AN 1 ESS A Y Ο Ν THE DEMONIACS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. BY HUGH FARMER. Videndum eft ut--sobriè fapiamus ex Dei verbo, nè pro BEZA. LONDON, Printed for G. ROBINSON, in Pater-nofter-Row. CONTENTS. HE Introduction, page i. THE CHA P. I. Explaining and establishing the true meaning of demoniacs in the New Tef tament, under the ten following propofitions, p. 12. SECT. I. PROP. I. The fpirits that were thought to take poffeffion of men's bodies, are in the New Teftament called demons, not devils, ib. An objection anfwered, p. 14. Beelzebub, the prince of the poffeffing demons, different from the devil, p. 16. The term, fatan, applicable to the former, ib. SECT. II. PROP. II. By demons, whenever the word occurs in reference to poffeffions, either in the fcriptures, or other ancient writings, we are to underftand, not fallen angels, but the Pagan deities, fuch of them as had once been men, p. 21. Demons ufed in this fenfe, 1. By the Heathens, particularly the Greeks and Romans, p. 22. 2. By the Jews, p. 29. By the Pharifees in particular, when they objected to Chrift, that he caft out demons by Beel # zebub, (whose name is explained at large, and who is fhewn to be one of the Heathen demons,) p. 30; and by Jofephus, p. 40. 3. By Chrift and his Apoftles, p. 42. 4. And by the primitive Chriftians, p. 47. By Juftin Martyr, ib. How it came to pass that the fathers, after his time, and Chryfoftom in particular, referred poffeffions to celeftial demons, p. 49, note i. Of the spirit of Python or Apollo, with which the damfel at Philippi was thought to be poffeffed, p. 56. 7. SECT. III. PROP. III. Those demons who were thought to take poffeffion of men's bodies, were, it is probable, confidered by the Jews' as evil beings, p. 58. As fuch they were regarded by the Heathens, and by Jofephus, ib.. and yet not confidered as fallen angels, p. 63. Whether the epithets of evil and unclean, deaf and dumb, given them by the Evangelifts, exprefs their perfonal qualities, or the effects they were fuppofed to produce, p. 61. SECT. IV. PROP. IV. The perfons who are fpoken of as having demons, fuffered real and violent diforders, from whatever cause those disorders proceeded, P. 64. SECT. V. PROP. V. The particular disorders which the ancients, whether Heathens or Jews, afcribed to the poffeffion of demons, were fuch only as disturbed the understanding, p. 69. A diftinction to be made between difeafes fupernaturally inflicted, and possessions, ib. Of being oppreffed by the devil, Acts x. 38, p. 74, and bound by fatan, Luke xiii. 11, 16, p. 76. Pof feffion |