I SHALL begin this Book with the advertisement sent to be put in Bell's Weekly Messenger of Sunday, the 29th of May, but which was refused insertion.

"In the Third and Fourth Books of Wonders, Joanna Southcott announced to the world, that she should have a Son this year, in the sixtyfifth year of her age, by the power of the Most High.

"Whatever mockery the announcing of such an event may cause amongst mankind, or however wonderful it may appear, there is the most satisfactory evidence that it will be realized. This proof is established upon the testimony of the three women, being mothers of children, who have all along attended her; and upon their examination by two medical gentlemen, as to the symptoms which have taken place in Joanna Southcott, from the 17th of March to the 26th of May, whose decided opinion thereon is, that if such symptoms were in a young woman, she must be pregnant of a living child."

Now I shall begin to answer the mockery of the world, from the words of Paul, Acts xiii. 40, 41.- Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets; behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye, shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.

But why should they not believe? The prophets tell them because of their sins God gave them up to the hardness of their hearts. Psalm lxxxi. 11, 12.-" But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of

me. So I gave them up to their own hearts' lust; and they walked in their own counsels."

As it was in those days, so it is now, from the mockery I am informed of, from different places. They invent lies, and believe them; but the truth they will not believe, if it be told them. The first invention I shall notice is, their saying, that I shall contrive to have a child brought in a warming-pan; others say that there are young women in the house, who are with child, and their child will be imposed on the public as mine; another said, that I could easily buy a child from the workhouse, and Townley and Underwood would lend their aid in the imposition.

In these inventions they have shewn their own folly, in supposing that we have so little respect to our characters, as to have recourse to such foolish expedients of deception, which must necessarily be exposed, if the child announced by me should not be born as promised, to bring in blessings to mankind. Then the practising of such inventions, as they have thought of, must not only bring a curse upon ourselves, but an everlasting disgrace that could never be forgotten. The world do not know me, Townley, nor Underwood.

Here I think it necessary to notice what men have reported of the property I am worth, and to reason with them upon their own grounds. My sister Carter told me, at Bristol, in 1809, that the report was in Ortery, that I was worth ten thousand pounds; another told me, that he hath heard the same report at another place; and, after the death of Mr. Cosins, I have been informed that the world have magnified it to fifteen thousand. And now, to shew the folly of these inventions, I shall let them know in what manner I made my

will. When I looked forward to nothing more than the awful trial, and my death to follow, before this revelation came to me, that I should have a child, "I made my will in the following manner: after leaving a legacy to my brother and sister, to be paid at my death, and an annuity as long as they lived, with a few legacies to other relatives, and some legacies and tokens of love to my faithful friends, who have shewn kindness to me, and stood faithfully by me ever since I left Devonshire; after leaving these legacies and tokens of love, which did not amount to more than a thousand pounds; then all the residue of this great fortune, which the world say I am in possession of, I had left entirely to Mrs. Jane Townley, and Mrs. Ann Underwood, as we have lived together ten years; and, as a mark of my gratitude for their having done every thing in their power to make me happy; and from their having written all the communications given to me, ever since we have lived together, both for the press, and in letters to my friends; their giving up the world, and confining themselves to be with me; and their having made it their study to alleviate my sorrows and sufferings, under every abuse, that I have had to pass through, from an unbelieving and malicious world, which hath wounded me greatly by their false inventions to injure my character. And, when I reflect on the kind attention and affection which they have shewn to me through all the persecution I have had to go through, if I could forget their love, then I must have forgotten myself, and have an ungrateful wicked heart, to bring in a stranger's child, if I could do it without any one's know. ledge. But here men must be void of common sense and reason, if they suppose that Townley

and Underwood would aid in such an imposition, and which must so speedily come to a disgraceful end and I am now answered respecting the putting the purport of my will in print as follows: "I have led thee on in darkness, to bring to light the ignorance of foolish men; and it was for this reason that I worked in thee to make thy will, at a time when thou hast looked forward to death and now I have ordered thee to put it in print, to shame and confound thy infamous accusers: for greater infamy could never be invented, and blacker crimes could not be done, than what they invented, that thou, Townley, and Underwood, would contrive to do for to mock both God and man."

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Here I have answered the inventions of some men; but, as Solomon observes, men have sought out many inventions, I shall in the next place notice what one Besley, a printer, in South-street, Exeter, hath said in two hand-bills, which he hath printed against me and against the Spirit I am visited by. As he makes a mockery of the millennium, and calls Brice, the printer of my first book, a man of good sense, whom he allows to be a Deist; from such expressions, I can only judge that he holds the same opinions as Brice did; therefore I shall not enter into scriptural arguments with such men; but I shall take Besley upon his own grounds, to shew him his folly, that out of his own mouth he stands condemned.

He saith, I am told her followers are become numerous, that she has a genteel establishment, and a chapel built solely for the use of her disciples."

This information I acknowledge to be true; for I am very comfortably situated; I have a number of respectable and worthy friends; and there is

not only one chapel built in Duke-street, Westminster-road, but another at Greenwich, and ano ther at Twickenham, for the accommodation of those who believe in the scriptures and the fulfilment thereof. And it was my firm belief in the Gospel that caused me to believe in the Spirit as being a visitation from the Lord, according to our Saviour's words; and it was from obeying the Spirit, and following his directions, that brought me into this situation, and fulfilled the promises made to me in ninety-four. So I have proved the truth of that Spirit, which Besley says is a lying spirit, a mere idle devil. But his expressions are too blasphemous for me to bring them forward. Did I not know better of the Spirit by experience, for more than forty years, than Besley knoweth for me, can any one suppose that I should have published the Third Book of Wonders from a Spirit that I could place no depend ence upon, that announces an event, which if it doth not take place, must throw all my genteel establishment to the ground, and leave me destitute of those numerous followers that he says I have got? Here I appeal to the public for their judgment, whether they think any woman would run such a hazard as I have, if I had not sure grounds to rely on the Spirit that I am led by? But Besley's folly shews me the wisdom of a man's observation, who said, that there was all manner of sense in the world; good sense, and nonsense; but common sense was wanting; for that was scarce to be found. And common sense is wanting in Besley; for, if he had had common sense, he would have known, and reason would have told him, that no woman would have run the hazard that I have, without having strong and sure grounds to rely upon the truths of the Spirit,