<!DOCTYPE ETS PUBLIC "-//UMDLPS//DTD EEBOPROOF 2.0//EN">
<ETS>
<TEMPHEAD>
<REVDESCR>
<CHANGE>
<DATE>2010-01-06</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Megan Marion</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B091013.pdcc.</ITEM>
</CHANGE>
</REVDESCR>
</TEMPHEAD>
<EEBO>
<IDG S="marc" R="UM" ID="A80319">
<STC T="W">c5759</STC>
<STC T="T">e370_5</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99861807</BIBNO>
<VID>113952</VID>
</IDG>
<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1"><!-- PDF PAGE 15 -->
<PB REF="1" MS="y"><!-- PDF PAGE 15 -->
<P>A CONFESSION OF FAITH, According <HI>To the be&s;t-reformed Churches:</HI> FOR The generall &s;atisfaction of tender CONSCIENCES.</P>
<P><HI>LONDON,</HI> Printed for <HI>T.B.</HI> and are to be &s;old in We&s;tmin&s;ter-Hall. 1647.</P>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB REF="2" MS="y"><!-- PDF PAGE 16 -->
<PB N="1" REF="2"><!-- PDF PAGE 16 -->
<HEAD>A Confe&s;sion of Faith.</HEAD>
<P>_I Beleeve that nothing is without be|ginning but God, no nature, no mat|ter, no &s;pirit but one and the &s;ame God; That God as he is eternall, almighty, onely wi&s;e, onely good in his nature, &s;o he is eternall, Father Sonne and Spirit in per&s;ons.</P>
<P>I beleeve that God is &s;o holy, pure, and jealous, as it is impo&s;&s;ible for him to be plea&s;ed in any creature, though the worke of his owne hands: So that nei|ther Angell, Man, nor World, could &s;tand or can &s;tand one moment in his eyes, without the beholding of the &s;ame in the face of a Mediatour; and therefore that before him, with whom all things are pre&s;ent, the Lamb of God was &s;laine before all worlds, with|out which eternall councell of his it was impo&s;&s;ible for him to have de&s;cended to any work of creation, but he &s;hould have enjoyed the ble&s;&s;ed and individu|all &s;ociety of three Per&s;ons in Godhead onely for ever. But that out of his eternall and infinite goodne&s;&s;e and love, purpo&s;ing to become a Creator, and communicate with his creatures, he ordained in his eternall councell, that one per&s;on of the Godhead &s;hould be united to one nature, and to one particular of his creatures, that &s;o in the per&s;on of the Mediator
<PB N="2" REF="3"><!-- PDF PAGE 17 -->the true ladder might be fixed, whereby God might de&s;cend to his creatures, and his creatures a&s;cend unto him: So that God by the reconcilement of the Mediatour, turning his countenance towards his creatures, (though not in the &s;ame light and degree) made way unto the di&s;pen&s;ation of his mo&s;t holy and &s;ecret will; whereby &s;ome of his creatures might &s;tand and keepe their &s;tate, others might fall and be re&s;tored, and others might fall and not bee re&s;tored in their &s;tate, but yet remaine in their being, though under wrath and corruption, all with re&s;pect unto the Mediatour; which is the great my&s;terie, and per|fect center of all Gods waies with his creatures, and unto which all his other works and wonders do but &s;erve and refer.</P>
<P>That hee cho&s;e (according to his good plea&s;ure) man to be that creature, to who&s;e nature the per&s;on of the eternall Son of God &s;hould be united: And among&s;t the generations of men, elected a &s;mall flock, in whom (by the participation of him&s;elfe) he purpo&s;ed to expre&s;&s;e the riches of his glory: all the mini&s;tration of Angels, damnation of Divels and Reprobates, and univer&s;all admini&s;tration of all crea|tures, and di&s;pen&s;ation of all times, having no other end, but, as the wayes and ambages of God, to be further glorified in his Saints, who are one with the Mediatour, who is one with God.</P>
<P>That by the vertue of this his eternall councell touching a Mediatour, he de&s;cended at his own good plea&s;ure, and according to the times and &s;ea&s;ons to him&s;elfe knowne, to become Creator; who by his eternall Word created all things, and by his
<PB N="3" REF="3"><!-- PDF PAGE 17 -->eternall Spirit doth comfort and pre&s;erve them.</P>
<P>That he made all things in their fir&s;t e&s;tate good, and removed from him&s;elf the beginning of all evill and vanity unto the liberty of the creature, but re&s;er|ved in him&s;elf the beginning of all re&s;titution, to the liberty of his grace, u&s;ing neverthele&s;&s;e, and turning the falling and defection of the creature, (which was to his pre&s;cience eternally knowne) to make way to his eternall councel touching a Mediatour, and the work he purpo&s;ed to accompli&s;h in him.</P>
<P>That God created Spirits, whereof &s;ome kept their &s;tandings and others fell, hee created Heaven and Earth, and all their Armies, and Generations, and gave them con&s;tant and everla&s;ting lawes which we call nature, which is nothing but the laws of the crea|tion; which lawes neverthele&s;&s;e have had three chan|ges or times, and are to have a fourth or la&s;t: The fir&s;t, when the matter of heaven and earth was cre|ated without formes. The &s;econd, the <HI>interim</HI> of perfection of every dayes worke. The third, by the cur&s;e, which notwith&s;tanding was no new creation: And the la&s;t at the end of the world, the manner whereof is not yet fully revealed: So that the lawes of nature which remaine, and now governe inviola|bly till the end of the world, began to be in force when God fir&s;t re&s;ted from his workes, and cea&s;ed to create; but received a revocation in part by the cur&s;e, &s;ince which time they change not.</P>
<P>That notwith&s;tanding God hath re&s;ted and cea&s;ed from Creation &s;ince the fir&s;t Sabbath, yet, neverthe|le&s;&s;e, he doth accompli&s;h and fulfill his divine will in all things, great and &s;mall, &s;ingular and generall,
<PB N="4" REF="4"><!-- PDF PAGE 18 -->as fully &amp; exactly by providence, as he could by mi|racle and new creation, though his working be not immediate and direct, but by compa&s;&s;e; not viola|ting nature, which is his own law upon the creature.</P>
<P>That at the fir&s;t the &s;oule of man was not produ|ced by heaven or earth, but was breathed immedi|ately from God; &s;o that the wayes and proceedings of God with Spirits, are not included in nature, in the lawes of heaven and earth, but are re&s;erved to the law of his &s;ecret will and grace, wherein God worketh &s;till, and re&s;teth not from perfecting the worke of redemption, as he re&s;teth from the worke of creation, but continueth working till the end of the world; what time that worke al&s;o &s;hall bee accompli&s;hed, and an eternall Sabboth &s;hall en&s;ue. Likewi&s;e, that when&s;oever God doth tran&s;cend the law of nature by miracles, (which may ever &s;eem as new creations) hee never cometh to that point or pa&s;&s;e, but in regard of the worke of redemption which is the greater, and whereto all Gods &s;ignes and miracles do refer.</P>
<P>That God created man in his owne Image, in a rea&s;onable &s;oule, in innocencie, in free-will and &s;o|veraigntie: That he gave him a Law and Command|ment which was in his power to keepe, but he kept it not: That man made a totall defection from God, pre&s;uming to imagine that the Commandements and prohibitions of God, were not the rules of good and evill, but that good and evill had their owne principles and beginnings; and lu&s;ted after the know|ledge of tho&s;e &s;uppo&s;ed beginnings, to the end to depend no more upon Gods will revealed, but upon
<PB N="5" REF="4"><!-- PDF PAGE 18 -->him&s;elf and his own light as a God, then which there could not be a &s;in more oppo&s;ite to the whole Law of God: That yet neverthele&s;&s;e this great &s;in was not originally moved by the malice of man, but was in|&s;inuated by the &s;ugge&s;tion and in&s;tigation of the Di|vell, who was the fir&s;t defective creature, and fell of malice and not by temptation from another.</P>
<P>That upon the fall of man, death and vanitie en|tred by the Ju&s;tice of God, and the Image of God in man was defaced, and heaven and earth&punc;which were made for mans u&s;e, were &s;ubdued to corruption by his fall: But then that in&s;tantly and without inter|mi&s;&s;ion of time, after the word of Gods Law became, through the fall of man, fru&s;trate, as concerning obe|dience, there &s;ucceeded the greater word of the pro|mi&s;e, that the righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e of God might bee wrought by faith.</P>
<P>That as well the Law of God, as the Word of his promi&s;e endure the &s;ame for ever, but that they have beene revealed in &s;everall manners, according to the di&s;pen&s;ation of times: For the Law was fir&s;t imprin|ted in that remnant of light of nature which was left after the fall, being &s;ufficient to accu&s;e; then it was more manife&s;tly expre&s;&s;ed in the written Law, and was yet more opened by the Prophets, and la&s;tly expounded in the true perfection by the Son of God, the great Prophet and perfect interpreter of the Law.</P>
<P>That likewi&s;e the word of the promi&s;e was manife|&s;ted &amp; revealed, fir&s;t by immediate revelation and in|&s;piration, after by figures, which were of two natures; the one the Rites and Ceremonies of the Law, the o|ther the continuall Hi&s;tory of the old world, and the
<PB N="6" REF="5"><!-- PDF PAGE 19 -->Church of the Jewes, which though it bee literally true, yet it is for the mo&s;t part pregnant of an Alle|gorie and &s;hadow of the work of the redemption to follow: The &s;ame promi&s;e or Evangel, was more clearly revealed and declared by the Prophets, and then by the Son him&s;elfe, and la&s;tly by the holy Gho&s;t, which illuminateth the Church to the end of the world.</P>
<P>That in the fulne&s;&s;e of time, according to the pro|mi&s;e and oath; of a cho&s;en lineage de&s;cended the ble&s;&s;ed &s;eed of the Woman, Je&s;us Chri&s;t, the onely begotten Son of God, and Saviour of the world, who was conceived by the power and over-&s;hadowing of the holy Gho&s;t, and tooke fle&s;h of the Virgin <HI>Mary.</HI> That the Word did not onely take fle&s;h, or was joy|ned to fle&s;h, but was made fle&s;h, though without con|fu&s;ion of &s;ub&s;tance or nature; &s;o that the eternall Son of God, and ble&s;&s;ed Son of <HI>Mary</HI> was one per&s;on: So as the ble&s;&s;ed Virgin may be truly and Catho|lickly called <HI>Deipara,</HI> the Mother of God; &s;o one, as there is no unitie in univer&s;all nature, not that of the &s;oule and body of man, &s;o perfect: For the three heavenly unities, whereof that is the &s;econd, exceed all naturall unities; the unity fir&s;t of the three per&s;ons in the Godhead: &s;econdly, of God &amp; man in Chri&s;t: thirdly, of Chri&s;t and the Church, the holy Gho&s;t being the worker of both the&s;e latter unities, for by the holy Gho&s;t was Chri&s;t incarnate and quick'ned in the fle&s;h, and by the holy Gho&s;t is man regenerate and quick'ned in the &s;pirit.</P>
<P>That Je&s;us the Lord became in the fle&s;h a &s;acri|ficer and &s;acrifice for &s;inne, a &s;atisfaction to the
<PB N="7" REF="5"><!-- PDF PAGE 19 -->Ju&s;tice of God, a meritor of glory and the King|dome, a patterne of all righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e, a Preacher of the Word which him&s;elfe was, a fini&s;her of the Ce|remonies, a Corner-&s;tone to remove the &s;eparation between Jew and Gentile, an Interce&s;&s;or for the Church, a Lord of nature in his miracles, a Co~nque|ror of death and the power of darkne&s;&s;e in his re&s;ur|rection; and that he fulfilled the whole Councell of God, performed all his &s;acred offices and annoin|ting on earth, accompli&s;hed the whole worke of re|demption and re&s;titution of mans nature to an e&s;tate &s;uperiour to the Angels, (whereas the &s;tate of man by creation was inferiour) and reconciled and e&s;ta|bli&s;hed all things according to the eternall will of the Father.</P>
<P>That in time, Je&s;us the Lord was borne in the dayes of <HI>Herod,</HI> and &s;uffered under the government of <HI>Ponce Pilate</HI> being deputy of the Romans, and un|der the high Prie&s;thood of <HI>Caiphas,</HI> was betrayed by <HI>Judas</HI> one of the twelve Apo&s;tles, and was crucified at Jeru&s;alem, and after a true and naturall death, and his body laid in the &s;epulchre, the third day he rai&s;ed him&s;elfe from the bond of death, and ro&s;e and &s;hew|ed him&s;elfe to many cho&s;en witne&s;&s;es by the &s;pace of divers dayes, and at the end of tho&s;e dayes, in the &s;ight of many, a&s;cended into heaven, where he con|tinueth his interce&s;&s;ion, and &s;hall from thence at the day appointed, come in great glory to judge the world.</P>
<P>That the &s;ufferings and merits of Chri&s;t as they are &s;ufficient to do away the &s;ins of the whole world, &s;o they are only effectual to tho&s;e which are regene|rate
<PB N="8" REF="6"><!-- PDF PAGE 20 -->by the holy Gho&s;t, who breatheth where he wil of free grace, which grace, as a &s;eed uncorruptible, quickneth the &s;pirit of man, &amp; conceiveth him anew, a &s;on of God, and member of Chri&s;t; &s;o that Chri&s;t having mans fle&s;h, and man having Chri&s;ts &s;pirit, there is an open pa&s;&s;age and mutuall imputation, whereby &s;in and wrath was conveyed to Chri&s;t from man, and merit and life conveyed from Chri&s;t to man, which &s;eed of the holy Gho&s;t figureth in us the Image of Chri&s;t &s;laine or crucified, in mortifica|tion through a lively faith, and then reneweth in us the Image of God in holine&s;&s;e and charity; though both imperfectly and in degrees farre differing, even in Gods elect, as well in regard of the fire of the &s;pi|rit, as of the illumination which is more or le&s;&s;e in a large proportion, as namely in the Church before Chri&s;t, which yet neverthele&s;&s;e was partaker of one and the &s;ame &s;alvation with us.</P>
<P>That the worke of the &s;pirit though it be not tyed to any means in heaven or earth, yet it is ordinarily di&s;pen&s;ed by the preaching of the word, admini&s;tra|tion of the Sacraments, Covenants of the fathers upon the children, prayer, reading, the cen&s;ures of the Church, &s;ociety of the godly, cro&s;&s;es and afflictions, Gods benefits, his Judgements upon others, mira|cles, &amp; the contemplation of his creatures, all which, though &s;ome be more principall and perpetuall, God u&s;eth as the means of vocation and conver&s;ion of his Elect, not derogating from his power to call imme|diatly by his grace, and at all hours and moments of the day (that is of mans life) according to his good plea&s;ure.</P>
<PB N="9" REF="6"><!-- PDF PAGE 20 -->
<P>That the word of God, whereby his will is revea|led, continued in revelation and tradition untill <HI>Mo&s;es,</HI> and that the Scriptures were from <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> time, to the times of the Apo&s;tles and Evangeli&s;ts, in who&s;e age, when after the coming of the holy Gho&s;t, the tea|cher of all truth, they had delivered the tradition of Scripture, the book of the Scripture was &s;hut &amp; clo&s;ed, &s;o as not to receive any new addition: And that the Church hath no power over the Scriptures, to teach or command anything contrary to the written word, but is as the Arke wherein the tables of the fir&s;t Te|&s;taments were kept and pre&s;erved, that is to &s;ay, the Church hath only the cu&s;tody and delivery over of the Scriptures committed unto the &s;ame, together with the interpretation of them, but &s;uch onely as is conceived by them&s;elves.</P>
<P>That there is an univer&s;all or Catholicke Church of God di&s;per&s;ed over the face of the earth, which is Chri&s;ts Spou&s;e and body, being gathered of the Fa|thers of the old world, of the Church of the Jewes, of the &s;pirits of the faithfull di&s;&s;olved, of the &s;pirits of the faithfull militant, and of the names yet to bee borne which are already written in the booke of life. That there is al&s;o a vi&s;ible Church di&s;tingui&s;h|ed by the outward workes of Gods Covenant, and the receiving of the holy Doctrine, with the u&s;e of the my&s;teries of God and the invocation and &s;anctifi|cation of his holy name, together with regeneration by his &s;pirit. That there is al&s;o a holy &s;ucce&s;&s;ion in the Prophets of the New Te&s;tament, and Fathers of the Church from the time of the Apo&s;tles and Di|&s;ciples, which &s;aw our Saviour in the fle&s;h, unto the
<PB N="10" REF="7"><!-- PDF PAGE 21 -->con&s;ummation of the worke of the Mini&s;trie, which per&s;ons are called from God by guifts or inward anointing, and this vocation of God followed by an outward calling and ordination of the Church.</P>
<P>I beleeve that the &s;oules of tho&s;e that dye in the Lord are ble&s;&s;ed, and re&s;t from their labours, and enjoy the &s;ight of God, yet &s;o as they are in expe|ctation of a further con&s;ummation of glory in the la&s;t day, at which time all fle&s;h of man &s;hall ari&s;e and be changed, and &s;hall appeare and receive from Je&s;us Chri&s;t his eternall judgement, and the glory of the Saints &s;hall then be full, and the Kingdome &s;hall be given up to God the Father, from which time all things &s;hall continue for ever in that being and &s;tate which then they &s;hall receive.</P>
<P>So as there are three times or parts of eternity. (if &s;o they may be called) The fir&s;t, the time before beginnings, when the God-head was onely without the being of any creature: The &s;econd, the time of the my&s;tery which continueth from the creation to the di&s;&s;olution of the world; And the third, the time of the revelation of the &s;ons of God, which time is the la&s;t, and is everla&s;ting without change.</P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
