The Primitive Baptist Library of Carthage, Illinois

Organized June 8, 1988
A Conservative, Old-Line Primitive Baptist Website

A REFUTATION OF THE DOCTRINE CALLED "TWO SEEDS "

EMBRACING AN ANALYSIS OF THE POINTS LAID AS A FOUNDATION OR TAKEN AS THE FRAMEWORK OF THE THEORY. ALL CRITICALLY MEASURED AND COMPARED WITH THE REVELATION AND STANDARD OF TRUTH.

By

ELDER GEORGE Y. STIPP

MATTHEW 13: 38: "The field is the world: the good seed are the Children of
the kingdom; but the tares are the Children of the wicked one."

MAJORITY POINT, ILL.
"CUMBERLAND DEMOCRAT PRINT."
A. D. 1879.

PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION

Certainly no apology need be made for an attempt to investigate the
doctrine called "Two Seeds," and compare it with the "Standard of Truth," nor
for an attempt to present the result of such investigation and comparison in
printed form before the reading public, and especially, within the notice of
those who believe the doctrine and are engaged in its promulgation.
That which will be found in the following pages, was mainly, and in
substance, but with little regard to system or arrangement, penned and
prepared for publication in "The Signs of The Times," but the author has since
decided to present it in the form herein to be submitted. All who are
possessed of pensive, contemplative minds, feel and understand that a great
portion of controversial difficulty proceeds from a misunderstanding and
improper use of terms; but in the statements, points, proposition and
arguments intended to be presented herein, scholastic terms will be avoided,
and those plain and easily comprehended words which it is intended to use in
their stead, should be construed and interpreted in their most obvious,
literal and suggestive sense. No seeming difficulty that presents or suggests
itself, during the investigation will be evaded, or passed without notice.
The positions of others will be fairly stated and discussed and compared
candidly and courteously, as far as ability and knowledge of them will permit,
bearing in mind that one has not as good right to his opinions as another may
have to his, as some affirm; because for believing error we will all be held
to a strict accountability. For "he that believeth not God, hath made him a
liar." I. John 5: 10. Concerning what is intended to be submitted in the
following pages, together with its many imperfections, it may be said, in
short, the limited attainments of the author, his state, character, and
circumstances will make their impress upon all his productions. May the
blessing of God attend its circulation in the discovery of error and the
advancement of truth, to which it is prayerfully dedicated.

BY THE AUTHOR.

A REFUTATION OF THE DOCTRINE CALLED TWO SEEDS.

As has been already suggested in the title and introduction of the
following, it is proposed to investigate with brevity the headship and
character of, and the distinction between "the children of the kingdom and of
promise, and the children of the wicked one;" that is, they which are the
children of the flesh; "to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness
forever." Matt. 13: 18, Rom. 9: 8, and Jude 13. And in connection therewith
to examine and test the position of some very able writers and ministers
identified with the "Regular Predestinarian Baptist Church," as set forth in
their writings and public discourses; in some of which it is stated as true,
that the elect as such, were not created in Adam. While in others it is
boldly declared that "all the posterity of Adam are children of the kingdom,"
and included in the Covenant of Grace. And in support of the latter position,
Gen. 1: 27, 28, is cited, where it is said, "God created man in his own image,
in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them, and God
blessed them, &c." And this is urged as proof of the position upon the
assumption, "that God never cursed that which he first blessed, nor blessed
that which he first cursed." If such is a fact and not an assumption, and it
looks plausible at a superficial glance, the argument is conclusive, and the
proof complete; for all Adam's posterity were yet in his loins when the
blessing was pronounced upon him. And yet Paul says Abraham gave tithes to
Melchisedec who was "made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest
continually." And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed
tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchisedec
met him." Heb. 7: 3, 4 and 8. Thus it behooves us not to be too hasty and
positive in our determination of such things, without a careful and candid
investigation of all the circumstances. Then let us examine the nature of the
blessing pronounced here upon Adam, and if such as comprehends the blessing of
saints by "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1: 3), the
question would seem to be incontrovertibly settled.
To determine this, let us go again to Gen. 1: 28 and if possible
determine the character of the blessing there pronounced, "and God blessed
them and God said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth,
and subdue it" &c. Read to the end of the 30th verse, where it is said, "and
it was so;" that is, the blessing is yea and amen; it can not be annulled,
enlarged or diminished, yet in its character it embraces things only of the
most temporal and literal character. This made more clearly evident from the
fact that "God blessed them, male and female," Gen. 5: 2. For if the blessing
was of a spiritual character, comprehending "all spiritual blessings in Christ
Jesus," and extending to posterity, the wicked progeny, the "Tares," "the
children of the wicked one" brought into existence, as is alleged by those who
advocate the theory we are examining, by coition of the "serpent" and the
"woman," "in the multiplicity of her conception," thus being her progeny must
have been blessed to the same extent. But the unreasonableness of literal
progeny, "children of the wicked one," being the result of prolific
intercourse in "the multiplicity of the woman's conception," is discovered in
this. God said to the serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman
and between thy seed and her seed." Gen. 3: 15. And to the woman he said, "I
will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow shalt thou
bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband." Gen. 3: 16, so
her sexual desire was not to be in part, by multiplicity of conception, unto
the serpent; but confined to her husband. Now if the progeny of the serpent
is in common with the woman as a result of the multiplicity of her conception,
and is literal, as the posterity of Adam is literal, and in common with the
woman, how was enmity put between the serpent and the woman, and their seeds,
any more than between the seed of Adam and that of the woman. But it is still
more conclusive that the blessing under consideration was not of a spiritual
character, or else did not extend to posterity; and more unreasonable if
possible that the serpent has such literal progeny as assumed, when we
consider that those who thus assume, allege and to be consistent must believe
that Cain was the seed of the serpent, if such seed ever existed, as the
result of the multiplicity of the woman's conception. For God said to Cain;
"And now art thou cursed from the earth" &c. Gen. 4: 11, and John the Apostle
speaking of Cain says, "Not as Cain, who was that wicked one and slew his
brother." I. John 3: 12. But we are not left to mere conjecture in
determining beyond controversy the literal genealogy and natural primogeniture
of Cain; for it is written, "and Adam knew Eve, his wife and she conceived and
bear Cain." Gen. 4: 1. His origin then was not the result of a conception
multiplied so as to produce a hybrid serpentine and imp-like progeny, but was
the result of natural conception, and was the seed of Adam given in
verification of the blessing, "be fruitful and multiply and replenish the
earth." But God cursed Cain notwithstanding he was yet in the loins of Adam
when he was blessed. It is an imperative duty incumbent alike upon all,
especially upon the minister and commentator to pursue such a line of
reasoning and argument as will most completely harmonize Revelation. And if
the positions and assumptions under investigation do not present
contradictions and difficulties beyond the depth of mortal ken to explain, or
reconcile, the writer has reason to fear that he is too much blinded by the
god of this world to comprehend, even to a limited extent, Bible language.
But resuming the investigation of the character of Adam's blessing, and
the assumption that from the nature of the blessing, his entire lineage are
necessarily included in the covenant of grace, and are all "children of the
kingdom," while the lineage of Eve embraces two natural seeds; the one the
posterity of Adam, and in consequence of the multiplicity of her conception,
the other the natural "children of the wicked one." And if in the scriptures
when it is said of any one, that God "blessed him," or that he was blessed by
Divine appointment, or God's immediate authority, and such blessing embraces
posterity, yet in the loins of those who are blessed, and the character of the
blessing is always such as comprehends all spiritual blessings, so that the
wrath and curse of God can afterward abide upon none of them, considering the
intended curse of Balaam against Israel, revoked of God and pronounced in
blessing (Num. 23: 4, 10 inclusive 19, and 23; Ch. 24: 6, 9 inclusive) is it
not passing strange that Elias should make such intercession lamentation
"concerning Israel" (I. Kings 19: 10, 14, 18), and that Paul should make a
second record of it (Rom. 11: 2, 3, 4)? If such assumptions were founded in
truth the declaration "so all Israel shall be saved," (Rom. 11: 26) would be
literally applicable to national Israel and there could be no reason for the
lamentation of Elias if the assumption under investigation is founded in
truth, nor for Paul's own great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart,
concerning his kinsmen according to the flesh who are Israelites (not children
of the wicked one) to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the
covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the
promises, whose are the (blessed) fathers, and of whom concerning the flesh,
Christ came who is over all, God blessed forever. Romans 9: 2, 6, inclusive.
Yet within view of the character ahd extent of all these blessings, Paul
conclusively affirms there is reason for such "lamentation, great heaviness
and continual sorrow;" for he says: "Even so then at the present time, also,
there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Rom. 11: 5. Only "a
remnant;" and that not according to natural parentage, natural inheritance, or
temporal blessing, but according to the election of grace. What then? Israel
hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it
and the rest (of Israel) were blinded. God hath given them the spirit of
slumber; eyes that they should not see, ears that they should not hear, and
David saith let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling
block, and a recompense unto them; let their eyes be darkened that they may
not see, and bow down their back always." Rom. 11: 7-10. What! Does God
give the literal children of the wicked one the spirit of slumber, eyes that
they should not see, &c.? Again, the blessing of Abraham stands in refutation
of the assumptions under examination. See Gen. 12: 3-18; 18, 22; also, Gen.
14: 18 and Heb. 7: 1. In connection with the language of Jesus to the wicked
Jews, "I know that ye are Abraham's seed." "If God were your father ye would
love me. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye
will do." John 8: 37, 42, 44. Now these people could not be the literal seed
of Abraham; and the literal children of the Devil by "the multiplicity of the
woman's conception," any more than the Messiah could be the literal son of
David and his literal Lord. "If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?"
Matthew 22: 45. But they were the seed of Abraham in a literal sense, and of
their father the devil in a tropical and figurative sense, doing his lust,
being under his dominion and control, as a child is under the control,
dominion and bidding of his natural father. But Paul would have us understand
that spiritual blessings pertain not to a natural head, and do not embrace
natural progeny. Because whether the subject, (or object if you please) of
blessing, be Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac or Israel and whether the blessing be
pronounced by the mouth of the Lord, the false prophet Balaam, or Melchisedec
the priest of the most High God of a priestly order far superior to that of
Aaron. Spiritual blessings all center in a spiritual head - the second Adam,
the Lord Jesus Christ. For says he, "blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us," (all the saints both Jew and
Gentile,) "with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us," &c. Eph. 1:
3, 11. Where would be the necessity of predestinating unto the adoption of
children, if they were children as soon as they secure an individual, personal
and visible existence, as some claim?
In further proof of the foregoing corollary, says Paul, "neither because
they are the seed of Abraham are they all children (of God,) but in Isaac
shall thy seed be called." Then in explanation of the last clause, the
calling of the seed in Isaac, says he, "that is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God." (Can any thing be plainer?
Natural progeny.) "But the children of promise are accounted for the seed.
For this is the word of promise, Sarah shall have a son and not only this, but
when Rebecca had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, the children
being not yet born, it was said unto her, As it is written, Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated;" this was said that the purpose of God according
to election should stand of him that calleth, and not of works. See Rom. 9.
We to our profit should bear in mind that Paul did not believe and was not
inspired to teach the modern theory of the multiplicity of the woman's
conception, for in this narrative illustrative of the sovereignty and
immutability of God, he does not say that in conformity to the multiplicity of
the woman's conception, when Rebecca had conceived by two, even by our father
Isaac and the "dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and satan," but he
says emphatically she conceived by ONE, and that before these children thus
conceived were born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
sovereignty and immutability might be displayed, that establishes the purpose
of God upon the immutable basis of his own intrinsically sovereign will, and
that it might be manifest that his will is intrinsically, and not extraneously
disposed, or fluctuating upon extraneous reasons, it was (impliedly) said to
her, Jacob have I loved. But Esau have I hated. This incomprehensible
sovereignty thus manifested is that which "frustrateth the tokens of the
liars, and maketh diviners mad, that turneth wise men backward, and maketh
their knowledge foolish." Isa. 44: 25. Who in the face of this inspired
testimony will dare say "that the purpose of God according to election,"
according to his choosing in this case, stands upon the extraneous reason that
Esau was conceived of Satan, and therefore hated of God because he knew "the
lusts of his father" he would "do," when it is expressly said that before the
children were born and had done either good or evil, and such a case cited as
twin brothers, expressly to show that there was no extraneous reason; no
inherent origin, parentage, nativity, character, quality, or well-timed
circumstance that one should be loved and the other hated? But was according
to his immutable, eternal and intrinsic purpose, "according to his good
pleasure which he purposed in himself." Eph. 1: 9. Hence the rationally
organized inhabitants of the earth, whether they may be appropriately called
children of men, or "children of the wicked one," stand upon perfect equality
before God; and without regeneration they are equally "the children of wrath,"
and all equally "under the curse."
For after discussing the advantage of being a Jew and the profit of
circumcision, Paul sums up the matter interrogatively thus: "What then? Are
we better than they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved, both Jews and
Gentiles, that they are all under sin; there is none righteous, no not one;
there is none that understandeth; there is none that seeketh after God. Now
we know, says he, that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them that
are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God." Rom. 3: 9, 19, inclusive. Again of those who it is
claimed were blessed in the loins of their fathers on several occasions
extending back even to Adam, (consequently, if there is any profit or efficacy
in such a blessing, must have had an advantage over, and have been better than
some others, if such premise is correct; which is contradictory to Rom. 3: 9,)
it is said, that, "before faith came we were kept under the law." Gal. 3: 23.
Again: When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law." Gal. 4:
4, 5. Again, says the same inspired servant, "As many as are under the works
of the law are under the curse," for it is written, "Cursed is every one that
continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." Gal.
3: 10. Now who among all the posterity of Adam continued thus in all things
written in the book of the law to do them? No one; other wise Paul was
mistaken in what is already quoted from Rom. 3: 9, 10, 11, 12. For the law is
holy and the commandment holy, just and good, consequently requires a holy,
just and good person to keep its precepts, and obey its commandments; and it
would require a righteous person to fulfill the righteousness of the law; and
as none were righteous, holy, just, or good, and none understandeth; none were
qualified or able to continue in all things written in the law to do them, and
consequently all were "under the curse." And again as if to rivet conviction
and place this assumption of once blessed, never cursed, beyond cavil, it is
said, Christ was cursed; the promised seed of the woman, in whom all the
families of the earth were to be blessed. The blessed and only potentate. I.
Tim. 6: 15. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a
curse for us; for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree."
Gal. 3: 13.
It is evident from the importance attached by the Jews to their descent
from Abraham, and other circumstances mentioned in the scriptures, that in the
days of the apostles, as now, this same assumption of blessing through blessed
and righteous parentage, and as a consequence exemption from the wrath and
curse of God, prevailed to a great extent. Under the belief of which to
determine who were objects of such blessing and special favor, and who were
under the curse and wrath of God, it would seem only necessary to examine
their extensive and carefully prepared and sacredly preserved genealogical
tables, and chronicled records. But Paul, who once also boasted of and had
full confidence in his lineage, when he became by grace the inspired Oracle of
God, writes to Timothy "to charge some that they teach no other doctrines;
neither give heed to endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than
Godly edifying, which is in faith." I. Tim. 1: 4. Again to Titus, "but avoid
foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the
law, for they are unprofitable and vain." Titus 3: 9. It is passing strange
that a people with these admonitions, but without a genealogical record should
attempt to revive the same vain and foolish questions. From the foregoing and
other portions of the inspired volume, construed according to the best
established principles of exegesis, we are ready to conclude that there never
has been upon earth, but one natural seed of rational mortals, all tracing
their individual existence to the self same parental head. This conclusion
receives full confirmation from Paul's discourse to the wicked and idolatrous
Athenians, in which he says, "God who made the world and all things therein,
giveth to all life, and breath, and all things, and hath made of one blood all
nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth; and forasmuch as we
are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the God-head is like unto
gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device." Acts 17: 24, 26,
and 29. In the foregoing declaration, we are furnished with certainty that
all nations of men are the offspring of God. Can any of them be the offspring
of God and the children of the wicked one, in the same sense? Or the children
of men in a similar sense? They are all the offspring of God by creation; the
children of men, by descent, having descended from the first man as a sire or
ancestor; and they are the children of the wicked one by passive submission to
his control; in a tropical or figurative sense, as before stated. Since man
the sameness of all whose natural origin and descent, character and condition,
thus defined and delineated in Holy-writ, by yielding to the wicked influences
with which they have been suffered to come in contact, has subjected himself
to the wrath and displeasure of his Creator, and by nature, is found in a lost
and ruined condition, it becomes a matter of deep, abiding and melancholy
moment to all who are led by the Spirit of God, the eyes of whose
understanding have been enlightened, not only to contemplate and comprehend
this awful and sorrowful situation, but to be divinely instructed with
reference to the plan, and character of the remedy, that God has appointed and
revealed for the rescue "of them who shall be heirs of salvation." Heb. 1:
14, and by which each one of them "by faith, became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith." Heb. 11: 7. As the term "man" is applicable to all
rational creatures of earth collectively considered, it may, in a strict
grammatical sense, be considered a collective noun conveying unity of idea;
and the term "world," when applied to the people collectively, is its exact
prototype.
In strictness of grammatical accuracy it being likewise a noun of
multitude conveying unity, or oneness of idea connected with many. In this
sense we find the term, Isa. 13: 11, "And I will punish the world for their
evil, and the wicked for their iniquity." Here the world, or all people are
used in contradistinction from the wicked which are frequently called the
world to distinguish them from the church or saints. Again, "and he shall
judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in
uprightness." Psalms 9: 8. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." John 3: 16. "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but
be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John 16: 33. Another most
striking illustration of this sense of the term world, is found in this
interrogatory: "for then how shall God judge the world?" And also in this:
"now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God." Rom. 3: 6, 19. "We know that we are of God, and the whole
world lieth in wickedness." I. John 5: 19. We think one more should suffice,
and we know of none more pointed than the following: "And the great Dragon was
cast out; that old serpent called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world; he was cast out into the earth," &c. Rev. 12: 9. With these
definitions sustained as they are by the portions of scripture already cited,
as well as many others which might be adduced we are ready to approach that
perplexing and zealously contested field of controversy, "the parable of the
tares." This parable and its import as declared unto the disciples by the
Saviour, present the most striking and comprehensive state of man, and the
transition to which he has been subjected, that could be furnished in so
narrow a compass. "The field is the world." Matt. 13: 38. This represents
man in embryo as he came from the plastic hand of his maker; untainted by sin,
unbiased by temptation, immortal only as he had access to the youth restoring
efficacy of the perennial tree of life among the healthful and salubrious
bowers of Eden. In which embryo was wrapped in mystic secrecy every
inhabitant of earth, that will have accomplished a rational and physical
existence during that fragment or measured portion of eternity called time,
which has been perceptibly meted to the children of men in a succession of
seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, centuries and cycles;
each a fragmentory clipping from vast eternity. In this complex germ was
hidden, as leaven in meal, every child of untimely as well as timely birth,
which will have secured an existence upon earth from that prime and salient
epoch, when Omnipotence, exerted in puissant creative energy by the fiat of
the Living Word, spoke from void, chaotic nothingness the Universe; and
penciled the symmetrical shadows of its beauty, grandeur, magnificence and
incomprehensible vastness upon the ethereal background of the immeasurable and
edgeless realms of space, to that final and imposing moment, when the mighty
Angel which the Revelator saw through a long vista of futurity, while he was
in banishment in the solitary Isle of Patmos, shall descend from heaven, and
with his right foot upon the sea and his left foot upon the earth, shall "lift
up his hand to Heaven and swear by him that liveth forever and ever, who
created heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things
that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there
shall be time no longer." Here and then began that appalling, simultaneously
rich and glorious drama of man's moral and physical transition state. Who
without enthusiastic and intense interest can contemplate the scene. Here is
the field; mankind in embryo; the world. Neither tares nor wheat has yet been
sown therein; the world then, when first created, was not composed of either
"children of the kingdom" or "children of the wicked one." But was the
embodiment, and complex essence of "the children of men" as afterward
multiplied and developed; this is not denied by any Bible reader. Here is the
field which Jesus says is the world. Whose field? Important question! How
the answer exhilarates the circumcised heart. Let inspiration answer. "The
earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell
therein." Psalms 24: 1. But "his enemy came and sowed tares" in his field.
"The enemy that sowed them is the Devil." Matthew 13: 39. Now it is evident
that the field has no power to change the nature of the seed, as to give the
Devil or a serpent the body or organism of a child or a man; but on the
contrary its nature is to bring forth and fully develop in nature's own
process of multiplicity a reproduction of whatever is sown, and it is equally
as evident that the Devil has not creative power, he cannot originate a single
being, add one thing to the physical creation of God or change one single
organization of God's creatures. But his power is limited to infusing moral
and not physical poison into the works of God. Now it should be observed that
Jesus in declaring the import of this parable to his disciples no where
intimates that the seed, the sown kernel, the grains which spring up with the
wheat were children of the wicked one," but on the contrary it was the growing
tares, which appeared growing with the wheat, which were not to be gathered
up, but were to be let grow together with the wheat, till the time of harvest,
which is the end of the world, when they shall be gathered together, first
bound in bundles to be burned; but nothing at all is said of gathering the
kernel, grain or seed sown, which produced these bundles to be gathered. Now
as it is said an enemy which is the Devil sowed tares, and tares when grown up
in the field, which is the world, all the family of Adam. Whence came the
kernels, grains, or seed tares sown? Which sprang up and were reproduced in
process of germination in the field, the world, the whole family of mankind?
It certainly cannot be entertained that the Devil created wicked mortals with
which he peopled the world that God created, for it is not said that the tares
sown in the field were the seed of the Devil, but that he as an enemy merely
sowed them, sprinkled the field, the world, the people with them, which, when
thus sown and sprinkled is reproduced and perpetuated in the world to the end
of it, but are never sown but the once. But to accomplish such a result as
peopling the world with a new order of beings than those God created would
constitute the Devil a creator which John contradicts, for he says without the
Word "was not anything made that was made," and Paul says "all things were
made by him, and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things
consist." Therefore unless it can be shown that the world in which the tares
were sown and grew had power to literalize and give a body and organism to a
principle, the nature of which is intangible and void of material substance,
the Devil has no literal seed or children in this world. For he is only one of
the Angels that kept not their first estate but left their own habitation and
which God spared not, and that sinned and are reserved in chains under
darkness, &c. II. Pet. 2: 4, and Jude 6th. But he has been permitted only to
infuse his moral poisonous influence into the one natural family of man for a
wise, and to us, a great extent, inscrutable purpose, whereby he has obtained
a permissive control over the one natural seed of Adam so as to coerce their
obedience to his wicked behests, and in this control, leadership, and command
of obedience, he is very appositely called their father, and they his
children, and in fact a ruler is frequently, if not generally, termed a father
in the Scriptures. In a literal seed is deposited the power or reproduction
in accordance with its nature; but in the infusion of moral poison, there is
nothing deposited in the nature of a seed, nothing but a principle of
spiritual wickedness, a depraved state of the mind, or spirit; for the motive
presented for disobedience to the command of God was not in its nature
calculated to increase or heighten animal pleasure, or gratify fleshly or
carnal desire. For man in his mental organization was diverse from every
other earthly creature. For while that knowledge of animals and creeping
things called instinct is perfect and immutable, yet without power of increase
or improvement by culture or experience; that of man in contradistinction
called reason, is capable of almost infinite improvement and increase,
continually approximating, but never arriving at perfection. Hence man makes
mistakes; and he discovers and rectifies them by experience, the exercise of
his reason. In the human species there is not that intuitive knowledge, that
unerring instinct, so conspicuous in the lower animals by which they are
cautioned from partaking of poisonous substances for food; and induced and
invited to that which is congenial to their health, subsistence, &c. In this,
man must be guided and governed by experimental reasoning, his knowledge,
derived from experiment. It is mostly a matter of experiment with him whether
things apparently inviting to the appetite are poisonous or nourishing to his
organization. Hence instead of a conspicuous and undeviating instinct, man is
only possessed of rather an inordinate desire, and almost insatiable craving
for an increase and advancement in knowledge, so strikingly manifested in the
prevalence of the motive which induced the first transgression. That these
premises are well established is evident from revelation as well as the
experience of every one. For we no where read in the Scriptures that God
abstractly instructed the animal creation as to how and where they should
derive their subsistence. But man in full vigor of body and mind, in his most
perfect state of development, both before and after his depravity and fall,
had to be informed of God, was entirely dependent upon abstract information as
to what he should eat, and from within what restricted limits he should derive
his nourishment and subsistence. "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,
of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou
eatest of it thou shalt surely die." Gen. 2: 16, 17. And after his fall God
said unto Adam, "thorns also and thistles shall it (the ground) bring forth to
thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field, in the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread," &c. Gen. 3: 18, 19. And as before hinted, the appeal of the
tempter was not made to man's desire for carnal gratification; but it was
addressed directly to his reason, to his moral nature, that implanted,
inherent and abiding law of the mind which gave to him that inordinate desire
to be made wise at once and intuitively, and not alone by that dependence upon
an instructor, and by gradual and progressive advances in the exercise of his
reason with which his nature made him so congenial. Hence man's depravity did
not proceed from, and was not the result of the implantation and impartation
of a literal seed of evil doers by a multiplicity of conception; but was of a
purely spiritual or moral character. Hence as man's material organization has
the earth for its mother; as it is said, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken."
Gen. 3: 19. Henceforth, to make that organization conform to his depraved
spiritual nature; that every faculty and impulse of body, soul, and spirit
might be in perfect harmony; that the predestinated reclamation and recovery
of the saints, "the vessels of mercy," might not be partial, but complete;
that no warfare should exist in the unregenerate man, a depraved "spirit
lusting against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit;" but that warfare
should proceed from a corrupt physical nature in contact with the regenerated
spiritual nature, rather than a depraved spiritual nature at war with the
members of an upright physical organization, the ground, whence man derived
his natural body, and which was not only good but very good, was cursed for
his sake; so that instead of deriving as heretofore, a pure and upright
physical structure to war against a depraved and wicked spiritual nature, he
should take therefrom a corrupt and cursed physical nature in harmony with his
spirit.
For "God said unto Adam, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of
thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee," saying, "thou
shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou
eat of it all the days of thy life." Gen. 3: 17. And he said, "behold the
man is become as one of us" (not by reasoning, tuition and a gradual process
of advancement in knowledge, but as it were intuitively) "to know good and
evil," and "now, lest (by means of this intuitive knowledge thus obtained to
know good and evil) "he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life
and eat and live forever." Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the
garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. Gen. 3: 22, 33.
Why? Because while the eating of the tree of life was to continue and
perpetuate man's relative immortality, it was not consistent with the purpose
of God that it should be the remedy of his rescue unto salvation. And as the
ground was cursed for man's sake it became corrupt; as it is written, "the
earth, also, was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence."
Gen. 6: 11. Hence by subsisting upon the herb of the field, produced from the
cursed ground and the corrupt earth, man's physical nature became also corrupt
in harmony with his spiritual nature, corrupted by contact with spiritual
wickedness. But if the earth had not been cursed it never could have become
corrupt and the moral corruption infused into the spiritual nature of our
first parents could not have been transmitted by them to the physical body of
posterity, and they would have taken the nature of the untainted body, such as
man was before the beguiling of our common mother by the serpent, for the
power of reproduction is both in man's spiritual and in his physical nature,
else where the necessity of cursing the ground and driving man from the
garden? If spiritual quality alone possessed power of reproducing anything
not natural or peculiar to a natural reproduction inherent in a seed, then
spiritual wickedness and spiritual holiness would be transmissible through
ordinary generation to posterity, and thus the righteousness of Noah and
Abraham and the spiritual holiness of holy men of old, (and without which an
apostle says "no man shall see the Lord - Heb. 12: 14) would have been
naturalized and manifested, reproduced and perpetuated in their posterity to
the present time. But the sowing of the seed of tares is nothing more than
infusing moral depravity at the fountain head by which the wicked one has
obtained an irresistible control and possession of the natural man. This
moral corruption, and as has already been explained, this poisonous infection
now reaches every ramification of man's organism and spirituality; it
permeates every faculty of his body, soul and spirit, hence hereditary. And
it was under the impression of this view that the Psalmist says
interrogatively, "do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Do ye
judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness. Ye
weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked are estranged from
the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born speaking lies. Their poison
is like the poison of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear."
Psalms 58: 1-4. In what sense is the poison of the wicked like that of a
serpent and the adder? It is certainly not a physical or literal poison, like
the poison of a serpent; but the resemblance is strikingly in the fact that
both are hereditary, and transfused and perpetuated in strict accordance with
the laws of transmission by descent. Hence, John the Baptist, the son of
Zacharias, said to the multitude who came to him to be baptized: "O generation
of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth
therefore fruits meet for repentance and begin not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our Father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these
stones to raise up children unto Abraham." Luke 3: 7, 8; Matt. 3: 7-9. And
Jesus, after asserting that to "either make the tree good and his fruit good,
or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt," said, "O generation of
vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things; for out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaketh." Matt. 12: 33, 34. Again, in his graphic
rebuke to the priests, Pharisees, hypocrites, after telling them they were the
children of them which killed the prophets, and to fill up the measure of
their fathers, he exclaimed, "ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye
escape the damnation of hell." Matt. 23: 31, 32, 33. That the unrighteous
are termed children of the wicked one, in a metaphorical and depraved sense,
by the infusion of moral poison into their nature, is evident for another
reason. If they were his literal and personal offspring, they might all be
rooted out of this world without disturbing, or injuring the children of the
kingdom, in the least. Yet Jesus in the parable of the tares represents the
servants as saying unto their lord "wilt thou that we go and gather up the
tares; but he said nay; lest ye root up the wheat with them." This part of
the narrative makes it evident that he intended to illustrate that the wheat
and tares sown were good and evil principles which sprang up and which might
exist in the same organization, or church, for he said, "let both grow
together until the harvest," which "is the end of the world," and this they
do. Matt. 13: 28, 30. Hence, the warfare of the saints and the anti-
christian doctrines believed and cherished in the church; the conflict between
the old and the new man; that law which all the saints find in their members
interwoven with the very framework and texture of their physical organizations
and bringing them into captivity to the law of sin which is in their members;
so that in bitterness of soul they exclaim, "O, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And there is found with all
the same law that when they would do good, evil is present with them." Rom.
7: 16, 24, inclusive. This sinful rule of action is what Jesus calls the
tares sown by the Devil, Matt. 13, and Paul had the same revealed to him; and
the reason why tares were not to be plucked up was clearly shown to him, for
he said, and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of
the revelations, there was given to me a thorn (TARE) in the flesh; (mark the
language) the messenger of Satan" (Greek "angelos Satan," the visitor, or the
angel of Satan) to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure." "For
this thing, I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he
said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee." II. Cor. 12: 7, 8, and 9.
Hence when we see in the Scriptures the metaphorical appellatives in such
profusely diversified form as, "thou child of the Devil," Acts 13: 10;
"Children of Belial," Deut. 13: 13, II. Chronicles 13: 7; "children of the
devil," I. John 3: 10; "children of the wicked one," Matt. 13: 38; "ye are of
your father the devil," John 8: 44; "children of wickedness," II. Sam. 7: 10;
"Children of this world," Luke 16: 8, and 20: 34; "children of iniquity,"
Hosea 10: 9; "children of men," Psa. 115: 16; Dan. 2: 38; "wisdom is justified
of her children," Matt. 11: 19, and Luke 7: 35; "children of light," Luke 16:
8, John 12: 36, Eph. 5: 8, and I. Thess. 5: 5; "children of promise," Gal. 4:
28; "children of the kingdom," Matt. 13: 38; "children of the bride-chamber,"
Matt. 9: 15; "children of Zion," Psa. 149: 2, Joel 2: 23; "children of pride,"
Job 41: 34; "children of wrath," Eph. 2: 3; "children of disobedience," Eph.
5: 6, and Col. 3: 6; "children of the highest," Luke 6: 35; "children of the
flesh," Rom. 9: 8; "Jerusalem which is in bondage with her children," Gal. 4:
25; "children of the bond and free woman," Gal. 4: 31, &c., we should not
conclude that in each case, there is a distinct and literal seed or posterity.
And those who take pains to examine, will find that seed of the Dragon, Devil,
or Satan, is not mentioned once in the scriptures; and seed of the serpent but
once. Gen. 3: 15. Hence all the children of men are the natural offspring of
Adam who was the son of God by creation, or else, by regeneration; and of whom
as concerning the flesh Christ came who is the head over all "the good seed,"
the church, which is his body and fullness; and who is "God blessed forever;"
the only begotten son of the Father, full of grace and truth. See Luke 3: 38.
And in this natural and fleshly origin only, do all the rational inhabitants
of earth have their standing in the first Adam, from whom as natural beings
they have derived their existence through ordinary or natural generation. For
in nature, to generate is to beget; to produce; and "born" is only the past
tense of bringing forth that begotten or generated. Therefore to "regenerate"
is only to beget again; and to bear again, the present tense of "born again,"
is to bring forth what is "regenerated, or begotten again." So that nothing
can appropriately be said to be "born again," which has not only been once
generated and born, but has also been regenerated, or "begotten again unto a
lively hope" by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an
inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God, through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." I. Pet. 1: 3, 4, and 5.
But strictly and literally there never was a man or woman born of the flesh;
for all are born infants, with physically deficient and undeveloped bodies, in
almost ever organic characteristic of men and women. And from their infantile
state, they must pass through many changes, they must increase in strength and
structure; which they do perceptibly day by day; their bodies, members and
organs of generation are strengthened, enlarged and renewed by gradual and
almost imperceptible process as they approach maturity; but their identity is
preserved and their nature remains the same. They are the identical persons
which were once infants in character and development, weak and dependent
sucklings. Yet men and women, youths and infants may be regenerated and "born
again;" and thus become "new creatures." "For if any man be in Christ Jesus,
he is a new creature." II. Cor. 5: 17. Yet his identity is not lost, nor his
nature destroyed; but he "is made partaker of the Divine nature." Yet in
this, he is not enabled to put off entirely his original fleshly, or Adamic
nature, but these two, the original fleshly, and the Divine nature, are
contrary one to the other "so that ye can not do the things that ye would" (if
there were but one nature). Gal. 5: 17. But all those thus renewed and
strengthened with might by the Spirit of God in the inner or inward man (Rom.
7: 22, II. Cor. 4: 16, and Eph. 3: 16) still have the same natural and corrupt
bodies, "the instruments of unrighteousness," Rom. 6: 13, in the members of
which dwell the law of sin and death, warring against the law of the (renewed)
mind, which law is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus; and bringing
it (the mind) into captivity to the law of sin in the members (of the body).
This is the warfare of the Saints; the lusting and warfare of the flesh
against the Spirit, which could not exist if man's entire nature were changed
in regeneration, or if he did not receive another nature in addition to, and
not instead of the old one, by which, as a new born babe, he is brought into a
visible standing, which is a new relation with God. For before his
regeneration he was only a child of the flesh, the natural and spiritual
offspring of the first Adam. And the Apostle said emphatically, "these are
not the children of God." Rom. 9: 8. For Jesus had said before, "that which
is born of the flesh is flesh," and flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God. And if fleshly, or natural, offspring cannot inherit the kingdom, it
must be because they are not heirs of the kingdom, and if they are not heirs
of the kingdom it must be because they are not children of the kingdom, and if
they are not children of the kingdom, it is because they are not children of
God; and if they are not children of God, it must be because they are not yet
begotten of God. For all the actual and visible children of God are in Christ
as living members of his body, to "have the spirit of Christ," and are
consequently his as well as God's. But if any man have not the Spirit of
Christ he is none of his. Rom. 8: 9. But none are children of God except "as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Rom. 8: 14.
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Rom.
8: 17. Can any be children of God, and joint heirs with Christ, and not have
the Spirit of Christ, and be none of his? Surely not. In examining and
comparing various portions of Revelation it will be found that the natural
origin of all the saints is traced to one natural and common head, or
progenitor, from whom is derived all that have dwelt, or ever will dwell upon
the face of this earth; and that all of whom, by nature, are contentious and
do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness (Rom. 18) and they are all "by
nature the children of wrath." Eph. 2: 3. And until "born again," are
vessels of wrath. Rom. 9: 22. For there is no respect of persons with God.
Rom. 2: 9, 10, and 11. For Jesus said, "first make the tree good and his
fruit shall be good." Again after disclosing to Nicodemus, and by implication
illustrating, that righteousness and holiness are spiritual qualities, not
inherent natural seeds, and consequently cannot be reproduced, and transmitted
by ordinary, or natural generation, by graphically saying, "you must be born
again," further explains the fact by saying, "that which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." John 3: 6, and 7.
Hence the new creature, which is the production of the spiritual birth, has
not the nature of a reproductive seed, but being born again, or of the Spirit,
is as the result of leaven deposited in that with which it has affinity. For
Jesus said on another occasion, "the kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven
which a woman took and hid" (covered) "in three measures: (nearly three pecks)
"of meal, till the whole was leavened." Matt. 13: 33, Luke 13: 31. Why was
it hid in three measures? Obviously because the three measures, or
substances, composing, or constitutive of the nature of man, is spirit, soul
and body; and the first effect of leaven is always upon that part of whatever
it may be deposited in, which is in first, or most immediate contact with it;
and as the birth of the Spirit, is not a natural, but a spiritual birth, the
first and immediate contact with the spiritual leaven, must be the "inner," or
inside man, and not the outward or physical man. Hence that which is renewed
in this life by the Spirit of God is only the spirit of man, but the leaven
continues "until the whole lump is leavened" in the resurrection. See Rom. 8:
11 in proof. Consequently the leaven cannot be reproduced by generative
succession; but must be deposited, hid in every lump. For Jesus says, that
"in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as
the angels, being the children of the resurrection." Luke 20: 35, 36. And an
Apostle says of saints, "There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond
nor free; there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ
Jesus." Gal. 3: 28. Again, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor
uncircumcision: but a new creature." Gal. 6: 15. "Being created in Christ
Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in
them." Eph. 2: 10. Raised to a newness of life; and that not a natural, but
spiritual life; "for it is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth
nothing." John 6: 63. Hence if this spiritual leaven were hid in any of the
vessels which for lack of it are said to be "fitted to destruction," (Rom. 9),
it would meet the same affinity and a new creature would be the result, the
same as if deposited in vessels of mercy, and not on account of any inherent
excellence, superior origin, or parentage. Otherwise there could be no such
thing as sovereign grace, for that which is predicated upon, and proceeding
from an extraneous reason can not be sovereign, but the reason must be in the
sovereign mover. But Paul says interrogatively, "hath not the potter power
over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto
dishonor?" Rom. 9: 21. How are any made vessels of honor? Manifestly only
by being the repositories of the spiritual leaven, and Paul says again, "Purge
out therefore the old leaven," (spiritual wickedness infused at the fall)
"that ye may be a new lump." I. Cor. 5: 7. That holiness is not derived
through generative succession, as from the reproductive power and nature of a
seed, is shown from the inspiration of the the Holy Spirit to Ezekiel. "I
will put a new spirit within you." Ezek. 11: 19. A new heart will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you." Ezek. 36: 26. What is meant by
new and old if both are derived by reproduction from a seed the one as ancient
as the creation of man, and the other as old as "the wicked one?" Neither of
them could be termed the new man. The fact is the old man, the old heart and
spirit, is natural, and derived by generative succession in the reproductive
power of a seed, called in the inspired volume in contradistinction from all
other natural seed, "the seed of man." Jer. 31: 27; Dan. 2: 43. Enveloped in
the first Adam, while "the new heart, and new spirit," the result of being
born again, is the direct and immediate "gift of eternal life;" the leaven of
righteousness, treasured up in Christ Jesus, in whom dwelleth all the fullness
of the God-head bodily; and this eternal, or spiritual life, is not
communicated or derived through natural succession as from a seed, for Paul
says, "thou fool, that which thou sowest" (that is the seed) "is not quickened
except it die." I. Cor. 15: 36. And Peter more fully illustrates in drawing
the contrast between ordinary generation and regeneration when he says of the
saints, or faithful in Christ Jesus, "Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth
forever. For all flesh is as grass and the glory of man as the flower of
grass; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word
of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is
preached unto you." I. Pet. 1: 23, &c. This teaches us that all those in
nature, born of the flesh, or corruptible seed, are as grass that dies to give
place for its successors. But those born of the Spirit, have a living, and an
abiding origin, that passeth not away to give place to those that come after
it, but endureth forever; and in whom is life eternal, which is not derived
and transmitted in succession from parent to offspring. Hence, if any of
Adam's posterity are inherently, when first born into the world, and before
their regeneration the good seed, "the blessed of God, children of the
kingdom," which Christ told Nicodemus a man cannot see except he be born
again, whence the necessity or benefit of a new birth? What seed and whose
children are those who must be born again before they can enter into the
kingdom of heaven? If any one who is unregenerated, or before being born
again, or having a new spirit put within him, can be a child of God
absolutely, (not prospectively according to the eternal purpose of God merely)
and can be born again, and being born again changes (which it certainly does)
his parentage character and state, whose child is he, and what relation does
such a person, if such is to be found, sustain toward God after his
regeneration, which it is said he must pass through before he can "see the
kingdom of God," that he did not sustain? Nicodemus thought the new birth was
to be accomplished without additional, or with the same parentage as the first
birth and without change of character, and desired an explanation. "How can a
man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time his mother' womb, and
be born?" But Jesus knew such a birth without additional parentage would not
change the result or character. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh,"
(still) and that which is "born of the spirit," (the additional, second, or
new parent) "is spirit." When the above interrogatories are answered by the
reader he will have pursued far enough for any one to determine from the
irresistible testimony that children of the kingdom, and those not of the
kingdom, are all the children of Adam by nature, and are all alike the
children of the same flesh, before any are born of the Spirit of God. And
that all of this one natural seed who are children of God are such only by
being born again; after which, and because of which God sends forth the spirit
of his son into their hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Gal. 4: 6. And that
they are not the children of God by a natural birth, nor in the sense of seed,
but in a relative sense only, as branches from the "root," which also is "the
offspring of David, the bright and morning star." Rev. 22: 16. Branches and
fruit as the members of Christ the true vine, the mystical body, who is the
only begotten of the Father. For if any of them were the children or begotten
of God in an absolute and not a relative sense, it could not be said in truth
that "God gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should
not perish, but might have everlasting life." John 3: 16, 18, and I. John 1:
9. It is obviously shown to be the economy and purpose of God, that the
development and personal existence of the physical and natural man, should
precede the spiritual; and in fact the grosser portions of all created things,
and things inanimate were formed before the more subtle substances, and things
possessed of either vegetable or animal life. For we read that the first
thing that was made to appear was the dry land which God called Earth; then
the less dense and lighter substance: The waters, which he called seas. Next,
the vegetable kingdom was organized and established when "the Earth," the
grosser substance, "was made to bring forth grass and herbs, yielding seed
after his kind, and trees yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in the
fruit." Next, in the order and process God had ordained, he created the
heavenly bodies, that adorn, and gem "night's blue arch," and as a decoration
of the vault of heaven, and all the glittering and twinkling host of them; and
poised in exquisite perfection with his own finger the planetary systems; and
by an unerring law moved them in their prime and salient career of orbital
traverse, to measure with that wondrous precision the middle portion of
Eternity which is called time, which being cut off at its beginning and
ending, is but a fragment of duration. Yet there was nothing created
possessed of animal life. Then the waters were made to bring forth
abundantly, and the Earth to bring forth living creatures; and God made the
beasts and cattle of the field, thus approaching nearer and nearer to the
production of spiritual existence. "And God said, let us make man in our own
image, after our likeness." They are thus made lively (members) "stones" in
the "spiritual," but not literal "house" of which he is the foundation stone."
I. Pet. 2: 5,6. They are "heirs" and "children of God" not as a fleshly
posterity, but in the sense of a vital union with Christ as "members of his
body and of his flesh and of his bones," Eph. 5: 30, by which they become
joint-heirs with him. Hence Paul declares, "Now are ye the body of Christ
and members in particular." And "as the body is one, and hath many members,
and all the members of that one body, being many are one body, so also is
Christ." Again, "But now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the
body as it hath pleased him." Again: "The body is not one member, but many;
and if they were all one member where were the body?" I. Cor. 12: 12, 14, 18,
19, 20. "For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not
the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ." Rom. 12: 4. If
all these inspired declarations, and the many more that might be quoted to the
same point, are considered in connection with the fact that Jesus is the only
begotten son of God, born of a woman and heir to the kingdom and throne of
David his type, it will not be difficult to determine in what sense the saints
are the children, begotten and born of God; it is certainly not in the sense
of natural posterity. For the power of reproduction or natural multiplicity
is alone in the living bodies of male and female, and not in any or all the
separated, or individuated members; it is not even in either male or female of
the sexes separately considered. For in nature there can be no such thing as
offspring without a union of sex; and Paul says the saints are neither male
nor female in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3: 28. And it is because less than the whole
of them is not the body, but each one of them is an individuated and prepared
member of that "body, which is Christ." "As it is written, a body hast thou
prepared me." Heb. 10: 5. That is, margin, "fitted me," prepared and fitted
of individual and lively members. The correctness and completeness of the
foregoing positions, as proven from the scriptures, may be further
illustrated, and strengthened from the many passages of scriptures declarative
of the union of Christ and the church in the sense of husband and bride, with
which every Bible reader is familiar, so that it is unnecessary to present
them all here, but the reader is respectfully referred to the Song of
Solomon, Rev. 21: 9, II. Cor. 11: 2, Hos. 2: 19, 20. Also Isaiah 54: 5, 6,
where the Lord says to the Church, "Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed,
neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame; For thou shalt
forget the shame of they youth and shalt not remember the reproach of they
widow-hood any more. For thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is his
name, and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth
shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken, and a
wife of youth when thou wast refused, saith they God." And Paul says, "the
husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, and
he is the Savior of the body." Eph. 5: 23. "So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself." Verse 28.
Here the sense is, that the husband is the head of the wife, and ought to love
his wife because she is his own body, and in loving her he is only loving
himself. Again, verse 29th, he says: "For no man ever yet hated his own
flesh." And as Christ is the head of the church, even in the same sense as a
husband is the head of the wife, and loves her as his own body, and in loving
her he is only loving himself. For says Paul, verse 30, "We are members of
his body and of his flesh and of his bones." Again, verses 31 and 32. "And
for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and be joined unto his
wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak
concerning Christ and the church." But in the way some undertake to explain
the matter of two natural and literal seeds, the veil would be raised, the
mystery would vanish; the whole secret would be as tangible and as easily
comprehended and explained as the laws of marriage and divorce, and much more
easily then the laws of descent and inheritance. One of the very ancient
rules of the latter has been expressed thus: "Here DUS SUCCESSORESQUE, SUI
OUIQUE LIBERI, ET MULLUM TESTAMENTUM; SI LIBERI, NONSUNTPROXIMUS GRADUS IN
POSSESSIONE, FRATRES; PATRUI, AVUNCULI." And both descent and inheritance
have always depended, according to ancient usage, not a little on the nature
of kindred, and the several degrees of consanguinity which was considered
either lineal or collateral and was anciently defined by the writers on these
subjects to be VINCULUM PERSONARUM AB EODUM STIPITE DESCENDENTIUM." For in
literalizing every expression pertaining to the union of the saints with
Christ, and their spiritual or new creature origin, renders what Paul calls a
great mystery, no mystery at all. But it seems necessary to pursue the
investigation a little further at least; not with a view of solving the "great
mystery," but if possible to discover not only in what the mystery lies, but
to contemplate its secrecy, and inexplicable character. In pursuance of which
let us go away back to Gen. 1: 27, where it is said, "So God created man in
his own image in the image of God created he him; male and female, created he
them," and in chapter 5: 2 to the above the expression is added, "and blessed
them, and called their name Adam in the day when they were created." The
foregoing narrative discloses the fact that before the Lord God had taken a
rib from man, and made it a woman (literally a womb man) Adam was both "male
and female." And it is said Adam "was formed of the dust of the ground," that
is, his form, comeliness, and tangible substance was thus derived. But it is
not said that the woman was made of rib; mark the language. "And the rib,
which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto
the man." That is, he made the rib a woman. Thus was the unity of sex in
Adam individuated, or separated into two distance personalities. Many herbs,
plants and trees still retain their original complex unity of sex. But in the
case of man (and many others) there was a separation of the sex. Yet the two
were Adam; for "male and female created he them," "and called their name Adam
in the day when they were created." Gen. 5: 2. They were one flesh; for
separately considered, neither of them was "man;" for in neither of them
separately was the seed or germ of mankind; But in this individuation first
began the multiplicity of man, by which has been developed an almost countless
number of individuals, each a member and all only the members of one family.
And this family is not derived immediately or during the life time of their
first parents; but by a succession of generations coming one after another of
this common parentage; all the members of but one original body. But there
was no further division or multiplicity of man except the individuation of
sex, until after the fall and consequent depravity of both his material and
spiritual natures, and as conception hitherto had not been commenced, it seems
that it was necessary that it should be multiplied, and desire increased
before conception could take place. Hence the declaration; "I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception." The multiplicity of the woman's
conception which by some has been mystified into such an intangible, and
incomprehensible, and complex mystery was nothing more than the implantation,
for the first time, of the power of conception. For the woman, previous to
this declaration, and the fall, had not had actual sorrow or conception to be
multiplied. Yet it is said, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow" (as well as)
"and thy conception." Why does not some one conjure up some inexplicable
mystery with reference to the multiplicity of the woman's sorrow, as well as
that of her conception? For the sorrow as well as the conception of the woman
was said to be multiplied, when as yet this much misrepresented and mystified
subject of the multiplicity of conception, it appears to be nothing more than
the origin of the preparation of the woman for the great work of multiplying
and individuating the human species into a great innumerable family. Hence
every member of the body, thus prepared for multiplicity after the fall, being
subsequently produced, was, as soon as born, nay, when conceived, a child and
vessel "of wrath fitted to destruction." But as already stated and proved,
the first thing developed or made manifest "was not spiritual, but natural;
afterward that which is spiritual." And here in the commencement of
conception began the development, preparation and production of the material
body of Christ. For David placing himself in personification of the Christ
said: "Thine eyes did see my substance being yet unperfect; and in thy book,
all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned;" (margin,
'what days they should be fashioned;') "when as yet there was none of them"
Psa. 139:15. Leaving this slight divergence from the main subject, and
returning to man, and finding already quoted that he was created in the image,
and made after the likeness of God; "male and female created he them, and
called their name Adam in the day when they were created." But it is not
there said that when Adam's male and female original was individuated and made
two distinct personalities, that he was still in the image and after the
likeness of God; neither is it any where in the scriptures stated how long he
was to retain that image, which it is conceded by all he did not retain after
the fall, even if it had not been previously lost as here shown. And placing
in this connection the declaration that death reigned "even over them that had
not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of
him that was to come," Rom. 5:14, and that it is not any where said that
after a rib was taken from Adam and made a woman, he was still the figure of
him that was to come. Neither that every thing which befell the figure, or
type, should be a figure or type of whatever should befall, or was to happen,
or had happened to the substance, or anti-type. Hence, since man was created
in the image and made after the likeness of God, and was originally "the
figure of him that was to come," and while possessed of such image, likeness
and figurative character, and quality, was both male and female in one person,
the scriptural conclusion, irresistibly, must follow, that in the sense of his
two-fold or complex sex only, he is said to be made in the image and after the
likeness of god, and the figure of him that was to come. And being able to
unfold, read and interpret the book of nature, as well as that of revelation,
Paul in speaking of those who had not access to the scriptures being left
without excuse said: "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in
them," Margin, "to them;" "for God hath shewed it unto them; for the
invisible things of him are clearly seen from the creation of the world being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and God-head so
that they are without excuse." Margin, "that they may be without excuse.
Romans, 1: 19, 20. Hence if the invisible things of God may be clearly seen
from the creation of the world, and understood from the things that are made,
even his God-head, placing in consideration, and studying the original
character of Adam as possessed of a two-fold sex, in connection with almost
every species or genus of trees, and vegetable life, which still present a
nature in a complex sex, the conclusion seems unavoidable that in his two-fold
and complex sex only; Adam was originally in the image and likeness of the
God-head. An Evangelist in declaring the advent and character of the Messiah
says: "In the beginning was the word; and the word was with God, and the
Word was God." John 1: 1. The similarity and relative import of the three
following declarations are worthy the most earnest meditation: "The rib,
which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman." Gen. 2: 22. "He
hath made him" (Christ) "to be sin for us." "To be" is not in the original.
II. Cor. 5: 21. "And the word was made flesh." John 1: 14. And another of
the Evangelists says: "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord
by the prophet," Margin, "His name shall be called Emmanuel, which being
interpreted is God with us." Matt. 1: 22, 23. That is, God with man. Hence
the Word made flesh was God with us, made sin for us; made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law; and that "in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the God-head bodily." Col. 2: 9. And that he
was given, ("to be" not in the original) the head over all to the church,
which is his body, "the fullness of him that filleth all in all." Eph. 1: 22,
23. And that he that Filleth all in all is God, and that he is the same
yesterday, to day and forever; and that if any man hath not the spirit of
Christ, he is none of his, that all the saints or members of Christ's body are
led by his Spirit; and when male and female was wrapped in inscrutable and
mysterious secrecy in Adam's originality he was then in the image and after
the likeness of God, and was the figure of him that was to come, and he that
was to come has come, and is the head of the Church which is the fullness of
him that filleth all in all, as the husband is the head of the wife; and this
brings us to a wondering and amazing contemplation of the "great mystery"
"concerning Christ and the church," their incomprehensible union and oneness,
which we can contemplate with wonder and astonishment, but can never unfold.
For if the combined wisdom and mental acumen of the sons of man were applied
to the solution of this "great mystery" with the privilege of using the light
thrown upon it from revelation they would be completely overwhelmed in the
wonder of its seemingly inexplicable and irreconcilable abstractions. For
while implicitly believing each word, and every consecutive line of revelation
as the revealed truth of God Almighty, as we proudly profess, in which it is
so frequently and truthfully declared, that the Church is the body and bride
of christ, and each member of it is a member of his body in particular, and
all "members of his body, and of his flesh, and of his bones," these members
are the embodiment of "Zion," the city of the living God; the Heavenly
Jerusalem, the general assembly and church of the first born, which are
enrolled in heaven." Heb. 12: 22, 23. Jerusalem which is above, is free,
which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that
barest not; break forth and cry thou that travailest not; for the desolate
hath many more children that she which hath a husband." Gal. 4: 26, 27, and
thus we find it written, Isa. 54: 1. And in addition it is written, verses 4
and 5, "Thou shalt forget the shame of they youth, and shalt not remember the
reproach of thy widow-hood any more. For thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord
of Hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy one of Israel, the God of the
whole earth shall he be called." Thus it is written that the Word is the
Maker, the Husband and the Redeemer of Zion. Yet the Maker, the Redeemer, the
Holy one of Israel, the Husband of the Church, says, of each and all of them
of whom it is composed, "Behold I and the children which God hath given me."
Heb. 2: 13. And in not taking on him the nature of angels, but the seed of
Abraham, Heb. 2: 16, he himself is likewise one of the children of Zion, of
which he is the Maker, the Redeemer and Husband. "Wherefore in all things it
behooved him to be made like unto his brethren." Heb. 2: 17. "For which
cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying I will declare thy name
unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee."
Heb. 2: 11, 12. He, then himself is a member of the church, but being the
head, the husband, he is the principal member; and the other members are the
children which God hath given him, "which" (shall be) "are for signs and for
wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion." Isa.
8: 18. Zion then being the mother of all the children is also his mother, who
is the head and husband of Zion, as well as the mother of his brethren; for
"is is written, "There shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn
away ungodliness from Jacob." Rom. 11: 26. Impressed with the "great
mystery" of these wonderful truths, one of the inspired children of Zion of
old exclaimed "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the
government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isa.
9: 6. If he were not a father he would not have become a husband, and have
spoken of the children which God had given him. More astonishingly wonderful
the mystery becomes when the same prophet exclaims again of Zion, "Before she
travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man
child." Isa. 66: 7. The same "man child" no doubt alluded to as a son born,
and child given us already quoted. But giving evidence that the prophet
himself was overwhelmed in contemplation of the "great mystery," he adds, "Who
hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made
to bring forth in one day? Shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as
Zion travailed she brought forth her children." Verse 8. Hence the human
mind may well be lost in wonder and amazement in contemplation, and much more
in an attempt at the solution of this, "so great mystery," (that "they two,"
"Christ and the church," shall be one flesh,") the oneness or union of "Christ
and the church." For while the Word that was made flesh is the Maker, the
Husband, and the Redeemer of Zion, he himself came out of Zion as her
Deliverer, and was made like unto his brethren, the children of Zion. So
that, "both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified are all of one;
for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. This view of the
"great mystery" in its whole connection is recognized by Jesus in few words of
unfathomable depth of wisdom, of which his uniform sententious style is so
characteristic. "Who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And he
stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and
my brethren! "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in
heaven, the same is my brother and sister, and mother. Matt. 12: 47, 50,
inclusive, see also Mark 3: 31 and 35, in Luke 8: 19, 21. Also Solomon's
Song, 4: 9, 10, 12, where the church is called in every case by the Bride
Groom. "My sister, my Spouse," the MY between sister and spouse is not in the
original in either of the four expressions, including chapter 5: 1. The
latter part of which compare with John 15: 13, 14. "My sister spouse, eat, O
friends; drink, yea drink abundantly, O beloved" 2d verse. The voice of my
beloved, that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister, my love my undefiled,
my dove." "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee." 4: 7.
"That he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot," &c.
Eph. 5: 27. Heb. 2: 11, and while Zion is his body and fullness, he is one of
her children; and while he and his brethren are the embodiment of Zion as the
mother of all, which brought them forth "before she travailed;" they are a
nation born at once as children, (the head, the king,) body, bride and mother;
and "before she brought forth her children," the church, the body, the bride
and the mother was not; for the children are the body and the bride of Christ;
and the bride is the mother of all the children brought forth before she
travailed or existed in all her fullness. Hence "the Lord from Heaven a
quickening spirit" is the head of the great family of saints, enrolled in
heaven, as the husband of the church, which is his body. "His own flesh,"
(and "no man ever yet hated his own flesh" Eph. 5: 29) and "his bones," every
member of which, are wrapped in this great mystery and in inscrutable secrecy
until they all shall be individuated and personally developed in symmetrical
perfection, "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," as the prepared
body and fullness of "the Lamb's wife" adorned for her husband; which was not
separated from him in the person of a single feminine individual, as was the
wife of first Adam, who, previous to the separation of Eve, from him as his
feminine part, was in the image, and after the likeness, and was the figure of
him that was to come; but was deposited and received as a treasure in the form
of leaven, in separate and chosen "earthen vessels" that the excellency of the
power thereof might be of God "when made in secret and curiously wrought in
the lowest parts of the earth" Psa. 139: 15, and speaking further of these
vessels as the substance seen, says "in thy book" (that is the book of life,
wherein the names of the saints only are enrolled) "all were written" and
"what days they should be fashioned;" Marg. "when as yet there was none of
them." And all so written to be fashioned, and to become the honored and
chosen repositories of the precious treasure, the spiritual or "inner man of
the heart," which was to constitute them new creatures "were by nature the
children of wrath even as others." They were vessels of wrath, by nature made
of the same substance, or lump of clay as those left in dishonor; but not
being "hid," (unknown) but foreknown and written in the book of life, the
tablet of the memory of God Almighty, and being "predestinated to be
conformed" (thus) "to the image of his son," Rom. 8: 29, were chosen and
called from among all other vessels, which being rejected, (as stones in the
quarry, not that they may not as easily be made fit for the building, but
because the sovereign will and choice of the Architect determines to complete
the building without enlarging it by using them,) were left in dishonor. And
those chosen were thus made vessels of honor by being chosen according to the
eternal purpose which was purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began, and
was made manifest by his appearing; that God might "shew his wrath and make
his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted
to destruction," (Mar. made up,) and that he might make known the riches of
his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto Glory."
Rom. 9: 21, 22 and 23. Being thus foreknown, predestinated, they are redeemed
to God, and cleansed by the blood of the Lamb which was slain, out of every
kindred, and tongue, and people and nation." Rev. 5:9. And "to them was
granted according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by
his Spirit in the inner man." Eph. 3: 16. Thus the spirit in the inner man
strengthens the earthen vessel, which, being made the repository of the
spirit, becomes "a vessel of honor fit for," or suited to "the masters use,"
and "a vessel of mercy afore prepared unto glory" as a member of the mystical
body of Christ, as in the volume of the book it is written "a body hast thou
prepared me," (not for me). And "there is one body and one Spirit even as ye
are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, and one baptism;
one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
Eph. 4: 4, 5 and 6. Thus the children of Zion now in existence and those in
the past, while in the earthly tabernacle are the bride in partial
development, being made manifest, the continuous individuation of the body of
Christ, and those yet in the secret council of God to be brought into actual
personal existence, are what Paul terms the invisible things of God. Rom. 1.
And as Zion when fitly adorned for her husband without spot or wrinkle will
there be composed of all her children, and will be the general assembly and
church of the first born written in heaven. In her present state she is not
the natural, but must be only the spiritual foster mother; the nursing mother
if you please, of all the saints as they come upon the stage of personal
existence, but are likewise, foster children, children of adoption, taken as
children of wrath, but predestinated, elected and adopted; not according to
their works, but according to the eternal purpose and grace of God, and are
"according to the working of his mighty power made real heirs, which they
could not be by the adoption only. "O the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and his ways
past finding out." Rom 11: 33. If it were possible to remand all the vessels
of mercy to vessel of wrath and their original dishonor, as "children in whom
there is no faith," and assemble both them and those of the family and
posterity of Adam, together with their first parents who were expelled from
Eden, Adam and Eve would be the essence and embodiment of them all, and they
would be the individuation of the original man; and of Eve and all her
posterity collectively, truthfully and appropriately it might be said, they
are the individuated "body and fullness of Adam." Again; of him, with
reference to Eve and his and her posterity, as appositely it could be said, he
is "all in all." That is, in essence he is all of them, and in all of them.
So as the church is the body, bride and spiritual family of "the last Adam, a
quickening Spirit," and it is therefore truly and appropriately said of the
church, she "is his body and fullness; the fullness of him that filleth all in
all." Eph. 1: 23. And as appositely and truly it is said of God, that when
the end cometh, and all things shall be subdued unto Christ, with respect no
doubt to the church it is said, "then shall the Son also be subject unto him
that put all things under him that God may be all in all." I. Cor. 15: 28.

"His providence unfolds his book,
And makes his counsels shine,
Each opening leaf and every stroke,
Fulfill some deep design."

In conclusion it is proposed to state some propositions, illustrate truth
and lay bare the deformity of error by presenting them interrogatively. By
the use of the figure, the term Sheep is frequently used in the scriptures
metaphorically for the saints of God. Hence a question arises whether the
phrase "lost sheep" is applicable, or is applied to the unregenerate or
regenerate; the believer or unbeliever. But Jesus designates the unbelievers,
and the finally unregenerate by the emblem of goats and the believers and
final heirs of his kingdom and glory by the emblem of sheep. Matt. 25: 32,
33. If this application of the terms sheep and goats is restrictive, it is
easy to understand what relation a "lost sheep" sustains to those not lost. A
sheep that has always been lost is one that never has been added to the flock
in the pasture of the good shepherd, nor been attached to the fold, and
passing from the representative emblem to its constituent; the substance is a
penitent believer "born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by
the word of God that liveth and abideth for ever," who has not yet been "added
to the church," the "little flock," the pleasure of whose Father is, to give
them "the kingdom," and has not yet been fed upon, nor lain down in the "green
pastures" of "the good Shepherd;" nor been encircled in the fellowship of "the
flocks in the midst of their fold." See Acts 2: 47. Luke 12: 32. Micah 2:
12. Or one who, after regeneration, is so lost and bewildered, as is
frequently the case, that the poor soul has mistaken a herd of goats (with
here and there a sheep in their midst) calling themselves all sheep, for "the
flock of God's pasture." Ezek. 34: 31. Such, and only such, and not the
unregenerate are emblematically represented as sheep lost and scattered; "yea
scattered upon all the face of the earth" which God says he "will bring out
from the people where they have been scattered" (lost) "in the cloudy and dark
day!" Ezek. 34: 5, 6, 11, 12, and 13. But in advocacy of the doctrine of two
natural seeds some say, "a sheep is just as much a sheep while lost as when
found; its nature is not changed, it is no more nor less a sheep." But if
those who "are led by the spirit of God," "born again," made partakers of the
Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the heavenly gift and the powers of the world
to come," and thus "made heirs of God," were but lost sheep before, and were
sheep only by their wandering from God after reaching the age of their
conscious accountability, where is a necessity for their regeneration, or
being born again? And what do they become when born again? Are they not
sheep still? And if being begotten and born does not give character,
identity, individuality and nature to that which is born, what is gained or
achieved by being born once or more? "That which is born of the flesh is
flesh," that is being born of the flesh imparts identify individuality and a
nature of the consistency of flesh; and being born of the Spirit of God
imparts a Divine nature, consisting of eternal and spiritual life inseparable
from God. But if an impenitent, faithless, deaf, blind and rebellious sinner,
unborn of the Spirit, unquickened, dead in trespasses and in sins, by nature a
child of wrath, can be represented by the emblem of a lost sheep, without
Christ, being an alien and stranger from the common-wealth of Israel, without
hope and without God in the world," then all "the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction" must be "lost sheep." For it is certainly evident that whoever
is without God is not in God, nor a child of God. "for in this the children
of God are manifest; and the children of the devil; whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God." Neither he that loveth not his brother." I.
John 3: 10. "We know that he abideth in us by the Spirit he hath given us. I.
John 3: 24. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath
given us of his Spirit." I. John 4: 12 and 13. And whoever is without Christ
is not in Christ and hath not the Son of God. For "he that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." I. John 5: 12. And
consequently is not yet created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God
hath before (his creation in Christ) ordained that we should walk in them.
Eph. 2: 10. Hence we were ordained to walk in good works before we were
created in Christ Jesus. Purposed or Predestinated in Eternity, but created
in time. Eph. 3: 12 and 19. Why does Jesus say "my sheep follow him, for
they know his voice?" John 10: 4. "And a stranger they will not follow, but
will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers;" Again, "I am
known of my sheep" verse 13. "My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they
follow me," verse 27. If any can be lost sheep, yet children of God while in
unbelief. Why did Jesus say to the multitude, but ye believe not because ye
are not of my sheep? John 10: 26. Does not this declaration prove that none
are sheep, either lost or found, but believers; if any are of God while
impenitent, faithless, deaf, blind, rebellious, without Christ, having no hope
and without God in the world, why did Jesus say, he that is of God heareth
God's word; ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God? John 8: 47.
Who in the fear of God will dare affirm that any are under condemnation who
have eternal life? And who in the fear of God will dare affirm that any are
children of God who believe not, and consequently have not eternal life? And
who in the fear of God will dare affirm that any are children of God who
believe not, and consequently have not eternal life, but are without Christ,
having no hope and without God in the world? Yet of this latter class thus
described without the birth of the Spirit, the Apostle says, "but now in
Christ Jesus ye who some times were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ." Eph. 2: 13. Who will dare affirm that any of the children of God
have not passed from death unto life, who are now living in the world? And
who will venture to affirm that any in a state of unbelief and rebellion
against God, are passed from death unto life eternal? If so, why did Christ
say, "he that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not, is
condemned already, because he hath not believed on the only begotten Son of
God." John 3: 18. And why did he say again, "he that believeth shall not
come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." John 5: 24.
There is an antithesis here, which is this: he that heareth not my word, and
believeth not on him that sent me, hath not everlasting life, and shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him, until he shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, which they that hear shall live, and believe on him that
sent me. See John 3: 36 and 5: 25. If any one can have eternal life in a
state of unbelief, why did Jesus say, "this is the Father's will which sent
me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him may have
everlasting life." John 6: 40. If any one can have eternal life, and are
children of God without condemnation, or the wrath of God abiding upon him
while in unbelief and before regeneration, why did Paul say, "there is
therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the spirit." Rom. 8: 1. And to what class of
persons does Christ refer in saying, "the hour is coming and now is, when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live."
John 5: 25. And "if any can" have eternal life, be children of God in
unbelief, and without regeneration, can hear and follow Christ as soon as they
have a conscious and individuated existence, why is it said, "as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed." Acts 13: 48. Why not say as many as were
children of God, or had eternal life, believed. If there can be such thing in
the nature of man, before regeneration as "Good Seed," put forth through Adam,
on what account can it be said except of foreseen goodness, fitness, birth, or
parentage, that such were predestinated, and chosen of God according to an
eternal purpose, while he rejected and passed without mercy the vessels of
wrath, or children of wickedness, as less worthy by nature of his grace and
unfit for objects of his mercy, and subjects of his love and compassion? And
as every Arminian concedes, and even insists upon this, that predestination,
election, and effectual calling pertain to those only possessed of an inherent
and foreseen goodness which is never possessed or displayed by others; and
that none, (of such at least) were ever totally depraved; but that there is in
each a little speck of pure gold to which adheres in nature's quarry the dross
and filth of the flesh, which measurably or mainly is separated from it in the
crucible or laver of regeneration; yet the gold, the child of God is not
changed in character, but in state only, it is just what it was before, it is
still nothing but gold. If so, and, as some claiming to expound the peculiar
views of predestinarians affirm, any one before regeneration, even as soon as
he can be said to have a natural existence is actually, rationally and in the
light of revelation a child of God, why such an ado about "Predestinarian
Baptists" only believing the peculiar, and distinguishing, and hateful, and
horrible, and despisable doctrine of predestination, election, and special
calling. According to the theory under investigation who are predestinated,
elected and called? Why, answers the advocate of the doctrine of "two natural
seeds," the children of God only, to be sure. And so says every Arminian, and
not as they are prospectively to become children, and to "be made heirs" of
God "by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost," according
to an immutable and eternal purpose; but only because of their inherent
goodness as a precious speck of gold, and as children of God are they thus
predestinated, elected, and called, having these qualities foreseen in them.
And so the advocates of the doctrine of two natural seeds must say to be
consistent. For in support of just such position they quote their well worn
text, "because ye are Sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into
your hearts, crying, ABBA, FATHER," Gal. 4: 6, without perceiving as is
clearly shown by the context, that those into whose hearts this Spirit is sent
forth are all mourners in Zion seeking comfort and almost in despair of ever
being released from the sinking burden of guilt impetuously rushing them down
to the fearful precincts of interminable woe. And that all such are
previously quickened from death in trespasses and sins into life eternal, and
have already been made to hear the voice of the Son of God in tacit though
impressive accents whispering ("Saul, Saul! Why persecutest thou me?"). At
such time is first manifest the exercise, or impulse of eternal life; for
there can be no intermediate step or state between life and death. And "the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," (Rom. 6: 23) is
imparted only by the indwelling of the Spirit of God. "For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death." Rom. 8: 2. But the new born babe, as "the heir, as long as he is a
child," (that is, while mourning and heavy laden, laboring under an oppressive
burden of sin, in that infantine, weak, comfortless, and despairing period of
his existence) "differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all,"
(if he knew it,) "but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed
of the father, and is in bondage under the elements of the world." Gal. 4: 1,
2, and 3. How admirably expressive is all this of the experience of every
saint, awakened and quickened to a sense of their rebellious and sinful state.
Then they feel too wicked and unworthy to call God their Father. Such a claim
of relationship and such intimacy can not exist without hope in Christ, which
is incompatible with their deep and abiding sense of the justness of their
banishment and condemnation; and to call God their Father at such a time seems
to them presumptuous blasphemy. And while they view themselves the objects of
the just condemnation and wrath of God, they feel like they may placate the
just indignation, wrath and vengeance, which has well nigh doomed and
consigned them to the blackness of darkness forever, and render themselves the
beloved objects of the favor of God, and bring themselves within his merciful
recognition, as his obedient children, by placing themselves within a rigid
and determined restraint from sin; to accomplish which, one and all apprentice
themselves mentally, as servants to learn to work under the law as long as God
shall require of them to be recognized as his obedient children. Thus they
seek for themselves a voluntary bondage under the elements, or first
principles of the world; and are thus willing, and not of constraint, placed
"under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father." For
their tutors and governors, which they find stern and rigid disciplinarians
indeed, are the commandments of the law; "our school master to bring us to
Christ that we might be justified by faith." Gal. 3: 24. They are thus
suffered of God to exhaust all confidence in themselves, and in the "works of
righteousness which they have done." But when "the time appointed of the
Father, the fullness of the time" of apprenticeship and bondage "is come," God
"sends" forth his Son, who, though made of a woman and made under the law,
"and in the likeness of sinful flesh," (Gal. 4: 4, and Rom. 8: 3) is then
presented to them as "the fairest among ten thousand and altogether lovely,"
to redeem them from the yoke of bondage, the burden of guilt, riveted upon
them by the inexorable demands and curse of the law, "that" they "might
receive the adoption of sons;" and because ye are sons, God "hath sent forth
this Spirit of his Son," first spoken and manifested in the Garden of
Gethsemane, (Mark 14: 36) crying, ABBA, FATHER." "Wherefore, they are no more
servants, but sons; and if sons, then heirs of God through Christ, in whom
they are made to rejoice in hope of the glory of God, "and to glory in their
tribulations also," from which they have been brought by faith in Christ. Rom.
5: 2 and 3. Hence, if any in a scriptural sense can be denominated a child of
God before being born again, and born of God because a child of God, it must
be while embodied in and connected with the mother; for a child as such can
have no existence until begotten. Neither before it is born can it have a
visible, personal and distinct existence from the mother. And the term child
presupposes both a father and mother. And as all who are not yet born again
are of the world, embodied in, connected with, and denominated the world in
scripture language, and must be born again before they can see the kingdom of
God, and are children of God before they are born of God, the world must the
the Spiritual and quickening mother in which all the children of God are
conceived, and of which they are born again; and consequently is, and if the
position contended for is a correct one, ought to be denominated "the Lamb's
wife" the bride of Christ instead of the Church; otherwise Christ would be
represented as an adulterer. But Christ is not so represented in the
scriptures. For the world which was once embodied in Adam is not the bride of
Christ in any sense, nor the mother of the children of God. But in comfort to
the "Zion of the Holy One of Israel" it is said, "Thy Maker is thy husband,
the Lord of Hosts is his name." Isa. 54: 5. So that the children of God are
not put forth in Adam to give them visibility and distinct existence. For
their original standing, before their visibility was not in the first Adam,
but in Christ Jesus, "the second Adam." And their visibility and personal
standing is when they are put forth in the bride, through the Lamb's wife,
"the Jerusalem which is above, the mother of us all; which is "Mount Zion,"
the City of the living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, the general Assembly and
Church of the first born, written in Heaven. Heb. 12: 22, 23. But the idea
of two natural seeds, one of which are all children of God before
regeneration, is of too recent date to have been derived from a perusal of the
Bible, and must have originated from an expression in common use among
Baptists; that "the saints had a seminal standing or embodiment in Christ
before the world was." And they certainly had an "original" and life standing
in "the Word," which "was with God." And "was God," out of whom, as "the
root, they were developed into members or branches of the body prepared him
("a body hast thou prepared me" - Hebrews 10: 5) in time, but not before
time. And those members are not such in the nature of seed produced and made
productive through natural, or ordinary generation, but are made members of
the body, as branches, by regeneration, or ingrafting of the Spirit into the
body. Hence Jesus said, "I am the true vine, my Father is the husbandman."
Again, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." John 15: 1 and 5. But there is
not the distinct prolific nature of seed in a member of the body, or a branch
in the vine whereby fruit is produced in which is seed, or generative organs;
the seed, or organs of generation can produce nothing except another body, or
another vine, and so on without limit. But such a supposition destroys the
beautiful and instructive figure, or metaphor. For then the seed, to become
productive, or to germinate, must be severed from the vine or original stock;
for who ever heard, or knew, of a seed producing while it adhered, or attached
to the original stock that produced it? And as the scriptures represent the
saints as regenerated characters, "begotten again," born of the Spirit, "born
of God," "born again," sons of God; "and children of God," yet Jesus is
repeatedly said to be "the only begotten Son of God;" and once 'the only
begotten Son of the Father;" hence no saint can be a Son of God in the same
sense that he is, else he is not the only begotten Son. The saints can be
"sons," or "children of God" only in a relative sense, by virtue of
regeneration and birth of the Spirit of God; by which they are brought into
visibility and individuation; still in immediate and vital union with Christ,
from whom they never were, nor never can be separated, which constitutes them
children of God, only as members of the living body of Christ; or as grapes in
the cluster of the living branches of "the True Vine," the mystical church, "a
perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;" Eph. 4:
13, who is really and truly, and not relatively, "the only begotten Son of the
Father, full of grace and truth." - John 1: 14.
This is as far as it was designed to pursue the investigation; and far
enough certainly to discover, if not to disprove, most of what seems to be the
objectionable features of the doctrine under consideration; and contrast it,
in a measure, with God's unerring truth; and to make manifest, that if it can
be true as herein stated fairly, as believed and promulgated; the foundation
of the fire attested, and time honored, and martyr vindicated doctrine of
predestination, election, special calling unto salvation by grace, and final
adoption is annihilated at one fell swoop; and nothing more than the Arminian
Ghost of those sacred, consoling, Divinely taught and Heaven attested truths
remains to be cherished. "For why will ye die, O House of Israel? Be ashamed
and confounded for your own ways, O House of Israel!" Ezek. 18: 31, and 36:
32. O why should such irrefutable doctrine be forsaken! "My people have
changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be ashamed! Be
astonished, O ye heavens at this, and be horribly afraid. Be ye very desolate
saith the Lord; for my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me
the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out broken cisterns which can
hold no water. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way?" Jer. 2:
11, 12, 13 and 36.

A P P E N D I X
-------O-------

Since writing the foregoing pages, some greatly esteemed brethren in
Texas, and elsewhere, deeply lamenting, and with fervent piety, earnestly and
devoutly deprecating the bold prevalence (among many ministers and churches of
the "Primitive Baptist" order) of the new, troublesome and disintegrating idea
of "Two Spiritual Seeds," so called, only by way of distinction from what is
better known and understood in some parts as "the Parker Doctrine," have
suggested, in consequence of its more insidious and captivating tendency,
that, perhaps, the doctrine of "spiritual seeds," or the exclusive idea of
"the Devil's spiritual seed," has not yet been stated, investigated and
exposed with that care, precision and degree of attention which its prevalence
and prominent peculiarity seem to demand, and to which its susceptibility of
refutation and the easy exposure of its falsity by the Scriptures seem now to
invite. And although it would be vain and presumptuous to expect, even in
volumes of investigation, years of thought upon the subject, much less in a
pamphlet hastily written, to discover and explore all the points, and the
complex and farfetched inferences and implications which may seem to either
mark out of hedge in such an idea. Yet it may not be without profit, and even
enlarged benefit and the most decisive results, to still further investigate,
expose and refute the most prominent, plausible, and specious positions which
the doctrine and its advocates assume. And as so many are expressing the
great distress and perplexity of mind they are in on account of the contention
and divisions the agitation of the doctrine has occasioned, it is safe to
conclude, that but few of entire strangers to the troubles these errors in
their two factious wings are engendering and have already caused. Hence,
brethren may be assured that "this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth
you." Gal. 5: 8. And that its baneful work of variance, strife and division
is not yet fully done. For, as Satan desired Peter that he might sift him as
wheat, it is reasonable to conclude he is now sifting, and is thus permitted
to try the stability and faith of God's elect by this false doctrine. And as
many are so earnestly saying, "do tell us what to do under these trying
circumstances; how can advice be given in candor and safety without repeating
the language of the Apostle under similar circumstances? - Be ye not
unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Wherefore come out from among them
and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and I will receive you; and touch not the
unclean thing and I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." And what communion hath light with
darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?" "I would they were even
cut off which trouble you." II. Cor. 6: 14 and 18, inclusive, and Gal. 5: 12,
15, 19 and 20. For no heresy should be nursed in the bosom of churches while
"it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder," as fatally as any
heresy of Antichrist held by the Arminian world; sapping the very foundation
of the time and fire attested, sacred and revealed "doctrine of Predestination
and Election," as shown in the body of this work. And in some things the
Arminian system is preferable as it may claim with more plausibility to
embrace the salvation of such as die in childhood. But such as believe this
"Two Seed System," and claim also to believe in the salvation of such as die
in extreme infancy, can not reconcile the two ideas any other way than to
conclude that the Lord prolongs the days of all "the Devil's Seed" beyond the
infantine period of life merely because they are doomed and belong to the
Devil, while he takes away out of the world many of his own children in their
childhood. What a thought! That God, who is infinitely holy, just and good,
and can not view wickedness with the least degree of allowance in its favor
would purposely extend the years of all the Devil's family solely because they
are wicked, or else sends many of them to Hell in tender childhood, as such a
doctrine necessarily involves one or the other of these unreasonable and
unscriptural prongs of this dilemma, from which there is no escape, shocking
and revolting as it is to every lover of consistency and Bible truth. But, as
stated in the beginning of this Appendix, it would require volumes to explore
and expose all the consequences and errors of such a system. Hence it is not
necessary, only to give such things a passing notice, and hasten to the
examination of other points. And as there is a diversity of views among such
as embrace and advocate the theory of "two spiritual seeds," or especially the
spiritual seed of the Devil, to avoid the imputation and censure of
misrepresentation, it will perhaps be better to state and unequivocally
examine only such views as have been carefully written and published, and have
received the sanction of the more prominent promulgators of the doctrine. And
the most fundamental and captivating positions of this theory is, that the
church, from her integral spirituality and divine standing in Christ, her
original Progenitor, in the nature of a spiritual and holy seed, was put forth
in the earthy Adam, "the first man," for individuation and graduated
development of her members or parts; and of which, both before and after her
deposit and graduation from the first or earthy Adam, Christ the second Adam
is, was, and will ever remain her sole embodiment; and that neither the first
Adam, nor any of his earthly offspring composes any part of this seed or
generation, which was, and is, and will always continue all spiritual and
divine, without mixture or coalescence with earth, or flesh, or mortality; and
that as such, the church, the legitimate bride of the Son of God, the Lamb's
wife, his body, and members, his offspring, and embodiment of himself, while
thus put forth, and before development in Adam, was deceived and became "the
lawful captive;" and, being captivated, sinned and came short of the glory of
God; and, hence, being found a sinner, she was under the curse of the law, and
thus needed redemption and salvation; and, while thus put forth in the earthy
Adam, yet being none the less united to Christ her head and husband and so it
was his life and proper substance which was involved in sin and under the
curse of the law; and was thus capacitated for development; and so it was the
members of Christ and the children of God that were caught in the snares of
sin, and died in Adam, and became captives, and aliens, and strangers, and
finally beguiled sinners, and enemies by wicked works. And furthermore, not
only did the church thus become "the vessel marred in the hands of the
potter," by the guile and seduction of the Devil in his wicked scheme to
overthrow the Divine arrangement, and his successful subversion of the divine
nature and degeneration of the holy substance of Christ's body and righteous
members, by which they were brought under just condemnation and into fearful
ruin; but the Devil also, as the self-existence and co-eternal enemy of God,
and contrary to His Will and purpose, and as another mighty self consistent
progenitor, put forth the same, first earthy man, Adam, corrupt spiritual seed
to be thus gradually individuated and developed into an innumerable and
desperately wicked family of hell-deserving and hell-doomed children, who,
being filled with all unrighteousness and totally dead in malignancy and
virulent wickedness before they were thus put forth, did not die in Adam as
did God's children; but being originally and totally corrupt and malignantly
sinful they did not become so by nor after individuation and complete
development, nor by death in Adam, as "the good seed" and children of the
kingdom become contaminated. Thus is the fundamental theory of the doctrine
of "two spiritual seeds" fairly and fully stated. And whether to our natural
understanding it appears obvious or abstruse, plausible or metaphysical,
reasonable or speculative and fanciful is a matter of no importance whatever
in determining the soundness or falsity of the theory. For we certainly can
not ascertain the truth or falsity of the foregoing except as it has been
revealed and taught in the holy scriptures, given for our learning and
guidance in the way of wisdom, and the path of knowledge and understanding.
Hence, as far as practicable, we should reject all speculative ideas, and
avoid all humanly contrived notions and preconceived convictions, and appeal
from them to the paramount authority of revealed truth; not to expunge or
suppress, nor wrest it from its obvious and most prevalent teaching upon this
vital and momentous subject. And assuredly it will be found that it is only
from the most doubtful inference and distant implication that any
encouragement or support can be deducted from such texts as are most
confidently quoted by those who most strenuously advocate such a theory. And
one that is frequently cited with much assurance is I. Cor. 15: 22. "For as
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." In this it is
claimed two points are clearly established; that the spiritual seed put forth
by the Devil did not die in Adam, and that all who die in Adam will be made
alive in Christ. But as these points are deduced only by a false inference,
and some perceiving a difficulty in thus drawing too largely from the text, to
avoid the obstacle, have invented or adopted the idea that the Devil's seed
was not put forth in Adam, but in Eve, after her separation from Adam, through
what they have been pleased to call "the multiplicity of her conception." But
it must be borne in mind that there is no permanent relief in merely shifting
a difficulty from one thing to another, and dodging first to Adam with one
batch of seed then to Eve with a worse batch. For it may as well be here
settled forever, that, according to God's arrangement, no kind of seed,
whether natural or deposited, concrete or abstract, complex or distinct, found
in one or both can be thus manifestly individuated and developed without the
coalescence or concretion of the peculiar, essential and respective generating
essence of both. "For male and female created he them and called their name
Adam in the day when they were created." Gen. 5: 2. And with this view Adam
said of Eve, "this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh: she shall be
called woman, because she was taken out of man." Gen. 2: 23. Hence it
required both her and the man considered as one to constitute Adam now
separated into male and female identity; "and they two shall be one flesh."
Eph. 5: 31. Therefore to be put forth in Eve is only to be put forth in the
essential female part of Adam. For, according to this theory of putting forth
and dying in Adam, there was no transgression till after he was separated into
male and female; hence sin and death in Adam could not be exclusive, but
inclusive of Eve. For their seed or family, or any seed, whether distinct or
complex, carnal or spiritual, could not have stood for development in either
abstractly; this none can consistently deny. For "nevertheless neither is the
man without the woman, neither the woman without the man." One is not
complete without the other, as there can be no development of seed or
multiplicity within coition, or the cooperation of both. "For as the woman is
of the (GR. EK TOU FROM, OR OUT OF THE) man, even so also is the man by the
(GR. - DIA-TEES - THROUGH-THE) woman, but all things of God." I. Cor. 11: 11.
So, although in this integral sense of male and female, the woman from the man
and the man through the woman, yet in an original or created sense, "all
things [are] of God." And if in an original and created sense, "all things of
God," whatever things might have been put forth either in Adam or Eve, the
Devil could have had nothing to do in the matter, else some such things are of
the Devil, and "all things (not) of God." While all must concede that the
facts and arguments here presented refute and destroy entirely the idea of a
spiritual seed of the Devil, and that they are philosophical and scriptural,
yet it may be said that they are metaphysical and abstruse; but surely not
more so than the whole theory of the spiritual or carnal seed of the Devil;
which is also unnatural, unreasonable and antiscriptural. And now let us
examine again the text. For as in Adam all die, and see if it can imply that
the Devil has a seed put forth in either the male or female part of man, and,
which, if so, did not die in him; or whether it does not prove, most clearly
and unequivocally, that, if the Devil has such a seed, whether carnal or
spiritual, thus put forth, they did die in Adam; and according to the
assumption, will hence be made alive in Christ. For the text says "in Adam
all die." All of whom? All in him, certainly, whether inherent, or put in
him, if language is not without meaning. Then one of two things is positively
sure, the Devil either never put forth a seed in Adam, or else that seed died
in him. There is no escape from this dilemma. So the text is as cogent and
positive as can be against the theory it is adduced to prove. But it does not
imply, much less say, that all that die in Adam shall be made alive in Christ.
How is it then? The Apostle has here under consideration the certainty of the
resurrection of the saints only; and as there could be no resurrection without
a previous death, two essential and positive facts are stated and compared.
1st. As in Adam all die. 2nd. Even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
All of whom be made alive? Only the all in Christ, not in Adam surely, for
none out of Christ are included in this "all in Christ." Where is the
obstacle peculiar to this text to originate such strange, speculative and
absurd fancies? And so wherever the curse of the law or the sentence of death
is denounced in the scriptures it is invariably against man and never against
a figment or fancied mythical seed put into man either by miracle, or magic
power of the Devil. "For since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead." I. Cor. 15: 21. So the Bible no where alleges
that either sin or death entered into the world by either the Devil or any
kind of seed. Rom. 5: 17. For if by one man's (Adam's) offense, death
reigned by one," it was not by the Devil's or a spiritual seed's offense.
"For as by one man's (not by the Devil's or a seed's) disobedience many were
made sinners." Verse 19. Where have all men sinned in the past unless in the
one man Adam after he was separated into the two dependent, relative and
essential parts of male and female? "For all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God." Rom. 3: 23. So all that had a standing or were ever put
forth in Adam were of mankind and not a fabulous spiritual seed, nor seeds,
the one inherently good and the other bad. Hence, "in Adam all (mankind)
die." "For the wages of sin is death." Rom. 6: 23. And "all unrighteousness
is sin." I. John 5: 17. And "whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the
law; for sin is the transgression of the law;" I. John 3: 4. "For where no
law is there is no transgression," and consequently no sin. Rom. 4: 15. "For
until the law (of Moses) sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when
there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them
that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression" (of the law
given him in the garden of Eden.) Rom. 5: 13 and 14. But there was a time
when all stood alive in Adam; that is, in a state of innocence, uninvolved in
sin and death; when death in sin had not yet passed upon all men in his
person. "And the Lord God commanded the man, (by this law) saying, of every
tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: (and this is the penalty of it) for
in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen. 2: 16, 17. And
in that identical day, he, as the federal head of all in him, died in sin, the
threatened penalty of which, physical death, is a consequent penalty as surely
to follow. So that life in some form must precede every form of death; for
death is not the absence of life, but the extinction of some form or state of
pre-existent life. Hence had there been no form of life, there could not have
been any death; and had there been no law, there could not have been any sin;
and had there been no sin, there could not have been any pain and death; and
had there been no death "in trespasses and in sins" there could not have been
a quickening into spiritual life; "as those who are alive from the dead, alive
unto God through Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. 6: 11 and 13. And concerning
the self-existence of the Devil, from which erroneous idea this whole
speculative fancy of the carnal and spiritual seed of the Devil seems to have
emanated, and upon which it seems to have been originally based, it is
certain, that if he is self-existent, he either always existed, or else came
into being without any cause but himself; and the latter is a glaring
absurdity, involving the supposition of his being, as an active cause, or
agent, before he had any being; and in either case he would be anomalous, or
not subject to any law of existence, or of his being. But the Bible
contradicts the idea of there being no beginning of the Devil, and the
absurdity of his bringing himself into being many ways. For it is truthfully
said of Christ Jesus our Lord, "He is before all things, and by him all things
consist." So if the Devil is any thing, and is not a mere figment, Christ the
Lord was before him, and he coming into existence afterward proves he is
without eternity of existence; and if he is not without a beginning, a
(moving) cause must have preceded his beginning and given him an existence.
And if by our Lord "all things consist," if the Devil is any thing, he must
consist by the Lord. And it is impossible, or at least with me it is
impossible to resist the force of these facts. And that the Devil did not
always exist is certain, as there can not be more than one first thing;
because if one is first, all else must be in succession thereto, and hence
must be in some other order; as that which is first must necessarily precede
all else; and that which is thus preceded can not have eternity of existence,
but has a beginning, and hence is neither self-existent nor self-consistent.
This being beyond dispute or cavil, the Lord of Hosts says, "I am the first
and I am the last." Isa. 44: 4 and 6. Thus it is certain the Devil is not
first, but must be found in some other order and in succession, and therefore
is not self-existent, having had a beginning, and hence a preceding cause for
his existence. For Jesus Christ "is the beginning" and "is before all things"
"that (margin) among all things he might have the pre-eminence;" and is also
"the first and the last." Col. 1: 16, 17, 18 and 19. Rev. 1: 8, 11, and 17.
But if the Devil is without a beginning, so as to be self-existent and self-
consistent, how can Christ in his divine nature be "before all things," and be
"the beginning," "the first," and "have the preeminence" in all these things?
These things being, of themselves, all pre-eminent in quality, it is utterly
impossible that Christ can have the pre-eminence in them if they are
attributes which pertain also to the Devil. Thus it is evident from reason,
and doubly certain from revelation, that the Devil is neither without
beginning, nor self-consistent, nor self-existent; hence, he is a creature and
under a law of being and restraint in the transgression of which he became a
sinner. "For the Devil sinneth from the beginning." I. John 3: 8. Because,
as "sin is the transgression of the law," he must have been under a law and
its transgressor and a sinner "from the beginning." And now if there are any
mentioned in the Bible, which in any way would seem, even by the most remote
inference or implication, to be set forth as the carnal offspring of spiritual
seed of the Devil, they are Cain and Judas; for the latter is not only called
"the son of perdition," but "a Devil." Not because he was a carnal or
spiritual son of the Devil. But in a figurative sense as the King of Babylon
was called figuratively, "Lucifer, son of the morning!" Isa. 14: 12. And as
Christ spoke of "the son of Peace." Luke 10: 6, John 6: 70, and 17: 12. And
of Cain it is said in illustration of the duty of brotherly love. Because his
own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. I. John 3: 12. But, since
it is as legitimate and conclusive to reason "a posteriori" as "a priori,"
what better proof of the common descent, lineage or parentage of two or more
persons can be demanded than that they are brothers? Then whether or not the
text implies that Cain was the carnal offspring, or spiritual seed of the
Devil and his illegitimate child, as such it must be evident, that though
having a brother which he slew because his works were righteous, and whom
Jesus called "righteous Abel," Matt. 23: 35, and of whom an Apostle said, "By
faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than that of Cain, by
which he obtained witness that he was righteous; God testifying of his gifts;"
Heb. 11: 4, he, also, must have been one of the carnal or spiritual and
illegitimate children of the Devil. But as such a paternity of Abel is absurd
and unscriptural, is it not equally absurd that his brother Cain or any of the
human kind are by generation or parentage children of the Devil? Because in
no other way could Cain and Abel be called brothers, except by virtue of their
legitimate and natural generation, conception and birth of the identical
selfsame parentage. For "Adam (not Satan) knew Eve his wife, and she
conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord." (Not
the Devil in any sense.) And she again bare his brother Abel. And Cain
talked with Abel his brother; and Cain rose up against Abel his brother and
slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, 'where is thy brother? and he said,
'am I my brother's keeper?' And he said, 'the voice of thy brother's blood
cryeth unto me from the ground.'" Gen. 4: 1, 2, 8, 9 and 10. Who, in the
face of the repeated mention and literal use of the word brother, and the
facts therewith connected will venture to assert that Cain and Abel's relation
as such was not complete, or was defective in any literal link of lineage
essential to brotherhood? And if they were no more nor less than literal
brothers, there is no literal distinctions among mankind by any operation of
nature as to seed, lineage or paternity to mar the identity and render complex
their literal descent, or subvert the unmixed reproduction of the species as
created and first begotten and conceived according to the Divine law and
arrangement for their unadulterated perpetuation and increase in obedience and
strict conformity to the command to "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish
the earth, &c." Hence the absurd and unnatural idea of a part of the human
kind being in their literal lineage or paternity the spiritual seed or carnal
offspring of the Devil is entirely a baseless fabrication, a figment without
support in either reason or revelation, and utterly opposed to all the obvious
and revealed laws of nature in the fixed and absolute propagation and increase
of all things after their respective kinds and species, so unequivocally and
clearly stated. Gen. 1: 23 and 25 inclusive. But let us further test this
theory by quoting and comparing in couplets different texts of scripture. "By
one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 5: 12. And if "He that committeth sin
is of the Devil," I. John 3: 8, and if being "of the Devil" is, or means,
being the literal spiritual seed or a carnal child of the Devil, then all that
sin and all that die are the literal seed and children of the Devil; and as
all sin and die, all that live in the world and all that have ever died in the
world are of the spiritual seed or carnal offspring of the Devil, and no
escape; and as that proves too much, it should not be again asserted and urged
that being "of that wicked one" means being the spiritual seed or carnal
children of the Devil. But again an Apostle says, "In this the children of
God are manifest and the children of the Devil," (how?) "whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God;" I. John 3: 10; and another says, "There is none
righteous, no not one. There is none that doeth good, no not one." Rom. 3: 10
and 12. Now if whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, and none in a
state of nature do that, and the spiritual seed or literal "children of the
Devil" is thus manifest, then all are of this but one seed of the Devil, and
the "Two seed doctrine" is again annihilated by the same text in which it is
thought to be proven, and by which it is attempted to be established. But as
the question may be, as it is, and frequently has been asked by many, what the
word seed means when applied to the Devil, it may appropriately and profitably
be answered here that neither in its carnal nor spiritual import can it be
properly applied or belong to the Devil at all; nor can it be found thus
applied in all the sacred scriptures and holy "oracles of God." And as this
is a sweeping assertion, it should be supported by clear and the most cogent
reasons and positive testimony that can be adduced to sustain a negative
position, which generally is most successfully accomplished by showing the
falsity or absurdity of the affirmative, and usually cannot be otherwise done.
And in pursuance of such a course of reasoning, we will define the English
word "seed." Webster, who is acknowledged to be a standard Lexicographer
wherever the English language is spoken, thus defines it as a noun or
substance: 1st or primary - "The substance, animal or vegetable, which nature
prepares for the reproduction and conservation of the species." Wherever in
the Bible the quality or substance of the Devil is mentioned, he is uniformly
called a "spirit," as "the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
works in the children of disobedience," &c. But never an animal or vegetable.
"2nd. That from which any thing springs; first principal; original; 3rd.
principal of production; 4th. progeny, offspring, children, descendants; 5th.
race, generation, birth! Now if any of these will apply to the Devil he must
either be creator of whatever is called his seed, or as offspring or children
of his kind, producing seed "after his kind," they must be Devils and not of
mankind at all, and hence could not and would not be called men and women in
the bible, which is uniformly the case with but one exception, only by way of
comparison in wickedness, as we would say of a man extremely cruel and
abandoned in wickedness and crime, that he "is a devil," or demon, otherwise
it would not have been said, "Then entered Satan into Judas Iscariot," &c.
Luke 22: 3. If Judas was literally or spiritually a devil, why did the Devil
enter into him? It is thus made evident that he was only a wicked and
abandoned man and not literally a devil or the son of the Devil or there could
have been no reason for the Devil to have entered into him. Why should the
Devil enter into his own literal offspring if such were possible? The idea is
unscriptural and preposterous. Also the original word uniformly translated
"seed" in the New Testament scriptures, and never son, daughter, child, nor
children, is sperma, which is thus defined in Donegan's Greek and English
Lexicon, "seed, grain, fruit; figuratively or metaphorically, offspring -
posterity - a source or origin." But originally in the New Testament, the
word rendered son was "whyon;" the word daughter "thugater," a young child
"padia," children, "whya," or "takna," or "padia;" but never "sperma." But
the word "seed," or, in its original Greek form, sperma, is frequently
applied, metaphorically or figuratively, to posterity, progeny, offspring or
children; and although never so translated, it often has the force or sense of
one or another of these terms as the remote descendants of any one; as "the
seed of Abraham" or "Israel," as the case may be, or "the seed of David," may
often refer to the literal or fleshly descendants of Abraham, Israel or David.
But the word seed is never mentioned in connection with the Devil proper from
the beginning to the end of the sacred scriptures; though the seed of the
serpent is mentioned once, where God said to it, "I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed," &c.; but, from Gen. 3:
1 and 14, this evidently refers exclusively to a literal or natural serpent
and the perpetuated enmity between mankind and all serpents. For, "Now the
serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field," &c. But if the literal
Devil was here mentioned or meant by this serpent, why not say "more" subtile,
(sly, crafty, and deceitful) than man, between whom that comparison might as
justly and appropriately have been drawn as between him and the beasts, and as
much so at least as such a comparison between the serpents and beasts? But
the Devil, using the serpent as his unsuspected and subtile instrument, being
already cursed - execrated and doomed to eternal torment, God cursed the
serpent, saying, "Thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of
the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat" (lick,
evidently, by manifesting its enmity in the use of its venomous tongue) "all
the days of thy life." Now who, having the illumination of the Spirit, will
suppose for a moment that this language of going on the belly and eating or
licking dust all the days of thy life refers to the Devil proper, who is a
wicked spirit, "the prince" (not the father) "of the devils;" Matt. 12: 24, 26
and 27; "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience? Eph. 2: 2. Is he still, and has he ever since
been on his belly eating dust while "in the children of disobedience" working
wickedness? And will he thus ever continue when "cast (alive) into the lake
of fire and brimstone, "and shall be tormented forever and ever?" Rev. 20:
10. It must be so, if the serpent was the Devil, for it is said, "on thy
belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou east all the days of thy life." But
is it not evident rather, that, as the Devil entered into Judas Iscariot, and
is "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," he entered
thus, a spirit, into "the serpent," hence called "that old serpent," Rev. 20:
2, and for thus having been the embodiment and instrument of that prince of
wicked spirits "called the Devil and Satan," it was thus cursed, while the
Devil's doom "of fire and brimstone" was not mentioned in connection with the
curse at all. This certainly is the conclusion and truth of the whole matter.
Hence, there is no allusion to the carnal or "spiritual seed of the Devil" to
be found in all the sacred Scriptures; because it has no existence except as
a figment of those "who are wise above what is written." But in the
scriptures the words seed, child and children are used in another metaphorical
sense, and in such meaning only is the word father attributed to the Devil, or
the terms "child" or "children of the Devil" used in the scriptures, as we use
the metaphorical expressions, "son of temperance," or "a daughter of
adversity," or "the sons of liberty," or "a child of fortune," or "children of
toil," &c. This is where persons or things are supposed to be like, or have
the characteristic moral qualities, or religious peculiarities and
distinctions manifest in other persons or things, or even qualities of mind.
And in this metaphorical sense alone is Abraham called "the father of us all,"
Gentiles as well as Jews. Rom. 4: 16. For it is said, "He received the sign
of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had being
yet uncircumcised; that he might be the father of all them that believe,
though they be not circumcised;" as were the Jews and all his natural
descendants; verse 11. And surely no one is his spiritual child, otherwise he
would be his spiritual head instead of "him" who was given "to be head over
all things to the church." Eph. 1: 22. But again it is said, "And the father
of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also
walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet
uncircumcised." "As it is written, I have made thee a father of many
nations." (Gr. ethnoon - Gentiles,) "that he might become the father of many
nations" (ethnoon - Gentiles) "according to that which is spoken, so shall thy
seed be." Verses 12, 17 and 18. "And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's
seed and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3: 29. Thus it is made
certain that Abraham is called the father of both Jews and Gentiles, and they
his children, and such only of them as are Christ's are called his seed,
because they had and have the same faith, and "walk in the steps of that faith
which he had yet being uncircumcised." Hence, when in the Bible we find the
metaphorical expressions, "the children of the wicked one;" "thou child of the
devil;" "Ye are of your father, the Devil;" "Children of the devil," &c., we
must understand that he is the father of such and they his children only in
the relative sense in which Abraham was the metaphorical father of believing
Gentiles, and they his seed or children by walking in the steps of the faith
he had, as those of whom the Devil is called the father, and they his
children, are such only as they are characteristically like him in wickedness
and sin, walking in the steps of his unrighteousness and iniquity. So in such
tropical sense, with which the scriptures are replete, many a one as a public
benefactor, whether justly or unjustly, as Washington, has been styled, "the
father of his country." And with this meaning said Joseph, God "hath made me
a father to Pharaoh." Gen. 45: 8. And Job said, "I was a father to the
poor." Job 29: 16. But as a number of citations have already been made in
the body of this essay, bearing the same tropical import of the terms father
and children as applied to the Devil in the scriptures drawn from similitude,
or characteristic likeness, it will not be necessary to repeat or add to them
here, further than to mention a few instances in which a master of instruction
or a teacher is termed the father of his pupils and they his children; as the
Devil has, and ever has had pupils from among mankind in the school of vice
and wickedness of which he is master, or the principal instructor, and
superintendent; and hence in this tropical sense the father of all such as are
not led about and instructed of the Lord. Deut. 32: 9, 10. As Jabal "was the
father of such as dwell in tents" and have cattle. And Jubal "was the father
of all such as handle the harp and organ." Gen. 4: 20 and 21. That is the
master or instructor in these things. As Micah of Mount Ephraim said unto the
Levite of Bethlehem Judah, "be unto me a father (a master or teacher) and a
priest, and I will give thee shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of
apparel, and thy victuals." So the five men "of the tribe of Dan," who said
unto the same Levite, "Go with us, and be to us a father and a priest."
Judges 17: 10, and 18: 19. So in this same tropical sense only does the
Apostle mention repeatedly and write "unto Timothy my own son in the faith."
I. and II. timothy 1: 2. Now, if necessary, each of the numerous instances
where the words father, son, child, children, or daughters are mentioned in
the scriptures in a tropical sense, (as Solomon says, "all the daughters of
music shall be brought low," Eccl. 12: 4) might be examined separately, and
the question be asked concerning each, thus, has music literal daughters?
Certainly not, but there are those who have been instructed, and whose vocal
organs have been trained and exercised in a school of music till they have
become influenced by, and become submissive to the rules and harmonious chords
of music, and are hence called, metaphorically, "daughters of music," as
those, who are under the influence and control of the Devil as a master and
leader in wickedness, are called his children. The same comparison may be
drawn from all the cases quoted, as "the children of price, the children of
vanity, children of wickedness," &c. Can these things which are only
principles have literal children? In no other way than in having Votaries
among the children of men, as the Devil has his Votaries, which, in the same
sense, are called his children, but which are really and intrinsically
"children of men," or "the seed of men." Psalms 115: 16; Dan. 2: 38 and 43.
And as none of these can become children of God in a spiritual sense except by
"regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost," so none of them are children of
the Devil in a carnal sense, nor can they become his children in a spiritual
sense, as spiritual seed, except by being also "born again" of "the spirits of
Devils," Rev. 16: 13, as God's children are children of men "born again" of
"incorruptible seed." For "spiritual wickedness" is nothing more nor less
than natural wickedness in "high places." Eph. 6: 12. And as the Bible says
nothing of any being born of the Devil, or born again of corruptible seed by
the spirit of the Devil, "which liveth and abideth forever," it would be
better not to speculate upon, nor add to the words contained in it, lest there
be added to such the plagues of fire and brimstone written in the book.
Hoping that the foregoing may be candidly examined and fairly tested by
the scriptures of immutable truth, and its imperfections criticized in charity
by the brotherhood, I here lay down the pen.

[THE END.]