The History of Persecution, from the Patriarchal Age, to the Reign of George II

by Samuel Chandler

Subscriptions have ever been a grievance in the church of God; and the first introduction of them was owing to pride, and the claim of an unrighteous and ungodly power. Neither the warrant of scripture, nor the interest of truth, made them necessary. It is, I think, but by few, if any, pretended that the sacred writings countenance this practice. They do indeed abound with directions and exhortations to “adhere stedfastly to the faith, not to be moved from the faith, nor tossed about with every wind of doctrine.” But what is the faith which we are to adhere to? What the faith established and stamped for orthodox by the bishops and councils? Ridiculous! If this was the case, our faith must be as various as their creeds, and as absurd and contradictory as their decisions. No: The Faith we are to be grounded and settled in, is that “which was at once delivered to the saints,” that which was preached by the apostles to Gentiles as well as Jews; “the wholesome words we are to consent to are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine which is according to godliness.” This all genuine christians receive, out of regard to a much higher authority than belongs to any set of men in the world; and therefore the sanction of fathers and councils in this case, is as impertinent as a man’s pretending to give a sanction to the constitutions of the great God. And as to all other articles of faith, neither they, nor any others, have any commission to impose them on the consciences of men; and the moment they attempt to do it, they cease to be servants in the house of God, and act as the true and proper lords of the heritage.

But it may be said, that “the church hath power to determine in controversies of faith; so as not to decree any thing against scripture, nor to enforce any thing to be believed as necessary to salvation besides it;” i. e. I suppose the church hath power to guard the truths of scripture; and in any controversies about doctrines, to determine what is or is not agreeable to scripture, and to enforce the reception of what they thus decree, by obliging others to subscribe to their decisions. If this be the case, then it necessarily follows, that their determinations must be ever right, and constantly agreeable to the doctrine of holy writ; and that they ought never to determine but when they are in the right; and are sure they are in the right; because, if the matter be difficult in its nature, or the clergy have any doubts and scruples concerning it, or are liable to make false decisions, they cannot, with any reason, make a final decision; because it is possible they may decide on the wrong side of the question, and thus decree falsehood instead of truth.

I presume there are but few who will claim, in words so extraordinary a power as that of establishing falsehood in the room of truth and scripture. But even supposing their decisions to be right, how will it follow that they have a power to oblige others to submit to and subscribe them? If by sound reason and argument they can convince the consciences of others, they are sure of the agreement of all such with them in principle; and, upon this foot, subscriptions are wholly useless: If they cannot convince them, it is a very unrighteous thing to impose subscriptions on them; and a shameful prevarication with God and man for any to submit to them without it.

Decisions made in controversies of faith, by the clergy, carry in them no force nor evidence of truth. Let their office be ever so sacred, it doth not exempt them from human frailties and imperfections. They are as liable to error and mistake, to prejudice and passion, as any of the laity whatsoever can be. How then can the clergy have any authority in controversies of faith, which the laity have not? That they have erred in their decisions, and decreed light to be darkness, and darkness light; that they have perplexed the consciences of men, and corrupted the simplicity of the faith in Christ, all their councils and synods are a notorious proof. With what justice or modesty then can they pretend to a power of obliging others to believe their articles, or subscribe them? If I was to speak the real truth, it will be found that those numerous opinions which have been anathematized as heretical, and which have broken the christian world into parties, have been generally invented, and broached, and propagated by the clergy. Witness Arius, Macedonius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Dioscorus, and others; and therefore if we may judge, by any observations made on the rise of heresy, what is a proper method to put a stop to the progress of it, it cannot be the clergy’s forming articles of faith, and forcing others to subscribe them; because this is the very method by which they have established and propagated it.

The truth is, this method of preventing error will suit all religions, and all sorts of principles whatsoever; and is that by which error maintains its ground, and is indeed rendered impregnable. All the different sorts of christians, papists, and protestants, Greeks, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Arminians, cannot certainly be right in their discriminating principles. And yet where shall we find any clergy that do not pretend a right to impose subscriptions, and who do not maintain the truth of the articles to which they make such subscription necessary? Upon this foot the doctrines of the council of Trent, the thirty-nine articles of the church of England, and the assemblies confession of faith, are all of them equally true, christian and sacred; for they are in different places embraced as standards of orthodoxy, and their sacredness and authority secured and maintained by the subscriptions of the clergy to them: and therefore I think it as little agreeable to prudence, as it is to justice, for christians to keep up a practice that may be so easily, and hath been so often turned into a security for heresy, superstition and idolatry; and especially for protestants to wear any longer these marks of slavery, which their enemies, whenever they have power, will not fail to make use of, either to fetter their consciences, or distinguish them for the burning.

But it may be said, that the abuse of subscriptions is no argument against the use of them; and that as they are proper to discover what men’s sentiments are, they may be so far sometimes a guard and security to the truth. But as all parties, who use them, will urge this reason for them, that they are in possession of the truth, and therefore willing to do all they can to secure and promote it; of consequence, subscriptions to articles of faith can never be looked on properly as guards to real truth, but as guards to certain prevailing principles, whether true or false. And even in this case they are wholly ineffectual.

The clergy of the church of England are bound to subscribe the thirty-nine articles, i. e. to the truth of Athanasian and Calvinistic principles. But hath this subscription answered its end? Do not the clergy, who are all subscribers, and who often repeat their subscriptions, differ about these heads as much as if they had never subscribed at all? Men that have no principles of religion and virtue, but enter the church only with a view to the benefices and preferments of it, will subscribe ten thousand times over, and to any articles that can be given them, whether true or false. Thus the Asiatic bishops subscribed to the condemnation of the decrees of the council of Chalcedon, and inform Basiliscus the emperor that their subscriptions were voluntary. And yet when Basiliscus was deposed, they immediately[immediately] subscribed to the truth of those decrees, and swore their first subscription was involuntary. So that subscriptions cannot keep out any atheists, infidels, or profligate persons. And as to others, daily experience teaches us, that they either disbelieve the articles they subscribe, subscribing them only as articles of peace: or else, that after they have subscribed them, they see reason, upon a more mature deliberation, to alter their minds, and change their original opinions. So that till men can be brought always to act upon conscience, never to subscribe what they do not believe, nor ever to alter their judgment, as to the articles they have subscribed; subscriptions are as impertinent and useless as they are unreasonable, and can never answer the purposes of those who impose them.

But I apprehend farther, that this imposing of subscriptions is “not only an unreasonable custom,” but attended with many very pernicious consequences. It is a great hindrance to that freedom and impartiality of inquiry which is the unalterable duty of every man, and necessary to render his religion reasonable and acceptable. For why should any person make any inquiries for his own information, when his betters have drawn up a religion for him, and thus kindly saved him the labour and pains? And as his worldly interest may greatly depend on his doing as he is bid, and subscribing as he is ordered; is it not reasonable to think that the generality will contentedly take every thing upon trust, and prudently refrain from creating to themselves scruples and doubts, by nicely examining what they are to set their hands to, lest they should miss of promotion for not being able to comply with the condition of it, or enjoy their promotions with a dissatisfied and uneasy conscience?

Subscriptions will, I own, sometimes prove marks of distinction, and as walls of separation: For though men of integrity and conscience may, and oftentimes undoubtedly do submit to them; yet men of no principles, or very loose ones, worldly and ambitious men, the thoughtless and ignorant, will most certainly do it, when they find it for their interest. The church that encloses herself with these fences, leaves abundant room for the entrance of all persons of such characters. To whom then doth she refuse admittance? Why, if to any, it must be to men who cannot bend their consciences to their interest; who cannot believe without examination, nor subscribe any articles of faith as true, without understanding and believing them. It is in the very nature of subscriptions to exclude none but these, and to distinguish such only for shame and punishment. Now how is this consistent with any thing that is called reason or religion?

If there could be found out any wise and reasonable methods to throw out of the christian church and ministry, men who are in their hearts unbelievers, who abide in the church only for the revenues she yields to them, who shift their religious and political principles according to their interest, who propagate doctrines inconsistent with the liberties of mankind, and are scandalous and immoral in their lives; if subscriptions could be made to answer these ends, and these only, and to throw infamy upon such men, and upon such men only, no one would have any thing to alledge against the use of them. Whereas, in truth, subscriptions are the great securities of such profligate wretches, who by complying with them, enter into the church, and thereby share in all the temporal advantages of it; whilst the scrupulous, conscientious christian, is the only one she excludes; who thinks the word of God a more sure rule of faith than the dictates of men; and that subscriptions are things much too sacred to be trifled with, or lightly submitted to.