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The mission of Joanna began in 1792, at which time she had prophecies given her, shewing how the whole was to be accomplished. Among other things, the Lord said he should visit the surrounding nations with various calamities for fifteen years, as a warning to this land; and that then he should bring about events here which should more clearly manifest the truth of her mission, by judgments and otherwise; so that this should be the happy nation to be the first redeemed from its troubles, and be the instrument for awakening the rest of the world to a sense of what is coming upon all, and for destroying the Beast, and those who worship his image!"

Such is the account of the opinions of Joanna Southcott sent me for insertion: it may not be improper to add, that this lady has recourse to pictures by way of illustrating the visions with which she favours the world. She used to travel with these representations of the pencil; and they were held up by a person standing at the corner of the pulpit while she minutely explained them. The Papists, who are very partial to paintings, call them the Books of the Unlearned; and therefore we must not wonder that they should be adopted by any sect for the diffusion of instruction amongst the multitude! There is certainly a novelty in this plan of teaching, cal

culated to attract attention; and though I understand that the paintings here used are very unfinished performances, somewhat like the good lady's poetry, yet they are thought sufficiently correct for the purposes to which they are devoted. We do not find that Joanna Southcott and her followers are particularly fond of music like the Swedenborgians, otherwise we might close with the observation, that this singular female is determined, so far to gratify the popular taste, as to call in to her aid the sister arts of painting, music, and poetry!

We shall close our list of DENOMINATIONS with an account of that discriminating article of belief, which refers to the final triumphs of Christianity. Its advocates are not indeed a sect distinct from others, but their tenet prevails in a less or greater degree throughout almost every department of the religious world.

MILLENARIANS.

THE Millenarians are those who believe that Christ will reign personally on earth for a thousand years; and their name, taken from the Latin, mille, a thousand, has a direct allusion to

the duration of this spiritual empire. "The doctrine of the Millennium, or a future paradisaical state of the earth, (says a monthly reviewer) is not of Christian, but of Jewish origin. The tradition is attributed to Elijah, which fixes the duration of the world in its present imperfect condition to six thousand years, and announces the approach of a sabbath of a thousand years of universal peace and plenty, to be ushered in by the glorious advent of the Messiah! This idea may be traced in the epistle of Barnabas, and in the opinions of Papias, who knew of no written testimony in its behalf. It was adopted by the Author of the Revelations, by Justin Martyr, by Irenæus, and by a long succession of the fathers. As the theory is animating and consolatory, and, when divested of cabalistic numbers and allegorical decorations, probable even in the eye of philosophy, it will no doubt always retain a number of adherents*."

It is somewhat remarkable, that DRUIDISM, the religion of the first inhabitants of this island, had a particular reference to the progressive melioration of the human species. A notion of a Millennium seems to have been familiar to their minds, and therefore forms a striking coincidence with Christianity. The tenets of Druidism (which also include the doctrine of universal restoration) are far from being extinct in the principality. See a sketch of the system of Druidism, in some POEMS, by Edward Williams, the Welch bard, in two volumes. And the Rev. W. Richards, of Lynn, means to take up the subject in the Introduction to his Cambrian Biography.

But as the MILLENNIUM has for these few years past attracted the attention of the public, we shall enter into a short detail of it.

Mr. Joseph Mede, Dr. Gill, Bishop Newton, and Mr. Winchester, contend for the personal reign of Christ on earth. To use that prelate's own words, in his Dissertations on the Prophecies:-" When these great events shall come to pass, of which we collect from the prophecies, this to be the proper order :-the Protestant witnesses shall be greatly exalted, and the 1260 years of their prophesying in sackcloth, and of the tyranny of the beast, shall end together; the conversion and restoration of the Jews succeed; then follows the ruin of the Othman empire; and then the total destruction of Rome and of Antichrist. When these great events, I say, shall come to pass, then shall the kingdom of Christ commence, or the reign of the saints upon earth. So Daniel expressly informs us, that the kingdom of Christ and the saints will be raised upon the ruins of the kingdom of Antichrist, vii. 26, 27. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end: and the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominion shall serve

and obey him. So likewise St. John saith, that, upon the final destruction of the beast and the false prophet, Rev. xx. Satan is bound for a thousand years; and I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus Christ and for the word of God; which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image; neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a THOUSAND years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. It is, I conceive, to these great events the fall of Antichrist, the re-establishment of the Jews, and the beginning of the glorious MILLENNIUM, that the three different dates in Daniel of 1260 years, 1290 years, and 1335 years, are to be referred. And as Daniel saith, xii. 12, Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh the 1335 years; so St. John saith, xx. 6, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. Blessed and happy indeed will be this period; and it is very observable, that the martyrs and confessors of Jesus, in Papist as well as Pagan times, will be raised to partake of this felicity. Then shall all those gracious promises in the Old Testament be fulfilled-of the amplitude and extent, of the peace and prosperity, of the glory and happi

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