IRVING, Rev. EDWARD, was b. in the town of Annan, Dumfriesshire, Aug. 15. 1792; studied at the university of Edinburgh, and, after completing his curriculum for the min..
istry, became assist lit (in 1819) to Dr. Chalmers, then a minister in Glasgow. His ser mons did not prove very popular. Chalmers himself was not satisfied. In 1822 Irving received a call to the Caledonian church, Hatton garden, London, which he accepted. llis success as a preacher in the metropolis was such as had never previously been wit nessed. After some years, however, the world of fashion got tired of Irving; but it was not till his more striking singularities of opinion were developed that fashion finally deserted him. At the close of 1825 he began to announce his convictions in regard to the second personal advent of the Lord Jesus, in which he had become a firm believer, and which he declared to be near at hand. This was followed up by the translation of a Spanish work, The Coming of the Messiah in Majesty and Glory, by Juan Josafat Ben E:ra, which professed to be written by a Christian Jew, but was, in reality, the compo sition of a Spanish Jesuit. Irving's introductory preface is regarded as one of his most remarkable literary performances. In 1828 appeared his Homilies on the Sacraments. He now began to elaborate his views of the incarnation of Christ, asserting with great emphasis the doctrine of his oneness with us in all the attributes of humanity. The lan guage which he held on this subject drew upon him the accusation of heresy; he was charged with maintaining the sinfulness of Christ's nature, but he paid little heed to the alarm thus created. lie was now deep in the study of the prophecies; and when the
news came to London in the early part of 1830, of certain extraordinary manifestations of prophetic power in the w. of Scotland (see IRVINGITES), Irving was prepared to believe them. Harassed, worn, baffled in his most sacred desires for the regeneration of the great Babylon in which he dwelt, branded by the religions public, and satirized by the press, the great preacher, who strove above all things to be faithful to what seemed to him the truth of God, grasped at the new wonder with a passionate earnestness. Matters soon came to a crisis. Irving was arraigned before the presbytery of London in 1830, and convicted of heresy; ejected from his new church in Regent's square in 1832; and finally deposed in 1833 by the presbytery of Annan, which had licensed him. His defense of himself on this last occasion was one of his most splendid and sublime efforts of oratory. The majority of his congregation adhered to him, and gradually a new form of Christianity was developed, commonly known as Irvingism, though Irving had really very little to do with its development. Shortly after his health failed, and its obedience, as he believed, to the Spirit of God, he went down to Scotland, where he sank a victim to consumption. He died at Glasgow, Dee. 8, 1834, in the 42d year of his age.—See Carlyle's Miscellaneous Essays, and Mrs. Oliphant's Life of Edward Irving (London, 1862).