16, practised divination, which evidently could not have been done by a mad or deranged person. We must conclude, therefore, that she was under the influence of an evil spirit.

V. The demoniacs themselves say, that they are possessed with a devil. The Jews of the New Testament, who happened to be connected with or related to the person, in a case of demoniacal possession, assert the same thing. The apostles, and the evangelists also, allege, that persons possessed with demons were brought to Jesus, and that the demons departed at his command, Matt. iv. 24; vii. 22; ix. 33; xii. 28; Mark, i. 32, 39; ix. 25; Luke, iv. 41; viii. 2, 30, 38; ix. 49; xi. 14. Jesus himself asserts, that he casts out devils, Matt. xii. 27, 28; Luke, xi. 19.

VI. The sacred writers make an express distinction between demoniacs, and the sick; and likewise between the exorcism of demons, and the healing of the sick, Mark, i. 32; Luke, vi. 17, 18; vii. 21; viii. 2; xiii. 32. Demoniacs, therefore, were not persons afflicted with diseases, in the way that has been supposed. VII. Demoniacs knew, what madmen, insane persons, epileptics, and melancholy men could not of themselves know, viz. THAT JESUS WAS THE SON OF GOD, THE MESSIAH, THE SON of David, etc. Mark, i. 24; v. 7; Matt. viii. 29; Luke, iv. 34.

VIII. Jesus speaks to the demons and asks them their names: and we find, that they answer him. He also threatens them, commands them to be silent, to depart, and not to return, Mark, i. 25; v. 8; ix. 25; Luke, iv. 35; viii. 30-32.

IX. When the seventy disciples returned from their labours, one prominent cause of their joy, was, that the devils, when the name of Christ was pronounced, obeyed them. Jesus answered them, as follows, in Luke, x. 18-20; "I beheld SATAN, as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you; notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the SPIRITS are subject unto you, but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”

X. When the Saviour was accused by the Pharisees of casting out devils by the aid of Beelzebub, he replied, that the kingdom, the city, or the family, in which were dissensions and discords, would of itself perish; and that consequently, if there were such discords in the kingdom of Satan, as to induce one devil to

exert his power in the expulsion of another, it could not long exist. To these things, he immediately adds; "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, (by divine power or a miracle,) then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house." Matt. xii. 25, 28; Mark, iii. 23-25; Luke, xi. 17—19.

XI. Jesus makes the following remarks in respect to the demons or evil spirits, in Matt. xii. 43, et seq. and in Luke, xi. 24, et seq. "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest but finding none. He saith, I will return to my house, whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished; then goeth he and taketh seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first." It is very clear, that expressions of this kind cannot be used in relation to a mental or a bodily disease.

XII. The woman in Luke, xiii. 11, who was bowed together with the spirit of infirmity, is said by the Saviour, in the sixteenth verse, to have been bound by Satan. The apostle Peter, in like manner, asserts in Acts, x. 38, that all who had been oppressed with the devil, καταδυναστευομένους ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου, were healed by Jesus of Nazareth, the anointed of God.

XIII. The wonderful miracles of Jesus will appear of much less importance if it should be admitted that he did not actually cast out devils, but merely healed diseases. The Fathers of the Church, accordingly, embraced, without any dissenting voice, the opinion, that the persons of whom we have been speaking were really possessed with demons; and the Church itself, in accordance with this opinion, instituted an order of persons called exorcists.

§. 194. GENERAL VIEW OF THE OPPOSITE ARGUMENT.

Those who maintain that demoniacs were epileptic, melancholy, insane, or mad persons, commence their arguments with referring to a very early period. They endeavour to prove by induction from various instances, which they conceive to be to the point, and by a multitude of quotations from Greek, Roman,

and Jewish writers, that the demons, to whom diseases are attributed as the agents, are not the diáßhos of the New Testament, (the evil spirit in an emphatic and peculiar sense ;) but that they are the spirits of dead men, who had died by a violent death, particularly of such as were known to have sustained bad characters while living. Demoniacs, therefore, according to the hypothesis of these persons, were men who were afflicted with some disease, mental or bodily; but who were generally supposed by the people to be possessed and agitated by these spirits the same as if they had been haunted by furies; compare the large German edition of this work, Part I. vol. ii. §. 227–229. p. 411 -454. They take the ground, therefore, that Jesus, the apostles, and the writers of the New Testament, if they wished to be understood by those for whom their writings were intended, were under the necessity of attaching the same meaning to the word demons which was attached to it by their contemporaries.

Having taken this position, they endeavour to confirm their sentiments by saying further,

I. That the symptoms exhibited by demoniacs, as stated in the New Testament, are the same with those which are exhibited by men in epilepsy, hypochondria, insanity, and madness.

II. That the sacred writers give intimations in various places that they use the words demon and demons solely because they were in common circulation at that period; and are, accordingly, to be considered as merely accommodating themselves to the language in common use, and not as professedly teaching or denying the agency attributed to evil spirits.

III. That the real operation of departed spirits upon living men is inconsistent with the doctrine of Christ and his apostles; and of course they could not mean, by the phrases and passages in question, such operation.

These three points they endeavour to illustrate and confirm by various arguments, of which we shall proceed to give an enu

meration.

§. 195. SYMPTOMS IN DEMONIACS THE SAME WITH THOSE IN DISEASED PERSONS.

The opponents of the doctrine of the real agency of evil spirits in the case of demoniacs, proceed to state, in the first place, that, in the time of Christ, demoniacs in other countries were fre

quently restored by having recourse to medical prescriptions. It is not at all rational to suppose that demoniacs thus restored were actually possessed with the spirits of the dead, inasmuch as such spirits could not have been expelled by mere medical art. They were, therefore, merely diseased or sick persons, in the ordinary sense of the words. The symptoms in these men were the same with those of the persons mentioned in the New Testament, viz. the ordinary symptoms of epilepsy, insanity, and hypochondria. The demoniacs, consequently, of the New Testament, as we have the utmost ground for inferring, were no other than sick men ; since the symptoms they actually exhibited are such as they would have exhibited in case they had been afflicted with the diseases above mentioned, and nothing more. And these diseases, let it be remembered, are attributed to spirits or demons, so called merely on account of the prevailing opinions and belief of the people.

EXPLANATIONS.

I. The two Gadarenes, Matt. viii. 28, et seq. of whom only the more conspicuous and celebrated one, (viz. the one who after his recovery besought Christ" that he might be with him," i. e. might be his follower or disciple,) is mentioned in Mark, v. 2, and Luke, viii. 27, were deranged persons or madmen, who were impressed with the idea that there were within them innumerable spirits of dead men. They, accordingly, dwelt amid the sepulchres of the dead, went naked, were ungovernable, cried aloud, beat themselves, and attacked those who passed by. Such things are characteristic of madmen. The great power which one of them possessed, and which enabled him to burst asunder bonds and chains, is not unfrequently witnessed in persons who have lost their reason. Both Mark (chap. v. 15.) and Luke (chap. viii. 35.) mention that the Gadarenes found this demoniac, after he had been restored by Jesus, owppovoũvta, i. e. in his right mind; which is a clear intimation that he was previously destitute of

reason.

It is true these men address Jesus as the SON OF GOD, i. e. the Messiah, and ask him not to torment them; but this circumstance can be accounted for on the supposition that they had heard, as they undoubtedly had, in those lucid intervals which are granted to many insane persons, that Jesus, whose fame

(Matt. iv. 24.) had already extended as far as Syria, was regarded as the Messiah.

They evidently betray their insanity by saying they were devils without number, and by beseeching Jesus not to drive them into the sea, but to permit them to enter into the swine, which were feeding near. Certainly none but the professed advocates of real demoniacal possession would suppose that an actual demon or devil would select such an habitation as that. It is admitted that Jesus (Mark, v. 8.) commands the unclean spirit to depart. But does this prove any thing? The spirit was called unclean because it was supposed to be the spirit of one dead, and was unclean of course. It was commanded to depart merely that the attention of the people present might be excited; and that they might have ample opportunity of noticing the miracle wrought in favour of the unfortunate maniac. It was not the demons, but, as in Acts, xix. 16, the madmen themselves, who impetuously attacked the herd of swine, and drove them down the steep into lake Gennesareth. Mark and Luke, in conformity with the common mode of speech, represent the demons as going from madmen and entering into the swine; for it was the custom to attribute to the agency of the supposed demons whatever was done by the demoniacs themselves; comp. Matt. ix. 32; Luke, xi. 14; xiii. 11 see also the large German edition of this work, Part I. vol. ii. §. 231. p. 464. That the swine, being timid animals, and running with great speed, as they naturally would, before pursuers of such a peculiar character, should have plunged in considerable numbers into the lake, and perished, is by no means strange nor incredible. We say, in considerable numbers, because the expressions which are used leave us at liberty to suppose that some of the herd escaped. The meaning is, that the expressions are not to be too literally interpreted, (ad vivum resecandum.) Nor is it, moreover, any thing very extraordinary, that these men paid a sort of homage and reverence to the Redeemer, of whose miracles and greatness they had heard; since there are not wanting instances of madmen who fear and also exhibit a degree of respect to certain persons.

II. The dumb man mentioned in Matt. ix. 32, and in Luke, xi. 14, and the man who was both dumb and blind, in Matt. xii. 22, were likewise insane, or at least they were melancholy perIt is proper to remark here, in explanation of our thus

sons.