SECT. VII.

PROP. VII. Demoniacal poffeffions, (whether they are fuppofed to be real or imaginary), and the disorders imputed to them, were not peculiar to the country of Judea, and the time of Chrift; nor doth it appear, that they abounded more in that country, or at that time, than any other.

IT hath been confidently afferted, that

there were no demoniacs, or not fo many, amongst any other people as the Jews; nor amongst them but about our Saviour's time. Hence unbelievers (unhappily prejudiced against the Gospel by fuch mifrepresentations of it) have asked, "How came it to pafs, that the devil had "more power over the worshippers of the "true God, than over those who had re"nounced their allegiance to him? And "how came the devil to exert his power "at the appearance of his judge and

“ avenger,

avenger, rather than at any other time, "when he might do it with more hopes

of impunity? Or, can we regard Chrift the Saviour of mankind, if he gave "the devil new powers to deftroy them?"

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In answering thefe objections, Chriftian writers, instead of inquiring into the truth of the fact, have chofen rather to take it for granted, and fet themselves to account for it.

"There might be poffeffions in former times, fay they, though there are none now. A greater liberty and power might be allowed the evil fpirit in the age of Chrift, than in any other, on account of the intimate relation that demoniacal poffef fions have to the doctrine of redemption”, and for other weighty reasons, such as the glory that accrued to God, and the testimony that was borne to Jefus ", when

"Bishop Warburton's Serm. vol. iii. p. 229..

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" Id. p. 217. Dr. Macknight's Truth of the Gospel Hiftory, p 169. Stillingflect, Orig. Sacr. p. 166. This laft very learned writer is at a lofs Satan

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Satan was caft out by a divine power."

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On this laft account, one learned writer affirms, that "in the poffeffion of the bodies of men, he feems to have been, in part, FORCED upon the employment." Nevertheless, according to the fame writer, there could have been no great backwardness on the part of the devil to torment mankind; for he fays, "It would be ftrange, could we find no marks of the rage of his expiring tyranny"."

to determine whether frequent poffeffions, at and after the time of Chrift, were owing to the malice of the devil, in order to disparage the miracles of our Saviour, or to the providence of God, in order to augment his glory.

Warburton, p. 220, 221.

P. 217. Dr. Jortin thought, (as Jenkins also did) that Providence suffered evil fpirits to exert their malignant powers fo much at that time, to give a check to Sadduceism amongst the Jews, and to Epicurean atheism amongst the Gentiles. Remarks on Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, vol. i. p. 14. In the 2d volume, p. 17, 18, he fays, that Christ cured poffeffed perfons, to fhew that he came to deftroy the empire of Satan, and to remove all fufpicion of a confederacy with evil fpirits.

Semlerus like.

This reafoning fuppofes, that evil spirits have the natural power of feizing and tormenting the bodies of mankind, (a point more easily affumed than proved), but that (malevolent as they are) they never or very feldom exerted it, before the coming of Chrift; either because they were immediately restrained by

wife, (p. 2, note 1) admits that the devil might then be allowed fome unusual power: Minime tam multos homines fingulari quadam diaboli ipfius operatione male habitos fuiffe.-Paucos autemforte novo atque antea inaudito mali vehementis genere a diabolo vexatos fuiffe; ut appareret, adverfus Sadducæorum errorem, &c. See alfo p. 48, 49. The Scripture hath given no intim ationo f the devil's being allowed any unusual power in the age of the Gospel. As to poffeffions, to which our present inquiry relates, they are always referred to demons in the facred writings. And it would be in vain to attempt merely to reduce the number of demoniacs; for if you can prove the reality of poffeffion in one instance from the language of Scripture, you may prove it in all. And if you can account for the Scripture-language concerning poffeffions in any inftance, without allowing their reality, you may account for them in every instance.

God, or wanted inclination to do mifchief to mankind. In the time of Chrift, however, these wicked fpirits, it seems, forefaw, that they were going to be deprived of a power they had fcarce ever ufed; and being fired with rage and refentment against their conqueror, they began to exert thofe latent faculties they had hitherto ineffectually poffeffed. They had, indeed, very little reafon to complain of their conqueror, because it was upon his account that they enjoyed a favour that had hitherto been denied them, viz. the temporary liberty of ufing their native powers; and because that state of inaction to which they were afterwards to be condemned, was no new punishment. The devil, however, according to this account, was reduced to great difficulties. If, on the one hand, he did not ufe the liberty he now enjoyed of doing mischief to mankind, how could he affwage his malice? If, on the other hand, he affuaged