XIII. Of Works before Justification. — Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Je- sus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the school-authors say) deserve grace of congruity ; yea, rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin.
XIV. Of Works of Supererogation.— Voluntary works be- sides, over and above God's commandments, which they call works of supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety; for by them men do declare that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake than of bounden duty is re- quired ; whereas Christ saith plainly, When ye have done all that are commanded to you, say, We are unprofitable servants.
XV. Of Christ alone icitlmut Sin. — Christ, in the truth of cur nature, was made like unto us in all things, sin only ex- cept, from which he was clearly void, both in his flesh and in his spirit, lie came to be the Lamb without spot, who, by sacrifice of himself once made, should take away the sins of the world, and sin, as Saint John saith, was not in him. But all we the /est, although baptized and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things; and if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
XVI. Of Sin after Baptism. — Not every deadly sin willing- ly committed after baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after baptism. After wo have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given and fall into sin, and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be con- demned which say they can no more sin as long as they live here, or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent.
XVII. Of Predestination and Flection — Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damna- tion those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as ves- sels made to honor. Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to God's pur- pose by his Spirit working in due season: they through grac3 obey the calling ; they be justified freely ; they be made sons of God bv adoption ; they be made like the image of his only- begotten' Son Jesus Christ; they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to ever- lasting felicity.
As the godly consideration of predestination and our elec- tion in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable com- fort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the work- ing of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthlv members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly es- tablish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation to be en- joyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their love toward God, so, for curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's predestination, is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the devil doth thrust them either into des- peration, or into wretchedness of mo-t unclean living no less perilous than desperation.
Furthermore, we must receive God's promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture, and, in our doings, that will of God is to be followed which we have exp-essly declared unto us in the Word of God.
XVIII. Of obtaining eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ.— They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, That every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he professeth, so that be be diligent to frame his life accord- ing to that law and the light of nature; for Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved.
XIX. Of the Ch arch. —The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word oi God is preached, and the sacraments be duly administered according to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of ne- cessity- aie requisite to the same. .
As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antiach have erred, so also the Church of Home hath erred, not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith. , . ,
1 XX. Of the Authority of the Church.— The church hath I power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in contro- [ versies of faith ; and yet it is not lawful for the church to or-