Life of Man
repentance, faith, hope, hatred of sin, and love to God's law. We say that to tell men to take comfort in their baptism or church membership when these all-important graces are unknown, is not merely a mistake, but positive cruelty.
5. The Outward and Visible Work of the Holy Spirit in the Life of Man
We maintain that to tell a man he is "born of God" or regenerated, while living in carelessness or sin, is a dangerous delusion.
It is the position we assign to these five points which is one of the grand characteristics of Evangelical theology. We say boldly that they are first, foremost, chief and principal things in Christianity.
II. Evangelical PROTESTATIONS
1. We protest against the modern practice of first personifying the Church, then deifying it, and finally idolizing it.
2. We refuse to admit that Christian Ministers are in any sense sacrificing priests.
We find that sacerdotalism or priestcraft has frequently been the curse of Christianity, and the ruin of true religion.
3. We refuse to admit that Christ's Sacraments convey grace ex opere operato. We protest against the idea that in baptism the use of water, in the Name of the Trinity, is invariably and necessarily accompanied by regeneration. We protest against the theory that the Lord's Supper is a sacrifice. Above all, we protest against the notion of any local presence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper, under the forms of bread and wine, as "idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians".