where he was so much sought after by the Jews, that the Turks demanded five or ten dollars for the admission of each proselyte. At his leisure in this castle, he composed a new mode of worship.

The Jews now only awaited the personal appearance of Elias, previous to the glorious consummation. There is a superstition among them, that Elias is invisibly present in their families, and they generally spread a table for him, to which they invite poor people; leaving the chief seat for the Lord Elias, who they believe partakes of the entertainment with gratitude. On one occasion, at the ceremony of circumcision, Sabatai took advantage of this credulity, for he exhorted the parents to wait awhile, and, after an interval of half an hour, he ordered them to proceed. The reason he gave for this delay was, that Elias had not at first taken the seat prepared for him, and therefore he had waited till he saw him sit down.

Having had the history of the whole affair laid before him, the grand seignor sent for Sabatai to Adrianople. On receiving the summons, the pseudo Messiah appeared to be much dejected, and to have lost that courage which he formerly showed in the synagogues. The grand seignor would not be satisfied without a miracle any more than the Jews; but he wisely resolved that it should be one of his own choosing. He ordered that Sabatai should be stripped naked, and set up as a mark for the dexterous archers of the sultan to shoot at, and, if it was found that hisskin was arrow-proof, he would then believe him to be the Messiah. Not having faith enough in himself to stand so sharp a trial, Sabatai renounced all title to kingdoms and governments, alleging that he was merely an ordinary chocham. Not satisfied with this, the grand seignor declared that the treason of the Jew

was only to be expiated by a conversion to Mahometanism, which if he refused, a stake was ready at the gate of the seraglio, on which to impale him. Sabatai replied, with much cheerfulness, that he was contented to turn Turk; and that not of force, but choice, he having been a long time desirous of so glorious a profession.

When the Jews received intelligence of Sabatai's apostacy, and found that all their insane hopes were completely blighted, they were filled with consternation and shame. The news quickly spread all over Turkey, and they became so much the common derision of all the unbelievers, that, for a long time, they were overcome with confusion and dejection of spirit.

Of subsequent pretenders to the sacred character of the Messiah, it must suffice to mention two; the one of them a German, the other an English subject.

The German, whose name was Hans Rosenfeld, was a gamekeeper. The scene of his impious or insane pretensions was Prussia and the neighbouring states. He taught that Christianity was a deception, and that its priests were impostors. Having thus summarily disposed of spiritual matters, he proceeded to meddle with temporal in a manner which was not a little dangerous under a despotic government. Frederick the Great, who was then on the throne, he declared to be the devil; and, as it was not fit that the devil should reign, Rosenfeld made known that he intended to depose him. Having accomplished this difficult feat, he was to rule the world, at the head of a council of twenty-four elders. The seven seals were then to be opened. In his choice of the angels who were to open the seals, he took care to have an eye to his own pleasure and interest. He demanded from his followers seven beautiful girls, who were to fill the important

office; but that, in the mean while, the office might not be a sinecure, they held the place of mistresses to him, and maintained him by their labour.

Rosenfeld was suffered to go on thus for twenty years, with occasionally a short imprisonment, and he still continued to find dupes. He might, perhaps, have gone to his grave without receiving any serious check, had he not been overthrown, though unintentionally, by one of his own partisans. This man, who had resigned three of his daughters to the impostor, was tired of waiting so long for his promised share of the good things which the pseudo Messiah was to dispense; it was not his faith, it was only his patience, that was exhausted. To quicken the movements of Rosenfeld, he hit upon a rare expedient. As, according to his creed, the king was the devil, he went to him for the purpose of provoking the monarch to play the devil, by acting in such a manner as should compel the impostor to exert immediately his supernatural powers. On this provocation, Frederick did act, and with effect. Rosenfeld was ordered to be tried; the trial took place in 1782, and the tribunal sentenced him to be whipped, and imprisoned for life at Spandau. Against this sentence he twice appealed, but it was finally executed.

The English claimant of divine honours was Richard Brothers. He was born at Placentia, in Newfoundland, and had served in the navy, but resigned his commission, because, to use his own words, he "conceived the military life to be totally repugnant to the duties of Christianity, and he could not conscientiously receive the wages of plunder, bloodshed, and murder." This step reduced him to great poverty, and he appears to have suffered much in consequence. His mind was already shaken, and his

privations and solitary reflections seem at length to have entirely overthrown it. The first instance of his madness appears to have been his belief that he could restore sight to the blind. He next began to see visions and to prophesy, and soon became persuaded that he was commissioned by Heaven to lead back the Jews to Palestine. It was in the latter part of 1794 that he announced, through the medium of the press, his high destiny. His rhapsody bore the title of "A revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times. Book the First. Wrote under the direction of the Lord God, and published by his sacred command; it being the first sign of warning for the benefit of all nations. Containing, with other great and remarkable things, not revealed to any other person on earth, the restoration of the Hebrews to Jerusalem, by the year of 1798 under their revealed prince and prophet." A second part speedily followed, which purported to relate "particularly to the present time, the present war, and the prophecy now fulfilling: containing, with other great and remarkable things, not revealed to any other person on earth, the sudden and perpetual fall of the Turkish, German, and Russian Empires." Among many similar flights, in this second part, was one which described visions revealing to him the intended destruction of London, and claimed for the prophet the merit of having saved the city, by his intercession with the Deity.

Though every page of his writings betrayed the melancholy state of the unfortunate man's mind, such` is the infatuation of human beings, that he speedily gained a multitude of partisans, who placed implicit faith in the divine nature of his mission. Nor were his followers found only in the humble and unenlightened classes of society. Strange as it may appear,

he was firmly believed in by men of talent and education. Among his most devoted disciples were Sharpe, the celebrated engraver, whom we shall soon see clinging to Joanna Southcott; and Mr. Halhed, a profound scholar, a man of great wit and acuteness, and a member of the House of Commons. The latter gave to the world various pamphlets, strongly asserting the prophetic mission of Brothers, and actually made in the House a motion in favour of the prince of the Jews. Numerous pamphlets were also published by members of the new sect.

Brothers was now conveyed to a madhouse at Islington; but he continued to see visions, and to pour forth his incoherencies in print. One of his productions, while he was in this asylum, was a letter, of two hundred pages, to "Miss Cott, the recorded daughter of King David, and future Queen of the Hebrews. With an Address to the Members of his Britannic Majesty's Council." The lady to whom his letter was addressed had been an inmate of the same receptacle with himself, and he became so enamoured, that he discovered her to be "the recorded daughter of both David and Solomon," and his spouse, " by divine ordinance." Brothers was subsequently removed to Bedlam, where he resided till his decease, which did not take place for several years.

Among the most mischievous of the pretenders to prophetical inspiration may be reckoned Thomas Muncer, and his companions, Storck, Stubner, Cellarius, Thomas, and several others, contemporaries of Luther, from whom sprang the sect of the anabaptists. Eighty-four of them assumed the character of twelve apostles and seventy-two disciples. "They state wonderful things respecting themselves," says Melancthon, in a letter to the Elector of Saxony;