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Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert chears;
Prepare the way! a GOD, a GOD appears:'
A GOD, a GOD! the vocal hills reply,
The rocks proclaim th' approaching Deity.
Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies!
Sink down, ye mountains, and, ye vallies rise;
With heads declin'd, ye cedars, homage pay;
Be smooth, ye rocks; ye rapid floods give way!
The SAVIOUR Comes, by ancient bards foretold:
Hear him, ye deaf, and, all ye blind, behold!
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,
And on the sightless eye-ball pour the day:
"Tis he th'obstructed paths of sound shall clear,
And bid new music charm th'unfolding ear:
The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego,
And leap, exulting, like the bounding roe.
No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear,
From ev'ry face he wipes off ev'ry tear.
In adamantine chains shall death be bound,
And Hell's grim tyrant feel th'eternal wound. 3
As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pasture, and the purest air,
Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs,
By day o'ersees them, and by night protects,
The tender lambs he raises in his arms,
Feeds from his hands, and in his bosom warms;
Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage,
The promis'd FATHER of the future age,
No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover'd o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad faulchion in a plowshare end.
Then palaces shall rise; the joyful Son
Shall finish what his short-liv'd SIRE begun;
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
And the same hand that sow'd, shall reap the field.
The swain in barren deserts with surprise

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Sees lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise;
And starts amidst the thirsty wilds to hear

New falls of water murm'ring in the ear.

Chap. xl. 3, 4.-
Chap. xxxv. 5, 6.

Chap. xl. 3, 4.-Chap. iv. 23.-Chap. xliii. 18.
Chap. xl. 11.
5 Chap. ix. 6.

3 Chap. xxv. 8.

6 Chap. ii. 4.

On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste sandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn :

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To leafless shrubs the flow'ry palms succeed,
And od'rous myrtle to the noisome weed.1
The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead,
And boys in flow'ry bands the tiger lead; 3
The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,
And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet.
The smiling infant in his hand shall take
The crested basilisk and speckled snake,
Pleas'd the green lustre of the scales survey,
And with their forky tongue shall innocently play.
Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise!
Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thy eyes!"
See a long race thy spacious courts adorn;
See future sons, and daughters yet unborn,
In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barb'rous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend ; 7
See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings,
And heap'd with products of Sabæan springs!
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,
And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day!
No more the rising sun shall gild the morn,
Nor ev'ning Cynthia fill her silver horn;
But lost, disolv'd in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze
O'erflow thy courts: the LIGHT himself shall shine
Reveal'd, and GOD's eternal day be thine!?
The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
But fix'd his word, his saving pow'r remains;
Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own MESSIAH reigns!

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"And now I shall return to the letter, which I have ordered thee to bring forward, and which no man could understand till now: but as there are many harsh expressions in the letter, because my threatenings were severe if he refused to take

Chap. xxxv. 1, 7.

2 Chap. xli. 19. Chap. Iv. 13. 3 Chap. xi.. 6, 7, 8. 4 Chap. Ixv. 25. 5 Chap. Ix. 1 Chap. Ix. 4. Chap. Ix. 6. 9 Chap. Ix. 19, 20. 19 Chap. li. 6. Chap. liv. 10.

7 Chap. xl. 3.

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thy writings in hand, to bring them out to the world, they may judge those threatenings stand still against him, without discerning that he went through all his office at the first; and though I have tried him every way, by ordering thee to reprove him, and thy friends also, and, as he complains, wearied him out with letters; yet know he hath never acted as a Judas to betray thee in that letter, which no man could understand till now; for though he wrote to thy friends that it was a farago of sense and nonsense; yet he never brought forward that communication, to prove his assertion, as a man of a wicked and malicious heart might have done, to condemn thee, and confound all thy friends; as no one could answer to it. But know, I have tried him every way, by public letters, and by a private interview; therefore I ordered thee to send Hows unto him; but as he did not bring it forward against thee, I have not ordered thee to bring it forward against him, but rather to justify him. If he acknowledges the truth of what I have said, then know I told thee that there is nothing standing against him; as my will was done in him and by him, till the writings went out, for others to judge for theirselves and take the cause in hand; but no man could draw a clear judg ment, to explain that letter of 1797, till now; for what title had I to entrust to any man, to raise him high at that time? Neither could this be done; however high I had raised thee in the world, the title could not come that come that way; but here is the title that I have told thee ofthe COMFORTER's coming, which is the PRINCE OF PEACE, which I have shewn thee, throughout the scripture, how the CHILD is spoken of by the Prophets, and how I spoke of him in my Gospel

a SON to be revealed in the end, to have power and great glory. Then know, the title that is given to the CHILD must be entrusted to the

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adopted FATHER of the CHILD; because he is entrusted to stand in my stead. But now I ask mankind how any one can prove his judgment clear, to say that a marriage is threatened to a man in this prophecy, to bring him low, when I have said that it is to raise him high and give him a title he had not before? Thus none discerned what they read, to judge that the threatenings were for his danger to disgrace himself and family, if he came into the mock marriage here mentioned; and now I tell thee, in like manner, that thousands may read this letter at first, and judge it stood as he judged, without observing what they read: just so do men read the scriptures; and therefore I said, my people perish for want of knowledge; and it is for want of knowledge of the scriptures, the way and manner they must be workéd round to be fulfilled, and the strange events that must take place in the end, before men can prove the Scriptures true, or prove my Gospel true; it is for want of this knowledge of men's not seeing what they read, to understand it aright, that makes men say all is finished, because I said it is finished, when I was on the cross to give up my life for the transgression of man: for then men nor devils could go no further; they had gone to the extent of all their malice, and completely finished it. But know, I told them I should come again, like the father who made the marriage for his son." Here I shall leave the readers to draw their judgment from this book.

From JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. Monday, July 11th, 1814.

LONDON:

Printed by W. MARCHANT, Ingram-Court; and sold by T. HUNTLEY, Dake-Street, Grosvenor-Square; W. TOZER, Chapel-Place, DukeStreet, Westminster-Road, Southwark; also by the Miss EVELEIGHS, St. Sidwell's, Exeter; S. HIRST, Leeds; W. WADMAN, York; JAMES LIGHT, Coventry-Street, Stourbridge; EDMUND Baker, Ilminster; C. BRADLEY, Digbeth, Birmingham; JOHN NESBIT, Gravesend ; and T. TURPIN, Greenwich.

(Price Sixpence.)

ANNOUNCING THE

BIRTH

OF THE

PRINCE OF PEACE,

EXTRACTED FROM THE

WORKS OF JOANNA SOUTHCOTT;

to which are added

A FEW REMARKS THEREON,

MADE BY HERSELF.

THIS collection has been made at the desire of many of the friends, and the object aimed at has been to bring together the most prominent passages which foretel the birth of the PRINCE of PEACE, under his various scriptural appellations, and which, at the same time, could bear no other explanation, though they may have been read over and over again by the believers in the mission of Joanna, without understanding that such a miracle was to be the result and fulfilinent of her mission, until the Third Book of Wonders made its appearance; but, on becoming possessed of this key to her prophecies and to the scriptures, every one became surprised at his own blindness as to things then appearing so very plain.

Brevity being requisite for this plan, a great variety of passages have therefore been omitted, which, having the key before mentioned, may now

W. MARCHANT, Printer,
Ingram-Court, London.

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