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"So He shall open and none shall shut. And He
shall shut and none shall open," Isaiah 22:22.
I have understood that Wm. Penn, who came over to this country (America)
in company with a friend by the name of Key, said, "that by the use of the Key
and Pen, the Everlasting Kingdom of God would be set up and triumph over all
opposition."
"Horror hath taken hold upon me, because of the wicked that
forsake thy Law," Psa. 119:53.
"It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void
thy Law," Psa. 119:126.
"There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun,*
Who rideth upon the heaven in thy help,
And his excellence on the sky.
The Eternal God is thy refuge,
And underneath are the everlasting arms:
And he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee,
And shall say, Destroy them.
Israel shall then dwell in safety alone;
The fountain of Corn and Wine,
Also his heavens shall drop down dew.
Happy art thou, O Israel,
Who is like unto thee,
O People saved by the Lord,
The shield of thy help,
And who is the Sword of thy Excellency!
And thy enemies shall be found liars unto thee,
And thou shalt tread upon their high places."
Deut 33:26-29.
Qualifications indispensably necessary for any Gentile Christian
to possess in going to Jerusalem, before ever he can arrive at the one unchangeable
and all saving Truth.
1. He must not be compromised to any of the many hundreds of the Christian
sects, either by pre-possession or Prejudice. He must be a God fearing and truly
honest man. The following must be his motto:
God in thy eye,
Truth in thy Heart,
Light in thy Soul,
From these never part.
But if he be a High Churchman, or a Puseyite, he will, if he get amongst
the Convents there, in all probability, go over to the Catholics or Church of Rome. If he
be an Orthodox Quaker, he will, in all probability, go over to the Church of England; but
if he be an Hicksite Quaker, a Universalist, or Spiritual Knocker, he will, in all
probability, go to Infidelity.
But if he be a truly Wise and Understanding man, he will go and "dwell
under the shadow of Israel and return; he will then revive as the Corn, and grow as
the Vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Who is wise, and he
shall understand these things? Prudent, and he shall know them?"
(Bishop Horsley says, "these last words of the Prophet Hosea imply very great
Wisdom* indeed,") "for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall
live in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein." Hosea 14 7 and 9.
--
"Our Father, raise Jerusalem,
For when the Daylight breaks
In yonder East, the clouds disperse,
The sleeping world awakes."
The Key is an emblem of the authority of Government, and in the East
to this day, in transferring the Authority and Government of a City, a large Key is laid
upon a person, and hangs down in front, as a mark of his Authority. The Key of David is
the authority and Government, which God has given David over his Everlasting Kingdom and
City of Jerusalem, which Jeremiah, 3:17, tells us, "Shall be the Throne of the
Lord."
And all the strength of this Authority and Government of the "Key of
David," depends upon one great and grand principle, viz.: The Divine Unity.
Indeed, to take away or destroy the Divine Unity of God, by attempting to divide
it, would be certain death, so far as it concerns ourselves--for division is Death, from
the highest created Being down to the lowest Human Existence. Therefore the true mother,
when the wise King Solomon merely pretended to divide the "Living Child,"
said, "O, my Lord, give her the Living Child, and in no wise slay
it" (by dividing it,) "for her bowels yearned upon her son." 1
Kings iii. 26.
In truth, the very first gasp or breath of the soul in Immortality and
Eternal Life, is a belief in the Unity of God, therefore God's very first law to
Israel was, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One Lord," Deut. vi.
3, 5, and the very first step of the soul in darkness, and Eternal Death, is attempting to
divide the Unity of God into a Trinity, or Plurality, whether it be in
number, name, or division of parts; and for this great reason, because the
"true Thesis of God is without Body, Parts, or Passions." that is, God
is not a Corporeal or Physical Being, but a Moral or Spiritual,
and therefore his character, or Being, must be composed of certain powers
or virtues, that we properly call attributes, because we attribute
them to him, viz.: Power, Wisdom, Righteousness, Justice, Mercy, Goodness, and Truth, and
these Seven Principles or Powers, or Attributes, we see clearly manifest in the
whole visible Creation of God, and therefore they cannot be denied, neither can they be divided,
nor treated of separately from the great Principle of Unity, because if
they are attributes, and Eternal in their nature, we cannot divide them unless we are also
guilty of Idolatry. This the great Maimonides saw, although almost all Christian
writers have spoken of them and treated of them separately, and very improperly;
for who cannot at once see, that it is impossible for Power to exist without Wisdom to
apply and appropriate it; and that Righteousness cannot be maintained without
Justice to protect it--neither can Mercy exist without she has Goodness for her bowels;
and they must all exist in Truth, or else all would be, and is, fiction and falsehood.
There Eternal Attributes are existent everywhere; but how could the
attributes constitute God's existence, and be Omnipresent, if composed of
corporeal or visible parts?
But the most perfect and complete representation of an Invisible Being,
whom we call God, is his Most Holy Divine Law, and this is the only revelation or
exhibition that first led the mind of man (Moses) to see him or his Similitude,
which similitude is his Divine Attributes, as we can plainly see in all
his visible creation, as a God of Power, Wisdom, Righteousness, Justice, Mercy, Goodness,
and Truth; and these are Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his
handy work.
"Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth
knowledge.
"There is no speech nor language, where their voice
is not heard.
"Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the
end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
"Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and
rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race." Psa. 19.
The wise King of Israel (Solomon) clearly foresaw the True Church
and Kingdom of God set up and established in these Seven Attributes, in
these last days, before a wondering world, and therefore he gives us the following
beautiful description of it in his Chapter ix. 1st, 2nd and 3rd verses of Proverbs,
"Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her Seven Pillars: She has killed
her beasts; she has mingled her wine; she has furnished her table: She has sent forth her
maidens; she cries upon the highest places of the city;" now this is the
Interpretation as follows:--
"Wisdom has built her house" -- (The Everlasting Kingdom.)
"She has hewn out her Seven Pillars" -- (The 7 Attributes or
Pillars that support it.)
"She has killed (margin says killing) her Beasts" -- (The 4
Gentile Monarchies or Beasts.)
"She has mingled her wine" -- (The new Wine of God's Kingdom.)
"She has sent forth her Maidens" -- (her Virgin Souls.)
"She cried upon the highest places of the city," in all God's
visible creation, and says to the "simple and to all that want understanding,"
that the Divine Unity is the first great Principle and grand Centre of
God's Everlasting Kingdom. Attempt to take away this one all-important Centre,
and endeavor to preserve the 7 Attributes, or the Being, of the only One Eternal
Invisible God, by setting up a Trinity, and so long as you attempt to do this, all will be
confusion; and you can never set up the Everlasting Kingdom of God upon this
earth, but all your labors and superstructures will crumble to the dust, for this plain,
self-evident reason, that it is utterly impossible for any one of the Seven Pillars,
or Divine Attributes, to stand or exist separate or independent of each other, as I have
shown and will show, without the Divine Unity.
It was the Divine Unity that created this world, the
Achad,
or the oneness, of the Shemang Israel. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God!
the Lord is One," because in Unity or Union is Strength.
It was the departure from this Divine Unity that caused the Fall
of man, because a departure from God's command or word is disunion, or division,
from herself, and therefore weakness.
It will be the Divine Unity that will restore Man to Paradise,
because in Union there is Life and Strength.
It was a departure from the Divine Unity that caused the death of Abel,
because Cain departed from the Attribute of Goodness.
It is the Divine Unity of God's Seven Attributes, or Pillars, that will
bring and restore the Messiah* of God, because in Union there is Life,
Justice, and Truth.†
It was a departure from the Divine Unity that caused the Building of the
Tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues of men, and their subsequent separation;
because in Division, i.e. Trinity, there is Confusion; and these "Seven
Lamps," or Seven Eyes*, in the "hands of Zerubbabel,"§
(which means "he that destroys Babylon,") as the Divine Unity and Seven
Attributes, will most effectually do as soon as they are adopted and practised.
It is the Divine Unity that will cause the building of Zion
and Jerusalem, the restoration of the One Pure Language, (Zeph. iii. 9,) and the
Union of all who Fear God in "One Lord, Faith and Doctrine, when the 'Lord
shall be One and his name One,' because Unity is Oneness."
It was a departure from the Divine Unity that caused one of
the greatest and wisest of Kings (Solomon) to lose his heart and become an
Idolater;
because he formed an alliance with the daughters of the land, contrary to God's express
command. See 1 Kings 11. 1 to 10, and Exod. 34. 12, 15, and 16. Idolatry is the worship of
more Gods than One, and therefore of a False God. Therefore we see, a departure from the
Unity proved the loss of Solomon's heart, or life. See 1 Kings 11:4.
And it was an adherence to the Divine Unity in the only Anointed,
i.e. "Messiah, King, Priest and Prophet" of God, King David,
that caused his heart to be "Perfect" with God, (see 1 Kings
11. 4 and 6,) with only one exception, (see Psa. li. 4,) and a "man after
God's
own heart," (1 Sam. xiii. 14;) because he denied himself any connection with any
of the strange daughters of the land, (Bathsheba was a Jewess ,) and
therefore they could not lead him to go a "Whoring after their Gods," (see Exod.
34:16,) and Break the Unity of God. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One."
It was the Divine Messenger of God's Eternal Unity that bespoke
and breathed in Manoach's* Wife the Mighty and Strong man Samson, and it was a
Union with one of the daughters of the U n c i r c u m c i s e d Philistines that
caused his hair, i.e. "Strength, to be cut off his head, and put out his
eyes," Judges xvi. 17, 19 and 21.
It was the Messenger of God's Everlasting Unity that came and
sat under the Oak and spoke unto Gideon when he was threshing wheat by the Wine Press,
and said unto him, "The Lord is with thee, Thou Mighty Man of valor," (Judges
6. 11, 12;) and in his hand God delivered the Midianites and all their hosts. Judges 7:14.
It was the Divine Unity and Naomi's going to the land of Israel,
that Ruth, i.e. Rest, and Boaz, i.e. Strength ,
became the great Progenitors of David. Ruth 4:13-22.
It was the departure from the Blessed Unity of God that caused Israel's
being overcome by their enemies, and their subsequent oppression and suffering.
And it is the Divine Unity that will
cause them to triumph over their enemies in these last days, and to be established, as
is promised them, a Kingdom of "Priests" unto God and his Messiah, David
King of Israel. In confirmation of this see Jere. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23-25, and 37:24-25; Hosea 3:5;
Psa. 89:19-36, and 2 Sam. 23:1 and 5.
It was a departure from the Divine Unity that has robbed Israel (but
only for a time) of the Kingdom and Government of God's Zion and Jerusalem, and the
Temple of his Glory, and has also robbed them of the power of the "Key of
David," so that God has shut and none has opened.
And it will be the Ever Blessed Unity that will restore them the power of
the "Key of David," and Israel will "open and none shall shut, and shut
and none shall open."
THE UNITY OF THE SEVEN UNDIVIDED PILLARS OF GOD'S EVERLASTING KINGDOM.
1st. Power.
2d. Wisdom.
3d. Righteousness.
4th. Justice.
5th. Mercy.
6th. Goodness.
7th. Truth.
"Undivided they stand--Divide them, We Fall."
In Zech. 3:9, we find the following very remarkable words, "For,
behold, the Stone that I have laid before Joshua (i.e. Savior;) upon One Stone* (Unity)
shall be Seven Eyes," or perceptive Powers, as we must certainly
perceive the aforementioned Seven Pillars are. Without that One Stone, the Divine
Unity, and a correspondent practice therewith, all our endeavors will be rendered entirely
weak and inefficient, because "Union is Strength," and consequently,
Life and Consolidation, which, as I said before, is the very first grasp or breath of the
soul in Immortality and Eternal Life. Whilst, on the contrary, a belief in a Trinity, or
plurality of Gods, whether it is 3 or 3000, is the very first step in Darkness,
Confusion, and Eternal Death; and so long as any soul holds to the latter
belief, and practices agreeably thereto, he can never compose a Stone, or be a pillar of
support, in the coming Kingdom of God. No, never, never. And so thoroughly have I become
convinced and so fully satisfied am I of this great truth, that I am now suffering in the
sight of Angels and men the loss of all earthly comforts, not only, first and least, of my
property, but chiefly of the society of a dear and beloved Wife and
children, which is a far greater loss to me than the loss of my natural life; and which
life I freely give up, even to the burning flame, sooner than deny my faith in the Unity
of God, to believe in a Trinity, which is Division, well knowing that God is "Indivisible,"
and therefore cannot be divided.
It may be asked, What is Truth? I answer, the Truth to every man consists
in that degree of evidence he has received, and according to the amount of this
evidence he receives, or rejects everything, either as Truth or Error, if he be an honest
and consistent man. This may properly be called relative truth. But Truth in itself,
that is Positive Truth, consists in the Seven Attributes of God in an undivided Unity,
because these are self-evident and manifest in all God's visible Creation, as the
Psalmist beautifully declares in his 19th Psalm--"The heavens declare the Glory of
God, and the firmament shows his handiwork, (or work of his hands). Day unto Day utters
speech, and night unto night shows knowledge. There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard." Their line, or chord, extends
throughout all the earth, and to the end of the world, their word or
language. Yea, indeed, in all God's works of the visible creation we discern clearly
all his attributes, or those faculties and virtues we attribute to a supernatural Power,
which we call God.
In proof of this let us take the very opposite to Power, which is
Weakness;--the opposite to Wisdom, which is Folly;--the opposite to Righteousness, which
is Unrighteousness;--the opposite to Justice, which is Injustice;--the opposite to
Goodness, which is Wickedness; and the opposite to Truth, which is Falsehood. Our own
reason and understanding at once tell us, that nothing Good, Excellent, or Virtuous, can
ever be built up or sustained by these opposites. Whereas, with the Seven Pillars of
Wisdom, God's Great House, or Everlasting Kingdom, may and will be set up and
established.
The immutability of these Seven Pillars, or attributes, must be at once
acknowledged by all, since they have continued the same from time immemorial, and must
continue the same through all eternity.
The Universality of the Seven "Pillars," or House, or Powers, or
Attributes, or "Eyes," is self-evident from their being the "Seven
Spirits of God," sent forth "in all the earth."
The necessity and importance of these Seven Attributes being at this
particular crisis disclosed and declared to the world, needs no apology; more especially
when it is considered that the most clear and indisputable facts lately brought to light
in the Holy Land (Palestine) concerning the Incorruptibility of David's
Body;--the existence of the whole lower story of the Ancient Temple of Solomon,
as well as the West wall of Herod's Temple; and also that the Holy Sepulcher is not the Place
of the Christians' Messiah and Savior's death, and consequently no place
of his Resurrection. All these Facts, and many more, prove the absolute
necessity of something besides the "Lying Wonders" and "Pious
Frauds" of the Church of Rome, for the honest soul to rest her Faith and Hope
upon; and therefore the simplicity as well as Truthfulness of these Seven Pillars of
Wisdom, ought to recommend them to every true lover of Wisdom.
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