Memoirs of William Miller - Sylvester Bliss

it may be proper here to show that it was this
repulsive feature of deism which constituted the
greatest difficulty connected with it in his mind.
This fact is thus stated, in one of his published
works:
“Before the close of this period, however,” [the
period of his deistical life] “I began to suspect that
deism tended to a belief of annihilation, which was
always very abhorrent to my feelings. In the fall of
1812, as I was returning to Poultney from the court
at Rutland, in company with Judge Stanley, I asked
him his opinion respecting our condition in another
state. He replied by comparing it to that of a tree,
which flourishes for a time, and turns again to
earth; and to that of a candle, which burns to
nothing. I was then satisfied that deism was
inseparably connected with, and did tend to, the
denial of a future existence. And I thought to
myself, that rather than embrace such a view, I
should prefer the heaven and hell of the Scriptures,
and take my chance respecting them. Still, I could
not regard the Bible as inspired.”
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