Besides, it is altogether unaccountable how Jesus and the Devil became so well acquainted with each other; for Jesus was a Jew by nation, and strictly obeyed the law of Moses; but Moses is completely silent as to the existence of any such personage as the Devil. At the time when it is said Jesus came to the Jewish nation, they had, during their captivity, embraced the theology of their conquerors; and on their return to the land of their nativity, brought with them the-belief in the existence of good and bad angels, and also the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments,—dogmas unknown to, and never taught by, Moses. It is clear, then, that the very existence of a Devil never was a doctrine of the Old Testament, but on the contrary, it was borrowed from eastern mythology; and Jesus, finding that the Jews professed to believe it, fell in with it, as also a heaven and a hell, and a judgment to come, which doctrines were all of heathen origin. The Old Testament is silent as to what constitutes orthodox Christianity. Ye Christian ministers! your heaven and hell, by the teaching of which you gain wealth and live like princes, is nothing but an echo of by-gone ages, which had its origin in the imagination of the priesthood of an antiquity anterior to the existence of Moses or of the Jewish nation! But to return to the temptation of Jesus by the Devil. And here it may be asked, how it can now, or ever could, be considered a temptation at all? If Jesus was what they say he professed to be, _the sent of God_, he knew well that the Devil had nothing to give him by way of inducement to distrust his Father’s superintendence and care. Jesus might have said to Satan, “You lying old Devil, you know that you have no kingdom to bestow; you likewise well know that you have not land enough whereon to build a hovel, in which to shelter your favorite associates, the swine!” But, on the contrary, Jesus seems to act with great respect towards the Devil. He made no objections to follow Satan wherever he chose to lead him. We are ignorant of the object Jesus had in view by retiring into the wilderness; and how the Devil came to be acquainted with his destitute situation, we are also at a loss to conjecture. Likewise, we have yet to learn whether Satan resided among the Jews, or dwelt in the regions of the air, as he is called “the Prince and power of the air, the spirit which works in the hearts of the children of disobedience.”