Mark v. ll) — 18. And they that saiv it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning
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the swine. And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil, prayed him that he might be ivith him.
THE miracles of our blessed Lord were certainly intended in the first instance to attest the truth of his divine mission ; in which view he himself fre- quently appeals to them. But they were also in- tended to shadow forth the benefits which he was to confer on the souls of men. In both these points of view the miracle before us is deserving of the most attentive consideration. True it is that infidels have attempted to reduce this miracle to a mere curing of a man of an epilepsy or falling sickness. But it is evident that devils were expelled from him by the power of our Lord, since it was by them that the herd of swine were impelled to rush into the sea. A single man, or two men (for St. Matthew tells us there were twoa, though St. Mark notices only one, as being by far the greater monument of our Lord's power,) could not drive twenty swine into the sea, and much less two thousand, of which number this herd consisted13: and this destruction of the swine con- sequent upon the expulsion of the devils from the poor demoniac, shewed how great a deliverance had been effected for him, and how entirely all the hosts of hell were subject to the controul of our blessed Lord.
To enter into these events aright, we should con- sider them,
I. As they occurred on that occasion — We notice,
1. The miracle wrought —
[Satan at that time had great power over the bodies of men : and a whole " legion" of devils had at that time occupied that poor unhappy man, whom they endued with a strength wholly supernatural ; insomuch that no chains or fetters could confine himc. But at the command of Jesus they came forth, and left their captive at perfect liberty. Fearing that Jesus
a Matt. viii. 28. b ver< 13i c ver. 3_5.