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CHAPTER IV.

Remarks on the present State of the Witnesses of Truth.

HE natural state of man being a state of proba- CHAP.

Then it became necessary that he should be

brought into judgment, and render an account of all the deeds done in the body and as wickedness cannot go unpunished, so it cannot be condemned without witnesses: for this cause, therefore, hath God se lected from amongst mankind, men of like passions with the rest; and endowed them with the light and gifts of his spirit, to stand as witnesses against the general corruptions and abounding wickedness of the world and no age has been without such, from the beginning to the present day.

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2. Even Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied against the wicked, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh in ten thousands of his saints, to execute judg- *gr.Ev. ment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly Jude 14, among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

3. Noah was a true witness against the Antedeluvian world, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Samuel, all bore a swift testimony against sin. The prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, with the lesser prophets, and thousands who received the same spirit, were witnesses for God, against the growing corruptions of human nature.

4. Next follows John the Baptist, by whom was introduced JESUS, the true and faithful witness, who, having finished his testimony, gave the same authority to his disciples, apostles, and true followers, thousands of whom by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, knew what was in man, and testified against his depravity, for which they suffered all kinds of hardships and torture, even to the laying down of their lives.

5.. We have seen also, from the most approved records, that through the darkest ages of antichristian apostacy, God had a people who bore witness to

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CHAP. the truth; a people who taught the principles of virtue, and practised what they taught; who took no oaths, bore no arms, and held the reins of spiritual government in the strictness of their morals; which, according to their degree of light, rendered their communion inaccessible to the unrighteous and wicked, and who testified, that the church of Christ, could be composed only of the holy and the just.

6. We have stated from the authority of some of the most noted ecclesiastical writers, the general faith and manners of the Marcionites, Hierachites, Manicheans, Novatians, Priscillianists, Basilians, Bogomilans, Catharists, Paterines, Albigenses, Anabaptists, Picards, Waldenses, and lastly of the people called Quakers. Thousands and millions of whom, even from the beginning of the falling away, to the time of the persecution in New-England, fell by the sword, and by fire, and by captivity, and by spoil many days.

7. The testimony of truth, which stood against vice through the reign of Antichrist, had for its authority both the first and second appearing of Christ, that which was past, and that which was to come; and besides, it had for its object the corruption of human nature, both in male and female, so women as well as men, were authorized to bear testimony to the truth, against vice and corruption; and as two witnesses were always counted necessary to establish a fact, therefore they are said to be two witnesses, two Rev.xi.4. olive trees, and two candlesticks, standing before the God of the earth.

8. According to the time of Antichrist's reign, which was to be a time, times, and an half, which is understood to mean three prophetic days and an half, or forty and two months, that is, (according to the solution of prophetic numbers,) one thousand two hundred and sixty years; so were the sufferings and death of the witnesses.

9. Yet those bodies or communities of virtuous believers, although dead to the world, cut off from any free exercise in the kingdom of Antichrist, devoted to destruction, and banished by oppression to the sequestered vallies, to the mountains, and to the

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dens and caves of the earth, 'were not suffered by CHAP. their rapacious persecutors to be buried out of sight, although the fire of their testimony continued, from age to age, to torment them that dwelt upon the carth. 10. These had the only keys of divine influence, and power to shut heaven, that the real gifts of the Holy Ghost should be withheld from the church of Antichrist, in the days of their prophecy, and to smite the earth with plagues and troubles as often as they would, by letting loose the tormenting truth among thein.

11. The slaying of the witnesses was peculiar to the reign of Antichrist. In former ages, before Antichrist had the dominion, witnesses were in some measure tolerated, respected and believed among the nations; but in the corrupt, debauched, and tyrannical kingdom of the beast, they were not suffered to live, and were perpetually misrepresented, blackened and anathematized as the most odious of all beings, and persecuted unto death: Therefore the slays ing of the witnesses was to end with the tyranny of Antichrist.

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12. For three days and a half their dead bodies were to lie in the street of the great city, which spir- Rev. itually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified; that is, in a Catholic hierarchy, where politicians are ruled by priests, and where the oppression of Egypt, and the Sin of Sodom abounds.

13. And as this great Babylon was constructed by the obsequious MARCIANUS, the imperious LEO the Great, and the barbarous kings, upon the plan of Jewish priests and Pagan rulers; so in the street of the same did those dead bodies lie, clothed in sackcloth, under a state of spiritual mourning, and held in the utmost contempt and derision, while the whole Christian world were rejoicing over them.

14. And thus it continued until about the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the bloody priesthood lost their balance of power, and politicians, in the order of Providence, began to assume the right of civil government, according to the long neglected dictates of reason; at which period the power of the beast began gradually to decline.

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15. And from this period it might be said, the witnesses arose and stood upon their feet, in point of credit and divine authority: and while fearfulness took hold of the antichristian powers, the spirit of the witnesses in the French Prophets, arose in a cloud to heaven, in answer to the great voice of eternal truth, which began to be uttered; and they were "heard and received with reverence and awe." And clouds of witnesses have ever since been rising up to testify plainly against the spirit and tyranny of Antichrist, and the darkness that fills his kingdom, as well as against the general abominations that overspread the earth..

16. So that, to this day, light and conviction has been increasing in the earth, and there are many souls on earth, both tolerated and credited among the people, as God's witnesses had usually been, before the beastly power of Antichrist arose. These have, in a greater or less degree, the light and spirit of the true witnesses, and are able to discover and bear testimony against the fraud and inconsistency of those false systems invented by men of corrupt minds, who, for so many ages, have corrupted the earth, and perverted the rights of man.

The

17. As long as such witnesses are honest and faithful to testify what is given them of God, they are justified and accepted, and no longer; this is according to God's manner of dealing in every age. spirit of Christ was never committed to man to be at his disposal: God always required that man should be subject, in all things, to the dictates of the Spirit.

18. Hence it has often happened with many, who have had a good degree of light, and possessed the spirit and power of a living testimony, that whenever they had gained sufficient credit and authority among the people, the self-exalting spirit of man has risen up against God, and perverted the most precious gifts of God to the purposes of building up their own honour and this has been the fundamental cause of so many divided sectaries now in the earth.

19. The witnesses of God in every age, while they stood in the pure light, testified impartially against the depravity of all nations, and more especially

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against their own; but whenever they became attach- CHAP. ed to their own people, so as to favour and wink at their corruptions, and build them up with an imagination that they were better than others, then the whole became corrupted together, and the true gift was taken from them and committed to others. And it is to be observed, that the former have generally persecuted the latter, as far as circumstances would. admit.

20. The true witnesses, during the reign of Antichrist, received not their testimony by a line of succession from the apostles, but by revelation; they had the spirit and power of prophets to bear testimony, not of apostles to build; all such as went to forming systems, to build up separate parties, or to unite with any establishments, in order to shun persecution or gain worldly honour, were deceived by the influence of Antichrist, and lost their testimony.

21. But such as were neither warped by fear, favour, interest nor affection, and continued to the end, retained their testimony, and were owned and accepted of God as true witnesses, and their reward was with the souls of those under the altar, who were beheaded for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.

22. The testimony of the witnesses continued to be received by revelation, after the apostles days, and through the succeeding ages, down to the Quakers, after which, none of the preceding sectaries who had lost their testimony, could be accepted.*

23. George Fox came forth with a testimony against all those thieves and robbers, who had undertaken to defend their cause by written creeds, and outward forms of doctrine and worship, and who, for the purpose of making a covering for themselves,

*The authority of a present living witness, must, of necessity, supereede the authority of all preceding witnesses, even admitting the preceding to have been faithful in their day. This is so plain a truth that it is surprising that mankind should blunder at it, and blindly reject a present testimony, while they profess to believe in the past. No one will dispute that the present authority of a foreign ambassador, clothed with the powers of his government, supercedes the authority of all former ambassadors whose powers hava ceased, or who, througa unfaithfulness, have forkcited their aathority: and it would readily be acknowledged that one who, without authority, should assume the name, and demand audience as a foreign ambassador, would meet with contempt from any nation. So wise and discerning is main things that respect the affairs of this life; and yet so grossly blind in things spiritual and eternal!

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