an authorised interpreter of the thirty-nine articles, brings to prove the feveral propofitions into which he analyses them *.

Father Sinclair, in his Paraphraftic Expofition of this Twentieth Article, fetches his interpretation of this latter part of it (concerning the first part he hath not the least objection to the literal fenfe) from St. Austin, who says, "Because the holy fcripture cannot poffibly deceive, whofoever is afraid "of being deceived, let him confult the church, which the scripture points out to him without any ambiguity." Apply this to the church of England, and the alternative will be this. If the church of England is thus pointed out as an interpreter of fcripture, without ambiguity, the church of England must be infallible; if other wife, fhe hath but an ambiguous right to the authority fhe claims, and they who apply to her for the true fenfe of scripture, may be deceived.

I cannot indeed conceive in what way the Public Peace of the State would be affected, fhould the Petitioners, and others, be let loofe to expofe the fundamental errors of Popery to his Majesty's loyal fubjects, in their full deformity; unless there is fome fecret Alliance, of which we are not aware, ftipulating, that the Papifts fhould be foothed and indulged in their political, as well as their ecclefiaftical opinions, and fet upon a level with his Majesty's fworn lieges in every article of civil privilege. I truft they are not

* ROGERS exhibits the Fourth propofition of the Twentieth Article, thus. "The Church hath power to interpret and expound the word of God.” And for proof of it, brings Matth. xi. 27. No man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. What light this text of fcripture gives to the propofition, would require the learning and authority of a whole convocation to explain. Nor do his fubfequent proofs from fcripture makes us at all wifer.

yet

yet ftrong enough, either in numbers, or in property, to conteft their claims with the prefent Government in a military way; and I cannot devife what infringement of the public peace would follow from the endeavours of a protef tant clergy to prevent their growing any ftronger.

And let us not be too prefuming. Public Peace, in the Gentleman's idea, who would make a doctrinal point of it in a Fortieth Article, may be relative to connections, contracts, fecurities, and reciprocations, of which mere fpectators of the vifible movements of the grand machine, can know nothing.

But the odds against public peace, I fufpect, may be more obfervable to a common eye, with refpect to the other object of a conscientious clergyman's oppofition, viz. the vicious diffipation of the times.

Public diffipation is patronized by men of titles and emblems of great dignity among the Laiety, who may give a fanction to what they please; and it hath been infinuated, that the Alliance takes place even in this department, and that clerks with honourable diftinctions, have rendered these parties quite canonical by their prefence and conformity. that they might not feem to be difaffected to the Public Peace, by the leaft fhew of renitency to fuch employment.

The Methodists, if they were difpofed to display their talents once more against the licentioufnefs of the great and fmall vulgar, would have little chance to be heard. Their zeal is intemperate, and their fentences of condemnation outrageous. Not to mention, that till this execrable Petition turned the fire-edge of the orthodox another way, our pulpits echoed with the most furious invectives against their herefies, delufions, and infanity; and they had been now abfolutely out of credit, if one of these chemical occafions,

which

1

which combines the most jarring elements, had not come upon the Church Militant, and obliged her to take in these Pietists as associates in their oppofition to the Antifubfcriptionists, on a compact we may fuppofe, that while the church connives at their Calviniftical divinity, the methodists shall be equally tender of affronting Arminian morality. The Public Peace, therefore, runs no rifque from this quarter.

It is very poffible, however, that fenfible men, who fearch the fcriptures with fobriety, and obferve the fhocking contrariety of our public manners to the dictates of christianity, might have fome little influence towards awakening numbers of thoughtlefs mortals to a fenfe of their chriftian obligations. Their perfonal estimation, the ftrength of their reafonings, and the confiftency of their practical deportment, would of course recommend and give weight to their remonftrances, and might convince numbers, how irreconcileable a course of profligate diffipation is with the Hope of eternal life in the world to come.

You will ask, what hinders them from making fuch remonftrances now?- I will anfwer your queftion. They may make them, and probably do make them now; but while they lie under fufpicions of fubfcribing doctrines to which they cannot heartily and fincerely affent, their hearers will think they have a right to conclude, that they are no more in earnest in the one cafe than in the other.

It is true, the Thirty-nine Articles fay nothing for or against Ranelaghs, Routs, Pantheons, &c. &c. and a preacher. may, confiftently enough with his fubfcription, hold forth the fecret and open iniquities of thefe, without forfeiting the reputation of an honeft man.

But then here is another misfortune. While the Thirtynine Articles stand, as they do by the privilege of an Efa

blishment,

blishment, upon a level with the fcriptures, and ready, upon fome occafions, even to take place of them, the parties concerned to be inftructed will conclude, that whatever is not contradicted in the established rule of faith and duty, must be lawful. In which conceit it is well if they are not fupported by the orations of those of their teachers, who have no idea of qualms on account of fubfcription.

"Some well-timed political panegyrick," fays a fhrewd writer, or fome hackneyed Essay on a branch of moral duty, glittering with antithefis, and rounded into fentences of "harmonious cadence, now and then feafoned with fome "fmall comic raillery, or flight ftrokes of tragic addrefs, compose the greater part of our modern boasted pulpit "performances."

This is bad enough, but it is worfe when our modern pulpit-critics undertake the province of, what they please to call, explaining fcripture; that is to fay, of accommodating the most important precepts in the New Testament to the modes of the times, the taste of their patrons, and even to the feveral corruptions in our religious establishment, which custom has fanctified, which interested churchmen indifcriminately and pertinaciously defend *, and which the connivance of civil Government will probably suffer to proceed to that deplorable Crifis, when the ftate will really "have more 'political need of the church, than the church will have of "the ftate;' a most infolent infinuation, for which a truly patriotic fenate would have unfrocked the author, without troubling the convocation with the difcuffion of his theological Principles.

If we fhould be thought to ask more than it is reasonable

* For a complete fpecimen, fee Dr. H-x's three Sermons.

to

to grant, viz. that the preaching of this loose morality hath arifen from a certain habit of explaining away the genuine fenfe of the Articles, I fhall only fay, that this indulgence, granted to public diffipation, was not the pulpit-fashion when it plainly appeared, that the clergy believed what they fubfcribed, and took no common pains to make every body elfe believe it too. Nor indeed is it at all an unnatural fuppofition, that they, whofe cafuiftry upon the Articles has been fo fuccessful as to turn them to the fupport of Arminianifm, fhould be inclined, where the occafion called for it, to try the experiment upon the fcriptures, and give the rigid precept a more courteous afpect towards the manners of the Epicurean.

I will venture then to conclude from thefe premiffes, that if ferious, learned, and confcientious men, were fet at liberty to deliver the plain documents of the fcriptures without disguise, and without the apprehenfion of being reproached. for contravening their previous engagements to the established doctrine of the church, we fhould hear much oftener from the pulpit of the consequences, both present and future, of our popular corruptions, to the edification, perhaps the conversion of numbers, who, for want of fuch inftruction, may be in the very gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity.

I am apt to believe too, that the rifing generation of the clergy, by fetting out upon a firmer and lefs variable foundation than their predeceffors, would furnish the public with an increase of confcientious paftors, who not being incumbered either with the prejudices, the cautious timidity, or the courtly delicacy of modern expectants, would exert themfelves with freedom and fpirit in the caufe of their religion. and country, and endeavour at least to rescue them both

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