9. Do you prolong debates, to feed your country's poor? 10. Or do ye sound forth words, in trumpets to be blown? 11. Do ye spend the rolling moments as ye would, did ye know each day was to be your last? 12. How often do you consider, and in solemn muse reflect, that soon you must appear, naked and unclothed from mortal clay, before my eternal bar of judgment, and here, on my everlasting record of true justice, are all your works portrayed? 13. Do you decree, and statutes bind to support the schools of vice, where plans are drawn, and means sought out to spill the blood of man? 14. Do fleets by sea and troops by land, bespeak the christian life? Do armies drawn in battle array, bathing their swords in the blood of their fellow creatures, bespeak the true religion of the Son of God, whose doctrines ye so highly applaud? 15. Look ye in the sacred record of his word; read, and understand what you read, saith the God of Heaven. For of one blood, did my Almighty hand create all nations, kingdoms, and all people. And all these will I convince, by my Almighty power, that the Son of God was not sent on earth for nought, either in his first, or in his second appearing. 16. Do ye administer the right of the poor, and deal justly with the afflicted? Or do you even deign to feed them with the crumbs that you trample under your feet, which fall from your full tables, extravagantly loaded? 17. Do you tax the laborers in justice, and heap up stores of their silver and gold for yourselves? 18. Do not the rich grow richer, and the poor, poorer? 19. Is not justice bribed, the weights deceitful, and the measures scanted when going out? And are they not heavily laden, when coming in to one's private store? 20. Can you all make out such records as will compare with mine, at the shortest warning? 21. Can you stand in judgment, and die in mercy? 22. Do you enslave the freedom of conscience, and bind the hearts of men? 23. Do you sway the despot's sceptre, and wield the tyrant's sword? 24 Do you make use of literary knowledge, and science learned of men, to defraud the ignorant and blind the eyes of the weak, who on you for justice do rely? 25. Just and upright rulers in the kingdoms of men, are a blessing, which my Almighty hand doth bestow, that the people may be prospered thereby but unjust, hard hearted, hasty and wicked rulers, I suffer for a scourge and a curse, to kingdoms and to nations. 26. Do you, at all times, consider the golden rule, laid down by my blessed Son when he was on earth, "Do unto others, as ye would that others should do unto you?" 27. Do you ever lay aside, for a season, the pride and arrogancy of your spirits, and clothe your thoughts in the ignorant and humble attitude of the suffering poor, and lower classes of your fellow beings, who are suffering with hunger and cold, with nought but their hands to procure the stay of life, and employment for them they cannot find? And yet, exactions are required at their hands, by such as have thousands to spend in revelings, extravagance, and wickedness. 28. Do you, in dispensing judgment and justice to them, put yourselves, for the moment in their situation, and them in yours? Think ye that the eternal record before my throne would read as it now does, had this been practiced by the rulers, and great ones of the earth? 29. Does not this clearly account for the saying of the scriptures, That mighty men must be mightily tormented? Surely this is the reason, and so does it stand on my eternal record. In their power they are exalted above their fellow creatures, and trample the rights. of the poor and needy under their feet. 30. But remember, all ye Monarchs, Kings, Rulers, and rich ones of the earth, ye must shortly appear before my eternal tribunal, as poor and destitute as the poorest. 31. Had you but exercised your power, throughout your different kingdoms [and dominions,] to put an end to wars, bloodshed and carnage, as was plainly taught by the Messiah, when I first sent him upon the earth, your kingdoms and nations would long ere this day, have been the habitations of peace, of equality and justice; and. not a suffering mortal, for the want of the needful things of life, need to have walked your streets. 32. But the God of Heaven hath stooped from his throne on high, to bestow a crumb of his notice, in mercy, to mortals; and now doth call aloud, yet in mercy, to the nations of the earth. 33. Though my awful judgments slumber not, yet doth my Almighty hand, in mercy, longer stay from earth her merited reward, till she shall again hear my word in truth, as she did hear it in ages long past; 34. And doth prove herself an object of my mercy through humbleness of heart, by proclaiming solemn fasts throughout her lands, and solemnly hearing and reading this, my sacred word; or of my judgment by refusing the same, though sent by my Almighty hand to her in a way not looked for by mortals. 35. And this is the way that I have worked, from the earliest ages of the world. 36. But now, in these last days, I have condescended to visit the earth with my holy Angels, in a more accessible manner than I ever before have done; by reason that the foundation and order of my kingdom is now completed thereon. 37. But if souls refuse to hearken to my word, earth's cup of judgment is filled to running over, and this she shall surely drink, saith the God of Heaven. 38. And I do require, saith the Lord, that all nations, and in a special manner, those calling themselves civilized and christianized, cultivate the principles of peace, at home and abroad, by sea and by land. 39. Would ye be more willing to believe this, my requirement, should I bury your fleets in the bosom of the deep, and sweep your landed forces from the face of the earth by pestilential diseases? 40. Like causes produce like effects, throughout all created things: principles of peace produce their like, and principles of war their like. War and bloodshed among the objects of my creation, are entirely contrary to every precept or example, ever taught by my blessed Son while on earth; they have proceeded from no other source than from man's fallen nature. 41. If mankind will learn in mercy, they will not be compelled to hearken in judgment: but they must speedily learn to hearken to my voice, where they never have, or they cannot escape the awful stroke they have merited. 42. And those who stand as heads and rulers of the nations, consider well; feel not yourselves too great and high to read this plain, but solemn warning, and consider well every sentence therein contained; for by it ye shall shortly be judged in the eternal world. And, as ye treat this warning, so shall ye, in like manner, be treated. 43. If ye humble yourselves, and counsel your people to do the same, by ceasing from violence and injustice, dealing uprightly one with another, laboring so far as is in your power, to suppress all haunts of infamy and lewdness, I will notice you in mercy for the same and when my judgments are rolling through your lands, you may, with confidence, pour forth your souls in prayer to Me for mercy. 44. But if you slight, disregard, or contemptuously treat this my word, and regard it not yourselves, nor counsel others so to do, in the days of your calamity you will pour out your cries to Me in vain, saith the Lord. 45. And let these, the forewarning words of kindness, sink deep in every heart; read them in your palaces, and practice them in your courts; and keep this volume sacred, throughout your realms. 46. And again, hear my words saith your God; Whosoever shall destroy this book, out of contempt, derision or ridicule, I will blot out their names from the book of my mercy, and mete to them their portion in [the place of] eternal misery, where torments shall be their food, and the gall of bitterness their drink; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. 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 [31. questioneth them. 32. Of coming into the law of grace. and integrity of heart. Of different denominations. 38. But one way of life. 39. Of man's ways. 43. Of abhorrence to religion in conse quence of false doctrines. 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. O 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? |