, an evil “demon,” that is a “devil.” And therefore, they called “demoniacs,” that is “possessed by the devil,” such as we call madmen or lunatics; or such as had the falling sickness, or that spoke anything which they, for want of understanding, thought absurd. As also of an unclean person in a notorious degree, they used to say he had an unclean spirit; of a dumb man, that he had a dumb devil; and of John the Baptist ( Matt. 11:18), for the singularity of his fasting, that he had a devil; and of our Saviour, because He said, he that keepeth His sayings should not see death in aeternum (John 8:52), “Now we know thou hast a devil; Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead”: and again, because He said (John 7:20), “They went about to kill Him,” the people answered, “Thou hast a devil; who goeth about to kill thee?” Whereby it is manifest that the Jews had the same opinions concerning phantasms, namely, that they were not phantasms, that is, idols of the brain, but things real and independent on the fancy.