The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume IV / Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts.

by Freiherr von Karl Ludwig Pöllnitz

in my Mind, and what I firmly believe in.

I. I receive the Holy Scriptures intire without the least Diminution, and believe them to be of Divine Inspiration. I believe, that Moses and the Prophets, the Evangelists and the Apostles wrote them by the same Inspiration. I give the same Explanation to the Holy Scriptures as the Catholic Church does, which alone has the Right of interpreting them. I believe also, that those same Scriptures are the Basis and Foundation of Religion, and that none but those who can explain them as the Church does, ought to read them.

II. Upon the Evidence of the Holy Scriptures, I believe in one God alone, the most perfect of all Beings; a Spirit pure, free, disengag’d from all Matter; which knows all Things, is infinitely wise, omnipotent, unspeakably gracious and merciful, just and holy; who suffereth not Sin to go unpunish’d, and who cannot change; who is of infinite Glory and Majesty; who is the eternal and inexhaustible Source of Goodness and Charity, and from whom proceedeth every thing that is good and perfect; who diffuseth himself in all his Creatures; who is the Father of all Things, and who of his infinite Mercy vouchsafed to give us his only Son for our Salvation.

III. I believe in the most Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who, tho’ Three distinct Persons, are nevertheless but One God: These three Persons are eternal, and equal in Majesty and Glory.

IV. I call the Father, God the Father, because the same Scripture gives him that Title, Deut. xxxii. Ver. 6. Is not He thy Father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee, and established thee? And in another Passage, Mal. ii. Ver. 10. Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? The New Testament also gives him the same Appellation: In the Epistle to the Romans, Chap. viii. Ver. 15. St. Paul says, For ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Behold, (says St. John, I Ep. Chap. iii. Ver. 1.) what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God: Therefore the World knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

V. I believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, and God himself; by whom all Things were made, who has created Heaven and Earth, whom the Angels adore and glorify; who knows the Hearts of Men; whose Power is everlasting, and who vouchsafed to come into the World to be our Saviour and our Redeemer.

VI. I believe in Jesus the Son of God, because the Belief of this Truth is the Basis of our Salvation, and of our Redemption. Besides, we are assur’d of this by the Holy Scriptures. St. John says in his first Epistle, Chap. iv. Ver. 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in Him, and He in God. Jesus Christ, speaking of himself, says in St. Matthew, Chap. xvi. Ver. 17. Blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto Thee, but my Father which is in Heaven.

VII. I believe, that the Holy Ghost is God as well as the Father, and as the Son; that he is like them from all Eternity; that he is equal with them; that he is infinitely perfect; that he is the Sovereign Good, the Sovereign Wisdom: that he has the same Essence, the same Nature with the Father and the Son, from whom he proceedeth from all Eternity.

VIII. I believe likewise in the Holy Ghost, upon the Evidence of the sacred Scriptures, which give him this Name upon several Occasions, but more particularly in the New Testament than in the Old. In the New Testament we are commanded to be baptized In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Matt. Chap, xxviii. Ver. 19. St. Peter said to Ananias and Saphira, Acts Chap. v. Ver. 3. Ananias, Why hath Satan filled thine Heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? And a little after he said, Thou hast not lied unto Men, but unto God: He here gives the Appellation of God, to him whom he had call’d but just before the Holy Ghost. St. Paul, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, Chap. xii. Ver. 6. after having spoke of God, says, that ’tis of the Holy Spirit that he had been speaking. And there are Diversities of Operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. And then he adds in the Eleventh Verse, But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every Man severally as he will. Finally, the Scripture commonly joins the Person of the Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son, as I have already said, speaking of Baptism. And in Ordination it makes Use of the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: It ascribes to him, whatever we think agreeable to

God alone: It gives him, for Instance, Temples; Know ye not, (says St. Paul, 1 Cor. Chap. vi. Ver. 19.) that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you? The same Scripture also ascribes to it the Power of sanctifying and quickening our Souls, of penetrating into what is the most secret in the Godhead, of speaking by the Oracles of the Prophets; and finally, of being omnipresent: Those are the Attributes of God alone, and such as are only suitable to him. I therefore make no Scruple to believe, that the Holy Ghost is truly God, as well as the Father and the Son; that he is the Third Person of the most Holy Trinity; and that, as such, I ought to worship, pray to him, and praise him.