AN EXAMINATION OF

THE DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCH

OF ENGLAND.

To the Editor of the Freethinking Christians' Magazine.

SIR,

HAVING shewn in my former letter the origin of the Church of England, 1 shall now examine its principal doctrines, as contained in its creeds, catechism, and articles. But I wish to be understood, that my object is not to inter fere with it as a political institution; for if the supposed representatives of the people were to pass an act that the Monument was the Supreme God, and the cathedral of St. Paul's was his only begotten son, and were to appoint religious service, and a priesthood to conduct it in honour of them, I should not dispute their right so to do; provided they did not call it the Christian religion, or require me to believe their nonsense, and support it. I should certainly look at it as it would deserve to be viewed, as an absurd and idolatrous institution; but while it was not imposed on me, I should consider that I had nothing to do with it, but patiently leave it to the Deity to vindicate his own honour, and to time and reason to clear the minds of men from the delusion. But when a system is established nearly as absurd and contrary to the scriptures as that which I have stated when all the people of these realms are compelled, by tythes and other impositions, to support it-when the heads of this idolatrous political institution are not content with our silently bearing these wrongs, but persecute men for exposing their absurdities-when an Attorney-general has the hardihood to contend that the church of England is the Christian church, and that Christianity is the national religion, and ought to be supported by the secular arm-when the bishops and clergy de clare the church of England to be the Christian church, and tell us that men ought not to be taught to read the Bible, without at the same time being taught their catechisms and creeds, lest it should undermine Christianity-the mind is filled with indignation, and it becomes a paramount duty of every friend to real Christianity to resist their claim, to unmask their arrogant pretensions, to strip this eldest daughter of the whore of Babylon of all her meretricious ornaments, and to expose her in all her pollutions and idolatry naked to the world, that they may be able to distinguish the true religion of Jesus from one which had its origin in lust, avarice, and ambition; and whose doctrines and practices are as opposite to the sacred scripture as light is to darkness.

There never was but one national religion appointed by the Deity, and that was the Jewish. The Christian religion was never intended to be a national one; its design was to unite

in voluntary obedience and union, those that feared God and worked righteousness, in every nation under heaven (Acts x. 35)-it was to prepare (not a whole nation but) a peculiar people zealous of good works (Titus ii. 14). The church of God were not to be those who worshipped God outwardly, but those who worshipped him in spirit and in truth-it was to be one, having one head even Jesus, and to be governed only by his authority; but in the church of England, the vilest characters are considered as its members-the head of it is the head of different religions in different countries he is the head of the Romish in Canada and in Ireland, of the Presbyterian in Scotland, and the Episcopal in England. Let any man ask himself, if this can be the church of God, or if it can be proved, to be such, as their own article says every thing ought to be, that is necessary to salvation, from the holy scriptures.

The Romans, at the time the Jews were subject to them, had a'national religion; it was as idolatrous as our national religion; yet we never find the Jews contending with them about it, as the dissenters from the established church of England now do. The reason is obvious-base and wicked as were the heathen priests, and idolatrous as their church evidently was, they never attempted to call it the Jewish church, or the church of God, and seldom endeavoured to impose their practices and doctrines on the Jews, or called upon them to pay towards the support of a religion they despised; but whenever they did attempt it, then the Jews resisted their pretensions even unto death. But Christians have been more submissive, they have patiently submitted to these cruel exactions while suffered to enjoy religious liberty in other respects: but when the clergy are not content with receiving our money as a political institution, but arrogate to themselves the title of the Christian church, it becomes the duty of real Christians to resist the unhallowed claim, and to rouse all the energies of their mind, in opposition to so wicked a pretension.

But ifthe clergy wish to enjoy the fruits of their political institution, let them withdraw their pretensions to Christianity -let them imitate the comparative moderation of the heathen national church, and, contenting themselves with the title of the church of England established by law, receive their pay from the state, as its creature, and leave Christianity to make its way by its own native energies, unassisted by the smiles of a court, and unaided by such pretended and delusive friends.

The first doctrine I intend to examine, and that which is considered the most important in their creed, is the doctrine of the trinity; the denial of which, according to the law, and the creed of this persecuting church, subjects a man to the most severe punishment in this life, and everlasting damnation in the

next-a doctrine which, if it cannot be proved from holy scrip ture, stamps their church with the grossest inconsistency, idolatry, and wickedness; for in the thirty-nine articles it is asserted that, whatsoever is not read therein (the holy scriptures), nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite and necessary to salvation. Yet in the creed which they call the creed of St. Athanasius, although it has been proved never to have been written by him (not that it is the worse on that account, for a viler character never existed than he was), yet in this creed it is declared, "that whosoever does not believe the doctrine must, without doubt, perish everlastingly; and that this is the Catholic faith, which except a man believe he cannot be saved." It is true, that (Article 8) they assert that, "the three creeds, Nicene creed, Athanasius's creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles' creed, ought thoroughly to be received and believed; for they may be proved by most certain warrants of holy scripture." If this be true, then I acknowledge they have not acted contrary to their former article; but if it cannot (which it shall be my business tó prove), then what must we think of a church who first declares that not any thing is necessary to be believed but what may be proved from holy scripture, yet imposes upon men a doctrine entirely contradictory thereto, under the severest pe nalties, both in the present and future life?

But let us examine this important doctrine contained in one of these creeds, that of St. Athanasius-a doctrine, without the belief of which a man cannot be saved. I would fain quote the whole of this precious morsel, did I not fear I should sully your pages, and tire your readers with such a farrago of nonsense, absurdity, and presumption. It states that the Catholic (i. e. the universal) faith is this, "that we worship one God in trinity (i. e. three), and trinity in unity (one);" a falsehood at the commencement, for how can that be universally believed which has always been denied by many?" neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance; for there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost."

Here then, if they have not confounded the persons, they have divided the substance, for 1 would leave it to any man of common sense to say, how it is possible for three persons to exist as persons without being distinct substances; for however they may all be composed of the same materials or substance, yet when they are distinguished as persons, it must be by a division of the substance; for though all men proceed from the same cause, and all are composed of the same materials, the idea of person is that which alone distinguishes one substance from

another, when formed into the shape of man. It then proceeds to detail the minutia, but as if conscious that no man in his senses could comprehend the mysterious jargon, it adds, "the Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible." One sentence more would have compleated the climax, viz. " and the whole of what we have written is altogether incomprehensible, and therefore ought not to be believed by any man who would wish to be considered sane." After a great deal more equally incomprehensible, it goes on to say, "so the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God; and yet they are not three Gods, but one God: so the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord, and yet they are not three Lords but one Lord; for like as we are compelled by the Christian verity (truth) to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there be three Gods or Lords." This part deserves some serious reflections-in the first place we are told there are three Gods, as plainly as we could be told that Paul, Peter, and James, were three men, by saying Paul was an apostle, Peter an apostle, and James an apostle; and then we are forbidden to believe this in the same manner as we should be taught these three apostles were but one apostle, by saying, yet they are not three apostles but one apostle; but at the conclusion they are obliged to admit that the whole of this curious article is not to be proyed by "holy scripture," for it is acknowledged that one part is taught by the scripture, the other by the Catho lic (or universal) church. So then the church does teach something which holy scripture does not, and Jesus and his apostles were not competent to tell us the whole of this sacred mystery; "for (say they) we are compelled by Christian verity (i. e. the holy scriptures) to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord." Yet notwithstanding this compulsion, the church has forbidden them to say what they acknowledge the scriptures compel or enjoin them to do; for it is added, "so are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there be three Gods or Lords;" that is to say, the scriptures do indeed teach us that there are three Gods and three Lords, but the Catholic church, wiser than the scriptures, forbids us, to say what is there taught. Again, "the Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten: the Son is ofthe Father alone, not made nor created, but begotten: the Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father not three Fathers; one Son not three Sons; one Holy Ghost not three Holy Ghosts." All this is very plain whether we admit the truth of it or not; but evidently they are, in contradiction to their own creed, dividing the substance; and

therefore whoever believes this must, according to their own denunciation, without doubt perish everlastingly; for if the father is but one father, and the son is not also his own father at the same time, he has another father; and if this father begot him without enquiring.how or of whom he begot him, he must to all intents and purposes be distinct in substance from his own father, whom he certainly is not; and if there is but one sou, the father of this son must be a distinct substance from this son, for surely he cannot be the father and the son at the same time; for even according to this creed " the Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten." Again "one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts"-certainly, for it is expressly declared that he proceeded from the Father and the Son, consequently neither Father or Son can be the Holy Ghost, the thing that proceeded from them; and whatever the Holy Ghost might be before he proceeded from them, when he had proceeded or come out from them, he must be a distinct substance from that out of which he proceeded; but lest this should be too plain, and destroy the whole fabric they had been rearing, it is said, "and in this trinity (or three) none is afore or after another: none is greater or less than another; but the whole. three persons are co-eternal together, and co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the unity (one) in trinity (three), and the trinity (three) in unity (one), is to be worshipped. therefore that will be saved, must thus think of these things." Was there ever in this world, among the Pagan priests or Pagan theology, such arrogant presumption, as for men to take on themselves to pronounce eternal damnation upon others for not believing the rankest nonsense that ever was proposed for human belief? He must believe that the Father is no older than his Son, that the Holy Ghost who proceeded from both, and who of course could not have existed before the son was brought forth, was as old as either; that he that was. the cause of both their existence was not greater than either. And this is read several times a-year in their political Pagan temples. Surely, the men who read it, and those who submit to hear it without contradicting its damnatory denunciations, never think, or they must be the vilest and most debased of the human race. 1 know it is said by many of the clergy, that they omit it, and by their auditors that they do not join in it; but the Christian is called upon to act up to his principle, and to leave a church that professes and imposes such glaring contradictions; especially if we add to this, the whole of their worship partakes of the same idolatry, for in the Litany each is worshipped as God, and at last they are joined together to make a fourth God-" Oh holy and blessed trinity, three persons and one God," &c. But it is said, "he that will be saved must thus think of these things." If this be

He