CHAPTER XXIV.

OF MINISTERS AND PREACHERS OF A FASHIONABLE AND POPULAR GOSPEL, AND OF THE MANY WAYS MAN HAS SOUGHT OUT FOR SALVATION,

BUT ALWAYS IN THE FUTURE.

1. The Lord calleth unto them, and 131. questioneth them.

32.

5. Of ministers preparing their own souls. 34. 9. Where baptized.

10. Of what was learned at the literary 36.

spring.

15. Of preaching by rule, &c.

Of coming into the law of grace.
Warning to vain pretenders.

Of those who turn from the law of

grace.

Of different denominations.

16. Of industry.

17. Of the register of the heart.

and integrity of heart.

18. The Lord promises to notice sincerity, 47. A blessing to those who hearken and

obey moral law.

21. Of proclaiming a gospel license for 48. Ministers and people required often

1.

law of nature.

this roll in the pulpit.

The power of God to be felt.

52.

Warnings against slighting the call of
God.

ye Pastors of the flock, who watch in the broad way and cry at the wide gate, hearken; hear my words and understand my voice, saith the Lord your God, whose eye is upon every sincere heart, and from whose sight no deceitful worker can be hid.

2. The God of Israel and of Jacob, in condescending kindness, now calleth unto you, in a way of my own appointing, not yours. Will ye hear my word, and in breathless silence let the same sink deep into your hearts? Or will ye, by reason of the humble means that I have made choice of to convey it unto you, spurn at the same, before my face? I will, with mine own hand, prove you,

saith the Lord.

3. For what purpose do ye stand as preachers to the people, calling aloud unto them, to enter Heaven's gate?

4. Is this to benefit the souls of your flock; or to increase your numbers to be seen of men?

5. Have you firstly prepared your own souls, for true and faithful Pastors of the flock, as the Son of God required?

6. Have you traveled in the narrow way of a daily cross, entered at the gate of true selfdenial?

and

7. Doth your daily walk declare these fruits in open view of your flock, proving you to be the true embassadors of Christ?

8. Are all your secluded and secret hours, to Me your God sincerely spent in prayer and humble supplication?

9. At what fountain was you baptized with divine and holy power, to lead the people unto Me?

10. Was it at the literary spring, where eloquence of words are considered the greatest [qualification?]

11. Did you there receive the sacerdotal garment, to enable you to stand truly in the priesthood of a pure and holy God?

12. Or was the power of framing words, to make them answer the purpose of real truth at heart, there diffused, and the art of dissembling there to perfection brought?

13. Did you there receive my holy power, which instructed you to cleanse your souls and purify your hearts, by subduing the vile passions of nature, which power would enable you to bring every member of your bodies into subjection to the law of Christ, or the Son of God, whose name ye have applauded so highly, and whose gospel is a pure, sin destroying gospel?

14. Was the pure and undefiled religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, the first object of your pursuit? Or were the chief seats in the synagogues, and to be called of men Rabbi, Rabbi, and the greetings in public squares, your object?

15. Do you sincerely believe that the Holy Son of God, or the gospel he preached requires you to make long and labored prayers to be heard of men? Or to preach studied sermons by rule, embracing the words of my holy Son, but not the power and substance, to save the soul from sin?

16. Do you put your hands to work, and give your souls in prayer to God, when not immediately in discharge of duties, incumbent on what is termed your priestly office? Or do you live in pomp and splendor, regaling and indulging yourselves in luxury and extravagance, supported by the suffering poor?

17. Does the register of your hearts, which contains all your

proceedings by night and by day, bear upon its face that which you are willing and ready, at the shortest notice, to appear with, before my eternal tribunal of justice? and there meet the everlasting record of my truth, which altereth not, and upon whose pages my Almighty hand of eternal justice hath stamped the deeds of every soul and the thoughts of every heart; and to which place the sound of my eternal summons will shortly call you?

18. Have the leading motives of your transactions through life, been such as will support you at the hour of death, and justify your immortal souls, before the bar of God and his holy Angels? If not, consider well the cause, make no delay. Integrity of heart and sincerity of soul, though in a state of blinded ignorance, will I, in my mercy, notice, saith the Lord.

19. The sincere and honest souls, though ignorant of true gospel light, and of the way of salvation, will I cover with the wings of my mercy, if they will hearken when once they are warned by this, the solemn warning of their God.

20. And again; Do ye who stand as shepherds to the flock, declare unto them, by precept and example, that you do yourselves possess the true gospel of Christ, which is a gospel of peace, sufferings, and of long forbearance?

21. Or do you proclaim unto them, that the pure and holy gospel admits of quarrels, contention, wars and bloodshed? Or ever give the holy church a right to compel souls to join and acknowledge her supreme authority; or be persecuted, even unto death, as the consequences of a refusal?

22. Who among you all, saith the God of Heaven, are willing to appear before my eternal bar of justice, with this doctrine between your teeth, and having also palmed it upon the holy Son of God?

23. Who among you all, think that by the traditions of men, you can make the commandments of God of no effect?

24. Who among you all, when you are made sensible that the doctrine you hold forth to the people, as being the doctrine of Christ and his apostles, is falsely so asserted, still continue, for popularity's sake, to cast the veil of deception and falsehood still longer over the multitude?

25. Will you not be met in judgment for so doing, by your Creator God, and there bewail the loss of such souls as have been blinded by your deception, or the deception of that doctrine which

S

ye preached as the doctrine of Christ and his true followers, and by that means, spent their lives in almost every kind of sinful indulgence? Surely, you shall there be met by your Creator God, and in a path where there is no turning.

26. But for every effort you have made, and for every act of goodness you have performed, in singleness of heart and sincerity of soul, to restrain, and bring souls to walk in the path of true moral virtue, that has in any way saved them from committing sin, either upon their own persons, or upon others, shall be accounted unto you for deeds of goodness; and a reward for the same you shall receive.

27. Many among you, stand upon my record as having acted sincerely in this office and calling, according to the best light and understanding which had been given you, for the time being, not being enlightened into the true knowledge of that life which the gospel of Christ, in reality, doth require souls to live, either in his first, or in his second appearance.

28. But the word of the Lord your God is, Return unto the moral law of nature; propagate your own species according to the law of nature, or cease to call on the name of your God for mercy, or upon the name of Christ, for a saving gospel.

29. And all ye who stand as priests, or teachers of the people, teach ye this commandment of your God, respecting the law. of nature, which commandment has been from of old: Indulge not in sexual intercourse, further than is necessary for the purpose of begetting your own offspring: indulge not the sunken and sordid propensities of nature, for self gratification.

30. Teach your congregations to prepare, in obedience, to meet Me in judgment, that in obedience they may receive at my hand of mercy, in the day that all flesh shall become as grass that withereth, and the kingdoms of men as a shadow before Me.

31. But [let] such as feel that they are called upon, by the light of that gospel dispensation established on earth in this their day, obey that light, and keep the law of grace.

32. But let not any souls seek for a refuge in the Zion of my likeness, or, in other words, let none who do not feel [that] they are called upon by my Holy Spirit, to forsake all for the gospel's sake, seek to enter into that completed order of my new Heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, now set up, no more to be overthrown.

33. Souls had better remain under the law of a carnal commandment, or in the works of natural generation, if they will but keep that law, than after having set out in a dispensation of greater light, and a more perfect law, to turn back again to their former lives, in the law of nature: for by so doing, "They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame," through their own weakness, by reason of the flesh.

34. For they that have been, called, and have had a privilege to taste the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and have tasted of the same, if they then fall back, they have nought to feel, but a fearful looking for of the fiery indignation and judgments of God, to be revealed from Heaven, against sin and all unrighteousness.

35. But where the law of Christ is in truth not known, and there are many transgressions committed through ignorance, they will be lightly passed over, saith the Lord.

36. And how is it, O ye Shepherds, that the earth is covered with so many different denominations and persuasions, clashing and quarreling, both priests and people, one with another? yet all professedly maintaining the true religion of Christ!

37. Do you expect, or have you any reason to expect, that all these roads lead along the narrow way, and enter the straight gate that leadeth unto life?

33. Was it not plainly testified by the holy Son of God, that there was but one way that souls could enter his kingdom? And do you expect his words, which he received from my eternal throne, are going to prove false?

39. Have you not carved out ways of your own, to find salvation? 40. And have you not, by that means, been under the necessity of always placing salvation in the future tense, by reason that you never found it in the present?

41. [Therefore you] found nothing that could protect the soul from the temptations, snares, and enchanting allurements of this world. 42. And what do I, the God of Heaven, behold spread over the domains of earth, but a religion said to have emanated from my blessed Son, whom I sent into the world to open the way of life, yet, possessing no power, [in the present tense,] to save the soul from sin and death. And more than this, it admits of their staining their hands in the blood of their fellow creatures.

43. Have not many souls, in consequence of the wickedness and