some future time be depraved, was to foretell nothing improbable. For what is there so sacred in truth which the wickedness and the mistakes of men, or the love of novelty, or the spirit of enthusiasm, or unlearned rashness, or policy and interested designs, will not model anew, and distort from its original rectitude? Error and heresy are nearly co-eval with truth. They began to work as soon as Christianity was taught, and they may be expected to attend it to its latest day of trial."
Now it is in this sense that the prophetic words of our Lord are generally interpreted concerning the latter days, when He says, "The sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." And it is in reference more particularly to this state of the Church, that the prediction of our Lord is interpreted—"The gates of Sell shall not prevail against it." Thus De Lyra observes:—
"The gates of Sell shall not prevail, namely, in subverting the Church from the true faith; because the Church does not consist of men who are of the Church by reason of their power, or their ecclesiastical
