remaining time that they will be permit ted to assail all unguarded persons, who neglect the only true means of resisting them, viz. urgent and sincere prayer to our Heavenly Father, in the name of our only "one Mediator" for the protection and guidance of his Holy Spirit!

Some farther warnings on this point have lately been printed, by the same author, in a very short Tract on the two last petitions of the Lord's Prayer, shewing that our Lord has really commanded us to pray for deliverance from "the evil Being," by which the Chief or Prince of our most dangerous spiritual enemies seems to have been evidently intended.

THE

CASE

OF

SA UL, &c.

"But the Spirit of the Lord departed

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from Saul, and an Evil-Spirit from "the Lord troubled him."

xvi. 15.

THE

1 Sam.

HE literal Meaning of this Text being rejected by the Author of a late "Essay on the Demoniacs of the "New Testament," we must have recourse to a comparative view of the context (which he seems to have neglected) in order to ascertain the real state of Saul's disorder. And we shall thereby be enabled to form a clearer judgment concerning the doctrine of

Possessions and Spiritual Influence, which is so far from being foreign to the subject of the preceding tract, viz. "THE LAW OF NATURE and PRINCIPLES "OF ACTION IN MAN," that without a competent knowledge of it the compound Nature of Man cannot be sufficiently understood, nor the principles of Human Actions properly investigated.

The Opinions and Suppositions of the learned gentleman, whose labours have obliged me to examine the Case of Saul, are interwoven with much intricate sophistry, and are dispersed through several other tracts besides that on Demoniacs, containing in all, more than 1,100 pages, so that I should too much exceed the proposed limits of my present undertaking were I to attempt a regular examination of them: but, luckily for me, he has reduced my labour by referring the decision to a single Example; "for if you can prove

the

"the REALITY OF POSSESSION IN ONE,

66

INSTANCE from the Language of Scripture," (says he, see note in p. 131)

you may prove it in ALL." And if such proof should really be produced, it will effectually confute the presumptive assertion of the same Author, which follows in the very next sentence" And if (says he) you can "account for the scripture language

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concerning POSESSIONS in ANY instance, without allowing their reality, you may account for them in EVERY instance." This latter assertion therefore must fall of course, if the former be proved, because they are manifest contradictions, which cannot exist together.

Now the Example already mentioned in the preceding Tract on the Law of Nature, &c. (see note in p. 190) concerning the "Evil-Spirit from the "Lord" which " troubled" Saul, is the

ONE

"

ONE INSTANCE which I have chosen as
a proof of THE REALITY OF POSSES-
SION;" for this Example is of
more consequence in the present dis-
pute, perhaps, than any other;
other; because
the Author of "the Essay on the De-
"moniacs" has explained away the
literal sense of the sacred Text where
this fact is related, in order to secure
from objection a contrary assertion
of his own concerning the evidence of
the OLD TESTAMENT on THE DOCTRINE
OF POSSESSIONS. "With regard to the
Prophets of THE OLD TESTAMENT,
(says he) they stand clear from all
suspicion of countenancing the Doc-
"trine of REAL POSSESSIONS. It is not
pretended that they ever expressly
taught it. In all their writings, no
"traces of it are to be found, no men-
"tion (says he) of a SINGLE IN-
"STANCE of reputed possession, NOR
"ANY ALLUSION TO IT. For with re-

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66

gard to SAUL" (continues he)" of

"whom