have been contemplated,) scarcely in the horizon of its celebrity (19). This they might have done; but they rather chose to give reputation to their opinions, and stability to their system, by adopting, where reason permitted, Lutheran sentiments, and expressing themselves in Lutheran language. Yet slavishly attached to no particular tenets, although revering those, which were held universally sacred, and submissive to no man's dictates, they felt a conscious pride in reasoning for themselves; anxious only to prove all things according to that talent, which God had given them, by the test of truth, and the unerring standard of holy Scripture. The most distinguished of their number was the amiable and enlightened Prelate, to whom I have alluded. Under his guidance, our reformed Church had emerged from the clouds which involved it in its earlier progress, and was rapidly advancing towards its meridian, when Papal superstition suddenly extinguished it in blood. But its extinction was not destined to be perpetual. Favoured by Providence, which has often proved liberal in blessings to this nation, it soon resumed the lustre of which it had been deprived; and grateful ought we to

be, that after a lapse of centuries, in spite of Bigotry, Scepticism, and Infidelity, we still behold its influence undiminished, and its splendour unobscured.

SERMON II.

JEREM. iii. 15.

And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

ON a former occasion I endeavoured to prove, that the established doctrines of our Church, from the commencement of the Reformation to the period when our Articles first appeared, were chiefly Lutheran : to point out, that the original plan was ultimately adhered to, and that in the composition of our national Creed a general conformity with the same principles was scrupulously preserved, will be the object of the present Lecture: after which I shall proceed to the more immediate topics proposed for investigation.

It is much to be regretted, that those, who have either professedly or incidentally written upon our Articles, have not bestowed that particular attention upon the history

of their compilation, which the subject itself seems to require; the scope of every attempt having rather been to discover, what construction peculiar expressions would admit, as applicable to the favourite controversies of a more recent period, than to determine their sense by ascertaining the sources from which they were primarily derived. In discussing therefore the question before me, I shall not perhaps appear too minute, when it is recollected, that it has been hitherto but imperfectly considered; writers of superior eminence having disregarded what they possibly deemed inferior speculations, and exercised their abilities in the prosecution of higher and, according to common estimation, more profitable researches.

Escaping from a captivity not unaptly termed the Babylonian (1), the Reformers of Germany had broken the Papal yoke, asserted their religious independence, and framed for themselves a Creed, in contempt of the Pontiff's dictates, according to the rule of reason and the laws of God. When the bold philippics, the keen sarcasms, and the solid arguments of Luther, had gained him proselytes in almost every part of the Empire; when princes and peasants, the