ARTICLE XX. ARTICULUS XX. De Ecclesiæ Auctoritate.' HABET Ecclesia Ritus sive Cæremonias statuendi jus, et in fidei controversiis auctoritatem, quamvis Ecclesiæ non licet quicquam instituere, quod verbo DEI scripto adversetur, nec unum Scripturæ locum sic exponere potest, ut alteri contradicat. Quare licet Ecclesia sit Divinorum librorum testis et conservatrix, attamen ut adversus eos nihil decernere, ita præter illos nihil credendum de necessitate salutis debet obtrudere. The Phraseology of this Article. ARTICLE XX. Of the Authority of the Church. THE Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies and authority in Controversies of Faith and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant 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. 1. As compared with Article XXI. of those of 1552. Compare with this Article the Creed of Pope Pius IV., A.D. 1564, Art. II. "I also admit Holy Scripture according to that sense which Holy Mother Church has held and does hold, to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Holy Scripture; neither will I ever receive and interpret them otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers." A. In the Latin. 1552. 1562, 1571. Begins, Ecclesiæ non licet,- Begins, Habet Ecclesia Ritus B. In the English. Begins, It is not lawful sive Cæremonias statuendi jus, et in fidei controversiis auctoritatem, quamvis Ecclesiæ non licet. Begins, The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies and authority in controversies of Faith; and yet it is not lawful. 2. When the Latin and English are compared together. That the clause was not in the Articles as they passed the convocation in 1562. That it is found in the first printed copy after the convocation of 1562, namely that of Reginald Wolfe published by Royal Authority, 1563. B. What is conjectured. That a copy of the Articles as they passed the convocation, was sent to the Queen in Council, and was altered by her authority, before its publication. This conjecture seems to be warranted by the declaration which is affixed to Wolfe's edition : "Quibus omnibus Articulis Serenissima Princeps Elizabeth, DEI Gratia Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ Regina Fidei Defensor, &c. PER SEIPSAM diligenter prius lectis et examinatis, Regium Suum assensum præbuit." Six PROPOSITIONS. I. The Church has power to decree Rites or Ceremonies. III. It is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God's Word written. IV. The Church may not so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. V. The Church is a witness and keeper of Holy Writ. VI. The Church may not decree anything against Holy Writ, neither besides the same ought it to enforce anything to be believed for necessity of salvation. PROP. I. The Church has power to decree Rites and Ceremonies. 1. Divine Testimony. A. Old Testament. Esther ix. 27, 28, "The Jews ordained and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two day according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year; and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that the days of Purim should not fail upon the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed." B. New Testament. 1 Cor. xiv. 26, "How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying."— See also John x. 22, 23. Acts xv. 29. Rom. xiv. 19. 1 Cor. xi. 4, 5, 7, 14; xii. 2-4; xiv. 33, 34, 40. 1 Tim. i. 3, 4. 2. Human Testimony. A. Father. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. v. c. xxiv. B. Council of Nice, A.D. 325, settled the time of keeping C. Confessions. Augsburg, Art. iv. 1 Helvetic, Art. xiii. PROP. II. The Church has authority in controversies of faith. 1. Divine Testimony. A. Old Testament. Mal. ii. 7, "The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts." B. New Testament. Acts xv. 19, 20, "Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to GOD: but that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood."-See also Acts xv. 5–7, 22–41. 1 Cor. xiv. 29. 1 Tim. i. 3. Tit. iii. 10. 1 John iv. 1. 2. Human Testimony. A. Fathers. August. cont. Cresc. Gramm. lib. 1. 39, vol. ix. B. Council of Nice, A.D. 325, condemned the heresy of Arius. PROP. III. It is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God's Word written. 1. Divine Testimony. A. Old Testament. Isa. viii. 20, "To the Law and the Testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." B. New Testament. Matt. xxviii. 20, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."-Matt. xv. 9. Rom. iii. 4. 1 Cor. ii. 13. Gal. i. 8. 2. Human Testimony. A. Fathers. Orig. Hom. xxv. on Matt., "We ought there- PROP. IV. It is not lawful for the Church to expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. 1. Divine Testimony. New Testament. Rom. xii. 6, "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith." 1 Pet. iv. 11, "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of GOD."-See also Rom. iii. 4. 1 Cor. iv. 17. 2 Cor. xii. 18. Gal. i. 8, 9. 1 Tim. vi. 3. 2 Tim. iii. 16. 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. 2 John 9, 10. 2. Human Testimony. A. Fathers. Just. Mart. Dial. c. Tryph. c. lxv., "If you believe that your discourse can so perplex me that I shall say that the Scriptures are contrary to one another, you are mistaken, for this I shall never dare either to think or to say; but if a passage of this kind be brought forward, which has the appearance of contradicting another, being firmly convinced that no such contradiction really exists, I will rather confess that I do not understand it, and shall labour to bring to the same conviction those who maintain that the Scriptures are contradictory."-See also Idem c. cxii. and Cohort. ad Græc. c. viii. Iren. adv. Hæres. 2, 47, p. 157. Tertull. de Anim. c. xxi. vol. iv. p. 221. Clem. Alex. Strom. vii. 16, p. 891. Origen in Jer. Hom. L. August. de Doct. CHRIST. Vol. III. lib. ii. 14. De Nupt. et Concup. ii. 23. Lactant, Inst. Div. 5, 3. Epiphan. adv. Hæres. 51, 15, vol. 1. p. 438. Hieron. Epist. 17, vol. I., on Matt. xxiii. B. Confessions. 2 Helvetic, c. ii. Wirtemburg, cc. xxx. xxxii. § 8. Scotland, Art. xviii. Westminster, c. i. § 9. PROP. V. The Church is a witness and a keeper of Holy Writ. 1. Divine Testimony. A. The Church is a witness. Tit. iii. 10, "A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject."—See also 1 Tim. i. 3. B. The Church is a keeper. Rom. iii. 2, "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of GOD."-See also Rom. ix. 4. 2 Tim. i. 13, 14. |