Church. Throughout the writings of the apostolical fathers, it is not pretended that they can be traced except in two or three brief and obscure passages of one epistle, that of Barnabas, whose genuineness is controverted by the highest authority, that of Jones on the Canon. (vol. ii. p. 412.) In the second century, and in the first part of the third, though more or less glanced at, or inculcated, in the works of many, perhaps in the works now extant, of almost all the fathers belonging to that period, when apocryphal errors were for a time awfully prevalent, these views are not pretended, that I can find, to have been professed, or publicly authorized, as articles of faith, by the whole, or by any particular church. In the course of the third century they were successfully opposed. In the Nicene Council, in the very beginning of the fourth, they were not received as any part of the creed then acknowledged by at least two hundred and fifty Bishops and Presbyters from all parts of Christendom. On the other hand, the article in their creed,-"Of his kingdom there shall be no end," directly condemns the error of some, who say, that after Christ's reign upon earth, the Scripture asserts nothing certain. In the close of the fourth century,*long afterwards

*A series of quotations from the Fathers, supporting the views here taken, may be seen vols. ii., iii., iv., and v., of Lardner's works, octavo edition, London. 1788.

in the course of the Crusades, and lastly amidst the abuses of the Reformation abroad, and the extravagances of Puritanism in this country, multitudes of individuals did embrace these opinions; but there is no evidence adduced, that I know of, that they have ever found admittance into any authorized Confession of any respectable Christian community.* Indeed from the tenth century to the Reformation, the whole western Church, together with the Churches of Russia and Constantinople, and since the Reformation both the Roman Catholic and the above-mentioned Oriental, and all the leading Protestant Churches, have agreed to receive the Athanasian Creed; which pointedly opposes the scheme in question, declaring, that " at our Lord's coming, all men shall rise with their bodies, and give account of their works, and they that have done

* The Anabaptists of Munster, and the Shakers of Mount Lebanon, afford painful examples of a fanatical reception of these opinions into creeds. A full account of the latter is given by Stuart in his Three Years in America, vol. i. p. 282, second edition.-I am the farthest possible from meaning to offend by this note, or by any thing else which I have written, of those kind and pious friends, whose minds I think to be impaired by some contagion of the opinions alluded to. And I desire to bear with meekness the cross of being myself considered to be in error by them.

any

H 2

good shall go into everlasting life, and they that have done evil to everlasting fire.”*

Besides the above specified erroneous opinions, immediately growing out of the notion of our Saviour's future earthly reign; there are heresies of far greater enormity, which have lately, in fact, connected themselves, and may therefore be supposed to have some hidden tendency to connect themselves, with those opinions ;-such as the pretended unholiness of our Lord's human nature; inherent righteousness and absolute perfection of fully approved saints; imaginary baptism of some by the Spirit with the same miraculous gifts of healing, and of tongues, as the apostles themselves; and not unfrequently actual sprinklings upon others of the vials of Manicheism, and Universalism, or the fiction of universal salvation.

Now though it seems to have been decided by authority, that there are no precedents sufficient to invest the Convocation with power, like the

*This creed was composed probably in the sixth century, and was received into the public services in France in the seventh, and throughout the western Church, as early as A. D. 930. See Waterland's Critical History of the Athanasian Creed. Second edition, pp. 146, 166, 169.

General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to try personally, and visit with Church censures, even the most open and presumptuous offenders against the fundamental doctrines of the Church of which they profess themselves members, much less those who only deviate slightly and unawares; and though it may be still requisite to leave such cases to the Diocesan Courts ;--yet is not the Convocation at liberty to bear its testimony, and to warn the people, against unsound doctrines, unscriptural speculations, and dangerous delusions? And from what possible quarter could the solemn, but kind and salutary alarm be sounded, so as to reach at once all parts of the land, except from the united councils and prayers, addresses and representations, of a general, well-constituted, and duly administered Synod?

CHAPTER VII.

The Church's own consultations some of the best means of setting at rest the questions, arising under present circumstances, respecting the Oath of supremacy.

ANOTHER arduous topic of great moment, often brought of late years under public discussion, and connected with most serious points of inquiry concerning the test of admission to the main offices of Church and State, and particularly to Holy Orders, is the Oath of Supremacy.

At first view, this Oath might be expected to occasion trouble or difficulty to tender consciences. Reflecting upon the history and principles of the Church in these kingdoms, especially at and since the Reformation; and contemplating with serious attention the rapid changes carried on for some years past, absolutely in the State,