CHAPTER III.
PREPARATION FOR A PUBLIC DISPUTATION AT GENEVA.
(From April To Whitsuntide, 1535.)
=THE TEN PROPOSITIONS.=
Jacques Bernard and the Reformers had a meeting for the purpose of drawing up their propositions. The justifying power of faith was to hold the first place, for, according to the Gospel, man must, before everything, condemn the selfish existence he has lived until the moment of his awakening, and place all his confidence in the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ alone. The theses drawn up by the Reformers were as follows:—
I. Man must seek justification for his sins in Jesus Christ ALONE.[509]
II. Religious worship must be paid to God ALONE.
III. The constitution of the Church must be regulated by the Word of God ALONE.
IV. The atonement for sins must be ascribed to Christ's sacrifice, offered up ONCE, and which procures full and entire remission.
V. We must acknowledge ONE ONLY Mediator between God and man—Jesus Christ.
The fault of Rome had been to add to the Gospel many strange dogmas and ceremonies, and place them above the primitive edifice, stage after stage, pile after pile, thus crushing it: this is indeed the proper meaning conveyed by the word superstition. The Reformers aspired to pull down this framework, and liberate Christian truth from all the fables by which it was disfigured. Hence, as we see, the word alone plays a great part in this disputation. Its object was to exclude all human additions and to exalt God alone, Christ alone, the Gospel alone. These propositions, however, did not entirely satisfy Farel. In his opinion it was necessary, after laying down truths, to point out errors. Five negative theses were, therefore, added to the five positive theses:—