Onnpiov omnis ftatus et conditio in qua aliquis eft. Schleufner 3.

"He kept with perpetual chains under darkness,” 2 Pet. ii. 4. But having tartarized them with chains of darkness.

The word ragragow occurs in no other part of the New Teftament. If it be taken literally, as Greek authors ufe it, it fignifies, being caft into Tartarus, an imaginary place, which is defcribed by Homer, Iliad, ver. 13 to 20, as the deepest and darkest part of ans, Hades, the ftate of the dead, fuppofed to be the regions below the earth. Into this lowest and most gloomy manfion Jupiter threatened to caft any of the other gods who dared to oppofe his decrees. Tartarus was alfo fuppofed to be the place of punishment for the most wicked of mankind: Hefiod: Theogon. verfe 721, &c. Plato's Phædon, fec. 62. It muft, then, be interpreted figuratively, whether it relate to punishment in this world, or in the future. If it be understood of the next life, no Christian will think it probable that an Apostle should adopt a word peculiar to the fabulous theology of the heathens, and expreffive of ideas not inculcated in the New Testament, in any fenfe but a figurative one. In this way the term ads is ufed by Chrift and his Apostles, as well as the Jewish word yɛɛvva. If Tagτagow be interpreted of temporal chastisement, fince the literal fignification relates to the future ftate; it must be confidered as a figurative term, denoting a high degree of punishment. Since, then, it must

be taken figuratively, fo it muft, alfo, be underftood in a sense that best agrees with the context.

The expreffion, "chains of, or under, darkness,” Jude 6, has no meaning when taken literally. "They "were all bound with chains of darkness," Wifd. xvii. 17, is used of the Egyptians, when Mofes made darkness over all Egypt.

The fignification of the phrafe," having tartarized "them with chains of darkness," in Peter's epiftle, will be more intelligibly expreffed by the words,

having punished them with judicial blindness of heart "and understanding." Comp. 1 Theff. v. 4 to 6; 2 Cor. iv. 6; Rom. i. 28; Job v. 12 to 14; Ifai. lix. 9 to 13. So that notwithflanding the many great and wonderful miracles which they had feen in the wilderness, yet they did not difcern the proofs these miracles gave of the power of Jehovah, nor thoroughly believe, and confide in, his promises that he would enable them to conquer their opponents.

"Delivered them, thus referved, unto judgment," Jude 6, unto the judgment of the great day, or unto judgment of a great day; namely, the day when they were deftroyed by a plague from the Lord: Numb. xiv. 36, 37; nμɛga xpiσews means temporal calamity, Ifai. xxxiv. 8, Sept.

That this judgment is not meant of that which will take place in the next world, appears from the mention, immediately after, of other still more remote past inftances of a fimilar kind; namely, the general flood, and the deftruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

by fire, connected in Peter with the conjunction xa, and in Jude with the adverb ws.

III. OTHER PASSAGES which are fuppofed to relate to SATAN or the DEVIL

AMONG thofe expreffions in the New Teftament which are applied to the Devil or Satan, we must particularly notice ο πονηρος. See on Mark iv. 155

fect. iv. fubd. 2.

Matt. xiii. 19, it is in our common English verfion tranflated the wicked one; though, in order to answer to the parable, it cannot be limited to an individual, but must be understood of any thing that prevents the gospel from making proper impreffions on the mind. See on Mark iv. 15; fec. iv. fubd. 2.

Matt. xiii. 38, it is rendered, the wicked one: though it might with as much propriety be tranflated wickedness, as in 1 John v. 19; or evil, as in 2 Theff. iii. 3.

1 John ii. 13, 14, it is tranflated, the wicked one; but the close of the 14th, and the 15th, 16th, and 17th verfes fhew that it fhould have been rendered, the evil, as the Apostle is here fpeaking of worldly and vicious defires.

1 John iii. 12, it is rendered, that wicked one ; but equally admits of being tranflated evil, or wickedness, as 1 John v. 19, and agrees as well with the context. See on 1 John iii. 8, 10, 12; sect. v. fubd. 2.

1 John v. 18, it is tranflated, that wicked one; though in verse 19 it is rendered wickedness, and both this and the 17th verfe evidently fhew that it ought not to be perfonified.

The above are all the inftances that have occurred to me in which Tong is, in our common English tranflation, applied to the fuppofed principle of evil.

In the following texts it is rendered evil, or the evil: Luke xi. 4; Matt. vi. 13; v. 37, 39; John xvii. 15; Rom. xii. 9; 2 Theff. iii. 3. In 1 John v. 19, it is tranflated, wickedness. It is applied to a fingle vicious man, 1 Cor. v. 13; to wicked men, in the plural, though it is in the fingular number in the Greek, in Ephes. vi. 16; and in the plural, both in Greek and English, to men, Matt. xiii. 49.

It appears, then, that our tranflators not only had no proper ground for interpreting Tongos of the Devil, as a real being; but, alfo, that in eleven inftances out of seventeen, in most of which they might with no greater impropriety have translated it in the fame manner, they have not done this; but have in thefe places applied the term either to vice, or to vicious human beings; which are the evident fignifications of it, even where it might admit of an allegorical perfonification; as in Matt. xiii. 19, 38; Ephes. vi. 16; comp. ver. 11; 1 John iii. 12.

For other paffages that are fuppofed to relate to the Devil, fee on Ephes. vi. 11, 12; fect. v. subd. 1; and Ephes. iii. 10; Coloff. i. 13; ii. 15; Luke xxii. 53, quoted there.

To the terms which are imagined to be fynonymous with Satan or the Devil, may be added, Belial. This word occurs twenty-fix times in the Old Tes

tament.

We find it firft in Deut. xiii. 13. The Latin translation of the Syriac verfion of it here is, viri, fcelerati; of the Arabic, turba infidelis; of the Chaldee, filii impietatis: The Septuagint render it παρανομοι. In the margin of the common Englif verfion it is, naughty men, to explain the fenfe of the original word Belial, which is retained in the text.

The fecond time that this word occurs, Deut. xv. 9, the English translation is wicked heart in the text, and in the margin is placed the original word Belial. It is alfo rendered in the text ungodly men, 2 Sam. xxii. 5; Pfa. xviii. 4; Prov. xvi. 27; xix. 28: - wicked, Job. xxxiv. 18; Nahum i. 11, 15: an evil disease, Pfa. xli. 8: wicked thing, Pl. ci. 3. To fome of these texts Belial is put in the margin; to others there is no marginal reference.

In the four following paffages, words of a fimilar meaning with Belial, in the fame fentence in the text, fufficiently illuftrate the fignification of it; 1 Sam. XXV. 25; XXX. 22; Prov. vi. 12; 2 Chron. xiii. 7; though to 1 Sam. xxx. 22, there is also a marginal reference to Deut. xiii. 13, for a further explanation.

In the common English translation the term Belial in the text is often explained to fignify wicked perfons, by a marginal reference to Deut. xiii. 13. See

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