translated into English. They were made at three several convocations, and confirmed by act of parliament six or seven times after. There is a secret concerning them: of late, ministers have subscribed to all of them; but by the act of parliament that confirmed them, they ought only to subscribe to those articles which contain matters of faith, and the doctrine of the sacraments, as appears by the first subscriptions. But Bishop Bancroft, in the convocation held in King James's days, he began it; that ministers 10 should subscribe to three things, to the king's supremacy, to the common prayer, and to the 39 articles: Many of them do not contain matter of faith. It is matter of faith how the church should be governed? Whether infants should be baptized? Whether we have any property in our goods?

1 Act, H. 2 and S.] Acts, H.

words by 'to serve in laweful warres.' There are some other minor inaccuracies.

1.2. six or seven times after] If this reading is to stand, the word 'times' must be taken in a special sense-parliamentary sessions or terms. So, perhaps, in 'Confession,' sec. I, 'In time of Parliament,' i. e. when Parliament had met. The Articles were confirmed once only, vizt. in 1571, by 13 Elizabeth, chap. 12.

1.5. by the act of parliament that confirmed them &c.] The Act orders that every minister (except certain specified persons) is to declare his assent, and subscribe to all the Articles of Religion which only concern the confession of the true Christian faith and the doctrine of the Sacraments.

The obligation on the clergy to subscribe to the whole of the Articles was imposed at a Synod of the province of Canterbury, held in 1604, under the presidency of Bancroft, then Bishop of London. It was then settled that no one was to be ordained who had not stated in writing-Quod libro de religionis Articulis, in quos consensum est in Synodo Londinensi an. MDLXII. omnino comprobat, et quod omnes et singulos Articulos in eodem contentos, qui triginta novem citra ratificationem numerantur, verbo Dei consentaneos esse agnoscit (Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 386).

III.

BAPTISM.

I. 'Twas a good way to persuade men to be christened, to tell them that they had a foulness about them, viz. original sin, that could not be washed away but by baptism.

2. The baptizing of children with us, doth only prepare a child, against he comes to be a man, to understand what Christianity means. In the church of Rome it has this effect, it frees children from hell. They say they go into limbus infantum. It succeeds circumcision, and we are sure the child understood nothing of that at eight days old. Why IO then may not we as reasonably baptize a child at that age? In England, of late years, I ever thought the priest baptized his own fingers rather than the child.

3. In the primitive times they had godfathers to see the children brought up in the christian religion, because many times, when the father was a christian, the mother was not ; and sometimes when the mother was a christian, the father was not; and therefore they made choice of two or more that were christians, to see the children brought up in that faith.

1. 8. it frees children from hell. They say they go &c.] i. e. They say that unbaptized children go, &c. The Limbus Infantum was one of the divisions of hell. In the Church of Rome baptism is said to free children from this. See Canons, &c. of the Council of Trent, Session v.

sec. 2, 3, 4. On the limbus puerorum, the place of eternal punishment for those qui solo originali peccato gravantur, and on the degree of punishment, the mitissimam poenam which they are alleged to suffer, see Aquinas, Summa Theolog. Supplementum 3tiae partis. quaest. 69, art. 5 & 6. So, too, Moroni (Eccles. Dict. under title Limbo, Limbus) writes-Il secondo luogo, che chiamasi limbo o limbus puerorum, è quello in che vanno i bambini morti senza battesimo. Many various opinions are collected as to the nature and extent of their punishment. That it is to be eternal all the cited authorities agree. So, too, Dante writes of the occupants of the Limbo, or first circle of the Inferno, a vast crowd of infants, women, and men, there placed perche non ebber battesmo, and suffering only duol senza martiri. Inferno, Canto iv. 28-35.

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IV.

BASTARD.

'Tis said, 23 Deuteron. 2, A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation. Non ingredietur ecclesiam Domini, he shall not enter into the church. The meaning of the phrase is, he shall not marry a Jewish woman. But upon this ground, grossly mistaken, a bastard at this day in the church of Rome, without a dispensation, cannot take orders. The thing haply well enough, where 'tis so settled: but that 'tis1 upon Io a mistake (the place having no reference to the church) appears plainly by what follows at the 3 verse; An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation. Now you know with the Jews an Ammonite or a Moabite could never be a priest; because their priests were born so, not made.

1 But that tis, S.] H. and H. 2, omit 'that.'

1. 5. The meaning of the phrase is &c.] Selden, in his De Successione in Pontificatum Ebraeorum, says that the sense which he gives here to the words is universally accepted among the Jews. Works, ii. p. 158.

1.6. But upon this ground, &c.] That the rule in the Church of Rome was based on this text is stated, conjecturally, by Pope Gregory IX. In a letter addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury on the appointment of a bastard to the see of Worcester, Gregory declares-Nos ergo cum fratribus nostris habito super hoc diligenti tractatu, relectis canonibus, quosdam invenimus qui non legitime genitos promoveri vetant ad officium pastorale, causam forte trahentes ex lege divina per quam spurii et manzeres usque in decimam generationem in ecclesiam Dei prohibentur intrare. The matter is then debated pro and con, and the Pope concludes that although, according to a canon of the Lateran Council, the appointment is irregular, yet he has a dispensing power. Decretales Gregorii IX, lib. i. tit. 6, cap. xx. Corpus Juris Canonici, vol. 2, pp. 61, 62 (ed. 2 by Friedberg, 1881).

So, too, Boniface VIII insists on the need of a dispensation, episcopal for the lesser orders, papal for the greater. Ibid. p. 977.

Aquinas cites the text as one among the arguments against the

V.

BIBLE, SCRIPTURE.

I. 'Tis a great question how we know Scripture to be Scripture, whether by the Church, or by man's private spirit. Let me ask you how I know anything? How I know this carpet to be green? First, because somebody told me it was green: that you call the church in your way. And then after I have been told it is green, when I see that colour again, I know it to be green, my own eyes tell me it is green; that you call the private spirit.

2. The English translation of the Bible, is the best trans- 10 lation in the world, and renders the sense of the original best, taking in for the English translation the Bishops' Bible as well as king James's. The translators1 in king James's time took an excellent way. That part of the Bible was given to him who was most excellent in such a tongue (as the Apocrypha to Andrew Downs) and then they met together, and one read the translation, the rest holding in their hands some Bible, either of the learned tongues, or French, Spanish, Italian, &c. If they found any fault they spoke; if not, he read on.

1 Translators, H. 2, corrected from 'translation ']'translation,' H.

admission of bastards to orders. He concludes against their admission without a dispensation, but on general grounds, and without further reference to the text. Summa Theolog. Supplement, 3 part, quaest. 39, art. 5.

1. 2. 'Tis a great question &c.] This question is discussed very fully in the course of the celebrated conference between Laud and the Jesuit Fisher, the first complete account of which was published in 1639. Laud handles the matter at greater length and with more unction than Selden; but for the most part substantially to the same effect. See Laud's Works, vol. ii. p. 70 ff.

1. 10. The English translation &c.] For an account of the persons employed in the translation, and of the rules which they were instructed to follow, see Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 432, and Fuller's Church History, bk. x. sec. 3, § 1, with note h in Brewer's edition.

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3. There is no book so translated as the Bible. For the purpose, if I translate a French book into English, I turn it into English phrase, not into French English. Il fait froid, I say, it is cold, not it makes cold; but the Bible is translated into English words rather than into English phrase. The Hebraisms are kept, and the phrase of that language is kept: as for example, [He uncovered her shame] which is well enough, so long as scholars have to do with it; but when it comes among the common people, lord, Io what gear do they make of it!

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4. Scrutamini scripturas. These two words have undone the world. Because Christ spake it to his disciples, therefore we must all, men, women, and children, read and interpret the Scriptures.

5. Henry the 8th made a law, that all men might read the Scriptures, except servants; but no women, except ladies and gentlewomen, who had leisure, and might ask somebody the meaning. The law was repealed in Edward the 6th days.

6. Laymen have best interpreted the hard places of the Bible, such as Joannes Picus, Scaliger, Grotius, Salmasius, Heinsius, &c.

7. If you ask, Which, of Erasmus, Beza, or Grotius, did best upon the New Testament? 'tis an idle question, for they did all well in their way. Erasmus broke down the first brick; Beza added many things, and Grotius added much to him, in whom we have either something new, or

1. 1. For the purpose] i. e. for instance: for proof of what I say. A phrase used by Selden elsewhere. See 'Trade,' sec. 1, andEudoxus yet hath otherwise placed them; as for the purpose, the spring equinox on the sixth day after the sun's entrance into Aries &c. Works, iii. 1415.

1. 11. Scrutamini] Gk. épevvâre, probably the Present Indicative, and if so the words have been doubly misinterpreted.

1. 15. Henry the 8th made a law] This was 34 & 35 Henry VIII, ch. 1.