ants,) i. e., all Christendom, was, during eight hundred years and upwards, buried in the most profound idolatry; and the people had no way of extricating themselves therefrom. And the vast majority of Christendom is still in the same state. I cannot, then, recognize the truth of this prophecy with the facts that I see, even to-day; for, if the Roman Catholic Church leads to error, many persons who are wise, and many who are fools, not only can but do err. And Protestants have made but little progress to abolish the difficulty, because they give us only a rule, (if rule it may be called), a principle-which has made serious divisions amongst themselves, and must, in the nature of things, not only perpetuate but multiply those divisions.

If, however, there is, in that Church which has existed from the days of the Apostles, a tribunal, whose decision will infallibly preserve us from error; even a fool may learn what that decision is, and the prophecy will be manifestly fulfilled.

In the fifty-fourth chapter the same prophet gives to the Church, amongst other promises of God, the following declarations: "For thy Maker is thine Husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name. In a little wrath I hid My face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For, as I have sworn that the waters of Noe should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For, the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. Whosoever shall

gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn."2

1 "Hom. of Ch. of Eng. and of the P. E. Ch. of U. S." Hom. on Peril of Idol. ? Is., c. liv, v. 5, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 17.

God does not make an eternal union with what might become the mother of error; yet, here He makes Himself the Husband of the Christian Church, to which He promises everlasting kindness; a covenant of peace more stable than the mountains, and to the observance of which He swears; as He did, that He would not destroy the world by a deluge; and He bestows upon this Church the privilege of condemning in judgment every tongue which will rise up against her. If this Church, then, can err in those judicial condemnations, God has, by an oath, bound Himself to a covenant with error

In his fifty-ninth chapter we have the Redeemer's covenant with the Christian Church in the following words: "My spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever."1

Upon this passage I think no comment is necessary : "I will make thee an eternal excellency. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light. "2

The reader will recollect that these are prophecies, to the complete fulfilling of which God has irrevocably bound Himself; that they are made to the Christian Church; and that if this Church can lead us into error, or herself be in error regarding God's doctrine, not one of those prophecies has been fulfilled; and that the Roman Catholic Church is the only portion of the Christian Church which now exists without having come away from some other division; and that every division now in existence is but a portion which has separated from her, either in itself, or in some one from which it sprang; and, that the plea for this separation always was, that this Church did err, and did lead others into error; and that every such division formed a new Church upon the plea that there was not, at the

time of its secession, any Church in existence which was free from error, and therefore, that the covenant which God made was not at that time fulfilled by Him.

VI.

By looking a little closer into some other prophecies of the Mosaic Church, we shall find the principle which I contemplated in the last section greatly supported. I shall give but one more of this description.

In the prophecy of Daniel it is stated concerning the Church of Christ, that "the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed;" which "shall not be left to other people;" which "shall stand forever." But, if this Church can err in teaching the doctrines of God, it can be destroyed. If truth shall leave this Church to go to other people whom this Church condemns, this kingdom, then, will be left to those other people. If this Church has fallen off and not stood in truth, and no society was found at that time preserving the purity of doctrine from the beginning, then this kingdom did not stand. If, therefore, the Church originally established can lead men into error, the prophecy of Daniel has not been accomplished.

The Church of the old law was to last until the coming of the Redeemer, who was promised. The high priest and the council of the Sanhedrim were to be, until His arrival, a supreme, earthly tribunal, from which there was no appeal in matters of religion. From various events it was believed that if the time of redemption had not already arrived, it was at hand. Inquiry was made of the chief priests and scribes, and explaining the prophecies, they distinctly told where the Redeemer should be born. At that period there was born in that place Jesus of Nazareth. His works and His declarations proved His commission and His nature. The Aaronite commission became now superseded, and Jesus was to give a new one, of which the former was only typical. He did give this commission to the Apostles. We

find them, too, prove their commission by miracles; we behold them exercise their power. We believe that man is now to know what God has said in the same manner; that is, upon the same principle that his ancestors were formerly to have known it. The Aaronite assembly was the court of final decision by which, under the appointment of God, all were bound in matters of religion. The Apostolic assembly succeeds to this tribunal; the commission is extended; decisions are given; they are obeyed; the Apostles assert that the Holy Ghost presides and aids them; they refer to their appointment by the Saviour; to the miracles wrought by themselves; they command the Christians to hold to the testified doctrine, even in opposition, if the case were possible, to the testimony of angels; they condemn all who separate from them; they charge their followers to avoid heretics; that is, choosers, persons who, instead of receiving the testimony of the authorized body, select, according to their own judgments, their own opinions. Their new associates-their successors-follow the same line of conduct. They require their decision to be received as final, because they will give, with infallible certainty, those doctrines which God revealed. They do not refer the persons to the Scriptures, saying to them: "Here is what God taught; read and judge for yourselves; let every man follow his own opinion;" but they say: "We teach you what God has taught to our predecessors and what we have received from them; it is not in our power to alter it; it is not in your power to reject it."

Writings were found which contained statements of the acts and doctrines of Jesus Christ. Some of them were generally known to have been the authentic works of the Apostles; others manifestly were not; others were of doubtful authority, whose readings were not alike. Of what use were they? Plainly, whatever contained the Word of God derived its authority from God. But the knowledge of the fact that this was God's Word, must depend upon testimony; and as we before saw, this infallible certainty must rest

upon the authority of an infallible witness. We, then, want the aid of an infallible witness: first, to tell us the fact which book is God's Word and which is not; and next to tell us the meaning of the doubtful passages in the book so found. If the Church is an infallible witness of the fact and of the meaning, the revelation is from God, the testimony from the Church; as, on Sinai, when God spoke to Moses and Moses reported to the people, the authority was that of God, the testimony that of Moses. None would hazard the assertion that Moses thus became the master of God. No person would say that the high priest and the Sanhedrim were the masters of God, because they explained the hard and doubtful expressions of the revelation which He made. No person would presume to say that the judiciary of the United States rules over Congress, because it explains the meaning of laws made by that body. No one will presume to say that it is from the judiciary the legislature derives its authority because the explanation of its authoritative acts is given to the judiciary. In like manner, the Church is not the mistress of the Word of God, because her testimony is given to establish the fact that "He said this," and the other fact that "this is the meaning which God always intended by this expression." Though I should, then, find it necessary to have the testimony of one infallible Church, to give me a certainty of what is divine Scripture, and what is its meaning, this does not set the Church above the Scriptures.

By the facts which we historically know, we see that Jesus Christ was God and that He established a Church. We see what that Church did; and we see, from its acts, that it claimed to be infallible in deciding religious controversies. We see that some such infallibility was always necessary and did always exist; and we, further, cannot understand how, if it did not exist in the Christian Church, the old prophecies could be accomplished; (yet we know them to have been divine;) and, without this infallibility,