Letters of Prophecy, by Joanna Southcott.

LETTER VII.

The following are the words of the Lord respecting the conduct of the Bishops.

"Two months thou hast been warning the Bishops; once by the private letter and book; to which they were silent; then I ordered thee to warn them in the public newspapers, and gave them liberty to come to thee; or they might have sent to Pomeroy, and ordered him to come to thee, to convince thee that thy visitation was wrong, if the language of his heart was different from what thou hadst been informed of by me; as then to his judgment thou must have given up; for this power I put in their hands. But, as they have refused either to come to thee, to judge for theirselves, or to send for him to decide the cause; I now tell thee, my appointed time is up; and my strict command is now to thee to call Pomeroy forward, to answer, between God and his own conscience, whether the words are true or not, that I told thee concerning him. For, as he said that the Lord would bring thee into judgment for injuring his character, he shall know it is I the Lord who bringeth him into judgment, to judge between the wisdom of man and the wisdom of the Lord. Know, he said it was through the persecution and persuasions of men that he was made to destroy the letters which I ordered thee to put in his hands. Then now let him look to the words of the Apostle. 1 Cor. i. 19.-" For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. The world by wisdom knoweth not God." He hath followed the wisdom of the world; thou hast rejected the wisdom of the world, to follow on to know the Lord: then

know it is written, Ye shall know the Lord, if ye follow on to know him. And now, by the' different conduct of you two, shall the truth of this Scripture be established; to stand or fall. Therefore my answer must go into the public paper, that, as the Bishops have refused to come forward to be any judges of my visitation to thee, as it was required, so I now forbid them all from coming to thee, till thou hast had Pomeroy's answer. For it must now be decided between him and thee alone; and when thou hast made every thing clear before him; then let him pass his final judgment. And if he then say it is from the devil; then to his judgment thou shalt give up thy cause; and ask his pardon in the public paper, for disgracing his character, if he can prove that thou art wrong, and that he is right, But in acting according to the wisdom of man. this cannot be decided by letter: he must appear in person, and have every thing laid before him. But he will have none to contend with but thee only; and thou shalt have none to contend with but him only, until he hath decided, which is wrong, and which is right.

"And now, I tell thee, it will be fatal for him, if he now refuses to come forward, and judge for himself-to decide between him and thee: for in this he is called to judge between God and man. So that I have laid no heavy burden upon him, to contend with the great and learned, before every thing is made clear before him.-And now let him call to his remembrance the Eleven Days, that I said were in store, to stay my heavy hand; but he must not stay till they are up. This is my command to him. Let him hastily prepare for his journey, as soon as he receives the newspaper, which I have ordered thee to send to him. As the Bishops have not called him forward, let him know, I the Lord have

called him, to decide the truth of the Prophecy, which I ordered thee to send to the Bishops." This warning is given from the Lord to me. JOANNA SOUTHCOTT

Wednesday, Dec. 1st, 1813.

A Communication given, November 13th, 1813, in answer to a Text preached by the Rev. Mr. Pomeroy, in March, 1799.

1 Corinthians iii. 11. "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."

I was ordered to mark what follows the text, in the 12th verse-" If any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, stubble; every man's works shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's works abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's works shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."

The ANSWER of the SPIRIT.

"Now I shall answer thee from this chapter, and begin from the building. See the different ways it is placed by the Apostle. GOLD is one thing; but know what is said of gold-dross may be found mixed with the gold, when it is tried by the fire; and so a man's faith may be fixed upon the foundation of my Gospel, that no man can lay another foundation for his redemption, but by pleading my merit and mercies, to come and die for the redemption of man. Thus a man's faith may be built upon the Gospel, as gold; yet when it comes to be tried, like gold, by the fire, there is some dross may be found amongst it, unless it

be the true gold, that retaineth no dross. Now come to SILVER, which is of less value, yet it may be a mark of some faith; as ye see in the world at large, and among the professors of religion, who say they believe that Christ came to die for the salvation of man, and that all was finished when he expired on the cross. Here the silver will not bear the fire, without much dross appearing, when I bring them back to my Gospel-that I came to seek and to save that which was lost-that by the fall MAN was lost-that I should come again and restore that loss-that I should take out of my kingdom all that offended and did wickedly-that I died to overcome the world, and bring in the redemption of man-that I should send the Spirit of Truth to warn before my coming-that the Comforter should come, that should abide with you for ever. Now, where men have not this faith, the fine gold is become dim, and the silver is mixed with dross. But now come to the PRECIOUS STONE. There is no dross there: there is the PEARL OF GREAT PRICE: there is the ELECT PRECIOUS: there is the FAITH fixed upon the Rock of Ages: there is the FAITH fixed, as I said in my Gospel, of a man's building his house upon a rock, that the storms beat, and the winds blew; but it fell not; because it was builded upon the ROCK; and that rock was CHRIST-Who was with Moses in the wilderness -who smote the rocks, and the waters gushed out-who sent the manna from heaven, and brought them that were obedient into the promised land.

"These were types and shadows of the first. And know, I have explained to thee already why the Beasts were ordered to be offered up, as sinofferings, and as peace-offerings; and why I rended the kingdom from Saul-because he did not destroy the Beasts, as I commanded. For thou knowest, as a beast, Satan's curse was pro

nounced, in the form of a serpent, to be above every beast. But when I come to bring in my kingdom; then those who wish to preserve the Beast and have him remain will have my kingdom rended from them, as I rended the kingdom from Saul. For as I ordered a Lamb to be slain, and the blood to be put on the posts of the doors, that it might be seen, when the destroying angel went through Egypt, when I delivered the children of Israel from the hand of Pharaoh, that these stood but types and shadows of the end. And know from my Gospel, I came to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world: for as the blood of ABEL crieth for vengeance, so the blood of CHRIST crieth for reconciliation; therefore it is written by the prophets that the blood of bulls and goats will not do; then said I, lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Then let them look to the creation, what was the wILL of GOD, when he created the woMAN; what was the WILL of GOD, when he pronounced the curse upon the serpent, for betraying the woman. When the eyes of men's understanding are opened this to discern, and their faith is become like thine, they may say, he that trusteth in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, that cannot be moved: for as the hills stand round about Jerusalem, so the Lord standeth round about his people, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against them-that he carries the lambs in his bosom, and gently leads those that are with young-that whosoever come unto ME, I will in no wise cast them out-that I am the VINE, and ye are the BRANCHES; and if ye abide in ME, ye shall bear much fruit: for I died to overcome the world, and raise up my true friends and followers in the last day; and then shall I freely give them all things.

"This is the FAITH that is compared to the

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