On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
to become of him . " As for you , " replied the seer , " you will be burnt in Stnithfield . " No wonder tbe Rev . G . C . Smith , who might pass for a descendant of Daniel Lambert , should dislike the doctrine and expose the reveries of his quondam friend . On the subject of money , Captain Garnbier ' s incessant cry was , " I have a few hundreds , Smith , in the Bank ; Elliot" ( another captain , and of the Millenarian heresy ) " and I cannot make up our minds to beg or ask one penny while we have any thing left ourselves . A man . does not serve God as he ought unless he makes up his mind to give all that he has . I shall give all until 1 get to my half-pay , and then I must stop , and Elliot will do the same . " At a later oeriod he said . " I am done .
Smith , and now Elliot must go on till he comes to his half-pay , and then we must go on with the Asylum and Sailor's home , by faith : " that is , we are informed , to erect a building to cost £ 15 , 000 , with scarcely any means , and without estimates , contracts , or securities . The same strain of Fanaticism is pursued in the periodical of the prophets , " the Morning Watch . ' * Christ is at hand , we are told , to destroy
the world . A spirit of Pharisaism pervades the work . The vials of the Scotch orator ' s wrath are poured forth in its pages . All the world but the chosen few , and few they are , dismay and destruction await . We are not sorry that these modern Millenarians have gone to extremes . The shorter in consequence will be their day—the less their influence on the public mind . We are not sorry they have appeared . They burlesque the extravagance of the religious world , shew its natural tendency ,
and prepare the way for a return to a sounder and more healthful spirit ; the spirit , not of fear , but of power , and of love , and of a sound mind . Monstrosities of sentiment like those of the Irving school must of necessity be short-lived . For a time , now , as when the Millenarian notions began to prevail in the third century in Egypt , they may banish from the mind of some Christians the most important precepts of their religion ; they may , as in the tenth century , aid forward a crusade , not as then against the Turks ,
but wise , and upright , and rational Christians ; they may , as in the seventeenth century , and amongst the fifth-monarchy men , lead to " the proud turbulence of political interpretation ; " but as these ebullitions of frenzy passed quickly away , so , especially in the present day , will the hallucinations of the prophetic school . They will also , we hope , serve to warn those who are treading on the heels of like absurdities , and clear the turbid atmosphere
of the religious world . A striking instance of delusion like that of the present Millenarians is recorded by Robertson in his History of Charles the Fifth , which may serve to point a moral in the present day . A sect of the Anabaptists took possession of Munster , in Westphalia , expelling the constituted authorities , and assuming their places . Borcold , an obscure fanatic , having by visions and prophecies prepared the multitude lor some
extraordinary event , stripped himself naked , and marching through the streets , proclaimed with a loud voice , " That the kingdom of Sion was at hand ; that whatever was highest on earth should be brought low , and whatever was lowest should be exalted . " In order to fulfil this , he commanded the churches , as the most lofty buildings in the city , to be levelled with the ground ; he degraded the municipal officers chosen by his own party , and made the highest magistrate in the city the common hangman , for whom he is said to have found abundance of employment . And * ' as /* to use the words of Robertson , ** the excesses of enthusiasm have been observed in every age to lead to sensual gratifications , the same constitution that is
Untitled Article
The School of the Prophets . — Baneful Effects of Fanaticism . 33
Untitled Article
VOL . IV . 13
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 33, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/33/
-