The House of CONVOCATION first summoned in the reign of Edward I. anno Do mini 1295. Hume's Hist.

A good secular CHRISTIAN, in antient times, was a man, for example, who was perhaps a married man, who was occupied in some honest and reputable calling, who was a good husband, a good father, a good master of a family, a good neighbour, a good subject, a good magistrate if he were in authority, a man courteous to all, kind to his relations and friends, charitable to the poor, frequenting the public worship of God, respecting the ministers of the Gospel; a man who made it his endeavour to live soberly, righteously, and godly. We should be apt, in these days, to call such a one a good man, and to wish that we were plentifully furnished with persons of this character. But all this was accounted a low, imperfect, and vulgar, sort of Christianity. The sublimer religion, which was then called Christian philosophy, was practised by pious persons, who bound themselves to a single life, departed from their houses and friends, gave up their possessions, retired to solitary places, and there spent their days in working, with their own hands, for a poor subsistence; but principally in praying, watching, fasting, contemplation, and silence; lived upon spare, coarse, and unwholesome, food, and treated their bodies with so much severity, that, if their pagan enemies had used them so, they might have justly called it an inhuman persecution. This introduced the prohibition of marriage, extended to monks and nuns and to the clergy. Now a small degree of sober reflection might have convinced Christians that all this was over-righteousness, and the religion of good men, who had zeal without knowledge and devotion without judgement. Yet this is what the church of Rome extols, recommends, and requires. Jortin's Serm. vol. i. p. 97.

GOLD COIN was first minted here in the reign of Edward III. and 120 grains, about the value of our guinea, was current then only for six shillings and eight-pence. The proportion of gold to silver at this time being as sixty-seven to six. Campbell's Pol. Hist. vol. ii. p. 403.

St Chrysostom over and over most expressly teaches, that CONFESSION of our sins to men is not necessary, but that it is sufficient to confess them to God. And thus, for several ages, the matter rested, till, the degeneracy of the church of Rome growing towards its height about the ninth and tenth centuries, some began to contend for the necessity of secret confession. And this, in the year 1215, in the fourth council of Lateran under Pope Innocent III. was decreed and established. Tillotson's Serm. vol. ix. p. 64.

Auricular confession was first introduced into the church, by Leo the Great, in the fifth century, who granted a permission to grievous offenders, to confess their crimes privately to a priest appointed for that purpose. Mosheim, vol. i. 8vo.

Personne

Personne n'a été plus loué et plus blâmé que CRANMER. Les protestans en font un héros et un martyr, et les catholiques un hypocrite et un libertin. Cependant il n'étoit, à mon sens, ni l'un ni l'autre. C'étoit un homme de sens et de capacité, mais foible et trop complaisant pour un prince qui n'agissoit que par caprice et par violence. Ce prélat peut avoir cru, de bonne foi, que le divorce d'Henri étoit légitime, et que les prétentions des papes étoient injustes et mal-fondées; mais comment justifier, dans un homme qui étoit ou Luthérien ou Zwinglien dans le cœur, toute sa dissimulation sous le règne d'Henri, qui maintenoit toutes les doctrines et les cérémonies Romaines; les sentences qu'il rendit contre quelques novatcurs contre ses propres lumières, sa sentence de divorce d'Ilenri VIII. avec Anne de Clèves, sa retractation sous Marie, et quantité d'autres choses de ce genre? Ce qu'il eut à craindre sous un prince aussi violent et despotique que Henri, et sous une reine aussi bigotte et aussi persécutrice que Marie, peut fournir un prétexte plausible pour diminuer ses fautes, mais ne peut jamais empêcher qu'on ne regarde Cranmer autrement que comme un homme foible et trop complaisant, qu'on doit plutôt excuser que canoniser. Courayer in Sleidan, vol. ii. p. 77.

Archbishop Cranmer, being overcome with fear upon the approach of his sufferings, subscribed to the errors of the church of Rome he had before so stoutly opposed; but, after repenting and being brought to the stake, he put his right hand, with which he had signed the recantation, into the fire, and held it there till it was quite consumed. Tillotson's Sermon 92d.

But we may ask who would have acted so well in Cranmer's situation? And, as he had views to the reformation of the church, had he acted otherwise his designs would have been defeated: and have we not always seen that Providence makes use of weak and imperfect, not to say wicked, creatures to effect its great designs? Why, therefore, should we depreciate persons for not having those perfections which are impossible to be attained in this imperfect state? See Martyr.

My Lord Herbert fait THOMAS CROMWELL mourir catholique, et Mr Burnet prétend le contraire. Mais son discours sur l'echaffaut me paroît decider pour My Lord Herbert: car, si ce discours a le sens qu'y veut faire trouver Mr Burnet, il faut avouer qu'il a porté l'équivoque jusqu'au tombeau, puisqu'il y déclare, qu'il renonce aux erreurs et qu'il meurt dans la foi catholique. Or si, comme le prétend ce prélat, il faut entendre, par la foi catholique, le Luthéranisme, qui étoit la religion de Cromwell, il n'y a rien qu'on ne puisse faire dire aux hommes; puisque cette secte n'étoit qualifié de catholique, ni à Rome ni en Angleterre, du tems d'Henri VIII. Courayer in Sleidan, vol. ii. p. 77.

The CANON of Scripture probably finished by Simon the Just, ante Christ, 292; as the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles, and Esther, could not have been inserted

into the canon by those two inspired writers, 1st, because there are genealogies carried down vastly beyond their time; and, 2dly, because the book of Esther seems to have been written after their times. Univ. Hist. vol. x. p. 237.

Il est certain, que, si les CEREMONIES donnent infalliblement occasion à l'impiété, ou que l'impiété soit une suite nécessaire de leur observation, elles ne sont par là même plus indifférens, et que, par conséquent, elles doivent être supprimées. Mais, si ce n'est que par accident qu'elles donnent occasion au mal, si on ne les rend nécessaires que de la même manière que le sont toutes les loix humaines, si on n'attache une idée de péché à leur inobservation qu'autant que cette transgression donne du scandale et trouble l'ordre, si on n'égale pas l'obligation de s'y soumettre à celle de se soumettre aux loix divines, si l'autorité qui les prescrit est légitime, et enfin si l'on ne confond pas ces pratiques avec la religion et la piété même, je ne vois pas pourquoi il seroit criminel de se soumettre à l'observation de ces cérémonies, et pourquoi s'en faire un scrupule. Il y a, à mon sens, autant de mal à refuser de se soumettre à ce qui est prescrit par une autorité légitime, quand il n'est pas mauvais de sa nature, qu'à y mettre une confiance superstitieuse, ou à confondre la pratique de ces cérémonies avec la religion et la piété même. Ainsi c'étoit avec raison que Melancton disoit, Qu'il étoit quelquefois nécessaire de tolerer quelque servitude, pourvú qu'elle ne fût pas jointe à Timpiété. Courayer in Sleidan, vol. ii. p. 22.

A l'égard de la créance intérieure de chacun, je ne vois pas quel autre juge il peut prendre que sa CONSCIENCE, après avoir employé tous les moyens raisonnables propres à le conduire probablement à la vérité. Il est certain, du moins, que ni Jésus Christ ni les apôtres n'ont jamais forcé personne à croire, parceque la foi doit être l'effet de la persuasion et non de la violence. Il ne reste donc plus à qui que ce soit pour se décider en matière de religion, que les voyes de l'autorité ou de la conscience. Mais, si quelqu'un est persuadé qu'il n'y a point sur la terre d'autorité infallible pour interpreter l'Ecriture ou décider de la doctrine, à qui, en dernier ressort, peut il avoir recours qu'à sa conscience pour se déterminer sur les matières de la religion? Courayer in Sleidan, tom. iii. p. 324.

When the question is concerning the degree of religious knowledge which such men as CRANMER and RIDLEY possessed, let it be remembered that Erasinus, (who lived and died before the English reformation had made any considerable progress, and the benefit of all whose light and knowledge those reformers therefore had,) that this learned man, I say, had in those days explained himself as reasonably, on almost every great topic of revealed religion, as any writer has since done or is now able to do. Hurd's Sermous, p. 245.

I

I consider that great man, CICERO, as one of those paragons whom Lord Bacon reckons among the. triumphs, summits, and miracles, of human nature. And the great end of Providence, in producing such talents at such a period, might be to give a proof of the utmost powers of the human mind in morals and religion, to evince the obligation of natural religion, and to supply its defects by that divine Revelation, which, in less than half a century after Cicero's death, began to enlighten the world. For his religion was a religion without a moral governor, his notion of immortality was a philosophical chimera, without a future state of personal existence, and his exalted principles of moral rectitude and political justice have no firmner foundation than public utility, the natural parity of mankind, and the ambition of power and fame. Apthorpe's Letters, p. 219-229.

Quere. Are not Paley's principles of morality built nearly on the same foundation?

COUNCILS.

1st. Nicene Council, held An. Christi, 325. Vossius.

2d. Ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople against Macedonianus, An. Christi, 381. Vossius.

3d. Ecumenical Council, held at Ephesus against Nestorius, An. Christi, 431. Vossius.

4th. Ecumenical Council, held at Chalcedon against Eutyches, An. Christi, 451. Vossius. Limborch.

CHURCH of England. Vide Rubric.

Plutarch, in an antient mythological tradition, relates, that Mercury, falling in love with the goddess Rhea, lay with her; and after, at a game of CHESS with the Moon, he won from her the seventy-second part of every day, i. e. five days, and added them to the three hundred and sixty days of the year. Jackson's Chron. vol.. ii. p. 25.

Limborch has this judicious observation upon the proportion between CRIMES and PUNISHMENTS, lib. v. c. 63. Optandum, magistratus Christianos semper esse memores mansuetudinis ac charitatis Christianæ, ac proinde quam minimas pœnasesse capitales. Illud saltem præcaveatur, ne delictis quibus ordinariis graviores instituantur pœnæ, quam olim in lege Mosaicâ. Licet enim lex illa speciatim politiam Israelis spectaverit, nobisque norma non sit, videtur tamen in iis, quæ concernunt negotia terræ Canaan soli non allegata, catenus nobis pro regula servire posse, ut leges nostræ civiles aliquatenus ad eam exigantur, pœnæque pro gravitate delicti, a Deo ipso æstimatâ, aut graviores aut leviores constituantur. Ex. gr. In lege Mosis Deus adulterio pœnam capitalem constituit, furto vero, et quidem nocturno cum ædium

effractione

effractione conjuncto, dupli vel quadrupli restitutionem. Nunc vero ædium effractores nocturni suspendio solent necari, adulteri vero, quorum gravius Deus censuit peccatum, levi mulcta pecuniaria dimittuntur."

Non possunt nobis probari leges quorundum Christianorum; quæ ultimo capitis supplicio animadvertere jubent in fures. Præterquam enim quod leges istæ æquitati naturali nullo modo sunt consentaneæ, quæ proportionem inter culpam et pænam requirit, qualis inter bona fortunæ et vitam nulla est; certe ratio ctiam ipsa postulat, ut pænales leges Christianorum, pænalibus legibus Mosaicis, quæ æquissimæ si non severissimæ fuerunt, a magistratibus Christianis graviores non sanciantur. Hoc enim est in puniendo modum excedere. Et rigor hic tanto magis arguendus videtur, quod is a Christianis istis ipsis non adhibeatur in adulteros, aliosque in quos Deus ipse ultimo supplicio animadverti stricte voluit. Quare rectius consultiusque facturos magistratus credo si ab ista severitate sibi temperent, et intra divinæ leges (de restitutione furti, &c.) constitutionem se contineant, certi tutius esse intra eam quam ultra cam procedere, diligenterque cavere insuper ne dum remissiores sunt in eos, in quos lex divina expressa mortis sententiâ animadverti vult, acriores sint in eos, quos nullâ mortis pœna affici jubet. Episcopius Theolog. Instit. lib. iii, c. 9.

The reason why the seven nations of the CANAANITES, who possessed the land. which was promised to the Israelites, were to be utterly cut off, was not singly because they were idolaters, (for, if that had been the reason, why were the Moabites and other nations to be spared,) but that God, being in a peculiar manner the King of the Jews, he could not suffer the adoration of any other deity (which was probably an act of high treason against himself) in the land of Canaan, which was his kingdom : for, the commonwealth of the Jews was an absolute Theocracy. Locke on Tolerat. Lett. 1.

It seems as if the divine Providence was that the three branches of Noah's family should divide the earth between them; that Asia was to be allotted to the sous of Shem, Europe to Japhet, and Africa to Ham. America was too remote to be then considered. These three large continents were, in great measure, peopled according to this distribution. The only exception was Nimrod, together with his people, and the sons of Canaan, who went contrary to the general allotment, and, as it seems to be implied, in opposition to the divine decree; which was the reason that the Canaanites and Amorites, and all the collateral branches, together with the Amalekites, were so particularly obnoxious, and devoted by the express ordinance of God to destruction for their rebellion and impiety. Bryant's Observ.

Symbolum apostolicum non sic vocatur, quod ab Apostolis conflatum fuit, nec Athanasianum, quod ab Athanasio fuit compositum, sed quod summam apostolicæ ac Atha-; nasianæ fidei continerent. Et in Pithæi sententiam maxime inclinat animus, nempe

ut