The book of wonders

And will not justify the man,
If he comes to the Trial,
And there confesses his every guilt,
The way he first felt his fears?
Then I will surely free the man:
He now stands in Adam’s fall.
So here I shall end regarding *******:
Deep are the lines that you have penned;
To tell you what is so deep none can see
The type of ******* and of you
A thing that I first ordained,
To bring the fall back now on men;
And when men see it clearly,
They must confess the man did err,
To blame his Maker at the first,
As Satan’s subtle arts burst
Upon the woman at that time;
And they must find man just as weak,
As he was tempted to fall then:
And now let ******** judge the call;
And so I will go on from *******;
He stands as a type for every man;
Because I will not clear his honor,
Until he confesses his Lord is here.”

The reason I am ordered to put the above in print is to show how much they were stumbled by receiving this letter, as they could not reconcile what was said in these pages that I had pointed out to them concerning him. Neither could they understand my letter about my feelings and the Lord’s having love and pity for the man, as he was taken away in that manner and had not lived to clear up the truth. My spirits were too agitated at that time to discern the judgment they drew; but from the judgment they had drawn from the pages, I was given the following communication to send them, as they had not discerned that the pages pointed out to them were in answer to his letters.

to answer for the letters I ordered you to put in his hands; then they must discern what his answer was—calling you a deluded woman; denying having any of your letters in his hands; or having any of your writings or papers. Here let men discern how he tried to avoid giving any answer to the truth that I ordered you to demand of him. Let them discern how he tried to avoid having any knowledge of you, except from the insulting letters he said he received, and in which he complained you had abused him. How strongly he desired ******* to prevail on you to stop troubling him.

Here men must discern, from his letters, how much he tried to avoid the truth being brought to light that was put in his hands; and they must compare this with the answer I gave you: that it was in vain for ******* to avoid the truth, or to prevail upon any man to persuade you to keep silence. This is because their honor, as well as yours, was brought into disgrace by him. For if they were vindicating your character and your visitation as being from the Lord, and thus publishing it to the world, I ask you: if they did not demand that he come forward with the truth, how could they appear? Could they prove they had acted with justice or with honor as upright men who stood between God and men? For, as they believed your visitation to be from the Lord, they would be disobeying the command of the Lord if they stopped troubling him with letters to find out the truth. Therefore I said it was in vain for ******* to try to flee or avoid the call that came from men; if he would clear his honor, he must come forward to acknowledge every truth; for there was no other way that his honor could be cleared.