The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England were intended to establish, in basic terms, the faith and practice of the Church of England. While not designed to be a creed or complete statement of the Christian faith, the articles explain the Reformed doctrinal position of the Church of England in relation to Catholicism and Anabaptism.[7]
Wesley revised the Articles in 1784 for the Methodist work in America.[1][2] His twenty-four Articles reflect both his theological commitments and his desire for doctrinal clarity, shortening some articles and deleting others if they could be easily misread.
The articles Of Sanctification, taken from the Methodist Protestant Church, and Of the Duty of Christians to the Civil Authority were added by the Uniting Conference that constituted the Methodist Church in 1939.
Contents
Twenty-five Articles
1. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity.
2. Of the Word, or Son of God, Who Was Made Very Man.
3. Of the Resurrection of Christ.
4. Of the Holy Ghost.
5. Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation.
6. Of the Old Testament.
7. Of Original or Birth Sin.
8. Of Free Will.
9. Of the Justification of Man.
10. Of Good Works.
11. Of Works of Supererogation.
12. Of Sin After Justification.
13. Of the Church.
14. Of Purgatory.
15. Of Speaking in the Congregation in Such a Tongue as the People Understand.
16. Of the Sacraments.
17. Of Baptism.
18. Of the Lord's Supper.
19. Of Both Kinds.
20. Of the One Oblation of Christ, Finished upon the Cross.
21. Of the Marriage of Ministers.
22. Of the Rites and Ceremonies of Churches.
23. Of the Rulers of the United States of America.
24. Of Christian Men's Goods.
25. Of a Christian Man's Oath.
Of Sanctification.
Of the Duty of Christians to the Civil Authority.
References
12Melton, J. Gordon (1 January 2005). Encyclopedia of Protestantism. Infobase Publishing. p.48. ISBN9780816069835. Among the items deleted by Wesley as unnecessary for Methodists were articles on Of Works Before Justification, which in Calvinism are largely discounted, but in Methodism lauded; Of Predestination and Election, which Wesley felt would be understood in a Calvinist manner that the Methodists rejected; and Of the Traditions of the Church, which Wesley felt to be no longer at issue.
12Phelan, Macum (1916). Handbook of All Denominations. Smith & Lamar. p.113. A discipline was adopted, contianing the General Rules and Articles of Religion, abridged by Wesley from the Thirty-Nine Articles, the new form being stripped of all distinctly Catholic and Calvinistic elements, and a liturgy, also prepared by Wesley.
↑Milton, Anthony (9 May 2002). Catholic and Reformed: The Roman and Protestant Churches in English Protestant Thought, 1600-1640. Cambridge University Press. p.396. ISBN978-0-521-89329-9. Nevertheless, the Thirty-Nine Articles were certainly broadly consistent with the Reformed consensus in doctrinal matters, and the generally received interpretation of the doctrine of the church was more directly in live with the tenets of continental Calvinist doctrine.
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