THE DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND by Percy T. Magan

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 28, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 29.

THE DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

By Percy T. Magan

Is It Protestant and Christian?

BY PERCY T. MAGAN.

[This article is No. 23 in the series entitled "A Review of Sunday Legislation in Century Nineteen," but it will be of equal interest to those who have not read preceding numbers. The next will relate to persecutions by that church.—Ed. S. of T.]

ALL of these articles of the Church of England quoted in our last, are biblical. They are a great improvement over the teachings of Rome on the same points. A brief study of the question will reveal the important difference.

Article VI declares that "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation." Said the apostle Paul when giving his farewell charge to the elders of the church at Ephesus: "And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." Thus on this point there is no dissonance between the word of God and the Church of England.

But how stands the case with the Church of Rome? Hearken to the answer of his eminence James Cardinal Gibbons:—

A rule of faith, or a competent guide to heaven, must be able to instruct in all the truth necessary for salvation. Now the Scriptures alone do not contain all the truth which a Christian is bound to believe, nor do they explicitly enjoin all the duties which he is obliged to practice.

It does not take any very great amount of wisdom to see that there is everything else but consonance between the word of God and the word of Rome on this point.

Upon the points of justification by faith, good works, and works of supererogation the Church of England undoubtedly has a biblical platform. There are comfort and hope to the sin-sick soul in her sentiments upon all of these lines, and this because they express Scripture truths. But how stands the case with Rome?

They [Protestants] have framed a new dogma, not to be found in any of the creeds, or in the canons of any general council; I mean, the new dogma of justification by faith alone, or by faith only. . . .

By adding the word alone Protestants profess to exclude all exterior, ceremonial, pious, or charitable works, works of obedience or of penance, and good moral acts whatever, as means of apprehending justification, or as conditions to obtain it. Protestants by that word alone mean also to exclude the sacraments of baptism and penance as means of apprehending or possessing themselves of justification, which they maintain is only apprehended by faith. . . .

Indeed some of them go so far as to consider these interior good acts, as well as other exterior good deeds, rather hindrances than dispositions to justification.

To do these acts with the view of being justified is, they say, like giving a penny to the queen to obtain from her a royal gift. Come as you are they add; you cannot be too bad for Jesus. Through faith alone in his promise, they assert you can and should accept Christ's merits, seize Christ's redemption and his justice, appropriate Christ to yourself, believe that Jesus is with you, is yours, that he pardons your sins, and all this without any preparation and without doing anything on your part; in fact, that however deficient you may be in all other dispositions which Catholics require, and however loaded with sins, if you only trust in Jesus that he will forgive your sins and save you, you are by thattrust alone forgiven, personally redeemed, justified, and placed in a state of salvation.

And let every true Protestant say amen, for we are prepared to stand upon this very platform of

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE.

It is the truth, the Bible truth—and thank God for it. We recommend it to all the world as the true and only gospel. On the precious texts of Scripture which teach us all of this every soul on earth may safely take his stand. And when challenged by the sentry at heaven's gate as to his right to enter in, these words of Scripture—"that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law"—will prove a never-failing passport. Amen and amen from every grateful redeemed soul throughout the universe.

But what saith Rome?

We are clearly told by St. Paul that we are "SAVED BY PENANCE," therefore neither faith, nor hope, nor humility, nor prayer, nor anything else is necessary for salvation, but penance alone is required and is sufficient, or at least penance is the only thing that apprehends justification.

This is the papal doctrine. Dear reader, which do you choose—the penitence of God, which is a fruit of faith, or the penance of Rome, which is a seed prolific with devilry?

Once more, the Church of England is correct on her doctrine concerning works of supererogation? What are works of supererogation? Thus: The Papacy states that Jesus Christ did much more than was necessary to reconcile God to man. It was said that one single drop of his blood would have been sufficient. "But he shed it copiously in order to form a treasure for his church that eternity can never exhaust. The supererogatory merits of the saints, the reward of the good works they had done beyond their obligation, have still further augmented this treasure. Its keeping and management were confided to Christ's vicar on earth. He applies to each sinner, for the sins committed after baptism, those merits of Jesus Christ and of the saints, according to the measure and the quantity his sins require.

Such is the Romish doctrine of supererogatory works. It makes every saint a saviour. But the Bible says there is only one Saviour. So here again the Papacy and the Lord are at variance. And it makes out that men are saved by works, and that they can do more than enough. Could there be greater blasphemy?

But all of these man-made schemes are instantly swept away in the grand doctrine of JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE, the true and only gospel. On it we take our stand against Rome and all the world. Well has it been confessed by the great reformer of century sixteen:—

Well then, I, Doctor Martin Luther, unworthy herald of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, confess this article, that faith alone without works justifies before God; and I declare that it shall stand and remain forever in spite of the emperor of the Romans, the emperor of the Turks, the emperor of the Tartars, the emperor of the Persians; in spite of the pope and all the cardinals, with the bishops, priests, monks, and nuns; in spite of kings, princes, and nobles, and in spite of all the world, and of the devils themselves; and that if they endeavor to fight against the truth, they will draw the fires of hell upon their heads. This is the true and holy gospel, and the declaration of me, Doctor Luther, according to the teaching of the Holy Ghost. There is no one who has died for our sins, if not Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I say it once again, should all the world and all the devils tear each other to pieces and burst with rage, that it is not the less true. And if it is he alone that taketh away our sins, it cannot be ourselves, and our good works. But good works follow redemption, as the fruit grows on the tree. That is our doctrine, that is what is taught by the Holy Ghost, and by all the communion of saints. We hold fast to it in the name of God. Amen.

This is the doctrine of the "thirty-nine articles" of the Church of England. And so from all these reasons we do again declare that the Church of England, in point of doctrine, is better than the Church of Rome.