66 Now let me beg of this gentleman to interpret the rest of her articles fo as to quadrate with this axiom; and then the EXTREME SENSE to which he carries them will be found an extravagance of which he is not guilty. Whatever the Hills and the Overtons, and their coadjutors may affirm, the abfolute impoffibility of falling away after regeneration, is no doctrine of the Church of England. In proof, I quote the conclufion of the 15th article of our Church-" all we the reft, although baptized, and born again in Chrift, yet offend in many things; and if we fay we have no fin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.' I add the conclufion of the 16th. After we have received the Holy Ghoft, we may depart from grace given, and fall into fin; and by the grace of God we may rife again, and amend our lives; and therefore they are to be condemned which fay they can no more fin as long as they live here, or deny the place of forg.venefs to fuch as truly repent.". Let Calvin and the Calvinifts anfwer for the terrible and revolting doctrines they have reared upon Scripture, partially construed ;- our Church does not hold men to be fuch mere machines as to have no freedom of will, no abhorrence of fin, no preference of godlinefs; fo as to be incapable of "refufing the evil or choofing the gool." She looks upon her fons as rational creatures;- fhe admits the influence of God's grace, but fhe allows that we are free to fall, and alfo that by God's help we may rife again. The proper Prefbyterians fay fomething of repentance in their 15th ar ticle, which by no means tallies with what the North Briton would impute to them;-fomething to which our Methodifts will hardly confent. § III. Although repentance be not to be refted in, as any fatisfaction for fin, or any caufe of the pardon thereof, which is the act of God's free grace in Chrift, yet it is of fuch NECESSITY to all finners, that none may expect parden WITHOUT it. § IV. As there is no fin fo fmall, but it deferves damnation; fo there is no fin fo great that it can bring damnation to those who truly repent." They affirm fomething, too, respecting the moral law which the Methodists never urge upon their hearers; an omiffion which annuls all the diftinction which fome would fet up between them and the Antinomians. "Art. 19. § V. The moral law doth for ever bind all, as well juftified perfons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but alfo in refpect of the authority of God the Creator who gave it. Neither doth Chrift in the Gospel any way DISSOLVE, but much STRENGTHEN this obligation.” I will conclude by giving you the Kirk's "evidences of true faith," fet forth in her abftract of "the fum of faving knowledge." "Evidences of true faith. 1. Conviction of the believer's obligation to keep the moral law. 2. That the believer practife the rules of godliness and righteousness. 3. That obedience to the law run in the right channel of faith in Chrift. 4. The keeping of ftrait communion with Chrift, the fountain of all grace and good works.-For ftrengthening the believer in faith and obedience, by these evidences."-Are thefe fuch evidences as the Methodists, and the common herd of Diffenters in England, would require; or fuch as the feceders, and the foi difunt propagators at home in Scotland would look for? Has the North Briton ever feen any experiences, as they are called? They are to be had ready written in England, at various prices, from fixpence upward, in the purlieus of moft of the fchifm-thops. These miferable fcrolls prefent very different evidences of true faith;-fuch as the Hills and the Haldanes might look for; but not fuch as the Church of England, or the Epifcopal Church or the Kirk of Scotland would ask from eir fons. And now, Gentlemen, I trust, even the North Briton begins to think, that the proper Pretbyterian differs from the Church of England, in matters of difcipline only. One has a Liturgy and Epifcopacy-the other prefcribes her prayers, by means of the directories, and has no bifhops. I muft beg leave here, to explain my ufe of the word only, in the laft fentence but one, and in my character of Dr. Mayo. I do not mean by it, that matters of discipline are of trifling moment; that is, that the question fubfifting between Epifcopacy and Prefbyterianifm, is a queftion of " inferior confideration and importance;" but finiply, that it is the only material difference between the two eftablished churches of this realm. Dr. Mayo refpected the proper Prefbyterians, as men of orthodox principles, in points of faith and Christian practice; as men, who have set forth their principles explicitly to the world, and who therefore may be convinced, when thofe principles are proved to be unfounded. But the wretched mafs of ecclefiaftical Jacobins own to no oftenfible principles. You know not how to cope with a Methodist, or a Diffenter, who harmonizes with him: He for ever evades your arguments. You no fooner reduce his notions to inconfiftency with Seripture, or to an abfurdity, than he denies his tenets, and contemptuoufly laughs in his fleeve. He is for the church, and against the church; for articles, and against subscription; for an ordained ministry, when he can get one to his mind; and against episcopacy, when he would evade the grafp of power. He will twift and turn like an eel, flip through your fingers, and hide himself in the mud, if he cannot otherwise escape you. Sometimes he will put on a fighting face, and pretend to " strive for the mastery lawfully; but it is all delufion! "Fiet enim fubito fus horidus, atraque Tigris, Aut acrem Flammæ fonitum dabit, atque ita Vinélis It has been faid, that the proper Prefbyterians have been heretofore more tinctured with Calvinifm than they are at prefent. I am glad to learn, that they are grown moderate. If they went the length that the North Briton fuppofes, they went further towards Geneva than their principles gave them licence. I have feen nothing of it myself, and this I know, by experience, that, upon all parochial contefts, for lecturefhips, &c. the proper Prefbyterians uniformly range on the fide of the Established Church; whilft the Independents, the Seceders, the Baptifts, the Methodifts, as uniformly oppofe it. June 8, 1802. I am, Gentleman, Your's moft fincerely, A LONDON CURATE. THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. TO THE EDITORS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE, GENTLEMEN, NO man detefts the be-plaiftering of the great with unmerited praise more than I do. A great deal too much in the way of panegyrick, has been faid of a young nobleman lately deceased. That fome parts of of his character were good, nobody can deny; but the company which he kept in making the tour of Europe; and the zeal with which he entered into the mysteries of the turf and the bufinefs of the gaming-table at home, muft ever afford a mortifying fet-off against his virtues as an agriculturalift or his merits as a grazier. His political attachments are well known. He was only one of many dupes to the principles of whiggifm, and the practices of modern whigs. He, like fome other noblemen, could not fee that if the new philofophy had not met with a timely check; nobility, and the property of nobility had gone to wreck in Britain as furely as in France. To alter the conftitution of any realm is of all experiments the moft dangerous. To convert a free monarchy into a fufpicious and ungrateful republic (as all republics are, and ever have been, and ever will be) is at once an useless and a moft hazardous attempt. "The ceafe of majesty Dies not alone; but like a gulph, doth draw SHAKSPEARE. However, it is not to the political character of a late nobleman that I with to draw your attention, but to his religious one. It does not appear that he was in the habit of joining in the public worship of Almighty God. Yet it seems that although he himself did not go to church he was not indifferent about the accommodation of fuch as chose to go thither. The Rev. Edm. Cartwright in a fermon preached in the Parish Church of Woburn on the Sunday after the interment of the Duke of Bedford states this fact, which I was glad to learn. I rejoice not in the iniquity" of any man, but am delighted with "the truth," when the truth is to the advantage of his character. Says Mr. C. "One leffon he has left us, which equally applies to every condition; which fpeaks the fame univerfal language to the high and to the low. This leffon of fevere inftruction, teaching us the fragility of life, and the important conclufions to be derived from it, who that can reflect, but for a moment on the circumftances of his untimely death, does not feel impreffed upon his heart? And the impreffion will not be abated by observing that this place where we are now affembled, decorated by his munificence, and for the completion of which he was fo anxious, and looked forward to with fo much pleasure; that this place,' I fay, on the very day he expected it to have been made use of in its finished ftate, fhould be hung round with, and darkened by the emblems of his mortality!" Thus much I have thought it but fair to ftate, and to give to Mr. Cartwright's mention of the duke's munificence in decorating a parish church all the publicity which it may derive from an infertion of this part of his fermon in your Magazine. I am Gentlemen, yours, &c. June 5, 1802. A COUNTRY VICAR. Τα TO THE EDITORS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN, I AM aftonished at the imprudent conduct of the friends of the Duke of Bedford, and at the indecent praises beftowed by fome clergymen upon him. I have before me a funeral fermon, preached at Woburn, his Grace's parish church, in the country, but which he never once entered, for the purpose of divine worship; and he had no fervice at Woburn Abbey. This preacher fays, 66 The memory of his virtues fhall long continue. Whether we contemplate him as a public or a private character, he is equally the object of our admiration and regret." p. 17. Now, I always thought, that religion was the alone foundation of all the virtues; and that, without this, however fpecious might be the character, it would not prove of folid worth. Public worship is part of a man's religionit is a duty due to GoD and to man. Now, I declare, on the information of his parish priest, that his Grace of Bedford never once entered his parish church, for the fake of worship. He might, to give directions to his workmen, and to beautify the church, by a monument, but not out of a regard to GOD. But this was not all. His Grace had no more regard for others fanctifying the Sabbath than he himself had. Sunday, in the country, was generally employed, as the day for paying his numerous workmen, labourers, and farming men. The great pond was once to be emptied, in his Grace's prefence, and no day was found fo proper for it as Sunday in which fome hundred of hands were employed. : After this, fhall we hear of his Grace's virtues from the pulpit? I hope that, in the estimation of a Clergyman, the violation of a plain pofitive command, is no proof of Chriftian virtue; and I would fubmit to the writer of that sermon, to read it over again, and to see how little the example of his Grace agrees with the moral or doctrinal part of his difcourfe. The Duke of Bedford was a young man, eafily flattered and led away : Because Mr. F- retires from the House of Commons, as the difgufted ftatefman, disappointed in his love of power, the Duke of Bedford must do the fame in the Houfe of Peers, when he commenced his grand agricultural pursuits; but it is not likely that this would have long continued; for, from his fpeech at the laft annual meeting, he feemed to have great doubt whether they had done any good; whether they had not confiderably increased the price, without improving the quality of butcher's meat; whether large fums, and great quantity of food, were not expended for little or no good. His Grace deferted his proper poft, as a peer in parliament, to appear, where a nobleman will never fhine, as a farmer and grazier. He is liable to be duped on every fide; and they who wish to impose the most upon him, will perfuade him that he is fuperior to all deceit and flattery. To return to the writer of the fermon: In pity his name is concealed. He might preach and print it in a moment of furprise, or he might be carried away with the torrent of grief, being on the fpot: But I am convinced the place was mifapplied, and the Chriftian Sabbath mispent, in celebrating the praises of that perfonage, who never frequented that place, who fo often violated the Sabbath. If Paine or Thelwall, or Beliham, had had celebrated his Grace's praifes, this would have been in character: they were admitted to Bedford Houfe; they had an end to be answered ; but for the Chriftian Divine, fo far to forget his great Mafter, and his fa cred caufe, to praise such a character, to hold him forth as an object of admiration and regret, is really aftonishing! And if fuch strong facts did not ftare us in the face, would not be credible: But here, we hope, that the prefs will be purer than the pulpit; if the fermon efcape cenfure from the pulpit, it will not from the-prefs. We hope never to fee the day arrive, when the prefs can iffue grofs adulation-can call good evil, and evil goodcan confound the eternal distinctions of right and wrong. Are there fuch charms in a name; are the expectations of preferment to be received, or the gratitude for past favours so great, as to overcome every better confideration? DEAN HICKES'S LETTER. TO THE EDITORS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN, A. AS you have honoured me by inferting in your valuable mifcellany the copy which I fome time fince tranfmitted to you of Dr. GEE's letter,' P. p. 207-209, of your Magazine for April, 1802, I now take the liberty of fending you a copy of as much of Dean HICKES's letter as relates to the reading of JAMES II. "§ Declaration of Indulgence;" which your correfpondent the LONDON CURATE had particularly defired I would do, at p. 141 of your Magazine for March, 1802.-Without meaning in the moft diftant manner to hint that any of your numerous readers are unacquainted with the tranfactions concerning religion in the reign of James II. King of England, (fince no one that has any regard for the Proteftant religion, fo greatly oppreffed during that king's reign, can feel themselves uninterested in the arbitrary, illegal, and oppreffive proceedings which hif tory records concerning it) it may not be improper to give a flight idea of the fituation of public affairs, more efpecially fuch as had any reference to religion, at the period of the Dean's writing the following letter, for the purpose of better understanding the allufions that letter contains. During the fhort and tempeftuous reign of JAMES II. his attachment to arbitrary principles of government and the Romish fuperftition was very apparent. His partiality for POPERY, the only part of his character with which we are at prefent concerned, began to manifeft itself very foon after the commencement of his reign, and this unhappy propenfity continually increased till at laft it drove him to fuch extremities as compelled him, in the year 1688, to ABDICATE THE THRONE. His proceedings, for many years previous to this catastrophe, demonftrated to all the world that it was his full determination at every rifque to establish POPERY in the kingdom; though contrary to his CORONATION OATH, to the affurances he had at different times made to his council, and to the genius and temper of the English nation; and this determination loft him his crown. The king had fome years after his fucceffion to the throne begun the work he had in view, by fufpending all the penal laws againft Catholics, and granting a general liberty of confcience to all his fubjects; by which steps his Popith fubjects had power of publicly exercifing their religion, and were put in acapacity of enjoying places of truft and confidence under the government. He proceeded to reward all who profeffed the Roman Catholic religion, and to puth them forward into public offices, often in the moft arbitrary and illegal |