"of Eton."-We need not add, that Chillingworth is now the universal theme of protestant praise. -- In their theological controversies with the catholics, the reformers had been much perplexed by the authority of the ancient councils and ancient fathers, which the catholics brought against them; and by the discrepancies and contradictions, which occurred in their own various creeds, confessions, articles, and formularies of faith. From these, they were entirely relieved by Chillingworth." By the "protestant faith," says this celebrated man, "I "do not understand the doctrine of Luther, or "Calvin, or Melancthon; nor the confession of Augusta, or Geneva, or the catechism of Heidelberg, nor the articles of the church of Eng"land; no, nor the harmony of protestant confes"sions; but that, wherein they all agree, and "which they all subscribe with a greater harmony, "as a perfect rule of their faith and their actions, "tha tis,-The Bible;THE BIBLE, AND THE BIBLE ONLY, IS THE RELIGION OF PROTESTANTS. "Whatsoever else they believe besides it, and the plain, irrefragable, indubitable consequences of it, "well may they hold it as a matter of opinion; but, "as matter of faith and religion, neither can they, "with coherence to their own grounds, believe it “themselves, nor require the belief of it of others, "without the most schismatical presumption. I, for my part, after a long, (and I verily believe and "hope), impartial search of the way to eternal hapness, do profess plainly that I cannot find any "rest for the sole of my foot, but upon this rock "only. This, therefore, and this only, I have rea"son to believe; this, I will profess; according to "this, I will live; and for this, if there be occasion, "I will not only willingly, but gladly lose my life, though I should be sorry that any christian should "take it from me. Propose me any thing out of "this book, and require whether I believe it or not, "and seem it never so incomprehensible to human "reason, I will subscribe it with hand and heart, "as knowing no demonstration can be stronger "than this, God hath said so, therefore it is "true.'-In other things I will take no man's liberty of judgment from him; neither shall any "man take mine from me. I am fully assured that "God does not, and therefore that men ought not, "to require any more of man than this, to believe "the scripture to be God's word, to endeavour to "find the true sense of it*." Thus, this one article,-" The Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of protestants,”—contains, according to these eminent men,-the protestant religion. Still, they subscribed the thirty-nine articles ;--but with a great latitude in the interpretation of them, and with an allowance of equal latitude, to the other subscribers. They, considered them merely as an instrument of peace; but the precise nature or extent of this latitude, seems never to have been defined with precision; they certainly did not require absolute mental assent; and probably allowed discussion, if it were not of a nature * Religion of Protestants, ch. vi. s. 56. to disturb or weaken the external fabrick of the establishment. With archbishop Usher*, they maintained, that "the church of England did not define any of the questions, as necessary to be believed, "either er necessitate medii, or ex necessitate præcepti, which is much less; but only bindeth "her sons, for peace sake, not to oppose them.-- 66 We do not," continues the learned prelate, "suffer any man to reject the thirty-nine articles "of the church of England at his pleasure; yet "neither do we look upon them as essentials of "saving faith, or legacies of Christ and his apostles; "but in a mean, as pious opinions, fitted for the "preservation of unity; neither do we oblige any man to believe them, but only not to contradict "them." The latitudinarians were friendly to liturgies, and preferred that of the church of England to all others, for its solemnity, gravity, and simplicity; its freedom from affected phrases and expressing vain or doubtful opinions; they also approved of what they termed the virtuous mediocrity of that church, in its rites and ceremonies of divine worship; they professed a deep veneration for the hierarchical œconomy of the established church, and considered it to be in itself the very best form of ecclesiastical government, and the same that was practised in the time of the apostles t. They reprobated no Schism Guarded, p. 396.-See the Principles and Practice of moderate Divines, p. 191. + Account of the new Sect of Latitude Men, p. 6, 7, 8. VOL. III. L doctrine more than the predestinating decrees of Calvin. We have mentioned the founders of the latitudinarian school: Taylor, Cudworth, Wilkins, Tillotson, Stillingfleet, and Patrick, were among its brightest ornaments.-A writer in the Edinburgh Review*, says, that by their liberal and enlarged views of religion, their great powers of reasoning, and above all, "by the gentleness and reasonable"ness of their way of explaining things, they re"claimed the great body of the people both from "the dregs of fanaticism, and the folly of impiety; "and may be said to have rescued the nation from "a long night of spiritual and moral darkness." ; But, even these liberal men were unjust to the catholics: they both received and transmitted several of the charges unjustly brought against them often misrepresented their doctrines; almost always expressed themselves of them with harshness; sometimes admitted into their controversial attacks of them the language of abuse and contumely; and too frequently, when they were criminated for the laxity of their own opinions, ingloriously made a show of orthodoxy, by abusing catholicity and catholics. Still, the services which they rendered to the catholics, were great: they softened the general fierceness of polemic warfare; their exhortations to the different sects of protestants, to abstain from * Vol. xiv. p. 82. + The words of Burnet, in the passage referred to before. mutual crimination, and to respect each other, and their frequent and eloquent advocation of liberty in matters of religion, had some effect in disposing the public mind to abstain from a wanton execution of the penal laws against any sect of christians, and to extend to all, the benefits of religious toleration. Of these salutary effects of their writings, the catholics, though for a long time, indirectly and by slow degrees,-still in some measure, and to some extent, participated. Some friends, however, of the established church were alarmed at the liberal and free notions of these moderate divines, as they were generally called. They prognosticated that their systems and writings led to indifference, the greatest enemy of religion, and would insensibly undermine the national creed: they termed it, a philosophical presbyterianism*. * In these sentiments, Dryden makes the hind thus address. the panther :-(part iii.) "Your sons of latitude, that court your grace, } "The wolf," (the presbyterian,)" has been too busy " in your bed." In an interesting note to this passage, sir Walter Scott mentions some curious particulars of the men of latitude: he informs us, that it was with a view of promoting their views of pacification and comprehension, that Stillingfleet published his celebrated Irenicum; at which, he says, the house of commons took such a fright, that they passed a vote, prohibiting even the introduction of any measure, for such a purpose, into |