The Distinctive Principles of the Church of England

http://www.churchsociety.org/publications/tracts/CAT068_RyleCofEPrinciples.pdf

[Church Society] 14 Jul 2006--It will clear my way at the outset, if I remind you that the “Church Principles” of which I am going to speak to-day are the principles of the Established Church of England. The “Catholic Church” is a favourite expression which is continually used in the present age. But it is one of those great, swelling, high-sounding, vague expressions which mean anything, everything, or nothing, according to the animus of him who uses them, and I shall pass it by. “Primitive” principles, “mediaeval” principles, “ancient” principles, “Catholic” principles I shall not dwell upon, though I could say much. I shall stick to my text. The principles I am here to consider are the principles of that Reformed Church of England, which was emancipated from Rome 300 years ago, the Church whose foundations were cemented with the blood of Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and their martyred companions, the Church which was temporarily overthrown by the semi-Romanism of Laud, drained of its life-blood by Charles II’s Act of Uniformity, revived by the noble work of Whitfield, Romaine, and Venn in the last century, and which, in spite of many traitors within and many Liberationists without, is still recognized by Queen, Lords, and Commons as the Established Church of the realm. Esto perpetua. The principles of the Church I am here to exhibit and defend....

This is the fourth in a series of articles related to the controversies over doctrine and worship, that have had a profound impact upon the Anglican Church.