In the Old Test, a state of supernatural ecstasy is evidentlv denoted by the "deep sleep" which fell upon Adam during the creation of Eve ((Jen. ii, 21), and dur- ing which, as appears from the narrative, he was made aware of the transaction, and of the purport of the at- tendant circumstances (ver. 21-24). See Marriage. A similar state occurs again in the "deep sleep" which fell upon Abraham (xv, 12), during which the bondage of his descendants in Egypt was revealed to him. Pos- siblv all the accounts recorded in that chapter occurred in "vision" (ver. 1-12), which ultimately deepened into the trance (ver. 12-21). Comp. ver. 5, 12, where he is said to have seen the stars, though the sun had not gone down. The apparent objection that Abraham was "brought forth abroad" to see the stars is only of the same nature with others explained in the art, Tkmpta- TioN OF Christ. Balaam, as if overcome by the con- straining power of a spirit mightier than his own, "sees the vision of God, falling, but with opened eyes" (Numb, xxiv, 4). The incident of the ass speaking to him, etc., is also understood by many learned Jews and Christians to have occurred in a vision (Bp. Law, itt sup.). To the same mode of divine communication must be re- ferred the magnificent description in Job iv, 13-21. Saul, when the wild chant of the jirophets stirred the old depths of feeling, himself also " prophesied" and " fell down" (most, if not all, of his kingly clothing being thrown oif in the ecstasy of the moment) "all that day and all that night" (1 Sam. xix, 24). Something there was in Jeremiah that made men say of him that he was as one that " is mad and maketh himself a prophet" ( Jer. xxix, 26). In Ezekiel the phenomena appear in more wonderful and awfid forms. He sits motionless for seven days in the stupor of astonishment, till the word of the Lord comes to him (Ezek. iii, 15). The " hand of the Lord" falls on him, and he too sees the " visions of God" and hears the voice of the Almighty, is "lifted up between the earth and heaven," and passes from the river of Chebar to the Lord's house in Jerusa- lem (viii, 3). As other elements and forms of the pro- phetic work were revived in " the apostles and prophets" of the New Test., so also was this. More distinctly even than in the Old Test., it becomes the medium through which men rise to see clearly what before was dim and doubtful, in which the mingled hopes and fears and perplexities of the waking state are dissipated at once. Though different in form, it belongs to the same class of phenomena as the "gift of tongues," and is coimected with " visions and revelations of the Lord." In some cases, indeed, it is the chosen channel for such revela- tions. To the " trance" of Peter in the city, where all outward circumstances tended to bring the thought of
an expansion of the divine kingdom more distinctly be- fore him than it had ever been brought before, we owe the indelible truth stamped ujion the heart of Christen- dom, that (iod is " no respecter of persons," that we may not call an^v man "common or unclean" (Acts x. xi). To the "trance" of Paul, when his work for his own peo- ple seemed utterly fruitless, we owe the mission which was the starting-point of the history of the Universal Church, the command which bade him "depart ... far hence unto the Gentiles" (xxii. 17-21). Wisely, for the most part, did that apostle draw a veil over these more mysterious experiences. He would not sacrifice to them, as others have often sacririce<l, the higher life of activity, love, prudence. He could not explain them to himself. " In tlie body or out of the body," he could not tell, but the outer world of perception had passed away, and he had passeil in spirit into "paradise," into "the third heaven," and had heard " unspeakable words" (2 Cor. xii, 1-4). Those trances too. we may believe, were not without their share in fasliioning his character and life, though no special truth catne distincth' out of them. LInited as they then were, but as they have seldom been since, with clear perceptions of the truth of God, with love wonderful in its depth and tenderness, with energy unresting, and subtle tact almost jiassing into "guile," they made him what he was, the leader of the apostolic band, em|)hatically the " master-builder" of the Ciiiirch of God (comp. Jowett, Fragment un the Character of St. Paul).
Persons receiving this divine influence often fell to the earth under its influence, as in ordinary catalepsy (Gen. xvii, 3, etc.; 1 Sam. xix, 24, Heb. or margin; Ezek. i, 28; Dan. viii. 18; x, 15, 1(5; Hev. i, 10, M). It is important, however, to observe that in all these cases the visions beheld are also related ; hence such cases are distinguished from a mere deliquium animi. We find likewise in the case of Peter that " he fell into a trance" (or rather a " trance fell upon him," in'nrtai)' itt' uIitIv tKtrraaii;), during which he "saw a vision," which is therefore distinguished from the trance (Acts x, 10, comp. Paul's trance, xxii, 17; 2 Cor. xii, 2, etc.). The reality of the vision is established by the corresi)ondeiice of the event. The nearest approach we can make to such a state is that in which our mind is so occupied in the contemplation of an object as to lose entirely the con- sciousness of the body — a state in which the highest order of ideas, whether belonging to the judgment or imagination, is undoubtedly attained. Hence we can readily conceive that such a state might be supcrnatu- rally induced for the higher )nirpose of revelation, etc. The alleged phenomena of the mesmeric trance and clairvoyance, if thej' serve no higher purpose, may as- sist our conceptions of it, — Kitto; Smith. See Vision.