Article I - The Word of God
First we affirm that we desire to follow Scripture alone as rule of
faith and religion, without mixing with it any other thing which might
be devised by the opinion of men apart from the Word of God, and without
wishing to accept for our spiritual government any other doctrine than
what is conveyed to us by the same Word without addition or diminution,
according to the command of our Lord.
Article II - One Only God
Following, then, the lines laid down in the Holy Scriptures, we
acknowledge that there is one only God, whom we are both to worship and
serve, and in whom we are to put all our confidence and hope: having
this assurance, that in him alone is contained all wisdom, power,
justice, goodness and pity. And since he is spirit, he is to be served
in spirit and in truth. Therefore we think it an abomination to put our
confidence or hope in any created thing, to worship anything else than
him, whether angels or any other creatures, an to recognize any other
Savior of our souls than him alone, whether saints or men living upon
earth; and likewise to offer the service, which ought to be rendered to
him, in external ceremonies or carnal observances, as if he took
pleasure in such things, or to make an image to represent his divinity
or any other image for adoration.
Article III - The Law of God Alike for All
Because there is one only Lord and Master who has dominion over our
consciences, and because his will is the only principle of all justice,
we confess all our life ought to be ruled in accordance with the
commandments of his holy law in which is contained all perfection of
justice, and that we ought to have no other rule of good and just
living, nor invent other good works to supplement it than those which
are there contained as follows: Exodus 20: "I am the Lord thy God, who
brought thee," and so on.
Article IV - Natural Man
We acknowledge man by nature to be blind, darkened in understanding,
and full of corruption and perversity of heart, so that of himself he
has no power to be able to comprehend the true knowledge of God as is
proper, nor to apply himself to good works. But on the contrary, if he
is left by God to what he is by nature, he is only able to live in
ignorance and to be abandoned to all iniquity. Hence he has need to be
illumined by God, so that he come to the right knowledge of his
salvation, and thus to be redirected in his affections and reformed to
the obedience of the righteousness of God.
Article V - Man by Himself Lost
Since man is naturally (as has been said) deprived and destitute in
himself of all the light of God, and of all righteousness, we
acknowledge that by himself he can only expect the wrath and malediction
of God, and hence he must look outside himself for the means of his
salvation.
Article VI - Salvation in Jesus
We confess then that it is Jesus Christ who is given to us by the
Father, in order that in him we should recover all of which in ourselves
we are deficient. Now all that Jesus Christ has done and suffered for
our redemption, we veritably hold without any doubt, as it is contained
in the Creed, which is recited in the Church, that is to say: I believe
in God the Father Almighty, and so on.
Article V1I - Righteousness in Jesus
Therefore we acknowledge the things which are consequently given to
us by God in Jesus Christ: first, that being in our own nature enemies
of God and subjects of his wrath and judgment, we are reconciled with
him and received again in grace through the intercession of Jesus
Christ, so that by his righteousness and guiltlessness we have remission
of our sins, and by the shedding of his blood we are cleanse and
purified from all our stains.
Article VIII - Regeneration in Jesus
Second, we acknowledge that by his Spirit we are regenerated into a
new spiritual nature. That is to say that the evil desires of our flesh
are mortified by grace, so that they rule us no longer. On the contrary,
our will is rendered conformable to God's will, to follow in his way and
to seek what is pleasing to him. Therefore we are by him delivered from
the servitude of sin, under whose power we were of ourselves held
captive, and by this deliverance we are made capable and able to do good
works and not otherwise.
Article IX - Remission of Sins Always Necessary
for the Faithful
Finally, we acknowledge that this regeneration is so effected in us
that, until we slough off this mortal body, there remains always in us
much imperfection and infirmity, so that we always remain poor and
wretched sinners in the presence of God. And, however much we ought day
by day to increase and grow in God's righteousness, there will never be
plenitude or perfection while we live here. Thus we always have need of
the mercy of God to obtain the remission of our faults and offences. And
so we ought always to look for our righteousness in Jesus Christ and not
at all in ourselves, and in him be confident and assured, putting no
faith in our works.
Article X - All our Good in the Grace of God
In order that all glory and praise be rendered to God (as is his
due), and that we be able to have true peace and rest of conscience, we
understand and confess that we receive all benefits from God, as said
above, by his clemency and pity, without any consideration of our
worthiness or the merit of our works, to which is due no other
retribution than eternal confusion. None the less our Savior in his
goodness, having received us into the communion of his son Jesus,
regards the works that we have done in faith as pleasing and agreeable;
not that they merit it at all, but because, not imputing any of the
imperfection that is there, he acknowledges in them nothing but what
proceeds from his Spirit.
Article XI - Faith
We confess that the entrance which we have to the great treasures and
riches of the goodness of God that is vouchsafed to us is by faith;
inasmuch as, in certain confidence and assurance of heart, we believe in
the promises of the Gospel, and receive Jesus Christ as he is offered to
us by the Father and described to us by the Word of God.
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Article XII - Invocation of God Only and
Intercession of Christ
As we have declared that we have confidence and hope for salvation
and all good only in God through Jesus Christ, so we confess that we
ought to invoke him in all necessities in the name of Jesus Christ, who
is our Mediator and Advocate with him and has access to him. Likewise we
ought to acknowledge that all good things come from him alone, and to
give thanks to him for them. On the other hand, we reject the
intercession of the saints as as a superstition invented by men contrary
to Scripture, for the reason that it proceeds from mistrust of the
sufficiency of the intercession of Jesus Christ.
Article XIII - Prayer Intelligible
Moreover since prayer is nothing but hypocrisy and fantasy unless it
proceed from the interior affections of the heart, we believe that all
prayers ought to be made with clear understanding. And for this reason,
we hold the prayer of our Lord to show fittingly what we ought to ask of
him: Our Father which art in heaven, . . . but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
Article XIV - Sacraments
We believe that the sacraments which our Lord has ordained in his
Church are to be regarded as exercises of faith for us, both for
fortifying and confirming it in the promises of God and for witnessing
before men. Of them there are in the Christian Church only two which are
instituted by the authority of our Savior: Baptism and the Supper of our
Lord; for what is held within the realm of the pope concerning seven
sacraments, we condemn as fable and lie.
Article XV - Baptism
Baptism is an external sign by which our Lord testifies that he
desires to receive us for his children, as members of his Son Jesus.
Hence in it there is represented to us the cleansing from sin which we
have in the blood of Jesus Christ, the mortification of our flesh which
we have by his death that we may live in him by his Spirit. Now since
our children belong to such an alliance with our Lord, we are certain
that the external sign is rightly applied to them.
Article XVI - The Holy Supper
The Supper of our Lord is a sign by which under bread and wine he
represents the true spiritual communion which we have in his body and
blood. And we acknowledge that according to his ordinance it ought to be
distributed in the company of the faithful, in order that all those who
wish to have Jesus for their life be partakers of it. In as much as the
mass of the pope was a reprobate and diabolical ordinance subverting the
mystery of the Holy Supper, we declare that it is execrable to us, an
idolatry condemned by God; for so much is it itself regarded as a
sacrifice for the redemption of souls that the bread is in it taken and
adored by God. Besides there are other execrable blasphemies and
superstitions implied here, and the abuse of the Word of God which is
taken in vain without profit or edification.
Article XVII - Human Traditions
The ordinances that are necessary for the internal discipline of the
Church, and belong solely to the maintenance of peace, honesty and good
order in the assembly of Christians, we do not hold to be human
traditions at all, in as much as they are composed under the general
command of Paul, where he desires that all be done among them decently
and in order. But all laws and regulations made binding on conscience
which oblige the faithful to things not commanded by God, or establish
another service of God than that which he demands, thus tending to
destroy Christian liberty, we condemn as perverse doctrines of Satan, in
view of our Lord's declaration that he is honored in vain by doctrines
that are the commandment of men. It is in this estimation that we hold
pilgrimages, monasteries, distinctions of foods, prohibition of
marriage, confessions and other like things.
Article XVIII - The Church
While there is one only Church of Jesus Christ, we always acknowledge
that necessity requires companies of the faithful to be distributed in
different places. Of these assemblies each one is called the Church. But
in as much as all companies do not assemble in the name of our Lord, but
rather to blaspheme and pollute him by their sacrilegious deeds, we
believe that the proper mark by which we rightly discern the Church of
Jesus Christ is that his holy gospel be purely and faithfully preached,
proclaimed, heard, and kept, that his sacrament be properly
administered, even if there be some imperfections and faults, as there
always will be among men. On the other hand, where the Gospel is not
declared, heard, and received, there we do not acknowledge the form of
the Church. Hence the churches governed by the ordinances of the pope
are rather synagogues of the devil than Christian churches.
Article XIX - Excommunication
Because there are always some who hold God and his Word in contempt,
who take account of neither injunction, exhortation nor remonstrance,
thus requiring greater chastisement, we hold the discipline of
excommunication to be a thing holy and salutary among the faithful,
since truly it was instituted by our Lord with good reason. This is in
order that the wicked would not by their damnable conduct corrupt the
good and dishonor our Lord, and that though proud they may turn to
penitence. Therefore we believe that it is expedient according to the
ordinance of God that all manifest idolaters, blasphemers, murderers,
thieves, lewd persons, false witnesses, sedition-mongers, quarrelers,
those guilty of defamation or assault, drunkards, dissolute livers, when
they have been duly admonished and if they do not make amendment, be
separated from the communion of the faithful until their repentance is
known.
Article XX - Ministers of the Word
We recognize no other pastors in the Church than faithful pastors of
the Word of God, feeding the sheep of Jesus Christ on the one hand with
instruction, admonition, consolation, exhortation, deprecation; and on
the other resisting all false doctrines and deceptions of the devil,
without mixing with the pure doctrines of the Scriptures their dreams or
their foolish imaginings. To these we accord no other power or authority
but to conduct, rule, and govern the people of God committed to them by
the same Word, in which they have the power to command, defend, promise,
and warn, and without which they neither can nor ought to attempt
anything. As we receive the true ministers of the Word of God as
messengers and ambassadors of God, it is necessary to listen to them as
to him himself, and we hold their ministry to be a commission from God
necessary in the Church. On the other hand we hold that all seductive
and false prophets, who abandon the purity of the Gospel and deviate to
their own inventions, ought not at all to be suffered or maintained, who
are not the pastors they pretend, but rather, like ravening wolves,
ought to be hunted and ejected from the people of God.
Article XXI - Magistrates
We hold the supremacy and dominion of kings and princes as also of
other magistrates and officers, to be a holy thing and a good ordinance
of God. And since in performing their office they serve God and follow a
Christian vocation, whether in defending the afflicted and innocent, or
in correcting and punishing the malice of the perverse, we on our part
also ought to accord them honor and reverence, to render respect and
subservience, to execute their commands, to bear the charges they impose
on us, so far as we are able without offence to God. In sum, we ought to
regard them as vicars and lieutenants of God, whom one cannot resist
without resisting God himself; and their office as a sacred commission
from God which has been given them so that they may rule and govern us.
Hence we hold that all Christians are bound to pray God for the
prosperity of the superiors and lords of the country where they live, to
obey the statutes and ordinances which do not contravene the
commandments of God, to promote the welfare, peace and public good,
endeavoring to sustain the honor of those over them and the peace of the
people, without contriving or attempting anything to inspire trouble or
dissension. On the other hand we declare that all those who conduct
themselves unfaithfully towards their superiors, and have not a right
concern for the public good of the country where they live, demonstrate
thereby their infidelity towards God.
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