sometimes excessive, and often ill directed zeal, with which men have hitherto "" striven together for the faith of the Gospel," will be succeeded by the dull and heartless apathy of a deistical philosophy.

66

The language of our Saviour and his Apostles appears to warrant an opinion, that the latter days will be marked by the prevalence of infidelity. For the many intimations to be found in the New Testament, of a remarkable defection from the saving doctrines of the Gospel, which is to precede the great and terrible day of the Lord; although, in their primary signification, they may have referred to the falling away of the Jews, before the destruction of their city and temple; have been generally expected to receive their final accomplishment in a more extensive apostasy, by which the Church itself would be nearly brought to desolation. Various have been the events, to which these predictions have been supposed to

u Phil. i. 27.

relate. It was natural indeed, that pious and reflecting men, deeply impressed with the importance of those occurrences which they themselves witnessed, should have been led to imagine, that in each of the temporary triumphs of error or infidelity over revealed truth, they could trace the completion of prophecy. As years have rolled away, these several applications have, in their turn, been found in some respects unsatisfactory; and the predictions themselves, as yet unfulfilled, stand as beacons in the sacred pages, to warn us of the trials which await the Church; and to teach us, who "look for such things," to be diligent, that we at least " may be "found of him," whose speedy coming they will signify, "in peace, without spot

The signs of the times have indeed been often misinterpreted, and the minds of some have been shaken and troubled without cause, as if y" the day of Christ" was at hand. But such mistakes affect

x 2 Pet. iii. 14.

y Phil. i. 6.

not the veracity of prophecy. The word of God standeth sure: and though we know not the day nor the hour, which he has appointed for the execution of his purposes; and all our conjectures and researches on the subject may end in disappointment; assuredly, whatever is written shall be accomplished in its season; and they, whose lot may fall to them in the latter days, will probably witness an apostasy, more general and more fatal than any which has yet afflicted the world. To this apostasy, neither the partial falling away of Judaizing Christians, nor the more extended corruptions of Romish superstition, nor even the atheistical frenzy, which was permitted for a season to be the scourge and disgrace of our own times, may be compared. So wide indeed will its influence be spread, that it is even made a question, whether, when "the "Son of Man cometh," he shall z“ find

faith on, the earth!" whether, among the multitudes of every nation and lan

z Luke xviii. 8.

guage, which profess to believe on his name, and to be zealous for his service, even a small remnant shall be left of those, who are truly his disciples! What then are the reflections, which the prospect of such a fearful departure from the truth should inspire? Should it not lead us seriously to consider, whether the prevailing spirit of our times may not favour the increase of error? whether they, who disregard that unity of faith, which the Scriptures require, and they, who neglect to enforce it, by argument, by persuasion, by intreaty, may not unintentionally cooperate, the one by their thoughtlessness, and the other by their silence, to hasten this predicted triumph of infidelity? The character of that apostasy, to which the Scriptures refer, is not precisely defined: but perhaps we shall not altogether err if we conceive, that it will not consist in an open denial of Christ; but rather in that strange diversity of opinions, that exaltation of imaginations above revealed truth, that moulding of the Scriptures after the fashion of human preju

dices, of which too many instances are daily forcing themselves upon our observation.

By those then, who are convinced that in the doctrines of the Church of England the true faith is now to be found, the path of duty can scarcely be mistaken. Taking their stand on that foundation on which she has built, they will be stedfast and immoveable: their firm and temperate resistance of plausible, but unauthorized novelties will prove, that they are faithful a" stewards of the mysteries of God:" and if it please him still to raise up those within her pale, who are thus prepared to defend and uphold her, the prediction of the Evangelical Prophet may yet be fulfilled in her favour; and the generations to come may b" see our Jerusalem a quiet "habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be "taken down; not one of the stakes "thereof shall ever be removed, neither "shall any of the cords thereof be bro"ken."

a 1 Cor. iv. 1.

b Isai. xxxiii. 20.