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A Solemn Appeal
God’s people, above all people in the world, should be patterns
of piety, holy in heart and in conversation. The people whom God
has chosen as his peculiar treasure, he requires to be elevated, refined,
sanctified—partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corrup-
tion that is in the world through lust. If such indulge in sin and iniquity
who make so high a profession, their guilt is very great, because they
have great light, and have by their profession taken their position as
God’s special, chosen people, having the law of God written in their
hearts. They signify their loyalty to the God of Heaven by yielding
obedience to the laws of his government. They are God’s representa-
tives upon the earth. Any sin or transgression in them separates them
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from God, and, in a special manner, dishonors his name by giving the
enemies of God’s holy law occasion to reproach his cause and his peo-
ple, whom he has called “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an
holy nation, a peculiar people,” that they should show forth the praises
of Him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light.
The people who are at war with the law of the great Jehovah, who
consider it a special virtue to talk, and write, and act, the most bitter
and hateful things, to show their contempt of that law, may make high
and exalted profession of love to God, and apparently have much
religious zeal, as did the Jewish chief priests and elders; yet in the
day of God, “Found wanting” will be said to them by the Majesty
of Heaven. By the law is the knowledge of sin. The mirror which
discovers to them the defects in their character, they are infuriated
against, because it points out their sins. Ministers who have rejected
the light are fired with madness against God’s holy law, as the Jewish
priests were against the Son of God. They are in a terrible deception,
deceiving souls, and being deceived themselves. They will not come to
the light, lest their deeds should be reproved. Such will not be taught.
But the people who profess to keep the law of God, he corrects, he
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reproves. He points out their sins, and lays open their iniquity; because
he wishes to separate all sin and wickedness from them, that they may
perfect holiness in his fear, and be prepared to die in the Lord, or to
be translated to Heaven. God will rebuke, reprove, and correct them,
that they may be refined, sanctified, elevated, and finally exalted to his
throne.
The professed people of God are not all holy. Some are corrupt.
God is seeking to elevate them; but these refuse to come up upon a