114 Thoughts on the Exercises 



creed. If the revealed system of Christianity be true, 

 mahometanism must be a delusion ; and if an improper 

 exercise of the moral faculty will excite men to endure 

 torture and death, surely a sudden excitement of the 

 same faculty, by the glorious realities of the gospel; 

 a pathetic description of the bleeding hands and dying 

 groans of an efficient Saviour; the exaltation and hap- 

 piness of believers in time and eternity; and the endless 

 miseries of the unbelieving in death, in judgment, and 

 futurity, may reasonably be admitted to produce tem- 

 porary gestlculatioiis of body. 



From this cursory view of the operations of the moral 

 faculty, I think it is evident, that the exercises in ques- 

 tion were improperly denominated chorea sancti viti ; 

 neither are we authorized to believe them to be a spe- 

 cial " visitation from the Deity." I, however, hope- 

 not to be accused of deteriorating this religious exer- 

 cise; far, very far from this is my wish. I presume 

 not to condemn the persons thus influenced, nor to de- 

 tract from the sincerity of their devotion ; but my wish 

 is to remove the delusion of supposing it to be a bodily 

 disease, and leave the intrinsic merits of the subject to 

 Him, who " searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of 

 the children of men;" and who can direct the exer- 

 cises of the synagogue and the camp to his own glory. 



A critical attention to Mr. Wilkinson's description 

 of the rise and progress clearly evinces the nature and 

 form of this affection. " The paroxysms (says Mr. 

 \V.) seldom returned but during attendance on religi- 

 ous worship ;" hence they were merely occasional. 



