course are totally loft. We may say of their Religion, with truth, that it hath neither the promise of this life, nor of that which is to come. And we may affert, with equal truth and confidence, that no government in any age could iffue forth a more wife, a more useful, and a more confolatory prohibition on the fubject of Religion, than this very Prohibition which the Puritans fo feverely condemned. That the Articles concerning grace, faith, and good works, lean towards the fide of enthufiafm, is neither to be condemned nor wondered at. The errors to which they were opposed will at once explain and justify such language. It is a familiar but expreffive comparison, that, to make the crooked ftraight, we muft bend the contrary way. Oppofite errors in our times require a different kind of religious inftruction, and yet it is a falfe and malicious charge against the established Clergy, that they do not fufficiently enforce the neceffity of faith, and the true efficacy of grace. The advocates for a new eftablishment, and the oppofers of all establishments, have enquired, enquired, whether, upon the fuppofition that the Reformation had been deferred till our days, the Articles would not have been materially different from the prefent. No advantage is given by allowing that they certainly would. In proportion to the dangers which furround us, we naturally prepare our defence. That he who engages to fupport a system may, in the progrefs of life, find, or, which is the fame as to the effect upon his conduct, imagine, himself mistaken, cannot be denied. But the evils arifing from ignorance, instability, and prefumption, are infinitely greater than any one establishment ever produced; for in all of them we must often diftinguish the mifconduct of individuals from the seeming or the real imperfections of the establishments themselves. Articles, like human laws, are liable to perverfion, evafion, or mifconftruction. The prudence and the industry of Interpreters diminishes thofe evils which it cannot prevent. Qurs are usefully retained, as comprehending a history of the religion of the times in which they were framed, and as expreffing the reafons of our feparation from the Church of Rome on the one hand, and the Puritans on the other. And though he, who keeps the moderate moderate path between two parties, be in danger of displeasing each, yet he gains the approbation of the cool and confiderate; and if party zeal deprive him of much praise, and fubject him to much cenfure, during his lifetime, pofterity will applaud his magnanimity, and vindicate the propriety of his conduct. Our Reformers, aided by the civil power, laid the foundation of religious liberty; fucceeding times enacted laws to ftrengthen what was weak, and to amend what was imperfect. The hierarchy is difarmed of all its terrors; ecclefiaftical law is adminiftered principally by the laity; and that power in temporal concerns, which by a forced construction was first granted to the Church, and continued to be exercised by spiritual perfons, is now in the hands of profeffional men, acting with all the regularity and accuracy of other courts. Let every attempt to excite jealoufy between one kind of jurifdiction and another be opposed with unremitting induftry; and if the oppofition fhould not meet with deferved fuccefs, may it never betray us into murmuring and difcontent, but animate our endeavours to be true and faithful minifters of the Prince of Peace. SERMON SERMON V. 2 COR. I. 24. NOT FOR THAT WE HAVE DOMINION OVER F the Church of England, affisted as she has been from time to time by the Legiflature, claimed an absolute authority over the belief of mankind, he might be justly charged with intolerance; and the words of the text, instead of being what we apprehend them to be, the rule of her conduct, would only be the sentence of her condemnation. To claim greater deference than was claimed by the Apoftles themselves would be the very height of presumption. * A well known Hiftorian, who omits no opportunity of ridiculing or difparaging reli gion, under the pretence of cenfuring fome of the particular defects of its profeffors, has afferted that Priefts of all denominations are bigots. That he, who has been educated according to the tenets of any one communion, whose inclination has led him to examine those tenets, to refute the arguments of gainfayers, to meet every objection, and to find out new reafons by which his faith is corroborated, should, during the progress of his enquiries, be animated with increasing zeal, is natural and unavoidable. The fame thing happens in the pursuit of any other kind of knowledge. The philofopher, the mathematician, the philologift, the antiquarian, and the cultivator of any of the fine arts, all of them claim fome indulgence from mankind, if their favourite employment fill them with a peculiar degree of ardour. Such ardour increases their diligence, and caufes even the effufions of fancy to be received with candour. The folid advantages accruing to fociety from their labours infinitely counterbalance any inconveniences arifing from a few conjectures, apparently vifionary and ill supported. Effentials all the time retain their dignity and importance. Why then should that candour which is fhewn to others |