it appears to be inconsistent with the wisdom and goodness of God.

For let any man think with himself, if it be not a strange and hard case, for a man to be put into the power of evil spirits or for apostate angels, or other impure and wicked spirits, one or more of them, to be allowed to take possession of him, and to teaze and torment him as they think fit. Is this suited to that state of trial in which we now are? Such unhappy persons, it is true, are not cast into hell, nor fixed in a state of damnation. But apostate angels, or other infernal spirits, are supposed to be permitted to come to him, seize on him, torment, and distress him, and that for many years together.

Is this a supposition that should be easily made or allowed of? Can we fairly reconcile this to the wisdom and equity of the Divine government?

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Besides, from many things said in the gospels it appears, that divers of the persons there spoken of, as having evil spirits,' were not the worst of men. Yea, for any thing we can perceive, divers of them were honest, virtuous persons. And some had laboured under those distempers, commonly ascribed to evil spirits, from their youth, or from childhood, before they can be supposed to have been guilty of great and heinous transgressions.

This argument, if it does not hold against the supposition, that evil spirits may be sometimes permitted to inflict diseases, certainly has a good deal of force against possessions, especially in the gross sense, in which they have been understood and allowed of by some in late times.

8. Another argument against possessions, arises from the manner in which the persons, said to have unclean spirits, speak of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For such persons did often bear an honourable testimony to our Lord; Luke iv. 41, " And dæmons also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art the Christ, the Son of God." But it is incredible, that Satan, or any other evil spirits under his influence and direction, should freely and cheerfully bear witness to our Lord, as the Christ.

When the pharisees reviled him, and said, that he cast out dæmons by Beelzebub the prince of dæmons, our Lord confuted that reflection and charge, by showing, that the thing was very unlikely. So in Matt. xii. 25, 28, and elsewhere. For the doctrine taught by our Lord being con-trary to the kingdom and interest of Satan, it was altogether improbable, that so subtle and malicious a spirit should concur with him for the support of it.

In like manner it is incredible, that any unclean spirits should cheerfully bear testimony to Jesus, as the Christ, the Son of God. Therefore that profession, or declaration, did not proceed from such spirits, but from the unhappy diseased persons, who, under their melancholic affections, thought themselves to have dæmons, in conformity to the prevailing opinion, though they had not.

This is a much more reasonable way of accounting for this matter, than to suppose, that evil spirits openly professed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God.

Indeed this appears to me a very forcible argument: I have been sometimes apt to think, that this consideration has been overlooked by learned and pious men, who have so readily admitted real possessions.

However, it may be here said, that possibly this testimony was not free and voluntary, but constrained and compelled. To which I answer, that this cannot be said with good reason. Our Lord certainly did not constrain any such to bear that testimony to him, and speak so of him; for he never received it, but disallowed of it, and checked it: though afterwards, when those persons were by his mighty power delivered from the indispositions under which they had laboured, he was not unwilling that they should bear witness to him, as we see in the case before us; "He bid the man go home to his friends, and tell them, how great things the Lord had done for him, and had compassion on him."

9. All those persons who are spoken of as having dæmons, or an unclean spirit, had some bodily indisposition. Nor does it appear clearly from their history, that there was any thing beside such indisposition.

That all these people had some bodily indisposition is manifest, and cannot be denied by any. Some laboured under distraction, as the men in the country of the Gadarenes; others had other disorders. St. Peter, Acts x. 38, gives this general account of our Lord's miraculous works: "Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil." Therefore they who were supposed to be under the oppression of Satan, had distempers which our Lord healed. Observable are the words of St. Matthew, ch. iv. 24; "And his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick people, that were taken with divers diseases, and torments, and those which were possessed of dæmons," or dæmoniacs, and "those that were lunatic, and those that had the palsy, and he healed them."

These persons, therefore, are reckoned up among other

sick people, and they are said to be healed,' or 'cured,' by the Lord Jesus, when brought to him.

Nor does it appear, from the history of these cases, that there was any thing more than bodily indispositions, and that discomposure of mind, which usually accompanies them.

Let us observe the history of the young man, first brought to the disciples, when our Lord was in the mount, and then to himself, when he was come down, and is related by the first three evangelists.

Matt. xvii. 14, 15; " And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic, and sore vexed. For oft-times he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him."

That is the whole description of the case: but undoubtedly the affliction was supposed to be owing to an evil spirit. Therefore the cure is thus related by the same evangelist: "And Jesus rebuked the dæmon, and he departed out of him, and the child was cured from that very hour," ver. 18.

In the description, then, of this distemper, which appears to have been the epilepsy, or falling sickness, the parent says, "his child was lunatic, and sore vexed:" that is, bis distemper was influenced by the changes of the moon, and the fits, or paroxysms, were very violent, and more violent at some seasons than others. And does it not use to be so in such cases? What necessity is there then for the supposition of the agency or interposition of evil spirits?

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In Mark ix. 17, 18, the same case is represented in this manner: "One of the multitude answered, I have brought unto thee my son, which has a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him, he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples, that they should cast him out, and they could not." Ver. 20, " And they brought him to him. And when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him, and he fell on the ground, and wallowed, foaming." It was a grievous epilepsy, a dangerous indisposition, the convulsions were sometimes extremely violent, so that the young man had begun to pine away.

In St. Luke, ch. ix. 38, 39, the parent says, "Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son, for he is my only child. And lo a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out, and it teareth him, that he foameth again, and bruising him, hardly departeth from him." Ver 42," And as he was yet

coming, the dæmon threw him down, and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father."

It was a sad epileptical disease. The convulsions were very violent; the fits were sometimes severe and long; insomuch that his friends feared he would never get out of them, but die away in them; a thing not uncommon still in such cases. And yet we do not now, generally, introduce evil spirits as the causes of them.

This, however, was a grievous and dangerous epilepsy. And the cure performed by our Lord was a great and gracious work.

10. There were some in ancient times, who were of opinion, that those called dæmoniacs were diseased only. Undoubtedly, the other was the more prevailing opinion, but not universal. The sadducees among the Jews must have had different apprehensions about these cases. But I choose not to take any particular notice of men, who were so unreasonable as to deny the existence of angels and sepa rate spirits. See Acts xxiii. 8.

I shall however observe what is said by Origen, who lived about two hundred years after our Lord's ascension, in his Commentary upon St. Matthew's gospel. He is treating of the miracle wrought by our Lord upon the young man, brought to Christ by his father, after he was come down from the mount: of which we spoke just now. Origen himself believed the influence of dæmons in such cases. But he says, That physicians endeavoured to ac⚫count for them in a natural way; not allowing the agency ' of any impure spirits, but calling them bodily distempers.' So said physicians in those times; and they must be reckoned as good judges as any.

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Plotinus, a celebrated heathen philosopher, who flourished about the middle of the third century, blames some, who' ascribed to dæmons diseases, which, as he says, may be accounted for in an ordinary way, and indeed are owing to fatigue, excess, indigestion, and other causes either internal or external, and are oftentimes cured by medicines.

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And Philostorgius, an ecclesiastical historian, at the be

Ιατροι μεν ουν φυσιολογείτωσαν, ἅτε μηδε ακαθαρτον πνευμα ειναι νομι ζοντες κατά τόπον, αλλα σωματικον συμπτώμα, κ. λ. in Matt. Tom. xiii. vol. i. p. 311. Huet. vol. iii. p. 577. Bened.

Νυν δε αποςησαμενοι, τας νόσες δαιμόνια είναι - τες μεντοι ευφρονεντας εκ αν πειθοιεν, ὡς εχ αἱ νοσοι τας αιτίας έχυσιν, η καμάτοις, η πλησμοναις, η ενδείαις, η σηψεσι, και όλως μεταβολαις η εξωθεν την αρχην, η ενδοθεν λαβεσαις. Δηλεσι δε και αἱ θεραπειαι αυτών, κ. λ. Plotin. Eun. 2. lib. ix. cap. 14.

ginning of the fifth century, mentions & one Posidonius, a learned physician, whom he knew, who ascribed all the bad symptoms of those called dæmoniacs to natural causes; and did not believe, that dæmons had power to torment men, though he did not deny their existence. That Posidonius seems to have been a christian.

I might show, that this has likewise been the opinion of some judicious, and thoughtful, and pious men of late times. But as I suppose you to be rather determined by reason than authority, I forbear to insist on their judgment.

I therefore would recommend to your consideration the observations which have been now mentioned: which seem to me to render it very probable, that the afflictions, which those laboured under, who among the Jews were said to have a dæmon, or unclean spirit, were mere bodily distempers and indispositions. They are at least, so far as I am able to judge, cogent arguments against possessions, in the gross sense of the word, as understood by some learned men of late times.

There are however some difficulties attending this supposition, which shall be taken notice of hereafter.

For the present, we may do well to recollect some apostolical observations and admonitions. " Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth," 1 Cor. viii. 1. "Speaking the truth in love, let us grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ," Eph. iv. 15.

Then are our minds rightly tempered in our inquiries after the true nature of things, when our first and greatest care is to please and glorify God; when we are humble and diffident, sensible of the weakness of our capacities, and of our liableness to err; when we are disposed to think and judge according to evidence, and to embrace that as true, which appears to be founded in reason: when still we are willing to exercise charity and forbearance toward such as differ from us, and do not see things exactly in the same light that we do.

Some are greatly delighted with simplicity in all things. They enter not into any speculations about the orders, the powers, the ranks, or economy of invisible beings. Nor do they willingly admit their agency and interposition in human affairs in this life, our time and state of trial. Others love to multiply beings; and an intricate system,

8 Θεασασθαι δε τον Ποσειδώνιον εν ιατρική διαπρέποντα. Λέγει δ' αυτον όμως εκ ορθώς εχι δαιμονων επιθέσει τες ανθρωπες εκβακχεύεσθαι, ύγρων δε τινων κακοχυμίαν το παθος εργαζεσθαι μη δε γαρ είναι το παραπαν ισχυν δαιμονων, ανθρωπων φυσιν επηρεαζεσαν. Philost. I. viii. cap. 10.