And he asked him,
What is your name?
And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.
All Commentaries on Mark 5:9 Go To Mark 5
John of Damascus
AD 749
One should also bear in mind that God antecedently wills all to be saved and to attain to his kingdom. For he did not form us to be chastised, but to share his goodness, because he is incomparably good. Yet, because he is just, it is required that sin be punished. So, the first form of the will of God is called his antecedent will and blessing, which has God as its cause. The second is called God’s consequent will and permission, of which we are a participating cause. What God wills as a consequence of our sinning is twofold: either that which God permits to continue by his gracious dispensation for our instruction and salvation, or that which God finally abandons to certain chastisement. These, however, belong to those things which do not depend upon us. As to the things which do depend upon us, whatever is good God wills antecedently and blesses. Whatever is evil he neither wills antecedently nor consequently, but permits them to the free will. If something is done under compulsion, it cannot be a virtuous act or according to reason, since virtue must be chosen. In these ways God provides for all creation. Through all creation God does good and teaches, and he may even use the demons themselves for this purpose of instruction, as he did in the case of Job and in the gospel narrative of the swine.
