| 171 it is preposterous. Were the bibles destroyed in Italy, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, America, Prussia, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Turkey; if not how do we make it out that the bible was destroyed, that the witnesses even according to Mr. Miller' theory, were killed?
Again, did those nations rejoice over this ungodly step of the French of Lyons, and not suffer their dead bodies to be put in their graves. We will here quote the scripture a little more full than Mr. Miller has done, for we presume that with all his ingenuity he could not make this part fit with even his wildest and most flighty calculations. And their bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindred and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in their graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and a half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. Rev. xi:8, 9, 10, 11.
We again ask from this description, was it in France or in Jerusalem that these prophet were killed? and again state if we can find out where our Lord was crucified, we shall know the place.
Did the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations see their dead bodies laying in the streets of Lyons, and not suffer them to be buried?-or did the French burn the old and new testament and the other nations have nothing to do directly or indirectly in the affair? Did they that dwell on the earth rejoice and make merry, and send gifts one to another, when the bibles were burned, and christianity trampled under foot in France? or were the nations tormented with the old and new testaments.-And again, did the spirit of life from God enter into the bibles that were burned in Lyons, or did their ashes remain there? Did the bibles stand upon their feet . (Query, where were their feet?) Did they ascend up to heaven in a cloud? if they did we have not got the old and new testament, for we live on the earth. Again we ask did any of the above things take place in Lyons or in France? No! says every man of common sense. No! echoes the word of God and history. No! re-echoes all those nations above named. No! says France, these thing did not take place in me.
9. "The same hour there was a great earth-quake, and a tenth part of the city fell."
Earthquake, when used symbolically, signifies a revolution of a kingdom. The hour signifies period, the same period. The city the Roman Empire.
Thus Rev. 17:18. "That great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth," or the Roman Empire. "Tenth part of the city fell," ceased its allegiance to the Roman power, and threw off the yoke of popery, and finally took away the papal dominion in Rome itself.
10. "Were slain of men," or as in margin, names of men seven thousand." To slay the names of men, is to abolish their titles and dignities. This was done in the French Revolution, when all names, titles and dignities of the clergy and nobility were abolished, and only the simple title of citizen was allowed to any man. The number seven, signifying the perfect nulling of all titles.
A tenth part of the city fell. Of what city? Mr. Miller has now taken us from France, and planted us in Rome; before he had it that Lyons, in France, was the place where the prophets (the old and new testaments) were killed, buried, and resurrected. Now we are told that Rome is the city; (for mark it was the city that the two witnesses prophesied in, that a tenth part of it fell,) and not content with Rome, he drags in the whole of the roman Empire. Thus according to this, in the Roman Empire the prophets prophesied, were killed, and resurrected. Before we had it that it was infidelity that destroyed those things; now it must be laid at the doors of Catholicism.
We have now waded through this great sermon of the great Mr. Miller, and turn away from it with disgust, for such a bundle of balderdash, folly and nonsense, we never before witnessed. Some of Mr. Miller's followers had said that the Mormons were the beast spoken of by John; if, indeed, they are, they have not got so many eyes, ears, horns and hoofs, as he has manifested; and if we are to judge of beings by their intelligence, we must think, from the above, that his intellectual powers range far below that of the human species. Besides his standing in society compares so well with the description given by John in Rev. "and all the world wondered after the beast." Mr. Miller has published the following:
Why is it if our arguments and premises are as vulnerable and fragile as they would seem to affect, that they do not, by the bible, and fair arguments, meet and refute us?
If it had not been for that, and their interference with us, perhaps we might have left them to their folly; for we are not afraid that these notions could in the least obtain among the Latter Day Saints.
We have read with deep interest the account of the journeying and labors of Elder P. P. Pratt, and perhaps we have felt more interested
(page 171) |
