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after which the millennium will be enjoyed. Now, in the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th verses of this chapter, it is clear that the whole 144,000 persons sealed are Jews; there is not one Gentile amongst them; but Joanna has sealed You, who are a Gentile, and numbers who are Gentiles; it therefore follows, that she has. gone much beyond her pretended commission, and that your seal is not worth twopence." This remark appeared to stagger and perplex her exceedingly; but she got off, in her usual way, by some allegorical explanation. "But, Mrs. M. let us proceed to the very next verse: After this I beheld, and lo! a great ' multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindred, and people, &c.' These people were Gentiles; now, since this innumerable multitude are to inherit the kingdom of heaven (or the kingdom of righteousness), either they are sealed, or they are not sealed: if they are sealed, Joanna must be telling a lie, in saying she is confined to the sealing of 144,000; and if they are not sealed, there is a way of getting into this kingdom without a seal; and hence it follows, that a seal is useless, and nothing worth.”—“ What you have said as to their being Jews, is very true and very important, and I shall represent it; but I am a weak woman, and cannot answer such perplexing questions: this I know, that I will believe in Joanna, because I am sure that, without the Spirit, she could not produce such writings as she dic

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tates; however, in a few weeks there will be a grand blow-up; a blow-up to all objections."-" Suppose, now, that this Shiloh should not be brought forth; would your faith, in that case, be shaken ?"

"I would not, Sir, afflict myself by believing the failure of the prophecy to be possible."-" There is no harm in supposing it possible. I ask, what would you then be disposed to say?"-" Well! I should forgive her: for I could not bring my mind to forget, that she has already been fully proved to be a true prophetess in many things.""In what one particular has she ever prophesied truly?"-"In the First Book of Wonders, she prophesied the birth of this very child; she foretold it so very far back as in 1794."-"I have not seen that prophecy, and must, therefore, express my doubts for the present*; but I can mention in return, to you, a great many of her prophecies that were never fulfilled."" Satan, I grant, was permitted to mislead her twice.""You grant that: why, then, by the same rule, do you not think it possible, that she may have been deceived by Satan all along?"-" These two instances were intended to chide her doubts as to the truth of her own predictions."-" A strange way, Mrs. Munday, of confirming her belief in their TRUTH, to render a couple of them false.

* N.B. I have since read the book in question; and the whole quibble rests on the strength of a few obscure lines of bad verse, in which two boys are introduced, representing the Jews and the Gentiles.

But let me now ask some questions relative to this expected child: the prophecy in which this miraculous birth is said to be founded, occurs in the 12th chapter of the book of Revelations: Joanna gives herself out to be the woman clothed with the sun I don't rightly apprehend how she can be said to be clothed with the sun."-" She is clothed with the sun of righteousness.”—“Then, how has she the moon under her feet ?"-" She has herself proved that the devil is in the moon; and the devil is under her feet; therefore, the moon is under her feet."-"That indeed is a very strangé account of the matter. If you had said, the moon is in the devil, and, therefore, since the devil is under her feet, the moon must be under her feet, it might stand for an ingenious answer, since the greater contains the less, and both might be figurative expressions: but the moon is пр in the heavens; and if the devil be in the moon there, he cannot be under Joanna's feet."-" Joanna Southcott is the second Eve: sin came first from the first Eve; and, therefore, the good fruit must come through the second.""You have here introduced a personage of whom, I must confess, I never heard any mention whatever in Scripture: on the contrary, it is written, 'that as in ADAM all die, even so in CHRIST shall 'all be made alive.""" Shiloh, the child to be born, is the Prince of Peace: our Saviour never was the Prince of Peace; he came not, as he says self, to send peace, but a sword.”—“ Y

that this child is not the Saviour ?"-"Yes." "And you say that the Saviour is God?"-"Yes." "And you say that this child is the person mentioned in the prophecy, as the Prince of Peace?" "Yes."-" Very well, then, Mrs. Munday; you will recollect, that that same prophecy of Isaiah (ch. ix. yer. 6), which speaks of the Prince of Peace, calls the same person, whoever he is, the Mighty God. If Shiloh, then, be the Prince of Peace, he is the Mighty God. Is not this robbing the Saviour of his right? Is not this blasphemy?"-" I cannot say, Sir. I find several contradictions in Scripture, which have very often perplexed my mind considerably more than that: it is said that no man hath seen God at any time; and yet it is elsewhere said, that Moses spake unto him face to face. It is said, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, and yet both Enoch and Elijah were conveyed thither in the flesh."-"These are very vain cavils: God has no FACE; and the obvious meaning of the former passage is, Moses communicated with God as intimately as a man speaking face to face with another man; and, as to the second passage, you have cited two uncommon and miraculous exceptions against a general rule: I might as well say, that the passage, It is appointed unto all men

That this assertion is that of Joanna herself, see the Fifth Book of Wonders, p. 41 and 53, where the child to be born is thrice styled the Prince of Peace.

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once to die,' is perplexing, because it applied not to Enoch and Elijah!"-" How has our Saviour actually been the Prince of Peace ?"-"Is he not the Prince of Peace by making peace between a sinner and his God? Is he not the Prince of Peace by conveying peace, in a sense of pardon through his blood, to the guilty and troubled mind? Is he not the Prince of Peace by reason of that mutual harmony, in which those disciples must dwell, who fulfil his commandment, Love one another?"" -"Say what you will, Sir, I am unshaken in my belief in Joanna; for I have myself had strange dreams and whisperings, and I will maintain, that this Son, to be born, is the Comforter and the Spirit of Truth, whom our Saviour promised to send into the world: he can be none other; for have his disciples ever yet experienced comfort? I, for instance, do my best to serve God, and yet I have no comfort. Have the disciples ever yet been guided unto all truth? Look abroad to the numbers of religious errors, and tell me:"-" Our Saviour said to his Apostles, before he left the world, 'I will send my Comforter unto you: I will 'send you the Spirit of Truth, who shall guide you ' unto all truth:' this Spirit and this Comforter, then, must have been promised, and must have come, to the APOSTLES; he did so on the day of Pentecost: he has been the Comforter ever since, to you, and me, and all, by being the author of every thing, at all good, that we do; and Joanna South

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