tion was completed and accomplished, this evidence of it was fitly reserved to be bestowed on the most perfect of the followers of Christ. Yet had the Satanic part been, only a popular fancy, Jesus here, might have decried it with advantage, while he had the Father of the sufferer on his side; who considered his Son's disease as a Lunacy only. It may be said, perhaps, that the Doctrines of a future state, and that of Demoniacal possessions, which I puț upon the same footing of Credibility (because the Gospel hath so put them), differ in this, that a future state may be proved by natural reason, which Demoniacal possessions cannot.-But what doth this objection infer more than this? that a future state inakes part of NATURAL RELIGION; and Demoniacal possessions, a part of the REVEALED. 2. The ingenuous Discourser brings another objection to these possessions-Having collected together all the SYMPTOMS of this disorder, from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he concludes thus-" All these are the Symptoms * of a natural disorder. They are more surprising, indeed, than those of other disorders, yet nothing super"natural*."-His learned Fellow Collegiate, Dr. J. Freind, treating the same subject, after he hath given us, from Atius and Oribasius, a description of the madness called Lycanthropy, of which, one of the most striking SYMPTOMS was a fonduess to wander amongst the Sepulchres of the dead, adds the Demoniac in the Scriptures, who was POSSESSED WITH A LIKE SORT OF MADNESS, is represented as having his dwelling amongst the Tombs†. The opinion of these two learned Naturalists is founded, we see, in this circumstance-" that the Symptoms of a demoniacal possession are the same with those of some "natural disorders." * Insanorum sunt hæc omnia; utrum vero a Dæmoniis, an vi morbi provenerint, disceptatur neque enim alius quisquam inter omnes, qui humanum genus infestant, morbus tam naturæ vim excedere videtur. p. 66. Hist. of Physic, Part I. pp. 16-21. But www.w But now, if evil spirits were permitted to disturb the vital functions of the human frame, whether in the solids, the fluids, or in both together; can we have any conception how this could be effected without causing or occasioning, in supernatural disorders, the very same SYMPTOMS which accompany natural maladies? These Symptoms, in both cases, must arise from the disturbance of the material Frame, and can arise no otherwise; and those disturbances, whether produced by a spiritual Agent, or by material causes, must produce the same sensible effects. Madness, for instance, whether occasioned by the malignity of an intelligent Agent ab ertra, or by discordant humours ab intra, will be still madness, and accompanied with the same Symptoms. That appearance, therefore, which must accompany a Demoniacal possession, IF REAL, can never by any rules of logic be converted into a reasonable argument for the falsehood of such a possession. It is worth observation, that one of the Evangelists being a Physician, our learned Critic, by a very becoming partiality, prefers him to the rest. St. LUKE (be tells us) being superior to them for the purity and accuracy of his expression, when there is occasion to speak of distem pers, or of the cure of them; and is more particular in reciting all the miracles of our Saviour in relation to healing, than the other Evangelists are*. All this is true; and yet St. Luke speaks the very same language with the rest concerning demoniacal possessions. Now if the Gospel Demoniacs were men only labouring under natural disorders, a Physician, by his deeper insight into Nature, with the assistance of inspiration to boot, was very likely to have discovered the mistake; and for the glory of his art as likely to have recorded it: esper cially as the detection of it was the overturning a hurtful Superstition. And we know how ready these benevolent Gentlemen have ever been to detect VULGAR ERRORS. Not to insist, at present, that St. Luke was guided, in so good a work, by a stronger passion than honour for his profession, as a Physician, that is, a love for truth, as an "Evangelist, * Ib. pp. 223--225; This, as we say, must have been the case in diabolic possessions, where the Body only was thus supernaturally affected. Yet in those, where the mind alone, or equally with the body, suffered by these disorders, I confess, we might expect some extraordinary marks or symptoms of supernatural Agency, when it was for the purpose of the EVIL SPIRIT to display his Power. Here the imanaterial principle within us affords larger room, and more con veniences to be acted upon, by an exterior agent: although the irregular efforts of the mind itself are so wonderful as to be frequently mistaken for a foreign agency. Yet this notwithstanding, there are, in these mental disorders, powers exhibited, that can never be mistaken, by a careful observer, for its own. Some of which, are, in fact, recorded to have been exerted; in order, as it were, to confute these learned men, who seem to think we ought to reject all diabolic possessions but such as are ascertained by Symptoms supernatural. An instance of such we have in the Damsel possessed with the Spirit of DIVINATION, who brought her Master much gain by sOOTHSAYING. This Woman, Paul dispossessed, and so spoiled her Master's trade; who there upon raised a fierce persecution against the Apostle. The symptoms of Divination and Soothsaying, that is, telling of things absent, and foretelling things future, were certainly supernatural; and, for such, must be acknow ledged by the Objectors; who I hope will not yet forget the Personages, they have assumed, of Believers: against whom only this reasoning on the Demoniacs is directed and addressed. Having now seen what these learned Writers have to oppose to my System of the Gospel-Demoniacs: I crave leave, in the next place, to bespeak their attention to what I have to urge against theirs. Enough hath been said to shew that this is no trifling or unimportant Question. The untoward consequences being these, which unavoidably follow the Concession, that Jesus and his Dis Acts xvi. 16, & seq. ciples ciples did only accommodate themselves to the fanciful and superstitious opinions of the times, in placing natural distempers in the visionary Class of Supernatural. 1. Unbelievers may conclude (and by too many they will be supposed not to conclude amiss) that much advantage is hereby gained over the Evidences of our Faith. While it is believed, from the testimony of the Evangelists, that Jesus cast out Devils, and healed such as were possessed with them, that plausible subterfuge against his miraculous cures, which pretends that the relief afforded* * See Sermon On the Fall of Satan, (vol. x. of this Edit.) whiel completes this Note. |