born day and the faith, and hope, and love, and joy of the Christian have been deepened in their hold upon his heart, while they have expanded into all that is virtuous in principle, all that is pure and benevolent in feeling, all that is lovely and excellent in conduct.

Moreover, Christianity will derive an accession of strength from the delicacy of true taste: its influence upon the mind will be to give it a more extensive hold upon the sympathies of others; while to the man of simple literary taste, it will come recommended and adorned with its genuine qualities, instead of being associated with that which is opposed to its real nature; and thus its agency will be extended both above and below, from the giant of literature, to the least expanded intellect among the sincere and simple-hearted, the poor and illiterate. Besides, there will be developed a delicate perception, by which the finer shades of moral beauty will be seized and appropriated; an acquaintance with mind, and its powers and operations will be widened; the removal of prejudice will unveil the wide field of mental research; all that is sublime and beautiful in nature or in character will be doubly enjoyed; there will be a permanent delight in cultivating the intellectual faculty, and in consecrating its powers to the service of Him from whom all blessings flow; the substantial worth of the individual will be increased, while his capacity for usefulness, and his desire after it, will be aug. mented; the productions of reason and intellect will be estimated aright, and will be tested, as they ought to be, by their title to the possession of moral beauty; and this again will be referred for its standard, to the character of highest value, even to Christ who is the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely.

III. But, thirdly, I have stated that the honour of God is vindicated, and the kingdom of Christ is en

larged; the faith of the humble and sincere is confirmed; the prejudices of those who are satisfied with this world's wisdom are subdued; the fears of the ignorant are superseded; and the hopes and confidence of the just are supported, by being placed on a basis of scientific and rational explanation, rather than on the fears of ignorance, or on a measure of belief which never was designed for a revelation addressed to God's rational creatures.

Christianity is not a religion of mere feeling and passion: for, although it should come from the heart, it must be based on the understanding, and be supported by the intellect; otherwise its clear and steady light will be exchanged for the transient meteor of exhalation on the one hand, or the frost of indifference on the other. The glow of enthusiasm, or the chill of carelessness; the fever of passion, or the collapse of scepticism; will characterise the manifestations of a mind which has embraced its truths but in part, and has, perhaps, embraced them with the narrow views of sectarian influence. Besides, a little acquaintance with the intellectual nature of man will prove that he was originally designed for much greater attainments than are now within his grasp; and will shew that some perverting agency has passed upon him, has circumscribed his knowledge, placed a limit every where to his researches, converted that which was once good into that which has an evil tendency, and made him what he now is, the willing slave of sin, instead of what he ought to be, the obedient servant of Christ. And if this state of things cannot be accounted for upon any known principle, it is surely not irrational to take the account which revelation gives of this sad change. And, if our conviction of this first and fundamental truth in revelation be thus confirmed, our faith in its remaining doctrines acquires a firmer basis. For faith, which is the gift of God, must be

placed upon the conviction of want in the dependent, and of power, and knowledge, and goodness, in the Giver; and it must be supported by the understanding, or it will wither away, before the sophistries of the designing. Besides, the moral responsibility and free agency of man, his power to choose the good, and refuse the evil; and his loss of that power, in consequence of the gloomy inheritance bequeathed him from this first fall, and now prolonged to successive generations, derives support from the phenomena of mental manifestation and brainular peculiarity.

The original character of the faculty of volition may be still descried through its mournfully altered phenomena: man's know ledge of good, and his conviction of truth, his preference of evil, and his choice of error, are stamped in undeniable characters upon his mental operations, and plainly indicate the necessity of some change, in order to convert the manifestations of his degraded temperament, into the offspring of truth, and justice, and righteousness; and thus also confirm the doctrine of a necessity for the influence of the Holy Spirit, to renew that nature, to change that heart, to subdue that rebellious will, to enlarge that contracted understanding, and to place its renovated feelings, and views, and principles, on another and a firmer basis, even the Rock of Ages. Yet, if this be true, it is clear that man is now in a state of imper. fection; and still equally clear that the constitution of his nature must have originally destined him for a state of perfection. Man's immortal spirit is encumbered and imprisoned in its material tenement, which is destined, in a few short years, to lose its beauty, and to crumble into dust. Here, then, he is tending to decay; and therefore, if there be a state of perfection any where, it cannot be on earth. But he possesses within himself a consciousness of continued existence.

It is reasonable to conclude that perfection must be hereafter: and we now see him placed in a period of probation, during which, his powers are to be refined; and he is to be daily striving forward, after that nearer and still nearer approach to a perfect state, which is only attainable, as is revealed to us, when mortality shall be swallowed up of life, when the soul shall escape the burden of materiality, and when disenchanted from the thraldom of ignorance and vice, and released from the prison of the body, it shall know all things; when it shall be clothed in the robe of its Redeemer's righteousness, and shall be holy, even as He is holy.

But, further, this being admitted, it is madness to rest satisfied with the possession of any measure of present wisdom. For if the original tendency of the human mind be the pursuit after perfection; and if any point of improvement be a step gained in advance towards this state; and if the acquisition of every fresh portion of knowledge be not only a triumph over ignorance, but a source of strength for the future useful application of mental power; and if the value of knowledge be estimated only by the end which it proposes, and by the means of its accomplishment; it is clear, that that wisdom which relates to a small section of man's existence, can only be valuable in proportion as it adds to his capacity for enjoying, and his means of obtaining, that eventual good which will con. stitute his happiness throughout futurity; and therefore, that every attainable portion of science should be earnestly desired, and should be employed directly or indirectly in seeking after that perfection which alone can thoroughly satisfy the heart that has been renewed by the Spirit of grace, since none but a Divine sanction can fully calm its fears, or expand the bosom with hope and confidence, or joy and love: nought but this can consti tute the active Christian, the burn

ing and shining light, during the darkness and the doubt which attach to his material existence.

The doctrine of Providence, the bountiful care of the Almighty Creator, the harmony which pervades all his works, the beneficence which marks his designs, and the wonderful provision which has been made for all the emergencies of life, are explained and defined by the researches of natural philosophy; and thus phenomena which impressed the mind with fear, when ignorant of their cause, become sources of adoring gratitude, and motives to obedience when explained. Every hour of man's eventful history affords a convincing proof of his dependance, and of the divinity of that power, which, unseen sustains and governs all things with inconceivable benevolence. The light of science will exhibit this truth in a thousand every-day forms, and will prove how minutely and literally we live, and move, and have our being, through this Almighty agency. But if so, we are prepared to receive the revelation of God as the moral Governor of the universe, entitled to man's obedience, and enacting those paternal laws, the infringement of which must be followed by certain punishment, or by pardon proceeding upon a principle which can reconcile perfect holiness with perfect love. The obligations of a child to an earthly parent admit not of comparison with those of man to his Creator; yet the former enacts laws, and requires implicit obedience to their spirit, punishes for their infraction, and only forgives upon submission of the offender, making a fancied atonement for error, and promising to do his will in future. But God, who is perfect holiness, can only forgive iniquity which has been atoned for; and since man has no power of his own to expiate sin, to obtain forgiveness for the past or strength for the time to come, a sacrifice has been provided, by

which the harmony of the Divine attributes may be sustained, and God may be just, and manifest his hatred to sin, and yet be gracious to sinners, receiving to his favour all such as accept the proffered salvation, through faith in Christ, and obedience unto life. Nor is there any thing incredible in this provision; for, reasoning from the analogies of the physical creation, if God has wisely ordained a certain proportion of atmospherical air to sustain natural life; and if the slightest difference in the proportion of its constituent atoms occasion distress; and if the air we have breathed be contaminated, and rendered unfit to sustain animal life; and still more, if this air be peculiarly fitted for the support and nourishment of plants, which thus consume what man has impoverished, and again breathe it out purified and renewed: or if it has been wisely provided, that water, in assuming the form of ice, should become specifically lighter than in its pristine state, in order to prevent the devastating consequences of those inundations which must ensue, were the contrary the case; why, if this minute care (and the instances might be indefinitely multiplied) be taken of man's welfare (and science demonstrates that it is taken), can there be any thing incredible in the supposition, that at least equal care should have been taken of his moral, but contaminated nature, or that some provision should have been reserved, to rescue him from the devastations of sin, which come in like a flood? And can there be any thing less reasonable, worthy of attention and of belief, in the provision which has been made in the sacrifice of Christ, for the latter instance,-recurring to the above-mentioned physical facts,

less

than in the effect produced upon air by the respiration of plants, or on the specific gravity of water by the change of configuration in its particles on their becoming ice?

Surely, then, my first propositions have been fully demonstrated; surely, we need not be afraid of considering reason and, science as the handmaids of religion; or of seeking for an explanation of forms of being with which we are unacquainted, without at once referring them to a purely mysterious and spiritual agency. There is sometimes exhibited a fear of tracing effects to their causes, and of investigating the successive limits of action and impression, lest we should look to second causes only, and rest in these, forgetting the Great First Cause. But this fear arises from erroneous conception. When we look to the government of God, and endeavour to trace in our view its immensity, and its moral attributes, we can only refer such agency to an infinite mind, and can form no comprehensible idea of its operation; but when we look to this government as presiding every where, and as acting through the use of means which have been provided, and which scientific research enables us to understand, we can then form some idea of this wonder-working agency, in some infinitisimal portion of creation: and by the infinite multiplication of this sustaining power, our views of its grandeur, and goodness, and power, and love, are immensely increased; the rational mind is expanded, where feeling or prejudice would before have operated; and the conviction which results is of a far firmer and longer and more enduring quality, as well as more universally operative. God is every where: we acknowledge it as an abstract truth, or as a matter of faith: but when we trace his footsteps, we see and know it. The only evil attending this investigation consists in forgetting his primary agency; but this will be never realized where such research is undertaken with a view to his glory, and with a simple desire to be led into all truth. May God Almighty bless the present attempt to explain phenomena, which to

many may appear inexplicable, and to shew that He is a God of order, working by the agency of means, to the perversion, or diseased or morbid application, of which by sinful man, can alone be referred those deviations from consistency, which have often been ascribed to purely spiritual agency; but which really do, for the most part, own a bodily origin.

I shall now proceed to consider superstition in general, which will lead me to notice its causes; and, among others, that which arises from the influence of irritated brain.

The writer's views on this subject will oblige him to glance at the cerebral functions in a state of health, and under the operation of morbid action; after which his hypothesis will be applied to account for various presumed supernatural appearances and influences,-to dreams, visions, ghosts, and other kindred matters.

I. Of superstition in general.

a

The essence of superstition consists in the belief of the existence of some supernatural power; not, however, the agency of the God of the Christian revelation- -a Being of infinite purity and holiness, of unsearchable wisdom, of boundless mercy, and goodness, and love ;—a God of order, requiring the obedience of the understanding and of the heart to laws which are framed by infinite knowledge of the delusions of the former, and of the aberrations of the latter; the object of the hope, the confidence, the affection of his creatures-dwelling with the humble and the contrite-preserving all things by the word of his power, and especially extending his protection to those who love and serve him but a power, the character of which is mischievous, its attributes unknown, not founded on reason, inimical to science, unacknowledged by revelation, opposed to the happiness of man, introducing disorder into the mental functions and moral conduct, submitting the understanding and the heart to

a blind and irrational. impulse, prompting to evil, or paralyzing the power of doing well, and leading to distrust in the providence of God, and to disbelief of his promises. Exactly in proportion as real religion raises the tone of moral feeling, and stimulates the desire after intellectual attainment, superstition degrades the former and destroys the latter. Under the influence of religion, which he justly considers as the offspring of truth, the handmaid of science, the nurse of intellectual progress, the great source of mental action and passion, the regulator of the desires, and consequently as affording the means of happiness in the sunshine of prosperity, as well as of hope, of peace, and of consolation under the cloud of adversity; the only source of correct conduct, because it is the only system of morals which reaches to the thoughts, and feelings, and motives, and because none but a Divine sanction can renew that heart, or subdue the rebellious will, change the course of natural passion, substitute the love of God for self-love, or implant the desire of obedience to his will, in the room of that treasonable pursuit of independent existence, which is the spontaneous fruit of practical Atheism.

It is under such an influence that man, civilized man, cultivates his faculties, and should devote them to God who gave them. He finds, indeed, a natural barrier placed to his researches ; but he does not with his own hands construct an artificial impediment to his progress: he busily employs his talents, and, under the influence of the Spirit of God, he every where thirsts after the perfection of knowledge, and power, and action; and is arrested only by the insuperable difficulty I have just mentioned, and beyond which it would be the mer est presumption to attempt to pass: he acknowledges the feebleness of his reasoning powers, but he directs his inquiries into every proper channel; and with a chastised imagina

tion, endeavours to form an acquaintance with the causes of the phenomena which surround him, so far as these have been placed within his reach.

But how different is this portrait from that of the heart and soul of man under the agency of debasing superstition! He has no longer to think for himself, or to seek the guidance of a merciful God in his researches. The powers of his reason are laid aside, to make room for a nameless impulse, under the influence of which his mind takes a peculiar form: its manifestations assume the tinge of this prevailing bias; the power of the will, the ability to choose good and to refuse evil is converted into the desire of warding off some dreaded misfortune: the mind is clouded by prejudice; its credulity is that of the blind man who fears all that he is told by those who are interested in keeping him from advancing; and religion itself is blamed for that which owes its origin exclusively to the want of this principle.

Superstition assails us in a number of forms, which however may be all traced to the same causes.— Thus, for instance, we have a variety of signs, and portents, and warnings of death, or misfortune,more indeed than it would be easy to enumerate,-beginning with the equality or inequality of numbers, or the mode of the flight of birds, and terminating with the windingsheet on our candles, or the peculiar howling of the midnight dog under our window. So, again, from the same principle, fear is developed in darkness, or during the exhibition of any natural unexplained phenomena; an eclipse has sown terror in the hearts of millions; the power of unknown evil rests upon the sable wing of midnight; the spirit of the storm arises, in that peculiar agitation of the atmosphere which precedes its immediate approach; the thunder of the summer cloud has been considered as the warfare of the spirits of the air; and even at the