sometimes called the country of the Gergesenes, sometimes the country of the Gadarenes. In other respects, the narratives of the three Evangelists are so similar, as to leave no doubt that they all relate to one and the same transaction.

The fury of these Demoniacs (particularly of that one whom St. Mark and St. Luke describe) is represented as so outrageous, that "no man might pass by that way;" nor could any art or force subdue it. Nevertheless, at the sight of Jesus, a most extraordinary indication of awe and terror appears in their demeanour towards Him:-" What have we to "do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art "thou come hither to torment us before the "time?" Art thou come to send us, before the final day of judgment, into that place of torment which we know to be prepared for us hereafter? "for" (add the other Evangelists) "he had commanded the unclean spirit "to come out of the man." Jesus then (that the greatness of the miracle might be the more apparent) "asked him, saying, What "is thy name? And he said, Legion; because

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many devils had entered into him. And

they besought Him, that he would not com"mand them to go out into the deep","— g Mark v. 8. Luke viii. 29.

h Luke viii. 30, 31.

into that abyss where they were to be reserved in chains of darkness, but that he would suffer them to continue for some time earth.

longer upon

Such was the condition in which our Lord found these wretched sufferers. To treat the discourse which they thus held with him as the mere ravings of a disordered imagination, is only attempting to get rid of one difficulty at the expense of another still greater. For whence could persons thus disordered in mind, and secluded from the haunts of men,so much so, that all intercourse with them had been shunned as dangerous and terrific, whence could they have such knowledge of the character of Jesus and of the purpose of his coming, as to confess him to be the Son of God, and to deprecate his judgments? If the paroxysm of the disorder was upon them at the moment, surely such an acknowledgment of his personal dignity and office is altogether inconceivable. And if it were a lucid interval, would not the unhappy individuals, like other bodily sufferers, rather have implored the help of the compassionate Jesus, than have shrunk from his approach? From this dilemma it seems impossible to extricate those who deny, in this instance, any other agency on the part of the maniac, than

passage,

that of his own distempered faculties. But admit, according to the obvious and literal interpretation of the the actual possession of the man by evil spirits, and no other difficulty adheres to it than that which must ever attend all attempts on our part to conceive how any spiritual power can act upon the bodily organs; a difficulty which we must be content to leave unexplained, until the time may arrive when "we shall know 66 even as we are known."

The literal exposition, however, of this part of the narrative, is rendered still more certain, from what immediately follows. "There was a good way off from them an "herd of many swine feeding: so the devils "besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, "suffer us to go into the herd of swine. "And he said unto them, Go. And when

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they were come out, they went into the "herd of swine; and behold, the whole herd "of swine ran violently down a steep place "into the sea, and perished in the waters."

Respecting this part of the transaction, it seems hardly possible to explain away the alleged agency of the evil spirits. No paroxysm of phrensy, no distemper of the imagination, on the part of the Demoniacs themselves, can be conceived capable of forming,

much less of executing, so strange a design. The agents, whatever they were, which had taken possession of the men, manifestly transferred their violence to the helpless brutes, and hurried them to destruction. The men, on the other hand, (as both St. Mark and St. Luke relate,) having instantly recovered their understandings, were found "sitting, clothed, "and in their right mind." One of them even requested Jesus "that he might be with him. Howbeit, Jesus suffered him not;

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but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, "and tell them how great things the Lord "hath done for thee, and hath had compas❝sion on thee. And he departed, and began "to publish in Decapolis how great things "Jesus had done for him "."

Such was the publicity given to the whole of this transaction; and such the accumulation of evidence, tending to shew that in this signal instance our Lord was contending with a power more than human, with a power which no mortal skill or strength could subdue; at the same time testifying his dominion over the spirits as well as the bodies of men, and his ability to rescue them from the malignant enemies of the one, no

i Mark v. 15. Luke viii. 35.

* Mark v. 18, 19, 20.

less than from the natural maladies of the other.

Thus far every thing tends to illustrate the Divine power and goodness of the Saviour of mankind. But there is yet a difficulty to be noticed respecting our Lord's compliance with the request of the evil spirits to enter into the herd of swine; permitting, not only the destruction of the animals, but also loss and injury to the owners of them, who do not appear to have had any concern in the transaction.

This is one of the very few instances, if not the only one, in which our Lord's miraculous power was exercised in producing consequences injurious to men's temporal interests. The probable solution of the matter appears to be this.

The country of the Gadarenes, or Gergesenes, though belonging to the Jewish nation, was inhabited partly by Jews and partly by heathens. By the law of Moses, the Jews were prohibited from eating swine's flesh: and by a subsequent law they were forbidden to keep swine in their country. Whether, therefore, this herd were kept by Jews, in direct violation of their law; or by heathens, as a snare to the Jews, who were thereby tempted to transgress the Law; its destruc