Canon I

God, the Best and Greatest, caused His Word, which is the power of salvation to everyone who believes [Romans 1:16], not only to be committed to writing through Moses, the Prophets, and the Apostles, but has also paternally watched and kept guard over that writing until now, lest it could be corrupted by the cunning of Satan or by any human fraud. Therefore the Church rightly ascribes it to His singular grace and goodness that she has, and will have to the end of the world, the most sure prophetic word [2 Peter 1:19], and also the sacred letters, the holy Scriptures [2 Timothy 3:15], from which, though heaven and earth pass away [Matthew 5:18], not even one jot or tittle shall perish.

Canon II

But in particular the Hebrew codex of the Old Testament, which we have received from the tradition of the Jewish Church, to whom of old the oracles of God were committed [Romans 3:2], and which we retain to this day, is God-breathed both as to the consonants and as to the vowels (whether the points themselves, or at least the force of the points), and both as to the substance and as to the words, so that, together with the codex of the New Testament, it is the sole and inviolate rule of our faith and life, to whose standard, as to a Lydian touchstone, all the versions that exist, whether eastern or western, are to be measured, and wherever they deviate, are to be brought back.

Canon III

Therefore we can by no means approve the opinion of those who hold that the reading which the Hebrew codex exhibits was settled by human judgment only; who make no scruple of religion to alter the Hebrew reading they judge less convenient, and to emend it from the version of the Seventy elders and other Greek versions, the Samaritan codex, the Chaldee Targums, or even from elsewhere, indeed sometimes from reason alone; who recognize no other authentic reading than what can be drawn out by the verdict of human judgment from a collation of the editions among themselves, and even of the Hebrew codex itself (which they say has been corrupted in various ways); who finally decide that, besides the present Hebrew edition, there were other Hebrew codices, evidenced by the ancient interpreters’ versions where these deviate from our Hebrew text; and who thus bring the very foundation of our faith and its sacred authority into doubtful peril.

Canon IV

God, before the foundations of the world were laid [Ephesians 3:11], in Christ Jesus our Lord made a purpose of the ages, in which, out of the mere good pleasure of His will, without any foresight of merit, of works, or of faith, to the praise of His glorious grace, He elected a certain and definite number of men, lying in the same mass of corruption and in the common blood, and so corrupted by sin, to be led to salvation in time through Christ the Surety and only Mediator, and by His merit, through the most powerful working of the regenerating Holy Spirit, to be efficaciously called, regenerated, and endowed with faith and repentance. And thus indeed God determined to display His glory, in that He decreed first to create man upright, then to permit his fall, and at last to have mercy upon some of the fallen, and so to elect them, but to leave the rest in the corrupt mass, and at length to devote them to eternal destruction.

Canon V

But in that gracious decree of divine election Christ Himself is also included, not as the meritorious cause or as a foundation preceding election itself, but as Himself also elect [1 Peter 2:4,6], foreknown before the foundations of the world were laid, and so chosen as the primary Mediator for carrying out that election, and as our firstborn brother, by whose precious merit God willed to confer salvation upon us without prejudice to His justice. For Scripture not only testifies that election was made according to the mere good pleasure of the counsel and will of God [Matthew 11:26; Ephesians 1:5,9], but also derives the appointment and gift of Christ our Mediator from the earnest love of God the Father toward the world of the elect [John 3:16].

Canon VI

Wherefore neither do we favor the opinion of those who teach that God, moved by a love of mankind, or by some special love of the fallen human race prior to election, by a certain conditional will, a velleity, a first mercy (as they call it), an inefficacious desire, intended the salvation of all and each, conditionally at least, namely if they should believe; that He appointed Christ the Mediator for all and each of the fallen; and at last elected certain ones considered not simply as sinners in the first Adam, but as redeemed in the second Adam, that is, destined them to be graciously granted the saving gift of faith in time; and that election properly so called is accomplished by this single act. For these things, and any others akin to them, deviate not a little from the pattern of sound words concerning divine election. For Scripture restricts the purpose of God, namely of having mercy on men, not to all and each, but to the elect alone, the reprobate being expressly excluded, such as Esau, whom God pursued with eternal hatred [Romans 9:11]. The same sacred letters testify that the counsel and will of God do not change but stand immovably [Isaiah 46:10], and that God in the heavens does whatever He wills [Psalm 115:3]. For God is far removed from all human imperfection, which swells with inefficacious affections and desires, with rashness, repentance, and change of counsel. The appointment of Christ the Mediator, as also the salvation of those given to Him as an inalienable possession and inheritance, is derived from one and the same election; it is not laid under election as a foundation.

Canon VII

As all His works were known to God from eternity [Acts 15:18], so in time, according to His infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, He created man, the glory and crown of His works, in His own image, and so upright, wise, and just; and having created him, He subjected him to the covenant of works, and in it liberally promised him His communion, friendship, and life, provided he should conduct himself obediently to His command.

Canon VIII

Moreover, that promise annexed to the covenant of works was not the continuation of earthly life and happiness only, but especially the possession of eternal and heavenly life, namely in heaven, provided he had run the course of perfect obedience, a life to be spent in the communion of God, both in body and in soul, in unspeakable joy. For not only did the tree of life prefigure this very thing to Adam, but also the power of the law, which, fulfilled by Christ succeeding in our place, assigns to us no other than heavenly life, since Christ fulfills the righteous requirement of the law; and the opposite threat of death, not temporal only but also eternal, manifestly proves it.

[A note in Müller, from the declaration of the Appendix on Article VIII, adds: just as the gospel, the law being fulfilled by Christ succeeding in our place, assigns to us no other than heavenly life in Christ who fulfills the righteous requirement of the law, so the law itself promised the same to man’s perfect obedience.]

Canon IX

Wherefore we assent to none of the opinion of those who deny that the reward of heavenly blessedness was set before Adam if he obeyed God, and who recognize no other promise of the covenant of works than that of a perpetual life abounding in every kind of good, such as can pertain to the soul and body of man constituted in the state of integral nature, and to be enjoyed by him in the earthly paradise. For this both repugns the sound sense of the divine Word and enervates the power of the law considered in itself.

Canon X

But as God entered into the covenant of works with Adam not only for himself, but also in him, as the head and root, with the whole human race, by virtue of the blessing of nature to be born from him, which would have inherited the same integrity had he stood in it: so Adam by his sad fall sinned not for himself only, but also for the whole human race to be propagated from blood and the will of the flesh, and lost the goods promised in the covenant. We hold therefore that the sin of Adam is imputed to all his posterity by the secret and just judgment of God. For the Apostle testifies that in Adam all sinned, that by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners [Romans 5:12,19], and that in the same all die [1 Corinthians 15:22]. Nor does any reason appear how hereditary corruption, as a spiritual death, could fall upon the whole human race by the just judgment of God, unless some offense of that same human race, bringing on the guilt of that death, had preceded; since God, the most just Judge of all the earth, punishes none but the guilty.

Canon XI

On a twofold account, therefore, after sin man is by nature, and thence from his birth, before he commits any actual sin in himself, subject to the wrath and curse of God: first, on account of the transgression and disobedience which he committed in the loins of Adam; then, on account of the consequent hereditary corruption implanted in his very conception, by which his whole nature is depraved and spiritually dead, so much so that original sin is rightly held to be twofold, namely, imputed and hereditary inherent.

Canon XII

We cannot therefore, without prejudice to heavenly truth, give assent to those who deny that Adam by God’s appointment represented his posterity, and accordingly deny that his sin is immediately imputed to his posterity, and who, under the name of mediate and consequent imputation, not only do away with the imputation of the first sin, but also expose the assertion of hereditary corruption itself to grave peril.

Canon XIII

As Christ was from eternity elected as the Head, Prince, and Heir of all those who in time are saved by His grace, so also in time, under the New Covenant, He was made Surety for those alone who by eternal election were given to Him as a people of His possession, His seed and inheritance. For He underwent His dreadful death for the elect alone, out of the decretive counsel and proper intention of the Father and of Himself; them alone He restored into the bosom of the Father’s grace; them alone He reconciled to God the Father who had been offended, and freed from the curse of the law. For our Jesus saves His people from their sins [Matthew 1:21], who gave His soul a ransom for many [Matthew 20:28], His sheep attentive to His voice [John 10:27-28; Isaiah 53:12], for whom alone also, as a divinely called Priest, He intercedes, the world being set aside [John 17:9]. Therefore, when Christ died, the elect alone, who in time become a new creature [2 Corinthians 5:17], and in whose place He, as a propitiatory victim, was substituted in dying, are reckoned to have died together with Him and to be justified from sin [Romans 6:7]; and thus the will of the dying Christ so harmoniously agrees and amicably conspires with the counsel of the Father, who gives Him none but the elect to be redeemed, and with the operation of the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies none but the elect and seals them to a living hope of eternal life, that the equal coordination of the electing Father, the redeeming Son, and the sanctifying Holy Spirit stands plain.

Canon XIV

And this very thing becomes still clearer from the fact that Christ, for those same ones for whom He died, both merited and actually confers not only salvation but also the means to salvation, especially the regenerating Spirit and the heavenly gift of faith. For Scripture testifies that Christ the Lord came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel [Matthew 10:6; 15:24], and to send that same Holy Spirit, as His own, the fountain of regeneration [John 16:7-8]; and that among the better promises of the New Covenant, of which He was made Mediator and Surety, this one stands out, that He will inscribe His law, namely of faith, on the hearts of His own [Hebrews 8:10]; that whatever the Father gave Him comes to Christ, namely by faith [John 6:36-37]; and finally that we are elect in Christ, that we may be holy and blameless, and so sons through Him [Ephesians 1:4-5]. But that we may be holy and sons of God proceeds from nowhere else than from faith and the Spirit of regeneration.

Canon XV

But Christ so satisfied God the Father by the obedience of His death in the place of the elect, that nevertheless into the account of that vicarious righteousness and obedience the whole obedience must be reckoned which He rendered to the law, as that just servant, throughout the course of His whole life, whether by doing or by suffering. For the life of Christ was nothing else, by the Apostle’s testimony [Philippians 2:8 and following], than a perpetual emptying, submission, and humiliation, proceeding step by step to the very last term, namely the death of the cross. The Spirit of God plainly asserts that Christ by His most holy life satisfied the law and the divine justice for us, and places that price by which we were bought for God not in His sufferings only, but in His whole life conformed to the law. Yet it ascribes our redemption to the death or blood of Christ in no other sense than because He was perfected through sufferings. And thus it takes the name from that final, terminating, and most noble act, without which our salvation could not have stood, and which was the most luminous mirror of all virtues, yet so as by no means to shut out His preceding life from that death.

Canon XVI

Since all these things are altogether so, we surely cannot approve the opposite doctrine of those who hold that Christ, by His proper intention and counsel, both His own and the Father’s who sent Him, died for all and each, with the impossible condition added, namely if they should believe; that He obtained for all a salvation which nevertheless is not applied to all; that by His death He properly and actually merited salvation and faith for no one, but only removed the obstacle of divine justice and acquired for the Father the power of entering a new covenant of grace with all men; and finally, who so divide the active and passive righteousness of Christ that they assert He claims the active for Himself as His own, but bestows and imputes the passive only to the elect. All these things, and any like them, contradict the plain Scriptures and the glory of Christ, who is the Author and Finisher of our faith and salvation; they empty His cross, and under the appearance of increasing His merit, in fact diminish it.

Canon XVII

The call to salvation has been suited to the proper times [1 Timothy 2:6]; for according to the will of God it has been now more restricted, now wider and more common, yet never absolutely universal. For under the Old Testament God announced His Word to Jacob, His statutes and judgments to Israel; He did not so deal with any nation [Psalm 147:19-20]. In the New Testament, God, peace having been made in the blood of Christ and the dividing wall broken down, has so far enlarged the boundaries of the gospel proclamation and of the external call, that there is no longer any distinction between Jews and Gentiles, but God is now the Lord of all, rich toward all who call upon Him [Romans 10:12]. Yet not even thus is it absolutely universal. For Christ testifies that many are called, not all [Matthew 20:16]. And when Paul and Timothy hastened toward Bithynia to preach the gospel there, the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them [Acts 16:7]. And there have been, and are even today, as experience testifies, countless myriads of men to whom Christ has never so much as been heard of.

Canon XVIII

Meanwhile God left Himself by no means without witness even to those whom He did not deign to call to salvation through the Word [Acts 14:17]. For He gave them the spectacles of heaven and the stars [Deuteronomy 4:19]. And what can be known of God, namely from the works of nature and providence, that very thing He revealed to them [Romans 1:19], to testify His long-suffering. Yet it is not to be held that those works of nature and divine providence were in themselves sufficient instruments, performing the office of an external call, by which the mystery of God’s good pleasure or mercy in Christ might become known to them. For at once the Apostle adds: His invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, namely His eternal divinity and power, not the secret good pleasure in Christ, nor to this end that from them they might learn the mystery of salvation through Christ, but that they may be without excuse, because they did not rightly use even that residual knowledge, but knowing God, did not glorify Him as God, nor give Him thanks. Wherefore also Christ glorifies God His Father, that He has hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to infants [Matthew 11:25]. And the Apostle further teaches that the mystery of God’s will is made known to us according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ [Ephesians 1:9].

Canon XIX

The external call itself also, which is made through the gospel proclamation, is, even with respect to God who calls, serious and sincere. For by His Word He seriously and most truly discloses, not indeed what His secret intention is concerning the salvation or destruction of individuals, but what is our duty, and what awaits those who do or omit that duty. Namely, this is the will of God who calls, that the called should come to Him and not neglect so great a salvation; and so to those who come to Him by faith He seriously promises eternal life [2 Timothy 2:11-13]. For faithful (as the Apostle says) is the saying: if we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, He cannot deny Himself. Nor is that will inefficacious with respect to those who do not obey the call, because God always attains what He willingly intends, namely the demonstration of duty and, following from this, either the salvation of the elect who do their duty, or the inexcusableness of the rest who neglect the prescribed duty. The spiritual man certainly reconciles without difficulty the internal conception of God, answerable to faith, with the external Word of God spoken or written. And because God further approves all truth which flows from His counsel, therefore it is rightly said to be also His will that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life [John 6:40]. For although all these are the elect alone, and God has entered no universal counsel without determination of persons, and Christ accordingly died not for individuals but for the elect alone given to Him: yet He wills this to be universally true, which follows from His special and definite counsel. But that, by the will of God set forth universally in the external call, the elect alone believe while the reprobate are hardened, proceeds from the sole discriminating grace of God; the elect believing through that same grace, but the reprobate remaining in sin by their native malice, and according to their hardness and impenitent heart treasuring up wrath for themselves against the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God.

Canon XX

We therefore do not doubt that those err who hold that the call to salvation is dispatched not by the preaching of the gospel alone, but also by the works of nature and providence, apart from any external proclamation; and who add that the call to salvation is so indefinite and universal that there is no mortal who is not called, at least objectively (as they say) and sufficiently, whether mediately (namely, that God will add the light of grace to one who rightly uses the light of nature) or immediately, to Christ and salvation; and who finally deny that, without the asserted absolute universality of grace, the external call can be called serious and true, or the simplicity and sincerity of God who calls be defended. For these things are contrary both to Scripture and to the experience of all ages, and manifestly confound nature with grace, what may be known of God with the wisdom that is in a mystery, and finally the light of reason with the light of divine revelation.

Canon XXI

Those who are called to salvation through the gospel proclamation cannot believe, nor follow the One who calls, unless they are raised from that spiritual death by the same power by which God commanded light to shine out of darkness, and unless God, by the heart-bending grace of His Spirit, shines in their hearts unto the illumination, or radiance, of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ [2 Corinthians 4:6]. For the natural man does not receive the things that are of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned [1 Corinthians 2:14]. And Scripture everywhere proves that most profound inability by so many testimonies, by so many emblems, that scarcely in any other matter is it richer. That inability may indeed be called moral, insofar as it is concerned with a moral subject and object; yet it both is and ought to be called natural, insofar as man by nature, and so by the law of his birth, is from his origin a child of wrath [Ephesians 2:2], and has it so innate that he can shake it off in no other way than by the omnipotent and heart-turning grace of the Holy Spirit.

Canon XXII

We hold, therefore, that those speak less purely, and not without danger, who call that inability to believe moral, and will not allow it to be called natural, and who add that man, in whatever state he is placed, can believe if he wills, and that faith, in whatever manner, is among the things in our own power, which faith, however, the Apostle in most express words calls the gift of God [Ephesians 2:8].

Canon XXIII

There are two ways and modes by which God has promised justification: either through works or one’s own deeds in the law, or through the obedience or alien righteousness of Christ the Surety, which is imputed by grace to the one believing in the gospel. The former is the mode of justifying upright man; the latter, of justifying sinful and corrupt man. According to this twofold mode of justification, Scripture also constitutes a twofold covenant: namely, of works, entered with the first Adam and with each of his posterity in him, but made void through sin; and of grace, struck with the elect alone in Christ, the second Adam, which is eternal and subject to no abolition, as that former one was.

Canon XXIV

Moreover, that latter covenant of grace, according to the diversity of times, also receives diverse economies. For the Apostle, pointing to the economy of the fullness of times [Ephesians 1:10], and so to the governance of the last time, plainly signifies that there was another economy and governance in the times preceding the appointed time. Yet in both economies of the gracious covenant the elect were saved no otherwise than through the Angel of the presence [Isaiah 63:9], that Lamb slain from the foundations of the world [Revelation 13:8], Christ Jesus, and the knowledge of and faith in that just servant, and also the Father and His Spirit. For Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever [Hebrews 13:8]. And through His grace we believe that we are saved in the same manner as they also [Acts 15:11], namely the fathers; and the rules remain unmoved in both Testaments: Blessed are they who trust in Him, the Son [Psalm 2:12]; he who believes in Him is not judged, but he who does not believe is already condemned [John 3:18]; you believe in God, namely the Father; believe also in me [John 14:1]. But if the holy fathers believed in Christ as their Goel (Redeemer), it follows that they also believed in the Holy Spirit, without whom no one can call Jesus Lord [1 Corinthians 12:3]. And there are so many most clear demonstrations of that faith of the fathers, and of its necessity in both covenants, that they can escape no one but the willing and the willfully ignorant. And although that saving knowledge of Christ and of the most holy Trinity had to be drawn out, according to the economy of that time, not from the promise alone but also from shadows, figures, and enigmas, more laboriously than now needs to be done in the New Testament: yet it was true, and according to the measure of divine revelation sufficient, by the aspiring grace of God, to procure salvation and consolation of conscience for the elect.

Canon XXV

We therefore disapprove the doctrine of those who set before us three covenants, disparate in their whole nature and marrow, namely natural, legal, and evangelical; and who, in explaining them and assigning their differences, are involved so intricately that they not a little entangle or impair the kernel of solid truth and piety; and who do not hesitate to theologize concerning the necessity, under the Old Testament economy, of the knowledge of Christ and of faith in Him and in His satisfaction and in the whole most holy Trinity, more loosely than is fitting, and not without danger.

Canon XXVI

Finally, to us, to whom for the present the dispensation in the Church, which is the house of God, has been entrusted, and to all those consecrated to us, and to those who, God willing and governing, shall at some time succeed to our charge, we will that this rule be seriously laid down, to forestall the sad torches of dissensions by which the Church of God is everywhere grievously harassed: that in this dregs of the world, with the faithful monitor of the Gentiles, the Apostle [1 Timothy 6:20], we all faithfully guard the deposit, avoid profane emptiness of words, and religiously keep the sincerity and simplicity of that knowledge which is according to godliness, and constantly retain love and unfeigned faith, that most beautiful pair. And let no one take it into his mind to propose, whether publicly or privately, any doubtful or new dogma of faith hitherto unheard of in our churches, repugnant to the Word of God, to our Helvetic Confession, to our symbolic books, and to the Canons of the Synod of Dort, and not proved and sanctioned from the Word of God in the public assembly of the brethren. So especially let us sincerely deliver from the Word of God the necessity of the sanctification of the Lord’s Day, and gravely inculcate it as well, and most urgently press its observance. Finally, let us unanimously and faithfully retain, teach, and assert, in the churches as well as in the schools, as often as occasion shall require, the truth of the Canons here recorded, drawn from the undoubted Word of God.