These Gergesites had rather lose Christ, than lose their porkers!

(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)

"When they saw Him, they pleaded with Him to leave their region." Matthew 8:34

A man bewitched with the world will prefer the most base and contemptible things before the Lord Jesus Christ. He will, with the Gergesenes, prefer his swine before a Savior, Matthew 8:28-34.

When they saw what a sad market their hogs were brought to, they desired Christ to depart out of their country. These Gergesites had rather lose Christ, than lose their porkers! They had rather that the devil should possess their souls-than that Jesus should drown their pigs. They prefer their swine, before their salvation!

They present a wretched petition for their own damnation; they pleaded with Him to leave their region. Though there is no misery, no plague, no curse, no wrath, no Hell-compared to Christ's departure from a people; yet men bewitched with the world will desire this. "When they saw Him, they pleaded with Him to leave their region." Matthew 8:34