Oh that those who are thus blinded by Satan would consider while there is yet time; would earnestly and prayerfully meditate upon the words of the Lord Jesus, and interpret them by His most holy life! Then would they see the inconsistency of their position, and keenly feel that they have been fulfilling to the letter the prophecy of the last times, that men should have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof (2 Tim. iii. 5). For the world will allow the mere statement of any doctrine, provided no attempt be made to put it into practice. It is only when faith begins to produce works that the Christian is confronted with bitter antagonism when he feels that he must redeem the time because the days are evil; when, being conscious of a dispensation committed to him, he is impelled to preach the Word in season and out of season, to speak as a dying man to dying men; when he can no longer take part in frivolous gaieties or time-killing pleasures, knowing that such things are but as a painted curtain used by the foul fiend to hide from men the brink of death on which they are walking, until the time comes to tear it away and thrust them over the precipice. If any be thus earnestly minded, they will have no difficulty in regard to the line of separation: they will quickly find the cross they have to bear: they will feel that, like their Master, they are not of this world, and will indeed have tribulation in it. But let them be of good cheer: for He is at hand, and great will be their joy at His coming. (p. 144)
[Speaking of the training of “adepts” – or those who communicate with spirits, or as we know, demons:] And two initial rules, laid down as indispensable to the discipline, are – abstinence from flesh and alcohol, and absolute chastity. In other words, he who would be an adept must conform to the teaching of those demons, predicted leaders of the last apostasy, who forbid to marry and command to abstain from meats. [1 Tim. 4:3] (p. 155)
Let our heart but be estranged from God, and there is no sin so great, so outrageous, as to be impossible to us. The close of Saul’s history is a mournful proof of this, and shows how easy a prey man becomes to the Powers of Evil when the multitude of his provocations has at length caused the Spirit of the Most High to depart from him, and he stands alone amid the ruins of his broken purposes, while the gathering of his fears portends a pitiless storm upon his unsheltered head. (p. 166)
The influence of Isis afterwards spread to Rome, where, in the depraved times of the early emperors, the goddess became the favorite deity. But the abominable impurity which characterized her worship provoked several attempts to abolish it, and caused repeated destructions of her temples: indeed, upon one occasion, Tiberius went so far as to crucify the priests and throw the statues of the goddess into the river. All, however, was in vain: Isis retained her power in the great city until, as time went on, it was deemed advisable to change her name and worship her, with some modifications, under the title of the Virgin Mary. (p. 178)
And since Spiritualism is merely a revival of the influence which first produced Paganism, while Popery is nothing but Paganism under a changed name, and covered with a gauzy veil of Christianity, it seems likely that these two systems will presently find no serious obstacle to their amalgamation. (p. 226)
One Pilgrim's Progress 