39. De jurejurando.

Quemadmodum juramentum vanum et temerarium a Domino nostro Jesu Christo, et Apostolo ejus Jacobo, Christianis hominibus interdictum esse fatemur: Ita Christianorum Religionem minime prohibere censemus, quin jubente magistratu in causa fidei et charitatis jurare liceat, modo id fiat juxta Prophetæ doctrinam, in justitia, in judicio, et veritate.

Confirmatio Articulorum.

Hic liber antedictorum Articulorum jam denuo approbatus est, per assensum, et consensum Serenissimæ Reginæ Elizabethæ Dominæ nostræ, Dei gratia Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ, Reginæ, defensoris fidei, &c. retinendus, et per totum regnum Angliæ exequendus. Qui Articuli, et lecti sunt, et denuo confirmati, subscriptione D. Archiepiscopi et Episcoporum, superioris domus, et totius Cleri inferioris domus, in Convocatione Anno Domini, 1571.

PART III.

AN EXPOSITION OF THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.

ARTICLE THE FIRST.

OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY.

There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without Body, Parts, or Passions, of infinite Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, the Maker and Preserver of all Things both visible and invisible; and in the Unity of this Godhead there are three Persons of one Substance, Power, and Eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

THIS first article asserts the Being and Attributes of God, which are the foundation of all religion; and it farther declares, that the Godhead consists of three persons, which, though it appears to have made a part of the original revelation to mankind, was so far forgotten or obscured, that it may be considered as one of the characteristic doctrines of the Gospel.

The universal consent of mankind has ever been admitted as a strong argument in favour of the existence of a God. We learn from the history of former times, and from the observation of modern travellers, that in every country, and at every period, some idea of a Superior Being, and some species of

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divine worship, have prevailed. This," says Dr. Nicholls, "is very good evidence of the reality of a Supreme Being; and whether we ground it upon tradition or universal principles of reasoning, it is a better foundation to rest upon than the fanciful speculations of some particular private persons, who are more liable to be mistaken than the most learned and wise men of all nations and all ages of the world, and who probably could not have all fallen into the uniform opinion of a divine Creator and Governor of the world, unless he had been pleased, some time or other, in the early ages of the world, to have revealed it to them, which they readily at first embraced, and afterwards tenaciously adhered to, finding it so highly agreeable to their reason. It avails little to say, that there may be a stupid. clan or two of barbarous people, who have very little of these notices; for the observation of such people's practices and opinions may not have been exactly enough made by those traders who have made these reports, for want of their lingua, and by reason of their short and imperfect conversation with them; or, however, were the observation true, the contrary opinion of a few stupid people, who are almost degenerated into beasts, is but a sorry pretence to set up against the judgment of so many civilised nations, in so many successive ages of the world, confirmed by the reason of so many wise and learned men, who have been educated in them." "Those nations, of which these reports a Nicholls's Commentary upon Art.

a

are given out, are so extremely sunk from all that is wise and regular, great and good, in human nature, so rude and untractable, and so incapable of arts and discipline, that if the reports concerning them are to be believed, and if that weakens the argument from the common consent of mankind on the one hand, it strengthens it on another; while it appears that human nature, when it wants this impression, wants with it all that is great and orderly in it, and shows a brutality almost as low and base as is that of beasts."a But though all civilised nations have concurred in the belief of one or more Gods, there has been an infinite diversity in the modes of divine Worship; and the errors and absurdities, with which all religions, except those of Moses and of Christ, have abounded, fully evince the weakness of the human intellect when unassisted by revelation. Some few individuals, in the different ages of the world, have indeed rejected all belief in the existence of a God; but we may generally trace the rejection of a Deity to the source of pride or of profligacy; and even the late public avowal of atheism, by those who have usurped the government in a neighbouring country, originating from a philosophy falsely so called, and accompanied by crimes unparalleled in the annals of mankind, cannot be considered as in any degree affecting the argument arising from general consent, especially when it is remembered that this

apostacy from religion is clearly foretold in the holy Scriptures.

a

But a more direct proof of the being of a God may be derived from the universe itself; we are not only conscious of our own existence, but we also know that there exists a great variety of other things, both material and spiritual. It is equally inconceivable that these things should have existed from all eternity in their present state, or that they should have fallen into this state by chance; and consequently, as there was a time when they did not exist, and as it was impossible for them to produce themselves, it follows, that there was some exterior agent or creator to whom the world owed its beginning and form; that agent or creator we call God. "We read," says Bishop Pearson, "the Great Artificer of the world in the work of his own hands, and by the existence of any thing we demonstrate the first cause of all things." And since it is absurd to suppose that there are two prime causes of all things, two supreme governors of the world, or two self-existent and independent Beings of infinite perfections, we are obliged to conclude that God is One. The Supreme Being, however, has not left this important truth to the deduction of human reason only, but has confirmed and established it by Revelation. The unity of

a Vide Mr. Kett's "History the Interpreter of Prophecy;" a very interesting work, written with great elegance and judgment, and which I recommend to all who are

b

desirous of becoming acquainted with the prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, especially those which relate to the present times.

Pearson on the Creed, Art. 1.