Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/514

4 Heresy and schism are his invention, for the subversion of faith, the corruption of truth, the division of unity. Those whom he can retain no longer in the blindness of the former way, he circumvents by betraying them into deviation from their new progress. He tears men away from the Church; and while they imagine themselves to have come unto the light, and to have escaped the night of this world, he secretly infuses a second accession of darkness; so that they continue to call themselves Christians, while they stand not by the Gospel of Christ, and never heed or obey Him. They walk in darkness, and think they have light; while the enemy flatters and deceives them, transforming himself, as the Apostle says, into an angel of light, and dressing out his emissaries as the ministers of righteousness. These are the maintainers of night for day, of death for salvation, of despair for proffered hope, of perfidy pretending honour, and of anti-Christ instead of Christ. They invest falsehood in probabilities, and employ stratagem for the frustration of truth."

"These results, my beloved brethren, will continue to operate, so long as men neglect the source whence truth came, by never looking back to the Head over all, or keeping up the form of doctrine, which was delivered to us by our Heavenly Teacher. With those who will weigh the subject in their thoughts, and search it out, it will not be necessary to employ any protracted considerations or arguments. It is easy to argue with a faithful mind, because truth in that case may be stated with brevity. The Lord saith unto Peter, 'I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.' And again he says to him, one and