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without defigning to give a fanction to the opinion on which it was at first founded ; all that can be inferred from their faying, that the demons came out of the men, and entered the herd of fwine, is, that the madness of the former was transferred to the latter, in the fame fenfe as the leprofy of Naaman was to cleave toGehazi,and to his feed for ever. We allow what a learned writer

* How little ftrefs fhould be laid upon its being faid, the demons came out of the man, may appear from hence, that the leprofy is faid to depart, or te go from the leper, (ἀπῆλθεν απ' αυτά) when he was cured, Mark i. 42, Luke v. 13.

12 Kings v. 27. Compare Numb. xi. 16, 17. I will take of the fpirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them. Dr. Lardner (Cafe of Demoniacs, P. 17.) will not allow that the lunacy was transferred from the men to the fwine, because this implies, that the deftruction of the latter was owing to the interpofition of Chrift, whofe miracles, the doctor apprehends, were all benevolent, except the withering a useless fig-tree. But was not his driving the profane traders out of the court of the Gen

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of imagination could have no place". ever faid, that the fwine fancied es poffeffed; their disorder, I adreal, but not therefore demoniacal. a miracle as that wrought upon an be afcribed to no other agency t of God. Accordingly, we are at it was performed at the word mand of Chrift: Forthwith Jefus

Jewish paffover, a punitive miracle? he cafe before us, the doctor allows, (p. Chrift's leave was afked, and granted; which Chrift answerable for what was done. Warburton, p. 223, 224.

doubt whether this was any miracle at all; but nfiders, that thofe who ufually came from all parts e the passover, were not fewer in number than ›ns, (Jofeph. Bell. Jud. lib. ii. cap. 14. § 3. See cap. ix. § 3.) and that, in the court of the Gen. exposed to fale, by authority of the Jewish rulers, nals that were to be offered up in facrifice, (not 56, 500, according to Jofephus, Bel. Jud. lib. vi. 3. P. 399, ed. Havercamp.) and whatever elfe of the fanctuary required; and that neither the traffickers, nor any of the multitude made any to Chrift, will perhaps be of opinion, that they nidated and overawed by a divine power, and Jerome, (in Matt. tom. ix. p, 31. ed. Bafil, 1516). the most wonderful of all the miracles of Jefus.

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Should any inquire into the reasons of this divine difpenfation, I might answer, that he who gave life to all, hath a right to resume it, and doth often resume it, both from men and beasts, and visit their bodies with diforders, for reasons unfearchable by the human understanding; but many wife and important purposes were anfwered by the miraculous destruction of the fwine.

1. It was a juft punishment of the owners. For though Jofephus calls Gadara (near which this miracle was wrought) a Greek city, and it was a part of the provine of Syria; yet, during the reign of Herod, it had belonged to Judea, on which country it bordered, and was, no doubt,

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Some think the lofs was inconfiderable to the owners of the fwine, as the Heathens would not fcruple eating the flesh of strangled animals.

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Antiq. lib. xvii. cap. 11. § 4. He elsewhere (Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 18. § 1.) speaks of it as a city of the Syrians.

che fwine; for to that people perfonal ministry was confined, heir territory he then ftood. Now, s were prohibited by the laws of as from keeping fwine, and by the Mofes from partaking of them as Their breach of the former natuto the violation of the latter. Our ough he declined acting as a magif, as a prophet, he might be comed by God, to punish them either or any other crimes. And there

Dr. Doddridge's Fam. Expof. vol. i. p. edit. Dr. Whitby and Grotius on Mat.

n this prohibition of Mofes, fome have that it is very improbable that the Jews reed up fwine. But that the Jews did fwine, is evident from the laws of Hyrainft this practice. The owners of the -e spoken of, fuppofing them to be Jews, bably bred them for sale (in part,) having tunity of difpofing of them to the Greeks ra, and other Heathens, in whofe neighthey lived.

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to the jurifdiction of the Jewish Sanhedrim, living under heathen government. The difpofition they difcovered upon this occafion, in being more impreffed with the lofs of their fubftance than with the miracle wrought for their conviction, fhews how well they deferved correction; as the miracle itself ferved to manifeft Chrift's own regard to the law of God.

2. The deftruction of the swine served to afcertain the reality, and to fpread the fame of the miracle performed upon the demoniacs. No miracle is more fufpicious than the fuppofed expulfion of demons, abstracted from the cure of bodily diforders, there being much room left for collufion between the perfon imagined to be poffeffed and the exorcift. Frauds of this kind, both amongst Jews and Gentiles, were common in that age; as they have also fince been in a very scandalous degree amongst Christians. But it is felf-evident,

that

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