صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني
[ocr errors]

notwithstanding this disadvantage, we find wider variations in the situations of other places, and are obliged to make greater corrections in ancient charts and maps, than are necessary to be made in the Mosaic description of Eden, to bring it to an agreement with our latest accounts of the present country and rivers about Chaldea. So the delightful garden, which was the habitation of the first parents of mankind, was, no doubt, situated in the place we have here specified.

[ocr errors]

THE WORKS OF GOD DISPLAYED.

The possibility of the Prophet Jonas being in the belly of a fish— accounted for upon philosophical principles.

[Meth. Mag. Eng.]

OUR Lord seems here plainly to refer to the history concerning Jonah, as to a real fact; nevertheless this part of Scripture has by some been supposed to contain an account merely of a prophetical vision. Nothing, however, can be more certain than, that if we will calmly bestow a little due and candid attention, the whole account may be shewn to contain nothing but what was very possible, even consistently with the soundest philosophy and experience. For in the first place, although it be true, that a whale (properly so called, and accurately and generically described) has so small a gullet that it could not possibly swallow a man, yet we ought to consider the word xnros does not necessarily mean a whale, as distinguished from other large fishes, but that it properly means a large sea monster, and that there are other fishes (the sharks amongst the rest) that are very capable of swallowing a man whole, and have often done so. There is amongst the rest, one very remarkable fish, described as being taken even upon our own coasts, which ought to be remembered on this occasion, and to be referred to, although this in itself was not probably of the full size, and therefore could not contain the body of a man, but others of its species very well might. A print of it, and a curious description, by that most ingenious and faithful philosopher, Mr. John Ferguson, may be seen in the Phil. Trans. Vol. 53, p. 170, from whence even this small one appears to have been near five feet in length, and of a great bulk, and to have been merely, as it were, one vast bag, or great hollow tube, capable of containing the body of any animal of size that was but, in some smail degree, inferior to its own. And unquestionably, such a kind of fish.

and of still larger dimensions, may consistently, even with the most correct ideas of any natural historian, be supposed occasionally to have appeared in the Mediterranean, as well as on other coasts, where such a one was actually caught, it having come up so far into the Bristol channel and King's road.

In the next place, that a man may continue in the water, in some instances, without being drowned, is manifested by what is related by the author of the Physico-Theology, on the best authority. For he tells us that he is inclined to conclude some persons may have the foramen ovale of the heart remaining open all their lives, although in the greater part of the human species, it is closed very soon after their birth, and that such persons as have the foramen ovale so left open, could neither be hanged nor drowned, because when the lungs cease to play, the blood will, nevertheless, continue to circulate, just as it does in a foetus in the womb. And although Mr. Cheselden doubted of this fact, yet Mr. Cowper, the anatomist, says he often found the foramen ovale open in adults, and gives some curious instances of this kind. Mr. Derham, in one of his notes, mentions several persons who were many hours and days under water, and yet recovered; and one who even retained the sense of hearing in that state. And Dr. Platt (History of Staffordshire, p. 292,) mentions a most curious instance of a person who survived and lived, after having been hanged at Oxford, for the space of twenty hours before she was cut down. The fact was notorious, and her pardon, reciting this circumstance, is extant on record. And further, it is well known that what enables some animals to be amphibious, is this very circumstance of having the foramen ovale of the heart open. See Ray on the creation, p. 330..

Now, then, where is the absurdity in conceiving, that Jonas might have been a person of this kind, having the foramen ovale of his heart continuing open from his birth to the end of his days. In which case, he could neither be drowned by being cast into the sea, nor suffocated by being swallowed by the fish. Neither could he well be injured by the digesting fluid in the fish's stomach, for it is a curious observation made by Mr. John Hunter, that no animal substance can be digested by the digesting fluid usually existing in animal stomachs, whilst life remains in such animal substance. His words are (Phil. Trans. Vol. 62, p. 449.

[ocr errors]

Animals, or parts of animals possessed of the living princi ple, when taken into the stomach, are not the least affected by the powers of that viscus, so long as the animal principle remains. Thence it is, that we find animals of various kinds living in the stomach. or even hatched and bred there, but the mo

t

C

ment that any of these lose the living principle, they become subject to the digestive powers of the stomach. If it were possible for a man's hand, for example, to be introduced into the stomach of a living animal, and kept there for some considerable time, it would be found that the dissolvent powers of the stomach could have no effect upon it; but if the same hand were separated from the body, we should then find that the stomach would act immediately upon it.

[ocr errors]

Indeed, if this were not the case, we should find that the stomach itself ought to have been made of indigestible materials for if the living principle was not capable of preserving animal substances from undergoing that process, the stomach itself would be digested.

:

"But we find, on the contrary, that the stomach, which, at one instant, that is, while possessed of the living principle, was capable of resisting the digestive powers which it contained, the next moment, viz. when deprived of the living principle, is itself capable of being digested either by the digestive powers of other stomachs, or by the remains of that power which it had of digesting other things."

Consistently with which observations of Mr. John Hunter, we find that small fishes have been taken alive out of the stomachs of fishes of prey, and (not having been killed by any bite or otherwise) have survived their being devoured, and have swam away well recovered, and very little affected by the digesting fluid.

Putting then all these circumstances together, there appears, in the end, nothing unphilosophical or absurd, in supposing that Jonas, or indeed any other man, having the foramen ovale of the heart open, or such a construction of his frame as those mentioned by Derham had, might be cast into the sea, and be swallowed up whole by a great fish, and yet be neither drowned, nor bitten, nor corrupted, nor digested, nor killed; and it will easily follow, from the dictates of common sense, that in that case the fish itself must either die, or be prompted by its feelings to get rid of its load; and this it might do, perhaps, more readily near the shore, than in the midst of the waters, and in that case, such person would certainly recover again by degrees, and escape.

I do not presume to say that this is, by any means, an exact solution of what happened to the prophet Jonas, because there must ever be acknowledged to have been a miraculous, divine interposition on the whole, in causing the circumstances of the presence of the fish, of the formation of Jonas, and of the nearness to the shore, at the time of his being thrown up, to concur rightly to effect his deliverance; and how much farther it

might extend, we neither can nor ought to presume to ascertain.

But solely to show the fact to be philosophically possible, even according to the experience we are permitted to be acquainted with, is sufficient to remove, and fully to answer, the objections of scoffers, and is a sufficient ground for us to consider our Lord's allusion to this narration, as being an allusion to an event that really happened.

A MAN POSSESSED OF THE DEVIL.

An extract from the Rev. Mr. Easterbrook's account of George Lukins. Published under J. Wesley's patronage.

[Eng. Methodist Mag. vol. 12th, page 155.]

On Saturday May 31, 1788, Mrs. Sarah Barber called on me acquainting me that she had just returned from a visit to Yatton, in the county of Somerset, where she had found a poor man afflicted with an extraordinary malady. She said his name was George Lukins; that he had fits daily during her stay at Yatton, in which he sang and screamed in various sounds, some of which did not resemble a human voice; and declared, doctors could do him no service. Some time ago she resided at Yatton seyeral years together, well knew George Lukins and bis relations, and was thoroughly acquainted with the opinion of the neighbourhood concerning them: and could with confidence declare, that he bore an extraordinary good character from his childhood, and had constantly attended the church a sacrament. Of her own knowledge he said, that she could affirm, that he had been subject to fits of a very uncommon nature, for the last eighteen years for the ure of which he had been placed for a considerable time under the care of Mr. Smith, an eminent surgeon of Wrington, who administered all the assistance in his power, without effect many other medical gentlemen she said had in like manner tried to help him, but in vain. Many of the people about Yatton conceived him to be bewitched; but he himself declared that he was possessed of seven devils, and that nothing could avail but the united prayers of seven clergymen, who could ask deliverence for him in faith. But seven could not be procured in that neighbourhood to meet his ideas, and try theexperiment she therefore earnestly requested me to go to Yatton to see him.

To this I answered, that it would be a pleasure to me to com

[ocr errors]

ply with her wish, but the engagements I had in this city, precluded me that gratification; notwithstanding which if she could contrive to bring the man to Bristol, I would solicit some of my friends to join me in supplication for him.

On Saturday the 7th day of June, George Lukins came to Mr. Wescote's, in Redclift-street, where he was seen for some days in his fits, by many who with one voice declared, that they were struck with horror and amazement, at the sounds and expressions which they heard, and the unaccountable agitations and convulsions which they beheld.

In compliance with my promise to Mrs. B. I applied to such of the clergy of the established church (within the circle of my acquaintance) as I conceived to be most cordial in the belief of supernatural influences, namely, to the Rev. Dr. Symes, Rector of St. Werburgh's; the Rev. Dr. Robins, precentor of the cathedral; and the Rev. Mr. Brown, rector of Portishead; requesting that these gentlemen would attend a meeting for prayer in behalf of this object of commiseration; but though they acknowledged it as their opinion, that his was a supernatural affliction, I could not prevail upon them to join with me in prayer for him. Therefore as these gentlemen rejected my application, there was no rational ground of hope for more success, with those of my brethren, who were less disposed to admit the influence of good and evil spirits. Yet being unwilling to dismiss him from Bristol till some effort had been made for his recovery, I next desired certain persons in connexion with the Rev. Mr. Wesley, to attend a prayer-meeting on his account; to which request they readily acceded. Accordingly a meting was appointed on Friday morning the 13th of June, at eleven o'clock. And as the most horrible noises usually proceeded from him in his fits, it was suggested that the vestry-room of Temple church, which is bounded by the church-yard, was the most retired place that could be found in Temple parish; and for that reason that situation was preferred to any other, it being our design to conduct this business with as much secrecy as possible. But our design in this respect was rendered abortive; for on Wednesday evening the 11th of June, there was published in the Bristol Gazette, the following letter:

SIR,

To the Printer of the Bristol Gazette.

When you can spare room in your Gazette, I think you will not be able to present your readers with an account so extraordinary as the following. It is the most singular case of perverted reason and bodily suffering that I ever heard of; nor

« السابقةمتابعة »