instances of the nonsense, blasphemy, and artifice, contained in the writings of "our spiritual mother."

generation should not pass away before the day of judgment.” "It is very clear that St. Peter did not: he reproved this very impatience: a thousand years are with the Lord as one day.' It is presumptuous, it is unscriptural, to affirm that the Apostles were deceived. St. Paul on one occasion says, • I * speak as a man.' Is not this an express reference to all his other communications as inspired? The passages you allude to, Some here shall not taste of death, &c.' and,This generation shall not pass away, &c.' were set down by the Evangelists as words spoken by Christ. They give no comment: we ought not to pronounce that they thought of the phrases otherwise than as referring, one to the resurrection, and the other to the destruction of Jerusalem.”- "Joanna Southcott's works require deep study."—" I have read a considerable number of them: to-day I read this passage, As by the disobedience of the woman Paradise was lost; so by the perfect obedience of the woman must it be regained.' I confess to you, Mr. W. I shuddered while I read such words."

That is because your eyes are not yet opened."-" Again; one of the passages on which this woman rests her power of sealing, is Ephes. iv. 30, Grieve not the Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed, &c.' She has begun to seal in the nineteenth century. We read not of that work as ever carried on before: yet these Ephesians, nearly 1800 years ago, are told that they are ALREADY sealed."-"There is a literal and a figurative sealing."- "At this rate you may make the Scriptures say any thing. If there be a figurative or spiritual sealing, and it is sufficient, why should there be any literal one?"-"We are believers in universal redemption: many may be saved who are not sealed; but they will not inherit the millennium."- "I find likewise, that many may be sealed Ι Ι 2

First, as to their nonsense.

We are told in

the seventh chapter of the Apocalypse, that 144,000 out of the several tribes of Israel, were

who are not saved. If salvation may be attained without sealing, and sealing does not ensure salvation, I cannot see very well what your seals are good for."-" They will ensure to the sealed people the reign of the saints on earth: they are obedient sons; a father may love two sons, and yet may evince a fonder affection towards the child who fully obeys him.""True; if that obedience be required to a moral commandment; but not if the son's understanding cannot be satisfied that the injunction or proposition actually issued from the father.” -"What do you conceive meant by the leopard lying down with the lamb, and a little child leading them?"-" A figura tive expression, denoting the cessation of wars and animosities.". -"It is partly literal, signifying the mitigation of the savage ferocity of animals; and partly figurative, intimating the concord of nations, and their being ruled over by the child TO BE BORN.""If it be literal, it signifies no particular child, but a child, any child, to describe the harmlessness of the animals. If it be figurative, it is all figurative: if the leopard and lamb denote kingdoms, the child is but a heightening of the metaphor."- "There has hitherto been no mani festation of the Holy Ghost personally: how could you convince a Jew, or unbeliever, as to the truth of the Athanasian doctrines?"- "I would turn to the story of Ananias and Sapphira, Thou hast lied unto the Holy Ghost;' and in the next verse, Thou hast lied unto God.""" But the Holy Ghost has never been manifested in a separate form or charac ter, as the second Person was in Christ."-" He was separately manifested at the baptism of Christ: he hovered as a dove over the second Person, while the first Person cried, This is

my beloved Son;' [neither was this the mere power or agency of the Father: the Spirit maketh intercession for us' (Rom. viii. 26): an INTERCESSOR supposes two, as a mediator does."

to be sealed by an angel, on their foreheads. These 144,000 are taken from the mass of the Jews, who are, at this day, computed to amount, at the lowest calculation, to 2,500,000: but Joanna is stated to have, on one occasion, sealed all the Jews by a coup de main. Now, these filling up much more than the warranted number, I should like to know by what authority this dispensing of seals is to be continued *.

This last sentence I am not certain that I then advanced, but I think I did.]" You see, Sir, what Joanna says is exceedingly strong. If the visitation fails to produce a son this year, then Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary."—"That ́is Joanna's own blasphemy: she presupposes the visitation's being as true in itself as the Ave Maria. I deny the premises."

"The second week in October will settle all. I am to be present at the accouchement; and, if a son is not produced, I shall own the whole to be a most blasphemous delusion."

Mr. W. drew some nice and hardly intelligible distinctions betwixt the child's being the Holy Ghost, and coming in the power of the Holy Ghost. I replied, that that was precisely the blasphemy of J. Naylor, who received the, hosannahs as due to the Christ within him. Mrs. M. began to relate her visions, and was rebuked by Mr. W. But why are not Mrs. M.'s visions as good as our spiritual mother's? »

Since writing the above account, a pamphlet has fallen into my hands, infinitely more nonsensical, artful, and impious, than any of the books I have yet met with. It is entitled, “ Scriptures which show for what Christ died, and which show his second Coming in 1812.". It is written to encourage the signing, and refers to Mr. Tozer, the agent.

* To chain down Satan is one of the objects of Joanna's mission; and in this she is to have the assistance of one Bazil

"It is finished!" said our blessed Saviour upon the cross" But all is not finished," declares the Spirit by Joanna, "before the redemption of man has taken place, before Satan's power is destroyed *."

In page 29 of the Strange Effects of Faith, it is asserted, that the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ is past; and that he is come in the form of a woman! Yet, in many other parts of the prophetess's writings, it is declared, that before this second advent shall take place, the millennium, or the reign of Shiloh for a thousand years, shall elapse.

Bruce, who is the angel mentioned in the twentieth chapter of the Revelations. See Hann's Life.

* Fifth Book,' p. 27.

+ "A woman here I am made." See communications on the last letter of Mr. Brothers.

Again,

"For in the Spirit here, I say, I'm come;

And you may find me in the woman's form."

Fourth Book, p. 58.

In commenting on the words, "Behold, I come quickly!'. the Spirit is made to ask, "Did I come quickly in the days of the Apostles?" but he is not made to explain how he can be affirmed to come more quickly now §.

Every page in the Third Book of Wonders is a compound of absurdity and impiety."Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven," is construed as signifying Shiloh, the second Son II.

Six thousand years were to have elapsed before the millen← True Explanation of the Bible, p. 597. # P. 13.

But, enough of this sect-leader's nonsense: let us add a word or two as to her blasphemy. The Spirit is made to say,

"Now, Joanna, thee I'll answer :

In the green tree this was done;
Thou must suffer, like thy Master,
For the stubborn sins of men.
Their chastisement is laid on THEE;

By THY STRIPES they heal'd must be,
If they will be heal'd at all."

Here does this blasphemous wretch appropriate to herself a prophecy, relating exclusively to the Messiah; and although we know that there is none other name under heaven given unto men, whereby we may attain salvation, save only the name of Christ, our chastisement is to be laid on Joanna Southcott, and by her stripes we are healed, Again, in the Strange Effects of Faith, p. 276, Now, how do you prove your Bibles, where you say, that death, past on man, came first by the woman? Then it was by the woman all died,

nium; but, for the elect's sake, these days were shortened. And who is the elect? It is the son of man: the son revealed to Joanna *.

Our Saviour's beautiful comparison of the temporary despondence of the Apostles, at the death of their Lord, and their subsequent joy at his resurrection, and after the day of Pentecost, to a woman travailing with child, and rejoicing that a male child is born, is applied (Fourth Book, p. 39) to Shiloh, the male child to be born of Joanna.

* P. 31.