IX.

brought forth also the first woman in the same di- CHAP. vine nature; so the enmity of the dragon was equally stirred up against the woman, as it had been against the man. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place :-Which applies particularly to the woman we have described as the Mother of the new creation, and in her it was fulfilled in the most pointed manner.

24. When she was brought forth into the new creation, for salvation and strength, the same persecuting spirit by which Jesus was put to death, raged against her. In him was spiritually fulfilled that scripture, He vas taken from prison and from judg- Lai.. ment and by the protection of God, she was deliv-. ered from the hands of her enemies; so that in her, Christ fulfilled that scripture, both literally and spiritually.

25. From the prison of the wicked, and from the judgment of Antichrist she was taken; and on the wings of Liberty and Independence, she flew into the wilderness of America, where God intended to make a short work in righteousness; and there, in her appointed place, (in a remote part of Niskeuna,) she was nourished for a time, times, and half a time, or three years and a half,* until the opening of the testimony in America, in the year 1780; when she was called forth out of her secret retirement from the world, and openly arrayed in her true spiritual apparel, fine linen clean and white; which is the righteousness or [dinaiáμará] the righteous acts of the

saints.

Rev. xix.

26. And then was heard, in truth and reality, a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Allelu- 1–8. ia; salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God- For the marriage of the Lamb

is come.

27. Marriage is for the purpose of multiplying seed, therefore it was said, She shall be brought unto Pal.xlv. the king, whose arrows are sharp in the heart of 5 & 14. his enemies-And after being brought, with the vir

It may be proper to remark, that the time here specified, and alluded to in Rep xii. 14. is entirely different and distinct from the period alluded to in the gith verse of the same chapter.

IX.

CHAP. gins her companions, in robes of needle work, the angry dragon soon commenced a war of malicious words with the remnant of her seed, [for she is now Rev. xii. a Mother and hath children,] who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ,

17.

28. They that are joined to the Lord are One Spirit; for Two, saith he, shall be one. And the Two who become One Spirit in the Lord, are man and woman, redeemed and purified from the power and influence of the fall, and these Two agree in One, and that in which they agree, is the One Word of their testimony.

29. Hence there are three that bear witness on earth, namely, the first Father and Mother of redemption, and the one word of their testimony, which liveth and abideth forever; and, these three are one, and bear a perfect correspondence to the three that bear record in heaven, namely, the Father, and Wisdom, and the Holy Spirit of influence, which is the Word of life proceeding from the two, and by which all things were created that are created.

30. Nothing in nature can be begotten without a begetter, and nothing can be conceived without a conceiver, and nothing can be either begotten or conceived, without a corresponding influence between two : 1 John v. and hence there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. And by these three, all things are be gotten, conceived and brought forth into existence, in regard to time.

31 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. If there be à correspondent relation of one thing with another, in regard to the things of time, much more so in regard to the things of eternity and if the primitive order and perfection of the natural and visible creation of man was glorious, the order and relation of the spiritual and invisible is much more perfect and glorious.

32. Then as the three that bear record on earth, bear a correspondence to the three that bear record in heaven; so each derive their attributes from that mutual correspondence. The first spiritual Father of man's redemption, is the image and likeness of Him that was from everlasting. The first spiritual Mother

X.

is the image and likeness of Her that was with Him CHAP. from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

33. And the one joint testimony of Father and Mother, by which their spiritual children are begotten, conceived and brought forth in the new creation, and by which all things are created anew in Christ Jesus, is the revealed glory and correspondent brightness of that WORD which proceeded and came forth from God, which was in the beginning with God, and which was God, and by which all things were made that were made, and without which was not any thing John i. 3. made that was made.

34. Therefore, according to the unchangeable purpose of God, which he purposed in himself before the foundation of the world, he hath brought forth the foundation pillars of his declarative glory, who have finished and completed the foundation of God's spiritual building, by the most infallible evidences, and who are rooted and grounded in the unfathomable deep of the divine nature.

35. And therefore, until the whole order of heaven be supplanted and overthrown, the foundation of the church can never be moved, nor the pillars thereof shaken; but according to that promise, Yet once more, the work and building of God will go on to the final removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot Heb. xi, be shaken may remain.

27.

CHAPTER X.

Evidences accompanying the second Appearing of

Christ.

HE work of God, in relation to the redemption

TH

of man, being beyond human comprehension, has been always mistaken by the most wise and penetrating, in their natural state; and therefore, it is not surprising, that such should wholly mistake the

CHAP. nature of that evidence, by which it is confirmed to those who are actually in it.

X.

John vi. 30.

2. In this, however, as well as in every thing else, vain man has assumed the authority of prescribing to God; and without regarding the presumptuous mistakes of former generations, every one is ready to lay out, in his own imagination, what evidence is necessary to accompany a living testimony, in order to give it divine credit and authority. But the truth never was acceptable to sinful man, nor can any evidence, even of his own chusing, bind him to believe and obey it.

3. The greatest external wonders that ever God wrought in confirmation of his word, were followed by the greatest and most aggravated unbelief, and hardness of heart; as is evident from the history of Noah's posterity after the flood, and the Israelites in the wilderness.

4. The greatest objection against the testimony of Christ, in his first appearance was, want of evidence. What sign shewest thou that we may believe? They pretended that they would believe upon the evidence of such mighty works as their fathers had seen in the wilderness; but their hatred of the truth, and their fondness to find objections against it, proved that they had the same spirit of their fathers, who for forty years, provoked God in the wilderness, with their objections and cavils.

5. Hence the Spirit of truth, that was then grieved, and provoked, by a generation of proud Pharisees, and deceitful hypocrites, predicted by the mouth of Saint Paul, that when Christ should make his second appearance, to reveal the man of sin, whom he would consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming, his appearing would be, to them that perish, after, or [Gr. xarà] ., 10. according to the working of Satan, with ah power, und signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivrableness of unrighteousness; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

& Thes.

6. And for this cause God should send them strong delusion, to believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in

unrighteousness. Nothing but a principle of love to truth, and obedience flowing from that principle, ever saved any soul; nor were any of those visible miracles and wonders, which are left on record, wrought for the purpose of saving the soul.

7. Yet, in condescension to mankind, in their imprisoned state of darkness and sensuality, God has, in every dispensation of his grace, addressed their external senses with evidences of his divine power, for the purpose of strengthening the faith of the weak believer, in that which was saving, and to stop the mouths of gainsayers.

8. And however grossly the present testimony, and work of Christ, has been misrepresented, and stigmatized, as an unfounded, and incredible invention of the worst of human characters, it has by no means been lacking in such kind of evidence, as sufficiently demonstrated its intimate and close relation to the work that was manifested in the primitive church, even to the external senses of natural men.

9. The Spirit is unchangeably one and the same at all times; but the manifestation of the Spirit may be various, by means of supernatural and extraordinary gifts. Many extraordinary gifts were in the primitive church; such as gifts of healing-working of miracles-prophecy-discerning of spirits-divers kinds of tongues the interpretation of tongues, &c. yet all these were not for salvation, but for the outward manifestation of that inward spirit, by which salvation is wrought.

10. Such evidences have existed in the Church of Christ from the first opening of the gospel to the present day; as such outward gifts have been abundantly ministred through our Mother, and the first witnesses, and from them to others, and frequently used on various occasions.

CHAP.

X.

11. It is true, wicked men have often had extra- Matt.'vi. ordinary gifts, which have given occasion to their 22. pride and vanity, from which offences have arisen. against the true exercise of a Divine Power; and therefore such things are not to be the most earnestly coveted; nor is the real internal saving work of the Spirit thereby certainly evidenced. The Spirit is

U u