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could recognise the description of U the woman clothed with the sun , and the moon under her feet , and upon her head a crown of twelve stars / ' Rev . -xii . 1 ? This symbolical yvoman represented as having a child , suggests to Joanna Southcott the wild notion that this also would be fulfilled
in herself by supernatural influence , in the 65 th year of her age , and that she should bring forth the illustrious son whom she supposed to T > e referred to in the prophecy . Great expectations were hereby raised among her followers . The period they thought
was near , when they ** the saints would inherit the earth , " and some of them had already fixed on the pleasant habitations in which they should reside . The critical time came , -when , however , instead of having the promised Shiloh , the prophetess finds her end approaching , and expresses
her apprehensions that she had been labouring under a delusion with respect to her inspiration and prophecies being divine . In this awful and unexpected situation , she must appear to every feeling mind as an object of tender pity . Her mental disease being somewhat abated , she could not but
sensibly feel the uneasy reflection , that she had been greatly deceived herself , and instrumental in deceiving -others . She dies , but even her death with the circumstances attending and
succeeding it , has not opened the eyes of some , at least , of her old followers , and convinced them of their having been the dupes of their own implicit credulity .
The writer of the letter before me declares , " it has pleased God to give me as it were immediately from himself man y manifest proofs of the truth of Joanna Southcott ' s works . ' * These however he does not specify , but
speaking of his son he says , ' < Our bfessed L . ord many times appeared to him in the eighth and ninth years of his age , and among other things declared to him , that himself dictated to J . S . what she should write . In
addition to this , my son has also , when she has been writing , frequently seen our Lord standing by her , and communicating to her what she should pen down . " He maintains that the prophetess had really a child , but that "it was purely spiritual , notwithstanding its having a human bod y / 1 and that " she must have carried
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this child into heaven in the womb of the soul , in order that she might there be delivered . ' * Is this writer to be classed among the materialists or immaterialists ? I shall add one extract more . " It is my firm belief that this her child will return at Hi *
appointed time to this earth in a visible form , and will fill the throne of David in Jerusalem , and there sit and govern all nations ; and this is none other than the incarnation of the Holy Ghost or the Comforter , whom Christ declared that he would send to his disciples , that he might abide with them for ever . "
Some positions are so very absurd and extravagant , that it would be a waste of time to attempt confuting them . This is the case , I think , with respect to the reveries of Joanna Southcott and her followers . To
reason with such persons , who suppose themselves to be under the guidance of divine inspiration , and to hold daily supernatural intercourse with heaven , would be as ineffectual as recommending composure of mind to a man in the delirium of a fever .
To guard others however against delusions of this kind , let them consider what ground they have to expect that God will , by his immediate influence , communicate to them the knowledge of those doctrines which are contained in his written word , or any other religious truths not to be therein found ,
or the meaning of such obscure prophecies , as the events only to which they refer , were designed to elucidate . We are indeed encouraged to hope for all needful divine aid , if we
devoutly pray for it to the Father of lights , in our sincere endeavours to know the will of God , in arduous duties , in perplexing difficulties , in pressing temptations and heavy afflictions , as our several cases and
circumstances may require . To expect more than this , to expect to be favoured tvith immediate individual revela tions and celestial visions , like some of the inspired prophets of old , is groundless presumption .
Let me present to the reader a serious inquirer after religious truth * and introduce to him certain descriptions of Christians , that he m « Sht examine their respective pretensions , in order to attain the important objec ^ he has in view . Behold , some app * before him who begin with excw
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S 40 Mr . Howe ' s Observations on Modern Religious Enthusiasm .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1815, page 540, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1764/page/8/
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