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ought canonically to be intrusted, and the English Liturgy was accepted by a Synod of the clergy held in 1560.

In the year 1566 a book of Articles was put forth by the authority of the Lord Deputy, the Archbishops and Bishops, and other her Majesty's High Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical in the same realm', which were to be publicly read by the clergy "at their possession-taking, and twice every year afterwards." It would appear that the English Articles were not in force at this time in Ireland, because this book of Articles is copied from a similar production issued in Englande before the publication of the Thirtynine Articles, and designed, no doubt, to supply the want of an authorized formulary. Its publication in Ireland would therefore seem to warrant the supposition of a similar want there. It has indeed been argued from Ussher's sermon before the House of Commons that subscription to the English

a These Commissioners were appointed by Elizabeth in the year 1563, and are not taken notice of in any history of Ireland with which I am acquainted. Leland indeed, and he is followed by Bishop Mant, states that a High Commission Court was established in Dublin in 1593. Possibly this is an error of the press, and that he wrote 1563, alluding to these Commissioners. The commission is dated the sixth of October in the sixth year of her reign, and is addressed to Adam Archbishop of Armagh, Hugh Archbishop of Dublin, Thomas Earl of Ormonde, Gérald Earl of Desmond, Gerald Earl of Kildare, Hugh Bishop of Meath, Robert Bishop of Kildare, Thomas Bishop of Leighlin, Sir Henry Radcliffe, Knight; Sir William Fitzwilliam, Knight; Sir Robert Cusack, Knight; John Plunkett, Robert Dillon, James Bathe, Francis Agarde, Robert Cusacke, the Maiours of for the time being, Terence the Dean of Armagh, John Garvy and Henry Draycott. The Commission is very long, and extends over a large range of business including heresy and other subjects of spiritual jurisdiction.

*

b Of this publication the contemporary historians give no account, and it was utterly unknown till my learned friend Archdeacon Cotton discovered a copy of it in a collection of pamphlets in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. As it is believed there is not another copy in existence, I have given the Articles in the Appendix printed exactly from the original edition. See App. III. pag. 21.

© Wilkin states that these Articles were put forth before the consecration of Archbishop Parker, but Burnet places their publication after the consecration, while the Bishops were waiting for a Convocation, in which a new body of Articles were to be composed. The title of the Articles supports Burnet's opinion, for it states "set out by order of both Archbishops Metropolitans and the rest of the Bishops."

d A circumstance mentioned incidentally by Wood would seem to prove

Articles was required in Ireland. Ussher certainly says, "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 for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and the establishing of consent concerning true religion :" but it does not appear to me that these words are decisive, he might have used them in a general sense as merely expressive of assent, and indeed must have done so, for many of the persons he addressed had never subscribed the Articles. But whether the Thirty-nine Articles of the English Church were in force or not, every dictate of prudence would have suggested the propriety of assimilating the two Churches, and we must seek for the cause of forming a new code in the circumstances to which I have before alluded. The spirit which had endeavoured but unsuccessfully to force the Lambeth Articles on the English Church, had acquired fresh strength in Ireland from the unjustifiable conduct of the Government in their selection of persons for the high offices of the Church, and was now enabled to carry through the Convocation, and obtain the assent of the Lord Deputy for a system more exclusive and more dogmatical than that which had been attempted by Whittaker and his associates. On the meeting of the Convocation Randolph Barlow, B.D., Chaplain to the Lord Deputy Chichester, was elected Prolocutor of the Lower House. Jones Archbishop of Dublin and Chancellor of Ireland presided in the Upper House. It is said that Dr. Ussher was appointed to draw up the Articles, but whether or not such a formal appointment

subscription was not required. He says, "John Ball (about the year 1608) made shift to be ordained a minister in London, without subscription, by an Irish bishop."-Wood, Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 671.

Barlow was in 1629 consecrated Archbishop of Tuam. It appears that he was indebted for his promotion to the recommendations of the Lord Deputy Falkland and of Ussher then Archbishop of Armagh. On account of the poverty of the See from the lands and other possessions being withheld, he was permitted to hold in commendam the deanery of Christ Church and the Archdeaconry of Meath. Archbishop Barlow died at Tuam on the 16th of February, 1638, in the 66th year of his age.

were made, he must have had the principal share in their formation from his high character and from the situation he held as Professor of Divinity in the University. There is not any thing contained in the Articles, which is not in strict conformity with the opinions he entertained at that period of his life. The Articles were 104 in number, drawn up under nineteen heads; of these some are of a character unsuited to articles of faith, and approach that of a homily, such are the tenth and twelfth, of the service of God, and of our duty towards our neighbour. Others with rigid precision determine questions which had hitherto never been introduced into articles of faith: thus there is a particular explanation of what in Scripture is only revealed in general terms concerning the generation of the Son, which in conformity with the notions of Calvin the Article pronounces to be from the person, not the essence of the Father. Thus the Pope is pronounced to be Antichrist. Thus also decisions are given about the primeval state, and the fall of the angels, and the state of the souls of men after deaths. But

f Bishop Mant in his History of the Church of Ireland remarks, that in a notice prefixed it was stated that they comprehended the Nine Articles agreed on at Lambeth, but that they omitted to state that these Articles were suppressed by Queen Elizabeth. I must beg to say that the Bishop has been deceived by referring either to an edition of the Articles published in London in 1629 or to the copy of them printed at the end of Neal's History of the Puritans. In those editions there is the notice mentioned by the Bishop, and also the index in the margin pointing out the particular words in the Lambeth Articles, but in the original edition published in Dublin in 1615 there is no allusion whatever to the Lambeth Articles, no notice prefixed, no index in the margin. In order to obviate any mistakes of the kind I have printed in the Appendix the Articles taken verbatim from the original edition, a copy of which is in the library of Trinity College. See App. IV. p. xxxi.

Dr. Heylin objects to the Articles that they support the Sabbatarian doctrine of a Judaical rest on the Lord's day, but this objection cannot be maintained. The passage in the Article is as follows: "The first day of the week, which is the Lord's day, is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God, and therefore we are bound therein to rest from our common and daily business, and to bestow that leisure upon holy exercises both public and private." It may be doubted whether this passage ought to form part of an article of faith, but the doctrine put forward is unexceptionable. Heylin also states that the Irish Articles contain Calvin's doctrine of Christ's descent into Hell. There does not appear any such

the most important ground of objection to the Irish Articles is the introduction of the Lambeth Articles, which had been so recently rejected by the Church of England. By this unfortunate proceeding a serious impediment was interposed to prevent any agreement between the Churches of England and Ireland. It is impossible but Ussher and those who acted with him must have been aware of this evil, and great must they have thought the necessity of introducing the Lambeth Articles, when they chose such an alternative: they must have considered that the English Articles expressed imperfectly, if at all, their views of Christian doctrine. It has indeed been confidently put forward by the advocates of Calvinistic opinions in the English Church, that the Thirty-nine Articles are exclusively Calvinistic, and that they cannot admit an interpretation at variance with those particular views. In vain has the history of the introduction of the Articles claimed as exclusively favorable, in vain have the known opinions of the framers been brought forward to oppose such an assertion, yet still arguments and facts are alike disregarded, and still the assertion is confidently repeated. Another line of argument is suggested by the conduct of the predestinarian party. They never had, nor ever thought they had, the

agreement. Calvin says, "Nihil actum erat si corporea tantum morte defunctus fuisset Christus, sed operæ simul pretium erat, ut divinæ ultionis severitatem sentire: quo et iræ ipsius intercederet, et satisfaceret justo judicio. Unde etiam eum oportuit cum inferorum copiis æternæque mortis honore, quasi consertis manibus luctari.”—Inst. lib. 2, cap. 16. Calvin asserted that the pains Christ endured in his soul before his death were so great, that in them he suffered the pains of the damned; in this way making the grievous tortures of his soul equivalent or the same as the descent into Hell, thus displacing the words of the Creed, and making that which the Creed supposes to have taken place after his death, to precede that event. An objection which he treated with contempt: "Nimis frivola adeoque ridicula est eorum exceptio, qui dicunt hoc modo perverti ordinem: quia absurdum est sepulturæ subjici quod præcedit." Now the Irish Articles strictly adhere to the order, "He endured most grievous torments immediately in his soul and most painful sufferings in his body. He was buried and descended into Hell and the third day arose from the dead."

h See more particularly the late Archbishop Laurence's Bampton Lectures, a model of theological reasoning.

power of making a change in the Articles without exerting it, of which the Lambeth Articles, the alterations proposed by the Assembly of Divines and the Irish Articles are decisive proofs. Their opponents never proposed any such measure; satisfied with the guarded forms of expression in these Articles, they shrunk from incurring the danger of unsettling the established profession of faith. And it cannot be said they had not the power-to omit other periods, at the Convocation of 1661 they would not have had any difficulty in raising a hostile cry against them, and excluding every thing which could favor the opinions of their bitterest enemies, who had trampled under foot the Church of their Fathers, and had persecuted the individual members of it with the most relentless severity.

Dr. Parr has endeavoured to defend Dr. Ussher from the charge of having proposed any thing different from the Articles of the Church of England, on the ground that in such a case James would not have given his Deputy authority to sign them. But an argument founded upon James' consistency cannot be considered as deserving of much attention. The facts are still open, and it is as easy to form an opinion upon the subject now, as when the Lord Deputy gave his approbation. Dr. Heylin may have gone too far in saying what has given so much offence, " that the passing the Irish Articles was an absolute plot of the Calvinians and Sabbatarians in England to make themselves so strong a party in Ireland as to obtain what they pleased in this Convocation:" but certainly they were framed with a strong desire to conciliate the Non-conformists and an utter

'Mosheim says very truly of this extraordinary character: "Puritanæ et disciplinæ et doctrinæ, quam juvenis totam imbiberat, capitalis hostis ; Arminianorum, quorum condemnationem valde promoverat, fautor et patronus certissimus; episcopalis denique gubernationis vindex acerrimus."-Instit. Hist. Eccles. p. 856.

Dr. Reid in his History of the Presbyterians has asserted this strongly, but he has carried his proofs far beyond what he is justified in doing. He asserts that the validity of ordination by presbyters is clearly implied. I cannot find any words which can be so interpreted. Again he says, the doctrine of absolution is condemned and the forgiveness of sins taught to be only declaratory. Though this has also been stated by Dr. Heylin

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