1. The Judge and destroyer of mankind; for all are damned to Hell! This is the Jewish Jah.
2. The Son, begotten of Jah upon an immaculate virgin. Sent to mediate with Jah and appease His fierce anger, so that some may escape Hell—that is, those few who have "believed in" and worshipped the Son, the Father, and other things. For as to what is to be believed, form the points of endless contention, as I have hinted.
3. The Holy Ghost, or Comforter, whose function I have never comprehended. It appears to be a divine Effluence, entering into the devotee, to warm, exalt, and enlighten him; especially to comfort him and to support him in his dire conflicts with "the flesh, hell, and the devil" (as the Superstition reads). It is an "awful mystery" in the rites, and has crazed many a worshipper; for those who fancy themselves to be in the possession of this Effluence feel like gods, and conduct themselves as scarcely accountable to mortal control; though others feel an absorption, as they say, into the divine nature—a notion like that of some of the fanatics of the Hindoos and of the East.
As powerful, indeed more powerful over men, is the terrible Satan—Devil, Evil One. There are many names and shapes. This monster was once (according to the superstition) chained down in hell-fire, for having raised a rebellion against Jah, who, however, let him loose again, and gave him wings to fly from his fiery prison to the world, where he should wage war with Jah, in a covert way, by his craft drawing away mankind from Jah to his worship and to his designs; that, however, he should never prevail to overthrow Jah, and the only result would be to increase the number of the countless devils of low degree already in Hell, by adding to them nearly the whole human race!—for to that torment all go who do not worship in spirit and in truth, according to the superstition. This awful strife between Satan and Jah always proceeds. The Priests say that, for "some wise purpose," Jah suffers Satan to succeed in his snares; and his victims continually fall into the everlasting place of Fire, prepared for the devil and his victims. The Priests say that this wholesale destruction of mankind was a thing predetermined by Jah, and that he created the Devil to accomplish the work; but they do not explain why the torments should be everlasting; as men are themselves short-lived, one would think a reasonable superstition might have limited the fire-torture to, say, twice the length of mortal life!
Our Literati will readily recognise some parts of this horrible superstition—perhaps the main features, as Oriental—going back to the dimmest dawn of tradition, and to the early and grotesque forms of the human imagination, dark and uninstructed. The Hell, however, is a terrific expansion of the horrible, suited to these Strange Barbarians.
Besides these great deities, there are Arch-angels, Angels, Saints male and female, Spirits good and bad—the latter Imps of Satan (whatever the word may mean), who enter into human beings, and take on the human form: in this disguise, called Ghosts, Wizards, Bogies, Witches. However, good people can tell these devilish Imps, and avoid them (so they be good, that is, true worshippers of the Idols of the Superstition); for the smell of brimstone sticks to them, and the tail and cleft-hoof—inseparable from devil-imps—will always show somewhere to the good. But, if unawares the Imps catch them, they are only to say Christ, or Jehovah, or call on some Saint, and the Imp will at once vanish like a vapor!
It will be seen that this Superstition is as populous with gods and spirits as are any in the East, and some of the forms more frightful and ridiculous.
There are dissentients—some, who, not dissenting to the chief gods, yet conjecture that the good and bad spirits merely symbolize good and bad propensities in human nature. But real objectors are few and timid, afraid of punishment—if not here, then after death. For the Superstition so long rooted has engrafted its terrors in the very blood, and men are born with the Horror in them; they can never free themselves from it. A few, however, do dissent; but, like our Literati, they do not care to oppose vulgar ignorance openly, nor is it safe; they feel a contempt, but repress its too-marked expression. "Why render themselves uselessly odious?" they say. The Priests, very likely, often disbelieve much of what they say; but not unlikely their emoluments (livings) have some effect upon their conduct, though not upon their private convictions. In our Flowery Land there is a maxim: "A common man's brain is in his belly."
I have had a High Bonze say to me, when I have suggested some objections, "Oh, we do not know anything about such things; the morality is good, and we need a devil for women, children, and the common people: it is safer to let things alone."
"But," I have rejoined, "Is it quite well, in the long run, to teach falsely?"
"I do not say it is well to teach falsely. I said, I do not know—who does? Men more learned than I believe strongly, men wiser than I have "gone to the stake and perished by slow torture of fire," made martyrs (we have no such word) of themselves, rather than deny these things. They were probably right. I simply take things as they are."