teaching the principles not only of virtue and natural religion, but of THE GOSPEL; and of the gospel, not as ALMOST EXPLAINED AWAY by modern refiners, but ' as the truth is in Jefus ;' as it is taught by the church of which you are members; as you have engaged by your subscriptions and declarations, that you will teach it yourselves. You must preach to them faith in the ever-bleffed Trinity; you must fet forth the original corruption of our nature; our redemption according to God's eternal purpose in Christ, by the facrifice of the crofs; our fanctification by the influences of the Divine Spirit; the infufficiency of good works, and the efficacy of faith to falvation. . . .

...

The truth, I fear, is, that MANY, IF NOT MOST OF US, have dwelt too little on thefe doctrines in our fermons, . partly from not having studied Theology deeply enough to treat of them ably and beneficially: God grant it may never have been for want of inwardly experiencing their importance. But whatever be the caufe, the effect has been lamentable. Our people have grown lefs and lefs mindful, firft of the distinguishing articles of their creed, then, as will always be the cafe, of that one which they hold in common with the heathens; ... flattering themselves, that what they are pleased to call a moral and harmless life, though far from being either, is the one thing needful. . . . Reflections have been made upon us. on account of these things, by Deifts, Papifts, Brethren of our own',

&c."

The pious Bishop of London has thought it neceffary to give a perfectly fimilar exhortation to his clergy; which is, in effect, acknowledging a fimilar occafion for it. Amidft many other excellent admonitions," More particularly," his Lordfhip fays, "it will not be fufficient to amuse your hearers with ingenious moral essays on the dignity of human nature, the beauty of virtue, and the deformity and inconvenience of vice. This will be a

(v) Ch. 1. p. 79, Watson's Tracts, Vol. 6.

feeble and ineffectual effort; will be as founding brafs and a tinkling cymbal. If you wish for any effectual fuccefs, you must take a very different courfe. You must lay before your people, with plainnefs and with force, the great fundamental doctrines of the gofpel." And, having enumer→ ated those which we confider fuch, "Thefe," his Lordship proceeds," are the great evangelical doctrines, which muft be preffed repeatedly with devout and folemn earnestness, on the minds of your hearers, which can alone speak to their confciences, their affections, and their hearts." Thus does this venerable Prelate condemn a contrary conduct, and recommend the precife mode of preaching adopted by us.

The learned Bishop of Lincoln quashes, at a ftroke, all the cafuiftry, we have feen employed to evade the plain meaning of the articles, and to justify subscription without actual behef. "The Articles," he fays, " are to be fubfcribed in their PLAIN AND OBVIOUS SENSE, and affent is to be given to them fimply and unequivocally." Nor can the contrary procedure be condemned more ftrongly, "If," his Lordfhip proceeds," the candidate for holy orders, thinks that he sees reafon to diffent from any of the doctrines afferted in them, no hope of emolument or honour, no dread of inconvenience or difappointment, should induce him to express his folemn affent to propofitions, which in fact he does not believe.. And let it be ever remembered, that in a bufinefs of this ferious and important nature, NO SPECIES WHATEVER OF EVASION, SUBTERFUGE, OR RESERVE IS TO BE ALLOWED, OR CAN BE PRACTISED, WITHOUT IMMINENT DANGER OF INCURRING THE WRATH OF GOD","

That great Divine, Bishop Horsley, has occupied nearly a

(w) Ch. 1799, p. 22, 23.

(x) Elements of Theology, Vol. ii. p. 567. How does the British Critic reconcile his unqualified praise of all this, with his " avowed fatisfaction in," and high commendation of Dr. Paley's notions? See his Rev. for December, 1799, and above, p. 19.

3

whole Charge in specifying, lamenting, reprobating, accounting for, and attempting to reform, the conduct in question. The reason, in this Prelate's opinion, why the labours of the clergy are not more efficacious in stopping the progrefs of infidelity and fectarism, he says, is, "that erroneous maxims are gone abroad, which, for feveral years past, if my obfervation deceive me not, have very much governed the conduct of the parochial clergy in the ministration of the word."Thefe maxims, he tells us, are, "That it is more the office of a Chriftian teacher, to prefs the practice of religion upon the confciences of his hearers, than to inculcate and affert its doctrines." And, "That practical religion and morality are one and the fame thing: That moral duties conftitute the whole, or by far the better part, of practical Christianity"."" Both these maxims," his Lordship proceeds, "are erroneous: Both, as far as they are received, have a pernicious influence on the miniftry of the word. The firft, moft abfurdly feparates practice from the motives of practice. The fecond, adopting that feparation, reduces practical Christianity to heathen virtue; and the two, taken together, have much contributed to DIVEST OUR SERMONS OF THE GENUINE SPIRIT AND SAVOUR OF CHRISTIANITY, AND TO REDUCE THEM TO MERE MORAL ESSAYS.-The fyftem chiefly in request, with thofe who feem the most in earnest in this ftrain of preaching, is the ftrict, but impracticable, unfocial, fullen moral of the Stoics.Thus, under the influence of these two pernicious maxims, it too often happens, that we lofe fight of that which is our proper office, to publish the word of reconciliation, to propound the terms of peace and pardon to the penitent; and we make no other ufe of the high commiffion that we bear, than to come abroad one day in the seven, dreffed in folemn looks, and in the external garb of holipefs, to be the APES OF EPICTETUS." This may ferve as a

fpecimen; but, as we have faid, nearly the whole Charge is to the fame effect.And this opinion of the Bishop of Rochester is fully approved and confirmed,

By the late excellent Bishop Horne. Speaking of thofe who make too much of, what they call, natural religion, and of the increase of infidelity occafioned by this conduct, "And," he fays, "as the unedifying morality of our pulpits is a growth from the fame root, we need not wonder at the zeal and earnestness, with which it hath very lately been treated, by a learned and able Prelate of this church, whose words are the words of wisdom, and his example worthy of imitation." This prelate, a note informs us, is Bishop Horsley.Again: "Of late times," fays this ornament of our church, "there hath been a prejudice in favour of good moral preaching; as if the people might do very well, or even better, without the knowledge of the Chriftian myfteries; a good moral life being the end of all teaching. The enemies of Christianity, taking advantage of this prejudice, have made a total feparation between the works of religion, and its doctrines; pleading the example and authority of some of our divines. And it must not be concealed, that, by delivering cold inanimate lectures on moral virtue, independent of Chriftianity, MANY OF OUR CLERGY of late years have loft themfelves very much in the estimation of the religious part of the laityd." We will only add, for we might proceed at pleasure,

The opinion of the very eloquent and eminent Bishop of Durham, on the fubject. Having noticed the obligations which are upon minifters to preach the established doctrines, he fays, "The DOCTRINES which you are thus bound by your duty to God, to the laws of your country, and the engagements of your profession, to inculcate and maintain, have been of LATE YEARS TOO MUCH NEGLECTED: as if doctrines of faith were fubordinate parts of Christianity. (d) Ibid. p. 14.

(c) Ch. 1792. p. 19.

Yet, all that distinguishes Christianity from other religions is doctrinal."

His Lordship then proceeds, after the manner of the Prelates already noticed, to investigate the causes of this neglect. "As doctrines of faith," he obferves, "are fo important a part of a Christian minifter's duty, it concerns him to guard himself against the causes which have operated to their NEGLECT. One cause has been, the fuppofed unfitness of such subjects for general inftruction, especially of the poor and uneducated f."..." But," after fome other pertinent observations, "whatever," he adds, " our doubts of their capacity may be, the injunction is clear and pofitive, that to them the gospel should be preached. But what is this gospel? ... Not mere precepts of morality. ... The good tidings are the hopes and confolations which are offered by the new covenant, and reft on the fatisfaction made for us, not by ourselves, but by our Redeemer. To preach the gospel, therefore, is to preach the doctrines of fatisfaction by the death of Chrift; that is, the doctrines of atonement and redemption: and to preach them to the poor, is to preach them to the congregations from which they have often been ftudiously excluded." "Another caufe," it is added, "of the neglect of thefe doctrines has been the improper use made of them by enthufiafts....The rationalist adopted an oppofite doctrine to the enthusiast ; and moral works were held out as alone necessary to falvation. The conclufion was founded on a common fallacy, that where one extreme is wrong, the opposite must be right. Yet this is in truth, an error, at least as unfcriptural, and of as great magnitude as the other " h.

Such was this learned Prelate's judgment in 1792, and five years of further diligent attention to the subject, seems fully to have confirmed him in the opinion. In his admired

(f) Ibid. p. 18. (g) Ibid. P 19.

(b) Ibid. p. 20.