AN

EXPOSITION

OF THE

ARTICLES

OF

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Articles whereupon it was agreed by the Archbishops and Bishops of both provinces and the whole Cleargie, in the Convocation Holden at London in the Deare of our Lorde GOD 1562, according to the Computation of the Church of Englande, for the avoiding of the Diversities of Opinions, and for the stablishing of Consent touching true Religion. Put forth by the Queen's Authoritie.

THE title of these articles leads me to consider, 1st, The time, the occasion, and the design of compiling them. 2dly, the authority that is stamped upon them both by church and state, and the obligation that lies upon all of our communion to assent to them, and more particularly the importance of the subscription to which the clergy are obliged. As to the first, it may seem somewhat strange to see such a collection of tenets made the standard of the doctrine of a church that is deservedly valued by reason of her moderation: this seems to be a departing from the simplicity of the first ages, which yet we pretend to set up for a pattern. Among them, the owning the belief of the creeds then received was thought sufficient: and, when some heresies had occasioned a great enlargement to be made in the creeds, the third general council thought fit to set a bar against all farther additions; and yet all those creeds, one of which goes far beyond the Ephesine standard, make but one article of the thirty-nine of which this book consists. Many of these do also relate to subtile and abstruse points, in which it is not easy to form a clear judgment; and much less can it be convenient to impose so great a collection of tenets upon a whole church, to excommunicate such as affirm any of them to be erroneous, and to reject those from the service of the church who cannot assent to every one of these. The negative Articles of No infallibility, No supremacy in the pope, No transubstantiation, No purgatory, and the like, give

B

Rom. vi.

17.

1. Tim. iv. 6. vi. 3.

13.

yet a farther colour to exceptions; since it may seem that it was enough not to have mentioned these, which implies a tacit rejecting of them. It may, therefore, appear to be too rigorous to require a positive condemning of those points: for, a very high degree of certainty is required, to affirm a negative proposition.

6

In order to the explaining this matter, it is to be confessed, that, in the beginnings of Christianity, the declaration that was required even of a bishop's faith was conceived in very general terms. There was a form settled very early in most churches: this St. Paul, in one place, calls the form of doctrine that was delivered;' in another place, 'the form of sound words,' which those, who were fixed by the 2 Tim. i. apostles in particular churches, had received from them. These words of his do import a standard, or fixed formulary, by which all doctrines were to be examined. Some have inferred from them, that the apostles delivered that creed, which goes under their name, every where in the same form of words. But there is great reason to doubt of this, since the first apologists for Christianity, when they deliver a short abstract of the Christian faith, do all vary from one another, both as to the order and as to the words themselves; which they would not have done, if the churches had all received one settled form from the apostles. They would all have used the same words, and neither more nor less. It is more probable, that in every church there was a form settled, which was delivered to it by some apostle, or companion of the apostles, with some variation: of which at this distance of time, considering how defective the history of the first ages of Christianity is, it is not possible, nor very necessary for us to be able to give a clear account. For instance; in the whole extent or neighbourhood of the Roman empire, it was at first of great use to have this in every Christian's mouth, that our Saviour suffered under Pontius Pilate; because this fixed the time, and carried in it an appeal to records and evidences, that might then have been searched for. But if this religion went at first far to the eastward, beyond all commerce with the Romans, there is not that reason to think that this should have been a part of the shortest form of this doctrine; it being enough that it was related in the gospel. These forms of the several churches were preserved with that sacred respect that was due to them: this was esteemed the depositum or trust of a church, which was chiefly committed to the keeping of the bishop. In the first ages, in which the bishops or clergy of the several churches could not meet together in synods to examine the doctrine of every new bishop, the method, upon which the circumstances of those ages put them, was this the new bishop sent round him, and chiefly to the bishops of the more eminent sees, the profession of his faith, according

to the form that was fixed in his church: and when the neighbouring bishops were satisfied in this, they held communion with him, and not only owned him for a bishop, but maintained such a commerce with him as the state of that time did admit of.

But as some heresies sprung up, there were enlargements made in several churches, for the condemning those, and for excluding such as held them, from their communion. The council of Nice examined many of those creeds, and out of them they put their creed in a fuller form. The addition made by the council of Constantinople was put into the creeds of some particular churches, several years before that council met. So that though it received its authority from that council, yet they rather confirmed an article which they found in the creeds of some churches, than made a new one. It had been an invaluable blessing, if the Christian religion had been kept in its first simplicity. The council of Ephesus took care that the creed, by which men profess their Christianity, should receive no new additions, but be fixed according to the Constantinopolitan standard; yet they made decrees in points of faith, and the following councils went on in their steps, adding still new decrees, with anathematisms against the contrary doctrines; and declaring the assertors of them to be under an anathema, that is, under a very heavy curse of being totally excluded from their communion, and even from the communion of Jesus Christ. And whereas the new bishops had formerly only declared their faith, they were then required, besides that, to declare, that they received such councils, and rejected such doctrines, together with such as favoured them; who were sometimes mentioned by name. This increased daily. We have a full account of the special declaration that a bishop was obliged to make, in the first canon of that which passed for the fourth council of Carthage. But while, by reason of new emergencies, this was swelling to a vast bulk, general and more implicit formularies came to be used, the bishops declaring that they received and would observe all the decrees and traditions of holy councils and fathers. And the papacy coming afterwards to carry every thing before it, a formal oath, that had many loose and indefinite words in it, which were very large and comprehensive, was added to all the declarations that had been formerly established. The enlargements of creeds were at first occasioned by the prevarications of heretics; who having put senses favouring their opinions, to the simpler terms in which the first creeds were proposed, therefore it was thought necessary to add more express words. And this was absolutely necessary as to some points; for it being necessary to shew that the Christian religion did not bring in that idolatry which it condemned in heathens, it was also necessary to state this matter so, that it should appear

that they worshipped no creature; but that the Person to whom all agreed to pay divine adoration was truly God: and it being found that an equivocation was used in all other words except that of the same substance, they judged it necessary to fix on it, besides some other words that they at first brought in, but which were afterwards corrupted by the glosses that were put on them. At all times it is very necessary to free the Christian religion from the imputations of idolatry; but this was never so necessary, as when Christianity was engaged in such a struggle with paganism: and since the main article then in dispute with the heathens was idolatry, and the lawfulness of worshipping any besides the great and eternal God, it was of the last importance to the Christian cause, to take care that the heathens might have no reason to believe that they worshipped a creature. There was therefore just reason given to secure this main point, and to put an end to equivocation, by establishing a term, which, by the confession of all parties, did not admit of any. It had been a great blessing to the church, if a stop had been put here; and that those nice descantings, that were afterwards so much pursued, had been more effectually discouraged than Facthey were. But men ever were and ever will be men. tions were formed and interests were set up. Heretics had shewed so much dissimulation when they were low, and so much cruelty when they prevailed, that it was thought necessary to secure the church from the disturbances that they might give them: and thus it grew to be a rule to enlarge the doctrines and decisions of the church. So that in stating the doctrines of this church so copiously, our reformers followed a method that had been used in a course of many ages.

There were, besides this common practice, two particular circumstances in that time, that made this seem to be the more necessary. One was, that at the breaking out of that light, there sprang up with it many impious and extravagant sects, which broke out into most violent excesses. This was no extraordinary thing, for we find the like happened upon the first spreading of the gospel; many detestable sects grew up with it, which tended not a little to the defaming of Christianity, and the obstructing its progress. I shall not examine what influence evil spirits might have both in the one and the other: but one visible occasion of it was, that by the first preaching of the gospel, as also upon the opening the reformation, an inquiry into the matters of religion being then the subject of men's studies and discourses, many men of warm and ill-governed imaginations, presuming on their own talents, and being desirous to signalize themselves, and to have a name in the world, went beyond their depth in study, without the necessary degrees of knowledge, and the yet more necessary dispositions of mind for arriving at a right under

standing of divine matters. This happening soon after the reformation was first set on foot, those, whose corruptions were struck at by it, and who both hated and persecuted it on that account, did not fail to lay hold of and to improve the advantage which these sects gave them. They said, that the sectaries had only spoke out what the rest thought; and at last they held to this, that all sects were the natural consequences of the reformation, and of shaking off the doctrine of the infallibility of the church. To stop those calumnies, the Protestants of Germany prepared that confession of their faith which they offered to the diet at Augsburg,* and which carries its name. And, after their example, all the other churches, which separated from the Roman communion, published the confessions of their faith, both to declare their doctrine for the instruction of their own members, and for covering them from the slanders of their adversaries.

Another reason that the first reformers had for their descending into so many particulars, and for all these negatives that are in their confessions, was this: they had smarted long under the tyranny of popery, and so they had reason to secure themselves from it, and from all those who were leavened with it. They here in England had seen how many had complied with every alteration both in king Henry and king Edward's reign, who not only declared themselves to have been all the while papists, but became bloody persecutors in queen Mary's reign: therefore it was necessary to keep all such out of their body, that they might not secretly undermine and betray it. Now since the church of Rome owns all that is positive in our doctrine, there could be no discrimination made, but by condemning the most important of those additions, that they have

* This celebrated confession was dictated by Luther, and drawn up by Melancthon. It contains twenty-eight chapters. Twenty-one of which set forth the opinions of the Protestants; the other seven the errors and superstitions of the church of Rome. Dr. Mosheim gives the following most interesting account of the presentation of this confession, and of its effect upon the diet :—

'Charles V. arrived at Augsburg the 15th of June, 1530, and on the twentieth day of the same month the diet was opened. As it was unanimously agreed, that the affairs of religion should be brought upon the carpet before the deliberations relating to the intended war with the Turks, the Protestant members of this great assembly received from the emperor a formal permission to present to the diet, on the 25th of June, an account of their religious principles and tenets. In consequence of this Christian Bayer, chancellor of Saxony, read, in the German language, in presence of the emperor and the assembled princes, the famous confession which has been since distinguished by the denomination of the Confession of Augsburg. The princes heard it with the deepest attention and recollection of mind; it confirmed some in the principles they had embraced, surprised others, and many, who, before this time, had little or no idea of the religious sentiments of Luther, were now not only convinced of their innocence, but were, moreover, delighted with their purity and simplicity. The copies of this confession, which after being read, were delivered to the emperor, were signed and subscribed by John, elector of Saxony, by four princes of the empire, George, marquis of Brandenburg, Ernest, duke of Lunenburg, Philip, landgrave of Hesse, Wolfgang, prince of Anhalt, and by the imperial cities of Nuremberg and Reutlingen, who all thereby solemnly declared their assent to the doctrines contained in it. See the confession of Augsburg, in APPENDIX A.-[Ed.]