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when Mr. Taylor reproved you, you said you were persuaded to do it. Now you say I desire of what is impossible for you to do. I grant it is impossible for you to return the letters, if you have burnt them. But is it a thing impossible for you to act as an honest, upright man; to acknowledge your fault in burning the letters, and betraying the trust that was put in you; and to act with honour, to acknowledge the truth they contained? Have you given yourself up so far to the powers of darkness, to have such influence over you, that it is impossible for you to act with honour and honesty? Then I have more reason to say your senses are deranged, and that you are led by an evil spirit, than you have to say I am deranged, or that an evil spirit leads me. Know what is said, the 12th chapter of Proverbs, 19th verse" The lip of truth shall be established for ever; but a lying tongue is but for a moment." And the letter you have sent to Mr. Bruce is full of lies as you say I have published false accusations and charges against you. Now, Sir, I can bring forward ten living witnesses, that I have published nothing concerning you but the truth; and your own conscience is witness against you. For if I had published any thing that was false, the law is open, and you would appear to clear your own honour, if you could; but you know that is impossible, unless you come forward to acknowledge your faults. Trying to conceal them only brings you deeper and deeper into them. Now, as to your saying mine is malicious conduct, to contend for the truth, you must put your Bible out of doors; but I think you have acted with injurious and malicious conduct towards me: First, to advertise me as a woman being led by the Devil; and said nothing else would free you from trouble; then to burn all the letters I had put in your hands, because the truth should not appear for me. Now where could a man act

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with greater malice and unjust principles than that? Now you say it is not consistent with a merciful and benevolent God, to visit you as I do, for your unjust dealing to me. Then what do you make of the prophecies of Jeremiah, 36th chapter 23d verse? where Jehoiakim-" had read three or four leaves he cutit with a pen-knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire. Yet they were not afraid."-But know what the Lord said to Jeremiah, in the 28th verse: "Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned. And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord: Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast? Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him, and his seed, and his servants, for their iniquity." Now did the unbelief of Jehoiakim prevent the evils that the Lord, had threatened against him? And did not the Lord command Jeremiah to warn Jehoiakim again, of the evil that he had done in burning the roll? Yet, when he did it, I suppose he judged Jeremiah as deluded a man as you judge me a deluded woman; but his judgment did not prevent the Lord from ordering Jeremiah to trouble him again; nor prevent the judgments that were threatened against him. Now the ridiculous judgment you have drawn of me, as being a deranged woman, does not make me so, no more than the unbelief of Jehoiakim made Jeremiah a false prophet; or the unbelief of Lot's sons proved their father an old fool; or the unbelief of the Jews

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proved that our Saviour was not the Messiah that was prophesied of. I do not tell you what my judgment is of you; neither do I ask you what your judgment is of me; I only ask for equity, justice, and truth; and that you have denied me. So I do not marvel at the ridiculous manner you have spoken of me; for people often hate those they have injured. And now the words of the Lord concerning you, are like the words of the Lord to Jeremiah, concerning Jehoiakim. In three things you have provoked the Lord to anger against you: in turning me from the sacrament, in betraying your trust, in burning the roll wherein the words of the Lord were contained; and so you have done despite to the Spirit of God. Now judge for yourself; if you say your honour is gone, who robbed you of that honour, but your own wrong conduct? Why have you not done in the first place, as you now say you would do, if you had got them now, you would return them? But why did you not return them when you had got them? Why did you burn them ? Your saying what you would do now, is like a man that has committed murder, and when he is called to take his trial, say if the man were now alive I would not kill him; and so I hope the judge will forgive me; because it is impossible for me now to bring the man to life and so I know it is impossible for you to recal the wrong principles that you have acted with; but if you have any regard for the glory of God, or any regard for your own honour as a minister, you would now come forward to clear up every truth. I would not lie under the slander of your letter without coming forward to clear myself if you would give me a million of money. If I were to do so, I must disgrace my God and Saviour, whose servant I profess to be; and to know his will and obey it is the study and practice of my life and the advice you gave me, in your

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letter, is like the advice of the serpent to Eve, and much more fatal than her end was, my end must be if I take it. So now if you wish to clear your honour, you must come forward with every truth. You see your letter is in print, as your false accusations cannot injure my innocence; for by the answer I have sent you, every man upon earth, that hath a grain of sense inust know you cannot clear yourself if you are silent now. The letter that I sent you before, I shall put in print likewise; and. I have not printed a word concerning you but I can affirm to be truth, and can bring forward witnesses to prove it. And now I see the wisdom of the Lord, why he ordered me to take witnesses with me, when I went to your house on any deep and weighty subject, which you know I told you I was ordered to do. And now, Sir, if you will come forward, and acknowledge every truth, tell who persuaded you to burn the letters, assign your reasons for listening to such wrong advice, then you may clear that honour you say you have lost; but you cannot fight against God and prosper. I know my calling to be of God; and I want nothing of you, but to acknowledge the truth of what was put in your hands; every particular concerning you and me I was ordered to put in print. And shall I disobey the command of the Lord, to be a man-pleaser? I tell you No. Who ought we to obey, God or man, judge ye? Now, Sir, I shall conclude with saying, if I had put in print as false an accusation against you, as you wrote to Mr. Bruce against me, I should despise my name, and hate myself for ever. What do you make of that benevolent God, whom you mention, if you judge him another such as yourself, first to tell man he is in the right road, and at the end to tell him that road was destruction? For just so was your good advice to me; for you always assured me, my writings were not from the Devil, before I put

your name in print; but I confess you did give me good advice, to say it would be fatal for me, if my foreknowledge and my writings came from myself, and I had placed it to the Lord; but this advice I never wanted of any man, for I had a deeper sense of that sin than any man living could tell me ; so I myself am the judge there. Now as you boast so much of your goodness, you have made all your good be evil spoken of, and the best of your goodness towards me, is the duty of every minister upon earth; for when any one is strongly visited by a spirit invisible, it is the duty of a minister to try to search out what that spirit is. So if other ministers neglected their duty, is it any excuse for you to copy after them? You say, Sir, you wish my friends to persuade me to trouble you no more; at this I do not marvel, for if you owed a person 5000l. and you were not able to pay him, you would be glad to get a friend to prevail on the man not to trouble. you for the money. You are now running yourself deeper and deeper in debt to treat me in this manner, to rob me of all truth and innocence. But I am sorry to say you began in the spirit, and end in the flesh. The Lord grant you may see your errors before it is too late. This is my answer to your insolent and abusive letter, that you cannot come forward to answer. in a word, to justify the letter you have sent ; for I tell you it is full of falsehood and lies.

From your injured friend,

JOANNA SOUTHCOTT.

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