it. Please give book, chapter and verse, from which Zoroaster could learn them. Dan. 12: 2. is the most plausible text which can be adduced, from which he could learn the doctrine of endless punishment. This passage will be fully considered in the Second Part, to which I refer the reader. As to satan being a fallen angel, who deceived Eve, tormented Job, and has become the Christian's devil, we leave all to form their own opinion from the evidence which has been adduced.

Let it now be remembered that while the Jews dwelt in Canaan they knew nothing about the devil. If they did, it was merely by report, that the Persians and other nations believed in such a being. They had precepts, guarding them against witchcraft, idolatry, and all the abominations of the Canaanites, but not one guarding them against that almost infinite being whom Christians call the devil. How our orthodox brethren account for this I am unable to say. On my views, it is easily and rationally accounted for. The devil was the principle of evil deified, transformed by Zoroaster into an angel of darkness, and the Jews must go to Babylon to get acquainted with him. That the Jews spent seventy years in captivity there, is a fact disputed by no one. The question which then comes forward for consideration is-Did the Jews imbibe, during their captivity, and did they bring back from it any religious opinions which were not taught in their sacred books? Were any of those opinions derived from the creed of Zoroaster, and was that now entertained concerning the devil of this number? To see how this matter stands, we solicit the reader's attention to the following particulars.

1st. The Magian religion for many ages had been the "national religion of the Medes as well as of the Persians," as stated by Prideaux. About the time the Jews were in captivity in Babylon, Zoroaster flour

ished there, in reviving and improving it. Jahn, p. 391. thus writes respecting the time when the Jews were carried there. "When at length admonitions ceased to be of any great avail, and every thing was growing worse and worse, the Israelitish commonwealth was overthrown, 253 years after their separation from Judah, and 722 before Christ. The people were carried away by the Assyrians into Gozan, Chalacene, the cities of Media, and into Assyria. The kingdom of Judah was overthrown 387 years after the separation, 588 before Christ, by the Chaldeans, and the people were carried captive to the banks of the river Chebar, in Babylonia." Prideaux says, vol. i. p. 65. that the Jews were carried to Babylon in the 4th year of Jehoiakim, which according to his chronology was six hundred and six years before Christ. It was not for want of a fair opportunity, if the Jews did not imbibe opinions not found in their Scriptures.

2d. When they were carried to Babylon no particular place was appointed for them, but they appear to have been dispersed throughout the provinces of that vast empire. It was not with the Jews here, as with their forefathers in Egypt, a particular spot being assigned them, where they lived all together, and could fortify each other against a departure from the religion of Jehovah. Their dispersed condition rendered them liable to forget their own religion, and insensibly imbibe the opinions of those among whom they lived.

3d. The very religion of Zoroaster had many things about it calculated to lead Jews to embrace it. It recognized the first principle of their own, the supremacy of one God; was the religion of the king,. his court, and of all the nobility. It was popular throughout the whole empire. These, and other things noticed by Prideaux, which I forbear particu

larizing, all concurred to make the religion of Zorcaster very fascinating to the Jews. For them to oppose it was only to render themselves as odious there, as I am likely to be among orthodox people here, in opposing their doctrine concerning the devil. Jahn, in his Archaeology, thus writes, p. 393-4: "The similitude, which existed between the system of Moses, and that of Zoroaster, which prevailed in Persia and Media, may be summed up in a single article, viz. that they both discountenanced the worship of idols. For, 1. That original beginning of all things, called HAZARUAM, was neither the creator nor governor of the world, bnt the endless succession of time, which was represented by Zoroaster, as the supreme existence, ENS, or fountain of being. From Hazaruam, proceeded Ormuz and Ahrimanes. Ormuz acted the part of creator of the world; a circumstance which caused no little envy in the mind of Ahrimanes, and induced him to mingle with the workmanship of Ormuz, the seeds or principles of evil, which exist. By the Mehestani, moreover, or followers of Zoroaster, not only Ormuz, but six AMSCHASPANDI, also innumerable spirits, dispersed every where, the sun, moon, stars, and other earthly existences, were worshipped without distincton. 2. If the example of the Medes and Persians, who worshipped Ormuz as the creator and governor of the world, confirmed the Hebrews in the worship of Jehovah, it was equally likely, on the other hand, to induce them to adore the stars, and spirits, which occupied so conspicuous a place in the system of those nations; also the horses and chariot of the sun, which the ancestors of king Josiah, influenced by the example of the Mehestani, had introduced at Jerusalem, and perhaps, to practise that species of Magian worship, witnessed by Ezekiel in the temple of Jerusalem."

4th. The Jews previous to the captivity, had been preparing themselves in the school of superstition and wickedness, for embracing such opinions at Babylon. Jahn says, p. 392. "During the period immediately preceding their overthrow, every kind of superstition, and every moral pollution prevailed in both kingdoms, especially in that of Judah. No other means therefore remained to correct their vices, but that of extreme severity, by which their whole nation, dispersed from their country into distant regions, and humbled and afflicted, might learn that they could do nothing without God, and that idols could lend them no assistance."

5th. The long duration of their captivity, unavoidably led to the adoption of such opinions in religion. It was known by the Jews, that their captivity was to be for seventy years, and were desired to make their temporal arrangements accordingly. See the prophets' injunctions about this. But let us suppose, what is hardly supposable, that all the persons. who went to Babylon over twenty years of age, were proof against imbibing any false opinion. Suffer me to ask, how were all under that age, and all born there to be preserved? Without a constant miracle they could not and no one affirms that a miracle was wrought to preserve them. It is then morally certain, that the Jews on their return, must bring back with them many of the religious opinions of the people among whom they had lived: unless we can. prove, that they changed all their religious opinions, as easily as a man can shift his clothing.

6th. Prideaux shows from the Old Testament Scriptures, that some of the Jews had gone over to the Magian religion. He refers to Ezek. 8: 16. where the prophet being carried in vision to Jerusalem, saw "about five and twenty men standing between the

porch and the altar, with their backs towards the temple of the Lord, and their faces towards the east ; and they worshipped the sun. The meaning of which is, that they had turned their backs upon the true worship of God, and had gone over to that of the Magians." Here then is direct proof of the fact from Scripture, that Zoroaster's religion was not only imbibed, but the worship it enjoined practised by the Jews. But as very little of the Old Testament was written after the captivity, we observe,

7th. That learned men agree that the Jews brought back from their captivity religious opinions, not taught in their Scriptures. I shall only quote the following writers in proof. Michaelis, on the laws of Moses, vol. ii. p. 348. thus writes: "In the New Testament, indeed, and in the Jewish language after the period of the Babylonish captivity, from which the Israelites returned much enriched in names for the Devil, Belial means the devil. But in the Old Testa ment it never has this meaning." Again; L'Enfant, in his introduction to the reading of the Scriptures, p. 14. thus writes: "But this much is certain, that from that time (of Alexander the Great) the Jews began to Helenize; that the Greek tongue, spoken by the Macedonians, became more common among them, and that they also introduced some of the opinions of the Greek philosophers, as the transmigration of souls, for instance. We find some steps of this notion even in the New Testament, as in Luke 16: 23. where there is an account of the abode of departed souls, conformable to the Grecian philosophy, and in John 9: 2. where we find an allusion to the pre-existence and transmigration of souls. It is moreover evident from the Apochryphal writings, from Philo, Josephus, and the Talmudists, that the Jews, especially the Pharisees, had learned and followed the Grecian philosophy ever since their conversing with the Greeks under