Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent.

  • Beaumont, John, -1731.
Date:
1724
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    183/226 (page 169)
    cles to own, in thePrefence of the Pagans themfelves, that they were evil feducing Spirits. That they forc’d them, by the Invocation of the Name of Jefus Chrifl, to quit the Priefts and Priefteffes of the Idols, whom they had poflefs’d after the fame manner that St. Paul drove away the Spirit Python by which that Girl, of whom it is fpoken in the Acts of the Apoflles, deliver’d alfo Anfwers and Oracles : and they fo certainly drove away thefe evil Spirits ; they filenced them with fo abfolute an Empire; they forced them fo neceflarily to own what they were, that they challenged the Pagans to make an Experiment, fo far, as to offer themfelves to be put to death, if they did not drive them away, before their Eyes, and in their Prefence, and make them own their Impofture* And here the Author cites many PafTages from the antient Fathers, cTertullian, LaBantius, St. Cyprian, Minutius Felix, Athanafius, Armbius, &c. very full and expretflve to this Effed, which I recommend to the perufal of any Perfons that doubt of this Fad. In¬ deed the Pagans faid that this proceeded not from the Power and Authority the Chriftians had over their Gods, but from the Horror and Hatred their Gods had for the Chriftians and their Religion ; but LaBan- tins, L. 4. Infl. Divin. c. 27. fays to this, As tho’ any one could hate another, but him that either hurts him, or can hurt him ; nay, it’s more agreeing with Majefty prefently to punifh thofe they hate, than to fly from them. There was an Anonymous Perfon who pub- lifhed Remarks in Defence of what Mr. Fontenelle had advanced againft evil Spiritshaving been con¬ cerned in the Oracles, and brought Arguments a- gainft Father Baltus's Reafons for fuch Spirits ha¬ ving been concerned in them ; to which Arguments Father Baltus, in his Second Volume, Part. I. c. i6$ and the following, replies, That all the Fathers* not one excepted, have fpoken of this Power which Z the