IX ' AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY 325 



be dishonoured more grossly than by the supposi- 

 tion tha-t they said and did that which is attri- 

 buted to them ; while, in reality, they disbelieved 

 in Satan and his demons, in possession and in 

 exorcism ? l 



An eminent theologian has justly observed that 

 we have no right to look at the propositions of the 

 Christian faith with one eye open and the other 

 shut. (Tract 85, p. 29.) It really is not permis- 

 sible to see, with one eye, that Jesus is affirmed 

 to declare the personality and the Fatherhood of 

 God, His loving providence and His accessibility 

 to prayer; and to shut the other to the no less 

 definite teaching ascribed to Jesus, in regard to 

 the personality and the misanthropy of the devil, 

 his malignant watchfulness, and his subjection to 

 exorcistic formulae and rites. Jesus is made to 

 say that the devil " was a murderer from the 

 beginning " (John viii. 44) by the same authority 

 as that upon which we depend for his asserted 

 declaration that " God is a spirit " (John iv. 24). 



To those who admit the authority of the famous 

 Vincentian dictum that the doctrine which has 

 been held " always, everywhere, and by all " is to 

 be received as authoritative, the demonology 

 must possess a higher sanction than any other 

 Christian dogma, except, perhaps, those of the 

 Resurrection and of the Messiahship of Jesus ; 



1 See the expression of orthodox opinion upon the " accommo- 

 dation " subterfuge already cited above, p. 217. 



