Dæmonologia Sacra; or, A Treatise of Satan's Temptations: In Three PartsGilpin, Richard
Religion
Dæmonologia Sacra; or, A Treatise of Satan's Temptations: In Three Parts
Gilpin, Richard
Devil -- Early works to 1800; Temptation -- Early works to 1800
2. Secondly, We have reason to suspect that he may have _ways of deceit
and imposture upon our senses_. The deceits of the senses are so much
noted, that some philosophers will scarce allow any credit to be given
them; not that they are always deceitful, but that they are often so,
and therefore always suspicious.[181] The soul hath no intelligence but
by the senses. It is then a business of easy belief, that Satan may
not altogether slight this advantage, but that when he sees it fit for
his purpose, he may impose upon us by the deception of our eyes and
ears. We little know how oft our senses have disguised things to us.
In a pleasing object, our eyes may be as a magnifying or multiplying
glass. In the first temptation Satan seems to have wrought both upon
the object and also upon the senses; she ‘saw it was good for food
and pleasant.’ Who can question but that she saw the fruit before?
But this was another kind of sight, of more power and attraction. An
instance of Satan’s cunning in both the forementioned particulars we
have from Austin, relating the story of his friend Alypius, who by the
importunity of his acquaintance consented to go to the theatre, yet
with a resolve not to open his eyes, lest the sight of these spectacles
should entice his heart; but being there, the noise and sudden
shouting of the multitude prevailed so far with him that he forgot his
resolution; takes the liberty to see what occasioned the shouting, and
once seeing, is now so inflamed with delight that he shouts as the rest
do, and becomes a frequenter of the theatre as others.[182] What was
there to be seen and heard he knew before by the relation of others;
but now being present, his eyes and ears were by Satan so heightened
in their offices, that those bloody objects seemed pleasant beyond all
that had been reported of them, and the lust of his heart drawn out by
Satan’s cunning disposal of the object and senses.
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