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I'll tell thee more another day;
But mark the words I now do say:
's death is clear to thee,
Thy folly great they all will see,

When

The very way thou judg'dst the first,
From thy own letter how 'twas plac'd,
That fools and knaves might act that way;
Thou'st judg'd the world, as they judge thee.
So unjust judgment doth appear:

"Tis truth must make all mysteries clear.
Therefore the truth I did demand,

That
** should the trial stand;
Though in it he did not appear;
And therefore I forbade thee there
To see the witnesses at the time;
Although the trial I call'd thine;
And yet no trial thou didst stand,
To be examin'd then by man.
Whether the witnesses were true,
They brought no knowledge to thy view,
Of any witness they did bear,
Till for the press did all appear.
And thus mankind do not discern
The way I brought thy trial on,
To have the witnesses so agree.
Thou stood'st the trial, just like he;
And he like thee stood just the same;
Though to it he did never come;
And in it thou didst not appear.
So both together now compare,
The way the trial now doth stand
Between the WOMAN and the MAN."

From the above communication I was convinced of my folly, in judging it was done out of mockery; and I was answered that the judgment of my friends was right-it could not be done in mockery. And no more than ******* would have suffered a thing like that to have gone out in his name, and he not sharply reprove the person, and immediately contradicted it in an other paper; no more than he would have suffered the one, to have his name forged, and not contradicted it; no more, ******* shall find,

B

would I suffer thee to forge my name, and have things go out in my name, as prophecies given from the Lord, without contradicting thy assertions, by proving all was false that thou hadst put in *******'s hands; for not one of the events should have taken place to thy predictions. Hadst thou invented the name of the Bishop, to put the event of his death in *******'s hands, to tell him it was a sign which the Lord had given thee, to know that thy visitation was from him; but if thy visitation had not been from ME, that sign should not have been fulfilled; for I would have contradicted it, by prolonging the Bishop's life, that it should not have taken place at that time, if I had designed to have taken him that year. And perfectly so of the following year: if thine had been inventions, from any thoughts of thy own, of what would happen in Italy, or Eugland; and thou hadst put it in his hands in the name of the Lord, I would have worked another way, that thy inventions should not come true of prophecies. Had it been done in mockery, I would soon confound the whole; and therefore the judgment of all thy friends was right, to think that such a thing could not be done in mockery, without being contradicted, to prove it was false. Then, if man would contend for his honour, if mockery was done in his name, I ask mankind what they judge of ME, that I should suffer all thy writings to go out in my name, and not work a way to prove to mankindthere was no truth in what thou hadst said? And. therefore, no more than he would suffer the one, would I suffer the other and as thy friends judged of man, so have they judged of the Lord, that these truths could not be in thy wri tings, to be placed in the name of the Lord, if the Lord had not spoken by thee."

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After this my mind was perfectly composed, and my heart set at rest, being answered

"Thou must love man more than thy God, and have a greater desire for his honour than mine, if thou grievest thyself for carrying on the contention, when he begun it; and to clear thy honour, when he went to rob thee of it. For thou must disgrace both God and man, if thou hadst submitted to his request, through the advice of his faithless friends; for then thou must rob ME of my wisdom, in ordering thee to put the events in his hands."

After this reproof was given me, I saw my own error; and was ordered to examine deeply the judgment of the friends, concerning the pages that I had pointed out to them.

One of the friends saith his judgment was, “That ******* would certainly bring me to the trial; that now his death has taken place, he is quite foiled; and he looks upon it a mystery all through, beyond his comprehension; but the more he thinks of it, the more he is lost; but he expects that the Lord will clear it up, and then something great and grand will appear."

Another saith-" It is all dark and mysterious to him; from what was said of ***· *, he judged he must come forward at the trial; but trusted that the Lord would make his own words clear to his people: crooked paths he will make straight, and lead the blind by a way they know not, till at last he shall lead his faithful in the joys of his Kingdom."

Another of the friends was so much stumbled at my letter, and the pages which were pointed out, that he said, "his mind had been considerably harassed, and perplexed with even doubts of the visitation he could not describe his feelings: that he could not make the communications and

the event either consistent or satisfactory to himself: that his judgment was dark, intricate, and confused, but trusted that the Lord would make clear this mystery."

In this manner they drew their judgments stumbled and confused; and I must say that the trial of their faith was very great; because my letter tried them to the utmost, to say the Lord had love and pity for the man; and yet to take him out of the world in such manner, before he had acknowledged the truth. This, with the lines in the pages before mentioned, they could no ways make consistent with each other; and I by no means wonder that they were stumbled; as there are mysteries concealed from them. But what they know not now, they will know hereafter. Yet there were others who drew a different judgment, which will appear in the next book. I was then ordered to bring together from the books where ******* stands on conditions, and where he stands without conditions.

The First Book of Strange Effects of Faith, 9th page, are these words given in 1795, in answer to Mr. L's giving it up:

"Now tell him plain he's not the man;

For 'tis by

that it must be done

Back to the Church the standard all must come."

"Here discern, I told thee, without any conditions he was the one man that thy writings would be brought to light by, before ever thou hadst written a line to him, to know what he would do. Here let men discern, what was spoken as an assurance that should be done by him was done by him; for he was the Standard of the Church, as being a Minister of the Church: and here let men discern, when thy writings were published, according to his direction, it was the church mi

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nisters that were first awakened, to join with him; but here the standard in him began to fall, when the others began to stand; but then discern the standard was great. Now come to the words I said before, in the 8th page:

"But, O, thrice happy is the man
That doth begin and will go on,
Till every curtain be drawn back,
To know and prove if I do speak."

"Here he stands on conditions, whether he would go on or not, till every thing was tried and proved; for every curtain being drawn back meaneth, every thing must be made clear to mankind. And now discern how great were the promises made to him, if he had stood stedfast to the end and these promises were spiritually to be honoured by the Lord; which he fell from, to gain the praise and applause of men; and that way he lost them both: because the applause. and praise of men he never can gain, to say he acted wisely at the last, when he fell back, however prudent he acted at the first. Here let men

discern the beginning of these two pages, which I have pointed out to thee: the one without conditions, that thy writings would be brought to light by him; the other was on conditions, if he went on to the end.

Page 14, given in 1796:

"I say the fruit shall surely fall:

Let ******* stand and hear his call;
And now a Moses let him be,

Or else my judgments all shall see.

Then all together you may feast,

And all together fast.

I'll bring a mystery in the end,
That shall for ever last."

"Here let men discern, he stands on conditions. of being compared to the likeness of Moses, whọ began and went on to the end; therefore I said I would bring a mystery in the end that should last for ever: and there is a mystery of *******

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