Show SERMON SEEMON by onson ORSON PRATT tabernacle sep sept t til vii 11 1859 it I 1 y REPORTED BT BY OD GD WATT it la Is my intention this forenoon it the lord will assis ame by his spirit to say a few words upon the principles of the gospel or in other words the first principles of that great plan of salvation which was devised before the foundation of the world for the benefit of the inhabit inhabitants ints of this earth the gospel ofies of jesus christ is of great antiquity it was ordained in the councils of heaven before the world was and all of its principles ordinances pro promises amses and blessings were instituted in the beginning before mal mai man was placed upon the earth these principles have been revealed to the human family in various ade ages of the world not only revealed in n the meridian of timely jesus and the apostles but to generations and ages before the apostles lived on the earth before I 1 commence investigating these principles to know precisely what they are f I 1 will read from some come new ne revelations which were revealed to the prophet joseph smith in the month of december 1830 they are revel actions concerning adam enoch noah and the gospel of salvation as it was wag made manifest to them that which I 1 am about to read is i an extract from the prophecy of enoch a book wook revealed by inspiration to the prophet jose joseph smith some 29 years ago 11 And Enoch the words of god and said hath God made known unto my fathers that ali all men must repent and ile he called upon our fath eradat by his own voice voice say saying engl engi am god I 1 made the world and men before they were wert and he also said into him turn unto me and hearken hear kerr unto my voice and believe and a nd repent of all thy transgressions and be e baptized even by water in the name of mine only begotten Son which is full of grace and truth which is jesus christ the only onty name which shall be given under heaven whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men ye sh shall all ail ask all things in his name arra alra aiss ais d whenever I 1 ye shall ask it shall be given and our fathe rAdam unto the lord and said why is it that men must repent and be baptized by water and the lord bald said into adam behold I 1 have forgiven thee thy trans transgressions res in iri the garden of eden hence came the saying abroad among among imong the people that christ hath atoned for original guilt where in the sins of the parents cannette cannotte can cannot notte DC answered upon the heads of the children for they are whole from the foundation of the world and the lord unto adam saying baying Ini inh inasmuch as thy children are conceived conc conceived elvet eiveT in sin even so when they begin to grow row up i sin conceive concel veth th in their hearts and they t e taste tas e the bitter that they may know to prize t the e good and Itis it is given unto them to k know ow good from evil wherefore they are agents unto themselves em and I 1 have given unto you law and commandment wherefore teach it unto your children that all mena men everywhere must repent or they can in no wise inherit the kingdom of god for no unclean thing can dwell there or dwell in lils his presence for in the language of adam man of holiness is his name and thenamae the name of his ilia only begotten is the so son fi of man alan even jesus christ a righteous judge which shall shail come 1 I give unto you a commandment to 0 o teach these things freely unto your children saying that hia hla inasmuch as they were born in antol tithe the world by the fall which death by water and blood and the a spirit r it which I 1 have made and so become of dal dust t a living soul even BO so ye must be born again of water and the spirit and cleansed by blood even the tha blood of mine aline oni only onix begotten unto the mysteries of the kingdom kingdom of heaven that ye may be sanctified from all sin and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world and eternal life ilfe liffin in the world to come even immortal glory for b by tj the water ye keep the commandment by the spirit ye are justified and by the blood ye are sanctified that in you is given the record of heaven the comforter the peaceable things of immortal glory the truth of all things that which quick eneth all things which mabeth alive all things that which all things and aind hath alt all power according to wisdom mercy truth justice and judgment aind and now behold I 1 say unto you this is the plan of salvation unto all men the b blood lood of mine only begotten which shall come in the meridian of time and behold all things have their likeness and all things are created and made to bear record of me both things which are temporal and things which are spiritual things which are in in the heavens above and things which are on the earth and thin thins things thina a which are under the earth both above and beneath en eath all things bear record of me and it came to pass when the lord had spoken with adam our father that adam cried unto the lord and he was caught away by the spirit of the lord and was carried down into the water and was laid under the water and was brought forth out of the water and thus he was baptized and the spirit of god descended upon him and thus he was was born of the spirit and he became quickened in the inner mam man and he heard a voice out of heaven saying thou art baptised baptized sed with fire and with the hoir holy ghost this is the record of the father and the son from henceforth aind and forever and thou art after the order of him who was without beginning of days or end of years from ayom all eternity behold thou art one in in me a son of god an and d thus may all become my sons amen I 1 have read this that the latter day saints who have not had the opportunity of reading these inspired translations of the prophet may have an opportunity of leir learning ning the fact that the gospel goshet was revealed unto man in the earliest ages of our world I 1 will read also a short extract from the prophecy of enoch in relation to a commandment and a mission given unto him and it came to pass that the lord said unto in me e look and I 1 looked and beheld the land of sharon and the land of enoch and the land of omner and the land of heni and the land of shem and the land of haner and the land of and all the inhabitants thereof and the lord said unto me go to this people and say unto them repent lest I 1 come out and smite them with a curse and they die and ana he gave unto me a commandment that I 1 should baptise in the name of the father and the son which is full of grace race and truth I 1 and the holy spirit S I 1 it which w hl lc li fears dears bears record of the father and ind zirl girl the e son thus we see that not only adam understood the principles of faith repentance ba baptism p ti ISM the new birth and the gift of the holy ghost but enoch also understood the same plan and had authority given him to administer in the ordinances of it we will now pass passa along longto to noah still reading from the new translation of the old testament not translated by king james translators but by the prophet of the living godi god godl translated by y the gift and power of inspiration from on high and in those days thero there were giants glants lants on the earth and they sought noah to t take a e away his life but the lord was with noah and the power of the lord was upon him and the lord ordained noah after his ilia order and commanded him that he should go forth and declare his ilia gospel unto the children of men even as it was given unto enoch and it came to pass that noah called upon men that they should repent but they hearkened not unto his words and also after they had beard him they came up before him saying D behold we are the tile sons of god have we ive not taken unto ourselves the daughters of mend men and are we not eating and drinkin gand marrying and giving in marriage our wives bear unto us child renand the bame same are mighty men which are like unto them of old men of great renown and they hearkened not to the words of noah and god daiv saw that the wickedness of men had become great in the earth and evey every man was lifted up in the imagination of the thoughts of his heart being only evil continually and it came to pass that noah continued his preaching unto the people saying hearken and give heed unto my words believe and repent of your sins and be baptised baptized sed in the name of jesus christ the son of god even as our fathers did andye and ye shall receive the gift of the holy ghost that ye may have all things made manifest and if ye do nou not not this the floods will come in in I 1 upon you nevertie less they hearkened botand it repented noah and his heart was pained that the lord had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart you recollect kin king iames james translators ren ender derit it and d it repented tho the lord that he had made man on the earth but the tian translation given give riby by inspiration says it repented noah no a h and his heart was pained that the thie lor lord h had a d made man on the earth and the lord said I 1 will destroy man whom I 1 have havi created from the fae fare of the earth both man and heastand bea stand the creeping things and the fowls of the air for it re enneth teth noah that I 1 I 1 have created them ani ang and that I 1 have made them and he hath called upon me and they have sought his life these extracts which I 1 have read concerning noah you will find in a little work called THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE published by F D richards in en england a few years ago we might go on and aza read further extracts from the book of abraham a b book ook also revealed b by inspire inspiration tl ion lon to the prophet joseph smith slowing showing that the gospel gos pel pei was revealed to him and how he received the promise that thai all the children of men that would obey that same gospel preached by him should bf be justified and anu ana become his children called his seed and heirs according to the promise but I 1 have read sufficient for the information of the latter day saints upon this subject I 1 know it is customary at a the present day to select some passage of scripture as a text upon which to make remarks sometimes I 1 follow this custom and sometimes I 1 do not I 1 will twill just observe however that we have no examples on record that jesus or his bis apostles followed this plan pian in their preaching neither have we anything on record showing that jesus or his apostles opened their meet meetings by singing and then praying and then singing again and then preaching we frequently conform to the present day custom in this respect and we often do not conform to them as we e feel led by the sp spirit irit of truth neither was it customary in the days of the apostles to make long prayers but if they had something very important ini octant to communicate to the leq people they iid ild did not wish the time occupied in any other way only in delivering the message they had for them hence we generally find t their h air prayers fon ion consisting of a very few sentences I 1 shall select this morning mornin a text of scripture corroborative of those I 1 have already read I 1 shall select it from king james translation you will find it in the gospel according to john iii chap 5 v jesus answered verily verily I 1 say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit sp irit he cannot enter into the kingdom of god GOV there la is much comprehended in this passage that is not nob fully realized and understood by the great mass of the human family to fully 1 understand it is necessary we should understand herstand der stand the true condition of fallen man manthen then we nit will see the necessity of a new birth li otherwise perhaps we would bee see no necessity for it it I 1 Is s recorded in scripture history that our first parents while in the garden arden of eden ani ahi transgressed a certain law and commandment of the almighty al ml I 1 lit Mf by b partaking of a certain forbidden fruit p which transgression brought them under conde condemnation meation and subjected them to a certain penalty which was the death of their bodies or of flesh and bones dust thou art and unto dust thou return was the penalty pronounced aced upon adam previous iotis to this thi 3 adam was a pure innocent being he was not contaminated with sin and was entirely destitute of the knowledg knowledge e of good and evil ile he was a being intended intended intend eT in his construction to endure for evermore death had no dominion over his tabernacle tabet nacle nacie the principle of blood which flows in the mortal tabernacles of men did not exist in his immortal body but his veins and arteries contained a fluid of a far purer ur er nature than that of blondin blo bio odin other words the they y were filled with the sl spirit r it of life which was calculated to preserve hem them in immortality though they partook of various kinds of fruit in the garden yet there was no fruit in that garden except one called the forbidden fruit which would have had the least tendency to destroy the principles of immortality that reigned within them they were organized to endure bodies and spirits united millions of ages by the transgression of that simple law given to them they fell from im immortality to mortality their bodies partook of disease the seeds of death were sown within theland the mand in the day that adam eat cat thereof reckoning according to the lords time he passed away and returned to his mother dust the probability is there were vere deleterious properties or poisonous qualities in the food he atey ate which were calculated to introduce into the system the seeds of mortality and so change it that various forces of nature should have uve power over it that in time it should die and be dissolved to dust was this the only penalty pronoun pronounced qed upon father adam no this was only a part of the penalty there was dwelling in each of the tabernacles of adam and eve a personage of spirit formed of more refined materials than flesh and bones boness materials that were intelligent immortal and eternal of the present t resent day may object to this but we donot do not believe elleve in an immaterial substance the spirits that dwelt in our first paren parent s were capable of thinking feeling understanding perceiving acting possessing posses a will and a judgment in other words they i wre ere ern a part baat ilat great substance of life or spirit thich fills filli the immensity of spa space cc that is in all i thin things arid through all things the spirit 0 t m man n had also aiso a penalty pronounced up enit onit gnit because it yield yielded eato to disobedience by giving heed to the tempter for by yielding to his teachings it became subject to him as a servant if I 1 we become subject to a being we are under his hia dominion and power and he controls us and exercises authority au authority thorit over us whether goo good dorbad or bad adam and ave eve had placed ed themselves in a condition that the tempter had complete control over their spirit they became servants to the fallen angels to do ac cr carding ding aing to th their ir biddi bidding I 1 in let us now examine tow how the fall affected their posterity we do not inherit adams transi transgression but the consequences of it there is a difference between inheriting the original sin and feeling the consequences of it to illustrate we do do not say when the children inherit the diseases of their parents brought on by drunkenness debauchery lasciviousness and wickedness of 0 every deschi description that it is the effect of the childrens insi insl individual sins this is not so they only inherit the he consequences of the sins of the parents so it t is with all the posterity 0 of adam the consequences of the transgression of adam and eve have |