share the throne of Christ! One would have imagined that the utterance of such unqualified aspirations of ambition as these, ought to have warned Irving's friends to prepare for his reception, not upon a throne, but in a madhouse. We shall have a word to say presently upon this man's extraordinary hardihood, in attempting to make the world believe that some of his followers have received the gift of tongues. In the mean time, let us hear another of the living Millennarians of the literal school.

"We believe that he shall come as he hath never yet come, in a form of glory, the form of adorned manhood, so as to be seen and owned of man. Yet such seeing shall be transient to man in the flesh, abiding only to man in the spirit. Such his coming shall be at the commencement, not the close, of his earthly reign; that new era of peace and righteousness which most Christians profess to be looking for. Yet he shall come while nations are dwelling upon the earth in their ancient form, and shall continue to maintain their existence in that form during a limited period.—His raising of the blessed dead and his changing the bodies of the blessed living shall be simultaneous with the annunciation of his approach, and, together with the vengeance then executed upon the unbelieving members of his visible church, shall constitute a distinct integral part of his work of judging the world. Yet shall there be unraised and unjudged one still; yet shall the earth have a judgment still to undergo; yet shall there be temples and services, and an epoch to be waited for.-The restoration of the Jewish nation, as a whole, shall be subsequent to, and shall be effected in quick succession to, the blessings and cursings of the instant of his coming. Yet shall that nation have received a partial restoration before, and individuals of the glorified fulness' shall have been taken out of it; yet shall the joys of Canaan and of the Jew be distinct from that of the spiritual Israel.-Christ's spiritual empire shall be coextensive with the earth, with the world; yet its seat shall not be earth, though communicating with it; his Saints shall reign as well as serve with him, but they shall not jostle with the men of the flesh, and, though intermixing when need be, individually, shall be visible only by special appointment and operation.-A second apostacy, a second conflict, a second resurrection, a second judgment, shall follow close upon the sunset of the millennial day; yet even these events shall not finish the transactions of earth, which shall survive her conflagration as she has survived her deluge."*

The Rev. N. Armstrong, of whose excellent discourse on the state of the Church we lately availed ourselves, seems also to be upon the side of the Literalists. He says, "The Millennium, the Church's rest, will not be until Christ's personal appearing." In the sentiments expressed on the same subject, by the Rev. George Bedford, we may discover the whole of the doctrine of the Allegorists, who look upon the expected Millennium as the spiritual

* Vaughan's Sermon on the Church's Expectation.

† Sermon in No. 466 of that exceedingly useful weekly publication, entitled "The Pulpit."

Sermon in Ibid.

agency of the Redeemer manifested in a more general submission to his laws. "It is more likely," says this preacher, "that establishments of religion will all be overthrown, and a more marked line of distinction drawn between the followers of Christ and the servants of the world." It is the opinion of Mr. Russell, (and the only one, we think, worth attention,) that there is to be no Millennium at all; that the idea of such a period "originated in a Jewish tradition, which had no connexion with the Gospel, and ought, therefore, never to have occupied the thoughts of members of the Christian church. Mr. Faber, however, assures us that this earth is to be destroyed, and the new heaven to begin in the year 1865; and if we should live to see that year terminated, without any such changes taking place, then we may be quite sure that they cannot fail to occur in the year 1880, for this is a discovery which Dr. Hales has made upon "infallible grounds."

:

Dr. Nolan, of Prittlewell, in Essex, who has a press of his own, and a very beautiful one too, for the diffusion of his sentiments upon a variety of subjects, has lately given to the public a treatise, in which he has not only investigated the time of the Millennium, but "determined its nature." With respect to the former, it is to commence exactly in the year 6001 and as to the latter, the Millennium is to be one long Sunday of one thousand years, which is to be spent wholly in religious contemplation. People are to die, and to be born as usual, but there is to be very little eating or drinking, nobody will be sick, but the old are to go out, as it were, like the snuff of a candle, though they may, perhaps, have occasionally a slight twinge of pain. This long Sunday having drawn to a close, then the year 7001 is to be ushered in with a complete change of scene-the destruction of this globe by fire, which fire is to be generated upon the most approved principles of science. learned doctor mentions several of these, but he gives a decided preference to the process of destruction, which may, he thinks, be put in operation by the decomposition of the ocean. For whereas water is formed of a combination of oxygen with hydrogen, any power which can separate these elements can immediately produce an inflammable gas, the spreading of which will realize the "burning lake" mentioned in the Apocalypse!

The

But we have been hitherto dealing merely with the fringes of this fruitful subject. What are the varieties of doctrine, the countless religious delusions arising out of the principle of private judgment, to which we have referred, in comparison with the enormous absurdities recently enacted, and still going on, in the presence of crowded congregations, at Mr. Irving's church in Regentsquare? We say Mr. Irving's church, for we presume that the Kirk of Scotland has long since disavowed the doctrines propagated by that madman, and cut him and his followers off from its communion. Prayer meetings are, it seems, held every morning in this new Babel, at half-past six, for the purpose of soliciting the Deity

to bestow upon the arch-hypocrite and his deluded disciples, the gift of tongues, when those who have received the gift by the manifest favour of the Holy Ghost, give proof of it by pouring out a torrent of sounds, which they call a language, but of which not one syllable is understood by the "gifted," or by a single individual who hears them. Nay, the world has not yet received from them so much as one written word of their strange dialect, in order to judge whether it is of divine or human origin, the dialect of God or man. Miss Carsdale, Miss Hall, and Mr. Taplin, are said to be the principal exhibitors upon these occasions, the favourite lions of this new Bartholomew Fair. They descant occasionally in the unknown tongue, and in what they are pleased to call the English language also, which, however, becomes, under the influence of their sanctity, a tongue almost as impossible to be understood as the great unknown itself. We cite an example of these rhapsodies, delivered on the 26th of October last in Irving's shew booth.

"Men doubt they doubt the very being of their God; they dare to doubt it-they dare to doubt. The worms of the dust-the worms of the dust-the works of his hands they dare to doubt-they dare to doubt his very being. Think you that he will arise ?---that he will plead his own cause?-that he will plead his own cause? Oh, beware of going on, of going on-beware-beware! Know that the Lord he is God; know that he made all things; O know it-O know it! You will know it-you will know it. O know it now-know it now? Put away your unbelief-put away your unbelief. Come to him now-come to him now. Oh, he is not known-he is not known! Men do not know what it is to walk before him; they do not know that his eye searcheth them; they do not know that, at the great day of God, they shall have to give account. Oh, it is a fearful thing!-oh, it is a fearful thing!-oh, it is a fearful thing! Oh, mock not! Oh, it is your perditition if you mock!-oh, it is your perdition if you mock! Oh, mock not at your God!-oh, mock not at your God!"The Pulpit, No. 469, p. 169.

The reader is not to suppose that this wild talk is a translation from what the same speaker may have delivered in the unknown tongue. We have already said that they are utterly ignorant even of what they mean when the gift manifests itself in their persons, a paradox which Irving explains in this maner:-"The speaker begins in the unknown tongue, and continues in the known. In the unknown tongue you have the sign of inspiration—in the known tongue you have the sign of revelation. The unknown tongue shows that the speaker is under the influence of a superior power a power not his own.' This mountebank has even had the hardihood to declare his opinion that "the unknown tongue is the language of the ten tribes, who were carried away by Salmaneser, at the capture of Samaria, and the destruction of the kingdom of Jerusalem ! How does he know this fact? Where are the

Pulpit, No. 468, p. 160.

recorded remains of that language? Do they exist upon earth, or has Irving received them directly from heaven?

We must intreat the reader to listen to a few of the arguments and assertions which this cunning hypocrite (for he has not the sincerity to be a fanatic) has sent forth in defence of the miraculous gift which he has claimed for his disciples. They are such outrages upon common sense, and upon the sacred Scriptures, that we deem it wholly unnecessary to refute them. They carry with them their own reprobation.

"And how can God meet this state of unbelief that is in the church better than in this way, which is by uttering in a strange tongue to him that speaketh as well as to him that heareth, yet having in the church an ordinance of interpreters, which I believe he will hereafter impart to us.

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*

"To every one that crucifies the flesh, and keeps God's commandments, God has promised the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. And to a company of such men, composing a church such as this we have, the Lord Jesus having promised the Comforter, will send him in all his manifestations in this church. And if you will hear the word of the Lord, not many days, not many months, shall pass, until you see the gifts and manifestations of the church in the midst of us. Although we may well feel that the tokens already given are a great encouragement, he will not be slack to add more, nor disappoint us in our expectations.

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*

"God sends us the things we ask, but it is often in a way we do not understand; though we may be assured he will send it. We asked for the Holy Ghost, and the voice of the Holy Ghost is lifted up amongst us, and we must not flee from it.

"And here," says the reporter for the Pulpit, (we quote from No. 466, p. 130)" alluding to the persons who on last Lord's day broke silence, he warned his congregation, in order that, if such a thing occurred again, they might know it was no brawling in the church, but the voice of the Spirit speaking in the tongues. The communication of the Spirit on that occasion, when interpreted, was, Why do ye flee from the voice of the Lord? Surely the Lord is in the midst of us. If ye flee now, where will ye hide yourself in the day of judgment?' I say,' proceeded Mr. Irving, "it is not man that did this; it is the Great Head of the Church that has thrust it upon us, and He now waits to see whether we will receive it. Give me liberty to expound the word of the Lord; give not ear to the opinion of the world, and we shall indeed receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The tokens we have already received (and to which I myself have been a reverent listener for the last six months) afford ample evidence of what we may expect. He had already preached the approach of the millennium ;-the day of judgment and the Lord's coming were at hand; and those persons who spoke not from their own minds, but from the inspiration of the Lord, were sent forth to announce the event to mankind, and to bid them prepare. I hope,' said Mr. Irving, that God will raise up many of them; nay, I am sure he will.'

These passages would seem to be quite enough in the judgment of any rational jury, to authorise them to deprive the person who

one.

uttered them of the right of managing his own estate, if he had But there are many others of a still more outrageous character. In No. 468 of the " Pulpit," we find another series of Irvingiana upon the gift, which he says has not been received by the church in general, but only by a few individuals.

"A few amongst us have-a few amongst us have; and, blessed be the Lord, it is the greatest hope of the church." "The church, at present, is just in the state in which the disciples were before the day of Pentecost." "We have not in the church (save with those who have been baptized with power, and who have exhibited that power in the way in which it was exhibited here) we have not the power of the Holy Ghost dwelling in it in the speaking of tongues, and in prophecying. That the church wants, but need no longer to want, and shall no longer want-yea, verily, shall be filled with"!" The resurrection of Christ I believe, has been forgottenI know it indeed-it is a matter of fact. It is the preaching of the resurrection, of the life of Jesus-the preaching of Jesus on the throne of God with all power in heaven and in earth, and his union with his body, that is forgotten. It is now, I may say, at least six years since I was first led into the mystery of this myself, and set it forth in a work I wrote on the Incarnation-the mystery of Christ's resurrection, life being in the church. Now it is the knowledge of this, the faith of this, the power of this, which hath brought back into the church the life of God, the power of God, which is now, in different parts of the church, beginning to be manifested; and without this doctrine, with the understanding of it, and the belief of it, it shall never come."

Here the cloven foot partially appears. We have a glimpse of a very small portion of it, unconsciously displayed by the impostor. He wrote, it seems, a work upon the Incarnation some ten years ago, many copies of which still remain unsold, and this is the method he takes for getting rid of those copies, by persuading his congregation that the mystery is therein revealed, the publication and preaching of which, by him the inspired writer and orator, have directly brought about the descent of the Holy Ghost upon his flock! They will of course buy up so sacred a volume, and so far the object of this speculator is obtained. This is not the only publication for the success of which he is tenderly anxious, as we shall see by and by. But let us proceed with his discourse.

"Now then, seeing that the church-as I pronounce according to my knowledge of God's word, and understanding of things—that the church is without the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but not mind without the regeneration of the Holy Ghost-the having the gift of the Holy Ghost for a new life, for a holy life-the having Christ in us, but not having the power of God in us-seeing, I say, this-oh! what is it I am now preaching?— I am now preaching to shew to all whom God shall send hither what the nature of the baptism of the Holy Ghost is, which doth produce such mighty effects as were produced in the day of Pentecost, throughout all the Christian churches."

Having thus prepared his deluded hearers for the still bolder