The same distinction of sovereign gods and dæmon gods is also intimated in the New Testament, 1 Cor. viii, 5;-" Though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven, or in earth, (as there be θεοι πολλοι, gods many, and κυριοι πολλοι, lords many,) but to us (Christians,) there is but is Θεος, one sovereign God, the Father, of whom are all things; and we (εις αυτον) to him, (that is, to whom, as supreme, we direct all our services :) and but εἷς Κυριος, one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." There is only wanting here in the Greek, the actual expression-damon, when he said "lords many;" but then, in the application of the distinction, he must have said of Christ, that he was our only dæmon; with which idolatrous word he would not pollute Christ's honor. To make this exposition of dæmon clearer, let us observe, that though the sacred Scriptures take Δαιμων and Δαιμονιοι (dæmon, and dæmons) in an evil sense; yet do they also use it in an opposite or an indifferent sense. Thus in Acts xvii, 18, when Paul preached that Jesus was risen from the dead, the heathen philosophers there oppose him with"This fellow seemeth to be a setter forth of strange dæmons; (Δαιμονιων;) because they preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection:" upon which ground, Celsus in Origen calls Christ, the Christian's demon. (Lib. viii, Origen contra Celsum.) Paul, in his reply, tells them, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are δεισιδαιμονασερες, -too much given to dæmon worship. So in Rev. ix, 20, the worshiping devils, there mentioned, is dæmons in the original; meaning these dæmon gods; as is explained by the "idols of gold and silver" following. And in 1 Cor. x, 20, 21, the word occurs three times with a

like signification. Some also of the Fathers use the word dæmon, when they expound our text. For Epiphanius, observing some in his days to have made a goddess of the virgin Mary, and to have offered a cake to her as queen of heaven, urges this text against them, with a little variation in words only, viz,-" That also is 'fulfilled on these, that some shall apostatize from sound doctrine, 'giving heed to fables, and doctrines of dæmons; for they shall be worshipers of dead men, as they worshiped in Israel." By which dead persons he means their Baalim; of which he brings two examples: one of the Sichemites, in his time, who had a goddess under the name of Jephtha's daughter; another, of the Egyptians, who worshiped Thermutis, the daughter of Pharaoh, that brought up Moses.

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The intent of the Apostle therefore, in this phrase "doctrine concerning dæmons," is to point out a main corruption of the last times; charging them with great idolatry, in praying to glorified saints as mediators and agents with God. So that, in the Apostle's sense, those nominal Christians, the Papists, or others that shall so pray, are not only guilty of practising "a needless, foolish, and fruitless ceremony;" (which is all the harm some Protestants can see in it ;) but are guilty of foul idolatry, lineally descended from heathens, the worst of men. For why does the Apostle, immediately on mentioning that Christ was received up into glory, (see chap. iii, 16,) infer, that "some shall apostatize from that faith, &c.;" but to signify that this embracing the "doctrines touching dæmons" is such an idolatry, -is a denial of Christ's glory and majesty, whereunto he is installed by his assumption into heaven, there to sit at the