t went into it. The reason of which proceeding (if it be allowed
to form a conjecture on the divine counsels) might perhaps have been,
that God was pleased to testify by so manifest a sign, that he would
not, as he had promised, entirely abandon his chosen people; before
the coming of the Messias.

Wherefore upon the whole, this salutary virtue of the water, which
might be medicinal by nature, seems to be so regulated by God, as at
the same time to afford the jews a token of his presence. But the
power of Christ, administered to this infirm man, a more noble remedy
than that water, his _evil-chasing_[103] word. And this power was the
more seasonable in this case, because the disease was of so many years
standing, that it could not be removed by a natural remedy: whence his
divine virtue shone forth the more brightly.

[103] [Greek: Alexikakon].

CHAPTER IX.

_Of Demoniacs._

That the Daemoniacs, [Greek: daimonizomenoi], mentioned in the gospels,
laboured under a disease really natural, tho' of an obstinate and
difficult kind, appears to me very probable from the accounts given of
them. They were indeed affected various ways. For sometimes, they rent
their garments, and ran about naked; striking terror into all those
whom they met, and even wounding their own bodies; so very furious,
that tho' bound with chains and fetters, they broke their bonds, and
rambled in the most lonely places, and among the sepulchres of the
dead. Sometimes also they cried out, that they were possessed by many
devils, which they imagined could pass out of themselves into other
bodies.[104] At other times, either they were worried, and made a
hideous noise;[105] or were thrown on the ground, without being hurt,
and the devil went out of them.[106]

[104] _See Matthew, Ch. viii. v. 28. Mark, Ch. v. v. 2. and
Luke, Chap. viii. v. 27._

[105] _Mark, Chap. i. v. 23-26._

[106] _Luke, Chap. iv. v. 33-35._

These are all actions of madmen; but the dispute is, whether they were
wrought by devils, or by the violence of the disease. Thus much is
certain, that in those times it was a common opinion among the jews,
that evil spirits frequently took possession of people, and tortured
them in so surprizing a manner, as if they were agitated by furies.
For in the whole catalogue of diseases, which afflict mankind, there
is no other, that seems so much to surpass the force of nature, as
this, in wretchedly tormenting the