Discourses on Divers Texts of Scripture, Discourses 1 · Sermon 6
S. JOHN 10. 20.Ioh. 10. 20
He hath a Devill, and is mad.
IT is a matter of greater moment, then perhaps every man thinks of, under what notions things are conceived, and from what property or Character the names we call them by, are derived. For hereby, not seldom, it comes to passe, That the same things, presented to us under different notions, and names derived therefrom, are not taken to be the same they are. Even as he, that meets a man well known unto him, in an exotick disguise, or antick habit, takes him to be some other, though he knew him never so well before. For example; a man would wonder that a Comet, (as we call it) being so remarkable and principall a work of the Divine power, and which draws the eyes of all men with admiration towards it, should no where be found mentioned in the Old Testament: Neither there, where the works of God are so often recounted to magnifie him, (when as Hail, Snow, Rain, and Iee, works of far lesse admiration are not pretermitted) neither by way of allusion and figured expression, in the Prophets predictions of great calamities and changes, whereof they were taken to be presages; especially, when we see them borrow so many other allusions, both from heaven and earth, to paint their descriptions with. Should a man therefore think, there never appeared any of them in those times, or to those Countreys? It is incredible: Or that the Jews were so dull and heedlesse as not to observe them? That is not like neither: What should we say then? Surely, they conceived of them under some other notions then we do, and accordingly expressed them some other way: As what if by a Pillar of fire, such a one perhaps as went before the Israelites in the Wildernesse; or by a Pillar of fire and smoke? as in that of Ioel, I will shew wonders in the heavens, and in the earth, Blood, and Fire, and pillars of Smoke: Or by the name of an Angel of the Lord, (whereby no doubt they are guided) according as is said of that Pillar of Fire which went before the Israelites, That the Angel of the Lord, when they were to passe the Redsea, came and stood between them and the AEgyptians, when that Pillar did so. And who knows, whether that in the 104 Psalm; may not have some meaning this way? He ma…eth his Angels Spirits, (or windes) and his Ministers a Flame of fire, to wit, because they are wont to appear in both. It comes in, in the Psalm, among other works of God, in a fit place for such a sense; both in regard of what goes before, and follows after. These, I say, or some of these may be descriptious of those we call Comets; which because they are disguised under another notion, and not denominated from Stella, or Coma, hence we know them not.
Now, to come toward my Text; a like instance to this, I take to be that of the Daemoniack, so often mentioned in the Gospel: For I make no question, but that now and then the same befals other men; whereof I have experience my self, to wit, To marvel how these Daemoniacks should so abound in, and about that Nation, which was the people of God; whereas in other Nations, and their writings, we hear of no such; And that too, as it should seem, about the time of our Saviours being on earth onelyonly; because in the time before, we finde no mention of them in Scripture. The wonder is yet the greater, because it seems notwithstanding all this, by the Story of the Gospel, not to have been accounted then by the people of the Jews, any strange or extraordinary thing, but as a matter usuall; nor besides is taken notice of by any forrain Story.
To meet with all these difficulties, (which I see not how otherwise can be easily satisfied) I am perswaded (till I shall hear better reason to the contrary,) that these Daemoniacks were no other then such as we call mad-men, and Lunaticks; at least, that we comprehend them under those names, and that therefore they both still are, and in all times and places have been, much more frequent then we imagine. The cause of which our mistake, is that disguise of another name, and notion, then we conceive them by; which makes us take them to be diverse, which are the same.
That you may rightly understand this my Assertion, (before I acquaint you with the reasons which induce me thereunto) you must know, that the Masters of Physick tell us of two kindes of Deliration, or alienation of the understanding; One, ex vi morbi, that, namely, which is with or from a Fever, called Delirium, or Phrenitis (the latter being a higher degree then the former;) Another kinde sine Febre, when a man, having no other disease, is crased and disturbed in his wits.
And this, they say, is either simple dotage, proceeding from some weaknesse of the brain, or intellective faculty; or Melancholia and Mania, which they describe and distinguish thus: Both of them to be when the understanding is so disturbed, that men imagine, speak, and do things, which are most absurd, and contrary to all reason, sense, and use of men. But their difference to be in this; that melancholia is attended with fear, sadnes, silence, retirednesse and the like symptomes: Mania with rage, raving, and fury, and actions sutable; which is most properly styled madnesse. Now then, I say, that those Daemoniacks in the Gospel were such as we call mad-men: understand me to mean, not of Deliration ex vi morbi, or of simple dotage, but of these two last kindes, Melancholici and Maniaci; whereunto adde morbus Comitialis, or the falling sicknesse, and whatsoever is properly called Lunacy.
Such as these, I say, the Jews beleeved (and so may we) to be troubled and acted with evill Spirits: as it is said of Sauls Melancholy, That an evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him; and therefore, passing by all other causes and Symptomes, they thought fit to give them their Name from this, calling them foreign, or foreign. An occasion of the more frequent use of which expression, in our Saviours time, and the ages immediately before him, then formerly, had been, or may seem to have been given by the sect of the Sadduces, which, after the time of Hyrcanus, had much prevailed, and affirmed (as S. Luke tels us) that there was no resurrection, neither Angel, nor Spirit. To affront, and cry down whose errour, it is like enough the Pharisees, and the rest of the right-beleeving Jews who followed them, affected, to draw their expressions (wheresoever they could) from Angels and Spirits: as presently they did, in the Acts, when Saint Paul awakened their faction in the Councell, saying I am a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee, &c. We finde no evill, say they, in this man, but if a Spirit or an Angel hath spoken unto him, let us not fight against God.
Having thus sufficiently stated, and explicated my assertion, now you shall hear what grounds I have for the same: First therefore, I prove it out of the Gospel it self, and that in the first place from this Scripture, which I have chosen for my text, foreign, he hath a Devil and is mad. Where I suppose the latter words to be an explication of the former.
Secondly, I prove it out of Mat. 17. 15. where it is said, There came to our Saviour a certain man kneeling down to him, and saying; Lord have mercy on my son, foreign because he is Lunatick, and sore vexed: For oft times he falleth into the Fire, and oft into the water. That this Lunatick was a Daemoniack, it is evident both out of the 15. ver. of this Chapter, where it is said, Our Saviour rebuked the Devill, and he departed out of him, and the childe was cured from that very hour: As also out of the 9. of the Gospel of Saint Luke, where it is said of the self-same person, Lo, a spirit taketh him, and he cryeth out, and it teareth him, that he foameth again, and bruising him, hardly departeth from him. By comparing of these places, you may gather what kinde of men they were, which the Scripture cals foreign.
Now I come to other Testimonies: And first, take notice, that the Gentiles also had the like apprehension of their mad-men; whence they called them Larvati, and Cerriti, where Larvati is as much as Larvis, id est, Daemonibus acti: so Festus, Larvati, saith he, furiosi & mente moti, quasi Larvis exterriti. And for Cerriti, they were so called, quasi Cereriti, hoc est, à Cerere percussi. And therefore you may remēber, that when Menechmus in Plautus fains himself mad, and talks accordingly, the Physitian, who was sent for to cure him, asks the old man who came to fetch him, whether he were Larvatus or Cerritus. If the Gentiles thought thus of their mad-men, should we think it strange the Jews should? I could tell you here, that the Turks conceit of their madmen, is not unlike this; but that they suppose the spirit that works in them, to be a good, rather then an evill one. But I let this passe.
My next testimony shall be out of Iustin Martyr, who in his second Apology ad Antoninum, to prove (at least to a Gentile) that the souls of men have existence and sense after death, brings for an argument their Necyomantia, and their Evocationes Mortuorum, together with other the like: & in the last place this of Daemoniacks; where by his descriptiō of them, we may easily gather what kinde of people they were, which were so taken to be. Item illi (saith he) qui à mortuorum manibus corripiuntur (for such were these Daemonia taken to be) at que humi abjiciuntur homines foreign which all call Daemoniacks and mad-men: foreign therefore and foreign were all one, as men then conceived. Note here that these foreign were taken to be the souls of men deceased, and that not among the Gentiles onelyonly, but (as may seem) among the Jews also. For Iosephus in his seventh Book De Bello Iudaico, Cap. 25. mentioning these foreign upon occasion of a certain herb, supposed to be good for them, saith expresly by way of Parenthesis, foreign (sc. foreign, Spiritus sunt pessimorum …om…num vivis immersi. I tell not this meaning to avouch it for true; but only that you might understand, how Iustin Martyrs argument proceeds, to prove that souls have existence after Death, from Daemonia…i.
My last proof is taken from those Energumeni, (which are all one with foreign) so often mentioned in the Church Liturgies, in the ancient Canons, and in other Ecclesiasticall writings, many ages after our Saviours being on earth; and that, not as any rare and unaccustomed thing, but as ordinary and usuall. They were wont to send them out of the Church, when the Liturgie began; as they did the Poenitentes, Auditores, and Catechumeni, which might not be partakers of the holy Mysteries. If those were not such, as we now adayes conceive of no otherwise then as mad-men, surely the world must be supposed to be very well rid of Devils, over it hath been; which for my part I beleeve not. Nay, that these foreign or foreign, were such as I speak of, Balsamon and Zonaras both in their Scholia upon the Canons of the Church, will, I think, inform us: For to reconcile two Canons, concerning these Energumeni, which seem contradictory, one (called of the Apostles) in these words; Si quis Daemonem habet, ne fiat Clericus, sed neque cum fidelibus precetur: Another of Timotheus, quondam Patriarch of Alexandria, speaking thus, Si qui fidelis foreign, debet esse sanctorum mysteriorum particeps. To reconcile these, I say, they affirm, the former (which admits them not) to be meant foreign, or foreign, of him that is continually and alwayes mad; ne forte quid mali aut inhonesti agat, aut Daemoniac as voces emittat, ita ut populum Dei conturbet, atque divinum officium impediat. But that of Timotheus which admits them, to be understood foreign, of him that is mad but by fits, and hath his Lucida intervalla. And thus I have acquainted you with what I have observed, to confirm me in Vide Chrysostomi epistol. foreign. Item de precibus in ecclesia pro Energumenis; Hom. 4, & 5. de incomprehensibili Dei natura, versus finem inter Serm. ad Pop. Antioch.this opinion, and make no doubt, but there are more passages yet to be found, this way, then I have met with.