An account of the trials on bills of exchange, wherein the deceit of Mr. John King and his confederates, and the pretence of lending money is exposed / [Joanna Southcott].

Joanna Southcott

Date:: [1807]

Credit: An account of the trials on bills of exchange, wherein the deceit of Mr. John King and his confederates, and the pretence of lending money is exposed / [Joanna Southcott]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Southcott, who was visited by the Almighty God, that he had a good defence to the suit. To this 1 answer that from the lawsof God he had a good defence ; because the Scriptures command us not to strengthen the hands of evil doers, but to be a terror to evil doers:, for he that upholdeth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, is an abomi- nation to the Lord. And when I have laid the truth before the public, I shall pro\e that they must be strengthening the hands of evil doers, if they had consented to pay bills they had never received one penny value for. Then it would be strengthening their hands to go on and cheat others the same : and though the law is not open'to,this kind of swindling, because men, out of a false idea of their honour on the one hand, and fearing the expences of the law on the other, have sooner submitted to their own ruin, or lo$s, than to bring it forward to shew the iniquity that is practised under this clokc of advertis- ing to lynd money ; and therefore they have been encouraged to go on, till this divine interference com- mande/d the whole to be brought to light, which I shall explain in this book, and lay before the public ; and then they will see that there was cause enough to resist this evil, and stop the torrent. Were I to look to the laws of men, 1 find that if a man buys stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen, he is liable to be punished for not bringing the thief to justice; and if a man gives a bill to a servant to pay a debt for him, or to purchase any thing, if the servant apply it to his own use, lie is liable to be punished for a breach of trust. So, by the laws of God and man, the defence was just. And to prove that the Spirit which visits me is just, I shall here introduce the first letter I sent to Mr. King, wherein the Scriptures are brought forward, to prove how the Lord interfered, by the mouth of his prophets, con- cerning these unjust deeds.$