1 ELIZ. C. 1. § 36. A.D. 1558. to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of salvation.-Art. XX. ditions of It is not necessary that traditions and ceremonies be in of the Traall places one, and utterly like; for at all times they have the Church. been divers, and may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word. Whosoever, through his private judgment, willingly and purposely, doth openly break the traditions and ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the Word of GOD, and be ordained and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked openly (that others may fear to do the like), as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church, and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate, and woundeth the consciences of the weak brethren. Every particular or national Church hath authority to ordain, change, and abolish, ceremonies or rites of the Church ordained only by man's authority, so that all things be done to edifying.-Art. XXXIV. thority of Councils General Councils may not be gathered together without of the Authe commandment and will of Princes. And when they General 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.--Art. XXI.' 1 ELiz. c. 1. § 36. A.D. 1558. thority of General Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority of the Auaforesaid, that such person or persons, to whom your the first four Highness, your heirs, or successors, shall hereafter, by Councils. letters patent under the great seal of England, give This article refers to (so called) General Councils prior to the general or universal reception of their decrees by the Holy Catholic Church. 3 An example of the appli authority to have, or to execute any jurisdiction, power, or authority spiritual, or to visit, reform, order, or correct any errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, or enormities, by virtue of this Act, shall not in any wise have authority or power to order, determine, or adjudge any matter or cause to be heresy, but only such as have heretofore been determined, ordered, or adjudged to be heresy, by the authority of the Canonical Scriptures, or by the FIRST FOUR GENERAL COUNCILS, or any of them, or by any other General Council, wherein the same was declared heresy by the express and plain words of the said Canonical Scriptures.'- Gibson's Codex, Vol. I. p. 425. Fol. Oxford, 1713.-Collier's Eccles. Hist. II. p. 421. CONVOCATION OF A.D. 1640. Whereas much mischief is already done in the Church cation of the of GOD, by the spreading of the damnable and cursed heresy of Socinianism, as being a complication of many above Rule. 1 "In this Act, one particular deserves, and demands, very special attention; namely, the unqualified deference paid to the first four General Councils. The latest of these Councils sat and deliberated in the year 451. A point of time, therefore, is fixed, previously to which, the Church of England unreservedly recognises the guidance of the Catholic Church, in the interpretation of Christian verities. If it be objected, that this enactment has become obsolete, by the suppression of the high commission court, it may fairly be replied, that the Church of England, in ceasing publicly to denounce heresies, has not revoked her condemnation of them; but has merely confined herself to pure ecclesiastical censures: for the justification of which censures, she, of course, refers herself to the same rules, on which severer measures had been founded." BISHOP JEBB. 66 Appendix" to "Sermons on subjects chiefly practical," p. 360. Edit. 1824. A comparison of the above Act, with the Canon de Concionatoribus and the XXth Article, will show that in the Anglican view, the present Church is not "so much a judge of Scripture as a witness of Catholic Truth delivered to her in the first ages, whether by Councils, or by Fathers, or in whatever other way." ." "And if," says Mr. Newman, "she does not claim any gift of interpretation for herself, in the high points in question, much less does she allow individuals to pretend to it. Explicit as our Articles are in asserting that the doctrines of faith are contained and must be pointed out in Scripture, yet they give no hint that private persons may presume to search Scripture independently of external help, and to determine for themselves what is saving. The Church has a prior claim to do so, but even the Church asserts it not, but hands over the office to Catholic Antiquity. In what our Articles say of holy Scripture, as the document of proof, exclusive reference is had to teaching. It is not said that individuals are to infer the faith, but that the Church is to prove it CONFERENCE WITH THE PRIESTS AND JESUITS. ancient heresies, condemned by the four first General of holy The Bishop.-Are you persuaded that the Holy Scrip- Sufficiency tures contain sufficiently all doctrine, required of necessity Scripture. for eternal salvation through faith in JESUS CHRIST? And are you determined with the said Scriptures to instruct the people committed to your charge, and to teach nothing (as required of necessity to eternal salvation), but that you shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture? Answer.—I am so persuaded, and have so determined by God's grace.--Service for the ordering of Priests. CONVOCATION OF A.D. 1571. 5 lic interpre holy Scrip followed. But chiefly they (Preachers) shall take heed that they The Cathoteach nothing in their preaching, which they would have tation of the people religiously to observe and believe, but that ture to be which is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old Testament and the New, and that which the Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops have gathered out of that very doctrine.'Liber quorundam Canonum disciplinæ Ecclesiæ Anglicana. De Concionatoribus.-Sparrow's Collection, p. 238. from Scripture; not that individuals are to learn it, but are to be taught it. . . . The sole question, I say, in the Articles is how the Church is to teach. In like manner, the Canon of 1571 is concerning the duty of preachers; the question whether individuals may exercise a right of private judgment on the text of Scripture in matters of faith is not even contemplated."—" Lectures on Romanism, &c." LECT. xi. pp. 323–325. 1 Imprimis vero videbunt, ne quid unquam doceant pro concione, quod a populo religiose teneri et credi velint, nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinæ veteris aut novi Testamenti, quodque ex illa ipsa doctrina Catholici Patres et veteres Episcopi collegerint. The book of Canons which contains the above regulation is said to consist of "certayne articles of the holy ministrie, and of the offices of the Church, fully agreed upon by Matthew, Archbyshoppe of Caunterburie, Primate of all England, and Metropolitane, and all other Bishops of the same Province, which were partly present in person, and partly subscribed by the handes of their 6 CONFERENCE WITH THE PRIESTS AND JESUITS. Holy Scripture the of proof. RULES FOR THE CONFERENCE WITH THE PRIESTS AND Our opinion concerning the proceedings with the Jesuits and seminary Priests, and other Papists, by such as shall be appointed to have conference with them. I. What matter soever they shall deal in with them, to set document down such places of the holy Scripture, as they do ground their opinion upon. If they will not, or cannot, show any; to testify to the present auditory, that these men do build their faith and religion, not upon the Rock of the Holy Scriptures, upon the which only faith is grounded, but the uncertain sands of men's traditions. And then to allege Fathers to three or four pithy sentences out of St. Chrysostom, proof of the Augustin, &c. that all controversies are to be decided by the Scripture, which if they refused, they can claim NO SUCCESSION OF DOCTRINE from their Fathers. The testi mony of the be alleged in above state ment. The interpretation of the primi tive Doctors to be followed. II. If they shall show any ground of Scripture, and wrest it to their sense, let it be showed by the interpretation of the old Doctors, such as were before Gregory I. For that in his time began the first claim of the Supremacy by the Patriarch of Constantinople: and shortly after was usurped by the Bishop of Rome, the first founder of the Papacy, and Supremacy of that See, by the authority of Phocas the traitor, and murderer of his lord. III. And as for the testimony of the later Doctors, if they bring any, let him refuse them; for that the most part of the writers of that time and after, yielded to the authority of the Emperor and the Bishop of Rome. Proctors, in a Synode begonne at London, in the Churche of S. Paule, the thirde day of Aprill, 1571." "In the framing of this aforesaid book of Canons," says Strype, "the Archbishop (Parker), and the Bishops of Ely and Winton, had the main hand. But all the Bishops of both Provinces in Synod, in their own persons or by proxy, signed it: but not the lower house. And the Archbishop laboured to get the Queen's allowance to it, but had it not. She, often declining to give her license to their orders and constitutions, reckoning that her Bishops' power and jurisdiction alone, having their authority derived from her, was sufficient."-Life of Archbishop Parker. Fol. 1711, p. 322. IV. If they can show no Doctor that agreed with them. in their said opinion before that time, then to conclude that they have no succession in that doctrine from the time of the Apostles, and above four hundred years after (WHEN DOCTRINE AND Religion were MOST PURE), for that they can show no predecessor, whom they might succeed in the same. "Quod primum verum." Tertull.-Strype's Life of Archbishop Whitgift, Fol. 1718, p. 98. CONVOCATION of a.d. 1603. to Antiquiing the Baptism. Following the steps of our most worthy King, be- An appeal cause he therein followeth the rules of the Scriptures and ty respect the practice of the primitive Church, we do commend to cross at all the true members of the Church of England these our directions and observations ensuing. The honour and dignity of the name of the cross begat a reverend estimation even in the Apostles' times (for aught that is known to the contrary), of the sign of the cross, which the Christians shortly after used in all their actions. The use of this sign in Baptism was held by the primitive Church, as well by the Greeks as the Latins, with one consent and great applause. . . This continual and general use of the sign of the cross, is evident by the testimonies of the ancient Fathers. . . . It must be confessed that in process of time the sign of the cross was greatly abused in the Church of Rome. But the abuse of a thing doth not take away the lawful use of it. Nay, so far was it from the purpose of the Church of England to forsake and reject the Churches of Italy, France, Spain, Germany, or any such like Churches, in all things which they held and practised, that, as the Apology of the Church of England confesseth, it doth with reverence retain those ceremonies which do neither endamage the Church of GOD, nor offend the minds of sober men: and only departeth from them in those particular points, wherein they were fallen both from themselves in their ancient integrity, and from the Apostolical Churches, which were their first founders. The sign of the cross in Baptism, being thus purged from all Popish superstition and error, and reduced in the Church |