The Catholic church, he said, was a term implying affectionate
communion as well as universality; and how could they be said to wish
for Christ's reign upon earth, who made knowledge to consist in
frivolous cavils, and piety in rancorous misinterpretation of a
brother's motives? Were discord, enmity, and censoriousness, fit
harbingers of the Prince of peace? His great forerunner preached
repentance and reformation. The sins of individuals, not the
institutions of civil society, were the mountains which were to be
levelled before the rising of the Sun of Righteousness. We might be
saved, without knowing if our neighbour was in the road to heaven; we
must at the last day be judged for the good we have done, not for the
evil others have thought; nor would the mere frequent calling upon the
Lord save those who in their deeds rejected the Divine government. In
fine, Dr. Beaumont, weary of the obstinacy and determined ignorance of
these self-righteous, told them that their pretensions to a larger share
of heavenly gifts was presumptuous, since they indulged in offences that
spoke a more infernal origin than merely carnal sins; for, so far as
human eye can penetrate into concealed mysteries, pride was the crime of
the fallen angels.
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