John says, that the servants of the Deity were sealed from among, or out, of every tribe of Israel’s sons -- ek pases fules huion Israel. This, of course, is metaphorical -- a simile comprised in a phrase not according to the primitive meaning of the words. The real signification of the phrase, is the mystery it conceals from the eye of the unsealed from the perception of the churchman, or "natural man." The Seven Stars, and Seven Golden Lightstands, of ch. i. 20, were not to be taken literally, as what are vulgarly styled stars and lamps. They had "a mystery" hidden in the words; "star" being used to signify in that place, angels, or Spirit-anointed elderships, of the Ecclesia; and "lightstands," the Ecclesias themselves. So in the sentence before us, Israel, tribe, sons, are words used apocalyptically in a metaphorical sense. They each contain a mystery, which is the literal apocalyptic import, or true meaning of their use in this place.

In the prophetic and apostolic writings, "Israel" is used in more senses than one. The first time it was used is found in Gen. xxxii. 28. The divine man with whom Jacob wrestled said to him, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but also Israel; for thou hast power as a prince with Elohim, and with men, and hast prevailed." In Exod. iv. 22, it is applied to the whole of Jacob’s descendants who came out of Egypt under Moses. "Israel," said Yahweh to Pharaoh, "is my son, my firstborn." Here it stands for a nation of twelve tribes, which comprised also "a mixed multitude," who were not the fleshly descendants of Jacob (Exod. xii. 38). Tried by a law of faith, this nation was partly believers of the promises, and partly not. The believing section, which was always a small number, were the real "Israel;" all the rest of the fleshly descendants were "not Israel;" as it is written in Rom. ix. 6: "They are not all Israel who are of Israel: neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children: but in Isaac, O Abraham, shall thy seed be called. That is, they who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of the Deity; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Moses, Phineas, Joshua, Caleb, David, the prophets, and those of their school, were "Israel;" Korah, Dathan, Abiram, Saul, Ahab, Manasseh, and their class, though descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, after the flesh, were "not Israel." The difference between these two classes of the same nation, was purely a matter of faith. The Mosaic Law condemned both classes to death; for "by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified;" "for by the law is the knowledge of sin." "The law was weak through the flesh," in which "dwells no good thing;" therefore the law which was good in itself, became death to those who lived under it: for it is written, "Cursed be every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." No Israelite ever escaped this curse; for, although Jesus was "without sin," the law cursed him, saying, "Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree."

From these premises it will be seen, that Israel, not only signifies the man Jacob, and the Twelve Tribes his descendants according to the flesh, but men of the nation who are Israel in the highest and noblest sense of the word -- the metaphorical. Hence, in regard to the question, who are the seed of Abraham; who are the sons of Israel; who the sons of the Deity? Christ Jesus interposes, and says, "the flesh profits nothing." Israelites will not inherit the blessing promised to Israel, because they descend from Jacob, they must be men of faith, "Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile" -- Israelites, the sons of the Deity, who believe into his name; "who have been begotten, not of bloods, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of the Deity" (John i. 12,13). Therefore it is that, because "the flesh profits nothing," Israel after the flesh, are not now the people and sons of Deity. They are broken off because of unbelief in the gospel Paul preached. But, they will not always continue a faithless and stiffnecked generation; for "they shall be willing in the day of the power of David’s son and Lord" (Psa. cx): and then, "in the place where it was said to them, ‘Ye are not my people,’ there it shall be said unto them, ye are the sons of AIL the living one" (Hos. i. 10).

But, before they were broken off because of unbelief in "the truth as it in Jesus," efforts were made by John the Immerser, Jesus Christ, and the Apostles; in other words, by the Spirit of the Deity through them; to manifest a generation of "Israelites indeed," of the sons of Abraham and Israel, and therefore, of sons of the Deity, by faith, repentance, and immersion:- by faith in the promises covenanted to Abraham, and David, and in Jesus as their promised seed, delivered for the offences, and raised for the justification of all who believe the promises: by repentance, characterized by a thinking and disposition such as Abraham evinced: and by immersion, into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, for the remission of sins. Many "of Israel" became "Israel" after this method. They were begotten of the will of the Father of Lights by the word of truth, which they received with meekness as the engrafted word which was able to save their souls (Jas. i. 18,21). But, after all done, compared to the whole nation this was but an election, and that only a remnant. It did not afford Israelites indeed in sufficient number for the kingdom of the Deity. They of Israel "who were bidden were not worthy." Those servants, therefore, who had the seal in those days, were sent into the highways to gather people together of all sorts that the wedding of the King’s Son might be furnished with guests; and his house be filled.

This was quite a new crisis in Israelitish affairs. It consisted of nothing less than, as it were, raising up children to Abraham from stones -- creating Israelites out of Gentiles upon the same principle that "Israelites indeed" were created out of mere natural Jews styled by Paul "Jews outwardly." Peter, to whom the opening of the kingdom to the Gentiles was committed, went to the house of Cornelius upon this mission. He invited them to become Israelites in every respect except the accident of fleshly descent, which "profited nothing" in the begettal of sons to Deity. When he recounted what he had done to the brethren, he told them that "Deity put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." And afterwards, when writing to these newly created Israelites, he says: "Ye as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to the Deity through Jesus Christ." Again, he says: "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a HOLY NATION, a purchased people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light (‘the Gospel of the Kingdom’); who in time past were not a people, but are now the people of the Deity; who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy" (1 Pet. ii. 5-10).

Paul also in treating of the same subject, says, that "he is not the Jew who is one outwardly; but he is the Jew who is one inwardly" (Rom. ii. 28). That is, he is not the Jew who is the seed of Abraham in the sense of being heir of the promise, who is only a Jew by accident: to be the seed of Abraham, a man must be a Jew inwardly; he must be sealed in the forehead with the truth which is Deity’s seal: in other words, addressing both natural Jews and natural Gentiles, Paul says: "Ye are all sons of Deity in Christ Jesus through the faith;" and here follows the reason: "For as many as have been immersed into Christ, have put on Christ." In whom "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. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. iii. 26). "They who are of faith, the same," saith he, "are the children of Abraham."

And again likewise, addressing the Gentile element of the Ecclesia in Ephesus, Paul calls upon them to remember that in time past they were uncircumcised Gentiles in the flesh, and consequently, "without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope, and atheists (atheoi) in the world." But now, all this was reversed when they came to be sealed, and to be constituents of the New Man -- "THE ISRAEL OF THE DEITY" (Gal. vi. 16): "the One Body." They were now "no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the saints, and familiars of the Deity" (ii. 11-19). They had become the adopted citizens of Israel’s Commonwealth or polity. They were Jews inwardly, "walking in the steps of that faith of their father Abraham which he had before he was circumcised." They differed from common Jews in not being of the same fleshly descent, which was a matter of no profit; and they differed from them also in being men of faith like Abraham. But the only difference between them and those noblest of all Jews, the prophets and their class, was the accident of birth. Ezekiel, Daniel, Cornelius, Crispus, Gaius, Erastus, and such like, though Jews and Greeks, were yet all "Israelites indeed" through faith -- the Jews inwardly, living under the law before the faith came by Jesus, being justified "by faith" in the promises (ek pisteos); and the Jews inwardly, living after the faith came, being justified by one and the same Deity, "through the faith" dia tes pisteos, in the promises, or "the truth as it is in Jesus" (Gal. iii. 23-25; Rom. iii. 30; iv. 12-16).

Now, the citizenship of the Old Israelites commenced on earth; while the politeuma, or citizenship of the New Israelites begins in heavens, en ouranois huparchei. The citizenship of mere common, or outward Jews, begins with circumcision -- with the flesh. If they omit this, the accident of birth from Jewish parents goes for nothing, they are regarded by the law as cut off from their people, having broken the covenant of Yahweh in the omission of the rite on the eighth day (Gen. xvii. 14). They are neither "Israel" nor "of Israel."

But the citizenship of the New Israelites, or Israelites of the New Covenant, begins in heavens, and also with circumcision -- it begins with faith, with the truth believed and obeyed, with the Spirit. A Jew, or Greek, comes to "believe the things concerning the kingdom of the Deity, and of the name of Jesus Anointed;" and to fall in love with them above all other things; he acquires a "faith," in other words, that "purifies his heart," and "works by love" -- he receives the doctrine of the kingdom of the Deity as a little child -- with all humility and teachableness; and demands only to know what the Lord would have him to do, that he may do it. He is required, then to be circumcised in Christ, to "purify his soul in the obedience of the truth" -- to "put off the body of the sins of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ." The churchman, or mere pious natural man, discerns not these "deep things of the Deity;" but such a Jew or Gentile as we are considering, being "filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding," knows that, by being buried with Christ in the one immersion, he puts on Christ; and that when thus invested with him as with a white robe, all his sins are covered over, remitted, or washed away; and that he stands "complete in him." Jesus was circumcised the eighth day, according to the law; he was a Jew; the son of Abraham, David, and the Deity; the Heir of all things; he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners; he is king, priest, and so forth. Now, it is only those Jews and Gentiles, the eyes of whose understandings have been enlightened by the word of the truth of the gospel of the kingdom, who can by immersion get into Christ; for men are saved "through the faith," dia tes pisteos; and "without faith," which Paul defines as, "the confidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" -- "it is impossible to please the Deity." This, then, is the indispensable prerequisite for introduction into Christ, and completeness in him. Those who are thus qualified in the act of passing through the bath of water, pass into Christ. Before entering the bath, the truth believed has changed their minds, made them "dead to sin," and "quickened them with Christ" (Rom. vi. 2,11; Eph. ii. 5): when they are in the bath, and buried under the water, they are "buried with Christ by the immersion into his death," which was for sin. Hence, this water burial is their investiture with Christ as with a white robe. The burial is, therefore, a clothing, or covering over by which their sin-nakedness is metaphorically concealed; and they are in that situation in which it may be said of them, in the words of the Spirit, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered over" (epekaluphthesan, Rom. iv. 7). This is the point of time in which they are "circumcised with the circumcision made without hands;" and, as in the circumcision performed with hands, there was a cutting, or putting, off, of flesh, so in the circumcision made without hands, there is a metaphorical putting off of flesh, "in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh in the circumcision (en te peritome) of the Christ, being buried with him in the immersion" (Col. ii. 11,12).

Being therefore thus introduced into Christ’s circumcision by faith and burial, they are the subjects of "circumcision of heart in spirit, not in letter" -- "the foreskins of their hearts are circumcised, and they are no more stiffnecked" (Deut. x. 16) like many that could be named. "We are the circumcision," says Paul, "being servants to Deity by spirit (or by the sealing truth) and rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and having no confidence in flesh." By this admirably devised scheme, Jews and Gentiles get into Christ, though at the right hand of Deity and they upon earth; and "their citizenship begins in heavens." He, being the truth, dwells in their hearts by faith; and having got into him constitutionally by water burial, they continue to dwell in him; so that having come forth from the water-grave, the life which they live in the flesh, they live by the faith of the Son of the Deity, who loved them, and gave himself for them (Gal. ii. 20).

Being thus circumcised in their water burial by the truth believed they become Jews in the noblest sense of the word. They went into the bath dead to Judaism and Gentilism, and were born of the water in coming out of it, Israelites indeed, sons of Abraham, David and the Deity; brethren of Israel’s King; heirs with him of all things; holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners; citizens of the commonwealth of Israel; kings and priests for the Deity -- they become all this and more, because Christ is such, and they are "complete in him."

Hence, circumcision of heart, in the sense explained, is as indispensably necessary to the Israelitish citizenship which begins where Christ now is, as circumcision of flesh was to Israelitish citizenship beginning the eighth day after birth. The two circumcisions developed two Israels -- the carnal and the spiritual. While occupying Palestine, the Carnal Israel were the kingdom of the Deity under the Mosaic Constitution; and the throne upon which David and Solomon reigned in Jerusalem was "the throne of Yahweh." Deity permitted them to continue in the land so long as the constitution was respected; and there were enough "Israelites indeed" among them, to preserve the nation from putrefaction. These were the real, spiritual, life of the nation -- the salt of the land; and when they became insipid; or, when they, as the chosen generation, died off from the arena, the nation became "a carcase," fit only for the talons of the Roman Eagle, according to the predictions of Moses, Daniel and Christ (Deut. xxviii. 49; Dan. viii. 10-12,24; Matt. xxiv. 28).

But, when the Israelitish Carcase was rent and devoured by "the Great Eagle," "THE ISRAEL OF THE DEITY," consisting of Jews and Greeks in other lands, or sections of the habitable, who were Jews in Christ, was still an organized and flourishing community, styled also by Paul, "the Ecclesia, his Body," of which Jesus Christ is the Head; and the "One Body." This new community figures in symbolic writing, as "The Seven Ecclesias which are in Asia;" these seven being representative of all Israelites, "circumcised with the circumcision made without hands," in all the habitable. This Israel was rooted in Jacob’s twelve sons, as the patriarchs of the tribes. "First that which is natural," says Paul, "and then that which is spiritual." This is the order of the Deity’s developments in relation to body, world, and nation. Hence, the spiritual body is developed out of the natural; the spiritual world out of the natural; and the spiritual Israelitish nation out of the natural, we Gentiles coming in by adoption through the King of Israel, who himself was first natural before he became spirit. The principle is fundamental, and perceived in the generation of all things -- first, the naked grain, or body; then that which shall be fruit-bearing in the field.

Jacob was the wall of Israel, and his sons his twelve gates, in the beginnings of things. Jesus and the Apostles emerged from Jacob through these gates; being descended from Jacob in their line. But said the Spirit in Jesus, "before Abraham was I am." He was "the Root" of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David; and when He came to be manifested in Jesus, in this combination of flesh and spirit, he was "the Offspring" of those patriarchs. While, therefore Jacob was a wall enclosing the whole future nation in his loins, "the Root and Offspring of David," and therefore of Jacob (Apoc. v. 5; xxii. 16), is the Jasper Wall, great and high, "in whom" is contained all "the Israel of the Deity." At the natural gates of the twelve tribes, the apostles stood as so many Angels or messengers (xxi. 12). They went forth inviting Jews and Gentiles to "enter in through the gates into the city," enclosed within the Jasper Wall (xxii. 14) -- to enter into Christ through adoption into the commonwealth of Israel; that in so entering, they might, as precious stones, garnish the twelve foundations which represent the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

The apocalyptic Jasper Wall, which constitutes the limit of the Holy City, is Deity manifested in flesh; who, in Zech. ii. 5, saith, "I will be unto Jerusalem a WALL OF FIRE round about her, and will be the glory in the midst of her." The Chief Corner, or Prince, of this foursquare wall is Jesus. The Deity, before his manifestation in him, said unto him in prophecy, "Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified ... It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the desolations of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my (Yeshua or JESUS) salvation to the ends of the earth" (Isai. xlix. 3,6). Thus, the Deity manifested in Flesh is herein styled Israel; and in calling him, "my salvation," He is also styled Jesus. Now, the spirit in Hosea xi. 1, says of him, what is equally true of the whole nation in Moses, "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt;" which saying, as a part of its mystery, Matthew says was fulfilled in the child Jesus (ii. 15).

Christ, then, being Israel, all who "wash their robes, and make them white in the blood of the Lamb," become Israel also -- the metaphorical Israel developed out of the outward, whose polity flourished two hundred and fifty years after the destruction of Jerusalem. This spiritual commonwealth, I have said, is symbolized during this period by the Seven Ecclesias, which were encamped in the territory of the Great Eagle, an imperium in imperio; and symbolized again, in the periods of the first four seals, by the Four Living Ones full of eyes. These all were the spiritual "tribes of Israel’s sons" -- the Sons of Deity, and brethren of Jesus, constitutionally manifested as such by immersion, as the outward sign. Speaking of this honor, John saith: "Behold what great love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called CHILDREN OF DEITY! ... Beloved, we are now children of Deity, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John iii. 2). Then will be "the apocalypse of the sons of the Deity;" and the world that knows them not now, because it knows him not, will be brought into such practical acquaintance with them, that its knowledge of them will never again fade from its remembrance (Rom. viii. 19).

But, after the apostles were withdrawn from the arena, it happened to the "Tribes of Israel’s sons," as to the fleshly Israel after the decease of the elders who overlived Joshua, that they began to fall away from the institutions of the Deity. Immersionists, or as they would now be styled, "Baptists," began to teach "perverse things" to draw away disciples after them; and in so doing, to corrupt the way of the Lord, and to conceal it at length, under a cloud-capped mountain of "philosophy and vain deceit." As we have seen elsewhere, these evil men and seducers in Israel were denominated "Nikolaitanes," "that Woman Jezebel," "the Satan;" nevertheless, they pertinaciously claimed to be Jews. The Spirit, however, repudiated their claim, and denounced them for liars and blasphemers of the Synagogue of the Satan (Apoc. ii. 9; iii. 9). But as Paul predicted, they "waxed worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived," until they had succeeded in substituting SACRAMENTALISM for "the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Cor. xi. 3). They preached "another Jesus," "another Spirit," and "another gospel" than Paul preached, as the basis of their immersion; and therefore were "accursed" Israelites, and degraded to a level with mere formalists, who had "a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof: from such," saith the apostle, "turn away" (2 Tim. iii. 5; Gal. i. 8,9).

Here then, were two classes of Israelites in apostasy -- the one class composed of men circumcised in flesh; the other, of men having the form, immersion, which introduces to the circumcision of Christ. These had the form or profession of christianity without the power; the others had the form of Mosaicism, but without faith in the promises made to Abraham. The apocalyptic "tribes of Israel’s sons" had substituted abstract spirit for belief of the truth -- abstract spirit was the power, or virtue, that accomplished everything for them. It entered the water they used, and made it holy, and purifying, to every faithless ignoramus they put into it; it entered the hypocritical and spiritually dead carcases of the "seducers" they ordained to "holy orders," and made them sanctifying administrators of ordinances; it entered the bread and the wine, and made them spiritual meat and drink: in short, this abstract quiddity mesmerized everything, as in all "the names and denominations" of our day, being the very essence of sacramentalism, as opposed to the "form of godliness" and its true "power." The Tribes of Israel’s sons had degenerated into mere ritualists, who, in practising religious ceremonies, regarded them as both the form and power of christian godliness. The Jews of our time practising the mummeries of the synagogue; or papists genuflexing with their priests before images; or snoozing protestants dosing under the vaporous emissions of pulpit drones and imbeciles -- are legitimate and life-like representatives of "Israel’s sons," established by Constantine the First as "the lords spiritual" of the Great Eagle of the earth.

The following extracts from ecclesiastical writers on the times of Constantine, will afford the reader some idea of the condition of things in the apocalyptic "tribes of Israel’s sons," called "the Catholic Church."

"In the new order of things," says Jones, "which took place under the Emperor Constantine and his clergy, one of their first objects was to remodel the form and order of the christian church, the administration of which was, as far as possible, arranged conformably to the government of the state. The emperor himself (unimmersed as he was) assumed the episcopal functions, and claimed the power of regulating its external affairs -- in other words, he was constituted HEAD OF THE CHURCH" -- the new-born Man of Sin. "He and his successors convened councils, in which they presided, and determined all matters of discipline. The bishops corresponded to those magistrates, whose jurisdiction was confined to single cities; the metropolitans to the proconsuls, or presidents of provinces; the primates, to the emperor’s vicars, each of whom governed one of the imperial provinces. Canons and prebendaries took their rise from the societies of ecclesiastics, which Eusebius, Bishop of Verceil, and after him Augustine, formed in their houses, and in which these prelates were styled their fathers and masters." Scarcely any two things can be more dissimilar than this new order of things, and the order instituted by the Apostles nearly 300 years before. Mosheim speaking of the episcopal presbyters, or overseeing elders, of the apostolic ecclesias and those of the second century, says: "Let none confound the bishops of this primitive and golden period of the ecclesia with those of whom we read in the following ages. For though they were both designated by the same name, yet they differed extremely in many respects. A bishop during the first and second centuries was a person who had the care of one christian assembly, which at that time was, generally speaking, small enough to be contained in a private house. In this assembly he acted not so much with the authority of a master, as with the zeal and diligence of a faithful servant. The ecclesias, also in those early times, were entirely independent; none of them subject to any foreign jurisdiction, but each of them governed by its own rulers and its own laws. Nothing is more evident than the perfect equality that reigned among the primitive ecclesias; nor does there ever appear in the first century, the smallest trace of that association of provincial ecclesias from which councils and metropolitans derive their origin." "Nothing," adds Jones, "could be more abhorrent to the first churches than to acknowledge any earthly potentate," and he not even a christian, "as their head." "Be not ye called Rabbi," said Jesus to the apostles, "for one is your guide, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. Neither be ye called guides; for one is your guide who is Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your minister; and whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." These divine maxims, which are constituent principles of the christian ecclesia, were lost sight of by the ecclesiastics who undertook to remodel the churches under the auspices of the Emperor Constantine, whom they, as a matter of courtesy, condescended to make their earthly head -- the Head of every "Tribe of Israel’s sons."

In proportion as these Sons of Israel enjoyed any intervals of exemption from persecution, they became more litigious in their tempers, and more worldly minded. But now that the restraint was entirely removed by Constantine, the churches endowed, and riches and honors profusely heaped upon the clergy; when he authorized them to sit as judges upon the consciences and faith of others, he confirmed them in the spirit of this world -- the spirit of pride, avarice, domination, and ambition. The glaring delinquency that marked the conduct of the leading ecclesiastics, in professing a religion of humility and self-denial, and at the same time pursuing the pleasures and aspiring after the honors of this world, seems to have struck the very heathen themselves. Hence, a pagan historian who lived shortly after the days of Constantine, named Ammianus Marcellinus, remarked concerning some of the leading bishops: "It would be well if, despising the magnificence of the city, they would copy the example of some of the bishops of provincial towns, whose temperance, plainness of dress, and heavenly-mindedness, must recommend them to the Deity as his sincere worshippers." These to whom he refers were probably some of the sealed ones with whom he happened to be acquainted.

These testimonies may serve to show us how "the Mystery of Iniquity" was then busily working in "every tribe of Israel’s Sons," developing the already gendered Man of Sin Power, as well as the powerful hand the clergy, so-called, had in it. Restored to the full possession of their liberty, the places of worship rebuilt and secured to them, and the imperial edicts everywhere published in their favor, these new bishops soon gave the emperor convincing proof what manner of spirit they were of! As their several revenues became augmented, they grew more and more ambitious, less disposed to endure contradiction, more arrogant and haughty in their behavior, more litigious, and more reckless of the simplicity and gravity of their character and profession. Constantine’s letters afford ample proof of the jealousies and animosities which reigned among them. Adverting to a quarrel that had arisen between Miltiades, Bishop of Rome, and Coecilianus, Bishop of Carthage, in which the principals had enlisted a host of their colleagues as auxiliaries, he tells them that it was a very grievous thing to him to see such a number of persons divided into parties, and even bishops disagreeing among themselves. He earnestly wished to compose their differences; but, in defiance of all his efforts, they persisted in their quarrels, which drew from him a feeling complaint, that those who ought to have been the foremost in maintaining a brotherly affection and peaceable disposition towards each other, were the first to separate from one another in a scandalous and detestable manner, giving occasion to the common enemies of Christianity to scoff at and deride them. To put an end to such disgraceful proceedings, Constantine summoned a council to meet at Arles, in France, in order, if possible, to bring to a friendly and Christian compromise this long pending altercation, at which the emperor condescended to be present, and there exerted all his influence to restore peace and harmony between them; but it proved to be with little effect. He had to do with the men Paul predicted, in 2 Timothy iii. 1-13, would appear in "the Israel of the Deity," making the times perilous to his sealed servants. "Men," said he, "shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, devils, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those who are good, betrayers, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of the Deity; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Constantine had sown fresh seeds of strife and contention among these mere ritualistic and sacramentarian Israelites, by his liberal endowment of their churches, and by the riches and honors he had conferred upon the bishops; and he was now reaping the fruit of his own folly.

From this and much more that might be adduced from history, it is evident that the Wild Olive Branch, which had by "the engrafting word" been grafted into the good Israelitish Olive Tree, was in a perishing condition. In Romans 11, Paul, speaking to the Gentile element of Israel, exhorts them not to boast against the branches of the good olive tree, broken off because of unbelief in the word of the kingdom; and adds, "Thou standest by faith; be not highminded, but fear: for if the Deity spared not the natural branches" of the good tree, "take heed lest he also spare not thee." The goodness of Deity had been manifested to the pagan Gentiles in inviting them to fellow-citizenship with those Israelites who had already become Christians in offering them repentance and remission of sins, and a right to incorruptibility and life in the kingdom of Christ and of the Deity, on the same terms. It was, nevertheless, possible to place themselves in a position such as the Jews were in at the time of the breaking off by the Roman power. They had become faithless, and were broken off in consequence. If the New Israelites by adoption through Jesus, became faithless of the Word, the same fate awaited them; for they only stood in the favor of Deity by faith. Therefore, Paul adds, "if thou continue not in his goodness, THOU ALSO SHALT BE CUT OFF." The "goodness" he refers to is, the exhibition of the goodness of the Deity set forth in the gospel of the kingdom, the belief of which "leads to repentance." We have seen that they did not continue in his goodness, but had turned their backs upon it, and bartered off faith in that goodness for irrational sacramentalism, and the wealth and honor of the state. The gospel, which is the "Deity’s power for salvation," had no power over them. They had failed to continue "to stand" in it, and to hold fast to it, or keep it in mind. That "certain word" Paul preached was forgotten, and buried under those piles of rubbish, taught as orthodox theology by their descendants, in the schools, colleges and pulpits of our modern Laodicea. They could no more "handle the word" as skilled workmen, than the benighted spirituals of our "glorious and enlightened 19th century!" A "strong delusion" had come over them, a vail had overspread them, the spirit of the world had "made them drunk," and, instead of the truth, "they believed a lie" (2 Thess. ii. 11; Isa. xxv. 7; Apoc. xvii. 2,6; xviii. 3). What was to be done with such unprofitable, blasphemous, faithless, and disgusting Israelites as these? -- these ancestors of modern Christendom? What but to pronounce upon them the sentence that awaits all such -- "Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi"; "thou art not my people, and shalt obtain no mercy." This sentence is embodied in the words, "thou shalt be broken off." They had come into the situation they were warned against -- a state of unbelief -- and, as the Deity always fulfils his threats, as well as his promises of good, the time had almost arrived to do execution upon the guilty.

But, there were many centuries and generations to come and pass away before "the Mystery of the Deity should be finished, as he had declared the glad tidings to his servants the prophets" (Apoc. x. 7); and he did not intend in breaking off the unbelieving tribes of Israel’s sons, to leave himself without witnesses and a testimony against Lo-ammi the Apostate. For this reason, the symbolic sealing angel proclaimed an arrest of judgment, that time might be afforded for taking out from the apostate tribes a "REMNANT," which would be more and longer faithful to the commandments of the Deity, and the testimony of Jesus Christ (Apoc. xii. 17). To afford scope for this, he said to the four angel-powers, standing ready for the work of judgment at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds, "Injure ye not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, while we may seal the servants of our Deity in their foreheads." This sealing work accomplished, and there would be no cause for longer restraint upon the howling, and sweeping, and uprooting tempests, which were to signalize the breaking off of the decayed and sapless branch apocalyptically styled the tribes of Israel’s sons. The judicial visitations of the first six seals were against the worshippers of the gods; while the more terrible judgments of the trumpets and vials, and thunders, were and are the indignation and wrath of the Lamb upon the apostate symbolical "tribes of Israel’s sons," repudiated by the Spirit as "men of corrupt minds, reprobate, or of no judgment, concerning the faith," and therefore no longer the people of the Lord.