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CATENA PATRUM

FROM THE WRITINGS OF ANGLICAN DIVINES WHO HAVE REGARDED

SCRIPTURE AS THE ONLY TEST OF THE DIVINE WILL.

CATENA PATRUM,

FROM

THE WRITINGS OF ANGLICAN DIVINES

WHO HAVE REGARDED

SCRIPTURE

AS

THE ONLY TEST OF THE DIVINE WILL.

THE following series of extracts will clearly show how unwarranted is the assertion sometimes made, that the great Bishops and Doctors of the Church of England have unanimously regarded either the Church Catholic, Tradition, the Ancient Fathers, or General Councils, as divinely authorised interpreters of Holy Scripture.

It will here be seen that the written Word of God, examined by the personal judgment of the private Christian, with the assistance of the promised grace of the Holy Ghost, is accounted to be the sole test of truth by a noble host of the brightest ornaments of the Anglican Church. It will appear, that however confidently our Reformers and Divines uphold the fact, that our

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doctrines harmonize with the faith of the pure Church of Antiquity, they nevertheless refer with undoubting confidence to the pages of Holy Scripture as the sole criterion of the orthodoxy of any Church, or Council, or primitive writer. At times, they meet the Romanist adversary on his own ground, and establish the falsehood of his claims to the support of antiquity; at times, they prove, by reference to ancient writings and documents, that the doctrines of Protestantism are no novelty in the world: but when they come to the proof that their own views are sanctioned by our Lord and his Apostles, they know of no authority but the written. Word, in its plain, grammatical meaning, commending itself to the common sense and intelligence of its readers. In the the interpretation of the Bible, they admit no infallible judge whatsoever: they assert, that God gave his Word for the especial purpose that, by what is therein written, the individual members of Christ's body might test for themselves the conflicting doctrines which prevail in the Christian world around them.

Many Anglican Divines have doubtless held a different view of the subject; and it is well that our authorized formularies have been so framed as to admit within our pale the supporters of both sides of the question. But when we come to debate concerning the real sentiments of the venerable men who were God's instruments in reforming our national Church, we are surely justified in asserting, that the truly Anglican doctrine is that which has been sanctioned by Ridley and Latimer, by Cranmer and Hooper, by Parker and by Jewell.