Some of the Jews, offended with Chrift's difcourfes, faid, He hath a demom, and is mad; why hear ye him? If we understand these words in the ftricteft fenfe, the Jews intended to reproach Chrift both with poffeffion and madness. For these two, when thus joined together, are not neceffarily to be understood as fynonymous terms; poffeffion may be put. for the apprehended cause, and madness for the fuppofed effect. It was from the latter that men inferred the former; or in other words, madness was the evidence of poffeffion. On the other hand, as poffeffion fometimes denoted mere madness, from whatever caufe d • John x. 20: Δαιμόνιον ἔχει καὶ μαίνεται. In like manner Ifocrates, (Orat. Areopagit vol. i. p. 348. ed. Battie,) makes mention of xaxodasrovnávlwr καὶ μανένων ἀνθρώπων. d Thus in Philoftratus, (Vit. Apollon. Tyan. lib. iii. cap. 38. p. 128.) when the mother was afked, why the thought her fon poffeffed by a demon, the replied, the demon & Evrxwpeï àvlw xe, non fana illum mente patitur effe, : it proceeded, it is poffible they might defign to reproach him with this alone. Nevertheless, on this fuppofition their language is grounded on the connexion there was originally supposed to be between poffeffion and infanity. Thofe who thought favourably of Chrift, replied to the calumny of his enemies, Thefe are not the words of him who hath a demon; that is, "We cannot discover ་ any thing in his difcourfes, that looks "like the ravings of a demoniac, or "from whence it can be juftly inferred, that he is difordered in his under At another time, the Jews being unable to bear the fevere reproofs of this divine prophet, broke out again into rage * and revilings: Say we not well, that thou art a Samaritan, (one that beareft us the most implacable hatred,) and haft a demon', that is," art quite befide thyself?" Or they e. John x. 21. . might mean, that he was a possessed madman. Jefus replied, I have not a demon", " I speak the words of truth and fo"berness." When he added, If a man keep my fayings, he shall never fee death"; his enemies, from the bitterest malignity, wrefting his words into an abfurd sense, accuse him again, Now we know thou haft a demon, "nothing can be more evident, "than that (under the influence of an evil 'spirit,) you must have loft your senses." Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou fayeft, If a man keep my faying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead; and the prophets who are dead? whom makeft thou thyself? On an occasion still different from thefe, they repeat the fame language. He had accufed them of a defign to take away his life; which they ་་ & Ver. 49. n Ver. 51. i Ver. 52. thus " thus difclaim, Thou haft a devil (demon,) who goeth about to kill thee?" What evi"dence have you of our wanting to mur"der you? If your understanding were "not disturbed (by a demon,) you would "not have advanced fuch a groundless "charge'." * Ch. vii. 20. 1 The foregoing paffages may, perhaps, enable us to understand, Mark iii. 22. The fcribes which came down from Jerufalem, faid, He hath Beelzebub. A learned and ingenious writer conjectures, that the meaning is, He hath Beelzebub at hand, as his affociate and minifter. But to have a demon, doth on other occafions import, being possessed by him. Nor is this meaning of the phrafe, unfuitable to the occafion on which it is ufed here. Such multitudes thronged after Chrift, at this time, to be healed and inftructed, that he had no leifure to take the neceffary refreshments of nature; and it was even faid, T. Eisn, that he is fainting away; Mark iii. 20, 21. (See Gen. xlv. 26. Jofh. ii. 11. If. vii. 2. and Enthufiafm, p. 63.) friends to lay hold on him, compare Cafaubon on This occafioned his (κρατῆσαι press him to take fome refreshment; juft as it is faid in the cafe of Elifha, the woman laid hold on him, (ixgáτnoe avrov,) to eat bread, 2 Kings iv. Nor Nor was it raving madness only that the Jews afcribed to demons, but that species of madness also called melancholy. When John came neither eating nor drinking, they fay, He hath a demon ". From his fecluding himself from the chearful converfe of men in the wilderness, and practising great abftinence and mortification, they inferred, that John was under the power of melancholy, and therefore was poffeffed. From the foregoing paffages of Scripture, it appears in what n 8. (as Cafaubon obferves, p. 65.) Now fuch was the malignity of the scribes from Jerufalem against our Lord, that they took occafion from this circumftance, (viz. his fuffering his zeal to carry him fuch great lengths,) to reproach him with being poffeffed by the prince of demons, or with the highest degree of abfurdity and infanity. m Mat. xviii. 11. Luke vii. 33. In the feveral paffages cited above, I have explained the phrafe, having a demon, in fuch a manner as to include in it the idea of poffeffion as well as that of infanity; because both these were originally included in it. be obferved, that words Nevertheless, it ought to often lose a part of their H light |