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is the image and likeness of Her that was with Him CHAP. from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

33. And the one joint testimony of Father and Mother, by which their spiritual children are begotten, conceived and brought forth in the new creation, and by which all things are created anew in Christ Jesus, is the revealed glory and correspondent brightness of that WORD which proceeded and came forth from God, which was in the beginning with God, and which was God, and by which all things were made that were made, and without which was not any thing Johni. 3. made that was made.

34. Therefore, according to the unchangeable purpose of God, which he purposed in himself before the foundation of the world, he hath brought forth the foundation pillars of his declarative glory, who have finished and completed the foundation of God's spiritual building, by the most infallible evidences, and who are rooted and grounded in the unfathomable deep of the divine nature.

35. And therefore, until the whole order of heaven be supplanted and overthrown, the foundation of the church can never be moved, nor the pillars thereof shaken; but according to that promise, Yet once more, the work and building of God will go on to the final removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot Heb. x. be shaken may remain.

27.

CHAPTER X.

Evidences accompanying the second Appearing of
Christ.

HE work of God, in relation to the redemption

To work ofing beyond human comprehension,

has been always mistaken by the most wise and penetrating, in their natural state; and therefore, it is not surprising, that such should wholly mistake the

CHAP. nature of that evidence, by which it is confirmed to those who are actually in it.

30.

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2. In this, however, as well as in every thing else, vain man has assumed the authority of prescribing to God; and without regarding the presumptuous mistakes of former generations, every one is ready to lay out, in his own imagination, what evidence is necessary to accompany a living testimony, in order to give it divine credit and authority. But, the truth never was acceptable to sinful man, nor can any evidence, even of his own chusing, bind him to believe and obey it.

3. The greatest external wonders that ever God wrought in confirmation of his word, were followed by the greatest and most aggravated unbelief, and hardness of heart; as is evident from the history of Noah's posterity after the flood, and the Israelites in the wilderness.

4. The greatest objection against the testimony of Christ, in his first appearance was, want of evidence. John vi. What sign shewest thou that we may believe? They pretended that they would believe upon the evidence of such mighty works as their fathers had seen in the wilderness; but their hatred of the truth, and their fondness to find objections against it, proved that they had the same spirit of their fathers, who for forty years, provoked God in the wilderness, with their objections and cavils.

5. Hence the Spirit of truth, that was then grieved, and provoked, by a generation of proud Pharisees, and deceitful hypocrites, predicted by the mouth of Saint Paul, that when Christ should make his second appearance, to reveal the man of sin, whom he would consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming, his appear. ing would be, to them that perish, after, or [Gr. xaTà] .9, 10. according to the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

2 Thes.

6. And for this cause God should send them strong delusion, to believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in

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unrighteousness. Nothing but a principle of love to CHAP. truth, and obedience flowing from that principle, ever saved any soul; nor were any of those visible miracles and wonders, which are left on record, wrought for the purpose of saving the soul.

7. Yet, in condescension to mankind, in their imprisoned state of darkness and sensuality, God has, in every dispensation of his grace, addressed their external senses with evidences of his divine power, for the purpose of strengthening the faith of the weak believer, in that which was saving, and to stop the mouths of gainsayers.

8. And however grossly the present testimony, and work of Christ, has been misrepresented, and stigmatized, as an unfounded, and incredible invention of the worst of human characters, it has by no means been lacking in such kind of evidence, as sufficiently demonstrated its intimate and close relation to the work that was manifested in the primitive church, even to the external senses of natural men.

9. The Spirit is unchangeably one and the same at all times; but the manifestation of the Spirit may be various, by means of supernatural and extraordinary gifts. Many extraordinary gifts were in the primitive church; such as gifts of healing-working of miracles-prophecy-discerning of spirits-divers kinds of tongues the interpretation of tongues, &c. yet all these were not for salvation, but for the outward manifestation of that inward spirit, by which salvation is wrought.

10. Such evidences have existed in the Church of Christ from the first opening of the gospel to the present day; as such outward gifts have been abundantly ministred through our Mother, and the first witnesses, and from them to others, and frequently used on various occasions..

Matt.'vi.

11. It is true, wicked men have often had extraordinary gifts, which have given occasion to their 22. pride and vanity, from which offences have arisen against the true exercise of a Divine Power; and therefore such things are not to be the most earnestly coveted; nor is the real internal saving work of the Spirit thereby certainly evidenced. The Spirit is

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CHAP. known by its fruit, and the fruits of the Spirit, which are invariably the same in all, are very different from those extraordinary gifts which are severally divided, and may exist even where the real fruits of the Spirit are not to be found.

12. However, as these gifts originally flow from the Spirit, and belong to the Church, they are of importance in their proper place, and have been abundantly used in the first opening of the gospel in America. Therefore, it may not be improper to notice, here, a few instances of that miraculous power, by which the most stubborn unbelievers were confounded, and the faith of others strengthened, who continue to be living witnesses of the truth, to the present day.

13. It has been remarked that Pharoah's wise men and sorcerers could mimic the miracles of Moses, in such things as were productive of evil; but those evils they could not remove, which showed that the evil spirit had neither power nor disposition to do good. Hence such miracles as were of benefit to mankind, have been most generally considered as a distinguishing confirmation of the Spirit of goodness and truth; and upon this principle, the gift of healing has been the most universally ascribed to the spirit of Christ.

14. Therefore, although a multitude of facts of a like extraordinary appearance, might have been collected from the living witnesses of the present work of God; yet, to the candid and honest friend of truth, the following particulars may be sufficient to show that the same Spirit, which wrought by Christ Jesus and his apostles, was made manifest for the confirmation of the truth in this latter day,*

15. NOAH WHEATEN, of New-Lebanon, in the state of New-York, aged sixty-four years, testifies,

The manner in which we have stated these miraculous gifts, is not such as would have been the most agreeable to our own feelings, were our testimony to be confined to our friends and those who are personally acquainted with our people. Among ourselves, a plain and simple statement of the truth is suffi cient, without the formal ceremony of an affidavit, to enforce it. But the world of mankind have become so faithless towards each other, that they can. not believe, nor be believed, without something like legal attestation; there fore, in conformity to general practice, we have stated these evidences, after the manner of depositions, signed and witnessed; and we are willing that any who are desirous of further information, should make personal enquiry.

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That shortly after he had received faith in the testi- CHAP. mony of Christ's second appearing, in the year 1780, near the beginning of July, (according to the best of his remembrance,) being employed in clearing land, about forty or fifty rods from his own house, and be-, ing thirsty, he left his work to go to a spring on the opposite side of a fence, near by, to get some drink.That having mounted the fence, which was very high, in jumping off, by a mis-step, dislocated his ancle outwardly, and split or broke the outer bone of his leg, just above the ancle joint.

16. That after groaning and wallowing in this situation a while, he crawled to the spring, and back to the place where he had been at work. That although he was unable to go on with his work, he was yet unwilling to return to his house, or to make his case known, on account of the enmity of his unbelieving neighbours, to whom he had often testified his faith, as he had nothing to expect from them but derision.

17. That his ancle began to swell, and the pain increased, yet there he continued, tumbling and rolling about, for the space of two or three hours, in great distress of mind as well as pain of body. That at length he crawled home on his hands and knees, and although under extreme mortification of spirit for this misfortune, yet he was full of faith and confidence in the gift of miracles, which he had before strongly testified to his unbelieving neighbours.

18. That he felt the trial of his faith now come, and was, therefore, resolved not to mar his testimony by flinching from it, in the hour of trial; but feeling full confidence in the gift of God, he refused to have a doctor called, or any attempt made to set the bone, or even any outward application, for the mitigation of his pain-That, consequently, his ancle and leg swelled greatly, turned black, and was excessively painful.

19. That, while in this situation, numbers of his unbelieving neighbours came to see him, and also several of the believers; but still confident in the faith of a miraculous cure, and desiring to confirm his testimony to his neighbours, he would not submit