The doctrine of holy Scripture, is sufficient to saluation.

Holy Scripture conteineth all thynges necessarie to saluation so that whatsoeuer is not read therin, nor may be proued thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be beleued as an article of the fayth, or be 5 thought requisite necessarie to saluation.

By the naming of holy Scripture, we do vnderstande those Canonicall bookes of the olde and newe Testament, of whose aucthoritie, was neuer any doubt in the Church.

The

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But what copy of these Articles was adopted by the parliament of queen Elizabeth, and authorized by the statute that enacted temporal pains and penalties in case of disobedience? What copy again is recognised in the Act of Uniformity (13 and 14 Car. II. cap. 4), which requires subscription "unto the nine and thirty Articles of religion, 25 mentioned in the statute made in the 13th year of the reign of the late queen Elizabeth?" This question leads to an investigation of much interest in itself and connected with important consequences. statement of the facts may be given in the words of Dr. Lamb. "The first step in the business was taken December 5, 1566 [in 30 the house of commons]; when we find the following entry [of sir Simonds D'Ewes], 'The bill with a little book printed in the year 1562 [1563] (which was the 4th or 5th year of her majesty's reign) for the sound Christian religion was read the first time.' The next step which they took in their intended reformation was upon the fol- 35

As for the other bookes (as Jerom sayth) the Churche doth reade for example, and for good instruction of lyuing: But yet doth it not applie them to establishe any doctrine. Such are these folowyng.

commonly receaued, we do receaue, and accompt them for Canonicall.

Touching the olde Testament.

ΙΟ

The olde Testament is not contrarie to the newe. For, both in the olde and newe Testamentes, euerlastyng lyfe is offered to mankinde by Christ, who is the only mediatour betwene God and man, beyng both God and 15 man. Wherfore they are not to be hearde, whiche faigne that the olde fathers dyd loke only for transitorie promises. Although the lawe geuen by Moyses as touchyng ceremonies and rites, do not binde Christian men, nor the cyuil preceptes thereof, ought of necessitie to be 20 receaued in any comon wealth: yet notwithstandyng, no Christian man whatsoeuer, is free from the obedience of the commaundementes which are called morall.

lowing day, when they read for the first time five other bills concerning church matters. On Tuesday the 10th of December, The bill 25 with the little book printed in 1562 for the sound Christian religion was read a second time.' On the following Friday, 'The bill for the Articles of Religion passed upon the third reading,' and on Saturday the 14th of December, The bill for the Articles of Religion was sent to the lords.' In the journal of the house of lords we have the fol- 30 lowing entry, 'December 14, the bill for the uniformity in doctrine was brought from the house of commons and was read prima vice.' The bill proceeded no further. Her majesty considered it an encroachment upon her prerogative as supreme head of the church, and stopped the second reading in the lords.

"The bill for the Articles with the five others rested from this period

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The three Credes.

The three Creedes, Nicene Creede, Athanasius Creede, and that whiche is comonly called the Apostles Creede, ought throughly to be receaued and beleued. For they may be proued by moste certayne warraunties 5 of holy Scripture.

¶ Of originall or birth sinne.

Originall sinne standeth not in the folowyng of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vaynely talke) but it is the fault and corruption of the nature of euery man, that 10 naturally is ingendred of the ofspryng of Adam, wherby man is very farre gone from his former ryghteousnesse which he had at his creation, and is of his owne nature geuen to euyll: so that the fleshe desyreth alwayes contrarie to the spirite, and therefore in euery person borne 15 into this worlde, it deserueth Gods wrath and damnation. And this infection of nature doeth remayne, yea

until the session of 13 Elizabeth. This parliament, the third of her reign, met on Monday the 2d of April, 1571, and its members lost no time in trying their strength with the queen's prerogative. On the 20 7th they brought in these six bills of the former session; and the bill for the Articles was read the first time. The proceedings of the commons during this session are so confusedly or briefly set down through the negligence (as D'Ewes states) of Fulk Onslow, esq., clerk of the house of commons, that it is not possible to trace the bill 25 through its second and third reading with any accuracy. There appears however in the journals of the upper house the following entry, 'On the 3d of May two bills were brought from the house of commons, of which the second was the bill for the ministers of the church to be of sound religion.' There is no entry respecting its readings in 30 the house of lords; but on the 29th of May this bill, with several others, received the royal assent."

It is necessary to observe in illustration of the queen's sentiments on this subject, that on the 1st of May the following message was sent from the lords to the house of commons, "that the queen's majesty 35 having been made privy to the said Articles liketh very well of them,

in them that are baptized, whereby the lust of the fleshe, called in Greke póvnuа σapкós whiche some do expounde, the wysedome: some, sensualitie: some, the affection: some, the desyre of the fleshe, is not subiect to the lawe of God. And although there is no cōdemnation 5 for them that beleue and are baptized: yet the Apostle doth confesse, that concupiscence and lust, hath of it selfe the nature of sinne.

Of free wyll.

The condition of man after the fall of Adam, is suche, 10 that he can not turne and prepare hym selfe by his owne naturall strength, and good workes, to fayth, and callyng vppon God. Wherfore we haue no power to do good workes, pleasaunt and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preuentyng vs, that we may haue 15 a good wyll and workyng in vs, when we haue that good wyll.

and mindeth to publish them and have them executed by the bishops, by direction of her highness' regal authority of supremacy of the church of England, and not to have the same dealt in by parliament;" 20 and yet so resolute were the commons on the subject, that the bill was sent up to the lords only two days afterwards, and the queen did not think it prudent to make any further resistance. Probably she was induced to acquiesce in the cooperation of the parliament, owing to her dread of the papal bull which had been issued against her in the 25 preceding year.

Now although no copy of the Articles is in fact attached to the statute 13 Eliz. cap. 12. in the public records, the circumstances of the case may fairly satisfy us as to the copy agreed upon in parliament. It is not known that any printed editions were then in existence, 30 except the Latin edition already described (No. III.) of Wolfe, and three impressions by Jugge and Cawood of the English translation. Considering therefore that the title of the book as cited at length in the act is in English, exactly corresponding with the title of Jugge's editions; that in size those editions are precisely the "little book," 35 the term employed by D'Ewes; that the bill originated in the house of commons, to many of whom the Latin would be unintelligible, and

Of the iustification of man.

¶ We are accompted righteous before God, onely for the merite of our Lorde and Sauiour Jesus Christe, by fayth, and not for our owne workes or deseruynges. Wherefore, that we are iustified by faith only, it is a5 moste wholesome doctrine, and full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homilie of justification.

Of good workes.

¶ Albeit that good workes, whiche are the fruites of fayth, and folowe after iustification, cannot put away our 10 sinnes, and endure the seueritie of Gods iudgement: yet are they pleasyng and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and liuely fayth, insomuch that by them a liuely fayth maye be as euidently knowen, as a tree discerned by the fruite.

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who would all of them justly prefer the English; that it continued before that house for nearly a month, and was debated in the spirit which Mr. Wentworth, one of its leading members, expressed in these words, "No, by the faith I bear to God, we will pass nothing before we understand what it is," we cannot reasonably doubt that the 20 Articles enacted in parliament were the English translation imprinted by Jugge and Cawood. If it be urged by way of objection that the English translation does not contain the clause respecting the authority of the church, and that the queen would not forego a declaration, which she had herself introduced into the Latin copies, we must 25 answer that she found the commons resolute and irresistible, and was persuaded that in the actual government of the church, and more especially in the court of high commission, her royal supremacy would never be disputed.

This reprint accordingly is taken with minute exactness from the 30 first English edition of the Thirty-nine Articles, and may be considered, errors of press being excepted, as the exact record that received the authority of parliament.

But the words of the statute are of much importance in the limitation that they appear to place upon the act of subscribing to the 35