The second book of wonders

in no way enter into a marriage union with man; but know, when I told you how the devil had been working on you to make you miserable—and for wise ends I permitted it, to shame and defeat him—then I told you that no marriage union should take place with you, to join your hands, before I had joined your hearts and restored it to Noah’s love and yours. Noah Bishop was a man Southcott had been in love with in her youth; she frequently references him as a symbol of her early earthly affections. And, as men say you are too high, let them know I have now ordered to bring you low, not above the rest—it cannot be before or after—but blessed with your followers. And if you go beyond the bounds I have set for you, you will have no wings to fly; but if you obey my commands in every direction I have given you, then a heart that I took from you in your youthful days I will return a likeness of in your old age.

"So now I will call back your youthful days,
You know how Noah affected your heart:
When you stood in anger with the man,
You heard his sorrows, how he mourned in love,
And you repented; you know your own folly;
But still you had no power to do your own will,
Because heaven had so secured your hand,
That you could not stand in wedlock with him.
Because I have kept your hand for this day:
Observe all your lovers; I hedged up the way
So much with thorns, you could never go through
To gain a husband; bring them all to your view:
Now note the age your love first began;
You know it was in your eighteenth year.—

And now I tell you it is for such a time as this that I ordered the entire history of your life to be printed, so that all men might know you have been kept by my power; and clearly see from your history that you could not act by your own spirit, nor could you have a will of your own.