DIVINE COMMUNICATIONS, 1838. Painswick, 12th of 3rd month, 1838. MARGARET WILLIAMSON desires to know the explanation of the following words. "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." John viii. 44. "O ye generation of vipers." Matt. iii. 7; xii. 34. Answer.-God formed man out of the dust, and made him to be immortal. (Gen. ii. 7.) "For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity." Wisdom of Solomon ii. 23. And breathed into him spiritual breath, which was the spirit of the man and the woman dwelling in one temple.* And gave to him a body without a And yet a temple for the Spirit of God, with the spirit of man, when he is created. "This shall be written for the generation to come; and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord;" Ps. cii. 18; which was proved by the body of Jesus when he put on immortality, by the Spirit of God dwelling with his Spirit within the temple, proving that the Father was in him, by all that saw him acknowledging him to be the Lord, fulfilling his own words, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Matt. xxviii. 18. He possessing the life of the earth and the heavens, which has been hid with Christ in God; (Col. iii. 3;) which is the life of the bride, until her natural body should be created immortal. But during the six thousand years, man is commanded to put away the doings of evil; not that the evil could be put away until the sixth day, fulfilling Paul's words, "He who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way." 2 Thess. ii. 7. The servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the son abideth for ever. (John viii. 35.) He shall be cast out of his grave like an abominable branch. (Isa. xiv. 19.) For as the viper is brought forth enclosed in a skin, which breaks open the third day, which is set typical of Israel in the third dispensation, receiving the partial redemption by the evil bursting out of them, and they entering into the Spirit, which shall be a tabernacle unto them by day from the heat, and a tabernacle unto them by night from the cold. soul, and breathed into him the breath of life, so he lived before thee. (2 Esdras iii. 5.) God caused a deep sleep to fall on the body of the man, and while he was asleep took a rib out of him, it being the spirit of the woman,* he closed up the flesh thereof, she being made with a soul, and the fruit of that soul was blood. (Gen. ii. 21, 22.) God placed a refiner in her body, that it should refine the good from the evil, that it should become the pure seed of the land, the wheat of the field; (Ezek. xvii. 5; Matt. xiii. 24-29;) the spirit was brought to it, to cause the blood to circulate, to give life to it. God placed it at the east of the garden of which her body was made, and it gave life to the fruit of her soul, with the evil and the good, which was the life of the flesh while the spirit was with the body. But the evil being there, Satan attracted it, which caused a burning lust, which caused her to eat of her own fruit, by it flowing into her fountain. According to the Scriptures, she took of the fruit and did eat. (Gen. iii. 6.) She then enticed her husband, who was immortal, to take of her fruit, which he did, and received a soul with an evil heart. (2 Esdras iii. 2.) His spirit, which is the candle of God, (Prov. xx. 27,) then being driven out of the garden, the light of it went out; it being placed at the east of the garden, (Gen. iii. 24,) attracted his heart and gave heat to the blood, and it circulated and was the life of the flesh. But Satan attracting the evil, fulfils the words of Jesus, "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." Matt. xv. 19. "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death." James i. 14, 15. Then Satan attracted them both to eat of the evil, by their sowing their seed in her cistern; she then brought forth her firstborn, Cain, conceived in their *Being the candle of God. uncleanness, her seed not being divided from the evil, fulfilling Jesus' words, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." John viii. 44. The refiner being placed in the woman, it purified her seed from the evil. Adam and Eve then sowed their seed again, and she brought forth Abel, her seed being the cleanness of her tree, the seed of the land, (Ezek. xvii. 5,) the wheat of the field. (Matt. xiii. 24, 29.) Adam's seed being the tares, fulfilling the words, "Ye generation of vipers." Matt. iii. 7; xii. 34. Fulfilling Jesus' words, " An enemy hath done this." Matt. xiii. 28. Written from John Wroe's mouth by Margaret Williamson. Liverpool, 7th of 4th month, 1838. QUESTION. Joseph Holgate, what was done in the two first dispensations? Answer. The offering up of sacrifices. Answer.-In Isaiah, "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Isa. xl. 3. This messenger is for the bringing in of the Gentiles by baptism and repentance, the wilderness being the fallen state. Question.-Was there any circumcision in the wilderness in the time of Moses? Answer.-No. Question. So there is none under the dispensation of repentance; for Paul says, We are of them that believe to the saving of the soul. (Heb. x. 39.) If the root, branch, and seed of evil be taken away, what is there left? Answer. Nothing. Question. The next messenger is for the ingathering of Israel, which is in Malachi, "Behold, will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall T suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?" Malachi iii. 1, 2. Answer. They whom the root, branch, and seed of evil is taken away from. The first messenger had no covenant but one crying in the wilderness, Prepare for the saving of the soul. (Matt. iii. 3.) The second messenger has the covenant of the life of the body, which is the Lord suddenly coming to his temple, which is the body. When the first messenger came, it was repentance, but not so with the second; and every man that has the law, and turns to the gospel, or has the gospel, and turns to the law, although he is not a doer, if he dies, not losing the faith, he shall be shod with the law and gospel, and shall become the incorruptible bride of the living God, and shall minister to the inward court. These are as the prodigal son, once dead but now alive. (Luke xv. 32.) But he that keeps the commands of God, the same shall inherit the kingdom of God. Question.--What is the court? Answer. There is the inner court and the outer court; the outer court is the mortal life, and the inner is immortality. Thus saith the Lord, "There shall be as many different robes as there are stars in the firmament. And he that returns as the prodigal son, shall have the best incorruptible robe, which is the spirit raising the soul with an incorruptible body, the soul and spirit dwelling in that body with the Spirit of God, being as the seraphims; each one had six wings. (Isa. vi. 2.) These are the different mansions." Written from John Wroe's mouth by Joseph Blinkhorn. Wakefield, 28th of 4th month, 1838. QUESTION.-John Bishop inquires about Ephesians iv. 8, "He led captivity captive;" as the French Bible says, "He took them captives to heaven with him." Answer. The French Bible is right; he went to preach to the spirits which were shut up in prison, which were disobedient in the days of Noah; and those that had departed repenting, he let go their spirits, which raised their souls out of the grave. "And many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many; Matt. xxvii. 52, 53; to shew the resurrection. These he took into heaven; but the wicked, though they were already in captivity, he will lead them captive, until they take an incorruptible body, which will be at the final resurrection, though many of the souls of them to whom the Lord gave the law of Moses, which lost not the faith of their immortal bodies, are still crying under the law. Question.-Joseph Holgate inquires where the soul of the son of the widow of Zarephath was while his body was dead? "And the soul of the child came into him again." 1 Kings xvii. 22. Answer. The soul was in the body, but the fruit of the soul, which was the blood, was dead to the body. When the spirit returned to give heat to the fruit of the soul it circulated, which brought life into the child. Question. John Higgison, of Drumlough, Ireland, inquires the meaning of this passage," A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this." Psalm xxii. 30, 31. Answer. It is the life of Israel which has been hid with Christ in God, (Col. iii. 3,) and it shall come forth and serve him in them; and that generation is eternal, it has no beginning of days, it has no ending of life, but they who possess it, possess eternity, and eternity is counted a generation unto the Lord. But |