warfare from 1702 to 1704. Rulhière* tells us that "their places of worship had been cast down, their country delivered up to military pillage, their children carried off, the houses of those styled obstinate razed that the most zealous of their number had been broken upon the wheel, while no one had instructed them." On the 1st of April, 1703, three hundred of their number, who had met for worship in a mill near Nismes, were in a mass consigned to the flames. In the midst of the wild excitement caused by the cruelties perpetrated on them, one of their party declared that he had seen a vision, and heard a voice which said to him, "Go and comfort my people." Others professed to have witnessed similar miraculous appearances, and ecstasies were common. Prophets by hundreds asserted that they received the gift of inspiration, and all their movements were conducted by their supposed supernatural direction. The contagion spread, and increased in its power, until some felt that they were called to enter upon a prophetic mission. In 1706 a company of them came to London. Their vaticinations involved them in trouble with the authorities. Nicolas Facio, one of the party, who had been a follower of Spinoza, with Elias Marion and John Aude, indicted Nov. 18th, 1807, and convicted of uttering blasphemies, were fined, and exposed in the pillory.

Sir Richard Bulkeley published a vindication of the prophets; and John Lacy, a member of the Church in Westminster, under the care of Calamy, became one of their zealous adherents, causing his * Vol. ii., p. 278.

pastor abundant trouble. On visiting him, he says he saw him in an easy chair, "heaving to and fro; and heard a humming noise, but no sound that was distinct. The noise grew louder by degrees, and the heaving in his breast increased, till it came up to his throat, as if it would have suffocated him. At length he began to speak, with a "distinct heave and breathe" between each syllable, to this effect:

"Thou―hast-been-my-faith-ful ser-vant-and—I— have-ho-noured-thee. But-I-do-not take-it-wellthat thou-slight-est-and-op-pos-est-my-ser-vants-and

--

-mes-sen-gers. If thou-wilt-fall-in-with-these-my

ser-vants-thou-shalt-do-great-things-in-this-dis-pen

sa-tion-and-I-will-use-thee as

a-glo-ri-ous-in-stru

ment-to-my-praise-and-I-will-take-care-of-thee

and-thine. But-if-thou-go-est-on-to-op-pose-my-un-der-my-se-vere- -dis-plea

ser-vants-thou-wilt-fall

Lacy, in a Treatise entitled "A Cry from the Desert," vindicated the prophets; and in "A Relation of the dealings of God" with him "since the time of his believing and professing himself inspired," 1708, he explains the nature of his ecstatic visions. “Under this influence," he says (p. 10),

my body was removed ten or eleven foot"; and "the respiration of my breath hath, for sundry days, beat various tunes of the drum, sometimes six hours in a day, without my voluntary operation or thinking of it"; (p. 11) "I have been carried on my knees several times round a room, swifter than I could have gone on foot." So far from being exhausted by these singular gyrations, he assures us that they "do sensibly refresh the body, and what

Calamy, Caveat against New Prophets.

ever be the violence or continuance of them, do not waste the spirit, but exhilarate." The moral effect of these exercises, we are informed, was very good. The discourses uttered by him came "like water out of the pump by the agitation of the sucker." So confident was Lacy that he had a divine call that he determined to submit the validity of his pretensions to an open and miraculous test. He had reported wonderful cures of blindness, cancers, tumours, and other frightful maladies, but he produced no witnesses. At length, however, he predicted that, before the assembled people, he would raise from the dead his friend and fellow-prophet. "The Spirit declared to him," he said, "He would attest this publication of our Lord's approach as a Bridegroom and return as a King, by raising Dr. Emes from the grave the 25th of next month, above four months after his interment." The intimation caused general excitement, but Lacy remained perfectly tranquil and happy. "I rejoice," he says, "at the approach of the 25th of May, without the least weight upon my spirits about the event of it." A large crowd assembled at the appointed time, and soldiers were sent to prevent imposition or disturbance. The last sleep of Dr. Emes remained unbroken, and the spectators witnessed the non-fulfilment of the prediction.

We shall again have to meet the French prophets and their deluded votaries.

* Enthusiastick Impostors, 1707; Calamy's Historical Account of his Life and Times; The French Prophets, in a Sermon, 1708; See A Warning concern. ing the French Prophets, 1707; A Brief Vindication of the Antient Prophets, in a Letter to Sir Richard Bulkeley, Bart., 1709; The Falsehood of the New Prophets, by Henry Nicholson, 1708; An Answer to Several Treatises, by Sir Richard Bulkeley, Bart., 1708.

CHAPTER II.

We must now cross the Atlantic, as our plan will lead us to alternate between England and America. The alliance of Churches with the State formed by the Puritan settlers of 1630 gave to them a peculiarity that renders it difficult to trace their subsequent history with accuracy. Their position was anomalous, and involved them in manifold difficulties arising from political conflict. The influence of INCREASE MATHER (one of the ejected Ministers of 1662), formerly paramount, now began to wane. With his son, COTTON MATHER, he had held the first place in the government of Harvard College, but their ascendency was disliked, and, as it would appear, because of their strict adherence to Ecclesiastical order as it existed in New England prior to 1688.

Brattle

THOMAS BRATTLE took the initiative in the formation of a Congregational Church in Boston, deviating to some extent from the "Cambridge Platform." As yet, however, Evangelical doctrines were not openly discarded.

Street

Church.

"We approve," the promoters of the movement said, "and subscribe the Confession of Faith put forth by the Assembly of

Divines at Westminster. We only design the true and pure worship of God, according to the rules appearing plainly to us in His Word; conformably to the known practice of many of the Churches of the United Brethren in London and throughout all England."

The historian of Harvard College maintains that none of the founders of the Church were "adherents to the rigid doctrines of the Early Established Church of New England," but whatever their private views, these doctrines were not disclaimed in their public "Manifesto" or "Declaration" of their object.

"We think it convenient," it is there stated, "for preventing all misapprehensions and jealousies, to publish our aims and designs, together with those principles and rules we intend, by God's grace, to adhere to."

They attached no special importance, it is true, to an open confession of faith.

"We assume not to ourselves to impose upon any a public relation of their experiences; however, if any one think himself bound to make such a relation, let him do it.

"For we conceive it sufficient, if the pastor publicly declare himself satisfied in the person offered to our communion, and seasonably propound him.

"If no objection be made before the time of their standing propounded is expired, it shall be esteemed a sufficient consent and concurrence of the brethren, and the person propounded shall be received to our communion.

"We cannot confine the right of choosing a minister to the male communicants alone, but we think that every baptized adult person who contributes to the maintenance, should have a vote electing."

Higginson and Noyes, the ministers of Salem, wrote to the "Undertakers" a letter of admonition