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glory, humbled him to take flesh of a virgin, according to the Scriptures, uniting the substance of the Godhead to the substance of the manhood, which he took of the substance of that blessed Virgin Mary, in one person, to become therein the very Messiah; the anointed King and Priest, for ever appointed to pacify the Father's wrath, which was justly gone out against us all for our sin.

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Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, and descended into hell.”

He was arraigned before Pontius Pilate, the ruler of Jewry, and so unjustly accused of many crimes, that the ruler judged hin innocent, and sought means to deliver him; but contrary to known justice, he did let go Barabbas, which had deserved death, and delivered Christ to be crucified, who deserved no death which doth declare unto us manifestly, that he suffered for our sins, and was buffeted for our offences, as the Prophets do witness, thereby to have it manifested to all men, that he is that Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. Therefore, suffering for our sins, he received and did bear our deserved condemnation, the pains of death, the taste of abjection, the very terror of hell, yielding his spirit to his Father, his body to be buried

in earth.

"The third day he rose again from death to life."

To inake full and perfect the whole work of our redemption and justification, the same crucified body which was laid in the grave, was raised up again the third day from death, by the power of his Father, and glory of his Godhead: he became the first fruits of the resurrection, and got the victory of death, that all by him might be raised up from death. Through whom all true penitent sinners may now

boldly come unto the Father, and have remission of their sins.

"He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty."

After that in his death and resurrection he had conquered sin, death, and the devil, and had been conversant forty days in the earth, being seen of the Apostles, and more than five hundred brethren at once, in the same body, in which he wrought the work of our salvation, he ascended into heaven with eternal triumph, for the victory over death, sin, hell; leaving the passage open, by which all true believers may and shall enter into his kingdom, where he now sitteth at his Father's right hand, that is to say, in power and glory equal, in majesty coeternal.

"From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead."

He shall appear again in great glory to receive his elect unto himself, and to put his enemies under his feet, changing all living men in a moment, and raising up all that be dead, that all may be brought to his judgment. In this shall he give each man according to his deeds. They, which have followed him in regeneration, which have their sins washed away in his blood, and are clothed with his righteousness, shall receive the everlasting kingdom, and reign with him for ever; and they, which, after the race of the corrupt generation of Adam, have followed flesh and blood, shall receive everlasting damnation with the devil and his angels.

"I believe in the Holy Ghost."

I do believe, that the Holy Ghost is God, the third person in Trinity, in unity of the Godhead equal

with the Father and the Son, given through Christ to inhabit our spirits; by which we are made to feel and understand the great power, virtue, and loving kindness of Christ, our Lord. For he illumineth, quickeneth and certifieth our spirit, that by him we are sealed up unto the day of redemption, by whom we are renegerate and made new creatures, so that by him and through him we do receive all the abundant goodness promised us in Jesus Christ.

"The holy catholic church."

This is an holy number of Adam's posterity, elected, gathered, washed, and purified by the blood of the Lamb from the beginning of the world, and is dispersed through the same by the tyranny of Gog and Magog; that is to say, the Turk and his ty ranny, and Antichrist, otherwise named the bishop of Rome, and his angels, as this day also doth teach.

"The communion of saints."

Which most holy congregation (being, as Paul teacheth, "builded upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ being the head cornerstone"), though it be, by the tyranny of Satan and his ministers, persecuted, some by imprisonment, some by death, and some by other afflictions and painful torments: yet doth it remain in one perfect unity, both in faith and fellowship: which unity is knit in an unspeakable knot, as well of them which are departed from this mortal life, as of them which now be living, and hereafter shall be in the same, and so shall continue until they all do meet in the kingdom, where the head Jesus Christ with all his holy members (of which member through Christ I assuredly believe, that I am one), shall be fully complete, knit, and united together for evermore.

"The forgiveness of sins."

I do believe, that my sins, and all their sins, which do rightly believe the holy Scripture, are forgiven only through that Jesus Christ, of whom only I do profess, that I have my whole and full salvation and redemption; which, Saint Paul saith, cometh not "through our works and deservings, but freely by grace, lest any should boast himself." Through the blood of his cross, all things in heaven and earth are reconciled, and set at peace with the Father; without him no heavenly life given, nor sin fore given.

"The resurrection of the body."

I do believe, that by the same, my Saviour Christ, I and all men shall rise again from death; for he, as Saint Paul saith, "is risen again from the dead, and is become the first fruits of them which sleep. For by a man came death, and by a man cometh the resurrection from death." This man is Christ, through the power of whose resurrection I believe, that we all shall rise again in these our bodies; the elect, clothed with immortality, to live with Christ for ever; the reprobate also shall rise immortal, to live with the devil and his angels in death everlasting.

"And the life everlasting."

Through the same Jesus, and by none other, I am sure to have life everlasting. He only is the way and entrance into the kingdom of heaven. "For so God loved the world, that he did give his only Son, Jesus Christ, to the end that so many as do believe in him might have everlasting life." The which I am sure to possess, so soon as I am dissolved, and departed out of this tabernacle, and in the last day shall both body and soul possess the same for ever; to the which God grant all men to come.

I believe, that the sacraments, that is to say, of baptism and of the Lord's supper, are seals of God's most merciful promises towards mankind. In baptism, as by the outward creature of water, I am washed from the filthiness, which hangeth on my flesh; so do I assuredly believe, that I am by Christ's blood washed clean from my sins, through which I have sure confidence of my certain salvation. In the partaking of the Lord's supper, as I receive the substance of bread and wine (the nature of which is to strengthen the body), so do I by faith receive the redemption wrought in Christ's body broken on the cross, life by his death, resurrection by his resurrection; and in sum, all that ever Christ in his body suffered for my salvation, to the strengthening of my faith in the same. And I believe, that God hath appointed the eating and drinking of the creatures of bread and wine in his holy supper, according to his word, to move and to stir up my mind to believe these articles above written.

This is my faith, this do I believe; and I am content by God's grace to confirm and seal the truth of the same with my blood.

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