lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall CHAP. sing. He must be a great stranger in the history of the IX. New Testament, that is to seek for an exact fulfilling of this prophecy. Nay, and the Jewish Midrasch, upon Psalm cxlvi. 8. saith, that when Messias comes, he should V. Grot. in open the eyes of the blind; and the Jews themselves often John ix. 3z: speak of the great miracles which the Messias should do when he appears; and therefore out of their own mouths will they be condemned, when the miracles of Christ make it so evident that he was the true Messias. Hence when John Baptist sent his Disciples to Christ, for them to be fully satisfied concerning him, he bids them tell him, the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, and Matt. xi. 5. the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, &c. as though the mentioning of these miracles was sufficient to make it appear to them who he was whom they came to enquire after. And therefore it is observable, that John Baptist himself, though greater than the prophets, nay, than whom there was not a greater Matt. xi. born of women, by our Saviour's own testimony, yet of 9, 11. him it is said, that he wrought no miracle: of which John x. 41. no account can be given so probable and rational, as that God in his infinite wisdom was pleased so to order it, that the evidence of our Saviour's being the Messias might be made more clear by the miracles which he wrought, that the minds of the people might not be distracted between John and Christ; he therefore reserved the glory of miracles wholly to the name of Christ, that there might be no pretence of competition between John and him. IV. Another reason of the necessity of miracles in our Saviour, by way of rational evidence, is, the overthrowing the 3 Hypoth. power and kingdom of the Devil in the world. For which purpose it is observable, that the Devil had scarce ever greater power over the bodies of men as well as their souls, than at that time; thence we read of such a multitude of demoniacs in the Gospel. For it seems very harsh to interpret those merely of epileptical and lunatic persons, both because the δαιμονιζόμενοι, and σεληνιαζόμενοι, and παραλυτικοί, Matt. iv. are mentioned distinctly; and that it appears by the pri- 24. mitive Church afterwards, how frequent it was to eject the Devil out of possessed persons. Nay, so far am I from thinking that the demoniacs were mere lunatics, that I rather think with Vossius, that the lunatics were Vossius de truly demoniacs; only they were not constantly under the Idol. 1. ii. power of the Devil, but as their paroxysms returned upon c. 19. II. BOOK them, the Devil loving to fish in such troubled waters. And thence the same person is called a lunatic in one Matt. xvii. place, who is called a demoniac in another; because he did ruere in principiis lunationum, as the Arabic version expresseth it; or, as Rusticus Elpidius more fully explains it, 15. Luke ix. 39. Rust. Elpid. lib. v. 28. Repserat in medium rabies horrenda furoris Menstrua deciduos cum Luna recolligit ignes. Theophylact is of opinion, that the Jews, in the time of our Saviour, supposed that the souls of dead men became Matt. viii. demons, and thence we read in Scripture of the demoniacs among the tombs: but it is far more probable which Grotius conceives, that the Jews were of opinion that the souls of dead men did hover up and down about their bo dies, and that these were so long under the Devil's power, which many of the Jews to this day believe, and make use of the instance of the Pythoniss raising Samuel; on which account the Devils, to favour an opinion so advantageous to their interest, might appear with greater terror and fury about their burying-places; as we see they did in those possessed persons. But on whatever account it was, we find it evident, that about the time of our Saviour's appearance, and some time after, the truly Evepyéuevo were very frequent; whether it were that the Devil, by such frequent possessions of persons, and making them to do such strange things, might thereby endeavour to invalidate the evidence of our Saviour's miracles, (from whence it is probable the Pharisees raised their calumny, that Christ did miracles by Beelzebub, because they saw so many strange appearances caused by possessed persons,) or whether it were through the admirable providence of God, which might give Satan the greater liberty at that time, on purpose to heighten the glory of our Saviour in dispossessing of him, and thereby to give the highest rational evidence that his power was of God, which tended so much to the destruction of the kingdom of Satan.. V. And hence the primitive Christians did so much triumph, and, as it were, insult over the Devil wherever they found him, making him to remove his lodgings from possessed persons, by a writ of ejection from the name of Christ. Thence Origen rationally concludes that Christ had his power given him from above, because at his IX. Ed. Ouz. very name the devils forsook the bodies which they had CHAP. possessed, Εἰ γὰρ μὴ θεόθεν ἦν αὐτῷ δοθεῖσα σύςασις, ἐκ ἂν καὶ δαίμονες τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτᾶ ἀπαγγελλομένῳ μόνον εἴκοντες ἀνεχώρεν Οrig. c. ἀπὸ τῶν ὑπ ̓ αὐτῶν πολεμουμένων. And he elsewhere tells us, Cels. 1. iii. that even the meanest sort of Christians, without p. 133. any Ed. Spenceremony, but merely by their prayers, did ordinarily cer. eject the Devil out of men's bodies: s nímav yàp idiātas Ibid. 1. vii. τὸ τοιῦτον πράττεσι, παριςάσης τῆς ἐν τῷ λόγῳ Χρις χάριτος τὸ ρ. 334. τῶν δαιμόνων εὐτελὲς καὶ ἀσθενὲς, ο πάντως δεόμενον, πρὸς τὸ ἡτληθῆναι, καὶ εἶξαν ὑπεξελθεῖν ἀπὸ ψυχῆς ἀνθρώπου καὶ σώματος, σοφᾶ τινὸς καὶ δυνατοῦ ἐν ταῖς λογικαῖς περὶ τῆς πίςεως ἀποδείξεσι, Ordinary Christians, saith he, most commonly do this, the grace of Christ, by its word, thereby discovering the contemptibleness and infirmity of the devils, that in order to their ejection they did not want any learned or experienced Christian. And for this they appeal to the Heathens themselves; as appears not only by the challenge of Tertullian, already mentioned, but by the testimony of almost all of them who have writ against the Heathens in vindication of the Christian religion. Thence Minutius Minut. FeFelix, Hæc omnia sciunt plerique, pars vestrum, ipsos lix, p. 252. dæmonas de semetipsis confiteri, quoties à nobis tormentis verborum, et orationis incendiis de corporibus exiguntur. Ipse Saturnus et Serapis, et Jupiter, et quicquid dæmonum colitis, victi dolore quod sunt eloquuntur: nec utique in turpitudinem sui, nonnullis præsertim vestrum assistentibus, mentiuntur. Ipsis testibus eos esse dæmonas, de se verum confitentibus credite; adjurati enim per Deum verum et solum, inviti, miseri, corporibus inhorrescunt; et vel exsiliunt statim, vel evanescunt gradatim, prout fides patientis adjuvat, aut gratia curantis aspirat. Can we now think the Devil should not only forsake his tyranny over the bodies of men, but let go so advantageous a pillar of his tyranny over the consciences of men in idolatrous worship, as the concealing himself was, had he not been forced to it by a power far greater than his own? So Cyprian ad Demetrianum appeals to him, being the Proconsul of Africa, about the same thing, (who had written sharply against the Christians,) for speaking of the devils whom they worshipped in their idols, O si audire eos velles et videre, Cyprian, ad quando à nobis adjurantur et torquentur spiritalibus flagris Demetr. et verborum tormentis de obsessis corporibus ejiciuntur, quan- Ed. Oxon. do ejulantes et gementes voce humana, et potestate divina Aagella et verbera sentientes, venturum judicium confitentur. Veni et cognosce vera esse quæ dicimus. And a little after, Videbis sub manu nostra stare vinctos, et tremere cap p. 191. BOOK tivos, quos tu suspicis et veneraris ut Dominos. Did ever II. any of the Heathen magicians (of which there were good store) extort such things from the devils, as the Christians did, merely by their prayers and invocations of the name of God and Christ? Did they ever make them confess to be what they were, not only in possessed bodies, but in their temples too? That was beyond the power of their Ephesian letters, or any of their magical incantations. Did the devils ever dread so much the name of Socrates or Aristides, as they did that of God and Lactant. de Christ? Of which Lactantius thus speaks, Quo audito Justitia, tremunt, exclamant, et uri se verberarique testantur, et inEd. Oxon. terrogati, qui sint, quomodo venerint, quando in hominem irrepserint, confitentur. Sic extorti, et excruciati virtute divini numinis exulant. Propter hæc verbera et minas, sanctos et justos viros semper oderunt. And even Apollo himself at the name of Christ trembled as much as ever the Pythian prophetess did in her greatest furies. Prudentius tells us, lib. v. c. 21. Prudent. Errore Prof. Relig. Torquetur Apollo Nomine percussus Christi, nec fulmina verbi purpose, So Firmicus de To these we may add what Firmicus saith to the same Ecce Dæmon est quem colis; cum Dei et Christi ad calcem. ejus nomen audierit, contremiscit, et ut interrogantibus nobis respondeat trepidantia verba, vix se colligit; adhærens homini laceratur, uritur, vapulat, et statim de commissis sceleribus confitetur. By which testimonies it appears what power over Satan, when he was in his kingdom, the Christians, by the power of Christ, had; not as though the bare name of Christ had so great an efficacy in the Origen c. ejection of devils, as Origen seems to be of opinion, (in a Cels. 1. 1. discourse about the efficacy of names, unworthy of so great a philosopher,) but that God might manifest to the world the truth that was contained in that name, he did give a power to such as made use of it, of working miracles by it. And thence we read in Scripture, that some who were not thoroughly Christians, but yet professed the truth of the Gospel, and that what they did was for Matt. vii. the honour of Christ, had a power of casting out devils, and doing many wonderful things through his name. 22. By these and many other testimonies which might be produced out of the primitive Church, we find an exact accomplishment of our Saviour's promise to his Disciples IX. when he took his leave of them: And these signs shall CHAP. Disc. 1. v. 1. vi. p. 302. |