Augsburg Confession (1530): “Also they teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favour, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight. Rom. 3 and 4” (Article IV).
Apology of the Augsburg Confession (1530): “… that faith which justifies is not merely a knowledge of history, [not merely this, that I know the stories of Christ’s birth, suffering, etc. (that even the devils know,)] but it is to assent to the promise of God, in which, for Christ’s sake, the remission of sins and justification are freely offered. [It is the certainty or the certain trust in the heart, when, with my whole heart, I regard the promises of God as certain and true, through which there are offered me, without my merit, the forgiveness of sins, grace, and all salvation, through Christ the Mediator.] And that no one may suppose that it is mere knowledge, we will add further: it is to wish and to receive the offered promise of the remission of sins and of justification. [Faith is that my whole heart takes to itself this treasure. It is not my doing, not my presenting or giving, not my work or preparation, but that a heart comforts itself, and is perfectly confident with respect to this, namely, that God makes a present and gift to us, and not we to Him, that He sheds upon us every treasure of grace in Christ]” (Article IV [II] 48).
The Books of Homilies (1547, 1562 and 1571): “For the right and true Christian faith is, not only to believe that Holy Scripture, and all the aforesaid articles of our faith, are true; but also to have a sure trust and confidence in God’s merciful promises, to be saved from everlasting damnation by Christ: whereof doth follow a loving heart to obey his commandments. And this true Christian faith neither any devil hath; nor yet any man, which in the outward profession of his mouth, and in his outward receiving of the Sacraments, in coming to the church, and in all other outward appearances, seems to be a Christian man, and yet in his living and deeds sheweth the contrary. For how can a man have this true faith, this sure trust and confidence in God, that by the merits of Christ his sins be forgiven, and he reconciled to the favour of God, and to be partaker of the kingdom of heaven by Christ, when he lives ungodlily, and denieth Christ in his deeds? Surely no such ungodly man can have this faith and trust in God” (The Homilies [Great Britain: Focus Christian Ministries Trust, 1986], p. 20).
Confession of the English Congregation at Geneva (1556): “I believe in the Holy Ghost; Moreover, I believe and confess the Holy Ghost, God equal with the Father and the Son, who regenerates and sanctifies us, rules and guides us into all truth (Matt. 3:16, 17; 1 John 5:7; I Peter 1:2, 22; 1 Cor. 6:11, 19; John 16:7-13; Eph. 3:16; 2 Thess. 2:13), persuading us most assuredly in our consciences, that we are the children of God, brethren to Jesus Christ, and fellow heirs with Him of life everlasting (Rom. 8:13-17; Gal. 4:6, 7)” (Article 3; in James T. Dennison, Jr., Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation, vol. 2 [Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010], p. 99).
Scots Confession (1560): “… regeneration is wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost (Rom. 5, 6) working in the hearts of the elect of God, an assured faith in the promise of God revealed to us in His Word, by which faith they apprehend Christ Jesus with the graces and blessings promised in Him … This our faith and the assurance of the same proceeds not from flesh and blood (Matt. 16), that is to say, from no natural powers within us, but is the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, whom we confess God equal with the Father and with the Son, who sanctifies us and brings us in all verity by His own operation, without whom we should remain forever enemies to God and ignorant of His Son, Christ Jesus” (Articles 3, 12; in James T. Dennison, Jr., Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation, vol. 2 [Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010], pp. 189-190, 194).
Belgic Confession (1561): “Moreover, though we do good works, we do not found our salvation upon them; for we do no work but what is polluted by our flesh, and also punishable; and although we could perform such works, still the remembrance of one sin is sufficient to make God reject them. Thus then we would always be in doubt, tossed to and fro without any certainty, and our poor consciences continually vexed, if they relied not on the merits of the suffering and death of our Savior” (Article 24).
The National Covenant (1580): “… we detest and refuse the usurped authority of that Roman Antichrist … [including] his general and doubtsome faith.”
Craig’s Catechism (1581):
Q. What is faith in Christ?
A. A sure persuasion that he is the only Saviour of the world, but especially ours who believe in him.
Lambeth Articles (1595): “The truly faithful man—that is, one endowed with justifying faith—is sure by full assurance of faith (plerophoria fidei) of the remission of sins and his eternal salvation through Christ” (Article 6).
James Melville’s Catechism (1598):
Q. What is your faith?
A. My sure belief that God both may and will save me in the blood of Jesus Christ, because he is almighty, and has promised to do so.
John Davidson’s Catechism (1599):
A. And it is certain that both the enlightening of the mind to acknowledge the truth of the promise of salvation to us in Christ, and the sealing up of the certainty of it in our hearts and minds are the works and effects of the Spirit of God; and are neither of nature nor of art …
Q. What is faith?
A. It is an hearty assurance, that our sins are freely forgiven us in Christ. Or after this manner: It is the hearty receiving of Christ offered in the preaching of the word and sacraments, by the working of the Holy Spirit, for the remission of sins, whereby he becomes one with us, and we one with him, he our head, and we his members …
Q. What is this faith, that is the only instrument of this strait conjunction between Christ crucified and us?
A. It is the sure persuasion of the heart, that Christ by his death and resurrection hath taken away our sins, and, clothing us with his own righteousness, has thoroughly restored us to the favour of God.
A Compendium of the Christian Religion:
Q. 19. What is true faith?
A. It is a certain knowledge of God, and of his promises revealed to us in the gospel, and an hearty confidence that all my sins are forgiven me, for Christ’s sake.
Summula Catechismi:
Q. What is faith?
A. When I am persuaded that God loves me and all his saints, and freely gives us Christ with all his benefits.
Irish Articles of Religion (1615): “By justifying faith, we understand not only the common belief of the Articles of Christian religion, and a persuasion of the truth of God’s word in general: but also a particular application of the gratuitous promises of the gospel to the comfort of our own souls: whereby we lay hold on Christ with all his benefits, having an earnest trust and confidence in God that he will be merciful unto us for his only Son’s sake. So that a true believer may be certain, by the assurance of faith, of the forgiveness of his sins, and of his everlasting salvation by Christ” (Article 37).
Catechism of the Reformed Church of France:
Q. 111. Since we have the foundation on which our faith is built, we may well gather from it what is the right faith?
A. Yes, truly; that is to say, it is a sure persuasion and steadfast knowledge of God’s tender love towards us, according to what he has plainly uttered in his gospel, that he will be both a Father and a Saviour to us through the means of Jesus Christ.
Q. By what means may we attain to him there [i.e., at the Lord’s supper]?
A. By faith, which God’s Spirit works in our hearts, assuring us of God’s promises made to us in his holy gospel.
Festus Hommius, Johannes Becius and Johannes Bogardus:
“We confess in our [Belgic] Confession and [Heidelberg] Catechism that we are taught in Scripture … That to a true faith belongs a firm confidence of heart whereby every believing man is himself assured that not only to others, but also to him is forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness and salvation from God, only for the sake of the merits of Jesus Christ.
This we reject as unscriptural and contrary to our [Belgic] Confession and [Heidelberg] Catechism … That to a true faith does not belong a firm confidence whereby the believer is assured that sins are forgiven him for the sake of the satisfaction of Christ.
We confess in our [Belgic] Confession and [Heidelberg] Catechism that we are taught in Scripture … That in this life we may be assured that we have received the Holy Ghost unto the adoption of children, and through a sincere faith have become partakers of Christ in all His mercies; that God also through His Holy Spirit assures the true believers of eternal life, so that they may firmly trust that the Holy Spirit will abide with them forever, and that they are living members of the church of God, and will remain such in eternity, and after this life be taken up into heavenly joy and glory.
This we reject as unscriptural and contrary to our [Belgic] Confession and [Heidelberg] Catechism … That it is uncertain that the true believing man as he is in this life shall for ever retain the Holy Ghost, remain a living member of the church of Christ, and surely be saved; and when a true believer is assured of this, that such assurance is nothing but a deceitful audacity and a pillow to carnal carelessness.”
(Six Doctrinal Theses Presented by the Reformed Party at the Delft Conference in February, 1613, trans. Joshua Engelsma in “The Issue of Justification by Faith in the Remonstrant Controversy,” Protestant Reformed Theological Journal, vol. 57, no. 1 [November, 2023], pp. 48-49, 51).
