We believe that there is one certain nature and Divine power, which we
call God: and that the same is divided into three equal Persons--into the
Father, into the Son, and into the Holy Ghost; and that They all be of
one power, of one majesty, of one eternity, of one Godhead, and of one
substance. And although these three Persons be so divided, that neither
the Father is the Son, nor the Son is the Holy Ghost, or the Father; yet,
nevertheless, we believe that there is but one very God, and that the
same one God hath created heaven, and earth, and all things contained
under heaven.
We believe that Jesus Christ, the only Son of the eternal Father (as long
before it was determined before all beginnings), when the fulness 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 full finish in His human body the mystery
of our redemption; and might fasten our sins to the cross, and also that
handwriting which was made against us.
We believe 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 again; and that the fortieth day after His resurrection, whiles His
disciples beheld and looked upon Him He ascended into heaven to fulfil
all things, and did place in majesty and glory the self-same body
wherewith He was born, wherein He lived on earth, wherein He was jested
at, wherein He had suffered most painful torments and cruel kind of
death, wherein He rose again, 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 only in this world, but also in
the world to come:" and that there He now sitteth, and shall sit, till
all things be full perfected. And although the Majesty and Godhead of
Christ be everywhere abundantly dispersed, yet we believe that his body,
as St. Augustine saith, must needs be still in one place; and that Christ
hath given majesty unto His body, but yet hath not taken away from it the
nature of a body; and that we must not so affirm Christ to be God that we
deny Him to be man: and, as the Martyr Vigilius saith, that Christ hath
left us as touching His human nature, but hath not left us as touching
His Divine nature; and that the same Christ, though He be absent from us
concerning His manhood, yet is ever present with us concerning his
Godhead.
From that place also we believe that Christ shall come again to execute
that general judgment, as well of them whom He shall then find alive in
the body as of them that be already dead.
We believe that the Holy Ghost, who is the third person in the Holy
Trinity, is very God: not made, not created, not begotten, but proceeding
from both the Father and the Son, by a certain mean unknown unto men, and
unspeakable; and that it is His property to mollify and soften the
hardness of man's heart when He is once received thereinto, either by the
wholesome preaching of the Gospel, or by any other way: that he doth give
men light, and guide them unto the knowledge of God; to all way of truth;
to newness of the whole life; and to everlasting hope of salvation.
* * * * *
We believe that there is one Church of God, and that the same is not shut
up (as in times past among the Jews) into some one corner or kingdom, but
that it is catholic and universal, and dispersed throughout the whole
world. So that there is now no nation which may truly complain that they
be shut forth, and may not be one of the Church and people of God: and
that this Church is the kingdom, the body, and the spouse of Christ; and
that Christ alone is the Prince of this kingdom; that Christ alone is the
Head of this Body; and that Christ alone is the Bridegroom of this
spouse.
Furthermore, we believe that there be divers degrees of ministers in the
Church; whereof some be deacons, some priests, some bishops; to whom is
committed the office to instruct the people, and the whole charge and
setting forth of religion. Yet notwithstanding, we say that there
neither is, nor can be any one man, which may have the whole superiority
in this universal state: for that Christ is ever present to assist His
Church, and needeth not any man to supply His room, as His only heir to
all His substance: and that there can be no one mortal creature, which is
able to comprehend or conceive in his mind the universal Church, that is
to wit, all the parts of the world, much less able rightly and duly to
put them in order, and to govern them rightly and duly. For all the
Apostles, as Cyprian saith, were of like power among themselves, and the
rest were the same that Peter was, and that it said indifferently to them
all, "feed ye;" indifferently to them all, "go into the whole world;"
indifferently to them all, "teach ye the Gospel." And (as Hierom saith)
all bishops wheresoever they be, be they at Rome, be they at Eugubium, be
they at Constantinople, be they at Rhegium, be all of like pre-eminence,
and of like priesthood. And, as Cyprian saith, there is but one
bishopric, and a piece thereof is perfectly and wholly holden of every
particular bishop. And according to the judgment of the Nicene Council,
we say, that the Bishop of Rome hath no more jurisdiction over the Church
of God than the rest of the patriarchs, either of Alexandria, or of
Antiochia have. And as for the Bishop of Rome, who now calleth all
matters before himself alone, except he do his duty as he ought to do,
except he minister the Sacraments, except he instruct the people, except
he warn them and teach them, we say that he ought not of right once to be
called a bishop, or so much as an elder. For a bishop, as saith
Augustine, is a name of labour, and not of honour: because he will have
that man understand himself to be no bishop, which will seek to have pre-
eminence, and not to profit others. And that neither the Pope, nor any
other worldly creature can no more be head of the whole Church, or a
bishop over all, than he can be the bridegroom, the light, the salvation,
and life of the Church. For the privileges and names belong only to
Christ, and be properly and only fit for him alone. And that no Bishop
of Rome did ever suffer himself to be called by such a proud name before
Phocas the emperor's time, who, as we know, by killing his own sovereign
Maurice the emperor, did by a traitorous villainy aspire to the empire
about the six hundredth and thirteenth year after Christ was born. Also
the Council of Carthage did circumspectly provide, that no bishop should
be called the highest bishop or chief priest. And therefore, sithence
the Bishop of Rome will nowadays so be called, and challengeth unto
himself an authority that is none of his; besides that he doth plainly
contrary to the ancient councils, and contrary to the old fathers; we
believe that he doth give unto himself, as it is written by his own
companion Gregory, a presumptuous, a profane, a sacrilegious, and an
antichristian name: that he is also the king of pride, that he is
Lucifer, which preferreth himself before his brethren: that he hath
forsaken the faith, and is the forerunner of Antichrist.
Further we say, that the minister ought lawfully, duly, and orderly to be
preferred to that office of the Church of God, and that no man hath power
to wrest himself into the holy ministry at his own pleasure and list.
Wherefore these persons do us the greater wrong, which have nothing so
common in their mouths, as that we do nothing orderly and comely, but all
things troublesomely and without order; and that we allow every man to be
a priest, to be a teacher, and to be an interpreter of the Scriptures.
Moreover, we say that Christ hath given to His ministers power to bind,
to loose, to open, to shut. And that the office of loosing consisteth in
this point: that the minister should either offer by the preaching of the
Gospel the merits of Christ and full pardon, to such as have lowly and
contrite hearts, and do unfeignedly repent themselves, pronouncing unto
the same a sure and undoubted forgiveness of their sins, and hope of
everlasting salvation: or else that the same minister, when any have
offended their brothers' minds with a great offence, with a notable and
open fault, whereby they have, as it were, banished and made themselves
strangers from the common fellowship, and from the body of Christ; then
after perfect amendment of such persons, doth reconcile them, and bring
them home again, and restore them to the company and unity of the
faithful. We say also, that the minister doth execute the authority of
binding and shutting, as often as he shutteth up the gate of the kingdom
of heaven against the unbelieving and stubborn persons, denouncing unto
them God's vengeance, and everlasting punishment: or else, when he doth
quite shut them out from the bosom of the Church by open excommunication.
Out of doubt, what sentence soever the minister of God shall give in this
sort, God Himself doth so well allow of it, that whatsoever here in earth
by their means is loosed and bound, God Himself will loose and bind, and
confirm the same in heaven. And touching the keys, wherewith they may
either shut or open the kingdom of heaven, we with Chrysostom say, "They
be the knowledge of the Scriptures:" with Tertullian we say, "They be the
interpretation of the law:" and with Eusebius, we call them "The Word of
God." Moreover, that Christ's disciples did receive this authority, not
that they should hear the private confessions of the people and listen to
their whisperings, as the common massing-priests do everywhere nowadays,
and do it so, as though in that one point lay all the virtue and use of
the keys: but to the end they should go, they should teach, they should
publish abroad the Gospel, and be unto the believing a sweet savour of
life unto life, and unto the unbelieving and unfaithful a savour of death
unto death; and that the minds of godly persons being brought low by the
remorse of their former life and errors, after they once began to look up
unto the light of the Gospel, and believe in Christ, might be opened with
the Word of God, even as a door is opened with a key. Contrariwise, that
the wicked and wilful folk, and such as would not believe, nor return
into the right way, should be left still as fast locked, and shut up,
and, as St. Paul saith, "wax worse and worse." This take we to be the
meaning of the keys; and that after this sort men's consciences either be
opened or shut. We say, that the priest indeed is a judge in this case,
but yet hath no manner of right to challenge an authority, or power, as
saith Ambrose. And therefore our Saviour Jesu Christ, to reprove the
negligence of the Scribes and Pharisees in teaching, did with these words
rebuke them, saying: "Woe be unto you Scribes and Pharisees, which have
taken away the keys of knowledge, and have shut up the kingdom of heaven
before men." Seeing then the key whereby the way and entry to the
kingdom of God is opened unto us, is the word of the Gospel, and the
expounding of the law and Scriptures; we say plainly, where the same word
is not there is not the key. And seeing one manner of word is given to
all, and one only key belongeth to all, we say, that there is but one
only power of all ministers; as concerning opening and shutting. And as
touching the Bishop of Rome, for all his parasites flatteringly sing
these words in his ears, "To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of
heaven" (as though those keys were fit for him alone, and for nobody
else), except he go so to work, as men's consciences may be made pliant,
and be subdued to the Word of God, we deny that he doth either open, or
shut, or hath the keys at all. And although he taught and instructed the
people (as would God he might once truly do, and persuade himself it were
at the least some piece of his duty), yet we think his key to be never a
whit better, or of greater force than other men's. For who hath severed
him from the rest? Who hath taught him more cunningly to open, or better
to absolve than his brethren?
We say that matrimony is holy and honourable in all sorts and states of
persons, in the patriarchs, in the Prophets, in the Apostles, in holy
martyrs, in the ministers of the Church, and in bishops; and that it is
an honest and lawful thing (as Chrysostom saith) for a man, living in
matrimony, to take upon him therewith the dignity of a bishop. And as
Sozomenus saith of Spiridion; and as Nazianzen saith of his own father,
that a good and diligent bishop doth serve in the ministry never the
worse for that he is married, but rather the better, and with more
ableness to do good. Further, we say, that the same law which by
constraint taketh away this liberty from men, and compelleth them against
their wills to live single, is the doctrine of devils, as Paul saith:
and, that, ever sithence the time of this law, a wonderful uncleanness of
life and manners in God's ministers, and sundry horrible enormities have
followed, as the Bishop of Augusta, as Faber, as Abbas Panormitanus, as
Latomus, as the tripartite work, which is annexed to the second tome of
the councils, and other champions of the Pope's band, yea, and as the
matter itself, and all histories do confess. For it was rightly said by
Pius the Second, Bishop of Rome, "that he saw many causes why wives
should be taken away from priests, but that he saw many more, and more
weighty causes why they ought to be restored them again."
* * * * *
We receive and embrace all the canonical Scriptures, both of the Old and
New Testament, giving thanks to our God, who hath raised up unto us that
light which we might ever have before our eyes, lest either by the
subtlety of man, or by the snares of the devil, we should be carried away
to errors and lies. Also that these be the heavenly voices, whereby God
hath opened unto us His will: and that only in them man's heart can have
settled rest; that in them be abundantly and fully comprehended all
things, whatsoever be needful for our salvation, as Origen, Augustine,
Chrysostom, and Cyrillus have taught: that they be the very might and
strength of God to attain to salvation: that they be the foundations of
the Prophets and Apostles, whereupon is built the Church of God: that
they be the very sure and infallible rule, whereby may be tried, whether
the Church do stagger, or err, and whereunto all ecclesiastical doctrine
ought to be called to account: and that against these Scriptures neither
law, nor ordinance, nor any custom ought to be heard: no, though Paul his
own self, or an angel from heaven, should come and teach the contrary.
* * * * *
Moreover, we allow the Sacraments of the Church, that is to say, certain
holy signs and ceremonies, which Christ would we should use, that by them
He might set before our eyes the mysteries of our salvation, and might
more strongly confirm our faith which we have in His blood, and might
seal His grace in our hearts. And these Sacraments, together with
Tertullian, Origen, Ambrose, Hierom, Chrysostom, Basil, Dionysius, and
other Catholic fathers, do we call figures, signs, marks or badges,
prints, copies, forms, seals, signets, similitudes, patterns,
representations, remembrances and memories. And we make no doubt,
together with the same doctors, to say, that these be certain visible
words, seals of righteousness, tokens of grace: and do expressly
pronounce, that in the Lord's Supper there is truly given unto the
believing the body and blood of the Lord, the flesh of the Son of God,
which quickeneth our souls, the meat that cometh from above, the food of
immortality, grace, truth, and life, and the Supper to be the communion
of the body and blood of Christ; by the partaking whereof we be revived,
we be strengthened, and be fed unto immortality; and whereby we are
joined, united, and incorporate unto Christ, that we may abide in Him,
and He in us.
Besides, we acknowledge there be two Sacraments, which, we judge,
properly ought to be called by this name; that is to say, Baptism and the
Sacrament of thanksgiving. For thus many we say were delivered and
sanctified by Christ, and well allowed of the old fathers, Ambrose and
Augustine.
* * * * *
We say that Baptism is a Sacrament of the remission of sins, and of that
washing, which we have in the blood of Christ; and that no person which
will profess Christ's Name ought to be restrained or kept back therefrom;
no, not the very babes of Christians; forsomuch as they be born in sin,
and do pertain unto the people of God.
We say, that Eucharistia, that is to say the Supper of the Lord, is a
Sacrament; that is to wit, an evident token of the body and blood of
Christ, wherein is set, as it were, before our eyes, the death of Christ
and His resurrection, and what act soever He did whilst He was in His
mortal body: to the end we may give Him thanks for His death, and for our
deliverance: and that, by the often receiving of this Sacrament, we may
daily renew the remembrance of that matter, to the intent we, being fed
with the [true] body and blood of Christ, may be brought into the hope of
the resurrection and of everlasting life, and may most assuredly believe
that the body and blood of Christ doth in like manner feed our souls, as
bread and wine doth feed our bodies. To this banquet we think the people
of God ought to be earnestly bidden, that they may all communicate among
themselves, and openly declare and testify both the godly society which
is among them, and also the hope which they have in Christ Jesu. For
this cause if there had been any which would be but a looker-on, and
abstain from the Holy Communion, him did the old fathers and bishops of
Rome in the primitive Church, before private mass came up, excommunicate
as a wicked person and as a pagan. Neither was there any Christian at
that time which did communicate alone, whiles other looked on. For so
did Calixtus in times past decree, "that after the consecration was
finished, all should communicate, except they had rather stand without
the church-doors; because thus (saith he) did the Apostles appoint, and
the same the holy Church of Rome keepeth still."
Moreover, when the people cometh to the Holy Communion, the Sacrament
ought to be given them in both kinds: for so both Christ hath commanded,
and the Apostles in every place have ordained, and all the ancient
fathers and Catholic bishops have followed the same. And whoso doth
contrary to this, he (as Gelasius saith) committeth sacrilege. And
therefore we say, that our adversaries at this day, who having violently
thrust out, and quite forbidden the Holy Communion, do, without the word
of God, without the authority of any ancient council, without any
Catholic father, without any example of the primitive Church, yea, and
without reason also, defend and maintain their private masses, and the
mangling of the Sacraments, and do this not only against the plain
express commandment and bidding of Christ, but also against all
antiquity, do wickedly therein, and are very Church robbers.
We affirm that bread and wine are holy and heavenly mysteries of the body
and blood of Christ, and that by them Christ Himself, being the true
bread of eternal life, is so presently given unto us as that by faith we
verily receive his body and his blood. Yet say we not this so, as though
we thought that the nature and substance of the bread and wine is clearly
changed and goeth to nothing: as many have dreamed in these later times,
which yet could never agree among themselves, of this their dream. For
that was not Christ's meaning, that the wheaten bread should lay apart
his own nature, and receive a certain new divinity: but that he might
rather change us, and (to use Theophylact's words) might transform us
into His body. For what can be said more plainly, than that which
Ambrose saith: "Bread and wine remain still the same they were before,
and yet are changed into another thing:" or, that which Gelasius saith:
"The substance of the bread, or the nature of the wine, ceaseth not so to
be:" or, that which Theodoret saith: "After the consecration the mystical
signs do not cast off their own proper nature; for they remain still on
their former substance, form, and kind:" or that which Augustine saith:
"That which ye see is the bread and cup, for so our eyes tell us: but
that which your faith requireth to be taught, is this: the bread is the
body of Christ, and the cup is His blood:" or that which Origen saith:
"The bread which is sanctified by the Word of God, as touching the
material substance thereof, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into
the privy:" or that which Christ Himself said, not only after the
blessing of the cup, but after he had ministered the communion: "I will
drink no more of this fruit of the vine." It is well known that the
fruit of the vine is wine, and not blood.
And in speaking thus, we mean not to abase the Lord's Supper, that it is
but a cold ceremony only, and nothing to be wrought therein (as many
falsely slander us we teach). For we affirm, that Christ doth truly and
presently give His own self in His Sacraments; in Baptism, that we may
put Him on; and in His Supper, that we may eat Him by faith and spirit,
and may have everlasting life by His Cross and blood. And we say not,
this is done slightly and coldly, but effectually and truly. For
although we do not touch the body of Christ with teeth and mouth, yet we
hold Him fast, and eat Him by faith, by understanding, and by the Spirit.
And it is no vain faith which doth comprehend Christ: and that is not
received with cold devotion, that is received with understanding, with
faith, and with spirit. For Christ Himself altogether is so offered and
given us in these mysteries, that we may certainly know we be flesh of
His flesh, and bone of His bones; and that Christ "continueth in us, and
we in Him." And therefore in celebrating these mysteries, the people are
to good purpose exhorted before they come to receive the Holy Communion,
to lift up their hearts, and to direct their minds to heavenward: because
He is there, by whom we must be full fed, and live. Cyril saith, when we
come to receive these mysteries, all gross imaginations must quite be
banished. The Council of Nice, as is alleged by some in Greek, plainly
forbiddeth us to be basely affectioned, or bent toward the bread and
wine, which are set before us. And, as Chrysostom very aptly writeth, we
say, "that the body of Christ is the dead carcase, and we ourselves must
be the eagles," meaning thereby that we must fly high, if we will come
unto the body of Christ. "For this table," as Chrysostom saith, "is a
table of eagles, and not of jays." Cyprian also, "This bread," saith he,
"is the food of the soul, and not the meat of the belly." And Augustine,
"How shall I hold Him," saith he, "which is absent? How shall I reach my
hand up to heaven, to lay hold upon Him that sitteth there?" He
answereth, "Reach hither thy faith, and then thou hast laid hold on Him."
We cannot also away in our churches with the shows, and sales, and buying
and selling of masses, nor the carrying about and worshipping of bread:
nor such other idolatrous and blasphemous fondness: which none of them
can prove that Christ or His Apostles did ever ordain, or left unto us.
And we justly blame the bishops of Rome, who, without the word of God,
without the authority of the holy fathers, without any example of
antiquity, after a new guise, do not only set before the people the
sacramental bread to be worshipped as God, but do also carry about the
same upon an ambling horse, whithersoever themselves journey, as in old
times the Persians' fire, and the relics of the goddess Isis, were
solemnly carried about in procession: and have brought the Sacraments of
Christ to be used now as a stage play and a solemn sight: to the end,
that men's eyes should be fed with nothing else but with mad gazings and
foolish gauds, in the self-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 holiness and reverence to be executed.
Besides, where they say, and sometimes do persuade fools, that they are
able by their masses to distribute and apply unto men's commodity all the
merits of Christ's death, yea, although many times the parties think
nothing of the matter, and understand full little what is done, this is a
mockery, an heathenish fancy, and a very toy. For it is our faith that
applieth the death and cross of Christ to our benefit, and not the act of
the massing priest. "Faith had in the Sacraments," saith Augustine,
"doth justify, and not the Sacraments." And Origen saith, "Christ is the
Priest, the Propitiation, and Sacrifice: which Propitiation cometh to
every one by means of faith." So that by this reckoning, we say that the
Sacraments of Christ without faith do not once profit these that be
alive; a great deal less do they profit those that be dead.
And as for their brags they are wont to make of their purgatory, though
we know it is not a thing so very late risen amongst them, yet is it no
better than a blockish and an old wives' device. Augustine, indeed,
sometime saith, there is such a certain place: sometime he denieth not,
but there may be such a one; sometime he doubteth; sometime again he
utterly denieth it to be, and thinketh that men are therein deceived by a
certain natural good will they bear their friends departed. But yet of
this one error hath there grown up such a harvest of these mass-mongers,
the masses being sold abroad commonly in every corner, the temples of God
became shops to get money: and silly souls were persuaded that nothing
was more necessary to be bought. Indeed, there was nothing more gainful
for these men to sell.
As touching the multitude of vain and superfluous ceremonies, we know
that Augustine did grievously complain of them in his own time: and
therefore have we cut off a great number of them, because we know that
men's consciences were cumbered about them, and the churches of God
overladen with them.
Nevertheless we keep still, and esteem, not only those ceremonies which
we are sure were delivered us from the Apostles, but some others too
besides, which we thought might be suffered without hurt to the Church of
God: because that we had a desire that all things in the holy
congregation might (as St. Paul commandeth) "be done with comeliness and
in good order." But as for all those things which we saw were either
very superstitious, or wholly unprofitable, or noisome, or mockeries, or
contrary to the Holy Scriptures, or else unseemly for honest or discreet
folks, as there be an infinite number nowadays where papistry is used;
these, I say, we have utterly refused without all manner exception,
because we would not have the right worshipping of God any longer denied
with such follies.
We make our prayers in that tongue which all our people, as meet is, may
understand, to the end they may (as Paul counselleth us) take common
commodity by common prayer, even as all the holy fathers and Catholic
bishops, both in the Old and New Testament, did used to pray themselves,
and taught the people to pray too, lest, as Augustine saith, "like
parrots and ousels we should seem to speak that we understand not."
Neither have we any other mediator and intercessor, by whom we may have
access to God the Father, than Jesus Christ, in whose only Name all
things are obtained at His Father's hand. But it is a shameful part, and
full of infidelity, that we see every whore used in the churches of our
adversaries, not only in that they will have innumerable sorts of
mediators, and that utterly without the authority of God's word (so that,
as Jeremy saith, "The saints be now as many in number, or rather above
the number of the cities;" and poor men cannot tell to which saint it
were best to turn them first; and though there be so many as they cannot
be told, yet every one of them hath his peculiar duty and office assigned
unto him of these folks, what thing they ought to ask, what to give, and
what to bring to pass): but besides this also, in that they do not only
wickedly, but also shamefully, call upon the Blessed Virgin, Christ's
mother, to have her remember that she is the mother, and to command her
Son, and to use a mother's authority over Him.
We say also, that every person is born in sin, and leadeth his life in
sin: that nobody is able truly to say his heart is clean: that the most
righteous person is but an unprofitable servant: that the law of God is
perfect, and requireth of us perfect and full obedience: that we are able
by no means to fulfil that law in this worldly life: that there is no one
mortal creature which can be justified by his own deserts in God's sight:
and therefore that our only succour and refuge is to fly to the mercy of
our Father by Jesu Christ, and assuredly to persuade our minds that He is
the obtainer of forgiveness for our sins; and that by His blood all our
spots of sin be washed clean: that He hath pacified and set at one, all
things by the blood of His Cross: that He by the same one only Sacrifice,
which He once offered upon the Cross, 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 signify, that the price
and ransom was now full paid for the sin of all mankind. If there be
any, then, that think this Sacrifice not sufficient, let them go, in
God's Name, and seek another that is better. We, verily, because we know
this to be the only Sacrifice, are well content with it alone and look
for none other: and, forasmuch as it was to be offered but once, we
command it not to be renewed again: and because it was full and perfect
in all points and parts, we do not ordain in place thereof any continual
succession of offerings.
Besides, though we say, we have no meed at all by our own works and
deeds, but appoint all the means of our salvation to be in Christ alone,
yet say we not, that for this cause men ought to live loosely and
dissolutely: nor that it is enough for a Christian to be baptised only
and to believe: as though there were nothing else required at his hand.
For true faith is lively, and can in no wise be idle.
Thus therefore teach we the people, that God hath called us, not to
follow riot and wantonness, but, as St. Paul saith, "unto good works, to
walk in them:" that God hath plucked us out "from the power of darkness,
to the end that we should serve the living God;" to cut away all the
remnants of sin, and "to work our salvation in fear and trembling:" that
it may appear, how that the Spirit of sanctification is in our bodies,
and that Christ Himself doth dwell in our hearts.
To conclude, we believe, that this our self-same flesh wherein we live,
although it die, and come to dust, yet at the last day it shall return
again to life, by the means of Christ's Spirit which dwelleth in us: and
that then verily, whatsoever we suffer here in the meanwhile for His
sake, Christ will wipe away all tears and lamentation from our eyes: and
that we through Him shall enjoy everlasting life, and shall for ever be
with Him in glory. So be it.