Sermons Preached Before the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, from 1812 to 1819 Volume 2 - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1831 Excerpt: ... SERMON VI. Matthew viii. 28. And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass hy that way. AMONG the several kinds of miracles by which our Lord manifested his Divine power during his abode on earth, none have undergone more rigid inquiry than those which relate to the healing of persons said to have been possessed with devils. And the reason why these may be thought liable to more suspicion than others, is, perhaps, because the disease itself, as well as the removal of it, is represented to have been preternatural in its kind. The subject also is so frequently brought under our observation by the Evangelists, as one of the most prominent features in our Lord's ministry, that to form a right conception of it cannot but be deemed of great importance. Nor (as I shall endeavour to prove in this Discourse) is it attended with lift any insuperable difficulties, notwithstanding the labours of sceptical men to involve it in doubt and perplexity. The first point to be considered is the nature of the malady itself, as it is represented to us in the sacred history. By what external symptoms the disorders with which the Demoniacs were afflicted were distinguishable from other bodily maladies, and how it was discerned that they were produced by the agency of evil spirits, it is not easy for those who never witnessed such occurrences to form a clear apprehension. But that there were certain tokens by which these diseases were then generally known, so as not to be confounded with ordinary distempers, it is reasonable to infer from the manner in which they are spoken of by the sacred writers, from the peculiar circumstances related of th...