evanescit in electrs, aut finaliter | guished, falleth not away; it vanaut totaliter.

isheth not away in the elect, either finally or totally.

6. Homo vere fidelis, id est, fide 6. A man truly faithful, that is, justificante præditus, certus est such a one who is endued with a plerophoria fidei, de remissione justifying faith, is certain, with the peccatorum suorum, et salute sempiterna sua per Christum.

7. Gratia salutaris non tribui tur, non communicatur, non conceditur universis hominibus, qua servari possint, si voluerint.

8. Nemo potest venire ad Christum, nisi datum ei fuerit, et nisi Pater eum traxerit. Et omnes homines non trahuntur a Patre, ut veniant ad Filium.

9. Non est positum in arbitrio aut potestate uniuscuiusque ho

minis servari.

full assurance of faith, of the remission of his sins and of his everlasting salvation by Christ.

7. Saving grace is not given, is not granted, is not communicated to all men, by which they may be saved if they will.

8. No man can come unto Christ unless it shall be given unto him, and unless the Father shall draw him; and all men are not drawn by the Father, that they may come to the Son.

9. It is not in the will or power of every one to be saved.

NOTE.

It is interesting to compare with these Lambeth Articles the brief and clear statement of Calvin's doctrine of predestination, which was discovered by the Strasburg editors in an autograph of Calvin, without date, in the Library of Geneva (Cod. 145, fol. 100), and published in Opera, Vol. IX. p. 713, as follows:

'ARTICULI DE PRÆDESTINATIONE.

'Ante creatum primum hominem statuerat Deus æterno consilio quid de toto genere humano fieri vellet.

'Hoc arcano Dei consilio factum est ut Adam ab integro naturæ suæ statu deficeret ac sua defectione traheret omnes suos posteros in reatum æternæ mortis.

‘Ab hoc eodem decreto pendet discrimen inter electos et reprobos; quia alios sibi adoptavit in salutem, alios æterno exitio destinavit.

'Tametsi justæ Dei vindictæ vasa sunt reprobi, rursum electi vasa misericordiæ, causa tamen discriminis non alia in Deo quærenda est quam mera ejus voluntas, quæ summa est justitiæ regula.

Tametsi electi fide percipiunt adoptionis gratiam, non tamen pendet electio a fide, sed tempore et ordine prior est.

'Sicut initium et perseverantia fidei a gratuita Dei electione fluit, ita non alii vere illuminantur in fidem, nec alii Spiritu regenerationis donantur, nisi quos Deus elegit: reprobos vero vel in sua cæcitate manere necesse est, vel excidere a parte fidei, si qua in illis fuerit.

'Tametsi in Christo eligimur, ordine tamen illud prius est ut nos Dominus in suis censeat, quam ut faciat Christi membra.

'Tametsi Dei voluntas summa et prima est rerum omnium causa, et Deus diabolum et impios omnes suo arbitrio subjectos habet, Deus tamen neque peccati causa vocari potest, neque mali autor, neque ulli culpæ obnoxius est.

'Tametsi Deus peccato vere infensus est et damnat quidquid est injustitiæ in hominibus, quia illi displicet, non tamen nuda ejus permissione tantum, sed nutu quoque et arcano decreto gubernantur omnia hominum facta.

'Tametsi diabolus et reprobi Dei ministri sunt et organa, et arcana ejus judicia exsequuntur, Deus tamen incomprehensibili modo sic in illis et per illos operatur ut nihil ex eorum vitio labis contrahat, quia illorum malitia juste recteque utitur in bonum finem, licet modus sæpe nobis sit absconditus.

'Inscite vel calumniose fuciunt qui Deum fieri dicunt autorem peccati, si omnia eo volente et ordinante fiant: quia inter manifestam hominum pravitatem et arcana Dei judicia non distinguunt.'

Hooker's modification of the Lambeth Articles, see in Vol. I. § 84.

THE IRISH ARTICLES OF RELIGION. A.D. 1615.

[The Irish Articles-probably composed by the learned Archbishop James Ussher (then Professor of Divinity in Dublin), and adopted by the Archbishops, Bishops, and Convocation of the Irish Episcopal Church, and approved by the Viceroy in 1615, four years before the Synod of Dort—although practically superseded by the Thirty-nine Articles, are important as a testimony of the prevailing Calvinism of the leading divines in that Church, which had previously been expressed also in the nine Lambeth Articles. They are still more important as the connecting link between the Thirty-nine Articles and the Westminster Confession, and as the chief source of the latter. The agreement of the two formularies in the order of subjects, the headings of chapters, and in many single phrases, as well as in spirit and sentiment, is very striking. See the comparison in Dr. Alex. F. Mitchell's Minutes of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, Edinb. 1874, Introd. pp. xlvi. sqq. On the history and authority of the Irish Articles see Hardwick's History of the Articles of Religion, 2d ed. pp. 181 sqq.

The text is taken from the original edition of 1615, as appended to Dr. Elrington's Life of Archbishop Ussher (in Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Dublin, 1847, Vol. I. Appendix IV.), and reprinted in Hardwick's History, Append. Sixth, pp. 351 sqq. He added a few references to the Lambeth Articles. The spelling is here modernized.]

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.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE AND THE THREE CREEDS.

1. The ground of our religion and the rule of faith and all saving truth is the Word of God, contained in the holy Scripture.

2. By the name of holy Scripture we understand all the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, viz. :

All which we acknowledge to be given by the inspiration of God, and in that regard to be of most certain credit and highest authority.

3. The other Books, commonly called Apocryphal, did not proceed from such inspiration, and therefore are not of sufficient authority to establish any point of doctrine; but the Church doth read them as Books containing many worthy things for example of life and instruction of manners.

The Third Book of Esdras.

The Fourth Book of Esdras.

The Book of Tobias.

The Book of Judith.

Such are these following:

Additions to the Book of Esther.

The Book of Wisdom.

The Book of Jesus, the Son of Sarah, called
Ecclesiasticus.

Baruch, with the Epistle of Jeremiah.
The Song of the Three Children.
Susanna.

Bell and the Dragon.

The Prayer of Manasses.

The First Book of Maccabans.

The Second Book of Maccabæus.

4. The Scriptures ought to be translated out of the original tongues into all languages for the common use of all men: neither is any person to be discouraged from reading the Bible in such a language as he doth understand, but seriously exhorted to read the same with great humility and reverence, as a special means to bring him to the true knowledge of God and of his own duty.

5. Although there be some hard things in the Scripture (especially such as have proper relation to the times in which they were first uttered, and prophecies of things which were afterwards to be fulfilled), yet all things necessary to be known unto everlasting salvation are clearly delivered therein; and nothing of that kind is spoken under dark mysteries in one place which is not in other places spoken more familiarly and plainly, to the capacity both of learned and unlearned. 6. The holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation, and

are able to instruct sufficiently in all points of faith that we are bound to believe, and all good duties that we are bound to practice.

7. All and every the Articles contained in the Nicene Creed, the Creed of Athanasius, and that which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed, ought firmly to be received and believed, for they may be proved by most certain warrant of holy Scripture.

OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY.

8. There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead, there be three persons of one and the same substance, power, and eternity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

9. The essence of the Father doth not beget the essence of the Son; but the person of the Father begetteth the person of the Son, by communicating his whole essence to the person begotten from eternity.

10. 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.

OF GOD'S ETERNAL DECREE AND PREDESTINATION.

11. God from all eternity did, by his unchangeable counsel, ordain whatsoever in time should come to pass; yet so, as thereby no violence is offered to the wills of the reasonable creatures, and neither the liberty nor the contingency of the second causes is taken away, but established rather.

12. By the same eternal counsel God hath predestinated some unto life, and reprobated some unto death: of both which there is a certain number, known only to God, which can neither be increased nor diminished.1

13. Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, he hath constantly decreed in his sacred counsel to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ unto everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honor.

1 Lambeth Articles, i., iii.