neither "against, nor besides, Holy Scripture." But the power of "expounding," "decreeing," "ordaining," implies that her children are to receive her expositions, and obey her decrees, and accept her authority in controversies of faith: and the appeal lies not to their "private judgment;" they are not the arbiters, whether she pronounce rightly or no; for what sort of decree or authority were that, of which every one were first to judge, and then if his judgment coincided with the law, to obey? who would not see the absurdity of this in matters of human judgment? "If thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge." Jas. iv. 11. "If I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear?" Mal. i. 6.

But our Church in this article further and accurately defines the n ture of her authority; the Church is a "keeper and witness of Holy Writ;" she is its guardian; it is from her that we know of what books the Canon of Scripture consists: she is the "witness" to the truths which it contains; not a "judge" over it, not having to determine new truth, or erect new articles of faith; but a witness to the doctrine which she herself received in continued succession from the primitive Church, as being contained in Holy Scripture.

In brief, then, my Lord, the meaning of our Church (as we conceive) in these Articles is, that the Scripture is the sole authoritative source of the Faith, i. e. of "things to be believed in order to salvation ;"

the Church is the medium through which that knowledge is conveyed to individuals; she, under her responsibility to GOD, and in subjection to His Scripture, and with the guidance of His Spirit, testifies to her children, what truths are necessary to be believed in order to salvation; expounds Scripture to them; determines, when controversies arise; and this, not in the character of a judge, but as a judge, but as a "witness" to what she herself received.

And in this view of the meaning of our Church, we are further confirmed by the Canon of the Convocation of 1571, to which we have of late often had occasion to appeal; the same Convocation which inforced subscription to the Articles.

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"They [preachers] shall in the first place be care"ful never to teach any thing from the pulpit to be religiously held and believed by the people, but "what is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old or "New Testament, and collected out of that very Doc"trine by the Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops."

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So have we ever wished to teach, "what is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Old or New "Testament," and as the test of its being thus agreeable, we would take, not our own private and individual judgments, but that of the Universal Church, as attested by the "Catholic Fathers and Ancient Bishops."

This, my Lord, were perhaps sufficient; nor need we, we conceive, go into the private opinions of those engaged in our Reformation; seeing that they, in many

points, varied from each other, and some of them on some points from themselves: and we have the injunction to take the Articles in their plain grammatical sense. Nor indeed have we our Articles from them; but Articles, in which their opinions have been in some respects modified; we have not the 42 Articles of Edward VI., but the 39 of Q. Elizabeth; and these have their authority to us from the agreement of our Church in 1562 and 1571. We are then in no respects even guided to look to the private opinions of any instruments of the Reformation, as interpreters of the Articles; since we are expressly referred, not to them, but to the "literal and grammatical sense1" of the Articles themselves. But we could go further; and show that they who are of most note among them wished to submit their own judgments to that of Antiquity, and at all events, desired to hold no other doctrine, than that which had been received by the Primitive Church. They did not appeal to her, as has been recently said, as an argumentum ad hominem, merely to refute an adversary with his own weapons 2. Their very language shows that they were in earnest, and speak with reverence. Abp. Cranmer, for instance, appeals, at a solemn moment, to them, and confesses3 in all my doctrine and preaching, both of

2

1 K. James's declaration prefixed to the Articles.

e. g. "Dr. Hook's Call to Union, answered," p. 11.

3 Works, vol. iv. pp. 126, 7. See further and other autho

rities in Mr. Manning's Appendix to a Sermon on the Rule of Faith, p. 6. sqq.

"the Sacraments, and of other my doctrine, whatsoever "it be, not only I mean and judge, as the Catholic "Church and the most holy Fathers of old meant and "judged, but also I would gladly use the same words "that they used, and not use any other words; but "to set my hand to all and singular their speeches, phrases, ways and forms of speech, which they do "use in their treatises upon the Sacraments, and to "keep still their interpretation."

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And hence our Divines fearlessly appeal to the whole period when the Church was one, and spake one language, and could speak as one: as Bishop Jewell in his celebrated challenge': "I said, perhaps

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boldly, as it might then seem to some men, but as "I myself and the learned of our adversaries them"selves do well know, sincerely and truly, that none "of them all, that this day stand against us, are able or shall ever be able to prove against us any one "of all those points, either by the Scriptures, or by

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example of the primitive Church, or by the old "Doctors, or by the ancient general Councils.-

"The words that I then spake, as near as I can "call them to mind, were these: If any learned man "of all our adversaries, or if all the learned men "that be alive, be able to bring any one sufficient "sentence out of an old Catholic Doctor, or Father,

"Testi

1 Sermon preached at Paul's Cross, (Works, pp. 57, 58.) extracted more at length in Tracts for the Times, No. 78. mony of writers in the latter English Church to the duty of maintaining quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus traditum est.”

D

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"or out of an old general Council, or out of the Holy Scriptures of God, or any one example of "the primitive Church, whereby it may be clearly " and plainly proved, that there was any private mass "in the whole world at that time, for the space of "six hundred years after Christ; or that there was "then any communion ministered unto the people "under one kind; or that the people had their "common prayers then in a strange tongue, that they understood not: or that the Bishop of Rome "was then called an universal Bishop, or the head of "the universal Church, &c.; if any man alive were "able to prove any of these articles, by any one clear or plain cause or sentence, either of the Scriptures "or of the old Doctors, or of any old general Council, or by any example of the primitive Church: I promised then that I would give over and subscribe "unto him.”

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"Besides all that I have said already, I will say "further, and yet nothing so much as might be said. "If any one of all our adversaries be able clearly "and plainly to prove, by such authority of the

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Scriptures, the old Doctors and Councils, as I said "before, that it was then lawful for the Priest to

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pronounce the words of consecration closely and in "silence to himself, &c. &c.-if any one of all our "adversaries be able to vouch any one of all these

articles, by any such sufficient authority of Scrip"tures, Doctors, or Councils, as I have required, as "I said before, so say I now again, I am content to