The popularity of the great preacher, however, con^ tinned unabated in the midst of all these difficulties; nay, his late meditations and yearnings rather increased his reputation, and soon a new and more commodious church had to be provided for the throngs of hearers that weekly came to listen to him. The money for the building of a new edifice was easily procured, and early in 1827 he was installed pastor of the newly-buUt church in Regent Square, Chalmers preaching on the occasion. " The transition from the little Caledonian chapel, so long thronged by a promiscuous crowd of London fash- ionable life, to the commodious National Scotch Church in Regent Square, with its well-ordered and well-defined congregation, marks the culmination and the beginning of the descent of Irving's popularity." Shortly after his removal to the new church, he again ventured before the public as an author by the publication of three vol- umes (1828) selected from his discourses preached since the commencement of his ministry at London. Up to this time many of the extravagances of Irving had more or less displeased his brother laborers in the min- istry, but no one had ventured to attack him publicly until " an idle clergyman called Cole," of whom Mr. Ir- ving's biographer, iMrs. Oliphant, can barely speak with civility, accused Irving of inculcating heterodox doc- trines on the Incarnation in the first volume of his ser- mons, which treats chiefly of the Trinity ; first of the divine character, and especially of the person and work of Christ, "The perfect humanity of Christ was Ir- ving's favorite theme. With the utmost intensity he clung to the idea of the brotherhood of his Master— an idea he held with perfect reverence. The first shock of the charge of heresy, and of heresy, too, in relation to his adorable Lord, utterly unmanned him. The last thought of his heart Avould have been to derogate from the dignity of his Master, his impassioned reverence for whom had probably stimulated the teaching which now bore the brand of heresy" {Lond. Quart. Rev. Oct. 1862, p. 193). It would hardly be worth while to follow up the controversy incited by the impertinent, if not treach- erous conduct of Mr. Cole in exaggerating " an error which should have been the groundwork of a brotherly expostulation," were it not for the fact that for these very views on the incarnation Irving was, some years later, deposed from the ministry. As we have already said, he was the last of all persons who could be led to believe that the views which he set forth on this sub- ject had anything novel or unusual in them. All that he was possibly guilty of, says Dr. Curry, is that " he took in a larger view which contemplated the tvhole work of the incarnation of the Word as redemptive, in that by it the Godhead came into vital union with human- ity, fallen and under the law. This last thought carried to his realistic mode of thinking the notion of Christ's participation in the fallen character of hiunanity, which he designated by terms that implied a real sinfulness in Christ. His httempt to get rid of the odiousness of that idea by saying that this was overborne and at length
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whoUy expelled bv the indweUing Godhead helped the matter but Uttle, knd still left liim open to grave cen- sures for at least an unhappy method ol statement. But under all this there is unquestionably a most precious Gospel truth, and if Irving was justly condemned for an unwarrantable misstatement of certain doctrmes of Christianitv, the orthodoxy of the age may be justly called to account for its partial exhibition ol those doc- trines. For centiu-ies the Cliurch has been actively oc- cupied in setting forth and defending the doctrine of Christ's divinitv, until that of his humanity has largely fallen out of its thinkings. It is quite time to cease from this one-sidedness and to take in a whole Gospel. Fallen humanity demands a sympathizing no less than an almighty Saviour ; and if indeed Jesus is to be that Saviour", he must be apprehended by oiu- faith, as 'man witli man,' and as really and fully ' touched with a sense of our infirmities.' The Church of Rome answers to the heart's yearning for human sympathy in the Mediator bv giving that office to Mary; while our misformed practical creeds remove Jesus beyond our sympathies, and give us no other Mediator. The Chiu-ch awaits the coming of a John, uprising from the Saviour's bos- om, to set forth in all fulness the blessedness of the grace of Jesus, the incarnate God, who hath ' borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.' " With this charge of heresy advanced against him, Irving set out on a visit to his native land " to warn, first his father's house and kindred, and the country side which had still so great a hold upon his heart, and then universal Scotland, of that advent which he looked for with undoubting and fer- vent expectations;" and brilliant was the success with which he saw his labors crowned wherever he went. For once he was a prophet who received honors in his own country. Wherever he preached, not only whole congregations from neighboring towns came to swell his already large numbers of hearers, but oftentimes even tlie ministers would adjourn their services and go with their flocks en mas.<e to hear Scotland's noble descend- ant. While i)reaching at Edinburgh on the Apocalypse, the special theme of study in these later years, the ser- vices began at six o'clock A.IM. Of these Chalmers writes: "He is drawing prodigious crowds. We at- tempted this morning to force our way into St. Andrew's Church, but it was all in vain. He changes to the West Cbunli. with its three hideous galleries, for the accom- modat ion of the public," and even then there was not room. As in Edinburgh, so was his success at Glasgow and other places that he visited, and we need not won- der that Chalmers himself exclaims " that there must have been a marvellous power of attraction that could turn a whole pojndation out of their beds as early as five in the morning."