CONTENTS.
The Belgic Confession contains thirty-seven Articles, and follows the order of the Gallican Confession, but is less polemical and more full and elaborate, especially on the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Church, and the Sacraments. [969] It is, upon the whole, the best symbolical statement of the Calvinistic system of doctrine, with the exception of the Westminster Confession.
THE TEXT.
The text has undergone several modifications as regards the wording and length, but not as regards the doctrine.
The French text must be considered as the original. [970] Of the first edition of 1561 or 1562 no copies are known. The Synod of Antwerp, in Sept., 1580, ordered a precise parchment copy of the revised text (of Junius) to be made for its archives, which copy had to be signed by every new minister. This manuscript has always been regarded in the Belgic churches as the authentic document. [971] The Synod of Dort ordered a new revision, with a view to bring the Latin, French, and Dutch texts into harmony on the basis of the manuscript copy of 1580. The Leyden edition of 1669 gives in two parallel columns the original text and the revised text of Dort. A Rotterdam edition of the Psalter, 1787, carefully reprints the original text in the old spelling from the manuscript, with the changes of Dort in notes. The Brussels edition of 1850 presents the ancient text of 1580, as revised at Dort, in modern French. [972]
Next in authority is the Latin text, but of this there are likewise several recensions, a shorter and a larger. The first Latin translation was made from the revised French copy of Francis Janius, probably by Beza, or under his direction, for the Harmonia Confessionum, Geneva, 1581 (distributed under different heads, with the other Confessions). [973] The same passed into the first edition of the Corpus et Syntagma Confessionum, Geneva, 1612. Another translation was prepared, 1618, for the use of the Synod of Dort, by Festus Hommius, pastor in Leyden, and one of the scribes of that Synod. [974] This text was revised in the following year by that Synod, and thus approved and incorporated with its acts in the 146th session. [975] The revision of Dort was reproduced in the second edition of the Corpus et Syntagma Conf., 1654. [976] The excellent English version in use in the Reformed Dutch Church of America is made from the Latin text of the Synod of Dort.
[960] See a part of it, in English and German, quoted by Gieseler, Vol. IV. p. 311 (Am. ed.).
[961] Grotius estimates the number of Protestant martyrs in Holland, under one reign, at one hundred thousand. Gibbon (History of the Decline, etc., at the close of Ch. XVI.) confidently asserts that 'the number of Protestants who were executed by the Spaniards in a single province and a single reign, far exceeded that of the primitive martyrs in the space of three centuries, and of the Roman empire.' And Motley (History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic, Vol. II. p. 504) says of the terrible reign of Alva: 'The barbarities committed amid the sack and ruin of those blazing and starving cities are almost beyond belief; unborn infants were torn from the living bodies of their mothers; women and children were violated by the thousands, and whole populations burned and hacked to pieces by soldiers in every mode which cruelty in its wanton ingenuity could devise.'
[962] It is strange that Motley, in his great works on the Rise, and the History of the Dutch Republic, ignores the Belgic Confession, and barely mentions the name of Guido de Brès.
[963] See, on Guy de Brès, the enlarged edition of Crespin's Histoire des Martyrs, Genève, 1617, pp. 731-750, and the Brussels edition of the Conf. de foi, p. 19.
[964] Saravia, in a letter to Uytenbogardus (Apr. 13, 1612), quoted by Niemeyer (Proleg. p. lii.) and Gieseler (Ch. Hist. Vol. IV. p. 314, Am. ed.), says: 'Ego me illius confessionis ex primis unum fuisse auctoribus profiteor, sicut et Hermannus Modetus: nescio an plures sint superstites. Illa primo fuit conscripta Gallico sermone a Christi servo et martyre Guidone de Brès, sed antequam ederetur ministris verbi Dei, quos potuit nancisci, illam communicavit: et emendandum si quid displiceret, addendum, detrahendum proposuit, ut unius opus censeri non debeat. Sed nemo eorum, qui manum apposuerunt, umquam cogitavit fidei canonem edere, verum ex canonicis scriptis fidem suam probare.'
[965] The address is given in full by Böckel, 1.c. pp. 480-484.
[966] The Brussels ed. (p. viii.) says: 'Le 8 Octobre, en 1571, il fût statué par le premier synode national des Églises wallonnes et flamandes ténu à Embden, que cette Confession serait signée par tous les membres présents au dit synode et par tous ceux qui seraient admis au saint ministère.'
[967] The Société évangélique or Église Chrétienne missionnaire belge requires from its ministers a qualified subscription to the Belgic Confession with 'une réserve préalable en repoussant ce qui dans la Confession belge regarde l'exercise du pouvoir civil en matière de foi.'
[968] The following formula of subscription is required from ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church in America: 'We, the underwritten, Ministers of the Word of God, residing within the bounds of the Classis of N. N., do hereby sincerely, and in good conscience before the Lord, declare by this our subscription, that we heartily believe, and are persuaded, that all the articles and points of doctrine contained in the [Belgic] Confession and [Heidelberg] Catechism of the Reformed [Dutch] Church, together with the explanation of some points of the aforesaid doctrine made in the National Synod held at Dordrecht, in the year 1619, do fully agree with the Word of God. We promise, therefore, diligently to teach, and faithfully to defend the aforesaid doctrine, without either directly or indirectly contradicting the same by our public preaching or writings. We declare, moreover, that we not only reject all errors that militate against this doctrine, and particularly those which are condemned in the above-mentioned Synod, but that we are disposed to refute and contradict them, and to exert ourselves in keeping the Church pure from such errors. And if hereafter any difficulties or different sentiments respecting the aforesaid doctrine should arise in our minds, we promise that we will neither publicly nor privately propose, teach, or defend the same, either by preaching or by writing, until we have first revealed such sentiment to the Consistory, Classis, or Synod, that the same may be there examined,' etc.
[969] Ebrard (Handbuch der Kirchen- und Dogmengesch. Vol. III. p. 319) says that besides the Gallican Confession as the basis, use was made also of the Friesian Confession of Utenhoven, which the English exiles brought with them to Emden, and of the Catechism of Laski.
[970] It is entitled, 'Confession de Foy faicte d'un commun accord pour les fidèles qui conversent ès Pays-Bas, lesquels désirent vivre selon la pureté de l'Évangile de nostre Seigneur Jésus-Christ.' This title is followed by two mottoes--the one from Apoc. ii. 10: 'Sois fidèle jusques à la mort et je te donneray la couronne de vie;' the other from 1 Pet. iii. 15: 'Soyez tousjours appareillez à respondre à chacun qui vous demande raison de l'espérance qui est en vous.' On the second leaf there is over the head of the first article the brief title, 'Confession vrayement Chrétienne contenant le sommaire de la doctrine de Dieu et salut éternel de l'âme.'
[971] The Brussels ed. says (p. 39): 'C'est probablement d'après la copie de Junius que cette Confession a été imprimée dans le livre des Martyrs de Crespin. Le text de Crespin ne diffère pas de celui du manuscrit authentique.'
[972] This careful edition, issued by the Evangelical Society of Belgium, is reproduced in the third volume of this work, together with the English version now used by the Dutch Reformed Church in America. Both agree, sentence for sentence.
[973] See Note critique at the close of the Brussels edition, p. 39: 'Junius envoya une copie de cette révision à Genève. Theodore de Beza la fit imprimer [in French?]. C'est lui, sans doute, qui la traduisit en latin, comme elle se trouve dans "l'Harmonia Confessionum," Genevæ, 1581.' That this was the first Latin translation is stated in the Harmonia, p. 3: 'Belgica, Gallice omnium Belgicarum Ecclesiarum nomine anno 1566 edita, ac demum anno 1579 [1571?] in publica Belgii Synodo repetita et confirmata, Belgiceque versa. Nunc denique a nobis etiam Latine expressa.'
[974] 'Confessio ecclesiarum reformatarum in Belgio. . . . in usum futuræ synodi nationalis latine edidit et collegit Festus Hommius.' Ludg. Batav. 1618. Niemeyer (pp. 360 sqq.) gives this translation, which more nearly agrees with the older version, and he adds some readings from the first edition of the Corpus et Syntagma.
[975] See the extracts from the Acts of the 144th Session, April 29, 1619, in Niemeyer, p. lv.
[976] Under the title Ecclesiarum Belgicarum Christiana atque Orthodoxa Confessio, summam doctrinæ de Deo et æterna animarum salute complectens, prout in Synodo Dortrechtana fuit recognita et approbata. The articles are numbered, but have no titles. The difference between this and the first Latin translation may be judged from the following specimen: Harmonia Confessionum, 1581 (p. 36). Corpus et Syntagma Confessionum, ed. II., 1654 (p. 129).
Art. I. Corde credimus, et ore confitemur, unicam esse et simplicem essentiam spiritualem, quam Deum vocamus, æternum, incomprehensibilem, inconspicuum, immutabilem, infinitum, qui totus est sapiens, fonsque omnium bonorum uberrimus.
Art. I. Corde credimus, et ore confitemur omnes, unicam esse et simplicem essentiam spiritualem, quam Deum vocamus, eumque æternum, incomprehensibilem, invisibilem, infinitum, omnipotentem, summe sapientem, justum et bonum, omniumque bonorum fontem uberrimum.