Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/414

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( 136" )

¬I cannot perhaps better illustrate this in- teresting subject, than by giving the reader a short account of a conversation I had with an eminent member of their communion; most virtuous in his life, and devoted to the practice of every good work. — He deeply lamented the growth of what we call Sectaries, and dwelt with great anxiety upon the unhappy state of his country, predicting at no very distant period the utter extinction of the church. ¦ — Clear as, he said, were the Articles of her religious faith, they had by no means been universally accepted, and that, although those who rejected them were not only excluded from the priesthood but from many civil offices and distinctions, yet they still persevered in their own opinions, and were corrupting the world by their unbeliefs. — The great bulk of the Articles would, he admitted, have been accepted, but that some of them, though standing upon divine authority, were wickedly rejected ; a heresy the more detestable, as their sacred writings were not only circulated by authority ¬for ¬