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at his crucifixion so astonishing as Joshua's stopping the sun and moon in their progress.

11. That his walking upon the sea was not so astonishing, and universally convicting to the outward senses, as the dividing of the sea by Moses, in the view of six hundred thousand Israelites, and all the Egyptian host; neither was his feeding five thousand, with a few loaves and fishes, to be compared with the feeding the whole nation of Israel, forty years, with bread from heaven.

12. In a word, the adversaries of Jesus could see nothing, in all his life and ministry, so evidential of the power of God as what was recorded of their forefathers. And how were their forefathers affected with what they beheld? Had they not the same ground of objection? and did they not soon forget every wonder that they had seen, and provoke God with their unbelief?

13. It must be granted to these unbelievers too, that the testimony of Moses was not attended with so convincing evidence as the preaching of Lot: That drowning some of the inhabitants of Egypt with water, was not so great a miracle as the destruction of the Sodomites and their cities, with a total overthrow by fire from heaven; and that all those other miracles, which were soon withdrawn, and had no greater visible monument left than a pillar of stones, were far inferior, in point of standing evidence, to Lot's wife, turned into a pillar of salt.

14. But how were Lot's posterity affected by all these wonders? Did the incestuous Moabites and Ammonites cease to do wickedly? By no means. Doubtless they had as good reason for rejecting their father's testimony, for want of evidence, as any other set of unbelievers: and, upon equal principles, it must be granted them, that a small eruption of fire, either from the earth, or clouds, was more easily accounted for, and less astonishing, than a flood of waters over the whole earth, fifteen cubits above the highest mountain; and that the destruction of a few Sodomites was not to be compared with the total overthrow of the whole antedeluvian world.

15. So that the only miracle that can silence the

CHAP.

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CHAP cavils or stop the objections of the unbeliever, is that which envelops him, and all his kind, in destruction. It was, and still is the language of the wickMat. xxiii ed, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them.

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16. But could unbelievers of the present day have been in all the dispensations that are past, they would have taken part with the antedeluvian world against Noah; with the Sodomites against Lot; with the rebellious Israelites against Moses; with the Scribes and Pharisees, against Jesus and his followers; and with the persecuting kingdom of Antichrist, against the heretics, from the same selfish motives, with Acts vi. which they DO ALWAYS resist the Holy Ghost, and reTake vi jept the counsel of God against themselves, revealed in the present testimony of Christ, against the world, the flesh and all evil.*

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17. The believer and the unbeliever stand directly in contrast, let the dispensation of God, or the outward evidence attending it be small or great; and it is a noted truth, that the more spiritual and powerful the day and work of God is, for the destruction of sin, and the brighter and more glorious the evidence to the believer, the darker and more doubtful it appears to the wicked, because it is the more pointedly against them.

18. The unbeliever may be driven by fear, but the believer is drawn by love; and hence such a striking distinction between the operations of God under the gospel, and those under the dark dispensations that John iii. preceded it. A man can receive nothing, except it be 27. v. 30. given him from heaven, was a true saying of John; and, I can of mine own self do nothing, was as true a saying of Jesus.

19. Then as Jesus did not come into the world of himself, and it was not given him to destroy men's

The spirit of unbelief is the same in all ages; it never was willing to neknowledge the present work of God in any age; and the power of that spirit s strengthened and increased, in proportion to the increase of light and truth in the earth; so that its subjects are harder to be wrought upon than they were An past ages. Jesus testified to the unbelievers of that day, that if the mighty works done among them, had been done in Sodom, Tyre and Sidon, they Would have repented; by which he plainly indicated what part they would have taken, had they lived under former dispensations. The same testimony anay apply to unbelievers of the present day for surely that spirit of unbelief, which can oppose the light and revelation of God in the present day, would never have yielded to the testimony of past ages.

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lives, but to save; therefore his miracles, however CHAP. small in the eyes of the great, yet, to the believer, they unspeakably surpassed any thing that had ever been wrought before.

20. His gift of power was not over all winds, and seas, and fires, but over all flesh; and therefore, as far as the body of man is more noble in its creation, than the natural elements of the globe, in their inanimate state; so much more excellent were even the gifts of healing given to Christ Jesus, than any gift that ever pertained to the dispensations that were before.

21. And as much as the soul or spirit is more excellent than the body of man; so much greater is the gift and power of God, in this day of Christ's second appearance, which is a power over all spirits, and bringeth salvation to all that believe and obey.

22. Christ Jesus had a sufficient gift of power, over all winds, and seas, and natural elements, to prove to his disciples, that he descended from that God who had wrought wonders by Moses and Elias; and for a similar purpose, the same power over diseases, which Jesus and his apostles manifested, was given to Mother, with other apostolic gifts; and they sufficiently proved, to all who lay open to conviction, that her commission was from no other than the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

23. But as Jesus neither wrought the same, nor so great miracles, in the eyes of the world, as were wrought by Moses; so neither were all the same, nor so great outward miracles, wrought by Mother, as had been wrought by Jesus and his apostles. No.thing has been exhibited in this latter day, in the opinion of the multitude, equal to raising the dead body of Lazarus from the sepulchre hence the unbeliever may say, like the lying rich glutton in the Luke i parable, If one went unto them from the dead, they 80. will repent.

24. But if they love not the truth, and are determined not to obey it, they have their answer in the words of Abraham, or rather of Christ: Neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. But the more the truth is confirmed, the more they

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CHAP. will hate and oppose it; as did the unbelieving Jews, and as many have evidently done in the present day.

25. Whatever gifts haye been, and still are, in the church, it is certain, that the main gift of God towards mankind, at this day, is that which respects the redemption of the soul from sin, and is therefore great, in proportion as the worth and value of the soul is great, in comparison to every other created object. And as the work of redemption is a subMark vi stance, and no sign, therefore the substance and no sign shall be given unto this adulterous generation, as evidence of the truth and reality of the work.

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26. That which established the testimony of Christ in his first appearing, is neither necessary nor proper to be repeated in confirmation of the work of his second appearing: but the testimony itself is a sufficient confirmation of the work; as much as the tree is a confirmation of the fruit which it bears, and not the particular operations, by which the tree was planted and established.

27. For as the tree is known by its first fruit; so the fruit of the second year, is known by its correspondence to the established tree, and its fruit of the first year. Therefore, whoever denies the fruits of righteousness, in this day of Christ's second appearing, must deny the doctrine and testimony of Christ, in his first appearing, and every sign, wonder, and gift of God, by which that doctrine or testimony was established.

28. But he that doeth the works of Christ in this day, hath not only the immediate evidence of the word of Christ, but also the confirming truth of all the signs, miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, that ever were given, in confirmation of that word, in all ages.

29. Therefore, upon the plainest principles of truth, and according to the very nature of things, it cannot be that the words of Christ are to be commended in his second appearing, by signs and wonders, for this has been sufficiently done; but his works are commended to the acceptance of mankind, by the simple authority of his doctrine or testimony, alMat. vii. ready established: A GOOD TREE CANNOT BRING FORTH EVIL FRUIT.

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30. Hence it is, that the signs and wonders of CHAP. Christ, among his followers, in this day, are not to the world; but his words are to the world, and cach of his followers can say, Though ye believe not me, John x. believe the works :-or else believe me, FOR THE VERY 38.xiv. WORKS' SAKE: A work which has been productive of righteousness, justice and goodness, with every fruit of eternal life, by which it has been evidenced or shown out, with a continual increase, from the first visible appearance of the church, till the present day.

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CHAPTER XII.

The Church established in Gospel Order.

S Christ Jesus came into the world, not to condemn the world, but to redeem and save the world from the nature and effects of the fall, by which heir whole life and practice, stood in direct enmity against God; consequently, and of unavoidable necessity, his whole life and testimony, stood in opposition to the life and practice of the world.

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2. And hence the words of Christ, The world ha- John eth me, because I testify of it, that the works there- 7. and f are evil. And as the second appearing of Christ was to complete that which was begun in his first apbearing, it could not, in the nature of it, be different from the first.

3. It was hard to the disordered senses of a lost and corrupt world, to bear the light of the divine nature manifested in Jesus, who, in a certain sense, stood remote from mankind, having descended out of the ordinary course of natural generation; and who, contrary to their exalted expectations of the Messiah, made his appearance in the form of a serAnd so trying was the manifestation, that divine wisdom saw it would not be received, without a preparatory work of the Spirit, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

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