60S 



DEMON. 



Demon, unacquainted with the Greek language, might have pro- 

 posed their solutions ; but the common reader must 

 nave remained for ever at a loss to conceive, how Jesus 

 and the resurrection, allowing that the Athenians re- 

 garded the one of these as a male divinity hitherto un- 

 known to them, and the other as a female, could, with 

 any measure of propriety or of decency, be called 

 strange devils. Our translators, therefore, have done 

 wisely in rendering %vm Sxtpoviav, by " strange gods." 

 Nor are there wanting other examples in the books of 

 the New Testament, where the Pagan divinities are 

 mentioned under the name of demons. (See 1 Cor. x. 

 20. and Rev. ix. 20.) In general, however, the demons 

 of holy writ are malignant spirits. We are not inform- 

 ed very particularly about their origin or destiny, but 

 we find them represented as miZfieRa. uKeiiet^rec, and itnv- 

 y.xlx ntrMx., unclean and evil spirits, and according to 

 the received opinion, we must consider them as in 

 league with the devil, ('O SictSoAo?, '« 2«]c«y«;, 'o Ag*x0y 

 '« fiiyeti, &c.) as the subjects of his dominion, and the 

 instruments of his will. They were the immediate 

 ;< gents in all possessions, and to expel or restrain them, 

 or to cure the diseases which they were supposed to oc- 

 casion, was one of the miraculous gifts of the early 

 times. 



The reader who is acquainted with the subject, will 

 perceive that we are now on the borders of the contro- 

 versy which was agitated about the middle, and towards 

 the end of the last century, by Dr Farmer and his op- 

 ponents. In the controversy alluded to, of which we 

 shall attempt to give a short account, it was contended, 

 on the one hand, that the demoniacal cases recorded in 

 the books of the New Testament, were instances of real 

 possession; and on the other, that they were merely 

 diseases, set forth under the notion of possessions, in 

 conformity with the belief which was prevalent at the 

 time. By the one party, the language of holy writ was 

 interpreted literally ; and by the other it was consider- 

 ed as figurative, and used in the way of accommodation 

 to the existing opinions. We shall not pretend to de- 

 cide this controversy, but shall rather endeavour, as 

 candidly and impartially as possible, to furnish our 

 readers with the means of deciding it for themselves. 



The leading asseveration of Dr Farmer upon the ge- 

 neral question, is, that miracles, or works surpassing 

 the power of man, are never performed without a di- 

 vine interposition ; and by a divine interposition he 

 means, either the immediate agency of the Deity him- 

 self, or of beings empowered and commissioned by him. 

 And the proof of this asseveration, he tells us, may very 

 easily be found, if we consider, that on any other sup- 

 position, it is impossible to shew that a religion support- 

 ed by miracles is really from God. For the miracles in 

 question, or works surpassing the power of human be- 

 ings, may have been performed by evil spirits, acting 

 independently of the Divinity, thwarting his purposes, 

 and marring the operation of his goodness. Should it 

 be said, that, from the tendency of the miracle itself, 

 and a fortiori, from the tendency of the miracle and re- 

 ligion when taken together, we may easily infer the 

 character of the being from whom the whole scheme 

 proceeds, — to this also Dr Farmer is ready with his 

 answer. " With regard to doctrines," says he, " of a 

 moral or useful tendency, it is not, in all cases, easy for 

 the bulk of mankind, or even for the wise and learned, 

 to form a certain judgment concerning them. What to 

 men appeared to have a tendency to promote virtue and 

 happiness, superior beings, who discerned its remotest 

 effects, might know to be a curse rather than a bless- 



ing, and give it countenance from a motive of malevo- Demon, 

 lence. On the other hand, a doctrine really subservi- 

 ent to the cause of piety and virtue, men might judge 

 to be prejudicial to it. And were the sanctity of the 

 doctrine ever so evident, it would not (on the principles 

 of those with whom we are here arguing) certainly fol- 

 low from hence, that the miracles recommending it 

 were wrought bv God ; inasmuch as other beings, from 

 motives unknown to us, might interest themselves in 

 favour of such a doctrine." Essay on Miracles, p. 87. 

 In one word, according to this author, we do not know 

 whether the tendency of the miracle or of the religion 

 be good or not, and therefore we can form no accurate 

 idea of the character really belonging to the being from 

 whom the revelation proceeds. To our eyes, the system 

 may appear well calculated to promote our happiness, 

 but it may have been the contrivance of wicked spirits. 

 According to the sense and discernment of men, the 

 miracle is useful in itself, but we cannot be sure whe- 

 ther it may not have been performed by one of the re- 

 bellious angels " who kept not their first estate." In 

 conformity with these opinions, Dr Farmer maintains, 

 that there is not an instance recorded in sacred scrip- 

 ture, where a miracle has been wrought, and where 

 there is not sufficient reason to believe, that the effect 

 was produced, either by the Deity himself, or by agents 

 commissioned and impowered to act in his name. Hence 

 he considers the Egyptian magicians as jugglers ; the 

 witch of Endor as a ventriloquist ; and completing the 

 system, he has written an elaborate dissertation to prove, 

 that when Christ was " tempted of the devil," as the 

 Evangelist Matthew expresses it, that apostate angel 

 was not really present, and that the whole transaction 

 took place in a vision or a dream. 



With regard to the demoniacs of the New Testament, 

 Dr Farmer observes, that among the Jews, certain dis- 

 eases, such as madness and epilepsy, were usually ascri- 

 bed to the agency of evil spirits. This veas the current 

 notion and belief of the country. Upon this notion the 

 ordinary phraseology was built. Our Lord and his 

 apostles adapted then- instructions to this prevailing no- 

 tion, and used the language which had been formed up- 

 on it, just as Moses, in his account of the creation, 

 adapts himself to the popular astronomy of his time, in- 

 stead of laying before us the true system of the heaven- 

 ly bodies. He speaks, not in relation to what is physi- 

 cally correct, but in relation to what was believed. He 

 founds his instructions upon the ideas already enter- 

 tained by the people to whom the revelation was first 

 communicated: And Christ and his apostles (as Dr 

 Farmer will have it,) do the very same thing. They 

 speak of the demoniacs, not according to the real state of 

 the case, but according to the notions which the Jews 

 entertained of it. Not a few of those demoniacs appear 

 to have been persons of a disordered understanding, 

 subject to attacks of mania ; some of them were afflicted 

 with the epilepsy, or falling sickness, some were deaf, 

 and others were dumb. When a demon is said to enter 

 into a man, the meaning is, that his madness is about to 

 show itself in a violent paroxysm ; when a demon is 

 said to speak, it is only the unhappy victim of the ;dis- 

 ease himself that speaks ; and when a demon or devil is 

 expelled, the exact truth of the case, as well as the whole 

 amount of the miracle, is nothing more, than that the 

 disease is cured. Occasionally, too, say those who con- 

 tend against the reality of demoniacal possessions, the 

 language of the sacred books confirms the explanation 

 which has just been given. Thus in the 10th chapter 

 of St John's gospel, we find the Jews saying of Christ, 



