MISCELLANE 
destruction been as yet fulfilled, nor 
the dream accomplished. 
This phrensy would have been 
specdily cured in our country ; bread 
and water, a solitary cell, and a 
little wholesome discipline, are spe- 
cifics in such cases, Mark the dif- 
ference in England. No bishop in- 
terferes; she therefore boldly as- 
serts that she has the full consent of 
the bishops to declare that her call 
is from God, because, having been 
called upon to disprove it, they 
keep silent. She who was used to 
earn her daily bread by daily la- 
bouwr, is now taken into the houses 
of her wealthy believers, regarded 
as the most blessed. among women, 
carried from one part of England to 
another, and treated every where 
with reverence little less than idola- 
try. Meantime dictating books as 
fast as her scribes can write them 
down, she publishes them as fast as 
they are written, and the Joannians 
buy them as fast as they are pub- 
lished. Nor is this her only trade. 
The seals in the Revelations fur- 
nished her with a happy hint. She 
calls upon all persons ‘* to sign 
their names for Christ’s glorious and 
peaceable kingdom, to be establish- 
ed and to come upon earth, and his 
will to be done on earth as it is done 
in heaven, and for Satan’s kingdom 
to be destroyed, which is the prayer 
and desire of Joanna Southcott.” 
They who sign this are to be sealed. 
Now if this temporal sealing, which 
is mentioned by St. John in the Re- 
velations, had been understood be- 
fore this time, men would have be- 
gun sealing themselves without the 
visitation of the Spirit; and if she 
had not understood it and explained 
it now, it would have been more 
‘fatal for herself and for all man- 
’ kind than the fall of Eve was. The 
OUS ESSAYS. 1021 . 
mystery of sealing is this: whoso- 
ever signs his name receives a sealed 
letter containing these words: Zhe 
Sealed of the Lord, the Elect, Pre- 
cious, Man’s Redemption, to inherit 
the Tree of Life, to be made Heirs of 
God, and Jowt-heirs with Jesus 
Christ. Signed founna Southcott. 
i know not what the price of this 
initiation is ; but she boasts of hav- 
ing sealed above eight thousand 
persons, so that the trade is a 
thriving one, 
And these things are believed in 
England! in England, where Ca- 
tholic Christians are so heartily de- 
spised for superstition; in England, 
where the people think themselves 
so highly enlightened,—in this coun- 
try of reason and philosophy and 
free inquiry! It is curious to oly 
serve how this*age in which we live 
is denominated by every writer, just 
as its temper accords with his own 
views: with the Infidel, it is the 
Age of Reason; with the Church. 
man, the Age of Infidelity ; with 
the Chemist, the Age of Philoso. 
phy ; with Rulers, the Age of An- 
archy; with the People, the Age of 
Oppression,—every one beholding 
the prospect through a coloured 
glass, and giving it sunshine or shade, 
frost or verdure, according to his 
own fancy; none looking round 
him and seeing it fairly as itis. Yet 
surely if we consider the ignorance 
of the great majority of the English, 
the want of anchorage for their 
faith, the want of able directors for 
their souls, the rapidity with which 
novelties of any kind are circulated 
throughout the country, the eager- 
ness with which the credulous listen 
to every new blasphemy, the con- 
temptuous indifference of the clergy 
to any blasphemy, provided it does 
not immediately threaten themselves, 
the 
