21  And now I command you, my servant Joseph, to ^arepent and walk more uprightly before me, and to yield to the persuasions of men no more;

  5  After it was truly manifested unto this first elder that he had received a remission of his sins, he was ^bentangled again in the vanities of the world;

  28  During the space of time which intervened between the time I had the vision and the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three—having been forbidden to join any of the religious sects of the day, and being of very tender years, and persecuted by those who ought to have been my friends and to have treated me kindly, and if they supposed me to be deluded to have endeavored in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me—I was left to all kinds of temptations; and, mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature; which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations, offensive in the sight of God. In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature. But I was guilty of levity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was called of God as I had been. But this will not seem very strange to any one who recollects my youth, and is acquainted with my native cheery temperament.

  16  When ye have ^atransgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.

  31  Wherefore, he gave commandments unto men, they having first transgressed the first commandments as to things which were temporal, and becoming as gods, knowing good from evil, placing themselves in a state to act, or being placed in a state to act according to their wills and pleasures, whether to do evil or to do good—

  14  Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and ^bcommandments of men, that turn from the truth.

  29  But they receive it not; for they perceive not the light, and they turn their hearts from me because of the ^cprecepts of men.

  7  But ye are commanded in all things to ask of God, who giveth liberally; and that which the Spirit testifies unto you even so I would that ye should do in all holiness of heart, walking uprightly before me, considering the end of your salvation, doing all things with prayer and thanksgiving, that ye may not be seduced by evil spirits, or doctrines of devils, or the ^gcommandments of men; for some are of men, and others of devils.

  19  I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: "they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the ^fcommandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof."

  15  For they have ^astrayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant;

  15  For thou hast suffered the counsel of thy ^adirector to be trampled upon from the beginning.