Moses, in his prophetic hymn concerning the apo stacy of the Israelites, takes notice of it as a proof and aggravation of their idolatrous disposition, that they sacrificed unto devils, (schedim,) whom he calls new gods that came newly up, whom they knew not, and their fathers feared not*. The Psalmist in like manner thus reproaches them: Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils †, (schedim.) If all the Pagan gods were devils, why are the schedim distinguished from their other gods? Why are they called new to the Israelites, who had of old worshipped the Pagan deities? Why is the worship of these schedim mentioned as matter of peculiar reproach? And if these schedim were devils, who have a real and extensive power over mankind, why are they called vanities and idols §? The word schedim is derived from a verb | which signifies to lay waste, to destroy, and ought to have been rendered the destroyers. It expresses the supposed cruel nature and character of these false gods, who were thought to delight in, and who were accordingly worshipped by, the destruction of the human species, and who required, as appears from the context, even the blood of their sons and daughters. Who the gods were that were worshipped by human sacrifices, all history informs us; and so has the Psalmist in the most express They ate the sacrifices of the dead. They were the * Deut. xxxii. 17. + Ps. cvi. 37. terms ** Gen. xxxv. 2,4. Josh. xxiv. 2. § Deut. xxxii. 21. Ps. cvi. 36, .שרד זן : Pfalm cvi. 38. ** Psalm v. 28. See the learned Mr. Merrick's Annotations on the Psalms, p. 218. great great warriors, who in their mortal state delighted in the slaughter of the human race. The revolt of the Israelites from the worship of God their Saviour, to that of these wasters and destroyers of mankind, argued the highest degree of folly and wickedness. This worship was new to the Israelites, what they had never practised either in Egypt or before they went into that country; but what they afterwards learnt of the Canaanites. Accordingly the schedim are expressly called by the Psalmist the idols of Canaan*. What one circumstance is there that can lead us to suppose that either Moses or the Psalmist, in the forecited passages, are speaking of devils, in the common acceptation of that word? The same defect either of candour or judgment our translators have shewn in the explication of another word, which they render devils. They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, seirim, or, sehirim †. This prohibition of Moses to the Israelites after they had left Egypt implies that they had, during their stay there, defiled themselves with that particular species of idolatry here condemned. And from other passages of Scripture it sufficiently appears that the Israelites were no strangers to the worship of the Egyptian deities . It is allowed that the word seirim signifies hairy beings, or goats §. And the learned Bo * Psalm cvi. 38. + Levit. xvii. 7. chart † Josh. xxiv. 14. Ezek. xx. 7. ch. xxiii. 2, 3. Acts viii. 39. § In Levit. iv. and ch. xvi. and other places, it signifies a goat. In many places it signifies hair or hairy, 32. Gen. xxv. 25. Psalm lxviii, 21. Lev. xiii. 10, 25, 26, 30, The word also occurs, Isa. chart has fully shewn that the sacred animals of Egypt were hairy; and that the goat in particular was worshipped, (on the same account as Priapus was amongst the Greeks ;) and that Pan was represented under the image of this animal. It is plain, therefore, that as the schedim were the idols of Canaan, so the seirim were the idols of Egypt. This will more clearly appear from another place in which this latter word occurs: He (Jeroboam) ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, (seirim, the goats,) and for the calves he had made †. Did Jeroboam make devils, or the statues and images of devils? The word seirim (goats) no more signifies devils, than the original word translated calves, or any other word throughout the Bible. Some very learned men indeed plead, that devils were represented by goats, because they appeared to mankind in the form of these animals. But till they produce some better authority than the reports of witches, and the fables of the Heathens concerning fauns and satyrs, in proof of the devil's appearing in the shape of goats, this plea cannot be admitted. What the historian. affirms is plainly this: that Jeroboam, lately returned from Egypt, established the worship of the deities xiii. 21, where the prophet is foretelling the utter destruction and desolation of Babylon, The satyrs, the seirim, the goats or hairy creatures shall dance there, i. e. it shall be inhabited by beasts, and not And in Is. xxxiv. 14, this word is rendered satyrs, where the prophet is describing the desolation of Idumea, representing, it as the haunt of goats and other wild beasts. men. ii. c. 53 * Hieroz. See Patrick in particular. of of that country, which was eminently that of goats and calves; or at least set up the images of these animals as symbols of the Divinity. There could be no reference to devils, as this word is now understood; because the Israelites are never charged by their prophets with so detestable a species of idolatry as the worship of devils. The institution of such worship would not have suited with the policy of Jeroboam, who was desirous of attaching the Israelites to himself. Nor did the Egyptians, whose example Jeroboam copied, ever represent devils under the figures of goats and calves. With regard to the passages in the New Testament in which the Heathen gods are styled devils, or (according to the original) demons *; it has been already shewn†, that thereby we are to understand such human spirits as were supposed to be converted into dæmons. It is scarce necessary to observe, that when St. Paul in these passages calls the objects of Pagan worship dæmons, and in other places gods and lords, it is merely for the sake of describing them by their usual appellations, or to express what the Heathens believed them to be; without having any intention of allowing them any real power or divinity: 1 Cor. x. 20, 21, cited above, p. 127. † Pages 127, 128, 129. There be gods many, and lords many, i. e. such as are so called, 1 Cor. viii. 5. The lords here spoken of answer to Baalim in the Old Testament, and to demons in the New, the supposed dispensers of good and evil, according to the Pagans, But Christians acknowledge only one God, and one Lord. for for he elsewhere upbraids them as vanities*, and mere nullities t. This likewise is the view which all the sacred writers give us of the gods of Paganism: a view absolutely inconsistent with their possessing a power of working miracles. SECTION III. The character and pretensions of the magicians, diviners and sorcerers of antiquity, examined; with the Scripture account concerning them. And the various pleas alleged by Christians in support of the credit and efficacy of the antient magic refuted. It will be my business in this section to shew that the magicians, diviners and sorcerers of antiquity, who pretended, by the assistance of the Heathen deities, to foretell future events or to work miracles, are branded in Scripture as mere impostors, incapable of supporting their pretensions by any works or predictions beyond human power or skill. It is natural to suppose this, from what has been advanced in the foregoing section; but it will admit of a much fuller confirmation. In order to our clearly discerning the justice with which the Scriptures censure and explode all the Pagan pretences to prophecy and miracles, it will not be improper to investigate the false principles upon which they, were founded, the knowledge of which will be of service to us on several occasions in the sequel of the argument. * Acts xiv. 15. +1 Cor. viii. 4, 5, 6. The |