The articles of religion, which your lordships are obliged to make every clergyman subscribe, and which every clergyman does with great solemnity subscribe, it is notorious to the whole world, are strongly what is called Trinitarian and Calvinistic. Little less notorious is it, that the clergy do not generally entertain those religious sentiments which the articles express, and that many, if not most of them are either Unitarians or Arminians. What, then, can any serious inpartial spectator judge, when gentlemen, in the Unitarian scheme, subscribe solemuly, in God's presence, (i. e. calling upon him to witness the sincerity and truth with which they subscribe,) the first, the second, and the eighth articles of the church, which strongly assert, Art. I. “That "there is but ONE living and true God,-And, "in the UNITY of this Godhead, there be THREE

persons of one substance, power, and eternity, "the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Art. II. "That the Son is the VERY and ETERNAL "GOD, of ONE substance with the Father." Art. VIII. "And that the creed of Athanasius "ought thoroughly to be received and believed; "for it may be proved by most certain warrants "of holy scripture! And that, whoever does not "believe it faithfully, shall be most certainly and "everlastingly damned!"

In like manner, those, who favour what is called the Arminian scheme, and reject the Calvinistic, stand forth before God, and subscribe, and declare that they do it willingly, and ex animo, (i. e. sincerely and from their heart,) the ninth, thir

"was; and that, though, for their carrying on their own au"thority or fortunes, which, in one word, they call their TRADE, "they seemed very positive in affirming the truth of their doc "trine, yet they in their own hearts did not believe it, since "they lived so little suitable to it."

Pastoral Care, Preface, page 15, 16.

Art.

teenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth articles, as, likewise the twentieth, which expressly affirm, Art. IX. "That original, or birth sin, is the fault "6 or corruption of the nature of every man that is "naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam; "and in every person born into this world, it deserveth God's WRATH and DAMNATION." Art. XIII." That works, done before the grace "of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, are "not pleasing to God, forasmuch as they spring "not of faith in Jesus Christ; neither do they "make men meet to receive grace; yea, we doubt "not but they have the nature of sin." XVII." That predestination to life is the ever"lasting purpose of God, whereby (before the "foundation of the world) he hath constantly "decreed, by his council, secret to us, to deliver "from curse and damnation those whom he hath "chosen, in Christ, out of mankind, and to bring "them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as ves"sels made to honour. And, as the godly consi"deration of predestination and our election in "Christ is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeak"able comfort to godly persons, so, for curious "and carnal persons, lacking the spirit of Christ, "to have continually before their eyes the sen"tence of God's predestination, is a most dangerous downfal, whereby the devil doth thrust "them either into desperation, or into wretched"ness of most unclean living.'

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Art. XVIII." They also are to be held ac "cursed who presume to say, that every man "shall be saved by the law, or sect, which he

professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his "life according to that law and the light of na"ture."

Art. XX. "The church hath power to decree"rites and ceremonies, and authority in contro " versies of faith."

These, my lords, are articles which the church represents as the plain and the undoubted: doc trines of Christianity. This it declares to be the true gospel of Jesus Christ: and these it obliges every one of its ministers to subscribe with his hand; and in the presence of Almighty. God, solemnly to declare, that he believes them to be agreeable to the word of God,* before he is admitted to officiate in that character.

Now, if the generality of the clergy+ do in their conscience believe this, (in some one point at least, or more, if not all) to be a very false representation, of the doctrines of Christianity; a representation injurious to the perfections of God, very highly dishonourable and repugnant to the gospel scheme, but do nevertheless consent thus solemnly to subscribe the articles abovementioned, and, to declare them to be agreeable to the scriptures;-what, my lords, I again ask with great astonishment and concern, will not only sagacious deists, but every attentive person, with good reason presume, but that honesty and truth are fled from the earth; at least that the church of England is no more the temple where these sacred guests reside! Whenever it shall be generally understood, that "the contempt of principle," which the archbishop complains of "in the higher parts of the world," reigns not only there, but has spread its baneful. influence on that order of men, whose duty it is,

Canon XXXVI.

+ Predestination (says a learned member of your church,) a doctrine shocking, and manifestly contrary to all the "notions met naturally have of God, as a wise, just, and "good Being, was opposed by Arminius, who left behind "him a man better qualified than himself to carry on the "cause he had espoused, I mean the great Episcopius, whose "writings soon flew all over Europe, and were much read "by the divines of the church of England, and to very good

purpose; for, soon after, Calvinism vanished from among "them quite and clean." Clarke's Essay on Study, p, 18, 16m

to be PATTERNS as well as PREACHERS of uncorrupted faith and integrity, such an apprehension will naturally produce those fatal effects which his grace laments: " Christianity" (as taught by such men)" will be ridiculed and rail"ed at with very little reserve, and the teachers "of it with none at all." If the salt hath lost its saltness, our blessed Saviour has expressly said, relating to this very point, it is cast out to the dunghill, and trodden under foot.*

Original sin, one of the most learned of our late bishops, hath frankly declared "to be a "contradiction in terras: for, as the word sin "implies an act of the will, so the word original

implies the direct contrary; and supposes the "criminal act to have been committed by ano❝ther person, to which act that person, to whom "the sin is imputed, neither contributed by "thought, word, or deed."

But, besides the contradiction in terms, which the learned bishop asserts; to affirm, my lords, as the ninth article is supposed to do, that every member of the human race, upon the account of Adam's sin, doth really' merit God's wrath and damnation; that is to say, that infants are no sooner born than they become just objects of God's heavy anger, and DESERVE to be damned; -to be damned for an act in which they had not. the least share; an act committed before they came into being; that the all perfect and blessed God is angry, even to wrath, with the works of his own hands, who never did or were ever capa

So the late bishop of Winchester, in his excellent sermons, acknowledges it a thing beyond all contradiction, "that the doctrine of the church of England, delivered in "its articles, relating to justification, God's decrees, and what

are called the five points, had undergone such alterations as "to be entirely changed in the writings and discourses of a most of the members of that church." Sermon on contend. ing for the faith.

Thoughts on Self-love, innate Ideas, &c. page 17,

ble of doing any thing to offend him; this, my lords, will be pronounced a doctrine so abhorrent to nature, to justice, to truth, (may it not be said so impious and profane?) that it is candidly presumed that there is not one sensible and sober clergyman in the kingdom who believes it; and yet, how astonishing is it to consider! there is not one clergyman in the kingdom who has not solemnly subscribed it, not one bishop in the kingdom who does not absolutely insist upon it as an indispensable condition of admission to the christian ministry, even the learned bishops not excepted, who are presumed to know and to acknowledge it to be a contradiction in terms.*

Is there any virtue my lords, or honour, any prudence, or discretion, in such a procedure as this? Does it not directly tend to violate and lay waste the conscience, to throw down every fence of integrity and truth, to open a way for all manner of licentiousness, both of principle and of practice, to break in like a deluge, and to sweep from society all distinction between right and wrong? For, why, it may be justly asked, should it be accounted more criminal to equivocate and deceive on the exchange than in the church? Yea, why more atrocious to kiss the book in a civil court, in attestation of a fact which I believe to be false, than to subscribe, before God, to articles of religion which I do not believe to be true? To me, my lords, I profess solemnly that the actions appear much the same in a moral estimation; and that false swearing in the

In the office for private baptism children are declared to be born in the WRATH OF GOD. How shocking the thought! and how absolutely contradictory to the express blessing and command of God, Genesis ix. 1. Be you fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth: and Psalm cxxvii. 3. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the wom is his reward.