minister to him there; they preside over nations; above all are they the guardians of the saints; and even infants are committed to their care; they guide the sun in his shining course; the moon and stars send forth radiance at their bidding; all nature is made subservient to those who encamp round about them that fear the Lord. Such is the universe of the Scriptures; and such the instruments which he who is, and was, and is to come, employs in governing his boundless dominion!

It was in the midst of such a universe as this, seen by a prophetic eye, that Daniel, and Zechariah, and especially John of the Apocalypse, lived and wrote. Who can wonder at the glowing pages which they have produced, or at the ecstasies into which they so often fell? The reader, who is not prepared to allow and duly appreciate all this, can have no well-grounded claim to be an adequate expositor of their works, or of other parts of the Scriptures, which, in this respect, resemble them.

VII. APPENDIX ON THE SYStem of Zoroaster.

I have referred, on page 145 above, to the opinion current among one class of interpreters, that the angelology of the Scriptures is derived from the old Persian mythology, or the system of Zoroaster as developed in the Zend Avesta, and now usually named Parsism. The supposition of these interpreters is, that the Jews, during their exile in middle Asia, became acquainted with the opinions of the Parsees, and finally adopted them as their own.

The evidence of this is said to lie in the fact, that none but the books of Scripture written during or after the exile, contain the doctrine of demonology; and as to the good angels, their appearance and interposition is altogether more frequent in the books written after the beginning of the exile than in the others; so that it is even probable, that what of angelology there is in the other books. may have arisen from interpolation at a later period.

If we undertake to reply to this, by averring that the books of the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, all speak of angelic interposition, and most of them very frequently; the answer is, that these books, one and all, were written at a late period of the Jewish history, or at any rate after the deportation of the ten tribes ;

and thus an acquaintance of the Jews with the mythology of the Parsees may naturally be supposed. And should we then appeal to the Psalms of David, for evidence of the angelology current in the time of this king among the Hebrews, the reply still is, that all such Psalms as speak of angels were written at a later period, and ascribed to David by their authors, in order to give them currency.

This sweeping criticism in respect to the antiquity of the Hebrew Scriptures, reminds one strongly of father Hardouin's position, maintained with much ingenuity and erudition, viz. that all the Latin and Greek classics, with the exception only of Cicero's works, Virgil's Georgics, Pliny's Natural History, and Horace's Satires and Epistles, were composed by monks of the thirteenth century. Of course I have nothing to say, in an essay like the present, in the way of canvassing such positions. I no more believe in the later origin of all the Hebrew books, than I do in that of all the Greek and Roman classics; and I think the arguments for the antiquity of the one are, on the whole, not less satisfactory than those for the antiquity of the other. But still, if we admit, (as later criticism strenuously urges us to do, and not without some show of reason,) the later composition of the book of Job, then we have to concede, that demonology, or the presentation of Satan and other evil spirits, appears only in those books of Scripture that bear date after the beginning of the Jewish exile.

Did the Jews borrow their views of evil spirits, or of angels in general, from Parsism, that is, the religion of the old Parsees, the exponent of which is admitted to be the Zend Avesta ?

There are certainly some striking points of resemblance between parts of the Zend system of intermediate beings between God and men, and portions of the Bible, especially of the New Testament. A superficial observer is struck with wonder, when he sees an Ormuzd corresponding in so many respects to John's Logos; then an Ahriman tallying so well in a variety of ways with Satan; then the Amshaspands, or seven good archangels, seemingly correspondent with the seven archangels of the New Testament; and last of all, the Izeds, their subordinates, seeming to correspond with the secondary angels or subordinate spiritual agents disclosed in the Scriptures. Besides these correspondences of rank, there is seemingly a general correspondence in the nature of their respec

tive employments. We need not therefore be surprised, should the tyro in sacred criticism be staggered with all this, and begin to cherish some doubts, or at least fears, that the system of religion in the Bible is, after all, rather derived from the traditions of surrounding nations, than revealed by the Spirit of rruth.

Of course we must expect neology to take advantage of all this, and turn it to its own account in undervaluing the authority of the Scriptures. This has often been done by critics; and several books, some of them exhibiting high evidences of talent and study, have been composed and published, in order to establish and propagate these views. I have read with attention the leading publications of this class, such as Rhode's,' and others; but I have not been able to satisfy myself of the correctness of the assertions, that the scriptural writers have borrowed their angelology from the traditions of the Parsees.

My limits place an ample exhibition of the subject under consideration entirely out of my present reach. I can only give a few glances at the Zoroastrian system of intermediate beings, which will serve to show how many and how striking the points of discrepancy are, as well as the points of resemblance, between this system and the Jewish Scriptures.

1. According to the Zend Avesta, the original and self-existent God is called Zervane Akenene, that is, unlimited or uncreated time. This original being created two others, the resplendent images of himself, Ormuzd and Ahriman, both originally good. Ahriman, through envy of Ormuzd, sinned, fell, and thus became the bitter enemy of Ormuzd.

2. For the purpose of exterminating evil thus begun, Ormuzd commenced the work of creation, by bringing into existence light and all good and useful creatures. In order to prepare specially for contest, Ormuzd created six Amshaspands or archangels, himself being reckoned one of this order and king of all; and besides these he created eight-and-twenty Izeds or leading subordinate angels, companions and helpers of the Amshaspands. Under the Izeds, again, were other subordinate Izeds or Hamkars, performing the like office for their superiors.

' Entitled: 'Die heilige Sage des Zendvolks.'

3. Ahriman, in order to prepare on his part for the contest, created corresponding evil beings; that is, Defs, divided into Archdefs, Defs, and Under-defs, like to and corresponding with the associates of Ormuzd. Besides these, Ahriman created all that is evil, hateful, annoying, and destructive, either in the material or animal world.

4. The world-period established by the Infinite One, is to consist of 12,000 years. Of these, the first quarter was occupied with the creations of good and evil described above. At the commencement of the second quarter, Ahriman showed himself as disposed to enter into the contest. But Ormuzd so terrified him by his menaces, that he shrank back into Duzakh (hell) among his Defs, where he remained until the beginning of the third quarter of the 12,000 years. Ahriman and his coadjutors then commenced a furious attack upon the kingdom of light, and the contest is to be continued, with various success, down to the end of the world (i. e. of the 12000 years), when Ormuzd becomes completely victorious; the resurrection of the dead then takes place, and in the sequel the general judgment; all the Defs are annihilated, and Ahriman himself repents, makes his submission, and is permitted to live.

5. In regard to these intermediate beings which Parsism holds up to view, all but eight are reckoned to be both masculine and feminine; four are always and only masculine; and four always and only feminine.'

6. All the higher good beings, the Amsphaspands and Izeds, are the objects of invocation and worship. Ormuzd, however, is the chief or leading object. The Infinite One is principally worshipped in and through him; for Ormuzd is the great all in all of the Zoroastrian theosophy.

7. In addition to these worlds of good and evil spirits, there is yet another class, which lie at the foundation of the Parsee theosophy. These are the Feruers, the original ideal archetypes of all intelligent and rational beings. They correspond, in a great variety of respects, with the ἰδέαι, ἀρχαὶ νοεραί, and ἀρχέτυποι, of the Platonists. Ormuzd himself has a Feruer. The original archetypical thought of the Infinite One, which formed the first conception of him, is his Feruer; and he (Ormuzd) as creator of all other (good) Rhode, p. 325.

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beings and things, unites a Feruer with every rational being, as his good genius and protector. To the Feruers invocation and ⚫ supplication must be addressed, especially for the dead; and a part of the days of each month is particularly consecrated to them. The ideal archetypes of Plato, and the ayavodaípov of Socrates, appear to be very intimately connected with this portion of the Parsee theosophy.

Let us now institute a comparison, by summing up the results of this oriental system.

1. The creator of all (good) things is himself a created and derived being.

2. There are two creators, and as it would seem, of equal power, for they are possessed of substantially the same natural attributes, each of them being quasi-omnipotent.

3. Angels high and low, male and female, are the subjects of invocation and worship. Even so the Feruers. They are worshipped even in heaven, as well as on earth. Ormuzd himself is represented, in fact, as invoking and worshipping his own Feruer.'

4. All the evil Arch-defs, Defs, and Under-defs, are represented as being annihilated at the end of the world; and Ahriman himself as becoming penitent and submissive. Hell itself (Duzakh) will be destroyed and purified at the same period; so that the final triumph of Ormuzd will leave no relic of evil or of inimical beings in any part of the universe.

About a few of these positions there is some variety of opinion among the commentators on the Zend books; but the result as here given is regarded by the most intelligent, as the orthodoxy of Parsism.

What have we now in the Scriptures? ONE only living and true God, the Creator of all things by his Logos. There is no dualism, no created gods; no equality between Satan and the Logos or God; no power in Satan to create; no worship of angels, for this is most absolutely forbidden; no annihilation of evil angels at the end of the world; no penitence and submission of Satan; no distinction of sex among the angels, and of course no generation of progeny. Above all, there is not a trace of the Feruers in the Scriptures; no worship or homage paid to these simply ideal ex

Kleuker's Zend Avesta, I. Th. III. p. 289.