JOANNA PROVES THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 463

lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." It was revealed to Simeon by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Now where is the man endowed with a grain of reason, who can see all these wonderful assertions made by so many witnesses, and by so many miracles, affirmed by our Saviour himself, to join the whole together; where is the man who can part them asunder? To me it appeareth madness; and yet of such madmen there are thousands in the world, who believe all those witnesses to be false, and our Saviour's assertion of himself to be false, as to his saying HE was the Son of God: He cometh from God, and HE goeth to God; and before Abraham was, HE saith, I AM. In all these words our Saviour confirms the words of the witnesses who testify of him, and the truth of the prophets who prophesied of HIM; and though the whole is joined together as a complete building, yet I know many will throw down the fabric, while they allow at the same time he was a good man, and had power to raise it up again by his miracles; to be worshipped as the Son of God, when they say he was not the Son of God. This I speak of the Arians, whose belief I call erroneous, and sheweth how man is void of reason; for if men would come to reason, and see how the whole is joined together, they would see it was a fabric they could not throw down; or raise up in any likeness, unless it be to the complete building. We must consider what God is: and though he gave Moses the spirit of prophecy, and worked so many miracles by his hand, yet Moses never said he was the Son of God; neither would the Lord suffer the children of Israel to know where his body was, that they might not worship him; for he forbad every worship to the body of Moses, as he was but an instrument in the hand of the Lord. Now if men would call reason to their assistance, they would soon be convinced, that the Lord would never

have given the working of miracles, in the wondrous manner that our Saviour wrought them, to a mere man, who was supported by false witnesses, that he should be worshipped as the Son of God. This erroneous opinion of mankind proves to me they have a faith without reason, without knowledge, or without understanding, and without the belief of the Bible; or having one thought of the knowledge of God, that the events of all things are known to him; that the Lord knew from the miracles our Saviour wrought, he would be worshipped as the Son of God, by those that believed in him. Then what idea can men have of the Lord, if they think he would give such power to a mere man, that asserted falsehoods, and was supported by nothing but false witnesses, from his birth to his death? In Luke xxiii. 44, 45, 46, it is said, there was darkness over all the earth, from the sixth hour, unto the ninth, and the veil of the temple was rent. Here sheweth the wondrous works of God at our Saviour's death, as well as at his birth; again when he was laid in the sepulchre, it is said, Matt. xxviii. there was a great earthquake, and the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and rolled back the stone; so that the keepers saw and fled. And though our Saviour went through such a death, to have his hands and feet nailed to the cross, the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, that blood and water gushed out, which made assurance of perfect death; yet it is affirmed by so many witnesses, and by the disciples that ran the hazard of their lives to preach his Gospel, that he rose again in his perfect body, and often appeared unto them ; and he appeared to five hundred brethren at once. After his conversing with his disciples for some time, from his resurrection, it is said, in Acts i. 9, to 11, that he was seen to be taken up in a cloud to heaven ; and the angels of the Lord appeared to them, to assure them, that in like manner as they saw him ascend in, the clouds, in like manner he should descend

REMARKS ON THE ARIANS, BY JOANNA. 465

again. Now if all these confirmations were false, where is the man that can rely on a word of the Gospel, or a word of the Apostles? Yet of such madmen there are thousands in the world, who believe the whole a fabricated story; and yet profess to say our Saviour and his disciples were good men! This appeareth to me the deepest of insanity; a most wild and erroneous belief, and yet those madmen are not condemned by the worldly-wise; only men that do believe the truth of the Gospel say their belief is wrong, without discerning the depth of their madness and folly. And are these the men whose wisdom we are to rely on? Then we may as well trust on the broken reeds of Egypt, as trust to the wisdom of men, who believe it to be madness to rely on the written word of God, and the visitation of his Spirit, as he hath promised, and the beauty of the Gospel as it is joined together. This men call enthusiasm and madness; but to have a belief they have no grounds at all for, is not judged madness in men; for I see these Arians, in every part of the kingdom, looked upon as reasonable, sensible men, and only judged wrong in their belief, by those that believe the truth of the Gospel. Here I have shewed my firm belief that these Arians are madmen; and were my belief in our Saviour so erroneous, and were I visited by a spirit that taught me such doctrine, then I should believe it came from the devil; because it is inconsistent with sense or reason to believe the Gospel can be true, if all the witnesses of our Saviour were false; but if the witnesses are true, as I believe them to be, no man endowed with reason, can have a doubt of our Saviour's being the Son of God, who is spoken of in Psalm ii-Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Here I have shewed the inconsistency of the Arians, on the one hand, in faint colours, (for I might fill a volume with the madness of their folly, in what they profess to believe); and now I shall come to another sect of people, which are the

Calvinists, that from a few texts of Scripture, which they cannot understand, have wrested the whole Bible to their own condemnation. But I know they will be ready to answer me, they have placed the Bible for their own justification, that they were elected before the foundation of the world to be saved, and all the rest of the world were ordained to be lost. So they have picked out texts for their purpose, which they do not understand; because it is written Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated before they were born; but they know not why that type was set in Jacob and Esau; nor what is meant by election and reprobation; but they go to St. Paul, whom they say was a chosen vessel of God, though he was a great persecutor at first; but they know not why he was a chosen vessel; yet from his own epistle, we might clearly see his heart was good, though his belief was wrong; and of that wrong belief the Lord convinced him, as he had a single and zealous eye to the glory of God; and for his honour and glory the Lord chose him. Here I believe, with all the Calvinists in England, when the Lord has any wondrous work to do, knowing the hearts of all men, he chuses instruments to work by. The foreknowledge of God must be allowed by every Christian believer; therefore in any work he has to do, the Lord certainly knows who is calculated and fit for the work: the Lord knew, when Moses was born, what he would be; therefore he preserved his life in a strange manner, and for a strange work; he knew the perverseness of Pharaoh's heart, and instead of cutting him off in his sins, as thousands are cut off, HE prolonged his life to shew his wondrous works in him. Thus we see the Lord, knowing what is in man, chuses the objects on both sides, to shew his wondrous works; but does this affirm, the Lord knowing what is in the heart of man, that it was his determination, before the creation of the world, when he created man, that he designed to create the major part of the world to be in opposition to his will and command ?

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that he chose and ordained men for that purpose? Then I ask them what they make of the Bible? I shall come to the Revelation first-Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. But here the words must be turned by the Calvinists, and say -Whosoever the Lord hath ordained are to take of the water of life freely. So the will must be put out of the question. Chap. iii. 21-To him that overcometh I will grant to sit with ME in my throne. But what hath man to overcome, if he be ordained what he shall be? Then man hath nothing to overcome if the decrees of the Lord are fixed, that he is born to go to heaven, all things are overcome for* him; then why is he counselled to buy gold tried in the fire? that he may be made white? and anoint his eyes with eye-salve, that he may see? Here are Scriptures mentioned in the Revelation, that are wrested and turned by the Calvinists. Do men vainly imagine that the Lord invited men to mock and deceive them? Weigh deep Chap. iii. and hear what the Lord saith to the churches-that no man may take their crown from them: But who can take the crown from, a man, if it be firmly fixed by the Lord unalterably. that cannot be removed? In Chap. ij. 26. it is said -He that overcometh and keeperh my works unto. the end, to him will I give power over the nations.

THE ANSWER OF THE SPIRIT.

"Now I shall answer from the pondering of thy heart. Thou sayest, as the Arians err from the truth of the Gospel, just so do the Calvinists err from the truth of my Bible. This I know is thy pondering. heart, from all the Scriptures thou hast read; and I now tell thee, the pondering of thy heart is worked by ME, to shew the madness and folly of mankind; therefore I tell thee, without my visitation to come and open the eyes of the blind, to unstop the ears of the deaf, the madness and folly that is in man would soon make my Bible to be but a form; for as