good-will, by pertinaciously rejecting any other who fhould be nominated.

The candidate for orders in the Church of England has in the laft place to examine into the nature of the fubfcriptions and engagements which are required of young men on their admiffion to the minifterial functions; that is to say, the subscriptions made before the Bishop antecedently to ordination, and the engagements contained in the office of ordination itself.

The full and fair import of the obligations thus contracted must be collected from a fober investigation of the subject, and from writers of credit and refpectability who profeffedly treat of them in detail. It is not probable that many difficulties will arife except with regard to the thirty-nine articles. Concerning those articles it may be proper to add a few words.

Articles of religion feem to be a neceffary part of every ecclefiaftical establishment; as forming the only criterion by which those teachers who hold the doctrines of the establishment can be diftinguished from those who do not. The unlawfulness of requiring any fubfcription whatever, though not unfrequently

afferted,

afferted, can never be evinced.

For if it

be lawful to require of a perfon who applies for an office in the State, or an employment in private life, fome proof of his poffeffing the qualifications neceffary for difcharging the duties of the poft, and an engagement that he will discharge them faithfully while he continues to hold it; why is a fimilar proceeding in the cafe of ecclefiaftical offices neceffarily unlawful? And when an office is inftituted for the purpose of inculcating certain doctrines; is it not lawful and reasonable to require of those, who voluntarily apply for admiffion into the office, an explicit declaration whether they believe the doctrines? For that belief is a qualification indifpenfably requifite to their fulfilling with integrity and effect the functions, with the discharge of which they desire to be entrusted.

In fubfcribing the thirty-nine articles, the intention of the authority which prescribes fubfcription is to be fatisfied. This authority is not (i) the Legiflature of the 13th Eliz. which

(i) See the Principles of Moral Philofophy investigated, &c. 4th edit. p. 265, 266, by the author-and also vol. i. p. 91, of the present work.

paffed

paffed the act impofing fubfcription; but the existing Legislature of this country, which having the power of repealing that act and forbearing to exercise it, ratifies, and as it were re-enacts the law. The point therefore which the candidate for orders has to decide, is the nature of the subscription which will fatisfy the intention of the Legiflature exifting at the time; in other words, he is to ascertain what engagements that Legislature deems the fubscriber of the articles to contract, and what, if any, is the latitude of interpretation, when the expreffions employed in the articles admit fome latitude, which it allows. In determining thefe questions, he is not in the flightest degree bound by the meaning and intention of the Legiflature of 13th Eliz. if he has fufficient reason to judge the meaning and intention of the existing Legiflature to be different.

The form of fubfcription ftates, that "all "and every (k) the articles are agreeable to "the word of God;" a form which, if there is no evidence that the Legislature has relaxed in its demands, muft appear entirely to overthrow the opinion of those writers who main

(k) Burn's Eccl. Law, 3d edit. vol. iii. p. 36..

tain that the articles may be confcientioufl fubfcribed by persons who think them true in the main, yet believe several of them to be repugnant to the scriptures. Some latitude (7) of interpretation however feems clearly allowed; fome is and has long been conftantly in ufe; and the fact has been fo notorious to many fucceffive Legislatures, that it may fairly be taken for granted, that disapprobation of the practice would have been testified by public authority, had it been felt. For fimilar reafons it may be concluded, that if some of the articles are fo worded as to be fairly capable of more than one fenfe compatible with the Scriptures, fubfcription in any one of those fenfes will fatisfy the Legiflature. Yet as a latitude in itself of an indefinite nature, and extending to a variety of particulars, is always liable to be enlarged by the subscriber in proportion to his difficulties, until at length it exceeds almoft all bounds; and as the

(1) Archbishop Secker, speaking of the thirty-nine articles, fays: "Egent hodiè tantum explicatione commodâ ; non vafram et veteratoriam intelligo, fed artis grammaticæ criticæque regulis confonam." Orat. Synod. p. 363.I gladly refer the reader to the recent work of Bishop Pretyman, entitled, "Elements of Chriftian Theology."

truly

truly pious are the perfons who are particularly expofed to fcruples of conscience, and the persons whofe fcruples it is on every account moft defireable, as far as it may be practicable, to meet or to prevent, that the Church may not without neceffity lose the invaluable benefit of their minifterial labours: it should seem that a temperate revifal of the articles, under the aufpices of the Bench of Bishops, for the purpose of omitting fuch as may now be fuperfluous, and fimplifying those which are obfcure, would contribute equally to the interefts of the established Church, and to the credit and comfort of its Minifters (m).

Against this temptation to use unwarrantable latitude in interpreting the articles, it is the duty of every one, who studies them with a view to fubfcription, honeftly and diligently to guard. A defire previously formed of entering into the Church; the difficulties and inconveniencies of turning to another line of life; the fuggeftions of intereft in all its fhapes, referring to paft expences and to future

(m) See fupra, p. 2c-22.

prospects;