That for the present, though some differences have been ill raised, yet We take comfort in this, that all Clergymen within Our Realm have always most willingly subscribed to the Articles established; which is an argument to Us, that they all agree in the true, usual, literal meaning of the said Articles; and that even in those curious points, in which the present differences lie, men of all sorts take the Articles of the Church of England to be for them; which is an argument again, that none of them intend any desertion of the Articles established.

That, therefore, in these both curious and unhappy differences, which have for so many hundred years, in different times and places, exercised the Church of Christ, We will, that all further curious search be laid aside, and these disputes shut up in God's promises, as they be generally set forth to us in the Holy Scriptures, and the general meaning of the Articles of the Church of England according to them. And that no man hereafter shall either print or preach, to draw the Article aside any way, but shall submit to it in the plain and full meaning thereof; and shall not put his own sense or comment to be the meaning

of the Article, but shall take it in the literal and grammatical sense.

That if any public Reader in either of our Universities, or any Head or Master of a College, or any other person respectively in either of them, shall affix any new sense to any Article, or shall publicly read, determine, or hold any public Disputation, or suffer any such to be held either way, in either the Universities or Colleges respectively; or if any Divine in the Universities shall preach or print anything either way, other than is already established in Convocation with Our Royal assent; he or they, the offenders, shall be liable to Our displeasure, and the Church's censure in Our Commission Ecclesiastical, as well as any other and We will see there shall be due execntion upon them.

ARTICLE I.

Of Faith in the Holy Trinity.

'THERE is but one living and true God, ever

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lasting, without body, parts, or passions; 3of 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 substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

1 Isa. xliv. 6. I am the First, and I am the Last; and beside me there is no God. Jer. x. 10. The Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting King. 1 Cor. viii. 4. There is none other God but one.

2 Isa. xl. 18. To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? 1 Tim. i. 17. The King eternal, immortal, invisible. Mal, iii. 6. I am the Lord. I change not. See Jam. i. 13, 17. Num. xxiii. 19. 3 Matt. XIX. 26. With God all things are possible. Ps. cxlvii. 5. His understanding is infinite. Ps. lii. 1. The goodness of God endureth continually.

4 Gen. i. Ps. xix.:-Col. 1. 16. By him (the Son) were all things created, visible and invisible. Neh. ix. 6. Thou preservest them all. Heb. i. 3. Upholding all things by the word of his (the Son's) power. See Ps. civ.

5 Deut. vi. 4. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord. Matt xxviii. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 2 Cor. xiii. 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all, See Matt. iii. 16, 17. John xv. 26. Jude 20. 21.

ARTICLE II.

Of the Word, or Son of God, which was made

very Man.

The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took Man's nature in the womb of the blessed virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man, who truly suf

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1 Heb. i. 1, 2, 3. God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, &c. John i. 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. v. 18. The only begotten Son, which is in the hosom of the Father, he hath declared him. x. 30. I and my Father are one.

2 Isa. vii. 14. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God with us. Matt. i. 22, 23.) Col. ii. 9. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. John i. 14. The Word was made flesh. 1 Tim. iii. 16. Phil. ii. 5-8. 1 Tim. ii. 5. There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

31 Thess. iv. 17. And so shall we ever be with the Lord (Jesus Christ). Heb. vii. 24. This man (or priest) because he continueth ever. .... Rev. i. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore. See also 1 John iii. 2. Rev. v. 13; xi. 15.

fered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins

of men.

Rom. v. 10. We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. 2 Cor. v. 19. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Heb. ii. 17. John i. 29. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.1 Cor. v. 7. Christ oar passover is sacrificed for us. 1 John i. 7. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Isa. liii. 5, 6. Eph. v. 2. Heb. ix. 26.

ARTICLE III.

Of the going down of Christ into Hell.

As Christ died for us, and was buried,1 so also it is to be believed that he went down into hell.

1 Acts ii. 31. His soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. Luke xxiii. 43. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

The passage quoted in this Article when one of the xlii. seems to relate to Christ's pre-existence, and preadministration of the Spirit, rather than to his state or actions after his death: viz. 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20). "By which (the Spirit) also he went and preached unto the spirits (now) in prison; which sometime were disobedient in the days of Noah," Compare Eph. ii. 17. "(Christ) came and preached peace to you that were afar off." 2 Pet. ii. 5. "Saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righte ousness."

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