Nor can I see any room to dispute the teftimony of the evangelists in this matter. For, whatever their opinion was with refpect to the cause of these men's disorder, which was fecret and invifible; all must allow, that they were capable judges of the diforder itself, of its outward symptoms and effects, which fell under the notice of their fenfes. They, and all who were prefent, though they could not fee the demons paffing from the men into the swine, yet could not but fee whether the men were cured of their madness, and the fwine infected with the fame disorder they could not but fee at what time thefe different events happened; whether the madmen, while they were ftill under the power of their diforder in the highest degree, fell upon the swine with great violence, and so caused them to precipitate themselves into the fea; or whether, after their cure, (evinced by the composure of their behaviour) and while they were at some distance from the herd, the swine grew other reafon grew mad, and, without any for it, rushed with fury into the water. And therefore, if we believe them to be faithful historians, we must give them credit when they declare the following obvious and fenfible fact, that just after the men became compofed, (or, in their own language, juft after the demons left them) the swine became outrageous, (or the demons entered them), and, to the aftonishment of the fpe&tators, rushed upon their own deftruction. Behold! the whole herd of fwine, confifting of two thousand, ran violently down a steep place into the fea. The fwineherds were of the fame opinion with the evangelifts, with regard to the fact in queftion; for the abfent Gadarenes, who received their information from the fwineherds, had no apprehenfion that the madmen were the cause of the destruction of the fwine, but confidered it as a divine judgment: for they were feized with great fear, and prayed Jefus to depart out of their coafts; U coafts; dreading, without doubt, fome new calamity from the exertion of Chrift's power. Nor did our Saviour contradict this opinion; though he might, without oppofing their prejudices concerning de * Mark v. 16, 17. Extraordinary manifeftations of the divine power and presence being awful and affecting, (Exod. xx. 19. xxxiii. 20. xxxiv. 30. Judg. vi. 22. ch. xiii, 22. Luke ii.8—15. v.8—10. Mark iv. 41. Luke viii. 25. Mat. xvii. 6, 7.) Dr. Lardner afcribes the fear of the Gadarenes to the cure of the demoniacs, as the effects of a divine power but he is forced to allow, that they were apprehenfive of Juffering in their worldly interefts, which the miraculous lofs of the fwine alone could occafion. See his Remarks on Ward, p. 19-22. Befides, a miracle, whatever awe and dread it may imprefs upon the perfons prefent, is never faid to produce this effect upon the absent to whom it is related, unless when it was punitive and alarming in its very nature. The dread felt upon the fight of a beneficent miracle, arifes from its being a fenfible token of a peculiar exertion of the power of God at the inftant of its performance; and therefore the great fear with which the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about were feized, cannot be accounted for by a bare relation of the cure of the demoniac. mons, mons, have plainly told them, had that been the real truth, that the fwine were frighted into the fea by the demoniacs, and thereby have removed their prejudices against himself. For thefe reafons, I cannot accede to the opinion of thofe learned writers, who afcribe the deftruction of the fwine to the madmen. Neither can I fee any juft ground for afcribing it to the agency of demons. We have before fhewn how groundless, and how abfurd it is, to attribute to human fpirits, fuch a power as poffeffions imply. The arguments urged above against the fuppofition of their entering the bodies of men, and ftimulating them to madness, conclude with equal (or nearly equal) force against their having the like power over the brute creation. Reason and experience, our only guides in the ftudy of nature, loudly reclaim against this doctrine. If we suppose, (and we shall, in the next section, endeavour to prove that it is not a groundless fuppofition) that the evangelifts, in recitU 2 ing ing the cafe of the demoniacs, have only borrowed an accustomed mode of speech, without defigning to give a fanction to the opinion on which it was at first founded; all that can be inferred from their faying, that the demons came out of the men, and entered the herd of fwine, is, that the madness of the former was transferred to the latter, in the fame fenfe as the leprofy of Naaman was to cleave to Gehazi,and to his feed for ever'. We allow what a learned writer * How little ftrefs fhould be laid upon its being faid, the demons came out of the man, may appear from hence, that the leprofy is faid to depart, or te go from the leper, (άπñàlev aπ' άur) when he was cured, Mark i. 42. Luke v. 13. 1 2 Kings v. 27. i Compare Numb. xi, 16, 17. I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them. Dr. Lardner (Cafe of Demoniacs, P. 17.) will not allow that the lunacy was transferred from the men to the fwine, because this implies, that the deftruction of the latter was owing to the interpofition of Chrift, whofe miracles, the doctor apprehends, were all benevolent, except the withering a useless fig-tree. But was not his driving the profane traders out of the court of the Gen con |