holy, just, wise, immortal, and a most pleasant temple for his heavenly Spirit, in the mind, will, memory, and judgment; and bestowed upon him the clear light of understanding, integrity, and a very ordinate or lawful love towards God and all his creatures: also, a full and absolute obedience, or ability to obey God; the true fear of God, and a sincere heart and nature, that man might be his own possession, and his proper and peculiar workmanship, created unto the praise of his glorious grace. Ephes. i. 6. Man, being placed in this estate, had left unto him free-will; so that, if he would, he was able to fulfil that commandment which God gave him; and thereby to retain righteousness both for himself and for all his posterity after him; and every way to enjoy a spirit, soul, body, and an estate most blessed; and further, also to make a way unto a far more excellent glory, by considering that fire and water, life and death, were set before him: which, if he would not consider, nor do his endeavour therein, by choosing of evil he might lose all those good gifts.

The second part of the knowledge of a man's self (namely, before justification) standeth in this: That a man acknowledge aright the state of this fall, sin, and mortality. For that free liberty of choice, which God permitted to the will of man, he abused, and kept not the law of his justice, but swerved therefrom, and therein transgressed the commandment of God, insomuch as he obeyed the devil and those lying speeches of his, and gave credit unto them, and performed to the devil such faith and obedience as was due to God alone whereby he stripped and bereaved himself and his posterity of the state of perfection and goodness of nature; and the grace of God, and those good gifts of justice, and the image of God, which in his creation were ingraffed in him, he partly lost them, and partly corrupted and defiled them, as if with horrible poison one should corrupt pure wine; and by this means he cast headlong both himself and all his offspring, into sin, death, and all kinds of miseries in this life, and into punishments eternal after this life.

Wherefore, the spring and principal author of all evil, is that cruel and detestable devil, the tempter, liar, and man-slayer: and next, the free-will of man, which, notwithstanding, being converted to evil, through lust and naughty desires, and by perverse concupiscence, chooseth that which is evil.

Hereby, sins, according to these degrees and after this order, may be considered and judged of. The first, and weightiest, and

most grievous sin of all, was, without doubt, that sin of Adam, which the Apostle calleth disobedience; for the which, death reigneth over all, even over those also, which have not sinned with like transgression as did Adam. Rom. v. 14. A second kind is original sin, naturally engendered in us, and hereditary; wherein we are all conceived and born into this world. "Behold," saith David, "I was born in iniquity, and in sin hath my mother conceived me." Psal. li. 5. And Paul, "We are by nature the children of wrath." Eph. ii. 3. Let the force of this hereditary destruction be acknowledged and judged of by our guilt and fault, by our proneness and declination, by our evil nature, and by the punishment which is laid upon it. The third kind of sins are those which are called actual, which are the fruits of original sin, and do burst out within, without, privily, and openly, by the powers of man, that is, by all that ever man is able to do, and by his members transgressing all those things which God commandeth and forbiddeth; and also running into blindness and errors worthy to be punished with all kind of damnation. This doctrine of the true knowledge of sin is of our men diligently handled and urged: and to this end were the first and second Tables of the Law delivered to Moses of God, that men especially might know themselves, that they are conceived and born in sin; and that forthwith, even from their birth, and by nature, they are sinners, full of lusts and evil inclinations.

For hereof it cometh, that straight, even from the beginning of our age, and so forth in the whole course of our life, being strained and overcome with many sins, men do in heart, thoughts, and evil deeds, break and transgress the commandments of God; as it is written, "The Lord looked down from heaven to behold the children of men, to see if there were any that would understand, and seek God: all are gone out of the way, they have become altogether unprofitable, there is none that doth good, no, not one." Psal. xiv. 2, 3. And again, "When the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and all the cogitations of his heart were only evil continually." Gen. vi. 5. And again, "The Lord said, The imagination of man's heart is evil, even from his youth." Gen. viii. 21. And St. Paul saith, 'We were by nature the children of wrath, as well as others." Eph. ii. 3.

Herewithal, this is also taught; that by reason of that corruption and depravation common to all mankind, and for the sins, transgressions, and injustice, which ensued thereof, all men ought to acknowledge, according to the holy Scripture, their own just con

demnation, and the horrible and severe vengeance of God, and consequently the most deserved punishment of death and eternal torments in hell whereof Paul teacheth us, when he saith, "The wages of sin is death: " Rom. vi. 23. and our Lord Christ, "They which have done evil, shall go into the resurrection of condemnation ;" John v. 29. that is, into pains eternal, where shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Matt. xxiv. 51.*

They teach also, that we must acknowledge our weakness, and that great misery which is ingendered in us, as also those difficulties from which no man can ever deliver or rid himself by any means, or justify himself (that is, procure or get righteousness to himself) by any kind of works, deeds, or exercises, seem they never so glorious. For that will of man which before was free, is now so corrupted, troubled, and weakened, that now from henceforth of itself, and without the grace of God, it cannot chuse, judge, or wish fully; nay, it hath no desire, nor inclination, much less any ability, to chuse that good wherewith God is pleased. For albeit it fell willingly and of its own accord, yet, by itself, and by its own strength, it could not rise again or recover that fall; † neither to this day, without the merciful help of God, is it able to do any thing at all. Rom. vii. 19-23.

And, a little after. Neither can he which is man only, and hath nothing above the reach of this our nature, help another in this point. For since that original sin, proceeding by inheritance, possesseth the whole nature, and doth furiously rage therein; and seeing that all men are sinners, and do want the grace and justice of God; Rom. iii. 9. therefore saith God, by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah," Put me in remembrance, let us be judged together;

* The terms of imbecility and difficulty, which this Confession useth in many places, must be referred either to the regenerate, in whom the Spirit, struggling with the flesh, cannot, without a wonderful conflict, get the upper hand; or else unto that strife between reason and the affections, whereof the Philosophers speak, in which not the Spirit with the flesh, (for the Spirit is, through grace, in the regenerate only,) but the relics of judgment and conscience, (that is, of the image of God,) which for the most part are faulty, do strive with the will wholly corrupted; according to the saying of the Poet, I see the better, and like it well, but follow the worse,' &c. Which thing is largely and plainly set forth in the Latter Confession of Helvetia.

+ This is thus to be taken, not as though the first grace doth find us only weak and feeble before regeneration, whereas we are rather stark dead in our sins; and therefore we must be quickened by the first grace; and after we be once quickened by the first, be helped by the second following, and confirmed and strengthened by the same continuing with us to the end of our race.

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count thou if thou have any thing, that thou mayest be justified: thy first father hath sinned, and thy interpreters" (that is, they which teach thee justice) "have transgressed against me." Isa. xliii. 26, 27. And a little before, speaking of works in the service of God after the invention of man, he saith, "Thou hast not offered unto me the ram of the burnt offerings, neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices: I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense." verse 23. And unto the Hebrews it is written: "Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt-offerings, and sinofferings, thou wouldst not have; neither didst thou approve those things which were offered according to the law." Heb. x. 8.

This also must we know, that the Lord God, for sin, doth permit and bring all kinds of afflictions, miseries, and vexations of mind, in this life, upon all men; such as are heat, cold, hunger, thirst, care, and anguish; sore labours, calamity, adversity, doleful times; sword, fire, diseases, griefs; and, at the last, also that intolerable and bitter death, whereby nature is overthrown: as it is written, "Thou shalt die the death;" Gen. ii. 17. again, "Cursed is the earth for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.” Gen. iii. 17, 18. And yet it is taught, that men must and ought to bear all these punishments patiently, seeing that they owe them unto God, and have deserved even a more cruel punishment. Yet they must not be so persuaded, as though they deserved any thing by suffering, or should receive from God any grace or reward in recompense for the merit of these punishments; seeing that Paul, speaking of a much more worthy cross and sufferings, which true believers take upon them for Christ's sake, saith, that "They be not comparable to the glory which shall be shewed unto us." Rom. viii. 18. And these punishments are laid upon us, and are patiently to be borne, that we may acknowledge the greatness of our sin, and how grievous a thing it is; and therewithal, our own weakness, needs, and misery; and that by experience we may know how wicked, foul, and bitter a thing it is, even above all that we are able to conceive, for a man to forsake the Lord his God, as saith the Prophet: Jer. ii. 19. and moreover, that they which be plunged in these miseries, and oppressed with these burthens, may again be stirred up to repentance, and to seek for favour and help from God, which is a Father full of mercy and compassion. Psal. lxxxvi. 15. Howbeit, this is also expressly added, that the labours and torments which holy men do suffer for the name of Christ, (that is, in the cause of eternal

salvation, for the holy truth of Christ,) are an acceptable and pleasant sacrifice to God, and have great and large promises, especially in the life to come. Mark viii. 35. The which thing also did even so fall out with Christ our head; of whom the Epistle to the Hebrews speaketh thus, that "For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross; " Heb. xii. 2. who also by himself consecrated and hallowed the cross to them, even to this end, that those sufferings which we endure for Christ's name-sake, might be pleasant and acceptable unto God.

V. FROM THE CONFESSION OF FRANCE.

Art. 9. We believe that man, being created pure and upright, and conformable to the image of God, through his own fault fell from that grace which he had received; and thereby did so estrange himself from God, the fountain of all righteousness, and of all good things, that his nature is become altogether defiled; and being blind in spirit, and corrupt in heart, hath utterly lost all that integrity. For although he can somewhat discern between good and evil, yet we affirm, that whatsoever light he hath, it straightways becometh darkness, when the question is of seeking God: so that by his understanding and reason he can never come to God. Also, although he be endued with will, whereby he is moved to this or that, yet insomuch as that is altogether captivated under sin, it hath no liberty at all to desire good, but such as it hath received by grace, and of the gift of God.

Art. 10. We believe that all the offspring of Adam is infected with this contagion, which we call original sin; that is, a stain spreading itself by propagation, and not by imitation only, as the Pelagians thought; all whose errors we do detest. Neither do we think it necessary to search how this sin may be derived from one unto another. For it is sufficient that those things which God gave unto Adam, were not given to him alone, but also to all his posterity: and therefore we, in his person, being deprived of all those good gifts, are fallen into all this misery and curse.

Art. 11. We believe that this stain is indeed sin; because that it maketh all and every man (not so much as those little ones excepted, which, as yet, lie hid in their mothers' womb) guilty of eternal death before God. We also affirm, that this stain, even after baptism, is, in nature, sin, as concerning the fault: howbeit, they which are the children of God, shall not therefore be condemned; because that God, of his gracious goodness and mercy, doth not impute it to them. Moreover we say, that this