tual no other lymp

an these are mentioned concernGofpel demoniacs. In the cafeof eptic youth, (for example) though defcribed, what one symptom is at doth not agree with the falling? With regard to the testimony Gospel, it is a point that will be d hereafter.

he feveral diforders imputed to n, proceed from natural caufes, ner diforders allowed not to be tural; fo, like thefe, they yield

Egineta, iii. 13. de Morbo comitiali: comitialis convulfio eft totius corporis, cipalium actionum læfione. Fit hæc af xime pueris poftea vero etiam adolefz in vigore confiftentibus, minime autem fenibus.Inftante vero jam fymptomate, fis derepente contingit, & convulfio, & nihil fignificans exclamatio. Præcipuum um fignum eft oris fpuma, quum reliqua morbis quodammodo fint communia. on Mark ix. 18. See the fame learned

cients", in their treatment of perfons

With regard to the epilepfy, fee Hippocrates, p. 310.

u

" Ariftotle de Mirabil. Συντελεῖ δὲ καὶ τοῖς δαίμο νί τινι γενομένοις κατόχους, ἅμα γὰρ τῶ προσθῆναι ταῖς ῥισὶν, ἀπέρχεται τὸ δαιμόνιον. Ariftotle, or whoever was the author of this book, is speaking of a stone which grows in the river Nile, concerning which Plutarch fays (De Fluviis, p. 1159, D.) worεł de wpo's ras δαιμονιζομένας, ἅμα γὰρ προςεθῆναι ταῖς ῥισὶν, απέρα XETAL TO dasμóviov. See Jofeph. Antiq. lib. viii. cap. 2. § 5. & de Bel. Jud. lib. vii. cap. 6. § 3: Tobit, chap. vi. and viii. Plaut. Menæch. Act ii. fc. 2, 4, 5. Act v. fc. 4. Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. xxv. cap. 24. lib. xxvii. cap. 83. lib. xxviii, cap. 16. lib. xxix. cap. 4. lib. xxx. cap. 10. lib. xxxvii, cap. 3, 4. Plotinus, Ennead. ii. 9, 14.-Apuleius, de Virtut. Herbar, 10. de Artemifia, fays, fugat & dæmonia. And in xix. 6. Si infans contriftatus fuerit, herba Ariftolochia fuffumigabis infantem, hilarem facit & convalefcit infans, fugato dæmonio.

The ancients thought that poffeffions might be procured as well as removed by natural means : Ibi in potando neceffarius modus, ne lymphatos agat, Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. xxxi. cap. 5. Thalaffeglen circa Indum amnem inveniri

hac pota

fup

W

d to be poffeffed, applied a great of medicines, according to the fymptoms of the patient. And dern phyficians, befides mediecommend bleeding, bliftering, fhaving. But what effect can es and evacuations have upon the who is conceived to be spiritual orporeal ? Why should it be

that the fame evil fpirit is exFrom the body of one person, by es that would not affect him in y of another? or that he is someriven away by hellebore, at other rawn off by a blifter? If phyfi e able, by fuch varions means, to

nomines, obfervantibus miraculis. The n Libano Syriæ,qua pota magi divilib. xxiv. cap. 102. p. 352. ed. Harduin, = not more likely, that certain waters and ld diforder the animal fyftem, than that d controul the devil?

's Practice of Phyfic, vol. i. p. 26. edica Sacra, cap. ix.

vil is fubject to man, not man to the devil. What abfurdities will not fome perfons run into, rather than allow, what feems felf-evident, that diforders which both proceed from natural causes, and are cured or relieved by natural remedies, are no other than natural diforders?

All the arguments from reafon, elfewhere urged against any fuperior created fpirits poffeffing the power of working miracles, or producing any effect in our fyftem, contrary to the general rules by which it is governed, conclude here. But I fhall only obferve, that in every part of the world that falls under our obfervation, we fee a fixed order of caufes and effects, fuch as is not diflurbed by any invifible beings; and the prefervation of this order feems effential to the happiness of the creation. May we not from hence conclude, that the human fyftem in partiDiffert, on Mir, paffim.

cular

is governed in the fame manner, ubject to invariable laws, fuch as but God can controul*?

e we to take it for granted, that God fuffer thefe laws to be controuled, y for the fake of fubjecting the s, the understandings, and the lives nkind, even thofe of the tenderest and of eminent piety', to the caprice malice of evil fpirits? This is a not to be admitted without the geft evidence; fo repugnant doth pear to all our ideas of the equity, efs, and mercy of the gracious Paof mankind. Now, if reafon fhews

it did not follow from hence, that there nee any real demoniacs in the world, yet it Follow, that they are as common now as they re, which few, if any, will affert.

ark ix. 21.

uke xiii. 16.

has been faid, that the difeafes afcribed to ns are the very fame, whether they proceed tural causes or the agency of demons. But ious demons had the power of poffeffing M 4 us,