be confirmed are contained the principal Articles of Christian religion most agreeable to God's Word, publicly since the beginning of your Majesty's reign professed, and by your Highness's authority set forth and maintained.

"Thirdly, divers and sundry errors, and, namely, such as have been in the realm wickedly and obstinately by the adversaries of the Gospel defended, are by the same Articles condemned.

"Fourthly, the approbation of these Articles by your Majesty shall be a very good means to establish and confirm all your Majesty's subjects in one consent and unity of true doctrine, to the great quiet and safety of your Majesty and this free realm; whereas now, for want of plain certainty of Articles of doctrine by law to be declared, great distraction and dissension of minds is at present among your subjects."

This affair is one of many illustrations which might be given of the almost insurmountable difficulties with which the Elizabethan Reformers had to cope, arising from the self-will and jealousy of the Queen. It was not till 1571 that she at last yielded to the solicitations of the Bishops; and a Bill having been passed by Parliament to that effect, an Act called the thirteenth Elizabeth, cap. 12, and entitled "An Act for Ministers of the Church to be of Sound Religion," became the law of the land.

The second section of this Act contains the following passage:-"If any person ecclesiastical, or

which shall have any ecclesiastical living, shall advisedly maintain or affirm any doctrine directly contrary or repugnant to any of the said Thirty-nine Articles, and being convicted before the Bishop of the diocese, or the Ordinary, or before the Queen's Commissioner in causes ecclesiastical, shall persist therein, or not revoke his error, or, after such revocation, affirm such untrue doctrine, such maintaining, or affirming, or persisting shall be just cause to deprive such person of his ecclesiastical functions, and it shall be lawful for the Bishop of the diocese, or Ordinary, or such Commissioner to deprive such person."

A decision of the Judges in the twenty-third year of Elizabeth declared this Act to be intended for the avoidance of diversity of opinion, and that the "prevention of such diversity was the scope of the statute."

This Act is at the present day unrepealed, in force, and forms the ground of any proceedings taken against clergymen in matters of doctrine.

The Thirty-nine Articles, thus at last complete, authorised by the Church, and legalised by the State, were published in English and Latin. It is now uncertain which was the original version, but this is practically of no moment, both being substantially the same, and of equal authority.

The following are the chief alterations made in the Forty-two Articles on Archbishop Parker's revision, and subsequently by Convocation :-Articles ii. and

vi. were enlarged; Articles v., xii., xxix., and xxx. inserted; Article x., "on the limits of the action of grace," and xvi., "on blasphemy against the Holy Ghost," and the last four on the doctrines of the resurrection and eternal punishment, were struck out.

Though the Thirty-nine Articles have remained unchanged from the time of their becoming law till the present day, we ought not to close their history without a glance at the celebrated "Lambeth Articles," which mark the attempt made in 1595, during the temporary dominance of the Calvinistic theology and under the influence of the Puritan party, to introduce into the Anglican Church, and her significant refusal of, the leading tenets of Calvinism.

The circumstances from which the attempt originated arose from a sermon which was preached at Cambridge throwing doubts on the orthodoxy of Calvinistic views being denounced as heretical.

In consequence of the dispute that ensued, the Cambridge professors drew up the code known as the Lambeth Articles, which was accepted and modified by Archbishop Whitgift and certain other Bishops. It was proposed to add this code to the Thirty-nine Articles. However, with great wisdom on the part of Elizabeth and her counsellors, it was by them strongly condemned and rejected, and therefore never came into force. A subsequent effort was made under James I. at the Hampton

Court Conference (held in consequence of the "Millenary Petition" of the Presbyterians for the consideration of a Prayer-Book revision) on the part of the Puritans for its adoption, which shared the fate of the first. The main tenets of Calvinism expressed in them were as follows:

"God from all eternity has predestinated some to life some He hath reprobated to death."

"The moving cause of predestination to life is not prevision of faith, or perseverance, or of good works, or of anything which may be in the persons predestinated, but only the will of the good pleasure of God."

"A true justifying faith, and the Spirit of God sanctifying, is not extinguished, doth not fall away, doth not vanish, in the elect, either finally or totally."

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

As one of our present Bishops has remarked, who is an eminent writer and authority on ecclesiastical matters, "Both the attempt to introduce them and its failure are significant. The attempt shows a conviction on the part of the Calvinistic party that the distinctive tenets of Calvinism are not embodied in the Articles; and that this conviction is well founded will be seen by contrasting the Lambeth Articles with Articles xv., xvi., and xvii. of our Thirty-nine Articles. The failure shows that, when formally submitted, these tenets were refused

deliberately, and they therefore form no part of the theology of the Church of England."

The Declaration prefixed to the Thirty-nine Articles was drawn up by Archbishop Laud in 1628 and authorised by the Crown, "with the advice of so many of the Bishops as might conveniently be called together." It therefore insists strongly on the royal supremacy. In substance it is sensible and judicious, though its sense is conveyed in a somewhat imperious tone, which, considering the times in which it first appeared, was no doubt fit and requisite.

Having traced in its leading features the progress of the Reformation in England, resulting in the publication of the Thirty-nine Articles, we will, before quitting this part of our subject, examine as witness to the truth of the statement made at starting, that those Articles, and they alone, are the authorised faith and test of the Established Church, various writings and expressions of Bishops, divines, and authorities competent to give evidence on the subject.

First, let us hear the fifth Canon of 1604, which says, "Whosoever shall hereafter affirm that any of the Thirty-nine Articles agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops of both provinces in the Convocation holden at London in the year of our Lord God 1562, for avoiding diversities of opinion and establishing of consent touching true religion, are in any part superstitious or erroneous, or such

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