be clothed; your old men,

"And after that they have spread a mist before their eyes, and instilled a poison into their ears, they fhall say unto them; you have indeed neither bread to eat, nor raiment wherewithal you may and your young children, and your mothers that give suck, have perifhed for hunger; your brothers have been driven out from amongst you, to beg their bread in strange lands; your market places are empty; your fhops and work houses unoccupied; the credit of your merchants faileth, for their stocks have melted away: yet are you great, and happy, and glorious; for we are your masters; and it is good for you to be our servants.

And, lo! in their blindness, and in the simplicity of their hearts, and in the extremity of their misery, divers of the people shall be persuaded, and fhall think that those things are so.

"Then fhall those wicked rulers take council together, saying one to another, this is a simple people, and they are willing to be our servants, and to throw their lives away at our bidding. Come, let us gather unto us great armies, and send them out against the nations, to the north, and to the south, to the east, and to the west. We will first send out spies through the kingdoms; and the spies fhall search out the idle, and the profligate, and the unprincipled, and the simple; and fhall say unto them, why linger thou thus?" Behold what has been done amongst us ! Every ruler hath been abased, and every great one hath been brought low. And those who were, like you, despised and rejected, are now governors in the land. Go ye, do likewise, and lo! our armies fhall be sent forth to help you. And they will doubtlefs be persuaded. Then will we send forth our armies, and they fhall fight against the nations; and those men who have listened unto our spies fhall be joined unto them. Then fhall the nations

be discomfitted before us; and we fhall subdue the whole earth. Then will we take those who fhall have

been persuaded by our spies to join themselves unto us, and we will cut them secretly off by poison, and by the sword; and whosoever exalteth himself in our own armies, or among the people of our own land; to him will we do in like manner. Then fhall we be lords of the whole earth; and we will sit down to eat and to drink; and will take unto ourselves the fields, and the flocks, and the houses, and the vineyards, and the wives, and the daughters, and the man servants, and the maid servants, of those whom we have slain, or sent into banishment, or who have fallen in our battles; and our souls fhall be satisfied to the full, of all that our hearts desire.

against them.

And they

"And those men fhall do as they have said unto one another, and fhall 'prosper for a season; but their own devices fhall at length be turned fhall at length be taken in their own snares, and shall be cut off from the face of the land; and after long tribulation, the land fhall have peace.

"But it fhall come to pafs, that when those wicked men send out their spies among the nations, they shall send divers of them into THIS ISLAND.

"And those who come hither, fhall immediately begin, to practise their secret devices, and to work by sorcery and incantation.

"And they fhall draw unto them whosoever is simple, and all that are vain, and light, and profligate, and void of truth, and of understanding. And whosoever is for his folly or wickedness despised among his brethren, and whosoever hath made himself vile in the eyes of the people, fhall make haste to join himself unto them.

Then fhall these men learn from those spies, their wicked arts of deceit and of sorcery; and there fhall be

great joy and friendship among them. For the spies fhall rejoice in the blindness and weak credulity of those whom they have seduced; and that they are bent as reeds, and are twisted about as noses of wax in their hands! While awicked men of this land, fhall imagine men whose devices may promote their purposes and who have no interest to seek but their's. And they fhall lie unto one another, no less than each to their own heart.

gain the weak and

those spics to be

And in those days there fhall come a certain man from the west. He fhall be a person of a strange and perverse mind; the spirit of the wicked one shall be strong within him. And all that see him, shall say, surely it was a truth which our father's told us, that Satan hath been, at times, permitted of the Lord, to enter into the breasts of persons who sought to deliver themselves up to work wickedness and to devise evil devices.

And the evil spirit which hath taken possession of that poor man, fhall torment him very sore; and he shall speak from his mouth, words of blasphemy and folly, and he shall call himself the prince of peace and the preacher of rights.

To the weak, he shall say, that they are strong; to the foolish, that they are wise; and to the vicious, that they are the children of virtue.

"And he shall gnafh his teeth, and speak with bitter rage against kings and dignities.

And at the very name of king, he shall be provoked and agitated, yea, even as a turkeycock is moved at the sight of a bit of scarlet.

And lo! there fhall be gathered about him all who bave devised evil imaginations, or who have accustomed themselves to speak vain words; those who have uttered foolish things in the market places, or in night cellars, or

Jan. 3c who have spoken unbecomingly in the afsembly of the counsellors of the land, or in the meetings of the merchants, or in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the congregation, or before the judges. And they fhall bear what wicked words the evil spirit that pofsefseth him uttereth by his lips; and they shall hear how the wickednefs, and the absurdity, and the audacity, and the indecency of what he saith, exceedeth all the wickedness, the absurdity, the audacity, and the indecen cy of speech, by which they had distinguished themselves.

"Then shall they say unto one another, truly this is a great and a wonderful man; for he excelleth ourselves in those things, in which we are excellent among men; come, let us hearken unto him, and let us become his disciples, and followers, and worshippers; and he shall be unto us for a leader and a prophet and a god.

"Then fhall these foolish and wicked persons do as they have said; and shall strive to make gain unto themselves by the blasphemies of the evil spirit speaking from within' him.

And all the vain and evil men hall take council together. The spies who have been

might stir up; and the vain persons who have listened greedily to the words of him that is pofsefsed of the devil,

C

"And they fhall consider how they may easiest disturb. the peace of the land; and how they may most readily do evil by means of their enchantments and sorceries; and how they may best spread wide, the faith of him whom they have chosen unto themselves for a prophet, and for a god. And the evil spirit fhall prophecy falsely in the middle of them, to deceive them.

"And the enchanters and sorcerers fhall say, we will by our enchantments spread a thick mist over the whole land. And no man fhall be any longer able to discern things clearly, Their eyes untrue colours; and their ears fhall be alarmed by vain

noises.

*

*

*

"And the evil spirit, speaking from within him that is pofsefsed of the devil, fhall persuade them that they may prevail, and fhall say that he will, by his power and prophecies, draw all men unto them.

*

*

"Then shall these men, having thus determined among themselves, spread themselves through the land. "And they hall call themselves by the name of and fhall cry aloud unto all the people to come and join themselves unto them; and they will be their leaders, and will exalt them over the heads of those whom they have hitherto obeyed.

"They fhall then seek to persuade the people that "they are neither free nor rich, although they have hitherto thought themselves so.

"They fhall tell them that the art of government is so simple and easy, that it may be left to those who are ig norant, and weak, and wicked.

*

*

*

Many other strange and foolish things fhall they say in the ears of the people, by the mouths of their false prophets.

"And divers of the people fhall, in the simplicity of their hearts, listen unto them, and fhall be persuaded, in contradiction to their own feelings, that they are unhappy, and that the country is in distress.

"And those whom they have persuaded by their deluding words, and whom they have bewitched by their sorceries, and who have looked upon him that is pofsefsed by an evil lying spirit, as having a spirit of divination, fhall begin to VOL. Xiii.

Z