234 IMMORALITIES IN DESPITE OF LAW!!! a friend of the Moral Law) cash down, if the house near my door could be broken up. But it is tenanted. The owner is a capitalist. A watch is constantly employed to prevent disorder; and the business for which the house was constructed, and is tenanted, is secure from legal process." Thus, because licentiousness is not legally classed in the criminal code, the banner of Antichrist shields the perpetrators from deserved punishment. And the more this species of immorality is practised, the greater is the number of anti-Christian recruits, arrayed for the battle of the great day. Hence, conveniences for licentious purposes are in preparation everywhere, on land and sea, in city and country, in every place where the influence of Antichrist furnishes custom; and Infidels generally know their sign. And the darkest shade of this doleful picture, is the alleged fact, that Popish anti-Christian Nunneries, are mere consecrated temples of licentiousness, where the business is carried on wholesale and retail, under cover of religious ordinances ! and the illicit fruit of such abominations is deposited in subterranean vaults, prepared to conceal such works of darkness from the world, while millions are thus enlisting under the banner of Antichrist. Thus, many estates gathered by industry, frugality, and economy, have been wasted by the accumulators, who, in after-life, enlisted under the banner of antiChristian Immoralities, and became licentious epicureans, tipplers, hard drinkers, gamblers, spendthrifts, and drunkards, and so continued until their property was gone; and the wretched wasters, reduced to poverty and want, pennyless, infamous soldiers of Antichrist; knew, and could do but little else, than to wallow in their filth; curse the Holy Bible, and blaspheme SUCCESS OF RECRUITING OFFICERS. 235 the God of love who had given them a rational existence. Also many estates accumulated by industrious, frugal, economical parents, have been squandered by profligate heirs, after the parents were laid in the dust. And many young upstarts, by dissoluteness of character and dissipation of life, have been the occasion of reducing their parents to poverty, till broken with grief and discouragement, their gray hairs were brought down with sorrow to the grave. Such deplorable facts, existing the world over, are the legiti mate results of enlistment into the service of Antichrist, under the Banner of Immorality. And for that very purpose the second Banner of Antichrist is unfurled, and every practicable wile of the innumerable recruiting officers of the Powers at war with the Bible, with God, and holiness, is employed to decoy the unwary into the entanglements of the Destroyer. Satan tempts them to enlist. Recruits who have enlisted tempt them to enlist. Aversion to the confinement of any industrious calling or business of life for necessary subsistence, and a supreme delight in having nothing to do but to spend both time and money in the gratification of sensual delights, all have an influence to strengthen the predominant propensities of their natures, and move them to a determination to cast off all the yokes of domestic subjection, and be free and independent in their choice of company, and principles, and amusements, and objects of pursuit, without responsibility to any superintending Power. And thus they enlist under the second Banner of Antichrist, and run headlong in their own chosen way to destruction. The consideration of one more anti-Christian Banner will conclude this lecture. 236 ANTI-CHRISTIAN BANNER UNFURLED. · ANTI-CHRISTIAN BANNER, No. III. HEAR YE! HEAR YE! HEAR YE! All officers of my colleges; all professors of my theological seminaries; all preachers, expounders, and teachers of my religion; all instructors of youth and children in common schools, within my jurisdiction; all parents belonging to any of my numerous denominations; all my writers of new books on religion or morals; all my publishers of books, pamphlets, tracts, newspapers, novels, tales of fiction, caricatures for comic almanacs, songs, ballads, and pictures for youth and children, to teach them the works and doctrines of nature; and all my ludicrous artisans, who are engaged in preparing exhibitions of wanton obscenities for the sportive amusement of theatrical performances, to prepare the audience for a visit to houses of sensuality-Hearken, one and all of you, to the following peremptory commands: Pervert, I say, pervert every word of God. Pervert his law. Pervert every orthodox doctrine of the Bible. Pervert all God's means of grace. Pervert every ordinance of his appointment. Pervert every revealed design of his providence. Pervert every way and work of God. And your reward shall be sure, when Bible religion is driven from the earth. Then you shall dwell forever with me, where I dwell, and share with me the honors and glories of my faithful friends forever. Given under my hand and seal for Witnesses.-Pope Boniface III. DIABOLOS THe Great, Under the Seal of U. S. L. F., of all the Powers of Antichrist. EXPLANATION OF THE THIRD BANNER. 237 On the inscription of the above banner, four things are to be noticed, viz. :-1. The addresser. 2. The classes addressed. 3. The word of command. And, 4. The encouragement of reward. First, The addresser is SATAN, by his agent from his mouth in the bottomless pit, the "unclean spirit like a frog," alias, Atheistical Infidelity, Commanderin-chief of all the combined powers of Antichrist. Secondly, The classes addressed are each and all of them Satan's officers and agents under his special command and superintendence. Thirdly, The word of command peremptorily requires that all Satan's officers and agents should pervert God's word, laws, Bible doctrines, means of grace, ordinances, providential designs, ways, and works, by corrupting, distorting, altering, and opposing them, as need requires, to change them into fables, phantoms, and fanciful imaginations, not worthy to be believed by anti-Christians, although Satan knows them to be no fictions, but eternal realities. And Fourthly, The encouragement of reward promised to all the officers, agents, and recruits of Antichrist, is to be conferred on the faithful, when Bible religion is destroyed from the earth. And the amount of the encouragement to be hoped for, is to dwell forever with Satan, where he dwells, and to share with him the honors and glories of all the victories of his crown and kingdom in the lake that burns with unquenchable fire!!! Incontrovertible facts evince, that in compliance with what is believed to be Satanic devices and injunctions, God's word, ordinances, ways, and works, are now actually perverted in the schools of Antichrist throughout the whole world. God has given the Bible as his word to mankind, 238 VARIOUS PERVERSIONS OF GOD'S TRUTH. and commanded them to read, and teach it to their children, that they may be wise unto salvation. Hence, all who oppose or neglect the reading of the Bible in families and schools; pervert the word of God from the use for which it was given, in compliance with the injunctions of Antichrist. God declares that his word is true, and requires mankind to believe it. Hence, those who disbelieve the Bible, or any part of it, pervert the word of God, as Satan requires them to do; and if they teach others to disbelieve the Bible, they are officers in the hosts of Antichrist. God has given the Bible to man, as the rule of life, and special means of grace. Hence, all who neither read nor believe the Bible, pervert all God's laws and means of grace, and enroll themselves under the third banner of Antichrist, as the enemies of the God of love and salvation. God's word is pure and perfect; and mankind are forbidden to add to or to diminish from it, on penalty of eternal exclusion from its blessings, and the endless suffering of its curses. Hence, all those who are opposed to its doctrines, and explain them into antiChristian heresy; or alter and translate the Divine word different from its original truth, to favor any new-fangled shibboleth or party, are perverters of the word of God, and identify themselves with the powers of Antichrist. The Holy Bible contains God's laws and ordinances. Hence, those who do not worship God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as One God, by unreserved submission to His will, by repentance, and faith in the blood of atonement: who do not pray to God for mercy, nor praise him for his justice, goodness, and truth; who ecrate his Sabbaths by labor, or gatherings in par |