contains a moft able vindication of the proceedings of the French legiflators, and a clear and ftriking difplay of the many benefits derived from the new fyftem; especially in what concerns the method of appointing and paying the minifters of the church; the abolition of tithes the equitable diftribution of the revenues among the different orders of the clergy; the care taken to enforce refidence; and the terms of admiffion into the church.

In difcuffing the queftion, whether ecclefiaftical revenues are public property, which Mr. F. decides in the affirmative, he makes an ingenious remark, that we think well deferves the attention of all who are interested in the decision:

It is unneceffary to revert to the distinctions I have pointed out in ecclefiaftical property; let me afk a few questions refpecting the whole. Has not the Proteftant church of England, for upwards of two centuries paft, held in poffeffion property, the greater part of which was exprefsly defigned for the maintainance of a Popish church? This is fuch a ferious matter, that it surely must strike home to the bofoms, more particularly of our dignified clergy. How is it poffible that the mitres of our prelates fhould fit eafy on their most reverend, and right reverend heads, or the different orders of the clergy fhould, with fuch fcrupulous consciences as they are well known to poffefs, enjoy their various preferments, unless it is upon these general principles, that the ftate has the undoubted right to regulate, change, alter, or model the church; and to apply its property as in its wifdom it may fee fit? If this is not admitted, an interference, which fome men would do well to confider, is unaccountable: our clergy, one and all, from the Archbishop of Canterbury through the different ranks, are fpiritual ufurpers, in poffeffion of property originally defigned for other perfons, and for different purposes.'

Of the good effects which have attended the abolition of tithes in France, Mr. F. produces a proof which will give pleasure to every benevolent and religious mind, duly fenfible how much the efficacy of a clergyman's inftructions depends on harmony and good-will between him and his parishioners. *

• In France, the impofition of tithes is for ever abolished; the people have already experienced the happy effects of being relieved from the oppreffion. During the laft autumn, the husbandmen in feveral parishes began their harvest in a manner expreffive of their gratitude both to God and to the National Affembly. Their paftors accompanied them to the field. Te Deum and other an

Another fignal inftance of the tendency of the French revolution to promote peace and good-will among mankind, appears in civil matters alfo. The conciliatory tribunals, or courts of arbitration, for Paris, lately reported that, out of eight thousand and fix caufes fubmitted to their jurisdiction, they had accommodated four thousand two hundred and fifty-nine.

thems

thems were performed, and the grateful effufions of the heart afcended to heaven in praises and thanksgivings. The most thankful acknowledgments were made to their legislators, by whose wife and merciful decrees every one was about to reap the fruits of his labour, happy that he could now call the whole produce of his field his own. Mufic, and dancing, and innocent feftivity, difplayed through the parish the felicity of the inhabitants. Is there an Englishman who reads this account but muft earnestly hope that the period is not far diftant, when his countrymen fhall enjoy fimiJar felicity, and exprefs their feelings in the fame grateful and devotional manner!'

To the plain and fimple conditions required of those who are candidates for admiffion, or for benefices in the French church, Mr. Flower opposes the terms exacted by our own" operofe ecclefiaftical establishment*," viz. fubfcription to the thirty-nine articles and to the book of common prayer. He demonftrates at fome length, and by the moft forcible arguments, the evil tendency of this practice, and its abfolute nullity to answer the end originally intended. Inftead of the one Calvinistical sense, in which the articles were originally compiled, they have been fince subscribed in no less than thirteen different fenfes. Strange as it may feem, a Calviniftic clergyman is now a rarity in the church; and though every bifhop muft have fubfcribed several times before his confecration, we have had Arminians, and Arians if not Socinians, but not one Calvinist on the Epifcopal bench fince the days of good bishop Beveridge.' The weaknefs and duplicity of fome of the equivocations, and mental refervations, used by the different claffes of fubfcribers, are here ably expofed. Speaking of one of these ingenious refinements, by which it has been discovered that the articles were not intended to exclude all thofe who do not literally believe every propofition contained in them, but only to keep out of the church, papifts, anabaptifts, puritans, and the enemies to epifcopacy, Mr. Flower remarks:

Upon thefe principles, Dr. Priestley himself has only to overcome his averfion to the episcopal part of the conftitution, and he may, notwithstanding his rooted disbelief of almost every article the church inculcates, fubfcribe to all, and be one of her very orthodox members. What we fhould think of the Doctor in fuch a case, I will not pretend to fay, but what he has given us leave to think of him, we may fee by referring to the 13th of his letters to the inhabitants of Birmingham, in which he makes ule of a word which I do not think proper to repeat.'

On one of the leading doctrines, which conftitutes a diftin

So it is ftyled by Mr. Burke. See our Review for April laft, P. 445.

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guished

guished part of this subscription, we meet with fome just and lively strictures:

Leaving this point,' (viz. the difpute whether the articles are to be understood in a Calvinistical or Arminian fenfe,) I must advert to another, which has been attended with many difficulties among thofe who are otherwife agreed; I mean the doctrine of the Trinity as explained, I fhould have faid perplexed, in the two creeds; the Nicene and the Athanafian, and in which skilful difputants have found direct contradictions. It is to the latter of those creeds I fhall confine my remarks.

With respect to the creed itself, its very appearance is in a moft "questionable fhape." If we believe the generality of learned men, it bears a falfehood on the face of it: they inform us it was never written by St Athanafius, and furely they are right, for no Saint could ever have prefumed to explain a myfterious doctrine in fuch a manner as only to involve it in " darknefs vifible ;" and enjoin the unwavering belief of fuch an explanation, under the moft dreadful denunciations of everlafting damnation. It is not to be wondered at, that our great men in the church have been alarmed at fub. fcribing the creed, and that their confciences have fet their ingenuity to work to help them out of the dilemma of damning thofe who, in their better judgments, they believe are faved.

Amongst the various champions of orthodoxy in the prefent day, I believe no one will dispute the zeal of Dr. Hordley, Bishop of St. David's (Dr. Priestley's Bishop). In the former part of a controverfy which has lately engaged the attention of the public, it must be acknowledged, that amidit the hard blows which the prelate gave the philofopher, he ftill difplayed an unufual degree of candour, in expreffing his firm opinion that his opponent would finally be faved. This appeared rather extraordinary, as fuch a declaration was fo different from that which he had repeatedly fubfcribed. He was charged with the inconfiftency. His Lordship waxed warm; but after all his epifcopal airs, the heretical Doctor at last compelled him to confefs, that he difapproved of the damnatory claufes of the Athanafian creed, and that he only fubfcribed to the doctrine contained in it. In other words, as a divine of his own church will inform him, "By fubfcribing the whole creed he meant only the middle and not both ends." To which the fame Divine adds, " By parity of reafon, other men may subscribe to both ends, and not to the middle." Well might a noble author obferve, refpecting the bishop's prevarication; " No impofition on the understanding can appear to me to be more grofs, than to pretend to fupport fuch an extravagance."

As to the uncharitable claufes of the creed, they feem to have been reprobated by the most eminent men in the church. Chillingworth obferves, That the damning fentences in St. Athanafius's . creed, (as we are made to fubfcribe it,) are falfe; and alfo in a high degree prefumptuous and fchifmatical."." Indeed," fays Bifhop Taylor, it seems to me very hard, to put uncharitableness into the creed, and fo to make it become as an article of faith ;

though

though perhaps this very thing was no faith of Athanafius." Archbishop Tillotson wifhed the church was well rid of the creed *. Many of our modern dignitaries, it is well known, diflike every part of it, and I believe there is hardly a clergyman to be found, who will be bold enough to attempt a vindication of its damnatory fentences and yet all thefe men have folemnly fubfcribed the whole of it, and it is ftill ordered to be read, thirteen times every year, in every parish church in England and Ireland.'

Out of fifty thousand of the clergy, who are fuppofed to have fubfcribed the articles fince the paffing of the act of Uniformity t, Mr. Flower, by a computation grounded on the authority of Bishop Burnet, calculates that not more than two thousand have fubfcribed in the genuine original meaning of the compilers; and from the manner in which he addreffes them, he seems to think that even the clergy of this clafs, the Calvinistical, cannot, in the present day, fubfcribe with a perfectly fafe confcience:

But, gentlemen, the question at prefent is not, what were the fentiments of the reformers, but what are your own fentiments concerning your subscription? You have folemnly, in the presence of that God, who fearches the heart, and who abhors all prevaricationin the prefence of his holy angels-in the face of the church-declared your "unfeigned afsent and confent to all and every thing

Hints, &c. fubmitted to the serious attention of the clergy, nobility, and gentry, newly affociated; faid to be written by his Grace the Duke of Grafton, p. 33, 34.' For our account of this

publication, fee vol. ii. p. 343. New Series.

+ Of the indecent precipitation with which this act, (the bafis and authority on which fubfcription is founded,) was carried into execution, Mr. Flower gives a striking picture from Bishop Burnet's hiftory of his own times; and he closes the account with the following fhort obfervations from the great and good Mr. Locke: "Bartholomew day was fatal to our church and religion, by throwing out a very great number of worthy, learned, pious, arthodox divines. So great was the zeal in carrying on this church affair, and fo blind the obedience required, that if you compute the time of paffing this act, with that allowed for the clergy to subscribe the book of com. mon-prayer thereby established, you will find it could not be printed and diftributed, fo as that one man in forty could have seen and read the book they did fo perfectly affent and confent to."

The unrelenting cruelty with which the act was afterward enforced, forms a perfect contraft to the conduct of the French legiflators. In England, the ejected minifters, to the number of two thousand, were left without a fhilling, and were even prevented, by farther perfecution, from procuring a fubfiftence for themfelves by their own labours out of the church. In France, the legislators have not only charged the nation with the debts of the clergy, amounting to four millions fterling, but have appropriated the fum of three millions fterling for their penfions.

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contained

contained in the articles and in the book of common-prayer." Forgive me for prefuming to ask you, (or rather for requesting you to afk yourselves,) on fo very important a fubject-Do you unfeignedly give this affent and confent to all and every thing? What, is there not one propofition in all the thirty-nine articles-Not one thing in the whole book of common-prayer-Not one fentiment either in the office of baptifm, or in that of visiting the sick, or in the burial fervice, as it is indifcriminately ufed-Not one apocryphal leffon which you are ordered to read-Not a fingle thing in the whole liturgy which you disapprove, and to which you do not give this afsent and confent? Impoffible! You must diffent from and disapprove of many things, because you are poffeffed of common sense, common honesty, and common chriftianity.'

Mr. Flower thus clofes his arguments againft this unwife, pernicious, and difhonourable practice.

Let us now draw the neceffary conclufion from the evidence we have produced; and fhocking as it must be to the feelings of every friend to truth or virtue, the fact must be declared, that the heavy charge, grofs prevarication, lies on the whole body of the clergy. Yes, gentlemen, whatever office you may hold in the. church, from an archbishop to a curate-whatever you call yourfelves; Calvinifts or Arminians, Arians or Socinians, Trinitarians or Unitarians-High churchmen or Low churchmen; Methodists, Awakened clergy, Gofpel preachers, or Rational preachers-If you have declared that you unfeignedly believe what you do not unfeignedly believe, there is one indictment to which you must all plead guilty; you have entered into the church at that door by which Annanias and Sapphira were turned out; you are prevarica:ors in the fight of God; and as long as you continue in the church, holding any office or emolument whatever, by virtue of a declaration which you do not fully affent to, religious prevarication refts upon your fouls!!!'

When Mr. F. comes to treat of the extenfion of religious liberty in France, he apprehends that his own words would convey but a feeble idea of the admiration and gratitude due to that affembly, which has exalted toleration to its prefent height of glory.'

Upon fuch a topic, I lament I cannot fufficiently exprefs my feelings: I must borrow the language of one of those extraordinary men, who feems to have been endowed with an Angelic intelligence, who in profe as well as in poetry ranged "beyond the visible diurnal fphere;" and who one would imagine forefaw not only the revolution which has recently taken place, but the furprize and difmay which it excites in furrounding nations." Methinks (lays the great Milton) I fee in my mind a noble and puiflant nation roufing herself like a ftrong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks: methinks I fee her as an eagle mueing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam; unfcaling her long abused fight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance; while the whole noife of timorous and flocking

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birds,