(2) Madmen. With regard to the two demoni acs at Gadara (or one, according to Mark and Luke), it is concluded that they were madmen, who fancied that there were within them innumer able spirits of dead men. Accordingly they dwelt among the tombs about which the souls of the dead were believed to hover, went naked, were ungovernable, cried aloud, attacked passengers, beat themselves and had in their frenzy broken every chain by which they had been bound. Strength almost superhuman is a common at tendant on insanity. Their question, 'Art thou come to torment us?' refers to the cruel treat ment of the insane in those times, and which they had no doubt shared, in the endeavors of men to 'tame' them. Both Mark and Luke the physi cian describe the demoniac .is calvomOvr in 'his right mind,' when healed, which implies previous insanity. (See also Matt. xii:22; xv: 28; xvii:18; Luke vii:2t ; viii:2; ix:42.) It is true that these demoniacs address Jesus as the Son of God, but they might have heard in their lucid intervids that Jesus, whose fame was al ready d;ffused throughout Syria, was regarded by the people as the Messiah. They show their in sanity, 'their shaping fancies,' by imagining they were demons without number, and by requesting permission to enter the swine. Would actual demons choose such an habitation? They speak and ans‘%er, indeed, in a rational manner, but agreeably to Locke's definition of madmen, 'they reason right on false principles, and, taking their fancies for realities, make right deductions from them. Thus you shall find a distracted man fancying himself a king, and with a right in ference require suitable attendance. Others, who have thought themselves glass, take the needful care to preserve such brittle bodies' (Essay on Human Understanding, vol. i, chap. t t. sec. 12), It is true that Jesus commands the unclean spirit (so called because believed to be the spirit of a dead man), but he does this merely to excite the attention of the people, and to give them full opportunity to observe the miracle. It is not necessary to suppose that the madmen drove the swine, but merely that, in keeping with all the circumstances, the insanity of the demoniacs was transferred to them, as the leprosy of Naaman was transferred to Gehazi, for the purpose of illustrating the miraculous power of Christ ; and though this was a punitive miracle, it might serve the good purpose of discouraging the expectation of temporal benefits from him. If the demoniac is represented as worshiping Jesus, it should be remembered that the insane often show great respect to particular persons.
(3) Naturally Blind and Dumb. The men who were dumb, and both blind and dumb, are not said to have been disordered in their intellects any more than the blind man in John v. The disease in their organs was popularly ascribed to the influence of demons. It is observable that in the parallel passage (Matt. ix:32), the evan gelist says the man was dumb.
(4) Epilepsy. The symptoms of epilepsy in the youth described (Matt. xvii :15) are too evi dent not to be acknowledged. If the opinion of relatives is to be pressed, it should be noticed that in this case the father says his 'son is lunatic.' It was most probably a case of combined epilepsy and lunacy, which has been common in all ages. Epi lepsy was ascribed to the influence of the moon in those times. The literal interpretation of popular language would therefore require us to believe that he was 'moonstruck,' as well as a demoniac.
(5) Spirit of Apollo. The damsel at Philippi is said by Luke to have been possessed with a spirit of Apollo. It was her fixed idea. The gift
of divination is said by Cicero to have been ascribed to Apollo (De Divinat. :5). Insane per sons, pretending to prophesy under the influence of Apollo, would be likely to gain money from the credulous. A belief among the common people that the ravings of insanity were sacred was not confined to Egypt. The larvati, the lymphatici, the cerriti of the Romans signify possessed per sons. The apostle, who taught that an 'idol is nothing in the world,' did not believe in the reality of her soothsaying. Many demoniacs are men tioned, the peculiar symptoms of whose diseases are not stated, as Mary Magdalene (Mark xvi:9), out of whom Jesus cast seven demons. i. e., re stored from an inveterate insanity (seven being the Jewish number of perfection), supposed to he caused by the united agency of seven spirits of the dead. Yet she is said to have been healed (Luke viii :2).
((I) Christ Rebuked Other Objects. If Jesus forbade the dernoniacs to say he was the Christ, it was because the declaration of such persons on the subject would do more harm than good If he rebuked them he also rebuked the wind (Matt. viii:26), and the fever (Luke iv :30). If it be said of them they departed, so it is also said of the leprosy (Mark i :42).
(7) Questionable Distinctions. It may he questioned whether the writers of the New Tes tament make a distinction between the diseased and those possessed of demons, or whether they specify the demoniacs by themselves, as they spe cify the lunatics (Matt. iv :24), merely as a dis tinct and peculiar class of the sick. It is, how ever, most important to observe that St. Peter includes 'all' who were healed by Jesus under the phrase them that were oppressed of the devil, many of whom were not described by the evan gelists as subjects of demoniacal possession. Sonic times the specification of the demoniacs is omitted in the general recitals of miraculous cures (Matt. xi:5), and this, too, on the important occasion of our Lord sending to John the Baptist an account of the miraculous evidence attending his preach ing (Matt. xi :5). Does not this look as if they were considered as included under the sick? (8) Not All Knew Jesus. It cannot be proved that all the demoniacs knew Jesus to t‘e the Mes siah.
(9) Addressed Persons. It is admitted that Jesus addresses the demons, but then it may be said that his doing so has reference partly to the persons themselves in whom demons were sup posed to be, and partly to the bystanders; for the same reason that he rebuked the winds in an audible voice, as also the fever.
(10) Our Lord's Reply. With regard to our Lord's reply to the Seventy, it will not be urged that it was intended of a local fall of Satan from heaven, unless it may be supposed to allude to his primeval expulsion; but this sense is scarcely rel evant to the occasion. If, then, the literal sense be necessarily departed from, a choice must be made out of the various figurative interpretations of which the words admit; and taking the word Satan here in its generic sense, of whatever is in imical or opposed to the Gospel, Jesus may be un derstood to say, I foresaw the glorious results of your mission in the triumphs which would attend it over the most formidable obstacles. Heaven is often used in the sense of political horizon (Is. xiv :12, i3; Matt. xxiv :29). To be cast from heaven to hell is a phrase for total downfall (Luke x:15; Rev. xii:7-9). Cicero says to Mark An tony: 'You have hurled your colleagues down from heaven.' Satan is here used figuratively. Our Lord does not, therefore, assert the real oper ation of demons.