Page:Visions, discoveries and warnings of the dreadful and terrible judgments, upon Scotland, England and Ireland which were revealed to John Porter.pdf/24

[ 24 ] poſſibly ſee nothing but their neighbours houſes all in a flame if not their own. This I have laid before you in the name of the Lord.

48. In 1736. in the viſion of light, I thought I was in a pleaſant field, and there appeared unto me a man in white ſhining raiment, ſaying unto me, What ſeeſt thou? I anſwered, A buſh full of branches and bloſſom. Then he bade me draw near, and lo! In a moment it all withered and decayed, except the heart of the bufh: I ſtood ſtill till the buſh was cut down by the root as with a ſcythe, at which I wept ſore. But, in a little time I beheld a buſh ſpring up out of the heart of the flock, far more beautiful and glorious than the firſt, then I aſked him the meaning, he anſwered, The firſt buſh thou ſaweſt is the preſent degenerate apoſtatized church of Scotland, which I will ſweep away in mine anger: And whereas thou ſaw a buſh ſpring up from the root of the former buſh, this is the remnant that I have reſerved to myſelf in the deſolating ſtroke, which ſhall be the ſeed of my church, whoſe purity, beauty and glory ſhall be ſo great, that the very hills and mountains ſhall ring with the report thereof. Amen.

Earneſtly deſire all who ſhall either hear of, or ſhall have occaſion to read what has been diſcovered to me and I in obedience to the command given me, have communicated to others from firſt to laſt, according as is revealed in theſe few pages. That they receive them not as the product of my own contrivance, or invention from lightneſs of brain or melancholy, as ſome have taken the liberty to forge; for I declare, That not with ſtanding of my blindneſs for ſo long time, I am ripe in my memory and judgment and I am fully aſſured of the way they were delivered unto me. I atteſt, that I received them with ſuch power as I cannot expreſs; and that I do not offer to impoſe upon the preſent generation, I dare appeal with confidence unto God, to whom I muſt ſhortly give an account of my receivings and diſcoveries, and not to any man.