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Here was an epic thread which mentioned Perkins and maybe other Puritans. https://www.puritanboard.com/threads/ufos-ghosts-and-the-occult-demonic-experiences.91634/
Thomas Manton was quoted here https://www.puritanboard.com/threads/ghosts-spirits-demons.84279/page-3#post-1055161
I’d be interested in reading about that. Is there something accessible in print or online?I've been meaning to read Perkins's On the Damnable Art of Witchcraft. He actually interacted with the occult in his youth and later became a critic of it.
I’d be interested in reading about that. Is there something accessible in print or online?
On Witches, Sorcery, Magic, Ghosts, Apparitions & Demonic Activity
. Subsections Demonic Possession Exorcism . . Order of Contents Reformed 7 Others Skeptical Works Magic Ghosts & Apparitions History Historiography Biblio . . Reformed Article 1600’s Lei…reformedbooksonline.comOn Demonic Possession
“But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. And Saul’s servants said unto him, ‘Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth t…reformedbooksonline.comOn Demons & Spiritual Warfare
. Order of Contents Demonology 10+ . Historical 4 Spritual Warfare 4 Latin 2 . . On Demonology Articles Anthology of the Post-Reformation Heppe, Heinrich – ch. 10, ‘Angels Good &…reformedbooksonline.com
EEBO has it.Is there something accessible in print or online
Yeah for sure. I think he approved and even insisted on the executions of those found guilty in the Salem witch trials.Cotton Mather's stuff should be interesting.
The Frederick Leahy book Cameron mentioned is a modern Reformed classic
His widow is my late grandmother's cousin. I am planning on re-reading that book soon. There are comparatively few modern Reformed works on Satan and demons, which, as my minister once told me, may itself be the work of the Devil.
Yeah for sure. I think he approved and even insisted on the executions of those found guilty in the Salem witch trials.
My dear sir,
I could write a long note indeed, upon what I first meet with, your very great mistake in considering me as a very great man. If we could have a personal interview, I think you would be presently undeceived. Your mistake, however, has done me good. A whole quire of invective from an enemy could hardly have given me so keen a sense of shame. The Scripture assures us that our hearts by nature — like coin from the same mint, are all alike. And I hear my fellow-Christians complain of evils similar to what I feel, and they have the same right with myself to be believed. Otherwise I seem to have reason to conclude there cannot be one upon earth who knows the Lord, so inconsistent, so evil, as myself!
What you say of Gurnall, reminds me to put another book in your way (I think the author was a countryman of yours) — Gilpin on Temptation. I think the perusal of it would throw light upon some of your inquiries. I have only room for a few brief hints. Those who go down to the sea in ships, and do their business in great waters, experience hardships, and likewise see wonders — which people who live on shore have no idea of. Many of the Lord's people are comparatively landsmen; others are mariners, and are called to conflict a great part of their lives with storms and raging billows. I believe much of the variety of this kind is constitutional. We are at a loss to conceive of the invisible world, and the invisible agents belonging to it; but we live in the midst of them. But it seems to me that people of very delicate nerves, and those who are subject to what we call low spirits, are more accessible to this invisible agency than others.
I am rather but a landsman myself, and know but just enough of some of Satan's devices to qualify me to lisp about them. And I account it a mercy the Lord, in compassion to my weakness, has encouraged me to pray, "Lead us not into temptation."
Satan's power, I apprehend, is chiefly upon the imagination. His temptations may be considered under two heads — the terrible and the plausible. By the former he fights against our peace; by the latter he endeavors to ensnare us in our judgment or conduct. The former are the most distressing; the latter not the least dangerous. The former are often the lot of humble, tender-conscienced Christians; in the latter, he has most success when we are careless and self-dependent. By the former he shows his rage and power as a roaring lion; by the latter his subtlety and address as a deceitful serpent or angel of light.
His attacks in the former way are so vehement, as when he fills the mind with dark and horrible thoughts, blasphemies and suggestions, at which even fallen nature shudders and recoils (which is the case with many), that his interference is plainly to be felt. In the latter, his motions are so insinuating, and so natural to the man of sin within us, that they cannot be easily distinguished from the workings of our own thoughts. I suppose that when Ananias attempted to deceive Peter, he was little aware that Satan had filled his heart, and helped him to the lie. But Satan has a near and intimate connection with the man of sin — the heart while unrenewed, is his workshop, Ephes. 2:2. And it is the same with believers, so far as they are unrenewed. Therefore, I believe he is never nearer to us, or more busy with us, than at sometimes, when we are least apprehensive of him.
We have no clear ideas of the agency of evil spirits, nor is it necessary. The Scripture says little to satisfy our curiosity; but tells us plainly that he is always watching us, and desiring to sift us as wheat. I believe we give him no more than his due, when we charge him with having a hand in all our sins. I believe he cuts us all out abundance of work. But the other kind of temptations, in which people are rather passive, though they often think themselves compliant, it is not appointed for all believers to feel, at least, not frequently, or in a violent degree.
A fine general representation of them we have in that part of the Pilgrim's Progress which describes Christian's passage through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Bunyan had been an exercised mariner in these deep waters, and he writes like one. As tempted souls go through the most distress, so they usually have the most affecting and striking discoveries of the wisdom, power, and glory of the Lord, and acquire a sympathy for afflicted minds, and a skill in dealing with them which cannot easily be obtained by reading books. Something of this skill may be acquired from a careful observation of others — but experience is the best school. This lesson, is, however, so painful to flesh and blood — that we may be thankful if the Lord permits us to pass it over. I have had some little experience of these things; but my situation in Olney, among a poor afflicted people, who, from a confined and sedentary employment (lace-making), are mostly afflicted with low spirits and nervous disorders, has made me something of a theorist in the business, and I know not but I could write a volume upon it. But no words can adequately express the dreadful tempests some of God's dear children sustain. They pass through fire and floods; but He is with them, and therefore the floods cannot drown them, nor the flame destroy them. I doubt not but the severest part of Job's trials were of this kind.
Oh! if my heart were not still vile beyond expression — the commendation of the whole universe could have no other effect than to cover me with blushes and confusion. Ah, dear sir! what would you have thought of me had you seen me when I lived among the slaves? The sight of me would have been offensive to your eyes, and my speech would have struck you with horror. Miserable and despicable in every view; pinched with want, and the common mark of scorn and insult, my whole wretched amusement and pleasure seemed to lie in blaspheming the name and person of Jesus, and in feeding my imagination with schemes of wickedness which I had not opportunity to perpetrate!
The Lord has since given me a name and a place among his children; favored me with the friendship and love of many of his most honored and excellent people upon earth. And I have reason to thank him, likewise, that He has given me a habitual recollection of those past dreadful scenes; so that there is seldom a day of my life in which my thoughts are not led back to my former state of estrangement from him, and that pre-eminence of wretchedness into which my sins plunged me!
I hope He has often sanctified this review, to abate in some measure the force of the temptations I have been since exposed to — to think myself something. If He gives me liberty in preaching, or enables me to write a letter to please a fellow worm, should it not suffice to keep me from being elated — to remember that I am the same person who once delighted to treat him as an impostor, to rank him with, or upon the comparison below, Mohammed? or to think that some of my unhappy companions (as I have reason to fear) perished in their sins, who had just cause to charge the ruin of their souls to my account? For Satan himself, had he been upon earth in a bodily shape, could hardly have been more industrious in tempting to infidelity and profligacy than I was!
I am, dear sir, your affectionate friend and servant,
John Newton
July 10, 1778.