p. 142 | AN ADDRESS OF SATAN

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 22, 1859

AN ADDRESS OF SATAN

to the Ecclesiastical System, under the Similitude of his own bodily presence.

[Bro. Smith: For the benefit of the readers of the Review, I send you for publication, quite a singular address; but in it we find a plain description of our times, if we are permitted to judge from what we see developed daily.—Wm. S. Ingraham.]

SATAN. To all classes of the Ecclesiastical System, that profess Christ's name, and prove traitors in his service:—

I now address you as my sworn subjects, under full power of my authority, feeling much gratified to see my kingdom established on God's creation! Though I have been wounded by Christ, the invader of my possessions, yet I hold before you the greatness of my power, and the glory of my kingdom. I am the great and high prince, and god of this world.

O ye sons of men! I am that great red dragon, that was cast out into the earth; even that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, that deceives the whole world. Rev. xii, 9. And this is no dream nor fancy; for I have actually done it, and still do it; for power is given unto me over all kindreds, tongues and nations. Rev. xiii, 7. And I continue my speech to my subjects.

Unto you, O man, I call! and my voice is unto the sons of men. I am your god; and I warn you of my great enemy, Christ—that you be not obedient to any of the requirements of his contracted plan. My ways are broad and easy. I am high in heart; and teach the same to you. That in all nations you may set my worship in high places—that it may be adorned with all the splendid glory that belongs to the prince that offered Christ all the glory of this world.

That your places of worship may appear beautiful unto men;—high and lofty; above all other buildings; in cities, towns and country villages. That you may incite and draw all men into the broad way, with the bells of popularity. And let my servants, your ministers, be men of the best gifts and talents; for so were your fathers, the false prophets. And be not like Christ's apostles, who were ignorant and unlearned men. Even his great apostle, Paul (they said), in bodily presence was weak, and his speech contemptible. But let it not be so with you. Fear not, I am your god; and I will uphold you by my spirit. For it is my will that you should have the praise of men, and receive from them titles of honor. For the ways of Christ, our great enemy, are contrary to all men, and even to nature itself, as you may see throughout all his precepts: for example, see 1 Cor. i, 26-29. "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen."

This is no description of an accomplished member of society. Faithful subjects! when you execute the priest's office in my service, put on a dress suitable to your ministration, and let your bodily presence be amiable, and your speech affable, and your countenance grave and solemn. Salute the people with a comely behaviour, that you may glory in your own presence. For verily I say unto you, except your outward appearance of righteousness shall exceed that of Christ's ministers, you shall in no case deceive the world.

O ye priests! if you will be my servants, indeed, and keep all your wickedness from the light, then I will send my wolf-like spirit, and it shall light on you like a dove, in the presence of the world: and I will cause the world to love you, to praise, honor and bless you, and give you a name above all common people. And they shall feed you, and give you money, and doubly reward you for all your trouble. And I will send my anti-Christian spirit into your hearts at all times when you are preaching, that you may be able to speak before the people with the tongues of men and angels. For I would that you preach all the letter of the Scriptures, that if there be any who have received Christ's Spirit, when they hear the scriptures issue out of your mouths, they may take you to be the true ministers of Christ, and so make your covetous life their example. This is the best snare to destroy the souls of mankind, of any net that I have ever yet spread.

Our enemy, Christ, saith, "When ye fast, be ye not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance; for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast." But I say unto you, when ye fast, appoint a day by law, and read an open proclamation thereof, and command all people to attend; for unto kings and rulers I say, it is your wisdom and prudence to appoint days of public worship, which are not commanded in the Scriptures.

And ye ministers at my service, I will that ye receive your order of worship by the commandments of men. For I am with you, and will teach you how to prescribe rules of worship to the civil powers, that they may establish and protect them, and then receive them again from under their hands, and you shall be protected by them also; that we may all be combined under one system; I in you, and you with them, and they with me.

It seems by the whole run of the doctrine of Christ, that he has adopted a system comprised of infinite principles and precepts, and then commands obedience thereunto by finite beings, and says he has chosen them out of the world. John xv, 18, &c. "If the world hated you, it hated me before it hated you; if ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

Most obedient servants and ministers of the outer court! I have chosen you in the world, as I said unto you before; that the world shall love you, and reward you, and make you free from all public expense, with many other privileges, which shall enable you to train up your children in high life; even in my ways of pride, ease and luxury; by which means they shall become two-fold more the children of HELL than yourselves.

And now let us hear a little more of the requirements of this narrow contracted plan. "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you." Matt. v, 44. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts, that war against the soul. 1 Pet. ii, 11. And even the whole of his gospel is to teach men to be of a meek and lamb-like spirit, and to follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man can see the Lord. And to bring into subjection all his passions: such as pride, self-will, wrath, anger, malice, strife, and to forbear one another in love; and to forgive each other as Christ hath forgiven them.

Well may it be said of this strait and narrow way—"For there be that find it." For what character professing heroism would put his neck under this yoke, except such as professedly revolt from the law of nature? It is for these things that I now address myself unto the whole ecclesiastical system. I am the Devil, the great author of the depraved state of man; in which I glory; and which I rejoice to see the Prince of peace and his subjects striving in vain to reclaim. Most obedient children! I heartily address you, with great

boldness and confidence of gaining your hearing; for your eyes see and your ears hear, that it is your father, the devil, that speaks unto you through the impulses of nature, and by the motions of sin working in your members to bring forth fruit unto death.

It would have been my first wish that my servants should openly confess the name of their master. But for the better accomplishing of my designs, I counsel that my plans be executed under a cloak of religion. For it is a mask of religion without, and a double portion of my spirit within, which eclipses the spirit of Christ, and cuts short the power of human reason, and puts pride in its place; that causes mankind to bring forth the fruit you now see and hear of all over the world.

Agreeably to my counsel, in all cases resent insult from your fellows, and go to war with them, embody yourselves and march to the field of battle, with religion at your right hand; and appoint one of my servants, your ministers, a chaplain, to pray for your success. And there encamp, one against the other, and let my servants, your priests, on both sides, put a prayer to the God of heaven, that you may gain the victory over each other; cherishing the belief that all that die gloriously in battle, go immediately to heaven.

And when you are coming together to do the work of human butchery, if a sense of the horrid piece of work you are about to perform shall fill your soldiery with terror—benumb their senses with intoxicating liquor, and put on confusion and distraction, under the name of courage and valor; and fear not, for I will be with you and fill your hearts with such vengeance, through the immediate influence of my spirit, that you shall be able to perform all my will and pleasure.

And when you have sufficiently soaked the ground with the blood of your fellow men, and have humbled their hearts, and gotten your wills upon them, then return, and let my servant, your minister, lift up his voice before you (whose hearts are of one accord), unto the God of heaven, with praise and thanks for the victory; that you have been able to do such deeds as to bereave parents of their sons, wives of their husbands, and children of their fathers, whose bitter mourning and lamentation time and death only can wipe away. And then return home full of the glory of your own shame and tell your rulers you have saved their pride, gratified their ambition and saved a little of the trash of this world;—for which you have taken the lives of your fellow creatures, each one of which is worth more than all the treasures of India. For all such things belong to the religion I delight in.

And now I address myself to all classes of the ecclesiastical system, as a father to his children; even to you who bow to all, or any, of my principles; against all, or any of the commands of Christ, our great enemy. That each one may fill his station in the performance of the establishment of the worship of my kingdom.

Ye fathers, I exhort that you exercise yourselves in laying up treasures on the earth. And ye young men, that you likewise embrace every opportunity to get riches, which are an honor to a youth; that in the performance thereof your hearts may be raised high in pride, which always goes before destruction; and you shall be called the children of this world.

And ye elderly women, that ye be upholders of pride in your families, that you teach your daughters the fashions of this life. For it is my delight to see your galleries filled with pride. For what can be more glorious than to see young women dress in the first fashions of the day? Verily I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory did not fulfill and gratify the lust of the eye, like one of these.

And ye ministers of the civil law, I counsel, that you swerve not from your natural confederacy with the ecclesiastical system. That for the sake of your honor you strictly attend to your oaths; and put in motion all laws and modes of punishment, which may compel all kinds of people to submit to our precepts, which are in opposition to the rules of Christ.

And ye merchants, that ye fulfill the saying that is written: "It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer, and when he is gone he boasteth."

And ye inn-keepers, that you put the bottle to your neighbor's mouth, that you may look on his nakedness, to the advantage of your self-interest.

And ye physicians, that you increase your wealth by your neighbor's calamity.

And ye lawyers, that you be advocates of strife and contention.

And ye Free-masons, that you propagate the works of darkness.

And ye deacons, that ye grind the faces of the poor. And ye priests, that ye have a willing mind to receive a gift, though the giver be ever so poor. And that you bear in every point Christ's true description of the hypocrite. And if the light discover you to be of no beneficial use to the people in one place, follow your call to another; but let it be where the people are proud, and money plenty. But wisdom is profitable to direct, "For where the carcass is, there the eagles are gathered together."

Now, you being all citizens of this world, are built upon the foundation of earthly things; where Satan bears rule, in whom all the building fitly framed together by which every joint supplieth, groweth into a compact body of sin: where you situate yourselves in your meeting-houses, to hear the sacred noise of religion, having your mouths filled with the fullness of the external worship of God, and your hearts with my spirit; unto whom is reserved the blackness and darkness forever, world without end. Amen.

Given forth through the smoke of the bottomless pit, by the prince of the power of the air, that rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience.