work, the phrases amount of themselves to nothing. The demand they present for explanation is obvious and undeniable; and in the whole body of that formulary, by not so much as a syllable in the way of explanation are they accompanied. Nothing of that sort is there in the Creed itself; as little in this Catechism, into which, for the instruction of young children, it is engrafted.

As such they add to the number of propositions or subject-matters, in relation to which, while it is impossible the child should entertain any belief concerning them, he is thus forced to stand up with all solemnity, and

believe."

say, "I do

As to these three last-mentioned subjects, compleat the proposition-what in each instance you have, and all that you have, is composed of so many allusions-mere allusions. In the mind of him, whoever he was, by whom this formulary was penned, they had doubtless, every one of them, a subject-matter or object, more or less determinate-every one of them accordingly a meaning. But, in the mind of the so newly-born child,-in that mind, in which it is, generally speaking, impossible that the indeterminate portion of matter thus alluded to should have any place —what meaning can they, any of them, have? At bottom, what then is it that he is thus forced to declare? What but this, viz. that he believes in whatever is thus forced into his mouth, without knowing so much as who it is that put it where it is, much less what it is?

Question 5th.-What dost thou chiefly learn in these articles of thy belief?

Answer.-First, I learn to believe in God the Father, who hath made me and all the world (1).

Secondly, in God the Son, who hath redeemed me and all mankind (2).

Thirdly, in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me and all the elect people of God (3).

OBSERVATIONS.

To these three things may be added three others, which, with a degree of correctness, proportioned to the degree of the impregnation he has received from them, a child may make sure of learning;-and these are,-the art of gratuitous assertion-the art of speaking and writing without thinking-and the art of making groundless inferences.

(1). [Belief in God the Father.]-Yes: this is among the things which, supposing them noticed, are not incapable of being learnt from it.

(2). [Belief in God the Son?]-Yes, and this likewise. But-belief in God the Son, who redeemed me and all the world?-As to the fact of the redemption; had it been taken for the subject of an independent article of belief, no objection would, here at least, have been made to it. But the Creed called the Apostles' Creed?-this just repeated Creed?-from this discourse is the belief of any such thing as redemption to be learnt? Look at it, reader, once more: examine it from top to bottom. Of no such thing-any the slightest intimation will you find in it.

But mankind, all of whom the child is thus made to say he believes to have been redeemed-redeemed, along with himself, by Jesus-they, on considering the condition in which they will be seen to be placed, present some claim to notice.

Of this redemption, the universality any more than the fact, is not here meant to be disputed. But, whosoever has been made to declare himself to be a believer in it, it might not have been amiss, it should seem, had some little provision been made, for preserving him from any such obligation, as that of declaring, on an eventually subsequent occasion, a directly opposite belief: viz. that of declaring, in solemn form, his belief of and in the entire contents of that other formulary, called the Thirty-nine Articles. Of that test and treasury of Church of England orthodoxy, in one article, viz. the 18th, intituled, “Of "obtaining eternal salvation only by the name of Christ," "Those (it is said) are to be held accursed, that presume "to say, that every man shall be saved by the law or sect "which he professed, 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 (concludes the "article) only the name of Jesus whereby men must be "saved."

Not to speak of any former portion of time,―of the whole number of human beings existing at this time upon this our earth, by far the greater number, it is manifest, can never have heard of any such person or name as Jesus. This great majority—are they capable of being saved, each of them "diligently framing his life," in the terms of the article, "according to the Law of Nature," (i.e. it must be presumed, leading a virtuous life), or are they not?

Being, along with the rest of mankind, redeemed by Jesus, is a man capable of being "saved," otherwise than by the name of Jesus?"-then is the article false.—Is he incapable?—then where is the use of such redemption, and what is a man the better for it?

Every man who takes what are called Holy Ordersevery man whose name is entered in the books of either

University-declares in writing his belief in all these Articles. But, as hath been seen, no sooner does he thus declare, than, by such his declaration, he contradicts the belief thus expressed in and by this his Catechism.

By parental authority-by the compulsion, inseparable from the exercise, however directed, of that authority,in a word, by force-by any thing but argument or reason applied to the understanding,—during a long and uninterrupted course of years, he is made continually to declare this to be his belief: thereupon, when the time for the purchase of a ticket in the Ecclesiastical Lottery, and with it the time for Subscription comes,-all on a sudden he turns short round, casts from him this his belief, and embraces the reverse of it.

All this with the most perfect, and the most exemplary regularity: and thus it is that order, good order, regularity, decency-sounds so sweet to the ears of Orthodoxy, Despotism, and their ever ready handmaid, Mendacity—are preserved.

(3). [Thirdly, in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me and all the elect people of God.]---In explanation of the function called sanctification, thus allotted to God the Holy Ghost, what, in this instrument, is there to be found?— Just as much as in explanation of the function of redemption, just allotted, as above, to God the Son.

Whence then all this elaborate distinction of functions? all the work thus given to the carving knife? The Godhead being, as every body is supposed to know, or at least made to say, composed of three persons,-and, on the occasion in question, the plan being to give something to do for each, thereupon, the less plainly incomprehensible functions of creation and redemption being already disposed of,-divided, as hath been seen, between the two

other persons of this undivided Trinity, comes the question-what can we find for the Holy Ghost to do?-Answer. Sanctification.-Here, then, whatsoever be the meaning of it, here was a sort of employment found for him, every other being engaged.

Of what feelings is it pro

Here, then, in this word we have the name of a sort of process, which the child is made to say is going on within him; going on within him at all times-going on within him at the very instant he is giving this account of it. This process, then, what is it? ductive? By what marks and symptoms is he to know whether it really is or is not going on within him, as he is forced to say it is? How does he feel, now that the Holy Ghost is sanctifying him? How is it that he would feel, if no such operation were going on within him?

Too often does it happen to him, in some shape or other, to commit sin; or something which he is told and regarded to believe is sin an event which cannot fail to be frequently, not to say continually, taking place, if that be true, which in the Liturgy we are all made so decidedly to confess and assert,―viz. that we are all-all of us without exception - so many "miserable sinners ?" In the School room, doing what by this Catechism he is forced to do, saying what he is forced to say, the child thus declares himself, notwithstanding, a sanctified person. From thence going to church, he confesses himself to be no better than " a miserable sin

ner." If he is not always this miserable sinner, then why is he always forced to say he is? If he is always this same miserable sinner, then this sanctification, be it what it may, which the Holy Ghost was at the pains of bestowing upon him, what is he the better for it?

The child, into whose mouth these words are forced, does he not so much as suppose himself to feel going on within him any process, to which the word sanctification can be

ap