IX AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY 319 



machinations of the latter ; it affirms the fact of 

 demoniac possession arid the power of casting out 

 devils by the faithful. And, from these premises, 

 the conclusion is drawn, that those Agnostics who 

 deny that there is any evidence of such a character 

 as to justify certainty, respecting the existence and 

 the nature of the spiritual world, contradict the 

 express declarations of Jesus. I have replied to 

 this argumentation by showing that there is strong 

 reason to doubt the historical accuracy of the 

 attribution to Jesus of either the " Sermon on 

 the Mount " or the " Lord's Prayer " ; and, there- 

 fore, that the conclusion in question is not 

 warranted, at any rate, on the grounds set 

 forth. 



But, whether the Gospels contain trustworthy 

 statements about this and other alleged historical 

 facts or not, it is quite certain that from them, 

 taken together with the other books of the New 

 Testament, we may collect a pretty complete 

 exposition of that theory of the spiritual world 

 which was held by both Nazarenes and Christians ; 

 and which was undoubtedly supposed by them to 

 be fully sanctioned by Jesus, though it is just as 

 clear that they did not imagine it contained any 

 revelation by him of something heretofore un- 

 known. If the pneumatological doctrine which 

 pervades the whole New Testament is nowhere 

 systematically stated, it is everywhere assumed. 

 The writers of the Gospels and of the Acts take it 



136 



