And this custom of taking madmen for demoniacs, was not so peculiar to the jews, but that it prevailed in other nations also. Hence in Herodotus king Cleomenes is said to be driven into madness, not by any dæmon, but by a habit of drunkenness, which he had contracted among the Scythians, whereby he became frantic.[118] And whereas δαιμονᾷν signifies the same thing as δαιμόνιον ἔχειν, Xenophon uses this word for _furere_, to be raging mad or furious.[119] Moreover Aristophanes, intending to express a high degree of the same disease, employs the word κακοδαιμονᾷν, and calls the highest degree of madness, not μανίαν, but κακοδαιμονίαν[120]. Hence also, as Aretæus observes, this disease was called _morbus sacer_, or the sacred disease, _because it was imagined that some dæmon had entered into the man_.[121] Wherefore the physicians found it absolutely necessary to oppose this false notion with all their might. Because the people were generally persuaded, that diseases, which they believed to be caused by evil spirits, were to be expelled, not by medical skill, but by religious rites and ceremonies. Upon this account the prince of physicians Hippocrates, or at least some one of his scholars, wrote a very useful piece,[122] wherein he asserts that no diseases are inflicted on man, immediately, by any divine power; and that those persons ought to be accounted magicians and jugglers, who cover their ignorance with a veil of sanctity, by infusing such notions into the minds of the people. [118] _Lib. vi. Cap. 84._ [119] _Memorabil. Lib. i._ [120] _Vid. Plutum, Act. ii. Scen. 3. v. 38. & Act. ii. Scen. 5. v. 15._ [121] Διὰ τῆς δόξης δαιμονος ἐς τον ανθρωπον ἐισόδȣ. _De causis morbo diuturn. Lib. i. Cap. 4._ [122] _De morbo sacro._ But with regard to this power of the devils over human bodies, believed equally by the jews and other nations, I have already said, that the divinity ought not to be made a party concerned in imposing diseases, which may possibly have natural causes; unless it be expresly declared, that they were inflicted immediately by the hand of God.[123] For of all the diseases, with which miserable mortals are tormented, there are none so wonderful and dreadful to appearance, but may be the natural consequences of bodily indispositions. Wherefore God himself, if he thinks proper, can employ either natural causes, or the ministry of good angels, to inflict all sorts of diseases on mankind. And I hope nobody will believe, that the devils have had the power granted them of torturing men at their wanton pleasure. But to say more on this subject seems the less necessary; because two very learned divines of our nation have already treated it in a full and ample manner.[124] [123] _Chap. iii. page 30._ [124] _See the works of Jos. Mede 1677 fol. discourse vi. and enquiry into the meaning of demoniacs, &c._