I believe that my one
aim in life and death should be to glorify God and enjoy Him forever; and
that God teaches me how to glorify Him and enjoy Him in His holy Word,
that is, the Bible, which He has given by the infallible inspiration of
His Holy Spirit in order that I may certainly know what I am to believe
concerning Him and what duty He requires of me.
2. GOD
I believe that God is a Spirit,
infinite eternal and incomparable in all that He is; one God but three
persons - the Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit - my Creator, my Redeemer,
and my Sanctifier: in whose power and wisdom, righteousness, goodness and
truth I may safely put my trust.
3. CREATION
I believe that the heavens and
the earth and all that is in them is the work of God's hands; and that
all that He has made He directs and governs in all their actions; so that
they fulfill the end for which they were created, and I who trust in Him
shall not be put to shame but may rest securely in the protection of His
almighty love.
4. MAN
I believe that God created man
after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, and entered
into a covenant of life with Him upon the sole condition of the obedience
that was His due: so that it was by willfully sinning against God that
man fell into sin and misery in which I have been born.
5. THE FALL
I believe that, being fallen
in Adam, my first father, I am by nature a child of wrath, under the condemnation
of God and corrupted in body and soul, prone to evil and liable to eternal
death; from which dreadful state I cannot be delivered save through the
unmerited grace of God my Saviour.
6. GRACE
I believe that God has not left
the world to perish in its sin, but out of the great love wherewith He
loved it, has from all eternity graciously chosen unto Himself a multitude
which no man can number, to deliver them out of their sin and misery, and
of them to build up again in the world His kingdom of righteousness: in
which kingdom I may be assured I have my part, if I hold fast to Christ
the Lord.
7. CHRIST
I believe that God has redeemed
His people unto Himself through Jesus Christ our Lord; who, though He was
and ever continues to be the eternal Son of God, yet was born of a woman,
born under the law, that He might redeem them that are under the law: I
believe that He bore the penalty due to my sins in His own body on the
tree, and fulfilled in His own person the obedience I owe to the righteousness
of God, and now presents me to His Father as His purchased possession,
to the praise of the glory of His grace forever: wherefore renouncing all
merit of my own, I put all my trust only in the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ my Redeemer.
8. THE LORD
I believe that Jesus Christ
my Redeemer, who died for my offenses was raised again for my justification,
and ascended into the heavens, where He sits at the right hand of the Father
Almighty, continually making intercession for His people, and governing
the whole world as head over all things for His Church: so that I need
fear no evil and may surely know that nothing can snatch me out of His
hands and nothing can separate me from His love.
9. THE HOLY SPIRIT
I believe that the redemption
wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ is effectually applied to all His people
by the Holy Spirit, who works faith in me and thereby unites me to Christ,
renews me in the whole man after the image of God, and enables me more
and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness; until, this gracious
work having been completed in me, I shall be received into glory: in which
great hope abiding, I must ever strive to perfect holiness in the fear
of God.
10. THE GOSPEL
I believe that God requires
me, under the Gospel, first of all, out of a true sense of my sin and misery
and apprehension of His mercy in Christ, I should turn with grief and hatred
from sin and receive and rest upon Jesus Christ alone for salvation; that,
so being united to Him, I may receive pardon from my sins and be accepted
as righteous in God's sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed
to me and received by faith alone: and thus only do I believe I may be
received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the
sons of God.
11. GOOD WORKS
I believe that, having been
pardoned and accepted for Christ's sake, it is further required of me that
I walk in the Spirit whom He has purchased for me, and by whom love is
shed abroad in my heart; fulfilling the obedience I owe to Christ my King;
faithfully performing all the duties laid upon me by the holy law of God
my heavenly Father; and ever reflecting in my life and conduct the perfect
example that has been set me by Christ my Leader, who has died for me and
granted to me His Holy Spirit just that I may do the good works which God
has prepared before that I should walk in them.
12 THE CHURCH
I believe that God has established
His Church in the world and endowed it with the ministry of the Word and
the holy ordinances of Baptism, the Lord's Supper and Prayer; in order
that through these as means, the riches of His grace in the Gospel may
be make known to the world, and, by the blessing of Christ and the working
of this Spirit in them that by faith receive them, the benefits of redemption
may be communicated to His people: wherefore also it is required of me
that I attend on these means of grace with diligence, preparation, and
prayer, so that through them I may be instructed and strengthened in faith,
and in holiness of life and in love; and that I use my best endeavors to
carry this Gospel and convey these means of grace to the whole world.
13. THE FUTURE
I believe that as Jesus Christ
has once come in grace, so also He is to come a second time in glory, to
judge the world in righteousness and assign to each his eternal award:
and I believe that if I die in Christ, my soul shall be at death made perfect
in holiness and go home to the Lord; and when He shall return in His majesty
I shall be raised in glory and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment
of God to all eternity: encouraged by which blessed hope it is required
of me willingly to take part in suffering hardship here as a good soldier
of Christ Jesus, being assured that if I die with Him I shall also reign
with Him.
