the Publick view Yet to excuse my selfe in part from Temerity and Presumption in this particular I ventured not on it before I had the approbation of some Learned Friends who were pleased not only to peruse the Worke but solicited me also to the Publication which if it shall awaken some more able Pen to perfect what I have thus rudely drawn I shall not a little applaud my selfe as the Instrument of presenting so fortunate an Occasion But I have almost seemed to have forgot your Lordship whilst I have been thus particular in relating to you the Occasion the Beginning the Progresse and the end of these imperfect labours of mine which I am now bold to offer unto your Patronage that so they may have the same Protection with the Author that presents them For as the many Favours and Civilities which I have received from your Lordships hands oblige me to a Publick acknowledgment so your approbation of the Work which hath had the Honour of your Perusall also in good part hath encouraged me to present that acknowledgement in this kind Besides not only Gratitude but strict Justice seems to require this oblation at my Hands the first-borne of my Pen and entitleth your Lordship more peculiarly unto it for though it were begotten elsewhere it was borne under your Roofe and so belongs unto you as to the Lord of the House and the Father of the Family There remaines nought else but that as I now present this Treatise to your Patronage so to present my Prayers to God for your Person for that of your Noble Lady together with all the Branches of your ancient Family that they may constantly Live and comfortably Dye in the true Christian Apostolick Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints This as it still hath so shall continue to be a constant part of the dayly Orisons of MY LORD Your Lordships Most Faithfull and Affectionate Servant to Command GEO ASHWELL The Contents of the CHAPTERS CAP. I. THE Dogmaticall part of Theologie most necessary to be established and in that most especially the Creed as the Foundation of the rest and this for three Reasons A double abuse of the Creed which occasioned this Treatise together with the abuse of Catechismes The five Heades of the ensuing Treatise The Creed conteines all and only Fundamentalls The Trinity and Incarnation of the Sonne of God cleared out of it CAP. II. The History of the Apostles Composing the Creed out of Ruffinus Five Reasons why the Apostles delivered it to the Church not in Writing but by an Orall Tradition An Objection against the preserving of it by Tradition Answered CAP. III. Testimonies of Scripture touching the Composure of the Apostles Creed especially out of S. Pauls Epistles as the places are accordingly interpreted by Diuines of good note both Ancient and Moderne Some Doubts against these Testimonies solved CAP. IV. Testimonies concerning the Creed and the Composure thereof by the Apost taken out of the Greek Fathers who beare witnesse for the Eastern Churches some Objections against these Authorities partly Answered partly Prevented CAP. V. Testimonies of the Creed and the Composure thereof by the Apostles taken out of the Latine Fathers who beare witnesse for the Western Churches Some Objections to the contrary Answered CAP. VI. Testimonies of the Authors and Authority of the Creed taken out of the Protestant Divines who have unanimously received and acknowledged this Creed of the Apostles together with the Nicene Creed and that of Athanasius CAP. VII Six Reasons evincing the Apostles to have been the Composers of the Creed which commonly bears their Name Some Objections against these Reasons Answered The place where the Creed was Made Of Fundamentalls and Traditions CAP. VIII Severall Objections which some have alleadged against the fore-assigned Authors of the Creed Answered at large Certaine Creeds compared together whereby their Conformity appears to one another and to that of the Apostles CAP. IX The second Head of this Discourse namely the Grounds on which and the ends for which the Apostles framed the Creed The Sufficiency also of the Creed for the Rule of Faith is proved by the Testimonies of Divines as well Moderne as Ancient and those both Romish and Reformed CAP. X. The third Head of this Discourse namely the severall reasons or significations of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Creed beares in the Originall Greeke CAP. XI The fourth Head of this Discourse namely the Division or Parts of the Creed CAP XII The fift Head of this Discourse touched in Generall viz. the supplementall or exegetticall Creeds framed in succeeding Ages The Grounds whereon they were Framed and their use Some Copies of Creeds set downe as well of the Hereticks as Orthodox both consonant to this of the Apostles Appendix the first of the Athan. Creed CAP. I. Two Reasons why this Creed hath been more oppugned than the rest It s Authority and Author are vindicated in generall more especially touching the severity of the Preface CAP. II. Severall Testimonies concerning the Author and Authority of the Athan. Creed CAP. III. The Time and Place wherein Athanasius wrote his Creed together with the Person to whom The Cause wherefore he wrote it and the Language wherein CAP IV. Some Objections against what hath been laid downe Answered Especially Nazianzens Testimony concerning the Athanasian Creed is farther cleared and vindicated Appendix the second of the Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creed CAP. I. The Reason of the double name of this Creed The Composure thereof The Additionall or Exegeticall Particles inserted into it When and by Whom it was conveied to other Churches and brought into Divine Service CAP. II. When and by whom the Particle Filioque was added to the Nicene Creed is historically delivered and at large Severall other causes of the breach betweene the Churches of Greece and Rome To the Christian and Catholick Reader OUR Blessed Saviour speaking of his second Comming maketh this question or complaint when the Sonne of man commeth shall he find faith on the Earth Luke 18. 8. Now he puts this question to put it out of question for this seeming doubt is a strong Affirmation and amounts to a vehement Complaint that when he shall come to Judgement he shall find little or no faith amongst men No faith in matter of Practise each man will be false to his Brother Homo homini Vulpes as well as lupus the wisdome of the world so generally counted and esteemed being nought else but overreaching the ancient Christian simplicity will be quite lost and the Serpent expell the Dove nothing but insinuating Complements and faire speeches like those of the Serpent to our Grandmother Eve will every where practise to deceive under pretence of friendship Nor on the other side will there be faith found in matter of Doctrine Religion shall be lamentably torne and mangled by intestine Combats of the Tongue and Pen New opinions shall be in Credit as new fashions till faith of one by
he that leaving off superfluous questions and unhandsome contentions about words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you would be contented with those Doctrines which have bene delivered by word of mouth from the Holy Apostles and the Lord himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctrines not writen but spoken spoken by the Saints and holy Apostles by the Direction inspiration of the Lord he the Author they the instruments Doctrines opposed to curious or superfluous questions and strifes about words that is Doctrines of moment or fundamentall points such as the Creed conteines And this he dilivers more plainly in the closing up of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Beware of false Prophets and withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And not after the Tradition which they received of us let us exactly and orderly walke according to the Rule of the Saints as being built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ our Lord being the head-corner-stone in or by whom the whole building fitly joyned together groweth into an holy Temple in the Lord. This Tradition this exact Rule this Foundation of the Apostles to what can it be applyed more congruously than unto the Creed of the Apostles the substance whereof he sets downe before 6. Gregory Nyssen Brother to the Great S. Basil explaines the Heads of the Creed in that Oration of his which is entituled Catachetica Oratio magna 7. Cyril Patriarch of Jerusalem sets downe the whole Creed in distinct Articles and explaines it at large in severall Catecheticall Orations as whose office it was to instruct all his Auditors not to oppose one Heretick which as I said caused some of the. Fathers to set downe the Creed more imperfectly leaving out those Articles which were not impugned Cyrils Creed is this which followes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is I believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven earth of all things visible invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten son of God begotten of his Father before all worlds incarnate and made man crucifyed and buried he rose againe from the Dead the third Day he ascended into the Heavens and sitteth at the right hand of the Father and shall come to judge the quick and the dead And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Comforter who spake by the Prophets one holy Catholick Church one Baptisme of Repentance for the remission of sinnes the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting Any one at the first sight may perceive that this is the same with that which we now call the Apostles Creed in the full sense and substance of it only a little altered in some few words and explayned in two or three Articles by some Additionall Particles This was the confession of Faith received in the Church of Ierusalem the mother Church of the Christian World where this Cyril was Catechist and afterward Patriarch Ruffinus cals it Symbolum Orientale the Creed of the Easterne Church and compares it in his Exposition with the Romane and Aquileian But of this more hereafter 8. Chrysostome hath wrote two Homelies upon the Creed in the former whereof he sets the Creed downe in this forme which I am to give you out of the Latine Edition of Erasmus having not as yet met with the Greeke Originall although sought for both in Sr H. Saviles Edition and that of Fronto ducaeus Credo in Deū Patrem Omnipotentem in unicum Filium ejus Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum iste natus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Mariâ Virgine crucifixus est sub Pontio Pilato sepultus est postquam mortuus tertia die a mortuis resurrexit sedet ad dextram Patris inde venturus est judicare vivos mortuos credo in Spiritum sanctum Iste spiritus perducet ad sanctam Ecclesiam ipsa est quae dimittit peccata promittit carnis resurrectionem promittit vitam aeternam that is I believe in God the Father Almighty and in his only Son our Lord Jesus Christ conceived by the holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary crucifyed under Pontius Pilate dead and buried the third Day he rose againe from the dead he sitteth at the right hand of the Father from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead I believe in the holy Ghost He bringeth us to the holy Church shee it is which forgiveth sinnes promiseth the resurrection of the Body promiseth Life Everlasting The consonancy of this Creed to that of the Apostles is sufficiently manifest without farther Descant To these Testimonies I shall crave leave to adde that Confession of Faith which the Arch-heretick Arius with his companion Euzoius presented to the Emperour Constantine in writing who being perswaded by a certaine Presbyter whom his Sister Constantia at her death had commended to him sent for Arius to Constantinople after he had beene banished from Alexandria for not subscribing to the Nicene councill whither being come with Euzoius the Emperour asked him whether or no he assented to the Nicen Creed Arius feigning that he did was straitwaise commanded by him to put his Beleefe in writing which he did in this Forme in the name of himselfe and Euzoius we find it thus recorded by Socrates in his Ecclesiasticall History lib. 1. c. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. We believe in one God the Father Almighty and in the Lord Jesus Christ his Sonne begotten of him before all worlds God the word by whom all things were made both which are in Heaven and which are one Earth who came downe and was incarnate and Suffered and Rose againe and ascended into the Heavens shall come againe to judge the Quick and Dead And in the Holy Ghost the Resurrection of the Body the life of the world to come and the Kingdome of Heaven and one Catholick Church of God spred over the whole world This Confession of Faith as I conceive by the Forme was the Ancient Creed of the Church of Alexandria wherof this Arius was Presbyter deposited therein by its first Bishop S. Marke who received it from the mouths of the Apostles and more particularly from St Peter who sent him thither for it was common with the Hereticks to shelter themselves under the generall Tearmes of the Apostles Creed which admitted of diverse constructions and so lay the more open to be abused and perverted by their unsound Glosses thus did Photinus aworse than Arius some years after thus doe his Disciples the Socinians at this Day Only Arius may be thought to have somewhat enlarged this Apostolicall Creed in the second Article touching the Divinity of our Saviour the better to counterfeit his assent to what the Nicene Fathers had declared in that Point and decreed to be held From these Testimonies of the Greeke Fathers who can best witnesse the Faith of the Easterne Churches we may raise these observations but
succeeding Creeds which the whole Church hath for many Ages imbraced they were Framed in generall Councels or confirmed by Generall Practise Now the Catholick Church which received the Creed from the Apostles and preserved â—t as an inviolable Depositum may justly be presumed best to know the meaning of it the Common Mother of Christians can best informe us which is the true sence of the Common Faith and hath sufficienâ— authority to impose it upon Her Children Reas 4. Those Fathers who wrote since the Nicene Councell set downe and explaine that Creed which beareth the Apostles name not that which was framed in the Councell of Nice as appeares by the fore-cited Testimonies Now this they would not nor could have done if the Nicene Creed had been the first The first Father whom we find to meddle with or handle the Nicene Creed is St Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria who flourished an whole Century after the making of it Doth not this plainly shew that the Church had still the prime if not the sole respect to that Symbole or Rule of Faith which the Apostles left her as the maine Basis on which the Faith of her Children was built the Root whereout other Creeds as so many Branches sprung the Fathers who since the celebration of that Councell have explained and commented on the Apostles Creed I have already mentioned viz. Chrysostome Augustine Chrysologus Venantius Eusebius c. Reason 5th It is a received Rule which S. Augustine laies downe lib. 4. De Baptismo cont Donat. cap. 24. Quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi authoritate Apostolicâ traditum rectissimè creditur That is That which the universall Church holdeth and hath alwaies retained not being ordained by a Councell is most justly believed to have been derived unto us by the Authority of the Apostles And this rule is grounded upon good Reason besides the Authority of the deliverer for a generall effect must have as generall a cause they must be both of the same latitude and extent now there is no Generall cause imagineable of a publiquely received Doctrine Goverment Ceremony or Discipline in the Catholicke Church such especially as is derived to it from hand to hand time out of mind but the Authority of a Generall Councell which is the Church Representative or the concordant preaching of the Apostles who first planted Christianity in the Churches of the whole world So then to apply this Rule unto our present purpose That the whole Church holds the Apostles Creed experience demonstrates that it hath been alwayes reteined in the Church the Testimonies of the fore-aleadged Fathers shew and that it was not Framed in any Genenerall Councell sufficienty appears both by the copies of those Creeds which were framed in them found varying from that of the Apostles as also by the writing of those Fathers who lived before the first General Councel held at Nice wherein they make mention of a Rule of Faith derived downe to them from the Apostles which some of them also set downe as Irenaeus Tertullian Origen Reason 6th Before the Nicene Creed was framed both the Easterne and Westerne Churches had an Ancient Symbole or Creede Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 6. Which could be no other than that of the Apostles since no other is assigned or mentioned by any good Author First That the Westerne or Romane Church had such an Ancient Symble appeares 1. By the words of Vigilius Byshop of Rome lib. 4. De Eutiche Roma antequam Nicena Synodus conveniret a temporibus Apostolorum usque all nunc ita fidelibus Symbolum tradidit viz. in Jesum Christum Filium ejus Dominum nostrum leaving out the Particle Vnicum That is The Church of Rome even before the Nicene Councell from the very Apostles times till this present in these termes delivered the Creed unto Believers And in Jesus Christ his Sonne our Lord leaving out the Particle Only 2. By Ruffinus in his Tract on the Creed who compares the Aquilean Creed with the Romane and withall tells us that the Creed was believed so ancient in his time that it was then held for an Apostolicall Tradition Now this Ruffinus was a man of note in the Church nine yeares before the first Councell of Constantinople viz. in the yeare 372. when he went with Melama from Rome to Alexandria about which time also S. Ierome wrote letters to him namely his Epist 5. 41. Secondly that the Easterne Churches had an ancient Creed too before the Nicene Councell appears by the same Ruffinus who compares the Aquilean Creed with that of the East as well as with the Romane The same appears by Cyril of Ierusalem who explaines it at large in his Catecheses and this Creed of his explaining we shall find much consonant to that which we now call the Apostolicall only cutting off some few exegeticall Particles which were added to fore-arme his Auditors and other orthodox Christians against succrescent Heresies to which Creed of his he adjoynes also some practicall Grounds for the more compleat instruction and Preparation of them against the time of Baptisme This Cyril was first Catechist then Patriarch of Ierusalem and sate afterwards in the first Councell held at Constantinople where the Easterne Bishops were only present and composed a Creed almost in the same termes with this of Cyril He composed these Catecheses in his youth about the yeare 350 and died in the yeare 386 five years after the celebration of that Councell as the learned Vossius demonstrates out of Leo and S. Jerome compared with a passage in his sixt Catechesis Now as the Fathers of the first Councell at Constantinople laboured not to frame a new Creed but were contented to enlarge the Article concerning the Holy Ghost against Macedonius who perverted it so we may justly suppose that the Nicene Fathers retained the words of that Creed which had been of old received in the East least they might otherwise seeme to have framed a new Faith amplifying only the Article concerning the Divinity of our Saviour which was then called in question by Arius that so it might appeare to the World quaedam tantummodo explicatius dici as the same Vossius rightly conceives Cut off therefore from the Nicene or Constantinopolitan Creed or from that of Cyril which much symbolizeth with it the Additionals unto those two Articles and you have the whole Creed of the Apostles for the Communion of Saints is not a distinct Article but a part or Paraphrase of what goes before Saints being implyed in in Holy and Communion in Church or Congregation Ecclesia which is an Assembly of selected People and Christs descent into Hell is presupposed to the Article of his Resurrection Therefore to think that Cyril in his old Age or Iohn the Patriarch his Successor added all that to the Jerosolymitan Creed which followes the Articles of the Holy Ghost is nothing probable because Cyril doth not barely
set downe the Articles but Catechetically explaine them also together with the rest which precede and there hath been no reason ever yet assigned to make us doubt of the composing of these Catecheses by the same man and at the same Time when he was Catechist which was in his youthfull Age seeing they all alike relish of the same juvenile extemporary stile the consideration whereof hath made some to doubt whether any of them were Cyril's or no because they seemed not elaborate enough for so grave a Patriarch though they seeme indeed to have beene set forth by his Successor Iohn and thence became entitled unto him by some latter unwary Transcriber which may serve to satisfy that objection taken out of Simlerus who in his Index of those Bookes which the City of Auspurgh bought of Antony Eparch of Coreyra reckoneth Joannis Jerosol Catech. Illuminat duâ—deviginti Mystagogicus quinque If any yet desire to have this more fully and clearly demonstrated viz. That the Easterne Churches had an Ancient Forme of Beliefe derived to them from the Apostles and whereto they profest to adde nothing in their following confessions because as it is more obscure so it is more oppugned they may please to consult these following Testimonies 1. Epiphanius in his Booke called Anchoratus having set downe the Nicene Creed as we now have it at large adjoynes these wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Faith saith he was delivered by the holy Apostles and in the Church the Holy City by all the holy Bishops together above 310 in number The same Creed then was delivered by both by the Apostles as the Primitive Authors by the Nicene Fathers as the Expositors The Nicene Creed thus at full set downe by Epiphanius was written seaven years before the first Councell of Constantinople which first added all after the Article of the Holy Ghost unto that forme which the Nicene Fathers had delivered although they were not the first framers of those additionall Articles and having thus compleated the Creed by borrowing the remaining Articles from that of the Apostles confirmed the entire forme by their Synodicall Authority and so commended yea prescribed the whole to the Catholick Church 2. The succeeding Councells in the Easterne Church expressely tell us that they and their Predecessors were neither Authors of any new Faith nor Adders to it but only Establishers and Exposirors of the old The first Councell of Constantinople which was the second Generall calls the Nicene Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most ancient although that Synod was celebrated but 56 years before the reason therefore of this Title is that they looked upon that Creed not as first composed by the Bishops of the Nicene Synod but as derived and declared out of a Creed ab ultima antiquitate in Ecclesiâ recepto received in the Church from all Antiquity as the Reverend and Learned Primate of Armagh hath rightly exprest it They also decreed to retaine it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most agreeable to the Sacrament of Baptisme Theod. lib. 5. hist cap. 9. The Bishops Assembled at Tyre Anno 518. professe to embrace the Nicene Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expounded not made by that Synod Act. Concil 5. Constant sub Mennâ And againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is That holy Creed whereinto we were all Baptized the Nicene Synod with the assistance of the Holy Ghost hath publickly declared that of Constantinople hath ratified that of Ephesus hath confirmed and in like manner the Great holy Synod of Chalcedon hath sealed The Councell of Chalcedon which was the fourth Generall styles the Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Doctrine unshaken or unmoved from the first Preaching of the Gospell and withall tells us that the Councells of Nice and Constantinople expounded the Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not adding ought as if the faith of their Predecessors had been deficient but declaring their sense by Scripture Testimonies Evagr. lib. 2. cap. 4. To this agrees also that of the Emperour Iustinian writing to Epiphanius Patriarch of Constantinople we keepe saith he that decree of faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Symbole which was explained by the 118 Fathers in the Councell of Nice which also the 150 Fathers in the first Councell of Constantinople farther declared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as though the ancient faith were defective but because the enemies of the Truth partly rejected the Divinity of the Holy Ghost partly denied the Incarnation of God the Word therefore the said Fathers by Testimonies out of Scripture explained this Doctrine more at large Thus he 7. leg Cord. De Summâ Trinitate Fide Catholicâ 3. To give you the Testimony of the Westerne Church for confirmation of the same Truth The Liturgy called Ordo Romanus a Book of known Authority and Antiquity in the Preface to the Nicene Creed hath these words directed to the Persons who were to pronounce it before their Baptisme Audite suscipientes Evangelici Symboli Sacramentum à Domino inspiratum ab Apostolis institutum cujus pauca quidem verba sunt sed magna mysteria In which words the Nicene Creed is called The Evangelicall Symbole inspired by Christ and ordained by his Apostles And another old Latine Liturgy in use about the yeare 700 hath these words of the same Creed Finito Symbolo Apostolorum dicat Sacerdos Dominus vobiscum Where it is also expressely called The Creed of the Apostles that is the same explained and enlarged For these Testimonies I am indebted to the said R. and Learned Bishop Now for a close to these Authorities and Arguments I shall subjoyne the testimony of Franc. Quaresimus of the Order of Minors a Person of good note in the Romish Church as who was made by the Pope his President and Apostolick Commissary in the Holy Land during which office of his he took incredible paines in searching out the Antiquities of Palestine now this Author in his Book called Elucidatio Terrae Sanctae Tom. 2. lib. 4. Perear 9. cap. 1. Brings two opinions concerning the Place wherein the Apostles composed the Creed The first that of Adrichomius who thinkes it probable that the place was Caenaculum Sion a Place famous for many other sacred Actions as wherein our Blessed Saviour celebrated his last Supper and instituted the most holy Eucharist wherein the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles at Pentecost and wherein they held that famous Councell about the abrogating of the Ceremoniall Law Act. 15. consonantly to which Tradition he brings that saying of the Evangelicall Prophet Out of Syon shall goe forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem Isa 2. 3. The second that of Frier Anselme and others that the place where the Apostles framed the Creed was on Mount Olivet three Bow-shootes from the place where Christ is said to have wept over Jerusalem for which he gives this reason Quia est communis in partibus istis Traditio perpetuis
extitissent diversisque nominibus columbam Dei atque Reginam lacerare per partes scindere niterentur nonne cognomen suum Plebs Apostolica postulabat quo incorrupti Populi distingueret unitatem ne intemeratam Dei Virginem Error aliquorum per membra laceraret Where we may observe First That he mentions not at all the applying of the word Catholick to the Church or whole Company of Believers as it is placed in the Creed for this was not cal'd in question by Sympronianus but the aplying of it to particular persons which in the Apostles times were called Disciples or Christians not Catholicks as Sympronianus objected Secondly That Pacianus absolutely granteth not that the word Catholick was not so used in the Apostles Times but only indulgeth so much unto his adversary because notwithstanding this supposall he was otherwise able to convince him upon his own concessions which kind of supposall or indulgence is most usuall amongst Polemick writers there by to winne over and worke upon the Adversary Thirdly That the Reason of the name brought by Pacianus and urged upon Sympronian namely the distinguishing of the true Church from the severall Sects led by denominated from their severall factions and Hereticall heads is very agreeable to the Apostles dayes and so required the like distinctive Epethete for S. Paul blames the Church of Corinth for Schismes and addicting themselves factiously to severall Idolised Teachers which they had chosen to themselves for though he names only Peter Apollos and himselfe yet his Discourse cheifly aimes at some other Popular Preachers and false Apostles as appeares by comparing 1 Cor. 4. 6. 2 Cor. 11. 13 20. And S. John expresly names the Nicolaitans denominated from one Nicolas in his Revel ch 2. v. 15. As for S. Austins involving the word Catholick in the Epithet Holy it proves not that it was not then in the Text of the Creed for it was usual with the Fathers in their Paraphrasticall explications to omit the expression of severall Particles sometimes one sometimes another which yet were cōfessedly in the Creed are expresly mentioned by them in their other Homilies or Tractates as wee may see in Chrysollegus Eusebius Gallicanus and others Thirdly Hereticks arose not only after but even in the very Apostles Times the Tares were scattered presently upon the sowing of the Wheat in the lateplowed field of the Church S. Luke mentions Simon Magus that First-borne of the Devill and Father of Hereticks as the Auncients Style him Act. 8. 9. 24. S. Paul tels us of Hymenaeus and Phyletus 2 Tim. 2. 17. And of Alexander Phygellus and Hermogenes 1 Tim. 1. 20. 2 Tim. 1. 15. Yea S. John informes us in more generall Termes That there were many Antichrists in the world even whilst he lived who denyed the Father and the Sonne 1 Io. 2. 18. 22. These Antichrists then were Hereticks who taught contrary to the Faith of Christ wherefore it is most probable that the word Catholick was placed in the Creed even by the Apostles themselves for the reason before assigned Fourthly The Christian Church might justly be styled Catholick or universall to distinguish it from the Church of the Jewes which was a particular Church confined if not within the Bounds of one Country yet unto one Nation whereas the Christian Church comprehended all Nations and had no other Bounds than those of the world although not actually at the time of making the Creed yet in vertue and power according to that generall Commission of our Saviour to his Apostles Goe teach all Nations Mat. 28. 29. And gaine Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost part of the Earth Act. 1. 8. The Jewes were so envious and proud as not to receive the Gentiles into their communion or acknowledge them partakers in the promises of the Messiah they would have had them all circumcised and submit to the Ceremonial Law but God broke downe this Partition wall Eph. 2. 14. As he made appeare by the Vision of the Sheet which he sent to S. Peter Act 10. 11. 15. And by the Decree of the Councel at Jerusalem Act. 15. And so gathered all into one Body or Church Catholick so called in respect of Time Place Persons Faith which is therefore called the Common Faith Tit. 1. 4. For this Reason at least the Apostles might justly frame the Article at the very first Composure in these words I believe the holy Catholick Church Ob. 4th The different relation of the Story bewrayes the uncerteinty of it for they give not all the same Article to the same Apostle and some marshall them one way some another Answ First Diversity of opinions in Circumstances not materiall cannot justly call the maine Point in doubt So all Christians believe the Gospell of St Mathew and the Epistle to the Hebrwes to be the Word of God though Divines differ about the language in which and the time when they were writen and they all agree there is an Hell though they doe not about the place where Therefore notwithstanding some slight groundlesse differences some of them of latter inconsiderable Authors wee have no just reason to disbelieve the Apostles Composing of the Creed Secondly As to the various marshalling and order of the Articles it cannot justly argue the uncerteinty of the Tradition because the Bookes of the holy Scripture are also placed in a various method according unto severall Editions and Translations some following the order of the Hebrew Text as the Protestant Churches others that of the Septuagint and the old Latine Translation as the Churches of Greece and Rome Thirdly Neither can the diverse ascribing of them to severall Apostles raise any just doubt of the Composers of the whole for we find not a few Controversies agitated amongst Divines concerning the Authors of severall Bookes of Scipture in the Old Testament of the Bookes of the Judges Kings and Chronicles of the Booke of Job in the New Testament of the Second and Third Epistle of St Iohn and of the Revelation whether Iohn the Elder were the Author of these Epistles and Iohn the Divine of the Revelation as distinct Persons from Iohn the Evangelist Or whether Iohn the Ap. were the Author of all three under 3 several Titles But more especially the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrwes is questioned whether it were Paul or Barnabas Luke or Clemens And yet not withstanding all these Controversies the Christian Church now doubts not of the Authority of these Bookes why should we more doubt of the Authority of the Creed although we know not how certainly to assigne the Distinct Articles to their severall Apostles whenas in truth the more probable opinion is that they joyntly concurd to the framing of them all Ob. 5. If the Creed for matter and forme were from the Apostles and they delivered it precisely in those words wherein we now have it why is it not placed in the
third Day he rose againe according to the Scriptures Christs descent into Hell as we see in this Collation is expressely set downe but in two Creeds namely this of the Apostles and the Athanasian although the Fathers of the first Ages generally acknowledge it and mention it in their writings for which we may looke back on the Creeds of Thaddaeus and Ignatius set downe before The reason therefore why it is omitted in other Creeds I conceive to be this That they held it involved or presupposed in the following word The third Day he rose againe from the Dead For Christ may not improperly be said to have risen the third Day according to both Parts from the Grave in his Body from Hell a low place especially in comparison of Heaven in his Soule So both Parts in this Rising met together from two severall Places whether they had before Descended both which places are set downe in holy Scripture as the Receptacles of the Dead as well Good as Bad so 't is in either a Rising from the Dead and are joyntly called by the names of Sheol Hades Inferi This also S. Chrysostome in setting downe the Creed passeth by Christs ascension into Heaven as being included in or presupposed by that which followes His sitting at the Right Hand of the Father See Gen. 37. 35. Job 26. 6. Psal 86. 13. 139 8. Prov. 15. 11. Isa 13. 9. Luk. 16. 23. Rev. 1. 18. chap. 20. 13. Artic. VI. Apost He ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right Hand of God the Father Almighty East And ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father Nic. hath the same Aquil. the same Athan. He ascended into Heaven he sitteth on the right hand of the Father God Almighty Antioch And he ascended into Heaven Article VII Apost From whence he shall come to judge the quicke and the dead East And he shall come to judge the quicke and the dead Nic. Who shall come againe with glory to judge the quicke and the dead of whose kingdome there shall be no end Aquil. From thence he shall come to judge the quicke and the deade Athan. From whence he shall come to judge the quicke and the Dead Antioch And he shall come againe to judge the quicke and the dead Article VIII Apost I believe in the Holy Ghost East And in the Holy Ghost the comforter who spake by the Prophets Nic. And in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne according to the Latines who with the Father and the Sonne together is worshipped and glorified who spake by the Prophets Aquil. And in the Holy Ghost Athan There is another Person of the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost is God the Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son Neither made nor created nor begotten but proceeding Article IX Apost I believe the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints East One holy Catholick Church Nic. One holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Aquil. The holy Catholick Church Where Ruffinus in his explication interprets Holy by that which preserves the Faith or Religion of Christ entire and opposeth the Church to the Conventicles of severall Hereticks which he calls Concilia vanitatis thus explaining the word Catholick and the Communion of Saints Article X. Apost The forgivenesse of Sinnes East One Baptisme of Repentance for the Remission of Sinnes Nic I acknowledge one Baptisme for the Remission of Sinnes Aquil. The Remission of Sinnes Article XI Apost The Resurrection of the Body East And the Resurrection of the Body Nice And I look for the Resurrection of the Dead Athan. At whose comming All men shall rise againe with their Bodies and shall give an account for their own Workes Aquil. The Resurrection of this Body In the Exposition whereof Ruffinus hath these words Et ideo satis cautâ providâ adjectione Ecclesia nostra Aquilegiensis docet quae in eo quod a caeteris traditur Carnis Resurrectionem uno addito pronomine tradit Hujus Carnis Resurrectionem hujus sine dubio quam is qui profitetur signaculo Crucis fronti imposito contingit That is our Church the Aquileian hath warily and providently added the Pronoune This to the Article of the Resurrection of the Body which is delivered without it in other Churches This Body that is which he toucheth who maketh profession of the Creed having the Signe of the Crosse made upon his Forehead whence we may observe not only the Antiquity of the Crosse in Baptisme but the custome also of the ancient Church in adding some exegeticall particles to the Creed as a Thing publickly received and practised in the Christian World Article XII Apost And life Everlasting East And life Everlasting Nic. And the life of the World to come Athan. And they that have done good shall goe into life Everlasting and they that have done Evill into Everlasting fire Aquil. Incloseth it in the precedent Article of the Resurrection in the explication whereof Ruffinus hath these words Dabitur peccatoribus incorruptionis immortalitatis ex Resurrectione conditio ut sicut Deus justis ministrat ad perpetuitatem Gloriae ista peccatoribus ad prolixitatem confusionis ministret paenae That is Sinners also shall rise to an immortall and incorruptible estate so that as God affourdeth the rightious everlasting Glory he also prepareth the sinners for length of shame and sorrow Ob. 14th That Creed which was neithe made by the Apostles nor by any Generall Councell nor was recieved by the Greeke or Easterne Churches but in the Church of Rome and had beene so long recited and used in the Church now about the yeare 400 that then it was held an Apostolicall Tradition which it is certaine was conveyed also by the Church of Rome to other Churches of the West the Easterne Churches in the meane time using other Creeds that Creed was composed by those who had the Government of the Romane Church but there is nought of this which agreeth not to the Creed that we call the Apostles therefore the Bishop and Presbyters of the Church of Rome composed it Answ This is the summary Argument used to disprove the Authors of the Creed and which we have already answered by Parts For that the Creed was composed by the Apostles we have proved at large both by Authorities and Arguments That it was received for the full sense and substance thereof in the Greeke or Easterne Churche appears both by what we have before cited out of the Greeke Fathers especially Marcellus and Chrysostome as also by the foresaid Parallell of the Jerosolymitan Nicene Antiochian and Athanasian Creeds with the Romane and Aquileian That it was held an Apostolicall Tradition by the Church of Rome before the yeare 400 appeares by the forecited Testimonies of the Laine Fathers Irenaeus Tertullian Ambrose and others That it was convaied by the Church of Rome to other Churches of the West which the Objector invidiously
alleadgeth to disparage it amongst the Reformed Churches is more then hath been proved but if it were it maketh nothing against its Dignity and Authority for such a Conveyance will argue the Church only for the Deriver as the Head Mother or Principall Church of the West not the Originall Composer of the Creed and 't is generally acknowledged that the Church of Rome in the first Ages was most famous for the purity of the Orthodoxe Faith and the uncorrupt keeping of Traditions especially Doctrinall Lastly that the Easterne Churches used other Creeds hath been also disproved if by others be meant Creeds diverse in meaning and in the substance of the Articles Therefore the conclusion namely that the Creed was framed by the Bishop and Clergy of Rome of its own accord falles unto the Ground Thus have I endeavoured not only to bring positive Arguments for the asserting of this Ancient Tradition but withall to answer all those Objections which are brought against it a Taske farre the more difficult of the two First because it is an untrodden Path wherein I had neither Helpe nor Guide no man till these late busy Times having ever presumed to write against the Authority or the Authors Secondly because it is usually a farre easier labour to establish a received Truth then to demolish all the specious objections which are raised against it I shall desire to meet with the same candor in my Reader whosoever he be that shall compare these Arguments and Answers together which I have used towards the Objectors whose Persons I have not so much as named as having no quarrell to them but only contended with their Objections and whatsoever my Answers be their Arguments I am sure are set down at full and to the best advantage least otherwise I might seeme to have fought with my own shadow Let the indifferent Reader see and judge Yet if after all this I be farther asked by the more curious enquirer which of all those Creeds or Symboles that wee meet with in Antiquity and which I have here produced came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in expresse words from the Apostles neither more nor lesse not the least particle varied I Answer First That this question as it hath much difficulty in it so it hath little necessity for as long as those Creeds agreed in the substance of the Faith it matters little or nothing though there be some variety of expression This indeed might make way for a difference in substance if done rashly upon a private judgement and a designe of countenancing some new opinion but not so when done by the generall consent of the Church assembled in a Synod which is supposed not only to have the words of the Creed but also the true sense thereof kept in her by Tradition as an inviolable Depositum and withall to be directed by the Holy Ghost so as not to erre in any necessary fundamentall Poynt such as the Articles of the Creed are The Socinians indeed would have the Nicene Creed to differ in substance from that of the Apostles but such a censure is not to be much wondered at in them who renew the Heresies condemned by that Creed and by the two Councels which composed it Secondly Amongst all the forementioned Creeds those which we may have most probable recourse unto as the exact Patternes or Modells of the rest the Apostles genuine Births as well for words as matter are the Creed of the Jerosolymitan Church explained by Cyril and the Creed of the Romane Church which we of the West now commonly call the Apostles Creed for these two are most compleat in themselves and most consonant to each others First The Creed of the Jerosolymitan Church is likely to be the Apostles because that was the Antient mother Church of the whole World where Christianity first began and from thence was communicated unto all Nations and wherein the Apostles are said to have composed the Creed before they went unto the Gentilks Secondly The Church of Rome also hath a very faire Plea for her Antiquity and Integrity First Because that Church was founded by the two Prime Apostles Peter and Paul Secondly Because she was in the greatest Repute for the first Ages as the most uncorrupt preserver of the Catholick Faith and keeper of Apostolicall Tradition when other Churches swerved from the Apostolick Doctrine whence it is that the Fathers of those Ages frequently appeale to her in their writings against Hereticks Thirdly Because Heresies arising in other Churches forced them to adde some explicatory Particles to the Creed thereby to vindicate the Faith from Imposture and distinguish themselves from unsound Professors but the Church of Rome had this happinesse for a long while that no Heresy sprang up in her which by infecting her Children inforced her to this necessity for that of the Novatians was about Ecclesiasticall Discipline rather a Schisme then a Heresy and Blastus was a Quartadecuman Erring only about the time of keeping Easter As for Florinus and Praxeas the one was no Romane but a stranger and soon discovered and both upon Discovery were banished as it seems for we heare not of any great harme they did or store of Disciples they led after them Now this felicity of the Romane Church caused them to keep their Creed entire according as they had received it from the Apostles their first renowned Founders without any Alteration or Addition so much as in the manner of expression to which purpose we may consult these three following Testimonies First S. Amb. in his forecited Epistle to Syricius Bishop of Rome exhorts all to believe the Apostles Creed which the Church of Rome hath alwaies preserved intemeratum untoucht and inviolate Secondly Ruffinus in his Exposition of the Creed upon those words I believe in the Father Almighty gives us this Admonition 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 quòd neque haeresis ulla illic sumsit exordium mos ibi servatur antiquus eos qui gratiam Baptismi suscepturi sunt publicè id est fidelium populo audiente Symbolum reddere utique adjectionem unius saltem sermonis eorum qui precesserunt in fide non admittit auditus in caeteris autem locis quantum intelligi datur propter nonnullos haereticos addita quaedam videntur per quae novellae doctrinae sensus ceederetur excludi That is I think it not unseasonable to give notice that in diverse Churches somewhat is added to these words but not so in the Church of Rome the reason whereof I suppose to be this because neither any Heresy there took its Rise and the ancient custome is there also kept that the Persons who are to be baptized publiquely rehearse the Creed in the audâ—ence of the Church which would not endure to heare the least
are dead long agoe but of the maine Grounds of their Doctrine which are continued by their successors in the Church unto the worldes end CAP XII The fift Head of this Discourse touched in Generall viz. thé Supplementall or exegeticall Creeds framed in Succeeding Ages The Groundes whereon they were framed and their use Some Copies of Creeds set downe as well of the Hereticks as the Orthodoxe both consonant to this of the Apostles THIS Creed of the Apostles was in it selfe a Compleat Rule of Faith sufficient to establish the Church in her Beliefe but in processe of time certaine Hereticks arose who perverted the anciently received Faith in the old Catholck sense and meaning therof yet in outward shew Profession subscribed to the words Such were those Arch-hereticks Arius Macedonius Nestorius Eutyches against whom the foure first generall Councels were cal'd Now to detect and convince these close subtile Hereticks the Church was inforced to Frame some other Creedes or Symboles Nihil mirum videri debet saith S. Hilary quod tam frequenter fides exponi caeptae sint necessitatem hanc nobis furor haereticus imponit that is It is not to be marvelled that the Creed hath been so often explained in severall Formes of Confession the fury of hereticks hath forced us to it New Creedes then these were not for the Sense but only for the Frame and Composure they being nought else but Paraphrases or expositions of the old especially in those two maine Points of the Trinity and Incarnation which were then and I could wish they were not by some now chiefely oppugned the Divells malice and mans curiosity concurring together the Divells malice as being Points of the higest concernement and mans curiosity as farthest removed out of the Reach of our naturall Capacity and beyond the ken of human Reason Now that we may and how far we may lawfully thus explaine the Christian Faith and enlarge the Doctrinals of Christianity let us heare Vincentius Lirinensis who thus expresseth it with a like elegancy and Solidity Forsitan dicet aliquis nullusne in ecclesiâ Christi profectus habebitur Religionis Habeatur sanè maximus sed ita tamen ut verè Profectus sit ille fidei non permutatio Crescat oportet sed in suo duntaxat genere crescat in eodem sc Dogmate eodem sensu eademque Sententiâ Imitetur Animarum Religio rationem corporum quae licet annorum processu numeros suos evoluant explicent eadem tamen quae crant permanent multùm interest inter pueritiae florē senectutis maturitatem iidē tamen ipsi fiunt senes qui fuerant Adolescentes ut quamvis unius ejusdemque Hominis status habitusque mutetur una tamen nihilominus eadēque natura una eadēque Persona sit Parva lactantium membra magna juvenum eadem ipsa sunt tamen Quot parvulorum artus tot virorum siqua illa sunt quae aevi maturioris aetate pariuntur jam in seminis ratione proserta ut nihil novum postea proferatur in senibus quod non in pueris jam antea latitaverat Quod sihumana species in aliquam deinceps non sui generis vertatur effigiem aut certè addatur quippiam membrorum numero vel detrahatur necesse est ut totum Corpus vel intercidat vel prodigiosum fiat vel certè debilitetur Ita etiam Christianae Religionis dogma sequatur has decet profectuum leges ut annis sc consolidetur dilatetur tempore sublimetur aetate incorruptum tamen illibatumque permaneat universis partium suarum mensuris cunctisque quasi membris sensibus propriis plenum atque perfectum sit quod nihil praeterea Permutationis admittat nulla proprietatis dispendia nullam sustineat Definitionis varietatem The sum whereof is this That there may ought to be a proficiency in Religion the greater the better but it must be an increase not a change Religion must proceed on and grow but in the same sense Doctrine and substance like our Bodyes which in processe of Time grow bigger and yet abide the same There is much diference betweene the flower of Youth and the fading of Age yet they are the same still Their Bulke and stature diverse but the same nature and the same Person as before The limbes of Children are little of Men growen large yet both the same the Infant hath as many members as the fulgrowen neither appeares there ought new in the old which lay not hidden and as it were inclosed in the young so that riper Age doth but produce that to open view which the seminall vertue concealed and shut up in a narrower roome But if in processe of Time the humane shape should be changed into that of a diverse kind if ought should be added to the just number of Parts or taken from it the whole Body must of necessity perish grow prodigious or at least insensibly Pine away So the Doctrine of Christian Religion must observe these Rules of Growth that in processe of years it get strength spread hieghten yet stil remaine entire and unaltered in all its parts nothing added changed or cut off Thus he in his Commonitory against Heresies Chapter 28. 29. Now amongst those Explicatory Creeds which unfold and enlarge the Christian Faith in the severall Parts or limbes thereof the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds are the two Principall Framed both much about the same Time generally approved of by the Catholick Church in succeeding Ages and joyntly received with that of the Apostles particularly by our Church of England But before I come to treat of these two distinctly in a double Appendix According to what I proposed in the begining of my Discourse I shall conclude this Chapter and together with it this whole Treatise Concerning the Apostles Creed in setting downe some Ancient Formes or Cenfessions of Faith yet untouched which the Reader may please to compare with it and thereby discerne the variety of expression but agreement in Sense amongst other Bishops and Churches of that Primitive Age as yet unmentioned which will farther enlighten and establish what hath been already asserted And amongst these I shall Place some Confessions even of those Bishops who favoured Arius and Macedonius to shew how neere they came unto the Orthodoxe Formes who therein may serve to shame and testify against the Blasphemies of some moderne sectaries The first of these in Dignity as well as Time is that of Gregorius Thaumaturgus afterwards recited approved of in the fift Generall Councell held at Constantinople The Creed like his name is well worthy our wonder for not only Nicephorus lib. hist 6. cap 17. But Gregory Nyssen also in his Encomiastical Oration of Thaumaturgus gives us this Relation of its Originall and Composure That the Blessed Virgin revealed it unto him by the mouth of S. Iohn whereupon he strait committed it to Paper and left it to the Church which hath since kept and esteemed it as a sacred
and Dignity of each Person so named so that they are Three in the manner of Subsistence but one in the Consent Socr. Hist lib. 2. cap. 7. The Fourth was Framed on this occasion Certaine Bishops being sent by Constantius to his Brother Emperour of the West for to give an account of the Casting out of Paulus Athanasius concealed the precedent Formula of Beliefe made at Antioch and exhibited this other of their owne composure viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We believe in one God the Father Almighty Creator and maker of all Things of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named and in his only-begotten Sonne our Lord Jesus Christ begotten of the Father before all Worldes God of God Light of Light by whom all things were made both in the Heavens in the Earth whether Visible or Invisible who is the Word and the Wisdome and the Power and the Life and the true Light who in these last Dayes was for our sakes made Man and Borne of the holy Virgin was Crucified Dead and Buried and rose againe the third Day from the Dead he ascended into the Heavens sitteth on the right hand of the Father and shall come at the end of the World to Judge the Quicke and the Dead to render unto every one according to his workes Whose Kingdome never ceasing endureth unto all eternity for he sitteth at the right Hand of God not only in this world but also in that which is to come We believe also in the holy Ghost that is in the Comforter whom according to his Promise he sent to his Apostles after his ascent into Heaven to teach them bring all things to their remembrance by whom also the Soules of those who syncerely believe in him are Sanctifyed But those who say the Sonne was made of nothing or of any other Substance and was not of God and that there was a Time when he was not the Catholick Church doth not acknowledge them for her owne Socr. hist lib. 2. cap. 14. The Fift Creed is that which was rehearsed by Vrsacius and Valens two Arian Bishops in the Synod of Ariminum had bin not long before Composed by the Bishops of that Faction in the Synod of Sirmium The Forme is this which followes We believe in one only and true God the Father Almighty Creator Framer of all things in one only-begotten Sonne of God begottten before all Worlds before all Begining before all imaginable Time which we can possibly conceive or comprehend begotten of God without sense or passion by whom the Worlds or Ages were set in order and all things were made the only Son of his Father God of God like unto the Father who begat him according to the Scriptures whose Generation no one knoweth but the Father who begat him This only-begotten Sonne of his we know came from Heaven for the puttting away of sinne by the will of his Father was borne of the Virgin Mary conversed with his Disciples fulfilled every Part of his office according to the will and Councell of his Father was crucifyed suffered and Dyed descended into the lower Partes of the Earth and ordered all things there the Porters of Hell Trembling at his sight he rose againe the Third Day Conversed with his Disciples and after forty Dayes was taken up into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father and shall come at the last Day in the Glory of his Father to render unto every one according to his workes And in the holy Ghost whom the same only-begotten Sonne of God Jesus Christ promised to send unto mankind the Comforter according as it is writtē I depart unto my Father I will beseech the Father and he shall send you another Comforter the Spirit of truth he shall receive of mine and shall teach you and bring all things to your remembrance As for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 essence because it being set downe by the Fathers without explication and not understood by the People gives cause of offence and because the Scriptures have no such word we have thought good to take it away and to make no mention at all hereafter of it when we speake of God because the holy Scriptures mention not at all the essence of the holy Ghost or the Sonne but we say that the Sonne is like unto the Father in all Things as the holy Scriptures say and Teach Soc. lib. 2. cap. 29. The sixt Confession of Faith is that new Formula which Acacius Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine one of the Arian Party proposed in the Synod of Seleucia by Leo a great officer in the Emperours Court The Forme was this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We professe and believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth of things Visible and Invisible we believe also in our Lord Jesus Christ his Sonne begotten of him without Sense or Passion before all worlds God the Word the only-begotten of God the light the life the Truth the Wisdome by whom all Things were made both which are in Heaven and which are on Earth whether visible or invisible we believe that in the latter Age of the World he tooke flesh of the holy Virgin Mary for the putting away of sinne was made man suffered for our sinnes rose againe was taken up into Heaven sitteh at the right hand of the Father and shall come againe in Glory to judge the Quicke and the Dead we believe also in the holy Ghost whom our Lord and Saviour called the Comforter when he promised to send him to his Disciples after his departure and accordingly sent him by whom also he sanctifyeth those in the Church who believe and are Baptized in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost Those who Preach any other Faith than this wee Judge them aliens from the Catholick Church See for this Socr. Hist lib. 2. cap. 32. The Seventh Confession of Faith is that of the Macedonians exhibited by them to Liberius Bishop of Rome when they fled to him and the Emperour Valentinian for succour from the Persecution of his Brother Valens and the Arian Bishop Eudoxius The Forme was this We believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of all things visible and invisible and in one only-begotten God the Lord Jesus Christ the Sonne of God begotten of the Father that is of the Substance of the Father God of God light of light very God of very God begotten not made consubstantiall to the Father by whom all Things were made both which are in Heaven and which are on Earth who for us men and for our Salvation came downe was incarnate and made man suffered and rose againe the third Day he ascended into the Heavens and shall come to Judge the Quick and the Dead And in the holy Ghost But those who say of the Sonne of God that there was a Time when he was not a Time
before he was begotten and that he was made of nothing or had any other Essence or Substance than that of his Father or that he is obnoxious to change or Alteration such as these the Catholick and Apostolick Church of God doth Anathematize Socr. lib 4. cap. 11. THE FIRST APPENDIX Concerning the CREED of Athanasius CAP. I. Two Reasons why this Creed hath been more oppugned than the Rest It s Authority and Author are vindicated in generall more especially touching the severity of the Preface AMongst all the Creeds this of Athanasius hath met with most opposition First because it hath most resolutely and strictly oppugned the Ancient and Moderne Heresies about those great Poynts of the Trinity and Incarnation for whereas other Creeds proceed by way of simple Confession Narration or Exposition of the Faith I Believe c. This runnes in an higher style more directly repugnant to the corrupters of the Christian Faith Whosoever will be saved must believe c. Both in the Beginning and the close requiring an absolute Assent upon paine of Damnation and tacitely anathematizing all the Adversaries of the Faith So that we may compare the Apostles Creed to a Foundation the Nicene and other Exegeticall Creeds that followed unto a Superstructure but this of Athanasius to a Bulwarke or Defensive worke which guards the House and excludes the enemy from approaching no marvaile then it hath been so much oppugned Secondly because it was the worke and composure of a Private man whereas the other Creeds either challenge the Colledge of the Apostles for the Authors or the Catholick Church assembled in a Synod or at least the Tradition of some Patriarchall or other Ancient and famous Church time out of mind whereas this of Athanasius though relying but upon a single Fathers Authority yet speakes much bigger than the Rest and expressely requires a more exact obedience than any of the other Now this double reason hath raised both it and its Author many Adversaries whereof some have styled the Preface of it Proud and Insolent others have denied Athanasius for the Author so to leave it destitute of a Patron and deprive it of the Authority of so eminent a Champion of the Christian Faith a Third sort have more impudently defamed both Worke and Author and styled it Sathanasius his Creed as one Geo Niger and Valentinus Gentilis as Genebrard tells us in his Epistle to Charles Cardinall of Lorraine prefixed to his Book De Trinitate Among all which Adversaries 't is observable that none have either denied the Author or defamed the Creed but such whom the Church hath noted of Heresy and commonly have been the Ring-leaders to the Rest In this heat and fury of opposition it will concerne us calmely to examine the Truth whereby we shall at once vindicate the Credit both of the Creed and its Composer First for the Truth and Esteeme of the Creed it relies not on the Authority of one single Father who composed it though never so famous in his time and all Ages since among the Orthodox Professors but on the Testimony of the Catholick Church which hath received it and commended it to all her Children as the Buckler of the true Christian Faith neither only so but hath received it of old into her Liturgies and still retaines it an Honour not vouchsafed to any other Creed of a Private mans composing Constantinople Rome and the Reformed Churches have joyntly received it and exposed it to publique use although they very much differ in other Poynts a strong argument of its Verity and Authority Secondly For the credit of the Author whosoever consults Ecclesiasticall History and Nazianzens Encomiastick Oration must needs acknowledge his great fame throughout the Christian World for his Learning Vertue and unwearied Constancy in maintaining the true Faith against the Arian Faction under four Emperors Reignes especially under Constantius Valens when they swayed all which Undaunted constancy of his when the other Bishops generally either complyed with the Enemy or kept silence for feare deservedly purchased this peculiar honor to his Creed as the due reward of his unconquered Faith and delivered his Fame unto succeeding Ages with so loud a Trumpe that we heare Cosmas Laurens proclaime Cum ex S. Athanasii Opusculis aliquid inveneris nec ad scribendum Chartas habueris in vestimentis tuis scribe illud So Sophronii Prat. Spirit Thirdly As to the supposed Pride and Insolency of the Preface with which Termes some have been pleased to dignify it as being too stately for a private Mans worke and too peremptorily excommunicating all Christians who out of Ignorance or mysperswasion imbrace not all the following deepe misteryes contained in it they may please also to take notice that the Creed which followes though for the composure it Have Athanasius only for the Author yet the Faith therin set downe and explained is the common received Faith of the Church derived downe from the Apostles to his Times and since commended by our Catholick Mother to succeeding Ages as the Groundworke of Christian Religion most necessary to be first laid and relyed on and therefore may well beare such a Proeme which refers not so much to the Authority of the writer as to the Creed written the composure was a private Mans but the Creed was Publick the Frame of one but the Faith of All. Then for the strict exacting the beliefe of his Creed from all Christians they may please to observe that it was wrote in opposition to the Arians so that it doth not so directly exclude from Salvation the pure Ignorant as the stuborne Heretick nor somuch condemne the bare nescience as the negation of the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jud. 3. though I conceive it to be very hard if not utterly impossible for any Christian to be saved who doth not expresly believe the Substance of the Faith therein explayned especialy in those two Points which he so much insists upon viz. The Trinity and Incarnation the Vision or Fruition of the Blessed Trinity being the last End or Happinesse of mankind and the Incarnation of our Saviour with the consequents thereof being the meanes appointed by God for to compasse it So that the great Athanasius shewed not his Pride in prefixing such a Proeme but rather his mercy and Paternall care towardes the Church by a more expresse Declaration of the necessity of the Catholick Faith which some otherwise might have more oscitantly hearkned to and been lesse carefull to entertaine if not awakned by the Terror of this Preface CAP. II. Severall Testimonies Concerning the Author and Authority of the Athanasian Creed Hving premised thus much in way of a generall Vindication I shall now set downe some speciall Testimonies concerning the Author and Authority of this Creed begining with this latter Age wherein it hath begun to be questioned and so by degrees ascending to the Time of Athanasius himselfe thus at length arriving at the Fountaine Head by the
13. his words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is They the Fathers of that Synod added to that Divine Confession of Faith made at Nice The Glory of the most Holy Spirit as a Person of equall Honour and Glory with the Father and the Sonne Gregory of Nyssa supplying what was defective in that Sacred Creed Not that they were the first framers of those additionall particles for we find them extant before the celebration of this Councell in Epiphanius his Anchoratus and for the most part in Cyrils Catecheses but the first who by their Synodicall Authority confirmed the entire Forme having left out something of the Nicene Creed viz. those three fore mentioned Passages but added more and so commended yea prescribed the whole unto the Christian Church This Creed so enlarged was presently received into the Publick service of the Church for Platina in the life of Damasus tels us Mandavit ut in principio celebrationis quam missam vocant Confessio diceretur ut hodie fit that is Damasus who lived at the time of the Constantinopolitan Creed commanded that in the Begining of Common-service this Creed or Confession should be rehearsed as now we use it And Walafridus Strabo de Reb. Eccles cap. 22. informes us that this was done in imitation of the Greeke Church Illud Symbolum quod nos ad imitationem Graecorum intra missas adsumimus Et mox Ab ipsis ergo ad Romanos ille usus creditur pervenisse Yet for some yeares though it were received into the Greeke Liturgy it was not Constantly used till the Time of Timotheus Patriarch of Constantinople who came to that See in the yeare 511. So Theodorus Lector in the Second Booke of his Eclogae or Collectanea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that is Timotheus at the desire of his Friends tooke order that the Creed of the 318 Fathers should be rehearsed at every Communion and this in reproofe of Macedonius who had not received it whereas before it was rehearsed only once in the yeare to wit on the Eve of the Passion at the Time when the Bishop Catechized By this it appeares that it was used Publickly in the Easterne Church though but once in the yeare whereas this Timotheus caused it to be constantly rehearsed at every Communion Not long after this we find it commanded to be used in the third Councell of Toledo a Nationall Councell of 78 Bishops assembled under K. Recaredus whereof Leander Bishop of Sevil was one This Councell was celebrated in the yeare 590 the second canon whereof runs thus Pro reverentia sanctissimae Fidei petitione Recaredi Regis constituit Synodus ut per omnes Ecclesias Hispaniae Galliciae secundum formam Orientalium Ecclesiarum Concillii Constantinopolitani hoc est 150 Episcoporum Symbolum fidei recitetur prius quam Dominica dicatur oratio voce clarâ— praedicetur quo fides vera sit manifesta testimonium habeat ad Christi corpus sanguinem praelibandum pectora populorum fide purificaâ—a accedant that is Out of a venerable regard of the most holy Faith and upon the motion of K. Recaredus the Synod hath ordeined that the Creed of the Constantinopolitan Councell that is of the 150 Bishops should be rehearsed after the use of the Eastern Churches throughout all the Churches of Spaine and Gallicia and that it be openly published before the saying of the Lords Prayer that so the true Faith may be manifested and witnessed and that the Hearts of the People being purifyed by Faith may come to the participation of Christs Body and Bloud From Spaine in likelihood it came over the Pyrenees into France part whereof namely Languedoc and the Country adjacent was then under the Dominion of the Gothish Kings of Spaine And as it was commanded to be rehearsed in the Spanish Churches on purpose to profligate the Arian heresy wherewith all their Princes had bin infected until K. Recaredus so was it more generally received in the Churches of France in the latter end of the 8 Century when Elipandus Archbishop of Toledo and Felix Bishop of Urgell had been condemned of Nestorianisme in two Synods namely at Ratisbone in the yeare 792. And at Frankfort where Charles the great was present in the yeare 794. So Walafridus Strabo de Rebus Eccles c. 22. Apud Gallos Germanos post dejectionem Felicis haeretici sub gloriosissimo Carolo Francorum Rege idem Symbolum latius crebrius in Missarum caepit officiis iterari that is The same Creed viz. the Nicene began to be used amongst the Galles and Germans after the deposition of the heretick Felix under Charles the most glorious King of the French more often and throughout more Churches in the Communion-service And the Synod of Frankfort to prevent the spreading of this Heresy tooke order that together with the Apostles Creed the Nicene also should be diligently delivered for the publick use of the Churches the thirty third Canon of which Synod set forth by Sermondus runs thus Vt fides Catholica sanctae Trinitatis id est Symbolum Constantinopolitanum oratio Dominica atque Symbolum fidei Apostolorum omnibus praedicetur ac tradatur That the Catholick Faith of the holy Trinity that is the Nicene or Constantinopolitan Creed and the Lords Prayer and the Apostles Creed be Preached and Delivered unto All. As for our Church of England it was probably brought hither by Augustine and his fellow Preachers who were sent to convert the Nation by Gregory the Great then Bishop of Rome CAP. II. When and by whom the Particle Filioque was added to the Nicene Creed is historically delivered and at large Severall other causes of the breach betweene the Churches of Greece and Rome IT will not be amisse for a close unto the Discourse on this Creed to shew as far as good Authors give us light the Time when and the Person by whom the Particle Filioque and from the Sonne was added to this Creed which declares the holy Ghost to Proceed from the Sonne as well as from the Father And this I thought fit to adde partly for that the matter is obscure and not generally knowne partly for the compleating of my discourse on this Creed and partly also for to shew the Originall and progresse of so chiefe a cause of Difference betweene the Churches of East and West which hath now lasted for some hundreds of years to which I shall adde some other causes of the Breach and so give a conclusion of the whole Treatise My collections on this Argument I have cheifely from the Learned Vossius who with his wonted industry and fidelity hath acquainted us with what he found recorded concerning it out of the best witnesses of Antiquity viz. Dissert 3a. De 3 bus Symb. The Churches of Spaine where the first who added this Particle to the Creed in a Synod held in Gallicia in the yeare 447 as it is cited by the R nd Armachanus The French Churches
Christopher who thrust Leo the Fift out of his Chaire in the yeare 908. and after seaven Moneths was in like manner dejected by Sergius But Baronius gives a reason to the contrary Anno 888. Nullo pacto possunt tribui ista Christophoro qui invasor Apostolicae Sedis mox sede pulsus perbrevi tempore eam tenuit tumultuosè That is This Addition cannot be ascribed to Pope Christopher who having invaded the Apostolick See was quickly thrust out againe having held it but a very little while and that in great troubles Wherefore with more probability we may attribute this Addition to Pope Sergius his Successour who made this businesse of the Procession his first and chiefe work and sent unto the French Bishops to gather the most solid Arguments they could find against the Errour of the Greekes upon the Receipt of which letters a Synod was called at Soissons 6 Cal. Jul. Aº 909. Wherein Herivaeus Archbishop of Rheimes earnestly exhorts the Clergy to prosecute the question against the Photian Errours and Blasphemies Hortamur vestram Fraternitatem saith he ut unà me cum secundum admonitionem Domini Romanae sedis presidis singuli nostrum perspectis Patrum Catholicorum sententiis de divinae Scripturae pharetris acutas proferamus sagittas ad conficiendam belluam monstri renascentis ad terebrandum Caput nequissimi Serpentis And this may be the reason why the ancient Romane writers never delivered to posterity the name of that Pope who contrary to the Precept and Practise of his Predecessor Leo 3. undertook to adde this Particle to the Creed namely because they were ashamed of such an Author as Sergius an usurper of the See and one of a most infamous life whom if they had alleadged they had laid both themselves and their cause open to the scoffes and railings of the Greekes who would greedily have laid hold on such an advantage Otherwise it were a Thing extreamly improbable that the Clergy and Notaries of the Romane Church should be so grossely negligent as not to insert a matter of this consequence into their publique Registers and that all the Ecclesiasticall Writers of that and the next Age should quite passe over it in silence Especially it being done in a great Synod of Westerne Bishops as the forenamed Bishop of Colosse witnessed in the Councell of Florence when he there disputed in this cause on behalfe of the Romane Church His words are these Cyrillus literis mandavit Sanctum spiritum esse per Filium ac Filii esse ab ipso profluere quam profecto sententiam non dixisset nisi coactus fuisset haereticorum ipsorum opinionem evertere quemadmodum etiam Romanae Ecclesiae contigit nam maximo in Gallia in Hispaniis Schismate imminente cum jam ex filioque passim celebraretur Romano Pontifici fuit necesse in multorum Occidentalium amplae Dignitatis magnique Consilii Patrum Conventu addito ex Filioque Symbolum magis illustrare That is Cyril hath wrote that the Holy Ghost is by the Sonne and of the Sonne and that he proceedeth from him which he had not declared unlesse he had been compelled thereby to overthrow the opinion of the Hereticks as it fell out also in the Romane Church for a great Schisme being now ready to breake forth in the Churches of France and Spaine when as the particle Filioque was commonly used it was necessary for the Bishop of Rome to illustrate the Creed by the Addition of that particle which he did in an Assembly of many Westerne Bishops and those of the greatest Dignity and judgement Sess 7a. About 165 years after the ejection of the Patriarch Photius Michael Cerularius vehemently set himselfe against the Latines accusing them not only concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost but also concerning Traditions and Ceremonies as for Communicating in unleavened bread fasting on Saturday c. Leo Achridenus Metropolitan of Bulgaria seconded him Michael Psellus Tutor to Michael Ducas the Emperour surnamed Paropinaceus pursued the quarrell and so did Theophylact who flourished about the yeare 1070. Thus began and thus continued the deplorable Schisme between the Churches of East and West the causes whereof were these that follow 1. The Addition of this particle Filioque to the Nicene or Constantinopolitan Creed not only without but against the Consent of the Easterne Churches who had composed that Creed but were never called to that Synod wherein this Alteration was made yea still protested against it But which was more this Addition was made in contempt of the third generall Councell held at Ephesus which expressely forbad it and denounced an Anathema against him whosoever should dare to alter this Creed by Addition or Diminution cap. 7. For though an Oecumenicall Synod cannot absolutely prescribe to another Oecumenicall whence the first Councell of Constantinople added much by way of explication to the Nicene Creed yet it may prescribe Lawes to Inferiour Synods whether Provinciall or Nationall so that nothing ought to be done in the common cause of the Faith but by the common Judgment and determination of the Catholick Church Thus did the Greeks complaine And when the Latines afterward urged the Authority of the Romane See now growing daily greater that the Bishop of Rome by a peculiar priviledge derived from St Peter the Prince of the Apostles was to take care that the Church received no Damage that he had an infallible Judgment by the speciall Gift of the holy Ghost in all controversies of Faith and authority to decide them so that there was no necessity he should expect the judgment of the Easterne Churches and that this was the Priviledge of the first See which had received the Primacy from S. Peter Christs vicar on Earth The Greeks replyed First that S. Peter never chalenged that priviledge to himselfe to judge alone and to be judged of none for being called in question that he had conversed with the Gentiles he was faine to make an Apology for himselfe in the publick audience of the Church Act. 11. And when the Controversy arose whether the Gentiles should be circumcised and observe the Ceremoniall Law no Appeale was made to S. Peter but a Synod was called wherin though he spake first yet Iames as Bishop of Jerusalem the place where the Synod was called decided the question and seemes to have sate therein as President Besides S. Paul resisted him to his face at Antioch and publickly rebuked him for causing others to Judaize by his example as we Read Galatians 2. 14. Which he would not have presumed to doe if he had conceived him endued with such a supereminent priviledge So then there appeares nought in Peter above the rest of the Apostles but a Primacy of order or of Dignity at the most such as is acknowledged to be fit in the Church of God and this Primacy conferred on him either for that he was first called or for his Age or Zeale or that he was commonly the first Speaker
see no reason for them diverting in the meane time all those Testimonies of Scripture which are produced to confirm these Principles by altering as I said of words letters points wresting of phrases affixing to the words new contrary Glosses by perverting other places to serve their own turn by false unheard-of Expositions so that this right Reason proves a crooked Rule and instead of imforming us of the Truth deformes the Originall the Touchstone of its Triall The Church of England in her 21 Article saith indeed that Generall Councils may erre and have erred But shee saith not that they have erred in matters of Faith only shee infers from hence wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor authority unlesse it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture And good reason because the Scripture containes all things necessary to salvation But by whom are these things to be so declared Sure by the Fathers assembled in a Generall Councill So she makes these Fathers Declarers or Collectours of those necessary Points out of Scripture and for ought I can see judges of that necessity A very great Priviledge and as much as was ever challenged by them But she more expresly ties her Clergy to submit unto the judgment of the Fathers whether in or out of a Councill in weighty Points of Religion Synod Lond. An. 1571. Tit. 19. De Concionatoribus Imprimis videbunt Cincionatores ne quid unquam doceant pro Concione quod a Populo religiose teneri credi velint nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinae veteris aut Nâ—vi Testamenti quodque ex illa ipsâ doctrinâ Catholici Patres veteres Episcopi collegerint Where she makes the Orthodoxe Fathers the sole Interpreters of Scripture who are to be followed by Preachers in matters of Consequence and ranks their Collections out of Holy Scripture with the letter it selfe which if it imploy not infallibility in expounding Scripture I am sure it comes very neere it Reason then is not the Judge of all Truth to which our Church may seeme to referre us by making Councils fallible that is bare naturall Reason but Reason enlightned neither were the Fathers guided by it in the maine Principles of Religion but by Faith relying on Authority divine or universall Tradition She may indeed yea ought to search into and examine Tradition whether it be genuine or spurious as the Beraeans Acts 17. 11. examined S. Pauls Citations of the Old Testament touching the Prophecies of the Messiah But when the Tradition is found to be good and cleare old and Catholick then Reason must submit to it although it may seeme to thwart or exceed her Neither doth S. Peter bid us to give a reason of our faith but to be ready to give an answer to every one that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us 1 Peter 3. 15. that is upon what Grounds we expect eternall Happinesse by the Profession and Practice of the Christian Religion and this answer or reason to be given not rashly or conceitedly but with meeknesse and feare Indeed who the most Learned much lesse every ordinary Christian who hath the charg there given him can give a Reason or Demonstration of all Mysteries in Religion some of which as the Trinity and Incarnation we cannot so much as conceive or comprehend fully and distinctly Besides the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there may be as fitly rendred a Reckoning or Account for the word is thus elsewhere taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give an Account of thy Stewardship Luk 16. 2. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall give an Account thereof viz. of every idle word Mat. 12. 36. but never as farre as I remember is the word used for a medium or Demonstrative Argument a Priori Is it not then the ready way to the Introduction of all Sects of Libertinisme yea at last of Atheisme it selfe to bring all Points of Religion to the Censure and Tribubunall of this conceitedly-blind Iudge which according to the mad wish of that Roman Tyrant cuts off the very neck of Religion at one blow For all Religions which hitherto have dared to shew their face to the world have grounded themselves on Authority either true or false on Reall or Pretended Revelations The Grecians had their Oracles Numa his Egeria and Mahomet his pretended Gabriel as well as the Jewes had their Moses and Christians their Jesus Humane Reason left to its own light and guidance never presumed in any Nation to be the Mother of a new Religion or a sufficient Directresse in it yea the light of Nature is acknowledged by the most acute Philosopher to be dim and darke in relation to Divine Objects compared therefore by him to the eye of an Owle at mid-day 't is not able therefore of it self to shew us the way to Heaven who converse here in a spirituall Aegypt a land of darknesse which is our naturall state no getting into Canaan but by a pillar of fire supernaturally raised and divinely moved Now as Anabaptisme is more suitable to the dreggs of the People and worketh on the grosser humours of the Body Politicke to whom Community of goods and freedome from the power of Magistrates are pleasing Tenents so this as a poyson farre more deadly seazeth on the subtler wits as on the finer animal-spirits therefore the more dangerous because abler Instruments of mischeife Reason at the best is fallacious enough but when thus cried up as the sole supreme Judge of all from whom lies no Appeale no marvell if she extreamly please he selfe in novell Inventions and become much enamoured of them as her owne genuine Birthes Shee is therefore a most dangerous Guide being thus left to her selfe in matters of Religion which as Vincentius Lir. tels us is not Res inventa sed tradita not found out by our selves but received from our Auncestours Sure then Eternall Salvation is a businesse of more weight then to be intrusted to her Dictates and Directions whence it is that holy Scripture every where cries downe the wisdome of the world the judgment of the naturall man the vaine deceits of the Heathen Philosophers who were the great Masters and Admirers of Reason and the darknesse of our understanding in things Divine in the Mystery of Godlinesse And methinks when Reason decives us so oft in smaller matters in objects farre lower such as lie within its owne Spheare it should a loud proclaime this Caveat to an indifferent and experienced man that we are not to trust it in things of the greatest moment which lie so farre above its reach that we are not to follow a false wandering Meteour an Ignis fatâ—us here below when we have the bright Morning Starre to guide us in this vale of darknesse untill the Sunne of Righteousnesse arise with healing in his winges But to returne to the Argument which I have in hand As I dare not be so rash as
more especially from the two Creeds of Marcellus and Chrysostome to which we may adde that of Arius 1. That the Greeke Church received the Apostles Creed by Tradition as well as the Latine Church therefore it was no composure of the Romane Clergy as some invidiously affirme 2. That this Creed was extant amongst them long before the yeare 400 contrary to the assertion of some for both Marcellus and Chrysostome flourished before that time especially Marcellus who convinced the Arians in the Councill of Nice as Epiphanius tells us in the fore cited place Haer. 72. 3. That these Creeds are found upon record after that the Nicene Creed was framed which shewes that the Nicene as it was not the first so it was not the only Creed of the Greeke Church yea it shewes that the Apostles Creed was of publike use amongst them rather then the Nicene which was made but upon a particular occasion viz. The detection and suppression of the Arian heresy Afterwards indeed when a full Creed was composed in the second Generall Councell held at Constantinople wherin the foure last Articles of the Apostles Creed were added to the Nicene and some of them amplified more at larg partly for Illustration of the Faith partly in opposition to Hereticks then that Creed began to be publickly used in the Greeke Church and inserted in their liturgy yet not as a Creed contradistinct to that of the Apostles but as one including or containing it so that we may not unfitly call it the Apostles Creed growne Bigger the parts or Limbs the same the Quantity only augmented 4. That the Greeke Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which S. Cyrils Creed addes to the foure last Articles redounds by a Pleonasme as also in that of Arius for neither Marcellus nor Chrysostome prefixe it to those Articles CAP. V. Testimonies of the Creed and the composure thereof by the Apostles taken out of the Latine Fathers who beare witnes for the Westrne Churches Some objections to the contrary Answered YOU have heard what the Greek Fathers say concerning the Creed and its Originall its Frame and Authors let us now come neerer home and examine what the Fathers of the Westerne Church and other Doctors of note famous for learning and Antiquity have delivered concerning the same Argument and we shall find I hope an unanimous Consent a joynt agreement in their Testimonies which will not a little confirme this Truth to the impartiall Reader when he shall find both East and West to bring in their suffrages in the cause These Witnesses shall be fourteene viz Clemens Romanus Irenaeus Turtullian Ambrose Ierome Austin Maximus Taurinensis Crysologus Leo the Great Cassianus Eusebius Gallicanus Venantius Fortunatus Isidore of Sevil and Rabanus Maurus 1. Clemens Romanus contemporary to the Apostles and mentioned by St Paul as his fellow-worker Phil. 4. 3. Successour also to St Peter in the Bishoprick of Rome in his first Epistle Ad Fratrem Domini translated into Latine by Ruffinus hath these words Apostoli collatâiis scientiâ linguarum adhuc in uno positi symbolum quod fidelis nunc tenet ecclesia unusquisque quod sensit dicendo condiderunt ut discedentes ab inuicem hanc Regulam per omnes Gentes praedicarent that is the Apostles having the gift of Tongues confered upon them being assembled together framed that Creed which the Christian Church now keepeth every one of them contributing thereto that so departing each from other they might publish this Rule amongst all Nations And alittle after Hoc praedicti Sancti Apostoli interse per Spiritum Sanctum salubriter condiderunt This Creed the said Holy Apostles joyntly and profitably composed through the Assistance of the Holy Ghost But least we should doubt whether the Creed he heere makes mention of were the same which we now have he thus breifly Sumes up the Heads of it Summam ergò totius fidei Catholicae recensentes in qua integritas credulitatis ostenditur unius Dei omnipotentis id est Sanctae Trinitatis aequalitas declaratur mysterium Incarnationis Filii Dei qui pro Salute humani Generis a Patre de Coelo descendens de virgine nasci dignatus est quoque ordine quando mortem pertulerit quomodo sepultus surrexerit in carne ipsa Coelos ascenderit ad dexteramque Patris consederit Judex venturus sit qualiter Remissionem Peccatorum sacro Baptismo renatis contulerit Resurrectionem humani Generis in eadem Carne in vitam aeternam futuram sic docuerunt That is The Apostles recounting the summe of the Catholick Faith wherin the whole Beleefe of a Christian is declared viz. The Equality of one Almighty God the Holy Trinity and the mystery of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God who for the Salvation of mankind descended from the Father out of Heaven deigned to be borne of a Virgin how and when he suffered Death how after his Buriall he arose and in the same Body ascended into Heaven and sate on the right hand of the Father and shall come as Judge and how he conferred remission of sinnes on those who were regenerated by holy Baptisme and that there shall be a resurrection of mankind in the same Body unto life Everlasting thus have they taught us And alittle after Et quod in primordio ejusdem Symboli praeponitur Credo in Deum Patrem Omnipotentem praeclarum fidei Testimonium Fundamentum in prima fronte monstratur that is That which is set in the begining of the Creed I believe in God the Father Almighty shewes in the very front a renowned Testimony and Foundation of the Faith I am not ignorant that not a few among the Learned doubt of this Epistle whether it truly belong to Clemens or be a counterfeit set forth under his name as many Decretal Epistles have beene falsly ascribed to severall of the Ancient Bishops of Rome and they bring this for the cheife if not only reason of their Doubt that the Author of this Epistle which is entituled unto Iames the Brother of the Lord makes mention therein of the Death of Peter whereas Peter survived Iames Iames being Martyred at Ierusalem about the midest of Nero's Empire as both Iosepus and Eusebius witnesse but Peter was Crucified at Rome in the latter end thereof For the satisfaction of which doubt I shall desire my Reader to consider what followes First that the stile of this Epistle relisheth of the Ancient primitive Simplicity and that it is entitled To the Brother of the Lord with this Addition Episcopo Episcoporum regenti Hebraeorum sanctam Ecclesiam Hierosolymis sed omnes Ecclesias quae ubique Dei Providentiâ fundatae suut In which words the Author of this epistle gives this Iames two eminent Titles namely Bishop of Bishops and Vniversall Bishop and both of them I conceive in regard of his See Ierusalem where he was constituted the first Bishop that ever was in the Christian World the Bishop of that
may not we justly referre that custome to the Age of the Apostles whereof we can find no beginning in the Church But to give you a more Positive and Expresse proofe that place in the First Epistle to Timothy cap. 6. v. 12. where he is said to have made a good Profession before many witnesses is understood of the Profession of the Creed at his Baptisme by S. Jerome and Occumenius And that other passage in Heb. 6. 1 2. of Faith towards God and the doctrine of Baptismes which are there joyned together is understood in the same sense by Chrysostome Augustine Oecumenius Theophylact and of latter times by Calvin and Panaeus as hath been shewed before Then for the instance of S. Peters 3000 cōverts it is not said that they were Baptized all in one day which can hardly be judged probable at that time for want of hands enough to the worke want of water about Jerusalem and the danger of making so publique a Baptisme but added to the Church that is dederunt nomina Christo they put themselves in the list of Disciples or Catechumeni and so became Candidates of Baptisme a custome anciently used in the Church as appears by Tertullian De Baptismo But if by Adding we must needs understand Initiating into the Church by Baptisme we must interpret The same day thus About the same time Day being put for Time by an usuall Hebraisme for which see Deut 27. 2. compared with Ios 8. 30. c. and Luk. 19. 42. As for their Confession of Faith whether the same Day or afterwards I readily grant that it could not be then framed in the words of the Apostles Creed which was not so early composed but instead of that they publiquely attested to the Truth of Saint Peters Sermon which contained the fundamentalls of Christianity that were after succinctly gathered into one Body in the Summary of the Creed which was thence forward the sole forme of Confession or Beliefe used at the time of Baptisme for none other we finde then used Besides some of the first conversions were miraculous and so not to be drawn into example as ordinary set Patternes of the Churches succeeding Practise the Apostles had the gift of discerning faith in the heart and so needed not alwaies expect an open Profession whereas others in following Times who had not the same Gift were tied to the ordinary Rule and method of proceeding thus the same Apostle caused Cornelius and his friends to be Baptized without any formall Profession of their Faith that we read of because he perceived that the Holy Ghost was powred on them Act. 10. 47 48. Reason 3d. The Creeds or Confessions of Faith which were framed by the Councells of Nice Constantinople Chalcedon and the rest that followed or which we find in the writings of the Fathers as in Athanasius Ierome and others are no new Creeds but comments on the old explanations of some points not so fully and clearly exprest which were then called in question and misinterpreted by some Hereticks of those times Now this may serve for a third Argument to prove that these Councells and Fathers had still a very carefull Eye on some former Creed derived from the Apostles unto their Times as a Rule or patterne to square their Symboles by To instance in the two most famous the Nicene and Athanasian The Nicene Creed enlargeth it selfe chiefly in the Point of our Saviours Divinity and that of the holy Ghost withall adding here and there some small Particles by way of Explication 1. To the first Article it addes and of all things visible and invisible thus more distinctly setting downe the parts ornaments and inhabitants of Heaven and Earth and withall condemning the opinion of some ancient Hereticks who made the Angels the Creatours of the world and so exempted these invisible Spirits from the ranke of Creatures 2. To the third Article it addes who for us men and our Salvation came downe from Heaven and was incarnate c. thus setting downe the end of our Saviours Incarnation 3. To the fift Article it addes according to the Scriptures thus shewing how our Saviours Resurrection answered to the foregoing Prophecies of the Old Testament 4. To the seventh Article it addes whose Kingdome shall have no end thus setting downe the necessary consequent of the generall Judgment namely the eternity of his heavenly Reigne Christ having then fully vanquisht and trodden all enemies under his feet 5. To the eight Article it addes these two Epithets which are applied unto the Church by way of explication viz. one and Apostolick the first included in the word Church which is of the singular number the second in the word Catholick for as the Apostles Commission was vniversall so also was their doctrine on which the Church was Founded 6. To the tenth Article it addes I acknowledge one Baptisme for c. thus shewing the meanes or Ordinance of Gods appointing whereby he forgives and cleanseth us from sin Then for the Creed of Athanasius If we cut of the Preface and conclusion which to speake properly are no parts but Adjuncts of it as wherin he shewes the necessity of the Catholick Faith to Salvation that is the evident danger of denying opposing or corrupting any Article of the Faith as the Arians and other Hereticks of those dayes did 1. He explaines at large the mystery of the Trinity which lies infolded in the First Second and Eight Articles of the Apostles Creed wherein we professe to believe in God the Father in his Sonne Iesus Christ and in the holy Ghost for this believing or putting our whole trust and confidence in the Sonne and holy Ghost as well as in God the Father shewes their coequality of power Goodnesse Wisedome and All sufficiency with him and consequently their Identity of nature whence the holy Scripture every where forbids us to place our Faith in or rely upon any Creature but to trust in God alone and when the Creed comes to the Article of the Church which is but an assembly of men though of the best and highest rancke it changeth the style saying not as before I believe in the Holy Catholick Church but I believe the Holy Catholick Church 2. He distinctly unfolds illustrates at large the mystery of our Saviours Incarnation especially by the similitude of the Soule and Body Now this is nought but a Paraphrase on the third Article of the Apostles Creed 3. To the tenth Article namely that of the Resurrection he adds these words all men shall give an account for their workes which shew the end of the Resurrection are besides involved in the precedent Article of Christs comming to judgment for there can be no Judging of mens Actions without a previous examination and giving an Account 4. To the last Article namely that of Life eternall for the good he addes and they that have done evill shall goe into everlasting Fire which necessarily followes by way of opposition besides that it
Luke in the Acts was not altogether so necessary it being enough that it was otherwise testified that lastly S. Luke probably omitted it because it was a thing so vulgarly knowen in the Christian Church the Apostles delivering it to be kept and used wheresoever they Preached Secondly though S. Luke make no expresse mention of this Creed of the Apostles yet S. Paul in diverse of his Epistles not obscurely alludes unto it under severall Formes Phrases of Speech as hath bin shewen at large before so also doth S. Jude v. 3. Thirdly S. Luke sets downe the Apostles Decree concerning the ceremoniall Law because it was the Result of a Generall Councell and that Councell occasiond by a great Dissention in the Church of Antioch which sent to the Apostles about the Resolution of this question Now matters of dissention are the chiefe Theme of Histories and that Councell with the Proceedings and Formes thereof is set downe on purpose as a patterne to all succeeding Ages As for the Creed or Canon of Faith there was no such occasion for the mentioning of it seeing no Cavill then arose about it nor any generall Councell concurred to the Composure of it but only a private meeting of the Apostles Ob. 2d. Not one of the Ancient Fathers who lived within the three first Centuries spake of any such thing in any of their writings and yet they should best know it whose Times were nearest unto the Apostles Then of so many Church-historians who studiously gathered together the confessions of Synods and Anti-Synods not one makes mention of this though a matter of the greatest consequence as being the Rule of Faith and mother of all following Confessions I Answer First That the Ancient Fathers who lived within the three first Centuries make mentiō of the Creed and the Composure thereof by the Apostles I appeale to the former Testimonies cited out of Irenaeus Tertutullian and Origen who all lived within two hundred yeers after our Saviours Assension Secondly Though we have not any Comments extant on the Creed written by the Fathers of the three first Centuries Origen excepted who largely expounds it in his Bookes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet it is more than probable that more of them expounded it paraphrastically First because Ruffinus who lived in the next Age in the Preface to his Exposition of the Creed tels us of those before him comperi saith he nonnullos illustrium Tractatorum aliqua de his pie breviter edidisse That some famous Authors had wrote piously and briefly on this Subject And a litle after Tentabimus quae omissa videntur a prioribus ad implere That he would endevour to supply what had been omitted by former Writers Secondly because it was the custome of the Ancient Bishops to expound the Creed unto Catechumeni when they came to Baptisme at those two solemne times of the year Easter Pentecost as appears by those Homilies or Catecheticall Sermons now extant of Cyril Chrysostome Austin Chrysollogus and others many more doubtles there were framed by former Bishops which either were never committed to paper or being then writen are now lost 3ly As to the silence of Ecclesiastical Historians touching this subject a little observation will informe us that nouell strange singular Passages are the usuall Arguments of their Pens not things Publick knowne and received such as the Creed is was common then in every Novices mouth So the Romane Historians set not downe their lawes customes court-proceedings as things vulgarly known and of daily practice amongst them the omission whereof rendring their Histories obscure to strangers they are set downe distinctly by Dionysius Halycarnasseus 'T is sufficient that severall Fathers in most Ages occasionally make mention of it when they had to deale with Hereticks who denied or perverted it But that Ancient Church-Historians mention the severall Confessions of Faith which were framed in severall Synods and Anti-Synods as Socrates and others in the businesse of the Arian faction hath this double Reason That they were New and contrary to each other whereas the Apostles Creed was an Old known Tradition and received verbo-tenùs by the Arians as well as the Catholicks whence it was that to unmaske their false Glosses the Catholicks were faine to adde by way of explication unto the second Article of the Creed the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to cleare the true meaning thereof and distinguish themselves from the corrupters of the Faith Ob. 3d The very Language of the Creed convinceth it to be yonger than the Age of the Apostles for the word Catholick was not knowen in their Time as witnesseth Pacianus in his Epistle to Sympronianus It is likly it was added in after Ages to distinguish the Vniversall Church spred through out the whole world from the Canventicles of Hereticks and Schismaticks suth as the Novatians and Donastists for if it be said this word was added to distinguish the Christian Church from the Jewish Synogogues circumscribed within the limits of the land of Canaan 't is an improbable Reason because in the Apostles Age there were as many if not more Jewes out Palastine than in it as apeares by the History of the Acts. I Answer 1. Some one word might possibly be added in succeeding Times by way of explication to distinguish the True Church from the Conventicles of Hereticks and yet not prejudice the Antiquity of the whole So St Austin seemes to include it in the Epethete Holy for when he comes to this Article hee addes by way of explication to Sanctam Ecclesiam Vtique Catholicam In case of reply that if one word be added why not many and if the Church might doe so in one Age why not at other times I rejoyne That one word might be added then but by way of explication only not to supply a mutilous member or defective Article but the Forme being now setled for so many hundred years such liberty is taken away together with the cause of it the full and genuine sence of the Creed having been abundanty delivered to the Church in succeeding Exegeticall Creeds and expositions of the Fathers so that there is now no need of coyning new words or Phrases by way of explication But Secondly We have no need to make use of this supposall for the word Catholick might very well be placed in the Creed from the Original composure of it notwithstanding whatsoever is produced to the contrary from the testimony of Pacianus for this Pacianus Bishop of Barcelona and contemporary to S. Jerome in his first Epistle to Sympronianus the Novatian which is entituled De Catholico Nomine after he had dealt with him very gently in the begining superscribing his Epistle thus Pacianus Symproniano Fratri to winne him over the more effectually to the Communion of the Church in the Body of his Epistle he useth these words Sub Apostolis inquies nemo Catholicus vocabatur Esto sic fuerit vel illud indulge cum post Apostolos haereses
ad divinam doctrinam certa humilitatis atque Charitatis firmitate surgentibus quod multis verbis exponendo esset perficiendum Secondly For the due bounding of our Faith and Charity There are many lesser circumstantiall Points in divinity which Christians may differ about Salva Fide Charitate without prejudice to either but others there be of farre higher Concernment requisite to the very beeing of a true and rightly grounded Christian these we call Fundamentall Points the Nescience of most whereof but the denyall of any is destructive of Salvation whithout ensuing repentance Now it was necessary that these should be knowen and severed from the rest that so the Church might know whome to admit to Baptisme and acknowledg for her Children and on the other side Whom to reject or cut off as Heretickes misbelievers Yea besides that every private Christian might know by this Rule whom to communicate with and whom to fly from and avoid as Heathens and Publicans in our Saviours Language To demonstrate this Father namely that the Creed conteines all Points which a good Christian is bound of necessity to believe I shall produce a Reason or two and thereto subjoine the testimonies of the Ancients which among other Corollaries hence deducible will serve to free the true reformed Churches from that just imputation of Heresy which the Church of Rome hath been pleased to lay upon Them for al of thē generally unanimously imbrace the Creed as appeares by their severall confessions and therfore cannot justly be charged with heresy in the ancient which is the true and genuine acception of the word The reasons are these two which follow First the End for which the Apostles Framed the Creed cannot be imagined to be any other than this viz. To give us a Breviary of the fundamentall Doctrines of Faith Dare we say that the Apostles came short of this their end It must be then either for want of Power or want of will Now to affirme they could not compasse it is little better then Blasphemy and to affirme they would not when they might must needs argue them of grosse negligence in their function and uncharitablnesse to the Christian church faults wholy uncompatible with the Apostolick office and Zeale Secondly The name of Symbole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greeke and Regula Fidei The Rule of Faith in the Latine whereby the Ancients style the Creed argue the compleatnesse of it for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Nota or Indicium the Creed being the note of difference between the true Children of the Church and those who were either unbelievers or misbelievers And the Rule of Faith as Tertullian calls it or The Rule of Truth as Irenaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That unerring Rule of Truth which we received in Baptisme from whom Chrysostome and Austin borrowed the terme who opposed the Creed to the Placita of Hereticks and will have them examined ad hujus amussim by the line or Rule of the Creed must be adequate to the Faith or necessary Truth whereof it is a Rule niether larger nor narrower for else it looseth the very nature of a Rule To this Truth the Fathers give in their Suffrages I shall set downe the Testimonies of some who were the most Ancient and the most famous in their Times 1. The Creed is called Breve Evangelium the Epitome or breviary of the Gospell like Homers Workes inclosed in a nutshell according to the saying of S. Bartholomew recorded by Dionys Arear lib de myst Theo. cap. 1. 2. Clem. Romanus in his forecited Epistle Ad Fratrem Domini calls the Creed Summun totius Fidei Catholicae the Summary of the Catholick Faith and farther saith that in it Integritas credulitatis ostenditur The entire or whole Faith of a Christian is declared 3. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Magnesians after he had reckoned up those Heads of the Creed which touched our Saviour concludes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He who fully knowes and believes these things is Blessed that is as fare as concernes these Articles or this part of the Faith which relates to our Saviour the same holdes in proportion of the rest otherwise not only a right beliefe although full and entire but a good life also are requisite to happinesse 4. Irenaeus tels us that many barbarous Nations who had not the Bookes of Scripture among them yet Sine Charactere vel atramento Scriptam habuerunt per Spiritum sanctum in Cordibus suis salutem Had Salvation wrote in their Hartes by the Finger of the holy Ghost without the helpe of Pen and Inke Where by Salvation he understands the Tradition of the Creed as appeares by the following words so called by a Metonymie because it is a meanes in its kind sufficient to Salvation Thus he lib. 3. cap. 4. The same Father elswhere gives this testimony of the fulnesse of the Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Neither the most able Orator amongst the Pastors of the Church can say more than this for no man is above his Teacher or Master neither he who is weake in speech can distinguish or speake lesse than this Tradition for there beeing one and the same Faith neither he who is able to speake much of it hath augmented it nor he who is able to say litle hath lessened it at all 5. Origen in the preface of his Bookes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith that the Holy Apostles Preaching the Faith of Christ De quibusdam quidem c. Concerning some Points most plainly delivered unto all Believers even the most dull and slow whatsoever they judged necessary where by Necessaries he understandes the Articles of the Creed which he there reckons up 6. Cyril of Jerusalem in his fift Catechesis speaking of the Creed useth these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we comprehend saith he the whole Doctrine of Faith in a few versicles And afterwardes comparing it unto a small graine of mustard-seed which virtually containes many Branches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so also doth this Creed in a few words comprehend the whole doctrine of Religion which is delivered in the old new Testament 7. Eusebius Galicanus commonly called Emesenus in the begining of his second Homily on the Greed hath these words Hanc nobis fidem velut magnam lampadem Christus adveniens errantibus viam monstraturus exhibuit per quem possit Deus ignotus requiri quaesitus credi creditus inveniri This Faith or Creed saith he like some great Lampe Christ exhibited for his comming thus shewing the way to those in errour By help wherof God who was before unknowne might be sought being sought might be believed on being believed on might be found The same Father in his first Homily derives the name Symbolum from Caena collatitia and then tels us that De utroque Testamento totius Corporis virtus in paucas est diffusa sententias ut facilius animae Thesaurus
adjectum neither added any thing thereto therefore they judged that Doctrine full and compleat Now that by the Doctrine of the Apostles he meanes the Creed appears clearly by the precedent words The forecited Testimonies of Jo. Pappus Chr. Barbarossa and Pet. Martyr say as much which who so please may looke back upon for farther satisfaction CAP X. The Third head of this Discourse namely The severall Reasons or significations of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Creed beares in the Originall Greeke THE Apostles Creed is styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Symbole for more Reasons than one all taken from the severall Significations of the word found even in profane Authors First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Collecta or Collatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conferendo that is a Feast or Supper whereto every one of the Guests brought his share either in meat or mony which kind of Feast was also by an other usuall name called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now this acception of the word well suits with the Creed as having reference both to the Makers and the Matter For the makers or Composers of the Creed were the twelve Apostles parallell in number to the twelve Articles whereof it consists And the matter of the Creed consists of the severall points of Faith gathered out of the whole Scripture and heare United in one methodicall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Breviary This also well consorts with an other signification of the word mentioned by Pliny Nat. Hist. lib. 33. cap. 1. Both Greekes and Romanes saith he in latter Times called a Ring Symbolum Probably from the severall parcels or graines of Gold melted and fashioned into one Orbicâ—e which graines aptly signify the severall Parts and the orbicular figure the Perfection of the Creed This reason of the name we find given by Clemens Romanus Ruffinus Saint Austin Cassianus and Venantius Fortunatus Secondly The word signifies Tessera Pacti a Tally in Contracts a Bond or Indenture such as we make with God in our Baptisme by profession of our Faith in the Creed wherein the Articles of our Covenant with God for matter of Beliefe are comprized from which if we recede we breake our Covenant and so renounce our Christendome thereby forfeiting all the priviledges of our Baptisme This reason of the name is rendred by Chrysologus Hom. 62. in Symb. Placitum vel pactum quod lucri spes venientis continet vel futuri Symbolum nuncupari contractu etiam docemur humano quod tamen Symbolum inter duos format semper geminata conscriptio in stipulatione cautum reddit humana cautela ne cui surrepat ne quem decipiat perfidia contractibus semper inimica Sed hoc inter homines inter quos fraus a quo facta est aut cui facta est semper laedit inter Deum vero homines Symbolum fidei sola fide firmatur non literae sed spiritui creditur mandatur cordi non chartae quia divinum Creditum humana non indiget Cautione And alittle after Sed dicis qui falli non potest quid est quod exiget Placitum Quid Symbolum quaerit quaerat ille propter te non propter se non quia ille dubitat sed ut tu Credas The summe is That in humane Contracts there are required two Symbola or Tabellae the Indenture and the Counterpane and both these in writing to prevent mistakes and cheatings but one only is required in our Baptismall contract or Covenant to wit our Bond giuen to God not in writing but by way of parole publisht in the face of the Church The reason is because God can be neither decieved nor decieve but we unlesse thus bound might through humane frailty more easily depart from the Faith profest and in fringe our Articles not to the decieving of God who knowes us better than our selves but to the destroying of our Grace and the forfeiting of our glory Hitherto also belongs that of Genebrard in his Booke De Trinitate Aristoteles pulchre dixit elementa quae inter se qualitate unâ communicant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solebant autem Graeci in pactis conventis uti quibusdam tesseris quae loco tabularum syngrapharumque essent ex quibus jus diceretur quae vocarentur Symbola ergo summa fidei compendio verborum concepta ab Apostolis sive ab Ecclesiâ representativâ verè Existit Symbolum quòd ea in judicium Ecclesiae relata declaret penes eum Religionis virtutem esse qui ipsa in suae fidei Probationem confert nam certe penes illum consistit Religionis veritas cui benè credulitate convenit cum doctrinâ Apostolicâ cujus Symbolum est consensionis conventique nota certissima Thirdly The word signifies Tessera Amicitiae or Tessera hospitalis a certaine Token which not only particular men gave to their Friends and Allies but which Citties also publikly be stowed on some well-deserving men that so in their Travailes they might upon producing thereof be friendly received and courteously entertained in the confederate Townes So Budaeus informes us out of Lysias the Orator Now this Confession of our Faith in the Creed hath the same nature and use among all Churches wheresoever disperst over the face of the whole Earth for whosoever brings this Tessera or Token with him is to be received as a Brother But if there come any unto you saith St John and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your House neither bid him God speed 2 Io. 10. To this Sence alludes Leo the Great in his Epistle or Tract against Eutyches Fraterna vos paterna solicitudine commonemus ut inimicos Catholicae fidei hostes Ecclesiae incarnationis dominicae negatores instituto a Sanctis Apostolis Symbolo repugnantes in nullum recipiatis consensionis affectum we warne you out of a fraternall and a fatherly care that ye receive not into your communion the enimies of the Catholick Faith the adversaries of the Church the Denyers of the Lords incarnation and the oppugners of the Creed by the holy Apostles Fourthly The word signifies Insigne militare a military Flag Ensigne or Banner by which Souldiers are knowen to what Captaine or Generall they belong So Herodian in the 4th booke of his history tells us of the Emperour Antonius Caracalla that partly to ingratiate himselfe the more with the Souldiers partly to harden himselfe in warlike exercises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He sometimes bare on his own shoulders the weightiest Ensignes of the Army Now this signification also well agrees to the Creed for by this Profession of our Faith we shew that we belong to Christ our Generall fighting under his Banner against our three enemies the World the Flesh and the Divell His Cognizance we take on us in our Baptisme by attesting to the Creed either in our own Persons if Adulti or if Infants in Personis Susceptorum Fiftly
The word signifies Tessera militaris a watch-word whereby Souldiers of the same Army or Campe know one an other and discerne themselves from the Enemy Which signification among all the Rest seemes most proper to the Creed because by this profession of the Faith Christians are distinguisht not only from Iewes Turkes and Infidels but more especially from Hereticks those Renegados and Deserters of the Christian Faith For as watch-wordes are most necessary in civill warres where the Difference is between the same Countrymen who use the same Language apparell armes and manner of fighting these being the only signes and tokens whereby they may try those whom they suspect discover whether they be true friends or concealed Enimies so Hereticks professe Christ in outward shew and take his name upon them but doe not truely Preach him secundum Apostolicas Regulas non integris Traditionum lineis nunciantes to use the words of Ruffinus what out of Pride Curiosity or discontent what for gaine or Belly they frame new Doctrines of their owne some besides some against the Foundation which they obtrude upon the Faith of others Now the watch word to discover these false Apostles these Deceitfull workers who transformed themselves into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11. 13. Was anciently the Creed If upon examination they embraced this in the old Catholick sense they were received as Brethren if not they were rejected and avovded as spies false Brethren Corrupters of the Faith The Heathens also had the like Custome to give for their wathwords the names of their Gods their suposed Deityes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Minerva and the like what fitter watchword then for a Christian than the profession of his Faith in the true God the thrise-holy Trinity which he makes in the Creed And this may be therefore judged the most proper in this Place and most likely to be intended by the first entitlers because the Ancient Church of God following his Patterne in holy Scripture useth many other the like military Termes and seemeth to delight in the metaphor The Church her self is described Terrible as an Army with Banners Cant. 6. 4. Our Blessed Saviour is styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cheife Captaine or Generall of our Salvation Heb. 2. 10. And S. Paul exhorts Timothy whom he had left his Lieutenant at Ephesus to endure hardnesse as a good Souldier of Iesus Christ 2 Tim. 2. 3. In opposition to which that I may give this note by the way the heathen Souldiers under the Christian Emperors got the name of Pagani because when they refused to renounce their Idolatry and so become Christians they were dimissi in Pagos cashiered and sent into the Villages and so returned unto their country Life To proceed our Christian Virtues or graces are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Compleat Armour of God Eph. 6. 11. 13. The particulars whereof are there described The grand mysteries of our Salvation have the name of Sacraments given them now Sacramentum properly signifies that Oath of obedience which Souldiers took unto their Generall lastly that part of the Church which here on Earth is styled Millitant that in Heaven Triumphant Suitably then doth the Creed weare the name of Symbolum a watchword The Reason of the name we find given by Clemens Romanus Ruffinus Maximus Taurinensis and Isidore Bishop of Sevil. CAP XI The fourth Head of this Discourse namely The Division or Parts of the Creed THE Apostles Creed hath a double Division among Divines to wit A greater and a lesse The one distributes into foure generall Partes The other Anatomizeth it into twelve Articles limbes or joynts for this is the literall signification of the word Articulus which make up the entire Body of Christian Faith As to the first Division The foure generall Parts of the Creed have for their Object God and man viz. The three Persons of the sacred Trinity and the Church instructing us what we should believe of either 1. The first part is touching God the Father and consists but of one Article 2. The second Part is touching God the Sonne and comprehendeth six Articles 3. The third part is touching God the holy Ghost and consists but of one Article as the first did 4. The fourth Part is concerning the Church and a threefold benefit conferd by God upon it answerable in number to the Persons of the sacred Trinity viz. The Remission of sinnes by the Father Eph. 4. 32. Resurrection of the Body by the Sonne Io. 6. 39. Mat. 24. 31. everlasting Life by the holy Ghost the Spirit of life and Glory Gal. 6. 8. Rev. 11. 11. Pet. 4. 14. Then for the Second division The Creed brancheth it selfe into twelve Articles vsually referred to the twelve Apostles in severall but however answerable to their number The Articles we have already distinctly set downe and compared them with six other succeeding Creeds These twelve Articles are compared by some to the twelve Stones which Ioshua in his passage over to Jericho took out of the middest of Iordan to frame an Altar within Gilgal in memory of having gotten possesion of the promised land For the holy Scriptures wherout these Articles of our Beliefe are taken are the true waters of life a spirituall Iordan The river it selfe was sanctifyed by the the very Person of our Saviour when he descended into it at his Baptisme in which solemnity all his Disciples have since made a Publicke profession of their Faith by attesting to the Creed The twelve Articles thereof compiled into one Body well resemble those twelve Stones framed into an Altar and that Altar erected in memory of the Promises now obteined the heavenly Canaan typifyed by the earthly for the Creed conteines the great benefites of God towards his Church heretofore possessed in shadow but now in substance by vertue of our Blessed Saviours Purchase who was the Antitipe of Iosua In whom the promises of God are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. But by others they are more appositely compared to the twelve foundation-stones mentioned in Reve. 21. 14. Which are there said to support the wall of the new Ierusalem and wherein as it is there expresly set downe the Names the twelve Apostles of the Lambe were written This new Ierusalem is Christs Church on Earth for it is there styled The Tabernacle of God with men ver 3. The wall of this Citty is the Faith or professed doctrine of the Church whereby it is guarded against her enimies and seperated from all other Religions And the twelve Stones in the foundation of this wall are the twelve Articles of the Creed which be the Groundes of our Faith the Fundamentalls of Christian Religion To the same sense and purpose S. Paul compares the Church to an holy Temple built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himselfe being the cheife Corner Stone Eph. 2. 20 21. Now this foundation of the Apostles and Prophets cannot be understood of their Persons for they
depositum delivered her from Heaven The occasion of this Creed so revealed was the Heresy of Paulus Samosatenus taken up afterwards by Photinus who denyed the Divinity of our Saviour and consequently overthrew the Trinity which heresy then staggerd many in those Easterne Parts and was therefore condemned in a Synod at Antioch wherof this Paulus was Patriarch The words thereof are these viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is There is one God the Father of the living word of the subsisting wisdome the eternall Power and Character the perfect Father of him that is Perfect the Father of the only-begotten Sonne There is one Lord the only Lord from or of the only Lord God of God the character and image of the Fathers Divinity the operative or effectuall word the wisdome which comprehendeth the whole frame of the World the Power which made the whole Creation the True the Invisible the Incorruptible the Immortall the Eternall Sonne of the True Invisible Incorruptible Immortall and Eternall Father And one Holy Ghost having his subsistence of or from God and by the Sonne clearely manifested unto men the perfect Image of the perfect Sonne the quickening life of the Living that Holinesse which is the Author of Sanctification by whom God the Father is manifested who is above all and in all and God the Sonne who is through all The perfect Trinity neither divided nor diversified from each other in Glory Eternity or Majesty There is not therefore in the Trinity ought created or subservient to another Person nor ought superinduced as not existing at first but afterwards added so that the Father was never without the Sonne nor the Sonne without the Holy Ghost but the same Trinity abideth alwaies without the least change or Alteration The Second Creed is that Confession of Faith made by Eusebius Caesariensis before the Fathers of the Nicene Councell and approved of by them and by the Emperour Constantine it runs thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of all Things both 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-borne of every Creature begotten of the Father before all Worlds by whom all things were made who was Incarnate for our Salvation and conversed amongst men suffered rose againe the Third Day ascended unto the Father and shall come againe with Glory to judge both the quick and the dead We believe also in the Holy Ghost See for this Creed Soc. Hist lib. 1. cap. 5. Theod. lib. 1. cap. 12. Athan. Op. Tom. 2. Pag. 48. Edit Commelin The Nicene Fathers added some Passages to this Creed for the fuller conviction of the Arian Heresy and thus proposed it to the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of all Things both visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the Sonne of God the only-begotten of his Father begotten of the substance of his Father God of God Light of Light very God of very God begotten not made consubstantiall to the Father by whom all Things were made both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth who for us Men and for our Salvation came downe was Incarnate made Man suffered and rose again the third Day he ascended into the Heavens and shall come to judge the quick and the dead And in the Holy Ghost Both these Confessions the lesser of Eusebius and the larger of the Councell leave off at the Article of the Holy Ghost because the Arian controversy which was then in agitation required no more not that the Ancient Creed brake off there whence the Arian Bishops who assembled at Antioch Aº 341. When they came in the rehearsall of their Faith to the Article of the Holy Ghost they added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is If it be needfull to adde so much we believe also the Resurrection of the Dead and the life everlasting See for this Soc. lib. 2. cap. 1. Athan. Tom. 7. pag. 687. Comm. As for the Creed of Eusebius which the Nicene Fathers thus enlarged he prefaceth it with this Elogy which shews its Antiquity and Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. As we have received from the Bishops our Predecessors both in our first Catechising and at our Baptisme as we have learned from the Holy Scriptures and as we have believed and taught both when we were Presbyter and when we came to be Bishop so also now believing we propose this our Faith unto you The Third Creed was framed in the Arian Synod at Antioch for Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia the great Patron of the Arians being made Bishop of Constantinople by the Emperour Constantius calls a Councell at Antioch the Bishops whereof not daring openly to taxe what had been decreed in the Nicene Councell yet desiring to overthrow privily the consubstantiality of the Sonne with the Father thus altered the forme of the Nicene Creed viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wee Believe consonantly to the Evangelicall and Apostolicall Tradition in one God the Father Almighty Framer and Maker of all Things and in one Lord Jesus Christ his only-begotten Sonne God by whom all things were made begotten of his Father before all worlds God of God entire of the entire only of the only perfect of the perfect God king of the king Lord of the Lord the living Word the Wisdome the Life the true Light the way of Truth the Resurrection the Shepheard the Dore Immutable unalterable the unchangeable Image of the Divine essence Power Councell Glory of the Father the first-born of every creture who was in the begining with the Father God the word as it is said in the Gospell the Word was God by whom all things were made and in whom all things consist who in these last dayes came downe from above was borne of a Virgin according to the Scriptures and made man the mediator of God and men the Apostle of our Faith and Author or Prince of life as he saith I came downe from Heaven not to doe mine owne will but the will of him that sent me who suffered for us and arose for us the third Day and ascended into the Heavens and sitteth at the right hand of the Father and shall come againe with glory and Power for to Judge the Quick and the Dead and in the holy Ghost who was given for the Comfort the Sanctification and Perfecting of Believers acording as our Lord Jesus Christ Charged his Apostles saying Goe and Teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost It is manifest that the Father is Truly or really the Father the Sonne truly the Sonne and the Holy Ghost truly the Holy Ghost the names not being barely or in vaine imposed but exactly signifying the proper subsistence order
the latter end of the tenth Century hath these wordes in his Apollogetick which he made to the Kings of France Hugh and Robert Father and Son Primitus de fide dicendum credidi quaÌ„ alternantibus Choris in Francia apud Anglorum Ecclesiam variari audivi Alii enim dicunt ut arbitror secundum Athanasium Spiritus Sanctus a Patre Filio non factus non Creatus sed procedens qui dum id quod est nec genitus subtrahunt Synodicum D. Gregorii se sequi credunt ubi ita est scriptum spiritus sanctus nec ingenitus est nec genitus sed procedens that is I thought meet to speak first concerning the Faith which I find diversly expressed in the French and English Churches for some say as I suppose according to Athanasius The holy Ghost not made nor Created but proceeding from the Father and the Son who in leaving out that particle nor begotten conceive they follow the Synodicall of S. Gregory in which it is thus written The holy Ghost is neither unbegotten nor begotten but proceeding To which words Baron in his Annals ad A. 1001 thus attests Vides lector in his jaÌ„ ante sexcentos annos Symbolum vere ejus esse absque dubitatione credituÌ„ praedicatum thou seest here Reader that above six hundred yeares agoe the Creed which goes under the name of Athanasius was verely believed to be his without the least doubt to the contrary And well might he say so for that ambiguous clause ut arbitror as I suppose in this Testimony of Abbo hath no reference to the Author but to the words and to the various Copies of Athanasius his Creed as appears by the scope and purpose of the Abbot in his Citation 10 That this Creed was asscribed to Athanasius in the Time of Charles the Bald will appeare first out of the second Book of Rathrannus Monke of Corbey written by him against the Greekes a Book not yet extant in Print Secondly out of the first Booke of Aeneas Bishop of Paris written also against the Greeks c. 19. Thirdly out of the Capitulum of Hincmarus Arch-Bishop of Rheims which he gave to the Presbyters of his Diocesse Aº 852. See the first Capit. in Apend Tom. 3-Conc Gall. set forth by Sirmondus But for all three See Armac de Symb. 11. The fourth Councell of Toledo held in the yeare of our Lord 671 according to the edition of Io. Garsia Loaisa and in the third yeare of K. Sisenandus by threescore and two Bishops whereof Isidore of Sevil was one thus professeth its Faith in the words of the Athanasian Creed only somewhat contracting them for thus the Fathers of the councell begin cap. 1. Secundum divinas Scripturas doctrinam quam a Sanctis Patribus accepimus Patrem Filium Spiritum Sanctum unius Deitatis atque Substantiae confitemur in Personarum diversitate Trinitatem credentes in Divinitate unitatem praedicantes nec Personas confundimus nec substantiam seperamus Patrem a nullo factum vel genitum dicimus Christus descendit ad Inferos ut sanctos qui ibidem tenebantur erueret devictoque mortis Imperio resurrexit mortui resuscitandi sunt ab eo Iesu Christo in die novissimo percepturi ab ipso alii pro justitiae meritis vitam aeternam alii pro peccatis supplicii aeterni sententiam Haec est ecclesiae Catholicae fides Hanc Confessionem conservamus atque tenemus quam quisquis firmissime custodierit perpetuam salutem habebit that is According to the Scriptures of God the Doctrine which we have received from the holy Father we professe the Father Sonne and holy Ghost to have the same Godhead and Substance believing a Trinity in a diversity of Persons and an Unity in the Godhead neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the substance we say that the Father was made of none nor begotten Christ descended into Hell that he might deliver the Saints that were there detained and having conquered the Power of Death he rose againe The Dead are to be raised up by him at the last Day to receive from him some for their righteous deeds life eternall others for their sins the sentence of everlasting punishment This is the Faith of the Catholick Church This Confession we preserve and hold which whosoever shall firmely keepe shall obteine everlasting Salvation 12. In two very Ancient Latine Psalters which are in S. Rob. Cottons Library we find Athanasius his Creed together with that of the Apostles conteining the same number of Heads with that of our Dayes In the former Psalter saith the Reverend Learned Armachanus which we gather to be as old as Gregory the first viz. 1050 years both by the old fashion of the Pictures the largenesse of the Characters Athanasius his Creed bears the name of Fides Catholica as it doth also in an other Psalter of S. Lewis 9th extant in King James his Library the other is called Symbolum Apostolorum In the latter Psalter which was once K. Athelstans That of the Apostles hath Symply the name of Symbolum the other is called Fides S. Athanasii Alexandrini The Faith of S. Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria 13. Boethius that great Scholler and Statesman in the Reigne of Theodorick the Goth in his Book De Trinitate hath these words at the Beginning which referre us plainly enough to the Creed of Athanasius Fidei Catholicae haec de Trinitatis unitate Sententia est Pater inquiunt Deus Filius Deus Spiritus sanctus Deus igitur Pater Filius Spiritus Sanctus unus Deus non tres Dii That is This is the Decree of the Catholick faith concerning the unity of the Trinity The Father they say is God the Sonne God the Holy Ghost God therefore the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost are one God not three Gods On which words Venerable Bâ—de our Countryman makes this Glosse Haec est fides quâ credimus quae dicitur Catholica unde in Symbolo Haec est fides Catholica quam nisi quisque crediderit c. Haec est una apud omnes unde Apostolus una fides unum Baptisma that is This is the Faith wherein we believe which is called Catholick whence we say in the Creed this is the Catholick Faith which Whosoever doth not believe c. This Faith is the same among All whence that of the Apostle One Faith One Baptisme 14. S. Augustin in severall Parts of his workes takes whole sentences out of this Creed of Athanasius which shews that it was then extant and used by the Church In his Booke De Trinitate cap. 8. He hath these words Omnipotens Pater Omnipotens Filius omnipotens Spiritus sanctus tameÌ„ non tres Omnipotentes sed unus Omnipotens Ibidem Deus Pater Deus Filius Deus Spiritus sanctus tamen non tres Dii sed unus est Deus that is The Father is Almighty the Sonne Almighty the holy Ghost Almighty and yet there are
word or title Gennadius alluding in his rehearsall of the Athanasian Creed calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Confessor as we have already shewed Lastly Nicetas Metropolitan of Heraclea in his notes on this Oration understands it of this Creed CAP. III. The Time and Place wherein Athanasius wrote his Creed together with the Person to whom The Cause wherefore he wrote it and the Language wherein HAving produced these Testimonies in vindication of the Author and Authority of this Creed I shall in the next place for the farther Illustration of this Argument examine in briefe these three Particulars First When Where and to whom this Creed was written To whom viz. To P. Iulius Liberius or the Emperour Iovianus Where At Rome Triers or Alexandria When In the yeare 340 before or after Secondly The Ground or Cause whereupon it was written Thirdly The Language wherein it was Written First As to the Time Place and Person to whom Pelargus will have it wrote in a Synod at Alexandria and sent to the Emperour of the East And others say it was wrote in a Well at Triers as the Inscription of that Well testifyes so Possevine in his Apparatus Genebrard also tels us that in an Ancient Manuscript in the Library of the German Monkes at Paris he found an imperfect Copy of the Synods taken forth by a namelesse Author which testifyed the same in these wordes Fertur Athanasius Patriarcha Symbolum praedictum edidisse apud Treverim in quodaÌ„ puteo latitans propter gravissimam persecutionem Arianorum praecipue Constantii Imperatoris Ariani qui eum ubique perquiri faciebat ad mortem quia nolebat haeresi Arianae consentire Nauclerus reports the same in his Chronology Seculo 12 mo But the more rceeived opinion is that Athanasius gave in this his Creed in writing unto Julius BP of Rome in in a Synod of 50 Western Bishops there Assembled in his Cause So Baronius ad An. 340. Athanasius Romam citatus quantumlibet ipsius Fides Catholica omnibus innotuisset ut nulla penitus potuerit suboriri suspicio tamen Romanae Sedis communicationem haud habere licuisset alioruÌ„ EpiscoporuÌ„ qui ad Synodum convenissent nec plane audiendus esset qui reuâ— advenerat nesi edita Publicè Catholicae fidei Professione eademque ex more latino sermone coram Pontifice ei assidentibus recitata Athanasius saith he being cited to Rome although the Catholicknesse of his Faith were well knowen to all so that there was no suspition at all to the contrary yet he would not have obtained Communion with the See of Rome nor the other Bishops who came unto the Synod neither indeed was he to be heard being a person accused before he had made a Publick profession of the Catholick Faith and that according to custome in the Latine Tongue before the Bishop of Rome and his Assessours Of the same opinion is Binius who in the first Tome of the Councels sets downe for one the second Roman Councell held by Iulius and above 50 Bishops when Athanasius had now expected the coming of the Eusebians to Rome above eighteene monethes At the same time saith he Publicam Catholicae Fidei professionem quae Symbolum Athanasii appellatur latino sermone coram Pontifice eique assidentibus recitavit Hanc Pontifex ab ipso cognitam atque susceptam unà cum actis Synodi in amplissimo Romanae Ecclesiae Archivo collocari mandavit that is Athanasius then made a Publick Profession of the Catholick Faith which is called his Creed rehearsing it in the Latine Tongue before the Bishop of Rome and his Assessours This Creed so acknowledged and received the Bishop of Rome commanded to be put in the Archives of the Roman Church together with the Acts of the Synod Manuell Caleca in his forecited Booke against the Greeks agrees in Substance with Bâ—nius and Baronius though he seeme to place the writing of this Creed a yeare sooner and sayeth that it was sent to P. Iulius not delivered him in presence These are his words Gregorius Theologus in Athanasii laudibus ipsius meminit dicens Solus ille vel cum paucis admodum ausus est veritatem in Scriptis confiteri c. quam tunc temporis conscriptam ad Iulium Romanum Pontificem misit cum insimulareâ—ur non rectae esse fidei Now all these opinions may well agree according to Possevins Conjecture who in his Apparatus verbo Athanasius thinks it probable ut sanct Trinitatis acerrimus propugnator hymnum illum he meanes his Creed because sung hymne-wsie in the Church-service locis quibus potuit omnibus scripser it cantaverit disseminaverit So that he might write it at severall times in all the forementioned Places First At Triers as the Inscription of the Well there is said to witnesse when he was first banisht about the yeare 336. Secondly He might send it in writing to Iulius Bishop of Rome when the Eusebian faction sent Legates unto him with letters to accuse Athanasius Anno Domini 339. Thirdly He might give it in writing to the Synod at Rome of which Iulius was president to satisfy them all concerning his beliefe A. D. 340. Lastly He might send it from a Synod at Alexandria to the Emperour of the East either to Constantius in his Synod held A. D. 339. Or rather to Iovianus in his last Synod held about the yeare 364 together with the Synodicall Epistle before mentioned which Nazianzen seemes to imply in the forecited Oration where he opposeth Emperour to Emperour as well as Doctrine to Doctrine that is the Catholick Jovians to Constantius the Arian as well as the Orthodoxe Creed to the Hereticall Confessions Except we will say that this Creed was exhibited in the Councell of Sardica a famous City in Illyricum held in the yeare 347 and called by Constans the Emperour of the West who favoured Athanasius and by Constantius joyntly or to Valentinian the successour of Iovianus in whose time Athanasius lived seaven or eight years but for this wee have no Authors Testimony The same Creed was probably sent also to Liberius Bishop of Rome as we shall shew anon Secondly As to the Ground or Cause whererupon Athanasius Framed his Creed I answer that he wrote it to give an account of his Faith to vindicate himself from the recrimination of his Adversaries who accused him of Sabellianisme as he did them of Ariniasme Indeed who can with any likelyhood suppose but that Athanasius in his so many years persecutioÌ„ by the Arians set forth some where the Confession of his Faith to cleare himselfe and that the Orthodoxe might see for what cause they so pertinaciously vext him Now that this Creed is that Confession will appeare besides what hath been already alleaged by the Agreement thereof both in words sense with those more full large Treatises of his against the Arians whereof this seemes a Compendium and by the Constant Tradition of the Church which hath received this and
following their example are said next to have added it and after them the Romane As for our Church of England venerable Bede tels us hist. eccl lib. 4. cap. 17. That Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury though a Grecian in a Synod which he with his fellow-bishops held at Hatfeild in the yeare 680. Spiritum sanctum ex Patre Filio inenarrabilitur procedentem praedica verunt that is declared the ineffable procession of the holy Ghost from the Father and the Sonne Yet in the Canons entitled Cresconiana the Article touching the holy Ghost runs in the ancient Forme Et in Spiritum sanctum Dominum vivâ—ficatorem ex Patre procedentem cum Patre Filio adorandum conglorificandum qui locutus est per sanctos Prophetas that is And I believe in the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father who with the Father and the Sonne together is worshipped and glorifyed who spake by the holy Prophets This Collection of Canons is extant in the Publick Library at Oxford Then for the French Churches Aeneas Bishop of Paris in a Booke of his not extant in Print which he wrote against the errours of the Greekes witnesseth for his Time In fide Catholicâ quam die Dominicâ decantat ad missam universalis Galliarum Ecclesia sic canitur inter caetera Credo in Spiritum sanctum Dominum vivificantem qui ex Patre Filioque procedit qui cum Patre Filio simul adoratur conglorificatur qui locatus est per Prophetas that is In the Catholick Faith or Creed which the whole Church of France singeth at the Communion-Service they sing this among the rest And I believe in the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne c. But to examine this controversy more particularly and in order In the yeare 767 there was a Synod held at Gentilliacum in France under Pipin Father to Charlemagne in which the Greeks and Latines disputed concerning the Procession of the holy Ghost So Ado viennensis Facta est tunc temporis Synodus anno Incarnationis Domini 767 quaestio ventilata inter Graecos Romanos de Trinitate utrum Spiritus sicut procedit a Patre ita procedat a Filio that is There was a Synod called in the yeare of our Lord 767 wherein the question concerning the Trinity was agitated between the Greeks and Romans as also whether the holy Ghost proceeds from the Son as he doth from the Father Then in a Synod at Aquisgrane the question was renewed and decided as it seemes upon this occasion because the Particle Filioque was usually added in the singing of this Creed throughout the Gallicane Churches he who moved the question was one John a Monke of Jerusalem The wordes of Ado in his Chronicle concerning this Synod are these Syuodus magna Grani Aquis câ—ngregatur Anno Incarnationis Dom. 809 in qua Synodo de Processione Spiritus sancti quaestio agitatur utrum siâ—â—â— procedit a Patre ita procedat a Filio Hanc quaestionem Joannes Monacus Hierosolymitanus moverat cum Regula Fides Ecclesiastica firmet Spiritum sanctum a Patre Filio procedere non Creatum non Genitum sed Patri Filio coaeternum Consubstantialem To give a finall determination unto this question Bernarius Bishop of Amiens and Jesse or Asius Bishop of Wormes were sent by the Synod together with Adelhardus Abbot of Corbey unto Leo 3 Bishop of Rome who confirmes the decree of the Synod concerning the Procession as agreeing with his Opinion yet speakes very honorably of the Constantinopolitan Fathers who added not the particle Filioque unto whom he would not presume to equall himselfe but withall he expresly chargeth them to raze it out of the Creed The sending of these three by the Synod is mentioned by a Monke of S. Eparch in the life of Charlemaigne the Answer of Leo is set downe in the Acts of the Synod collected by Smaragdus and out of him by Baronius in the yeare 809 wherein after much discourse the said Legates of the Synod thus aske the Pope Ergo ut videmus illud a vestra Paternitate decernitur ut primo illud de quo quaestio agitur desaepe fato Symbolo tollatur tunc demum a quolibet licite ac libere sive cantando sive tradendo discatur doceatur P. Leo answers Ita procul dubio a nostrâ parte decernitur ita quoque ut a vestra assentitur a nobis omnimode suadetur After this as I said before he tooke order that this Creed should be engraven in a silver Table or Scutcheon without that Addition which he well foresaw would prove the Aple of contention between the Churches of East and West and so to be publikly hanged up and exposed to the view of all that so the whole world might see the Romane Church had added nothing to the Creed So Pet. Lâ—mb witnesseth lib. 1. Sent. Dist 11. Anastas in the life of Leo 3. Euthymius Zygabenus in Panopliâ Dogmat Tit. 12. Photius in Epist ad Aquil. Episc apud Baronium A. 883. § 9. Nicetus Choniates in Orthod fid Thesauro Tom. 21. Thus Leo 3d left the Nicene Creed as he found it without the insertion of this Particle Then for Nicholas 1. and his Successour Adrian who deceased in the yeare 872. They seeme not to have added it for Andrew Bishop of Colosse who pleaded in this cause against the Greekes in the Councell of Florence having diligently revised all that belonged thereto denies that Photius although their bitter enemy for their opinion of the Procession ever objected to them their corrupting of the Creed These are his words Photius Romanae Ecclesiae inimicus acerrimus nullam de Synodi additione faciens mentionem in Nicholaum ac Adrianum summos Pontifices literis invectus est Plurimum Much lesse did Iohn the 8. the successour of Adrian make this Addition who sate in the Romane See till the yeare 882. For this Pope allowed the Restitution of Photius to his See and sent his Legats to the Synod held at Constantinople in the yeare 879. of which Synod Photius was President and wherein with the assistance of the Popes Legats whatsoever had been determined against Photius in the times of P. Nicolas and Adrian was abrogated amongst which chiefely that Synod was condemned which had been held in the yeare 869. against Photius by Ignatius then Patriarch of Constantinople and is now counted by the Church of Rome for the 8. Oecumenicall whereas the Church of Greece gives that Title to this wherein Photius Presided in which among other Things there transacted the Nicene Creed was also read without the Addition of Filioque and so subscribed to yea that Addition was interdicted and all this done Consentientibus Ioannis Papae Legatis by the consent of the said Legats of Iohn 8. The Greekes lay the blame of this Addition on Pope