party zeal to obscure the subject, and to perplex and misapply the prophecies. Not so with respect to the latter and the Christian portion or period of prophecy; far different its too generally supposed use and its too frequent application, and far different its consequent fate and effect. The Catholic church has not in fact received from her prophecies such additional aid and support, nor the Christian faith such accumulated strength of evidence, and such farther accessions of arguments and of influence, as might have been reasonably expected from the lengthened period and eventful history of its fates and fortunes for 1800 years. The prophets have not been so skilfully called forth and so judiciously employed to raise the superstructure and to complete the edifice, as they had been to lay the foundation and to commence the building. Nor can we justly regard them as suitably and adequately explained and adapted to meet the various enemies of the truth, and to overcome the perhaps augmenting difficulties and thickening dangers of the church. It has been a just and serious source of concern and of complaint that their writings have not been made to promote the established end and aim of prophecy, to dispel the doubts and to answer the objections of the unbelieving, to recommend Christian truth to the candid inquirer, and to vindicate the honour and the authority of the Gospel against the scoffer and the deceiver. The incongruous and inadequate

7

exposition of prophecy in these respects has been almost universally acknowledged, and has excited the just censure and deep regret of many wise and great men, who have calmly and impartially consulted the benefit and the establishment of the one religion of Christ, and preferred the good of the whole body of the church to that of any of its members or component parts. These enlightened friends and advocates of truth and virtue have observed, with no slight uneasiness and mortification, the difficulties and the prejudices of infidels to have been rather increased than diminished, and that Christianity has sustained positive injury and loss, and has been exposed to the derision and scorn of its enemies from the unjust sense and illegitimate use of its prophecies. The arms of the church having been sometimes rendered in this way not merely useless, but, what is still worse, having been turned against herself, and her children taught to bite and to devour each other; and, instead of resisting the furious and incessant assaults from without her, incited to bitter animosities and party feuds within her. The absurdity and the mischief indeed of intermixing theological discussions with the evidences of religion, must be apparent to those who will permit themselves soberly and dispassionately to consider the wide distinction between them, and the different provinces assigned them.

Lord Clarendon long since complained of the

bad effects of the controversial sense and use of prophecy, even upon those professed members of the church, for whose special conviction and reformation it has been construed to have been designed, as justly exasperating instead of calmly instructing them, and as incurably disgusting instead of soberly and judiciously enlightening them. "What must the greatest princes in Europe think when they find themselves charged with living in a communion in which Antichrist resides and governs; that in the very exercise of their religion, which so many hundred years has been established among them, and in which persons illustrious for their learning and piety have lived and died with great glory, they are gross idolaters, against whom all the judgments of the Old and New Testaments are pronounced * ?"

The spirit and temperament of the church of England are singularly happy in this respect; and happy had it been for her and for the cause of truth, if her sons had imbibed her soberness, and partaken of her moderation and discretion, in their use and application of the prophecies-rational, and yet devout; calm, and yet decided :-not judging without reason, nor condemning without necessity, and much less abusing and provoking without remedy those from whom she dissents; praying for all Christian kings, princes, and gover

* Clarendon's Essays.

nors, and more especially for the good estate of the Catholic church, that all who confess the holy name of Christ may agree in the truth of his holy word, and live in unity and godly love, and yet asserting the inviolability of truth and the right of independence.

The entire union indeed of all parties, and the merging of all differences in matters of religion, are now utterly hopeless and chimerical, and would be perhaps neither useful nor desirable. But is not peace within the pale of the church better than war, and charity to be preferred to hatred? and can the religion of kindness and goodwill be promoted by discord and strife? or should the fundamental proofs of our faith, and the just exposition and completion of prophecy be sacrificed to the spirit of party and to the love of controversy? Prophecy, having solely for its object and aim the defence of the Catholic faith, and the interest and weal of the whole body of the church, can take no notice of its various distinctions and almost endless subdivisions; it has no share in theological debates, and no alliance with party zeal. That it extends not to the reformation, but only to the propagation of religion, seems to have been broadly and distinctly admitted and asserted by Bishop Hurd *. But how soon and how completely he forgot his own admission and

* See his Sixth Discourse on Prophecy, and the Notes.

bad effects of the controversial sense and use of prophecy, even upon those professed members of the church, for whose special conviction and reformation it has been construed to have been designed, as justly exasperating instead of calmly instructing them, and as incurably disgusting instead of soberly and judiciously enlightening them. "What must the greatest princes in Europe think when they find themselves charged with living in a communion in which Antichrist resides and governs; that in the very exercise of their religion, which so many hundred years has been established among them, and in which persons illustrious for their learning and piety have lived and died with great glory, they are gross idolaters, against whom all the judgments of the Old and New Testaments are pronounced * ?”

The spirit and temperament of the church of England are singularly happy in this respect; and happy had it been for her and for the cause of truth, if her sons had imbibed her soberness, and partaken of her moderation and discretion, in their use and application of the prophecies-rational, and yet devout; calm, and yet decided :-not judging without reason, nor condemning without necessity, and much less abusing and provoking without remedy those from whom she dissents; praying for all Christian kings, princes, and gover

* Clarendon's Essays.