Bibles
; otherwise I should be puzzled to know where he found all this history of the Old Gentleman. Not a word of it in the
Bible
itself, I am quite sure. But to be serious. De Foe did not reflect that all these difficulties are attached to a mere fiction, or, at the best, an allegory, supported by a few popular phrases and figures of speech used incidentally or dramatically by the Evangelists, and that the existence of a personal, intelligent, evil being, the counterpart and antagonist of God, is in direct contradiction to the most express declarations of Holy Writ.
"Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?"
Amos, iii. 6.
"I make peace and create evil."
Isa. xlv. 7. This is the deep mystery of the abyss of God.
(Vol. ii. p. 3.)
I have often heard persons of good judgment say, ... that there is no such thing as a spirit appearing, a ghost walking, and the like, &c.
I cannot conceive a better definition of Body than "spirit appearing," or of a flesh-and-blood man than a rational spirit apparent. But a spirit