in which I shewed you that, in forming them, the civil magistrate went beyond the bounds of his proper province, and encroached upon that of Christ, and of God himself, to whom alone we are accountable for our religious principles and moral conduct; and yet men, without any authority from God, have presumed to say what we shall believe, and what we shall do, in matters of religion; and they have enforced their decrees with heavy pains and penalties, insomuch that, without being guilty of any civil offence whatever, a man shall be liable to have his goods confiscated, be disabled from suing in any court of law or equity, being guardian of any child, being executor or administrator to a will, be incapable of any legacy or deed of gift, of bearing any office, civil, military, or ecclesiastical, and be sent to prison, as at present in this country of ours; and in others they shall be liable to be put to death in the most cruel manner, merely for avowing opinions different from what other men have thought proper to decree to be true.

Now, many of you being engaged in other necessary pursuits, and not having had your attention drawn to these subjects, may know very little about church establishments in general, or of your own in particular, as little as many persons, for want of travelling or reading, may know of the country in which they live. You very piously, as you have been educated, go to church, say your prayers on Sundays, and follow your several occupations diligently and honestly in the course of the week; but many of you have little leisure to think about any thing farther. There is, however, much more implied in being a good churchman than you may think of; as there are many things in the laws of our country, which are binding upon all the subjects, whether they have taken care to acquaint themselves with them or not. For it is presumed that men who have the use of their reason, will make use of it in whatever particularly concerns them.

Now, if this be the case with respect to the civil laws of your country, it must be the same with respect to the ecclesiastical laws of it. Besides, when you go to church, you do not go merely to hear what another person says, which a stranger might do without bearing any part in the service, or being responsible for the propriety of it; but you go to pray yourselves; and in your prayers you speak to God, and concerning God; and, therefore, should deliver nothing but what you have well considered, and think proper to be said to him, and concerning him. Consequently,

if, upon that due consideration which you ought to give to so serious a subject, you cannot deliberately assent to any thing that, in the forms of your public worship, you are required to say, you ought not to say it at all. If what all the congregation there join in be any thing not true in itself, and especially false with respect to God, and unworthy of him, you ought not to give your countenance and sanction to it, even by your presence. If you would not so much as join in a common song, or bear your part in the chorus, without approving of it, much less should you bear your part in a common prayer to Almighty God, without the most hearty approbation of the sentiments contained in it.

It is, moreover, taken for granted, that all members of any particular society hold the distinguishing principles of that society. Otherwise, they are unworthy and improper members of it. You, therefore, who profess to be of the Church of England, also profess to hold the principles of it, and especially the belief of all its articles, which the founders of your establishment have reduced to thirty-nine. These the preamble to them says, were agreed upon "for the avoiding of diversities of opinions, and for the establishing of consent touching true religion." And the royal procla mation prefixed to them requires not "our clergy" only, but "all our loving subjects, to continue in the uniform profession thereof." It prohibits "the least difference from the said Articles ;" and will not "endure any varying or departing in the least degree."t

With respect to the interpretation of these Articles, this declaration says, that they are to be taken "in the true, usual, literal meaning" of the words; and that "no one shall put his own sense or comment to be the meaning of any article, but shall take it in the literal and grammatical sense." Now, as these Articles are dictated in very plain English, the literal and grammatical sense of which is very easy to be understood, § you will see, by considering them, what the real doctrine of the Church of England is, and what the faith of all the true members of it ought to be.

Burnet, however, would persuade "the laity," that" certainly to them these are only the Articles of Church Communion; so," he adds, "every person who does not think that there is some proposition in them that is erroneous to so high a degree, that he cannot hold communion with such as hold it, may and is obliged to continue in our communion." Expos. p. 6.

+ See "His Majesty's Declaration," Thirty-Nine Articles, &c., 1739, p. 1; Burnet's Expos. pp. 7, 8.

Ibid. p. 8.

Ş, Yet Burnet discovers three "literal and grammatical" senses in Art. III. See ibid. pp. 8, 9.

Farther, as this declaration says, that these Articles, which contain the true doctrine of the Church of England," are "agreeable to God's word," and you have this word of God, your Bibles, in your hands, you may judge for yourselves whether this be true or not. By this rule you are to "try all things," and then "hold fast that which is good."

Your twentieth article says, that, though "the church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith,*-yet it is not lawful for the church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's word written," and that, "besides the same, it ought not-to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of salvation." If, then, any of these Articles should contain what you cannot but see to be contrary to the word of God, as well as to your own plain sense and reason; and if they make any other terms of salvation besides such as are made to be so in the word of God, your church will stand self-condemned. It appeals to the Scriptures; and by the Scriptures must all its articles, and every clause in them, be tried.

Now let us attend to a few of these Articles, and consider whether the doctrines they contain, according to the plain, usual, and grammatical sense of the words in which they are expressed, be agreeable to scripture, or not. Please to have

a copy of the Articles open before you, as I now have, and as you are acquainted with your Bibles, to which the compilers of these Articles appeal, compare them together, and then honestly judge for yourselves. I shall, for the present, pass over what relates to the doctrines of the Trinity, and the divinity of Christ, because I reserve the consideration of them to a separate Letter, and shall content myself in this with mentioning a few other things, though, as you will see, of very great importance, if what relates to the favour of God and final happiness, be so.

Your ninth article says, that "original sin—is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man,—and therefore in every person born into this world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation"! In consequence of this, the tenth article says, that man "cannot turn, and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God: wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a

* Sec supra, p. 186.

good will, and working with us, when we have that good will." And And your thirteenth article says, that "works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his spirit, are not pleasant to God; for as much as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive grace-Yea rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin."

Now, is it not evident, from the plain sense of these Articles, that, on account of a sinful nature, which every man since Adam necessarily brings into the world with him, it is not in his power to do any thing but sin? He cannot even rightly call upon God or pray, till he receives something that is here called the grace of God, and the inspiration of his Spirit, which must necessarily be a thing independent of himself, and only what God is pleased to impart to him; all that he can do of himself being of the nature of sin, and offensive to God.

But how is this doctrine agreeable to the Scriptures, or to common sense? All the prophets who speak by authority from God, plainly suppose that those to whom they address themselves have a natural power of turning to God, and of doing what is pleasing to him. What is the substance of all their exhortations but "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" Now, would not this be a cruel mocking and tantalizing of men, if they had no power at all of turning to God, but only a power of turning from him? What would you say to any man who should exhort one whom he plainly saw to have neither legs nor crutches, to get up and run? And is God more unreasonable than man? Such, however, is the doctrine of your Articles, in the plain and obvious sense of the words.

You will say, who then are to be saved, and how are they to be saved, since nothing that any man can do of himself can contribute to his salvation, by making him acceptable to God? Your seventeenth article tells you all this very plainly, when it informs you concerning the doctrine of predestination and election, as follows: "Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel, 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 vessels made to honour. Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called accord

ing to God's purpose, by his spirit working in due season; they through grace obey the calling; they be justified freely; they be sons of God by adoption; they be made like the image of his only-begotten son Jesus Christ; they walk religiously in good works, and at length by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity."

You see then that, according to this article, none can be saved but they who have been by God fore-ordained to it, and that the means of saving men is their being "called according to God's purpose, by his spirit working in due season." It therefore does not depend upon men, but upon God only, who worketh in them when and how he pleases. It also plainly follows from this, that all those whom God does not predestinate to eternal life, and whom he does not call by his spirit, must miss of eternal life; the consequence of which, according to your articles, is, that they must suffer everlasting punishment, and through no fault of their own, but on account of such a nature as they brought into the world with them, and which, of course, they could not help. This doctrine is said, in the same article, to be "full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort, to godly persons, such as feel in themselves the working of the spirit of Christ." But what must it be to those who feel no such workings, and who have no means of procuring them?

Thus, my good friends, has your church decreed concerning this very important business of future happiness] and the way to it. But not so Almighty God. Every page in the Scriptures declares the very contrary doctrine, viz. that God loveth the righteous, and that the condemnation of sinners is not from him but from themselves. Predestination and election is, no doubt, mentioned in the Scriptures, but then it means nothing more, as many divines of your own church have clearly proved, than the good pleasure of God in granting the knowledge of the gospel to some nations and not to others, at any particular time. And we are expressly taught by the apostle Paul, that whether it be more or less light that any part of the human race enjoy, they shall be judged by that light, so that no more will be expected of any man than God has given him power to perform, which is agreeable to natural reason and equity: Rom. ii. 14, 15: "When the Gentiles who have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience