bishops, Bishops, and clergy, for the avoiding of diversities of opinions, and for the establishment of consent touching true religion," in the days of the Anglican Reformation.

Our Church, then, having provided a code of faith and test of membership, binding on all within her pale, it behoves those who would learn and know clearly if they are of her communion, to search and examine what that Confession really is, and if the doctrines it sets forth be those to which Christians abhorring the errors of Rome, and investigating all views by the light of Gospel truth, can firmly and conscientiously give their adhesion.

First, then, let us inquire what is the Church's settled creed.

Is it, as some would claim, to be found in the three Creeds? This is clearly impossible. The three Creeds embody, no doubt, the first elementary principles of the Christian faith; but they belong to the Church as Catholic, not considered in her Protestant aspect. Though singularly free from error, they are professed in common with us, the Apostles and Athanasian by the Romish, the Nicene by the Greek Church; they therefore can only be considered as general confessions of Christ's Catholic Church, not as the more detailed one of that reformed branch of it established in this land, in which are set forth our doctrines as differing from those of other communions.

Is our Church's creed to be found, as the

Ritualists persist in maintaining, in the PrayerBook and Rubrics?

In any theological dispute, such as the discussions now so frequent on the nature and authority of the Church, the sacramental controversies, and many other points on which the opposing schools of thought can never arrive at a settled conclusion, the advanced or Ritualistic party invariably appeal to the "Prayer-Book " or " Rubrics " for a settlement of the difficulty.

Now it is manifest that a book of devotional forms, such as our Liturgy, however perfect in itself, cannot, and does not, make any pretensions to be a profession of faith, or an exposition of those doctrines on which its own rites and ceremonies are based. The Prayer-Book never was compiled with any such intention on the part of our Anglican Reformers, but has its own sphere and office, which is certainly not that of the Church's Confession of Faith. Our Liturgy was intended to be what it isa matchless form of worship for the use of those who, holding the same opinions and being united in one Communion and fellowship, assemble to worship in a common form of prayer.

The Rubrics are obviously but a code of rules and regulations for the due performance of divine service according to the laws and directions of the Church, so that nothing may be done at the individual will or personal judgment of the officiating clergy, contrary to, or beyond what is contained in,

that authorised form legalised to be used in all churches of this land. Neither Prayer-Book nor Rubrics ever were, are, or can be the Confession of Faith or rule of membership set forth by the Church. What then is that document,-at once stamping the Established Church of this country as part of the ancient Catholic faith, yet, having abjured the errors of the Papacy, as truly Scriptural and Protestant, by which all who call themselves Churchmen are invited to try and examine whether they be of her true faith or not?

That Confession and code-to come at last to the point is contained in and expressed by the document headed "The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion," agreed upon by the Bishops and clergy of the Reformed Anglican Church in the Convocation of 1562, confirmed and ratified by the Crown, Convocation, and Parliament in 1571, which is to be found towards the close of every properly printed Prayer-Book, a position it has held since its first appearance there in the form of the Forty-two Articles of the revised book of 1552. From the final ratification in 1571 (which is inserted below the Articles) down to the present day, they have not been touched or altered by the addition or omission of a single word, but have remained as originally issued by the Anglican Reformers of the sixteenth century. So far as this fact is concerned, our Church may certainly lay claim to the possession of a "settled doctrine."

We will now proceed to establish the foregoing remarks as to the nature and office of the "Thirtynine Articles of Religion."

As has been said, Protestantism being in itself but the repudiation of certain errors, declaring only what it renounced, not what it accepted, it behoved those religious bodies which in the sixteenth century cast away the shackles of Rome each to set forth before the world a clearly defined statement of the doctrines it intended to accept, and the position it meant to occupy with respect to Rome and the Reformation. Of these Confessions the celebrated Augsburg was chief.

The Augsburg Confession (which, considerably altered and enlarged, was in 1552 put forth anew as the Wurtemburg) was that which particularly affected our own Church, and laid the basis on which her superstructure was subsequently raised.

Drawn up by Melancthon and sanctioned by Luther at a period when the ultra-Protestants had gone such lengths as were disapproved even by the great Reformer himself, and when there seemed some prospect of a compromise with the Papacy (happily never fulfilled), this code of statements was framed with great care and moderation. It con

tained twenty-eight articles, twenty-one being declarations of those things most surely believed by the Lutheran party, while the remaining seven protested against various abuses of Rome. The former defined the leading doctrines of the Reformation

much as they are defined by our own Articles, though expressing themselves in stronger terms on the subjects of the Sacraments, on which points their teaching follows more nearly that of Rome than on the lines laid down by the Reformation of England. They allow nothing to be held by the Lutheran body but what is authorised by Scripture and the Primitive Church, and define the nature and authority of the Church in nearly the same manner as our Articles declare it. The chief errors against which they protest are the sacrifice of the Mass, refusal of the cup to laity, auricular confession, monastic life and vows, Papal supremacy, and other leading doctrines and practices of the Romish Church.

Not only did the Reformed bodies each declare its faith, but those communities which persisted in their adherence to the Papacy were by it required to define their standing towards it, according to the decrees of the Council of Trent and the Creed of Pius IV.

Following the example of the other religious organisations in this respect, the English Church prepared and presented to the world her own declaration of faith. On her repudiation of the Papal supremacy in 1533, she distinctly stated and maintained that she had no intent "to decline or vary from the congregation of Christ's Church in things concerning the very articles of the Catholic faith, or in any other things declared by Holy