But, besides this, it must be added that, to say of a case that it is one of disease or insanity, gives no real explanation of it at all ; it merely refers it to a class of cases which we know to exist, but gives no answer to the further question, how did the disease or insanity arise ? £ven in disease, whenever the mind acts upon the body (as e. g. in nervous disorders, epilepsy, etc.), the mere derangement of the physical organs is not the whole cause of the evil ; there is a deeper one ly- ing in the mind. Insanity may indeed arise, in some cases, ftx>m the physical injury or derangement of those bodily organs through which the mind exercises its powers, but far oftener it appears to be due to met- aphysical causes, acting upon and disordering the mind itself. In all cases where the evil lies not in the body, but in the mind, to call it *'only disease or insanity'* b merely to state the fact of the disorder, and give up all explanation of its cause. It is an assumption, therefore, which requires proof, that, amid the many inexplicable phenomena of mental and physical dis- ease in our own days, there are none in which one gifted with ** discernment of spirits" might see signs of what the Scripture calls ** possession."
The truth is, that here, as in many other instances, the Bible, without contradicting ordinary experience, yet advances to a region where human science cannot follow. As generally it connects the existence of mental and bodily suffering in the world with the in- troduction of moral corruption by the Fall, and refers the power of moral evil to a spiritual and personal source, so also it asserts the existence of inferior spir*
DiEaiONIAC
642
DAGON
Hs of erS, and it reftn oertaiii caaes of bodflj and mental disease to the influence which they are permit- ted to exercise directly over the soul and indirectly oyer the body. Inexplicable to ub this influence cer- tainly is, as all action of spirit on spirit is found to be ; but no one can pronounce ^ priori whether it be im- possible or improbable, and no one has a right to eyis- oerate the strong expressions of Scripture in order to reduce its declarations to a level with our own igno- rance. See C0HDK8CEN8IOH.
8. We are led, therefore, to the ordinary and literal interpretation of tiiese passages, that there are evil spirits (see DiBMon), subjects of the Evil One, who, in the days of the Lord himself and his apostles es- pecially, were permitted by God to exercise a direct influence over the souls and bodies of certain men. This influence is clearly distinguished ftom the ordi- nary power of c<Hrruption and temptation wielded by Satan through the permission of God. Its relation to it, indeed, appears to be exactly that of a aniracle to God^s ordinary Providence, or of special prophetic in- spiration to the ordinary gifts of tiie Holy Spirit Both (that is) are actuated by the same general prin- ciples, and tend to the same general ol^}ect; but the former is a special and direct manifestation of that which is worked out in the latter by a long course of indirect action. The distinguishing fsature of posses- sion is the complete or incomplete loss of the suflferer's reason or power of will ; his actions, his words, and almost his thoughts are mastered by the evU spirit (Mark i, 24; v, 7; Acts xix, 15), till his personality seems to be destroyed, or, if not destroyed, so over- borne as to produce the consciousness of a twofold will within liim, like that sometimes felt in a dream. In the ordinary temptations and assaults of Satan, the will itself yields consciously, and by yielding gradu- ally assumes, without losing its apparent flreedom of action, the characteristics of the Satanic nature. It is solicited, urged, and persuaded against the strivings of grace, but not overborne.
Such possession, however, is only the special and, as it were, miraculous form of the ** law of sin in the members," the power of Satan over the heart itself, recognised by Paul as an indwelling and struggling power (Bom. vii, 21-24). Nor can it be doubted that it was rondered possible in the first instanoe by the consent of the sufferer to temptation and to sin. That it would be most probable in those who yielded to ietuual temptations may easily be conjectured from general observation of the tyranny of a habit of sensu- al indulgence. The cases of the habitually lustAil, the opium-eater, and the drunkard (especially when struggling in the last extremity of delirium tremens) bear, as has often been noticed, many marks very sim- ilar to those of the scriptural possession. There is in them physical disease, but there is often something more. It is also to be noticed that the state of pos- session, although so awfbl in its wretched sense of dsB- monia(»l tyranny, yet, from the very fiict of that con- sdonsness, might be less hopeless and more capable of instant cure than the deliberate hardness of wOftd sin. The spirit might still retain marks of its original puri- ty, although through the flesh and the dsmoniac power acting by the flesh it was enslaved. Here, also, the ob- servation of the suddenness and completeness of con- version seen in cases of sensualism, compared with the greater difficulty in cases of more refined and spiritual sin, tends to confirm the record of Scripture.