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ious systems of religion ,, which prevailed among the nations by whom they were led captive , or which were introduced by their teachers from the prevailing philosophy of the heathen schools , are too glaring to be admitted by
the enlightened enquirer of the present day , enjoying all the advantages of Christianity and the important discoveries of the wisest and best of men . It was not the intention of the Christian dispensation 5 to correct all the errors •* - *> into which mankind had fallen , - nor perhaps any , which were not - immediately connected with the . great object for which its illustrious teacher was sent into the world ; and least of all , those , which must necessarily give place
to more enlarged and rational - views of the divine perfections m and government , such as Christi-„ anity is calculated to inspire . We are not therefore , to be surprized , that in the scriptures , the prevalent philosophy as to the motion of the heavenly bodies , the existence and agency of spirits , possession by demons , or the more powerful and universal influence of the chief of these , under the character of the devil , is occasionally alluded to , and mentioned by the writers of the Christian scriptures , as if in some degree they admitted the truth of these opinions . With regard to . - some of them it might be the case ; but others were too absurd to be retained , even by those , who had been early initiated in them , after
they had received the illuminations of Christianity , and arc only Teferred jto as those , which were still adopted by many , and spoken of in language which was then common and popular , as often is
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1 S 6 On the Existence of the Dex . il .
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the case , after the things signified by the terms are no longer intended by them . Of this kind , I presume was the prevalent notion of the agency of the devil .
It is commonly imagined by those , who have not paid particular attention to the subject , that the term AiafoAoc , or the English word devil , occurs almost in every page of the N . T . The fact is strictly this : it is used six times , in the gospel of Matthew ; not once by the evangelist Mark ; it is to be found in six places in the gospel of Luke ; it occurs only three times in the gospel of John ; tzvice in the history of the Acts of the Apostles ; twenty-eight times in all the epistles of Paul , which are thirteen in number ; once in the epistle to the Hebrews ; once in that of James ; once in the 1 epist . of Peter ; four times in the 1 epist , of John ; once in Jude ; and five times in the book of Revelations ; in all thirty-edght times in the volume of the New Testament .
It will evidently appear , that even in these passages , the word is not always used in the same sense , nor uniformly applied to the same beings but without further preface , I shall detail these passages in the order in which they stand , and at the close of the discussion , I shall arrange thern under the respective classes , to which they are appropriated by the evident sense ot the word in its conr nexion . It will then more <^ jj $£ ly appear , what were the sentiments of the N . T . writers upon this subject .
The first place in which Hie word 8 ia £ o ? . o $ occurs in the N . T . is Matt . iv . where it is used four times in speaking ol our Saviour *
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1809, page 136, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1734/page/16/
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