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can you condemn in me? My life and character will bear the strictest scrutiny; and I have feared sin more than death from my youth up unto this day. And now I may say with Samuel, here I am before the Lord and before his anointed; witness against me, whose ox have I taken? whose ass have I taken? or from whose hands have I received a bribe, to blind my eyes therewith? But the Lord is my judge, and is witness against you: and as wrong as Pilate condemned our Saviour, much wronger you have condemned me; because Pilate confessed he was innocent; but he that tempted you to this evil has the greater sin. And now I tell you, as all your conduct is in public print, and the manner of your keeping back my letters, there is no way you can clear your honour, unless you come forward with the truth, and acknowledge every letter that was put in your hands, and the truth they contained, and assign your reasons why you burnt and destroyed them. The reasons you assigned to Mr. Taylor were, that you were persuaded to it. Then I answer, the person that persuaded you to burn them, pursuaded you to injure your honour and a good conscience, as the world has tried to persuade me; but blessed be God, I never took their advice: and it would have been happy for you, if you had never neither; but went on as you began, till you could justify yourself before God and man; and shew it plain to the whole world, that you was clear in judging before you condemned. But you burnt my letters, as you say, because you knew, if they appeared, you could not justify yourself in what you have done; but they being from the Devil, you would readily have produced them before the ministers, and said I had never put any truths in your hands, and shewed the letters to prove it. But as you did not then let the truth appear, you

must let the truth appear now; for it is not to say I am troubling you, but the Lord hath commanded me to trouble you till you acknowledge the truth. When I received your answer from Mr. Jones, the day following, I was as sick as death, which continued all the day; and was deeply answered, the Lord was as sick of your conduct and the clergy, as I was that day; but my sickness he would never remove, till my brother had written to you a second time; and as soon as my brother had written, the Lord removed my sickness from me. Three months the Lord has taken my appetite from bread, or any thing made of the produce of wheat; and deeply are the words said to me, that you and the clergy go on, as they are going on, three years the Lord will take bread from the nation, by bringing a total famine in the land; and my appetite he will never restore more to wheat, till I have demanded the truth from you. So must beg a satisfactory answer to this letter.

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Copy of the Rev. J. Pomeroy's Letter to the
Rev. Stanhope Bruce.

REV. SIR,

After near a fortnight's absence, I have found on my return a most extraordinary letter from that deluded woman Joanna Southcott, who is now, I presume, with you. Be so good as to assure her again of what I assured her about two years since, that (except her last) I have no letters, writings, or papers whatsoever of, or belonging to her: if I

had I would certainly send them to her. Indeed, I know nothing of her, but from the insulting letters I receive, wherein I am treated with the most virulent abuse, for not doing what it is impossible for me to do.-The scandalous reflections she has made; the misrepresentations of my conversation with her; the false accusations and charges she has made in her publications; the irreparable injury she has done to my character; and returning the good advice I gave her with so much evil; confirm me more than ever in my former opinion, that she is under the influence of a deranged state of mind, or the evil Spirit; for you must allow, that such injurious, ungrateful, and malicious conduct, cannot proceed from the holy and benevolent Spirit of God. Surely, Sir, such behaviour cannot meet with the approbation of yourself, or her other friends; therefore I hope that you and they will endeavour to convice her of the impropriety and sinfulness of it, and will prevail on her to desist from troubling me with any more letters, and from persevering in the diabolical practice of traducing my character in print; for which illegal, as well as unchristian, conduct, God will certainly bring her into judgment. Not having time to answer the many letters I receive respecting her, they must be returned unopened, especially as I have nothing further to say on this subject.

Oct. 1, 1804.

I remain, Reverend Sir,
Your humble servant,

J. P.

To the Rec. Mr. Pomeroy, Bodmin, Cornwall.

REV. SIR,

Oct. 8th, 1804.

I cannot pen my astonishment on hearing the

letter read, that you sent to Mr. Bruce, concerning me, which I am bound in duty to turn back upon your own head. If you have so far stifled conscience, as to let it come as a swift witness against you, I have living witnesses of all the letters I put in your hand. Reflect how many letters Mrs. Boucher hath delivered to you from me; how many letters Miss Bird hath carried you, six sheets of paper at once at the end of 1797; consider how many letters Mrs. Taylor hath sent you by her servant; and how many Mrs. Symond's children. Now I have living witnesses, as it is known to you, that copied off the letters that I put into your hands; and of a particular instance in 1796, the perfect truth of 1797, of Italy and England; the truth of the harvests of 1799 and the 1800; and the truth of the harvest of 1801; with many other weighty and true prophecies, that are now upon the Earth. All these you promised faithfully you would return, for me or against me; and you never told me in your life you had destroyed them; but you told me they were all safe. But, when I demanded them in 1802, you told Mr. Taylor you had burnt them; and said I had written you a severe letter for doing it. And when Mr. Taylor reproved you, you said you were persuaded to do it. Now you say I desire of you 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

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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 it 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 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 cut it 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 Jere

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miah, in the 28th verse: "Take thee again an

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