The separation of the clean from the unclean

Front matter

J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

t f UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, t

T H E

Introduction

If you, kind reader, will search, in humility and meekness, and with an unprejudiced mind, the Holy Scriptures, then the truth will render you a witness of the verity of this work. Yet can you, in the full enjoyment of reason, lightly shrink from the sacred supremacy of the holy scriptures, which I shall in the course of the succeeding pages endeavor to describe, but I trust your heart has already yielded to the potent constraint of truth — that you do not belong to those of whom St. Paul wrote, u Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away. The divine education of mankind in the sacred testament certainly has earthly tendencies as well as heavenly ; therefore, let us now inquire concerning their earthly tendencies, and we will find but one, and only one way which leads unerringly to this superior earthly limit of Christianity. We find it interrogatory, asking 1st : What does the testament contain as its general requirement? The answer is, To make straight the crooked, and to separate the clean from the unclean ; and the consequences of this separation are spiritual and material ; the latter shall render the earth free from pollution, commending likewise the people of God to perfect its circumstances by which they are surrounded. 2d : What is the duty of an amiable bride, who is not dressed but tarnished, in consequence of touching unclean things, by living among them ? what is her duty when she knows that her bridegroom is coming in haste, clean, highly and cheerfully dressed? (Rev. xxii. 12, And behold I come quickly.)

We ask, 3d: What is man's first and general duty? It is to enlighten and expand his mind in the spirit of God, and to perfect also his surrounding works and company; we therefore conclude that all the chief and important questions of our being, agree on one limit, and we will find this sacred limit by degrees accomplishing the work on earth, which is described in this book as a true extract from the Bible. Perhaps you are astonished to see a layman come out with a theological doctrine, and a building of high importance, concerning which no theologians have taught : then do not consider that, but be a lover of truth, and only observe the circumstances eliciting the present undertaking. The door of truth has been partially barred against the people, during centuries, by the courts of monarchs and the prejudices of the deluded people themselves, who are taught to believe more in the ordinances of men than in their own perceptions and consciences. Consider whether my argumerit does not impress that requirement of the testament upon the mind. The most important new dogmas arising from the Bible were not received at first by learned theologians or rulers in doctrine, but by the people only ; because it requires very little to understand the word of God ; it needs nothing else but to be read, to be exercised, to be experienced; therefore, it was immediately directed to the people, for our Lord took out of such a common estate his first apostles, (Acts : Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. — Gal. ii. 6 : God accepteth no man's person) ; and he takes those for his prophets, his wise men and his scribes, those of whom he spoke to the scribes and pharisees of this world, and said, (Matt, xxiii. 34,) Some of them ye shall kill and crucify. Because his servants cannot make any use of the greater part of the reigning theological knowledge, for they dislike to fill the noble mind with vain thoughts, systems and idols ; they are humble individuals, endowed with talents to learn many practical real sciences, useful in reading the holy scriptures, in exercising and experiencing them. Consequently, a few of those wise men get such offices from the Lord as please the majority of the people, many perishing, mute and scorned, must sow in tears the seed of happiness to the coming generations ; wherefore answered Jesus and said Matt. xi. 25, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

Our Lord will come again, as he tells us in several places ; he will certainly come exactly at the right time which is determined by God. He will not regard all the follies of men, of the false going out to meet him, it is enough when our hearts are prepared for that time. So say a multitude of christians, and it is right enough for many of them, but not sufficient for the more advanced vivid lovers of him ; they have first to achieve every possible thing to perfect themselves and to exercise his laws as perfectly as possible, and they have to consider if he did not raise himself a bride in his Christianity, if he did not teach us that true life and eternal happiness consist only in belief in him, which is active through the love ; and yet we have done nothing, neither for the love toward him nor for our own perfection. How sweet must it be to the heavenly bridegroom to see his bride coming, prudently refusing the unclean, building a sign of love to him, and providently making a line to draw christians from all ends of the gloomy earth unto the sign of transition to heaven, to the bridegroom, through the abode of glowing love to him ; and behold it would be an ark of refuge also for the farther advanced lovers of God. Indeed this would be the only happy enterprise that man could undertake which would entice our Lord to a particular general sign of mutual love. And is it not so commanded by the brideman John ? who was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. We know that this is only partially fulfilled in as far as it concerned internal preparation, which is only one path ; there remains for us to prepare the external path too. Many persons may assert, that this is not in the power of man, but I show, that it will soon claim and elicit the love of the whole christian community ; then it will consecrate it, if we do not deny the power of godliness, and do in love as much as we can for that purpose, that we may satisfy our conscience, our only true love, and the Father of our Lord, whose assistance will render us able to accomplish it.

It is very remarkable, how discreetly our testament indirectly invites its true lovers to come out and meet the Lord; the commandments of God afford this invitation, so that we can take it for a commandment itself ; although we would not, nevertheless we are bound as christians to do all that is possible for our perfection and sanctity, all which requires the same enterprise and limit. The holy place of the gathering of all the valor of christian perfection, which is possible on earth, I name it the City of the New Jerusalem, which certainly is the becoming visible of the true church on earth, but our present world is much deceived by erroneous theologians who interpret the prophecies which attest and exhibit our subject to their churches and profit, whilst too many forget the destination of churches of every kind, which is a public institute of christian education, whose right manner never can be that splendid pride and gorgeousness of external sanctity ; of which sanctity the holy scriptures speak with regard to the Holy City, This New Jerusalem, and the way to constitute it, is a work of itself, independent of the present external churches, a work of perfection whilst the worldly external church teaches young and unlearned christians, and leads them to those high limits to which this earthly one tends ; here to elucidate my affirmation of the certain arising of the New Jerusalem by the people of God on earth may be mentioned Rev. xi. 2, And the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months; Zach. viii. 3, Thus said the Lord, I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called a citv of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts: the holy mountain — Joel iii. 17, Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more — Zach. xii. 8, In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them — Isa. xxxv. 9, But the redeemed shall walk there; 10. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away — lxii. 12, And they shall call them, the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord: and thou shalt be called: sought out. A city not forsaken — Amos ix. 11, In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof ; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old — Zach. xii. 5, And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God: 16, And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace, and of supplication ; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.

We can be certain, therefore, that the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem are christians ; thus it is declared by Matt. viii. 11, 12, and by St. Paul, Rom. ix. 8, That is, they which are the children of the flesh, those are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed ; 25, I will call them my people, who were not my people, and her beloved, who was not beloved ; and by Luke xxii. 30. To inquire whether we are children of the flesh of Israel's nations according to the revelation, and how the numbers of the coming inhabitants are counted, does not belong to our province. Although the scriptures say (Heb. xi. 10, 16,) of a heavenly city already built by the Creator, and we also believe that such a city exists in heaven, yet the requirements of love cause us the more to follow the commandments, Matt. v. 48, Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father 2 who is in heaven is perfect. Whenever this Father beholds our intention that we are going to do that which He himself loves to do, then undoubtedly he will render our hands more and more to be his instruments, as it is written in Rev. xxi. 24, And the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Therefore all the prophecies of our subject would be as untrue, as in vain, if the city of the New Jerusalem for which we contend, were not determined for the earth. We have to notice before we continue, that we must understand by the house of David, the true commonwealth congress on earth ; and under the governors of Judah, the true republican governors on earth ; and so the holy mountain can only be the true christian illustration, and the house on it is the church of its most true professions.

We have to understand that Zion is the holiest power executed on earth by that justice, truth and holiness, which come from the most noble christians through their perception of Christianity, and through the people's worship in the true principles of Christianity. We have farther to notice, that it is easy to prove, and experience shows, that a monarchical government must ever lay its crown at the feet of a good commonwealth government ; it must ever be unilateral, (except that of the omniscient God,) and therefore the more they are grown in knowledge and perceptions, by so much the more it is oppressing and spoiling to the people. The Bible itself showed first this truth, that monarchs were not first ordered by God, but contrary. See Judges ix. 7, where Jotham tells in place of the Lord a parable, which clearly explains the fateful partiality which would be caused by the government of kings, so that it just requires an immodest tyrant, like a thornbush, who likes to be king over the people. And not understanding this parable, Israel desired again to have a king. See 1 Samuel viii. 6, 7. But then, said the Lord, they have rejected me, (viz: through this design they have rejected the Lord's own government, who governs through the free choice of their .^conscience,) and now the Lord let the people wisely have their will, as a punishment, for they now deserved a king and nothing more ; but then the Lord determined for the people their penalty, and declared to them the hard consequences of the fulfilling of their unwise design as punishments — see the same chapter- — and further to prevent the thornbush's tyranny, the Lord himself ordered kings for his people, the most God-fearing persons ; for these kings must always execute the direct will of the Lord, and recommend his wisdom as the first, until he gave that will revealed, with offering pardon and redemption for ever to all people; and so he placed his wonderful Son before all men as their only King on the chair of David, or of the earthly kings. See Luke i. 32, 33, where the archangel, Gabriel, announces Jesus emphatically as the king of the people of the true God. And what David said about Jesus Christ, Ps. cx.

1, The Lord said unto my Lord, etc., shows us also who is our king after David. And the signification of 'king,' in the prophecies of the gospel, (Jer. xxii. 4, Rev. xvi. 12 and C. v. 10,) is of course kings of truth, according to that, that Jesus calls himself the truth and a king, (John xviii. 37> Matt* xxvii. 11); and persons full of the spirit of Christ have much power in republics by knowing the ruling truth. The very truths concerning every thing cannot suitably rule together with the dominion of an independent monarch ; because truth's condition to rule is a king like Jesus Christ by every man's liberty or free judging of what is true and right in his own conscience, and to do that unhindered, for his conscience only lead him to the truth w r hich is the voice of the conscience ; therefore only this government can please best our Lord Jesus Christ, for he is the truth which reigns through the conscience, the whole like the single, wherefore Isaiah says, lv. 4, Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader ,and commander to the people.

Whenever we believe that the promised heavenly reform of the earth and mankind, cannot be done without great general wonders, worthy of the Son of Man, then it is still a union of the work of our duty of love to him, and the fulfilling of this our duty will have the same communication to all the other prophecies in the scriptures, for we see them becoming all fulfilled by accomplishing our single due of love to our

Redeemer, which is by this our coming out to build him a New Jerusalem according to the precepts of the Bible; examples are Dan. vii. 27, And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is as everlasting, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Zach. xiv. 9, And the Lord shall be king over all the

earth 10, All the land shall be turned as a

plain from Geba: 11, But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited* — (see Psalms xxxvii. 9, 11,29.) 1 Cor. vi. 2, Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? Rev. xix. 6, And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, saying Allelujah ! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. We can see, and the history of the world shows, that progressively and in the same proportion as our Bible became more known, the governors of the nations lost more and more power to tyrannise over men, until we are so near to our aim that every governor must fear the aroused christain character in doing injustice to him; the kings must already be ashamed before the light of their people to act unjustly ; and (not by might, nor by power, but by the influence of the Spirit of God, Zach. iv. 6,) a few centuries further by hastened progressions, the most righteous men among the nations will be distinguished and elected; then the presidents shall become saints, if they be not already. These facts are all produced by the consequences of the unity of Jesus Christ, truth, and conscience ; because people are so constrained through their conscience to elect the truth for their governor, that the majority must ever go with the sane voice of conscience, unless that voice grow dumb through mistaken confidence, but this misplaced confidence only causes delay of the progress whilst it pays experience to the truth, then she arises with more glory, elected she elicits, spreads out and multiplies the illustration of truth in hastened progressions.

So will be fulfilled Is. xxxv. 8, And an highway shall be there, and a waj^, and it shall be called : The way of holiness, the unclean shall not pass over it ; but it shall be for those the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein ; (our course be in that way, see constit. p. 7.) Isa. xl. 11, He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Hab. iii. 14, For the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Zeph. iii. 9, For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent. Mai. iv. 3, And ye shall tread down the wicked ; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. Hos, iii ? 5, Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king ; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. Amos v. 24, But let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. Mai. iii. 17, And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. At the same time the teachers of Christianity can have much more harmony and regulation in its communities, and more confidence in its members ; they have principally to explain the christian belief by proofs, the depth, the height, the width and the length of the Spirit of Christ, (Eph. iii. 18,) by the many arguments which contain every true knowledge, and this w T ill render the people far more righteous (Col. ii. 9); and not by crying, ye shall know the Lord. — Heb. viii. 11, For all shall know him from the least to the greatest. — Dan. xii. 3, And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. — Matt. xiii. 41, The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity. — 43, Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Coming thus over men with his spirit, the government of truth, which is of Jesus Christ, then is fulfilled. Ps. ex. 1, The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. He cannot let his bride become an orphan, for she went out to wait for him according to the will of his heavenly Father, (Luke xii. 36, John v. 30,) and according to that love which he bears to her ; hence his presence will follow. Before this will take place a gradual judgment appears (John iii. 18) and causes a separation from those who pollute their only source of the true illustration, and from those who make bad use of this illustration and of their own talents ; this separation is commanded to his reapers as he himself has said, Matt. xiii. 30 and 49, and we shall be his reapers and his angels if we will freely be his servants in accomplishing our first and single duty to him. Then it will fulfil Is. ii. 12, For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low, etc., and that very day will render our whole globe like a brilliant star representing the truth of Christ, and will change the whole nature of the earth, of animals, and of men, as it is prophecied in Is. lxv. 25, The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord, Is. vi. 7, 8, 9. Such must be the fate of a fallen world, whose Creator is omnipotent love, ransoming the condemned dead to new lives and happiness ; and if we only trust the surest part of our understanding of the revelation, then we are where the angel sware that there should be time no longer,

(Is. x. 6) because he who understands that principle " touch not the unclean," and much more those who are to that enabled, are entered in heaven, and have properly time no longer.

A powerful exertion, to perfect our souls, influences our surrounding objects, ^-its effects afford this inducement, and not in vain says St. Paul, Gal. vi. 2, Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Therefore, the city of the perfect surrounding place, and the biblical constitution of her inhabitants, can only be practically described by him, who attended to that subject so much, that he is wholly conversant with it, and knows how perilous a small defect is for the whole. I have further to remark here, in order to prevent misunderstanding, that the unmarried state, which I have described, is not commanded ere the holy city is already built, and other arrangements made ; but when the city is perfected as much as possible by men, then there shall be no matrimony, nor giving in marriage. Luke xx. 35.

If we examine the explanations of the true Christianity by those many religious doctors, then we will always meet with the same want, a road which we wanted in this world to execute the precepts of love and of charitable works to all men in equal perfection and in perfect accordance with the precepts of self-denial dying off from the world; because this dying off cannot be done without at least a separation from the. greatest portion of men and their cares, it also 2 cannot even be done internally, for the less man does anything externally, the less he can do it internally, unless through falsehood and hypocracy. We must also suppose that we can perfectly do whatsoever God has commanded us, since he requires it of us and says, Be ye perfect. The two poles, between which we have to prepare that wanting path, contain about these

passages : Matt. v. 44, Love your enemies

24, No man can serve, two masters; 1 John ii. 15, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, etc. Arnet, and other great theologists, say : Because God is a hidden God, if he shall converse with the soul it must become secret, and the more secret it will be, the more it will be separated from the world. Like the archfather Jacob, when he went from his children and friends, God and the angels spoke with him. (p. 119.) So thoulearnest the most noble work, namely, to die off from the world, in silence and hope, without any lamentation. Because those that lament even with impatience, prove that they will not die off from the world — that is, that they have but little good in themselves. — (p. 529.) I myself endeavored to mark in this book the best possible way to accomplish both kinds of commandments, most possibly perfect and according to each other, as perfect as possible for men ; and I have found my plan discovered to that aim, richly testified by the Bible, so that I can now invite every impartial christian to examine the subject by the light of our faith.

Though it may surprise many one, I am confident that my proposition is right, and the will of the holy Trinity, and the more man directs himself with exactness according to the Bible, by realising this plan, the more that will be revealed to Christianity, which remained inexplicable in her doctrine even to their best doctors until this time. Yet I would like to add a striking passage, which is- found in Stilling's explanation of the Revelation of John, anno 1799, who coincided with Bengel in the important points of the latter's explanation of the revelation, the only explanation that offers so much proof that it deserves credence, and has found it too ; this contains the following intimations of the profound Scher, page 216: "Providence will afford opportunity for separating, and thus indicate the going out of Babel to those who fear the Lord, and are faithful to him — this is the sealing them to the separation."

Therefore, I beg you, my kind reader, to understand this my system rightly ; not to compare it with the doctrine of the Mormons, who represent themselves more like Turks than Christians; neither with any proof for disbelieving or corrupt reformations of which they have made much noise in our latter day ; nor any likeness with faithless communists, who are joined together like stones in ice, but when the sun of faith shines on them, with the warmth of the christian love, where sound the words Luke xiv. 26, If any man come to me and hate not his there then ceases their union, whilst one love in one faith to Christ will join the members of our union always more suiting and more beautiful to one person with Christ their head. Let my system be understood as the true achievement of the words of the excellent St. John : Let us love him, because he first loved us.

Our great work of love ever needs preparations. This can only be made by various societies, and by newspapers supported by those societies. The latter can generally be of two kinds — such whose members live dispersed among other people, and such whose members live together in separate settlements. All these societies must have one union, and one accumulation of means, to fortify themselves, and to build the city of their general design. Therefore, our societies must have a central society, where the delegates meet to counsel together. The meeting places of our various societies must be designated by some external sign, indicating our design, to perfect also our surrounding works of men as well as ourselves, and to build an ark of the Testament, an abode of perfect belief of love and of transition. These are all I have here to define as the next in accordance with our subject — for that which remains to be done, I must depend upon my friends, the lovers of God. But above all, it is necessary to understand that this my system or plan can only have in view to remove, as much as possible for man, every inducement to sin, and to defile the spirit ; however we ought not to conceive that we thereby deserve the heaven, for men remain sinners who never deserve heaven, unless Jesus purchased it for them. We ever need anew the forgiveness of God, and he promised us through Jesus Christ this pardon and mercy, but on condition that we will obey him as well as we can, and the better we do that, the more we become assured of forgiveness and of heaven's inheritance , — this contains the reason wherefore I publish this proposition.

With regard to the quotations in this work, it may happen sometimes that the cited place contains only little of that which I assert, but this is only in such cases where God in the scriptures touches on that which he has placed within our reason. Also, some passages of the original Bible, and of the German and French Bibles, prove my system to be somewhat better. For example, there are in the prophecies of the English Bible, places given in the present time, which are in the future time in the original, and in the other Bibles, as it is Micah ii. 13. And other differences belonging to my system, as in Is. xlix. 17, where is written in the original and in the French and German Bibles : Thy children who shall build thee with joy, shall make haste. And in the English one : Thy children shall make haste : although many passages may be better or more correctly translated in the English Bible, than in others. Several ministers whom I made acquainted with this system, never paid sufficient attention to it ; thus it would have disheartened me, if I had not clearly seen, that the reason of their neglect of my system was a certain testimony of its truth, because that reason was their personal love and friendship given to unbelievers, hypocrites and liars, without desiring it, and without knowing them ; so the reason of that is only misplaced and disordered kindness and love- — it is unregulated and misplaced love to God, and to their fellow-neighbors, and I believe the coming necessity of arranging this love of the two first commandments, will exhibit my system as the best method and plan for this important regulation.