evil spirit

• “But if therewith men become also proud, selfish, carnally wise, revengeful, furious upon earthly interests, full, impatient; doubtless God is departed, and an evil spirit from the Lord prevaileth on them.”

  The Sermons of John Owen

• “And now, by the awful omen of the birds, they declared that the Queen had conceived the evil spirit Kala Mata, and that she must be put to death, she and the fiend with her.”

  The English Governess at the Siamese Court

• “Jews, was that, apart from the innumerable hosts of demons who disported themselves unabashed throughout history and nature, every individual had beside him a good angel who watched over him, and an evil spirit who lay in wait for him (cp., e.g., the “Shepherd” of Hermas).”

  The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries

• “A few years after his appointment to Klosterle in the Diocese of Chur, Switzerland (1758), his health began to fall, so that he was scarcely able to fulfil the duties of his ministry; he consulted various physicians in vain; suddenly he conceived the idea that his infirmities might be due to the influence of the evil spirit and might be cured by spiritual means.”

  The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 6: Fathers of the Church-Gregory XI

• “He doth not come upon them with involuntary raptures, using their faculties and powers as the evil spirit wrests the bodies of them whom he possesseth.”

  Pneumatologia

• “The Baschkirs rely upon their ` ` devil-seer '' who discovers the presence of the evil spirit and drives him away if rewarded by the present of a sum of money or a fat sheep.”

  Labor Among Primitive Peoples

• “Zaar blessed the mirror, which meant that the spirit was supposed to leave, but according to Zaar that stubborn evil spirit was stuck in the mirror.”

  Simon & Schuster: uncharted terriTORI

• “He was dispossessed of the evil spirit of gambling as if by a miracle; and the billiard-table, and Mrs Luttridge, and Miss Annabella, vanished from his view.”

  Belinda

• “Having arrived at the spot, the magician first of all traces the magic circle within which, we are told, no evil spirit can enter; he then commences the magic rite, involving various prayers and conjurations, a medley of meaningless words, and, in the case of the black art, a sacrifice.”

  Bygone Beliefs

• “Mayest thou not see that it is the evil spirit that persuades thee to defer thy repentance till old age, when experience tells thee that not one of a thousand that takes thy course ever attains to it?”

  The Practice of Piety: Directing a Christian How to Walk, that He May Please God.

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