Let us then, on a principle of self-love, if not of piety, keep the sayings of this book, concerning THE MAN OF SIN. From many appearances, the appointed time for the full completion of them may not be very remote. And it becomes our prudence to take heed that we be not found in the number of those, to whom that awful question is proposed—How is it, that ye do not discern the signs of this time?
Nay, there are prophecies, which, in that case, may concern us more nearly, than we think. St. Paul applied ONE of these, to the unbelieving Jews; of whose mockery, and of whose fate, ye have heared what their own historian witnesseth: And, if we equal their obdurate spirit, that prophecy may clearly be applied, and no man can say, that it was not intended to be applied, to ourselves.
Beware therefore (to sum up all in the tremendous words of the Apostle[254]) Beware, lest that come upon you, which is spoken by the Prophets: Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work, which ye shall in no wise understand, though a man declare it unto you.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX:
CONTAINING
AN ANONYMOUS LETTER
TO THE AUTHOR OF THESE SERMONS,
WITH HIS ANSWER TO IT.
Soon after I had published this volume, I received an anonymous Letter, addressed to me at Thurcaston, of which the following is an exact copy.
LETTER TO DR. HURD.
Sir,
Some months ago it was reported, that Dr. Hurd was preparing to expound the Apocalypsis, and once more to prove the Pope to be Antichrist. The public were amazed. By the gay and by the busy world, the very attempt was treated as an object of ridicule. Polite scholars lamented, that you should be prevailed on to give up your more solid and liberal studies, for such obscure and unprofitable researches. Your own brethren of the church hinted, that it would be far more prudent to observe a respectful silence with regard to those awful and invidious mysteries. A more than common share of merit was requisite to surmount such adverse prejudices. Your Sermons, Sir, have been perused with pleasure by many, who had the strongest dislike to the name and subject. Every one has admired the vastness of the plan, the harmony of the proportions, and the elegance of the ornaments; and if any have remarked a weakness in the foundations, it has been imputed to the nature of the ground; and the taste of the Patron has been arraigned rather than the skill of the Architect.
Since you have undertaken the care and defence of this extensive province, I may be allowed, less as an opponent than as a disciple, to propose to you a few difficulties; about which I have sought more conviction than I have hitherto obtained. From the general cast of your writings, I flatter myself that I am speaking to a candid critic, and to a philosophical divine; whose first passion is the love of truth. On this pleasing supposition, let me venture to ask you, “Whether, there is sufficient evidence that the Book of Daniel is really as ancient as it pretends to be.” You are sensible, that from this point the Golden Chain of Prophecy, which you have let down from Heaven to earth, is partly suspended.