SERM. VI. a fallen Angel fhould become a Fiend of pure unmixed Malice; (defperately bent on Mischief, which recoils upon himself, but augments God's Glory) endeavouring, like People that are finking, to draw in others after him; and to tempt Mankind, as wicked Men do their Fellow-creatures.

If we confult the moft Authentic Monuments of Antiquity, we find all Nations under the Sun in the earliest Ages, however differing in other Points, agreeing in the Belief of Evil as well as Good Spirits. The Perfian Magi and the Chaldeans diftinguished the Devil by the Name of Arimanius; the Ægyptians under that of Typhon. The Greeks and Romans admitted both Wicked and Good Dæmons.

One of the moft Ancient Greek Philofophers* afferts, that there was a Downfall of Dæmons, who revolted from God; and that Ophioneus, or the Old Serpent, was at the Head of them. Homer makes mention of the Damon of Difcord, which was in Heaven; but precipitated from thence to the Earth; where it employs itself in Works fuitable to it's malicious Nature.

*Pherecydes, as quoted by Marcilius Ficinus.

Very remarkable are the Words of Plu- SERM. VI, tarch, an Hiftorian of very extenfive Knowledge, as well as an able Philofopher (in his Parallel) on the Occafion of two Apparitions to Dion and Brutus.

If Dion and Brutus, Men of great Solidity and Philofophers, neither weak nor credulous, were fo affected with thefe Vifions, as seriously to relate them, and confult their Friends upon them; we must return to the Opinion of the oldest Philosophers, and own; that there are Bad Spirits, who envy Good Men; and endeavour to Stumble them; left, going on in the Paths of Virtue, they should enjoy, after Death, à happier Lot than themselves.

'Tis impoffible to account how fo many diftant Nations, between whom there was no Correfpondence, and who difagreed in other material Points, fhould univerfally with one Confent join in a Belief, into which no fure Principle of Reason could lead them, that there were Evil Spirits; unless it was derived by Tradition from our First Parent; who knew, by melancholy Proof, that there was a Tempter.

So far were they, in thofe early Ages, from difbelieving the Being of Evil Spirits ;

that

SERM. VI. they, feveral of them, ran into another Ex

treme, and admitted two Independent Principles; the one of Good, and the other of Evil. In Oppofition to this early Notion, which was then too predominant, an ingegenious Writer fuppofes that the Book of Job was compofed; where we find, that the Devil could do nothing against Job any farther than the Deity permitted, for the Trial and Exercife of his Virtue. He could not exceed his Commiffion, nor enlarge his Sphere of Action, beyond the Bounds which God had prescribed.

This Notion lets in Light upon the following Paffage of Job: Hell is naked before God, and Deftruction hath no Covering. He ftretcheth out the North over the empty Place, and hangeth the Earth upon nothing. The Pillars of Heaven tremble, and are aftonished at his Reproof. He divideth the Sea with his Power, and by his Understanding He fmiteth through the Proud. By his Spirit the Heavens are garnished, and his Hand formed the crooked Serpent, Job xxvi. 6, &c.

;

If we look no farther than the Surface if we take the first Meaning that occurs; what a prodigious Downfall or Anticlimax

is here at the Clofe of the Sentence, from SERM.VI. Garnishing Heaven to the forming a Crooked Serpent? What Connexion is there? How little of a Piece is it with the reft of the Book, which contains an Affemblage of. the noblest and most august Ideas? But if we look a little deeper, the Profpect clears up. In Oppofition to the Idolatry of those Ages, which He takes occafion to mention ; If I beheld the Sun when it shined, or the Moon walking in Brightness, and my Heart has been fecretly enticed, viz. to worship them: In Oppofition, I fay, to this early Idolatry, He afferts God to be the Maker of the Hoft of Heaven, which they worshipped, By His Spirit he garnished the Heavens. And in Oppofition to the Belief of two Independent Supreme Spirits, the one the Author of Good, the other of Evil; He afferts, that His Hand formed the crooked Serpent; or, as the Septuagint renders it, the Apoftate Dragon; the Old Serpent, the Devil; the Author of Evil, whom they fet up as a Rival to the Creator. How pertinent and beautiful does the Text appear in this Light! From hence we may observe, that the Scripture, even in those very Paffages, where the Surface appears

SERW.VI. barren and unpromifing, contains the rich

eft Mines of Truth; which escape the Ob-
fervation of common and hafty Readers.
Agreeable to this Paffage is that in Isaiah ;
where God is introduced fpeaking to Cyrus
King of Perfia by the Mouth of the Pro-
phet: I am the Lord, and there is none
elfe. I form the Light, and create Dark-
nefs: I make Peace, and create Evil; I,
make Peace (a temporal Blefling) and War
(a temporal Evil) I the Lord do all thefe
Things: Whereas you Perfians adore two
First Causes, the one the Origin of Light
and Good, the other of Darkness; I, in
order to rectify your Notions, affure you,
that I alone do all these; that there is no
Evil without my Permiffion, no Good with-
out my Concurrence.

Thus we fee, that no Heathen Nation difbelieved the Existence of Evil Spirits; feveral carried their Notions of them too high, and aggrandized their Power too much.

We fee, that, as the Scale of Beings defcends from Man to Brute, from Brutes of a higher Species to thofe of a lower, to

* Ifai. xlv. 6, 7.

the