552 



IRVING. 



sermon before the presbytery of London, which he 

 afterwards published under the title of an " Apol- 

 ogy for the ancient Fulness and Purity of the Doc- 

 trine of the Kirk of Scotland." In the same year 

 he contributed to an annual then existing under the 

 name of the ' Anniversary," an essay, entitled, 

 " A Tale of the Times of the Martyrs." He also 

 published a " Letter to the King on the Repeal of 

 the Test and Corporation Acts," a measure which 

 he earnestly opposed; and " Last Days, and Dis- 

 courses on the evil Character of these Times." 



It was about the year 1827 that he was first ob- 

 served to speak in a totally new manner concern- 

 ing the human nature of Jesus Christ. On the 

 formation in the metropolis of a society for the 

 distribution of " Gospel Tracts," Mr Irving con- 

 vented to be one of three preachers appointed to 

 preach collection-sermons in aid of the funds of the 

 new institution ; and it is said to Lave been on the 

 delivery of his oration on that occasion that some 

 of Mr Irving's hearers were astounded by his asser- 

 tion of " the sinfulness of Christ's human nature." 

 In 1828 issued from the press what may be termed 

 his chef-d'oeuvre, his " Sermons, Lectures, and oc- 

 casional Discourses," in three closely printed 

 volumes, in octavo, in which his new discoveries 

 in theology were developed at large. 



In the spring of the year 1829 Mr Irving paid a 

 visit to his friends in Scotland, and passed some 

 weeks among them. At Edinburgh he commenced 

 a course of " Lectures on the Book of the Reve- 

 lation." His original calculation was to go 

 through the whole book of the Apocalypse in 

 twelve lectures ; but, having completed that num- 

 ber, he found that he was little beyond the thres- 

 hold of his undertaking, Having added three 

 lectures, the fifteen were issued from the press in 

 parts, the whole making four duodecimo volumes 

 of nearly four hundred pages each, closely printed. 

 About the middle of May, 1S29, the annual meet- 

 ing of the General Assembly of the Church of 

 Scotland took place in Edinburgh ; and Mr Irving 

 was solicitous of obtaining a seat in that august 

 assembly, and partaking in their deliberations. An 

 application was consequently made to this effect ; 

 but it was rejected on the ground that his bearing 

 the character of a regularly ordained clergyman 

 disqualified him from officiating in that court as a 

 ruling elder. 



No complaint of Mr Irving's heterodoxy oc- 

 curred in the proceedings of the General Assembly 

 on the occasion just alluded to ; but the time soon 

 arrived when his obliquities of doctrinal sentiment 

 could no longer be allowed to lie dormant. The 

 subject was taken up by the presbytery of the 

 Scotch Church, in London, in the early part of the 

 year 1830. Mr Irving was charged with heresy ; 

 and at a meeting of the presbytery of London on 

 the 29th of November, 1830, the report of the 

 committee appointed to examine his work on Christ's 

 humanity was brought up and read. It charged 



Mr Irving with holding Christ guilty of original 

 and actual sin, and denying the doctrines of atone- 

 ment, satisfaction, imputation, and substitution. 

 These charges were substantiated by quotations 

 from the work itself, and confronted with passages 

 from the Scriptures, the Confession of Faith, and 

 the Assembly's Catechism. It would be tedious 

 to pursue the narrative of these proceedings, in 

 detail, from this period to the beginning of the 

 year 1832, by which time Mr Irving's aberrations 

 bad multiplied tenfold insomuch that the trustees 

 of the National Scotch Church in Regent's square 

 found it necessary to prefer charges against their 

 minister, with a view of either reclaiming him from 

 the error of his way, or deposing him from his offi- 

 cial station as a minister of the Caledonian Church, 

 in London. On the 2d of May, 1832, the London 

 presbytery unanimously found him guilty. The 

 consequence was that he became dispossessed ot 

 his cure, as minister of the National Scotch Church 

 meeting in Regent square. As Mr Irving still con- 

 tinued to be a member of the presbytery of Annan, 

 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 

 now called upon that body to institute farther pro- 

 ceedings against him, on the ground of his hereti- 

 cal sentiments; and after the preliminary measures 

 had been gone through, the trial was fixed for the 

 13th of March, 1833. It excited an unusual in- 

 terest in every part of Scotland, especially in the 

 southern departments. The result was, however, 

 the same as in the former case ; and the moderator 

 of the presbytery of Annan formally pronounced 

 the sentence of deposition of the Rev. Edward 

 Irving from the ministry of the Church of Scot 

 land. On the next morning, Mr Irving delivered 

 a lecture from a tent, nearly opposite the parish 

 church at Annan, to a congregation consisting of 

 seventeen hundred persons; and previous to his 

 departure from Scotland, he preached a number of 

 sermons, in the open air, at Cummertrees, at Dum- 

 fries, at Summer hill, at Terregles, &c. On his 

 return to London, he continued the same practice 

 for a considerable time. 



The complaint which led to Mr Irving's death 

 was consumption, produced by his laborious and 

 unceasing efforts to propagate the peculiar religious 

 tenets to which he had attached himself. In the 

 autumn of 1834 he went to Scotland, for the bene- 

 fit of his health. He expired at Glasgow, on the 

 6th Dec. 1834, under the roof of Mr Taylor, vir- 

 tually a stranger to him, but who sought his so- 

 ciety from a regard for his character. Those who 

 had seen him only within the last twelve months, 

 and had marked his long gray hair, and wrinkled 

 brow, were surprised to learn that he had attained 

 only his forty-second year. His funeral was at- 

 tended by most of the clergy of Glasgow, and by 

 most of the elders and deacons of St John's parish, 

 in connection with whom he spent probably the 

 most useful days of his life. 



