OF all the miracles said to have been wrought by Jesus, as recorded in the Gospels, the casting out of devils are among the foremost. The case of Mary Magdalene is often referred to by Jesus himself; it is related that no less than seven had taken possession of her person. It is truly wonderful, that at the time of Christ’s preaching, the old Devil of all, and a host of subordinate ones, appeared to be more active than at any other time of which we have any account The Old Devil came forward after an absence of more than four thousand years; for, we have no account that he, either in person or by proxy, had visited God’s chosen people, admitting that it was he, who, by the agency of a serpent, or by any other means, deceived Adam and Eve, by which deception, pain, and even death, followed as a consequence. Satan might well think that he could afford to rest awhile, till Jehovah should make some new movement to benefit the human race.
How the Devil came to know that Jesus was about to commence preaching repentance for the remission of sin, we have no means of finding out; but, when Jesus had retired into the wilderness, behold the Devil was close at his heels, and they seemed to be as well acquainted as two old playmates. The Devil was well fitted for discussion, for he appeared well versed with the Old Testament. However, if he were the same Devil who outwitted Jehovah in Paradise, he failed to obtain a victory over the Son in the wilderness. What became of him after his defeat on the Temple, and when he came down from the mountain, we have no account No mention is made of his being concerned in riding the hogs into the sea. We must, therefore, leave him, and attend to the triumph of Jesus in ejecting them from their strong holds.
The first in order which we shall review, as being possessed of devils, will be Mary Magdalene, out of whom, it is recorded, Jesus cast seven devils. This woman must be considered most grievously afflicted. How they operated on her—whether it was by inflicting bodily pain, or a mental disease, we know not; at any rate, she seemed incapable of getting rid of them. The number being seven, and having dispositions opposed to each other, they no doubt often quarrelled among themselves, and disturbed her in her sleeping hours; at all events, her gratitude and attachment to Jesus is proof positive that she preferred their room to their company.
Christians, in speaking of Mary Magdalene, convey the idea, that, previous to the casting out of the devils, she did not bear a good character. But this is a mistake; for, if the New Testament account of devils taking possession of persons, be true, and that no human power can eject them, it then follows, that Mary Magdalene was truly unfortunate, since no less than seven of these intruders were constantly about her. We are left to conjecture how the number seven could have been discovered. If Mary had been compelled to have had seven teeth extracted, the number could have been fully known to those who stood by; but how, or in what way, it could have been known that seven devils were cast out, unless they appeared visible to the by-standers, does not appear. But we will not dwell too long on such sheer nonsense, as not one word of truth is in the whole story of casting out devils; for the best of all possible reasons, because there were none at all to cast out. It is recorded that the Jews were troubled with devils of different kinds, such as unclean devils, deaf and dumb devils, and, in one case, a kind of devil which could not be cast out only by prayer and fasting. If, at the present day, a person was to apply for medical aid, and hint to the doctor that his wife was really possessed with (not seven) but one devil, the doctor would consider such a man a fit subject for a lunatic asylum.
As it respects demoniacal possession, it is, or rather was of heathen origin. The Jews, as a nation, believed in its truth, as did also the surrounding nations; consequently, if a person had a complaint attended with fits, or any thing rather out of the common way, by which human beings were afflicted, such a disease was considered a possession of one or more evil spirits. But now, that the laws of nature are better understood, and medical science more fully developed, demonology, as well as witchcraft and sorcery, are given up altogether. No doubt now remains, but that the whole was the effect of ignorance and fraud; and consequently the casting out of devils by Jesus and his apostles, had no reality in it whatever. It is not possible for us to conceive why demons or devils should have taken possession of human beings, admitting that they have a real existence. We are ignorant as to the state of mind of these beings. Whether in those days they took possession of men and women out of rebellion against God, or, having no real home, were only wanderers, and felt more comfortable when dwelling in the bodies of animals or of human beings, we cannot determine. The latter, however, appears to have been the case; for, an one occasion, when Jesus was about to expel a legion, the devils besought him to permit them to enter into the swine; but it is recorded, that the hogs started off down into the sea, and were drowned. What became of the devils, we know not. If this miracle took place, one thing is clear, namely, that the devils, with all their cunning, made a bad calculation as to the security they would have m the swine.
At the time Jesus is said to have lived among the Jews, the casting out of devils was a common occurrence; for Jesus, in reply to the charge that he cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince or chief of devils, says, “If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore they shall be the judges,” So that, after all, it follows, that what so many could do without the authority of Jesus, was no miracle at all. It was nothing short of imposition, and failed of being any proof of his divine mission. The truth is, that casting out devils was a heathen practice, among many other things, of heathenish origin; and Jesus, according to the New Testament, fell in with it, as he did with many doctrines which the Jews brought into the land of Israel when they returned from their long captivity. The Jews brought back with them the belief of a future state of rewards and punishments, the existence of the soul, a heaven for the virtuous and good, and a hell for the wicked; also good and bad angels, and a future judgment, over which Jesus said to the Jews he was appointed to be the judge. Notwithstanding the silence of the Old Testament as to the tenets above noticed, yet Jesus fell in with them, and he also threatened the Jews that they were in danger of that very hell and damnation which they gathered from their heathen conquerors. Ye Christian priests! your heaven and hell, and also your devil, belong to and originated in a heathen mythology, the beginning of which is lost in a remote antiquity. Yes, Christian doctors! your heaven and hell, which, from the hope of the first, and the fear of the last, you teach as divine truths, and, by so doing, live in splendor,—these very doctrines have nothing divine about them, and you ought to know it.
Leaving, then, the miracles of casting out devils, which were no proof of the divine mission of Jesus, because others, it is said, could, without his aid, do the same, we must refer to the other miracles said to have been performed and intended to establish his claim as being the true Messiah, the sent of God. If the miracles that Jesus performed, had been intended to remove all doubts that the Jewish nation had as to his being an impostor, such miracles ought to have been sufficiently convincing for that purpose; for, on such test, his reception or rejection entirely depended. Now, from the accounts of his appealing to his countrymen, and reproaching them for their unbelief, he does not, to all appearance, wish nor try to convince them; for, it is said of his, miracles, that “he did not many mighty works because of their unbelief.” Their incredulity as to his being the true Christ, is a reason why he should have followed up miracle after miracle, until unbelief would have been impossible on the part of the Jews; for, the reader must keep in mind that the dispute with Jesus and the Jews was not of a moral character: it was as to his authority in assuming to be greater than Abram, or all the prophets of the Old Testament.
Again, Jesus says, “Woe unto you [of such a town or village,] for if the mighty works which have been done in you, had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes.” “Therefore it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for you.” Now here we can see, that the miracles were not of the sort to convince. Then, why not produce others more strong? Besides, it showed Jesus to be ignorant of the human mind, his condemning men for not believing when the evidence was not strong enough to convince them. It is true, according to the accounts of Christ’s preaching to the Jews, that instead of argument he resorted to abuse of the coarsest kind, and the same conduct is pursued by Christians towards unbelievers at the present day. In some instances, Jesus charged the persons on whom a miracle had been performed, that they should tell none of it.
Again, the evidence arising from the working of miracles must always depend on the information possessed by those before whom such signs and wonders were wrought. If Jesus intended to rest his Messiahship on the wonders he intended to perform, in such a case the most learned and best informed of the Jewish nation were the proper persons to be the judges for, in our day, in the nineteenth century, we have daily proof that so universal is ignorance, and so credulous is the mass of society, that such trash and inconsistent doctrines as those taught by Joseph Smith and his famous Golden Bible have gained thousands Of believers, and the greatest part of them are sincere, and would suffer death sooner than renounce what they believe to be a divine revelation to Smith, and others of the same stamp. The most learned and intelligent of the Jews knew this truth, as many of their ignorant people had been led away by false Christs, and lost their all, and their lives also. No wonder, then, that they should watch closely every movement made by Jesus, the then reputed Messiah. There are, in the present age, many things discovered and known to the most unlearned, that, in former times, much less remote than the time in which Jesus is said to have lived, Would have been thought miraculous, and the persons performing them as possessing power more than human. So that we may safely conclude, that Infinite Wisdom would not have made use of so uncertain a species of evidence as miracles, to convince the Jews that the sent of God was come. Other and more certain means would have been resorted to, so that the Jews could not have mistaken the real Christ, and put him to death for an impostor.
If we attentively examine the life of Jesus, as written by the four evangelists, we shall be surprised at many parts of his proceedings. His uncourteous language to the great men of his nation must strike the reader very forcibly. He preaches humility and meekness, and soon we perceive him arrogating divine honors, and calling those, who came before him, robbers and thieves. He commands his followers to judge not, and the next moment he judges others, and condemns them without ceremony; and although it is said of him, that “a bruised reed he would not break, and smoking flax he would not quench,” and that “his voice could not be heard in the street,” yet we find him using something very little short of outrage and violence. In the affair of the Temple, for instance, it is recorded that Jesus took a cord, and began to attack those sitting about that sacred place, “overthrowing the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves,” calling them “a den of thieves.” Such conduct the Jews could not expect from their long-wished and earnestly-desired Messiah.