“No one buyeth their shipslading any more”.
The shipslading of a vessel is its cargo, which represents the revenues of the merchants, who own, or charter, or use, the ship. The Roman Ship has for many ages been freighted with wares, which have, through the trading of its importers, brought back to the State “lading of gold, and of silver, and of precious stones, and of pearl, and of fine linen, and of purple, and of silk, and of scarlet; and of all thyine wood, and every ivory utensil, and every article of most precious wood, and of brass, and of iron, and of marble; and cinnamon, and odors, and ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and grain, and cattle, and sheep, and horses, and of carriages, and of bodies, and souls of men”. Hence these things come to represent the spiritual wares, which cause the revenues to flow in from all countries into the treasury of the Church; such, for instance, as masses for the dead, absolution for the living, indulgences for sin, consecrations of cemeteries, churches, sermonizings, reading Latin prayers, ordaining priests, consecrating bishops, sprinkling babies with “holy water,” and putting the sign of the cross upon their foreheads, marriages, burials, canonization of saints, lying wonders, and so forth. These belong to the invoice of wares which are the stock in trade of the soul and body merchants of the Great Harlot and her Daughters and Abominations of the Babylonian World. All the State and Nonconformist Churches of Europe and America deal more or less extensively in the invoice. They do not all keep the same assortment of wares;[1] but they will be found to deal in some of the articles enumerated as the lading of the old Ship Babylon, whereby they are proved to belong to the “shipmasters, ships’ companies, sailors, and traders upon the sea,” who bewail, and lament the fall of their harlot- mother, “because no one buyeth their shipslading any more” — the clergy-craft is played out, hireling priests and parsons, alias “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” become a worthless and contemptible drug, esteemed by none. No man or woman will any longer give “carnal things” in exchange for their twaddling conceits, and religious consecrations, and consolations, which they now style their “spiritual things”. Protestant-
[1] Papal profiteering—See Rev. 18:12-15.
Tetzel’s Procession for the Sale of Indulgences
John Diezel, or Tetzel, was a Dominican monk, who, in the early sixteenth century sponsored the wholesale sale of Indulgences. Bearing a great red cross, he headed processions that would enter towns for the sale of indulgences, or the remission of punishment due for sins. In front of the procession, on a velvet cushion, was borne the Pontiffs bull of grace. The inhabitants of the town to be entered were told that “The grace of God and of the Holy Father was at their gates”. A printed pardon was sold to those who were prepared to buy. On occasions, indulgences are still offered for sale by the Church, whilst other forms of merchandise are also engaged in. These include payment for the saying of Mass in order to ensure the speedy progress of the souls of the departed through the purging fires of purgatory; and so forth. See 2 Pet. 2:1-4 — Publishers.
ism, in all its harlots and abominations, will be as defunct as its Romish- Mother. It will translate no more murderers from the scaffold, to “kingdoms beyond the bounds of time and space;” it will give no thieves and prostitutes the “consolations of religion” in the article of death; it will regenerate no more puling, unconscious, babes with “prevenient” or “subvenient,” grace; it will consecrate no more Saint-Bazaars, (churches) and cemeteries for the dead; it will no more befuddle the brains of silly women, and sillier men, with its pulpit and vapourous inanities. All this foolery, paid for in “gold, and silver, fine flour, grain, cattle, sheep,” and so forth, in salaries, tithes, and church-rates, will be abolished by Yahweh Elohim, who will permit no more lies to be preached in His name by Latin, Protestant, or Greek (Zech. 13:2,3,4). All these things will be substituted by the knowledge of His glory by which the nations of the earth shall be illuminated. They will then come to Him from the ends of the earth, and declare their conviction, that their Catholic and Protestant fathers “inherited lies, and things wherein there is no profit” (Jer. 16:19). These unprofitable and lying vanities, sold to them at an enormous price by spiritual impostors, for the cure of their souls, they will indignantly repudiate. The veil which is now spread over all nations being destroyed (Isa. 25:7), they will look back with astonishment upon their present degradation and insanity. Freed from existing spiritual slavery, they will rejoice in the liberty of the Truth, and wisely resolve to walk no more after the imagination of an evil heart (Jer. 3:17); but to walk in the paths of Yahweh the Elohim of Jacob (Isa. 2:3): who will turn to them a pure language, that they may all call upon the Name of Yahweh, to serve Him with one consent (Zeph. 3:9).