Calvin, that the Saviour actually was sent to the place, and shared the torments of the damned; or that he went there, or to any other invisible region, as a visitor or a conqueror, there is not the least foundation for the notion in Scripture, nor any ground for its belief but mere human authority.

The next is the Nicene Creed; which is entitled to no great reverence on account of its original authors. Jortin observes, "The first thing they did was to quarrel, and to express their resentments, and to present accusations to the Emperor against one another. If such councils made righteous decrees, it must have been by strange good luck," Orthodoxy was now grown bolder : yet the ancient and still popular doctrine of the Divine Unity is respected by an introduction similar to that of the Apostles' Creed: "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible." We find in this Creed the Deity of Christ; and yet a subordination to the Father is apparent: he has but a derived Godhead, and is spoken of as suffering; but where is it taught in Scripture that Christ was "God of God, light of light, very God of very God; begotten, not made; of one substance with the Father"? The original creed had simply, "We believe also in the Holy Ghost:" and the advance of Trinitarianism again appears in the interpolations, which the Church has

adopted, relative to the third person, who is styled "The Lord and giver of life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified." These additions are compensated, indeed, by the omission of the original conclusion: "The holy, catholic, and apostolic Church anathematizes those who say that there was a time when the Son of God was not, and that before he was begotten he was not, and that he was made out of nothing, or out of another substance or essence, and is created, or changeable, or alterable.".

Last comes that tremendous composition, the Athanasian Creed, which is the very sublime of impiety and absurdity: in which contradiction is piled on contradiction, till the sight makes one giddy: where the Infinite Spirit is anatomized, and laid out in distinct persons: where such tricks are played with the Eternal God as jugglers use to make fools laugh: and all is crowned with the declaration that "except every one do keep this faith whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.”

These three creeds, the 8th Article declares, "may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture"!

Other extraordinary demands are made by these Articles upon faith, or submission, or credulity. The 9th teaches "Original or Birth

Sin," the sin of being born; and, though Christ said of children "of such is the kingdom of heaven," the Church declares that there is a "fault and corruption of the nature of every man-that, in every person born into this world, deserveth God's wrath and damnation." Justification by faith only, (Art. xi.,) is said to be "a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort." Had not James been an Apostle, he would scarcely have escaped an anathema for asserting, that "By works a man is justified, and not by faith only." Art. xiii. is most uncharitable and unscriptural. It speaks of works done before conversion ("the grace of Christ, and inspiration of his spirit,") as "not pleasant to God," and of "the nature of sin;" thus holding up for suspicion and censure many to whom a messeneger of heaven might declare, as to Cornelius, "Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God." Art. xviii. is still more offensive. "They also are to be had accursed, that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved." What becomes then of virtuous Heathens who never heard that name? Or, if their existence be denied, what becomes of the very Apostle whose words are here applied in a

way which he could not contemplate, and who himself uttered the anathematized sentiment,"Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him"? How dangerous is it to throw about thunderbolts! How perilous, as well as presumptuous, to attempt to occupy the throne of Christ, and wield his scepture.

Well might Paley remark of established creeds and confessions, that "they are at all times attended with serious inconveniences: they check inquiry; they violate liberty; they insnare the consciences of the clergy, by holding out temptations to prevarication: however they may express the persuasion, or be accommodated to the controversies, or the fears, of the age in which they are composed, in process of time, and by reason of the changes which are wont to take place in the judgment of mankind upon religious subjects, they come at length to contradict the actual opinions of the church, whose doctrines they profess to contain; and they often perpetuate the proscription of sects and tenets from which any danger has long ceased to be apprehended."

The professed object of these creeds was, to avoid diversity of opinions! Suppose it gained: and if the standard thus erected be not the real gospel after all; as, unless the framers were

infallible, could not be assumed without presumption; they are then found false witnesses for God; or rather against him, in his revelation ; and suborners of false witness from contemporary millions, and successive generations.

If they be the truth, still that truth is held in unrighteousness when not received on the proper authority-that of Christ. What is truth without inquiry; without knowledge; without those moral influences which only attend principles when clearly understood and firmly believed? Let contention rage for ever, if it can only be hushed into the silence of death.

Has controversy been avoided? Let the annals of the Church reply. It has raged there as much as if the articles had never existed, and on as many subjects. (f)

Connexion with temporal powers, is a scriptural sign of the apostacy. To this there can be no plea but guilty; nor is there any mode of considering it, in which it does not appear unfavourable to genuine religion. The notion of an Alliance was once prevalent, though it is not often advocated now. Can Church and State ever be independent parties, forming a contract? Does Christianity release its believers or priests from allegiance, and enable them to treat with their prince? There is much more sedition in that notion than in any Nonconformist heresy. If, as is the fact, we consider the Church as dependent upon, and patronized by the