We pass on now to the casting out of evil spirits, which implies that persons may sometimes be possessed by such spirits, and this is often thought to be a difficulty. But though our ignorance on the subject is undoubtedly great, there is nothing incredible here. For we have already admitted the influence of such spirits ([Chapter XII.]), and what is called possession is merely an extreme form of influence. Indeed, the accounts of mesmerism at the present day, though they cannot always be trusted, seem to show that even one man may so entirely possess the mind and will of another as to make him do whatever he wishes. And it is certainly no more difficult to believe that this power may in some cases be exercised by an evil spirit. With regard to the outward symptoms mentioned in the Gospels, they seem to have resembled certain forms of madness; though, as the patients are now kept under restraint in civilised countries, they have not the same notoriety.
But it may be said, why ascribe this madness to an evil spirit? But why not? Madness often follows the frequent yielding to certain temptations, such as drunkenness or impurity; and that it may really be due to the action of an evil spirit (an unclean spirit is the significant term used in the Gospels) and be the appropriate punishment for yielding to his temptation, is certainty not incredible. And if so, considering the immoral state of the world at the time of Christ, we cannot be surprised at such cases being far more common then than now. And the writers, it may be added, do not (like some early nations) attribute all maladies to evil spirits, for we read of men having fever and palsy, as well as being blind, lame, deaf, and dumb, without any hint of its being due to an evil spirit; so they were quite able to distinguish between the two.
There is, however, one instance—the swine at Gadara—of animals being thus afflicted,[332] which undoubtedly forms a difficulty, and I have never seen a satisfactory explanation of it. But still our ignorance about animals, combined with the fact that they resemble man in so many respects, prevents us from saying that it is absolutely incredible. And as to the alleged injustice of the miracle (which is often objected to) we must remember that if Christ were the Divine Being He claimed to be, the world and all it contained belonged to Him; so His allowing the swine to be destroyed by evil spirits was no more unjust to their owners, than if He had allowed them to die by disease.
[332] Matt. 8. 30-32; Mark 5. 11-13; Luke 8. 32-33.
Lastly, all the Christian miracles lose a great deal of their improbability when we consider the unique position of Christ. And what would be incredible, if told of another man who had done nothing to alter the history of the world, may easily be credible of Him. We decide, then, that all the New Testament miracles are credible: we have next to consider whether they are true.
(B.) Their Truthfulness.
Now the testimony in favour of these miracles is very similar to that in favour of the Resurrection of Christ. They are recorded by the same writers and in the same books, and everything points to these accounts being trustworthy. To put it shortly, the writers had no motive for recording the miracles unless they believed them to be true, and they had ample means of finding out whether they were true or not; while many of them are such as cannot possibly be explained by want of investigation, or an error in reasoning. Moreover, as we shall see, they contain numerous marks of truthfulness. These may be divided into two classes, general, or those which concern the miracles as a whole; and special, or those which concern individual miracles, or sayings about them; and we will consider each in turn.
(1.) General marks of truthfulness.
Among these we may notice first the extremely simple and graphic way in which many of the miracles are described, such as the curing of the man who was born blind, with the repeated questioning of the man himself.[333] Then there is the raising of the daughter of Jairus, and the curing of the man who was deaf and had a difficulty in speaking, both of which are described with the most minute details, including the actual Aramaic words spoken by Christ.[334] It is difficult to think that they do not come from eye-witnesses. And the same may be said of a large number of the miracles.
[333] John 9. 8-34.