AN

ANSWER

ΤΟ ΑΝ

ESSAY ON SPIRIT.

THE

'HE author of this Essay addresses his dedication to the Lord-primate of Ireland, and sets out with telling his Grace, that "as a clergyman, he was obliged to sub"scribe the articles of our religion, and give "his assent to all things contained in the "Book of Common Prayer; but since that

time, having thought, as well as read, he "finds that he does not now agree exactly "in sentiment either with his former opi"nions, or with those persons who drew up "the articles of our religion, or with the " compilers of our Liturgy, and in particular

"with the Athanasian Creed; and therefore "he has laboured under some difficulties "how to direct himself in these circum"stances."

In all this the author gives notice to the primate, (and had his name been prefixed to the work, the notice had been very fair and honest) that he is at length become heterodox in his opinions. This he imputes to his thinking as well as reading. I am sorry to observe, that this change in his character is the reverse of what happened in St. Paul; who began first with thinking, and proceeded thence to believing. I verily thought with myself (faith he) that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Naza reth. And though he appears to have been naturally a man of a tender and humane disposition, his mistaken way of thinking had so ill an influence upon his conduct, that he beat in every Synagogue them that believed. Ibid. xxii. 19. But when it pleased God to open his eyes, he was transformed from a thinker into a believer; and consequently, from a persecutor into a sufferer; boasting of it as his privilege, that it was given to him not only to believe on the name of Christ, but also to suffer for his

Acts xxvi. 9.

sake.

sake. The author will provoke us to consider this difference between thinking and believing in a more particular manner in the following pages.

As to the difficulty he complains of under his present circumstances, I apprehend it is no very difficult matter to direct himself properly on such an occasion; because nothing hinders him from resigning his preferments, if he objects to the conditions upon which they are held. He confesses, that he now differs in opinion from himself; from the persons who drew up our articles in conformity to the word of God; from those who in this age are subscribers to the faith; in short, he confesses that the whole established church is against him. Now he cannot surely be so unmerciful to our consciences, as to expect, that we shall disregard all these authorities; go contrary to the sense of the church in allages; and calmly give up our faith and doctrine, in compliance with the opinion of one single person, who, not many years ago, was of a different opinion; and is perhaps but lately come to his present opinion: which is to suppose, that the truth of Christianity depends upon opinion; and that its very leading article, the doctrine of the Trinity,

may

may be this or that, just as a wavering mind happens to think.

That vein of scepticism in which this author hath indulged himself, inclines him to apprehend any attempt towards avoiding diversity of opinions, not only to be an useless, but also an impracticable scheme. In the title prefixed to the Articles of the Church of England, the avoiding diversity of opinion appears to be only one half of the design with which they were drawn up; or rather, it is in fact the same thing with the establishing of consent touching true religion. If true religion then is of any importance to the world, the attempt to bring men to a consent about it is laudable, pious, and necessary. But if it matters not whether men embrace truth, or falshood, whether they have the faith of Protestants, the superstition of Papists, or the heresy of Arius, Socinus, or the Alcoran; then the attempt to reconcile them to one and the same rule of faith is, as this writer calls it, an useless scheme. If it should also be found impracticable, St. Paul hath published an injunction which is very absurd, because no man can be bound to perform what is impossible. I beseech you brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that

ye

ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment. Such was the advice of this inspired Apostle to the church of Corinth: But the author of an Essay on Spirit, having thought as well as read, hath discovered that all attempts of this sort are not only useless, but also impracticable.

He is fond of this discovery, and expresses a doubt whether any two thinking men are agreed exactly in their opinions. If by thinking men he means learned christians, who have studied the Bible and primitive antiquity with a proper regard to both, I am very sure he is mistaken; for two such men, if shut up in separate cells, as they report of the seventy Greek interpreters, would as surely agree in sense as they would differ in expression, if required to deliver their opinion concerning any fundamental doctrine of christianity. By thinking men, therefore, I sup pose him to mean deistical philosophers, who think at random, or, as they call it, freely. If an assembly of these were to be questioned concerning their own inventions, there would

I Cor. i. 10.

probably