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IV.

is the flesh with all its affections and lusts; and hence CHAP. they possess one common salvation from all sin. Where there is not a common salvation from all sin, there is neither Christ nor his Church; for his name was called Jesus, i. e. a Saviour, because he saves 21. his people from their sins.

11. As all have sinned, and none can be saved from their sins out of the Church; so all that come to the Church must needs come in their sins; and by bringing their deeds to the light, that is, by confessing and forsaking all their sins, they may find their relation to the Church, according to the degree of their faith and obedience to the light which they receive.

12. But they cannot hold that relation, nor become as pillars in the temple of God, to go no more out, in any other way than by receiving a ministration of that gift and power of God, which abides in the Church, and in obedience thereto resisting and overcoming evil, and growing up in all things into Christ who is the head. Therefore all are not the Church, who at first find their relation to the Church, until their souls become purified in obeying the truth. For the temple of God is holy.

13. But persons may, for a time, receive faith and light, and the gifts of God through the Church, and by being unfaithful and disobedient may fall away; but the Church itself can never fall, nor be shaken ; because the foundation thereof is everlasting, being laid by the revelation of God, in the unchangeable nature and order of his own eternal power and divine majesty; and the building itself has been raised according to the unchangeable purpose of God, which he purposed in himself before all worlds, to accomplish in the fulness of times.

14. And although there was a true Church in the days of the apostles, which was supplanted and trodden under foot; yet it was because the order in the foundation of the building, was not completed, according to the purpose of God in the fulness of times, nor could it be, until Christ made his second appearing.

15. And if there were in the succeeding ages af

Matt. i.

- IV.

CHAP. ter the apostles, false and divided churches, it was because they sprang from false hearted and divided men. And if there is one Church now on earth, faithful, holy, and righteous, it is most certainly the offspring of a faithful, holy and righteous God, who created the Church and all things therein, both visiCol. i. 16. ble and invisible by Jesus Christ.

Eph.

9, 10.

16. And as certain as the only true God did promise to establish a holy Church, in the latter day, in which he would dwell, so certain that Church is brought forth, and contains all that was promised, as pertaining to the Church, temple, tabernacle, house or habitation of God in the latter day.

17. A house or habitation is built to contain the property and furniture, as well as the person of the builder: so the Church of God contains all the unsearchable riches, and treasures of wisdom and knowledge, pertaining to the redemption of man, which God hath treasured up in Christ, who is the fol. i. 17, head of the Church, and who is before all things therein, and by whom all things therein consist.

18.

18. The Holy Ghost was promised, and in the Church she dwells, with all her gifts, powers, and diversities of operations. The gifts of faith, wisdom, knowledge, discerning of spirits, gifts of healing, miracles, prophecy, tongues, and so on. All which gifts of the Holy Ghost are given to the Church, for the manifestation of the spirit-for the 1,12,13. perfecting of the saints-for the work of the ministry-and the edifying of the body of Christ, till they all come into the unity of the faith-unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

Eph. iv.

27.

19. Thus by the Holy Ghost, God hath sanctified chap. v. and cleansed his Church, That he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish.

on.

20. The law and the covenant were promised, and Isai. 3. are in the Church-The law shall go forth out of ZiChrist is the head of his body the Church, which chap. xl is the light of the world. I will give him for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. word of God was promised and is in the Church—

The

Y.

that word which is quick and powerful, a discerner of CHAP. the thoughts and intents of the heart-and liveth and abideth forever.

Heb iv. 12

Acts Y.

21. Repentance and remission of sins were promised, and are in the Church. Him hath God exalted 31. -a Prince and Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.-The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins. This power is given to the Church;-Whose soever sins ye remit, they John xx. are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye re- 28. tain, they are retained.

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22. Salvation and redemption are in the Church, Isai. x and no where else. I will place salvation in Zion for 13.lix.20. Israel my glory. The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob.

23. In a word, the whole mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, and all that pertains to eternal life and godliness, are in and through the Church revealed and manifested, and according to the order of God in the fulness of times, are to be acknowledged for the purposes of Redemption.

CHAPTER V.

The Foundation Pillars of the Church of Christ.

THE

HE Church of Christ has its foundation in the revelation of f God, and that foundation is Christ. But who, or what is Christ? The name Christ Jesus Maj.21. signifies Anointed Saviour.-Thou shalt call his name JESUS; for he shall save his people from their sins. And as the man JESUS was, for that very purpose, endowed with the spiritual unction or anointing power of the Holy Ghost, therefore he was called CHRIST: i. e. the anointed.

2. Hence the Church is called the body of Christ, which signifies the body of the anointed, or the body of those who have received the Holy Ghost: and therefore the Church of Christ is the Church of the anointed. Jesus was not the body of the anointed,

V.

CHAP. but the head; and as the body hath many members, so also is Christ, or the anointed. These members

1 John ii. 27.

Gol. i, 27.

are those human bodies in which the anointing hath its abode. And hence it is written: The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you-which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

3. Therefore, Christ or the anointing is not a man or a woman, but an unction or anointing of the Holy Spirit, of which the anointing oil with which the Jewish kings and prophets were formerly anointed, was a figure. Neither is the anointed one member, but many not a particular person only, but a body of people. And as every thing must have a foundation or first cause, so the body of the anointed originated from one, and this one must be considered as the foundation pillar or first father of all who constitute that body.

4. The world is not one person, but many; yet all the world sprang from one man, who is therefore considered as the foundation pillar or first father of the human race. But as the first man was not alone in the foundation of the old creation; so neither did Christ Jesus, in his single person, complete the order in the foundation of the new creation.

5. Had there never been any written account of the foundation of human society, or the constituent order of the world, the world itself would be a standing monument of the essential parts of which it is composed, namely, of man and woman; the father and mother of all living. And as every individual in the world sprang from a father and mother, the conclusion is self-evident, that the whole sprang from one joint parentage, or first father and mother, as the foundation pillars of human society.

6. And upon the same principle might the foundation pillars of the anointed be discovered, were there no written or verbal account of the beginning of such an order, for no effect can exist without a cause, and by the effect, the cause which produced it is made manifest: and this truth is still more evident since the pointed predictions of the ancient prophets are recorded, and fulfilled in the Church of Christ in the present day.

7. Then first, as the Church is constituted of man- CHAP. kind, who are anointed with the Holy Ghost, and separated from the world, it follows that man, anointed with the Holy Ghost, was the first foundation pillar of the Church. And second, as the Church is not composed of the man without the woman, but both are united in the Lord by an inseparable bond of spiritual union, it follows of course that such a union and relation sprang from a first man and woman who were thus united.

8. And this man and woman, united in the bond of an everlasting covenant, and anointed with the same spirit, must be the foundation pillars of all who are thus united by the same anointing. And whether they are immediately and personally known or not, yet, by the spirit of harmony and union flowing through the anointed, there is a relative knowledge of their nature and union; as much as the world rel atively know by experience, the nature and union of their first foundation pillars whose image they bear.

9. And as the order in the foundation of the old creation could not be complete by the first man without the first woman; so the order in the foundation of the new creation could not be complete in the man alone for the man is not without the woman in the Lord, nor the woman without the man.

10. In the natural creation, the man was first formed, and afterwards the woman, who was the mother of all living and the man was not of the woman, but the woman of the man, and by the woman, was the order in the creation of man completed; and the first covenant was between them both, for the increasing glory of the natural creation.

11. Christ Jesus was the second man, the beginning of a new creation of God: but, as has been observed, no order in the creation could be completed by one alone; therefore, according to the invariable order and relation of things, the ultimate display of the new creation required a second woman, that the new covenant might stand between them both, for the increase and glory of the new creation.

12. The first man was created male and female jointly, but neither male nor female separately, un

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