A Treatise of the Laws of Nature. Richard Cumberland

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СКАЧАТЬ cloath’d their Lares, or domestick Gods, with Dog-Skins, makes this Conjecture. “As Chrysippus supposeth, that certain evil Genij go about, which the Gods make use of, to do the Work of Executioners upon impious and unjust Men; so the Lares may be thought certain direful and punitive Genij.” In this Author’s Description of the Punishments of another Life, certain Lakes are said to be there, “and certain Demons stand by, which plunge Souls in, and draw them out.”²⁵ As in the famous Apologue of Er in Plato, there are “Men ferine and of igneous Aspect,” the Tormentors of Souls.²⁶ This Sort of Evil Demons is acknowledg’d by Plato; and one of his School (who acknowledgeth no Demons morally Evil, yet) affirmeth, “That there are Demons, which punish Souls; that the Sins of Men make the Gods their Enemies, not that the Gods are angry, but they separate them from the Gods, and joyn them to the punitive Demons; that the Souls of the Flagitious, after their departure from the Body, are tormented by them, and that there are, for separate Souls, expiatory Gods and Demons, who purge them from their Sins.”²⁷ It was this Sort of Demons, which the Pagans suppos’d maleficent Magicians to hold Correspondence with.

      Of the Sentiments of the Jews concerning evil Demons.

      §V. The Jews are said by Hulsius²⁸ and others, to acknowledge Angels of 3 Classes, 1. Separate Intelligences, who appear not in a corporeal Form, nor can be comprehended by bodily Senses, but only by prophetick Vision, and incompass the Throne of the Divine Majesty, such as Michael, Gabriel, Raphael. 2. Angels of Ministry, created by God for the Welfare and Ministry of Men. 3. Angels of Punishment, or Torment, Destruction, Mischief, and Death; possessing the Sublunary and Infernal Mansions, whose Head is Samael, the Angel of Death, as the Jews call him, who is suppos’d to kill Mankind, and other Animals.²⁹ But these Angels of Punishment, are consider’d by the Jews, not as Tormentors only, but as morally Evil, and Tempters also of Mankind. For they affirm, “That Mankind Sin by the Seduction of the Serpent;³⁰ That Samael rode upon the Serpent, for bigness like a Camel, when he tempted Eve;³¹ That Satan has his Name from הטש (Satah,) for he it is that causeth Man to DECLINE from the Way of Truth.” Asmodeus, whom the Jews suppose the King of the Tempters, is by Graves suppos’d probably to be deriv’d from the Persian Word Azmoud, he tempted, or solicited to Evil, and therefore signifieth the Tempters.³² Moses in Deut. 32. 17. saith of the Israelites, that they sacrific’d unto Devils, םירש (Sheddim,) which Fagius upon the Place saith, that the Jews suppose to be evil Spirits, that come out of the Waters, and are said to have their Name from ררש (Shadad) Vastavit because they devastate a good Mind with bad Opinions and Affections. There are several Passages cited by Windet, Spencer, and Hoornbeck, from the Hebrew Doctors, insinuating, or acknowledging, the Fall of Angels;³³ such as these of Rabbi Eleazar, “The evil Angels were driven out of Heaven by a fiery Scepter. Samael and his Armies, God cast them out of Heaven. Aza and Azael were the two Angels that accus’d their Lord, and God cast them Head-long out of the Holy Place.” The Book Zohar says, “God threw Aza and Azael down Head-long, bound and chain’d.” And, in another antient Book (of the Death of Moses,) it is said of them, “Descending from Heaven, they corrupted their Way.” So in Jonathan’s Targum, Samcha, Zai, and Uziel, (the same with Aza, and Azael,) are said to have fallen from Heaven, and are suppos’d to have begotten Giants. Also the Rabbinical Name of their Prince רורמ (Marod) signifieth an Apostate,³⁴ who is call’d by several other Rabbinical Names,³⁵ which likewise imply the Fall of Angels, such as, “The Prince of Gehennah, the Head of the Satanae.” The common Name, among the Jews in our Saviour’s Time, for the Prince of the Devils, was Beelzebub, or Beelzebul, which may signify Lord of Matter, that is, the presidentiary Ruler of the material World; for לובז (Zebul) is the same with κόπρος which, in the Orphic Verses, signifieth the Matter;

      Ζεῦ κύδιςε, μέγιςε Θεῶν, εἰλύμενε κόπρῳ

      Jupiter, most Illustrious, the greatest of the Gods, involv’d in Dung, or the Matter.

      Empedocles’s Doctrine of Demons, which fell from Heaven, and are agitated by the Gods.

      As among the Jewish Doctors, so among the Heathen Philosophers, a fall of Demons, or Angels from Heaven, is, in some Measure, acknowledg’d; for some of them discourse of a Sort of evil Genij, passively and penally such, which are called by Plutarch, “The Demons of Empedocles, who are agitated by the Gods, and have fallen from Heaven,”³⁶ whom Empedocles thus describes;

      Άἰθέριον μὲν γὰρ σϕε μέ;νος πόντονδε διώκει,

      Πόντος δ’ ἐς χθονὸς ον̂̔δας ’απεπτυσε, γαῖα δ’ ἐς αὐγας

      Ήελίου ϕαέθοντος, ὁ δ’ αἰθέρος ἒμβαλε δίναις.

      Άλλος δ’ ἐξ ᾂλλου δέχεται, στυγέουσι δὲ πάντες

       From the Etherial Region

       down Into the Sea in Rage they’re thrown.

       The raging Sea rejects this Rout

       Unto the Land, and Spews them out.

       The Land unto the Sun them Hurls,

       The Sun into the Ether’s Whirles.

       Thus they are toss’d (the Out-Law’s Fate!)

      By universal Nature’s Hate.³⁷

      The Heaven-Fallen Demons of Empedocles, pursu’d by the Vengeance of the Gods, altho’ they are an approach to the Christian Doctrine, cannot reasonably be thought a Tradition from the Jews, who themselves then talked not so clearly upon this Head.1. This Doctrine of Empedocles greatly befriends the common Hypothesis of the Lapse of Angels from Heaven, which must be call’d the Christian Hypothesis, tho’ it has been weakly oppos’d by some Christian Writers, who have asserted the Evil Angels, to be, originally, the Inhabitants of the Air and Earth, and never to have been in Heaven, and enjoy’d the Beatifick Vision there. For their height of Felicity might be so far from securing them from a Fall, that it might occasion it, thro’ Pride, Self-Admiration, and Self-Love; and, in consequence, affecting a Dominion over Subjects withdrawn from the Subjection of God, agreeably to the Heads of Empire, which Satan usually setteth up in the World, that usually affect an unbounded Liberty. And that himself, in Consort with his Fellow-Rebels, should be like-minded, and therefore should chuse to make a total Revolt from God and their Duty, was not incompatible with their coelestial Condition; nor is it at all incredible, the like prodigiously-frantick Enormities being no Rarities amongst intelligent Agents. Wherefore the usual Doctrine is unexceptionable, which is clearly enough express’d in H. Scriptures, which represent the Holy Angels, as originally the Inhabitants of Heaven. Matt. 22. 30. Luc. 20. 36. Heb. 12. 22. And the laps’d Angels, originally, of the Number of the Holy Angels, 2 Pet. 2. 5. Jud. 6. 2. 2. The Heathen Doctrine of Demons befriends the Christian СКАЧАТЬ