The extraordinary affliction, and gracious relief of a little boy; supposed to be the effects of spiritual agency ... / Carefully examined, and faithfully narrated; with observations on demoniac possession, and animadversions on superstition.

  • Heaton, James
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The extraordinary affliction, and gracious relief of a little boy; supposed to be the effects of spiritual agency ... / Carefully examined, and faithfully narrated; with observations on demoniac possession, and animadversions on superstition. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of ardent devotion, of deep and painful feeling. T was a season of sorrow; and the fast-flowing tears of many showed how deeply their hearts were affect- ed, to see a human being possessed, afflicted, degra- ded, and deranged by an evil spirit. As it was a fact now well established by repeated experiments, that the evil spirit was affected by mental as well as by vocal adjurations^ we therefore applied to the unclean spirit this morning most gene- rally in mind only. Thus, while one was praying aloud to God, another was silently, but powerfully and effectually, rebuking the foul demon. We began our meeting about teno^clock, and con- tinued singing, praying, and adjuring, till a few mi- nuted before twelve. The boy then became quiet. His face was pale ; and there was something of a deathly hue in the upper part of it, particularly ^])out the eyes. Then he resumed a more natural colour and countenance; and, in a faint voice, he said,/«wi heifer.” As he had previously some- times lain quiet to put us off our guard, and would then take the advantage of our carelessness, I was reluctant to let him rise till I was sure he was per- fectly restored to his right mind. I therefore held him down, and said, ‘‘ We shall not let you go till we knoiv you are better.” He said again, with a little more strength, I am better.” He had not spoken a sentence, in the natural way, for about a fortnight, so that his being able to speak like a hu- man being was a proof that he was relieved. We then let him stand up on the table, that all might see his face distinctly. All that horrible wildness and demoniacal fury was gone. He was in his right mind ; and so agreeable was it to see him restored, that tears of joy, in rapid streams, succeeded those of sorrow, down the faces of many who saw and pitied his case. The divine presence was particu- larly felt in this assembly, when'the authority and