Trallians I salute you saith he to the Trallians in the Fulness of the Apostolical Character In short no one can read these Epistles with Judgment and impartially but he will see what was the Aim of the Forger of them namely under the venerable Authority and Name of Ignatius to magnify the Reverence and Respect belonging to Church-men This is the Beginning Middle and End of all these Epistles except only that to the Romans where to cover his Design and discover his Folly he only advises the Christians not to rescue him from the Imperial Guards These are all the Apostolical Fathers and Writings that our Opposers can muster up during the first 150 Years of Christianity that is to the Times when the Socinians and all Protestants confess that the Faith began to be actually corrupted I have proved that the Monuments they have to produce are unquestionably and incontestably counterfeit and therefore I do not think my self concerned to examine the few and impertinent Passages alledged out of them by Dr. Bull but before I proceed to his other approved Doctors 't is but reasonable that I should have leave to search what Authors and Books of these times of which we are speaking favoured the Unitarians and particularly the Socinians The Question between Dr. Bull and the Unitarians is what genuine Monuments or Remains there are of the Period which Church-Historians have called the Apostolical Succession that is of the Time in which those Doctors of the Church who had conversed with the Apostles and received the pure Faith of the Gospel from their very Mouths flourished And whether those Remains or Monuments do favour the Unitarians or the Trinitarians whether they teach the Doctrine of one God or of three We have seen what Dr. Bull can produce for their pretended Trinity his Apostle Barnabas the Prophet Hermas both of them rejected as false and soolish by the Catholick Church Next the Revelations of Pionius that is the Martyrdoms of Polycarp and Ignatius and their Epistles all which being almost perished and worn out by Time were revealed to Pionius by one from the Dead It is true our Opposers having been so long Masters have made use of their Power to destroy and abolish as much as was possible whatever Monuments of those first Times that too notoriously contradicted the Innovations in the Faith that were made by the Councils of Nice Constantinople and Chalcedon yet as there is no Battel so bloody and cruel but some tho it may be a very few have the good luck to escape from the Massacre so from this Persecution of Books and Writings some illustrious Testimonies and Witnesses to the Truth are come down even to our Times These are the Apostles Creed an unquestioned Epistle of St. Clemens Romanus the Accounts given by unsuspected Historians of the Nazarens or Ebionites the Mineans and the Alogi who all held as the Socinians now do concerning God and the Person of our Saviour the Recognitions of St. Clemens which tho it may be they are not rightly imputed to him yet are a most antient Book and serve to show what was the current Doctrine of those Times they are cited by Origen in divers Places by Eusebius Aikanasins and others Of the Apostles Creed COncerning the Apostles Creed we must resolve two Questions What it teaches and who were the Compilers of it To the first the Creed it self answers I belâ—eve in one God so this Creed was antiently read both in the East and West the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth In these Words the Father is character'd by these Names Properties and Attributions that he is God the one God Almighty and Maker of Heaven and Earth Concerning the Lord Christ it saith And in Jesus Christ his only Son Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only begotten Son our Lord. So the Characters of our Saviour are that he is not the one God but the only begotten Son of the only or one God and that he is our Lord. Our Lord he is as he is our Saviour Teacher and Head of the Church both in Heaven and Earth He is called the only begotten Son of the only or one God to distinguish him from all other Sons of God from Angels who were not begotten but created Sons from Holy Men who are adopted Sons and from Adam who is called the Son of God not because he was generated or begotten but made or formed by God himself immediately Well but it may be this only-begotten Son of God is an only-begotten Son in some higher Sense and namely by eternal Generation from the Substance or Essence of God whereby he is God no less than the Father is God But the Compilers of this Creed knew nothing or however have said nothing of any such Generation so far from that they describe his Generation and his Person by humane Characters and by such only Every thing that they say here either of his Person or Generation is not only humane but inconsistent with Divinity He was conceived say they of the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary was crucified dead and buried he arose again from the Dead ascended into Heaven sitteth on the right Hand of God i. e. is next in Dignity to God Our very Opposers confess that every one of these is a Description of a mere humane Person and Generation even they acknowledg that God cannot be conceived be born die ascend and least of all be at God's right Hand or next to God to be God and next to God are wholly inconsistent There is no answering here that the before-mentioned are intended only as the Characters of our Saviour's Humane Nature For a Creed being an Institution or Instruction what we are to believe in the main and sundamental Articles of Religion especially concerning the Persons of the Father Son and Holy Spirit if the first is described as the one or only God and the Son only by Characters that speak him a mere Man and are utterly incompatible with Divinity it remains that the Compilers of the Creed really intended that we should believe the Father is the one God and the Son a mere Man tho not a common Man because conceived not of Man but of the Holy Spirit which is the Power and Energy of God If they had meant or but known that the Son and Spirit are eternal and divine Persons no less than the Father they have done to both of them the greatest possible Wrong because in the same Creed in which they declare that they believe that the Father is the one God Almighty and Maker of Heaven and Earth they believe the Son was conceived born died descended into Hell ascended into Heaven is next to God that is they believe he is a mere Man and concerning the Spirit they believe no higher thing than of the Church we believe in the Holy Spirit and in the Holy Catholick Church It is evident then and incontestable by any fair and sincere Considerer that whoever
made this Creed either they did not know that any other Person but the Father is God or Almighty or Maker of Heaven and Earth or they have negligently or wickedly concealed it The Latter is a Supposition that none will make therefore the other is the Truth of the Matter and it remains only that we enquire who were the Framers of this Creed The Creed that bears the Name of the Apostles Creed was always reckoned both by Fathers and Moderns to be really composed by the Apostles for a Rule of Uniformity among themselves in their Preaching and of Faith to all the Converts till about the middle of this present Age G. J. Vossius published a Book wherein he denies that either the Apostles or the 120 Disciples who are mentioned Acts 1.15 and who assisted and voted with the Apostles in publick Matters were Authors of this Creed He thinketh it was only the Creed of the particular Church of Rome and that the Original of it was this Because it was the Custom to interrogate Persons that were to be baptized whether they believed in God the Father in the Lord Christ the Son of God and in the Holy Ghost in whose Names Baptism is administred therefore in process of Time it became a Form of Confession for Persons who were admitted to Baptism to say I believe in God the Father in Jesus Christ his only-begotten Son and in the Holy Ghost Afterwards some few more Words were added to these as a fuller Description both of the Father and Son and as Heresies grew up new Articles were added to the Creed in opposition to them and to distinguish Catholicks from Hereticks Against all Hereticks and Schismaticks in general this Article was made I believe in the Holy Catholick Church against the Sects of the Gnosticks this Article I believe the Resurrection of the Body This is the Conjecture of Vossius Because it was so evident that this Creed makes only the Father to be God and that it speaks of the Son by only humane Characters and says not the least Word of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit therefore this Book of Vossius was received with a mighty Applause among all the Denomiantions of Trinitarians Papists Lutherans Calvinists and all others They saw themselves delivered by this Book from such an Allegation and Aughority against the Doctrine of the Trinity as was more than equivalent to all their pretended Proofs from the Fathers or from the Holy Scriptures For what are all the Fathers if indeed they were all of their side when opposed by the College of Apostles And what are some incidental and very dubious Expressions of some particular Writer of Holy Scripture against a Creed composed by the Concurrence and Consent of all the Apostles and of their Senate or Council the CXX A Creed in which they not incidentally in which case Men often speak loosly and incorrectly but professedly and designedly declare what is the true Faith to be believed by all Christians concerning the Father Son and Holy Spirit I say for this Reason 't is not to be much wondred that Vossius his Book was so kindly received or that the Trinitarians of whatsoever Perswasion have generally ever since followed the Conjecture of Vossius If now and then a learned Man has dissented from the new Opinion he has always been laugh'd out of Countenance by the Croud of Pretenders to Learning Vossius says 1. St. Luke in his Acts of the Apostles would never have omitted so memorable a Transaction as the compiling a Creed by all the Apostles for a Rule of Doctrine to themselves and their Successors in the Pastoral Office and of Faith to the Converts He has set down many lesser Matters the Election of Matthias into the Apostolate of Judas the Conclusion of the Apostles and Elders assembled in Council concerning the Ritual and Judicial Parts of the Mosaick Law and even divers petty Matters relating only to private Persons and is it credible that he should not say a Word of the Rule of Faith of a Creed made by the joint Consent of all the Apostles and intended for the general and perpetual Use of both Pastors and People But besides that this Creed is never spoke of in the Acts none of the Apostles mention or so much as allude or refer to it in any of their Epistles it is incredible not to say impossible that there should not be so much as a hint given of this Creed in all the Apostolick Writings if indeed it had been composed by the Apostles as their Joint Work for the Use of the whole Catholick Church There are abundance of false Steps made in this reasoning of Vossius 1 It is evident enough that divers most important Matters were ordained by the joint Council and Authority of the Apostles and the CXX which yet St. Luke did not think necessary to be inserted into his History of the Preaching Travels and Persecutions of the Apostles The Institution of the Lord's Day instead of or with the Sabbath or seventh Day appointed by God himself in the 4 th Commandment the Form of Church-Government whether you will say by Bishops or by a Presbytery or in the Independent Way the solemn manner of ordaining the Church-Pastors by Imposition of Hands and Prayer made for them the Love-Feasts the Holy Kiss all these every one will confess are Institutions not of one Apostle but of the College of Apostles and their Council the CXX and yet St. Luke has not told us either when or by whom they were ordained but is as silent of their Institution by the Apostles as of their composing the Creed 2 'T is not hard to guess at the Reason why none of these great Matters or the compiling the Creed are particularly recorded in the Acts of the Apostles namely because they are not bare Memoirs or transient things but such as were to be kept up and perpetuated by Example and Practice Every one sees that the Lord's Day the Form of Church-Polity or Government the Ordination of Church-Pastors the Love-Feasts and the Holy Kiss are Institutions that needed not to be recorded because the constant and universal Practice of them by the Apostles and the whole Church was more effectual to preserve them than any Register or History would be The like is as evident of the Creed it was to be orally taught to every Convert in every Place as the Mark of their Christianity therefore being committed to so many Witnesses and Memories it was considered not as a transient thing of which there was Danger that it might go into Oblivion if not recorded but as laid up safely in the Minds and Memories of all the Faithful Farther 't is an Observation made by all Church-Historians that the Antients of a long time purposely forbore to commit the Creed to Writing partly because they would not expose the Mysteries of Religion to the Contempt Raileries and Opposition of the Heathen partly to oblige their own People to be more
and all other things that tend to Edification in Christ But here two Doubts arise First whether the Epistles that we now have were the same that are intended in the Epistle of Polycarp or so much as directed to the same Persons or Churches The Reason of the doubt is the Epistles that we now have treat of nothing less than Faith and Patience nay they treat not of Faith and Patience at all much less if it could be are they a Collection of all things that tend to Edification in Christ they are very far from being a kind of Summary of the Christian Doctrine either in Faith or Morals They are Letters of Compliment and Respect not of Instruction or Exhortation The other Doubt is of what Authority and Credit is this Epistle of Polycarp on which the Credit of the Epistles of Ignatius wholly depend Mr. Du Pin answers It is quoted by St. Ireneus Supposing now what Mr. Du Pin has not proved nor can prove that the Epistle of Polycarp intended by Ireneus is in part that Epistle of Polycarp which we now have because both the one and the other are directed to the Philippians I say supposing this yet divers learned Criticks are of opinion that the genuine Epistle written by the true Polycarp and which Ireneus intends concludes with the 12 th Chapter where he solemnly gives them his valedictory Blessing so that the following Chapters which speak of Ignatius his Epistles and other Matters have probably been added by him whoever he was who contrived Epistles in the Name of Ignatius No says Mr. du Pin nor can that be for Ireneus who praises that Epistle of Polycarp quotes also certain Words which are found in the very Epistles of Ignatius But I do not know that Ireneus quotes any Epistle of Ignatius or so much as names the Man but only repeats a Saying of a certain Christian Martyr which Saying the Forger of the Epistles of Ignatius thought fit to insert into those Epistles which himself wrote in the Name and Person of Ignatius In short I say Eusebius and before him Origen owned the present Epistles of Ignatius because they considered the Matter but lightly as not being any way concerned to disprove them And Ireneus older than they quotes an Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians as also elsewhere some Words that are now found in an Epistle imputed to Ignatius but supposing that we now have that Epistle of Polycarp yet it seems likely that the Epistle did then conclude with the 12 th Chapter without any mention of the Epistles of Ignatius and we cannot be assured that Ireneus quotes the Words of one of the Epistles of Ignatius rather than that the Forger of those Epistles borrowed those Words from Ireneus If it be said but why all this Suspiciousness it will be hard to prove any Matter of Fact of remote Ages if such close and strict Proofs be required I answer there is too much Cause to start these Doubts and Suspicions For we have the Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians as also the Epistles of Ignatius and the Martyrdoms of Ignatius and Polycarp whereof the latter is contained in an Epistle pretended to be written by the Church of Smyrna with this Advertisement at the end of them This Epistle concerning the Martyrdom of Polycarp was transcribed by Cains from the Copy of Ireneus who was a Disciple of Polycarp And I Socrates transcribed it at Corinth from the Copy of Caius After which I Pionius wrote it from the Copy before-mentioned having searched it out by the Revelation of Polycarp who directed me to it having gathered these things together now almost corrupted by Time that Jesus Christ may also gather me together with his Elect ones Here then is an Epistle namely the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning the Martyrdom of Polycarp and as the Advertisement saith other things that were almost corrupted thorow Process of Time namely a Relation of the Martyrdom of Ignatius and seven Epistles of Ignatius all these miraculously discovered to Pionius the good by Polycarp after his Death It should seem Polycarp could not rest even in Rest nor be blessed in Blessedness till he had broke from the Abodes of Bliss and appeared to honest Pionius to make known to him where these Golden Remains were to be found If we should understand the Advertisement so as saying that the Epistle concerning Polycarp's Martyrdom came to Pionius by Revelation and the other Pieces and Epistles were collected by the proper Industry of Pionius yet thus the whole Collection depends on the Credit of Pionius who with most I doubt has utterly ruined his Credit as a Publisher of antient Monuments by his Pretence that at least part of them are by Revelation The Clowns will certainly cry out Away with Impostors let Pionius take his Bandle to himself both his own Collection and Polycarp's Revelation for coming from him we must needs believe them to be true alike Could not this Knave will they say be content to personate first the Church of Smyrna in a most palpable Fiction then the Assistants at the Martyrdom of Ignatius and finally Ignatius himself but he must seek too to confirm his counterfeit Wares by Revelations from Heaven by Visions and Apparitions of departed Saints We demand Authorities out of the Antients concerning the pretended Divinity of our Saviour from Writings and Monuments that are verified by some good humane Testimony our Opposers answer us out of Books which some of their Fraternity received by Apparitions by Revelations from the Dead but if once we allow of such Proofs what end will there be of Fictions The departed Saints were first called up to bear witness to certain Epistles and Books but in the next Age when the first Cheat had taken with many they were made to witness to their Bones and Reliques in order to their being inshrined and worshipped this last sort of Apparitions were every whit as true as the first They will prove they say their consubstantial co-eternal Trinity not only from the Antenicene Fathers but from the Apostolical Fathers that is the Fathers that had Converse with the very Apostles and flourished some of them to the Year 150 but when these Authors are produced they are Barnabas the Apostle the Prophet Hermas the Martyrdoms and Epistles of Polycarp and Ignatius whereof the two former we have seen are rejected as spurious by the Catholick Church the other are grounded on Visions and Apparitions to one Pionius But let us consider the Contents of these pretious Pieces the Pionian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Martyidom of Polycarp saith That when the Fire began to blaze to a great height the Flame making an Arch like the Sail of a Ship against a full Wind incompass'd the Martyr's Body at a distance without hurting it while from his Body proceeded a Smell like to Frankincense or some other rich Spices The first of these Miracles would make the Boys wonder and shout
the better Moiety of the Roman Empire were called the Orient The Church of Rome tho she was not as she now calls her self the Mistress yet being the Patriarchal Chair of all the West she was the Example of the Churches of the West Part of the Empire I affirm now that these two Creeds as also that of Aquileia perfectly agree with the Vulgar by which he means the Apostles Creed as we now have it Mr. du Pin's Table which we confess to be exact enough will show us no Difference but what will confirm every intelligent Reader that without peradventure they are all but one Creed made by the same Author or Joint-Authors There is more Difference between the ten Commandments as recited by Moses at Exod. 20. and as repeated again by the same Moses at Deut. 5. than between these Creeds Mr. du Pin will sooner perswade a prudent Reader that the 10 Commandments in Deuteronomy were not the Commandments spoke on Mount Sinai and recorded Exod. 20. than that the 4 Creeds in his Table are not the same or came not from the same Hands The whole Difference of the 4 Creeds consists in these unsignificant Words and Expressions The Oriental Creed said I believe in one God the Father Almighty Invisible and Impassible The Roman I believe in God the Father Almighty and the Aquileian said I believe in one God the Father Almighty the present or Vulgar Creed adds Maker of Heaven and Earth The Roman and Aquileian and Present say And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord the Oriental transposes the word only thus and in our only Lord Jesus Christ his Son The Oriental Roman and Aquileian said who was born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary the Present by way of Explication who was conceived of the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary The Oriental and Roman said was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried the Aquileian crucified under Pontius Pilate buried descended into Hell the Present crucified under Pontius Pilate dead buried descended into Hell But descendit ad inferos he descended to those below or as we render it into Hell is confess'd on all Hands to be an accidental Addition in the Creed of Aquileia and from that Creed was taken into the Present Creed on this Occasion In some Churches it was said was buried in others went to those below which every one sees are equivalent Expressions and intended to signify the same thing but the Church of Aquileia desiring that her Creed should be most full and compleat took in both the Expressions tho at the same time as Ruffinus who was of Aquileia acknowledges she meant no more by both than other Churches by the single word buried And hence it was that the other Churches and Copies of the Creed which said descended into Hell or descended to those below did omit buried and so at this day doth the Athanasian Creed But it was not long before this Variety of expressing the same thing begat Mistakes for by occasion of this Expression descended to those below divers began to imagine a local Descent of Christ into Hell Some of them said to triumph over the Devil others said to release those Damned who believed and repented at the sight of him others had still other as ungrounded Conceits But the Disputes about the Reasons of our Saviour's Descent to those below made the Article taken in general to be believed and therefore it was added at last to the Roman Creed which with this and some other Alterations makes the Vulgar or Present Creed All the Creeds say the third Day he arose again from the Dead The Oriental Roman and Aquileian said he ascended into Heaven sitteth on the right Hand of God the Father the present to the word Father adds the word Almighty They all said from thence he shall come to judg the quick and the dead The Oriental Roman and Aquilean said And in the Holy Ghost the Present more explicitly I believe in the Holy Ghost The Oriental Roman and Aquileian said I believe the Holy Church the Communion of Saints the Present to the word Church adds the word Catholick or Universal All the Creeds said the Forgiveness of Sins In like manner they all said the Resurrection of the Body saving that the Aquileian said of this Body The Present concludes with the Life everlasting the other three mention not the Life everlasting because it is supposed and included in the foregoing Article the Resurrection of the Body I say now let any one read the ten Commandments at Exod. 20. and compare them with the same ten Commandments at Deut. 5. and he will perceive that he may better deny them to be the same Commandments than that these four various Copies are Copies of the same Creed The Variations of the 4 Copies are so inconsiderable the Causes of that Variation so obvious and evident that he that will call them not various Readings of the same Creed but 4 several Creeds proceeding from so many several Compilers in my opinion ought if obstinate in his Error to take Physick But if these are only various Readings of the same Creed without doubt we have gained our Point that the Apostles were the Authors of it For I desire to know how it was morally possible that the East and West which is to say all the Churches of Christendom should in all Kingdoms Provinces and Episcopates happen to have the very same Creed both for Number and Order of Articles and Manner of Expression if they did not receive it from the very same Persons from whom they received the Gospel and the Scriptures namely from the Apostles and other first Missionaries and Preachers of the Heavenly Doctrine It is granted to us that there had been no General Council when this Creed as we have made it appear was the common and only Creed both of the West and Orient therefore when all the Fathers without excepting any that speak of this Creed tell us they have received ex traditione Majorum by Tradition of their Predecessors that this Creed was made by the Apostles they give us such an Account as justifies and proves its own Truth for no other Cause can be thought of how it should become the common and only Creed of Christians 2 Mr. du Pin saith Ruffinus in the 5 th Century is the first Person who asserts that this Creed was composed by the Apostles and that too from popular Tradition indeed a great many other Fathers say the same thing but they all had it from Ruffinus First Mr. du Pin reckons Ruffinus to the 5 th Century only to lessen his Authority and Credit in this Question for it is certain and acknowledged by Dr. Cave and afterwards by Mr. du Pin that Ruffinus flourish'd at Aquileia in the Year 360. at which Time and Place he had a great Friendship and Intimacy with St. Jerom. It is true because he lived to be old he saw the Year of