The Gospel demoniacs were afflicted with madness, in all its most violent degrees, and their madness was, in some cases, attended with confirmed epilepsies. These terrible maladies (the symptoms of which are obvious to all) affect the mind as well as the body, and were thought by the antients greatly to exceed the power of natural causes. Under these disorders, some were known to have laboured for a great number of years, others from their very childhood. Some at the instant of their being cured by Christ suffered the most violent paroxysms of these disorders. To heal such maladies, and restore those afflicted with them to perfect soundness both of body and mind, in an instant, without the use of natural remedies, and with the same voice of authority as when Christ rebuked the winds and the sea, or called forth the dead, is one of the greatest of miracles, not only an outward and sensible, but a most illustrious and astonishing, display of the power and presence of God. No wonder, therefore, that when Christ healed the epileptic youth, who was lunatic, and sore vexed with a demon (that is, both an epileptic and a maniac), we are told, that the spectators were all amazed at the mighty power of God. When he restored the demoniac, who was blind and dumb, to his sight and speech, the people regarded the miracle as the very characteristic of their Messiah, crying out, Is not this the son of David+? language which implies, * Luke ix. 43. 3 Matt. xii. 23. Compare John vii. 31. that, that, to their apprehension, the Messiah himself could not perform a greater miracle. So bright an impression of the divinity did it bear upon itself, that our Saviour (in answer to his enemies, who, from mere malice, disparaged it), instead of entering upon a vindication of it, which was needless, only exposes the absurdity of their censure of it, upon their own principles. Like one who knew what conviction it was fitted to carry to the human mind, he draws the following conclusion from it, If I cast out demons by the spirit of God, then is the kingdom of God come unto yout: "If I restore demoniacs to their right mind by a divine power, the kingdom of the Messiah is certainly erecting amongst you." Christians need not be ashamed to acknowledge that they regard the ejection of demons, if truly explained, as one of those august proofs of the mission of their Redeemer, which were designed to recommend him to the reverence of mankind in all ages. It is well adapted to answer the same benevolent end with all the other miracles of the Gospel, which were both performed and recorded, that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might have life through kis name‡. Dissertation on Miracles, p.392, 8vo. p. 251, 12mo. |