own mental and moral
habits, but those of the people about him.

[44] See 1 Cor. xii. 10-28; 2 Cor. vi. 12; Rom. xv. 19.

[45] _A Journal or Historical Account of the Life, Travels,
Sufferings, and Christian Experiences, &c., of George
Fox_, Ed. 1694, pp. 27, 28.

VI: POSSIBILITIES AND IMPOSSIBILITIES

[1891]

In the course of a discussion which has been going on during the last
two years,[46] it has been maintained by the defenders of
ecclesiastical Christianity that the demonology of the books of the
New Testament is an essential and integral part of the revelation of
the nature of the spiritual world promulgated by Jesus of Nazareth.
Indeed, if the historical accuracy of the Gospels and of the Acts of
the Apostles is to be taken for granted, if the teachings of the
Epistles are divinely inspired, and if the universal belief and
practice of the primitive Church are the models which all later times
must follow, there can be no doubt that those who accept the
demonology are in the right. It is as plain as language can make it,
that the writers of the Gospels believed in the existence of Satan and
the subordinate ministers of evil as strongly as they believed in
that of God and the angels, and that they had an unhesitating faith in
possession and in exorcism. No reader of the first three Gospels can
hesitate to admit that, in the opinion of those persons among whom the
traditions out of which they are compiled arose, Jesus held, and
constantly acted upon, the same theory of the spiritual world. Nowhere
do we find the slightest hint that he doubted the theory, or
questioned the efficacy of the curative operations based upon it.

Thus, when such a story as that about the Gadarene swine is placed
before us, the importance of the decision, whether it is to be
accepted or rejected, cannot be over-estimated. If the demonological
part of it is to be accepted, the authority of Jesus is unmistakably
pledged to the demonological system current in Judaea in the first
century. The belief in devils who possess men and can be transferred
from men to pigs, becomes as much a part of Christian dogma as any
article of the creeds. If it is to be rejected, there are two
alternative conclusions. Supposing the Gospels to be historically
accurate, it follows that Jesus shared in the errors, respecting the
nature of the spiritual world, prevalent in the age in which he lived
and among the