(s) His Lordship has told us before, that the obligation to subscribe is merely of a civil nature; and here he tells us, that to subscribe in any fense which is consistent with the public good, anfwers the intention of the Legislature. Now had his Lordship been prefent at the debate on February 6, he would have heard, that the public good of fubscription has no connection with the fenfe the fubfcriber puts upon the Articles, whether agreeable to the word of God or not. And this likewife feems to be his Lordship's own account of the intention of the Legiflature; who, it feems, have never deprived any man for the heterodoxy, of the fenfe he puts upon the Articles he fubfcribes. And if, as he farther fays, "ecclefiaftical impofitions in a Pro"testant church," (by which, I fuppofe, he means impofing fubfcription as of Spiritual obligation, or a matter of conScience)" are, abstracted from the force of the law, im"pertinent and vain," one cannot conceive for what purpofe he should speak of " any fenfe which is agreeable to the "word of God," (as neceffary to the " allowance" of a legal fubfcription) whofe operation in the prefent case, his Lordship hath fo effectually excluded.

(t) This is honeft enough; and amounts to a confefsion, that his Lordship hath been foaping the Negro. Whether My Lords our present Bishops are difpofed to acquiefce in this account or not, I am not informed; perhaps they may have changed their mode of defence. Be that as it may, it is well known that this folid, true, and confiftent account, has been more than once recommended to perfons who expreffed fome doubts concerning this affair of fubfcription. Having prefented the reader with this benevolent inftruction of a Bishop to his Nephew, we fhall next exhibit the fentiments of a writer to a Bishop, which has appeared fince the Petition was rejected.

NO II.

Extracts from a pamphlet intitled, A Letter to a Bishop, occafioned by a late Petition to Parliament for relief in the matter of Subfcription. London, Printed for J. Wilkie, St. Paul's Church-yard, 1772, with Remarks.

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LETTER.

"The Petition aimed at more than moderate men could approve; it tended to the abolishing all tests, by reprefenting all fubfcriptions to be inconsistent with the fun"damental principles of a Proteftant church, as implying an infallibility in the compilers of the forms fubfcribed to, "and confequently destroying the indefeasible right of private judgment." p. I, 2.

REMARK.

The omiffion of fome words and expreffions in this paffage, which are not omitted in the Petition, tends to impofe upon the public an abfolute falfehood. The Petitioners do not reprefent all fubfcriptions to be inconfiftent with the fundamental principles of a Proteftant church. They declare only against subscribing to the dictates of men of like prejudices and infirmities with themselves, and who can have no competent authority to impose subscription to their dictatcs, before they have proved themselves to be infallible. The fundamental principles of a Proteftant church acknowledge no test but the word of God contained in the scriptures, and this the Petitioners acknowledge, exclufive of all tests of human device, and to this I prefume, they will most willing

ly

ly subscribe, as a test which comes from an infallible fource. The fubfequent reafoning, fo far as it is founded upon this #gwlor ↓tudos, is void of all strength and pertinence.

LETTER.

"A defign of fuch confequence as that which was intended to produce a great alteration in our ecclefiaftical " establishment, wanted the recommendation-of our eccle"fiaftical Governors efpecially, within whofe immediate province the matter in question lay, who, on that account, had a right to be confulted, and whose concurrence "would have given it great fupport. In a cafe immediately respecting our church-establishment, the House of "Commons was not perhaps the place, from whence fuch a defign could, with most propriety, take its rife." p. 3. 4.

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If this Gentleman is in earneft, (of which, I hope, there is no room to doubt) he will find, that few as he fuppofes our exceptionable things to be, (let us take Dr. Tucker's conceffions for an inftance) the alterations required to rectify them, would far exceed the alterations intended to be produced by the Petition, both in magnitude and number. But when you are to form the catastrophe of a Tragedy, all forts of fictions are allowable. However the fact may turn out, this Gentleman may certainly be enabled to prove, whether his wifdom, or that of the Petitioners, is of the more fortunate family, by making his propofals to the Bifhops in the first place, and poftponing the Commons, till their Lordships think fit to call for their fanction. For, first or laft, the Commons must have fomething to do in a busi 02 nefs

❝feffedly, by many of the greatest churchmen, in fome "points; and ought therefore to be allowed in others, as "well as them. Compare the writings of our clergy in "both kingdoms, for almost an hundred years past, with "the Articles, and fee if you can find, that they tally on "the points which are commonly called. Calvinistical. If not, the fame rule of subscription may be followed in all "other cafes, which the highest churchmen have followed "in this without blame, ever fince the days of Archbishop "LAUD (n).

"Indeed the affair of fubfcription is pretty much the same "with obfolete Acts of Parliament, which, though not for"mally repealed, have loft their force (o). The Legislature "hath not thought it proper to make any change in the "forms which were at first established for an admiffion "into the church, though it is well known, that the fen"timents of almost all her members, in fome points, are "greatly changed. For it is likewife known too, that as "words are only arbitrary signs of conveying our ideas, so "the fame figns may be continued, though the thing figni"fied be greatly altered (p). Thus though there is no for"mal repeal of the usual terms of subscription by the Legislature, in which the fole authority we know is vested, yet "the main end of such subscription being attained (9), it “indulges the clergy with a liberty of affixing different ideas to the fame words, though foreign perhaps from "those which were originally defigned.

"The Legislature may be affured, that there never was, and "I will venture to fay, there never will be, a subscription to "all the Articles, according to the plain sense and meaning "of the first compilers: and as it hath never been declared, that such alone is the subscription which is required, by depriving those whose public writings contradict

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"this original fenfe, it is evident, that a subscription is allow"ed in any sense which is agreeable to the word of God (r). "For he who subscribes the Articles in a sense equally con"fiftent with the public good, and the rights and proper"ties of his fellow-fubjects, equally anfwers the intention "of the Legislature in the law which requires any fubfcrip"tions; and, abftracted from the force of the law, ecclefi"aftical impofitions in a Proteftant church, are imperti

nent and vain (s). Why a subscription to these Articles "is ftill required in our church, though the fentiments of "her clergy are fo much altered, is another question, I own, " which it is natural for you to ask, but which a wifer man "than I am cannot answer (†).”

REMARK S.

(a) His Lordship is here very confused. But he seems to mean, that the Romish clergy and people receive and fubfcribe the forms of their own Church in the fenfe of the compilers of them; and that fome of our own clergy have taken subscription to our Articles in the fame light, without confidering them as Articles of peace, which fubfcribed in any fenfe the words will bear. Lordship calls bigotry.

may be And this his

(b) How a fubfcription to a form in the original fenfe, intended to be expreffed by the compilers of fuch forms, "tends to abate the seriousness of fuch a fenfe," is utterly incomprehenfible.

(c) This, I think, implies, that every one who fubfcribes the Articles in the fenfe of the compilers, must neceffarily be guilty of Prevarication.

(d) His Lordfhip is here ftrangely mistaken. The church,