A SUMMARY VIEW OF THE MILLENNIAL CHURCH, OR UNITED SOCIETY OF BELIEVERS, COMPRISING THE RISE, PROGRESS AND PRACTICAL ORDER TOGETHER WITH THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THEIR FAITH AND TESTIMONY. PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE MINISTRY, In the days of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom DANIEL. ALBANY: PRINTED BY PACKARD & VAN BENTHUYSEN. THE increasing attention which, within a few years, has been directed to the principles and practice of the people called Shakers, by travellers and writers of various classes and descriptions, has occasioned much enquiry among almost all classes of people. Publications have been issued from the press in almost every form. Historians of the various denominations of religion, writers of travels, compilers of Geographies and Gazetteers, the editors of periodical essays, and the publishers of common newspapers, have all in their turns, thought proper to notice, in some way or other, the people so much "wondered at." But in consequence of the various and contradictory accounts of many of these writers, and the false and erroneous statements concerning the principles of the people, which are so manifest in the generality of those accounts, the Society has been earnestly solicited by many candid and intelligent persons to publish a plain and correct statement of facts relative to the history of the Society, in a concise form, containing its origin, progress and present state; with a fair view of the religious faith and practice of the Society, and the principles on which their peculiar tenets are founded. In compliance with these repeated calls, and with a view to af ford the candid and unprejudiced of all classes a fair opportunity of examining for themselves, and obtaining a correct knowledge of the truth from the proper source, the following pages have been written, and are now offered to the public in a form which may easily be obtained and readily perused by every one who desires it. We have not written merely with a view to multiply books, nor to supersede the necessity of those already published by the Society, and which have proved highly useful, and done much towards affecting the important object for which they were intended; especially that entitled, "The Testimony of Christ's Second Appearing," which has had an extensive circulation.* And if its irresistible truth, and the plainness of its doctrines have excited a few sneering comments, and thus disclosed the rancor of one or two ecclesiastical dignitaries; yet no one has ever been able to *We refer the reader to that book, and to Dunlavy's Manifesto, for further information, |