the Deity, they were labouring under mental delusion; that is, they must either have been impostors or fanatics.* They might, truly, participate of

There are, indeed, in the Acts of the Apostles, strong proofs that both they and their converts were under the influence of a wild fanaticism, or religious frenzy. (See Notes on the Visions of Peter and Paul, page 204.) What is said to have descended on the people at the day of Pentecost, and called the "Holy Ghost," or, literally translated, the holy wind, or gust-termed "a rushing mighty wind, filling the house where they were sitting," and accompanied with the appearance of " cloven tongues like as of fire," which "sat upon each of them," so as to make them "speak with other tongues"-speak incoherent jargon that belonged to no language whatever-was nothing but an indi cation of religious frenzy. (Acts ii. 1-13.) It is, however, to be observed that the influence of the Holy Ghost is repeatedly described as being no other than to speak thus "with tongues."-When Peter preached to Cornelius and his company, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them, so as to make them " speak with tongues, and magnify God." (Acts X. 44-46.) When Paul laid his hands on certain disciples of John at Ephesus, "the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spake with tongues, and prophesied." (Acts xix. 6.) Christ promises that those who believed should "speak with tongues." (Mark xvi. 17.) Paul very frequently refers to the same faculty by the phrases-"speaking with tongues"-"gift of tongues"-" unknown tongues," and so on; (See 1 Cor. xii. 10; xiii. 1, 8; xiv. 2, 5, 9, 13-27.) meaning, evidently, the same as that spoken of in the Acts. It is clear from many of Paul's expressions, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, just cited, that to speak with tongues was not to preach in a foreign language, but to utter some incoherent sounds, not intelligible in any language; and he also intimates that this practice of speaking with tongues had become a subject of ridicule to unbelievers.--For he asks;-"If the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in unlearned men, or unbelievers, will they not say ye are mad?".. ....." If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course, and let one interpret.". "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace." (1 Cor. xiv. 23, 27, 33, 39, 40.) There is very little doubt that these tongues were the unintelligible sounds which the early Christians uttered when, in an assembled state, they were under the influence of religious frenzy, similar to that into which, as already described, the ancient prophets wrought themselves. Mr. Greg, in his able criticism on the Gift of Tongues," has the following just remarks. "It is, we think, almost impossible to read the whole of the three chapters from which the above citations were made, (1 Cor. xii. xiii. xiv.) without coming to the conclusion that, in the early Christian church, there were a number of weak, mobile, imaginative minds, who, over-excited by the sublimity of the new doctrine expounded to them, and by the stirring eloquence of its preachers, passed the faint and undefinable line which separates enthusiasm from delirium, and gave vent to their exultation, in incoherent or inarticulate utterances, which the compassionate sympathy, or the consanguineous fancies of those around them, dignified with the description of speaking, or prophesying, in an unknown tongue. No one familiar with physiology, and medical or religious history, can be ignorant how contagious delusions of this nature always prove, and when once these incoherences became the recognised sign of the descent of the Spirit, every one would, of course, be anxious to experience, and to propagate them. We have seen the same thing precisely, in our own day, among the Irvingites. How is it, then, that the same phenomena of mental weakness and excitement which, in the one case, aroused only pity and contempt, should in the other be regarded with a mysterious reverence and awe?.. .... That there was a vast amount of delusion and unsound enthusiasm in the Christian church at the time of the Apostles, not only seems certain, but it could not possibly have been otherwise, without such an interference with the ordinary operations of natural causes as would have amounted to an incessant miracle. Wonders, real or supposed, were of daily occurrence. The subjects habitually brought before the contemplation of believers, were of such exciting and sublime magnificence that even the strongest minds cannot too long dwell upon them without some degree of perilous emotion. The recent events which closed the life of the Founder of their Faith, and above all, the glorious truth, or the splendid fiction, of his resurrection and ascension, were depicted with all the exaggerating grandeur of oriental imagination. The expectation of an almost immediate end of the world, and the reception into glory and power of the living believer, -the hope which each one entertained, of being "caught up" to meet his Redeemer in

both these qualities. For there are, decidedly, cases on record of fanatics whose character was a compound of imposture and mental derangement.

the clouds-was of itself sufficient to overthrow all but the coldest tempers; while the constant state of mental tension in which they were kept by the antagonism and persecution of the world without, could not fail to maintain a degree of exultation very unfavourable to sobriety either of thought or feeling. All these influences, too, were brought to bear upon minds the most ignorant and unprepared, upon the poor and the oppressed, upon women and children; and to crown the whole, the most prominent doctrine of their faith was that of the immediate, special, and hourly influence of the Holy Spirita doctrine of all others the most liable to utter and gross misconception, and the most apt to lead to perilous mental excitement. Hence, they were constantly on the look-out for miracles. Their creed did not supply, and indeed scarcely admitted, any criterion of what was of divine origin-for who could venture to pronounce or define how the Spirit might or should manifest itself?-and thus iguorance and folly too often became the arbiters of wisdom-and the ravings of delirium were listened to as the words of inspiration, and of God....... We are driven, then, to the painful, but unavoidable conclusion, that those mysterious and unintelligible utterances which the Apostles and the early Christians generally looked upon as the effects of the Holy Ghost-the manifestations of its presence-the signs of its operation-the especial indication and criterion of its having fallen upon any one-were in fact simply the physiologically natural results of morbid and perilous cerebral exultation, induced by strong religious excitement acting on uncultivated and susceptible minds;-results which in all ages and nations have followed in similar circumstances and from similar stimuli."-Creed of Christendom, pp. 175-178. Mr. Greg, in the above valuable work, has the following note on p. 175.-"Somewhat similar phenomena have manifested themselves on several occasions in the course of the last eight hundred years, and even in our own day, when religious excitement has proved too strong for weak minds or sensitive frames to bear without giving way. We find them recorded in the case of the ecstatics of Cevennes, who underwent severe persecution in France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and among the convulsionnaires of St. Medard near the close of last century. Both these cases are examined in considerable detail in a very curious and valuable work by Bertrand, a French physician, "Sur les Vârietés de l'Extase" (pp. 323, 359.) But our own country has presented us, within a few years, with a reproduction of precisely the same results arising from similar causes. There is extant a very remarkable and painfully-interesting pamphlet by a Mr. Baxter, who was at one time a shining light in Mr. Irving's congregation, and a great "speaker with tongues," in which he gives a detailed account of all the accompanying phenomena. It was written after he had recovered; though he never relinquished his belief in the supernatural nature of these utterances, but finally concluded them to be from Satan, on the ground of some of the speakers uttering what he thought false doctrine. The description he gives of his own state and that of others during the visitations indicate, in a manner that no physiologist can mistake, a condition of cerebral excitement verging on hysteria and madness, and by no means uncommon. Sometimes, when praying, his shrieks were so loud that he was compelled to "thrust his handkerchief into his mouth that he might not alarm the house." Others fell down "convulsed and foaming like demoniacs.""My whole body was violently agitated; for the space of ten minutes I was paralyzed under a shaking of my limbs, and no expression except a convulsive sigh." His friends "remarked on his excited state of mind." A servant was taken out of his house deranged, and pronounced by the tongues to be possessed by a devil. Another "speaker with tongues" did nothing but mutter inarticulate nonsense with a "most revolting expression of countenance." Mr. Baxter says that the utterances which were urged upon him by "the power," were sometimes intelligible, sometimes not, sometimes French, sometimes Latin, and sometimes in languages which he did not know, but which his wife thought to be Spanish. He says, at last, "My persuasion concerning the unknown tongue is that it is no language whatever, but a mere collection of words and sentences, often a mere jargon of sounds." One man seldom began to speak without the contagion seizing upon others, so that numbers spoke at once, as in Paul's time. It is clear to any one who reads Mr. Baxter's candid and unpretending narrative, that a skilful physician would at once have terminated the whole delusion by a liberal exhibition of phlebotomy and anodynes."

Amongst the various religious sects in Wales, displays of fanaticism bearing most of

Paul's vision in which he saw "a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun," and heard a voice saying, "why persecutest thou me?" is very much like the spectral and auricular illusions of modern times, to which

the features of the foregoing have been witnessed frequently, even during the last thirty years; and before that period they were of much more frequent occurrence. They are regarded as the effects of the outpourings of the Holy Ghost upon the churches, and called diwigiadau,—a word which signifies revivals. They are always the means of adding immense numbers to the churches; and most generally take place, or at least are commenced, under the ministry of the most eloquent and enthusiastic preachers,-those who are capable of getting what the people, in their vernacular language, call hwyl, in preaching; in other words, of carrying such an effect upon their hearers as to make them display a degree of religious enthusiasm. Welsh preaching has always been remarkable for its fiery character. This religious fanaticism is evidently contagious in its effects. If there happens to be in a congregation a person of an uncommonly excitable temperament, and his religious feelings are powerfully addreseed by a fiery preacher, there is a fair chance of conjuring up this fanaticism into action. Once a single individual is under its influence, others are quickly affected with it, so that sometimes it runs with amazing rapidity through a whole congregation, carrying the stronger effect upon those whose cerebral developments are evidently the more susceptible of it. These manifestations of religious madness, in general, proceed gradually, from a very low beginning, till they arrive at the highest possible pitch of frenzy. They are generally commenced by some old saint suddenly bawling out such words as-diolch! (praise) bendigedig! (blessed) or Amen; or by the howling and weeping of a female, during the time the preacher pours forth his sermon in thrilling eloquence. When he hears these signs that his preaching takes effect, he is thereby stimulated, and carries a much stronger influence. A second person begins to weep, or bawl out "diolch!" or "bendigedig!" then a third, a fourth, a fifth, and so on, till very soon not a word the preacher says can be heard,all are in confusion; some singing hymns, some throwing their arms about, clapping their hands, and uttering expressions of praise; some jumping about and treading on one another's toes; some weeping, and, with floods of tears flowing from their eyes, uttering expressions of despair about being saved, because their sins are so great.Females shriek; sometimes they lay hold of each other in endearment; at other times, they tear their own clothes to pieces, and even pluck off the hair of their heads. They thus work themselves up into a state of frenzy, or religious hysteria, till at last they faint; when, if any of their friends are sufficiently free from the influence of the same madness, they are carried from the chapel into the open air, foaming at the mouth, and presenting the most revolting spectacle. All those who happen to fall into these religious fits of madness are considered to be under the influence of the Holy Ghost,-to have been converted; and, generally, at the end of the service, are received into the "Society," which, at the close of these meetings,, is purposely held in order to receive new converts. In this frenzy, many persons continue to repeat the same particular word for a great number of times, till their articulation becomes entirely unintelligible; others continually mutter some words the meaning of which cannot be understood, much resembling Mr. Baxter's jargon. At these revivals, it frequently happens in a prayer meeting that some religiously excited member, when engaged in prayer, works himself into such a degree of madness that he can be heard at an inconceivable distance, and will infect others with his religious fury, so as to create a scene of indescribable confusion, such as these prayer meetings have produced a thousand times. Scenes similar to these the writer, some twenty years ago, witnessed in chapels then under the care of the Rev. David Williams, a most eloquent preacher, at Troed-rhiw-dalar, Llanwrtyd, and other chapels in that part of Breconshire. Perhaps that is the last revival of any note that has happened amongst the Independents. But these manifestations of religious madness occur quite as often among the other two prevalent sects in Wales-the Baptists and Calvinistic Methodists. In the time of the Rev. Howell Harris, the founder of the latter, its members were so much under the influence of religious madness, particularly that of jumping, that they were designated by some of the other sects—“ the Jumpers." The writer cites no authority for the foregoing descriptions of religious frenzy in Wales. He has many times witnessed such scenes; and every one acquainted with religion in Wales, for the last forty years, knows that much more might be said of the madness of its votaries. England, a century or two ago, in many places, bore the same character.

some people are subject when their brains are in an unsound state. Peter's vision when, in a trance, he saw a certain vessel descending from heaven, and heard a voice saying, "Arise Peter, slay and eat," was also of the same character.* Both are also similar in character to visions that persons whom Christians would call fanatics have had. Mahomed had a vision when, like Peter, he was praying; and, like Paul, saw a flood of light fall upon him, with such inconceivable splendour that he swooned away; and he also saw an angel who showed him a cloth with written characters, and said to him Read!" Swedenborg and Joseph Smith likewise had several visions. If these visions, therefore, are signs of a divine mission, they are by no means peculiar to the Apostles. It is, however, difficult to determine whether either Paul, Peter, Mahomed, or Joe Smith, ever really had such visions. All we know is that they are reported to have had them. If they had, the fact furnishes presumptive proof that such visions are peculiar to fanatics. If they never had such visions, it proves they are more addicted to knavery than subject to spectral illusions. In the case of Paul and Peter, however, these visions, whether experienced or pretended to have been experienced, do not prove a call from God; for we find that, in obedience to the call they imagined or pretended to have had, they preached the kingdom of heaven, which, in other words, as we have seen, means that the End of the World was at hand. But as the end of the world was not then at hand, and is not even yet at hand, we may, therefore, with the greatest certainty, conclude that God did not call upon them to promulgate a falsehood. As in the case of Christ, it is a point of perfect indifference with regard to the character of Christianity, whether the Apostles were the deluded or the deluders; since it is certain they were not influenced by God in their sayings or doings. For we may rest assured that God never -either in a vision or otherwise-prompted men to deceive, alarm, and reduce to despair their poor and confiding fellow-creatures. In addition to

Acts x. 10; ix.; xi.; xii. 17; xxvi.

+ Irving's Life of Mahomed, p. 32. Bohn's Edit.

Peter and Paul fell into a trance, a state of the cerebral system, which will, on all hands, be admitted to be unsound. If, therefore, in a trance, they must be in an unsound state of mind. In regard to Paul's vision, there is a material difference between the account we have of it by the writer of the Acts of the Apostles, where he narrates the circumstance of the conversion of Paul, (ix. 3-26.) and where he pretends to report Paul's speech, detailing the circumstances of his own conversion. (xxii. 6-19.) In the latter narrative Paul says that, some time after he had seen the first vision, he went to Jerusalem, and that while he was praying in the temple he fell into a trance. (ver. 18.) Paul's account of his own conversion must be preferable to that given by the writer of the Acts, which was only second-hand. Paul says that, upon his miraculous conversion, he retired into seclusion to meditate upon the change which had been wrought in him. He more than once speaks of trances and visions he had had; such as that which he had when he was caught up to the third heaven. It was only natural and agreeable to the known laws of physiology that Paul should be subject to these visions. A man of an ardent and excitable temperament retiring to the solitude and seclusion of an Arabian hermitage, to spend his time in fasting and meditating upon supernatural things, would, in any country, but more particularly in the East, be likely to work himself into such a state of mind, if already possessed of a cerebral development predisposed to illusions. It was very possible for Paul under these circumstances to regard these hallucinations as supernatural visions, and perhaps difficult for him to distinguish them from such. Compare Acts ix. xxii. xxvi. Gal. ii. 1, 11, 15-19. Eph. iii. 3. 2 Cor. xii. 1-7. And see Greg's Creed of Christendom, pp. 186-190.

this proof, it may be remarked that it is not very probable that the all-wise God would have chosen to communicate his will to the mind of man in a trance, or a dream,—when, unquestionably, it is in its most imperfect state, -when the phantasy is rampant and the judgment torpid and in abeyance. It is only reasonable to suppose that, if ever God wished to make the mind of man the medium of the communication of his will, he would employ it when in its most perfect state-not when "in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon man."* Man never should imagine his Maker in action but in a manner worthy of his Divine attributes; otherwise a blasphemous and immoral result is inevitable.

SECTION III.- -THE DOCTRINE OF THE APPROACHING END OF THE WORLD

CALCULATED TO EXCITE THE FEAR OF IGNORANT PEOPLE AND MAKE THEM EMBRACE CHRISTIANITY IN ORDER TO SECURE THEIR OWN SAFETY.THE PANIC WHICH THIS DOCTRINE CREATED IN THE TENTH CENTURY.THE APOSTOLIC SERMONS AND MIRACLES CREATED FEAR OF THE MUNDANE DESTRUCTION, AND THEREBY PROMOTED THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY.

Since the totality of the Gospel was, as we have seen-the End of the World-the Final Judgment-and the kingdom of heaven, with its life eternal to those admitted into it, but endless torments to those who should be excluded-were close at hand, it follows, as a necessary consequence, that people, in vast numbers, should accept with avidity the advantages held forth to them by this Gospel. Hence, not only the circumstances under which Christianity was first promulgated, but the very nature of its doctrines sufficiently accounts for the great success which we are told attended it in its primitive state, and which Christians parade as a proof of its divine origin. This great success, however-even assuming the full extent of what is said of it—is only the natural consequence of things, and -as will be shown in the sequel-is far from being without a parallel, in cases where no supernatural influence can be supposed to have existed.— Let any one picture in his mind the effect which such a doctrine as that preached by Christ and his Apostles must produce on a community of people credulous enough to believe that it was true. Then will he perceive that it must, in an ignorant and superstitious age, create a general panic,-strike terror into every heart, and make all anxious to secure their personal safety. Christ made his appearance as a person sent from God, a thing in those times believed to be frequently the case.-He declared that the final judgment and the end of the world would take place during the lifetime of the generation of men then existing,-that he was the personage who was to execute that judgment, and to cause the destruction of the universe,—that he was divinely commissioned to create new heavens and a new earth,—that in this new world he would establish an everlasting kingdom, that all persons who believed in him as the prince of that

* See Greg's Creed of Christendom, p. 232.