all churches; they have been fanctioned by the countenance of deliberate and religious councils, and actuated by the moft pious defigns; and therefore will always bid defiance to the filly cavils of restlefs felf-conceited individuals.

Foreign Confeffions do not require my inveftigation; that they have originated in the above found and chriftian principles I cannot doubt, We may vary in certain points of fpeculative description from fome of our protestant neighbors (for the opinions of men are as multiform as their features) but in the effential tenets of falvation we are ever ready to give the right band of fellowship. But, as the mind of man is fo luxuriant in its fancy and fo prone to variety of fentiment, what would be the confequence if there were no fixed ftandard in different ftates and conftitutions? Why univerfal ignorance, deifm, or infidelity muft fucceed. As to the articles of our own church, it behoves me to fupport their use, and defend them from the charge of doing any harm. That they ftill exist, (notwithstanding all the attacks that have been made upon them) speak more for the purity and benefit of their purpose, than volumes could urge against them, and vacates the neceffity of any farther obfervation on the fubject.

Ever

Ever fince the Bleffed Jefus afcended up into glory, and by the miraculous influence of his Holy Spirit hath laid a durable foundation for his church, (against which the gates of hell fhall never prevail) and on which his followers were to raise the fuperftructure, through faith in these testimonies of his power; he is pleased to act in the government of it, as in all fublunary concerns, by the intervention of secondary means. Though every thing is under the wife direction of divine Providence, human affairs are appointed to be conducted by a fhare of human management or political skill. The exigence of the times when our branch of the catholic church received the bleffing of the reformation, required a positive test of general conformity, to ftop and heal the wounds of public disorder in the church. Well-meaning men, from the pureft motives of charity and peace, were directed to the compilation of Such a teft, or being built on scripture, and tending to God's glory, might fecure that faith and fincerity fo very neceffary to reconcile men to the main principles of the reformation, and to one another, and thereby affure the tranquility and welfare of the nation. Every thing partakes of imperfection in this degenerate state; and it argues the highest prefumption in those who are fo anxious for fresh reforms, to suppose

their indigefted, untried fyftems would be more lafting or advantageous to the community, than thofe which have afforded fuch abundant proof of their being adequate to the end propofed. To enter into a history, expofition, or circumftantial detail of the articles here, is foreign to the purpose: it is a work, however, I have long had in contemplation, and fome materials are collected for it. Should I live, it may perhaps appear in time, and in a different form from any other prior publication on that fubject to the above general observations, ;* therefore, I shall only add, that a subscription to the articles was judiciously designed to prevent, as much as poffible, all heterogeneous mixture of theological tenets in the church. Hitherto, through God's protection, it has operated effectually to that end, and it should be the burden of every good man's prayer, that we may never provoke the Almighty to withdraw any valuable palladium of our faith and principles, civil, or religious.

*

With

*Should it please God to fpare his life, the editor has thoughts of publishing most of his writings, in quarto (by fubfcription), under the title of the Churchman's Library, confifting of the following works: Lectures on the Catechifm, Lectures on the Liturgy, Difcourfes on the Homilies, Differtations on the Articles, Sermons on particular Days in the Year, including the Feafts and Fafts of the Church; and the five first books of Ecclefiaftical Polity, by that learned VOL. I.

and

With regard to the next quotation, I have added it at the bottom of the page.* It is taken from fome particular difcourfe of the good old Latimer, and, I dare fay, was thought by the author of the pamphlet a most happy extract for his purpose. All the notice I fhall give it is to exprefs my wonder, that perfons, who purposely write to expose the ODD PHRASES and EXPRESSIONS, and SOME VERY COARSE APPLICATIONS,† among other faults objected against the Homilies, fhould venture to produce a teftimony to fupport their charges, fo ftrongly marked by fimilar exceptions. This whole quotation is fo truly ludicrous, that it cannot poffibly afift the author's caufe or injure ours; and as the substance of it implies much the fame charge, as that contained in the conclufive extract, my reply to that will fupply ample refutation of the former. After and judicious Divine Mr. Richard Hooker; the benefit of which treasure will be rendered more general, by communicating its valuable contents in less perplexed periods, and a more free style of compofition.

* BISHOP LATIMER, Speaking in one of his fermons of the reformation, fays, It is but a wingle-mangle and a hotch-patch, I cannot tell what; partly popery, partly true religion, mingled together. They fay in my country when they call their hogs to the fwine trough, come to thy mingle-mangle, come Pur come. Even fo do they make mingle-mangle of the Gospel. They can clatter and prate about it, but, when all cometh to all, they joined popery.

fo with it that they marred it altogether.

See the ivth page of the pamphlet.

all,

all, as to the bare phrafeology of our forefathers, though it might be more homely, as being addreffed to a race of men lefs diffolute in principle, or less refined in vice, than the general mafs of the present day; yet the piety of their object is in no step lowered by this circumstance, nor can it be fenfibly excepted to them as a fault, they were no fooner taught a more difguifed and polished form of speech than the natural fimplicity of their times required.

But, left I should intrude too long upon my reader's patience, I will haften to the last quotation, which, though of fome length, it is incumbent on me to produce, that he may form his judgment how far it materially affects the cause of the Homilies, and whether the sentiments I have given upon it are satisfactory to remove the prejudices it might otherwise create. The points which principally deserve attention are specified by a larger character, both in the extract and my remarks.

BISHOP BURNET fays, "Certainly our refor"mation (as happy as we are in what we enjoy

of it) WAS NEVER PERFECTED; neither can it be, till WE ALL COME OPENLY TO ACKNOWLEDGE IT; AND TO ACT UPON THAT PRINCIPLE, WHICH WAS THE ONLY

"GROUND upon which the reformation did or could ftand: viz. THAT THE SCRIPTURES

66 ARE THE ONLY RULE OF FAITH ΤΟ