Today, millions of people in the modern West identify as atheists. And even for believers, the intellectual and spiritual temptations to deny the existence of God seem greater than ever. Too often we respond to this pressure by seeking more and more rational proofs of God's existence, but what if a lack of reason to believe is not our main problem?

James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh, is popularly known as a proponent of young earth creationism due to the insertion of dates from his biblical chronology into many editions of the King James Version of the Bible. Despite this popular portrayal, historians have recognized Ussher's importance in the ecclesiological and theological debates of the seventeenth century and his stature as one of the great scholarly intellects of early modern Europe. This volume, complete with a helpful introduction by a leading scholar in the field, seeks to introduce four of Ussher’s sermons and two treatises on church government to a modern audience.

In this third volume of an ongoing translation project by the Davenant Institute, we present Books II-III of Hooker’s Laws, comprising Hooker’s treatment of Scripture’s authority in relation to the authority of reason and human law. Hooker contends that although Scripture does not change, human affairs do, and so our application of Scripture to changing human societies (including the Church) requires the use of reason, prudence, and historical awareness.