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notwithstanding the ill use made of this principle, he not only admits it to be true, but labours to establish it. 5. This brings us to examine the reasoning employed by the apostle to prove the nullity of idols, and at the same time to prevent the abuse of this doctrine : "We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. FOR though there be (amongst the Gentiles) that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, both celestial and terrestrial; (as there be gods MANY, and lords MANY*;) [that is, there is indeed amongst the Gentiles a vast multitude of reputed deities, some sovereign in their respective provinces, and others subordinate, but all of them supposed to possess real power and dominion,] But to US (that is, to Christians) there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” As if the apostle had said, All Christians, if they think rightly, must allow that the good and evil demons of paganism are mere nullities, for this plain reason, that our religion supposes and asserts the sole dominion of Jehovah and his Messiah over the human race; and, in so doing, utterly subverts the claims of all other superior beings to interpose in human affairs. If demons have

lism were the idols which the sacred writers esteemed nothing in the world, why doth his lordship affirm that these idols are devils, and that we may receive damage from them?

* Le Clerc supposes that Paul here asserts that there are gods many (in heaven God and his angels); and lords many (in the earth magistrates): a sentiment quite foreign from the design of the apostle, and well refuted by Whitby on I Cor. viii. 5. Compare Jerem. ii. 28.

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any power over mankind, whether it be original or subordinate, or can do either good or evil, it cannot be truly affirmed that they have no other God or Lord but Jehovah and his Christ, from whom or through whom are all things: for, on this supposition, it might be said with truth, that from or through demons are many things, and that they are something in the world. We cannot therefore but agree with you in your main principle, that demons are nothing, unless we renounce the fundamental article of the Christian faith.

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Such was his zeal for this principle, that when warning those Christians against the abuse of it, who urged it as a plea for eating things offered to the heathen demons, and even for assisting at festivals in their honour, he thus expresseth himself *: "What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?" Earnestly as I am dissuading you against joining with the heathens in the sacrifices or festivals of their demons, far be it from me to suggest that these demons have any degree of power, or that what is offered to them suffers any real pollution. After what I have said on this subject, you cannot suspect me of holding any such opinion. "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with demons." My meaning is, that the worship of the heathens is not directed to the true God, but to their own deities, whom they substitute in his stead, and whom they regard as real deities: and it must

be very unfit for Christians, who know that they are nothing in the world, and that there is only one God, to join in the worship and communion of false gods*; or to do any act that, by fair construction, implies their having a religious reverence for them, a belief of their power, or a desire of their favour and friendship+. The apostle proceeds, " Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of demons." You cannot, without great absurdity and self-contradiction, pay homage to Christ as the only Lord over mankind, by celebrating his supper, if you acknowledge the authority of other lords and agents between heaven and earth, and celebrate festivals in their honour. If you acknowledge their claims, you must deny his; if you admit his, you must give up theirs ‡.

The apostle urges several other considerations to dissuade them from eating promiscuously, and without scruple, things offered to false gods; but as they are chiefly drawn from the ill effects that their example might have upon others, who might be tempted to imi

* With this the Corinthian converts were justly chargeable, when they assisted at the sacrifices of the heathen gods or partook of the sacred banquets in their temples; the gods themselves, as it was supposed, sharing in the common feast.

The same sentiment is elsewhere thus expressed by the apostle, "What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" 2 Cor. vi. 16.

The apostle in like manner taxes the Colossians (chap ii. 19) with not holding the he..d. because they worshipped ages. For though they might allow Christ to be the chef mediator, yet they utterly subverted his proper claim to be the sok mediator between God and man.

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tate it, though not fully persuaded of the lawfulness of doing it, they need not be explained in this place. It is very observable, that, copiously as the apostle treats this subject, he never once makes any mention of the devil; never intimates that he or any mischievous spirits personated the heathen gods, supported their worship, and were themselves, in reality, the gods of the heathens; though, had he thought this to be the case, it would have been much to his purpose to have clearly and fully stated it, in order to give proper force to his argument against celebrating festivals in their honour. The whole reasoning of St. Paul concerns the idols and demons of the Gentiles, those spirits whom they regarded as gods and lords; and whoever they were, the apostle hath not urged one argument against eating things sacrificed to them, that supposes or implies their having any degree of power; but urges quite different considerations, drawn from the circumstances under which some Christians partook of those sacrifices, which might make it an act of religious honour and worship, or might prove a stumbling-block to their weak brethren. He grants that things offered in sacrifice to the heathen demons underwent no change; and that no man was either better or worse for partaking or not partaking of them. He also admits that the demons themselves were mere nothing; and (knowing that some Christians at that time were disposed to ascribe a real power to these demons, and probably foreseeing the same disposition in others, in after ages,) shows that the nullity of demons was a just and necessary inference from that fundamental article of Christianity,

Christianity, there being but one God and one Lord over mankind. The reader cannot fail observing, that St. Paul is here professedly stating the doctrines of the Gospel, and the idea which he himself had of them. Indeed, he elsewhere represents it as the main design of his commission, to destroy the doctrine of demons; or, to use his own words, "to turn men from these vanities unto the living God*."

From the whole of what occurs in this section, may we not infer that there is much injustice in reproaching the Scriptures with countenancing the doctrine of demoniacal possessions? Did the sacred writers first introduce this doctrine? It is not even pretended that they did. Did they ever assert it as a part of that revelation which they were divinely commissioned to publish to the world? They could not thus assert it; for it overturns the main doctrine and evidences of the Jewish and Christian revelations. On the contrary, they have done every thing they could fitly do, to banish it out of the world, by carefully instructing Christians in the absolute nullity of demons, by continually inculcating this principle upon them with a zeal equal to its great importance, and by establishing it upon the clearest evidence. If you regulate your judgement concerning demons by that of the writers either of the Old or New Testament, you must allow that there never was, nor can be, a real demoniac.

* Acts xiv. 15. Compare 1 Thess. i. 9.

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