ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. S-N; THEOGNIS; P. G. H.; R. H.; F. R. O.; V. Y.; A SUBSCRIBER; D. D.; A CHRISTIAN INQUIRER; B. G.; are under consideration. R. D. will find we have anticipated his suggestion; and we hope in the manner best calculated to effect the desired object. It is intended in future always to publish the Appendix with the December Number, on the 1st of January, instead of delaying it, as hitherto to the 1st of February; and we shall be much obliged to our readers to give their booksellers directions accordingly. Various donations left at our Publishers' for Charitable Societies have been remitted to the respective Secretaries and will be acknowledged in their Reports. The following question is put to us by VINDEX: "You might have good reason for what you said of Mr. Irving in your notice of The Dialogues on Prophecy' in your last Number; but why allude to Mr. M'Neile, whose name does not appear in them?" We assure Vindex that we would not lift the visor of any writer who wishes to be anonymous; nor did we identify Mr. M'Neile, or any other gentleman, as a collocutor in those Dialogues; but the particular statements with which we found fault in the Dialogues have been given to the world again and again from Mr. M'Neile's own lips, and his own pen. Let Vindex peruse the following extracts, which are but a brief sample, from one of Mr. M'Neile's late pamphlets, and then decide whether our remarks respecting this new school of prophets were uncalled for. Mr. M'Neile tells his countrymen, that he, like Jeremiah of old, has a special commission to them from God, and that it is a national sin that they refuse to hear his words. He even puts forth a declamation of his own, mixed up with the word of God, heading it, in Italics, with "Thus saith the Lord God of England; " and concluding it with "Hear, ye men of Britain: be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken." So that all who doubt the justice of Mr. M'Neile's application and paraphrase of the inspired denunciations, are scoffers and infidels. "The man who dares to speak the word of the Lord among you," says Mr. M'Neile, adverting to himself, "receives no fair play." "No, you will not hear: but you shall hear, and God will make both your ears tingle." Again: "Well, I will not threaten; I will not triumph over your deplorable infatuation; I will not forget who hath made me to differ," &c. &c. Again: "Then siad 1, Ah, Lord God, behold the teachers of this people lead them astray....Is it not so, my fellow-countrymen ? Your natural teachers have deceived you. Many of them are utterly careless, &c. &c.....These men have neglected you; you have no confidence in them; and when any of them attempt to influence you, they fail. But the teachers who have led you astray are men of a different stamp, men of activity, of zeal, of much profession, men who have talked about Christian experience, humility, piety, and brotherly love," &c.: or, as they are described to the same effect in one of the passages we objected to in the Dialogues on Prophecy, "the men who cant about Bibles, and tracts, and missions," the " Evangelicals through whom, the English being a phlegmatic people, the devil has introduced infidelity under the mask of religious sanctimoniousness. We will give but one passage more, leaving our readers to make their own comments on it. Mr. M'Neile says: "I am become an enemy to my people because I tell you the truth. Yet, Holy Father, let me pray for them in secret with fervent affection; and warn them in public with persevering faithfulness, if yet Thy uplifted hand may be stayed in prolonged forbearance. But if not... O my God, at the last, when the word shall pass Thy lips in righteousness, sustain my trembling flesh, and give me strength above nature to rejoice in thy holy vengeance!" And we are to receive upon pain of the charge of being "infidels," this strange declamation, because the writer professes to be an elucidator of unfulfilled prophecy? We write in sorrow, not in bitterness; for who, that has witnessed Mr. M Niele's talents and eloquence, or been edified by his zeal and piety, but must lament that such endowments are deformed by the extravagancies which it has been our painful task to notice? When Huntington uttered similar denunciations; when he left to be engraven on his tomb, that the people who had neglected his predictions should know, too late, that a prophet had been among them; and declared that only himself and about two other persons preached the Gospel; did not every man of piety and common sense censure his egotism, his arrogance, his almost profaneness? And is not any approach to such a spirit to be deprecated; more especially where those extenuations cannot be offered which charity might devise in the case of that uneducated and rudely tempered man? CLEMENS, in reference to the passage in our last Number, p. 627, inquires why we implicate the Protestant church of France in the neology and pseudo-rationalism of Switzerland and Germany? We grieve to say the proofs are too numerous, and we need not go far to search for them. One of the last Numbers which has reached us of the " Archives du Christianisme," conducted by French Protestants, admits, with much sorrow, that the unscriptural theology of Germany has, since the termination of the war and the opening of intercourse between the nations, obtained a most baneful influence in their church and academies; and this at the very time when it is happily on the decline in its native regions, being triumphantly opposed by that pure knowledge and faith of the Gospel which, by the blessing of God, has begun widely to spread both in Germany and Switzerland. The chief reason why we have not often adduced proof of our frequent remarks respecting the evil tendency of Neologianism, was, not that proofs are rare, but that we have hesitated in admitting into a publication for promiscuous readers, even for the sake of refutation, fallacious glosses upon Scripture, which would distress some readers and might injure others. The follies of the German school have been amply discussed in publications devoted to that purpose, and which are within reach of the theological student; and we have no taste for transcribing the details for popular perusal, convinced that the evil effect of quoting irreverent commentaries on Scripture is not always obviated by appending a better exposition. In order, however, to convince Clemens and others who may think, that, because Swiss and French Protestants still call themselves "Calvinists," they surely cannot be "so very heterodox" as is represented, we will adduce, from the Number of the Archives just alluded to, a specimen of the Biblical lectures delivered to the candidates for the ministry by the theological professor of Montauban, the most celebrated of the French Protestant colleges. M. Nazan is commenting to his pupils upon our Lord's temptation in the wilderness. In the account of this transaction by St. Matthew, iv. 1-6, we first, he says, hear of the devil in the New Testament. Some persons, he adds, take this literally; but "this being contrary to the wisdom and goodness of God," others think it only an ecstasy; others, a soliloquy in our Saviour's own mind; others, a philosophical or historical tale; others (among whom the learned theological professor himself evidently takes his stand), that the alleged " devil," was a member of the Sanhedrim, or the chief sacrificer, or the high priest himself, who took several opportunities of inviting our Lord to an interview, with a view to find out if he was the Messiah who was to deliver their nation from the Roman yoke !-Does Clemens wish for more? We might fill pages. SUPPLEMENT TO RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. THE statement, from the Merchant-Seamen's Auxiliary are most consolatory. Eleven years ago, when 590 ships were visited, with 6149 men on board, not one copy of the Scriptures was found among them: now, at the same station, only four vessels were found without the Scriptures, and those were all foreign, with only 47 men on board. At another station, even 250 ships, not visited before, were found to possess, from other sources, a copy to every two men. What hath God wrought! may his holy influences abundantly follow the circulation of his word! ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER. We sicken as we read these enormities. In Berbice, we find no fewer than 9,112 punishments inflicted among about 14,000 slaves in a single year; and mostly for trifling offences, necessarily arising out of a state of slavery. We find freedom given to one slave, on proof that his mother was not an African, but an Indian. The award was just; but what justice is there in the distinction? God made Africans, Indians, and Englishmen, of one blood. Industrious slaves are made to pay most oppressive sums for their freedom-(for example, one poor girl in Trinidad 2167.)-which price of blood furnishes many a table in Bristol, or London, with turtle and venison. At the Cape of Good Hope, slaves alleging grievances, are more usually dismissed with a flogging for complaining, than successful in obtaining justice. The whole paper abounds with similar atrocities. Most disgraceful of all, on ecclesiastical property, on an estate of the Lutheran consistory, the slaves are maltreated; a minister and schoolmaster receiving a salary from their toils, but affording them neither spiritual instruction, nor the alphabet of mental culture. The consistory knows not this, and will probably be as incredulous as those who so unjustly lampooned us for bringing to light corresponding facts on the estates of a religious institution among ourselves; but our statements are now admitted to have been too true, and the best friends of that institution, too long blindfolded by their agents, are anxious for a real, and not a mere waste-paper. amendment of their system. Let the friends of the unhappy slave proceed temperately, but zealously and perseveringly, and they must and will prevail; for they have truth, they have humanity, they have justice, they have British feeling, above all, they have God himself, on their side. ESSAY ON SUPERSTITION. (Concluded from p. 490.) ITH regard to the vision of angels, &c., the grounds on which this vision is not to be expected, in these latter days, have been already stated; and it may be further argued, that in the early period of the Christian church, there was always an object to be accomplished, which was necessary to the completion of the whole will of God; but that now, no such end is to be effected by that species of revelation to expiring mortality, for which Divine authority has been claimed. There is also another striking difference between the two states: in the former, the individuals were in high health, with unimpaired faculties, and were enabled to perceive what it pleased God to reveal; but in the latter, the spirit is just hovering on the verge of an eternal scene, yet is still confined to its material tenement, though crumbling down around it; and whatever it may perceive, is through the medium of that corporeal habitation. This surely is easily conceivable : an inward revelation is not perceived by the external senses; yet the recipient of such revelation can only be conscious of its existence, by attending to, and perceiving it, by reflecting upon, and remembering it, and by a determination, in the strength of Divine grace, to act upon it. But attention, perception, CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 336. reflection, memory, judgment, and volition, are intellectual faculties, whose functions are performed through the medium of the brainular organ therefore it is only through it that man becomes conscious of such revelation; and therefore, according to all the analogy of the Divine government, such communication would not be made to an expiring organ, but rather at a period when the full tide of its faculties was unbroken. The day of such revelation is now only marked on the page of prophetic history. Still further, these visions, when they do occur, are referred to the bodily senses, in proof of their presence; and at the same time, the patient suffers from other ocular spectra, and sees before him objects which have no real existence. Moreover, these visions are not confined to the death-bed of the Christian, but are common to the closing scene of those over whose ashes the flickering and feeble flame of hope does not linger, and expires in gloomy uncertainty; because their lives had been a continuous tissue of disobedience, and they had come to their end, in wilful rebellion against the Most High. And lastly, this vision of angels is also common to the maniac, who mixes up himself with the glorious scenes of his own hallucinative creations. But if these premises be correct, 5 A it is surely more conducive to the glory of God, to believe that these appearances own a bodily origin; and that they are ascribable to the imperfect, failing, disordered, or perverted powers of the organ of mental manifestation. This train of reasoning will not, in any degree, apply to the revelations of Scripture, which are of a totally different order; and have been vouchsafed to man, for the foundation of his faith, the regulation of his heart, and the conduct of his life. Yet, although truth cannot be influenced in any measure, by the peculiar state of the physical temperament, and more particularly of the intellectual organ, still the impression of that truth may be so affected and altered, and the consequent zeal and earnestness with which it is received; or the caution, hesitancy, doubt, and prejudice, which absorb and enthral the mind. Presentiments very generally result from some antecedent physical or moral impression, and involve a peculiar state of the brain, either occasioned by the actual development or threatened approach of primary or sympathetic disease; or artificially induced by the agency of animal magnetism, during which state it is enabled to feel the approach of any great disaster to the constitution. Presentiments are supported by a variety of warnings or omens; and these are occasionally rendered true by the influence of the terror they excite: generally speaking, the predicted conse quences do not follow; and when they do, they form the exception, and not the rule. Presentiments are sometimes to be found existing without any traceable basis, and they are then generally arising from a physical state attending the incubation of disease. The case of martyrs is not depending upon supernatural agency; neither can it be referred, without great absurdity, and a grievous sophistication of sound reasoning, to a physical condition, in which great suffering not only ceases to be painful, but actually becomes the source of grateful sensation (Dr. Hibbert in loco). The highly elevated state of the martyr's mind, and the glory which is to follow; the desire to be found faithful unto death, and to afford an example of sure trust and confidence in God, and reliance upon his promises; added to the corporeal agency of these powerful impressions upon the brain; would increase its energy, and confer extraordinary powers of manifestation, and keep up a degree of animal excitement, by which the patient is carried out of himself, and his feelings are wrought up to ecstacy. But this is a brainular state, and one which predisposes to the creation of supernatural appearances. The Christian's support under trials, and in death, in the fires and the waters of temptation, is derived from the ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit, and not from the intervention of supernatural creations. There is no instance of endurance recorded on the part of the Christian martyr, which has not been paralleled by the serenity of the heathen under torture; consequently the fallacious argument from experience is here quite inapplicable. The agency of evil spirits is generally referred to possession and temptation. In the former case, it is commonly supposed that there is a contention between good and evil spirits for the supremacy, and for command over the soul. This state is to be referred to insanity, dependent upon a morbid condition of the brain, and is usually accompanied by a disposition to suicide. Temptation may be ascribed to a physical or a moral cause; but in neither case does it own a supernatural origin. It is the same principle which produced the fall of our first parents, and which now operates upon their posterity, as it did also upon them, through the medium of their sensorial and intellectual capacities; its present in fluence being augmented by the consequences of that fall, and by the introduction of those depraved mental conditions which render the spiritual principle assailable to the assaults of sin; or which, in other words, prepare it for listening to the voice of temptation. The foregoing principles apply themselves naturally to the doctrine and belief of apparitions. There is a peculiar state of the brain, and that a morbid state, in which these appearances are not infrequent. This is generally the result of impending disease, but may be produced by the action of certain remedies. In many cases of supposed apparitions, the anticipated results have not followed; and of those instances in which these seem to have been consecutive, the most remarkable may be accounted for on natural principles. Apparitions are presented to spiritual contemplation only; they have no real existence; and therefore the senses which give them form and substance, and other material properties, must be deceived; and this illusion must be attended by deviation from healthy action of the mental manifestations, and therefore of the manifesting organ. Dr. Hibbert's hypothesis of a renovation of past feelings is untenable, because it will not account for all the cases which it ought to explain it will not account for recalling these impressions at the particular moment: it will not say why this apparent recollection is found to be invariable only during the continuance of a state of irritation of the brain; and it will not explain the fear with which such an apparition is viewed, a principle so greatly opposed to the delight with which we dwell upon the form and look and expression of those whom we have loved and esteemed. Sceptical opinions are not fostered by referring dreams, visions, voices, apparitions, &c. to a state of morbid irritation of the organ of mind. When the brain is disordered, the sensations impressed upon it are not lost, but perverted: the senses themselves are mere sentinels, placed as safeguards to the system; and the power of receiving or combining, considering and weighing, the results, rests entirely with the brain as the organ of mind, and depends upon its attention to the notices it receives. Mere impression is at all times unsatisfactory, till it has been referred to, and judged of, and estimated by the presiding mind, which determines its truth and value, its fallacy and worthlessness, according to its possessing or to its wanting certain attributes of reality. The loss of sensation must depend upon a certain degree of paralysis of the sentient extremities of the nerves; a state of disease, which is much more frequently referrible to irritation of the brain, than of the local organ of sense. And supposing the disorder to be confined to the local organ, it will much more frequently happen that its function is unduly excited, than that it should be obliterated. This great activity and perversion do, notwithstanding, very generally result from primary irritation of the brain; and are accompanied by sensorial illusions, and by the creation of unreal images. But apparitions are intellectual illusions, and proceed from an irritated intellectual organ: hence the analogy of sensorial disease is in favour of the position assumed in the present essay. This question is not one which involves the existence of spiritual beings: this is not denied: nor as to the nature of their functions, for of this we have no means of judging. But it is this, whether certain apparitions, for which spiritual origin has been claimed, may not be accounted for, more simply, on another principle. a Spiritual beings are not cognisable by the corporeal eye; their existence, therefore, cannot be demonstrated; it must be received as |