AMERICAN RECENSION OF THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION.

ARTICLE I. - OF GOD.

Our churches with one accord teach, that the decree of the Council of
Nice, concerning the unity of the Divine essence, and concerning the
three persons, is true, and ought to be confidently believed, viz.: that
there is one Divine essence, which is called and is God, eternal,
incorporeal, indivisible, infinite in power, wisdom and goodness, the
Creator and Preserver of all things visible and invisible; and yet, that
there are three persons, who are of the same essence and power, and are
co-eternal, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And the term
person they use in the same sense in which it is employed by
ecclesiastical writers on this subject: to signify, not a part or
quality of something else, but that which exists of itself.

ARTICLE II. - OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY.

Our churches likewise teach, that since the fall of Adam, all men who
are naturally engendered, are born with sin, that is, without the fear
of God or confidence towards Him, and with sinful propensities: and that
this disease, or natural depravity, is really sin, and still causes
eternal death to those who are not born again. And they reject the
opinion of those who, in order that they may detract from the glory of
the merits and benefits of Christ, allege that man may be justified
before God by the powers of his own reason.

ARTICLE III. - OF THE SON OF GOD AND HIS MEDIATORIAL WORK.