A Full Report of the Proceedings in the Case of the Office of the Judge Promoted by Hodgson V. Rev. F. Oakley: Before the Rt. Hon. Sir Herbert Jenner . of the Arches, &C. &C. &C (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Full Report of the Proceedings in the Case of the Office of the Judge Promoted by Hodgson V. Rev. F. Oakley: Before the Rt. Hon. Sir Herbert Jenner Fust, Kt., Dean of the Arches, &C. &C. &C

That the Articles of our faith were drawn up, in direct opposition to the Roman Catholic doctrines, appears not only from the terms in which they have been drawn up, but also from writers of the highest authority. Bishop Burnet, a learned Prelate of our Church, who wrote upon the Thirty nine Articles, and whose work is universally known, in his Introduction speaks thus Another reason that the first Reformers had for their descending in to so many particulars, and for all these negatives that are in their confessions, wasthis: they had smarted long under the tyranny of Popery, and so they had reason to secure themselves from it, and from all those who were leavened with it. They here in England had seen how many had complied with every alteration both in King Henry and King Edward's reign, who not only declared themselves to have been all the while Papists, but became bloody persecutors in Queen Mary's reign: therefore it was necessary to keep all such out of their body, that they might not secretly undermine and betray it. Now since the Church of Rome owns all that is positive in our doctrine, there could be no discrimination made, but by condemning the most important of those additions, that they have brought into the Christian religion, in express words; and though in matters of fact, or in theories of nature, it is not safe to affirm a negative, because it is seldom possible to prove it; yet the fundamental articles upon which the whole Reformation and this our Church depends, is this, that the whole doctrines of the Christian religion are contained in the Scripture, and that therefore we are to admit no article as a part of it till it is proved from Scripture. Clearly, therefore, in the opinion of this Bishop, the Articles were drawn up in express contradiction to the doctrines of the Roman Church. And the same proposition is laid down by Bishop Tomlins, and also by Dr. Bennett in his work on the Thirty-nine Articles.

From these authorities it would, therefore, appear that the design of our Articles was not merely for peace, but that the subscribers should give their full assent to them. They were not merely intended, that those who subscribed them should refrain from preaching against them, but that such persons should pledge themselves to a full and unfeigned assent to their contents.

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