Now this, let it be well observed, is the exact position of the faithful Protestant. As witnesses we are forced into separation from the great mass of professing Christendom. We were compelled at the Reformation either to abandon truth, or to quit the church which claims to itself the name of Catholic. And what is the subject matter of our protest? What are the points for which we struggle? If we were to search throughout the English language for any one short sentence, which should contain at once the sum and substance of our Protestant profession, I know of none that could be so exactly suitable as that with which the Holy Ghost has furnished us,—“the witness of Jesus and the Word of God.” The whole of the Protestant controversy branches out from this one passage: it contains the germ of the whole argument. Now there is something very cheering in this conclusion. We are often taunted with our disunion from the (so called) Catholic church: we are often reproached because we are in a state of separation. But we give thanks for those reproaches. They are amongst the title-deeds of our inheritance; they help to prove us what we wish to be, the saints of God, and the witnesses for Christ. Had the Spirit of God described the saints in the latter days, as united under one vicar upon earth, as swaying the sceptre of unresisted power, as exercising lordship over kings and potentates, as reigning triumphantly through the known world, then indeed we should have trembled. But now it is the reverse. Our position is exactly that ascribed to the saints of God in prophecy; the position of Rome exactly that ascribed to the man of sin. The Scriptures tell us plainly that the saints in the latter days must stand aloof from the great apostacy, raising against it the voice of protest; and it fills our heart with gladness to find ourselves in that exact position. The saints of God are described in prophecy almost by the very name of “Protestant.” We are not ashamed, therefore, of the blessed title, but following the guidance of the prophetic Scriptures, we had rather far be called “Protestant” than “Catholic.” He that sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, he is sure to claim for himself the name of Catholic, but he that is the servant of God must stand out boldly as the unflinching Protestant for Christ. (2) This also is the security of the saints.