40 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
40 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
# Second Helvetic Confession
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## Chapter 11 - Of Jesus Christ, Being True God and Man, and the Only Saviour of the World
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Moreover, we believe and teach that the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, was from all eternity predestinated and foreordained of the Father to be the Saviour of the world. And we believe that he was begotten, not only then, when he took flesh of the Virgin Mary, nor yet a little before the foundations of the world were laid; but before all eternity, and that of the Father after an unspeakable manner. For Isaiah says ([Isaiah 53:8](/get-passage/Isaiah+53:8)), ‘Who can tell his generation?’ And Micah says ([Micah 5:2](/get-passage/Micah+5:2)), ‘Whose egress hath been from everlasting.’ And John says ([John 1:1](/get-passage/John+1:1)), ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,’ etc.
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Therefore the Son is coequal and consubstantial with the Father, as touching his divinity: true God, not by name only, or by adoption, or by special favor, but in substance and nature ([Philippians 2:6](/get-passage/Philippians+2:6)). Even as the apostle says elsewhere, ‘This is the true God, and life everlasting’ ([1 John 5:20](/get-passage/1+John+5:20)). Paul also says, ‘He hath made his Son the heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; the same is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, bearing up all things by his mighty word’ ([Hebrews 1:2-3](/get-passage/Hebrews+1:2-3)). Likewise, in the Gospel, the Lord himself says, ‘Father, glorify thou me with thyself, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was’ ([John 17:5](/get-passage/John+17:5)). Also elsewhere it is written in the Gospel, ‘The Jews sought how to kill Jesus, because he said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God’ ([John 5:18](/get-passage/John+5:18)).
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We therefore do abhor the blasphemous doctrine of Arius, and all the Arians, uttered against the Son of God; and especially the blasphemies of Michael Servetus, the Spaniard, and of his complices, which Satan through them has, as it were, drawn out of hell, and most boldly and impiously spread abroad throughout the world against the Son of God.
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We also teach and believe that the eternal Son of the eternal God was made the Son of man, of the seed of Abraham and David ([Matthew 1:25](/get-passage/Matthew+1:25)); not by the means of any man, as Ebion affirmed, but that he was most purely conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of Mary, who was always a virgin, even as the history of the Gospel does declare. And Paul says, ‘He took not on him the nature of angels, but of the seed of Abraham’ ([Hebrews 2:16](/get-passage/Hebrews+2:16)). And John the apostle says, ‘He that believeth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God’ ([1 John 4:3](/get-passage/1+John+4:3)). The flesh of Christ, therefore, was neither flesh in show only, nor yet flesh brought from heaven, as Valentinus and Marcion dreamed.
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Moreover, our Lord Jesus Christ had not a soul without sense and reason, as Apollinaris thought; nor flesh without a soul, as Eunomius did teach; but a soul with its reason, and flesh with its senses, by which senses he felt true griefs in the time of his passion, even as he himself witnessed when he said, ‘My soul is heavy, even to death’ ([Matthew 26:38](/get-passage/Matthew+26:38)); and, ‘My soul is troubled,’ etc. ([John 12:27](/get-passage/John+12:27)).
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We acknowledge, therefore, that there be in one and the same Jesus Christ our Lord two natures—the divine and the human nature; and we say that these two are so conjoined or united that they are not swallowed up, confounded, or mingled together; but rather united or joined together in one person (the properties of each nature being safe and remaining still), so that we do worship one Christ our Lord, and not two. I say one, true God and man, as touching his divine nature, of the same substance with us, and ‘in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin’ ([Hebrews 4:15](/get-passage/Hebrews+4:15)).
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As, therefore, we detest the heresy of Nestorius, which makes two Christs of one and dissolves the union of the person, so do we abominate the madness of Eutyches and of the Monothelites and Monophysites, who overthrow the propriety of the human nature.
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Therefore we do not teach that the divine nature in Christ did suffer, or that Christ, according to his human nature, is yet in the world, and so in every place. For we do neither think nor teach that the body of Christ ceased to be a true body after his glorifying, or that it was deified and so deified that it put off its properties, as touching body and soul, and became altogether a divine nature and began to be one substance alone; therefore we do not allow or receive the unwitty subtleties, and the intricate, obscure, and inconstant disputations of Schwenkfeldt, and such other vain janglers, about this matter; neither are we Schwenkfeldians.
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Moreover, we believe that our Lord Jesus Christ did truly suffer and die for us in the flesh, as Peter says ([1 Peter 4:1](/get-passage/1+Peter+4:1)). We abhor the most impious madness of the Jacobites, and all the Turks, who execrate the passion of our Lord. Yet we deny not but that ‘the Lord of glory,’ according to the saying of Paul, was crucified for us ([1 Corinthians 2:8](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+2:8)); for we do reverently and religiously receive and use the communication of properties drawn from the Scripture, and used of all antiquity in expounding and reconciling places of Scripture which at first sight seem to disagree one from another.
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We believe and teach that the same Lord Jesus Christ, in that true flesh in which he was crucified and died, rose again from the dead; and that he did not rise up another flesh, but retained a true body. Therefore, while his disciples thought that they did see the spirit of their Lord Christ, he showed them his hands and feet, which were marked with the prints of the nails and wounds, saying, ‘Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have’ ([Luke 24:39](/get-passage/Luke+24:39)).
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We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, in the same flesh, did ascend above all the visible heavens into the very highest heaven, that is to say, the seat of God and of the blessed spirits, unto the right hand of God the Father. Although it do signify an equal participation of glory and majesty, yet it is also taken for a certain place; of which the Lord, speaking in the Gospel, says, that ‘He will go and prepare a place for his’ ([John 14:2](/get-passage/John+14:2)). Also the Apostle Peter says, ‘The heavens must contain Christ until the time of restoring all things’ ([Acts 3:21](/get-passage/Acts+3:21)).
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And out of heaven the same Christ will return unto judgment, even then when wickedness shall chiefly reign in the world, and when Antichrist, having corrupted true religion, shall fill all things with superstition and impiety, and shall most cruelly waste the Church with fire and bloodshed. Now Christ shall return to redeem his, and to abolish Antichrist by his coming, and to judge the quick and the dead ([Acts 17:31](/get-passage/Acts+17:31)). For the dead shall arise, and those that shall be found alive in that day (which is unknown unto all creatures) ‘shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye’ ([1 Corinthians 15:51-52](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+15:51-52)). And all the faithful shall be taken up to meet Christ in the air ([1 Thessalonians 4:17](/get-passage/1+Thessalonians+4:17)); that thenceforth they may enter with him into heaven, there to live forever ([2 Timothy 2:11](/get-passage/2+Timothy+2:11)); but the unbelievers, or ungodly, shall descend with the devils into hell, there to burn forever, and never to be delivered out of torments ([Matthew 25:41](/get-passage/Matthew+25:41)).
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We therefore condemn all those who deny the true resurrection of the flesh, and those who think amiss of the glorified bodies, as did Joannes Hierosolymitanus, against whom Jerome wrote. We also condemn those who have thought that both the devils and all the wicked shall at length be saved and have an end of their torments; for the Lord himself has absolutely set it down that ‘Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched’ ([Mark 9:44](/get-passage/Mark+9:44)).
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Moreover, we condemn the Jewish dreams, that before the day of judgment there shall be a golden age in the earth, and that the godly shall possess the kingdoms of the world, their wicked enemies being trodden under foot; for the evangelical truth ([Matthew 24](/get-passage/Matthew+24) and [Matthew 25](/get-passage/Matthew+25), [Luke 21](/get-passage/Luke+21)), and the apostolic doctrine (in [2 Thessalonians 2](/get-passage/2+Thessalonians+2), and in [2 Timothy 3](/get-passage/2+Timothy+3) and [2 Timothy 4](/get-passage/2+Timothy+4)) are found to teach far otherwise.
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Furthermore, by his passion or death, and by all those things which he did and suffered for our sakes from the time of his coming in the flesh, our Lord reconciled his heavenly Father unto all the faithful ([Romans 5:10](/get-passage/Romans+5:10)); purged their sin ([Hebrews 1:3](/get-passage/Hebrews+1:3)); spoiled death, broke in sunder condemnation and hell; and by his resurrection from the dead brought again and restored life and immortality ([Romans 4:25](/get-passage/Romans+4:25); [1 Corinthians 15:17](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+15:17); [2 Timothy 1:10](/get-passage/2+Timothy+1:10)). For he is our righteousness, life, and resurrection ([John 6:44](/get-passage/John+6:44)); and, to be short, he is the fullness and perfection, the salvation and most abundant sufficiency, of all the faithful. For the apostle says, ‘So it pleaseth the Father that all fullness should dwell in him’ ([Colossians 1:19](/get-passage/Colossians+1:19)), and ‘In him ye are complete’ ([Colossians 2:10](/get-passage/Colossians+2:10)).
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For we teach and believe that this Jesus Christ our Lord is the only and eternal Saviour of mankind, yea, and of the whole world, in whom all are saved before the law, under the law, and in the time of the Gospel, and so many as shall yet be saved to the end of the world. For the Lord himself, in the Gospel, says, ‘He that entereth not in by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up the other way, he is a thief and a robber’ ([John 10:1](/get-passage/John+10:1)). ‘I am the door of the sheep’ ([John 10:7](/get-passage/John+10:7)). And also in another place of the same Gospel he says, ‘Abraham saw my day, and rejoiced’ ([John 8:56](/get-passage/John+8:56)). And the Apostle Peter says, ‘Neither is there salvation in any other, but in Christ; for among men there is given no other name under heaven whereby they might be saved’ ([Acts 4:12](/get-passage/Acts+4:12)). We believe, therefore, that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as our fathers were. For Paul says, that ‘All our fathers did eat the same spiritual meat, and drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ’ ([1 Corinthians 10:3-4](/get-passage/1+Corinthians+10:3-4)). And therefore we read that John said, that ‘Christ was that Lamb which was slain from the foundation of the world’ ([Revelation 13:8](/get-passage/Revelation+13:8)); and that John the Baptist witnesseth, that Christ is that ‘Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world’ ([John 1:29](/get-passage/John+1:29)).
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Wherefore we do plainly and openly profess and preach, that Jesus Christ is the only Redeemer and Saviour of the world, the King and High Priest, the true and looked-for Messiah, that holy and blessed one (I say) whom all the shadows of the law, and the prophecies of the prophets, did prefigure and promise; and that God did supply and send him unto us, so that now we are not to look for any other. And now there remains nothing, but that we all should give all glory to him, believe in him, and rest in him only, contemning and rejecting all other aids of our life. For they are fallen from the grace of God, and make Christ of no value unto themselves, whosoever they be that seek salvation in any other things besides Christ alone ([Galatians 5:4](/get-passage/Galatians+5:4)).
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And, to speak many things in a few words, with a sincere heart we believe, and with liberty of speech we freely profess, whatsoever things are defined out of the Holy Scriptures, and comprehended in the creeds, and in the decrees of those four first and most excellent councils—held at Nicæa, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon—together with blessed Athanasius’s creed and all other creeds like to these, touching the mystery of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ; and we condemn all things contrary to the same.
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And thus we retain the Christian, sound, and Catholic faith, whole and inviolable, knowing that nothing is contained in the aforesaid creeds which is not agreeable to the Word of God, and makes wholly for the sincere declaration of the faith.
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