When Cicero says, Horribile est, causam capitis dicere; horribilius, priore loco dicere (m): is not this the meaning? "It is an awful undertaking, to plead a cause in which life and death are concerned; more awful still, to be the first opener of such a cause."-When Virgil (n) mentions the horribilius iras of Juno; what are we to understand, but the tremendous resentment of the goddess ?-The same poet's (o) horrentique atrum nemus imminet umbrâ, must be rendered by, "the impending grove is dark with solemn shade." Similar (as Servius observed) is that of Lucan: Arboribus suus horror inest (p): i. e. "There is something venerable in a grove of trees."-Nor did the noble and profoundly learned Daniel Heinsius use an improper term, when (speaking of Julius Scaliger) he said, Cujus nomen sine horrore et religione commemorare non possum (q): i. e. "The very mention of his name strikes a sort of religious awe upon my mind."

Calvin, therefore, might well term God's adorable and inscrutable purpose respecting the fall of man, decretum horribile: i. e. not an horrible, but an awful, a tremendous, and a venerable decree. A decree, the divine motives to which can never be investigated by human reason, in its present benighted state; and concerning which, we can only say in the language of scripture, How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

(m) Orat. pro Quinct. biles exercuit iras inachiæ Juno lib. iii. (0) Æneid. i. 169. Orat. i. in Obitum Jos. Scal. p.

3.

(n) Hoc quondam monstro horripestem meditata juvencæ. Geor. (p) Pharsal. iii. (9) Heinsii Edit. Lugd. 1615.

346

TO CONCLUDE.

FROM what has been observed relative to the great protestant doctrines, now distinguished by the name of Calvinistic; we may too easily perceive, how deeply, and how generally, we are revolted and gone from the religion of Jesus Christ, or (which is the self same thing) from the spirit and principles of the religion established in this land. What an ingenious writer remarks, is melancholy, because true: "The church of England are predestinarians by their articles; and preach free-will (r)." The greater the pity, and the greater the shame.

For this dreadful declension from the scripture and from the church, we are partly indebted to that door of endless prevarication, opened to the clergy, by bishop Burnet, in what he entitles, his Exposition of the XXXIX articles: a performance, for which (notwithstanding its merit in some respects) the church of England is, upon the sum total, under no very great obligation to his lordship's art and labour. It is true, that work is not so commonly nor so assiduously studied, of late years, as it was half a century ago. Many of our divines have tender eyes; and, for fear of endangering those va-, luable organs, by the perusal of a formidable volume, choose to take matters upon trust, and borrow the needful evasions, vivâ voce, from one another. Even the lax theology of Tillotson is almost grown obselete.

(r) Letters on the English Nation, by Battista Angeloni, vol. ii. letter 34. p. 60.-Edit. 1755. This performance is, by some, ascribed to Dr. Shebbeare.

Where shall we stop? We have already forsook the good old paths, trod by Moses and the prophets, and by Christ and the apostlès: paths in which our own reformers also trod, our martyrs, our bishops, our clergy, our universities, and the whole body of this protestant, i. e. of this once Calvinistic nation. Our liturgy, our articles, and our homilies, it is true, still keep possession of our church walls: but we pray, we subscribe, we assent one way; we believe, we preach, we write another. In the desk, we are verbal Calvinists: but no sooner do we ascend a few steps above the desk, than we forget the grave character in which we appeared below, and tag the performance with a few minutes entertainment compiled from the fragments bequeathed to us by Pelagius and Arminius; not to say by Arius, Socinus, and by others still worse than they. Observe, I speak not of all indiscriminately. We have many great and good men, some of whom are, and some of whom are not Calvinists. But, that the glory is in a very considerable degree, departed from our established Sion, is a truth which cannot be contravened, a fact which must be lamented, and an alarming symptom which ought to be publicly noticed.

In the opinion of the late Dr. Young, "almost every cottage can show us one that has corrupted, and every palace one that has renounced the faith (s)." Are matters much mended, since that pious and respectable Arminian launched the above. complaint? I fear not. Is there a single heresy, that ever annoyed the Christian world, which has not its present partisans among those who profess conformity to the church of England? At what point our revoltings will end, God alone can tell. But this I affirm without hesitation, and on the most meridian conviction, that Arminianism is the poisonous wood, to which the waters of our national

(s) Centaur not fabul.

sanctuary are primarily indebted for all their embitterment. In particular, Arianism, Socinianism, practical Antinomianism, and infidelity itself, have all made their way through that breach, at which Arminianism entered before them. Nor will the (t) protestant religion gain ground, or finally maintain the ground it has got; neither is it possible for the interests of morality itself to flourish; until the Arminian bondwoman and her sons are cast out: i. e. until the nominal members of our church become real believers of its doctrines; and throw the exotic and corrupt system of Van Harmin, with all its branches and appurtenances, to the moles and to the bats.

Let not my honoured brethren of the clergy deem me their enemy, because I presume to remind them of the truth. God is witness, that I wish you prosperity, ye that are of the house of the Lord. Permit the obscurest of your number to submit without offence, the foregoing particulars to your attentive consideration. May none of your venerable order be justly ranked in time to come, among those half-conformists who fall in with the ceremonies, but fall out with the doctrines of the church. Halt not between God and Baal. Give no occasion to our ad

versaries to speak reproachfully of us. Let it not

(t) In the reign of Elizabeth, a pamphlet appeared, entitled, The Book of the Generation of Antichrist: written, indeed, by a very acrimonious puritan; yet, as far as matters of mere doctrine were concerned, perfectly harmonizing with the creed of the church of England. Among other particulars, the author, with equal humour. and truth, traced out the following genealogy of free-will, merit, unholy living, and popery. "The devil begot darkness, Eph. vi.Darkness begot ignorance, Acts xvii.-Ignorance begot error and his brethren, 1 Tim. iv.-Error begot free-will and self-love, Isa. x.Free-will begot merits, Isa. lviii.-Merits begot forgetfulness of grace, Rom. x.-Forgetfulness of God's grace begot transgression, Rom. ii. -Transgression begot mistrust, Gen. v.-Mistrust begot satisfaction" (i. e. the opinion that human works and penances would satisfy God's justice for sin), Matth. xvii.-Satisfaction begot the sacrifice of the mass, Dan. xii." How justly the links of this chain are connected!

any longer be thrown in our teeth, that "No set of men differ more widely from each other, than the present clergy; though they all (u) subscribe to one

(u) The late learned and candid Dr. Doddridge has a passage, concerning the sacred nature and obligation of ecclesiastical subscriptions, which deserves to be pondered with the utmost seriousness.He introduces it, under the article of perjury.

"Care should be taken, that we do not impair the reverence due to an oath, by using or imposing oaths on trifling occasions, or administering them in a careless manner. The reverence of an oath requires, that we take peculiar care to avoid ambiguous expressions in it, and all equivocation and mental reservation. Something of this kind may be said of subscription to articles of religion: these being looked upon as solemn actions, and nearly approaching to an oath. Great care ought to be taken, that we subscribe nothing that we do not firmly believe."

The Doctor then proceeds to particularize the most plausible of those fashionable evasions, under the thin shelter of which, some subscribers (like a certain bird, who, when she hides her head, fondly thinks herself quite concealed) are supposed to lurk. The said evasions are as follow. "If the signification of the words be dubious, and we believe either sense, and that sense in which we do believe them is as natural as the other; we may, consistently with integrity, subscribe them.— -Or, if the sense in which we believe them, be less natural, and we explain that sense, and that explanation be admitted by the person requiring subscription in his own right; there can be no just foundation for a scruple." But, in both these cases, it is easy to discern, that subscription would evaporate into a pompous nothing.

The Doctor goes on. "Some have added, that, if we have reason to believe, though it is not expressly declared, that he, who imposes the subscription, does not intend that we should hereby declare our assent to those articles, but only that we should pay a compliment to his authority, and engage ourselves not openly to contradict them; we may, in this case, subscribe what is most directly contrary to our belief: or, that, if we declare our belief in any book, as (for instance) the Bible, it is to be supposed that we subscribe other articles only so far as they are consistent with that; because we cannot imagine, that the law would require us to profess our belief of contrary propositions at the same time."

And now, what says the good Doctor, by way of answer to the three quibbles above started? He overthrows them all with the stroke of his pen, in the following memorable terms: "But subscription upon these principles seems a very dangerous attack upon sincerity and public virtue; especially, in those designed for public offices." Dr. Doddridge's Course of Lectures, p. 142. Quarto, 1763.