ARTICLES OF RELIGION.

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AN ABRIDGMENT OF THE "CONFESSION OF FAITH, OWNED AND CONSENTED UNTO BY THE ELDERS AND MESSENGERS OF THE CHURCHES ASSEMBLED

AT BOSTON, MAY 12TH, 1680."

ARTICLE I.

OF THE BEING OF GOD.

THERE is one only living and true God, who is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, the fountain of life and being, of whom and through whom are all things visible and invisible, to whom all intelligent creatures are bound to render supreme homage, love, and obedience.

Deut. 6: 4.

1 Thess. 1: 9.
Jer. 10: 10.
Acts 17: 24, 25.
Rom. 11: 36.

1 Cor. 8: 4, 6.
Gen. 1: 1-27.
Col. 1: 16, 17.
Heb. 1: 2.

John 1: 2, 3.

ARTICLE II.

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

Job 26: 13.
Job 33: 4.

Rev. 5: 11-14.
Rom. 11: 36.

Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence, do so far reveal the being and attributes of God, as to leave men inexcusable in their unbelief, yet it has pleased him to reveal himself, and to declare his will more fully and clearly, in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, which were written by divine inspiration, and are given to mankind by

God's authority, as a sufficient revelation of all things necessary to salvation, and the only perfect and infallible rule of faith and practice, by which all doctrines and commandments of men are to be tried, and all religious controversies are to be determined.

God is a most pure and perfect spirit, self-existent, eternal, immutable, infinite and incomprehensible in holiness, wisdom, benevolence, and power; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth; ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon him; most just and righteous in all his counsels, works, commands and judgments.

In the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

1 John 5: 7. Matt. 28: 19.

John 1: 1-3, 14, 18.
John 15: 26.

2 Cor. 13: 14.

ARTICLE V.

OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

God upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures and things, from the greatest to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.

Heb. 1: 3.

Dan. 4: 34, 35.
Ps. 135: 6.

Matt. 10: 29-31.

Prov. 15: 3.
2 Chron. 16: 9.
Acts 15: 18.
Eph. 1: 11.

ARTICLE VI.

Ps. 33: 11.
Eph. 3: 10.
Rom. 9: 17.
Ps. 145: 7,

OF THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN.

God created the first parents of our race with rational and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after his own image, and gave them a holy law with the promise of life to them, and in them to their posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience; but they by voluntarily transgressing the divine command, in eating the forbidden fruit, fell from their state of original righteousness and communion with God, into a state of sin and death; in consequence of which, they being the root, and the public representatives of all mankind, their whole posterity are by nature alienated from God, entirely unholy and corrupt, inclined to evil, under the condemnation of the divine law, and subject to death, temporal and eternal.

ARTICLE VII.

OF THE REDEEMER.

The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, in accordance with an eternal purpose of grace, freely undertook the work of redeeming and saving fallen men; and when the fulness of time was come, he took upon him man's nature, with all its essential properties and common infirmities, yet without sin, being born of the virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Ghost; was made under, and perfectly fulfilled, the divine Law given to men; suffered in soul and in body for our sins, the just for the unjust, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; and having by his perfect obedience, sufferings, and sacrifice of himself, which he through the eternal Spirit once offered up to God, made a full and complete atonement for sin, and obtained eternal redemption for all that obey him, he rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven to the glory which he had with the Father before the world was, where he ever liveth to make intercession for us, and from hence he will come to judge both the living and the dead at the end of the world.

ARTICLE VIII.

OF THE HOLY GHOST.

The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is the only author of regeneration, sanctification, and new spiritual life and obedience in man; and without his gracious and effectual work in the soul, no sinner can enter into the kingdom of God.

God from eternity, according to his immutable purpose, and the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, hath chosen in Christ a great number of the fallen race of Adam unto everlasting life and glory, to the praise of his free and sovereign grace.

Heb. 6: 17.
Eph. 1: 4, 11.

2 Tim. 1: 9.
Eph. 3: 11.
Eph, 1: 5, 11.

2 Thess. 2: 13.
John 15: 19.

Rev. 7: 9-14.

John 6: 68.
Rom. 6: 23.

Eph. 1: 6, 12.
Col. 1: 26, 27.
Phil. 1: 11.

1 Pet. 2: 9, 10.

2 Cor. 4: 15.

ARTICLE X.

OF EFFECTUAL CALLING, JUSTIFICATION, ADOPTION, SANCTIFICATION,

AND PERSEVERANCE.

All those whom God hath chosen unto eternal life, he EFFECTUALLY CALLS, by his word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to a state of grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand divine