# Second Helvetic Confession
## Chapter 17 - Of the Catholic and Holy Church of God, and of the One Only Head of the Church
Forasmuch as God from the beginning would have men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth ([1 Timothy 2:4](/get-passage/1+Timothy+2:4)), therefore it is necessary that there always should have been, and should be at this day, and to the end of the world, a Church—that is, a company of the faithful called and gathered out of the world; a communion (I say) of all saints, that is, of them who truly know and rightly worship and serve the true God, in Jesus Christ the Saviour, by the word of the Holy Spirit, and who by faith are partakers of all those good graces which are freely offered through Christ. These all are citizens of one and the same city, living under one Lord, under the same laws, and in the same fellowship of all good things; for the apostle calls them ‘fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God’ ([Ephesians 2:19](/get-passage/Ephesians+2:19)); terming the faithful upon the earth saints ([1 Corinthians 4:1](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+4:1)), who are sanctified by the blood of the Son of God. Of these is that article of our Creed wholly to be understood, ‘I believe in the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints.’

And, seeing that there is always but ‘one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ’ ([1 Timothy 2:5](/get-passage/1+Timothy+2:5)); also, one Shepherd of the whole flock, one Head of this body, and, to conclude, one Spirit, one salvation, one faith, one Testament, or Covenant,—it follows necessarily that there is but one Church, which we therefore call Catholic because it is universal, spread abroad through all the parts and quarters of the world, and reaches unto all times, and is not limited within the compass either of time or place. Here, therefore, we must condemn the Donatists, who pinned up the Church within the corners of Africa; neither do we assent to the Roman clergy, who vaunt that the Church of Rome alone is in a manner Catholic.

The Church is divided by some into divers parts or sorts; not that it is rent and divided from itself, but rather distinguished in respect of the diversity of the members that are in it. One part thereof they make to be the Church Militant, the other the Church Triumphant. The Militant wars still on earth, and fights against the flesh, the world, and the prince of the world, the devil; against sin and against death. The other, being already set at liberty, is now in heaven, and triumphs over all those things overcome, and continually rejoices before the Lord. Yet these two churches have, notwithstanding, a communion and fellowship between themselves.

Moreover, the Church Militant upon the earth has evermore had many particular churches, which must all, notwithstanding, be referred to the unity of the Catholic Church. This Militant Church was otherwise ordered and governed before the Law, among the patriarchs; otherwise under Moses, by the Law; and otherwise of Christ, by the Gospel. There are but two sorts of people, for the most part, mentioned: to wit, the Israelites and the Gentiles; or they who, of the Jews and Gentiles, were gathered to make a Church. There are also two Testaments, the Old and the New. Yet both these sorts of people have had, and still have, one fellowship, one salvation, in one and the same Messiah; in whom, as members of one body, they are all joined together under one head, and by one faith are all partakers of one and the same spiritual meat and drink. Yet here we do acknowledge a diversity of times, and a diversity in the pledges and signs of Christ promised and exhibited; and that now, the ceremonies being abolished, the light shines unto us more clearly, our gifts and graces are more abundant, and our liberty is more full and ample.

This holy Church of God is called ‘the house of the living God’ ([2 Corinthians 6:16](/get-passage/2+Corinthians+6:16)), ‘builded of living and spiritual stones’ ([1 Peter 2:5](/get-passage/1+Peter+2:5)), ‘founded upon a rock’ ([Matthew 16:18](/get-passage/Matthew+16:18)), ‘which can not be moved’ ([Hebrews 12:28](/get-passage/Hebrews+12:28)), ‘upon a foundation besides which none can be laid’ ([1 Corinthians 3:11](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+3:11)). Whereupon it is called ‘the pillar and ground of the truth’ ([1 Timothy 3:15](/get-passage/1+Timothy+3:15)), that does not err, so long as it relies upon the rock Christ, and upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles. And no marvel if it do err, so often as it forsakes Him who is the alone truth. This Church is also called ‘a virgin’ ([1 Corinthians 11:2](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+11:2)), and ‘the spouse of Christ’ ([Song of Solomon 4:8](/get-passage/Song+of+Solomon+4:8)), and ‘his only beloved’ ([Song of Solomon 5:16](/get-passage/Song+of+Solomon+5:16)). For the apostle says, ‘I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ’ ([2 Corinthians 11:2](/get-passage/2+Corinthians+11:2)). The Church is called ‘a flock of sheep under one shepherd,’ even Christ ([Ezekiel 34:22-23](/get-passage/Ezekiel+34:22-23), and [John 10:16](/get-passage/John+10:16)); also, ‘the body of Christ’ ([Colossians 1:24](/get-passage/Colossians+1:24)), because the faithful are the lively members of Christ, having him for their head.

It is the head which has the pre-eminence in the body, and from whence the whole body receives life; by whose spirit it is governed in all things; of whom, also, it receives increase, that it may grow up. Also, there is but one head to the body, which has agreement with the body; and therefore the Church can not have any other head besides Christ. For as the Church is a spiritual body, so must it needs have a spiritual head like unto itself. Neither can it be governed by any other spirit than by the Spirit of Christ. Wherefore Paul says, ‘And he is the head of the body, the Church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence’ ([Colossians 1:18](/get-passage/Colossians+1:18)). And in another place, ‘Christ,’ saith he, ‘is the head of the Church: and he is the Saviour of the body’ ([Ephesians 5:23](/get-passage/Ephesians+5:23)). And again, ‘Who is the head of the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all’ [Ephesians 1:22](/get-passage/Ephesians+1:22-23). Again, ‘Let us grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ; by whom all the body being knit together, receiveth increase’ ([Ephesians 4:15-16](/get-passage/Ephesians+4:15-16)). And therefore we do not allow of the doctrine of the Romish prelates, who would make the Pope the general pastor and supreme head of the Church Militant here on earth, and the very vicar of Jesus Christ, who has (as they say) all fullness of power and sovereign authority in the Church. For we hold and teach that Christ our Lord is, and remains still, the only universal pastor, and highest bishop, before God his Father; and that in the Church he performs all the duties of a pastor or bishop, even to the world’s end; and therefore stands not in need of any other to supply his room. For he is said to have a substitute, who is absent; but Christ is present with his Church, and is the head that gives life thereunto. He did straitly forbid his apostles and their successors all superiority or dominion in the Church. They, therefore, that by gainsaying set themselves against so manifest a truth, and bring another kind of government into the Church, who sees not that they are to be counted in the number of them of the apostles of Christ prophesied? as Peter in [2 Peter 2:1](/get-passage/2+Peter+2:1), and Paul in [Acts 20:29](/get-passage/Acts+20:29); [2 Corinthians 11:13](/get-passage/2+Corinthians+11:13); [2 Thessalonians 2:8-9](/get-passage/2+Thessalonians+2:8-9), and in many other places.

Now, by taking away the Romish head we do not bring any confusion or disorder into the Church. For we teach that the government of the Church which the apostles set down is sufficient to keep the Church in due order; which, from the beginning, while as yet it wanted such a Romish head as is now pretended to keep it in order, was not disordered or full of confusion. The Romish head doth maintain indeed his tyranny and corruption which have been brought into the Church; but in the mean time he hinders, resists, and, with all the might he can make, cuts off the right and lawful reformation of the Church.

They object against us that there have been great strifes and dissensions in our churches since they did sever themselves from the Church of Rome; and that therefore they can not be true churches. As though there were never in the Church of Rome any sects, any contentions and quarrels; and that, in matters of religion, maintained not so much in the schools as in the holy Chairs, even in the audience of the people. We know that the apostle said, ‘God is not the author of confusion, but of peace’ ([1 Corinthians 14:33](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+14:33)), and, ‘Seeing there is among you emulation and contention, are ye not carnal?’ ([1 Corinthians 3:3-4](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+3:3-4)). Yet may we not deny that God was in that Church planted by the apostle; and that the Apostolic Church was a true Church, howsoever there were strifes and dissensions in it. The Apostle Paul reprehended Peter, an apostle ([Galatians 2:11](/get-passage/Galatians+2:11)), and Barnabas fell at variance with Paul ([Acts 15:39](/get-passage/Acts+15:39)). Great contention arose in the Church of Antioch between them that preached one and the same Christ, as Luke records in [Acts 15:2](/get-passage/Acts+15:2). And there have at all times been great contentions in the Church, and the most excellent doctors of the Church have, about no small matters, differed in opinion; yet so as, in the mean time, the Church ceased not to be the Church for all these contentions. For thus it pleases God to use the dissensions that arise in the Church, to the glory of his name, to the setting forth of the truth, and to the end that such as are not approved might be manifest ([1 Corinthians 11:19](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+11:19)).

Now, as we acknowledge no other head of the Church than Christ, so do we not acknowledge every church to be the true Church which vaunts herself so to be; but we teach that to be the true Church indeed in which the marks and tokens of the true Church are to be found. Firstly and chiefly, the lawful and sincere preaching of the word of God as it is left unto us in the writings of the prophets and the apostles, which do all seem to lead us unto Christ, who in the Gospel has said, ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life. A stranger they do not hear, but flee from him, because they know not his voice’ ([John 10:5](/get-passage/John+10:5), 27,28).

And they that are such in the Church of God have all but one faith and one spirit; and therefore they worship but one God, and him alone they serve in spirit and in truth, loving him with all their hearts and with all their strength, praying unto him alone through Jesus Christ, the only Mediator and Intercessor; and they seek not life or justice but only in Christ, and by faith in him; because they do acknowledge Christ the only head and foundation of his Church, and, being surely founded on him, do daily repair themselves by repentance, and do with patience bear the cross laid upon them; and, besides, by unfeigned love joining themselves to all the members of Christ, do thereby declare themselves to be the disciples of Christ, by continuing in the bond of peace and holy unity. They do withal communicate in the sacraments ordained by Christ, and delivered unto us by his apostles, using them in no other manner than as they received them from the Lord himself. That saying of the Apostle Paul is well known to all, ‘I received from the Lord that which I delivered unto you’ ([1 Corinthians 11:23](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+11:23)). For which cause we condemn all such churches, as strangers from the true Church of Christ, which are not such as we have heard they ought to be, howsoever, in the mean time, they brag of the succession of bishops, of unity, and of antiquity. Moreover, we have in charge from the apostles of Christ ‘to shun idolatry’ ([1 Corinthians 10:14](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+10:14); [1 John 5:21](/get-passage/1+John+5:21)), and ‘to come out of Babylon,’ and to have no fellowship with her, unless we mean to be partakers with her of all God’s plagues laid upon her ([Revelation 18:4](/get-passage/Revelation+18:4); [2 Corinthians 6:17](/get-passage/2+Corinthians+6:17)).

But as for communicating with the true Church of Christ, we so highly esteem it that we say plainly that none can live before God who do not communicate with the true Church of God, but separate themselves from the same. For as without the ark of Noah there was no escaping when the world perished in the flood; even so do we believe that without Christ, who in the Church offers himself to be enjoyed of the elect, there can be no certain salvation: and therefore we teach that such as would be saved must in no wise separate themselves from the true Church of Christ.

But as yet we do not so strictly shut up the Church within those marks before mentioned, as thereby to exclude all those out of the Church who either do not participate of the sacraments (not willingly, nor upon contempt; but who, being constrained by necessity, do against their will abstain from them, or else do want them), or in whom faith does sometimes fail, though not quite decay, nor altogether die: or in whom some slips and errors of infirmity may be found. For we know that God had some friends in the world that were not of the commonwealth of Israel. We know what befell the people of God in the captivity of Babylon, where they were without their sacrifices seventy years. We know what happened to St. Peter, who denied his Master, and what is wont daily to happen among the faithful and chosen of God who go astray and are full of infirmities. We know, moreover, what manner of churches the churches in Galatia and Corinth were in the apostles’ time: in which St. Paul condemns many and heinous crimes; yet he calls them holy churches of Christ ([1 Corinthians 1:2](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+1:2); [Galatians 1:2](/get-passage/Galatians+1:2)).

Yea, and it happens sometimes that God in his just judgment suffers the truth of his Word, and the Catholic faith, and his own true worship, to be so obscured and defaced that the Church seems almost quite razed out, and not so much as a face of a Church to remain; as we see fell out in the days of Elijah ([1 Kings 19:10-14](/get-passage/1+Kings+19:10-14)), and at other times. And yet, in the mean time, the Lord has in this world, even in this darkness, his true worshippers, and those not a few, but even seven thousand and more ([1 Kings 19:18](/get-passage/1+Kings+19:18); [Revelation 7:4-9](/get-passage/Revelation+7:4-9)). For the apostle cries, ‘The foundation of the Lord standeth sure, and hath this seal, The Lord knoweth who are his,’ etc. ([2 Timothy 2:19](/get-passage/2+Timothy+2:19)). Whereupon the Church of God may be termed invisible; not that the men whereof it consists are invisible, but because, being hidden from our sight, and known only unto God, it cannot be discerned by the judgment of man.

Again, not all that are reckoned in the number of the Church are saints, and lively and true members of the Church. For there are many hypocrites, who outwardly do hear the word of God, and publicly receive the sacraments, and do seem to pray unto God alone through Christ, to confess Christ to be their only righteousness, and to worship God, and to exercise the duties of charity to the brethren, and for a while through patience to endure in troubles and calamities. And yet they are altogether destitute of the inward illumination of the Spirit of God, of faith and sincerity of heart, and of perseverance or continuance to the end. And these men are, for the most part, at length laid open in their true character. For the Apostle John says, ‘They went out from among us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us’ ([1 John 2:19](/get-passage/1+John+2:19)). Yet these men, while they do pretend religion, are accounted to be in the Church. Even as traitors in a commonwealth, before they be detected, are accounted in the number of good citizens; and as the cockle and darnel and chaff are found among the wheat; and as wens and swellings are in a perfect body, when they are rather diseases and deformities than true members of the body. And therefore the Church is very well compared to a drag-net, which draws up fishes of all sorts; and to a field, wherein is found both darnel and good corn ([Matthew 13:26-47](/get-passage/Matthew+13:26-47)). Hence we must be very careful not to judge rashly before the time, nor to exclude, and cast off or cut away, those whom the Lord would not have excluded nor cut off, or whom, without some damage to the Church, we can not separate from it. Again, we must be very vigilant lest the godly, falling fast asleep, the wicked grow stronger, and do some mischief in the Church.

Furthermore, we teach that it is carefully to be marked, wherein especially the truth and unity of the Church consists, lest that we either rashly breed or nourish schisms in the Church. It consists not in outward rites and ceremonies, but rather in the truth and unity of the Catholic faith. This Catholic faith is not taught us by the ordinances or laws of men, but by the holy Scriptures, a compendious and short sum whereof is the Apostles’ Creed. And, therefore, we read in the ancient writers that there were manifold diversities of ceremonies, but that those were always free; neither did any man think that the unity of the Church was thereby broken or dissolved. We say, then, that the true unity of the Church does consist in several points of doctrine, in the true and uniform preaching of the Gospel, and in such rites as the Lord himself has expressly set down. And here we urge that saying of the apostle very earnestly, ‘Let us, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing’ ([Philippians 3:15-16](/get-passage/Philippians+3:15-16)).
