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CONTAINING AN

ILLUSTRATION

OF THE

PROPHECIES

TO BE

ACCOMPLISHED FROM THE PRESENT TIME,
UNTIL THE NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH
ARE CREATED, WHEN ALL THE PROPH.
ECIES WILL BE FULFILLED.

BY ELIAS SMITH,

PORTSMOUTH, N. H.

"But I will shew thee that which is NOTED in the Scriptures of
truth; and there is none that holdeth with me in these things
but MICHAEL your Prince."....DANIEL X. 21.

EXETER:

Printed by NORRIS & SAWYER, for the Author; Sold by them, by
the Author and Booksellers in Portsmouth; by the Booksellers in
Boston, Salem, Newburyport, Portland, New-Bedford, and New-
port; by elder RANSOM PAGE, Cabbot; RICHARD RANSOM, jr.
Woodstock; ALDEN SPOONER, Windsor, Ver.; WILLIAM ROUNS-
WELL, Freetown; JESSE LOCKE, Hallowell, Maine; THOMAS
TRUNDY, Wiscasset, and by the Booksellers in the United States.

BS
-647
•554

DISTRICT OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE....ss....

BE IT REMEMBERED that on this feventeenth day of January, in the thirty first year of the Independence of the United States of America, Elias Smith of Portsmouth, in faid district, preacher of the gospel, hath deposited in this Office the title of a Book whereof he claims to be the Author, in the following words....to wit:...... * Sermons, containing an Illustration of the Prophecies to be accomplished from the present time, until the new Heavens and earth are created, when all the prophecies will be fulfilled.....By Elias Smith, Portsmouth,N. H. But I will fhew thee that which is noted in the fcriptures of truth; and there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your prince......Daniel x. 21."....In conformity to An Act of Congrefs, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of Learning by lecuring the Copies of Maps, Charts, and other Books to the Authors and Proprietors therein mentioned"....And also "An Act fupplementary to an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by fecuring the copies of Maps, Charts, and other Books to the Authors and Proprietors of fuch copies therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching Historical and other prints.”

R. CUTTS SHANNON, Clerk

true Copy of Record,

Atteft, R. C. SHANNON, Cherk.

of faid Difiria.

INTRODUCTION.

Friends and Brethren,

THE things mentioned in the following

Sermons, have employed my thoughts for about ten years past, and what is here offered to the public, is the result of my search after truth in the scriptures of truth, that sure word of prophecy.

The things mentioned in these Sermons are different from any thing I ever saw written on the prophecies, and appear to me what the Holy Ghost meant we should understand.

There are at the present time, a variety of opinions among those who profess to understand the scriptures; and among them all, there appears to me some things right and some wrong.

I have read several systems (as they are called) and find they all have an idea of something great yet to come; but how these great things will come to pass, and what they will be, is what they differ about.

I have read Dr. Gili, Newton, Hopkins, Winchester, Spaulding and Cummings; these have all written upon what they call the Millennium; they differ from each. other, and from the scriptures in some things, as I understand the scriptures.

Mr. Winchester had the greatest knowledge of the prophecies, of any writer I have ever seen, and there is

no doubt in my mind of his being a good man, though I think he was in an error concerning the salvation of alt men. His arrangement of the things which are to take place until the last judgment is, in general, according to the scriptures, and had he gone through as he set out, he would have outdone all who have written before him; but when he came to the last part of his book, his plan carried him away from the scriptures, and to make it out, he was obliged to leave what he first laid down as a rule to understand the prophecies; that is, the plain literal meaning of the scriptures.

After he had described the lake of fire, and shewed that the wicked would be cast into it,, and die the second death, which is the last the scriptures say of the wicked, he undertook to prove that they would be tormented for hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of years, and after all this, be brought out of that exquisite torment, and be brought into a state of glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life, in the everlasting kingdom of Christ. This is the old pagan doctrine of being purified by fire, instead of being washed from sins in the blood of the lamb.

This same doctrine the church of Rome holds, called by them purgatory. Dr. Chancy held the same. This is imaginary, whether held by Pagans, Roman Catholics, Winchester, Chancy, or others under the name of Universalists.

In writing the following sermons, I have endeavoured to attend closely to the plain declarations of the scriptures of truth, without any regard to the opinion of any man. My Bible and Concordance was almost the whole of my books, to assist me in writing what is here com. municated to the public. If there are any errors in this work, they are mine, and not another man's.

My reason for writing as I have, is this; when I was young, my parents taught me to have a sacred regard for the bible. They taught me to believe that the principal things in the scriptures, were contained in the catechism. This I believed for many years, till I found it contained contradictions and impossibilities, and was contrary to the plain declarations of the scriptures.

When I began to preach, I belonged to a calvinistical baptist church; and as I had read the scriptures, and committed to memory the greater part of the new testament, I preached as that read, which led some of the older ministers to tell me I was not doctrinated, and that I had no system. They directed me to Dr. Gill, Mr. Ostervald, Dr. Edwards, Mr. Pool, Burkit, Henry, and to close the whole, Dr. Hopkin's body of Divinity. As they were the oldest, I supposed they knew the most, and by their direction, I paid close attention to these systems of human divinity, and made some proficiency in the doc trinating plan; till at last upon this plan, I was obliged to tell my hearers, that though the scriptures proclaimed salvation to all who believe; yet God had determined how many should be saved, and how many should be damped. The effect of this preaching was as might be expected; the young people, at once felt at liberty to pursue the pleasures of sin, hoping that in a sinful course the irresistible power of God would take them by force, and make them love what they then hated; the aged remained stupid, waiting, as they termed it, for the electing love of God, (as it was called) to come and force them into the vineyard at the eleventh hour. Those who pro. ·

fessed religion, under this preaching grew stupid, and proud of their share in the partiality of God, called, by them, sovereign grace. At this time I lived in Woburn, and was under the more particular direction of the bap- · tist Bishops in Boston, whom I then greatly feared.

All these things happening in consequence of my sys tematic preaching, gave my mind an amazing shoek, aud with this, my system had a most violent shock, which terminated in its overthrow. I found that it would not do for me to preach in this manner any more, and I dropped it from that time.

As my bodies of divinity, annotations, Doctor's re- ceipts and medicines, had sickened instead of curing me, I sold them all for what the buyer was pleased to give. I cleared my book case of them, and forgot what I had learnt as fast as I could, as things behind, and begun to think of the extent of the love and grace of God to man;

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