the same service, and engaged in the same warfare, and are the church's treasure and the church's armour, and her ablest and truest champion for her head and Lord, till he shall come himself with his host of angels, and with all the armies of heaven, to complete the victory and to put an end to the war. And the time which is to intervene between his ascension and that second coming is frequently declared to be short and but a moment, during which he is repeatedly announced and foretokened to be coming; or rather the entire interval is represented to be one continued preparation and process of his coming; which, however sudden and unexpected in its last act and issue it shall undoubtedly be, consists of many previous steps and antecedent visitations, which are its destined omens and precursors.

Hence the war of the church, and of prophecy which foreshews it and supports it, is a war for the honour and supremacy of its Head, and there

and of his members, the church. See Schleusner's Lexicon, and Suicer's Thesaurus on the word.

"If the dead rise not then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain." 1 Cor. xv. 16, 17.

το παν του χριστιανισμου εν τω αναστάσεως κειται δογματι. Theophylact.

"The entire of Christianity is involved in the doctrine of the resurrection."

See also Bishop Butler's Analogy, Part I. chap. ii. note.

fore for the interest and prosperity of the whole body. It cannot be an intestine war, nor the unhallowed bickering and party strife of one member with another; for that is not the war of the church against its enemies, or those of its Head; it is obviously repugnant to the good of the whole and to the mutual connexion and subordination of the parts; it disorganizes the system, and is equally against the crown and dignity of the sovereign, and the peace and well-being of his subjects ; with respect to him it is in some degree sedition and rebellion; and with respect to his people it is division and destruction. It must therefore be an external and foreign war against hostile invasion, and against unjust and unfounded usurpation; a war for the sacred and indefeasible rights of the true and only Saviour, against the empty and unreal pretensions of arrogating usurpers, and against the beguiling and pernicious schemes of artful and spurious impostors; and is therefore a war of faith and of profession, where the majesty of the Head and the interest and very existence of the whole body are deeply affected, and vitally assaulted and endangered. When, amongst many others, one great false prophet and pretended messiah has assumed the names and offices of the last and the chiefest of all the prophets and apostles of God, and laid claim to the high prerogatives and superlative honours of the King and Judge of the world; when by artifice and by

influence, by fraud and by force, by persuasion and by persecution, he has imposed upon, and subjected to himself, a considerable proportion of mankind; and can boast, according to some accounts, of more proselytes to his creed, and supporters of his pretensions, than the true Prophet and the Christ of God; (later travellers have it is true somewhat reduced the number of his disciples and votaries ;) but when the faith of Mahomet and that of Christ are the two great rival religions of the universe, and have been for the long period of twelve centuries in immediate contact and collision with each other, is peace possible, and is not war inevitable? and in this war. can the church be indifferent or can prophecy be silent? Its intervention and aid, on the contrary, seem almost equally called for, and as indispensably necessary, as at the first preaching of the Gospel, and the first founding of the church; now particularly that miraculous gifts have ceased, and all hopes from that quarter must be for ever relinquished.

And it is only in solid mass and in compact phalanx that this war can be waged with success on the part of the church, and be brought to a favourable and happy termination; to divide the church is to enfeeble it; to disunite and separate the forces of Christ is to excite the derision and the contempt of the common enemy, or even to expose them to be overpowered and cut off by

their foes. Islamism abroad, and infidelity at home, are well known to have been chiefly fostered and propagated, as they were first hatched and brought out, by means of the violent animosities of contending parties, and under cover of the endless controversies and factions, the rivalry of warring sects within the pale, and in the bosom of the church. In coping with incredulity and defection, every soldier of Christ is of weight and importance, and the argument even of number and of authority, which in fact is never void of influence in the world, is of singular force and value in the final and formidable conflict of the church with infidelity and imposture; the infidel of our own times and of our own country tells over his champions in unbelief, and plumes himself upon the number, the learning, and the talents of his companions in revolt, and in arms against the Gospel; he rejoices in our controversies and triumphs in our divisions and strife. And the Mahometan in a great degree bottoms his creed and supports his apostasy on the traditional evidence and numerical superiority of those who have not merely first reported, but of those who have in all subsequent and successive times believed, the lying wonders and absurd reveries of the false prophet. This argument, which is said to be so prevalent and influential with the disciples of Islamism is called MUTAMATIR, and signifies a report or statement derived through a vast

number of individuals both contemporary and consecutive; and, however sophistical and unsolid, is the best of those paralogisms and delusions by which Islamism has acquired and perpetuated its empire over the countless tribes and nations and languages which have been duped and perverted by it. How dangerous then, in contending with such enemies, to divide the church of Christ, or to diminish its numbers, and to impair its authority! it is to reduce and to destroy the force of that argument by which they regulate their opinions, and on which they build their faith, and by which they are to be chiefly moved and influenced to embrace a better; it is in some respects to deprive them of the means and the possibility of instruction and conversion.

The obvious childishness and glaring folly of pagan superstition, and the gross absurdity of bowing to graven images, and of worshipping stocks and stones, had caused such palpable darkness rapidly to vanish before the light of the Gospel; and the miraculous powers which attended and distinguished the first preaching of Christianity gave weight and authority to their instructions, and greatly conduced to the progress of the truth, and the triumph of the cross. The blameless lives, too, and the unexampled devotedness of the primitive disciples of Christ, furnished them with an unanswerable argument in their

D