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    lament , of whose authority -was lever any doubt in ttie church /* With this article let us compare fa W&iiieth , which has for its title , Of ths Authority of the-Church . a The chairch hatb power to

    decree rit « s or ceremonies , and authority in controversies of faith : and yet # »¦ not lawful for the church to ordain any thing that is contrary to ( fod ' s word written , nekher may it jo expound one place of scripture that jtberepagoant to another . Wherefore , although the church be a

    witness and a keeper of holy writ , yet « 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 o n ' Under the imagined shelter of these two articles , but especially of the latter , many persons have subscribed

    die whole thirty-nine ; though , at Ae same time , they hare rejected the literal , grammatical sense of all which are most disputable in the number , afcd though their private sentiments are notoriously in opposition to this formulary of the church ' s faith .

    Such a plea for ministerial conformity is utterly invalid : it may be respectable for its sincerity , but for nothing more . The framers of the articles firmly believed that they were , without

    exception , agreeable to the word of God . Therefore these persons intended to say , and have in effect said , that they deduced their faith from the scriptures , instead of taking it , like | ne Romish church , from tradition , bulls and councils . They claim to be

    Mkorized interpreters of the Bible : ™» what is more , they enforce their interpretations upon at least every Minister * their communion . Every suc | i minister also , before he can hold * benefice , and after his subscription j ? the sixth and to the twentieth ar-^ te > solemnly promises an implicit ^ clesiastical obedience , and signifies T feigpe < f assent and consent to P . ! Whole of the Bo ° k of Ooramou

    Jfiiese remarks will prove that the ^ Jcies which I have quoted contain * n £ * ln % <*¦*«* 3 that they are but ( ff ^ y and licit really Protestant ; fajft ** ^^ fcpJession ? do not coun-22 : & «* & prohibitions and state ^ fe ^ l / ¦ ' *** * iocma ^ qucnay . that no ¦ ^ security whatever is here afford-

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    ed to the subscriber who conceives that he may retain hi * station and h * benefice , notwithstanding tbc contradiction of his individual sentiments , respecting the object of worship and other points of faith and practice , to the declared opinion of his church .

    The case is analogous to the situation and duties of the fellows of Trinit y College , Cambridge r in the oath which they take upon their admission , they swear that they " will prefer the authority of the scripture to the determinations of men ; ' yet did they

    offend against the University statute , de coneionibus , clid they " teach , treat of or defend any point contrary to the religion , or any part of it , which hath been received and established by public authority in this realm , " they

    would , in the ' event of their not retracting and publicly confessing " their error and temerity , " be for ever excluded their college and banished from the university . Nor are these words * a brutumfulitoen ; as is plain from the issue of the trial of Mr , Freud .

    Several other facts will shew that our first reformers , while they professed the utmost reverence for the scripture s * believed that the doctrines set forth by the articles are strictly agreeable to the word of God , aad would not suffer the truth of any of them to be called in question .

    In the reign of Edward the Sixth the articles had been fbrty-twb : in that of Queen Elizabeth , the Convocation reduced the number to thirtynine . The sixth is * pointed directly and forcibly against the Roniaiiists , land is indeed not so much the

    declaration of a religious doctrine as a re presentation of the standard by which all such doctrines should t > e tried . Both verbally and substantially , therefore , it might be subscribed by every Protestant ; if , unfortunately , it / did not stand amidst articles which

    render it a dead letter . The twentieth is more memorable in regard to its history as well as its constructions . It has been denied that the clause , " T ^ he Church has . power to decre e rites or ceremonies and authority iu

    controversies of faith , ' was a part of the original instrument , or that it existed in 1562 , or even in 1 f > 7 1 - The genuineu ^ ss of these wgrcis , is at Jeast r doubtful It is nQt without reason that they are suspected of having been febricated at a more recent

    Untitled Article

    On the Vlth ^ and XXth Articles ( if th $ Church- of England * 279

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1815, page 279, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1760/page/15/