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place of the present fyftem. Nevertheless, I prefume, there were very few, if any, in the number of the petitioners, who did not look forward to a review and amendment of the established forms of public worship.

The ground which the petitioners had chosen was that impregnable rock, the fufficiency of the fcriptures, to the purposes of edification and falvation, for all chriftian minifters, as well as others; and thence they grounded their plea, that no church, or fociety of christians, had a right to require affent to human formularies of religious faith and doctrine, as the terms of communion, or admiffion to the ministry, or otherwise.

The examination into the right of proteftant churches, in thus arrogating and exercifing the claim of impofing explanatory articles of religious faith, in addition to the fcriptures, neceffarily brought on a more ftrict enquiry into the agreement, or nonagreement, of the particular doctrines contained in the formularies of the church of England, with the word of God. The confequence of this further examination was productive of the cleareft demonftration to many ferious and liberal perfons, that not a few of the doctrines of the established church were in no fort of agreement with the christian fcriptures, whence they are prefumed to be derived.

As far as this inquiry went to fatisfy my underftanding concerning these questions, I am free to

own,

own, that I was convinced that many doctrines received as true by the church of England, in her articles and liturgy, were not only in no agreement, but in direct contradiction to what appeared to me to be the word of God.

In this fituation, I did not hesitate to determine never to accept any further preferment in the established church; because I could not confcientiously, and without equivocation, declare my affent and confent to the thirty-nine articles and liturgy, as by law. is required. And this determination I have fteadily adhered to more than once, when offers were made me of preferments, in all other refpects defirable and advantageous to my fecular interefts. For fome years I did not apprehend that my convictions would carry me any further. In this fuppofition, however, I have been mistaken. And the fame principle and reasons which have heretofore made me decline to repeat my fubfcription, have forced me to make a refignation of my benefices, and of all the advantages I had acquired upon fuch terms.

The public fervice of the liturgy, or book of Common-Prayer, holds out for its objects of religious worship three diftinct Beings, there ftyled, God the father, God the fon, God the holy ghost:* one God in trinity, and trinity in unity :† not one only person, but three perfons.

* Litany.

† Athanafian creed.

A 3

Thefe,

Collect in communion fervice on trinity funday.

These, and the like expreffions, together with repeated and continued addreffes by prayer to Jefus Christ, and even to the holy fpirit, instead of the one true God, who hath no equal, or sharer, in the creation or government of the world, and who alone can hear the prayers of his creatures, are, according to my apprehenfion, in no way warranted by, the word of God, as we read it in the old and new Testament, the only authority upon which, as christians and proteftants, we can depend. But on the contrary, they appear to be in direct oppofition to the express declarations of that Being, who declared himfelf, by Mofes, to be ONE LORD (Deut. vi. 4.), and of Christ himself, whofe words, borrowed alfo from Mofes, are, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, him only fhalt thou ferve. (Luke iv. 8.) And who, on all occafions, prayed to, and called upon the one God, the common father of all, who was his father and our father, his God and our God. (John xx. 17.) And who alfo declared, that he came not to do his own will, but the will of God who fent him; (chap. vi. 38.) that he honoured his father, and fought not his own glory; that he wrought all his wonderful works, not by his own power, but by the power of God; and further, who, in order to prevent mifapprehenfions of his proper character, renounced the bare appellation of good, given to him by the fcribe in the gofpel, faying, there was none good but one, and that was God. (Mark x. 18.)

Befides

Befides these particular, clear, and determinate authorities, my convictions of the divine unity are not founded upon fingle and detached paffages, but on the whole tenor of the facred scriptures, which speak one uniform and confiftent language concerning it. There is one God, writes St. Paul, and one mediator between God and man, the man Chrift Jefus; (1 Tim. ii. 5.) and all the declarations of Christ himself, and of all the writers of the new Teftament, fay the fame thing.

It is indeed very true, and ought to be observed, that there are to be found expreffions in the new Teftament, which may seem, at first fight, and even to fome liberal perfons, to favour the confidering Jesus Christ as an object of divine worship; and whereby fome may be induced to look upon him to be really and properly God. But all the countenance and affiftance which the expreffions of fcripture alluded to give to fuch a doctrine, is derived either from the ambiguous ufe of the term worship, or from other alike doubtful phrases; or from the fingle instance of the protomartyr Stephen; all which have been often demonstrated by learned inquirers, to yield little fatisfaction for the introduction of fuch a new object of worship: and especially when it is considered, that Christ never taught or enjoined men to worship himself, but the Father only; nor ever gave any inftruction to his difciples, to teach fuch a doctrine to the world as that of worshipping himself, their

mafer

mafler and lord, as he declares himself to be to them, but not their God. (John xiii. 13.)

Under these convictions, the road of duty lay plain before me, hard as the measure might seem; worldly confiderations alone remained to prevent me from taking the direct path, and following the dictates of my confcience. And thefe temptations I had in no fmall degree. The juft claims of an infant family pleaded hard not to be neglected. Nor could I refrain from thinking upon their fituation with all the anxiety of parental affection, and, poffibly, with more folicitude for their temporal provifion, than the nature of my own difficulties ought to have admitted. I was agreeably fituated in the circle of relations, and several esteemed friends, and have lived in a conftant kind intercourse with all my parishioners, among whom I ever found my miniftry acceptable. I had extended my usefulness among my neighbours in all the ways I was able. Nor was I forward to think that I could be equally ufeful under any change of fituation which removed me to a different sphere of action. And I may add, that I was not infenfible even to an acquired partiality to the place of my refidence, where, on many accounts, and for reasons of a private nature, I could have wished to have continued, to the end of my life, in the enjoyment of every defirable accommodation and comfort which a reasonable mind could wish for.

Thefe confiderations deferved fome thought, and they have had their full weight. But they are, after

all,

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