Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/192

 pretations; in their anxiety to justify their own guilty separation from the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, they hesitate not to adopt an interpretation of prophecy, which, if it were really true, would overthrow Christianity itself. For what becomes of Christianity, if the Apostolic See, and all the Churches in communion with it, could possibly constitute the Antichristian power predicted by the Apostle? Bishop Newton would include the Greek, and other Oriental communions, in the same anathema with those of the west, for, like the Latin Church, the Eastern upholds the same sacraments, the same adoration of Christ in the Eucharist, the same invocation and veneration of the blessed Virgin Mary and the saints, the same devotion to images and relies, and the same sacrifice of the Mass; where, then, does Bishop Newton look for his Christianity, and his witnesses of Divine truth? Either he must confess that Christ's truth was totally rooted out from the earth, or he must look for it amongst a number of discordant sects, founded at various epochs by persons who separated from the Catholic Church in which they had been baptized, and who agreed in nothing but their common hatred of their Mother Church. This alternative he adopts, but, by so doing, he