the HOLY GHOST, a Mother to GoD as well as to MAN; and now I have shewed you by the visitation of MY SPIRIT, how I have made her a TRUE MOTHER to MAN.-And this was the WISDOM of GOD, to clear His honour, in making, the Woman; that no man might charge GoD foolishly, nor that Satan might proudly boast his arts were greater than MY WISDOM; therefore, he shall fall by the PROMISE, and by the WOMAN's Petition, who never knew her Promise till I revealed it. And now he that will not honour her, to own her Promise just, doth dishonour ME; but he that doth it knowingly doth despite unto my SPIRIT then let them judge for themselves what must be their end; but he that does it through unbelief, as the Jews through unbelief denied MY MOTHER, and were cast out of my favour, so will the others be cut off from the earth, as enemies of mine through their unbelief. So here are words deep for the learned, if in seeing they can see, or in hearing they can understand; but if they cannot, let them answer ME, why I made the Woman my Mother, if I never designed in the end to make the Woman a true Mother for Man?And now go on with thy Bible. THE EXPLANATIONS OF THE BIBLE are continued in the S. ROUSSEAU, Printer, Wood Street, Spa Fields, London. TRUE EXPLANATIONS OF THE BIBLE. PART THE SECOND. CONCERNING JOB. Sunday Afternoon, Sept. 30, 1804. JOANNA OANNA has been reading through JOB; as she is to read her Bible through, and draw her own obser◄ vations, and her own judgment from what she reads. But as she wished, if it was the will of the Lord, to answer Mr. Maudesley's letter, she desired it to be read again, to see if the Lord would be pleased to answer it." Now, Joanna, I shall answer this letter after thou hast drawn thy judgment upon the Book of Job: and when thou hast drawn thy judgraent, I shall answer thee again." Now Joanna's judgment upon the Book of Job is very different to what it ever was before. When we come to weigh the 1st chapter, and the 8th verse-The Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Joв, that there is none like him in the earth, a PERFECT and UPRIGHT man, one that feareth GoD and escheweth evil? Here the Lord justifieth Job's conduct, as being an upright and good man; but Satan goes on to condemn him; and the Lord gave Satan leave every way to try him; and when Job's trial was put to the utmost, and his wife condemned him, in chap. ii. 9; but Job reproves her in verse 10-Thou speakest as one of the foolish women: shall we reN S. Rouffeau, Printer, Wood Stree, Spa Fields ceive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In chap. i. 21. he saith-The Lord. gave, and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord.-In all this JOB sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. Yet, in chap. iii, we hear JOB complaining, and wishing the day to be dark, wherein he had been born. After his complaining his friends reproved him. But no man, without experience, can be a judge of JOB in this case. Consider the affliction he lay in, when his grief seemed more than he could bear. He might have this sorrow of heart without murmuring against GOD. This is my judgment drawn from experience; for though I had never Job's afflictions in a manner like him; yet a similar case was mine in 1792, when I judged myself visited by the Lord, and the powers of darkness broke in upon me, and every friend was entirely against me. This made me miserable and unhappy, fearing I might do wrong, and not knowing how to do right; having the threatenings of the LORD on the one hand, if I did not obey; and Men and Devils tormenting me on the other hand, of the fatal destruction I should meet with, if I did obey. This has often made me wish, with Job, that I had died in my cradle; or that I had been drowned, when an infant that I fell into the river *; and yet at the same time, Heaven is my witness, I had not one thought to murmur against God; and only thought I was a short-sighted creature, fearing I might act wrong; therefore, I wished sooner never to see life, than to live to offend the LORD; which in that confusion and difficulty I was afraid I might offend him. And this appears to me the case of Job; but when I come to Job's friends, it appeareth to me, Satan worked strongly in them, to try to persuade Job to acknowledge he had been a very wicked man, which Job refused to do. This appeareth to me to be the arts of the Devil, to make See the Answer to the Disputes with the Powers of Darkness, p.79. |