The Article proceeds to state that the Church has also AUTHORITY IN CONTROVERSIES OF FAITH. When a dispute arose a few years after the ascension of our Saviour, concerning the necessity of circumcising Gentile converts, the Apostles and Elders met at Jerusalem, and made a decree upon the subject, which they communicated to the churches then established in different parts of Asia, and required their obedience to it: it cannot be denied that this was an instance of authority exercised by the Church, under the direction of the inspired Apostles, in a controversy of faith.— St. Paul says to Timothy, "I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach

to incur the charge of materialising religion; and, above all, we must beware of arbitrarily connecting the gifts of God with ordinances of merely human appointment, and of teaching our people to place the ceremonies which the Church has ordained, however significant and laudable, on the same footing as the sacraments which have been ordained by the Lord Jesus himself. It is very well to speak of them as precious fragments of an ancient, or, perhaps, a primitive ritual, but we deny that they are to be cherished as any thing more than decent and venerable usages; or that we have the slightest evidence of their being divinely authorised portions of the Church's perpetual spiritual sacrifice.

"Ordinances and ceremonies, which cannot be shown to have been instituted by the Apostles, with a direction for their con

tinuance, are not of perpetual obligation upon the whole Church : as, for example, the appointment of an order of deaconnesses, or widows; the anointing of the sick with oil; and some other instances; although, if we can prove them to have been used by the Apostles, or make it appear highly probable that they were so, they may not be lightly laid aside, nor changed, even by churches, and not at all by individual members of a church. This is the doctrine of our own Church, in the Preface to her Book of Common Prayer; and in this respect every one, at least every clergyman, is bound by the laws of his own Church. What they enjoin, he is to practise: what they forbid, he is to abstain from: what they purposely omit, he is not to introduce." Bishop of London's Charge, 1842, pp. 49-51.-EDITOR.

a

b

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no other doctrine." And to Titus he says, A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject." It is evident from these two passages, that Timothy and Titus had authority given them to regulate the faith of the churches over which they were appointed to preside; and Titus is expressly directed to exclude from communion with the Church any person who persevered in maintaining heretical opinions; and therefore there must have been, at that very early period, some fixed test, by which the faith of professed Christians was to be judged: the consequence of not conforming to that test was, by apostolical authority, Excommunication. And we learn from ecclesiastical history, that this practice of the apostolic times has been usual in every period of the Christian Church.

It appears from the preceding Article, that it is not here intended to ascribe to the Church an infallible authority. The words of this Article are, CONTROVERSIES OF FAITH, and this expression, perhaps, alludes to disputes which may arise between the members of any church; and it may be designed to assert that the governing part of the Church has authority to take cognisance of such disputes, and to deliver their judgment concerning

a 1 Tim. i. 3. b Tit. iii. 10.

There can be no doubt but that profound attention ought to be paid by individuals to what is here termed the governing part of the Church; but certainly the go

verning part of the Church is not intended by the Article as synonymous with the Church, to which alone, as consisting of many parts and members conjoined in a most perfect unity, the authority spoken of is attributed.-EDITOR.

the points in controversy.

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Great weight and deference would be due to such decisions; and every man that finds his own thoughts differ from them ought to examine the matter over again with much attention and care, freeing himself all he can from prejudice and obstinacy, with a just distrust of his own understanding, and an humble respect to the judgment of his superiors. This is due to the consideration of peace and union, and to that authority which the Church has to maintain it; but if, after all possible methods of inquiry, a man cannot master his thoughts, or make them agree with the public decisions, his conscience is not under bonds, since this authority is not absolute, nor grounded upon a promise of infallibility."" But this, however, we may observe, that, without any pretension to infallibility, and without any infringement of the right of private judgment, the Church has power to declare Articles of faith, provided they be authorised by Scripture, as guides to truth, and as conditions upon which it receives persons into its communion. This is the principle of all creeds, and indeed the only principle upon which the unity of "the faith once delivered unto the saints b" can be preserved. Every Church, therefore, must possess a right to compose new, or to alter existing, Articles, according as the circumstances of the times shall make it necessary to defend the purity of Christian doctrine against prevailing heresies, and to point out to the unlearned

a Burnet.

b Jude, 3.

part of the community the snares which may be laid in their paths.

a

AND YET IT IS NOT LAWFUL FOR THE CHURCH TO ORDAIN ANY THING THAT IS CONTRARY TO GOD'S WORD WRITTEN. The written word of God is the rule of our faith and practice, and no consideration whatever can justify a departure from it.

NEITHER MAY IT SO EXPOUND ONE PLACE OF SCRIPTURE, THAT IT BE REPUGNANT TO ANOTHER. All Scripture being given by inspiration of God, there must be a perfect consistency and agreement in all its parts, and consequently no Church can have a right to interpret one passage of Scripture in such a manner as to make it contradictory to another.

WHEREFORE ALTHOUGH THE CHURCH BE A WITNESS AND A KEEPER OF HOLY WRIT, YET AS IT OUGHT NOT TO DECREE ANY THING AGAINST THE SAME, SO, BESIDES THE SAME, OUGHT IT NOT TO ENFORCE ANY THING TO BE BELIEVED FOR NECESSITY OF SALVATION. To the Church are "committed the oracles of God"," and by directing the Scriptures to be publicly read, from the earliest times, in the congregations of Christians, it has been the means of preserving them free from all material errors and corruptions; from them it is to derive all its doctrines; upon them, all its decrees, relative to faith, are to be founded; it is not to add to them, by requiring any thing as necessary to salvation which is not

EDITOR.

a These restrictions evidently as stated in the preceding Article. spring from the acknowledged fact that particular churches may err, and fall from the faith,

b Rom. iii. 2.

contained in Holy Scripture, as was explained in the sixth Article.a

ARTICLE THE TWENTY-FIRST.

OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS.

General Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes; and when they be gathered together, (forasmuch as they be an Assembly of Men, whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God,) they may err, and sometimes have erred, even in Things pertaining unto God. Wherefore Things ordained by them, as necessary to Salvation, have neither Strength nor Authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture.

In the last Article, the power of an individual church was considered; this relates to the authority of General Councils, which are the aggregate of all particular churches, that is, of persons lawfully appointed to represent them.

a

Upon the subject of this Article, Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, and particularly the 3d and 8th books, and also Warburton's Alliance of Church and State, may be consulted.

["Upon the whole, then, we may safely infer that there is no foundation whatever for the alleged existence of those divine and apostolical traditions, which are made to constitute an unwritten word, or tradition, as a rule of faith. The Church of

England, therefore, acted wisely in rejecting that rule. And when we further consider the consequences of that rejection, when we consider the load of superstition from which we were freed by the means of that rejection, we may well assert, that the rejection of tradition as a rule of faith was the vital principle of the Reformation." Bishop Marsh's Comparative View of the Churches of England and Rome, c. iv. p. 83.-EDITOR.]