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On the Theophania

Eusebius of Caesarea, tr. Lee, 1843

And Who invisibly, and by the powerful means and force of his doctrine which was every …

And Who invisibly, and by the powerful means and force of his doctrine which was every where preached, drove out as evil beasts, from among his own human flock, that injurious and destructive family of Demons, which from ancient time had ruled the whole race of man; and, by means of the exciting power of Idols, had put forth innumerable errors among them, so that these Demons should no more give out their divinations at the springs and fountains? Nor again, should any earthly spirits, leading the world astray, implicate mankind in error? The fountain therefore, that was in Castalia became silent, as did the other which was in Colophon: other fountains of divinations also became silent; the Pythian, the Clarian, the Nemean; that in Delphos, and Miletus; that in Colophon, and in Lebadia, of which (last) so much was boasted from ancient times. To the doctrine of Christ did they all accede. Where are (now) Amphilocus and Mopsus? There is not a man in (either) place! Where are Amphiaraus and Æsculapius? Where is that (Image) of Ammon, and (which was) in the Desert of Lybia? All these Gods have crept under the earth, being alarmed at the name of our Saviour! not unlike those their Princes who could not, when He went about among men, bear the rays of his Godhead, but grievously complained, crying out, “What have we to do with thee, Jesus” (thou) “Son of God,” and saying, “Art thou come before the time to torment me? We know thee who thou art, that thou art the Holy One of God.” The Egyptian Demons therefore, when hearing that the doctrine of our Saviour was preached in the whole of their land, confessed that they themselves were nothing! They gave up accordingly the places subject to their customs to be destroyed, together with (their) Fanes and Images, and betook themselves to flight and departure; driven away as they were by the Divine power. The divinations too of every place were destroyed; and the Christ of God alone, and the one only God who was preached by him to all men, became the object of divine worship.

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