I
T^msTmaascsara
ZION’S LANDMARKS
DEVOTED TO THE DEFENSE OF THE PRIMITIVE BAPTISTS.
“TO THJET! JLi^AV TO THIG TJESTIMONY.’
Volume II.
Wilson, North Carolina, October I, 1869.
Number 21
I From the. Primitive Baptist Fcliruary 27,1836.J
Measure of the Devil’s Foot.
BY JOSHUA lAWBENCE.
Brother Editor:—I send you the
inciisute of t.he devil’s foot for pub- i
licatiori, if you see cause.
Among the many inventions of
mankind, they have invented and
settled a .sta.ndard of weiiilits and mea-
sures, which is acknowledged as the
law and rule of the land, and by
which all men have a right to try all
eights and measures they suspect to
he false. So has God in the New
Testament given a standard weight
and measure, to try ail doctrines and
ordinances and discipline by, when
suspected by his church or people of
being false. And they have a right
to try all doctrines, &c., by this stan-
4vifu.!:iiti.t ^.nd Qhri^tian^mfg^t^re,.
and if found false, to charge the
oilier with the same false measure,
and prosecute him in the bargain for
keeping a false measure. If all this
be true, then 1 have a right to mea
sure the devil’s foot by this standard
of God’s ovm law, for the welfare of
the Christian community ; and I also
have a right to measure and weigh by
this standard, all doctrines ot men
that I may suspicion of being false,
and charge them wdth the same.
When I was a boy, my father’s
negroes and the old women used to
tell me many frightful things about
the devil; and among the rest, that
he might be known whenever I saw
him by a cloven foot, which they pro
nounced clubben. So I formed my
ideas of the devil in my youth, that
he had a foot like a great maul or
club ; if this was the truth, I could
tell his track wherever I saw it in the
gospel field. But since I have be
come familiarly acquainted with old
Satan, I have found they beiied their
betters and that he has not got a foot
like a club or maul; but that he has
a cloven foot and not a clubben foot.
A cloven foot, that is, a foot like a
cow, or sheep, or hog; or you may
call it a forked foot, or a two foot, or
a parted foot like a cow, and not like '
a horse or jack—that is the meaning ^
of the scripture cloven foot, a parted
hoof.
Now you know that under the
ceremonial law all beasts that parted
the hoof and chewed the cud, were
said to be clean beasts; the swine
parts the hoof but don’t chew the
cud, therefore unclean. T’ou pass
along and find a hog’s track; you
say, here went a sheep'—^how do you
know ? look, here is his forked foot.
So you see some judgment and ac
quaintance with tracks is necessary,
in oriler to know a sheep’s foot from
a hog’s foot. So it requires some
judgment and experience to know the
devil’s track from Christ’s track, or
a hypocrite’s track from a saint’s
track, more than it does to know a
sheep’s or deer’s from a goat’s or
hog’s track. But I can tell them all
‘(.yn.ni-, Nr. vvya u d ep tb en t.b a t I .^houl d
laws for God and enjoin them on
men to ohserve to get to heaven, and
thus yoke and burden the saints in
their march along the king’s high
way of holiness heavenward ; fourth
ly, zealous for trifles God never prOf.
hibited by his word, wdth persecution,
fire and sword to all that did not
come up and bow to his law's and
rules of tradition, and doctrines of
the devil and hypocritical men ; fifth
ly, whenever you come on the devil’s
track it will smell of the command
ments of men, tradition, money, per
secution, blood and death, all under
the cloak of religion and thus saith
the Lord ; sixthly, fiery zeal for God
and his cause, zealous for works and
self doings by law', and works for
salvation, and envy, hatred and
death for all w'ho dare
to go to
undertake to track the devil
measure his foot, and little will old
satan thank me for that. However,
he and I have been at loo-o-erheads
for many } ears, and if he or his agents
get mad, w'e must fight it out. For
I have .set out to follow his track
and give the measure of his foot to a
hair’s breadth, if I can in a short
wa,y.
So I must tell you that wo must
find his track fiefore we measure his
foot, and secondly, in order to find
his track we must go into the paths
or by-ways where he generally walks.
Don’t think it strange if I tell you,
that I am well acquainted with many
of his paths and by-ways; for wt
have been well acquainted for Jgfty
years, and have had many a hard
brush and tug to see who shall be
served, Christ or Beelzebub. And
this is not all—I shall know liis
track as soon as I see it. But before
wo set out to look for his track, 1
will tell you some of the paths ho
used to walk, and you know old bea
ten roads are the easiest to travel,
and the easiest to sec his track in-
One of his old paths, was directly
across God’s commands ; secondly,
prohibiting wdiat God had allowed to y
men, and thereby crossing the path
im f
anim 'by any 0tii5r tUiiipiK.-o
hypocrites, two coat men, and go-
betweencrs of God and devil, and
self-righteous men for gain by godli
ness when the wind blows most in
favor for gain on that side. For
goats in scripture are represented
fierce, and again they are put as em
blems of lustful men ; and this is a
true picture of all hypocrites, xind
again, a hypocrite is a cloven, or
tw'O-tongued man, and he is a tw'O
coated man, and also a bag man.—
And this have I noticed lor forty
years, that whenever you find a man
with a svfcct tongue, or honey and
pancake mouth, beware of that man;
he will take you in if he can, and his
sweet words is his craft to do it, from
the preacher to ,the h^'se jockey.—
These are take ins that I have ob
served. But if you find one of your
old
and not pay toll at their gate, with
adding to God’s laws for salvation.
These used to be some of his old
paths, where I think we can find his
track ; and if you will go with me in
search, I will take the measure of
his foot in short order. Of his by-'
paths I perhaps may tell you some
fe\v things as I go along. Thus we
will leave fu'-ther remarks and go
and look in his first old paths for his
track. But before wc set out it is
necessary to tell you that Christ
compares the wicked to goats set on
his left hand, and goats have cloven
feet you kno'w, as well as the sheep
old blunL , rough snoken fellows,
doli’t^e u^-ai(l of Imir;""lie 'won’t
set on his right hand. And you
know that Christ says to tb.e pharisai-
cal hypocrites, you are of j'our fa
ther the devil and the lust of your fa
ther ye wdll do. But yet if you
will examine the bottom of a goat’s
foot and that of a sheep, you will
find a difference between them.—
But as I am under the necessity of
being as short as I can, I will not
detain you further by preparatory
remarks. The cloven tongues of fire
hurt you, he has but one tongue, and
not two.
You will recollect that I told you
the old women w'crc mistaken about
the devil’s foot, that since I had be
come acquainted with him I had
found out he had not a club foot; if
so, he might have a shoe made like
some other club-footed folks, to hide
his club foot—but that I told you he
had a cloven foot, which I shall try
ro provje before 1 am done. But the
great (Question porhaps wdth you is
to know how he came by thisAloveu
foot. This I could tell you if I had
time and room, since 1 have the
deril’s genealogy before me; bpt
tiion it would not bo to my purpose,
since it is his track and not his foot
that we have set out to look for.—
llemcmber I have told you tw'o things
—first, that one of the devil’s old
paths he used to walk lies directly
across God’s commands ; and second
ly, that I have to prove he has a
cloven foot, 'i'hese things I shall
that set on tlie apostles, was to rep
! :
ookii
4;
re
til),* gift given
tongues, or
them to spea
the
different;
faniruages of the nations. So tin
of God’s permis.sion,; thirdly, to make | cloven leet ol gi.*ats is to r'-present. li. li ; ‘'n-.i
attempt to do
it, do }'ou be
i now conic to prove
tile devil’s old paths
a cro.-is U
1
arid while 1 am ih
fn
or his track,
that one of
* t
ios Jh'ectly
commands. Genesis,
d' the tn o of tlie know
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