shows us how entirely all the facultiBs and powers of the unhappy demoniac were occupied and employed by the evil spirit which possessed him.
[JesuSj thou Son of Ood^ torment me not!] These words are a stnking incidental proof that there will be a judgment, and a hell. The devils believe this, if men do not.
29. — [Brake the hands!] Prodigious muscular strength has often beeu remarked as accompanying some cases of mania.
30. — [Legion.] This is a well-known name by which a division of the Eoman army was designated. A Boman Legion is supposed to have contained 5 or 6000 men. The word here is evidently used indefinitely to express a great number.
Z\.—{Into the deep.] The "deep" here means the abyss or pit of hell. It is the same Greek word which is five times translated "bottomless pit," in the book of Revelation. For instance, Rev. XX. 1, 3.
82. — [An herd of many swine feeding.] Let it be noted that to keep swine was a breach of the Mosaic law, swine being unclean animals. (Lev* ii. 7.) If therefore the Gadarenes were Jews, and there seems strong reason for supposing they were, they were committing an habitual sin.
[He suffered them.] It has often been asked, why our Lord suffered the devils to go into the swine, and permitted the con- sequent destruction of animal life which ensued. It might suffice to say in reply to this question, that Scripture shows us that animal life was continuaUy taken away by God's own command, when some great spiritual truth was to be taught to man, as in the oase of l£e sacrifices of the law. But in addition to this, it is fair to suppose that our Lord permitted the destruction of the swine, as a mark of God's displeasure against the Gadarenes for keeping them.
After all, the question is ultimately bound up with the deepest of all things : — viz. the origin and permission of evil in creation. To explain this is impossible. Enough for us to see that it exists, and to use the great remedy which God has provided against it. — ^So doing " what we know not now, we shall know hereafter."
83. — [The herd ran violently dotm, dc] The extraordinary malice, hatred of God's creation, and love of mischief, which are attributes of Satan, appear strikingly in this fact. Satan must be doing harm. If he cannot harm man, he will harm swine. Well would it be for the world, if Christians were as unwearied and zealous in doing good, as devils are in doing evil.
34. — [In the country.] This expression would be rendered more literally " in the fields."
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