The history of the Sealed People may not prove useless at a period when so much has been writ ten, and so little understood, concerning the leader of this sect, and her followers. With all reasonable minds the letter of Dr. Sims is decisive but that gentleman, the Editor of Variety, and other writers, are widely mistaken, in taking it for granted that we shall hear no more of this delusion. Has Southcott herself recanted? Has there been a single apostacy from her sect? Has the worthy, but deluded Miss Townly (whom I am sorry if I shall have here offended, in consequence of finding her in low and bad company); has Ann Underwood, deserted her? Has any one respectable adherent shown even a disposition to retract? Has Foley, Ash, Bradley, Tozer, or Owen? Was she not received, on her flight, into the house of a clergyman, beneficed in the church, and the brother of an English nobleman? Has Halhed blushed for his Pater est quem nuptiæ demonstrant? Has Mr. Wetherell, a man of unquestionable intelligence and probity, been convinced by Dr. Sims's report? No. He writes to me (Sept. 10th), of Mrs. Southcott's important mission; and it is absolutely necessary, he says, that a female of her age and in her situation should be kept quiet and still, till medical aid is required. Such being the case, I cannot help regretting, that Dr. Sims, the Editor of Variety, Mr. Cobbett, and other writers, have not perceived the mischief they are occasioning, in failing to represent this woman in her true colours, as a compound of delusion and artifice. It appears not that these gentlemen have been acquainted with her wretched publications; or, even in regard to the recent occurrence, that they have adverted to all the facts. The Third Book of Wonders, in which the expected birth was announced, is dated March 10th, 1814. It appears from the Fifth Book, that the symptoms of her uterine complaint had, about that time, begun to show themselves. Now, I willingly This grant, that she may have worked up her diseased mind into the belief in a divine incubation. is the FANATICAL and excusable part of the story. But observe the cunning with which she then travels back to the 13th of October in the preceding year; and relates a vision, predicting the birth, which she tells us, but not until the 10th of March, she had, at that early period, been favoured with. This is the ARTIFICE; which has not yet been properly exposed. Neither are the disciples to be judged as merely deceived by the imagined pregnancy, or with reference to this isolated fact. That were little. They are dupes to the pretended prophecy, after an hundred instances of failure. Will these persons at once relinquish their delusions, and frankly acknowledge themselves to be fools? No; they will invent some key to the cypher, some quibble for interpreting the prediction! Like Mrs. M. they will forgive the lie of "our spiritual mother;" and she will go on prophesying, and blaspheming, and deceiving, to the end of the chapter. I doubt not that she is, even at this moment, inditing some new Book of Wonders, and cunninglydevised fable *. * As my account of this sect was written amidst the heat of the battle, one or two inaccuracies may have escaped my pen. I am, in particular, desirous of correcting the medical report. Eleven medical men were, in fact, assembled. The following statement will, I believe, represent the truth. 1. Mr. Owen ..... 2. Mr. Walker.... 3. Mr. Wetherelt.. To be set aside as biassed, being sealed Speople. It will, I am aware, appear incongruous to introduce such names as Southcott and Huntington under so early a period of history as the Commonwealth; but, while it is recollected, that, according to my original plan, the accounts of the sects are intended only as episodes, and that the Church History is the main thread of the narrative, it will be evident, that unless this mode of treatment had been adopted, I could not have exhibited a connected view of any one religious body, preparatory to reasoning against its principles. In preparing the part of my History now sent forth into the world, I have found my dissenting brethren, with whom I have had occasion to communicate, to be gentlemen, scholars, and sincere Christians and I should make but an ill return 9. Dr. Reece.. 10. Mr. Foster ... 11. Mr. Hopjay . ... Inadvertently lent their names to the delusion. I am happy that my book comes forth before the expected catastrophe, that I may not be numbered with those who rest the character of the woman, and the pretensions of her sect, on the issue of this gossip's story. What signifies it whether an infant or an uterine disorder lie hidden in the womb of a wretched blasphemer? There are more than sufficient grounds for being satisfied beforehand, that her whole art and mystery is an infamous deception. for the promptitude, liberality, and kindness, with which they have satisfied my various interro gatories, if I here failed to express my deep regret for any passage which may be written in a spirit of unchristian asperity, or calculatd to hurt their feelings beyond what fair argument requires. For every denomination whose principles tend to encourage Christian morality, I entertain the most sincere and profound respect *. * Too late to be noticed in the body of this volume, my attention was directed by Mr. Blair, of Great Russell Street, to a book which has recently been imported from the continent, entitled, "Histoire des Sectes religieuses, &c. par M. Grégoire, ancien Evêque de Blois, &c." I have only had time to peruse that chapter of the work, which treats concerning the present state of Protestantism; and I cannot suffer these sheets to meet the public eye, without exposing some few of its gross errors and unfair representations, It professes to be a continuation down to the present time, of Bossuet's celebrated work on the Variations of Protestants. The leading principle which its author seeks to establish is, that the Reformed religion has every where a tendency to Socini. anism. With his statements relative to continental churches, it is not now my province to concern myself. I am anxious, however, to impress the minds of my countrymen with some faint notion of his curious assertions and reasonings, while describing the state of religion in England. We are told, p. 181, that the Protestants of the present age are conformed only in name to those of the sixteenth century: that Whitby was a Socinian, p. 488: that the Blagdon controversy respected an accusation of denying the Trinity levelled by Miss H. More, against |