of advocating Millenarian views; but the extravagance of some of
the collateral notions which the preacher intermingled with simple
Millenarianism rather impeded than promoted the object in view.
The doctrine, too, of speaking with tongues, the assertion of the
peccability of Christ's humanity, the zealous advocacy of the opinion
that the power of working miracles was still vested in the Church,
and not the expectation only, but from time to time, the repeated
assertion, most emphatically, that _Christ would come immediately to
reign personally on the earth_--all these, and other sentiments no
less confidently advanced, and earnestly inculcated both from Irving's
pulpit and through the press, injured rather than benefited the cause
of Millenarianism among the more sober-minded men in the religious
world.
Moreover, he retained these momentous errors till his dying hour,
and added one more to them. When his physicians and friends, seeing
him in the last stage of consumption, prepared him in the spirit of
affectionate faithfulness for the solemn event which was at hand, he
would not believe that he was dying, or ever would die, but that he
would be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and in a transformed body,
made unspeakably glorious, be caught up to heaven. The Millenarians
therefore do not strengthen their cause by quoting the name of Edward
Irving as an authority in favour of their views.
The intense enthusiasm with which Irving entered into the notion of
a personal reign of Christ on earth is well described in his Life by
Mrs. Oliphant. "The conception," she says, "of a second advent nearly
approaching was like the beginning of a new life. The thought of seeing
his Lord in the flesh, cast a certain ecstasy on the mind of Irving.
It quickened tenfold his already vivid apprehension of spiritual
things. The burden of his prophetic mystery, so often darkly pondered,
so often interpreted in a mistaken sense, seemed to him, in the light
of that expectation, to swell into divine choruses of preparation for
the splendid event which, with his bodily eyes, undimmed by death,
he hoped to behold." It is generally thought that the extravagancies
which, towards the close of his career, proceeded both from his lips
and his pen, were to be traced to a mind which, through its prophetic
studies, had _lost its balance_. Yet, to the last, he made many
proselytes to his Millenarian notions.
Irving originated the idea of Christ, with his saints, remaining
and reigning in the air after he has caught up his people to meet
him there, instead of reigning literally on the earth. Irving also
originated the doctrine of _secret rapture_, or the assumption that
Christ will come and take up his people who are alive with him into
the air when he raises the saints who are in their graves, and summons
them to meet him in aerial regions. So deeply did this notion take
possession of many of those who adopted Mr. Irving's Millenarian views,
in conjunction with this other idea--that _Christ's second coming might
be_ looked for at any hour--that they were as firmly persuaded they
would not see death, as they were of any truth in the Word of God.[22]
[22] See _The End of All Things_, by the author of _Our Heavenly Home_,
1866.
A Trio of Fanatics.
The names of Sharp, Bryan, and Brothers will not soon be forgotten
among the so-called prophets of the present century. The first of this
inspired trio was William Sharp, one of the greatest masters in the
English school of engraving; Bryan was what is termed an irregular
Quaker, who had engrafted sectarian doctrines on an original stock of
fervid religious feeling; and Richard Brothers, who styled himself the
"Nephew of God," predicted the destruction of all sovereigns, &c.
Sharp was, at one time, so infected with wild notions of political
liberty, and so free in his talk, that he was placed under arrest by
the Government and several times examined before the Privy Council,
for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not, in his speeches or
writings, he had committed himself far enough to be tried with Horne
Tooke for high treason; but Sharp, being a handsome-looking, jocular
man, and too cheerful for a conspirator, the Privy Council came to a
conclusion that the altar and the throne had not much to fear from
him. At one of the examinations, when Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas were
present, after he had been worried with questions, which, Sharp said,
had little or nothing to do with the business, he deliberately took out
of his pocket a prospectus for subscribing to his portrait of General
Kociusko, after West, which he was then engraving; and handing the
paper first to Pitt and Dundas, he requested them to put their names
down as subscribers, and then to give his prospectus to the other
members of the Council for their names. The singularity of the proposal
set them laughing, and he was soon afterwards liberated.
Sharp possessed a fraternal regard for Bryan, had him instructed in
copper-plate printing, supplied him with paper, &c., and enabled him
to commence business; but they soon quarrelled. A strong tide of
animal spirits, not unaccompanied by some intellectual pretensions and
shrewdness of insight, characterized the mind of Jacob Bryan; which,
when religion was launched on it, swelled to enthusiasm, tossed reason
to the skies, or whirled her in mystic eddies. Sharp found him one
morning groaning on the floor, between his two printing-presses, at his
office in Marylebone Street, complaining how much he was oppressed,
by bearing, after the pattern of the Saviour, part of the sins of the
people; and he soon after had a vision, commanding him to proceed
to Avignon on a Divine Mission. He accordingly set out immediately,
in full reliance on Divine Providence, leaving his wife to negotiate
the sale of his printing business: thus Sharp lost his printer, but
Bryan kept his faith. The issue of this mission was so ambiguous,
that it might be combined into an accomplishment of its supposed
object, according as an ardent or a cool imagination was employed on
the subject; but the missionary (Bryan) returned to England, and then
became a dyer, and so much altered, that a few years after he could
even pun upon the suffering and confession which St. Paul has expressed
in his text--"I die daily."
The Animal Magnetism of Mesmer and the mysteries of Emanuel Swedenborg
had, by some means or other, in Sharp's time, become mingled in the
imaginations of their respective or their mutual followers; and Bryan
and several others were supposed to be endowed, though not in the
same degree, with a sort of half-physical and half-miraculous power
of curing diseases, and imparting the thoughts or sympathies of
distant friends. De Loutherbourg, the painter (one of the disciples),
was believed by the sect to be a very Esculapius in this divine art;
but Bryan was held to be far less powerful, and was so by his own
confession. Sharp had also some inferior pretensions of the same kind,
which gradually died away.
But, behold! Richard Brothers arose! The Millennium was at hand! The
Jews were to be gathered together, and were to re-occupy Jerusalem;
and Sharp and Brothers were to march thither with their squadrons!
Due preparations were accordingly made, and boundless expectations
were raised by the distinguished artist. Upon a friend remonstrating
that none of their preparations appeared to be of a marine nature,
and inquiring how the chosen colony were to cross the seas, Sharp
answered, "Oh, you'll see; there'll be an earthquake, and a miraculous
transportation will take place." Nor can Sharp's faith or sincerity
on this point be in the least distrusted; for he actually engraved
two plates of the prophet Brothers, having calculated that one would
not print the great number of impressions that would be wanted when
the important event should arrive; and he added to each the following
inscription: "Fully believing this to be the man appointed by God, I
engrave his likeness: W. Sharp." The writing engraver, Smith, put the
comma after the word "appointed," and omitted it in the subsequent part
of the sentence. The mistake was not discovered until several were
worked off; the unrectified impressions are in great request. Whether
this be true, or only a hoax by Smith to put collectors on a false
scent, has not been ascertained; there is no such impression in the
British Museum. If the reader paused in the place where Sharp intended,
the sentence expressed, "Fully believing this to be the man appointed
by God,"--to do what? to head the Jews in their predestined march to
recover Jerusalem? or to die in a madhouse? one being expressed as much
as the other.
Brothers, however, in his prophecy, had mentioned _dates_, which were
stubborn things. Yet the failure of the accomplishment of this prophecy
may have helped to recommend "the Woman clothed with the Sun!" who now
arose, as might be thought somewhat _mal à propos_, in the West. Such
was Joanna Southcote. The Scriptures had said: "The sceptre shall not
depart from Israel, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
come; and to him _shall the gathering of my people be_." When Brothers
was incarcerated in a madhouse in Clerkenwell, Johanna, then living
in service at Exeter, persuaded herself that she held converse with
the devil, and communion with the Holy Ghost, by whom she pretended to
be inspired. When the day of dread that was to leave London in ruins,
while it ushered forth Brothers and Sharp on their holy errand, passed
calmly over, the seers of coming events began to look out for new
ground, and to prevaricate most unblushingly. The _days_ of prophecy,
said Sharp, were sometimes weeks or months; nay, according to one text,
a thousand years were but as a single day, and one day was but as a
thousand years. But he finally clung to the deathbed prediction of
Jacob, supported as it was by the ocular demonstration of the coming
Shiloh. In vain Sir William Drummond explained that Shiloh was in
reality the ancient Asiatic name of a star in Scorpio; or that Joanna
herself sold for a trifle, or gave away in her loving kindness, the
impression of a trumpery seal, which at the Great Day was to constitute
the discriminating mark between the righteous and the ungodly. We shall
hear more of Sharp in association with Joanna Southcote, presently.
Sharp died poor; he earned much money, but his egregious credulity
accounts for its dispersion. He was an epicure in his living, he
grew corpulent, and had gout; he died of dropsy, at Chiswick, July
25th, 1824, and was interred in the churchyard of that hamlet, near
De Loutherbourg, for whom, at one period, he entertained much mystic
reverence.
This great engraver, this William Sharp, was an enthusiast for human
freedom. He engraved, from a liking for the man, Northcote's portrait
of Sir Francis Burdett; and bestowed unusual care on an engraving
after Stothard's beautiful bistre-drawing of "Boadicea animating
the Britons." For many years preceding his death he was a wholesale
believer in Joanna Southcote; as we have already seen--and he had
implicit faith in mystical doctrines; of his portrait of Brothers,
Horne Tooke well observed, that, coupled with its extraordinary
inscription, it "exhibited one of the most eminent proofs of human
genius and human weakness ever contained on the same piece of paper."
Burnet, the engraver, used to relate that Sharp had an ingenious way
of carrying a proof print to a purchaser, in an umbrella contrived to
serve two additional duties--a print-case, and a walking-stick.
When John Martin exhibited his picture of Belshazzar's Feast, Sharp
called upon him at his house, introduced himself, praised his picture,
and asked permission to engrave it. "That I was flattered by a request
of the kind from so great an artist," says Martin, "you will readily
imagine; and I so expressed myself." Sharp felt pleased. "My belief,"
said Sharp, "is, that yours is a divine work--an emanation immediately
from the Almighty; and my belief further is, that while I am engaged on
so divine a work, I shall never die." When Martin told this story, he
added, with a smile, his eyes twinkling with mischief, "Poor Sharp! a
wild enthusiast, but--a masterly engraver."[23]
[23] "New Materials for Lives of English Engravers," by Peter
Cunningham. _Builder_, 1863.
Richard Brothers was born at Placentia, in Newfoundland, and had
served in the navy, but resigned his commission, because, to use his
own words, he "conceived the military life to be totally repugnant to
the duties of Christianity, and he could not conscientiously receive
the wages of plunder, bloodshed, and murder." This step reduced him to
great poverty, and he appears to have suffered much in consequence. His
mind was already shaken, and his privations and solitary reflections
seem at length to have entirely overthrown it. The first instance of
his madness appears to have been his belief that he could restore sight
to the blind. He next began to see visions and to prophesy, and soon
became persuaded that he was commissioned by Heaven to lead back the
Jews to Palestine. It was in the latter part of 1794 that he announced,
through the medium of the press, his high destiny. His rhapsody bore
the title of "A revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies 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 their revealed prince and
prophet." A second part speedily followed, which purported to relate
"particularly to the present time, the present war, and the prophecy
now fulfilling: containing, with other great and remarkable things, not
revealed to any other person on earth, the sudden and perpetual fall of
the Turkish, German, and Russian Empires." Among many similar flights
in this second part, was one which described visions revealing to him
the intended destruction of London, and claimed for the prophet the
merit of having saved the city by his intercession with the Deity.[24]
[24] _Sketches of Imposture, Deception and Credulity._ Second Edition.
1840.
Brothers gained a great number of partisans, not only among uneducated
persons, but among men of talent. We have seen Sharp, the engraver, as
his devoted disciple. Among these followers was Mr. Halhed, who had
been a schoolfellow of Sheridan at Harrow; they also had a sort of
literary partnership, and they fell passionately in love with the same
woman, Miss Linley. Halhed was a profound scholar, a man of wit, and a
member of the House of Commons; he published pamphlets in advocacy of
the prophetic mission of Brothers, and even made a motion in the House
in favour of the prince of the Jews, as Brothers delegated himself.
Brothers took more of a political turn than his companions. He had
been a lieutenant in the navy, and during the years 1792-3-4, greatly
disturbed the minds of the credulous with his _prophecies_. We have
said that he styled himself the "Nephew of God," and predicted the
destruction of all sovereigns; he also foretold the downfall of the
naval power of Great Britain.
His writings, founded on erroneous explanations of the Scriptures,
at length made so much noise, that Government found it expedient
to interfere, and on the 14th of March, 1795, he was apprehended at
his lodgings, No. 58, in Paddington Street, under a warrant from the
Secretary of State. After a long examination before the Privy Council,
in which Brothers persisted in the divinity of his legation, he was
committed to the custody of a State messenger. On the 27th he was
declared a lunatic, by a jury appointed under a commission of lunacy,
assembled at the King's Arms, in Palace Yard, and was subsequently
removed to a private madhouse at Islington. While here, he continued
to see visions and to pour forth his rhapsodies in print. One of
these productions was a letter of two hundred pages, to "Miss Cott,
the recorded daughter of King David, and future Queen of the Hebrews,
with an Address to the Members of His Britannic Majesty's Council."
The lady to whom this letter was addressed had become an inmate of the
same asylum with Brothers, and he became so enamoured of her, that he
discovered her to be "the recorded daughter of both David and Solomon,"
and his spouse "by divine ordinance." Brothers was subsequently removed
to Bedlam; but in the year 1806 was discharged by the authority of
Lord Chancellor Erskine. He died in Upper Baker Street, on the 25th of
January, 1824. He was seen in the street a few days before his death,
walking with great difficulty, and apparently in the last stage of
consumption. It is recorded that the minister who attended Brothers
in his last moments died of a broken heart; and the medical man under
whose care he had been confined, committed suicide.
Brothers appears to have unwittingly suggested to Coleridge and Southey
the clever poem of the _Devil's Walk_, by the mad prophet asserting
that he had seen the devil walk leisurely into London one day!
The Spenceans.
Early in the present century there arose in the metropolis a
religio-political sect, which took its name from an itinerant
bookseller, named T. Spence, who formed a sort of Constitution on the
principle that "all human beings are equal by nature and before the
law, and have a continual and _inalienable property_ in the earth and
in its natural productions;" and consequently that "_every man, woman,
and child_, whether born in wedlock or not (for Nature and Justice
know nothing of illegitimacy), is entitled quarterly to an equal share
of the rents of the parish where they have settled." This he called
"the Constitution of _Spensonia_;" and the Abstract from which we have
quoted he called "A Receipt to make a _Millennium_, or Happy World."
By this reference and by some allusions to the Jewish economy, he also
gave his system a slight connection with religion--but it was very
slight; for he neither regarded the precepts of the moral law, nor the
doctrines of the Gospel. He admitted, however, of a Sabbath every fifth
day; but only as a day of rest and amusement--not for any purposes of
devotion. A scheme somewhat similar to the above was formed in the
time of the English Commonwealth, and it is probable Spence may have
borrowed his system partly from that source.
Spence was punished for his vagaries; for, in 1801, he was sentenced
to pay a fine of 50_l._ and to suffer twelve months' imprisonment for
publishing _Spence's Restorer of Society_, which was deemed a seditious
libel. Spence died in October, 1814.
[Illustration: Joanna Southcote.]
Joanna Southcote, and the Coming of Shiloh.
This "dropsical old woman," Joanna Southcote, was a native of Exeter,
and was born in April, 1750. She was employed chiefly in that city
as a domestic servant, and up to the age of forty or thereabout, she
seems to have aspired to no higher occupation. But having joined
the Methodists, and become acquainted with one Saunderson, who laid
claim to the spirit of prophecy, the notion of a like pretension
was gradually communicated to Joanna. She wrote prophecies, and
she dictated prophecies, sometimes in prose and sometimes in rhymed
doggerel; her influence extended, and the number of her followers
increased; she announced herself as the woman spoken of in the 12th
chapter of Revelation, and obtained considerable sums by the sale of
_seals_, which were to secure the salvation of those who purchased
them. Her confidence increased with her reputation, and she challenged
the bishop and clergy of Exeter to a public investigation of her
miraculous powers, but they treated her challenge with contemptuous
neglect, which she and her converts imputed to fear.
By degrees, Exeter became too narrow a stage for her performances, and
she came to London on the invitation and at the expense of Sharp, the
eminent engraver. She was very illiterate, but wrote numerous letters
and pamphlets, and her prophecies, nearly unintelligible as they were,
had a large sale. In the course of her Mission, as she called it,
promising a speedy approach of the Millennium, she employed a boy, who
pretended to see visions, and attempted, instead of writing, to adjust
them on the walls of her chapel, "the House of God," a large building
which adjoined the Elephant and Castle Inn, at Newington Butts. A
schism took place among her followers, one of whom, named Carpenter,
took possession of the place, and wrote against her; not denying her
Mission, but asserting that she had exceeded it.
It may, however, be interesting here to describe what may be termed
the _modus operandi_ of the delusion. Great pains were now taken to
ascertain the truth of her commission. "From the end of 1792," says
Mr. Sharp, who, we have already seen, was the most devout of her
believers, "to the end of 1794, her writings were sealed up with
great caution, and remained secure till they were conveyed by me to
High House, Paddington; and the box which contained them was opened
in the beginning of January, 1803. Her writings were examined during
seven days, and the result of this long scrutiny was the unanimous
decision of twenty-three persons _appointed by divine command_, as
well as of thirty-five others that were present, _that her calling
was of God_." They came to this conclusion from the fulfilment of the
prophecies contained in these writings, and to which she appealed with
confidence and triumph. It was a curious circumstance, however, that
her handwriting was illegible. Her remark on this occasion was, "This
must be, to fulfil the Bible. Every vision that John saw in Heaven must
take place on earth; and here is the sealed book, that no one can read!"
A protection was provided for all those who subscribed their names as
volunteers, for the destruction of Satan's kingdom. To every subscriber
a folded paper was delivered, endorsed with his name, and secured with
the impression of Joanna's seal in red wax; this powerful talisman
consisted of a circle enclosing the two letters J. C., with a star
above and below, and the following words, "The sealed of the Lord,
the Elect, Precious, Man's Redemption, to inherit the tree of life,
to be made heirs of God and joint-heirs of Jesus Christ." The whole
was authenticated by the signature of the prophetess in her illegible
characters, and the person thus provided was said to be _sealed_.
Conformably, however, to the 7th chapter of the Revelation, the number
of those highly protected persons was not to exceed 144,000.[25]
[25] _Sketches of Imposture, Deception, and Credulity_. Second Edition.
1840.
Early in her last year, she secluded herself from male society, and
fancied that she was with child--by the Holy Spirit!--that she was to
bring forth the Shiloh promised by Jacob Bryan, and which she pretended
was to be the second appearance of the Messiah! This child was to
be born before the end of harvest, on the 19th of October, 1814, at
midnight, as she was certain it was impossible for her to survive
undelivered till Christmas. The harvest, however, was ended, and
Christmas came, without the fulfilment of her predictions. Some months
previously, Joanna had declared her pretended situation, and invited
the opinion of the faculty. Several medical men admitted her pregnancy,
others doubted; and some, among whom was Dr. Sims, denied it. There
was, indeed, the external appearance of pregnancy; and, in consequence,
the enthusiasm of her followers, who are said to have amounted at that
time to no fewer than one hundred thousand, was greatly excited. An
expensive cradle was made, and considerable sums were contributed,
in order to have other things prepared in a style worthy of the
expected Shiloh. Among the costly presents made to her was a Bible
which cost 40_l._, and the superb cot or cradle 200_l._, besides a
richly-embroidered coverlid, &c.