HIS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION1

2

BEING by God's Ordinance, according to our just Title, Defender of the Faith, and Supreme Governor of the Church, within these our Dominions, we hold it most agreeable to this our kingly office, and our own religious zeal, to conserve and maintain the Church committed to our charge, in the unity of true Religion, and in the bond of peace; and not to suffer unnecessary Disputations, Altercations, or Questions to be raised, which may nourish faction both in the Church and Commonwealth. We have, therefore, upon mature deliberation, and with the advice of so many of our Bishops as might conveniently be called together, thought fit to make this Declaration following:

That the Articles of the Church of England (which have been allowed and authorised heretofore, and which our Clergy generally have subscribed unto) do contain the true Doctrine of the Church of England, agreeable to God's Word; which we do therefore ratify and confirm, requiring all our loving subjects to continue in the uniform profession thereof, and prohibiting the least difference from the said Articles: which to that end we command to be new printed, and this our Declaration to be published therewith.

That we are Supreme Governor of the Church of England: and that if any difference arise about the external policy, concerning the Injunctions, Canons, and other Constitutions whatsoever thereto belonging, the Clergy in their Convocation is to order and settle them, having first obtained leave under our Broad Seal so to do: and we approving their said Ordinances and Constitutions; providing that none be made contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Land.

That out of our princely care that the Churchmen may do the work which is proper unto them, the Bishops and Clergy from time to time in Convocation, upen their humble desire,

1 Prefixed to the Articles in 1628, see p. 17.

2 For the history of this title see notes on Art. XXXVII.

shall have Licence under our Broad Seal to deliberate of, and to do all such things, as being made plain by them, and assented unto by us, shall concern the settled continuance of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England now established; from which we will not endure any varying or departing in the least degree.

That for the present, though some differences have been ill raised, yet we take comfort in this, that all Clergymen within our Realm have always most willingly subscribed to the Articles established; which is an argument to us, that they all agree in the true, usual, literal meaning of the said Articles; and that even in those curious points, in which the present differences lie, men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of England to be for them; which is an argument again that none of them intend any desertion of the Articles established.

That therefore in these both curious and unhappy differences, which have for so many hundred years, in different times and places, exercised the Church of Christ, we will, that all further curious search be laid aside, and these disputes shut up in God's promises, as they be generally set forth to us in the Holy Scriptures, and the general meaning of the Articles of the Church. of England according to them. And that no man hereafter shall either print, or preach, to draw the Article aside any way, but shall submit to it in the plain and full meaning thereof; and shall not put his own sense or comment to be the meaning of the Article, but shall take it in the literal and grammatical

sense.

That if any Public Reader, in either of our Universities, or any Head or Master of a College, or any other person respectively in either of them, shall affix any new sense to any Article, or shall publicly read, determine, or hold any public disputation, or suffer any such to be held either way, in either the Universities or Colleges respectively; or if any Divine in the Universities shall preach or print anything either way, other than is already established in Convocation with our Royal Assent; he, or they the offenders, shall be liable to our displeasure, and the Church's censure in our Commission Ecclesiastical, as well as any other; and we will see there shall be due execution upon them.

1 Viz., the points in dispute between the Calvinistic party and those whom, on account of their opposition to them, they desiguated Arminians.

2 See notes on Art. XVII.

Largely borrowed from the Augsburg Confession, Part I., Art. I., through the medium of the XIII. Articles. The words printed in italics are common to all three formularies.

The Article of course excludes Arian and Sabellian heretics. Its immediate object doubtless was to condemn the Anabaptists, and kindred spirits, who had revived these heresies at the period of the Reformation, many of them having renounced all belief in the Holy Trinity.1

That even those Articles which affirm the fundamental doctrines of the faith were called forth by the needs of the time is abundantly proved by contemporary documents; see, e.g., letter written by Ridley to Bradford shortly before his death (Works, p. 367, ed. Parker Society) :

"Whereas you write of the outrageous rule that Satan, our ghostly enemy, beareth abroad in the world, whereby he stirreth, and raiseth so pestilent and heinous heresies, as some to deny the blessed Trinity, some the Divinity

$ 3.-EXPOSITION.

(1) THE BEING OF GOD.

"There is but one living and true God."

Belief in the existence of God is the very foundation of all religion (Heb. xi. 6). His existence does not admit of demonstration, yet is a matter of reasonable certainty, being testified to by

(a) The phenomena of nature (Job xii. 7-10; Rom. i. 20). The argument for the existence of God from natural phenomena falls under two heads :-

(i) The argument from causation.

The succession of causes which we observe in nature must have derived its origin from some First Cause. In the words of Herbert Spencer, "The assumption of the existence of a first cause of the universe is a necessity of thought."

(ii) The argument from adaptation. The order and usefulness of the world, and all things therein, point to a wise and mighty Will behind it (Acts xiv. 17). So John Stuart Mill, in his work "On Theism," confesses, "I think it must be allowed that, in the present state of our knowledge, the adaptations in nature afford a large balance of probability in favour of creation by intelligence."

(b) The moral sense of mankind (Rom. ii. 15).

Should we not see in the obligatory influence of conscience, the sense of right and wrong, and of responsibility, the image, and therefore the proof, of the Divine Mind?

Thus we follow alike the strongest presumption of our reason, and the best intuition of the soul, when we believe that God is. The existence of God is confirmed, and His character more clearly manifested to us by Revelation. It was the work of Christ to declare to us the Father' (S. John i. 18; cf. xvii. 6).

of our Saviour Christ, some the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, some the baptism of infants, some original sin, and to be infected with the errors of the Pelagians, and to re-baptize those that have been baptized with Christ's baptism already; alas, Sir, this doth declare this time and these days to be wicked indeed."

1 This declarative aspect of Christ's work is especially prominent in the Gospel according to S. John.

Being Himself "the Image of the invisible God" (Col. i. 15), He showed the Father by exhibiting in Himself the moral image of God. Those who saw Him saw the Father (S. John xii. 45; xiv. 9). Those who hearkened to Him heard the words of the Father (S. John vii. 16; viii. 28; xiv. 24). The whole of His perfect life was a manifestation of the Father, with Whom He is one (S. John x. 30), and from Whom He came forth (S. John xvi. 28), His mission being attested by (a) fulfilment of prophecies (S. John v. 46), and by (b) miracles (S. John v. 36; xv. 24).

God is :

one (Deut. vi. 4; Isa. xliv. 8; S. Mark xii. 29; 1 Cor. viii. 4).

living, i.e. self-existent, having life in Himself (Exod. iii. 14; Jer. x. 10; S. John v. 26; 1 Thess. i. 9).

true (àλnovós, I Thess. i. 9; S. John xvii. 3)—the meaning of the Greek word is genuine,' denoting that which truly and completely is that which it professes to be. The sense is therefore that there is One only who perfectly fulfils the conception we form of what God should be.

(2) THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

'Everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness."

The Divine attributes given in the Article may be classified as follows:

(a) Positive attributes, such as impute to God the possession of certain qualities.

everlasting (Deut. xxxii. 40; Ps. cii. 27; Rev. i. 8). This follows upon recognition of God as the First Cause,' which must exist of Itself, and therefore must always exist.

of infinite power (S. Matt. xix. 26; but see 2 Tim. ii. 13; Heb. vi. 18). Thus Almighty' is a title often applied to God in Holy Scripture. When we say "God can do everything," we of course exclude those things which are in themselves impossible; e.g., that a thing should exist and not exist at the same moment.

1, TAVTOKράrwp, Lat. 'omnipotens,' (i.e. strictly, "having power over all things").

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