Linda:<br><br>As to Cotton Mather. First, if you will read my post again you will note that I did not say he was a great theologan. He may have been, and from what I have heard, from those I do know and respect who are familiar with his writings, he was probably a very competent one and certainly a fine Christian, but I haven't read him much and so I wouldn't make the statement that he was a great theologan, though as I said, he may well have been, I just don't know. <br><br>What I said in the context of the discussion was that he wrote an insightful account of some of the satanic phenomena that were occuring at the time of the trials and since I appreciate his trained powers of observation as one who had trained as a physician before entering the ministry, as well as one who seemed willing to put his doctrinal beliefs before his political connections in a time of great controversy and pressure, which the witch trials brought about, I respected his opinion above that of others. When I made the point about others reading him, I was referring to the account that he wrote and is quoted, as I recall, in Chadwick Hansons book on the trials. <br><br>The reason I made that statement is that it seems to me that much of the professing Christian community seems to consider satan a non entity at worst and a perhaps troublesome nuisance at best. I am reminded of what Bunyan wrote in a little work called "The Intercession of Christ" (Gospel Missions title, Bunyan’s was “Christ a Complete Savior”) which is an exposition of Heb. 7:25, about what is required to awaken a person, that is thoroughly awaken a person, as he believed a person could be partially awakened. Listen to what he said:<br><br>“There are, therefore, three sorts of people that come to God by Christ. First, Men newly awakened. Second, Men turned from backsliding. Third, The sincere and upright man.<br><br>[Of the newly awakened coming to Christ.]<br><br>First, Men newly awakened. By awakened, I mean awakened thoroughly. So awakened as to be made to see themselves, what they are; the world, what it is; the law, what it is; hell, what it is; death, what it is; Christ, what he is; and God, what he is; and also what judgment is.<br><br>A man that will come to God by Christ aright must needs, precedent to his so coming, have a competent knowledge of things of this kind.”<br><br>Notice that he lists 8 things that he believes a person must be enabled to see in order to be fully awakened, and one of these is Hell. Bunyan goes on and expounds in detail what he means by each of these things in the book which is too long to include here but can be found at http://www.johnbunyan.org/ if you want to read the whole text. <br><br>My point here is to note that HELL, WHAT IT IS, is one of Bunyan's eight criteria for awakening, and that such a knowledge of Hell requires in turn, a knowledge of the reality of satan and his powers and wiles. Reading Bunyan’s auto bio gives his own account of some of his encounters with the evil one. So, I think it profitable for every one who is interested in salvation to be brought to a knowledge of the reality of satan and hell and Cotton Mather’s account of the satanic phenomena he witnessed at the time of the witch trials is one way to bring this into focus for the doubting.<br><br>As to “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices”, I have read it and I agree it is a good book on the subject and I wish more would read it, and as I said, I agree with you that most are sadly ignorant of these things. <br> <br>Though I haven’t finished it yet, as it is in two volumes and is well indexed enough to be used as a reference without reading the whole thing, which is actually how I have used it, is a book called Demonolgy, A Treatise of Satan’s Temptations, by Richard Gilpen, MD. Gilpen was a nonconformist theologian (MA university of edinberg 1646) and physician (MD University of Leyden 1676). While I don’t have a lot of background on him, from my analysis of his impeccable logic in dealing with the issues of which the book deals and the sources he cites, Calvin, Augustine, Godwin, etc., I would judge the book to be excellent, if not superb in at least some areas. <br><br>For example, have you ever wondered whether or not Satan or his demons can read your prayers or thoughts, since they can apparently place or interject thoughts or perhaps a better way of putting it is to say, suggest thoughts to the mind, which some of the best reformed theologians agree on and, of course, the scriptures clearly imply, and the testimony of some of the saints also bears out? While it seems like this is something that God wouldn’t allow, or at least we would like to believe that He wouldn’t, I prefer a more well thought out scriptural approach to an answer. Well, Gilpen has an excellent, thorough and concise discussion of this and many other issues such as what powers that satan can work and the means he uses and so on, which alone is worth the price of the book. Gospel Mission has it in reprinted form from an 1867 London edition that is quite readable.<br><br>Well, it’s getting late and I need to read some. <br><br>In Him<br><br>Gerry <br><br>
