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which intitled this Pofterity of Seth to the name of Angels, and of the Sons of God. And very proper alfo for those boafters of their excelling all other Men on account of their alone having that fame Spirit (as I have fhewn, they did against whom S. Fude writes) to let them know that if they pretended to rival thofe Apoftate Angels, as in their Wickednesses, fo in the dignity of their Nature; all they fhould gain by it, would be only to fhare in the extraordinarinefs of their Punishment. And it is alfo proper for all under the Gospel, who by the restoration of the Primitive Peculium, are exalted to the fame dignity of the Sons of God, and loayfexía, with thefe of the Pofterity of Seth, to expect a Likeness of their punishment. Accordingly our Saviour himself, fpeaking of the punishment defigned for Delinquents under the Gospel, he calls it the aus alvor prepared for the Devil and his Angels, S. Matth. XXV. 41. Where do we read in the Old Teftament of any Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels? The place of Genefis it felf, which fpeaks of these Angels of the Pofterity of Seth, has nothing of their punishment. But we have feen thefe Traditions of the Book of Enoch give an exprefs account of their Punishment, and that it was to be by Fire, and by a Fire pré-exiftent as old as the Chaos, and therefore prepared for them before they had committed the fin that deferved it. But, why are thefe Angels joined with the Devil, both here and in the Revelations, xii. 7, 9 ? Of this alfo we have an account out of an antient Apocryphal Book of the Apoftles Age: That is, the ATndaufis of Mofes, as Syncellus calls it; others call it Avanlis. We owe this Fragment alfo to the fame Syncellus, who has preferved us

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that

P. 27.

that other Fragment alfo of the Prophesy of
Enoch. He thence tells us, that after the De
luge in the Year of the World 2582, (no doubt,
according to the Chronology of the LXXII
which I take to be elder than that of the
pre-
fent Hebrew, thofe fame Effeg glove wi
μιμοι με θάνατον ἐπλάνης τοὺς μὲς Νῶς, We fee
by this, that those immortal Spirits were fup
pofed to have mortal Bodies. We find withal
here, the original of what the Author of the
Apocryphal Wifdom fays : φθόνῳ διαβόλο θάνατο
elonader eis & nooμor, ii. 24. This Tradition there
εἰσῆλθεν κόσμον,
fore is elder than that Apocryphal Book, and re
lates to the entrance of Death into the new
World from Noah. This Year of the World
according to the LXXII. is early enough to
precede the Death of the First after the De
luge. But I rather incline to apply this Pal
fage of the Book of Wisdom to the murther of
Abel by Cain. My reafon I fhall give after
wards. We fee alfo here the ad I former.
ly took notice of He tells us therefore,
that at the Prayer of Noah these fedu-
cing Spirits were caft by Michael the Arch-
angel, God fo commanding him, eis Tábuasov
ἔχει ἡμέρας δ κείσεως. Here we fee where they
were referved for the Fudgment in the great
Day. That it was in the Abyss, into which
therefore the Devils caft out by our Saviour,
defire accordingly, that they might not be fent.
Syncellus adds, that the Devil defired that a
part of thefe accurfed Spirits might be granted
him to affift him in his work of tempting Man
kind, and that a tenth part was accordingly
allowed him. These then are the Devil's An
gels alluded to by our Saviour. So this Tre
dition must be elder than him. This very Book
Origen takes for S. Jude's Authority, for what

he

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e fays, concerning the Strife between the evil and S. Michael the Archangel. And, e fee an occafion of that Strife in this very Fragment, where that fame Archangel is emloyed in the confinement of thefe wicked Spits. And in all likelihood, Clemens Alexanrinus had his unwritten Traditions concerng Mofes from this very Book. So very ufeal thefe early Apocryphals of the Apostle's ge, are for explaining these Apoftolical Wrings. Thefe might be remaining Traditions om their latest Prophets. But, to us they are fficiently recommended by their being Suppoed and alluded to in the Reafonings of our lefled Saviour and his infpired Apofiles. Thus herefore it appears, that this punishment in he lower Hell plainly fuppofes thefe Angels o have been of a heavenly Original; and that ve alfo, knowing the fame Principle of Immorality with them, muft accordingly be obnoxius to the fame Eternity of Punishment. Thefe mprifonments and Confignations to the g lavov, are only applyed to thefe Apoftatizing Spirits, not to the Giants defcended from them, or to the Sons nor Daughters of Men concerned with them in this fin. St. Peter takes no orice of the punishment of any but the Spirits, hough the others were alfo involved in the fame guilt. Another Account is given in the Book of Enoch, of the punishment of the reft. The Giants were to be deftroyed by intestine Wars. And their feparate Spirits were to infelt Men with Ailings (I fuppofe) rather than Temptations, as being of a Race mixt of both, of Angels and Mankind. Thence I suppose it is, that S. Fuftin Martyr takes the poffeffing Devils to be Souls of Men. But to the Souls of Men, there seems to be nothing threatned

beyond

§. LXIX.

Traditions are

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beyond the Deluge. Thus their punishment fhews them, to be of the highest rank of H mane Souls.

Heathen Monuments are indeed fo late in The Heathen comparison of the Scriptures, that I fhould not at also agreed, in much regard them, in attefting any thing cort making the first fiderably antienter than their first Books, where Souls of Men they ftand alone. But where they agree with of a Divine the facred Accounts of the firft Originals of Original. things, long before Hiftories mention their cor refpondence with the Jews, I confefs I do not know how they can be difregarded. Such things feem to have been derived from their confentient Accounts of Things near their fift Originals, before their eftrangedness at a de ftance, that might hinder their certain Comme nication. Or elfe, from thofe Divine Orach which were given among other Nations as well as the Peculium, for the benefit of their temp ral Government, in thefe times of the freed communication between God and Mankind. To one of these I am apt to impute the ftrange agreement between Nations unknown to each other in Customs and Offices of pofitive Inftitud tion, which had no antecedent Evidence of Rea fon fufficient to oblige all, who confidered it, to be of one mind. And fuch an Agreement there is in this Subject I am now difcourfing of, concerning the different degrees of Mankind. The Children of Seth were called the Sons of God, and God's in a lower fenfe, as partakers a of an immortal Nature, which confequently ex pofed them to an immortality of Rewards or B Punishments. Their Defcendents by the Daugh ters of Men, muft therefore have been of a mixt Nature between Divine and Humane, an fwerable to the Heathen Heroes. These the Scripture calls Giants. And the Heathens made

e

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eir Heroes taller than ordinary Men, answerle to their Divine Parents, who when they e faid to appear, are reprefented as appearg majores humanâ fpecie. Thence the ftature the Tragick Cothurnus, ufed by the Perfons ting in the Tragedies, to fit them to the Perns of the Heroes who were represented by em. Thence the ftature of the Body of Ores, defcribed in Herodotus. Thence that of ercules gathered from his Foot in the Olympia. hence that of Phyia, when she was to reprent Minerva in bringing back Pififtratus. hence Homer's Oias vu Begoi dio, intimating e difference of the Vigour of the Heroes hom he reprefents in the Wars of Troy, from e Men of his own Age, whom he fuppofes fa purely humane Original. Accordingly, the olden Verfes of the Pythagoreans mention three anks: The 'Alaváros Jer's the 'Hewas davis, ad Καταχθονίας δαίμονας, exatly anfwering the ree Orders now defcribed of Sons of Gods, and Giants, and Sons of Men. Herodotus reprefents Hefiod. L. ii. he fame, as the fenfe both of the Egyptians nd the Greeks, that they derived their Pedirees from three degrees of Gods, and Heroes ind Men. Only he tells us, that the Egyptiins who pretended to the higher Antiquities than the Greeks, pretended therefore, that their firft Men were antienter. He fays, the Egyp tians fhewed him 345 Statues to his own time, among whom there was neither God nor He roe. A little before he had reckoned them 341. But that I fuppofe, was to the time of Hecataus, who had reckoned himself the Sixteenth from a God, according to the Greek Genealogies. In this Number he reckons sòv ävłgwπoeSéa seva Wes. This plainly fhews, that by the name of Gods he meant Divine Souls in Hu

mane

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