forming the evidence of so many persons of assumed health of body and soundness of mind.

But in some instances this supernatural influence, which was fully believed to exist in an earlier state of society, and which then was not wanting in facts for its support, has utterly vanished before the "morning air" of education, science, and religion.

If so, doubt is thrown on human testimony; and we are constrained to believe, that these histories have been fabricated by the designing, or that their authors have been self-deceived: and if we adopt the latter and more pleasing alternative, what is so likely to have occasioned such delusion, with rightly-intentioned individuals, as a peculiar state of brainular irritation, giving rise to spectral appearances?

Dreams are sometimes supposed to have been commissioned by Divine Providence, for the discovery of crime; a revelation having been thus made to some individuals of circumstances which have led to the detection of the criminal;. and this is made to rest upon the justice of the Almighty, whose vengeance pursues the wicked, and suffereth not a murderer to live. But God. is merciful as well as just, and rejoices to extend the day of grace: he willeth not the

death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn unto him and live.

Moreover, the present life is not the day of judgment or of retribution, but of proffered pardon in Christ Jesus. This is not that approaching period, when the Divine justice will be fully displayed: there is now an inequality in the lot of the righteous and the wicked, which will only be rendered right at the last great day of account; so that it is not inconsistent with the dealings of Providence, that the wicked should escape punishment in the present life.

Moreover, it has happened, that the innocent have suffered, instead of the really guilty, in consequence of error arising from a judgment formed upon circumstantial evidence; another proof, that errors are permitted here, in order that we may cast our eyes forward, for the full display of God's perfect and impartial justice.

On the contrary supposition, the perfect holiness of Jehovah would be impugned by the present escape of the actual perpetrator of crime, and by the destruction of the innocent.

Besides, this result of discovery is by no means invariable; and if it be neither necessary nor undeviating, we may well question the existence of any special interference of Providence, in

order to its being obtained, since these would be qualities of such providential agency.

Finally, dreaming may be almost always, if not always, accounted for on other principles, less liable to objection, and particularly upon primary or sympathetic irritation of the brain, arising from organic disturbance of some one of the viscera of the body; or from moral causes operating immediately or intermediately upon the mental organ, the brain. This has been exemplified in the narrative of the discovery of the murder of Maria Marten by William Corder.

Besides, it is really a greater instance of providential wisdom and care, when events are brought about by the agency of ordinary means, concurring to an end, rather than by any special interference with God's established order of nature.

CHAPTER XIX.

The same subject continued.

WITH 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, 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 become sconscious 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