God. I. who are instigated by their base minds, produce the CHAP. devils (devas), by means of their pernicious thoughts.'1 'Who is the religious man and who the impious (or wicked) one? With whom of both (or of these two) is the black spirit, and with whom the bright one? Is it not right to consider the impious man who attacks me or thee to be a black one?' 2 Thus it is clearly defined, that human liberty wrongly directed produces the nought or base mind, and that the latter produces the devils or incorporations of the evil spirit. Those who are led by heavenly wisdom, that is, by Friends of the indwelling holy Spirit of God, and who, after the death of the body, are translated to the celestial throne of God and of his first-created angels, have become, like the latter, friends and sons of God. All angels are created beings, either aboriginal citizens of the spiritual world above, or translated citizens of the material world below. In the most ancient parts of the Avesta no prayers are addressed to any other than to the living God himself, as the source of that divine 'spiritual power,' which ever since the beginning has fulfilled its mission of regenerating, and thus reclaiming the souls of fallen men. This divine mediator, the saving Spirit of God in man, was perhaps already in the time of Zoroaster, conceived as conveyed to man by a celestial Being; an idea which was more fully developed in later times, and which may have led to the conception of a personification of the Divine Spirit. The angel' or 'friend of God,' who 'protects' the divine creed in the assembly of the heavenly spirits, and through whose mediation Zoroaster received the commandments of the invisible God, is called 'Sraosha' or 'Serosh.' The angel came' to the prophet, in consequence of the latter's belief in the holy living wise Spirit,' and brought to him the good mind,' that is, the indwelling Spirit, Wisdom or Word of God, which 'the living Creator of all' bestows to those who believe 1 Yas. xlix. 4. 6 6 CHAP. I. in him as the primeval cause of life. The revealingangel Sraosha, so-named because the holy tradition came by hearing,' is called the greatest of all, who is praising the truth and doing good,' and who is surrounded by others, according to the order of the Holy Spirit,' that is, by 'heavenly singers' or angels.1 Zoroaster clearly defined the living God as the father of the good Spirit, of his inborn glory.' But the Holy Spirit is also designated in the Avesta as the type of the creations,' as 'the splendid residence of the good Spirit, in which are 'garnered up all perfect things.' This conception of a type and of a storehouse of divine treasures easily led to the later idea of a personified Spirit. The names given to the first among the angels, the archangels, Amshaspands' or 'Amesha-Spentas,' led one to suppose that originally these represented merely the principal attributes and gifts of God. If so, it is not improbable that even Serosh, who is at the head of the archangels, may have originally represented the ideal type of created beings, without having been conceived as a personality. Be this as it may, it is quite clear that Serosh and the six archangels were at the time when the later Scriptures forming the Avesta were written, that is, long before the year 400 B.C. regarded as personalities, and that the seven planets were probably considered as their celestial residences. Thus it is written in the Yasna of seven Chapters: We worship Ahuramazda, the master of purity; we worship the Amesha Spentas, the possessors of good, the givers of good."2 And in the still later' Homa Yasht' it is written: We worship the angel Serosh, the sincere, the beautiful, the victorious, who protects our territories, the true, the master of truth, who of Ahuramazda's creatures first worshipped Ahuramazda, who worshipped the archangels, who worshipped the two Masters, the two Creators, who create all things. For his 6 1 Yas. xliii. 3-7; xlv. 6-8. 2 Yas. xxxv. 1. splendour and beauty, for his power and victory, for his praying to the angels in our behalf, I will worship him with an audible prayer and with the offering of consecrated water. He may come to help us, he the victorious, sincere Serosh.' 1 2 The I. reaction. It is important to mark the essential difference between Panthewhat we may call the original Zoroastrian doctrine, and stic its later development. Far from any angels being worshipped, no archangels are directly or indirectly referred to in those parts of the Avesta which lay claim to Zoroastrian origin. To the worship of the One Living Creator of All is opposed the worship of 'two Creators who create all things.' Again, angels are worshipped; and thus raised to the dignity of divinities. Among these Serosh, later Mithra, was symbolised by the sun. pure Monotheism of the Aryan Reformer has been set aside, and Polotheism established in its stead. It is also to be observed, that in the more ancient parts of the Aryan Bible the observance of no sacrificial rites or ceremonies is insisted upon as essential. The Divine Spirit was regarded long after the death of Zoroaster as the continual revealer of the Word of God, as the inspirer of holy thoughts, words, and deeds. These monotheistic and spiritualistic conceptions were in course of time. gradually supplanted by that materialism which leads to polytheism and pantheism. The Divine Spirit was conceived as having no existence apart from free and selfdetermining individuals; the external source of internal revelation was denied; the infinite was absorbed by the finite, that is, the creature was worshipped instead of the Creator; and no future existence of the soul was believed in. The cardinal doctrine was no more: through death unto life, but through life unto death. It has been pointed out that some of the latest writings in the Avesta contain the name of Gautama (Gaotema) or Buddha. Buddha died in 543 B.C., and as a certain period of time 2 Comp. Yas. lvii. 8. 1 Yas. lvii. 2-3. CHAP. I. Immortality. is likely to have elapsed after his death before his doctrine could spread in Bactria, these Scriptures, among the very latest of those which form part of the Avesta, have probably been written not earlier than between the fourth and the fifth century before Christ. This calculation is confirmed by the fact that, according to cuneiform inscriptions from the time of King Arthaxerxes Mnemon, the worship of Mithra and Annahita was spreading through all the dominions of the Persian empire, which was not the case at the time of Darius Hystaspes, of whose time we possess inscriptions in which these deities are not mentioned.1 6 '3 We have already pointed out in general terms that, according to the most ancient or Zoroastrian part of the Avesta, the Divine Spirit, Wisdom or Word of God, is the conveyancer of immortality to man. Through the Holy Spirit,' which appears in the best thought, the truth of speech, and the sincerity of action,' God gives 'immortality' to this world. Health and immortality,' or 'fulness and immortality,' are called the two everlasting powers,' which the prophet hopes to obtain 'in the same way' as God has granted' them to others, that is by the 'gift' of God.5 The sincere man's mind is aspiring to the everlasting immortality.'6 To such who increase to the utmost the life on earth by means of truth,' to such one the first (earthly) and the other (spiritual) life will be granted as a reward, together with all goods to be had on the imperishable earth. Thou living Wise One art the very owner of all these things to the greatest extent, thou who art my friend." The recompense of the faithful is, to come to the dwelling-place of the living Creator of all,' to the worlds' where He 'thrones ;' at the expiration 6 1 Haug's Essays, p. 224. 6 9 2 Yas. xlvii. 1-4; comp. Spiegel's Vend. xlvi. 1. 8 Yas, 1. 15. The following quotations are taken from 3 Yas. xliii. 1. 7 Yas. xlvi. 19. Spiegel's Avesta. 6 3 of the long time,' when 'the perfectly good resurrection Having pointed out that in the most ancient parts of the Avesta the Holy Spirit, Wisdom or Word is conceived as the first-born among all creatures, as the mediator between God and man, and as the organ of sanctification and immortality, we have now briefly to refer to the doctrines contained in the Avesta about Angels and Spirits. Angels and Spirits.-We have seen that the living Creator of all' is conceived also as the Creator of even the first among the angels. They are created beings in the spiritual world; they form the assembly of the heavenly spirits,' and guardians of the beings in the terrestrial world; among whom the first in dignity is called the 'friend' of God, who revealed to Zoroaster the divine commandments. He may therefore be regarded as the especial representative of the living and invisible God. Of the six archangels who were conceived as forming the celestial council we need not take any notice, since there is no trace of such an idea in the probably Zoroastrian parts of the Avesta. It is not improbable that the stars without beginning,' the then known planets, suggested the idea of their being the dwelling-places of the first among the angels who are called 'the immortal saints.' These were in after-Zoroastrian times regarded as 'the guardian angels of the good,' as the rulers with their watchful eyes, the highly powerful, swift, the living ones, of everlasting truth,' who 6 1 Yas. xli. 8. 4 Yas. lix. 18; xlvi. 10. 6 CHAP. I. |