7.

Considering the wise teachings given by the Spirits and the great number of persons who are led to God by their counsels, how is it possible to believe that it is the work of the demon?

In that case, the demon would be quite clumsy, for who better than he to seize hold of those who believe neither in God, nor in their soul, nor in the future life, and, consequently, to do against them all that he wished? Is it possible to be more outside the Church than one who believes in nothing, although baptized? The demon, then, has nothing to do to attract him, and he would be very foolish if he himself led the unbeliever to God, to prayer, and to all the beliefs that can turn him away from evil, for the mere pleasure of making him fall afterward. This doctrine gives a very sad idea of the devil, represented as a being so cunning, rendering him, in truth, very little to be feared. The man of the fable: The Fisherman and the Little Fish (YouTube), brings his spirit to mind. What would be said of someone who, having a bird in a cage, restored its freedom to it in order to recapture it afterward? This is not defensible. But there is another, more serious answer. If only the demon can manifest himself, he does so with or without the permission of God. If he does so without that permission, then he is more powerful than God; if it is with His permission, then God is not good, since He offers to the Spirit of evil, to the exclusion of all others, the power to seduce men, without permitting the good Spirits to come and combat his influence; this would be neither an act of goodness, nor of justice. And it would be worse still if, according to the opinion of these people, the lot of men were irrevocably fixed after death, for God, then, would voluntarily and with full knowledge precipitate His creatures into eternal torments, setting true snares for them. Since God cannot be conceived without the infinitude of His attributes, to restrict or diminish a single one of them would be His negation, for that would imply the possibility of the existence of a more perfect being. Thus, this doctrine refutes itself, enjoying too little credit, even among the indifferent, to merit any consideration. Soon its time will have passed, and those who advocate it will end by abandoning it, when they see that it causes them more harm than benefit.