• ' 5 - ! 
 
 4. ^v'H 
 
 
 
 
 i i ^89 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ill \ 
 
 
 f mm 
 
 
 ii 
 
 Jm\\ 
 

 ft y 
 
 
 
JJJ 
 
 OF 
 
 RELIGIOUS IMPOSTERS, 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 SEVENTH TO THE NINETEEN? CBNTfUY. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDLL>. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTORY LSS4V, 
 
 On the Difference between the true spirit of Prophecy, and the 
 wild Effusions propagated too often to impose and embar- 
 rass the susceptive Passions of the Human Mind. 
 
 By M. AIKIN, LL.D. 
 
 " Bj their fruits ye shall know them."— Matt, 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 FR1HTED FOE JONES AND CO. WARWICK SQUARE J 
 
 AMD SOLD BT ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 1821. 
 
JANlOte/-3 
 
 '/ 
 
 
 
 T. HambUn, Printer, Sugar-Loaf Court, Garliok Hilt. 
 
Index to the Importers, 
 
 JOANNA SOUTHCOTT ,s . 1814 
 
 WM. HUNTINGDON ... ; T813 
 
 JAMES NAYLER...... 1655 
 
 FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS 1707 
 
 ELIZABETH BARTON 1533 
 
 WILLIAM HACKETT 1590 
 
 EDMUND COPPINGER 1530 
 
 HENRY ARTHINGTON 1590 
 
 HUGH PETERS 1660 
 
 LIGHTS OF WALTON ....* 1649 
 
 LODOWICK MUGGLETON 1676 
 
 RICHARD BROTHERS 1795 
 
 JOAN OF ARC 1429 
 
 MAHOMET ! 622 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 1792—1814. 
 
 » » »■ 
 
 AMONG the various classes of impostors, who have 
 figured away in the earlier ages, and down to the pre- 
 sent period, few have obtained more notoriety, or 
 have aimed at higher distinctions in the universe, than 
 the present object of consideration. — The terrific Buo- 
 naparte, who for so long a period kept the prostrate 
 world in slavery, appears but a very humble figure 
 when compared with the colossal Joanna, who aspired at 
 nothing less than to raise a war in heaven, by professing 
 herself to be appointed the mother of a second Messiah, 
 and thus to mount the human race to its walls by 
 means of her spiritual step-ladders. It is not, how- 
 ever, as yet ascertained whether unbelievers or the 
 unsealed are to enjoy the beatific presence in common 
 with those who have paid the full purchase money. — 
 Doubtless if the proceedings had continued, some medium 
 would have been suggested to admit the truly needy, on 
 reasonable terms, to a participation of the benefits result- 
 ing from her prophetic progress and her parturition ! 
 
 We would premise, however, that the dissipation of 
 error should accompany tfce light of improvement, and 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 that such benefit from the labours of so many eminent phi- 
 losophers, divines, and illuminated men, as have done 
 honour to their existence and to mankind, should have 
 found its way into the recesses of the uncultivated heart, 
 .and ere this have taught men that the age of miracles 
 is past; that the Almighty has bestowed on us suf. 
 licient inscances of his mercy, by the knowledge he 
 has conferred to make us satisfied; and that, next to his 
 Divine Power, the law of Nature is the only supreme 
 law. There are, however, to the disgrace of all coun- 
 tries, and the scandal of true and genuine Christianity, 
 a succession of Quacks in sacred mysteries, ever ob- 
 truding themselveson the notice of mankind. The attacks 
 of these intrusive men-devourers are first directed to the 
 piously ignorant, whom they attract by promises of fa- 
 miliar conversation with the Creator of Heaven and 
 Sarth, and a special election for those who have the 
 gift to comprehend dogmas and eccentricities, which the 
 children of this world, with what are denominated, "un- 
 sanctified optics," cannot discover. — These compounds 
 of lunacy and erratic delusion are soon noticed by 
 some of the deeper dealers in spiritual things, and a 
 partnership is virtually formed to promulgate a new 
 system of faith, just as empirics set up a new medi- 
 cine, on speculation. We all too well know, that the 
 uninformed classes of the public are ever ready to 
 swallow any nostrum, which makes up in promises what 
 it is sure eventually to lack in performance: hence the 
 contagion upon what is to be, and what may be expected, 
 rapidly extends, till it becomes a religious fashion to join 
 in the folly, as well as to support it, from that love of 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 singularity which affects to find divine agency in a 
 dreaming old woman; and to follow any track which 
 diverges more than usual from the common path. It 
 may be asserted, with truth, that a more futile attack 
 on the foundation stone of Christianity was never made, 
 than that projected by Joanna. She has referred 
 to the incarnation of the Virgin Mary by the Holy 
 Ghost, and treated it as a mystical procreation. She 
 then boldly asks " why the same effect may not a second 
 time be produced by the same cause?" Were such 
 questions as these to be discussed by every profane 
 pretender to divine and hidden mysteries, the natural 
 consequence must be what delicacy and modesty would 
 abhor; but, though calculated to undermine the super- 
 natural conception of the holy Virgin, or turn that in- 
 comprehensible mystery into contempt and absurdity, it 
 would only more firmly establish the rock on which the 
 Christian faith is buiJt, 
 
 It is a disgustful kind of blasphemy on the part of 
 Joanna, and a wilful insult to the Divinity on the part 
 of those who espouse her supposed mission, when she 
 declares, in one of her communications from the Spirit, 
 " That if the visitation of the Lord does not produce a 
 son this year, then was not Jesus Christ the Son of God, 
 born in the manner spoken of by the Virgin Mary; buf, 
 if she have a son, then in like manner was our Saviour 
 born." — Placing herself thus on a parallel line with the 
 mother of the Messiah, and encouraged in her lunacy 
 by the knavery of her partisans, she held in mental 
 bonds an amazing proportion of the stupid part of the 
 English- nation ; and by the boldness with which she 
 
4 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 came forward, she confounded, with her consummate im- 
 pudence and absurdity, those who have nothing more 
 than common sense and common experience with which 
 to combat her rhapsodies. 
 
 For a long period of time— too long, alas! of valuable 
 time to be thrown away on (to give it its smoothest 
 name) nonsensical vulgarity, did this antiquated Sibyl 
 appeared a conspicuous figure with the unthinking mass 
 of the public, and every year has seen her placed more 
 and more in the foreground; there, however, is a point 
 beyond which she cannot go, and that now seems to be 
 rapidly advancing. — Her gifts and her prophecies have 
 caught the unwary, both young and old : the weak* 
 are out of the question ; but the wicked have literally 
 brought good out of evil, and turned to a very profitable 
 account the frauds of their patroness. It should seem, 
 however, that this discussion of the cause of heaven 
 ha3 not fallen to the lot of learning and learned men; for 
 Joanna's divine conveyances of what she calls "the true 
 Messiah" have no connection, in her spiritual effusions, 
 either with grammar, legible writing, or tolerable 
 rhyme; her communications, though said to be " from an 
 angel," bearing no similitude to the production of clas- 
 sical refinement or human intellect. 
 
 We are of opinion, notwithstanding many may think 
 the missionaries of the law ought to have been sent to effect 
 a suppression of the mission of Joanna, that the Bishops 
 of the realm have acted with true Christian prudence 
 and charity. They have wisely suffered her and her 
 prophecies to exude themselves, and have not, by oppo- 
 sition, increased the number of proselytes;— indeed th^ 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 greater part of the public, who think at all, have shown 
 such evident contempt for the doctrines and the dis- 
 ciples of Joanna, that her sanctuaries have been shut 
 up to avoid mischievous consequences. The magistrates 
 may have privately interfered, as the unsealed, satisfied 
 with the Messiah already revealed, began to manifest a 
 communication of a very different descriptibn to that 
 of Joanna. 
 
 Various have been the ebullitions called prophecies, 
 made in differentyears by this antiquated virgin, — almost 
 all of which have totally failed. — In one of her pamphlets 
 she foretells, that in the next year she shall be tried and 
 sentenced by the twelve judges; in 1792, she asserts, that 
 only 17 years would be added to her life; in 1807, " the 
 Deity commissioned her," she says, " to lead the people 
 from their homes, in London, to a place of safety, where 
 the Providence of God would protect them,, and keep 
 their houses and property safe till their return ;" and in 
 1811, " Britain was to become the redeemed kingdom 
 of the Lord;" but in the previous year, 1810, awful signs 
 were to threaten the nation ; &t Buonaparte was to effect 
 a landing, and to be put to death try her sealed people ;" 
 in 1812, she prophecied the death of the worthy Mr, 
 Flint, of Camberwell, in a letter to him, on a certain, 
 month, but that gentleman has not been affected by the 
 prophecy ; this, however, is affirmed to be a forgery , as 
 it did not actually happen. These and numerous other 
 prophecies have failed, but her deluded followers, not- 
 withstanding they have been so often made the laughing- 
 stock of their neighbours,- have rebutted all taunts by in- 
 definite explanations, and did look with sure and certain 
 
 b2 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 hope to the grand event which was to produce " the Al- 
 mighty Shiloh, the third representative of Divinity, the 
 infant monitor of the Prince Regent, in whose palaces 
 the bantling was to pass its first six years, and from whon* 
 the Prince was first to receive the lessons of reform and 
 temperance.'* 
 
 The fatal consequences of this woman's doctrines were 
 evidently shown in the fate of Mary Bateman, who gave 
 potions for exorcism r and mixed up arsenic toproduce ma- 
 gical cures. That offender was tried and executed on 
 Saturday, May 18, 1809> for the murder of Mrs. Perigo* 
 of Braraley, 
 
 In what point of view the public will consider the me- 
 dical gentlemen, who, either from ignorance, design, or 
 discipleship, have joined in the religious hoax, it is not 
 for us to say : -but, we observe, with Dr. SimSj that " we 
 do not wish to be accounted of such, the partisans of an 
 unfortunate creature, who is no impostor, but evidently 
 labouring under mental derangement." — It would be un- 
 necessary and out of order here to state the physical rea- 
 sons given by medical gentlemen, fer the impossibility of 
 the pregnancy of Joanna, in her 65th year.— Dr. R. Reece 
 of Pall Mall, (and several others,) did publicly affirm, 
 that Joanna was probably with child, and, no doubt, 
 have held a distinguished preference with maiden ladies, 
 who came two or three dozen years after the, usual time. 
 We shall now proceed to detail her history. 
 
 Joanna Southcott first drew breath in the humble 
 village of Gettisham, in Devonshire, in the month of 
 April, 1750, and it appears, by the parish register, signed 
 Richard Steward, Parish Clerk of Ottery St. Mary's* 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 Devon, was baptized June 6, 1750, as the daughter of 
 William and Hannah Southcott :— Her father was a pea- 
 sant, and, with her mother, followed the regular esta- 
 blishment, the prayers of which were read in all the 
 Prophetess's meetings. — No extraordinary wonder* ac- 
 companied the birth of our heroine, the stars rising and 
 setting as usual, and the moon giving its accustomed 
 light, notwithstanding in latter years she has evidently 
 been under its influence.— She informs us, " tbat the 
 angels rejoiced at her birth."" 
 
 It has been observed, that superstition is the spleen of 
 the soul, and it is never more powerfully exhibited than 
 in the actions of those who have put on a false cou- 
 rage and alacrity in the midst of their darkness and ap- 
 prehensions; like children, who, when they go in the 
 dark, will sing for fear. This was plainly evident in the 
 younger part of the life of Joanna Southcott; she af- 
 fected a passion for a young man named Noah Bishop, who 
 had, in vain, attempted to attract her regard. She 
 confessed she loved him, but the vagrancy of her 
 thoughts impelled her to reject what she had not the 
 understanding to value ; and, in the vague hope cf con- 
 soling herself with infinity, she treated, with decided 
 contempt, the virtuous advances of a youth, who might 
 perhaps have rendered her useful to society, as the 
 mother and guardian of a numerous offspring. 
 
 But celibacy was her choice; and, according to her 
 own account, it was inconsistent with her constitution: 
 for she acknowledges that "she loved him;" her mind 
 must, therefore, have induced great depravity, when 
 she could give a decided preference to celibacy, con- 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 trary to her nature, and reject matrimony which carried 
 with it erery consolation, and, when duly encouraged 
 and prized, is the source of every blessing that mor< 
 tals can experience. But Joanna was narrow-souled, 
 and might be compared with a narrow-necked bottle; the 
 less liquor it contains the more noise is made in pouring 
 out; thus, though she wished to make a boast of her 
 contumacy against her nature, it has failed, and the 
 sensible ranks of mankind have only been confirmed, 
 that this, as well as all the rest of her conduct, has 
 proved her to be a ridiculous derider of piety, and 
 that kind of hypocrite who makes a sober jest of God and 
 religion. Her passions have been like convulsion fits, 
 which, though they made her stronger for the time, have 
 left her weaker ever after. 
 
 Her turn of mind in her youth has been termed 
 " religious/' for what reason we are at a loss to deter- 
 mine. Has she evinced either by her publications or 
 her practice any bias of religion ? — Fanaticism has been 
 her object; with all its accompaniments of delusion 
 and profaneness. 
 
 It appears, that in the year 1790, she was employed 
 as a workwoman in the shop of an upholsterer, at Ex- 
 eter. We do not take upon us to listen to the many fa- 
 brications respecting her conduct whilst employed by 
 the upholsterer; had her conduct in his employ been 
 reprehensible, there is no doubt but that he would 
 have acted as became him ; and therefore we consign 
 such fabrications to the score of ill-nature and scandal. 
 
 Her master being of what is called the methodisti- 
 cal persuasion, had many visitors of that persuasion to. 
 
JOA.NNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 frequent his shop. With these persons Joanna was 
 held in great estimation; and, indeed, some of their 
 ministers considered her to possess what they called " a 
 serious turn of mind." 
 
 Under such impressions and with such encourage- 
 ments, Joanna began to assume an authoritative manner 
 of deportment, very unsuitable to her situation as a 
 shopwoman, but very consistent with the views which 
 she afterwards formed to herself, of profiting by pre- 
 tensions she should lay claim to, as the future bugbear 
 to those who might be weak enough to be deceived by 
 her fanciful impositions. 
 
 Having received such encomiums on her apparent se- 
 riousness, which she imagined sufficient testimonials of a 
 call, she took upon herself to be a religious dictator, to 
 argue religious topics, and to be a decider of religious 
 controversies. These new lights, in her now supposed 
 superiorly-animated frame, to those who were easy of 
 belief and uiwilling to be informed, were regarded as 
 prodigies; and she began to feel her superiority oveV 
 the vulgar and uninformed, who passed encomiums on 
 what they themselves knew not the meaning. 
 
 Her importance also began to be disclosed by her 
 dreams, in which she declared the divinity had evinced 
 his intentions towards her ; these, with the aid of extra- 
 ordinary visions, as she confidently asserted, gave her 
 sufficient manifestation, that she was inspired beyond the 
 common credibility of human nature. 
 
 Joanna's conduct now proved, that vain-glory is a distor- 
 tion of the mind which turns the eye of the soul alwaysup- 
 on itself, but discards all thoughts of modesty, decency, and 
 
10 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 good fame, as at too great a distance to be distinguished ; 
 for, to Joanna's haughty mind, as at this time vitiated, 
 all her fellow-creatures, seemed her inferiors. 
 
 In such adisposition, she happened, in sweeping out her 
 master's shop, to find a seal on which were engraven the 
 letters I. S. She declared, that she had dreamed of this cir- 
 cumstance, that the coincidence could be no less than mira- 
 culous, nor could the letters be otherwise designated than 
 for "Joanna Southcott." The realization of such a circum- 
 stance bore down all opposition; it were the grossest test 
 of incredulity to deny it. The shop was deserted by so 
 favoured a berng. She considered herself now called by 
 divine inspiration, and determined to minister her in- 
 fusions where their most profitable effect might be pro- 
 ductive. 
 
 She, in 1792, began her declarations, that "her 
 Lord had visited her, who promised to enter into an 
 everlasting covenant with her, and told her that a vision 
 ■would be shown to her in the night." 
 
 Let us pause. Before Jesus Christ was declared upon 
 earth, the world was pervaded by the absurd notions of 
 idolatry; and the Jews were called God's people, be- 
 cause they were an exception to the general practice. — 
 Whence could such low, such unworthy notions of the 
 omnipotent Deity have arisen, but from the vitiated and 
 derogatory ideas which human nature, ever imperfect, 
 had suggested to itself of the beneficence and power of 
 an all-wise and infinite Disposer? Such must also have 
 been the view in which Joanna had been accustomed to fa- 
 miliarize herself with her God ! making him the subject 
 of dreams and visions, to impose on her fellow-creatures ! 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 11 
 
 We will deal, however, towards this woman, with a 
 more Christian spirit than she has condescended to exer- 
 cise towards those who have not been purchasers of her 
 fraudulent baubles, which she has denominated seals. 
 We will hope, that her excuse is a mental affliction, that, 
 at no distant period, she may be restored to her senses; 
 and, such a kind Providence having been extended towards 
 her, that she may make another kind of revelation by un- 
 deceiving the world, particularly those who have been 
 weak enough to be deluded ; and, by declaring, that her 
 ebullitions of profaneness arose from a disordered frame 
 of mind, and were the fruits of an afflicted state of 
 body. 
 
 To such a state of depravity had she now arrived, that 
 she presumed to assert that the Lord had appeared 
 to her, not in the " Beauty of his Holiness/' not in the 
 if Majesty of his Power/' — not in the Greatness of his 
 Mercy," but sometimes in the shape of a Cat, — then 
 like a Cup! which Joanna says she kicked to pieces; 
 but this made her very uneasy, till she was told that they 
 were nothing more than the tricks of Satan, with a view 
 to torment her. Her religious friends endeavoured to 
 imprint such notions upon her wandering ideas, and strove 
 to convince her, that she was the dupe of a diabolical 
 spirit, and that Satan himself was the origin of her de- 
 lusion. This so far set her perturbed spirit at rest for 
 the moment, that she requested a meeting of her friends 
 to be summoned, at which the question of her supposed 
 mission might be discussed, and set at rest. 
 
 At this meeting Joanna conducted herself with such 
 dower and haughtiness, that the argumentum ad hominem 
 
12 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES.* 
 
 bore all before it ; every divinity, except that which Jo- 
 anna was supposed to possess, was out of the question. 
 The whole assembly, to the amount of fifty-eight persons, 
 were immediately enlisted under the new regime, and 
 were induced, or rather commanded, to witness the fol- 
 lowing most valuable document :-— 
 
 "I- Joanna Southcott, am clearly convinced that my 
 calling is of God, and my writings are indited by his 
 spirit : it is impossible for any spirit but an all-wise God 
 that is wondrous in working, wondrous in wisdom, won- 
 drous in power, wondrous in truth, could have brought 
 round such mysteries so full of truth, as is in my wri- 
 tings: sol am clear in whom I have believed, that all my 
 writings come from the spirit of the Most High God. 
 
 u Joanna Southcott^ 
 
 *' Signed in the presence of fifty eight persons (inclu- 
 ding the Methodist preachers) who assented to the truth 
 of the statement." 
 
 Joanna now assumed an unprecedented degree of 
 supremacy ; she took upon herself the titles of " the 
 Bride,"—" the Lamb's Wife,"—-' The Woman cloathed 
 with the Sun," &c. This was during the year 1792, 
 whilst she was a resident in Exeter. 
 
 It was at this time also that Joanna, according to her 
 own account, began to be " strangely visited day and 
 night, concerning what was coming upon the whole 
 earth." " I was," says she, " here ordered to set it 
 down in writing. I obeyed, though not without strong 
 external opposition; and so it has continued to the pre- 
 sent time." (1811.) 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. IS 
 
 The following we think some of the most sensible 
 remarks ever suggested to her: — 
 
 "In 1792, my sister told me I was going out of my 
 senses. She said, 'You say there will be a war. Who 
 shall we go to war with? The French are destroying 
 themselves. As to the dearth of provisions you speak of, 
 you are wrong ; for corn will come down very low; I 
 could not make 4*. 6d. a bushel of the best wheat this 
 year. As to the distresses of the nation, you are wrong 
 there; for England was never in a more flourishing state, 
 than it is at present.' I answered, 'Well, if it be of 
 God, it will come to pass, however likely or unlikely it 
 may appear at present. If not, I shall hurt no one but 
 myself in writing it. I am the fool, and must be the 
 sufferer, if it be not of God. If it be of God, I would 
 not refuse for the world, and am determined to err on 
 the safest side.' My sister thought she should err on the 
 safest side, by preventing me from doing it; and said, 
 1 should not do it in her house. However, I took advan- 
 tage of her absence; and, in 1792, I wrote of what has 
 since followed in this nation and all others; but the end 
 is not yet. — I left my writings at Plymtree, and came 
 back to Exeter. » 
 
 "In 1193, the war broke out; and in this year, three 
 remarkable things happened, which I had written of in 
 1792. These events strengthened my judgment that it 
 was of God ; for it was said, " Whatever I put into thy 
 mouth, I will do upon the earth/' 
 
 From this period Joanna began to attach to herself in- 
 numerable converts, who all subscribing to the Ways and 
 Means, Joanna's finances were amply increased ; for it 
 No. I. c 
 
14 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 seems that Folly now began to pay more than ordinary 
 court to this pretended administratrix of salvation; her 
 seals sold in a very surprising manner. Beatitudes were 
 purchaseable at from twelve shillings to one guinea per 
 head ! 
 
 Credulity is the common failing of inexperienced vir- 
 tue; he, therefore, who is spontaneously suspicious, may 
 be justly charged with radical corruption ; for if he has 
 not known the prevalency of dishonesty by information, 
 nor had time to observe it with his own eyes, whence 
 can he take his measure of judgment but from himself? 
 —Certainly. — But when evidence, palpable evidence 
 decidedly informs him in what quarter not only suspicion, 
 but stubborn fact stalks in all the majesty of impudence, 
 would it not appear the greatest mark of vacuity of 
 intellect, not to be apprehensive of, and to guard against 
 such corruption of principles and contagious injury by 
 the most penetrating depravity ?— considering that there 
 is no ambition, however petty, no wish, however absurd, 
 that by indulgence will not be enabled to overcome the 
 influence of unsuspecting virtue. How necessary, then, is 
 it to point out to such, in time, the pitfalls of treachery ! 
 
 The pride of ignorance is of the worst kind; and sorry 
 are we, to say that the pride of Joanna and her. followers 
 is of this stamp. We will try if their maxims can be 
 analyzed. 
 
 Let us try by the Scripture. Nothing appears to imply 
 any authority to such beings as Joanna. On the contrary, 
 the Almighty, in his expostulation with the Jews on 
 their causeless revolt, uses the following expressions, very 
 applicable to our present purpose :-— 
 
JOANNA. SOUTHCOTT. 15 
 
 "I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right 
 seed; — bow then art thou turned into the degenerate 
 plant of a strange vine unto me ? For though thou wash 
 thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine ini- 
 quity is marked before me, saith the Lord God. 
 
 "How canst thou say I am not polluted, I have 
 not gone after Baalam ? See thy way in the valley, from 
 what thou hast done ; thou art a swift dromedary traver- 
 sing her ways; a wild ass used to the wilderness, that 
 snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure ; in her occasion 
 who can turn her away ? all they that seek her will not 
 weary themselves ; in her mouth they shall find her. 
 — saving to a stock, "Thou art my father ;" and to a 
 stone, "Thou hast brought me forth." 
 
 "They have turned their backs upon me, and not 
 their face : but in the time of their trouble they will say, 
 " Arise, and save us." 
 
 "But where are the gods that thou hast made thee? 
 Let them arise if they can save thee in the time of thy 
 trouble. Wherefore will ye plead for me ? — Ye have all 
 transgressed against me," saith the Lord. — Jer. ii. v. 21. 
 
 "They have chosen their own ways, and their soul 
 delighteth in abomination. I also will choose their de- 
 lusions, and will bring their fears upon thee, because, 
 when I called none did answer; when I spake they did 
 not hear; but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose 
 that in which I delighted not." — Isaiah, lxvi. v. 3. 
 
 The Scripture, it is plain from the above quotations, 
 will not suit to analyze Joanna «n her principles. Let 
 us try her by the maxims of morality. The following 
 tale is Very much to our purpose : — 
 
l6 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURE?." 
 
 "When the plains of India were burnt up by a long 
 continuance of drought, Hamet and Raschid, two neigh- 
 bouring shepherd?, faint with thirst, stood at the com- 
 mon boundary of their grounds, with their flocks and 
 herds panting round them, and, in the height of distress, 
 prayed for water. 
 
 *' On a sudden the air was becalmed, ths birds ceas- 
 ed to chirp, and the flocks to bleat. The shepherds 
 turned their eyes every way, and beheld a Being of 
 mighty stature advancing through the valley, whom they 
 knew, upon his approach, to be the Genius of Distribution, 
 In one hand he held the sheaves of plenty, and in the 
 other the sabre of destruction. The shepherds stood 
 trembling, and would have retired before him ; but he 
 called to them, with a voice gentle as the breeze that 
 plays in the evening among the spices of Sabaea, 'Fly 
 not from your benefactor, children of the dust! I am 
 come to offer you gifts, which only your own folly can 
 make vain. You here pray for water, and water I will 
 bestow; let me know with how much you will be satis- 
 fied. Speak not rashly : consider, that, of whatever can 
 be enjoyed by the body, excess is no less dangerous than 
 scarcity. When you remember the pain of thirst, do 
 not forget the danger of suffocation. IVow, Hamet, tell 
 me your request.' 
 
 "«0 Being, kind and beneficent,' said Hamet, 'let 
 thine eye pardon my confusion. 1 intreat a little brook > 
 which in summer shall never be dry, and in winter shall 
 never overflow.' • It is granted,' replied the Genius ; 
 and immediately he opened the ground with his sabre, 
 and a fountain bubbled up under their feet, which scat- 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 17 
 
 tered its riils over the meadows; the flowers renewed 
 their fragrance, the trees spread a greener foliage, and 
 the flocks and herds quenched their thirst. 
 
 "Then turning to Raschid, the Genius invited him 
 likewise to offer his petition. 'I request/' says Raschid, 
 ' that thou wilt turn the Ganges through my grounds, with 
 all his water, and all their inhabitants.' Haraet was 
 struck with the greatness of his neighbour's sentiments, 
 and secretly repined in his heart that he had not made 
 the same petition before him; when he was struck with 
 wonder by the answer of the Genius to Raschid's exor- 
 bitant request. * Rash man,' said the Genius, 'be not 
 insatiable! Remember that to thee there is an excess 
 which thou canst not use ; and how are thy wants greater 
 than the wants of Hamet ?' Raschid repeated his greedy 
 desire; at the same time, pleasing himself with the 
 mean appearance that Hamet would make in the presence 
 of the proprietor of the Ganges! 
 
 "The Genius then retired towards the river, and the 
 two shepherds stood in expectation of the event. The 
 humble request of Hamet supplied him with plenty and 
 happiness; but, as Raschid was looking on his neigh- 
 bour with the utmost contempt, on a sudden was heard 
 the, roar of torrents, and it was soon discovered, by the 
 mighty stream, that the mounds of the Ganges were 
 broken. The floods rolled into the lands of Raschid, 
 his plantations were torn up, his flocks overwhelmed, 
 himself was swept away before it, and a crocodile devour- 
 ed him. ,, 
 
 Here are two tests by which to prove Joanna's prin- 
 ciples 5 and both, for her, have failed.— Scripture denoun- 
 
 c 2 
 
18 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 ces j udgment on- her idolatry ; and morality points out the 
 due punishment on dissatisfied mortals. Had Joanna 
 been contented with the humble situation in life which 
 Providence, in its all-wise distribution had appointed 
 for her; that Providence would have supported her 
 though life, with competency and happiness; but the 
 moment she aimed at increase of such possessions as 
 must ultimately deluge the soul, and sink the insatiate 
 invader of divine mysteries into the gulphs of desire, 
 immediately she lost the protection of the Divine Pro- 
 vidence she had offended. "The mystery of her iniquity 
 began to work; and for this cause God sent a strong 
 delusion, that she should believe a lie ; that they all 
 might be damned who believe not the truth, but had 
 pleasure in unrighteousness/ II. Thess. ii. 
 
 Let her adherents, who are willfully blinded in this 
 iniquity, beware lest, "that the wicked shall be re- 
 vealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit 
 of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of 
 his coming." 
 
 It appears that this poor besotted being to fraud and 
 iniquity, endeavoured, for a long while, to ingratiate 
 herself with several dignitaries of the established church 
 of England, who uniformly despised her and her opi- 
 nions. We will relate her own account of the matter. 
 
 "In 1792, I told the Rev. M. L. how I had been 
 warned of what was coming* After hearing me in si- 
 lence, he said, "It comes from the devil; for not one 
 thing which you have mentioned will come to pass. 
 You have the war in your favour, which' is all that will 
 come true of your prophecies; and the war will be 
 
JOANNA S6UTHC0TT; 1'flP 
 
 over in a quarter of a year. It is from the devil, to 
 disturb your peace: Satan hath a design to sift you as 
 wheat. Yet I believe you to be a good woman; your 
 friends speak of you in the highest terms; but what 
 you have said will never come true. Resides, if it were, 
 the Lon} would never have revealed it to you. There 
 are a thousand iu Exeter, whom I could point out, to 
 whom the Lord would have revealed it before he would 
 to you." Of these observations I had been warned, 
 before I saw him; yet it .made a deep impression on 
 my heart ; tears and* prayers were my private compa- 
 nions. But the nest day I was answered, tf Who mad* 
 him a judge. He neither knows thee nor thy forefa- 
 thers, who walked before me with a perfect and up- 
 right heart ?" Thus the feeling of my heart was deeply 
 answered, with further sayings used by him, which at 
 present I shall not mention. 
 
 We will dilate on the very valuable productions of this 
 recondite Joanna, by which the reader will very soon be 
 convinced of the temper and the abilites of this obscure 
 denunciating paragon against all but her equally-dar- 
 kened subscribers :■— 
 
 " Strange Effects of Faith, with remarkable Prophecies 
 made in 1792, fyc. 
 " Soon after this, I went to St. Peter's Cathedral, 
 (Exeter) and heard the Rev. Mr. « ;* whose text 
 
 * " The names above and hereafter represented by rules, are 
 omitted by the printer, who scrupled to insert them, not 
 having the licence of the persons alluded to." 
 
20 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 was, Walk ye in the light, while ye have light, lest dark- 
 ness come upon you. He remarked on the neighbouring 
 nations abroad, and on the seven churches of Asia; made 
 application to the affairs of our own land ; and concluded 
 with the words of Samuel, Yet for all this God will save 
 
 you, because ye are his people, if ye obey him; if not * 
 
 -As soon as his sermon was over, I was answered r 
 
 " Thou must say unto him, as our Saviour said unto Pe- 
 ter, " Blessed art thou, Barjonah — for flesh and blood 
 hath not revealed it to him, but the Spirit of God. What 
 he hath this day preached is the will of God. If L. give 
 it up, go to him, [the Preacher] for he will not; for the 
 laws of the Lord are written in his heart. " I had been 
 answered, that the truth of my writings must be brought 
 to light by one man; either by the Rev. Mr. L. or the 
 
 Rev. Mr.« , the Preacher above-mentioned. — 
 
 This was at the end of \793> n °t long after I had been 
 with Mr. L. and it was said to me, " I shall set signs be- 
 fore thee. He that bringeth to light shall come unto 
 thee; for that shall be the sign unto thee, my servant. 
 He shall come; for I will so incline his heart, that my 
 
 will may be done." P>ut 1 was not to write to Mr. . 
 
 the Preacher, till Mr. L. gave it up. I told my friends 
 of the signs; but bound them to secrecy, that no one 
 might be any way influenced by my writing. 
 
 "The next summer, 1794, corn grew dear, and dis- 
 tress began in our land. Thus commenced the shadow of 
 my writings, and I was told the substance was behind* — 
 I then sent another letter to Mr. L.; but he was not so 
 confident as in 1793. He wrote to me as follows: " The 
 Lord may have revealed to you what he has not to me; 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 2T 
 
 but I am of opinion with many, we are going to see good 
 days." The substance of h.js letter confounded me, and 
 made me earnest in prayer. I was answered, " He er- 
 reth in judgment, as well as stumbleth in visions, to judge 
 that the storm is blown over." I took his letter, and the 
 answer to it, and sealed them together, thinking time 
 would shew whose words were most true, those of the 
 Spirit that visited me, or those of Mr. L. and such a* 
 joined him in opinion. 
 
 ** In 1795, I sent him another letter, telling him that 
 danger stood still before us, and that the truth of what 
 I had written in 1792 was to be proved by twelve men. 
 Mr. L. wrote me an answer, that he had taken my im- 
 portant question into consideration; that all were ready 
 to serve me; and that- the wisest way he could think of 
 would be to bring the 12 men together the Monday fol- 
 lowing. Before this answer reached me I was told that 
 he had not given it up; but that it would not happen 
 according to his words. The thoughts of their hearts 
 were laid open to me, and I was told they proposed this, 
 in order to convince me of my folly. So I was ordered to 
 write him a short reply, and to go and converse with him, 
 I was told, that it should be set before me as a sign that 
 Mr. E. would come to my house, and invite me to his, 
 where I should meet Mr. L. All this happened accord- 
 ingly. The week after, it was said unto me, f t If L, 
 come unto thee, thou hast nothing to fear from him; but 
 if thou go unto him, he will surely stumble; for he that 
 doth ©bey will come; and when he heareth he will not 
 
 condemn; 
 
 "• But, oh, thrice happy is the man,. 
 That (loth begin and will. go on, 
 
* 2 HISTORY GF .RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 Till ev'ry curtain be drawn back, 
 To know, and prove, if I do speak. 
 For happy then shall be the man, 
 
 That doth obey his call; 
 His talents five shall soon be ten, 
 
 My spirit so shall fall. 
 Him I'll impower from on high, 
 
 My Spirit he shall feel ; 
 The sinners' hearts he shall awake, 
 
 The broken heart shall heal" 
 
 " This was spoken before I had seen Mr. L. On the 
 Monday following, Mr. E. came to my house, and asked 
 me to come to his. Thither I went, met Mr. L. and told 
 him what reasons I had for believing my writings came 
 from the Lord. Mr. L. and all who were present heard 
 me in silence. When I had delivered my reasons, I ask- 
 ed his judgment. He said, " What you know not now 
 you will hereafter. If it be of God, we shall see more 
 of it; if of yourself, your head is wiser than mine." I 
 
 asked him, if he would give up inquiry into its truth. 
 
 He said, " No ; it requires time to consider of it." The 
 Monday following I asked Mr. and Mrs. L. to breakfast 
 at my house, but they did not come. That day I was 
 answered thus : 
 
 " Now, tell him plain, he's not the man ; 
 
 For 'tis by it must be done ; 
 
 Back to the Church, the standard, all must come: 
 For in the altar I was seen at first, 
 And in the altar did the glory burst, 
 Where Simeon did the holy child behold; 
 And in the altar are the plates of gold." 
 
 "The week following Mr. L. sent me an answer, that 
 he had giyen it up, and had resigned to the Minister, 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 33 
 
 who (as I said) was chosen in his room. This was at the 
 close of summer, 1795. At the end of the year I was to 
 have together six men of the dissenting class, to try their 
 judgment. Four refused to attend, as they thought it 
 from the Devil, or judged me to be both a knave and a 
 fool. So I had other four in their room ; but was told, be- 
 fore I met them, that their judgment would not be 
 right, their wisdom was too weak; therefore 1 must be 
 the judge myself; 
 
 If they believe that hell below 
 
 Such language e'er can speak; 
 But back their footsteps all will trace, 
 
 And marvel what they've done; 
 And wonder that they could not go 
 
 In things that were so plain 
 
 " I was ordered to meet the six men, and read to them 
 how some particular chapters of the Bible were explained, 
 with a few prophecies, and some remarkable instances of 
 my life. Every man was to keep silence for the space of 
 an hour. This they did; and great is the mystery ex- 
 plained to me, as the watch was laid on the seals, by 
 which were inclosed the names of the twelve men. When 
 the hour was past, I demanded their judgment; and 
 quitted the room while they consulted. In some time 
 they came to me, saying, they had agreed, and must see 
 the prophecies. I said they should, if they judged them 
 to be of God. They came again, saying, they must know 
 who the ministers were. A third time they came, and 
 said, they must break the seals on the ministers' names. 
 I told them that should only be done in presence of the 
 twelve themselves. But curiosity made them break the 
 
24 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 seals; and (thus breaking of their wisdom) they said it 
 was from the Devil, or myself, or they could not perceive 
 it to.be of God; and therefore they persuaded me to give 
 it up, forgetting what I had read to them, and that they 
 had fulfilled my writings. The meaning and mystery of 
 this meeting I shall explain another time. 
 
 " Next day I was persuaded to yield to their wisdom; 
 but I was answered, that it should be fatal for me; for 
 the Lord would not resign to their wisdom ; therefore I 
 should not give it up to them. Thus I ended with the 
 dissenting line. 
 
 " At the end of 1795, and beginning of 1796> I w * s or- 
 dered to write to the Church Ministers. At the time of 
 
 the general fast, I sent a letter to the Rev. Mr. (the 
 
 preacher before alluded to) on the Gospel, Suppose ye 
 that those Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans be- 
 cause they suffered these things? The Rev. Gentleman 
 sent me word by the bearer, that he should send an an- 
 swer by his servant. I waited nearly a week, and did 
 not hear from him. One day I was above stairs writing, 
 and the last words I wrote were, " Go down and see him." 
 I went down and found him enquiring about me. I asked 
 him to walk in, and said, " I suppose, Sir, my letter hath 
 surprised you." He asked, " Was it you that sent it ?" 
 I told him, Yes, with my reasons; and that Mr. L. had 
 judged it from the Devil. The Rev. Gentleman said, 
 that nothing of what I had said to him appeared likely to 
 have come from the Devil. As to the dangers which I 
 had said stood before us, he did not seem to doubt them, 
 but said, if I was called of God, I ought to warn the pub* 
 lie before the rod fell, as it would be of no use afterwards. 
 
JOAJJNA SOUTHCOTT. 25 
 
 Thus finding the Rev. Gentleman's conversation corre- 
 spond with what I had been foretold years before, I sent 
 him a letter. 
 
 "My faith grew strong; and I sent a letter (as I 
 was ordered) to the Rev. Dignitary of the Cathedral of 
 Exeter. I was assured, before I sent it, he would not 
 answer it. 
 
 "I dreamt soon after, that I was in a room with a 
 well-looking gentleman and lady. On a sudden, the 
 door was burst open, and the devil entered in disguise, 
 and attempted to seize the gentleman, who fled to the 
 farthest part of the room. The devil pursued him, en- 
 deavouring to put his arm round his neck ; but the gen- 
 tleman pushed him off. The lady and myself were af- 
 frighted, and I awoke. The next day, it was answered 
 me, " It is the Christian minister ; he will come to thee 
 in disguise." I said to a person, " How differently is 
 my dream explained to what I expected!" I thought 
 the above-mentioned reverend Gentleman Satan would 
 try to deceive ; and I was answered — 
 
 "Thy thought of ***** * is not wrong; 
 
 For Satan will try there ; 
 But for the purpose he will come, 
 
 And baffle all his snares : 
 As thou didst dream he pushed him off, 
 
 He Satan will defy. 
 He will appear, the truth to clear, 
 
 And stedfast he will stand. 
 Be not surpnz'd at the disguise, 
 
 That he may take in hand. 
 So now I bid thee go to home, 
 
 And shew thy writing there; 
 And, sudden as thy garden dream, 
 
 I'll make him to appear." 
 Mo. 2. D 
 
*M HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 The last thing I had written was, that I should see 
 him the next day. Being then at work, Mrs. T. sent 
 me word a gentleman desired to speak with me. He 
 was displeased, and said, a man had been at his house, 
 and told him I had prophesied lies: that if it were so, 
 it could not come from God ; and I was committing the 
 sin against the Holy Ghost, and he doubted not I should 
 lose my senses. Mrs. T. said, she knew not of any lies 
 I had prophesied ; but she knew that I had told of 
 them. He said, that was very surprising. Such had 
 been their conversation before I came. When I came, 
 1 found it to be the Rev. Mr. , whom I ex- 
 
 pected, and he repeated his words to me. I told him he 
 had been misinformed as to the sense of my words, and 
 explained particulars to him. He said, "Then your 
 prophecies were not false;" yet he reasoned with me 
 on the danger of my proceedings if I were not called 
 of God. Finding he could not convince me it was not 
 of the Lord, he said, "Then why don't you have your 
 writings proved? You will wait till you bring the 
 sword, the plague, and the famine, upon us. If you 
 cannot get twelve, get six. I will meet with any." 
 I said, "Sir, it must be twelve." He said, "Then let 
 it be twelve; but do not wait till you bring the sword 
 upon us." I said I would not, if the ministers would 
 prove them. — I was convinced that he had disguised his 
 real sentiments, and had thus promised to examine my 
 writings, thinking to convince me of my folly. 
 
 " So, thou see'st plain, that he did mean 
 
 To stay thy written hand: 
 To please a fool, he'd anger rule, 
 
 Till he could all demand. 
 
JOANNA SOttTHCOTT. $7 
 
 That is to see the mystery, 
 
 And then convince the whole, 
 It was to lay thy follies by, 
 
 Made him the cause uphold." 
 
 "As these words were revealed to me, I admired 
 his wisdom, patience, and prudence; and thought 
 Heaven could not direct me to a wiser or better minister; 
 for he that can conquer his own passions is a greater 
 hero than him who taketh a city. He must be a good 
 man that can so condescend to convince a fool of her 
 folly. But he knew not my strong reasons forjudging 
 my writings to be of God. 
 
 "The May following, two things happened, as had 
 been predicted. I went to the above minister's house., 
 and put a letter into his hand, saying, "Sir, as you 
 doubt what Spirit I am led by, be pleased to keep this 
 letter till the end of the year; you will then judge of its 
 truth." This he consented to do. At the end of the 
 year 1796, what I had written of came to pass. He 
 then said to me, " Formerly, if it were asked of a 
 prophet, how the wars would tend, he could tell you. 
 Now if you can inform me of what will happen in Italy 
 or England, I shall believe you."—The next day I was 
 earnest in prayer, that the Lord would answer his in- 
 quiries; and they were so. I sent him the answer, 
 which was completely fulfilled, as to Italy and England, 
 
 in 1797; but the three sheets of writing, whicft I gave 
 
 him, foretold affairs for years to come, and spoke much 
 
 of the present period. 
 
 "The following spring, 1797, 1 sent a letter to a second 
 
 Dignitary of the Exeter Cathedral. His servant re- 
 
28 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURE?. 
 
 turned it to me, saying his master would not be in 
 Exeter to receive it till the next week. I then sent 
 it again, and met the like disappointment ; but the letter 
 a s Mt. I was now answered, that I should hare the 
 same dissatisfaction when he came to Exeter, and that 
 both Dignitaries would treat my letters with contempt. 
 
 " Thus both will thee deceive, 
 
 But shall they laugh thee unto shame, 
 For what thou doest believe? 
 
 If they agree to laugh at thee, 
 Their laughter I shall turn; 
 
 And in the end, thou'lt find these men, 
 Like thee, will sorely mourn. 
 Thou build'st so high, that none can fly, 
 
 To rob the of thy brood. 
 The fowler's net cannot come nigh; 
 
 Nor can the shooter's load. 
 Tho' heavy charges men prepare, 
 
 And point tbem from their breast: 
 They are afraid to let them off, 
 
 Lest they their aim should miss. 
 Besides they fear; I may be there; 
 
 And terror stops the blow : 
 Thus I thee guard from every snare, 
 
 And that they all shall know.'* 
 
 "In this manner from simple types and shadows, I 
 was foretold how every man would act; and that I 
 had nothing to fear, as no man would huit me, if the 
 truth of my writings should provoke them to anger. 
 
 "These promises, and the proofs of the truth of my 
 writings, strengthened my confidence in the Lord* 
 but I have often marvelled, why I was ordered to send 
 to Ministers who would not give themselves the trouble 
 
JOANNA SOUTH<COTT. 29 
 
 -.■"•■t'T?m.', 
 
 of searching out the truth; and, for this reason, have 
 often doubted whether the calling were of God or not. 
 But the pondering of my heart was thus answered : 
 
 " How can the fruit be ever tried? 
 How can the truth be eVr applied? 
 The godly men will so decay, 
 If I shall prove as weakas thee. 
 I say, the fruit shall surely fall: 
 Let ******** stand, and hear his calr; 
 And now a Moses let him be, w> 
 Or else my judgments all shall see; 
 Then all together you may feast 
 
 And all together fast; 
 I'll bring a mystery in the end, 
 
 That shall for ever last." 
 
 "These words were delivered to me in 1796, in an- 
 swer to a sermon, preached on the 29th of May, by 
 the first mentioned Dignitary, to whom I had sent a 
 letter. I fancied that he reproached me in his ser- 
 mon ; and his words pierced my heart. I marvelled, 
 that a Gentleman, to whom 1 had appealed, should 
 decline seeing me to convince me of my error, if I were 
 wrong* and in solitary tears, I repeated tire words of 
 David, 
 
 tl Since godly men decay, O Lord, 
 
 Do thou my cause defend; 
 For scarce these wretched times afford 
 
 One just and faithful friend." 
 
 " I was answered : 
 
 " Since godly men do so decay, 
 
 And thou dost sore complain, 
 Then the good shepherd shall appear, 
 
 The sheep for te redeem ; 
 n 2 
 
30 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 For faithful labourers now shall come 
 
 And in my vineyard go; 
 My harvest it is hastening on, 
 
 Which every soul shall know." 
 
 "After this, it was said to me, *' As men increase 
 thy Sorrows, I will increase theirs: and the general 
 burden shall increase, till men take the load from thee." 
 — Yet I marvelled, how the 12th chapter of Revelation 
 could be fulfilled/ of the woman travelling in birth, 
 and longing to be delivered; but the wonders John saw 
 in heaven must take place on earth. 
 
 " What wonders there would then appear 
 
 To an enlighten'd race, 
 When every mystery is made clear, 
 
 And seen without a glass?. 
 
 No veil between then being seen, 
 
 No wonders you'll behold ; 
 For all alike is clearly bright, 
 
 As pearly streets with gold, 
 
 Should wonders there to you appear, 
 
 You'd wonder then of all. 
 To see them clothed with the sun, 
 
 Could wonder none at all." 
 
 " Such is the mystery to man — (that a woman should be 
 clothed with the Sun of Righteousness, who is now com- 
 ing with healing in his wings)— because they know not 
 the Scriptures, which indicate, that to fulfil) all righte- 
 ousness, the woman must be a helpmate to man, to com- 
 plete his happiness. This men marvel at, because they 
 never conceived what the Lord hath in store for them, 
 in fulfilling his promise given to the woman. 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 31 
 
 " So men, I see, do stand in wonder, 
 
 While angels also gaze ; 
 Satan broke man's bliss asunder; 
 
 Man wandereth in a maze, 
 So, with amaze, you all may gaze; 
 
 The angels wonder here. 
 You cannot see the mystery, 
 
 Nor find the Bible clear. 
 There Eden's tree you shall see 
 
 Preserved for your sake ; 
 The flaming sword is God's own word, 
 
 'Twill break the serpent's neck." 
 
 ts Thus, by types, shadows, dreams', and vision?, I have 
 been led on, from 1792, to the present day; whereby 
 the mysteries of the Bible, with the future destinies of 
 nations, have been revealed to me, which will all termi- 
 nate in the Second Coming of Christ ; and the day of 
 Judgment, when the seven thousand years are ended. 
 " Now should men say, all this by thee is done, 
 Thy head is wiser than each mortal's son. 
 And if they say it cometh from the Devil, 
 Then plainly tell them, that their faults are evil; 
 For Satan's wisdom never lay so deep; 
 Yet to thyself thou must the secret keep. 
 But if men say, it cometh from on high, 
 My judges shall appear the truth to try. 
 Then in thy faith be stedfast still, 
 
 With salt be season'd well. 
 Remember thy baptismal vow, 
 
 And triumph over hell. 
 Your Captain too shall quickly come 
 
 And bring all to an end, 
 And fix his glorious Empire o'er, 
 
 The wise, whose hearts will bend. 
 As in a humble manger here, 
 
 Kin^s did their Sovereign see, 
 So my low handmaid doth appear 
 To all a mystery 
 
32 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 ~ "" ■ •■- ■- - - ■ ^.^-^--^ 
 
 Now, can you longer make dispute, 
 From whence you hear the sound ? 
 Thus Satan must henceforth be mute, 
 
 Nor talk the faithful down. 
 The reasons all are none at all 
 
 Of those that wo'n't believe: 
 Thus when the Bible forth I call, 
 
 What answers will you give?" 
 
 If our readers can bear much more of Joanna's lucu- 
 brations upon her Exeter mission, we will recommend to 
 their attention the following : — 
 
 " I omitted to mention, in the proper place, that, at 
 the end of 1794, 1 had a strange vision. — As soon as I had 
 laid down in my bed, a light came over the room. I 
 looked at the window; but saw no light proceed from 
 thence. I looked at the door, to see if any one was en- 
 tering with a candle; but no person was there. The 
 room now appeared to me to be full of lighted candies, 
 hanging, in candlesticks, on lines crossing the room. I 
 covered my head with the bed-clothes, and then saw a 
 spacious room, with a chandelier of many branches, and 
 lighted lamps sparkling with great lustre. In the midst 
 of the room stood a large table, with large lighted can- 
 dles thereon, so that the light -equalled the noon-day. I 
 exclaimed, " What can this mean?" I was anwered, 
 n Arise and shine, for the light is come, and the glory 
 of the Lord is risen." 
 
 "The next day (being perfectly awake) I was order- 
 ed to write down my vision, which was thus explained to 
 me : — ■ That my writings must be proved by twelve 
 men; and, when met for that purpose, that the candle 
 would burn brightly among them, and the spirit of wis- 
 
JOANNA. SOUTHCOTT. 33 
 
 ___^r=r- ~- : '' ' ■ =s s ~-~c 
 
 dom and understanding be given them; for as the day 
 of Pentecost was to the disciples, so should that day be 
 to them ; and every one present should see it was the 
 Lord's doing." The names of the appointed twelve I 
 put it into the hands of one of the six persons mentioned, 
 and charged them not to break the seals upon them 
 till the twelve were assembled. However, (as I said be» 
 fore,) the watch that was laid on the seals was removed, 
 and the seals broken through unbelief, so that darkness 
 came upon the minds of them. Thus is the mystery ex- 
 plained, that this circumstance is set as a watch before 
 mankind. 
 
 "The harvest of 1796 was remarkably good, and 
 great plenty followed. And it was said unto me, ' As 
 they (the men mentioned) kept silence for the space 
 of one hour, the Lord has withheld the rain in time of 
 harvest.' 
 
 " Now, if this publication awakens the Ministers to 
 search out the truth, or the Rev. Mr. — ■ (the 
 
 preacher) return to the examination of my writings, the 
 next three following harvests are promised to be plentiful, 
 '* Prove me now, (saith the Lord,) and try me if I will 
 not shower down blessings upon you." But, if the many 
 truths laid before you, with the threatenings put into the 
 hands of Ministers, do not awaken them to search out the 
 truth, the Lord will fulfil his word. 
 
 " If by the wise men I am mock'd now, 
 Like Herod's fury, I'll fulfil my vow. 
 Who my anger shall appease, 
 
 If all deny my will? 
 My thunderbolts shall loudly roll, 
 And men's proud hearts shall cijill." 
 
34- HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTORS. 
 
 " Now let the reader look deep into the mystery, and 
 behold what Divine Wisdom hath directed me to show 
 to mankind. I was foretold how Ministers would act, 
 and that the truth would be brought to light by one 
 man. I was now ordered to have my writings copied, 
 and put mto the Printer's hand. This I did; and the 
 verv day I had given them to the Printer, the chosen 
 Minister returned to Exeter. I thought I would not send 
 to him till the book was printed; but was answered, 
 ' How weak is thy judgment 1' and was ordered to send 
 te him next day. I found he was offended by my put- 
 ting his name id the newspaper. He said, if I published 
 his name, he had done with me; otherwise he would 
 comply with my request. Two friends of mine wrote 
 to him of the truth of my writings; and, at his request, 
 I waited on him with one of my friends. He said, he 
 found argument fruitless, in persuading me to stop my 
 hand, and should argue with me no more. He bade me 
 get the writings of 1792 copied out, as he could not set 
 the originals before Ministers, who would not attend to 
 manuscripts which they could not read ; and they would 
 not trust to what I should read to them. Therefore, he 
 bade me open the seals on the writings of 1792, and send 
 them with the fair copy : and if the Ministers he con- 
 sulted should judge them to be of God, I might have 
 twelve or fourteen afterwards. 
 
 " When I returned home, I was ordered to follow his 
 advice, remembering what had been told me in 1793, 
 " I will direct thee tb a man, whose talents are greater 
 than thine; he shall have five talents; he shall direct 
 thee," So I had my writings broken open before wit- 
 nesses, marked, copied, and some part sent to him. 
 
JOANNA SOUTHC0TT. 3$ 
 
 "The week after I waited on him again. He said, 
 what I had sent was not enough to convince Ministers, 
 and I must open the seals set in 1794 and 1795. The 
 next day (Sunday) I was ordered to have them opened 
 in the presence of twelve witnesses, who were to set 
 their names on them. Three weeks were then allowed 
 him, to examine, to consult Ministers, and to judge whe- 
 ther the writings were of God or not, 
 
 " Soon after, I was ordered to write to three Ministers, 
 (the letters will be hereafter given,) and I was told it 
 would be fetal for me, for time and eternity, if I did not 
 publish my writings, should these Ministers remain sf- 
 ient seven days after. It was said to me, ' I do not need 
 the Ministers to prove whether they be of God or not; 
 for that shall be proved by the truth. But this I com- 
 mand thee to do, to keep thee from the snares of men, 
 who may charge and condemn thee for imposture; sav- 
 ing, thou hast signed thy name to what thou hast not writ- 
 ten. I have so ordered every truth to be made plain, 
 that no roan can prove one false report in thy writings, or 
 dispute what spirit inspires thee. Thy writings must be 
 submitted to the judgement of learned Ministers of my 
 word. Let them be disputed before they be proved ^ 
 let Ministers be the judges, and common men the wit- 
 nesses and jury, to try the truth of this ordination. All 
 thou hast done, and all the letters thou hast sent, haye 
 proceeded— Readers, pray attend to the profaneness 
 which follows in the words of this miserable visionary! 
 — from the command of the King of Kings, the Lord 
 of Lords, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, 
 the Mighty CounceHor, and the Desire of every uatiocV 
 
36 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 " When I sent the letters to Ministers, it was said to 
 me, that if these things were not of God, their hearts 
 should be worked on to stop my hand in seven days; and 
 if they did not, I should waft no longer than New Year's ' 
 Day (Old Style) 1801, and then have it printed, to be 
 judged of by the world at large, to try the wisdom of 
 men, and to let them see what' wisdom there is in the 
 Lord, of whom it is written in the Psalms, 
 
 " God in the great assembly stands, 
 
 Where his impartial eye 
 In state surveys the earthly gods, 
 
 And doth their judgements try." 
 
 New-Year's Day arriving, and the Ministers to whom I 
 wrote remaining silent, I consider their silence as evi- 
 dence, that they cannot prove what I said not to be from' 
 the Lord, and have therefore published as I was directed." 
 "The following is a copy of the letter I sent to the 
 Rev. Mr. , at Heavitree : — 
 
 ■ Sir,— I have sent you many letters, wherein you have 
 kept silence, as being at a loss from what hand they were 
 indited. You judged it strange, Sir, the Lord should re- 
 veal his secrets to a woman; but when you come to the 
 knowledge of your Bible, you will not judge it strange at 
 alL. You first judged it came from the wisdom of man; 
 and therein you ei red as much as the former ; for was 
 every man on earth a Solomon for wisdom, they could 
 not bring round such a mystery as is in ray writings, and 
 make every truth agree. If there ever was so much wis- 
 dom in man, he must be a fool to give the praise to ano- 
 ther, and not take to himself the merit due to himself.— 
 Now I shall come to the purpose. The ceutury is ended ; 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. \ 37 
 
 the seals are cut open in the presence of six wVi esges 
 (what was written in 1792) and marked out, and Gbj e( j 
 What was written in 1794, till 1795 and 17y7, and ftij e( j 
 up in a box, is broken open in the presence of twv^ 
 witnesses; and they have signed their names to all 
 writings; so that, if the originals be demanded, no ma\ 
 can be deceived. Some of them were copied out, and N 
 sent to the Rev. Mr» — '. So here the century ends 
 with men. If those Ministers that I have written to do 
 not go to Mr. — — before the year ends to the old style, 
 and prove these writings are not from the Lord, their si- 
 lence gives consent that it is of God, and they will b e 
 made public. The Lord was but seven days making the 
 world, and rested on one of them; and he will allow no 
 longer for man than seven days to judge of his works ; 
 so lam compelled to warn you all, what you do you must 
 do quickly, or for ever after hold your tongues. When 
 you hear me make public to the world that it is the* . „ 
 
 •*"I am sorry my intentions cannot be fulfilled, by giving to 
 the public in print the whole contents of the above, and of 
 other letters hereafter. The Printer declines copying them 
 fully. He tells me, that, however perfect my conviction may 
 be, that what I have written is of God, and however string my 
 resolution may be to hazard all consequences in its publication, 
 yet he has received no supernatural instructions, and therefore 
 feels not, in this case, any degree of the spirit of martyrdom 
 within him ; for which reason he choo?es to decline giving any 
 person the power of making this publication a handle for vent- 
 ing the ili-humour of political disappointment upon him.-- 
 This part of my writings, however, he has perused; and pro- 
 mises, it he finds them fulfilled, to bear impartial testimony to. 
 their veracity ." 
 N°. 2, 
 
*• HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 that re bringing down the judgments of God . . . 
 
 a i they will bring the 
 
 pon themselves.— Now, if any Ministers that I have 
 written to can deny the truth of these things, let thern 
 bring forth their arguments, and shew their strong rea- 
 sons ; or let them be silent before the Lord, and say we 
 cannot answer thee one word of a thousand in all the let- 
 ters thou hast sent us. For, be it known unto you, and 
 to all men, it is the Lord's doing, however marvellous it 
 may appear in your eyes. My writings are in the hands 
 f ]vi r . ■, that you are to judge, if you think pro- 
 
 per, in the time I have mentioned. I will give it up to 
 no man's judgment after the seven days are expired, 
 but shall publish them as I have said. I have under- 
 standing as well as you all, neither am I a whit behind 
 you ; but ye have all been judges of what ye know no- 
 thing about. I am clear from the blood of all men; and 
 am, with the greatest respect, your humble servant, 
 
 Joanna Southcott.' 
 if* The following is a copy of a letter sent to one of the 
 Dignitaries of the Cathedral of Exeter:— 
 
 'Jan. 4, 1801. 
 ' Rev. Sir, 
 
 ■ I beg liberty to say unto you, (as the Voice 
 -.aid unto Paul,) Why persecutes** thou me ? It is hard for 
 thee, Paul, to kick o gainst the pricks. And it is hard 
 for you, bir, to fight against God, through unbelief.--' 
 You have done it, till almost a . . . is come on the poor ; 
 and if vou continue, you will bring the . . , on the rich ; 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 3!> 
 
 for you will surely find, Sir, you have a God to deal with, 
 and not (as you suppose) a simple woman, whose senses 
 are gone you know not where. I grant, they are gone 
 out of the reach of man, while you judge through a glass 
 darkly; but you must judge face to face, Sir, if you will 
 be a judge for yourself, unto whom you have done des- 
 pite; either to the spirit of the Lord or me. If it was 
 to me, I would never trouble your Honour with this let- 
 ter; for my spirit is too great to be treated with contempt. 
 But, as you have done it to the Lord, I am ordered to 
 warn you in his name. The time of ignorance God wink- 
 eth at ; but now you have no cloke for yourself, if you 
 shut your eyes against the day-light. The letter I sent 
 you in 1799, of the harvest, I had copied out and sent 
 
 to the Rev. Mr. . Both harvests came as I foretold. 
 
 Mr. disputed with me, if my foreknowledge did 
 
 not come of myself, and desired me to come to the pur- 
 pose of what I wrote in \7 J2 ; so I opened my seats-in 
 the presence of witnesses, and had all my writings mark- 
 ed in the presence of twelve witnesses, (what I wrote in 
 1794- . and 1795, and 1796, and 17y2,) and had part of 
 them copied out and sent to Mr. : , for him to con- 
 sult with Ministers from what spirit they judged it came ; 
 from the spirir of the Lord, or the powers of darkness. — 
 I shall not blush to say, that man is void of understand- 
 ing, that says it is from myself. But now, Sir, I must 
 come to the purpose. The writings I have sent to the, 
 Rev. Mr. , if they are not proved by Ministers be- 
 fore the year i.s out by the old style, that they are not of 
 God, the\ will be published; that thjey are of God, the 
 Ministers' silence £ives consent* The ...... 
 
40 HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 bringing down the judgments of God upon ... 
 
 • • • • • ; and the Lord 
 
 is just to send the .... on them. I was ordered 
 to send this to you, Sir, that you may judge for yourself, 
 in seven days. What I say unto you I say unto the Rev. 
 «— — • ♦ You are both at liberty to judge for your- 
 selves, and if you prove the writings are not of God in 
 the space of seven days, I will give it up to you ; but if 
 you now keep silence, I am the judge myself, and I shall 
 have them published, as I am directed. They are in the 
 
 hands of Mr. . If you think proper to judge 
 
 them before the time, you are at liberty, or for ever af- 
 ter keep silence. I am, with the greatest respect, your 
 most humble servant, 
 
 Joanna Southcott.* 
 *' Here I add a third letter. 
 
 • To the Rev. Mr. • ■ ■ — , Exeter. 
 4 Rev. Sir,— You may be surprised to receive a letter 
 from a woman, of prophecies, to appeal to your judg- 
 ment. Sir, now it is come to the eleventh hour. Strange 
 as it may appear to you, I am ordered to proceed. You 
 preached a sermon in praise of the King ; and I have his 
 interest as much at heart as you have. My earnest pray- 
 er is for him, that the Lord will protect him'through life, 
 as being surrounded with so many enemies. I do not 
 lay any thing to the King ; but those 
 
 This was my prophecies for years agone— there first 
 would come an Egypt's . . . ; . and after that an 
 Egypt's But now I must come to the pur- 
 pose, I was called by the voice from heaven in 175?, 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 41 
 
 what was coming upon the earth. I obeyed the sum- 
 mons, and have been writing ever since what the Lord 
 would do upon the earth. And ttiis hath been sealed up 
 every year ; and now the century is ended with men ; 
 and by the old style it will end with the Lord. My seals 
 have been opened in the presence or twelve witnesses 
 and marked, and copied ou', and sent to the Rev. Mr. 
 
 , , for him to consult wiih Ministers from what 
 
 spirit they judged it came. Now, Sir, I was ordered to 
 
 write to you, the bringing 
 
 down the juogments of God on the land, as you find in 
 my prophecies. And this I am going to publish to the 
 world, unless the Ministers that I have written ta meet 
 together, and prove the writings are not of God, in the 
 space of seven days, which ends with the New Year's 
 Day to old style. If they can prove that I am wrong by 
 that time, 1 will give up to their wisdom ; but not aftet 
 to any one's judgment, till I see the end of another year : 
 for the Lord will begin with a new century ; and I will 
 see what he will do, before I will hearken to any man's 
 judgment. Now, Sir, if you are as great a friend to your 
 Kng and Country as you preached, you will diligently 
 search out the truth of these thing ; but you have no 
 longer than New* Year's Day to the old style. lam, with 
 the greatest respect, your humble servant, 
 
 * Jan. 5, 180U Joanna Southcott.' 
 
 To enumerate the various motives to deceit and injury 
 
 would be to count all the desires that prevail among the 
 
 sons of men ; since there is no ambition, however petty, 
 
 no wish, however absurd, that by indulgence will not 
 
 E 2 
 
42 HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMfOSTURES* 
 
 be enabled to overpower the influence of virtue.—*' 
 This seemed to be the case of Joanna. She obtruded 
 herself- upon the world, with all the confidence of a 
 spirit which scorned acquaintance even with superi- 
 ority ; consequently* possessing a mind irritated by op- 
 position, abounding in fraud, and fulminating curses 
 against all who contemned her iniquity, and had too 
 great consideration of real religion and moral virtue, 
 to lend themselves to the contagion of crime among their 
 unsuspecting fellow-creatures. 
 
 From what has preceded, it may be perceived, that 
 we would, in charity, impute the whole of Joanna's 
 wanderings to the imaginations of an afflicted spirit; 
 and, in the hope that her disarrangement having sub- 
 sided, she might be restored to society, and, by de- 
 claring and retracting her gross errors, cause so ne 
 amends to be made to those, who had been weak 
 enough to be misguided by her profane rhapsodies. We 
 might have been induced, under such circumstances, to 
 recede from personalities to her ; but such must not be 
 the case towards her crafty -adherents. Their circun> 
 stances have no excuse ; their falsehoods and wrongs 
 to society must be exposed to be reprobated ; and as 
 they have presumed to make Joanna's opinions the ve- 
 hicle to increase their trade of deceit, it must be those 
 ©pinions, and the impressions intended by their circu- 
 lation, to disseminate despair and to establish ruinous 
 conclusions, that shall engage our more particular at- 
 tention ; these are fair objects of discission, and shall 
 not escape stricture. 
 We will mention only one circumstance, in support 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 43 
 
 of our premises. In the Times of the 10th of Septem- 
 ter, 1814, is the following paragraph : " Joanna South- 
 eoTT. It is stated of one of the believers in this poor 
 woman's pretensions,, named Edward Penny, who was 
 a respectable yeoman at lnglebourn, near Totness, 
 that he had a small freehold of his own, inde- 
 pendent of a large farm he rented, and was doing 
 well, when, becoming a follower of this woman, he 
 put such implicit faith in her predictions, (that in the 
 ensuing year there would be neither earing nor harvest, 
 as the world was to be destroyed,) that the poor fel- 
 low thought he would save his seed-wheat, and ab- 
 solutely let all his land lay idle. When rent-day came 
 he was obliged to part with a proportion of his own 
 property, to pay the rent of the farm he occupied: 
 he never recovered the blow, but sunk gradually in 
 the world, until obliged to solicit relief from the rigid 
 hand of parochial charity. " 
 
 Appealing, then, to the philanthropy of our readers, 
 whether, in conducting this work, we may not be, in 
 a great measure, instrumental, with our fellow labourers 
 in the same benevolent cause, in ascertaining the motives 
 of Joanna's Disciples, by the complete exposure of her 
 dogmatical absurdities; which, however we maybe in- 
 duced to pty in her ; we shall think it our bounden 
 duty to condemn in them ; for they have no affliction 
 to plead in excuse ; we shall consider their conduct 
 to abound in the broadest tints of corruption, and as 
 such, to merit due execration, as almost the murderers of 
 the minds of their fellow-creatures. 
 
 After thus far premising the object of our labour, 
 
4-4 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 we shall proceed in our recital, by stating, that Joanna's 
 spirit still aspired beyond common comprehension, and 
 the undervvritten are some of its ebullitions. 
 
 " These are the first of the writings made in 1790. 
 
 " The Reader will observe, that the following is planted 
 f word for word according to the original. Worldly- 
 minded Critics may cavil at the language ; but I have 
 been ordered thus to give it the world, ' to try the 
 heads of the learned * The Lord hath spoken to men, 
 as men : and I am only permitted to allow the printer 
 to omit such parts, as ( thro' fear of man's anger) he 
 may be unwilling to insert. 
 
 'Quench not the spirit ; despise not prophecy; for 
 the time is come, that your women shall prophecy, 
 young men shall dream dreams, your old men shall see 
 visions; for the day of the Lord is at hand. The day 
 is nigh at hand, that shall burn like an oven ; and all 
 the wicked shall be burnt up as stubble; whose fan is in 
 his hand: I will thoroughly purge the floor; I will 
 gather my wheat into his garner, and burn up the chaff* 
 with unquenchable fire. Awake them that sleep ; arise 
 from the dead, and Christ will give them life. 1 
 
 ' This I have penned, as the Lord hath directed me.; 
 for there is none holy as the Lord, neither is there 
 any rock like our God.' 
 
 We discover that this poor creature mingled various 
 portions from the sacred Scriptures, which she had for- 
 merly imbibed in her former religious acquaintance, 
 
JOANNA SOUTHGOTT. 45 
 
 with her own detached emanations. Tne following 
 will serve as a fair specimen, though clogged by her 
 silly incoherent poetry : 
 
 '•Talk no more so proudly; let not arrogancy come 
 •ut of your mouth ; for the Lord is a God of know- 
 ledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of 
 the mighty are broken, and they that stumble are girt 
 with strength. The wisdom of the Lord is hid in the 
 great deep, and his paths are past finding out; for 
 the wisdom of God is foolishness with men, and the 
 wisdom of men is foolishness with God. Are your ways 
 equal or mine unequal, O house of Israel ? Judge ye: 
 are not my ways equal ? Are not your ways unequal, 
 O house of Israel ? Fear ye the rod, and who hath ap- 
 pointed it. 
 
 * The time is come, that judgments must at God's own house 
 
 begin* 
 And, if he first attacks the just, what case are sinners in I 
 If God the righteous, whom he lov'd, with justice doth correct, 
 What must the sons of violence, whom he abhors, expect?* 
 
 ' The spirit of the Lord is with them that fear him. 
 On that man will I look that is of a meek and con- 
 trite spirit; he trembleth at my word; he committeth 
 all his ways to the Lord ; he will direct his goings, 
 for God is the same God yesterday, to day» and for ever.' 
 — Joanna proceeds — "Think not, for yourselves, our 
 dear Redeemer came into the world to make you 
 more ignorant than the Jews were. He came to en- 
 lighten our understandings, and not to darken them. 
 But ve will not come unto him, that he may have life, 
 
4(3 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 for at the second coming, he shall scarce find faith on 
 the earth ; for unless ye see signs and wonders, ye will not 
 believe. Faithless and perverse generation ! looking for 
 signs, and there shall be no signs given you, but the pro- 
 phecy of the Prophet Jonah: Nineveh shall rise up in judg- 
 ment against this generation, 9 
 
 " I shall now proceed to my own experience, which 
 hath truly convinced me, the Lord is awakened as one 
 out of sleep; and the voice of the Lord will shake 
 terribly the earth. 
 
 "The beginning of the powerful visitation of the Lord 
 
 to me was on . . . . , 1792. I no more intended 
 
 thou shouldest go to reprove the people, than 1 intended 
 Abraham should offer up his son Isaac. I did it to 
 try thy obedience. Now will I swear unto thee, as I 
 did unto Abraham. I will make thee an everlasting 
 covenant; and save thee with an everlasting salvation/ 
 
 " When these words came to me, my soul wa9 trou- 
 bled in the dust before God, and I began to cry out 
 ' What am f, or what is my father's house, that thou 
 hast thus honoured me, unworthy wretch as I am ? My 
 past life makes me ashamed of myself.' — "These words 
 came to me: 'I will reward thy obedience; and in 
 blessing I will bless thee: And, as I kept nothing from 
 Abraham, I will keep nothing from thee. Thou shut pro* 
 phe>y in my name ; and I will bear thee witness. What / 
 put in thy mouth, that wnl I doon the earth.* 
 
 '* Then these words came to me: ' The Lord is awake 
 as one out Of sleep. The voice of the Lord shall shake 
 terribly the earth. Pestilence and famine shall go through 
 the lands. Men's hearts shall fail them for very trouble j 
 
JOANNA SOUTUCOTT. 47 
 
 'aSmm^m^mmmFmmm^imimmmtmmt n \ nil— M«— —i ■■■ m i n i i n m m i — i^c '. . . « i i , i 
 
 because they have not known the visitation of the 
 Lord.' As soon as these words came to me I trembled, 
 and was afraid of his majesty and greatness. Tears of 
 humiliation ran down my eyes, and a holy fear seized 
 my soul. I wept bitterly, and wondered at his divine 
 goodness to such an unworthy creature as I was. But 
 these words were answered me; ' I have seen all thy 
 enquiries to know my will and obey it; and now I will 
 reward thee. Dost thou believe it?' — u l cried out 
 ' Yea, Lord ; if it be thy voice, I do believe it ; for I 
 know thou art not a man to lie, nor the son of man to 
 be wavering. I have always found thee a God, like 
 thyself, faithful to thy word, and faithful to thy pro- 
 mises.' — "I was answered, 'Dost thou think I will 
 now?' I said, 'Yea, Lord; if it be thy word, I know 
 thou wilt. Thou hast been faithful to thy word 
 throughout the Bible, in every age of the world ; a God, 
 the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' " I was an- 
 swered, ' This thou believest, and this thou shalt find 
 me; faithful to my word, and faithful to my promises ; 
 and next Sunday will I fulfil my promise at my table 1 — 
 •• which, I bless God, J felt remarkably , and waited 
 with a holy longing for the blessed promise made by 
 Jesus Christ. I then made a solemn vow to God, to be 
 obedient to all his commands, as far as I saw his 
 righteous will concerning me, earnestly praying that 
 I might not be deceived by my own weak understand- 
 ing, nor deceived by the arts of Satan, praying that 
 the Lord would keep me from every evil, and from the 
 evil of sin ; that I may be kept, as Mary, humble at the 
 feet of the Lord. — I was answered, ' If pride rise in thy 
 
48 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURE*. 
 
 heart, Satan shall humble thee ; but thou sayest, thou 
 hast found me a God like myself: and so thou shalt/ — 
 «• I said, • Lord, I believe it; and pray thee, keep me 
 the remainder of my life, that I may drink deep in the 
 Sp rit of my dear Redeemer, and, as far as the earthly 
 can bear the image of the heavenly, so far may I bear thy 
 image, — This was the prayer and desire of my soul, that 
 I may know his voice and obey it.' 
 
 " One morning when I awoke, these words were 
 sounded in my ears: I Wake, ye ministers; mourn, ye 
 priests ; for the day of the Lord is at hand.'— I thought 
 I heard the sound of preaching in my ears : f The Lord 
 is awake, as one out of sleep; the voice 4 of the Lord will 
 shake terribly the earth. The sins of the world have 
 provoked the Lord to anger. He will go forth as a 
 flaming fire ; he will be wrath, as in the valley of 
 Gibeon, until he hath brought forth judgemtnt unto 
 victory.' 
 
 " These words were so dreadful in my ears, that they 
 made me tremble, and 1 was earnest in prayer to God, 
 to know if these judgments were coming upon the earth. 
 I was answered, ' / will shew thee in visions % this night, 
 what I will do.' " I went to bed ; / dreamt nothing, and 
 thought I had listened to the voice of a stranger, and 
 not of God/'— " I was answered, * The night is far 
 spent; the day is at hand ; lay thee down and sleep 
 a g a i n# ' — " So I did, and dreamed I was on a high 
 mountain, and saw the sky as bright as noon-day sun, 
 and two men came out of the clouds, with long robes 
 of purple and scarlet, with crowns of gold on their 
 heads and swords in their hands, standing in th* sky, 
 
JOANNA. SOUTHCOTT. 4-0 
 
 Two men came out with heavy horses, and spoke to 
 those that stood on the clouds, and soon after rode 
 away, like lightning, in the air. Soon after I saw the 
 men on horseback coming out of the clouds, as fast as 
 they could, till the whole skies were covered with men 
 in armour, and spears glittering in the air. I thought I 
 looked down, and saw the world in confusion, men in 
 armour riding fast. This dream alarmed me; and I 
 was meditating with what divine majesty and splendor 
 our dear Redeemer was coming into the world. Once he 
 came meek and lowly, persecuted by men ; but now he 
 will come as a prince and a king, conquering and to 
 conquer. Once he came meek and lowly, riding on an 
 ass; but now he will come riding in the chariot of his 
 everlasting Gospel. But who can abide the day of his 
 coming, or who can abide the day of his wrath ? The 
 saints shall see it, and rejoice; for he will gather the 
 wheat in the garner, and burn up the chaff with un- 
 quenchable fire.— Then I was answered this psalm :— 
 
 * Ask and receive thy full demandsj 
 
 Now shall the heathen be, 
 The utmost limit of the lands 
 
 Shall be possess'd by thee. 
 I'll crush them every where, 
 
 As massy bars of iron break 
 The potter's brittle ware.' 
 
 "This made me earnest in prayer to God, to know if 
 this was Christ's second coming into the world, to call 
 in his antient people, the Jews. « Is thy last coming when 
 thou comest to judge the world in righteousness ? " I was 
 answered, ' Thou hast judged right.' "In prayer and 
 
 No. 2. r 
 
50, HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 praises I spent the day. In the night in my bed| it was 
 said to me, 'I will shew thee a vision this night, that 
 shall make the ears of those that hear it to tingle.' " 1 
 went to bed ; dreamed nothing. It was answered, 'The 
 night is far spent; the day is at hand. Lay thee down 
 to sleep again.' " I was restless and uneasy, and did not 
 believe the Lord had said it, and thought it was the 
 Devil, to deceive me, and continued restless from three 
 till past five. I then ft'M asleep, and dreamed I had 
 something in my hand. I let it fall, and it turned into 
 a cup, and whirled tip and down the room. At last it 
 turned into a cat, which I kicked to pieces, and grew 
 angry in my dream, and said, 'Satan, this is thy mira- 
 cles; this is the way thou deceivest the world, by 
 whirling them in empty air, that neither touch top nor bot- 
 tom.' When I awoke, I was grieved, and afraid I had 
 sinned in going to sleep; but I was answered, it was 
 the Lard's permission, to shew I might see Satan's mi- 
 racles, how he deceived the world. This made the 
 ways of the Lord appear more to be admired ; and I 
 meditated on my past vision, with what glory I saw the 
 Lord in the air, and with what swiftness the angels seemed 
 to obey him. This set all my soul on Jlre, and I wished I 
 could fly in the air to the Lord, and fall at the feet of 
 my dear Redeemer. — A powerful voice called me, 'Jo- 
 anna, Joanna, the angels rejoiced at thy birth, thy Saviour 
 embraced thee. Dost thou think thou canst love him as 
 he loved thee?* These words went through my soul, and 
 I cried out, * No, it is that drawed my heart after him in 
 strong faith.' 
 "I went to bed, and was answered, 'I will shew 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 51 
 
 thee in vision this night.' " I dreamed I was in an or- 
 chard where were trees standing together, the branches 
 were joined one in the other, and the fruit was fallen. I 
 thought I was going to take them up. I thought the 
 Lord said tome, 'Open the shells; but thou shalt not 
 taste of the first fruits ; it is not good.' I thought I opened 
 the nuts; for they were like French nuts, but they were 
 withered and dry, and a black veil round them. The 
 Lord said to me, 'The first fruits are fallen ; they are 
 not good. Look up, and thou wilt see berries; and 
 when they are ripe they will be good.' I looked up, 
 and saw berries like the berries of potatoes ; and went 
 to a house, where 1 saw the Lord. He rose up, as one out 
 of sleep, and told me to go, and mind all I had seen/ I 
 awaked.*' 
 
 ♦The same night, I dreamed I was on the sea; aud 
 I saw a large oven full of meat ; and the stopper broke, and 
 the meat swam on the sea in abundance. When I awoke, 
 I was answered, 'Thy d reams puzzle thee; but wars and 
 tumults shall arise from abroad and at home. The sea 
 shall be laden with ships, many shall break in pieces, 
 and thousands shall launch in the deep. As to the 
 dream of the fruit, couldst thou iook into the hearts of 
 men, thou wouldst see them, as the fruit, withered/ 
 
 " Another night, I dreamed I saw my father sweeping 
 out the barn floor clean, and would not suffer the wheat 
 to be brought in the barn. He appeared to me to be 
 in anger. When I awaked, I was answered, 'It is thy 
 Heavenly Father is angry with the land ; and if they do 
 not repent, as Nineveh did, they shall sow, but they 
 shall not reap; neither shall they gather into their 
 
52 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 barns. There shall come three years, wherein there shall 
 he neither earing nor harvest." 
 
 u Another night it was said unto me, " I will shew thee 
 in dreams of my anger against the nations." f dreamed 
 I had a dish in my hand, with dirt in it ; and some one 
 throwed honey over it ; and the children eat it, for the 
 sake of the honey, which made me sick. I awoke with 
 my dream. I was answered, ' So sick is the Lord of the 
 world. They eat the honey and the poison together.' 
 
 "Another night I dreamed I heard heavenly music 
 sounding in my ears, and a flock of sheep was gathering 
 round it. When the music ceased, the sheep leaped for joy 
 and ran together, shaking their heads; and one shook his. 
 head almost off, and seemed tp- have nothing but ears. I 
 
 went towards them, and awoke. 1 was answered, 
 
 ' The sheep were the servants of the Lord ; for they 
 would be convinced, and trust no more their own un* 
 derstanding, but be all ears, to hear what the Lord saith. 
 
 " ^Another night I dreamed I had a large bird, full of 
 large feathers of brass gilded ; and the bird flew down 
 on the room where I was. I thought to pluck some of 
 the feathers, but found it impossible to pluck one, or 
 break one. I could not think there was any interpreta- 
 tion of this dream ; but I was answered, ' It is the deter- 
 mined will of the Lord, that cannot be altered, nor will 
 be be pacified without repentance.' I thought with my- 
 
 * This book has been commanded to be printed like the 
 original, without alterations, except in the second page, 
 which was a blank leaf, wherein communication has been ad- 
 ded, which is to be read after the above. 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 self, why then did T dream I tried to pluck the feathers or 
 break thpm ? f was answered, ' Thou hast strove to alter 
 the decrees of Heaven concerning thyself, but to no purpose 
 The will oj the Lord must be done in thee, and by thee* 
 This my soul would gladly obey. 
 
 " The same night I dreamed I saw a little bird pecking 
 the feathers of the great birds; but this was not explain- 
 ed. As I was in earnest prayer to know what all this 
 meant, and where it would end, a heavenly joy filled my 
 soul, as though a company of angels had been singing in 
 my ears these words: 
 
 'What good news the angels bring ! 
 What glad tidings of our King ! 
 Christ descending from his throne, 
 To bring his Father's glory down. 
 Saints shall see it and rejoice; 
 Hell shall tremble at his voice. 
 Saints rejoice, and sinners fear, 
 When he brings salvation near, 
 Jews and Gentiles shall agree, 
 Join in Christian unity. 
 Heathens, coming from afar, 
 Worship at the glorious star. 
 All the earth shall know the Lord, 
 And sing his praise with one accord/ 
 
 " What follows, concerning the blasphemies of Satan, 
 was written before the prophecies came to me, w ith many 
 more extraordinary things, that 1 went through', from 
 Good-Friday to Midsummer." 
 
 Will our readers, after going through the foregoing 
 passages, be a moment at a loss to discover the spirit whieh 
 unhappily pervaded Joanna's unconnected intellect?— 
 
 F 2 
 
54 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 Should there be any so dubious as to want farther expla- 
 nations, we would refer them to the prophecies in sacred 
 writ, and they will soon be couvinced of the absurdities 
 of Joanna's " ovens full of meat floating on the sea '."—her 
 
 "dirt pies!" her "sheep's head shook off by means of 
 
 music, and nothing left but his ears!"— and a number of 
 other wanderings equally ridiculous and incredible. 
 
 Aware of the apostle Paul's advice, we would be the 
 last to " despise prophecyings;" but it is certainly right 
 to attend to the connecting part of that advice to "prove 
 all things/' and " hold to that which is good." But 
 have we the smallest encouragement afforded us by Jo- 
 hanna's effervescencies, to believe that the Almighty has 
 dispensed the gift of prophecy to this woman, equally to 
 what he did to Ezekiel, Daniel, and other eminent per- 
 sons, who shone with a divine light above the other sons 
 of men r Never! The Lord God Almighty will not 
 thus be mocked : 
 
 He nods a calm— the tempest blows his wrath! 
 - His thunder is his voice, and the red flash 
 His speedy sword of justice ! At his touch 
 The mountains flame: he shakes the solid earth, 
 And rocks the nations !— Not in these alone, 
 In ev'ry common instance GOD is seen !* 
 
 In figures, consistent with his Divine Majesty, he con- 
 descended to reveal himself to his prophets; and we do 
 not find in any part of the holy Bible that he ever descend- 
 ed from himself in any of his revelations. How deroga- 
 tory then must it be from his greatness, his omnipotence, 
 to exhibit him to his humble creatures beneath his exalt- 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 55 
 
 ed dignity ! We do not read that either the prophets, 
 apostles or the evangelists, did so, and their missions 
 prospered. The unlimited frenzy of Joanna has unhap- 
 pily not done so; the adherents to her for the worst pur- 
 poses have encouraged the iniquity, and therefore no 
 prosperity can result from her assumed mission; — his pu- 
 nishment, more probably, may be inflicted for such a 
 high degree of contempt towards his vast benevolence. 
 
 The rolling worlds above, the living atoms below, and 
 all the beings that intervene betwixt those wide extremes, 
 are vouchers for an ever-present Deity, that would 
 take other means to reform mankind than by the ridicu- 
 lous effluxions of a dreaming insane old woman! 
 
 Joanna's description of the Devil's interruption, during 
 her abstracted meditations, is truly curious: 
 
 " As I was meditating on the unbounded love of 
 Christ to man, Satan's blasphemy broke in upon me, 
 « Christ's love was out of pride,' Here my passions grew 
 high. Thou devil incarnate, (said I,) thou hast lost thy 
 honour, and thou enviest that Christ hath retained his. 
 That was what cast thee out of heaven, because thou 
 wouldst not worship him; and now thou enviest his glory, 
 as thy proud rebellious spirit would not stoop to worship 
 him.— But we have reason to love him; we have reason to 
 adore him. See what he hath done for us. When thou 
 seekedstTour destruction, how did he leave the heavens 
 above, and come down in this lower world, to suffer a sor- 
 rowful life and a shameful death for our sakes I How did 
 he humble himself on the cross to make us happy, whtn 
 thou, by thy proud rebellious spirit, sought thy own mi- 
 sery and ours ! Thy pride is envy and malice ; but the 
 
,56 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 pride thou speakest of God and Christ is meekness and 
 humility; and it is the condescension of God to contain 
 his honour. When a man hath lost his honour, who will 
 trust him? Thou hast lost thy honour, and none but 
 fools will trust thee; but Christ contained his; and every 
 wise man will go to him, because he knoweth he will not 
 deceive him. It is the wisdom of God to contain his ho- 
 nour, that men may trust in him, and rely on him. It is 
 for our good he contains his glory; but thou hast lost thy 
 honour with thy shame. Christ is worthy to be loved, 
 worthy to be adored, worthy to be had in everlasting re- 
 membrance, and worthy to be honoured ; but thou hast 
 no honour belonging to thee.' Here Satan came in. with 
 dreadful blasphemy against God and Christ. This en- 
 raged my passions, as I could not bear to hear any thing 
 spoke against God or Christ. I cried out, « Thou Devil ! 
 wherefrom didst thou come? Canst thou dare thus to 
 trifle with God ? Hast thou not sunk thyself low enough 
 already ? Dost thou want to bring the wrath of God 
 more heavy upon thee than thou hast already > Dost 
 thou not know all power in heaven, earth, and hell, is 
 in his hand ? He filleth the heavens with his majesty, 
 and therefore we worship him. He fills earth with his 
 goodness ; and therefore we ought to honour and obey 
 him, love and worship him. He fills hell with his ter- 
 rors, and therefore thou oughtest to fear him/ 
 
 " In this manner," says Joanna, " I continued with 
 Satan for ten days. His answer and blasphemy was too 
 shocking to pen ; till I was worn out with rage and ma- 
 lice against him, I could not bear myself. When he 
 vvould come in upon me with £ blasphemies, my spirits rose 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 57 
 
 as one in a fever. My brother hath sometimes took me 
 by the hand, and pitied my weakness, as he thought I had 
 a fever; for I told it to no one, for fear they would blame 
 me. I went out of the house, sometimes in the garden; 
 out the garden was not large enough to contain me. So I 
 went out in the open fields; and went from field to field 
 to dispute with the Devil, till I had got rid of him, and 
 wearied myself out with passion. Then my spirit would 
 sink low, and think I had all Job's troubles, and my 
 friends like his; for I had no one to complain to. But I 
 said, • Why do I complain ? Who was grieved for the af- 
 flictions of Joseph ? Who was grieved for the afflictions 
 
 ofJobr 
 
 " Shall Simon bear the cross alone, 
 
 And other saints be free ? 
 Each saint of them have got their own, 
 
 And there is one for mc. 
 But now it is come unto my lot, 
 
 Let it not keep me from, — 
 Lord, never let me be forgot, 
 
 Till thou hast lov*d me home. 
 But coui<i I difr with those that die* 
 
 And piace me in their stead, 
 How would roy spirit learn to fly, 
 
 And converse with the dead!'* 
 
 " After I had thus sunk my spirits, a heavenly joy 
 would rise in my soul, with these words: 
 
 w Gird thy loins up, Christian Soldier ; 
 
 Tis thy Captain calls thee out: 
 Let the dangers make thee bolder, 
 
 War in darkness fear nor doubt. 
 Buckle on thy heav'i.ly armour, 
 
 Patch up no inglorious peace; 
 Let the dangers wax the warmer, 
 
 As thy fear sand foes increase. 
 
"58 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 Lo! when dangers closely threaten, 
 
 And thy soul draws near to death ; 
 When assaulted sore by Satan, 
 
 Thy object then's the shield of faith." 
 
 u After I had written the blasphemy of Satan, these 
 words came to me: ' As thy spirit was enraged and pro- 
 voked with the blasphemy of Satan, so is my spirit pro- 
 voked with the blasphemy of the nations. And as thy 
 brother tried to hold thy hand from going out of the 
 house,, and pitied thy weakness, so hath jot y Son tried to 
 withhold n»y li«md, and pitied the weakness of his people. 
 But, as thy spirit grew so high, that thou couldst not bear 
 it, but was forced to withdraw from him, so shall I.— - 
 And as the garden was not large enough to contain thee, 
 but thou wast forced to go out from field to field, so the 
 heavens are not large enough to contain me. I shall 
 come out of the heavens, and dispute with man, if their 
 sins and blasphemy do not cease. As thou heardest all 
 this, and kept silence, so have I. And as the fire kin- 
 dleth in thy breast, and thou speakest with thy tongue j so 
 will the fire kindle in my breast, and I shall speak. I 
 will not always keep silence; neither will I be always 
 chiding. I shall awake as one out of sleep, 
 
 And should my wrath for ever smoke, 
 Their souls must shrink beneath my yoke." 
 
 " I shall add a few more words spoken in answer to 
 man's blaming my following the commands of the Lord ; 
 as he judged it to be foolishness, and could not be the 
 Lord's direction. I seemed to be answered powerfully, 
 as if the Lord had spoke to me in love and anger that man 
 should not direct the hand of the Almighty. 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. .5!) 
 
 ' In thunder now the God the silence broke, 
 
 And from a cloud his lofty language spoke: 
 
 Who, and where, art thou, O fond presumptuous man, 
 
 That by thy own weak measures mine would span ? 
 
 Undaunted, as if an equal match for me, 
 
 Stand forth, and answer my demands of thee : 
 
 But first, let thy original be trac'd, 
 
 And tell me then what mighty thing thou wast. 
 
 When to the potent world my word gave birth, 
 
 And fix'd my centre on the floating earth, 
 
 Didst thou assist me with one single thought, 
 
 Or my ideas rectify in aught I* 
 
 Declare my loving kindness to the children of men; 
 and my faithfulness and loving kindness thou shalt not 
 keep back ; for my loving kindness I will never take from 
 thee; and it is impossible for man to do it. I am too 
 full of majesty for man to attempt it." 
 
 '* These extraordinary things have been now ex- 
 plained to me. 
 
 " As she so boldly for her Master stands, 
 
 Then now in thunder I will answer men :j 
 
 And first let thy original be trac'd, 
 
 And tell me now, what mighty thing thou wast, 
 
 When first, I took thee from thy native dust, 
 
 And in the garden thou alone was plac'd ? 
 
 Couldst thou bring forth the world as she hath done? 
 
 Or, like the woman, bear my only Son, 
 
 Without her aid, as she did without thine ? 
 
 I tell you, men, the rayst'ries are behind. 
 
 As from the woman you did all proceed, 
 
 Took from your side, man is pronounc'd the head ; 
 
 But you must,know, you are not the perfect man, 
 
 Until your bone is join'd to you again. 
 
 So both together must in judgment sit: 
 
 And tell me, men, if her disputes were right, 
 
I 
 60 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 To say my honour I had still maintain'd, 
 And plead with Satan, as she hath began : 
 Then both together you shall surely know, 
 I have gain'd my honour by his overthrow : 
 For if the woman stands so much my friend, 
 You all shall find, I'll stand her's in the end. 
 If from herself this love and courage came, 
 I tell you plain, she U the head of man. 
 tiut if from me the spirit first did fall, 
 I tell you plain, I am the head of all : 
 And, when her writings you've all went thro', 
 Much greater mysteries must come to your view. 
 So by the woman now I will surely stand, 
 As for my honour she did so long contend. 
 Ten days he held her with his blasphemy, 
 Ten days a hero she held out for me; 
 Then of these days I turn them now to years : 
 I'll prove her words, and man shall see it clear, 
 That ev'ry word was true what she had spoke: 
 I'll gain my honour, her words I'll never mock. 
 So if men mock them now, I'll tell them plain, 
 Til gain my honour, to destroy such men." 
 
 All this rhapsody is taken from that fine passage in 
 the latter end of the Book of Job, in which God con- 
 vinces him of his ignorance and imbecility, to which we 
 refer the reader, who will feel sufficient vexation to see 
 it so vulgarly managed. But to proceed : 
 
 « Now, I must be candid with my Readers, and tell you 
 plainly, I have not been one of them that build their faith 
 on a sandy foundation. I have been powerfully led by 
 a Spirit invisible for eight years past: and though I 
 strongly was influenced to write by it, as a Spirit invisi- 
 ble, and convinced in my own mind it was from God; 
 yet, knowing Satan might come as an angel of light 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. <H 
 
 made me earnest in prayer, that the Lord would be my 
 director, my guide, and my keeper; that I might not 
 be permitted say, f The Lord saith,' if he had not 
 spoken. In answer to my prayers, I had signs set be- 
 fore me of what was to happen, to assure me it was 
 of God ; that, was I to open them all, it would fill a 
 volume, and how true they all came." 
 
 We give her all the credit she deserves, when she 
 says, that her actions have not been guided by im- 
 posture ; but we will take her own excuse and as- 
 sertions respecting the several completions of her pro- 
 phecies : 
 
 " I have not imposed on the world with prophecies, 
 till I was clearly convinced they were of God, and not 
 from the Devil. The truths of the harvests I put in 
 the hands of ministers, for them to be judges, if it 
 came true. The war continued, as I was told it would, 
 in 1794, continue till we were in war with the Turks, 
 and then our arms would be victorious, as you will 
 see in what was answered me in prayer; that as a God, 
 the Lord would begin like man, and make the same 
 promise to me that Herod did to the Damsel.* My pe* 
 tition and request was, if I had found favour in the sight 
 
 * We extract this promise from St. Matthew, xiv. 6. 7. 8. 
 " But when Herod's birth-day was kept, the daughter (f He- 
 rodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. 
 
 " Whereupon he promised, with an oath, io give her zvhatece? 
 she would ask. 
 
 "And she being before instructed of her mother, said* 
 * Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.' " 
 
 N°,3. © 
 
6*2 HISTORY ©F RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 of the Lord, that he would defend us from the foreign 
 enemy, that the heathen nations might not say, ' Where 
 is now the God in whom they trusted? that Satan might 
 be cut off from the earth, as John the Baptist was. I shall 
 not mention all I asked in prayer; but you will see 
 the answer of the Spirit to it. ' But there are storms 
 arising; and those that clearly discern the days that are 
 come will shelter themselves against the storm, and 
 screen themselves when it comes ; but thousands will 
 perish through unbelief, and many will perish through 
 want of knowledge; but every wise man will be like 
 Solomon— search out the mystery, to judge for them- 
 selves ; but fools will judge of things they know nothing 
 about, and stop their ears, like the dead adder, that will 
 not listen to the voice of the charmer, charm he never 
 so wisely. By such I am sure to be cursed ; but this 
 it must be to fulfil the Revelation— The dragon was 
 wroth with the woman, and casts out floods against her; 
 and this he will do in the hearts of men : so I may 
 say, with David, ■ If Shimea curse, let him curse; for 
 the Lord hath bidden him ;'— and as our Saviour said 
 to Judas, ' What thou dost, do quickly.' As to my 
 friends, 1 love and esteem them; and my daily prayers 
 shall be for them. As to my enemies, I forgive and 
 pity, knowing this must be, to fulfil the Scripture : but 
 they cannot hurt me ; for I am dead to the world, and 
 the world to me. By my own master I must stand or 
 fall. Deep is the mystery of my writing eight years, 
 and keeping it sealed up, and putting it in print the 
 new century. This is a deep type to the land, that I 
 shall explain in my other writing'. Deep is the mys- 
 tery of the tree of knowledge being good and evil 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 63 
 
 _— / am Alpha and Omega, the beginning end the 
 
 m di n g the first shall be last, and the last shall 
 
 be first : so the knowledge of the evil fruit came the 
 first, the knowledge of the good fruit must come last. 
 
 « I shall add some that are mysterious at present ; but 
 to me is easily known ; and the reader will see it 
 clearly hereafter. Could you see all my writings through 
 in one volume, you would be truly convinced it was of 
 God; but that I cannot take out in a twelve month 
 how the Bible is explained, and what shall happen to 
 every nation upon earth. 
 
 " I shall now add the copy of a letter that I sent to a 
 minister in 1796, after he had disputed with me, that 
 'the marriage of the Lamb was to take place in hea- 
 ven.' I said, ' No ; the marriage of the Lamb meaneth 
 when he cometh to unite all nations, to be as one sheep 
 under one shepherd, and Christ to be the shepherd of 
 the whole. The Lamb's wife meant a woman, that all 
 these things should be revealed to; and readiness was 
 perfect obedience to all the commands of the Lord/ 
 He seemed at a loss to believe it. I was ordered to send 
 him the following letter: 
 
 f Now, this to him I bid thee write : 
 
 If thou art not the bride, 
 Tell him to bring one that is right, 
 
 My Gospel's so applied, 
 For to the fulness it cannot come, 
 
 Until the bnde be found : 
 Out of her closet she must go, 
 
 With jewels deck'd around* 
 For here's the ptarl oj great price. 
 
 And unto thee His given; 
 
04 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES* 
 
 And are these jewels of no use ; 
 
 Then she shall enter heaven, 
 In white appear before me there, 
 
 While you ia grief will mourn ; 
 And all shall know her words are true, 
 
 For vengeance fast shall come. 
 In heaven the wonder first was seen, 
 
 And you may wonder here. 
 The woman clothed with the sun 
 
 Shall make all nations fear; 
 Then let the stars begin to shine, 
 ' * And publish my decree. 
 If these refuse, I'll others choose, 
 
 Though fatal destiny 
 To those that disobey their call \ 
 
 Tis me she hath obey'd. 
 The woman stands condemn'd by all,— 
 
 Was man by her misled ? 
 Then now by her he must come back 
 
 That paradise wiil regain. 
 In her I'll break the serpent's neck, 
 
 And will set free her chain, 
 She poured the ointment on my head, 
 
 And a good work she wrought ; 
 And with her tears she wash'd my feet, 
 
 Let man deny her not; 
 For at the cross the woman stood, 
 
 The sword went thro' her soul, - 
 While my Disciples saw and fled, 
 
 And so they left me all. 
 No woman in the company, 
 
 When hands on me was laid ; 
 And Pilate's wife did pity me, 
 
 When Judas had betray'd. 
 When from the grave I did arise, 
 
 I ask, who there was first. 
 Then let the sons of men be wise, 
 
 If women love me best. 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT* 
 
 6* 
 
 Have I her life and senses spared, 
 
 For to assume the bride f 
 Then let the sons of men beware, 
 
 That she be Dot denied. 
 More fatal now than Adam's fall 
 
 Twill happen to the man. 
 For in the dark the light doth shine, 
 
 Your eyes are dazzled here ; 
 And will you shudder at the thought 
 
 To see the mystery clear ? 
 Or will you, like the Jews of old, 
 
 Keep seals upon the tomb ? 
 Or will you bribe the keepers here, 
 
 The truth may not be known? 
 Then soon to others I'll appear, 
 
 In the highway 111 go ; 
 And this command, without delay, 
 
 I bid thee hasty do.* 
 
 Here follows a collected mass of incoherent rhapsodies, 
 with which we will not presume to tire our readers. W« 
 cannot, however, resist adding for explanation of the 19th 
 chapter of the Revelations : 
 
 «« Now I shall begin with the 19th chapter of the Reve- 
 lations. After I had seen the truth of my writings com* 
 on, and my fairh began to grow strong, in January, 179*, 
 I was powerfully visited with these words : "I will say 
 to the south, Give up; and to the north, Keep not back. 
 I will call my sons from afar, and my daughters from the 
 ends of the earth." I was earnest in prayer to know the 
 meaning, and was answered, " Knowest thou not the 
 words of thy Saviour, The kingdom of heaven is like unto 
 a woman having a little leaven, which she hideth in three 
 measures of meal, until the whole be leavened* And now 
 I will open to thy view the Revelations; and when thou 
 « 2 
 
66 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMfOSTURES. 
 
 hast leavened it, thou shall leaven the whole lump ; for, 
 as I kept nothing from Abraham, so I keep nothing from 
 thee; for the Lamb is come, and the Bride hath made her- 
 self ready. By thy obedience thou hast done it ; and the 
 end of all things is at hand." These words threw me in a 
 flood of tears. I put down my pen and was silent. I 
 thought it too high for me, and would not write it ; but I 
 was answered, ' The marriage of the Lamb meaneth the 
 uniting of all nations together, to be as sheep under one 
 shepherd ; and Christ to be the shepherd of the whole. — 
 By the Lamb's wife was meant a woman, that all this 
 should be revealed to ; and she should be in perfect obe- 
 dience to all the commands of the Lord. Readiness is 
 obedience ; and for thee to conceal these things would be 
 as wrong as it would be in Mary to conceal the nativity 
 of Christ, for fear men should think it was pride and vain 
 glory in her. Fear not the judgments of Men. The 
 Lord is thy judge, and knows thy heart. To conceal the 
 secrets of a king is honourable; but toconceal the secrets 
 of the Lord is sinful ; for the Lord will never reveal to 
 man what he thinks proper to conceal to himself.* 
 These arguments made me pen them, unworthy as I am 
 to receive them. But, knowing it is not our merits, but 
 Christ's mercies, that we are what we are, I was answer- 
 ed, • None is before nor after another; none is greater 
 nor less than another ; but he that is greatest amongst 
 you let him be your minister ; he that is chiefest amongst 
 you shall be a servant to you all.' Deep and weighty 
 reasons were assigned to me, why I had gone through 
 •o strange and singular a life, as my readers will see here- 
 after. Then was explained to me the 7th chap. Matt, of 
 
JOANNA SOUTHGOTT. 67 
 
 our Saviour in the Mount. The winds blew, and the 
 storms descended, and it fell not, for it was founded on a 
 rock; but he that built on the sand, the storms came, and 
 the wind blew, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof. 
 The meaning of these words is, ' The powers of darkness 
 that hath strongly assaulted thee, and all the powerful 
 persuasion of thy friends that hath tried to prevent thee; 
 but thy faith fell not, for it was founded on the rock of 
 ages; and the words of thy Saviour shall be made mani- 
 fest in thee, and by thee : but those that build on the 
 sand are these that build on their own wisdom; and when 
 the winds blew, and the storms descend, (that is, when 
 the truth of all come upon them,) their wisdom will fall, 
 and great will be the fall thereof, for man's wisdom will 
 all fall together.' " 
 
 Being convinced of the state of mind under which this 
 disordered devotee to superstition at this time laboured, 
 we should be induced to leave her here to pity and obli- 
 vion, did not our task impose upon us the promise we have 
 made, and urge a hope that, in the completion of that pro- 
 mise, we shall benefit mankind; we, therefore, shall in- 
 sert a few more of the licentious effluxions of her confused 
 imagination ; and then conclude with such appropriate 
 remarks as befit so singular, and, as circumstances have 
 made it, so interesting a subject. 
 
 " When I had written these things," Joanna proceeds, 
 " I was reading, one Sunday, in the Bible, 21st chapter 
 of Revelation, Come hither, and I will shew thee the 
 Bride, the Lamb's Wife. And he carried me away in the 
 spirit unto a great high mountain, where I saw the New 
 Jerusalem descending out of heaven* Hearing these words, 
 
0$ HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES* 
 
 I blushed, though alone by myself, and began to doubt 
 by what Spirit I had written, or what I had believed. 
 I went up and was earnest in prayer, and was answered, 
 " Thou wast in the spirit, when thou sawest the new 
 Jerusalem descending, with all the host of heaven; and 
 thou wast on a high mountain, where John saw the 
 Spirit. The Spirit is the Spirit of God, that hath visit- 
 ed thee. What do they make of the Spirit and the 
 Bride ? What do they make of their Bibles ?" 
 
 Having, we trust, given ample, sufficient, and satis- 
 factory testimonies of Joanna's principles of prophecy, 
 and her manner of disseminating them, we will not 
 detain the reader's attention any longer on such, in 
 themselves, trifles ; but state to our fellow creatures 
 the extravagant notions this poor distracted being 
 has formed to herself in the following anecdotes of her 
 life, to the present period, by way of convincing all 
 who are not desirous of being wilfully hood-winked by 
 subtilty. 
 
 From the year 1793 to 1801, Joanna endeavoured to 
 get herself noticed by some of the dignitaries of the 
 established church, but in every effort she failed. In 
 the year 1799 she addressed a leUsr to Dr. Buller, then 
 Bishop of Exeter, in which are the following curious 
 expressions: — 
 
 " Here your Lordship may be lost in wonder, how 
 Satan shall 'all by a woman's hand- Mysterious as it 
 may appear, yet very clear it is explained to me, by 
 my perfect obedience to the commands of the Lord, 
 who made the same promise to me, as Herod did to the 
 damsel ; and I was ordered to ask in writing — and my 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 petition and reqnest was, If I had found favour in 
 the sight of the Lord, that Satan might be cut off 
 from the face of the earth, as John the Baptist was. I 
 was answered, the Lord would grant my petition, and 
 give me my request ; and I should seal it up with three 
 seals, and carry it with me to the altar, when I received 
 the sacrament. — I did; and was then answered, 
 ' what I have spoken by my Spirit, sealed with my 
 aeal, I will now seal with my blood/ — But it is said 
 to me, ./""T^ 
 
 ' It is a man must raise thy hand-O* ^' \ . - 
 
 And tell thee to grow wise, [Wj/c^Jt A* 
 Like Herod's damsel to go on, \ f «Jv* / Jpl 
 
 Then all shall gain the prize. \ IV s^dpj 
 When meu begin as she did then v ~""^\ t'y 
 
 And like Herodias burn, 
 To wound the foe, as she did so, 
 
 I will like Herod come/ 
 
 *• The man strengthened the woman's hand by tha 
 fall, and he must strengthen her hand to bring it back. 
 What God designed at first, he will accomplish at last. 
 It is not all the power of hell can prostrate the designs 
 or purposes of the Most High. The Lord made the 
 woman to complete the happiness of man, and by her it 
 must be done." 
 
 What she wished to impress upon the bishop and the 
 other church dignitaries was, the great end of her suc- 
 cessive prophecies which she declared to be " to warn 
 the whole world at large, that the second coming of 
 Christ is nigh at hand ; and to shew, from the Fall, that 
 the promise that was made to the woman at first must 
 be accomplished at last," and in her sex too, " before 
 
70 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 Man's complete " Redemption can take place." Christ 
 is himself brought to declare all this, by the Spirit who 
 communicates with Joanna; as, for instance, where it 
 is thus said — 
 
 ' For marts transgressions J did die, 
 And for them did atone j 
 But still the Woman's guilt doth lie, 
 Till Satan feels his doom ! 
 
 Then, can you not the mystery see ? 
 The Woman's Promise it must come, 
 Who cast her guilt alone tm he. 
 When I did make the Woman first, 
 I said from her the good shall burst: 
 For man could not be good alose, 
 The woman must his helpmate come. 
 And now his helpmate doth appear 
 With prophecies no man can clear* 
 
 • Word to the Wise.' 
 
 The incessant impulsions of her wandering spirit, at 
 last induced the ministers and the friends who wished 
 her well, to conclude that she was really bereft of her 
 proper understanding. 
 
 But no advice, no restraint, could impede her vanity. 
 Determined to increase her proselytes, she, in 1801 
 printed the five first parts of what she very properly 
 denominated « Strange Effects of Faith. " 
 
 This induced seven gentlemen to pay her a visit at 
 Exeter, in order, as it has been said, to ascertain the 
 nature of her mission. " Now I shall inform my readers," 
 says Joanna, in her continuation of the prophecies, 18L3, 
 p. 54, '* why the Lord permitted seven men to come 
 down, and no more, to fulfil the law. By the seven 
 stars are meant the seven spirits of God ; for the spirits 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 7l 
 
 ■ H I , I ' * 
 
 of the Lord are but one spirit. The five wise virgins in 
 the New Testament, (which alludes to the Jive Evange- 
 lists) being joined to the aforesaid seven men, make the 
 twelve spoken of in the Revelation* to bring in the 
 twelve tribes of Israel. 
 
 " Some men have written to me, that they are called 
 of God to be chosen with me j I think proper to tell them 
 here, that I know them not. None are chosen with me 
 but suck as are revealed to me." 
 
 We heartily join with Joanna in what follows, and 
 we express as much sorrow, though in a very different 
 mind, as she can possibly do. " And I am sorry to say 
 many false prophets and false Christs are risen up in 
 the world;" we go no further; but suffer Joanna to 
 proceed in her own way : " for," continues she, '*. I 
 have heard them, and have their letters to testify against 
 them, wherein they assert that they are the saviours of 
 the world ; so that the Gospel of Christ is fulfilling every 
 way, and the end is at hand. But let no man judge 
 himself the saviour of the world. The plan of salva- 
 tion was laid at the creation ; and" — mind her own 
 words — " no prophet can arise but what is spoken of in 
 holy writ." Attend to what follows. " A prophet like 
 Jonah was to appear ; and he has appeared in Mr. Bro- 
 thers; and therefore our Saviour said, " I was sick and 
 in prison, and ye visited me not." 
 
 " And Joel's words must first come true, 
 Before I make an end ; 
 
 The Revelations to your view 
 Must make the learned bend. 
 
 The woman clothed with the sun 
 You'll find must first appear; 
 
 The marriage of the lamb must come; 
 
 ^.Tt» can I ifr mncf r\Y\r\£*r%w 
 
72 HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 All this is done by my command, 
 
 Then judge your summer nigh; 
 Tor my elect snail ever stand, 
 
 And Abba, Father, cry. 
 Tis spoke of thee, let all men see, 
 
 That such one must arise; 
 So if your Bibles plain you see, 
 
 There's none can blind your eyes : 
 For what impostor can take place, 
 
 If wisely you discern ? 
 ♦Tis but a dark benighted race, 
 
 That fools can ever harm." 
 
 Such a specimen of disarranged intellect as is above 
 exhibited, happily for mankind, rarely occurs. Let 
 our readers only glance at the coincidence attempted 
 here, and the most fastidious must be soon convinced. 
 The Virgin Mary and Joanna Southcott !— the prophet 
 Jonah and Richard Brothers ! — Surely, surely these 
 are sufficient evidences of a « mind diseased." 
 
 However, Joanna, having, as she imagined, enlisted 
 dupes sufficient in Devonshire, bent her steps towards 
 the metropolis in 1803. Here she issued her proclama- 
 tions in the public newspapers, summoning all to attend 
 what she called her second trial at High House, Pad- 
 dington, against the 23d of January. 
 
 On the day appointed, those who had attended her 
 at Exeter, with many more, met to take the verity of 
 Joanna's mission a second time into consideration.— 
 None, however, attended but Joanna's proselytes, and 
 their determination was the same as at Exeter, no op- 
 poser making his appearance. We will insert one of 
 the " Thoughts" of these seven wise men on so im- 
 portant a subject : — 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 " Third Thought, 
 
 " Honour, glory, and blessing, be unto our God and 
 our dear Redeemer, Jesus Christ. How shall we praise 
 the Lord for his goodness to the children of men, for his' 
 having revealed such knowledge to babes and sucklings, 
 when to the wise and learned of this world he has de- 
 nied it! How wonderful has this Sixth Book laid open 
 the mysteries of the Bible, and has furnished the servants 
 of the Most High God with such weapons, as neither the 
 powers of darkness, nor all the wickednesses of men, 
 will be able to stand a moment before them! May we 
 put on the whole armour of God ! may we be strong, 
 firm, faithful, and obedient to our blessed Saviour, 
 Jesus Christ! then will he send us strength, wisdom, 
 faith, and courage, from his holy sanctuary; that we 
 may be enabled to withstand all the wiles and fiery darts 
 of Satan ; that we may be enabled to overcome all the 
 enemies and foes of the Captain of our Salvation, and, 
 through his blessing, be the tiappy instruments of esta- 
 blishing his blessed Kingdom upon earth ; then may we 
 rejoice with the oil of gladness ; because the bride hath 
 made herself ready, and by her perfect obedience, our 
 deadly foe, Satan, together with his host, will be cast 
 from the earth ; and that promise will be soon fulfilled, 
 4 Of the seed of the woman bruising the Serpent's head.' 3> 
 
 Would any imagine that seven men, three of them 
 pretended ministers of the Gospel, and many others 
 assisting, could hare been found in such a nation as 
 Britain, where knowledge is not restrained, and the 
 liberal sciences flourish, to sanction such extaciei ©f 
 superstition,— we had almost said Atheism! 
 
 W\ 3. H 
 
74 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 But it seems that Joanna has since discovered that her 
 second mission was designed to shadow forth to her, 
 even eleven years since, the forthcoming of the King of 
 the Jews, though, by the bye, she failed to compre- 
 hend the meaning of the spirit. " When I ordered thee 
 to call together thy judges;' observes the Spirit to her 
 in her Third Book of Wonders, " to prove thy writings, 
 and make them public to the world, and when the peo- 
 ple were assembled together, I ordered The Box, 
 where the Writings were placed, to be put upon a 
 table, but not lo be opened, nor the cord broken, till 
 thou (Joanna) hadst brought in a little Child in thy 
 arms, which was Foley's son. And I ordered thee to 
 place Him on the box, to stand in the midst of the con- 
 gregaiion with a bridecake in his hand; and then I or- 
 dered that ail the congregation should kiss the child. 
 Ihcn knoiv with ichat eagerness they all took the child 
 from one to the other, and kissed him: and thovgh the 
 company icas large, know the child smiled vpon all, 
 which icas remarked by them. Know, I placed him as 
 one of the judges; but no one knew for what ends f 
 cindered this to be done, as the type and shadow were 
 hidden from all ! Then I ordered the cord to be cut, 
 and to be cut to pieces!, then, know my answer.— As 
 they cut the cord, so would the nations be cut, before 
 that child was old enough to know good from evil ; but 
 the depth of knowing good from evil cannot be known 
 by the child yet; but mark what hath happened upon 
 the nations abroad, since January, 1803, that this was 
 done. Here is ihojfaf type of the Child standing 
 •alone, to make up the twelve. Now come to the second, 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 when I ordered them to call all the witnesses together, to 
 have the truth proved, of what they knew concerning 
 my visitation to thee from the beginning ; and then I or- 
 dered that strangers and unbelievers should be invited the 
 second time to come forward, and if they proved the visi- 
 tation not from the Lord, then to their judgment I said 
 thou shouldst give up ; but know, they refused to come 
 forward, and pass their judgment. Then I ordered the 
 writings to be proved by the witnesses, and their farther 
 judgment was given from the truth they heard from the 
 witnesses ; then J placed the child the second time to stand 
 as a judge with man ; and withmen he held up his hands, 
 in the petition to have the power of evil destroyed, that my 
 kingdom might be established in righteousness and peace. 
 Here is the second type of the child,, hidden from all, 
 why I ordered this to be done. But now come to the third, 
 which I have compared to thy awful trial ; which, as I 
 have told thee, a trial may be awful and serious, though 
 the end may be glorious to them that believe, but awful 
 and fatal to them that now mock." 
 
 At this meeting, such a decision having passed in Jo- 
 anna's favour, the metropolis soon teemed with various 
 bulletins of her wonderful pretensions. But all did not 
 seem to consummate her wishes, till a third meeting or 
 trial should take place. Her wishes were complied with ; 
 and the meeting was held during the month of Decem- 
 ber, 1801, at the Neckinger House, near Bermondsey; 
 which lasted for seven days, but none except her devo- 
 tees attended. At this trial Joanna's feelings are best de- 
 scribed by herself: 
 
 " When the gentlemen," says she, " entered the room; 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURE*. 
 
 the clergy entering first, she felt her tongue tied, and 
 was not able to speak : and, as her friends came in, her 
 confusion increased, and, in her own mind, she thought 
 she should have fainted away ; but, to her great astonish- 
 ment, when all had entered, though she felt, as it were, 
 dying before, she was as a giant refreshed with new wine, 
 without pain, sickness, or weakness: she stood up, and 
 felt the Spirit of the Lord enter within her ; to call them 
 all to the remembrance of the fall: and, when she told 
 them of the promise made to the woman, to bruise the 
 serpent's head, every man in the room held up his hand, 
 to join with her in claiming the promise !* 
 
 It was natural to suppose, that those who had exhibited 
 such convictions in Joanna's favour at Exeter would not 
 recede from a similar approbation in London, where the 
 corps was strengthened by the junction pf Mr. Carpenter, 
 at that time an agent in conducting the paper manufac- 
 tory under the firm of Koops and Co. This assembly was 
 numerous, as appears by the signatures, among which are 
 those of some clergymen. These men took upon them, 
 after the whole of what is called " The Trial" was gone 
 through, to publish the following:—- 
 
 " Neckinger House, Bermondsey, near London, 
 December 11, 1804. 
 
 '* We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, being 
 invited, by divine command, for seven days, to the exa- 
 mination of Joanna Southcott's prophecies, do individu* 
 ally and voluutarily avow, by our separate signatures, 
 our firm belief, that her prophecies and other spiritual 
 communications emanate wholly and entirely from the 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 77 
 
 spirit of the living Lord." — Book of the Trial, p. 133. — 
 This is confirmed by the fifth resolution, page 79, thus— 
 ** From the examinations of Joanna's writings it doth ap- 
 pear to us that she is visited by the Spirit of the living* 
 God." 
 
 We ought surely to consider this as a leading imposture,, 
 fraught with profanation against the Deity, and to serve 
 different ends and purposes against mankind ; and to pass 
 every morbid heat of passi m and blind zeal as a sacred 
 fireman holy impression, an influenceof the Holy Ghost, 
 when no other operation existed but crazy fancy, is surely 
 an extraordinary illapse of blasphemy, an ignis fatuus o£ 
 religious sedition, promulgated by these enthusiasts. 
 
 But let us hear what some of these illuminati have to 
 assert in their vindication. Mr, William Sharp, one of 
 the principal, thus addresses himself to his readers in a 
 pamphlet, entitled, Aui Answer to the World, Speaking 
 of Joanna, he says, 
 
 " From the year 17'92-to the end of the year 17 94, her 
 Writings were sealed up;, and, after being witnessed, 
 weve put out of her possession, and the same caution was 
 observed at the end of each succeeding year. Every, 
 time they were placed in the hands of persons of credit, 
 until the arrival of myself and friends at Exeter, when, 
 at ojr departure, which was at the beginning of January, 
 1802, the whole of her sealed writings were put in our 
 possession, properly sealed and witnessed. The box, 
 containing the greater part, was given to my care ; and 
 I think it necessary to add,, that whilst 1 was at Bath, 
 on my return from Exeter to London, I had a large case 
 made, which, enclosed the whole box j for the cord*. 
 
 h 2 
 
7S HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 round the box were sealed with seven seals, and I had a 
 quantity of tow also put between the box and the rope. — 
 Neither was it possible for us to be deceived respecting 
 the identity of the writings, which remained secured with 
 us until they were conveyed by me to High-House, Pad- 
 dington, where the box and parcels were first opened, 
 and the seals broken, in the presence of above forty per- 
 sons, assembled together by public notice, in the begin- 
 ning of January, 1803. And after the writings were 
 thus taken out, each paper was signed by three persons 
 before they were delivered to Joanna, for them afterwards 
 to be copied off. 
 
 " After my belief was fixed that her visitation was 
 from the God of Heaven and Earth, it was my duty to be- 
 lieve that she would be faithful to his word and his pro- 
 mises. The wisdom of the Most High had provided a re- 
 medy that his image might not be lost in man, by the 
 promise first made after his creation, to make him an help- 
 mate in the woman ; and it was to her, and not to the 
 man, that the promise was made, after the fall, that her 
 seed should bruise the serpent's head.* Woman is to be 
 prepared, as the bride is adorned for her husband ; there- 
 fore, whatever woman is to receive Christ in the spirit, 
 must be prepared in such manner that her desires must 
 be to him, and to him alone ! I am convinced that 
 ■Joanna has, in various ways, been in preparation from a< 
 
 * " God kid his plan in the creation," says Joanna, " to 
 make room for man's redemption by the woman, whom he 
 created for man's good ; and this by casting her blame on So* 
 fans head, which every soul will find in the end." 
 
JOANNA SOUTIICOTT. 79 
 
 Spirit invisible, before the year 17.92* when the Spirit 
 of Prophecy, was first given to her.. Had she not been 
 thus gradually prepared before that period, the sudden- 
 ness of the extraordinary, visitatiou would have been too. 
 powerful for nature to bear; neither could she have had 
 that confidence in the truth of the Spirit, if she had not be* 
 fore had proofs respecting, herself and in her own life, in- 
 many instances. 
 
 "She wrote," continues Mr. Sharp, " of what would 
 happen/' (concerning the years from 1792 to 1805 inclu- 
 sively,) "and which has since come to pass." 
 
 We feel ourselves here at a loss to express in what 
 temper we should receive the above testimony, but we 
 do not find it difficult, from sacred writ, to form a judg- 
 ment of its compaction. That judgment is unanswerable^ 
 and as such we insert it :. 
 
 u - Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and he that, 
 formed thee from the wemb, lam the Lord that maketh 
 all things ; that str.etcheth forth the heavens alone - r that: 
 spreadeth abroad the earth by myself j that frustrateth 
 the tokens of the liars, and maketh Diviners mad ; that. 
 turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge 
 -foolish " — Isaiah xiiv. 24,. 25. 
 
 " Son of man,, prophecy against the prophets of Israel 
 that prophecy, and say then unto them that prophecy 
 ©ut of their own hearts, ' Hear ye the word of the Lord - 9 *~ 
 
 '* Thus saith the Lord God, ' Woe unto the foolish pro- 
 phets that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing t* 
 
 " (X Israel,, thy prophets are like the foxes in the de- 
 serts. 
 
 * Ye have not gone up with the gaps, neither made up 
 
SO HfSTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in 
 the day of the Lord. 
 
 "And they have seen vanity and lying divination, 
 saying, ' The Lord saith/ and the Lord hath not sent 
 them ; and they have made others to hope that they 
 "Would confirm the word. 
 
 (i Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spo- 
 ken a lying divination, whereas ye say, 'The Lord saith. 
 it -j* albeit I have not spoken ? 
 
 " Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, « Because ye 
 have spoken vanity and seen lies, therefore behold I am, 
 against you,' r-aith the Lord God. 
 
 " And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see 
 •vanity and that divine lies : they s-hall not be in the as- 
 sembly of my people, neither shall they be written in 
 the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter 
 into the land of Israel j and ye shall know that 1 am the 
 Lord God. 
 
 " Because, even because they have seduced my people, 
 saying, Peace, and there was no peace; and one buirt 
 up a wall, and, lo ! others described it with untempered 
 mortar. 
 
 " 'Say unto them which daub it with untempered 
 mortar, that it shall fall : there shall be an overflowing 
 shower; and ye, Oh, great hailstones, shall fall; and'a 
 stormy wind shall rend it." Ezekiel, xiii. 2, 3, 4, 5, &c. 
 
 It was after the delivery of her papers to Mr. Sharp, 
 that Joanna was ordered to come to London, and sl>e 
 was informed by some spirit or other, " that she should 
 not return from the metropolis till her writings hail 
 been proved,'' 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 81 
 
 In London she found a competitor in the ominous 
 faculty of Joseph Prescott, a youth about eighteen 
 years of age, who had also been end?ed with the gift 
 of beholding extraordinary proJigies, even since the 
 year 1793 ; but his innate faculties had not been re- 
 vealed to her; and she says, that "hitherto he had 
 been quite unknown to her, and she to him ;'* conse- 
 quently must have been carrying on his phantasma un- 
 der a different firm. However, after her writings had 
 been proved, she fell in with this lad on the 23th of Fe- 
 bruary, 1803, at which time Mr. Carpenter, thinking it 
 might turn out a good speculation, engaged our pro* 
 phetess to join in the concern, and on the 4th of March, 
 Joanna began her explanations of young Joseph's panto* 
 mimic appearances. Mr. Carpenter profited by the 
 trade it brought in, he contrived a chapel out of the 
 profits, which he catted, most impiously under such cir* 
 cumstances, " The House of God !" and plaistered the 
 walls of the Chapel with Joseph's revelations, explained 
 by Joanna, which are still exposed to the contempt of 
 rational men, and the pity of the charitable,,, 
 
 A busy medler has taken upon him to. assert, that all 
 these visions were originally drawings ta-keu in a French 
 ship. We do not say that this is true cr false • how- 
 ever, as Joseph is still living, and in a different line of 
 life from that kind of deception, it rests with him; and 
 we hope that he is inclined to be very communica- 
 tive, and to say how fa* he was instructed to dream ? and 
 howfartlie iif.al truth justified him. in his inventions upon 
 Mr.. Carpenter's walls? 4 
 
 We know not whether we ought to apologize to. oue 
 
82 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMP0STURE3. 
 
 female readers, particularly for what follows ; but re* 
 lying on their indulgence, considering what we have 
 to wade through, we will proceed without farther apo- 
 logy :— 
 
 About the end of July, 180^, Satan took alarm at 
 Joanna's Sealing of the People, who desired to destroy 
 him, and the Lord gave him liberty to contend with 
 her; but he was not allowed to appear to her visibly. 
 "If," says she, " I stood out with strong faith in Christ, 
 and did not suffer him to speak without any answer, I 
 was assured I should overcome the DevH at last, as he 
 did the woman at first.- So I ran the hazard of my life, 
 to contend with the powers of darkness; but the Lord 
 protected me, according to his promise, and gave me aa 
 answer to Satan's words." Satan, however, had threat- 
 ened to tear her to pieces, unless she consented to de- 
 stroy her Seals, and suppress her witnesses. « Thoa 
 infamous b***h !* said Satan, enraged at the opposition 
 he met with, 'thou hast been flattering God, that he 
 may stand thy friend I Such low cunning art, I despise! 
 Thou wheening wretch ! stop thy d*mn'd eternal 
 tongue! God had done something, to choose a b***h of 
 a woman, that will down argue the Devil, and scarce 
 give him room to speak V Satan was, at length, fairly 
 tired out, and, perceiving that his assauks were quite 
 unavailing, he left the prophetess to claim' the victory. 
 She has risen far above his reach, proving, as she some- 
 where tells us, that— '« if the woman is not ashamed of 
 herself, the Devil cannot shame her."* 
 
 * It is remarkable, (says Mr. Lane) that Joanna dreams 
 so much about the Devil, whom she once saw like a pig, m\h 
 
JOANNA SOUTIICOTT, $? 
 
 It is Sealing which, occasioned such alarm in Satan's 
 breast, and which constitutes, according to Joanna, the 
 ushering in of the Millenium, by sealing the faithful 
 for the enjoyment of it, to ihe number of one hundred 
 and forty-four thousand. Haifa sheet of paper is pro- 
 vided, on which are written the following words:— 
 * The Sealed of the Lord — the Elect and Piecious — Man's 
 Redemption — To inherit the Tree of Life— To be made Heirs 
 of God, and Joint-Heirs ivith Jesus Cnrist — Joanna South- 
 cottj The writing (within a mystical circle, about six 
 inches diameter) is in a good plain hand ; to which 
 is added her own signature, a wretched scrawl. The 
 seals, with red wax, are outside, and, in general, 
 poorly impressed on the wax. Whenever a person is to 
 be sealed, he writes his name, on a list provided for that 
 purpose : this is called signing for Satan's destruction* as 
 he thereby signifies his wish, that Satan may soon be 
 destroyed; that is, banished from the earth. When 
 the list is signed, the person in office seals up the letter, 
 writes the person's name on it that it is for, with the 
 words, " Not to be broken open," and then delivers it 
 into his hands; and the person is sealed.* 
 
 his mouth tied. Another time she skinned his face with her 
 nails after a fierce battle. She afterwards thought that 
 she had bitten off his fingers, when his blood tasted sweet; 
 and, finally, she dreamt that she had positively dispatched 
 him! 
 
 * The impression is performed with the seal that Joanna found 
 in sweeping her house, and which she threw by into the till 
 
% 
 
 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 The prophetess's power now became apparently su- 
 preme, and at its height; for, would it be believed, that, 
 n the nineteenth century, there were persons so super- 
 stitious, when in the last gasp of their mortal frames, as 
 to crave that one of Joanna*s seals might be placed in 
 
 of her box; but the Spirit one day ordered her to look for it, 
 when she found the letters J. C. were engraven on it, with 
 Two Stars"; the initial J. being by the spirit to her interpreted 
 to stand both for Jesus and Joanna, and that of C. for Christ. 
 The stars were hereafter to signify those of morning and 
 evening; Jesus being the Morning Star and Joanna the 
 Evening Star! ! 
 
 "Annexed to her Sealing, (says Mr. Lane,) is this hierogly- 
 phic (J. C.) the two initials upon which, says an anonymous 
 contemporary writer, I can only understand to mean infernal 
 commission, believing that Joanna acts under the immediate 
 direction of Satan!'' 
 
 But the prophetess still defends the validity of the Seals, 
 as the impartial reader will perceive by the ensuing extract 
 from her Word to the Wise. u And now you see,*' declares 
 the Spirit to Joanna, "Men have begun to write their 
 Names — for the desire of my kingdom; as I said it was 
 hastening on. And now they are fulfilling my words-; and 
 they shall be welcomed in with the Bridegroom— when I come 
 to bring on the midnight hour for man — then they shall be 
 known to me from their names, who wish for my kingdom ; 
 so all is shewn in the visions as I told thee." — Again, " Ii is 
 not thy prophecies," continues the Spirit, speaking to Joanna, 
 " that complete their happiness, but the sealing of their names, 
 that they have signed for Satan'' s destruction, and their desire 
 for my kingdom, that must complete their happiness in the 
 end. So man is an helpmate with thee, and thou with man ; 
 for this shall complete the happiness for man. And it is 
 for the sake of these, that elect me for their chosen priest and 
 king, that Satan's reign shall be shortened. So these are the 
 cleet, for whose sake he shall be cast down." 
 
JOANNA 3OUTHC0TT. 35 
 
 their coffins, that their souls might be more quickly- 
 wafted to the realms of immortality ! — It is to be hoped, 
 that Joanna's advocates will not insist, that such circum- 
 stances did not happen within the last four years ! — 
 
 We now adventure upon a part of our subject, which 
 renders it highly necessary that we should make use of 
 all our circumspection. Our publisher has been served 
 with the Copy of a Writ in the Ccurt of Common Pleas, 
 at the suit of Jane Townley, for (as the Writ declares) 
 9 * with force and arms the close of the'said Jane, (our 
 publisher and one John Doe,) broke, and other wrongs 
 did, to the great damage of the said Jane," &c. We do 
 not plead guilty to this accusation ; for the name of Jane 
 Townley has not, as yef, been mentioned by us, in the 
 whole load of recrement through which we have been 
 compelled hitherto to wade; and we shall take as much 
 care as possibly we can, consistently with good manners 
 and with truth, to avoid mentioning names, except as mere 
 extracts from Joanna's own publications, as they seve- 
 ral ly occur. 
 
 And having hitherto shunned any personality, except 
 mentioned by Joanna herself, we cannot form any con 
 ceptionon what grounds this action in the Court of Com- 
 mon Pleas has commenced. The only thought which 
 has intruded itself on the subject is, that Joanna, finding 
 that the Prince Regent, the Nobility, the most and right 
 reverend the B»sbops, &c. &c. &c. having refused 
 any participation in her vile blasphemies, she may 
 have been, in the visions of the night, ordered, by soma 
 mischievous spirit or other, to bring the acti'» ■> against 
 the publisher, that her mission may be argued in a 
 
 IS . 3. i 
 
86 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 court of law ; and as a matter, hitherto unworthy of faith, 
 to be proclaimed to mankind, and her mission establish- 
 ed or refuted by the verdict of twelve other men, than/ 
 those to which she has hitherto been accustomed to 
 state her claims. Should the sentence of that court 
 declare that we have really done any injury to Joanna 
 Southcott, to any Jane Townley, or to any other Town- 
 ley with whom she may be in intimacy, we trust that 
 we shall never be ashamed to own that we have been 
 in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that 
 we are wiser to-day than we were yesterday. Yet ex- 
 cept a court of justice — the Court of Common Pleas, for 
 instance — should so far make an abscission of its known 
 dignity, as not to condemn, in its utter abhorrence, what 
 is aimed at the pockets, the minds, and even the future 
 welfare of his Majesty's liege subjects, we shall still 
 wade on, for a short time longer— not too long, for the 
 sake of our readers, — in completing our strictures on one 
 of the most base and unprincipled impostures, that has 
 ever disgraced the annals of Great Britain, and teeming 
 with all the wicked allusions that diabolicism could fa- 
 bricate to render trifling and ridiculous the doctrines 
 of our divine Redeemer, and to furnish Atheism with 
 grounds for doubting the very existence of the Christian 
 religion! — Should the nature of the subject, therefore, 
 cause the name of Townley to be introduced, accident- 
 ally, by way of extract from Joanna's, or any other 
 publication relating to her, let it be generally under- 
 stood that we despise personalities ; but feel ourselves 
 compel!^ to analyze and condemn what we consider 
 snore terrible than a lie. Possessing such sentiments, 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 87 
 
 and under such circumstances, we proceed fearlessly, 
 because not doubting of the consequences. 
 
 The conflicts of Joanna have been described as terri- 
 ble, attacked, as she says she has been, by the powers 
 of darkness, and their prince; but Joanna has also oc- 
 casionally been favoured with celestial visitants; though, 
 like all 'angel-visits/ such scenes are comparatively but 
 'few, and far between.' When she has conflicted with 
 Satan for seven days, an hour's consolation in the presence 
 of her Saviour has amply compensated her. " Sunday, June 
 24, 180V Miss Townley says, in her published Letter, 
 that, after "admiring the beauty of the wisdom of the 
 Lord/' concerning " the wondrous manner he was work- 
 ing," and declaring *« she would not go one step from his 
 directions for the whole world," that, now, " rivers of 
 joy ran through her mind," that " she felt her heart too 
 full to keep silence, got out of bed, walked up and down 
 the room as quick as possible, and said she felt herself 
 so full she should burst if Mrs. T. did not put down 
 the communication she was copying." June the 25th, 
 the same year, "a little after ten o'clock at night, Joanna 
 was ordered to take up her bed and walk !" Getting 
 out of bed, she at first walked hastily up and down the 
 room, till, at last, the Spirit of the Lord entered into 
 her with power. And, ' as Satan had walked up and 
 down the earth hitherto/ she said, * the Lord would 
 walk up and down the earth now •/ but should lie appear 
 in his own person, should he appear in his own power, 
 should he appear in his own majesty, they would trem- 
 ble to stand before him. Therefore ' He was come, in 
 the Spirit, in the Woman, to declare, his Father's will 
 
&8 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 unto MenV and they (Townley and Underwood) were 
 the two Witnesses. " I," adds Miss T. " laid upon the 
 bed, perfectly quiet and composed, listening to all she 
 said; and Underwood stood at the foot of the bed, look- 
 ing at her and listening with the same attention, but 
 neither of us felt any fear. Joanna saith < she felt nothing 
 but joy and power/" 
 
 In addition to this, Joanna declares, that " All of a 
 sudden, the Spirit entered me with such power and fury, 
 that my senses seemed lost ; I felt as though I had power 
 to shake the house down, and yet I felt as though I 
 could walk in air, but did not remember any words 1 
 said." Townley add.i, " that the room shook vio- 
 lently." 
 
 How far religious sentiments were at one time service*, 
 able to Joanna, by counteracting an earthly flame, we 
 will not take upon us to discuss, as it is now immaterial 
 to l-arn : it is, however, matter of regret, considering 
 the turn of her character, that her love, instead of being 
 subdued by religion, should have become mingled with 
 ber operative sensations of faith. '* The profaneness of 
 gallantry," observes Gilbert Stuart, in his View of the 
 Progress of Society in Europe, " disturbed and deform- 
 ed the meditations of the most pious. Religion was em- 
 ployed to give a poignancy to the disorders of prostitu- 
 tion and lust;" and " the devotee was to look up to the 
 Virgin with the eyes of a lover, and to contemplate the 
 beauties of her person and the graces of her carriage." 
 But this profaneness of gallantry, though practised in 
 the times of popery, is happily in. practicable to man- 
 kind under the reformed faith, nor can it be indulged 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 80 
 
 by the weaker sex except their other faculties are 
 disordered.- 
 
 But there is reason to fear that the delirium of sensuality 
 is- sometimes found combined with the frenzy of fanati- 
 cism, and that carnality may be gratified under the 
 imagination of spirituality. Who can peruse the follow- 
 ing vision, for example, related by Miss Towoley in the 
 pamphlet entitled " Letters and Communications of Jo- 
 anna Southcott," and not be offended and staggered at 
 the disclosure of such scenes?— Monday evening, July 
 the 2d, 1804, it seems that Joanna tried to compose 
 herself, after a hard contest with the Devil, when 
 " at last, she fell asleep ; and whether awake or asleep," 
 continues Miss Townley, W she does not know, but she 
 remembers she was quite awake when she felt the hand of 
 the Lord upon her, but in that heavenly and beautiful 
 manner that she felt joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
 She felt herself laying as it were in Heaven, in the hands 
 of the Lord, and was afraid to move, fearing she should 
 remove his heavenly hand, which she felt as perfect as ever 
 woman felt the hand of her husband" 
 
 [We should be glad to know, Joanna professing her. 
 self a virgin, how she became acquainted with such sen- 
 sations, as to know the difference ?] 
 
 Here the Lamb's Wife herself takes up the tale.. 
 "In this happy .manner," affirms Joanna, " I fell 
 asleep ; and in my sleep I was surprised with seeing a 
 most beautiful and heavenly figure, that arose from the 
 bed, between Townley and me. He arose, and turned 
 himself backwards towards the feet of the bed ; and his 
 kead almost reached the tester of the beds but hi* face 
 
 i2 
 
PO HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 ■ ~ S SSSSSSB SS5B5SSSS3 
 
 was towards me, which appeared with beauty and majesty, 
 but pale as death. His hair was a flaxen colour, all in 
 disorder around his face. His face was covered with 
 strong perspiration, and his locks were wet like the 
 dew of night, as though they had been taken out of a 
 river. The collar of his shirt appeared unbuttoned, and 
 the skin of his bosom appeared white as the driven snow. 
 Such was the beauty of the heavenly figure that ap- 
 peared before me in a disordered state; but the robe 
 he had on was like a surplice, down to his knees. He 
 put out one of his legs to me, that was perfectly like 
 mine, no larger; but with purple spots at the top, as 
 mine are with beating myself, which Townley, Under- 
 wood, and Taylor are witnesses of. Methought, in my 
 dream, he got himself into that perspiration by being 
 pressed to sleep between Townley and me. I said to 
 him, ' Are you my dear dying Saviour, that is come to 
 destroy alt the works of the Devil ?' he answered me, 
 •Yes!' I thought 1 called Underwood and waked Town- 
 ley, to look at him, which they did with wonder and 
 amaze. I then thought 1 would go out of my bed, and 
 fall down on ray knees, to return him thanks for his 
 mercy and goodness : but, as soon as these thoughts en- 
 tered my head, he disappeared, and a woman appeared 
 in his stead, which gave me pain to see he was gone, 
 but the woman told me many wonderful things that 
 were coming upon the earth, and what was coming upon 
 the devil ; yet I grieved at the loss of my dear Redeem- 
 er, for I saw no beauty in the woman; and, though 
 the woman would reason strong with me, her reasons I 
 did not like, la this confusion i awoke, and heard the 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTY. 9 1 
 
 bell foiling for the dead at the same time : which I re» 
 marked to Town ley." 
 
 " It implies no love to God, that men aspire to be 
 bishops, or archdeacons, or shepherds of the flocks; for 
 these all preach for hire. Striving to convince the 
 world of the Second Coming of Christ, however, is an 
 evidence of divine love, since such characters have no 
 present prospect of reward " Now, " as she stood out 
 and with courfcge," during the grand contest with 
 Satan, which lasted seven days, besides other sore con- 
 flicts with the powers of darkness, the Spirit has assured 
 her that it shall ever rest as a blessing on all women 
 that believe in Joanna : for as Eve's disobedience rest- 
 ed on the one band, so shall Joanna's obedience rest 
 on the other hand, from generation to generation, till 
 time is no more. So say not (affirms the Spirit) that 
 she only is blessed ; for they that believe in her, must 
 believe in Me: it is my spirit, not her spirit, whom ye 
 believe in ; and whom men persecute also — for they have 
 opened, by persecuting her, all My wounds afresh, and put 
 Me again to open shame!" 
 
 Though, in her former writings, Joanna entertained no 
 idea of the miraculous child-bearing since announced by 
 her, yet it is observable that, so far back as October, 1802, 
 the Spirit had given her some intimation on the subject, 
 by informing her that «« the Spiritual Man, which she 
 was then bringing forth to the world was" — neither more 
 nor less than—" the Second Christ." Joanna is frank 
 enough to own, however, that she understood so little 
 of what was working in the womb of time, as to omit two 
 tones, in her First Book of Sealed Prophecies, revealed 
 
92 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 toner in 1794* because they specified the promise of her 
 pregnancy, — 
 
 * I' have said, already, thou shall have a Son ; 
 
 * Ere he can speak, all this shall sure be done : 
 
 * Great peace in England after that shaU be, 
 
 * Because the remnant will believe in me V 
 
 " I left out the two lines of- having the Son, as I did. 
 not understand it," Inspiration had assured her of the 
 fact, notwithstanding, and it was her duty to have pub- 
 lished it fearlessly. How can she justify this tampering. 
 with the truth ? Other lines have been withheld in the 
 same manner,*' — Third Book of Wonders, 
 
 But, says the Spirit: 
 
 * You ne'er discern'd the Second Ghtld<; 
 ' For here the learned all were foil'd.' 
 
 " Marriage,'* declares the Spirit, speaking to Jo- 
 anna, " was revealed to thee from the Revelation, but 
 concealed from thy knowledge of any visitation further 
 than prophecies; and, therefore, they must now look 
 back to see in what manner I have spoken through thy 
 writings, that a marriage union must take place, then to 
 confine thee from every man, and then in power to visit 
 thee myself. This is the Child, and this is the Heir, 
 they will find spoken of through thy Writings, and 
 through the Scriptures; and yet it was concealed from 
 the knowledge and understanding of all, before it was 
 revealed by Me : and they will find that this is the Glory 
 of the Lord, spoken of by the prophets, that all flesh 
 should see it together, for all shall see the glory of his 
 reign. " 
 October the nth, 1813, Joanna separated herself 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 93 
 
 from society, forbidding even her female acquaintance ; 
 and awaited the extraordinary accomplishment of this 
 prediction. 
 
 " This," says Joanna, u I can take my solemn oath 
 to j I never had knowledge of man in my life. So that if 
 the words of the Spirit are fulfilled in me this year to 
 have a son, it is by the power of the Lord, and not of man ; 
 and this sign is set to prove the truth of the Gospel, or to 
 prove that the Gospel is not true. For this I am answer- 
 ed, if the visitation of the Lord does not produce a son 
 this year, then Jesus Christ was not the Son of God, 
 born in the manner spoken by the Virgin Mary; but if 
 1 have a son this year, then in like manner our Saviour 
 was born." " Therefore I said/ resumes ^e^Spirit, 
 
 in the First Book of Wonders, — / tr / fr .> 
 
 I *i / T* ; ' '"' ' 
 " The woman clothed with the sufe,- < ^ X 
 
 Should make all nations shake *$ \'S£ j -$-m 
 
 Tor now the mystery I'll explain, \ \^J&?J 
 
 The Revelation break ! "^^ 9*^ 
 
 <* It is not the Woman makes the nations shake, that 
 is with child, travailing in birth, and pained to be deli- 
 vered but it is the Child, when he is born, when the 
 nations will begin to shake ; and then they will know if 
 thou art the woman, mentioned in the Revelation, to 
 bring forth the man-child." "This year, 1814, in the 
 sixty-fifth year of thy age, thou shalt have a Son, by the 
 power of the Most High !" " Being clothed with the 
 sun, is the sun of righteousness, to arise with healing in 
 his wings, to heal the Woman of the Fall ; but how could 
 it be said the Bride, the Lamb's Wife, without a spiri- 
 tual visitation, to prove that, as the Bridegroom, I meant 
 to come in spirit ? 
 
94 HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 ■ I * ■■— — — — — i ■ ■ — — —— — ^g^» 
 
 11 It is the Son, that shall be born, 
 
 Fatal for those that do him scorn ; 
 
 Because that I'll uphold his hand, 
 
 And bring destruction in the land 
 
 That doth despise the infant's birth V 
 "I have felt increasing life," Joanna declares, in her 
 Fifth Book of Wonders, ''from the l6th of May, 1814, 
 to this day ; but never having had a child in my life, I 
 leave it to the judgment of mothers of children, who at- 
 tend me, who give their decided opinion, that is is per- 
 fectly like a woman that is pregnant. Then now, I say, 
 it remains to be proved whether my feelings and their 
 judgment be right or wrong, whether it is a child or 
 not ; which a few months must decide, or the grave must 
 decide for me; fori could not live to the end of this 
 year, with the increasing growth I have felt within so 
 short a space, without a deliverance, I have assigned 
 my reasons why I believed, and had faith to publish to 
 the world, that such an event would take place ; and I 
 am truly convinced that wondrous events must take place 
 to fulfil the Scriptures before men cau be brought to the 
 knowledge of the Lord, as spoken by the prophets, or the 
 fulfilment of the Gospel be accomplished. But, however 
 men have mocked my folly and faith in believing what I 
 have published, yet I plainly see that I should be mocked 
 much more, had 1 concealed it from the world till this 
 present time ; for then there would be room for the world 
 to mock as to my being a prophetess, and such an event 
 not to be foretold, to make it known, that men might be- 
 lieve." 
 
 Extract from Joanna's Declaration respecting the Medical 
 opinions on her supposed Pregnancy, 
 " The finst man that came into the room, where I 
 
JOANNA 80UTHeOTT. 95 
 
 was, from the 11th of October, 1813, to the 1st day of 
 August, 1814, was Dr» Adams, who was called in, with 
 Messrs. Wetherell and Phillips, on account of my ill- 
 ness at that time, and for their opinion of my case. 
 When I had laid before them the manner of my illness, 
 and the statement of all my complaints from the 17th 
 of March to that day, with my increasing size, and 
 feeling life within, Br. Adams asked what was the ob- 
 ject of their meeting ? I said, not to pass their judg- 
 ment according to my age,, from the statement I had 
 given, or from being kept from any man's coming into 
 my presence, from last October to that present time, 
 1st of August, or from the prophecies; all these things 
 they were wholly to divest themselves of ; all the judg- 
 ment that was required of them was, to give their opi- 
 nion what they should judge of a young married woman 
 in my situation, from every thing I had laid before them. 
 Dr. Adams answered immediately, I should not hesitate 
 a moment, or have any doubt of your being in a preg- 
 nant state, was it in a young woman ; but as this was 
 a case of a particular nature, he thought an exami- 
 nation was necessary, and as I had been acquainted 
 with Mr. Wetherell, and himself and Mr. Phillips were 
 strangers, he desired Mr. Wetherell would examine 
 me, and they would quit the room. Mr. Wetherell 
 did examine me, and laid it before Doctor Adams and 
 Mr. Phillips, and Dr. Adams prescribed for me accord- 
 ing. Mr. Walker now applied to Dr. Walchman, and 
 Mr. Owen applied to, Mr. Horff. I then sent to Dr. 
 Adams, to beg the favour of his meeting them ; he called 
 upon me, and said he would attend. I asked him if he 
 
$g HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 had ever such a case brought before him, of a woman 
 of my age? He said no, never; neither had he ever 
 heard of such a case : therefore they could only pass their 
 judgment from the symptoms and appearance, was it in 
 a young woman, but this was a case could not be 
 reasoned upon. Wednesday following, he met the gen* 
 tlemen as appointed. When Dr. Walchman came, he 
 proposed an internal examination; and said the medical 
 men should not all come up together, but one at a time, 
 and give their opinions separately. Dr. Adams then 
 came up, and after external examination, said, I had 
 every symtom of a woman in a pregnant state, and wrote 
 down his judgment thereon. He then told me of Dr. 
 Watchman's proposal of examination, that it would be 
 closer than he had done. I asked Dr. Adams, what 
 Dr. Walchman meant by a closer examination ? He then 
 explained what the other meant ; this filled me with such 
 horror, that 1 immediately said / would not submit to 
 that; for if they could not judge from my situation, and 
 the examination he had made, then I would wait till 
 the child made its appearance, strong enough to be 
 seen and felt without any examination at all. Dr. Adams 
 said, he himself should not have made such a request, 
 but Dr. Walchman refused seeing me, unless I would 
 submit to such an examination : this I said I never 
 •would submit to. Dr. Adams informed Dr. Walchman 
 of my determination, and they left the house, as I 
 neither saw Dr. Walchman or Dr. HorfF. This being 
 talked of, a Mr. Meatlin, surgeon, applied to have per- 
 mission; being a stranger, he was requested to leave 
 his address, and Mr, Phillips waited upon him. He gave 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT, §f 
 
 a reference to Drs. Heavysides and Pearson ; after that, 
 he came with Mr. Phillips, and after hearing my state- 
 ment, and examining me externally, he said he had 
 no doubt of my being in a pregnant state, though it wag 
 a wonderful case. I told him the proposal Dr. Walch- 
 man had made of examination} at which he seemed 
 surprised, and said he conceived he could be no jud^e 
 from such an examination of a woman at my age. Mon- 
 day following, Mr. Foster came; and after laying the 
 whole of my case before him, and he had examined me, 
 he gave it as his opinion, if it was a young woman, 
 there was no doubt of my being in a pregnant state, 
 When I mentioned to him the proposals Dr. W. had 
 made of an internal examination, he said (like Mr. Meal- 
 h'n) he could be no judge from that, at my time of life, 
 and the advanced time of the pregnancy; as those ex- 
 aminations took place at an early period, at ladies' own 
 desire, when they were not clear of being in the family 
 way, and wished to know, or, when they went be- 
 yond the time, to bring on the pain. The next day 
 Mrs. Foster came, and Mrs. Lock, a female midwife, and 
 two others that have had families; after laying my case 
 before them, and being strictly examined by the wo- 
 men, they all passed their judgment there was no doubt 
 of my beiug in a pregnant state. After the exami- 
 nation, as we sat conversing together, I felt the life 
 working very strong within me ; Mrs. Foster was sitting 
 close by my side, and perceived it; she immediately 
 laid her hand over me, and said she felt the life of the 
 child as strong as she ever felt one of her own in her 
 life; Mrs. Lock felt it likewise; the other two saw its 
 N . 4. % 
 
98 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES J 
 
 - — - ■ - ■■■»•- 
 
 movement?. — Dr. Sims came with Mr. Wetherell ; he 
 heand all the symptoms, and examined me, but gave it 
 as his opinion, I was not with child, though he would 
 not say it was impossible, for all things were possible 
 with God; yet he himself should not pass his opinion I 
 was in the family way, but said he would not take it upon 
 him to say I was not. When I asked him what he would 
 prescribe forme to prevent my sickness and pain, or to 
 bring me to an appetite, he mentioned the same as Dr. 
 Adams had prescribed forme, but would not prescribe any 
 thing further; he said he should suppose such an event as 
 this, if it took place, would not be hid in a corner. 1 told 
 him, no ; there must be physicians and medical men pre- 
 sent ; he said he should be glad to be one, that he should 
 be happy to witness for me against his own judgment. 
 Some ladies came to see me, and upon mentioning Dr. 
 Sims's reason for his opinion, one said, I have had eleven 
 children, and the objection he mentioned happened to 
 me with -every one of them. 
 
 " After Dr. Sims had passed his judgment, I sent 
 for a medical man, whom 1 knew -was strong in unbelief, 
 that it could not be possible ; and therefore I said I 
 sent for him, to know if he could prescribe any thing 
 that would do me good, if I was not in the family way ? 
 He heard my statement from the beginning; he ex- 
 amined me ; and said if 1 was a young married woman, 
 he should say I was not in the family way. I asked him 
 what disorder he would judge I had to cause all the 
 pains, sickness, and the increase of my body r He said 
 he looked upon it I had been long in a debilitated 
 •tate j and the severe pain 1 had felt in my back was 
 
JOAXNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 & 
 
 
 from a hurt in the kidneys, which was the cause of all 
 my other complaints; that my sickness proceeded from a 
 lodgment of bile in my stomach, which prevented me 
 from having an appetite, but remove the cause and the 
 effects would cease. I told him I would not take any 
 thing that I thought would be hurtful to a woman 
 in a family way; he sent me two draughts, but Mr. 
 Philips advised me not to take them. Soon after he 
 was gone, Mr. Hopgay came; he heard the statement, 
 and examined my breasts,, and outside my clothes, said 
 there was no occasion for any further examination. I 
 as-ked him what would be his judgment if I was a young 
 married woman ? he said that was an unfair question, 
 and he would not answer it : he was then desired to an- 
 swer in his own way ; he said he did not think I was 
 with child, but his judgment might not be worth two- 
 pence, r then enquired what he thought my disorder 
 was; he said I had no disease,, no disorder, but was in 
 perfect health. After he was gone f thought his judg- 
 ment could not be worth a penny, to say I had no 
 disease, no disorder, and was in perfect health, when 
 Thad suffered from pain* sickness, loss of appetite, and 
 had gone through more than I ever experienced in my 
 life from the 17th of March to that time; and at that 
 time could keep nothing on my stomach but fruit, vege- 
 tables, and liquids, nothing solid could I take. Here t 
 have given a clear statement of the different judgments 
 of the medical gentlemen that J was examined by. 
 Nine I have seen; six out of the nine passed their opi. 
 nion, I was in a state of pregnancy ; the other three 
 said I, am not ; therefore I was ordered that no examination- 
 
100 HlSTOWr OP HKLlGlOUSiMPOSTUnES. 
 
 should take place; what had been already, was sufficient 
 toshew different judgments of men. I have found a con- 
 siderable alteration in myself, by feeling the life much 
 stronger, and moving in different ways to what it had 
 before; and more particularly when I removed from my 
 ^own house, I felt \t much lowe/, and much greater 
 Weight : but should it prove not to be a child in the end, 
 it must bring me to the grave. If there is a possibility 
 of my being deceived, that the life within should bring 
 death upon me, without making its appearance in the 
 World, I now promise to give liberty to open my body; 
 so that, either in death or life, they will be enabled to 
 )ut]ge of a cause that never was brought before medical 
 men, of a woman at my age." 
 
 According to the conclusion of the above statement, 
 Joanna seems to express herself as though her infallibility 
 was doubtful. We sincerely wish that such a symptom 
 may be productive of a restoration of her reason; that 
 she may, by a repentant deportment, make some amends 
 for what we hope arose more from distemper than from a 
 depravation of principle; and when perfectly recovered. 
 Jet her feel herself happy that, by her amendment, she 
 kas escaped the following denunciation, pronounced by 
 the Almighty, by his prophet Eaekiel, xii/, 18, &c. : — 
 
 •' Thou son of man, set thy face against the daughters 
 of thy people, which prophecy out op their owh 
 heart, and prophesy thou against them ; 
 
 "And say, Thus saith the Lord God, woe to the woman 
 that hunt sools ? Will ye hunt the souls of my people, 
 andivillyesave the sauts alive that come untojou f 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 10,L 
 
 " And v ill /e pollute me among.my people for hand- 
 fuls of fcnrley and for pieces of bread, to stay the souls that 
 should not die,, and to save the souls alive that should not 
 
 live, DY YOUR LYING TO MY PEOPLE THAT HEAR YOUR LIES ? 
 
 "Wherefore thus saitli. the Lord God, Behold I am 
 against you, and will let the souls go, even the souls that 
 ye hunt to make them fly.. 
 
 " " - and deliver my people out of your hand, and 
 
 they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and ye 
 shall know that lam the Lord. 
 
 '* Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous 
 sad, whom I have not made sad, and strengthened the 
 hands of the ivicked, that he should not return from his 
 wicked way, by promising him life. 
 
 €$ Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor divine- 
 divinations ; for I will deliver my people out of your 
 hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord/' 
 
 By way of conclusion, we will offer a few remarks, as 
 incontrovertible proofs of the fallacy by which the 
 grossest and most absurd imposition is attempted on the 
 minds of the unsuspecting and the unwary. 
 
 The sacred Scriptures are of that wonderful descrip- - 
 tion, that it requires all the solid powers of intellect to di- 
 vine the true meaning of many parts of that vast code of 
 sanctity comprised in the Old and New Testaments.-* 
 With respect to the first,seventy-two learned Rabbins em- 
 ployed their deep erudition, and yet the Bible is still said 
 not to be satisfactorily translated; nor are we even to 
 this day determined respecting some of the prophecies of 
 Daniel. The doctrines in the New Testament have been 
 R 2 
 
102 HISTORY OF REtlClOUS nt?n ru.^s, 
 
 involved in equal doubt by those whose tempers have in- 
 duced them to give different interpretations to similar 
 sentences; and great learning has been displayed in re- 
 conciling the various apparent differences of the sacred 
 Scriptures, to adapt them, agreeably to their original 
 intention, for our learning and instruction. 
 
 If, then, so much labour has been exerted, so much 
 erudition expended, so many ages have elapsed, and 
 mankind still dissatisfied, let us ask this plain, honest 
 question: Can it be reasonable to suppose that a poor, un- 
 instructed, and illiterate old woman is endued with so ca- 
 pacious an understanding as to develope the hidden things 
 which the Almighty, in his unsearchable wisdom, has 
 not permitted, nor will permit, his finite creatures to 
 know, till his own providence shall grant such authority, 
 as to his own unerring wisdom shall seem meet ? How 
 dreadfully wicked then must it be in any one to assume 
 pretensions of superior sanctity, of familiar conversation, 
 with the Deity, or of presuming to claim any of his attri- 
 butes! And yet this has been done, and a falsehood fa* 
 bricated to give colour to the project. 
 
 When the apostles received their mission, they were* 
 though originally many of them ignoFant men, endued 
 by their Lord and Master with the gift of tongues, and 
 other qualifications proper for thern to spread the truths 
 •fthe Gospel dispensation to every cornerof the earth, 
 where it shall flourish till time shall be no more. We 
 will instance only one of these extraordinary men, Su 
 Peter. He was only a fisherman ; yet who will read his 
 epistles, and not declare that they are the compositions of 
 aa inspired writer? History informs us also> by the tra* 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 103" 
 
 ▼els of the apostles and evangelists to very far distant 
 climes, that they must have been blessed with wonderful 
 talents to preach the doctrines for which most of them, 
 were martyred, in sucfo very remote regions.. Conse- 
 quently the hand of the Almighty was very evidently 
 shewn in the means he took to spread his Gospel. 
 
 But is any qualification of this nature attachable to Jo- 
 anna, or any of her followers ?- Have they not taken* 
 such freedom* with the sanctity of their Redeemer as to 
 form addresses to him nearly- bordering on the grossest 
 libertinism? Who can read (if they have patience to go 
 through with it) that vile piece of profanation,, called- 
 Joanna's intercourse with the Spirit, * whikt in bed with. 
 Townley," and not shudder I 
 
 We will, however,, close this part of our disagreeable 
 subject by stating to our readers what, upon reference,, 
 will be self-evident,, which is,, that Joanna and her ad- 
 herents have attempted to impose upon their fellow-crea- 
 tures an impudent falsehood,, by mutilating the text of 
 Scripture ou which they pretend to build their whole 
 superstructure.. Joanna has declared herself to be "the 
 Bride/ *' the Woman; clothed with the Sun," &c.; but 
 neither she nor her adherents have told us where these mi- 
 raculous circumstances are to take place. It remains 
 with us to satisfy ourselves and our readers in this respect; 
 and though it may overturn the mental fraud of Joanna, 
 and all her concerns, we have only to desire all persons, 
 as it materially concerns them, to turn to the Revelations 
 of St. John the Divine, ch. xii, v. 1 and 2 y and they will 
 Snd what follows;-— 
 
104. HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 " And there appeared a great wonder— IN HEA- 
 ven j— a woman clothed with the sun,. and thb 
 Moon under her Feet, and upon her Head a Crown 
 of Twelve Stars; and she being with Child cried, 
 
 TRAVAILING IN BlRTH, AND PAINED TO BE DELIVERED." 
 
 We think, that by restoring the true reading, " rjr 
 beaven," to the above verses, we shall also prove by 
 what deception the public have been attempted to be 
 duped ; and till we can discover that Heaven is geogra- 
 phically situated in or near Exeter, London, Manches- 
 ter,. Leeds, &C.&C. we shall think it right to assert, that 
 it will be best, — instead of attending to lying prophe- 
 cies, — to be satisfied with our condition, and to attend ta 
 what St. John was commanded to write to the church in 
 Thyatira :— 
 
 " That which ye have already, hold fast till /(the Mea. 
 slah) come." — Rev. v. 25. 
 
MISCELLANIES 
 
 RELATING TO 
 
 JOANNA SOUTIICOTT. 
 
 PROPHECIES 
 
 5LNT T© THE PRINCE REGENT, TlIE BISHOPS, &C 
 
 jN the 5th Book of Wonders, Joanna states, u I was ordered 
 by the Spirit to send the book, with my portrait, to the Prince 
 Regent, to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Bishop 
 of Worcester, Duke of Gloucester, Lord Grosvenor, Lord El- 
 leuborough, and the Recorder of London. I have likewise 
 sent it to the Duke of Kent, the Bishop of London, and the 
 Bishop of Salisbury. And this has been ordered to be done to 
 prevent any imposition being practised, either in my name by 
 others, or, if I am led by a wrong spirit myself, it will be proved 
 this year, and that no imposition may be practised upon the 
 Jews, when I know, without a doubt, that I am with child. — 
 I am ordered to put in public print all the names above men- 
 tioned, that I have sent the book and likeness to, that the He- 
 brews abroad, as well as those in England, may know that no 
 deceit was practised upon them; but that the heads and ruler* 
 of the nation were made acquainted with it before it took 
 place." 
 
 LETTER TO THE NATION, 
 
 INSERTED IN THE TIMES NEWS-PAPER, OCT. 28, 1813. 
 
 ** I, Joanna Southcott, have been more than twelve year* 
 publicly warning the nation of what the Lord hath revealed' 
 unto me he will do upon the earth; and the events have, been 
 daily fulfilling abroad and at home, which causes some to be- 
 lieve the visitation to be from the Lord; while others, with 
 the most infamous abuse and falsehood, have publicly declared 
 me to be an Impostor; and others, with the same ignorance and 
 folly, say that my writings are from the Devil, full of blasphe* 
 
206 MISCELLANIES 
 
 my, and wondered that the Bishops should have suffered me 
 to go on in this manner. I have borne the mockery and abuse 
 of men, but now let all their wonder cease; for I shall return 
 to mock them, as they have mocked me, and prove it is the 
 devil, in the form of man, from whence all this malice and- 
 persecution proceeds. 
 
 And now I shall say with David, " If I hare been vile, I 
 will still be viler;" and if I have been bold, I will beholder. — 
 To my other Prophecies I have added two books, lately pub- 
 lished, intituled, " Book of Wonders;" and five more will ap- 
 pear hereafter, which I defy all the Bishops in England, the 
 Members- of Parliament, and all the Judges in the land, with 
 all thejuigment they can form together, to be able to prove 
 these two Books of Wonders, with the other Prophecies, were 
 ever brought round by the wisdom and knowledge of. the devil, 
 or by the wisdom and knowledge of an Impostor. 
 
 Let the Bishops come forward, with the Rev. Mr. Pomercy 
 and [ will soon convince them that I could as scon make the 
 ■world, as I could make my writings, and bring them round in 
 the manner they have been brought round to^ be fulfilled. I 
 am not so wise as the world makes me; therefore I shall give 
 unto the Lord the honour and glory that is due unto his name : 
 and those that say they are from the devil, I shall turn their 
 blasphemy upon their own heads; because it is blasphemy to 
 say, that such wisdom, knowledge, and power, can be in the de- 
 vil. And I was answered this morning, that if men went on 
 in this way, and the Bishops did not awaken, to prove the cal- 
 ling is from on high, to stop this blasphemy in men, that awful 
 judgments should now come on, upon them and upon the na- 
 tion : for these are the words said unto me : — 
 
 " I will laugh at their calamity; I will mock when their fear 
 cometh : when your fear cometh as desolation, and your de- 
 struction ( ometh as a whirlwind: when distress and anguish 
 come upon you ; then shall they call upon me, but I will not 
 answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me ; 
 fori have looked and there is none to he:p; and I wondered, 
 that there was none to nphcilci; therefore mine own arm 
 brought salvanon unto me; and my fury upheld me ; and L 
 wilhreai dowi, the people in mine anger, and make them 
 drunk in my fury; I will bring (Lwn their strength to the 
 earth." 
 
 This is the voire of the Lord unto me, from the Scripture 
 Prophecies " The watchmen are blind ; they are all ignorant ; 
 they are all dumb dogs that cannot bark, sleeping, laying down 
 to slumber." But this is the answer of the lord to me, " They 
 shall be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder and with 
 
MISCELLANIES. 1 Of 
 
 earthquake, and great noise, with storms and tempests, and the 
 flame of devouring fire. Stay yourselves and wonder, cry ye 
 out, and cry, they are drunken, but not with wine; they are 
 staggered, but not with strong drink. The Lord shall go forth 
 as a mighty man; he shall stir up jealousy as a man of war; 
 he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies. — 
 I have long time holden my peace ; I have been still, and re- 
 strained myself; now will I cry like a travailing woman ; I 
 will destroy and devour at once. 1 ' 
 
 Plere are the threatenings that lam now ordered to bring out 
 to the Nation, of the Scriptures that the Lord will fulfil, if men 
 now carelessly sleep after this warning; but if they awake 
 as men out of sleep, and obey the call, they then may look to 
 the promises in the following chapters: Isaiah 1,8, 9, ch. xlvi. 
 ch. lxv. and ch. lxvi. 
 
 This I am ordered to put in the public papers ; and if I have 
 no one to come forward to plead my cause for me, the Lord is 
 working a way for me to plead it myself, and shame all that 
 shamed me, and confound all that confounded me. 
 
 Now as Rowland Hill called my friends three and twenty 
 mad fools, for believing that my visitation was from the Lord, 
 let him bring forward three and twenty mad fools to prove these 
 Two Books, which I have lately published, with my other 
 Prophecies, were ever brought round by the wisdom of a wo- 
 man, or the wisdom of the devil ; then they must be mad 
 fools, indeed, if they attempt it; for it has been none but mad 
 fools that have written a book against me yet, by Satan's form- 
 ing himself in them; and that their publications have proved. 
 
 Oct. 28, 1813. 
 
 Joanna So^ffCtrrTV 
 
 /*5 / > ■ '• 
 
 / s : e 
 
 WARNING TO THE BISHOI%,^ 
 
 ft K 
 
 ?* i *f 
 
 U BY THE COMMAND OF THE LORD;' INSERTRlf IN.^lJt <~ 
 MORNING HERALD, NOVEMBER, 9TH, 18ll^-~~- 
 
 u As the Public say that the Bishops will not give them- 
 selves the trouble of searching whether my Visitation is of 
 God, or not, the following answer was given to me by the 
 Spirit : — 
 
 " If they go on according, to the judgment of men, and 
 thou art confined one year in this house, as a prisoner, through 
 their neglect, then in one year I will cut them all off, like the 
 three signs I have mentioned. Know I told thee I should to> 
 gin at the sanctuary ." 
 
K)S MrsTELLANMES. 
 
 The first sign was of the Bishop's death, in 1796, which 
 was put in the hand of the Rev. Mr. Potneroy. The second 
 sign was in 180 1 ; as the Bishop of Exeier refused to hear of 
 the Visitation, I was ordered to come to London, and St. Pe- 
 ter's bell should toll for the Bishop when 1 returned to Exeter 
 again, and this was fulfiled in 1803. The other was the 
 threatening to the Bishop of London, in 1804, as he refused to 
 hear of the Visitation, when applied to. And, as the Lord 
 tulfilled his word with them, I am answered, that he will ful- 
 fil his word with all, if they do not exert the power they are 
 invested with. And this I am strictly commanded to put in 
 the newspaper. 
 
 And now I am called back to my former writings, where it 
 is said, "One month you'll see your destiny, what will befall 
 your land;" so this month fixes the destiny for the ensuing 
 year, either for blessings or judgments. If the Bishops keep 
 silence till this month of November is over, then they may 
 keep silence until next November, 1814. For I am answered, 
 that now the time is come of the fulfilment of a letter I sent 
 to the Rev. Mr. Pomeroy, in 1796:—" Awake, my Shepherds, 
 saith the Lord, lest I kindle a fire in mine anger, and a wrath 
 in my fury, that shall burn to the nethermost hell. But if ye 
 awake, O Zion, and put on your beautiful garments, O Jeru- 
 salem, then shall your light break forth as the morning, and 
 your righteousness appear as the noon-day sun ; and God, 
 even our God, will give us his blessing." 
 
 These are the promises, these are the threatenings, which I 
 was ordered to send to him, in 1796 ; and now I am answered, 
 that the Lord will fulfil them one way or other, according as 
 the command is obeyed or disobeyed. The Bishops are now 
 called upon to judge between the Shepherd and the Sheep, 
 irom a book lately published, entitled, " The Second Book ©f 
 Wonders." 
 
 Joanna Southcott. 
 
 TO THE PUBLIC AT LARGE. 
 
 A LETTER OF PROPHECY, BY JOANNA S0UTEC0TT, INSERT!* 
 IN THE MORNING HERALD. 
 
 My former Letters of Warning have roused various passions 
 in men, and some public comments. Among the latter I shall 
 notice a letter in the Stourbridge paper of the 12th instant, 
 signed Efhraim, wherein he advises me to " make a friend wf 
 
MISCELLANIES. I Ofr 
 
 his Satanic Majesty; as he may lay his faithful paw upon me;" 
 therefore he advises me to " court his favour— speak kindly of 
 him ; for it is good to have a friend wherever we go." 
 
 I shall answer him from the words of Solomon, — " A fool's 
 bolt is soon shot ; the soul of the wicked desireth evil; arid wis- 
 dom is too high for a fool." But he who thinks to find a friend 
 in the devil will find himself deceived. I put no trust in man ; 
 then I certainly shall not put trust in the devil, who hath use- 
 his utmost endeavours to work in the hearts of men againd 
 me : and formed himself in men, to cast out floods of lies 
 against me. I have not built upon such sandy foundations 
 Though the world laugh at my weakness, to believe that the 
 Bishops will give themselves the trouble of coming forward 
 and pass their judgment as required; I put no more trust in 
 the Bishops, as men, than I do in their chariots or horses; but 
 my trust is in the Lord of Hosts, who saith to the proud waves 
 of the sea— Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further : who can 
 say to the south, give up; and to the north, keep not back; 
 who can make his people willing in the day of his power. 
 This is the faith that I rely upon — the rock of ages, and the 
 God of salvation— that the gates of hell cannot prevail against; 
 and this is the faith that our Savic ur said, in his Gospel, was 
 like the wise man, building his house upon the rock, and the 
 winds blew, and beat upon that house : and it fell not; for it 
 was founded upon the rock : and this is the rock, which I have 
 built upon; and, therefore my house will not fall; but those 
 who have built, like this foolish man, will find their houses to 
 be built on the sand; and great will be the fall thereof. 
 
 And now 1 am ordered to put in the newspaper a part of a 
 Prophecy given to me yesterday, for the public at large :— 
 
 " I tell thee, that the ensuing year will be such a year as 
 never was seen in England, since it was a nation; for, if my 
 commands are obeyed, that I send blessings to the nation, such 
 as were never experienced before: yet Satan's weapons will be 
 strong, with rage and fury ; to fight in men, till, like Sodom 
 and Gomorrah, they will be destroyed, and swept away with 
 the besom of destruction. But, from the days of Noah, there 
 is a long warning, to awaken those who are not so strongly 
 filled with the devil against my coming to bring in my king- 
 dom of righteousness and peace. Thy faith is given to thee 
 as a gift of God, which the world can neither give thee, nor 
 take it from thee: and they will find that the sow. d oj thy 
 Master's/^ is behind thee" 
 
 Joanna Southcott. 
 Friday, Nov, 19, 181S. 
 
 No. 4. t 
 
Ijjjl MISCELLANIES. 
 
 LETTERS OF PROPHECY BY JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 
 
 " Though the Bishops are silent to the request made of 
 them, and the warning given them, that they will not come 
 forward to support the work, if it be of GOD, or to confute it, 
 if not; yet I am informed that one of the Bishops hath said, 
 that I have done more mischief than ever an individual had 
 done before. 
 
 " I can scarcely credit the report to be true, that a Bishop 
 should see it in this light, and not use his authority to stop 
 the " mischief," when the power is put into his hands. 
 
 " I shall answer such Bishops, as the King's Jester once 
 answered him. When a nobleman sent a petition to his ma- 
 jesty, to crave his pardon for a hird murder he had commit- 
 ted, the king said to his jester, " I know not what to do con- 
 cerning this man : he hath killed two men before, which I 
 pardoned him for, and now he ha'h killed the third." The 
 jester answered. •' No, he has not killed three men; he has 
 killed but one." His majesty asked how he could make out 
 that? The jester said, " if thou hadst had him hanged for 
 the first man, he would never have killed another; so thou 
 hast killed the other two." •' Ah!" said the king, " dost thou 
 say so ? then he shall never kill another."— To this I was an- 
 swered — 
 
 * Now let the Bishop be as wise as the king, or out of his 
 own mouth will I condemn him; if he sees this mischief go- 
 ing on, and doth not stir to prevent it, when I have put it 
 in his power, and hs jud^e it is from the devil, he will find my 
 anger kindled against him, if he still lets it go on. Will they 
 suffer sin of the blackest dye to go on, and never stir one step 
 to stop the torrent of this evil i Then let them know that my 
 judgments are just, to cut them off, as cumberersof the ground. 
 If all should speak as thou hast heard of one, then out of their 
 own mouths will I condemn them all : for they shall find that 
 thou art in perfect obedience to my commands. And will 
 they call this mischief? Then let them know my commands, 
 which stand on record — be clear in judging that you may be 
 just in condemning. And now to their consciences thou must 
 appeal, whe her they think i^ be right to see mischief spread- 
 ing throughout the land, and they standing silent to have it 
 so, when it is put in r heir power to prevent it? For, on one 
 sideoroiher the sin must be great; because they must know 
 if my visitation be from the Lord, and they call it mischief in 
 thee to obey my commands; then their sins must be great, 
 for condemning my love in warning them of my coming to 
 establish peace and righteousness on the earth. If this be de 
 
MISCELLANIES I 1 I 
 
 spised, let them own the justice of my anger and indignation 
 at the blasphemy that is daily spoken against my visitation. 
 
 * And this is my command to the Bishops, if they wish to 
 find favour in my sieht, as I have invested them with power, 
 I have put in their hands. This is my command to thee, that 
 they may see the justice of my threatening, if all be treated 
 with silent contempt."—- Thisis the answer^of the Lord to me.' 
 
 Joanna Southcott. 
 
 On Sunday, July 31, 1814, Mr. Tozer, (a lath render, who' 
 has for some time obtruded himself on the public notice, as 
 an asserter of the mission of Joanna) delivered in the pulpit 
 of Joanna's chapel, Duke-street, Webber-row, St. George's 
 fields, rhe following sentences: — 
 
 " Brethren, I am ready to take my sacramental oath, that 
 no man has seen or spoken to Joanna Southcott, since 
 August, 1813."— Again, " The world will be soon convinced 
 of the truth of our doctrine, for our spiritual mother will 
 bring forth the true Messiah, before the 12th of next Ja- 
 nuary." 
 
 We have sufficiently dilated on Mr. Reece's opinion res- 
 pecting Joanna's pregnancy : We shall now insert the opinion 
 also of one of the most eminent in his profession, the ve- 
 nerable Dr. Sims : 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Several persons having expressed a wish that I would vi- 
 sit Joanna Southcott, that they might be better satisfied what 
 foundation there was for a report that she was pregnant, I 
 consented to accompany one of her friends, a surgeon and 
 accoucheur of experience, for that purpose, on the 18th of 
 August. He informed me, on my way thither, that the 
 most satisfactory examination would not be permitted, but 
 that this was not at all necessary, as no professional man 
 could have a doubt of her situation, upon seeing the slate of 
 her breasts, and feeling the outside of he< abdomen. 
 
 Her appearance gave no reason to doubt the truth of her 
 statement, that she was in her sixty-fifth year, and that she 
 had ceased to menstruate since she was furiy-eight; circum- 
 stances under which her pregnancy was naturally incredi- 
 ble, and were ir real, might well enough hae induced a be- 
 lief that it was supernatural. 
 
 I endeavoured, however, not to prejudge the case, but to 
 form my opinion of her situation from the symptoms alone, 
 as I should have done had she been only "forty-five years 
 
XI2 Miscellanies. 
 
 of age, and therefore within the period of probable preg- 
 nancy. 
 
 It is quite unnecessary here to relate her conversation, 
 in which she asserted, that she had been commanded to 
 keep her apartment, and to admit no male to visit her for a 
 period of some months; suffice it to say, that during this 
 term, she stated herself to have conceived of a son, who would 
 be born before the harvest was over. She shewed me her 
 breasts, which she said had been before flabby and shrivelled, 
 with the nipple drawn in: they were now plump, the veins 
 large and visible, the nipple red and protruded : they had not, 
 however, the elasticity natural to the^breasts of a pregnant wo- 
 man, and the areola was pale, partly covered with a little 
 whitish scurf, and the outer circle not all defined, but grow- 
 ing very gradually fainter. They gave me, upon the whole, 
 more the idea of the breasts of an old woman grown cor- 
 pulent, than those of a pregnant woman. She stated, how- 
 ever, that she was in general grown thinner, especially about 
 the back* 
 
 The feel of the abdomen, through her linen, was not unlike 
 that of a woman in the eighth month of her pregnancy, but, as 
 it seemed to me, less hard, except at ihe lower part, where 
 there appeared to be a solid tumour, reaching not far above the 
 pubes, I proposed to put my finger upon the navel, without 
 any covering, which was permitted. This part I found sunk 
 in, not at ail protruded as in pregnancy. In making this exami- 
 nation I was not sensible of any motion, which she insisted 
 upon being so strong, ihat she could not only feel it herself, 
 but that it had been seen by others who were sitting near her. 
 In enumerating the symptoms, she mentioned sickness at 
 itomach, violent pain about the period of quickening, and 
 great increase of the sickness, with bilious vomitings at that 
 time ; nor did she omit a sort of longing or extraordinary 
 cravings for asparagus, when she had otherwise a total loss 
 of appetite; but the order of symptoms was not according to 
 thtir usual occurrence, the sickness, instead of ceasing at the 
 quickening, becoming at that time much more excessive. 
 
 Considering all the above appearances, I did not hesitate 
 to declare it to be my opinion, that Joanna Southcott was not 
 pregnant ; but was told I was the first medical man that had 
 seen her that was not perfeoy satisfied of the contrary. 
 
 1 believe that her uterine organs are diseased, and that the 
 breasts, as it is usual, sympathizing with those parts, have 
 an increased quantity of blood determined to them. Had I 
 thought the ex;t-nal appearances such as ought to lead to a 
 belief in her pregnancy, I should have urged the propriety of 
 her submitting to a more satisfactory examination ; but feeling, 
 
MISCELLANIES US 
 
 as I did, a perfect conviction that she was not with child, it 
 seemed to me unnecessary to insist upon any further enquiry. 
 Having observed in the newspapers, that assertions are re- 
 peatedly "made, that eminent accoucheurs have declared this 
 woman to be pregnant, I am desirous not to be reckoned of 
 that number. Yet before I conclude 1 feel it right to say, that 
 I am convinced that (his poor woman is no impostor, but 
 that she labours under a strong mental delusion. 
 
 September 3d, 1814. 
 
 In the Third Book of Wonders is announced " the coming 
 of Suiloh, with a call to the Hebrews." The Spirit says, p. 4, 
 "This year, in the 65th year of thy age, thou shalt have a 
 Son bv the power of the Most High, which if they receive as 
 their Prophet, Priest, and King, then I will restore them 
 to 'heir own land, and cast out the heathen for their 
 sakes, as I ca*t out them when they cast out me, by rejecting 
 me as their Saviour, Pnnce, and King, for which I said I 
 was born, but not at that time to establish my kingdom." In 
 consequence of this announcement, the followers of Joanna 
 Southott, in town and country, are making all sorts of ne- 
 cessary preparations. It is certainly true, that she has 
 literally been overwhelmed wi'h presents.— Laced caps, em- 
 broidered bibs, and worked robes,— a mohair mantle, which 
 cost 150/.— splendid pap-spoons and caudle-cups (one shaped 
 like a dove) have been poured in upon her, till she has at 
 length determined to receive no more of such things. To 
 complete the desired apparatus, a magnin-ent Crib has just 
 been finished by on? of our first upholsterers, and sent to 
 her residence, of which the following is a description : 
 
 This Manger and Crib was made by Mr. Seddons,of Alders- 
 gate-street, according to the order of, we believe, a carcase 
 butcher, jointly with some gentlemen, who believe she is now 
 pregnant:— 
 
 The Crib, forming an oblong square, is of the usual size 
 of modern Cribs; the frame made with satin-wood, richly 
 ornamented with gold; the sides and ends filled with 
 lattice-work gilt. The body of the Crib, called the Manger, 
 is richly lined with blue satin, drawn together so as to give it 
 the appearance of fluted work. The pillars which support it 
 are taper, with ribbons of gold entwining round them. The 
 head cloth is of blue satin, with a celestial crown of gold em- 
 broidered upon it, and underneath appears the word SHILOH, 
 in Hebrew characters, exhibited in gold spangles. Over the 
 
114 MISCELLANIES. 
 
 head part of the Crib is an elegant canopy of blue satin, lined 
 •with the finest white muslin, to draw together to a point 
 and fastened underneath, by a rose of blue satin. The outer 
 point of the canopy is finished with a figure of a Dove of gold 
 resting on a small white ball, with an olive spri.^ in its mouth. 
 Around the outer rim of the canopy is inscribed in letters of 
 gold, — * A free-will offering by Faith to the promised Seed.' 
 The curtains are trimmed with narrow gold lace : the drape- 
 ries blue satin edged with gold fringe, looped with gold lint 
 and tassels. The inner curtains of fine white muslin. 
 
 The Crib, or Cot, fits within the former, and hangs upon 
 swivels, that a proper motion may be given to it whenever 
 the young Prince may require rocking. 
 
 This Crib is made of satin wood, fitted in with most beau- 
 tiful cane- work, whence passes a cord of gold co a pedal, de- 
 signed to rock the cradle whenever proper for the inrant/and 
 to prevent the necessity of leaning over the manger, to in- 
 commode the supernatural babe. 
 
 The bed is of the finest eider-down, in white covering; the 
 coverlet of the richest white satin, with a medallion in the 
 centre, bearing the figure of the Lamb lying down with the 
 Lion. The Lamb worked in Silver— the Lion in gold. These 
 are surmounted by what is called the Tree of Life worked in 
 gold. The sheets for the bed are of the best cambric, ed°ed 
 with expensive lace. 
 
 This bauble, with its ornaments, decorations, bedding &c 
 cost upwards of Two Hundred Pounds ! ! ! Not one shilling of 
 which would have been bestowed in real charity to preserve a 
 wretched family from starving! 
 
 THE FOLLOWING APPEARED IN THE SUNDAY 
 MONITOR. 
 
 Sept. 15, 1814. 
 
 Sir,— Having seen, this day, on a hand-bill wha' will be 
 the contents of your paper next Sunday, 1 thought the follow- 
 ing authentic account would be acceptable, viz. That there 
 has been this week purchased, printed in Imperial quarto, a 
 Bible, which is put into the hauds of a distinguished binder, 
 (in a Street in the City Road) to be bound in a singularly 
 superb manner; which book, after the accouchement of Mrs. 
 Southcott, is intended to be presented to her son— the sup- 
 posed " Promised Seed," and the Elijah that was to cume, as 
 expressed by Malachi the Prophet. 
 
MISCELLANIES. 11$ 
 
 The Bible is to be hound in red morocco, with a bor- 
 der consisting of the most significant and deepest rheosophical 
 figures — (Within)— at each corner, is to be a Dove, with an 
 olive branch. At the top, the Eye of Providence looking down, 
 encircled with glory, and a vast number of cherubs descending 
 from it, following " Jesus Christ," (which is to be written) and 
 over the name is to he a Celesual Crown, with five stars upon 
 it, in a glory ; the whole encompassed with Clouds to represent 
 Jesus Christ with his Angels descending to the earth in the 
 Clouds of Heaven. On each side is to be a Star, and on the 
 earth below is to be the Tree of Life, with twelve manner of 
 Fruits, and a Lion and Lamb opposite each other, with a Three- 
 fold Rose and Lilly (against the animals) growing from one 
 stem. Beneath them is to be an Imperial (Regal) Crown, with 
 " Shiloh" written under it, surrounded with an amazing glory, 
 and on the sides of the Tree, &c. to be written, " the Bride- 
 groom and Bride united." 
 
 On the (gih) leaves is to be impressed Cherubs in the midst 
 of glory. 
 
 The back is to be lettered,—'* This Holy Bible is the Gift 
 of a Family by Faith to the promised Seed." Above which is to 
 be the Celestial Crown, with!. H. S. under it, beneath is to be 
 the Regal Crown, with " Shiloh" in Hebrew under that. 
 
 The Inside of the Bible is to be lined with pale blue wa- 
 tered silk, and a red morocco border on the cover, and first leaf 
 hayinginit theinitials of a Family's name, and some Theoso- 
 phical Figures, and within that border is to be another impress- 
 ed on the silk with gold, comprised of Cherubs and a Theoso- 
 phical Figure at each corner; in the centre is to be impressed 
 the Celestial Crown, with five Stars upon it, and " Shiloh" in 
 Hebrew to be written under it, encompassed with glory. 
 
 It will be completed about the first of October. 
 
 *** In consequence of the precedingLetter, we immediately 
 applied to the Binder, whose name was communicated t to us, to 
 ascertain that the statements were correct. We saw the Bible, 
 and found the preparations for binding it to be exactly as above 
 
 described. 
 
 We join in opinion with Bell's Weekly Messenger in what 
 follows : 
 
 " However distinguished we may be, in comparison with our ances- 
 tors, for general information and science, we scruple not to sayi that 
 the darkest period of our history can scarcely furnish a parallel in- 
 stance to the credulity and blindness that prevail amongst the follow- 
 
llf MISCELLANIES. 
 
 ers of this woman. That she must be either an unfortunate lunatic, 
 or a deliberate money-getting impostor, is. evident ; and in either case 
 it is evident that some stop should be put to that torrent of fanaticism 
 and blasphemy, vvhich flows from her preaching and publications. If 
 ?he be insane, wh\ has she not the benefit of proper medical advice ? 
 But if this apology cannot be offered for her ravings, it is right she 
 should be told, that though the laws of hercsuntry are wisely tolerant 
 in all matters of religious opinion, they have provided that the sacred 
 name of the Deity shall not be profaned with impunity. ** All 
 
 BLASPHEMIES AGAINST GOD, ALL IMPOSTURES IN RELIGION, A* 
 FALSELY PR ET EN DING TO EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSIONS FROM 
 GOD, AND TERRIFYING OR ABUS1 N G TH E PEOPLE WITH FALSE 
 
 denunciations of judgment, inasmuch as they tend to subvert 
 all /eligio7i and morality, are punishable by the tempo) al judges with 
 fine and imprisonment, and also such corporal infamous punishment 
 as to the Court in discretion shall seem meet, according to tht heinous- 
 nsss of the crimeJ* — 1 Hawk. Pleas of the Crown, c. 7. 
 
 PRINTED BY HAMBLIN AND SEYFANG, GAILLICK'BILL, 
 THAHXS-STRSET. 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT# U? 
 
 Last Moments of Joanna Southcott. 
 
 On Monday, the 26th of December, 1 8 14-, her disso- 
 lution appeared certain. Dr. Reece, Parson Tozer, Ann 
 Underwood, and others, were in waiting, hourly expect- 
 ing the event, — and about 4 o'clock in the morning of 
 Tuesday, the 27th of December, 1814, she breathed 
 her last, attended in her dying moments by her Chief 
 Priest Tozer, her Secretary, and particular friend, Ann 
 Underwood, and two or three persons of high rank, 
 whose names, from motives of delicacy, we suppress. 
 Her intimate associate and confident, Carpenter, who 
 had set up as a preacher at the chapel, called the "House 
 of God," Newington-Butts, was not present. Upon her 
 refusing to have a Matrimonial unity with this divinity- 
 monger, he threw off the mask, and blew up the whole 
 concern. For some hours previous to her dissolution, she 
 was insensible ; but, before the near approach of that 
 awful event, she seemed to have been somewhat sensible 
 of her danger, although her bigotted proselytes still con- 
 tinued firm in their belief, that her indispositon was 
 merely preliminary to that birth, to which they all leaned 
 with such blind devotion. An eminent surgeon, Mr. 
 Want, of Tottenhan-court-road, had first the credit of 
 awakening Joanna to a doubt of her immortality. Mr. 
 Want, whose name stands high in the medical world, 
 was, it appears, under the sanction of the Prophetess, 
 called in by Mr. Reece, about seven weeks back. He 
 then stated it to be his opinion, that the symptoms should 
 No. 4. m 
 
JlS HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 be examined quite independent of the question of preg- 
 nancy, -even admitting the possibility of that fact. Upon 
 making his observations, however, he unhesitatingly 
 declared, that there was no foundation for the belief of 
 her pregnancy, and but little for the expectation of the 
 woman's recovery. He remarked further, that, although 
 the disease must terminate in death, it was still in the 
 power of medicine to alleviate the patient's sufferings, and 
 relieve the flatulency by which she was oppressed. Upon 
 his return home, to prevent the possibility of mistake, he 
 wrote a letter to -Ann Underwood, then attendant on 
 Joanna, explaining his opinion more fully, and exhort- 
 ing her to use her influence with her deluded friend, to 
 take such medicine as was applicable to her case. To 
 this letter he received an answer from Mrs. Underwood, 
 giving a full description of the symptoms of Joanna's dis- 
 ease, from March last down to the latest period, and con- 
 cluding with an expression of the determination of Mrs. 
 Southcott not to take medicine, unless especially directed 
 so to do by the Lord. 
 
 Mr. Want, after this, was anxious that the poor woman 
 should submit to an examination, so that. the precise state 
 of her disease might be ascertained. To this, however, 
 neither herself nor her friends would accede. The former 
 declared^ that " if she was not pregnant with a human 
 being, she was satisfied there was some Jiving creature 
 within her;" while the latter, still professing their belief 
 in the coming of Skiloh, were shocked at such a propo- 
 sition ! Reference was then had to a prophecy of Jo- 
 anna's, published in 1792, in which she had declared 
 that the mother of Shiloh, previous to his birth, would 
 be as dead for four days, and at the end of that period 
 
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 1-K } 
 
 would revive and be delivered. This they now supposed 
 would be the case, and, while th-ey contemplated her 
 temporary dissolution, they looked with confidence to 
 her resuscitation at the time predicted. 
 
 In the hope that she might become re-animate, which 
 she was satisfied would be the case if she had been visited 
 by. the Lord, she desired that she might be preserved. 
 with "every tender care, for four days after her dissoh - 
 tion, the fourth being that on which she expected to be 
 restored and be delivered.— If, however, that period 
 expired without any symptoms of re-animation, she then 
 directed that her body might be submitted to the hands 
 of skilful operators, who would have an opportunity of 
 ascertaining, whether she had or had not been deluded 
 by the visions of fancy, or led away by evil .spirits, 
 Soon after she had made her pleasure known, the symp- 
 toms of her disease become more virulent, and siua 
 breathed her last!— -This event, which had been expected, 
 excited no painful sensations in the bosoms of her friend. 
 They regarded her as merely "gone for a while/' and 
 with tender solicitude proceeded to wrap her body in 
 warm blankets, to place bottles of hot water to her feet, 
 and, by keeping the room in a state of warmth, endea- 
 voured to preserve the vital spark ! 
 
 The prescribed period of four days and four nights 
 elapsed, and so far was the body from exhibiting appear- 
 ances of a temporary suspension of animation, that it 
 began to display a discoloration which at once brought 
 home to conviction the fact, that the wretched woman 
 was but mortal, and, like other mortals, subject to decay. 
 The hopes of her friends being thus frustrated, prepara- 
 tion were made to dissect her remains. A summons was 
 
120 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 issued to the surgeons, who had expressed a desire to be 
 present, and at two o'clock, fifteen gentlemen had assem- 
 bled, including Messrs. Reece, Want, Clerk, Sims, 
 Adams, Taunton, and nine others. Beside these profes- 
 sional gentlemen, we recognized Parson Tozer, Colonel 
 Harwood, and one or two other of Joanna's followers. 
 
 The body having been placed upon a table, Mr. Reece, 
 and Mr. Want, proceeded to the performance of their 
 disgusting.but required task. The result of this exami- 
 nation, the minute particulars of which we are bound to 
 suppress, were a direct contradiction of her ever having 
 been pregnant, and that her dissolution was occasioned 
 by natural causes. 
 
 The curiosity of the profession having been gratified 
 by this inspection, which displayed nothing more than 
 the intestines inflated with wind and the womb, (so far 
 from a state of pregnancy, remarkably small, without 
 any sign of aShiloh) they took their departure, and the re- 
 sult, having soon become public, the street was for a time 
 in an uproar. Those of the Followers, who anxiously 
 wailed the event, skulked ofFin great tribulation, and were 
 happy to escape the view of the populace, who were 
 outrageous to any person whom they suspected of ad- 
 hering to the doctrine of the Prophetess. By the desire 
 of Joanna some short time since, previous to her death, 
 all the presents which were sent for the use of Shiloh and 
 his mother, crib, &c. were to be restored to the owners. 
 
 At so late a period as the year 1821, a considerable 
 number of her stupid proselytes in the West of England, 
 are looking for her return, and the fulfilment of the 
 poor woman's expectations. 
 
WILLIAM HUNTINGTON. 
 
 121 
 
 WILLIAM HUNTINGTON. 
 
 This adventurer in the religious field occupies a diffe- 
 rent standing to those of his rivals in pious frauds. A spe- 
 cies of derangement is clearly discernible in all those 
 who have fabricated and promulgated religious impostures, 
 but this sinner saved t as he called himself, had more of 
 the art of a knave than a lunatic, since he has assumed no 
 doctrine subductive of the tenets or mysteries of Chris- 
 tianity, but made his religion a stepping stone to mount 
 to fame and riches, and subsequently from being a coal- 
 heaver came to ride in his coach, and marry the titled 
 widow of a Lord Mayor. 
 
 Huntington was born in 1774-, at a place in the Weald 
 of Kent, near Cran brook. His nominal father was a day- 
 labourer, who, as the S. S. {sinner saved) says, was shut out 
 of his own bed for years by a wretch that defiled both his 
 wife and his bed, and hence he was the offspring of a 
 double adultery. Barnabas Russel, his real father, put 
 him to a day-school, where he bareiy learned to read and 
 write. His nominal father, by the kind assistance of 
 Russel, had eleven children, five of whom died young. 
 Being afterwards taken to thrash in the barn, but soon 
 getting weary of hard living and fourpence a day, he 
 obtained a place in a yeoman's family, who engaged hira 
 for three years at 20s. a year, and his perquisites were to 
 find him in linen and other things. Unluckily for him his 
 master one day having some guests who gave him thirteen 
 shillings, this occasioned a dispute about the division 
 
122 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 of it, the maid; aided by the mistress, demanding two 
 thirds, the S. S. insisted on keeping it, and thus lost his 
 place. 
 
 At his next place a reprobate fellow-servant under- 
 mined the good principles he had received in his child- 
 hood, and the exciseman dreadfully terrified him, who, 
 with his ink-bottle and pen at his button-hole, he took 
 for a demon sent to record children's sins. From this 
 service, he went to live at Battle- Abbey, and afterwards 
 ■with a clergyman, at Frittenden, in the Weald of Kent. 
 Here he became acquainted with a little black-eyed girl, 
 whose father suspecting some danger in their intercourse, 
 gave him to understand 'his visits were no longer agree- 
 able. The mother however was less repugnant, and* 
 though at first he thought nothing of the girl, he at last 
 became entangled, and says, "she shot me through the 
 heart, and I could have served as many years for Susan 
 Fever as Jacob did for Rachel." 
 
 He seems to have loved Susan sincerely, and she 
 returned his affection; but, after a year and a half of 
 "lingering happiness," finding, as a day-labourer, he. 
 should be unable to support her, he set about learning the 
 art of gun-making, under the instruction of a brother-in- 
 law; he accordingly quitted his servitude, and now and 
 then walked thirty miles with a light heart to visit his 
 mistress, hoping he should soon be in a situation to enable 
 to marry. Unfortunately however his brother-in-law 
 turned out a drunkard, and at length run away, leaving 
 him in a worse situation than he was before. The tailor 
 and his wife now began to wish that their daughter would 
 disengage her affections, and a suitor offering who was 
 
WILLIAM HUNTINGTON. 123 
 
 in good circumstances, the S. S. partly out of malice of 
 his more successful rival, seduced the girl, and then 
 engaged himself in a different part of the country, where 
 in due time he received a visit from the parish-officer of 
 Frittenden, to whom he engaged to pay the stipulated 
 charge for the maintenance of the child, which he did 
 till illness and poverty drove him to a second removal, 
 and compelled him to change his name to avoid detection. 
 
 The S. S. declares that he loved this girl, and kept his 
 vows of constancy unbroken till she married another; 
 but his faith was easily reconciled to any breach of pro- 
 mise by a firm belief that she was appointed for another, 
 and that he had scripture-examples in plenty for changing 
 his name, which after all he calls no change but a mere 
 addition, his nominal father's name being Hunt, and he 
 having added ington to it, and with his new name, he 
 affirms, he was baptized with the Holy Ghost, " and 
 thus," he continues, "old things are passed away, behold, 
 all things are become new." 
 
 After some years he married, and took ready- furnished 
 lodgings at Mortlake. A hard winter brought the young 
 couple to feel much want, and he lost his first child at 
 four months old in a convulsion fit, (and five more in the 
 same way afterwards,) which appears to have keenly 
 wounded his heart. — Lameness and indigence made him 
 feel he was under the chastising hand of God for his sins, 
 and spiritual convictions began to plough so deep into his 
 heart, as r to make way for the word of eternal life. He 
 now withdrew from all profane company, and at times 
 he declares, in despair of finding mercy, he was on the 
 point of throwing himself into the Thames. He after- 
 
i24 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 wards went to live at Sunbury, to take a gardner's place, 
 while his wife paid a visit to her relations ; here he was 
 lodged in a room where his predecessor had cut his throat, 
 having been detected in embezzling his master's money, 
 and what was worse he had to sleep in the suicide's bed. 
 His temptations to suicide increased with reflexions; how- 
 ever, after many conflicts and dialogues with the Devil, 
 he was favoured with the light of a beautiful and perfect 
 rainbow, and because God's word says "I do set my bow 
 in the clouds," he was immediately satisfied the Bible 
 was true; and this was further confirmed by going one 
 morning at day-break to his work, when it came into his 
 mind that Christ was born in the East, and that if he 
 directed his eyes to that quarter, he would straight look to 
 the spot of his blessed nativity : just at that moment the 
 sun rose above the hills, and rapture so filled his heart, 
 that he couid not forbear weeping aloud. Being a little 
 encouraged by the light of the rainbow, he prayed and 
 fasted most 1 igourously, and went to the communion table 
 in a state of great horror, but now the Devil persuaded 
 him that he had communicated unworthily, and to drown 
 all reflexions on God and futurity, he took to ale-house 
 excesses, in which he continued, till an acquaintance, a 
 moral man, gave him a sermon, that alarmed him so 
 much, that he fancied he was in hell. He stripped him^ 
 self stark-naked to pray, and laid the Bible under his 
 pillow, that the Devil might not fly away with him. 
 Attached to the established church, he determined to- 
 wander from preacher to preacher, till some one could 
 give him relief. Someone soon after lent him a sectarian 
 little bool>, which recommend the sinner to enter into 
 
WILLIAM HUNTINGTON. 125 
 
 covenant with God; this he did, stripping himself naked 
 and vowing to perform all its conditions, but before a week 
 was out he broke through all the cond ition?, his strength 
 declined, and he thought of leaving his wife and child, 
 quitting his employ, and wandering about to starve and 
 die.— Driven to despair by the doctrine of election and 
 reprobation, of which he was a firm believer, he was one 
 day before Christmas suddenly relieved from his blasphe- 
 mous temptations and doubts while pruning a large pear 
 tree against a wall, when a sudden great light shone 
 around him, and a straight line appeared to him down 
 through the whole world, one the line of confession^ the 
 other the line of inheritance, or the elect, and the human 
 race was placed in one or the other. He came down, 
 saw nothing but the vision, and heard a voice plainly 
 say, "Lay by your forms of prayer, and go pray to Jesus 
 Christ. " He then went into the tool-house; took off his 
 blue apron, and hid his face in it, and boldly prayed, "O 
 . Lord I am a sinner, and you know it. I have tried to 
 make myself better, and cant. If there is any way left 
 to^save me, do save me; if not I must be damned, for I 
 cannot try any more, and will not." This appeal did 
 the business: he prayed for a quarter of an hour, when 
 Christ appeared in a full blaze of glory, and though ho 
 fell on his face, the vision was still present. The result 
 was he rose up disencumbered of all his doubts and fears, 
 and found that he had done with work. He therefore 
 went on Sunbury Common, and prayed, and in the even- 
 ing repaired to the green-house to pray, then came home 
 laughing, read in the Bible, and all that appeared dark 
 before was now made plain. Next Sunday he attended 
 
12$ HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 at church, but it was only to ridicule the service as a 
 tissue of contradictions and a mockery of the Almighty. 
 At home he directy burnt the Whole Duty of Man, and 
 other natural books of piety, and resolved to set up tor 
 himself as a preacher, the first step to which was his 
 being ordained by Toriel Joss, whom he had previously- 
 declared was the only man whom he had ever heard 
 preach the Bible. — Some time before this he had engaged 
 himself to a manufacturer of gunpowder at Ewe!, in. 
 Surry, at lis. a week in summer, and singularly managed 
 to keep house for half-a-cfown a week; he now began 
 to draw largely upon his Bank of Faith, which seems to 
 have so abundantly provided him with fish, game, ample 
 gleaning, &c. that he some how was dismissed from his 
 master's service, and his wife's nimble hand at gleaning 
 drove her from the field. 
 
 Compelled to remove to Thames Ditton, he here car- 
 ried coals at 10s. per week for 14 months, preaching oa 
 Sundays, and at an evening lecture every week, where 
 he obtained the title of the coal-heaver. A professor 
 taught him to make children's shoes, but finding it im- 
 possible to cobble, to preach five or sis times a week, and 
 coal-heave, he gave up his awls and shovel, and set him- 
 self to the work of the ministry, under the ordination as 
 before mentioned of Toriel Joss. He not long after pub- 
 lished his famous work, called "God the Guardian of 
 the Poor, and the Bank of Faith ; or a display of the 
 Providences of God "which have at sundry times attended 
 the Author." This book affords numerous ludicrous 
 details of the familiar terms he was on with the Almighty 
 and the blessed Saviour; a kind of a hail fellow, well 
 
WILLIAM HUNTINGTON. " 127 
 
 met way of telling his. wants, and getting them supplied. 
 Hence he wants nothing that he does not find — a fine 
 rabbit lies in the path, a friend gives him halfaa-guinea 
 when he is pennyless; he borrows a guinea, and when 
 he expects the lender to call for it, he tells him to keep 
 it: he gets a new suit when threadbare, and a horse was 
 purchased for him by subscription, for whose keep the 
 Bank of Faith supplied whatever was necessary. 
 
 The S. S. in his book gives an account that the effect 
 of horse-riding was to wear out his breeches, and he was 
 likely to go bare-breeched unless his "invaluable Master, 
 with whom, he often made very free in his prayers," 
 would send him a pair. Going to town, and calling on 
 a shoemaker in Shepherd's Market there was a pair in a 
 parcel left for him, and the fitting was (as might be 
 expected) neat and tight, because his "Master had 
 bespoke them for him \" He next laboured to persuade 
 his wife to lire by faith, and succeeded so well, that, 
 with their joint efforts in prayers, petticoats, gowns, 
 hams, bacon, poultry, fish, money, and all the contents 
 of an American store, came rolling in at the critical 
 juncture of their being wanted. 
 
 At Sunbury however, while preaching, he was recog- 
 nised by a "professing" carpenter, who recollected his 
 absconding from his parish, while named Wm. Hunt, 
 and leaving his illegitimate child. The carpenter went 
 to Cranbrook, and there informed a spiritual sister of the 
 S. S. that he was alive and prosperous, and advised her, 
 as she was poor, to ask his assistance y on the next lecture 
 night a letter was delivered to him in his right name, at 
 the meeting door, an event very highly gratifying to a 
 
128 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMrOSTURES. 
 
 number of persons standing roand, the door who were 
 under prosecution by the S. $. for riotous conduct in his 
 meeting. The preacher however/by the aid of scripture 
 references, got through the charge very well, paid £30 
 to the parish he had absconded from, and in his book con- 
 fessed his intention, when he could spare a little money, 
 to see his son before he died. He was then living at a 
 farmer's in Tenterden, near Cranbrook, Kent, "but 
 what name he goes by," says he S. S. "I know not, nor 
 have I had time to enquire, 1 have had so much to do 
 
 about my own /" 
 
 Wearv of Thames Ditton, and the persecution there, 
 he made known to his friends that the Lord had called 
 him to London, and whither he and his family went. 
 The grand object was to procure a Chapel, but he pro- 
 tests he did not know how to ask God to lend him a lift; 
 yet all things conspired favorably; one friend found out 
 a snus bit of ground, and another planned a chapel 
 while hearing the S. S. and offered to conduct it gratis. 
 The S. S v was ^20 in debt when he took the ground, and 
 .£11 was all the first offerings, which were soon expended 
 on the foundation of Providence Chapel. He ordered a 
 load of timber— it was sent as a contribution. Paint for 
 the pulpit, desk, &c.-a bed-room handsomely furnished 
 thathis coal-heaving feetmight be kept dry in cold winter- 
 nights— a chapel looking glass, chairs, china, a tea-chest 
 full of strong gunpowder,— all came tumbling in; yet 
 
 notwithstanding what was so liberally sent, he owns he 
 was ,£1000 in arrears; "so, (as he says,) I had plenty 
 
 of work for faith, if I could but get plenty of faith to 
 
 work." 
 
WILLIAM HUNTINGTON. 129 
 
 Unlike the benevolent Wesley in practice as in doc- 
 trine, he sought only to tile himself in with a snug 
 congregation — Arminianisn he detested as a diabolical 
 phrenzy, and preferred rather to be a Deist. He was a 
 rank Antinomian, and was at war with the church man 
 and the dissenter, the last of whom he handled most 
 virulently. — In his clerical capacity he was formidably 
 attached by the Rev. Rowland Hill, whose influence had 
 excluded the S. S. from the Tabernacle at Greenwich. 
 Mr. Hill's sermon was taken down by the Bank of Faith. 
 disciples, and shewn to their captain, who lost no time 
 in replying to his esteemed antagonist, in that peculiai 
 sarcastic manner which attracted so many to hear him* 
 Timothy Priestly, brother ot the celebrated Dr. Priestly, 
 the Unitarian and Chemist, opposed the S. S. and his 
 antimomiauism ; but the latter treated hirn more roughly 
 than he did Rowland. He answered him in a work called 
 «' The Barber, or Timothy Priestly shaved, as reflected 
 from his own Looking-Glass." Twenty volumes were 
 filled out with this preacher's account of his own life and 
 writings, and his imitations of Bunyan and his poetry. One 
 Poem directs in a prefatory address 
 
 To Mistress Langster, now at number eight, 
 'Tis by the new St. Luke's, that's built of late. 
 At Old-street end you'll find the dame's abodefe 
 In Winkworth's buildings on the City-Road, 
 
 Bramab, the Patent Lock-maker, was among his con!><*# 
 Tersialists — but the S. S. tells him, thought he may make 
 a good patent-lock, he cuts a sad figure with the keys of 
 the kingdom of heaven.— ^Bensley the Printer was a firm 
 believer in him, whom he calls "dear brother in the 
 
130 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 Lord, and dear Tom in the flesh." Of Mr. and Mrs. Baker, 
 of Oxford-street, he says, " while the chapel was build- 
 ing, if there was one shilling in the house, I was sure to 
 have it." The good people, jointly with their shepherd, 
 bought a piece of ground near Petersham, and erected a 
 substantial tomb there, that their dust might mingle 
 together. Eventually Mr. H's friends settled him i n a coun- 
 try-house, stocked his garden and farm, and presented 
 him with acoach and pair, paying the taxes for each, that 
 he might travel comfortably to and from his chapel. His 
 wife, who was such an extensive gleaner, being dead, he 
 preached himself into the good graces of Lady Sanderson, 
 whose husband was Lord Mayor of London, and married 
 her. 
 
 His Chapel in Titchfield-street being burnt down, 
 another was built for him in Gray's Inn Lane, and he 
 properly said, "Providence must be its name, for Provi- 
 dence must provide for it." He would not bind himself 
 to pay any part of the expences, and had the chapel 
 assigned over to him, which he bequeathed to his w r idow, 
 who resigned it afterwards to the congregation. 
 
 The Quarterly Review has justly remarked, that, '♦men 
 of Huntingdon's stamp not unfrequently end in becoming 
 their own dupes." Thus it was in the case of Joanna 
 Southcott. It could have been only the delirium of vanity 
 and the intoxication of success which made him boldly 
 Jay claim to the spirit of prophecy. When Buonaparte 
 went to Egypt, he predicted his downfal from Isaiah, 
 and that neither he nor a man of his army would ever 
 return to France. About 18 10 he imagined the Catholics 
 woul$ oome into power, and advance till they had effect- 
 
WILLUM HUNTINGTON. 131 
 
 ed the great and last slaughter of the saints, which would 
 be about the year 1870. "This, (says his Reviewer,) 
 was laying the prophecy at a safe distance. There were 
 persons who persisted in crediting the dreams of Joanna 
 Southcott, after she was dead and buried ; and, though 
 the poor creature, before she died, was convinced that a 
 delusion had possessed her, they believed her, in spite 
 of herself, and insisted that she was gone to bring forth 
 the promised birth in heaven." The followers of the S. S. 
 were as implicit believers. In his church goverment, he 
 ruled with the most arbitrary domination. He was always 
 attended by an overflowing auditory of the working classes, 
 was gentle and persuasive in his preaching, and possess- 
 ed a wonderful fund of scripture quotation suited to the 
 subject he was on. As he advanced towards the grave he 
 became alarmed lest his old age should become barren in 
 the ministry. He did not long survive his old and kind 
 friend, Baker, but died at Tunbridge Wells in 1813; 
 dictating his own Epitaph, "Here lies the coal-heaver, 
 Beloved of his God, but abhorred by men. The omni- 
 scient Judge at the Grand Assize shall satisfy and con- 
 firm this to the confusion of many thousands: For 
 England and its Metropolis shall know that there has 
 been a Prophet among them." He was buried at Lewes, 
 and at his desire no funeral sermon was preached, nor 
 any thing said over his grave. 
 
 That covetousness and worldy minded ness were con- 
 spicuous in Huntington's character, may be gathered from, 
 the whole tenour of his conduct : his bitter and uncharit- 
 able spirit appears in his writings; and many instances 
 occur of his audacious, not to say, blasphemous, pretea- 
 
132 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 sions. Yet, that he was useful to others cannot be denied, 
 notwithstanding his spiritual pride and uncharitable feel- 
 ings. He at last by dealing so much in religion became 
 religious himself, and he certainly attracted by his pecu- 
 liar unimpassioned manner and long sermons, hundreds 
 of working men, who attended him regularly, and whom 
 he collected as stray sheep into his fold, that he might 
 gather a little of their wool. He made use of no action, 
 never ranted, and his tone of voice was mild and agree- 
 able. While the singing was going on before the sermon, 
 he sat perfectly still, with his eyes directed downward, 
 as if absorbed in profound contemplation. His method of 
 marking any word he wanted to be emphatic was by a 
 complaisant nod of his head, nor was a syllable lost by his 
 open-mouthed and open-eared auditory, — Several preach- 
 ers adopted his manner and his principles after his 
 decease, but neither he nor they have effected the 
 organizing of any sect. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 JAMES NAYLER, 
 
 a jranatic enttotim, 
 
 WHO PROFANELY AND BLASPHEMOUSLY PERSONATED 
 
 JESUS CHRIST, 
 
 AT LONDON, BRISTOL, &c. &c. 
 
 The Examinations of him and his Adherents; his Punish- 
 ment by Order of Parliament, after his riotous 
 procedure had engaged their attention for 
 Ten Days, during the Year 1656 ; 
 
 AND 
 
 AN ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 RETRACTION OF HIS SEVERAL ERRORS, 
 
 Sfc. Sfc. 
 
 BY D. HUGHSON, LL.D. 
 
 EDITOR OF THE HISTORY OF LONDON, AND OTHER WORKS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR AND PUBLISHED BY S. A. ODDY, 
 
 2, IVY-LANE, NEWGATE-STREET. 
 1814. 
 
PRINTED BY HAMB1IN AND SEYFANC, 
 GARLICK-HILL, THAMES-STREET. 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 
 
 1618-1660. 
 
 JOEFORE we enter upon the account of this extra- 
 ordinary character; one who made his conduct the 
 subject of parliamentary interference, and who certain- 
 ly merited some part of, though not all, the punishment 
 he met with, and which probably, in the end, restored 
 him to himself as well as to a due acknowledgement of 
 his crime ; it may be necessary for us to observe, that in 
 the course of our History of Impostures we do not aU 
 tempt to enter upon discussions of merely religious prin- 
 ciples, or of the different doctrines by which Christians of 
 all denominations point out the way to salvation ; conse- 
 quently, in our anecdotes of James Nayler, we enter into 
 no arguments concerning the tenets of that worthy class 
 ©f men, truly denominated M Friends," but vulgarly 
 called Quakers. That they suffered persecution, both at 
 the time of the Usurpation, and during the reigns of 
 Charles II. and James II. the English history sufficient- 
 ly exemplifies ; but that any odium should have at- 
 tached to such a respectable and well-meaning body, 
 on account of the extravagancies of this miserable vi- 
 sionary and his associates, is what we absolutely disbe- 
 lieve, and, therefore, think ourselves fully justified in 
 discrediting any relations, however eminent the writers* 
 
HISTORY OF REU610US IMPOSTURES. 
 
 to the contrary. We perfectly coincide in the ju- 
 diciously arranged, and well drawn up account of the 
 Quakers in the Reverend Mr. Evan's Sketch of Reli- 
 gious Denominations, and subscribe to his candid and 
 unprejudiced opinions respecting such a simple and un- 
 aspiring body of Christians. 
 
 In such a disposition, therefore, we are willing to con- 
 cede, and do grant to him, what has been observed by 
 the benevolent Joseph Gurney Bevan, in his "Refutation 
 -of some of the more modern Misrepresentations of the 
 Society of Friends, &c" yet he mus: allow us to use our 
 judgment discretionally, when we take upon us to de- 
 clare our opinion, that though he is a condemner of what 
 he denominates "James Nayler's fall," still he is de- 
 sirous of being an apologist for his general conduct, his 
 doctrines, and his writing*. Let the facts speak for 
 themselves ; for even if we were to state those facts, 
 as Mr. Bevan has done, still we think that the unpre- 
 judiced would agree with us, that JaraesNayler's conduct 
 was as mischievous as his principles were blasphemous. 
 
 The place of Nayler's birth was at Ardsley, a village 
 Bear Wakefield, in Yorkshire; and was of a family of 
 sufficient estate, with industry, to enjoy a comfortable 
 subsistence. He was born in 1618, and on his marriage, 
 about 164-0, removed to Wakefield ; on the breaking 
 out of the civil war, in 1641, he entered as a soldier in 
 the parliament army, under Fairfax, and served after- 
 wards as a quarter-master, under Lambert. After having 
 been eight years in the army, sickness disabled him 
 from his military employ, and he was compelled to re- 
 turn to Wakefield. His religious profession at this pe- 
 riod, was that of the Independents, 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 
 
 In the year 1651, the famous George Fox had com* 
 menced preaching, and entered Wakefield, where, hav- 
 ing had Niyler as one of his auditors, he so far approved 
 of Fox's doctrines that he readily consented to what 
 they promulgated ; " not," as Fox informs us in his Jour- 
 nal, " that Nayler was convinced at a meeting; but that 
 he came to him and was convinced/' And it is also 
 probable, that he had sought the company of Fox, in 
 order to discover if the doctrine of the latter could sa- 
 tisfy the want, which every thoughtful and sincere man 
 must find, from indecision in a matter, as Mr. Bevan 
 observe.*, so important as that which concerns the fu- 
 ture well-being of the soul. " That so many serious 
 persons at this period," he continues, " should be un- 
 settled and undecided is no matter of surprise. England 
 was then torn with intestine commotion, on account of 
 religion ; and the professed followers of the Prince of 
 Peace were either pretending to defend his cause by the 
 'sword, or making that cause a colour for their own 
 ambition. It was, and it long continued fo be, a time of 
 violence and extremes; and if any of the primitive 
 Quakers partook, in any degree, of the temper of th« 
 times, and were, in a greater or less proportion, shaken 
 from the centre of immutable tru:h; those surely who 
 do not, with them, allow the notion of a spiritual in- 
 ward direction of the conduct, should be the foremost to 
 palliate that, to which man by nature is so evidently- 
 prone/' 
 
 It seems that, from his youth, Nayler had been a per- 
 son attentive to religion. The Committee of Parliament, 
 before whom he was afterwards summoned* however. 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 accuse him of blasphemy, and what it terms r uncivil and 
 wanton carriage with a married woman 5' which is swelled 
 into adultery by a person named Deacon, who wrote two 
 pamphlets against Nayler, about the time that sentence 
 by that parliament was passed on him. It should be ob- 
 served, that this Deacon was then an opponent to Nay- 
 ler in his writings. 
 
 In oonsequence of the change in his religious princi- 
 ples, he believed himself bound "in religious duty" to 
 leave his family, and travel, as chance might direct 
 him, or u as the way might, from time to time, be opened 
 in his mind. He declared himself to have received this 
 commission, while he was meditating on the things of 
 God, iu the field at plough ; that he then heard a voice, 
 bidding him go out from his kindred and from his father's 
 house, wkh a promise, that the Lord would be with 
 him. He says, that he exceedingly rejoiced to hear the 
 voice of the Lord, whom he had professed from a child, 
 and had endeavoured to serve; and made some prepa- 
 ration for his journey ; that he afterwards, however, was 
 disobedient to this voice, on which account he declares 
 the wrath of God was upon him, so that he appeared 
 in danger of losing his life ; till at length, going a lit- 
 tle way from home with a friend, not then thinking of 
 a journey, and unprovided for one, he was commanded 
 to go into the west. What was the purpose of his 
 mission he knew not ; but on his arrival, it wa*s given 
 him what to declare; and thus he continued, not know- 
 ing one day what he was to do on the morrow." It 
 does not appear clearly whether this Journey was to the 
 west of England, or only westward of his habitation. 
 
JAMES NAYLEIU 
 
 Wakefield. The latter is most probable, for in the year 
 1652, we find him suiieri ng much personal abu^e at Wal- 
 ney Island, in Lancashire, disputing with the clergy in 
 Westmoreland ; and finally, in the month of November in 
 that year, indicted at the quarter-sessions at Appleby, for 
 what was termed blasphemy : that is, according to the 
 indictment, for having said that Christ was in him, and 
 there was but one word of God. On this occasion it 
 appears, that divers of the commonwealth preachers 
 either had been the promoters of the arrest, or ac- 
 cusers on the trial. It turned much on the circum- 
 stance of Nayler's asserting Christ to be in him; but 
 concluded without convicting him of the blasphemy for 
 which he had been indicted. Nevertheless, the justices 
 ordered him io be kept in prion, until certain petitions 
 should be answered, which had been preferred against 
 him, George Fox, Francis Howgil, and others. By this 
 must have been meant answers by the prisoners to the 
 allegations of the petitioners. James Nayler remained 
 about twenty weeks in prison, during which time he 
 published jointly with George Fox, a pamphlet, intitled, 
 ' Several Petitioners answered, that were put up by the 
 Priests of Westmoreland,' &c. It is singular, if this 
 piece procured his liberty, seeing it abounds with cen-* 
 sure, not very gently expressed, against the petition- 
 ing ministers. There is in it, among other things, a paper, 
 signed jervts iienson, who had been one of tire magis 
 trates on the bench at Appleby, whereby it appears, 
 that, although it was alleged (another account say?, by 
 Benson himself,) that the words spoken by Nay ier, were 
 not within the act against blasphemy, nor against any 
 Jk 2 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 law; two other magistrates had declared themselves 
 willing to risque the being fined at the assizes, rather 
 than that he should have his liberty ; also that Justice 
 Pearson told his colleague Benson, the subscriber of 
 the paper, that he must give au account of their pro- 
 ceedings to the ministers and others. So priest-rid- 
 den, if this paper be genuine, was a quarter-sessions in 
 1652. 
 
 M It will not be foreign to the business of illustrating 
 Ihe long defamed character of Nayler, to observe, that 
 Pearson, although not appearing friendly to him, re- 
 ceived on this occasion such impressions in favour of the 
 principles held by Friends, that he afterwards joined 
 them, and became himself an open and ahle advocate 
 for them in writing : and this in a work not written 
 from the impulse (as it is called) of the moment, and 
 without study, or consultation of writers, but evincing 
 a mind which had well weighed the subject, and was 
 well versed in it.* 
 
 " The same year that Nayler was released from Ap- 
 pleby gaol, if not during his confinement in it, we find 
 him also writing a paper, entitled, ' Truth cleared from 
 Scandal, being James Nayler's Answer and Declaration, 
 touching some things charged upon him in the Lanca- 
 shire Petition/f It seems by this, that the ministers in 
 
 * "The great State of T.ythes, truly stated, clearly opened, 
 and fully resolved, by Anthony Pearson, formerly a Justice of 
 the Peace in Westmoreland." 
 
 f This was a petition to the council of state against Fox and 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 
 
 Lancashire had also been alarmed at his doctrine j and 
 when we consider he was one of the early declaimers 
 against forced maintenance, it is not wonderful that 
 they should be. A doctrine, at all times disagreeable 
 to the lucrative teacher, had then also the appearance of 
 innovation; and when the support of preconceived aud 
 gainful opini ■:».*, and not truth, is the object of solici- 
 tude, Innovation is an alarming won ." 
 
 How far Mr. Bevan's preceding observation may be just, 
 respecting " preconceived and gainful opinions," we will 
 not take upon us to decide. Yet we cannot help ex- 
 pressing an opinion, that the language of an apologist 
 should always be moderate at least, especially when 
 there are two points to one argument, in which, till the 
 present moment, there are as many advocates, and those 
 very able < nes too, on both sides of the question, and 
 each producing powerful documents in support of those 
 opinions, which are, and ever will be, undivided. 
 However, we shall take a liberty with Mr. Bevan's 
 biography of Nayler a little longer: — 
 
 " It mi^ht not, however, have been necessary to 
 mention this paper, on account of the persons to whom 
 it was an answer; but as it contains James Nayler's be- 
 lief concerning Christ, it is material to be noticed; be- 
 cause the outcry, that was a few years after raised 
 against him, was on the pretence of great error on this 
 point of faith. 
 
 Nayler. It was lik"wi«e answered by them jointly, in a book 
 called SauVs Errand in Damascus, with his Packet of betters from 
 the High. Priests _against the Disciple of the Lord* 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 " « Concerting Jesus Christ, (says Nayler,) who is 
 the eternal word of God, by whom all things are made 
 and are upholden, who was before all time, but mani- 
 fested in time for the recovery of lost man, which word 
 became flesh, and dwelt among the saint.*, who is the 
 same yesterday, and to-day, and forever; who did and 
 doth dwell in the saints; who suffered and rose again, 
 and ascended into heaven, and is set on the right hand 
 of God ; to whom all power is given, in heaven and in 
 earth; who filleth all places; he is the light of the 
 world, but known to none but those who receive and 
 follow him; and those he leads up to God, out of all 
 the ways, works, and worships of the world, by his 
 pure light in them, whereby he reveals the man of sin, 
 and by his power casts him out, and so prepares the 
 bodies of the saints a fit temple for the pure God to 
 dwell in, with whom dwells no unclean thing. And 
 thus he reconciles God and man, and the image of God 
 which in purity and holiness is renewed ; and the image 
 of Satan, which is all sin and uncleanness, is defaced. 
 And none can witness redemption further than Christ is 
 thus revealed in them, to set them free from sin : which, 
 Christ I witness to oe revealed in me in measure.? Gal. 
 i. 16 2 Cor. xiii. 5. Col, i. 27.' 
 
 " The other heads of the paper are,, concerning the 
 Scriptures, baptism, the resurrection,, magistracy, and 
 the ministry. 
 
 " After the termination of his confinement, Nayler 
 continued Travelling in the service of the Gospel in the 
 north of England, and at length, in the year 1645, came 
 to London, He declares himself to have entered into 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 
 
 that city with the greatest fear that had ever been his 
 experience on entering into any place : in spirit fore- 
 seeing that something would befal him in it; but not 
 knowing what it should be.* It is with (difficulty we 
 trace his proceedings in London, and afterwards in the 
 country, with accuracy. It is probable the Quakers 
 Were so much grieved with the occasion for reproach, 
 which he gave, that none of them thought fit to note 
 occurrences which they probably wished to be forgotten. 
 But they have been, and will be, remembered. Let us 
 therefore endeavour to view them through as few false 
 mediums as we can ; and it will be found that the story 
 is not less fraught with instruction, than the thing itself 
 was with reproach : for, where is the man, be his natu- 
 ral qualifications, his acquirements, or his gifts, what 
 they may, who can say he has no need of caution ? 
 •' Let him that thinketh that he standeth, take heed lest 
 he fall." 
 
 ** It appears that Edward Burrough, and Francis 
 Howgil (Kayler's fellow-prisoners at Appleby,) had 
 been the means of gathering a congregation of Friends 
 in London, previously to the arrival of James Nayler. 
 Much admiration, however, was excited in many of the 
 hearers by the preaching of the latter; so much indeed 
 as to induce some inconsiderate women to undervalue 
 Burrough and Howgil, and to disturb them in their mU 
 nistry. This disorderly behaviour was reproved by the 
 
 * This is in a small piece entitled, < To the Life of God 
 in All :' one of the papers in which he describes the means of 
 his fall. 
 
10 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 two ministers; but the women not being silenced, as it 
 was hardly to be expected they would be, by the re- 
 prehension of persons whom they had taken upon them 
 to judge, preferred, against Burrough and Howgil, their 
 complaints to Nayler ; and endeavoured to incense him 
 against them. James did not appear forward to condemn 
 his friends; but this effect of well-founded fears in- 
 creased the earnestness of his wild admirers; one of 
 whom falling into a kind of passionate grief, exclaimed, 
 in a shrill but mournful voice, *I looked for judgment? 
 but, behold a cry.' The piercing lamentations of this 
 woman are considered as having had a great share in 
 overturning the judgment of Nayler; and he became 
 not only the dupe of her violent grief, and of that of 
 her associates but was also further led aside by their 
 flattery: while, from his former intimates* the leading 
 members of the society of Friends, he was more and more 
 estranged. For about this time were those letters writ- 
 ten to him, m which he is said to have been addressed 
 by the title of Everlasting Son of Righteousness, or that 
 of Prince of Peace, only begotten Son of God, Fairest 
 often thousand, tic. That several persons should be found 
 to concur in such impious adulation, is at first sight a 
 matter of surprize; nevertheless, the page of ecclesias- 
 tical history has but too many instances of the extrava* 
 gant effect of unbridled fancy, interfering in the pro- 
 vince of religion : but, though these furnish matter of 
 ridicule to the scoffer, and of exultation to the infidel, 
 they in no wise shake the confidence of the humble be- 
 liever; but enforce, with emphasis, the injunction,. 
 « Watch I" 
 
JAMES NAYLER. l\ 
 
 " Nayler allows this time to have been a time of 
 darkness; a darkness of which probably they can best, 
 if not only, judge, who have witnessed a state of light. 
 The worldly mind, which slights the idea of divina 
 illumination, and which is contented with the twilight 
 of mere human judgment, arising, as it often does, from 
 misconception, as it cannot comprehend the clearness of 
 the light which the single eye receives, so neither can 
 it fathom the darkness consequent on the close of that 
 eye of faith, which hath been once opened in the soul. 
 1 If the light that is in you become darkness, how great 
 is that darkness \" It therefore frequently condemns 
 where it ought to pity, or at least it omits to add pity 
 to its condemnation. Thus acted, I believe, those who 
 •contrived the punishment of James Nayler, It is re- 
 markable that Nayler declared it to be his fear of op- 
 posing what might be right in his partizans, that pre- 
 vented ibis opposing and reproving their extravagancies. 
 Having lost his spirit of discernment, he was in a situa- 
 tion to accept almost any thing as truth, more especially 
 that which was gratifying ; and, however his will had 
 been concerned in the early part of his deviation, I am 
 inclined to think that, in its progress, he did not intend 
 evil; but thought himself forbearing, in humility, to 
 jadge the actions of others : and receiving their honour 
 not as done to his person, but to that extraordinary 
 manifestation of Christ, which he continued to think he 
 possessed. This opinion the sequel may establishor over- 
 throw. Let us proceed with the narrative. 
 
 f* We are not clearly informed at what time of Nay- 
 •lef*s residence in London the disturbances which he 
 
12 HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 occasioned begun. I apprehend not until 1656; for it 
 is not likely a course so extravagant should have been 
 long without a check. In £055 and 1656, he appear, 
 to have published about sixteen pamphlets, several of 
 them controversial, and some of them which were not 
 so ; being republished in the collection of his works, 
 1716, it seems to show that he had not, at the time of 
 their' being written, separated from the fellowship of 
 the Friends. Nor indeed does it appear that he was 
 forward to do so ; for the next memorial we have of 
 him, as it confirms my opinion of the date of his 
 errors, proves his desire to retain his acquaintance 
 with his friends. Tn the summer of 1655, George 
 Fox was in prison at Launceston, and James Nay- 
 ler, on his way to pay him a visit, was himself 
 imprisoned at Exeter.' With the exact cause of his 
 being confined, aad with the mode of his release, we 
 are unacquainted ;* but as it appears that his frantic 
 companions were with him, it may be supposed it was 
 owing to some disturbance which was raised. As other 
 Friends, however, on their way to see George Fox, 
 
 " * An anonymous account, published 1719, entitled, ' Me- 
 moirs of the Life, Ministry, Trials, and Sufferings, of James 
 Nayler, the Quakers' great Apostle,* cites the Committee ot 
 Parliament, as mentioning in their Report, that he was com- 
 mitted as a vagrant, and released by order of council. The 
 author denies the former, and says in a note, that Saunders 
 gave him liberty to go on his journey; but that he was 
 brought back about twenty miles, and committed by a judge, 
 and fined twenty marks fur not putting off his hat.— N-B. The 
 author of the Memoirs appears to be a violent admirer of 
 Nayler, though probably not a Quaker.'* 
 
J A ME? NAY LEU. 13 
 
 were imprisoned at Exeter, this supposition is not conclu- 
 sive; although George Fox hints at a disturbance which. 
 Nayler had previously occasioned at Bristol. George 
 Fox was released from Launceston on the 13th of the 
 seventh month (September,) and after a short stay in 
 Cornwall, was himself the visitor at Exeter prison bf 
 those whose intention it had been to visit him, in his se- 
 vere durance at Launceston. William Penn says of 
 George Fox, that ' he was a discerner of other mens' 
 spirits, and much a master of his own,' Fox, in his jour* 
 nal, declares his sense, that Nayler and his company 
 were wrong, and dates his deviation, which Fox calls 
 his running out into imaginations, to a little time before 
 his own release from prison. George Fox had a meet- 
 ing with the prisoners, but Nayler did not remain with 
 them while the meeting was held; and the following 
 day, George speaking to him (probably by way of ad- 
 vice,) James, though he slighted his advice, offered to 
 George a salutation, which the latter, in his turn, re- 
 jected : saying, that 'since Nayler had turned against 
 the power of God, he could not receive his show of kind- 
 ness.' George adds, in the same paragraph of his jour- 
 nal, ' After some time he returned to truth again.' The 
 sight of his return was, probably, then at a distance, 
 for in this prison he suffered three of his female adhe- 
 rents to kneel before him and kiss his feet. 
 
 •« Being released from Exeter, he made his way to- 
 wards Bristol, his flattering companions attending him. It 
 is said, by an adversary, that garments were strewed in 
 his way at Glastonbury and Wells; but it is allowed on 
 all hands, that his entry into Eristol was in imitation 
 
 N\ 5, b 
 
14- HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES* 
 
 of the manner of the entry of Christ into Jerusalem. 
 A man went bare-headed before him, a woman led his 
 horse, three others strewed their scarfs and handker- 
 chiefs in the way, and the company sung, Holy, holy, 
 holy, is the Lord God of hosts '. Hosannah in the highest ! 
 Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of Israel "' So extra- 
 ordinary a procession and acclamation, could not fail 
 of attracting the notice of the police of any well-regu- 
 lated city; but it afforded to the persecutors of the Qua- 
 kers, an opportunity of colouring their general severity, 
 which it is not likely they would miss. However, to the 
 apprehending of James Nayler, and to the examining 
 of him and his companions, no valid objection can be 
 made. It was required for the peace of society " 
 
 Having granted so much to Mr. Bevan's opinions; and 
 really we consider ourselves as having conceded to the 
 uttermost bounds of prudence, we must suffer facts to 
 speak for themselves, and we really think, that those 
 facts ought to do away very much indeed of the apo- 
 logy for Nayler's (we cannot help adding) atrocious be- 
 haviour. And we take our data from the following ex- 
 aminations of this unbounded fanatic, and his scandalous 
 companions ; and none but the most obstinate and fasti- 
 dious will differ from the opinion we have advanced. 
 
 The Examination of James Nayler, and others, was as 
 follows: — 
 
 Being asked his name, or whether he was not called 
 James Nayler ? 
 
 He replied, " The men of this world call me James 
 
 Nayler. 
 
JAMES NAYLER, ^ 
 
 Q. "Art not thou the man that rid on horseback into 
 Bristol; a woman leading thy horse, and others singing 
 before thee, Holy, holy, holy, Hosannah, &c? 
 
 A. '« I did ride into a town, but what its name was, I 
 know not; and, by the Spirit, a woman was commanded 
 to hold my horse's bridle ; and some there were that cast 
 down clothes, and sang praises to the Lord, such songs 
 as the Lord put into their hearts; and it is like it might 
 be the song of Holy, holy, holy, &c 
 
 Q. " Whether or not didst thou reprove those women I 
 
 A. "Nay, but 1 bade them take heed that they sang no- 
 thing but what they were moved to do by the Lord, 
 
 Q. " Dost thou own this letter, (whereupon a letter was 
 shewed him,) which Hannah Stranger sent unto thee ? 
 
 A. " Yea, I do own that letter.* 
 
 * The words of that and another letter, were these : 
 A Letter to James. Nayler, at Exeter, by Hannah Stranger. 
 
 * J. N. 
 " In the pure fear and power of God, my soul salutes 
 thee, thou everlasting son of righteousness, and prince of 
 peace. Oh ! how my soul travailed to see this day, which 
 Abraham did, and was glad, and so shall all that are of faith, 
 ful Abraham. Oh ! suffer me to speak what the Lord hath 
 moved ! There is one temptation near, the like unto the first, 
 and is like the wisdom of God, but it is not, and, therefore, 
 it must be destroyed. Oh! it defiletb and hateth the inno- 
 cent; I beseech thee wait, my soul travaileth to see a pur* 
 image brought forth, and the; enemy strives to destroy it, that 
 Jae may keep mc always surrounding, and ever seeking, and 
 never satisfied, nor never rejoicing. But he, in whom X have 
 
)€ HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 — " - ■ - 
 
 Q. Art thou (according to that letter) the fairest of 
 ten thousand ? 
 
 A, "As to the visible, I deny any such attribute to 
 be due unto me; but if, as to that which the Father 
 has begotten in rae 3 I shall own it. 
 
 believed, will shortly tread Satan under our feet, and then 
 shalt thou and thine return to Zion with everlasting rejoices 
 and praises. Bat, till then, better is the house of mourning 
 than rejoicing, for he that was made a perfect example, when 
 he had fasted the appointed time of his Father, was tempted 
 to ear, and to show a miracle, to prove himself to be the Son 
 of God. But man lives not by bread, said he, and now no 
 more by that wisdom shall he live, on which he hath long 
 fed, as on bread ; and, as his food hath been, so must his 
 fast be, and then, at the end, temptation, to as low a thing as 
 a stone, that, if it were possible, the humility and the mira- 
 cles would deceive the elect, innocent, and righteous branch of 
 holiness. But, be his wills never so many, the time comes he 
 shall leave thee, for he is faithful, who hath promised he will not 
 leave the throne of David without a man to sit thereon, which 
 shall judge the poor with righteousness, and the world with 
 equity. This shall shortly come to pass, and then shall the vision 
 speak and not lye. Oh ! let innocency be thy beloved, and righ- 
 teousness thy spouse, that thy father's lambs may rejoice in thy 
 pure and clear unspotted image of holiness and purity, which 
 jny soul believeth I shall see, and so in the faith rest ! I am in 
 patience, wait, and power will preserve from subtlety; though 
 under never so zealous a pretence of innocent wisdom it be, 
 yet shall the Lord not suffer his Holy One to see corruption, 
 nor his soul to lie in hell, but will cause the mountains to 
 melt at his presence, and the little hills to bring him peace. 
 Oh ! I am ready to fear as a servant, and to obey as a child. 
 If I have spoken words too high, love hath constrained me, 
 which is as strong as death ; and with the same spirit cover 
 them as they are spoken with, and then shall the spirit of 
 
JAMF.S NAYLER. 1? 
 
 Q. tr Art thou the only Son of God > 
 
 A. " I am the Son of God, but 1 have many brethren ? 
 
 Q. " Have any called thee by the name of Jesus ? 
 
 A. "Not as unto the visible, but as Jesus, the Christ 
 that is in me. 
 
 Q. " Dost thou own the name of the King of Israel ? 
 
 A. " Not as a creature, but, if they give it, Christ with- 
 in, I own it, and have a kingdom, but not of this world; 
 my kingdom is of another world, of which thou wotst not. 
 
 Q. V Whether or no art thou the prophet of the 
 Most High ? 
 
 David be witnessed, who refused not words though from his 
 servant's mouth ; if they were in the fear, I am his servant, 
 and he, my master, whom I love and fear, and trust I shall do 
 
 unto the end. 
 
 Hannah Stranger. 
 
 From London, 16th day 
 of the 7th Month. 
 
 "Oh! thou fairest often thousand, thou only begotten- 
 Son of God, how my heart panteth after thee ! Oh, stay me with 
 flaggons, and comfort me with wine. My beloved, thou art 
 like a roe, or a young hart, upon the mountains of spices, 
 where thy beloved spouse hath long been calling thee to come 
 away> but hath lately heard of thee. Now it lies some- 
 thing upon me, that thou mindest to see her, for the spirit 
 and power of God is with her; and there is given to her much 
 of excellent and innocent wisdom arisen, and arising in her, 
 which will make all the honestrhearted to praise the Lord 
 alone, and no more set up self. x\nd, therefore, let not, my 
 Lord and Master have any jealousy again of her, for she is 
 highly beloved of the Lord, and that shall all see who come 
 to know the Lord. And now he doth bless them that bless 
 his, and curse them that curse his ; for this hath the Lord 
 1)2 
 
18 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 A. ** Thou hast said I am a prophet. 
 
 Q. " Dost thou own that attribute, the Judge of fsrael ? 
 
 A. " The judge is but one, and is witnessed in me, 
 and is the Christ ; there must not be any joined with 
 him. If they speak of the spirit in me, I own it only as 
 God is manifest in the flesh, according as God dwell- 
 cth in me, and judgeth there himself. 
 
 Q. " By whom were you sent? 
 
 A. "By Him who hath sent the Spirit of his Son in 
 me to try, not as to carnal matters, but belonging to the 
 kingdom of God, by the indwelling of the Father and 
 the Son, to judge of all spirits, to be guided by none. 
 
 Q. " Is not the written word of God the guide ? 
 
 showed me, that her portion is exceeding large in the Lord ; 
 and, as her sorrow hath been much, so shall her joy be much 
 more; which rejoiceth my heart, to see her walk so va- 
 liantly and so faithfully in the work of the Lord, in this time 
 of so great trials as hath been laid upon her especially. 
 
 And I am 
 
 Hannah Stranger. '* 
 
 THE POSTCRrPT. 
 
 • Remember my dear love to thy master. Thy name is 
 no more to be called James but Jesus. 
 
 John Stranger." 
 
 This John Stranger was husband to Hannah Stranger, and 
 ibis above was added as a Postcript to his wife's letter, as is 
 acknowledged. 
 
 " Remember my love to those friends with thee. The seven- 
 teenth day of the eighth month," Superscribed " This to the 
 hands of James Nayler," 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 1*) 
 
 A. " The written word declares of it ; and what is not 
 according to that is not true. 
 
 Q. " Whether art thou more sent than others, or 
 ther others be not sent in that measure ? 
 
 A. <{ As to that I have nothing at present given me 
 of my Father to answer. 
 
 Q. " Was your birth mortal or immortal ? 
 A. " Not according to the natural birth, but accord- 
 ing to the spiritual birth, born of the immortal seed. 
 Q. " Wert thou ever called the Lamb of God ? 
 A. "I look not back to things behind, but there 
 might be some such thing in the letter; I am a lamb, 
 and4»ave sought it long before I could witness it; 
 
 Q. " Who is thy mother, or whether or no is she a 
 virgin ? 
 
 A. u . Nay, according to the natural birth. 
 Q. * Who is thy mother according to thy spiritual 
 birth ? 
 
 A. " No carnal creature. I 4 
 
 Q. " Who then? 
 
 A. [To this he refused to answer.]- 
 Q. " Is the hope of Israel in thee I 
 A. " The hope is in Christ, and, as Chr,<;t i»4fr v med so 
 far the hope of Israel stands; Christ is in me the hope 
 of glory. 
 
 Q. " What more hope is there in thee than in others ? 
 A. "None can know but them of Israel, and Israel 
 must give an account. 
 
 Q. " Art thou the everlasting Son of God ? 
 
 A. " Where God is manifest in the flesh, there is the 
 
30 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 everlasting son, and I> do witness God iti the flesh ; I 
 am the Son of God, and the Son of God is but one. 
 
 Q. " Art thou the Prince of Peace ? 
 
 A. "The Prince of everlasting Peace is begotten in 
 me. 
 
 Q. " Why dost thou not reprove those that give thee 
 these attributes? 
 
 A. "I have said nothing unto them, but such things 
 are written. 
 
 Q. M Is thy name Jesus ? 
 
 A. '* [Here he was silent.] 
 
 Q. •'- For what space of time hast thou- been so called ? 
 
 A, " [And here.] 
 
 Q. " Is there no other Jesus besides th ?e ? 
 
 A. " FThese questions he forbore either to confirm or' 
 to contradict.] 
 
 Q. "Art thou the everlasting Son of God, the King of 
 righteousness ? 
 
 A. "I am; and the everlasting righteousness is 
 wrought in me; if ye were acquainted with the Father, 
 ye would also be acquainted with me. 
 
 Q. " Did any kiss thy feet ? 
 
 A. " It might be they did, hut I minded them not. 
 
 Q. " When thou wast. called the King of Israel, did 
 thou not answer, thou sayest it ? 
 
 A. "Yea, 
 
 Q. "How dost thou provide for a livelihood ? 
 
 A. "As do the lilies, without care, being maintained 
 hy my Father ? 
 
 Q. " Whom dost thou call thy father ? 
 
 A. " He whom thou callest God. 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 2-1 
 
 Q. " What business hadst thou at Bristol, or that way? 
 
 A. " I was guided and directed by my Father. 
 
 Q. " Why wast thou called a Judge to try the cause of 
 Israel ? 
 
 A. "[Here he answered nothing.] 
 
 Q. " Are any of these sayings blasphemy or not ? 
 
 A. * What is received of the Lord is trutln 
 
 Q. " Whose letter was that which was writ to thee, 
 signed T. S.? 
 
 A. " It was sent me to Exeter goal by one the world 
 calls Thomas Symonds. 
 
 Q. •• Didst thou not say, if ye had known me, ye had 
 known the Father? 
 
 A. " Yea, for the Father is my life. 
 
 Q. " Where wert thou born ? 
 
 A.. '< At Anderstow, (vulgarly called Ardley,) in 
 Yorkshire. 
 
 Q. " Where lives thy wife? 
 
 A. «■ She, whom thou callest my wife, lives in Wake* 
 
 field* 
 
 Q. " Why dost thou not live with her? 
 
 A. " I did, till I was called to the army. 
 
 Q. " Under whose commands didst thou serve in the 
 
 army ? 
 
 A. " First, under him they call Lord Fairfax. 
 
 Q. " Who then ? 
 
 A. " Afterwards, under that man called Colonel Lam- 
 bert. And then I went to Scotland, where I was a quar- 
 ter-master, and returned sick to my earthly habitation, 
 and was called into the North. 
 
 Q, " What wentest thou for to Exeter. 
 
 A. " I went to Lawson (Launceston)tosee the brethren.; 
 
22 HISTORY QF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 Q. " What estate has thou ? 
 
 A. " I take no care for that. 
 
 Q, n Djth God in an extraordinary manner sustain 
 thee, without any corporeal food ? 
 
 A. .«■ Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every 
 word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Father. 
 The same life is mine that is in the Father ; but not 
 in the same measure. 
 
 Q. " How art thou clothed ? 
 
 A. " I know noU 
 
 Q " Dost thou live without bread ? 
 
 A. " As long as my heavenly Father will! I have 
 tasted of that bread of which he that eateth shall never 
 die. 
 
 Q. " How long hast thou lived without any corporeal 
 sustenance, having perfect health ? 
 
 A. " Some fifteen or sixteen days, sustained without 
 any other food except the word of God. 
 
 Q. *' Was Dorcas Etboj-y dead two days in Exeter, 
 and didst thou raise her? 
 
 A. " 1 can do nothing of myself. The Scripture 
 beareth witness to the power in me, which is everlasting; 
 it is the same power we read in the Scripture. The Lord 
 hath made me a sign of his coming, and that honour 
 that belongeth to Jesus Christ, in whom I am revealed, 
 may be given to him, as when on earth at Jerusalem, 
 according to the measure. 
 
 Q. " Art thou the unspotted Lamb of God, that ta- 
 keth away the sins of the world ? 
 
 A, " Were I not a lamb, wolves would not seek to 
 devour me. 
 
JAMES NAVLER. 2S 
 
 Q. '* Art thou not guilty of horrid blasphemy, by 
 thy ow words ? 
 
 A. •« Who made thee a judge over them ? 
 Q. " Wherefore earnest thou in such an unusual pos- 
 ture, as two women leading thy horse; others singing, 
 Holy, holy, &c. with another before thee bare-headed, 
 knee deep in the highway mud, when thou mightest 
 have gone in the causeway ; and at such a time, thar, it 
 raining, thy companions received the rain at their necks, 
 and vented it at their hose and breeches? 
 
 A. " It tended to my Father's praise and glory, and 
 I ought not to slight any thing which the Spirit of the 
 Lord moves. 
 
 Q. ?f Dost thou think the Spirit of the Lord moved, 
 or commanded them ? 
 A. " Yea. 
 
 Q. '« Whom meant they by ' Holy, holy, holy, &c. ? 
 
 A. " Let them answer for themselves, they are at age. 
 
 Q. '* Did not some spread their clothes on the ground 
 
 before thee, when thou ridest through Glastonbury and 
 
 Wells? 
 
 A. " I think they did. 
 
 Q. ** Wherefore didst thou call Martha Symonds mo- 
 ther, as George Fox affirms ? 
 
 A. " George Fox is a liar and a firebrand of hell ; 
 for neither I, nor any with me, called her so 
 Q. " Thou hast a wife at this time ? 
 A. " A woman I have, who by the word is called my 
 wife; and some children I have, which according to the 
 flesh are mine. 
 
 Q, " Those books which thou hast written, wilt thou 
 maintain them, and affirm what is therein ? 
 
24- HISTORY Or RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 A, " Yea, with my dearest blood." 
 
 Martha Symond's Examination. 
 
 She confessed, that " she knew James Nayler former 
 ]y ;" for he is now no more James Nayler, but refined to a 
 more excellent substance; and so she saith she came 
 with him from Bristol to Exeter. 
 
 Q. '* What made thee lead his horse into Bristol, and 
 sing Holy, holy, holy, &c. and to spread thy garments 
 before him ? 
 
 A. " I was forced thereto by the power of the Lord. 
 
 Q. " He is styled, in Hannah Stranger's letter, the 
 fairest of ten thousand, the hope of Israel, and the only 
 begotten Son of God. Dost thou so esteem him ? 
 
 A. u That James Nayler, of whom thou speakest, is 
 buried in me, and he hath promised to come again. 
 
 Q. " Dost thou like of that attribute, as given to him > 
 
 A. " I cannot tell, I judge them not. 
 
 Q. M Whether didst thou kneel before him ? 
 
 A. " What I did was in obedience to a power above, 
 
 Q. " Dost thou own him to be the Prince of Peace ? 
 
 A. • He is a perfect man; and he, that is a perfect 
 man, is the Prince of Peace. 
 
 Q. " Hast thou a husband ? 
 
 A. " I have a man, which thou callest my husband. 
 
 Q. " What made thee to leave him, and to follow 
 James Nayler in such a manner ? 
 
 A. "■ It is our life to praise the Lord, and the Lord 
 my strength (who filleth heaven and earth) is manifest 
 in James Nayler. 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 25 
 
 Q. " Oughtestthou to worship James Nayler upon thy 
 knees? 
 
 -A. " Yea, I ought so to do. 
 
 Q. " Why oughtest thou so to do? 
 
 A. t{ He is the Son of Righteousness; and the new 
 man within him is the everlasting Son of Righteousness; 
 and James Nayler will be Jesus, when the new life is born 
 in him. 
 
 Q. " By what name callest thou him? 
 
 A. " Lord. 
 
 Q. " Why dost thou call him Lord ? 
 
 A. " Because he is the Prince of Peace, and Lord of 
 Righteousness. 
 
 Q. " What reason canst thou show for thy calling 
 him King of Israel ? 
 
 A. " He is so anointed. 
 
 Q. " What hath anointed him ? 
 
 A. " A prophet. 
 
 Q. " What prophet was that? 
 
 A. " I will not tell thee. 
 
 Q. " Thou confessest that thou didst spread thy 
 clothes ? 
 
 A. « Yea, I did. 
 
 Q. " Tell me; doth that spirit of Jesus, which thou 
 sayest is in Nayler, make him a sufficient Jesus to others ? 
 
 A. *< I tell thee; there is seed born in him, which, 
 above all men I shall (and every one ought to) honour. 
 
 Q. " Is he King of Israel, as thy husband saith ? 
 
 A. " If he saith so, thy testimony is double. 
 
 N°.5. c 
 
26* HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS -IMPOSTURES. 
 
 Hannah Stranger's Examination, 
 
 She saitb, " she came from Bristol to Exeter with 
 James Nayler; and that she flung her handkerchief be- 
 fore him, because commanded so of the Lord ; and that 
 she sung Holy, &c. and that the Lord is risen in him." 
 
 Q. " Wherefore didst thou sing before James Nayler ? 
 
 A. " I must not be mute when I am commanded of 
 the Lord. 
 
 Q. " Wherefore didst thou sing to him ? 
 
 A. " My conscience tells me I have not offended any 
 law. 
 
 Q. rt Was that letter thine, and didst thou spread thy 
 garments before him ? 
 
 A. " Yea, and my blood will maintain it. 
 
 Q. " Dost thou own him for the Prince of Peace ? 
 
 A. " Yea, he is so. 
 
 Q. " W r hat dost thou call his name ? 
 
 A. " It hath been said already; I have told of his 
 name. 
 
 Q. " Dost thou not know it to be blasphemy, to give 
 him such and such attributes ? 
 
 A. " If I have offended any law, &c. 
 
 Q. " Didst ihou send him that letter wherein he was 
 called the Son of God ? 
 
 A. " Yea, I do own the whole letter. 
 
 Q. tl Didst thou call him Jesus ? 
 
 A. " [She would not answer.] 
 
 Q. " Didst thou kiss his feet r 
 
 A. " Yea. 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 27 
 
 Thomas Stranger's Examination, 
 
 He owneth "the postscript of the letter, in which he 
 calleth James Nayler Jesus: but could not be got to 
 answer to any more questions, any further, than, " if I 
 have offended any law." He confesseth " he called 
 James Nayler Jesus, and saith he was thereto moved of 
 the Lord." 
 
 Timothy Wedlock's Examination. 
 
 Q. " Dost thou own James Nayler to be the only Son 
 of God. 
 
 A. " I do own him to be the Son of God. 
 
 Q. " Wherefore didst thou and the rest sing before 
 him, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Israel ! 
 
 A. " I do own the songs of Sion. 
 
 Q. " Thou wilt go through a great rain bare-headed ; 
 why then wilt thou not be uncovered to a magistrate ? 
 
 A. " What I did was as the Lord commanded. 
 
 Q. '* What is your opinion concerning religion ? 
 
 A. " I own no opinions, nor any judgments. 
 
 Q. " Wherefore didst thou honour him in towns, and 
 not elsewhere ? 
 
 A. " We did, as well as in commons; but in both as 
 the spirit of the Lord directed us, 
 
 Q. " Wherefore didst thou kneel before him? 
 
 A. " The truth. 
 
28 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMTOSTURES. 
 
 Dorcas Erbury the Widow of Wm. Erbury, once * 
 Minister, her Examination. 
 
 Q. '< Where dost thou live? 
 
 A. " Witli Margaret Thomas. 
 
 Q. " Wherefore didst thou sing Holy, &c. ? 
 
 A. " I did not at that time; but those that sang, did it 
 in discharging of their duty. 
 
 Q. '* Dost, thou own him that rode on horseback to be 
 the Holy One of Israel ? 
 
 A. " Yea, J do ; and with my blood will seal it. 
 
 Q. '* And dost thou own him for the son of God ? 
 
 A. " He is the only begotl^n son of God. 
 
 Q. " Wherefore didst thou pull off his stockings, and 
 Jay thy clothes beneath his feet ? 
 
 A. " He is worthy of it ; for he is the Holy Lord of 
 Israel. 
 
 Q. " Knowest thou no other Jesus, the only begotten 
 son of God ? 
 
 A. " I know no other Saviour. 
 
 Q. " Dost thou believe in James Nayler ? 
 
 A. " Yea, in him whom thou callest so, I do, 
 
 Q. *' By what name dost thou use to call him ? 
 
 A. " The son of God; but I am to serve him, and to 
 call him Lord and master. 
 
 Q. "Jesus was crucified; but this man you call the 
 son of God is alive ? 
 
 A. '• He hath shook off his carnal body. 
 
 Q. " Why, what body hath he then ? 
 
 A. " Say not the Scriptures, " Thy natural body I 
 will change, and it shall be spiritual ?" 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 
 
 29 
 
 Q. " Hath a spirit flesh and bones ? 
 
 A. " His flesh and bones are new. 
 
 Q. «' Christ raised those that had been dead ; so did 
 not he? 
 
 A. "He raised me. 
 
 Q. •' In what manner? 
 
 A. " He laid his hand on my head, after I had been 
 dead two days, and said, • Dorcas, arise ;' and I arose, 
 and live as thou seesf. 
 
 Q. « Where did he this ? 
 
 A. " At the gaol in Exeter. 
 
 Q. " What witness hast thou for this? 
 
 A. "My mother, who was present. 
 
 Q. " His power being so much, wherefore opened he 
 not the prison-doors, and escaped ? 
 
 A. " The doors shall open, when the Lord's work is 
 
 done. 
 
 Q. *' W r hat apostles hath he ? 
 
 A. " They are scattered, but some are here. 
 
 Q. " Jesus Christ doth sit at the right hand of the 
 Father, where the world shall be judged by him. 
 
 A. "He whom thou callest James Nayler, shall sit at 
 the right hand of the Father, and shall judge the world 
 with equity. 
 
 The preceding examinations, as well as what follow^ 
 are extracted from a curious pamphlet published at the 
 time, called The Grand Impostor Examined ; or, the Life, 
 Trial, and Examination, of James Nayler, fyc* By John 
 Deacon. We will, however, not be diffuse in our re- 
 
30 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 marks upon these examinations of Nayler and his com- 
 panions ; but will hear what Mr. Bevan observes upon 
 the distribution of justice at this period, in such cases : — 
 " One is led to think that the laws of England had at 
 that time no provision for the punishing of such dis- 
 turbances; since the legislature took upon itself first to 
 be the court of trial, and next the awarder of the nature 
 and the quantity of the penalty. If we allow that laws 
 did exist, by which the offenders could have been pu- 
 nished, we must look for some other motive which could 
 induce the parliament to take the business into its own 
 Lands; to deliberate on it from day today, to the in- 
 terruption of public concerns; to conclude it at length 
 with so much severity, and even to have meditated 
 more. If we suppose it was the honour of the Christian 
 religion which it had at heart, and the abhorrence of 
 blasphemy which it felt, why then did it not pursue the 
 companions of Nayler with equal severity; from whose 
 mouth proceeded the expressions which were termed 
 blasphemous; and whose hearts, hands, and knees, had 
 been the means of erecting him into an object of 
 worship }" 
 
 We do not agree in the whole of Mr. Bsvan's obser- 
 vation, that Nayler's punishment formed any part of the 
 persecution of the Quakers, aDd therefore omit it. 
 
 " The house interfered the 30th of November, and 
 received the report of a committee the 5th of Decem- 
 ber ; and, after twelve times taking up the business, (at 
 some of which, however, it was only to adjourn it,) 
 on the 16th ihey constructed their sentence, which was 
 resolved in form the day following. Before however 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 
 
 31 
 
 we recite if, a summary view of the proceedings will 
 be proper. 
 
 " The evidence appears to have been taken before the 
 committee of parliament, and agreed to by the house. 
 The facts, as to the kneelings, singing, strewing gar- 
 ments, and walking in procession, were proved, as well 
 by other witnesses, as by the ready confession of the 
 actors themselves; who rather gloried in their deeds 
 than attempted to deny them. Nayler also confessed 
 the facts alleged, and expressed his belief that his com- 
 panions were moved of the Lord to perform the part 
 they had taken. One of the charges was, his having 
 • assumed the name and the incommunicable attributes 
 of our blessed Saviour/ as « The Fairest of Ten Thou, 
 sand ; the Only Begotten Son of God." The evidence 
 for these were letters written to him by others. At one 
 of his examinations, being asked whether he had re- 
 proved them ; and to the question, whether he owned 
 or disclaimed them, he replied, < If they had it from the 
 Lord, what am I that I should judge it ?' He also said, 
 « If attributed to the creature, then it is reprovable. If 
 they did it to the Lord^whom he believed to be in him) 
 then I dare not reprove it :' also that he looked upon it 
 to be really to the true honour of Christ, or else he 
 would utterly have denied it. During this time it is 
 said to have been the practice of Nayler's companions, 
 at his lodging, when under custody of the sergeant of 
 the house, to sit on the floor, or on their heels, or to 
 kneel, singing their usual ejaculations of praise, while 
 he was seated in a chair ; but my anonymous annotator 
 says, they did the same in his absence. It appears 
 
32 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 however, that he was still clouded in mind, and far from 
 that state of true and lively contrition to which he after- 
 wards attained. The following answer, which seemed 
 to close his examinations before the committee, will how- 
 ever show that he was not without some perception of the 
 true and only object of religious honour. 'I do abhor 
 that any of that honour which is due to God should be 
 given to me, as I am a creature ; but it pleased the Lord 
 to set me up as a sign of the coming of the righteous one ; 
 and what hath been done in my passing through the 
 town?, I was commanded by the Lord to suffer such things 
 to be done to the outward as a sign. I abhor any ho- 
 nour as a creature.' 
 
 " The report of the committee having been received 
 by the whole house on the 5th of December, the next 
 day Nayler was had before the house, and ordered to 
 kneel, which he refused; and several questions were 
 asked of him, of which no record seems to have been 
 kept. By the 8th, the Parliament got so far as to re- 
 solve, 'That James Nayler, upon the whole matter of 
 fact, is guilty of horrid blasphemy ;' also, « That James 
 Nayler is a grand impostor and seducer of the people/ — 
 The house having passed these two resolves, the question 
 came daily before it, (the 11th excepted, which was the 
 first day of the week,) until the 10th ; and two divisions 
 took place, when amotion was made that the punishment 
 should bedeath. This was lost by the majority of ninety- 
 six to eighty-two; and, after much deliberation the same 
 day, the next day the punishment was resolved as fol- 
 lows : ■ Resolved, That James Nayler be set on the pil- 
 lory, with his head in the pillory, in the Palace-vard, 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 5.3 
 
 Westminster, during the space of two hours, on Thursday 
 next, (*. e. the following day,) and shall be whipped 
 through the streets from Westminster to the OldExchange, 
 (i.e. the top of Cheapside,) London, and there likewise 
 be set on the pillory, with his head in the pillory, for the 
 space of two hours, on Saturday next; in each place 
 wearing a paper, containing an inscription of his crimes; 
 and that at the Old Exchange, his tongue be bored 
 through with a hot iron, and that he be there also stig- 
 matized in the forehead with the letter B, and that be be 
 afterwards sent to Bristol, and be conveyed into and 
 through the said city an horseback, bare ridged, with 
 his face backward, and there also publicly whipped, the 
 next market day after he comes thither, and that from 
 thence he be committed to prison in Bridewell, London, 
 and there restrained from the society of all people, and 
 there to labour hard till he shall be released by Parlia- 
 ment ; and during that time shall be debarred the use of 
 pen, ink, and paper, and « hall have no relief but what he 
 earns by his daily labours.' 
 
 '« Before the admission of Nayler to hear his sentence, 
 it was moved that he should be asked, whether he had 
 any thing to say, why judgment should notbe pronounced 
 upon him ? which was determined in the negative by- 
 one hundred and seven to eighty-seven. On the speaker 
 preparing to pronounce sentence, Nayler said he did not 
 know his offence; to which the Speaker (Widdringtors) 
 replied, * that he should know his offence by his punish- 
 ment.' Although he was thus not permitted to spjak, he 
 is said, as he left the house, to have uttered these words, 
 'Hethathath prepared the body will enable me to suffer , 
 and I pray that he may not lay it to your charge.' 
 
34 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 "It is natural to inquire what, during all these pro- 
 ceedings, was the part of Oliver Cromwell, who was 
 then at the head of the executive government, under the 
 title of Protector. He appears thus far not to have in- 
 terfered at all ; and even the warrants to the several she- 
 riffs, for the execution of the sentence, were issued by 
 the speaker. 
 
 " On the day appointed, Kayler suffered the first part 
 of his sentence. He stood the allotted time in the pillory, 
 and received, at a cart, in a course of nearly two miles, 
 three hundred and ten stripes ; after which he was left 
 with his wounds undressed for above an hour; when a 
 woman, a person in esteem with the society of friends, 
 not one of his ranting companions,, came and washed his 
 stripes. It is therefore probable, that four hours must 
 have elapsed from the time his head was fastened down 
 until the arrival of this relief. A treatment so severe 
 would of course reduce his strength; and his sufferings 
 operated so forcibly on the minds of several persons, not 
 members of the society of friends, that they petitioned 
 Parliament for a longer respite than until the next day 
 but one; when, according to the sentence, he was to be 
 pilloried again, and burned in the forehead and tongue. 
 The Parliament accordingly granted a week's respite* 
 namely, until the 27th, Encouraged probably by this, 
 several other persons petitioned for the remission of the 
 remainder of the sentence; which petition, as it is a spe- 
 cimen of the manner of the times, and contains also much 
 good sense, and tokens of aversion from the practice of 
 torturing the body, under pretence of mending the mind, 
 I here insert :> — 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 35 
 
 " 'To the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, 
 Scotland, and Irelaud, &c. 
 
 " *The humble petition of divers peaceable and well- 
 affected persons in the cities of London and Westminster, 
 in behalf of themselves and many others, sheweth, 
 
 " 'That your moderation and clemency in respiting 
 the punishment of James Nayler, in consideration of his 
 illness of body, hath refreshed the hearts of many thou- 
 sands in these cities, altogether unconcerned in his prac- 
 tice,* and hath opened their eyes to see something more 
 than the terrors of Mount Sinai, to dwell upon your honoura- 
 ble house; and hath likewise given them some hopes to see 
 you come forth in the Spirit of our Lord Jesus, yet more 
 and more to the convincement of those that err, and are 
 out of the way. Wherefore we most humbly beg your 
 pardon, that are constrained to appear before you in Such 
 a suit, (not daring to do otherwise,) that you would remit 
 the remaining part of your sentence against James Nay- 
 ler; leaving him to the Lord, and to such Gospel reme- 
 dies as He hath sanctified. And we are persuaded you 
 will find such a course of love and forbearance more ef- 
 fectual to reclaim, and will leave a seal of your love and 
 tenderness upon our spirits.* 
 
 • And we shall pray, &c.' >' 
 
 **' It is remarkable of this petition, which, as has been 
 said, is a specimen of the manners of the times, that it, 
 too, contains words which might, if a malevolent person 
 were to interpret, be construed into blasphemy. It will 
 easily be seen that I refer to the figure which would seem 
 to erect the Parliament into a second Sinai. Such how- 
 
36 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTUKES, 
 
 ever was much the language of that day, a language which 
 the loose manners of the Restoration laughed out of fa- 
 shion ; and which the more temperate manners of our 
 ewn times, times when we are too careless about religion 
 to be extravagant in it, forbid to become again the mode. 
 All I here mean to infer is, that the Quakers should have 
 their due share of allowance for the habits of the age in 
 which they arose; and not that all we find in them, 
 which varies from our present customs, should be charged 
 to their peculiar principles. 
 
 (< With regard to the petition just mentioned, it was 
 read and debated on; but the petioners do not seem to 
 have confided in it; for they endeavoured to support it 
 by another, which they preferred to Cromwell. The 
 protector thereon wrote to the house, and, by some words 
 of his letter, seemed alarmed for his prerogative. He 
 says, after having disclaimed the countenancing of such 
 crimes as 'are* says he, 'commonly imputed 7 to Nayler, 
 « not knowing how far such a proceeding (wholly with- 
 out us) may extend in the consequence of it, we desire 
 the house will let us know the grounds and reasons 
 whereupon they have proceeded/ The letter seems to 
 have only occasioned a fruitless debate, and the time of 
 Nayler's second suffering drawing near, the petitioners, 
 on the 26th, applied again to Cromwell. All, however, 
 seemed in vain, for, on the 27th, Nayler was conveyed 
 from Newgate to the Old Exchange; stood two hours more 
 with his head in the pillory, and was bored through the 
 tongue and stigmatized. A few particulars, respecting 
 the execution of this part of the sentence, are material 
 to relate. The boring iron and the mark were red hot. 
 
JAMES NAYLLR, 
 
 37 
 
 The former was held a small time in the tongue, that the 
 bystanders might be witnesses of the execution, and the 
 letter held to the forehead until smoke arose; during 
 which time Nayler did not flinch ; but, when he was uZ 
 bound, he embraced the executioner. The fortitude and 
 patience of the sufferer may probably be shown by this 
 recital; and, I think, a confirmation of the opinion that 
 the parliament wanted to cast an odium on the Quakers, 
 in the person of Nayler, is to be found in the circumstance 
 about to be related. On the ] 8th of December, the house 
 had referred to a committee, the facts and crimes of the 
 rest of the persons apprehended with him ; and yet, on 
 the 27th, three at least of the women were so much at li- 
 berty, as to come up on the pillory, and seat themselves, 
 two before, and one behind him. After execution, he 
 was conveyed to Newgate. 
 
 " There is one occurrence which should not be omit- 
 ted in taking a view of the case of Nayler; although I am 
 not able to penetrate into the motives which occasioned 
 it; the delegation of five ministers by the parliament, to 
 confer with him : namely, Caryl, Manton, Nye, Griffith?, 
 and Reynolds. They visited him on the 24th, which' 
 being previous to the date of Cromwell's letter,' forbids 
 oursupposingthat the house had been moved by the Pro. 
 lector's intercession, and was seeking for grounds where- 
 on to found its lenity. l n this case too, its messengers, 
 independent ministers, men whom Nayler and the Qua- 
 kers in general were continually opposing, were not like- 
 ly persons to effect his repentance. Could it be that the 
 house was seeking further means of justifying a severity 
 in which it determined to persist ? The conduct, at least, 
 of the visitors, is dubious; for they refused that any 
 
38 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 witness should be present at their conference, Nayler, 
 alarmed at this, refused to say any thing, unless they con- 
 sented that what occurred should be written; and a copy 
 signed by themselves left with him, or with the keeper 
 of Newgate, where he then was. This was at first agreed 
 to; but on Nayler's uttering these words, « How soon 
 have you forgot the work of the bishops, who are now 
 found in the same thinking to ensnare the innocent/ they 
 rose up, burned the papers, and departed. It appears, 
 however, from what James related of the conference, 
 that he had persisted in renouncing the adoration of the 
 creature, and in justifying his having omitted to reprove 
 those who had bowed to what he esteemed the power of 
 Christ in himself. In support of this, he had inquired 
 of his examiners, whether Elisha had been guilty of blas- 
 phemy, in not reproving the Shunamite, when she fell at 
 
 his feet* 
 
 *• About three weeks after his suffering the second 
 part of the sentence at London, the third part, (namely, 
 the ignominious exposure, and the second whipping,) was 
 inflicted at Bristol. It seems doubtful, from the account 
 which I have followed in this part of Nayler's life, that 
 the whipping was much more than formal, as a person is 
 said to have been suffered to hold back the executioner's 
 arm ; but here a remarkable thing is related of one of 
 Nayler's friends, whose name is so connected with the 
 sufferings of the former, as not to be omitted in the rela- 
 tion of them. This was Robert Rich, a merchantof Lon- 
 don. He had written to the speaker, previous to the sen- 
 tence of the house; offering to prove, from Scripture, 
 that nothing which Nayler had said or done was blas- 
 phemy. On the day of Nayler's whipping, in London, 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 39 
 
 
 he had stood at the bar of the house, accosting the mem- 
 bers, as they entered, with texts of Scripture; he had 
 cried to the court of Chancery, then sitting, 'The land 
 mourns because of oppression ;' and he had walked* sing- 
 ing, from the door of the house, through Westminster- 
 hal), to the pillory in Palace-yard, which confined his 
 friend. When Nayler was again pilloried, and burnt in 
 the forehead, he had kissed him, and licked his wound ; 
 and now, at Bristol, while Nayler was dragging after a 
 cart-horse, and followed by the scourge, Rich rode before 
 him bare-headed, and sung, 'Holy, Holy.' Rich, how- 
 ever, does not seem to have been eminent enough among 
 the Quakers for parliamentary animadversion. Rich re- 
 mained without punishment. Nayler was sent from 
 Bristol to his close confinement in Bridewell, London ; 
 where he remained a prisoner until the 8th of September, 
 1659, at which time he was liberated by parliament. On 
 his liberation he went to Bristol, the chief scene of his of- 
 fence j at which city, in a public meeting, he made a 
 confession of his fault in so affecting a manner, as to draw 
 tears from most of those who were present ; and to occa- 
 sion his reconciliation with many who had been estranged 
 from him. There is no doubt that he had made a good 
 use of the solitude which his confinement afforded, and 
 the alteration effected in his conduct towards his friends 
 quickly produced a return of their friendship and fellow- 
 ship ; so that he appears to have been as closely united 
 to the body as before; and not to have occasioned in it 
 any rent or schism, as has been insinuated. *'* 
 We would wish our readers particularly to have refer- 
 
 * ? Robert Barclay, in his piece called ' William Mitchell un- 
 masked, has the folio wine expressions concerning James Nay? 
 
40 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 ence to thenote below ; which fully exonerates the society 
 ofFriendsfrom any ofNayler's verycondemnable conduct. 
 Indeed, from Mr. Bevan's own account, it does not seem 
 that the government of Oliver's protectorate was inclina- 
 ble to persecute the Friends ; the audience of Fox with 
 Cromwell, mentioned in p. 26. justifies exactly the con- 
 trary. 
 
 " A part of the sentence of Nayler had been the de- 
 privation of materials for writing. Nevertheless he cer- 
 tainly procured them, for he wrote, and even published 
 several pamphlets and papers during his imprisonment, 
 some of them relating to his fall, and his restoration. 
 The following extracts will show the temper of his mind, 
 and his own opinion of the case. 
 
 '! 'Dear brethen, my heart is broken this day for the 
 offence that I have occasioned to God's truth and people, 
 and especially to you, who, in dear love, followed me, 
 seeking me in faithfulness to God ; which I rejected., 
 
 ler. (See p. 84, of the folio edition of his work.) 'The story 
 of James Nayler, which he subjoins, any may observe to be 
 merely brought in to render us odious, and fill up the paper, 
 though, indeed, it tends no ways to our disadvantage, he 
 being in that thing, and at that time altogether denied by us • 
 and has since in print freely acknowledged his fall in that hour 
 of temptation ; of whose sincere repentance and true return to 
 the fellowship of the truth, we have had many evident tokens.' 
 And in p. 8f6, ' Apology vindicated/ in answer to an Exami- 
 nation by John Brown,' &c. more at large. ' But the poor man 
 thinks (it is like) he has hit the nail on the head to the pur- 
 pose, when he says, p. 542, upon this subject, One thing I 
 would ask, what he thinketh of that honour and worship that was 
 given to James Nayler, as he rode into Bristol, Oct. 24, 1656 ? 
 I answer, I think it was both wicked and abominable, and so 
 do the People called Quakers ; who thereupon disavowed him, 
 and all those that had a hand in it/ 
 
JAMES NAYLER. *l 
 
 being bound wherein I could not come forth, till God's 
 hand brought me, to whose love I now confess. Un- 
 less the Lord himself keep you from me, I beseech 
 you let nothing else hinder your coming to me, that I 
 might have your help in the Lord. In the mercies of 
 Christ Jesus, this I beg of you, as if it was your own 
 case. Let me not be forgotten by you.' 
 
 " The following was delivered to the parliament. — 
 ' Christ Jesus, the Immanuel, of whose sufferings the 
 Scriptures declare, him alone I confess before men ; for 
 whose sake I have denied whatever was dear to me in 
 this world, that I might win him, and be found in him, 
 and not in myself, whose life and virtue I find daily ma- 
 nifest in my mortal body (which is my eternal joy and 
 hope of glory,) whom alone I seek to serve inspirit, soul, 
 and body, night and day, according to the measure of 
 grace working in me, that in me he may be glorified, 
 whether by life or death ; and for his sake I suffer all 
 things, that he alone may have the glory of my change, 
 whose work alone is in me: even to that eternal Spirit 
 be glory, and to the Lamb, for ever. But to ascribe this 
 name, power, and virtue to James Nayler, or to that 
 which had a beginning, and must return to dust ; or for 
 that to be exalted or worshipped ; to me is a great ido- 
 latry, and with the spirit of Jesus in me it is condemned : 
 which spirit leads to lowliness, meekness, and long-suf- 
 fering. So, having an opportunity given, with readi- 
 ness I am willing, in the fear of God the Father, in 
 honour to Christ Jesus, and to take off all offences from 
 every simple heart, this to declare to all the world, as the 
 truth of Christ is in me, without guile or deceit : daily, 
 d 2 
 
42 HISTORY OF RELIGIOU8 IMPOSTURES, 
 
 finding it to be ray work to seek peace in truth with all 
 men in that Spirit.' 
 
 *'But the paper from which the following is extracted, 
 seems to contain more respecting his judgment of those 
 particular circumstances which have brought him into 
 public notice, than any other: It was written soon after 
 his release, and cannot, therefore, be suspected of being 
 fabricated in order to obtain it. 
 
 " ' Glory to God Almighty who ruleth in heaven, 
 and in whose hands are all the kingdoms of the earth ; 
 who raiseth up and casteth down at his will ; who hath 
 ways to confound the exaltation of man, and to chastise 
 his children, and to make man know himself to be as 
 grass before him; whose judgments are above the highest 
 of men, and his pity reacheth the deepest misery ; and 
 the arm of his mercy is underneath, to lift up the pri- 
 soner out of the pit, and to save such as trust in him from 
 the great destruction, which vain man, through his folly, 
 brings upon himself ; who hath delivered my soul from 
 darkness, and made way for my freedom out of my pri 
 son-house. Let his name be exalted for ever, and let all 
 flesh fear before him, whose breath is life to his own, 
 but a consuming fire to the adversary. And to the Lord 
 Jesus Christ be everlasting dominion upon earth ; and bis 
 kingdom above all the powers of darkness; even that 
 Christ of whom the Scriptures declare, which was, and 
 is, and is to come, the light of the world to all genera- 
 tions; who hath been the rock of my salvation ; and his 
 Spirit hath given patience and quietness to my soul in 
 deep affliction ; even, for his name's sake, praises for ever ! 
 
 ' But condemned for ever be all those false wor- 
 ships, with which any have idolized my person in the 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 
 
 43 
 
 night of my temptation, when the power of darkness 
 was above. All their casting of their clothes in the 
 wayi their bowings and singings, and all the rest of 
 those wild actions, which did any ways tend to disho- 
 nour the Lord, or to draw the minds of any from the 
 measure of Christ Jesus in themselves, to look at flesh, 
 which is as grass, or to ascribe that to the visible which 
 belongs to Christ Jesus; all that I condemn, by which 
 the pure name of the Lord hath been any ways blas- 
 phemed through me in time of temptation ; or the 
 spirits of any people grieved, that truly loved the Lord 
 Jesus, throughout the whole world, of what sort soever. 
 This offence I confess, which hath been sorrow of heart, 
 that the enemy of man's peace in Christ should get 
 this advantage in the night of my trial, to stir up wrath 
 and offences in the creation of God ; a thing the sim- 
 plicity of my heart did not intend, the Lord knows, 
 who, in his endless love, hath given me power over it, 
 to condemn it. And also that letter which was sent to 
 me to Exeter, when I was in prison, with these words, 
 Thy name shall be no more James Nayler, but Jesus ; this I 
 judge to be written from the imaginations, and a fear 
 struck me when I first saw it, and so I put it in my 
 pocket close, not intending any should see it; which 
 they finding on me, spread it abroad ; which the sim- 
 plicity of my heart never owned. So this I deny also, 
 that the name of Christ Jesus was received instead of 
 James Nayler ; for that name is to the seed to all ge- 
 nerations, and he that hath the Son hath the name, 
 which is life and power, and the unction, into which 
 nam;* all the children of light are baptized. And all 
 those ranting wild spirits, which gathered about me in 
 
■44 
 
 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 that time of darkness; and al! their wild actions and 
 wicked words, against the honour of God and his pure 
 Spirit and people, I deny that bad spirit, the power 
 and the works thereof: and as far as I gave advan- 
 tage, through want of judgment, for that evil spirit in 
 any to arise, I take shame to myself justly ; hav- 
 ing formerly had power over that spirit in judgment 
 and discerning, wherever it was ; which darkness came 
 over me through want of watchfulness and obedience to 
 the pure eye of God, and diligently minding the re- 
 proof of life, which condemns the adulterous spirit. And 
 it is in my heart to confess to God, and before men, my 
 folly and offence in that day. Yet there were many 
 things formed against me in that day to take away my 
 life, and bring scandal upon the truth, of which I am not 
 guilty at all: as that accusation, as if I had committed 
 adultery with some of those women who came with us 
 from Exeter prison, and also those who were with me at 
 Bristol, the night before I suffered there; of both which 
 accusations I am clear before God, who kept me in that 
 day, both in thought and deed, as to all women, a« a child, 
 God is my record.' After an exhortation to the reader, 
 how to behave under temptation, and a warning against 
 relying on gifts, wisdom, and knowledge, the piece con- 
 cludes thus: ' This I have learned in the deep, and in 
 secret, when I was alone ; and now openly declare, iu 
 the day of thy mercy, O Lord ! Glory to the Highest for 
 evermore, who hath thus far set me free, to praise his 
 righteousness, and his mercy, and to the Eternal, Invisible, 
 Pure God, over all, be fear, obedience, and glory, ever- 
 more. Amen.' 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 45 
 
 f? James Nayler did not long survive his imprisonment. 
 • He died in October, 1660, and but little account is trans- 
 emitted to us, respecting him, after his being set at liber- 
 ty. George Whitehead, who lodged with him at a 
 house in London, in 1659 and 166*0, bears this testimony 
 of him, ' that he was revived by the Lord's power, and 
 in measure restored to his ancient testimony, and to bear 
 the same publicly in divers parts of the nation, as the 
 Lord enabled him, both in his ministry and writings; 
 and (adds Whitehead) he walked in much brotherly love 
 and simplicity among us, until his end came.'* 
 
 " We have also a short account of Nayler from Tho- 
 mas Ellwood, who, before he became a member of the 
 society of Friends, had met with him, while visiting at 
 Isaac Penington's, at Chalfont, in Buckinghamshire. 
 Edward Burrough, being also present, was discoursing 
 with the father of Thomas Ellwood respecting Predesti- 
 nation; which doctrine Ellwood, the father, espoused; 
 when Nayler, interposing, ' handled the subject with so 
 much perspicuity and clear demonstration, that his rea- 
 soning seemed to be irresistible;' and this surprised 
 
 * " George Whitehead also mentions another circumstance 
 respecting James Nayler, which I find difficult to understand, 
 unless it be supposed that Nayler had occasional respite from 
 his confinement. George Whitehead relates the manner of his 
 fall, as he himself had related it when they were walking to- 
 gether in Westmoreland, in 1657; in which year, it appears, 
 in Whitehead's life, that he was in that county; whilst, on 
 the other hand, one of Nayler's papers is said to be written in 
 Bridewell, in 1658; and it doth not seem that the date is an 
 error of the press, and Whitehead was, as hath been mentioned, 
 in London in 1659 and 1660. 
 
46 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 young Ellwood the more, as the appearance of Nayler 
 was that of a plain simple husbandman or shepherd. 
 
 " Since the first arrival of James Nayler in London, in 
 the year 1654, it doth not appear that he had ever revi- 
 sited his habitation ; if indeed at all since the time of his 
 quitting it in 1652. At length he set out homewards, 
 and was noticed by a friend, as he passed through Hun- 
 tingdon, to be in a frame of mind so awful, as that he 
 appeared to be redeemed from the world. It is not 
 known whether, soon after this, he was suddenly taken 
 ill, or had been robbed and abused. A countryman 
 found him, in the latter part of the day, in a field near 
 King's Rippon; and he was conveyed to the house of a 
 friend at Holm. A physician attended him, and he was 
 inquired of, whether he desired to see any of his London 
 friends, which he declined. On having his clothes 
 shifted, he said, < You have refreshed my body, the 
 Lord refresh your souls;' not long after which be de- 
 parted in peace, aged about 44 years. His remains were 
 interred at Rippon. About two hours before his decease, 
 he is said to have uttered the following words: ' There is 
 a spirit that I feel, that delights to do no evil, nor to re* 
 Tenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things, in 
 hope to enjoy its own in the end. Its hope is to outlive 
 all wrath and contention, and to weary out all exaltation 
 and cruelty, or whatever is of a nature contrary to itself. 
 It sees to the end of all temptations: as it bears no evil in 
 itself, so it conceives none in thoughts to any other. If 
 it be betrayed, it bears it; for its ground and spring is 
 the mercies and forgiveness of God. Its crown is meek- 
 ness; its life is everlasting love, unfeigned; and takes 
 
JAMES NAYLER. 47 
 
 its kingdom with intreaty, and not with contention, and 
 keeps it by lowliness of mind. In God alone it can re- 
 joice, though none else regard it, or can own its life. 
 It is conceived in sorrow, and brought forth without any 
 to pity it; nor doth it murmur at grief and oppression* 
 It never rejoiceth but through sufferings; for with the 
 world's joy it is murdered. I found it alone, being for- 
 saken. I have fellowship therein with them who lived 
 in dens, and desolate places of the earth; who, through 
 death, obtained this resurrection, and eternal holy life.' 
 
 " During the time of James Nayler's travels and im- 
 prisonment, he had frequent recourse to the press. Some 
 of his writings were doctrinal, and many of them con- 
 troversial. Some of the latter contain an asperity of lan- 
 guage, which appears ill adapted to convince either the 
 opponent or his adherents. The writings of Nayler, 
 however, are not eminent for these; and, in estimating 
 how far an author has exceeded the point of right, we 
 should allow for the provocation ; and great provocation 
 was certainly given to our elder friends, by the misap- 
 prehension of their principles. This occasioned their 
 adversaries to charge them with opinions (often mon- 
 strous enough) which they did not hold. Such however 
 is the impatience of our minds, that we find it easier to 
 cry down an opinion which clashes with our own, than 
 to examine it with coolness; and to inveigh against its 
 author, than to desire his instruction. While this is the 
 case, debate is not likely to sift out truth ; but when the 
 time shall come, that such as profess the name of Christ 
 shall infuse into their controversies all the gentleness, 
 forbearance, and love, which his religion enjoins, it is 
 
48 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS I\fPOSTURES. 
 
 probable that Christianity will be advanced, by the su- 
 perior conviction which will attend the discussion of its 
 votaries. May the mind that is convinced of these 
 truths suffer them to operate as a rule of its conduct! 
 and thus be one to carry on the work which it desires to 
 see accomplished. A collection was made in 1716, of 
 such of Nayler's writings as were thought suitable for re- 
 impression; but this has also been long since out of 
 print. 
 
 " On a review of the life and writings of James Nay- 
 ler, he appears to have been a man of no mean abilities, 
 and of great sincerity, but tinctured with what will ge- 
 nerally be esteemed an excess of credulity ; not only as 
 to his own gifts, but also in estimating the pretensions of 
 others. Eut he seems remarkable for no quality more 
 than for patience under suffering, and quiet resignation 
 to what he believed to be divinely enjoined or permitted. 
 To this quality, as the means, we may attribute his restora- 
 tion to soundness of judgment, and the calmness of his 
 closing moments. 
 
 " After all, probably his life will be viewed through 
 the medium which each one has been accustomed to use. 
 The scoffer at religion will think him a fool; the pro- 
 fessor of religion, who measures all things by his finite 
 unenlightened reason, and rejects the notion of divine 
 influence, will exult at his fall; but the believer in this 
 influence, who counts the cost of his faith, and has 
 descried the dangers on the right hand as well as of the 
 left, will at least view his story with instruction; if not 
 be induced by it to adhere more closely to that guide, 
 which alone can preserve man from falling; but which 
 repeated deviations may conceal from the view." 
 
JAMES NAYLEIU* 49 
 
 Having thus far admitted every available apology for 
 James Nayler, from one who is too desirous to class the 
 punishment duly inflicted on him with the persecutions 
 inflicted on the Quakers, we do not find that there was 
 any evil intentions practised towards their religious opi- 
 nions or their assemblies during the time of the Protect- 
 rate ; but that all mischiefs with which they were afflict- 
 ed arose during the reigns of Charles II* and James II. 
 as we have before hinted, and that certainly they expe- 
 rienced nothing worse than the general body of dissenters 
 were compelled to sustain. William Penn did not suffer 
 more from the terrific hands of that monster JefFeries than 
 was felt by the famous Richard Baxter : consequently we 
 cannot think otherwise than that, though the severity of 
 Nayler's punishment was excessive, still, if it produced 
 the effect of restoring him to his reason, and to repentance 
 of the vile opinions he had circulated, a great benefit was 
 procured to himself, and a very serious monition to such as 
 obstinately suffer their humours to supersede the reason 
 with which the Almighty has endued them. 
 
 We shall close this part of our subject with an account 
 of some of Nayler's votaries, extracted from various parts 
 of Deacon's publication, at that time : 
 
 "One of James Nayler's disciples, having attained to 
 some knowledge in the French tongue, went over into 
 France to a city called Bourdeaux, where, after entering 
 into a congregation of the Protestants, he began> after 
 his wonted manner here in England j to cry out, in the 
 open congregation, against the minister, calling him 
 "censurer, liar r impostor, deceiver." And the elders 
 and people being astonished at the novelty, aad reputing 
 
50 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 him a madman, came and told him, " that they had laws 
 in France to protect the congregations, either of papists 
 or protestants, from any disturbance ;" and thrust him 
 forth out of their Church. Upon which he went into 
 the church-yard, and, upon a stone, continued his dis- 
 course, which drew the whole congregation out of the 
 Church after him, and caused the minister to give over; 
 and the elders, coming again to him, told him, that (t he 
 being a stranger, they were willing to favour him ; but, 
 seeing he did continue his disturbance, they would com- 
 mit him to justice." He told them, "justice was never 
 in that place until his appearance." Upon that, they took 
 him away to the governor ; where, being brought, with 
 his hat on, he asked the governor " what he was?" who 
 told him " he was the governor of that place under the 
 King of France." He said, that *f he would not answer 
 him as governor, his government being carnal." And a 
 certain bishop being with the governor, who was^a pa- 
 pist, desiring that he might question him, and demanding 
 *• what he was?" he told him, " he was an Englishman, 
 and sent of the Lord to prepare his way.'' He demanded 
 of the bishop f what he was ?** who told him, " he w r as 
 a bishop;*' whereupon he replied, that " against him he 
 was sent, who was one of the locusts that was sent forth 
 of the bottomless pit, and that the weapons he had with 
 him were fitted to destroy him and the whole kingdom of 
 Antichrist, who was held in darkness and blindness ; and 
 that he was to pour out vials of the Father's wrath upon 
 him." The Governor of Bourdeaux, perceiving several 
 of the people to be infected with his doctrine, demanded, 
 " if there was any ship ready to sail for England V which 
 
JAMES NAILER. 51 
 
 being informed of, he therein shipped him, being not 
 willing to use extremity to a stranger, but caused some 
 six or seven, who had been infected with frig doc trine, to 
 be whipped through the streets. 
 
 " A Relation concerning some others$jtefre sdjk'e Tribe, 
 
 *' Seven or eight others went over in a^yessel to New 
 England, where, being arrived, they began to spread 
 themselves; but the governor having notice, caused them 
 to be clapped up close in a castle, and would not suffer 
 any one to come to see them, under penalty^ of five 
 pounds. In the mean time, he'sent for the master of the 
 ship that brought them, and commanded him imme- 
 diately to carry them back into old England ; which he 
 refusing, was also clapped up close prisoner, until he 
 consented, and took them a-board again." 
 
 *• Now, reader," proceeds Deacon, " I shall close up 
 all with a word or two of his life and actions. 
 
 " James Nayler is a man of so erroneous and unsancti* 
 fied a disposition, that it is hard to say, whether heresy 
 or impudency beareth the greater rule in him; as will 
 appear, 
 
 " First, In what he testifieth before sufficient wit» 
 nesses; (see the Brief Relation of the Northern Quakers, 
 page 22,) that he was as holy, just, and good, as God 
 himself; and, 
 
 " Secondly, That he, in a letter to one in Lancaster, 
 expressly saith, that he that expected to be saved by 
 
52 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 Jesus Christ, that died at Jerusalem, shall be deceived. 
 See Mr. Billingslfs Defence of the Scriptures, page l6. 
 The Perfect Pharisee, page 8. And so said another of 
 ■that sect, " he was not such a fool as to hope to be saved 
 by Jesus Christ, that died at Jerusalem sixteen hundred 
 years ago." See Mr. Farmer's Mystery of Godliness and 
 Ungodliness. Thus they glory in their ignorance, and 
 count. that foolishness which is the true wisdom. 
 
 ■" Thirdly^in a letter. I had in my possession, but now 
 lent to a friend, subscribed by the pastor and other mem- 
 bers of, that congregations the -north, whereof Nayler 
 once was a member, till, for his apostacy, he was ex- 
 communicated, it is offered to be proved, and by them 
 testified to be true, that one Mrs. Roper, her husband 
 being gone on some occasion from her, a long voyage, 
 this .Nayler frequented her company, and was seen to 
 dandle her upon, his knee, and kiss.her lasciviously ; and, 
 in that time of his society with her, she was brought to 
 bed of a child, when her'husband had been absent seven 
 and forty weeks, to a day, from her; and, on a time, 
 he was seen to dance her in a private room.; and, having 
 kissed her verv often, she took occasion to say, « Now, 
 James, .what would the world say if they should see us m 
 this posture.?' To which he said somewhat, but he was 
 so low, that it could not be heard. This was objected 
 against him, but he denied -to answer it before the said 
 church; ohjecting, that«,he would not ^speak to them 
 that spoke not immediately by the spirit.'' 
 
 « Fourthly, in that, when I had discourse with ham. 
 concerning perfect perfection, at the Bull and Mouth, he 
 said, f I was a liar, to say he owned it:' then I proved 
 
JAMES NAILER. A 3 
 
 it from his own writings, as that he said, ' They that say 
 they have faith, and their life is not the life of Christ; 
 and them that say they have faith, and yet they cannot 
 be saved from their sins but in part in this world, them 
 and their faith I deny, &c.' To which he hypocritically 
 said, * that I was a liar, tosayHhat he owned itin'himself, 
 though he disowned it in others.' And, whenl had ob- 
 jected any thing against what he said, he would deny it 
 as soon as he had spoke it; which, to convince the peo- 
 ple of his lying deceits, I desired them that stood by me 
 to remember that he said, * All that are in the world, 
 are of the world,' in direct opposition to that saying of 
 Christ, John xvii. e I pray not, holy Father, that thou 
 shouldest take them out of the world, but preserve them 
 from the evil of the world;' which I presently accused 
 him with ; for which he called me ' a liar; for,' he said, 
 '• he said not so.' I then desired them that had heard him 
 4 to testify to the truth against the liar and his deceit,' 
 which they did ; but his seared impudence was such, 
 that he said, ' Should a thousand say so, they were all 
 liars';* with much more to the like effect." 
 
 «' The above relation, and the afore-mentioned *let- 
 4er from the church whereof Nayler was once a 
 member, were offered to be proved and made good, 
 in the public meeting, at the Bull and Mouth, to 
 Nayler's face, more than once or twice, who was 
 enable to say aught unto it, but left his standing 
 and sat down silent. They, that offered it so to public 
 trial, were one Mr. Percival and Mr. John Beacon, 
 -author of Public Discoveries of their secret Beceit." 
 
54 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 *• For his character. — He is a man of a ruddy com- 
 plexion, brown hair, and slank, hanging a little below 
 his jaw-bones ; of an indifferent height ; not very long 
 visaged, nor very round ; close shaven ; a sad down look, 
 and melancholy countenance ; a little band, close to his 
 collar, with no band strings ; his hat hanging over his 
 brows, his nose neither high nor low, but rising a little' 
 in the middle. 
 
COPIOUS ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FRENCH and ENGLISH 
 PROPHETS, 
 
 WHO INFESTED LONDON DURING 1707, AND THE 
 
 THE 
 
 EXHIBITION OF SOME OF THEM ON 
 THE PILLORY; 
 
 • AND A 
 
 COMPLETE EXPOSURE OF THEIR INFAMOUS 
 PRACTICES. 
 
 L 
 
 BY D, HUGHSON, LL.D. 
 
 EDITOR OF THE HISTORY OP LONDON, AND OTHER WORKS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR AND PUBLISHED BY S. A. ODDY, 
 
 2, IVY-LANE, NEWGATE-STREET. 
 
 1814. 
 
PRINTED BY HAMBUN AND SEYFANG, 
 GARLICK-HILL, THAMES-STREET. 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH 
 PROPHETS. 
 
 1707. 
 
 In the reign of Queen Anne, towards the close of the 
 year 1706, three French Cevennois, commonly called 
 Camisars, arrived in England, and, by their enthusiastic 
 effusions, pretences to prophecy, and extatic convulsions, 
 raised the curiosity not only of their countrymen in 
 London, but gained many followers. This gave great 
 offence to the generality of the French refugees; and the 
 ministers and elders of the royal chapel in the Savoy, 
 (the principal of the French congregations in Westmin- 
 ster,) thought it their duty to inquire into the mission 
 of these new prophets; and, being authorized by the 
 bishop of London, (then the Hon. Dr. Compton,) their 
 ecclesiastical superior, they summoned the three supposed 
 prophets, Elias Marion, John Cavalier, and Durand 
 Fage, to come before them. Two of them obstinately 
 refused to appear; but the third boldly justified their 
 pretensions to inspiration. Whereupon, the French 
 Church in the Savoy made an act on the 2d of January, 
 1707, wherein these prophets were declared impostures 
 and counterfeits; and this act was confirmed by the 
 bishop of London. 
 
 Notwithstanding this anathema, these pretended pro* 
 
 A 
 
HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 phets, having gained to their opinions M. Maximilian 
 Misson, a French refugee, M. Nicholas Facio, Professor 
 of Mathematics at Geneva, and others, continued their 
 assemblies in Soho, and various parts of the city, and 
 uttered their prophecies with loud vociferations. Being 
 supported by Sir Richard Bulkeley, Bart, and John 
 Lacy, Esq. two Englishmen of very good estates, they 
 took upon themselves to brand the ministers of the Esta- 
 blished Church with the most odious names and cha- 
 racters ; and denounced the heaviest judgments against 
 the city of London and the whole British nation. 
 
 They likewise published their predictions under the 
 following title: — A Collection of Prophetical Warnings 
 of the Eternal Spirit, pronounced by the following 
 Persons; viz. 
 
 Anna MariaKing, aged 13. 
 
 John Lacy, 
 
 John Moor, 
 
 John Moult, aged 15. 
 
 John Potter, 
 
 Mary Turner, and 
 
 Ann Watts. 
 
 Mary Aspinal, 
 Mary Beer, aged 13. 
 Thomas Button, 
 Thomas Ernes, 
 John Glover, 
 Ann Good, aged II. 
 Elizabeth Grey, 
 Mary Keemer, 
 
 They pretended in their mission to be actuated by 
 motives of the following description : 
 
 " Who can look upon mankind, and say that it is 
 come, or even yet did come, to that state for which it 
 is designed ? Corruption, ignorance, error, oppression, 
 tyranny, wickedness, and violence, overspread the face 
 of the earth. God himself is forgotten, despised, and 
 rejected. Where is, say they, the promise of his coming ? 
 Mankind, in the face of heaven and earth, is dexterously 
 kept dividtd into numberless factions and sects, which, 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 
 
 at their pleasure, vary and establish their particular, 
 and, for the most part, insignificant distinctions; agree- 
 ing in nothing else but a general deriding and perse- 
 cuting that hope, built upon the Scriptures, That the 
 true Shepherd of the flock will, at last, appear, to put 
 an end to these disorders, and restore all things, as at 
 the beginning.'* 
 
 * ( The great persecution in France," say they, " has 
 seemed to many, from Scripture, to be a near forerunner 
 of those times in which it is to be proclaimed, that the 
 kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
 Lord and of his Cnrist ; and that he shall reign for ever 
 and ever : and, accordingly, in the midst of the perse- 
 cuted people in the Cevennes, inspiration, or the spi- 
 rit of prophecy, exhortation, supplication, and comfort, 
 has been powerfully revived ; and attested to be the Spi- 
 rit of God, by many wonderful works, and by several 
 instances of his protecting and guiding that people. Some 
 thousands of men, women, and children, were inspired 
 there ; even a considerable part of the people of the coun- 
 try. These all spoke in the name and person of God; 
 not of themselves, but being over-ruled by a superior 
 agen*t. They proclaimed the destruction of Babylon, and 
 the approach of God's judgments and kingdom. Now, if 
 one only of all that people were sincere, and not disturbed 
 in mind, it is highly probable, that he, and in conse- 
 quence the rest also, that did agree with him, really 
 spoke from God. And the greater number we suppose 
 amongst them, of the like sincere persons, the greater is 
 the force of this conclusion; even so as not to leave any 
 rational ground for doubts. But their sincerity they have 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 witnessed to, times without number, even by their suffer- 
 ing unto death ; so that their very enemies have been 
 forced to acknowledge it in print, and otherwise, that 
 they were really sincere. 
 
 *! The further proofs, that force us to believe that the 
 message of this revived spirit of prophecy comes from 
 God, are exceeding many ; and much more than it is 
 possible to collect or mention. Some few shall be just 
 hinted here, to excite the further inquiries of such as 
 think that the glory of God and his kingdom, and their 
 own salvation, do deserve some serious thoughts. 
 
 " That message is altogether agreeable to Scripture, 
 and brings nothing with it but what is consonant to them, 
 and what must necessarily be expected, and what it is 
 high time to look for, if we depend upon them. 
 
 " It calls men to repentance : it warns them of the ap- 
 proaching judgments : it presents to them the tender mer- 
 cies of God, and the graces of his Spirit. 
 
 « It is offered as a voice from God ; as the midnight cry 
 promised by our Saviour, to warn us, • Behold the Bride- 
 groom cometh; go ye out to meet him.' 
 
 It has been witnessed to by about forty inspired in 
 London, who all have delivered it in the tremendous 
 name and person of God, agreeing all among themselves 
 in the main. 
 
 H It has been further witnessed to by about one or two 
 hundred persons in this place, or kingdom, whom the 
 Spirit of the Lord has begun to agitate at times, as it did 
 Sampson: for so may the Hebrew text be translated ; 
 and so it is actually rendered in the interlineary version of 
 the Polyglotte. 
 
THE rRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 
 
 i( These agitations were seen upon the ancient pro- 
 phets, as it has been demonstrated, both from Scrip- 
 tures and from a passage in the^ Hebrew book Shaare 
 Orah; and may further be seen in R. Albo, and other 
 unbiassed Jewish writers. Against which testimonies, 
 the contrary opinion of a few late fathers, educated, not 
 among the Jews, but in other parts of the Roman empire, 
 where the Christian church was already fallen away from 
 the Spirit, as to his extraordinary gifts, is of no weight. 
 Impostors, now-a-days, would surely have avoided, and 
 not affected, those agitations; since they appear ridicu- 
 lous to the world, and could not but prove an occasion of 
 scandal. The heathen prophets and sybils, who are 
 supposed to have been introduced in imitation of the Jew- 
 ish prophets, had the like agitations also. 
 
 *' They are sometimes such, as cannot at all be imitated ; 
 MO, not by the persons themselves, out of inspiration. 
 It agrees with the wisdom of God, that there should be 
 some such token of the presence of the Spirit. They are 
 an appropriated sign, becoming a message of terror: and 
 several learned commentators and divines have acknow- 
 ledged, in their works, those agitations in the ancient 
 prophets. 
 
 * When there was no such word as Theopneustos, In- 
 spired of God, (in the Greek version,) this word was even 
 coined, carrying with it a lively representation of the 
 -state in which the present inspired appear. 
 
 *' If these messengers speak in the person of God, so 
 did often prophets, or angels, of old. 
 
 " If they speak to themselves in the person of God, the 
 like is often observed in Scripture, And in Zechariah 
 
tllSTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMFOSTURES. 
 
 where the English translation has it, The Angel that 
 talked with me, the Hebrew has it always, The Angel that 
 spoke in me; though often the discourse there be directed 
 to Zechariah himself. 
 
 *' Many of their enemies do own them to be actuated by 
 a superior spirit, which they would have to be the spirit 
 of the devil. But this spirit proclaims the destruction of 
 the devil's kingdom; and it owns Christ as Lord, as 
 Priest, as Saviour, as King. And so, by the rules given 
 in Scriptures, it must needs be the Spirit of God. 
 
 " It is a spirit of prayer and supplication to God : a 
 spirit of sanctification and love to God; leading to cha- 
 rity, repentance, meekness, humility, and all sorts of 
 -virtues; and to an entire forsaking of this world. It is a 
 spirit of patience and sufferings, and resignation to God't 
 will. From the like effects exerted upon sinners, the 
 apostles and primitive Christians argued, that that was, 
 indeed, the power of the Spirit of God. 
 
 " It is one spirit; I say one: a most wise and holj 
 and active spiiit, uniformly and with application prose- 
 cuting one single design and plan of his own, vastly too 
 great for any man, or council of men, to imagine or ma- 
 nage. In which plan, every one will be lost and con- 
 founded, who looks but superficially into what it is the 
 highest duty and concern of every man to examine with 
 care. For such is the intent of that spirit, even to har- 
 den, to ensnare, and lead into destruction, those that set 
 up idols of their own, and presumptuously despise the 
 message of God. And these are of old the ways of the 
 Spirit of God, as may be seen in Ezek. xiv. 6—11. in 
 Jsa. xxyiii. 9—13, in Isa. vi. 9—12. and the parallel 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 
 
 places in the New Testament; and also in many other 
 places of Scripture. Thus God, as Judge, does rain, 
 snares upon the wicked scoffers of his gracious message. 
 -And in that way, and others, will he plead, and does 
 now begin to plead himself, by his Spirit, with all flesh. 
 " It is a spirit which is communicated to others by 
 prayer and blessing, and laying on of hands; even as the 
 Holy Ghost was, in the time of the apostles. 
 
 " It is a spirit which God gives to those that earnestly 
 pray to him for his Holy Spirit; which our Saviour says 
 is readily granted, to such as ask it of God; even of our 
 Father, who cannot give us a stone, when we desire 
 bread from him. 
 
 " It is a spirit which, by his extensive spreading, and 
 nature accommodated to the souls and occasions of men, 
 is capable, as the Spirit of God, of being poured forth, 
 even upon whole nations, and by consequence mankind. 
 And it has often visited babes and harmless children, out 
 of whose mouths it has perfected praise. 
 
 *' It is a spirit of joy, brightening, and not clouding, 
 the mind ; but exalting and purifying all the faculties of 
 man; refreshing, and never injuring the body. 
 
 " It is a spirit which divines and others have attacked, 
 not with fair objections, but with forgeries, lies, calum- 
 nies, wrested arguments, and open violence; even as 
 they did of old, always oppose the Spirit of God. Acts 
 vii. 51, &c. 
 
 " It is a spirit which prophecies of judgments and ca- 
 lamities; even as did of old the prophets of God; and 
 not of smooth things, to please the world, as did the false 
 prophets. 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 " It is a spirit which is, as the Spirit of God, jealous 
 of the heart of man; excluding all sharers, and any pre- 
 valent affection, for whatever objects are presented to us 
 from tiie tempter of the world. 
 
 " It is a spirit laying open the secrets of man's heart; 
 and also reproving the thoughts and actions, though 
 i'nown only to God, 
 
 " It is a spirit addicted to no one sect or party among 
 men, but calling and shewing itself a common father 
 to all. 
 
 " It is a spirit interceding both for a man's self, with 
 unutterable groans, and also for others, even as did that 
 spirit which was in the prophets of God. 
 
 *' It is a spirit of praise and thanksgiving; a spirit of 
 consolation, tenderly comforting us in our troubles; a 
 father of spiritual joys; inditing, upon occasions, hymn» 
 and spiritual songs to God ; bringing to the soul peace, 
 and all the other fruits of the Spirit. 
 
 " By it several persons have spoken languages, which 
 they were otherwise unable to speak. By it dialogues 
 have been carried on between persons that did not under- 
 stand one another's language. 
 
 •* By it several cures, and other miraculous things, 
 have been wrought; and some punishments inflicted. 
 
 " By it many things have been foretold, which are 
 come to pass, and none but God could bring about: in 
 particular, the very spreading of this spirit upon the 
 English nation, and its visit, as promised to many pri- 
 vate persons by name. 
 
 " It is powerful in exhorting and refreshing the soul; 
 able to reveal mysteries, and the deep counsels of God; 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 
 
 explaining Scriptures with the key of David ; that is, of 
 God's kingdom and anointed king, even the Son of Da* 
 vid, and successor to his throne. 
 
 " It exercises a power over unclean spirits, and dis- 
 cerns and lays it open, when the spirit of man or of the 
 stranger does intermix; which is what the Spirit of God 
 did among the primitive Christians also. 
 
 u It does, wonderfully, both govern and protect those 
 that hear its voice; giving continual and particular direc- 
 tions, and preserving from dangers. 
 
 ** Many attest to it by the visions and voices from God, 
 and divine dreams, which they assure have been sent 
 them. 
 
 " It threatens or foretels not only particular, but also 
 universal judgments; both which it does conformably 
 to several examples in Scriptures; acquainting us also how 
 they may be avoided. 
 
 " If this spirit is sometimes severe, and expresses 
 threatenings and wrath against those that oppose it, so 
 did also Christ, and the Spirit of God, in the ancient 
 prophets and apostles; taking often even private opposers 
 to task. 
 
 " It gives promises to, and enters, or offers to enter, 
 into covenant with private persons, and with whole na- 
 tions, or mankind; and it manifests to them God's will 
 and commands. 
 
 !* It takes upon itself to inditerevelations of God, and 
 gives that account of the universal destination of heaven 
 and earth, and of mankind, which is most agreeable to 
 Scriptures {md God's infinite wisdom and goodness; but 
 
10 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 ■ I' " ■-■ ■ — ' ■ ■■'■ ■ ' ■'■'■•■ "— < .i ll ■ - . T. , » ■■■ I. , 
 
 very different from the common thoughts and schemes of 
 divines. 
 
 " It lays the foundations for the regeneration and 
 perfecting the salvation of mankind, and delivering them 
 from sin; and both them and all the creation from the 
 curse. - » 
 
 u It does prepare instruments for the recalling of the 
 Jews, and converting of infidels; proposing to itself to 
 bring it about, that there shall be, over all the earth* 
 but one God, and one faith, and one law. 
 
 " In some thousands of discourses, of people of diffe- 
 rent sects, and opinions, and capacities, this spirit has 
 betrayed no false doctrine; though speaking often of mat- 
 ters very mysterious and abstruse; and that, by the 
 mouth of children, and other ignorant persons. It has 
 invited to no sins, nor enticed men to any forsaking of 
 God. 
 
 " On the contrary, it brings men nearer anil nearer to 
 God, and insensibly leads them into all truth, or all the 
 truth; wonderfully opening the deep and hidden things 
 of Scripture, and exposing naked some errors and false 
 doctrines that have prevailed among Christians. 
 
 " That spirit shews how it is possible, indeed, that 
 every man should be taught of God, and not go to his 
 brother for the knowledge of the Lord. And it has al- 
 ready delivered some rare and wonderfully excellent in- 
 terpretations of Scripture. 
 
 •' Its very presence, and, as it were, return amongst 
 men, does fulfil a great many prophecies; and begets a 
 lively 1 ope, that the Spirit of God shall be poured on ail 
 flesh, as the waters cover the sea. 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. If 
 
 " By its ministration angels have again appeared visi- 
 bly, and-even spoken to men. 
 
 u It is a spirit of instruction, of knowledge, of science, 
 of understanding, of wisdom; speaking in the properand 
 unimitable language and style of the Spirit of God; that 
 is, by phrases altogether new, so playing, by the mouths 
 of ignorant people, with the secret and hidden keys of 
 divine wisdom; as to manifest to those few men who may 
 discern it, that it is acquainted indeed with the myste- 
 ries of God. And this is, as it were, the very seal by 
 which the Spirit of God has thought fit, in an authentic 
 manner, to attest to alJ, or almost all, the books of Scrip- 
 ture. 
 
 " This spirit prepares and adorns the bride against 
 the coming of the bridegroom. Without such a pre- 
 sence, and the extraordinary gifts and powers of the Spi- 
 rit 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 king-. 
 dom, can ever be expected to be brought about. Its 
 presence, and immediate operations and gifts,, were ne- 
 cessary for the beginning of the conversion of man to God 
 and his Christ. AncLnow, when the harvest remains yet 
 to be made, (for what has been done hitherto is but an 
 earnest,) and when Christendon itself is deplorably 
 hardened, misled, and divided, its immediate concur- 
 rence and manifestations are not less necessary, but ra» 
 ther more. 
 
 " If anti-christ is to be destroyed by the Word of God; 
 and the Spirit of his mouth, this spirit also takes upoa ife 
 to bring about that work. 
 
12 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 j < 
 
 " By this spirit we have access to God, and may in- 
 quire of him, and have his true answers returned, even 
 as of old. 
 
 " We know it cleanses our thoughts and hearts, and 
 makes us the temples of the Holy Ghost : and it takes in 
 hand that proper work of the Spirit of God, even the 
 cleansing his sanctuary also. 
 
 " That spirit pronounces forgiveness of sins; working 
 so upon the mind, at the same time, as to fill it with 
 peace and consolation, with a deep repentance, and with 
 love hotly flaming towards God. It makes our hearts, 
 our breasts, and neighbouring parts, to be filled with a 
 burning and holy fire; exciting to prayer and thanks- 
 giving, and unknown to any but such whom the Spirit 
 of God does inflame. 
 
 " It has turned many to God that were deeply engaged 
 in sin, or in the world; and has made us to know God, 
 as a tender, gracious, and most accessible Father; never 
 refusing to embrace a returning sinner. It dispels those 
 terrors with which sin and a wrong education are so apt 
 to work, a dread of despair, or a separation from God in 
 our minds. 
 
 " God, in his word, has laid the foundation for those 
 things which he will bring to pass. And if, in his mer- 
 cy, he is now pleased, as in former times, to use men as 
 instruments for his work, a great effusion- and communi- 
 cation of his Spirit is necessarily required, to qualify 
 them for that service. 
 
 «« By this spirit truth is watchfully kept, when once de- 
 livered; and pride is shut out from amongst men. 
 
 « It does, even as of old, employ apgels in several agj 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. TS 
 
 ministrations, relating either in general to men, or els® 
 to those that follow its voice. 
 
 " It has enabled many men and women, and young 
 persons, to suffer, even unto death. England itself, be- 
 sides what the}'' know has been done in the neighbouring 
 kingdom, has seen that spirit tried by severe tribula- 
 tions: and thus were always intreated the true prophets 
 of God. 
 
 " It does wonderfully lay the ground for bringing 
 about God's determinate counsel; and acquaints all dili- 
 gent followers of its voice, with the reasons of almost 
 every considerable step of God's Providence, as his work 
 goes on ; so making good what the Scripture says, ' Sure- 
 ly the Lord God will do nothing, but he reveals his secret 
 unto his servants the prophets/ when, at the same time, 
 worldly men have their eyes shut, and wander without 
 light. And thus did that angel of God, that led the Is- 
 raelites, give light to them in the night by a pillar of 
 fire, which to the Egyptians was a cloud of darkness. 
 
 " It cannot be denied, but this spirit prepares the way 
 for God's kingdom on earth, were it only by putting men 
 upon the study of the Scriptures throughout, with a 
 constant eye to that kingdom. 
 
 " How wonderfully does it guide, as it were, by the 
 hand ; and how does it deliver from the midst of danger ! 
 What a thirst does it give after its refreshing presence ! 
 And how have we been perishing, as long as he kept ab- 
 sent from us! Prov. xxix. 18. 
 
 " Oh ! what occasion for that first Guide and Author 
 of his church,* that ancient preserver of discipline, and 
 order, and truth, and humility, and union in it! that 
 
T4 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 only hope of our?, to have the sweet and infallible teach- 
 ings of God substituted to the dangerous, biassed from 
 the word, and distracted teachings of men, agreeing nei- 
 ther with the truth nor among themselves. 
 
 " Let this voice be tried by such rules, which, being 
 transferred to the particular times and messages of the 
 prophets, would have condemned none of them. Other 
 rules, now made to serve the designs of some people, are 
 highly dangerous; and so much the more to be pro- 
 nounced falsej as, by them, a greater number of those 
 true messengers of God must have been rejected. Now, 
 by such a trial, this voice is found to be God's. 
 
 " If we look abroad, many things, as it might be well 
 expected, where Christ's approaching kingdom was to 
 be proclaimed, do seem to have prepared mankind, in 
 these last ages, for this universal message of God, and 
 the appearance and easier reception of the King and Heir 
 of all things. Such are the discovery of America ; and 
 the way opened by navigation into the East-Indies also; 
 the vast improvements of trade and communication be- 
 tween different countries, and the establishment of posts ; 
 the art of printing; the perfection of other arts; the re- 
 viving of learning; the violence and arbitrariness of 
 those maxims by which mankind is governed in many 
 parts of the world ; reformation ; and even that multi- 
 plicity of sects and parties, which makes it palpable, that 
 Christians, notwithstanding all their pretences, are in- 
 volved in Egyptian darkness; the study of prophetical 
 Scriptures; the clearing the rights of conscience and of 
 men; the variety of journals, or abstracts of books, 
 printed weekly or monthly, &c. ; and both the late and 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS, 15 
 
 the present workings of the Spirit of God abroad, in 
 France, in Silesia., in some other parts of Germanv, and 
 elsewhere: for the Spirit of God evidently seems to be- 
 gin to work in many countries at once ; and we hope will 
 work, until the whole lump or mass of mankind be 
 leavened. 
 
 " Now, God, in the Scripture, having confined him- 
 self to recall the Jews, and all nations, by an effusion of 
 his Spirit, how can Christians but perceive that this is 
 the beginning of that effusion! or at least suspect and 
 fear, that it may, in the end, possibly prove to be so! 
 How does that belief become a crime, in any one, where 
 liberty of conscience is established, even by the laws of 
 the land ! And how dangerous must it be, presump- 
 tuously to ascribe these things to the Devil, while the 
 Scripture gives that description, which we read in it, of 
 the only one impardonable sin ! 
 
 , " To these reasons many other proofs may be added, 
 that this is the Spirit of God ; some of which may be 
 further gathered out of the printed Prefaces and Warn* 
 ings; The Cry from the Desert; and the French book 
 called, Theatre Sacre des Cevennes; from The Way of Try- 
 ing Prophets ; The Impartial Account ; Sir Richard Bulk- 
 ley's Answer to several Tracts; The Dealings of God to his 
 Servant, John Lacey ; and the Letter to Doctor Woodward. 
 What more proofs were to be mentioned here, must be 
 suppressed, for want of room. But the Warnings 
 themselves, some of them pronounced by very young 
 persons of the weaker sex, will give no small light 
 to the solemnity, origin, and truth, of this divine au<J 
 tremendous message, 
 
\6 HISTORY OP HELTGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 - ■ '«* 
 
 *' The number and character of these witnesses for God, 
 all of them English, their agreement in doctrine, and in 
 the chief import of their message, the difference of the 
 style, evidencing that they are not taught one of another, 
 and the contents of the discourses, surpassing the natural 
 capacities of the persons, must needs fill the minds of all 
 sincere readers with many serious thoughts and reflec- 
 tions; who will be able to gather, even without seeing 
 these messengers, that they are under direction of one 
 super-influencing spirit; and that they have not, as is 
 imputed to them, their dependance upon any man. And 
 with these do agree a considerable number of inspired of 
 other nations; besides some more English, of whom no- 
 rthing could be inserted in this short collection, either for 
 want of room, or because of some other limitations, in the 
 Order commanding it to be printed." 
 
 The collection of incoherent and unintelligible jargon 
 shewed the authors to be men thoroughly infatuated. It 
 bein<*, however, suspected that there was a mixt%re of 
 artifice and design in the whole concern, it was thought 
 necessary to apprehend Marion, John Daude, and Facio, 
 who were indicted and prosecuted at the expenceofall 
 the French churches in London, as disturbers of the 
 public peace, and false prophets. They received sen- 
 tence in the Court of Queen's Bench, to stand twice on a 
 scaffold, with a paper denoting their offence; to pay a 
 fine of twenty marks each ; and to give security for their 
 good behaviour for one year. 
 
 According to this sentence they were exposed on a 
 scaffold at Charing Cross, and at the Royal Exchange. 
 But the principal exposure of these prophets took placf 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 17 
 
 some time after, by the publication of a book intitled, 
 " A Brand Snatched from the Burning; exemplified in the 
 unparalleled case of Samuel Keimer." 
 
 This man had been a letter-press printer of some emi. 
 nence in his profession; but having been induced to 
 become one of this scandalous fraternity of impostors, 
 he explored the arcana of their iniquity; wljich he 
 published as a personal narrative. The book being ex. 
 ceedingly scarce and curious, we have made considerable 
 extracts from it, to shew, to all who are willing to be 
 convinced, that knavery has been too often the machine 
 by which all these supposed effusions of prophecy have 
 been agitated. Mr. Keimer afterwards turned Quaker. 
 His narrative begins thus: — >r^r« 
 
 <c A Brand snatched from\ 
 ing, Sf>c % 
 
 " It is not unknown among thousands inaTnTaboufc 
 this city, that near eleven years since, there arrived here 
 several persons from France, who called themselves (or 
 were generally called by others) by the name and title 
 of French Prophets. 
 
 " The business they came upon, was (as they declar- 
 ed) to promulge the speedy approaching judgments of 
 the Lord, upon the wicked of the earth, to call all 
 mankind to a speedy repentance ; for that God was com- 
 mg to make a decision between the precious and the vile, 
 the latter of which, with Babylon, was to be totally and' 
 finally destroyed, as forerunners of the kingdom state of 
 Christ on earth, which was immediately to ensue there- 
 of fi 
 
I* HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 upon. — That the cup of the iniquity of the people of this 
 land, &c. was quite full, and therefore the judgments 
 would be immediately poured upon the rebellious, and all 
 those that did not own and readily submit to that appear- 
 ance, or dispensation, as they then called it. 
 
 " This was the chief purport of the pretensions, asde- 
 livered by these Prophets, under very violent and strange 
 agitations or shaking of the body, loud and terrifying hic- 
 cups and throbs, with many odd and very surprising 
 postures, &c. ; all which they gave out was performed by 
 nothing less than the operation of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 " The uncommon nature of this affair drew many sober 
 and religious people to enquire into it; not knowing but 
 that God, whose ways are in tJte deep, might be the author 
 of it, and might in this latter day reveal himself in an 
 extraordinary manner, for some extraordinary end. 
 
 f* On the other hand, several who were curious for 
 seein j novelties, went likewise to several of their meet- 
 ings, which were frequently kept near the Seven Dials, 
 Baldwin's-gardens, &c. 
 «< Those who were truly religious, and led by the Spirit 
 of Christ, thereby being able to make a true judgment, 
 by the trial of spirits, quickly discerned the fallacy of 
 their gilded pretensions, and accordingly disbelieved, 
 disowned, and opposed that diabolical spirit which opera- 
 ted upon them. 
 
 " However, it was not long "ere this Spirit of Prophecy 
 Jiad communicated itself to many of the English nation, 
 by the laying on of hands of these prophets, who became 
 thereby agitated and shaken much in the same manner 
 as the French prophets were. 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 10 
 
 " Thus the infection began to spread and operate most 
 unaccountably upon the bodies and minds of men, women, 
 and children, who were generally persons that had made 
 a serious profession of religion, under the various denomi- 
 nations in this our land, viz, those of the National, Pres- 
 byterian, Independent, and Baptist persuasion; but being 
 ignorant of the true life and power of religion, (though 
 somewhat sensible of the dead lifeless forms, with which 
 the greatest part of professors contented themselves) were 
 unhappily drawn into this most wretched and pernicious 
 delusion of Satan j a delusion such as scarce ever has 
 been the like since the world began; such a one as 
 may be justly ranked with those whom the Apostle dis- 
 tinguished by the name of strong Delusions. 
 
 " Among the many who went with a design. to be in- 
 formed in this matter, which now began to make a great 
 noise, and was become, in a sense, the general subject of 
 the press and pulpit, was the unhappy author of the en- 
 suing relation. 
 
 " Being informed that a meeting was intended to be kept 
 in Southwark, by the invitation of several sober well-mean- 
 ing people on that side the water, who had not yefc made 
 trial of the spirit operating upon them, I got leave of my 
 master, Mr. Robert Tooley, Printer, Christopher-court, 
 T.hreadneedle-streef, a sober religious man, and endued 
 with many virtues, for half a day to go abroad, not ac- 
 quainting him with my intended business, which if he 
 had known, he would have been far from suffering me to 
 go one step on such an occasion, 
 
 " When I came into Southwark, I was with some 
 others conducted to the meeting of the said prophets, 
 
20 
 
 HFSTGRY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 which was kept at the meeting-house formerly used by 
 the Baptists, near Mary Overy's-Dock.* As soon as 1 en- 
 tered the room, which was large, and pretty full of peo- 
 ple, the first objects which drew my observation, was a 
 woman well dressed, on her knees, and a man standing 
 before her, with his hands upon her head, uttering se- 
 veral sentences, mixed with slrange hiccups, and sha- 
 kings of his head forwards and backwards, his body, as 
 it seemed to me, jumping while he was speaking. Be- 
 tween every two or three words speaking, he cried, Hoh \ 
 
 Hoh ! Hoh ! Hoh ! O h ! O h ! O h ! as if he 
 
 were taking his last gasp. This man's name was John 
 Lacy, Esq. a person known by many to be a man of sobrie- 
 ty and substance, and who belonged to a congregation of 
 Presbyterians, to whom Edmund Calamy, a noted man, 
 was preacher. This laying on of hands, and speaking 
 to the person on her knees, was called (as I afterwards 
 came to understand) the gift of blessing, t 
 
 " The next scene that offered, was a Frenchman vio- 
 lently agitated and shaken, but in another sort of a 
 manner than the former. This person, whose name was 
 John Cavalier,(one of those who arrived from France,) on 
 a sudden, being under agitation, was flung along upon 
 the ground, with a sort of violent force, shewing several 
 strange postures, such as boys in their play commonly 
 call bending the sea-crab, walking on his hands, with his 
 legs erect, &c. There were several men, English and 
 French, who sat at a table, taking down in writing what 
 was spoke, and afterward read it to the assembly present. 
 There was, I think, a third that spoke, whose name was 
 Elias Marion, another of those that came from France. 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 21 
 
 " When all was over, the spectators severally made 
 their remarks on what had happened * some were of 
 opinion it might possibly be of God; some ascribed it to 
 madness; some to a diabolical operation; some to one 
 thing, and some to another. 
 
 " For my own part, I could see little of God or reli- 
 gion in this strange appearance, and did not know what 
 to make of it. 
 
 " However, I plainly saw the infection had diffused it- 
 self like the plague, insensibly at first, upon several who 
 came to enquire into it, or to be spectators. 
 
 *' Among this number were two neighbours, one of 
 whose names was William Draycotr, a brazier, inTooley* 
 street, a man accounted of a sober life and conversation, 
 and one that had been joinM for several years in church- 
 membership with the particular Baptists; the other was 
 Anna Finkley, a widow, in Joyner's-street, who was like- 
 wise of good repute, who invited the prophets home to 
 her house to refresh themselves, &c. After their so do- 
 ing, one of the prophets being seized with the spirit, 
 called for the mistress or head of the house, who being 
 come to him, he blessed her and her house, with many 
 others, who kneeled, and had the prophet's hands Laid 
 upon their heads. 
 
 " Here it was that my sister, before-mentioned, began 
 to be greatly affected, having, as I think,, been blessed 
 (as they called it 3 ) but of that I will nor be certain, and 
 was taken with a violent fit of weeping, as was another 
 young N \voman, and a very little girl. This was the first 
 day of their and my seeing the prophets, and 1 saw 
 nothing more remarkable that time, which was,.! think, 
 
 C2 
 
22 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 about the beginning of the sixth month, called August, 
 in the year 1707. 
 
 *■ The next time I went to my father's, ^hich was 
 about a week after, to my great surprise, my sister had 
 commenced prophetess, having, at times, the agitations 
 upon her very violent and surprising. While I was 
 there, the spirit came upon her, and she spoke somewhat ; 
 but what I cannot remember. 
 
 u By this time, my mother (who though she was a 
 woman that made a strict profession, knew little of the 
 essence or spiritual part of religion) began to haye a fa* 
 vourable opinion of this matter; and being persuaded 
 "by some to be blessed, after some reluctance, at last she 
 submitted, had several fine things (pleasing to corrupt 
 nature) said to her • and in some little time after became 
 a captive of Satan, by firmly believing, and giving her- 
 self up to him, in this his work. 
 
 " Here was now mother and daughter caught; there 
 remained only father and son. For my part, it was a 
 Jong while before I could in the least be reconciled to it. 
 " About this time, my mother and sister were caught 
 in the snare; and my mother being a zealous woman for 
 what she professed, though without true knowledge, was 
 earnest for me to go and be blessed ; which I for several 
 times refused, fearing it was the Devil that possessed 
 these prophet?, and being unwilling to be caught in his 
 snare. It was some months I continued thus aloof 
 from being blessed, though at times I went to several of 
 their meetings, having a desire to be informed thoroughly 
 in this matter. 
 
 " At one of their meetings, which was kept at the 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROFHETS. 23 
 
 Rummer, near Honey-lane Market, where I was pre- 
 sent, there was one Thomas Dutton, a lawyer, seized, 
 being a man well dressed, in a long tie-wig, and/ I think, 
 having a sword by his side. This man, under agitations 
 much like the rest whom I had seen, uttered a very ra- 
 tional discourse, or warning, which I well remember was 
 somewhat to this effect, ' You call this a delusion ; but 
 can it be a delusion to bid you repent ? Will the Devil 
 preach repentance ?' with many other things to the same 
 purpose. After he had done, there was a young woman 
 spoke, whose name I cannot tell. 
 
 " This spirit of prophecy had by this time arose to a 
 great height, and many were the followers of it. Like- 
 wise there were several sober persons who became pro- 
 phets end prophetesses, particularly one John Potter, a 
 Baptist, and a member of a large congregation, to which 
 
 . Foxwell was pastor, at Iiorselydown, South warK, 
 
 John Glover, a Baptist preacher, Mary Aspinal, Mary 
 Turner, and Sarah Draycott, with many more whom I 
 shall not here mention. 
 
 " Observing there were many sober people, some of 
 whom I knew, who professsed faith in this appearance, 
 and who loudly cried it up as the work of God j that it 
 was the beginning of the fulfilling of the many glorious 
 promises mentioned in Scripture, viz. the calling of the 
 Jews, the Lion's lying down with the Lamb, &c. I began 
 to have a favourable opinion of it ; and being persuaded 
 by my mother to receive a blessing, accordingly with 
 some reluctance I consented, and at the next meeting I 
 was at, in a neighbour's house, after almost all present 
 had been blessed, I went towards the prophet, whose 
 
2't HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES,. 
 
 name was Elias Marion, and falling on my knees before 
 him, he laid his hands on my head, and spoke several 
 sentences in French, after which he took his hands off, 
 and I arose from my knees,. 
 
 '* The meeting soon after broke up, and as it was 
 usual, those who took down in writing what was spoke, 
 if it was in Frencb,,translated it, and read it in English ta 
 those present, and if desired, would write out copies of 
 what was spoken, and particularly blessings, and gave 
 them to the persons so desiring. My blessing came at 
 last to be read over, at which I was somewhat affected, 
 or rather elevated, which being given me in writing a 
 day or two after, was exactly as follows :. 
 
 " My Child, JiH now thou hast been rebellious to my 
 will. I conie, I tell thee, to appropriate thy heart to me. 
 I come to make thee a new creature. I come to give thet 
 the engagement promised to vy children. Thou hast ha- 
 bitation in my house ; thou may'st ask me without fear ; 
 iut let thy heart humble itself before me. Let it seek my 
 word, whilst I do present it to thee The blessing, of 
 God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, rest upon 
 thee, and shall never depart from thee. Go in peace. — 
 Fray to me without ceasing, and draw back entirely from 
 the world and its commerce. Resign thyself to follow me. 
 I call thee.'* 
 
 " This blessing, when I came to read it over, had a 
 strange and uncommon effect on my mind. I read it over 
 and over, being much affected therewith. I was willing, 
 with a sort of hope on one hand, to believe that it was 
 God spoke to me $ on the other hand, I was very much 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHF.TS. 25 
 
 afraid it was the alluring voice of the Devil, to draw me 
 into the desruction of my immortal soul. Sometimes ray 
 mind was raised to a high pitch of elevation, and some- 
 times I was cast down in great perplexity. What to do 
 I could not tell. I thought it could not be of God, it 
 flattered me so much. And then I considered with my- 
 self, God was a gracious being, infinite in mercy, and 
 boundless in his love towards the children of men. At 
 last, after a great deal of exercise of mind, at different 
 times, concerning this affair, I came to be fully persuaded, 
 and did sincerely believe it was of God, and that lie was 
 come in a wonderful manner to do a mighty work on the 
 earth. 
 
 * Nor had I, in the least, any other view or prospect 
 in my receiving or believing this voice to be of God than 
 the good of my precious soul, about which I had been ear- 
 nestly concerned at times, almost ever since I could 
 speak. The all-knowing God, before whom I must short- 
 ly appear at the great tribunal, knows f utter truth. 
 
 ** It Was not very long after, to the best of my remem- 
 brance, that a messenger came out of Southwark to my 
 master's to speak with me one Seventh-Day-Night. The 
 message he came upon was to acquaint me, that my mo- 
 ther desired my master to give me leave to go over ; for 
 that the Spirit had told my sister, through her own mouth, 
 that that very night at twelve o'clock she was to die.*— 
 The news very much startled me, and made mc sorrow- 
 ful, to think of parting with my sister, whom I loved 
 very well ; and getting leave of my master, 1 went over, 
 in full purpose, to condole, and take a farewel of my dy- 
 ing sister. When I came to my father's, I found her in 
 
2/5 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 bed, my mother and several neighbours, who were be- 
 liever?, being in the same room. It was about ten of 
 the clock when I got there, and my mother having sent 
 for a quart of wine before, we each of us drank to, and 
 afterwards saluted, my sister, fully expecting at the hour 
 appointed she would certainly die. 
 
 "Twelve of the clock being nigh come, I observed 
 one or two in the room composed themselves to private 
 prayer on this occasion* For my own part I waited with 
 grief of heart to see my sister depart, between hope and 
 fear, when, on a sudden, she was violently seized and 
 agitated to such a degree, as was amazing, which conti- 
 nuing for some time, (I think about a quarter of an hour,} 
 the Spirit went off her, and we were informed she was 
 not to die this time, to my very great joy, as well as to 
 theirs who were present, who wept upon this occasion. 
 
 " There were many conjectures upon this failure of pre- 
 diction. One would have it to mean that she was to die 
 to sin, another that it was for the trial of our faith, and a 
 third gave another reason, different from both. 
 
 " It was not long after ere the Prophets and Prophe^ 
 tesses began to predict many particular, strange, and 
 wonderful, things, naming persons, times, and places. — 
 And there being one Thomas Ernes, commonly called Dr. 
 Ernes, a reputed Socinian, who had received this spirit, 
 and had become a Prophet, and to whom the spirit, 
 through several of the rest of the prophets, had promised 
 should do many marvellous things. This Ernes (notwith- 
 standing all that was assured him, of his being a great in- 
 strument to work miracles of all sorts,) was taken ill about 
 the fourth day of the tenth month, commonly called D§-> 
 
THE FRENCH AN*> ENGLISH PROPHETS, 27 
 
 cember, with a violent head-ache, or megrim, and died 
 an the 22d, and was buried the 25th of the same month on 
 the day called Christmas day, 1707, in the burying place 
 in Bunhill-fields, commonly called Tyndall's burying 
 ground. 
 
 " While he lay ill, he was told by John Lacy, John, 
 Potter, &c. under agitation, many flattering stories, that 
 if he died, he should quickly be raised again, which the 
 poor man, as I have reason to think, firmly believed.— 
 After the doctor was dead, instead of being laid out, as is 
 usual for a dead corpse, he was kept hot in his bed, till 
 he stunk so as there was scarce any enduring it, several 
 imagining he would come to life again. 
 
 " The day he was buried, I being at a Meeting in 
 Southwark, at the dwelling house of Guy Nutt, at which 
 was present John Potter, whom I had heard much of, but 
 never before had seen to my knowledge, upon whom the 
 Spirit came, and, after violent agitations, with a very aw- 
 ful voice, spoke as follows: 
 
 'Remember this day, my children. I say, remember 
 this day. It is known vulgarly to all. For, I say, from 
 this day will I be glorified in all that believe. This day 
 shall be a day of joy to you, my children ; of exceeding 
 joy unto all that trust in me. Remember it, therefore ; 
 for, know from this day I will make an extraordinary 
 beginning. The wonderful works of your God shall be 
 seen visibly, if you will but behold. And I say, Whoso 
 seeth not is worse than blind naturally. This day shall 
 be unto you as the beginning of days. And asdavs were 
 before months, so the first day of. the next month shall be 
 to you the beginning of months. For I will work, and 
 
2$ HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 nothing shall let. My word shall run and be glorified. 
 My power shall be made known. The strength of my 
 arm shall be felt. The power of the Almighty shall cause 
 such echoes in this city, as that the city shall tremble. 
 Blessed are they that hear. It is on them I will set my 
 mark; that, when the destroying angel cometh, they 
 may be preserved. But whoso will not hear, in their 
 bowels shall the sword of mine indignation be sheathed. 
 It shall gore in their hearts; it shall be made drunk with 
 their blood. This, this, this is the great and notable day 
 of the Lord : terrible to the wicked, but cause of exceed- 
 ing joy to those that obey. Therefore, my obedient 
 •nes, ye who have heard my voice, and say, we know it 
 is the voice of God, I am now about to answer your pray* 
 ers. I'll give now undeniable proof that this is my word ; 
 that these distracted motions are caused by the operation 
 of my spirit in my children. The restoring of the blind, 
 the healing of the sick, the raising of the dead, shall de- 
 cide it, after some months being interred. Will not this 
 do? Take heed, you that say I shall believe, when I 
 s ee this. Take heed, I say, you simple ones; for if 
 faith, ds thou confessest, be the gift of God, thou know- 
 est not whether I will give faith then. No, no, I will not. 
 gratify the humours of my worms, in whose destruction I 
 can be glorified ; and I will, if you will not accept of this 
 act of graqr, which is now proclaimed by the mouths of 
 
 my servants. Therefore it is now that I call unto you. 
 
 Come, come, come ; come all you that would escape 
 approaching judgments, and enter into this ark, which I 
 have prepared for your safety. Yes, I will raise the dead. 
 By the same power that I have raised Jesus^, will I raise 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS* 2$ 
 
 - -* ' 
 
 that body now asleep ; more fat and more fair than ever 
 he has been. It shall not ffce Known by his friends that he 
 hath fasfed so many months* So fat, so lovely shall he 
 appear, that the beholders shall fall in love with him.— 
 Yes, the same body, the same face, though more lovely. 
 For the beams of my glory shall overshadow that earthly 
 tabernacle ; so as that it shall be made glorious thereby. 
 Come, my children ; I know you wait.' 
 
 " Here he fell backward in his chair, and cried out ia 
 a different tone from what he had before spoken with, • O 
 Lord!' 
 
 " Then the spirit answered, by way of dialogue, 'What 
 would you that I say unto you }' He then cried out in the 
 different tone, ' By another Lord !' And then fell down 
 with some force to the ground, where he lay silent. 
 
 " In a little time afterwards, Anna Maria King, a girl 
 •f twelve years old, was seized, and, under agitations, 
 spoke as follows: — ■ 
 
 'Rejoice greatly, O my children, and be exceeding 
 glad; for great is your reward in Heaven, And be you. 
 assured, that all that I have spoken by my servant, at this? 
 time, and all other times, shall come to pass. And if 
 you knew me, you would believe me. By the hand of 
 my servant Lacy will I raise the body of my servant, that 
 is now dead. But you must wait my time ; for I am not 
 at your wills, neither will I be. He, I say, heshal! arise 
 and fulfil his testimony. Did I ever speak in vain ? No, 
 I assure you; I never did, nor I never-wili. You have 
 sufficient proof already that this is the power of God.— 
 But there is none can deny this that I am going to bring 
 
50 JSISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 to pass. If he be dead and rotten, yet I will raise him, 
 as I have spoken, to fulfil hi* testimony. There is not 
 one tittle of what I have spoken shall pass away, I will 
 do greater things than these. Yes, I will do such things 
 as never yet have been.' 
 
 "After which, John Potter being again seized, spoke 
 as follows;— 
 
 *0 thou timorous child ! Why prayest thou thus unto 
 me? Thinkest thou that 1 will be entreated by thee to 
 speak that, by others, which I purpose to speak by thee ? 
 I tell thee, I will not. Therefore let me no more be soli- 
 cited upon such occasions. I will excuse thee for this 
 time. But know, from thy mouth, shall be declared the 
 positive day in which my servant shall be raised from the 
 dead. I only give thee time to consider of the weakness 
 of thy prayer. I have heard it; but, I assure thee, I ap- 
 prove not of it/ 
 
 ''Here he fell into most violent and surprising agita- 
 tations, crying out, in a different tone of voice, • O Lord 1 
 -who can bear it?' The Spirit, through his own mouth, 
 then said, 'Thou shalt, and a thousand times more.' 
 * If thou wilt enable me, Lord, 
 
 *Thy brethren may judge of the weakness of thy prayer 
 by that childish expression. Did I ever require any 
 thing, at any time, to be done, by any of my servants, 
 but they were assisted by me in the performance of it ? 
 ' True, Lord, I know thou never didst, 
 4 Well, learn then to know my will, and do it. For 
 know, thou shall not only declare the days in which I will 
 work miracles ; but thou shalt likewise, with a loud 
 voice, in this city, declare the positive day in which my 
 judgments shall descend from Heaven. Thou shalt tell 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. £1 
 
 — ■ ■■ ■■ ■-■ "— ~ 
 
 the day in which fire and brimstone shall descend, to the 
 consuming to ashes famous buildings in this city. Be 
 thou still, therefore ; and know, that I am God ; and 
 that it is I that speak in thee, and not thyself/ 
 
 " The next day John Potter was seized again by the 
 Spirit, at another meeting, and spoke as follows, by way 
 of dialogue ;— 
 
 ' Wilt thou declare willingly, with an open mouth* 
 those words which I speak unto thee ? 
 
 * Do thou rule, Lord, over all my faculties. My will 
 is, that thine may be done* Take possession of it, Lord, and 
 it shall be so. 
 
 4 But I will that thou resist not. 
 
 * Lord, remember my weakness ; thou knottiest that I am 
 but dust. 
 
 1 What! wilt thou still interrogate ? Have I not told 
 thee, I will be strength in thy weakness, wisdom in thy 
 folly ; and that I will always assist thee as the matter re- 
 quires ? Take heed, lest I strike thee dumb; which I 
 will, if thou ceasest not. 
 
 ' Thy will be done, Lord, Lord ; Lord, thy will be done* 
 I must speak yet unto thee, Lord* Spare me, Lord, sendiiie 
 not; for I cannot bear.* 
 
 H Here he was thrown down backwards, and lay so 
 on the floor for some time. After which he rose again, 
 and, in a most lamentable and affecting tone, he cried> 
 * Oh / the burden of the Lord! the burden of the Lord!' 
 
 'Do thou remember, my child, how much the excuse 
 of my servant Moses tended to his loss. Was it not weak- 
 ness in him to say unto me, thou knowest I am a man of a 
 stammering tongue; and,, at the same time, I would have 
 
32 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMTOSTURES. 
 
 given him the tongue of the learned? He lost the ho- 
 nour of being a famous orator by his excusing himself.— 
 Therefore, say not I am weak, but the contrary ; in the 
 Lord am I strong. His power inhabits my heart. And 
 that shall appear in all that trust in me. Therefore, when 
 I command thee, be thou willing; saying, on thine arm 
 will I trust. What sayest thou now, my child ? Art thou 
 willing? Say no more; Thy will be done, Lord, and 
 then frame excuses for thyself. 
 
 * I will not excuse myself, Lord. Only this, only this-~ 
 Spare me yet a little while. 
 
 ' If I should, it will be always, Yet a little while. 
 ' « No, Lord, no; but I entreat thee now. 
 
 ♦ Thou sayest well in every thing; but when it comes 
 to the trial, thou startest back. I will be entreated by 
 thee. Thou art spared. But let the time be spent in, 
 considering the nature of the message : for thou canst not 
 say, thou art ignorant of it. 
 
 ' J am not, Lord, 
 
 •And in thy continual prayers, see thou ask for strength, 
 And I will give it thee/ 
 
 "The next day, being the 27jh, John Potter was again 
 seized, and spoke, by way of dialogue, as follows :— 
 
 • Behold, I come, I come, I come ! My children, see 
 to yourselves therefore. For, I say, the righteous shall 
 scarcely be saved. Be ye not careful, therefore, what 
 the state of the wicked shall be ; no, no ; look to your- 
 selves. Rejoice in your God, therefore, you whom I have 
 called. And know of a truth, that so long as you obey 
 my voice, which speaketh through you, you are safe.— 
 $ut I tell you, there are some amongst you who obey 
 
THE TRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 33 
 
 not that voice. Thou, thou wretch, by whom I speak* 
 disobeyest. 
 
 ° Here he was thrown all along upon the floor, cry- 
 ing out, • Slay me, Lord, and thou shalt be just.* 
 
 *I will not, yet will I be just. Thou complainest of 
 the burden of the Lord, 
 
 ' I will speak, Lord; I cannot bear it, though the unwor- 
 thiestof all. Yet be merciful, Lord God. 
 
 ' Rise thou. — [Here John Cavalier was seized with 
 most violent agitations.] — I tell thee, the burden thou 
 complainest of shall be five times heavier. 
 
 ' Thy will be done, Lord ; thou art strong ; on thy arm 
 will I lean. 
 
 * Thou audacious presumerl Wilt thou rebel against 
 me, and say, Lord, on thy arm will I trust? 
 
 ' Thou knowest my heart, Lord. 
 
 4 1 do; and I will burst in pieces that heart, I will 
 consume thy bones. The flames of my wrath shall con- 
 sume thee, if thou wilt not give vent to that within thee» 
 
 ■ Thy will be done, Lord ; / cannot. 
 
 ' I told thee how it would be. Didst thou not say, it 
 should not be so ? 
 
 * Lord, I did not think thou wouldst have called so soon, 
 
 * Thou foolish child ! Must the wicked say so when 
 I appear ? 
 
 * Be entreated, Lord, to speak by another mouth ; but if 
 not, thou must spare me yet,. 
 
 * I will speak by thee ; and I will spare thee that thy 
 burden may be encreased five times. Thou shalt be an 
 example to the rest, for thou art not alone. Thou fool! 
 
 » 2 
 
34 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURE?. 
 
 can death ease thee? No, no. Art thou fit to die ? — 
 Consider, thou dost not know what it is to die. 
 
 ' Lord, I am ignorant of every thing. Thou hast called 
 me; but I am as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. 
 
 ' JBut I will accustom thee to it. I know what thou art, 
 
 * Unworthy, 
 
 * Yes, thou art unworthy. And the language of thy 
 actions is this, I will be more unworthy/ 
 
 w [Here John Cavalier was again seized ; and with a 
 Baked knife in his hand, and his arm lifted up, he said, 
 * Je viendrai rassassier ma colere sur ceux qui renom*ent ma 
 parole. Je ne veux point des serviteurs rebelles a mes com- 
 mandements dans ma maisonj] But I say, that stiff neck 
 of thine shall be broken ; so that thou shalt couch to the 
 burden of the Lord, and not cry out of its being heavy.* 
 
 " Then John Potter cried out, * Thou only canst. do it, 
 Lord. Do it soon. 7 
 
 "The same day John Potter received a blessing. 
 
 u The next day, being the 28th, John Potter was for a 
 long time under violent agitations, and laboured greatly 
 with strugglings in his throat and organs of speech, almost 
 as if he were choking; and uttered some inarticulate 
 sounds. After which he spoke the following warning: 
 
 * Did ye understand, my children ? You shall know- 
 more perfectly in a short time. The words were pro* 
 nounced, even the day in which my servant Ernes shall 
 rise. Take this as a mark. — [Here the Spirit instantly 
 threw him upon the floor, where he lay stretched out as 
 dead, without motion or breathing. After some time, 
 there came a trembling motion into every part of him afe 
 once; his feet, leg?, hands, arms, and shoulders. Aftejf 
 which there appeared some breathing, which grew still 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 35 
 
 louder and stronger in bim. After he had been in that 
 manner for sometime hesaid,] —The operation of my spi- 
 rit upon his body shall cause the earth over him to be 
 loosened. You shall not break the ground ; no, he shall 
 rise without; in this form. [Here he raised up his head, 
 and his body forward, into a sitting posturK] Hy thy 
 mouth will I command. [This he directed to John Lacy, 
 who sat by him.] And thou shalt raise him. [He then 
 stretched out his hand, and took hold of John Lacy's hand, 
 and thereupon stood up upon his feet.]'' 
 
 "About this time, as John Potter and John Cavalier 
 were passing by the place where Dr. Ernes was buried, 
 John Potter was seized with the spirit, and then said : 
 
 ' Thou, my servant, who lies interred in this place* 
 shalt, in a few natural months, arise. My child, thy 
 tongue shall declare the positive day. Be thou obedient, 
 and I will exceedingly reward thee. Bu> if thou resist- 
 eth, I will break thy neck with a rod of iron. Consider, 
 therefore, and be wise.* * 
 
 " My Christian reader may observe here with what so- 
 lemnity these warnings were uttered, being spoke in the 
 first person, as if the Great and Omnipotent God, the 
 Creator of all things, had be^i the author of them ; and 
 likewise what was herein promised to the believers. 
 
 %i I shall now proceed in my narrative, by acquainting 
 liim, that we were told, that, on the first day of the 10th 
 month, commonly called New Year's Day, wonderful 
 things were to be declared by the spirit, and the positive 
 day in which the Doctor was to be raised out of his grave. 
 And this being to be the beginning of months, as before 
 declared, we all were raised with vast expectations. 
 
36 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 " It happened that I had the liberty of going abroad oa 
 this day ; and as I was walking pretty betimes into South- 
 wark, I met my mother, and several others, who were- 
 going to a meeting appointed at the Three Foxes in Hol- 
 loway. We took coach, and as we were proceeding in, 
 our journev, before we got out of town, the spirit seized 
 my sister in the coach, and we were told, that that very 
 day, it should be declared when Dr. Ernes should rise. 
 
 <« When we came to the place aforesaid, there was a 
 handsome large room appointed for the meeting of the 
 English, and another, over that, for the French. Iii a lit- 
 tle time the room began to fill, and the spirit had before 
 commanded us, as I was there informed, to salate one ano- 
 ther with a kiss, which we accordingly did. 
 
 " After which, being seated, and the writers placed 
 round the table as usual, the spirit in a little time began 
 to operate upon several men, women, and children, very 
 violently, making a strange and awful noise, which con- 
 tinued for some considerable time, and then by degrees 
 decreasing, John Lacy began to speak a warning, which 
 to the best of my remembrance, was to the purport fol- 
 lowing -.—That the children of God had hitherto been in 
 a wilderness-state, like the Israelites of old. That as they 
 went over the River Jordan, so must we expect to pass over 
 the Jordan of Affliction ; and as when they drew near 
 the Land of Canaan, God took Moses up to Mount Pisgah 
 to give him a sight of the land; so we should in a little? 
 time, (either in a few minutes or hours) have a sight or 
 taste of the spiritual Canaan, &c. 
 
 " As soon or before he had done speaking, John Pot- 
 ter was carried violently by the spirit from the place. 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHET?, 37 
 
 where he sat, into another room, several persons that 
 were believers, following him to see what he was going 
 about. For my own part, I was not so curious. 
 
 " However, it was not long before he came into the 
 room again, but in such a manner, as was the most 
 awful and affecting as ever I saw ; for he being a tall 
 man, under most violent agitations, came in, his arms ex- 
 tended to the utmost, in each of his hands holding and 
 shaking a piece of paper, and crying out with a thunder- 
 ing voice, Grace ! grace ! grace ! which words having re- 
 peated several times, he threw one of the pieces of paper 
 which was blank, backwards over his head, and the 
 other piece, on which was something he had wrote when 
 out of the room, he laid on the table, which being read 
 by Sir Richard Bulkely, was (to the best of my remem- 
 brance, for I would not add one tittle more than truth) as 
 follows: — 
 
 *' Here is your pardon purchased by the blood of the 
 Lamb, for all your sins past to this day. Signed and 
 sealed by the Great Jehovah. I AM. 
 
 •' This paper was no sooner read but the whole room 
 full, as it seemed to me, was in the heighth of elevation 
 and extacy, some crying, some jumping and dancing, 
 with all the signs of joy possible. For my own part, I 
 was in such raptures, as thinking '-this was the Pisgah 
 sight spoken of by John Lacy, or rather, being wrapt 
 up into the third heavens, that I could scarce contain my- 
 self. And indeed, what could possibly be more affecting 
 than to believe, that God himself was speaking to us. 
 
38 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 telling us, that all ous sins were pardoned, as it were, face 
 to face ? 
 
 " Some time after this, John Cavalier came from the 
 upper room with a woman, who had lately buried her son, 
 whom the spirit promised likewise should be raised much 
 about the same time with Dr. Ernes And a little while 
 after, John Cavalier jumped up on the table in the mid- 
 dle of the room, and with his foot stamped distinctly 
 many times thereon, and spoke something in French, 
 which was interpreted by one present (I think Sir 
 Kichard Bulkely) to signify either the number of weeks, 
 or number of days, Dr. Ernes should lay in his grave. 
 
 '* The resurrection of the Doctor was also predicted 
 by several, if not all the inspired, soon after. And now, 
 reader, it was, that I was fully given up to Satan, to be- 
 lieve lies ; now it was, the reasoa which God gave me* 
 came to be captivated and destroyed ; my will and affec- 
 tions raised to an elevated pitch, by the power of vain 
 imaginations which (like poison in the body, that dif- 
 fuses itself through every part of the man) infected me 
 throughout body, soul, and spirit, and consequently led 
 me into a labyrinth of confusion, misery, and distress, 
 hereafter to be mentioned, 
 
 " Now it was, I entered myself a volunteer under the 
 banner of Beelzebub, believing him to be Jesus, the 
 captain of my salvation. And instead of being enlighten- 
 ed and reproved by the spirit of Christ, I was caressed, 
 flattered, and soothed up in my sins, by the flattering 
 Toice of the Devil. 
 
 " Nor was it my case alone ; for there were many 
 ©thers, who in the sincerity of their hearts, were seeking 
 
THE TRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 39 
 
 the way to Sioo, but through ignorance, were enticed 
 and prevailed upon by the voice of the Deluder, to whom 
 I trust, God will in his own time make known his salva- 
 tion, by their deliverance. But to return to my relation; 
 
 " There being a considerable number of inspired, and 
 a far larger number of believers, several of the latter 
 being men of distinguished sense and judgment in natu- 
 ral things, as well as substance, the spirit now began to 
 predict and thunder forth most lamentable judgments on 
 the inhabitants of this land, &c, such as pestilence, fa- 
 mine, fire, and blood, and several frightful representations 
 were made thereof as signs, under agitation, much like 
 players upon a stage. It was not long after this, the 
 spirit commanded the believers to wear a green ribbon, 
 of about a yard long, as a mark for the destroying angel 
 to know us by, when he should come to execute the 
 judgments of the Lord. Accordingly, I with the rest 
 bought a green ribbon, and wore it according to com- 
 mand, on the leftside under my upper garment. After 
 some time we were all commanded to wear it on our 
 heads, and round our right arms, all which I, in sincerity 
 and simplicity, with many others exactly obeyed, and 
 particularly one Havey, a Frenchman, was commanded 
 to wear his ribbon openly, which he did, by fixing it 
 upon an upper breast-button of his coat. This wearing 
 of ribbon was also adjudged and looked upon as a bride- 
 favour for the marriage of the Iamb, which we were often 
 told by the inspired, und^r operation, would very quickly 
 be solemnized. 
 
 " We were also commanded by the spirit, each of us 
 for ourselves, to buy the largest and fairest apple that 
 
4^ history of religious imposturm. 
 
 could be bought for money, and write our names there* 
 on ; accordingly I being sent of an errand, bought the 
 best I could light on, at Stocks-marker, for which I gave 
 a penny, brought it home, and very devoutly wrote my 
 name thereon. This I kept several months, as choice as 
 possible under lock and key, until it was rotten: and 
 then, to the best of my remembrance, I think I ate it. 
 One Anne Steed, (hereafter to be mentioned,) beingun- 
 willing to have her apple spoiled,made a dumplin with it, 
 as I was informed ; but what the rest of the believers 
 did with theirs 1 cannot tell. 
 
 *' It was much about this time, (as I take it,) that being 
 in Southwark, I heard that John Potter was at a meeting 
 hard by, and had the gift of blessing. Upon the news of 
 which, I immediately posted away, to partake of what 
 I then thought a great favour. By that time I got there, 
 almost all in the room were blest, as I afterwards found, 
 and making up to the prophet, the next vacancy, I pre- 
 sented myself on my knees, and had the prophet's hands 
 laid on me, who spoke the following words: — 
 
 • The spirit is willing ; and 1 so strengthen thee: 
 thou art not forgotten by me, I remember thee in thy 
 bonds ; but know, I will make hard things easy in a little 
 time, Rtjoice in this, that thou canst call upon thy God, 
 The hearts of all are in my hands, and as the rivers of 
 waters, I will turn them ; but thou shalt be exercised. I 
 will appear for thee. Be thou faithful in thy station ; 
 therein thou obeyest me. Thou shalt receive my spirit* 
 It shall operate in thee. Thou shalt bUss my people, and 
 those thou livest with shall kneel before thee. See thy 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 4l 
 
 heart is upright in humility. Receive this, praise my 
 name. Take all opportunities to obey my commands. In 
 so doing, thou wilt incur my favours, and oblige me to 
 manifest myself unto thee, more and more.' 
 
 " While the spirit was speaking to me thus, I remem- 
 ber I was affected, as believing God immediately spoke 
 to me very suitable to my case. But to proceed. 
 
 " The spirit had now commanded several of the in- 
 spired and others to leave off their trades, which they ac- 
 cordingly did, viz. John Potter, who was a packer in 
 Aldermanbury, in good business, and in a thriving way ; 
 Thomas Dutton, a lawyer, who, as I am informed, flung 
 himself out of a very considerable yearly income upon, 
 this affair; Nathaniel Sheppard, a young apothecary, 
 just coming into the world, (a man, whose fellow for his 
 sober conversation, exquisite sense and parts, and other 
 accomplishments, to do him justice, I must needs say, I 
 never in all my life met with, considering his age,) with 
 several others I shall not, lest I be too tedious, here men- 
 tion. 
 
 " We were now pretty well modelled as a body of peo- 
 ple; and the spirit commanded each family or believer 
 for themselves to lay up six months provisions of those 
 eatables that would keep, for that there should be a very 
 sore famine in a few days; and several of the inspired 
 had visions thereof, as they said, which represented num- 
 bers of persons dropping down dead in the streets for 
 hunger, and several howling, as ready to perish. Ac- 
 cordingly each family bought in, or had sent in, large 
 quantities of provisions, and several fine things were said 
 
 i> . /• E 
 
42 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 to us of God's blessings, &c. relating thereto. I remem- 
 ber my mother bought in a quantity of meal, peas, beef, 
 pork, oil, raisins, red-herrings, and the like. This was 
 much about the time the noise was of the person called the 
 pretender'* being about to make his first descent upon 
 Scotland. 
 
 « I well remember, having a great love for my master, 
 Tookey, I was concerned in my mind whether to ac- 
 quaint him with the approaching famine (for him to pre- 
 pare) or not, he never believing the least tittle of what 
 the prophets pretended to. At last, after great conside- 
 ration, I concluded, that when the famine came, I would 
 give him some of the provision which my mother laid up 
 for me, sparing it out of my own belly to keep him from 
 starving. 
 
 " We were likewise commanded to go and be marked 
 in the forehead by an old French woman named Rous, 
 dwelling somewhere about the Seven-Dials ; for that an 
 angel had appeared to her, and so ordered. Upon which 
 I went one fust day, with several other sober people, 
 who were also marked, which was done by dipping her 
 finger into a bason of water, and rubbing it on the fore- 
 head, (and I think crossing, but of that I won't be posi- 
 tive.) We were here told that we might read over one 
 of David's psalms every day or night, which I took care 
 to do for several days successively; and sometimes after 
 I had done work, and was weary, I would hurry the 
 reading over, scarce knowing, even as to the letter, what 
 I read. Such was my stupid ignorance and spiritual 
 
 blindness. 
 
 « We were likewise commanded to meet by sevens. 
 
THE TRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 4$ 
 
 having seven candles lighted, which was accordingly put 
 in practice. But I being an apprentice, could not be 
 present at any of those meetings, so can give no accouut 
 of what was said or done there. 
 
 "There were also very often love-feasts commanded, 
 which were performed by select companies meeting at 
 proper places, and after having eat and drank what they 
 had a mind to of what was provided, which was gene- 
 rally very good, the spirit would come upon one or more 
 of the inspired, who would administer the sacrament (as 
 it is called) of bread and wine to all persons present. — 
 There were also love-meetings commanded by the spirit, 
 which were abominable ; but of those hereafter, 
 
 " The sacrament of bread and wine was several times 
 administered without the love-feasts ; and I intending to 
 receive that most holy ordinance, (as I thought it,) took 
 care to prepare myself according to my vain imaginations, 
 viz. by reading a book or books wrote upon that subject, 
 saying my prayers upon my knees, &c. 
 
 "The time being come for the performance whereof, I 
 went one first day to the dwelling house of James Jack- 
 son, in George-court, in Jones's, (St. John's lane,) when, 
 being conducted into an upper room, where was a tabic 
 spread with a linen-cloth, and, after having sat down 
 waiting some time, the spirit came upon John Potter, and 
 several others, whom, after speaking a great deal, some- 
 what suitable to the occasion, I received the bread with 
 several others from the hands of John Potter, and the 
 cup from Elias Marion, a Frenchman, who spoke all in 
 French, and of which I did not understand one word, 
 except mgn Enfant, my Child, or so. What was spoken 
 
44 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES* 
 
 by John Potter was much to the same purpose as is gene- 
 rally spoken by the Dissenting teachers, but with this 
 difference, as the latter, when they are celebrating that 
 ordinance, speak to their people as men, saying, Behold 
 your dying Lord, as represented, &c. the prophets spoke 
 as Jehovah to this effect, Behold the flesh of my Son, be- 
 holdthe Mood of my Christ! with many other such like 
 affecting words. At the same time of receiving with me, 
 there was one Nathan Finkly, (to the best of my remem- 
 brance,) a furrier, now dwelling at the sign of the Lamb, 
 betwixt Watling-street and the end of Queen-street ; one 
 Ebenezer Draycot, a printer, apprentice to the widow 
 Everinghafn; and a little girl of about seven or eight years 
 of age, with several others. After we had received, and 
 had had a great deal of flattering stuff said to each of us, 
 we rose up off our seats, to make room for others. What 
 was spoken in French was afterwards read in English. 
 
 «' These and several other commands were implicitly 
 obeyed by the body of believers, which now were not 
 for numbers inconsiderable ; and had the spirit com- 
 manded a thing never so vile, we were by this time so 
 modelled, as punctually.to obey it, as I shall shew here- 
 after several in a more private capacity did. 
 
 «« Nor was the spirit, presiding in the prophets, less 
 wonderful in its predictions than it was iu its commands ; 
 and not only out of the mouths of one or two of them, but 
 of all of them; some few instances I shall here insert, 
 among some of the several hundreds that were uttered at 
 distinct times under the operation of their spirit. 
 
 '< And, first, it was prophecied by several of the in- 
 spired, that John Potter should never speak by a wrong 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS, 45 
 
 spirit under agitation, but should always infallibly utter 
 the pure truth of the mind and will of the holy and eter- 
 nal God. For my part, I had such a thorough belief of 
 the divinity of the spirit presiding, that had John Potter, 
 under operation, commanded me to kill my father, mother, 
 or even the late Queen on the throne, I sincerely believe 
 I should immediately have attempted it. To such a 
 heighth of diabolical madness was I, with others, arrived 
 to! 
 
 "It was prophecied by John Potter, and several 
 others, that the late Queen Anne should become a pro- 
 phetess, and be agitated in like manner as they were, the 
 spirit calling her by the name of My Servant Anne ; that 
 she should go to Barbican, which place was prophecied 
 should become more noted over the whole world than 
 ever Jerusalem had been, and there preach the everlast- 
 ing Gospel; and that the Queen should give to Mary 
 Beer, my wife's own sister, (whom he took upon his 
 knee J the right hand of fellowship, as her eldest sister, 
 as being the eldest prophetess. 
 
 " It was prophecied also by John Potter, and several 
 others, that, on the 25th day of March following, (for so 
 the prophet's spirit called it, like the Heathens,) fire and 
 brimstone should be poured from Heaven to the consu- 
 ming the city of London, and all the wicked therein. — 
 Eut all those who believed in this appearance should be 
 wonderfully preserved. The day prefixed being come, 
 a prophet came to a neighbour of my fathers, where were 
 several of the believers, and was seized by the spirit, and 
 pronounced a warning to the purpose as follows: My 
 Children, now, even now, are my judgements descending 
 e 2 
 
46 HISTORY OF RELI6I0US IMPOSTURES. 
 
 upon the city ; new is fire and brimstone pouring from 
 Heaven, fyc. Upon which I was informed some went as 
 fellas London Bridge to see whether it was so, but found 
 there was nothing in it. 
 
 " It was also predicted by several, if not all, of the pro- 
 phets and prophetesses, they should have the power of 
 striking dead on the spot all their opposers ; that when 
 they should be mobbed in Barbican, &c. such miracu- 
 lous powers should be given them, as, with a word of their 
 mouth, such a slaughter should be made, as that they 
 should walk over their shoes in the blood of their enemies. 
 Nay, further ; it was said by Cavalier, that a boat should 
 sail in the streets in the blood of the slain. 
 
 " It was likewise predicted by several, that when the 
 miraculous powers were given to them to inflict, that they 
 should then be persecuted as conjurors, witches, and as 
 having to do with familiar spirits. And poor Lord-Chief- 
 Justice Holt (since dead) was thundringly threatened by 
 the spirit in John Potter, that while he was sitting to 
 give judgment, the blood should burst out of his veins 
 from head to foot, and that he should, in an agony, cry 
 out to this effect, — Behold the judgments of the great God 
 upon me, by the hands of his servants I 
 
 " It was also predicted that such a desolation should be 
 in this land as that the living should not be enough to 
 bury the dead ; and John Lacy had a doleful sign of the 
 same by a melancholy toll, toll, toll, in imitation of a 
 passing beil. We were also commanded to pray for the 
 hastening of the judgments on the headsof our enemies. 
 
 " At another time, John Lacy and my sister, both un- 
 der the operation of the spirit, performed a sign, as they 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. s 47 
 
 •i B i ■ — — ■—— — — ■ ■ mSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSm 
 
 called it, which was as follows: John Lacy represented a 
 jailor, Mary Keimer, one of the inspired, being about to 
 be cast into prison for her prophecies. After many 
 strange passages* between them, John Lacy cries out, in 
 way of ridicule and laughter, Moll ! Moll ! Moll ! where 
 are your prophecies now, Moll ? much like a clown on 
 the stage. And I suppose Moll was not behind hand in 
 her performances to make the sign complete. 
 
 " It was likewise prophecied, that Mary Keimer should 
 go to France, and there speak to the late French King, 
 who should upon his disobedience be immediately struck 
 dead by her mouth. 
 
 " This prophecy was confirmed by vision, as were 
 many others of the like stamp. 
 
 " It was also predicted, and times set for the perform- 
 ance of all sorts of miracles, and John Lacy imagined he 
 had received earnests of the said gifts, and a miracle 
 was said to be wrought by him upon James Jackson, in 
 restoring him to sight, after he had been blind many 
 years. I thought this a little strange, when some time 
 after I saw the same Jackson led along as a blind man, not 
 able to see his way. However, this poor old man fan- 
 cied he could see, and published a half sheet of paper to 
 cry up the miracle, 
 
 ** The time being come that Dr. Emes was to rise, ac- 
 cording to John Potter, the infallible prophet, and the 
 rest of the inspired's prediction, we did not go to the 
 place appointed, according to order, though there was 
 one or more commanded that very day to attend tnere.— 
 Thus, though in every thing we found ourselves disap- 
 pointed, yet so deeply rooted were we in this delusion, 
 
4S HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 that all the reason, solid arguments, and plain scriptures 
 that were brought by our friends, to convince us of our 
 grand mistake, proved ineffectual. 
 
 '•'The 30th of the same month, being the first day of 
 the week after the day the doctor was to be raised, John 
 Potter, at a meeting, had a very comical warning, wherein 
 he mimicked the several preachers on that day, who were 
 telling their hearers they might now see how the false 
 prophets had discovered themselves, &c. ; bantering and 
 ridiculing the said preachers in his warning at a great 
 rate- telling us the wisdom of man should be baffled, 
 confounded, and brought to nought, with several smooth 
 exhortarory precepts, to continue stedfast in our faith, 
 &c. At the close of the meeting, John Glover had the 
 gift of blessing to all present ; and mine was as follows : 
 
 • O, my Child, I have said that thou shall be a minister 
 extraordinary in this dispensation ; and in order there- 
 unto, I will visit thee with my holy spirit. Thou shall 
 receive it in great abundance : it shall descend upon thee 
 visibly in cloven tongues of fire. Thou shalt receive the 
 gift of languages, the gift of healing all manner of dis» 
 eases. Ttwu shalt receive the gift of revelation, by which 
 it will be manifest that thou art inspired by the All-wise 
 God, who only knows the thoughts of the children of men. 
 Thou shalt not always be bound to an earthly master: no; 
 thou shalt be at liberty from those bonds before the lime 
 be expired, which was agreed upon betwixt thee and him* 
 Draw near to me by thy prayers. Lift up thy heart 
 unto me in secret, and I will reward thee openly. Go in 
 peace, my child, my blessing is upon thee* 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS* 49 
 
 " My reader may here perceive ihe fine delusive pro- 
 mises of the Devil, very agreeable to the corrupt part of 
 man, and just after such a shock as the failure of raising 
 Dr. Ernes had given us ! Nor were such promises made 
 to me alone, but to many others at the same or at other 
 times. 
 
 " I well remember in the blessing of Nathaniel Shep- 
 pard, an apothecary, there was this advice : ' That he 
 should take great care of himself, for, that when the gifts 
 of healing all manner of diseases was given him, which 
 would be in a little time, his fellow-traders (meaning the 
 apothecaries) would say, Come, let us give this fellow a 
 dose of poison, for he will quickly take away all our bu- 
 siness.' As if it was likely a man endued with all sorts 
 of miraculous gifts need fear being hurt by the private 
 malice of his neighbour. Stupendous folly ! 
 
 te The many failures which had come from the mouths 
 of the inspired, and many of a public nature, began to 
 give some people a little uneasiness, fearing they were 
 not of God. Upon which, Nicholas Pacio, a great ma- 
 thematician, a member of the Royal Society, and one, 
 as it is said, who understands well to speak and write fifty- 
 two languages, writes a very cunning and subtile exposi- 
 tion on the 22d verse of the 18th chapter of Deuterono- 
 my, viz. When a prophet speaketh in the name of the 
 Lord, if the thing follow noU nor come to pass, that is 
 the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the pro- 
 phet hath spoken it presumptuously : thou shalt not be 
 afraid of him. This exposition was so cunningly made, 
 that I now verily believe had twenty Jesuits joined toge- 
 ther to consult, they could not have given a more clever 
 
50 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 turn to overthrow the meaning of so clear a text as this 
 Pacio did. This exposition was handed about amongst 
 believers, and, I think, not without its intended success. 
 
 Much about this time a schism rose amongst us, occa- 
 sioned by one Whitrow, an English prophet, one who 
 had received many great promises to do mighty things. 
 This Whitrow had got Sir Richard Bulkely over to his 
 side, (who was a man of substance, having, as I have 
 been informed, some thousands per annum, and 30,000/. 
 in cash,) with some others. No sooner was this separa- 
 tion made, but Whitrow, in his warnings, preaches up 
 the doctrine of levelling, or that the rich must part with 
 all their estates, and become poor, if ever they designed 
 to enter the kingdom of Heaven. This doctrine was op* 
 posed by the spirit, through John Lacy, who himself 
 was worth about 2000/. per annum; and, in a very ra- 
 tional and spiritual discourse, the doctrine of levelling 
 was exposed and confuted. The warning was ordered to 
 be sent to Sir Richard for information that he was under 
 a delusion, calling Whitrow a deceiver. 
 
 " Several of the inspired had visions much about the 
 same time of the dreadful judgments that were to fall upon 
 Whitrow ; and particularly one had a vision of him, see- 
 ing him with his head split in twain, one half of which 
 hanging over one shoulder, and the other part over the 
 other shoulder ; with many other sad things full as ridi- 
 culous. 
 
 ** A little before this separation of Sir Richard, Whit- 
 row, though a prophet, had beat his wife in a lamentable 
 manner with a horsewhip, for committing adultery with 
 another man. The poor woman at first denied it, and 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGUSH PROPHETS. 5 1 
 
 the spirit, through John Glover, asserted her innocence 
 against Whitrow. However, being reproved by the 
 light of Christ, she, in a little time after, confessed her 
 guilt, and declared she had several times committed that 
 sin for which her husband had beat her, though the spi- 
 rit through many of the inspired, had blessed and flat- 
 tered her to a great degree. 
 
 " Sir Richard Bulkely, however, being deluded by 
 Whitrow, would by no means hearken to the spirit, 
 through the other prophets, nay, not to John Lacy him- 
 self, who had done an extraordinary miracle upon him, 
 as he had before given out in one of his printed books $ 
 and though he had been promised to be made strait, (ha- 
 ving been many years very crooked,) nothing could pre- 
 vail with him to return to the body of the prophets. 
 
 " Whitrow, by this time, having made sure of Sir 
 Richard, quickly got rid of the rest siding with him, and 
 then had commands for them both to go up and down the 
 countries in England and IrelanJ, and give away Sir 
 Richard's money to the poor. Accordingly Sir Richard, 
 in the simplicity of his heart, readily obeyed, laying out 
 his money, by the hands of Whitrow, in bread, meat, 
 clothes, &c. which were given away in great quantities 
 to the poor in the several countries they came to. After 
 the money they had by them was exhausted, and they 
 seemingly wanted, (till fresh supplies could be remitted 
 from London, &c.) on a sudden, to their great surprise, 
 they found pieces of gold in the midst of a half-penny or 
 penny-loaf, (supposed to be put there by the contrivance 
 of Whitrow,) which Sir Richard would cry up as a mi- 
 racle. At other times, Whitrow would have warnings, 
 
52 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 bidding him to go to such and such a place, where he 
 should find such and such monies. Accordingly they 
 would go and find it exactly as foretold. Upon which 
 Sir Richard, with hands and eyes lift up to Heaven, 
 would give God thanksforthis pretended miracle, though, 
 as it is said, nothing less than the black villany of Whit- 
 row, who had before put it there. 
 
 " Thus was this poor man led up and down for a year, 
 two, or three, till at last, having made away with most if 
 not all he could, (as I am credibly informed,) seeing his 
 fatal mistake, broke his heart, and quickly died. 
 
 " Whitrow, after this, was very rich, lived at a great 
 rate, and kept his chariot ; but whether he got the money 
 by miracle or out of Sir Richard, 1 will leave to my rea- 
 der's judgement to determine. 
 
 <( At a meeting in Lombard-street one first day, Tho- 
 mas Button had the gift of blessing, and spoke to me as 
 follows : 
 
 ' Thou shaft confound those that do speak against this 
 my appearance unto thee* Thou shalt see how I will work. 
 They that think themselves so wise shall be found covered 
 with shame and folly. Give thou not heed unto the ad- 
 vice of men, who counsel according to the wisdom of this 
 world, which is foolishness before God. Do they teach a 
 turning of the back upon the world, a taking up the cross, 
 and following the Lord ? No ; they teach a turning the 
 back upon the Lord, and engaging with the world. It 
 is not with them, First seek the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness ; but it is, First seek the riches and plea- 
 sures of this world, and then the kingdom of God : they 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 53 
 
 act as if it were to be added unto them. But before your 
 Lord was to enter into his glory, he was to endure suf- 
 ferings, trials, tribulations, a cross. That is the way ; 
 and every true Christian, true disciple of the Lord, does 
 find that that is the way by which he must arrive at the 
 joy of the Lord. Seek thou unto God only, seek unto him 
 by earnest prayer. Regulate thy life and conversation 
 according to the directions that he has laid down in his 
 word. Endeavour with all thy might to keep thyself un- 
 spotted from the ukrld. Be thou ready. Prepare thy 
 vessel, that when I call thou may'st answer, Lord, I am 
 here ready to do thyxflCgJMe care of snares and temp- 
 tations. Be thou a/k^m^nAify watch: Let not any 
 thing seduce thee ^ Mfr'n</rQlp thou conform thy 
 conversation to thatU/h^^^k lightly and con- 
 temptuously of this ti$fa&ygcfi The eye of God is 
 every where: wherever ititormff 'thou art in his presence. 
 Consider that ; do his will, and it will be a joy unto 
 thee. My peace, my love, and my blessings are upon thee, 
 Go in peace. 1 
 
 "My Christian reader may here behold a lively in- 
 stance of Satan's transforming himself into an angel of 
 light, and how far the Devil may go in deceiving poor 
 souls by this blessing. What can be more cunning and 
 subtle than, after my reason being captivated, and the 
 light of Christ extinguished in my soul, to begin with a 
 promise, the most suitable as can be, to what was my dar- 
 ling lust, Pride, viz. Thou shalt confound those that do 
 speak against this my appearance, fyc. then to make a 
 complaint of the degenerating and wickedness of man- 
 a°* 7. r 
 
5.4 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 kind, afterwards, to declare several excellent truths in 
 opposition to them, and, last of all, to dismiss me with a 
 soothing, flattering, lying good-bye, My peaee my love, 
 and my blessings, are upon thee. Go in peace I Nor am 
 I wrong in the least to declare, that this blessing, with 
 the.rest which I received, and all those given toothers, 
 are nothing less than damnable delusions, as destructive 
 to the souls of those that believe them, as the most strong 
 dose of poison is to the bodies of those who drink it ; as I 
 shall, in the close of my book, prove toil demonstration. 
 But to proceed : 
 
 " At the same meeting where I received the above 
 blessing by Thomas Dutton, there were two sober inge- 
 nious young men: the one was — Eaton, son to an 
 eminent dissenting minister in the country, who himself 
 was designed for a preacher; and the other was Isaac 
 Owen, son to another dissenting minister, sometime since 
 well knmvn to those of the presbyterian persuasion, ha- 
 ving^wro"'te several books in their behalf, viz. Modera- 
 tion a Virtue, and Moderation still a Virtue, in answer to 
 Charles Lesly ; and whose life was printed, and sold by 
 John Lawrence, in the Poultry ; and designed for a doc- 
 tor of physic, intending to go to Holland in order to 
 take his degrees. This being the first time they ever 
 saw the prophets, as one of them told me, by the plausible 
 pretences of the spirit at that meeting they were prevail- 
 ed on to kneel and receive blessings, and thereby were 
 caught, to both their eternal ruin, if God, in his infinite 
 mercy, do not prevent. 
 
 " In a short time after, Eaton went into the coun- 
 try, land his father dying, he succeeded him in estate, 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS, 55 
 
 and as preacher to the same people : and in the accounts 
 we had of him, we were informed he had several times 
 the agitations in the pulpit while he was preaching ;■ and 
 that after some time, thinking within himself, that, ha- 
 ving the true spirit of God ? he would no longer preach 
 the study of his own brain, and therefore laid it down, 
 claps on a large wig and sword, travels abroad to Rome> 
 &c. kisses the Pope's slipper, and some months since re- 
 turns to England, as complete and airy a gentleman as 
 most are. 
 
 ?' As for poor Isaac Owen, he staid in town, and lodged 
 for the most part at Dr. Angier's, in Walbrook, wholly 
 declined following his intended study of physic, sold his 
 estate, expecting the great revolutions the spirit had told 
 him of, lived on the principal, and, after having travelled 
 up and down the countries in missions, with the prophets' 
 and prophetesses, spending his time and money for the 
 propagating that spirit of confusion, went and dwelt 
 meanly with a relation of his in Tower-street, who told 
 me, having spent all to about five or ten pounds, took ifr 
 to heart, sickened, and died. 
 
 "The prophets and prophetesses had gone missions, as 
 they termed them, into several parts of the kingdom, and 
 were now commanded on several more. Some went to 
 Bristol, Coventry, Worcester, Oxford, Cambridge, &c. 5. 
 others went to Holland, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales,— 
 Nor were they without success in their several progresses^ 
 deluding many sincere people into a belief of the stranga 
 revolutions approaching, much to the same purpose as -I 
 have before mentioned were expected in this city. 
 
 " The many failures of predictions, the strange and- 
 
56 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 unheard-of confusion and distractions at their meetings in 
 and about London, did not obstruct their issuing in par- 
 ties up and down the country. Nor was their preach- 
 ing or prophecying there attended with different fruits 
 from what they produced here. An instance or two only 
 of which I shall here give, (for it would swell my account 
 to a very large volume to insert all the particulars,) 
 
 " At Sleaford, in Lincolnshire, the spirit made-wretched 
 work, through the mouth of one Mary Parks, (who af- 
 terwards was a servant of mine,) commanding the belie- 
 vers to do several things contrary to sense, reason, and 
 religion. One time she commanded one of the believers 
 (I think it was Samuel Shaw) to go immediately and 
 give away all his substance, which the poor deluded man 
 forthwith readily began to obey, by sending for those 
 that owed him money, to give them receipts, and giving 
 a sack or two of meal to one, somewhat to a second, to a 
 third, and so on; and, if I mistake not, hegaveaway se- 
 veral sums of money. However, it happened, that ei- 
 ther the people were honest, and would not take his ef- 
 fects, seeing he was under a violent delusion, or by some 
 other means, he was prevented from totally ruining him- 
 self, wife, and family. 
 
 " Some time after this, we were told we must be sin- 
 gled out by tribes, as the children of Israel were, and 
 have new names given us. Accordingly we met at seve- 
 ral different times, and at several different places ; and 
 the spirit, through Elias Marion, named abundance that 
 were picked out from amongst the believers, amongst 
 which I was one. What was spoken to me on this occa- 
 sion was as follows : 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 57 
 
 ' Jesus Christ invites thee to set at his table. Prepare 
 thy heart, for thou hast yet some way to go. But he 
 comes to strip thee of thy old garments^ and clothe thee 
 with his spirit. That bread* is a sign unto thee, that 
 thou shalt receive the bread of angels in thy heart, which 
 is the spirit of Jesus Christ, proceeding from him and the 
 Father. I will enlighten thy soul in a few days; I will 
 open the door of thy heart to cause my spirit to flow into 
 it ; I will establish thee in my house to be a prophet unto 
 ray people ; I will give thee a great and glorious ministry. 
 The day draws near wherein thou shalt possess thy soul 
 with the patience of Jesus Christ ; for 1 will send thee my 
 spirit to nourish thy soul in the hope of eternal life.— 
 Wherefore 1 bless thee in the name of the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thy name shall be Jonathan, 
 the son of Saul. Thou shalt be an instrument of peace 
 and blessing in my house ; for, from this very day, they 
 do rest upon thee/ 
 
 " After this blessing and pageantry was over, Nicholas 
 Pacio, who sat at a table as a writer, gave to each of us a 
 little piece of parchment, about two inches diameter, on 
 which was writing. What was on mine was as follows : 
 
 ' Jonathan, of the tribe of Azer, keep this as a precious 
 pearl.' 
 
 "This, indeed, 1 did keep as a precious pearl for a 
 considerable time, it being sown up in the green ribbon 
 
 * Here he gave me a piece of bread, like what they call 
 Shrewsbury-cake, which he took out of his coat-pocket. 
 f 2 
 
58 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 before mentioned. And had any person proffered me 
 ten thousand pounds for my piece of parchment, so bi- 
 goted was I, that I would not have taken the money for it. 
 «' It pleased the Divine Disposer of all thing?, that Na- 
 thaniel Sheppard (notwithstanding the many promises 
 made to him by the spirit) was taken ill of a lingering 
 sickness, and, growing worse and worse, thpugh he had the 
 ablest human help that could be got, his life was despaired 
 of; upon which the spirit declared Mary Keimer should 
 go and pronounce him whole. But she being very un- 
 willing to deliver such a message, having been so often 
 disappointed, the spirit through her own mouth severely 
 reproved and threatened her; notwithstanding which, 
 she still was obstinate and resisted. Afterwards, being 
 where Nathaniel Sheppard was, the spirit came upon 
 John Potter very violently, (who was likewise there,) 
 and terribly reproved and threatened her for her disobe- 
 dience, commanding her still to obey, which she with 
 the greatest reluctance possible at last did, by going to 
 the sick man, under violent agitations, and pronouncing 
 him whole. However, notwithstanding all which, in a 
 little while after he departed this life, to the grief of all 
 that knew him, and was buried near Dr. Ernes, in Bun- 
 hill-fields, attended by a company of friends, and amongst 
 the rest, the author of this relation, who was indeed a true 
 mourner for him* 
 
 « After Nathaniel Sheppard's death, John Potter and 
 I had a most strict and intimate friendship, and we used 
 often to lodge together for conveniency of being at meet- 
 ings, &c. Soisetimes he would be with me at the Wi- 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 59 
 
 « ■ ■ ' ' ' ,..,—., 
 
 dow Morton's house in Long-walk, near the Blue-Coat 
 Hospital, where we had meetings; and sometimes I 
 would lodge with him at the house of William Draycot, 
 in Tooley-street, Southwark. Our friendship continued 
 thus a great while, and was as strict as that of David and 
 Jonathan mentioned in sacred writ. On my side it was 
 so great, that it became a proverb among several in 
 Southwark, when they saw John Potter, that they would 
 say, 'Here comes Sam Keimer's idol/ 
 
 " I should have before acquainted my reader, that 
 about five months before the time of my apprenticeship 
 was expired, an offer was made to me, as whether it 
 would be any advantage for me to print some warnings 
 commanded by the spirit to be printed, Accordingly I 
 readily consented, not so much with a view of profit, as 
 thinking myself blest in being any ways instrumental to 
 publish (what I thought) the oracles of God to a sinful 
 world ; and thereupon agreed with my master for just 
 five months of my time, for which I gave him ten pounds, 
 which I had of my mother. After which, I printed the 
 book at my master's, allowing him somewhat besides for 
 the use of his letter. How I behaved myself as a servant 
 my master will satisfy any curious enquirer. I shall only 
 say this of myself, which my own conscience bears wit- 
 ness to, I was no eye-servant, and displeased my master 
 in nothing more than in following the prophets. 
 
 " After I went from him, he saving then no constant 
 business _for a journeyman, I went to work at Thomas 
 Grantham's, in Bartholomew CKsse; from thence to the 
 Widow Everingham's, in Ave-Maria-lanej then to Wil- 
 liam Pearson's, who dwelt in Jewin-street ; and last of 
 
60 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IM POSTURES* 
 
 all at Thomas Ilyft's,. in Aldersgate-street : at all which 
 places 1 printed some of the prophets* books, some of 
 which were at my own charge, being very zealous ; andj 
 to my knowledge, do not remember that I behaved my- 
 self at those places dissonant in the least from a sober ho- 
 nest man.. 
 
 " All this while, which was about three years after I 
 was out of my time, I, with the rest of the believers, con- 
 iinued in great expectations of approaching changes, ac«» 
 cording to what the spirit had so often said (and conti- 
 nued still to declare at times) should happen, 
 
 " Our meetings were generally kept at the dwelling 
 houses of Francis Moult,, then dwelling in Watling-street, 
 Joseph Tovey, in Lombard-street, Samuel Noble, in 
 Long-walk, William Draycot, in Southwark, and at one 
 Cocks, in Wine-Office-court, Fleet-street; at which 
 places the spirit continued at times to do many strange 
 and surprising performances. 
 
 " At the house of Francis Moult 1 have seen a prophet 
 tear a prophetess by the hair of the head, leading her up 
 and down in a very frightful manner, both being under 
 violent agitations: after which the prophet turned her 
 out of the room. 
 
 " In Long-walk there has been such mad work as has 
 broke chairs, bed,&c. where I have seen and heard Re- 
 becca Cuff, a prophetess, roar out in so hideousa manner, 
 * The Devil ! the Devil !. the Devil !' that it has terri- 
 fied the believers themselves ; and had not the windows 
 of the rooms we were in been dose stopt up with .shut- 
 ters, ruggs, and blankets, to drown the noise, the out- 
 cries must needs have put the parish in an uproar* 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 61 
 
 *' In Southwark there have been a great number of 
 strange signs acted, such as I believe never before were 
 heard of. A few only of which are as follows :— ~ 
 
 " At one of their meetings, one of the prophets perso- 
 nated God, a second the angel Gabriel, a third the Devil, 
 and the fourth (who was Mary Beer, a prophetess) acted 
 the Church. These several persons acted their parts, un- 
 der agitation, in such a frightful manner, as the very re- 
 membrance of it to this day fills me with horror: John 
 Glover, who acted the Devil, making such a grim and dis- 
 torted face, as if indeed he had been a fiend of hell in hu- 
 man shape, pretending a right to the Church ; and John 
 Potter, who (I think) personated God, threatened the 
 Devil at a great rate, the Devil commanding him that 
 personated God to bless the Church. After a great deal 
 spoke by way of dialogue between them, each striving 
 which should have the Church, who was tossed and tum- 
 bled to and fro, much like a foot-ball, the believers were 
 plucked down (by the inspired under agitation) into the 
 middle of the room, and tumbled one on the top of the 
 other, heels over heads, wallowing on the ground in a 
 great heap, in a filthy manner : sometimes the spirit tum- 
 bled an inspired down stairs headlong, enough to have 
 killed him at another time; then making him jump up 
 again in such a manner as nothing less (in my opinion) 
 than a real possession of the Devil could perform the 
 same. These pranks continued some hours ; and, as one 
 of the believers told me, she, with several* others, being 
 terribly frightened, got of the room, went down stairs, 
 and locked themselves in another room; upon which a 
 prophet came thunderingly down stairs, and* under agi- 
 
62 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 tations, threatened to break down the door if they did not 
 open it; which they doing, were drove all up again, 
 and several more tricks were played, all which were 
 looked upon to be signs wrought by the Spirit of God." 
 
 In some of these assemblies* the deportment of some of 
 the agitated was so indecorous, nay, indecent, as related 
 by Mr. Keimer, that, as it would be very improper that 
 their transactions should appear in print, we have ne- 
 cessarily erased them, and continue the thread of Mr. 
 Keimer's curious relation. 
 
 " Another time I have seen my sister, who is a lusty- 
 young woman, fling another prophetess upon the floor, 
 and, under agitations, tread upon her breast, belly, legs, 
 &c. walking several times backwards and forwards over 
 her, and stamping upon her with violence. This was ad- 
 judged to be a sign of the fall of the whore of Babylon. 
 
 " At a meeting in Wine Office-court, there was one 
 Sarah Wiltshire, a woman of great accomplishments, who 
 had received fine promises from the spirit, who preached, 
 That Christ Jesus had interceded with his Father, that 
 the judgments which the rest of the prophets had pre- 
 dicted should not be inflicted. This doctrine was oppo- 
 sed and exploded by the spirit through Mary Keimer; 
 and the spirit precipitately hurried a young fellow to Sa- 
 rah Wiltshire, and, under agitations, he beat her in a 
 violent manner. 
 
 " In the year when Sir R. Beachcroft was Lord Mayor 
 of the City of London, James Cuningham, Laird of 
 Barns, (grandson to the Archbishop of Andrews, in 
 Scotland, who was murdered by twenty ruffians, as noted 
 in history,) a Scots prophet came up to London, and 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 63 
 
 was commanded to go to St. Paul's Cathedral, being told 
 by the spirit he should there prophecy. Accordingly he 
 went the sixth of the fifth month, with several believers, 
 and among the rest I went. The priest preached upon 
 these words, to the best of my remembrance, ' Beloved, 
 I write unto you that ye sin not/ &c. No sooner had 
 he ended his sermon, and gave the blessing (as it it called) 
 to the people, but up starts J. Cuningham, who was in a 
 pew by himself, under agitations, and, with a very loud 
 voice, distinctly utters the following warning, which 
 was taken down in writing by some believers, who placed 
 themselves conveniently for that purpose : 
 
 ' Thus saith tlie Lord, to the inhabitants of this city, 
 Repent, repent, and turn from the evil of yeur doings. — 
 1 have begun to shake the foundation of your peace and 
 security. The spirit of anM^^and discord is poured 
 forth amongst you. AfdA aj?g0^g to proceed in a 
 greater measure. And wffiyitMtl^ntfjiye know not.— 
 Humble yourselves in th&puft$fou£ tm ILord, and you 
 shall find mercy. * \ vl^ ' <Jf£ 
 
 " All the while he was speaking, there was a general 
 silence throughout the choir, the people being in amaze; 
 but as soon as ever he had done, one of the vergers 
 fetches him out, and he was led before the priest, who 
 was at the door of the vestry, and after some words had 
 passed between them, was dismissed to the rage and fury 
 of the mob, who seemed resolved to execute their wrath 
 in the highest manner possible. For my own part, I en- 
 deavoured as much as possible to keep close to the pro- 
 
C4< HK>TORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 phet, thereby to prevent the blows falling on him, being 
 willing to venture my life in his defence. As we were 
 going down the stone steps, fronting Ludgate, the mob 
 pushed him all along with such violence, that one, if not 
 more, of his teeth were beat out of his head ; the mob 
 crying out, 'Pump him, duck him, to the Thames with 
 him,' dragging him along with great fury. However, 
 the believers got about him as well as they could, and I 
 cot hold of his left arm, and some other friend hold of 
 his right arm ; some of the believers before him, and 
 some behind him. In this hubbub we were hurried up 
 and down in the midst of some thousands of people, his 
 friends crying out, ' Let's have him before my Lord 
 Mayor ! let's have him before my Lord Mayor ! Thus 
 were we carried up and down by the violent pressure of 
 the mob about two hours, till, with great difficulty, we 
 got to Skinners'-Hall, where the Lord Mayor kept his 
 mayoralty. When we came there, it was some time be- 
 fore we got in, and I resolved, if possible, not to part 
 -with my hold, crowded in with the prisoner, to our no 
 small joy, being very much tired and fatigued with the 
 baitings of so great a multitude. 
 
 «' As soon as we came before the Mayor, the Accusers 
 were asked for, and what they had to say against the 
 prisoner. Upon which one or two present told the 
 Mayor, that he had made a disturbance by speaking in 
 the church. Then the Mayor asked them what he said^ 
 and they answering him somewhat like the purport of 
 the warning before-mentioned, the Mayor then asked 
 tfi*em, whether he disturbed the congregation in Diving 
 Service, &c* and it being answered in the negative, the 
 
FitE-NCH AMD ENGLISH PROPHETS. 05 
 
 Mayor directed himself to the prisoner, asking him, 
 ' whether he did so?' Upon which James Cuninghame 
 answered him, ' That he was commanded by God to go 
 and speak as he did,' and somewhat more to the like ef- 
 fect, but spoke with such a coldness, (as itseemed tome) 
 as I was then somewhat daunted, supposing the am- 
 bassadors of Christ should speak up with a holy bold- 
 ness and courage, when brought before the civil magis- 
 trate. After the Mayor had examined both side?, he 
 told the prisoner, he must, according to law, bind hint 
 over to the Quarter-Sessions, which he accordingly did, at 
 the same time using him with civility and complacency ;• 
 and one Philips, Arts-master, with myself were bound 
 likewise for his appearance. After which, the Mayor 
 ordered us into a little room, where we sat and rested 
 ourselves, till the mob was dispersed, but had not been 
 long, before the Mayor came in to us, and in a friendly- 
 manner discoursed the matter with James Cuninghame, 
 who, to my thinking, was very short in what he said to 
 the Mayor. We were after this conducted aback way- 
 through the coach-house, and got safe into Lombard-street, 
 where the prophet was received with exceeding great joy. 
 
 This Cuninghame, as I have been told, was in his mo- 
 ther's womb in the coach, out of which his grandfather 
 was plucked, at the same time he was murdered ; and was 
 a man well read, a good scholar, had been a traveller, of 
 a sober life, and, though a great prophet among us, yet 
 took up arms for the person called the Pretender, against 
 King George, was at the battle of Preston, and carried 
 to Chester, and there died in prison. 
 
 After this, it was whispered about amongst believer* 
 
 NV«, G 
 
(35 HTSTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 that John Lacy was commanded by the Spirit to do some 
 great thing, which was to make a noise in the world. 
 What it was, we were not yet acquainted with. Only 
 a few were entrusted with the secret. We were only 
 told it was of such a nature, that he (as he said) had ra- 
 ther be burned at a stake, than submit to it, being 
 such a trial to him and the believers, as never was the 
 like. This set us alUgog (who were yet unacquainted) to 
 know what it was, and we quickly framed strange ideas 
 of the approaching trial. I remember, one imagined it 
 was to set the city on fire; a second, that it was to make 
 some desperate attempt on the Queen ; and a third, some- 
 what as dreadful. After being kept in suspence some 
 weeks, if not months, we were at last acquainted, that 
 John Lacy was ordered to leave his lawful wife, and 
 take Elizabeth^ ray, a prophetess, on whom he was to 
 beget children. This news put several of the believers 
 into a ferment, especially the women, who thought it not 
 only a breach of the seventh commandment, but a very 
 ill precedent for a man to be commanded by the spirit 
 to leave his wife; thinking (I suppose) it might come 
 to be their own case. Amongst those who dissented 
 from this affair, and could by no means be reconciled to 
 it, were Thomas Dutton, a prophet, an ingenious man, 
 who wrote somewhat to prove it could not be a good spirit 
 so commanding, which was answered by John Lacy, 
 whose answer was printed three several times, for the 
 use of believers, and by Mary Keimer, who exclaimed 
 loudly against it, till the spirit came upon her, and 
 severely reproved her for so doing, vindicating and ap* 
 
MUNCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. . 67 
 
 plauding the fact she was so much against. Some time 
 this, (as I take it,) John Lacy, one morning, gets up 
 betimes, leaves his wife in bed, (having before made 
 over all his estate, but two-hundred pounds per an- 
 num, for the use of his wife and children, as likewise 
 commanded by the spirit,) takes Elizabeth Gray, and 
 were both joined together, by the spirit through Mary 
 Keimer, at a meeting commanded by the inspired. From 
 this time, or before, John Lacy and Elizabeth Gray lived 
 together as man and wife, and it was prophecied, that, as a 
 confirmation the command afore-mentioned was from 
 God, the first child begotten by them should be a son, 
 and should work miracles as soon as born. However, af- 
 ter some time, Elizabeth Gray proved with child, and was 
 delivered of a daughter. It was again prophecied the next 
 child was to be the son; but that prophecy likewise 
 proved false as the other had done. Notwithstanding all 
 which, they stilt live in adultery, believing the Holy 
 God had so commanded. For my own part, I now sin- 
 cerely believe that John Lacy did not leave his wife from 
 any lustful desire, but solely in obedience to the spirit's 
 commands. 
 
 '* Had the same spirit commanded him to kill his wife, 
 I likewise sincerely believe he would have readily done 
 it in obedience to the said command. Nor could it be 
 otherwise with all those that were sincere, by reason the 
 spirit had taught us to this effect, That true-saying faith 
 consisted in an implicit belief in, and strict obedience to, 
 whatsoever that spirit commanded, without consulting 
 our reason, or having regard to the commands of God as 
 revealed in Scripture. The inference I draw in my mind 
 
6S HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS 1MPOSTURSS. 
 
 11 ■■ ' i nim i nwwinii i i n i l— m ■ ■ ! i ■ ■r i aniiajiT i i f ji i n n n i l»jl ,^ 
 
 from this doctrine was, that sin was no other than a 
 breach of the commands of God, the great Law-giver, 
 and therefore alJ acts ceased to be sins, though contrary 
 to former revelation, and become duties whenever God 
 commanded them. For instance, suppose the spirit pre- 
 siding had commanded the prophet to kill King George, 
 he must immediately obey it, upon pain of eternal dam- 
 nation for so refusing; and though such a damnable ac- 
 tion as this would be diametrically opposite to the Com- 
 mandment, Thou shah do no Murder \ yet it would be- 
 come a duty if ever so commanded, according to the doc- 
 trine of the spirit presiding. What the consequence of 
 such doctrine as this may hereafter produce, I cannot at 
 yet tell, time alone must discover that ; but this I can 
 truly say, when I reflect on what I have seen and known 
 already done, I dread the mischievous consequences that 
 will come to this nation whenever the prophets appear 
 again in public, as some time hence I expect they certain* 
 ]y will do. 
 
 " After John Lacy had left his wife, and gone to Eli- 
 zabeth Gray, the spirit commanded one of the French, if 
 not more, (who had along while distinct meetings from 
 the English,) to put away their wives. But how they 
 followed or obeyed the commands of the spirit I cannot 
 exactly relate, so shall say no more on that head. 
 
 " We had already so many confused doings, distrac- 
 tions, and schisms, (as indeed the whole from the begin- 
 ning to this day has been little else but such,) that we now 
 could believe any thing, though never so gross and abo- 
 minable, if commanded by the spirit. A few instances 
 more I shall but here mention ; for indeed, Christian 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 69 
 
 reader, I am even quite tired in raking in this dunghill of 
 a religion. 
 
 • The French had made a schism from the English, or 
 the English from the French, but which I cannot posi- 
 tively determine. However, the French had love-meet- 
 ings commanded, where they would meet, kiss, and tic- 
 kle one. another, chucking one another under the chin, 
 laughing and crying out, * He, he, he, he, he, he ? and 
 using many postures, which I shall not here mention. 
 
 " Among the English there were also several strange 
 practices, viz. one Samuel Tomlinson, a butcher, (well 
 known in Newgate-market,] who had the agitations, 
 and who generally went under the denomination of a Qua- 
 ker, (but disowned by that people, who have no unity or 
 fellowship with any that walk irregular in their lives, 
 though they may wear the plain habit, and frequent 
 their meetings;) this man having a command toco- 
 habit with one Ann Steed, (who was one that pre- 
 tended to great visions,) proposed it to her six times, and 
 the seventh time she consented, being unwilling (as she 
 said) to resist any longer, for fear of the judgment of the 
 Lord. This is the woman that Henry Pickvvorth boasts 
 so much of in his false charge of error, heresy, &c. 
 against the most noted leaders of the people called 
 Quakers ; in which book he inserts some of her pretended 
 visions, one or two of which, being somewhat particular, 
 I shall here insert, and are as follow :— 
 
 ' I beheld the Lord Jesus Christ at my left hand, in a 
 personal appearance, in a large room, where were a great 
 -many of the people called Quakers, some of which had 
 
 2 
 
10 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 crowns upon their heads ; amongst whom were Theodore 
 Egglestone, George Whitehead, William Bingle)'-, John 
 Feild, William Warren, George Owner, William Pen, 
 John Butcher, and Samuel Waldenfeikl,. all sitting. 
 
 * Francis Moult* coming in, went directly to Theodore 
 Egglestone, Jaid bolh his hands upon his crown, and 
 went away with it ; notwithstanding I saw a chair set for 
 Jiim in Christ's glorious kingdom upon earth, now near 
 approaching, which he might obtain if he pressed hard 
 for it, but if there, he might content himself with a 
 crown, 
 
 ' Then John Potter, being under a most powerful ope- 
 ration of the Lord's Holy Spirit, after the same manner I 
 saw him go before the believers (in this glorious dispen- 
 sation of God's holy spirit lately broke forth) in Enfield 
 Chace, came, and, with great authority, laid both his 
 hands in like manner upon the Grown George Whitehead 
 had upon his head, (which was more magnificent than 
 the rest,) and said, * Did I not charge thee to hold fast 
 what thou didst receive ? Hadst thou obeyed, none would 
 have been able to have taken thy crown from thee :' and 
 then, with an angry snatch, took it off, and went away 
 with it, under the powerful operation above-mentioned. 
 
 * This Francis Moult is a believer among the prophets, a man 
 of great riches, sense, and knowledge, in natural things, (but 
 one, I fear, who by wisdom knows not God,) and who has 
 been several missions with the prophets and prophetesses, as a 
 writer, particularly five or six months at a time with Mary 
 Keimer and Mary Beer up and down England and Wales, and 
 who has disbursed (as I have good reason to think) many hun- 
 dreds, if not thousands, of pounds, for the carrying on >nd 
 spreading that delusion, 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 71 
 
 *Then William Bingley's crown next fell from his 
 head with such a mighty force, as if it would have been 
 broken all to pieces; upon which he, in a dreadful con- 
 cern and great amazement, cried out, ' Our crowns are 
 fallen from off our heads. Woe unto us that we have 
 sinned !' 
 
 ■ The next, John Feild's, fell also from- off his head with 
 a mighty force, though not so great as William Bingley'sv 
 After which, William Warren's tottered exceedingly, as 
 if it also was going to fall, but I did not see it falf, 
 
 ' Then I beheld one different from the rest upon the 
 head of George Owner, at which I greatly marvellecl - 
 whereupon the glorious person that all the while stood by 
 my left-hand said, ' Why admirest thou at the difference 
 betwixt that and the rest ? He is not in the kingly rjowec 
 amongst this people, but in the dukedom ;* wherefore 
 that thou seest upon his head is a coronet :' which also 
 tottered as William Warren's. 
 
 ' Then I beheld William Penn, John Butcher, and Sa- 
 muel Waldenfei Id, with their crowns on their heads ; upon 
 the beholding of whom I, under a great concern of soul 
 for them, broke forth in great bowedness in supplication 
 to. the Lord, and said, ' O Lord God, I beseech thee hear 
 a poor creature ; suffer not those crowns ta be taken from 
 them, neither do thou, but humble them, that they may 
 take them off themselves, and lay them down at thy feet, 
 
 * In which state, viz. the Dukedom, she pretended she also 
 saw Thomas Lower among several others who were some in 
 the degree of Lords and Earls, &c, many of whose names she 
 said she was unacquainted with, 
 
72 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 who is only worthy of all honour, praise, might, majes< 
 ty, and dominion :' which I have reason to believe he in 
 his own due time will incline them to, from another vi- 
 sion he in his divine goodness was pleased to give me con- 
 cerning them and others, which was as follows : 
 
 ■ I being often livingly concerned before the Lord for 
 this people, who notwithstanding* contemptuously re- 
 jected me and my Christian travels for their welfare, a 
 few months before the above-mentioned vision, being sat 
 at work by my bedside with my child one morning, at 
 the dwelling house of our ancient and truly worthy friend, 
 James Jackson, fell info deep vision, wherein I saw the 
 dead corpse of the people called Quakers heaps upon 
 heaps ; amongst whom was presented William Pen, Jofin 
 Butcher, and Samuel Waldenfeild ; upon the sight of 
 whom I was bowed in deep supplication before the Lord, 
 and said, * O Lord God, for thy dear Son's sake, who now 
 lies prostrate at thy feet, begging for these my dear 
 friends, and not for any worthiness of mine ,• save them, 
 save thy people :' upon which my life went from me, so. 
 as that I fainted ; then I saw the father take up his beloved 
 son with both his hands, and thereupon looked smiling 
 upon me, which was a ground of hope to my mournful 
 soul, that my sincere petitions were answered for them,* 
 
 * This Ann Steed was one that formerly made profession of- 
 truth, as held forth and maintained by some of the people call- 
 ed Quakers ; but falling therefrom, was disowned, and, joining 
 in with the French Prophets, set up for a great person, imagi- 
 ning herself to be inspired, and who did go, or was to go, to 
 John Potter uTdemand the keys from him. 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 73 
 
 *■■ m — ■ .... ,- . , . „ Y imiii ■ ! * i 'T' iiiT i Tr* 
 
 " So much for Ann Steed's visions, or rather whimsies 
 and imaginations. I shall now acquaint my reader, that 
 she with several others used to meet together, and (as I 
 have been informed) had all things in common in the 
 most strict sense. It was no longer ago than the 30th of 
 the first month in this present year, 1717, that the City 
 of London was prophecied to be burnt down with fire and 
 brimstone from Heaven; and she with her colleagues 
 packed up their all, and departed far from the city there- 
 upon. But, to leave this woman, and return to what 
 more immediately concerns me, 
 
 " About the time (as I take it) that John Lacy took Eli- 
 zabeth Gray, the spirit, thro' John Potter and others, had 
 forbid any further meetings of the believers, but that only 
 those that were inspired should meet, and not when they 
 would, but only when they were commanded by the 
 spirit, which was but seldom. Now it was that John Pot- 
 ter and I, with some others, would walk into the fields, 
 St. James's-Park, &c. on a first-day, scarce knowing how 
 to spend our time. I, for my part, could not relish any 
 preaching but what came immediately from the spirit, 
 (which was the case of many others,) and therefore could 
 not go with a hearty desire to be informed, to hear the 
 preachers of the several different congregations in this 
 city. The spirit had declared those that preached for 
 hire, soul-brokers, &c. and the Quakers (as they are 
 called) to be apostates, self-righteous, &c. ; for which 
 reason I could not down with their preaching, (because 
 all this while raised and elevated by my vain imagina- 
 tions.) Besides, considering the tautology and meanness 
 of expression as were used among the Quakers, I could 
 
74 HISTORY OF RELIC IOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 by no means (according to my human wisdom, which in- 
 deed was but folly,) reap any benefit thereby. 
 
 ** In this state T continued some time, and John Potter 
 would sometimes (though but seldom) have warnings at 
 private houses for our encouragement, still soothing us 
 up with smooth things. 
 
 " In the year 1713, I altered my condition, by marry- 
 ing one that was of the same opinion in religious matters 
 with myself, and one that belonged to a reputable sub- 
 stantial family on worldly accounts, and who were be- 
 lievers in the same dispensation* Before I' was married^- 
 my character was enquired into where I served my time, 
 and being found not displeasing to the enquirers, it 
 was proposed by my wife's friends that we should wait to 
 know the mind and will of the spirit relating to our mar- 
 riage, to which I readily consented. At an appointed 
 time several met, viz* John Potter, James Cuninghame, 
 and (I think) Thomas Dutton, Mary Keimer, and Mary 
 Beer. After we had waited some time, the spirit came 
 violently on John Potter, who, getting up from his seat, 
 went to the several corners of the room, under operation, 
 and then spoke a great deal to the matter we were wait- 
 ing about, exhorting us, and a& approving of our inten- 
 tions of marriage. After he had done, James Cuning- 
 hame spoke under agitation likewise, which was also as an 
 approbation of the same. After which we were married 
 by a priest, a quondam school-fellow of mine, had like- 
 wise three booksellers at my wedding, (two of which were 
 ray school-fellows at that noble school of Merchant- Tai- 
 Jors,when that excellent teacher of human learning, Dr. 
 Matthew Shortyng, was master, under whose tuition I 
 
THE FRENCH AN1X ENGLISH PROPHETS. 75 
 
 was, being designed for a priest, and Charles Shelly and 
 
 ' Pickering were ushers,) and who were all printing 
 
 booksellers, and could promote me very much in my bu- 
 siness, whose names were John Lawrence, Royston Me- 
 redith, and Daniel Jackson. 
 
 " As soon as I was set up, I quickly had very great bu- 
 siness, (I believe never any young man had more for the 
 time,) and had I acted with any wisdom in my outward 
 affairs, I might very probably have become a rich man. 
 But, alas I how was it possible a man that sincerely be- 
 lieved those many preposterous things before mentioned, 
 whose reason was captivated, whose judgment, will, and 
 intellects, were poisoned to so great a degree, could act 
 otherwise than I did. 
 
 ■■' The booksellers I worked for were John Lawrence, 
 in the Poultry, Henry Clements, William Innys, in St. 
 Paul's Cathedral yard, for Bernard Lintot, S. Pember- 
 ton, in Fleet-street, Jones Brown, without Temple-bar, 
 and N. Cliff, in the Poultry ; all which I found very fair 
 dealers, and I believe were, and those tbat are still living 
 are, very honest men in worldly dealings. I likewise 
 printed for many others, whom I shall not here mention, 
 besides a great number of private treasonable libelsagainst 
 the late Queen and her last ministry, (which I am now 
 truly sensible was a sin, of a scarlet die, as I now judge 
 libelling the present government the same,) by which I 
 got a great deal of money. After I had dwelt in Black- 
 friars about a year and half, I was warned out of my. 
 bouse by means of a wicked woman who had influence over 
 the landlord, because I forbid my journeymen to fetch 
 drink at her house. The whole time of dwelling there, 
 
76" HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 my conduct in my outward affairs was such, as none but a 
 man void of reason, or one in my case, (I think) could be 
 guilty of the like. 
 
 " I should have told rny reader, that when I first set up, 
 and long before, I prided myself to a very high degree 
 with a conceit what a fine character I should bear in the 
 world foran honest man, having always the strictest no- 
 tions of justice and honesty, as to meum and tuum, to the 
 persons of all mankind, having never done the least thing 
 to my knowledge unworthy that character. 
 
 "All the while I" dwelt in Blackfriars, John Potter 
 (who had long before left off his business, and now dwelt 
 with Francis Moult, in Hatton-garden,) continued his 
 friendship with me, my sister under agitations having 
 commanded that he should marry one of Francis Moult's 
 kinswomen, which was accordingly obeyed, and John. 
 Potter had a considerable fortune* with her." 
 
 Mr. Keimer writes much more concerning the raptures 
 of these profane enthusiasts ; but we think that our read- 
 ers will be perfectly satisfied by the specimens we have 
 
 * This Francis Moult is a man of such great substance, that 
 he said in my sister's hearing, (as she told me,) * That when the 
 prophets first came forth, he had acquired even almost as much 
 as Sir Charles Duncomb, (Lord Mayor in 1707,) and had a de- 
 sign to make himself worth full as much, but left the eager 
 pursuit thereof when he became a believer in that dispensa- 
 tion;' and is a man so bigoted to that affair, that if John Pot- 
 ter should out-live him, he will be (as I have good reason to 
 think) many thousand pound? richer than he now is for that 
 command* 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 17 
 
 already given. We shall conclude this account by Mr; 
 Keimer's list of this fraternity, among whom it is pitiable 
 to observe many persons who ought to have been the last 
 to assiste in such a shocking delusion. 
 
 LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS 
 
 Who distinguished themselves among the 
 
 French and English Prophets in London: 
 
 BY SAMUEL KEIMER. 
 
 John Glover, a Prophet. 
 
 John Potter, a great Prophet, (who, with the fo&as&Jxt' 
 represented as two bridemen,) dwelling near Salisbury-court. 
 
 Anne Watts, a Prophetess, married, and dwelling in Join- 
 er's-street, Southwark. 
 
 Mary Beer, a Prophetess, dwelling in Lombard-street. 
 
 Guy Nutt, a Prophet, who goes in plain habit, but not 
 owned by the people called Quakers. 
 
 The Widow Sterril, an old French Woman, who had th e 
 agitations. 
 
 Hannah Eversden, a Prophetess, a baker's daughter in 
 Southwark, who was commanded by the spirit to go to a con- 
 gregation of Baptists, meeting at Tallow Chandler's Hall, to 
 which she did before belong, and to which John Noble was 
 pastor. Accordingly she obeyed, and spoke a warning, putting 
 the congregation into an uproar. 
 
 Francis Moult. 
 
 Mary Moult, his. kinswoman. 
 
78 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 John Moult, a Prophet, kinsman to Francis Moult. 
 Elizabeth Hughes, a Prophetess, living in St. Martin's-Ie- 
 
 Grand. 
 
 John Giles, a merchant, who dwelt at Canonbury House. 
 
 Mary Keimer, a Prophetess, a jolly young woman, who . 
 dwelt in Southward— (Keimer's sister.) 
 
 « Douglas, a rich East-India merchant. 
 
 Margaret Moult, kinswoman to Francis, who was mar- 
 ried to John Potter, as commanded by the spirit through Mary 
 Keimer, as washer sister Mary to Charles Portales, who there- 
 by became a topping merchant. 
 
 Patrtck Urquart, a believer, living near Montague-House, 
 who has the agitations. 
 
 t Everard, who was Envoy from the British Court to 
 
 France, and afterwards confined prisoner in the Tower sever a l 
 vears, fcut removed from thence by the Habeas Corpus Act, 
 which was made for his relief at the coming in of the Prince 
 of Orange. He likewise had the agitations. 
 
 Isaac Owen, a believer, and one of the writers. 
 
 Lady Jane Forbes, of Scotland, a Prophetess, and had the 
 
 agitations. 
 Thomas Lardner, apothecary, writer and missionary to the 
 
 Prophets. 
 Sarah Critchlow. 
 Rebecca Cuff, a Prophetess. 
 Her Husband. 
 William King, tallow-chandler, and great Philadelphian 
 
 Preacher and Prophet. 
 
 Widow Hughes, one who pretends herself to be the Woman 
 clothed with the Sun, mentioned in the Revelations, and who 
 said she bore the sins of the whole nation on her body. She 
 can neither write nor read, has been a missionary to Holland, 
 is mother to the Prophetess of that name, and dwells at the 
 sign of the Ring's Arms, in St. Martin's-le-Grand. 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. 79 
 
 A. Finkley and Anne Steed, formerly among the people 
 called Quakers, but disowned by them. 
 
 — - Preston, an old man, said to be miraculously cured by 
 John Lacy of a swelling in his neck. 
 
 William Draycot, at whose house meetings were often 
 kept. 
 
 Widow Moreton, who likewise often had meetings at her 
 house in Long walk, and bought the printing-house of Samuel 
 Keimer, author of the foregoing tract, and in two years ruined 
 herself thereby, as the author before had done. 
 
 Buas Moreton, h©r son, whom John Potter under agita- 
 tions took up in his arms, holding him above his head, decla- 
 ring he should be exalted above Princes. This youth had the 
 new name of Abel afterwards given him by the spirit. 
 
 Sarah Draycot, a Prophetess, whom the spirit had often 
 declared she should be cured of the evil, of which she has been 
 many years sorely afflicted. 
 
 Anna Mari* King, a young and eminent Prophetess, who 
 was turned out of meetings by John Potter, for what I cannot 
 tell. 
 
 Anne Topham, another Prophetess, who was likewise turned 
 out. She was called the Bishop, by reason the orders for meet- 
 ings and missions came so often through her mouth. 
 
 Thomas Dutton, an eminent Prophet, a sober ingenious 
 man, by profession a lawyer, who wrote a letter against John 
 Lacy's taking Elizabeth Gray, which occasioned the printed 
 vindication of it. 
 
 Widow Critchlow, who kept a house in Baldwin's gardens, 
 where the Philadelphians used frequently to meet, she herself 
 being a preacher amongst them. 
 
 Nicholas Facio, a great Mathematician, who was tutor to 
 and travelled with the late Duke of Bedford, and was one of 
 the three that stood on the pillory at Charing Cross and Royal 
 Exchange. 
 
80 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 Benjamin Jackson, a writer and missionary, and inventor 
 of a swimming engine, also of a new sort of coach or chaise 
 that cannot be overturned. 
 
 Bennet, shoemaker, one of the arts-masters of 
 
 Bridewell. 
 
 Dr. CRiTCHLOwand Dr. Byfield, both followers of the Pro- 
 phets, and well known for their Sal Volatile Oleosum ; the for- 
 mer dwelling in Salisbury-court, the latter near Fetter-lane.— 
 Dr. Critchlow's wife and daughter had also the agitations. 
 
 Samuel Noble, a bookseller, writer, and missionary, of the 
 Prophets, dwelling now in Long-Walk, next the Blue- Coat-Hos- 
 pital ; formerly dwelt atPlaisterer's-Hall. 
 
 Peter Cuff, watchmaker in Salisbury. court. 
 
 Joseph Steel, stay-maker. This man married Mary Aspi- 
 nal, a Prophetess. 
 
 John More, a Prophet, and clog-maker. 
 
 . Rigby, a believer, who deals in canes, of whom it i9 
 
 said, that he laid a great wager on the resurrection of Dr. Ernes, 
 
 but lost. 
 
 Forster, Prebendary of Sarum, who publicly declared 
 
 for the Prophets in the pulpit, for which he was suspended 
 preaching six months, by Gilbert, late Bishop of Sarum. He 
 received the agitations, and (as it is said) administered the 
 bread and wine under agitations to his parishoners. 
 
 Peter Rochfort, believer, inventor of the mock-trumpet. 
 
 — Gladman. 
 
 Hall Reason, writer, a cunning sophistical spark, that 
 could seemingly reconcile the greatest absurdities for clearing 
 yp the dispensation. 
 
 . Steffin, an eminent musician, and believer. 
 
 Dr. Emes. 
 
 A Prophet at Birmingham, who prophecied he should die on 
 a day prefixed, but was disappointed. 
 Sir Richard Bulkely, a very crooked person, of whom it 
 
THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROPHETS. SI 
 
 was prophecied he should be made strait by the spirit through 
 John Lacy, but happened to die before the miracle could be 
 performed. 
 
 James Cunikghame, a Prophet, who used often to speak 
 his warnings under agitations in metre. This same man went 
 to St. Pauls, before-mentioned, and with his voice put a stop 
 to the organ. 
 
 Henrietta Erwyn, a Scotch Prophetess. 
 
 John Giles. 
 
 MaryRigby, an acute young girl, who had the agitations 
 to a great degree, and is since drawn awav N£fee$ J&n&tti : J*» 
 tholic. / '^ --^Q 
 
 John Lacy, who left his lawful wife t^ coh&t wit% 
 
 Elizabeth Gray. & 
 
 It may be necessary to add here, that the famous Wil- 
 liam Whiston, in his sermons delivered at Oow-Church> 
 at Boyle's Lectures, inveighed most forcibly against 
 this sect of impostors. They were also attacked by 
 the Rev. N. Spinckes, in " The New Pretenders to Pro- 
 phecy Examined,"— 8vo, 1709. And in Sion College Li- 
 brary are deposited no less than five volumes, containing 
 " Papers relating to the late False Prophets, commonly call- 
 ed French Prophets.'* So that it is evident they made 
 some noise in London whilst they existed. 
 
 But it is plain by what has preceeded that these Pro- 
 phets and their followers were deluded and cheated. — 
 For, though the spirit presiding in and over them con- 
 stantly deceived them, time after time, with abundance 
 of notorious lies, yet were they so bewitched, as impi» 
 
82 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 ously to fix the falsehoods of Satan upon the true God. — 
 This we may certainly perceive in their supposed predic- 
 tions relating to Dr. Ernes. How many notorious false- 
 hoods were told by the spirit in John Potter, and the rest 
 of the inspired, relating to that circumstance ? And yet 
 What could be more plain than the positive prediction of 
 this John Fotter?— « the 5 th of May next!*— The City of 
 London was to have been burnt with fire and brimstone 
 " on the 2$th of March ?'— Queen Anne was to go as a 
 Pri>}jh$im%Q Barbiean !=-a dreadful famine wa§ to deso- 
 late the land !— the Devil was to take the French Cler- 
 gyman out of his pulpit before the whole congregation, 
 as Cavalier asserted, as a crow would carry apieceof flesh 
 in its mouth : — Sir Richard Bulkely, who was deformed, 
 was to be made strait;— the populace who opposed the 
 practices of these gentry were all to be struck dead ;— 
 Marion, the Prophet, was not to die, but to change!- 
 It unfortunately happened for their predictions that none 
 of these things happened, but quite the contrary. How 
 miserably, then, were these enthusiastic fanatics imposed 
 upon, when, out of upwards of sixty of the positive pre- 
 dictions of their 'presumptuous leaders, not one but proved 
 a diabolical lie! How, then, ought people to be upon 
 their guard against similar delusions which are daily liable 
 to be practised upon them, as it may suit the humour or 
 interest of the designing ambassadors of Satan! 
 
ELIZABETH BARTON, 
 
 A NUN, CALLED 
 
 THE HOLY MAID OF KENT; 
 
 Who, with her Abettors, were executed fo% k their 
 traitorous proceeding ! r- 
 
 1533—1534. V 
 
 iHE dissolution of monasteries, and the reformation of 
 religion in the reign of Henry VIII. was an unexpected 
 revolution in the ecclesiastical religion of this country. 
 What motives might have induced Henry to hazard such a 
 very strong measure, we will not at this distance of time 
 enquire j suffice it to say, that if Queen Catharine, of 
 Spain, experienced hardships and ill-usage, under the 
 guise of a tender conscience ; poor Queen Anne Bo- 
 leyn experienced much worse and most infamously 
 cruel and unjust treatment, without any apology Jfor 
 tender conscience ; and, therefore, suffered a martyrdom 
 for her religious principles, through the party which had 
 set up and prevailed against her ; and who, though they 
 prospered on her ruin for a short time, ultimately suffered 
 the punishment due to real crimes, of which they had en- 
 deavoured, falsely endeavoured, to hint against the mar- 
 tyred Anne, and cause her unjust death, to satisfy Hen- 
 ry's horrid jealousy. 
 
 But, besides this, the professors of the Roman Catho- 
 lic opinions, had fastened such chains on the minds of the 
 
 3S°. S. a 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURE?. 
 
 people, at the same time that the professors had belied 
 their own practice, and had caused the sacrifice of 
 some religious martyrs who had devoted their lives to 
 contrary opinions, by which the minds of the public 
 had been estrayed ; indeed, the vicious lives of the Ro- 
 mish clergy had become so notorious, as to attract even 
 the ridicule of the humblest classes of the English popu- 
 lation. In fact, the spirit of. superstition and hypocrisy 
 had made such bold intrusions upon religious worship, 
 that the clergy, unmindful of the sacred trust that had 
 been committed to their care, sought only their own gain, 
 and grew pampered, haughty, and covetous. 
 
 Another cause of the dissolution of monasteries was the 
 abominable abuses practised by the monks, by imposing 
 false miracles upon the people, which had formerly been 
 resorted to for other interested purposes ; but now were 
 projected, as a coup de main, to depreciate the king's su- 
 premacy, to vitiate his divorce of Queen Catharine, and 
 to raise the popular odium against the government. 
 
 The principal transaction of this kind, was the impos- 
 ture of Elizabeth Barton, a nun, of whom the following 
 account, extracted from Ancient English Chronicles, is 
 given : — 
 
 "About this time, thecraftie practices of one Elizabeth 
 Barton, named the holy Mayde of Kent, came to light, 
 and were discovered, so that shee and her adherents, in 
 November following, were brought to the Star chamber, 
 and there, before the king's counsell confessed their 
 fained hypocrisie and dissimuled holiness, trayterous pur- 
 poses and intents. The names of those, her adherents, 
 which were presented with her before the Lords, in the 
 
TnE HOLY MAID OF KENT, 3 
 
 Star Chamber, were as followeth : Richard Master, par- 
 son, of Aldington, in Kent; Edward Booking, doctor 
 of divinity, a monke of Canterburie, Richard Dering, 
 monke also of Canterburie; Edwarde Twaites, gentle- 
 man ; Thomas Laurence, Register to the Archdeacon of 
 Cantuburie ; Henrie Golde, Parson of Alder Marie, in 
 London; Hugh Rich, fryer observant, Richard Risby, 
 and Thomas Golde, gentleman. These were adjudged 
 upon their confession, to stand at Paule's Crosse, in ser- 
 mon time, where they, with their own hands, should se- 
 verally deliver each of them to the preacher, a bill, de- 
 claring their subtill and superstitious doings, which thing 
 they did the Sunday next following, standing upon a 
 stage or scaffold before the Crosse, the Bishop of Bangor, 
 late Abbat of Hide there preaching, showed their of- 
 fences, from whence they were committed to the Tower 
 of London. 
 
 "After Christmas, 1534-, the Parliament beganne, 
 wherein the forenamed Elizabeth Barton, and other of 
 her complices were attainted of treason, forsundrie prac- 
 tises by them put in ure, sounding to the utter reproch, 
 peril], and destruction of the king's person, his honour, 
 fame, and dignitie, for they had put into the heads of 
 many of the king's subjectes, that the say'd Elizabeth 
 Barton was given knowledge by revelation from God and 
 his saints, that if the king proceeded to the divorce, 
 ari'd maryed another, he should not be king of thisreafme 
 one moneth after, and in the reputation of God, not one 
 day nor houre. 
 
 " This Elizabeth, first through sicknesse, being often- 
 times brought, as it were, into a traunce, whereby her 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 visage and countenance became marvellously altered at 
 those times when she was so vexed : at length, by the 
 incouraging, procurement, and information of the fore- 
 named Richard Master, parson of Aldington, she learned 
 to counterfeit such manner of traunces, as in her sick- 
 nes, by force of her disease, shee had bin acquaynted 
 with, sO that shee shewed unto the people divers mar- 
 vels, and sundry alterations of the semblable parts of her 
 bodie, craftilie uttering in her said fained traunces, divers 
 counterfeite vertues and holy wordes, tending to the re- 
 buke of sinne, and reprooving of such newe opinions as 
 then beganne to bee spred. And to bring the people 
 the more in beleefe with her hypocriticall doings, shee 
 was counselled to say, that shee should never be perfect- 
 ly whole, till she had visited an image of our ladie at a 
 place called Court at Streete, within the parish of Alding- 
 ton aforesaid. Thither was she brought, and by the 
 means of the sayde Richard Masters and Edward Book- 
 ing there was assembled a two thousande persons at the 
 daie appoynted of her thither comming, to see the myra- 
 cle. At which time shee being thither brought before 
 all that assemblie and multitude of people, shee falsly 
 fained and shewed in the chappell of our Ladie of Court 
 at Streete, many alterations of her face, and other out- 
 ward sensible parts of her body : and in those traunces 
 she uttered wonderous wordes, as shee was before sub- 
 tillie induced by the Edward Booking and Richard Mas- 
 ter. And amongst other things she uttered, that it was 
 the pleasure of God, that the sayd Bocking should bee 
 her ghostly father, and that shee should bee a religious 
 woman. And within a while after such fayned traunces, 
 
HE HOLY MAID OF KENT. 
 
 shee appeared to the people to bee sodainely released 
 from her sicknesse by the intercession of the image of 
 our Ladie being in the sayde chappel, by reason of which 
 hypocriticall dissimulation, the sayd Elizabeth 'was brought 
 into marveilous fancy, credite, and good opinion of a 
 great multitude of people of this realme ; and to increase 
 the same, by the counsell of the said Edward Booking, 
 shee became a nunne in the priorie of Saynt Sepulchres, 
 at Canterburie, to whom the sayde Edward Bocking had 
 commonly his resorte : and by conspiracie betweene her 
 and him, shee still continued her dissembled traunces, 
 alleaging that in the same shee had revelations from Al- 
 mightie God and his saints : and among other, that 
 which as before we have mentioned, touching the king's 
 marryage, as yee have heard. This matter proceeded so 
 far, that there was a book written by her complices, 
 namely, by Thomas Laurence, Register to the Arch- 
 deacon of Canterburie, of her fayned myracles, revela- 
 tions, and hypocriticall holinesse. All things were 
 handled so craftilie, that not only the simple people, but 
 also the wise and learned were deceived by the same : 
 insomuch, that William Warham, late Archbishoppe of 
 Canterburie, and John Fisher, bishoppe of Rochester, and 
 divers other being informed thereof, gave credite there- 
 unto. All which matters and manie other had beene 
 trayterously practised amongst the parties manie years, 
 chiefly to interrupt the divorce, and to destroy the 
 king, and to deprive him of the crowne and dignitiejoy- 
 all of the realme, as in the act of their attainder made 
 more at large doth appear. 
 
 The 20th of April, Elizabeth Barton, a nunne pro- 
 
 N°.9. » 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 fessed, Edward Booking and John Dering, two monks of 
 Christs •church, in Canterburie, and Richard Risby and 
 another of his fdlowes of the same house, Richard Mas- 
 ter, parson of Aldington, and Henry Gold, priest, were 
 gdrawn'fromthe Tower of London toTyborne, and there 
 hanged and headed, the nun's head was set on London 
 bridge, and the other heads on gates of the city : these, 
 as ye before have heard, were attainted by parliament. 
 At which time also were attainted of misprision for the 
 same matter, J. Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and John 
 Adeson, his chaplain, Thomas Able, priest, T. Guide, 
 gentleman, and Thomas Laurence, register of the Arch- 
 deacon of Canterburie." 
 
 This imposition so operated on the public opinion, that 
 the government, willing to assist in the exposure of many 
 of the delusions, by which the ignorant had been duped, 
 caused many of the supposed miracles to be exposed at 
 St. Paul's Cross, in London, where was daily exhibited, 
 for some time, the machinery by which their tricks were 
 set in motion, which, w being considered by the most 
 ignorant as dexterous artifices to impose on the under- 
 standing, proved a very material cause of furthering the 
 Reformation in England which ensued, and which has 
 been firmly established till the present period. 
 
 It is evident that the deceived. Elizabeth Barton feil 
 into a species of hysterical fits, and spake such things as 
 made those about her think she was inspired of God.— 
 Master, the parsoo nf the parish, hoping to draw advan- 
 tages from toir, gave information on th« subject to Arch- 
 bishop W arham > wLo ordered him to watch her care- 
 fully, and bring him an account of what he should ob- 
 
THE HOLY MAID OF KENT. 
 
 serve. But it seems she forgot all that she said in her 
 fits when they were over. The artful priest, however, 
 woirld not suffer his hopes thus to pass away, but per- 
 suaded her that she was inspired, and taught her so 1© 
 counterfeit those trances, that she became very expert 
 at it, and could assume them at her pleasure. The pro" 
 ject was soon noised about, the priest intending: by it tq. 
 raise the credit of an image of the Blessed Virgin, which 
 stood in his church, that so v pilgrimages aud offerings 
 might be made to it by her means. He associated to him- 
 self one Bocking, a monk of Canterbury, and they taught 
 Elizabeth to say in her fits, " that the blessed Virgin ap- 
 peared to her, and. told her she could not be well till she 
 visited that image.'* She spake many good words against 
 ill life, and also against heresy, and the king's suit of 
 divorce then depending; and by many strange motion" 
 of her body she seemed to be inwardly possessed. 
 
 Soon after this, a day was appointed for her cure ; and, 
 before an assemblage of two thousand people, she was 
 carried to that image ; and, after she had acted over her 
 fits, she seemed sudden^ to recover, which was ascribed 
 to the intercession of the virgin, ^nd the virtue of her 
 image. She then took the veil, and Booking was her 
 confessor. 
 
 Between her and this wolf in sheep's clothing, however, 
 many persons suspected a criminal intercourse to sub- 
 sist ; but the esteem the nun was in bore them down. — • 
 Warham, and others, thought her a prophetess. A book 
 was also written of her revelations, and a letter was shew- 
 ed, in letters of gold, pretended to be written to her from 
 Heaven by Mary Magdalen. She said, " That when the 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 King was last at Calais, she was carried invisibly beyond 
 sea, and brought back again ; and that an angel gave her 
 the sacrament ; and that God revealed to her , that if the 
 iking went on in his divorce, and married another wife, 
 he should fait 'from his croivn, and not live a month longer, 
 iut shoidddie a villain's death." 
 
 Several monks of the Charter-house, and the Observant 
 Friar?, with many nun?, and bishop Fisher, were induced 
 to give credit to, and set a great value on the nun, and 
 grew very insolent upon it ; for friar Peyto, preaching in 
 the King's chapel, at Greenwich, denounced the judg- 
 ments of God upon him; and said, " though others, as 
 lying prophets, deceived him, yet he, in the name of 
 God, told him, that dogs should lick his blood as they 
 had done that of Ahab." The king bore this patiently, 
 contenting himself with ordering Dr. Corren to preach 
 the next Sunday, and to answer all that he had said; who 
 jailed against Peyto as a dog and a traitor. Peyto had 
 gone to Canterbury ; but Elston, a Franciscan of the same 
 house, interrupted him, and called him " one of the lying 
 prophets, that went about to establish the succession of 
 the crown by adultery ;" and spoke with such vehemence 
 that the king himself was forced to command silence.-— 
 So unwilling was the king to go to extremities, that all 
 that was done upon so high a provocation was, that they 
 were summoned before the Council, and rebuked for 
 their insolence. But the nun's confederates, proceeding 
 to publish her revelations in all parts of the kingdom, she 
 and nine of her accomplices were apprehended, when 
 they all, without either rack or torture, discovered the 
 whole conspiracy; They were upon this confession ap- 
 
THE HOLY MAID OF KENT. 
 
 pointed to go to St. Pauls, where, after a sermon preached 
 upon the occasion by the bishop o£ Bangor, they repeated 
 their confession in the hearing of the people, and were 
 sent prisoners to the Tower. It was given out, however, 
 that all .was extorted from them by violence, and mes- 
 sages were sent to the nun, desiring her to deny all that 
 she had confessed. The king, on this, judged it neces- 
 sary to proceed to further extremities: she and six of 
 her chief accomplices were, attainted of treason, and the 
 bishop of Rochester and five more were attainted of mis- 
 prision of treason. But at the intercession ofQneen Anne, 
 (as is expressed in the act,) all others that had. been con- 
 cerned with her were pardoned. . 
 
 After this, the nun, with her coadjutors, were executed 
 at Tyburn. There she voluntarily confessed herself to be 
 an impostor, and acknowledged the justice of her sen- 
 tence, laying the blame on those who suffered with her, 
 by whom she had been seduced into the crime; adding, 
 that they had exalted her for no other cause than for her 
 having been of great profit to them, and that they had 
 presumed to say, that all she had done was through the in- 
 spiration of the Holy Ghost, when they were sensible the 
 whole was a trick. She then begged pardon of God and 
 the king, and resigned herself to her fate. Thus ended 
 one of the vilest impostures ever known in this country; 
 
 Had this fallen out in a darker age, in which the world 
 went mad after visions, the kingmight have lost his crown 
 by it. The discovery of it disposed all to look on older 
 stories of the trances of monastical people as contrivances 
 to serve base ends, and made way for the ruin of that or- 
 der of men in England j but all that followed at present 
 
 b 2 
 
10 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 upon it was, that the Observants were put out of their 
 Jiouses, and mixed with the other Franciscans, and the 
 Augustin friars were put in their room. 
 
 Upon the first discovery of the above imposture, Crom- 
 well sent Fisher's brother to him to reprove him for his 
 carriage in that business, and to advise him to ask the 
 king's pardon for the encouragement he had given to the 
 nun, which he was confident the king would grant him. 
 But Fisher excused himself, and said "he had only tried 
 whether her revelations were true or not. He confessed, 
 that, upon the reports which he had heard, he was in- 
 duced to have a high opinion of her, and that he had ne- 
 ver discovered any falsehood in her. It was true, she 
 had said some things to him concerning the king's death, 
 which he had not revealed, but he thought it was not 
 necessary to do it, because he knew she had told 
 them to the king herself; she had named no person 
 that should kill the king, but had only denounced it 
 as a judgment of God upon him ; and he had reason 
 to think that the king would have been offended 
 with him if he had spoken of it to him ; he, therefore, 
 desired to be no more troubled with that matter.'' Crom- 
 well, upon this, wrote a sharp letter to Fisher; shewing 
 him, "that he had proceeded rashly; being so partial 
 in the matter of the king's divorce, that he easily be- 
 lieved every thing that seemed to make against it; he- 
 - shewed him how necessary it was to use great caution be- 
 fore extraordinary things should be received, or spread 
 about as revelations, since otherwise the peace of the 
 world would be in the hands of every bold and crafty 
 Impostor j-yet in conclusion, he advised him again to ask 
 
THE HOLY MATD Or KENT. 11 
 
 the, king's pardon for his rashness, and he assures him, 
 that the king was ready to forgive him." But Fisher 
 would make no submission, and was in consequence in- 
 cluded within the act ; yet it was not executed till a new 
 provocation drew him into further trouble, and precipe 
 tated his death in the Tower, 
 
WILLIAM HACKETT, 
 
 EDMUND COPPINGER, 
 
 AND 
 
 ffgFMF ARTIIINGTON. 
 
 ?590. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the reformation of religion had been 
 fully established in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and al- 
 though that wise Princess had pursued the most pruden- 
 tial means to prevent discordance in religious opinions ; 
 yet the dangers she suffered by the many treasons which 
 were practised against her by the Roman Catholics, 
 as well as other sectarists, made it necessary that the Go- 
 vernment should come to the resolution of amply pu- 
 nishing such as, by profane and seditious proceedings, 
 strove to endanger the safety of the State, beset as it 
 was, both politically and on a religious account, inter- 
 nally as well as externally, by the most-bitter enemies.— 
 The subjects of this article were the most prominent in 
 this mode of iniquity ; and two of them deservedly suf- 
 fered the sentence of the law for their rash and danger- 
 ous conduct. 
 
 On the 16th day of July, 1590, in the morning, Ed. 
 mund Coppinge.r and Henry Arthinglon, gentleman, re- 
 paired to one Walker's house, near Broken-wharf, Lon* 
 
WILLIAM HACKETT, &C. 13 
 
 don, where, conferring with one of their sect, named 
 William Hackett, of Owndale, in the county of Northamp- 
 ton, yeoman, they offered to anoint him king ; but Hack- 
 ett, taking Coppinger by the hand, said, " You shall not 
 need to anoint me, for I have been already anointed in 
 Heaven by the Holy Ghost himself." Then Coppinger 
 asked him, "What his pleasure was to be done ?" " Go 
 your way, both," said he, " and tell them in the City that 
 Jesus Christ is come, with his fan in his hand, to judge 
 the earth ; and if any man ask you where he is, tell him 
 he lies at Walker's house, by Broken-wharf, and if they 
 will not believe, let them come and kill me, if they can ; 
 for, as truly as Jesus Christ is in Heaven, so truly is he 
 come to judge the world." Then Coppinger said, " It 
 should be done forthwith." He thereupon went forward, 
 and Arthington followed ; but ere he could get down the 
 stairs, Coppinger had began below in the house to pro- 
 cl^im "News from Heaven of exceeding great mercy ! 
 tha\ Christ Jesus was come, &c." with whom also Ar- 
 thington cried the same words aloud, following him along 
 the streets, from thence to Watling-street and the Old 
 Change towards Cheapside: they both adding, beyond their 
 commission, these words: " Repent, England, repent!" 
 After they had both thus proceeded, with a mighty con- 
 course of the common multitude, vociferating an uniform 
 cry into Cheape, near the Cross, and there finding the 
 throng and pressure of the people to crowd about them, 
 so that they could not well pass further, nor be conveni- 
 ently heard by them all, as they desired; they got up 
 into an empty cart, which stood there, wherein they re- 
 peated, as they stood, not only the wordsof their former 
 
14r HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 cry, but reading something out of a paper, went more 
 particularly over the office of Hackett, " how he repre- 
 sented Christ, by partaking a part of his glorified body, 
 by his principal spirit, and by the office of severing the 
 good from the bad, with his fan in his hand, and of esta- 
 blishing the Gospel in Europe, &c. ;" telling also the 
 people, "where they saw him, where he lay and re- 
 mained ; that they were two Prophets, the one of Mercy, 
 the other of Judgment, sent and extraordinarily called by 
 God to assist him in this great work, and were witnesses 
 of these things, &C." And thereupon ihe one oflhem 
 pronounced " Mercy, great comfort, and unspeakable 
 joys to all that should repent presently • be obedient, and 
 embrace this acceptable message and opportunity offerr 
 ed :" and the other denounced "terrible judgments if 
 they repented not, which should, even presently also* 
 fall upon them, and especially upon the City of London 5" 
 affirming, that "all who believed them not were con ■ 
 demned, body and soul :" mingled with traitorous invec- 
 tives against the Queen, and some of her Privy Council. 
 They had purposed to proceed with, the like cry and 
 proclamation through the other chief parts of the City, 
 but the throng was so great, that they were forced to go 
 into a tavern in Cheape, bearing the sign of the Mermaid, 
 because a gentleman of Coppinger^ acquaintance plucked 
 at him, whilst he was in the cart, and blan?**i him for his 
 demeanor and speeches. Thence they went by back lanes, 
 crying, as before, "Repent, England, repent !" &c. ; 
 back to Walker's house, at Broken-wharf. The account 
 of this strange uproar having been quickly circulated 
 through the City, all appeared in a kiad of astonishment 
 
WILLIAM HACKETT, &C. f% 
 
 what to think of the matter. The circumstance speedily 
 reached Queen Elizabeth, who dispatched two of her 
 Council to London to take further cognizance of the whole 
 matter. About one o'clock in the afternoon, Coppinger 
 was sent for, whilst Hackett and Arthington were brought 
 before the members of the Council, and others, who came 
 to assist in the investigation at the Lord Mayor's house, 
 lobe examined. It was concluded, that Hackett should 
 be committed for trial; so that, on the *26th of July, he 
 was brought from Bridewell to the Sessions-House, near 
 Newgate, before the Lord Mayor, and other Justices; 
 where, being arraigned, he was by two several indict- 
 ments found guilty of having " uttered and spoken divers 
 false and traitorous words against her Majesty ; to hare 
 raised and defaced her Majesty's arms, as also a certain 
 picture of the Queen's Majesty ; and did maliciously and 
 traitorously thrust an iron instrument into that part of the 
 said picture that did represent the breast and heart of the 
 Queen's Majesty/' &c. He had judgment, and on the 
 28th of July was brought from Newgate towards the place 
 bf execution about ten o'clock in the morning, there be- 
 ing an incredible multitude in the streets, but especially 
 in Cheape, 
 
 All the way that he was dragged upon the hurdle, he 
 continued his crying out « Jehovah ! Messiah ! Jehovah ! 
 Messiah !" Another while crying out thus, " Look ! look 
 how the Heavens open wide, and the Son of God cometh 
 down to deliver me !" When he came under the gibbet, 
 which was reared hard near the Cross in Cheape, he was 
 exhorted to " ask God and the Queen forgiveness, and to 
 fall to his prayers;" but he, instead thereof, fell to-raiU 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 ing and cursing the Queen in the most villainous manner ; 
 and then began a most blasphemous and execrable prayer 
 " against the Divine Majesty of God." They had much 
 difficulty to get him up the ladder, where he was hanged, 
 and afterwards bowelled and quartered. 
 
 On the next day, being the 29th of July, Edmund 
 Coppinger, having wilfully abstained from meat, as was 
 said, died in Bridewell. Arthington, long after in the 
 counter in Wood-street, was reserved in hope of perfect 
 repentance. An exact account of this was then printed 
 in a book, called " Conspiracy of pretended Reforma- 
 tion," &c. 
 
 These three were fanatics, combined with many other 
 shocking enthusiasts, who pretended to keep fasts, and to 
 have revelations ; taking the delusions of the Devil, or 
 their own vile imaginations, for inspirations from Heaven, 
 or, at least, intending to persuade others to take them for 
 such. Their blasphemies were so horrid, that they are 
 not fit to be repeated ; and under those diabolical expres- 
 sions was couched the malice of embroiling the whole 
 kingdom in blood, and destroying all that were not as 
 much enthusiasts as themselves. 
 
 The pamphlet whence the above is extracted, is very 
 scarce to be found ; but there is much of the substance 
 of this relation to be seen in " Bancroft's Dangerous 
 Positions," and in Camden's Life of Queen Elizabeth. 
 
17 
 
 HUGH PETERS. 
 
 1647—1060. 
 
 A CONSIDERABLE volume might be composed of 
 the blasphemies of this most infamous canting saint. His 
 life has been already written in a small book, too short 
 for his deserts, and yet we must be much shorter here, as 
 not having room to dilate upon his depravity. We shall, 
 therefore, only give_some short hints of his hellish villa- 
 ges. He was a fellow of a buffoonish wit, with some 
 reading, and doubtless an errant Atheist, though a great 
 pretender to sanctity, that is, to gain, which was truly 
 his idol. Having been fanatically educated, he went 
 over betimes into New England. After living there se- 
 veral years, he returned into England, at the time when. 
 the rebellion had broken out, as thinking that a proper 
 opportunity, by the help of his wicked principles, for 
 him to rise upon the ruins of honest men ; in order to 
 which, he went over into Ireland, where he was em- 
 ployed by the brethren, and sent again into England ; 
 there he exerted his talent, frequently preaching blas- 
 phemy and treason, exciting the people to give theff 
 N°. 9. € 
 
18 HISTORY Of RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 blood and treasure for the destruction of his sovereign, 
 and very often in the pulpit playing the most impudent 
 buffoonery to please his infamous audience. Walker, in 
 his History of Independency, Part II. p. 49. tells us, that 
 on the 22nd of December, 1648, four lords and twenty 
 commoners kept a mock fast at St. Margaret's", Westmin- 
 ster, where Hugh Peters, the pulpit buffoon, acted a 
 sermon before them, the subject whereof was Moses lead- 
 ing the Israelites out of Egypt, which he applied to the 
 leaders of the rebel army, whose design, he said, was to 
 lead the people out of Egyptian bondage. " But how 
 must this be done ? That is not yet revealed unto me/' 
 said Peters, and then covering his eyes with his hands, 
 and laying down his head on the cushion, until the peo- 
 ple, falling into laughter, awakened him, he started up, 
 and cried out, " Now I have it by revelation, now I shall 
 tell you': this army must root up monarchy, not only 
 here, but in France and other kingdoms round about ; this 
 is to bring you out of Egypt. This army is that corner- 
 stone cut off the mountain, which must dash the powers 
 of the earth to pieces. But it is observed, the way we 
 walk in is without precedent ; what think you of the Vir- 
 gin Mary ? Was there any precedent before, that a wo- 
 man should conceive a child without the company of a 
 man ? This is an age to make examples and precedents 
 
 in." ' , 
 
 It would be endless to enumerate all his usual blasphe- 
 mies, treasonable expressions, and other villanies ; we 
 will, therefore, pass by the most of his wicked life, and 
 come to the period of it. After the restoration of King 
 Charles II. Peters was most justly excepted in the gene^ 
 
HUGH PETERS. 
 
 19 
 
 ral act of indemnity, as highly concerned in the mur- 
 der of King Charles I. and being taken, was brought to 
 his trial on the 13th of October, 1660. 
 
 Dr. Tongue deposed there against him, " That Peters 
 lying in his house ten weeks, they grew familiar, and 
 that then the said Peters told him, that he had been sent 
 out of New England, to stir up and drive on the re- 
 bellion ; that the Parliament had sent him into Ireland to 
 do the same there; that he frequently reviled and railed 
 at the king, the royal family, and monarchy in general ; 
 that he told him, he had concerted with Oliver Crom- 
 well how to bring the king to justice, try him for his 
 life, and cut off his head." 
 
 One Starky deposed, "That not long before the mur- 
 der of the king, he had heard Hugh Peters earnestly af- 
 firm, that ' the king was a tyrant, that he was a fool, 
 that he was not fit to be king, or bear that office, and 
 that, by his frequent private consultations with Crom- 
 well and Ireton, he was fully convinced that he had 
 been one of the principal contrivers of the murder of his 
 majesty." Mr. Walkely and Mr. Proctor both deposed, 
 u That they saw Peters riding in a triumphant manner 
 before the king's coach, when he was brought prisoner 
 to S». James's." 
 
 Others swore, that they saw him at the consultations 
 for trying ef the king, and in Westminster-Hall when 
 his majesty was tried, and one of tbem added, that 
 he heard him say : "This is a most glorious beginning 
 of the work." 
 
 '* Sir Henry Whitecott swore, that Peters, speaking of 
 the pretended court, said> " I cannot but look upon this 
 
20 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 court with a great reverence, for it doth resemble, in 
 some measure, the trial that shall be at the end of the 
 world by the saints." 
 
 Nunnely deposed, " That he saw Peters on the scaffold 
 before the king came to be beheaded, that he went off, 
 and after the bloody act he saw him come out of the room 
 into which the masked persons, one of whom struck 
 the horrid stroke, had been put to unmask ; that he 
 came out^vith the hangman, and went with him to take 
 water." 
 
 Stephen Clough deposed, ■" That at a consultation in 
 the Painted Chamber, about the murder of the king, Pe- 
 ters was desired to call for a blessing upon their business, 
 and in his prayers uttered these words : * O Lord, what a 
 mercy it is to see this great city fall down before us; and 
 what a stir is there to bring this great man to a trial, 
 without whose blood he will turn us all to blood, if he 
 reign again V " 
 
 Mr. Beaver deposed, "That on a day appointed by 
 those king-killers to be kept as a fast for the murder they 
 had then in hand, he heard Peters preach before the Par- 
 liament, and that there he uttered these words: 'It is a 
 very sad thing that this should be a question, as among 
 the old Jews, whether our Saviour Jesus Christ must be 
 crucified, or that Barabbas should be released, the op- 
 pressor of the people. O Jesus, where are we, that this 
 must be a question among us? And because that you 
 should think, my Lords and Gentlemen, that it is a ques- 
 tion, I will tell you it is a question. I have been in 
 the city, which may very. well be compared to Jeru- 
 salem inthis conjuncture of time, and I profess, those 
 
HUGH PETERS. 21 
 
 foolish citizens, for a little trading and profit, they will 
 have Christ (pointing to the red-coats) crucified, and 
 that great Barabbas, at Windsor, released; but I do not 
 much heed what the rabble says. I hope that my bre- 
 thren of the clergy will be wiser ; the lips of the priests 
 do use knowledge. I have been with them too in the as- 
 sembly, and having heard and seen what they said; I per- 
 ceive they are for crucifying Christ, and releasing Ba- 
 rabbas. O Jesus, what shall we do now ? My Lords, 
 and you Gentlemen of the House of Commons, you are 
 the Sanhedrim and the great council of the nation, 
 therefore you must be sure to do justice, and it is from 
 you we expect it; you must not only be inheritors of 
 your ancestors, but you must do as they did ; they have 
 opposed tyrannical kings, they have destroyed them, it 
 is to you chiefly that we look for justice. Do not pre- 
 fer the great Barabbas, murderer, tyrant, and traitor, be- 
 fore these poor hearts (pointing to the red-coats) and the 
 army, who are our Saviour, &c." Such blasphemies did 
 this monster utter in the pulpit to persuade them, already 
 forward enough, to murder their sovereign. 
 
 Mr. Chase then deposed, " That he heard him preach 
 before Cromwell and Bradshaw, upon these words : 
 f Bind your kings in chains, and your nobles in fetters 
 of iron, r and this he applied to encourage them to mur- 
 der the king." The above Tongue swore to the same 
 effect concerning his preaching; so did one Bowdler, 
 one Rider, and one Walker. To conclude, so manifest 
 were his horrid villanies, that there was no room to 
 hesitate, and accordingly he was brought in guilty, and 
 sentence passed upon him. Pursuant to the sentence, 
 c 2 
 
22 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 on Thursday, the I6tb of October, John Cook, his fel- 
 low-traitor, and he, were drawn to Charing-Cross, and 
 there hanged and quartered. Peters's head was set on 
 London-bridge, and his quarters on the gates. Hugh 
 Peters, after his sentence, appeared full of death and 
 terror; the brethren, fearing he might happen to repent, 
 kept him drunk, and in that condition he was carried to 
 the place of execution and died. 
 
23 
 
 LIGHTS OF WALTON. 
 
 1649. 
 
 JHIS seems an odd title, but as we have not the parti- 
 cular names of the men, we are obliged to make use of 
 that of their madness. The story is thus : — About the 
 beginning of Lent, in the year 1649, Mr. Faucet, Mi- 
 nister of Walton-upon-Thames, in Surrey, preached in 
 his parish church in the afternoon ; when he came down 
 from the pulpit it was twilight, when six soldiers came 
 into the church, one of them with a lantern in his hand, 
 and a candle in it, the others had four candles not light- 
 ed. He with the lantern called to the parishioners "to 
 stay a little, for he had a message to them from God," 
 and offered to go up into the pulpit, but the parishioners 
 would not let him j then he would have delivered his er- 
 rand in the church, but there they would not hear him ; 
 so he went forth into the church-yard, the people follow- 
 ing him, where he related to them, " that he had a vi- 
 sion, and received a command from God to deliver his 
 will unto them, which he was to deliver, and they to re- 
 ceive, upon pain of damnation." It consisted of five 
 lights : 
 
 tf 1st. That the Sabbath was abolished, as unnecessary, 
 Jewish, and merely ceremonial. ' And here (added he) 
 I should put out my first light, but the wind is so high I 
 cannot ght it*' 
 
24 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 M 2d. Tithes are abolished, as Jewish and ceremonial, 
 a great burden to the Saints of God, and a discouragement 
 of industry and tillage. ' And here (he added) I should 
 put out my second light,' &c. as aforesaid. 
 
 " 3d. Ministers are abolished, as Anti-Christians, and 
 of no longer use, now Christ himself descends into the 
 hearts of his saints, and his spirit enlighteneth them with 
 revelations and inspirations. 'And here (said he) I 
 should put out my third light,' &c. 
 
 " 4th. Magistrates are abolished, as useless, now that 
 Christ himself is in purity of spirit come amongst us, and 
 hath erected the kingdom of the saints upon earth ; be- 
 sides, they are tyrants and oppressors of the liberty of the 
 saints, and tie them to laws and ordinances, mere human 
 inventions. 'And here I should have put out/ &c. 
 
 *' 5th. [Then putting his hand into his pocket, and 
 pulling out a little bible, he shewed it open to the people, 
 saying,] ' Here is a book you have in great veneration, 
 consisting of two parts, the Old and New Testament ; 1 
 must tell you it is abolished : it containeth beggarly ru- 
 diments, milk for babes. But now Christ is in glory 
 amongst us, and imparts a fuller measure of his spirit to 
 his saints than this can afford, and therefore I am com- 
 manded to burn it before your faces.' So, taking the 
 candle out of the lantern, he set fire to the leaves; and 
 then putting out the candle, he proceeded, ' And here 
 my fifth light is extinguished'.' " 
 
 Such were those Saints who had actually brought their 
 King to the block, and now were for overturning all rek- 
 gion to set up their blasphemous enthusiasms I 
 
25 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 LODOW1CK MUGGLET*}^ 
 
 1655—1676. 
 
 ▼ V E have now to notice a profane fanatic of a peculiar 
 cast; one governed by instinct rather than intellect, but 
 in all his movements turning from bad to worse ; and fi- 
 nally, like an ignis fatuus of divinity, carried about with 
 every wind. In fact, a being whose extraction, being 
 from corruption, has exhibited a religious monster, not 
 intended, but produced ; whose principles were like the 
 chaos, a confused lump of negatives, whose practices were 
 unsuitable to his professions : — one who pretended ado- 
 ration and worship, when his practice was rebellion j who, 
 under the' mask of sanctity, imposed upon the minds of 
 those who refused to uphold him in his iniquity the most 
 unqualified execrations, and dealt his abominable curses 
 against all who were too prudent to be dupes to his horrid 
 blasphemies. Such was Lodowick Muggleton, of which 
 the following is taken from " A modest account of the 
 wicked life of that grand Impostor, Lodowick Muggle- 
 ton : wherein are related all the remarkable actions he 
 
26 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMTOSTURES. 
 
 did, and all the strange accidents that have befallen him, 
 ever since his first coming to London to this twenty -fifth 
 of January, 16/ 6\ — Also, a particular of those reasons, 
 which first dreiv him to these damnable principles ; with 
 several pleasant Stories concerning him, proviq.g r his com- 
 mission to be but counterfeit, and himself a cheat, from di- 
 vers expressions which have fallen from his own mouth"— 
 
 i% Lodowick Muggleton was born of poor though honest 
 parents, living at Chippenham, within fifteen miles of 
 Bristol. His relations having but little means, and a great 
 charge of children to maintain, they were forced to send 
 their daughters to wait on their neighbouring gentry, and 
 to place their sons to such trades as cost little binding 
 them apprentices. But, amongst all the rest of those of 
 this worshipful brood, they were blessed withal, they 
 might have observed, even in his youthful days, in this 
 Lodowick Muggleton, an obstinate, dissentious, and oppo- 
 sing spirit; which made them desirous to settle him at 
 some distance from them, and also to bind him to such a 
 trade and master as might curb him from that freedom, 
 which the moroseness of his coarse' nature extorted from 
 his too indulgent parents. By which means, as soon as 
 he had made some small inspection into his accidence, 
 without any other accomplishment besides a little writing 
 and casting of accounts, he was hurried up to London, 
 and there bound apprentice to one of the cross-legged or- 
 der, but of an indifferent reputation in the place where 
 he lived, though by trade a tailor. We will pass over the 
 parenthesis of his' youth in silence, therein being nothing 
 but usual waggeries, which generally recommend to ouc 
 
LODOWICK MUGGLETON. 27 
 
 T 
 
 expectation something remarkable, when the usual ex- 
 travagancies shall be seasoned with age. 
 
 ''When thetirneof hisapprenticeship grew near its ex- 
 piration, so that he was admitted more liberty than for- 
 merly was granted him, he was observed to be a great 
 haunter of conventicles ; insomuch that there could not a 
 dissenting non-conformist diffuse his sedition in any ob- 
 scure corner of the city but this Lodowick Muggleton 
 would have a part of it; by which means, continuing in 
 the same idle curiosity, and taking great observation on 
 that unknown gain many of that canting tribe got by their 
 deluded auditors, he proposed to himself a certain and 
 considerable income to be got by the same means by 
 which he had observed many of those great pretenders 
 gull both himself and others : for a rooked conventicler, 
 like a bankrupt gamester, having for some time been cul- 
 lied out of his money, learns the trick, sets up hector, and . 
 trades for himself. 
 
 *' Thus did Lodowick Muggleton, by sliding out of one 
 religion into another, so dissatisfy his judgment, and run 
 himself from the solid basis of first principles; first de- 
 generating from the Orthodox tenets of the Church of 
 England to Presbytery ; from thence to Independency ; 
 thence to Anabaptism ; thence to Quakerism ; and lastly, 
 to no religion at all." 
 
 When men have thus once fooled themselves out of re- 
 ligion and a good conscience, it is no wonder that their 
 secular interests draw them into all sorts of impiety and 
 profaneness, as it did this Lodowick Muggleton; 
 who, though, in himself, a poor, silly, despicable, crea- 
 ture, yet had the confidence to think he had parts enough 
 
28 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 to wheedle a company of silly, credulous proselytes out 
 of their souls and estates; and, indeed, he had such ad- 
 mirable success in that wicked enterprise, that, though 
 we cannot absolutely conclude that he had cheated them 
 of the first, yet it has proved, that he defrauded them 
 of the latter, as was often told him from the day of his 
 standing in the pillory. 
 
 " It has been told already how this impious impostor lay 
 claim to a counterfeit commission, whereby he has infect- 
 ed the truths of many honest ignorant people with an ex* 
 traordinary power that was delivered to him by as infa- 
 mous a blasphemer as himself, John Reeve ; who, as he 
 formerly rivalled Muggleton in impiety, had he been yet 
 living, should certainly have clubbed with him in his de- 
 served punishment. 
 
 " It is about twenty -one years since this impudent crea- 
 ture began his impostures ; who, knowing himself as de- 
 fective of reason as of religion, made it one of the grand 
 maxims of his policy that his proselytes should be fully 
 persuaded, contrary to all sense or probability. Reason 
 was that great beast, spoken of in the Revelation, and 
 consequently not to be consulted withal as to the exami- 
 ning of any fundamental point in religion; whereby he 
 secured both himself and his shallow disciples from all 
 those frequent disputations and arguments which other- 
 wise must necessarily have diverted them from adhering 
 to his damnable, impious, irrational, tenets, which I pur- 
 posely omit, as being too unsufferably profane for the 
 modest ear of any sober well-meaniug Christian. 
 
 " But we may judge a little of the theoric by the prac- 
 tic; I mean, of his principles by his practices, and of 
 
LODOWICK MUGGLETON. 29 
 
 the soundness of his doctrine by those duties he held him- 
 self and his followers obliged to in the performance of it, 
 which, ind ed, were none at all; it being his usual cus- 
 tom, when they met on th* Sabbath-day,, to entertain, 
 them with a pig of their own sow, I mean, with wine, 
 strong drink, of victuals; which either they sent in be- 
 fore-hand, or brought along with them; allowing them 
 to be as licentious as they pleased in all things that might 
 gratify or indulge their senses. 
 
 A friend of mine was one Sunday walking in the fields, 
 and, meeting there an old acquaintance of his, who was 
 lately turned Muggletonian,. with a young baggage in 
 his hand, which be did more than suspect was light, he 
 could not forbear expressing his admiration to this Mug- 
 gletonian himself in these or such like terms: f( Lcannot 
 but wonder to see you, my old neighbour, who have, for 
 these many years, busied yourself in the study of religion, 
 and was not long since like to have gone mad, because 
 you knew not which opinion4o stick to, — I say, I cannot 
 but wonder to see you abroad on the Sabbath-day, in this 
 brisk posture : you are altered in countenance, appa* 
 rel, and manners, so that I almost doubt whom I speak to/' 
 " Ahj" answered. the Muggletonian, " you know, friend, 
 how 1 have heretofore troubled myself about religion in- 
 deed ; insomuch that it had almost cost me my life; but 
 all in vain, till about six weeks siDce ; at which time I 
 met with Lodowick Mu^gleton, who has put me into the 
 easiest way to Heaven that ever was invented ; for he 
 gives us liberty, provided we do but believe in his 
 mission, freely to launch into all those pleasures which, 
 others, less knowing, call vices; and, after all, will as* 
 
 NVlO, d 
 
30 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURE?. 
 
 sure us of eternal salvation. " Behold, reader, what a 
 sweet religion here is like to be ! 
 
 But, as Muggleton was liberal in the freedom he gave 
 his adherents, so he was always careful to avoid the pro- 
 hibitions of the law; he generally appointed his bubble* 
 to meet in the fields, where he also permitted them to 
 humour their sensualities with any recreation, not ex- 
 cepting uncleanness itself; for which profaning the Sab- 
 bath he was, in Oliver Cromwell's time, committed to 
 Newgate, where he had like to have been so dealt withal 
 then, that Tyburn had saved the pillory this trouble now : 
 but that perfidious usurper, conscious to himself that Mug- 
 gleton could not be a greater impostor in the church than 
 he was in the state, upon the consideration offratres in 
 malis, restored him to his liberty. 
 
 Howbeit, a little before Oliver's death, Muggleton, by 
 continual flatteries, had got into his books, and, amongst 
 other prophecies concerning him, had declared, that Oli- 
 ver should perform more wonderful actions than any he 
 yet achieved before he died. But, he happening to de- 
 part this life before he had done any thing else that was 
 remarkable, Muggleton was demanded why his prophecy, 
 proved not true. He answered very wisely, and like 
 himself, viz. that he was sure Oliver would have perform- 
 ed them, had he lived long enough. 
 
 But since his gracious Majesty's return, he has driven, 
 on a much more profitable theological cheat; having as- 
 sumed the liberty not only of infusing what doctrine he 
 pleased iuto the minds of his ignorant dekided followers, 
 hut wrote several profane books, which, to his great ad-- 
 Tantagp, he dispersed among them; poisoning thek 
 
LODOWICK MUGGLETON. 31 
 
 minds thereby with a hodge-podge of rotten tenets, 
 whereby they are become incapable of relishing the 
 more sound, wholesome, and undoubted principles of the 
 Church of England. 
 
 I shall conclude with one story more concerning Mug- 
 gleton, atu? so leave him to the censure of the ingenuous 
 reader. A timish gentleman, accoutred with sword and 
 peruke, hearing the noise this man caused in the town, 
 had a great desire to discourse with him, whom he found 
 alone in his study ; and, taking advantage of that occa- 
 sion, he urged Muggjeton so far, that, knowing not what 
 to say, he falls to a solemn cursing of the gentleman, who 
 was so enraged thereat, that he drew his sword, and, 
 swore he would run him through immediately unless he 
 recanted the sentence of damnation, which he had pre* 
 sumptuously cast upon him. Muggleton, perceiving, 
 by the gentleman's looks, that he really intended what 
 he threatened, did not only recant his curse, but pitifully 
 intreated him whom he had cursed before ; by which we 
 may understand the invalidity both of him and his com- 
 mission. 
 
 Thus, whoever considers the contents of Muggleton's 
 whole life, will find it, in tato, nothing but a continued 
 cheat of above twenty-one years long j which,, in the ca- 
 tastrophe, he may behold worthily rewarded with the 
 modest punishment of a wooden ruf}j or pillory ; his grey 
 hairs gilded with dirt and rotten eggs; and, in fine, 
 himself brought, by reason of his own horrid and irreli- 
 gious actions, into the greatest scorn and contempt ima- 
 ginable, by all the loyers of piety, discretion, or good 
 maimers. 
 
32 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 The opinions of Muggleton and Reeves consisted in the 
 following tenets: — 
 
 That they were the two last witnesses and prophets 
 of Christ, sent by his spirit to seal the foreheads of the 
 elect and reprobate: that Christians using the sword of 
 steel,, are ignorant of Jesus, and enemies to his Gospel: 
 that the two consecrated substances- of earth and water 
 were eternally resident in the presence of God the Crea- 
 tor : that death was from all eternity: that the poison of 
 the reprobate angel, or serpent, entered into the womb 
 of Eve, and there died, but quickened in her all manner 
 of uncleanness : that there is no desire but what dwells in. 
 the body; so that the desire spoken of so often in the 
 Scripture, is man's spirit of unclean reason : that God the 
 Father was a spiritual man from eternity, and that in time 
 his spiritual body brought forth a natural body: that if 
 the very Godhead had not died, (that is, the soul of 
 Christ, which isthe eternal Father,, had not died,) all 
 men- had perished eternally: that Moses and Elijah are 
 angels, and represent the person of the Father in heaven, 
 as they did the person of the Son on earth : that Elijah, 
 was.made protector of God, when God became a child; 
 ancLthat he filled the Lord Jesus with those great revela- 
 tions of his former glory which he possessed in heaven, 
 when he was the immortal Father, and that it was Eli- 
 jah who spake these words from heaven, saying, "This 
 is my beloved S$>0, in wh m I am wel- pleased:" that 
 all the ministry in tbjs wociu, whether prophetical or mi- 
 nisterial, vvilh all the worship taught by them, is a lie,, 
 and abomination, to the Lord: with other. damnab!e,doc- 
 trines, too gross for insertion 
 
RICHARD BROTHERS. 
 
 1790— 1795. 
 
 TT HENEVER a state is convulsed by the effects in- 
 duced by contending parties, internally or externally, 
 whether it be by foreign warfare or civil irruptions, 
 the mischief has ever been assisted by the ebullitions of 
 those perturbed spirits, who, imagining themselves en- 
 dued with communications from heaven superior to 
 the fellow- creatures, have vented their nostrums of sup- 
 posed spirituality with all the impudence of the most 
 consummate quacks, and unfortunately dragged into 
 their knavish snares numbers of devotees, who did not 
 feel themselves convinced of error, till reason, in re- 
 assuming its place, had to combat with the pitying ridi- 
 cule of those, who, having used every argument to warn 
 the deluded, and rinding only obstinate resistance to their 
 well-intended endeavours, too often suffered volatility to 
 assume pre-eminence, in laughing at what they con- 
 ceived to be folly, when they should rather have re- 
 joiced that the bubble had exploded without having ac- 
 N°. 10. a 
 
HISTORY OF RELK5TOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 complished any serious mischief to its admirers. Though 
 the above remark is very justifiable, in reference to seve- 
 ral of those on whose characters and principles we have 
 dilated, we are induced to except him of whom we are 
 now about to give some account, and place him upon a 
 line with Elizabeth Barton and James Nayler, who 
 were the victims of temporary frenzy, rather than of ra- 
 dically evil tenets, and wire, indeed, would not have 
 been particularly noticed, but for the temporary mis- 
 chiefs they severally occasioned in their day. 
 
 Respecting the birth and family connections of Richard 
 Brothers, it is unnecessary to enter into particulars; suffice 
 it to say, that his family had interest sufficient to procure 
 him a station as an officer in the royal navy, in which, 
 whether he had before exhibited any symptoms of disar- 
 rangement, he fancied to himself that he ought not to 
 take the usual oaths necessarily imposed on seamen, pre- 
 viously to receiving their pay. It is evident what the 
 Board of Admiralty thought of him and his applica- 
 tion, by what he relates himself of their and his con- 
 duct on the occasion :—■ 
 
 « I was an officer in the English navy," says he, 
 "and necessarily so, although I did not know it, that 
 the judgment of God on David, king of Israel, might be 
 fulfilled, which was, that the sword should never depart 
 
 from his house. 
 
 « I am the prophet that will be revealed to the Jews, 
 to order their departure from all nations to go to the land 
 <of Israel, their own country, in a similar manner to Mo- 
 ses in Egypt, but with additional power. 
 
 « Therefore, my present poverty is no obstacle to my 
 
RICHARD BROTHERS. 
 
 future elevation, neither is it of much concern to myself; 
 for the time of my being revealed with power from hea- 
 ven is nigh, when God, to manifest his regard, will give 
 me favour with many, and influence all the people of 
 London to help me," Revealed Knowledge, Part I. 
 p. 54.. 
 
 We think it right again to let our readers form their 
 opinions of this afflicted lunatic from his own words : — 
 
 •• In the year 1790, the spirit of God begun first, al- 
 though I always had a presentiment of being some time or 
 other very great, to enlighten my understanding, and 
 teach me to distinguish Right from Wrong. At thai 
 time I was an officer in the Navy, and considering that 
 VOLUNTARY SWEARING, which I was obliged to 
 comply with every six months as a qualification to re- 
 ceive my pay, was unnecessary, unjust, and wicked, I 
 requested to be indulged with permission to receive it, 
 without, stating at the same time the concealed and un- 
 heeded cruelty of the oath, with my own reasons for ob- 
 jecting to the form: when I was told, in answer to my 
 request, that there was an ORDER of COUNCIL to 
 take the oath, and that it was not in the power of the 
 Admiralty to dispense with it. 
 
 '* Soon after this I made another request, supporting 
 my objections to, VOLUNTARY SWEARING, with : 
 observing. That, if the Order of Council enforced an 
 oath in any manner, or under any form whatever, and 
 that the man it was directed to operate on swore that h& 
 was not forced, but that the Oath he took was a volun- 
 tary act— the result of his own free will,— would it not, 
 in the sight of GOD in Heaven, and every man of dis- ., 
 
HISTORY CP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 ccmroent under him on earth, amount to a FALSE 
 
 OATH ? 
 
 « These reasons with these objections, and the Letter 
 1 received from the Admiralty, stating their insufficient 
 power to dispense with the usual form of swearing, I 
 published at that time in the Newspaper called the Pub- 
 lic Advertiser, 
 
 " During the time of my writing officially to the Ad- 
 miralty, I had occasion to write also to the President, 
 whom I knew to be a member of the Council. With the 
 business of swearing, which led me to make an applica- 
 tion, I remarked to him, that as men, whether few in 
 number, or the increased multitude of a senate, were 
 »ot infallible, they must consequently be subject to error. 
 To corroborate more forcibly this assertion, and likewise 
 to impress a conviction of its justice, I mentioned, among 
 o-ber'thins*. a decision of the Privy Council, relative to 
 a native of Glasgow, who had his ship seized in the West 
 Indies for an undesigned infringement of the Navigation 
 
 Act 
 
 "After a legal investigation in that country, it was 
 clearly proved, and openly acknowledged, that, although 
 the apparent defect in the REGISTER might authonze 
 the seizure, itconld not justify a condemnation; because 
 the commander, like an honest man, shewed it at the 
 Custom-House, and received the approbation of the pnn- 
 
 pal officer. . - ' 
 
 •• An appeal was lodged against this acquittal by the 
 seizing officer in the West Indies, and brought before 
 the Privy Council in England.-The ship was con- 
 demnedt 
 
RICHARD BROTHERS. 
 
 « To constitute a HIGH COURT of EQUITY, its 
 members, to pronounce their judgment agreeable to that 
 very name their existence as a court is derived from, 
 must be governed more by the intention than the pre- 
 sumptive proof. But to constitute a COURT of LAW, 
 its judges must be directed by the express letter of the 
 act of parliament under which they officiate. 
 
 "For example, two men go into a forest; while the 
 one is fetching a blow to cut down a tree, the axe flies 
 from the handle and kills the other: here is a presump- 
 tive proof of murder, and the law very justly brings the 
 survivor to trial. But equity, viewing this circum- 
 stance in a proper light, declares the innocence, and ac- 
 quits accordingly. 
 
 «« Another, and more revelant to the seizure. A man 
 buys a stamp to legalize a bond for the better security of 
 trading with his money; or, in plainer language* lend- 
 ing it on interest: to be certain that this stamp is war- 
 rantably just, according to the prescribed forms of law, he 
 shews it at the Stamp-Office, where it is acknowledged to 
 be good and safe: after this, in consequence of some de- 
 fect, it is declared to be illegal, and the holder subjected 
 to a penalty, 
 
 " I believe every man on earth, that has the common 
 faculty of distinguishing white from black, will agree 
 with me in saying, that it would be repugnant to equity 
 to fine the holder for a defect that he had no knowledge 
 of as such, and for what was authorised by the very office 
 of government that always issued the stamps. 
 
 " The, law supposes criminality from the appearance; 
 but equity measures it from the design. The one is ex- 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES* 
 
 ternal and visible, provided many years before it may be 
 wanted: the other is internal and spiritual, always alive 
 in the heart of every judge that possesses prudence, learn- 
 ing, and penetration, 
 
 "When I was writing of these things to the Earl of 
 Chatham, on my knees I made a solemn vow to the Al- 
 mighty God, declaring, that if he would be pleased to 
 enable me, I would most surely procure an indemnifica- 
 tion for the poor man that lost his ship. Since that time 
 the Lord God has told me by revelation at night, ■ That 
 he would most truly enable me: for if I liked, I should 
 be made President of the Council, and Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer: I should have any thing that I required.' 
 Immediately after this I heard another voice from Hea- 
 ven say, The Lord have mercy on them if they had not 
 you for their friend and counsellor; for England is the 
 spiritual Egypt mentioned in the 11th chapter of the 
 Revelation to St. John.. 
 
 " After making the numerous representations I have 
 mentioned, the Earl of Chatham, with great propriety, 
 acknowledged their justice so far as to erase the word 
 voluntary from the prescribed form of swearing: but I 
 was then reminded of the words of Christ, in the fifth 
 chapter, 34th verse, of St. Matthew, and strictly com- 
 manded to obey them. Soon after this I requested from 
 the Admiralty, and often repeated it, a dispensing order 
 that I might receive my pay without an oath; but they 
 would not grant it. 
 
 " Jf the I£arl of Chatham had shewn me the small fa- 
 vour I asked for, and certainly it would have been but a 
 very small one to him, he should be held up to the world 
 
RICHARD BROTHERS. 
 
 as my friend, to be admired and regarded ; he should 
 wear such a durable coronet as would make him the envy 
 of princes; it should be a coronet that no human power 
 would ever be able to remove. 
 
 " As the Admiralty would not give me that reasonable 
 indulgence I requested, as they would not shew me that 
 kindness which as men living by the navy they might 
 have done with ease, and without prejudice to their dig- 
 nity, I wanted for a bit of bread to eat: I was besides, 
 treated so ill, as to be dragged to a workhouse, without 
 any legal authority, against every remonstrance I could 
 make, and against every threat I could make use of to 
 call them to a strict account for the injustice. The Ad- 
 miralty knew all this: they might have prevented it, by 
 ordering what was due to me to be paid ; but they would 
 neither prevent the evil, nor enable me to be liberated : 
 they would not order the payment of what was due, until 
 open falsehood was made use of to say I was out of my 
 senses. It seemed as if they were under some private 
 apprehension, though pleased with my distress, of being 
 charged one day or other in the eyes of their country 
 with unfeeling cruelty, and wanted some colourable evi- 
 dence to justify the proceeding. 
 
 " Hear, therefore, all nations, and be warned by it, 
 what the Lord God has told me by revelation, and now 
 commands me to write, that the injuries I received, be- 
 cause done- for obeying his Word in the blessed Gospel, 
 the remembrance of them should never be blotted out 
 from the throne of Heaven. Moreover, he said likewise; 
 * That he would shake the English Admiralty as a man 
 would violently bread in a basket, until he loosed 
 
HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS TMrOSTURES. 
 
 the foundations of the earth, and shook the place in 
 pieces.* 
 
 u If I am out of my senses in the opinion of the Admi- 
 ralty for refusing, first, to take an idle oath ; secondly, a 
 false one ; and, thirdly, to take any : CHRIST, the Sa- 
 viour of the world, and him that Isaiah the prophet calls 
 WONDERFUL COUNSELLOR, who prohibits by his 
 Gospel, in the strongest terms, all kinds of swearing, must, 
 by the same rale of knowledge, for giving such a com- 
 mand, be out of his. 
 
 ** As the Quakers never swear, and their objections to 
 it are sanctioned by a just indulgence of law ; they, the 
 King and Parliament, for giving the indulgence, must, for 
 the same reason as I am, be out of theirs. 
 
 " CHRIST having been abused at Jerusalem, reproach- 
 ed with having a devil, being mad, and out of his senses, 
 makes it the less astonishing for me, who am his servant, 
 to be reviled in the same manner. For which the LORD 
 God commands me to remind all men from the testi- 
 mony of his blessed Gospel, that the sin is blasphemy 
 against his Holy Spirit, and that the punishment is ever- 
 lasting fire. 
 
 " It is from visions and revelations, and through the Holy 
 Ghost, that I write this book for the benefit of all men : 
 therefore, to say it is false, that I am mad, am an impos- 
 tor, have a devil, or am out of my senses, constitutes the 
 dangerous sin of blasphemy/' 
 
 From this period it is evident that the perverted ima- 
 gination of Mr. Brothers assumed its full caprice ; but his 
 eccentricities did not appear in the public prints till 
 1794, when a pamphlet was announced with the follow- 
 
RICHARD BROTHERS. 
 
 ing title and preface: "A Revealed Knowledge of the 
 Prophecks and Times. Book the First. Wrote under the 
 direction of the LORD GOD, and published by his sacred 
 command; it being the first sign of warning for the 
 benefit of all Nations. Containing, with other great and 
 remarkable Things, not revealed to any other Person on. 
 Earth, the Restoration of the Hebrews to Jerusalem, by 
 the Year 1798, under the revealed Prince and Prophet. 
 London : Printed in the Year of Christ, 1794." 
 
 The poor man, whose mind, under its pitiable malady, 
 really presumed upon its imaginary authority, now took 
 upon himself not only to lead the Israelites to the pro- 
 mised land, but to denounce the government of England 
 and the city of London with the most dreadful anathemas; 
 and to threaten the utter destruction of the whole, with the 
 exception of some few that Mr» Brothers had interceded 
 for with his UNCLE, for no particular merit of their own, 
 as he confesses; but because it was necessary that they 
 should be saved from the general wreck. 
 
 <* The Lord God was so exceeding angry at the time of 
 the loud thunder I have mentioned in the preceding 
 part, (the beginning of January 7, 179 I J that he deter- 
 mined to leave his other judgments unfulfilled relative to 
 London, and burn her immediately with fire from Hea- 
 ven : soon afterwards I was informed by revelation of 
 what the thunder meant, and was commanded to go from 
 London beyond the distance of eighteen miles, I had, 
 timifor to the prophet Daniel at Babylon, an attending 
 angel to explain all the visions, and support me under 
 the grief I was loaded with for its approaching fall. 
 
 '« The Lord God, knowing that I loved him with all 
 JS*. 10 e 
 
10 HISTORY Of RELIGIOUS iMPOSTUUES. 
 
 — " ' ' • ""■*- 
 
 my heart, and had often resisted the calls of hunger and 
 distress, rather than comply with customs that would 
 offend him, pitied me ; for I had beseeched him to let me 
 inform the people of London of their danger, and try by 
 all possible means to save them; but was refused per- 
 mission, because they would imprison and use me very 
 ill for it. 
 
 "In addition to all that God had promised and re- 
 peated by his angel to make me happy, he was now 
 pleased to give me another proof of his unalterable re- 
 gard, and convince me by it, that, although he could not 
 in justice to his recorded judgment spare London, yet, 
 for my sake he would shew mercy to some ; and take 
 care, by sickness and other causes, to remove the persons 
 I desired should be saved, to a sufficient distance beyond 
 the limits to be destroyed and sunk. 
 
 " After thanking the Lord God, I mentioned several, 
 both men and women, and called the remembrance of his 
 mercy to others whose names I did not know, but pointed 
 them out in my mind. 
 
 •* Among those I mentioned, was William Pulteney, 
 William Pitt, Gilbert Elliot, Charles Grey, the Earl of 
 Buckinghamshire, the Marquis of Lansdovvn, the Earl of 
 Chatham, Maitland, now called Earl of Lauderdale; 
 Henry Phipp3, for I remembered his brother to have 
 done me an act of friendship ; John Dalrymple, John 
 Griffin Griffin, Alderman Pickett, because that during 
 his mayoralty he opposed by a public advertisement the 
 frequency of taking oaths; in doing so he honoured that 
 all-remembering God, who will in due time as publicly 
 honour him for it. Wilberforce, Bastard, Sheridan, 
 
RICHARD BROTHERS. II 
 
 Philip Stevens, Charles Fox; John Luke, a poor Quaker; 
 Samuel Hood ; the King and his family, for they were to 
 be gathered into London ; Ponsonby, for whom 1 con- 
 ceived an esteem, from observing in his countenance 
 openness and honesty, and possessing, as I thought, a 
 a heart similar to my own, I was led to intreat for him : 
 until last year I could assign no other reason for mention- 
 ing that name than what I have given; but the true one 
 is, that as God had determined not only to keep in Lon- 
 don the people then in it, but likewise to allow great 
 multitudes to be drawn to it from all parfs of the country 
 he would be found among the number to be destroyed ; 
 for which, to prevent his death in such a place, the Lord 
 God influenced me to regard him, that I might after- 
 wards remember such a person and be mindful of his 
 safety. 
 
 M I am not in the least acquainted with the man I have 
 mentioned, whom God was pleased to distinguish by so 
 great a testimony of his regard, but although I am not, 
 and our names are different, he is, as well as myself, de- 
 scended from DAVID, KING OF ISPtAEL. The 
 Countess of Buckinghamshire, whom I am no more 
 acquainted with than the stranger I mentioned before, 
 is likewise descended from David, King of Israel ; the 
 family she is married into are also of the Hebrews, and 
 are descended from JOSEPH, the once PRESIDENT OF 
 EGYPT. 
 
 " There are many families of the same origin as those 
 three I have named, made known to me by revelation, 
 but I am forbid to mention any of them at present, for 
 public knowledge. 
 
12 HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 " After entreating for the persons I have set down, 
 and pointing from my mind to numbers besides whose 
 names I did not know, I was, to prepare me for the de- 
 signation of God, carried up to Heaven in a vision, and 
 saw on my right side at a small distance, a beautiful 
 silver white bird in the shape of a Dove, but a little 
 larger; it was the HOLY GHOST, and was the very 
 same that descended on the head of my BLESSED SA- 
 VIOUR, when he came up from being baptized in the 
 river Jordan ; he kept between me and Satan, who was 
 then revealed that I might witness it, and great power 
 given him to visit the earth. The LORD GOD then 
 spoke to me from the middle of a white shirring cloud. 
 
 " After this I was in a vision, having the Angel of God 
 near me, and saw Satan walking leisurely into London; 
 his face had a smile, but under it his looks were sly, 
 crafty, and deceitful. On the right side of his forehead 
 were seven dark spots ; he was dressed in white and scar- 
 
 let robes. 
 
 « f Again I was in a vision and saw London a scene of 
 • confusion; it was effected on a sudden; all the people 
 were armed and appeared quite furious : I was carried 
 through the city in the Spirit of God to see all things 
 that were designed should come to pass, and be informed 
 how quick they could be accomplished, 
 
 " After this I was in a vision, and saw a large river run 
 through London coloured with human blood. 
 
 "Exceedingly unhappy for all that I saw, and which I 
 knew would soon be fulfilled ; I prayed and entreated the 
 Lord God to give me one more instance of his mighty 
 regard, hy sparing London and the great multitude in it. 
 
RICHARD BROTHERS. 
 
 13 
 
 I said, I acknowledge, O Lord my God, that the people 
 do very wrong, but it is through compulsion and for want 
 of knowing better. 
 
 "The Lord God was so highly displeased, that I should, 
 after all his former kindness, strain his affection and en- 
 treat him to annul his recorded judgment, as to stop me, 
 and in a voice of great sharpness and anger sayi — They 
 have my blessed Gospel, and will not obey it. The angel 
 that was appointed to give me instruction, forsook me in 
 an instant on hearing this answer. I trembled for my 
 life, and seemed to be another man.; for I was afraid of 
 being destroyed with the city. It was three days after 
 this before the Lord would be reconciled to hear my 
 prayers, and speak to me with his former kindness. 
 m " In ten days after the three I was in a vision, and 
 being carried up to Heaven, the Lord God spoke to me 
 from the middle of a large white cloud, and said in a 
 strong clear voice — ALL, , ALL. I pardon London and 
 all the people in it, for your sake : there is no other maa 
 on earth that could stand before, me. to ask for so great 
 a thing. 
 
 ** For ever, Lord my God, J will praise and thank 
 you for this great instance of your blessed regard ; all 
 nations will hear it, and may all nations honour you by 
 their obedience ; your great mercy is over them all, and 
 by its goodness the world is now safe. 
 
 " Had London been destroyed in the year of 1791, tbe 
 place where it stands would have formed a great bay or 
 inJet of the Channel : all the land between Windsor and 
 the Downs would, have been sunk, including a distance of 
 eighteen miles each side, but considerably more towards 
 
 E 3 
 
14 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES, 
 
 the sea coast ; it would be sunk to the depth of seventy 
 fathoms, or four hundred and twenty feet, that no traces 
 of the City might be ever found, or even so much as 
 looked for," 
 
 As the spirit of this poor man became more inflated, 
 the effects of that inflation were sufficiently evinced by 
 the threatened vengeance which he ultimately began to 
 fulminate against all the powers of the world ; but to 
 shew, at the same time, his wish in favour of the safety of 
 the King and Government of his own country, and his 
 influence with his Almighty Uncle to accomplish it, he 
 declared his .power and inclination in various instances. 
 
 " I wish well to the KING and QUEEN, and like- 
 wise their FAMILY : to know all that I have related 
 and more than I am permitted to tell, to know the 
 unavoidable death of him, and afterwards the certain 
 destruction of an amiable woman and her children, 
 would, I thought, be a crime to reproach for ever 
 the feelings of my heart, if I did not implore, when 
 I knew the great kindness that God had for me, and 
 endeavour, by all the means in my power, to pre- 
 vent it. 
 
 " But in doing this I have subjected myself to the 
 power of human laws, when indeed I had the choice 
 to make them subject to me: for if I had not become 
 an intercessor by prayer and supplication for the people 
 I live among, I should have been sent awayjrora 
 London. Its fall would soon after take place, and then 
 my revelation, as the next great thing to warn the 
 world, would immediately succeed : but preferring its 
 safety to my own immediate advantage, tlthough in- 
 
RICHARD BROTHERS. 
 
 formed at the time that the people would not believe, 
 that I should be despised and made suffer, I obtained its 
 pardon at the risk of my own life, and determined to 
 remain in it until my time to be revealed was entirely 
 completed. 
 
 "I find, yes, I feel by dreadful experience, that ail 
 men are insensible to the consequences of those judg- 
 ments recorded in the Scripture, and are also exceed- 
 ingly hardened against believing their true interpre- 
 tation and time to be fulfilled. That I have suffered 
 by imprisonment and distress, more than is proper now 
 to publish, for entreating, when I was told that my en- 
 treaties were contrary to the Prophecies, to save the 
 King and his Family, London and its inhabitants, from 
 recorded destruction ; God, who is more generous to 
 give mercy than man is grateful to believe and ac- 
 cept it, is by all this revealed knowledge of his pro- 
 phecies my witness now, and will in due time, in a 
 short time, be additionally so by terrible signs and 
 mighty wonders*" 
 
 It is surprising that the effervescence of this insane vi- 
 sionary's wanderings should have attracted the counte- 
 nance and patronage, not only of persons in high repute 
 for their mental accomplishments, but that some of the 
 Senators in the House of Commons should attempt to 
 divert the attention of the House from the contemplation 
 of the most serious matters for the genuine safety of the 
 realm, to attend to the vagrant fancies of -Mr. Brothers ! 
 Yet, strange to tell, Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, Esq. made 
 a motion in the House in favour of Mr. B rot hers' sup- 
 posed minion ; and it was a pitiable circumstance, that 
 
\Q HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 some of the most worthy and intelligent Members ex- 
 pressed themselves, as though they were convinced that 
 the vagaries of Mr. Brothers' disordered brain, were the 
 evanescent blessings of the Divinity ; but the motion met 
 its merited fate, a mark of compassionate negligence. 
 
 Mr. Halhed, however, distinguished himself in another 
 manner in favour of the Prophecies of Mr. Brothers. He 
 published Testimony of the Authenticity of the Prophecies 
 of Richard Brothers, and of his Mission to recall the 
 Jews. By Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, M.P. 1795. 
 He also permitted the following to precede his pamphlet : 
 
 >' To Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, Esq. Member of Par- 
 liawent, Pall Mali. 
 
 " In obedience to the sacred command of the Lord God, 
 whose servant and prophet lam, I inform you, that you 
 are descended from his ancient people the Hebrews, of 
 the tribe of Judah, and of the family of David, King of 
 Israel. His sacred commands delivered to me by revela- 
 tion for you* arc, That you publish and declare to the 
 worJd in writing, without the least fear of any human 
 p.ower whatever, that the revealed knowledge of his judg- 
 ments given tome, and published by his sacred command 
 in two books (called A Revealed Knowledge of the Pro- 
 vhecies and Times,) for the information, warning, and 
 benefit of all nation?, is from him the Lord God, and is 
 true. 
 
 " I am likewise commanded to say to you, Write and 
 publish, according to the light, wisdom, and understand- 
 ing, which the Lord my God gives you by his blessed 
 
RICHARD BROTHERS. 
 
 Spirit ; by the mighty power of which you was converted 
 to the full knowledge of his word, and convinced that I 
 
 am his prophet. 
 
 "lam likewise commanded to say to you, when your 
 
 testimony of the judgments of God, and of me the Prince 
 of his People, is wrote and published, you are directed 
 by his sacred command to send printed copies to the 
 King of England, his Queen, and Family ; all the Mem- 
 bers of both houses of parliament; thejudges, and all fo- 
 reign ambassadors; the mayor and all the aldermen of 
 
 London, 
 
 '« I am likewise directed by the Lord my God to in- 
 form you, that his command to you is, that you publish 
 this letter, containing his directions, with your own Tes- 
 
 tim0nyf RICHARD BROTHERS," 
 
 The man that will be revealed to the Hebrews 
 as their prince, to all nations as their go- 
 vernor, according to the covenant to king 
 David, immediately undettJo^ 
 
 London, No, 5T, Paddington- 
 8treet,28th of the month called 
 January % 1795. 
 
 It is with regret that in the eighteenth century such a 
 document should appear; more especially from a gentle- 
 man, a scholar, and one of high mental abilities! 
 
 Such testimonies, such notions, pampered the ideas of 
 poor Brothers. He imagined himself so much a favourite 
 with heaven, that his very thoughts were to be consi* 
 
13 
 
 HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 ifcmJ as mandates upon earth. He began, therefore, to 
 interfere with the political concerns of the country, which 
 bad suffered his illusions to be abrogated without that 
 magisterial interposition, which the legal constitution of 
 that country had for ages suggested to check. The pro- 
 phet thundered now against the British jurisdiction in 
 the most unreserved manner : 
 
 " The Lord God commands me to say, for the informa- 
 tion of the English government, the judges, and all 
 men, that the prisoners now in confinement, and on trial 
 for their lives, charged with the crime of high treason 
 against the life of the king of England, are innocent: as 
 such, he requires me to make known to the king his sa-« 
 cred commands in writing, and to publish this for the 
 knowledge of all. 
 
 " The Lord God commands me to inform, through this 
 book, all that honour him— his servants — the peaceable 
 and righteous in all nations, which have had their pro- 
 perty, whether in land or money, confiscated, for no 
 other reason than because the nation they belonged to de- 
 clared war against the nation tbey lived in^-alJ such pro* 
 perty> or its full value, with reasonable interest for the 
 time B shall most surely be restored. 
 
 " And you Peter Woulfe, one of the Avignon So- 
 ciety, whom the Lord my God commands me to mention 
 here by name, as a testimony of his great regard, your 
 properry, confiscated in France, will all be restored with 
 interest, and much kindness shewn to you by the raem- 
 bersof its government: they will restore the property of 
 every other peaceable individual likewise. ^-By the same 
 
RICHARD BROTHERS. 19 
 
 divine rule of justice, Spain, England, Prussia, Germa- 
 ny, Holland, and all the other nations of Europe, must 
 restore theirs : for the time of the world is just now come, 
 and God is firmly determined to manifest his mighty 
 power for the preservation of his people and saints, by 
 fulfilling by me his words in the eleventh chapter of 
 Isaiah, a part of which are, But with righteousness he 
 will judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek 
 of the earth ; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of 
 his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay 
 
 the wicked* 
 
 RICHARD BROTHERS." 
 
 London, No. 57, Paddington'Street, 
 26th of the month called Oct. 1794. 
 
 The publication of this document, induced the govern- 
 ment to come to some strict measures; and the members 
 of it at last contemplated, that though they had been 
 guided by prudence to suffer the erratic conceptions of 
 Mr. Brothers's lunacy to pass unnoticed, as personally 
 harmless, yet, when they discovered the bent to which 
 those conceptions were aiming, it was thought highly 
 necessary that their career should be stopped. Conse- 
 quently, an order of council was issued to apprehend Mr. 
 Brothers, when, after an examination had taken place, 
 it was thought proper to provide for him a lunatic asy- 
 lum at Islington, where, we haye heard, that discipline, 
 and medical attention, have produced a restoration of the 
 faculties to this man, who, with the return of his reason, 
 has evinced his good sense, by retracting all his former 
 
20 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 opinions* and by his sorrow for their effect ; a true 
 standard of virtuous principle, however it may have been 
 accidentally misled. 
 
 We cannot, however, suppress our indignation* not 
 pity, that there should exist, at the present day, such 
 extravagant notions, certainly promulgated with no good 
 impulse, professedly attached to the opinions of Mr. 
 Brothers's disordered mind, and for which it appears he 
 expresses his unfeigned sorrow. There is this vast dif- 
 ference : Mr. Brothers accumulated no emolument. His 
 pretended imitators have profited by his simplicity ; for, 
 on the contrary, their net is spread to receive all the pro* 
 fitable things that come ! 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 21 
 
 JOAN OP ARC. 
 
 At Dom-Remy, in the year 1429, near the banks of 
 the Maese, lived a country girl of seventeen, called 
 Joan d'Arc. She was born of poor but honest parents, 
 who had given her an education comfortable to her si- 
 tuation in life. Joan, from her infancy, had been taught 
 to hold in detestation the English name; and the ravages 
 of war, which she saw extended even to her father's cot- 
 tage, increased the abhorrence which had been early 
 instilled into her infant mind. At thirteen she fancied 
 she saw visions, and conversed with Saint Michael, Sainfc 
 Margaret, and Saint Catherine, who assured her that she 
 had been appointed by God to expel the English from 
 France, and to place the crown on the head of the dau- 
 phin. The rural life, to which she had been ever accus- 
 tomed, had given additional vigour to a habit of body 
 by nature robust, and strength to a mind that was na- 
 turally pure and intrepid. She had the external figure 
 of a woman, but was exempt from all those infirmities 
 which characterize the weakness of her sex. 
 
 Pressed more and more by that secret impulse which 
 urged her to arm in defence of her king and country, 
 she presented herself three times to the governor Vau- 
 couleurs, who, tired with her incessant solicitation, and 
 believing her bewitched, wished to have her exorcised 
 by the curate of the parish. She maintained, however^ 
 the truth of her mission ; and, in order to convince Bau- 
 dricourt, assured him that the royalists had just sustained 
 a defeat near Orleans. — he account of the battle of the 
 Herrings, which arrived soon after, staggered the go* 
 
 No. 11. ? 
 
22 - HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 V - i ' ' i " i i i i " - T 1 
 
 vernor; Joan's revelations henceforth mn \ith general 
 credit, and she was regarded by the whole country as a 
 preternatural instrument of Providence. Having sur- 
 mounted this difficulty, she was furnished with a suit 
 of complete armour; and two gentlemen, with their ser- 
 vants, were appointed to accompany her to court, where, 
 though Charles had divested himself of every sign of 
 royalty, she pointed him out from all his courtiers. Her 
 patriotic address to the King, upon the object of her mis- 
 sion, made converts of all present. The King gave pub- 
 licity to the divine nature of her call, and it was consi- 
 dered celestial in an assembly of doctors and theologians. 
 The parliament at Poictiers were more scrupulous, and 
 wanted he display of some miracle, but she bid them at- 
 tend her to Orleans where they should be fully satisfied; 
 and then, with an air of confidence, declared that the 
 English should raise the siege of Orleans; that the King 
 should be crowned at Rheims; that Paris should be re- 
 stored to Charles, and the English be expelled the king- 
 dom. — Her mission was to end at Rheims and Orleans ; 
 The nation being now prepared for her public capacity, 
 she was armed cap-a-pie, mounted on a stately courser, 
 and exposed to the sight of the people, wielding a 
 sword that was found behind the great altar of Saint 
 Catherine de Ferbois, miraculously placed there. 
 
 Such was the superstitious timidity of those days, that 
 the English, hitherto fearless, felt a panic at the idea of 
 fighting against heaven. Orleans had been invested se- 
 ven months by the English, when Joan, having formed 
 the priests of the town into a battalion, marched at their 
 head, accompanied by the troops, to relieve it. On 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 23 
 
 ■ - jmam 
 
 horseback she directed the movements of the soldiers, 
 and, with her consecrated banner, beat the English, 
 and succoured the town. After various conQicts, the 
 Earl of Suffolk, having lost 6000 of his best troops, 
 raised the siege. Though wounded, she went to inform 
 the King of her success, when it was determined to drive 
 the English out of Champagne. At the siege of Jargeau, 
 a stone struck her on the head, as she was mounting the 
 breach with her banner. Recovering herself, however, 
 she encouraged her comrades, and the place was taken. 
 Meun and Beaugency next fell, and a grand battle was 
 fought at the village of Patay, near Yenville. The 
 English were signally defeated, and the maid now pro- 
 posed the bold measure of marching to Rheims, though 
 near 80 leagues distant, and in possession of the enemy. 
 Having with much difficulty collected an army, and ar- 
 rived at Troves, Joan undertook the whole arrangement 
 }f the desperate assault. The garrison were panic-struck, 
 ind Charles entered the town in triumph. Challons next 
 ell, and then Rheims, where Charles was crowned, the 
 naid standing at his side in complete armour. When 
 t.e ceremony was finished, she begged leave to return 
 h»me, but he requested her to stay with the army. 
 
 Various places now submitted to Charles, while the 
 Dke of Bedford did all he could to counteract him. — 
 Tro days at Monpilloi did the armies remain in sight of 
 eah other; at length the English retired to Paris, and 
 th(King to Compeigne. Soon after Charles sat down be- 
 for Paris, but the attack was not successful, 'and Joan 
 wadangerously wounded in the thigh." This brought 
 on truce for the provinces of Picardy, Artois, Cham- 
 
HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 pagne, and Burgundy. After taking St. Pierre-le-Mou- 
 tier, Charles granted a patent of nobility to Joan and her 
 three brothers. Various towns were taken and besieged 
 by either party, until the maid, in an attack on the post 
 of Marigny, was compelled to retreat to the town, when 
 justas the last ranks had passed the barriers, an English 
 archer attacked the maid, pulled her from her horse, and 
 she surrendered herself prisoner. In the year 11-31 the 
 unhappy and heroic maid of Orleans was doomed to fall 
 the victim of a barbarous age. She was brought to Rouen, 
 loaded with chains, February 21, and, after numberless 
 meetings of the Doctors, Judges, and Theologians, to 
 all whose perplexing questions she answered with great 
 firmness and ability, she was condemned, on the 24th of 
 May, to pass her days in prison with no other food than 
 bread and water, and forbidden to wear man's clothes any* 
 more; but her own clothes being taken in the night, 
 and man's apparel laid in their place, she was, from a 
 call of nature, obliged to put them on. This re-assuming 
 of male attire was fatal; she was delivered over to the 
 secular arm, and burnt in the Old Market Place, as '< 
 blasphemer, an apostate, and a heretic! Thus misera 
 bly perished the unfortunate Maid of Orleans. If sh 
 possessed fanaticism, it was of the noblest kind : hr 
 courage and humanity were equally conspicuous: hr 
 trial was a mockery of justice, and her fate a disgrace o 
 the English name. — Posterity have done her justice, ad 
 in 1456 her sentence was pronounced cruel and unjut. 
 A cross was erected to her memory on the spot where ae 
 suffered, and the spirit of the maid hovered over the ams 
 of the French till they drove the English totally ouof 
 France. _____ 
 
MAHOMET. 25 
 
 MAHOMET. 
 
 Mahomet (or according to the true pronunciation of 
 the word Mohammed,) was born at Mecca, a city of Ara- 
 bia, of the tribe of the Korashites, which was reckoned 
 the noblest in all that country. After his father's death, 
 he continued under the tuition of his mother till the eighth 
 year of his age ; when she also dying, he was taken home 
 to his grandfather, Abdal Motallah, who, at his death, 
 which happened the next year after, committed him to 
 the care of his Uncle, Abu Taleb, a rich and powerful 
 man in Mecca, to be educated by him out of charity, 
 Taleb, carried on a trade of merchandize, took him into 
 his employment, and bred him up in the business of it; 
 and, as soon as he was of fit age, he was sent with the 
 camels into Syria. 
 
 Till the twenty-fifth year of his age, he continued in 
 this employment under his Uncle; but then one of the 
 chief men of the city dying, and his widow, whose name 
 was Cadigha (to whom he left all his stock, which was 
 of considerable value) wanting a factor to manage it for 
 her, she invited Mahomet into her service; and he so 
 far insinuated himself into her favour and good opinion, 
 that about the 28th year of his age, she gave herself 
 to him in marriage, being then 4-0 years old. 
 
 In the 38th year of his age he withdrew himself from 
 his former connexions, and affecting an hermetical life, 
 used every morning to withdraw himself into a solitary 
 cave near Mecca, called the cave of Hira, and there con- 
 tinue all day, exercising himself, as he pretended, in 
 fastings, prayers, and holy meditations. Having, after 
 
26 HISTORY OP RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 some difficulty convinced his wife of hisprophetic mission, 
 in the 40th year of his age he began to take upon him 
 the stile of the apostle of God ; but for four years he did 
 it only in private among such as he had most confidence 
 in, confidentially insinuating his delusions unto them. His 
 first Proselyte, as has been said, was Cadigha, his wife; 
 his second was Zayd Ebn Hareth his servant; and the 
 third his cousin Ali, the son of Abu Taleb his Uncle ; 
 and the fourth Abu Beker, a very rich and wise man. 
 To these he added five others, who afterwards became 
 his chief generals, and the instruments of his imposture. 
 In the 44th year of his age he openly declared himself 
 a prophet, said he was come to abolish all idol worship, 
 and substitute that of Adam, Abraham, and Ishmael. 
 He allowed the Old and New Testaments, but said the 
 Jews and Christians had corrupted the holy writings. 
 He denied the Trinity, said he received all his commu- 
 nications from the Angel Gabriel, and these always 
 when he was in a trance. Part of his Alcoran 
 was published at Mecca before his flight, and the other 
 part at Medina, being deposited in a chest, the care of 
 which was given to Haphsa, one of his wives, and the 
 whole was afterwards published by Abu Beker, to coun- 
 teractthe Alcoran of another impostor, who, in the last 
 year of Mahomet, stood out for a true prophet also. His 
 paradise was entirely sensual and voluptuous. The pains 
 of hell he denounced on unbelievers, notwithstanding 
 which, his stories were called fables, and the doubting 
 people demanded a confirmation by miracles, as in the 
 case of Moses and Christ. These he always maintained 
 were useless, as these two great prophets before4iim had 
 
MAHOMET. 27 
 
 experienced. Several absurd miracles are attributed to 
 Othman, a man of letters, and secretary to the Impostor, 
 Mahomet being illiterate, and much indebted to a Jew 
 and a Monk for his knowledge of the Bible revelation, 
 who with him contrived the Alcoran in his house. In the 
 8th year of the prophet's mission, the city of Mecca, after 
 the death of his Uncle Abu Taleb, opposed him and his 
 disciples; but, awaiting the proper opportunity to 
 strengthen his designs by marriage, upon the decease of 
 Cadigha, who had lived with him 22 years, he united 
 himself to Ayesha, the daughter of Abu Beker; to 
 Sewda, daughter of Zama, and some time after to Haphsa, 
 daughter of Omar; and thus became son-in-law to the 
 greatest men of his party. In the twelfth year of his 
 mission, he took his Mesra, or famous journey to heaven on 
 the beast Alborak, and saw the throne of God. After pub- 
 lishing this fiction, the chief men of Mecca determined to 
 cut him off, but he and his followers escaped with Abu 
 Beker and Ali, to Yathreb, a city 270 miles from Mecca, 
 where a strong party of his friends had invited him! 
 Here he built a house, and changed the name of the city 
 to that of Medina, which signifies the " City of the Pro- 
 phet." The flight is called Hegira, and the Mahometan 
 years are dated from the time of his arrival, which was 
 on the 24th of September, A. D. 622. 
 
 Having married his daughter Fatima to his cousin Ali, 
 and thinking his party sufficiently powerful, he declared 
 his intention of enforcing the truth of his mission by the 
 sword. He accordingly raised his standard, and after an 
 obstinate battle, plundered a rich caravan going from 
 Mecca to Syria. His next injunction was to all his fol- 
 
28 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IMPOSTURES. 
 
 ....■■— ■*■ , ,., -i,. , ■ , — ■ , . . , « ~- - i _ 
 
 lowers when they prayed, to turn their faces towards 
 Mecca, as there was the Caaba, or Temple; he also ap- 
 pointed the month of Ramadan as a fast. The next year 
 he made war upon several tribes of Arabs of the Jewish 
 religion, and lost the battle of Ohud, where he was 
 nearly ruined. Recovering himself however, and getting 
 strength by several minor battles, he marched towards 
 Mecca, near which a battle was fought without any de- 
 cisive effect, and a truce was concluded for ten years. 
 One important condition however was, that his followers 
 should enter Mecca without the least obstruction, and 
 hence he enjoined them once in their lives to make a pil- 
 grimage to his native city. In the 7th year of the He- 
 gira, he announced himself a king and a prophet, was 
 publicly prayed for, and officiated himself as chief priest, 
 or Mufti, in his mosque at Medina, and in the 8th year he 
 attacked Mecca with 10,000 men, declaring it had broken 
 the truce, and it surrendered at discretion. In the two 
 following years, his empire and religion became esta- 
 blished throughout all Arabia j but in the next, he died 
 from the slow operation of some poison he had taken 
 three years before at Caibar— No particular declaration 
 or occurrence attended his death. He was 6*3 years old 
 when he died His person was handsome ;- his predo- 
 minate passions were lust and ambition— his means of 
 success, fraud and the sword. He may justly be placed^ 
 at the head of all Impostors, and probably the world 
 will not for thousands of years contemplate a fraud so 
 
 glaring ^nd suc*ssful. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 :?*n». Mn, Printer, Garlick Hill. 
 
•A. O-VvJ-WO^ 
 
 
mi 
 
 ECSTATICS OF GENIUS. 
 
 J, W. JACKSON, 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE, & CO., 25 Paternoster Row 
 H. BAILLIERE, 219 REGENT STREET. 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 HACLACHLAN & STEWART, 64 SOUTH BRIDGE. 
 
 1«59. 
 
EDlXBUhGI! : 
 PBINTEB BY A. AND W. K. WILSOX, HIGH STREET. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 No. 
 
 Introductory Remarks 
 
 Pythagoras 
 
 Socrates 
 
 Josephus . 
 
 Apollonius Tyaiueus 
 
 Mahomet . 
 
 Joan of Arc 
 
 Ignatius Loyola 
 
 George Fox 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton 
 
 Swedenborg 
 
 Modern Ecstatics 
 
 Mrs Buchan 
 
 Joseph Smith 
 
 Schamyl 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 Page. 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 22 
 
 32 
 
 44 
 
 50 
 
 63 
 
 81 
 
 88 
 
 101 
 
 117 
 
 118 
 
 122 
 
 130 
 
 133 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 
 In no department of literature is the incompetency of authors 
 for the task which they have undertaken more manifest than 
 in history and biography. What a lamentable incapacity for 
 appreciating the presence and working of great first prin- 
 ciples do we not find in the ordinary narrators of events ! 
 What a dwelling on the merely surface phenomena of effects ! 
 and what an obvious inability to penetrate into the profounder 
 realm of causes is revealed in the pages of those cumbrous 
 tomes of inanity that with the majority serve for an authentic 
 revelation of the past! And when a really great man is in- 
 troduced to our notice, and we expect a life-like portraiture, 
 have often, in place of the veritable great-souled mover of 
 the world, the true authentic creator of an age or an epoch, 
 on whose majestic framework of ideas the after generations 
 have been but too content to fashion their every thought ; 
 how often, we say, in place of this living reality, with his lofty 
 aspirations, his ennobling emotions, his exalted faith, and 
 his vast and plastic conceptions, have we some second-hand 
 description of a dead piece of state -machinery that went by 
 clockwork, or some miserably defective sketch of an im- 
 possible combination of wild enthusiasm with cold-hearted 
 hypocrisy ! The sham is ever present, the man is ever 
 absent ; and, in place of the generous, warm-hearted, and in 
 every way vitalized enthusiast, whose electrical sympathies 
 rendered him irresistible with all generous spirits, we are 
 presented with a monster from whom all higher natures 
 would have shrunk with abhorrence. Slowly, however, yet 
 surely, is justice being done in this matter. We are begin- 
 ning, though with much reluctance and recalcitration, to 
 
apprehend at something like their true value the heroic mas- 
 ter-spirits of other times. Men are arising among us, gifted 
 with a sufficiency of insight to prevent the feeble reiteration 
 of groundless and libellous insinuations in reference to souls 
 of whom the earth was not worthy, and the prophet spirits 
 of the past are being, one after another, reirithroned in the 
 heartfelt reverence of their race. Of all the indications of 
 our -age, we hold none to be more hcpeful than that which is 
 afforded by this true catholicity of appreciation. We are 
 leaving the beclouding mists of sectarianism behind, and 
 rising into the clear empyrean of universal thought. Of all 
 the evidences of true manhood, none are more hopeful than 
 that which is afforded by this power of heartily appreciating 
 its presence in others. He who can fully and unreservedly 
 recognize the heroic in another is not himself at an alto- 
 gether infinite remove from that of which he nas so acute a 
 perception, and to which he can accord such entire sympathy. 
 A true intuition of the noble is never accorded to the mean, 
 nor can the base ever give right recognition to the really 
 exalted. The worshipful of any age is the best index of its 
 essential character, for the dead saint is ever but the beau 
 ideal of the living man. 
 
 Of the seriousness, earnestness, and truthfulness of earth's 
 great master-spirits, most right-minded enquirers have now 
 little doubt. Of this the evidence is indeed too clear for any 
 but the blindly prejudiced to fail in obtaining an intuitive 
 perception. But there is nevertheless one very important 
 circumstance connected with their condition, to which scarcely 
 an intelligible allusion is to be found in any work treating 
 either on the details of their biography, or on the success 
 and character of their mission ; we allude to the fact, that 
 many of them were obviously ecstatics, that is, they were 
 clairvoyants or seers. Now so important an element in their 
 mental constitution ought not to be overlooked, if we would 
 arrive at a correct estimate of their mental resources, or of 
 the nature of the influence which they were capable of 
 exercising over others. It is the key to much that would 
 
otherwise seem utterly unaccountable in their career, and 
 inscrutable in their character. This interior light, this 
 visional illumination is a force, our ignorance of which can 
 scarcely fail to lead us occasionally into a false estimate of 
 the motives under which the whole life of such men proceeded 
 in its higher phases of development. Through it they would 
 have a different outlook upon the universe, and in a sense 
 conceive of themselves as holding a higher relationship to the 
 entire scheme of existence. Of the effects of such an endow- 
 ment, however, we shall be better enabled to speak when we 
 come to treat of its existence and varied modes of manifesta- 
 tioninthe successive subjects whom we have selected as appro- 
 priate examples of its presence and influence. Confined to no 
 age, country, or faith, limited to neither the learned nor 
 ignorant, the young nor the old, and appearing alike in either 
 sex, the instances of lucid vision that history presents are 
 both numerous and varied ; so much so, that we are more 
 likely to be encumbered by their multiplicity than limited by 
 their scarcity. The difficulty indeed consists less in the dis- 
 covery than the selection of cases : and our guiding prin- 
 ciple in the choice of individuals as illustrations has been, in 
 general, their historical celebrity, in virtue of which their 
 lives are better known, and their action on society more 
 readily appreciable. 
 
ECSTATICS OF GENIUS. 
 
 No. 1. — Pythagoras. 
 
 Compared with Asia, that birth-place of man and cradle of 
 civilization, that mother of knowledge and nurse of art, 
 Europe, with all the splendour of her classic traditions and 
 the magnitude and importance of her subsequent history, 
 seems but a young and morally dependent colony. Our 
 antiquity may be venerable to the Occident, but it is a thing 
 of yesterday to the Orient. When we talk of our " ancients," 
 the Brahmin smiles in pity, and the Persian sneers with ill- 
 disguised contempt. They were old when we were young; 
 they are the originals of which we are the copies. Ethnology 
 and philology have shewn us the quarry whence we were 
 hewn. From the teeming plains of India and Iran came 
 those bands of primeval emigrants, to whora the West owes 
 alike its culture and its power, its intellectual activity and its 
 political supremacy. We, too, though afar off and at many 
 removes, are " children of the sun," albeit we have followed 
 our radiant sire, as worshippers of his vesper glory rather 
 than his matin splendour. AVe are the descendents of 
 Asia's noblest nations, and the inheritors alike of their 
 grandest ideas and their purest blood. Let us not, then, 
 despise our venerable mother in the hour of her decrepitude. 
 To the East we owe our lineage and language, our religion 
 and philosophy. The Druid in his grove and the Papal 
 priest at his altar equally exhibit the pliant acquiescence of 
 European faith, in its uninquiring submission to Asiatic 
 apostleship ; while a more extensive study of Sanscrit litera- 
 ture has shewn us that the Grecian schools, from the earliest 
 Eleatics to the latest Alexandrians, were little other than 
 the reflected light of Asian intellect. In none, however, is 
 his so strongly marked as in that of Pythagoras, whose 
 
5 
 
 principles were so obviously an Eastern transcript, that their 
 relationship is unmistakable. He taught transmigration as a 
 doctrine, and enforced vegetarianism as a practice. Return- 
 ing from long years of studious travel, which is said to 
 have extended from India to Britain, he brought to his 
 great work a mind suffused with all the higher elements of 
 Oriental theosophy, and looms out upon us, through the 
 mists of tradition, rather in the semblance of a Brahminical 
 or Budhistic meditationist, the subject of interior illumina- 
 tion, with its visional inspirations, than a Grecian sage, with 
 ideas limited by the range of his logical faculties, and con- 
 ceptions regulated by the exercise of his judgment. Re- 
 garded, indeed, by his followers as of divine descent, he 
 seems to have not wholly disclaimed the position and attributes 
 of an incarnation. Mystical in his teachings and miraculous in 
 his operations, he spoke from and to the supersensuous sphere, 
 and hence required a prepared audience, "fit though few," 
 as the capable recipients of his transcendental tuition. 
 
 Strictly speaking, Greek philosophy was theosophy in 
 transition. Its various schools exhibit Asian intuition in the 
 process of adaptation to European deduction. They were an 
 endeavour to endue the insight of inspiration with the vesture 
 of reason, and so accommodate its sublime verities to the 
 rationalistic apprehension of European intellect. It was a 
 stage in that long descent, whereby, during humanity's 
 lengthened march westward through space and downward 
 through time, we have been landed by the inductive philosophy 
 on the firm though low foundation of fact. Still a priori in form, 
 the tuition of the Grecian sages was gradually becoming a pos- 
 teriori in spirit. It was a preparation for the desertion of first 
 principles, and the abnegation of faith, in favour of experi- 
 mental investigation and deductive logic. The process was 
 progressive ; and hence the earlier schools exhibit less of the 
 practical, and abound more in the theoretical, than the 
 later. Now, a distinctive feature of the Pythagorean system 
 was an endeavour to stay this downward course, and bring 
 men back to the grandeur and sublimity of the primal philo- 
 
sophy of earlier ages. Its founder, in the estimation of his 
 disciples, was more than a sage ; he was regarded as a saint 
 or demi-god. Deeply imbued with the higher spiritualism of 
 his eastern masters, he was a religious missionary rather than 
 a philosophic teacher, the hierophant of a faith rather than 
 the founder of a school- 
 
 Our data for a life of Pythagoras are rather traditional 
 than historical. His memory is shrouded in legend and sur- 
 rounded with miracle. Must we, then, conclude that his 
 moral stature was so overawing, that his contemporaries 
 could not see its limits, and, like a mountain whose lofty peak 
 is crowned with clouds, his head appeared lost in the won- 
 derland of heaven. He was said to be the son of Hermes, 
 and even of Apollo. He could tame wild beasts by a word, 
 and restrained an ox, who was devouring the sacred beans, 
 by a whisper. He was heard to lecture in different places at 
 the same day aud hour. His head occasionally appeared 
 surrounded with a halo, and his whole aspect was less human 
 than divine. He was pre-eminently susceptible to all the finer 
 influences of nature: he looked on the harmonious propor- 
 tions of beauty with an artist's eye, and he listened, even to 
 the music of the spheres, with a poet's ear. He taught the 
 metempsychosis, and professed to remember the experiences 
 of his former transmigrations. His knowledge was obviously 
 supersensuous: he could divine men's secret thoughts, and 
 his utterances were oracular and prophetic. Nature herself 
 is said to have acknowledged his greatness by modifications 
 of her phenomena, and the spirits of water, wood, and wild 
 audibly recognised his presence. 
 
 Through the somewhat transparent disguise of this mytln- 
 cal narrative, the following facts become abundantly evident. 
 A Grecian youth of consummate ability, of commanding 
 talents, and of extraordinary, we might almost say universal 
 genius, and endowed, moreover, with a pure and elevated 
 moral nature, and a refined spirituality of thought and feeling, 
 rare even among the most gifted of his countrymen, haying 
 exhausted the higher tuitions of his native land, determined 
 
to travel for the noble purpose of extending his knowledge 
 by experience, and expanding his ideas by personal inter- 
 course with the wise and good of other nations. To this end 
 he visited Egypt, India, and the extreme West, so that, when 
 he had completed this vast circuit of study, he could, in his 
 mature scholarship, compare the teachings cf the Budhistic 
 Lamas with those of the British Druids, and admeasure 
 Brahminical truth by the creed of Misraim. In this learned 
 pilgrimage he expended twenty-two years of the prime and 
 vigour of his manhood, and at its conclusion might be con- 
 sidered as immeasurably the most accomplished scholar and 
 philosopher of his age. Now, let it be remembered this vast 
 lore was not embodied in a walking lexicon. It was all di- 
 gestible and nourishing pabulum to one of the most highly 
 vitalized souls that ever illumined earth by the reflected radi- 
 ance of his supernal glory. Here was saint and sage, priest 
 and poet, in one august personage. In him genius culmi- 
 nated into seerdom, and the mission of the prophet crowned 
 the labours of the man of science and letters. Historical 
 Greece had never before seen his equal, and except in Apol- 
 lonius Tyanaeus, never afterwards beheld his rival. 
 
 His mind suffused with the ideas, and thoroughly inter- 
 penetrated by the doctrines of his Indian teachers, his endea- 
 vour was to restore the reverential spirituality of the olden 
 time. Intellect had dominated over the moral nature in the 
 Hellenic race long prior to his day, this distinctive charac- 
 teristic of European culture, as compared with that of Asia, 
 being thus early exhibited. As a result, reason with its dis- 
 integrative analysis triumphed over faith with its recreative 
 synthesis. Since the age of the still more mythical Orpheus, 
 in the faintly reverberated echoes of whose traditional exist- 
 ence we have the indistinct indications of a prior but some- 
 what similar theosophic missionary advent, no man had 
 taught with the authority of direct insight. Masters and 
 disciples were alike on the low level of deductive reasoning, 
 and, as a necessary consequence, were drifting into an inter- 
 minable embroilment of difficulty and doubt, the mutually 
 
8 
 
 destructive force of contradictory hypotheses, tending to no 
 positive result, and leading only to that refined Pyrrhonism, 
 in which all merely rationalistic schools of philosophy have 
 so miserably terminated. Pythagoras stood on the higher 
 plane of intuition, his doctrines being direct revelations of 
 inspired truth, rather than the doubtful results of laboured 
 excogitation. He taught the unity, spirituality, self-conscious- 
 ness, omniscience and omnipotence of God, the immortality 
 of the soul, and its progressive advance from the outer or 
 lower, to the inner and higher spheres of being. He symbo- 
 lised the order and beauty of the moral and physical creation, 
 by the mathematical proportion of numbers, and the musical 
 notes of the harmonic scale. He believed in a hierarchy of 
 spirits, and, as a consequence, in the adaptation of some and 
 inadaptation of other human beings to the reception of great 
 and God-given truths. Hence his pupils were a carefully- 
 selected band, and could only be admitted to a knowledge of 
 his deeper esoteric doctrines after a prolonged initiation in- 
 tended to try their courage, worth, probity, and purity. He 
 imposed restrictions on diet, and was careful of the moral as 
 well as physical health of his disciples. 
 
 Now, what have we here ? A Budhistic Grand Lama, a 
 Brahminical Saint, an Egyptian Hierophant, and British 
 Arch-Druid, robed in the mantle of a Greek philosopher. 
 The form alone is Hellenic the spirit is pre-eminently Orien- 
 tal, or, shall we say, primeval. Pythagoras was grandly con- 
 servative, his object being to restore a once sublime and 
 heroic though now forgotten past to its pristine vigour. This, 
 among others, was one reason why he selected his pupils 
 from among the aristocracy ; they were of high caste, and 
 such as he had been accustomed to see the honoured deposi- 
 tories of truth among his Eastern teachers. The essentially 
 democratic character of Greek institutions, and the pro- 
 foundly analytical character of Greek intellect proved too 
 strong for him. In its grander and ulterior objects, his mis- 
 sion was a failure. He could not reinstitute on a lasting 
 foundation, either the hierarchial constitution or social divi- 
 
sions of primitive Iranian civilization. He could not perma- 
 nently change either the faith or practice of his countrymen ; 
 they were not, as a body, amenable to his tuitions, either in 
 matters spiritual or temporal, and hence, in place of founding 
 a religion and organizing a state, he simply originated a 
 school. As legislator and prophet the man was there, but 
 the time and place were wanting. It was a missionary " en- 
 terprise of great pith and moment," but it was in opposition 
 to the tidal movements of destiny, and hence, despite the 
 ability, sanctity, and inspiration of its originator, terminated 
 in confusion and defeat. 
 
 The gifted Samian was a lucide, not an occasional crisiac, 
 but a permanent seer. Hence his oracular utterances, the 
 halo around his brow, and his magnetic power over all 
 brought duly within the sphere of his personal influence. Of 
 structure the noblest, and temperament the finest, he had 
 doubtless been subjected, under his foreign initiations, to all 
 those time-honoured processes of fasting, solitude, and medi- 
 tation, which have been found, by long experience, so effec- 
 tually conducive to the development of ecstacy. By these, 
 combined, doubtless, with a constitution originally prone to 
 lucidity, he appears to have attained, eventually, to a con- 
 dition in which vision, intuition, and thought-reading, were 
 habitual, rather than rare experiences. His belief in trans- 
 migration was, as we have observed, a return to the exalted 
 doctrines of the primal Iranian faith, and the assertion that 
 he could remember the personalities and details of his previous 
 incarnations, was in strict accordance with the tuitions and 
 example of those Budhistic Lamas, who still profess to recol- 
 lect the events, and recognize the attachments of place, 
 furniture, &c, with which they were familiar in their former 
 terrestrial life. That, in achieving the intellectual efforts, 
 necessary to demonstrate this to their adoring, yet keenly 
 observant disciples, they manifest a high form of clairvoyance, 
 there is no doubt ; and Pythagoras appears to have exhibited 
 the same when he pointed out the shield which he had used 
 as Euphorbus at the siege of Troy. His asserted ability to 
 
10 
 
 appear and lecture simultaneously in two places, is what has 
 been narrated of several ancient magicians. It seems to be 
 an instance of that phenomenon whose occurrence has been 
 occasionally noticed in modern times, and often as attaching 
 *o persons by no means remarkably gifted or illustrious. The 
 Germans speak of these double presentments of the same 
 person, as dopple gangers ; and in England they are termed 
 wraiths or fetches. Unless we are prepared to deny human 
 testimony, we must admit that occasionally, though rarely, 
 the image of an individual, perfect in every lineament, so 
 that the nearest relative or most attached fiiend could recog- 
 nize nothing distinctive from the original, has been observed 
 in one place, while the physical organism has been in an- 
 other. It would appear that a state of intense abstraction 
 on the one hand, or of proportionately high excitement on 
 the other, are alike favourable to this unusual liberation of 
 nervo- vital power, by which the eidolon is projected forth on 
 " the magic mirror " of nature. Hence crisiacs are probably ■ 
 more liable to it than others, and the subject of our present 
 notice would doubtless be more than ordinarily susceptible to 
 such a duplex presentment of his corporeal envelope. It 
 need scarcely be said that such a fact occurring only once or 
 twice in the life of so illustrious a teacher, would be magnified, 
 by the admiration of his pupils and the accumulative force of 
 tradition, into a customary and voluntary multiplication of 
 personality, amounting to something like an attribute of 
 approximative omnipresence. 
 
 Altogether, the enterprise of the Samian sage had a reli- 
 gious and missionary, in short, a theosophic rather than a 
 philosophic character. He taught with authority, as one 
 having primal rather than derivative light. His followers 
 were disciples, not pupils, and he impressed them with dogmas 
 which were the tenets of a sect, rather than principles 
 which were the convictions of a school. For so distinguished 
 a position and such important duties, he was, in many points, 
 pre-eminently qualified, both by his mental and corporeal 
 attributes, by his original powers and their subsequent culture. 
 
11 
 
 His failure was the result of circumstances, which would have 
 rendered even greater qualities than his unavailing for such 
 a purpose at such a time. His success would have involved 
 the retrogression of Greece, Italy, and eventual!}', perhaps, 
 of all Europe, for humanity had not completed the cycle of 
 intellectual change, which would permit of the commence- 
 ment of the epicycle ; and hence its march to the higher 
 Iranian theosophy, must have been backwards to the letter 
 of the past, rather than forwards to the spirit of the future. 
 As an eminent instance of ecstatic exaltation with its lucidity 
 and its moral magnetism, Pythagoras has few rivals in any 
 age or country ; and the gigantic proportions in which he 
 looms out upon us through the mists of tradition, may be 
 taken as unmistakeable evidence of the inherent grandeur 
 and dignity of his character, of the vastitude and power 
 of his mind. It must have been a substance of more than 
 ordinary greatness, which could cast so Titanic a shadow 
 on posterity, a sound of more than usual volume, whose 
 echoes have reverberated with undiminished force, adown 
 so manv centuries. 
 
 No. 2. — Socrates. 
 
 It has been generally supposed that the persevering study of 
 philosophy is antagonistic to the effective development of 
 imagination. Whether this be a popular fallacy or not, quite 
 certain it is that there are many notable exceptions to the 
 rule. He who would undertake to assert that Shakespeare 
 was not one of the profoundest thinkers in the sphere of 
 moral philosophy that humanity has yet produced, would 
 exhibit but slender powers for appreciating the real depth 
 and earnestness of those passages in which this wondrous 
 master-spirit reveals his intuitive acquaintance with the 
 subjective sphere of being. He does not syllogistically 
 demonstrate or scientifically deduce a conclusion; he is 
 neither dry, nor precise, nor formal in his enunciations of 
 
12 
 
 abstract truth. It must be confessed lie abounds not with 
 laboured excogitations, nor does lie provide us with the slowly 
 elaborated results of severely and cautiously applied prin- 
 ciples. His glance is that of an eagle, who from the sublime 
 altitude of the empyrean contemplates those wide-spread 
 provinces which the most accomplished of engineers can only 
 survey in succession with much ado and vast toil, and to 
 whose successful achievement of the task a great diversity of 
 instruments and a vast multiplicity of aids and assistances 
 are an essential prerequisite. He whose more lucid intuitions 
 indeed transcend not both the heights and depths of mere 
 scholastic philosophy has but imperfect claims to the gift of 
 insight. That vision to which the interior life remains un- 
 revealed is scarcely worthy of the name. The bard who has 
 failed to discover that most momentous of all secrets to 
 him, his own soul, yet needs to have his spiritual eye opened. 
 The poesy, in truth, which is not the result of seerdom, more 
 or less, must be considered but as a sounding brass and a 
 tinkling cymbal. And conversely m«y we not say of the 
 sage, that he who is devoid of the ideal is but the fraction of 
 a man. As well might a wing-clipped barn- door parade itself 
 for the perfection of birdhood, as a merely incarnate deduc- 
 tion, or digesting demonstration, presume to consider itself 
 as a befitting embodyment of humanity's completed whole- 
 ness. The sage, like the bard, is ever something of the seer 
 — is in verity a prose prophet. 
 
 Who so blind as not to perceive all the elements of a true 
 poet and vates in our own illustrious Francis of Verulam ! 
 What page of prophecy was ever more truthful in the matter, 
 or more sublimely eloquent in the manner of its enunciation, 
 than many which we may find in the Novum Organum ! Was 
 there in very truth no celestial inspiration to prompt such 
 far-stretching thoughts, which in effect embraced so much of 
 the glorious futurity of man ? Was there no creative power 
 in that mighty intellect, whose " meditations " furnished the 
 plan of that magnificent temple of knowledge, on whose 
 enduring foundations and never-failing pillars the great and 
 
13 
 
 gifted of all subsequent generations have laboured in willing 
 obedience to the design of their architectural chief? Was 
 there no insight here, no spiritual eye to discern the forecast 
 shadows of coming events ? No gift of tongues wherewith 
 to clothe thoughts so weighty and aspirations so sublime in a 
 befitting vestment of language, whose eloquence still stirs us 
 as with the sound of a trumpet ? What is this great work 
 indeed rightly considered but a terrestrial echo of that 
 interapheral harmony, by whose guiding notes suns and 
 systems keep step and time in their magic dance through the 
 infinite, where now all is order and beauty, while without 
 some such directing influence all would be confusion and 
 chaos ? And must he not have had a poet's eye and prophet's 
 soul who could so rightly discern and truthfully declare the 
 relationships and sequences of things in that terra incognita 
 of science, on whose outermost boundary man had then 
 scarcely set foot ? What is prophecy if it be not a precogni- 
 tion of coming events, and who then shall deny to Francis 
 Bacon the gift of seerdom ? Poet and philosopher, sage and 
 seer, has not all human culture ever commenced with such 
 grand humantarian spirits, who could embrace both these 
 characters, whose vast circuit of being comprehended at least 
 thus much of perfected manhood? Did not the first law- 
 givers propound their authoritative edicts in rythmical ca- 
 dences, and what were the primal creeds of men but deduc- 
 tions of after generations from those revelations of the celes- 
 tial in which the anthems and other productions of early 
 bards abounded ? The weak and unauthorized separation of 
 sage and seer is a poor after-thought, to which the colossal 
 minds of the first ages, of whose cyclopean remains in the 
 moral world our existing beliefs are but fragmentary rem- 
 nants, would never have condescended. They valued the 
 man in his integrity, and esteemed oneness in the work and 
 entirety in the author as a needful accompaniment of all true ■ 
 greatness, without which to predicate perpetuitv of any 
 human production were the vainest of fancies. 
 
 We have been more especially led into this train of reflec- 
 
14 
 
 tion while contemplating the ecstatic life of those primeval 
 master-spirits whose sublime contemplations constitute the 
 true foundation of theosophy in the East and philosophy in 
 the West. Humanity's first teachers, we repeat it, were 
 ecstatics. To their grander revelations, as to the fountain 
 heads of thought, all later systems of faith and practice owe 
 their origin. He alone who is gifted with the intuition of a 
 seer can speak with the authority of a prophet. The deduc- 
 tion s of logic are never enthroned in the conscience, nor will 
 men in the mass, or through the sequence of generations, 
 ever yield loyal obedience, except to the true Godsent, whose 
 edicts are issued not from the superficial sphere of conscious 
 excogitation, bat the far profounder depths of lucid intuition. 
 Reflection is one thing, inspiration is another; the former 
 affords, as its name implies, but a secondary and derivative 
 species of illumination ; it is essentially planetary, while the 
 latter is primal, solar, and therefore vital. The first may 
 characterise the philosopher, but it is the second alone which 
 constitutes the prophet. We have said that originally sage 
 and seer were one, and that their separation was itself a 
 declension from the massive greatness of that epoch whose 
 mightier minds have cast their shadow on tradition as Gods 
 and Titans. But when the sacred vates became a mere 
 poet, utterly unconscious of his spiritual gifts and holy voca- 
 tion, and when those mystic elements of the ideal in his 
 higher being, which should have constituted the subject 
 matter of anthems and the figures of prophecy, became but 
 the playthings of fancv or the fuel of passion, how fearful was 
 the degradation, how terrible rather shall we say this desecra- 
 tion, of so chosen a vessel of the sanctuary to the paltry uses 
 of man's vile body feasts. And yet, perhaps, if we think of 
 it aright, even this misapplication of power in the wayward 
 and erring bard is not so wide a departure from the higher 
 path of inspiration as that which we see manifested in the 
 self-sufficient sage, when he descends to the rank of a sophist, 
 and bandies propositions from side to side, not with the 
 exalted aim of arriving at an assured and guiding truth for 
 
15 
 
 the right direction of less gifted souls, but for the pettj pur- 
 pose of exhibiting his intellectual agility in the childish game 
 of battledore, with ideas for shuttlecocks. A passion-blinded 
 bard, swooping down into the fiery depths of a moral Tophet, 
 on those glorious pinions which should have borne him hea- 
 venwards into the regions of prophecy, is in some sense an 
 object of admiration as well as of pity. This very power is a 
 redeeming quality, and we feel that the impulse which has 
 carried him on daring wing to such depths of sensuous 
 perversity, might yet, in regenerated and rightly directed 
 strength, bear him again upwards to the celestial altitude of 
 prophetic vision and heaven- vouchsafed inspiration. We 
 still look, if even with abhorrence, yet at least with solemn 
 awe and heartfelt dread, on the wreck and ruin of such noble 
 powers. We may listen with horror to his blasphemous 
 adoration of the terrene in place of the divine. We may 
 lament, over, but we cannot thoroughly despise, this outcast 
 Godson, wandering afar from his brethren and his sire, for, 
 amidst the gusts of his passion and the wailings of his de- 
 spair, we still at intervals distinguish the echoes of those 
 tones which proclaim that a seraph.harper is present, though 
 clad, alas, in the sad and degrading habiliments of a minin- 
 trant at the altar of sense, instead of the pure and radiant 
 robes of a heavenly hierophant. But of the calm, clear 
 wisdom of the true sage, of his profound revealings from the 
 stilly depths of wrapt meditation, what remnant do we find 
 in the silly and superficial sophist, whose intellectual armoury 
 is the mere show-shop of mind, where the deceptive glitter of 
 cleverness passes for the golden ore of true wi'sdom'and the 
 sterling worth of reality is sacrificed to the passing semblance 
 of appearances. 
 
 Of such seers and sages, however, as those to whom we 
 have been alluding, but little truth biographical, above all 
 auto- biographical remains. We read their careers in their 
 effects, their actions are in their bequests, their lives are in 
 their testaments. 'Tis true we have a code cf Menu, a creed 
 of Gautama Budha, and a very insignificant echo of the first 
 
16 
 
 Zerdushtinthe second; but, except in The Book, wife its 
 lawgiver upon Sinai, and its zeal-consumed prophet, mount- 
 ing heavenwards in his fiery chariot, we nowhere, as yet, find 
 a clear and authentic revelation of the revealer. We hear 
 the thunders of command gradually reverberating adown the 
 centuries, and in the wrecks of antecedent faiths we may 
 trace the path of that bolt which occasioned their destruction, 
 but the hand which launched it is generally hidden from view 
 behind those mists of tradition where we know there must be 
 lio-ht, as we are sure there is a sun beyond those clouds of 
 the evening west, whose varied hues are but the glory-woven 
 veil of a passing brightness, the jewelled throne of a retiring 
 majesty, withdrawn not for ever, but only till the cycle of 
 another morning shall re-bless the earth with the ruddy 
 radiance of a second day. It is, therefore, of no small value 
 to the effective illustration of these greater spirits, that we 
 are permitted to know something of a minor visitant of the 
 same order, and, if we cannot stand face to face with a 
 primeval Titan or veritable Olympian, we may at least 
 observe and converse with a restorer of truth of no mean 
 
 01 The master of Plato and the founder of a school of Greek 
 philosophv, or rather philosophers, whose meditations have 
 been the glory of the western world for more than two mil- 
 leniums, is not to be despised, even in a comparison with the 
 intellectual giants of remoter ages. Socrates was an 
 ecstatic, and as such in the truest sense of the term, a 
 master. His wisdom, self-derived, looked to no other teacher 
 for its origin. To him it was a primal revelation, a God-sent 
 illumination from the interior sphere of trance-life and daimon 
 converse. Behold him standing wrapt in absorbing thought 
 from morning through the burning day, and outwatchmg the 
 evening star till the matin light of another dawn, "when as 
 the sun rose he saluted it with a prayer and departed." 
 Whoso beholds not here an indication of seer-life, has simply 
 not brouaht with him the power, that is, the requisite know- 
 ledge to'see. In this one fact, connected as it is with so 
 
17 
 
 much beside of corroborative evidence, whole volumes are 
 revealed to all competent to the study of such manifestations. 
 And then that Dgemon, who always forivarned him of im- 
 pending evil either to himself or friends, what student of the 
 phenomena of ecstatic exaltation does not here recognise the 
 guiding influence of the interior Ego— the unconscious self- 
 intuition of the uncompleted mystic, the inter-communion 
 between the temporal and fleshly-tabernacled mind and the 
 eternal "dweller in the temple?" Is there not, also, even 
 in his careless endurance of heat and cold, of hunger, thirst, 
 and fatigue, an indication of some approach to that insensi- 
 bility of the physical system, which has produced in those 
 still more advanced in the ecstatic condition their forty days' 
 fasts and their long journeys over desolate regions on angels' 
 meats ? Truly, it is no wonder, that the sculptor's son could 
 emerge from his father's shop to be the tutor of Plato and the 
 guide of Xenophon, that he who had no master should become 
 the devoutly worshipped leader of those great and gifted men 
 who have proved themselves the world's masters. How could 
 sophism do aught but wither in the presence of his spirit, 
 even when this base system prevailed to destroy the life of 
 his body ? He was the truth, and lies perished before those 
 veracious utterances in which his every thought was clothed. 
 The prison at Athens was a Golgotha, where the martyrdom 
 of futurity's prophet sealed the doom of antiquity's effete be- 
 quest of outworn forms. Well do those who write a history 
 of the Grecian schools consider his life and teachings as the 
 beginning of an epoch. Such a man at such a time marked 
 the commencement of an era, which was only intellectual and 
 not religious, because the sent one came not to a people hav- 
 ing the theological, but the philosophic mission upon them. 
 He was the prophet of thought, because the race of which 
 he came, and the time at which he flourished did not permit 
 him to be anything else. But we doubt not that he who was 
 so faithful to the lesser message would have been equally 
 so to the greater, had Athens been Jerusalem, and Greece 
 Palestine. 
 
18 
 
 Socrates derived from nature a powerful and peculiarly 
 constituted cerebral organization. His head was large and 
 finely developed, both in the moral and intellectual regions. 
 The latter is pre-eminently indicative of abstract thought, the 
 reflective faculties being far above the average and altogether 
 preponderating over the perceptives. His face, anything but 
 what might be called Grecian or classical, departs from the 
 line of facial beauty and proportion, not like the Eoman, by 
 convexity, but rather like that of a Mongol, by concavity of 
 outline. Contemplated ethnologically, the impression which 
 he gives is that of a half-caste, who has derived his highly 
 Caucasianized upper head from one parent, and his common 
 place vulgar physiognomy and basilar region from another. 
 With this was united a very mixed temperament, in which, 
 however, the nervo-lymphatic decidedly preponderated. Such 
 a being, although he might be profoundly receptive and deeply 
 thoughtful from early youth, would scarcely attain to radiat- 
 ing energy till the middle of life. While from the imperfec- 
 tion of his development, in fact from the incompleteness of his 
 organization, he would ever remain disinclined to the sus- 
 tained mental effort required for that formal and systematic 
 embodiment of his conclusions which is implied in the pro- 
 duction of a professed philosophic treatise or dissertation on 
 a special subject. Discursive and desultory, yet intuitive and 
 original, ironical, eloquent, sarcastic, and profound, as the case 
 required, his almost inspired conversation was, in his higher 
 moments, the spontaneous outpourings of a richly-gifted, self- 
 cultured, and many-sided mind, whose fine native endow- 
 ments had been exalted by ecstacy to an almost preternatural 
 beauty, grandeur, and power of manifestation. On such oc- 
 casions, and they seem to have become frequent, and almost 
 habitual, he spoke with that peculiar force which attaches to 
 and characterizes the crisiac, when his communications come 
 directly from the interior and subjective sphere. Then it was 
 that he shone with that self- derived light which ever exerts 
 so magical an influence over duly susceptible minds, and thus 
 converts the otherwise careless hearer or thoughtless pupil 
 
19 
 
 into the life -long and devoted disciple. Nevertheless, crea- 
 tive rather than constructive, he needed more prominently 
 developed and more scholastically trained, though perhaps 
 less profoundly meditative, minds among his followers, to act 
 as his interpreters to the many, whether of his cotemporaries 
 or of posterity. An earnest and gigantic, yet after all, im- 
 perfectly constituted intellect, he suggestively furnished the 
 germs of thought to others, to whom of necessity he left their 
 farther development and subsequent diffusion. Without be- 
 fitting and competent pupils as needful and appropriate media, 
 his sublime tuitions, embodying as they do so much of philo- 
 sophic truth and moral wisdom, would have been utterly lost. 
 But for the scholarly authors of the Phaedon and Anabasis, 
 those sublime and eloquent utterances, which affected Alci- 
 biades even to tears, and " made his heart leap up like those 
 of persons who celebrate Corybantic mysteries," even these 
 glorious revelations would have died away like the matin 
 song of the laverock, or the evening anthem of the nightin- 
 gale, leaving but a sweet remembrance, ever growing fainter 
 and yet fainter among his listeners, and at last dying out in a 
 vague tradition amidst the widening void of space and the 
 ever-deepening gulf of time. 
 
 The nearest approach which we have had in modern times 
 to a mind so constituted was in the case of Coleridge, where 
 we find an anterior and coronal development almobt equally 
 expanded and exalted, together with a somewhat similar tem- 
 perament, and a style of physiognomy which, although cer- 
 tainly less inharmonious, was nevertheless very imperfectly 
 developed. And where, despite a much more systematic 
 • culture in early life, and a much greater organizing faculty, 
 we may yet detect the same tendency to avoid the labour and 
 minutia3 of composition, and to substitute for it an easy and 
 unstudied yet eloquent and almost inspired oral intercommu- 
 nication with a few favoured friends, who in this case also 
 seem to have listened rather as disciples, waiting for the ora- 
 cular and authoritative responses of a master, than as inde- 
 pendent critics prepared to question the statements or analyze 
 
20 
 
 the opinions of their interlocutor. In so far there was a 
 marked and easily observable, nay we might say a generic 
 resemblance between the two " old men eloquent," although 
 by a profound analysis of their respective individualities it 
 would of course be comparatively easy to find many points 
 even of radical diversity. The manner in which Kublai Khan 
 was written (from the imperfectly remembered fragment of a 
 dream), together with the character of many of his other pro- 
 ductions, such as The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, are 
 however amply sufficient to shew the essentially ecstatic na- 
 ture of Coleridge's higher intellectual manifestations. The 
 exhaustless flow of his conversational power in early man- 
 hood, and the seer-like depth of his wisdom in age, his " talk '' 
 ever radiant and glorious with at least the reflected light of 
 intuition, welling up from the mystic recesses of his marvel- 
 lously-gifted being, a mighty compound of the sage and poet, 
 these and many other indications of a grand interior life, ever 
 bursting through the coarse envelopment of external thought 
 and attainment, are amply sufficient to shew that in the 
 spokesman of Highgate we had the elements of a master-mind 
 that probably wanted but the evocative influences of a nobler 
 and more spiritualized, of a more deeply enthusiastic and pro- 
 foundly emotional age, to have become fully developed into 
 geerdom, with all its grand prerogatives of prophetic annun- 
 ciation and authoritative theosophic tuition. 
 
 To return, however, to the subject of our present prelec- 
 tion : we see in Socrates the tendencies and endowments that 
 under other circumstances might have readily ripened into 
 the Indian Gymnosophist or Sanyasi, the Persian Sooffee, or 
 the mediasval mystic. But born in the practical and energiz- 
 ing sphere of a Greek republic, trained from youth to a daily 
 calling for his livelihood, and having as a man to discharge 
 the varied duties of soldier in war, and citizen in peace, he 
 became more practical, perhaps, even as a teacher, more 
 availably useful, than under other and less positively evoca- 
 tive influences would have been probable or even possible. 
 Still despite all these modifying circumstances the ecstatic 
 
21 
 
 tendency is unmistakably evident, and the sage of Athens may 
 be studied with advantage as a fine example of that exalting 
 influence which a development of the interior and subjective 
 sphere of being exercises over the exterior and objective life, 
 when, as in the case before us, good sense, sound judgment, 
 high principle, and habitual self-command, combine to re- 
 strain the inspiration of lucidity from degenerating into vi- 
 sional fanaticism or insane enthusiasm. 
 
 The Daimon of Socrates, on which so much learned dis- 
 cussion has been expended, was, as we have already hinted, 
 simply the form which his interior illumination assumed, 
 being doubtless so conditioned, partly by the stage of ecstatic 
 development to which he had attained, and partly by the pro- 
 founder faith of his age and country as to the usual character 
 and manner of preternatural communications. In another time 
 and under another creed, that is, under other circumstances 
 and with different impressions, this internal monitor might 
 have assumed the traditional form of a Gabriel, a Creeshna 
 or a Budha, and in that case might perhaps have imposed a 
 mission somewhat less philosophic and sedate than that which 
 actually fell to the lot of " the wisest man in Hellas." This 
 wisdom, welled up from the stilly depths of his earnestly me- 
 ditative soul, where by prolonged and frequent contemplation 
 he communed with his higher self, till at length the interior 
 Ego assumed this daimon phase of manifestation, wherewith 
 he seems ever afterwards to have held high and holy inter- 
 course. 
 
 Verily, as we have said, but a little lower than the plane 
 of a true and God-commissioned prophet, stood he of whom 
 we have been writing. And we wonder not that after two- 
 and-twenty centuries he should still be regarded as the great- 
 est and wisest of those mighty ancients to whom we are in- 
 debted for all the models of our purer literature, and all the 
 examples of our higher art, and without whose philosophy 
 we had still been in very truth barbarians in intellect, even 
 though Christians in morals. 
 
22 
 
 No. 3. — Joseph us. 
 
 Races have their especial mission, and nations their peculiar 
 vocation, like individuals ; nor are the gifts and graces requi- 
 site for the effective discharge of their respective duties with- 
 held from the one more than the other. Egyptian wisdom, 
 Babylonian learning, Grecian genius, andEoman policy, were 
 all necessary elements in the great scheme of human progress, 
 and without any one of which the world of to-day, and we 
 may add of the far to-morrow, would have lacked somewhat 
 of its greatness and much of its glory. To deny the Jew a 
 distinguished place in the great family of man ; to speak 
 slightingly of his influence, or disparagingly of his achieve- 
 ments, is simply to display our ignorance, or demonstrate our 
 prejudices. A servant on the Nile, a captive on the Eu- 
 phrates, an exile on the Tiber, and an alien throughout Eu- 
 rope, he has been swept resistlessly on the tidal flow of im- 
 perial power, as it surged from east to west, bearing on its 
 troubled waters, or submerging in its fearful depths, the 
 wrecks of mightier nationalities than his own. Beholding 
 the decline of ancient, and the rise of modern civilization, he 
 has trampled on the ruins of cities, where his forefathers 
 dwelt as slaves, and seen the advance of peoples to imperial 
 power, whose ancestors were painted savages, when Solo- 
 mon's wisdom was the admiration of the world, and Jerusa- 
 lem sat as a queen amidst the nations. Memphis is a sand- 
 drift, and Nineveh a sheep-walk, while Paris has become the 
 centre of European refinement, and London the world's ex- 
 change; Osiris is defunct, Baal is subdued, and -Jupiter is 
 dethroned, while the cross and the crescent reign supreme 
 where these once mighty deities were of old so fondly wor- 
 shipped ; yet the unchanging son of faithful Abraham still 
 remains the silent, the solemn, and we might say the 
 sublime witness of this earthquake-march of time, in his 
 devastating yet recreative course* 
 
 Ignorant of art. which his monotheistic religion taught him 
 
23 
 
 to despise, and but imperfectly versed in science which his 
 simple habits rendered almost needless, the Hebrew was 
 nevertheless master of an idea, which dominated alike the 
 lore of Egypt and the culture of Greece. The pure and ex- 
 alted faith of the shepherd patriarch of Ur was a living 
 power, before which the might of heathen tradition gradually 
 waxed faint. The Jew has a mission : it is to maintain the 
 unity of the Deity against all the polytheisms in the world, 
 and he has accomplished this arduous task with a persistency 
 and endurance beyond all praise. A victor through faith, he 
 stands a moral conqueror on the ruins of empires, whose pass- 
 ing shadow covered his fathers like an eclipse. A spiritual 
 warrior, the field of his conflict covers defunct nationalities, 
 that once regarded Palestine as the smallest of their depend- 
 encies, and her people but as the meanest of their tributaries. 
 Still an exile, he yet asserts the royal prerogative of his in- 
 defeasable, theological supremacy, and sees the kingdoms 
 amidst whose subjects he dwells but by sufferance, the will- 
 ing believers in his prophets, and the zealous followers of his 
 Messiah. Thus demonstrating that spiritual force wants not 
 social status or political power, to insure for its proclamation 
 of God-sent truth a universal acceptancy. The " eternal ve- 
 racities," being independent of circumstances, and superior 
 to casualties, and sufficing with the meanest instrumentalities 
 for the grandest and most enduring results. 
 
 The death even of an individual is a solemn and awe-in- 
 spiring spectacle ; but the extinction of a nation is at once 
 terrible and yet sublime. In the former, we behold the end 
 of a career ; but in the latter, we may be said to witness the 
 termination of an epoch. And such a nation as that of Israel, 
 with its antecedents and its expectations, its history and its 
 prophesies. No wonder that its devoted and enthusiastic 
 children — familiar with the lofty utterances of their sacred 
 oracles, now lowering with the tempest- clouds of anger, and 
 threatening in the fearful thunder tones of impending wrath ; 
 and then radiant with the light, and beaming with the pro- 
 mises of miraculous deliverance — no wonder, we say, that 
 
24 
 
 such a people should have arisen from the wreck of hope into 
 the loftier sphere of faith, and while involved in the common 
 ruin of their unhappy country, have poured forth their lamen- 
 tations over the past, and their predictions for the future, in a 
 strain of sustained eloquence, that whether for grandeur of 
 imagery, sublimity of conception, earnestness of manner, or 
 greatness of intent, finds no parallel among the orators or 
 poets of either ancient or modern times. The Shemetic race 
 seem to have been endowed with an especial aptitude for the 
 prophetic office. They have inherited the theological mis- 
 sion. To them Europe is indebted for Christianity, and 
 Western Asia for the faith of Islam. A devotional proclivity 
 is the most powerful tendency of their being. Worship af- 
 fords the supremest happiness of which their existence is sus- 
 ceptible. The solemn awe of wrapt contemplation, dwelling 
 with ecstatic intensity on the unspeakable perfections of the 
 divine nature, is an attitude of mind, a conditioD of thought 
 and feeling, to which the high-caste Asian is prone, as from 
 elemental constitution. He is born a devotee, and finds in 
 the fervour of religious aspiration the only occupation tho- 
 roughly congenial to his devout and yet exalted spirit. Me- 
 ditation, emotion, affection, and passion, are all laid as sacri- 
 ficial offerings on the flaming altar, from whence the sweet 
 savour of this costly oblation ascends in fiery volumes to the 
 Highest. Whether we contemplate an Elijah purifying his 
 lower nature of its terrestrial dross, till earth seems no longer 
 a befitting residence for her supernal son, who accordingly 
 mounts fire-winged to his celestial home ; or behold a royal 
 David, now the slave of unbridled impulse, and then a God- 
 inspired bard, endowed with every attribute of the most ex- 
 alted genius, we in either case see a son of Israel, in whose 
 fervent soul the light of the Shechinah never dies, and on 
 whose lips the accents of devotion never lapse into silence. 
 
 Now of this specially characterized, and we might almost 
 say, sacred race, and of its sacerdotal tribe, came Flavius 
 Josephus, the distinguished subject of our present remarks. 
 Living after the commencement of the Christian era, it was 
 
25 
 
 his sad destiny to behold, and his melancholy privilege to 
 survive the final overthrow of his people, crushed beneath the 
 resistless weight of Roman power. Living thus in a season 
 of great and heart-rending calamity, his position, and the in- 
 fluences resulting from it, were very similar to those of the 
 older prophets, cotemporary with the captivity. He, too, 
 had seen the ploughshare pass over the ruins of the holy city, 
 and, as captive and exile, had wept over the destruction of 
 the temple, the cessation of sacrifice, and the abomination of 
 desolation even in the most holy .places. 
 
 Of all life- writing, autobiography should be the most inte- 
 resting and instructive ; when a veracious self- revelation, it is 
 so. The Ego has a centrality of position, for his outlook 
 to which none else can by possibility attain. Others may see 
 him best from without ; but he alone beholds himself from 
 within. Of his social relationships, they may be the most 
 accurate judges ; but of his spiritual affinities he alone can be 
 thoroughly cognisant. A true autobiography should furnish 
 us with the profounder sources of thought and more secret 
 springs of action in a career, which, contemplated from with- 
 out, would present only a series of effects. Every man knows 
 much of himself whereof others are necessarily ignorant. 
 Even of his external life, he has been the only ever present 
 eye- witness, while of that internal sphere, where passion, af- 
 fection, emotion, and thought, play their several parts, he 
 alone can afford an adequate, and therefore truthful reve- 
 lation. 
 
 Fortunately for our present purpose, Josephus has left us 
 an autobiography especially rich in materials illustrative of 
 the character and tendency of his interior existence. The 
 whole narrative is a fearless exposition of his peculiar self- 
 consciousness. Happily he lived in an age and came of a 
 people more favourable than our own to such faithfulness of 
 delineation. Hence he does not palter with the truth " for 
 fear of the folk." He is not ashamed of the whole matter. 
 Had he a dream subsequently fulfilled, a presentiment after- 
 wards verified, a vision which the course of events ultimately 
 
26 
 
 demonstrated to have been prophetic, he narrates it with 
 simplicity and directness, as one conscious of standing on the 
 everlasting foundation of fact. He is not meanly afraid of 
 the wonderful, and therefore introduces it without exculpa- 
 tory apologies or prefatory remarks. He and his contempo- 
 raries had not attained to that stage of advanced intelligence 
 which regards a living prophet as a doubtful character. To 
 him miracles were divine phenomena, whose occasional 
 recurrence involved no grave improbability. He did not 
 think that the mystic veil which divides this temple of 
 earth, with its million-fold worshippers, from the holy of 
 holies in heaven, was finally closed, never to be withdrawn. 
 To him God was a Person, not a mechanism ; a Being, not a 
 principle ; an omnipotent Spirit, not an impotent abstraction. 
 He believed in the Scriptures, not simply as a record of the 
 past, but as an earnest of the future, and saw no reason why 
 the experience of the older seers should not be renewed in 
 his own, and repeated in succeeding generations. 
 
 It is a somewhat notable fact, that, as prophets, few men 
 see the ground on which they stand : this, morally as well as 
 physically, is covered by their own feet. Thus it is no 
 uncommon thing for a seer to foretell the impending fate 
 both of nations and individuals, while yet utterly ignorant of 
 his own to-morrow. Casting supernal light on the future of 
 others, his own destiny remains involved in impenetrable 
 darkness. As a rule, vaticinatory gifts have but imper- 
 fectly conduced to the temporal welfare of their possessor. 
 Prophecy, indeed, seldom proves a marketable commodity ; 
 its sale is usually the sign, and, in some instances, perhaps the 
 cause, of its worthlessness. It is a loadstar in the sky, not a 
 lamp for the earth ; a heavenly beacon for the guidance of be- 
 wildered souls across the stormy seas of time, to their celestial 
 haven, not a horn -lantern wherewith to grope for an evening 
 through the common footpaths around our terrestrial dwel- 
 ling. The seer is usually poor, and not seldom unfortunate. 
 Misery is perhaps to the most a needful element. They are 
 conditioned by adversity as ships by ballast, and would utterly 
 
27 
 
 Jose their equilibrium without the weight of suffering to keep 
 them steady. 
 
 Now, to most of these specialities the career of Josephus 
 furnishes a remarkable and fortunate exception. His dreams 
 and visions were usually respecting his private affairs, or 
 those with which he was more immediately connected. They 
 were the aids, guides, and solaces of his earthly pilgrimage. 
 They directed him in difficulties, and sustained him under 
 affliction. Gifted, in no ordinary measure, with native talent 
 and energy, Qf an honourable family, and enjoying, moreover, 
 the advantages of a first-class education, he might by these 
 alone have achieved a distinguished position amidst the 
 tumults and civil wars of his native country ; but it was to 
 his vaticinatory powers, both vigilant and somnolent, and to 
 his intuitive and almost supersensuous insight, that he was 
 again and again indebted for escape from the most imminent 
 danger, and for victorious emergence from apparently the 
 most hopeless complication of irretrievable difficulties. Inves- 
 tigated scientifically, he possessed every claim to the epithet 
 of seer ; yet, perhaps, contemplated morally, he could not 
 well be termed a prophet. Subtle, refined, and penetrating, 
 his unrivalled readiness and acumen but too often degenerated 
 into Machiavellian craft in the management of public affairs. 
 Prompt and self-possessed in danger, his courage, that never 
 failed, was aided by an astuteness never deficient. Thua, 
 equal to all demands and competent to every crisis, he seems 
 to have been endowed with all the more important qualities 
 of chieftianship, and, perhaps, only wanted a more favourable 
 time, a more opportune combination of circumstances, to 
 have proved the deliverer of his country and the saviour of 
 his race. Even of his faults, many were doubtless due to the 
 fact that, as a military leader, his forces were too small for a 
 display of the grander elements of strategic genius, and 
 permitted only of those irregular movements and desultory 
 attacks which, are peculiar to guerilla warfare ; while, as a 
 statesman, his possession of power was too short, and the 
 area which he ruled too contracted, for aught but the con- 
 
28 
 
 trivance of temporising expediencies to meet pressing emer- 
 gencies, and the manifestation of vulpine cunning in dexter- 
 ously outwitting less acute and penetrating adversaries. 
 
 The following are the principal facts in the life of Josephus 
 which have a reference to our present purpose He was a 
 Hebrew of good descent, being not only of the sacerdotal 
 race, but his ancestors having, in more than one generation, 
 filled the exalted office of high priest, a dignity which, in their 
 day, implied not only ecclesiastical rank, but carried with it 
 also something of regal power. In addition to languages and 
 the other accomplishments of a gentlemanly education, it 
 would appear that he was also reared in a most careful study 
 of the law and the prophets, in which he seems to have made 
 such creditable proficiency, that at sixteen he was often con- 
 sulted by his seniors on difficult cases, and excelled every 
 rival in the legal acumen and logical precision of his answers. 
 About this time, however, his mind appears to have been 
 much exercised by the religious disputations then prevalent 
 among his countrymen, and he accordingly determined to 
 investigate the tenets and observe the practices of their 
 various sectarian divisions for himself. In the pursuit of this 
 object he expended nearly three years, living principally, it 
 would seem, among the Essenes, a distinguished body of 
 ascetics, devoted more especially to a mortification of the 
 body and an exaltation of the spirit, by solitude, fasting, 
 prayer, and habitual meditation on the attributes and perfec- 
 tions of the Deity. Prone, perhaps, from hereditary predis- 
 position, to constitutional ecstacy, the impressions which he 
 received and the discipline to which he was subjected among 
 these enthusiastic devotees must have powerfully tended to 
 develope into manifestation whatever latent elements of 
 lucidity existed in their susceptible and talented neophyte. 
 However this may have been, the moral and intellectual 
 effects of this training never wholly disappeared, its influence 
 being perceptible in the tone of thought and feeling prevalent 
 at every subsequent period of his life. To such an extent, 
 indeed, is the Essenic spirit observable in his writings, that 
 
29 
 
 some annotators have conjectured he must have been under 
 the tutelage of a disciple of John the Baptist. No such 
 speciality, however, need be predicated of his tuition, as John 
 himself was but an eminent example of the Essenic life of 
 devotion and self-denial; and the profoundly respectful terms 
 in which he is spoken of by Josephus, and the resemblance 
 which we find in the writings of the one to the teachings of 
 the other is to be accounted for by the fact of their belonging 
 to the same great school. That holy academy which, in the 
 predominance of hypocrisy and decline of faith, sought refuge 
 from the profanity of men in the purity of the desert, and 
 there, despite the profligate degeneracy of an untoward 
 generation, endeavoured to maintain somewhat of the fiery 
 zeal and fervent piety of the elder prophets. 
 
 On his return to Jerusalem at nineteen, he joined the 
 Pharisees, as the most strict and devout of the religious 
 bodies then in the Jewish capital. Still animated by the 
 spirit, and adhering so far to the practices of the Essenes as 
 to ensure a moral life, he appears to have been gradually 
 initiated into the management of public affairs, and, at a 
 comparatively early period, to have taken a prominent part 
 in the national councils. Here his superior native abilities, 
 combined with many other advantages, soon insured for him 
 a commanding position; and as, from a combination of 
 unfortunate circumstances, his countrymen were being irre- 
 sistibly precipitated into their last fatal revolt against Koman 
 power, he was compelled to take a leading part in their 
 unhappy rebellion, notwithstanding his having been propheti- 
 cally forewarned of the failure of their attempt, and the 
 ultimate triumph of their oppressors. Thus, when shut up 
 in the cave at Jotapata, " he called to mind the dreams which 
 he had dreamed in the night-time, whereby God had signi- 
 fied to him beforehand both the future calamities of the Jews, 
 and the events that concerned the Eoman Emperors." He 
 afterwards observes, speaking of himself in the third person, 
 u Now Josephus was able to give shrewd conjectures about 
 the interpretation of such dreams as have been ambiguously 
 
30 
 
 delivered by God." When in the cave at Jotapata, it also 
 appears that he fell into a lucid crisis, his words being, " and 
 just then he was in an ecstacy," as if this exalted condition of 
 thought and feeling, under which he was favoured with 
 vaticinatory revelations, were by no means uncommon with 
 him. While thus entranced, he commenced a fervent prayer, 
 during which the mode whereby his life might be saved ap- 
 pears to have been communicated to him- Shut up with forty 
 of the bravest -of the Jews, who determined to die rather than 
 surrender, he proposed that they should cast lots whereby the 
 order of their death shouldbe decided as by divine appointment. 
 In this way thirty-eight of these resolute patriots perished by 
 mutual slaughter ; and when only Josephus and another were 
 left, the former persuaded the latter to surrender with him to 
 the Romans. It would seem either that he had a clear pre- 
 vision how the lots would fall, or his clairvoyance enabled 
 him to select the one which conduced to his safety. It is 
 certain that from the commencement of the siege he knew he 
 should not die, for he informs us, " I did foretell to the pecple 
 of Jotapata that they should be taken on the forty-seventh 
 day, and that I should be caught alive by the Romans/ 1 
 Neither was his lucidity confined wholly to Jewish affairs : 
 for after his . captivity, when Vespasian was about to send 
 him to Nero, he remonstrated with him on the needlessness 
 of such a procedure, informing him of the short period which 
 the tvrant had to reign, and of his (Vespasian's) early exalta- 
 tion to the purple, an annunciation, the fulfilment of which 
 seems to have secured him the protection and patronage of 
 the imperial family to the end of his life. It would also seem 
 that he must have been to some extent endowed with that 
 power of resistance to physical injury which we occasionally 
 find as an accompaniment of the higher forms of ecstacy. For 
 when his angry followers surrounded, with the intention of 
 killing him, in the cave at Jotapata, he tells us, « their swords 
 dropped out of their hands, and not a few of them there 
 S were who, when they aimed to smite him with their swords, 
 they were not thoroughly either able or willing to do it." 
 
31 
 
 Such, then, are some of the principal facts illustrative of 
 the ecstatic condition of the Jewish historian. Now, what is 
 the explanation which we are prepared to give of these mar- 
 vels ? What is the solution which mesmerism can afford of 
 these seeming wonders ? Josephus was a Jew — one of a race 
 whose whole history indicates a strong proclivity to seerdom. 
 He was, moreover, of the sacerdotal tribe, and hence, pos- 
 sibly, inherited a special tendency to exalted theosophic 
 meditation. While individually, if we may judge from his 
 portraits, he was of superior organization and refined tem- 
 perament, the features being high and regular, and both the 
 head and face of the purest Caucasian type. Highly educated 
 as a Jew, the tendency of his culture would be to direct his 
 attention to the sacred writings, and evoke in him a peculiar 
 reverence for the prophetic office and character ; while his 
 ascetic discipline under the Essenes could not fail to develope 
 whatever seeds of vaticination might be latent in his nature. 
 By the events of his subsequent life as the military leader 
 of a hopeless rebellion, exalted by success, depressed by 
 defeat, continually exposed to mortal peril, both from war 
 and assassination, a general to-day and a captive to-morrow, 
 every faculty must have been evoked, and every suscepti • 
 bility aroused to the uttermost. Even an ordinary man 
 would, under such exciting circumstances, have been favoured 
 with occasional and subsequently verified presentiments ; and 
 it is no wonder, therefore, that, in a character constituted 
 like that of Josephus, with such hereditary predispositions 
 and such personal antecedents, the presentient tendency 
 should eventually have ripened into previsional ecstasy. It 
 was the career of a prophet operating on an intellect too subtle 
 and tortuous, and perhaps too artificially cultured for a free 
 transmission of supernal effluence. Or, if disposed to be more 
 lenient to the man, then must we be proportionately severe 
 on his age, and say that here were the constitutional elements 
 and individual experiences, that, in the olden times of unwav- 
 ering faith and heroic devotion, might have ripened into per- 
 fect seerdom, with its exalted mission and grave responsibili- 
 
32 
 
 ties ; but which in the decay of national spirit, and decline of 
 ancestral zeal, simply eventuated in a few remarkably fulfilled 
 dreams and predictions. The whole tenor of the life of Jo- 
 sephus, although known to us through the favourable medium 
 of a self-revelation, demonstrates that he stood morally be- 
 neath the plane of olden prophetic vision. The childlike sim- 
 plicity, the trusting faith, the fervent devotion, and the utter 
 self-oblivion of better and purer times is nowhere to be found. 
 For which, indeed, a miserable combination of Jewish cun- 
 ning with Greek astuteness, constitute but too obviously the 
 wretched succedaoeum. The age of Hebrew prophecy was 
 passed. The spiritual wholeness and religious integrity of the 
 people had departed. The life of their once-exalted faith had 
 ceased, the formalities of Phariseeism had eaten its bloom 
 like a canker ; the infidelity of Sadduceeism was feeding like 
 a worm on its putrid corpse. Josephus was born too late for the 
 hiah and holy office of sacred prophecy, and so he fulfilled the 
 inferior demands of profane vaticination. The heavenly voice 
 of seerdom uttering its divine annunciations, or pleading in 
 tones of celestial eloquence with an erring people, had sunk 
 into silence for centuries, with all who, like himself, acknow- 
 ledged the rightful supremacy of the Sanhedrim, and of its 
 reappearance, under a new dispensation, in renovated strength, 
 amidst the mountains of Galilee ; and, in more than pristine 
 splendour, on the lonely isle of Patmos, he seems to have re- 
 ceived but the faintest echo of intimation. 
 
 No. 4. Apollonius Tyanaeus. 
 
 The great and good are a sacred harvest yielded by the ages 
 to the Divine Husbandman. The arch-heresy is denial and 
 condemnation of another's faith. Whoso proclaims the God 
 of his brother a devil, the same is a blasphemer. All heaven- 
 ward desires are holy aspirations. Prayer and praise need 
 no specific forms for their acceptance. There is a charity 
 
33 
 
 without which zeal, the most ardent, is but a blind fanaticism; 
 and devotion, the most fervent, but a gross superstition. 
 Why should branches of the same tree envy each other the 
 breath and the light of heaven. Stars may differ from each 
 other in brightness, and yet be loving brothers in glory. 
 Unity may be predicated of the Deity ; but diversity is the 
 characteristic of his creation. Every zone has its flowers, 
 and every clime its products. Of all follies the bloody 
 necromancy of a coercive inquisition is the most insane. 
 Bind men's souls in chains of adamant, girdle them ever so 
 closely with stringent forms of thought and action, and yet 
 the simple principle of growth shall in due time burst these 
 restrictive bonds, as the lightning rives the oak, or the 
 earthquake rends the temple. 
 
 We have been led into these remarks by the long injustice 
 which has been done the subject of our present observations. 
 Of all the great masterspirits produced under classic culture, 
 none loom out upon us with more of mystic grandeur than 
 the mighty Tyanaean. In their respective departments 
 many sages and philosophers were doubtless his equals, and 
 some, perhaps, his superiors ; but in variety and extent of 
 attainment, in exaltation of sentiment, in purity of life, and 
 in thaumaturgic potentiality united, no one, save Pythagoras, 
 even remotely approaches to him. In no other do we find 
 so beautiful a union of the saint and the sage in one person. 
 In none else are the two grand attributes of humanity, moral 
 excellence, and intellectual power so harmoniously blended. 
 A devoted student and an extensive traveller, combining the 
 wisdom of the closet with a practical knowledge of mankind, 
 Apollonius was both a profound scholar and an accomplished 
 gentleman. Living at a period when Roman dominancy had 
 broken down the independent and opposing nationalities of a 
 former period, and yet when the olden currents of thought 
 and knowledge flowed on unbroken, he was enabled to visit 
 every shrine and school of note and study in every library of 
 importance throughout the civilized world. If any one mind 
 can be said to have gathered up into itself the literary and 
 
 C 
 
34 
 
 scientific, the occult and philosophic lore of the entire past, 
 Apollonius is the being who seems most nearly to have accom- 
 plished this superhuman feat. He was the ripened result of 
 classic antiquity's long-continued culture. An exalted speci- 
 men of humanity, raised up as by Providence, to show what 
 that mighty phase of civilisation, then about to perish, could 
 accomplish under favourable circumstances and on a pecu- 
 liarly gifted subject. 
 
 The jealousy once entertained towards Apollonius as the 
 rival of Christ, seems now to have ceased. It never could 
 have existed save among those who regard his miracles as 
 the chief evidence of the Messiahship of Jesus. It is an idea, 
 moreover, which does great injustice to the Tyanaean, who, 
 notwithstanding the purity of his life and the number of his 
 thaumaturgic achievements, laid no claim to religious leader- 
 ship, and made no attempt to refound or reconstitute the 
 faith of mankind. More receptive than radiative — pro- 
 foundly impressionable yet not vigorously creative — en- 
 dowed with every faculty for the acquisition of varied 
 learning, yet devoid of that plastic power which shapes the 
 ages to its will, he left no footprints on the everlasting rocks, 
 and built no living temple of ideas as his monumentwni perennius 
 aere. He was, as we have said, simply the summation of 
 heathenism, the culminating point of idolatry's noblest cul- 
 ture,— -a man to whose edification all antiquity had contri- 
 buted — in whose all-comprehensive grasp of intellect every 
 known system of theosophy and philosophy had found its 
 appropriate place, yet on whom the Logos had never brooded, 
 the dove of promise had never descended. If prophet and 
 hierophant, he most assuredly came to a world that afforded 
 no befitting response to his invocation, and yielded no harvest 
 proportionate to his labours. But, in truth, he came not so 
 commissioned, the far mighter work of recreation having been 
 already performed by Him who was laid a helpless babe in 
 the manger at Bethlehem ; and all that remained for the 
 world-renowned Tyanaean was, like some brightly illumined 
 and gorgeously tinted cloud of the west, to o'ercanopy the 
 
35 
 
 setting sun of polytheism, and shine with the grandly re- 
 flected splendour of his departing radiance,— a vision of sur- 
 passing yet waning glory, — the wonder and admiration of all 
 who could revere the venerable greatness of a faded royalty, 
 —the majesty of a king, mightily descending like all the time- 
 born to his ancestral resting-place. 
 
 Heathenism, indeed, is rather a vague accusation.. Appli- 
 cable to the faith of Socrates the wisest and Plato the 
 sublimest of ancient teachers, it is also used by modern mis- 
 sionaries to designate the grovelling fetishism of the negro, 
 and the degraded hero-worship of the low caste Hindoo. 
 Like Gentilism with the Jews, it is our generic appellation 
 for all creeds fundamentally different from our own. As- 
 suming that, in all ages and at every stage of development, 
 it was wrong, we have been accustomed to regard it as one 
 vast system of error in doctrine and evil in practice. Con- 
 templating it from our own especial platform in time, we 
 have beheld only its aspect in decay, and, while gazing on its 
 ruins, have wondered how the great, and good, and pure of 
 other times could gather round its altar's and assemble within 
 • its temples. We forget that this, too, like all other majestic 
 decrepitudes, had once its youth of beauty and maturity of 
 vigour ; that it once shone radiant with the light of morning, 
 and was gloriously apparelled in meridian splendour, with an 
 admiring and believing world reverentially attendant upon its 
 triumphant march. Like ungrateful heirs, while luxuriating 
 in the almost boundless wealth of our inheritance, we have 
 ridiculed the infirmities, and affected to despise the senile 
 weakness, of our noble and departed ancestor. Classic an- 
 tiquity was a magnificently designed picture, finished in all 
 its parts with unapproachable excellence, where the faultless 
 figures of Olympian gods were outlined by master hands, and 
 every accessory was thrown in with matchless skill and taste. 
 Let us not be too harsh in our judgment of that constitution 
 of things which produced an Iliad and a Phaedo, a Par- 
 thenon and a Jove, and under whose tuition were formed 
 those heroic and masculine generations of whose more choice 
 
36 
 
 exemplars Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos have left us such 
 admirable and awe-inspiring portraits. The men of antiquity 
 are a sufficient response to every slander uttered upon its 
 institutions and its creed. " By their fruits shall ye know 
 them." Miltiades and Cimon, Cato and Brutus, are not the 
 possible offspring of hopeless and irremediable corruption. 
 These morally robust and exalted natures indicate that the 
 influences which formed them could not be wholly unfavour- 
 able and deteriorating. Let the literature and art which 
 have been our unchallenged models for two thousand years 
 plead powerfully with us for a favourable verdict. Such a 
 harvest most assuredly demonstrates that the seed whence it 
 was grown and the conditions under which it was raised were 
 not altogether unsuitable. 
 
 The following are the principal facts connected with the 
 career of Apollonius which have a reference to the subject of 
 our present work. And it should be remembered that, how- 
 ever extraordinary some of them may appear, they were 
 generally accredited by his contemporaries and their imme- 
 diate posterity. He was born of wealthy parents at Tyana,— 
 his father, said to have been also named Apollonius, being of 
 an ancient and honourable family. From childhood he was 
 remarkable for beauty and intelligence, for the gentleness and 
 docility of his manners, and for the aptness and pertinence of 
 his responses. At an early period he was provided with 
 learned and accomplished tutors, to whose instructions and 
 leadership he passively submitted till he was sixteen years ot 
 age, when he decided on following the Pythagorean doctrine 
 and mode of life. He studied first at Tarsus and afterwards 
 at ^Egas, becoming at the latter place acquainted with all the 
 various schools of philosophy,— at the same time frequenting 
 the temple of ^sculapius, with whose priests he seems to 
 have been an especial favourite, and in connexion with 
 whose fane his first clairvoyant capabilities were manifested. 
 These seem to have been developed soon after his adoption 
 of that peculiar diet and dress by which he conformed to the 
 strictest rules of Oriental ascetism. His deliberate choice of 
 
37' 
 
 such a system was, in all probability, due to the promptings 
 of an exalted nature, urged by its higher instincts to a course 
 of purity and virtue, in direct opposition to the degrading 
 sensuality and indulgence then almost everywhere prevalent. 
 Such systematic self-denial, consisting in an habitual mortifi- 
 cation of the lower or animal nature, with all its grosser ten- 
 dencies and desires, must have proved especially favourable 
 to the manifestation of ecstatic lucidity, more particularly in 
 one who, from aboriginal constitution — that is, by structure 
 and temperament — was, even previously to any such disci- 
 pline, so refined, so spiritual, and so gifted. 
 
 If we are to trust tradition, iEsculapius himself so approved 
 of Apollonius, that patients coming to the temple were 
 directed, by dreams and otherwise, to consult him ; and, 
 after doing so, were, if they followed his directions, cured 
 of their ailments. This was especially the case with an 
 Assyrian youth who was thus relieved of dropsy. In 
 other instances he, by clairvoyant intuition, discovered the 
 circumstances which had conduced to the disease or pro- 
 duced the defect under which the patient laboured, and 
 which, from some sinister motive, was kept secret even from 
 the priests. In this way he informed a wealthy Cilician of 
 the manner in which he had lost an eye. It is no wonder 
 that, after such achievements, he should have become exten- 
 sively famous — not only the multitude, but persons of distinc- 
 tion coming to him in great numbers, while even crowned 
 heads did not disdain to hold epistolary correspondence with 
 the rare and distinguished youth who was so deservedly a 
 favourite both with gods and men. Young, beautiful, and 
 rich, he was addicted to no vice and prone to no indulgence. 
 Neither was he contented to be virtuous alone, but exerted 
 himself successfully for the reclamation of an abandoned 
 brother, and for the reformation of many profligate relatives 
 and friends. Nor, in achieving these commendable results, 
 was he sparing of his patrimony, sharing it liberally with 
 those of his kinsmen who had impoverished themselves by 
 luxury and intemperance. 
 
38 
 
 After rigidly observing the five years' silence, dictated by 
 the old Pythagorean rules of initiation, he determined on 
 visiting India and conversing with the Brahmins, — passing 
 through Babylon, and acquiring whatever knowledge was 
 obtainable from the magi of that ancient and renowned seat 
 of learning and science. It was while on this journey that he 
 met with Damis, who subsequently became his disciple and 
 biographer, — being apparently one ol those worshipful spirits 
 who are peculiarly susceptible to the magnetic influence of 
 such master minds as the lofty Tyanean, and who seem to be 
 especially appointed and set apart as their faithful followers 
 and historians. From one of his early conversations with 
 this devout recipient of his doctrines, it would seem that 
 Apollonius was a thought-reader, if not, to some extent, also 
 endowed with the gift of tongues. For when the former 
 stated that he might perhaps be of some use to his master as 
 he understood Armenian, Median, and Persian, the latter 
 replied, " My friend, I am well skilled in all these, notwith- 
 standing I never learned any one of them ; do not wonder 
 that I profess to understand all the languages of men, for I 
 can tell even those things which they conceive in their very 
 thought." Here we have the powers of a high ecstatic, 
 whose lucidity extends to the interior sphere of other beings, 
 who are thus perfectly diaphanous to him — revealing their 
 experiences and cognitions to his spiritual insight as clearly 
 as their features and costume to his sensuous observation. 
 This condition appears to have been habitual with Apollonius ; 
 so that he seems to have seen and read, to their profoundest 
 depths, all the variously constituted and diversely disciplined 
 individuals with whom his extensive travels and lengthened 
 life brought him successively in contact. Such a perusal of 
 the living volumes of humanity, far transcending that of the 
 most experienced confessor, could not fail to add alike to the 
 knowledge and wisdom of such a mind, so peculiarly adapted 
 to receive the good and reject the evil likely to accrue from 
 the exercise of so tremendous a prerogative. If ever fallible 
 man was endowed with the angelic purity that resists all 
 
39 
 
 contamination, and to whom, consequently familiarity with 
 vice may prove innocuous, here was an instance. From his 
 lofty watch-tower of impregnable virtue Apollonius appears 
 to have regarded the weaknesses and follies of mankind with 
 the feelings and sentiments of a superior being inaccessible 
 to the temptations besetting inferior and more weakly con- 
 stituted natures. Not that he was devoid of either the anti- 
 pathies or sympathies of his species, and while beholding 
 wickedness and lies with detestation, he contemplated good- 
 ness and truth with fully proportionate admiration and warmth 
 of approval. 
 
 Of his farther journey to India many surprising stories are 
 narrated, chiefly on the authority of his devoted companion 
 Damis, who must, in virtue of his Oriental descent, be allowed 
 a certain latitude for Eastern hyperbole and exaggeration. 
 Still after every deduction enough remains to show that Apol- 
 lonius was a most extraordinary man, not only to those who 
 regarded him reverentially at a distance and through the mag- 
 nifying light of his world-wide fame, but also to those who 
 lived in habits of daily and familiar intercourse with him, and 
 who, consequently, had every opportunity of observing his 
 errors and detecting his pretences had the smallest element of 
 the sham and charlatan existed in his nature. He who could 
 come forth from such an ordeal, the most worshipful to those 
 who knew him best, must assuredly have had veracity at the 
 basis of his being ; nor could his inner or outer life have been 
 other than an earnest endeavour to climb the excelsior path 
 of virtue and integrity. 
 
 Like most highly spiritualized natures, Apollonius was 
 prone to analogical modes of reasoning and tuition. In him 
 this was the result of that penetrating insight, whereby he 
 knew not only the apparent but real nature of men, animals, 
 plants, and things, and through which he read at a glance 
 « the open secret " of universal being. This seems to have 
 given him an especial aptitude for that occult branch of 
 ancient lore— the interpretation of dreams-in which he is 
 said to have manifested peculiar skill. Neither was he with- 
 
40 
 
 out some rather remarkable nocturnal presentiments of this 
 kind in his own individual experience, which it seems he 
 occasionally narrated to his companions, not simply for their 
 amusement, but rather as a means of testing their capacity 
 for the solution of such refined enigmas,— as, after hearing their 
 misinterpretations, he would correct their errors, and reveal 
 to them the true signification of such somnolent communica- 
 tions. Of these Damis left many interesting notices on record, 
 some of which have been preserved for us by Philostratus, 
 whose biography of the illustrious Tyanaean reads in many 
 passages, more like the life of an eastern prophet than a 
 classic philosopher. Nor was he less an adept in augury,— 
 the various incidents of travel furnishing him with hints as to 
 coming events, of which he was not slow to avail himself, 
 rather, it would appear, for the instruction and encouragement 
 of his followers, than for his own requirements. He in all 
 probability, indeed, saw the import independently of the sign, 
 needing indeed no such imperfect foreshadowments of com- 
 ing events for a due cognition of their outline and general 
 character. 
 
 While in India he appears to have carefully studied the 
 Brahminical theosophy, for which his previous acquaintance 
 with the Pythagorean system must have especially prepared 
 him. On his return he still continued his pursuit of knowledge, 
 visiting the various shrines and cities where learned men 
 either of the sacerdotal or philosophic order might be found. 
 At times he became himself a teacher, assembling round him 
 a circle of ingenious youth, like those who, centuries before, 
 had listened to the revelations of Pythagoras and the wisdom 
 of Plato. He also practised the art ef healing, and is said to 
 have wrought many surprising cures with a facility quite in- 
 credible to all but those acquainted with the Hygienic marvels 
 that follow the labours of a naturally gifted mesmerist wield- 
 ing his innate power with skill and experience. So great was 
 his fame in this respect, that being sent for to Ephesus, where 
 a pestilence was raging, it is said to have ceased at his 
 presence. Combining clairvoyance with this healing faculty, 
 
41 
 
 he on one occasion perceived that a young woman, whose 
 funeral procession was passing by, was not dead but only in 
 a trance ; he stopped the cavalcade of mourners, restored her 
 to consciousness, and she returned home to her astonished 
 and overjoyed parents. His lucidity gave him at times im- 
 mediate cognition of events taking place at a distance. Thus, 
 while at Ephesus, he saw the assassination of Domitian, with 
 all the detailed circumstances attending the death of the 
 tyrant. The phenomenon of a double presence is also re- 
 ported to have been occasionally manifested by him ; so that 
 he has been seen in different places at the same time. This 
 apparition of his eidolon was in all probability only percep- 
 tible by a few favourite disciples or other persons more or 
 less en rapport with him, and would indicate both their sus- 
 ceptibility and his intense abstraction. 
 
 In all this the experienced mesmerist will find nothing 
 transcending the laws of nature,— the facts, when duly ex- 
 plained, falling within the category of known and admitted 
 phenomena. Apollonius was obviously a man far more than 
 ordinarily endowed with nervous power. All accounts agree 
 that his organization Was of the highest type of refined tem- 
 perament and powerful cerebral structure. His energies were 
 never wasted in profligacy, his ideas never dissipated in folly. 
 His whole life was one long edification. His culture extended 
 to the passional and moral as well as the intellectual portion 
 of his nature. His every act was one of beneficence, and 
 his every thought a portion of that exalted train of medita- 
 tion by which his entire being was gradually sanctified and 
 spiritualized. That such a person, if prone to lucidity, would 
 possess it in a very high degree, is what might be expected — 
 his extraordinary faculties of insight and vaticination being- 
 such as an acquaintance with mesmerism would lead us to 
 anticipate. Nor is it at all surprising that his influence 
 should have been peculiarly soothing and beneficial to the 
 sick. His emanations could not fail to partake of the angelic 
 purity of his character, the delicacy of his structure, and the 
 intensity of his inner life. They were the aura of a being 
 
42 
 
 who, both in quality and power, fat transcended the ordinary 
 range of humanity, and who could not fail, therefore, to pro- 
 duce results impossible to an inferior operator. In addition 
 to these, his inherent endowments, it should be remembered 
 that Apollonius also possessed the traditional lore of the 
 (Esclepiadae, that ancienf school of mystic and mesmeric 
 healers, of whom from his early youth he was an initiated and 
 favourite disciple. The mere fact, however, that he united 
 clairvoyant and operator in one person will go far to explain 
 both the rapidity and certainty of his cures. He thus knew 
 both the seat and nature of the disease, and could not fail in 
 the right application of the remedy ; while he was at the same 
 time saved the mortification of failure by his intuition of im- 
 possibility in hopeless cases. His staying the pestilence was 
 probably due to his knowledge of the laws of health as a 
 physician, rather than his power as a mesmerist ; or, as it 
 occurred only once in his life, it may have been one of those 
 fortunate coincidences to which scepticism is so prone to 
 resort as a ready solution of the wonderful. His vision at a 
 distance was simply second sight — a manifestation of spon- 
 taneous clairvoyance with which men have been in all ages 
 more or less familiar. His gift of tongues was probably a 
 phenomenon of thought-reading, of which we have many 
 instances among mesmerised lucides, who understand what 
 is said to them in a language of which they are ignorant in 
 their waking state, accomplishing this probably not by 
 cognition of the sign but perception of the meaning. There 
 appears, however, on rare occasions, to be a degree of 
 lucidity so clear, or of interspheration so profound, that the 
 seer or somnambule is enabled to use a language of which, 
 in his normal condition, he is ignorant. His double presence, 
 like that of Pythagoras, was doubtless similar to the dopple 
 gangers of the Germans, and to those wraiths and fetches 
 which constitute so important a feature in the legends of 
 English superstition. 
 
 Thus pure in his life and exalted in his aspirations, his 
 existence was spent in the pursuit of truth and the practice 
 
43 
 
 of virtue, in the communication of knowledge and the per- 
 formance of charity. It may be truly said of him that he 
 went about doing good, dissipating ignorance and removing 
 suffering, his object being, by precept and example, to raise 
 men above the dominion of their passions, and give their 
 higher and human a predominance over their lower and 
 animal nature. In this great and heroic endeavour he was 
 so far successful, as to be rightly accounted the noblest of the 
 later heathens. A man so grandly exceptional was, of 
 necessity, an object of admiration to his contemporaries, and 
 of reverence to posterity. During his life princes sought his 
 converse, that they might obtain wisdom from his responses ; 
 and after his death temples were erected and emperors paid 
 divine honours to his memory. He became a tradition, of 
 which declining heathenism was justly proud, and so, per- 
 haps, looms out upon us through the magnifying medium of 
 that nimbus wherewith fame loves to encircle the more emi- 
 nent of her favourite children. But after every allowance 
 for this which the severest criticism can justly demand, a 
 glorious reality remains,— the fact of a great, good, wise, self- 
 denying, and spiritually-minded man, whose excelsior march 
 to his hundredth year was ever upwards and onwards, in 
 whom the wisdom of the sage and the virtue of the saint 
 were combined with the insight of the seer, at whose touch 
 disease disappeared, and to whose prayerful intercession for 
 the sick health was vouchsafed as a response. 
 
 The mean jealousy that would unjustly derogate from his 
 merits, and the misplaced fear that would tremble at his 
 rivalry, need now have no place in our estimate of his cha- 
 racter. He left no doctrine which can displace the truths 
 bequeathed. to us by the still greater who sealed His testi- 
 mony on the cross at Calvary. The early Christians, sur- 
 rounded by a dominant though waning paganism, may be 
 excused for a tender anxiety lest the glory of their rising 
 faith should be temporarily obscured by the dazzling splen- 
 dour of this heathen luminary ; but from our vantage-ground 
 we can contemplate the career of the Tyanaean without pre- 
 
u 
 
 judice or anxiety, and, in passing a calm and unperverted 
 judgment on Apollonius, we must confess he was one of the 
 best and most gifted of the sons of men. He lacked, indeed, 
 but one element of the highest greatness and most exalted 
 spirituality attainable by our race— he was not the sorrow- 
 crowned. The thorns of care had never penetrated his lofty 
 brow, and agony of the deepest had never pierced his bleed- 
 ing heart. He was, in personal experience, comparatively a 
 stranger to suffering. His path through life was on the 
 sunny slopes, — the terrible sublimities of the valley of the 
 shadow being unknown to him, apparently, even by report. 
 Hence there were depths in our nature which he had never 
 sounded, requirements of which he had never heard, suscep- 
 tibilities of which he was ignorant, and possibilities to which, 
 with all his insight and acquirements, he was an utter stranger. 
 Thus it is obvious his lucidity had its limits, and his cognitions 
 their boundaries. He was great, but not the greatest; wise, 
 but not the wisest — one whom we may safely regard, not 
 with fear but respect, and whose powers and achievements 
 we should contemplate, not with jealousy but admiration. 
 
 No. 5. MahoiMET, 
 Or, Mohammed Ibn Abdallah, the Arabian prophet, a noble 
 son of the Koreish, and founder of the faith of Islam, pro- 
 mulgating a creed and code which have been for twelve 
 hundred years the temporal guide and eternal pole-star of 
 one hundred and twenty millions of our race, — this gifted and 
 extraordinary man has been, till lately, regarded as little else 
 than a cunning quack and successful impostor. Simple in 
 his habits, warm in his affections, generous in his impulses, 
 and enthusiastic in his feelings, he united with these great 
 and ennobling moral qualities those rare gifts of a creative 
 intellect that ever 6tamp their possessor with the highest 
 attributes of genius. Dwelling apart from the undistinguished 
 multitude in an interior sphere of lofty aspiration and beatific 
 vision, he could with facility descend from this towering alti- 
 
45 
 
 tude to the commonest duties and most kindly relationships of 
 life, — affording that best of homilies on the dignity of labour, 
 its cheerful and voluntary performance by himself, and 
 giving that highest of all sanctions to the obligations of 
 friendship, and the heartfelt affections of the household, by 
 his assiduous discharge of the duties of the former, and his 
 indubitable manifestation of all the sympathies of the latter. 
 As he was constitutionally devout, religion was a primal 
 necessity of his higher nature. Idealistic in the cast of his 
 genius, his entire life was an acted epic. Earnest and truthful, 
 he abhorred lies as death. At once kindly in his disposition 
 and honourable in his sentiments, he could be both just and 
 charitable. Generous and forgiving to his merely personal 
 foes, he was, like most high- wrought natures, stern to a 
 fault in the prosecution of that great enterprise to which he 
 had committed himself with all the zeal of an enthusiast and 
 the commanding energy of a prophet. 
 
 Such was Mahomet— a man, under every point of view, 
 one of nature's proudest nobles, who might have been a 
 fanatic, but could never have been a trickster,— a being as 
 incomprehensible to the sceptical historian of the eighteenth 
 as to the superstitious monk of the eighth century. Of such 
 men, happily, the world is never altogether devoid, but it is 
 not in every age that they become commissioned. 
 
 And this man, we repeat it, was an ecstatic, a visionary, 
 a seer, a lucid, a clairvoyant— in short, a prophet. The cave 
 at Mecca was his shrine, solitary meditation the energizing 
 process by which the crisis was induced, and the visits of the 
 archangel Gabriel the subjective form uuder which he com- 
 muned with his higher self. Epileptic in his earlier years, 
 he appears to have been ever morbidly susceptible to nervous 
 exaltations and depressions. Profoundly imaginative, his 
 thoughts were ever embodied in scenic presentations, and the 
 conclusion of a syllogism became to him the symbolic vision 
 of wrapt ecstasy. Profoundly devotional in his feelings, and 
 spiritually exalted in his meditations, neither the grosser ido- 
 latry nor sublime Sabeism of his less enlightened countrymen 
 
46 
 
 could satisfy the irrepressible yearnings of his soul after a 
 purer faith and higher life than then existed among the 
 Arabian Sheiks and their followers, who had preserved, 
 amidst the profligate licentiousness and decadent glories of 
 many successive empires, all the simplicity and much of the 
 fervour of the Hebrew patriarchy. Disgusted with the for- 
 malities of the Jew, and the ill-veiled idolatry of the Greek 
 Christian, this great soul, pitiably dark in all that related to 
 merely human learning, but illumined within by that bright- 
 ness which is never vouchsafed but to prophet-born messen- 
 gers of the truth, felt himself at last vocationed to the mighty 
 task of originating and promulgating a new faith. The in- 
 ternal processes of his mind in the evolution of this great 
 idea, his subjective experiences, however mysterious or ab- 
 normal they may at first seem, are easily explicable by the 
 practised mesmerist, who cannot fail to recognise in every 
 peculiarity of this extraordinary man the distinctive features 
 of a natural seer of the very highest order. Mahomet, in 
 brief, was an ecstatic of genius, and as such the interpretation 
 of his character and career becomes comparatively easy. He 
 was a phenomenon, rare we grant, but neither unique nor 
 exceptional He was one of a class ; and his appearance, so 
 far from violating any law of nature, did but afford a mag- 
 nificent illustration of that great truth which the world will 
 yet have to receive, — that the vast ideas whose promulgation 
 constitutes an epoch have ever been committed to men, 
 not merely of great ability, of sound judgment, of far-seeing 
 prudence, of consummate tact, and of profound thought, 
 but, above all, of a vivid and creative imagination, rendered 
 in their case subservient to the aspirations of an ardently 
 devotional moral nature, and so acting with an energy to 
 which merely poetic inspiration can never attain. The phi- 
 losopher may speculate and the bard may idealize, and the 
 system of the former and the epic of the latter may be ad- 
 mired and studied when^the tide of thirty centuries shall 
 have swept over the tomb of their author, but it is the 
 prophet alone who can create, who can evolve those forms of 
 
47 
 
 thought which, penetrating into the innermost depths of 
 being, become enthroned in the conscience and constitute a 
 medium through which the subsequent generations have to 
 contemplate their relationship both to time and eternity. 
 Such a man, we repeat, was Mahomet, the fiery, earnest, 
 energetic and enthusiastic visionary of the desert, whose 
 spiritualized veneration made him the first of Iconocjasts, 
 but whose ardent passions left him the victim of polygamy. 
 And who, in his strength and his weakness, in his exalted 
 adoration, his stern justice, his kindly charity, his burning 
 zeal, and his licentious profligacy, stamped his personal im- 
 press so indelibly on his multitudinous converts that to this 
 day every true Mussulman is a son of the Koreish in petto, 
 a Mahomet in miniature, who, with the Koran in one hand 
 and the sword in the other, would be but too happy to go 
 forth conquering and to conquer, either returning for solace 
 to the houris of this world, or ascending as a martyred 
 warrior to the blooming bowers and fadeless beauties of his 
 sensually symbolical paradise above. 
 
 Lest the reader should think we have been too general in 
 the foregoing remarks, we will subjoin, in a condensed form, 
 the principal facts connected with the life of Mahomet that 
 may serve to illustrate and confirm them. He was an Arab 
 of noble lineage and pure blood ; a high caste member of 
 that Semetic family to whom the theological mission has been 
 so especially given. Racially allied to the Hebrew prophets, 
 he manifested all their fervour, and much of their spirituality. 
 More tlian ordinarily gifted with the exalted moral and intel- 
 lectual qualities of his great brotherhood, he rose superior to 
 the traditional faith of his age and country, and aspired, aa 
 by the native instinct of a grander nature, to the develop- 
 ment of some higher form of adoration than that which pre- 
 vailed around him. Handsome in person, of high nervo- 
 fibrous and slightly sanguineous temperament, his lofty and 
 expanded forehead, projecting at the temples,* affords to the 
 
 * " Extremum frontis latus supra iempora prominent exporrectum," 
 
48 
 
 phrenologist the sure indication ol a poetic structure, of a 
 dreamy and idealistic mental constitution. In his earlier 
 years, ere the Koran was revealed to him, " he was occasion- 
 ally seized," says Dr Gustav Weil, " with a violent trem- 
 bling, followed by a kind of swoon, or rather convulsion, 
 during which perspiration would stream from his forehead in 
 the coldest weather ; he would lie with his eyes closed, foam- 
 ing at the mouth, and bellowing like a young camel." Now 
 it is a well-known fact that many epileptic persons have spon- 
 taneously exhibited symptoms of clairvoyance, and many 
 others have developed lucidity when under mesmeric treat- 
 ment. The account of his visit to heaven reveals in the 
 clearest manner possible the fact that it was an ecstatic vision, 
 — an interior revelation, and not an external experience — a 
 mental and not a corporeal journey. It began when a water 
 pitcher was upset, and it ended ere the contents were alto- 
 gether spilled. This lightning rapidity of thought is occa- 
 sionally manifested even under artificially induced lucidity. 
 There is also an anecdote which seems to indicate that his 
 face was occasionally radiant with even more than the intel- 
 ligence of genius, and that it shone with the odic luminosity 
 of ecstatic seerdom. It seems that the poet Abu Kaber had 
 written a piece on this glorious phenomenon, which, however, 
 in some moment of depression, had disappeared from the 
 countenance of the prophet as he sat in moody silence with 
 his young wife Ayesha, who thereupon rallied and recalled 
 the agonized and temporarily desponding visionary to 
 himself. 
 
 Have we not here, then, some additional light, from the 
 lamp of science, thus thrown on the mental and phvsical 
 constitution of this extraordinary man? Are we not thus 
 enabled to more clearly apprehend the basis of original cha- 
 racter and proclivity, on which in after years was erected the 
 magnificent superstructure of a prophetic mission. A being 
 less earnest and concentrated would have sunk into idiotcy 
 
 gays Abulfeda, the Arabian historian, who flourished from 1273— 1331 a.D., 
 and whose works were published at Oxford, in Arabic and Latin, in 1723. 
 
49 
 
 under his epileptic attacks, or would have raved into insanity 
 under his subsequent visions. But to this man, as to some 
 other chosen ones, it was given " to mount the whirlwind 
 and ride the storm " of constitutional excitement, and come 
 forth more than conqueror from so fearful an initiation. 
 Long-continued solitary self-communings have been the re- 
 source of overwrought natures in all periods of the world's 
 history ; and the hermit of the Hadges, in his frequent re- 
 tirements at Mecca, did but fulfil a desire and obey a ten- 
 dency experienced in equal or greater strength by thousands 
 similarly affected but not equally endowed. In so far as 
 genuine, the grander passages in the Koran must be con- 
 sidered as the product of ecstatic illumination, being in this 
 respect, like all other authoritative religious works which lie 
 at the foundation of subsequent creeds, a revelation of genius, 
 wrought up to so high a degree of nervous tension and ex- 
 citement that imagination becomes exalted into lucid vision, 
 and thought assumes the form of heaven-sent inspiration. 
 Its imagery was derived from the ideas prevalent in the time 
 and country, and taught in the early faith of the author, 
 mingled with the impressions derived from his subsequent 
 studies and the ideas evolved in his hours of meditation and 
 wrapt contemplation. European prejudice may yet long 
 refuse to recognise in the Arabian seer aught but an ignorant 
 fanatic or impostor. But the true mundane charity of a 
 dawning universalist philosophy will know how to embrace 
 not only the Arabian and the Hebrew, but also the Indian 
 and the Persian, in the same great and all-embracing cate- 
 gory of worthies : and, while according all due reverence to 
 the magnificently endowed and profoundly devotional heroes 
 of Judaism, will not fail, at the same time, to give befitting 
 honour and acceptance to the Menus and Zoroasters of those 
 other faiths, whose geographical expansion and long con- 
 tinued endurance, among the things of time, may suffice 
 to show to all, but the hopelessly blind, that they came 
 not altogether uncommissioned from Him, in whose hands 
 are the issues, not only of fife and death to individuals 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 of growth and decline to empires, but also of emergence 
 and decay to faiths. 
 
 
 No. 6.— Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans. 
 
 In few things more than the sacred does distance lend en- 
 chantment to the view. Whether from modesty or ignobility 
 of nature, from exalting reverence or debasing superstition, 
 the masses of any present fail to see in it the true elements 
 of the holy and divine. Is it that the littleness of our nature 
 dwarfs the objects which we more immediately contemplate, 
 so that for a time we seem to reduce everything to the ad- 
 measurement of our own puny statures ; or is it in the 
 nature of the celestial to cast its shadows close at hand but 
 its lights afar off? Perhaps to the true poet alone is it 
 given to discern clearly the ideal amidst the real, the prophet 
 soul only according hearty and immediate recognition to the 
 Divinity inherently pervading all presences. Truly great is 
 the power required to see into the open secret ; weird the 
 enchantment which reveals a fathomless mystery in the com- 
 monplace. Of all magic, that which resists the deadening 
 influence of habit must be pronouuced the most potent. In 
 truth, the divine is never primarily revealed but to the in- 
 spired, of whom others are well content to receive the report 
 at second-hand. This, if we could see it aright, is the true 
 history of those cremations and crucifixions by which so 
 many of whom the earth was not worthy have departed 
 from it, not sorrowfully, but rejoicing as at a mighty deliv- 
 erance. To stone prophets and then build their sepulchres, 
 to maltreat heroes and then erect their statues, is not in any 
 respect a modern invention ; on the contrary, it dates as a 
 venerable custom from the very remotest antiquity. The 
 God-sent travel not on their mystic mission by flowery paths ; 
 not chaplets of roses, but crowns of thorns, await the brows 
 of those troubled with the burthen of a celestial message. 
 
51 
 
 Saintsbip and seerdom have been claimed by some as the 
 appanage solely of religion : but this is a mistake, for any 
 great and holy cause may have its martyrs and prophets, nay, 
 if it be in very truth sacred, will have them. Let us not 
 uncharitably restrict the circle of merit within too narrow 
 confines. Wherever is the spirit of self-sacrifice, there is 
 martyrdom ; and whoso hath unshakeu loyalty, the same has 
 devotion. Mere creedology is simply sectarian, and not 
 grandly catholic in its sympathies, and, while loudly vaunting 
 the peculiar merit of its own especial heroes, denies that of 
 the believers in another faith, the supporters of another 
 cause. It is time, however, that the world were raised above 
 its olden prejudices in this matter, and made to approximate 
 somewhat nearer to universality of appreciation. Let us 
 remember that every faith has had its prophets, and every 
 condition of life its " excellent of the earth." Birth has no 
 prescriptive right to virtue, nor are the humble necessarily 
 the pure ; although, where there are the fewest temptations, 
 we may perhaps rationally expect the greatest innocence. 
 Village maidens are admirable subjects for the painter's easel 
 and the poet's verse ; nevertheless it is scarcely from such 
 that we should expect the deliverance of a nation in that 
 dread hour when the councils of the wise and the swords of 
 the brave have alike proved abortive. So however it lias 
 sometimes proved, as if to show that the weak things of the 
 earth are indeed sometimes chosen to confound the mighty. 
 And of such no nobler or more remarkable example is found 
 in all time than that furnished by Joan of Arc, the Maid of 
 Orleans. This simple-minded yet truly exalted peasant, 
 reared to womanhood amidst the misfortunes which befell 
 her beloved France, in consequence of the English invasion, 
 was a natural ecstatic, who, if she had not been evoked into 
 manifestation as a political prophetess and military leader by 
 the peculiar circumstances and especial necessities of her age 
 and country, would in all probability have become a dreamy 
 visionary in some cloistered convent, and of whom we might 
 then have heard, as of a St Therese or Hiidegardis, Lot 
 
52 
 
 from the pages of authentic history, but the rather apo- 
 cryphal chronicles of monkish devotion and legendary 
 sanctity. Joan was from her earliest childhood a seeress. 
 " Since my thirteenth year,' 1 said she, in some autobio- 
 graphical notices furnished to us by Delaverdy, from MSS. 
 in the Royal Library at Paris, " I heard a voice in my 
 father's garden at Domremy. I heard it from the right side 
 near the church, and it was accompanied with great bright- 
 ness (odic light). At first I was afraid of it; but I soon 
 became aware that it was the voice of an angel, who has ever 
 since watched well over me, and taught me to conduct my- 
 self with propriety and to attend church. Five years after- 
 wards, while I was tending my father's flocks, this voice said 
 to me, ' God has great compassion for the French nation, 
 and that I ought to get ready and go to its rescue.' When 
 I began to weep at this, the voice said to me, ' Go to Vau- 
 couleurs, and you will find a captain there, who mil conduct 
 you without hindrance to the king.' Since that time I have 
 acted according to the revelations I have received, and the 
 apparitions I have seen ; and even on my trial I speak only 
 according to that which is revealed to me." These appari- 
 tions, it appears, were those of St Catherine, St Margaret, 
 and the Archangel Michael— the forms which had been most 
 forcibly impressed upon her imagination n childhood 
 
 The following appear to be the principal facts n the life 
 of Joan that are of importance in connexion with the subject 
 of the present work. She was the child of Jacques d' Arc, 
 and of Isabeau Romde, his wife, poor villagers of Domremy, 
 on the borders of Lorraine. She was born n 1410 or 1411. 
 At thirteen years of age her visions commenced ; at nineteen 
 they culminated in the imposition of her mission. Finding 
 that her claims to inspiration were but a source of grief to 
 her parents, she repaired to the house of her uncle Durand 
 Laxarl, who lived between Domremy and Vaucouleurs, and 
 who was so far influenced by her representations, as to pro- 
 ceed, on her behalf, to Robert de Baudricourt, governor of 
 the latter town. The reception of the honest villager, by 
 
53 
 
 the stern old warrior, was anything but flattering ; and even- 
 tually Joan herself proceeded to Vaucouleurs, where, although 
 she failed in producing much effect on the veteran governor, 
 she succeeded in convincing two gentlemen, Jean de Metz 
 and Bertrand de Poulengy, of the reality of her mission. 
 These with an attendant each, and two sub-officials, making 
 in all an escort of six, set forth on their perilous journey to 
 Chinon. Arriving in safety, she was, after much delay, 
 ushered into the stately hall of its royal castle, where she 
 recognised the king, though plainly dressed, and purposely 
 mingled with a crowd of courtiers. Led apart by him, she 
 spoke of secrets known only to himself and God. While 
 being equipped with a suit of knight's armour, she described 
 an old sword marked with five crosses, lying amidst other 
 arms, in the church-vault of St Catherine at Fierbois. It 
 was found, an old neglected weapon, in the very place she 
 had described. Promising to lead a convoy into Orleans, she 
 succeeded, despite, apparently, insurmountable obstacles. 
 Having declared she would raise the seige of this important 
 town, she accomplished it in seven days, although three of 
 them had, by her direction, been devoted to public prayer. 
 Prophesying that she would be wounded near the breast on 
 the morrow, she received an arrow in the part indicated, 
 during an assault on the English works. Returning to the 
 court at Tours, she again read the royal thoughts, together 
 with those of some of the principal commanders by whom 
 the king was then surrounded. Promising to conduct her 
 sovereign to Rheims for his coronation, she achieved this 
 seeming impossibility without even a battle. It would seem, 
 however, that after this her prophetic faculty was greatly 
 diminished, both in the frequency of its manifestations and 
 the clearness of its previsions. She had indeed accomplished 
 her mission, and it was only at the urgent request ot the 
 French generals that she consented to forego her avowed 
 intention of retiring to a monastery. Her sad fate, therefore, 
 may be considered as the result of her not obeying the dictates 
 of that internal monitor under whose support and guidance 
 
54 
 
 she had achieved such almost incredible marvels. But, even 
 were it otherwise, her cruel death at the hands of her enemies, 
 although no doubt affording an opportunity for the utterance 
 of a few smart jests on the part of shallow sceptics, is no 
 argument against the truthfulness of her claims or the 
 genuineness of her inspiration ; for such has been the kind 
 of departure usually vouchsafed to the archecstatics of all 
 times. 
 
 Now of this vast array of well-established facts, what is the 
 explanation ? Simply, we reply, an admission that Joan was 
 a natural clairvoyant, a spontaneous ecstatic. With that as a 
 master-key, the solution of the otherwise difficult problem 
 becomes perfectly easy; while, without it, the most skilful 
 ingenuity does but involve its unfortunate possessor in fresh 
 complications of absurdity at every attempt which he makes 
 to read this deepest yet simplest of riddles. " She had seen 
 a portrait of the king or heard a description of his person, 
 and by a strange coincidence happened in her subsequent 
 conversation with him to light on the very topic which had 
 been the subject of his secret prayer," &c, &c. Such are the 
 foolish and inadequate explanations which learned historians 
 endeavour to foist on their unhappy readers. Alas ! for the 
 miserable inefficiency of such wretched endeavours to fathom 
 the ocean depths of a profound mystery with the foolish toys 
 of a shallow, because ignorantly sceptical, philosophy ! So 
 Joan, poor, pure, devout, and simple-minded girl, was but a 
 successful trickster, a lucky guesser, or, at best, a morbid 
 enthusiast after all ! Such is modern history's summation of 
 the whole matter; its greatest ability eventuating in the 
 presumption of an impossible combination of elements in one 
 character, for the purpose of affording a very insufficient and 
 unsatisfactory hypothesis in reference to phenomena whose 
 manifestations and laws are utterly beyond its ken ! 
 
 Joan, as we have said, was a natural clairvoyant, her sus- 
 ceptibility to visional presentments being doubtless inherent : 
 but the specialities of her time and the peculiarities of her 
 faith and position, by their form and pressure, gave that dis- 
 
55 
 
 tinctive character to her endowment under which it is pre- 
 sented to us in history. A quiet and thoughtful, a devout 
 and moral, yet ardently patriotic and enthusiastic girl, she 
 had from childhood dwelt with deep and pardonable earnest- 
 ness on the political misfortunes of her country, that belle 
 France, the love and loyalty of whose gay and sprightly 
 citizens have ever partaken of the character of devotion ; and 
 which, in the instance before us, were contentrated into all 
 the intensity and fervour of the purest religion. The English 
 invasion wounded her pride as a citizen, by the humiliation 
 which it inflicted on her country ; while it pained her feelings 
 as a woman, by the military atrocities and social evils to 
 which it was continually giving birth. In the quietude of 
 her rustic life, she dwelt with painful interest on each new 
 tale of private suifering and public calamity ; till at length 
 her mind, possessed with a powerful desire for the deliverance 
 of her native land from the oppressive yoke of the hated 
 foreigner, fashioned to itself that mystic message which im- 
 posed the mission of championship on her own soul. From 
 the innermost depths of her pure and maidenly being, far 
 below the level of all consciousness, welled up that mighty 
 call of duty, in which " the dweller of the temple " spoke to 
 the perishing child of clay, filling her as with the breath of 
 divinity, and bearing her upwards and onwards, above all fear 
 and through every obstacle, to the previsioned achievement 
 of what, to every other, had been impossible. Yes ! the 
 virgin inspiration, which, under the voice and form of an angel, 
 had, from her thirteenth to her nineteenth year, watched so 
 well and effectually over her conduct and feelings, now 
 attained to a higher stage of development, and projected her 
 from the retirement of rural life, keeping sheep on the moun- 
 tain side, into all the excitement of a camp and the publicity 
 of a court. 
 
 Brave heart, how nobly didst thou bear thyself amidst 
 those trying and unaccustomed circumstances. The rustic 
 maiden remained self-possessed even in the awe-inspiring 
 presence of royalty, and the timid woman quailed not amidst 
 
56 
 
 the shock and rush of battle. What Doborah or Judith 
 of holy records shall, at time's judgment-seat, be held thy 
 superior either in heroism or sanctity ? Already has the his- 
 torian learnedly narrated, and the poet ably sung, thy 
 wondrous deeds, Truly, like most of thine exalted order, 
 it was a fiery chariot and not a bed of down that bore 
 thee within the veil. But fear not ; though burnt with indig- 
 nity by thine enemies as an agent of Satan, grateful France 
 shall remember thy achievements and embalm thy memory 
 when centuries shall have rolled away and dynasties been 
 changed like the phantasmagoria of a troubled dream. The 
 daughters of royalty shall model thy statue, and the good 
 citizens of Orleans, with a pomp and ceremonial utterly 
 unexampled in their quiet locality, shall inagurate thy monu- 
 ment ; and floating down upon the tide of time, outriding 
 the storms of revolution and the mutations of a progressive 
 civilization, the honoured descendants of that humble house- 
 hold, of which thou wert so distinguished a daughter, shall 
 be present, "the observed of all observers." The age when 
 thy memory could be blasphemed by perverted genius and 
 the stage could basely re-echo the unfounded calumny to an 
 applauding audience has passed. So that even we, whose 
 stern and relentless English forefathers provided for thee the 
 terrible honours of a martyr's death, have received thee into 
 our list of time's most noble heroines. 
 
 Contemplated scientifically, Joan of Arc is an instructive 
 example of spontaneous ecstasy, developed in an individual 
 of more than usual mental energy. To the duly enlightened 
 student of mesmerism she presents not only the phenomena 
 of ordinary clairvoyance, which are comparatively common, 
 but also that still higher range of manifestations arising from 
 the mystic and commanding moral magnetism, with which it 
 would seem that only the true master-spirits of seerdom are 
 ever effectually endowed. Constitutionally prone to a develop- 
 ment of the interior life, her lucidity eventuated not simply 
 in vision, but also in action. It was ecstasy induced upon, or 
 rather evolved from, a naturally noble and elevated character ; 
 
57 
 
 from a brain capable of great thoughts, and susceptible to the 
 influence of exalted emotions ; and so conducing to that 
 resistless potentiality in virtue of which the prophet calls 
 and his disciples come. Resist the truth as we may, there 
 are born kings and queens of men, and of these the dreamily 
 devout child in the garden at Domremy was undoubtedly 
 one. Her age did not need a new creed : its demand was not 
 for articles of faith, and therefore she came not forth as the 
 inspired founder of a religion. That which her time and 
 place required, she provided ; namely, the oracular response 
 of hope to a monarch and people overwhelmed by defeat and 
 sinking under the burthen of accumulated national misfor- 
 tunes. She was the moral antithesis of Cassandra, and, as 
 the prophetic saviour of her nation, cast the golden radiance 
 of ecstatic illumination on the clouds of the future, till their 
 dusky and sombre masses became effulgent as with the reflected 
 light of some celestial glory. Princes and nobles, learned 
 priests and rude soldiers, once in her presence, were involved 
 in that circle of fascination, with which beings of her order 
 seem ever engirdled. To the effective exercise of this mystic 
 sway, neither the rusticity of her manners, nor her utterly 
 unlettered ignorance (" I understand neither A nor B," said 
 she to the king's plenipotentiaries) seem to have presented 
 any barrier. The resistless force of a great, noble, and enthu- 
 siastic nature, fully aroused by an all-absorbing and unselfish 
 zeal for the public good, and thoroughly pervaded in all its 
 thoughts and actions by an interior light far transcending 
 that of genius, seems to have overborne all the limitations 
 usually imposed, even on great minds, by diversity of rank 
 and the manifold artificialities of society. Regal in soul, a 
 queen in thought, she triumphantly vindicated her claim to 
 the exercise of a royal prerogative of command. 
 
 It has been attempted to be shewn by some of her bio- 
 graphers, that she really exhibited no ability for military 
 leadership, and that she failed to impress those with whom 
 she came personally in contact with an idea of her superiority, 
 or even with the truthfulness of her claims to veritable inspi- 
 
58 
 
 ration. But the entire tenor of her story demonstrates the 
 very reverse of this. That her enterprizes were often con- 
 ducted on principles the very reverse of those maintained by 
 the pedantic strategy of her time, is no proof whatever of her 
 being in error. She succeeded where the greatest captains 
 had failed ; she retrieved their defeats, repaired their losses, 
 and achieved a series of brilliant victories, by apparently very 
 inadequate means, over the bravest and best disciplined troops 
 in Europe. No plan, even approximately executed according 
 to her design, ever proved abortive. And, 'although, from the 
 deception and perversity of her subordinates, some of her 
 finest and most daring combinations were but imperfectly 
 accomplished, her presence in the hour of difficulty, induced 
 by their incompetency, at once sufficed to restore the tide of 
 fortune to the cause of Charles. The opinions of men grown 
 grey in the routine of ordinary warfare can never prove an 
 accurate admeasurement of the abilities of genius, whose ori- 
 ginality is looked upon by these respectable formalists as an 
 error. Napoleon in Italy was at first deemed a daring igno- 
 ramus by the very Austrians whom he defeated with such 
 masterly skill in every engagement. Joan's ability was de- 
 rived not from knowledge, but intuition. These remarks 
 must be understood as applying to her before the king's coro- 
 nation at Rheims. After that, she was still the daring heroine, 
 but was no longer the inspired leader. As to her inability to 
 impress those immediately around her, how, we would ask, 
 but for such a faculty, manifested in most extraordinary force, 
 could the peasant- girl of Domremy, friendless and money- 
 less, have made her way to court ; or, when there, have 
 produced such an effect on the mind of Charles and his 
 counsellors as to induce them to entrust her with the relief 
 of Orleans? The rapidity of her promotion without antece- 
 dents, is, in truth, not the least marvellous part of her 
 wonderful career. Without birth in an age of caste, a woman 
 in a period of social disorganization and military violence, 
 she yet bounded at a single leap into a position of honour, 
 trust, and authority, that excited the envy of some of the 
 
59 
 
 first men in France. To argue that such a person was devoid 
 of the commanding moral magnetism of a truly great spirit 
 is, with such facts in our hands, simply to reject truth upon 
 system. In the history of neither seer nor hero do we find 
 anything transcending the matchless facility of conversion 
 exhibited by the whole population, from the moDarch to the 
 man-at-arms, under the personal impressions produced by 
 this simple shepherdess. In a moral as well as a military 
 sense, she might without arrogance have used the haughty 
 Roman's sublimely laconic triloquy, veni, vidi, vici. 
 
 That such beings are common it would be too much to 
 say ; but that they are far less rare than is usually supposed 
 we are fully justified in asserting. Unsuited, however, to 
 ages of routine, these marvellously-endowed beings generally 
 remain in a state of latent passivity ; their peculiar powers, 
 in most cases, continuing, from want of duly evocative in- 
 fiences, in a merely germal state. Of old, such were 
 usually devoted to the service of the altar, and, as Pythia at 
 Delphi, Druidic priestesses and Scandinavian alrunes, held a 
 recognized position of trust and honour, in which their 
 peculiar gifts were duly cultivated and then provided with 
 fitting opportunity for manifestation. At a period still more 
 remote, the prophetic faculty of these ecstatic females gave 
 them both authority and renown as sibyls. While, in more 
 recent times, they have in the Koman communion frequently 
 attained to the distinction of canonization, and often shone 
 forth among the most eminent saints. In all periods except 
 the present, by which we mean the era of inductive science, 
 these wondrously-gifted individuals were permitted, and 
 even encouraged, to follow the proclivities of their nature ; 
 and, in virtue of this, their free development not only at- 
 tained to a more vigorous expansion, but often became motor 
 forces of considerable importance in the general working of 
 society. We, however, in the full enlightenment of a utili- 
 tarian age, consider them as of value principally for the 
 purpose of supplying recruits to our lunatic asylums. Occa- 
 sionally escaping this, they become important adjuncts to a 
 
60 
 
 revivalist camp-meeting; or still more rarely attain to the 
 doubtful pre-eminence of quasi-religious founders, followed 
 only by a few rampant fanatics, while thoroughly despised 
 by the many, and at best pitied as devout but misled maniacs 
 by the benevolent and enlightened few. From this degra- 
 dation, however, true science is now beginning to rescue 
 them with as yet but an imperfect appreciation, we fear, of 
 their true position in the scale of moral being. A mesmeric 
 clairvoyant is but an indifferent succedaneum for an ancient 
 sibyl, to whom indeed even a veritable Seeress of Prevorst, 
 though portrayed in the affectionate pages of Kerner, seems 
 rather like a scientific curiosity than a legitimate successor. 
 Fear not, however, ye mysteriously -gifted daughters of 
 this sacred sisterhood ! Ages of hard unbelief, of unfeeling 
 scepticism, of ignorant doubt, and of shallow philosophy, are 
 but the necessary reaction after periods in which dogmatic 
 credulity has run riot and reverent devotion has sunk into 
 grovelling superstition. The sunshine and the cloud, the 
 calm and the tempest, are alike of nature's production. 
 " The eclipse of faith " has passed its maximum, and, though 
 still involved in its penumbra, the rapidly retreating and 
 diminishing shadows proclaim that the returning light ot 
 cloudless day is at hand. Ecstacy will yet be recognized as a 
 condition of being to which genius is an approximation, and 
 the seer and the seeress will then, like the poet and the 
 artist, have their rightful place assigned them in the great 
 hierarchy of human intelligences. Among such the fair 
 dreamer of Domremy, the heroic Joan of Arc, will hold no 
 undistinguished position. Her high-toned patriotism, her 
 lofty devotion, her unwavering faith, her fearless courage, and 
 her indomitable energy, placed as they are in the foreground 
 of a picture so historically important, cannot fail to secure 
 her the favourable notice of an enlightened posterity to the 
 remotest ages of civilization. She is a heroine, without the 
 notice of whose glorious deeds the annals of France can 
 never be written. As the champion of her country, she is 
 an instance of lucidity, too important to be overlooked, 
 
61 
 
 too authentic to be doubted. As a divining nun, or a village 
 prophetess, she might and would have been treated with 
 contempt by the pretentious conceit of a philosophy which, 
 while lauding the Novum Organum, yet decides every im- 
 portant question by an a priori doctrine of probability. But 
 as a seeress, verifying her own predictions by leading armies 
 to victory ; as a sibyl, whose magic words converted defeat 
 into triumph ; as a pythoness, bounding from the tripos to 
 give confidence to kings and courage to generals ; as a 
 prophetess, in short, whose words of mighty import were 
 converted as by a celestial thaumaturgy into unhoped-for 
 facts which have influenced events through all succeeding 
 centuries, the Maid of Orleans must descend to coming time 
 as a magnificent and indubitable example of spontaneous 
 clairvoyance, grandly demonstrating its presence on the great 
 theatre of the world, and affording a verification of its reality 
 by the lasting modifications which it has induced on the 
 destiny of Europe and, through it, of mankind. 
 
 As might be supposed, a life so remarkable and romantic 
 has not failed to furnish a text for many literary productions. 
 The antiquary, the historian, the poet, and the novelist, 
 have each and all found appropriate materials wherewith to 
 prosecute their several avocations in connexion with an indi- 
 vidual so exceptional and distinguished. Among the more 
 illustrious continental scholars who have devoted their leisure 
 and erudition to an investigation cf the documents which 
 throw light on the biography of this extraordinary woman, 
 we may mention Buchon, Petitot. de Laverdy, and Lebrun 
 de Charrneties, togetner witn ae Bramante and Sismondi ; 
 while in this country an excellent memoir has been published 
 by Lord Mahon, now Earl Stanhope. Introduced by our 
 immortal Shakspeare into one of his historical plays, her 
 real character, like those of Sir John Falstaff and Richard 
 III., has been treated with that dramatic liberty, or rather 
 license, which, in the absence of all detailed historical 
 knowledge on the part of the people, was then perhaps ad- 
 missible, but which would not now be tolerated for a moment. 
 
62 
 
 even from a writer of the most commanding genius. Treated 
 with equal injustice by Voltaire, her memory has in our more 
 recent literature been restored to respect, if not reverence. 
 By Southey she was selected as the heroine of a poem, and 
 by Schiller she was chosen as the subject of a drama ; while 
 the vivid imagination and fertile pen of Alexandre Dumas 
 have not failed to illustrate the tale of his country's greatest 
 heroine. 
 
 It would seem that there is no authentic bust or portrait 
 of Joan in existence, the oldest dating nearly two hundred 
 years after her death. All descriptions agree, however, in 
 representing her as a tall, graceful, and beautiful woman, with 
 flowing golden locks. Obviously one of those fair-haired, 
 blue-eyed daughters of the Gothic stock, who are to be found 
 scattered throughout the north of France, and whose ances- 
 tors must have crossed the Rhine in one of the many invasions 
 of Celtic Gaul by its more vigorously-constituted Teutonic 
 neighbours. Phrenologically speaking, we have reason to 
 believe that she presented a sanguineo-nervous temperament, 
 with a moral and intellectual development much above the 
 average. Her statue by the daughter of Louis Philippe, 
 afterwards Mary of Wurtemberg, is well known for its chaste 
 and exquisite beauty— it is the dream of one fair woman by 
 another. At the inauguration of her equestrian statue at 
 Orleans, it would seem that the direct or collateral descendants 
 of all the principal heroes associated with her were present, 
 so that Dunois, d'Aulon, la Hire, &c, reappeared in their 
 representatives. It is well to find her memory thus honour- 
 oured by her countrymen, who with the true instinct of 
 universal humanity fail not to perceive in her something of 
 the divine. But while such very inadequate and erroneous 
 ideas are entertained respecting her by men of science and 
 historians, we can scarcely expect that the public, who natur- 
 ally follow these as their leaders, will attain to a due estimate 
 of her truthful and exalted character. We pity the barbarous 
 credulity of mediaeval ignorance, but an age is at hand that 
 will look with equal derision on the barbarous scepticism of 
 
63 
 
 modem knowledge. To write the history of Joan of Arc 
 while ignoring ecstatic illumination, with its prevision, thought- 
 reading, intuition, &c, is like treating of maritime discovery 
 without an allusion to the science of navigation by which it 
 has been accomplished. Contemplated as a lucide, her every 
 thought and achievement is perfectly and easily explicable, 
 and her whole life constitutes but a beautiful episode in the 
 history of interior illumination, while without it she seems 
 an unaccountable and meteoric manifestation, sent to dazzle 
 and blind, not to enlighten. When will learned men have 
 the courage to throw off their unworthy prejudices, and cease 
 to write that for the applause of the present which cannot 
 fail to procure them the contempt of posterity. 
 
 No. 7. — Ignatius Loyola. 
 
 The Church of Eorae although rigidly unbending in doctrine 
 has shown herself in many ways sufficiently pliable in prac- 
 tice. Immutable in her dogmas, she has proved flexible 
 in her arrangements. Unalterable in her creed, she has mani- 
 fested a wise spirit of adaptation in its advocacy. Thus her 
 monastic orders were regular developments, in strict accor- 
 dance with the requirements of successive ages, the evolution 
 in logical sequence of her vitally expansive ecclesiastical 
 organization. Whatever her sins and shortcomings, she 
 seems to have always possessed the ten righteous, who might 
 prove her safeguard in the hour of danger, and has thus far 
 warded off the impending judgment, ever about to be in- 
 flicted for the crimes of the many by the virtues of the few. 
 She does well, indeed, to revere her saints, for they have 
 often proved her aegis when nought else would have availed. 
 In no other church is there such provision for utilizing the 
 fervour of a repentant and returning sinner. Many of her 
 mightiest champions and greatest heroes were once " miser- 
 able offenders." St Augustine, St Francis of Assizi, and St 
 
64 
 
 Ignatius de Loyola, were all " brands plucked from the burn- 
 ing." Fallen angels, they, in their rebound, once more 
 reached the empyrean, where they have since shone amidst 
 the brightest stars of the moral firmament. It is thus, per- 
 haps, that she has so often falsified the calculations and dis- 
 appointed the anticipations of those who have been long look- 
 ing for her downfall. She has always had some spiritual 
 Marcus Curtius, ever ready, with heroic self-devotion, to leap 
 into the gulph prepared for her and her iniquities. And of 
 such we can cite no nobler or more effective example than 
 the founder of the order of Jesus. 
 
 The law of supply and demand, however, well understood 
 in political, seems to be but imperfectly appreciated in spi- 
 ritual economy, yet the latter is as really invariable as the 
 former. Does an ancient and corrupt church want reforma- 
 tion. Then will a Wickliffe, a John Huss, and a Jerome of 
 Prague be called forth in due sequence, till eventually a 
 Martin Luther shall appear, the time and the man now coin- 
 ciding for the production of a great and long impending 
 event. Do the troubled waters of mutation threaten to pre- 
 maturely submerge a venerable ecclesiastical structure before 
 it has effectually discharged all the mission of conservation 
 to which it was appointed. Then verily shall an Ignatius 
 Loyola be evoked to found an order of men, who for enthu- 
 siastic devotion to the cause of the Papacy, and a spirit of 
 unquestioning obedience, have been unequalled in all the 
 records of church history. How marvellous, too, seems the 
 choice of instruments. What ungifted eye could have de- 
 tected the hero of Worms in the little chorister who obtained 
 his education upon public charity, and who would have 
 supposed that the gay and courtly young officer was destined 
 to close the floodgates of change and say to the tide of re- 
 form, thus far and no further. No doubt Martin was a 
 genuine man, a bold truth-seeker, and a brave truth- 
 speaker. But are we so sure that Ignatius was a false man ? 
 had not he too a mission ? Was not he also a Godsent 
 some to declare one side of a veracity as his opponent the 
 
65 
 
 other ? Is there not a charity sufficiently enlarged to em- 
 brace both in its wide category of worthies ? Where there is 
 work to be done, whether of pulling down or building up, 
 there must a befittiDg man, equal to the occasion, be pro- 
 vided. Are we quite justified in doing such despite to Grod'8 
 appointed agencies ? Are not the destroyer and preserver 
 alike his commissioned agents ; aud if we hold only by the 
 one, and do uttermost injustice to the memory of the other, 
 are we not thereby demonstrably mere party men, utterly de- 
 void of that all-embracing universality whereby alone Divine 
 justice can either be accomplished or appreciated ? 
 
 The following is a condensed summary of the principal 
 facts in the life of Loyola which have a direct bearing on the 
 subject of our present inquiries. He was of noble birth, 
 being the eighth son and thirteenth child of Bertram, Lord 
 of Ognez and Loyola, and Mary Saez de Balde and Ricalde, 
 his wife, and was born in 1491. From childhood, he was 
 distinguished by beauty of person, and by natural grace of 
 demeanour, together with an aspiring disposition, which in- 
 dicated one destined for distinction, if not command. To in- 
 sure his effectually acquiring every gentlemanly accomplish- 
 ment, he was sent at an early period as page to the court of 
 Ferdinand and Isabella. He, subsequently, became a soldier ; 
 and although indulging somewhat freely in the gallantry then 
 everywhere prevalent in the South of Europe, he was never- 
 theless distinguished during the whole period of his youth, 
 whethey at court or camp, by many peculiar traits indicative 
 of a superior mind. He never used profane language, dis- 
 liked gambling, and behaved with becoming reverence to the 
 ministers of religion. In short, Inigo, for such was his bap- 
 tismal name, must have rejoiced the hearts of his aged pa- 
 rents, as a most discreet and promising young gentleman, 
 never likely to bring disgrace or sorrow upon their gray hairs. 
 Among his comrades, he was remarkable as a peace-maker 5 
 and from his tact and delicacy, had the management of com- 
 plicated negociations often intrusted to him by public func- 
 tionaries. Thus gallantly and prosperously, then, did he pro- 
 
 E 
 
ceed to his twenty ninth year, with a military rather than a 
 sacerdotal generalship, as apparently the appointed reward of 
 his virtues and abilities. Providence, however, had deter- 
 mined on the latter, and during the defence of the citadel of 
 Pampeluna, against the French, Inigo received a wound in 
 both legs, which for ever disqualified him for the profession of 
 arms. Kindly sent by his polite captors to the paternal castle 
 for restoration, he there underwent many excruciatingly pain- 
 ful surgical operations, with an unshrinking firmness and re- 
 solution, which astonished his attendants, who apparently had 
 failed to discern that latent strength of character, which only 
 waited for duly evocative circumstances to astonish the world 
 by its force and persistency. It was here that he manifested 
 that susceptibility to visional illumination, which has procured 
 him a place in our gallery of ecstatics. 
 
 When apparently almost at the point of death, when his 
 physicians despaired, and the priest had left his room, St 
 Peter, towards whom he had always cherished an especially 
 devout reverence, appeared at the foot of his couch, and ad- 
 ministered that aid which could come from no earthly skill. 
 From this moment, his recovery commenced, so that it seemed 
 as if a new life had been vouchsafed to him by the heavenly 
 assistance of the prince of the apostles. At a subsequent 
 period of his illness, when his mind was in the throes of a 
 spiritual regeneration, when the passions of the man and the 
 ambition of the soldier warred with the excelsior promptings 
 of the saint, the Virgin Mother, with the infant Jesus in her 
 arms, effulgent in celestial majesty, appeared before him, and 
 remained for some time benignantly in his view. As St Peter 
 had renewed his corporeal vigour, so this vision of the Divine 
 Mother seems to have purified his spirit : for, ever afterwards, 
 the earthly emotions which had characterized his former state 
 of consciousness deserted him, and from this period he might 
 be said to have achieved a complete and lasting victory over 
 his inferior nature. It is worthy of remark, that Loyola never 
 spoke of these visions as undoubtedly miraculous, he simply 
 narrated them as facts in his experience, leaving their inter- 
 
67 
 
 pretation to the judgment of his auditors. (The first was ob- 
 viously analogous to the sanative revelations obtained in the 
 temples of ^sculapius, and the last was the form under which 
 his moral nature announced its ultimate triumph over temp- 
 tation.) 
 
 It was while under the high-wrought mental excitement, 
 which accompanied the preceding visions, that the grand idea 
 of an individual mission dawned upon him, and he began to 
 say : " Why may not I, too, be a devoted St Francis, and a 
 holy St Dominic ? " Accordingly, as soon as his state of health 
 would permit, he visited the monastery of Montserrat, where 
 he devoted himself afresh to the service of the Virgin by a 
 vow of perpetual chastity. After this, although still but im- 
 perfectly recovered from his wounds, he commenced a series 
 of austerities, seldom surpassed in the annals of self-inflicted 
 suffering. Having purchased a pilgrim's staff and drinking 
 bowl, a rope for a girdle, a tunic, a hempen cloak of the 
 coarsest texture, and a pair of shoes of matted Spanish broom, 
 he, after full confession of the sins of his past life, and the 
 bestowal of the entire remainder of the contents of his purse 
 in charity, endued himself in these strange vestments, de- 
 pending for the future, as a mendicant, wholly on the bounty 
 of others. He determined, however, that this formal devo- 
 tion of himself to the Christian warfare, should be accompa- 
 nied by a solemn observance, similar to that of the ancient 
 knights on their initiation. From dewy eve to smiling mom, 
 then did he watch by the altar of the blessed Virgin, now 
 standing, and then kneeling, dedicating himself to the divine 
 service, and seeking more especially to propitiate the favour 
 of " the blessed Mother of God." It is a note-worthy fact, 
 that this was on the eve of the Annunciation 1522, near the 
 time when another deeply moved and fervent spirit, sum- 
 moned to the Diet of Worms, did there defy, not devils within, 
 but fiends without, clothed in all the pomp of principalities 
 and powers of this world. Strange and mysterious coinci- 
 dence, furnishing fertile subject-matter for thought, not 
 merelv to Catholic and Protestant, but also to him whose in- 
 
68 
 
 telJectual altitude is sufficient for contemplating all creeda, 
 however contrasted, but as harmonious parts of one divinely 
 arranged scheme of universal progression. 
 
 It might have been supposed, that for a gallant and courtly 
 cavalier to array his graceful person in palmer's weeds, and 
 for a haughty noble to beg his daily bread, was punishment 
 sufficient for any previous misconduct. Not so, however, 
 thought Ignatius : for, in addition, he, three times every day, 
 smartly chastised his bare shoulders with the lash ; thrice 
 every day he attended prayers at church, and underwent be- 
 sides ^even hours of solitary devotion. Not thus, however, 
 did he attain to peace. On the contrary, he became so dis- 
 tressed as to his spiritual affairs, that he was even tempted to 
 commit suicide ; and, in addition to the foregoing austerities, 
 underwent an entire fast : first, of one day, then of two, and 
 ultimately he abstained from food during a whole week. No 
 enlightened student of the laws of lucidity will be astonished 
 to hear, that soon after this, while reciting the office of the 
 Virgin, a light shone around him, amidst the effulgence of 
 which he beheld a triangular figure, symbolizing the mystery 
 of the Trinity. Nor is it matter for surprise, that he should 
 have spoken continuously and perspicuously on this profound - 
 est of theological subjects immediately afterwards. Nay, it 
 is even added, that although, at the time, barely master of the 
 arts of reading and writing, he composed a treatise on the 
 same, in twenty -four pages, which has unfortunately perishc d, 
 but which his disciples declared to have been inspired. 
 
 On another occasion, he had an extraordinary revelation 
 made to him of the deepest secrets of nature ; the elements 
 of all science, sacred and profane, being imparted to him in a 
 vision. He seems at length, indeed, to have become an ha- 
 bitual crisiac : for, during the twelve months that he remained 
 at Manresa, a village near Barcelona, he forty times beheld 
 the humanity of our Lord, not in the distinctness of its mem- 
 bers, but as an undefined resplendence (odic light). In a simi- 
 lar manner, the blessed Virgin also frequently revealed herself 
 to him. In addition to these celestial visions, he appears to 
 
69 
 
 have had some of an opposite character ; bat, happily, he 
 could always distinguish between demoniacal glitter and true 
 heavenly splendour ! — (Probably by difference in the colour 
 of the odic light, that from the passional region being diverse 
 in hue from a purely moral or intellectual emanation). 
 
 It was immediately after these manifold visions, that he 
 undertook what has usually been considered his most Quix- 
 otic enterprise, namely, a missionary pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 
 without money, or any other aid, than that of casual charity 
 on the road. This extraordinary feat, the proud son of the 
 lordly Bertram, and the delicately nurtured page of Isabella. 
 nevertheless successfully accomplished, stoutly denying him- 
 self the sinful luxury of even a pair of shoes till he had Once 
 fairly turned his back on the holy city. His sufferings by 
 the way, were, as may be supposed, almost unspeakable. 
 Having landed at Gaeta, he arrived in Rome, famished with 
 hunger, and exhausted by fatigue ; a pestilence, raging at the 
 time, which prevented even the benevolent from affording the 
 usual amount of succour to pious wayfarers. From Rome, 
 still in the habit of a pilgrim, and with only the resources of 
 a mendicant, ignorant of either Latin or Italian, he found his 
 way to Venice, where he embarked for Palestine. While 
 waiting to procure a passage, which, in accordance with his 
 vow, had to be gratuitous, he usually slept under the portico 
 of St Mark. 
 
 One night, a noble senator, who lived near that structure, 
 was awakened as by a voice from heaven, bidding him seek a 
 pious pilgrim who was destitute of shelter. . He arose, found 
 Ignatius, invited him to his mansion, entertained him with 
 profound respect, and was much edified by his devout con- 
 versation. But the saint declined a long sojourn in such 
 sumptuous quarters, and, for the remainder of his stay, took 
 up his abode with a humble countryman from the Asturias. 
 On his voyage to Joppa, which occupied two months, the 
 Lord often appeared to him, as heretofore, in an indistinct 
 manner. When about to leave the holy places, on his re- 
 turn, he, contrary to regulations, separated himself from the 
 
70 
 
 body of pilgrims, determining to revisit some of the more 
 sacred spots previous to his departure. Not answering to his 
 name when the muster-roll was called, an officer of the Fran- 
 ciscan convent was sent in search of the wanderer, who meet- 
 ing him on his descent from the Mount of Olives, began to 
 drag him forward with threats and violence. To all which, 
 the once haughty soldier, meekly submitted with true Chris- 
 tian humility, and was rewarded by that divine apparition, 
 which had so often solaced him in moments of fear and suf- 
 fering. His farther return was apparently unmarked by any- 
 thing of a visional character. And, from this time forward, 
 his career, though decidedly indicative of a man possessed by 
 a great idea, shows the gradual commingling of reason with 
 enthusiasm, till eventually the two assumed their due rela- 
 tionship, the latter as a motor, and the former as a directing 
 influence of thought and action. 
 
 On his arrival in Spain he commenced a course of study 
 beginning with the very rudiments in a boy's school at Bar- 
 celona, where, it is said, he submitted to the same corporeal 
 chastisement as his juniors. After which he removed in 
 succession to the Universities of Alcala and Salamanca, at 
 both of which, strange to say, this redoubtable champion of 
 orthodoxy was so persecuted on suspicion of Lutheran he- 
 resy, that he found it convenient to remove to Paris, where 
 he finished his curriculum. It was while at the latter that 
 he selected those coadjutors who subsequently became the 
 fathers of the society. During his six years' study, he ceased 
 not to exhort and preach, thus winning back many souls tc* 
 the faith who, without his aid, would have been for ever lost 
 in heretical pravity, or more practical errors of conduct. At 
 length, after several additional years of voluntary poverty 
 and incessant toil, Loyola and his ten companions assembler! 
 at Venice in 1537, and when, consequently, he was in his 
 forty- seventh j^ear, — not in haste was this great man to 
 complete his projects. He had learned to wait in faith and 
 patience for the fulfilment of God's promises in the time and 
 manner which divine wisdom might judge best. His pur- 
 
71 
 
 pose was still a mission to Palestine ; but as this, in conse- 
 quence of war with the Turks, was for the present impracti- 
 cable, he, with two chosen companions, Lainez and Faber, 
 retired to Vicenza. In a miserable suburb of this plaee was 
 a deserted building, and unprovided with either door or win- 
 dow. This was their only home. Here these extraordinary 
 men digested the rules and constitution of the society, begging 
 an alms by day, and sleeping on straw by night. Forty days 
 having been spent in penitential exercises, the fathers com- 
 menced their apostolic labours in the town, winning many to 
 righteousness. The reader will not be astonished to hear, 
 that, under these circumstances, Loyola's visions were re- 
 newed, and that he had visitations and consolations such as 
 had not occurred since he was at Manresa. His grandest 
 experience in this way, however, was yet to come. It took 
 place while on his journey to Rome, whither he was proceed- 
 ing to make a final offer of himself and companions to the 
 Holy See. On this pilgrimage, his days and nights seem to 
 have passed in recurrent ecstacies. At length, when near 
 the city, he entered a ruined chapd'alone, where he seemed 
 to behold the first person in the Trinity, and by his side 
 the Messiah, bearing an immense cross. The Father pre- 
 sented Ignatius to the Son, who uttered the oracular re- 
 sponse, " I will be favourable to you at Rome." Ego vdbis 
 Romae propitius ero. And from this incident, we are in- 
 formed, the society derived its appellation. Let no suspicion 
 of unveracity rest on the memory of Ignatius for these op- 
 portune visions. His renewed austerities, together with his 
 prolonged and especially fervent devotions at Vicenza, are 
 quite sufficient to account for the return of his constitutional 
 tendency to interior illumination there. While the super- 
 added mental excitement of his journey to Rome, where his 
 life-long labours were about to be crowned with success, by a 
 formal inauguration of the society, and its recognition by a 
 Papal bull, was doubtless the predisposing cause of that great- 
 est of his spiritual visitations which we have just described. 
 It may not, perhaps, prove altogether uninteresting to the 
 
72 
 
 student of physico-psychology to state, that both at Man- 
 resa and Vicenza, Loyola suffered from a disease of the sto- 
 mach, produced, probably, by a combination of mental ex- 
 citement with insufficient and indigestible food; While at 
 the latter, he was, in addition, afflicted with a complaint 
 in the eyes, brought on, it is said, by excessive weeping, but 
 indicative, we suspect, of over-cerebration. Everything, in- 
 deed, demonstrates that he was, both mentally and physically, 
 in an abnormal state during the period of his highest visional 
 ecstacies, and that his visitations may be studied under this 
 aspect medically, as symptoms of deranged nervous function 
 occurring in a pre-eminently susceptible patient, exposed, 
 during a lengthened period, to a multiplicity of disturbing- 
 forces. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that Ignatius was only 
 subject to visional ecstacy. If we are to trust his Papal 
 biographers, he effected many miraculous cures, uttered seve- 
 ral subsequently-fulfilled predictions, appeared occasionally 
 with a radiant face (luminous from the powerful emanation 
 of odic light), and was found at times floating in the air, a 
 foot or more from the ground, engaged, or shall we not rather 
 say absorbed, in his intensest devotions. Of course, sound 
 Protestant writers reject these narratives of the marvellous 
 as monkish fabrications. There is, however, no need for 
 such scepticism, as all the foregoing statements might be 
 strictly true, and yet no law of nature violated, the produc- 
 tion of such phenomena simply indicating the presence of 
 superior forces, whereby extraordinary would supersede ordi- 
 nary results. Whether true or false in the case of Ignatius, 
 it is certain that similar facts have been narrated, on credible 
 testimony, of the saintly crisiacs of all ages, and that as hu- 
 manitarian experiences, they claim an amount of belief, and a 
 degree of attention not yet accorded to them. Sanative power 
 aud prophetic faculty imply no miraculous gifts in their pos- 
 sessor, neither are such endowments alone sufficient to demon- 
 strate the purity of his life, or ensure the authenticity of his 
 teachings. They simply demonstrate the existence of cer- 
 
tain corporeal and mental conditions, which, from their rarity, 
 are wonderful, but in their essential character, are by no 
 means preternatural. Luminosity and lightness of body are 
 •also dependent for their manifestation on a peculiar state of 
 the nervous system, whereof intensity of action is one impor- 
 tant feature, under which the radiation of nervovital force is 
 such, that the emanation becomes visible to common observers 
 in daylight, while under ordinary circumstances it is only 
 perceptible by odic sensitives in the dark. Ponderables are 
 subject to gravitation, imponderables to radiation, and it is ap- 
 parently to a temporary predominance of the latter, that 
 high-wrought crisiacs owe their occasional and partial libera- 
 tion from the centripetal tendency which characterises all the 
 grosser forms of matter. 
 
 " When Loyola had reached his fiftieth year, 3d October 1540 
 was issued the Papal bull which gave authoritative ecclesiasti- 
 cal existence to the new society as " The Company of Jesus." 
 Thus were the labours, fastings, prayers, austerities, ^and 
 visions of this extraordinary man finally crowned with success, 
 after a period of delay and probation, that would have ex- 
 hausted the energies and chiled the zeal of any less enthusi- 
 astic, devoted, and concentrated being. Throughout these 
 twenty long years of trial and suffering his exalted faith 
 seems never to have deserted him. He had thoroughly 
 learned the great lesson of entire submission to the leadings 
 of Providence, and was thus enabled to wait in calm and 
 lowly, yet sublime and persistent faith for the ripening of 
 those plans, and the fulfilment of those anticipations which 
 had constituted the purpose and the solace of his existence. 
 Installed by the unanimous vote of his colleagues as General 
 of the order, he saw it gradually expand during the remain- 
 ing fifteen years of his life, till it covered, and in some places 
 extended beyond the area of the Eoman Church. Houses 
 were founded and Provincials appointed in all the great 
 Catholic countries of southern Europe, and in such esteem 
 were the Jesuit fathers universally held, that not only were 
 they made the guardians of youth and the teachers of the 
 
74 
 
 rising generation, but they became the confessors and confi- 
 dential advisers of princes, and only by most resolute and re- 
 peated denials, escaped the Honour of a mitre and the tempta- 
 tions of a cardinal's hat. Ignatius remained through all this 
 unchanged, holding fast by his one master idea of a spiritual 
 government of men, now apparently on the eve of realization. 
 For nine years he discharged the duties and endured the 
 anxieties of office unaided, when the advance of years tell- 
 ing on a constitution so severely tried, he proposed to resign. 
 The fathers, however, would not hear of the dethronement of 
 their founder, and eventually as his infirmities continued to 
 increase, a coadjutor was appointed, who, without infringing 
 on the absolute authority of the General, transacted the minor 
 and official business of the society. Thus prematurely old 
 from toil and suffering, but with a name indelibly inscribed 
 on the pages of history, a saint to his church and a moral 
 hero to the world and posterity, died in his sixty-fifth year, 
 the great and good, though to some communions terrible, 
 Ignatius Loyola. 
 
 And now, with the foregoing data in our possession, are 
 we prepared to explain this human phenomenon and his 
 specialities ? Is Ignatius with his submissive faith and un- 
 alterable purpose, his profound humility and his aptitude for 
 command, his clear .intellect and visional susceptibilities, 
 explicable on the principles of our philosophy ? Is there a 
 plane contemplated from whence his apparent contradictions 
 harmonize and seeming extravagancies disappear ? A Bis- 
 cayan noble, apparently of Gothic descent, with frequent 
 grafts from the Shemetic stock, having probably Phoenician, 
 Arabian, and Jewish blood mingled by intermarriage with the 
 more physically vigorous Teutonic element introduced by the 
 northern invaders. Ethnologically he was descended from 
 the highest Caucasian types of the East and West, and he 
 possessed many of the more ennobling attributes of each. 
 Individually he presented a magnificent phrenological and 
 physiognomical development. The profile both of head and 
 face is strongly marked, arising from the predominance of 
 
75 
 
 the central over the lateral organs, and from that statuesque 
 prominency of feature which is the usual accompaniment of this 
 form of cerebral structure. His self-esteem, firmness, venera- 
 tion, and benevolence, constitute a magnificent coronal arch, 
 and indicate in connection with powerful concentrativeness, 
 strongly marked perceptive and vigorous reflective faculties, 
 altogether predominating over the imaginative, that aptitude 
 for direct yet persistent action under the guidance of faith, 
 and that consistent unity of idea, by which " the founder of the 
 society" was so pre-eminently distinguished. His temperament 
 was intensely nervo-fibrous, with in youth and prior to his 
 ascetic inflictions, a dash of the sanguineous. The deeply set 
 eye,' the aquiline nose, the firmly closed and strongly pro- 
 nounced mouth, slightly protruding, and the oval face with 
 these its powerfully chiselled features, were all in strict accor- 
 dance with the cranial contour, and eminently suggestive of 
 similar conclusions as to fixity of purpose and decision of char- 
 acter in their possessor. Here then, we may safely say, was a 
 man born to command, nay, one who only wanted a fitting 
 • occasion and sufficiently evocative influences, to emerge into 
 effective manifestation as a true master-spirit. These were 
 provided, and the world had Ignatius Loyola and his reverend 
 confraternity. 
 
 Such we say was the man. Now let us look at his disci- 
 pline and opportunities. Bora towards the close of the 
 fifteenth century, he was contemporary with some of the 
 greatest men and most momentous events that Europe had 
 seen since the decline of ancient civilization. The world 
 wanted master-minds, and it found one in him. The Refor- 
 mation after many preparatory and apparently futile attempts 
 was at length becoming an accomplished fact. Rome was 
 alarmed. Her ancient orders were obviously insufl&cient for 
 the new crisis, and her troubled spirit in the agonising throes 
 which produced Jesuitism, settled upon the devout and ardent 
 young soldier lying wounded in the castle of Loyola. The 
 spirit of an age, whether it be that of movement or conserva- 
 tion, after attaining a certain degree of intensity, ever becomes 
 
76 
 
 incarnate in an individual, who from that time is not simply its 
 representative but its organ. It would be a denial of Provi- 
 dence to assert that under such circumstances the right man is 
 not chosen. His selection is not of earth but heaven,— he is 
 called not of men but God. The man for the work, a Luther 
 to attack, a Loyola to defend, each righteously discharging the 
 mission to which he was appointed by the Omniscient Ruler 
 of all worlds. 
 
 Reason is no doubt a great and ennobling attribute, and 
 he would be unwise who should seek to disparage its influence 
 id mundane affairs, but it is a mistake to suppose that true 
 humanitarian movements have generally originated from this 
 source. Prophetic spirits usually become commissioned not 
 m the calm of reflection, but in the thunderstorm of inspira- 
 tion, of whose awful tones and elemental voices their message 
 is an echo to the ages. Peruse the records of all faiths, and 
 you will find seer-vision at their basis. They were founded 
 not by sages but saints, not by philosophers but prophets. 
 Master-builders are not framed amidst the intellectual 
 luxuries of the closet, but in the furnace-fire of affliction. The 
 insight which grasps a fundamental idea comes not of laboured 
 excogitation. The heaven-sent conception, whose lightning 
 force is to rive the old and found the new, wells up spontane- 
 ously as a free gift from the profoundest depths of unconscious 
 being. Revelation is a gushing spring, dependent not on 
 aptitudes without but supplies within. To apply these re- 
 marks, Jesuitism was not a thought but an inspiration, and 
 its founder was not a logician but an ecstatic. He did not 
 with infinite effort master the idea, but on the contrary, the 
 idea with resistless power mastered him. In reference to his 
 mission, he was an unresisting instrument, the passive recipi- 
 ent of influences from above, although in relation to his fellow- 
 men, his moral magnetism was in proportion to his spiritual 
 obedience, the degree in which he was possessed from within, 
 determining that in which he commanded from without. 
 
 But these the reader will say are mere assertions. Let us 
 l hen to the specification. We have seen Loyola as courtly 
 
77 
 
 page and gallant soldier, maintaining an -wholly external and 
 thoroughly objective existence till his twenty-ninth year, hia 
 vast susceptibility to profound emotion, and his capacity for 
 conceiving and entertaining great ideas lying latent. Suddenly 
 the currents of this gay and sprightly life receive a decisive 
 check. Sickness, solitude, and inaction compel self-examina- 
 tion, and for the first time his own soul stands revealed in all 
 its grandeur and weakness, in all its wondrous possibilities and 
 lamentable failings, to the man of thirty. He is horror- 
 stricken. " Know thyself" had proved more terrible than 
 an order to march to the cannon's mouth. Moral and phy- 
 sical causes combine to produce the most intense mental 
 excitement. Regret and remorse, passions that had never 
 known restraint now forcibly pent up, a frame habituated to 
 continual exercise now compelled to remain dormant, what 
 wonder that, under such a combination of circumstances, the 
 brain eventually assumed an undue predominance, and be- 
 came preternaturally active, projecting its conceptions as 
 visions, and surrounding its possessor, while in a state of vigi- 
 lance, with all the phenomena of dream-land. He sees the 
 objects of his youthful adoration, the traditional gods of his 
 kindred and country, St Peter, Christ, and the Virgin. Of 
 these, his previous impressions were the mould, his exalted 
 state of nervous action, his intense cerebration, furnishing 
 simply the projecting force. And now, too, it is that, in 
 strict accordance with the laws of his centrically developed 
 organization, he begins to ask himself, — " Cannot I, too, be 
 a St Francis, or a St Dominic ? " " Yes," responds his in- 
 terior Ego, " provided thou, too, wilt undergo the requisite 
 amount of suffering. Saints walk not their excelsior path 
 upon velvet, neither lie they on beds of down, or sit often or 
 long at rich men's tables. If thou wouldst be great or holy, 
 deny thyself." 
 
 Such were the inspired promptings of the conscience- 
 stricken young noble. In so decisive a character, there is 
 neither hesitancy nor compromise. The barefoot and the 
 uncovered head carry him from door to door, and even to the 
 
78 
 
 far-off Jerusalem, and back, without money and without scrip, 
 — the master-spirit of Papal Christendom bowing his lordly 
 form and commanding brow to the simplest peasant, or mean- 
 est artizan, for a morsel of bread. Such is ever, after some 
 fashion, the fate of genius, whereof we hold saintship to be a 
 by no means ignoble species. " Perfected by suffering," 
 Gethsemanes and Calvarys are its doom ; which whoso 
 would foolishly escape fails of his mission. Behold Dante 
 composing his Divina Com media in exile, and Camoens ex- 
 piring in an hospital. In our day, see an expatriated Byron 
 gnashing his teeth in agony, and writing Don Juan in mad- 
 ness ; and even a seraphic Shelley, with his slender form pre- 
 maturely bent by care, uttering harmonious wails, that might 
 have melted even demons to tears. " Blind and old," was 
 he " of Scio's rocky isle." And he also, who next in rank, 
 amidst this celestial hierarchy, dictated in solitude and disap- 
 pointment the everlasting chant of " Paradise Lost." God 
 hath many furnaces ; but through one or other must his 
 chosen ever pass. Happy they who tread the fiery path with- 
 out blaspheming, exercising patience and long-suffering even 
 to the end. 
 
 Self-inflicted torture, doubtless, seems to us good, comfort- 
 able, rational — well-meaning Protestants, the most absurd 
 of all forms of affliction. Yet it is doubtful whether without 
 tliis painful discipline on the part of their founders, Rome 
 would ever have had either her Franciscans or her Jesuits. 
 The earnest spirits who set such potent machinery in motion, 
 seem, from some cause, to have required such additional op- 
 portunity for endurance, and probably sought this apparently 
 needless pain from some high instinct of their aspiring nature. 
 Let us remember that the tendency of Rome, with all her 
 short-comings is to spiritualism. She punishes the body that 
 she may awaken the soul, and our only just cause of quarrel 
 with her is, that she does not teach her devotees to await 
 calmly the allotments of Providence in this matter; but 
 rather urges them to a suicidal crucifixion, as if doubtful 
 whether God were competent to the infliction of sufferings 
 
79 
 
 proportionate to their several occasions. Be this, however, 
 as it may, Ignatius is a notable example of an energetic spirit 
 marching by this path to the accomplishment of his purposes. 
 From the moment of his spiritual awakening, and more espe- 
 cially from the time when he felt himself commissioned to a 
 great work, self-denial, under every form, was his motto. And 
 to such an extent was this carried, that but for the support- 
 ing influence of enthusiasm, he would doubtless have perished 
 beneath his accumulated austerities. The reaction of all this 
 upon his naturally fine and susceptible organization, the ex- 
 tent to which it must have exalted the action of his nervous 
 system, and increased his tendency to visional ecstacy, need 
 scarcely be mentioned. Now it was amidst the first outburst 
 of this soul-consuming fervour, and while his prolonged fasts, 
 approaching to starvation, together with other mortifications, 
 threatened him with immediately impending death, that he 
 commenced the composition of that famous work, The Spi- 
 ritual Exercises, and developed the idea of a sacerdotal or 
 rather spiritual government, whereof Jesuitism is the approxi- 
 mative realization. It is no objection to this, that the order, 
 as a fact, was the slow after-growth of many years, that in- 
 calculable thought and care, together with consummate pru- 
 dence, and unceasing industry, were necessary to its consum- 
 mation. We are speaking of the primal conception whence 
 it originated, not of the processes by which it was completed ; 
 of the seed whence it grew, and not of the gardening by 
 which it was trained. Jesuitism, we say, was the creation 
 of a visional enthusiast, who, however fortunately for the 
 success and permanence of his fraternity, gradually cooled 
 down so far towards his normal temperature, as to redeve- 
 lope his unusually clear and forcible reasoning powers, which 
 in combination with diplomatic tact and military decision, 
 were applied with unwearied zeal, and unresting assiduity, to 
 the edification and consolidation of that spiritual power, which 
 receiving its impulse from vision, nevertheless obtained its 
 direction from thought. 
 To his Papal biographers, Ignatius is soluble as a saint. 
 
80 
 
 To them his visions are divine vouchsafements, and his auste- 
 rities commendable mortifications. They do not regard him 
 as exceptional, but only as an exalted specimen of an order 
 wherewith their church has been favoured at intervals from 
 the beginning. In so far they may be said to understand 
 him. But to Protestant writers he looms out as an almost 
 inscrutable mystery, so that they are sometimes fain, in their 
 perplexity, to look elsewhere for the real " founder," and to 
 regard Loyola but as his well-meaning puppet. When he is 
 calm, prudent, and forecasting, they fancy that for a moment 
 the real man is revealed ; but precisely where he is most in- 
 spired, when the spiritual triumphs over the corporeal, and 
 the eternal absorbs the temporal, there, with amusing perver- 
 sity, they loose sight of him. These rather grave misappre- 
 hensions, however, inevitably arise from testing Papal lives 
 by Protestant principles. 
 
 Ignatius, endowed with exalted moral sentiments, and a 
 profound susceptibility to all purer influences, yet, from posi- 
 tion and training, habituated till nearly his thirtieth year to 
 manifold indulgences and luxuries, is suddenly awakened to 
 a deep and agonizing sense of the utter spiritual destitution 
 in which he has hitherto existed. Kaised to a higher plane, 
 he thence contemplates his previous life of trifling and dissi- 
 pation with the abhorrence of a noble nature, fully aroused 
 to a consciousness of hs innate powers, and its befitting des- 
 tiny. In the revulsion of feeling accompanying so painful a 
 self-revelation, what wonder, considering his age, country, 
 and faith, that he should have oscillated to the opposite ex- 
 treme of ascetic severity, determining rather to crucify him- 
 self in the flesh than to perish in the spirit. No burlesque 
 of holy poverty, no masquerade of sanctity, was his begging 
 a morsel of bread from door to door, to the gently reared 
 young noble. He was never more in earnest, and therefore 
 never more spiritually favoured than when so engaged. It 
 was ever amidst sickness and privation that his visional sus- 
 ceptibility was most effectually aroused, and his intercommu- 
 nion with higher beings seemed most frequent and intense. 
 
81 
 
 It was under such circumstances that his grander ideas were 
 developed, and his greater enterprizes originated. His was 
 an ardent temperament, shall we say it, an extreme nature, 
 incapable of the golden mean of commonplace rationality of 
 conduct, that ever sank through comfort into voluptuous- 
 ness, or rose through self-denial into privation. His visions 
 were in a certain sense natural to him at a certain stage of 
 mental exaltation, under which his thoughts took form and 
 became enfbodied in symbolical imagery. To speak of these 
 as something unworthy of, or extraneous to the man, a 
 ing to him by accident, and which respectable biographers 
 would rather not narrate, is simply absurd ; they were an 
 integral portion of him, constituting indeed one of the most 
 important features of his peculiar but powerful mind. An 
 unvisioned Ignatius might have been an ardent devotee, but 
 never the founder and moving spirit of the Society of Jesus.. 
 His lucidity was the prophetic aspect of his many-sided cha- 
 racter, the sublime accompaniment of his culmination, the 
 glory-crowned apex of his entire being, the source of his in- 
 spiration, and the well spring of his greatness. 
 
 8. — George Fox, 
 
 THE FOUNDER OF QUAKERISM. 
 
 In nothing is the gigantic power of a true master-mind more 
 clearly exhibited, or shall we say more forcibly demonstrated, 
 than in the extent to which the followers of a religious 
 leader, generation after generation, unswervingly obey his 
 precepts and devoutly conform themselves to his example. 
 Truly may it be said that such men are the moulds of time. 
 They are divine instrumentalities by which the work of moral 
 creation is being effected. The force which they exert can 
 never be known to their contemporaries, for the ideas which 
 they develope are not simply a gift to the present, but also a 
 
82 
 
 bequest to the future. The systems which they found are not 
 simply a passing power, they are also an enduring inheritance 
 for the ages. And this is true in a minor degree even o£ those 
 lesser spirits, whose mission is not to found, but to modify, 
 creeds, who do not speak with authority but in utter submis- 
 sion to a predecessor : who profess not to originate but inter- 
 pret, whose sphere is not the primary but the secondary, and 
 whose intuitions reach not to divine annunciations in the stilly 
 depths of their own souls, but to a more correct appreciation 
 of the wondrous revelations vouchsafed to others. Such a 
 man was Fox, the founder of Quakerism, the leather-jerkined 
 enthusiast of Drayton, whose deep, quiet, and faithful medi- 
 tations on the Scriptures eventuated in the development of a 
 new internal light, under which the pages of inspiration be- 
 came the vehicle of " knowledge from above." 
 
 The mystic is in very truth a practically important as well 
 as morally interesting character. His visions and aspirations 
 are no doubt psychological phenomena, which the metaphy- 
 sician may study with advantage as abnormal manifestations 
 )f human intelligence ; but they are also motor forces which, 
 it may be, the ages must recognise and the historian will have 
 to chronicle as among the veritable facts of the past. The 
 mystic is himself however, we must remember, but an embodi- 
 ment of the higher influences of his era. He is ever, when 
 we come to profoundly examine him, in a certain sense de- 
 rivative, the result of antecedent influences, a high-wrought 
 effect of preceding causes. As a feature of his time, he is 
 deeply significant, and may be considered as an index of the 
 force and direction of the deeper spiritual currents of his 
 epoch. Neither is he in his simple individuality the sum- 
 total of all the elements of mutation, for not only the extent 
 and success, but the very character of his mission, will to 
 some extent depend on the time and the people to whom he 
 may be sent. Had the fiery, energetic, and poetical son of 
 the Koreish been reared in the sober England of the seven- 
 teenth century, who can say how his naturally combustible 
 constitution mijiht have been modified in its manifestations 
 
83 
 
 by the specialities of our then prevaknt Puritanism. As it is, 
 his followers, bedizened in the many-coloured and loose- 
 flowing robes of their oriental costume, bearded to the girdle, 
 and turbaned to the brow, gravely pay their devoirs to a mul- 
 titudinous host of odalisques, the earthly representatives of 
 their anticipated houris. While perhaps under other condi- 
 tions they might with equal pertinacity and fully proportion- 
 ate gravity have yielded a preference to drab-coloured habili- 
 ments, broad-brimmed head-gear, closely shaven chins, and 
 that monogamatic system of domesticity on which the strin- 
 gent Occident plumes itself in comparison with the looser 
 orient. Man, it is said, is the creature of circumstances, 
 and we may affirm, even of the greatest, that their highest 
 commission is but to sound the trumpet-blast of destiny, 
 their most exalted office that of herald to a resurrection 
 morn . 
 
 England during the time of the Commonwealth was the 
 hotbed of theological excitement. From the tyrannical Laud 
 to the uttermost Puritan, all men were more than usually in 
 earnest about either the forms or the spirit of religion. De- 
 spite the tremendous political changes then taking place, the 
 theological idea really predominated. It was an age of faith ; 
 and men, if we are to trust to their professions, then lived 
 rather for heaven than earth. The more earnest minds of 
 that time were no doubt greatly absorbed by serious con- 
 siderations respecting spiritual and eternal things. It was an 
 age of gloomy but high- principled fanaticism, of stern but 
 heroic enthusiasm. The saints when triumphant might occa- 
 sionally have proved tyrants ; but, when defeated, they knew 
 how to suffer like martyrs. It was a time too stirring and 
 momentous for the development of philosophic indifferentism. 
 Creeds were then among the living and moving powers of 
 the world. The earthquake changes of the Reformation yet 
 lived.in the memory of the aged, and the noises of the new time 
 seemed to them but a reverberation of its thunders. Science 
 and literature were then for the few ; but religion was the 
 grand object of interest to the many. Papacy, Prelacy, 
 
84 
 
 Presbyterianisrn, and Independency, how could men farther 
 go ? So no doubt thought the pulpit orators of that day. 
 
 To find a still farther remove from hierarchial despotism 
 was left for the Leicestershire shoemaker, whose internal light 
 sufficed for that which college learning and merely ministerial 
 zeal could never have accomplished. George Fox, in short, 
 was an ecstatic, a natural clairvoyant, a seer, a prophet, a lowly 
 brother of the great and good of old, one of that truly spiritual 
 hierarchy of God-filled minds whose mission it ever is to 
 make war unto death against the hierarchy of forms. Devout 
 from childhood, serious, earnest, thoughtful, and enquiring, 
 he seems from the first to have had the elements of seerdom 
 deeply seated in his nature. These were of course especially 
 developed by the tendencies of his age and country. During 
 his internal conflicts, he, like most of his order, sought refuge 
 in solitude, and dwelt much in hollow trees and other rustic 
 conveniences, occasionally seeking alleviation from his sore 
 travail of spirit on commons, moors, and barren hills, where 
 his deeply-tried soul held long and well-nigh despairing com- 
 munions with itself on the origin of evil and the purposes of 
 the Creator. Poor, young, and uninstructed, bnt honest, 
 pious, and determined to find the truth or perish in the search, 
 the Drayton artizan tried priest after priest, vexing them with 
 strange inquiries, and putting their best school logic to the 
 test by such strong arguments and startling instances as could 
 scarcely fail to excite the bile even of such reverend and 
 much-enduring men : and then going in quest of a sister 
 ecstatic, some Lancashire woman, who had been in a trance 
 for twenty two days, but who seems at his visit to have been 
 " under a temptation." Truly it is no wonder that what with 
 constitutional tendencies, exciting influences, long fastings, 
 and the sympathetic re-action of other trance-sleepers, it is 
 no wonder we say that at last the devout and thoughtful reli- 
 gionist should have fallen into a vision himself, wherein he tells 
 us " a great work of the Lord fell upon me, and I saw into 
 that which is without end, and things that cannot be uttered, 
 of the greatness and infiniteness of the love of God," so that 
 
85 
 
 " men thought I was dead, and afterwards many came to see 
 me for about fourteen days' time, for I was very much altered 
 in my countenance and person, as if my body had been new 
 moulded and changed:' The over- thoughtful child, the mor- 
 bidly excitable youth, and the visionary man, what student 
 of ecstacy but must here perceive all the symptoms of its suc- 
 cessive stages of development ? In these last fourteen days 
 of corporeal somnolence and spiritual vigilance, the mystic 
 culminated. It was his cave at Mecca, nay, with his body 
 " new moulded and changed," was it not a species of lowly 
 transfiguration, in which the high-wrought and radiant spirit, 
 beaming through and in a measure overflowing its earthly 
 tabernacle, shone forth a spectacle of lucidity even to carnal 
 beholders ? How the future of his earnest life was fashioned 
 by the revelations afforded in this prolonged trance, to what 
 extent even modern Quakerism is indebted to it for its pre- 
 sent form and substance, it were difficult, if not impossible, 
 to say. Suffice it that we have here indubitable evidence of 
 that seer-vision, by which we are enabled to place this skin- 
 covered preacher of the moral and physical wilderness within 
 the grand category of prophetic souls, albeit, perhaps he was 
 not the very highest of that exalted order. Even physically 
 we find similar and corroborative evidence afforded, for when 
 they advised him in the fever of early zeal to be bled, the 
 lancet being then as now the never-failing remedy of the 
 legalized manslayer in a difficulty, behold they could draw 
 no blood, his juices being dried up by reason of the world's 
 sore iniquities, and the inward troubles of his deeply agitated 
 spirit. Verily, whether upon the top of Pendle Hill, « the 
 Lord let him see in what places he had a great people to be 
 gathered," or whether sitting still in the house, " the ele- 
 ments and stars came over him, so that he was in a manner 
 quite clouded with it ; " in either case have we not unmis- 
 takable indications of a true votes, evoked and commissioned 
 from within, and so having withal a notable contempt for 
 outward ordinances, which to him and his were needless ac- 
 cessories, productive of hinderance rather than furtherance. 
 
86 
 
 But what shall we say to the Elijah-like act of slaying the 
 doughty Protector of England with a look, for, meeting the 
 veteran Oliver riding into Hampton-court at the head of his 
 life-guards, " I saw and felt a waft of death go forth against 
 him, and when I came to him he looked like a dead man." Of 
 a verity, even the profligate Stewart, could he have been but , 
 fully certified hereof, would doubtless have held the plain 
 spoken apostle of interior illumination in such respect as a' 
 a spiritual David after his triumph over the political Goliah 
 deserved. 
 
 A plain, simple, earnest, honest man was good George Fox, 
 his leather jerkin and ecstatic visions notwithstanding. His 
 whole life was one long inspiration. His every thought a 
 high intuition, his every act the result of an internal moni- 
 tion : his earthly pilgrimage was that of a wayfarer guided 
 through the valley of the shadow by spiritual presences and 
 Divine vouchsafements. To him miracles were no vague tra- 
 dition, but experimental realities, nor could the theory of 
 coincidences ever prevail to cheat him out of a supporting- 
 faith in Providential deliverances. An absorbed and devoted 
 enthusiast, to him dreams were realities, and the interior life 
 with its direct relationship to God, the all-important concern 
 of existence. The wonder is not that he should have founded 
 a sect, but that his followers subsided at so early a period from 
 world-despising enthusiasts into worldly prosperous men of 
 business; that the most impracticable of founders should 
 have given birth to so practical a discipleship. This was due 
 in a great measure doubtless to the nature of the ground in 
 which his seed was sown. Had the taught been mystic 
 Hindoos or fiery Arabs, the result of his tuitions would have 
 been widely different. But the logic of Barclay, and the prac- 
 tical knowledge of Penn, acting on the constitutional sobriety 
 of British converts, soon gave a form and colouring to the, 
 movement, such as few who beheld the shaking devotees, or 
 listened to the singing preachers among the early Friends, 
 could have anticipated. In no sect has the change, from 
 ranting fanaticism to quiet respectability been more marked 
 
87 
 
 or complete, and yet perhaps in none has so much of the real 
 spirit of the founder been preserved, while his minor formulas 
 have been modified or dispensed with. The Quakers are still 
 disciples of George Fox, albeit, were the rudely clad wanderer 
 of Lancashire to be now introduced into the comfortable par- 
 lours, and even splendid drawing-rooms, of his modern fol- 
 lowers, he might perhaps find subject-matter for remark, if 
 not reproof; but take him to the anti-slavery platforms, 
 meetings for social reform, and other spheres of beneficent 
 action, and he would still say, these are my children. 
 
 To the philosophic student of ecstatic exaltation, the quak- 
 ings, shakings, jumpings, and even flagellations of the various 
 religious bodies who have at different periods emerged into 
 manifestation, are not without profound significance. They 
 all exhibit a generic identity, and are mere varieties of nerv- 
 ous excitation, generally propagated by sympathy, and are 
 usually accompanied by prophesyings and preachings in the 
 more enthusiastic and susceptible of the votaries of this 
 strange terpsichorean inspiration. In addition to this, some 
 of the early Friends appear to have been gifted with the power 
 of affecting others by their breath, so that in America they 
 were even accused of witchcraft, in consequence of the sudden 
 and extraordinary command which they thus acquired over 
 those whom they wished to convert. The mesmerist will of 
 course be at no loss to interpret this — it is simply an instance 
 of sympathy purposely transmitted, and has its analogue in 
 the processes which his science has adopted. Altogether, good 
 George Fox and his Friends furnish many interesting and 
 valuable illustrations of those laws which regulate the evolu- 
 tion of the higher faculties of ecstatic intuition and lucid 
 vision, and his journal, together with those of his more dis- 
 tinguished disciples, will be found to abound with narratives 
 too honestly told, and too truthful in every way to nature, 
 to permit of our doubting for a moment the integrity of the 
 narrators ; but which are yet, to those ignorant of the mys- 
 terious domain of man's inner being, a stumbling block and. 
 rock of offence. 
 
88 
 
 9. — Sir Isaac Newton. 
 
 The inductive philosophy in its lower departments, at least, 
 is eminently prosaic. The observation of facts, the institu- 
 tion of experiments, and even the deduction of conclusions, 
 imply aught but the labour of a creative mind. Intel- 
 lectual mechanism might accomplish all the achievements 
 of our ordinary savants, though there were no soul behind 
 it. But in this, as in all other departments of human acti- 
 vity, the higher phases of manifestation demand the presence 
 of a constructive and reproductive mind. A true discoverer 
 has ever the intuitive element in his composition. His works 
 are the product of inspiration. He is a poet manipulating- 
 nature, an artist, and not an artizan, in her mystic laboratory. 
 All original minds are a priori in their essential character, and 
 condescend to induction, as the gods of heathen mythology 
 occasionally veiled the exceeding brightness of their divinity 
 from a kindly spirit of accommodation to the weakness of 
 mortality. This living universe, irradiant with the shadeless 
 glory of the indwelling Godhead, becomes at best a piece of 
 dead mechanism, and but too frequently a cesspool and a 
 grave, in passing through the alembic of a commonplace 
 mind, trained in the schools, and suffused with the spirit of 
 modern materialism. We have lost the high vantage-ground 
 of our Titanic predecessors. We are pigmies perched on the 
 Alpine heights, reared in their conflict with unveracity ; and 
 because our prospect is wide, we fancy our souls must be 
 large. But this is an error, as posterity will doubtless not be 
 slow to discover. The collossal facts which have been grow- 
 ing with the centuries, have become too vast for our tiny 
 grasp. They have escaped from the mastery of our contracted 
 minds, and lord it over us, as the unresisting slaves of their 
 overawing magnitude. We can scarcely apprehend, much 
 less comprehend, them. Who, save the late Humboldt, now 
 
 

 89 
 
 thinks of embracing the grand scheme of nature as a mighty 
 and harmonious whole, to be reflected in all its sublime en- 
 tirety on the mirror of consciousness ? Most, on the con- 
 trary, prefer attempting its cognition by ineffective raids into 
 different provinces, that endow us not with clear and adequate 
 ideas, but unsatisfactory and chaotic impressions. We look 
 up to the material forms of being, from the low level of ex- 
 perience, instead of down upon them from the commanding 
 plane of first principles, that is of spiritual perception. Con- 
 scious of our inferiority, we endeavour to excuse it by dwell- 
 ing on the vastitude of our possessions, like puling heirs of 
 mighty houses, who miserably dwarfed in the presence of 
 ancestral greatness, yet rest in pitiable vanity on the length 
 of their pedigrees,' the number of their quartering^, and the 
 extent of their estates. Science has outgrown our indivi 
 dual capability ; and, as a necessity, we resort to the division 
 of labour, and become, as a consequence, converted more and 
 more into mere wheels and pinions of a dominant mechan- 
 ism, which employs us but as its subordinate tools and infe- 
 rior agencies. All this, however, is no doubt analogically 
 correct. We are in the age of analysis, and while disinte- 
 grating things in our experiments, are ourselves subjected 
 to a corresponding process, by the spirit of the time in which 
 we live. 
 
 We admire the ancients ; but we pity and despise their 
 pupils and successors, the mediaeval schoolmen. Yet, from 
 the tuitions of these pedantic masters, issued those collossal 
 thinkers, by whose profound meditations we have been made 
 wise, and by whose sublime aspirations we have been led 
 onwards. Our guides were their sons, and our excelsiors 
 were their children. Truly we do well to be angry with 
 these mighty teachers, for they made giants, where we f for 
 the most part, only manufacture mechanical approximations 
 to a sickly manhood. In the Aristotlean schools, Machia- 
 velli acuminated his astuteness, and Dante intensified his 
 almost superhuman energy of thought and conception. 
 While from their training issued those stalwart champions 
 
90 
 
 to whom we are indebted for the revival of learning, the re- 
 formation and the inductive philosophy. The logical and 
 a priori masters of the middle ages fell, as Gods only can, by 
 the usurpation of their sons. In the revolution of Destiny's 
 grander cycle, the hour of their dethronement arrived ; but 
 they succumbed, as became divinities, only to their own im- 
 mortal progeny. 
 
 We mistake in thinking that Protestantism and the expe- 
 rimental philosophy are the product of two separate move- 
 ments of the human mind. They are simply different branches 
 from the same trunk, duplicate effects of the same cause. 
 They were necessary sequences in a descent from principle 
 to fact, from law to phenomena. While making these frank 
 admissions, however, let us not, we repeat, be hopelessly dis- 
 couraged. The strongest eagles must at times alight, and 
 not always on mountain tops ; for while soaring sunwards for 
 prospect, they must sometimes swoop earthwards for prey. 
 The human intellect which had dwelt for well nigh two mil- 
 leniums, at the sublime altitude of first principles, became at 
 length an hungered in the pure though rarified air which en- 
 girdled its lofty eyry, and so bethought itself of the lowly- 
 vales of experimental knowledge, where it has now been feed- 
 ing and fattening, till some almost begin to fear that the bird 
 of Jove must, by some deplorable transformation, have been 
 converted into a foul vulture, redolent of offal, and ravenous 
 for putridity. 
 
 But to return, Protestantism is simply the reign of expe- 
 riment in theology, while the inductive philosophy is only a 
 manifestation of Protestantism in science. Authority was at 
 an end, whether based on principles enshrined in churches, 
 organized in institutions, or deposited in persons. The revo- 
 lutionary movement commenced with the two former, and is 
 concluding with the two latter. The era of mutation set in 
 on philosophy and religion, and is ending in society and the 
 state. Its first blow was at the priest and the professor ; its 
 last will be at the king and the noble : it began in the san- 
 hedrim, and will terminate in the senate. It is " the mighty 
 
 
91 
 
 wind," predestined from of old, to thoroughly purge the gar- 
 ner floor of an encumbered earth — " the fire" in which the 
 chaff of ages is to be consumed — " the flood " wherewith the 
 Augean stable of a world's iniquities will be swept clean of 
 its impurities. Let us not be too seriously alarmed at this 
 rather sombre and threatening aspect of affairs. We have 
 arrived at " the beginning of the end," Let the friends of 
 reconstruction thank God and take courage. The storm, if 
 not well nigh overpast, is at all events approaching its maxi- 
 mum. Let all good souls, who can prevail to veritably be- 
 lieve, amidst the manifold delapidations of these latter days, 
 in the existence of " law and order," as dependant, not on 
 an armed force obeying the behests of earthly kings, but on 
 principles which are the vicegerents of a heavenly one ; let 
 such, we say, gird up their loins as for a day of battle, and 
 rejoice as at a coming victory. In the interval, is there not 
 work for such as can labour, even though it were but to 
 gather microscopic facts, those pretty pebbles on the beach 
 of the universe, wherewith nature's more industrious chil- 
 dren seek to weave a tiny carkanet for the neck of truth, 
 who, majestic, yet beneficent goddess, smiles in loving con- 
 descension on their infant efforts, and playfully disposes of 
 the toy on that magnificent yet mysterious form, which none, 
 save the Omniscient, ever yet beheld unveiled. 
 
 Of the Olympian progeny of the a priori school, Francis 
 of Verulam must undoubtedly be considered as the first in 
 order of rank, the one in whom most of the paternal power 
 survived, and who consequently became, " by right divine," 
 the Jove of the a posteriori method, which arose on the ruins 
 of the former. Not of accident, but design, not by chance, 
 but law, did the grandest expounder of the inductive philo- 
 sophy, Lord Bacon, and its greatest examplar, Sir Isaac 
 Newton appear in Britain, the western terminus ot existing, 
 and the focal point of emergence to impending, civilization. 
 Anglo-Saxons both, of the newest imperial race, and the 
 latest imperial country. Golden links whereby a past of 
 
92 
 
 heroic endeavour is to be joined to a future of sublime ful- 
 filment. Of the mighty chancellor and his works, we may, 
 perhaps, find opportunity to speak in some other place, and 
 in some other connexion. Suffice it here, that we hold in 
 unutterable contempt the theory of his being addicted to low 
 and grovelling habits, animated by inferior motives, or go- 
 verned by perverted principles. On the contrary, we hold 
 him, and William of Stratford, to be, in all points, the most 
 nearly God-like men that have anywhere appeared in these 
 latter ages. 
 
 Our business now is, not with the collossal hierophant of 
 induction, but his worthiest pupil ; not with the inspired archi- 
 tect, to whose gifted vision the beauty and proportions of 
 the fair temple of science arose as by the revelation of a 
 celestial magic, vouchsafed to truth's most ardent worshipper, 
 but with the great master-builder, under whose direction and 
 superintendence, and, in great part, by whose personal exer- 
 tions and gigantic labours, its principal blocks were hewn into 
 form, and placed in position. Without a Bacon, we could 
 scarcely have had a Newton, and vet without the latter the 
 former had been almost useless, vox et preterea nihil. The 
 first was the thinking head, and the last the executant hand 
 of experiment. Let not these figures, however, imply too 
 much of disadvantage to him, who so bravely achieved what 
 the other had so wisely designed. They may be compared 
 together, and their diversities of endowment stated ; but 
 they have no rivals without, and stand apart from their suc- 
 cessors, like transfigured prophets on a mount of glory, while 
 even their most honoured disciples rest afar off, like common 
 mortals, unable to endure the celestial radiance of this bea- 
 tific vision, unless at a distance, which may tone down its 
 supernal splendours to the visional capacity of an earthly 
 observer. If Lord Bacon were the inspired seer of induction, 
 Sir Isaac Newton was its ecstatic labourer, who wrought 
 with Sampson like energy for the fulfilment of its wondrous 
 promises. What the first profoundly foresaw, the last nobly 
 
93 
 
 realized ; what the first, with prophetic prevision, announced 
 as possible, the last, with almost superhuman energy, rendered 
 actual. 
 
 Descended from the English yeomanry, Newton was, as we 
 have already observed, of Saxon race, having all the grander 
 qualities of this noble type of humanity in full perfection. 
 With a powerful brain, of unusual magnitude in the anterior 
 and well-developed in the coronal region, his reflective faculties 
 predominating over the imaginative, and the logical prepon- 
 derating over the analogical elements in his mental constitu- 
 tion, with accurate perceptions, and a retentive memory, he 
 was richly furnished with all the higber qualities of an analy- 
 tical intellect of the first order. A careful and attentive ob- 
 server, his data were correct ; a profound and sequential rea- 
 soner, his conclusions were sound. With him, knowledge 
 was ever converted into subject-matter for thought. Inca- 
 pable of resting contented with the observation of effects, he, 
 as by a law of his nature, ascended to their causes. To him, 
 phenomena were but the indications of a power whence they 
 proceeded; the angel's ladder which leads from the world 
 of fact to the heaven of principle, was never absent from 
 his consciousness. Of nervo-lymphatic temperament, he was 
 solid rather than brilliant, and exhibited the vastitude of his 
 genius, less in the facility of his processes, than in the mag- 
 nitude of his results. He was essentially, and in all points, an 
 Englishman, whose gigantic practicality, however, embraced 
 the universe and its laws ; the creation and its forces. To 
 say that the homesteads of Britain contain many such might 
 sound like an exaggeration ; but of the colossal brood whence 
 he sprang. Titans have often come, and giants, we may trust, 
 will never cease to be born. This intellect, so grandly mas- 
 sive, was united to a moral nature proportionately elevated. 
 Benevolent, almost to a fault, he who could pursue the 
 powers of nature to their ultimates, with the unerring ex- 
 actitude of mathematical calculation, who, in the pursuit of 
 his sublime vocation, shrank from no conclusion, and hesi- 
 tated at no truth, was so merciful to animals, as to disapprove 
 
94 
 
 of the sportsman's pastime from its cruelty. Profoundly re- 
 verential, his intimate acquaintance with the mechanism of 
 the universe, never for a moment withdrew his worship from 
 the Creator to his work, his admiration for the latter, only 
 sufficing to increase his devotion to the former. Of incor- 
 ruptible integrity, and unspotted morals, he was as unim- 
 peachable in his private, as he was illustrious in his public 
 life. Gifted in mind, and unblemished in conduct, affection- 
 ate to his relatives, attached to his friends, and beneficent 
 to his kind, he discharged every duty, and fulfilled every ob- 
 ligation, not only with a religious consciousness of the re- 
 quirements of his position, but with that tendency to good- 
 ness, which seems to be manifested by some few superior 
 beings, as if from the proclivity of an exalted nature to 
 every species of moral and intellectual excellence. 
 
 Of studious habits, and intent on the acquisition of know- 
 ledge, Xewton was a persistent and laborious experiment- 
 alist. Largely endowed with concentrativeness, he seems to 
 have been always capable of giving his undivided attention 
 to whatever was for the time the especial subject of his 
 thought. With a mind constituted like one of his own 
 lenses, he could focalise every ray of light on a given point, 
 till under this intense luminosity even its minutest speciali- 
 ties became revealed. The habits established by systematic 
 study, reinforced a tendency originating in native endow- 
 ment, until at last he became so absorbed as to sit occasionally 
 on the side of his bed, half- dressed for hours, lost to the sense 
 of all external objects, in rapt meditation on some abstruse 
 mathematical problem, or some phenomenon not yet fully 
 illustrated by a sufficiently satisfactory experiment. In his 
 moods of severer study, he frequently forgot his meals, and 
 needed to be reminded of many requirements that common- 
 place minds seldom or never overlook. In short, he was pre- 
 eminently an absent man. And it was generally during these 
 fits of abstraction, that his brightest conceptions dawned 
 upon him, it was then that he was favoured with his clearest 
 intuitions, and originated or completed some of his most no- 
 
* 95 
 
 table discoveries. He had thus attained, at least, to the 
 earlier stage of absorption, and was endowed consequently 
 with more or less ecstatic intuition. Every man to his voca- 
 tion. Gifted with this interior light, and the supersensuous 
 perception, and preterlogical apprehension which it confers, 
 a Napoleon achieves miracles in strategy, a Socrates devel- 
 opes moral, and a Newton discovers physical truth. 
 
 Sir Isaac was a man of genius, devoted to the illustration 
 of nature, and wrought at his glorious task with faculties 
 originally powerful, but, beyond question, wonderfully exalted 
 at times in function. His ability to see at a glance through 
 all the successive stages of a demonstration in Euclid is an 
 instance in point. It was intuition transcending not the 
 range, but the rate, of deduction, outrunning it in the course, 
 and leaving it at a hopeless distance in the rear. 
 
 This tendency to abstraction and exaltation, which, if not 
 always morbid, has ever a liability to become so, culminated 
 and apparently collapsed in his fiftieth year, about the period 
 of life at which Swedenborg's and Cardan's lucidity began to 
 manifest itself. In these two illustrious men it would seem 
 that the nervous crisis eventuated in something like victory, 
 while in Newton it resulted in an approach to defeat. With 
 visional ecstacy, the first united an analogical power of rea- 
 soning hitherto unexampled, and. while retaining, and even 
 extending, all his previous knowledge of science, extensive, 
 varied, and profound as this was, beyond that of almost any 
 man of his time, he seems to have ascended to a plane of 
 thought, whence he not only intuitively beheld those truths 
 to which he had previously attained by induction, but from 
 whence, as from a watch-tower of the spirit, he was enabled 
 to behold them in all those far-extending relationships 
 united, by which they constitute that majestic whole — a 
 divinely fashioned universe. It cannot be doubted that 
 Swedenborg was a greater man after than before his crisis. 
 One evidence of this is, that his fame depends on his subse- 
 quent rather than his previous works. But, independently 
 of this, which some may be disposed to consider rather falla- 
 
96 
 
 cious evidence, and looking only to the inherent capability of 
 his mind during the two epochs, it is obvious that in clearness 
 of intellectual perception, in grasp of thought, in logical acu- 
 men, in profundity of meditation, in the diversity of his 
 subject-matter, and in the order, method, and treatment of 
 his wondrous themes, the inspired dreamer of Stockholm was 
 grander in his visions as a seer, than in his investigations as a 
 savant. Ecstacy, though it somewhat disturbed the normal 
 equilibrium of his faculties, in some measure compensated for 
 this, by the almost preternatural aggrandisement of every en- 
 dowment by which it was accompanied. In him lucidity 
 was in a measure mastered and methodized, and so, while 
 acting doubtlessly as a powerful and dangerous excitant, 
 nevertheless, conduced to a certain growth and increment, 
 perhaps unattainable without its weird presence and myste- 
 rious aid. Even in the instance of Cardanus, the develop- 
 ment of lucidity was accompanied rather with an increase 
 than a diminution of mathematical and other power. But in 
 the case of Newton, despite the desperate, though hopeless, 
 endeavours of well-intentioned biographers to make it appear 
 otherwise, it is obvious that his maximum of ability was at- 
 tained before, and not after, the crisis. With those who 
 think his Biblical Chronology and his Dissertation on the 
 Prophecies greater works than his discoveries in light and 
 his Principia, it is of course useless to reason. They have a 
 standard of excellence, which being compounded of the moral 
 rather than the intellectual, of the devotional rather than the 
 thoughtful, has no doubt its own peculiar merits as an admea- 
 surement of worth ; but it is one to which the metaphysician 
 must demur, and which the philosopher will refuse to admit. 
 His mission as a discoverer was at an end ; his career, as the 
 master-pilot of humanity, into the realms of the unknown 
 was brought to a termination ; and, for the greatness of his 
 worid-wide fame and the permanence of his everlasting re- 
 nown, he might as well have expired in the convulsions of 
 phrenitis at fifty, as have survived to vegetate during thirty 
 additional years in the ease and comfort of a glorious, but in 
 
97 
 
 comparison with his more radiant youth, a sterile and unpro- 
 ductive old age. The lightning-like intuition, beneath whose 
 sudden flash truth stood revealed from amidst the rayless 
 gloom of antecedent darkness ; the lucid perception to whose 
 electric movement the most rapid deduction had the leth- 
 argic slowness of a tortoise march, these had utterly disap- 
 peared, and their place was supplied with simply the profound 
 attainments of an eminent Cambridge professor, and the 
 learning of a deeply read and accomplished scholar, compe- 
 tent, no doubt, to the verification of previous discoveries and 
 the annotation of earlier works, but, alas ! utterly incapable 
 of rivalling much less surpassing them. The Newton of the 
 Principia, the divinely illumined and inspired sage, to whom 
 nature communicated her most recondite secrets and her 
 deepest mysteries as to a holy prophet receiving revelations 
 of truth in the rapt ecstacy of beatific vision, this Newton 
 had departed Elijah-like to his proper home, leaving behind 
 him nothing but the mortal simulaerum, which had served 
 as the cloak of his earthly sojourn. 
 
 There has been much needless controversy on this sub- 
 ject of Newton's ailment, the discussion being maintained 
 not so much with a view to the elicitation of truth in connec- 
 tion with the matter in hand, as for the supposed purpose of 
 maintaining the peculiar religious or sceptical opinions of the 
 combatants. The fact that Newton was a distinguished 
 savant prior to his disease, and a theologian subsequently to 
 it, has given an interest to his malady in the estimation of 
 certain extreme sections of the scientific and religious public, 
 quite independently of its pathological peculiarities. It is 
 these, however, that we have here to explain. More espe- 
 cially affecting the nervous system, although apparently 
 accompanied with an abnormal condition of the alimentary, 
 it was doubtless produced by those habits of intense and 
 protracted thought, in which for years it had been his custom 
 to indulge. His overwrought brain, exercised by severe 
 study in youth, and strained by the severer labours of man- 
 hood, became at length incapable of duly performing its 
 
98 
 
 normal functions, probably from that accumulation of ner- 
 vous force which, in a more active and excitable tempera- 
 ment, might have burst forth in an irrepressible explosion of 
 mania, but which, in his naturally sluggish and unemotional 
 nature, eventuated rather in stagnation and bewilderment. 
 Where a poetically constituted mind would have experienced 
 a violent paroxysm of delirium, and either perished in or 
 victoriously surmounted this magnetic storm, with its thun- 
 der-voiced revelations and lightning flashes of thought and 
 conception, this profoundly meditative, yet unidealistic genius, 
 to whose inner consciousness passion was unknown, sunk 
 overwhelmed by mephitic vapours, which would not blaze 
 into creative light — the former might have become a burn- 
 ing volcano with its molten lava and lurid flame-clouds ; but 
 the latter was converted into a dismal swamp, begloomed by 
 those foetid exhalations which brood over fecundity reduced 
 to putrefaction. The age at which it occurred is one of 
 crisis with all men, but more especially the class of severely 
 cultured and hardly wrought thinkers to which Newton be- 
 longed. It is the period at which the grosser animal nature 
 generally subsides into comparative quiesence, and when the 
 intellect, with its attainments matured and its capacities 
 enlarged, assumes a more assured sway over the impulses 
 and emotions, which had previously accorded but an imper- 
 fect allegiance to the royal supremacy of judgment. Under 
 its expansive and exalting influences, Bacon arose to the vast 
 meditation and far-seeing wisdom of the Novum Organum, 
 and Milton culminated in the previously unattainable sublimi- 
 ties of Paradise Lost ; while, at a remoter epoch, iEschylus 
 emerged into the dramatic grandeur of the Prometheus, and 
 Plato arrived at the exalted spirituality of the Phasdron. In 
 certain unfortunate cases, however, this mental victory is 
 replaced by defeat, and he who should have been the con- 
 queror of Chaos becomes the captive of confusion. Such 
 was for a time, at least, the unhappy destiny of Newton, 
 who, on emerging from the cloud, was found shorn of his 
 previous radiance, and reduced more nearly to the level of 
 
99 
 
 ordinary humanity. The essential distinction between the 
 mental condition of "Newton before and after his disease, was 
 that between creation and possession, the power to originate 
 and the ability to understand. He sank from genius to talent, 
 from intuitive insight to deductive conclusion, and, as an un- 
 avoidable consequence, became but the editor and annotator 
 of his former sublime, and now unapproachable, productions. 
 The sunlight of inspiration was exchanged for the lamp of 
 intellect. The flash, whose sudden radiance had brightly 
 illumined a whole province, was now, alas! superseded by 
 the dull glow of a few expiring embers, ever waxing fainter 
 in their approach to final extinction. 
 
 Let not the religious world be troubled at the thought, that 
 such a conclusion, if generally received, will prove at all in- 
 jurious to those mighty interests for which it exhibits so 
 laudable a zeal. Newton was ever a firm believer in, and 
 devout worshipper of, his Spiritual Father. To him the uni- 
 verse was never a piece of dead mechanism, but, on the con- 
 trary, a glorious manifestion of Divine power. It remained 
 for after times to develope that weird spectacle, a great and 
 gifted mind, thoroughly furnished with the higher lore of 
 nature, resting satisfied in this outer-court of the great temple 
 of being, and never seeking to penetrate into those adyta, 
 where, in the Holy of Holies, an ever-present Shekinah 
 brightly burns to illumine the soul of each devoutly expec- 
 tant and worshipfully reverend hierophant. And such was 
 Newton, who in his best and strongest days, in the noble 
 fervour of his ingenuous youth, and in the unequalled vigour 
 of his maturer manhood, lived a consecrated priest of God, 
 ever placing on the altar those priceless gifts of new know- 
 ledge, richer than all the preceding ages had supplied, and i n 
 comparison with which, our most costly offerings are un- 
 speakably contemptible. Let not the religious world be dis- 
 comfited and cast down, then, because the latter days of 
 Xewton may be esteemed inferior in mental force and clear- 
 ness to the earlier portions of his transcendently illustrious and 
 grandly useful career. Commentaries on the Scriptures have 
 
100 
 
 generally been the work of devout but second-rate minds, the 
 artisans, not the artists of literature. Let Scripture readers be 
 assured, that in perusing the sacred volume of nature with a 
 sage's eye, in deciphering the characters, and penetrating 
 into the mysteries of her holy pages, he was engaged on a 
 labour as sublime in itself, and as sanctified by the frame of 
 mind in which he undertook and prosecuted it, as if he had 
 not only commented on, but actually composed those books 
 on which they look with such unspeakable reverence. The 
 exalted devotion of Newton's majestic maturity, the undoubt- 
 ing faith, and child-like simplicity, which so beautifully cha- 
 racterized him, when at the maximum of his vigour, and 
 in the midway course of his discoveries, these are the speciali- 
 ties of this gigantic master-mind, on which they may dwell 
 with enlightened satisfaction, and to which they may point 
 in just pride, when taunted with the shallow scepticism and 
 grovelling materialism of scientific men, immeasurably infe- 
 rior in every higher moral and intellectual attribute. This 
 is their strongest ground, and to descend from this to the com- 
 paratively puerile manifestations of his declining years, is but 
 to exchange this unassailable position, for one altogether in- 
 ferior in logically defensible qualities. 
 
 But we may safely leave this department of the subject in 
 the hands of those professionally devoted to the advocacy 
 and defence of faith. Suffice it for our present purpose, that 
 Newton was obviously an ecstatic, although developed under 
 rather peculiar conditions, and with his illumination devoted 
 to the elucidation of somewhat unusual topics. His was pre- 
 eminently an intellectual and thoughtful, as contradistin- 
 guished from an emotional and imaginative lucidity. It was 
 an exaltation of the perceptive and reflective powers, but 
 more especially of the latter. Hence not only the accuracy 
 of his observations, but their definitive application to a given 
 purpose, and their entire subordination to the one grand ob- 
 ject of demonstrating the veracity or fallacy of a presumed 
 truth. His experiments were crucial in character, and tended 
 to confirm or destroy the hypothetical views of him whoole. 
 
101 
 
 stituted them. Hence also the grasp and grandeur of his 
 ideas, whose profundity and vastitude seem almost com- 
 mensurate with that uuiverse to the discovery of whose laws 
 these mighty powers were so assiduously devoted. Hence 
 also the remarkable and apparently contradictory fact, that, 
 although constitutionally slow in many of his other mental 
 operations, Newton was so largely gifted with intuitive in- 
 sight, that many of his discoveries flashed upon him as by in- 
 spiration, while some of his mathematical processes were ac- 
 complished with a rapidity and facility, all but incredible to 
 ordinarily gifted mem It is this especial combination which 
 renders him so interesting, and in a sense unique ; but, per- 
 haps, it was this also which ultimately conduced to his defeat. 
 His cold and phlegmatic nature, susceptible of the light, could 
 not endure the heat of ecstatic action, and succumbed pre- 
 cisely at that stage of development, where more warmly en- 
 thusiastic and imaginative beings have usually attained to 
 their highest manifestations, and thus when he should have 
 emerged into seerdom, he sank into annotation. 
 
 10.— SWEDENBORG. 
 
 Science justly prides itself upon the exactitude of its pro- 
 cesses, while the mathematics repose with dignified assur- 
 ance on the certitude of their results. As schools of thought 
 each is supposed to produce habits of precision, which if not 
 positively hostile to imagination are at all events eminently 
 calculated to regulate and methodize, if not subdue the native 
 wildness of an undisciplined fancy. The restoration of Para- 
 dise Lost to its enthusiastic lender, an ardent admirer of the 
 author's genius, with the cold and almost cynical remark, 
 11 that it proved nothing," was a feat that no one but a student 
 of the exact sciences could have performed ! As a mere tale, 
 its probability would vanish if told of any other order of the 
 
102 
 
 intellectual hierarchy. We strongly suspect, however, that, 
 after all, this notion of a profound antagonism between the 
 magnificent real of true science and the glorious ideal of pure 
 poesy is nothing more than a popular fallacy, founded on the 
 grossest misconception of what really constitutes the savant. 
 We have elsewhere spoken of the epic grandeur of concep- 
 tion which characterized the author of the Novum Organum. 
 And descending from the chief of the inductive philosophy to 
 his humbler, though still worthily exalted, disciples, what 
 vigour of conception do we find in the speculations of the 
 elder Herschel on the stellar arrangements of distant space, 
 and the gradual formation of solar systems from the advancing 
 concentration of misty nebulosities ! And what is the Cosmos 
 ■A the late venerable Humboldt but a beautifully descriptive 
 poem, in which the otherwise dry if not sterile facts of pure 
 science become instinct with life, and redolent of the most 
 gorgeous beauty and magnificence, when contemplated 
 through the richly-endowed mind of the deeply-studious and 
 far-travelled sage, whose naturally vigorous imagination, so 
 far from being oppressed, is but invigorated by the truly 
 Atlantian load of his acquired knowledge. Are his descrip- 
 tions of mountain-scenery less sublime, are his chasms less 
 dark and awful, his declivities less precipitous, or his snow- 
 clad peaks less radiant, as they shine forth amidst the cloud- 
 less glories of the tropics, because the accomplished author 
 knows the geological structure of their interior, and is compe- 
 tent to explain the meteorological laws on which so many 
 of their surface phenomena depend for the varying peculiari- 
 ties which they present? Do his descriptions of the luxuri- 
 ant vegetation of equatorial savannahs lack one element of 
 the beautiful because he is competent to enter botanically 
 into the minutest description of the multiform flora of these 
 magnificent regions ? Are his skies less blue, his sunsets less 
 grand, or his prospects more tame and uninteresting, because 
 in his vast mind he enfolds that all but universal knowledge, 
 which, when needed, enables him to enter into the minutest 
 detail of scientific investigation, in every province of nature to 
 
103 
 
 which man has yet directed his attentiou ? And who that 
 has read Professor Nichol on astronomy but must have per- 
 ceived that the attainments of the philosopher have in no 
 respect detracted from, but rather added to, the native 
 endowments of the accomplished orator and truly idealistic 
 poet! 
 
 The cold and cloudy north, land of the mountain and the 
 mist, is the natural home of rude but forcible energy of cha- 
 racter. Its short and fleeting summer is followed too soon 
 by the blustrous gales and long dreary stormful nights of 
 winter for the mind to become habituated to easy repose on 
 tlie bosom of nature. It is no region for languid and volup- 
 tuous souls, whom its howling tempests soon rouse from their 
 castle of indolence. The uncongenial elements without afford 
 an environment which is ever compressing the mind upon it- 
 self, compelling it to look, if even mournfully, within, for the 
 resources of intellectual existence. Hence high and stern 
 resolve in action and intense concentration of thought have 
 generally distinguished the master-spirits of the Scandinavian 
 race. The vikinger are their earthly heroes, and the gloomy 
 grandeur of the Sagas the most befitting embodiment of their 
 genius, while the bloody onslaughts and barbaric feasts in the 
 halls of Odin are their ideal of heaven. Such at least are the 
 roots of their racial ideas ; the black tuberosities of their my- 
 thical Igdrasil, ever, as the ages roll away, shooting skyward, 
 fill the radiant suns and shining stars become but the adorn- 
 ment of its branches. Of this noble race, which, taking it 
 morally and physically, as well as intellectually, is perhaps 
 the grandest type which humanity has yet developed, was 
 born Emanuel Swedenborg, the son of a Lutheran bishop. 
 Thus reared under paternal influences, which could scarcely 
 fail to prove favourable both to his intellectual and moral 
 growth, he had also the advantage of a first-class education, 
 and the subsequent benefit of a rather enlarged experience in 
 the management of public affairs. Studious from choice, and 
 qualified by nature to become both a scholar and natural 
 philosopher, he was still farther stimulated in the acquisition 
 
104 
 
 of varied knowledge by the diversity of posts to which his 
 eminent talents, rather than his family interests, provided for 
 him a comparatively easy promotion. At the early age of 
 twenty-four, conveying ships overland by his engineering 
 skill, for the military purposes of his warlike sovereign, 
 Charles XII., by whom his extraordinary merits seem to 
 have been fully recognised, he was in after years made in- 
 spector of mines and governmental assayer, and throughout 
 the vigour of his manhood seems to have discharged a variety 
 of important offices witn credit to himself and with satisfac- 
 tion to his government. Raised for his eminent services to 
 Equestrian rank, and possessing a gentlemanly competency, he 
 seems to have travelled rather extensively, and made himself 
 personally familiar with the manners, customs, modes of 
 thought, and general condition of the more important nations 
 of western Europe. Gifted with literary as well as scientific 
 abilities, his works on various departments of physics and sta- 
 tistics would alone entitle him to a distinguished place among 
 the more influential minds of the earlier part of the eighteenth 
 century. For fifty-seven years was this massive intellect assi- 
 duously devoted to all the higher purposes of exact science, 
 and to all the more practical applications of scholastic attain- 
 ment. No high-dried political economist ever speculated 
 more effectually, or we might suppose at times more absorb- 
 ingly, on the best means for developing the national resources. 
 No dull chronicler of small facts ever surpassed him in the 
 assiduity with which he collected the requisite data for his 
 conclusions, and no mere mathematical formalist ever tran- 
 scended the cool precision with which he worked out his con- 
 clusions. Of all men of his time, the rigidly scientific and 
 laboriously studious Swede seemed in the maturity of 
 his systematically-cultivated intellect, and in the meridian 
 splendour of his hardly-earned reputation, the very last of 
 whom a proclivity to the occult and visionary could have 
 been safely predicated. His entire training and experience 
 his whole life environment, educational and official, seem to 
 have been diametrically opposed to the development of that 
 
105 
 
 interior life ou which the manifestation of seerdom so essen- 
 tially depends. To an ordinary observer, he would seem for 
 the first half century of his learned existence to have dwelt 
 of necessity in the objective, and might consequently be sup- 
 posed very legitimately to have eschewed everything more 
 especially connected with the subjective sphere. 
 
 From the first, however, he appears to have been an ear- 
 nest, and with the advance of years an increasingly serious 
 and religious, man. He seems ever to have loved truth with 
 paramount fidelity, and, while involved in physical investiga- 
 tion, to have regarded matter as the symbol of spirit, 
 and the universe not as a vast sepulchre for the reception 
 in endless succession of death's helpless victims, but rather 
 as the lowly yet glorious portal to eternal sublimities be- 
 yond. Studious, thoughtful, and sedate, ever accumulat- 
 ing fresh stores of scientific and other knowledge, sinking 
 from persistence into deeper and yet deeper fits of abstrac- 
 tion, ever becoming more profound in his thoughts, and more 
 solitary in his habits, it is no wonder that eventually an ut- 
 terly abnormal condition of the nervous system was induced, 
 and ecstacy in some of its highest forms evolved. In a mind 
 of an inferior mould, this might have eventuated in a fit of 
 hypochondriasis, or perhaps of vulgar and chaotic insanity ; 
 but in this calm, self-possessed, and faithful man, the crisis 
 terminated not in a subsidence but an exaltation of all the 
 higher mental powers. He emerged from the fiery furnace 
 not a victim, but a victor. He trod Chaos under foot, and, 
 mounting the whirlwind which must otherwise have proved 
 his destruction, converted the dreaming of insanity into the 
 lucidity of inspiration. A mind so profoundly analogical has 
 not elsewhere appeared in these our latter times. A spirit 
 so grandly symbolical in its utterances has not spoken since 
 the seer of Patmos gave his revelation to the seven churches of 
 Asia. Drawing his imagery not from the burning plains and 
 vine-clad hills of Palestine, but from the gloomy grandeur of 
 the cloudy north, he looms on the intellectual horizon, not as 
 a fiery son of Shem, who might ultimately mount heavenward 
 
106 
 
 in the blazing chariot of his own consuming zeal, but rather as a 
 stern and frowning child of Odin, around whose Lutheranized 
 soul the heathen horrors of the Walhalla feasts still lugubri- 
 ously linger. His gleams of brightness are like the lurid light 
 of a volcanic eruption, or the occasional flashes of a midnight 
 tempeststrugglingconvulsivelyformanifestationamidstthesur- 
 rounding and overwhelming immensity of blackness by which 
 they are everywhere engirdled. He dwells on the "night side " 
 of creation, and contemplates its glories by the fitful radiance 
 of his own northern aurora rather than the cheerful lumino- 
 sity of the morning dawn. In so far as it is possible for a 
 man to be a prophet without being a poet, he was the seer 
 thus clipped of his soaring pinions, exhibiting his strength of 
 wing indeed not so much by sublime ascents into the shadow- 
 less translucencies of the empyrean, as by headlong, yet still 
 daring, descents into those regions of rayless darkness whence 
 hope has for ever departed and where despair is tyrant for 
 eternity. He is no artist, and knows no distinction between 
 the terrible and disgusting, the beautiful and the ridiculous. 
 Anthropomorphous in all his ideas of the Deity and things 
 spiritual, his heavens are terrestrial translations, while his 
 hells are simply the reeking cesspools of earthly abominations. 
 Analogically grand, he is idealistically feeble, and his por- 
 traitures of the spiritual are interesting only as psychological 
 curiosities, exhibiting to us at full length the subjective 
 sphere of a grand and gifted, but wayward and perturbed, 
 intellect. 
 
 Scientifically, Swedenborg was a spontaneous ecstatic, and 
 in his lucid crises, which seem at last to have become habitual, 
 if not permanent, his subjective conceptions were projected 
 into apparent objectivity, and the spirits of the dead, devils, 
 angels, and God himself, assumed to his interior eye the form 
 and semblance of seemingly sensuous objects, for which, how- 
 ever, he seems never to have mistaken them. He was a 
 conscious clairvoyant, and as such could transfer the know- 
 ledge and experiences of his trance-life into the sphere of 
 ordinary consciousness. Modern mesmerists indeed have no 
 
107 
 
 difficulty in affording him honourable recognition as among 
 the most decisive instances of spontaneously- developed lu- 
 cidity which have occurred in recent times. From the volume 
 of his brain and the extent to which it had been previously 
 disciplined, he was probably the most powerful lucid of the 
 Christian era, and, had he been of an active and energetic 
 instead of a dreamy and sedentary character when his 
 visionary tendencies commenced, there is no calculating the 
 extent to which he might have influenced the faith and prac- 
 tice of Christendom. To say that he would have been a 
 western Mahomet is by no means to exaggerate the possibi- 
 lities which might have ensued from the appearance of such 
 a being. Gravely informing the governor and inhabitants of 
 Hanover that a fire was then actually raging at Stockholm, 
 and having his description of the conflagration subsequently 
 verified even to the minutest details of time and extent, who 
 shall estimate the influence of such a seersman, had he but 
 felt himself called to found a new instead of modifying an old 
 faith ! His authority, with those who believe in the reality 
 of his visions, is of course primal ; it is that of a seer who 
 comes commissioned directly from the throne of Omnipotence. 
 Granting his premises of a divine intercommunion, and from 
 his revelation of the truth there is no appeal but to the 
 counter-statements of a similarly favoured ecstatic. He 
 transcends reason and stands on the lofty ground of direct 
 intuition. His first apprehension of the truth is through the 
 spiritual eye, and his subsequent demonstration of its possi- 
 bility, probability, or necessity, is but a kindly accommoda- 
 tion to the inferior powers of those who dwell in the lower 
 sphere of excogitation. To the members of his Church he is 
 not only a prophet but the chief of the prophets, and stands 
 second only, in the grand hierarchy of spiritualities who have 
 come clothed in flesh, to him over whose birth the angels 
 sang their celestial anthems, and at whose death the sun was 
 clothed in the darkness of a mourning robe. He is the grand 
 complement of the Christian scheme, the mighty angel whose 
 millenial trump announces to earth the descent of that New 
 
108 
 
 Jerusalem whose analogical archtype was beheld by the 
 rapt Apostle at Patmos during his lonely visions in the 
 Levant. Since the Paradisaical Patriarchs of the primeval 
 church, no son of man has held equally free and unrestrained 
 intercourse with the Lord and his angels. To no mortal 
 mind since the fall has the_privilege of direct intercommunion 
 with every order of being been equally vouchsafed. Such is 
 of necessity his aspect to a devout and unexamining believer, 
 who knows Swedenborg and Swedenborg only, and to whom 
 the phenomena of ecstatic illumination, with the mystic sphere 
 of our interior life and its manifold forms of radiant existence, 
 have been revealed only through the multitudinous disserta- 
 tions of the indefatigable Assessor. Once without this charmed 
 circle, however, with larger data for comparison, and we at 
 once perceive that such an overweening estimate of his 
 special position and authority is quite unwarranted by the 
 facts of the case. We then discover that, though great, he 
 was not unique, although vast, he was one of an order, and has 
 had many predecessors of equal pretensions, and who, without 
 the aid of the press and other advantages which fall to the lot 
 of master-spirits m these latter days, nevertheless achieved 
 greater results than have yet ensued from the labours of the 
 exassayer. The Menus and Hermes', the Gautama Budhas, 
 Zoroasters, and Mahomets, of all ages and countries, were 
 his psychical kin, the variously gifted seermen of their suc- 
 cessive generations, to whom it was given to " teach with 
 authority and not as the scribes." Who were in a sense 
 primal and not derivative minds, and spoke from their inte- 
 rior consciousness and not from the exterior and merely 
 deductive intellect, and who thus standing on the plane of 
 intuition commanded thence, as by the right of the strongest, 
 all inter -sphered intelligencies occupying the lower level of 
 reflective thought. 
 
 To estimate justly the relative greatness of Swedenborg, 
 then, we must compare him with minds of his order. As an 
 ecstatic there is no other standard by which to estimate his 
 mental stature. Thus admeasured his apparent vastitude 
 
109 
 
 diminishes, from the Titanic and divine to the gigantic and 
 human. He is still seen to be great, but not pre-eminently 
 overawing, and occupies not the imperial throne of a founder 
 but the footstool of an expositor of faith. He is not in this 
 highest sense a primary, but a satellite, and revolves with all 
 his dependencies around the grander centre of Calvary, and, 
 in the strictest meaning of the terms, is not a master but a 
 disciple in things spiritual. 
 
 Having thus fixed his rank and defined his position in the 
 hierarchy of prophetic souls, let us now look at some of the 
 details of his system and endeavour thence to trace its origin 
 and ascertain its character. Its basis then is immediately 
 Christian and more remotely Judaic and Patriarchal. It 
 accepts without questioning the existent faith of Europe in 
 fundamentals. Hence we learn that Swedenborg was geo- 
 graphically limited as to the impressions whence his ec static 
 visions were derived. The son of a Lutheran bishop, his re- 
 velations are ever conditioned by the essentials of his paternal 
 faith. He never ascended to the sphere of the absolute, but, 
 in his loftiest moments, was still the dependent creature of 
 time, and place, and circumstance. The accident of his 
 birth in Protestant Sweden, in the eighteenth century, pro- 
 vided that mould for his conceptions of things, both celestial 
 and infernal, which would, doubtless, have been far other- 
 wise fashioned had he been a good Catholic of southern 
 Europe, an orthodox Mussulman of Constantinople, a devout 
 worshipper of Brahma, or a true believer in the manifold in- 
 carnations of Budha. In the fundamentals of his creed, he 
 was the child of tradition, and hence, as we have said, can be 
 considered only as a profoundly expository prophet, follow- 
 ing in the train of a greater, and never feeling the dread evo- 
 cation to publish anew the thunder- voiced commands of Om- 
 nipotence speaking afresh its Messianic messages to the ages. 
 
 On this Christian foundation, however, a superstructure 
 was reared, composed apparently of somewhat heterogeneous 
 materials, derived very obviously from the lucid teachers of 
 the East. Such is his conception of a God who is utterly 
 
110 
 
 beyond the cognition of his highest creatures, and his conse- 
 quent manifestation under a human form— that of " the 
 Lord," not only on earth but in heaven, not only through 
 time, but in eternity. To such an extent, indeed, is this 
 dogma pushed that it would eventuate ultimately in the 
 war-cry by his followers, " There is no God but Christ, and 
 Swedenborg is his prophet." This is Budhism— it is the 
 idea of incarnation carried to the extent of a virtual dethrone- 
 ment of the primal intelligence. From Brahminism also 
 comes his other anthropomorphous notion, that not only 
 heaven itself, but all its several societies and individualities, 
 are in the human form, and collectively constitute the grand 
 or celestial man, whose head is occupied by the highest order 
 of angels, his breast and arms by the second order, and his 
 loins and legs, in gradual descent, by those of inferior condi- 
 tion. No Sanscrit scholar will here fail to recognise the 
 teachings of the Vedas. It is simply the transference of a 
 Brahminical legend, by which the institution of Caste is sup- 
 ported, to the Christian heaven. This similarity is indeed 
 admitted by Swedenborgians themselves, who account for 
 it by the assumption (on their teacher's authority) of a 
 primeval church, whose members were ecstatics, and from 
 the fragments of whose purer doctrines the great Eastern 
 creeds of an historically remote antiquity were either directly 
 or mediately derived, and that, consequently, the agreement 
 1 etween Swedenborg and the Vedantic seers is due to both 
 bavin » had an independent intuition of the truth. Even 
 granting this to be the case, the profound student of seer- 
 dom would come to the conclusion that, in each instance, 
 this phenomenon of consciousness assumed its peculiar form, 
 from the human speciality of the ecstatic being projected 
 upon the subject-matter of his visions and consequently fram- 
 ing and colouring them with its own peculiarities. Like a 
 spectator on the Brocken, each saw the gigantic reflection of 
 himself, limned on the vapours of a morning sky, and mistook 
 this shadow of mortality for the revelation of a divine per- 
 sonality gloriously manifested amidst the grandeur of the 
 
Ill 
 
 dawn. From the prevalence of anthropomorphous ideas in 
 all religions, it is obvious that seers have seldom if ever been 
 unconditioned by their special relationship to the human 
 form of organic life. In the system of the sage of Stockholm 
 this subjection of ideas to the influence of an animal type is 
 so all-pervading that it occasionally becomes a source of the 
 ridiculous, in his portraitures of celestial scenes and super- 
 sensuous occurrences. To receive such grotesque con- 
 ceptions as the everlasting vestment of eternal veracity, 
 indicates an abject subjection to the teachings of seer- 
 vision, from whence we may calculate the power of an 
 ecstatic in ages and among a people less enlightened than 
 our own. 
 
 The following facts in the life of Swedenborg decidedly 
 indicate his possession of the clairvoyant faculty, and demon- 
 strate him to have been an ecstatic of no mean order. His 
 gift of seerdom, or, as his followers term it, intromission 
 into the spiritual world, was developed between his fifty- 
 fifth and fifty-seventh year, at that period of crisis, to which 
 we have already alluded in our remarks on Newton, when 
 the passions subside and the merely animal life is subordi- 
 nated to the moral and intellectual. When the conflicts of 
 antecedent years have subsided into a holy calm, when the 
 studies of youth and the experiences of manhood are ripening 
 into the autumnal fruit of matured wisdom, and the man 
 stands a crowned and laurelled victor upon the dread battle- 
 field of a well-fought life. It appears, however, that from 
 h it childhood there was a peculiarity in his respiration, which 
 under intense mental excitement, more especially of a devo- 
 tional character, could be suspended for a considerable period 
 without inconvenience. This he informs us himself was a 
 preparation for his intercourse with spirits. He termed it 
 internal breathing. It is a condition of the system to which 
 the Indian Yogi sometimes attains by austerity and self- 
 denial, and is considered as the accompaniment and evidence 
 of his absorption in AUM. It is a state approximated to 
 and sometimes fully developed in the trance-sleep, whethe 
 
112 
 
 spontaneous or induced, and it would appear that Sweden - 
 borg was occasionally subject to the former. During his 
 moments of vision also, his countenance beamed with pecu- 
 liar and almost unearthly intelligence, and his eyes were lit 
 up with a brightness, " like unto a flame of fire, 1 ' as his gar- 
 dener's wife expressed it. As with most persons subjected 
 to supposed spiritual visitations, he was occasionally annoyed 
 by the presence of the evil as well as comforted by that of 
 the good, and his attendants could generally judge by the 
 expression of his physiognomy as to the character of his 
 mysterious guests. He spoke much to himself, or rather with 
 his invisible interlocutors, and occasionally rose in the night, 
 to wrestle prayerfully against demonaical assaults and temp- 
 tations. The experienced phreno-mesmerist will, of course, 
 be at no loss to interpret these oscillations of feeling, and 
 variations in experience. The alternate predominance of 
 coronal and basilar influences, combined with the reaction 
 of a stomach, that had obviously much of the morbid sensi- 
 bility usually attaching to the digestive function of genius, 
 beinji amply sufficient to account for this successive present- 
 ment of celestial and infernal scenery with appropriate 
 dramatis persona to the mind's eye of the devout philoso- 
 pher. After the commencement of his seer-life, he became 
 also to a considerable extent a vegetarian and abstainer, par- 
 takng largely of strong, sweet coffee and gingerbread, and 
 sleeping not at fixed hours, but whenever he felt inclined to 
 rest. The pathologist will here perceive not only the indica- 
 tions, but inducing causes of nervous exaltation, which re-act- 
 ing on a system predisposed to lucidity, could not fail to 
 increase the number and heighten the character of its mani- 
 festations. 
 
 The anecdotes which illustrate his possession of supersen- 
 suous knowledge are numerous and apparently authentic. 
 Thus, it is said, that after the death of the Prince of Prussia, 
 brother to the Queen of Sweden, her majesty said, " Well, 
 Mr Assessor, have you seen my brother?" u JSTo!" was 
 the reply. But, eight days afterwards, Swedenborg entered 
 
113 
 
 the queen's apartment, and whispered something in the roya! 
 ear, upon which her majesty was taken suddenly ill and did 
 not recover for some time. Upon coming to herself, she 
 said, " only God and my brother can know what he has just 
 told me." It appears that he had informed her of the last 
 subject of her correspondence with the Prince. He afforded 
 similar evidence to a merchant of Elberfield, whose last con- 
 versation with a deceased friend was in a similar manner 
 narrated to him by the wonderful and obliging old man. 
 The widow of the Dutch ambassador at Stockholm was also 
 enabled to recover some valuable documents and jewels, by a 
 dream, which she seems to have obtained through the agency 
 of Swedenborg, who being requested to ask her husband 
 respecting the missing articles, called on the lady, in a few 
 days, to state that he had met her deceased partner in the 
 spiritual world the night before ; but he had excused him- 
 self from conversation, on the ground that he had something 
 of importance to communicate to his wife. Her dream, it 
 appears, was coincident with this spiritual communication, 
 and must be regarded, on the lowest view of it, as, at least, 
 an extraordinary case of magnetic rapport. While at Am- 
 sterdam, in July 1762, he suddenly became absent in the 
 midst of company ; and, on being questioned, and repeat- 
 edly pressed, he said, " this very hour, the Emperor Peter 
 III. has died in prison," mentioning the manner of his death. 
 The resemblance between this and the vision which Apollo- 
 nius had at Ephesus, of the death of Domitian, will not fail 
 to strike the attentive reader, and suggest to him the exist- 
 ence of some yet undiscovered law, in virtue of which certain 
 susceptible beings thus obtain cognition of passing events in 
 a manner unattainable by the majority of their race. When 
 starting on a voyage from London to Stockholm, he has been 
 known to announce the very hour at which the vessel would 
 arrive at the latter port. Finally, he foretold the day of his 
 own dissolution, and seems to have passed from this pheno- 
 menal world of sorrow and death with the calm joy of one 
 who felt that he was going to his everlasting home, in that 
 
114 
 
 spirit-land of eternal realities with which he had become so 
 happily familiar. 
 
 The foregoing facts are amply sufficient to demonstrate 
 that Swedenborg was a lucid ecstatic of no mean order. On 
 his farther claims to direct spiritual intercourse and authori- 
 tative religious teaching, it is not our province to decide. 
 We may here, however, remark, that his annunciations of 
 truth do not depend for their reception simply on his visional 
 cognitions ; but as propositions addressed to the rational 
 faculty, carry with them their own evidence, independently 
 of the source whence they were derived. His ordinary fol- 
 lowers, doubtless, receive the major part of their faith directly 
 from him, and appeal to his supposed revelations as final in 
 all matters of controversy, this being in strict accordance 
 with those laws of leadership and subordination whereby 
 society has been regulated from the beginning. But his 
 more advanced disciples ever show a tendency to leave the 
 man for the system, and even to regard the latter but as a 
 vestibule to the temple of universal truth. It is as a school 
 for thinkers of the latter order, that his works, and the church 
 which has been founded in his name, are so valuable, and it 
 is through them that the prospective benefits which his grand 
 analogical teachings are calculated to confer on mankind may 
 be reasonably expected. It is from such minds that his ob- 
 viously extending influence on the higher literature of our 
 age has been derived, and it is to such that we must look for 
 an ultimate winnowing of the chaff from the wheat, and the 
 evolution of those principles, liberated from their needless 
 accessories, which doubtless constitute the real basis of that 
 sublime superstructure of ideas, which this gifted and extra- 
 ordinary man was permitted to bequeath as his intellectual 
 legacy to posterity. 
 
 Like Apollonius, Swedenborg wanted that crowning glory 
 of the prophet, a life of suffering. He ever knew where to 
 lay his head, and never needed the ravens as his heaven-sent 
 servitors. His life was passed in the calm of competence, 
 and hence as his evocation was easy, his mission was peace- 
 
115 
 
 fol. He was essentially a man of thought, and not of action* 
 A sublime meditationist and not a God-commissioned or- 
 ganizer. And his message in strict accordance with this, was 
 doubtless a preparatory trumpet-blast, and not an ultimate 
 fulfilment. As a promise of good things to come, his system 
 looms largely on the theological horizon. A baptist-mes- 
 senger of such an order is indicative of a subsequent advent 
 of no common character. If such the man, what will be the 
 master ? If such the shadow, what must be the substance ? 
 His disciples, naturally, regard his as the great and final, and 
 will doubtless so continue till a greater be manifested. They 
 see not the coercive logic of events, and thus blind to the 
 tremendous concatenations of destiny, flatter themselves that 
 their link is the last in that mystic chain of sequences, which, 
 beginning with time, ends not save in eternity. 
 
 ^ As the truthful revelation of an individual subjectivity, the 
 visions of Swedenborg are no doubt eminently interesting, 
 and as a contribution to the facts of psychology their value 
 cannot well be over-estimated. As the analogical vest- 
 ments of spiritual truths, as the peculiar form under which, 
 from his mental idiosyncracy, he had to conceive of and 
 embody his conclusions respecting a higher stage of existence, 
 his Heaven and Hell, his Arcana Cwlestia and other theolo- 
 gical productions, contain many valuable hints and ideas, 
 and indeed % superabound with materials for thought that 
 would not have been so long neglected, but for the rather 
 grotesque, and occasionally even repulsive form under which 
 they were presented. Still, with all their faults, his religious 
 writings constitute a very important addition to our means 
 for the analogical interpretation both of the Old and New 
 Testament, and indeed, we may say, of all sacred books 
 whatsoever. 
 
 After all, however, the true greatness of this extraordinary 
 man is to be found, not in his visions, but in his meditations 
 He is the father of analogy, the master of correspondences, 
 and the revealer of final causes. Here he stands alone, the 
 collossal founder of a sphere of thought in which he had no 
 
116 
 
 predecessors save those primal sages of the Orient of whose 
 sublime tuitions but the faintest echoes have survived. He 
 is the Bacon of an a priori philosophy, and marks the dawn 
 of a return from the microscopic minuteness of analytical 
 experiment dwelling in ultimates to the vastitude and gran- 
 deur of synthetic meditation, ascending as by a " right di- 
 vine" to the sublime altitude of first principles. Of a genius, 
 however, too diffusive for the composition of an organum of 
 analogical science, his modes of thought and investigation 
 must be sought rather in the manifold examples which he 
 has afforded, than in the formal directions which he has pro- 
 vided. His voluminous works are a vast mine of illustrative 
 exposition, in which God and nature, history and philosophy, 
 are presented under aspects which, if startling, are profound ; 
 and, if now and then extravagant, are at the same time ge- 
 nerally original ; a mine which others may work to advan- 
 tage, and whence blocks will yet be hewn that a more plastic 
 mind shall hereafter fashion into the pleasing forms of per- 
 fectly symmetrical beauty. He was essentially a precursor, 
 and came not to conclude but to introduce a system. Thus 
 contemplated, his merits cannot well be exaggerated. A 
 born giant, a native Titan, he stood like lesser men with his 
 feet on fact, but, from the godlike greatness of his mental 
 stature, his majestic head at the same time swept the empy- 
 rean of principles, where his glance rested on the starry 
 dwellers in their eternal courses, and he listened, as of com- 
 pulsion, while the spheral harmonies rang out into the super- 
 sensuous music of their everlasting anthems. What wonder, 
 then, that he at length grew giddy, and in a sense confused, 
 mingling profound discourse of nature's highest and holiest 
 mysteries with vain babble respecting fantastic visions and 
 wakin* fancies, at which fools may mock, and whereby the 
 unwary may be led astray, but over which the wise and good 
 will sigh, as a sad, though perhaps instructive instance of 
 limitation even to the noblest faculties, and of fallibility as 
 attaching even to the greatest minds. 
 
117 
 
 Modern Ecstatics. 
 
 The Present is ever the commonplace and prosaic, except 
 to those few gifted minds who prevail to lift the mvstic folds 
 which hide the open secret. Genius alone is consciously 
 engirdled with the wonderful ; not to the superficial can the 
 profounder depths be directly revealed. Matter of fact is 
 ever blind to the awful, and the man of routine never per 
 ceives the gulph in which his diurnal repetitions are to be 
 swallowed till it has already opened beneath his feet. Me- 
 diocrity worships the Past, while contemplating it through 
 the medium of those great souls whose revelation of its 
 grandeur has become a traditional inheritance ; but is in- 
 competent to perceive the growing greatness of an heroic 
 Present, because this demands independent insight. The 
 existing aspect of the world offers unmistakeable evidence 
 that faiths have grown, and history tells us in its dim and 
 inefficient way how, in some instances, men of giant mould 
 have prevailed to found them. But that this should ever 
 occur again, nay, is occurring now, seems to the great mass of 
 believers m all existing creeds the most remote of probabi- 
 lities, nay, the very direst of impossibilities. That cycle- 
 should ever revolve their entire circuit, and recommence with 
 all the increment of the epicycle, may be admitted as an 
 abstract proposition, but its rigid application to any existing 
 scheme is of course most carefully eschewed as a fatal heres^. 
 We may believe that Mahomet flourished in Arabia, and that 
 Menu lived and legislated in India, but the recurrence of 
 such a phenomenon, as it would not prove desirable, is of 
 course to be discredited. But we err ; seed-time and harvest 
 will no more fail in the moral than in the physical sphere 
 and the forces which evolved the forms of the past will not 
 be wholly inoperative during the future. The demands of 
 the ages ever suffice to evoke competent instrumentalities for 
 their effectuation, and men of mental stature proportionate 
 to the necessities of successive eras will doubtless be in due 
 
118 
 
 time provided. Whether any of our more immediate cotem- 
 poraries belong to this Titanic class is of course a problem, 
 which coming time alone can solve. They and their schemes 
 will be weighed in the balance, and if found wanting, will of 
 necessity undergo the fate of all inadequacies. In the interim, 
 it may not prove altogether uninteresting or uninstructive to 
 contemplate the character and pretensions of some of the 
 more prominent and influential ecstatics who have lately 
 been, or who now are, on the scene of action. 
 
 No. 11. Mrs Buchan. 
 
 Antiquity had many sybils, but they were not all equally 
 famous with her of Cumaea ; and Arabia has produced many 
 religious reformers, but they have not all proved equally suc- 
 cessful with " the camel-driver of Mecca." A favourable 
 position, in reference both to time and place, must be com- 
 bined with innate ability, ere great and effective results can 
 be achieved in the prophetic career. The seer that in one 
 age or country might have been received with the profoundest 
 reverence, may in another be incarcerated as a lunatic, or 
 maltreated as an imposter. There must not only be energy 
 in the founder of a faith, but receptivity in his disciples. 
 There must not only be the man, but the circumstances ; not 
 only the eloquent words and wondrous deeds, but also a 
 combination of favourable influences, ere success in the ori- 
 gination of a creed can be accomplished. Eeligions are not 
 accidents but logically sequential results ; not portents, but 
 growths, and have their seasons, whether for seed time or 
 . harvest, which whoso neglects will fail in his husbandry. 
 Seerdom, in short, like all other forms of human activity, is 
 conditioned by the laws of its manifestation, to run counter 
 ' to which is but to ensure a nullification of our endeavours. 
 Coarse, ignorant, gross, sensual and impetuous, but never- 
 theless fearless, eloquent, earnest and enthusiastic, Mrs 
 Buchan possessed, with many apparent disqualifications, 
 
119 
 
 most of the fundamental and essential elements of leadership. 
 Impulsive in her passions, ardent in her affections, and yet 
 fervent in her devotions, she exhibited the phenomenon so 
 often observed, of intense religiosity of feeling, induced on 
 a life of previous immorality. Capable, when aroused, of 
 vigorous thought and energetic action, innate force of cha- 
 racter seems to have given her commanding power over 
 weaker, though better cultured minds, despite the offensive 
 vulgarity of her manners, and even the open profligacy of 
 her habits. A fanatic rather than an impostor, a visionary 
 rather than a hypocrite, she was herself a victim of the delu- 
 sions which she taught, and impressed others, not by con- 
 scious trickery and deception, but by the earnestness of her 
 manner, the rude eloquence of her discourses, and above all, 
 by the many undoubted marvels which were wrought through 
 her instrumentality. Why, then, it may be asked, did she 
 not achieve a wider success, and leave a permanent result 
 like her cotemporary Ann Lee, or her successor Joanna 
 Southcote? Our reply is, that she promulgated her doc- 
 trines in a country, and to a people peculiarly unfitted for 
 their reception. Cool, cautious, logical, and discriminative, 
 the Scotch are slow in the formation of opinions. Habituated 
 to doctrinal discourses from the pulpit, their religious con- 
 victions are the result of thought rather than feeling. Dis- 
 trustful of emotion, both in themselves and others, they ge- 
 nerally restrain excitement within the limits of reason, and 
 subject even devotional enthusiasm to the control of the 
 judgment. To such an audience Buchanite rhapsodies would 
 seem little other than the ravings of insanity, and where 
 they did not arouse indignation, would simply excite pity. 
 In addition to this, her laxity of conduct could not fail to 
 disgust and offend a people who, with many lapses in practice, 
 still strenuously uphold the principles of the moral law. 
 Scotland, in short, was not the sphere for Mrs Buchan, and 
 so Buchanism has become utterly extinct, perishing with it s 
 last surviving disciple, honest Andrew Innes, to whom 
 through the instructive little work of Joseph Train, entitled 
 
120 
 
 kt The Buchanites from First to Last," we are indebted for 
 the following outlines of extraordinary but to us perfectly 
 credible facts respecting the founder and her followers :— 
 
 Elspeth Simpson was born in 1738, in the neighbour- 
 hood of Portsoy, where her parents kept a small roadside 
 inn. Removed from her father's house at three years of age, 
 in consequence of the death of her mother, she passed a 
 childhood of poverty and privation amidst distant relatives 
 in the country, to be exchanged for a youth of shame and 
 profligacy amidst the brutal excitements of the quays of 
 Greenock. Married eventually to a potter named Buchan, 
 the moral respectability of her new position seems to have 
 utterly failed in producing an effectual reformation of her 
 conduct, of which her husband becoming thoroughly ashamed, 
 a separation took place, apparently by mutual consent, and 
 Mrs Buchan once more commenced life on her own account, 
 first as a schoolmistress, and finally as a prophetess. In the 
 latter capacity she began by passing from house to house, 
 exhorting the astonished inmates to a religious life, by quota- 
 tions from Scripture, and their subsequent exposition in a 
 strain of wild and fervent eloquence, and ended by declaring 
 herself the mysterious woman spoken of in the Revelations. 
 Thus far, however, her career was simply the common 
 routine of vulgar fanaticism, of which the records of religious 
 enthusiasm could furnish many far more attractive examples. 
 It is not as a preacher, but as a lucide— and even in this 
 character, not for her mental but her corporeal manifesta- 
 tions—that we have selected her as an instance of ecstatic 
 exaltation supervening on a nature in every way so rude as 
 to seem altogether unsuitable for the action of so refined and 
 subtle an influence. 
 
 Her first symptoms as a crisiac seem to have occurred in 
 her 36th year, and are thus described by herself :-" In the 
 year 1774 the power of God wrought such a wonderful 
 change in my senses that I overcame the flesh, so as not to 
 make°use of earthly food for some weeks, which made ah 
 that saw me conclude that I was going to depart this life, 
 
121 
 
 and many came to hear me speak, which was all about God's 
 love to mortals." Here we have that incipient stage of 
 ecstacy which is indicated by a predominance of the nervous 
 over the alimentary part of the system. On one occasion 
 when unusually exalted, she became transfigured, a pheno- 
 menon which is thus described by her faithful follower, 
 Andrew Innes : — " Her face shone so white with the glory 
 of God as to dazzle the sight of those who beheld it, and 
 her raiment was as white as snow." Here we have that 
 powerful radiation of odic light which is so characteristic of 
 the highest state of luminous crisis, and which has been the 
 distinguishing attribute of many of the more eminent saints 
 of all creeds, countries, and ages. In her case the emanation 
 must have been very potent, as it not only lit up her head 
 and face, but seems to have pervaded even her clothes, like 
 moonlight shining through a fleecy cloud. It is observable 
 that this occurred when she and her followers were expecting 
 an immediate translation, and when, therefore, she was pro- 
 bably affected by symptoms of that " lightness of body " to 
 which more favoured ecstatics have occasionally attained. 
 And, finally, she seems to have expired in the full odour of 
 sanctity. " The savoury perfume that rose from her body 
 ere the lid of the coffin was laid down filled the room with 
 its fragrance." So again says plain Andrew Innes. This re- 
 markable change in the character of their emanations has 
 been noticed both during the life and at the death of exalted 
 crisiacs, and is doubtless due to some change in their secre- 
 tions, resulting from increased action of the brain and ner- 
 vous system generally. 
 
 Such, then, were some of the more remarkable manifesta- 
 tions connected with Mrs Buchan, which it is of course easy 
 to meet by denial. The mesmerist, however, has no occa- 
 sion to cast any such slight on human testimony. To him 
 they are not impossibilities, but only rare and interesting 
 phenomena, worthy of careful study, and demanding thorough 
 and searching investigation ; yet when authenticated, suscep- 
 tible of easy explanation as facts within the legitimate sphere 
 
122 
 
 of nature's laws. And so he leaves the blinded prejudice 
 that would reject them without due examination to the weak 
 fanaticism that fears a living rivalry to its traditional wonders, 
 or the bigoted scientialism that would circumscribe the vast 
 resources of the universe by the contracted boundaries of its 
 own limited knowledge. 
 
 No. 12.— Joseph Smith, 
 The Founder of Mormonism. 
 
 Nature is the same yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow. The 
 wise know this, but the foolish are ever exclaiming in refer- 
 ence to the rarer phenomena of the present, " never before," 
 and of the past " never again." Nevertheless, what has been 
 shall be, and whatever was still is. Could we see the courses 
 of the grander currents of destiny, shall we say rather the 
 entire outline of the vaster plans of Providence, we should 
 find that even the most seemingly stupendous marvels are re- 
 current, only their cycle is longer in its revolution and their 
 appearance therefore less frequent than that of ordinary 
 occurrences. The sun sets every evening, but it is only on 
 rare occasions that he is eclipsed. The earthquake is as 
 natural though not so common as the storm, and the comet 
 whose revolution exhausts the centuries is as integral a por- 
 tion of the universe as the fixed star which shines permanently 
 in its own constellation. Nature was not in convulsions when 
 she birthed a Homer, nor was her equanimity disturbed when 
 she produced a Shakespear. She is equal to all emergencies, 
 sufficient for all demands, and can never be found wanting or 
 taken at unawares. There is no conjuncture to which she 
 is unequal, and no difficulty for which she cannot find 
 a solution. The ages are her schools, and men are her 
 children to be therein educated. The real necessities of a 
 time are the truly evocative spell under which the master- 
 
123 
 
 spirits of eras are called forth. The man is ever in proportion 
 to the crisis, albeit the true has but too often his precursors 
 in the false. Did France in the agonising throes of her first 
 revolution cry aloud for a deliverer? Verily at the first 
 shall none seemingly be vouchsafed, for what were your Dan- 
 tons, Marats, and Robespieres but insufficient attempts, appren- 
 tice-like failures, in the effort to produce that imperative 
 requirement of the time, a competent leader. But fear not, 
 when the shadows shall have vanished, then will the sub- 
 stance be revealed and a Bonaparte shall appear. 
 
 Prophetic visions and inspired calls are not every day 
 occurrences. But they have been, and therefore they will 
 be, " facts in nature." Seers even to the highest were men, 
 and to their cotemporaries loomed forth perhaps not so 
 grandly as to posterity. Elijah " clothed in a garment of 
 camel's hair, and having a leathern girdle about his loins," 
 running before the chariot of Ahab, did not doubtless to an 
 ordinary spectator seem exactly the glorious personage who 
 should eventually mount heavenwards in a fiery vehicle of 
 his own. Distance lends enchantment to the view in things 
 moral as well as physical. The poetry of a worshipful fact 
 is never fully revealed till it be seen in due perspective : — 
 then its grandeur, beauty, power, and sublimity, come boldly 
 out from the mass of surrounding common-place, and stand 
 forth in ever-increasing and awe-inspiring vastitude, to the 
 admiration of an endless posterity. Time is the great 
 canonizer. He makes the vulgar venerable. There is a 
 halo from the ages to which the existent can never attain. 
 Thus the prophet survives and sanctifies the man, till at 
 length, as with the " son of the Koreish," the very mending 
 of shoes and patching of cloaks becomes an indication of 
 nobility. 
 
 Joe Smith was beyond all doubt a vulgar fellow, a man to 
 all outward appearance of an order the most irretrievably 
 common-place, a rustic Yankee, whom nature not only makes 
 by the gross, but the million, and of whom the like might be 
 found in any village throughout the Union. Coarse, ignorant, 
 
124 
 
 and cunning, a more unlikely person than our friend Joseph 
 for the prophetic mission could scarcely be conceived ; yet 
 this was the man chosen out of twenty millions to found a 
 new creed and seal its truth as with a martyr's blood . Truly, 
 " vessels of grace" are not always comely in the eyes of their 
 own blinded generation. Thus, in the present case, beneath 
 this very unpromising exterior, mental and corporeal, was 
 there most obviously a spirit, of which the equal is not, from 
 some cause, of daily manifestation among us sons of morta- 
 lity. Seriously then it may be asked, what was Joe Smith, 
 and what is Mormonism ? The former we reply was a 
 natural ecstatic, and the latter is one of those nascent creeds 
 to which, in the days their nonage, vision and miracle are 
 usually vouchsafed. As to the first assertion, let Joseph 
 himself be spokesman. He tells us that in the spring of 
 1823, when he was fifteen or sixteen years old, he began to 
 think about the salvation of his soul. He went one day 
 to a secret place in a grove, knelt down, and began to call 
 upon the Loid, and, praying fervently, at length beheld a 
 very bright and glorious light in the heavens above. This 
 was accompanied with a peculiar sensation throughout his 
 system, his mind was caught away from surrounding objects, 
 and he beheld two glorious personages, who foretold some- 
 what of his future career. On the 21st of September in the 
 same year, he seems to have had another vision, in which he 
 saw a personage of a pleasing, glorious, and innocent appear- 
 ance, who intimated to him the locality where he might find 
 the golden plates of the Book of Mormon. Here are the 
 distinctive features of ecstacy, such as the saintly biographies 
 of every creed in its infancy are sure to provide in abun- 
 dance. Nor is this all : Joseph it seems was also " a peeper," 
 that is, he was odically susceptible to the influence of crystals, 
 for, having when engaged in sinking a well found a bright 
 stone of a peculiar appearance, he placed it in his hat, and 
 said that he could see in it. This it appears originated the 
 Urim and Thummim, by which he was greatly aided in 
 translating the ancient language of the golden leaves. In 
 
125 
 
 addition to this, it would appear that during many years 
 the ostensible employment of the Smith family was digging 
 for money, an occupation not unfrequently pursued by those 
 who are gifted with susceptibility to the influence of the 
 divining rod. The evidence then that Smith was an ecstatic 
 or natural clairvoyant is not only satisfactory and sufficient, 
 but must prove irresistible with all duly qualified judges. 
 The symptoms are unmistakeable, and the patient stands 
 confessed a rustic seer, who in another age or country might 
 have proved a harmless dreamer of dreams, or, at the worst, 
 have been suddenly and effectually snuffed out, like u mad 
 Tom of Canterbury," a man by the way in many respects 
 immeasurably superior to the rude Vermonter. 
 
 Such was the author. Now what is his book ? A con- 
 victed plagiarism. A religious novel by the Rev. Solomon 
 Spaulding, converted into the pretended production of a 
 Hebrew prophet. The story of the golden plates is doubtless 
 a pious fraud, but, in all probability, sanctioned to the mind 
 of the inventor by the directions of some ghostly visitant. 
 The real origin of the Book of Mormon is, however, of little 
 importance to the world. The question is, what are its 
 fruits? And Destiny replies, 300,000 converts in twenty years, 
 with society organised on a new basis, and a propaganda 
 whose missionary enterprises insure aggressive action on all 
 the leading nations of the civilized world. How this has been 
 accomplished by an instrumentality so apparently inefficient 
 is a problem which literary criticism, as such, cannot solve. 
 We laugh at the Koran, and treat the Mormon Bible with 
 contempt : but facts are against us, for these confused, bom- 
 bastic, and thoroughly ridiculous works, are nevertheless 
 received as inspired productions, on whose sentences men are 
 not only contented to live but prepared to die. In our 
 learned refinement we forget that it is not solely by his 
 intellectual gifts and graces that a prophet generally im- 
 presses himself, either on his cotemporaries or posteritv. 
 Mahomet was, and Schamyl probably is, a barbarian in this 
 respect. Not by the legerdemain of elegance or fluency in 
 
126 
 
 composition, but by the grandly contagious enthusiasm of a 
 deeply-moved and profoundly visionary spirit, is it that 
 the electric fire of sympathetic excitement is roused in duly 
 sensitive minds, who, once intersphered with an appropriate 
 master or a duly prepared school, become from that moment 
 hopelessly enthralled. 
 
 Such are the prophet and his book, and now let us ask 
 what is the system to which they have given birth ? Facts 
 compel us to answer, that in a moral point of view, it is a 
 profligate fanaticism under which men, on pretence of being 
 guided immediately by inspiration, have found occasion to 
 indulge in the most unbridled licentiousness. While in 
 their endeavour to legalise such proceedings, and obtain for 
 them the sanction of religion, they have, so far as their 
 own ' community extends, rolled back society on the bar- 
 barous institutions of remote ages and restored the rudeness 
 without the innocence of primeval times. The possession of 
 power is a sore temptation to our weak and erring humanity. 
 Success and not failure is the touchstone of the sage. The 
 Mormon leaders are obviously men, and of them we can 
 scarcely say, — 
 
 " Their failings lean to virtue's side." 
 
 To the philosophic observer of men and manners, this re- 
 appearance of Oriental institutions in the far West, where 
 it begins to face the extreme East, is not without signi- 
 ficance. But on this we cannot here dilate. As we have 
 already said, the Mormons profess to be guided by direct 
 inspiration, and to possess the power of healing the sick by 
 the laying on of hands. There is probably a basis of truth 
 in both these towering pretensions. Founded by an ecstatic, 
 they have doubtless inherited from their leader a proclivity 
 to interior excitement, and will, like all similar bodies, trans- 
 mit it as an heirloom to their more immediate successors. 
 The following passages from the history of the Mormons by 
 Lieut. Gunnison, of the Topographical Engineers, U. S., 
 will afford an idea of the scenes sometimes enacted among 
 these high-wrought enthusiasts. He is describing what took 
 
1*27 
 
 place at Kirkland, Ohio, in the early days of the Church : 
 " There were ecstacies — men and -women falling on the floor 
 in the public assemblies, wallowing, rolling, and tossing of 
 hands — pointing into the heavens at the cloud of witnesses, 
 uttering Indian dialects — there was swooning, rushing out of 
 doors and running into the fields. Some would pick up 
 stones, and read from characters of writing which were 
 miraculously made and then suddenly disappeared. Others 
 found pieces of parchment falling upon them which they 
 declared were sealed with the seal of Christ, and which they 
 no sooner copied than they vanished. Visions, tongues, 
 trances, shoutings, weeping and laughing, the outpouring of 
 prophecies, and terrible cursing of the Missourians, and 
 preaching to unseen nations, were among the signs following 
 at Kirkland." No student of ecstacy will here be at a loss 
 to perceive all the signs of its presence. The people were 
 obviously wrought up to a pitch of fanatical enthusiasm, under 
 which every form of morbid manifestation was to be expected. 
 Such is the inspiration of the saints : while their miraculous 
 healings are simply mesmeric and biological cures, wrought 
 by the combination of faith in the patient with confidence in 
 the operator, which unwise and prejudiced opponents may 
 foolishly deny, but which a truly enlightened and liberal 
 science will acknowledge and explain. 
 
 It has been often observed that extremes meet, and hence 
 we suppose it is, that plain, practical, utilitarian, dollar-loving 
 America proves to be precisely the place for fanatical out- 
 bursts and theological commotions. Revivalist camp-meet- 
 ings, spirit-rapping circles, and Mormon migrations, are the 
 tributary streams of that great current of religious enthu- 
 siasm which has been long setting in on the States, probably 
 as a needful counterpoise to that very direct practicality of 
 thought, which has itself arisen from the stern necessity 
 imposed on the inhabitants of the new world for rapidly 
 developing the material resources of their imperfectly settled 
 country. This aspect of the subject, however, has more 
 extensive bearings than the geographical boundaries -of the 
 
128 
 
 Union. Mormonism finds comparatively ready acceptance 
 here as well as there, and attracts its disciples from the 
 crowded cities of the old as well as the thinly peopled prairies 
 of the new world. Straws, in themselves insignificant indi- 
 cate the direction of the tempest. The success of heterodoxy 
 is, as we have elsewhere remarked, the admeasurement of 
 orthodoxy's incompetency. So contemplated, Mormonism 
 is a sign of the times not altogether devoid of importance. 
 People do not go by the 100,000 into the wilderness without 
 an adequate motive. The desert is not converted into a 
 garden, nor do cities arise as by magic amidst the primeval 
 rudeness of the mountain and the forest, without the pre- 
 sence of a powerfully evocative and effectually creative spirit. 
 That the apparently primal agent of such immediately exten- 
 sive and grandly prospective changes was, as admeasured by 
 all ordinary standards of moral worth or intellectual greatness, 
 inherently and unutterably insignificant, nay absolutely con- 
 temptible, only adds to the real importance of the movement, 
 for it shows all the more clearly how thoroughly prepared 
 must have been the soil whence a harvest so substantial and 
 abundant could be gathered from seed so very indifferent and 
 by tillage so very unskilful. Such phenomena indubitably 
 and forcibly demonstrate the existence of a deeply seated and 
 widely pervasive feeling of dissatisfaction on the part of no 
 inconsiderable portion of the Christian public of Britain and 
 America with the prevalent systems of theology. Were there 
 real contentment, such facts could never exist, for they arise 
 from a morbid craving for change, a diseased hankering after 
 pseudo-religious excitement, which having sought relief in 
 vain, by making the circuit of ordinary sectarianism, even- 
 tually embraces the blasphemous doctrines and brutal ob- 
 scenities of Mormon impiety. 
 
 As we have said, Utah in the wilderness is a sign which 
 those whom it may concern would do well to note. Its real 
 importance, however, we hold to be rather prospective than 
 present. Smith was but a precursor. He had none of 
 the qualities of a true master builder. To him pure eleva- 
 
129 
 
 tion of thought and real earnestness of feeling were unknown. 
 He had none of that overwhelming sublimity of conception, 
 that innate grandeur of purpose, that overawing nobility of 
 nature, which we find ever attaching to the veritable archi- 
 tectors of theosophy. He was so essentially vulgar that 
 even visional ecstacy could not raise him above the common- 
 place. His tale of the golden plates is a clumsy fabrication, 
 and his narrative of their exhumation prosy in the extreme. 
 Compared with it, the Gabriel of Mahomet and the Egeria 
 of Numa are poetry embodied. Smith, in short, was a 
 Yankee edition of the seer, a New England phase of the 
 prophet. The success of a pretender so unutterably con- 
 temptible is, however, a grave reality, to whose indications 
 we should not remain wilfully blind or foolishly insensible. 
 Let us remember that shadows ever precede substances, ajid 
 where the former have loomed so largely the latter cannot 
 be far behind. The want of a teacher must indeed have 
 been urgent when Joe Smith could be accepted as a heaven- 
 sent witness of the truth. Of Mormonism itself, then, we 
 have no fear. It is a vulgar fanaticism, whose force will be 
 expended in less than a century. But, as a premonitory 
 symptom, its importance cannot well be over-estimated. It 
 is No. 1 of a series whereof the rapping excitement may be 
 considered as No. 2, and the late revivals as No. 3. The 
 theological atmosphere is electric, and it requires no great 
 exertion of vaticinatory power to determine that a thunder- 
 storm is impending. 
 
 The rise and progress of Mormonism affords an instructive 
 lesson to those who bigotedly oppose the diffusion of mes- 
 merism. Had there been anything like a general know- 
 ledge of the phenomena usually attendant on abnormal states 
 of the nervous system, or had the mass of the people been 
 habituated to the wonderful cures which mesmeric manipula- 
 tions occasionally efiect, Joe Smith's visions and the Mormon 
 saints' miraculous healings would have proved perfectly in- 
 nocuous. As it is, they have led many thousands of other- 
 
wise respectable men and women into courses from which 
 on the ground of morality alone, without any reference to 
 religion, they would, but for such lamentable mystification, 
 have shrunk with disgust and horror unspeakable. 
 
 No. 13. — Schamyl, 
 Leader of the Caucasian Tribes. 
 
 Of all the individuals now attracting public attention, few 
 perhaps are more really worthy of careful and attentive study 
 than the warrior-prophet, Schamyl, the heroic chieftain of the 
 Caucasus. Of his military achievements all have heard, but 
 comparatively few perhaps are aware that to this distinction 
 he adds that of the prophetic founder of a new faith. Of a 
 frame originally small and weak, he is nevertheless endowed 
 with invincible courage and an indomitable will- The frail 
 tenement encloses a mind whose robust hardihood more than 
 compensates for the feebleness of its corporeal instrument. 
 Endowed with all the energy of commanding genius, he has, 
 like many others of his class, compelled an inferior physical 
 organization to the performance of its appropriate duties, till 
 at length it has in some measure partaken of the force of 
 its prime mover. The great soul has at length energized the 
 incapable body, and the sickly boy has eventuated in the en- 
 during and adventurous soldier. Thoughtful and profoundly 
 meditative even in early youth, of a retired and quiet disposi- 
 tion, he was from many causes prone to solitude. This he 
 found in the rugged grandeur of the rocky altitude which sur- 
 mounts his native village of Himry, where, in a spot wild, 
 desolate, and romantic as his own young thoughts, he culti- 
 vated those habits of abstract contemplation which prepared 
 him for his subsequent mission. Alone, yet not afraid, he 
 often lingered long into the night in this rudely sequestered 
 retirement, perhaps not the less attractive to such a mind 
 because reported by his countrymen to be the abode of 
 
131 
 
 troubled spirits whose presence was announced by the vol- 
 canic flames which would suddenly burst from the mountain 
 precipices around. 
 
 Asia seems the cradle of religions. All enduring theo- 
 logical forms have hitherto had their birth in the weird ele- 
 ments which there engirdle every thoughtful mind as with an 
 atmosphere of devotional mysticism. If the West be essen- 
 tially intellectual in its mental constitution, the East is as 
 essentially moral. If the one be thoughtful, the other is 
 emotional ; and, if philosophy be the mission of the former, 
 theosophy is equally that of the latter. The heroes of Europe 
 have been political leaders ; the master-spirits of Asia have 
 been legislators and prophets. The second sight of the Occi- 
 dent may be a curiosity, but the seerdom of the Orient is a 
 power, before which thrones have crumbled and dynastic dis- 
 tinctions have been obliterated. The claim to preternatural 
 authority based on supernatural illumination sounds strange 
 and quackish to European ears, but the Asiatic regards it as 
 a time-honoured respectability, in which it would be dis- 
 reputable not to believe, and on the examination of whose 
 merits he enters with a foregone and decidedly favourable 
 conclusion. Prophets are regarded as beings in the course. 
 if not of nature, at least of Providence, and the occasional 
 manifestation of such a phenomenon is among the ordinary 
 expectances of human affairs. Hence the emergence of men 
 of obscure lineage and moderate learning into the distinguished 
 position of spiritual guides, teaching " not, as the scribes," by 
 traditional authority, but by a light directly vouchsafed to 
 them from above, is not so uncommon as to excite unbounded 
 astonishment, or so opposed to the general current ox public 
 opinion as to arouse distrust. The dreamer, the enthusiast, 
 or the visionary, has here no fear of being considered and 
 treated as a lunatic on the one hand, or an impostor on the 
 other. He has simpty to make good his claims by the per- 
 formance of works sufficiently wonderful to give him an in- 
 fluence over the vulgar, or by the announcement of doctrines 
 so far imbued with mysticism and profundity as to stimulate 
 
132 
 
 the curiosity and test the logical acumen of the learned and 
 select. 
 
 Schamyl has promulgated a new phase of Soofeeism, that 
 hereditary and highly spiritualized theosophy which underlies 
 the dogmas of nearly all Asia's manifold and apparently dis- 
 similar sects. Implying the gift of lucid vision and mental 
 sympathy in varying degrees in its different ranks of disciples 
 and teachers, it places the higher orders of its hierarchy in 
 immediate communication with the essences of things, but 
 in the special form developed by Schamyl it presuppose its 
 prophet -founder and hierophant to be in direct communion 
 with God and occasionally to be absorbed into his being. 
 Stripped of its conventionalities, this is ecstacy systematized, 
 the varied gradations of susceptibility, as being supposed to 
 afford evidence of successive ascensions into light, knowledge, 
 purity, and spirituality, constituting the claim of the subject 
 to a certain position in this hierarchial constitution. More 
 complicated than the system of Mahomet, it implies greater 
 educational attainments in its founder, and perhaps a more 
 advanced stage of mental development in its believers. But 
 it is doubtful whether with all this it has the same boldness 
 of outline or the same grandeur and originality of conception 
 in its dogmas. It has obviously lost in breadth what it has 
 gained in height and depth, and has, we should think, little 
 of that simplicity and practicality in its doctrines and ordi- 
 nances which would qualify it for the rapid and extensive dif- 
 fusion which awaited the faith of Islam . Schamyl is an extra- 
 ordinary man, but he is not equal to the son of the Koreish. 
 He did not begin this spiritual despotism, the basis of which 
 was laid by Kasi Mullah, his perceptor and leader, whose 
 mantle he inherited after the fatal fight at Himry. where 
 Kasi Mullah was slain with most of his devoted followers, and 
 Schamyl fell, pierced by two balls, at the side of his master. 
 The present hero indeed rather occupies the position of Ali 
 or one of the earlier caliphs than of the primal founder of a 
 new faith. The dangers and difficulties of his position may 
 suffice to keep up his own ecstatic exaltati' ' ! f and stimulate 
 
133 
 
 the veneration of his followers : but we greatly doubt whether 
 this mere adaptation of the old tenets of Soofeeism to the 
 temporary necessities of a mountain clan will long outlast the 
 passing circumstances which have called it forth, or prevail 
 to spread beyond the geographical limitations of the people 
 and country of its birth. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Altogether ours is an unsettled age. The prairies of 
 America, the mountains of western and the plains of eastern 
 Asia, are simultaneously enkindled with the lurid light of 
 visional illumination. There must be a demand for such 
 weird phenomena or they would not be evolved. We think 
 the present forms are transitory. We see no indications of 
 the commanding genius of a Menu or a Mahomet in such a 
 vulgar dreamer as Joe Smith, or even in the dauntless hero- 
 prophet Schamyl. These men are. we think, obviously of 
 the temporary and provisional order "nly, but are they not 
 premonitory indications of a futur theologically tempestuous 
 beyond any past f Once more we say, let those whom it 
 may concern look well to the signs of the times, for verily 
 they are momentous to a degree seldom equalled. 
 
 Let not the reader suppose that we have exhausted the 
 subject-matter of these prelections, that history and bio- 
 graphy furnish no further materials for such dissertations as 
 the foregoing. This were a grave mistake, and would indi- 
 cate an utter incompetency to estimate aright the immense, 
 we might say with truth, the quite incalculable, influence 
 which ecstatic illumination has exercised over human affairs. 
 Do we behold those plastic forces, the mighty creeds and the 
 enduring codes which have fashioned the minds of men from 
 age to age? Therein may we contemplate the effects of 
 that mental ex;'' feion under which the master-spirits of our 
 
134 
 
 race have spoken with a power which ensured obedience, 
 and with an authority from whence there was no appeal. 
 We speak of Genius ; in the ecstatic we behold this glorious, 
 and shall we say it, divine, endowment in its highest form of 
 manifestation. Would we in any respect approach to a 
 comprehension of the vast capability which may re-found 
 the polities and re-edify the institutions of humanity's future, 
 would we even in part understand the mental constitution of 
 those Titanic souls whose Promethean fire has been the light 
 and the life of the ages, we must first study the phenomena 
 of interior illumination, and thus be enabled to understand 
 that grandeur of conception and vastitude of thought which 
 made their possessors the moulds of time. Have we any- 
 where indubitable evidence of originality, do we at any 
 period discern the traces of a veritably creative intellect, 
 there also, may we be assured, are those giant vestiges 
 which ecstacy ever leaves upon its path, the enduring 
 monument, pereraiius are. which giants alone could prevail 
 to erect. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 THE PEOPLES OF EUROPE AND THE WAR IN 
 THE EAST. Price Is. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 Introdution. 
 
 The Italian, Iberian^ and Gaul. 
 The German, the Magyar, and Pole. 
 The Muscovite. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian. 
 Turkey and the East, 
 Language and Lords of the Future. 
 Empire and its Possessors. 
 London : H. Bailliere. Edinburgh : Maclachlan & Stewart. 
 
 LECTURES ON MESMERISM. Price Is. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 History of Mesmerism. 
 
 A Description and Explanation of Mesmeric Phenomena. 
 
 Mesmerism as a Remedial Agent. 
 
 Ancient Mesmerism as a Superstitious Ceremonial. 
 
 Mesmerism as an Instrument for the Investigation of Mental 
 
 Phenomena by Experiment. 
 Mesmerism in connection with Religion and our Moral Duties. 
 
 London : H. Bailliere. Edinburgh : Maclachlan & Stewart, 
 
 MESMERISM IN CONNECTION WITH POPULAR 
 
 SUPERSTITIONS. Price 2s. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 Introduction. 
 
 Charms — Amulets, Chrystallic Divination, and Magic Mirrors. 
 Seerdom and Oracles. 
 Witchcraft. 
 
 Exorcism, Magic, and Enchantment. 
 Dreams. 
 
 Second Sight and Presentiments. 
 Village Ghosts and Fairies. 
 Verified Apparitions. 
 Death Omens. 
 Rustic Sorcery. 
 
 Miracles of the Papal Church — Introduction. 
 Saintly Cures. 
 Fasting and Vision. 
 Stigmata and Crown of Glory. 
 Ritual of the Papal Church — Holy Water, Incense, and Litanies. 
 
 London : H. Bailliere. Edinburgh : Maclachlan & Stewart. 
 
THE SEER OF SINAI AND OTHER POEMS. 
 Price Is. 
 
 C NTBNT8. 
 Egypt or Slavery. 
 Exodus or Liberty. 
 Sinai or Law. 
 Pisgah or Futurity. 
 
 London : W. Tweedie, 337 Strand, 
 
 Preparing for Publication. 
 
 LECTURES ON PHRENOLOGY. Second Edition, 
 with Second Series. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Principles of Phrenology. 
 
 Phrenology in its Application to Education. 
 
 Phrenology as Indicative of Man's Adaptation to his Moral and 
 
 Physical Environment. 
 The Influence of Phrenological Pevelopement on Health, Disease, 
 
 and Longevity. 
 Phrenology as an Aid to the Metaphysician. 
 Phrenology as an Aid to the Historian. 
 
 1. Ancient History. 
 
 2. Modern History. 
 
 Recently Published. 
 
 THE ILLUSTRATED PRACTICAL MESMERIST. 
 
 By Wm. Davey. Price 2s. 
 
 London: H. Baiiliere. Edinburgh: Maclachlan & Stewart. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 u^^**f^ 
 
 y* 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 '•^pmmsmm 
 
 My . 
 
 
 
 <r — :r 
 
 
 
 
 ^— 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 CAYLORD 
 
 
 
 PRINTEOIN U.S.A. / 
 

 \\1A 
 
 ,- 
 
« tt 
 
 
 
 \k\\] 
 
 II 
 
 I HI 11