true religion as is necessary to present peace and final salvation, is an object of much importance, and we hope not totally impracticable; more than this may justly be considered as neither practicable, nor, if attained, of any great moment or advantage *. 2. Hence it may appear, that all which can reasonably be proposed by such a formulary of doctrine as we have above described, is, not absolutely to preclude every diversity of opinion, which, as we have observed, is impossible, but to confine this diversity within certain limits; not to fix one precise and indivisible sense to the arti * "Il y a de certaines idées d'uniformité, qui saisissent quelquefois les grands esprits, mais qui frappent infailliblement les petits. Ils y trouvent un genre de perfection qu'ils reconnoissent, parce qu'il est impossible de ne le pas decouvrir; les mêmes poids dans la policę, les mêmes mesures dans la commerce, les mêmes loix dans l'etât, la même religion dans toutes ses parties. Mais cela est-il toujours à propos sans exception ?-Et la grandeur du génie ne consisteroit-elle mieux à scavoir, dans quels cas il faut de l'uniformité et dans quels cas il faut des differences ?" MONTESQ. de l'esprit des loix. Liv. xxix. ch. 18. cles, but to pronounce them with a latitude which may both consist with substantial truth, and afford a due allowance to human misapprehension and infirmity; and especially, which may lessen, if not entirely prevent, the extreme danger of prevarication. To do this effectually, the language employed must be general, or such as may express, without doing it violence, the various meanings, or the various modifications of meaning, intended to be permitted; and this intention must be conveyed in a clear and unequivocal manner. Without these precautions, or without some mental reservation or exception, the compiler, I fear, must be content to subscribe his own articles alone; and from the variable state of the human mind, and the perpetual change of its views and perceptions, it is probable that even he himself could not subscribe them ex animo, and in every jot and tittle, for two days together; though, as to the substance, and what they contained essential to faith and practice, he might hold them very uniformly, and with increasing attachment, to the end of life. 3. Whether the above precautions are sufficiently regarded in the creed of any modern church (for I omit the more ancient) may perhaps be fairly questioned. They are certainly not so regarded in those churches (if there be any such) that profess to establish their articles of faith according to one precise exclusive meaning; in which, however orthodox that meaning may be, it is morally impossible, as we have more than once noted, for any two persons, and consequently for ten, or ten thousand, exactly to coincide. Nor are they so regarded by those churches, in which a latitude of judgment is rather a matter of connivance than of express permission; or in which this latitude is not so clearly and distinctly defined and expressed, as to leave no ground of reasonable doubt to the subscriber, whether his subscription falls within the prescribed limits. In the former case, no room is left for subscription at all; in the latter, it must often be ambiguous and captious, and ensnaring to the subscriber's conscience. This deceitful ambiguity has been charged by protestants on the council of Trent, which, under a pretence of unity, determined several points of doctrine in a manner so equivocal, as to leave ample room for a diversity of interpretations; a policy which, however favourable it might be to the power of the church that was thus left at liberty to decree and act as she found most convenient, could afford but little satisfaction to those individuals, who wished to reconcile their subscription with their sincerity. 4. The two most obvious inconveniences, and which must occur to every one, in the matter of subscription to those formularies of faith which are drawn up with too much curiosity, are, first, that many candidates for orders subscribe at a period when they must be incompetent to judge of intricate points of theology*. And, secondly, that though they should, at the time, subscribe *It was formerly, I believe, usual with some colleges in our universities, to require subscription to the thirtynine articles from boys of fourteen or sixteen years of age, upon their being matriculated; a practice, whereever it is found, which deserves the most unqualified reprobation. intelligently and er animo, they may afterwards alter their opinion; if not essentially, and in respect to fundamental truth, at least in many particulars, to which they could no longer yield an unfeigned assent and consent, as being perfectly agreeable to the doctrine of scripture. How to prevent this latter inconvenience I know not, unless the subscribers could engage for the future as well as for the present; according to a decree of the reformed churches in France, A. D. 1612, by which, every candidate for orders was required to make the following declaration : "I I receive and approve all that is contained in the confession of faith of the reformed churches of this nation, and promise to persevere therein to my life's end, and never to believe or teach any thing not conformable to it *." Or, according to another decree of the same churches, A. D. 1620, by which the subscriber binds himself in yet stronger terms, as follows: "I swear and promise before God, and this holy as See preface to Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History. |