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
And even as they declined from those things which had perversly crept into the doctrine of Christ so they were more and more confirmed in those things which are altogether agreeable thereunto Of which sort are the Articles which the Christian Church hath hitherto steadfastly beleeved touching the holy Trinitie to wit that God the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost are one essence and three persons and admit no other division or difference then the distinction of persons Of Invocating and worshipping of Saints Artic. 11. MOreover that abuse also was reproved and confuted by which some thinke they can so by fastings and prayers winne and binde unto themselves both the blessed Virgin Mary that bare God and other Saints that they hope by their intercession and merits they may be delivered from all adversities as well of soule as of body and be enriched with all kinde of good things For our Preachers have taught by the commandement of Christ the Saviour that that heavenly Father alone is by the same Christ in the holy spirit to be prayed unto as he who hath promised that he will never deny us any of those things which we by a true faith aske of him through his Sonne And seeing the Scripture it selfe setteth before us one onely Mediatour between God and men to wit the man Iesus Christ 1 Tim. 2. who both loveth us more entirely and can by authoritie doe more with the Father then any other they rightly thinke that this onely intercessour and advocate ought to suffice us Yet they doe therewithall teach that the most holy mother of God and Virgin Mary and other beloved Saints are with great diligence to be honoured But that that thing cannot otherwise be done then if we studie to be conversant in those things to which they especially gave themselves namely to innocencie and sanctification and of which they set before us so worthy examples For sith they with all their heart and soule and with all their strength doe love God we can in nothing please them better then if we also with them love God from the heart and by all meanes possible to make our selves conformable to him so farre off are they from ascribing their owne salvation to their merits how therefore should they presume to help any other with their merits Nay rather every one of them while they lived here said with Paul the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave himselfe for me For I despise not the grace of God Seeing therefore they themselves attribute whatsoever they either be or have to the goodnesse of God and to the redemption of the Lord Iesus Christ we can please them no way better then if we also wholly rest in the same things alone which very thing Saint Augustine also teacheth toward the end of his Booke De vera religione Of Images CHAP. 22. AS touching Images our Preachers reproved this especially out of the holy Scriptures that adoring and invocating of of them is so openly granted to the simple people against the expresse commandement of God Secondly that so great cost is bestowed for their worship and ornament by which rather the hungry thirsty naked fatherlesse sick and those that are in bonds for Christ ought to have been relieved Lastly because the most part are so perswaded that with such worship and cost bestowed upon Images both which things God abhorreth they deserve much at Gods hands and that they obtaine speciall helpe by this means Contrariwise the same men doe teach that the ancient writers so long as Christian faith remained some what pure understood the Scriptures which forbid worshipping and praying to Images in this sense that they thought it an abominable thing to admit any Images either graven or painted in the Church although they were not otherwise ignorant what our liberty is as in all externall things so likewise in Images For they nothing doubted but that it was flat contrary both to the commandements of Scripture and also to the holy religion Which may especially be proved even by those things which blessed Epiphanius in times past Bishop of Salaminium in Cyprus writeth of himselfe in an Epistle to John Bishop of Ierusalem which also Saint Ierome turned out of Greeke into Latine because he thought it both Christian and profitable to be read and these are Epiphanius own words When we went together to the holy place which is called Bethel that there I might make a collection with thee after the custome of the Church and was come to the village which is called Anablotha and passing by saw there a Lamp burning and had asked what place it was and had learned that it was a Church and was gone in to pray I found there a vaile hanging at the entrie of the same Church stained and painted and having the Image as it might be of Christ or some Saint for I doe not well remember whose picture it was when therefore I had seene this in Christs Church contrary to the commandement of the â—cripture that there hung a mans picture I cut it and moreover I counselled the keepers of that place that they should winde and burie some poore body in it And a little after when he had brought an excuse for his delay in sending another vaile that he had promised he addeth And now I have sent that I could finde and I pray thâ—e bid the Elders of the same place take the vaile that we have sent of the bearer and bid that henceforth such vailes as bee contrary to our religion be not hanged up in the Church of Christ Loe this godly Bishop writeth that it is against the holy Scriptures and Christian Religion to have even Christs owne picture in the Church and that in so plaine words that it may appeare to them that as well the Bishop of Ierusalem himselfe and Ierome as all other men of that age throughout the same and that that faith and custome of detesting Images hath beene alwaies of old in the Church of Christ and brought in by the Apostles themselves Whereas some say further that Images be profitable for the instruction of the Lay people it appeareth first of all that almost all Images were set up for pompe and superstition rather then for any other use Secondly neither is that reason very sound For although the Lord would instruct and bring to the knowledge of his goodnesse the Iewes farre more dull then becometh Christians to be by divers outward ceremonies and pedagogies yet he was so farre from thinking that the use of Images was fit and convenient for that purpose that he did even by name forbid it unto them For whosoever is not instructed and stirred up to the worship of God by the word of God and by so excellent workes of his which he layeth before us both in heaven and earth and which are continually before our eyes and at hand and which to conclude
sake And Phil. 1. Phil 2. again I am perswaded that he that began this good worke in you will perform it untill the day of the Lord Iesus Also It is God that worketh in you the will and the deed Where neverthelesse we teach that there are two things to be observed First that the regenerate in the choice and working of that which is good do not onely work passively but actively For they are mooved of God that themselves may do that which they do And Augustine doth truly alleadge that saying that God is said to be our helper For no man can be helped but he that doth somewhat The Manichees did bereeve man of all action and made him like a stone and a block Secondly that in the regenerate there remaineth infirmitie For seeing that sind welleth in us and that flesh in the regenerate striveth against the spirit even to our lives end they do not readily performe in every point that which they had purposed These things are confirmed by the Apostle Rom. 7. Gal. 5. Therefore our free-will is weake by reason of the reliques of the old Adam remaining in us so long as we live and of the humane corruption which so neerely cleaveth to them In the meane while because that the strength of the flesh and reliques of the old man are not of such great force that they can wholly quench the work of the spirit therefore the faithfull are called free yet so that they doe acknowledge their infirmitie and glory no whit at all of their free-will For that which S. Augustine doth repeat so often out of the Apostle ought alwaies to be kept in minde by the faithfull What hast thou that thou hast not received and if thou hast received it why doest thou boast as though thou hadst not received it Hitherto may be added that that commeth not straight way to passe which we have purposed For the events of things are in the hand of God For which cause Paul Besought the Lord that he would prosper Rom. 1. 19. his iourney Wherefore in this respect also free-will is very weak But in outward things no man denieth but that both the regenerate and unregenerate have their free-wil For man hath this constitution common with other creatures to whom he is not inferiour to will some things and to nill other things So he may speake or keep silence go out of his house or abide within Although herein also Gods power is evermore to be marked Numb 24. Luke 1. which brought to passe that Balaam could not go so farre as he would and that Zacharias coming out of the Temple could not speak as he would have done In this matter we condemn the Manichees who deny that the beginning of evill unto man being good came from his free-will We condemn also the Pelagians who affirme that an evill man hath free-will sufficiently to performe a good precept Both these are confuted by the Scripture which saith to the former God made man upright and to the latter If the Son make you free then are you free indeed Out of the former Confession of HELVETIA MAN being the most perfect Image of God in earth and having the Chiesdome of all visible creatures consisting of soul and body whereof this is mortall that immortall after he was made holy of the Lord he by his owne fault falling into sin drew whole mankinde with him into the same fall and made him subject to the same calamitie And this infection which men tearme Originall hath so invaded Artic. 8. the whole stocke that the childe of wrath and the enemie of God can by none other then by the divine help of Christ be cured For if there be any sparke of good fruit remaining here it being weakned daily by our sins declineth to the worse For the force of evill doth get the upper hand neither doth it suffer reason to beare the sway nor the most divine facultie of the minde to have the preheminence Whereupon we do so attribute free-will to man as that knowing Artic. 9. and having a will to do good and evill we finde notwithstanding by experience that of our own accord we may do evill but Gen. 1. we can neither imbrace nor follow any good thing except being illuminated by the grace of Christ we be stirred up and effectually mooved thereunto For God is he which worketh in us both to will Eph. 4. and to bring to passe according to his good will And Salvation is of the Lord destruction of our selves Out of the Confession of BASILL Artic. 2. Of man Gen. 3. and 5. Rom. 5. 1 Cor. 15. Eph. 2. Gen. 6. and 8. Ioh. 3. Rom. 3. VVE confesse that in the beginning man was made of God in righteousnesse and true holinesse after the true Image of God but he fell into sin of his own accord by the which fall whole mankinde is made corrupt and subject unto damnation Hence it is that our nature is defiled and become so prone unto sin that except it be renued by the holy Ghost man of himself can Psal 143. Ephes 2. neither do nor will any good Out of the Confession of BOHEMIA or the WALDENSES Of the knowledge of a mans self Also of sin the causes and fruits thereof and of the promise of God CHAP. 4 FOurthly touching the knowledge of himself man is taught and that after two sorts First the knowledge of his estate yet being in his innocencie or voyd of all fault that is of his nature being perfect from whence he fell Secondly the knowledge of Gen. 1. his sin and mortalitie into which he fell The estate and condition of his innocencie and righteousnesse consisteth in these points that the Lord in the beginning made man after his own Image and likenesse and adorned him with the gifts of his grace or bountie that he engraffed in him righteousnesse and his spirit a soul and a body together with all the faculties and powers thereof and so made him holy just wise immortall and a most pleasant temple for his heavenly spirit in the mind will memory and judgement and bestowed upon him cleare light of understanding integritie and a very ordinate or lawfull love towards God and all his creatures also a full and absolute obedience or habilitie to obey God the true feare of God and a sincere Eccles â—7 Ephes 1. heart and nature that man might be his own possession and his proper and peculiar workmanship created unto the praise of his glorious grace Man being placed in this estate had left unto him free-will so that if he would he was able to fulfill that commandement which God gave him and thereby to retaine righteousnesse both for himselfe and for all his posteritie after him and every way to enjoy a spirit soule body and an estate most Eccles 15. blessed and further also to make a way unto a farre more excellent glory by considering that fire and water
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
shall then rise out of the earth the soule and spirit of every one being joyned and coupled together againe to the same bodies wherein before they lived They moreover which shall be alive at the last day shall not die the same death that other men have done but in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye they shall be changed from corruption to an incorruptible nature Then the bookes shall be opened namely the bookes of every mans conscience and the dead shall be judged according to those things which they have done in this world either good or evill Moreover then shall men render an account of every idle word which they have spoken although the world doe now make but a sport and a jest at them Finally all the hypocrisie of men and the deepest secrets of their hearts shall be made manifest unto all so that worthily the onely remembrance of this judgement shall be terrible and fearfull to the wicked and reprobate But of the godly and elect it is greatly to be wished for and is unto them exceeding comfort For then shall their redemption be fully perfited and they shall reape most sweet fruit and commoditie of all those labours and sorrowes which they have suffered in this world Then I say their innocencie shall be openly acknowledged of all and they likewise shall see that horrible punishment which the Lord will execute upon those that have most tyrannically afflicted them in this world with divers kindes of torments and crosses Furthermore the wicked being convinced by the peculiar testimony of their owne conscience shall indeed be made immortall but with this condition that they shall burne for ever in that eternall fire which is prepared for the devill On the contrarie side the elect and faithfull shall be crowned with the crowne of glory and honour whose names the Sonne of God shall confesse before his Father and the Angels and then shall all teares be wiped from their eies Then their cause which now is condemned of heresie and impietie by the Magistrates and Iudges of this world shall be acknowledged to be the cause of the Son of God And the Lord shall of his free mercy reward them with so great glory as no mans minde is able to conceive Therefore we doe with great longing expect that great day of the Lord wherein we shall most fully enjoy all those things which God hath promised unto us and through Iesus Christ our Lord be put into full possession of them for evermore Out of the Confession of AUSPURGE ALso they teach that the word that is the Sonne of God tooke unto him mans nature in the wombe of the blessed Virgin Mary so that the two natures the divine and the humane inseperably joyned together in the unitie of one person are one Christ true God and true man who was borne of the Virgin Mary did truely suffer was crucified dead and buried that he might reconcile his Father unto us and might be a sacrifice not onely for the Originall sinne but also for all actuall sinnes of men The same also descended into hell and did truely rise againe the third day Afterward he ascended into heaven that he might sit at the right hand of the Father and reigne for ever and have dominion over all the creatures sanctifie those that beleeve in him by sending the holy Spirit into their hearts and give everlasting life to such as he had sanctified The same Christ shall openly come againe to judge them that are found alive and the dead raised up againe according to the Creede of the Apostles In the end of this Article after these words by sending his holy Spirit into their hearts these words are found in some Editions BY sending his Spirit into their hearts which may reigne comfort and quicken them and defend them against the Devil and the power of sin The same Christ shall openly come againe to judge the quicke and the dead c. according to the Creed of the Apostles Also they teach that in the end of the world Christ shall appeare to judgement and shall raise up all the dead and shall give unto men to wit to the godly and elect eternall life and everlasting joyes but the ungodly and the devils shall he condemne unto endlesse torments Also we condemne the Origenists who imagined that the devill and the damned creatures should one day have an end of their pains After the first period of this Article this is thus found else-where THey condemne the Anabaptists that are of opinion that the damned men and the devils shall have an end of their torments They condemne others also which now adaies do spread abroad Iewish opinions that before the resurrection of the dead the gody shall get the soveraigntie in the world and the wicked be brought under in every place Out of the Confession of SAXONIE Hitherto pertaineth a part of the third Article THE Son of God our Lord Iesus Christ who is the Image of the eternall Father is appointed our Mediator Reconciler Redeemer Iustifier and Saviour By the obedience and merit of him alone the wrath of God is pacified as it is said Rom 3. Whom he set forth to be a reconciliation through faith in his blood And Heb. 10. It is impossible that the blood of Buls should take away sins But he offering a sacrifice for sins sitteth for ever at the right hand of God c. And although we doe not see as yet * Looke the first observat upon this confession in this our infirmitie the causes of this wonderfull counsell why mankinde was to be redeemed after this sort but we shall learn them hereafter in all eternitie yet these principles are now to be learned In this sacrifice there are to be seene justice in the wrath of God against sin infinite mercie towards us and love in his Son towards mankinde The severitie of his justice was so great that there be no reconciliation before the punishment was accomplished His mercie was so great that his Son was given for us There was so great love in the Son towards us that he derived unto himselfe this true and exceeding great anger O Son of God kindle in our hearts by thy holy spirit a consideration of these great and secret things that by the knowledge of this true wrath we may be sore afraid and that again by true comfort we may be lifted up that we may praise thee for ever Out of the Confession of WIRTEMBERGE VVE beleeve and confesse that the Son of God our Lord Iesus Christ begotten of his eternall Father is true and eternall God consubstantiall with his Father and that in the fulnesse of time he was made man to purge our sins and * Looke the 1. Observat upon this confession to procure the eternall salvation of mankinde that Christ Iesus being very God and very man is one person onely and not two and that in this one person there be two natures not one
by a close sinner For so long as the overthwartnesse of such wicked hypocrites is not as yet publikely knowne neither punished more gently or severely by the Ecclesiasticall Discipline neither they which have behaved themselves more stubbornly have beene excommunicated those Sacraments which thâ—â— doe administer may be received of them if so be that they doe administer them according to the will minde and institution of Christ the which thing also the constitutions of the ancient Church doe confirme For the vertue and efficacie of the Sacraments doth neither consist in him nor depend on him who doth either administer them whosoever he be or doth receive them but it consisteth in the institution and in the commandement that was most absolute and mightie in authoritie and in the word of the authour of the Sacraments to wit of our Lord Iesus Christ on which one thing they they doe relye and have from thence whatsoever they are able to doe Neverthelesse the Ministers must throughly looke to it and take good heed lest whilest by their labour they be serviceable to others They themselves become 1 Cor. 9. reprobates or worthy to be rejected and also lest they give holy things to dogs or cast pearles before swine Also the people must endevour Matth. 7. by all means to take heed that they doe not in any case receive the Sacraments with the offence of the Church and the proper danger of the salvation of their souls that is to their own fault and judgement whereof we made mention before Out of the FRENCH Confession VVE beleeve that there be Sacraments adjoyned to the Artic. 34. word for the more ample confirmation thereof to wit that they may be pledges and tokens of the grace of God whereby our weake and rude faith may be helped For we confesse that these outward signes be such that God by the power of his holy Spirit doth worke by them that nothing may there be represented to us in vaine yet we thinke that the whole substance and truth of them is in Christ Iesus from whom if they be separated they be nothing else but vaine shadows and smoakes Also Artic. 35. We acknowledge that there be onely two Sacraments common to the whole Church c. That which followeth pertaineth to the 13. Sect. Out of the ENGLISH Confession MOreover we allow the Sacraments of the Church that is to say certaine holy signes and Ceremonies which Christ Artic. 10. would we should use that by them he might set before our eyes the Mysteries of our salvation and might more strongly confirme the Faith which we have in his blood and might seale his grace in our hearts And these Sacraments together with Tertullian Origen Ambrose Augustine Hierome Chrysostome Basill Dionysius and other Catholique Fathers we doe call Figures Signes Marks Badges Prints Copies Formes Seales Signets Similitudes Patternes Representations Remembrances and Memories and we make no doubt together with the same Doctors to say that these be certaine visible words Seales of Righteousnesse and Tokens of Grace And we doe expressely pronounce that in the Lords Supper there is truely given unto the Beleeving the body and blood of our Lord the Flesh of the Son of God which quickeneth our soules the meate that commeth from above the food of Immortalitie of Grace Truth and Life and that the same Supper is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ by the partaking whereof we be revived strengthned and fed unto Immortalitie and whereby we are joyned united and incorporated unto Christ that we may abide in him and he in us Besides this we acknowledge that there be two Sacraments which we judge properly Artic. 11. ought to be called by this name that is to say Baptisme and the Sacrament of thankesgiving For thus many we see were delivered and sanctified by Christ and well allowed of the old Fathers Ambrose and Augustine and such others Out of the Confession of BELGIA VVE beleeve that God having regard to our dulnesse and Artic. 33. infirmitie did institute Sacraments for us that by them his promises might be sealed to us and that they might be most certaine pledges of his heavenly love towards us and of his gifts bestowed upon us for the cherishing and sustaining of our faith These Sacraments he added to the word of the Gospel that he might more lively set before our externall senses both those things which he declareth unto us in his word and those also which he worketh inwardly in our hearts and to confirme more and more in us that salvation which he vouchsafeth to communicate unto us For the Sacraments are signes and visible tokens of internall invisible things by the which as by certaine means God himself worketh within us by the power of the holy Ghost Therefore they be not vaine or idle signes neither yet ordained of God to deceive or frustrate us of our hope For the truth of our Sacraments is Iesus Christ without whom they are of no value Moreover that number of Sacraments sufficeth us which Christ himselfe our true and onely Doctor hath instituted and those are onely two to wit the Sacrament of Baptisme and the Sacrament of the holy Supper of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Out of the Confession of AUSPURGH SEeing that in this life many evill ones and hypocrites are Artic. 8. mingled with the Church and have fellowship with it in the outward signes and pledges the Sacraments administred by such as are evill may lawfully be used according to the saying of Christ The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses chaire c. For the Sacraments and the word of God are effectuall by reason of the institution and commandement of Christ though they be delivered by wicked and evill men They condemne the Donatists and such like who said it was not lawfull for the people to use the ministery of evill men in the Church and held opinion that the ministerie of evill men was quite without fruit and effect The beginning of this eighth Article is elsewhere thus set downe THough the Church to speake properly be a Congregation of Saints and true beleevers yet seeing that in this life many hypocrites and evill men bee mingled with it it is a lawfull thing to use the Sacraments ministred by the hands of evill men c. Touching the use of the Sacraments they teach that they were instituted not so much to be notes of profession amongst men as to be signes and pledges of Gods good will towards us set before the eyes to stirre up and confirme faith in them which use them Therefore we must use Sacraments so as wee must joyne faith with them which may beleeve the promises that are offered and declared unto us by the Sacraments By this faith we receive both the grace promised which is represented by the Sacraments and also the holy Ghost Therefore they condemne that Pharisaicall opinion of the Papists which suppresseth the doctrine of faith
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
pleasure he doth manifestly and malapertly against our Lord who instituted this Sacrament and committeth a thing cleane contrary to his holy Testament and last will which was declared in his owne words and that expressely Also this Sacrament ought to be received and administred without adoration and without that worship which is due to God alone yet with a due kinde of religion and reverence and chiefly with that which is the chiefest of all namely with faith and examination of himself which in this action is most acceptable to Christ our Lord and most profitable for men which also St. Paul taught the first Church and exhorted it hereunto saying 1 Cor. 11. Let every man trie or examine himselfe and so let him eate of that bread and drinke of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily doth eate and drinke his owne iudgement or condemnation because he discerneth not the Lords body And in another place Prove your selves whether ye are in the faith examine your selves 2 Cor. 13. know ye not your owne selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates Now I pray unto God that ye doe no evill If so be that any man approach to this table without such a tryall and not making himselfe worthy who hath not first examined himselfe what manner of faith he hath with what purpose he came to this Sacrament or how he had prepared himselfe hereunto I say such a man should greatly prophane and reproach this Sacrament yea the whole institution hereof appointed by Christ For which cause the Ministers of our Churches doe admit none to this Sacrament neither give it unto any but to such as are noted to come unto it seriously and doe so much as in them lyeth prepare themselves hereunto after such a manner as becometh Christian godlinesse Now when the Congregation doth come together to celebrate the use of the Lords Supper and be partakers thereof then according to the example of the Primitive Church our Ministers doe teach in their holy Sermons concerning Christ and concerning the grace which through him and in him is given to sinners and especially concerning his death the sheading of his blood and the redemption and salvation purchased thereby After that the whole Church doth joyne together in faithfull prayers unto God to obtaine this that they may indeed use this Sacrament worthily * Looke the 3. Observat Moreover in the next place absolution from sinnes is lawfully administred the words of the institution are rehearsed and the people by exhortation is stirred up to a reverent consideration of this mysterie and to a cheereful and serious contemplation of the benefits of God the Sacrament is reverently with all godlinesse distributed and the people of the faithfull * Looke the 4. Observat most commonly falling downe on their knees doe receive this Sacrament with thankesgiving with gladnesse with singing of hymnes or holy songs and they shew forth the death of the Lord and admonish themselves of all his benefits to the confirmation of their faith in a true communion with Christ and his bodie And all this we doe according to the meaning of those things which are commanded in the holy Scripture especially according to the saying of Christ Doe this in remembrance Luc. 22. 1 Cor. 11. of me and Paul saith So often as ye shall eat of this bread and drinke of this cup ye shall shew forth the death of the Lord till he come Out of the FRENCH Confession VVE affirme that the holy Supper of the Lord to wit the Artic. 36. other Sacrament is a witnesse to us of our uniting with our Lord Iesus Christ because that he is not onely once dead and raised up againe from the dead for us but also he doth indeed feed us and nourish us with his flesh and bloud that we being made one with him may have our life common with him For although he be now in heaven and shall remaine there till he come to judge the world yet we beleeve that by the secret and incomprehensible vertue of his Spirit he doth nourish * Looke the 1. observation upon this confession and quicken us with the substance of his body and blood being apprehended by faith But we say that this is done spiritually not that we may counterfeit an imagination or thought instead of the efficacie and truth but rather because this mysterie of our union with Christ is so high a thing that it surmounteth all our senses yea and the whole order of nature to conclude because that it being divine and heavenly cannot be perceived nor apprehended but by faith We beleeve as was said before that as well in the Supper as Artic. 37. in Baptisme God doth in deed that is truly and effectually give whatsoever he doth there sacramentally represent and therefore with the signes we joyne the true profession and fruition of that thing which is there offered unto us Therefore we affirme that they which doe bring pure faith as it were a certaine vessell unto the holy Supper of the Lord doe indeed receive that which there the signes doe witnesse namely that the body and bloud of Iesus Christ are no lesse the meate and drinke of the soule then bread and wine are the meate of the body Also out of the 38. Art a little after the beginning And also that that bread and wine which is given us in the Supper is indeed made unto us spirituall nourishment in as much as they doe offer unto our eies to behold that the flesh of Christ is our meate and that his bloud is our drinke Therefore we reject all those phantasticall heads which doe refuse these fignes and tokens seeing that Christ our Lord hath said This is my body and This cup is my bloud Out of the ENGLISH Confession VVE say that Eucharistia that is to say the Supper of the Artic. 12. Lord is a Sacrament that is an evident Representation of the body and blood of Christ wherein is set as it were before our eyes the death of Christ and his Resurrection and whatsoever he did whilest he was in his mortall body to the end we may give him thankes for his death and for our deliverance and that by the often receiving of this Sacrament we may daily renue the remembrance thereof to the intent we being fed with the body and blood of Christ may be brought into the hope of the Resurrection and of everlasting life and may most assuredly beleeve that as our bodies be fed with bread and wine so our soules be fed with the body and blood of Christ To this Chrysost ad Eph. sâ—rm 3. cap. 1. Banquet we thinke the people of God ought to be earnestly bidden that they may all communicate among themselves and openly declare and testifie both the godly society which is among them and also the hope which they have in Christ Jesus For this cause if there had been
De fide Of faith that it affirmeth it to be a needlesse thing to dispute of predestination in the doctrine of iustification by faith Which in what sort it may be said we have declared in the 6. Observation in this Confession sect 9. where these words of the Confession are rehearsed Also the SAXON CONFESSION Doth in the same sense by the way make mention of Predestination and Election about the end of the third Article where it treateth of faith which part we have therefore placed in the 9. Section THE SIXTH SECTION OF THE REPAIRING OR Deliverance of Man from his Fall by Iesus Christ alone and of his Pesron Natures Office and the workes of REDEMPTION The former Confession of HELVETIA Of Jesus Christ being true God and man and the onely Saviour of the World CHAP. II. MOreover we beleeve and teach that the Sonne of God our Lord Iesus Christ was from all eternitie predestinated and fore-ordained of the Father to be the Saviour of the world And we beleeve that he was begotten not onely then when he tooke flesh of the Virgin Mary nor yet a little before the foundations of the world were laid but before all eternitie and that of the Father after an unspeakable manner For Isaiah saith Who can tell Isa 35. Mich 5. 2 Ioh. 1. 1. Phil. 2. 6 his generation And Micheah saith Whose egresse hath beene from everlasting For John saith In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and God was the word c. Therefore the Sonne is coequall and consubstantiall with the Father as touching his divinitie true God not by name onely or by adoption or by speciall favour but in substance and nature Even as the Apostle 1 Iohn 5. 18. saith elsewhere This is the true God and life everlasting Paul also saith He hath made his Sonne the heire of all things by whom also he Heb. 12. made the world The same is the brightnesse of his glory and the ingraved forme of his person bearing up all things by his mightie word Likewise in the Gospel the Lord himselfe saith Father glorifie Iohn 17. 5. thou me with thy selfe with the glory which I had with thee before Iohn 5. 18. the world was Also elsewhere it is written in the Gospel The Iewes sought how to kill Iesus because he said that God was his Father making himself equall with God We therefore do abhor the blasphemous doctrine of Arrius and all the Arrians uttered against the Son of God And especially the blasphemies of Michael Servetus the Spaniard and of his complices which Satan by them hath as it were drawne out of hell and most boldly and impiously spread abroad throughout the world against the Son of God We teach also and beleeve that the eternall Sonne of the eternall Matth. 1. God was made the Sonne of man of the seed of Abraham and David not by the meane of any man as Hebion affirmed but that he was most purely conceived by the holy Ghost and was borne of Mary who was alwaies a Virgin even as the history of the Gospell doth declare And Paul saith He tooke in no sort the Heb. 2. 16. Angels but the seed of Abraham And Iohn the Apostle saith He that beleeveth not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God The flesh of Christ therefore was neither flesh in shew onely nor yet flesh brought from heaven as Valentine and Marcion dreamed Moreover our Lord Iesus Christ had not a soule without sense and reason as Apollinaris thought nor flesh without a soule as Eunomius did teach but a soule with it reason and flesh with it senses by which senses he felt true griefes in the time of his passion even as he himselfe witnesseth when he said My soule is heavie Matth. 26. Iohn 12. even to death And My soule is troubled c. We acknowledge therefore that there be in one and the same Iesus Christ our Lord two natures the divine and the humane nature and we say that these two are so conjoyned or united that they are not swallowed up confounded or mingled together but rather united or joyned together in one person the proprieties of each nature being safe and remaining still so that we do worship one Christ our Lord and not two I say one true God and man as touching his divine nature of the same substance with the Father as touching his humane nature of the same substance with us Like unto us in all things sin onely excepted As therefore we detest the heresie of Nestorius which maketh two Christs of one dissolveth the union of the Person so doe we curse the madnesse of Eutiches and of the Monophelites or Monophysicks who overthrow the proprietie of the humane nature Therefore we doe not teach that the divine nature in Christ did suffer or that Christ according to his humane nature is yet in the world and even in every place For we doe neither thinke nor teach that the body of Christ ceased to be a true body after his glorifying or that it was deified and so deified that it put off it properties as touching body and soule and became altogether a divine nature and began to be one substance alone And therefore we doe not allow or receive the unwittie subtilties and the intricate obscure and inconstant disputations of Schucnkfeildius and such other vaine janglers about this matter Neither are we Schuenkfeildians Moreover we beleeve that our Lord Iesus Christ did truely suffer and die for us in the flesh as Peter saith We abhorre the most horrible madnesse 1 Pet. 4. 1. of the Iacobites and the Turkes which abandon the passion of our Lord. Yet we denie not but that the Lord of glory according to the saying of Paul was crucified for us For we doe reverently 1 Cor. 2. 8. and religiously receive and use the communication of proprieties drawne from the Scriptures and used of all antiquitie in expounding and reconciling places of Scripture which at the first sight seeme to disagree one from another We beleeve and teach that the same Lord Iesus Christ in that true flesh in which he was crucified and died rose againe from the dead and that he did not raise up another flesh in stead of that which was buried nor tooke a spirit in stead of flesh but retained a true body Therefore whilest that his disciples thought that they did see the spirit of their Lord Christ he shewed them his hands and feete which were marked with the prints of the nailes and wounds saying Behold my hands and my feete for I am he indeed Luke 24. 39. Handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have We beleeve that our Lord Iesus Christ in the same his flesh did ascend above all the visible heavens into the very highest heaven that is to say the seate of God and of the blessed spirits unto the
except a * Looke the 2. Observation upon this confess Priest be ordained in the Church to the ministerie of teaching he cannot rightly take unto him neither the name of a Priest nor the name of a Bishop Out of the Confession of SUEVELAND Of the Office dignitie and power of Ecclesiasticall Persons TOuching the ministery and dignitie of the Ecclesiasticall Order Artic. 13. we doe thus teach First that there is no power in the Church but that which tendeth to edifying 2 Cor. 10. Secondly that we must not thinke otherwise of any man in this state then Paul would have men to esteeme either of himselfe or of Peter and Apollo and others As of the servants of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God in whom this is chiefly required that they be faithfull For these be they which have the keies of the kingdome of God and the power to binde and loose and to remit or retaine sinnes yet that power is so limited that they be neverthelesse the ministers of Christ to whom alone the right and authoritie to open heaven and forgive sinnes doth properly pertaine For neither he which planteth nor he that watereth is any thing but God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3. Neither is any man of himselfe fit to thinke any of those things as of himselfe but if any man be found fit thereunto he hath it all of God Who giveth to whom it pleaseth him to be the ministers and preachers of the New Testament to wit so farre forth as he giveth them a mind faithfully to preach the meaning and understanding of the Gospel and useth them hereunto that men may be brought by a true faith to his new covenant of grace Furthermore these be they which doe minister unto us the dead letter that is such a doctrine of truth as pearceth no further then to humane reason but the spirit which quickneth and doth so pearce into our spirit and soule that it doth throughly perswade our heart of the truth These are the true fellow-labourers of the Lord 1 Cor. 3. opeaing indeed heaven and forgiving sinnes to those to whom they declare the doctrine of faith by meanes of the grace and spirit of God Whereupon Christ sending out his Apostles to exercise this dutie he breathed upon them saying Take ye the holy Ghost And furthermore he addeth whose sins ye remit c. Hereof it is manifest that the true and fit Ministers of the Church such as be Bishops Seniors annointed and consecrated can doe nothing but in respect of this that they be sent of God For how shall they preach saith Paul except they be sent That is except they receive of God both a minde and power to preach the holy Gospel aright and with fruite and to feed the flocke of Christ And also except they receive the holy Ghost who may worke together with them and perswade mens hearts Other vertues where with these men must be endued are rehearsed 1 Tim. 3. Tit. 1. Therefore they which are in this sort sent annointed consecrated and qualified they have an earnest care for the flocke of Christ and doe labour faithfully in the word and doctrine that they may feede the people more fruitfully and these are acknowledged and accounted of our preachers for such Bishops as the Scripture every where speaketh of and every Christian ought to obey their commandements But they which give themselves to other things they place themselves in other mens seats and doe worthily take unto themselves other names Yet notwithstanding the life of any man is not so much to be blamed as that therefore a Christian should refuse to heare him if peradventure he teach something out of the chaire of Moses or Christ that is either out of the Law of God or out of the holy Gospel that may serve for edification They which bring a divers or a strange voice whatsoever they be they are in no account or estimation with the sheepe of Christ Iohn 10. * Looke before the third Observation upon the August confession Also after sect 17. 3. observat upon the same confession of August Yet they which have a secular power and soveraigntie they have it of God himselfe howsoever they be called therefore he should resist the ordinance of God whosoever should oppose himselfe to that temporall government These things doe our Preachers teach touching the authoritie of Ecclesiasticall persons so that they have great injurie offered to them in that they are blamed as though they sought to bring the authoritie of Ecclesiasticall Prelats to nothing whereas they never forbad them that worldly government and authority which they have But they have often wished that they would come neerer to the Ecclesiasticall commandements and that either they themselves would instruct and faithfully feed the consciences of Christians out of the holy Gospel or that at the least-wise they would admit others hereunto and ordain such as were more fit for this purpose This is it I say that our Preachers have oftentimes requested of the Prelates themselves so farre they have beene from opposing themselves at any time to their spirituall authoritie But whereas we could not either beare any longer the doctrine of certaine Preachers but being driven thereunto by necessitie we have placed others in their roome or else have retained those also which have renounced that Ecclesiasticall superioritie We did it not for any others cause but for that these did plainely and faithfully declare the voyce of our Lord Iesus Christ the other did mingle therewith all mans inventions For so often as the question is concerning the holy Gospel and the doctrine of truth Christians must wholly turne themselves to the Bishop of their soules the Lord Iesus Christ and not admit the voyce of any stranger by any meanes wherein notwithstanding neither we nor they doe offer violence to any man for Paul saith All things are yours whether it be Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death whether they be things present or things to come even all are yours and ye Christs and Christ Gods Therefore seeing that Peter and Paul are ours and we are not theirs but Christs and that after the same manner that Christ himselfe is his Fathers to wit that in all things which we are or may be we might live to him alone Furthermore seeing to this end we have power to use all things yea even men themselves of what sort soever they be as though they were our owne and are not to suffer that any man or any thing should hinder us therein no Ecclesiasticall person may justly complaine of us or object to us that we are not sufficient by obedient to them or that we doe derogate any thing from their authoritie seeing that the thing it selfe doth witnesse that we have attempted and done all those things according to the will of God which we have attempted against the will of Ecclesiasticall persons These therefore be those things
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
with mad gasings and foolish gaudies in the selfe same matter wherein the death of Christ ought diligently to be beaten into our hearts and wherein also the mysteries of our Redemption ought with all holinesse and reverence to be executed Besides where they say and sometime do perswade fooles that they are able by their Masses to distribute and apply unto mens commoditie all the merits of Christs death yea although many times the parties thinke nothing of the matter and understand full little what is done this is a mockerie a heathenish phansie and a very toie For it is our faith that applieth the death and crosse of Christ to our benefit and not the act of the Massing Priest Faith had in the Sacraments saith Augustine doth justifie and not the Sacraments And Origen saith Christ Ad Rom. cap 3. lib. 3. is the Priest the Propitiation and Sacrifice which propitiation cometh to every one by meane of faith And so by this reckoning we say that the sacraments of Christ without faith do not once profit those that be alive a great deale lesse doe they profit those that be dead Out of the Confession of BELGIA VVE beleeve and confesse that Iesus Christ our Lord Artic. 35. and Saviour hath instituted the holy Sacrament of his Supper that in it he might nourish and sustaine those whom he hath regenerated and engrafted into his family which is the Church But those which are regenerate have in them a double life the one carnall and temporall which they brought with them from their first nativitie the which is common unto all the other spirituall and heavenly bestowed upon them in their second nativitie which is wrought in them by the word of the Gospel in the union of the body of Christ the which is peculiar to the elect alone And as God hath appointed earthly and materiall bread fit and convenient for the preservation of this carnall life which even as the life it selfe is common unto all so for the conservation of that spirituall and heavenly life which is proper to the faithfull God hath sent lively bread which came downe from heaven even Iesus Christ who nourisheth and sustaineth the spirituall life of the faithfull if he be eaten that is applied and received by faith through the Spirit But to the intent that Christ might figurate and represent unto us this spirituall and heavenly bread he hath ordained visible and earthly bread and wine for the Sacrament of his body and blood whereby he testifieth that as truly as we doe receive and hold in our hands this signe eating the same with our mouthes whereby afterwards this our life is sustained so truly we doe by faith which is in stead of our soule hand and mouth receive the very body and true bloud of Christ our onely Saviour in our selves unto the conservation and cherishing of a spirituall life within us And it is most certaine that Christ not without good cause doth so carefully commend unto us this his Sacrament as one that doth indeed work that within us whatsoever he representeth unto us by these his holy signes although the manner it selfe beeing far above the reach of our capacitie cannot be comprehended of any because that all * Looke the 1. Observation upon this confession the operations of the holy Ghost are hidden and incomprehensible Neither shall we erre in saying that * Looke the 2. observation upon this confession that which is eaten is the very naturall body of Christ and that which is drunke is the very blood of Christ yet the instrument or meanes whereby we doe eate and drinke them is not a corporall mouth but even our soule and spirit and that by faith Christ therefore sitteth alwaies at the right hand of his Father in heaven and yet for all that doth not any thing the lesse communicate himselfe unto us by faith Furthermore this Supper is the spirituall table wherein Christ doth offer himselfe to us with all his benefits to be participated of us and bringeth to passe that in it we are partakers as well of himself as of the merit of his death and passion For he himselfe * Looke the 3. observat upon this confession by the eating of his flesh doth nourish strengthen and comfort our miserable afflicted and comfortlesse soule and in like manner by the drinking of his blood doth refresh and sustaine the same Moreover * Looke the 4. Observat although the signes be coupled with the things signified yet both of them are not received of all For an evill man verily receiveth the Sacrament unto his owne condemnation but the thing or truth of the Sacrament he receiveth not As for example Judas and Simon Magus doth of them did receive the Sacramentall signe but as for Christ himselfe signified thereby they received him not For Christ is communicated to the faithfull only Last of all we with great humilitie and reverence doe communicate the holy Sacrament in that assembly of Gods people celebrating the memoriall of our Saviour Christs death with thankesgiving and making there a publike confession of Christian faith and religion No man therefore ought to present himselfe at this holy Supper which hath not first examined himselfe lest that eating this bread and drinking of this cup he doe not eate and drinke his owne damnation Moreover by the use of this Sacrament a most ardent love is kindled within us both towards God himselfe and also towards our neighbour Therefore here we doe worthily reject as a meere prophanation all the toies and damnable devises of men which they have presumed to adde and mingle with the Sacraments affirming that all the godly are content with that onely order and rite which Christ and his Apostles have delivered unto us and that they ought to speake of these mysteries after the same manner as the Apostles have spoken before Out of the Confession of AUSPURGE The second Article out of the Edition of Wirtemberge Anno. 1531. TOuching the Supper of the Lord they teach that the body and blood of Christ are there present * Looke the 1. observation upon this confession indeed and are distributed to those that eate of the Lords Supper and they condemne those that teach otherwise The same tenth Article in the Edition newly corrected Anno. 1540. is thus set down TOuching the Supper of the Lord they teach that together with the bread and the wine the body and blood of Christ are truly exhibited to them that eate of the Lords Supper Hitherto also pertaineth the first Article of the abuses which are changed in the outward rites and ceremonies This Article is of the Masse OVr Churches are wrongfully accused to have abolished the Masse For the * Looke the 2. Observat Masse is retained still among us and celebrated with great reverence Yea and almost all the ceremonies that are in use saving that with the songs in Latine we mingle certaine Psalmes in Dutch here
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
our nature so that he is one person God and man Man I say that might suffer both in soule and also in body and made like unto us in all things sin onely excepted for that his flesh was indeed the seed of Abraham and David howbeit by the secret and incomprehensible power of the holy Ghost it was conceived in due time in the wombe of that blessed Virgin And therefore we detest as contrary to that truth all those heresies wherwith the Churches were troubled in times past and namely we detest those devillish imaginations of Servetus who gave to our Lord Iesus Christ an imaginarie Deitie whom he said to be the Idea and patterne of all things and the counterfeit or figurative Son of God to conclude he framed him a body compacted of three elements uncreated and therefore he did mingle and overthrow both his natures We beleeve that in one and the same person which is Iesus Artic. 15. Christ those two natures are truly and inseperably so conjoyned that they be also united either of those natures neverthelesse retaining it distinct proprietie so that even as in this divine conjunction the nature of the word reteining it proprieties remained uncreate infinite and filling all places so also the humane nature remained and shall remaine for ever finite having it naturall forme dimension and also proprietie as from the which the resurrection and glorification or taking up to the right hand of the Father hath not taken away the truth of the humane nature Therefore we doe so consider Christ in his Deitie that we do not spoile him of his humanitie We beleeve that God did declare his infinite love and goodnesse Artic. 16. towards us in this that he hath sent his Son who should die and rise againe and fulfill all righteousnesse that he might purchase eternall life for us We beleeve that by that onely sacrifice which Iesus Christ offered Artic. 17. on the crosse we are reconciled to God that we may be taken for just before him because we cannot be acceptable to him nor enjoy the fruit of our adoption but so farre forth as he doth forgive us our sins Therefore we affirme that Iesus Christ is our entire and perfect washing in whose death we obtaine full satisfaction whereby we are delivered from all those sinnes whereof we are guiltie and from the which we could not be acquitted by any other remedie Out of the ENGLISH Confession VVE beleeve that Iesus Christ the onely Son of the eternall Artic. 2. Father as long before it was determined before all beginnings when the fulnesse of time was come did take of that blessed and pure Virgin both flesh and all the nature of man that he might declare to the world the secret and hid will of his Father which will had been laid up from before all ages and generations and that he might finish in his humane body the mystery of our redemption and might fasten our sins to the crosse and also that hand-writing which was made against us We beleeve that for our sakes he died and was buried descended into hell the third day by the power of his Godhead returned to life and rose againe and that the fourth day after his resurrection whiles his disciples beheld and looked upon him he ascended into heaven to fulfill all things and did place in Majestie and glory the selfe same body where with he was borne wherein he lived on earth wherein he was jested at wherein he had suffered most painfull torments and cruell kinde of death wherein he rose againe and wherein he ascended to the right hand of the Father above all rule above all power all force all Dominion and above every name that is named not onely in this world but also in the world to come And that there he now sitteth and shall sit till all things be fully perfected And although the Majestie and Godhead of Christ be every where aboundantly dispersed yet we beleeve that his body as S. Augustine saith must need be still in one place and that Christ hath given Majestie unto his body but yet hath not taken away from it the nature of a body and that we must not so affirme Christ to be God that we denie him to be man and as the Martyr Vigilius saith That Christ hath left in touching his humane nature but hath not left us touching his Divine nature and that the same Christ though he be absent from us concerning his manhead yet is ever present with us concerning his Godhead From that place also we beleeve that Christ shall come again to execute that generall judgement as well of them whom be shall finde alive in the body as of them that shall be ready dead And therefore that our onely succour and refuge is to flie to the Artic. 18. mercie of our Father by Iesus Christ and assuredly to perswade our mindes that he is the Obtainer of forgivenesse for our sinnes And that by his blood all our spots of sin be washed cleane That he hath pacified and set at one all things by the blood of his crosse That he by the same one onely sacrifice which he once offered upon the Crosse hath brought to effect and fulfilled all things and that for that cause he said when he gave up the Ghost It is finished as though he would signifie that the price and ransome was now fully paid for the sin of mankinde If there be any that thinke this sacrifice not sufficient let them Artic. 19. goe in Gods name and seeke a better We verily because we know this to be the Onely sacrifice are well content with it alone and looke for none other and forasmuch as it was to be offered but once we command it not to be renewed againe and because it was full and perfit in all points and parts we doe not ordaine in place thereof any continuall succession of offerings To conclude we beleeve that this our selfe same flesh wherein Artic. 21. we live although it die and come to dust yet at the last shall returne again unto life by the means of Christs spirit which dwelleth in us and that then verily whatsoever we suffer here in the meane while for his sake Christ will wipe away all teares and heavinesse from our eyes and that we through him shall enjoy everlasting life and shall for ever be with him in glory So be it Out of the Confession of BELGIA VVE beleeve that our most mightie and graciâ—us God Artic. 17. when he saw that man had thus throwne himselfe into the damnation both of spirituall and corporall death and was made altogether miserable and accursed by his wonderfull wisdom and goodnesse was induced both to seeke him when through feare he had fled from his presence and also most lovingly to comfort him giving unto him the promise of his own Son to be boâ—â— of a woman which should breake the head of the Serpent and restore him to felicitie