The Book of Confessions - The Presbyterian Leader

acknowledge them as our intercessors or mediators before the Father in heaven. For God and
Christ the Mediator are sufficient for us; neither do we give to others the honor that is due to God
alone and to his Son, because he has expressly said: "My glory I give to no other" (Isa. 42:8), and
because Peter has said: "There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we
must be saved," except the name of Christ (Acts 4:12). In him, those who give their assent by
faith do not seek anything outside Christ.
THE DUE HONOR TO BE RENDERED TO THE SAINTS. At the same time we do
not despise the saints or think basely of them. For we acknowledge them to be living members of
Christ and friends of God who have gloriously overcome the flesh and the world. Hence we love
them as brothers, and also honor them; yet not with any kind of worship but by an honorable
opinion of them and just praises of them. We also imitate them. For with ardent longings and
supplications we earnestly desire to be imitators of their faith and virtues, to share eternal
salvation with them, to dwell eternally with them in the presence of God, and to rejoice with them
in Christ. And in this respect we approve of the opinion of St. Augustine in De Vera Religione:
"Let not our religion be the cult of men who have died. For if they have lived holy lives, they are
not to be thought of as seeking such honors; on the contrary, they want us to worship him by
whose illumination they rejoice that we are fellow-servants of his merits. They are therefore to be
honored by way of imitation, but not to be adored in a religious manner," etc.
RELICS OF THE SAINTS. Much less do we believe that the relics of the saints are to be
adored and reverenced. Those ancient saints seemed to have sufficiently honored their dead when
they decently committed their remains to the earth after the spirit had ascended on high. And they
thought that the most noble relics of their ancestors were their virtues, their doctrine, and their
faith. Moreover, as they commend these "relics" when praising the dead, so they strive to copy
them during their life on earth.
SWEARING BY GOD'S NAME ALONE. These ancient men did not swear except by
the name of the only God, Yahweh, as prescribed by the divine law. Therefore, as it is forbidden
to swear by the names of strange gods (Ex. 23:13; Deut. 10:20), so we do not perform oaths to
the saints that are demanded of us. We therefore reject in all these matters a doctrine that ascribes
much to the saints in heaven.
CHAPTER VI - Of The Providence of God
ALL THINGS ARE GOVERNED BY THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. We believe that
all things in heaven and on earth, and in all creatures, are preserved and governed by the
providence of this wise, eternal and almighty God. For David testifies and says: "The Lord is high
above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated
on high, who looks far down upon the heavens and the earth?" (Ps. 113:4 ff.). Again: "Thou
searchest out . . . all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it
altogether" (Ps. 139:3 f.). Paul also testifies and declares: "In him we live and move and have our
being" (Acts 17:28), and "from him and through him and to him are all things" (Rom. 11:36).
Therefore Augustine most truly and according to Scripture declared in his book De Agone
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