at Cambridge, which may perfectly confift with the wisdom of Oxford in continuing them.

In the mean time the world is at gaze, how this affair, which hath created fo much perplexity to all true friends to fubfcriptions, will end. This test can hardly be continued in the Univerfities without fome reflection on the wisdom of fome of the most strenuous Adverfaries of the late Petition, who were candid enough to confefs, that Academical Subfcriptions had no colour of Reason to countenance them. On the other hand, it would not be decent to drop them without giving fome reafon ;-some reason, perhaps, which the vigilant Petitioners might hereafter find the means to turn to their own advantage.

It was lately my fortune to fall in company with an ancient, learned, and moft worthy Divine, who had formerly been chaplain to an eminent Prelate, not long fince deceased. He told me he had carefully read all the arguments that had been offered, for excufing students and candidates for degrees in the Universities, from fubfcribing the thirty-nine Articles ; and he affured me, there were very few of them which would not equally conclude for excufing nine in every ten of those who had offered themfelves for orders during the time he had officiated as examiner on those occafions. Perhaps the first extract in the following Appendix, may help the reader to conceive the probability of this account.

And to the reader I leave it, whether the conclufion of the Collection I have just referred to, may not be applied with the fullest propriety to the Tracts in favour of subscription which have been aimed at the Petitioners, without confining it to Oxford or Cambridge. Here it is.

"Such are the most material objections to each particu

"lar

"lar Hypothefis." [viz. upon which the Oxford-fubfcriptions are defended.] "A prefumption unfavourable to them "all, it must be acknowledged, arifes from hence, that in "the place" [read Kingdom]" where this Test hath so long

obtained, the very perfons who have required it, and "who continue to patronize it, are not only not agreed "what mode of Defence they may rely on, but seem even at

66

a loss what interpretation they fhall give to an Act, whose "full and natural obligation they are afraid to avow."

APPEN

APPEND I X.

N° I.

Extract from a Pamphlet, intituled, Advice from a Bishop, in a series of Letters to a Young Clergyman [his Nephew] Printed for M. COOPER, Pater-nofter Row, 1759. Letter ii. p. 17.

"Whether the Subscription now exacted at our ad"miffion into the Church, and which fome of the Clergy "have confidered in the fame light with the bigotted mem"bers of the church of Rome, to be made according to the "fenfe of the Compilers (a), and not as Articles of Peace, I "fay,whether this hath not a tendency to abate fuch a serious "sense (b), in those especially who confider it in that light, "and must necessarily (c) therefore be guilty of Prevarication, I "will not determine: but it hath always appeared to me to "be a point, which deferves more confideration than I could ever get bestowed upon it. The church, we know, doth now not set up for infallibility; and in fact (d) doth not require any other fubfcription, than what is neceffary to Peace and Order: But then this should be publicly and "explicitly declared (e), and not be left liable to any mifapprehenfion from weak and unthinking people, either to "their own offence, or the condemnation of their brethren." Again, p. 19. "There is no one pretends to deny, that "the first Reformers from Popery were obliged upon their own principles, to reject that authority which the church

N

" of

66

66

of Rome had affumed as its undoubted right; and that "all their proceedings fhould be warranted by the exprefs "Word of God (f). Accordingly, when these Articles, declaring the Faith and doctrine of Christianity, were "drawn up for the clergy, they were drawn up with a view to distinguish themselves from those whom they "had reformed upon; and by an Act of the Legislature, a fubfcription to them was made a qualification for or"ders in the church. The authority claimed by the church of Rome for establishing articles of faith, was of another nature, pretended to be derived from God,-and made subscription almost as facred and explicit as an oath (g). "Our ancestors prefumed on no fuch authority: they "knew and owned themfelves to be fallible: nay, they were fo far from requiring an affent to human compofi66 tions, with the fame ftrictnefs as to the word of God, that in one of the Articles, it is exprefsly declared, that what cannot be proved by fcripture, is not to be required of any man to be believed as an Article of Faith. Our Reformers were fenfible and honeft men ; but the age in "which they lived, had no extraordinary light and know"ledge in religion (h).

66

66

"A confiderable modern writer of the church of England," (I believe his Lordship meant the late Dr. Waterland) "hath been pleafed indeed to difcover, that the compilers of these Articles were not able to exprefs their fen"timents in apt and proper terms; becaufe the very Ar"ticles which they defigned as an explicit test against Armi"nianism, are very capable," he said," of an Arminian sense. "You would be furprised to find this man of the first "fenfe and learning, not only attempting to prove, that the "Articles are capable of an Arminian construction, but also

"that

"that in their most obvious and plain interpretation, they "do fupport that doctrine. But the modefty of the Gen"tleman is still more confpicuous when he complains of the "Unitarians for fubfcribing the Articles of the Trinity. Be"cause their fubfcription is to be juftified by the fame way of reafoning; and it would have puzzled him extremely,

66

to find an answer to this plea, that the fecond Article in "the natural import of the words, is in favour of the Unitarian System, and directly levelled against the ortho"dox explication. But this by the way (i).

At the time when thefe Articles were first compiled CC as a confeffion of faith in the church of England, the greatest part, if not all the clergy, were rigid Calvinifts,'

66

and they intended to declare in favour of the doctrine "which they believed. This was the rife and design of "these Articles of Religion, we are now to confider their obligation. A spiritual obligation (k), I have already told you, the Reformers were obliged, upon their own prin"ciples to difavow. They difcarded all pretenfions to in

fallibility, and they could do no otherwife, or their sepa"ration from Rome had been highly criminal. The Legif"lature afterwards ratified the Articles, to diftinguish, or

66

to vindicate this feparation from Popery, which had taught "other doctrines (1); and that they might exclude the men "of that religion from intruding into the church of Eng"land, they required thefe Articles to be fubfcribed by all "their clergy. The obligation, you fee, therefore, is merely “of a civil nature (m), and the explanation of the Articles, "from that time to this, hath been various and uncertain. "Different interpretations of the fame point of doctrine, "have been allowed and approved by the governors of our church, as orthodox, a latitude hath been taken, and pro