CHAPTER II.

I PROCEED to solve the several objections which have been urged against the foregoing explication of the gospel demoniacs.

That the persons spoken of in the New Testament as demoniacs were really such, many have attempted to prove, 1st, From what was said and done by the demo niacs themselves. 2dly, From the destruction of the herd of swine, which the demons are said to have entered, and stimulated to an instantaneous madness. And, 3dly, From the expressions used by our Saviour in performing, and his disciples in recording, the cure of demoniacs. Under these three heads may be comprised all the objections drawn from the New Testament, against the doctrine advanced in the preceding chapter.

SECTION I.

FROM what was said and done by the demoniacs themselves, some have concluded that they were inspired and assisted by superior agents, such as demons are commonly supposed to be.

It must, however, be allowed (what seems to furnish a presumptive argument against this opinion) that the New Testament never represents the language and be

haviour

haviour of the demoniacs as the effect and evidence of a supernatural agency. We are only therefore to examine, whether such agency can be justly and certainly inferred from the facts themselves.

1. It is pleaded, "That the demoniacs knew, and proclaimed, Jesus to be Messiah*." The man with an unclean spirit in the synagogue at Capernaum said, "What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God †." The demoniac in the country of the Gergesenes called him "the Son of God ‡." And we are told that demons§ cried out and said, "Thou art Christ, (the Messiah) the Son of God ||."

The general expectation of the coming of the Messiah at that time, the testimony borne to Jesus by his illustrious forerunner, and the numerous miracles more especially performed by Jesus himself, at the commencement of his public ministry, rendered him the object of universal attention; propagated his fame throughout all Judea, and the countries bordering upon it ¶, and created in the Jewish people a strong persuasion that he

* Some add that the demoniacs ascribed to Christ higher characters than other pe sons did But whoever compares their respective deciarations will find this to be a mistake. Compare John i. 49. iv. 42. vii. 41. xi 27. with the titles ascribed to Christ by the demoniacs. Is it not strange, that Christians should refer to devils the first discovery of the divine claims of the Son of God?

By demons we are here to understand demoniacs. See below, p. 151, &c.

Luke iv. 41.

¶ Matt. iv. 25, 24.

was

4

was the Messiah. Some of these reputed demoniacs were only subject to epileptic fits*, and consequently might enjoy the use of their understandings like other men, when those fits were not upon them. The other demoniacs were madmen, of whom the Jews give this account: "One while they are mad, another while they are well: while they are mad, they are to be esteemed as madmen in respect of all their actions; while they are well, they are to be esteemed as being their own men in all respects +."

Few are so little acquainted with persons of this sort, as not to know that very frequently their disorder is not only temporary but partial; not affecting their understandings, naturally quick, ́except perhaps on a single subject, and leaving them on all others in the full possession of themselves.

Now, might not demoniacs, long before they were seized with their disorder, learn, in common with others, the high character of the Messiah, then universally expected? And in their intervals of sanity, so very common to persons of a disordered understanding, might they not hear of the fame of Jesus as the expected Messiah, which was spread in all places before they made any acknowledgement of his character? It is indeed scarce possible that they could be ignorant of him, because in general they were under no confinement. One

This seems to have been the case with the demoniac at Capernaum, Luke iv. 33. See above, P 67.

+ Lightfoot, Hor, Heb. ad Matt. viii. 28. Compare Dr. Mead's aecount of madness, p. 67, 68.

of those, whose testimony to Christ is particularly mentioned above, was in the synagogue, a place of public worship. With respect to another, who was in the country of the Gergesenes, it cannot seem extraordinary that he should be acquainted with the character and fame of Jesus *, if we consider that Christ had heretofore preached upon the borders of his country, and been followed by crowds from it, who would not fail to publish the miraculous cures which Christ performed, either upon themselves or upon others, in their presence, among whom were many demoniacs †. We are to consider further, that, violent as this man's disorder was at certain seasons, he had intervals of sanity; as is clearly implied in its being said, the spirit had oftentimes ‡ caught him: for, if his disorder often returned, it must have often left him §.

If I might be allowed to propose a conjecture, I would observe, that perhaps the demoniacs would run into the

*It hath been suggested by an ingenious friend, that, by the Son of God, this demoniac only meant a godlike man; and that he concluded Christ to be such from the majesty of his appearance and the authority with which he spoke. (Mark v. 8.) Compare Matt. xxvii. 54. But he might have the same meaning with those demoniacs who called our Lord the Messiah, the Son of God, Luke iv. 41.

t Matt. iv. 24, 25,

* Πολλοις χρόνοις, Luke viii. 27.

§ The same thing, perhaps, is implied in his being often bound. Whenever his fits were observed to be coming on, his friends attempted to confine him. See Dr. Lardner's Remarks on Ward, and Mr. Mole, there cited, to whom the public is indebted for this and the foregoing curious and important observation with respect to this demoniac.

common

common opinion concerning Jesus as the promised Messiah, more eagerly than persons of a cooler judgement; the latter being struck with some contrary appearances in his character (such as the poverty of his condition, and the spiritual nature of his doctrine), which escaped the attention of the former, who, for this reason, with greater confidence saluted him under his high character, agreeably to the first impression which his miracles made on the minds of all men. This seems to me much more

probable, than that infernal spirits should freely and zealously assert the divine claims, and spread the glory of Jesus as the Messiah.

The foregoing observations are, in a great measure, applicable to the case of the Pythoness at Philippi, who, for several days together, followed Paul and his companions, crying out, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation*." Though she laboured under a melancholy, or some species of insanity †, she might be informed, either by attending the preaching of St. Paul, or by conversing with others, what the apostle and his companions professed themselves to be. The strong impression which this information made upon her mind, will easily account for this woman's conduct in following them from day to day in the manner here related; especially if we add that, under a melancholy, the mind is always fixed upon one object. The honourable testimony she bore to Paul

*Acts xvi. 17.

+ Dissertation on Miracles, p. 275, 276, 8vo edit., and 175, 176, 12mo; and above, p. 63.