acute and careful investigator; but I cannot find that any definite truth has been arrived at or approached, which would invalidate the soundness or propriety of my warning.

Not discerning any particular or immediate danger, beyond what I could meet by private counsel, of any of my flock being led astray, I have hitherto abstained from all public notice of Spiritualism; but learning recently that the number of its votaries in America has increased from two to three millions, and being aware how rapidly any moral in fection spreads where it meets with no ready-prepared antidote, (witness the late astonishing and lamentable success of Mormonism in its unsuspected inroad amongst, not only the masses of England's city and manufacturing population, but even amongst the simple peasantry of her agricultural districts), I feel impelled, at length, to give my public testimony with regard to this new doctrine, with the earnest hope and prayer that it may be blessed to the warding off from my own flock of any irruption of anti-Scriptural speculations, and that, at the same time, it may offer suggestions for deeper and more extended enquiry, not unseasonable, nor iuapplicable to the Christian Church generally.

TO THE BRITISH RESIDENTS AT NAPLES.

My dear Friends and Brethren,

In turning my attention to Spiritualism and its phenomena, I have been actuated neither by vain curiosity nor by the desire of amusement and excitement, but by a sense of duty. Considering that, according to Dr. Hare, Spiritualism claims to rumber, in America, two million votaries, five thousand media, and a hundred thousand witnesses ready to testify to the actual exhibition of the recorded phenomena, with an extended literature and a talented Periodical Press; considering, farther, that it has been introduced into, and is likely, by every fresh influx of American visitors to Naples, to be continually pressed upon the notice of the British community here, for whose spiritual instruction and guardianship I am responsible before God and man, "and watch as he, that must give account ;" and that its propositions are espe cially calculated to affect the sympathies and yearnings, and to unsettle the minds of the young and unstable: I feel bound to examine its claims with a dispassionate and unprejudiced mind, so as to be prepared, in my sphere, and as I may be called upon, to confirm or refute them, or at least to give an intelligent answer to such as consult me, and a reason for my opinions. In pursuing this examination [ have kept steadily in view the principle of Divine Unity, the concord which must necessarily exist between the Word and the Works of God, the Book of Nature, and the Book of Revelation.

I have remembered, at the same time, that in all ages, there have existed divers characters who would set these at variance; some, who have been unnecessarily and prema. turely alarmed at every new discovery or theory lest its results should militate against the truth of the inspired Word; and others, who have as readily sought to convert the supposed facts, the insufficient data, and the un-founded

deductions of an Infant Science into weapons wherewith to assail the Historical Statements and acknowledged mysteries of Holy Scripture. Such zealous, but hastily equipped champions on either side have, I believe, never been wanting to any era, nor to any specific subject of eminent scientific and philosophical discovery. Not to go back to the times of Sir Isaac Newton and his predecessors, I would only instance the case of Geology in the present day: how its phenomena and the deductions therefrom-at first so confidently assumed alike by the lovers and opponents of the Bible, to be contradictory to its recorded facts, and so warmly contended for as such, by the one, and rejected by the other party-have, after fuller investigation and a more careful and extended inductivè process, been found reconcilable and in complete harmony with the Mosaic account of creation, &c. In judging of the claims of modern Spiritualism I have also given ample consideration to the Wise Man's saying. Ecc. 3. 15:-" That which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been, and God requireth that which is past. " Keeping in mind the many instances of Spiritual interposition in human affairs-for good and for evil-recorded both in the Old and New Testament, what is said of Angels on the one hand, and the Devil and Devils (i. e. Dæmons) on the other, I have admitted to myself throughout, that we may not presume to limit the Almighty, and to say, that, because he has not in our days, and for many previous centuries, employed the direct visible agency of Angels, nor permitted the common perceptible re-appearance on earth of departed Spirits, he might not see fit to alter the course of his Providence now or at any future period of this world's duration; and that Satan and his Agents may not be permitted again to exercise overt means of assailing mankind, such as cha racterized the Jewish and Apostolical Christian age; though I think that we have no ground whatever to expect such a retrogression in the Divine dispensations. As to Angels they are mentioned in every part of the Bible, and in each instance, (though under diversified circumstances,) are represented as fulfilling the character implied by the question. Heb. 1. 14: "Are they not all Ministering Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation?" So numerous

to

indeed are the passages of Scripture in which these good Spirits are named as God's Messengers to man that it is out of the question to attempt to quote them, but I give the references of a few in each era of Sacred History, sufficient to illustrate the fact and nature of their commission-Gen. 22. 11. Gen. 19. 16. Gen. 32. 12.-24. Dan. 3. 28. Dan. 6. 22. Psalm 103. 20. Luke 1. 11. John 5. 4. Matt. 4. 11. Luke 22. 43. Acts 10. 7. Indeed God's most gracious scheme for the present good and future salvation of his people is represented as carried on throughout by the agency of Angels. To assure us of this, and to bring home the assurance our comprehension and acceptance, the Almighty Governor of the Universe is set forth as sitting on a throne in Heaven, and his Angels standing around awaiting his commands, as attendants in the Court of an earthly Sovereign-see Job 1. 6. and 1 Kings 22.9. So likewise in the Apocalypse, as observed by the Rev. E. Elliott in his Hora Apocalypticæ, "Angelic agency is marked out as to be employed in producing the varied, eventful changes in this world; most truly as well as beautifully, has it been said by Milton 'millions of Spiritual Creatures walk the earth unseen both when we sleep and when we wake.' He has said it truly because it is precisely according to the uniform representations of Holy Scripture. When the first-born in Egypt, or the army of the Assyrians was to be slain, it was by a destroying Angel. When Elisha or Peter was to be delivered, it was still, as represented in Scripture, by Angelic instrumentality. Under the present dispensation we are told they are employed as Ministering Spirits to the good, Destroying Spirits to the evil. Such was the view presented to John in the prophecy. Numbers of them, indeed without number, were seen engaged in the Heavenly Temple in contemplation and praise. But to others he saw given commissions in the sphere of active employment, and in fulfilment of them they appeared afterwards directing the tempests, sounding the trumpets, pouring out the vials, scattering the fire, gathering the vintage." So, again, is our Lord Jesus Christ represented on his return as accompanied by his Angelic Court. Matt. 25. 31. The Devil and Devils (Dæmons), Evil Angels or Spirits are set forth for illustration under somewhat similar figures. I quote again from Mr.

Elliott: "Devil (dtx60λoç) from its derivation means an accuser. In the singular with the article (The Devil) it is uniformly used of the one great Evil Spirit, elsewhere called The Evil One, Satan, The Adversary, The Old Serpent, The Great Dragon, The Ruler of this World, The Prince of the Power of the Air. Applied to him the term is intended to characterize him as an Accuser. The Hebrew word in the Septuagint from which it is taken is equivalent to Satan and Tzar,-adversary, and enemy,-used in Job 1. 6. and Zech. 3. 1,2.—where the course of this world is represented as a Judicial Drama with man's cause impending in it before the Eternal One, and the Old Serpent-him who was originally man's tempter-now acting as his Satan, or Accuser. Indeed in Zech. the appellative noun and the explanatory verb occur together, Satan to act the Satan's (accuser's) part. Thus then Devil (6:26olog) is the appellative of the one Great Evil Spirit, as by way of eminence our Accuser, to whom, in the grand pending Judicial Drama, there is opposed through God's mercy, Jehovah-Jesus, our xpzzλntos or Advocate, our Advocate in person as God Man, to silence his accusations before God; our Advocate by his Spirit (who is thus the Comforter) to silence his accusations in the Believ er's own conscience. "There is no such word, (says Dr. Campbell), as Devils (Stx6oλot) in the plural with reference to unearthly Spirits, either in the Septuagint or the New Testament. There is but one Devil, there are many Dæmons (ôxyloyix)" Dæmons is the proper translation of the word rendered Devils in our version of the Bible. Hence those possessed by these Evil Spirits were called Dæmoniacs. "The word Dæmon, says Mr. Elliott, is used both in the singular and plural number in the Old and New Testament; and in two senses. Its first and clearest signification is that of the imaginary Heathen Gods-Deut. 32. 17. Psl. 106. 37. The Dæmons of the Greek Religion are recognized by all their Poets and Philosophers, as the Spirits of Dead Men; and so the Hebrew Scriptures recognize the Baalim or Gods to whom Israel apostatized, as dead men deified-Psl. 106. 28. Numb. 25. 2, 3. Is. 8. 19. Is. 65. 4. In the record of Christ's miracles a malignant sense continually attaches to the word Dæmons, unclean, evil Spirits; real, though invisible, by