fubject) did not think it liable to any other, we may prefume no other can be raifed against it. I fhall close this fection with abferving, 1. That what hath been here offered, confirms what was before advanced to prove, that demoniacs laboured under real and violent diforders. Such, it will be allowed, epilepfies and madness are. 2. From the foregoing account of the Gofpel demoniacs, it alfo appears, upon what grounds poffeffions might be distinguished from difeafes in general, and from lunacies in particular. It hath been fhewn, that, on feveral occafions, the New Teftament includes poffeffions under the general terms, fickneffes and difeafes; and confequently confiders them as one particular fpecies of them. f Sect. iv. At Lifeafes in general, in conformity popular language, which it adopted s fubject, for reasons that will be ed hereafter". Those who first ced this language confidered pofas diftinct from every kind of ; for, while the latter implied iforder in the corporeal fyftem, the in their opinion, fuppofed the eal fyftem, however found in itself, Auated and over-ruled by a fupe ent. to fome it seems strange, that pof, if they import madness, fhould nguished from lunacies. That the Teftament doth distinguish between I readily allow1; and it is not withson, that a learned writer blames below, chap. II. fect. iii. t. iv. 24. Warburton, Serm.vol. iii. p. 224, 225. Some ns of Dr. Sykes, against whom the bishop's is particularly levelled, seem to have given to the cenfure of this learned writer. doing this. In order to understand this matter, it is neceffary to examine the sentiments of antiquity concerning it; for the evangelifts have not delivered any new fyftem of phyfics, but on fuch fubjects followed the modes of fpeaking then in ufe. Now it was the general opinion of antiquity, that fome diseases are owing to the influence of the celeftial bodies; and that the paroxyfms and periods of others are regulated by the moon in particular 1. This was the cafe more especially with refpect to epileptic difeafes, the fits of which, it was affirmed, conftantly returned every new and full moon. Galen fays, the moon governs the periods of epileptic cafes and others referred the disease m ' Dr. Mead's Treatife concerning the Influence of the Sun and Moon upon human Bodies, and the Difeafes thereby produced, p. 1, 2. De Diebus criticis, 1. iii, cited by Mead, p. 38. en ely to this planet". Hence epileptics by the Greeks and Latins, called cs. The evangelift Matthew, therewithout doubt, by lunatics meaned otics. He could not be ignorant of common fignification of this term; ath himself recorded an inftance of plication to an epileptic cafe*. Hence bears, on what grounds the ancients neral, and the evangelifts in partidiftinguished between demoniacs unatics; the former of whom we maniacs, and the latter epileptics. e two diforders are attended with different fymptoms; and they formerly by fome afcribed to -etæus de diuturnis Morbis, 1. i. cap. 4. or P. 46. pileptics were, by the Greek writers, fometimes Eλnvsanol, (Alexand. Trallian. 1. i. c. 25) the hiftories of the Gospel, Genua Cóμevos, xvii. 15) and by fome of the Latins afterlunatici, (Apuleius de Virtutibus Herbar. c. .) Mead, p. 38. See also note (P) below, at. xvii, 15, the moon,) from which they borrowed their respective denominations. It is neceffary to add, that the fame person was reputed by many both a demoniac and a lunatic: a demoniac, because they referred the epilepfy to the poffeffion of demons; a lunatic, because the fits of this disorder were thought to keep lunar periods. If fome afferted the natural influence of the moon upon this diforder; others taught, that the patients were more fubject to the incurfions of demons at the changes of this planet than at any other time. This, perhaps, was thought to be the P Apud Matth. iv. 24, ubi Græcè est σexnva¿quéves, interpres Arabs (in editione Romanâ, 1619) fi Latinè exponamus, vertit, ruentes in principiis lunationum. Maximè vero plenilunio infeftantur. -Nec obfcura eft ratio; quia tum plenius cerebrum eft humoribus ; unde et tunc idonei magis, qui a dæmone vexentur. Talis epilepticus ille qui a Matthæo, xvii. 14, lunaticus dicitur: Lucæ autem cafe |