Library · The Thirty-Nine Articles

Article XXIII. Of Ministering in the Congregation

It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, or ministering the Sacraments in the Congregation, before he be lawfully called, and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in the Congregation, to call and send Ministers into the Lord's vineyard.

Text from Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, volume 3 (1877), at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Public domain.