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THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
98426

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
1898.

ERRATA.

Page 24. 1. 22. dele to

30. 1. 14. for of which r. in which

63. 1. 13, 14. for followeth r. followed

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SI am a Clergyman of the established Church, and have

for fome Years been poffefsed of an Ecclefiaftical Preferment, into which, before I could be admit

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ted, I was obliged to subscribe the four first Canons, which include my Affent to the Articles of our Religion, and also to declare publicly my unfeigned Affent and Consent to all and every thing, contained in The Book of Common-Prayer : And, as I have not been so much employed about my temporal Affairs, but that I have found Leisure to apply fome Time to my Books, and to think as well as read; I find that I do not now agree exactly in Sentiment, either with my former Opinions, or with those Perfons who drew up the Articles of our Religion, or with the Compilers of our Liturgy, and, in parti

cular, with the Athanafian Creed : And therefore I have laboured under

der some Difficulties, how to direct myself in these Circumstances.

There was a Sermon preached, not many Years ago, by Dr. Conybear, before the University of Oxford, which seems to have been approved of by them; and which hath since been reprinted in Ireland, wherein he afferts, that every one who subscribes the Articles of Religion, does thereby engage, not only not to dispute or contradict them; but that his Subscription amounts to an Approbation of, and an Affent to the Truth of the Doctrine therein contained, in the very Sense which the Compilers thereof are supposed to have understood them: That they are not to be

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confidered as Articles of Peace, but of Doctrine, as the very Title denotes, which is, For the avoiding Diversities of Opinions, and for establishing Consent touching true Religion. Whereas I apprehend any Attempt towards avoiding Diversity of Opinions, not only to be an useless, but also an impracticable Scheme; fince I do not only doubt whether the Compilers of the Articles, but even whether any two thinking Men ever agreed exactly in their Opinion, not only with regard to All the Articles, but even with Regard to any One of them; so that if they were to give their own Interpretation of them, there would be found as many different Sentiments as there were Interpreters: The Difference indeed would

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