A26888:317
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls…
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadducees and infidels, by Richard Baxter.The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadduces and infidels, by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1691
Treatise › Chapter 8: Of good Angels, and some doubtful Spirits, and their notable Actions.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
III. Though I lay no great stress on the Reports of those Papists who corrupt Church-History by Fabulous Mixtures, yet many Histories of the Ministry of Angels, cited by them out of the Fathers, are credible. Those that have purged their Legends, retain a great number. Baronius, and De la Cerda and many others, are worth the reading by the Judicious, that can discern the different Probabilities. But to deny all the Ejecting of Devils, and the Wonders mentioned by Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Augustine, Sulpitius, Severas, those of Gregory Thaumaturgus, Martin, &c. (tho' some may be over-aggravated;) besides those in Historians, Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Victor Uticensis, Procopius, Nicephorus, Theodoret, &c. would be unreasonable, and unchristian Incredulity. I have formerly mentioned the African Bishops or Preachers, who all spake well when their Tongues were cut out by the Command of the Arian King: And Victor, Aeneas Gazaeus and ⟨p. 162⟩Procopius (as I remember, all three) said, they saw them, and heard them speak after. But one of them saith, that one of the Bishops was after drawn into the Sin of Fornication, and his Speech went away again.
III. Though I lay no great stress on the Reports of those Papists who corrupt Church-History by Fabulous Mixtures, yet many Histories of the Ministry of Angels, cited by them out of the Fathers, are credible. Those that have purged their Legends, retain a great number. Baronius, and De la Cerda and many others, are worth the reading by the Judicious, that can discern the different Probabilities. But to deny all the Ejecting of Devils, and the VVonders mentioned by Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Augustine, Sulpitius, Severas, those of Gregory Thaumaturgus, Martin, &c. (tho' some may be over-aggravated;) besides those in Historians, Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Victor Vticensis, Procopius, Nicephorus, Theodoret, &c. would be unreasonable, and unchristian Incredulity. I have formerly mentioned the African Bishops or Preachers, who all spake well when their Tongues were cut out by the Command of the Arrian King: And Victor, AEnaeas Gazaeus and ⟨p. 162⟩Procopius (as I remember, all three) said, they saw them, and heard them speak after. But one of them saith, that one of the Bishops was after drawn into the Sin of Fornication, and his Speech went away again.