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12mo, 206pp., Spine is faded. Gilt lettered leather cover. Rebound at some point by a binder from Bath, NY. New endpapers. This is the original 1821 printing. Hinges cracked inside, but strong. Jemima Wilkinson, who in 1790 founded the religious community of Jerusalem in western New York was known for her visions, religious dreams, and prophesying. During the course of a fever, she fell into a prolonged trance from which she emerged with the conviction that she had died. She believed that her original soul and body was now inhabited by the `Spirit of Life' which came from God "to warn a lost and guilty, gossiping, dying World to flee from the wrath to come." One of her followers, Sarah Richards also had visions. She would swoon as she went into vision and lie "motionless and apparently lifeless" for a while. Afterwards, she would rise up to deliver her message. Curiously enough, less than 30 miles away, Joseph Smith had the revelations that founded the Mormon religion several years after Wilkinson. William Miller, another Upstate New York farmer, also came from this region and began the Seventh Day Adventists. New York itself is known as the "burned over district" because so many revivalist preachers come from this same area. Howes H-761. Seller Inventory # 023472
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