Midnight Cry - Volume 02, Number 01

              THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
VOLUME IL NEW- YORK, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1842. NUMBER i.
1 Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie ;
though it tarry, wait for it ; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."
BY JOS1IIL1 V. HUES.
THE MIDNIGHT CRY WEEKLY.
Published every Friday, by J. V. IIIMES. Assisted by L. D.
FLEMING and N. SOUTHARD.
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" TIiou briiigest strange tilings to our earg."
So people said, when Paul " preached Jesus and the
resurrection." We are now preaching Jesus and the
resurrection, and to many it is passing strange ; but we
are sorry so few imitate the heathen Greeks, by saying :
" May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou
speakest, i& 1 For thou bringest certain strange things
to our ears : WE WOULD KNOW, therefore, WHAT THESE
THINGS MEAN 1." The doctrine was not new in itself, but
it was new to them. So it is with our views. They
have been held by learned and holy men in various ages
and countries. Those who wish to read extracts on this
point, will find them in " Cox's Letters" and " Fitch's
Reasons," two excellent pamphlets, for sale at this office.
Here is an extract from Bro. Fitch, giving the
VIEWS OF COTTON MATHER.
But it may still be asked, how comes it to
pass that none but the comparatively ignorant
have gained this wisdom, and that all these
new things have b.: en at once communicated to
them ?
I will here just quote Isa. xxix. 10 12 :
" For the Lord hath poured out upon you the
spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes :
the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he
covered. And the vision of all is become to
you as the words of a book that is sealed, which
men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read
this, I pray thee : and he saith, I cannot, for it
is sealed. And the book is delivered him
that is not learned, saying. Read this, I pray
thee ; and he saith, 1 cannot, for I am not learn
ed. >? Thus, both the learned and the unlearned
have found the Bible a sealed book, while those
who have humbly sought wisdom of God, have
gained it. Even Christ's own immediate disci
ples understood not the things of his kingdom,
until he opened their understanding, that they
might understand the Scriptures, and it is only
those now, who will confess their need of being
thus enlightened, and will take their places,
with the spirit of the little child, at Christ's feet,
and there cry after knowledge, and lift up their
voice for understanding, seeking her as silver,
and searching for her as for hid treasure who
will gain the wisdom that cometh from above.
Others may be wise in their own conceits, but
their wisdom will be foolishness with God, and
the things of God's Spir. it will seem as foolish
ness unto them.
But I wish just to show, that the truths in
which I have expressed my belief in this com
munication, are neither new, nor confined to ig
norant men.
Cotton Mather, who died in Boston, February
13, 1728, was a learned man, as all who are ac
quainted with his history will admit. The Re
ligious Encyclopedia says, that Dr, Chauncey
remarked, that Thomas Prince, formerly pastor
WEEKLY- NQ. 36 PARK- ROW,
I of the Old South Church, Boston, was the most
learned man in New England, except Cotton
Mather. I have now before me a book, the
title- page of which reads as follows :
" The life of the very reverend and learned
Cotton Mather, D. D. and F. R. S., late pastor
of the North Church, in Boston, who died Feb
ruary 13, 1727- 8. By Samuel Mather, M. A.
Printed for Samuel Gerrish, in Cornhill, 1729."
On the 140th page of this work 1 read as fol
lows ;
" As it is well known that Dr. Mather was well
acquainted with the sacred prophecies, on which he
formerly writ and printed his thoughts; so it may
not be amiss to inform my reader, that, in several
things, relating to the prophecies, he saw cause to
alter his mind particularly concerning the second
coming of Christ, the conflagration, the new heavens
and new earth, and the calling of the Jews. I will
here write those sentiments of these things, of which
the Doctor, just before he died, had a firm belief,
from a strict inquiry, long study, and much prayer;
and as near as I can, I will express his sentiments
in his own words, in the following assertions.
" 1. The second corning of the Lord, will be at
and for the destruction of the man of sin, and the
extinction of the Roman monarchy, under the pa
pal form of it. He thought that, although wise men
have interpreted our Savior's coming in the clouds
of heaven, and the brightness of his appearance, as
if it meant anything besides H: s personal corning,
herein they spoke foolishly and unaccountably.
For as their interpretations leave us destitute of
any proof that our Lord will ever come at all, so
they go very far towards a trespass on the third
commandment.
" 2. The conflagration described by the oracles
of God, in strong terms, and which we are warned
of ly the mouth of all the prophets : this conflagration
will be at the second coming of the Lord. To make
the Petrine conflagration, signify no more than the
laying of Jerusalem and her daughter in ashes; and
to make the new heavens and the new earth tosig-nify
no more than the church state of the gospel ;
these are shameful hallucinations. And as for the
new earth, before the arrival of which, no man can
reasonably expect happy times for the church of
God upon earth, it is the greatest absurdity to say
that it will take place before the Petrine conflagra
tion : and there is no prospect of arguing to any
purpose with such as can talk so very ridiculously.
" 3. Upon the conflagration, the glorious God
will create new heavens and a new earth.
U 5. The process of judgment on the sheep and
goats, in the 25th chapter of Matthew, has not one
of the raised from the dead concerned in it; but is a
quick division and decision, made by our Lord
among the Christians who cry for mercy, when
they see the fire of God ready to seize upon them,
determining who shall be caught up to meet the Lord,
and who shall be left to the perdition of ungodly
men, in the flames before them ; and there shall
not one ungodly man be left living in the world.
" 8. The new heavens, in conjunction with the
new earth under the influence of it, isth'. t heavenly
country which the patriarchs looked for. When
the great God promised them that he would be their
God and bless them, they understood it of his bring-
PR1CE FODR CENTS.
ing them into his deathless and sinless world. They
who expect the rest, promised to the church of God
upoa earth, to be f > und anywhere but in the new
earth, and they who expect any happy times for
the church in a world that hath death and sin in it;
these do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the
kingdom of God.
4i 9. Such a conversion of the Israelitish nation,
with a return to their ancient seats in Palestine, as
many excellent persons in latter years ( and among
the rest himself) have been persuaded of, he now
thought inconsistent with the corning of the Lord,
and the burning of the world at the fall of Ami-
| Christ, before which fall nobody imagines thmt con-
| version.
I " And, indeed, bow is it consistent with the deep
! sleep in which the Delumum Ignis [ deluge of fire]
j must, as ihat of water did, surprise the worid ?
! The holy people of the prophecies is found among
j the Gentiles, the surrogate Israel. The New Tes-
| tament seems to have done with a carnal Israel ; the
i eleventh chapter to the Romans is greatly misun-j
derstood, where we find all Israel saved by a fil.
| ling up of the Gentiles ; which we mistranslate the
j fulness of the Gentiles. The prophecies of the
| Old Testament, ( hat seem to have an aspect upon
j such a nation, are either already accomplished unto
| that nation, in the return from the Chaldean cnpti-
| vity ; or they belong to that holy people, whom a
I succession to tlie piety of the patriarchs will rend - r,
what our Bible has taught us to call them, the Israel
of God ; but the final fulfilment of them all will be in
the world to come, or the new heavens and the new
earth, where God will dwell with men, and be their
God. Of what advantage to the kingdom of God
can the conversion of the Jewish nation be, any
more than * he conversion of any other nit ion, except
we should suppose to remain upon the Jewish nation,
after their conversion, something to distinguish them
from the rest of the Christian believers? Now, to
suppose this, would it not be to rebuild a partition
wall thatour Saviour has demolished and abolished ;
which a Cnristian, one wou'd think, would no soon
er go to do, than to rebuild the fallen walls of
Jericho ?"
I will now give the views of Mather respecting
the near approach of the time when all these things
should be fulfilled, just remarking, that if he had
lived to see the actual overthrow of papal power in
1798, it wou/ d unquestionably have given much
greater clearness md correctness to his views on
this point; while, at the same time, it will be seen
what a learned and good man, who had made the
prophecies his prayerful study, thought, more than
a century ago. respecting the near approach of God's
everlasting kingdom.
' 40. By all just and fair computations, the twelve
hundred and sixty years allowed for the Papal Em
pire, must be near, if not quite expired. By con
sequence, the? one thousand, ihreo hundred and
thirty- five years, which bring the time of the end,
when Daniel, with every other good man, is to rise
and stand in his lot, are not likely to extend beyond
the present century. 1 '
Such were the opinions of Cotton Mather, re
specting the approach of that great and notable day
of the Lord. He died in 1728. What would ha
have said, had he lived till 1828, and witnessed all