If the rigorous exclusion of a leading
doctrine should excite misgivings, a very slight, formal, and passing
admission may be made, while the stress of exhortation is thrown upon
quite different points.
[SUBSCRIPTION FAILS TO ATTAIN ITS END.]
To attain a conviction for heresy, involving deprivation of office, the
forms of justice must be respected. It is only under peculiar
circumstances, that the ecclesiastical authority can be content with
saying, "I do not like thee, Dr. Fell, or Dr. Smith, and I depose thee
accordingly". A regular trial, with proof of specific contradiction of
specific articles, allowing the accused the full benefit of his
explanations, must be the rule in every corporation that respects
justice. In the Church of England, a man cannot be deprived unless he
contradict the articles clearly and consistently; the smallest
incoherence on his part, the slightest vacillation in the rigour of his
denial, is enough to save him. We may easily imagine, therefore, how
widely a clergyman may stray from the fair, ordinary, current rendering
of the doctrines of the Church, without danger. The whole essence of
Christianity may be perverted under a few cunning precautions and by
observing a few verbal formalities.
Pages:
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333