The doctrine of devils proved to be the grand apostacy of these later times. An essay tending to rectifie those undue notions and apprehensions men have about dæmons and evil spirits.

CHAP. VIII. Christ cast not out Devils: What is meant by Devils, where Christ is said to cast them out?

CHrist himself, in his return to John's Message, or Quaery, (Art thou he that should come, or do we look for ano∣ther?) speaks nothing, but of curing Di∣seases and Preaching the Gospel: Not a word of casting out Devils, though in the same hour, he had cast out one, Luk. 7.19. (Whatever is meant by it.) But could he have satisfied John better, than by saying (Devils also are cast out) if he had cast out any Devil really? And yet not a word of this, in his An∣swer unto John Baptist; nor (which is as remarkable) doth St. John (though he set himself upon that point especially to prove the Godhead of Christ producing many, yea very many, very great, and stupend Miracles done by Christ) yet doth he not so much as hint at that of ejecting Devils: A great oversight, in such a Person, in such a business, to neglect such an Argument, if any such

thing had ever been! This would have proved him to be God indeed, and his Power paramount above all Principalities, and Powers, and Thrones, and Domini∣ons, and so God without controversie or dispute: But he urgeth it not, and there∣fore we may well conclude (if we will not think, that he betrayed the Cause) That there was no such thing: Besides, Demonium habere, vel Demoniacum esse, are most properly and most fitly render∣ed Madmen. When some said, In furo∣rem versus est, or he is mad; others said he hath Beelzebub or a Devil, (as being in their conceit but one and the self-same thing). Mark 3.30, 21, He hath a Devil or is mad, seem to be Synoni∣mies, and to interpret one the other. John 10.20. So because of that mad, wild frantick speech of his (as they ac∣counted it) If any man keep my saying, he shall never see death: Now say they, We know that thou hast a Devil and art mad: For none (thought they) but a Madman, would have vented such a wild word, John 8.51, 52. And therefore Maldonat (a Jesuite, and one that up∣held the doctrine of Devils and posses∣sion, as much as any Man, for the main∣tenance of Purgatory) Alii putant—

(Alii in the Plural number, 'twas not one single Doctors, Fathers, Schoolmans opinion, but a number of them): Some think. That this word, Demonium habere, or Demoniacum esse, modum suisse loquend••, quo non significarent eum vere habere Demo∣nium, sed motae esse mentis, delirare, in∣sanire—To have a Devil was a kind of phrase or form of speech, by which they did not intend, or mean the Person truely and indeed had a real Devil with∣in him, but that he was distracted, fran∣tick or mad. Joh. 10.20, He hath a de∣vil and is mad. 7.20. Thou hast a De∣vil who goeth about to kill thee, or thou art mad to think so. John 8.48, Say we not well, thou art a Samaritan, and hast a Devil? Why a Samaritan, but because they thought him mad? The Sa∣maritans held odd, wild, mad opinions concerning God, his Worship and Reli∣gion; the Jews therefore thought them mad, as the Samaritans did the Jews, upon the account of dissonancy in Reli∣gion and Tenents; Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? Kings 2.9, 19. And so the Jews thought of John Baptist, be∣cause of his strange food, raiment, life, and doctrine, That he was mad or had a Devil: They say he hath a Devil,

Mat. 11.18. It is very improbable, That the Jews, (who so generally fre∣quented Johns Preaching, and heard him so gladly) thought him to be possessed with a Devil, and yet some of them might think him to be a little crazed in his intellectuals: Nay, generally it seems the Gentiles as well as the Jews, thought all these men that held any new, strange, or unheard of Doctrines in Religion, to be mad. And hence Festus to St. Paul, Thou art besides thy self, too much learning hath made thee mad: Act. 25.24. It was the strangeness of Pauls Doctrine, that made Festus think him mad; so did the Jews think the Samaritans to be mad, and possessed with Devils; yea, and Christ also, upon the same account, for the newness, strangeness, or madness of his Doctrine (as they accounted it): Demonium habere, or Demoniacum esse, in Scripture-phrase, is to be mad.

And indeed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, deriving its pe∣degree from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, can hardly signifie any thing else properly, but some such great, extraordinary, and unusual afflicti∣on from God, such as is madness: And so indeed is the Word used by Polybius concerning Antiochus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, he was mad, and Plutarch useth it in the same

sense, and why should we not in Scrip∣ture interpret it so too, when both the word and sence of the Text will bear it? Besides, did ever any of these Demoni∣acks mentioned in Scripture ever do any thing or things, act or acts, feat or feats, that a meer madman without a real De∣vil, doth not, may not do, and often doth? Is there any such act, any such feat recorded of them by any of the E∣vangelists? They cryed, they roared, they talkt foolishly, ran into mountains, and desarts, and tombs, cutting them∣selves with stones, brake their fetters, were mischievous to Passengers; but have not, may not, do not Madmen do all these things? By their works ye shall know them, saith Christ; why, how, where∣fore then, may they not be Madmen, and Madmen meerly, that are meant by Demonium habentes, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉? I add this, Christ himself confesseth that what he cast out, that the Children of the Pharisees cast out too, Mat. 12.27. And argues largely from it, to justify himself and actings: But never did or could the Pharisees Children cast out re∣al Devils; otherwise Men should be stronger than Devils, Flesh than Spirits: And yet a stronger than he must come

upon him to dispossess him without doubt; And is Man stronger than the Devil? Can Tom Thumb with his Rushen Spear, dismount King Arthur and all his Knights? No more can meer Man dispossess the Devil; especially, if he be so omnipo∣tently powerful, as Demonologers pre∣dicate him. Devils in Scripture are set out as powers in the abstract, Men as the abstracts of weakness: Now that weakness in the abstract, should dispossess power in the abstract, is, I think alto∣gether inconceivable by any humane in∣tellect. Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a fish hook, (said God to Job) or can a Crismer, a Child of a span long, bind Behemoth with a rushen cord?

In short thus, all that the Children of the Pharisees cast out, were Diseases, not Devils; all that Christ cast out, was but what the Children of the Pharisees cast out; therefore all that Christ cast out, were but Diseases and not Devils. And is it not now, then a most monstrous Apostacy, and most intolerable Idola∣try, and that even to the Devil himself, to attribute such an excellency of opera∣tion to the Devil, which was never ex∣erted by Christ himself, indeed could not; because there was never occasion

for it. Well, this is one result of the do∣ctrine of Devils, it is an Apostacy from that fundamental Truth, God manifested in the flesh. This was almost (but it must not be) forgotten here, That though Christ cast not out any real Devil pro∣perly so called; yet curing Diseases in such a manner as he did, He manifested forth his Glory and Godhead, as fully, and as much, as if he had indeed cast out real Devils; but of this in another place. I have spoken fully enough. I shall on∣ly add this here, If they had been indeed real Devils, or infernal fiends that Christ cast out, there might peradventure have been possibly some probable ground, of that stupend blasphemy of the Pharisees, viz. He casteth out Devils by Beelzebub.— In some sort it might be credible, either by some favour, connivance, comply∣ance, complotment, or else envy, hatred, opposition of Devils; so that it had been no miracle or argument at all, to prove his Godhead. That he cast out Devils; a Simon Magus, an Apollonius, yea an or∣dinary Witch have done as much: But there could be no complyance, compact— envy, hatred—between Christ and Di∣seases. The curing therefore of Diseases, in such a manner as he cured them, was

more for Christs Honour, and the proof of his Godhead, than (if per impossibile, there could be any such thing) the cast∣ing out of Devils or infernal fiends could have been.