exorcifts, both before and after the time of Chrift, and the general prevalence of magic arts" amongst this people, as well as amongst the Gentiles, are a full proof that a belief of frequent poffeffions was com αν Saul, (Antiq.lib. vi. cap. 8. §2.) he says, demons came apon him, περιήρχετο πάθη τινὰ καὶ δαιμόνια, and that when the demons came upon him, and disturbed Bim, (ὁπότ' ἂν αὐτῶ προσίοι, τα δαιμόνια καὶ ταράττοι,) -David was his only phyfician against the disturbance be fuffered from them, and brought him to his right mind again, πρὸς τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν δαιμόνων ταραχήν,μόνος ἰατρὸς ἦν καὶ ποιῶν ἑαυτῶ γίνεσθαι τὸν Σαύλον. In cap. 11. § 2, he makes Jonathan say to his father, that when an evil spirit and demons feized him, David caft them out, (¿¿ébaλev.) In his Jewish War, lib. vii. cap. 6. § 3. he fays, the plant baaras drives away (Eλaú(ἐξελαύ e) demons, Elfewhere (Ant. lib. viii. cap. 2. §5.) he fpeaks of a demon's going out () of the poffeffed perfon, and being adjured to return no more. This phraseology is very conformable to that of the Gospel. Mat. xii. 27. Acts xix. 13. Jofeph. Antiq. lib. viii. cap. 2. § 5. Juftin Mart. Dial, cum Tryph. p. 314. Iren. lib. ii. cap. 6. § 2. Qrigen, cont. Celf. lib. i. p. 17. lib. iv. p. 183, 184. m "See Lightfoot, vol. ii. p. 175. Beza, Whitby, Grotius on Acts xix. 13, 19, and Bifcoe's Hiftory of the Acts, P. 290. ~ mon mon to both. The fame conclufion may be drawn from the manner in which such of them as were ftrangers to the doctrines of Christianity, addreffed our Saviour: Have mercy on me, faid the woman of Canaan, my daughter is grievously vexed with a demon. In the fame ftyle, a Jew implores his compaffion on behalf of his fon: Look on my fon; he hath a spirit, and is fore vexed". It was not thofe who received, but those who rejected the doctrines of Chrift, that reproached him and his forerunner with having a demon*. So that the Scripture itfelf furnishes abundant evidence, that the doctrine of poffeffions was prior to the Chriftian æra. Hence it comes to pass, that poffeffions are never mentioned in the Gospel history with any degree of furprize, as a thing new or ex о Matt. xv. 21, 22. Mark vii. 24. See alfo Acts xvi, 16, 18. xix. 13. P Matt. xvii. 15. Mark ix. 17. Luke ix. 39. traar traordinary, but altogether as a matter to which they had been accustomed. Nor did the enemies of Chrift ever reproach him with introducing demons into Judea, merely for the fake of difplaying his power over them; nor on this account accufe him of acting in concert with them, which, nevertheless, it would have been natural for them to do, had poffeffions never been heard of till the time of Chrift, and then only in Judea. That the fame notions concerning them, which prevailed in Judea, in the age of the Gofpel, were current in the fucceeding as well as in the preceding ages, and in other countries, is evident, not only from the authorities already cited, but alfo from the writings of the Christian fathers, (to say nothing of those of the latter Platonifts). It would be endless to produce all the paffages from the fathers, in which poffeffions are either afferted or referred to. There is no fub ject ject fo familiar to them as this; there is nothing they boaft of fo much as the power of the meanest Chriftian to eject demons from the bodies of men. In the history of the church, there is more frequent mention made of poffeffions, than in any other annals'. So little truth is there in the affertion, that we never hear of them but in the time of Christ. per Surely, no men forget themselves more than those do, who fometimes would fuade us, that the devil's tyranny expired (as well as revived) at the coming of Chrift; and, at other times, maintain the credit of thofe writers, who, in every fucceeding age, reprefent the devil as 1 See Whitby's General Preface, p. 26—32. and Stillingfleet's Orig. Sacr. p. 166. Ode de Angelis, p. 649-656, and p. 867, 868. r * Mcde, p. 30, obferves, that the energumeni are often mentioned in the church liturgies, in the ancient canons, and in other ecclefiaftical writings, many ages after our Saviour's being on earth; and that not as any rare and unaccustomed thing, but as ordinary and usual. This is a fact so well known, that none, I prefume, will controvert it. being every day difpoffeffed by Chrif tians. SECT. VIII. PROP. VIII. The demoniacs of the New Teftament are not different from those mentioned in other ancient authors; and a like judgment is to be formed of both. THAT the demoniacs of the Gospel are the fame fort of perfons with those mentioned by other ancient writers, appears from the symptoms of their diforders, which are in both the fame'. Some of the New Teftament demoniacs are melancholy, and frequent folitary places; others are outrageous, and not to be kept within bounds. Their underftandings are difturbed, and yet, in fome The circumftances ufually alledged to prove, that there was fomething preternatural in the cafe of the New Teftament demoniacs, will be explained in the fecond chapter. cafes, |