deprivation of the understanding, or lofs of fenfe, and with the figns of phrenzy. There is reafon therefore fufficient to prefume, that the epileptic youth whose cafe is fo particularly described in the New Teftament', must have been thus affected. That he really was fo, appears in the fulleft manner from the feveral particulars mentioned concerning him by the evangelifts. For they reprefent him as making grievous out-cries, foaming at the mouth, gnashing with his teeth, being convulfed, thrown violently on the ground, and often falling into the fire, and into the water. These symptoms are a full proof, that under the paroxyfms of his disorder, he had no use of his understanding, nor any command over the organs of his body. Nay, the foregoing symptoms of insanity were regarded as the proofs of his being poffeffed. This appears from the language of his Mat. xvii. 15. Mark ix. 18. Luke ix. 33. father: father: Have mercy on my fon, for he is lunatic, and fore vexed with a demon: FOR oft-times he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. In the interval of his fits, the demon was fuppofed to depart from him. These intervals were of fhort continuance, and he fcarce recovered from one fit, before he was feized with another: on which account it is faid, The Spirit hardly departed from him. The feveral circumftances concerning this youth related in the evangelic hiftory, serve to illuftrate the fentiments of the ancients concerning poffeffions. They furnish a new proof, that when the patient was seized by a demon, he was no longer master of himself, and had no use of his understanding; and that he came to himself again, when the demon departed. They likewife ferve to fhew, that demons * Mat. xvii. 15. σεληνιάζεται, καὶ κακῶς πάχει. This laft defcription of him is fully explained by the spirit's taking him, and tearing him, &c. Mark ix. 17, 18. Luke ix. 39. were were thought in fome inftances, to seize and fufpend the fenfes, as well as the understandings of the patients. For the father faid, My fon hath a dumb Spirit ; and Chrift calls the fpirit both dumb and deaf. From this language it appears, that the youth was not dumb and deaf at all times, and from a defect in the organs of speech and hearing, but only during the time of his fuppofed poffeffion, that is, under the paroxyfms of his epilepfy, which the ancients afcribed to the incurfion of demons. From the whole of what hath been hitherto offered in this fection, it is, I apprehend, evident, that the demoniacs spoken of in the New Teftament, (like those we meet with in all other writings of equal antiquity,) were fupposed to have demons (that is, the fouls of wicked men) refiding in them, and to act entirely under their malignant influence : that these demoniacs were either mad men of one kind or other, or fubject to epileptic fits, (which are ever attended with lofs of fenfe, and a fufpenfion of the regular exercife of the understanding) and that it was from the fymptoms of these disorders, that it was inferred the, patients were poffeffed by demons. When they faw a perfon acting as if he was in a deep melancholy, which the Jews thought John the Baptift was, because he denied himself the pleasures of fociety, and the usual refreshments of nature; when they obferved any speaking and behaving irrationally, and ftrangely bent upon doing mifchief to themselves and others, as madmen are apt to be; or having no command over themselves, not even over the members of their own bodies, like epileptics; it was from hence concluded, that the patient had a demon. If at the fame time, the patient loft his fight, his fpeech, or hearing, when there was no vifible defect in the organs; the patient was faid to have a demon that was blind, dumb, or deaf. Το To the account here given of the demoniacs of the New Teftament, as being either maniacs or epileptics, several objections have been raised, which it will be neceffary for us to examine. The very accurate and judicious Dr. Lardner' contends, "that all those faid "to have evil fpirits, were not difcompofed in their mind." And hem confiders the cafe of the epileptic youth, just now explained, as a proof of this affertion. But it hath been already fhewn, that the fymptoms of his diforder which are fo particularly recorded, and which are exprefly affigned as the reafon of their fuppofing him to be poffeffed, are an inconteftable demonftration, that he did. not, during the paroxyfms of his disorder, enjoy the fober use of his reason. In will be necessary to take notice of the other inftances which Dr. Lardner 1 Cafe of the Demoniacs, p. 98. Compare p. 25. P. 98, 57 hath |