fancy, Jefus here might have decried it with advantage, while he had the Father of the fufferer on his fide; who confidered his Son's dif eafe as a Lunacy only.

It may be faid, perhaps, that the Doctrines of a future ftate, and that of Demoniacal poffeffions, which I put upon the fame footing of Credibility (because the Gofpel hath fo put them), differ in this, that a future ftate may be proved by natural reason, which Demoniacal poffeffions cannot.-But what doth this objection infer more than this? that a future ftate makes part of NATURAL RELIGION; and Demoniacal poffeffions, a part of the REVEALED.

2. The ingenuous Difcourfer brings another objection to thefe poffeffions-Having collected together all the SYMPTOMS of this disorder, from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he concludes thus"All these are the Symptoms of a natural dif"order. They are more furprising, indeed, "than those of other disorders, yet nothing "fupernatural *"-His learned Fellow Collegiate, Dr. J. Freind, treating the same subject, after he hath given us, from Etius and Ori

-Infanorum funt hæc omnia; utrum vero a Dæmoniis, an vi morbi provenerint, difceptatur-neque enim alius quifquam inter omnes, qui humanum genus infeftant, morbus tam naturæ vim excedere vide. tur, p. 66.

bafius, a defcription of the madness called Lycanthropy, of which, one of the most striking SYMPTOMS was a fondnefs to wander amongst the Sepulchres of the dead, adds-the Demoniac in the Scriptures, who was POSSESSED WITH A LIKE SORT OF MADNESS, is reprefented as having his dwelling amongst the Tombs *.

The opinion of these two learned Naturalists is founded, we fee, in this circumftance-" that "the Symptoms of a demoniacal poffeffion are "the fame with those of some natural difor"ders."-But now, if evil spirits were permitted to disturb the vital functions of the human frame, whether in the folids, the fluids, or in both together; can we have any conception how this could be effected without caufing or occafioning, in fupernatural disorders, the very fame SYMPTOMS which accompany natural maladies? Thefe Symptoms, in both cases, must arife from the disturbance of the material Frame, and can arife no otherwife; and those disturbances, whether produced by a fpiritual Agent, or by material caufes, muft produce the fame Jenfible effects. Madness, for inftance, whether occafioned by the malignity of an intelligent Agent ab extra, or by difcordant humours ab intra, will be ftill madness, and accompanied

Hift. of Phyfic, Part I. p. 16-21.

with the fame Symptoms. That appearance, therefore, which muft accompany a Demoniacal poffeffion, IF REAL, can never by any rules of logic be converted into a reasonable argument for the falfehood of fuch a poffeffion.

It is worth observation, that one of the Evangelifts being a Phyfician, our learned Critic, by a very becoming partiality, prefers him to the reft: St. LUKE (he tells us) being fuperior to them for the purity and accuracy of his expreffion, when there is occafion to fpeak of distempers, or of the cure of them; and is more particular in reciting all the miracles of our Saviour in relation to healing, than the other Evangelifts

are *.

All this is true; and yet St. Luke speaks the very fame language with the reft concerning demoniacal poffeffions. Now if the Gospel Demoniacs were men only labouring under natural disorders, a Phyfician, by his deeper infight into Nature, with the affiftance of infpiration to boot, was very likely to have difcovered the mistake; and for the glory of his art as likely to have recorded it: especially as the detection of it was the over-turning a hurtful Superftition. And we know how ready these benevolent Gentlemen have ever been to detect

Hift. Phyf. Part I. p. 223-225.

VULGAR ERRORS.-Not to infift, at present, that St. Luke was guided, in fo good a work, by a ftronger paffion than honour for his profeffion, as a Physician, that is, a love for truth, as an Evangelift.

This, as we fay, muft have been the cafe in diabolic poffeffions, where the Body only was thus fupernaturally affected. Yet in thofe, where the mind alone, or equally with the body, fuffered by these diforders, I confefs, we might expect fome extraordinary marks or symptoms of fupernatural Agency, when it was for the purpose of the EVIL SPIRIT to difplay his Power. Here the immaterial principle within us affords larger room, and more conveniences to be acted upon, by an exterior agent: although the irregular efforts of the mind itself are so wonderful as to be frequently mistaken for a foreign agency.

Yet this notwithstanding, there are, in these mental disorders, powers exhibited, that can never be mistaken, by a careful obferver, for its own.

Some of which are, in fact, recorded to have been exerted; in order, as it were, to confute thefe learned men, who seem to think we ought to reject all diabolic poffeffions but fuch as are afcertained by Symptonis fupernatural.

An

An inftance of such we have in the Damfel poffeffed with the Spirit of DIVINATION, who brought her Mafter much gain by soOTHSAYING. This Woman, Paul difpoffeffed, and fo fpoiled her Mafter's trade; who thereupon raised a fierce perfecution against the Apostle.

The symptoms of Divination and Soothsaying, that is, telling of things abfent, and foretelling things future, were certainly fupernatural; and, for fuch, must be acknowledged by the Objectors; who I hope will not yet forget the Perfonages, they have affumed, of Believers: against whom only this reafoning on the Demoniacs is directed and addreffed.

Having now feen what these learned Writers have to oppose to my Syftem of the GospelDemoniacs :

I crave leave, in the next place, to bespeak their attention to what I have to urge against theirs. Enough hath been said to fhew that this is no trifling or unimportant Question.

The untoward confequences being thefe, which unavoidably follow the Conceffion, that Jefus and his Difciples did only accommodate themselves to the fanciful and fuperftitious opinions of the times, in placing natural diftempers pers in the vifionary Class of Supernatural.

* Acts xvi. 16, & feq.

1. Unbe