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THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 1. Man was originally formed after the image of God. His
understanding was adorned with a true and saving knowledge of his Creator, and of spiritual things; his heart
and will were upright, all his affections pure, and the whole man was holy. But, revolting from God by the
instigation of the devil and by his own free will, he forfeited these excellent gifts; and in the place
thereof became involved in blindness of mind, horrible darkness, vanity, and perverseness of judgment; became
wicked, rebellious, and obdurate in heart and will, and impure in his affections.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 2. Man after the fall begat children in his own likeness. A corrupt
stock produced a corrupt offspring. Hence all the posterity of Adam, Christ only excepted, have derived
corruption from their original parent, not by imitation, as the Pelagians of old asserted, but by the
propagation of a vicious nature, in consequence of the just judgment of God.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 3. Therefore all men are conceived in sin, and are by nature
children of wrath, incapable of saving good, prone to evil, dead in sin, and in bondage thereto; and without
the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, they are neither able nor willing to return to God, to reform the
depravity of their nature, or to dispose themselves to reformation.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 4. There remain, however, in man since the fall, the glimmerings of
natural light, whereby he retains some knowledge of God, or natural things, and of the difference between
good and evil, and shows some regard for virtue and for good outward behavior. But so far is this light of
nature from being sufficient to bring him to a saving knowledge of God and to true conversion that he is
incapable of using it aright even in things natural and civil. Nay further, this light, such as it is, man in
various ways renders wholly polluted, and hinders in unrighteousness, by doing which he becomes inexcusable
before God.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 5. In the same light are we to consider the law of the decalogue,
delivered by God to His peculiar people, the Jews, by the hands of Moses. For though it reveals the greatness
of sin, and more and more convinces man thereof, yet, as it neither points out a remedy nor imparts strength
to extricate him from this misery, but, being weak through the flesh, leaves the transgressor under the
curse, man cannot by this law obtain saving grace.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 6. What, therefore, neither the light of nature nor the law could
do, that God performs by the operation of the Holy Spirit through the word or ministry of reconciliation;
which is the glad tidings concerning the Messiah, by means whereof it has pleased God to save such as
believe, as well under the Old as under the New Testament.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 7. This mystery of His will God reveals to but a small number under
the Old Testament; under the New Testament (the distinction between various peoples having been removed) He
reveals it to many. The cause of this dispensation is not to be ascribed to the superior worth of one nation
above another, nor to their better use of the light of nature, but results wholly from the sovereign good
pleasure and unmerited love of God. Hence they to whom so great and so gracious a blessing is communicated,
above their desert, or rather notwithstanding their demerits, are bound to acknowledge it with humble and
grateful hearts, and with the apostle to adore, but in no wise curiously to pry into, the severity and
justice of God's judgments displayed in others to whom this grace is not given.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 8. As many as are called by the gospel are unfeignedly called. For
God has most earnestly and truly declared in His Word what is acceptable to Him, namely, that those who are
called should come unto Him. He also seriously promises rest of soul and eternal life to all who come to Him
and believe.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 9. It is not the fault of the gospel, nor of Christ offered therein,
nor of God, who calls men by the gospel and confers upon them various gifts, that those who are called by the
ministry of the Word refuse to come and be converted. The fault lies in themselves; some of whom when called,
regardless of their danger, reject the Word of life; other, though they receive it, suffer it not to make a
lasting impression on their heart; therefore, their joy, arising only from a temporary faith, soon vanishes,
and they fall away; while others choke the seed of the Word by perplexing cares and the pleasures of this
world, and produce no fruit. This our Savior teaches in the parable of the sower (Matt
13).
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 10. But that others who are called by the gospel obey the call and
are converted is not to be ascribed to the proper exercise of free will, whereby one distinguishes himself
above others equally furnished with grace sufficient for faith and conversion (as the proud heresy of
Pelagius maintains); but it must be wholly ascribed to God, who, as He has chosen His own from eternity in
Christ, so He calls them effectually in time, confers upon them faith and repentance, rescues them from the
power of darkness, and translates them into the kingdom of His own Son; that they may show forth the praises
of Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvelous light, and may glory not in themselves but in
the Lord, according to the testimony of the apostles in various places.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 11. But when God accomplishes His good pleasure in the elect, or
works in them true conversion, He not only causes the gospel to be externally preached to them, and
powerfully illuminates their minds by His Holy Spirit, that they may rightly understand and discern the
things of the Spirit of God; but by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit He pervades the inmost
recesses of man; He opens the closed and softens the hardened heart, and circumcises that which was
uncircumcised; infuses new qualities into the will, which, though heretofore dead, He quickens; from being
evil, disobedient, and refractory, He renders it good, obedient, and pliable; actuates and strengthens it,
that like a good tree, it may bring forth the fruits of good actions.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 12. And this is that regeneration so highly extolled in Scripture,
that renewal, new creation, resurrection from the dead, making alive, which God works in us without out aid.
But this is in no wise effected merely by the external preaching of the gospel, by moral suasion, or such a
mode of operation that, after God has performed His part, it still remains in the power of man to be
regenerated or not, to be converted or to continue unconverted; but it is evidently a supernatural work, most
powerful, and at the same time most delightful, astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable; not inferior in
efficacy to creation or the resurrection from the dead, as the Scripture inspired by the Author of this work
declares; so that all in whose heart God works in this marvelous manner are certainly, infallibly, and
effectually regenerated, and do actually believe. Whereupon the will thus renewed is not only actuated and
influenced by God, but in consequence of this influence becomes itself active. Wherefore also man himself is
rightly said to believe and repent by virtue of that grace received.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 13. The manner of this operation cannot be fully comprehended by
believers in this life. Nevertheless, they are satisfied to know and experience that by this grace of God
they are enabled to believe with the heart and to love their Savior.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 14. Faith is therefore to be considered as the gift of God, not on
account of its being offered by God to man, to be accepted or rejected at his pleasure, but because it is in
reality conferred upon him, breathed and infused into him; nor even because God bestows the power or ability
to believe, and then expects that man should by the exercise of his own free will consent to the terms of
salvation and actually believe in Christ, but because He who works in man both to will and to work, and
indeed all things in all, produces both the will to believe and the act of believing also.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 15. God is under no obligation to confer this grace upon any; for
how can He be indebted to one who had no previous gifts to bestow as a foundation for such recompense? Nay,
how can He be indebted to one who has nothing of his own but sin and falsehood? He, therefore, who becomes
the subject of this grace owes eternal gratitude to God, and gives Him thanks forever. Whoever is not made
partaker thereof is either altogether regardless of these spiritual gifts and satisfied with his own
condition, or is in no apprehension of danger, and vainly boasts the possession of that which he has not.
Further, with respect to those who outwardly profess their faith and amend their lives, we are bound, after
the example of the apostle, to judge and speak of them in the most favorable manner; for the secret recesses
of the heart are unknown to us. And as to others who have not yet been called, it is our duty to pray for
them to God, who calls the things that are not as if they were. But we are in no wise to conduct ourselves
towards them with haughtiness, as if we had made ourselves to differ.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 16. But as man by the fall did not cease to be a creature endowed
with understanding and will, nor did sin which pervaded the whole race of mankind deprive him of the human
nature, but brought upon him depravity and spiritual death; so also this grace of regeneration does not treat
men as senseless stocks and blocks, nor take away their will and it properties, or do violence thereto; but
is spiritually quickens, heals, corrects, and at the same time sweetly and powerfully bends it, that where
carnal rebellion and resistance formerly prevailed, a ready and sincere spiritual obedience begins to reign;
in which the true and spiritual restoration and freedom of our will consist. Wherefore, unless the admirable
Author of every good work so deal with us, man can have no hope of being able to rise from his fall by his
own free will, by which, in a state of innocence, he plunged himself into ruin.
THIRD AND FOURTH HEAD: ARTICLE 17. As the almighty operation of God whereby He brings forth and
supports this our natural life does not exclude but require the use of means by which God, of His infinite
mercy and goodness, has chosen to exert His influence, so also the aforementioned supernatural operation of
God by which we are regenerated in no wise excludes or subverts the use of the gospel, which the most wise
God has ordained to be the seed of regeneration and food of the soul. Wherefore, as the apostles and the
teachers who succeeded them piously instructed the people concerning this grace of God, to His glory and to
the abasement of all pride, and in the meantime, however, neglected not to keep them, by the holy admonitions
of the gospel, under the influence of the Word, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical discipline; so even now it
should be far from those who give or receive instruction in the Church to presume to tempt God by separating
what He of His good pleasure has most intimately joined together. For grace is conferred by means of
admonitions; and the more readily we perform our duty, the more clearly this favor of God, working in us,
usually manifest itself, and the more directly His work is advanced; to whom alone all the glory, both for
the means and for their saving fruit and efficacy, is forever due. Amen.
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