1. XXXIX ARTICLES.

"HOLY Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation : so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an Article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation." Art. vi.

"General Councils may not be gathered together without the commandment and will of Princes. And when they be gathered together, (forasmuch as they be an assembly of men, whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and word of God) they may err, and sometimes have erred, even in things pertaining to God. Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture." Art. xxi.

2.

CONSECRATION AND ORDINATION SERVICES.

"The Archbishop. Are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all doctrine required of necessity for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ? And are you determined out of the same Holy Scriptures to instruct the people committed to your charge; and to teach or maintain nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation, but that which you shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the same?

Answer. I am so persuaded, and determined, by God's grace."

It can hardly be conceived that if the framers of these services had regarded Tradition and the consent of the Church as the authoritative interpreters of Scripture, they should have here preserved a total silence on so momentous a point.

3. HOMILIES.

"Let us diligently search for the well of life in the books of the New and Old Testament, and not run to the stinking puddles of men's traditions, devised by men's imagination, for our justification and salvation. For in Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do, and what to eschew, what to believe, what to love, and what to look for at God's hands at length.

If you be afraid to fall into error by reading of holy Scripture, I shall show you how you may read it without danger of error. Read it humbly with a meek and lowly heart, to the intent you may glorify God and not yourself, with the knowledge of it and read it not without daily praying to God, that he would direct your reading to good effect; and take upon you to expound it no further than you can plainly understand it. ..... The humble man may search any truth boldly in the Scripture, without any danger of error." Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading and Knowledge of Holy Scripture.

4. LANCELOT RIDLEY, PREACHER IN CANTERBURY
CATHEDRAL.

"Because I did see none go about to deliver the rude people from their blindness, ignorance, or errors, by any exposition in English upon the Scriptures, but many to study rather to continue them still in errors, and in blind ignorance; therefore I, as one of the least learned of all, have set forth an exposition to this Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians, as afore this, in the Epistle of Jude, the apostle of Christ, that the people, that

can but only read English, may the better know part of the wholesome doctrine of St. Paul, may be delivered from their ignorance and blindness, corrupt and backward judgments, evil opinions rooted in their hearts, false trusts, and vain superstitiousness, which the Holy Ghost, here speaking in St. Paul, reproveth and condemneth, and teacheth necessary things for man's salvation, as you may here see and read in this exposition, wherein I have, as it hath pleased God to give his grace, opened the Holy Scriptures, shewing the true use of them, and wherefore they serve. And in this thing to be done, I have used the help of tongues, as of the Greek, the Hebrew, and the Latin tongues, and the help of the old Catholic Doctors, approved by the Church, and also of the best authors that in these days now do write, and of them all gathered out, that after my judgment should declare the Scripture best and most for the glory of God, and for the edifying of the Christians unlearned in tongues, as may be seen throughout all this exposition. ...If this exposition do agree with the Holy Scriptures, as I trust it doth, take it; if it do not, refuse it. I would have my writings or sayings no further to be taken, than they do agree with the Holy Scriptures of God, and by them may be proved, and by the Holy Scriptures only to be judged. I am a man, and may err as well as others have done; but I will not be obstinate, if I shall be gently admonished and instructed better by the Holy Scriptures of God, to whom be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen. Preface to Commentary on the Ephesians.

5. TINDAL, MARTYR.

"The last chapter is a chapter of recommendation, wherein he yet mingleth a good monition, that we should beware of the traditions and doctrine of men, which beguile the simple with sophistry and learning that is

not after the Gospel, and draw them from Christ, and noosel them in weak and feeble and (as Paul calleth them in the Epistle to the Galatians) in beggarly ceremonies, for the intent that they would live in fat pastures and be in authority and be taken as Christ, yea and above Christ, and sit in the temple of God, that is to wit, in the consciences of men, where God only, his Word, and his Christ ought to sit. Compare therefore all manner of doctrine of men unto the Scripture, and see whether they agree or not. And commit thyself whole and altogether unto Christ, and so shall He with his Holy Spirit and with all his fulness dwell in thy soul." Prologue upon the Epistle to the Romans.

6. FRITH, MARTYR.

"To this we may answer, that we believe God's word, and acknowledge that it is true: but in this we dissent, whether it be true in the sense that we take it in, or in the sense that ye take it in. And we say again, that though ye have (as it appeareth unto you) the evident words of Christ, and therefore consist in the bark of the letter: yet are we compelled, by conferring of the Scriptures together within the letter, to search out the mind of our Saviour which spake the words..... We do it to satisfy our consciences, which are compelled by other places of Scripture, reasons, and doctrines, so to judge of it. And even so, ought you to judge of your party, and to defend your sentence, not of obstinacy, but by reason of Scripture, which causes you so to take it." A work on the Sacrament of the Body of Christ.

7. BARNES, MARTYR.

"Here have I translated a great many of their sayings into English, let other men judge, whether I understand them or not. Go ye to the Latin and let us see what other