* Chillingworth's conduct has had a considerable effect, in reconciling the clergy to subscribe to doctrines which they avowedly do not believe. For he declared, in a letter to Sheldon, that, “if he subscribed, he subscribed his own damnation," and yet in no long space of time, he actually did subscribe to the articles of the church again and again ! Lord! what is man!

“ The salvo by which he and some other dlergymen get over their scruples, is, to subscribe the 39 articles as articles and terms of peace. This is a shameful evasion, and inconsistent with common honesty. At this rate, a man in Italy may subscribe Pius's creed ; in Turkey the koran of Mohammed; or in a Jewish government, the talmud of the Rabbins.

“I have been struck with a similar sentiment in Paine's Age of Reason ; and here at least I agree with him, though we differ, toto cælo, upon almost every thing where the sacred writings are concerned :-" It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief of things which he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime. He

. takes up the trade of priest for the sake of gain, and to qualify himself for that trade, he begins with perjury. Can we conceive any thing more destructive of morality than this?”

* This subject is considered in a very serious point of view by Burnet, only he applies it to our declaring that we are moved by the Holy Ghost to preach the gospel.

“A clergyman of our church hath said “ If any one asks, what the expressions in scripture, regenerate-born of the Spirit new creatures, mean? We answer, that

they mean nothing! nothing to us!-nothing to be found, or sought for, in the present circumstances of Christianity." This gentleman knows that these declarations of his are extremely different from the doctrines of the church of England, and yet since he published these sentiments, he has subscribed more than once, and as far as appears, would subscribe again and again if two or three more good preferments should fall in his way.

"My indignation compels me to say, that a body of clergy of that descriptionhowever learned, ingenious, and worthy they may be in other respects-deserve extirpation from the face of the earth; and if there be a judgment to come, our doom shall be uncommonly severe. The scripture declares, all liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. And what more solemn lie can there be, than subscribing our names, that we believe a number of propositions, which

in our consciences we judge to be false ? unless it be that other declaration, “we trust we are moved by the Holy Ghost to preach the gospel,” when we do not believe there is any Holy Ghost, but laugh at every pretension of the sort as Methodism and enthusiasm ? If the Lord be a God of knowledge by whom actions are weighed, we prevaricating parsons shall have a sad account to give another day. We may keep up our heads a few years now, while in possession of two or three good livings, and the world smiles upon us, but the day of darkness is at no great distance, when nothing but integrity and conscious uprightness will stand us in any stead, and when the clergy become generally prevaricators with their solemn subscriptions, the fate of the English church is determined.

6. We are all popes our own way : every denomination has its imperious and overbearing dictators.--Let no man think the worse of the New-Testament-religion,

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because of the different hobby-horses which we parsons think proper to ride. Our order has had its day; and a pretty long day it has been! The pope has ridden the bishops, the bishops have ridden the priests, and the priests have ridden the people.

“ Every man is an oppressor who holds that which ought to be in the hands of another.--It does not appear to me, that we can justly blame any man for being a deist, while the great body of us, the bishops and clergy, conduct ourselves in the manner we usually do. The spirit of our hierarchy is in direct opposition to the spirit of the gospel. A conscientious deist, if such can be found, who worships God in spirit and in truth, is infinitely preferable to a proud, haughty, pompous bishop, or dignified clergyman, who trades in livings and souls; and will be damned with a damnation far less severe. Bishops and clergymen of this description, profess what they will, are infidels at bottom. They believe nothing of

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