A27004:826
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural…
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural evidence the being of God ... : the second part, of Christianity, proving by evidence supernatural and natural, the certain truth of the Christian belief ... / by Richard Baxter ... ; also an appendix defending the soul's immortality against the Somatists or Epicureans and other pseudo-philosophers.
London: printed by R. White for Fran. Titon, 1667
Part 1 › Chapter 14: That there is a Life of Retribution after this.
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.
13. I may add to these the instance of satanical Possessions: For though many diseases may have of themselves very terrible and strange effects, yet that the Devil, I mean some evil Spirit, doth operate in many is past all contradiction: some will speak Languages which they never learnt: some will tell things done far off: some will have force and actions which are beyond their proper natural ability: Most great Physicians, how incredulous soever, have been forced to confess these things: and abundance of them have written particular instances.
13. I may adde to these the instance of satanical Possessions: For though many diseases may have of themselves very terrible and strange effects, yet that the Devil, I mean some evil Spirit, doth operate in many is past all contradiction: some will speak Languages which they never learnt: some will tell things done far off: some will have force and actions which are beyond their proper natural ability: Most great Physicians, how incredulous soever, have been forced to confess these things: and abundance of them have written particular instances.
- 1See what I have cited, Saints Rest, Part 2. cap. 7.
And the manner of their transportations, their horrid blasphemies against God, with other carriages, do commonly intimate a life to come, and a desire that Satan hath to dishonour God, and destroy the souls of men as well as their bodies.
4. And lastly, the Temptations and suggestions of Satan, yea, and oft his external contrived snares, are such as frequently give men a palpable discovery of his agency, that there is indeed some evil Spirit that doth all this to the hurt of Souls. Were there no such Tempter it were scarce credible that such horrid inhumane Villainies should ever be perpetrated by a rational Nature, as Histories credibly report, and as in this Age our eyes have seen. That men should ever, even against their own apparent interest, be carried on obstinately to the last, in a wilful course of such sins as seem to have little or nothing to invite men to them,