When the deductions named above have been made, the remaining differences that exist among the pious are such only as may fairly be attributed to the influence of the old theoretic system of interpretation; and they are such as must presently disappear when the rule of INDUCTIVE EXPOSITION shall be thoroughly understood and generally practised. The hope therefore of an approaching prosperous era in the Church depends, in great measure, upon the probability of a cordial return to the authority of Scripture—of Scripture unshackled by hypothesis. It is this return alone that can remove the misunderstandings which have parted the body of Christ; and it is the reunion of the faithful that must usher in better times.
That a torn church should be eminently prosperous, that it should be favored as the instrument of diffusing the Gospel with triumphant success, and on a large scale, among the nations, cannot be imagined; for doubtless the Head of the church holds the most emphatic of his admonitions in higher esteem than that he should easily brook the breach and contempt of it, and put extraordinary honor upon those who seem to love their particular opinions more than they do "his commandment."
Even without laying any great stress upon that softening of party prejudices which has of late actually taken place, the hope of a near termination of controversy, and of the healing of all permanent differences among true Christians, may still rest on solid ground. An intelligent faith in the divine origination of the Scriptures contains necessarily a belief in their power to bring the catholic church into a state of unity, so that division should no more be thought of. That, during so many ages this has not been the condition of the Christian body, is satisfactorily to be attributed to causes which are by no means of inevitable perpetuity; but, which on the contrary, seem now to be approaching their last stage of feeble existence. Meanwhile the Oracles of God are visibly ascending to the zenith of their rightful power. The necessary preparations for their instalment in the place of undisputed authority are completed; and nothing is waited for but a movement of general feeling, to give them such influence as shall bear down whatever now obstructs the universal communion of the faithful.
An expectation of this sort will, of course, be spurned by those (if there are any such) who, were they deprived of their darling sectarism, and robbed of their sinister preferences, would scarcely care at all for Christianity, and to whom the idea of Catholic Christianity, if they can admit such an idea, is a cold abstraction. And it will be rejected also by those who, though their feelings are Christian, accustom themselves to look at the state of religion always with a secular eye, and are indisposed to admit any suppositions not obtruded upon them by immediate matters of fact. To all such persons the existing obstacles that stand in the way of Church union must seem utterly insurmountable, and the hope of an annihilation of party distinctions, altogether chimerical. But it is not to such minds that the appeal is to be made when futurity is in question; for such are always slaves of the past, and of the present; and they are destined to stand by, and wonder, and cavil, while happy revolutions are in progress; and it is only when resistance to the course of things becomes impracticable, that they are dragged on reluctantly, more like captives than attendants, upon the triumphant march of truth.
This assuredly may be asserted, that, so far as human agency can operate to bring on a better era to the church, he who despairs of it, hinders it, to the extent of his influence; while he who expects it hastens it so far as it may be accelerated. This difference of feeling might even be assumed as furnishing a test of character; and it might be affirmed, that when the question of the probable revival and spread of Christianity is freely agitated, those who embrace the affirmative side, are (with few exceptions) the persons whose temper of mind is the most in harmony with the expected happy revolution, and who would, with the greatest readiness, act their parts in the new and better economy; while on the Contrary, those who contentedly or despondingly give a long date to existing imperfections and corruptions, may fairly be suspected of loving "the things that are" too well.
There is yet another line of argument, wholly independent of the two that have been pursued above, in which the general spread of true religion might be made to appear an event probably not very remote; namely, the argument from prophecy. But besides that the subject is by far too large and serious to be treated hastily, the time is not arrived in which it might be discussed with the calmness it demands. Yet in passing this subject it may be suggested to whose who, notwithstanding that they admit the truth of Christianity, constantly deride genuine piety whenever it comes in their way, that, though the apparent course of events seems to indicate a gradual improvement, such as would give time to oppugners to choose the wiser part, and to range themselves quietly in the train of the conquering religion, the general tenor of scriptural prediction holds out a different prospect, and gives great reason to suppose that the final triumph of the Gospel is to be ushered in by some sudden and vindictive visitation, which shall arrest impiety in its full career, and deny for ever to the then impenitent the option of making a better choice.
NOTES.
SECTION VIII.
The following anecdote is reported by Sulpitius, concerning St. Martin of Tours. The Emperor Maximus, a man of a haughty temper, and elated by victories over his rivals, had received the unworthy adulation of a crowd of fawning bishops; while Martin alone maintained the apostolic authority. For when suits were to be urged, he rather commanded than entreated the royal compliance, and refused many solicitations to take a place with others of his order at the imperial table, saying, that he would not eat bread with a man who had deprived one emperor of his throne, and another of life. But at length, when Maximus excused his assumption of the purple by pleading the force that had been put upon him by the legions, the use he had made of power, and the apparent sanction of heaven in the successes with which he had been favored, and stated also that he had never destroyed an enemy except in open fight, Martin, overcome by reason, or by entreaties, repaired to the royal banquet, to the great joy of the emperor. The tables were crowded by persons of quality; among them, the brother and uncle of Maximus; between these reclined one of Martin's presbyters; he himself occupied a seat near the emperor. During supper, according to custom, the waiter presented a goblet of wine to the emperor, who commanded it rather to be offered to so holy a bishop, from whose hand he expected and desired to receive it again. But Martin, when he had drank of the cup, handed it to his presbyter, not deeming any one present more worthy to drink after himself; nor would he have thought it becoming to his character had he preferred even the emperor, or those next to him in dignity, to his own presbyter. It is added, that Maximus and his officers took this contempt in exceeding good part!—Sulp. Sev. de Vita B. Martin, cap. xx.