Excerpt from A Brief Exposition of the Fanaticism, False Doctrines, and Absurdities, of the People Called Shakers: Contained in Their Own Religious Creed, or Confession of Faith, as Published by Themselves Now, when we come to consider that man has his origin in this world, both as to his flesh and spirit, and that his organization is such, that he is not only susceptible of divine impressions, but capable of improving under them to that degree, that they become his light and his life, his comfort and his hope. How rational therefore is it, as he is designed tor immortality and eternal life, that the spirit of nature, which constitutes the natural man, should not only be restricted, but denied the ascendancy and supreme rule in his affections. Hence says the Father, in figurative language to Adam, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof, -thou shalt surely die. As much as to say, thy receiving this twofold fruit will sever thy life from me, the spirit of dis vine life; because, thy knowing good and evil for thyself, is taking an independent ground, rejecting the influence of my spirit, consequent Iy it is withdrawn and thy soul left in a state of spiritual death. And hence saith the Son and sent of the Father to restore man to this divine spirit, from which he had revolted, except a man deny himself, take up his cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.