the same Divine Agency, as exercised upon the higher elements of human minds. I learn further to trace up that agency to the INCARNATE GOD, so as to behold in His DIVINE HUMANITY all the fulness of deity and of omnipotence. 1 am instructed yet further, by the spiritual sense of this miracle, to look up to that INCARNATE GOD for protection under all my spiritual trials and temptations, and especially for deliverance from the winds and waves of my own boisterous passions excited by the destructive influence of the powers of darkness. Lastly, I am taught that in such perturbation and tempests of the natural mind, the BLESSED JESUS frequently appears to be asleep, and that He can only be awakened by fervent prayer arising from a mind sensible of its danger and of its inability to be its own deliverer. I am resolved therefore henceforth, in all my spiritual trials and troubles, to apply to and put my whole trust in the HOLY JESUS, and then I may humbly hope that he will arisé, and rebuke the winds and sea, so as to produce a great calm in my disturbed mind. Then too shall I also be led to marvel at the omnipotence of His operations, and to answer the interesting question, What manner of man is this, by the devout and grateful acknowledgment that He is GoD over all blessed for ever, the ALPHA AND. OMEGA, the BEGINNING and the ENDING of all spiritual life, power, protection, benediction, and salvation; to whom be ascribed all praise, honour and glory, for ever. AMEN!

52

THE POSSESSED WITH DE-
VILS COMING OUT OF THE
TOMBS.

MATT. viii. 28 to the end.

And when He was come to the other side, to 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 by that way, &c. &c.

Q. How do you understand the miracle here recorded, according to its literal sense?

A. According to the literal sense of this miracle, are to be understood two men, who, as to their bodies, were possessed or obsessed by infernal spirits, coming out from amongst the filth and impurity of sepulchres, and so exceeding fierce and ungovernable, that it was unsafe for any one to come near them. And by the devils requesting to be permitted to enter into the herd of swine, and by the herd, when such permission was granted, running down a steep place into the sea, and perishing in the waters, is further to be understood, that the devils find delight in entering into the bodies of unclean animals, and then in instigating those animals to their own destruction,

Q. And how do you understand this miracle according to its spiritual sense, or according to that sense which is veiled under the letter?

A. According to the spiritual sense, by two are not to be understood two men, but two principles: and by their being possessed of devils, and meeting JESUS, is further to be understood, that those principles were in connexion with the power of darkness, and thus in opposition to the HOLY JESUS, that is to say, to his divine love and divine wisdom. And by their coming out of the tombs is further to be understood their issuing forth from their infernal abodes: and by their being exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that is further described the violence of their way, opposition to the eternal truth, so that it was impossible for any truth to be manifested before them. According to this sense, therefore, by the devils beseeching JESUS to suffer them to enter into the herd of swine, and by JESUS permitting them, is further to be understood, that infernal spirits take delight in infesting both the bodies and minds of men, and that when, by the Word of the GREAT REDEEMER, they are expelled from the minds of the humble, and the penitent, they then take refuge, and this by divine permission, in the minds of those who are here figured by the swine, that is to say, of the sordidly sensual and avaricious, who, under their infernal influence, descend rapidly into the infernal pit, and there perish in the polluted waters of all infernal persuasions.

Q. And what do you conceive the two princi

ples to be, which are described as possessed of devils, and meeting JESUS?

A. By these two principles are to be understood the principle of evil in the human will, and the principle of error in the human understanding, both of them in connexion with infernal agency: and by their meeting JESUS is further described a trial or temptation, which the SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD endured from the powers of darkness operating in His infirm humanity, before it was fully glorified, or made divine.

Q. But it is written, that the devils cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, JESUS, thou SON OF GOD? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?—what do you understand by these words?

A. By the devils crying out, saying, What have we to do with thee, JESUS, thou SON OF GOD? is to be understood the vehemence of their opposition to the principles of the divine love and wisdom, notwithstanding their conviction that those principles were incarnate in the BLESSED JESUS. By the same words therefore is described, the torment under which they laboured through the opposition between their wills and their understandings, since with their understandings they knew the truth, but with their wills they hated and rejected it. They therefore exclaim, Art thou come hither to torment us (or, as it is expressed in the 'original, to explore us,) before the time? to denote, that the manifestation of the divine truth was to them a source of the most exquisite pangs, because it was in opposition to

their ruling love, and that consequently nothing is more painful to a wicked infernal being, than to have his purposes and thoughts thus exposed to the scrutinizing light of the divine intelligence.

Q. You have already told me what is to be understood by the herd of swine, and by the devils requesting permission to enter into them. Can you explain to me what is further to be understood by the words of the BLESSED JESUS, where it is written, He said unto them, Go?

A. The significant term Go, involves in it the whole of the divine will respecting the powers of darkness, which is, that they be eternally sepa. rated from Him, His kingdom, and His children, so as to be incapable of doing any mischief either to the GREAT FATHER OF BEING, or to His happy family. Under every spiritual trial therefore, stirred up by the powers of darkness in the minds of the humble and the penitent, the GREAT SAVIOUR is ever uttering the same authoritative command, Go; and the effect of this divine word is, to remove those powers from their usurped abode, that they may enter into minds congenial to their own, and precipitate them into their own infernal kingdom.

Q. What then is the general instruction which you learn from the above miracle?

A. I learn again to adore that divine power, which was manifested to destroy the works of the devil, and overturn their empire, whether established in the bodies or in the souls of men. learn also from the above miracle, that the

I