CHAPTER 26
Confession, Abjuration and Declaration
Having arrived at a knowledge of the Truth which he had been seeking for so long, Dr. Thomas issued a confession and Abjuration, followed by a Declaration of the beliefs to which he had been led:
“When we consider the nature of flesh and blood, and the constitution of the world to which it stands related, it seems impossible that a man should struggle for twelve long years in and with the darkness and evil by which he is surrounded, and have no errors to confess and abjure. There may be some immaculates who, being wise in their own conceit, consider themselves as free from these; and who regard with pious horror the possibility of ‘heresy’ being an ingredient of their religionism. But it is not so with the Editor of the Herald of the Future Age. He admits he has erred ‘in may things,’ and it affords him great and pleasant satisfaction to announce to his readers that by the profitable assistance of the sacred writings, he has discovered some mistakes, which, if not corrected, would prove fatal to his eternal well-being.”
“His errors are of a positive and negative character—errors of omission, and errors of commission. While it may be a palliation to say he erred in sincerity, he considers such a plea no valid excuse or expiation. Paul committed many heinous offences ignorantly, therefore he found mercy; but he was not therefore pardoned. So, because we have erred ignorantly, and at the same time honestly contending for what we believed to be true, we have also ‘obtained mercy,’ in the forbearance of God towards us, seeing that we are still spared to the discovery of the sandiness of our foundation, and the correction and abjuration of our errors unto life.”
“When we look back upon the past thirteen years, it is with mingled astonishment and satisfaction. But though in the course of that period we have had many regrets, yet from the position we now occupy in viewing ‘the landscape o’er,’ we cannot confess that our mingled feeling is disturbed by the bitterness of regret. Our barque has been buffeted and tossed by the winds and waves of an unfathomed and stormy course. It is true that its masts and spars have bent and creaked under a not infrequent press of sail; but her hull was tight, and her stays and halliards, though stretched, have not given way; she has always answered to her helm, and we rejoice to know that we have brought her to soundings tight and trim. But from the tropical, let us turn to plain, unvarnished details of matters and things.”
“I. —First we remark that our moral training at the hands of a kind and pious mother was the best her education in the Calvinism of the Scottish Kirk could enable her to give. She instilled into us a profound veneration for the Holy Scriptures, which we retain till this day. We had more veneration for the book than accurate knowledge of its contents. Hence, while our youth was strictly moral, the hereditary principle of our flesh was strong and unsubdued. Pride and ambition, our ancestral sins, were the leading characteristics of our early manhood. These urged us on to ‘high things,’ as we then esteemed them. We sought distinction in politics and science, ‘the mean ambition and pride of men’; but God in His goodness foiled all our schemes, and we found ourselves an alien in a strange land.”
“II. —With a very, very insufficient knowledge of the word, amounting almost to nothing, we became a truth seeker. We sought truth as a worldly-minded but otherwise moral young man might be supposed to seek it; we sought it at the lips of the world’s prophets and diviners. In the search we failed. Events introduced us to our worthy friend W.S. of the Protestant Unionist. We conversed on the Book of Daniel. We were acquainted with these prophecies then only as far as they were interpreted by Rollin, which we have elsewhere by a different interpretation proved to be fallacious. If, therefore, the Kingdom of God was touched upon, and we think it was not, it is very certain we did not understand it. However, said our friend, ‘we agree very well as to the generals; let us see if we cannot come to an understanding as to particulars.’ ‘You believe that Jesus is the Christ?’ The truth is in relation to this, we could not have told when we did not ‘believe’ it! We answered ‘Yes!’ ‘What hinders, then, that you should be a Christian? You believe that Christ died for sins, was buried, and rose again; why not be baptised?’ Yes, we believed this, because it was so written; but we had also supposed ourselves as good a Christian as others, though not in a church. We had belonged to the Independents, when 17 years old, for about six months, when we withdrew. We had always been a churchgoer, and had officiated as a sort of chaplain on board a ship. A Christian! Could we be more a Christian than we were? Such was the kind of thoughts flitting athwart the mind; but we replied that we thought that, being a stranger, he ought not to press us to do this; but that he should wait, and prove whether we were worthy; we might discredit our profession, which would be worse than none. He very politely expressed that he had no fears of that kind. We told him, however, frankly, that we were seeking the truth, and if the course he recommended were scriptural, we would comply. He cited the case of the Ethiopian officer, and in the conversation quoted Acts 2:38, which proved an end to all controversy.”
“Such are the leading facts in the case, as well as we can remember at this distance of time. We cast no blame on our friend, while we condemn ourselves. With the views he had then, and seems still to retain, and which for many years we have shared with him and others, we should, and doubtless have pursued the same course; but, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, as we verily believe, we confess that the whole matter was a mistake, and as such make this public abjuration thereof:
“1. —Because our ‘faith’ rested mainly, if not solely, upon the word of man.”
“2. —Because that most excellent man, we think, did not then, neither does he now, appear to know, nor did we, what the Gospel of God is concerning His Son.”
“3. —Because we mistook the Mystery of the Gospel for the Gospel itself.”
“4. —Because the Editor was a stranger to the Abrahamic disposition and mode of thinking which are the true type of ‘repentance unto life’.”
“5. —Because being destitute of this childlike frame of mind, even had he known and believed the gospel of the kingdom, his faith would not have been imputed to him for righteousness.”
“6. —Because that men are ‘saved by the hope,’ being ignorant in toto of that hope, he was not saved by it, and therefore, while he writes this, must be in his sins.”
“These, we consider, are sufficient reasons why we should abjure the whole transaction, in which we once firmly thought we had believed and obeyed the one only true apostolic gospel of Jesus Christ.”
“III. —Having been immersed into what we now see is an erroneous system, an interest was then awakened in us to know more about it Accordingly we devoured the Christian Baptist and Harbinger. For seven months we supposed we were studying the truth itself. We were but too faithful a servant of these writings. We acquired a taste for theological gladiatorship, for which we have not been altogether unjustly blamed. If at this period we studied the word otherwise than through these works, the impression thereof has faded from our remembrance.”
“IV. —At the end of seven months, an unforseen and unwished for change in our circumstances supervened. When we look back we are astonished. It was not, however, presumption, but a pressure from without, that placed us in the attitude of a religious instructor! Our friend W. S. could never induce us to attempt ‘to preach.’ We were cornered in relation to this matter by Mr. A. Campbell, who forced us most reluctantly into the position. We now found ourselves under an extraordinary obligation to study the word. Accordingly we closed the other works and set about it in good earnest; and, becoming an editor, a new impetus was communicated, which became irresistible. While the Christian Baptist maintained its ascendancy, our mind continually reverted to its author as the light of the age, and we wrote and spoke of him as such; but, as the word began to take root in our hearts, and to enlighten the eyes of our understanding, in the same ratio that light became dim, and we began to discover the dense fog in which he and his system are embedded.”
“V. —It has consumed many years to convince us thoroughly of this. This will explain how it is we have taught errors we are now under the necessity of abjuring. We taught these errors under the influence of human tradition; we have recently perceived the truth aided only by the prophets and the apostles; therefore we do confess:
“1. —That we have taught that to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; that he died for sins, was buried, and rose again for our justification; and that to be immersed into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the remission of sins—is to believe and obey the gospel.”
“2. —That we have taught, that to be sorry for sin, cease to do evil, and learn to do well—is repentance.”
“3. —That the kingdom of God was set up on the Day of Pentecost; that it consisted of 3120 citizens; that the apostles then sat upon their thrones; and we have sung that we shall gain kingdoms beyond the skies, &c.”
“4. —That the gospel was preached for the first time by Peter on Pentecost, and that it is contained in Acts 2:38; and that the transactions therein detailed are a fulfilment of Isaiah 2:3.”
“5. —That by immersion, a believer after the type of No. 1, is introduced into the kingdom.”
“6. —That, while we have always contended that the faith of the sectarian world, and the faith without which a man cannot please God, are essentially different faiths, we have erroneously attributed that essential difference to not believing in the remission of sins through immersion into the name of Jesus, instead of to their utter ignorance of the Gospel of the Kingdom.”
“7. —That, while formerly with these errors, we taught the truth as it opened up before us from the word, we have never, till comparatively recently, perceived that it was the gospel, and, therefore, we have never ventured to affirm that these things were necessary to salvation.”
“8. —That, like all the rest of our contemporaries, we have taught unknowingly the conditions of the Gospel as a substitute for the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.”
“9. —That, under the influence of human tradition and example, we have invited persons to come forward on the spur of the moment, and be baptised for remission of sins, when, from the nature of things, it was impossible that they could have been enlightened; had we been properly instructed we should now have had to make this confession and abjuration of our mistakes. Better late, however, than not at all.”
“10. —We do not remember that we ever taught the existence of an immortal soul in corruptible man, and the translation thereof to heaven or hell, at the instant of death; if we have, so much the worse: no man can hold this dogma and acceptably believe the gospel of the kingdom of God and His Christ; we abjure it as ‘a damnable heresy’.”
“The former nine of these items we confess to; there may be other things which have escaped our recollection; whatever they be, let them all go into eternal oblivion; we count them all but dross, and abjure them all, that we may enter upon a new era, as the freedman of Christ and his truth.”
“VI. —We erred in holding in abeyance the most trivial inference from the truth on any pretence whatever; we abjure all errors of this kind, and take this opportunity of declaring that no compromise with men or principles can hereafter be extracted from the editor of this paper.”
“VII. —We admit that we have not accepted the slanders and reproaches bestowed upon us with that gratitude the word inculcates. Born and educated in a country where character is more precious than gold, we have, in time past, felt like Ephraim, unaccustomed to the yoke, when suffering under the galling imputations of reckless assailants. Experience, however, has taught us that in this country, slander is the people’s broadsword with which they seek to slay the reputations of all who aim to serve them otherwise than in subservience to their passions, in the things of time and eternity. But, blessed be our foes in their basket and store. We thank them for their persecution and opposition with which they have encountered us. But for these, we should have been, perhaps, like them, ‘in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity.’ Their course has compelled us to study more diligently than we might have done the Holy Scriptures, that we might be better able to give an answer to every one that should ask a reason of the hope that is in us. Had they let us alone, it is probable we should have been in good repute indeed with them and their leaders, and might even have been teaching the same fables; which, however, would have deprived us of the pleasure of confessing our errors and mistakes, and of thus publicly renouncing and bidding them adieu.
March 3rd, 1847.”
The Declaration followed, as below: -
“Having presented the reader with our confession and abjuration of errors, the fitness of things requires that we should declare to him what we believe the Holy Scriptures teach in lieu thereof. We shall, therefore, now proceed to do this epitomially, and in as few words as possible.”
“1. —First, then, they reveal that THE GOSPEL WAS PREACHED TO ABRAHAM.”
“This is proved by what follows:
‘The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed’ (Gal. 3:8).
Referring to this incident, Jesus said to the Jews,
‘Your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad’ (John 8:56).”
“Upon this we may remark, that all nations have never yet been blessed in Abraham; secondly, that when all nations shall be blessed in Abraham, Messiah’s day will have been revealed; and thirdly, that these events not having been accomplished, their fulfilment is yet a matter of hope; hence Abraham rejoiced in the prospect of the future age, then far off, but now near, because it was doubtless then revealed to him that he should sit down with his descendent, the Messiah, in the kingdom of God (Luke 13:28); for Abraham, when called, went out into a country where the kingdom is to be set up; which country ‘he should after receive for an inheritance’; he sojourned in (this) the land of promise, as in a strange or foreign country; for he looked for a city or state which hath foundation, whose builder and maker (or founder and constitutor) is God (Heb. 11:8-10). These passages are a few of the beacon-lights which display the kind of truth preached to Abraham as The Gospel. They show that he looked for a state, or kingdom, divinely established and constituted under his descendent in the land promised to him and to his seed, when all nations should own his sovereignty. This he looked for as Messiah’s age; he saw it by the eye of that ‘faith,’ which is ‘the assured expectation of things hoped for; the conviction of things unseen’; and without which ‘it is impossible to please God’; ‘he saw it, and was glad.’ This was the ancient gospel, preached to Abraham, which is still a matter of hope to all of Abraham’s seed.”
“Query. Of those who preach ‘baptism for remission,’ &c., as the ancient gospel, we would enquire, when the gospel was preached to Abraham by the Lord God, did He preach to him that Jesus was the Christ, His Son; that he died, was buried, and rose again, for faith and repentance, and baptism into the name of the Trinity; for the remission of sins, in obedience to that faith? In the nature of things this could not have been preached, yet He preached to him the gospel; and you admit that there is but one gospel: how do you disentangle yourselves from this difficulty? Is it not manifest that we have been preaching something else than what the Lord God preached to Abraham, and which Paul says was the Gospel?”
“2. —The same gospel was preached to Abraham’s descendants in Egypt and in the wilderness of Egypt.”
“This is proved by these testimonies. In the good news announced by Jacob to his sons, he said:
‘The sceptre (the symbol of sovereign power) shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until He whose it is come: and unto Him shall the gatherings of the nations be’ (Gen. 49:10).
Joseph preached the same gospel to them fifty-four years after saying,
‘God will surely visit you, and bring you out of the land (of Egypt), unto the land He sware (or promised) to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob: and ye shall carry up my bones’ (Gen. 50:24-25).
None, however, of Joseph’s generation left Egypt; but by faith, Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones (Heb. 11:22).”
“The Angel of the Lord preached the gospel to Moses at the bush, saying,
‘I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows: and I am come down to deliver them out of the land of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good and large land, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place or country of the Canaanites, and Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites’ (Exod. 3:6-8).
In this discourse, Jesus says God preached to Moses the resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Luke 20:37). What were they to rise from the dead for? To inherit this ‘good and large land flowing with milk and honey,’ promised to them in the gospel preached to them; and in which they, and all their posterity, as yet, have only dwelt as pilgrims and sojourners.”
“By an assured expectation of the things delivered to him from his fathers, and a conviction of them then as yet unseen, ‘Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of (or, on account of the expectation of) the anointed King (spoken of by Jacob when blessing Judah), greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward,’ which Shiloh should bring (Heb. 11:24). Moses, then, believed the same gospel as did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and, as we shall see, preached it likewise.”
“ ‘Go,’ said Jehovah to him, ‘and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: and I have said (to Abraham: Gen.15: 13-16) I will bring you up out of the affliction unto the land of the Canaanites, &c., unto a land flowing with milk and honey’ (Exod. 3:16). ‘And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed, and bowed their heads and worshipped’ (Exod. 4:29-31). And ‘by faith,’ yea by this faith, which Paul defines in Heb. 11:1, ‘they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land’ (verse 29).”
“In Exod. 6:4, Jehovah saith, ‘I have established my covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.’ From which remembrance we are to understand that the Exodus of Egypt under Moses, the passage of the Jordan under Joshua, the occupation of the land of promise temporally by the Twelve Tribes, somewhat more permanently by Judah, and the events of the times of the Gentiles, which are all converging to a grand and awful crisis in the Holy Land, with all their correlates and details, constitute the economy of means instituted by the Almighty, through which He predetermined that the gospel preached to Abraham should be manifested in its glorious consummation. This economy how vast! It begins with the departing from Egypt, and is accomplished in the setting up of the kingdom of God, when the Son of Abraham shall come in power and great glory!”
“ ‘Wherefore,’ O Moses, ‘say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgment: and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God, &c.: and I will bring you into the land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you (also) for a heritage; I am the Lord’ (verse 6, 8). This was the same gospel that the Lord God preached to their fathers. They should have that good land for an everlasting heritage when the promise should be fulfilled to the worthies enumerated by Paul in Heb. 11.”
“The Lord brought them into the wilderness to prove them; but ‘they always erred in their heart.’ They were a stiff-necked and perverse generation. They despised the gospel preached to them, and wished themselves again in Egypt. They murmured against the Lord, whose wonders they had witnessed in the land of Ham. They were a people in whom was no faith, so that ‘the Lord sware in His wrath, They shall not enter into my rest’.”
“Now, the apostle saith of this generation under Moses, and of those Jews who lived in his own day, ‘Unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word of hearing did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it’ (Heb. 4:2). From which it is clear, first, that the gospel was preached to the Israelites whose carcases fell in the wilderness; and, second, that IT WAS THE SAME GOSPEL THAT WAS PREACHED TO AND BY THE APOSTLES TO THEIR CONTEMPORARIES.”
“3. —The same gospel was preached to the generation that invaded Canaan under Joshua.”
“The Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, ‘Be strong, and of good courage, for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with thee’ (Deut. 31:23). At that time Moses was permitted to view the land promised to him and his fathers, but not enter it. He was to wait until it was made ‘a heavenly country’ under the sovereignty of Shiloh, to whom he was afterwards introduced on the Mount of Transfiguration.”
“ ‘Within three days,’ said Joshua, ‘ye shall pass over this Jordan to go in to possess this land, which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it’ (Joshua 1:11). ‘And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers’ (ch. 21:43). But this was not the rest promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Samuel, David, and the prophets; they all hoped for the rest to be manifested in the country lying between the Euphrates, Mediterranean, Nile, and the Gulf of Persia, according to the promise: this was the gospel preached to them, whether actual residents in the land or out of it. ‘These all having a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing (than Canaan as it was in their day) for us, that they without us should not be made perfect’ (Heb. 11:39-40).”
“The rest in Canaan under the Mosaic law to which Joshua introduced the nation, was not the final rest which constitutes the burden of the gospel. Several hundred years after Joshua, the Holy Spirit said by David to his and all subsequent generations, ‘If ye harden your hearts, ye shall not enter into my rest’; thus speaking of another rest in the land of promise differently constituted from that of Joshua. Let the reader study well Heb. 3 and 4, without referring to word-corrupting commentators. Paul says Joshua did not give them rest, therefore there remains a Sabbatism to Joshua, Caleb, &c. Where is this rest? In the Holy Land, when it shall be constituted an heavenly country or paradise. And remember that it is declared that NO ONE SHALL ENTER INTO THE REST WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE THE TRUTH CONCERNING IT.”
“4. —This same gospel of the Rest which was preached to Abraham is amplified throughout all the prophets.”
“Speaking of this, Paul says, he was ‘separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures’ (Rom. 1:1). Indeed, under this head, we may state summarily that all that is said about the latter-day glory of the Israelites, about the magnificence and everlasting sovereignty of David’s son, of his throne, and of his kingdom; of the future destiny of the Holy Land, of Jerusalem and Zion; of the benign and peaceful reign of Messiah on his father David’s throne; of his dominion over all nations; of the glory, honour, immortality, and royal and priestly dignity of his saints, &c.: —all these, and much more, make up ‘the gospel of God concerning His Son’.”
“This same gospel was preached by John the Baptist, by Jesus, and by his apostles, before the day of Pentecost.”
“5. —John preached, saying, ‘Repent, for the royal dignity of the heavens hath come!’ ‘Now, after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled (see Daniel) and the kingdom of God (or His royal dignity, or majesty) is come: repent ye, and believe the gospel (Mark 1:14). ‘I am sent,’ said he, ‘to preach the kingdom of God’ (Luke 4:43). And he sent his twelve disciples to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. And they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing everywhere (Luke 9:1, 2, 6).”
“From these texts it is plain that to preach the gospel was to preach about the kingdom of God; and, vice versa, that to preach the kingdom of God was to preach the gospel. Did John, Jesus, and the Twelve preach for the gospel baptism into the Trinity for remission to those who believed Jesus was the Son of God? No; they preached the gospel Abraham rejoiced in; the good things of which wrought in the hearts and minds of those who believed, dispositions and modes of thinking after the Abrahamic type; this was repentance because of the kingdom of God.”
“6. —The same gospel was preached by the Twelve, and by Paul, after the day of Pentecost.”
“It would be easy to show that it was preached on every occasion recorded in the Acts. We are not now arguing, but declaring in as condensed a form as the subject will admit. We cannot now, therefore, go into minutiae. Turn to Acts 8:12. Philip’s discourse consisted of two general divisions; first, ‘the things concerning THE KINGDOM OF GOD’; and, second, concerning ‘the NAME of Jesus Christ’; now mark, the first was the gospel; the second, the mystery of the gospel. See also Acts 19:8; 20:25; 28:31.”
“7. —The grand principle brought to light by the preaching of the gospel from Abraham to the apostolic era, was: LIFE AND INCORRUPTIBILITY THROUGH THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”
“The nature of the kingdom will manifest this. Read Daniel 2:44; 7:13, 14,18,27. Here it will be seen that the kingdom is to be indestructible; secondly, that it is not to be left to other people, or to pass from hand to hand; thirdly, it is to stand for ever, that is, to be superseded by no other; fourthly, the saints are to take this kingdom and possess it for ever; fifthly, they will possess it with the Son of man, to whom, sixthly, all nations will be politically and ecclesiastically obedient.”
“Flesh and blood, therefore, cannot inherit this kingdom; for flesh and blood is destructible, or corruptible. If, when God sets up this kingdom, the administration of its affairs were committed to mortals, they could only retain it as they now do the kingdoms of the world; but it is not to be left to successors; hence those who are promoted to its glory, honour, peace, and power, must be immortal; so that when once appointed to office, being endowed with an incorruptible life, they can administer its affairs until it is delivered up to the Father by the Son, at the expiration of 1000 years. This glory, honour, incorruptibility, life, might, majesty, peace, blessedness, and dominion, are attributes of the kingdom alone; to preach these things is to preach the gospel through which incorruptibility and life are brought to light by Jesus Christ, the future sovereign of the world.”
“Such is the gospel we now believe with our whole heart. Like Abraham, through the testimony concerning it, we ‘rejoice to see Messiah’s day, and do see it, and are glad.’ It is our hope; the hope of our calling through Jesus; ‘the anchor of our soul, both sure and stedfast, within the vail.’ It is by this hope we are saved.”
To this declaration of his belief in the things concerning the Kingdom of God, Dr. Thomas added an appeal.
“Does the reader believe this gospel; does he earnestly desire to partake in such a glorious inheritance as this? Dismiss, then ‘the vain and deceitful philosophy’ of the pietists, dream no more of phantom ‘kingdoms beyond the skies’; but be content to receive the word as a little child, and yield a willing conformity to the conditions of the MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM.”
“These are to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ crucified, the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:23).”
“1. —The first condition is, that you believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Anointed King (Christ) and Son of the living God.”
“2. —That, according to the predetermination of God, he was crucified for believer’s sins, was buried, and rose again from the dead, according to the prophets and apostles.”
“3. —That you be the subject of the same disposition and mode of thinking as were Abraham, &c.”
“4. —That ye be immersed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, that you may become the recipient of repentance and remission of sins, or of an imputation of righteousness, through the name of Jesus Christ.”
“We cannot enter into detail. The Scriptures must be searched in relation to these conditions. We can only kindle up the beacon fires. The word is profitable for all things. An ENLIGHTENED believer being thus obedient to the faith, is baptised for the resurrection, for the kingdom of God, and for all else the Gospel promises. He thus becomes an heir of God, and co-heir with Jesus of the world. He will ‘inherit all things,’ provided”:
“5. —That he walk worthy of his high destiny, ‘denying himself of ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly, in the present age; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’ If he do these things, he will never fall.”
