I. There be some religious physiologists, for I can hardly call them divines-who have written largely to prove that those persons spoken of in the Gospel as having been possessed with devils, were no more than persons labouring under the various forms of lunacy, or madness. This case puts an end to all such vain and mischievous speculation. It is not possible this man could have been labouring under frenzy, or madness; but that he must have been possessed with a spirit, or spirits, different from the spirit of man: and into the nature of which we shall inquire by and bye. For, first, though frenzy, or lunacy, will drive a man away from human habitations into solitude, and infuriate him against his kind, and embitter bim against himself, so that he will take delight to cut and maim himself, and to tear his clothes, and go naked-for I myself remember to have seen in Ireland a wretched madman upon the high-way mother-naked, who the people told me would by no means endure clothing-yet I never heard of any form of madness, the most frantic, which would endue a man with the supernatural strength of breaking iron chains and bursting bands such as they essayed to bind Samson withal. As this, in Samson's case, was supernatural, it was not in him, not of him, but superinduced by the Spirit of God upon him: placed not in his sinews, but in his unshorn locks; and removed from him when they were shorn, though the thews and sinews of his body remained the same: even so this man's strength was also supernatural; not in him nor of him as a man, but derived into him from that supernatural spiritual power of demons which possessed him, and departing from him at the same time at which they departed. And until they will shew me a form of madness which produces such inhuman strength as not to be confined by chains, or straitjackets or other appliances, I must believe this, from the mere description of it, to have been from another spirit than human, inhabiting and commanding the spirit of the wretched man.

I conclude the same from their supernatural knowledge; which is also to be observed in a former instance of a demoniac recorded in this Gospel, who in the synagogue of Capernaum said, "I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God;" no doubt spoken out of the malicious intent of marring the work of Christ; who therefore rebuked him, saying, "Hold thy peace, and come out of him." In which words, be it remarked, he addresseth not the man, but the unclean spirit that had possession of the man, reproving him as the originator of that knowledge and the utterer of those words: whence we infer, that it was not the man himself, but the spirit which overwhelmed him, that possessed such deep insight into the Divine Person of Jesus of Nazareth. The same conclusion is to be drawn, and that much more forcibly, from the dialogue which took place between Christ and the miserable man

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in the passage before us. Jesus began the dialogue by saying, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit." In these words the man and the unclean spirit are spoken of as separate beings, whose union was not necessary, but accidental. Of this remark they would turn away the edge by replying, that the woman who had been bowed together for eighteen years is said to have a spirit of infirmity. To which I answer, that Jesus does not say to the spirit, Come out of her; but only, "Woman, thou art loosed from thy infirmity," and laid his hands on her, which was the sign of communicating the spirit of joy and health_and strength. Besides, in that very place it is said by the Lord that Satan had bound her: now, as we shall show in the sequel, not Satan, but Beelzebub, is regarded in Scripture as the head or leader of the demons which possessed men; and the former is never at any time confounded with the latter. On which account we consider it as in no respect a parallel case; and hold to our conclusion, that the very first words of our Lord in the dialogue, "Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit," prove that there was in him, and ruling over him, another spirit besides his own, from which to distinguish it, it is called unclean, or foul-that is, as I judge, without any purification from sin, unatoned for, unanointed, unsprinkled with any water of purification, hopeless and helpless in its sinful and vile estate. Now mark the reply of the spirit which possessed the man: "What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not;' and in Mark, it is said, that before saying this, “when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him." Now whether you regard the act of worship, or the knowledge which it implied, or the confession, 1 say that they were all superhuman. For, in respect of the knowledge, it is to be believed that this wretched man had never beheld the power of Jesus, who, from every thing that appears, had never been in this country before; as he never was in it after, but left the man as a witness in all the region of Decapolis against his rejected and despised ministry. How, then, could the man know who or what he was? How could he know that he was a supernatural person? How could he know that he was the Son of God most high? For this knowledge hath he not by narrow scrutiny of his person or penetrating inspection of his countenance, but while he was afar off,at such a distance as required him to run in order to draw nigh and perform this act of suppliant homage. I have not heard of

any disease which gives such supernatural penetration unto men, as to discern in others what their most intimate confederates and companions have not been able to attain unto: nay, what flesh and blood was not able to penetrate into through the veil of flesh which the Divinity had taken. For when Simon Peter, some time after this, doth make the like confession, the Lord

answered and said, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonas ; for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." If no one, then, could say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Spirit, it puts it beyond all manner of doubt that this wretched man, who for himself was not in his right mind, had the knowledge not from himself, much less from being beside himself, but from the superhuman spirit which at that time possessed and over-ruled his person. So much for the knowledge and the confession. And for the act; how is it possible to believe that a wild and naked man, who hated man and the habitations of man, and his very self, should at the far-off view of a man surrounded by many others, who bore no emblems of superiority, or over-awing symbols of officeshould all at once change his custom which had made him the terror of the country-side, and fall down in humble supplication, and worship in awful reverence. And as concerneth the word, this also was superhuman. We find only once that his Apostles worshipped him (in the boat, when they saw his mighty power), till after the resurrection, not till they clearly apprehended his Divinity. The blind man who witnessed the good confession did indeed worship him, because to him was given the discernment of faith beyond any other man mentioned in the Gospel, and Jesus plainly revealed to him his Divinity. But besides these two instances we find no other act of worship offered to him as the Son of God, except this one, offered to him by a man out of his right mind, who held all the country in fear and terror. How can this be otherwise accounted for than upon principles supernatural; namely, that the spirits which possessed him, having a spiritual discernment of the Son of God, who was hidden from the world in the Son of man, and knowing the unbounded power of his word, did, out of a slavish fear of his great wrath and indignation against them for having dared to abuse this son of Abraham, fall down and worship; believing and trembling, and crying out with a loud voice, "I beseech thee, torment me not;" I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not."

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The very substance of this petition also, as well as the knowledge which it implied, proveth beyond a doubt that the unclean spirit in the man was a different being, a different self-conscious being, from the man himself: because the words which Jesus had uttered, "Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit," had in them no prognostic of torment unto the man, neither were they followed by any thing of that kind; for the spirits did not tear him in the act of coming out, and, being come out, left him in a sweet state of peace and tranquillity, restored to humanity's sweetest condition; clothed, and seated at the feet of his Divine Benefactor; afterwards to proceed through all Decapolis, that is, the ten cities of the region beyond Jordan, to publish what great

things Jesus had done for him. If, then, the words "Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit," had no evil but every good prognostic to the man, what meaneth the adjuration, "I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not?" It meaneth that the unclean spirit in the man, who recognised Jesus afar off, who also confessed him to be the Son of God, and as such worshipped him, felt that in those words there was a power which all the powers of hell must obey; and, feeling the grasp of that powerful word, which the waves and the winds had just obeyed, to be already upon him, and that he must obey and return to that dolorous deep or abyss whereto he is eventually doomed, he doth, in an agony of desperation, cry out with a loud voice, and adjure Christ, by that Name which most the devils hate, but which he knew Christ did supremely reverence, the name of God: I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. I must obey thee; thy strong hand is even now upon me: and I will obey thee: but oh send me not to the torment from which I am escaped: not thither, O thou Son of the Most High God; not out of this country: if it might please thee, into these unclean swine, or any where, but not back again into the deep, I do beseech thee, I do adjure thee by the living God; for that is torment whereof the thought doth ever haunt me. Oh! send me not thither before the time. It comes too soon: oh forestall it not!'

If any thing more were needed to set the question to rest concerning the reality of those possessions, it were found in the sequel of the dialogue between Jesus and the possessed man, or rather that very intelligent though very wicked spirit which possessed him. "Jesus asked him, What is thy name?" The answer given to this question, as recorded by Luke, would leave it in some doubt whether the spirit made answer or the man ; but as it is given in Mark it leaves no doubt that it was the former: " My name is Legion; for we are many." The spirit answereth, as before, to the question which the Lord addressed to him, "What is thy name?" That there were divers kinds of these demons which in the days of our Lord's flesh had power over men, there can be no doubt, from that saying of our Lord to his disciples, when their power had been foiled by the deaf and dumb spirit which tormented a certain child, "Howbeit, this kind cometh not out but by prayer and fasting." Now the name of any thing, in the language of Scripture, means the description or definition of his being and therefore our Lord did inquire of what name, or kind of evil spirits, was this one with which he conversed. There are angels and seraphim, and thrones and principalities and powers, in the orders superior; and doubtless there are spirits of various name in the orders inferior: into which subject we are not called upon at present to enter,

being satisfied to know they are of various kinds, and therefore of various names. The answer which the unclean spirit made to this question of the Lord is very curious: "My name is Legion, for we are many." I say, it is very curious, because he speaketh of himself both in the singular and the plural number; as he likewise also doth in the petition which he immediately tendered to his Lord and Master, the man Jesus Christ: "And he besought him much that He would not send them out of the country;" or, as it is in the original, out of the earth: in Luke it is, "would not command them to go into the deep," or the abyss. In both these instances he speaks of himself as one, though very many united in one; and again, though he had spoken of himself as one, they spake of themselves as many; so many, indeed, as a Legion, which included not fewer than six or seven thousand men : also, the herd of swine into which they went forth is said to have been "many," and "great;" perhaps the collected herd of the town and country around, entrusted to the care of several herdsmen. Now, of an embodied spirit, such as man, it is the essential property that he cannot be in two places, or occupy two persons; and also that two or more cannot occupy one place, or one person: but of these superhuman spirits this doth by no means seem to be the law or definition : directly the contrary appeareth from what is written in the xviiith chapter of the Second Book of the Chronicles, where a spirit presenteth himself before the Lord, and saith, I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets;" in which being permitted, he did accordingly proceed forth, and possess all the prophets of Ahab, to persuade him with false assurances to go up to Ramoth-Gilead. In like manner, those three spirits like frogs, which John in the Apocalypse saw proceeding forth out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, are declared to have such power of diffusion and possession as to go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. From which two instances it is most manifest that one spirit hath the power of ruling over and possessing many men. And on the other hand, it is manifest that many may inhabit one man, not only from this passage, but from another remarkable passage recorded both in the Gospels according to Matthew and Luke. It is in Luke (xi. 24-26): "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest: and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first." Though

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