Edward Hoare

“ The church may be like the painted window disguising the true colouring of the sun; the soul may be resting on the church’s ordinances rather than the cross; baptism may be exalted, and the new birth by the Holy Ghost forgotten; while the mind becomes so subjected to the church’s teaching, that it dares not presume to make a fearless use of the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ”

“ They are shortly to stand before the judge, and for aught they know, the whole weight of God’s curse still hangs over their unforgiven sin. There is no fellowship with a Saviour, no walking with God, no cleansing of guilt in the Lamb’s most precious blood, no eager wrestling with God that they may have a full assurance of their name written in the book of life. A free, full, complete, salvation is now offered to them; justification and restoration are promised graciously through the name of Jesus. ”

“ It is curious to observe in history the rise and fall of the various nations which have successively occupied the foremost position in society. Like the gleam of sunshine on the landscape, civilization and power have beamed for a while upon successive kingdoms, and then left them to be obscured and darkened by the cloud. Thus Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, have successively swayed the sceptre of the world. This sceptre is now held by the European nations generally. The power is perhaps greater than in any former age ”

“ Believers are not to look down in discouragement, but to look up in hope. They are to take courage and be cheered on to fresh victories; they are to rejoice in the unfailing character of the word, and witnessing the progress of predicted dangers, are to look joyfully for predicted joys; they are to regard these fearful times as forerunners of their coming glory, and, fear being absorbed in hope, are to watch in joyful expectation for their crowning blessedness at the advent of their Lord. ”

“ Meanwhile God is forgotten in a wide-spread thirst for pleasure; sabbaths are broken in pursuit of pleasure, souls endangered, and all for pleasure. Pleasure is the idol; the phantom before which they bow; the vain idea on which they fix their hearts’ best love. They are “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” Such, saith the Scripture, is to be the moral character of vast multitudes of professed believers in the latter days. ”

“ And this is the more remarkable if you observe that the ignorance of truth does not arise from neglect. They are not like persons who pass it by as a thing of no importance, who turn aside from the whole matter; but they are “ever learning.” They will make the thing their study, they will have many books and read them, they will ransack human literature, they will be able to quote human testimonies, they will strive to unravel the tangled mazes of patristic theology. And, what says the prophecy respecting their success? They are “never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” ”

“ Let that seat be what it may, whether popes alone, or councils alone, or councils summoned under pontifical authority, we are prepared to prove from the prophetic Scriptures that there are no circumstances whatever under which any body of uninspired men can claim to be received as unerring authority by the church. If ever there has been a necessity for an infallible living voice to preserve the truth, and to cut off heresy by decrees, that necessity, all must admit, will be vastly multiplied in the latter days. ”

“ No man doubts that, at the time appointed, the sun will rise to-morrow, for the simple reason that, day after day, it has risen hitherto with exact and unvarying punctuality. On the same principle, the continuance of the world’s order deadens the expectation of a change. Society remains unaltered in its leading features: pleasure, trade, and politics, retain their hold on the public mind. ”

“ But, at the same time men should not be soon shaken in mind or troubled. Our faith should rather be confirmed than weakened; for, as the fulfilment of each prophecy gives additional strength to our confidence in the prophet, so the rise of each new danger within the visible church should only add to our unshaken reliance on the divine authority, and unaltered infallibility of the word. ”

“ It is impossible for any man of common observation to be blind to the fact that the great mass of men are still slumbering before God. Quick and energetic in their business, keen in their speculations, alive and alert as to the money market, they are profoundly insensible to the coming. ”

“ We are brought therefore to the conclusion that the saints of God will not be distinguished by ecclesiastical system. There will be nothing in them which the world can see, except it be the fruit of the Spirit. There will be no outward form, which can stamp them certainly as the elect of God. They will be knit to Christ by a living union, but the tie will be invisible. ”

“ In perilous times we live; for perilous times we are training our families. Oh! the blessedness of those precious promises which assure us that he will keep his own children to the end! Oh! the peace of being able to fall back upon those gracious words, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand!” ”

“ All believers are not always right in all things. Early education, early prejudice, or the sad defects and blemishes, which are too often seen in the human acting out of Scriptural principles, may serve to warp both the judgment and the will even of the child of God. Thus it is that a man may be safe in his union with Christ, and yet wrong in his want of union with the Episcopal church. Thus also we may regard such an one as a brother in Christ, while we are bound to protest against what we believe unscriptural in the system of his ministry. ”

“ If the defection were limited to the laity, the believer’s path would be comparatively easy; but here lies the danger, that the truth will be resisted by the very men whose sole office it is to teach it; perverted by those who are solemnly entrusted with its maintenance; that there will be traitors in the very heart of the camp of God; that men holding the church’s orders, and thereby winning to themselves the church’s confidence, will draw away disciples after them, and, retaining their ecclesiastical position, will employ its influence as the secret antagonists of the truth. ”

“ Now, ask any common observer of mankind, one who looks on life without reference to prophecy or religion; ask him what he thinks the most remarkable feature in the present aspect of society, and he will tell you the rapid advance of science and increased facility of communication. ”

“ Like the men of the world, they look for an approaching crisis, but as men of faith they look beyond it. Like the world they observe the gathering storm; but as believers they fix their eye on Him who governs it. They will study history with their bibles in their hands; they will see in each passing change fresh landmarks, fresh signs of their Lord’s approach. In the sound of war and the advance of error they will hear as it p. 63were the distant footsteps of their coming Lord. ”

“ The same may be gathered from the Apostle’s charge to Timothy, as given in ch. iv. 1–4.—“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” ”

“ Paul’s prophecy be correct, we live in times of peculiar peril, and must be prepared for a further increase of seduction and apostacy within the visible church. How earnest then should be the prayers of God’s people, in behalf of God’s ambassadors! He alone can make us able ministers of the New Testament; He alone can preserve us as faithful witnesses for Christ. ”

“ There will be, as we have shown, a body of men within the church, corrupting the truth, resisting the truth, turned unto fables, believing lies. Are such persons to be admitted to the church’s councils, or are they not? Are they, or are they not, to take a part in the decision? If they are, there is too much reason to fear it would be vitiated by their fables, that the dead fly would cause to stink the apothecary’s ointment. But, if not, how are they to be excluded? By what tests is the council to be purified? They will all retain the form of godliness ”

“ There will be the dinner party, the friendly intercourse of those who love the things of God, and the empty frivolities of those who live in pleasure. Men will have their balls, operas, and theatres, to the very last ”

“ Now, of this period there are two things predicted to the Prophet; the one religious, the other social; the religious change is the unsealing of the vision, or the opening of the eyes of believers to truths hitherto concealed in prophecy; the social change is the rapid progress of travelling and science throughout the world. ”

“ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works;” vv. 15–17. He seems here to place the infallibility of the word in direct contrast to the fallibility of men. In the course of his prophecy he has shown that amongst those who retain the form of godliness there will spring up many who deny its power; but then, turning to the written word, he says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God;” ”

“ There will be a national opposition to true godliness, as there ought to be a national support of it. We must be prepared therefore to see all national and political influence thrown boldly into the scale of error: we shall be taught by the sins of those in power not to lean on the arm of flesh, to cease from man, to rest simply upon Christ and Christ alone. ”

“ We have here a class of men sealed unto Christ by baptism, and, while they bear his name, dishonouring his kingdom. There is no evidence that they are born again of God, no fruit of the Spirit, no sign of his inward guidance. Love they have, but it is absorbed by self, and become hateful. ”

“ God’s children are a scattered family; scattered not merely as to place but as to discipline. In saying this we p. 52do not undervalue a Scriptural discipline, or regard episcopacy as a thing which may be set aside at pleasure: as we find it in the bible we give thanks also that we find it in our church. But what we mean is this, that God’s grace is not tied down to ecclesiastical machinery; that a true church cannot command it, a defective church cannot exclude it. None can bind the life-giving power of the Spirit. ”

“ There will be no change in the habits of society, no alteration in the ordinary aspect of the world; we shall be living together in social life just as at present, with business, cares, and social duties ”

“ If they lean on tradition, on councils, on popes, or even on devoted ministers whose characters they revere, and whose ministry they have found a p. 45blessing to their souls, they are leaning after all on man, on man who may fail them at the very crisis of their peril; but, when they draw truth from the fountain of truth, they may receive it with unreserved reliance, for God himself has given it, and declared by the Holy Ghost that it “is able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” ”

“ They would be on the look out; the world’s night would be their day; the world’s darkness their light; the world might see nothing, but they would see Christ. “Ye brethren are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” ”

“ They look like men of faith, but when proved by divine tests they are found fictitious and defective. They are like false coin which cannot stand the refiner’s fire. But all this implies profession, and it once more appears that the persons described belong to the visible church of Christ. ”

“ Whoever therefore receives in faith the promises of the bible; whoever is brought by God’s Spirit blessing those promises to believe on Jesus, whoever he be, and wherever he be, whether he be churchman, dissenter, or even Romanist, that man is safe, and the Lord Jesus “shall appear for his joy.” ”

“ The student of history may endeavour to trace the causes of a nation’s gradual decline; but, why those causes themselves appeared is a question p. 17which no natural intellect can solve. The student of prophecy, however, is not left in darkness. He knows not why it is that an all-wise God has so ordered it, but he sees in all these changes the exact completion of God’s prophetic Scriptures, and at once solves the mystery by referring the whole to the revealed purpose of an all-wise and all-controlling God. In two separate visions these changes were all foretold by Daniel. ”

“ For such a period believers should be ready. Every living man will be swept away by the flood, except the little, blessed, band, who have a fast “hold upon the anchor of the soul sure and stedfast, and that entereth into that within the veil.” Nothing then will stand but the strong reality of a living union with Jesus. ”

“ In considering the state of the world as foretold in prophecy preparatory to the advent of our blessed Lord, we have been led thus far to much matter of a distressing character; we have had to draw the picture of a busy world steeped in apathy, and a professing church full of apostacy; the prospect has in very truth been fearful, gloomy, and disheartening ”