Excerpt from The Journal of Sacred Literature, Vol. 4 Demoniacal possession. The writings of the New Testament expressly declare that evil spirits possess the fearful power of entering the bodies of human beings - and of using the control over their corporeal organism thus obtained, for the infliction of various and protracted tortures. Innumerable instances of men and women and children being thus possessed, by one or by many unclean spirits, and of their being delivered, through the power of our Lord, and of his name, are contained in the Gospels and the Acts. Nor is revelation alone in the declaration of these marvellous facts. The writings of ancient philosophers and historians - as well as those of the Fathers of the early Christian Church - contain the most decisive and abundant evidence of the fact, that malignant spirits of celestial origin exercised the same diabolical influence over human beings in their days. If we investigate the nature of demoniacal possession, we shall be led to view it as consisting in the fact of one or more demons having effected such a union with the human soul - or at least, having acquired such a control over the human organism - as placed all the physical powers of the individual at his or their disposal, Apart from possession, there is question that evil spirits are capable, in a variety of ways, of inflicting temporal, as well as spiritual evil upon mankind. Satan possesses the power of smiting men with terrible diseases - and depriving them of worldly possessions (Job ii.). By means of his innumerable angels too he tempts men to sin - by influencing the outward senses - suggesting thoughts to the heart - or casting stumbling-blocks in the way (Acts v. 3). But in all these instances the 'spirits of wickedness' act upon us from without. In the case of demoniacal possession, oh the contrary, the demon occupies the whole man. Actual and irresistible power is exercised over the internal organism of the individual. All the members of the body, as well as the organs of perception and utterance, are under the absolute control of the foul spirit. The possessed person, is incapable of performing any action, however trifling, against the will of the. demon; r can he restrain himself from any act to which he is urged by this foreign power. An attempt has been made by Dr. Strauss, in his Life of Jesus, to overturn the whole doctrine of demoniacal possession by representing the theory as involving, in the very nature of the case, an actual impossibility. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art techlogy to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
