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    the body of Moses , durst not bring against him a railing accusation , but said , The Lord rebuke thee . ' * If any one can build his faith in the existence of such a being , on such * a contemptible story as this , I would leave him i . n quiet possession of his opinion ;

    for there is little room to hope , that reason will have much inflii - ence where absurdity has obtained such an absolute dominion . We must now proceed , to the passages contained in the book of Revelations , which might be altogether omitted as foreign to the

    subject ; for , as the characters introduced in this book are allegorical ones , no argument can be drawn from such a work for the existence of an invisible spirit , the author of evil , and the supposed seducer and enemy of mankind ; but it will be more

    satisfactory to enumerate these passages , and to suggest the most approved interpretation of them . It is scarcely necessary to mention , that the book of Revelation is a prophetical one ; that its object is to describe the rise and fall of Anti-christ , which is the spirit of persecution , . and every thing which opposes irself to the establishment of the true kingdom of Christ , that is , of the pure and uncorrup . tcd doctrine of the gospel .

    The first passage is part of the epistle to the church of Smyrna , one of the seven to which John addressed himself . It evidently refers to the persecutions of those days , predicting their ¦ continuance for a certain . definite time , and holding out encouragement to per * . severance and fidelity . Gh . ji . 10 . 4 t B h < Id the deril shall cast some oi you into prison , " It must hr » w

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    mediately be perceived , that in this instance , as in others , the word is used in its original sense and ought to be translated the accuser . The whole verse is thus

    translated by Mr . Wake field , and nearly in the same words by the editors of the Improved Version . 4 Be not afraid of what thou art about to suffer . Behold the accuser is going to throw some of

    you into prison , that ye may be proved , and ye will have trouble ten days z ' . that is , according to the meaning of the prophetical Ian * guage , for ten years . It is to be recollected that John was at this

    time suffering from the persecutions , which extended to the churches of Asia , being banished to the island of Patmos ^ by order of Domitian . A stop was put to this persecution , during the reign

    of this emperor . John returned to Ephesus , and visited the churches in tjiat neighbourhood . But though Domitian himself might not authorize any further cruelties towards the Christians , advantage might be taken of the edicts , whicfe

    had formerly been issued against them , by those governors of province ^ , who were unfriendly to the Christian faith . * The rage of per * secution would not immediately subside , and probably severities , not unlike those which had been

    inflicted in the time of Nero , ep * tended , to the church at Smyrna . The word does not occur again till we meet with it , chap . xii . 9 f where it is said , " That the great dragon was cast out , that old

    serpent called the devil and satan . " If we look to the preceding verses , we shall find that the dragon is described as having " seven beads and ten boms , and seven crowns upon his head ;' which , in the

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    434 On the Existence of the Devil . A

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1809, page 434, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1739/page/20/