use of miracles, and thereby fubvert the foundation on which Chriftianity is built. 8. On the other hand, the true explication of the Gospel demoniacs establishes the certainty, and difplays the full glory, of the miracles performed upon them. These miracles are always spoken of, in the New Teftament, with fingular emphafis and diftinction. Scarce are any other miracles more frequently and circumftantially described. It required an extraordinary degree of faith to undertake them, especially when the diftemper was violent and inveterate: for in refe • Witness the following cafes: 1. The demoniac in the fynagogue of Capernaum, Mark i. 23. Luke iv. 33. 2. The Gadarene demoniac, or demoniacs, Mat. viii. 28. Mark v. 1. Luke viii. 26. 3. The dumb demoniac, Mat. ix. 32. Luke xi, 14. 4. A demoniac blind and dumb, Mat, xii. 22. 5. The Canaanite's daughter, Mat. xv. 21. 6. The demoniac who was lunatic, dumb, and deaf, Mat. xvii. 14. Mark ix. 17. Luke ix. 38.-Out of Mary Magdalene Chrift ejected seven demons, Luke viii. 2. But of this, and many other cafes, we have only a general account. rence rence to a cafe of this nature, in which the faith of the apostles had failed them, our Saviour fays, This kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fafting": "Such difficult miracles are not effected, without fuch a full dependence upon the divine power, as is not to be acquired but by continued devotion, such as is usually accompanied with abftinence." The Seventy were filled with exultation and triumph, when they found themselves enabled to cure demoniacs; Lord, even the demons (the diforders afcribed to the poffeffion of demons) are fubject to us through thy name. Whenever Chrift performed thefe miracles, the fpectators were filled with religious aftonishment and awe: They were amazed, infomuch that they queftioned amongst themselves, faying, What P Mat, xvii. 21. Mark ix. 29. Compare Luke ii. 37. Acts x. 32, where prayer and fafting are joined together. See Dr. Lardner's Cafe, p, 144. Dr Sykes's explication of this paffage is well refuted in the excellent Dr. Doddridge's Expof. vol. ii. p. 13. 2d. edit. 4 Luke x. 17. thing is this? What NEW doctrine is this? with authority commandeth he the unclean Spirits, and they obey him. In order to understand this language, we must recollect, that in our Saviour's time there were, amongst the Jews as well as amongst the Pagans, many impoftors who pretended to the power of expelling demons. Some undertook to draw evil fpirits out at the noftrils'; others en-t gaged only in general to drive them away from the perfons whom they poffeffed. To effect their expulfion, they not only made use of adjuration and charms", but also of ftrong fiells ", and other natural Mark i. 27. See alfo ch, v. 20. Luke iv. 36. ch. xi. 14. Compare Mark iv. 41, Luke viii. 25.9) • Mat. xii. 27. Differt. on Mır. p. 393. Jofeph. Antiq. lib. viii. cap. 2. § 5. See Whitby and Grotius on Mat, xii. 27. Their adjurations in the name of the God of Abraham were used as a charm, Origen, contr. Celf. lib. i. p. 17. and lib. iv. p. 184. Jofeph. Antiq. lib. viii. c. 2. §. 5. and Middleton's Free Inquiry, p. 84. w Hence it hath been faid, that demons were rather fuffocated or flunk out, than cast out of the bodies of reme remedies. This was a branch of the magic art (which was founded upon the idolatry and superstition of the Heathens); and what credit it had was fupported in part by the efficacy of drugs administered to the patient, but principally by fraud. The proof of the expulfion of demons was, not the perfect and fupernatural cure of the demoniac', but the compelling the men See Wefton's Rejection of Chriftian Miracles, p. 231. * See what occurs in Jofephus (Antiq. lib. viii. cap. 2, 5.) concerning the antidemoniac art, taught by Solomon, and the application of a ring with a root in it to the noftrils of the patient; and also what the fame author fays concerning the plant Baaras, and its virtue in driving away demons, Bell. Jud. lib. vii. cap. 6. § 3. Compare Tobit, cap. vi. Juftin obferves, (cont. Trypho, p. 311.) d μέν τοι οἱ ἐξ ὑμῶν ἐξωρκίςαι, τὴ τεχνὴ, ὥσπερ καὶ τὰ ἔθνη, χρώμενοι ἐξορκίζεσι, καὶ θυμιάμασι καὶ καταδέσμοις Xpúvra. Concerning the effects of music in driving away demons, fee Jofeph. Antiq. lib. vi. cap. 8. § 2. cap. 11. § 2. In the cases referred to by Jofephus, (Antiq.lib. viii. cap. 2. § 5.) which (according to Dr. Sykes, in his Inquiry, p. 33.) were the fame with the Cerritus of Cerenus Samonicus, the demoniac might be relieved by strong smells, or other natural remedies. demon, demon, as he went out, to overturn a ftatue or veffel of water at fome distance. Now, though Chrift took no pains to establish the reality of thofe miracles which he performed upon demoniacs, yet the people, at the fight of them, (deluded as they had hitherto been by the artifices of their countrymen) are filled with the greatest astonishment, and freely ac " But it is a thing utterly incredible in itself, as well as deftitute of all manner of proof, that the power of superior spirits fhould give way to that of men; or that God fhould fucceed the attempts of fuperftition and impofture. A remarkable inftance of the failure of fuch attempts, is related Acts xix. 19. See fome other proofs of the inefficacy of the Jewish exorcifms, Differt. on Mir. p. 394. note '. Nor is this inconfiftent with Mat. xii. 26, 27, as is fhewn p. 388, &c. The Chriftian exorcifts alfo, who fwarmed in the primitive church, and were too much countenanced by the Fathers of it, had as little fuccefs as their predeceffors amongst the Jews and Pagans. The cure of the demoniac, if it ever took place, was a work of time. See Middleton's Free Inquiry, p. 92. Dr. Jortin's conceffions, in his Remarks on Ecclefiaftical Hift. vol. I. p. 242. and Mr. Jof. Mede, p. 30. * See above, p. 391. What |