climax to all God's former works." We nature of the evidence upon which our conlook in vain for any thing like evidence that clusion, expressed above, is founded, and the sect in Newman-street is "the stone prepare the way for a more correct apprecut out without hands," which shall break ciation of the sect, as it is exhibited in its to pieces every Church and every other recent publications enumerated at the head Christian communion: as Mr. Drummond of this article. has himself exhibited it, it is rather an un- The utterances, it appears from Mr. shapely pillar cut out, if no worse, by the Baxter's "Irvingism," began at Port Glashands of man, and raised aloft on the top gow; their manner was "novel and appalof a heap of rubbish which he has raked ling;" their matter was partly in plain together from all the Churches and sects of English, on topics of prophecy; partly unChristendom. It is rather an inauspicious intelligible, consisting of sounds which after way, for a system claiming to be the result many fruitless attempts to trace them in of immediate revelation from heaven, to any known language, are now admitted to be endeavor to establish its credit in the different from any language spoken on the world, not by credentials in which the writ-earth. The persons first gifted with the uting of the finger of God may be clearly terances were two brothers and several ladies, discerned, such as the true Apostles of one of whom imported them into Mr. Irving's Christ adduced and appealed to as the church in London, which was at that time warrant and evidence of their mission, but the "National Scotch Church "in Regentby preferring charges, some true, some ex-square. Mr. Irving, who looked upon his aggerated, some utterly false, against every own congregation, tainted already by the communion, being, or claiming to be, the unsound views he had propounded on congregation of Christ's people, on the face the peccability of Christ's nature and the of the earth, and thereupon to argue, perfectibility of man, as upon a city on the "because you are all stale and unprofita- hill in the midst of the darkness of surble, therefore we are necessary; your sys-rounding Christendom, was not slow in actems are all false and rotten, therefore ours knowledging the utterances of his visitor is the true system." What other or fitter from Port Glasgow as the fruits of a miracuanswer is there to such logic and theology, lous spiritual gift. After the female probut that of the patriarch of old: "No phet from Glasgow had for some time assodoubt but ye are the people, and wisdom ciated with Mr. Irving's congregation, the shall die with you. But I have under- infection spread, and three ladies began to standing as well as you; I am not inferior" speak in the Spirit ;" one of whom, howto you; yea, who knoweth not such things as these?"

ever, after having been for months received as a prophetess, and her spiritual gifts fully Among those who thus fell, for a time recognized by the other prophets and at least, under the power of the delusion, prophetesses, acknowledged that she had on was Mr. Robert Baxter, the author of two several occasions been "feigning utterpamphlets now lying before us, the date of ances," and was accordingly declared" a which carries us back to the early days of false prophetess."* Hitherto no man had Irvingism. The first of these, published in spoken as yet in this supernatural utterance 1833, is entitled, "Narrative of Facts, in London; but it seems that " some movcharacterizing the Supernatural Manifesta-ings towards utterance appeared" in a tions in members of Mr. Irving's congrega- Mr. Taplin, and two of the prophetesses tion, and other individuals, in England and Scotland, and formerly in the writer himself" The other pamphlet of Mr. Baxter, of which we have the second edition published in 1836, bears the title, "Irvingism, in its Rise, Progress, and present State." The subject of both is, as their titles indicate, substantially the same; but the former treats chiefly of the writer's own history while connected with the sect; the latter of the history. generally, of the sect itself. A brief summary of the contents of both, with occasional extracts, will enable our readers to judge for themselves of the

having been "much exercised in prayer that he might be made to speak," he accordingly" did speak in power in a tongue" (i. e. the unintelligible utterance)" and in English;" the former part of his utterance being afterwards "paraphrased " by one of the prophetesses.

All this took place at "private prayer meetings;" but Mr. Taplin followed up his private utterance by another at a public prayer meeting, again in what is technically termed by the sect "a tongue," and in English, in which language he ejaculated: "The Lord * Baxter, Narrative of Facts, pp. 93–95.

for Divine service on the Lord's day. It was

is at hand,-prepare to meet Him. The new "dispensation of the Spirit " we have judgments are coming-judgments are the undeniable and remarkable fact that around Him." The next step was the ex- the chief agent in causing these utterances hibition of the utterances in the public to be produced in the public congregation, Sunday congregation. and in preventing any restraint from being imposed upon them, was one subsequently "It was at this time even the opinion of Mr. convicted and rejected as a "false proIrving and his personal friends, that these utter-phetess," upon her own confession, and by ances, although of the spirit of God, should not the verdict of her sister-prophetesses, who, be allowed in the congregation when assembled in power, pronounced that the whole work their judgment that it would be contrary to order in her was of the flesh, and not of the Lord" and discipline. Some weeks elapsed after the ut- (Narrative, p. 94); and the equally reterances were permitted in the public prayer meet-markable and undeniable fact, that the utings, before they were heard in the Sunday con- terances of those who to this day lay claim gregation. On Sunday, the 16th of October, how-to the spirit of true prophecy, accorded ever, in the midst of the Morning Service, Miss with the utterances of the "false prophetH." (the same who was afterwards pronounced a false prophetess) 66 was, as she expressed it, ess," and set upon them the seal of convisited with such a power of the Spirit, that unable firmation. The same striking fact recurs to restrain her utterance, and yet unwilling to in the case of Mr. Baxter himself, who was interrupt the service, she hastened from the body for several months reckoned a chief prophet of the Church into the vestry, and there, in the among them, whose utterances were in perhearing of the congregation, broke forth in an fect agreement with those of the other proutterance, How dare ye to suppress the voice of phets and prophetesses, and who subseutterances, being the voice of the Lord, ought to quently withdrew from the sect, and unebe permitted in the congregation. Miss E. C., who quivocally declared the whole work to be of followed her, also spoke in an utterance, saying Satan; and that not upon being convicted the Spirit had been quenched and grieved by such as a false phophet like Miss H., but in conprohibition, and warning them not to hinder it; for sequence of the conviction spontaneously the Lord's voice ought to be heard in the Church. In the evening of the same day, Mr. Taplin spoke in a tongue in the congregation, and afterwards in English, Do you fly from the voice of God, when He is in the midst of you; where will ye flee in the day of judgment?"

the Lord; and went on to set forth that these

produced in his mind, by repeated failures of the prophecies, and by the false doctrine to which the utterances gave witness, that the work was not of God but of the devil.

Before we enter more fully into the ac"Thus were the utterances gradually introduced count which Mr. Baxter gives of his own through Mr. Irving's congregations in London. experience while under the delusion, it will They were often, in an extraordinary power of not be uninteresting to compare with the voice, accompanied by a most unnatural expression facts above stated the account of a similar of countenance. It was on one occasion suggested delusion which made its appearance in by Mr.*** (subsequently one of the "apostles"), London at the beginning of the last centu"soon after they were heard in the Sunday congregation, that those who spoke should endeavor ry, and was of sufficient importance at the to restrain its loudness. But he was immediately time, to call forth a violent attack upon it rebuked by an utterance from Miss H" (the false in William Whiston's Boyle Lectures. The prophetess), Do you know what it is to have library of Sion College contains five volthe word of God as a fire in your bones?" and umes of "Papers relating to the late false going on to say it could not be restrained; which prophets, commonly called French* utterance was immediately confirmed by another

pro

from Miss E. C. It is so; it is so." No further phets;" and a full account of the rise and attempt was made to restrain them; but they con- progress of the sect, of the corruptions into tinued with full permission to exercise their powers which it fell, and of its consequent downin the Sunday congregation. These utterances, fall, was composed by Dr. Hughson,† as from the period of their full recognition, took as might be expected, the entire control. Mr. Irving, and the congregation which remained with him, bowed to them as the voice of God; and under the progress of these utterances the system of Irvingism has been fashioned."-Baxter's Irvingism, &c. pp. 18, 19.

the delusion was set on foot here by three Cami*They are called "French" prophets, because sards, who by laying on of hands, communicated "the power" by which they spoke, to others in this

country.

The title of this curious tract is: "A copious Account of the French and English prophets, who infested London during 1707 and the following Here, then, at the very threshold of this years; the exhibition of some of them in the pillory, and a complete exposure of their infamous practiThe names are given at full length in Mr. Bax-ces. By D. Hughson, LL. D., Editor of the Histoter's second pamphlet. ry of London and other works. London, 1814."

late as the year 1814, chiefly from a book | so hideous a manner The devil! the devil! published at the time by one of the pro- the devil!' that it terrified the believers phets themselves, whose eyes, like those themselves." of Mr. Baxter, were opened to the delusive character of the work. The purport of the prophecy of these "French prophets "was, as in the present instance, the immediate approach of the second Advent. In a long apologetical manifesto, on the character of "the spirit," published by the prophets themselves against the attacks of divines and others," many of whom did "own them to be actuated by a superior spirit," but declared that spirit to be "the spirit of the devil," the following curious passage

occurs :

"This spirit prepares and adorns the bride against the coming of the bridegroom. Without such a presence, and the extraordinary gifts and powers of the Spirit of God, neither the spreading and full establishing of the Gospel, nor the promised union of all nations into one faith and one law, nor the fulness of God's kingdom can ever be expected to be brought about. Its presence and immediate operations and gifts are necessary for the beginning of the conversion of man to God mains yet to be made (for what has been done hitherto is but an earnest), and when Christendom itself is deplorably hardened, misled, and divided, its immediate concurrence and manifestations are not less necessary, but rather more."-Hughson's Copious Account, p. 11.

and His Christ. And now, when the harvest re

66

The parties that were caught in the snare of this delusion, were (p. 19) "generally persons that had made a serious profession of religion under the various denominations;" men who (p. 39) "in the sincerity of their hearts, were seeking the way to Sion, but through ignorance were enticed and prevailed upon by the voice of the deluder;" several of them "being men of distinguished sense and judgment in natural things, as well as substance." In the catalogue of the principal characters (pp. 77-81) appended to the narrative, are mentioned the names of Sir Richard Bulkely, Lady Jane Forbes, a Mr. Everard, who was Envoy from the British Court to France, and various other persons of a respectable condition in life, as lawyers, physicians, merchants, &c. There was also among

them a clergyman of the name of Foster, a prebendary of Sarum, who publicly in the pulpit professed his belief in the manifestations, in consequence of which he was suspended for six months by Bishop Burnet. Among the prophetesses one Anne Topham was chiefly conspicuous, who went by the sobriquet "the bishop," on account of "the orders for meetings and missions coming so often through her mouth;" notwithstanding which she was subsequently turned out of the sect.

Here we have the same demonstration of the necessity of this new dispensation, and on the same ground, the miserable state of The gross fleshly sins into which the proChristendom, which we have already nophets at last fell, and that under the exticed in Mr. Drummond's book. The man- press direction of "the spirit," finally rener in which "the spirit" acted, was by vealed the real origin and character of their violent and involuntary agitations with a inspiration; but long before this took place, loud roaring voice. They are," says the there were indications that it was a lying manifesto (p. 5), "sometimes such as canspirit that spoke in them, quite sufficient to have undeceived the "believers," but not at all be imitated; no, not by the persons themselves, out of inspiration." Kei- for the extraordinary subtilty of the spirit mer describes them (p. 18), as "very vio- in turning aside difficulties, and devising lent and strange agitations or shakings of evasive pleas, and the still more extraordithe body," accompanied by "loud and ter-nary blindness by which the minds of its rifying hiccups and throbs;" in another place (p. 20), where he relates one of the inspiration scenes, he states that "between every two or three words speaking," the party under the influence of the power cried,' 'Hoh! hoh hoh! hoh! Oh! o-ho-h!' as if he were taking his last gasp" and upon one occasion (p. 60) he mentions that a prophetess roared out in

deluded followers were overcast. The most definite and explicit prophecies ended in failure and disappointment; and the occasional strangeness of the commands given by "the spirit," created much perplexity, and excited suspicions, more than once. But they had been taught by the spirit (p. 67) that "true saving faith consisted in an implicit belief in, and strict obedience to whatsoever that spirit commanded, without consulting their reason, or having regard to the commands of God as revealed in Scripture ;" and when, upon one occasion

phecy, the gift of tongues, and the interpretation that Mr. T., when in the Court of Chancery, had of tongues; and that he would open my mouth and give me strength to declare his glory.' This prayer, short almost as I have now penned it, was forced from me by the constraint of the power which acted upon me; and the utterance was so loud, that I put my handkerchief to my mouth to stop the sound that I might not alarm the house. When I had reached the last word I have written, the power died off me, and I was left just as before, save in amazement at what had passed, and filled, as it seemed to me, with thankfulness to God for His great love so manifested to me. With the power there came upon me a strong convic-mony should be cast into prison. That the abotion- This is the Spirit of God; what you are now praying is of the Spirit of God, and must, therefore be the mind of God; and what you are asking, will surely be given to you.' This conviction-strong as it was at the moment-was never shaken, until the whole work fell to pieces. But from that day I acted in the full assurance that in God's own good time all these gifts would be bestowed upon me."-Baxter's Narrative, pp. 8, 9.

In this conviction Mr. Baxter was confirmed by the testimony of the other prophets and prophetesses, not only by the agreement of their utterance with his own on many occasions, but by the voice of prophecy in them, pointing him out as one of the chiefest instruments of the Lord in this new dispensation. To mention but one instance which occurred immediately after a most painful scene, of which a casual visitor was the object:

found the power mightily upon him, but never a distinct impulse to utterance. Whilst he was speaking on it, I was made in power to declare, There go I, and thence to the prison-house.' This was followed by a prophecy setting forth the darkness of the visible church, referring to the king as the head of the Church of England, and to the chancellor as the keeper of the conscience of the king. That a testimony should that day be borne before him which should make the nation tremble at what was coming to pass. That I was to go and bear this testimony, and for the testimination of desolation would be set up in the land, and Satan sit in the high places of the Church, showing himself to be God. That the world had now the possession of the visible church, but for the purity of doctrine of the Church of England, she, as the last portion of the visible church, had been accounted holy by the Lord; but she had gone on in worldly cares, and was now so provoking the Lord, and by worldly-mindedness so quenching the Spirit of God, that God had cast ter should bear testimony before the conscienceher off. That it was necessary a spiritual miniskeeper of the head of this church, and then the abomination of desolation would be set up, and every man must flee to the mountains. Much was added of the judgments of God in the midst of the land. The power upon me was overwhelming. I gave all present a solemn benediction, as them, and forbidding Mr. Irving, who rose to though I was departing altogether from among speak to me as I was going, I went out under the constraint of the power, and shaped my way to the court of the chancellor, to bear the testimony to which I was commanded.

"As I passed Mrs. C." (one of the prophetesses) "I took her hand to shake hands with her, when and trials I underwent were almost beyond endur"As I went on towards the court, the sufferings the power came upon her, and, holding my hand, she addressed me before all the company; begin to consider my own character in the sight of the ance. Might it not be a delusion? Ought I not ning, by setting out Jesus Christ, and proceeding, world, which would be forfeited by such an act; as the prophet of Christ, to declare that Jesus had and the ruin of all worldly prospects, which sent His angel, and touched my lips with a living would ensue from it, and from my imprisonment? coal not many days past; that the word of the These and a thousand more subtle and trying sug Lord proceeded from my lips, and I was a prophet, gestions were cast in upon me; but confident that and more than a prophet, for I should speak with the power speaking in me was of God, it seemed authority; that I was a chosen stone in the temple of the Lord; but warning the people not to rest in counting the cost, I gave myself up to God to do my duty to obey at every sacrifice; and without the vessel, for though I was a chief stone, yet I with me and use me as He should see fit. In this was not the chief corner-stone."-Baxter's Narra-mind I went on, expecting, as I entered the court tive, p. 73. of the chancellor, the power would come upon me, and I should be made to bear testimony before him. knew not what I was to say, but supposed, that, as on all other occasions, the subject and utterance power came on me. I stood in the court before would be together given. When I entered, no the chancellor for three or four hours, momentarily expecting the power to come upon me, and as the time lengthened, more and more perplexed at its absence. I was tempted to speak in my own strength without the power; but I judged this would not be faithful to the word spoken, as my testimony would not have been in the Spirit. After waiting this time, I came out of court, convinced there was nothing for me to say.

While a personal belief in the power from which these utterances proceeded, was thus insinuated into the mind through the subtlest of all the channels of mischief, spiritual pride, and love of distinction, failures which must, we should have thought, have removed the delusion at once, and drawn attention to its real character, were of constant occurrence. The following may serve as a specimen:

"After breakfast, when sitting with Mr. Irving, Mr. P., and a few others, Mr. Irving remarked

I