pels, we would simply refer him, for an answer, to the criticisms of these passages by Prof. Moses Stuart, whose orthodoxy was never called in question, and whose learning and research were such as to place him in the very foremost rank of biblical scholars. In his work on the Apocalypse. Prof. Stuart, after a very careful and thorough examination of these passages, does not hesitate to pronounce them quotations (doubtless from memory) from the apocryphal book of Enoch, and therefore wholly destitute of divine authority (see Stuart on the Apoc., vol, i., pp. 50–73). The conclusions reached by the learned Professor, may be summarily stated thus:
1st. That this apocryphal book of Enoch was generally known to the early Christian writers—so generally as to render it highly probable that all were familiar with its contents. 2d. That it was held by them in high esteem, some of them regarding it as canonical and of divine authority. 3d. That the contents of this book are of such a nature as to leave no reasonable ground for doubt that the statements in regard to the apostate angels made by Jude and Peter, were derived from this source; for this book makes frequent mention of them, of their being bound in chains, kept in darkness and in prison, reserved for judgment, and the like; each of which circumstances is mentioned by these apostles.
Such, then, is the acknowledged foundation on which this absurd and heathenish doctrine concerning the preexistence, apostasy and punishment of the angels rests. From the apocryphal book of Enoch as its source, through the epistles of Jude and Peter as channels, the
