sor of the morning, how art thou cut down to the ground, who did weaken the nations; for thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." Although there can be no doubt but this was spoken literally of Nebuchadnezzar, one of the kings of ancient Chaldea, who flourished about six hundred years B. C., in whose time the Chaldean empire had became very large and powerful, comprehending Chaldea, Assyria, Arabia, Syria and Palestine, reaching even to India. It is probable this monarch, in the greatness of his pride and kingly ambition, had desired in his heart, and probably expressed to his confidants, his intention of bringing all the nations of Africa and Asia, to pay homage to his crown, and to be subject to his rule, for the glory of great Babylon, the most splendid and the most populous, as well as the largest walled city of the globe, either before or since that time, being fifteen miles square, and sixty in circumference.

But notwithstanding the insatiate desires, and the achievements of this mortal, we cannot but think that Isaiah has used language and figures too strong and foreign to the fact; unless there is a reference in this description, to the desires and plans of Satan after his fall, as well as to Nebuchadnezzar, the mortal type of that immortal rebel against God and all his works. Can such language as here follows, be seriously applied to the doings of any mere man, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High;" a thing impossible for a man even to think of, if his ideas of the Most High are as exalted as the description the Jewish Scriptures give of him. But if we apply this language to the apostacy of that rebel angel, who by his rebellion became a devil; then such a description, couched in the strong and majestic words of inspiration, are not improperly descriptive; but portrays the ambition of this Lucifer, son of the morning, and his attempt to fight against God, and to ascend the mount of the congregation, in heaven, and to be like the Most High, nothing doubting but he could do it. That this king should be called in Scripture, Lucifer, and also son of the morning, which is the same as morning star, or in other words light bringer, is very singular, as his name was Nebuchadnezzar; the meaning of which, in the Chaldean language, was tears and groans of judgment; very different indeed, both in sound and meaning, from that of Lucifer, or light bringer. But if we understand this description, as given by Isaiah, literally of the man Nebuchadnezzar, and spiritually of Satan, or Lucifer, and of his fall from his first estate in heaven, then we perceive a propriety in his being called Lucifer, Son of the Morning, Light Bringer, &c. For if he was one of the two highest angels which God had made, it might well be said of him, that he was a light

bringer, on account of his immense intellectual abilities; in which he was an expression of the divine mind, and a manifestation of his power to produce beings of this description, having the light of godlike intellect, and in this respect was a light bringer. Of such a being, it might well be said: O Lucifer, light bringer, how art thou fallen from heaven, son of the morning, or of the first creation; for thou hast said, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, (the angels,) I will sit upon the mount of the congregation (of angels) in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, (even heaven's glory,) I will be like the Most High, (if not above him ;) which disposition he still retains, as is said of him in the New Testament, "the devil sinneth from the beginning."

As before expressed, we have no doubt that his sin was commenced at the very moment when he conceived resistance to the claims of God to the love and obedience of the spirits which he had made, and was the act of his own free will. On having found his views were wrong, and that his judgment was not infallible, he conceived on the instant, hatred to his great opponent, the Creator, with meditated revenge, the natural offspring of hatred; which disposition, in the twinkling of an eye, forever confirmed him, with all those who had sanctioned his ways, in a state of deathless opposition to all good. And such was their condition, so high, and so encompassed with light, which they at that fatal moment dared to despise, that retraction and repentance became impossible; and never from that moment have they felt repentant emotions, nor ever will to all eternity. So deep and so remedyless is their fall, that still they feel a horrid satisfaction in the enmity of their natures, against the Divine Being and all his works. But could these fallen angels have exercised a moment before their first sin, any other feeling than that of hatred and rebellion, on finding themselves mistaken in their opinions? most certainly they could, as their natures were, the moment previous, unbiassed to sin, and might therefore, both on that account and the account of their free agency, have rejoiced to find their error corrected; but instead of doing this, they willed at that moment an eternal opposition to God, when unbounded rage took possession of their natures, which from that time has never subsided nor ever can. At that instant, the divine support, which had brought them into being, and from whom their original innocence and holiness was derived, became forfeit, beyond the power of cousistent redemption. If it be admitted for a moment, that they could not have exercised other feelings and dispositions than they did, then in that same moment we admit that they could not help their fall; if so, then they were not to blame, and of course are not fallen, have not sinned, as it is not for the things we cannot, but for the things we can do, yet do

not, that the Supreme Being calls his creatures to an account. The angels were as free to fall, as to stand, being in no way necessiated or misled, as there was no darkness or doubt at the time, on the subject of law by which they were tried, as the evidence of the fact, which they had disputed, was then abundant, even to their own understandings. It was, therefore, their own act, abstractedly so, or it was not theirs at all. But at that instant, every good quality forsook them, of necessity; as much so as a golden vessel filled with the pure waters of a pure fountain, is changed, every particle and atom thereof; if but a grain of coloring substance, or of poison, be cast therein, it is destroyed of its first purity. So with those pure spirits; love became hatred, humility became pride, good will became malice, eternal life became eternal death, joy and happiness became anguish and misery, free agency and free will became fate; so that they are necessitated to remain, unwilling to will anything but enmity to God. Anticipation of a perpetuity of happiness, became a fearful looking for, of fiery indignation and judgment to come, to be poured out upon them. Confidence in their own uprightness became dastardly fear; and knowledge, with every high ability of their intellectual natures, was prostituted and perverted to the ways and wiles of devils, taking in all things, the exact opposite of order, peace, and happiness.

There is a line of demarkation, which pervades all first principles, whether of morals, politics, or physics, beyond which, if a man proceed he cannot return. If in physics, a man place himself, by design or accident, within the suck of the falls of Niagara, who can redeem him. If in politics, a man forfeit all the rights of human society, he is cast forth as an outlaw or a victim; who can redeem him? Why not, therefore, much more so in morals, as the higher we ascend, the more and the greater the responsibility? The line of demarkation once passed over here, as in the other cases, cannot be retraced; beyond which, even mercy itself cannot go, except at the expense of justice. How then was Adam and Eve redeemed, it may be inquired, who had passed, as supposed, the line of demarkation? but this we do not admit, was the final line of demarkation with them; as we see mercy was extended to them, in the promised seed, as in the atonement; which was not contrary to, nor inconsistent with divine justice, or it could never have taken place. Yet in man's case there is such a line of demarkation, and it is arrived at and passed, when a redeemed human being has despised or neglected his last and only hope, the opportunity of grace in this life. As it is said in Heb. ii. 2, 3, "For if the word spoken by angels (in the giving of the law) was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation." The account which is given of the fall of the angels in the New Testament, is that

"they kept not their first estate;" which, if true, proves that they left it, which also proves that with or by the same power they left it, they could have also kept it till this time, and forever.

What became of the Angels after their Fall; is there a Hell or not in another World? and is there yet to be a Day of particular and general Judgment? with further Proofs of the existence of a Devil.

Thus far we have pursued the above subject, and think we have shown how a part of the first angels became evil spirits, or devils, and on what principle sin had its beginning; by which procedure we have cleared the Divine Being from the charge of being the cause of sin; and more than this, that he could not even have prevented it, unless he would have destroyed free agency and free will out of their natures; which had he done, would have been inconsistent. Our next inquiry, therefore, will be to ascertain what became of those fallen angels after their apostacy and loss of heaven. Concerning this, it is said 2d Peter, ii. 4, that "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment," or to the judgment of the great day.

Now were we to believe on this subject as do Universalists, namely, that there never were any such angels or beings, who fell from a first condition of happiness; who God would not spare, but cast down to hell, we should save ourselves the trouble of this enquiry; as there could be no hell to cast them into; for if such angels do not exist, a hell for them cannot be found of course. But the passage states that those angels were not only cast down to hell, but that they are under chains of darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. See St. Jude, vi. "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitations, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." The orthodox sects believe that Satan, who tempted Eve in the garden, and Christ in the wilderness, was the same evil being whom Christ calls the prince of this world-see John, xiv. 30-who came to him, and found nothing in him, just before his death on the cross. But Balfour believes, that this prince was the civil and ecclesiastical powers, consisting of the Romans as the civil power, and of the Jewish doctors of their law, as the ecclesiastical power. But we would ask, in the name of logic, how two powers, so opposite in nature, object, aim, and origin, as were the imperious heathen Romans, the conquerors of the Jews, and the ministers

of the Jewish religion, which was of God, can be considered as consolidated, so as to be spoken of as one prince, and as coming to Christ, and finding nothing in him to suit his purpose. The Romans, in the crucifiction of Christ, acted somewhat passively, as they did it in compliance with the wishes of the wicked Jews, and the mob which had come together on that occasion, and not of their own wish and prosecution; therefore, the whole affair is to be resolved into the act of the Sanhedrim, or court of Jewish Elders. If so, how are the Jews to be reckoned as the prince of this world; even allowing Judea to have been solely meant by the word world, seeing they were not then the ruling power, as even the privilege to keep up their religion, was by the clemency of the Roman Emperor, and could not therefore have any claim to the word prince. But if it be insisted, that this prince who came to our Lord, and found nothing in him, was the Roman authorities, urged on by the Jews, how is it said of him as in John, xii. 31, "Now is the judgment of this world, now is the prince of this world cast out;" as the Romans were not cast out of their dominion of Judea, nor of their other provinces, till many ages thereafter; which should have been done at that very time, if that prince was the Roman power. That the Jews were cast out some forty years after that time, by these very Romans, has nothing to do with the case; because it cannot be shown that the terms prince of this world, is applicable to their then situation, having been for more than thirty years from that very time back, despoiled of their civil power by the Romans, and had been and then were, governed by the emperor's substitutes, the Herods. It follows, therefore, that this prince, who came to Christ, and found nothing in him which was corrupt, was the devil, that fallen angel: who with his associate angels, were then bound under chains of moral darkness, and reserved unto the judgment of the great day, as said by St. Jude, when they are to be cast into hell, which it is said was prepared for the devil and his angels. But if it be said that this devil and his angels were the evil principle of sin, and the superstition of the ancient heathen; how is it that they have been cast out, and what is the hell into which they have been cast? seeing that even to this day, those nations remain the same, and have so remained, with the exception of here and there a Christian society, which appeared for a little time and then vanished away. If it be said that the whole Roman empire, in the days of Constantine, became Christianized, and that thus those angels of evil were cast down, or out of their places of power; yet we do not allow that true religion gained anything in the world by that occurrence, as from that foundation, and from that period, the Roman Catholic heresy sprang up, which has tormented the human race ever since.

But if it be insisted that this was the fall of the angels, we ask what then was the hell into which they were cast, and what