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studied precision of language far less than they have done, it would be certain what was intended to be conveyed by the words in which their sentiments were formally embodied. "If the tenets of the reformers were not Calvinstic, it will be difficult to prove any thing by written testimony; and it is not manifesting much respect for their memory to charge them with writing articles, and teaching doctrines, which did not accord with their sentiments."

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A great majority of the clergy of the English church, both in Europe and America, is understood to entertain sentiments the opposite of those of Calvin. Yet to these Calvinistic articles, in entering on their office, they give, in the most solemn manner, their assent. Can these things be, without our special wonder?" The Englishman is the more leniently dealt with. He is required only to engage for the present, and acknowledge all and every the articles, to be agreeable to the word of God.' American must take on him obligations for the future; "I do solemnly engage to conform to the doctrines and worship of the Protestant Episcopal church in these United States." He formally renounces for himself the advantage of future inquiry, for any other object than to confirm his settled views; and engages for ever to adhere to such sentiments, as the studies that have fitted him for deacon's orders have led him to adopt. Whatever learning and piety may do to illustrate certain obscurities in the religious system, he gives a pledge, that, as far as depends on him, such as the current belief is at présent, such it shall ever be; and from the light that is kindling in a glorious blaze all about him, should a random ray fall on his averted eyes, he promises to shut them,—and conform.

It is a sad blot on the memory of one of the wisest men, that he gave all the weight of his great authority to the idea, that the articles of the church, are articles not of faith, but of peace, and that the precise solemn declaration, "I acknowledge all and

every the articles to be agreeable to the word of God," meant only, I promise never to impugn them. He saw, (as a man of his penetration and philosophical freedom from bias, could scarcely fail to do,) that doctrines, which had had their day, were most expressly and unequivocally avowed in these articles; and, granting that no undetected selfish feeling swayed him, he was willing to do something to save the church from being deprived, in her time of need, of the services of men able and virtuous as he was To this end he resorted to a piece of casuistry utterly unworthy of his name, and it is not the least of the charges that this rule of exclusion must answer to, that it was able for once to pervert such a mind as Paley's. His reasoning (that it should ever be said of him!) is as weak as his doctrine is depraving. His preliminary remark is indefensible. It is not true that, by requiring subscription to articles containing statements of doctrine, the legislature of the 13th Eliz. intended to exclude puritans from offices in the church. On the contrary, it was, long after, a favourite complaint of churchmen against that sect, that their dissent was owing to an unreasonable pertinacity, a narrow spirit of opposition about things of minor moment, unjustifiable when in the main points of doctrine all were agreed. This was the ground taken by churchmen. Whether solid or not is of no moment. It shows that they did not pretend by doctrinal tests to shut puritans out of the fold. But passing this, there is another incurable flaw in the argument. We admit the principle of this writer, that the animus imponentis ought to govern the conscience of him who assumes the engagement. But we reject his answer to the question quis imposuit, as well as to that quo animo. Who imposes the test? Not the legislature of the 13th Elizabeth. The legislature of the 13th Eliz. is a nonentity. It is no more a party to the contract of subscription, than the first senate of Rome. The parties are, the candidate for ordination who subscribes or engages, and the

existing episcopal church, which, as a condition of his assuming an office in it, requires his subscription or engagement. It is the existing church, whose security is concerned, and which thinks to promote its security by exacting such engagements. If it did not think them useful, it has the power to dispense with them.

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The meaning of the existing establishment, then, is the animus imponentis. And what does it mean? If, as the words explicitly signify, to require of the candidate a bona fide assurance of belief, and promise of conformity, then he who enters into the required engagement without entertaining the belief so exactly described, or persisting in the conformity so positively contracted for, commits a fraudulent act. If on the other hand, the church means something different from what it seems to mean, what is to be said of a community which trifles with such measured words,which unnecessarily afflicts tender consciences with a form of language which it means to be unmeaning; which holds out to the world the idea, that it is imposing a test of faith, when it is only enjoining a rule of forbearance,* and tempts its members to wonder at their guides, who give so unheard of a significance to language?

* As long as these are entitled not articles for trying the wits of clerks, and confounding those of laymen, but "for the avoiding of the diversities of opinions, and for the stablishing of consent touching true religion," that is, by excluding dissentients from the pale, the remark of Burnet will stand good, that "they who subscribed, did either believe, or grossly prevaricate." The following are the concluding remarks of the Bishop of Lincoln's Elements of Theology:

"I have thus endeavoured to explain the meaning of 'the Thirtynine Articles of Religion,' and to prove that they are founded in Scripture, and conformable to the opinions of the early Christians. All persons, when they enter into holy orders, or are admitted to any ecclesiastical cure or benefice, are required by law to subscribe these articles, with a design that 'those who are employed in the ministry of our established church, whether as curates or incumbents, should unfeignedly believe the truth of the doctrines which they contain. The avoiding of diversities of

But we do not suppose that this profligate evasion of a most solemn engagement has credit enough to be practised. They who, rejecting the doctrinal views of Calvin, profess assent or promise conformity to these articles, have persuaded themselves, we doubt not, that they admit an anti-Calvinistic interpretation; admit, we say, for nobody claims any thing more. But this gives us occasion to remark, how mischievous and futile a thing at once is this imposition of doctrinal tests. When the framers of the articles had gone through their work, they thought they had built a fabric which the blind doctrine of destiny might dwell securely in for ever. But another generation found out

opinion, and the establishing of consent touching true religion,' was the professed object of these articles; and consequently they lose their effect, if they do not produce a general agreement among such as subscribe them. I do willingly and ex animo subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England,' is the indispensable form of subscription; and therefore it behoves every one, before he offers himself a candidate for holy orders, to peruse carefully the articles of our church, and to compare them with the written Word of God. If, upon mature examination, he believes them to be authorized by Scripture, he may conscientiously subscribe them; but if. on the contrary, he thinks that he sees reason to dissent from any of the doctrines asserted in them, no hope of emolument or honour. no dread of inconvenience or disappointment, should induce him to express his solemn assent to propositions, which in fact he does not believe. It is not indeed necessary that he should approve every word or expression, but he ought to believe all the fundamental doctrines, of the articles; all those tenets in which our church differs from other churches, or from other sects of Christians. He ought to feel that he can from his own conviction maintain the purity of our established religion, and sincerely and zealously enforce those points of faith and practice, which our church declares to be the revealed will of God. This appears to me the only just ground of conscientious subscription to the articles; and let it be ever remembered, that in a business of this serious and important nature, no species whatever of evasion, subterfuge. or reserve, is to be allowed, or can be practised, without imminent danger of incurring the wrath of God. The articles are to be subscribed in their plain and obvious sense, and assent is to be given to them simply and unequivocally. Thus only can a person offer himself at the table of the Lord as his minister with safety; thus only can he expect to receive the divine blessing upon that course of life to which he then solemnly devotes himself."

that Calvinism was a mistake, and then the question came up, how heterodoxy and conformi y should be reconciled. Silence was the first natural resort. They would say nothing of their heresy to others, and acknowledge it as faintly as possible to themselves. But out of the fulness of the heart the mouth will speak at length. And the deviation from the supposed church doctrine being notorious, yet the church standing too pleasant a thing to be needlessly relinquished, the experiment was thought worth trying, whether there could not be brought about a persuasion, that the established credenda were less strict than they had seemed to be; and forthwith the best selected words were found to be equivocal, and the best certified history brought into doubt. By and by came a sagacious man, who saw that the knot was too cunningly contrived to be thus untied, and that they who were working so intently at it, were but entangling themselves with its threads; and as he would not suffer it to bind him, he took a shorter way and cut it. Thus right views on one subject have gained a footing in the church, and with such fair shew of being guests regularly introduced, that conscientious men within the church make no scruple to do them reverence; and thus, after much delay, and by much management, and at great cost of plain dealing, and great distress to good men, the same object is at length effected, which, but for these nuisances of creeds, might have been accomplished in a fair open manner long ago. Truth will not be defeated by such feeble obstacles. If shut out from the broad, direct road where it would rather travel in daylight, it will force a path through briars and morasses, or dig a subterranean passage. It has an unconquerable instinct of activity, and onward it will urge a direct, or a winding way. Creeds are leaden shackles, heavy, but flexible. As soon as they begin to gall, the sufferer finds means to stretch them, and they keep on to widen, till at last they fall off. They are nets, however industriously spun, of spider's web;-of power to confine the puny insect to

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