An inquiry into the existence of a personal devil / [By John Epps.

Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the existence of a personal devil / [By John Epps. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    human adversary, is the following:73 “ Hold not thy peace, 0 God of my praise: for the mouth of the wicked, and the mouth of the deceitful, are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause. Tor my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer. And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love. Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned; and let his prayer become sin.59 “ Set thou a wicked man over him : ” this is highly expressive of the punishment deservedly allotted to the bad: to have one who is a bad man, to rule over him; this would be indeed a just and severe punishment: but to have at his right hand, one, a false accuser, a Satan, who would misrepresent all he did to his ruler, is indeed an aggravation of that punishment: is indeed a reward for his hate, which, punishing him in the way in which he punished others, which put him into the pit in which he placed others, will cause him to feel the abomination of his conduct. A passage, particularly striking, in which the word Satan occurs, is presented in Zechariah: 73 “And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy gar- ments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by.55 It should be remembered, in order to understand this passage, that the phrase angel means messenger. Joshua, the high priest, was in office in the reign of Darius, when Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah. Cyrus had given permission to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, but the hired counsellors had prevented the realization of the purpose till the time of Darius; Artaxerxes, instigated by these adversaries, Satans, having forbidden the continuance of the work. Darius, having come to the throne, and the Jews going on with the work, “At the same time came to them Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shetliar-boznai, and their com- panions, and said thus unto them, Who hath commanded you to build this house, and to make up this wall ? Then said we unto them after this manner. What are the names of the men that make this building ? But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to Darius : and then they returned answer by letter concerning this matter. The copy of the letter that Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shethar-boznai, and Ins companions the Aphar- sachites, which were on this side the river, sent unto Darius the king.55 Tatnai, the adversary to the building of the temple, the Satan, standing at the right hand, to resist Joshua, (till then, the temple not being completed, figuratively clothed in filthy garments,) manifested his adversary-al (satanic,) 72 Psalm cix. 1—7. 73 Zech. iii, 1—5.