or vaine unmooveable rotten and dead pictures of all men whatsoever of which the Prophet spake truly They have eyes and see not c. Psal 115. Therefore we approove the judgement of Lactantius an ancient writer who saith Vndoubtedly there is no religion wheresoever there is a picture And we affirme that the blessed Bishop Epiphanius did well who finding on the Church doores a vaile that had painted in it the picture as it might be of Christ or of some other Saint he cut and tooke it away For that contrary to the authoritie of the Scriptures he had seene the picture of a man to hang in the Church of Christ and therefore he charged that from thence forth nosuch vailes which were contrary to our religion should be hanged up in the Church of Christ but that rather such scruple should be taken away which was unworthy the Church of Christ and all faithfull people Moreover we approove this sentence of S. Augustine Cap. 55. de ver a relig Let not the worship of mesn works be a religion unto us For the workmen themselves that make such things are better whom yet we ought not to worship Of the adoring worshipping and invocating of God through the onely Mediatour Jesus Christ CHAP. V. VVE teach men to adore and worship the true God alone this honour we impart to none according to the commandement of the Lord thou shalt adore the Lord thy God and Matth. 4. him alone shalt thou worship or him onely shalt thou serve Surely all the Prophets inveighed earnestly against the people of Israel whensoever they did adore and worship strange gods and not the one onely true God But we teach that God is to be adored and worshipped as himselfe hath taught us to worship him to weete in spirit and truth not with any superstition but with sinceritie Iohn 5. Isa 66. Ier. 7. Acts 17. according to his word lest at any time he also say unto us who hath required these things at your hands For Paul also saith God is not worshiped with mans hands as though he needed any thing c. We in all dangers and casualties of our life call on him alone and that by the mediation of the onely Mediatour and our intercessour Iesus Christ For it is expresly commanded us Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 50. Moreover the Lord hath made a most large promise saying whatsoever ye shall aske of my Father he shall give it you And againe Iohn 16. Matth. 11. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavie laden and I will refresh you And seeing it is written How shall they call upon him in Rom. 10. whom they have not beleeved and we doe beleeve in God alone therefore we call upon him onely and that through Christ For there is one God saith the Apostle and one Mediatour betweene 1 Tim. 2. 1 Iohn 2. God and men Christ Iesus Againe If any man sinne we have an advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous c. Therefore we doe neither adore worship nor pray unto the Saints in heaven or to other Gods neither doe we acknowledge them for our intercessours or Mediatours before the Father in heaven For God and the Mediatour Christ doe suffice us neither doe we impart unto others the honour due to God alone and to his Sonne because he hath plainly said I will not give my glory to another and Isa 42. Acts 4. because Peter hath said There is no other name given unto men whereby they must be saved but the name of Christ In which doubtlesse they that rest by faith doe not seeke any thing without Christ Yet for all that we doe neither despise the Saints nor thinke basely of them For we acknowledge them to be the lively members of Christ the friends of God who have gloriously overcome the flesh and the world We therefore love them as brethren and honour them also yet not with any worship but with an honourable opinion of them and to conclude with their just praises We also doe imitate them For we desire with most earnest affections and prayers to be followers of their faith and vertues to be partakers also with them of everlasting salvation to dwell together with them everlastingly with God and to rejoyce with them in Christ And in this point we approve that saying of Saint Augustine in his booke De verarelig Let not the worship of men departed be any religion unto us For if they have lived holily they are not so to be esteemed as that they seeke such honours but they will have us to worship him by whose illumination they reioyce that we are fellow servants as touching the reward They are therefore to be honoured for imitation not to be worshipped for religions sake c. And we much lesse beleeve that the reliques of Saints are to be adored or worshipped Those ancient holy men seemed sufficiently to have honoured their dead if they had honestly committed their bodies to the earth after that the soule was gone up into heaven and they thought that the most noble reliques of their ancestours were their vertues doctrine and faith which as they commended with the praise of the dead so they did endevour to expresse the same so long as they lived upon earth Those ancient men did not sweare by the name of the onely Iehova as it is commanded by the Law of God Therefore as we are forbidden To sweare by the name of strange Gods so we doe not sweare by Deut. 10. Exod. 23. Saints although we be requested thereunto We therefore in all these things doe reject that doctrine which giveth too much unto the Saints in heaven Out of the former Confession of HELVETIA VVE thus thinke of God that he is one in substance three in Artic. 6. persons and almightie Who as he hath by the word that is his Sonne made all things of nothing so by his spirit and providence he doth justly truely and most wisely governe preserve and cherish all things Who as he is the onely Mediatour intercessour and sacrifice Artic. 11. also our high Priest Lord and King so we acknowledge and with the whole heart beleeve that he alone is our attonement redemption satisfaction expiation wisedome protection and deliverance simply rejecting herein all meanes of life and salvation besides this Christ alone Out of the Confession of BASILL VVE beleeve in God the Father in God the Sonne in God Artic. 1. the holy Ghost the holy divine Trinitie three Persons and one eternall Almightie God in essence and substance and not three Gods And in the marginall note is added This is proved Artic. 10. by many places of the whole Scripture of the old and new Testament Therefore we mislike the worship and invocation of dead men the worshipping of Saints and setting up of Images with such like things And in
which be without the reach of our capacity Nay rather we apply to our owne use that which the Scripture teacheth for our quietnesse and contentation sake to wit that God to whom all things are subject with a fatherly care watcheth for us so that not so much as a haire of our head falleth to the ground without his will and that he hath Satan and all our adversaries so fast bound that unlesse leave be given them they cannot doe us any little harme Out of the Confession of BELGIA VVE know God by two manner of wayes first by the making Artic. 2. preserving and governing of this whole world For that to our eyes is as a most excellent book in which all creatures from the least to the greatest are graven as it were characters and certaine letters by which the invisible things of God may be seen and known of us namely his everlasting power and Godhead as Paul the Apostle speaketh Rom. 1. Chap. 10. which knowledge sufficeth to convince and make all men without excuse c. Looke for the rest in the first Section of the Scripture and in the second Section of God Artic. 12. VVE beleeve that the Father by his word that is by the Son made heaven earth and all other creatures of nothing when he saw it fit and convenient and gave to every one his being forme and divers offices that they might serve their Creator and that he doth now cherish uphold and governe them all according to his everlasting providence and infinite power and that to this end that they might serve man and man might serve his God He also made the Angels all good by nature that they might be his Ministers and might also attend upon the Elect of which notwithstanding some fell from that excellent nature in which God had created them into everlasting destruction but some by the singular grace of God abode in the first State of theirs but the Devils and those wicked spirits are so corrupted and defiled that they be sworn enemies to good and all goodnesse which as theeves out of a watch tower lye in waite for the Church and all the members thereof that by their juglings and deceits they may destroy and lay waste all things Therefore being through their own malice addicted to everlasting condemnation they look every day for the dreadfull punishments of their mischiefs We therefore in this place reject the errour of the Saduces who denied that there were any spirits or Angels as also the errour of the Manichees who hold that the Devils have their beginning of themselves and of their own nature evill and not corrupted by wilfull disobedience We beleeve that this most gracious and mightie God after he had made all things left them not to be ruled after the will of chance or fortune but himselfe doth so continually rule and governe them according to the prescript rule of his holy will that nothing can happen in this world without his Decree and Ordinance and yet God cannot be said to be either the author or guiltie of the evils that happen in this world For both his infinite and incomprehensible power and goodnesse stretcheth so farre that even then he decreeth and executeth his works and deeds justly and holily when as both the devill and the wicked doe unjustly And whatsoever things he doth passing the reach of mans capacitie we will not curiously and above our capacitie inquire into them Nay rather we humbly and reverently adore the secret yet just judgements of God For it sufficeth us as being Christs Disciples to learne onely those things which he himself teacheth in his word neither doe we thinke it lawfull to passe these bounds And this doctrin affordeth us exceeding great comfort For by it we know that nothing befalleth us by chance but all by the will of our heavenly Father who watcheth over us with a Fatherly care indeed having all things in subjection to himself so that not a haire of our head which are every one numbred can be plucked away nor the least sparrow light on the ground without the will of our Father In these things therefore do we wholly rest acknowledging that God holdeth the Devils and all our enemies so bridled as it were with snaffles that without his will and good leave they are not able to hurt any of us and in this place we reject the detestable opinion of the Epicures who fained God to be idle to doe nothing and to commit all things to chance THE FOVRTH SECTION OF MANS FALL SIN AND FREE-WILL The latter Confession of HELVETIA Of mans fall fin and the cause of sin CHAP. 8. MAN was from the beginning created of God after the Image of God in righteousnesse and true holinesse good and upright but by the instinct of the Serpent and his own fault falling from goodnesse and uprightnesse became subject to sin death and divers calamities and such an one as he became by his fall such are all his off-spring even subject to sin death and sundry calamities And we take sin to be that naturall corruption of man derived or spread from those our first parents unto us all through which we being drowned in evill concupiscences and cleane turned away from God but prone to all evill full of all wickednesse distrust contempt and hatred of God can doe no good of our selves no not so much as thinke of any And that more is even as Matth. 12. we doe grow in yeers so by wicked thoughts words and deeds committed against the law of God we bring forth corrupt fruits worthy of an evill tree in which respect we through our own desert being subject to the wrath of God are in danger of just punishments so that we had all been cast away from God had not Christ the Deliverer brought us back again By death therefore we understand not only bodily death which is once to be suffered of all us for sins but also everlasting punishments due to our corruption and to our sins For the Apostle Eph. 2. saith We were dead in trespasses and sins and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others But God which is rich in mercie even when we were dead by sins quickened us together in Christ Againe As by one man sin entred into the world and by sin death and Rom. 5. so death went over all men for as much as all men have sinned c. We therefore acknowledge that originall sin is in all men we acknowledge that all other sins which spring here out are both called and are in deed sins by what name soever they be tearmed whether mortall or veniall or also that which is called sin against the holy Ghost which is never forgiven we also confesse that sins are not equall although they spring from the same fountaine Mar. 3. 1 Joh. 5. Matth. 10. 11. of corruption and unbeliefe but that some are more grievous then other even as the Lord hath
according as Saint John saith The Word was made flesh John 1. And thus of these two natures their properties not being changed nor confounded yet by a wonderfull communication thereof there is made one indivisible person one Christ Immanuel our King and Priest our Redeemer our Mediatour and perfect Reconciler full of grace and truth so that of his fulnesse we all doe take grace for grace For the Law was given by Moses but grace and truth was given and exhibited by Iesus Christ being God and man in one person This grace and truth are our men taught to acknowledge and by faith to behold in all those saving and wonderfull works or affections of Christ which according to the meaning of the holy Scripture are by a stedfast faith to be beleeved and professed such as are his coming down from heaven his conception birth torments death buriall resurrection ascension unto heaven sitting at the right hand of God and his coming again from thence to Iudge both the quicke and the dead In these principall affections as in a chest wherein treasure is kept are all those wholsome fruits of our true justification laid up are taken out from thence for the Elect and those which doe beleeve that in spirit and conscience they may be partakers thereof through faith which all hereafter at the day of our joyfull resurrection shall be fully and perfectly bestowed upon us And towards the end of that sixth Chapter these words are added In this Chapter also particularly and for necessary causes to shun and avoyd many pernicious and Antichristian deceits it is taught concerning Christ his * Looke the first obsâ—rvat upon this confession presence namely that our Lord Christ according to his bodily conversation is not amongst us any longer in this world neither will be unto the end of the world in such sort and manner as he was here conversant amongst us in his mortalitie and wherein he was betrayed and circumcised nor yet in the forme of his glorified body which he got at his resurrection and in the which he appeared to his disciples and the fortieth day after his resurrection departing from them ascended manifestly into heaven For after this manner of his presence and company he is in the high place and with his Father in heaven where all tongues professe him to be the Lord and every faithfull one of Christ must beleeve that he is there and worship him there according to the Scriptures as also that part of the Catholike Christian faith doth expressely witnesse which is this He ascended into heaven he sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almightie Also that other Article from thence shall he come that is from an higher place out of heaven with his Angels to iudge both the quicke and 1 Thes 4. the dead So doth Paul also say The Lord himselfe shall descend from heaven with a shoute and with the voice of an Archangel and with the trumpet of God And Saint Peter saith Whom heaven must containe Act 3. Mar. 16. untill the time that all things be restored And the Evangelist Marke But whâ—n the Lord had spoken with them he was taken up againe into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God And the Angels which were there present when he was taken Acts 1. up into heaven said This Iesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come againe as you have seene him goe into heaven Furthermore this also doe our men teach that the selfe same Christ very God and very man is also with us here in this world but after a diverse manner from that kinde of presence which we named before that is after a certaine spirituall manner not object to our eyes but such a one as is hid from us which the flesh doth not perceive and yet it is very necessary for us to our salvation that we may be partakers of him whereby he offereth and communicateth himselfe unto us that he may dwell in us and we in him and this truly he doth by the holy Ghost whom in his own place that is instead of his own presence whereby he was bodily amongst us hee promised that he would send unto his Church and that he would still abide with it by the same spirit in vertue grace and his holesome truth at all times even untill the end of the world when he said thus It is good for you that I goe Matth. 28. Iohn 16. Iohn 14. hence for except I goe hence the Comforter will not come unto you but if I goe away I will send him unto you And againe I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that is another kinde of comforter then I am that he may abide in you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth in you and shall be in you I will not leave you comfortlesse but I will come to you namely by the selfe same spirit of truth Now then even as our Lord Christ by his latter kinde of presence being not visible but spirituall is present in the Ministers of the Church in the Word and in the Sacraments even so also by the selfe same Ministers Word and Sacraments he is present with his Church and by these meanes doe the Elect receive him through inward faith in their heart and doe therefore joyn themselves together with him that he may dwell in them and they in him after such a sort as is not apparant but hidden from the world even by that saith spiritually that is to say in their souls and hearts by the spirit of truth of whom our Lord saith He abideth with you and shall be in you And I will come againe unto Iohn 14. you This judgement and declaration of our faith is not new or now first devised but very ancient Now that this was commonly taught and meant in the Church of old it is plaine and evident by the Writings of the ancient Fathers of the Church and by that Decree wherein it is thus written and they are the words of S. Augustine Our Lord is above untill the end of the world but the Iâ— Io. Tract 30. truth of the Lord is here also for the body of the Lord wherein he rose againe must of necessitie be in one place but his truth is dispersed every where Out of the FRENCH Confession VVE beleeve that whatsoever is requisite to our salvation Artic. 13. is offered and communicated unto us now at length in that one Iesus Christ as he who being given to save us is also made unto us wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption in so much as whosoever doth swarve from him doth renounce the mercie of the Father that is our onely refuge We beleeve that Iesus Christ being the wisdome and eternall Artic. 14. Son of the Father tooke upon him
whether worthy or unworthy communicants doe approch are never in respect of God offered to be received without the thing signified because the truth of God dependeth not upon the worthinesse or unworthines of the communicants Yet hereby it cannot be concluded that both of them are received of every one because both of them are alwaies offered by God to all indifferently Concerning which matter look before in the 12. Section and 2. Observation upon the Confession of the Waldenses or Bohemians and also very fully hereafter in the 1. Observation upon the Confession of Auspurge Vpon the same Moreover absolution from sinnes is lawfully administred c. Obser 3. pag. 315. Looke the 8. Section upon the Confession of Bohemia Auspurge and Saxonie Vpon the same Most commonly falling downe on their knees c. In this ritc Obser 4 pag. 31â— also suppose that every Church ought to have her libertie not that we doe utterly in it selfe condemne this manner so that the caution be added whereof we spake of late in the 4. Observation but because that for the rooting of the superstitious worshipping of the bread out of mens mindes it were more expedient that that ceremonie in most places were abolished in the receiving of the signes themselves whereof look before in the 1. Observ upon the former Confession of Helvetia Vpon the French Confession THe substance of his body and blood c. The French Churches Obser 1. pag. 316. have witnessed in generall Synods that they after the example of the ancient Fathers doe use the word substance not as if the very substance of Christ were conveyed into the bread or derived into us any manner of way either corporall or unspeakable or that it were applied to our corporall substance seeing that it verily is now in heaven and no where else unto the last day and we in earth and no where else but to meet with the slander of those men which think that we instead of the very body and blood of Christ do place onely his merits or his spirituall force and operation whereas notwithstanding we doe teach that we though spiritually and mystically yet notwithstanding truly do participate Christ himselfe not that either we should cleave essentially unto him or he unto us but that his life is derived into us Look also concerning this matter in the 1. Observation upon the Confession of Auspurge in this Section Vpon the Confession of Belgia ALl the operations of the holy Ghost are hidden c. That is to Obser 1. pag. â—21 say both when the proper force of the holy spirit which is incomprehensible is regarded seeing that his effects do exceed our senses Both which do come to passe in these mysteries Vpon the same That which is eaten c. Namely by faith as it is often iterated Obser 2. pag. 321. in this Confession that is to say that which is received spiritually by the minde by beleeving as the signe is eaten and drunken corporally I or the words eating and drinking can no otherwise be spoken of the minde and of faith which are the onely instruments of receiving the very body and blood of Christ then metaphorically or metonymically Vpon the same By the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood c. That is Obser 3 pag. 321. as hath beene said in the former Observation by a spirituall participation the which sometimes by reason of the sacramentall receiving and sometimes by reason of that spirituall life which Christ ingendereth in us is metaphorically signified by the names of eating or drinking Vpon the same Although the sacraments be ioyned to the thing c. Of the sacramentall Obser 4. pag. 32â— union we have spoken before in the second Observation upon the Confession of Bohemia Vpon the Confession of Auspurge THat the body and blood of Christ are there in deed and are distributed Obser 1. pag. 32â— c. We also doe allow of this namely that the word of God is not deceitfull and therefore as often as the holy signes are rightly given that is according to Christ his institution that then also the thing signified by the signe which is the very body of Christ crucified for us and the very bloud of Christ shed for us is also given to be received But we affirme that the thing signified is no otherwise coupled with the signe then sacramentally The truth of which sacramentall conjunction doth not consist in this that wheresoever the signe is there the thing represented by the signe should also be present but in this that that which God promiseth by the signe he also doth offer to be received Therefore we hold that the body of Christ is not really present in with or under the bread otherwise then after this sacramentall manner both because it is a true body being circumscribed in his locall situation and also hath truly ascended from the earth above the heavens that be subject to our sight and shall there remaine from whence he exerciseth a government over all these beneath even as he is man untill he come truly from thence to judge both quick and dead Moreover we doe also avouch that as the signes are offered to the body so the things signified are offered to the minde and therefore that the signes are received of every one with the hand and mouth that come unto the supper the which unto some namely to the worthy receivers doe turne unto salvation but unto others that is the unworthy communicants by reason of the prophanation of the signes and contempt of the thing signified they doe turne to condemnation As for the things signified those we affirme to be truly and effectually apprehended onely of those that be indued with a right minde and a true faith and that alwaies unto salvation whereunto the distance of place is no hinderance by reason of the unspeakable operation of the holy Ghost And yet not so as that the substances should be mingled betwixt themselves or cleave together in any place for Christs flesh abideth in heaven and ours upon the earth but that these things being mystically united which in true distance of situation are separated we might draw from the flesh of Christ all gifts necessary for our salvation and especially that lively juyce whereby we are nourished to eternall life Therefore whatsoever they pretend which are of the contrary judgement the controversie is not either of the signe or of the things signified or of the truth of the Sacraments or of the receiving of them or of the effects but of the onely definition of the sacramentall conjunction and also of the manner of receiving the things signified Both which we contend to be so interpreted by some out of the word of God that if their opinion be once granted both the truth of Christs body his assention into heaven and his second coming is consequently overthrown Looke the exposition of this Article expressed in the divers editions
of the Auspurge Confession though not after the same manner and in the same words and for the full declaration thereof looke in the Admonition lately set forth by our brethren the Neustadians in the 5. Chapter out of the which our agreement in this point of doctrine rightly declared doth appeare Vpon the same Art 1. Of the abuses For the Masse is retained still amongst us c. The Princes and Obser 2 pag. 322. Divines in the assembly at Newburdge testified in the yeer 1561. as is manifest by the decrees of that assembly that they by the word Masse do understand the administration of the Supper and do from the bottome of their hearts detest the Romish Masse And although we do abhorre all contentions about words and do acknowledge that the word Masse is not newly sprung up in the Latine Church yet seeing that the Originall of this tearme namely because almes were sent from the faithfull in their usuall meetings at their love feasts is long since abolished and seeing that this word hath these many yeeres broken out into great abomination and so great that none so grosse or execrable was ever heard of we do not without cause together with the thing abolish the name it selfe out of our Churches As for the holy liturgie there we think that it is most rightly celebrated where it is most simply and most neerly unto the first institution observed And seeing it is manifest that the ceremonies in the Romane Liturgie are partly in themselves unprofitable partly tending rather to an ambitious shew pompe then to edification partly ridiculous and partly either in themselves superstitious or else ready to be turned into superstition Therefore the most of them or in a manner all we have in every place utterly swept away Yet so as that the Church hath her liberty left in things indifferent as it is meet and shall be declared in the 17. Sect. As for the speaking or singing of any thing in the publique Liturgie in such a tongue as is unknown to the common people unlesse there be an interpreter the Apostle doth plainly forbid it 1 Cor. 14. Vpon the same A Ceremonie in the new covenant without faith doth merit nothing Obser 3. pag. 326. c. No nor yet in the Old testament yea neither any ceremonie nor faith it selfe doth merit any thing but whereas the externall work being performed with faith according to Gods commandement is acceptable unto him all that we teach out of Gods word to be of grace and not of debt Whereof looke the 8. Section and the 7. Observation the 9. Sect. and the 2. Obser unto the same Confession of Auspurge Vpon the same The Pastours of the Churches do consecrate c. By the name of Obser 4. pag. 327. consecration we understand no other thing then the use of Christs ordination by whose blessing and power the elements are sanctified unto us whereof dependeth the whole force and dignitie of the Sacraments Vpon the same Every holy day and other daies also if any be desirous to use the Obser 5. pag. 327. Sacrament c. Of holy dayes is spoken afterwards in the 16. Section But in our Churches certaine dayes by publique warning are appointed wherein if any refuse to receive the Supper they answer for it in the Consistorie Vpon the same about the end of the second Article of abuses And because that the parting c. This verily is one cause why Obser 6. pag. 334. the carrying about of the Sacrament is condemned yet neither the onely cause nor the chiefest Vpon the Confession of Saxonie ANd that he is in thee c. This we admit touching the spirituall Observ 1. page 336. efficacie not concerning the very essence of the flesh the which is now in heaven and no where else as hath been before shewed in the 1. Obser upon the Confession of Auspurge Vpon the same Neither are any admitted to the communion c. This we allow Obser 2 pag. 336. as being understood of Catechizing or instruction As for private absolution how far we think it to be required it hath been shewed of us heretofore namely in the 8. Sect. and 1. Observat both upon this and also upon the Confession of Bohemia Vpon the same Obser 3. pag. page 336. That Christ is truly and substantially present c. Looke the 1. and 2. Observat upon the Confession of Auspurge Vpon the same That Christ witnesseth that he is in them and doth make them Obser 4 pag. 337. his members c. Both these also we doe imbrace as is contained in the word of God namely so that this whole dwelling be by his power and efficacie and that the flesh of Christ be communicated unto us yet after a spirituall and mysticall manner as hath been declared of us before both in the Confession of Bohemia and of Auspurge Vpon the same And lessons appointed c. How farre we doe allow this distribution Obser 5. pag. 337. of the holy Scripture look the 1. Observat upon the Confession of Bohemia the 1. Section Vpon the Confession of Wirtemberge That the true body of Christ c. Look before in the 1. Observation Obser 1. pag. 342. upon the Confession of Auspurge Vpon the same Of the body of Christ being onely absent c. We doe beleeve Obser 2 pag. 342. out of the word of God and by the perpetuall and evident agreement of the whole ancient and true Church that the body of Christ hath alwaies been is and shall be circumscribed and locall Wherefore as when he lived upon the earth he was no where else so now also being above in heaven he is there and no where else in his substance as Vigilius plainly affirmeth against Eutiches Yet for all that we doe not affirme that the very body of Christ is onely or simply absent or that the bread and wine are only simple naked signes or bare Pictures or nothing else but certaine tokens of Christian profession For in this sense is there one onely action of the holy Supper that yet not withstanding it should be partly corporall and celebrated upon the earth in which respect we doubt not to say that Christs body is as farre distant from us as heaven is from the earth partly heavenly the minde and faith lifting up the heart unto God in the which respect we acknowledge that the body of the Lord is present in the Supper to our minde and faith But that they be bare and naked signes how can we possibly affirme which so often and so evidently have beaten upon this that the things signified are no lesse certainly given unto the minde then the signes themselves unto the body Vpon the same Or else change them into the body and blood c. We see not Obser 3. pag. 342. how God may be said to be able to doe that which is manifestly repugnant to his own will concerning the
all the will of God and that in it all things are abundantly taught whatsoever is necessary to be beleeved of man to attaine salvation Therefore seeing the whole manner of worshipping God which God requireth at the hands of the faithfull is there most exquisitely and at large set downe it is lawfull for no man although he have the authoritie of an Apostle no not for any Angel sent from heaven as Saint Paul speaketh to teach otherwise then we have long since beene taught in the holy Scriptures For seeing it is forbidden that any one should adde or detract any thing from the Word of God thereby it is evident enough that this holy doctrine is perfect and absolute in all points and parcels thereof and therefore no other writings of men although never so holy no custome no multitude no antiquitie nor prescription of times nor personall succession nor any councels and to conclude no decrees or ordinances of men are to be matched or compared with these divine Scriptures and bare truth of God for so much as Gods truth excelleth all things For all men of their owne nature are lyars and lighter then vanitie it selfe therefore we doe utterly refuse whatsoever things agree not with this most certaine rule as we have beene taught by the Apostles when they say Trie the spirits whether they be of God And If any come unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not to house c. Out of the SAXONS Confession Of Doctrine SEeing it is most undoubtedly true that God out of mankinde doth gather together unto himselfe a Church unto eternall life for and by his Sonne through preaching of that doctrine which is written in the bookes of the Prophets and Apostles we plainly avouch before God and the whole Church in heaven and in earth that we doe with a true faith embrace all the writings of the Prophets and Apostles and that in that very naturall meanning which is set downe in the Creeds of the Apostles of Nice and of Athanasius And these selfe same Creedes and the naturall meanning of them we have alwaies constantly embraced without corruption and will by Gods helpe alwaies embrace and in this faith doe we call upon the true God who sending his Sonne and giving cleare testimonies hath revealed himself in his Church joyning our prayer with all Saints in heaven and in earth and our Vide obseru 1. adhaac confâ—ss tum in hac sâ—ct tum in sâ—ct secunda declarations upon the Creeds are abroad containing the whole body and ground of doctrine which shew that this our protestation is most true We doe also very resolutely condemne all brainesicke fantasies which are against the Creeds as are the monstrous opinions of heathen men of the Iewes of the Mahometists of Marcion the Manichees of Samosatenus Servetus Arrius and those that deny the person of the holy Ghost and other opinions condemned by the true judgement of the Church Out of the Confession of WIRTEMBERGE Of the holy Scripture CHAP. 30. THe holy Scriptures we call those Canonicall books of the Vide obseru 1. in hanc Confess old and new Testament of whose authoritie there was never doubt made in the Church This Scripture we beleeve and confesse to be the Oracle of the holy Ghost so confirmed by heavenly testimonies that If an Angel from heaven preach any other thing let him be accursed Wherefore we detest all doctrine worship and Religion contrary to this Scripture But whereas some men thinke that all doctrine necessary to be known of us to true everlasting salvation is not contained in this Scripture and that the right of expounding this Scripture lyeth so in the power of chiefe Bishops that what they according to their owne will give out is to be embraced for the meaning of the holy Ghost it is more easily said then proved The whole Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable 2 Tim. 3. to teach to improve to correct and to instruct in righteousnesse that the man of God may be perfect being throughly prepared to every good worke And Iohn 15. I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my father have I made knowne to you And those things which the Apostles received of Christ those have they by their preaching published in the whole world and by their writings delivered them to posteritie It is a plain case therefore that all things which are needfull to be knowne to salvation are contained in the Prophets Chrysost ad Titum hom â— and Apostles writings He hath revealed his owne word in due season by preaching which is all committed to me this is the preaching For the Gospel containeth things both things present and things to come as honour piety and faith yea and all things he hath ioyntly comprised in this one word preaching Againe Ierome ad Tit. Cap. 1. August super Joan. Cap. 11. Tract 40. Without authority of the Scriptures babbling hath no credit For seeing the Lord Iesus did many things al are not written as the same holy Evangelist himselfe witnesseth that the Lord Christ both said and did many things which are not written But those things were selected to be written which seemed to suffice for the salvation of those that beleeve For wheras they say that the right of expounding the Scripture lyeth in the power of cheif Bishops it is evident that the gift of expounding the scripture is not of mans wisedome but of the holy Ghost To every man saith Paul is given the manifestation of the spirit to profit withall for to one is given by the spirit the word of wisedome c. But the holy Ghost is altogether at libertie and is not tied to a certain sort of men but giveth gifts to men according to his own Num. 11. good pleasure Oh that all the people had power to prophecie and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them Debora a woman Iud. 4. the wife of Lapidoth is raised up to be a Prophetesse Againe I am Amos. 7. no Prophet nor Prophets sonne but I am a heard man and a gatherer of wilde figs. And yet Amos received the holy Ghost and was made a Prophet All these things worketh one and the 2 Cor. 12. same spirit distributing to every man as he will Many examples also do witnesse that chiefe Bishops have been often and very foulely deceived wherfore the gift of expounding the Scripture is not so tied to the Popes that whosoever shall be Pope must needs rightly expound the Scripture but the true meaning of the Scripture is to be sought in the Scripture it selfe and among those that being raised by the spirit of God expound Scripture by Scripture CHAP. XXXIIII Of Councels VVE confesse that Councels ought to have their judgements in the Church concerning the holy doctrine of Religion and that the authoritie of lawfull Councels is great but the authoritie of Gods Word must
among his Saints none is immutable and the heavens are not cleane in his sight how much more abominable and unprofitable man who drinketh in iniquitie as water And the holy Scripture plainly witnesseth throughout all the bookes thereof that all men Ephes 2. Psal 14. even from their birth are by nature sinners and that there neither is nor hath beene any one who of himselfe and by himselfe was righteous and holy but all have gone aside from God and are become Rom. 3. unprofitable and of no account at all And whereas some are made holy and acceptable unto God that is purchased unto them without any worthinesse or merit of theirs by him who alone is holy God himselfe of the meere grace and unspeakable riches of his goodnesse hath ordained and brought them to that estate that they be blessed and called redeemed by Christ cleansed and consecrated by his blood annointed of the holy Ghost made righteous and holy by faith in Christ and adorned with commendable vertues and good deeds or workes which beseeme a Christian profession Of whom many having finished their life and course in such workes have now received and doe enjoy by grace eternall felicitie in heaven where God crowneth those that be his Some of them also God hath indued wiht a certain peculiar grace of his and with divine gifts unto the ministerie and to the publike and common good of the Church such as were the Patriarches Prophets and other holy fathers also Apostles Evangelists Bishops and many Doctors and Pastors and also other famous men and of rare excellencie and very well furnished with the spirit whose memory monuments of their labours and the good things which they did are extant and continue even untill this day in the holy Scriptures and in the Church But especially it is both beleeved and by open confession made knowne as touching the holy Virgin Mary that she was a daughter of the blood royall of the house and family of David that deare servant and friend of God and that she was chosen and blessed of God the Father consecrated by the holy Ghost visited and sanctified above other of her sexe and also replenished with wonderfull grace and power of God to this end that she might become the true mother of our Lord Iesus Christ the Son of God of whom he vouchsafed to take our nature and that she was at all times before her birth in the same and after it a true chaste and pure Virgine and that by her best beloved Sonne the Sonne also of the living God through the price of his death and the effusion of his most holy blood she was dearely redeemed and sanctified as also made one of the deare partakers of Christ by the holy Ghost through faith being adorned with excellent gifts noble vertues and fruits of good workes renowned as happie before all others and made most assuredly a joynt heire of everlasting life And a little after Furthermore it is taught in the Church that no man ought so to reverence holy men as we are to worship God much lesse their Images or to reverence them with that worship and affection of minde which onely are due to God alone And to be short by no meanes to honour them with divine worship or to give it unto them For God saith by the Prophet Esay I am the Lord thy God this is my name I will not give mine honour to another nor my glory to Images Againe a Esa 42. 48. little after But even as that thing is gain-said that the honour due to God should be given to Saints so it is by no meanes to be suffered that the honour of the Lambe Christ our Lord and things belonging to him and due to him alone and appertaining to the proper and true Priesthood of his nature should be transferred to them that is lest of them and those torments which they suffered we should make redeemers or merits in this life or else advocates intercessours and Mediatours in heaven or that we should invocate them and not them onely but not so much as the holy Angels seeing they are not God For there is one onely 1 Tim. 2. Hebr. 9. 1 Tim. 2. 1 Joâ— 2. Redeemer who being once delivered to death sacrificed himselfe both in his body and in his blood there is also one onely Advocate the most mercifull Lord of us all And they are not onely to be reputed and taken for Saints who are gone before us and are fallen a sleepe in the Lord and dwell now in joyes but also they who as there have alwaies beene some upon earth so doe likewise live now on the earth such are all true and godly Christians in what place or countrey soever here or there and among what people soever they lead their life who by being baptized in the name of the Lord may be sanctified and being indued with true faith in the Sonne of God and set on fire are mutually enflamed with affection of divine charitie and love who also acknowledging the justification of Christ doe use both it and absolution from their sinnes and the communion of the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ and diligently apply themselves to all holy exercises of pietie beseeming a Christian profession as also the Apostles call such beleevers in Christ which as yet like strangers are conversant here on earth according to the state of mortall men Saints As for example Ye are 1 Pet 2. 2 Cor. 1â— Heb. 1â— a chosen generation a royall Priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people Againe all the Saints greete you In like manner Salute all those that have the oversight of you and all the Saints that is all faithfull Christians For this cause it is taught that we ought with intire love and favour of the heart to embrace all Christians before all other people and when need is from the same affection of love to afford unto them our sevice and to helpe them further that we ought to maintaine the societie of holy friendship with those that love and follow the truth of Christ with all good affection to conceive well of them to have them in honour for Christs sake to give unto Rom 12 Gal 6. 1 Cor 12. them due reverence from the affection of Christian love and to studie in procuring all good by our dutie and service to pleaâ—ure them and finally to desire their prayers for us And that Christians going astray and intangled with sinnes are lovingly and gently to be brought to amendment that compassion is to be had on them that they are with a quiet minde in love so as becometh to be borne withall that prayer is to be made unto God for them that he would bring them againe into the way of salvation to the end that the holy Gospel may be spread farther abroad and Christs glory may be made knowne and enlarged among all men Out of the FRENCH Confession VVE beleeve and acknowledge
begotten of his Father from everlasting true and everlasting God consubstantiall with his Father c. Looke the rest in the 6. division Of the holy Ghost CHAP. 3. VVE beleeve and confesse that the holy Ghost proceedeth from God the Father from everlasting that he is true and eternall God of the same essence and majestie and glory with the Father and the Sonne as the holy Fathers by authoritie of the holy Scripture well declared in the Councel of Constantinople against Macedonius Of Invocation of Saints CHAP. 23. THere is no doubt but the memorie of those Saints who when they were in this bodily life furthered the Church either by doctrine or writings or by miracles or by examples and have either witnessed the truth of the Gospel by Martyrdome or by a quiet kinde of death fallen on sleepe in Christ ought to be sacred with all the godly and they are to be commended to the Church that by their doctrine and examples we may be strengthned in true faith and inflamed to follow true godlinesse We confesse also that the Saints in heaven doe after their certaine manner pray for us before God as the Angels also are carefull * Vide observ 1. ad confess Saxon. sect 1. for us and all the creatures doe after a certaine heavenly manner groane for our salvation and travell together with us as Paul speaketh But as the worship of invocation of creatures is not to be instituted upon their groanings so upon the prayer of Saints in heaven we may not allow the invocation of Saints For touching the invocating of them there is no commandement nor example in the holy Scriptures For seeing all hope of our salvation is to be put not in the Saints but in our Lord God alone through his Sonne our Lord Iesus Christ it is cleare that not the Saints but God alone is to be prayed unto How shall they call on him saith Paul in whom they beleeve not but we must not beleeve in the Saints how then shall we pray unto them And seeing it must needs be that he who is prayed unto be a searcher of the heart the Saints ought not to be prayed unto because they are no searchers of the heart Epiphanius saith Maries body was holy indeed but yet not God Contra Collyidia eos she was indeed a Virgin and honourable but she was not propounded for adoration but her selfe worshipped him who as concerning his flesh was borne of her Austine saith Let not the worship of dead men be De vera relig cap. ult any religion unto us because if they have lived holily they are not so to be accounted of as that they should seeke such honour but rather they will have him to be worshipped of us by whom themselves being illuminated reioyce that we should be fellow servants of their reward Ibidem They are therefore to be honoured for imitation not to be worshipped for Religion sake And againe in the same place We honour them with love not with service Neither doe we erect temples unot them for they will not have themselves so to be honoured of us because they know that we our selves being good are the Temples of the high God And againe Neither doe we consecrate temples Priesthoods holy De â—ivit Dcil 8 cap 27 rites ceremonies and sacrifices unto the same Martyrs seeing not they but their God is our God c. We neither ordaine Priests for our Martyrs nor offer sacrifices Ambrose upon the Romans Chap. 1. They are wont to use a miserable excuse saying that by these men may have accesse unto God as to a King by Earles Goe to is any man so mad I pray you that being forgetfull of his owne salvation he will challenge as fit for an Earle the royaltie of a King And streight after These men thinke them not guilty that give the honour of Gods name to a creature and leaving the Lord worship their fellow servants But we say they worship not the Saints but onely desire to be holpen afore God by their prayers But so to desire as the service of Letanies sheweth and is commonly used is nothing else but to call upon and worship Saints for such desiring requireth that he who is desired be every where present and heare the petition But this Majesty agreeth to God alone and if it be given to the creature the creature is worshipped Some men faine that the Saints see in Gods Word what things God promiseth and what things seeme profitable for us which thing although it be not impossible to the Majestie of God yet Esay plainly avoucheth That Abraham knoweth us not and Israel is ignorant of us where the ordinary glosse citeth Augustine saying that the dead even Saints know not what the living doe c. For that the ancient writers often times in their prayers turne themselves to Saints they either simply without exact judgement followed the errour of the common people or used such manner of speaking not as divine honour but as a figure of Grammar which they call Prosopopaeia Whereby godly and learned men doe not meane that they worship and pray to Saints but doe set out the unspeakable groaning of the Saints and of all creatures for our salvation and signifie that the godly prayers which Saints through the holy Ghost powred out in this world before God doe as yet ring in Gods eares as also the bloud of Abel after his death still cried before God and in the Revelation the soules of the Saints that were killed cry that their bloud may be revenged not that they now resting in the Lord are desirous of revenge after the manner of men but because the Lord even after their death is mindefull of the prayers which while they yet lived on earth they powred out of their own and the whole Churches deliverance Epiphanius himselfe against Aerius doth also somewhat stick in the common error yet he teacheth plainly that the Saints are mentioned in the Church not that they should be prayed unto but rather that they should not be prayed unto nor matched in honour with Christ We saith he make mention of the righteous Fathers Patriarches Prophets Apostles Evangelists Martyrs Confessors Bishops Anachoretes and the whole company that we may single out the Lord Iesus Christ from that company of men by the honour which we give unto him and that we may give him such worship as by which we may signifie that we thinke that the Lord is not to be made equall with any among men although every of them were a thousand times and above more righteous then they are Out of the Confession of SUEVELAND Artic. 1. ss 7. SInce Sermons began with us to be taken out of the holy Scriptures of God and those deadly contentions ceased so many as were led with any desire of true Godlinesse have obtained a farre more certaine knowledge of Christs doctrine and farre more fervently expressed it in the conversation of their life
we so plentifully enjoy surely the forme of Gods creatures altered by mans cunning and so shapen that stones trees mettals and other like matter doe no longer detain their own shape such as they received it of God but carry the countenance either of men or of beasts or of other things will doe him no good Yea it is certaine that by the workmanship of such Images men are more withdrawne from the view of Gods workes to their owne workes or to mens inventions so that they doe not every where thinke alike of God but keepe in religious cogitations untill such time as they light upon some Image But surely if a man marke it well the heaven and the earth and whatsoever is contained in them are excellent and worthy Images of God The heathens also used a pretence of instruction and teaching to maintaine their Idols but the holy fathers rested not in such excuses Of which matter Lactantius teacheth at large in his second booke of Institut Neither could the heathens better abide to be upbraided for that they worshipped stones and stocks then can the men of our age as they which oftentimes confidently affirmed that they tooke the Images to be nothing else but Images and that they sought nothing else but to be Instructed and admonished by them And these things doth Athanasius controll in these words Goe to let them tell me how God is known by Images that is whether it be for the matter whereof they consist or for the forme imprinted in that matter If the mâ—â—ter serâ—e the turne what need is there I pray you of the forme For God himselfe shineth forth even in the matter before that any thing be framed thereof by mans hands for all things shew forth Gods glory But if the forme it selfe which is fitted to the matter giveth occasion to know God what neede such Images might not God be knowne farre more excellently by the things themselves whereof Images be made surely the glory of God might much more visibly be seene by the living creatures themselves either reasonable or unreasonable set before our eyes then by dead Images which cannot move And if any man shall say these things might well be brought against Images by which men thinke they may come to the knowledge of God but we are to thinke otherwise of the Images of our Lord Iesus Christ and other Saints Let him in like sort thinke that God did many externall workes in Israel of which he commandeth them to be mindefull for ever and that he raised up unto them not a few famous and holy men whose faith he would never have them to forget Yet he never established the memoriall of them by such Images that he might give no occasion of backsliding or Apostasie which is wont to follow the worshipping of Images Wherefore in the purer Primitive Church it was abomination to have even the Image of Christ as hath beene afore shewed To be short our Preachers confesse that Images of themselves are indifferent so that no worship or adoration be done unto them But it is not enough for a Christian man to have a thing free but he ought alwaies to have a diligent respect hereunto whether the same be profitable for edification 1 Cor. 10. for nothing is to be suffered or assayed in the Church which hath not in it some certaine use of edifying Seeing then it plainly appeareth what grievous offences Images â—n times past brought forth and doe as yet bring forth and seeing it cannot be shewed what profit can be hoped for thereof unless◠〈◊〉 adventure we will be counted quicker sighted then God himselfe and the ancient Christians that were truely godly who were so farre from taking any profit thereby that they even abhorred Images in Churches all Images and Idols are worthily to be abhorred in the Church Neither can the workemanship of the Cherubins upon the Arke of the Covenant or other ornaments of the Temple which the Patrons of Images are wont to object unto us hinder this truth among Christians For God had expressely commanded the Cherubins to be made but he would not have them seene of the people And all the other things were ordained rather for the beautie of the Temple then to learne any knowledge of God thereby although from them as from all the rest of Gods workes they which were spirituall might take occasion to meditate upon the goodnesse of God But it is requisite also to call this to minde that we are much more bound to worship God in spirit and in truth then they of old time were for that we are more plentifully inriched with Christs spirit if we truely beleeve in him THE THIRD SECTION OF THE ETERNALL Providence of God and the Creation of the World The latter Confession of HELVETIA Of the providence of God CHAP. 6. WE beleeve that all things both in heaven and in earth and in all creatures are sustained and governed by the providence of this wise eternall and omnipotent God For David witnesseth and saith The Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens Who is as our God who dwelleth on high and yet humblet himselfe to behold the things that are in heaven and earth Againe he saith Thou hast foreseene all my wayes For there is not a won Psal 139. 3. in my tongue which thou knowest not wholly O Lord c. Paul also witnesseth and saith By him we live move and have our being Acts 17. 28. Rom. 11. 36. And of him and through him and from him are all things Therefore Augustine both truely and according to the Scripture said in his booke De agone Christi cap. 8. The Lord said Are not two sparrowes sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without the will of your Father By speaking thus he would give us to understand that whatsoeuer men count most vile that also is governed by the almightie power of God For the truth which said that all the haires of our heads are numbred saith also that the birds of the aire are fed by him and the lillies of the field are clothed by him We therefore condemne the Epicures who denie the providence of God and all those who blasphemously affirme that God is occupied about the poles of heaven and that he neither seeth or regardeth us nor our affaires The princely Prophet David also condemned these men when as he said O Lord How long Psal 94. how long shall the wicked triumph they say the Lord doth not see neither doth the God of Iacob regard it Vnderstand ye unwise among the people and ye fooles when will ye be wise He that hath planted the eare shall he not heare and he that hath formed the eie how should he not see Notwithstanding we doe not contemne the meanes whereby the providence of God worketh as though they were unprofitable but we teach that we must apply our selves unto them so farre as they are commended
life and death were set before him which if he would not consider nor doe his endeavour therein by choosing of evill he might loose all those good gifts The second part of the knowledge of a mans selfe namely before justification standeth in this that a man acknowledge a right the state of this fall sin and mortalitie For that free liberty of choice which God permitted to the will of man he abused and kept not the law of his justice but swerved therefrom and therein transgressed the commandement of God insomuch as he obeyed the devill and those lying speeches of his and gave credit unto them and performed to the devill such faith and obedience as was due to God alone whereby he stripped and bereaved himselfe and his posteritie of the state of perfection and goodnesse of nature and the grace of God and those good gifts of justice and the Image of God which in his creation were engraffed in him he partly lost them and partly corrupted and defiled them as if with horrible poyson one should corrupt pure wine and by this meanes he cast headlong both himselfe and all his off-spring into sinne death and all kinde of miseries in this life and into punishments eternall after this life Wherefore the spring and principall author of all evill is that cruell and detestable devill the tempter lyer and manslayer and next the free will of man which notwithstanding being converted to evill through lust and naughtie desires and by perverse concupiscence chooseth that which is evill Hereby sinnes according to these degrees and after this order may be considered and judged of The first and weightiest or most grievous sinne of all was without doubt after that sinne of Adam which the Apostle calleth Disobedience for the which death reigneth Rom. 5. over all even over those also which have not sinned with like transgression as did Adam A second kind is originall sin naturally ingendred in us and hereditarie wherein we are all conceived and borne into this world Behold saith David I was borne in iniquitie Psal 51. Ephes 2. and in sinne hath my mother conceived me And Paul We are by nature the children of wrath Let the force of this hereditarie destruction be acknowledged judged of by the guilt and fault by our pronenesse and declination by our evill nature and by the punishment which is laid upon it The third kinde of sinnes are those which are called Actuall which are the fruits of Originall sinne and doe burst out within without privily and openly by the powers of man that is by all that ever man is able to doe and by his members transgressing all those things which God commandeth and forbiddeth and also running into blindnesse and errours worthy to be punished with all kinde of damnation This doctrine of the true knowledge of sinne is of our men diligently handled and urged and to this end were the first and second Tables of the Law delivered to Moses of God that men especially might know themselves that they are conceived and borne in sin and that forthwith even from their birth and by nature they are sinners full of lusts and evill inclinations For hereof it commeth that straight even from the beginning of our age and so forth in the whole course of our life being stained and overcome with many sins men doe in heart thoughts and evill deeds breake and transgresse the commandements of God as it is written The Lord looked down from heaven to behold the children Psal 14. Rom. 3. of men to see if there were any that would understand and seeke God all are gone out of the way they have been made altogether unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one And againe When the Lord saw that the wickednesse of man was great in the Gen. 6. earth and all the cogitations of his heart were onely evill continually And againe The Lord said the imagination of mans heart is evill Gen. 8. even from his youth And Saint Paul saith We were by nature the children of wrath as well as others Ephes 2. Here withall this is also taught that by reason of that corruption and depravation common to all mankinde and for the the sinne transgressions and injustice which ensued thereof all men ought to acknowledge according to the holy Scripture their own just condemnation and the horrible and severe vengeance of God and consequently the most deserved punishment of death and eternall torments in hell whereof Paul teacheth us when he saith The wages of sin is death And our Lord Christ They which have Rom. 6. John 5. done evill shall goe into the resurrection of condemnation that is into pains eternall Where shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth They teach also that we must acknowledge * Looke the first observat upon this confession our weaknesse and that great miserie which is ingendered in us as also those difficulties from which no man can ever deliver or rid himselfe by any meanes or justifie himselfe that is procure or get righteousnesse to himselfe by any kinde of works deeds or exercises seeme they never so glorious For that will of man which before was free is now so corrupted troubled and weakened that now from henceforth of it selfe and without the grace of God it cannot chuse judge or wish fully nay it hath no desire nor inclination much lesse any abilitie to chuse that good wherewith God is pleased For albeit it fell willingly and of it owne accord yet by it selfe and by it owne strength it could not * Looke the second observat upon this confession rise againe or recover that fall neither to this day without the mercifull help of God is it able to doe any thing at all And a little after Neither can he which is man onely and hath nothing above the reach of this our nature helpe an other in this point For since that originall sin proceeding by inheritance possesseth the whole nature and doth furiously rage therein and seeing that all men are sinners and doe want the grace and justice Rom. 3. of God therefore saith God by the mouth of the Prophet Esaias Put me in remembrance Let us be judged together count thou if Esa 43. thou have any thing that thou mayest be iustified thy first father hath sinned and thy interpreters that is they which teach thee justice have transgressed against me and a little before speaking of works in the service of God after the invention of man he saith Thou hast not offered unto me the Ram of the burnt offerings neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices I have not caused thee to serve with an offering nor wearied thee with incense And unto the Hebrews it is written Sacrifice and offering and Heb 10. burnt offerings and sinne offerings thou wouldest not have Neither did dest thou approove those things which were offered according to the Law This also must we know
unto us through Iesus Christ before the world was but is made manifest by the appearance of our Saviour Jesus Christ Therefore though not for any merit of ours yet not without a means but in Christ and for Christ did God choose us and they who are now engrafted into Christ by faith the same also were elected But such as are without Christ were rejected according to that of the Apostle Prove your selves whether you be 1 Cor. 13. 5. in the faith Know you not your owne selves how that Iesus Christ is in you except you be reprobates To conclude the Saints are chosen in Christ by God unto a sure end which end the Apostle declareth when he saith He hath chosen us in him that we should Ephes 1. 4. be holy and without blame before him through love who hath predestinated us to be adopted through Iesus Christ unto himselfe for the praise of his glorious grace And although God knoweth who are his and now and then mention is made of the small number of the elect yet we must hope well of all and not rashly judge any man to be a reprobate for Paul saith to the Philippians I Phil. 1. 3. c. thinke my God for you all Now he speaketh of the whole Church of the Philippians that you are come into the fellowship of the Gospel and I am perswaded that he that hath begun this worke in you will performe it as it becommeth me to iudge of you all And when the Lord was demanded whether there were few that should be saved he doth not answer and tell them that few or more should be saved or damned but rather he exhorteth every man to Strive Luke 13. to enter in at the streight gate As if he should say it is not for you rashly to enquire of these matters but rather to endeavour that you may enter into heaven by the streight way Wherefore we doe not allow of the wicked speeches of some who say Few are chosen and seeing I know not whether I am in the number of those few I will not defraud my nature of her desires Others there are which say If I be predestinate and chosen of God nothing can hinder me from salvation which is already certainely appointed for me whatsoever I doe at any time But if I be in the number of the reprobate no faith or repentance will helpe me seeing the decree of God cannot be changed Therefore all teachings and admonitions are to no purpose Now against these men the saying of the Apostle maketh much The servants of 2 Tim. 2. 24 c. God must be apt to teach instructing them that are contrary minded proving if God at any time will give them repentance that they may come to amendmennt out of the snare of the devill which are taken of him at his pleasure Beside Augustine also teacheth Lib. de beno perseverantiae Cap. 14. that both the grace of free election and predestination and also holsome admonitions and doctrines are to be preached We therefore condemne those who seeke other where then in Christ whether they be chosen from all eternitie and what God hath decreed of them before all beginning For men must heare the Gospel preached and beleeve it If thou beleeve and be in Christ thou mayest undoubtedly reckon of it that thou art elected For the Father hath revealed unto us in Christ his eternall sentence of predestination as we even now shewed out of the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. This is therefore above all to be taught and well waied what great love of the Father towards us in Christ is revealed we must heare what the Lord doth daily preach unto us in his Gospel how he calleth and saith Come unto me all ye Matth. 11. 18. Iohn 3. 10. that labour and are burthened and I will refresh you And So God loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Sonne for it that all which beleeve in him should not perish but have life everlasting Also Matth. 18. 14. It is not the will of the Father that any of these little ones should perish Let Christ therefore be our looking glasse in whom we may behold our predestination We shall have a most evident and sure testimonie that we are written in the booke of life if we communicate with Christ and he be ours and we his by a true faith Let this comfort us in the temptation touching predestination then which there is none more dangerous that the promises of God are generall to the faithfull in that he saith Aske and ye Luk. 11. shall receive Every one that asketh receiveth and to conclude in that we pray with all the Church of God Our Father which art in heaven and for that in baptisme we are ingrafted into the body of Christ and are fed in his Church oftentimes with his flesh and blood unto everlasting life Thereby we being strengthned we are commanded to worke our salvation with feare and trembling according to that precept of Paul Out of the Confession of BASILL HEreupon we confesse that God before he had created the Artic. 1 ss 3. world had chosen all those to whom he would freely give the inheritance of eternall blessednesse Out of the FRENCH Confession VVE beleeve that out of this universall corruption and damnation wherein by nature are men are drowned God did deliver and preserve some whom by his eternall and immutable counsell of his owne goodnesse and mercy without any respect of their workes he did choose in Christ Iesus and others he left in that corruption and damnation in whom he might as well make manifest his justice by condemning them justly in their time as also declare the riches of his mercy in the others For some are not better then others till such time as the Lord doth make a difference according to that immutable counsell which he had decreed in Christ Iesus before the creation of the world neither was any man able by his owne strength to make an entrance for himselfe to that good seeing that of our nature we can not have so much as one right motion affection or thought till God doe freely prevent us and fashion us to uprightnesse Out of the Confession of BELGIA VVE beleeve that God after that the whole off-spring of Artic. 16. Adam was cast headlong into perdition and destruction through the default of the first man hath declared and shewed himselfe to be such a one as he is indeed namely both mercifull and just Mercifull by delivering and saving those from condemnation and from death whom in his eternall counsell of his owne free goodnesse he hath chosen in Iesus Christ our Lord without any regard at all of their workes but Iust in leaving others in that their fall and perdition whereinto they had throwne themselves headlong Out of the Confession of AUSPURGE THe Confession of Auspurge doth so mention predestination in the 20. Article the title whereof is
life and make us fellow heires with himselfe He taking flesh of the most pure Virgin Mary the holy Ghost working together flesh I say being sacred by the union of the Godhead and like unto ours in all things sin onely excepted because it behooved our sacrifice to be unspotted gave the same flesh to death for the purgation of all sin The same Christ as he is to us a full and perfect hope and trust of our immortalitie so he placed his flesh being raised up from death into heaven at the right hand of his Almightie Father This Conquerour having triumphed over death sin and all the infernall devils sitting as our Captaine Head and chiefe high Priest doth defend and plead our cause continually till he doe reforme us to that Image after which we were created and bring us to the fruition of life everlasting we looke for him to come in the end of the world a true and upright Iudge and to give sentence upon all flesh being first raised up to that judgement and to advance the godly above the skie and to condemn the wicked both in soule and body to eternall destruction Who as he is the onely Mediatour Intercessor Sacrifice and also our high Priest Lord and King so we doe acknowledge and with the whole heart beleeve that he alone is our attonement redemption sanctification expiation wisdome protection and deliverance simply herein rejecting all meane of our life and salvation beside this Christ alone The laetter part of this Article we placed also in the second section which entreateth of the onely Mediatour Out of the Confession of BASILL Of Christ being true God and true man VVE beleeve and confesse constantly that Christ in the time hereunto appointed according to the promise of God was given to us of the Father and that so the eternall word of God was made flesh that is that this Son of God being united to our nature in one person was made our brother that we through him might be made partakers of the inheritance of God We beleeve that this Iesus Christ was conceived of the holy Ghost borne of the pure and undefiled Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate crucified and dead for our sins and so by the one oblation of himselfe he did satisfie God our heavenly Father for us and reconcile us to him and so by his death he did triumph and overcame the world death and hell Moreover according to the flesh he was buried descended into hell and the third day he rose againe from the dead These things being sufficiently approoved he in his soule and body ascended into heaven and sitteth there at the right hand that is in the glory of God the Father Almightie from thence he shall come to judge the quicke and the dead Moreover he sent to his disciples according to his promise the holy Ghost in whom we beleeve even as we doe beleeve in the Father and in the Sonne We beleeve that the last judgement shall be wherein our flesh shall rise againe and every man according as he hath done in this life shall receive of Christ Rom. 2. 2 Cor. 5. Joa 5. the Iudge to wit eternall life if he hath shewed forth the fruits of faith which are the works of righteousnesse by a true faith and unfeined love and eternall fire if he hath committed good or evill without faith or love Out of the Confession of BOHEMIA CHAP. 4. Towards the middle NEither hath any man of all things whatsoever any thing at all whereby he may deliver set free or redeeme himselfe from his sins and condemnation without Christ by whom alone John 15. they which truly beleeve are freed from sinne from the tyrannie and prison of the devill from the wrath of God and from death and everlasting torments And a little after towards the end of the said fourth Chapter Together with this point and after it considering that both the matter it selfe and order of teaching so requireth the Ministers of the Church teach us after our fall to acknowledge the promise of God the true word of grace and the holy Gospell brought to us from the privy counsell of the holy Trinitie concerning our Lord Christ and our whole salvation purchased by him Of these promises there be three principall wherein all the rest are contained The first was made in Paradise in these words I will put enmitie betweene thee and the woman and betweene thy seed Gen. 3. and her seed He shall breake thine head and thou shalt bruise his heele The second was made to Abraham which afterwards Iacob also and Moses did renew The third to David which the Prophets recited and expounded In these promises are described and painted forth those most excellent and principall works of 2 King 7. 23. Christ our Lord which are the very ground-worke whereon our salvation standeth by which he is our Mediatour and Saviour Psal 131. 89 namely his conception in the wombe of the Virgin Mary and his birth of her also for he was made the seed of the woman also Isa 9. 11. his afflictions his rising againe from death his sitting at the right hand of God where he hath obtained the dignitie of a Priest and King of which thing the whole life of David was a certaine type for which cause the Lord calleth himselfe another David Eph. 3. 4. and a Shepherd And this was the Gospell of those holy men before the Law was given and since And Chapter the 6. a little from the beginning For this is very certaine that after the fall of Adam no man was able to set himselfe at libertie out of the bondage of sin death and condemnation or come to be truly reconciled unto God but onely by that one Mediatour betweene God and man Christ Iesus through a lively faith in him who alone by his death and blood-shedding tooke from us that image of sinne and death and put upon us by faith the image of righteousnesse and life For he made unto us of God wisdome righteousnesse sanctification 1 Cor. 2. and redemption But first men are taught that these things are to be beleeved concerning Christ namely that he is eternall and of the nature of his heavenly Father the onely begotten Son begotten from everlasting and so together with the Father and the holy Ghost John 1. Heb. 1. Coloss 1. one true and indivisible God the eternall not created word the brightnesse and the Image or ingraven forme of the person of his Father by whom all things as well those things which may be seene as those which can not be seene and those things which are in heaven and those which are in the earth were made and created Moreover that he is also a true and naturall man our brother in very deed who hath a soule and a body that is true and perfect humane nature which by the power of the holy Ghost he tooke without all sin of Mary a pure Virgin
Churches to be expounded most plainly and set out most clearely Christ faith that the Angels in heaven doe reioyce whensoever they see a sinner repem And therefore the Churches and the Angels themselves doe rejoyce at the pure doctrine of repentance thus set down Out of the Confession of SAXONIE Hitherto pertaine the first two last clauses of the third Article Of the remission of sinnes c. Which are thus set downe IT is most certaine that the preaching of Repentance doth pertaine to all men and accuse all men So also the promise is generall and offereth remission of sins to all according to those generall speeches Matth. 11. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavie loaden and I will refresh you Also Ioh. 3. That every one which beleeveth in him should not perish Rom. 10. Every one that beleeveth in him shall not be confounded Againe He that is Lord over all is rich unto all that call on him Rom. 11. The Lord hath shut up all under disobedience that he might have mercie on all Let every one comprise himselfe in this generall promise and not give himselfe to distrust but let them strive that they may assent to the word of God and obey the holy Ghost and desire that they may be helped as it is said Luk. 11. How much more will he give the holy Ghost to them that aske it Of Repentance Artic. 16. BY the mercie of God this part of Doctrine specially is declared in our Churches with great perspicuitie whereas the Sententiaries have wrapped it in most intricate Labyrinthes First we doe openly condemne the catharans and the Novatians who feigned that neither the elect could fall into sins against their conscience neither that they who had fallen after their amendment were to be received againe and our confutations of these furies are extant Neither doe we goe about to make brawlings about the word Repentance if any man like it better let him use the word Conversion which word the Prophets also have often used Moreover we doe willingly retaine the word Contrition and we say that the first part of Repentance or Conversion is Contrition which is truely to tremble through the knowledge of the wrath of God against sins and to be sorry that we have offended God and we say that there must needs be some such great feare and griefs in those that are converted and that they doe not repent which remaine secure and without griefe as it is said 2 Cor. 7. Ye sorrowed to repentance And Ezech. 20. And ye shall mislike your selves in your own sight and acknowledge your selves to be worthy of punishment and destruction And these true griefes are a feeling of the wrath of God as is declared more at large in another place But here we reproove our adversaries who feigne that Contrition doth deserve Remission of sinnes and that Contrition must be sufficient In either errour there be great mysts For remission is given freely for the Mediatours sake and what contrition can be sufficient Yea rather the more the sorrow increaseth without assurance of mercie so much the more mens hearts doe flie from God and no creature is able to sustaine the greatnesse of this sorrow whereof Esay speaketh Chap. 38. He brake all my bones like a Lion But those idle dreames of the Writers doe declare that they lead a carelesse life and that they are unskilfull in the Gospel Now these true sorrows doe arise when the sinne of the contempt of the Son of God as is declared in the Gospel is reprooved The spirit shall reproove the world of sin because they beleeve not in me Ioh. 16. And by the voice of the Morall law other sins are reprooved as Paul saith Rom. 3. By the law came the knowledge of sin As touching private confession to be made unto the Pastours we affirme that the ceremonie of * Looke the first observat upon this confession private absolution is to be retained in the Church and we doe constantly retaine it for many weightie causes yet withall we doe teach that men must neither command nor require the recitall of offences in that private talke because that recitall of offences is neither commanded of God nor a thing possible and it maketh godly mindes to doubt and it maketh faith faint And this we doe much more reprehend that in the doctrine of Repentance or Conversion our adversaries doe no where make mention of justifying faith whereof we have spoken before by which alone Remission of sins is truely received the heart is lifted up even when it hath a feeling of the wrath of God and we are freed from the sorrows of hell as it is written Rom. 5. Being iustified by faith we have peace Without this faith sorrows are no better then the repentance of Saul Judas Orestes and such like as are mentioned in Tragedies Neither doe our adversaries teach the Gospel but the Law and humane traditions either omitting this faith else fighting against it But seeing that in a true Conversion there must be these changes a mortification and a quickning as it is said Rom. 6. and in divers other places for doctrines sake we doe divide conversion or repentance into three parts into contrition faith and new obedience these things doth true conversion comprehend as the voice of God and the true experience of the Church doe declare Yet doe we not make contention either about the manner of speaking or about the number of the parts but we wish that all men may see those things which are necessary And it is most necessary for the Church that there should be a true plaine and most cleare doctrine touching the whole conversion which also is very often repeated in those Sermons which are set down in the Scriptures and that with great perspicuitie and without any intricate labyrinthes as the Baptist and Christ say Matth. 3. Repent and beleeve the Gospel Againe Repent Behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the world And Paul saith Rom. 3. All men are deprived of the glory of God Here he speaketh of contrition afterward of remission But we are iustified freely by his grace through redemption that is in Christ Iesus by faith Therefore it is necessary that in the doctrine of conversion or repentance there should mention be made of faith Neither is it sufficient that our adversaries say that they also doe speake of faith and that faith doth goe before repentance For they speake of the doctrine of knowledge I beleeve the forgivenesse of sinnes to wit that they be forgiven to others even as the devils doe know the Creed but the Gospel doth require this true faith which is an assurance of the mercie of God promised for the Sonne of God his sake and resting in the Sonne of God which faith I beleeve that remission of sins is given unto me also and that freely not for any Contrition not for any my merits but for the Sonne of God who
he must needs be condemned If God should as it were deale by the rule propounded in the law whom should he deliver for he sindeth all men to be sinners So saith Paul All have sinned and stand in need of the glory of God What is this to stand in neede of Gods glory That he should deliver thee and not thou thy selfe For thou canst not deliver thy selfe Thou hast neede of a Saviour Why dost thou vaunt thy selfe what maketh thee to presume of the law and of righteousnesse Seest thou not that which doth sight within thee dost thou not beare one that striveth and confesseth his weakenesse and desireth aide in the battell O miserable man that I am c. Now it may easily be perceived how needfull this doctrine is for the Church that men may know that they doe not satisfie the law of God and yet may have true comfort knowing how their imperfect obedience doth please God This doctrine hath beene horribly darkned and suppressed heretofore by certaine fond perswasions wherein unlearned men have imagined against the authoritie of the Scripture that they can fulfill the law of God and that they are just through the fulfilling of the law c. And that Monks are perfect and doe performe more notable and worthy workes then the law doth require In the meane while there is not a word how the Mediatour Christ is to be apprehended by faith but they willed man to doubt or else to trust in his owne workes But as touching this obedience we doe teach * Looke the third observat upon this confession that they which commit mortall sinnes are not just because God requireth this obedience that we should resist sinfull lusts They then which strive not against them but obey them contrary to the commandement of God and do things against their consciences they are unrighteous and doe neither retaine the holy spirit nor faith that is confidence and trust of Gods mercy For confidence which seeketh remission of sinnes cannot so much as be in such as are delighted with their sinnes and remaine without repentance Fifthly this point is needfull also to be taught by what means men may doe good workes We shewed a little before how our workes doe please God In this place we adde how they may be done * Looke the 8. Observation Albeit that men by their owne strength be able to doe out ward honest deedes in some sort and must also performe this civill obedience yet so long as men are voide of Faith they are in the power of the devill who driveth them to shamefull sinnes occupieth their mindes with wicked and blasphemous opinions for that is the kingdome and tyrannie of the Devill * Looke the 9. Observat Moreover nature by it selfe is weake and cannot without Gods helpe strengthen it self to the performance of any spirituall works And for that cause are men taught that in the Gospel the holy Spirit is promised who shall aide and governe the mindes of them who doe repent and beleeve the Gospel Wherefore in so great infirmitie of nature in the middest of these assaults of Satan and in all dangers faith must be exercised in calling upon God even throughout our whole life that we may continue alwaies in the faith and in our obedience towards God Therefore Zacharie saith I will poure forth the spirit of grace and of prayer upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem He calleth him the spirit of grace because the holy spirit doth confirme and comfort troubled mindes and beareth record that God is pleased with us He calleth him the spirit of prayer to the end wee should daily exercise our faith in prayer that by these exercises our faith might be confirmed and a new life grow up and increase in us There is no doubt but true vertues are the gifts of God such as are faith cleerenesse of judgement in discerning of points of religion courage of minde such as is requisite in them which teach and professe the Gospel true care and paines in governing of Churches true humilitie not to hunt after preferment not to be puft up with popular praise nor cast downe with their disliking and ill will true charitie c. These Princely vertues Paul calleth Gods gifts Romans 12 Having divers gifts according to the grace that is given us And of these he saith to the Corinthians These things worketh one and the same spirit distributing to every one according c. Vnto these gifts we must joyne our exercise which may both preserve the same and deserve an increase of them according to the saying To him that hath shall be given And it is notably said of Augustine Love deserveth an increase of love to wit when it is put in use For good workes have rewards as in this life so also after this life in the everlasting life Now because that the Church in this life is subject to the crosse and to the death of the body therefore many rewards are deferred untill the life to come which though it be undoubtedly bestowed through mercy for Christs sake on those which are justified by the faith of Christ yet there is also a rewarding of good workes according to that saying Your reward is great it heaven By this it is evident that the doctrine of good workes is through the goodnesse of God purely and truely taught in our Churches How full of obscuritie and confusion the doctrine of good workes was in former times all godly mindes know full well There was none that put men in minde of the difference of mans traditions and the law of God none that taught how good workes did please God in this so great infirmitie of ours To be briefe there was not one word of faith which is most needfull unto remission of sinnes But now that these maters be opened and unfolded godly consciences lay hold of comfort and of certaine hope of salvation and doe understand which is the true worship and service of God and know how it pleaseth God and how it doth merit at his hands This article is thus set downe in another Edition OVr Divines are falsly accused to forbid good workes For their writings extant upon the tenne Commandements and others of the like argument doe beare witnesse that they have to good purpose taught concerning every kinde of life and duties what trades of life and what workes in every Calling doe please God Of which things Preachers in former times taught little or nothing onely they did urge certain childish and needlesse works As keeping of holy dayes set fasts fraternities pilgrimages worshipping of Saints Friaries Monkeries and such trash whereof our adversaries having had warning they doe now forget them and doe not preach so concerning these unprofitable workes as they were went to doe Besides they beginne now to make mention of Faith which they were wont to passe over with silence But yet they cease not to obscure and darken this
with all kindes of vertues For who can purpose and doe all things as the dutie of a Christian doth require 1 Cor. 10. to the true edifying of the Church and the sound profit of all men that is according to the law of God and to the glory of God except that he both thinke speake and doe every thing in order and well and therefore be very familliarly acquainted with the whole company of vertues To whom good workes are to be ascribed and how necessarie they be CHAP. 5. BVt seeing that they which are the children of God are rather Rom. 8. led by the Spirit of God then doe work any thing themselves And that Of him and through him and for him are all things therefore Rom. 11. whatsoever things we doe well and holily are to be ascribed to none other then to this one onely spirit the giver of all vertues Howsoever it be he doth not compell us but doth lead us being willing Working in us both to will and to doe Philip. 2. Whereupon Saint Augustine writeth very well That God doth reward his workes in us And yet we are so farre from rejecting good workes that we doe utterly deny that any man can fully be saved except he be thus far brought by the spirit of Christ that he finde no want at all in him touching those good workes whereunto God hath created him For there be divers members of the same body therefore every one of us have not the same office 1 Cor. 12. It is so necessary that the law should be fulfilled that Heaven and earth shall sooner passe away then any one iotte or the least point thereof shall be remitted Yet because God alone is good hath created all things of nothing and doth by his spirit make us altogether new and doth wholly lead us for in Christ nothing availeth but a new creature none of all these things can be ascribed to mans strength and we must confesse that all things are the meere gifts of God who of his owne accord and not for any merit of ours doth favour and love us By these things it may sufficiently be knowne what we beleeve justification to be by whom it is wrought for us and by what means it is received of us also by what places of Scripture we are induced so to beleeve For alalthough of many we have alledged a few yet by these few any one that is but meanly conversant in the Scripture may fully perceive that they which reade the Scriptures shall find every where such kinde of sentences as doe attribute unto us nothing but sinne and destruction as Hosea saith and all our righteousnesse and salvation to the Lord. Of the duties of a Christan man CHAP. 6. NOw it cannot be doubted of what be the duties of a Christian man and to what actions he ought chiefly to give himselfe namely to all those whereby every one for his part may profit his neighbours and that first in things pertaining to life eternall that they also may begin to know worship and feare God and then in things pertaining to this life that they may want nothing which is necessarie to the sustenance of the body For as the whole law of God which is a most absolute commandement of all righteousnesse is briefly contained in this one word Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe so in the performance of this love it is necessarie that all righteousnesse should be comprised and perfited Whereupon it followeth that nothing at all is to be reckoned among the duties of a Christian man which is not of force and effect to profit our neighbour and every worke is so much the more belonging to the duty of Christian man by how much his neighbour may the more be profited thereby Therefore next after Ecclesiasticall functions among the chiefe duties of a Christian man we place the government of the Common weale obedience to Magistrates for these be referred to the common profit that care which is taken for our wife children family and the honour which is due to parents because that without these the life of man cannot consist and lastly the profession of good arts and of all honest discipline because that except these be had in estimation we shall be destitute of the greatest good things which are proper to mankinde Yet in these and all other duties pertaining to mans like no man must rashly take any thing to himselfe but with a right conscience consider whereunto God doth call him To conclude let every man account that his dutie and that so much the more excellent a dutie the more that he shall profit other men thereby THE TENTH SECTION OF THE HOLY CATHOLIKE CHVRCH The latter Confession of HELVETIA Of the Catholike Church of God and of the head of the Church CHAP. 17. FOrasmuch as God from the beginning would have men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth therefore it is necessary that alwaies from the beginning at this day and to the end of the world there should be a Church that is a companie of the faithful called and gathered out of the world a communion I say of all Saints that is of them who doe truely know and rightly worship and serve the true God in Iesus Christ the Saviour by the word and the holy spirit and which by faith are partakers of all those good graces which are freely offered through Christ These all are Citizens of one and the same Citie living under one Lord under the same lawes and in the same fellowship of all good things for so the Apostle calleth them fellow Ephes 2. 1 Cor. 6. Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God tearming the faithfull upon the earth Saints who are sanctified by the blood of the Sonne of God Of these is that article of our Creed wholly to be understood I beleeve the Catholike Church the communion of Saints And seeing that there is alwaies but one God and one Mediatour betweene God and man Iesus Christ also one shepheard of the whole flocke one head of this body and to conclude one spirit one salvation one faith one Testament or covenant it followeth necessarily that there is but one Church which we therefore call Catholike because it is universall spread abroad through all the parts and quarters of the world and reacheth unto all times and is not limited within the compasse either of time or place Here therefore we must condemne the Donatists who pinned up the Church within the corners of Africke neither doe we allow of the Roman Clergie who vaunt that the Church of Rom◠〈◊〉 in a manner is Catholike The Church is divided by some into divers parts or divers sorts not that it is rent and divided from it selfe but rather distinguished in respect of the diversitie of the members that be in it One part thereof they make to be the Church militant the other the Church triumphant The militant warreth still on
iudge and let him shew what thing it is that his death doth profit This saith he is my blood And a little after Together with him let the Apostle iudge because that Christ himself also speaketh in the Apostle he crieth out and saith touching God the Father He which spared not his owne Sonne c. Wherethe Church hath so farre authority to judge of doctrine that notwithstanding she must keep her selfe within the bonds of the holy Scripture which is the voice of her husband from which voice it is not lawfull for any man no not for Angell to departe Out of the Confession of SVEVELAND Of the Church FVrthermore we will shew what is taught among us both Artie 15. touching the Christian Church and also touching the holy Sacraments and touching the Church this is it that we teach The Church or congregation of Christ which as yet is in this world as a stranger from God is the fellowship and company of those which addict themselves to Christ and do altogether trust and rest in his protection among whom notwithstanding many shall be mingled even to the end of the world who although they professe the Christian faith yet they have it not in deed This hath our Lord taught sufficiently Matth. 13. by the parable both of the cockle and of the Net cast into the sea in the which the bad fishes are caught with the good Also Matth. 22 by the parable of the King inviting all men to the marriage of his Sonne and afterward casting him out being bound hand and foot into utter darknnes which had not a wedding garment Now these places of Scripture wherein the congregation of Christ is commended to be the Spouse of Christ for the which he hath given himselfe Eph. 5. The house of God the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3. Also The holy hill of Sion the City of the living God the heavenly Ierusalem and congregation of the first borne which are written in heaven I say all these places of Scripture do properly pertaine to them who for their sincere faith are truely and in the sight of God reckoned among the children of God For seeing that in these alone the Lord doth fully reigne these onely if we will speake properly are called the Church of Christ and the communion of Saints in which sence also the name of the Church is expounded in the common Articles of faith those false Christians being excluded which are mingled amongst them Furthermore the holy Ghost himselfe doth governe this Church or congregation and remaineth with it as Christ doth even to the end of the world and doth sanctifie it that at the length he may present it unto himselfe without spot or wrinckle as it is said Ephes 5. Also this is that Church which all men are commanded to heare and he that will not heare her is to be counted as an Heathen and Publicane And although that to wit faith it selfe cannot be seene wherby this Congregation hath obtained to be called the Church and company of Christ yet the fruits of that faith may be seene and knowne and of them a certaine Christian conjecture be taken These fruits be chiefly a bold profession of Faith a true love offering it selfe to do humble service to all men a contempt of all things Seeing therefore that these be the proper fruites wheresoever the holy Gospell and the Sacraments be exercised thereupon it may easily be known where and who be the Christian Church so much as is necessary for us to preserve among us the Christian communion and that in the same we may be instructed admonished and help one another according to the commandement of Christ Furthermore seeing this congregation is the very kingdome of God wherein all things ought to be appointed in best order she hath all kind of offices and ministers for she is the body of Christ himselfe compacted of many members whereof every one have their proper worke Therefore whosoever do faithfully discharge such functoins and do earnestly labour in the word and doctrine they do represent the Church and may do all things in the name thereof so that whosoever shall either despise them or refuse to heare them he may worthily be said to despise the Church it selfe Now with what spirit or with what spirituall authoritie we do beleeve that they are furnished we have declared before out of most firme foundations of the Scripture where we shewed what we thought of the spirituall or Ecclesiasticall offices and dignitie For they cannot by any means represent the Church of Christ or doe any thing in the name thereof which are not Christs and therefore propound no Christian things but whatsoever is contrary to the doctrine of Christ For although it may be that even the wicked may teach some good thing and may also prophesie in the name of Christ after their example to whom the Lord himselfe doth witnesse that he will once in time to come say That he never knew them Yet it cannot be that they can discharge the dutie of the Church of Christ and are to be heard in his stead which doe not propound the voice of their husband Christ although otherwise they should thinke aright of faith and be counted amongst the members of the Church as it doth oftentimes fall out when as the very children of God are wrapped in errours and doe also publish the same For the Church of Christ is wholly addicted to Christ himselfe Therefore that cannot be counted a doctrine precept or commandement of the true Church except it be the same with the doctrine precept and commandement of Christ himselfe And whosoever propoundeth any other thing in her name although he were an Angel from heaven he is not to be heard as also the Church in those things doth represent nothing lesse then the Church of Christ THE ELEVENTH SECTION OF THE MINISTERS OF THE CHVRCH and of their Calling and Office The latter Confession of HELVETIA Of the Ministers of the Church their Institution and Offices CHAP. 18. GOD hath alwaies used his Ministers for the gathering or erecting up of a Church to himselfe and for the governing and preservation of the same and still he doth and alwaies will use them so long as the Church remaineth on the earth Therefore the first beginning institution and office of the Ministers is a most ancient ordinance of God himselfe not a new devise appointed by men True it is that God can by his power without any meanes take unto himselfe a Church amongst men but he had rather deale with men by the ministerie of men Therefore Ministers are to be considered not as Ministers by themselves alone but as the Ministers of God even such as by whose meanes God doth work the salvation of mankinde For which cause we give counsell to beware that we doe not so attribute the things that appertaine to our conversion and instruction unto the secret vertue of the holy Ghost that we make frustrate
body he said to his disciples Got ye into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature After the which manner also Paul the Apostle saith He that descended is even the same that ascended farre above all heavens that he might fill all things And he gave some to be Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastours and Teachers for the gathering together of the Saints for the worke of the ministerie and for the edification of the body of Christ Now the Lord doth use these his Ministers to instruct his Church so as he useth meats to nourish us the sower to sowe seed and Phisicians to heale our bodies For except himselfe doe give power and vertue whereby both the meate may be turned into nourishment and the seed may spring up and also the medicine may be made effectuall the outward worke doth nothing at all profit So except the Lord do give increase in the heart of the hearer the doctrine indeed in him which hath not faith is as it were a watering and planting but such as is without efficacie and unfruitfull but being received by faith into good ground and being trimmed by the inward husbandman the holy Ghost doth worke marvellously and profit Notwithstanding it hath so pleased the Lord to moderate the affaires of men that although by his owne power he doth all things in all men yet he vouchsafeth to use the Ministers as workers together For that saying of Paul is evident For we together are Gods labourers but he addeth Ye are Gods husbandrie and Gods building to wit that we might give unto God all the vertue efficacie accomplishing and perfiting of the worke and to the Ministers a service onely whereupon we doe truely say with Paul Who is Paul then and who is Apollos but the Ministers by whom ye beleeved and as the Lord gave to every man I have planted Apollos watered but God gave the increase So then neither is he that planteth any thing neither is he that watereth but God that giveth the increase And in this sense we doe know and willingly use these speeches and testimonies of the holy Scripture I have begotten you in Christ by the Gospel you are the Epistle of Christ written by us not with inke but with the spirit of the living God And Whose sinnes you remitte they are remitted to them Againe Faith commeth by hearing and hearing by the Word of God And againe I send thee to the Gentiles that thou maist open their eyes Also the Scripture saith of Iohn Baptist He shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children c. For when all these things be done that is when we are borne againe when the holy Ghost is given to us when our sinnes be forgiven us when faith is given us and our eies opened and our hearts turned one and the selfe same spirit as the Apostle saith worketh them all who by his grace doth lighten their hearts and draw them unto him and that after a common order and meane to wit by the instrument or meane of his word and yet he might draw us without all meanes and without any instrument whether as much and whom it pleaseth him Therefore let no man glory in men but in him that giveth the increase Againe let no man despise men which are sent of the Lord of whom he pronounceth He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me This is our opinion as touching the ministery of the word agreeable as we hope to the Scripture and sound writers which also we have found often in Luthers and in his friends bookes Out of the Confession of BOHEMIA Of those that teach in the Church and who they be that governe them CHAP. 9. IN the ninth place it is taught concerning the acknowledging of the shepheards of soules or lawfull Ministers of sacred functions in the holy Church according to the degrees and order of divers cures and first that these are especiall members of the holy Ecclesiasticall communion and Christ his * Looke the 1. Observation upon this confess Matth. 10. Luke 10. Iohn 13. 1 Cor. 4. Vicegerents that is they who supply his place He that heareth them heareth Christ he that dâ—spiseth them despiseth Christ and his heavenly Father For to these is the ministery of the Word and Sacraments lawfully committed But Ministers ought not of their owne accord to prease forward in that calling but ought according to the example of the Lord and the Apostles to be lawfully appointed and ordained thereunto and that after this manner that from among a Matt. 10. Mar. 1. 6. 3. Act. 1. people that is sound in religion and feareth God such men may be chosen and called to the administration of holy functions as are strong and mightie in faith fearing God and having gifts requisite for the ministerie and be of an honest and blamelesse life And againe that above all things these be proved and tried by examination weather they be such and so afterward prayers and fastings 1 Tim 2. being made they may be confirmed or approved of the Elders * Looke the 2. Observation Heb. 5. by laying on of hands * Look the 3. Observat Hereof speaketh the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrewes Every high Priest is taken from among men that is to say from among the faithfull and such as are a spirituall priesthood And Paul laying before Timothie his owne example saith What things thou hast heard of me 2 Tim. 2. before many witnesses the same deliver to faithfull men which shall be able to teach others also Of such Priests or Ministers and of making ordaining and consecrating them and how the ordaining of them ought to be handled the Apostle teacheth evidently and 1 Tim. 3. Titus 1. plainely in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus Therefore it is not permitted to any among us to execute the office of the ministery or to administer holy functions of the Lords unlesse according to this custome of the Primitive Church and order appointed by God he come to this function and be called and assigned thereunto which thing may also manifestly appeare by the ancient Canons of the Church Saint Cyprian hath in like sort set downe the manner of ordaining Priests According to these things the ministers of lower degree especially they which are called * Looke the 4. Observat Deacons are a long time detained with our Elders and kept in exercise and this thing they doe very seriously making a streight trial and examination of their faith diligence following herein the example of the Primitive Church and also of Christ himselfe who kept his Disciples with him for the space of three yeeres Also the Apostles dealt so by others to the to the end that afterward godly men and such as were illuminated with the heavenly light might be taken and ordained from among them to higher degrees and to the executing of greater functions
Observat upon this confession Artic. 6. Lucifer which preferreth himselfe before his Brethren that he hath forsaken the faith and is the forerunner of Antichrist Further we say that the Minister ought lawfully duely and orderly to be preferred to that office of the Church of God and that no man hath power to wrest himselfe into the holy Ministerie at his owne pleasure Wherefore these persons doe us the greater wrong which have nothing so common in their mouthes as that we doe nothing orderly and comely but all things troublesomely and without order And that we allow every man to be a Priest to be a Teacher and to be an Interpreter of the Scriptures Moreover we say that Christ hath given to his Ministers power Artic. 7. to binde to loose to open to shut And we say that the office of loosing consisteth in this point that the Minister either by the preaching of the Gospell offereth the merits of Christ and full pardon to such as have lowly and contrite hearts and doe unfainedly repent themselves pronouncing unto the same a sure and an undoubted forgivenesse of their sins and hope of everlasting salvation Or else that the same Minister when any have offended their brothers mindes with some great offence or notable and open crime whereby they have as it were banished and made themselves strangers from the common followship and from the body of Christ then after perfit amendment of such persons doth reconcile them and bring them home againe and restore them to the companie and unitie of the faithfull We say also that the Minister doth execute the authoritie of binding and shutting as often as he shutteth up the gate of the kingdome of heaven against unbeleeving and stubborne persons denouncing unto them Gods vengeance and everlasting punishment Or else when he doth quite shut them out from the bosome of the Church * Looke the 1. observation upon this confession by open excommunication Out of doubt what sentence soever the Minister of God shall give in this sort God himselfe doth so well allow it that whatsoever here in earth by their means is loosed and bound God himselfe will loose and binde and confirme the same in heaven And touching the Keyes wherewith they may either shut or open the kingdome of heaven we with Chrysostome say They be the knowledge of the Scriptures with Tertullian we say They be the interpretation of the Law and with Eusebius we call them the word of God Moreover that Christs Disciples did receive this authoritie not that they should heare the private confessions of the people and listen to their whisperings as the common massing Priests doe every where now a dayes and doe it so as though in that one point lay all the vertue and use of the Keyes but to the end they should goe they should teach they should publish abroad the Gospell and be unto the beleeving a sweet savour of life unto life and unto the unbeleeving and unfaithfull * Looke the 2. observation upon this confession a savour of death unto death and that the mindes of godly persons being broght low by the remorse of their former life and errours after they once begun to looke up unto the light of the Gospel and beleeve in Christ might be opened with the word of God even as a doore is opened with a Key Contrariwise that the wicked and wilfull and such as would not beleeve nor returne into the right way should be left still as fast locked and shut up and as Saint Paul saith waxe worse 2 Tim. 3. and worse This take we to be the meaning of the Keys and that after this sort mens consciences be either opened or shut We say that the Priest in deed is a judge in this case But yet hath no manner of right to challenge an authoritie or power as Ambrose * Looke the 3. Observavation saith And therefore our Saviour Iesus Christ to reproove the negligence of the Scribes and Pharisees in teaching did with these words rebuke them saying Woe be unto you Scribes and Luk. 11. Matth. 21. Pharisees which have taken away the Keyes of knowledge and have shut up the kingdome of heaven before men Seeing then the Key whereby the way and entry to the kingdome of God is opened unto us is the word of the Gospel and the expounding of the Law and Scriptures we say plainly where the same word is not there is not the Key And seeing one manner of word is given Matth. 16. to all and one onely key belongeth to all we say there is but one onely power of all Ministers as concerning opening and shutting And as * Looke the 4. Observat upon this confession touching the Bishop of Rome for all that his flattering Parasites sing these words in his eares To thee will I give the keyes of the kingdome of heaven as though these keyes were sit for him alone and for no body else * Looke the 4. Observat upon this confession except he goe so to worke as mens consciences may be made pliant and be subdued to the word of God we deny that he doth either open or shut or hath the keyes at all And although he taught and instructed the people as would God he might ofice truely doe and perswade himselfe it were at the least any piece of his dutie yet we thinke his key to be never a whit better or of greater force then other mens For who hath severed him from the rest Who hath taught him more cunningly to open or better to absolve then his brethren Out of the Confession of BELGIA VVE beleeve that this Church ought to be ruled and governed Artic. 30. by that spirituall regiment which God himselfe hath delivered in his word so that there be placed in it Pastours and Ministers purely to preach and rightly to administer the holy Sacraments that there be also in it Seniours and Deacons of whom the Senate of Church might consist that by these means true Religion might be preserved and sincere doctrine in every place place retained and spread abroad that vicious and wicked men might after a spirituall manner be rebuked amended and as it were by the bridle of discipline kept within their compasse that the poore is like manner and those that be afflicted may be releeved either with aide or comfort according to the severall necessitie of every one For then shall all things in the Church be done in due and convenient order when faithfull and godly men are chosen to have the government of the same even as St. Paul hath prescribed in the first to Timothie the 3. and the first to Titus We beleeve that the Ministers Senours and Deacons ought Artic. 31. to be called to those their functions and by the lawfull election of the Church to be advanced into those roomes earnest prayer being made unto God and after the order and manner which is set downe unto us
for the belly as all men doe confesse We therefore disallow that Canon in the Popes decrees Ego Berengarius de consecrat Distinct 2. For neither did godly antiquitie beleeve neither yet doe we beleeve that the body of Christ can be eaten corporally and essentially with a bodily mouth There is also a spirituall eating of Christs body not such a one whereby it may be thought that the very meate is changed into the spirit but wherby the Lords body blood remaining in their owne essence and proprietie those things are spiritually communicated unto us not after a corporall but after a spirituall manner through the holy Ghost who doth apply and bestow upon us those things to wit remission of sinnes deliverance and life everlasting which are prepared for us by the flesh and bloud of our Lord which were given for us so as Christ doth now live in us and we live in him and doth cause us to apprehend him by a true faith to this end that he may become unto us such a spirituall meat and drinke that is to say our life For even as corporall meat and drinke doe not onely refresh and strengthen our bodies but also doe keep them in life even so the flesh of Christ delivered and his bloud shed for us doe not onely refresh and strengthen our soules but also doe preserve them alive not because they be corporally eaten and drunken but for that they are * Looke the 1. observat upon this confession communicated unto us spiritually by the Spirit of God the Lord saying The bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of this world also my flesh to wit corporally eaten profiteth nothing it is the Spirit which giveth life And the words which I speake to you are spirit and life And as we must by eating receive the meat into our bodies to the end that it may worke in us and shew his force in our bodies because while it is without us it profiteth us not at all even so it is necessarie that we receive Christ by faith that he may be made ours and that hee may live in us and we in him For he saith I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall not hunger and he that beleeveth in me shall not thirst any more And also He that eateth me shall live through me and he abideth in me and I in him By all which it appeareth manifestly that by spirituall meat we meane not an Imaginarie but the very body of our Lord Iesus given to us which yet is received of the faithfull not corporally but spiritually by faith in which point we doe wholly follow the doctrine of our Lord and Saviour Christ in the sixth of John And this eating of the flesh and drinking of the bloud of the Lord is so necessary to salvation that without it no man can be saved This spirituall eating and drinking is also without the Supper of the Lord even so often as and wheresoever a man doth beleeve in Christ To which purpose that sentence of Saint Austin doth happily belong Why dost thou prepare thy teeth and belly Beleeve and thou hast eaten Besides that former spirituall eating there is a sacramentall eating of the body of the Lord whereby the faithfull man is partaker not onely spiritually and internally of the true body and blood of the Lord but also outwardly by comming to the table of the Lord doth receive the visible Sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord. True it is that a faithfull man by beleeving did before receive the food that giveth life and still receiveth the same but yet when he receiveth the Sacrament he receiveth something more For he goeth on in continuall communication of the body and blood of the Lord and his faith is daily more and more kindled more strengthened and refreshed by the spirituall nourishment For while we live faith hath continuall encreasings and he that outwardly doth receive the Sacraments with a true faith the same doth receive not the signe onely but also doth enjoy as we have said the thing it selfe Moreover the same man doth obey the Lords institution and commandement and with a joyfull minde giveth thanks for his and the redemption of all mankinde and maketh a faithfull remembrance of the Lords death and doth witnesse the same before the Church of which body he is a member This also is sealed up to those which receive the Sacraments that the body of the Lord was given and his blood shed not onely for men in generall but particularly for every faithfull communicant whose meat and drinke he is to life everlasting But as for him that without faith commeth to this holy table of the Lord he is made partaker of the Sacrament only but the matter of the Sacrament from whence commeth life and salvation he receiveth not at all And such men doe unworthily eate of the Lords table Now they which doe unworthily eate of the Lords bread and drinke of the Lords cup they are guiltie of the body and blood of the Lord and they eate and drinke it to their Iudgement For when as they doe not approach with true faith they reproach and despite the death of Christ and therefore eate and drinke condemnation to themselves We doe not then so joyne the body of the Lord and his blood with the bread and wine as though we thought that the bread is the body of Christ more then after a sacramentall manner or that the body of Christ doth lye hid corporally under the bread so as it ought to be worshipped under the formes of bread or yet that he which receiveth the signe receiveth the thing it selfe The body of Christ is in the heavens at the right hand of his Father And therefore our hearts are to be lifted upon high and not to be fixed on the bread neither is the Lord to be worshipped in the bread though notwithstanding the Lord is not absent from his Church when as they celebrate the Supper The Sun being absent from us in the heavens is yet notwithstanding present amongst us effectually How much more Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse though in body he be absent from us in the heavens yet is present amongst us not corporally but spiritually by his lively operation and so he himselfe hath promised in his last Supper to be present amongst us Joh. 14. 15. and 16. Whereupon it followeth that we have not the Supper without Christ and yet have an unbloody and mysticall Supper even as all antiquitie called it Moreover we are admonished in the celebration of the Supper of the Lord to be mindefull of the body whereof we are made members and that therefore we be at concord with all our brethren that we may live holily and not pollute our selves with wickednesse and strange religions but persevering in the true faith to the end of our life give diligence to excell in holinesse of life It
is therefore very requisite that purposing to come to the Supper of the Lord we doe trie our selves according to the commandement of the Apostle first with what faith we are indued whether we beleeve that Christ is come to save sinners and to call them to repentance and whether each man beleeve that he is in the number of them that being delivered by Christ are saved and whether he have purposed to change his wicked life to live holily and persevere through Gods assistance in true religion and in concord with his brethren and to give worthy thanks to God for his delivery c. We thinke that rite manner or forme of the Supper to be the most simple and excellent which commeth neerest to the first institution of the Lord and to the Apostles doctrine Which doth consist in declaring the word of God in godly prayers the action it selfe that the Lord used and the repeating of it the eating of the Lords body and drinking of his blood the wholesome remembrance of the Lords death and faithfull giving of thanks and in an holy fellowship in the union of the body of the Church We therefore disallow them which have taken from the faithfull one part of the Sacrament to wit the Lords cup. For these doe very grievously offend against the institution of the Lord who saith drinke you all of this which he did not so plainly say of the bread What manner of Masse it was that the Fathers used whether it were tollerable or intollerable we doe not now dispute But this we say freely that the Masse which is now used throughout the Romish Church for many and most just causes is quite abolished out of our Churches which particularly we will not now recite for brevities sake Truly we could not like of it because that of a most wholesome action they have made a vaine spectacle also because it is made a meritorious matter and is said for money likewise because that in it the Priest is said to make the very body of the Lord and to offer the same really even for the remission of the sins of the quicke and the dead Adde this also that they doe it for the honour worship and reverence of the Saints in heaven c. Out of the former Confession of HELVETIA Of the Lords Supper VVE say that the Supper is a mysticall thing wherein the Artic. 22. Lord doth indeed offer unto those that are his his body and blood that is himself to this end that he may more and more live in them and they in him not that the body and blood of the Lord are either naturally united to bread and wine or be locally here inclosed or be placed here by any carnall presence but that bread and wine by the institution of the Lord are signes whereby the true communication of his body and blood is exhibited of the Lord himselfe by the ministerie of the Church not to be meate for the belly which doth perish but to be nourishment unto eternall life We doe therefore use this holy meat oftentimes because that being admonished hereby we doe with the eyes of faith behold the death and blood of Christ crucified and meditating upon our salvation not without a taste of heavenly life and a true sense of life eternall we are refreshed with this spirituall lively inward food with an unspeakable sweetnes and we do rejoyce with a joy that cannot be expressed in words for that life which we have found and we do wholly with all our strength powre out thankesgiving for so wonderfull a benefit of Christ bestowed upon us Therefore we are most unworthily charged of some who thinke that we doe attribute very little to these holy signs For these things * Looke the 1. Observation upon this confession be holy to be reverenced as those which were instituted and received of our high Priest Christ exhibiting unto us after their manner as we have said the things signified giving witnes of the things done representing very difficult things us and by a certain wonderfull Analogie of things signified bringing light to those most evident mysteries Moreover they minister aide and helpe even to faith it selfe and to conclude they doo serve in stead of an oath to binde him that is entered into the profession of Christianitie Thus holily doo we thinke of the sacred signes But we doo alwaies attribute the force and vertue of quickning and sanctifying to him who is life it selfe to whom be praise for ever Amen Out of the declaration of the same confession Of the holy Supper of the Lord. THE Supper of the Lord is a Sacrament to wit the holy institution of the Lord whereby he doth renue and witnesse unto us his bountifulnesse to wit the communion of his body and blood and that by a visible signe For by bread and wine he doth declare unto us what he giveth namely himselfe to be the nourishment of our life for he by his body and blood doth feed us to life eternall Therefore the very gift of God that is the body and blood of the Lord to wit the body of the Lord delivered unto death for us and his blood shed for the remission of sinnes is the chiefest part of this Sacrament For the body and blood of Christ is thus made or prepared to be the lively meat of our soules The Son of God doth die in the flesh for us that he might quicken us he poureth out his blood that he might cleanse us from our sins To conclude he raiseth up his body from the dead that our bodies may receive hope and strength to rise againe Thus therefore doth the Lord offer himselfe to be eaten and possessed of us and not a certaine false imagination of a man or an idle picture in his stead For beside him there is nothing in heaven or in earth that may feed and satiate our soules Now we doe indeed eate the bodie and we doe indeed drinke the blood of our Lord but not so rawly as the Papists have hitherto taught to wit the bread being changed into naturall flesh substantially that is corporally or carnally or the body being included in the bread but spiritually that is after a spirituall manner and with a faithfull minde The Lord is eaten indeed and with fruit by faith that now he may live whole in his and his in him Moreover these holy gifts of God which are not given of any other then of the Lord himselfe according to the institution of the Lord are represented unto us by visible signes to wit bread and wine and offered to our senses not that we should rest in them but that our weaknesse may be helped and we may lift up our hearts unto the Lord knowing that here we must thinke upon greater things to wit not of eating bread or drinking wine but of receiving the Lord himselfe with all his gifts by a faithfull minde Therefore when the guests see the bread on the board
they set their mindes upon the body of Christ when they see the cup they set their mindes upon the blood of Christ when they see the bread broken and the wine poured out they consider how that the body of Christ was tormented and his blood poured out for their sakes as by bread the bodies are nourished and strengthened as by wine the mindes are made merry so the godly doe beleeve that by the body of the Lord delivered unto death for them they are fed to everlasting life also that by his blood poured out upon the crosse their consciences are renewed to conclude they doe feele the quickning power of Christ which doth confirme them In this sort is the Supper of the Lord accomplished spiritually thus are the bread and wine a Sacrament unto us and not bare and naked signes Hereupon now ariseth a very great rejoycing and thanksgiving for so great benefits also a praising and confessing of the name of God here those works which the Lord once finished are renued and represented but especially the death of the Lord is repeated which although it once hapned and now is past yet unto the faithfull it is as yet fresh and present For the remembrance of the death of Christ which we make in the Supper is farre more noble and holy then theirs who in some prophane banquet are mindfull of their companion when they drinke the wine that he gave them For among these he that is absent worketh nothing but in this holy Supper of the faithfull the Lord is present and doth worke effectually by the spirit in the hearts of them as he who according to his promises is in the middest of them By these things it is most evident that in the holy Supper we doe not take away our Lord Christ from his Church not deny that his body and blood is there received to be our nourishment unto life eternall but we together with our predecessours and the chiefe Prelates of our Religion did and as yet to this day doe deny that the very body of Christ is eaten carnally or that it is present every where corporally and after a naturall manner For we doe openly confesse according to the Scriptures and with all the holy Fathers that Iesus Christ our Lord left this world and went to his Father and that he now sitteth at the right hand of his Father in heavenly glory from whence he shall never descend or be drawne downe into this earthly and transitory world For the true presence of Christ in the Supper is heavenly not earthly or carnall Also we denie that the bread is turned into the body of Christ miraculously so that the bread should become the very body of Christ naturally and substantially yet after a spirituall manner To conclude we denie that the body of Christ is united with the signes by any other then a mysticall meane whereof we have spoken sufficiently in the generall consideration of a Sacrament Seeing therefore we have expressely said and written with the holy Fathers Tertullian Hâ—erome Ambrose and Augustine that the bread is a figure token and signe of the body of Christ and also that by bread and wine the body and blood of the Lord are signified This is it which we would make manifest to wit that the bread is not the very body of the Lord but a token or a Sacrament of his body And yet we do not therefore speake these things as though we did simply deny all kinde of the presence of Christ in the Supper for that kinde of presence which now we have confessed doth remaine true without any prejudice to these kinde of speeches Moreover the word This in this sentence This is my body doth not onely shew bread unto our corporall eyes but therewith also it she weth the very body of Christ unto the eyes of our minde Also we confesse that this use of the Supper is so holy and profitable that whosoever shall worthily that is with a true faith eate of this bread and drinke of this Cup of the Lord he doth receive heavenly gifts from the Lord but Whosoever shall eate of this bread and drinke of this cup unworthily that is without faith by which alone we are made partakers of the Lord and of salvation He doth eate and drinke iudgement unto himselfe as Paul wrote to the Corinthians Wherefore we doe often put this diligently into the heads of our people that they take heed that none of them abuse the Lords table but that every one examine himselfe and then eate of that bread and drinke of that cup. Also the Lords Supper is a badge unto us for as one loafe and one wine are made of many graines and grapes so we being the whole multitude of the faithfull are gathered together to be one bread and one body By this we testifie in an outward profession that we are redeemed by the blood of Christ and made the members of Christ to whom we give thanks in whom we are confederates and doe promise to performe mutuall duties one toward another Out of the Confession of BASILL Of the Supper of the Lord. VVE confesse that the Lord Iesus did institute his holy Supper Artic. 6. that his holy passion might be remembred with thanksgiving his death declared and Christian charitie and unitie with true faith testified And as in Baptisme wherein the washing away of our sins is offered by the Minister of the Church and yet is wrought onely by the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost true water remaineth so also in the Supper of the Lord wherein together with the bread and wine of the Lord the true body and the true blood of Christ is offered by the Minister of the Church bread and wine remaineth Moreover we doe firmely beleeve that Christ himselfe is the meat of faithfull soules unto life eternall and that our soules by faith in Christ crucified are fed and moistned with the flesh blood of Christ so that we being Joh. 11. Eph. 1. 4. 5. Col. 1. members of his body as of our onely head doe live in him and he in us wherein at the last day through him and in him we shall rise againe to eternall joy and blessednesse And in the marginall note upon these words Our soules For it is a spirituall meate and therefore it is received of a faithfull soule that is the soules are made full strong mightie peaceable quiet merrie and lively to all things as the body is by the corporall meate Also upon those words The members of the head And so man is made a spirituall member of the spirituall bodie of Christ And in the margent upon these words To be present to wit Sacramentally and by a remembrance of faith which lifteth up a mans minde to heaven and doth not pull down Christ according to his humanitie from the right hand of God Now we doe not include into the bread and drinke of the Lord the naturall true and substantiall body
of Christ which was borne of the pure Virgin Mary suffered for us and ascended into heaven Therefore we doe neither worship Christ in the signes Col. 3. Heb. 1 10. Acts 3. 2 Tim. 4. of bread and wine which we doe commonly call the Sacraments of the body and blood of Christ but in heaven at the right hand of God the Father from whence he shall come to judge the quicke and the dead Out of the Confession of BOHEMIA Of the holy Supper of the Lord. CHAP. 13. IN the thirteenth place we teach touching the Supper of the Lord instituted in the new Testament that we must beleeve with the heart and professe with the mouth that it is a Sacrament instituted of Christ our Lord in his last Supper and that in expresse forme of words that is that concerning bread and wine he hath pronounced that they be his body and his blood and that Matth. 26. Mark 14. Luke 22. they were delivered to his Apostles and so in like sort to the whole universall Church for a monument of his death and that all men should lawfully use the participation thereof even to the end of the world Of this Sacrament the Evangelists doe write and especially Saint Paul whose words even to this day are thus read in the Church I have received of the Lord that 1 Cor. 11. which I also have delivered unto you to wit that the Lord Iesus in that night wherein he was betraied tooke bread c. And a little after When ye come together to wit to the Supper of the Lord Let one tarry for another Therefore according to these things we beleeve with the heart and confesse with the mouth that this bread of the Lords Supper is the body of the Lord Iesus Christ delivered for us and that this Cup or the wine in the Cup is likewise shed for us for the remission of sine And this we affirme according to the expresse words of Christ wherein he saith This is my body This is my blood Which words may not be taken or understood of any other thing nor be otherwise referred then only to the bread and cup of the Lord and the body and blood of the Lord cannot be understood of any other then of the onely true and proper body of Christ which he made meat by his torments and of his blood which being largely poured out of his body he appointed to be drinke for his Church for he had not a naturall body and another blood Therefore our Ministers doe teach that to these certaine words pronounced by Christ our Lord wherein he doth peculiarly pronounce witnesse and institute bread to be his body and wine to be his blood I say to these words no man may adde any thing no man may detract any thing from them but every man in these words is to beleeve * Looke the 1. observat upon this confession that which of themselves they signifie and that no man ought to turne from them either to the right hand or to the left Yet to expound the meaning of this faith we doe further teach that although the bread be the body of Christ according to his institution and wine be his blood yet neither of these doe leave it nature or change or lose it substance but that the bread is and doth remaine bread and that the wine is and doth remaine wine as also the holy Scripture doth give this it owne name to either of them Otherwise if it should cease to be an August in Ioan. Tract 80. Epist 23. ad Bonifa element it should not be a Sacrament seeing that a Sacrament is then made when the word is added to the element Neither could it signifie or beare witnesse if it had nothing in stead of that thing whereof it is a Sacrament or if the thing signified should have any other manner of presence then that which is Sacramentall Wherefore this speech Bread is the body and Wine is the blood of Christ is a sacramentall speech to wit that these two distinct things doe remaine the selfe same thing which in their owne nature they be and yet by reason of a Sacramentall union or Sacramentally they be that also which they doe signifie and whereof they doe testifie and yet not in their owne nature or after a naturall manner but by the institution pronouncing or witnessing of the authour as Paul doth excellently expound this where he thus writeth The cup which we blesse is it not the communion of the bloud of Christ the bread which we break 1 Cor. 10. is it not the communion of the body of Christ Now both the good and the wicked doe use this Sacrament and yet the true beleevers doe receive it to life and those which doe not beleeve doe receive it to judgement and condemnation And although either of them do receive this Sacrament and * Looke the 2 Observat upon this confession the truth thereof sacramentally and outwardly yet the beleevers doe receive it spiritually and so to their salvation without which spirituall receiving there is no worthy receiving in the Sacramentall use For by this meane we are ingrafted into Christ and into his body and by this meane is that true union and communion of Christ with his Church made and in like sort by this meane is the communion of the holy Church which is a certaine spirituall body made amongst and with themselves whereof the Apostle writeth There is one bread and we being many are one body seeing we are all made partakers of one bread 1 Cor. 10. Moreover we are further taught that with this ministerie or Sacrament of the Lord no other thing ought to be done or taken in hand then that one thing which was shewed ordained and expresly commanded of Christ himselfe as when he reached bread severally and peculiarly to his Disciples and in expresse words said Take eate this is my body and in like sort when he reached to them the cup severally and peculiarly saying Drinke ye all of this This is my bloud Thus therefore according to this commandement the body and bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ must be distributed onely and be received in common of the faithfull or beleeving Christians but it must not be sacrificed or set before them or lifted up or shewed forth to this end that there it may be worshipped or kept or carried about And both these must be received in severall elements the body peculiarly and severally and also his holy blood severally as either of them were of the Lord instituted reached forth and given in common to all his Disciples severally And this doctrine was used in the first holy Church and this Sacrament was wholly distributed in both parts and so received But he that beside or contrary to these commandements and institution of Christ dare bring in any other thing or somewhat more and use it with this Sacrament or wantonly invent therein at his
world but that the world through him might be saved He that beleeveth in him shall not be condemned but he that beleeveth not is condemned already because he beleeveth not in the onely begotten Sonne of God Therefore if any man shall depart out of this life in the faith of Christ he hath a I the merit of Christ and needeth none other For God which gave his Sonne doth also give all things with him as Paul saith But he that departeth hence without Christ cannot be helped by any merits of men because that without Christ there is no salvation Cyprian against Demet. Tract 1. saith When a man is once departed hence there is no place left for repentance there is no effect of satisfaction here life is either lost or held fast here we must provide for eternall salvation by the service or worship of God and by the fruit of faith And Hierome upon the Epistle to the Gal. Chap. 6. saith We are taught by this small sentence though obscurely a new point of doctrine lyeth hid to wit that whilest we be in this present world we may help one another either by prayers or by counsell but when we shall come before the tribunall seat of Christ it is not Iob nor Daniel nor Noe that can intreat any thing for us but every man shall beare his owne burden For as touching that which is cited out of the Maccabees That sacrifices were offered for the sinnes of the dead the Authour himselfe of the booke doth doubt in the end of the booke whether he hath written well c. craveth pardon if in any point he hath erred Therefore let us pardon him that without any authoritie of the holy Scripture he affirmeth that the dead are freed from their sin by the sacrifices and prayers of them that be alive And Tertullian saith Oblations are made one day every yeere for them that are dead But this was either received without authoritie of the word of God from the customes of the heathen as many other things were or by the name of Oblation we must understand a publique remembrance of those which died in the faith of Christ and a thanksgiving for those benefits which God bestowed upon them CHAP. 25. Of Purgatorie ALthough we ought not to doubt but that the Saints have their Purgatorie fire in this life as the examples of David Ezechias Jonas and others doe witnesse yet it is not without cause doubted whether that after this life there be such a Purgatorie as the common sort of men do thinke there is wherein the souls be so long tormented till either by their punishment they doe satisfie for their sins or be redeemed by Indulgences For if Purgatorie be such a thing it is much to be marvelled at that neither the Prophets nor the Apostles have in their writings delivered unto us any thing thereof certainly and plainly but rather doe teach and that not obscurely the cleare contrary Mark 16. Preach ye the Gospell to every creature he that shall beleeve and be baptized shall be saved but he that will not beleeve shall be condemned Here be two degrees of men placed the one of them which beleeve the Gospell and they are pronounced saved the other of them which doe not beleeve the Gospell and these are pronounced condemned there is no meane betwixt these two For either thou doest depart out of this life in the faith of Iesus Christ and then thou hast remission of thy sinnes for Christ his sake and the righteousnesse of Christ is imputed to thee Therefore he which dyeth being accompanied with Christ he wanteth nothing toward the obtaining of true and eternall life but he which departeth from hence without Christ goeth into eternall darknesse If beside these two degrees there were some other third state of souls in another world certainly Paul Who was taken up into Paradise and into the third heaven and saw many secret things would not have envied the Church this knowledge But see when he doth of set purpose write to the Thessalonians concerning Christians that sleepe he maketh no mention at all of any Purgatorie but rather willeth them Not to be sorrowfull even as others which have no hope Therefore if there were any such state of souls in another world as the common people thinketh there is Paul could not be withheld but in so fit a place he would plainly have declared this state of souls and would have prescribed a meane unto the Church whereby miserable souls might be delivered from their torment But the true Catholike Church in deed hath plainly shewed that she hath no certaintie at all concerning this third kinde of the state of souls in another world Chrysostome in his second Sermon of Lazarus saith If thou hast violently taken any thing from any man restore it and say as doth Zacheus If I have taken from any man by forged cavillation I restore fourefold If thou art become an enemie to any man be reconciled before thou come to iudgement Discharge all things here that without griefe thou maist behold that tribunall seat Whilest we be here we have many excellent hopes But so soone as we depart thither it is not then in our power to repent nor to wash away our sins And againe He that in this present life shall not wash away his sins shall not finde any comfort afterward Augustine although he place certaine men in the middest betwixt them that be very good and those that be very evill to the one sort whereof he seemeth to assigne the place of Purgatorie yet in other places he doubteth of that matter and doth not define any certaintie Therefore we must so thinke of this opinion of Augustine as he requireth that is we must receive that which is confirmed either by the authoritie of the Scripture or by probable reason But it is evident that those places of the Scripture which are commonly cited to establish Purgatorie are wrested from the naturall to a strange sense and are farre otherwise expounded even of the ancient Writers themselves And those reasons which Augustine bringeth for his opinion doe seeme to leane to this foundation That we obtaine remission of our sins and life not onely for Christ his sake through faith but also for the merits of our works But how this agreeth with the true Apostolike doctrine we have before declared Wherefore we thinke that this speculation of Purgatorie fire is to be left to it own authors and that we must chiefly doe this as Paul exhorteth us that we may confirme our selves one another with speeches touching the assured faith of our resurrection and salvation in Christ Iesus for whose sake God doth so favour the faithfull that in the middest of death he preserveth them and giveth them true peace Out of the Confession of SVEVELAND Of Prayers and fastings CHAP. 7. VVE have among us Prayers and Religious Fasts which are These things which are mingled in this 7. and after in the 10.
may profit it very much and finally may help and further it very excellently His chiefest dutie is to procure and maintaine peace and publique tranquillitie Which doubtlesse he shall never doe more happily then when he shall be truly seasoned with the feare of God and true religion namely when he shall after the example of most holy Kings and Princes of the people of the Lord advance the preaching of the truth and the pure and sincere faith and shall root out lies and all superstition with all impietie and Idolatry and shall defend the Church of God For indeed we teach that the care of religion doth chiefly appertaine to the holy Magistrate let him therefore hold the word of God in his hands and look that nothing be taught contrary thereunto In like manner let him governe the people committed to him of God * Looke the 1. observation upon this confession with good laws made according to the word of God Let him hold them in discipline and in their dutie and in obedience let him excrcise judgement by judging uprightly let him not accept any mans person or receive bribes let him deliver widdows fatherlesse children and those that be afflicted from wrong let him represse yea and cut off such as are unjust either by deceit or by violence For he hath not received the sword of God in vaine Therefore let him draw forth this sword of God against all malefactours Rom. 13. seditious persons theeves or murderers oppressours blasphemers perjured persons and all those whom God hath commanded him to punish or execute Let him suppresse stubborn heretiques which are heretiques in deed who cease not to blaspheme the majestie of God and to trouble the Church yea and finally to destroy it but if so be it be necessary to preserve the safetie of the people by warre let him doe it in the name of God so that he first seeke peace by all means possible and use it not save onely then when he can save his subjects no way but by warre And while as the Magistrate doth these things in faith he serveth God by those works as with such as be good works and shall receive a blessing from the Lord. We condemne the Anabaptists who as they denie that a Christian man should beare the office of a Magistrate so also they deny that any man can justly be put to death by the Magistrate or that the Magistrate may make warre or that oathes should be performed to the Magistrates and such like things For as God will worke the safetie of his people by the Magistrate whom he hath given to be as it were a father of the world so all the subjects are commanded to acknowledge this benefit of God in the Magistrate therefore let them honour and reverence the Magistrate as the minister of God let them love him favour him and pray for him as their father and let them obey all his just and equall commandements Finally let them pay all customes and tributes and all other duties of the like sort faithfully and willingly * Looke the 2. Observat And if the common safetie of the countrey and justice require it and the Magistrate doe of necessitie make warre let them lay down their life and spend their blood for the common safetie and defence of the Magistrate and that in the name of God willingly valiantly and cheerefully For he that opposeth himselfe against the Magistrate doth procure the wrath of God against him We condemne therefore all contemners of Magistrates as rebels enemies of the Common-wealth seditious villaines and in a word all such as doe either openly or closely refuse to performe those duties which they ought to doe c. The Conclusion VVE beseech God our most mercifull Father in heaven that he will blesse the Princes of the people and us and his whole people through Iesus Christ our onely Lord and Saviour to whom be praise and thankesgiving both now and for ever Out of the former Confession of HELVETIA Of Magistracie SEeing that every Magistrate is of God his chiefe dutie except it please him to exercise a tyrannie consisteth in this to defend religion from all blasphemie and to procure it and as the Prophet teacheth out of the word of the Lord to put it in practise so much as in him lyeth In which part truly the first place is given to the pure and free preaching of the word of God the instruction of the youth of Citizens and a right and diligent teaching in Schooles lawfull discipline a liberall provision for the Ministers of the Church and a diligent care for the poore Secondly to judge the people according * Looke the 1. observation upon this confession to just and divine laws to keepe judgement and justice to maintaine this publique peace to cherish the Common-wealth and to punish the offenders according to the quantitie of the fault in their riches body or life which things when he doth he performeth a due worship or service to God We know that though we be free we ought wholly in a true faith holily to submit our selves to the Magistrate both with our body and with all our goods and indeavour of minde also to performe faithfulnesse and * Looke the 2. Observat the oath which we made to him so farre forth as his government is not evidently repugnant to him for whose sake we doe reverence the Magistrate Out of the Confession of BASILL Of Magistracie MOreover God hath assigned to the Magistrate who is his minister the sword and chiefe externall power for the defence of the good and to take revenge and punishment of the Rom. 13. evill Therefore every Christian Magistrate * Looke the 1. Observation upon this confession in the number whereof we also desire to be doth direct all his strength to this that among those which are committed to his credit the name of God may be sanctified his kingdome may be enlarged and men may live according to his will with an earnest rooting out of all naughtinesse And in the margent This dutie also was injoyned to the heathenish Magistrate how much more to the Christian Magistrate ought it to be commended as to the true substitute of God Also Art 11. Sect. 1. 3. and 4. We doe clearely protest that together with all other doctrins which are directly contrary to the sound and pure doctrine of Iesus Christ we doe not onely not receive but as abominations and blasphemies reject and condemne those strange and erroneous doctrines which the spirits of hurleburly among other damnable opinions doe bring forth saying c. that Magistrates cannot be Christians And in the margent The Magistrate doth then shew himself to be a good Magistrate when he is a true Christian The Conclusion LAst of all we submit this our Confession to the judgement of the holy Scripture of the Bible and therefore we promise that if out of the foresaid Scriptures we may be better
suffered contradiction of sinners that he was wounded and plagued for our transgressions that he being the cleane innocent Lambe of God was damned in the Deut. 21. Gal. 3. presence of an earthly Iudge that we should be absolved before the tribunall seat of our God that he suffered not onely the cruell death of the Crosse which was accursed by the sentence of God but also that he suffered for a season the wrath of his Father which sinners had deserved But yet we avow that he remained the onely welbeloved and blessed Sonne of the Father even in Heb. 10. 1. the midst of his anguish and torment which he suffered in body and soule to make the full satisfaction for the sins of the people After the which we confesse and avow that there remaineth no other sacrifice for sinne which if any affirme we nothing doubt to avow that they are blasphemous against Christs death and the everlasting purgation and satisfaction purchased to us by the same Resurrection VVE undoubtedly beleeve that insomuch as it was impossible that the dolours of death should retaine in bondage Acts 2. 3. Rom. 6. the Author of life that our Lord Iesus crucified dead and buried who descended into hell did rise againe for our justification and destroying of him who was the author of death brought life againe to us that were subject to death and to the bondage of Matth. 28. Matth. 27. Ioh. 20. â—1 same we know that his resurrection was confirmed by the testimonie of his very enemies by the resurrection of the dead whose sepulchers did open and they did arise and appeared to many within the Citie of Ierusalem It was also confirmed by the testimonie of his Angels and by the senses and judgements of his Apostles and others who had conversation and did eate and drink with him after his resurrection Ascension VVE nothing doubt but the selfe same body which was born Acts 1. Matth. 1â— of the virgin was crucified dead and buried that it did rise againe and ascend into the heavens for the accomplishment of all things where in our names and for our comfort he hath received all power in heaven and earth where he sitteth at the right hand of the Father crowned in his kingdome Advocate 1 Iohn 2. 1 Tim. 2. Psal 110. and onely Mediatour for us Which glory honour and prerogative he alone amongst the brethren shall possesse till that all his enemies be made his footstoole As that we undoubtedly beleeve there shall be a finall judgement to the execution whereof we certainly beleeve that the same our Lord Iesus shall visibly returne even as he was seene to ascend And then we firmly beleeve that the time of refreshing and restitution of all things shall come in so much that those that from the beginning have suffered violence injury and wrong for righteousnesse sake shall inherite that blessed immortalitie promised Apoc. 20. Esa 66. from the beginning but contrariwise the stubborne inobedient cruell oppressors filthy persons Idolaters and all sorts of unfaithfull shall be cast into the dungeon of utter darknesse where their worme shall not die neither yet the fire shall be extinguished The remembrance of which day and of the judgement to be executed in the same is not onely to us a bridle wherby our carnall lusts are refrained but also such inestimable comfort that neither may the threatning of worldly Princes neither yet the feare of temporall death and present danger move us to renounce and forsake the blessed societie which we the members have with our head and onely Mediatour Christ Iesus Whom Esa 1. Col. 1. Heb. 9. 10. we confesse and avow to be the Messias promised the onely head of his Church our just Law-giver our onely high Priest Advocate and Mediatour In which honours and office if man or Angel presume to intrude themselves we utterly detest and abhorre them as blasphemous to our Soveraign and supreame governour Christ Iesus Faith in the holy Ghost THis faith and the assurance of the same proceedeth not Matth. 16. Iohn 14. 15. 19. from flesh and blood that is to say from no naturall powers within us but in the inspiration of the holy Ghost whom we confesse God equall with the Father and with the Sonne who sanctifieth us and bringeth us into all veritie by his own operation without whom we should remain for ever enemies to God and ignorant of his Sonne Christ Iesus For of nature we are so dead so blinde and so perverse that neither can we feele when we are pricked see the light when it shineth nor assent to the will of God when it is revealed unlesse the spirit of the Lord quicken that which is dead remove the darknes from our minds and bow our stubborne hearts to the obedience of his blessed wil. And so as we confesse that God the Father created us when we were not as his Sonne our Lord Iesus redeemed us when we were enemies to him so also do we confesse that the holy Ghost doth sanctifie and regenerate us without all respect of any merit proceeding from us be it before or be it after our regeneration To speake this one thing yet in more plain words as we willingly Rom. 5. spoile our selves of all honour and glory of our owne creation and redemption so doe we also of our regeneration and sanctification for of our selves we are not sufficient to thinke one good thought but he who hath begunne the worke in us is onely he that continueth in us the same to the praise and glory of his undeserved grace 2. Cor. 3. The cause of good workes SO that the cause of good workes we confesse to be not our Iohn 13. Ephes 2. free will but the spirit of our Lord Iesus who dwelling in our hearts by true faith bringeth forth such good workes as God hath prepared for us to walke in For this we most boldly affirme that it is blasphemie to say that Christ abideth in the hearts of such as in whom there is no spirit of sanctification And therefore we feare not to affirme that murderers oppressors cruell persecutors adulterers whoremongers filthy persons Idolaters drunkards theeves and all workers of iniquitie have neither true faith neither any portion of the spirit of the Lord Iesus so long as obstinately they continue in their wickednesse For how soone that ever the spirit of the Lord Iesus which Gods elect children receive by true faith taketh possession in the heart of every man so soone doth he regenerate and renue the same man so that he beginneth to hate that which before he loved and beginneth to love that which before he hated And from thence cometh that continuall battell which is betwixt the flesh and the spirit in Gods children so that the flesh and naturall man according to Gal. 5. the owne corruption lusteth for things pleasing and delectable unto it selfe grudgeth in adversitie is lifted up in prosperitie and at every
the determination and commandement that it giveth by the plain word of God so soone doe we reverence and embrace the same But if men under the name of a Councel pretend to forge unto us new Articles of our faith or to make constitutions repugning to the word of God then utterly we must refuse the same as the doctrine of Devils which draweth our soules from the voice of our onely God to follow the doctrine and constitutions of men The 1 Tim 4. cause then why that generall Councels came together was neither to make any perpetual law which God before had not made neither yet to forge new Articles of our beliefe neither to give the word of God authoritie much lesse to make that to be his word or yet the true interpretation of the same which was not before his holy wil expressed in his word But the cause of Councels we mean of such as merit the name of Councels was partly for confutation of heresies for giving publike confession of their faith to the posteritie following which both they did by the authoritie of Gods written word and not by any opinion of prerogative that they could not erre by reason of their generall assembly And this we judge to have been the chiefe cause of generall Councels The other was for good pollicie and order to be constitute observed in the Church wherein as in the house of God it becometh all things to be done decently and in order Not that we think that one pollicie and one order in ceremonies can be appointed for all ages times and places for as ceremonies such as men have devised are but temporall so may and ought they to be changed when they rather suffer superstition then that they edifie the Church using the same Of the Sacraments AS the fathers under the law besides the veritie of the sacrifices had two chief Sacraments to wit Circumcision the Passeover the despisers and contemners whereof were not reputed for Gods people so we acknowledge and confesse that we now in the time of the Gospel have two chiefe Sacraments only instituted by the Lord Iesus and commanded to be used of all those that wil be reputed members of his body to wit Baptisme and the Supper or Table of the Lord Iesus called the communion of his bodie and his blood And these Sacraments as well of the Old as of the New Testament now instituted of God not onely to make a visible difference betwixt his people and those that were without his league but also to exercise the faith of his children and by participation of the same Sacraments to seale in their hearts the assurance of his promise and of that most blessed conjunction union and societie which the Elect have with their head Christ Iesus And thus we utterly damne the vanitie of those that affirme Sacraments to be nothing else but the naked and bare signes No we assuredly beleeve that by baptisme we are ingrafted into Christ Iesus to be made partakers of his justice by which our sins are covered and remitted And also that in the Supper rightly used Christ Iesus is so joyned with us that he becometh the very nourishment and food of our soules Not that we imagine any transubstantiation of the bread in Christs naturall body and of wine in his naturall blood as the Papists have perniciously taught and damnably beleeved but this union and conjunction which we have with the body and blood of Christ Iesus in the right use of the Sacrament is wrought by the operation of the holy Ghost who by true faith carrieth us above all things that are visible carnall and earthly and maketh us to feed upon the body and blood of Christ Iesus which was once broken and shed for us which now is in heaven and appeareth in the presence of his Father for us and notwithstanding the farre distance of place which is betwixt his body now glorified in heaven and us now mortall in this earth yet we must assuredly beleeve that the bread which we breake is the communion of Christs body and the cup which we blesse is the communion of his blood so that we confesse and undoubtedly beleeve that the faithfull in the right use of the Lords Table doe so eate the body and drink the blood of the Lord Iesus that he remaineth in them and they in him Yea they are so made flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones that as the eternall Godhead giveth to the flesh of Christ Iesus which of the owne condition and nature was mortall and corruptible life and immortalitie so doth Christ Iesus his flesh and blood eaten and drunken by us give unto vs the same prerogatives Which albeit we confesse are neither given unto us at this time onely neither yet by the proper power and vertue of the Sacrament onely yet we affirme that the faithfull in the right use of the Lords Table have such conjunction with Christ Iesus as the naturall man cannot apprehend yea and further we affirme that albeit the faithfull oppressed by negligence and manly infirmitie doe not profit so much as they would in the very instant action of the Supper yet shall it after bring fruit forth as lively seed sowne in good ground For the holy spirit which can never be divided from the right institution of the Lord Iesus will not frustrate the faithfull of the fruit of that mysticall action but all this we say cometh of true faith which apprehendeth Christ Iesus who onely maketh his Sacraments effectuall unto us And therefore whosoever slandereth us as that we affirme or beleeve Sacraments to be onely naked and bare signes doth injury unto us and speaketh against the manifest truth But this liberally and frankly we confesse that we make distinction betwixt Christ Iesus in his eternall substance and betwixt the elements in the sacramentall signes So that we wil neither worship the signes in place of that which is signified by them neither yet doe we despise and interpret them as unprofitable and vaine but do use them with all reveverence examining our selves diligently before that so we doe Because we are assured by the mouth of the Apostle that such as eate of that bread and drink of that cup unworthily are guilty of the body and of the blood of Christ Iesus Of the right administration of the Sacraments THat Sacraments be rightly ministred we judge two things requisite the one that they be ministred by lawfull ministers whom we affirme to be onely they that are appointed to the preaching of the word into whose mouthes God hath put some Sermon of exhortation they being men lawfully chosen thereto by some Church The other that they be ministred in such elements and in such sort as God hath appointed else we affirme that they cease to be right Sacraments of Christ Iesus And therefore it is that we flie the societie with the papisticall Church in participation of their Sacraments first because their Ministers are no