has said ten minutes before: nor will he remember ten minutes hence that which is now enjoined. His judgment is feeble, erring, fallacious: his will changed at every instant, and by every changing im pression. Now, whence these perverted manifestations? Is it that the spiritual principle is diseased? Rather is it not that its organ has ceased to be subservient to its purposes?

Moreover, the senses of the hypochondriac are endowed with an extreme degree of sensibility, or they are liable to frequent hallucinations, or they become depraved. Thus, for instance, he hears voices, and receives admonitions; he sees visions, and is often assailed by unearthly visitants: he perceives around him objects which have no real existence; he acquires a fondness for substances in themselves disgusting: his feeling is unusually acute: above all, his skin becomes morbidly sensitive to changes of temperature: a stream of cold air is as death to his comforts and he is particularly excited and irritable during the prevalence of an atmosphere highly charged with electrical matter. Again: he forms false estimates of himself and his circumstances; he is convinced that he suffers the agonies of impending dissolution: at one time, his heart, he thinks, is oppressed with blood; it is stagnated there, and the organ can beat no longer at another, he cannot breathe; and again, at a third, his stomach is worn out; or other fancies. That these are really hallucinations, is manifest from the healthy state of the organs alleged to be diseased: from the frequent change of the viscus said to be affected; and from the kind and degree of indisposition. Moreover, the extreme inquietude of hypochondriacs respect. ing their health; the fear of one lest he be touched, because his body is composed of glass, and is so brittle that the slightest touch may occa sion its destruction; the dread of

another to go from home, because his body being a grain of barley he fears he shall be consumed by the chickens; the hopeless deprecation of the Divine vengeance by another, and the fruitlessness of reasoning in all such cases, to produce more just convictions: together with the advantage resulting from medicine, and discipline,-all shew the importance of attending to the brain. This conclusion is confirmed by the patients' frequent change of humour and expression; their overweening cordiality or suspicion-their varying mode of expression-the feebleness and changefulness of their purposes-the general timidity of their character- their particular pusillanimity and fearfulness-their irrascibility without adequate cause the restlessness of their pursuits

their frequently morose reception of intended kindness-and their unprovoked jealousy, - all prove the extent to which the brain, as the organ of mind, has suffered, and shew the importance of making this the first object of our attention. And if it were necessary to accumulate proofs, they might be found in the frequent disturbance of the muscular system and loss of power, amounting even to partial palsy.

a

It is possible, that when existing only in a slight extent, this cerebral excitation may communicate considerable degree of activity to the intellectual operations during a certain portion of time; but in a more advanced state of the malady, the brain becomes unequal to the discharge of its functions: and thus the ideas become confused, disconnected, inconsequent, too tardy or too rapid: the mental manifestation is languid, or is excited to transient action which produces no result; the ideas become unreasonable; the sensations fallacious; and occasional delirium or absolute insanity closes the long train of morbid cerebral manifestation.

From this review of the influence of cerebral disorder, we shall only infer; that a certain state of brainular

malady always produces disordered manifestations of mind: that disordered manifestations of mind may be always traced back to functional disease of its organ: and that in such states the most unreal images are presented to the mind of the patient, with a degree of impressiveness, which supersedes the power of reason and the influence of judgment, and gives them all the attributes of simple and sober truth. Thus, then, we trust it has been proved,

That the organ through which the mind acts is material, and that it is liable to be affected by physical causes :

That it is subject to different kinds and degrees of irritation according to the particular organ which is disturbed, and which forms the first link in the chain of morbid action:

That the manifestations of mind will be proportionally disordered, and will partake of the peculiarity of this organic derangement: And, That the brain, being once overpoised from its triple balance of physical, intellectual, and moral agency, perversion of action will be the con: and that, escaping the sequence: guidance of the will, it will continue to act on without direction, and will become liable to be deceived by disordered mental manifestations, which do in fact result only from loss of the balance of power: whether this may have been occasioned from primary or secondary physical irritation from the overstrained employment of the brain in literary pursuit,- -or from the influence of powerful and exclusive emotion.

(To be continued.)

ON THE DOUBLE SENSE OF PROPHECY.

tion, that I venture to lay before your readers the result of my thoughts upon a question of so much importance as the double sense of prophecy. I am aware, that amongst those especially who entertain the deepest reverence for the word of God, any reluctance to admit the secondary or spiritual sense of prophecy is met with a certain coldness and suspicion; as if the consequence must be injurious, if not to the truth of Scripture, at least to its importance. Could I perceive the justice of this opinion, I should certainly feel bound to dismiss my present views at once. But, after all that has been said, I cannot avoid concluding, that the point in question-the double sense of prophecy-has been assumed where it ought to have been proved; that explanations of this phenomenon have been given before it has been clearly shewn that the phenomenon itself existed. I entreat, however, that this assertion may be received with an exception, most cordially made, relative to those predictions which have been declared in the New Testament to bear a secondary meaning. The instances are few in number; but they are not on that account to be treated with neglect. The question is, Do they form the exception, or the rule? Were they meant to stand apart by themselves, an insulated class of prophetic writings; or, on the contrary, to afford a key for the interpretation of other prophecies ? The whole field of prophecy, fertile as it is in matters of the deepest interest, scarcely offers a more important subject for discussion.

Bishop Marsh is well known as the zealous advocate of the former, and, among orthodox divines, the least popular, opinion. I am better satisfied, I must admit, with his lordship's conclusion, than with the

IT is not without some fears lest I should incur the charge of presump

for a conclusion, although it may seem a paradox, often remains when its premises are destroyed;

and his lordship's is by no means a solitary instance of correct decisions unsupported by substantial proof.

The argument cannot, from its length, be transferred to your pages. His lordship, however, is of opinion, not merely that a double sense has not been shewn to exist; but, further, that its existence never can be shewn: that since the secondary sense is not the literal one, it cannot be discovered by human ingenuity. "That there is no system whatever by which we can establish the existence of secondary senses; or by which, on the supposition of their existence, we can discover their real meaning*." But "in whatever case a passage of the Old Testament, which according to its strict and literal sense relates to some earlier event in the Jewish history, is yet applied by Christ, or an Apostle of Christ, to what happened in their days; and moreover so applied, as to indicate that the passage is prophetic of such passage we must conclude, on their authority, that besides its plain and primary sense, it has also a remote or secondary sense. The difficulties which no human system can remove are, in such cases, removed by Divine power: the discoveries which human reason attempts in vain, are there unfolded by Divine intelligence."

Why the learned prelate supposes that the difficulties are such as no human system can remove, may be thus briefly explained: Before the argument as to the accomplishment of any given prophecy can be entertained, it is necessary to prove that the prophecy itself exists; or, in other words, that the passage in question was designed to be prophetic. Now if we consider the peculiar character of prophecy in a secondary sense, we shall find that the existence of every such prophecy must be established before we can begin to argue about its accomplishment. And to conduct *Lectures on the Interpretation of the

Bible. Lect. X. Camb. 1828.

such an argument is not quite so easy as many writers have imagined; for when we attempt to discover a secondary sense, we go further than the words, the literal sense, the grammatical analysis, will carry us. And if we say that a prophecy relating, in a secondary sense, for example, to the Messiah, may be understood by us because we have the advantage of having seen its accomplishment, we argue, though unconsciously, from a petitio principii. (pp. 444. 8. 6.)

The learned professor of divinity has, I think, been misled in this reasoning by the circumstance of his dislike of hypothesis. There is, however, a legitimate use of hypothesis perfectly consistent with the utmost severity of inductive argument.

There is a wide difference between conjecture used as the basis of argument, and conjecture employed as the ultimate solution of a difficulty: the former is always to be admitted; the latter to be as constantly opposed. Now the case before us is this: I meet with a certain passage which, it may be on very slight grounds, I take to be prophetic in a primary or a secondary sense; for that is a point which does not affect the argument; the question is, How am I to satisfy myself? Surely I may be allowed to compare the supposed prediction with events which have since occurred and is it not possible that I may find some one which so perfectly fulfils the terms of the supposed prophecy, that I cannot entertain a doubt but that the one was intended to foretel the other. Is it not now at least a reasonable conclusion, that the coincidence was designed; that is, that the words in question were really prophetic? The probability that they are so will vary with the degree of accuracy with which their presumed fulfilment can be traced: but, to say the least, it is possible that I may discover an event so exactly described, and that in minute every circumstance, as to leave me assured

on a very high, not to say the highest, degree of probable evidence, that I was right in my conjecture; and that the passage before me is a prophecy fulfilled. Nor do I think that it can be fairly said, that as a general rule --the advocates of the double sense "go further in their attempts to discover the secondary meaning than the words, the literal sense, the grammatical analysis, will carry them." This may be the case sometimes; perhaps in a majority of instances: but if it is not always the case, it proves nothing against the system. The Prophet Isaiah (chap. lxv.) describes the introduction of the Gospel dispensation under the figure of a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2 Pet. iii. 13.) Now if we apply this, as St. Peter has done, to the spiritual kingdom of heaven, the words carry us just as far as if we confine the accomplishment to the promulgation of the Gospel. In either sense, the interpretation is equally clear: in fact, it is the same in both.

I cannot, then, avail myself of the high critical authority of Bishop Marsh. The possibility of ascertaining the secondary sense-supposing it to exist-I see no reason to dispute that it has actually, in any one instance, been discovered, I see as little reason to admit. If the subject were not involved, in the minds of many persons, in a most unreasonable prejudice, I should be satisfied with simply leaving it before your readers to be decided by one experiment. Let an instance be produced in which a prediction -fulfilled already in one sensehas actually disclosed another sense in which it is again in a course of fulfilment. This will be a short and a sufficient answer to every objection and I, for one, shall be grateful for the removal of my doubts.

:

To those who hold the double interpretation, this will, no doubt, appear to be an easy task. If it

be, I trust that some of your readers will at once accomplish it; and thus afford a triumphant refutation to my objections. But if a judgment may be formed from the success which has accompanied the attempts of Horsley, and of Hurd, it is a task which, though frequently attempted, has not yet been satisfactorily performed. I mention the names of these two learned prelates, because they have both attempted the removal of the difficulties which attend the twofold system of interpretation : each has attempted it on different grounds: both, I venture to affirm, have failed: and the mistakes of each of them are those not merely of the individuals themselves, but of large classes of interpreters.

1. Bishop Horsley, advancing to the charge with his usual confidence, maintains, not merely that he has discovered two senses, but that he has "found in holy writ a plain instance of a prophecy which bears more than a double meaning; one that has ❝ various accomplishments, in events of various kinds, in various ages of the world." It was not without much surprise that I discovered that, after all these strong assertions, his lordship had, in fact, either misunderstood the exact point of debate; or else had unconsciously shifted his ground in the course of his argument; and thus brought out a result, true indeed and of great importance, but without the slightest reference to the question which he undertook to set at rest.

The prediction which he brings forward with so much alleged certainty, is that which fell from the expiring lips of Noah: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." This prophecy, he maintains, had its accomplishment, of which there cannot be a doubt, in numerous events; in the triumphs of Rome, in Asia, and Africa; in the conquests of Alexander; and in the incursions of Scythians into the possessions of

Shem. "The application," he adds, "of the prophecy to any one of these events, bears all the characteristics of a true interpretation. Every one of these events must therefore pass with a believer for a true completion*.'

Undoubtedly it must: but by no means for an entire completion; for an accomplishment so full and perfect as to admit of no additional circumstance. Had the question been, Whether any prophecy were so constructed as to admit of a gradual fulfilment; not confined to one event, but extending through a multitude; then, indeed, his lordship's case would have been in point, and his argument complete. But the question of a double sense is totally distinct from this. It is not, Whether, on the one hand, a prediction is by its nature incapable of embracing more than one distinct and specific object; or, whether, on the other, it may extend through a long course of years, and point out a succession of events, all tending to one point, all centered in one purpose. No. The question of a double sense is this: Whether a prophecy fulfilled in one sense, looks forward to another accomplishment in a sense entirely new; utterly independent of the former sense; not bearing on the same point, nor forming a part of the same dispensation, nor referring to the same general design. Such are the prophecies to which a double sense is given by the writers of the New Testament; but such are not the prophecies brought forward by Bishop Horsley, and other interpreters of the same class. When, for instance, St. Matthew applies to the slaughter of the innocents a prediction which had already been accomplished in the circumstances which attended the invasion of Nebuzar-adan, there is no connection between the two events; no common interest by which they are united: they are-for any thing that we can possibly discover

* Sermon XVII. on 2 Peter i. 20.

as unconnected as any two events which the world has ever witnessed. But in Noah's prediction, all this is exactly inverted. The fall of Carthage and the conquests of Alexander are links in the same chain: we are able to trace a unity of purpose. For what was the object of the prediction?-To foretell the fortunes of Shem and Canaan throughout every age of time: that is, to include, and to point out every event in every age by which the humiliation of the one, and the superiority of the other, were to be maintained. Lord Bacon has been quoted as an advocate for the double sense of prophecy. I am persuaded that, in this respect, injustice has been done to his memory. "The springing and germinant accomplishment," of which he speaks*, is no other than the gradual completion we trace in such prophecies as this of the patriarch Noah.

2. Bishop Hurd is equally confused and unsatisfactory. His illustration of the double sense of prophecy is, I think, a sufficient proof that upon that one interesting point he has not reasoned with his usual clearness. Your readers are no doubt acquainted with it. He makes the supposition, that about the time of Romulus, a series of prophets had been commissioned to foretell the future splendour of Rome under its consular government; but that God, having determined to place the Roman nation for a while under the yoke of regal government, had also instructed his prophets to predict the wars and other occurrences of that period of their history. Would it surprise us, then, he asks, "if the prophets, in dilating on this part of their scheme, should, in a secondary sense, predict the more splendid part of it? That, having the whole equally presented to their view, they should anticipate the glories of their free state, even in a prophecy which directly concerned their regal and • Advancement of Learning, quoted by Hurd. Vol. I. p. 66.