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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    LECTURE YU. The Gadarene and Gergesene demoniacs. Their dispossession, and the mad- ness of the swine, examined and explained. The language of our Saviour and of his Apostles corresponds to the opinions of men. How the demoniacs confessed Christ. It lias been demonstrated tliat the baigoves, daimones, demons, and the bcugovia, daimonia, possessions, are not dtd/3oXoi, devils, false accusers. It has been demonstrated, that the first term is expressive of departed human spirits, and the second term of such spirit supposed to be in possession of living human beings. It has been shown, that the belief in possessions pre- vailed among almost all the nations, the Jews included, at the time of the Saviour and of his apostles, the taught existence of such beings, being a lie, palmed upon mankind by an enslaving priesthood; and that Paul, when re- ferring to such departed human spirits deified and worshipped by the Gen- tiles, as plainly as words can express, declares them to be nothing—declares them to be delusions of the imagination—to be a lie. On this declaration of the apostle we might rest—-we might say we know they are nothing: but still though Paul thus asserts, and thus gives the Divine sanction to the Christian’s freedom from all the absurd bugbears and dangerous errors, connected with such possessions, some Christians still hug the Pagan delusion, and guard its preservation with as much care, as if it were one of the gifts of Divine wisdom and of Divine love—as if it were an ark of the Lord, too holy to be looked into by any one, except by George Eox’s black bodies. It is true they think they have some grounds for their belief in such mon- sters, sad wanderers from the Hades of departed spirits. No, say they, we do not say they are departed human spirits that wander; but they are devils. But this is not the case : if they will have these baipovia, they must have bcupovia, daimonia, and not Sid/3oXot, diaboloi. They say, we read of these demons being cast out: and how could they be cast out unless they were there to be cast out F We read, say they, of these demons talking: and how could they talk unless they were there ? We read, say they, of these demons acknowledging Christ to be the Son of God : and how could they acknowledge Christ unless they were there ? And, to conclude the queries, they ask, Can any one read the history of