ine Articles;'
their avowed principle being that 'they may do it in their own sense
agreeably to what they call Scripture.' In his 'Case of Arian
Subscription' Dr. Waterland had no difficulty in showing the utter
untenableness of this position. He maintained that 'as the Church
required subscription to _her own_ interpretation of Scripture, so the
subscriber is bound to that and that only.' 'The rules,' he says, 'for
understanding what her sense is are the same as for understanding oaths,
laws, &c.--that is, the usual acceptation of words, the custom of speech
at the time being, the scope of the writer from the controversies then
on foot,' &c. It is but a shallow artifice for fraudulent subscribers to
call their interpretation of Scripture, Scripture. The Church has as
good a right to call her interpretation Scripture. Let the Arian sense
be Scripture to Arians; but then let them subscribe only to Arian
subscriptions.

The case of Arian subscriptions was really part of a larger question.
There were some who, without actually denying the _truth_ of the
doctrine of the Trinity, doubted whether it was of sufficient
_importance_ or clearly enough revealed to make it a necessary article
of the Christian faith. These were sometimes called Episcopians, a name
derived from one Episcopius, an amiable and not unorthodox writer of the
seventeenth century, who was actuated by a charitable desire to include
as many as possible within the pale of the Christian Church, and to
minimize the differences between all who would, in any sense, own the
name of Christians. The prevalence of such views in Dr. Waterland's days
led him to write one of his most valuable treatises in connection with
the Trinitarian controversy. It was entitled, 'The Importance of the
Doctrine of the Trinity Asserted,' and was addressed to those only who
believed the _truth_ of the doctrine but demurred to its importance.
Waterland concludes this work, which is rather a practical than a
controversial treatise, with some wise words of caution to those
persons of 'more warmth than wisdom,' who from a mistaken liberality
would make light of heresy.

It is now time to close this sketch of the method in which this great
writer--one of the few really great divines who belong to the eighteenth
century--handled the mysterious subject of the Trinity. Not only from
his profound learning and acuteness, but from the general cast of his
mind, Waterland was singularly adapted f