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Her books are written principally in a sort of low rhyme in the common ballad style, which are altogether ungrammatical, but which she maintains to be the language of the Spirit of God. So infatuated are her advocates, that some of them who have had a collegiate education, and who are devoted in life to officiate in sacred things, have the weakness to declare, that this scribbling is finer than the poetry of Homer. That the reader may judge whether the reverend gentlemen are justified in giving her rhyme so high a character, I have selected the following lines:

SPIRIT.

"Simple among the sons of men

I always did appear;

And simple in the woman's form

I've surely acted here."

Again,

SPIRIT.

"If you can judge the heav'nly sound,
Such woman ne'er on earth was found,
To give such challenge unto man
And say that I am in her form.

Look, here's a woman, now believe it true,
That here's a woman taken from my side,

That I've declared to man to be my bride.

I have changed the manhood and the Godhead's here."

SPIRIT.

Joanna, Joanna, I'll answer again,

Thy words and thy wisdom will ever remain
Enrolled in heav'n and publish'd on earth.

Ye men of learning, mark well what she saith.
In simple weakness all this was done at first,
But now in power and wisdom all must burst."

Thus she also pretends to prophesy from the audible voice of the Spirit of God, in answer to the dreams, follies and whims, of those who countenance these tales. With all this train of blasphemies, it is scarcely possible to suppose, that men could have been found weak and → vain enough to believe the impious declarations, contained in this woman's pamphlets. But the blindness of fallen human nature, when led by its own spirit, is such, that scripture and reason are rejected, and that most abominable of all pride, viz. that of pretending to an immediate conversation with the awful Majesty of heaven, is set up in their stead.

WILHELMINA OF BOHEMIA.

This Bohemian lady presumed to have an immediate intercourse with Heaven, got together a considerable number of followers, and though it is said, "other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ;" yet she persuaded many, that the Holy Spirit had become incarnate in her, to save a great part of mankind.

She evaded the force of the arguments of her opponents, respecting the application of the redemption by Christ, to all descriptions of people, by saying, that he came only to save believing Christians; but that through the Holy Spirit which dwelt in her, Jews, unbelieving Christians and Pagans, were to obtain salvation: that as

Christ was made manifest in her, all the particulars which are recorded to have been done by him, were to be again done by her, as proof of the truth of her mission.

MUGGLETONIANS.

Lodowick Muggleton, an Englishman, by trade a tailor, in the year 1657, began to hold forth strange opinions, and for a time was followed by a few ignorant persons, and they were called after him Muggletonians. With him was associated a person of the name of Reeves, who declared, that Christ had spoken to him from the throne of his glory, saying, "I have given thee understanding of my mind, in the scriptures, above all the men in the world; I have chosen thee my last messenger, for a great work unto this bloody, unbelieving world, and I have given thee Lodowick Muggleton to be thy mouth."

Thus they declared themselves to be great prophets, and that their mission was altogether spiritual. They publicly preached themselves to be the Lord's two last witnesses, mentioned in the Revelation, who were to make their appearance some short time before the personal coming of Christ, and the end of the world. They denied the doctrine of the Trinity, and affirmed that God the Father, who was in the form of a man, came down from heaven and suffered in a human body.

ATHEISTS.*

Though the Atheist cannot be classed with any sect of religious professors, he being

"Farther remov'd from God and light of heav'n,”

than the most abandoned libertine; yet it seems proper, in a work of this nature, to say something concerning this description of men, if there be any such in reality. For I have no doubt, however the professing Atheist may deny the existence of a Supreme Being, that in his moments of serious contemplation, he is frequently troubled on account of his impious profession; and being altogether in a state of uncertainty as to the truth of his declarations, he often trembles at the awful consequences, lest he should be one of that number mentioned in sacred writ, viz. "The wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God."

In all ages, there have been those, who have professed to believe, that all things were produced without the creative influence of the Creator, that creation in all its beauteous and harmonious order, rose from chaotic confusion, the offspring of chance! thus we find it on record in the sacred scripture, "the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." Also among the Greeks and Romans, this opinion has been professed by some, and in the different nations of Europe at the present day, there are men who profess to believe, that there is no God:

* See DR. VALPY's Address to his Parishioners, 3d edition. p. 9.

but they are men of bad lives, and subverters even of the moral precepts of the heathens.

Men of this description always have erred, and still continue to confuse themselves, in thinking of the beginning of God, for in thinking of God, they have thought. of him agreeably to the powers with which they were endowed, which are only finite and created; whereas God is infinite and uncreated; and exceeds, infinitely exceeds, every idea of the human mind, as to his being and perfections. Consequently, those who endeavour to form ideas of God, as to his essence, think from what is finite and created, which involves a beginning, but which cannot be so respecting God. Thus they are confused in thinking concerning the divine essence, or Jehovah, who had no beginning: for he is self-essent, selfexistent, infinite, eternal and uncreated; unsearchable, incomprehensible! And thus, because by the exertion of their finite powers, they have not been capable of comprehending infinity, and a beginning; they have from the pride of their self-derived intelligence, concluded that there is no God.

In the Bible, a beginning is introduced, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth :" but it should be remembered, that this passage refers only to the origin of this world. The same sacred pages inform us, that when this world was created, other creations were in existence. 'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.' When these men view this world, which without variation performs its revolutions, and consider by what power those immense bodies, the planets, one of which is ascertained to be a thousand times larger than the earth, are supported in

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