Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 Samuel 16:16

16 Let our lord now command thy servants which are before thee, to se[illegible: 1+ letters]k out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp, and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well .

And the Success confirms their Opinion. For although Musick cannot directly have any influence upon an Evil Spirit to drive him away; yet, because the Devil, as it seems, had not Possession of him, but onely made use of the Pa[illegible: 1+ letters] ons of his Mind, and ill humours of his Body to molest him: and because it is manifest, that Musick hath a mighty Power to qualifie and sweeten these, and to make a man sedate and chearful, as is evident by the unanimous consent of Learned Writers, and by common Experience; it is not strange, if the Devil had not that power over him when his Mind was more composed, which he had when it was disordered; as the Devil had less power over Lunaticks in the decrease, than in the increase of the Moon: Matt. 17. 15, 18. And seeing Musick prepared the Lords Prophets for the Entertainment of the good Spirit, as 2 King. 3. 15. Why might it not dispose Saul to the resistance of the evil Spirit? and why might not the chearing of his heart, in some measure strengthen him against those temptations of the Devil, which were fed by his Melancholick Humour?