This is an excellent little defence of the evangelical basis of Anglicanism. JC Ryle was the evangelical Bishop of Liverpool at the turn of the 19th Century.
Knots Untied is a collection of his essays on Anglicanism and a biblical and historical defence against the rising anglo-catholicism of the time. He is full of wisdom and passion:
I know it is one of the hardest things in the world to realize the sinfulness of sin. To say we are all sinners is one thing; to have an idea what sin must be in the sight of God is quite another. Sin is too much part of ourselves to allow us to see it as it is: we do not feel our own moral deformity, p26.
The more any man considers calmly what God really is, the more he must feel the immeasurable distance between God and himself; His conscience, I think, will tell him, if he will let it speak, that God is perfect, and he imperfect; and that if ever he is to stand before Him in judgment with comfort, he must have some mighty Helper, or he will not be saved, p27
There is place in Christianity for godly hatred and intolerance:
There is a hatred which is downright charity, that is, the hatred of erroneous doctrine. There is an intolerance which is downright praiseworthy, that is, the intolerance of false teaching in the pulpit. Who would ever think of tolerating a little poison given to him day by day?
True Anglicanism, what Ryle calls being a ‘true Churchman’, is bound up with holding to the Bible and the Biblically derived “39 Articles”:
But as long as I have breath in my body, I shall always contend that there is such a thing as [Biblically] revealed truth, – that men may find out what truth is if they will honestly seek for it, – and that mere earnestness and zeal, without Scriptural knowledge, will never give any one comfort in life, or peace in death. But how are we to find out who is the “true Churchman”? The answer to all these inquiries is short, plain, and most decided. The Church of England has provided a test of true Churchmanship, and one that is recognized by the law of the land. This test is to be found in “the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion.” p47
Although Ryle is a faithful supporter of the Book of Common Prayer, he qualifies:
The Book of Common Prayer was never intended to be the Church’s standard of doctrine in the same way that the Articles were. It is a manual of public devotion: it is not a Confession of faith. Let us love it, prize it, and use it. But let us not exalt it to the place which the Thirty-nine Articles alone can fill… The Articles, far more than the Prayer-book, are the Church’s standard of sound doctrine, and the real test of true Churchmanship, p55.
If I could only reach the ear of all thinking lay Churchmen, I should like to say, “Do read your Articles.” As for clergymen, if I had my own way I would require them to read the Articles publicly in church once every year, p62.
He argues that there is no “regulative principle” in the New Testament, that is, there is no detailed agenda for Christian gatherings provided in the New Testament. But there are principles upon which there is freedom of application:
The contrast between the Church of the OT and the Churches of the Ne, in this respect, is very great. In the one, we find little, comparatively, about doctrine, but much about forms and ordinances. In the other, we have much about doctrine, and little about forms. In the OT Church the minutest directions were given for the performance of every part of the ceremonies of religion. In the NT Churches we find the ceremonies expressly abolished, as no longer needed after Christ’s death, and nothing hardly, except a few general principles, supplying their place. The New Testament Churches have got no book of Leviticus. Their two chief principles seem to be, “Let all things be done decently and in order; Let all things be done unto edification” (1 Cor. xiv. 26, 40). But as to the application of these general principles, it seems to have been left to each particular Church to decide, p163.
One of the most exciting articles is the first one, “Evangelical Religion” with its grand metaphor of how the gospel can be “spoiled”:
- You may spoil the Gospel by substitution. You take eyes of Christ and put another object in his place – the church, the Ministry, baptism, the Lord’s supper – and the mischief is done!
- You may spoil the Gospel by interposition. You only have to push something between Christ and the sinner to draw his attention away from the Saviour, and the mischief is done.
- You may spoil the gospel by disproportion. You only have to attach an exaggerated importance to the secondary things of Christianity, and a dimished importance to the first things, and the mischief is done. (pp18-19).
Recommended!
