of the existence of bad or good angels, of the immateriality and immortality of the soul, they generally reject; the supposed inspiration of the bible, as a book, they likewise reject, though the origin of revelation, as attested by miracles, and the genuineness, and authenticity of the several writings composing the bible, and developing the history of the communication of God with his creature man, they believe to be established beyond the reach of rational doubt, or enlightened scepticism. Their view of the christian religion is briefly this, that it consists in the worship and reverence of one God, eternal, just and good, and in an obedience to the commands of Jesus, his messenger on earth, who taught the wicked to repent of the error of their ways, and that God was ever ready to receive them; that forms and ordinances, parade and show, were no parts of his system; but that virtue and purity of heart can alone prepare man for a blissful existence beyond the grave; the evidence and the hope of which was furnished by the resurrection of the teacher of their faith, a member of earth, and an heir of mortality!

For some years this society existed almost unnoticed and unknown; they corresponded with several churches whom they considered the most enlight. ened, but, happily as they esteem it, for their own improvement, they united with none. They had now examined, as they apprehended, every important subjeet connected with christianity; they admired the

beauty and simplicity of the christian religion; they felt grateful to the Father of mercies, that they had come to the perfect knowledge of the Son of God, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, and they were anxious to extend their advantages to others. Accordingly they advertised in one of the Sunday papers, their intention of publicly inquiring into the existence of a Being called the Devil, and by way of drawing attention to their advertisement, designated themselves FREETHINKING CHRISTIANS. Numbers flocked to their meeting. The landlord of the place was alarmed, at what he had reason to fear might be the consequences to himself; they were ob liged to quit the room in which they had assembled for eight years. They engaged another, at No. 5, Cateaton Street, (late the Paul's Head Tavern). They were still followed by the multitude; and now, they appear to have excited ecclesiastical alarm: the then Bishop of London (Porteus), not much to his credit, is accused of having excited the magistracy of the eity against them. The account of this shameful affair, and all the contemptible arts that were taken to suppress the meetings of the Freethinking Christians, have long since been before the public; they resisted, and expressed boldly before the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, and in every court in which they had occasion to appear before the business was ended, their determination to resist what they considered an unwarrantable interference, with

the liberty of Protestant Dissenters, and the rights of conscience: and in the end they triumphed over power and bigotry. They met again at the same place: the multitude that thronged their meetings was immense: several of the agents of the civil power were present; a short-hand writer from the Lord Mayor (Alderman Ainsley) attended, and took down the discourses of the speakers; but the spirit of persecution dared no more, and from that time to the present they have regularly addressed crowded and attentive assemblies.

At their meetings doctrinal, moral, and Scriptural subjects are chosen for public instruction; there is the utmost simplicity and familiarity in their form and manner. The elder opens the business by stating ́the subject, and at his call several speakers, the one after the other, address the church and the audience assembled. It is no unusual thing to hear among them a difference of opinion, which they express without the least hesitation, considering that truth is engendered by the comparison of sentiment, and that no sensible mind can be otherwise than pleased at every attempt to correct what another may esteem its error. This exercise generally occupies about an hour and a half, and the business is concluded by the elder. The speakers in their discourses take frequent occasions to controvert the current opinions of the Christian world in general, and to shew their ground of dissent from all sects and parties; nor are they at all sparing with their censures on the priest

hood, which, under all its modifications and refinements, they consider as opposed, both in theory and application, to the best principles of the Christian church, inimical to the purity of the gospel, inconsistent with the advancement of mind, and unfriendly to the interests of truth.

The number of the Freethinking Christians is fast increasing; in 1810 they were enabled to build a respectable meeting house in the Crescent, Jewinstreet, Aldersgate-street, where they regularly address an assembly consisting of between four and five hundred persons; their present meetings are on the Sunday mornings only. In 1811. they commenced their Magazine, published under the title of the FREETHINKING CHRISTIANS' MAGAZINE, a work devoted to the dissemination of Christian, moral, and philosophical truth, and open to impartial controversy and legitimate discussion. At the moment this edition of the Sketch is going to the press they are revising with a view to republish, their opinions on the laws and constitution of the Christian church, and about to take an additional place of meeting, their numbers having become too numerous to assemble with convenience in one place.

JOANNA SOUTHCOTT.

THE author having been frequently applied to respecting the opinions of Joanna Southcott, has procured from a literary gentleman who is attached to her cause, the following communication. It is the most intelligible account of her opinions as well as of her religious views hitherto submitted to the public attention.

"The mission of this Prophetess commenced in the year 1792, and the number of people who have joined with her from that period to the present time, as believing her to be divinely inspired, is considerable. It is asserted that she is the instrument under the direction of Christ, to announce the establishment of his kingdom on earth, as a fulfilment of all the promises in the Scriptures, and of that prayer which he himself gave to his followers; and more particularly of the promise made to the woman in the fall, through which the human race is to be redeemed from all the effects of it in the end. We are taught by the communication of the Spirit of Truth to her, that the seven days of the CREATION were types of the two periods in which the reign of Satan and of Christ are to be proved and contrasted; Satan was conditionally to have his reign tried for six thousand years, shadowed by the six days in which the Lord