Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/50

42 possessed. Verily of all the diseases with which Satan hath been permitted by the Unsearchable (blessed is He) to afflict the children of men, this disease is the worst and cruellest; inasmuch as it poisoneth the very springs of love, causing the son to hate even the father that begot him and the mother that gave him suck.

What were the causes of this evil, wise men have asked, and have given no certain answer. They at Jerusalem said that it was a chastisement because of men's neglect of worship in the Holy Temple; and certain it is, that Gentiles and outcasts from the synagogue were more often possessed than the devout. Nay, I have known some (more especially women) that, having been possessed, were cured by the offering of sacrifice, or by a more constant attending on the worship in the Temple. Others said that it was a punishment for eating swine's flesh; others for dwelling in houses built amid tombs or on ancient burial-places. But others said that they which lived in the lowlands about the Lake of Gennesareth and in the valley of Jordan were more under the unclean demons; for that the demons possessed and ruled over waterish and low-lying regions. And so much is undoubted, that in the inland highlands of Galilee there were few possessed, and in Jerusalem none, or at least no number worthy of mention; but down in Jericho and Capernaum the possessed could be seen at the corner of every street.

Cure there was none, or at least no certain cure. Sometimes sudden terror or sudden joy availed to drive out the unclean spirit. I have heard of one Joachim the son of Levi, that was vexed with a dumb spirit for many years; but seeing some robbers about to kill his father, the string of his tongue was unloosed, and he cried out to them not to kill him. But no physic, nor no diet, was of any certain avail. This uncertainty brought great gain to many