of saints and angels, among the essen- Asia, and what would be the state of tials of Christianity, as the doctrines of the Trinity and of atonement. The friends of genuine, and I will add of rational Christianity, have not, however, on the whole, much reason to regret that their enemies have not made these distinctions; since, by this means, we have been taught to make them ourselves; so that Christianity is perhaps as much indebted to its enemies, as to its friends, for this import ant service. In their indiscriminate attacks, whatever has been found to be untenable has been gradually abandoned, and I hope the attack will be continued till nothing of the wretched outworks be left; and then, I doubt not, a safe and impregnable fortress will be found in the centre, a fortress built upon a rock, against which the gates of death will not prevail. When the present crisis is over, (and I think we may see that the period is not far distant,) that by means of the objections of unbelievers, and the attention which, in consequence of it, will be given to the subject, by believers, Christianity shall be restored to its primitive purity, the cool and truly sensible part of mankind will, in this very circumstance, perceive an argument for its truth; and thus even the corruptions of Christianity will have answered a very valuable purpose; as having been the means of supplying such an evidence of its truth, as could not have been derived from any other circumstance. Let any other religion be named that ever was so much corrupted, and that recovered itself from such corruption, and continued to be professed with unquestionable zeal by men of reflection and understanding, and I shall look upon it with respect, and not reject it without a very particular examination. The revival of a zeal for the religion of Greece and Rome under Julian, is not to be compared with the attachment to Christianity by inquisitive and learned men in the present age. Let literature and science flourish but one century in Mahometanism, the religion of the Hindoos, or that of the Tartars, subject to the Grand Lama? I should rejoice to hear of such a challenge as I give Mr. Gibbon, being sent from a Mahometan Mufti to the Christian world.' Should what I call pure Christianity, (the most essential articles of which I consider to be the proper unity of God, and the proper humanity of Christ,) continue to spread as it now does, and as, from the operation of the same causes, I have no doubt but that, in spite of all opposition, it will do, and literature revive among the Jews and Mahometans, (who, it is remarkable, were never learned and inquisitive, but in an age in which all the Christianity they could see must have struck them with horror, as a sytem of abominable and gross idolatry, to which their own systems are totally repugnant): should learning and inquiry, I say, once more revive among the Jews and Mahometans, at the same time that a great part of the Christian world should be free from that idolatry which has given them such just offence, they would be much more favourably impressed with the idea of Christianity than they were in former times. It, also, can hardly be supposed, but that the general conversion of the Jews, after a state of such long and violent opposition, (which will in all future time exclude the idea of their having acted in concert with the Christians,) will be followed by the conversion of all the thinking part of the world. And if, before or after this time, the Jews should return to their own country, the whole will be such a manifest fulfilment of the prophecies of Scripture, as will leave no reasonable colour for infidelity, This passage was sarcastically noticed by Mr. Gibbon, in the Correspondence, which Dr. Priestley published in 1794, at the end of his In the prospect of this great and corruptions of it, and submitting to glorious event I rejoice; and I wish to the most rigid examination whatever contribute a little towards hastening I think to be really a part of it. To its approach, both by unfolding the this, all the friends of genuine Chrishistory of Christianity, with all the tianity will cheerfully say, AMEN. PART II. OF THE GENERAL CONCLUSION; CONTAINING CONSIDERATIONS ADDRESSED TO THE ADVOCATES FOR THE PRESENT CIVIL ESTABLISHMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY, AND ESPECIALLY BISHOP HURD. AFTER relating, with so much freedom, be done for those who do not look quite the rise, progress, and present state, of so far as I do. Many excellent men what I deem to be Corruptions of among the clergy of the Church of Christianity, and especially in the England are exceedingly distressed established systems of it, all of which with the obligation to subscribe what I consider as antichristian, being both they cannot believe, and to recite what exceedingly corrupt in their principles, they utterly condemn; and yet their and supported by a power totally circumstances are such, as too strongly foreign to that of the kingdom of tempt them to make the best of their Christ; I cannot help expressing my situation, rather than absolutely starve; earnest wishes, that something may be and many others are continually predone by those who have influence, to vented from entering the church by remove these evils, or at least to pal- the same state of things in it. Even liate them. And I cannot help con- the guilt of those men who are induced sidering those prelates who really have to comply, to the disquiet of their influence in these matters, as highly consciences, will lie, in a great measure, criminal, in this enlightened age, if at the door of those who could relieve they are not apprised of the abuses, them, if they were in earnest to do it. and if they do not use their endeavours to rectify them. Those who have any principle themselves must feel something for those It will not be imagined that I have who find themselves obliged by a printhe least prospect of being benefited ciple of conscience absolutely to aban myself by any alteration that can take don their preferment in the church. place in the ecclesiastical system of Many and painful must have been my own country. All I wish, as a their struggles, before they could bring Christian, from the powers of this themselves to execute a resolution, world, is, that they would not inter- which is viewed with wonder and meddle at all in the business of reli- regret by many of their best friends, gion, and that they would give no and with indifference or contempt by countenance whatever to any mode of the world at large. But they have it, my own, or that of others, but shew respect to other spectators, at present so much confidence in the principles of invisible, but whose approbation will what they themselves deem to be true hereafter be of more value than all religion, as to think it able to guard itself. But though I have nothing to ask for myself, much may, and ought to things else; and while they are conscious that what they forsake in this world is for the sake of Christ, and the gospel, Matt. xix. 29, they cannot be unhappy even now. Few of these cases, it is probable, come to the hear ing of those whom no such scruples disturb. But while such is the state of things in this country, and the cry for reformation grows louder every day, "Woe to them that are thus at ease in our Zion." Amos vi. 1. If I could for a moment wish myself in the situation of those prelates who have influence in the present state of things in this country, (but, indeed, I am far from considering their situation as an enviable one, thinking my own, as a Dissenting minister, despicable as I am sensible it must appear to them, to be in reality more useful, more honourable, and more happy,) it would be to acquire that immortal renown which it is in their power to secure by promoting such a Reformation. But the same situation would probably lead me to see things in the same light in which they see them; and being easy myself, I might feel as little as they do for those who were ill at ease under me. It is, I am sensible, extremely difficult to put one's self exactly in the place of another person, and therefore it is equally difficult to make proper allowance for the sentiments and conduct of other persons. But if it be a situation that necessarily leads any set of men to judge and act wrong, it should be a reason with those who see the influence of that situation, to remove the cause of offence. This work we may assure ourselves, will be done; and if those in whose power it now is, be not the proper instruments for it, others will be found, in God's own time, both in Roman Catholic countries, and in this. The work of reformation is advancing apace in several Roman Catholic countries, and this will make it doubly 1 In the course of the last six months only I have heard of five fresh instances of clergymen who, on account of becoming Unitarians, have abandoned either actual preferment, or considerable prospects in the church. It is probable there are others that I have not heard of. (P.) 2 See supra, p. xv., and Note. reproachful to us, at least, not to keep the lead we have hitherto plumed ourselves upon taking, in what relates to religious liberty, and to which we must be sensible that we owe much of the honour, and even the flourishing state of our country. One of the worst symptoms of the present time is, that men of the greatest eminence in the church, and of the most unquestionable ability, appear to be either wholly indifferent to the subject, or instead of promoting a farther reformation, employ all their ingenuity to make men acquiesce in the present system; when all they can urge is so palpably weak, that it is barely possible they should be in earnest; not indeed in their wishes to keep things as they are, but in thinking their arguments have that weight in themselves which they wish them to have with others. To see such men as Bishop Hurd in this class of writers, a class so little respectable, when he is qualified to class with Tillotson, Hoadley and Clarke, equally excites one's pity and indignation. 993 66 This truly able writer has all the appearance of being really serious, in alleging that the Reformers of the church of England were as well qualified to judge concerning the system of Christianity as we now are. They had only," he says, "to copy, or rather to inspect.... the Sacred Scriptures, which lay open to them as they do to us; as if it required nothing more than eyes, capable of distinguishing the words of Scripture, to enter into their real meaning. But had not the Papists, the Lutherans, the Calvinists, the Anabaptists, and the Socinians, of the same age, eyes, as well as the Reformers of the Church of England? And, I may add, were they not men of as good understanding? But he adds, "The Sacred Scriptures.... being taken by them.. for their sole rule of faith, what should hinder them, when they read those Scriptures, from seeing as distinctly as 3 Sermons, I. p. 235. (P.) we do at this day?' I answer, the if it had been fixed in any of the same thing, whatever it is, that makes different periods, in which it was fixed men interpret the Scriptures so diffe- (and which is here called being checked rently from the truth, at this day. and kept back) by one prince, or adWas that an age exempt from preju- vanced by another, as well as where it dice; or were the Reformers in Eng- was checked and kept back (for this, land the only persons so privileged? Bishop Hurd cannot deny to have been All the classes of Reformers above the case) by Queen Elizabeth. It enumerated appealed to the Scriptures would also have been equally applicaalike. ble to any different establishment that However, it is far from being true should have been made after the Rethat the English Reformers, whatever formation had been moving on a comthey might pretend, were determined plete half century, as well as nearly by the authority of Scripture only. one, or if it had gone on afterwards It is evident to most persons, though (still under the controlling eye of the it may not be so to Bishop Hurd, that magistrate) to this day. For why they were much influenced by the doc- should not our present civil governors trines of the second, the third, and even be as good judges in matters of relilater centuries. What else could have gion as any persons in the same situaled them to adopt the Nicene, and espe- tions could have been two hundred cially the Athanasian Creed? This years ago? Just so much more time was going far beyond the canon of the has elapsed since "the first contentions Scriptures. Or should the English in Germany on the account of reliReformers have seriously proposed to gion," and consequently more time themselves to make the Scriptures their would have been allowed for taking only rule, how was it possible for them, the full benefit of all the discoveries educated as they were, in the compli- that have been made both at home cated system of Popery, to read them and abroad, &c. And it cannot be with unprejudiced eyes? 66 doubted but that if a new establishment should be made at this day, it would be, in many respects, considerably different from the present. But the Reformation," he says, was not carried on with us in a precipitate, tumultuary manner, as it was, for the most part, on the Continent. On the other hand, had all our soveOn the other hand, it advanced, under reigns after Queen Mary been Papists, the eye of the magistrate, by slow and the Reformation never been redegrees; nay, it was more than once sumed, a present bishop of Worcester checked and kept back by him. Hence might have said that the experiment it came to pass, that there was time allowed for taking the full benefit of all discoveries made abroad;" and “for studying the chief points of controversy with care. . . . . În short, between the first contentions in Germany on the account of religion, and the final establishment of it in the Church of England under Elizabeth, there was a space of near half a century.' .... It is obvious to remark, that the very same encomium might have been bestowed upon the Church of England, 1 Sermons, I. pp. 235, 236. (P.) had been tried, and had not answered, and that what had been established by the wisdom of ages, in all the countries of Europe, it could not be safe to alter. Besides, what can a Christian, jealous for the purity of his religion, expect from the controlling eye of the magistrate, but such a modification of it, or something bearing its name, as should be thought to be most subservient to his own interest? It does not require the understanding of Bishop Hurd to see the full force of this reply; but it may require a mind less fascinated by prejudice in favour of long-established forms. 992 66 the gates of eternal life are not opened to the whole race of mortal man; but only to those who "by the everlasting purpose of God,.... before the foundations of the world were laid," being "chosen in Christ out of mankind,' are decreed by his counsel, secret to us," and are delivered "from curse and damnation." It must be a strange latitude of interpretation, (for which his Lordship is an advocate,) that can reconcile these two contrary positions; and yet in the preface to these articles it is said, "that they were agreed upon for avoiding diversity of opinions, and establishing consent touching true religion." Let Mr. Madan, Dr. Hurd, and the excellent bishop of Carlisle, together with some unbelievers among the clergy, all subscribers to the same articles, confer together, and tell us what this consent touching true religion is. 6 In another case, also, if he be at all ingenuous, he must acknowledge that the English Reformers did not see quite so clearly as he himself now does. He says, "the Christian system has.... been reviled by such as have seen or would only see it through the false medium of Popish, or Calvinistical ideas." Calvinism, therefore, accord- What reformation can we expect in ing to him, is not true Christianity. any important doctrinal articles of reBut let any competent judge of the ligion, when Bishop Hurd expresses subject read the Thirty-nine Articles himself so strongly, as we have seen, of the Church of England, and say in favour of the divinity of Christ, in whether they have not a strong tinge the highest sense of the word? By of Calvinism.3 which he must mean that he is fully equal, in power and glory, to the Father, whom Christ himself styles his Father and our Father, his God and our God. It was a long time, as I have shown, before any Christians, after they contended that Christ was God, had any idea of his being so, except in some qualified sense. I will venture to say that no person before, or at the Council of Nice, would have used such language as this of Bishop Hurd. It is not merely from such a general expression as that above quoted, that I conclude Bishop Hurd is no friend of Calvinism. He directly contradicts the fundamental article of that system when he says, that " a divine person, &c., in virtue of his all-atoning death,' has opened" the gates of eternal life to the whole race of mortal man.' "94 According to the plainest sense of the articles of the Church of England, 1 Sermons, I. pp. 240, 241. (P.) 2 Ibid. p. 37. (P.) 3 Hence the first Lord Chatham is said to have described the Church of England as possessing "a Calvinistic Creed, a Popish Liturgy, and an Arminian Clergy." Burnet, who was too honest to deny what it ill-suited him to admit, says on Art. xvii. that "it is very probable that those who penned it, meant that the Decree was absolute." Yet "since they have not said it," strants, though he confesses, that "the Calvinists have less occasion for scruple, since the article does seem more plainly to favour them." Expos. Ed. 4, p. 165. See also The Confessional, Ed. 3, pp. 331-333. he provides a convenient sense for the Remon 4 Sermons, III. p. 63. (P.) With respect to the doctrine of atonement, which I think I have proved to be quite a modern thing, and hardly to have been known before the Reformation, Bishop Hurd says, "The Scriptures are unintelligible, and language itself has no meaning, if the blood of the Lamb slain had not a true, direct and proper efficacy (considered in the literal sense of blood), 5 Art. xvii. (P.) 6 A rector in Birmingham, who gave occasion to the Familiar Letters. 1790. |