VISIONS OF SAPIENCE; OR A REPORT OF THE SPEECHES, DELIVERED AT AN EXTRAORDINARY CONGRESS, CONVENED BY His Satanic Majesty, For the Purpose of taking into Consideration the Propriety of presenting JAMES DOUGLAS WITH A VOTE OF THANKS FOR HIS LATE ATTEMPTS, IN TWO PAMPHLETS, TO RENDER METHODISM CONTEMPTIBLE, AND Devilism Respectable. WITH NOTES. BY CRITICOS AND CASTIGATOR. When facts are wilfully misrepresented, and character traduced without regard to truth, it then becomes the duty of those who regard the purity of the church and well-being of society, to expose the one, and to stand forward in support of the other.--Sys. Meth. Expos. p. 5. But methinks I hear some one ask, with surprise, "What could induce this man to commit himself in the way he has done?"-Ibid. p. 24. "Nothing----but absolute necessity.”---Meth Cond. p. 4. JAMES DOUGLAS. Die mihi, si fueris tu leo, qualis eris? MART. We have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man. PAUL LEEDS: Printed by and for James Nichols; SOLD IN LONDON, BY BLANSHARD, CITY-ROAD; BY PAXTON, SOUTH SHIELDS; BOOKSELLERS. Price One Shilling, 1815. Bought from tenneth thince 19/33 29 AUG 1968 LIBRA The Printer of this pamphlet has long been of opinion, that the best mode to be pursued respecting the low publications to which this professes to be a satirical answer, is silently to suffer the slanderous and untrue materials of which they are composed, to work their own destruction. He considers it a proof of the highest wisdom, under every similar circumstance, to adopt the advice of Solomon, who says "Answer not a fool according to his folly." But Castigator and Criticos, apprehensive of mischievous impressions having been made, on the minds of the credulous and ignorant, by the productions in question, have been at the pains, which needed not to be great, of thus humourously repelling the charges of a malicious aggressor, who gratuitously offers himself as a reformer of religious abuses. A desire to aid the good intentions of these friends, in their endeavours to convince the youth that the little learning which he possesses is a dangerous thing, has been the chief inducement with the printer to give publicity to this pamphlet. THE VISIONS OF SAPIENCE, &c. &c. What studies please, what most delight, And fill men's thoughts, they dream them o'er at night. LUCR. 1. 4, v. 959. SERUS embracing every opportunity to acquire a knowledge of peculiar terms, visited Sapience, whose penetration and general acquaintance with the different sciences rendered him the admiration of the learned; and requested his opinion on the word HELL. Sapience immediately conducted him into the library, where the hour had often imperceptibly glided away in the company of his friend, while each of them held high converse with the learned dead, or descanted together on the works of the most celebrated authors of ancient and modern times. Seated near the fire, (for it was in the depth of winter,) Sapience, with all his native gravity, said to Serus, "We have no word in our language to express the ancient meaning of the original terms; for the Hebrew sheol, the Greek &♪ns hades, the Latin infra, with its derivatives, inferi, inferum, and the French enfer, seem to have been originally abstract terms, put for the state of the dead, without any regard to happiness or misery: but as people, who spoke of this state, either spoke in reference to the body or the soul, or the whole man indefinitely, it is easy to see how the words became equivocal, and their meaning determinable only by the scope of the phrases employed." "Your meaning, then," Serus observed, "if I am correct, is this: If I say the body is gone to hades or to sheol, I mean to the grave. If I say the soul of Judas is gone to hades, I mean to a place of torment, to hell. If I say the soul of a good man is gone to hades, I mean to a state of happiness, or to heaven. If I say in general that all our ancestors are gone to hades, I mean, they are all dead, departed to the invisible world." Sapience replied, "You have just expressed my views of the term in its different significations. Our English word hell," continued he, "seems, according to Archbishop Usher, to have had this meaning anciently; for it is said to be extracted from the German hil to hide,' hiluh hidden;' therefore the ancient Irish used to say, to hell the head, that is to cover the head; and he that covered a house with tiles or slate was called a hellier.* So that our hell answered to the Greek hades, which denoted the invisible place." After a long conversation, Serus left his friend. The shades of night having already veiled the heavens, Sapience closed his eyes; and resting his elbow on the table, somewhat reclined his head, and thus prepared the way for slumber. The last object, however, of his waking thoughts, in another perspective, still presented itself to his imagination. He was quickly transported to the lower regions, about which he had been so lately discoursing, and lighted on a spacious plain, where rolls impetuously the river Styx. Prompted by curiosity, he was anxious to know what was passing on the opposite side of the flood. He stood some time absorbed in thought; and, at length, despairing to attain the gratification of his desires, he was about to return, when he discovered a person of venerable mein approaching him. His appearance bespeaking him to be of celestial origin, Sapience was emboldened to inquire of him whether mortals were ever permitted to cross the Stygian lake, and to know the employment of the inhabitants in the regions beyond its furious surges; when he was thus accosted: "Beyond this flood a frozen continent Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms * See Archbishop Usher de limb. patr:-Wetstein on Luke 16. 23.Vitringa on Rev. i. 18. vi. 8. xx. 13, 14.-Homeri Il. 9 1. 312.-Hesiodi Theogon. ver. 723.-Virgilii Æneid. 6. 577.-Sophoclis Antigone 924, and different Lexicographers. Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd At certain revolutions all the damn'd Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire."* Sapience was further informed, that there were different degrees of suffering; and that the place of punishment could only affect those who were fitted for it by a depravation of state-by a wicked heart and an immoral life. On hearing the last sentence, and recollecting that it was in unison with the truths contained in the Bible, he accepted the offer of the friendly stranger to be conveyed over the vast profound. While revolving in his mind how the dangerous voyage was to be accomplished, he was caught up by the celestial visitant, and, with the rapidity of lightning, was borne, as on an eagle's wing, in safety to a wild and dreary waste. At a distance appeared, through a kind of haze, an object rising majestic to the view. "That," said the Angel, (for such Sapience now perceived was the exalted personage who had become his protector and guide,) "is the residence of his Satanic Majesty; and, at this moment, enters Ageiro followed by the members of the Belzebubian Council, whom he has just been collecting from their different provinces upon earth, in order to hold a congress extraordinary." Sapience, not a little surprised, asked, "What will become of the interest of devilism among mortals, during their absence?" "Every thing," it was replied, "is conducted with regularity. There are different orders and degrees of wicked spirits, who have assigned. to them their respective districts, among whom are superiors to command and subordinates to obey; and so numerous are they, as to 'throng the air, and darken heaven:' nor do those who are required to assemble in council, fail to leave their baneful influence behind." Scarcely had the conversation closed, when they found themselves on the borders of Beelzebub's infernal abode. A solemn pause ensued. The Angel at length said, See Milton's "Paradise Lost," b. 2. p. 47. l. 587. A description similar to Milton's, is given in the "Institutes of Menu:" see c. 12. Inst. 75-80. |