between them. I then saw his pretended love was as I told him, temptations from the devil, by his disappointed malice. I thought so ungrateful a man cold not exist; but here his malice went further. He haunted me to the places where I went, to get me out of service, till I was obliged to go to law with him; and then he hired two false witnesses against me, which made me tremble in the Guildhall, fearing he would swear away my life. I was then answered-It is finished; hitherto it is God's permission; but no further is his restraint.-I asked my counsellor why Wills did not bring his Son, because he would not swear so false as the others would? My counsellor, Roberts, asked counsellor Fanshaw why he had not brought the Son? He said he brought as many as he thought proper. Counsellor Roberts said, you brought as many as did not care what they swore; Mr. Wills would not purjure those in his own house, but he cared not how many he perjured out of the house. Let him bring the Son; and if he swore as these have, I will give up my cause. But the Son would not come to defend him. So I get my trial; because the Son would not come against me, to take a false oath -The mystery of this goes deep to the nation as you have not a quarter of the particulars. It paints the world in its true colours. The day after I was ordered to write the history of my life, and have it go in print; for thousands should be converted by it. I wrote the History of my Life; but my friends persuaded me never to put it in print; and I was not pressed by the Spirit after I had written it to put it in print, till I was visited again in ninety-two; but this was at the end of the American War. When you have received the History of my Life, you will receive the explanation of the whole. N26 page 27 I did not tell the worst of Rigsby, when I was writing of him, what made me despise him so (21) much; but the reason was, he kept a woman in his house, and brought her with child, and then to conceal his shame from the world, he got some savine, and intreated her to take it; he said it would not do her any harm, only kill the child, and so she was to conceal her shame from the world, and might live with him as before. The simple woman took his advice, and killed the child and herself too; and when she was dying, in her agonies she told it, but as she did it by her own consent, and did not blame him so much as herself, he had no punishment of the law; but his character was despised by upright people; yet as he was a young man of a decent fortune, he got himself respected amongst people of the world, who had no better principles than himself. But of the truth of his history my Sister did not tell my Father, as he tried to persuade people it was a false report, and bribed her friends to keep it secret; and for the love of the money some did; which made it a confused story, and could not be proved; but confused as it was, I believed it true; and after my Father's passion was over, I told him my reasons; which, he said, if it was true he could not wish me to have him. But as I was ordered to go through my history in that day, I could not go through particulars; but now, as these particulars are most wonderfully explained, I am ordered to put them in print: one part must be sent to the Reverend Mr. Foley, and the other part will be sent to Mr. Sharp. So Mr. Sharp is desired to print from this day, the letters he receives; and Mr. Foley the letters he receives his day; thus they are both printing a book they cannot understand, before they see both the books together; for Mr. Sharp must see no more of Mr. Foley's letters, nor Mr. Foley of his, before the book is out. The Lord is now working in this manner, to shew mankind the folly of the Jews and Gentiles; for no more than they two can understand what they are printing, before they come to weigh both the books together; no more do the Jews understand the Law, nor the Gentiles the Gospel, before they come deeply to weigh the whole together. Mr. Sharp may marvel, why I have sent him such a history, that he does not understand the meaning of; and Mr. Foley may marvel, I have sent him the meaning, but never told him the Parables from whence they were taken; so they are both lost in a mist, as Mr. Putt was by my Father's rabbits, when he had an information that he kept smugglers there-and perfect so they are smuggling up the Bible, and will make it a smuggling book; but when they come to look to the mystery, they will find there are LIVING WORDS in the BIBLE, that must make a noise as the rabbits did, and if they will come and see the truth, as my Father desired Mr. Putt to send his servant, they will find my words as true as my Father's, that they had laid a wrong information, to say the Bible must be smuggled up to the weak judgment of men, and the living truth that stands in it, must never break out and appear. "So from the smugglers I now begin: The LIVING TRUTH to men was never seen, ( 23 ) And then I'll prove they've smuggled every word, And from thy Father's words I'll further go, Therefore together jangling you went on, When my Father lay on his death-bed, the persons that attended him told me, they heard my Father talking to the Devil, who said he was come for him; my Father answered, he would not have him; for how could he think to have him, when he knew he had an interest in Christ? he had always been praying to him, and seeking after him, and relied on his tender mercies and goodness, and how could the Devil think to have him? But they knew, by my Father's answers, that he terrified him, that he would have him; and it threw him into strong convulsion fits. But when I came, he was almost insensible to the knowledge of any one; and when I held him by the hand, calling him Father, he said, "Father! be you my Father?" I said, no; my dear Father, you are my Father. He said, "Who are you then?" I said, Joanna; he clasped me by the hand and said, " my dear child, if thou art come, then Christ is Come." This was the night that he died, while I was holding his dying hands. My Sister Carter said at his burial, as soon as his corpse was taken from his chamber, she heard the most beautiful heavenly music, singing round the house the Corinthian Anthem: She asked of the woman of the house, "If the singers were coming." She said, "No." My Sister finding she did not hear the singing, took no more notice to her, but waited with impatience, hoping she should see me, as I appointed to go, but I was ill with my journey, and ordered not to go: "Let the dead bury the dead," were the words said to me; so my Sister went to the funeral with the woman she disliked, because she thought she had not taken care of my Father; but, as she was going along, she heard the same heavenly music in the air; and it seemed to ascend higher and higher, till it had ascended out of her hearing; but when she came to the grave, she thought she should have fainted away, to hear him put into the grave and the water flounced almost |