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To have ME come your Prince and King,
Your Father and your Friend;
Your conquering Saviour to appear,
Your Brother in the end,

And your Redeemer to appear:

But I'll redeem my Friends

That now do bear for me the spear,

As I bore it at first;

And then my crown with me they'll share,

For so it now shall burst."

Adieu! my dear Miss Townley, I have only time to add my love, and good wishes, to yourself and all friends, and believe me,

(Signed,)

DEAR MISS TOWNLEY,

sincerely yours,

JOANNA SOUTHCOTT.

June 3d, 1804.

What a letter have you sent to me from a Minister, that hath done violence to his own understand. ing! first to say, there was no such thing as prophecies and then to conclude his letter by saying, he himself is a prophet. Here I shall place his words that were in his letter, that you sent me.

"The

christian however, my dear madam, is so strongly cautioned by his Divine Master against being deceived by false prophets, and false doctrines, that if he does surrender his understanding to enthusiasm, and make shipwreck of a sound faith, while in pursuit of fables, and lying wonders, he exposes himself, more or less, to the aweful fate of the false prophet. Rev. 20 chap. 10 verse,-Woe unto them that say, the Lord saith, when the Lord hath not spoken ; who pretend to spiritual gifts, which are neither granted, nor indeed necessary in this Era of the Church, &c. &c. I am an ambassador, an unworthy one, I confess, from Jesus Christ, if you disregard my warning voice; behold I am charged by him to prophesy unto you, that he will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh." In the Postscript he recommends to your perusal, the 22 chap. of the 1st book of Kings. Now, my dear Miss Townley, out of his own mouth will I condemn him, as one of the false Prophets, he point

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ed out to you that Ahab was seduced by. Can a man presumptuously say, he prophesieth in the name of Christ, and boldly tell you, there is no necessity for spiritual gifts? Then he must be the prophet he mentions, to say the Lord saith, when the Lord hath not spoken. Then how can he be an ambassador from Christ, and a prophet in his name, without he be visited by his Spirit? Deeply are the words said to me, that the anger of the Lord, that was kindled in me so greatly yesterday, the 2d. of June, was as much in consequence of his letter, that the Lord knew was coming, as it was for the bishop's, refusing to search into every truth; therefore the Lord worked in my heart, to place the Scriptures in that manner, and send them to you; and gave that strict charge, they should go in print. For the Lord knew what letters were coming from a man who saith Lord, Lord, and thinks because he is a minister he is an ambassador from Christ, and hath authority to prophesy in his name, with confidence and assurance and this is the reason why the Lord has so threatened the clergy, for setting up their own wisdom, in opposition to the wisdom of God. But what did the Lord say, by the mouth of his prophets? Prophesy thou against these prophets, that prophesy out of their own hearts, and have seen nothing; and say the Lord saith, when I have not spoken. For I neither commanded him, neither did I send him, is the word of the Lord, now spoken to me. Therefore the threatenings of the Lord are so severe to the bishops, if they do not call the whole together, and let the cause be fairly tried who is the true prophet, he that denieth spiritual gifts, and says there is no necessity for them, but yet affirmeth in Christ's name he is a prophet unto you, and threatens judgments if you do not obey his voice. On the other hand, I am writing to you from the Spirit, that fatal judgments will fall upon you, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord

and follow after spiritual gifts, that you may know the Lord, if you follow on to know him. Now which are you to obey, God or man, judge ye? It is your cause they must take in hand, which of the two you are to obey; and whether all the ministers are prophets, the bishops must decide: or you will all find an Ahab's reign shall coine. So let the cause be fairly tried, who is the Micaiah the true prophet, or who are the false prophets? For he has pointed to the very chapter that I have threatened shall bring destruction on your land, if they are seduced by false prophets. And now he hath told Townley, the ministers are the prophets, without spiritual gifts; and I have told them thou art the prophet with spiritual gifts. Then let the truth be tried; and this chapter must be mentioned: Ahab was seduced by false prophets, and was slain, And now he saith the thinisters are the ambassadors of Christ, and they are the prophets of the Lord. Then now judge for yourselves, ye men of Israel; Ahab's false prophets were many, but the true prophet Micaialt was but ONE; so the false prophets must be the clergy, as he has made the clergy the prophets, and they are many; but I am ONE; and his letter has brought it to the very purport of my writings, and out of his own mouth he has cast the clergy for false prophets, by the chapter he alluded to, and made good my last books for in them they are cast as false prophets; and it was said the shame of their nakedness would appear. So here you see the rope of sand, That if as prophets they may stand: Then sure your Land must all be cast, As in the chapter it is plac'd."

Here I shall end for the present, as I fear this letter will be too late for the post, and I am ordered it must go to day, as the letter I wrote to you yesterday, and the letter I have sent you to day, must go in print together; so, my dear Miss Townley, I must bid adieu. You will hear from me again to-morrow with i full explanation of the y hole.

(Signed,) JOANNA SOUTHCOTT.

DEAR MISS TOWNLEY,

May the 29th, 1804. N:8 In what wondrous manner is the Lord now working, to bring every shadow to the substance! and yet it is in so easy a manner as though all came by chance. But I remember how deeply it was said to me years agone, that all these times; seasons, and chances, were ordered and ordained by the Lord. From the newspaper that you sent me, of an advertisement being put in the paper by my friend, who desires the religious Society for the Suppression of Vice to examine my books and writings, and to point out every false doctrine they contain; or, if on the contrary they should be found true explanations of the Bible, the society must feel it a duty to make every laudable effort to spread the knowledge of her books in the world. When I had read the advertisement, I was ordered to look the paper over, and found a trial in the court of King's Bench, May 24th, the King v. William Cobbett. It was an Information filed, ex officio, by the attorney general against Mr. Cobbett, for an alledged libel on Lord Hardwicke, the lord lieutenant of Ireland; Lord Red, esdale, lord high chancellor of Ireland; Mr. Justice Osborne, one of the puisne judges of the court of King's Bench in Ireland; and Alexander Marsden Esq. under secretary in the civil department in Ireland. I was ordered to take out this part of the trial:

"I beg leave to say, gentlemen of the jury, that the question for you to try, is the quo animo with which this writing has been published. It compliments the private virtues of Lord Hardwicke, but it points out his defects as a political character. It inculcates the most loyal principles, and execrates rebellion throughout. His object is clearly to excite the vigilance of the well affected of both countries, in order to secure them from the dreadful consequences of sudden insurrections, and the calamities

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occasioned by it, such as unfortunately took place in Ireland, in the month of July last."

After I had copied these words, I was ordered to mark the letter sent me, the same day, of the eight men that are printing a Book against my Writings. -Now I shall give the Communication that was given to ine, in answer to the above

"In all thy Writings I have gone from Types and Shadows; and this year. I have told thee that the Types and Shadows shall stand together. Now in the newspaper, that thy friend points out thy Writings and Books to be examined by the Society, the libel against Hardwicke stands. Now I tell thee, no men, by all the learning they can invent, can bring thine as a libel against man; because thou hast done all in my Name, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, who feareth no man's person; and thou hast done all by my cominand; so if they indict thee, it must be for a libel against the Lord, whose private goodness to mankind thou hast pointed out through all thy writings; but the public threatenings are pointed out to man the same. here is the libel that men must try, not as against man, but as against ME, whose

Sofull Week

Private Virtues' are all unknown to man,
That's in thy writings and shall ever stand;
And that my private Friends they all shall see
My private virtues are made known to thee;
And so to man they're publish'd all abroad,
To have my private Love for man made known;
But for the public it may now appear
That hard the threatenings to this nation here,
If they in silence now these words do hear,
And do not seek the truth in all to clear;
Because a week they'll surely find to come,
That I'm the Lord and will them all condemn,
If they bring Trials for men's honour here,
And will not seek my honour for to clear:
To prove the calling if it be of God,

I tell them plain that hard they'll feel my rod.
Because an awful week I'll bring to man—
My public threatenings are throughout your Land;
And if my honour you'll not here maintain,
To act for ME as you do act for men,

To bring the Trial, you say the Truth you'll see,
For with this libel it doth all

agree,

So

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