Bangor, and others. They were also sent to Dr. Hutton, Archbishop of York, and Dr. Young, Bishop of Rochester. Hutton indorsed the first Article with 'verissimum,' and approved the rest with the remark that they could all be plainly collected or fairly deduced from the Scriptures and the writings of St. Augustine.

Whitgift sent the Lambeth Articles to the University of Cambridge (Nov. 24), not as new laws and decrees, but as an explanation of certain points already established by the laws of the land. But inasmuch as they had not the Queen's sanction (though he states that the Queen was fully persuaded of the truth of them, which is inconsistent with her conduct), they should be used privately and with discretion.1

Queen Elizabeth, who had no special liking for Calvinism and dogmatic controversies, was displeased with the calling of a Synod without her authority, which subjected the Lambeth divines to prosecution.2 She commanded the Archbishop to recall and suppress those Articles without delay. At the Hampton Court Conference of King James and several prelates with the leaders of the Puritans (Jan., 1604), Dr. Reynolds made the request that the nine orthodoxal assertions concluded on at Lambeth might be inserted into the Book of Articles.'3 It is stated that they were exhibited at the Synod of Dort by the English deputies, as the judgment of their Church on the Arminian controversy. But the anti-Calvinistic reaction under the Stuarts gradually deprived them of their force in England, while in Ireland they obtained for some time a semi-symbolical authority.

It is interesting to compare with the Lambeth Articles a brief predestinarian document of Calvin, recently discovered by the Strasburg editors of his works, and a fragment of Hooker on free-will, predestination, and perseverance. The former is stronger, the latter is milder, and presents the following slight modification of those Articles : 5

Heylin endeavors to relieve Whitgift from the odium of signing the Lambeth Articles by casting doubt on his honesty. Whitgift sided with Hooker against Travers, and entertained Dr. Harsnet in his family, who derided the doctrine of unconditional reprobation in a sermon at St. Paul's Cross (1584). See Collier, pp. 186, 189. But while he may have been opposed to strict Calvinism, as he certainly was to Puritanism, he seems to have been in full accord with the Augustinian infralapsarianism.

*Fuller (Vol. V. p. 222) relates that the Queen, in her laconic style, reminded the Primate, half in jest, that by his unauthorized call of a council he had 'incurred the guilt of præmunire.'

3

See Fuller, who gives a minute account of this famous Conference, Vol. V. p. 275.

Hooker's Works, ed. Keble, Vol. II. pp. 752 sq.

It is printed in Vol. III. pp. 524 sq. of this work.

'It followeth therefore [says Hooker, at the close of his fragment]— '1. That God hath predestinated certain men, not all men.

2. That the cause moving him hereunto was not the foresight of any virtue in us at all.

'3. That to him the number of his elect is definitely known.

4. That it can not be but their sins must condemn them to whom

the purpose of his saving mercy doth not extend.

'5. That to God's foreknown elect final continuance of grace is given. [Art. 6 of the Lambeth series is omitted by Hooker.]

'6. [7.] That inward grace whereby to be saved is deservedly not given unto all men.

7. [8.] That no man cometh unto Christ whom God by the inward grace of his Spirit draweth not.

'8. [9.] And that it is not in every, no, not in any man's own mere ability, freedom, and power, to be saved, no man's salvation being possible without grace. Howbeit, God is no favorer of sloth; and therefore there can be no such absolute decree touching man's salvation as on our part includeth no necessity of care and travail, but shall certainly take effect, whether we ourselves do wake or sleep.'

§ 85. THE IRISH ARTICLES. A.D. 1615.

Literature.

Works of the Most Rev. JAMES USSHER, D.D., Lord Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of all Ireland, With a Life of the Author, and an Account of his Writings. By CHARLES RICHARD ELRINGTON, D.D. Dublin, 1847, 16 vols. See Vol. I. pp. 38 sqq. and Appendix IV.

CH. HARDWICK: A History of the Articles of Religion, pp. 181 sqq., 351 sqq.

JAMES SEATON REID, D.D.: History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Belfast, 1834, 3 vols. W. D. KILLEN, D.D. (Presb. Prof. of Eccles. Hist. at Belfast): The Ecclesiastical History of Ireland from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. London, 1875, 2 vols. (Vol. I. pp. 492 sqq.; Vol. II. pp. 17 sqq.) The Irish Articles are printed in Vol. III. pp. 526 sqq. of this work, in Dr. Elrington's Life of Ussher (Vol. L. Append. IV.), in Hardwick (Append. VI.), and in Killen (Vol. I. Append. III.).

The Protestant clergy in Ireland accepted the English Prayer-Book in 1560. Whether the Elizabethan Articles of Religion were also adopted is uncertain. At all events, they did not fully satisfy the

Archbishop Ussher, in a sermon preached before the English House of Commons, 1621, declared: 'We all agree that the Scriptures of God are the perfect rule of our faith: we all consent in the main grounds of religion drawn from thence; we all subscribe to the Articles of Doctrine agreed upon in the Synod of the year 1562.' But he must have understood this in the general sense of assent, as he was addressing laymen who never subscribed the ArtiElrington, p. 43, and Hardwick, p. 182. The Irish Church adopted, in 1566 (1567), & 'Brief Declaration' in XII. Articles of Religion; but these are substantially the same as the XI. Articles prepared by Archbishop Parker, 1559 or 1560, and provisionally used in England till 1563. In Ireland they continued in force till 1615. See Elrington, Append.; Hardwick, pp. 122, 337; and Killen, Vol. I. pp. 395, 515–520.

cles.

rigorous Calvinism which came to prevail there for a period even more extensively than in England, and which found an advocate in an Irish scholar and prelate of commanding character and learning.

The first Convocation of the Irish Protestant clergy, which took place after the model of the English Convocation, adopted a doctrinal formula of its own, under the title Articles of Religion, agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops, and the rest of the clergy of Ireland, in the Convocation holden at Dublin in the year of our Lord God 1615, for the avoiding of diversities of opinions, and the establishing of consent touching true religion.'

They were drawn up by JAMES USSHER,' head of the theological faculty and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of all Ireland. He was born in 1580, died 1656, and was buried in Westminster Abbey by order of Cromwell. He was the greatest theological and antiquarian scholar of the Episcopal Church of his age, and was highly esteemed by Churchmen and Puritans, being a connecting link between the contending parties. He was elected into the Westminster Assembly of Divines, but the King's prohibition and his loyalty to the cause of the crown and episcopacy forbade him to attend. He had an extraordinary familiarity with Biblical and patristic literature, and, together with his friend Vossius of Holland, he laid the foundation for a critical investigation of the cecumenical creeds. Whether formally commissioned by the Convocation or not, he must, from his position, have had the principal share in the preparation of those Articles. They are ' in strict conformity with the opinions he entertained at that period of his life.' 2

By a decree of the Synod appended to the Dublin Articles, they were to be a rule of public doctrine, and any minister who should publicly teach any doctrine contrary to them, and after due admonition should refuse to conform, was to be 'silenced and deprived of all spiritual promotions.' The Viceroy of Ireland, in the name of King James, gave his approval. James, with all his high notions of episcopacy and

1

He and his family spell the name with double s (Latin, Usserius), but it is often spelled Usher.

2 Dr. Elrington, Life of J. Ussher, pp. 43, 44. Comp. also the 'Body of Divinity,' which was published in Ussher's name during the sessions of the Westminster Assembly, and which he admitted to have compiled, in early life, from the writings of others.

VOL. I.-U U

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hatred of Puritanism, was a Calvinist in theology, and countenanced the Synod of Dort. It is stated that the adoption of this Confession induced Calvinistic ministers of Scotland to settle in Ireland.'

But in the reign of Charles I. and his adviser, Archbishop Land, a reaction set in against Calvinism. An Irish Convocation in 1635, under the lead of the Earl of Strafford, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and his chaplain, John Bramhall (one of the ablest High-Church Epis copalians, who was made Bishop of Londonderry, 1634, and Archbishop of Armagh, 1661-died, 1663), adopted the Thirty-nine Articles 'for the manifestation of agreement with the Church of England in the confession of the same Christian faith and the doctrine of the sacraments.' This act was intended quietly to set aside the Irish Articles; and hence they were ignored in the canons adopted by that convocation. Ussher, however, who continued to adhere to Calvinism, though on terms of friendship with Land, required subscription to both series, and in a contemporary letter to Dr. Ward he says: "The Articles of Religion agreed upon in our former Synod, anno 1615, we let stand as we did before. But for the manifestation of our agreement with the Church of England, we have received and approved your Articles also, concluded in the year 1562, as you may see in the first of our Canons."3 After the Restoration the Dublin Articles seem to have been lost sight of, and no mention was made of them when, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, the English and Irish establishments were consolidated into the United Church of England and Ireland.'

The Irish Articles are one hundred and four in number, arranged under nineteen heads. They are a clear and succinct system of divinity, in full harmony with Calvinism, excepting the doctrine of the ecclesiastical supremacy of the crown (which is retained from the English Articles). They incorporate the substance of the Thirty-nine Articles and the Lambeth Articles, but are more systematic and complete. They teach absolute predestination and perseverance, denounce the Pope as Antichrist, inculcate the Puritan view of Sabbath observ

'Killen, Vol. I. p. 495.

* Killen, Vol. II. p. 23: The silence of the canons in respect to the Calvinistic formulary, now nearly twenty years in use, was fatal to its claims, and thus it was quietly superseded.' Heylin errs in stating (Life of Laud) that the Dublin Articles were actually 'called in.' Elrington, Life, p. 176.

Hardwick, p. 190.

ance, and make no mention of three orders in the ministry, nor of the necessity of episcopal ordination. In all these particulars they prepared the way for the doctrinal standards of the Westminster Assembly. They were the chief basis of the Westminster Confession, as is evident from the general order, the headings of chapters and subdivisions, and the almost literal agreement of language in the statement of several of the most important doctrines.1

$86. THE ARTICLES OF THE REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH. A.D. 1875.

Literature.

I. ARTICLES OF Religion of the REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH, as adopted by the General Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church, on the 18th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1875. New York (38 Bible House), 1876. They are printed in the last section of the third volume of this work.

II. THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER OF THE REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Adopted and set forth for use by the Second General Council of the said Church, held in the City of New York, May, 1874. Philadelphia (James A. Moore), 1874. (This took the place of the 'Proposed Book' of 1785, republished for provisional use in Dec., 1873.)

III. Journal of the First General Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church, held in New York, Dec. 2, 1873. New York, 1873.

Journal of the Proceedings of the Second General Council of the Ref. Epis. Church, held in New York. Philadelphia, 1874.

Journal of the Proceedings of the Third General Council of the Ref. Epis. Church, held in Chicago, Illinois, May 12 to May 18, 1875. Philadelphia, 1875.

IV. Bishop GEORGE DAVID CUMMINS: Primitive Episcopacy: A Return to the Old Paths of Scripture and the Early Church. A Sermon preached in Chicago, Dec. 14, 1873, at the Consecration of the Rev. Charles Edward Cheney, D.D., as a Bishop in the Ref. Epis. Church. New York, 1874.-By the same: The Lord's Table, and not the Altar. New York, 1875.

Bishop CHAS. EDW. CHENEY: The Evangelical Ideal of a Visible Church (a sermon). Philadelphia, 1874, JAMES A. LATANE: Letter of Resignation to Bishop Johns of Virginia. Wheeling, Va., 1874. Bishop W. R. NICHOLSON: Reasons why I became a Reformed Episcopalian. Philadelphia, 1875. BENJ. AYORIGG: Memoirs of the Ref. Epis. Church, and of the Prot. Epis. Church. N. Y., 1875; 2d ed., 1882. Before closing this section we must notice a recent American reconstruction of the English Articles of Religion, which goes much farther than the revision of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and is disowned by it, but must still be considered as an offshoot from the same root. We mean the Articles of Religion' set forth in 1875 by the REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

ORIGIN.

This body seceded from the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States under the lead of the Rev. Dr. GEORGE DAVID CUMMINS, Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Kentucky (d. 1876). The reason of

This agreement has been proved by Professor Mitchell, D.D., of St. Andrews, in his tract The Westminster Confession of Faith, 3d ed., Edinburgh, 1867, and in the Introduction to his edition of the Minutes of the Westminster Assembly, 1874, pp. xlvi. sqq. We shall return to the subject more fully in the section on the Westminster Confession.