I cannot endure a trick, much less in religion a." So Nelson joined the Nonjurors, and it is not known that any further correspondence took place between Nelson and Tillotson; but to the last he remained the firm friend of the Archbishop, at whose deathbed he watched through the last nights of his life, and who died in his arms on November 23, 1694.

There was scarcely any good work of the day with which Nelson was not more or less associated. He was the Patron and Advocate of the Religious Societies and of the Societies for the Reformation of Manners. He was one of the original members, and frequently the Chairman, of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; a constant attendant at the meetings of the sister society, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; the supporter of the charitable designs of Dr. Bray; he interested himself in the establishment of Queen Anne's Bounty; he was one of the Commissioners for building fifty new churches; he took a lively interest in the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, and in the attempts that were made for the establishment of workhouses. He foresaw the necessity of those agencies, many of which, though delayed through more than a hundred years of torpor, have been supplied in these later days, such as Theological Colleges for the Clergy; Training-schools for Masters and Mistresses

Birch's Tillotson, p. 259.

of Charity Schools; schools for blackguard boys, corresponding to the "ragged schools" of our day; Penitentiaries; Foundlings; plans for Religious Retreats; and the appointment of Bishops for the American Plantations b

b Secretan's Life of Nelson, p. 91.

CHAPTER IV.

THE LATITUDINARIAN BISHOPS.

S much has already been said, and more will ne

As

cessarily be said in the history of the eighteenth century, on the subject of Latitudinarianism, we may, perhaps, be pardoned for making a few preliminary remarks on the history of that way of thinking, which was now about to exercise so strong an influence on the Church of England.

Latitudinarianism, or Indifferentism, owed its origin to William's own country, Holland. Arminius (Jakob Harmensen) who was born in Holland in 1560, and who, though at first his devoted adherent, became afterwards the opponent of Calvin, devised a plan which he intended to embrace all Christians except Roman Catholics. His plan was first digested into a regular system by his pupil Episcopius, who was born in Amsterdam in 1583; and as the next step to Indifferentism is Rationalism, we learn that the followers of Arminius "went still further, and bringing the greatest part of the doctrines of Christianity before the Tribunal of Reason, they modified them considerably and reduced them to an excessive de

gree of simplicity a." Such opinions are always favourable to Socinianism; so we are told of Episcopius that though "himself no Socinian, he very indiscreetly concurred with the Socinians of his time in maintaining that the opinion of the mere Humanity of Christ had prevailed very generally in the first ages, and was never deemed heretical by the Fathers of the orthodox persuasion, at least not in such degree as to exclude them from the Communion of the Church b."

The system of Latitudinarianism was first introduced into England by Hales and Chillingworth. Their mantle fell on a body of Divines known as the Cambridge Platonists who lived at the time of the Restoration, of whom the principal were Dr. Cudworth, Henry More, Bishop Williams, Whichcote, and Worthington. This school received a great impetus at the Revolution from King William's Bishops, and, except during the short interval of Queen Anne's reign, held its own through the eighteenth century, and considerably affected the condition and the destiny of the Church to the times in which we ourselves live.

Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, himself the most prominent of the Latitudinarians, thus describes the party: "They declared against superstition on the one hand and enthusiasm on the other. They loved

• Mosheim, v. 457.

Horsley's Tracts in Controversy with Priestley.

the constitution of the Church and the Liturgy, and could well live under them, but they did not think it unlawful to live under any other form. They wished that things might be carried on with more moderation. And they continued to keep a good correspondence with those who differed from them in opinion, and allowed a great freedom in philosophy and divinity, from whence they were called 'men of Latitude.' And upon this, men of narrow thoughts and fiercer temper fastened upon them the name of Latitudinarians. They read Episcopius much," and were regarded by their enemies as Socinians c.

How perilous this system was is evident. The school was anti-dogmatic, and without any fixed system of theology. The negation of all objective truth entirely destroyed the doctrine of the indwelling in the Church of the Holy Ghost, as well as that of the authority of the Church. This led to the rejection of the Church's teaching and the Church's doctrine, of the importance of Catholic teaching in the interpretation of faith; it taught the sufficiency of Scripture as interpreted by each man's private judgment; that, whatever sect people belonged to, they might find in it salvation, so long as they framed their lives according to the law and the light of nature. It reversed the Apostolic rule, and taught that men

CO. T., i. 263.

This is the doctrine condemned in Article XVIII.