It is a little difficult to make out how far the Thirty-nine Articles
of the Church of England--"the forty stripes save one"--are binding or
non-binding on her members. There is, of course, no question that they
accurately sketch her doctrines, and that all her faithful children
should accept and believe them with devout piety, but scarcely any dogma
can be enforced by law against the laity, the whole spirit of the time
being directly antagonistic to such enforcement. But there is no doubt
that these Articles are both legally and morally binding on the clergy,
as they voluntarily submit themselves to them, and declare their full
and free belief in them when entering upon the enjoyment of any benefice
of the Establishment. The Royal Declaration, prefixed to the Articles,
is sweeping and decisive enough. "The Articles of the Church of England
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." After this distinct
declaration we are commanded "That no man hereafter shall either print,
or preach, to draw the Article aside either 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." When any outsider has read this
declaration it becomes to him one of the mysteries of the faith how it
is that English gentlemen, honest, honourable men in everything else,
manage to accept livings on condition of declaring their full concord
with these Articles, and then deliberately twist them into non-natural
meanings, in order that they may be Roman Catholic or Latitudinarian,
according to the opinions of the readers. It may, certainly, be conceded
that the "literal and grammatical sense" is very often nonsense, and
therefore cannot be believed; perfectly true: but these honest men
have no right to give the weight of their culture and their goodness
to bolster up this falling Church, whose dogmas they can never accept,
except by transfiguring their unreason into reason, and their folly into
wisdom. Many who are ignorant, and careless, and uncultured are kept as
nominal members of the Anglican Church because a glamour is thrown over
it by the Broad Church clergy; but their position cannot be too strongly
reprobated, _so long as they make no effort to alter that in which they
do not believe, so long as they silently support superstitions which
without their aid would, long ago, have crumbled into ruin._
Article I. deals with "Faith in the Holy Trinity." Most creeds,
certainly all Oriental creeds, cluster around a Trinity; the root of the
worship of the Trinity is struck deep into the nature of man, for it is
the worship of the life universal, localised in the giver of the life
individual, under the symbol of the phallic emblem, the creator of each
new existence. The Christian Trinity has, naturally, outgrown the primal
barbarism of Nature-worship, although preserving the Trinity in unity:
"There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts,
or passions... and in unity of this Godhead there be three persons, of
one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost" So far have we travelled under the guidance of the Church, and
we have before our mind's eye, one God, uncorporeate, passionless,
indivisible, and yet divided into three "persons," thus implying three
individualities, separate the one from the other. Let us remember that
the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, but that
since there is but one God, the Father is the Son, and the Son is the
Holy Ghost, and since the Father is the same as the Son, and the Son
is the same as the Holy Ghost, the Father and the Holy Ghost must
necessarily be identical. Article II. teaches us that "the Son, which
is the word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the
very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took man's
nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance;" the Son:
that is, the Second Person in the undivided and indivisible Trinity:
"begotten from everlasting of the Father;" but the Father is one with
the Son, for both are God, and yet there is but one God, and therefore
Son and Father are interchangeable terms; the Son then is begotten from
everlasting of himself, for in the one true God no division is possible,
and "such as the Father is such is the Son;" and further, the Son, being
the Son, and at the same time identical with his own Father, takes man's
nature: then the Father and the Holy Ghost must also take man's nature,
for "such as the Son such is the Father, and such is the Holy Ghost:"
and God, "without body," takes man's body, and "without parts" is
crucified, and "without passions" suffers. But the Son dies "to
reconcile his Father to us;" but he is his Father, and his Father is
himself. Can the one living and true God die to reconcile himself to
himself, and to offer himself up a sacrifice to himself to appease his
own wrath? The bodiless is nailed on the cross: the impassible suffers:
the undying dies: the one God on earth is offered to appease the one
God in heaven, and there is but one living and true God. If this be so,
either the God in heaven or the God on earth must have been a false God,
for there is but one true God: and the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who
must be kept indivisible in thought, hang upon the cross, as a sacrifice
to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and cry, being the one true God, to
"my God, my God" who has forsaken himself. And all this "to reconcile
the Father to us:" the Father who is "without passions," and who
therefore cannot be angry or need reconcilement. "As Christ died for
us, and was buried, so also it is to be believed that he went down into
hell." _Down_ into hell; which way is down from a round globe? In the
ancient conception of the universe the earth was flat, with heaven
above and hell underneath, and Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, when the earth
opened her mouth, "went down quick (alive) into hell:" did Jesus do
the same? But, hanging on the cross, he said to the penitent thief:
"_To-day_ shalt thou be with me in Paradise:" is Paradise the same hell?
and is heaven identical with both? Jesus ascended, went up, not down, to
heaven: if this be so, might not some confusion arise on the way, for
a soul starting downwards from Australia on its way to hell, might
be found soaring upwards from England after a few hours' journey. Are
heaven and hell both all round the world, and if so, why is one "up" and
the other "down"? Rome was right and wise when she set her face sternly
against the heliocentric theory; a revolving globe destroys all the old
notions of the "heaven above," and of "the water under the earth," and
of hell below; and it was a strong argument against the sphericity of
the earth that "in the day of judgment, men on the other side of the
globe could not see the Lord descending through the air." The Fourth
Article teaches us that Christ "took again his body, with flesh,
bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature;
_wherewith_ he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth." Body, flesh,
bones, and all things appertaining to man's nature; wishes, and
appetites, and needs, heart and lungs, for instance; and he took these
beyond the atmosphere? lungs to breathe where no air is? heart to
pulse where no oxygen can purify the blood? flesh and bones among pure
spirits? the form of man sitting on the throne of God? and this flesh,
bones, &c, all one with the indivisible, from the God without body
and parts, and Jesus the Son of Mary, the crucified man, sitting in his
flesh and bones in heaven, not to be separated in thought from the one
living and true God, without body, parts, or passions.* Such is the
"literal and grammatical sense" of the first four Articles, and to
analyse the Fifth, "of the Holy Ghost," would be simply to repeat all
that has been said above, since "such is the Son, such is the Holy
Ghost." May it not justly be said that belief in the Trinity in Unity
is the negation of thought, and that faith is only possible where reason
ends?
* 1 Cor. xv. 50.
Article VI. deals with "the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for
Salvation," and lays down the Canon that anything not capable of proof
from the Bible must not be "required of any man that it should be
believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or
necessary to salvation." The converse of this proposition, that dogmas
that can be proved therefrom _are_ necessary to salvation, is said
not to be binding on the Church, and some notable "depravers" of the
Scriptures have successfully slipped through this Article. The list
of books given as those "of whose authority was never any doubt in the
Church" seems open to grave objections, as the authority of many of
the books now accounted canonical has been distinctly challenged. "The
history of Jonah is so monstrous that it is absolutely incredible."
"Job spake not therefore as it stands written in his book." "Isaiah hath
borrowed his whole art and knowledge from David." Thus, among many other
staid criticisms, wrote Luther. To go further back, is to find much
sharp challenging. The Epistle to the Hebrews is of most doubtful
authenticity. The 2nd Epistle of Peter and that of Jude are debatable.
The Revelation of St. John the Divine was very slowly received, and the
two shorter Epistles which bear his name are dubiously recognised. If
only the books are to be received of which there "was never any doubt in
the Church," the canonical list must be shorn of most of its ornaments.
When Article VII. tells us that the ceremonial and civil precepts of the
Old Testament are not binding upon us, it seems a pity that some test
is not given whereby unlearned people may be able to distinguish between
the "Commandments which are called moral" and the others. Is the command
to persecute non-believers in Jehovah (Deut. xiii., xvii. 2--7) binding
to-day? Is the command to put Witches to death (Lev. xx. 27) binding
to-day? John Wesley said that belief in witchcraft was incumbent on all
those who believed the Bible, and if witchcraft was possible then, why
not now? or has God changed his mind as to the proper method of dealing
with such persons? Are the commands enjoining and regulating Slavery
(Ex. xxi. 2--6, and 20, 21; Lev. xxv. 44--46; Deut. xv. 12--18) intended
for the guidance of slave-holders to-day? What is there to make the
"Commandments which are called moral"--by which we may presume are meant
the Ten Commandments--more binding on "Christian men" than the other
parts of the law? The Fourth Commandment is essentially a Jewish one,
and is not obeyed among Christians. The Second Commandment is invariably
ignored, and the Fifth promises a reward which is not given. The
Commandments touching murder, adultery, stealing, lying are not peculiar
to the Mosaic code. They are found in all moral legislation, and are
binding--not because taught by Moses or by Buddha, but--because their
observance is necessary to the existence of society. Of the three
Creeds of the Church we have already spoken, so pass to Article IX., "of
Original or Birth-sin." It seems that a fault and corruption of Nature
are naturally "engendered of the offspring of Adam," and that this
fault "in every person born into the world deserveth God's wrath and
damnation." That seems scarcely fair, since the infant's consent is not
asked before he is born into the world, and the fault of being born is,
therefore, none of his. How, then, can the babe _deserve_ God's wrath
and damnation? And seeing that the very next Article (X.) informs us
that our condition is such that a man "cannot turn and prepare himself,
by his own natural strength and good works, to faith and calling upon
God," it appears terribly unjust that either child or man should be
held accursed because they do not do what God has made them incapable of
doing. It would be as reasonable to torture a man for not flying without
wings, as for God to punish man for being born of the race of Adam, and
for not turning to God when the power so to do is withheld; for "we have
_no power to do good works_.... without the grace of God by Christ," and
when that grace is not given we lie helpless and strength-less, unable
to do right. Nor can any deed of ours make us fit recipients of the
grace of God, for (Article XIII.) "works done before the grace of Christ
and the Inspiration of his Spirit _are not pleasant_ to God.... neither
do they make men meet to receive grace.... yea, rather, for that they
are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, _we doubt
not but that they have the nature of sin_." So that if a good and noble
heathen, who has never heard of Christ, and whose good deeds cannot
therefore "spring of faith in Jesus Christ," does some high-minded
action, or shows some kindly charity, his good deeds are of "the nature
of sin," and in fact make him rather worse off than he was before: as
Melancthon said, his virtues are only "splendid vices" because done
without faith in a person of whom he has never heard. For (Art. XVIII.)
they "are to be accursed that presume to say that every man shall be
saved by the law or sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to
frame his life according to that law, and the light of nature:" "we are
accounted righteous before God (Art. XI.) _only_ for the merit of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and _not for our own works and'
deservings_." Thus we learn that God cares not for righteousness of
life, but only for blind faith, and that he sends us out into a world
lying under his curse, without any chance of salvation except by
attaining a faith which he gives or withholds at his pleasure, and which
we can of ourselves do nothing to deserve, much less to obtain. To crown
this beautiful theory we learn,--Article XVII. "of Predestination
and Election:"--predestination to life, it seems, "is the everlasting
purpose of God whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid)
he hath constantly decreed by his counsel, secret to us, to deliver from
curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind,
and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made
to honour." But if this be true, man has no choice of any kind in the
matter; for not only is grace to do right the gift of God, but man's
acceptance of the gift is also compulsory. God has arranged, before he
made the world how many and whom he will save. What, then, becomes of
man's boasted free will? Before the creation God drew the plan of every
human life, and as the potter moulds the ductile clay into the shape
he desires, so God moulds his human pottery after his own will into
"vessels made to salvation" or made to dishonour. To talk of man's
freedom is a mockery. What freedom had Adam and Eve in Paradise? "They
might have stood:" nay; for was not "the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world?" Before the sin was committed God had made the atonement
for it. If Adam were free not to sin, then it would be possible that
he might not have sinned, and then God would have offered a needless
sacrifice, and would have a Saviour with no one to save, so that it
would have been necessary to provide a sinner in order to utilise the
sacrifice. All idea of justice is here hideously impossible; God has
predestinated some human beings _out of mankind_. These "in due season"
he calls; "through grace they obey the calling;" "they be justified
freely... and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting
felicity." And the rest--those who are _not_ predestined; those who are
_not_ called; those to whom _no_ grace is given; those who are _not_
justified freely; those who have no God's mercy to aid them;--what
of them? Made by God, the creatures of his hand, the vessels of his
moulding, the clay of his shaping, are they cast into the lake of
brimstone, into the fire that never shall be quenched, simply because
God in "his sovereignty" put them--unconscious--under his curse and left
them there, adding to the cruelty of creation the more savage cruelty
of preservation? No! whether such deeds should be wrought by God or man,
they would be wickedly wrong. Almighty power is no excuse for crime, and
the God of the Articles of the Church of England is a gigantic criminal,
who uses his Almightiness to make life that he may torment it, and to
create sentient beings foredoomed to bitterest agony, to keenest woe.
Such frightful misuse of power can only meet with strongest reprobation
from all moral beings; unlimited power turned to evil purposes may
trample upon and crush us into helplessness, but it can never force us
to worship, nor compel us to adore.
These first eighteen Articles of the Church may be said to contain the
more salient points of the Church's teaching, and it is needless to
point out the utter impossibility of reasonable and gentle-hearted men
and women believing in the "plan of, salvation" sketched out in them.
They are instinct with the cruel theology of Calvin and of Zwingli,
and imply (though they do not so plainly word) the view of the Lambeth
Articles of 1595, that "God from eternity hath predestinated certain men
unto life; _certain he hath reprobated_." These Anglican Articles
must be taken as teaching predestination to damnation as well as to
salvation, since those not called to life must inevitably fall to
death. The next section--so to speak--of the Articles deals with
Church affairs, defining the authority of Churches and of Councils, and
explaining the 'doctrine of the Sacraments. It is with these that
the High Church party chiefly fall out, for the Twenty-first Article,
acknowledging that General Councils may err and have erred, strikes at
the root of the infallibility of the Church Universal, so dear to the
priestly soul. The Articles on the Sacraments also tend somewhat to the
Low Church view of them, and dwell more on the faith of the recipient
than on the consecration of the priest. The Article (XXXIII.) levelled
against "excommunicate persons," commanding that such an one shall
"be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful, as an Heathen and
Publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance," is duly believed
and subscribed by clergymen, but has no real meaning to-day. If the
Thirty-fifth Article were acted upon, some curiosities of English
literature would enliven the Churches; for this Article bids the
clergy read the Homilies: "we judge them to be read in Churches by the
Ministers, diligently and distinctly, that they may be understanded of
the people." It is really a pity that this direction is not carried out,
for some of the barbarous doctrines of popular Christianity would then
be seen as they are described by men who thoroughly believed in them,
instead of being known only as they are presented to us to-day, with
some of their deformity hidden under the robes woven for them by modern
civilisation, wherein humanity has outgrown the old Christianity, and
men's reason chastens their faith. The last three Articles touch on
civil matters, acknowledging the Royal Supremacy and dealing with other
matters pertaining to Caesar, but on the borderland between him and God.
Such are the Articles of the Church; believed by few, unknown to
many, winked at by all, because religion is practically a matter of
indifference to most, and while custom and fashion enforce conformity
with the Church, the brain troubles not itself to analyse the claim, or
to weigh the conditions of allegiance. Men have become so sceptical as
to regard all creeds with indifference, and the half-conceived unbelief
of the clergy, sighing with mental reservations, and formally asserting
belief where the thought and the lips are at variance, appears to have
eaten the heart out of all religious honesty in England, and men lie to
God who would revolt at lying to man. If belief in the Articles is now a
thing of the past, then the Articles should also pass away; if Churchmen
have outgrown these dogmas, why do they suffer them to deface their
Prayer-Book, to barb "the shafts of the sceptic, and to give power to
the sneer of the scoffer?"