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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    is, the desire after animal gratification; the lust of the eyes, the desire after elevation; and the pride of life, the desire for rule, are the three great trials of man. The second Adam went through the whole unscathed. The first Adam was tried in being induced to eat forbidden fruit—-he was enticed and sinned. The second Adam was tried in being enticed to make fruit in a forbidden way—he was not enticed and did not sin. The whole history of the trial of our Lord admits of an easy, clear, and conclusive explanation, when viewed figuratively as a picture of the thoughts that passed through his mind in the survey of his great struggle. Perhaps the only objection that will be urged against this view, is, that such view supposes that Christ had wicked thoughts—it supposes no such thing. It supposes that he had the thoughts of a man in contemplating hit- man things—it supposes that he must have had these thoughts to have been tried in all points like as we are; and it supposes that, having examined all his thoughts, he discountenanced all those which, if carried out, would have been falsely accusing God, and consequently sinful. And further, it it is worthy of remark that in the mere having these thoughts there could be no sin, because the thoughts in themselves are not sinful, no more than they would be, were they the thoughts passing through the mind of a person imagining what would be the thoughts of another person, under given circumstances. To carry the illustration further, we may suppose that as our Pather in heaven is omniscient, he must have pass through the range of his omniscience, all the thoughts which pass through the minds of his creatures; and as the thoughts passing through his mind cannot be sinful, the mere thoughts in his creatures cannot be sinful either. And let it ever be remembered, that the victory was gained through the written word—-Jesus fought his enemies in the mental battle-field with the weapon—the scriptures. May it not be suggested, as the conclusion of the examination of this mast interesting mental struggle, that a similar retiring into, not an Eden, but into the wilderness of confused thought, produced by the conflict of error and truth, of love and of selfishness, becomes each man, there to decide, after a calm consideration, what course to adopt; and it is to be hoped that it will be said of him what was said of Mary, cc She hath chosen the better part: ” If following Christ, Tis sure.