whither the wicked went immediately after death; and this idea is no where contradicted in St. Paul's writings; but by fair inference it is abundantly established; that St. Paul believed this trait of the Pharisaic doctrine, is shown when he declared before Agrippa that he was educated a Pharisee, which peculiar trait he has no where renounced, but confirmed in his epistles.

A great teacher in matters of religion and the disputes of his day, on that subject, as carried on between Saducee and Pharisee, and both of these against the heathen, as St. Paul was, it is extremely probable would have something to say against the belief of the existence of Satan and evil spirits, as beings, if he did not believe it. Paul was not a man that was afraid to make inroads upon old established opinions, if such opinions were not agreeable to the truth, as is seen in all his doings, wherever he went preaching the gospel. Now if the belief in the personal existence of devils and of Satan, was but a branch of the ancient Persian religion, derived from the mere imaginations of their idolatrous priests, how is it that St. Paul has not corrected and exploded it? The circumstance, therefore, of his not having done this, is a powerful proof that he admitted the doctrine. And that he did admit the doctrine, is shown from his casting out the spirit of divination, or familiar spirit, which was in the soul of a certain damsel at Phillippi-see Acts, xvi. 18-by which means she immediately lost her extraordinary power to reveal secrets, and by which her owners lost their income. Nothing is clearer, therefore, than that St. Paul did believe with all his heart, just what Universalists as heartily deny, with respect to the real personal existence of evil spirits.

By the terms old serpent, the devil, &c., St. John did not mean the heathen Roman empire, as supposed by some; as the Romans did not adopt the image of the great red dragon, the boa constrictor of the tropical deserts, till the second century of the Christian era, as the image of their power, which they then began to paint on the standards of their armies; on which account, the term old serpent could not be applicable in the time of St. John, even allowing he was prophesying of the persecutions of heathen Rome against the Christians. It cannot fail to be perceived that it would have been exceedingly out of order for St. John to speak of that which did not exist at his time, as being old; though the heathen Romans did even then persecute Christianity, nor could she be accused of having deceived the whole world, although she was entirely addicted to idolatry, from her very rise as a nation. If this is objected to-and it is insisted that her idolatries have deceived the whole world-we enquire how this is made out, seeing all the world, from Adam till Noah, and from Noah till Constantines time, was given to idolatry, with the bare exception of one family before the flood, and one lineage of the Jews after? It is clear, therefore, that St. John meant by the term old serpent,

Satan, and devil, that evil spirit which seduced, in the disguise of an animal, our first mother, the woman of Paradise, and with her that of the whole world.

But what is the reason, the Revelator has spoken of this spirit under the name of dragon,-great red dragon, &c., if it meant primarily, and solely, the Roman heathen empire, as opposed to Christianity? We answer: for the very same reason that Moses has spoken of him as being a Nachash, or an Orang-outang-as we believe it was. In the case of Eve, Moses has spoken of him as being a Nachash, or K-ha-noos, because Satan used that animal as an instrument of deception, and therefore received this name: so in the case of the heathen Romans; St. John calls him dragon, because it was by the means of that great Empire, (the Romans whose Royal ensign, painted on their military flags, and standards of their armies, was the great red dragon of the desert, the boa-constrictor,) that Satan instigated, and finally carried on a persecution of nearly three hundred years against Christianity. If the reader will pay attention to the arrangement of the words of this verse-Rev. chap. xii. 9-he will find that the term old, is not applied to the word dragon, but only to the word serpent; that old serpent, the devil. The word dragon, was then used only by anticipation; as the circumstance which gave to Satan this peculiar and additional name, did not exist at the time of St. John; it is true, however, that the Revelator did foretell the persecutions of the great red dragon-the heathen Roman empire against Christianity: but that this dragon should be overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and himself, with his nobles, his armies, and all his power should be cast down, and be compelled to give place to the religion of Christ. This was accomplished: For the whole Roman empire was forced by the decree of Constantine, -one of their Emperors, about three hundred years after the commencement of the Christian religion—to abandon the worship of idols, and to give up their temples to the purer worship of the true God. But in all this persecution of the Christian religion, that old serpent, the devil, who deceiveth the whole world, (which cannot be said of heathen Rome) was foreseen by the spirit of inspiration, in the mind of St. John, to be the sole mover of those persecutions, to prevent the growth of the religion of Christ in the earth, and if possible, to exterminate it. But as opposed to his influence, therew as the providence of God, in the appointment of mighty angels; one of whom, is named Michael, who, with his fellows, operated against the machinations of the devil and his angels, so that he could not prevail, nor save the ancient empire of his rule among the heathen Romans, from being supplanted by Christianity. On this very account, was it not highly consistent for the spirit of prophecy to speak of the operations of the old serpent, the devil, by the means of the great red heathen dragon, the Romans, and to state his defeat, with

that of his angels, other fallen spirits like himself, and of their being cast down to the earth from their place of honor in the heathen temples, as they were at the time of their first sinning and being cast out of heaven? Unless we take this view of the subject, we are compelled to suppose that St. John meant by the terms old serpent, the devil, and Satan, the Roman empire; which he could not, except it is viewed as then under the direction and influence of this evil spirit and his angels, for the purpose of destroying Christianity. And that the heathen Roman empire was under such influence, we prove from this most singular circumstance, their opposition to Christianity. Why, we enquire, should the Romans, as a nation, oppose the Christian religion more than they did other religions of mankind? If the Christian religion, in their estimation, was but a new religion of the world, and perhaps not as good, or possibly better, or merely equal, with hundreds of others among mankind, why persecute it, while they did not persecute others, but were willing that other nations and other people should enjoy their way, their gods, and their religion? But so was not the fact, as they did persecute it, with all the vengeance that law and bigotry, urged on by the malice of an idolatrous, interested priesthood, could enable them to effect; which effect was most horrible, as the souls of millions now in eternity, can and will witness; who were dismissed from the earth through blood and torture.

Now why was all this? why did the Roman heathen so persecute this religion, and mark it as a victim of vengeance? this is our answer, because instigated by the devil; as Christianity was of God, and therefore hateful in the sight and estimation of this most foul of all intellectual beings. It was this spirit and his associate angels, who stirred up continually, the powers of heathen Rome, to accuse both night and day, the followers of Christ, to the judges and courts of heathen eeclesiastical law. But when the Apostle, St. John, saw that the providence of God would finally overcome him, he exclaimed, in anticipation-Rev. xii. 10-Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before God night and day." This casting down of Satan, was effected when the religion of Christ had won its way through opposition as great and as terrible as was possible to be carried on by devils and men, and became suddenly the religion of the country, with all the sanctions of the law of the empire. But without the instigation of this spirit, the devil, or Satan, we aver that the Romans would never have done it toward this religion, more than toward others, and to us is a powerful argument of the real existence of Satan; and that such was the meaning of St. John when he speaks of him as being that old serpent, the devil, and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world. It is this same evil being, who

by his powers and invisible associates, operates in the hearts of all infidels, and excites the peculiar enmity of that class of men, against this religion. Were it not so, they never would oppose it, more than they oppose the religion of the heathen. How is it that those men cannot look on the Christian religion with the same indifference as they do on the heathen religion? since they consider them all alike spurious or fictitious, and the work of pristcraft only. They consider them all as impositions alike; yet they single out the Christian religion from all the rest, and make war upon it, by sword and pen, to exterminate it. Now this is altogether unaccountable, except it is explained on the principle of Satanic influence; as the priesthood of Christianity cannot be accused of any thing more than deception, which in them, were it even true, is no worse than the priests of paganism; and yet these men are found even to applaud paganism, and to prefer it. This circumstance proves, in our mind, the fact of the existence of Satan, who as the Scripture saith, worketh in the hearts of the children of disobedience.

But as promised at the outset of this second part of the work, we proceed further to prove the being of the devil, chiefly from the New Testament. But before we enter upon this book of Scripture further than already done, we will examine again, but briefly, the famous 3d chapter of Genesis on this subject. In that chapter, it is stated that the serpent held a strange, yet interesting conversation with the first woman, in which he led her to believe that if she tasted the fruit of that forbidden tree, no evil could happen to her, but rather a positive good would certainly be the result, as that her eyes should be opened, &c. This must have been the devil, that fallen angel, who promised her this increase of knowledge, as there was no other creature who could have done it.

Is it to be believed that Eve imagined in and of herself, that the bare circumstance of eating a few berries of a certain tree, could give her the desired knowledge of which she was in pursuit? yet so she seems to have supposed; for it is said of her, that when she saw, or believed, not only that the fruit, was good to eat, but to make one wise, she did eat. Herein lay the deception; for how could she have imagined, except under the influence of a delusion, that the bare cirumstance of eating could make her wise? But Universalists are equally deceived with Eve in this matter, when they imagine that the mere desire to taste that fruit-which desire they say was the identical serpent-for how can they suppose that desire to have been capable of foretelling what the effect would be to her in a moral point of light, as it certainly did, if there was no foreign evil being engaged in the affair. Appetites cannot reason-cannot foretell-cannot prophesy-cannot teach theology-cannot instruct in things of moral philosophy-as possessed by Eve or any other creature of whole earth; yet we are to believe this, if Universalists are

correct in the interpretation of the temptation of our mother Eve; for they say it was her appetites which told her all these things. But there is another difficulty which presents itself on the idea of Eve's appetites having been this serpent-which is, that she is shown to have exceeded her own powers by her own abilities, which is an absurdity. This is shown in her argument about tasting the fruit of the forbidden tree, when she tells herself, as Universalists will have it, that if she should but taste, it would giver he a knowledge of moral evil; a thing, of which she could not, in her then conditon, had any conception of; for if she had, the purity of her mind must have rejected it rather than desired it. If the reader will but notice, he will perceive when the serpent told her that by its taste she should know both good and evil, that her conclusion was, as it was good to make one wise, was a sufficient reason why she should eat of it; but not for the sake of obtaining a knowledge of moral evil, but moral good, and to become as the gods, the angels whom she knew were good. The knowledge of moral evil by experience, is not a good; and when the serpent-that is, her own passion, appetite and mind, as Universalists will have it-prophesied that to do otherwise than she was commanded to do by her Creator, would obtain this great wisdom; and in so doing lied to her; or in other words, she lied against herself; by which she is shown in a horrible light, and would seem rather to have been created by the devil than by a good, wise, and almighty being; as the whole tendency and essence of her nature and character was evil, and that continually and radically so.

But the procedure of the Divine Being on that occasion-the account of which is given by Moses entirely establishes the fact, that he entered into judgment with four distinct beings. The four beings with whom he entered into judgment, were as follows: First with Adam, second with Eve, third with the serpent, or Nachash, and fourth with Satan, who had used the Nachash as an instrument on that occasion. In arraigning these four beings, the Lord God pursued the following order: First, he commenced with the man, by calling him as it is likely he had been wont to do at other times, when he chose to be conversant with him. But from the singular behaviour of Adam, in his being hidden, as he now foolishly imagined from the presence of God, proves that he was self-convicted, which instantly introduced the inquisition which took place:-"hast thou eaten of the tree wherof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not." But Adam's reply thanks be to the atonement !-was not to deny it, but to confess; which confession, we can scarcely doubt, was a glimmering in the heart of Adam, of that gracious and restored condition, called initial salvation, and has reached the condition of every human soul. Adam confessed, but said: "the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I

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