[MORAL INABILITY.] 9. While sinners have all the faculties necessary to a perfect moral agency and a just accountability, such is their love of sin and opposition to God and his law, that, independently of the renewing influence or almighty energy of the Holy Spirit, they never will comply with the commands of God. [INTERCESSION OF CHRIST.] 10. The intercession of Christ for the elect is previous, as well as subsequent, to their regeneration, as appears from the following Scripture, viz.: 'I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word' (John xvii. 9, 20). [SAVING FAITH.] 11. Saving faith is an intelligent and cordial assent to the testimony of God concerning his Son, implying reliance on Christ alone for pardon and eternal life; and in all cases it is an effect of the special operations of the Holy Spirit. [REGENERATION.] 12. Regeneration is a radical change of heart, produced by the special operations of the Holy Spirit, 'determining the sinner to that which is good,' and is in all cases instantaneous. [SALVATION BY GRACE.] 13. While repentance for sin and faith in Christ are indispensable to salvation, all who are saved are indebted, from first to last, to the grace and Spirit of God. And the reason that God does not save all is not that he wants the power to do it, but that in his wisdom he does not see fit to exert that power further than he actually does. [LIBERTY OF THE WILL.] 14. While the liberty of the will is not impaired, nor the established connection betwixt means and end broken, by any action of God on the mind, he can influence it according to his pleasure, and does effectually determine it to good in all cases of true conversion. [JUSTIFICATION.] 15. All believers are justified, not on the ground of personal merit, but solely on the ground of the obedience and death, or, in other words, the righteousness of Christ. And while that righteousness does not become theirs, in the sense of a literal transfer of personal qualities and merit, yet from respect to it God can and does treat them as if they were righteous. [FREEDOM IN FAITH AND UNBELIEF.] 16. While all such as reject the Gospel of Christ do it, not by coercion, but freely, and all who embrace it do it not by coercion, but freely, the reason why some differ from others is that God has made them to differ. CONFESSION OF THE EVANGELICAL FREE CHURCH OF GENEVA. A.D. 1848. [The FREE Church of Geneva seceded from the established Church of the city of Calvin, and issued in 1848 the following Confession of Faith. It fairly represents the doctrinal position of other Free Churches which have been organized in Switzerland and France in opposition to the degenerate Reformed State Churches. It exhibits the Calvinism of the nineteenth century—a Calvinism moderated, simplified, and separated from connection with the civil government. The French text is taken from the Notice Historique sur l'église évangélique libre de Genève par E. GUERS, Genève, 1875, pp. 86-90. It is also found, together with a Presbyterian constitution and a hymn-book, in Eglise évangélique a Genève; Recueil de Cantiques pour les assemblées de culte, etc. Genève and Lyon, 1864. The English translation was prepared for this work by my friend, Professor ELIE CHARLIER, of New York.] PROFESSION DE FOI de l'église évangélique libre de Genève. I. Nous croyons que la sainte Écriture est pleinement inspirée CONFESSION OF FAITH of the Evangelical Free Church of Geneva. I. We believe that the Holy Scriptures are entirely inspired of de Dieu dans toutes ses parties, et God in all their parts, and that qu'elle est la seule et infaillible they are the only and infallible règle de la foi. Rule of Faith. II. Nous recevons comme Écri- II. We receive as canonical tures canoniques, pour l'Ancien Scriptures of the Old Testament, Testament, tous les livres qui nous all the books which have been sont transmis à ce titre par l'uni- transmitted to us, under that title, versalité du peuple juif, auquel by the universal consent of the les oracles de Dieu ont été confiés Jewish people, to whom the orasous la surveillance du Seigneur; cles of God were confided under et nous recevons également comme Ecritures canoniques, pour le Nouveau Testament, tous les livres qui, sous l'action de la même Providence, nous ont été transmis à ce titre par l'universalité des Églises de la chrétienté. III. Nous adorons le Père, le Fils et le Saint-Esprit, un seul the guidance of Jehovah; and we receive equally as canonical Scriptures of the New Testament, all the books which, under the guidance of the same Providence, have been transmitted to us as such by the universal consent of the Churches of the Christian world. III. We worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, one only God in three persons, the Creator and Preserver of all things. IV. We believe that the first man, Adam, was created, after the image of God, perfectly just and Dieu en trois personnes, créateur et conservateur de tout ce qui existe. IV. Nous croyons que le premier homme, Adam, fut créé à l'image de Dieu, dans une justice et une sainteté véritables; mais que, holy; but that, tempted by Satan, séduit par Satan, il tomba, et que he fell, and that, from that time, dès lors la nature humaine fut en- human nature has been entirely tièrement corrompue; en sorte que corrupt; so that all men are born tous les hommes naissent pécheurs, sinners, unable to do good before incapables de faire le bien selon God, inclined to evil, bringing Dieu, assujettis au mal, attirant condemnation and death on themsur eux, par un juste jugement, la selves by a just judgment. condamnation et la mort. V. Nous croyons que la Parole, qui était de toute éternité avec Dieu et qui était Dieu, a été faite chair, et que, second Adam, né pur d'une vierge par la puissance du Très-Haut, Jésus, seul entre les hommes, a pu rendre à Dieu une parfaite obéissance. V. We believe that the Word, which was of all eternity with God, and which was God, was made flesh, and that, alone among men, Jesus, a second Adam, born from a virgin by the power of the Most High, has been able to obey God in a perfect way. VI. Nous croyons que Jésus, le VI. We believe that Jesus, the Christ, Dieu et homme en une Christ, God and man in one, only seule personne, unique Médiateur Mediator between God and men, entre Dieu et les hommes, est mort died in our place as an expiatory à notre place en victime expiatoire, victim, that he rose from the dead, qu'il est ressuscité, et que, élevé and that, having ascended into dans la gloire, il comparaît maintenant pour nous devant Dieu, on même temps qu'il demeure avec nous par son Esprit. glory, he intercedes for us before God, at the same time dwelling with us by the Holy Ghost. VII. Nous croyons que nul VII. We believe that no man homme ne peut entrer dans le roy- can enter into the kingdom of aume de Dieu s'il n'a subi dans heaven unless he has felt in his son âme, par la vertu du Saint-soul, through the virtue of the Holy Esprit, le changement surnaturel | Ghost, the supernatural change que l'Écriture appelle nouvelle which, in the Holy Scriptures, is naissance, régénération, conversion, called new birth, regeneration, passage de la mort à la vie. conversion, passing from death to life. VIII. We believe that we are justified before God, not by righteous works which we may accomplish, but only by grace and through faith in Christ, whose righteous VIII. Nous croyons que nous sommes justifiés devant Dieu, non par des œuvres de justice que nous ayons faites, mais uniquement par grâce et par le moyen de la foi en Christ, dont la justice nous est ness is ascribed to us. imputée. C'est pourquoi nous account we are assured that in sommes assurés qu'en Lui nous Him we have eternal life, and that avons la vie éternelle, et que nul no one can pluck us out of his ne nous ravira de sa main. hand. On that IX. We believe that without sanctification no man will see the Lord, and that, ransomed at a great price, we must glorify him by our IX. Nous croyons que sans la sanctification personne ne verra le Seigneur, et que, rachetés à grand prix, nous devons le glorifier par nos œuvres. Et quoique le combat works. And although the battle entre l'esprit et la chair demeure between the Spirit and the flesh en nous jusqu'à la fin, toutefois exists unto the end, still we are nous ne perdons pas courage, mais not discouraged, but, having reayant reçu une volonté nouvelle, ceived a new will, we work for nous travaillons à notre sanctifi- our sanctification in the fear of cation dans la crainte de Dieu. the Lord. X. Nous croyons que le comX. We believe that the beginmencement et la fin du salut, la ning and the end of our salvation, nouvelle naissance, la foi, la sanc- our new birth, faith, sanctification, tification, la persévérance, sont un and perseverance are a gratuitous don gratuit de la miséricorde di- gift of the divine mercy; the true vine; le vrai croyant ayant été believer having been elected in élu en Christ avant la fondation Christ before the foundation of du monde, selon la préconnais- the world, according to the foresance de Dieu le Père, dans la knowledge of God, the Father, in sanctification de l'Esprit, pour the sanctification of the Holy Ghost, |