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delusion. Again and again, however, we repeat that we do not make any individual responsible for what he does not himself vouch for. We would not, for example, charge upon Mr. Boys or Mr. McNeile the absurdities of Port-Glasgow, how ever closely we may think such absurdities would follow upon their general position; much less would we lay to their account those too probable future extravagancies which a belief in modern miracles is likely to generate in illiterate and unsound minds. But, though not invidiously, or for accusation, yet for serious warning, we think it not irrelevant to remind them of former days; and, as germain to this particular matter of modern miracles, of the case of the Shakers, described as follows by Dr. Dwight.

"The history of these people has been published by themselves, in an octavo volume entitled, The Testimony of Christ's Second Appearing.' In the introduction of this work we are informed that a few of the French prophets came over to England about the year 1706. A few of the people, who became ultimately their followers at Bolton and Manchester in England, united themselves in a society, under the special ministry of James and Jane Wardley. These people were both tailors by occupation, and of the sect of Quakers; but, receiving the spirit of the French prophets, their testimony, according to what they saw by vision and revelation from God, was, that the second appearing of Christ was at hand, and that the church was rising in her full and transcendent glory, which would effect the final downfall of Antichrist. The meetings of these people were held alternately in Bolton and Manchester, and sometimes in Mayortown. The manner of public devotion practised by them at these places was the following. Sometimes, after assembling together and sitting awhile in silent meditation, they were taken with a mighty trembling, under which they would express the indignation of God

against all sin. At other times they were affected, under the power of God, with a mighty shaking; and were occasionally exercised in singing, shouting, or walking the floor, under the influence of spiritual signs, shoving each other about, or swiftly passing and repassing each other, like clouds agitated by a mighty wind. From these strange

exercises they receive the name of Shakers. The work which God promised to accomplish in the latter day, say they, was eminently marked out by the prophets to be a work of shaking; and hence the name was properly applied to the people who were both the subjects and instruments of the work of God in the latter day.

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"About the year 1770, we are informed that the present testimony of salvation and eternal life was fully opened, according to the special gift and revelation of God, through Anne Lee, that extraordinary woman, who at that time was received by their society as their spiritual mother.' This woman was born at Manchester Her father, John Lee, was a blacksmith. Her husband, Abraham Stanley, was also a blacksmith; and she was a cutter of hatters' fur. To such as addressed her by the customary titles used by the world she would reply, I am Anne the Word.' After having been imprisoned in England, and confined in a mad-house, she set sail for America in 1774, with a number of her followers.

"She professed that she was able to work miracles, and that she was endued with the power of speaking with tongues, in the manner recorded of the Apostles. Pretensions to miraculous powers at this period [Dr. Dwight was writing in 1799] excite, not only in persons of intelligence, but in most men of sober thought, indignation or contempt; but in ignorant persons, especially those who have warm feelings and lively imaginations, they awaken wonder, alarm, and ultimately confidence. With the aid

of a cunning which levels its efforts directly at their degree of understanding, a ready voluble eloquence, and a solemn air of mystery, such pretenders have usually made considerable impression on persons of this character."

"The book which contains their doctrines, is divided into eight parts, four of which, together with many passages in other parts, are employed in railing at various classes of Christians, particularly those who have been generally denominated orthodox, both in ancient and modern times. For those who have been denominated heretics they appear to entertain much charity, particularly for the Manicheans. The style of the work is grave, remarkably abstract, and mysterious; and the doctrines, taken together, a singular combination of mysticism. The spirit with which it is written is vain, arrogant, and self-righteous without a parallel. The opinions, it is hardly necessary to observe, are not only weak and silly, but monstrous, beyond any modern example.

"Incredible as it may seem, one is tempted, from the apparent sincerity of these people in other cases, to believe them sincere in the adoption of those mental vagaries by which they are distinguished as a religious society. They profess, and appear to believe, that they are regularly inspired in their worship; that they are enabled to speak and to sing in unknown languages; that they derive their sentiments, their knowledge, their devotion, their unnatural actions, and even their tunes, from the same Divine source."

Dr. Dwight not only learned these and many other particulars from their own publications, but from personal interviews among them. Being once detained near their settlement by a snow-storm, he fell in with a party of them. Their leading theologian he found to be a man very ignorant of Scripture, and "destitute of any coherent views concerning religious subjects," but "replenished with

spiritual pride and self-sufficiency;" and who, when hardly pushed, "betook himself, like all other enthusiasts, to disingenuous methods, in order to avoid acknowledging that he was vanquished." Dr. Dwight adds: "In their worship they sung what they called an unknown language. It was a succession of unmeaning sounds, frequently repeated, half articulated, and plainly gotten by heart, for they all uttered the same words in succession. The tune with which they were at this time inspired was Nancy Dawson.

"In their worship they practised many contortions of body and distortions of countenance. The gesticulations of the women were violent, and had been practised so often, and in such a degree, as to have fixed their features in an unnatural position.

"The power of working miracles they still claim; and in the book which I have so often mentioned, a number of instances are produced, in which the effects of these powers are said to have been realized by several members of the fraternity. The writer expressly says that the gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophesying, discerning of spirits, diverse kinds of tongues, the interpreting of tongues, &c., have been abundantly ministered through Mother and the first witnesses, and from them to others, and frequently used on various occasions.' Ten instances in which persons have professedly been healed of various wounds and diseases are recorded. Five of these are testified to by the patients themselves; four are testified by one other witness to each, beside the patient; two by two witnesses, together with the patient; and one by two witnesses, without the testimony of the patient, who was a child of two years

old.

"I have mentioned that the company at whose worship I was present, declared that they could speak with tongues, and that both the words and the tune which they sung was inspired. It is unnecessary to

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add any thing concerning the tune. I observed to them, that the sounds which they made, and which they called language, could not be words, because they were not articulated. One of the women replied, How dost thou know but that we speak the Hotmatot language? The language of the Hotmatots is said to be made up of such sort of words.' I challenged them to speak either Greek, Latin, or French, and told them, that if they would do this I would acknowledge that they had the power of speaking with tongues; but they were silent."

But enough; we have no heart to proceed further; nor is it necessary. Dr. Dwight concludes his statement with saying, that, irrational as is such a system, yet" the strong propensity of individuals scattered throughout the world to relish what is strange and mysterious, merely because it is so, will in all probability prolong this delusion until it shall be terminated by the Millennium." We fear that he speaks too truly; for the scenes at Port-Glasgow closely resemble the fanaticism of the Shakers, and are connected with some of the same doctrines, especially the continuance of miracles; -another proof, we shall perhaps be told, that "the church has never relinquished its claim" to them. To appeal to the ignorant fanatics of Port-Glasgow were vain; but we do even yet hope that those persons of understanding and education who have directly or indirectly encouraged such delusions will pause before it be too late, and

to be introduced to the spiritual privileges of the kingdom of the Messiah, which every Christian mind glows to anticipate, but that "they shall enjoy metropolitan pre-eminence over all the other nations of the earth;" that Great Britain, the nations of the continents of Europe and America— in short, the whole world shall crouch before them, " confessing their own inferiority" and acknowledging the "manifest superiority" of the Jews; we consider a mere fancy, not likely to make many sober converts, or to do much harm; except indeed— and no slight exception-as it may render the Jews very conceited, and impede their conversion to God and Christ, by leading them to fancy that our Lord's kingdom is of this world, though He said it was not; and to look with national pride for crowns and sceptres, instead of prostrating themselves in humility as sinners before the cross of Calvary. the question of modern miracles is more practically alarming; for, if once indulged, the evils are inevitable: in proof of which we need only remind Mr. McNeile of the whole page of history, with most earnest warnings and exhortations to him not to give countenance to a delusion, the results of which he may be among the foremost to lament when it is too late to controul them.

For the Christian Observer. THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. 'fumum et opes strepitumque."

But

HORAT.

return to the good old paths of Scrip- LIKE monk, or eremite, or holy maid,
tural sobriety and truth. Let them
look at the declivity which is before
them, and oppose these new extra-
vagances with the same zeal with
which they opposed the delusions
of Brothers or Joanna Southcote.
No opinion which Mr. McNeile has
taken up seems to us to tend to so
much practical evil as this of mo-
dern miracles. His notion, for ex-
ample, that the Jews are not only Like distant bells heard fitful o'er the mere;

Within the cloister's consecrated shade,
Slow-pacing some old minster's long drawn aisle
Entranc'd in mystic dream, and sooth'd the while
By the hush'd murmur of the city's din,
Which faintly sounds the hallow'd walls within;
So walks the Christian mid the stirring crowd
Of ever-busy worldlings, fierce and loud.
He walks apart, amongst the eager press
That swells the city's crowded loneliness,
And carries with him, through its madd'ning din,
A holy quietude and peace within.
The strife of angry tongues, the converse rude,
That sound amid his peopled solitude,
Scarce heeded, fall upon his satiate ear

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Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Lloyd, M. A. late Vicar of Lois- Weedon, Northamptonshire, and formerly Fellow and Tutor of King's College, Cambridge. By the Rev. RICHARD LLOYD, M. A. Rector of St. Dunstan's in the West. 8vo. London. 1830.

It is a refreshing part of our monthly labours to forget the jars of criticism and controversy, and to luxuriate in the devout and edifying sentiments of some faithful scriptural discourse on faith, hope, or charity; or to follow the track of some heavenlyminded servant of Christ, who has left to his fellow-Christians an example of how they might walk so as to please God and benefit mankind. In presenting to our readers the pages of Christian biography, we are glad to exchange our character of reviewers for that of narrators; and to blow away the husks and chaff of barren speculations, for the solid fruit of holy doctrine practically embodied in a holy life. Such is our wish in the columns which we are about to devote to the narrative now before us. It would furnish many topics for interesting disquisition, and some for speculations, not, we would hope, deserving the epithet just applied, of "barren;" but we shall perhaps best consult the spiritual edification of our readers, and the object of the biographer whose fraternal pen has favoured the world with these memorials of his deceased relative, if we confine our notices chiefly to a few extracts, connected together by the chief facts of the personal narraCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 351.

tive. The "adventures" are not numerous or remarkable. Mr. Lloyd was a regularly trained student; became a Fellow and Tutor of his college; and at length succeeded to an academical living, where he passed the remainder of his days. He was an invalid; sensitive, it may be nervous; and often secluded by his weakness from active pastoral life: but he exemplified throughout his course such meek piety, such patient endurance, and other special graces of the Christian character, that we feel rejoiced in presenting his portrait to our readers; more especially to our clerical and academical readers, to whom the difficulties and encouragements, the labours and the trials of a man whose sphere of duty was for many years much connected with collegiate studies and employments, may not be less interesting or useful than the habits and vicissitudes of a more bustling life. There is no class of persons whose vocation and temptations are more peculiar, or require more to be nicely discriminated, than those of the Christian student. We have known some indolent young academics attempt, or profess, to throw off those difficulties, by throwing off their studies; whether that the demon of laziness expelled the demon of pride; or that unbelief tacitly suggested that the path of duty was not the path of safety, and that God could not, or would not, preserve religious students, as he preserves other classes of Christians, in the line of their calling, that calling being lawful, and not by withdrawing them from it. The narrative before us, in

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teresting in many respects, is particularly so in reference to this point, to the illustration of which we shall devote several of our extracts.

The Rev. Thomas Lloyd was the eldest son of the Rev. J. Lloyd, who was for more than half a century rector of Thorpe, in Derbyshire, so celebrated for the romantic valley of Dove-dale. He had also a living in Montgomeryshire; but resided at Wrexham, of which populous parish he was curate, under Dr. Shipley. His son Thomas commenced his studies in the grammar school of Wrexham; whence he was removed, at the age of thirteen, to Eton; and afterwards obtained, not by routine, but by peculiar diligence and talent, the envied appointment of a Fellowship at King's college, Cambridge. His brother describes him as follows, at this period of his bright and honourable career.

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being an evangelical minister.' He was a very excellent man, of great suavity of temper and amenity of manners, and his ministerial conduct was calculated to give no offence, except what a faithful promulgation of the truth as it is in Jesus,' will more or less produce. I well remember sonal piety of this beloved relative in great that in his scholastic days he held the perrespect, and used to defend him whenever he heard (what was rarely the case) any reflections cast upon his character. The moral instincts of our fallen nature are upon his juvenile and inexperienced mind on the side of religion, and his example left a vague and indefinite sort of impression of its transcendent excellency and importance. Whilst his uncle's unaffected singularity,—the singularity only of superior sanctity to many of his clerical brethren around him, kindled in his breast a strong predilection in his favour-this predilection lumined by a clear discernment of the diwas not (as I have already intimated) ilvine principles from which emanated the piety whi His piety which he held in such veneration. I have reason, however, to think, upon a retrospective view of this period of his life, that these early impressions and associations might have had a secret and imperceptible influence in subduing those prejudices against vital religion so inherent in the human heart, and in preparing his mind to contemplate Mr. Simeon's character (though enveloped at this time in a cloud of prejudices) in a favourable light, and to hold in respect his ardent piety,-notwithstanding some constitutional peculiarities which gave, during the early state of his ministry, a repulsive appearance to it. He distinguished, however, between the Christian and the man, and even represented to him what was exceptionable in the latter in some strong and admirable strictures which he sent him, and which were received with Christian humility, and expressions of the warmest gratitude. Under the ministry and example of this worthy servant of Christ, who has long since survived reproach, and conciliated by his conduct the esteem of those who once misunderstood and misrepresented his character, the subject of this memoir acquired a deeper and more humiliating conviction of the fall of man, of his moral inability to renovate the lapsed powers of his nature, and the consequent necessity of the aid of the Holy Spirit, whose sole prerogative it is to convince of sin, and to enthrone Christ in the heart, as the only hope of glory.' From this time to the termination of his life, he was indeed a truly religious character. His light shone more and more to the perfect day!" pp. 5-8.

"I have no recollection of his writing for any of the Latin or Greek prizes, though he was so well qualified for the undertaking. The fact is, that his mind at this period took another direction; he began to bend his attention to the great subject of theology,-not merely to an examination of its external, but chiefly of its internal evidences; and it is no wonder that the stupendous scheme of redemption, and the glorious prospects of immortality which it opens to our view, so deeply interested his feelings, as to render him comparatively indifferent to all other pursuits. Under these impressions, he occasionally frequented Mr. Simeon's church in the town of Cambridge, who was a Fellow of the same college, and attracted considerable attention by his extraordinary zeal. He formed a personal acquaintance with him, and gradually acquired more extensive and spiritual views of the Christian faith. Antecedent to this period, I have no reason to think that he had ever been guilty of any gross immoralities; he was, allowing for the occasional indiscretions of youth, a correct character,-and conscientiously attended to his morning and evening devo tions. He inherited a strong attachment to the Church of England, being brought up with a reverential regard for her episcopal constitution, under the instruction and example not only of his respected father, but also of a venerable grandfather, who was Vicar of St. Martyn's, in Shropshire, and with whom he was in the constant habit of spending his vacations. The Rector of Loppington, in the same county, was also his uncle, who had the credit, or, in the estimation of some, the discredit of

We could not quite reconcile the two clauses above marked in italics, but we accept the latter as superseding an answer to the former. We

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