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therefore, though the men of the world in general, have been obliged to acknowledge that the visible fruits were good, yet the real internal work from which those fruits were produced, was wholly hid from their eyes. And though some have ignorantly tried to ascribe these evidently good effects to some secret evil cause; yet every reasonable person must grant that, an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. Conscquently, that testimony which is productive of faithfulness, justice, righteousness, and every virtue, both in relation to things temporal and spiritual, must have proceeded from the eternal fountain of truth and goodness: Therefore, the fruits and effects of the present gospel of Christ, are justly to be considered as a standing evidence of the real character of Mother and the Elders, and of all those who have been leaders in the work; whatever wicked and unreasonable men may insinuate to the contrary.

The testimony was withdrawn from the world about the year 1785, and was rarely opened to any until about the year 1797; after which there were a few small openings, in different places, to such as were in a special manner awakened; but nothing very remarkable has appeared in the order of providence, to open the way for the spreading of the gospel, until about the beginning of the present century.

XXVII. In the year 1801, an extraordinary work of God began in Kentucky and the adjacent states, which prepared the way for the testimony of the gospel to be opened in this western country, in the year 1805.

Accordingly, on the first day of January, 1805, three messengers, namely John Meacham, Benjamin S. Youngs and Issachar Bates, were chosen and sent by the gift of God, from the Church at New-Lebanon, to the people of the Revival in Kentucky and the adjacent states, and were cordially received by a number of the first leading characters in the Revival, and opposed by others.

A general account of this extraordinary work in Kentucky and the parts adjacent, from the year 1801, until the year 1805, may be seen in the pamphlet lately published, entitled, The Kentucky Revival; with an account of the entrance and progress of the testimony, and the opposition it received from false teachers. Since that time the work hath continued to increase both North and South of the river Ohio; and at present there are in this Western country, cleven brethren and

eight sisters, sent from the Church at Lebanon, as labourers together in the work.

XXVIII. Since the opening of the gospel in this western country, the minds of mankind have been greatly stirred up, both by way of opposition and enquiry; and many are struck with astonishment to see such effects produced by means which to human wisdom seem so inadequate to see so many persons of good information, and of the most upright characters, and even eminent for their piety, renounce the honors and pleasures of the present life, with all their hopes of salvation upon their former principles, to find their relation to a people whose faith is said to be founded upon the testimony of a despised woman.

But souls who are truly convinced of sin, and are willing to have salvation on any terms, will not stumble at God's manner of dispensing it; and many such there are at this day, who, like the tender branch of the good olive manifest, (by their fervent prayers and tears, under the pressure of an evil nature) that the summer of their redemption is nigh, even at the door. But as the fulness of redemption could not be obtained until the times appointed for the full manifestation of Christ; we shall, therefore, proceed to consider the various operations of God, from the first creation of man, in relation to this important event: and let him that readeth understand.

THE TESTIMONY OF

CHRIST'S SECOND APPEARING.

PART I.

THE STATE OF MAN FROM HIS FIRST
CREATION UNTIL CHRIST.

CHAPTER I.

The Order of the Visible Creation.

IN all the works of God throughout the order of the CHAP.

visible creation, there is an evident relation of one thing to another, as the effect is related to its cause; and we may every where see one thing springing out of another, and progressing on to still higher degrees of perfection.

2. This is manifest, not only in the works of nature, but of art; and upon this principle, the new is granted to be superior to the old, inasmuch as it contains all the useful properties of the old with additional in

crease.

3. It is not, however, our design to reason on the works of nature or of art, any further than as they serve to illustrate the things of eternal duration. It belongs, more properly, to men of natural wisdom, to search out the properties and progress of that creation, of which they are a part.

4. But as God promised to create new heavens, and a new earth, wherein should dwell righteousness, and as the new creation stands in a certain sense related to the old, being formed out of it; therefore, the children of God are not immediately created in that character, but have first a certain relation to the children of men, until by the spirit and power of Christ, in the fulfilment of the promise pertaining to the new

I.

CHAP. creation, they arise out of the old, in a gradual inI. crease, to higher degrees of perfection.

5. Man, in his natural creation, was designed for a higher purpose than merely to fill up the momentary scenes of the present life: an evidence of this is implanted in the breast of every individual possessed of common rationality.

6. The immortality of the soul, and a future state of existence, is a sentiment that requires no other argument for its establishment than the hopes and prospects of every rational mind.

7. Hence it is, that natural death, or the departing out of the active scenes of this world, is of all other objects the most frightful, inasmuch as it appears to put an end to man's existence, and is the strongest argument against the immortality of his present state of being.

8. On the other hand, nothing is so productive of joy and triumph, as those sensible manifestations from a world of spirits, which at times operate in the mind of man, and promise a durable felicity in a future state of existence.

9. Had man even continued in the order in which he was at first created, he could never have been established in any precise measure of that order, because the very order itself was changeable, and he must of necessity advance to some higher order, or sink into an inferior state; much less could his natural creation be supposed to stand in the highest degree of perfection, when he had fallen from God into a state of sin and misery.

10. Eternal life was but an object of hope to man în his highest state of innocence; for if he had possessed eternal life, he must have been eternally out of the reach of death; but his being subject to fall into a state of death, was an evidence that he was only as yet, in a state of probation, and of course, that the whole creation of man was as yet unfinished, and had not yet progressed on to the ultimate end for which it was created.

11. When God promised to create another heaven Isai. Lxv. and earth at some future period, saying, Behold I create new heavens, and a new earth; and when the apos

17.

CHAP.

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tle said, We, according to his promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness; it is evident that this new heaven and earth spo- 2 Pet. ib. ken of in different ages, was something yet to be cre- 13. ated, therefore none could possibly reach it, but thro' those revolutions which should lead to that period.

12. It is certain that the matter which composed the body of man, existed before the human body was formed, and that matter was incapable of comprehending its intermediate state, before it was organized into human form.

13. No better able is the most penetrating mortal to conceive of the intermediate state of man between the old and new creation, until he is created anew, according to the work and progress of the new creation. And what lies beyond, belongs to God to make manifest, through Christ, by the gospel, in the order of the times appointed.

14. Nothing can be created without a creator, and he that formed all things is God: he is before all things, Col. i. 17. and by him all things consist; but every thing in its own order has a secondary cause.

15. God always works by means that are adapted to the end; he did not form man by or out of nothing, but out of the dust; nor are the human species created or propagated by or out of any other than the living substance of man.

16. Therefore, before a thing can be created, the means of its creation must exist. And as Christ was promised to be the immediate Creator, or secondary cause of the new heavens and earth, or the beginning. of the new creation; so the future destiny of the human race was suspended on the coming of Christ.

17. The coming of Christ was not to destroy the order of the visible heavens and earth that were created very good at the beginning; but to create out of them a new world, or order of things, that should be of eternal duration, beyond the present.

18. And therefore he came into this world, and passed through it as a stranger, and did not abide in it, his work lay entirely beyond, (although not far from every one of us;) and having laid and completed the foundation of that order of eternal duration, his

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