'45^ HISTORY" OP 



able number of receivers and embracers of the New Chtircti 

 doctrines. In point of intellect and activity, misurpassed 

 by the same number, who, though few, did, unaided by 

 other religious denominations, purchase a lot of ground 

 in Lancaster city, and erected a neat New Jerusalem 

 temple, in 183 7, in which stated meetings for religious 

 exercises are held. The exercises are conducted by a lay 

 member elected for that purpose. The sacraments are 



entering the kingdom of heaven, he must be regenerated or 

 created anew ; which great work is effected in a progressive 

 manner, by the Lord alone, by charity and faith as mediums, 

 during man's co-opcralion : That as all men are redeemed, 

 all are capable of being regenerated, and consequently saved, 

 every one according to his state: And that the regenerate 

 man is in communion with the angels of heaven, and the un- 

 regenerate with the spirits of hell : But that no one is con- 

 demned for hereditary evil, any further than as he makes it 

 his own by actual life ; whence all who die in infancy are 

 saved, special means being provided by the Lord in the other 

 life for that purpose. 



VIIL That Repentance is the first beginning of the Church 

 in man ; and that it consists in a man's examining himself, 

 both in regard to his deeds and his intentions, in knowing and 

 acknowledging his sins, confessing them before the Lord, sup- 

 plicating him for aid, and beginning a new life: That to this 

 end, all evils, whether of affection, of thought, or of life, are 

 to be abhorred and shunned as sins against God, and because 

 they proceed from infernal spirits, who in the aggregate are 

 called the Devil and Satan ; and that good affections, good 

 thoughts, and good actions, are to be cherished and performed, 

 because they are of God and from God : That these things are 

 lo be done b}^ man as of himself; nevertheless, under the ac- 

 knowledgment and belief, that it is from the Lord, operating in 

 him and by him : That so far as man shuns evils as sins, so 

 far they are removed, remitted, or forgiven ; so far also he does 

 good, not from himself, but from the Lord; and in the same 

 degree he loves truth, has faith, and is a spiritual man : And 

 that the Decalogue teaches what evils are sins. 



