An inquiry into the existence of a personal devil / [By John Epps.

Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the existence of a personal devil / [By John Epps. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    33 Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” To what does this refer? To a fact, disgraceful to the church at Corinth, namely, that they allowed one of their principal members to possess his father’s wife. Paul condemns the disciples for this, and com- mands them to deliver him to Satan : that is, to the state of mind, adverse to the higher principles of duty. It is certain the church could not deliver this man over to Satan literally, which they ought to have done, if Satan is a being: they were to deliver him to his selfish love; that is, as this man preferred violating, (under the influence of a principle or state of mind, adverse to the law of love to God and to man, adverse to the law of nature,) that law of nature and that higher law of love, the Christian brethren could no longer sanction such conduct, by extending towards the violator all the sympathies of Christian love, but said to him, “ If you persist in gratifying your selfish passion, adverse to your higher good, adverse to the state of mind, in which alone you can be a Christian, we must no longer recognize you, we must leave you to your adversary-al, selfish state, to your Satan: and this, be it remembered, not from any ill will to you, not from any holier- than-thou conceit, but simply, that you, having a full experience of your self-love, evil state, it may end, by the punishment it will thus directly or indirectly bring, “ in the destruction” of the rule “ of the flesh:” that is, you will find your course so inconvenient, so pain producing, as soon to discover the yoke of the higher love to be a more pleasing one, and thus you will be driven to give up the lower love, the degrading love, the mere selfish love : and “the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus.” In fact this viewis strengthened, because if Satan were essentially abusy and a wicked being, to deliver him to Satan would be to fix him in evil; but here the deliverance to Satan is evidently for the purpose of effecting the destruction of that which, according to the common view of Satan, is the greatest friend that Satan ever had, namely, “ the flesh.” Taking this view of Satan, all the troubled perplexity connected with this delivering over to Satan, which has puzzled so many, disappears. This view is justified in the following passage : 95 “ This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; holding faith, and a good conscience : which some, having put away, concerning faith, have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hymenseus and Alexander ; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.” Paul could not deliver these to Satan literally any more than the church of Corinth could deliver the incestuous person; but he could separate them from the enjoyment of the active and delightful offices of Christian love, which being withheld, might place their conduct before them in the way most likely, if possessing any remnants of noble feeling, to affect them bene- ficially and reformatively; and thus they might learn not to speak evil or blaspeme : that is, deliver them to their own selfish complaining state of mind, and let them be punished by it, and thus they will see, that the adverse state is one unsuited to happiness and to peace. This delivering to Satan is a metaphorical and beautiful way of expressing that which a parent is sometimes obliged to do toward a rebellious child—■ he tries every plan to deliver him from error and from vice: but all his efforts are ineffectual. At last, necessity obliges him to let the child pursue, unrestrained by him, the state of his disposition, adverse to the duties he