DEMONIACAL 
Chrift as the ald ae mankind, if he gave the devil new 
powers to deftroy 2 In accounting for this {nppofed 
fact, they have figpelted a variety of arguments. greater 
liberty and power, fay fome of them, might be allowed the 
evil {pirits, in the age of Chrift than in any. other, on ac- 
count of * the intimate relation that demoniacal pofle 10ns 
have to the doctrine of redemption 
caft out by a divine power. The le arned, Stillingfleet, in- 
deed, is at a lofs to determine, whether freque ent pofleffions, 
at jad after the time of Chrift, were owing to the malice of 
the devil, in order to difparage the miracles of our Saviour, 
or to the providence of God, in order to augment his glory. 
Dr. Jortin thought that Providence fuffered evil {pirits to 
exert their malignant powers fo much at that time to give a 
check to Sadduccifm among the Jews, and to Epicurean 
Gentiles. (Rem. on Eccl. Hitt. vol. i. 
n (Works, vol. 
our Saviour’s appearance : a particular reafon for exerting 
their power and malice, in oppofition to the firft ereGion 
and eftablifhment of the kingdom of God; and they might 
be permitted to exert them to the utmoft, ‘in order more ef- 
feGtually to difplay the fuperior power and goodnefs of him 
ie fent into ad world, to render their defeat 
ore confpicuous, and to gai m an 
his ee eee But it 
unts for a fat, viz. mitting or forcing t 
a pail ffion of men’s bodies at the time of Chrift, and 
at no other, which has no foundation to fupport it. It fhould 
be confidered, however, that, many ages before the birth of 
brift, and in other countries | befides Judea, men afcribed 
The account of demoni- 
itings of more 
ramatic poets, of hiftorians, of phy ficia 
and of philofophers. The eftablifhed theology of the (ian 
world, aaa its firft rife to eh ee overthrow, refted upon the 
bafis o oa to the i Jofephus in- 
forms us ce L. vin. <.)s that the method of exor- 
cifm prefcribed by Sonam ne i ea or fucceeded greatly 
among them down to his time.”’ very exiftence of ex- 
orcifts, both oes and after the a of Chrift, and the 
2 
general prevalence of magic arts among this pecple, as well 
zs among the Gentiles, are a full proof that a belief of fre- 
€ 68 was mon nd, inde 
{cripture itfelf furnithes abundant evidence, that the doCtuine 
of poffeffions was pr the Chriftian era. ( tt 
XV. 21, 22. Xvi. 15. Mark vii. 24. ix- ke ix. 39. 
Ads xvi. 16, 18. xix. 3.) It is ebieevable, that the ene- 
mies of Chrift never mer each him with introducing demons 
into Judea, where they were not new or extraordinary, and 
occationed no furprife, merely for the fake of difplaying his 
power over them ; 3 nor on this account accufe him of acting 
ith them, which, neverthelefs, it would have 
n 
, and then only in 
ome perfons ed, tha t the devil’s tyranny oie. 
erat 18 poneagad by numberlefs fa&ts of real or fuppofed 
ons, as well as revived, at the coming of Chrift. 
Ricca the demoniacs of the New Tefament are the 
diffeGling the head, the brain is found 
fame fort of perfons with thofe mentioned in other writings 
and, therefore, itis reafonable to afcribe the diforders ex- 
preffed by chet, or pertaining to them, to the fame cr fimt- 
lar caufes, 
Thofe who deny the reality of poffeffions argue, that in 
the ages of ignorance and fuperftition, the credulous part of 
mankind were eafily perfuaded to believe, that maniacs and 
epileptics were really poffefled by demons ;:but that thofe 
who confulted their reafon, and gained an infight into nas 
what commonly p or damoniacal 
Amongft many other confiderations which he has urged to 
prove that epileptical diflempers owe their rife : natural 
caufes, he obferves, (De Morbo Sacro, p. 307. ed. Foefii} 
“ that goats are remarkably fubjeét to the eptlepfy ; and, on 
to be overcharged 
with a rheum of a very bad fmell, a ae aan he adds, 
that the ae is difeafed, not po y a deity.’ 
Celfus (lib. iii. c. 18.) whe n treating of the eal kinds 
of madnefs, takes no notice of demontacal poffeffion, and. 
alcribes aa to different caufes. Plotinus, a Platonic phi- 
lofopher of the third century, fpeaks of thofe who pretended 
to cure diforders by expelling demons, ‘‘as admired only by 
the vulgar,”’ while they were defpifed by men of fenfe, who 
believed, “that all difeafes proceed from natural caufes.’* 
ther om 
ftances might be mentioned to the fame a ofe. Dr.M 
alleges, that the circumftances 
related of the gofpel dsemoniace are fymptoms of natural dif. 
orders, and do not exceed the powers of phyfical caufes. It 
has been further argued, that as the feveral diforders, im- 
puted to poffeffion, proceed from natural caufes, they al 
yield to natural remedies, and each of them requires a eile 
a ee the cece of de- 
moniacal poffeffions is ie aan ftly repugnant to the per- 
feétions of God, to the wifdom, equity, and goodnefs of the 
divine government, and to that fixed order of caufes and ef 
igi 
ved adh étion of any 
eftam 
The Old Teftament, it is faid, is filent o on "the fubje& of 
pofleflions, and cannot be em loyed to eftablifh their reality. 
When Saul is faid to be oe by an evil {pirit from 
the Lord” 
(z Sem. xvi. T4. . 10.), it is fufficient to 
iss ie the word on is: "often ufed to denote the 
temper sae pais of the human mind, and that the Jews 
were sere 
d to call all kinds of melancholy an evil {pirits. 
Acc len el Sauls diforder was a deep melancho oe ; and it 
was cured by m As e writers of the we Tefiae 
ment, they were i the Ane authors of the Mooi: of 
pofleffions, In Chaldwa, Egypt, Greece, and all other coun. 
tries,. 
