The Immortality of the Souls.—Cap. XVII.
The elect departed are in peace, and rest from their labours; not that they sleep and come to a certain oblivion, as some fantastic heads do affirm, but they are delivered from all fear, all torment, and all temptation, to which we and all God's elect are subject in this life; and therefore do bear the name of the Kirk militant. As contrariwise, the reprobate and unfaithful departed have anguish, torment, and pain, that cannot be expressed; so that neither are the one nor the other in such sleep that they feel not joy or torment, as, in the parable of Christ Jesus in the sixteenth chapter of Luke, His words to the thief, and these words of the souls crying under the altar, "O Lord, Thou that art righteous and just, how long shalt Thou not revenge our blood upon them that dwell upon the earth!" do plainly testify.
Of the notes by which the True Kirk is discerned from the false, and who shall be judge of the doctrine.—Cap. XVIII.
Because that Satan from the beginning has laboured to deck his pestilent synagogue with the title of the Kirk of God, and has inflamed the hearts of cruel murderers to persecute, trouble, and molest the true Kirk and members thereof, as Cain did Abel; Ishmael, Isaac; Esau, Jacob; and the whole priesthood of the Jews, Jesus Christ Himself and His apostles after Him; it is a thing most requisite that the true Kirk be discerned from the filthy synagogue, by clear and perfect notes, lest we, being deceived, receive and embrace to our own condemnation the one for the other. The notes, signs, and assured tokens whereby the immaculate spouse of Christ Jesus is known from that horrible harlot the Kirk malignant, we affirm are neither antiquity, title usurped, lineal descent, place appointed, nor multitude of men approving an error; for Cain in age and title was preferred to Abel and Seth. Jerusalem had prerogative above all places of the earth, where also were the priests lineally descended from Aaron; and greater multitude followed the Scribes, Pharisees, and Priests than unfeignedly believed and approved Christ Jesus and His doctrine; and yet, as we suppose, no man of sound judgment will grant that any of the forenamed were the Kirk of God. The notes, therefore, of the true Kirk of God we believe, confess, and avow to be, first, the true preaching of the Word of God; into the which God has revealed Himself to us, as the writings of the prophets and apostles do declare. Secondly, the right administration of the Sacraments of Christ Jesus, which must be annexed to the Word and promise of God, to seal and confirm the same in our hearts. Lastly, ecclesiastical discipline uprightly ministered, as God's Word prescribes, whereby vice is repressed, and virtue nourished. Wheresoever then these former notes are seen, and of any time continue, be the number never so few above two or three, there, without all doubt, is the true Kirk of Christ, who, according to His promise, is in the midst of them; not that Kirk universal, of which we have before spoken, but particular; such as was in Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, and other places in which the ministry was planted by Paul, and were of himself named the Kirks of God. And such Kirks, we the inhabitants of the realm of Scotland, professors of Christ Jesus, confess us to have in our cities, towns, and places reformed; for the doctrine taught in our Kirks is contained in the written Word of God, to wit, in the books of the Old and New Testaments. In these books we mean, which of the ancient have been reputed canonical, in the which we affirm that all things necessary to be believed for the salvation of mankind are sufficiently expressed; the interpretation whereof, we confess, neither appertaineth to private nor public person, nor yet to any kirk for any pre-eminence or prerogative, personal or local, which one has above another; but appertaineth to the Spirit of God, by the which also the Scripture was written. When controversy then happeneth for the right understanding of any place or sentence of Scripture, or for the reformation of any abuse within the Kirk of God, we ought not so much to look what men before us have said or done, as unto that which the Holy Ghost uniformly speaks within the body of the Scriptures, and unto that which Christ Jesus Himself did, and commanded to be done. For this is a thing universally granted, that the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of unity, is in nothing contrarious unto Himself. If then the interpretation, determination, or sentence of any doctor, Kirk, or Council, repugn to the plain Word of God written in any other place of the Scripture, it is a thing most certain, that theirs is not the true understanding and meaning of the Holy Ghost, supposing that councils, realms, and nations have approved and received the same. For we dare not receive and admit any interpretation which directly repugneth to any principal point of our faith, or to any other plain text of Scripture, or yet unto the rule of charity.
The Authority of the Scriptures.—Cap. XIX.
As we believe and confess the Scriptures of God sufficient to instruct and make the man of God perfect, so do we affirm and avow the authority of the same to be of God, and neither to depend on men nor angels. We affirm, therefore, that such as allege the Scripture to have no other authority, but that which is received from the Kirk, to be blasphemous against God, and injurious to the true Kirk, which always heareth and obeyeth the voice of her own spouse and pastor, but taketh not upon her to be mistress over the same.
Of General Councils, of their Power, Authority, and Causes of their Convention.—Cap. XX.
As we do not rashly condemn that which godly men assembled together in General Council, lawfully gathered, have approved unto us; so without just examination dare we not receive whatsoever is obtrused unto men, under the name of General Councils. For plain it is, that as they were men, so have some of them manifestly erred, and that in matters of great weight and importance. So far, then, as the Council proveth the determination and commandment that it giveth by the plain Word of God, so far do we reverence and embrace the same. But if men, under the name of a Council, pretend to forge unto us new articles of our faith, or to make constitutions repugning to the Word of God, then utterly we must refuse the same, as the doctrine of devils which draws our souls from the voice of our only God, to follow the doctrines and constitutions of men. The cause, then, why General Councils were convened, was neither to make any perpetual law, which God before had not made, nor yet to forge new articles of our belief, nor to give the Word of God authority, much less to make that to be His Word, or yet the true interpretation of the same, which was not before by His holy will expressed in His Word. But the cause of Councils, we mean of such as merit the name of Councils, was partly for confutation of heresies, and for giving public confession of their faith to the posterity following; which both they did by the authority of God's written Word, and not by any opinion or prerogative that they could not err, by reason of their general assembly. And this we judge to have been the chief cause of General Councils. The other was for good policy and order to be constitute and observed in the Kirk, in which, as in the house of God, it becomes all things to be done decently and in order. Not that we think that a policy and an order in ceremonies can be appointed for all ages, times, and places; for as ceremonies, such as men have devised, are but temporal, so may and ought they to be changed when they rather foster superstition, than edify the Kirk using the same.
Of the Sacraments.—Cap. XXI.
As the Fathers under the Law, besides the verity of the sacrifices, had two chief Sacraments, to wit, Circumcision and the Passover, the despisers and contemners whereof were not reputed God's people; so do we acknowledge and confess that we now, in the time of the Evangel, have two Sacraments only, institute by the Lord Jesus, and commanded to be used of all those that will be reputed members of His body, to wit, Baptism and the Supper, or Table of the Lord Jesus, called the Communion of His body and blood. And these Sacraments, as well of the Old as of the New Testament, were institute of God, not only to make a visible difference betwixt His people and those that were without His league, but also to exercise the faith of His children; and by participation of the same Sacraments, to seal in their hearts the assurance of His promise, and of that most blessed conjunction, union, and society, which the elect have with their Head, Christ Jesus. And thus we utterly condemn the vanity of those that affirm Sacraments to be nothing else but naked and bare signs. No, we assuredly believe that by Baptism we are ingrafted in Christ Jesus to be made partakers of His justice, by the which our sins are covered and remitted; and, also, that in the Supper, rightly used, Christ Jesus is so joined with us, that He becomes the very nourishment and food of our souls. Not that we imagine any transubstantiation of bread into Christ's natural body, and of wine into His natural blood, as the Papists have perniciously taught and damnably believed; but this union and communion which we have with the body and blood of Christ Jesus in the right use of the Sacraments, is wrought by operation of the Holy Ghost, who by true faith carries us above all things that are visible, carnal and earthly, and makes us to feed upon the body and blood of Christ Jesus, which was once broken and shed for us, which now is in the heaven, and appeareth in the presence of the Father for us. And yet, notwithstanding the far distance of place, which is betwixt His body now glorified in the heaven and us now mortal in this earth, yet we most assuredly believe that the bread which we break is the communion of Christ's body, and the cup which we bless is the communion of His blood. So that we confess and undoubtedly believe that the faithful, in the right use of the Lord's Table, so do eat the body and drink the blood of the Lord Jesus, that He remaineth in them and they in Him; yea, that they are so made flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bones, that, as the Eternal Godhead hath given to the flesh of Christ Jesus (which of its own condition and nature was mortal and corruptible) life and immortality, so doth Christ Jesus His flesh and blood eaten and drunken by us, give to us the same prerogative. Albeit we confess that these are neither given unto us at that only time, nor yet by the proper power and virtue of the Sacraments alone, we affirm that the faithful in the right use of the Lord's Table have such conjunction with Christ Jesus as the natural man cannot comprehend: yea, and farther we affirm that, albeit the faithful oppressed by negligence, and human infirmity, do not profit so much as they would at the very instant action of the Supper, yet shall it after bring forth fruit, as lively seed sown in good ground; for the Holy Spirit, which can never be divided from the right institution of the Lord Jesus, will not frustrate the faithful of the fruit of that mystical action. But all this, we say, comes by true faith, which apprehendeth Christ Jesus, who only makes His Sacraments effectual unto us; and, therefore, whosoever slandereth us, as that we affirmed or believed Sacraments to be only naked and bare signs, do injury unto us, and speak against a manifest truth. But liberally and frankly we must confess that we make a distinction betwixt Christ Jesus in His natural substance and the elements in the Sacramental signs; so that we will neither worship the signs in place of that which is signified by them, nor yet do we despise and interpret them as unprofitable and vain; but we use them with all reverence, examining ourselves diligently before we do so, because we are assured by the mouth of the Apostle that such as eat of that bread, and drink of that cup, unworthily, are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus.