A confession of faith made by common consent of divers reformed churches beyond the…A confession of fayth made by common consent of diuers reformed churches beyonde the…

And therefore we ought to refer all the glory of this benefit to God. But of this matter, we have spoken in the first chapter of this declaration: Verily, God hath used from the ¹beginning of the world, the best men of all (albeit many of them were simple in worldly wisdom and philosophy, yet passing other in the knowledge of true divinity) as the Patriarchs, ²with whom God talked oft times by his Angels: For the Patriarchs were Prophets, or Teachers in their time, whom God would have live two or three mens lives, to the end that they might be as it were fathers, & lights of the world. Moses and the Prophets followed them, who were most famous throughout all the world: What need I to rehearse, that after them our heavenly father, sent his only begotten Son, a most perfect teacher of the world: In whom was hid that ⟨image 103⟩divine wisdom, which he derived unto us, by the preaching of his most holy, plain, and of all other most perfect doctrine. For he chose to him Disciples, whom he made Apostles, who going out into all the quarters of the world, assembled every where congregations, by the preaching of the Gospel: then in all Churches they ordained, by gods commandment, pastors and teachers, by whose successors he hath to this day, instructed and governed his Church. As therefore God sent to his people in the old time Patriarchs, Moses, and the Prophets, so to those to whom he hath given his new Testament, he hath sent his only begotten Son, with Apostles, and Doctors of the Church. Furthermore, the ministers of the new Testament, be called ³by sundry names: For they are called Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Bishops, Elders, Pastors and doctors. The Apostles remained in no one certain place, but gathered sundry ⁴Churches throughout the world, which when they had now done, they ⟨p. 58⟩were no longer to be called Apostles, but each man became a Pastor in his own church. The prophets in time ⁵