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| Chapter XXVII.—Artifices of the Demons.
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Chapter XXVII.—Artifices of the Demons.
What then? In the first place, the
irrational and fantastic movements of the soul about opinions
produce a diversity of images (εἴδωλα)
from time to time: some they derive from matter, and some they fashion and
bring forth for themselves; and this happens to a soul especially when it
partakes of the material spirit798
| 798
[Kaye, p. 191; and comp. cap. xxiv., supra, p. 142.] |
and becomes mingled with it, looking not at heavenly things and
their Maker, but downwards to earthly things, wholly at the earth,
as being now mere flesh and blood, and no longer pure spirit.799
| 799 [Comp. On the Resurrection,
cap. xiii., infra., p. 439 of ed. Edinburgh. Also Kaye,
p. 199.] | These irrational and fantastic movements of the soul,
then, give birth to empty visions in the mind, by which it becomes madly
set on idols. When, too, a tender and susceptible soul, which has no
knowledge or experience of sounder doctrines, and is unaccustomed to
contemplate truth, and to consider thoughtfully the Father and Maker
of all things, gets impressed with false opinions respecting itself,
then the demons who hover about matter, greedy of sacrificial odours
and the blood of victims, and ever ready to lead men into error, avail
themselves of these delusive movements of the souls of the multitude;
and, taking possession of their thoughts, cause to flow into the mind
empty visions as if coming from the idols and the statues; and when,
too, a soul of itself, as being immortal,800
moves comformably to reason,
either predicting the future or healing the present, the demons claim
the glory for themselves.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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