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nts, and was without clothing. verfation he held with Chrift is r proof of his infanity; as there occafion to fhew in the fequel. Afure, he is described as being in his nd; which before his cure therecould not be; for this defcripnim is directly opposed to his fore as a demoniac, or as one faid poffeffed by demons". From t follows, not only that this dewas a madman; but that his bewas an idea intended to be con

15. See alfo Hieronymus Magius, Varitionum, feu Mifcellaneorum, lib. iv,

Wetftenius on Mat, viii. 28.

vla Mark v. 15. Luke viii. 35. See him that was poffeffed with a demon MEVOV) and had the legion, fitting, and id in his right mind, Mark v. 15. See viii. 35. In like manner, speaking the soberness (ow@goϜvns,) is opposed to being xxvi. 25.

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might alfo hereby farther intend, that his madness was regarded as the effect of poffeffion, or fuch as was ufually ascribed to that cause.

This man and his affociate are the only inftances of demoniacs, whofe cafe is recorded with fuch particular circumftances. But when perfons are defcribed in the fame general terms as thefe men are, as having demons, or an unclean Spirit, and in terms of the fame import; ought we not to understand this language, on these occafions, in a fenfe conformable to the use of it in a cafe, where it is impoffible to mistake its meaning? If in the hiftory of the Gadarene demoniac, the evangelists used this language to express madness; did they exclude this idea from it at other times, for the fake of contradicting themselves, as well as all the reft of the world?

Thofe

lifts, were under no difficulty to and their meaning; as appears paffage of Celfus concerning Mary lene; in which he calls her a Fed woman", referring to the acgiven of her in the gospels, that her went feven demons. Seven metimes used by the Jews as the er of perfection, and it frequently s feveral, or many. The meaning pre is, agreeably to what Celfus nt, that he was cured of the most phrenzy, such as was in that age ed by the being poffeffed by many

S.

re is another inftance of reputed on mentioned in the New Testa

• wágoisgos, us Palé, Celf. apud Origen, p. 96.

E. xvi. 19. Luke viii. 1, 2.

xii. 6. compare Grotius on Mat. xii. 45. vit. xxvi. 18, 21, 24, 28. Deut. xxviii. 7, m. ii. 5. Job v. 19.

ment,

damfel that had a Spirit of Python or Apollo. She was fuppofed to be inspired and poffeffed by the fame spirit of Apollo that delivered oracles in the Pythian temple. But no prophetess was thought to be inspired or poffeffed, but when the was mad and raving. The Pythia in particular, no fooner received the prophetic afflatus, than fhe feemed like one diftracted'. The Philippian damfel therefore, fo far as fhe was thought to be under the fame afflatus, was proportionably difordered in her understanding. Minucius Felix exprefly represents the prophets and propheteffes who ran about

See above, p. 56.

Differt. on Mir. p. 276. See also above p. 78. Plato's Phædr. p. 1220, C. D. E. Euripid. Bacch. v. 299, 664, 1091, &c. Euripid. Troad. v. 307, 341, 366, &c. Plutarch. de Orac. defect. p. 432. F. p. 438. & de Placit. Philof. lib. v. cap. I.

Potter's Gr. Antiq. p. 246.

the

eads, in the fame manner as thofe temples were used to do. The - in which the Pythonefs at Phillowed Paul for many days, conhe other evidence of her infanity. e facred hiftorian, (adopting the logy of the age and country in he lived) defigned to exprefs the of her infanity, by defcribing the as one poffeffed by the prophesynon of Apollo. We have here new proof, that those who were t to be poffeffed, were difordered minds.

regard to epileptics, it hath been above, that if their diftemper the ancients afcribed to poffeffion, because it was attended with a

unt & furentes, quos in publicum videtis vates & ipfi abfque templo, fic infanibacchantur, fic rotantur. Minucii Feliius, cap. 27.

9, 90.

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