and the various apprehensions and prejudices of men not like ever to be fully and satisfactorily decided and which indeed are but niceties and trifling subtilties in comparison while they put a greater value upon them than the nature and matter of them will bear and whilst they Sacrifice Unity and the Peace of the Church and the grand and real concerns of Religion to Passion and Humour 3. Much less are doubtful Consequences and Philosophical Opinions to be admitted and reckoned in the number of Fundamentals At first certainly and for several Ages together there was no great subtilty required in order to be a good Christian. The Institutions of Christianity were not Laborious and perplext Nothing was required but a firm assent of the mind to a few Propositions whose matter indeed was Mysterious but what had the highest ground of Credibility to make the assent to them just and rational but when once a bold Curiosity and an unlawful and an over-affected subtilty made men depart from the simplicity of Faith and Religion instead of being the Rule of Life and Discipline became an Art of Disputing and Scripture and Antiquity no longer made the Judges of Controversies but every mans particular Reason though never so much byassed and perverted by the prepossessions of fancy and by the heat and influence of his Passions then Articles of Faith began to multiply and every nicety and far-fetch'd consequence was called by that name and Magisterially imposed and the Philosophy of Aristotle and Plato was brought in to their assistance till the substance of Christianity was even lost in the Quarrel and the very Foundations of it undermined and Faith swallowed up in wantonness of Wit and Peace shut out of the World by Faction and Schism The result was that they were the worse Christians more talkative and curious perhaps but less strict and Religious and Charitable nay less knowing than they were before they let loose the Reins to their fancy and leapt over those boundaries which God and the Church had set 4. Whatsoever was not Fundamental in the Apostles time cannot be so now If it be a true way of defining an Article of Faith that it was revealed by Christ to the Apostles and as such imposed by them upon their Proselytes without the embracing of which they could not be Christians and that it is to be found in the writings which they left behind them either expresly or by necessary consequence Then the contrary also that is whatsoever is not found in their writings either directly or by just and necessary consequence and was not proposed to the first Believers cannot be Fundamental and consequently no one is bound to believe any Doctrine but what was then revealed and afterward acknowledged by the Catholick Church and what-ever proposal is made by the Church is no farther to be believed than as it is consonant to the Scripture and the Doctrine of the Apostles this declaration not being of it self sufficient to make an Article of Faith but as it is founded upon Scripture and Apostolical Authority How had the Peace of Christendom been still preserved if these Rules had been followed and kept in after-ages That is if new Opinions whereof some are very dangerous to which the Christian Church was a stranger for several Centuries of Years and all uncertain at the best if meer fancies to which Superstition and Ignorance have given Birth and if the niceties and subtilties of the Schools and things impossible to be throughly known and matters of meer speculation that tend to the disservice of Religion and do not slow in the least from its Principles had not been adopted Articles and Points of Faith all which we justly object to the Church of Rome and made necessary conditions of Communion How might we have adorsed before the same Altars and gone together to the House of God as Friends and have been partakers of the Mysteries of the Body and blood of our Saviour if they had not determined the manner of the presence of Christ in the Sacrament and brought in a new Doctrine which contradicts the whole circle of Sciences and the sense and experience of all mankind and tyed all others to believe an unnatural sense of the words of the Institution making the differences irreconcileable by their Trent Canons and shutting out all possible hope of Peace till God shall open the eyes of the Christian Princes of that Communion to see the fallacies and cheats of the Court and the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome to call a free and truly General Council to debate the differences which are now on foot to the great scandal of Christianity upon the Principles of Scripture Primitive Antiquity and genuine Apostolical Tradition and which considerations of Worldly Interest and Grandeur keep up this being the only way left to restore Unity to the divided Catholick Church 'T is the glory as well as happiness of the Church of England that the Rites she uses in her Religious Worship are decent and Solemn and every way serving the purposes of Religion that her Goverment is Apostolical that her established Liturgy is according to the Primitive Standard and which no wise and good man can justly be offended at unless perchance he thinks this a just reason because it is a set form that she holds nothing as necessary and essential to Faith but what was held so in the first Ages of the Church and can be proved out of the Scriptures that she rejects no Tradition that can prove it self to be Apostolical that she receives the Articles of the Catholick Faith held Anciently for such in their received sense and as they are laid down in the three Creeds and admits all who receive them into her Communion that her determinations of Opinions in her Articles are modest and far from the high-flown pretence of Infallibility and designed as an Instrument of Union that she is willing to communicate with Christians of what denomination soever where the terms of the Communion are Lawful so as it may be done without sin without prejudice to truth and the Fundamentals of Church Government confirmed by universal Practise and Canons of Councils and without violating the Rights and Priviledges of the Catholick Church as well as her own in particular Let the Romanists single out any one of her professed Tenents which she holds as essential to Faith and necessary to Salvation which is not exactly agreeable to the first Antiquity They cannot deny that she holds nothing amiss herein only they pretend that she does not hold enough That is that we reject Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass Invocation of Saints and Angels Worshipping of Images that we do not admit the Pope to be the visible Head and Monarch of the Church and the Vicar of Christ and that it is necessary to Salvation to be Subject to him and the like All which are meer Fancies and Usurpations But if the Primitive Christians were
a Doctrine proposed to us as a Matter of Faith Is it any where to be found in the Discourses of our Blessed Saviour preserved in the History of the Gospels Did the Apostles teach it their first Converts Is it agreeable to or founded upon true Apostolick Tradition Is this Tradition un-interrupted and derived down pure from the first Ages of the Church Was it received universally by the whole number of Christians in their time Is it any where to be met with in their Writings either in express terms or by a just and clear and necessary consequence For though the Doctrine of the Christian Religion was Preach'd and received before any word of the New Testament was Penned yet to say the Apostles taught many Points of Doctrine which they did not put down in Writing and much more such Points as consequentially overthrow and destroy the plain sense and letter of the Text is a very groundless and scandalous Supposition And besides the injury done to the Scriptures which contain in them all Points necessary to be believed is confuted by the Authors of it who pretend to fetch Proofs of their fansied tenents out of them There having been that great Veneration shewn to the Inspired Writings in all Ages that Hereticks and other kind of Innovators have chosen rather to bend and warp the Scripture and pervert its true sense and meaning in favour of their tenents than not seem to have the Countenance of its Authority 2. That since the times of the Apostles and the Sealing up of the Canon of Scripture no New Doctrine can or ought to be added as Essential to the Christian Religion For all which is Essential to the Faith was delivered by the Apostles to the Church at first otherwise the Rule of Faith had been imperfect and would have had something wanting to its completion to be supplyed in after-times which is to cast a slur and a blemish upon those first Ages of Christianity which were fully Instructed in all things fit and necessary for Christians to know and believe by the Apostles themselves without the stamp of whose Authority no Doctrine could be Authentick For what ever was believed as necessary derived only from them as the Instruments which Christ made use of to convey his Doctrine to the World which they did fully and carefully and successfully by the mighty aids of his Spirit according to the trust reposed in them They establish'd the belief of the Christian Religion in the hearts of the Faithful They concealed nothing of the mind and will of God Churches were formed and modelled according to their direction and command and Episcopal Government with the inferiour and subordinate Orders settled for the better preservation of Unity and Communion The Faith of Christ was professed and acknowledged as they taught and delivered it Their Writings were among them exactly agreeing in all things with what they had Preach'd and were to be the standing Monuments of the will of Christ Registred by their Pens to direct all succeeding Generations of Christians in their belief and in their practise After their Decease no new Revelation was to be expected only a delivering down of the same Apostolical Doctrine to after-ages in which the Faith nay the Curiosity of all Christians ought to acquiesce 3. That it is not in the Power of the Church in general much less of any particular Church of what denomination soever to lay down any Doctrine as necessary to be believed in order to Salvation but what is expresly revealed or clearly deduced out of the writings of the New Testament and was acknowledged in the first Ages of Christianity For if so they must pretend to the same Authority and produce clear and convictive Evidences of such Revelations to make them credible and lay an Obligation upon the Consciences of all Christians to receive their Propositions under the grievous penalty of otherwise disobeying the voice and will of God This dotage indeed Montanus and such kind of Enthusiasts have been guilty of But their pretensions were rejected as dreams of folly arising from mis-interpretations of Scripture as if there were to be new Revelations made in after-times by way of super-addition and supplement into which errors they were led by their pride and conceitedness and an ill habit and temper of body and the Authority of the Scriptures and the Praescription of the precedent Ages were justly objected against them All that the Church can pretend to is only this not to define and make a new Article of Faith but only to declare what before was revealed and acknowledged though not so clearly understood till the iniquity of the times made it necessary for the Church in a general Council to interpose her Authority in the determination of Controversies of Faith And where this pretence is true her Authority ought to be submitted to and her Proposals embraced That is if the Doctrine proposed be the just and natural result of an Article of Faith expresly revealed in the Scripture and understood in that manner and acknowledged as such by the first Christians Contemporaries and Successors of the Apostles and constantly received from that time downward by the generality of Christians For the opposition of a few after the first and general reception of a necessary truth is not considerable who through prejudice or out of design to raise troubles in the Church or out of Ambition to be the Chiefs of a Faction or through a pretended dissatisfaction at the Mysteriousness of it or through wantonness of Wit and Humour have been so obstinate as not only to refuse to make the same acknowledgment but to maintain the contrary with violence To all which that is to Scripture Apostolick Tradition and universal consent the Fathers Assembled in the four first General Councils had regard in their determinations against the Hereticks of their time They only fixt what was Catholick Doctrine and what was believed in the Ages before they were born They founded their Declarations upon Scripture and universal Tradition And to silence all Disputes and to prevent Schism and to direct their own and after-times in the belief and understanding of the great Mysteries of Faith they reduced the Doctrine of it as it lyes scattered in several parts of Scripture into a form of plain and intelligible words and enlarged themselves in the explication of it as we shall see anon It being the very same Faith which the Apostles Preach'd and which the Scriptures hold out to us All the Anathema's are founded upon that of St. Paul Gal. 1. 8 9. Though we or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel unto you then what we have Preached unto you let him be accursed If any Man Preach any other Gospel unto you than that you have received let him be accursed And if there cannot be another Gospel there cannot be another Faith The Gospel being the Revelation of God by Christ and that Revelation full and made but once in
A SERMON Concerning the Doctrine Unity and Profession OF THE Christian Faith Preached before the UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD To which is added An APPENDIX concerning the Apostles CREED By THO. SMITH B. D. and Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen Colledge OXON London Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard M. DC LXXXII Admodum Reverendo in Christo Patri ac Domino HENRICO D. Episcopo LONDINENSI Sacelli Regalis DECANO Regiae Majestati à Secretioribus Conciliis Natalium Splendore Morum Sanctitate Fide Prudentiâ ac invictâ animi fortitudine contra infensissimos Eccl. Ang. hostes Caeterisque dotibus quae Virum Apostolicum planè decent Illustri T. S. Concionem hanc de Unitate fidei coram Academicis Oxoniensibus in Templo B. Mariae non ita pridem habitam una cum Appendice de Symbolo Apostolico gratitudinis observantiae ergo L. M. D. C. Q. Ephes. 4. Ver. 5. One Lord one Faith one Baptism IT is sad to consider how that Christianity has suffered more by the Factions and Feuds of Christians themselves than by the Fury of its Professed Adversaries that Schism has done more Mischief to the Church of God than all the Persecutions of the Heathen Roman Emperours who made it their business to abolish and destroy the very name of Christian out of the World and that Christians should treat one another with that despight and Malice as if good Nature and Charity and a mutual forbearance were things of meer indifference As it has happened between Churches of different Communions in the East and West and in these Northern parts of the World since the Reformation either because they would not own an Usurpt and pretended Universal Authority or else because of some little disagreement in Opinion or the Usage or Non-usage of a Ceremony which every particular Church in dependence upon and in conjunction with the Civil Power has a right to Ordain and Constitute and which all its Members are Obliged to conform to out of a Principle of Conscience For hitherto must be referred as to their chief and proper Causes all those horrid Tumults and Separations of Parties which have so much distracted the Peace of the Church from its first Beginnings and Infancy to this day however blancht over by some with subtilty and Artifice of Wit and by others with pretensions of Zeal to colour their Ambition and their Pride and to render their ill Designs the more plausible and successful Here it is for I cannot be so unjust and partial as to charge the Romanists only with the fault though they are deepest in the Guilt and more blameable than the rest that all take Sanctuary and think to justifie their ill will one to another this way that they from whom they divide and separate themselves entertain different Notions of some points of Religion though perchance they be not Essential to the Faith or else use other Rites in their Religious Worship which yet may be as decent and as useful and as significant as if this were to renounce Christianity and to forsake the Communion of the Catholick Church How has this fond Opinion broken Christendom into pieces and shut Unity and Peace out of it Private Passion and a false Zeal corrupting our Judgments and Practises so far that instead of joyning in the same Publick Worship and Service of Christ our Common Saviour and Living together in Holy Communion and Love we can scarce think well one of another we are afraid of one anothers Company in a Church at least as if it were Infectious we use most unjust and most unchristian Censures we malign and hate one another to the Death and as much as in us lyes we send one another to Hell by our evil and uncharitable surmises and by peremptory Sentences of Excommunication To prevent which dismal and bloody effects of Schism the Apostle in the beginning of this Chapter lays down and prescribes a Method which would prove most effectual if we understood our Duty and our Interest so much and had but the Honesty and the Conscience to put it in practise and execution which is to walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are called v. 1. That is to adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour with a suitable Conversation and as it becomes true followers of Christ to live up to those Excellent Rules and Institutions which he has Publish'd and not only to make an outward Shew and Profession of Christianity but to justifie and demonstrate the Truth and Power of it by the Example and Practise of the severest Virtues and especially in this great Instance of it With all Lowliness and Meekness and Long-suffering to forbear one another in Love v. 2. That is to make some allowances for the faileurs and imperfections and infirmities of the Understanding not to be peremptory and dogmatical in matters of Opinion to the prejudice of Unity nor to be over-fierce and severe in Condemning little mistakes and mis-apprehensions of things but to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace v. 3. That is to maintain this Spiritual Communion with all Peaceableness and Moderation as being all Members of one Body the Catholick Church actuated by one Spirit and called together in one Hope of our Calling v. 4. That is by virtue of the same common Christianity all alike pretending to the hopes of the same common Salvation all Disciples of the same Lord and initiated into the same Faith by Baptism So long as there is no breach made upon the Articles of Faith and the form of sound Doctrine is retained in its full sense and meaning there can be no just cause for Censure and dis-union All other differences of Opinion in Matters of Doctrine should be tolerated and forgiven if they have no evil influence upon Religion Morality and Government if there be no Schism or Sedition in practise or behaviour and so long as the Unity of Faith is preserved entire and kept inviolate there being as but one Lord so but one Faith and one Baptism From which words I shall endeavour to make good these three following Propositions 1. That the Doctrine of Faith is to be derived only from the Revelations of Christ. One Lord one Faith 2. That the Unity of Faith only respects the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion And 3. That all who are Baptized and consequently are by this Sacrament of initiation admitted and received into the Communion and Society of Christians are to make Profession of this Faith One Faith one Baptism 1. That the Doctrine of Faith is to be derived only from the Revelations of Christ. One Lord One Faith That it is not in the Power of Humane Wit how prying and industrious soever to raise it self up to the Contemplation and Knowledge of Supernatural Truths without the assistances of Divine Revelation and Grace is no disparagement to our Reason to acknowledge it being the effect of an irrational Pride and a
the days of his flesh Whatever therefore the Church believes or proposes to be believed must necessarily be founded upon such a Revelation and consequently that Doctrine if it be of Faith must Originally derive from Christ and his Apostles the Doctrine of Faith being nothing else but what He and They from Him have delivered and consequently one and the same yesterday to day and for ever That is in all Ages Now into the Unity of this Faith and wherein it consists I shall enquire in the next place which brings me to The second Proposition That the Unity of Faith only respects the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion In order to the clearing of which I will premise these two things 1. That there was a form of words containing a brief Summary of the Principles of the Christian Religion in the Apostles times This seems to be presupposed in the writings of the New Testament and most probably may be the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or form of sound words which St. Paul advises Timothy to hold fast 2 Epist. 1. 13. and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the good depositum or Doctrine committed to his trust which undoubtedly refers to the grounds and fundamentals of Christianity purely and abstractedly considered as the rule of Faith to which he was precisely to adhere against all the noise and clamours of vain and idly-curious talkers and the contradictions of the Gnosticks the Hereticks of that Age who not content with the express and plain Revelations of the Gospel pretended to higher and greater degrees and measures of Divine knowledge as is plain from 1 Tim. 6. 20. O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding profane and vain bablings and oppositions of Science falsly so called It being most agreeable in the nature of the thing if there were no places of Scripture to countenance and make out the supposition that the Apostles should for the use of the new Converts put the necessary Articles of Faith together into certain heads of Discourse and that to these they should refer as to a Rule Gal. 6. 16. Phil. 3. 16. as to a form of Doctrine Rom. 6. 17. as to the first Principles of the Oracles of God Heb. 5. 12. as to the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6. 1. and as to the Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude v. 3. All which several circumlocutions are expressive of the same thing and suppose those Doctrines whatsoever they were universally taught and as universally acknowledged and received But whether this form be the same with that which bears the name of the Apostles Creed which undoubtedly in the main is very ancient and most probably as ancient as their time the Church in succeeding Ages indeed to serve and maintain the interests and necessities of Religion against the innovations and assaults of Heresie adding several clauses and expressions to it is not here to be disputed at large But however this is certain that long before the times of the Council at Nice there was a Confession of Faith in use among Christians as the Standard of Catholick verity as is demonstrable from the Testimonies of Irenoeus Tertullian and others which Creed though there might be some variation of expression in it that is might be more contracted or enlarged at different times yet agreeing in the main as to the sense and wording too of most of the Articles being of general usage and of great Authority deriving neither the one nor the other from the Canon or Decree of any Council it may more than probably be supposed from the spreading and universal reception of it in the Churches of the East and West and from the general silence of its first establishment that it was delivered down from the very first Ages as having the Apostles for its Authors Against this if it be objected that if such a Creed had been extant at that time the same respect and reverence would have been given to it as to their other writings and consequently that there would have been no addition nor alteration of it much less any new form as the Nicene may seem to be framed and introduced as if the other had been defective it may be fully and satisfactorily replyed that whosoever considers the estate of the Church in the Southern parts of the Empire that is in Egypt and Libya and Thebais under Constantine how it was rent and torn and the dissolution of its very Being threatned by the new and blasphemous Opinions of Arius and his numerous followers he will quickly find that the Fathers who were conven'd at Nice to put a stop to those Commotions and allay the fury of the Tempest which began to shake the foundations of the Government as well as of Religion lay under a necessity of fencing about the hitherto uncontradicted and established Doctrine of Christianity with a larger and more explicite form of Words retaining for the most part though with some little interpolation referring to the Arian controversies which they hoped to put an end to this way the old form which Eusebius Bishop of Coesarea in Palestine presented the Emperour and that Council as having received it from the Bishops his Predecessors and which himself and the Catechumeni were first taught and profest at their Baptism and by these means adding a Commentary and explication of what was more closely couch'd in the Apostolical form which they did not pretend to alter but to draw forth in its full meaning and consequence For it was not enough for the Arians to say which is the Plea of the Socinians at this day that they acknowledge the Apostles Creed and are willing to subscribe to it unless at the same time they will admit the full sense of the words with the several propositions that are necessarily included in them as they are and have been understood by the Catholick Church from the first times of Christianity For if they pretend to say they believe Christ to be the only begotten Son of God in a private sense of their own to the prejudice of his God-head that is if they will not for all this believe him to be God begotten of his Father before all Worlds but fancy there was a time when he was not and so make him a Creature though the most glorious and perfect of all the Creation and so deny him to be of the same substance with the Father what is this but to destroy the Faith of Christ which is built upon this Foundation to make a mock-profession of Faith to retain the Apostles words only and deny in the mean while the truth of the Doctrine which they were intended to establish And so afterward when the Heresie of Macedonius brake out threatning new troubles and distracting the minds of the People with their Blasphemous Novelties The Article concerning the Holy Ghost was enlarged by the Assessors of the first General Council held at
Constantinople call this Nicene form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most Ancient and what was pronounced by the Candidates of Baptism If the form of the old Jerusalem Creed were entirely extant part of which we have in the Liturgy of St. James the matter would then be put out of doubt for that it was more contracted than that form which St. Cyril about the Year 350 explained in his Learned Lectures or Institutions to those who had been Baptized appears by the Fragment preserved The form which Eusebius presented to the Emperour and Council was thus We believe in one God the Father Almighty Creator of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the Word of God God of God light of light life of life the only begotten Son the first-born of every Creature begotten of God the Father before all Worlds by whom all things were made who for our Salvation was Incarnate and conversed among men he Suffered and rose the third day and ascended to the Father and he shall come again with glory to Judge both the quick and the dead We believe also in the Holy Ghost I do not pretend to say that this was the old form used from the beginning for it is plain from the very contexture and from the omission of some Clauses by the Nicene Fathers that they lookt upon this as interpolated It being certain and undoubted that there was an old Apostolical form or form used from the very beginnings of Christianity to be profest at Baptism the Bishops of the chief Sees thought themselves at liberty to explain or add as they judged most proper for the time wherein they lived which is the true Reason as I must intimate again why the forms are so various And especially when we consider that according to the form of Baptism the chief design of this Profession of Faith made at the receiving it was an explicite acknowledgment of each of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity And accordingly here the Nicene Creed stops for that which is commonly called so ought upon the account of the several additions to be called the Constantinopolitan Creed Though that in some other old Creeds were added the Articles of the Resurrection of the Flesh and of everlasting Life appears from the Confession of the Bishops met at Antioch not long after under Constantius And that of one Church also in others as St. Jerome positively asserts And that of Remission of Sins and everlasting Life is clear from St. Cyprian Agreeably to this Vossius supposeth the old Eastern Creed to be this or after this manner I believe in God the Father Almighty maker of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the only Begotten Son of God who for us men and for our Salvation came down from Heaven and was Incarnate and was made man He suffered and rose the third day from the dead and ascended into the Heavens and he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead And I believe in the Holy Ghost If this should be allowed him which has no other Authority but his own conjecture yet we may hence conclude that both the Eastern and the Western Churches may well and justly pretend to derive their forms from the Apostles Which must be understood as to the ground of each Creed and in the general For that the Apostles did Pen every word or every Article of the Creed which now bears their Name was never pretended or asserted by any one Nay the contrary is now and was Anciently acknowledged and the variety of forms in the chief Apostolical Sees used according to the exigence of the times is a convincing Proof But this doth not hinder but rather suppose that there was a short Form proposed by the Apostles as the Ancient Writers have asserted And that the old Oriental Creed and the old Roman are almost in expression but wholly in effect the same and consequently Apostolical FINIS a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in that Excellent Speech of the Emperour Constantine to the Bishops upon the breaking up of the Council of Nice just before their departure to their respective Dioceses In Eusebius in his Life Lib. 3. Cap. 21. b 1 Cor. 12. 13. a St. John 14. 26. Ch. 16. 13. 1 St. John 1. 1. b Nobis nihil ex nostro arbitrio inducere licet sed nec eligere quod aliquis de arbitrio suo induxerit Apostolos Domini habemus auctores qui nec ipsi quicquam ex suo arbitrio quod inducerent elegerunt sed acceptam à Christo Disciplinam fideliter nationibus adsignaverunt Tertullianus de Praescripti haeret Cap. 6. Expeditè praescribimus adulteris nostris illam esse regulam veritatis quae veniat à Christo transmissa per comites ipsius quibus aliquanto posteriores diversi isti Commentatores probabuntur Apologet. Cap. 47. a Hanc tibi fossam determinavit ipse Christus qui te non vult aliud credere quam quod instituit ideóque nec quaerere Tertul. de Praescript Cap. 10. o V. Tertullianum de Praescript haeret Cap. 21. c See Vincentius Lirinensis excellently treating of this Argument in the 32 Chapter of his Commonitorium a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodotus Ancyranus in expositione symboli Nicaem Romae 8. 1669 Speaking of the Union of the two Natures in the single Person of Christ. pag. 26. o But of this see the Appendix o Sciendum sanè est quod in Ecclesiae Romanae symbolo non habetur additum descendit ad inferna Sed neque in Orient is Ecclestis habetur hic sermo Vis tamen verbi eadem videtur esse in eo quod sepultus dicitur Rufinus oo Rufinus Presbyter Ecclesiae Aquileiensis in expositione symboli Apostolici Priusquam incipiam de ipsis sermonum virtutibus disputare illud non importunè commonendum Puto quod in diversis Ecclesiis aliqua in his verbis inveniuntur adjecta In Ecclesiâ tamen Urbis Romae hoc non deprehenditur factum Quod ego propterea esse arbitror quod neque heresis ulla illic sumpsit exordium Et mos inibi servatur antiquus eos qui gratiam baptismi suscepturi sunt publicè id est fidelium populo audiente symbolum reddere Et utique adjectionem hujus saltem sermonis eorum qui praecesserunt in fide non admittit auditus In ceteris autem locis quantum intelligi datur propter nonnullos haereticos addit a quaedam videntur per quae novellae doctrinae sensus crederetur excludi p V. Eusebium de vitâ Constantini Lib. 3. Cap. 4. q Epiphanius in Anchorato versus finem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a V. Theodotum Ancyranum in exposit symb Nic. pag. 88. Et professionem fidei à Romano Pontifice haberi solitam in libre diurno Pontif. Roman pag. 35. Secundum Constantinopolitanum adaequè Sanctum certum quoque quinquaginta Patrum Concilium sub Imperialis