A

FAMILIAR EXPOSITION

OF THE

TWENTY-FOURTH CHAPTER OF MATTHEW,

AND THE

FIFTH AND SIXTH CHAPTERS OF HOSEA.

TO WHICH ARE ADDed

AN ADDRESS TO THE GENERAL CONFERENCE
ON THE ADVENT, AND A SCENE OF
THE LAST DAY.

BY WILLIAM MILLER.

TO WHICH IS ADDED

AN EXTRACT FROM DR. COTTON MATHER'S LATIN
PREFACE, &C., ON THE SECOND COMING
OF CHRIST.

EDITED BY

JOSHUA V. HIMES.

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY JOSHUA V. HIMES,

14 Devonshire Street.

1842.

Andover
675
Miller

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

LECTURE I.

EXPOSITION OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH CHAPTER OF

MATTHEW.

Matt. xxiv. 34, 35: Verily I say unto you, This

generation shall not pass till all these things be

fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away,

but my words shall not pass away.

LECTURE II.

ON THE TWO DAYS IN HOSEA, AS ILLUSTRATED IN

THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT.

THE GLORIFICATION OF THE CHURCH, THE

THIRD DAY.

Hosea vi. 1-3: Come, and let us return unto the

Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he

hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After

two days will he revive us: in the third day he

will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know

the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the

morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain,

as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

AN ADDRESS

TO THE SECOND ADVENT CONFERENCE, HELD IN PORT-

LAND, ME., OCT. 12, 1841,

A SCENE OF THE LAST DAY.

THE SUPPOSED REFLECTIONS OF A SINNER, WITNESS-

ING THE SOLEMN EVENTS WHICH IMMEDIATELY

PRECEDE, AND FOLLOW, THE SECOND ADVENT OF

OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THE CONFLAGRA-

TION OF THE WORLD,

EXTRACT FROM DR. MATHER'S LATIN PREFACE ON

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST,

7

45

77

99

117

TO THE READER.

DEAR FRIEND,-No man of the present age, perhaps, has done more for the cause of Christianity, in raising a barrier against the desolating flood of infidelity which has well-nigh overwhelmed the church and the world, than WILLIAM MILLER. The doctrine of the second coming of Christ, and the great objects of his coming, had well-nigh become obliterated from the mind of the community, or, if believed at all, it was feebly, and with faint impressions with respect to its near approach; the great mass of religious teachers were almost perfectly asleep, assuring their people that they had nothing to fear of the coming of the Judge these one thousand years at least, yet. The doctrine of the resurrection was almost obliterated from the pulpit theology of the age. Yes, the great doctrine, on which rests the whole Christian fabric, was wellnigh abandoned to the enemy. How seldom was it heard from the pulpit, that, as truly as the body of Christ was raised from the grave by the power of God, so surely all that are in the graves will come forth; they that have done good, at Christ's coming, to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, at the end of the one thousand years, to the resurrection of damnation. But, above all, how entirely was this