it is surely very strange, and far from being calculated to exalt our ideas of the volume of inspiration, or to increase our confidence in it, that the doctrine of the non-existence of evil spirits, if it be true, since it is evidently very important in itself, and intimately connected with the most momentous truths of the Christian religion, as well as with the duty, and experience, and vital interests of

* Heber's Sermons, p. 70. Crellius, Commentarius, tom. i. p. 90.