I have been down to the burial-ground, and no memorial remains; the raven plume of oblivion hath long ago waved over the prophet's grave!

Equally evanescent were the Fifth Monarchy Men in the days of Cromwell. The Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman were the four great monarchies; and these men, believing that the spiritual kingdom of Chirst made the fifth, came to bear the name by which they are distinguished. They aimed at the subversion of all human government. The Muggletonians and Fifth Monarchy Men are now only casually mentioned in the History of England.

It is remarkable that, within a few yards of Joanna Southcott's grave, will be found the grave of Richard Brothers, the political prophet, who made much noise in the beginning of the French revolutionary war, and whose cause was maintained by Mr. Halhed, the Oriental scholar, in the House of Commons. On a large plain stone is the following inscription :

This ground was bought by Mr. John Finlayson, of Upper Baker-street, to deposit under this stone the mortal remains of Mr. RICHARD BROTHERS, who resided and died in Mr Finlayson's house, on the 25th Jan., 1824.

A writer in the Times newspaper, signed TRUTH, says, "I saw Mr. Brothers a few days before his death; he was respectably dressed, very pale, very thin-a mere skeleton, very weak, could hardly walk, and died of a consumption. It was singular that the minister died of a broken heart, and that the doctor, under whose care he was confined for eleven years in a private madhouse at Islington, laid violent hands on himself." Lord Chancellor Erskine, much to his honour, liberated the poor maniac, and restored him to society.

THE

RECENT SECEDERS FROM THE CHURCH

OF ENGLAND.

DRAWN UP BY ONE OF THEIR OWN BODY.

In the year 1815, several clergymen, who had been personally acquainted with each other, and had occasionally laboured together in the work of religious instruction (without any communication on the particular subject of the services of the Church of England) were much pained by a conviction that some of those services in which they were engaged were contradictory to the injunctions and the character of the religion of Jesus Christ. The Baptismal service particularly appeared to them, as substituting a ritual observance in the place of a spiritual and divine operation, and to be peculiarly objectionable. The Catechism, as connected with the Baptismal service, and the Burial service as continuing on a delusion, by still denominating every individual a Christian, on the ground of a merely external association, were likewise objected against. The Athanasian Creed also, with some, though not with all, was considered, especially in its damnitory clause, as contradictory to the simple declaration, "Belive in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved;" as well as too assuming by far in its judgment.

The constitution of the church of England had also appeared to some of them as radically bad, from the circumstance of its connection with the state, and its consequent obligation to have its teachers in spiritual things appointed by persons who might be themselves wholly under the influence of carnal principles.

The daily use, however, of services which they considered as denying the declarations of God's word, was so oppressive, and, in their esteem, so guilty, that their obliga

tion to it may be considered as the direct cause of their secession: and when, at length, they communicated their feelings to each other, it is more than probable that the objections in the mind of each were increased in number as well as weight.

In the autumn of 1815 they agreed to meet together, to inquire more fully into the nature of each other's difficulties, and into the nature of their own obligations, by virtue of their subscription, at the time of ordination and induction. After some consideration, they agreed that it was not consistent with Christian integrity to continue the use of religious services which appeared to them to be in contradiction to the word of God, and that they were bound to rescind their own declaration, 'that they could, ex animo, assent to the whole of the contents of the thirty-nine articles, and the book of homilies, and the contents of the book of common prayer, as containing nothing contrary to the word of God. After this they waited not many weeks before they tendered the resignation of their livings or cures to their respective Bishops, which they did, as became them, in the most respectful manner in their power; and it must be allowed by all fair witnesses, that very little expression of disrespect, much less of bitterness, can be proved upon any of these persons in their observations on the establishment.

After the Seceders had left their original connexions and their preferments, which common sense must teach us they had not done without many a severe struggle, they went into the neighbourhood of Taunton, and exercised their ministry in that town and in the adjacent villages for nearly a year; during which time they constantly met together, and endeavoured to come to some conclusion as to the course which they ought to adopt. They were not desirous of uniting hastily with any of the various religious denominations; and the charge of Antinomianism which was pretty generally made against their doctrinal statements, made most of the various religious denominations as willing to avoid them.

They were at this time in a very peculiar situation : their sacrifices and their general conduct seemed to de

mand respect; but on the other hand, it was feared that their views were crude and dangerous, being formed upon a partial consideration of the sacred volume; and their apparent opposition to all parties made them liable to much obloquy from various quarters.

It is certain that their principal subject, in all their discourses, was that of a sinner's justification before God, which they affimed in the strongest manner, and sometimes in rather uncouth terms, that this was by faith only through the propitiation which was by Christ Jesus! If they did not, on their first leaving the church, sufficiently enlarge on the effects of faith, those who continue to preach acknowledge themselves most sincerely to have been in error in this respect; and it was because they considered that, if the principle of obedience were implanted, there was little necessity for enlarging upon the nature of the obedience itself. But in their private intercourse with those who seemed to receive their doctrines, they are said to have been less defective in practical admonitions than in their sermons. They themselves, in the strongest terms, expressed at all times their abhorrence of practical Antinomianism; and if a reply by Mr. Snow, of Cheltenham, to a pamphlet written by a Mr. Simons, may be considered as a representation of the sentiments of the rest of the Seceders, Antinomianism is certainly no more chargeable on them than on the Calvinistic bodies in general, who hold justification by faith only with a very strong hand.

The Seceders have by this time, we suspect, learned to moderate their statements. Some have gone abroad, some continue to preach, having large chapels at London, Bristol, Brighton, Exeter, Taunton, Cheltenham, and some smaller ones in various parts of Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Devonshire. They have never appeared to have any rules for uniting them together, and for advancing their interests as a body. Whether certain peculiarities of opinion, in which they are now said to be more agreed amongst themselves than formerly, may ever occasion them to augment the number of their followers, and assume a more prominent position in the ranks of the

various religious bodies,time must determine. There are still some differences in their forms of worship,some contending for communion on the terms of the strict Baptists, and for the visible separation of members of the Church from others at the time of worship; others adopting the more general plan of admitting all that profess faith to their communion, and agreeing in the common mode of public worship. All are in some degree tainted with what is termed Sandemanianism,as they break bread and have a collection for the saints on the first day of the week. Their views on many doctrines differ from those which are called orthodox. They do not hold the doctrine of the Trinity as it is commonly maintained,neither do they confound the persons of the Father and Son,as the Sabellians. Mr. Bevan's treatise of "God in Christ," and Mr. Evans's "Dialogues on the Trinity," are the only two publications which have yet appeared expressing their views on this solemn subject. As these are not published with the intention of expressing the creed of a body, but of individuals, it would be unfair to affix all the contents of those works on any others than the authors themselves. It is plain that they believe Christ to have existed with God before all things; that the appellations ascribed to the Supreme are given to him, —that he is the object of religious worship, that by his blood all believers are justified from all things,-that he is the Lord and Governor of all things in heaven and in earth, the prophet, priest, and king of the Church!

They hold the doctrine of the Atonement in the strongest manner, but do not distinguish between the active and passive obedience of Christ, considering justification to consist only in the entire remission of all sin. They believe faith to be the giving of credit to the divine testimony, and in this respect are like the Sandemanians. They maintain the absolute necessity of the influence of the holy spirit of God, but suppose its operation to be by the means of the revealed truth of God reaching the heart through the medium of the understanding.

They differ from the High Calvinists altogether in their mode of preaching, which is principally intended for the instruction and conversion of those whom they consider to be still of the world.