[ii]
District of New-Jersey, ss.
{ SEAL}
BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the second day of March in the
thirty-ninth year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1815,
Daniel Fenton and S. Huchinson, of the said district,
have deposited in this office, the title of a book, the right
whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:
"The Second Advent, or coming of the Messiah in glory, shewn to br a
Scriptural doctrine, and taught by Divine revelation, from the beginning of the
world. By an American laymen.
"Oh! scenes surpassing fable, and yet true
"Scenes of accomplished bliss!
"Praise in her streets, and in her spacious courts,
"Is heard Salvation.
"One song employs all nations, and all cry,
"Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us." -- Cowper.
In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled
"An act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of
maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies,
during the times therein mentioned." And also, to the Act entitled, "An
Act supplementary to an Act, entitled 'An act for the encouragement of
learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors
and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;' and
extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and
etching historical and other prints."
ROBERT BOGGS,
Clerk of the District of New-Jersey.
[iii]
PREFACE.
TO have a better understanding of the following work, it is necessary that the reader should be informed of the circumstances attending its commencement, and the manner in which it has been carried on to the present period. Some time about the year 1790, the important events of that day made a deep impression on the author's mind and led him to examine the Scriptures with great attention, from Genesis to the Revelation of St. John. The solemn exhortation of the apostle to his readers to hearken to what the Spirit saith to the Churches; and repeated six times within the bounds of two chapters, fixed his attention to the important call. -- He made the prophetic declarations in the Scriptures, for a while, the peculiar object of his daily studies; at the same time humbly supplicating for aid from, and looking to the Spirit of God, who dictated those prophesies, for being led into all necessary truth, in enquiring into their genuine meaning. He must acknowledge that the passing of the day alarmed him; and he thought he saw the signs of the latter day, foretold in the sacred record, thickening upon him. But here his fears arose, lest he might unwittingly slide into the error of judging of the prophecies altogether by the events, instead of comparing the events with the prophesies. To prevent this,
he determined to guard against error, by forming a short compendium of what, on great consideration, comparing those prophesies yet to be fulfilled, with those which had already taken place, he verily believed was the meaning of the Spirit of God in the revelation of his will to his Church, as to what was to take place, as the signs of the second coming of the Saviour, to this our world.
In doing this he was surprized to find that this glorious event, at the end of Daniel and John's 1260, 30, and 90 days, or years, was the great and leading object of the sacred volume from the beginning to the end. This is the latter days and the day of judgment of Daniel -- The great day of judgment, or the judgment of the great day of the Jews, and the kingdom of Heaven, the kingdom of God, and the times of refreshing and the restitution of all things of the New Testament. In short, it appears to be like a thread running through the whole web, and in which all the lesser objects seem like the woof of the web, to give a complexion and character to the whole system of divine grace and mercy.
After consulting the Sacred Text, with close attention and critical precision, and comparing the result with the opinions of the
iv PREFACE.
most judicious writers on the important subject, he reduced to writing what he concluded was the design and meaning of the predictions and forewarnings of the Prophets, compared with those of Christ himself and his apostles. He then waited to see how far he was warranted in his conclusions by the events which were about to take place, if his construction was right.
To accomplish this he was obliged to keep a short diary of what was passing on the theatre of Europe. The many instances of exact conformity with the words and spirit of the Scriptures, convinced the author that the wonderful transactions daily passing in the kingdoms of Europe, were an exact fulfilment of the predictions of the Sacred record. That the antichrist foretold, as coming on the earth after the Man of Sin, had literally appeared in the new government of France, having Napoleon Buonaparte for her head, can scarcely be denied by any observing mind, who has become acquainted with the late history of that nation since the year 1790, and compared it with the language of holy writ. -- The emphatic calls of Christ and his apostles on his Church and followers, to be watching and well prepared for this important era, which was to be of such essential and interesting consequence to their eternal welfare, appeared to be the author in so strong a light that he thought it an important obligation to continue his attention to the subject till almost the year 1798, or beginning of 1799, when he was taken off from the subject by avocations that could not be well avoided. Some years afterwards, his convictions on the subject being strengthened by the continuance of important events, corroborating all his views of the prophetic declarations, he was tempted to communicate his ideas, and the observations he had made, to a few judicious friends, whose approbation encouraged him to think of making them public. But the state of his health and other imposing circumstances, leaving him small hopes of ever seeing them printed, he, for a time, determined to leave them in manuscript to those who should come after him, to act as they thought best.
However, he has lately been prevailed on to make the attempt, from a hope that it will call man's attention to a subject he has convinced himself is all important to the Church of Christ, and to exert himself to do what lay in his power towards completing the work, that it may avail, so far as is plainly and clearly founded on the written will of God.
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