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7-15; Dan. vii. 13, 10; Rev. xvii. 14; xix. 11-21), which shall burn up his enemies on every side; as it is also written in the cxlix th Psalm, "This honour have all his saints." Concerning which also, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all; and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed; and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him" (Jude 14, 15). In like manner does our Saviour encourage us in our conflict with the powers of darkness: "He that overcometh,and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessel of a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as I have received of my Father" (Rev. ii. 26, 27).

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The manner also in which this glorious period shall be ushered in, is worthy of observation: "The Lord will come," it is said, 66 AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT." Not only will the world be in gross darkness respecting the season of the Redeemer's advent; but he will come, even to those who are waiting and expecting him, at an hour that they think not: for such were the words our blessed Lord addressed-not to the world, be it remembered, but-to his disciples: "Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour the Lord doth come (Matt. xxiv. 42). The sudden and unexpected manner in which God's people will be gathered unto himself, previous to his epiphany, or manifestation unto the world, is thus described: "In that night, two shall be in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left." Now this language seems to imply that there shall be no outward or visible sign of the separation about to take place; that men will be engaged in their various occupations in life as they now are. In one part of the world the sun will have sunk beneath the horizon, and men will have retired to rest in another part it will have risen upon the earth, like as when lot entered into Zoar, and the people will be following their respective callings; when, lo! on a sudden the great separation is effected; one will be taken, and another left. God's people will not be found, for he will have taken them!

In reference to this gathering, I believe the disciples asked the question, "Where, Lord ?" and Jesus replied, "Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together" (Luke xvii. 34-37). The rapid flight of the eagle to the carcase fallen in the wilderness, and the certainty and ease with which she finds it, shews us with what swiftness and unerring certainty we shall direct our way to the Lord in the

day of his appearing. "Wherefore," saith Christ, "if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: Behold; he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning which cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together" (Matt. xxiv. 26-28).

Such are the events in which the church is becoming daily more and more interested; and which therefore may well be called the church's expectation. But her views are not bounded by these events. After these things are come to pass, she expects the fulfilment of all those promises which speak of the reign of Christ with his saints on this earth. Yea, on this very earth, where their names have been cast out as evil, shall they be glorified with Christ." And the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given unto the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him” (Dan. vii. 27). Then shall be fulfilled that which was spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets respecting the Kingship of Christ; for he is King, the Anointed One though he has not yet been manifested in his kingly character. Though now" all power is given into his hands," and he holds "the keys of death and of hell, and openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth;" yet is he within the vail, as our Advocate with the Father; but he shall ere long come forth from the most holy place, clad in royal robes, after the order of Melchizedec; "which in his time he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords." And we, his happy though despised followers, shall reign with him; shall be made unto our God kings and priests. Oh, blessed prospect! oh, glorious expectation!

" to think of this is heav'n!

'Tis extasy! Roll on, ye lingering hours,
And bring Millennian bliss."

This is that which is spoken of by Isaiah: "Behold, a King shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment .....and the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever: and my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places" (xxxii. 1, 17, 18).

But I must not now enlarge on this head. Respecting the church's expectation subsequent to the coming of Christ I refer to a former paper, in the second volume of the Morning Watch, which speaks of " Messiah's Reign on the Earth.' And now, "" may the Lord direct our hearts into the love of

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God, and into a patient waiting for Christ;" that we may be so filled with this blessed hope, as not only to watch and pray for it, but to endure patiently our trials in the prospect of it; knowing that the trial of our faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire, will be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. This is the true meaning of a patient waiting for Christ, and not an easy indifference about it as some would have it (James v. 7, 8; 1 Pet. i. 6, 7). "HERE IS THE PATIENCE

AND FAITH OF THE SAINTS; HERE ARE THEY WHICH KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AND THE FAITH OF JESUS" (Rev. xiv. 12).

JOHN HOOPER.

ON THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.

THERE is no point of doctrine in the whole range of theology in which we find so much seeming agreement, and so much real difference of opinion, as the Unity of the Church. The Papal doctrine of one true church, stripped of its revolting accessaries of exclusiveness and intolerance, will be found, in its substance, a component part of every orthodox creed; while scarcely any two persons are exactly agreed as to the mode in which that unity is to be expressed, or the degree in which it is to be required. In the Papacy, their unity is an empty boast; for while they insist on perfect oneness of doctrine, of worship and of discipline, in general terms, yet when required to come to particulars no such agreement can be found, authorities clash continually-age against age-Pope against Pope, and Council against Council. The Papal doctrine is one vast series of innovations which had nothing like consistency, not even a fixed form till the sixteenth century, when the Council of Trent, in order to give any plausible appearance of unity to the Roman Church, was under the necessity of adding twelve new articles to the Nicene Creed, the first of which fixed the many novelties in the Papal Church, by boldly assuming to it infallibility in the fullest sense and in all respects.

Infallibility does belong to the true church, as we shall shew from the Scriptures; but never was an imposition more gross, never was pretension more absurd, than that of palming upon an ignorant and credulous multitude infallibility as a characteristic of the Roman Church, as her priests so impudently do even to the present day. The shifts by which they manage their cause are these: They maintain that infallibility belongs to the church, and assume it as a settled point to be believed and not to be discussed: and many an attack is parried, and many an

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argument cut short, by assuming that the Roman is the only church, or is a true church, or is a church and not an apostasy; in all of which cases, infallibility would in some sense belong to it. When driven to argue, and required to define where the infallibility abides, they shift it from Pope, to Pope and Cardinals, or Pope and Councils, and finally escape into the wide unknown trackless region called the universal church. But to their own body, and in all practical cases, every individual priest does assume to himself all the power which infallibility could bestow, and finds a people ready to concede his claims and give them full deference. The assumption of infallibility for the Papacy thus acquiesced in by the ignorant people is the astonishment of every well informed man, and he can hardly believe that a claim can be really set up, which is so notoriously, so monstrously untrue. In this Roman Church, which arrogates to itself unity and infallibility, notwithstanding they have endeavoured to provide ample receptacles, where schismatics of every grade might find refuge in the various religious orders, schisms have more abounded than in any other form of Christianity whatever. This their own writers allow. Bellarmine reckons twenty-six various schisms as having rent the Papacy before 1450; and in many of these, truth and error were so intermingled on both sides that it is impossible to decide which of the opponents was most in error. Some of the Popes were notorious heretics, as Liberius the Arian, Anastasius II. the Nestorian, and Honorius the Monothelite. Often were there two, and sometimes three, Popes at the same time reciprocally excommunicating each other; and often was the Papal chair unfilled sometimes for the space of two years, as between Celestine IV. and Innocent IV., and between Clement IV. and Gregory X.-If from the Popes we turn to the Councils, in expectation of finding infallibility there, our confusion is rather increased than diminished. Longus the Capuchin, following Baronius, enumerates eighteen general councils as approved by all; seven as rejected by the church; six as partly approved and partly rejected; and one which is not positively either approved or rejected. The plea on which some of these councils are now rejected is, that they have condemned the present practices of the Papacy, as the worship of images; or excommunicated orthodox fathers, as Athanasius, or Popes acknowledged by other councils and the whole Church of Rome since. The councils partly approved and partly rejected are those, some of whose acts have been confirmed by other approved councils; while they have also sanctioned, in their other acts, error; and one of them put forth two contradictory confessions of faith, as Sardis A. D. 356. The council, concerning which the doctors cannot determine whether it be true or false, is that of Pisa, 1409; which, being assembled to heal the schism in

the church, widened it, says Longus. This council deposed Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII., and made Alexander V. Pope in their stead. This Pope has always been acknowledged by his successors as truly constituted by this council, and the next Alexander called himself the Sixth. But, on the other hand, Antoninus says, p. iii. tit. 12, chap. 5, " It is much to be questioned whether this council was canonically and lawfully convened, not having been summoned by the Pope." And Bellarmine says, that instead of remedying schism it only increased it; for the two popes which it deposed continued refractory, and there were thus three popes claiming primacy and infallibility at the same time. Benedict XIII. and Gregory XII. were condemned by this council as both being perjured, schismatic, heretical, conniving at and fostering heretics. Such is the infallibility of popes and councils! But if infallibility and unity of faith is not to be found in popes and councils, it is no where to be found in the Roman Church. For let the modern Romanists say what they will, the Pope is the sole recognizable head of the Papacy. And though the Pope is elected by cardinals in ordinary and by councils in extraordinary cases, and may thus seem their creature and inferior, yet this is only of a piece with that system of reasoning in a circle which pervades the Papacy. For the councils themselves are accounted genuine, according as they have been approved by genuine popes; and every member of the Roman Church is required, and in the creed of the Council of Trent professes, sincerely to hold as the true catholic faith, without which no one can be saved: "I promise true obedience to the bishop of Rome, successor to St. Peter, prince of the Apostles and vicar of Jesus Christ. I likewise undoubtedly receive and profess all other things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and general councils, and particularly by the holy council of Trent.'

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The Papal pretensions, and the sins in which they terminate, are gross, palpable, and obvious: the opposite of these are the errors of the Dissenters, who seem to have mistaken reverse of wrong for right." The Papacy, compressing all into one external form, and putting the same varnish over all, produced a mockery of unity—the symmetry of constraint alone, the beauty only of a whited sepulchre. But the Dissenters have not only thrown off the restraint and the colouring, but virtually denied the reality of the unity sought for, by breaking down differences and attenuating bonds to that degree that scarcely any are excluded, and a very slender bond of union remains. The name of Independent, which a large body have assumed, is characteristic of the whole. In pursuit of spiritual attainments, they too often assume independence of all ordinances, whether of God or man; and their very pastor becomes the elected and nominal:

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