ARTICLES OF RELIGION · 1615 AD · ANGLICAN (CHURCH OF IRELAND)

The Irish Articles of Religion

WRITTEN

1615 AD

TRADITION

Anglican (Church of Ireland)

SECTIONS

103

This document states its doctrine rather than quoting verses; its references are shown in the Berean Standard Bible.

CONTENTS

Preamble

THE IRISH ARTICLES OF RELIGION. A.D. 1615. The text is taken from the original edition of 1615, as appended to Dr. Ellington'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.

ARTICLE 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.

ARTICLE 2

By the name of holy Scripture we understand all the Canonical Books of, the Old and New Testament, viz. Of the Old Testament. Job. Psalms. Proverbs. Ecclesiastes. The Song of Solomon. Isaiah. Jeremiah, his Prophecy and Lamentation. Ezekiel. Daniel. The Twelve lesser Prophets. Of the New Testament. Luke, John, The Acts of the Apostles. Titus. Philemon. Hebrews. The Epistle of St. James. St. Peter II. St. John III. St. Jude. The Revelation of St. John. 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.

ARTICLE 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. Such are these following: 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 Maccabæus. The Second Book of Maccabæus.

4.

ARTICLE 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.

ARTICLE 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.

ARTICLE 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.

ARTICLE 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.

ARTICLE 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 God-head, there be three persons of one and the same substance, power, and eternity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

9.

ARTICLE 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.

ARTICLE 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.

ARTICLE 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.

ARTICLE 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.

13.

ARTICLE 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.

14.

ARTICLE 14

The cause moving God to predestinate unto life is not the foreseeing of faith, or perseverance, or good works, or of any thing which is in the person predestinated, but only the good pleasure of God himself. For all things being ordained for the manifestation of his glory, and his glory being to appear both in the works of his mercy and of his justice, it seemed good to his heavenly wisdom to choose cut a certain number towards whom he would extend his undeserved mercy, leaving the rest to be spectacles of his justice.

15.

ARTICLE 15

Such as are predestinated unto life be called according unto God's purpose (his spirit working in due season), and through grace they obey the calling, they be justified freely; they be made sons of God by adoption; they be made like the image of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ; they walk religiously in good works; and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity. But such as are not predestinated to salvation shall finally be condemned for their sins.

16.

ARTICLE 16

The godlike consideration of predestination and our election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members, and drawing up their minds to high and heavenly things: as well because it doth greatly confirm and establish their faith of eternal salvation, to be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God; and, on the contrary side, for curious and carnal persons lacking the spirit of Christ to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's predestination is very dangerous.

17.

ARTICLE 17

We must receive God's promises in such wise as they be generally set forth unto us in holy Scripture; and in our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God. OF THE CREATION AND GOVERNMENT OF ALL THINGS.

18.

ARTICLE 18

In the beginning of time, when no creature had any being, God, by his word alone, in the space of six days, created all things, and afterwards, by his providence, doth continue, propagate, and order them according to his own will.

20.

ARTICLE 20

Of angels, some continued in that holy state wherein they were created, and are by God's grace forever established therein; others fell from the same, and are reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

21.

ARTICLE 21

Man being at the beginning created according to the image of God (which consisted especially in the wisdom of his mind and the true holiness of his free will), had the covenant of the law ingrafted in his heart, whereby God did promise unto him everlasting life upon condition that lie performed entire and perfect obedience unto his Commandments, according to that measure of strength wherewith he was endued in his creation, and threatened death unto him if he did not perform the same. OF THE FALL OF MAN, ORIGINAL SIN, AND THE STATE OF MAN BEFORE JUSTIFICATION.

22.

ARTICLE 22

By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death went over all men, forasmuch as all have sinned.

23.

ARTICLE 23

Original sin standeth not in the imitation of Adam (as the Pelagians dream), but is the fault and corruption of the nature of every person that naturally is engendered and propagated from Adam: whereby it cometh to pass that man is deprived of original righteousness, and by nature is bent unto sin. And therefore, in every person born into the world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation.

24.

ARTICLE 24

This corruption of nature doth remain even in those that are regenerated, whereby the flesh always lusteth against the spirit, and can not be made subject to the law of God. And howsoever, for Christ's sake, there be no condemnation to such as are regenerate and do believe, yet doth the Apostle acknowledge that in itself this concupiscence hath the nature of sin.

THIS TEXT AND ITS SOURCES

• Berean Standard Bible Public domain

The document's own wording is unchanged apart from the quoted verses described above. Its proof-text references were resolved against this site's own copy of the Berean Standard Bible; the references it does not carry would be shown as references with no verse words.

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