A Treatise of the Laws of Nature. Richard Cumberland
and Affections. There are several Passages cited by Windet, Spencer, and Hoornbeck, from the Hebrew Doctors, insinuating, or acknowledging, the Fall of Angels;33 such as these of Rabbi Eleazar, “The evil Angels were driven out of Heaven by a fiery Scepter. Samael and his Armies, God cast them out of Heaven. Aza and Azael were the two Angels that accus’d their Lord, and God cast them Head-long out of the Holy Place.” The Book Zohar says, “God threw Aza and Azael down Head-long, bound and chain’d.” And, in another antient Book (of the Death of Moses,) it is said of them, “Descending from Heaven, they corrupted their Way.” So in Jonathan’s Targum, Samcha, Zai, and Uziel, (the same with Aza, and Azael,) are said to have fallen from Heaven, and are suppos’d to have begotten Giants. Also the Rabbinical Name of their Prince רורמ (Marod) signifieth an Apostate,34 who is call’d by several other Rabbinical Names,35 which likewise imply the Fall of Angels, such as, “The Prince of Gehennah, the Head of the Satanae.” The common Name, among the Jews in our Saviour’s Time, for the Prince of the Devils, was Beelzebub, or Beelzebul, which may signify Lord of Matter, that is, the presidentiary Ruler of the material World; for לובז (Zebul) is the same with κόπρος which, in the Orphic Verses, signifieth the Matter;
Ζεῦ κύδιςε, μέγιςε Θεῶν, εἰλύμενε κόπρῳ
Jupiter, most Illustrious, the greatest of the Gods, involv’d in Dung, or the Matter.
Empedocles’s Doctrine of Demons, which fell from Heaven, and are agitated by the Gods.
As among the Jewish Doctors, so among the Heathen Philosophers, a fall of Demons, or Angels from Heaven, is, in some Measure, acknowledg’d; for some of them discourse of a Sort of evil Genij, passively and penally such, which are called by Plutarch, “The Demons of Empedocles, who are agitated by the Gods, and have fallen from Heaven,”36 whom Empedocles thus describes;
Άἰθέριον μὲν γὰρ σϕε μέ;νος πόντονδε διώκει,
Πόντος δ’ ἐς χθονὸς ον̂̔δας ’απεπτυσε, γαῖα δ’ ἐς αὐγας
Ήελίου ϕαέθοντος, ὁ δ’ αἰθέρος ἒμβαλε δίναις.
Άλλος δ’ ἐξ ᾂλλου δέχεται, στυγέουσι δὲ πάντες
From the Etherial Region
down Into the Sea in Rage they’re thrown.
The raging Sea rejects this Rout
Unto the Land, and Spews them out.
The Land unto the Sun them Hurls,
The Sun into the Ether’s Whirles.
Thus they are toss’d (the Out-Law’s Fate!)
By universal Nature’s Hate.37
The Heaven-Fallen Demons of Empedocles, pursu’d by the Vengeance of the Gods, altho’ they are an approach to the Christian Doctrine, cannot reasonably be thought a Tradition from the Jews, who themselves then talked not so clearly upon this Head.1. This Doctrine of Empedocles greatly befriends the common Hypothesis of the Lapse of Angels from Heaven, which must be call’d the Christian Hypothesis, tho’ it has been weakly oppos’d by some Christian Writers, who have asserted the Evil Angels, to be, originally, the Inhabitants of the Air and Earth, and never to have been in Heaven, and enjoy’d the Beatifick Vision there. For their height of Felicity might be so far from securing them from a Fall, that it might occasion it, thro’ Pride, Self-Admiration, and Self-Love; and, in consequence, affecting a Dominion over Subjects withdrawn from the Subjection of God, agreeably to the Heads of Empire, which Satan usually setteth up in the World, that usually affect an unbounded Liberty. And that himself, in Consort with his Fellow-Rebels, should be like-minded, and therefore should chuse to make a total Revolt from God and their Duty, was not incompatible with their coelestial Condition; nor is it at all incredible, the like prodigiously-frantick Enormities being no Rarities amongst intelligent Agents. Wherefore the usual Doctrine is unexceptionable, which is clearly enough express’d in H. Scriptures, which represent the Holy Angels, as originally the Inhabitants of Heaven. Matt. 22. 30. Luc. 20. 36. Heb. 12. 22. And the laps’d Angels, originally, of the Number of the Holy Angels, 2 Pet. 2. 5. Jud. 6. 2. 2. The Heathen Doctrine of Demons befriends the Christian Hypothesis of a Kingdom of evil Angels. For the Heathen Demonologists suppos’d, “That the Evil Demons have an imperial Head over them.” Therefore, in consistence with themselves, they ought to have suppos’d, “That there is a distinct Kingdom, or Polity, of Evil Demons,” as Christianity asserteth. But they have so qualify’d this Doctrine of Evil Demons, as to make it no Contradiction to their Doctrine of the Unity of the Monarchy of the Universe, or their City of God; for they were Gods themselves, and Part of the common Polity of their Gods, which is monstrously, both Absurd and Impious. For whoever has any Veneration for God, will not count it a small Matter, to deify Evil Demons, and to pay them religious Worship. Yet this Worship of Demons was the Religion of popular Societies amongst the Heathens, as Plutarch plainly acknowledges,38 there by giving a great Attestation to the Truth of Christianity, (which chargeth upon Paganism, the Sacrificing unto, and having Fellowship with, Devils;) and to the peculiar Excellency of the Christian Learning, which alone, to the Purpose, discovereth Satan. For both Jews and Pagans (notwithstanding their slender Notice of Evil Angels) are far from knowing him as they ought, and so far as is needful to the Purpose of Piety and Sanctity. 3. The Heathen Doctrine of Demons greatly befriends the Christian, by asserting and ascertaining (in Consort with it) the Existence of Evil Demons. They were assured of their Existence from their Operations and Effects; and, from this Hypothesis, Plutarch gives an Account of the Apparitions to Brutus and Dio, upon which, after his Manner, he reflects finely. “If Brutus and Dio,” (saith he,) “Philosophical Men, of great Strength of Mind, and not apt to fancy horrible Appearances, were put into such Commotion by Apparitions, that they solicitously related them to their Friends; perhaps we may be forc’d to embrace that (seemingly) most absurd Opinion of the Antients, That there are Evil and Envious Demons, that, envying good Men, and withstanding their Actions, raise Fears and Troubles to them, to shake and overthrow their Virtue; lest, if they should persist stedfast and uncorrupted in Good, they should, after their Decease, enjoy a better Condition than theirs.” The Laws of the XII Tables, in condemning and punishing hurtful Magick, acknowledge the Being of evil Demons. And who can doubt, but that those Learned Heathen Philosophers were in the Right, who suppose the antick and barbarous Rites of their Religion, to be the Worship of powerful evil Demons. For the Pagan Religion is a Demonstration of the Being of evil Demons, because it cannot be suppos’d, that any Power, but a Diabolical, could have subjected the World, for so many Ages, to such an Institution as Paganism is. The Heathens justly argued for the Existence of Aerial Demons, in this Manner, “Would Nature, that has replenish’d all other Regions with Inhabitants, suffer the spacious Air to be an uninhabited Waste?” With whom, in this, both Jewish and Christian Divines agree, whence the Chief of them is call’d by the Apostle, the Prince of the Power of the Air, and the Rulers of his Empire are call’d Spiritual Wickedness (ὀν τοῖςἐπουρανίοις) in Heavenly, or Aerial, Places. But yet these Aerial Demons are sometimes under penal Confinement in the Subterraneous Regions, as that Petition of theirs implies, Luk. 8. 31. They besought him, that he would not command them to go out