mong the heavenly Orbs above, i. e. the Re-SE RM. moval of the World, or Orb they inhabited, to. XII. a Place further diftant from God's Shechinah, or Throne, than it originally poffeffed. They might presumptuously, as I hinted in my last, despise the being fo far diftant from the Throne as they were, and attempt to invade fome nearer Orbs, or perhaps to ufurp the Throne itself; and God to punish them adequately, and justly, might hurry them, and their World with them, into a far distant and remote Part of the huge, immenfe, and boundless Universe. What Part of the Univerfe, the next Words will fhew; which leads, me to enquire,

2. Secondly, Into the Prifon or Place they were caft down to: Now here we must be a little cautious of trufting too far to our English Tranflation. For that cafts them down directly to Hell, which is contrary to other Paffages of Scripture, and more a great deal, than the original Word in the Text expreffes. It is fit therefore, we fhould proceed with them as gently as may be, and not confine them to their Depth of Woe, before they are condemned to it, by him who has the only Right to judge them. Let us then first

SERM. give the true English of the Words, and XII. afterwards explain them. For our present

Tranflation has plainly mistaken the Word, which it renders caft down into Hell, which. ought to be rendered caft down into Tartarus* ; and when fo rendered, and the other Members of the Text are rightly. difpofed, the whole Verfe will run thus: God Spared not the Angels that finned, but having caft them down to Tartarus, delivered them to be kept in Chains of Darkness unto Judgment; i. e. Those Angels which formerly inhabited the heavenly Regions of perpetual Day, which dwelt in a Place, which had no Need of the Sun, or of the Moon to shine in it, as having the Glory of God and the Lamb to enlighten it, Rev. xxi. 23. Thofe Angels were caft down, faith the Apostle, into (what the Greeks call) Tartarus, i. e. they and their World were thrown into a Place, far more. diftant from the Throne of God, and there inveloped in a dark Atmosphere and Clouds, where the clearest Light is Smoke and Darkness, in Comparison of the Regions from whence they fell; and there they are delivered into Chains of Darkness, i. e. they are confined by the eternal Decree of God, from afcending again into the Regions of Light, Taglagwoas. See WHITBY in loc.

being reserved unto a greater, and a muchs ER M. more dismal Catastrophe, or Fall, at the Judg- XII. ment of the great Day. Agreeably to which, when the Book of the Revelation reports, that the great Dragon was caft out, that old Serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole World, when it reports, I fay, that He was cast out and his Angels with him, Rev. xii. 8, 9. i. e. cast out from Heaven, where their Place was found no more; it does not say that they were caft into Hell, but that they were caft into the Earth. And in the 20th Chapter of the fame Book, there is a direct Intimation, that they fhall not be caft into the Lake of Fire and BrimStone, Rev. xx. 10. till the Day of Judgment. And indeed, if they were in Hell already, how could my Text with any Propriety say, that they are referved unto Judgment? For what what worfe Judgment can they undergo, than to be caft into Hell? But if they are only referved unto Judgment; then is their Sentence no more paffed upon them as yet, than upon a Prisoner kept in Chains till the Affizes: They may know indeed, that they shall then be condemned, and what their Sentence fhall be. But then neither is their Sentence, and much

lefs

SERM. less the Execution of it, passed as yet; they XII. tremble with the Dread of it, but are not

yet affected with the Pain. That this is true, we have their own Teftimony, if it may be taken, in a Question which fome of themselves put to our Saviour, What have we to do with thee, Jefu, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the Time? Matt. viii. 29. Which shewed that they were not, whilft our Saviour was on Earth, and still hoped that they should not be foon, thrown into Torments. For they befought him (St Luke tells us) that he would not command them to go out into the Deep, Luk. viii. 31. or, as it is in the Greek, into the Abyfs or Bottomlefs Pit, Rev. xx. 3. which is the Place which, another Scripture tells us, they shall be caft into hereafter.

From all this it appears, that though the Devil and his Angels, are at prefent for ever banished from Heaven, and the Prefence of God, and fo even now fuffer the Lofs of the beatifick Vision; though, in the Language of Tertullian*, they are condemned beforehand to the tremendous Day, or fore-ordained to eternal Punishment, as St Austin fpeaks; yet they don't fuffer at present the infernal Flames,

* See the Authorities in WHITBY on the Text.

but,

but, as the Fathers generally held for the SERM. firft five hundred Years after the coming XIL of Chrift, they have their Manfion or Re-proced fidence, or (to speak more properly) wander and stray in this Part of the Universe, where we and our World (which perhaps was theirs) now occupy and fill, from whence they fhall be thrown at the Day of Judgment into the Lake of Fire and Brimftone, fays the holy Text, where they shall be tormented Day and Night, for ever and ever, Rev. xx. 10.

Accordingly we find it to have been the conftant Belief of former Times, of Jews and Heathens as well as of Chriftians, that the Air, or whole Atmosphere of our Earth, was full of these evil and unhappy Spirits *. And that the great St Paul (who is of fufficient Authority for us to follow) believed the fame, is evident from his calling the Devil, the Prince of the Power of the Air, Ephef. ii. 2. And from the Advice he gives us, to put on the whole Armour of God, because we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood, but against Principalities, against Powers, (which I told you are the Names of fome of the Orders of Angels) against the Rulers of the Darkness of this World, and against Spiritual Wickedness in high Places, Ephef.

* See the Authorities in WHITBY on Ephef. ii. 2.

vi. 12.