What a curious book would be "Our Prophets and Enthusiasts!" The literary
and biographical records of the vaticinators, and the heated spirits who,
after working upon the fears of the timid, and exciting the imaginations of
the weak, have flitted into oblivion! As a specimen of the odd characters
such a work would embrace, allow me to introduce to your readers Thomas
Newans, a Shropshire farmer, who unhappily took it into his head that his
visit to the lower sphere was on a special mission.
Mr. Newans is the author of a book entitled _A Key to the Prophecies of the
Old and New Testament_; showing (among other impending events) "The
approaching Invasion of England;" "The Extirpation of Popery and
Mahometisme;" "The Restoration of the Jews," and "The Millennium." London:
printed for the Author (who attests the genuineness of my copy by his
signature), 1747.
In this misfitted key he relates how, in a vision, he was invested with the
prophetic mantle:
"In the year 1723, in the night," says Mr. Newans, "I fell into a
dream, and seemed to be riding on the road into the county of Cheshire.
When I was got about eight miles from home, my horse made a stop on the
road; and it seemed a dark night, and on a sudden there shone a light
before me on the ground, which was as bright as when the sun shines at
noon-day. In the middle of that bright circle stood a child in white.
It spoke, and told me that I must go into Cheshire, and I should find a
man with uncommon marks upon his feet, which should be a warning to me
to believe; and that the year after I should have a cow that would
calve a calf with his heart growing out of his body in a wonderful
manner, as a token of what should come to pass; and that a terrible war
would break out in Europe, and in fourteen years after the token it
would extend to England."
In compliance with his supernatural communication, our farmer proceeded to
Cheshire, where he found the man indicated; and, a year after, his own farm
stock was increased by the birth of a calf with his heart growing out. And
after taking his family, of seven, to witness to the truth of {382} what he
describes, he adds with great simplicity: "So then I rode to London to
acquaint the ministers of state of the approaching danger!"
This story of the calf with the heart growing out, is not a bad type of the
worthy grazier himself, and his _hearty_ and burning zeal for the
Protestant faith. Mr. Newans distinctly and repeatedly predicts that these
"two beastly religions," _i. e._ the Popish and Mahomedan, will be totally
extirpated within seven years! And "I have," says he, "for almost twenty
years past, travelled to London and back again into the country, near fifty
journies, and every journey was two hundred and fifty miles, to acquaint
the ministers of state and several of the bishops, and other divines, with
the certainty, danger, and manner of the war" which was to bring this
about. Commenting on the story of Balaam, our prophet says: "And now the
world is grown so full of sin and wickedness, that if a dumb ass should
speak with a man's voice, they would scarce repent:" and I conclude that
the said statesmen and divines did not estimate these prophetic warnings
much higher than the brayings of that quadruped which they turned out to
be. Mr. Newan professes to gave penned these vaticinations in the year
1744, twenty-one years after the date of his vision; so that he had ample
time to mature them. What would the farmer say were he favoured with a peep
at our world in 1853, with its Mussulman system unbroken; and its cardinal,
archbishops, and Popish bishops firmly established in the very heart of
Protestant England?