the tempter during the course of the temptation, and that calavas is only employed by Christ in speaking to him as his adverfary; it may be replied, that in Mark it is exprefsly faid that he was tempted by τα σάβανα. In the explanation of the parable of the fower, Matt. xiii. 19, ὁ πονηρῶ; Mark iv. 15, ὁ σάβανας; Luke viii. 12, daßoλos; are all applied to the fame character in the parable. The tempter of Judas Iscariot to deliver up his master is ftiled, in John xiii. 2, ver. 27, ὁ σάβανας. diabolos, and in The adverfaries of Christianity are denoted by both the terms σάβανας and διαβολος, in each of the following texts, fometimes with, at others without, the article: Rev. ii. 9, 10; xii. 9; xx. 2. That σaav and diaconos are ufed as fynonymous terms, and that they both fignify an adversary, appears from the ancient Greek tranflations of the the Hebrew, in Job i. 6. Aquila translates it σαλαν, Alex. διαβολος, and Theodot. ανικειμενος. Schleufner. The Septuagint retain the word calav, 1 Kings xi. 14; and in eighteen other places translate it by diabolos, with and without the article. 3. i denotes a human adverfary or adversaries in every paffage in which it occurs in the Old Teftament, excepting two, in both which it is applied to the angel of Jehovah, as an opponent. Σαζαν, σαζανας, and διαβολος, allo fignify an adversary or adverfaries, real or emblematical, either, to bodily health, to mental purity, to good character, or to the cause of righteoufnefs and Chriftianity, and their friends, in every place in the New Testament in which they are used. 4. No fingle text, nor any number of texts, in which the terms 1, σalav, σalavas, or diados, occur in fcripture, afford any proof of the proper personality, or real existence of such a being as Satan, or the Devil, is generally supposed to be; though from the manner in which the words are used, a general belief of his actual existence evidently seems to have prevailed. Many plain distinct paffages, and the general spirit of them all, oblige us to understand these terms figuratively, of an allegorical perfon, not of a real one. SECTION VII. Passages that are supposed to relate to Satan or the Devil. 1. An Explanation of Genefis, chap. iii. THE impoffibility of many things that are related in this chapter, and the improbability of others, when understood literally, compel even those who believe in the real existence and perfonality of the Devil, to interpret them figuratively. See Kennicott's Diff. on the Tree of Life, and Gifford's Remarks on it; Shuckford on the Fall of Adam; Joseph Mede's Works, discourses 37, 38, 39, vol. i. boɔk 1. A ferpent can neither speak nor reason, though in ver. 1, 4, 5, he is faid to do both thefe. It is related that God fpake to Adam and to his wife, and even to the ferpent: but the Moft High is a pure spirit, and has no bodily organs of fpeech. Adam and his wife are faid to have hidden themselves from the Supreme Being among the trees, ver. 8: but the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good; Prov. xv. 3. God is reprefented as calling unto Adam, and asking him where he was, ver. 9; and what he and the woman had done, ver. 1, 13: though the Most High is omniscient and omniprefent. That eating the fruit of a tree, ver. 3, 5, should impart the knowledge of virtue and vice, (comp. ii. 9, 17,) is not ufually understood literally. And changing a mortal body to an incorruptible one, by eating any fruit, does not accord, either with the frail nature of a corporeal frame, or with the inherent tendency of fruit and every vegetable to decay. The 15th verfe is generally interpreted as a figurative prophecy, even by those who plead for a literal fense in some other parts of the chapter. The punishment denounced upon the ferpent in the 14th verfe implies, in its most obvious meaning, that ferpents did not before creep on the ground. The fentence paffed upon the woman, ver. 16, is ufually understood to fignify, that fhe would not, unless she had eaten this fruit, have been subject to pain in child-birth, or to obedience to her husband. The curfe pronounced upon the ground, ver. 17, is also generally interpreted as implying, that, without this offence, it would not have produced thorns and thistles, and that labour would not have been neceffary to its cultivation.. It is not even fuppofed that Adam was created without an animal body, though from this account it is concluded that he would not have been fubject to death, if he had not eaten the fruit. Yet the very nature of fuch a frame includes the idea of mortality. Nor are we told that, unless this tranfgreffion had been committed, the Great Creator of man would have upheld him in life for ever, without the intervention of death. The feveral extraordinary circumstances which we have mentioned, are founded on the unproved fuppofition, that, besides the innocence of Adam, a very different ftate of man and of the natural world from the prefent had fubfifted before his tranfgreffion; and that after it a fudden and miraculous change was made in both. If the Devil, as it is generally imagined, employed the irrational ferpent to execute his evil purposes, the Devil himself deferved punishment. The ferpent was compelled fupernaturally to fay and do what is attributed to him. The account, therefore, of the punishment of the ferpent, if taken literally, is inconfiftent with what reafon, and other parts of fcripture, teach concerning the rectitude of the divine governSee Rom. iv. 15. The criminal escapes condemnation, while the unconscious inftrument of his wickedness fuffers all the punishment. ment. Again; a literal interpretation of this chapter totally excludes the Devil from having any concern in the tranfaction, for throughout the whole narrative his name is never once mentioned, nor is there any intimation that he was a party in it. If it be faid that he must have animated the ferpent to have produced the effects related; it may be replied, that this takes for granted the existence of the devil, without proof; and moreover fuppofes a most tremendously miraculous event, namely, that a fallen archangel en |