Galen

stantly returned every new and full moon. says, the moon governs the periods of epileptic cases *; and others referred the disease entirely to this planet t. Hence epileptics were, by the Greeks and Latins, called lunatics. The evangelist Matthew, therefore, without doubt, by lunatics meaned epileptics ‡. He could not be ignorant of the common signification of this term; and hath himself recorded an instance of its application to an epileptic case §. Hence it ap'pears on what grounds the antients in general, and the evangelists in particular, distinguished between demoniacs and lunatics: the former of whom we call maniacs, and the latter epileptics. These two disorders are attended with very different symptoms; and they were formerly by some ascribed to different causes, (one to the inhabitation of demons, the other to the influence of the moon,) from which they borrowed their respective denominations. It is necessary to add, that the same person was reputed by many, both a demoniac and a lunatic: a demoniac, because they referred the epilepsy to the possession of demons; a lunatic, because the fits of this disorder were thought to keep lunar periods. If some asserted the -natural influence of the moon upon this disorder,

* De Diebus criticis, l. iii. cited by Mead, p. 38.

+ Aretæus de diuturnis Morbis, 1. i. cap. 4. or Mead, p. 46.

Epileptics were, by the Greek writers, sometimes called okKVIENOL, (Alexand. Trallian. 1. i. c. 25) and in the historics of the Gospel, λvaquero, (Matt. xvii. 15.) and by some of the Latins afterwards, lunatici, (Apuleius de Virtutibus Herbar. c. 9. et 65.) Mead, p. 38. See also note next page.

*

§ Matt. xvii. 15.

others

others taught, that the patients were more subject to the incursions of demons at the changes of this pla net than at any other time*. This, perhaps, was thought to be the case of the youth described in the Gospel. His father represents him both as lunatic and sore vexed with a demon. He was what some modern physicians † call epileptic mad‡. He was not considered as being mad or vexed with a demon at all times, but only under the paroxysms of his epileptic disorder, which returned at the changes of the moon §. These observations serve to account for the language

* Apud Matt. iv. 24, ubi Græcè est ceλnv:aquevous, interpres Arabs (in editione Romanâ, 1619) si Latinè exponamus, vertit, ruentes in principiis lunationum. Maximè vero plenilunio infestantur. Nec obscura est ratio; quia tum plenius cerebrum est humoribus; unde et tunc idonei magis, qui a dæmone vexentur. Talis epilepticus ille qui a Matthæo, xvii. 14, lunaticus dicitur: Lucæ autem ix. 39. dæmoaiacus vocatur. Hanc rem sic expressit Juvencus, l.iii.

Nam cursus lunæ natum mihi dæmonis arte

Torquet.

Vossius on Idolatry, 1. ii. c. 19. p. 203. Stillingfleet, Orig. Sacr. P. 166. See also Grotius on Matt. xvii. 15, and Mark ix. 27; and the citation from Lucian produced above, p. 48, note *. Pricæus, on Matt. iv. 24, in the 5th volume of the Critici Sacri, p. 8296, hath the following note: Basil de fœneratoribus agens, Masaidi ATTAITHTAI, οἱ τας επιληψιας ποιούντες δαιμονες, κατα τας περιόδους της σεληνης τους ήτα Xos devos. Isiodorus Orig. iv. 7. de Epilepticis, hos vulgus lunaticos vocat, quòd per hunc cursum comitetur eos insania dæmonum. † Mead, p. 46, 47.

Περ

See Mead, p. 46. This learned writer observes concerning the lunatics of the Gospel, li autem aut insani erant, aut insani simul et epileptici. Medica Sacra, p. 83. See above, p. 53, note †.

§ It is very observable, that our Saviour, in curing this young man, not only commanded the unclean spirit to come out of him, but also

E

language of the evangelists, both when they distinguish possessions from lunacies, and when they join them together as kindred disorders.

3. It may be observed farther, that the reason which induced the antients to ascribe madness and epileptic fits to possession rather than other disorders, could not be that very general one commonly assigned, viz. that in the earliest ages men could not account for the epilepsy (for example) without having recourse to a supernatural agency. For, without having recourse to that agency, they could not account for the palsy, the leprosy, and other disorders, as was shewn above. The true reason therefore must be drawn from the peculiar symptoms of the epilepsy, and certain kinds of madness, which were such as seemed to them to argue not a transient act of some evil spirit, or an effect produced in the human body all at once by his operation upon it; but his entrance into the body; his seizing the mind, thereby preventing the regular use of the rational faculties, and sometimes of the cor poreal senses; and his causing the patient to speak and act under his direction. Now, these symptoms do not at all agree with other disorders, such as the palsy, the leprosy, and pestilence, which, nevertheless, were ascribed to the anger of the gods. It is a matter, however, of little importance, to determine precisely what the reason was of the antients ascrib

to enter no more into him. His afflicted father might have feared that his son's disorder, though it now suddenly ceased, might return at the next change of the moon. Our Saviour, therefore, in his great goodness, assures him it should return no more.

.

ing either epileptic or maniaca! cases, rather than other distempers, to demoniacal possession. The fact itself, with which alone we are concerned, is sufficiently established by the concurrent testimony of Pagans and Jews, and the writers of the New Testament. I will only add, that,

4. The account here given of demoniacs is confirmed by the antient Christian writers, who describe demoniacs as persons disordered in their mind. Celsus, we have seen*, plainly supposes that Christians understood them to be such. And Justin Martyr, in express terms, says, "that those who are seized and thrown down by the souls of the deceased, are such as all men agree in calling demoniacs and mad." Eusebius represents Montanus as seized with possession and madnesst. Indeed, all the demoniacs of the antient Christians were mad, melancholy, or epileptic persons 1.

* Page 62.

SECTION

- Eccles. Hist. l. v. c. 16. The following passages from Lactantius (Divin. Institut. 1. iv. c. 27. p. 345. 347. ed. Dufresnoy) fully explain the sentiments of the antient Christians, both concerning the demoniacs in their times, and those who were cured by Christ. Nam sicut ipse (sc. Christus) cùm inter homines ageret, universos dæmones verbo fugabat; hominumque mentes emotas, et malis incursibus furiatas, in sensus pristinos reponebat : ita nunc, &c. Ecce aliquis instinctu dæmonis percitus, dementit, effertur, insanit. Minucius Felix also (Octavius,

c. 27.) gives the following account of those actuated by demons: Hi sunt et furentes, quos in publicum videtis excurrere, vates et ipsi absque templo, sic insaniunt, sic bacchantur, sic rotantur.

The proofs of this point, in that most learned and penetrating writer, Mr. Joseph Mede, p. 30, must not be here omitted, though they are also to be found in Wetstein, vol. i. p. 283. Canon.

SECTION VII.

Prop. vi. Demoniacal possessions (whether they are supposed to be real or imaginary), and the disorders imputed to them, were not peculiar to the country of Judea and the time of Christ; nor doth it appear that they abounded more in that country, or at that time, than any other.

Ir hath been confidently asserted, that there were no demoniacs, or not so many, amongst any other people as the Jews; nor amongst them but about our Saviour's time. Hence unbelievers (unhappily prejudiced against the Gospel by such misrepresentations of it) have asked, "How came it to pass, that the devil had more power over the worshippers of the true God, than over those who had renounced their allegiance to him? And how came the devil to exert his power at the appearance of his judge and avenger, rather than at any other time, when he might do it with more hopes of impunity? or, Can we regard Christ as the Saviour of mankind, if he gave the devil new powers to destroy them?"

In answering these objections, Christian writers, instead of inquiring into the truth of the fact, have

Apost.79. εάν τις δαίμονα έχη, κληρικός μη γενεσίω. Balsamon in Can. thus explains what it is to have a demon: ὁ δαιμονιζόμενος εστέρηται λογισμού και διαθεσεως. He afterwards calls the demoniac μαινομένου, and distinguishes μανιαν εκ διαλείμματος, aut διηνεκώς. Vide Chrysostomi Epist. προς Σταγείριον δαιμονωντα. Eum omnino affectum videbis prout quos nos melancholicos appellamus. Vide eundem de precibus in ecclesia pro energumenis, Homil. 4 et 5. De incomprehensibili Dei Natura, versus finem, inter sermones ad pop. Antioch.

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