A REFUTATION OP tHI e.T. wn, Iff!LLEU’S OF JUDGMENT, 18 43, -itt 2,300 DAY8 OF THE BOOK OF DANIEL, WERE FIN^ Stored tears ago, and that the end of pipVOT take place, as yet, by more JrAgr eleven hundred years. ^JOSIAH PRIEST, ion Millennium,” ^American Antiquities, "History of Angels of the Scriptures,” kc. ucnred accorilj^g to Law* know, before we sow, \ a fed of ieed we’re planting, Bould say, in the harvest day, ^ie fruit of ranting. LBANY: '•> BV fe WENDELL. /ORDER OP THE WORK* \ First—To show that this earth and its hetorens, ofaS phere, is to be totally destroyed and removed out of iti the time of the final judgment, and a new one created stead, in opposition to Mr. Miller's opinion, that it is mere) be melted down, and then restored, remodelled and made ] out of the original matter. Secohd—To show that Mr. Miller’s plan of % day<0f j judgment, taking place at the time of thejirst rffurre^io next year, is exceedingly incorrect, and sWrenave^^Ae Bd$y statements on that appaling subject—in tecikffi-- Third—To show that Mr. Miller’s caicu^o^resptoAng th date of the 2,300 days of the prophet lChipfel,.t&h Qt! years mistake, and that they were accomplished in -thftjtfar 17 Fourth—To show from Scripture when it 1® likely the ed of the time is to come, or the time to da^py the workl by Jirel to cast it out of right and remembrancer *trd to creajp th0^|vj heavens and the new earth, as stated Rev. -Ik 1. ^ We hope the reader will bear with patted an westigatied. of the arguments of this little worky although the Subjects S® of the most dreadful desc rip tio ^justified, however, by tbai$ Book to which tec all bow with the deepest revewace-^T^j Biau:. \ i FIRST SECTION. [ That a member of the universe of God, holding the character |of a globe, should be taken from its orb and destroyed, is a I thought of the most appaling character. But the power. which mjt' v the Worlds, as well as the one now occupied by the family K 8&h, ft certainly able to remove any one of them, or even ally iln a moment of time. Respecting the earth which we inhabit, Fit is said in certain very ancient writings, held to be inspired, IftHat there is a time to come, when it is to be removed from its l^resent location in the heavens, by a total destruction, and that iby^the element, fire, 1 To prove this, it will not be necessary to go largely over the . whole Scriptures, as that would be too great a work for a small tyjok like this, but shall bring to view those passages most con-* /spicuous and plainly thal point, and which have always been re-$so#ed to as proof of aucfc an event, by the orthodox churches. •; "the most prominent among these writings, in relation to such ;a catastrophe, are the following. 24 Peter, 3, 7, 10,11, as follows : “ But the heavens and | the earth, which now by the same word, are kept in store, re-. served unto fire, against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly inen. But the day of the Lord will come, as a thief in 'the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away, with a great 1* 4 noise, and the elements melt with fervent heat; the earth also* j and all the works that are therein, shall be burned up. Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements ^ shall melt with fervent heat.” These passages are extremely explicit as to the actual destruc-i tion and entire removal of the globe Irom its place in the heav-j| ens, which is seen in the expressions of “ Shall pass away,” thef, “ earth also,” and the works that are therein, shall be u hurtic# up” , 1 In this description, as above, we see nothing that looks lj^ merely burning the earth over, or like melting it down on/y, is contended by Mr. Miller} so as to purify it, and then after that to re-fashion and fit it up as the home of the sainta after the day of judgment, for the words “ pas$ away,” and u burnt up,” are* not thus to be trifled with, as the whole statement is emphati*;J cally to the point, that the whole mass, earth, seas, atmosphere, works of men, &c., are all to be thus destroyed, and placed where they shall no more come into remembrance. Isaiah 65,17. That St. Peter thus understood it, we prove from his own i words, in the same 3d chapter, 2d Peter, verse 13, where it is | written: “Nevertheless we, according to his (God’s promise, j look for new heavens and a new earth. See Isaiah 65: 17, where that promise to which he alludes is made, and also Psalms,j to2: 25, 26. To renew, or to re-fix the old, by any process j whatever, would not be producing a new world ; it would b$i but reorganizing the ancient particles of the same earth. That i this globe on which we live shall not thus be re-modelled, is? shown also from the 102d Psalm, 25, 26, as follows : “ Of old j 5 luukt thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are1 foe work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt entire, yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall b^ changed.*’ The idea of the globe being remodelled is wholly unphiloso-|>hical, in relation to the end to be attained, which is, according to Mr. Miller, that it should become the final home of all the saints of the globe, in all time, as it will not be large enough tb contain them, by a vast amount, seeing that at the resurrection Koflies of the saints are to occupy space, tangibility and location, |$g same as does the resurrection body of Jesus Christ, now in heaven, as he ascended from Moi^nt Olivet. This is shown from Luke 24: 39, where he has said of himself, “ Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” This proves his tangibility of person and location. And that the saints, after the resurrection, are to have just such bodies as Jesus Christ had after his resurrection, is shown from Phil. 3 : 20, 21, as follows : For our conversation is in heaven ; from lienee also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” ||rom this fact, that of the saints having bodies which will occupy space the same as to size as they did before death, it will folI6|r, that the globe, if it is to be no larger after it is remodelled than it is now, will not be large enough to contain them by an amtmnt of untold millions. On this account a new creation of a new heaven and new earth, which shall be almost infinitely largertie called for, on the philosophical principle of con- 6 Venince, above that which this earth, io relation to itsaize, could then afford. That this earth on which we now dwell, is actually to be re* moved and another created in its stead, of a more ample character, is shown from Isaiah, 65: 17, as follows: u For behold 1 create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shalLnot be remembered, nor come into mind.” And in the next chapter of the same writer, namely, the 66th, 22, the same thing is said again, as follows: “ The new heavens and the new earth which I shall make, shall remain before me saith the Lord.” 1 The same doctrine is held by the Revelation, see chapter 1, as follows: “ And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, fol the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea.” And again, Rev. 20: 11, the same thing is alluded to in the following words. “ And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was found no place (in the universe of God) for them.” Does this last passage, or any of the others above quoted, df the same class, look like vamping up the first earth, and the firit heavens, when it is said in all these, that this very earth is finally to pass away, and to be removed, so as not to come any more into the remembrance of the inhabitants of the new creation, or the new earth, and the new heavens ? But Mr. Miller’s plan is merely to melt down the globe like a ball of lead in a pan over the fire, and then to refit or reform it again for the reception of the saints, after the first resurrection. But this idea is neither Scriptural nov philosophical, as we have shown above, on account of the new .earth acking suite ble dimensions. 7 *That the earth, or globe, as it is, must be removed out of its present location in the heavens, is further shown from Rev 20! 14, as follows. w And death and hell Were cast into the lake of fire.” By the terms death apd hell, it is agreed to on all hands, signifies the earth, and hell its internal parts, as it is on the earth where death takes place, and in the earth and sea that men are buried. The hell here spoken of in connexion with death, according to Scripture, is not the hell of the damned, in the lake of fire, where Satan is to be shut up during a thousand years, as said by St. John, chapter 20, and to where he is again to be sent after the second resurrection, see the same chapter; these terms relate entirely to the globe as it is. To this‘opinion, namely, that by the terms death and hell are meant the earth we live on, Mr. Miller agrees, though it is likely that he did not foresee the result of such an admission in overthrowing his theory of the earth’s renewal, after the time of the first resurrection, or the day of judgment, as he calls it. See Miller’s u Second Coming of Christ,” page 31, as follows : “ By the sea, death and hell, I understand the sea grave, and place of punishment. The sea and the graves would give up the dissolved particles of the body, and hell or Hades, would give up their departed spirits, this would constitute the second resurrection.” On account of Mr. Miller’s coupling these two, namely, death «nd hell, together, the same as the Revelator does, we presume a6 well as the inspired writer, meant that hell, or the place of .departed wicked spirits, is in the interior parts of the earth, who are there to remain, their bodies on its surface, in their pav^0gj|nd their spirits in the caverns of the interior parts of the 8 O^rih, to be thus held till the last resurrection, when tins death ^nd this heU are to be cast into another place, called* by way of distinction^ lake of fire. If this is not correct, it is hard to tell what either Mr. Miller or the Revelator means, as we can have nb idea of casting hell into hell. But if death and hell, in that place, is to be understood as pointing out the globe, then we have a straight forward notion of the meaning of it, and can see how this world can be cast into another place, which is calfed a fake of firej and is situated, God knows where, in the illimitable oceaijt of boundless space, far removed, no doubt, beyond the utnuiil bounds of the created universe, deep sunk in the great and MF-measurable vortex of original darkness. , How, therefore, can Mr. Miller, or any body else, (as he is not without company in this opinion,) argue that the earth is merely to be melted down by fire, and then after that is to be fixed over again so as to become the future home of the saints after the day of judgment ? To renovate, restore, remodel or renews, are all terms, far enough removed from being synonomous with create* That majestic word signifies always, in its primary meaning, to produce entity where there is a nonentity. BEence it is said, as in Gen. i. “ God, in the beginning, created the heavens and the earth.” Who ever thought that this language of Moses alluded to the gathering of the particles of matter, previously existing, out of which God made the world. If the word create signified primarily, when applied to the producing of the earth and its heaven, at first) how comes it that it is not to be understood in the same way when applied by St. John, to the subject of creating a new heaven and a new earth, after this heaven and this earth pa which we live shall be taken away. 9 In relation to this matter, the Very same language is made ifte of by Jesus Christ as was used by Moses, when the world was* made at first. See Rev. xxi. 5, as follows: “ And: He that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new. Write, for these words are true and faithful.” The same language is used by Isaiah as is used by the other inspired writers on this subject. See chap. lvi. 17, “ For behold I create new heavens and a new earth.” The word create never signifies to renew, in its primary meaning. Wherefore we #ee no ground, on reviewing the above texts and arguments, for iKe opinion that this earth is to be the one, which is called in the Scriptures the new creation, but rather that this globe is to be removed, to give place to a more ample and glorious heavens and earthy as the home of the saints, and the location of the new Jerusalem) after the great day of final judgment, and resurrection of. the wicked dead* As to the destruction of the earth by fire, it will be no newr thing in the universe of God, because it is shown in the annals of Astronomy that within the last one hundred years no less than thirteenstars, in different constellations, have totally disappeared from the heavens, exhibiting some of them, even in the day time, all the signs df conflagration. Within the same period, there has appeared ten new stars, where there was nothing heretofore, Forty in the different constellations have changed l&eir magnitudes, by becoming, some of! them much larger, and Others much smaller. Thus, it is seen, that changes, affecting even the entire mass of a system of worlds, are going constantly forward in the universe. With the cause of this we are not acquainted, and yet we may conjecture, that the world* 10 which have disappeared have been destroyed, as this is to he> and that the ten new stars are so many new creations, and those which haw^Tbecome larger and smaller have been shifted, as to position, so as to preserve the balance of the worlds, by attraction and repulsion, and thus to sustain the equilibrium of the universe. That this earth on which we live is to be removed by fire, as the Scriptures declare, will not be, when it occurs, any new thing to the hosts of the invisible world ; nor the producing of the new heavens and the new earth. For an account of the changes in the heavens, as above spoken of, see “ Good’s Book of Nature,* p. 35. SECOND SECTION. That Mr. Miller’s plan of the day of judgment next year is an error, manifests itself from another point of view, winch is set forth in the twentieth chapter of Revelatiqna. In this wonderful chapter John, like a skilful judge, has, with unerring discrimination, summed up, at the end of the Scriptures, the essence and merits of the whole, giving at a glance a view vof the mystery of the procedure of God toward the human race, from the creation down to the end of time. In this chapter, as the closing account of Satan’s operations on the earth against the human family, it is there said—“ And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and.4i great chain- in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent} which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set % 11 Seal upon him) that he should deceive the cations no m6re* till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and th^f^hat sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead (note this) lived not again until the thousand years were finished. Blessed and ljoly is he that hath part in the first resurrection : on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And wheu the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.” In the above seven verses, a period of time amounting to a thousand years; is said, shall take place between the first and the second resurrections, no less than seven times. This period of a thousand years is called the Millennium, and must take place before the day of final judgment or consumation of all things. The belief that gfech a period of time is to come has pervaded the Church in alji ages of time, of both the Jewish and Christian dispensations. In the Jewish Church, a tradition has even prevailed, that the age of the earth is to be seven thousand years, and that the years of the Messiah are to be a thousand, meaning the years of hf|~p6rfect triumph on the earth. This same idea is assuredly recognised by John the Revelator, in the twentieth chap-in the most full and abundant manner. > That all the quotations which we have made out of the 20th 12 ofEerelations ate to be understood inr the most literal sense, as to the terms a thousand years, i* most evident, as there is no mystery, parole, allegory, or any such thing, found connected with that idea. * The term years standing for just So many solar revolutions, or literal years, as are named in the chapter—name" ly, a: thousand. To this opinion Mr. Miller himself agrees. See his “ Second Coming of Christ,” p. 27, as follows: u And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. On thi3 passage,” remarks Mr Miller, u If the (terms) thousand years had been ufced in this chapter, or any where else in the word of God, in a mysticat, or figurative sense, it would have been some where explained, but as it is not, I consider we are to place upon it the most simple construction, and I shall, therefore, understand them literally.” On this admission of Mr. Miller, we propose to show the reader, that his newly invented theory of the day of judgment taking place at the beginning of the thousand years so often spoken of in the 20th Chapter of Revelations, is an error. In order for us to do this, we have only to examine the events foretold in that chapter, as they are to transpire. Firs!1, then, a mighty angel from heaven binds and shuts up Satan in the bottomless pit,- where he is to remain a thousand years, that he may not deceive the nations on the earth any more till the thousand years shall be accomplished. Second, when this shall be done, John 6ays, he saw thrones, and those who are to sit upon them, as well as that he saw the souls of all who had died martyrs, to whom judgment was given, but was in /Mr favor, as there is no law against the righteous, but the wicked only; and that these lived 13 again, after having been dead, and reigned with Christ a thousand years- This fact is, says the Revelator, to constitute this first resurrection. -v Now, at the time when this shall take place, we d^not know, but all those fearful things, or supernatural phenomena, spoken of in the Scriptures, which relate to a sudden destruction of the wicked over the entire earth, will then take place, which by the Divine power may easily be accomplished, and yet be very far from being the end of the world. What though, as St. Paul says, in Thes. 4, 16, -“The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout,’ with the voice of the archangel and the trump of Ood,” when the “ dead in Christ shall rise,” yet all this may be very far from being the end of time, and the burning of the world. In this passage, nor in the whole of that chapter, is there so much as a hint that the world is then to be destroyed. But that some dreadful calamity will then befall the wicked is plainly stated, in the next chapter, namely, the 5th of Thes. which is a continuation of the subject of the second coming of Christ, and of the fast resurrection, as follows: “But of the times and seasons,, brethren ye have no need that I should write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so cometh, as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman, and they shall not escape.” Such no doubt will be the horrible fact at the time of the first resurrection, yet this by no means justifies the idea of the world’s then being burnt, as there is not a word to that effect in the whole account, as there given by St. Paul. Were there any 14 •» - such statement, or even an intimation of the kind, it would be in exact contravention, to the 20th of Rev. by St. John, who there represents the earth as remaining as it is, as to its geographical di^ions, in four quarters, &c. for a whole thousand years? and has nothing to say about its being burnt at the time, nor is fire introduced in the account until the thousand years shall have passed by. Mr. Miller contends that at the time when the Ancient of days was to come, as Daniel has described Him in the 7th chapter, verse^ 9,10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, is to be the day of final judgment, or the end of time. The description is as follows, “ I beheld till the thrones Were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garments was white as snow, and the hair of his head white as wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him : the jndgment was set, and the books were opened. 1 beheld, then, because of the voice of the words which the horns spake; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body given to the burning flame. As concerning the re3t of the beasts, they had their dominions taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a twe. I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the son of man came in the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him, and there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass afway, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” 15 ; But how is this ? If, when 4* Ancient of days shall come, m all the dread array described there by Daniel, is really the time of the first resurrection'and the time of burning the world, how is it that the lives of these beasts—great enemies to Christianity, in the form of mighty secular powers—are ta be allied to continue for a season and a time, which cannot be true if the world is then to be burnt up ? The thing is utterly impossible. When the world is to be burnt up, God is described, in his appearance and approach to the earth, in a very different manner from that of Daniel’s description. See Rev. xx. 11. “ And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth said the heavens fled away ; and there was no more place found for them.” In Daniel’s description, the Ancient of days does not appear on a great white throne, nor do the heavens and the earth flee away, but remain, and the people as they are, also. Just examine the passage for yourself, and the one just mentioned in Revelations, chap. xx. 11. It is Mr. Miller’s opinion, that at the time when the Ancient of days is to sit, at which time one like the son of man, who is Christ, is to come in the clouds of heaven, who is to be brought to the Ancient of days, and to receive a kingdom, with dominion and glory, and that all nations, people, and languages, are to serve him; that this time is to be the day of judgment, and that it is to take place nefct year. If so, we would inquire, as to the eternal and the immortal state, after the day of judgment in eternity, whether there* will be in that world a variety of nations, at Dutch, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hottentot, and Indian, all jabbering their various dialects. This must even be so if Mr. Miller’s plan is correct, for Daniel says, chapter vii. 14, u That 16 till natbns, peopU^noii languMfks shall serve %im,f’-»-the Son of man—which fact supposes and maintains the idea of the various languages being spoken in eternity. The idea is too ludicrous even te laugh at. Naysay, the time of the first resurrection will be the time when the living saints, who are then to be changed, will take the kingdom which it was designed they shonld take at the time when all power in heaven and earth was given to Christ, when he arose from the dead. At that time, which will be the beginning of the Millenium, and the time of the first resurrection, the righteous of all the nations, of all the earth, speaking all the various languages as they do now, will take the kingdom antf commence their reign with Christ on the earth, which is to endure a thousand years, or till that great Sabbath shall have pass- ed'by. This will be the time when the stone which Nebuchadnezzar saw, cut out of a mountain without bauds (See Dan. ii. 35.) shall finish breaking in pieces all the opposing powers of the earth, and shall fill the whole world. This will the time, when the prophecy of Daniel, chapter viu 27, will come to pass in its most perfect fulfilment, which began at the time of Christ’s resurrection, which reads as follows: the kingdom and do- minion, and the greatness of the kid^tbcB, under the whole heavens, shall be given to the people of the Saints of the Most High. This will be the time, when the watchmen shall see to jeye, and all think alike as to the doctrines of religion, and when there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain of the milleaium.—Isaiah 65, 25. That will be the time It when sorrow an&Crying, when sickness and&kth, kbiaR be-takin from the earth) with every and moral evil,forSatanvrilb then be bOUnd, and the riatural depravity of the human heart taken away, and will be changed back to what they would have been, if man had never fallen, and when it*can be sai<^in*he highest sense of truth, that all know the Lord, from the least to the greatest.—Isaiah. At this time, the first resurrection, it may be, will be fulfilled —all those terrible prophecies which seems to aim at an entire1 extermination of all the wicked of the globe, so abundantly found in the sacred writings, as in the time of the millenium, when the stone must perfectly triumph and occupy the heart of every human being then on earth, there can be no sinners allowed to exist in the world at that time-; it would be abhorrent to every idea of the triumph of the kingdom of thfe saints and of Christ, on the earth. ' Thus fair we have dwelt on the probable occurrences which are looked fpr-tO'take place at the time when Satan is to be bound, and when the pst resurrection shall take place. third section. We will now follow the order of the same chapter, namely, the 20th of Revelations, in its remarks dn the things to take jfUoe after the first resurrection, by which, we shall learn, still further, that Mr. Miller’s plan of burning the world at the time of the %st resurrection, or at the time of the beginning of the thousaf&years, cannot be correct.* 2 rQ» the subje^oflb^r^^ «ncW!:de*d, after the, tlxoMswadyearnafcaU have passed by* St. John rtysjhattbey shall live again. Tha following are his words, the fifth verse of the chapter-: th<* real of the dead, lived-*# agate, until the th nor will it be divided by seas and oceans into four quarters, as now is the fact. But, as a consequence of Miller’s opw nldn; we have another difficulty to present to the reader, which ill the estimation of the writer of these pages, is far worse than the one just passed in review before us; and this respects the v characters who will be liable to such an assault of the devil, at the time he is to be let loose on the earth. Can it be, that God, after the day of judgment, and after his. saints Wve passed the ordeal of a probationary state, as in this life, and has raised them from the dead, will again allow the devil to enter the happy abode of their resty for the purpose of deceiving and destroying them ? This cannot be. The thought is entirely abhorrent to all hope, all confidence, all happiness and truth. And yet, on Mr. Miller’s plan we are to beluve this, for if at thq time of the rst resurrection, the day of judgment and the burning of the 21 ''world & to takt* place', then the saints o£f necessity will enter into tfrpeternal find iiiimorfal state, where, according to the Revelatory Satan,'as Miller understands him? is to be allowed among them, and to roam at large oyer all that glorious world, the new heavens and the netrf earth, to deceive the inhabitants thereof.^ But as this idea is rejected by every thinking man, it follows that Mr. Miller, by a fatal mistake, has let the devil, in his cogitations', loose on the wrong world. In the new heavens and new earth, it is said by the Revela-tor, chap. 21,3: “ And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, behold! the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with theta, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God.” This being so, we should imagine the place to be a very unlucky one for the devil to enter; and indeed the thing will be utterly impossible, for btfort the creation of that new heaven' and earth, we have seen that Satan with all his host, is to be cast into the lake of fire, and that is to be the end of him.—Rev. 20, 10, as follows : u And the devil that deceived them was eas cast into the lake of fire and brim- * stone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and forever. ” On this account, we see that it will be impossible for Satan to enter in, or on, to the new heaven and earth; which is to succeed thi$> which is to be destroyed, after the time of the second resurrection, and not before. Dear reader, whoever you are, let me speak freely: it will be . the lame earth that it is nowon which Satan will be allowed, fcy'the Divine Wkdom, to be let loose, and to wander—for a little season—over its four geographical divisions, after the time of the resurrection has passed by—even a th$>usand years after—to • 32 attempt the deceiving of the nMonf^who aha^ then be on!((be earth, the same earth witlptft any alteration V ^geographical divisions. It will^pef'at that time have been burnt up, as there is no mention ipade by the revelator of any such occurrence inutbe chapter, namely, the 20th of Rev., where the account is found, as the burning of the world at the time of the.firat resurrection, though Mr. Miller says to the contrary. But in relation to its being burnt up aqd cast into the lake of fire, together with Satan and the wicked raised from the dead, after the end of the thousand years, and after the loosing of Satan out of his prison, it is plainly stated—Rev. xx. 13,14*-that such shall be the fact, as follows: “ And the sea gave up the (wicked) dead (bodies) which were in it, and death (the graves) and hell (the deep caverns of the bowels of the globe) delivered up the wicked dead (or the spirits of those bodies) which were in them, and they were judged, every mamaccording to his work. And death and hell (the globe) were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Here, let me take; occasion to say, as we have rsaid before in this work, that the lake offire, above specified by the Revelator, cannot belong to this earth, but is.most assuredly a separate location, somewhere in the dungeon of vast and boundless space, situated far off from the utmost bounds of the common universe of God, which we understand comprehends all the worlds, or globes, including all the suns and systems around them which God has created, there reigns the empire of . the second death, whose king is to be Satan, and his subjects the wicked of afl worlds, if there are any who have fallen a9 this has done. But, as we have disallowed of Mr. Miller’s idea of the devil’s 33 Wftg'.allowed* by Divine Befog* tO 'aitfcmpt doceWag flie ‘Mints* inthefr immortal and etferhalcdiMktfofi,0/& the/statl have been lilted fromthe dead, • find afteVAfo^'MlIIer’s) day if judgment, it is incumbent on us to show who the characters afe to be whbm God, in his wisdom, will allow the devil tl^j to try. We c&imot for ^ moment suppose the/Will be the saintt Who ‘ are to be alive, or living on the earth when Christ shall come, * at the time of ihe first resurrection, to raise the dead saints to life again, and who are, at that time, as we believe, to be changed, in their naluM} from their naturally depraved, sinful and 'mortal character, inherited from the fall in Adam, back, in the twinkling of an eye, to what Adam was before he fell, and^to what the human race would have been, if they had never fallen, and who are the very persons who are to live and reign with • Christ, on the earth, a thousand years. • 4 ; Who does not believe, who holds the Bible to be a Divfoe Book, that if Adam had not sinned, that sickness, sorrow nor •death would never have been known in the world ? This great change^ then, which is to pass upon the living saints, and is alluded to by St. Paul, 1st Cor. xv. 52, is to be effected by the -power of God in the twinkling of an eye, at the time when he shall come the second time without sin (a sin offering) unto salvation, to raise the righteous dead, and to commence the mille-nial reign on earth, when his kingdom shall triumph on the globe, perfectly and securely, for a thousand years. That this is to be so, see Cor. xv. 51, where it is said by St. Paul, “Behold,! show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, •(or be dead) but we shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at fhe last trump.” The same thing is.said, ' 24 1st Thes. iv. 15,16, as follows: " Foritkb w$ say unto youjbjr :tfce,word. ofrthe Lon}* that we which are aliye, *ndremaia (£& earth) untp the coming of the Lord, shall bot; prevent them which are asleep, (or are dead, or the saints in their graves) For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall risejiraf,” This is also the very thing that St* John the Revelator,in the 20 th chapter of Revelations, says shall take place, namely,that the dead in Christ shall rise first, and who also pointedly states how long first, putting a thousand years between the two resurrections. And although St. Paul has not mentioned this circumstance, yet we are to believe the statement of St. John, because he is explicit on this point of the subject, while St. Paul is not. St. Paul seems to have blended the two great events of the resurrection s of the just and the unjust, nearly together. But this is done by him either because the Holy Ghost did not see fit to make this point clear in his mind, as He did in the mind of St. John, long after Paul was dead; or, because St. Paul thought it best to speak of the two great events, in the aggregate, as affecting the general and ultimate fates of men at the end of the world, and therefore did not see proper to particularise on that point, as did St. John the Revefetor ; and yet he seems to have intimated the same thing, by saying that the dead in Christ shall rise first, and that the saints then alive, and who will not have died, shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Respecting these characters, namely, the saints, who will be alive on the earth at the time of Christ’s second appearing, St. John has said not a word, as has St, Paul, and yet, as a conse- 25 quence of S^Johtt Vst&tem£t^>l& deeiid tohave kndWtf all about it, Which k ascertained in his account of the existencebf various nations dwelling oh the earth at the erid bt the thousand years, after the time of the first resurrection. And why should not St. John have known all about it, seeing he bad r^pd, and often perused, what St Paul had written to the churches, tarthe subject of the rising of the dead, of both the good and the bad’? And if the Divine Being saw fit to reveal gome circumstance respecting the modus operandi of the resurrection to St. John that ho did not to St. Paul, who shall find fault or be offended, as God knows best how to conduct the affairs of his own kingdom ? That the bodies of the righteous dead who will come out of their graves at the time of the first resurrection, and will then receive their souls, who are now in Paradise, are to be such as the living saints will have, is not to be supposed. The bodies of the living saints, after their change, will be such bodies as was the body of Adam before he sinned. But the Saints who, at that time are to be raised from the dead, will receive the true resurrection body, such as was Christ’s after he rose from the dead; and will be so constituted as that none of the powers of nature, such as gravitation, fire, earth, air, or water, can in the least affect them, being made superior even to the body of Adam, prior to his sin. Adam’s body was not spiritual, but was corporeal, being made subject to the powers of nature, as above named, smd yet without danger of either accident or death, because the omniscience, goodness and power of God, was engaged to defend and protect him, with all the human race, and-would have thus protected both him and them continually, till they should have been translated, without dying, to heaven u&$uch times as would have pleased God. ^ ■fU* opinion;roost beceriainly correct* because St. Paulfofs said, Romans 5* 12* that de&th entered into the World, as it relates to the* humaurace, fay «»r and so passed upon all men. Now* as at the time, When the first resurrection shall take place, Satan ip to beboiind and shut up, who, as it is said, Heb. 2, 14, has dm power of death, death will of necessity cease on earth, if 4Jod shall restore the nature of the living Saints back to Adam’s -condition before the fall, which we believe will be done ; who, therefore, after that change will be liable to die no more, or to be exposed to any natural or moral evil whatever, no more than*. Adam was before the fall. But, as Adam was commanded before his foil, both to labdr in subduing the earth, and to replenish it by natural multiplication, so also will the saints do of the mil-lenial state. We do not mean the saints who shall be raised from the dead at the beginning of that time, but the saints who shall be alive at the beginning of that time, and who are to be changed, as Paul has said, in the twinkling of an eye. Unless we take this course of argument on the subject, it is utterly impossible to account for the existence of nations, tongues, people and languages who are spoken of as existing in the four quarters of the globe by the Revelator, at the time of the end of the thousand years, when Satan is to be let loose again from his prison, ufor a little season But that the saints who are to be raised fmm the dead, at the time of the first resurrection can have any thing to do on earth, in a secular way, is unscriptural as well as monstrous, for Christ said, Mark 12, 25, that the bodies of those saints are to he spiritual bodies, such as was his own body after his resurrection. That passage in Mark reads as follows: “ For when they shall 27 rise from thedead,sthejr;Beifcher many nor are giren in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven.” But thus it canndt be said of* the'iMunts, who are to be changed at the coming of Christ, at the time of the first resurrection, who will not be dead, but alive, as their bodies will not be spiritual and destitute .of blood, bukwill be corporeal in a stnse^-the raised saints bo-.dies will not. '• Were they to receive such bodies a* the raised up saints will receive, they could not propagate the species, and .would defeat the very purpose for which they are to remain a ^thousand years on the earth after the first resurrection. If this is not to be so, we repeat it, that it is utterly impossible rto find the source of the nations of mankindy who at the tide of , Satan’s being loosed, at the time of the last resurrection, then 'dwelling in the four quarters of the earth. Mr. Miller’s idea of the occurrence of the day of judgment, at race, and such, of necessity, must be the condition of the milteni* al state. , J During this thousand years of happiness, the myriads of bumta beings who shall be born will see no sinful example—will feel no pang of inbred depravity—no evil disposition—no emotion of the soul or spirit, but such feelings only as would have occupied the spirits of the human race if they had never sinned. During this great era they will see no death—no pains—no sorrow—for Satan is to be shut up* which supposes the absence of all natural, as well as moral evil \ it will be the great sabbath of rest to • the earth, the.sabbath to which all the other sabbaths of the Bible directly and primarily point. And as the myriads of that day are to be born of parents who are not depraved, nor are they to ; be depraved themselves, they will, of necessity, during all that time have no trial; it will not be to them a time of probation f a& there shall he no tempter, no sinful example nor sinful desire, 31 ffcall shall knowthotofd, from the least to the greatest, *l>r the earth sh&lji be full of the knowledge of the Lord, at the Waters eovtr th6 ifea.”—Isaiah xi. I i. ButasGodw equal in all hisways toward the human race, and as the whole human jraee^before the time of the first resurrection-have ;been ttiedadd tempted by the dew/, in. and through all ages, beginningwith Adam, it wiM b*p?oper,jiMf andrigbty under the sartte view, thatof God’s equal admiaastratroo, that the ppoplfeof the millenium who may be born iuring that time, shall be also tried by the temptations of the devil, at such time and manner as shall, in the sight of God, be right and proper. On this very account, therefore, Satan is to be let loose from his prison for a little season, as is said will be the fatet by St. lpha, (Rev. xx. 3.) atthecloseof the thousand years millenium, at the time of the resurrection of the wicked dead. If this is not the true reason why the devil is to be loosed from his prison, we are not able mdisoover it. On every other plan of interpretation^ wre discover but a solemn nothing, a mere fare* of an attempt to besiege an impregnable fortress, held by God himself. But on the plan which we have ventured a few remarks, it is seen that Satan is placed as a tempter, in the same attitude with respect to the persons to be tried, at the close of the nullenium, that he was in relation to Adam, or is now, in relation to men as they are. In this, case he has- free agents to deal with, w'ho are on probation, as will he the condition of the people borndur-iog the millenium, for a little season after the end of the thousandyears * But On the other view of the subject, he is found making an attempt to deceive and mislead those who have passed the rubicon of a probationary state, apd are secure in theimmt-> nities of their eternal rest, according to Mr. Miller. .• 32 Hbw,/K4®what manner, Satanwjll wkkdvthisattempt upoito the nations who ^illthen occupy the globe, is hardfo conjee* ture. In wbat disguise he will come, by which he win succeed to secure their fall, i# not within the ken of human foresight. But that he will attempt it is certain, and that he will succeed is equally i certain, lor it is written-^at the 8th verse of the 20th chapf^r o{(,RevelatioiiS4f4haa he “ shall go out to deceive thena* > tions which are iai the four quarters of the earth.” And it is said, in the same verse, that hougathered an innumerable host, who, by the Revelator, are called Gogand Magog, ready for bat* tie, which,6jhowe. that they had been deceived by Satan, and were fallen. : ButMr*Miiler’s plan, on this part of the subject, it that this armyof Gpg and Magog will be composed of? aU the. damned, who are t» come out of the bottomless pity at the.same time Satan is to be let loose. But to sustain this idea $f his, it ought first to be proved that the spirits ot the wicked dead do actually go. to the bottomless pit when the body dies, which we do not believe, as there is, very good reason to suspect that they are hid in a place called hades, in the bowels of the earth, where they are to remain till the end of the world, or till the day of final judgment or resurrection of the wicked dead, at the end of the thousand years. Why should the spirits of the wicked, when their bodies die, be sent to the bottomless pit before the devil himself is sent there or the wicked angels who fell from their first estate, as the Scriptures inform us'? (See the Book of Jude.) And that the devil and his angels are not yet sent to the bottomless pit, which we take to be the lake of fire spoken of by the revqlator, ib evident,* 33 for they arerathis World how, atidhave been'liere fi;om the daye* of Adam, and are to be here td the end of tinae, with the $xcep* tion of a thousand years* ' This idea being- correct, there are HO damned souls as yet inr the bottomless pit, to be letoutwheh Satan is to be loosed from that prison? as Mr. Miller holds. From another view, that idea capnot be true: which is, that lost spirits cannot be the subjects of Satan’s deceptions, as we find the host wore who are called by the revelator Gog and Magog, who are to'be actually deceived,, as it is expressly stated by St. John in the 20th chapter of Revelations, verse 10, which reads as follows: u And the devil that • deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever.” Here it is staled that he did deceive them. This proves the fact that it will be men on probation whom the devil is to deceive, and not spirits already lost, as Mr. Miller seems to suppose, for how can the ddhined be deceived ? Daring this struggle, the old saints who were alive at the beginning of the millenium, or the first resurrection, will act, no doubt, as reproverpand preachers of righteousness among the people of the four quarters of the globe, to show the nations then under trial and temptation their danger, and their remedyy which will be the merits of the great Redeemer, just as it is now, and Khas been ever since the fall. But many will resist, as sinners do now, all overtures of reconciliation with all light, when, as the season of repentance will be but a little one, or of short duration, the spirit of God will leave them, as is often the case now, when all hope in their saL-3 ¥ ▼ation will be at ajf. ei$« Pep^yity; paw as deep,f|%hell, wi)lri fftiliefr w^oli "Heart and being, so that they iwili he ready for , any enterprise of evil. At this point, of>furious wickedness, as;• often prompts the overt acts ofsinful men even now-a-days, they 'will make a ruahupon thecamp;of the saints, or upon, that part, of the nations who will stand fast in the faith 'during the houj? of temptation, which is to come upon all the world, when God , for the safety of the innocent) and for the vindication of his own justice and gpverninent, will interfere and slay the wicked by a storm of fire from God out of heaven, as it is written respecting, them at the 9th verse of the 20th chapter of Revelation^ Will the reader please read the passage,, and see for himself ? >> All this we desire the reader to notice is to take place prior t$i the resurrection of the wicked dead, as they are not spoken of as rising until this great mustering of the army of Gog, and Magog, has taken place, and have been destroyed. Then, after that is seen in heaven a great white throne, when the books are to be opened, and the dead, smalt and great, will stand before God. (See the 12 th verse of the 20 th chapter,) as the sea and the earth are at, this moment disgorging their myriads of the wicked dead, and is trembling to flee away out of its orbit into the lake of Are, on account of the appearance of the great white throne and Him who will sit upon it, as is stated in the 11th verse of the chapter, Thus we see that Mr. Miller’s plan of the wicked dead accompanying Satan in his attempt upon the the camp of the saints, cannot be true, as at the tpne they will not be risen from the dead. It follows, therefore, that the great army of Gog and Magog, is, to be made up of those who will fall away from their ' 35 innocence, during their trial by Satan, who Vere born during the millenium, in which 'time there is ta be no probation, but a time of rest, security andholiness, whitiWie scriptures justify us in believing.. But at the precise time when the greet white throne shall apr pear in heaven above, and the wicked dead arise, when the world * shall be set on fire, and the devil with his deceived host, the false prophet and the beast, cast with the globe into the lake of fire, then, and not till thenrshall fill the saints of the globe, both those who were alive at the time of the first resurrection, and those jyho shall be born during the thousand years, such of them as ^hall not fall away, be caught up into the air, to be forever with, the Lord, having at that moment passed through the requisite change of their bodies. When this is passed, then shall the new heavens and the new earth appear, of which St. John has given a glowing and majes* tic account in the 2 let chapter of Revelations, which the reader had better examine for himself, as he will be well paid for the trouble. One more reason: In the time of the millenium, or during the thousand years, the church is not called the New Jerusalem, but is called the Camp of the saints. But after that period shall have gone by, and the earth has disappeared, then the new heaven and the new earth will be created, which shall be the abode of the new Jerusalem which shall cOrae down from ^od out of Heavem See Rev. 21, 2. 3* 36 ‘ FOURTH SUCTION. / i loptoaecution of oar to refute' Mr. MiBterV belief of the coming of the day of judgment in 1843, we shall now show ill the Mowing pages, that the famous 2*,300 years of the pro-*phet Daniel,—see chapter 8,14, updh which Millet’s theory i$ founded, came to an end a hundred ye§u:s ago—or in the year 1743. That Mr. Miller has not commenced at the right date in order to find out, when the 2,300 days or years were to end, is evident from the -very chapter where he finds the passage, namely, th& ,14th verse of the 8th chapter of Daniel. The following are thlt words of the prophet in that place: “ Then I heard one saint speaking, and another said unto that certain saint, which spake—' How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the' host to be trodden under foot ? And he said; unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” On the subject of those 2,300 days, signifying so many years, we have nothing to oppose, as this is allowed nearly on all hands to be the meaning of prophetic days in the scriptures* Mr. Miller contends in his work, (“Second Coming of Christ,”’ Lecture 4tb, pages 64, 65, and onward,) that we should reckon the beginning of those 2,300 years, from the same time, wYshould begin to reckon the seventy weeks, or the 490 years of Daniel’s vision, respecting the coming and the death of Messiah, which as Mr. Miller has stated, was in the year B. C. 457, when King Artaxerxes Longimanus, or the long handed king, gave the order that the Jews might return from , their captivity to Jerusalem again. 37 « .Bat we are able 16 show that the 2,300 cfeys of Daniel,$> 13, 14, at the end of which the sanctuary was to be cleansed, tegrih their count in/the year B. €. 557, just a hundred years before the order of Artaxerxes was issued. ,Whether Mr. Miller is right: or wrong, respecting the time to his count of the seventy weeks from the issuing of the commandment of some king of Persia, is nothing to the purpose, if we can but show from the Bible itself, when the 2,300 days began their count, which is the chief aim of this work, in order to ca lm the minds of thousands Of disturbed individuals who are trembling over the abyss of the day of final accounts, so nigh as 1843, or next year. Truth is sufficient; why should the world be terrified uselessly? We read some where in the scriptures of some who run before they are sent, and thus we judge of the present Millerite* adventure. This is properly the lecturing age, when men cry themselves into notice before the world, by getting up popular lectures. In itself, the practice no man may condemn, because itjs a powerful means of disseminating light, arid we may add of error also, great care therefore should be taken to know the truth, especially en matters of so great import as the burning of a worlds Had not the Millerites have conceived the plan of lecturing through the entire country with Mr. Miller’s work on the c< Second Coming of Christ^ for a foundation, the present excitement would not have been got up ; the book alone would not have done it, as facts determine. For until the lecturers went forth with * their illucidating pictures, there was no move among people as there is now. But to the point respecting when thoseiamous 2,300 days began. To ascertain this now very desirable point, read the 8th chapter of Daniel, which begins a* follows: 38 *< J^ljhe THIRD year pHl&jpigli of Bchthatxar,* vision ip-peatejl unto mo, /even unto ^e, fkm4%after that which appear ad unto me atJ&a^V. Thj9 Jirtfywon.fo Whfoh hO alludes in the above versa* was. three yearjitefore, ipi the first year of the reign of the same king, namely ,B8&haezar. From the first vemr of this chapter, naipely, the 8ih, and onwardto the 12th verse inclusive! is rehearsed the history of the ram—the he-goat-^the four horns, and of the one horn, which are there introduced as figures descriptive of certain kingdoms which were to arise in those parts of the earth, and to fall again, which thd reader had better examine for himself,'by the aid of Clark’8 Commentary. ' When these focts in prospect had been shown to Daniel in the vision, then the great question which was asked by a certaid jmnt respecting the length and termination of the vision, in th# cleansing of the sanctuary, &c. was answered. And what waa the answer ? It was that the sanctuary should be cleansed in 2,3(10 days or years. But, says the reader*when or where should we begin to number them ? Our answer is, begin at the very time when the question was asked and answeted^bai was the time they began, and no other. But in what year was this, before Christ > It was in the year 657 before Christ, and of the world 3,447. How is this shown ? It is shown from the most authentic chronological tables of the learned, who say.tbat BeU shazzar, one of the kings of Babylon, before the Persian victory and subversion; of the country to the Persian arms, ascended the throne of Babylon in the year of the world 3,444; mHkfin6D B* C. Now Daniel says that he saw that vision in the thiril year of the reign pf Belshazzar, which was accordingly 567. years before Christ; and of necessity run . out one hundred years $9 ago? namely? in this • ycfer 1748?Yeckonlng back firom^&t jw, 1843; "' ''i; ; • ■" ■ ( ; ’//y Sat Mr: Miller evidently avoids the s(iteWhVoJf Deiniel^ the 8th eha^ter that he saw the viflioh of the 2,300 days,in jthe time of the reign ofBelshazzar, o^Ofthe CbalcTeaq Kings, tl^e son of Nebuchadnezzar, in the third year of that reign, which was 557 years* B. C. . . , We will show the reader the fact of this avoidance. See IferV “ Second Coming of Christ page 51, as follows: 11 But one thing remains to be proved, (says Mr. Miller.) When did the 2,300 years begin ? Did they begin With Nebuchadnezzar’s dream? No; for if they had they must have been fulfilled in the year A. D. 1097. Well, then, did they begin when Gabriel came to instruct Daniel into the seventy weeks ? No, for if then, they; ^irould have been finished in the year, A. D. 1762. Let us begin then where the angel told us, from the going forth of the decree to build the walls of Jerusalem, in ttoublouq times, 457, years before Christ.” Thus if is seen that Mr. Miller has omitted .altogether to ask the reader if they should not be began in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, as he ought to have done. But such a question knd a calculation made from that date} would haye proved fatal to his scheme of having the Day of Judgment in 1843. ,v To begin the 2,300 days of Daniel^ which topjk place as to their'origin, in. the 3d .year of the reign ofBelshazza?,which was, exactly 557 years tefore Christ—we say to, begin then, at the time when Artaxerxesf’issued his^ decree in- favor; of rthe Jews*, which was, as Miller says, 457 years B. C., would be a monstro- 40 sity of the most superlative description, because the vision respecting the 2,300 days, and the cleansing of the sanctuary was had by Daniel in the reign of Belshazzar, one of the Kings of Babylon, 557 B.C«, and the order of Artaxerxes, one of the Kings of Persia, to restore the Jgwg.to their country a hundred years after, or 457 years before Christ, which appears to be correct. The first vision Daniel the Prophet had, after he was carried to Babylon, which was when but a young lad, was in the year B. C* 603. In that first vision God showed him what Nebuchadnezzar had seen in a dream, which the king had forgotten. This dream, respected the great image made of gold, silver, brass, iron and clay, and the stone which was to break the image to pieces. This account is found in the second chapter of the Book of Daniel, and related to the rise and fall of four great monarchies, The second vision of Daniel was in the first year of the reign of Belshazzar, the second king of Babylon, and the son of Nebuchadnezzar, which was 48 years after the firstvision, and in the year B. C. 560. This vision related to the four great beasts which are described in the 7th chapter of the Book of Daniel, as well also as to the little horn which came up among the ten horns of the great Roman beast, or Roman empire. In that vi-= sion also, is described the appearance of the Ancient of days, and the son of man, who came near before him and received a kingdom, which was that all nations, tongues and people should serve him. The third vision which Daniel had, was in the third year of the reign of the same king as above, namely, Belshazzar, which was, in the year B. C. 557, or juqt three years after the vision above alluded to, and 51 years after the time of his first vision leiga of ^ebuctodAezasAr^ This third visidndblated to the great ram ofPersiaywlthits two horns* meaning twokinge; and to the of Greece* meaning Alexander the Great, and to the four horns of this he?goat, which were four kings who had been Alexander’s foter generals* and who divided the empire! of Alexander among themselves; and to the little horn which came up in the midst of the four, which it is believed was the commencement of the great and dreadlul beast the Roman empire, and also to the tiqae of cleansing the sanctuary. This vision is found in the 8th chapter of Daniel. The four t h vision of Daniel took place in the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede, 538 years B. C., and related to the seventy weeks which were to transpire before the Messiah was to come, and to be crucified. These seventy weeks were to commence their count from the time of the, going forth of the commandment of Artaxerxes, the King of Medes and Persians, and was issued in the year B. C. 457. See Ezra 7, 12, 13, and onward. The fifth and last vision of Daniel was in the third year of the reign of Cyrus, 534 B. C., and respected the revolutions of the nations of those regions of the earth, going down the course of time many hundred years, even down to the times of the entire ruin of the great Roman power, and also that of a certain ecclesiastical power which arose a long time before this ruin of the Roman empire, from the midst of this people, and was to conti-tinue to the end of a certain period, which period is probably the epd of the 2,300 days of the prophet Daniel. Now to blend the date of this decree of Artaxerxes, the Persian, which was 457 B. C. with the date of Daniel’s vision, re- 41 42 spe$ting4be2>300 days found inDaniel**,13, 14, ifrtfefc year of the reigntef Belshazzar, the Chaldean, Whidh VraSf ■ jfcdt a hundred years* before, is a very siagukr tranaa&ten.n * Mr. Miller knew as well when he wrote his-^hork-on- the second coming of Christ, that the date‘ofthe 2,300 days was exactly a hundred years before the date of Aftaxerxes’ cbttwnand to restore the Jews, as the reader may know, by looking at the twO places of the scriptures, where the dates are referred to. See Clark’s Chronological table, which accompanies the introduction to the Book of Daniel. - The two scriptures above alluded to, are found in the Books of Dankl and Ezra. The one which relates to the 2,300 days, is int the 8th chapter of Daniel, verses 13, 14. The other which relates to the order or command of Artaxerxes, that the Jews mights return to their country is in Ezra, 7, 12, 13, 21, and occupfos1 nearly the whole chapter. By comparing these two scriptfcrerf,* as to the times of their date, it is found that they are a hundred years apart from each other. Who is he, therefore, who by sophistry, the confusion of dates, some sinister purpose, bold effrontery, or any of these, that Shall go about in the face of that fact, to mislead the world in terror and dismay at a solemn nothing, ruining the intellects of many and the business of many. If those 2,300 years, were not to begin .theftscount till a long time after the time the question was askedand answered, would not the saint have said so, if he mean t to letrDante! into the se-‘ cret at all ? Could the prophet have possibly understobct tbe \ wbrds of that saint in any othefr way than this,1 ti^rriely, that the days bf the Vision began their count just then} ffoiri the very time ■ * tbUF^uebtion ^msm the thirdyearof the reign of Belshazzar, B. C. 557v Is it possible for any nian, who has the use of his wits, on reading the passage, to understand them to far as it relates to the time when they should be commenced ■ to be numbered in ariy other way ? But what Aid the saint mean when he replied, that the Sanctuary should be cleansed ? Did he mean that the sanctuary of the Jewish templey ivhich was to be greatly polluted by one Antio-chus Epiphahes/a Syrian king, some hundred years from thence, ishould again be cleansed, as finally came to pass under the generalship of Judas Maccabeus,'prior to the time of Christ ? Did he mean that the Jewish sanctuary, which was to be totally destroyed by the'Romans, forty years after Christ’s resurrection, Should again be restored and cleansed, and the ancient worship •gt the Jews be renewed ? Neither of these could have been the meaning of that saint’s reply. That saint was a supernatural being, and understood well that the Jewish sanctuary, as a house and place of worship, was nothing, after all, but a sanctuary of allusion, pointing to the substance, which was to be the Gospel of the Messiah, that was to be the true sanctuary. Now, as in the foresight of that supernatural being, it was . clear, that as the Temple should be defiled by Antiochus, and again cleansed, so should the true sanctuary—the glorious Gospel—become polluted by the falsities of heretics, and should be nearly hidden from sight fortiiany ages, yet it should again appear in its ancient splendor, being cleansed from the rubbish of ffitf dark ages of superstition. This view of the subject is sufficient to challenge the attention "of hehvenitself, hence we see a messenger ot the higher orders 43 44 t>f intellectual existence sent ta inform the mihdofa mortal man respecting it, as in this vision ofPaaiel* > If this is so, it will become natural to inquirewhether at the termination of these days, pr years, namely, ttye* 2,300, which were fulfilled nearly a hundred years ago, any thing very extraordinary took place ? To this we reply, that gratigrtcin-ly there did, and in exact relation, too, to the very subject qf that supernatural being’s message to Daniel,. wh^was, that. then the sanctuary should be cleansed. Oan the re^er. think of any thing that began to take place about a hundred years ago, of sufficient importance to justify the application of the text to that certain something ? Was it not about that age or period that the great doctrines of the Reformation began to blaze, as from the points of a thousand mountains, and to illumine the darkness oj previous ages, under which Christianity had sunk ? About that time the two witnesses—the Old and New Testaments—which! had for ages been clothed in sackcloth, began to prophecy, and? to unfold their treasures to the common people, the multitudes, and the nations. Is not an event like this of sufficient importance to engage the attention of inspiration ? The influence of the doctrines of the Reformation have shaken Europe and the whole earth, and will continue to shake it till every vestige of the ancient pollutions of the sanctuary shall be wiped away. The great cause of the Reformation, as now in the hands of the Protestants, is hut on* cause, which is spiritual truth, aiming only at the mqral improvement of mankind, by the propagation of the doctrine of ops faith, one baptism, and one Mediator, in opposition to all other opinions. To burn a hundred worlds next year, could never cleanse the sanctuary thus. The other visions of Daniel, in which he was told that In se* venty weeks, amounting tp 490ryearsi the Messiah should come, ** had also for its object the increase qf moral light in the world in all that Jeshs Christ accomplished, which was far enough from hurtling the world up. In like manner the other visions of Daniel, as-well as the visions of the Revelatory respecting the two witnesses, the Old ahd New Testaments, (Rev. ix. 3 ; Zech. fri. 14.) and the mystical woman, the Church, who were to be persecuted for a time, times and a half time, or 1260 years, had allusion to nothing more or less'than to an increase of moral or religious. Tight, but not to fffe burning of the world. To burn the world could not cleanse -ijie sanctuary, as by such an event, the sanctuary and the place of its existencq^would be destroyed together, instead of being cleansed. So, also, as we have already said, the cleansing of the sanctuary, at the end of 2300 days, had the same design, and no other, which is far enough from the burning of the world, as will be the case when the true end shall come, of which we shall soon treat. Thus, we believe, we have shown reasons in the foregoing why the Miller plan of the world’s being destroyed next year should not be feared, and yet no man, on that account, should delay to be prepared to meet his God in peace* 45 FIFTH SECTION. " 't, ■■ -■ ‘ • But as some may wish to know when the writer believes the millenium or the first resurrection will come, we feel inclined to state our belief. Those great events will come when the world shall be 6000 years old, counting from the time Adam was created. According to the common chronology, there has passed by 5842 years since the creation began, leaving yet 158 years before that time- One hundred and fifty-eight years, no doubt, will give time enough to accomplish all that is foretold by the prophets not yet fulfilled, of which there is much. This belief r(fc> specting the millenium, has in all ages been held to, both by the Jewish and Christian churches as well as by the Patriarchs. V| The millenium will begin by the resurrection of the righteous dead, which is called the first resurrection in the Scriptures, and will take place in a hundred and fifty-eight years from this year, 1842, unless time has been lost in the chronological calculations, which it is very likely is the fact; if so, then it will come sooner. When the globe shall be just 6,000 years old, from the creation, then the dead in Christ will be called from their long sleep by the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God. Then shall follow the thousand years of rest and happiness to the , people of the globe, called the millenium, which will restore the hnman race to the moral and physical condition Adam was in before the fall. The burning of the world, or day of final judgment, will take pjace very soon after the earth shall be seven thousand years old, and not till then, which will be not far from eleven hundred & 47 years fromvthe present time. If we were sure that since the creationnatimehas been lost, then we should say without hesi-* tation, that in eleven hundred and fifty-eight years froth 1842 would he the time of the last resurrection, Soon after which the burning of the world is to take place, or as soon as the “ little. season” spoken of by St. John, Rev. 20; 3, shall have passed by. Then will be the time when the angel of the Apocalypse, Rev. 1,0;: 6, will swear by Him who created all things* that there shall be time no longer. r That will be time when Christ will deliver up the kingdom to .God, even the Father, when he shall put down all rule and '.^1 authority and power. For he (Christ) must reign till he 1d*all put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall * t>e destroyed is death, 1st Cor. 15: 24, 25, 26, This passage must signify that the devil is included, with the destruction of death,because it is said of him that he has the power of death, see -Hebrews, 2d, 14, as follows : That “through death, he (Christ) might destroy him, that had the powir of death, that is, the devil.” , This is the time, therefore, when he is to be destroyed and cast into the lake of fire, as is said Rev. 20:14, and Mat. 25: 41,as follows : “Then shall he say also unto them on the left baud, Depart from me ye cursed* into everlasting fire, prepared far the devil and his angels.” * rThis is the time when the severing angel shall go* forth to separate the tares from the wheats Mat. 13 : 39, 40, as follows: ‘CThe enemy that saved them (the tares) is thedevil: the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As, therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall 48 it, be in theemj of the world.” And this end of thci whole can-hot take place so- long as the &yii shall h&Ve anything to do oa this $arth. And that he istQ have something todoon the earth eyeft after tfietime of the *Noof the miltetkum,orthe thousand years, Ja certain, as is set fofthin a part of the 20th chapter of the Book of Revelations, verses: 7, 8, 9, 10, which the reader will do well to examine. Were Mr. Miller’s plan of the Day of Judgment next year," the true one, then there could not be timfe enough afforded to fulfil the residue of the unfulfilled prophecies, such as—that the Jews are to be brought in with the fulness of the Gentiles*' This cannot be done in a year, or in the course the new heaven and new earth, which will occupy the vast re* gion of space now occupied by the revolutions of the planet VLet* schel, the outermost globe of the family of the sun. In a new heaven and a new earth like this, there will be room for all the holy beings of all those worlds to dwell on, and for the displays of the Divine goodness and glory, which an earth so pitiful and small as this is cannot afford. The account of the city of the new Jerusalem which is to belong to the new heaven and the new earth, is very wonderful, and is to sustain certain traits of character, which cannot be suited to the condition of this world, as it will be during the thousand years of the literal imUenram. It is not only to be composed o: twelve varieties of pjrecious stones, clear, pellucid and glorious to look upon, and is to^ba^ . twelve foundations, with the name i of the twelve apostles written thereon, as well as twelve gat«, to be composed of but one entire pearl, with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel written thereon—but is also to be “ twdve thousand furlongs square Twelve thousand furlongs are iqual to fifteen hundred English miles, being as broad and long as it is to be high, a perfect square building. 1 If this building is to be a litem building, composed of the most dazzling substances, such as nay have light in themselves, and is to occupy fifteen hundred miles on every side of it, making the whole circuit six thousand miles, then there is not a spot in Asia Minor large enough to affottl it a foundation, without being interrupted by rivers, lakes, an 1. even seas. - In the regions of old Canaan, 01 the present Holy Land, it is supposed by many, that the New Jerusalem is to be built But if so, then the whole promised lam, which was never but about the size of the state of New-York, will fall immensely short of being large enough for its foundations, allowing so much as even that amount of land, could be fiimnd in Asia Minor, free from mountains and lakes as well as deep livers. Then again the height would rim up more than fourteen hundred miles, above the height of'the earth’s atmosphere, so that no one of the human race could ever mount so high, and be constituted as to breiathing aparatus^as the people of the globe will be'in the mftlenium. Fifteen hundred milesis a great journey to perform, especially when* it iflf all the way up hill. 57 58 But if a man wuld ascent make it a great deal further operation, as it would becomi to such a heighth, by the jneafc# of * winding road, running i >und op the outside, which would still he could gain nothing by th^ as dark as Erebus, and as cold as the dungeon of death, long bfore he could get one hundred miles from the earth. There would arise one otht * consequence of the most disastrous character. If so high a buildihg were put up, made of such great stones, though all of diamoi ds, for the great heft, running so high, right out into space, wjfuld shift the centre of the globe’s attraction, which would* als, correspondingly shift the^ poles, when there would be another deluge, equally as bad as was Noah’s. vf From all this, it is certain y clear, that the New Jerusalem of the New Creation, cannot be intended for an earth like thi^ flor for such people as will, and njust of necessity, inhabit it after the" first resurrection, and during the milleniunn ‘S But such a world as we ha re alluded to above, as to size, being as great as is the vortex of tie family of the solar system ; and besides the modus operandi of the existence of the inhabitants of the new heavens and the new qarth will be adapted to that state^ of things in their glorified or resurrection bodiesr which cannot be effected by heighths or depths, heat or cold, gravitation, light' or darkness, as the light of that world and that city will be of another order, than such, as comes /from the suns, moons and stars, of the worlds of the universe now* , Respecting the new Jerusalem of the new Creation, jfeere is to accompany it,, another very strange operation; which is, that it is to be built in heaven, and to be brought fromIhsnoe tb^gb 59 fpfccf, to the nfw creation* on the urface of which it je tp be placed* and wiU be the Capitol of tin King of Glory ia the New ideation. ,i. This idea is not contradicted by 1 he Saviour, where he told his disciples,that in his father’s hoise there are many mansions. John 14, 2, and that he was going tb prepare n place for them* To the mind of the writer of theie pages, it appears that the history of the New Jerusalem is to ^e understood as literal, and that its beauty, glory, magnificenc^'and all the circumstances of its real entity is but an item of the Magnitude and number of the happy arrangements of things>for the bliss ;of the saints at last. Is it contrary to true faith, and the analogy of religion, that jheavenjs not^|felestial world, the splendor of angels, and the glorified body of Jesus Christ, are but so many words about something that cannot * b$ understood, nor conversed about,, any more than the tmutter-Abb words which St. Paul heard spoken in the Third Heavens. MM Cor., 12, 0, 4. } But when understood literally, vf 'nh i expect to such matters as fTe addressed to the sight, hearings tasting, smelling and feeling, . they copvey ideas of facts to he embraced in the economy of salvation;, and noan’p being after dfath, in his resurrection bpdy. In confirmation this idea, itp written ;by,r. #Jhat eye,hath not seen* nor far, heard* neither h**h it anter-Mo heart qkmai^feuy oeflceptiob nf. the thirty? which 6od hathftwr. tfeem tMt love him.” Thus, we believe, that in this little work, we hare throw# 'difficulties in the way of /the Miller plan, not to be surmounted, and yet not because wahave any other ambition than a knowledge of truth. Mr. Miller’s work on th< second coming of Christ, is a labored work, and a work in which there is a great amount of historical knowledge worthy an^ man’s reading ; and yet, as it relates to his data, from which he\has cyphered out the day of judgment, we can do nothing but disagree. That period cannot take place till all shall be accomplished which is foretold by the scriptures, in relation to the earth. And as we see there is mnph to befaccomplished in the world, even after the termination of the thousand years, we may, therefore, turn away with perfect safety, arom all other opinions. As to tk^ exact time of the day of judgment, there is no man on thf earth’ can divulge that secret. ! ^ ; How long the time called by the Revelator “ a little season^ will be, who can tell; whether a year, or fifty years ? But at the end of that little season^ then, Satan with all his hosts MTtfce earth, as well as the earth itself, and the whole solar system with, it, for aught that appears to the contrary, will be cast into a lak*> of fire, leaving the great spate void as it was at first, where, soon the long ranges of the plmost interminable globe of the new heavens and new earth, will begin to heave up out of that; great deep of nonentity, which will become the habitation of the saved of God, from all the worlds of the solar system. Should it so happen that the day of judgment should not take 1 place next year, there will beUhousands, and probably tens of thousands, who will be deeply disappointed, as they are ealcu- 60 61 fating next year to be caught up into the air, to be forerer witft. the Lord, and thus escape the pangs and. mortification of dying. 5We have hehrd of some cases where the persons having this hope, do not hesitate to declare it; such persons have a perfect faith in the Miller plan. We have heard of many who, from fright, have given up all business, and whcrhave nearly lost their reason,, in various directions of the country. One person u away down east,” an old woman, we understand, has now for a long time been nearly starving herself, sd as to make as little trouble vas possible when her "body comes tojthe test of transformation. There are thousands, also, who d^ep within, are troubled at the jjtqught of the end of the wof1<$ tnext year, but do not own it* This is seen by their sensitiveness when the subject is They scarcely know wha(| t^do ; their minds are in ^quandary. There are multitudes, also, who are becoming,*e- tjious solely by the influeniSifef this dreaded occurrence ; if they Id on, it will be well. But should the expected event fail pf being accomplished, who then