KEY OF KNOWLEDGE, POWER, AND GOVERNMENT.
Heaven's Nobility, whom worlds obey,
Clad in the brightness of eternal day,
Enthroned in majesty, as "_Priests and Kings_,"
To whom the universe its incense brings!
Angels, its ministers! Heaven is its throne!
The stores of infinitude are all its own!
Having given a general view of the powers, operations and effects of
Theology, as developed amongst the nations of antiquity, the mysteries
of the Godhead, the law of nature, and the origin and destiny of the
universe, the subject next in order is the KEY of knowledge, power and
government, as developed in the heavens and on the earth, for the
organization, order, peace, happiness, education, improvement, and
exaltation of intelligences in the image of God--His sons and
daughters.
The great family of man, comprising the inhabitants of unnumbered
millions of worlds, in every variety and degree of progress, consists
of five principal spheres, or grand divisions, in the scale of
progressive being, viz.--
First. _The Gods_, composed of embodied spirits, who inhabit
tabernacles of immortal flesh and bones in their most refined state,
and who are perfected in all the attributes of intelligence and power.
Second. _The Angels_, who are also composed of spirits and immortal
flesh and bones, less refined, and endowed with vast intelligence and
power, but not a fulness.
Third. _Embodied Spirits_, without a tabernacle of flesh and bones.
These are they who hate passed the veil of death, and are awaiting a
resurrection.
Fourth. _Embodied Spirits_, with mortal tabernacles, as in the present
world.
Fifth. _Embodied Spirits_, who have not yet descended to be clothed
upon with mortality, but who are candidates for the same.
There is also a sixth division, but of those we need not speak, as
they are not, as yet, included in the scale of progressive being, not
having kept their first estate.
The spirits of all men in their primeval states, were intelligent. But
among these intelligences some were more noble, that is to say, more
intelligent than others.
_And God said, these will I make rulers in my kingdoms_.[A] Upon this
principle was manifested the election, before the foundation of the
world, of certain individuals to certain offices, as written in the
Scriptures.
[Footnote A: See Book of Abraham, translated from Papyrus, lately
taken from the Catacombs of Thebes in Egypt.]
In other words, certain individuals, more intelligent than the others,
were chosen by the Head, to teach, instruct, edify, improve, govern,
and minister truth and salvation to others; and to hold the delegated
powers or keys of government, in the several spheres of progressive
being.
These were not only chosen, but set apart, by a holy ordinance in the
eternal worlds, as Embassadors, Foreign Ministers, Priests, Kings,
Apostles, &c., to fill the various stations in the vast empire of the
Sovereign of all.
Jesus Christ, being the first Apostle thus commissioned, and the
President of all the powers thus delegated, is Lord of lords, and King
of kings, in the heavens and on the earth. Hence this Priesthood is
called the Priesthood after the order of the Son of God. It holds the
keys of all the true principles of government in all worlds, being
without beginning of days or end of life. It was held by Adam, Seth,
Enoch, Noah, Shem, Melchisedec, and others. Abraham obtained this
Priesthood, and an election of the same in his seed after him to all
generations. The decree went forth in an everlasting covenant, that in
Abraham and his seed, all the nations and kindreds of the earth should
be blessed.
Of this lineage according to the flesh were the Prophets, John the
Baptist, Jesus Christ, and the Jewish Apostles. Since the covenant and
election thus manifested, the keys of revelation, government and
miraculous powers on earth have been held exclusively by the literal
descendants of this noble and royal house.
The Gentiles could partake of a portion of the same blessings, but
this could only be done through their ministry, and by adoption into
the same family.
This election or covenant with the house of Israel will continue for
ever. In the great restoration of all things, this lineage will hold
the keys of Priesthood, salvation and government, for all nations. As
saith the Prophet Isaiah--"_The nation and kingdom that will not serve
thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted_."
And again--"_Ye shall be the priests of the Lord; men shall call you
the ministers of our God: but strangers shall build your walls, and
the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your vine
dressers_."
This Priesthood, including that of the Aaronic, holds the keys of
revelation of the oracles of God to man upon the earth; the power and
right to give laws and commandments to individuals, churches, rulers,
nations and the world; to appoint, ordain, and establish constitutions
and kingdoms; to appoint kings, presidents, governors or judges, and
to ordain or anoint them to their several holy callings, also to
instruct, warn, or reprove them by the word of the Lord.
It also holds the keys of the administration of ordinances for the
remission of sins, and for the gift of the Holy Spirit; to heal the
sick, cast out demons, or work miracles in the name of the Lord; in
fine, to bind or loose on earth and in heaven. For the exercise of all
which powers the student of Theology will find abundant precedents in
the sacred Scriptures.
Man holding the keys of the Priesthood and Apostleship after the order
of the Son of God, are his representatives, or embassadors, to
mankind. To receive them, to obey their instructions, to feed, clothe,
or aid them, is counted the same, in the final judgment, as if all had
been done to the Son of God in person. On the other hand, to reject
them, or their testimony or message, or the word of God through them,
in any matter, is counted the same as if done to Jesus Christ, in his
own person. Indeed, such embassadors will be the final judges of the
persons, rulers, cities or nations to whom they are sent.
Although the chosen instruments to hold the keys of this Priesthood
must be the literal lineage of Israel, yet that lineage are not all
thus commissioned, nor indeed are any of them Priests merely because
they are of the chosen seed. Such an instrument must be revealed, and
his ordination which he had before the world began, be renewed and
confirmed upon his fleshly tabernacle, or he cannot be a Priest on
earth.
One who already holds the authority, or keys of Priesthood, can
reveal, by the word of the Lord, and ordain and anoint others to
similar callings, and through these ordinances fill them with the Holy
Spirit, as a qualification for their holy calling. By this means
Joshua succeeded Moses, Elisha succeeded Elijah, &c. And by this means
the great Apostle of the Father chose and ordained the Twelve Apostles
of the Jews, and gave the keys or presidency of the kingdom to Peter.
There have, however, been times when, by a general martyrdom or
apostacy, the keys of this power have been taken from the earth, (see
chapters 2, 3, 4.) In such case there would be no longer visions,
revelations or miraculous gifts from the Lord, manifested among men,
because the Priesthood is the channel, and the ordinances are the
means, through which such blessings are enjoyed by man. In the absence
of these offices and powers, darkness, ignorance, superstition,
priestcraft and kingcraft, idolatry, and every species of abuse, would
fill the earth, and usurp the place of the true government of the
kingdom of God.
The most remarkable and long continued instance of this kind, which
perhaps ever transpired in our world, commenced with the destruction
of the Apostles and Saints who immediately succeeded the Lord Jesus
Christ, and continued until the present century, producing in its
consequences all the human butcheries, wars, oppressions, misrule,
ignorance, superstitions, kingcraft, priestcraft, and misery, which
have visited the world in the false name of Christianity.
On the Western Hemisphere, the Apostleship, oracles, miracles, and
gifts of the Spirit, ceased from among the people in the fourth
century.
The precise time of the discontinuance of these powers on the eastern
continents, or in the Roman world, is not known. Suffice it to say,
the last of the Twelve Apostles predicted, in his vision on the Isle
of Patmos, the reign of a certain power which should make war with the
Saints, overcome them, be drunken with their blood, and hear rule over
all nations. "And by thy sorceries," said he, "were all nations
deceived." If these predictions have had their fulfilment, then it is
the height of inconsistency for any one to contend, that Rome or any
nation has perpetuated the Priesthood, Apostleship, or Church. This
would be the same as to say, the Saints were destroyed, and yet
perpetuated; all nations were deceived, and yet had the truth.
Could a universal or catholic power at once destroy the Saints, and
perpetuate them? Could the same power, at the same time, be the
conservator and promulgator of a system of universal salvation, and of
universal deception?
But leaving the prediction, and the reasoning on this subject, what
are the facts which present themselves for our own inspection, clearly
visible to all men?
Do we not find the world, for many ages, and up to the present time,
destitute of those manifestations, visions, powers, and keys of
knowledge and government, which would enlighten, purify and exalt the
race, and establish permanent righteousness and peace? In short, have
the powers of the eternal Priesthood, as described and exemplified in
the Holy Scriptures, and in this work, been manifested for the
government of the Catholic, or Protestant world, or any nation
thereof, since the destruction of the ancient Saints and Apostles?
If we answer this last question in the negative, then, we verify the
truth of the prediction by the last of the Twelve; if in the
affirmative, we deny both the truth of the prediction, and the facts
which clearly present themselves in the past history and present
circumstances of the world called "_Christian_."
When there is no longer a commissioned Priesthood perpetuated on the
earth, it becomes necessary, in order to restore the government of
God, for the man or men last holding the keys of such power, to return
to the earth as ministering angels, and to select, by the word of the
Lord, and ordain, certain individuals of the royal lineage of Israel,
to hold the keys of such Priesthood, and to ordain others, and thus
restore and re-organize the government of God, or His kingdom upon the
earth.
After the destruction of the Apostles and Saints, who succeeded Jesus
Christ, there is but one dispensation or restoration predicted by the
Prophets.
That dispensation will fulfil the times of the Gentiles, complete
their fulness, restore the kingdom to Israel, gather home their twelve
tribes, organize them into a theocratic government, that is, a
government founded and guided by Prophets, Priesthood, visions and
revelations. It will, in fact, not only restore to them the
ministration of angels, but receive its final consummation, by the
resurrection of the ancient Saints, and their return to the earth,
accompanied by the Son of God, in his own proper person. To this
dispensation, all nations must submit.
All merely human religious or political institutions, all republics,
states, kingdoms, empires, must be dissolved, the dross of ignorance
and falsehood be separated, and the golden principles of unalloyed
truth be preserved, and blended for ever in the one consolidated,
universal, eternal government of the Saints of the Most High, and all
nations shall serve and obey Him.