against you; so that your character will be trampled on by those, whose opinion, or rather ridicule, you have been such a slave to, as to make you betray the confidence of an innocent woman, who treated you with every respect, and placed in you the most implicit faith. You believed her to be a good woman, and an innocent woman; now you are trying to make her appear an impostor. But every one's character in a court of justice is of some value; and your conduct has forced her to take this step. The publicity of the proceedings in a court of justice must justify her conduct; and her duty to her God is of too sacred a na ture to make her disobedient to his commands. Had you, Sir, the fortitude to treat with con+ tempt the mockery and ridicule of ignorant people, whether in a coffee-house, or at any other place, and considered your dignity, as a minister, in its proper point of view, you would not have suspected Joanna to have been led by the devil, after having encouraged her to proceed. You must remember, when myself and six other gentlemen first came to Exeter, that the three clergymen waited on you with Joanna: the Rev. Mess. Bruce, Foley, and Webster. As soon as you heard that the letter you had written to the printer in London, in which you forbid him to print, or make public your name in Joanna's Book of Letters, was at Exeter, you particularly desired that very letter to be returned to you again. Now, Sir, as soon as your wish was made known to me I gave it up; and it was conveyed safely into your hands. I would ask you, Sir, in the name of justice or honour, by what right can you withhold the letters and papers that Joanna placed in your hands, which she had copied at a great expense to herself, by your request, when she could ill afford the money, even if you were under no

express condition to return them to her when you
was called upon? As a gentleman, you ought to
comply, as I did, when your request was made
known to me. I was not bound to return you
that letter. It could be no breach of trust on my
part, if I had refused your request; my con-
science would not have been wounded by such
refusal I was not in the situation you have been
placed in, with an innocent woman. Your breach
of trust with Joanna, no one can justify; and all
persons who have read the account of this trans-
action condemn you; whether they believe in her
visitation or not, all alike condemn you. And
when the proceedings of a court of justice are laid
before the public, what can the world say of your
character as a man, your duty as a clergyman of
the church of England Your being afraid of
the slander and mockery of fools, in order to have
the praise of fools, must sink you very low in-
deed! You ought to be their spiritual teacher,
and to have resisted their impertinent mockery.
The character of a minister of the gospel they
ought to have held in respect. Now view the
conduct of Joanna towards you and the clergy
on the one hand, and view. the conduct of these
nen, whose praise you fear to lose, on the other;
then examine your own heart and mind to find
out who is your true and faithful friend. I need
say no more. The different pictures are before
yourview. Joanna has a duty to perform to herself;
she has a sacred duty to perform to her God,
and the truth she cannot give up; and when
her trial comes there must be nothing withheld.
I am, Rev. Sir,

Your sincere friend and well-wisher,
WILLIAM SHARP.

P. S. It is not too late for you to withdraw yourself from your present unfortunate dilemma; you

may now pursue a noble line of conduct; throw off your chains of worldly applause, restore to Joanna her papers, and unite with her friends, with an independent mind, only to search out what is true.

Mr. Pomeroy's Answer.

SIR,
Oct. 4, 1804.
Though I have neither time nor inclination to
answer the many strange letters I have received
respecting J. Southcott, that you may not sup-
pose me capable of treating any gentleman's
letter with contempt, I take the first opportunity
to assure you, that, (except one just received,) I
have no letters, or writings whatever of, or belong-
ing to, that deluded, ungrateful woman. She
herself knew this near two years since, so that to
charge me with having any of her papers now, is
to deceive the public, and wantonly to traduce
my character. As to the menacing part of your
letter, I wish to observe, that though it is impos-
sible to produce what I am not possessed of, I
shall be ready at all times, and in all places, to
bear my testimony to what appears to me to be
the truth; to vindicate my aspersed and injured
character, and to maintain my opinion, with re-
spect to the farrago of sense and nonsense, of
scripture and blasphemy, contained in her pre-
tended prophecies; that such incoherent matter
never could proceed from a sound mind, or from
the pure spirit of wisdom. You are pleased to sign
yourself my sincere friend and well-wisher; prove
the sincerity of your profession, by exerting your
influence to restrain her, and her printer, from the
malevolent employment of exposing and vilifying
my name, in such an unprecedented, and illegal

manner, in direct violation of her own solemn promise; and by prevailing on her to desist from publishing, with such misrepresentation and shocking perversion, the confidential conversation, which at the earnest request of her friends, and out of compassion to the disordered state of her mind, I was induced to permit her to hold with me. In short, Sir, if you are possessed of a christian spirit, or even of humanity; if you have any regard for her, or her cause, you will immediately exert your interest and authority to prevent this unhappy woman from disgracing her own pretentions, and violating the laws of God and man, by thus continuing to add to the irreparable, and inconceivable injuries she has already done to the respectable name, and sacred character of Sir, yours, &c.

J. P. P.S. You will excuse my answering any future letters.

To the Rev. J. Pomeroy, Bodmin, Cornwall. REV. SIR,

The Lord hath commanded me, once more, to write unto you from the words of Samuel, the fol lowing texts: First Book of Samuel, 15th chapter, beginning at the 22d verse, to the end, "And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stub bornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed

the commandment of the Lord and thy words; because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, I pray, thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. And Samuel said unto him, the Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou. And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man that he should repent. Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord thy God. So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the Lord. Then said Samuel, bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, as thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel." And now I shall send you the words of the Lord given to Joanna and sent to me, as I had sent her a copy of your letter to me, which she submitted to the wisdom of the Lord; who graciously speaks to her, the same as he did in times of old, like one man speaking to another