18 A CONFESSION OF FAITH. 



That the work of the Spirit, though it be not 

 tied to any means in heaven or earth, yet it is ordi 

 narily dispensed hy the preaching of the word ; the 

 administration of the sacraments ; the covenants of 

 the fathers upon the children, prayer, reading ; the 

 censures of the Church ; the society of the godly ; 

 the cross and afflictions ; God s benefits ; his judg 

 ments upon others ; miracles ; the contemplation of 

 his creatures : all which, though some be more 

 principal, God useth as the means of vocation and 

 conversion of his elect ; not derogating from his 

 power to call immediately by his grace, and at all 

 hours and moments of the day, that is, of man s life, 

 according to his good pleasure. 



That the word of God, whereby his will is re 

 vealed, continued in revelation and tradition until 

 Moses ; and that the Scriptures were from Moses s 

 time to the times of the apostles and evangelists ; 

 in whose age, after the coming of the Holy Ghost, 

 the teacher of all truth, the book of the Scriptures 

 was shut and closed, so as not to receive any new 

 addition ; and that the Church hath no power over 

 the Scriptures to teach or command any thing con 

 trary to the written word, but is as the ark, wherein 

 the tables of the first testament were kept and pre 

 served : that is to say, the Church hath only the 

 custody and delivery over of the Scriptures com 

 mitted unto the same ; together with the interpre 

 tation of them, but such only as is conceived from 

 themselves. 



That there is an universal or catholic Church of 



