sin, and that without her Christ himself is imperfect.-Brown's History of the Shakers, pages 114, 115, 286. And that her pretensions reached even beyond this life, according to the same author, in the same work; he says of her, that at a certain time during the Revolution, when ANN LEE was imprisoned in the city of Albany, with other Shakers, on a suspicion of toryism, of which they were not guilty, that she declared that many departed human spirits had come to her, and had confessed their sins, and accordingly were absolved, and immediately entered into rest. The disciples of this imposter, Simon Magus, represented him under the form of Jupiter, and his female associate under that of Minerva; and these representations were probably the first of those Gnostic amulets, which afterwards became so numerous. The annexed engraving (marked No. 1) is from a gem in the collection of Dr. Walsh, which he thinks was fabricated by the immediate followers of Simon Magus. The stone is a chalcedony, and the sculpture rude. Jupiter is represented in armor, an image of victory on his hand, and the eagle and the thunderbolt at his feet. On the reverse is an inscription, which has not been explained. The singular arrangement of the letters is supposed to be expressive of the coil of a serpent, a favorite Gnostic emblem, found in various forms and combinations upon most of their talismonic remains. The figure marked No. 2, is another of those Gnostic gems. The .female figure, with a finger placed on the lip, is a token of silence, in imitation of the Samian priests, who prescribed taciturnity to their followers. The other figure with the head of a dog, is the Egyptian Anubis; the characters are not as yet interpreted. No. 3, is also a Gnostic amulet, which shows the archangel Michael, having a body like a man, but a head and wings like a hawk. The opposite characters signify the "might of Michael," so monstrous and foolish were the notions of this spurious sect of Christians; who blended parts of Judaism, Paganism, and Christianity together, besides much invention of their own, more monstrous than all the errors of the whole pagan world put together, to make out their entire system of wickedness; we say wickedness, because they taught the gratification of all the passions in the fullest extent, to be the only way to recommend them to God. No. 4 is a gem of great beauty, which is in the possession of Lord Strangford, and was an emblem of a sect of Gnostics, who worshipped the serpent, and are called the Ophites of Egypt. This sect believed that Christ was disguised in that reptile, and accordingly, as related by Augustine, found a place where one of the largest size inhabited a cave. Around this they contrived to build a wall, leaving space at the mouth of its den for it to move about in, and over the cave they erected an altar for wor ship. The animal they succeeded to tame, by enticing it from its retreat with such food as pleased its appetite. This done, they would place the elements of the eucharist, so that the tongue of the serpent might be extended to them, after which they partook of them as from the hand of the Redeemer. On this gem is shown a serpent, with the head of a lion encompassed with rays, and is supposed to signify Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah. The right line traversed by three curved ones, on the other face of this gem, remains unexplained. The upper inscription is the mystic term ABRAXAS, or God. The lower characters have been generally taken as a Greek corruption of the awful tetragrammaton of the Jews, or Jehovah of the Gnostics; one of their most remarkable tenets was that malevolent spirits ruled the world, presided over all nature, and caused all the diseases and sufferings of the human race. But by knowledge, which is the meaning of the word Gnostic, they believed these spirits could be controlled, their power suspended, and even made subservient to the use and benefit of man. Of. this science they boasted of being masters; which consisted chiefly in the efficacy of numbers, and certain mysterious hieroglyphics, and emblematic characters, adopted chiefly from the Egyptians. Hence they made systems of what they called monads, tryads, and decads; and formed figures of the dog Anubis, the serpent Serapis, and other idols, combined in a thousand varieties, with the forms of serpents and other animals of mythological renown. These compositions of mystic numbers and figures, they sculptured on gems and stones of different kinds, and maintained that whoever bore one of them upon his person, was secured by it from the particular evil it was constructed to guard against. Amulets against diseases were formed of materials having an imaginary connection with the distemper; as read against all morbid affections of an inflamatory character; chrystal, glass, or some pale colored stone, against those that were watery or dropsical; and so of all others. No. 5 is a gem with a charm engraved upon it, to guard against the ague, constructed by an eminent follower of Bassillides, the Egyptian leader of the Gnostics. On one side is a human figure, with a head of a cock, the legs are serpents, and between them is the mystic word IAw. On the opposite are the elements of an ABRACADABRA, showing the process of the deity through the corporeal world, formed in this manner : A EHIO Y ΙΟΥ Y But lastly, in pursuit of evidence of the being of evil spirits, we bring the case of the Phillippian girl, which is recorded in the book of Acts, chap. xvi. who was possessed of a devil. This account, were it the only one in the whole Bible, would prove beyond all decent contradiction, that the belief is according to the truth. The account is as follows: The Apostles Paul and Silas, being in the city of Phillippi, in Macedonia, went out on a certain Sabbath day, by the side of a river, where was a place to which the Jews in that city resorted to pray, and to worship. But as they went, a certain young woman, who had for several days before followed Paul and Silas, as they went about teaching the new doctrine of Christianity, crying with a loud voice, “these are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation" so she continued to do on this day also. But Paul being grieved with her crying this thing continually, as he did not wish the testimony of one who was possessed with a devil to aid the cause of truth, which he was preaching, he turned to her "and said to the spirit, I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her; and he came out of her the same hour." This girl, it appears, was possessed with a spirit of divination, by which means the persons with whom she lived got much money, as by the spirit she could tell fortunes, and discover things that were lost. But by a mere word spoken by the Apostle, not to the girl, but to the spirit, by which she could divine, this power or gift at once forsook her, so that her masters perceived that the hope of their gain was gone. On which account a mob was soon collected, and both Paul and Silas cast into prison. But the same night which followed the day in which those things took place, the whole city was shaken by an earthquake. The prison in which they were put trembled to its foundations; when the fetters and chains of all the prisoners were broken loose, a thing which a common earthquake could not have done, without breaking the limbs of the prisoners and causing their immediate death. Now respecting this young woman, it is not said that she was sick or in any way afflicted with disease, or that she was mad, or distrated, or in any way outrageous but that she simply answered questions as they were put to her, by those who wished to profit by what she could tell them. Yet the Apostle, by the power which he had of discerning spirits, saw that a devil had possession of her, and that this same devil knew the character and business of Paul and Silas, and from whence they derived it. This spirit knew those men, as all the devils knew the Messiah before he came into the world, to be the dreadful Son of God, the Messiah, by whose power they had been driven down from heaven; and by whose power a hell of fire and brimstone had been created for them, into which they knew they were finally and permanently to be cast at the day of judgment. And for |