There is but one living and true God,
everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness;
the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in
unity of this God.
ARTICLE I—OF FAITH IN THE
HOLY TRINITY:
There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without
body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and
preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this
Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity—the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
ARTICLE II—OF THE WORD, OR
SON OF GOD, WHO WAS MADE VERY MAN:
The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal
God, of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the
blessed Virgin; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the
Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be
divided; whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man, who truly suffered,
was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a
sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.
ARTICLE III—OF THE
RESURRECTION OF CHRIST:
Christ did truly rise again from the dead, and took again his
body, with all things appertaining to the perfection of man’s nature,
wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until he return to
judge all men at the last day.
ARTICLE IV—OF THE HOLY
GHOST:
The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of
one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and
eternal God.
ARTICLE V—OF THE
SUFFICIENCY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES FOR SALVATION:
The Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to
salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved
thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an
article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the
name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old
and New Testament of whose authority was never any doubt in the church. The
names of the canonical books are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, The First Book of Samuel, The Second Book
of Samuel, The First Book of Kings, The Second Book of Kings, The First Book
of Chronicles, The Second Book of Chronicles, The Book of Ezra, The Book of
Nehemiah, The Book of Esther, The Book of Job, The Psalms, The Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes or the Preacher, Cantica or Songs of Solomon, Four Prophets the
Greater, Twelve Prophets the Less. All the books of the New Testament, as
they are commonly received, we do receive and account canonical.
ARTICLE VI—OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT:
The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the
Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who
is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and Man. Wherefore
they are not to be heard who feign that the old fathers did look only for
transitory promises. Although the law given from God by Moses as touching
ceremonies and rites doth not bind Christians, nor ought the civil precepts
thereof of necessity be received in any commonwealth; yet notwithstanding,
no Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which
are called moral.
ARTICLE VII—OF ORIGINAL OR
BIRTH SIN:
Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the
Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every
man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is
very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to
evil, and that continually.
ARTICLE VIII—OF FREE
WILL:
The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he
cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to
faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works,
pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ
preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we
have that good will.
ARTICLE IX—OF THE
JUSTIFICATION OF MAN:
We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or
deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith, only, is a most
wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.
ARTICLE X—OF GOOD
WORKS:
Although good works, which are the fruits of faith, and
follow after justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the
severity of God’s judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in
Christ, and spring out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a
lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its
fruit.
ARTICLE XI—OF WORKS OF
SUPEREROGATION:
Voluntary works—besides, over and above God’s
commandments—which they call works of supererogation, cannot be taught
without arrogancy and impiety. For by them men do declare that they do not
only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more
for his sake than of bounden duty is required; whereas Christ saith plainly:
When you have done all that is commanded you, say, We are unprofitable
servants.
ARTICLE XII—OF SIN AFTER
JUSTIFICATION:
Not every sin willingly committed after justification is the
sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore, the grant of
repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after justification.
After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and
fall into sin, and, by the grace of God, rise again and amend our lives. And
therefore they are to be condemned who say they can no more sin as long as
they live here; or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly
repent.
ARTICLE XIII—OF THE
CHURCH:
The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful
men in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments duly
administered according to Christ’s ordinance, in all those things that of
necessity are requisite to the same.
ARTICLE XIV—OF
PURGATORY:
The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardon, worshiping,
and adoration, as well of images as of relics, and also invocation of
saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrant of
Scripture, but repugnant to the Word of God.
ARTICLE XV—OF SPEAKING IN
THE CONGREGATION IN SUCH A TONGUE AS THE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND:
It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the
custom of the primitive church, to have public prayer in the church, or to
minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understood by the people.
ARTICLE XVI—OF THE
SACRAMENTS:
Sacraments ordained of Christ are not only badges or tokens
of Christian men’s profession, but rather they are certain signs of grace,
and God’s good will toward us, by which he doth work invisibly in us, and
doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm, our faith in him.
There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel; that is
to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Those five commonly called
sacraments, that is to say, confirmation, penance, orders, matrimony, and
extreme unction, are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel; being
such as have partly grown out of the corrupt following of the apostles, and
partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures, but yet have not the
like nature of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, because they have not any
visible sign or ceremony ordained of God. The Sacraments were not ordained
of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about; but that we should duly
use them. And in such only as worthily receive the same, they have a
wholesome effect or operation; but they that receive them unworthily,
purchase to themselves condemnation, as St. Paul saith.
ARTICLE XVII—OF
BAPTISM:
Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of
difference whereby Christians are distinguished from others that are not
baptized; but it is also a sign of regeneration or the new birth. The
Baptism of young children is to be retained in the Church.
ARTICLE XVIII—OF THE
LORD’S SUPPER:
The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that
Christians ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather is a
sacrament of our redemption by Christ’s death; insomuch that, to such as
rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which we break
is a partaking of the body of Christ; and likewise the cup of blessing is a
partaking of the blood of Christ. Transubstantiation, or the change of the
substance of bread and wine in the Supper of our Lord, cannot be proved by
Holy Writ, but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth
the nature of a sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions.
The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a
heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the body of Christ is
received and eaten in the Supper is faith. The Sacrament of the Lord’s
Supper was not by Christ’s ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or
worshiped.
ARTICLE XIX—OF BOTH
KINDS:
The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay people;
for both the parts of the Lord’s Supper, by Christ’s ordinance and
commandment, ought to be administered to all Christians alike.
ARTICLE XX—OF THE ONE
OBLATION OF CHRIST, FINISHED UPON THE CROSS:
The offering of Christ, once made, is that perfect
redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole
world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for
sin but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifice of masses, in the which it is
commonly said that the priest doth offer Christ for the quick and the dead,
to have remission of pain or guilt, is a blasphemous fable and dangerous
deceit.
ARTICLE XXI—OF THE
MARRIAGE OF MINISTERS:
The ministers of Christ are not commanded by God’s law either
to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage; therefore it
is lawful for them, as for all other Christians, to marry at their own
discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness.
ARTICLE XXII—OF THE RITES
AND CEREMONIES OF CHURCHES:
It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all
places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different,
and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s
manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word. Whosoever, through
his private judgment, willingly and purposely doth openly break the rites
and ceremonies of the church to which he belongs, which are not repugnant to
the Word of God, and are ordained and approved by common authority, ought to
be rebuked openly, that others may fear to do the like, as one that
offendeth against the common order of the church, and woundeth the
consciences of weak brethren. Every particular church may ordain, change, or
abolish rites and ceremonies, so that all things may be done to
edification.
ARTICLE XXIII—OF THE
RULERS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
The President, the Congress, the general assemblies, the
governors, and the councils of state, as the delegates of the people, are
the rulers of the United States of America, according to the division of
power made to them by the Constitution of the United States and by the
constitutions of their respective states. And the said states are a
sovereign and independent nation, and ought not to be subject to any foreign
jurisdiction.
ARTICLE XXIV—OF CHRISTIAN
MEN’S GOODS:
The riches and goods of Christians are not common as touching
the right, title, and possession of the same, as some do falsely boast.
Notwithstanding, every man ought, of such things as he possesseth, liberally
to give alms to the poor, according to his ability.
ARTICLE XXV—OF A CHRISTIAN
MAN’S OATH:
As we confess that vain and rash swearing is forbidden
Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ and James his apostle, so we judge
that the Christian religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when
the magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity, so it be done
according to the prophet’s teaching, in justice, judgment, and truth. [The
following Article from the Methodist Protestant Discipline is placed here by
the Uniting Conference (1939). It was not one of the Articles of Religion
voted upon by the three churches.]
OF
SANCTIFICATION:
Sanctification is that renewal of our fallen nature by the
Holy Ghost, received through faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood of atonement
cleanseth from all sin; whereby we are not only delivered from the guilt of
sin, but are washed from its pollution, saved from its power, and are
enabled, through grace, to love God with all our hearts and to walk in his
holy commandments blameless. [The following provision was adopted by the
Uniting Conference (1939). This statement seeks to interpret to our churches
in foreign lands Article XXIII of the Articles of Religion. It is a
legislative enactment but is not a part of the Constitution. (See Judicial
Council Decisions 41, 176, and Decision 6, Interim Judicial Council.)]
OF THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS
TO THE CIVIL AUTHORITY:
It is the duty of all Christians, and especially of
all Christian ministers, to observe and obey the laws and commands of the
governing or supreme authority of the country of which they are citizens or
subjects or in which they reside, and to use all laudable means to encourage
and enjoin obedience to the powers that be.